We had so much fun recording a very fancy in person episode with THE Martha Beck and Rowan Mangan!

How 'bout those production values?

Don't forget Amie's new book, We Need Your Art is out now in Hardcover, Audio, and E-book

In today's episode we discuss:

The amazing power of creativity to banish anxiety

How art and community building creates ripples that extend far beyond our personal practice and help the whole world

Why society is so afraid of art and artists

And so much more!

If you want more chats from Rowan and Martha, you can listen to them on the hilarious and wise Bewildered podcast. You can also follow Bewildered on Instagram.

We will be dropping by Bewildered soon so make sure you're following them to get the Amie and James episode!

Martha is on Instagram @themarthabeck

And Rowan at @rowanmangan

If you want to dive deeper into all things Martha Beck, you can check out her linktree, but you should really read her new book, Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose! We absolutely loved it.

Join us as we remind you how important it is to celebrate your own art (coz no one's gonna do it for you!).

Fully raw ep today. No music (sorry to our composer/intro creator Matilda Eyre) I ran out of time.

The Collective is open for 5 days only!

WNYA is our now everywhere

00:00 Introduction and First Impressions of New York City01:20 The Inspired Collective Membership03:57 Challenges with Book Launch Planning05:32 Grassroots Book Events and Community Support06:17 Reflections on the Publishing Industry (oh-oh!)13:23 Celebrating the Book's Success19:30 We love our agents!20:51 Iconic New York Moments24:19 The Importance of Celebration29:36 (More) Publishing Industry Frustrations36:51 Gratitude and Farewell

Join us as we predict creative trends for 2025! It's all speculation and probably going to be wrong... but we had fun.

Unfortunately, the video didn't work, but we will try again next week.

00:00 Welcome to the Unpublished Podcast 01:46 Why You Should Be Hopeful for 2025 01:57 The Importance of Hope in Creativity 02:41 Challenges and Pessimism in the Creative Community 06:30 Predictions and Hopes for Creatives in 2025 07:46 Building Personal Connections with Your Audience 08:05 The Rise of Micro Communities 15:48 Curating Media Consumption 20:01 The Value of Free Content 25:12 Podcast Production Costs and Realities 27:27 Competing with Industry Giants 28:53 Artists and Business 31:14 Class Consciousness Among Artists 34:00 The AI Dilemma for Artists 41:38 The Future of Human Art 52:09 The Importance of Art for Wellbeing 56:02 Final Thoughts and Housekeeping

Pre-order We Need Your Art Today and we will love you forever!

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?

Are you waiting around for you big break? Do you find it hard to celebrate the little steps on the path to your success? So do we! Let's chat about how we can reframe this conversation and celebrate the journey. 

Don't forget Amie has a new paid podcast out, you can check it out here.

Let's go!!! Lachlan and Lachlina here getting ready to Lock In for 2025. Or are we? Come with us!

James did the mix/audio for the first time in two years. Let us know if you have any notes!

00:00 Welcome to the 2025 Intentions Podcast 00:45 Introducing the Captaincy System 01:59 Goals vs. Intentions 02:46 Balancing Freedom and Structure 03:28 The Unique Approach of Artists 04:43 Setting Realistic Goals 06:58 Navigating Uncertainty 09:55 The Importance of Consistency 15:44 Taking the Podcast Seriously 22:55 Setting Kind Goals 32:02 Reflecting on Past Goals 33:26 Reflecting on Past Goals 33:45 Achievements and Challenges in 2017 35:03 Goals for 2022 and Beyond 39:13 Setting Intentions for the Year 39:47 James' Fitness and Writing Goals 40:56 Discussing Control and Goals 48:24 Amie’s Intentions and Goals 49:46 Building Community and Creative Goals 57:41 Fostering Patience and Trust 59:27 Wrapping Up and Looking Forward

Pre-order We Need Your Art now and we will be your best friend!

In this episode, we talk about Amie's new paid podcast, It's Time To Write and then play you three sample episodes from it!

It's Time To Write is available through Amie's Website.

