Registration closes at 11:59pm EDT on Wednesday, April 8!
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Watch this video to see Lab alumni explain what The Lab is, why they joined, and what they got out of it.
The Lab is a one-of-a-kind course blending life-changing tools, experiential exercises, and powerful community — to unlock untapped potential and stretch into a life that’s fully yours.
Over the course of 8 weeks, you’ll gain skills and clarity that will help you…
Be Who You Are
Show up as your authentic self. Tap into your creativity. Find your voice. Let yourself be seen.
Do What You’re Here For
Whether it’s greater vitality, connection, contribution, or something else, equip yourself to go after what you’re meant for in your one precious life.
Venture Boldly Forward
Even in an uncertain, unsettled, and constantly changing world, build the confidence and resourcefulness to move into the unknown.
The Lab is for you if you:
Want to step out of your comfort zone and overcome fear, perfectionism, and self-doubt—so you can take bold action and trust your intuition.
Are navigating a professional or personal transition, and want to rediscover your purpose and step into new possibilities.
Are craving more adventure, novelty, and expansiveness–without completely upending your current life.
Are an artist orcreative who wants to loosen up, take back the wheel from the inner critic, reset back to beginner’s mind, stretch to new places, and reconnect with your creative joy.
Are looking for a safe, non-judgmental space to experiment with creativity and self-expression.
Are passionate about personal growth and self-improvement and looking for something outside the box to take your journey to the next level.
Approach my life and work with more courage, boldness, and positive risk-taking
Loosen up and break free from perfectionism
Bring more joy, play, adventure, novelty, vitality, freedom, pleasure, and fun into my daily life
Unlock my creativity
Experience more connection
Access and trust my intuition
Gain personal and professional confidence
Navigate uncertainty and change with greater groundedness
Contribute more to my community, workplace, and world
Gain clarity about what I actually want
Find my voice and show up with more authentic expression of who I am
Get better at thinking on my feet and spotting opportunities everywhere
The Lab equips you with the tools, skills, mindset, and internal infrastructure to be who you are, do what you’re here for, and venture boldly forward in your life.
In 8 Weeks, You Will…
Build bold confidence, harness/trust your intuition, and take positive risks
Bring more play, adventure, and vitality into your daily life
Unlock creativity and express your authentic voice
Break free from perfectionism and get out of your head
Get to know other growth-oriented humans in a structured community that facilitates real connection
By the end of this journey, you’ll feel confident in your ability to trust yourself, take decisive action, and embrace new challenges with courage and excitement.
You’ll be well-supported in The Lab – with tools to immerse you in learning and growth in and out of class sessions!
Weekly Live Zoom Sessions
Interactive, hands-on classes, designed to push you outside your comfort zone and help you grow in real time.
Curated Supply List
A thoughtfully selected list of supplies you’ll need for the course, so you can jump right into the creative process – no guesswork!
Optional Homework
Integrate key insights and immediately apply what you’re learning to your everyday life – without overwhelm.
Lab Partners
You’ll have the opportunity to connect in a duo or trio of fellow students for shared reflection, applications, optional homework, practice, encouragement, socializing, and/or accountability.
Weekly Recap
A summary of the key concepts from each week, so you can review and remember what you learned!
Playlist
A specially created playlist with songs that speak to each week’s themes, to help you enhance & deepen your learning.
Plus, These Amazing Bonuses…
When you join The Lab, you get all of these bonuses FREE!
Up to 4 Extra Live Accountability Sessions Each Week
For the duration of the program, you’ll have access to The Life Workshop, my exclusive Get-It-Done group. It’s an amazing bonus that keeps you accountable, motivated, and on track as you tackle your personal and professional goals. It’s also a great way to get to know your fellow Labmates better!
Take your growth even deeper with a personalized, one-on-one session. This private meeting gives you tailored guidance to help you break through any barriers, refine your path forward, and integrate everything you’ve learned into your life.
