Gifted Underachievers
de Gifted Underachievers
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You Own Your Life
You Own Your Life
À propos de ce podcast
A podcast for midlevel creatives with delusional ambitions
giftedunderachievers.substack.com
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- You Own Your Life · 8 minDuring a recent hospital stay (painful and a big bummer, but okay in the end) James was told by a nurse, “You own your life.” This affected him deeply and generated a lot of…
- Is Growth Always Good? · 29 minPat and James work very hard at their creative-adjacent businesses. Sometimes, too hard and to the point where their own creative work can suffer. Part of that imbalance is the…
- Is Creativity Innate or Learned? · 17 minWe can look at creativity as a lifelong habit of being in the world. The urge to create might be stronger in some people than others, but are we all born with it? Or does our…
- Creatives Make Good Vampires · 22 minA recent road trip by Gifted Underachiever Pat led her to some thoughts on how far we can go in using other people in our art. Can we base characters or story events on people we…
- Delusional Goal Update · 13 minWaaaayyyy back the Gifted Underachievers stated their delusional goals for the next three to five years. Let’s see how things are going. Pat: Win the Booker Prize. James: Receive…
- Is Halloween the most creative holiday? · 10 minHalloween can be the black licorice of holidays: Not everybody loves it but those who do, really, really love it. And for many of them, it’s all the creativity that can go into…
- How NOT To Do Guerrilla Marketing · 13 minOriginally aired in August 2024 and back by popular demand… Pat and James begin using low-cost merch to drive high-value social media marketing (Hint: “Can you find our coaster…
- Does Creative Adjacent Work Harm Our Creative Work? · 25 minMany creatives engage in creative-adjacent work—editing, teaching, commissions, etc.—to make a living utilizing their respective creative skillset. Often, too, we do this work to…
- Election Chat · 4 minThis wee segment shares our consternation about election marketing by text and the need for fundraising in our so-called modern democracies. Questions for Listeners: * Do you…
- Discipline as Devotion · 24 minThe concept of discipline is a frequent topic of conversation among creatives. And as often, people bring a lot of baggage and prescriptions around how disciplined creatives…
- Are You Ever Caught Up? · 15 minIn creative and creative-adjacent work, we always seem to have more projects and deadlines than we have time for. The Gifted Underachievers talk about how this situation develops…
- Listener Profile: Book Club Podcast · 7 minToday, we’re profiling a terrific podcast by Carly Jackson and cohost Christy Lynn, the Book Club Podcast. If you like smart, in-depth analysis of stories, ranging across time…
- Platform Building: Clickbait vs Meaning · 22 minIn an attention-based economy, how do creatives honorably and effectively build an audience, platform, and artistic presence without resorting to sensationalism or grandstanding?…
- Navigating Low-Inspiration Cycles · 12 minGifted Underachiever James Buchanan has just come through an extended period of overwork and is also dealing with a major life event, the death of a parent. Over the past few…
- Online Ads for Creatives · 7 minDid you know that you can advertise your creative work online? You alone, by yourself, without spending big bucks or lots of time? In this short segment, full-time writer James…
- The How & Why of Contracts for Creatives · 39 minIf you engage in creative-adjacent work or perform, submit, or sell creative services or pieces of any kind, you likely need a contract. As Pat says, contracts remove confusion…
- Flow Hygiene: A Debrief · 20 minIn a recent segment, Prepping for Crunch Time, we discussed ways to prepare for a period of intensive work, whether you’re an understudy called up to play the lead, a visual…
- Case Study: Marketing an Online Course · 8 minAs part of her pension project, Pat has been teaching courses online at the Editorial Arts Academy [https://editorialartsacademy.com/2020/12/22/tour-of-developmental-editing-for-f…
- Opportunities & Compromise: Two Perspectives · 28 minJames floats out a scenario for consideration: * You’re a midlevel creative * You get your “big break”--an opportunity that could transform your career * They want compromises…
- Case Study: Prepping for Crunch Time · 17 minPat is an expert all-nighter puller. In fact, James says that when it comes to understanding how to prepare for an intensive period of work, there’s none better than Pat. That’s…
- Listener Profile: Chris Bujold, Robot Dreams and Suburban Nightmares · 9 minToday, we’re profiling a wonderful project by Chris Bujold. Robot Dreams and Suburban Nightmares is “a cinematic coming-of age memoir told through the films that defined a…
- Creative Flow Into Fall · 15 minAugust can be crazy. Crazy busy. Crazy fun. Crazy social. Crazy vacation time. And all that crazy can throw us out of our creative flow. Pat and James are absolutely struggling…
- The Stench of Sycophancy in Publishing · 32 minIf you’ve been around writers, agents, and publishers for a while, you will be aware that ass-kissing, pandering, and sycophancy (call it what you will) are a feature of this…
- Honour Your Creative Work · 10 minIt’s easy to get mired down in the BS that comes with working in a creative field, whether it’s publishing, the TV and film industry, visual arts, crafts, comedy, or whatever…
- How to Escape Someone Else’s Dysfunction Trap! · 34 minAs creatives we often rely on others for a great many things. As people with creative adjacent careers, we also rely on others for a great many things. Ergo and therefore, it is…
