Capturing the (Messy) Moments

Reset and Create: A Creative Career

After gaining hands-on experience running a small business—managing clients, marketing, inventory, and creative work—Katherine Manley hits a breaking point and walks away. What follows isn’t a perfect, polished pivot, but a messy, honest reset: a week of burnout, wandering, talking to local business owners, and slowly understanding her true calling! There’s no overnight success, just small moves: posting consistently, learning by doing, and leaning into community. Katherine shares how starting in a smaller market actually became an advantage, allowing for deeper relationships and faster growth. Most importantly, it’s a reminder that you don’t wait until you feel ready—you start, figure it out as you go, and trust that confidence comes after the leap.

Capturing the (Messy) Moments

Ever wonder what it really takes to build a creative career? In this episode, a photographer shares how a detour into teaching in the Dominican Republic led to an unexpected breakthrough—and why creativity is less about talent and more about adaptability. From pivoting on set to turning downtime into a wildly imaginative “Messy Kids” photo series, this conversation dives into the chaos, improvisation, and magic behind the work You’ll hear how the best creatives think on their feet, why personal projects can unlock entirely new career paths, and what it actually means to run a creative business (hint: it’s way more than just making art). If you’ve ever felt stuck, burned out, or unsure how to move forward, this is your reminder: make the work, put it out there, and embrace the unknown.

Noah Shenandoah

Meet the man behind the legendary Noah Shenandoah! John Fogle transformed his role in the community into something genuinely engaging by creating a fun alter ego that interviews small business owners across Shenandoah County. What started as a low-budget, one-man video project quickly grew into a powerful community tool—drawing thousands of views, boosting real foot traffic to businesses, and building a strong sense of local pride. By focusing on authentic, unscripted conversations, the series reveals the heart behind each business and taps into what people really care about: connection, storytelling, and supporting their neighbors.

From Big Idea to Build

Welcome back to The Stric! This week, we’re talking with Tristan Valencia, founder of Thought Process — the strategy and feasibility firm behind large-scale interactive environments, museum installations, touring exhibits, and brand activations that blend creativity with serious technical execution. We unpack the “sticker shock” factor behind immersive installations — why projects that look effortless on social media actually require extensive planning, electrical infrastructure, construction coordination, network compliance, custom content pipelines, and long-term operational considerations.

Digging Up the Story: Fact and Film

In this episode, filmmaker and archival researcher Jessie Herman talks about the art and challenges of uncovering history through archives. Jessie reveals the emotional and ethical complexities of true crime storytelling — she highlights the crucial intersection between legal diligence and creative storytelling, where every document, photo, and quote must stand up to scrutiny and reflect the story itself.From paging through classic novels at the New York Public Library to navigating understaffed collections across the country, to making personal requests from the subjects themselves, Jessie shares what it takes to bring truth to the screen.