“Unlike anything you’ve ever done before…you won’t even believe the difference it will make in your life and how you feel about yourself, about the hard things you can do and the creativity you have inside you, and the fact that you don’t have to be perfect.” – Sarah Straton, Wellbeing and Performance Coach, Los Angeles
What past participants say
So much fun and pushed me to think in new creative ways… through Carrie’s exercises, I practiced being more present and adaptable. This mindset shift has had an immediate impact on how I approach problem-solving, collaboration, and even stress management. The experiments were not only fun but grounded in real-world tools for adaptability, resilience, and innovation. My experience in The Lab reminded me that personal and professional growth aren’t linear—and sometimes, we need to embrace play, curiosity, and experimentation to unlock our true potential.
Sherri D.Learning and Development Champion
It was immediately worth it. I think the returns were tenfold the investment, and I would absolutely do it again and without hesitation find the time for The Lab. I would just say, do yourself a favor and be a part of the Lab. It’s an amazing experience and you will thank yourself for doing it.
Jason P.Photographer and Graduate Student
If you are looking for something to stretch your abilities and challenge yourself…this course will definitely do it for you and in a very safe, approachable way. If you’re on the fence, just do it. It’s worth it. I promise you’ll love it. It has just been such a delight and I’ve learned so many different skills and just fun activities to do and I would definitely encourage anyone thinking about signing up to just pull the trigger.
Ariel B.Professional Services Consultant
“When I joined The Lab I was going through a major life transition… The Lab really put fuel in my gas tank and helped me get some momentum.”
– Jason, Photographer and Graduate Student
“The Lab really put fuel in my gas tank” – and Jason’s advice for men considering The Lab
What makes The Lab so special is its accessibility—no experience needed. The program meets you exactly where you are. There are no right or wrong answers, and there is no judgment. It’s a safe space to explore and grow. Even if you do find your inner critic showing up, Carrie teaches you a way to acknowledge it in a creative and fun way.
Personally, I’ve found The Lab to be a game-changer for developing key competencies that make it into every area of life and work. The Lab teaches you how to embrace imperfection and think on your feet. It also fosters a deeper connection with your intuition, helping you show up with authenticity and confidence. It stretches your comfort zone and that is a wonderful thing, especially for someone like me who has a narrow comfort zone.
If there is anything in the course description that attracts you and you feel like you want to do this program, and you are on the fence. I say go for it. You will learn skills that are essential in everyday life. You will feel inspired, empowered, and you will grow.
Meredith KimmelCareer Development Coach
I didn’t really expect that I would have all these new friends. I didn’t really understand how it could be this whole world of people that I care about, that I can learn from, that I can connect with. And that was such a really, truly delightful surprise.
A year ago, I didn’t really consider myself to be an artist, and now, with this incredibly supportive community… I do think of myself as an artist. The improv, which I was kind of scared of initially, and had to kind of push myself… that has really helped me build this feeling that I can do things that feel hard, because it felt hard, but I did it. And it turned out to be not so bad, and sometimes actually fun. And that has really been a great perspective for me to take with me into the rest of my life.
A few months ago, I ended up doing some public speaking in front of a much larger crowd than I’ve ever felt comfortable speaking in front of, and…you know, it was scary, but I knew that I could do it… going forward, I will be able to know that I can do it, even when things are scary.
Miriam HarlanTeacher
I joined The Lab because creativity used to be a big part of my life and how I thought of myself as a person. It came really naturally. The muse would strike and I didn’t have to go looking for it. And as I’ve gotten older and having kids and more responsibilities and busy work life, it was really hard to keep that up and I didn’t put any energy into it and I really let the creative side of me wither and I really wanted to get it back.
The Lab is like a creativity playground, and like a normal playground, there will sometimes be games that you don’t know how to play and toys you don’t know how to play with, and other people that you’ve never met, and you might feel at first, you know, like, maybe, maybe I shouldn’t be here, because I don’t know how to play these games. And Carrie brings you so gently and so lovingly, and with so much generosity of spirit, to play those games and enjoy those toys and meet those friends, including your art supplies, so that these can be toys and games and friends for the rest of your life.
