Unpublished
169 episodes - English - Latest episode: 15 days ago - ★★★★★ - 103 ratingsJoin Amie McNee from @inspiredtowrite and her writer husband James Winestock for a podcast about building a sustainable creative life. A place to take your art seriously where you can go to reflect on your journey and build a thriving creative practice.
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Episodes
Tending To Your Nervous System and Avoiding Burnout with Gauri Yardi
November 27, 2022 20:00 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MBToday we have writer, naturopath, and creative burnout coach, Gauri Yardi, on the podcast. As people prone to exhaustion and burnout, we found this chat invaluable. Where much of the conversation around burnout centres on purely psychological factors, Gauri takes a holistic approach. In our podcast we talk about Gauri's four pillars of nervous system care, how to listen to your body when it's telling you you're doing too much, the importance of bare minimums, proactive approaches to prevent ...
The Person Who Taught Me How to Journal
November 21, 2022 00:00 - 40 minutes - 36.8 MBAmie chats with her mama Kath McNee. They discuss each other’s journaling practice, how to journal with your kids and how to support your parenting journey with journaling. They also discuss what it is was like to be a mama to Amie, and an exciting new book coming out soon. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Ranking Our Products by How Much Money They've Made Us
November 09, 2022 01:00 - 26 minutes - 24.2 MBJames has compiled a list of all the products we offer and ranked them by how much money they've made us. In this ep, he reveals the list to Amie in order and they discuss why they think certain products may have done better than others. This is basically a complete inventory of our entire business and the lessons we've learned from it. Apologies if the audio is shit, we recorded the whole thing in the car with one mic! Thank you to Paul for salvaging what was pretty dodgy at times! Also,...
Action Creates Information
October 31, 2022 04:41 - 25 minutes - 23 MBThis week we're talking about how simply acting on a project is the best way to learn, research, get better. Every time you post something, write something, paint something, record something, you are producing information that you can use to do it better the next time. For us, business and art have always been about learning by acting. Merch is available on wednesday 2nd of November! It will be for sale on Amie's website. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/...
Selling Art Under Capitalism (and Other Random Topics).
October 23, 2022 19:00 - 38 minutes - 35.2 MBWe have the first ever James solo episode today! I talk about whether I mind taking a "back seat" to Amie in the business, what it might mean to run an ethical business under capitalism, what I'm writing at the moment and what my plans are for my novels, how Amie and I give each other space while working in close proximity and much more! I'm a little nervous about this one as I've never done anything like this before. Would love to know what you think? You can always message us @unpublished...
Should We Lie?
October 17, 2022 00:09 - 32 minutes - 30 MBThis is a slightly off topic episode all about LYING. Amie is on a mission not to tell any lies until the end of 2022. Why is she doing this? What does James think about it? What does it have to do with our creative journey? Check it out! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
What Do We Owe Our Audience?
October 09, 2022 19:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBThis episode is all about getting negative feedback online. We talk about some heating discussion (and some trolling) we've had to engage with in the past week. We also discuss the stress of trying to ensure everyone in your audience feels seen, rules for dealing with negative comments, how to disagree with people well, and much more! I guess I should link to something otherwise I'm wasting this space... Ummm... you should still buy our lovely guest Seth's Queer Fantasy Romance novel. Als...
Queer Fiction and Debut Novels with Seth Haddon
October 03, 2022 01:24 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MBJoin us as we chat to Seth Haddon about his debut Queer Fantasy novel, Reforged. We talk about Seth's experience landing his first publishing contract while working full time, letting go of old projects, how Seth successfully built a social media following from scratch to drive interest in his novel and massively exceed his publisher's sales expectations and much more! I might be biased but I LOVED Reforged and highly recommend you pick up a copy yourself if you enjoy either Fantasy or Roma...
Choosing the Easy Path
September 26, 2022 10:41 - 32 minutes - 29.4 MBThis is more of an "insight into our business" episode. We debrief about our coaching tour of Europe. What were our highlights and low lights? How did we handle the logistics? Was it financially viable? Why we chose ease over higher profits. And maybe a larger than usual amount of random chit-chat! And yeah, this is Season 6 now because... I don't know... it is! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Sex and Artistry with MJ Unleashed
August 23, 2022 22:00 - 43 minutes - 40.3 MBJoin us in Denmark in the home of our friend MJ (@mjunleashed_) where we discuss showing up as sexual beings through our art. We talk about: whether putting sex in your art is just a way to "sell". How do show up online as a sexual being. What holds us back from expressing our sexy sides. And, most important, what if our mums see it! MJ has her own podcast, The Journals of MJ Unleashed, where she shares the raw, vulnerable side of her journey as a musician. If you enjoy Unpublished, you'll ...
Creating Outside of Routine/Reflections from Europe
August 21, 2022 09:22 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBWe're coming to you today from Stockholm! We start with a travel update, talk to you about what we've been up to in Europe, how our in-person one-on-one coaching has been. Then, we move onto a discussion of why breaking routines can be great for our creative projects and how we've found creating outside of our normal routine. At least, I think. We recorded a week ago and I have only a hazy memory of any of this... Hope you enjoy! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.co...
