Join Amie McNee from @inspiredtowrite and her writer husband James Winestock for a podcast about building a sustainable creative life. A place to take your art seriously where you can go to reflect on your journey and build a thriving creative practice.
We're talking about how to build a creative career without gatekeepers (e.g. publishers, galleries, casting agents). This is about turning your creativity into a small business with YOU as the boss. We talk about some of the practicalities of how you might do this and give examples of creatives who're making careers without gatekeepers. There's a 30% off sale on our website until 30th of June, 11:59pm AEST! Check it out here .
We talk about why it's so important to understand your own creative rhythm and work to it. This was a classic "ramble" episode. I've made a section on the podcast website where you can formally give us the ramble score for the episode. Submit your score here. While you're on the website, consider signing up for the newsletter! Click here. gd3zN3b2qW78yffpBtDb
We're talking about how, as creatives, we have the freedom to experiment and innovate not just in our art, but in our schedules, our rhythms, and the way we choose to work. Creatives have always been at the forefront here, the world is simply attempting to catch up with us. We can, if we choose, stand up and show the rest of the world that there are better ways to work.
This is mostly a joke episode but we try to bring most of our "controversial" opinions back to something that will be relevant to your creative life... From how clean your house should be, to the riskiness of starting a business, to why being childless is sort of a superpower. We hope you enjoy one of our weirder eps so far! You can watch the recording of our podcast on Spotify or via Youtube . Don't forget Amie's European tour is happening from July 28th to the end of August and there are still...
Join us as we read and reflect on several entries from our journals. Some highlights are: entries from the early stages of our business where we're struggling with money, anxiety over our upcoming trip to Europe, cyclical old stories that are hard to shake, moments where we soothe and mother ourselves. Journaling has been transformative for both of us! We wanted to be vulnerable with you about how exactly we use it. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review! Don't...
So, first up, trick title! It's almost impossible to follow a formula and simply arrive automatically at a good business decision. It also 100% applies to any of your creative projects. This episode is more about making sure you come up with ideas that are true to you, giving yourself time to rest and ideate, treating the ideation phase with the respect it deserves, and not being afraid of bad ideas. Is that right? We recorded four days ago and I'm sure I'm missing something! If you're enjoying ...
We talk about how much easier your creative journey becomes when you start to get an understanding of what you can and can't control. That means taking a moment to filter as much as you can through the lens of: controllable, not controllable. Just doing that sorting can help relieve stress and alleviate the sense of helplessness we can sometimes get when things don't go our way. This is a tool you can use to stay more process driven, not get rattled as much by setbacks, and generally enjoy your ...
This week, we interviewed the NYT bestselling author of the Nevernight Chronicles and my favourite fantasy novel of last year, Empire of the Vampire, Jay Kristoff. We had so much fun interviewing Jay. It’s great to talk to a fellow Aussie and he was both extremely funny and wise. We discussed: transitioning from muggle job to writing full time (even though Jay's "muggle" job was as a creative in the ad industry, it's still a really interesting story); why writing and doing creative things is a w...
Today we have an awesome guest for you: two time Crossfit Games Team Athlete, owner of multiple businesses, actor, and head coach at our gym, Natasha Kaz. We talk with her about the similarities between elite sport, business, and creativity. Going back to being a beginner when you've already been an expert/master in another field. The importance of admitting to yourself that you want to be great at something. Talking to friends and family about your creative dreams when they already have an esta...
This episode is largely a discussion of Fantasy Author Brandon Sanderson's incredibly successful ($40 million) kickstarter that finished recently. We talk about why other artists being mega successful is a good thing for us. Why we should be excited to see big names pursuing avenues usually used by indie artists. How there isn't a finite amount of money to go around each artistic industry and much more! Don't forget you can now watch the video version of the podcast on Spotify and Youtube . Than...
Why is it so hard for non-artistic types to understand what we do? And why is it so hard to commit to a consistent creative practice? These two questions seem unrelated but they actually stem from the same issue: We are unable to conceptualise of sticking at something that we aren't making money at for 5+ years. Let's grapple with this concept and learn how to use it to make us better artists! Thank you so much for your support and your reviews. A reminder that the Procrastination intensive is h...
James asks Amie to coach him through a rough patch as he starts receiving rejection letters for his second novel. They talk about how much rejection can hurt, why it's so painful trying to get people to notice our art, how hard it is to ask for help, and how to support yourself or loved ones when you're feeling hopeless. Recording this episode helped me (James) so much. Thank you Unpublished community for giving me a place to talk through the struggles of being a creative! If you'd like some coa...
Let's talk about failure! We tell the story of a recent "failed" product launch and how they bounced back. We talk about the power of reframing, seeing mistakes as a guiding light, soothing ourselves through failure, treating adversity as a necessary step on the path. This isn't about not feeling pain, or denying our reality, it's about giving you a tool that can help when things aren't going perfectly. Amie is running two intensives in a few weeks' time. One on Social Media and one on Procrasti...
We're talking about how to trick our brains into taking action on long term goals. Humans aren't great at working on big, abstract things with distant or ill-defined deadlines. So, we need to think of ways to make our brains think we are accomplishing something RIGHT NOW. That way, we can feel good about our work, start early, and generally have an easier time of things. This ep a little rambly as we try to get our head around this concept. Thanks for being with us at our earliest stages of idea...
