Brainstorm Road is a place for everyday people to do the creative work they care about.

  • Having a community behind you gets you over the fear of perfection. You learn to ship imperfect work, get feedback, polish, and then do it all over again.

    Rick Kitagawa

  • Courtney Daniels Brainstorm Road

    I went from being a person who dreamed about it, talked about it, and desperately wanted it - to being a person who had done it.

    Courtney Daniels

  • I include Brainstorm Road on my exceeding short list of programs that I recommend as reliably transformational.

    Doug May (They/Them)

  • I need people. I knew I need a system of support. I have a system of support with Brainstorm Road. Your promise was absolutely fulfilled.

    Katharina Zegers

  • I shipped work today, yesterday, and the day before that. Community helps you get there. It helps you face your fears and grow. My practice is better because of it.

    Mandell Conway

  • Ten minutes a day + light accountability is a really effective structure for me. I don't look at email first thing in the morning. I look at my scratchpad on BSR.

    Xanthe Matychak

  • When you surround yourself with like-minded folks - it is life-changing. Finding a peer group of folks who get it - and who are pushing themselves to new heights - helps you to level up and raise the bar.

    Sean O'Connor

  • The goal has been achieved – I wrote and shipped! I did it!

    Doug Birnie

  • Joining a supportive community can serve as the spark needed to begin a project or the kindling necessary to keep going. One encouraging word can be the difference between a hazy idea and finished work.

    Michelle Welsch, Painter + Artist

  • A community is essential. Having people who care, listen and give constructive feedback is invaluable. It makes a big difference to not feel alone, to avoid burnout, to connect with other like-minded people.

    Fei Wu

  •  I'd like to see this program be available for a very long time.

    Sue Fox

We believe 10 minutes a day spent working on your project can change your life.

Consistent effort and small steps are how you get things done.

At Brainstorm Road, we connect people who want to work on their Dream Projects with the support, weekly practice, and accountability they need to bring those projects to life.

Co-Founders Margo Aaron and Kristin Hatcher talk to Seth Godin about the power of creative allies, consistent practice, and why they created Brainstorm Road

The Brainstorm Road Ethos

We built our community around these core principles:

Tiny efforts every day

Ten minutes a day. Drip by drip our projects become real. Small steps don’t feel like much but they’re enough to take us the whole way. We don't depend on wide-open swaths of time. Instead, we commit to just a few minutes of intentional work each day.

Imperfect and in progress is the only way forward

There are no teachers at Brainstorm Road. There are no critics. There are no grammar police. There are only right answers. Correct mistakes. And roads that lead somewhere. Let your work – especially your early work – be messy. We are here to see your effort and help you find forward motion, not point out the issues with your work in progress.

Feedback makes our work better

Feedback is a gift – a gift that we give and receive. We reflect, we challenge, we poke and we prod. Criticism judges your work, whereas feedback improves it. (Worth repeating: there are no critics here.) The way to get great feedback is simple (which is different from easy): show up consistently and give generous feedback to others.

Hold it loosely

From the time we set foot on Brainstorm Road to the time we ship, we recognize that our projects are going to evolve. As we build, things change. We get insights from peers and make adjustments. We spot holes and pivot. We notice opportunities and run after them. We expect that our projects will change over time, so we grab on tight to the practice of making tiny efforts every day but hold our ideas loosely.

Post it anyways

Your ten-minute effort is not going to be polished. Post it anyway. Some days you’re going to feel like the small step isn’t big enough. It’s not and that’s the point. Big things come from small steps. Every day you are going to feel like there is more you could do. (There is and you will tomorrow.) We post what we’ve got. And we feel good about our small, imperfect daily effort.

Practice

Practice is your commitment to showing up and doing the work. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to commit to The Practice. The Practice of making, then shipping. Then making some more and shipping again. And again. And again.

Who Runs Brainstorm Road?

Kristin Hatcher Margo Aaron and Rick Kitagawa the founder of Brainstorm Road

From the top left: Kristin Hatcher, Margo Aaron, and Rick Kitagawa

Margo Aaron and Kristin Hatcher founded Brainstorm Road to help people with dreams take more consistent action toward their projects.

The two met as instructors at Akimbo, where they taught The Copy Workshop and Writing in Community, respectively. Combined, Margo and Kristin have taught thousands of students how to market ethically, sell honestly, write books, publish books, and develop a consistent writing practice.

Seth Godin was an early advisor and remains a good friend of the project.

Rick Kitagawa is Brainstorm Road’s Community Lead and Head of Everything Important. Rick is the best and when he is not wrangling Margo and Kristin, he’s coaching creatives and making monsters.