A Two-Day Creative Immersion in Charleston
Create Yourself Alive
Two days devoted to the work you're here to make, and the life that can hold it.
Reserve Your PlaceLimited to 24 participants total.
A Two-Day Creative Immersion in Charleston
Two days devoted to the work you're here to make, and the life that can hold it.
Reserve Your PlaceLimited to 24 participants total.
Give yourself a beautiful room, protected time, thoughtful direction, and serious creative companionship, and see what becomes possible.
Create Yourself Alive is an intimate gathering for people ready to stop treating creativity as an accessory to their lives, and begin building lives that make creation possible.
The goal is not to leave inspired. The goal is to leave in motion.
There will be teaching, but this is not a conference. There will be rest, but this is not an escape. You are coming to make contact with your creative life, and give it form.
Three movements, carrying you from what you've lived to what you'll build.
What you have already lived is speaking. This movement is about learning to hear it, and recognizing it as material, not just memory.
Beyond planning. Beyond consuming. This movement is sustained, unhurried time spent actually making the thing.
Rhythms, livelihood choices, and daily structures, so the work stays alive once you're back home, not just for the weekend.
Create Yourself Alive
Rainier Wylde will explore what happens when creativity is pushed to the margins of a life, and how the act of making can bring us back into relationship with the parts of ourselves we have silenced, postponed, or abandoned. Drawing on his extensive body of work, he will help participants move through the fear, perfectionism, and inherited stories that keep the work waiting, and begin building a life capable of holding it.
He is the founder of the Creators Collective, host of The Creators Podcast, and author of the forthcoming Making Art Slow. He has spent years helping people recover creative agency they'd quietly assumed was gone. This immersion is not a departure from that work. It's the room where it happens in person.
A representative schedule, not a minute-by-minute contract. The final order may evolve.
Alhambra Hall sits directly on the harbor in Charleston. A wide porch, water on three sides, the kind of light that makes it hard to stay in your head for long.
Make a weekend of it.
Arrive early. Spend Halloween wandering the old streets, finding a good meal, sitting beside the water, or buying a book you did not come for.
I've assembled a short field guide to the places I love most in Charleston: coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores, walks, art, cocktails, and a few places worth crossing the bridge for.
Explore Rainier's Guide to CharlestonYou do not need to be professionally published, represented, established, or even certain what you're making. You only need a sincere willingness to participate.
This is not a craft seminar, a publishing conference, a business mastermind, or a passive weekend of lectures.
"Rainier's work combines philosophy, theology, practical next steps, and psychology in such seamless ways."
Johnny"I completed my manuscript during my work with Rainier. His guidance and mentorship has been foundational for my ability to do that."
Kate"Rainier creates such a safe space to explore your creativity. His feedback has been so valuable, and I respect his input deeply."
Tammy"If you are a creative, if you are a writer, or want to express yourself in any way at all, this is a must."
Kelsey"The growth I experienced in the time I worked with Rainier was exponential. It took me into a new dimension. I also went back to graduate school, started a business, and fell in love with myself, my real self. Everyone should do this work with this man."
Shannon"I finished my novel. I don't know what else to say. That's a major accomplishment."
RandyChoose the level of support that best fits the experience you want. Payment plans are available.
Creators Collective members receive a private $100 discount. Check the community for your enrollment link.
Joining Rainier for this immersion.
Guest Facilitator
Creative Compost: Allowing Your Life to Speak
Mike Morrell is a writer, publishing consultant, and author coach whose work explores spirituality, imagination, and transformation. He collaborated with Richard Rohr on the five-time bestseller The Divine Dance and was a founding organizer of the Wild Goose Festival. Through his writing and gatherings, Mike helps people listen more deeply to their lives and recognize the material already waiting to become something new.
Guest Facilitator
The Hybrid Life: Making a Living Without Abandoning What Makes You Alive
Dan Johansen is a poet, author, podcast host, and longtime corporate executive who has spent years navigating the intersection of livelihood and creative vocation. His poetry collections, Of Living and Of Loving, explore self-love, romantic love, loss, and what it means to live with an open heart. Through his writing and podcast, What Crisis?, Dan considers how we remain fully alive inside the complicated, practical lives we are actually living.
No. You need a sincere willingness to participate. That's the only credential this room requires.
It helps, but restlessness without a named project is also a valid starting point.
