Episodes
-
Amie has made a list of artist archetypes to help you all figure out your strengths and weaknesses as artists.
We go through the archetypes and discuss each one.
Kind of like enneagram/Myers Briggs/astrology specifically for artists!
You can read more about it on Amie's substack!
Still two days to sign up to the Inspired Collective!
-
Welcome back!
We're talking about: small steps and achievable goals; fostering scrappiness; behaving like an athlete; and much more!
Topic discussion begins at 4:42
The Inspired Collective
We Need Your Art Book
James' substack
Amie's substack
-
Missing episodes?
-
We interrupt Creativity 101 for a special episode! Help us prepare for Amie's guest appearance on a big podcast.
Also, I'm writing this from the future AFTER the podcast recording happened. It went really well thank you for asking. I sat in on the whole thing and Amie killed it. For some reason, she speaks much better when she's talking to someone who isn't her husband (swirly eye emoji).
Hey! You can pre-order Amie's book now! Links are HERE!
-
We're coming back to a topic we talk about a lot on the podcast, Perfectionism. This time, though, we're going back to basics. What is perfectionism? What are the most common ways it shows up our lives? Why is bad? And what can we do about it?
Amie was right, no cover reveal yet... But you should come to our live course: Selling Without Selling Out
-
Most artists will procrastinate. That's just a fact. It's something people have dealt with in the past and will continue to deal with in the future.
Where it becomes a problem, though, is when it holds you back from being the sort of person you want to be.
We look at some common tools and techniques to help you cut through procrastination and make art with more ease and regularity.
Also discussed towards the end: procrastination for Neurodivergent creatives!
-
Join us for our Creativity 101 series where we go back to foundational principles for being happier, more rested, and more productive artists. We'll be doing a 10 episode series starting here with Journaling.
Journaling is the foundational methodology for all our teaching. In all our courses, books, and online classes we always include journaling prompts. It helps you ask yourself important questions, and find your own wisdom which you can use to overcome blocks and problems.
If you're interested in learning more, you can get a free copy of Amie's Journaling Compendium when you sign up for her newsletter on substack.
-
I know a lot of you want to know a little more about how our partnership works. This week, we're answering heaps of listener questions all about our relationship!
How do we deal with conflict?
What're our attachment styles?
How do we help each other when one of us is upset or disregulated?
Our views on couple's therapy.
And much more!
James has a new substack post that talks more about our relationship and how we balance it.
-
Today we're talking about people who think making art is only for the special few, who think you need double decker doctorates or generational talent if you want to create. We're talking about why they're WRONG!
You can find links to buy Amie's books (which she'll never have done enough research for to satisfy some people) here
-
Honestly guys, I have no idea what we said in this one. We recorded it over three weeks ago! Hope it's good... Let me know!
We have a summer sale on for the next week! 50% off all our courses.
-
Q and A episode today people!
We're answering YOUR questions:
Do we want kids?
Is Fan Fiction a good way to practice writing?
What do we do when we fall of out love with our art?
And more!
We will be in an aeroplane in the sky when this goes out so hopefully it works!
You can join our San Francisco workshop digitally via A Writing Room! The session will be recorded so you can watch the replay too!
-
We're in a little bit of slump at the moment. How do we deal with it?
It's normal to not always feel motivated and enthusiastic with your work. We share what we've been struggling with lately, common reasons creatives get into slumps, imposter syndrome/the pain of leveling up and feeling like you aren't fully ready for that next level.
We also give you an update on our MUSCLES!
Did you want to come to come to one of Amie's live workshops but don't live in California? Our hosts, A Writing Room, are offering a livestream of the San Francisco event on June 1st! Replay included.
-
Today we're responding to a series of articles that have gone viral over the last couple of weeks. They're all about the publishing industry, and whether or not it's dying out.
Included: how big is the market for books? Is it growing or shrinking? Are publishers profitable? Is it even worth writing books anymore? What about indie books, self-publishing, e-books, and audio? What do publishers get right and what do they get wrong.
James says the C word twice and apologises to all the Americans for being Australian.
Main sources:
No One Buys Books by Elle Griffin
People Buy Books, Publishing Is Thriving, and Substack Will Never Replace Books, by Brooke Warner which also links to several other great pieces. The one we used most heavily was:
Yes, People Do Buy Books, by Lincolm Michel
-
Failure is non negotiable. So how can learn and grow from our failures?
We share some of our failures, what they taught us, how we dealt with them at the time, and what we think of them now.
