This podcast is a philosophical and practical guide for the Independent Class. We are 21st Century indie artists. We ask big questions like "what is the artist’s role in society?", and we strategize for small ones like "how do I grow an audience when my posts reach about 5 people a day?" We tackle those ideas and everything in between. We make art that builds a new world — one powered by the people.
On a film set, when a director wants to do another take, you often hear them say, let’s go again. It signals a chance to reset and keep trying to get the shot. Each episode is another chance for us to reset and figure out this path together, outside of the system and on our own terms.
deep cut | Creating An Unpredictable Body of Work Using Paradoxical Moves with Michelle Pellizzon Lipsitz
jeudi 1 mai 2025 • Durée 01:02:59
ALERT THE PRESSES.
You can make a body of work that reveals you to be an unpredictable genius pop star at age 42, if you so choose.
Do you so choose?
If this is the year you want to stop grinding against the rickety machine that someone else built and always breaks down right before you’re supposed to get paid…
and instead you want to heroically hurdle yourself into space at rocket-speed toward your biggest goals like Matt Damon launching himself off Mars in nothing but a spacesuit and a tarp…
Then you’ll need to make a paradoxical move.
What’s a Paradoxical Move?
A paradoxical move is, as Michelle Pellizzon Lipsitz explains in this week’s episode, an intentional break in the pattern of your personal thinking. It’s going left when you’d usually go right.
But it’s not a grind. And it’s not random. It’s actually fast and somewhat effortless, super strategic and exceptionally fun.
I wanted to talk with Michelle about this because she introduced me to this concept back in 2021, and there’s literally no one smarter I could ask to explain it to me.
After almost a decade of running a very profitable company, she could sit back and let the hits keep coming. But instead, she’s soon going to UCLA to pursue her PhD.
So truly, there is no one better with whom I could ask about making unknowable, unexpected, and career-intensifying moves than Michelle.
In this episode, we discuss:
* The spectrum of age and how it changes your understanding of the creative process
* The way independent artists can use institutions as a way to make their body of work at a faster rate
⌨️ Tell me in the comments: What would be a paradoxical move for you?
✨ If you like this episode… text it to a friend! ✨
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit queensbirdzine.substack.com
When You Stop Chasing Fake Power, and Start Finding Personalized, Unassailable, Artistic Power
jeudi 3 avril 2025 • Durée 28:20
Hi!
IMPORTANT QUESTION FOR INDIE ARTISTS:
What’s the difference between the independent artist who spends all their brain power on trying to “hack the system” to gain more followers
and an independent artist who says whatever they want, whenever they want, how they want, with no algorithmic rhyme or reason and can still sit back and watch their career and audience grow?
If you think it’s “right place/right time” magical luck, you’d be sadly mistaken.
Or, if you’re certain *some* art is just more popular than others, that’s not it either.
If you’re guessing:
* they’d have to be famous…
* or maybe they’ve been working on it for decades…
* or they have a trust fund, so they can actually put time and effort into their growth strategies?
That’s a no, no, and absolutely not.
While some of these situations could potentially help, they’re not where real power exists. In all of those examples, the artist is still relying on outside forces of time, money, luck, or status.
But real power (life-changing power) isn’t built from time, money, luck, or status.
It’s built from attention. And what drives attention?
Writing that hooks.
If you could grow your career by using writing that hooks instead of chasing constantly-changing algorithms, would you finally take yourself seriously?
In today’s episode, I’m going to convince you of the power of writing that hooks AND I’m going to show you how to do it.
IN TODAY’S EPISODE, we’ll answer these questions:
* Why is writing the most important skill for indie artists?
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit
S1E21 | The Overwhelming Paradox of Choice and How to Make a Career Decision
jeudi 28 mars 2024 • Durée 32:19
The Transition Era. It's a tough one. When you're in between gigs, or looking to change careers, or trying to figure out how to make money as an artist, the career decision making process can easily go from exciting to exhausting within one Google search. There are so many choices. So many options. So many opinions from experts telling us what path we should follow. But for so many of us, it can feel like "I don't know what to do with my life/career" so how could I even make a choice. And around and around we go.
