The Creative Lead Workshop: Newsletter

Truth

The Creative Lead Workshop — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 14:12:53 GMT

Today I’m fired up to talk to you about something that comes with leadership. At least, for me it does.

It’s the idea that being the leader means you are taking accountability for your team.

For example, it means that you take responsibility for assessing what’s needed and you take appropriate action to make sure that you can do those things. You organi…

Confidence & Power

The Creative Lead Workshop — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 11:31:29 GMT

Before we get into today’s post, some housekeeping details: My productivity book is now live on Amazon! For a limited time (March 17 - 21), you can get the e-book version FREE! I’d love your support in the form of ordering the book - and since it costs zero dollars for the next few days, it’s a win-win :). I’m curious to see what you think. Let me know.

…

Happy over-the-hump day

The Creative Lead Workshop — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 03:10:48 GMT

It’s mid-week and everything is the same except I FINISHED MY BOOK! It’s launching March 15! If you’re an e-reader kind of person, it’s currently available for preorder on Amazon. It’s my small contribution to the world and I’m proud of it. On the 15th, the print version becomes available as well. I have plans to make an audio version, but that’s a sepa…

Something new

The Creative Lead Workshop — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:07:52 GMT

Hi all,

I have a couple things I wanted to share with you.

First of all, I’ll be vending my Werk & Love wares at a cool event in Brooklyn next month on Saturday, March 7, from 2-6pm. It’s going to a chill afternoon of crafting, community and art classes. You can take a class or purchase an open studio session for $25. Check out more information here: http…

What if it's dumb?

The Creative Lead Workshop — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 03:10:07 GMT

The first day you come up with the idea for your side hustle, you’re excited. Quietly. You’re also afraid to tell anyone. What if it’s dumb? What if it’s the dumbest dumb idea you’ve ever had? What if telling people will alert them to just how dumb you are? No, no one can know!

Days go by and turn into weeks. You start doodling logos. You start walking b…

The End of The Level

The Creative Lead Workshop — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 15:48:59 GMT

I can hear the “hurry up” theme music from Super Mario Brothers playing in my head as the year winds inexorably to a close. However, I’ve got plenty to say before that happens (as always).

In that spirit of contemplation, I thought I’d do a round-up style post of everything I learned this year.

This year, I found myself questioning if I still know anythin…

The Default Effect

The Creative Lead Workshop — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 03:04:57 GMT

Hi friends!

I hope you are settling into a “long winter’s nap” status. Me, I’m still vainly rushing around trying to kill everything on my to-do list. I’ll shut off eventually. (Or faceplant trying)

Today, I wanted to talk to you about a phenomenon I’ve noticed quite frequently in the course of running various creative teams. I’m calling it “The Default …

The wokest font

The Creative Lead Workshop — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 13:36:25 GMT

It’s been a while since I’ve written - and I’ve got so much to say! I’m going to have to divide it into a few posts.

For now, here’s a roundup of news that’s been on my mind lately :)

Dazzleport

The Creative Lead Workshop — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 16:28:28 GMT

I am abjectly terrible at sports.

Not just sports, but also dancing, climbing, hiking, running, and also just “walking without bumping into anything”.

So when I started to show some promise at playing foosball (yes, table soccer), it felt like a miracle had happened. In my mid-20s, I got good enough to compete on a team - gradually building up my win reco…

The big lesson I learned from parenting a special needs kid.

The Creative Lead Workshop — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 18:22:44 GMT

Do you know that feeling when something rocks your world, and nothing is ever the same?

When you’re suddenly forced to prioritize, in one split second, the thing you are going to carry through this moment?

I bet you do.

The events that trigger these realizations are often painful.

One that comes to mind for me right away? My younger son’s kindergarten inter…

Making history

The Creative Lead Workshop — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 15:08:08 GMT

One day in 2019, I received a copy of this book (below). Why was it special to me?

Work that I’d done (in 2007!) had made into an *actual history book*, and I was quoted. It was a type of proof for me that something I’d done was “long-term meaningful” to my industry. That something I’d done would last. In a long career of making things that are digital (…

Why are Quantum Computers a Thing?

The Creative Lead Workshop — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 11:59:53 GMT

If you’re like me and you watched The 3-Body Problem, you might be hoping that quantum computers can contain advanced communication equipment that allows for people to send information instantaneously over huge, interstellar distances.

Nope. Sorry to disappoint you. They absolutely can’t do this. (I spoke to a real human physicist about this, who also ha…

Destined

The Creative Lead Workshop — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 10:48:31 GMT

Something kinda weird’s been happening to me the past few weeks.

Let me back up and explain.

I’d been putting off doing branding work on my side hustle. This is hilariously poetic as branding is literally one of the things I do for a living…but personal branding is hard.

Suddenly I woke up a few weeks ago and I knew exactly where I wanted to take it - AL…

The Myth of Being Chosen

The Creative Lead Workshop — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 13:37:20 GMT

Last week, I was having a conversation about how my mindset as a design professional has changed so much from my mid-20s to now that I feel like I’m basically a different person.