Included: dealing with rejection from gatekeepers, why failure should excite us, letting ourselves be upset, and more!
There are still tickets to both of our US workshops!
-
Another spice one provoked by some online discourse.
Is it wrong to make money from our art? Does making art with the intention to sell it sully it?
It's a strong no from us. Listen to learn why!
Don't forget we have two workshops in California coming up.
LA on the 25th of May
San Francisco on the 1st of June
Both are going to be 5 hours long (including a lunch break), with teaching, QandA, journaling, and a chance to mingle with other artists.
Cheapest tickets start at $50.
-
Back to our favourite punching bag: Perfectionism.
We talk about how perfectionism leads to stagnancy, stunts your growth as a creative, and ultimately leads to worse art.
LA and San Francisco artists (or anyone who wants to travel there!), we are coming to your city!
LA workshop: 25th of March
San Fran workshop: 1st of June
Pricing is on a sliding scale to accomodate different budgets.
Learn more here
-
Join us on a walk and talk as we play a little game of Would You Rather, artist edition!
We would love for you to check out Amie's fiction.
Her witchy tudor novel, Regrettably, I Am About to Cause Trouble, and her Sexy medieval romp, The Rules Upheld by No One are available in audio, e-book, and print on most major platforms.
-
This is one of our favourite ever conversations! Emma Couette, six novels in the last five years. All while holding down a full time job.
We talk about how she juggles a 9-5 job with this sort of release schedule, doing her own promo, fighting for her novels, finding good people to give feedback, making difficult choices about how to allocate resources to creative projects, and much more!
We learned so much about the Indie publishing space and came away with heaps of things we want to action.
We reached out to Emma and asked her on the podcast because we are blown away by how she fights for her writing. How diligent she is. How much care she puts into her promotion and her social presence (@emmacouetteauthor).
Here are links to Emma's novels, please support her:
Silent Night purchase link: https://www.books2read.com/guildtrilogybookone
Summer's Revenge purchase link: https://www.books2read.com/summersrevenge
Winter's Wrath purchase link: https://www.books2read.com/winterswrath
Emma's website: https://www.emmacouetteauthor.com
Emma is @emmacouetteauthor on Insta, Tiktok, and Threads.
-
Welcome Amie's sister Kirsty to the show! At 29 years old, Kirsty is the founder and director of Made Home, a Sydney based home transition company, with fifteen employees and dozens of customers!
We spend a lot of time trying to get to the bottom of why Amie and Kirsty both became Entrepreneurs and what exactly it was about their childhood that made them bounce off traditional work.
We also discuss the challenges of more traditional businesses versus creative businesseses, how motherhood has changed Kirsty's relationship with work, and much more!
-
First off, friends, audio continues to betray us at every turn. We had multiple glitches again this week so, if James suddenly starts talking about the Patriarchy seemingly mid-sentence, we apologise for the non sequitur. I think things mostly make sense though? Let us know.
So, what's the episode about? Amie has an arch nemesis, and that arch nemesis is a man called Hubs who goes by the social media handle @Hubs.life (not normalise the 9-5 as we mistakenly say in the ep). Hubs doe not know Amie. Amie has never met Hubs. But Hubs made the mistake of making a series of reels and tiktoks urging his followers to "normalise the 9-5".
We talk about why we in fact do not need to do this (spoiler, because it is already incredibly normalised).
If you soldier through the "life update" section at the 2/3s mark, we go on to discuss our tips for those of you trying to create around your job (which we also have a full podcast episode on).
Xoxo Amie and James
P.s. Amie's novels are going gangbusters at the moment! Regrettably, I am About to Cause Trouble is flying off the proverbial shelf largely thanks to a massive shoutout from Emmi.Reads. If you've read Regrettably, we'd love if you could review it on goodreads, to get it higher in that sweet book nerd algo, or on the non-Amazon affiliated Story Graph. Remember it is both free on Youtube, and included in a Spotify Premium membership.
-
REAL PODCAST STARTS AT ABOUT 07:00, everything before that is bullshit chat.
We talk you through how we like to plan out projects (or don't). Sit with us in a sort of ASMR, fly on the wall type way as we plan what we want to work on for the rest of the year.
We try to give our chaotic lives a loose structure. Which doesn't always work.
Expect: pros and cons of planning, what we think of ultra long term planning, how we choose projects to work on, finding our rhythm, and more rambles!
Guess what! We are offering two free, hour long masterclasses for anyone who's ever wanted to check out our live teaching. Sign up here.
- Show more