In this week's episode, we're talking about Choice Overload, the two kinds of decision-makers, 4 ways to approach decision making, and 2 big misconceptions about regret.
Plus an exercise at the end for making a decision + our Artist Timeline career quiz down below!
If you’re listening on Spotify — we want to hear from you:
Answer this week’s Q&A and poll
Leave us a voice message and tell us your thoughts about this episode
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit
S1E20 | The Power of Self Talk and How to Play the Long Game with Katie Horwitch
jeudi 21 mars 2024 • Durée 52:22
Artists are storytellers. But perhaps the loudest and most powerful stories we tell are the self-defeating ones inside our own heads. Whether you're talking yourself out of being creative, building up a strong self image, or facing your inner critic, your self talk is running all the time.
Queen of Self Talk, author and speaker, Katie Horwitch, is on the show today sharing what self talk is, how creatives can shift to positive self talk, how self talk impacts our careers, and how self talk connects to our long term vision.
ABOUT KATIE HORWITCH:
Katie Horwitch is a nationally recognized author, speaker, mindset coach, and self-talk activist who has spent over a decade working to shift the cultural self-talk paradigm. She has spoken across the country about self-confidence, living fearlessly, and shifting the stories and habits that help shape our negative self-talk patterns. Katie is the founder of the multimedia platform WANT: Women Against Negative Talk and the host of The WANTcast: The Women Against Negative Talk Podcast, which gives you tips, tools, motivation and inspiration to shift your self-talk patterns. She has been featured by SXSW, NBC, KTLA, The Cut, and more, and was praised by CNN as a “woman empowering others around the world.”
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit
S1E19 | Spiralic, Non-Linear Career Paths & the 5 Levels of the Artist Timeline
jeudi 7 mars 2024 • Durée 26:58
Art jobs aren't like other jobs. There's no clear ladder toward success. You can follow all the career growth advice you want, but careers for creative people are just...different. They're non-linear. They're nebulous. They're cyclical. Sometimes they feel directionless.
And that's because an artist's career path is more like a spiral than a straight line. It can make it hard to plot out how each point leads to the next. So in this episode, we're talking about the 5 Levels of the Artist Timeline to figure out where you are, what your challenges are, and what you should do next.
If you’re listening on Spotify — we want to hear from you:
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit
S1E18 | Artists & Money [Part 3]: How to Make Money As an Artist
jeudi 29 février 2024 • Durée 29:11
How do artists make money? Ah that old chestnut. We're going to discuss this in depth today. But please be advised: this episode is not a get rich quick scheme. There are no 10 steps to follow. But, what you will find in this episode could change your whole relationship to money, inspire a ton of ways to make money as an artist, and help you figure out the precise income level that would feel like success for you.
The whole episode is like one mini workshop bringing the concepts of art and money closer together through one magical being: you.
If you’re listening on Spotify — we want to hear from you:
Answer this week’s Q&A and poll
Leave us a voice message and tell us your thoughts about this episode
If you liked today’s episode, please consider leaving a rating & review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit
S1E17 | Artists & Money [Part 2]: The Path to Prestige and Paychecks
jeudi 22 février 2024 • Durée 24:09
Art, money, success. All these things seem to have everything and nothing to do with each other. In part 2 of our 3 part series on artists and money, we're discussing how shifting industries are shifting the path for artists' careers. We'll look at the fall of commercial prestige, the rise of artist to audience connection, and we'll try to answer the question "how do artists make money for art?" by looking at the art/money long game.
Don't miss the 3-question exercise at the end of the episode that connects your long term goal to what you could be working on right now to achieve it.
How to make money as an artist is an evergreen topic. There are so many factors that affect our ability to make income through art. Systemic, temporal, personal, global factors. But when the path is cleared, and the ways to make money as an artist are clearly laid out before you, if you believe in money myths, you're still going to feel stuck.
In this episode, I walk you through 4 myths I learned when I raised $70k to produce a web series. What I found was when I reframed these myths for myself, I figured out how to make money as an artist for myself. There's no one way to do anything, but clearing these myths helped me figure out *my* way. And they could help you, too.
This is PART ONE of our 3-part Artists & Money series.
