Welcome to the first series for the Creative Rebels Club:
💃🏻 The Dem Draper Edit: Sonder Post-Mortem.
Grim right?
Well, we’re technically still in spooky season 🎃
So let me introduce you to the year I f*cking faceplanted my “business” into the ground.
This series is not a success story.
After a year of building everything (programs, systems, spaces, content), I realised I’d created a beautiful, broken machine. I’d been trying to help everyone and ended up helping no one (least of all myself).
I did what most founders don’t: I stopped pretending it was fine.
The Sonder Post-Mortem is a 10-part newsletter series about what really happens when your dream grows faster than your structure, and how to rebuild something smaller, sharper, and saner.
Each essay takes a scalpel to the hard-won lessons from the wreckage:
❤️🔥 Why I built before I proved.
❤️🔥 How belonging confused me into burnout.
❤️🔥 Why energy is the real KPI.
❤️🔥 And how empathy, simplicity, and structure became my survival strategy.
No pity party necessary. I’m here to provide you with the blueprint of “what not to do” when you have a beautifully chaotic, creative brain.
I’m pouring out a love letter to the misfits who build things that matter. It’s my manifesto for creative sustainability in a world that glamorises burnout.
So, if you’ve ever gone too fast, created too much, cared too hard, or confused momentum for meaning, you’ll find yourself somewhere in these pages.
💌 The Letters to Come:
1️⃣ The Year I Built Before I Proved
2️⃣ Belonging Isn’t a Business Model
3️⃣ The Problem with Pleasing Everyone
4️⃣ Designing for Real Energy, Not Ideal Energy
5️⃣ The Illusion of “Should”
6️⃣ What You Track, You Become
7️⃣ Empathy Is the Moat
8️⃣ The Year That Wasn’t Wasted
9️⃣ The New Rulebook
🔟 The Personal Truth
🥡 The Takeaway
You don’t have to burn everything down to begin again.
You just have to stop building versions of yourself that can’t survive the hole you’re digging.
This is where our rebuild begins.
Dr D x
P.S. The Dem Draper Edit: Sonder Post-Mortem is one of three weekly letters designed to move your creative work forward.
This week, you’ll receive an introduction to each. Stick around if you’re looking to break free from the hustle and step into your focus.
🗝️ Grab your keycard. CreativeFuel included, checkout optional.
See you next Tuesday! 🪩
VPR fans get the reference!
