Aug 13, 2026 · 53 min · 12 segments
“Timing is everything” is as much of a cliché as “you only live once”, but behind those tired phrases is truth. When Bryan and I spoke with Abby Chen, the timing was right…
Abby ChenGuest
James ChaeHostBryanHost
Drew LitowitzHostOne question that I have is, as starting your own studio, how do you balance that with the pressure of just, I need more work, period? How do you keep that North Star of curiosity and balance with just the concerns about making money?
Usually Wednesdays are the hard days for like, oh, am I going to survive? I mean, everyone has their different method.
I think for me, I kept going back about why am I doing this right now? In a way, it's almost like this is the sabbatical that I'm giving myself.
This is the exploration time and that I can focus on the vision and the work that I want to do that I've earned for myself.
Because if I wanted to make a lot of money, I think staying at my last job will probably be easier in the longer term or in the near term.
I think the thing that I'm still figuring out, which I find it hard, is there are so many different ways to run a studio these days.
It's almost like productizing the offering focused on a particular lane or a client profile.
We've seen studios who have a lot of range of experience in a particular discipline or like a more holistic way.
For me, I think I will get there, but I also don't want to over-systemize something at such an early stage.
I'm not really great at math or numbers at all for me personally is knowing the baseline number that I need to feed myself and what would be the good to have and also allowing myself the time and trust the process.
It's just such an inspiring kind of like leap, a strategic leap.
So I'm a firm believer that the life that we really, really want to live is easier to get on our own because I don't know if a job will give it to us like this.
And maybe if I got a job at Apple, I don't think that they'll let me live wherever I want and come in wherever I want and do the things that I want.
There's kind of a trade off there.
And so you're making this like kind of this trade off, like the golden handcuffs, the beautiful trappings of like, hey, I made it.
One question that I have is, as starting your own studio, how do you balance that with the pressure of just, I need more work, period? How do you keep that North Star of curiosity and balance with just the concerns about making money?
Usually Wednesdays are the hard days for like, oh, am I going to survive? I mean, everyone has their different method.
I think for me, I kept going back about why am I doing this right now? In a way, it's almost like this is the sabbatical that I'm giving myself.
This is the exploration time and that I can focus on the vision and the work that I want to do that I've earned for myself.
Because if I wanted to make a lot of money, I think staying at my last job will probably be easier in the longer term or in the near term.
I think the thing that I'm still figuring out, which I find it hard, is there are so many different ways to run a studio these days.
It's almost like productizing the offering focused on a particular lane or a client profile.
We've seen studios who have a lot of range of experience in a particular discipline or like a more holistic way.
For me, I think I will get there, but I also don't want to over-systemize something at such an early stage.
I'm not really great at math or numbers at all for me personally is knowing the baseline number that I need to feed myself and what would be the good to have and also allowing myself the time and trust the process.
It's just such an inspiring kind of like leap, a strategic leap.
So I'm a firm believer that the life that we really, really want to live is easier to get on our own because I don't know if a job will give it to us like this.
And maybe if I got a job at Apple, I don't think that they'll let me live wherever I want and come in wherever I want and do the things that I want.
There's kind of a trade off there.
And so you're making this like kind of this trade off, like the golden handcuffs, the beautiful trappings of like, hey, I made it.
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