We discuss the importance of art. Far from being frivolous, art forms our public conversations—our culture! Art is a sandbox for exploring ideas, big and small, intimate and worlds spanning. It can do things that an academic paper, an essay, an article, a documentary, or a non-fiction book can't. This is some of the most fun we've had on the podcast! Join us!

Ever wanted to know how we met? What muggle jobs we've had? What are our fave video games are? This is the episode!

Amie's new paid podcast "It's time to write" will launch on the 29th of October! Keep your eyes peeled!

In this ep we talk about the need many of us feel to defend our desire to create. "It's just a hobby", "I'm not very good anyway", "It's just an outlet". You don't need to make excuses. Creativity is an essential human desire. 

At the same time, you don't need to expend energy convincing people who are committed to misunderstanding you. We talk about this delicate balance.

Amie's website: https://www.amiemcnee.com/

This is perhaps my favourite episode of the podcast ever! We had the privilege of interviewing social psychologist, writer, activist and professor, Dr Devon Price. They are the inspiration behind so many of Amie and my ideas around rest, laziness, and hustle culture. We talk about: the ways the "laziness lie" uniquely impacts creatives, balancing ambition and burnout, abolishing time, finding your own definition of success, the importance of meaningful engagement versus high but shallow follower counts, their new book, Unmasking Autism, and much more!

You'll also get to hear me in full "I've see a celebrity" mode for at least the first fifteen minutes. Not at all embarrassing... So enjoy that!

You can find Devon on instagram @drdevonprice

On medium at: devonprice.medium.com/

Their book, Laziness Does Not Exist is available to purchase at your preferred retailer (the audiobook is also great) and their upcoming book Unmasking Autism is available for pre-order.

Enjoy the ep!

Also, Amie's courses are all on sale until the 8th of October!

Today we talk about minimum viable audiences. We discuss why follower counts don't mean much, why having a few devoted people in your corner is way better than having millions of fly-through followers, pricing your art, and much more. We also have a real chat about how difficult it can be when we finish a project and actually have to try to share it.

Come follow us on the unpublished instagram account.

We talk to our friend Henry—a lawyer and expert in transformative technologies—about the weird and wonderful phenomenon of NFTs and digital art. If you've ever wanted to impress your friends with your incredible knowledge of words like "blockchain", "minting", "Proof of Stake", "fungible", this is the podcast for you! We talk about: what NFTs are, how to make them, whether they're a fad or here to stay, the environmental impact, criminal uses, valuing digital art.

Amie is there the whole way to ask the "silly questions" and keep the conversation grounded. 

We try to get to grips with this new technology and have an honest conversation about what it means for artists. Our hope is that, by the end of the conversation, NFTs will lose their intimidation factor.

A bit more about Henry:

He Worked as a lawyer at King & Wood Mallesons, focusing predominantly in the areas of FinTech, blockchain, and big data. Recently finished his Masters in Political Philosophy at LSE where he focused on the political and ethical challenges of transformative technologies. Is soon to start a job with the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance working on a regulatory innovation project.

And, perhaps best of all, he runs his own legal shop called 'Nomadiq Legal' helping Australian creatives and entrepreneurs launch startups and side hustles.

You can look into his services here.

There's no need to rush your creative journey. There's no place you need be RIGHT NOW. You are on the path. What are we talking about? Come see.

Come find us on insta: @unpublished.podcast

We finish answering questions about success. Included: making our definition of success, how to protect ourselves from the physical stressors of success, making sure we are already planning how we will be good people when we become successful, the desire to stay safe in our stagnancy, and how addicted we can get to suffering.

Amie reads you the first chapter of her new book, The Rules Upheld By No One. Enjoy!

If you like what you hear, the book is currently available on Amazon in all major regions.

Click here for US.

Click here for Australia.

Otherwise, simply google the book's title and it should point you to the correct store for you.

Also available through Barnes and Noble and soon to be available through Book Depository.

We're back from 3 months of family and work travel and ready to pod... just in time for the holidays...

Join us for a 15 minute cozy catchup and a little 15 minute rant about why perfect people are boring.

