Creating with the Barbell Strategy
Balancing Creative and Commercial Work
Picture an actual barbell: two distinct weights connected by a central bar. On one end sits commercial work; on the other, purely creative pursuits.
Commercial work has constraints, client expectations, and market demands. You solve defined problems for defined outcomes. This is where we earn our living.
Personal work has no commercial intent. You explore without concern for marketability or approval. You’re not trying to make money. You’re maintaining creative integrity.
What’s fascinating about this approach is how these seemingly separate worlds begin to inform each other. The personal work, developed through genuine interest, passion, and autonomy, often becomes a reference point that distinguishes us in the commercial sphere. People are drawn to authentic perspectives, and our personal creative explorations reveal ours in ways strategic commercial work rarely can.
The strategy works because it stops you from expecting commercial projects to fulfill your deepest creative needs. It doesn’t mean you can’t creatively flex, but it means that you’re modifying your perspective. It removes the pressure to monetize your most personal expressions. Each type of work gets its proper place.
For the longest time, this has existed in places like Hollywood with the “one for you, one for me” model where Directors create mainstream hits to afford them the room to do that lowkey visionary script they’ve always dreamed about doing.
The barbell approach acknowledges that we contain multitudes. We can be both pragmatic professionals and unfettered creators. The central bar connecting these two weights is us: our core values, skills, and vision, holding these different expressions of our work in productive tension.
The bar connecting both weights is you, holding different expressions of your work in productive tension. This isn’t compartmentalizing your identity. It’s building a creative life that nourishes both your bank account and your spirit.
I’ll leave you with a simple way of looking at the financial side of the barbell: Make enough on the commercial side to fund the creative side. Simple as that. The barbell only works if both ends are balanced, one with financial weight and the other with creative weight.
Your commercial work doesn’t need to be your magnum opus. Your personal work doesn’t need to pay the bills. Stop apologizing for either.
Never complain, never explain.