Common Shapes

Leaving Social Media and Sacred Attention with Amelia Hruby Jan 29, 2025

Dear Listener
Thank you for tuning into Common Shapes
Amelia's Website
Softer Sounds Website
Download the free Leaving Social Media Toolkit
Download the free Creative Ideation Portal
Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or a five star rating on Spotify
Thank you to :
Softer Sounds Studio for podcast editing
Saltbreaker for our music
Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo for our art
Other links :
Cody's newsletter Monday Monday
Landscapes : A writing group for all genres

The Process of Leaving Platforms Behind Jan 15, 2025

Dear Listener,
Thank you for tuning in to Common Shapes today
I am teaching Mapping Your Creative Business this weekend Saturday January 18 and Sunday January 19 (8 spots left at time of publishing episode)
You can become a free or paid subscriber to Monday Monday here - Also Monday Monday now has a CLASSIFIEDS section where you can buy an ad :)
It has been so fun and beautiful to see people's businesses get little boosts
Grab the free Creative Ideation Portal to vision your projects and bring them into the world
I mention the artist Kening Zhu
Join Landscapes : A writing group for all genres
Book a 1:1 Creative Advising Session
Thank you for supporting the show by sharing this episode on social media, in your newsletter, or texting it to a friend. You can also leave a review on Apple Podcasts or give us five stars on Spotify
Podcast editing : Softer Sounds Studio
Music : Saltbreaker
Art : Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo

Weaving Your Own Path to Creative Success with Brandi Cheyenne Harper Jan 08, 2025

Dear Listener
Thank you so much for tuning in
Don't forget to grab the free Creative Ideation Portal : Your three day guide to visioning your projects
For more of Brandi's work :
Website
Knitting is a Love Language Newsletter
Knitting for Radical Self Care Book
Brandi on Instagram
Landscapes : A writing group for all genres, where Brandi hosts the monthly BIPOC writers circle. The whole group meets every Tue/Thu 11-1 EST and this Sunday January 12 Jacqueline Suskin is our guest teacher
Mapping Your Creative Business Jan 18 + 19 :
A year ahead planning retreat on zoom to support you in visioning each quarter of the year, designing your weeks, and dreaming up your offerings
To support Common Shapes consider becoming a paid subscriber of Monday Monday my weekly newsletter
Thank you to everyone who makes this show possible :
Softer Sounds Studio for editing + support
Saltbreaker for our music
and Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo for our art

Creative Energy Outside of Instagram Dec 23, 2024

Dear listener,

Welcome to our last episode of Common Shapes for the year! We will return with new episodes every Wednesday starting January 8

In today’s episode I share a series of practices, systems, and rituals I am doing in place of using Instagram.

Make sure you grab the free Creative Ideation Portal : A three day email guide to help you vision your projects and put them out into the world.
ALL MY GUIDES :

Creative Ideation Portal
Weaving in Our Values Toolkit
Note Taking Tools + Possibilities
Daily Writing Tracker

Sublime - You can also subscribe to Sublimeon Substack - grateful to Alex Dobrenko`for folding me in

Are.na

OTHER THINGS I MENTION:

Tiego Forte’s PARA method
how a photo and video-sharing social networking service gave me my best friends, true love, a beautiful career, and made me want to die - on sale for $5!

LIST MAKING PROMPTS :

Make a list of five things you’re grateful for
Make a list of ten things you can do instead of reaching for your phone
Make a list of five friends to call in the next week
Make a list of your seventeen favorite words - hang these up
Make a list of the ten blessings social media gave you and then make a list of ten places where you can replace that

WAYS TO SUPPORT THE SHOW :

Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
Leave a five star review on Spotify

WHO MAKES THIS SHOW POSSIBLE :

Editing and support by

Softer Sounds

Podcast art by

Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo

Music by

Saltbreaker

Creating A New Suite of Offerings Dec 23, 2024

In this week’s episode I bring us through both the process of creating a new suite of business offerings as well as presenting to you my very own.

I bring you through how I invented these and where I started and how I worked back from that space. A little glimpse inside of my brain.

But first : Make sure you download the free Creative Ideation Portal : A three day guide for visioning and planning your own work.

Want to go straight to the booking links : Go here. This includes a free 15 minute call you can book if you want to see if any of these are the right fit for you! I am always open to finding exchanges that are right for us together.

Self Publishing, Quitting Social Media, and Alternative Biz Frameworks with Nic Antoinette Dec 23, 2024

Welcome to another episode of Common Shapes. I am delighted today to share this interview with Nic Antoinette where we talk about doing business differently, unhooking from the loops of social media, self publishing our books, anti capitalist business frameworks, and so much more

You can find more of Nic’s work by subscribing to Wild Letters

You can check out her website here
And her hiking memoirs here
Don’t forget to download the free three day Creative Ideation Portal to vision all of your beautiful projects as well as the new Daily Writing Tracker

Thanks for listening!

