The Sovereign Artist Course
The Sovereign Artist Course
The book showed you why. This is how.
Seven weeks to build a creative practice that's actually yours.
You read Don't Go Pro (or you're about to). You saw the trap: the validation hunting, the fall-back lie, the slow way monetizing your passion hollows out the work. You believe it. You felt seen.
And you're still stuck.
That's not a failure. A book can hand you the map. It can't walk the trail with you. That's what this is.
What it is
The Sovereign Artist Course is the self-paced version of the one-on-one program I run — the same system, the same seven-part arc, built so you can do it on your own time. It takes the ideas in the book and turns them into work you actually do: breaking the rut, centering your vision, and building the engine that gets you to sovereignty. Making a living from the work only you can make, without selling it out.
Seven modules, released one a week, so you build steadily instead of binge-watching and forgetting. Each module is a set of short, no-fluff videos and a workbook that puts the idea to work in your practice. This isn't me reading you my book. It's me handing you the system and making you use it.
- Seven modules, one released each week. Short videos plus a workbook per module.
- You do the work. The videos are the guide; the workbooks are where the change happens.
- Go at your pace. Lifetime access. Come back to any module whenever you're stuck.
- A real community. The course lives in a private group of makers doing the work alongside you.
The seven weeks, module by module
Every module teaches the idea, then hands you a workbook that makes you apply it to your own work. Here's the whole arc.
See the Monster
The diagnosis, activated. The validation hunter living in you, the fall-back lie, and the art-vs-craft distinction that unlocks everything else. Not a re-read of the book — a wake-up.
Center the Vision
Your real voice versus your crowd-pleasing one — how to tell them apart, find the work only you can make, and let go of the work that isn't yours.
Compartmentalize
The practical heart: why fusing your art to your income corrupts both, how to do Pro work without selling your vision, and how to draw the boundary that protects the real work.
Manufacture Inspiration
Breaking the rut. Inspiration is a system, not a mood — the practices that summon the work when you don't feel it, and how to fill the tank with input that actually feeds output.
Deliver
The art of finishing — where most creative work quietly dies. Why finishing is the whole game, how to run a finishing sprint, and how collaboration gets the work out of your head and into the world.
Build the Engine
The 1,000-true-fans math and why it changes everything. How the work reaches the people who want it, and how to own that relationship instead of renting it from a platform.
Sustain It
The long game. Battery care so you don't burn down the practice you just built, the "fuck yes or warn them off" filter for what to say yes to, and what sovereignty actually looks like day to day.
What you'll walk away with
- A clear-eyed audit of how validation-seeking has been steering your work — and how to take the wheel back.
- A written vision for the work only you can make.
- A real boundary between your art and your income, so making a living stops corrupting the work.
- An inspiration system you run on purpose, instead of waiting for the mood.
- One stuck project, finally shipped.
- The first working pieces of your engine toward 1,000 true fans.
- A filter for what to say yes to, and a 90-day plan for what's next.
Your Instructor
Richie DeCicco
I'm not a guru who read some books and made a course. I'm a working artist — a musician and record producer, still shipping music and records — who spent twenty years figuring out how to make a living from my art without letting the money hollow it out.
Working-class kid, no trust fund. Tiny drummer, bedroom guitarist, garage-band near-misses, classically trained percussionist. Eventually a jingle composer who made real money writing music for TV commercials — great money, gorgeous studio — right up until the morning I realized I was making music widgets, not art. Walking away from that, into a hole-in-the-wall studio and a "real" job, was the best creative decision I ever made.
That whole journey — chasing validation, going pro, feeling it curdle, walking away, and figuring out how to make a living and keep the work mine — became the book Don't Go Pro. This course is me handing you the system I built the hard way, so you don't have to spend two decades learning it by trial and error. I'm not teaching you theory. I'm teaching you what actually worked.
Who it's for
Makers of any kind — musicians, writers, visual artists, anyone serious — who've felt the gap between loving the work and paying rent with it, and are ready to do something about it on their own steam.
Who it's not for
If you want to be entertained, not changed, save your money and grab the audiobook. If you won't do the workbooks, this won't work — it's a do-it course, not a watch-it course. And if you know you need someone in the room holding you accountable, you don't need this — you need the one-on-one program.
The honest version. This course gives you the map and the system. My one-on-one program gives you me — walking it with you, week to week, catching what you can't see. The course is for people who work best on their own. The program is for people who want a guide. Both get you to the same place. Pick the one that fits how you actually operate.
Haven't read the book yet? It's the front door — start there.