The Misfit Creative Network Was Already Here. I just gave It a Name.

The more I build The Misfit Creative Network, the more I realize I’m not really starting from scratch.

I’m giving a name and structure to something I’ve been building for years.

The Misfit Creative Network is an extension of the network I already have — people I’ve met through work, community, business, creativity, healthcare, storytelling, New Orleans and simply living life.

Many of the first people I’m highlighting as “Misfits” aren’t strangers I discovered because I decided to launch a new initiative.

They are people I already know.

People I’ve collaborated with in one form or another.

People I’ve called when I had an idea.

People who have called me when they were building something.

People whose work I have watched evolve over years.

And, most importantly, people I genuinely admire.

The Misfit Spotlights are my way of magnifying some of that amazingness.

I Started Seeing the Pattern

At first glance, many of us don’t necessarily belong in the same professional network.

One person may work in healthcare.

Another may be a photographer.

Another may be a filmmaker or documentarian.

Someone else may be a strategist, designer, entrepreneur, educator or community organizer.

On paper, our industries can look completely different.

But the more I thought about the people I’ve built relationships with, the more I saw the thing connecting us.

We’re Misfits.

Not because we don’t belong.

Because we rarely fit neatly inside the boxes we’ve been given.

Our careers have taken turns.

We’ve learned things outside of our official job descriptions.

We’ve combined disciplines that traditionally aren’t supposed to go together.

We’ve built businesses, changed industries, taken chances, worked inside institutions and sometimes decided we needed to create something outside of them.

Our lives have been those squiggly lines I keep talking about.

And somewhere along those squiggly lines, we became really good at figuring things out.

That is the Misfit nature that binds us.

Different Industries. Similar Instincts.

Take someone like Dr. Maurice G. Sholas.

His foundation is healthcare, but his impact does not stop at being a physician. His path has moved through leadership, advocacy, strategy, community, culture and entrepreneurship.

Or Aryka Randall.

Her work has moved through blogging, YouTube, documentary storytelling and photography, with a particular commitment to telling LGBTQ+ stories.

Two completely different industries.

Two completely different paths.

But I see something similar in both of them.

Neither allowed a single title to determine the boundaries of what they could contribute.

That matters to me.

Because one of the ideas behind The Curated Misfits has always been that good work does not come from expecting one person to know everything and do everything.

It comes from knowing who needs to be at the table.

That is where The Misfit Creative Network becomes more than a list of creative professionals.

I Don’t Want to Build a Rolodex

I could collect names.

I could build a database of designers, photographers, strategists, writers, filmmakers and consultants.

That would be useful.

But it wouldn’t necessarily be community.

There’s a difference.

A network says, “I know somebody who can do that.”

A community says, “I know this person. I understand what they bring. I respect their work. I know how they think. Let’s figure out what we can build together.”

That second version is what I’m interested in.

I’m from New Orleans, Louisiana. That is a mouthful in itself. Community and collaboration have shaped the way I understand relationships long before they became business terminology.

We call somebody.

They know somebody.

That person brings somebody else.

Everybody brings what they know.

And suddenly something exists that none of us could have created alone.

That is the energy I want to bring into this network.

Some Relationships Take Years Before They Become Collaboration

One of the things I’m learning at this stage of my life is that not every relationship has to produce something immediately.

I met Aryka more than 15 years ago because I reached out to her online.

We talked business.

But I remember wanting to approach the relationship differently. I didn’t want to show up asking, “What can you do for me?”

I wanted to know what I could offer, too.

We stayed connected.

We talked about our projects.

We watched each other continue building.

And now, years later, it feels like the right time to explore what collaboration can look like.

That is community to me.

Sometimes the relationship comes first.

The project comes years later.

The Misfit Creative Network gives me a way to honor that.

I Want to Magnify People

There is another piece of this that matters deeply to me.

I want to magnify people.

There are incredibly talented people doing remarkable things who may never become household names.

Their work still matters.

Their knowledge matters.

Their stories matter.

Their ability to solve problems matters.

Sometimes all someone needs is another person saying:

You need to know this person.

That is what the Misfit Spotlights are becoming.

Not awards.

Not rankings.

Not some declaration that these are the only people doing great work.

They are introductions.

I’m saying:

This is somebody I know.

This is somebody whose work I respect.

This is why I think you should know them too.

And over time, I hope those introductions lead to conversations, opportunities, collaborations and relationships I cannot predict today.

The Network Was Already There

That may be my biggest realization.

The Misfit Creative Network already existed.

It existed in text messages.

Emails.

Coffee conversations.

Projects.

Introductions.

Random phone calls.

Community events.

Ideas we talked about years ago and never forgot.

Collaborations that worked.

Projects that taught us something.

Relationships that survived career changes and different seasons of life.

Now I’m simply creating the infrastructure around it.

Through The Curated Misfits, I want to bring together people who can approach work in nontraditional ways and assemble the right mix of talent around the right problem.

Sometimes that team may include people from marketing and design.

Other times it might include healthcare professionals, community leaders, researchers, filmmakers or someone whose expertise doesn’t fit neatly under any of those titles.

Because sometimes the best solution comes from putting people in the same room who would not traditionally be placed there.

That feels like a Misfit idea.

And that is exactly why I believe it can work.

Different industries. Different stories. Different squiggly lines.

But somehow, our Misfit nature keeps bringing us back to the same place:

Build differently. Think differently. Bring people with you. And never assume you have to do it alone.

That is the community I have already been building.

Now it has a name.

The Misfit Creative Network.