We're following up from last week's episode by answering your questions! How do we deal with taxes? Thing we wish we knew when starting our business. How do we handle variable cashflow? And much more. We also remind you that this is how we do things. Your business will be unique to you and you should always do what works for you! Leave a review for the world's sweetest podcasters!
Amie and James take you through their path to "going pro". How did Amie first make money from her creativity? What were her early failures like and what was the shift Amie had to make to turn them into "success"? How do we decide what business decisions to make? How much do we put back into the business? What are our next steps. We strongly reccomend you checkout Gauri Yardi ( @gauri.yardi ) and Tanja Ernst ( @corpholia_design_studio ) on instagram to see great examples of creators hitting home ...
In this episode Amie and James confront the idea of "making it". What does "making it" even mean? How is it different to success? How do we move through our self-doubt? Amie's Journaling Compendium is now FREE when you sign up to her mailing list. You can join here.
Yes, we are super in favour of quitting things that don't serve you. But, sometimes we give up before we find flow and ease. This is especially true of a lot of the bullshit that surrounds a creative practice: websites, accounting, tech-shit, marketing. Thing is, those things all get easier over time. You're already doing the hard part, making art. If you can do that, you can handle all the peripherals! Come listen to us chat about this in the FIRST EPISODE OF SEASON 5! Did you know, you get Ami...
In our last podcast for the year (and for season 4), we talk about some of the things we've enjoyed most lately. From books to TV shows to tech, we try to come away from this weird year with a focus on the small joys derived from other people's art and creativity. People and Creators we talked about in this episode Books: Jay Kristoff and his book the Empire of the Vampire. Breath by James Nestor Laziness does not exist by Devon Price Social Media presences we have loved and learned from: @laura...
In this episode Amie interviews Sharon Walters, @london_Artist1. Sharon is a London-based artist who creates hand-assembled collages celebrating black women. Within this episode Amie and Sharon talk about what it is like to unashamedly take up space as a creator. They cover many topics, including; social media, art education, resistance, failure and Sharon's unbelievable success this year in the art world. If you want to follow Sharon and witness her incredible art you can find her here: https:/...
We return to one of our favourite topics: the power of quitting stuff! Many of us have adopted the story that quitting is always a failure. But how could this be true? If we never quit anything, we'd end up doing a whole stack of things that no longer have any value to us and wasting our time. We definitely need to push through hard things sometimes, but we also need to learn when something isn't serving us anymore and when to move on. Remember, if you need encouragement to get through the chall...
VERY SPECIAL GUEST EPISODE. On the pod today we have Amie's Dad—Steve, Etches, Thomas—a poet. We talk to him about raising a creative child like Amie; how best to encourage creativity in children; finding creativity in the day-to-day; growing up with adults who don't support creativity; getting back into art later in life, and much more! We loved having Steve, Etches, Thomas, on the pod. He has been so wise, gentle, strong, calming, supportive to both of us and we want you to bask in some of his...
We talk about the difficulties of trying to connect with other people. Whether that's sending a DM asking to be on someone's podcast, or emailing a gatekeeper asking them to look at your work, this is something all creatives have to deal with and it can be really hard. How do we do this well and how do we stop ease some of the pain and discomfort that comes with the vulnerability?
Are you waiting around for you big break? Do you find it hard to celebrate the little steps on the path to your success? So do we! Let's chat about how we can reframe this conversation and celebrate the journey. Don't forget Amie has a new paid podcast out, you can check it out here .
In this episode, we talk about Amie's new paid podcast, It's Time To Write and then play you three sample episodes from it! It's Time To Write is available through Amie's Website .
We discuss the importance of art. Far from being frivolous, art forms our public conversations—our culture! Art is a sandbox for exploring ideas, big and small, intimate and worlds spanning. It can do things that an academic paper, an essay, an article, a documentary, or a non-fiction book can't. This is some of the most fun we've had on the podcast! Join us!
Ever wanted to know how we met? What muggle jobs we've had? What are our fave video games are? This is the episode! Amie's new paid podcast "It's time to write" will launch on the 29th of October! Keep your eyes peeled!
In this ep we talk about the need many of us feel to defend our desire to create. "It's just a hobby", "I'm not very good anyway", "It's just an outlet". You don't need to make excuses. Creativity is an essential human desire. At the same time, you don't need to expend energy convincing people who are committed to misunderstanding you. We talk about this delicate balance. Amie's website: https://www.amiemcnee.com/
This is perhaps my favourite episode of the podcast ever! We had the privilege of interviewing social psychologist, writer, activist and professor, Dr Devon Price. They are the inspiration behind so many of Amie and my ideas around rest, laziness, and hustle culture. We talk about: the ways the "laziness lie" uniquely impacts creatives, balancing ambition and burnout, abolishing time, finding your own definition of success, the importance of meaningful engagement versus high but shallow follower...
Today we talk about minimum viable audiences. We discuss why follower counts don't mean much, why having a few devoted people in your corner is way better than having millions of fly-through followers, pricing your art, and much more. We also have a real chat about how difficult it can be when we finish a project and actually have to try to share it. Come follow us on the unpublished instagram account ....
