Gifted Underachievers

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 Q...

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...

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...

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...

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...

In her creative-adjacent work as a developmental book editor and consultant, it is common for Pat to offer prospective clients a sample edit. In fact, it is her policy. In James’s work as a ghostwriter, it is common for prospective clients to ask him to produce a bit of sample writing. The gifted underachievers agree that it’s important to help prospective clients perform their due diligence so th...

Pat is on the verge of leaving for [undisclosed location] for a month-long writing vacation. Think of it as a self-sponsored writer’s residency without other people except for the very lovely locals. However, with a busy and time-consuming creative adjacent business composed of numerous clients, incoming work proposals, and multiple deadlines, how is Pat creating the space to ensure this trip goes...

The grant experiment has been a mixed success. Let’s just call it a near-failure. Let’s just call it a nightmare. James has applied with equanimity, while Dobes (Pat) has let the sheer amount of fruitless work involved get her down. In this short segment, we talk about her resulting self-sabotage and learned helplessness, and what happened with a recent grant application she assumed would be an ea...

Something has gotten into Pat. A love of [undisclosed location] meats? The desire for warmth? The stench of privilege? Nope (well maybe the latter one). Pat is leaving her home digs for a place on the Mediterranean cost of Spain to focus on her own writing project leaving behind an obviously jealous cohost and gifted underachiever. Congrats to Pat! Questions for Listeners: * If you could escape ev...

A critical aspect of being a midlevel gifted underachiever with delusional ambitions is massively overestimating your abilities and capacity to learn. In this segment, Pat and James prove this by declaring that they know podcasting. Nevertheless, the gifted underachievers provide a glimpse into how things started, early processes that worked, those that did not, and how they manage to produce thre...

Spring has not quite sprung, which means it’s the perfect time to ponder your priorities for the season. For the Gifted Underachievers, spring means changing things—Pat’s gonna paint her office, James is gonna move to his preferred office, and they’re both looking to gain energy from the longer days, shorter nights, and better weather. Questions for Listeners: * What’s YOUR favorite season? * Any...

The highly organized and business-oriented Pat offers great insights for how to prepare, be prepared, and remain prepared for tax time this year and every year. James offers his more casual and anxiety inducing methods for making sure he is not only paying his fair share but reporting it accurately. WE ARE NOT ACCOUNTANTS OR TAX EXPERTS!!!!! But we have been dealing with taxes in Canada and the US...

Hey guess what? As writers and dedicated keyboard jockeys, your Gifted Underachievers have developed musculoskeletal issues and repetitive strain injuries. Down the road, their sedentary work lives make them prime candidates for heart disease and stroke. And writers are not the only creatives subject to a surprising range of job-related health risks, both mental and physical. What can we do? Well,...

Like Sisyphus forever pushing his boulder uphill, James and Pat have been circling around the topic of creative grants and residencies for many months. In this segment, we discuss an insight shared by writer Joe Ponepinto —the creative force behind the Beyond Craft Substack—who suggested that grant committees should judge the work, not the network . This pithy, six-word mantra set the fevered mind...

James writes books. Lots of books. Pat wants to know how he does this—what is his process for organizing, managing, and executing a big creative project like a book? She puts on her listening ears as James walks listeners through the crucial decisions and principles required for organizing a big creative project, such as: * knowing your goals * for the audience who will experience your art * and f...

Money, clients, our personal goals can add up to constantly feeling the need to rush in a very anxious way. And yet, we know that high-quality, thoughtful creative work simply cannot be rushed. Yes, there are exceptions and rushing is not the same thing as efficiency. In fact, they are opposites. So, how do we push back on that anxious sensation that creates an imperative to rush? Pat and James ha...

Branding and marketing are in the same room, but they’re not the same thing. Branding involves capturing the essence of who you are in a few pithy words—the right words in the right order. Or maybe it involves how the people who work with you feel about the way you work, the things you create, or the services you provide. We feel pretty secure about the Gifted Underachiever brand, but if you weren...

The MacDowell Colony is perhaps one of the most revered and elite artist residency programs in North America, and it also ranks highly around the world. In an attempt to democratize their admissions application process, they have temporarily suspended the formerly required references. Good start. Ack! But then they require applicants list seven professional achievements. The last two require listi...

During a meaningful discussion on guilt and creativity that rose to a high moral and intellectual plain, things fell apart rather quickly and devolved into some fun silliness. Questions for Listeners: * Do you ever just find yourself needing to get silly with a friend? * Give that person a call or send a text to let them know. Treat your Gifted Underachievers to a Coffee and Win a Book! Here in th...

If an aspect of your creative work isn’t going well, it can be tempting to think it’s solvable. We might see our work as a system, with a set of tools and a process for fixing issues. Or we can even see it as a machine and the same thing applies—there are schematics, processes, and visible steps toward fixing whatever’s not working. But here in the Gifted Underachievers clubhouse, it’s becoming ap...

Have you ever been to a party where another guest asks you what you do for a living? What do you say? Do you confess to being an artist, writer, performer or musician, then wait for them to ask why they don’t recognize your name? Or do you lie low and make stuff up? What about when you’re pitching your own work. Do you have a strategy for explaining it in a way that makes the pitchee want to buy i...

Life gives everybody more than enough to feel guilty about. It’s endless. Creatives, by contrast, are given a double helping of guilt. In this segment, Pat and James explore what we should and should not feel guilty about and how to manage guilt when it crops up unbidden by actually doing something to earn it. Hint: Getting our work done does not make the feel guilty list. Bad parenting? Absolutel...

Gather around, creative friends, and listen closely. It’s clear that here in the Gifted Underachievers clubhouse, we are underachieving all over the place. It’s not only our “brand,” it’s our way of life. How do we do it? We set the bar very, very low. Questions for Listeners: * What’s the last thing you underachieved at? * Or is it a way of life? * How does underachieving make you feel? Buy us a...

When the Gifted Underachievers meet for their Friday meetings they usually spend about an hour laughing and telling stories. During one such period of buffoonery, James noted his copious cowlicks. Pat took it from there… Questions for Listeners: * How do you get rid of a cowlick? * Ever have a perm? * Ever have a moustache hair grow up your nose? Buy the Underachievers a Coffee and Win a Book Here...

The dumpster fire known as 2025 is in the rearview mirror and your Gifted Underachievers are taking stock. Pat’s welcoming the new year, while James suspects it’s still a dumpster fire but now with potential to expand to something bigger. Both are battling burnout, and both have plans to make the most of their projects in 2026. How are they doing it? By rearranging TIME. Questions for Listeners: *...