Business Temp Check Dec 23, 2024

Dear listener,

SEASON THREE OF COMMON SHAPES IS UPON US

It is my absolute pleasure to be back on the microphone and in your ears. Talking about all things business, art, values, deactivating social media, systems, rituals, and practices!

Links mentioned :

Landscapes : A writing group for all genres

Creative Ideation Portal : Free three day guide to visioning your projects

Devon Price's essay about burnout

Writing The Personal : A three week class to bring the poetic, personal, and political together for essays of self discovery and service starting Dec 8
Taught by Cody Cook-Parrott with guest teachers

Anna Fusco and Fariha Róisín

A Flexible Office Hello 👋 Mar 20, 2024

Hello Common Shapes listeners. 🔸 I wanted to pop in with a little mini-episode to check in between seasons and share a few updates. Take a few minutes to hear why I changed my name and how you can join us in Flexible Office this spring. 🔹
LINKS

Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

Cultivating Creative Seasons with Jacqueline Suskin Dec 06, 2023

This week on Common Shapes podcast, I’m deep in conversation with poet, teacher, and my dear friend, Jacqueline Suskin.

Jacqueline is a poet and educator who has been teaching workshops, writing books, hosting retreats and creating spontaneous poetry around the world since 2009. She’s published eight books, and her most recent one, A Year In Practice, was just released with Sounds True press.

Together we talk about seasonal practices, radically reconnecting with the Earth, Fern Gully, writing multiple books, having multiple calendars, and choosing to remember.

Tune in to learn about—

The radical nature of connecting to the Earth’s cycles
How to tap into seasonal rhythms
Jacqueline’s daily & weekly planning practices
What’s our work & what’s not our work
How to hold nuance in your writing

Links

Visit Jacqueline’s website
Order Jacqueline’s new book, A Year in Practice
Subscribe to Jacqueline’s Substack newsletter
Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

How to Tell the Truth with Fariha Róisín Nov 29, 2023

This week on Common Shapes podcast, I’m joined by my dear friend Fariha Róisín for a conversation at the intersections of writing, politics, care, and liberation.

Fariha is a multi-disciplinary artist born in Ontario, Canada and raised in Sydney, Australia. As a Muslim queer Bangladeshi, she is interested in the margins, liminality, otherness, and the mercurial nature of being. She’s the author of five books and writes the Substack newsletter, How to Cure a Ghost.

In this episode, Fariha shares her experience telling the truth amidst propaganda and channeling righteous rage into writing. She explains how she approaches writing about Palestine during the genocide in Gaza and how she embeds the depth of her feelings and beliefs in her work.

Tune in to hear about—

Feeling the responsibility to speak out
Fariha’s process for working on two books at once
Pouring your feelings into your writing
Demystifying spiritual practice
The importance of surrender
Where the personal meets the political
How Fariha writes her weekly newsletter

Links

Visit Fariha’s website
Order Survival Takes a Wild Imagination
Subscribe to Fariha’s Substack newsletter
Follow Fariha on Instagram
Mentioned in the episode: James Baldwin, Mother Country Radicals
Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

The Importance of the Personal Essay Nov 22, 2023

I’ve been writing personal essays for over a decade, and I believe that my personal essay practice allowed me to leave social media.

So in today’s episode, I share how I blend the personal, the poetic, and the political in my writing. And I unpack how that supports me in speaking up and sharing my work without shying away from what’s happening in the world.
I hope this episode inspires you to share your writing with the people. Tune in to learn about—

The importance of your life story
How to share your political values
Facing fear when we don’t know what to say
Being willing to get it wrong
Why you should choose a container for your writing
How personal essays can help you leave social media

Links

Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Sign up for Writing the Personal, Dec 3 -17
Mentioned in the episode — Body Work by Melissa Febos, 69herbs, Sister Spinster, Lukaza’s Substack, Fariha’s Substack, Friendship Village book, Bear Hebert, Off the Grid podcast, Ayana Zaire Cotton Substack
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

Leaving Instagram or Exiting the Portal of the Validation Loop Nov 15, 2023

Welcome to season two of Common Shapes! Since last season, I took a big step in my life and logged out of Instagram for good.

So in this episode, I’m going to share why I left and how I did it. Not from a place of knowing-it-all, but by asking the question, “what does it actually mean to be done with social media?”

I hope this episode inspires you to take supportive steps that are right for you. Tune in to learn about—

What it’s like to leave Instagram
The portal of the validation loop
A big business success moment since leaving
Is Substack social media?
Weaving the personal, poetic & political

Links

Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Sign up for my Skillshare class, Success on Substack
Listen to Off the Grid podcast — especially the 5-step Plan to Leave Social Media & this conversation with Melissa Word
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

Embracing Your Everchanging Job Description Jul 20, 2023

Making this podcast brought me into a business ecosystem crisis. Very little of my output changed, but my inner understanding of my work needed to shift.
So in today’s episode, I’m sharing how my job description has changed since I launched this show. And I’m exploring how shifting your job description can transform your relationship to your work.
Tune in to learn about—

How to discover what you’re devoted to
What are the themes of your job
What is not your job
How to write your job description
Aligning your job with your values & interests
What’s next for Common Shapes podcast

Links

Get my mini-workshop Your Everchanging Job
Book a Creative Advising Sessions
Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

🔶 Interested in finding out more about placing an ad for next season? Fill out this form!