- Contest Update: Narrative Sends James a Nice Note · 13 minIt could be worse. Or so thinks James after receiving a relatively thoughtful letter from narrative to let him know he was not a finalist in their short fiction contest. He is an…
- Listener Profile: Beyond Craft by Joe Ponepinto · 9 minJoe Ponepinto’s current project is a fascinating Substack publication called Beyond Craft. Learn how and why Joe created this world, the challenges, the audience, and the point…
- The Fabulous Amber Petty! · 1 h 5 minIn this special episode of Gifted Underachievers, we are absolutely delighted to welcome Gifted Achiever Amber Petty to the GU Clubhouse. Amber is a writer/Weird Marketing Maven…
- Gifted Achiever Richard Kelly Kemick · 1 h 5 minAn Underachieving Note: We’ve underachieved again. Summer is waning and\or peaking depending on whether you are going back to school or not. And we are, well, crazy busy with the…
- Are AI Hallucinations Taking Down Creatives? · 21 minThere are lots of accusations of AI use in the arts—especially writing—based on both human detection and AI detection apps. So many creatives are worried that they could get…
- Diversifying Your Market Across Borders · 28 minIf you sell your creative work or provide creative-adjacent services online, you’ve already made decisions about your market—ranging from the language and images you use for your…
- Who Are We Without Our Captives? (Silly) · 2 minIn this disturbing short segment, the Gifted Underachievers discuss the basement of their Clubhouse, now free of any captured creative folk. Who should we nab next? NOTE: No…
- Are You Heading Where You Want to Go? · 22 minWhat meaning do you get from your life as a creative? · Who are you now? · What have you done? · Are you heading where you want to go? The Gifted Underachievers discuss a…
- Does Creative Detritus Imprison Us? · 17 minPat’s aggressively white office has way too much paper and other artifacts of her creative work. James does the exact same thing. In fact, he will find himself surrounded by…
- Introducing Listener Profiles · 6 minThe Gifted Underachievers are really proud of their listeners and feel that it’s time they share the spotlight with them. If you’d like to get some more attention for your work…
- Your CEO Meeting: A Case Study · 25 minDobes (Pat Dobie) is one of the most organized gifted underachievers in history. She has a huge whiteboard and a well-stocked supply of dry erase markers. What does she use them…
- Your Network Signals Who You Are · 18 minThe Gifted Underachievers discuss the pros and cons of referring or outsourcing some of their creative-adjacent work to other professionals, especially aspects of the work that…
- The Fuel That Powers Artistic Glory: Cheese · 4 min“A day without cheese is a day without sunshine,” says Dobes. James claims, “It’s the enzymes.” Here in the Gifted Underachievers Clubhouse, we agree that the food group known as…
- Tipping Point Acts: Steps Up the Ladder · 29 minSure, big breaks are great, but careers and talent are built over time, one project after another. In this segment, the Gifted Underachievers conclude that the proper mindset (or…
- Space Overhaul for Creative Optimization · 17 minOur environments interact with us every minute of every day. Working in a cluttered, dusty, and disorganized space WILL reduce both your clarity and your creative output. What’s…
- PSA: It's Tick Season, Folks! · 2 minYou knew ticks could give you Lyme disease...but did you know they could actually damage some of your more dangly bits of organs? Have you heard of the phenomenon called “ghost…
- Immersive Creative Careers: Social or Antisocial? · 38 minAll creatives have immersive careers. We live in our own minds for long periods of time. We need to go to our office/home/studio wherever and just be on our own, away from people…
- Do You Suffer from Time Zone Insensitivity? · 10 minMany creative folks work remotely and have video meetings with people from all over the world. Your Gifted Underachievers are two such people—James has many meetings with…
- Nietzsche on Loving Your Fate · 6 minNietzsche said “Love your fate because your trials are necessary.” This isn’t nihilism—quite the contrary. There can be great meaning in welcoming your challenges rather than…
- Case Study: Pitching for High-Value Projects · 19 minWhen James pitches for a ghostwriting gig, he needs to quickly present himself as a capable professional to clients for projects often worth $80k or more. Pat faces much the same…
- Newsflash: GU Launches Extraction Team in Response to $1B Academy Lawsuit · 3 minThe Academy is relentless in their push to sue the Gifted Underachievers for $1B. They have won removal of the case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. But…
- Optimizing Your Creative-Adjacent Biz · 29 minAfter a period of offering two main services, James has focused on ghostwriting without distraction, with the goal of becoming one of the top 20 ghostwriters in the country. Pat…
- Critiquing Other Creatives · 26 minThe Gifted Underachievers talk about how to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a creative worker’s art. Are there guard rails that will help you deliver a needed truth in a…
- What’s Your Personal Narrative as a Creative? · 13 minIf you were to write a tagline for your internal narrative as a creative, what would it be? Pat and James talk about how they view their internal creative narrative…
- Newsflash: Academy Sues GU for $1B! (silly) · 2 minThe Gifted Achievers have stepped in it now. The GU newsroom is reporting that the Academy is suing the Gifted Underachievers for $1B. This comes just weeks after Pat and James…