Preorder Amie's guide to creative living

Sign up to Amie's substack

And James'

James "interviews" Amie about her book The Rules Upheld By No One which is now available fro pre-order! 

They talk: writing process, Amie's writing style, the difficulty of fitting our books into narrow genres, gatekeepers, and how much love all of our listeners. Amie also reads out the first page of her book! Stay tuned, we'll be releasing the whole first chapter as a podcast sometime soon.

You can buy Amie's book on amazon (soon to be on multiple other platforms).

Click here for the US 

Cilck here for Australia

UK

Canada

You should be able to search your own country's amazon store for the book if you aren't in any of those places!

Why do so many of us fear success? Amie and James expand on the conversation Amie had on her instagram stories about success. We respond to the polls and comments from those stories and dive into why success can seem scary and what we can do to help ourselves push through our fear.

We talk to debut author Rebekah Campbell about her recently released novel: 138 Dates. Amie and I are both massive fans of the book—an incredibly vulnerable, funny, moving, true account of Rebekah’s quest to find love by battling her way through dates with 138 different men. I (James who writes the descriptions) read this book in two days. Could not put it down! James met Rebekah in a writing course they did together, and in this podcast we explore her whole journey from first time author to publication with a major publishing house.

We talk: writing process, the challenge of sharing personal stories through out art, the pain of rejection (both in life and in creative industries), being kind to ourselves as creatives, and much more.

if you live in Australia, you can buy Rebekah’s book here.

If you live outside Australia, you can buy it (with free worldwide shipping) here.

Follow her on insta at: @rebekahcampbellwriter

A bit more about Rebekah:

Rebekah Campbell is the co-founder of Hey You, a mobile app used by more than one million Australians to order and pay at cafes. She has kept a blog about her experiences as an entrepreneur which was named ‘Best Business Blog’; by Smart Company and became a New York Times column in 2012. Rebekah writes a monthly opinion piece for AFR BOSS Magazine and has contributed to Mamamia, Women’s Agenda and Stuff. She is a high-profile public speaker who spoke at TEDx Sydney (2012) and numerous events for Business Chicks. Rebekah was named a Woman of Influence in 2015 and APEC Young Woman Innovator. She is currently the host and curator of the City of Sydney’s virtual event series ‘Reboot’ supporting 18,000 Sydney business owners to recover from the impact of COVID 19. Rebekah’s personal passion is her everything which she found at the end of this book.

New mic week!

We answer listener questions! Our numbers are usually lower on these episodes but I really recommend you listen. The questions we get are usually relevant to far more people than just the questioners. Think of it as a SUPER EPISODE.

This week we cover:

Is it ever too late to start creating?

When to know we’re done with projects.

How long we should spend planning projects.

Are we a real creative if we don’t want to quite our day job?

Creativity becoming fast fashion.

Crowdfunding.

What we like about the Enneagram system.

If you haven’t already, come and join us on our new instagram @unpublished.podcast

How are we supposed to be happy with what we have RIGHT NOW and still strive to be better/more succesful? Amie and James talk about why Ambition and contentment aren’t necessarily opposed to each other.

Amie’s Website: www.amiemcnee.com

James’ Website: www.jameswinestock.com

So many people in this community don’t just do ONE thing. Does that go against the party line to “niche down”? Amie and James talk about why it doesn’t, how it can be a huge advantage for creatives to branch out, and some tips for making sure you still finish projects when you have several going at the same time.

If you want to support us, check out Amie’s website: www.amiemcnee.com

Amie shares the journey she’s been on with her mental health. She talks about her positive experience with medication, how journaling has helped, and how anxiety affected her creativity and ability to do business. James shares his perspective as a partner supporting her through it.

Amie’s journaling course: https://www.amiemcnee.com/journaling-course

We have an amazing guest for you today. Someone who has built a life as a full time creative outside the grasp of the gatekeepers as a podcaster and whose work we are massive fans of, Sarah Werner. We talk about how she got started with her podcasts, building multiple income streams as a creative, the day to day life of a full time creative, transitioning from muggle work to being a full time creative and so much more. Trust me, you want to listen to this one!

