Creativity 101: Getting Started and Improving as an Artist

We finished our joint novel! We take you behind the scenes of the on and off year and a half long project. Topics: Writing to delight each other The importance of planning The number one mistake we noticed in each other's writing Dealing with conflict And much more!

Today we're talking about money! Specifically, our own finances. Revenue streams Emergency funds Retirement saving Book advances Taxes And other extremely interesting things... Amie's book, We Need Your Art, is available for pre-order. This is super important to the success of the book! Pre-order numbers directly impact how much support publishers and booksellers will give to a book. If you buy one thing from us in your lifetime, this is the one!

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

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