The hats you never wanted to wear…

Quick heads up: this one's a paid partnership withCircle. More on that below, but I can promise you I'd be telling you this story either way.

Last year, I wrote you about the solo studio: the idea that the most durable creative business isn't a niche or a personal brand, it's You.

One creative, doing the work they love, with the right revenue streams orbiting around it. Client work, products, courses, workshops, licensing, sponsorships. Not all of them. Please, God, not all of them. But the right ones.

The whole reason it works is simple: nobody can be you. That's your unfair advantage. Your studio can't be replicated or ripped off, because the thing at the center of it is you.

I got a lot of replies on that one. And the question underneath almost every single one was the same:

"This sounds great… but how am I supposed to actually run all of it?"

Fair. Because here's the part nobody puts on the highlight reel: every revenue stream you add is a new hat.

The second you bolt a community, a course, or an event onto your studio, you stop being the maker and start being the operator, the moderator, the curriculum designer, the support team. The thing that was supposed to give you freedom starts eating the hours you'd rather spend on the craft.

That's the exact tension I've been wrestling with for a while.

I've spent ten years building communities and digital businesses, and I haven't been this excited about where this industry is headed since the day Circle launched.

Circle (the platform that powers Maker Division) just revealed Circle AI as part of their Eclipse launch. And before you close this because you're as sick of AI announcements as I am: this one's different in a way that actually matters to a solo studio.

It's not a chatbot that hands you ideas and walks away. Rudy, the co-founder of Circle, gave me an early look, and it actually does the work with you. From a single conversation it can stand up a community, design a course, build out your engagement and retention systems, and advise you on real decisions using lessons from tens of thousands of communities. It launches with 50+ skills across everything from setup to monetization to growth.

Translated into solo-studio terms: it wears the hats you never wanted to wear, so you can stay on the craft.

That's the whole game. The solo studio only works if the business you're building doesn't pull you away from the work that made it worth building in the first place.

If you're building a studio like this (or you're just over client work and wondering what comes next) go watch the keynote. It's worth the time.

👉 Watch the keynote + grab early access to Circle AI

More soon,

Ben Burns

Co-Founder, Maker Division

P.S. Eclipse had way more in it than just Circle AI (a marketplace that brings members to you, a full course redesign, a unified inbox). But Circle AI is the piece I can't stop thinking about for people like us. Hit reply and tell me which hat you'd hand off first… I'm genuinely curious.

#CirclePartner (this is a paid partnership with Circle, but the solo studio thing is something I'd be ranting about regardless)