Tanya SnyderWriter
Lab Alumna Melissa Schreibstein: Executive Coach, Leader & Team Development Specialist, Art Newbie, and Recovering Perfectionist
“There is nothing like this, actually.”
– Melissa Schreibstein, Washington, DC
Real-Time, “In-Your-Bones” Growth
The Lab uses fun, structured experiential methods to develop key skills and competencies that you can apply across all areas of your life and work.
I’ve worked with thousands of people over many years of coaching, speaking, teaching, and training.
One thing I’ve learned: while we are all unique and have varied goals, there are certain competencies we all need in order to make those goals happen.
You may think that things like confidence, courage, intuition, self-trust, creativity, and freedom from perfectionism or rigidity just have to happen to you. That’s just not true. The truth is, we can develop these competencies on purpose. The Lab helps you build them in a direct, experiential, connected, and incredibly fun way.
This course isn’t just learning about useful concepts—it’s actually integrating them into your internal infrastructure, so you’re calibrated to use them in any aspect of your life.
I want you to have this stuff in your bones. And I want you to experience a lot of fun, lightness, and community in the process! Life can feel hard, heavy, and isolating. Learning doesn’t have to.
What you learn in The Lab in 8 weeks might take years to learn through more traditional learning methods—and even then you might not access some of the learning, awareness, and growth The Lab makes possible.
The Toolkit (AKA How the “Lab Magic” Happens)
Integrated, Multi-Faceted, and So Much Fun
The Lab uses fun, structured experiential methods to develop key skills and competencies that you can apply across all areas of your life and work.
Click on the button to learn about each component!
In The Lab, we use our visual arts materials as tools to help us build the “muscles” we want to bring into our lives. The art exercises will help you loosen up, reduce perfectionism, get in touch with your intuition, gain clarity, experience more play and novelty, increase authenticity, and more!
While The Lab is not an art class, most graduates come out of the course with a new, rekindled, or transformed creative practice. You’ll develop skills that artists find life-changing – like anti-preciousness, freedom, returning to beginner’s mind, and anti-perfectionism.
In The Lab, you’ll learn key improv principles and practice key improv skills that will help you feel more confident thinking on your feet, putting yourself out there, being present, taking positive risks, and more!
Improv exercises are carefully designed to be zero-performance, introvert-and-extrovert-friendly, and accessible to all layers of experience.
In class, you’ll learn life-changing concepts and develop game-changing skills. Then, you get to immediately put them into practice in your life – in bite-size, low-risk, just-right-for-you ways.
Each week, you’ll have a menu of optional homework assignments and real-world experiments to help you apply what you’re learning to your real life! You’ll be amazed at how quickly your learning trickles out into so many areas of your real world.
Amazing ahas happen when you hear how your classmates are connecting to the principles and applying them to their lives!
Because each cohort is limited to 12 people, no one gets lost in the crowd. There is space for all voices to be heard. Sharing is always optional, and our camera-on, settled-in-place norms mean that each member is fully part of each group moment, whether verbally or quietly!
While so much of our discovery happens in connection and group interaction, we learn best when we also have time to reflect individually and privately.
Both in and out of class, you’ll have guided opportunities to reflect on, and “connect the dots” in your learning. While you’ll have many opportunities to share your independent reflections and discoveries, you’ll never be required to. It’s always your decision. This allows for you to explore courageously, and safely!
The community of The Lab is incredible. It’s the extra-special, not-so-secret ingredient that takes everything you’ll learn to the next level. We grow more and more joyfully together. When you join The Lab, you meet other humans who are on their own journey, and the connection that results from going through this transformational experience together is beyond what anyone anticipates heading into it.
Get to know your classmates in a safe, fun, and structured environment. Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, you belong here!
Especially in an increasingly automated, isolated world, this face-to-face connection and analog creating can help you ground yourself, develop skills that are vital in this world, and hang on to what makes us human.
