Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Evangeline Garreau. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Evangeline, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

Every time I hear someone say, “Wow, I didn’t know that was a job,” I always feel a little bit like, *record scratch* I bet you’re wondering how I got here.

Creative project coaching is a job in the sense that people pay me for it and I spend roughly half my waking hours thinking about it, but it is not a job in the Richard Scarry sense. No worm driving an apple through Busytown would recognize my job title. As a friend so aptly put it, “we are taught to view careerpathing as going from A to B to C, when in reality it’s a total shitshow most of the time.” Here is my personal shitshow.

I’ve never had a Busytown-approved job, but in the modern tech equivalent “real jobs” I struggled. In my first job out of college I remember thinking, “Am I just inherently bad at being an employee?” and feeling a deep dread of what the rest of my working life might look like.

This fear — am I simply not made for capitalism? — lingered for the next decade and a half, even as I found my way into User Experience Research and started to enjoy my work for the first time. UX Research gave me a chance to untangle complex problems by interviewing the people directly affected. I learned to listen deeply, pick apart where they were getting stuck, and brainstorm solutions to make their lives easier. This was fun and fulfilling for me, but it was also about 20% of the job. The other 80% spent writing reports and convincing executives that my job mattered did not thrill me.

Roughly every six months I had a new job idea, often wildly out of left field. For a while I set my sights on romance novelist as my new career, and worked on a manuscript for two years. I loved the process, but I desperately wished I had just one other person in the muck of it with me, as committed to my success as I was. Support from family and friends was wonderful, but I always worried that I was boring them with how much I talked about the book. I wished I had one relationship where I knew I could talk it out for as long as I needed and get helpful feedback in response.

Novel writing showed me just how hard I can work when I am engaged and excited about the work I’m doing. But over the course of six jobs, most of which ended in firing or layoffs, the fears I felt at 22 seemed more and more real.

When I was most recently laid off, my dear friend Kate offered me pro-bono career coaching. I explained to her in our first session that whether it’s because of my gemini sun and taurus moon, or my ADHD and obstinate disregard for authority, I do not dream of labor. But I had a number of harebrained schemes kicking around in the back of my head; could she help me with that?

I told her about my zillion job ideas, the things I loved about UX Research and novel writing, and my fear that I’m just no good at working for other people. We sifted through all of these pieces, pulling them apart and regrouping them differently, guided by the stepping stones of Kate’s thoughtful, incisive questions. How do you want to feel in your work? Which of these feels exciting, and why? What’s making you hesitate? Where does this feel incomplete?

One of the job ideas I came back to many times was book coaching. After my own experience with my novel, I spent a lot of time talking to my dad about his novel (my family is heavily ink-stained, going back generations). I loved brainstorming with him, and after our conversations he would always tell me how much better he felt and how much writing he got done after we talked. It felt good to be the person I had wished for myself, and I could tell from his reactions that I was great at it.

I told all this to Kate, but something about the idea felt stale to me. I was badly burned by the process of trying to find an agent, and I didn’t want to work that close to the publishing industry. Something about it felt too narrow. I wanted to work with all kinds of artists and creatives on all kinds of creative projects. “Is that the job?” Kate said. “Creative project coaching?” It was a mouthful, and certainly wasn’t a job I had heard of before. But with that one shift in scope I felt my chest expand and my lungs fill with sparkling anticipation.

They say life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward. Looking back on all I had learned from UX Research, novel writing, and dad coaching, the path to my newly formed and wholly made-up career started to seem obvious (if circuitous).

Each of these steps came from different parts of my life, engaging different parts of my personhood, and seemed entirely unrelated to one another. But when joined together Captain Planet-style, I discovered a foundation for a career I didn’t know I wanted. This, too, is what makes creative project coaching perfect for me — it engages my whole self in a way that no other job I’ve had does.

Since that first conversation with Kate, I’ve coached a children’s book author, a science writer, two novelists, and a comedy writer. I’ve had fascinating interviews with musicians, a climate activist, a youtuber, a memoirist, and a playwright. I love getting to dig into what folks are working on; my job consistently leaves me in awe at the vast creativity of humankind.

Busytown might not have a place for me, but I’m glad our own weird messy made-up world does.

Evangeline, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a queer ADHD gemini and a creative project coach who accompanies artists of all kinds on their creative journeys, helping them get unstuck and put in the work to bring their visions into reality. In hour-long sessions, I create a receptive space for deep listening and playful exploration. I ask questions to get at blockers sideways, slantwise, and upside down. I provide feedback and ideas on creative work (as a peer, not a professional editor), offer reframes and alternative perspectives, lead visualizations to understand the internal parts that don’t want to move forward, and help determine where creative energy can best be focused.

One thing I want potential clients to understand is that I’m not a licensed therapist, and I never want to take the place of one, but creative work necessarily touches our most sensitive and vulnerable parts. As a result, my work takes us to sensitive and vulnerable places. I take this responsibility seriously as the steward of that experience and work hard to ensure we explore those places safely and gently.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Surprisingly, the most efficient use of my marketing dollars and energy has been advertising in the classifieds for popular newsletters. So far (in order of most expensive to least), I have advertised with Ann Friedman, Words of Mouth, Culture Study, Evil Witches, and Revenue Rulebreakers. These ads got me high-quality leads with a 22% conversion rate, as well as a number of helpful networking connections.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The book You Don’t Need a Budget by Dana Miranda completely changed how I think about money, work, and value. It’s been a really helpful touchstone as I grow my business. The book How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis does not pertain directly to business, but it has had a big impact on how I work with clients. I love Davis’ morally neutral approach and forgiveness for our human limitations. I strive to emulate that with my clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.evangelinegarreau.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evangelinegarreau
• Other: https://evangelinegarreau.substack.com

Image Credits

Savannah Million