How did we get here? Making Rebel Yell Creative

Corporate dropouts make good resisters.

I quit my corporate job in May. It was a sudden move, but also a years-overdue move. I couldn’t do the corporate thing anymore, couldn’t feel like a number anymore. Especially when the outside world is also trying to make us feel that way.

I’ve been working in communications for 25 years. Advertising, marketing, business comms, corporate thought leadership: All of it for companies I really didn’t like or agree with. Along the way, I decided I would be mercenary about it. I’d use the money from these jobs to live, but I would save my energy and passion for writing books, and making podcasts, and getting graduate degrees. It was an incredibly privileged position to be in, and it worked for a long time. Until it didn’t. Until autistic burnout and a burgeoning rage took over.

So I left my job in May, with vague thoughts of doing freelance work of some sort.

And I left with firm thoughts that I would do everything I could to avoid working for bad people. To be free of companies that change their values with the changing administrations, that walk back their (already paltry) DEI moves and leave their employees unprotected, that are led by millionaires and billionaires that are actively ruining this world.

Pretty quickly then I started thinking about the inverse. Who are the good people I want to work for? Better question: who are the good people I want to help do their good work?

That’s how I created Rebel Yell Creative. I’m actively seeking out creative individuals, community groups, and small businesses who are dedicated to resistance, to intersectionality, to defying hopelessness. I’m using the things I’ve learned in the podcast, publishing, and creative worlds to help them get their voice out; I’m using the skills from communications to help them reach people; I’m using creativity and community to support their good fight. 

Art is resistance. Art is rebellion. Art can be a form of protest and activism. That's why art is so important right now and in the future.

If you're into this, here's what I ask:

• Get inspired. Read the insights here, and listen to The Art of Resistance Podcast for stories of people using art as resistance.

• Send Rebel Yell Creative to folks you think may be interested.

• Contact me with any questions, ideas, and collaborations: amy @ rebelyellcreative . com.

Let's do this.

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