Gifted Underachievers

Yes, even bright, well-intentioned people can display an uncharacteristic ability to ask dumb questions. We do it at work and at home. (And if you do that of your teenaged children, you know what the punishment is for a dumb question.)

In fact, at one of James’s first ghostwriting gigs, the editor’s biggest question was “would you be afraid to ask dumb questions?”

James said, NO! And he was hired.

In this segment, the gifted underachievers discuss why they (and every creative) must be fearless about posing the questions that other people might think are not very bright.

Questions for Listeners:

* What is the cringiest question you ever asked?

* As a creative, how do you fearlessly ask questions that might seem obvious?

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!

For Further Exploration:

Dumb Questions for Artists

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Well, we’re not proud of this, but here in the Gifted Underachiever Clubhouse we’re starting to believe we might never blossom into our full creative potential.

James has delusions about being a giant bead head (an artificial nymph fly-fishers use). After all, if you’re going to be a nymph, you might as well be a giant fake one.

In this short segment, we ask ourselves, do we have what it takes to become butterflies? Or are we just immature bugs forever?

Questions for Listeners:

* Do you think we’re being pessimistic about our creative potential?

* Or are we truly nymphs?

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!

For Further Exploration:

The Prince Nymph

The New Fly Fisher – a life of nymphing

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. Free, no spam, unsubscribe any time.

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

Trump and Republicans decimated funding for the arts in the US with immediate impacts to creatives. This is a loss not just to artists and other creatives but society as a whole. We are a not a better country for this.

And yet, creatives are doing what we do best: Adapt.

There are signs that a range of creative businesses are adapting their business strategies and planning to adjust to this loss of funding and, perhaps, make these businesses stronger in the long run. This could, too, lead to a stronger arts and creative economy.

Let’s do more than hope. Let’s be part of the solution.

Questions for Listeners:

* Did you lose a US-based grant?

* How are you adapting?

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!

For Further Exploration:

Why Most Arts Fundraising Fails—and What Actually Works

How Artists Break Free of the Starving Artist Myth

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Visit the Gifted Underachiever Merch Shop

We have T-shirts, notebooks, hats, fridge magnets, mugs, and more. (Note: We’re working on getting free or low shipping in all countries!)

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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

Pat is excellent at thinking ahead and taking action to help herself down the road. Her month-long writing trip to [undisclosed location on the Spanish coast] is a shiny example. She set up a set of projects to help her pay and organize for her trip many months ago and the payoff has been a big boon.

In this segment, Pat describes how she approaches saving for large purchases and retirement with what she calls ‘pension projects.’ They are minimal in terms of the daily and weekly impact to her time, but over the long haul add up to an evergreen funding source.

Questions for Listeners:

* Do you have a retirement plan?

* Do you have a plan to use your creative work to make large purchases?

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!

For Further Exploration:

Work Until You Die: Aging & Retirement for Artists

Yearly Goal Setting for Creatives

Want to Show Your Support for the Gifted Underachievers?

Visit the Gifted Underachiever Merch Shop

We have T-shirts, notebooks, hats, fridge magnets, mugs, and more. (Note: We’re working on getting free or low shipping in all countries!)

If you aren’t already a subscriber, we’d love to have you in the GU Clubhouse! No spam, unsubscribe any time.

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

Both Gifted Underachievers have been through chronic stress for extended periods, and yes, it’s made us even less achieving than we normally are.

We discuss this, hope for the best, and, in an unprecedented move for GU, Pat parachutes in with an audio clip toward the end of the segment with some solid tips for combating chronic stress!

Questions for Listeners:

* What’s your best strategy for combating stress?

* Do you feel you’re in a period of chronic stress, or are things pretty good these days?

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!

For Further Exploration:

Living with stress:

https://www.cdc.gov/mental-health/living-with/index.html

10 evidence-based ways to manage stress:

Your brain on chronic stress:

If you aren’t already a subscriber, we’d love to have you in the GU Clubhouse! No spam, unsubscribe any time.

Thanks for listening to Gifted Underachievers! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Want to Show Your Support for the Gifted Underachievers?

Visit the Gifted Underachiever Merch Shop

We have T-shirts, notebooks, hats, fridge magnets, mugs, and more. (Note: We’re working on getting free or low shipping in all countries!)

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

We all have fears. If you don’t, check to see if you might either be a sociopath or the poster child for the Dunning-Krueger effect.

In this brief segment, Pat and James explore their biggest fears and how they manage them.

The GU team found it interesting that each underachiever’s fears fit two broad categories:

* screwing up leading to retribution, and

* the fading of creative drive and skills

Questions for Listeners:

* What are your three biggest fears as a creative?

* Do you spend much time ruminating on them?

* If not, what’s your secret?

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!

For Further Exploration:

Make Art Out of Curiosity not Fear

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 any time.