Creating Your Offer Ecosystem Jul 12, 2023

Your offer ecosystem is how your creative offerings branch out of your artistry, fit together in the world, increase your income, and expand your reach.
In this episode, I share how I’ve crafted my offer ecosystem over the past decade, and I tell you the stories of how a few of my offers have evolved and even ended.
Tune in to learn about—

What an offer ecosystem is
My favorite ways to get ideas for your offer ecosystem
How to choose a container for an offer
Why one-on-one work can be a great place to start
Charging for your offerings

Links

Learn more about Teaching As A Practice
Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

5 Reasons the World Needs Your Online Class Jul 05, 2023

Teaching online classes is how I’ve made the majority of my income since 2017. And it is a great joy of my career to have had such amazing, invested, weird, inspirational students.

In this episode, I’m going to share my approach to creating an online class by walking us through how I teach my class A Quilt Is Something Human.
I hope that this inspires you to become the teacher that you are meant to be.
Grab a pen & paper, then tune in to learn about—

How to decide what to teach
Reasons to teach online
Pricing your online class
5 reasons the world needs your online class
Some of my favorite tech for selling online classes

Links

Learn more about Teaching As A Practice
Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Learn about Melissa Word’s class Grief Threads
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

How to Commit to the Life of an Artist with Anna Fusco Jun 28, 2023

This week on Common Shapes podcast, I’m joined by my internet friend Anna Fusco to discuss dedicating your life to art.

Anna is an artist, writer, deep thinker, question asker and truth teller. Her practice consists of writing her Substack newsletter and making drawings.

Together we talk about our daily list practice, creating a gallery show, the challenges of pricing your work, and what it means to be a full-time artist.

Tune in to learn about—

The List aka Project Miracle
Making art & having art shows
Pricing your work
Newsletters & Substack
How to get started as a self-employed artist

Links

6 Tools for When You Don’t Know What To Do Next Jun 21, 2023

I think the great fear of most creative people is that we’ll run out of ideas and not know what to do next.

I come up against this time and time again in my own work, so I’ve developed a series of practices for releasing fear, removing blocks, returning to center, and discovering what’s next.

Tune in to this episode to learn my six favorite tools for when I don’t know what to do, including—

Morning pages & artist dates
Movement
Phoning a friend
Setting up an easy practice
List-making
Recovery & spiritual practice

After you listen, go get my free Creative Ideation Portal, and join me in dreaming up what’s next for you and your work.

Links

Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Get Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

Storytelling as a Throughline with Tamara Santibañez Jun 14, 2023

This week on Common Shapes podcast, I’m sharing the mic with my friend Tamara Santibañez for a conversation about oral histories, tattooing, freelancing, and art as activism.

Tamara is an interdisciplinary artist and oral historian living and working in Brooklyn. Their work is rooted in storytelling and the visual language of identity construction, exploring subcultural semiotics and the meanings we make from bodily adornment.

Tune in to hear us discuss—

Tamara’s studio practice
Oral histories & oral traditions
Tattooing as liberation work
How to balance many projects as a freelancer
Making time for movement work
Coalitions & political responsibility
The different feelings/functions/forms of Instagram vs Substack

Links—

Visit Tamara’s website
Follow Tamara on Instagram
Subscribe to Tamara’s Substack
Get Tamara’s book, Could This Be Magic? Tattooing as Liberation Work
Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

Finding the Pace of Our Work Jun 07, 2023

This week on Common Shapes, I share four practices for checking in with your creative pace — internal seasons, intuitive sharing, weather systems, and the earning pathway.
This episode feels like an updated version of How to Not Always Be Working, and I hope it serves your practice, your pace, and your deepest alignment.
Listen in to learn—

Why lists are how I orient myself in my life
How to identify & live by your internal seasons
What it means to share intuitively
How to cultivate your earning pathway
Why it’s so important to find your own pace

After you listen, go get my free Creative Ideation Portal, and join me in making our art and pacing ourselves.

Links

Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Take my class, Organizing A Day
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

Our Work is a Web with Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo May 31, 2023

This week I’m welcoming Common Shapes’ very first guest, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo.

Lukaza (they/them/Lukaza) an artist, abolitionist, educator, storyteller, cultural worker and person of multitudes. Through a practice based in the printed multiple, community-based work and installation building, they invite the viewer to recall and share their own lived narratives, offering power and weight to the creation of a larger dialogue around the telling of B.I.Q.T.P.O.C. (Black, Indigenous, queer, trans, people of color) stories.

Listen in to hear us discuss—

The web shape for creative work
How to craft a studio practice
Claiming our work as our main income stream
How to weave your values and your activism into your sharing practices
The radical history of newsletters

Links

Get the Creative Ideation Portal
Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
Find all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

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