Gifted Underachievers

The median income for all employed artists in all domains according to the NEA in 2023 was $70,170. Meanwhile, the value that all of that creativity delivers to the economy in the US (sorry Canada and Europe…more data to come) is $1.2 trillion. Does that feel like a disparity? It does to the Gifted Underachievers. Is it going to get worse now that Trump cut nearly all arts funding? You betcha. Wha...

After 100 episodes the gifted underachievers have decided it is time to release John Irving from controlled captivity in the Gifted Underachievers’ clubhouse.* This is it. As of June 18, 2006, John Irving will be free. Shockingly, Irving has still managed to be unbelievably productive. Questions for Listeners: * We’ve enjoyed ‘hosting’ the big man…have you had some fun, too? For Further Exploratio...

James and Pat ask questions, discuss options, and debate financial and productivity growth plans for creatives. The debate: Pat must convince James that it’s possible to have a growth plan for purely creative work. The plans: Pat and James run through their respective growth plans for BOTH their creative-adjacent and purely creative work. For both: How to find more capacity to do more and better w...

The gifted underachievers have lots of ideas. We’re not saying they’re good ideas, but sometimes you don’t know how a creative project’s going to work out until you do it. If you get partway into the project and discover you no longer care, is it time to ditch it? Or are there other things you can do? How about when you have two equally interesting ideas at the same time—which one do you work on f...

The Gifted Underachievers’ corporate HR Rep has installed a livestream device in the content creation clubhouse, pissing off the two biggest GUs in the whole org chart. Listen to Pat and James discuss their options in this battle royale with HR. Questions for Listeners: Do you think podcasters should have complete creative control of their content? YES or NO. Why? Buy HR a Coffee and Win a Book HR...

After a very busy and at times emotionally challenging past year, the Gifted Underachievers discuss what it felt like to be a kid looking forward to summer vacation and how even during the busy end of school, that thought provided a mental break. But at this time of life—adulthood generally—there isn’t a summer long vacation spanning out ahead of us. Instead, we are busy with work and all of our r...

Two experiments are running in the GU Clubhouse, each with the goal of developing an extra income stream and getting some new lines on our creative CVs. Our grant experiment started in September 2024 and we began entering writing contests in October 2025. Both are ongoing. Both have had “mixed” results (aka no money earned, but many lessons learned). In this segment, we discuss the key takeaways i...

Pat is lecturing James on the difference between a sweater, a Jumper, and Kurdistan when her throat seizes sending the Gifted Underachievers down yet another rabbit hole. Questions for Listeners: * What’s your favorite throat clearing technique? * Tea? * Warm lemon water with honey? Buy us a Coffee and Win a Book Here in the GU Clubhouse, we’ve gleaned and gathered incredible wisdom from our creat...

A brief conversation with an avid reader leads Dobes to a valuable insight about pitching ideas to your audience: sometimes it takes an ‘outsider’ to the field to see problems with your approach. This leads your Gifted Underachievers to question the habit of pitching our story ideas to industry insiders—in the case of writers, we might describe our project to other writers, publishers, or agents,...

Gifted Underachiever Dobes returns from a month-long creative retreat (with some remote work sprinkled in) bearing pure gold—golden advice, that is! She got a fair amount of work done on her novel, though not as much as she’d hoped to get done. In this segment, we discuss the situation and “unpack” the lessons learned. Questions for Listeners: * Have you ever taken a creative retreat? * If yes, di...

You might not believe this, but it’s true: We Gifted Underachievers sometimes make mistakes. In this segment, we discuss why mistakes happen, what to do when you realize you’ve made one, and how to not just survive the experience, but learn from it. Questions for Listeners: * What’s the worst mistake you’ve made at your creative or creative-adjacent work? * Were there extenuating circumstances? *...

After a hectic few weeks (lifetime, really) the Gifted Underachievers gave in to their underachieverness and are taking a week off for calm reflection. But with soooooo much wonderful content over our TWO YEARS!!!!!! we couldn’t leave a total void. Our interview with wildly achieving Burlington, Vermont, artist Kath Montstream (first aired on October 7, 2024) was a ton of fun and filled with lots...

James comes out of the marketing wing of the Gifted Underachiever clubhouse feeling disillusioned. The marketers are coming up with catchphrases, but they’re not producing anything. He wants to know, “What makes my creative work matter?” Pat can sympathize, but she’s got no real answers except that while you’re creating something, it has to matter to you. We do many projects that never achieve mon...

Yes, even bright, well-intentioned people can display an uncharacteristic ability to ask dumb questions. We do it at work and at home. (And if you do that of your teenaged children, you know what the punishment is for a dumb question.) In fact, at one of James’s first ghostwriting gigs, the editor’s biggest question was “would you be afraid to ask dumb questions?” James said, NO! And he was hired....

Well, we’re not proud of this, but here in the Gifted Underachiever Clubhouse we’re starting to believe we might never blossom into our full creative potential. James has delusions about being a giant bead head (an artificial nymph fly-fishers use). After all, if you’re going to be a nymph, you might as well be a giant fake one. In this short segment, we ask ourselves, do we have what it takes to...

Trump and Republicans decimated funding for the arts in the US with immediate impacts to creatives. This is a loss not just to artists and other creatives but society as a whole. We are a not a better country for this. And yet, creatives are doing what we do best: Adapt. There are signs that a range of creative businesses are adapting their business strategies and planning to adjust to this loss o...

Pat is excellent at thinking ahead and taking action to help herself down the road. Her month-long writing trip to [undisclosed location on the Spanish coast] is a shiny example. She set up a set of projects to help her pay and organize for her trip many months ago and the payoff has been a big boon. In this segment, Pat describes how she approaches saving for large purchases and retirement with w...

Both Gifted Underachievers have been through chronic stress for extended periods, and yes, it’s made us even less achieving than we normally are. We discuss this, hope for the best, and, in an unprecedented move for GU, Pat parachutes in with an audio clip toward the end of the segment with some solid tips for combating chronic stress! Questions for Listeners: * What’s your best strategy for comba...

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...