The Library
Research, structures, and case studies for creative professionals navigating the restructuring of the creative economy. The library grows regularly. Membership is $12 per year.
Deal Structures
35 deal structures — business models and compensation mechanisms — for creative professionals shifting from time-based to outcome-based value capture. Each includes case studies, negotiation guidance, and decision checklists.
Positioning for higher fees through specialization and reputation. Value-based pricing vs. hourly.
STAGE 1Guaranteed monthly income with performance incentives. Combines security with upside potential.
STAGE 1Trading reduced fees for ownership in client companies. Building a portfolio of equity positions over time.
STAGE 2Charging premium rates for expertise and strategic judgment rather than hands-on execution.
STAGE 2Form a new legal entity with a partner, combining your creative assets with their operational resources for shared ownership and profit.
STAGE 3Co-develop products with established brands, earning revenue share or equity rather than flat licensing fees.
STAGE 3Worker-owned cooperatives where members collectively own the business, govern democratically, and share profits equitably.
STAGE 2Loosely organized collectives of independent creatives sharing resources, cross-referring work, and collaborating on larger projects.
STAGE 2Build a parent company owning 3–7 subsidiary businesses with distinct revenue models, creating enterprise value at 4–10x multiples.
STAGE 3Build 4–6 distinct revenue channels — each contributing 15–30% — to eliminate single-source dependency and create business resilience.
STAGE 2License your proven systems, methodology, and brand to others who operate independently — scaling through replication without direct operation.
STAGE 3Build infrastructure — tools, marketplaces, or platforms — that other creatives use, capturing value through fees, subscriptions, or transaction commissions.
STAGE 3Impose artificial budget, time, or scope constraints to force creative problem-solving while replacing guaranteed fees with profit participation.
STAGE 3Convert creative IP into institutional-grade financial instruments — selling bonds backed by future royalties to pension funds, endowments, and insurance companies.
STAGE 4Decentralize ownership and decision-making through token-based governance — community members vote on project direction and share revenue via smart contracts.
STAGE 3Build studios where AI handles execution while humans focus on strategy, curation, and taste — achieving 10x output at premium quality through technology leverage.
STAGE 3Everything you need
to use it.
$12 per year for the full library — every structure with the depth you need to actually negotiate, protect yourself, and capture value. New structures and case studies added regularly.
Case Studies
100+ case studies mapping how creative professionals structured deals, captured value, and built ownership — from independent musicians to billion-dollar holding companies. Each study documents the specific terms, the strategic reasoning, and the transferable lessons.
She was hired at Vox for business development, not content creation. She took night classes to learn editing. Three years after leaving: 7 million subscribers, 3 billion views, CEO interviews with Altman and Zuckerberg, and a media company signed with UTA.
$8M raised at 19. Layoffs and TechCrunch headlines at 23. Five years alone in Utah running Gumroad solo while painting 30 hours a week. Then $5M from 7,387 community investors, and a $5.34M annual dividend.
She coined the term 'procrastiworking' — the idea that the creative projects you do while procrastinating on client work reveal your true calling. Daily Drop Cap was 300+ letters made for free. It brought Wes Anderson to her inbox, landed her on Forbes 30 Under 30, and launched a practice that now includes Apple, USPS, two NYT bestselling children's books, commercial typefaces, and a bootstrapped SaaS company with 1,000 founding members.
In ninth grade, Tyler Mitchell bought a Canon camera to film his friends skateboarding in Marietta, Georgia. At 23, Beyonce chose him to shoot the September Vogue cover — the first Black photographer to do so in 126 years. At 29, Gagosian announced global representation. His photographs are in MoMA, the Smithsonian, LACMA, and the Brooklyn Museum. The fastest progression in the library — and the structural mechanics behind it matter more than the speed.
Two New Yorker covers within twelve months of graduation. Coretta Scott King Honor. NYT bestseller with Amanda Gorman. Author-illustrator debut at Penguin Random House. The discernment premium converted into authored IP.
Two friends from Porto turned a concept store into a creative intelligence operation. Retail as laboratory, curation as leverage, and an in-house brand built on a decade of consumer data.
Real structures.
Real receipts.
100+ case studies — and growing. Each one documents the deal structures, the strategic reasoning behind them, and the outcomes that followed. Sourcing on every claim.
In Sequence
The creative economy is restructuring. This book maps the forces reshaping creative value, provides 35 deal structures for capturing it, and lays out a four-stage progression from execution to ownership.
“The structures library changed how I negotiate. I moved from hourly billing to a hybrid fee plus backend — and now I own a piece of what I build.”
“The Premium Service Model framework helped me restructure my pricing entirely. The negotiation scripts alone were worth the membership.”
“The case studies are what set this apart. Real deals, real structures. Reading how others negotiated product partnerships gave me the template to structure my own.”
“The most comprehensive resource I've found on creative deal structures. The holding company framework helped me rethink the architecture of my own business.”
