Shows / Gifted Underachievers
Gifted Underachievers
A podcast for midlevel creatives with delusional ambitions
giftedunderachievers.substack.com
Episodes
Gifted UnderachieversFrom Fumbling Around to Finding Your Creative Style
In this segment, your Gifted Underachievers talk about discovering themselves as writers, fumbling around, experimenting, and trying different things, then the…
Gifted UnderachieversCustom Pitch Lists & Using AI to Grow Capacity
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Gifted UnderachieversHow to Make Time for Passive Income
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Gifted UnderachieversHow Could $10k Best Serve Your Creative Life?
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Gifted UnderachieversHow to Work in the Summer (& all the seasons)
Summer is upon us, and here in the Gifted Underachiever Clubhouse we’re falling under the Seasonal Affective Disorder Delusion—worrying about wasting the days…
Gifted UnderachieversAre Men Done with Fiction?
James has been looking for fiction that reflects his own experience in modern North America—his years as a single dad, his struggles to establish a career…
Gifted UnderachieversHow to Respond When Opportunity Knocks
Every midlevel creative has encountered a situation where they’re not sure if they can do the thing they’re trying to do. Sometimes you get offered a new or…
Gifted UnderachieversAn All-Male Publisher & Representation
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Gifted UnderachieversThe Science of Island Cows
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Gifted UnderachieversYour Creative Future & the ISC
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Gifted UnderachieversInauthentic Marketing: How NOT to Do It
James overcomes his disappointment in Pat’s despoilment of the GU Clubhouse in order to launch an investigation into marketing to & by creatives. We discuss…
Gifted UnderachieversRegenerative Creative Retreats: Risks & Rewards
Like many creatives, the Gifted Underachievers must sometimes take extraordinary steps to get the time and space to work on their stuff. Prompted in part by…
Gifted UnderachieversThe Palermo Incident
As the heads of an international enterprise, we here at Gifted Underachievers are savvy and experienced travelers. So when Pat pulls the trigger on booking a…
Gifted UnderachieversCreatives: Who Can You Disappoint?
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Gifted UnderachieversJohn Irving Wants Out for the Summer
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Gifted UnderachieversOur London Bee Costume Goal
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Gifted UnderachieversSpecial Guest: Gifted Achiever Sharon Louden
Your Gifted Underachievers are delighted to welcome artist and social change instigator Sharon Louden into the Clubhouse to talk about the nature of…
Gifted UnderachieversGifted Underachievers Delusional First Lawsuit
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Gifted UnderachieversA Possible Upside of Losing US NEA/NEH Grants
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Gifted UnderachieversGrant Update: The Yes/No Result
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Gifted UnderachieversAd Stalking on Social Media (Silly)
Pat’s getting ads for women’s shapewear (SHE SWEARS SHE’S NEVER CLICKED A LINK!) and ugly shoes. James is getting men’s outerwear and fungal cures. We’re not…
Gifted UnderachieversIs a Home Office the Creative Ideal?
Both Pat and James have home offices where they do their client and personal creative work. For many, having a creative space inside the home where they earn…
Gifted UnderachieversWhen You're Ready to Quit
When you’re running a creative (or creative-adjacent) business and your ambient stress level gets a sudden spike, it can lead to overwhelm that lasts for days…
Gifted UnderachieversRichard Kelly Kemick: Best Ever Grant Advice
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Gifted UnderachieversBugout Bags for Creatives
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Gifted UnderachieversCreatives Serve the World
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Gifted Underachievers5 Golden Tips for Getting Grants
As part of the grant experiment, we here in the Gifted Achievers clubhouse have recently been asking guests about their experience with grants. In this short…
Gifted UnderachieversWhat's Your Local Ecosystem?
When Pat was doing her MFA in Writing, there was almost no business training (OK, none) and no mention of how to get published except writing exceptionally…
Gifted UnderachieversIs the Simplest Pitch the Best Pitch?
This segment began as an open discussion involving a lot of silliness. However, from that silly wrapper emerged an exploration of whether we should keep…
Gifted UnderachieversInterview with Gifted Achiever Nadja Lubiw-Hazard
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Gifted UnderachieversIntroducing the C-Squared Fallacy©
If you’re a creative looking for services (say, a voice or acting coach) to help you advance your career, how do you find the right person to hire? And if…
Gifted UnderachieversWhat's Your Creative Persona?