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

Despite what James claims to see on the screen as this episode is getting taped, there’s no tequila in Pat’s apartment during her creative retreat in Spain (that’s right, we’re giving away the location).

Dobes has been a long time without a vacation, and this is exactly where she wants to be. Her time is her own for the first time in a quarter century. She’s making progress on a novel and on other creative projects, as well as doing client work.

…and yet, she’s finding it surprisingly challenging to navigate the huge break in routine. Her approach? Accept the disorientation!

If you’re on a retreat, or considering one, this segment could help.

[Music “Mi Gata Blanca” Courtesy of Jean-Paul V., Pixabay https://pixabay.com/music/pop-mi-gata-blanca-333231/]

Questions for Listeners:

* Do you go through periods of feeling disoriented about your life?

* If yes, what do you do?

* If you had the chance to do a self-directed creative retreat, where would you go?

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!

For Further Exploration:

Why retreat? Disconnect and get a new perspective:

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

You may know of a few online platforms that match up creative service providers with clients who need help with their projects—writing a book, creating a brand image, graphic design, music production, and so on. It’s normal in this type of partnership to have a non-disclosure agreement between creative and client. Both also agree to work within the platform’s rules around payment and other aspects of project management. In exchange for matching up the creative and the client, the platform charges a fee.

So far, so good...until one platform added a new restriction to their rules: the creative and the client can’t have access to playbacks of their own video meetings. Instead, the platform will (if asked) provide an AI-generated transcript.

If you’ve ever worked in a creative field, you know that a transcript can’t show all the non-verbal parts of a meeting, like screen-shared images, charts, etc.

Even worse, this new rule means that the creative and the client can no longer guarantee that the terms of any non-disclosure agreement they’ve entered into will be followed, because neither of them has any control over what the platform does with their intellectual property.

What’s the best way forward? We have some ideas, and we’d love to know what you think.

Questions for Listeners:

* Have you ever worked through a freelancing platform to provide creative services to another party?

* Or have you ever hired a creative service provider through such a platform?

* Would you continue to do so if your non-disclosure agreement became invalid?

* What do you think James should do?

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!

For Further Exploration:

Understanding NDAs for Creatives—a clear, two-minute explanation:

Why Creators and Artists Need an NDA:

https://nocturnallegal.com/blog/creative-entrepreneurs-need-an-nda/

Why an NDA matters in creative and tech projects:

https://annap.be/why-signing-an-nda-matters-in-creative-and-tech-projects/

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 any time.

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

James has taken on a rational amount of work in the last several months, but some of the projects that have left his hands have entered new phases that require his magic touch.

Pat has current client work as well as non-optional personal projects, and all of these need her attention now.

When you’re in this situation, you really don’t have time for things that can throw you off: unnecessary phone calls and last-minute emergencies coming in from non-work sources force you to do ruthless triage or let your day get hijacked.

In this segment, the Gifted Underachievers discuss their systems and processes for managing multiple projects and delivering excellent results without letting any plates fall. Priority sequencing, task focus, and regular reviews of your project timelines are just a few of our techniques.

Questions for Listeners:

* How do you manage multiple projects?

* What’s your creative or creative adjacent field and what are your goals?

* What are your triage protocols for incoming life-related tasks?

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!

For Further Exploration:

How to Manage Multiple Projects:

How to Build Systems to Actually Achieve Your Goals:

Visit the Gifted Underachiever Merch Shop

We have T-shirts, notebooks, hats, fridge magnets, mugs, and more. (Note: We’re working on getting free or low shipping in all countries!)

Thanks for listening to Gifted Underachievers! This post is public so feel free to share it.

If you aren’t already a subscriber, we’d love to have you in the GU Clubhouse! No spam, unsubscribe any time.

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

Both of the Gifted Underachievers have personal lives as well as their professional creative and creative-adjacent work. We’ve both had careers in other industries before entering the writing arena—James as a journalist, and Pat as a logistics manager for international conferences and trade shows.

In this segment, we discuss how our backgrounds didn’t just teach us myriad skills that come in handy for running a creative business but also gave us the gift of perspective.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your background is a logical precursor to your creative work, here’s your answer.

Questions for Listeners:

* What have some of your previous jobs been?

* How did they prepare you for running a creative business?

* If you had to live your life over again, what would you change about your work trajectory?

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!

For Further Exploration:

Your past doesn’t define your art career:

The importance of variety in a career: https://medium.com/@dialcortez/the-importance-of-variety-in-a-career-57ccb994cfe5

Want to Show Your Support for the Gifted Underachievers?

Visit the Gifted Underachiever Merch Shop

We have T-shirts, notebooks, hats, fridge magnets, mugs, and more. (Note: We’re working on getting free or low shipping in all countries!)

Thanks for listening to Gifted Underachievers! This post is public so feel free to share it.

If you aren’t already a subscriber, we’d love to have you in the GU Clubhouse! No spam, unsubscribe any time.

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