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 generation!

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 runs in the early stages of their creative businesses.

REVIEWS FOR US CUTIES PLS!

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 Amie's first book, The Journaling Compendium, for free when you sign up to her mailing list? Join here.

ALSO, do you want show Joe Rogan who's boss? Well, if everyone reading this left a review, we reckon Joe Rogan would feel totally inferior. "Who are these upstarts getting so many reviews and why aren't those reviews MINE", he will say (probably). So you should defs leave a review!

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:

@laurahesp 

@_peacefromwithin  Lily

@hankgreen and the VLOG brothers youtube.

Podcasts: 

MJ unleashed. - With Mary Jean. 

Intentionally blank. - with Brandon Sanderson 

Tim Ferris show

Artists 

@copholia_design_dyufio - By Tanja 

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://www.londonartist1.com/

Apologies for the audio on this one. Zoom had a little bit of sound trouble but it's not too bad!

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 challenges of your creative calling, Amie's paid podcast It's Time To Write, is here for you.

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 wonderfulness! 

Also, stay to the end for a poetry reading :)

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?