Maker Mix in DYL Coaching: Is It All About the Money?

As someone who has spent years in HR, I’ve heard the same pattern more times than I can count: people change jobs for a higher salary, and then, after a few months, they realize something important got lost along the way.

Not the money. That part is fine. But the team isn’t what they expected, the culture feels off, or the way work actually happens doesn’t suit them. Sometimes it’s openly toxic, sometimes just misaligned in a different way.

Crafting your own unique mix: the art of balancing money, impact, and creative expression.

So the question shows up quite naturally: is it really all about the money?

In DYL coaching we do an exercise called the maker mix. The premise is simple: each of us is “earning a living” through a combination of three elements: money, impact, and creative expression.

What’s important is that there is no ideal ratio. There is only the one that makes sense for you, in a given phase of your life.

One client once said that, in the wildest version of her professional journey, she would actually want to work 5 hours a day and earn as much as she does now or maybe even more. As simple as that.

Later on, she said that one of the most valuable parts of the process was being able to say that out loud without feeling ashamed.

Very often, when we start adjusting our maker mix, a familiar voice shows up: who do you think you are to ask for that much?

Part of the work is to recognize that voice and still allow yourself to define your own criteria for what is “too much” and what is actually just right for you.

“Is it too much to want a job where I get to draw on a whiteboard?”

One of my clients asked me this recently, and it captures something many people don’t say out loud.

She wasn’t really asking about drawing. She was trying to understand whether it’s legitimate to want something that feels small or even trivial on the surface, but actually makes her feel engaged and alive in the work.

This is usually the moment where people expect a coach to say what’s realistic and what isn’t. That’s not up to me to say.

Most people have that voice in their head: this is unrealistic → but I want it → but where would I even find that → okay, maybe I should be more reasonable → and then back again.

You don’t get out of that loop by thinking harder.

In Designing Your Life coaching, we approach it differently - through testing: you look for people who are already doing something even remotely similar, you talk to them, you understand their path, and then you try small versions of that in your own context. You don’t need a full career change to start exploring a direction.

For designers, there’s a principle that building is thinking. The same logic applies here - clarity comes from action, not from perfect reasoning.

“Should I wait for a 100% fit?”

Another client I’m working with is currently deciding whether to accept a job offer where the culture doesn’t fully match her values. The question she brought was very straightforward: should she wait for something that is a complete fit?

It sounds like a yes/no decision, but it rarely is.

Because again, it comes back to your maker mix.

A well-known example from the original DYL course contrasts two very different paths: a surgeon in Manhattan making a lot of money doing cosmetic procedures, and a surgeon who chooses to volunteer in Africa. For one person, the first option is completely aligned; for another, the second. And sometimes, across different phases of life, the same person might move between those two.

That’s why the question is not “what is the right choice”, but “what combination makes sense for me right now”.

Adjusting the mix thorugh DYL coaching (instead of chasing the perfect option)

What I see in practice is that many of my clients are, by most external standards, doing very well. Senior roles, strong careers, good compensation.

And still, something feels slightly off.

Not dramatically wrong, just… not quite right.

What usually needs to change is not everything, but the balance. The way money, impact, and creative expression show up in their day-to-day work and life.

Design Your Maker Mix: Adjust Money, Impact, and Expression for "Designing Your New Work Life" inspired by Evans & Burnett.

Some people decide to change direction. Others stay in the same role but redesign parts of it, or build something in parallel that brings in what’s missing.

In both cases, the shift happens when they stop treating their career as something they need to “figure out once and for all”, and start treating it as something they can actively shape.

Think of it like a DJ set.

You don’t just play one track and stick with it for hours. You blend different sounds, sometimes pull one back, sometimes push another forward, until the mix actually works.

The same applies to your professional life.

Money, impact, and creative expression are not separate choices you have to pick between. They are layers you’re combining. And the point is not to reduce everything to one dominant track, but to create a mix that sounds right to you.

At different points in life, you might turn one up and another down.

But it’s still your mix.

You’re effectively mixing three tracks - and you can adjust the levels over time.

Expanding the frame

In Designing Your New Work Life (Burnett&Evans), there’s a story about a poet struggling with the fact that art is not well paid, and how he redesigned his life to make space for his creative work.

He approached it through the DYL lens and, instead of trying to force the market to change, he adjusted the structure of his life. He reduced his living costs and organized his year differently, working three months of the year and using the other nine months for nomadic life in regions with lower cost of living and for his art. It’s not a universal solution, and for many people it wouldn’t even be desirable, but in his case it created enough space for creative expression without completely sacrificing financial stability.

The point is not to copy that model, but to notice how many assumptions we treat as fixed when we think about our next step.

I see similar patterns with people around me as well. A lot of artists I know have, at some point, been frustrated with exactly that question - why is something so valuable personally, so difficult to sustain financially?

What this looks like in practice

Most people I work with are not looking for a radical reinvention.

They’re trying to answer questions like:

• Do I stay or do I go?

• What exactly is missing here?

• Is this discomfort something I should push through, or something I should listen to?

  
  

And instead of answering those questions only in their head, we translate them into small, testable steps.

That’s where this approach tends to make a difference.

If this resonates

If you’re reading this and recognizing parts of your own situation, that’s usually a good signal that it’s worth exploring a bit further - not necessarily making a big move, but at least starting to design instead of just thinking about it.

I work with clients through both individual and group Designing Your Life career coaching.

I usually start with a 30-min conversation to see if this is even useful for you.