All of these elements work together to create a transformational experience!
Accessible, safe, and super-useful for all levels of experience (from total beginners to experienced professionals)
Loaded with zero-performance, no-experience-necessary, sharing-optional exercises (so you can engage fully even if you’re private or shy)
Introvert- and extrovert-friendly
For Artists, Creatives – and Total Beginners!
Whether you’re a creative professional, a professional creative, or a person who longs for more creativity in your life – this course will bring your creativity to places you haven’t even dreamed of!
The Lab is designed to be accessible for you no matter how much or little experience you have with any of the tools we use. Most cohorts have a wide range of experience.
For example, we’ve had everyone from people who have never picked up an art supply in adulthood to professional artists and creatives.
Participants of all prior experience levels have loosened up, let go of perfectionism, shaken off the inner critic, and found more joy, freedom, and confidence in their creativity and in their lives.
Those with no experience at all discover the joy of a creative practice and learn to use art materials in a safe, welcoming way. These Labbers often emerge with an outlet they never even imagined.
Experienced and professional artists and creatives loosen up, return to the joy they experienced when they were new, and take their creative practice to new places. Many experienced artists find a sense of freedom, self-permission, and expansion that they haven’t enjoyed in decades – if ever.
Hobby artists and people who love making art grow their confidence, and often come out of the program recognizing themselves as artists for the first time.
The Lab by alumna Nada Herbly
“If you’re looking for an experience that gets you to try things that are different or think differently or play or laugh in a way that you maybe don’t get to do or haven’t even thought about doing in your daily life, I highly recommend this experience because that’s what it will do for you… You don’t have to be an artist or an aspiring artist to get a lot out of this experience because what you’re going to get is that same encouragement to be creative, that same encouragement to be playful, that same encouragement to take chances, that same encouragement to connect with people. And that is beneficial for all kinds of reasons and all kinds of settings. And so just do it. Just join.”“I came into The Lab with experience working with art materials. I love to make art, I have for a long time…. It was really cool to see how my art, my art materials could teach me things about life, could teach me lessons that I could apply in other areas of my everyday life. I found that it really did impact me because I sort of got to look at my art materials in a different way. I’ve been able to expand that into real life and I have more appreciation now for my art materials and for making art and for what a meditative practice it is. ““I identify as an artist now. And I really should have been doing that my entire life. And I’ve danced in that line, but now I’ve fully embraced it and can say it out loud comfortably and confidently…. I’m doing the most art now I’ve ever done in my entire life… It feels like this is now something that’s like fully incorporated into who I am. And it’s awesome.”
About Your Teacher
Hiiii! I’m Carrie Spaulding, the creator of The Lab. I’m a coach, speaker, educator, improviser, visual artist, nomad, and human.
A few years ago, I set out to integrate my tools, insights, and methodology from all of these lenses. I wanted to take the best of everything in my wheelhouse and use it to help people get the transformation they want and need. And voila! The Lab was born.
Even where our goals, desires, and paths differ, there are certain things that just about all of us desire to feel and experience. My greatest goal is for you to have the tools, competencies, and permission from yourself that you need to be who you are, do what you’re here for, and venture boldly forward in your life and work.
Let’s do this together. It’s gonna be fun.
Binge-Watch Your Future Classroom!
It’s one thing to read about The Lab. It’s another to hear about it straight from the mouths from people who have experienced it!
Click each video below to learn about different parts of The Lab…or watch the whole playlist!
Playlist of all alumni videos!
Nervous about the improv part of The Lab? So were these participants. Watch to hear about their before and after!
From total beginners to experienced visual artists, learn about the visual art component of The Lab!
Curious about your teacher? Watch Lab alumni talk about Carrie as a guide, instructor, and facilitator.
Hear about the enriching and exciting optional homework assignments you can work on outside of class.
Learn about the 1-on-1 session bonus, the “Doodle Date™,” & how it enhances the overall learning experience!