A bit more about Sarah: Sarah Rhea Werner is a professional writer and podcaster who loves to help creators find confidence and success. She is a contributor to Forbes and the creator of the Write Now podcast, which helps writers to find work/life balance while pursuing their creative passion. She is also the writer, creator, and executive producer of the hit audio drama Girl In Space. Sarah currently lives in the midwestern US with her partner Tim and two rescue cats.

And people can find her online at: https://www.sarahwerner.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SarahRheaWerner

Instagram: https://www.sarahwerner.com/

We can’t build a sustainable creative practice without trusting ourselves a artists. Amie and James talk about how to build trust in ourselves as creatives so that we can show up regularly to our creative calling.

Do you treat your art as if it were a business? You need to start treating this as an investment, just as someone starting a more traditional business would. Amie and James talk about the why and the how of doing it.

Insta accounts mentioned

Viv — @rust_creative

MJ — @mjunleashed_

Nanna — @_justnanna

Kay — @startupcreative

We have an EOFY sale on! 20% off store wide until midnight 30th June AEST!

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!

Amie and James clear up some of the confusion around the concept of “shitty art”. Does it mean we are meant to be bad creatives? Does it mean we can’t ever make good art? Well, no… in fact, it’s the key to making great art! This episode involves live listener questions.

You can support our podcast by purchasing something from Amie’s store: www.amiemcnee.com/shop

Amie and James talk about their new daily routine, why they decided more structure would help their creativity, and how people with a 9-5 can build a creative routine.

This week, Amie and James talk about the importance of taking time to slow down and think; the balance between thinking and acting; and what sort of activities we use to help our brains tick over.

Amie’s new course—her most comprehensive offering yet with guest appearances from James—is out now: https://www.amiemcnee.com/we-need-your-art-course

We’ve so many great questions in the last few weeks that we thought it was time for another Q and A! Topics covered include: boundaries, imperfect workspaces, whether creativity is selfish in a world with so many problems, and more!

Are you launching a product soon? Or did you launch recently and felt like your product flopped? Amie and James discuss what they’ve learned from eight product launches (including a massive flop) and talk about how to give your art the best chance of success.

Amie’s website: www.amiemcnee.com

We’re re-releasing this magical podcast after it fell off the catalogue in the website re-build. Brooke has taught us so much about rest and creative abundance. Listen to the magic!

You can find Brooke on insta @thebrookesolis

Amie and James talk about how to rest effectively; how to find what sort of rest works for you; and what good rest feels like.

Amie’s book on burnout is available on her website: amiemcnee.com

This episode is for you the quiet artist, the slow artist, the artist who thrives on peace, the artist who does so much good work but unseen amongst all the BIG personalities. It’s a hug from us to you.

We forgot to mention it in the pod, but, Quiet by Susan Cain is a great follow up read!

Amie and James answer listener questions including: how do you deal with lulls in business; how to pick and focus on one project; and when to quit your job and create full time PLUS several more.

Let’s face it, the pace the world wants us to go at is fucked. Amie and James talk about how we can find our own rhythm; why your boss is an idiot; how the best way to be productive is often to do less; and the importance of recognising how different our energy levels are.

Amie’s website: www.amiemcnee.com

James’ website: www.jameswinestock.com

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 and James join Viv Kruckow of Rust Creative live on clubhouse to talk about the positive side of comparing ourselves to other artists.

If you want to be a part of the podcast, look out for links to our clubhouse chats on Amie’s instagram and find Amie on clubhouse, username: Amie Mcnee. We’ll hopefully do another one next week.

Amie and James talk a lot about small goals. Here, they talk about a key metric you can use when setting those goals: the bare minimum. It’s a lifesaver that will help you create with energy and can actually help you create more in the long run.

Amie’s Website: amiemcnee.com

Amie and James are back for Season 4 to talk about times their egos have gotten in the way of their creativity. They discuss the good and bad of ego, and how to cope with the times where it needs to be soothed or curtailed.