No. Writers will feel entirely at home here, but Create Yourself Alive is not centered on writing technique, publishing, or any single creative discipline. It is designed for writers, artists, musicians, founders, coaches, and anyone carrying a project, idea, or more creative way of living that needs room to emerge.
You are welcome to bring a manuscript, song, business, collection, or clearly defined project. You are equally welcome to arrive uncertain about what wants to be made. The deeper focus is your relationship with creativity itself: listening to your life, returning to meaningful work, and building a life capable of sustaining it.
Both full immersion days, all teaching and breakout sessions, lunch and refreshments Monday and Tuesday, and participant materials. See each tier above for specifics.
Lodging and transportation are not included in the cost of enrollment, allowing you to choose the accommodations and travel arrangements that work best for you. See the question below for nearby options and guidance on where to stay.
If staying close to Alhambra Hall is your priority, we recommend booking in Mount Pleasant. Both the Comfort Inn & Suites Patriots Point and Hotel Indigo Mount Pleasant offer convenient access to the venue while remaining just across the bridge from downtown Charleston.
If you would prefer to make a Charleston weekend of it, consider staying in the Historic District. The Embassy Suites by Hilton Charleston Historic District offers spacious accommodations in a central location, while The Vendue provides a more distinctive boutique experience in Charleston's French Quarter.
Guests are responsible for making their own reservations, and availability and rates may vary. Those staying downtown should plan to drive or use a rideshare service to reach Alhambra Hall in Mount Pleasant each morning.
Yes. Lunch, coffee, and refreshments are provided both days.
On Sunday evening, those who wish to join us will gather for an informal dinner out in Charleston. It will be a relaxed opportunity to meet Rainier, the guest faculty, and your fellow participants before the immersion formally begins on Monday morning.
Participation is entirely optional, and everyone will be responsible for their own food and drinks. We'll share the restaurant, time, and reservation details with registered participants closer to the event.
We are unable to provide individually customized meals or guarantee an allergen-free environment. You are welcome to bring your own foods. Participants are ultimately responsible for making the choices and arrangements necessary for their own health and well-being.
Bring a journal or notebook, your preferred writing or creative materials, and anything you need to work on your current project, if you have one. A laptop is welcome, though it is not required. Please dress comfortably and bring a light layer, as we will move between the hall, porches, and waterfront grounds throughout the day.
No. Create Yourself Alive is designed as a complete two-day experience, with each session building upon what came before. To preserve the continuity and intimacy of the gathering, all participants are asked to attend both Monday and Tuesday.
Because this is an intimate gathering with limited enrollment, all registrations are nonrefundable. If you are unable to attend, the amount you paid may be applied as credit toward another Rainier Wylde offering within twelve months, provided you notify us before the immersion begins. You may also transfer your place to another person with advance notice.
Yes. Tuition may be paid in two equal installments, with the first payment due at registration and the remaining balance due by October 15, 2026. Registrations made after October 15 must be paid in full. Your place is confirmed once the first installment has been received, and all payments remain subject to the refund and transfer policy above. For the payment option, email Rainier@rainierwylde.com.
Yes. Alhambra Hall has exterior ramps into the building and an elevator providing access to the main hall on the second floor. If you have a specific accessibility need or would like assistance planning your visit, contact us before the event so we can help make your experience as comfortable as possible.
Alhambra Hall is located in Mount Pleasant's Old Village, approximately 6 miles from downtown Charleston. The drive typically takes 15–20 minutes. Charleston International Airport is approximately 17 miles away, with a typical drive time of 25–35 minutes.
Travel times can vary considerably with bridge, rush hour, and weekend traffic, so we recommend allowing additional time when planning your arrival.
We may take informal photographs throughout the gathering to document and share the experience. Participants who prefer not to be photographed may let us know at registration or speak with a member of the team when they arrive, and we will respect that choice.
The teaching sessions and personal conversations will remain live and intimate. They will not be audio or video recorded.
If Create Yourself Alive is canceled by the organizers, participants will receive a full refund of all registration fees paid. Travel, lodging, and other personal expenses remain the responsibility of each participant and cannot be reimbursed.
Create Yourself Alive
Maybe the work has survived every practical decision you've made. Every responsible season. Every delay. Every attempt to become someone who could live without making it.
Perhaps its persistence is trying to tell you something.
Come to Charleston. Bring the unfinished pages, the uncertain idea, the life you have actually lived, and the part of you that is ready to begin again.
Reserve Your Place
