The OBA Manifesto

Why we do what we do, and our promise to YOU

When people hear that you’re a creative worker, they imagine a glamorous life. They think of the inspired artist who spends their day painting on canvases and sipping wine at galleries. They think of writers sitting on aesthetic porches penning their next bestseller, much to the fanfare of their publishing house.

They don’t think about graphic designers who have the skills but don’t know what to do with them. They don’t think of the bedraggled blogger trying to score freelance gigs while struggling to get client attention. They also don’t think about the socially awkward media guru who feels isolated in their work.

Yet all of these are legitimate faces of life as a creative.

Life as a creative is hard.

Everyone wants to be that person who lives the dream of making a living through their creative skills, but the truth is: that life is not as glamorous as people think. Gone are the days of publishing house advances and when you’d regularly see artists at a coffeehouse.

Now, being an independent creative is a grind, and can even be downright hopeless. It’s difficult to keep a steady income. Your mental health takes a hit from stresses that land squarely on your shoulders. You are often left to fumble for clients on your own, struggling to make your own connections for that next gig.

Many times, you must teach yourself how to multitask across many fronts, because you can’t afford to get the support of business professionals. Selling yourself can feel like a desperate scream that is constantly drowned out in the cacophony of an overcrowded market. All the while, you have to deal with people who don’t take you seriously.

Life as a creative can be isolating.

If you’re like many in the creative arts, you have spent countless quiet hours alone, hunched over a computer in a dark room, looking at how to finish your next project. You might have struggled to find people who understand what it’s like to deal with a client who just doesn’t like you.

Creative work is often isolating because so many people assume it’s nothing but eating steaks and painting on a canvas. In reality, being creative means maintaining a constant hustle, enduring an uphill battle, and working at a trade when everyone sneers about you writing “the next big novel.”

You feel like it’s you against the world.

OBA is here to improve creative life through community, networking, and career development.

OBA is not your average community. We founders are each creative workers who have trained and labored hard to master our crafts only to suffer through fake job listings, nasty clients, lack of opportunities, real loneliness, and the fear that what we are now is all that we will ever be.

But we know that by joining forces together, with our unique expertise, skills, and experiences, we can be so much more. And so, we made OBA.

We’re an all-inclusive community focusing on people at all stages of their creative careers. We will advance your understanding by defining business jargon and concepts, teach you the science of making yourself visible, offer tips on how to be the most productive when you struggle with motivation, and even give you step-by-step guides on how to conduct market analysis. Our goal is simple: we want to make creative life easier to access and a lot more tolerable.

We are not promising you millions of dollars and your name in lights. But no one working to brighten this dark world with art should live their entire life afraid of never being heard.

We’re here to help you find like-minded people who understand what you’re going through. We’re here to help you find your next opportunity, your next collaboration partner, solid advice, mentors who can relate to your journey, or a place where you can just post memes about the quirks of working in your field. We strongly believe every creative has a real place in this world and their work deserves financial security. We will work to empower and guide you to find and take the chances you deserve.

OBA is a place where your struggle is seen. AND we will provide you with the support and encouragement you need to get through another day of the grind. We believe that every creative has an important role to play — and a voice worth listening to.

In a world that’s increasingly isolated, OBA offers an increasingly rare gift: community without the pretense. Are you ready to join us? There’s always room for another creative at our table.

Join and chat with us on OBA’s Discord server or our Facebook community page!