Creating Around Your Job
July 18, 2022 11:32 - 27 minutes - 25 MBWe tell stories from when we were writing and trying to be creative around non-creative work. We give some advice and, as one recent reviewer put it, engage in "indulgent chit chat"! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Rate it or Hate it
July 11, 2022 11:44 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBToday we're playing rate it or hate it! Listeners have written in with various topics and Amie are James say whether they rate (like) or hate it as well as why. There can be no middle ground! It's either rate or hate! Topics include: Game of Thrones, capitalism, working on multiple projects, J.K. Rowling, extroverts, and several more! Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
The Apprenticeship Phase
July 03, 2022 20:00 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBDo you need to take a step back and let yourself be a learner again? OR, have you been stuck in the learning phase and aren't letting yourself put your art out into the world. We talk about the advantages of both and how to tell which you need. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Creating Without Gatekeepers
June 26, 2022 20:00 - 43 minutes - 40.1 MBWe're talking about how to build a creative career without gatekeepers (e.g. publishers, galleries, casting agents). This is about turning your creativity into a small business with YOU as the boss. We talk about some of the practicalities of how you might do this and give examples of creatives who're making careers without gatekeepers. There's a 30% off sale on our website until 30th of June, 11:59pm AEST! Check it out here. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/po...
Discovering Your Creative Rhythm
June 19, 2022 20:00 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MBWe talk about why it's so important to understand your own creative rhythm and work to it. This was a classic "ramble" episode. I've made a section on the podcast website where you can formally give us the ramble score for the episode. Submit your score here. While you're on the website, consider signing up for the newsletter! Click here. gd3zN3b2qW78yffpBtDb --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Creatives Will Lead the Work Revolution
June 05, 2022 21:00 - 27 minutes - 25.3 MBWe're talking about how, as creatives, we have the freedom to experiment and innovate not just in our art, but in our schedules, our rhythms, and the way we choose to work. Creatives have always been at the forefront here, the world is simply attempting to catch up with us. We can, if we choose, stand up and show the rest of the world that there are better ways to work. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Our Controversial Opinions
May 29, 2022 20:00 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBThis is mostly a joke episode but we try to bring most of our "controversial" opinions back to something that will be relevant to your creative life... From how clean your house should be, to the riskiness of starting a business, to why being childless is sort of a superpower. We hope you enjoy one of our weirder eps so far! You can watch the recording of our podcast on Spotify or via Youtube. Don't forget Amie's European tour is happening from July 28th to the end of August and there are ...
Extracts From Our Journals
May 23, 2022 01:10 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBJoin us as we read and reflect on several entries from our journals. Some highlights are: entries from the early stages of our business where we're struggling with money, anxiety over our upcoming trip to Europe, cyclical old stories that are hard to shake, moments where we soothe and mother ourselves. Journaling has been transformative for both of us! We wanted to be vulnerable with you about how exactly we use it. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review! ...
How To Make Good Business Decisions
May 15, 2022 20:00 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBSo, first up, trick title! It's almost impossible to follow a formula and simply arrive automatically at a good business decision. It also 100% applies to any of your creative projects. This episode is more about making sure you come up with ideas that are true to you, giving yourself time to rest and ideate, treating the ideation phase with the respect it deserves, and not being afraid of bad ideas. Is that right? We recorded four days ago and I'm sure I'm missing something! If you're enjo...
Learn What You Can Control
May 01, 2022 21:00 - 23 minutes - 21.4 MBWe talk about how much easier your creative journey becomes when you start to get an understanding of what you can and can't control. That means taking a moment to filter as much as you can through the lens of: controllable, not controllable. Just doing that sorting can help relieve stress and alleviate the sense of helplessness we can sometimes get when things don't go our way. This is a tool you can use to stay more process driven, not get rattled as much by setbacks, and generally enjoy y...
A Conversation with Jay Kristoff
April 25, 2022 03:12 - 56 minutes - 51.4 MBThis week, we interviewed the NYT bestselling author of the Nevernight Chronicles and my favourite fantasy novel of last year, Empire of the Vampire, Jay Kristoff. We had so much fun interviewing Jay. It’s great to talk to a fellow Aussie and he was both extremely funny and wise. We discussed: transitioning from muggle job to writing full time (even though Jay's "muggle" job was as a creative in the ad industry, it's still a really interesting story); why writing and doing creative things is...
Lessons for Artists from a Crossfit Games Athlete with Natasha Kaz
April 10, 2022 20:00 - 58 minutes - 53.8 MBToday we have an awesome guest for you: two time Crossfit Games Team Athlete, owner of multiple businesses, actor, and head coach at our gym, Natasha Kaz. We talk with her about the similarities between elite sport, business, and creativity. Going back to being a beginner when you've already been an expert/master in another field. The importance of admitting to yourself that you want to be great at something. Talking to friends and family about your creative dreams when they already have an ...
