Holding hands

How small rituals manifest big dreams

Jun 11, 2025

This week’s post is available in written and video form. Read it below. Watch here:

I’ll never forget the moment. A solo project of mine had a big breakthrough. I was in my work room celebrating. Yes!

But other than my family, I had no one to share it with. What should’ve felt amazing felt more hollow than I expected.

Not long after, the seeds of Metalabel began.

From the start, the project connected me with collaborators and co-conspirators. The difference was immediate. We were making things together. We weren’t doing it alone.

Before each release, I started writing in our group chat:

“*holding hands*”

Everyone else would write back the same.

The tiniest of rituals. But it made that moment and everything after feel shared. We could let go of our anxieties. We were doing this together. Not just one of us alone.

The sad boi to squad boi transition is real. (“Boi” is gender-neutral, btw.) The emotional and creative growth I’ve experienced since expanding my practice from solo to squad has been life-changing. And it’s still growing.

But it isn’t always easy. It’s not easy to find people you trust. It’s not easy to open yourself up to others. It’s not easy when expectations and reality don’t meet.

What I needed, and what many people need, are role models and systems to follow. For me, it was early punk rock and how it worked. For each of us it will be something different that shows us the way.

We’ve shared Metalabel’s story not because we’ve figured it out, but because we’re earnestly learning how to operate in this new world. Practicing what we preach, we’ve expressed this journey through distinct releases — 19 of them to date.

Our catalogue so far:

001: Introducing Metalabel
002: Elements of a Metalabel
003: Assembly
004: Chorus
005: Metalabel editorial
006: After the Creator Economy
007: Quality Drops
008: New Creative Era zine
009: Lonely Writers Club
010: Collaboration Cookbook
011: Canvas
012: Metalabel platform
013: Promotional Principles for Creative People
014: Nine Creative Meditations
015: Fall/Winter 2024 collection
016: Anonymous Creative Futures Report
017: New Creative Era podcast
018: Spring/Summer 2025 collection
019: On the Creative Life book

Across this catalog, two patterns stand out: 1) a consistent vision, and 2) a consistent architecture.

The consistent vision is showing how creative people can be more powerful, more supported, and better resourced by working alongside one another. Ranging from education courses and experiences to written materials and research on what we as creative people need.

The consistent architecture is the underlying software and technical infrastructure to make catalogues, economics, and identities simple, shared, and clear. We’ve made shared financial infrastructure, collective publishing tools, and a post-platform data structure that allows everyone’s work to grow beyond our walls.

When we pair vision and architecture, *holding hands* becomes even more powerful. We can combine our desire to support one another with software that simplifies the hard stuff about collaboration — sharing credit, getting paid, and staying on the same page.

The world around us is rich in ideas, desire, and talent. What it lacks are supportive structures to unlock us and allow us to discover our full potential. When we have both vision and architecture, only our will and imaginations limit us.

Next week we’ll introduce our 20th release. Our most significant yet, by a long shot. One that encapsulates everything we’ve learned to date, plus much more, in a new shape. *Holding hands* with all of you until then.

<3 <3 <3