Gifted Underachievers

Gifted Underachievers

A podcast for midlevel creatives with delusional ambitions giftedunderachievers.substack.com

  1. قبل يومين

    The Stench of Sycophancy in Publishing

    If 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 harsh industry, where only a couple of hundred top agents can actually get good publishing deals, where a safe bet for publishers is a book that follows current trends, and where the exponential increase in people aspiring to publication creates a Hunger Games scenario in many writers’ minds. Why not kiss ass? What do you have to lose? Your credibility, for one. And the time you could have spent better building relationships in a more sustainable and fruitful way. Your Gifted Underachievers discuss these other ways to create relationships with industry professionals. Although few of them require large amounts of money, they all take time and effort. Questions for Listeners: * Have you ever kissed ass hoping it would get your material read / seen / viewed? * How did that work out for you? * What else have you done to build industry relationships that’s yielded tangible results? For Further Exploration: Learn how to Sell Your Book Without Begging or Bragging: https://getaliteraryagent.com/sell-yourself-book-literary-agents/ Get the lowdown on Ben Shattuck, James’s new BFF (not): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Shattuck The creative who LIKES pitching—Amber Petty: Meet the writer who connected Pat with her agent: https://www.sharonharrigan.net/ Buy us a Coffee and Win a Book Here in the GU Clubhouse, we’ve gleaned and gathered incredible wisdom from our creative guests, whom we fondly call the Gifted Achievers. We’re putting this wisdom into a series of handy guides so listeners can study how to make a good living doing what you love. Click the coffee cup below and you’re on the list! The first 20 coffee angels will get a free guide! Thanks for listening to Gifted Underachievers! This post is public so feel free to share it. If you’re not already a subscriber, we’d love to have you in the GU Clubhouse. No cost, no spam, unsubscribe anytime. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit giftedunderachievers.substack.com

  2. قبل يومين

    Honour Your Creative Work

    It’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 realm you operate in. Despite all that, we’re lucky to have an abiding interest that can see us through to the end of our lives. Creative work feeds our curiosities and provides meaning to both us creator and our audience. What could be better than that? Questions for Listeners: * How do you honour your creative work? * Or if you don’t yet, how can you start? For Further Exploration: John O’Donohue: https://www.johnodonohue.com/ Anam Cara (source of the Work Blessing): https://www.johnodonohue.com/store Pam Bustin: https://pambustin.com/ Buy us a Coffee and Win a Book Here in the GU Clubhouse, we’ve gleaned and gathered incredible wisdom from our creative guests, whom we fondly call the Gifted Achievers. We’re putting this wisdom into a series of handy guides so listeners can study how to make a good living doing what you love. Click the coffee cup below and you’re on the list! The first 20 coffee angels will get a free guide! Thanks for listening to Gifted Underachievers! This post is public so feel free to share it. If you’re not already a subscriber, we’d love to have you in the GU Clubhouse. No cost, no spam, unsubscribe anytime. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit giftedunderachievers.substack.com

  3. ١٠ سبتمبر

    How to Escape Someone Else’s Dysfunction Trap!

    As 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 all too easy to fall into and be trapped by the dysfunction of others. And while we get good at preventing or short-circuiting dysfunctional processes, there is always a new one. Furthermore, if we depend on that other person (or organization) it can be VERY difficult to simply walk away. We also experience the business concept of the sunk cost fallacy because we don’t want to lose an opportunity or walk away from many hours of work. What to do? Well, the Gifted Underachievers have thoughts. Good ones. Questions for Listeners: * How can you avoid dysfunction in others? * How can do you get out of a dysfunction trap? * Do you miss red flags? For Further Exploration: Buy us a Coffee and Win a Book Here in the GU Clubhouse, we’ve gleaned and gathered incredible wisdom from our creative guests, whom we fondly call the Gifted Achievers. We’re putting this wisdom into a series of handy guides so listeners can study how to make a good living doing what you love. Click the coffee cup below and you’re on the list! The first 20 coffee angels will get a free guide! If you’re not already a subscriber, we’d love to have you in the GU Clubhouse. No cost, no spam, unsubscribe anytime. Thanks for listening to Gifted Underachievers! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit giftedunderachievers.substack.com

  4. ٣ سبتمبر

    The Fabulous Amber Petty!