Discover the bonus of The Life Workshop, a Get-it-Done group that can help you get even more out of The Lab.
Why is The Lab hard to explain?
“I think it’s a little bit like a recipe for some really amazingly delicious food item, or dessert, or something, where you can tell people, well, you can put this in, and you can put this in, and a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, but until someone actually cooks it, or bakes it, and tastes it, they really have no idea.”
– Miriam Harlan, alumna of all 4 Lab modules
A year after taking the foundational Lab course, alumni discuss: Why is The Lab so hard to explain?!
Some Questions You May Have
How much does The Lab Cost?
The program fee is $995. Supplies are purchased separately — expect around $125. You’ll receive a curated supply list with easy ordering links after you enroll.
Is there a payment plan available?
Yes! A $200 deposit is required to reserve your spot, and you’ll receive an invoice for the remaining balance of $795. You’ll have the option to pay your balance in full or in installments at your own pace, as long as the full balance is paid by June 1, 2026.
Do I need any experience with art or improv?
None at all. Participants range from total beginners to experienced professionals. The exercises are designed to be safe and accessible for every level — including people who feel shy, private, or identify as introverts. Zero-performance, no-experience-necessary exercises are baked in throughout.
The Lab is highly unusual in that it brings together people of all experience and skill levels. While every cohort is different, your group may include people who’ve never picked up an art supply, people who are experienced hobby artists, and professional artists. You’ll probably meet people who’ve studied and maybe even performed improv, and people who are complete improv novices.
Alumni report loving the wide range of experience in the group, and report feeling safe to take risks regardless of skill level. It’s a rare opportunity to play with and learn from a huge spectrum of people!
How many people are in each cohort?
Each cohort is intentionally limited to 12 participants to maintain a close-knit, high-quality group experience. Spots fill fast — reserve early.
What’s the structure of a typical class?
The average Lab session will contain these elements:
• Carrie teaching basic principles and concepts that integrate across all the week’s exercises, sometimes sharing case studies, stories, and examples to illustrate them • guided experiential exercises with visual art materials (you’ll get a very specific supply list to make it easy to have and obtain exactly what you • improvisation exercises • facilitated group discussion and application of the concepts and discoveries from the exercises to your life • space for personal reflection (via journaling, doodling, etc.) • unpacking the previous week’s optional homework experiments • a short break
How much time should I plan on spending on The Lab between class sessions?
You can spend anywhere from 20 minutes to infinite hours per week on the optional homework. The great news is the homework lists are yours to keep. Alumni report that they love being able to go back through the program and do the homework items long after The Lab is over!
Will I receive a recording of classes?
Part of what makes The Lab so powerful is that each class is a real-time event. You will not receive a recording of classes. Just like an in-person course, if you miss it, you miss it! You will receive a recap with key concepts, so you’ll be able to review what you missed.
I have a schedule conflict. Should I still sign up if I have to miss part or all of a class or two?
Yes! While I recommend you plan to attend every session if at all possible, it’s not the end of the world if you have to miss something. The consistent feedback from members of the last cohort who had to miss one or more classes was that the experience was still incredibly valuable and worth it. I have not heard anyone express regret for signing up even though they had to miss something. If you have to miss more than three sessions, this probably isn’t the right time for you to do The Lab.
What if the dates don’t work for me?
Join the waitlist to be first to know about upcoming cohorts and help choose future times and days that work for you.
Once you’ve graduated from The Lab FOUNDATIONS (this course), you’ve built the groundwork for more!
There are three additional course modules: Lab SELVES, Lab PEOPLE, and Lab PLACES & WORLDS. Continue venturing boldly forward with any of these modules in any order, or even take The Lab foundational course again.
Upon graduation from this foundational course, you’re also eligible for membership in Lab Studio, The Lab’s alumni group. Keep growing and making new friends with amazing people on this journey!
Registration closes at 11:59pm EDT on Wednesday, April 8!
