You can either be a fountain or a drain.

Introducing...The Fountain. A story about how an artistic friendship led to building a business together.

Feb 27, 2025

Hello everyone!

It's a beautiful sunny day in Portland. I hope wherever you are, you're finding meaningful ways to connect with your work and body.

I've been deeply immersed these past months with Kimberly King Parsons as we finalize our new digital membership platform for creative awakening: The Fountain! Watching it come together has been remarkable. In creating this platform, we've become audio engineers, website builders, product designers, and guided visualization script writers. Most wonderfully, we've expanded our understanding that when we unite with others in aligned ways, we can create work we couldn't have made alone.

Something magical happens when we bring something to life that didn't exist before. That's always been one of my greatest joys in writing books. While this project differs greatly, it has felt artistic throughout—challenging in all the right ways and genuinely transformative. The moment we opened the door to this idea, the details came flooding in.

We joked that we were making The Fountain by using The Fountain. But it was true! We had to dig deep and answer whether we truly believed we could bring something like this forward. It would have been easy to give up or postpone indefinitely, but we felt there was a reason this idea was knocking at our door. This doesn't mean we never doubted—it means we got to witness our practice working in real time. We kept going.

Our Creative Partnership

Kim and I started teaching together a few years ago. We had been in an ongoing artistic conversation for awhile that felt enlivening and full of discovery. We noticed that we did a lot of things similarly, but often came at them from opposite thought systems. Yet the systems were interrelated. We started calling our perspectives “macro” (me) and “micro” (Kim). We put together fiction courses based on these ideas, knowing that we wanted to blend craft with the less talked about emotional experience of being a writer in the world.

If building a sustainable creative practice was ever explicitly discussed in writing classes I've taken, I missed it. Writing was often portrayed as inevitable suffering. Post-graduation success seemed attributed to luck—either you could sustain it or you couldn't and it was anyone’s guess which it would be.

This never resonated with me. Through my experience with sobriety at a young age, I knew you could implement sustainable change in every area of life. You could become someone you never imagined, with habits and ideas you didn't previously possess. I remember being moved when someone in a meeting said, "I didn't become sober to be miserable." That's it, I thought. I became sober to be rocketed to new dimensions, to have an amazing life—happy, joyous, and free on every level. Why would creative practice be any different?

I began teaching writing at twenty-four as part of my MFA fellowship. Immediately, I noticed the emotional nature of it all. My students, even in composition classes, flooded my office hours—not to discuss punctuation or essay structure, but to ask if they could “pull it off.” They wanted permission to write what truly mattered to them and strategies to quiet the inner voice telling them their ideas weren't worthwhile.

This shifted my approach. I began helping students become their own biggest fans. I just didn’t agree with the idea that we should think we’re pieces of shit to make art. (I also felt that was a pose anyhow and antithetical to making art you deeply want someone else to connect with). From a place of self-trust, you can implement all the techniques and productivity approaches and you can make the work you’re meant to make. I have absolute certainty that when I show up to my practice, the practice meets me there.

The beautiful thing is that this work happens alongside creative work, not before it. You only need to open the door a crack to start feeling the generative effects.

Beyond Discipline

Friends often comment on what great “discipline” I have, but I'm not convinced that's quite right. What I developed at a young age was self-belief born from experience. Our brains change through experiences. While the world offers experiences beyond our control, we can counter these by creating deliberate positive experiences ourselves—a huge tennant of The Fountain.

I placed myself in environments where people had their shit together, then adopted their techniques. I was—and remain—ever-curious, a sponge for learning. I used to fear public speaking until I was tasked with reading aloud at a meeting. All we really need is a foothold.

These action-based shifts paired with the visualization work I had begun in therapy. Visualization, which once seemed mysterious or maybe for people other than myself, was unknowingly shifting my deeper beliefs. While I'd made major lifestyle changes, I still carried intense anxiety and a victim mindset inherited in childhood. But through visualization, I met myself in new ways. I could imagine a future version of myself who was emotionally freer and heal past versions who needed acknowledgment. I could offer myself what I hadn't received. Later, I learned the brain doesn't distinguish between real and imagined experiences, so these visualizations have powerful neural reprogramming effects. As a bonus, I discovered I could use this state to converse with my creative projects, often having scenes unfold in my mind's eye during meditation.

The Connected Self

Through this work, another voice grew louder than the familiar fearful one—a voice responsible for everything good in my life. This is what we now call in The Fountain the "Connected-Self"—who we really are beneath societal and familial limitations. We've all absorbed stories that aren't our own, but the difference is developing self-trust to recognize and address them when they appear.

Creating The Fountain Platform

When Kim and I discussed these insights, we realized we wanted to go beyond teaching craft. We wanted to address making the work you want to make in a way that isn't miserable, fraught, unpredictable, or unstable. Through many walks through the forest and meetings in the New Seasons cafe (IYKYK) we dreamed up a platform to house this deeper work in a user-friendly experience—offering the needed privacy for inner work that was impossible to accomplish in large class settings, while providing access to nervous system-regulating audio experiences (Clearings™) and the support of a vibrant community.

We wanted something accessible on desktop or phone that would support artists daily—a companion on the path to creative freedom.

The Fountain helps clear the way for your practice to take root. Once you reach The Flow, we offer a simple Three-Step-Flow-Practice that works like a charm every time, especially after following the preparatory courses.

Our program is both gentle and confronting. Time is finite—we want you to make the work only you can make because it enriches our world. We want you to process envy, frustration, and self-doubt quickly so you can return to creating. Perhaps you want this very thing, too.

A peak at The Fountain courses via mobile device

Fountain vs. Drain Energy

We named this practice The Fountain because we both love the phrase "You can either be a fountain or a drain." The image is clear—a fountain flourishes, moves, remains clear and ever-flowing. A drain pulls down and is murky and uninviting.

When I’m in Fountain mode, I’m productive, I’m able to celebrate and enjoy the work of others, I attract aligned friendships and opportunities, and I make decisions from a place of self-trust. These decisions I make form my career and create the life I live. In Fountain mode, I’m making these decisions from a conscious, awake, and regulated place of possibility.

Conversely, drain mode feels stagnant, unproductive, blocked, and is usually rooted in past beliefs about myself or the world. Drain mode is fear-based, envy-stricken, and feels tense in my body. Drain mode exists in a scarcity setting. Ultimately, it’s an exhausting place to live and not conducive to art making.

The amazing thing is that this isn't about fixed identity—we all possess both aspects. The Fountain helps you identify which areas of your life embody which energy, then clear the drain so your fountain can flow.

Vision Holders

Kim has always been a Fountain in my life. Around her, I can be my authentic self without judgment, and she's living proof of how identity-based practices create the biggest shifts. Stepping into the generative magic that comes alive when we're together has been a gift, and this is the spirit of our program.

Finally, we know from experience that it's easier to maintain a practice when someone you trust holds the vision on days when you can't. That's why, in addition to courses, audio Clearings™, and monthly live meet-ups, members can access the Vision Holders Community—a place for artists to connect on process, share resources, and celebrate wins. After all, Fountain energy celebrates other creators, knowing a rising tide lifts all boats.

Registration opens on 3/3, but you can preview things at our free class on cultivating self-trust on 3/2. Register here!

I can’t wait for you to experience The Fountain. It’s our greatest hope that it will help you on your creative journey. See you March 2nd at 2 pm PT, and I hope after that as a Fountain Member.