    In 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 living in Los Angeles. She’s helped hundreds of students get bylines in places like Huffington Post, Business Insider, the Guardian, New York Times, and more. Plus, she’s grown a 6-figure business and 11,000-person newsletter by helping misfits make more money. In her current programs Marketing for Misfits (eminently affordable!) and the Creative Control Club (free!), Amber is helping hundreds of creatives figure out how to grow their audience and market their work. We’re especially delighted by the Compliments Challenge, a truly painless (in fact, rewarding) way to expand your network and create opportunities. Join us as we discover: * How creative people can overcomplicate marketing by coming from a place of “I’m not good at this, and I hate it.” * Why we “bland ourselves out” in our marketing and on social media, and how to stop * What marketing really is at its core, and why creatives have all the skills we need to do it well * The importance of allowing our identities and ourselves to evolve * How to raise our own excitement about marketing, and why that matters * The value of lighting up your creative brain first, THEN turning on your marketing brain * How when we get even OK at marketing, we can build a solid audience that will appreciate ALL our creative work * How having more control over our own marketing (rather than waiting for opportunities to be showcased by someone else) can result in life-changing income Questions for Listeners: * How do you feel about marketing? * Are you finding a previous identity hampers your ability to share your work? * What would actually feel good to you when sharing your creative work? For Further Exploration: Marketing for Misfits: https://www.skool.com/marketing-for-misfits-8832/about Compliments Challenge: https://amber-petty.newzenler.com/courses/compliments0926/ Creative Control Club: https://amber-petty.newzenler.com/f/creativecontrol/ Thanks for listening to Gifted Underachievers! If you know a creative who needs solid, clear advice on marketing their work, Share This Post! If you’re not already a subscriber, we’d love to have you in the GU Clubhouse. No cost, no spam, unsubscribe anytime. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit giftedunderachievers.substack.com

  5. ٢٧ أغسطس

    Gifted Achiever Richard Kelly Kemick

    An 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 details of life while fulfilling important family duties. And so, we bring you an incredible interview with the guy whose notebook is described as “off putting with serial killer vibes.” We love him. You love him. Here he is… In this episode, Pat and James have a wide-ranging discussion with Gifted Achiever and author Richard Kelly Kemick. His most recent book—Hello, Horse—is a wonderfully unique collection of short stories that features a coterie of ghosts, nuns on ice, and an above average number of dogs while exploring the mirage of authenticity and the impact of decisions we make—for better or worse. In a word, Richard is brilliant and funny (yes, I know, that was two words). As but a taste of the topics Pat and James explored with him: * Pen or pencil? * His writing and publishing process, which includes his fair share of rejections (something we all have experienced). * The pleasure of working with a fabulous old-school editor. * Moving up the rejection ladder. * Can an arts community become too dependent on grants? And can funding abundance disconnect the artist from their audience? * Our favorite authors and books. * Why the writer/creator must work harder than the reader/viewer/audience. * When applying for a grant, have an idea not an emotion. * Rejection is just another step forward. * Richard’s top five grant pitch tips. * How being creative forces you out of yourself. * There is no better life than the creative life. Segment Questions: * What do you believe the difference is between an idea and an emotion? * What is your favorite book/movie/song/artwork? * What are your five pitch tips? Segment Links: Richard’s Website: https://richardkemick.com Wikipedia Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kelly_Kemick Hello, Horse on Amazon: https://a.co/d/7yy9yPm [Gifted Underachiever tip: Download a sample on Kindle, then after you discover Richard’s brilliance, purchase a copy at your local independent bookstore] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit giftedunderachievers.substack.com

حول

A podcast for midlevel creatives with delusional ambitions giftedunderachievers.substack.com