For example, I can’t really remember a time I lost sleep to the idea that I wouldn’t be able to figure out how to do something, or that it would end up sucking. Honestly; I don…

Worth getting up for

The Creative Lead Workshop — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 11:54:12 GMT

Guys,

I woke up hella early by chance this morning…Then I made the critical error of checking my phone. ><

I saw I’d missed a Slack message - and then I completely succumbed to the stupid glowing brick in my hand. I responded, and then I was so annoyed with myself for breaking my own rule of not checking my phone in the middle of the night that there was…

Ignoring AI Governance Could Cost Us Literally Everything

The Creative Lead Workshop — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 22:03:38 GMT

If you look up “AI governance”, you’re going to get a definition something like this: AI Governance a comprehensive system of policies, practices, and frameworks designed to ensure that artificial intelligence systems are developed, deployed, and used responsibly, ethically, and safely.

Sounds innocuous, honestly…even a bit boring. Most AI-driven compani…

Never Safe but Always Free

The Creative Lead Workshop — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 04:12:43 GMT

As humans, we are always making certain choices based on perceived safety.

Me, too.

“Stop, it’s not safe!” - I say this at least 4 times a day to my kids.

But there isn’t any way to be safe from everything bad that might happen.

We’ll cross the street to avoid the big ice slick and then narrowly avoid the motorcycle running the red light.

We’ll take that job…

Lists

The Creative Lead Workshop — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 14:40:39 GMT

I’m an avid history student in my middle age. I am particularly fascinated by learning about anything that wasn’t on the standard American/World History slate when I was going through school - which, as it turns out, is a LOT.

I have a particular interest in the 900-early 1000s era. I find it so fascinating that during the time period that Europe was in …

We shouldn't let this become normalized.

The Creative Lead Workshop — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:47:49 GMT

I’ll start this off by saying: I fought myself on this one. I didn’t want to write about it. It’s something that I find traumatic to discuss…it’s not funny, instructive, happy or healing - and I don’t want to add to anyone’s burdens. But yet, it needs to be said.

I believe there are many genuinely practical, legitimate and even altruistic uses of GenAI. I’m working what I believe are some of them in my daily life. I’ll say off the bat; I use this stuff and I do find it helpful for various purposes.

But I can’t escape my growing unease that most of these LLMs are essentially designed to be plagiarism machines; they are designed to make it easier to steal things. They’re designed to make it feel normal to steal.

A quick glance at the UI of whatever popular tool you’re using will reveal that there’s some easy button to upload a “reference” image. Most won’t make any attempt to figure out if you own that reference image or if what you’re doing with it is legal. They also won’t balk at copying a real person’s image, creative style, an author’s tone of voice, or a copyrighted character and will probably even make suggestions for you.

Any “regulation” is built into one of these tools is usually a joke - and easily circumvented.

The influencer marketing one sees on the social platforms all kinda looks like this:

This is a real post that shows you how to copy any UI design you like from Pinterest and turn it into an app.

In other words, the influencers of the world are out there sharing exact prompts to help you steal other people’s work - and proclaiming their effectiveness proudly!

In a year or two, will any idea be original or “ownable” anymore? What does it mean for humanity if the answer is no?

This isn’t just about individual artists, though as a creative person - I AM pissed. I didn’t want to be; I wanted to love it. But I can’t escape how egregious all of this is. How it’s enabling copyright abuse on a scale way too large to contain.

But no - it’s NOT just about artists.

It’s also about the fact that no one’s identity is safe. Any regular person can now simulate an entire human being in a few clicks. Their voice. Their face. Figure out where they live from a photo. That is TERRIFYING. To put a finer point on it:

Someone can ruin a person’s life by making a fake video about them and posting it online. They could leak their location to ICE. They can simulate someone a child knows (like a parent) very easily - and trick them into giving them all of their personal details. I won’t go on - I’m sure this is the stuff is keeping you up at night, too.

Yes, a lot of AI videos are super obvious right now. But the technology is getting better so quickly that we HAVE to decide what we’re going to do about these real-life consequences.

Do I think we should set fire to all the computers in the world and go live in the woods? No, not quite.

I think the technology has a place; but like all powerful technology, we need to work together to make sure there are appropriate usage regulations in place.

Have you heard of Leo Szilard?

I’ll tell you the short version: he was a Hungarian-born physicist who lived during the time of World War II. His work was foundational to the development of the atom bomb.

After the war was over, he founded the Council for a Livable World - a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating the U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Szilard understood the vast potential of the technology he’d help create for misuse and destruction and he dedicated the rest of his life to trying to contain those consequences.

It is my personal belief that if we could all take responsibility and accountability in the same manner, our world would become free from most of the suffering that exists today.

Progress without any concern for humanity is barbarism. Technology developed without conscience or restraint quickly becomes the instrument of dictators and tyrants.

So given my own place and influence in this unfolding tapestry, I’m asking myself every day - and I’m asking you:

How do we - you and me - shape the future of this technology for good? How do we lean into the opportunities for growth and steer away from the potential for destruction?

XOXO,

Cathy

Golden

The Creative Lead Workshop — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 23:59:39 GMT

I was a ghost, I was alone, [and the road darkened in front of me.]
Given the throne, I didn't know how to believe
I was the queen that I'm meant to be.

That song. From the moment you hear the opening line of Golden, you can tell that it’s special.

Actually, the whole movie is.

K-Pop Demon Hunters woke up my world-weary subconscious in way I didn’t think wa…