In this segment, Pat and James discuss the concept of persona—how to dress like a creative. We examine five possibilities, discuss the irony of expensive…
Gifted UnderachieversHow to Write a Novel in 3 Days!
Here's a little-known fact about Gifted Underachiever Pat—she's a two-time winner of the International 3-Day Novel Contest, held every Labour Day weekend since…
Gifted UnderachieversBuilding Economic Capacity & Dealing with the Beauty Contest
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Gifted UnderachieversCapacity Building for Creatives #2
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Gifted UnderachieversOverwhelmed and Dissatisfied?
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Gifted UnderachieversHow Not to Screw Up an Artist Statement or Bio
While looking for our next stenchers (concept defined here), James and Pat hit upon the notion that creatives often make a hash of artist statements and writer…
Gifted UnderachieversDopamine Hits & How to Not Get Killed
We all can appreciate the stress that comes with creative work. The uncertainty and sheer busy-ness of it can be overwhelming. In the midst of a stress-filled…
Gifted UnderachieversThe Captive Downstairs: John Irving Silliness
Proving it’s hard to have too much of a good thing, James and Pat fall in for some John Irving silliness (e.g., the captive downstairs). Question for Listeners…
Gifted UnderachieversGifted Achiever Richard Kelly Kemick
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Gifted UnderachieversThe Yaddo Gutshot
Well, we all knew something bad could happen. After all, we’re dependent on the kindness of strangers for just about everything we do, especially when applying…
Gifted UnderachieversHow to Celebrate Good News
James got some great news. Pat thinks a meaningful celebration is in order, and has a few ideas. Things go downhill quickly as the GU imagination factory takes…
Gifted UnderachieversIs This the Death of Blurbing?
More than one writer has found themselves too busy blurbing other people’s books to write their own...but things might be shifting. The New York Times said…
Gifted UnderachieversGifted Achiever Julianna Brazill
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Gifted UnderachieversDoorbell Silliness
If the GU Clubhouse had a doorbell, it would sound like a court musician trumpeting in the king, or a superhero landing on a roof, or … well, we don’t really…
Gifted UnderachieversA Discussion of Time & Capacity
Pat is a bear. James is a porpoise. What the heck does that mean? Pat and James are talking about our respective chronotypes, how you can find yours, and what…
Gifted UnderachieversSpecial Guest: Gifted Achiever Miriam Ruff
Here at Gifted Underachievers we were delighted to have special guest Miriam Ruff on the show. Miriam walked us through (and demonstrated) how to brew the…
Gifted UnderachieversDon’t Beat Yourself Up for Not Winning the Lottery
Many of us begin our creative careers as young adults. We might have received praise for our work and (more rarely) been encouraged to make a career out of it…
Gifted UnderachieversGrant Update: From Despair to Enlightenment
In this thrilling update, Pat is stripped of pretensions that she can write a viable grant application on her own, and James gets an email from Yaddo. More…
Gifted UnderachieversGas Masks in the Basement with John Irving
Without our delusional imaginations, we here at Gifted Underachievers would be bereft of John Irving’s pretend company. We wouldn’t need gas masks or hazmat…
Gifted UnderachieversThe Search for Cheap Equanimity
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Gifted UnderachieversMeaningful Conversations: What are they & how do you have more of them?
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Gifted UnderachieversPat & James Dilute the MAGA Brand (Silly)
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Gifted UnderachieversFitness & The Sedentary Creative
We open with Pat apologizing to James for failing to prepare an agenda (it was her turn) for the Gifted Underachievers content meeting and, well, the…
Gifted UnderachieversGrants Experiment Update – Good News!
Good times, bad times, you know we’ve had our share. This week it’s a good time, mostly, because there’s good news in the Gifted Underachiever Clubhouse. Did…
Gifted UnderachieversGifted Achiever Doug Harrison
We talked with Doug Harrison back in September 2024 about his work with Fen, a Canadian prog rock band whose recent album Dear Mouse was zooming up the…
Gifted UnderachieversHow to Create a Life that Fits via “Unfolding”
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Gifted UnderachieversCanada/US tensions, Tariffs, (Effing Trump) & Creatives
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Gifted UnderachieversThe Slacker Stalker
Some creatives, like the phenomenal Ben Shattuck and Jenny Slate, are so talented, cool, and amazing that it’s enough to give your Gifted Underachievers a…
Gifted UnderachieversWho's Got Your Back?
There’s lots of talk about networking and community, and those are great for all kinds of things, like sharing information, creating connections, and finding…