If you’re listening on Spotify — we want to hear from you:
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit
S1E15 | Pocket Theories: Asking for Money, Making ‘Less Nice’ Art, How to Be Your Own Worst Enemy, and One Thing You Have to Stop Doing
vendredi 2 février 2024 • Durée 36:34
If the best teacher is hindsight, the second best teacher is someone else's hindsight. And when that someone else is a dynamic thinker and artist, even better. In today's episode, we're going to take pocket theories (helpful little theories of the creative game) from some of the greats and apply them to our own work.
These creative philosophies will touch on how to ask for money, a handful of writing tips to make more impact and get more attention, the slickness of comparison, keeping the faith, and one thing you absolutely must stop doing with your creative work, right now this very instant.
If you’re listening on Spotify — we want to hear from you:
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit
S1E14 | How to Think About Talent
jeudi 18 janvier 2024 • Durée 28:20
Talent is elusive. It's alluring. To some degree, we're all desperate to be talented. Being called 'talented' feels like winning. It feels like that secret voice inside our heads saying, "You're special! You're special!" might just be right. But the nature of talent isn't quite what we assume it is.
In this week's episode, I'll talk about the three rules of talent, Leslie Jones's wonderful advice on how to act from talent, and how to become more talented with one simple exercise.
If you’re listening on Spotify — we want to hear from you:
Answer this week’s Q&A and poll
Leave us a voice message and tell us your thoughts about this episode
If you liked today’s episode, please consider leaving a rating & review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
Let’s Go Again is hosted by Courtney Romano.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit
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If you liked today’s episode, please consider leaving a rating & review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
Let’s Go Again is hosted by Courtney Romano.
This is a project from Queens Bird Films.
ABOUT QUEENS BIRD FILMS:
Queens Bird Films is a production company telling stories to make life fun. With irreverence, depth, and a bit of whimsy, we make things for people who want to fall back in love with life.
If you’re listening on Spotify — we want to hear from you:
Answer this week’s Q&A and poll
Leave us a voice message and tell us your thoughts about this episode
If you liked today’s episode, please consider leaving a rating & review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
Let’s Go Again is hosted by Courtney Romano.
This is a project from Queens Bird Films.
ABOUT QUEENS BIRD FILMS:
Queens Bird Films is a production company telling stories to make life fun. With irreverence, depth, and a bit of whimsy, we make things for people who want to fall back in love with life.
Leave us a voice message and tell us your thoughts about this episode
If you liked today’s episode, please consider leaving a rating & review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
Let’s Go Again is hosted by Courtney Romano.
This is a project from Queens Bird Films.
ABOUT QUEENS BIRD FILMS:
Queens Bird Films is a production company telling stories to make life fun. With irreverence, depth, and a bit of whimsy, we make things for people who want to fall back in love with life.
Queens Bird Films is a production company telling stories to make life fun. With irreverence, depth, and a bit of whimsy, we make things for people who want to fall back in love with life.
Leave us a voice message and tell us your thoughts about this episode
If you liked today’s episode, please consider leaving a rating & review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
Let’s Go Again is hosted by Courtney Romano.
This is a project from Queens Bird Films.
ABOUT QUEENS BIRD FILMS:
Queens Bird Films is a production company telling stories to make life fun. With irreverence, depth, and a bit of whimsy, we make things for people who want to fall back in love with life.
Leave us a voice message and tell us your thoughts about this episode
If you liked today’s episode, please consider leaving a rating & review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
Let’s Go Again is hosted by Courtney Romano.
This is a project from Queens Bird Films.
ABOUT QUEENS BIRD FILMS:
Queens Bird Films is a production company telling stories to make life fun. With irreverence, depth, and a bit of whimsy, we make things for people who want to fall back in love with life.
Leave us a voice message and tell us your thoughts about this episode
If you liked today’s episode, please consider leaving a rating & review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
Let’s Go Again is hosted by Courtney Romano.
This is a project from Queens Bird Films.
ABOUT QUEENS BIRD FILMS:
Queens Bird Films is a production company telling stories to make life fun. With irreverence, depth, and a bit of whimsy, we make things for people who want to fall back in love with life.
Queens Bird Films is a production company telling stories to make life fun. With irreverence, depth, and a bit of whimsy, we make things for people who want to fall back in love with life.