There's Room For All Of Us — Why Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter Is Good For Artists
April 04, 2022 05:24 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBThis episode is largely a discussion of Fantasy Author Brandon Sanderson's incredibly successful ($40 million) kickstarter that finished recently. We talk about why other artists being mega successful is a good thing for us. Why we should be excited to see big names pursuing avenues usually used by indie artists. How there isn't a finite amount of money to go around each artistic industry and much more! Don't forget you can now watch the video version of the podcast on Spotify and Youtube. ...
Artists Are Playing the Long Game
March 27, 2022 19:00 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBWhy is it so hard for non-artistic types to understand what we do? And why is it so hard to commit to a consistent creative practice? These two questions seem unrelated but they actually stem from the same issue: We are unable to conceptualise of sticking at something that we aren't making money at for 5+ years. Let's grapple with this concept and learn how to use it to make us better artists! Thank you so much for your support and your reviews. A reminder that the Procrastination intens...
Coaching Session: On Feeling Hopeless
March 20, 2022 19:00 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBJames asks Amie to coach him through a rough patch as he starts receiving rejection letters for his second novel. They talk about how much rejection can hurt, why it's so painful trying to get people to notice our art, how hard it is to ask for help, and how to support yourself or loved ones when you're feeling hopeless. Recording this episode helped me (James) so much. Thank you Unpublished community for giving me a place to talk through the struggles of being a creative! If you'd like s...
How Should We Respond to Failure?
March 13, 2022 19:00 - 32 minutes - 45.1 MBLet's talk about failure! We tell the story of a recent "failed" product launch and how they bounced back. We talk about the power of reframing, seeing mistakes as a guiding light, soothing ourselves through failure, treating adversity as a necessary step on the path. This isn't about not feeling pain, or denying our reality, it's about giving you a tool that can help when things aren't going perfectly. Amie is running two intensives in a few weeks' time. One on Social Media and one on Pro...
Making Longterm Goals Feel Urgent
March 07, 2022 00:04 - 29 minutes - 40.5 MBWe're talking about how to trick our brains into taking action on long term goals. Humans aren't great at working on big, abstract things with distant or ill-defined deadlines. So, we need to think of ways to make our brains think we are accomplishing something RIGHT NOW. That way, we can feel good about our work, start early, and generally have an easier time of things. This ep a little rambly as we try to get our head around this concept. Thanks for being with us at our earliest stages of...
Your Business Questions Answered
February 28, 2022 00:34 - 49 minutes - 68.1 MBWe'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! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Running A Creative Business
February 20, 2022 19:00 - 55 minutes - 75.8 MBAmie 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...
What If You Never "Make it"?
February 13, 2022 19:00 - 35 minutes - 48.7 MBIn 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. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Stop Quitting Before Things Get Easy
January 31, 2022 02:48 - 24 minutes - 33.6 MBYes, 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 ge...
Our Favourite Things of 2021
December 20, 2021 06:31 - 43 minutes - 59.9 MBIn 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 fr...
Taking up Space with Sharon Walters.
December 06, 2021 09:46 - 43 minutes - 59.8 MBIn 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: h...
Should You Grit or Should You Quit?
November 28, 2021 19:00 - 30 minutes - 41.4 MBWe 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 ...
Raising Creative Children feat. Amie's dad!
November 21, 2021 19:00 - 50 minutes - 68.8 MBVERY 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 o...
Putting Yourself Out There
November 16, 2021 05:39 - 29 minutes - 40.8 MBWe 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? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Stop Waiting For Your Big Break
November 07, 2021 19:00 - 21 minutes - 30.1 MBAre 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. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
It's Time To Write preview
November 01, 2021 05:57 - 16 minutes - 22.3 MBIn 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. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Why Is Art Important?
October 24, 2021 19:00 - 31 minutes - 43.6 MBWe 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! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Everything about our private lives (Q&A4)
October 18, 2021 07:05 - 31 minutes - 42.6 MBEver 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! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Stop Making Excuses For Wanting to be Creative
October 10, 2021 22:12 - 24 minutes - 33.2 MBIn 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/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ami...
All Things Laziness with Dr Devon Price
October 03, 2021 19:00 - 53 minutes - 73.1 MBThis 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 foll...
Do You Need a Big Social Media Following?
September 26, 2021 20:00 - 30 minutes - 42.1 MBToday 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. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
WTF are NFTs and why should artists care?
September 19, 2021 20:00 - 45 minutes - 62.5 MBWe 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 wa...
You Can Take Your Time
September 09, 2021 03:10 - 28 minutes - 39.2 MBThere'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 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
Fear Of Success part 2
September 02, 2021 04:16 - 39 minutes - 54.2 MBWe 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. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message
The Rules Upheld By No One – Chapter One
August 30, 2021 02:38 - 17 minutes - 24 MBAmie 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. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/m...
Amie's Writing Process
August 26, 2021 04:23 - 33 minutes - 45.5 MBJames "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 ...
Fear Of Success
August 19, 2021 04:41 - 40 minutes - 55.7 MBWhy 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. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amie-mcnee/message