Starving Artist

26/04/2019

Super interesting interview with Abigail Disney, who inherited a whole shedload of money... talking about how private jets change people for the worst

Abigail Disney, heiress to the Disney fortune, on being raised with wealth.

28/02/2019

I need your help!

So... some of you will know that something exciting happened! I got funding from Creative Victoria to make another season of Starving Artist (for newcomers, that's my podcast about the art + money equation aka ) ... and since then I've been TOTALLY PARALYSED. Stumped. Oh gosh I can only take itty bitty steps on it.

Apart from my obvious emotional baggage around the money topic (see Starving Artist season 1 for evidence) the biggest hold up is that I HAVE TOO MANY IDEAS!

So, I call on you, dear friend, to help me narrow them down.

Four minutes of your time will help me move this Starving Artist ship into the project launching dock!

I've put together a short survey (it's only four and a half questions), so that I can get a better idea of which rabbit holes I should be going down. I would love it if you could point me down your preferred rabbit hole. I like knowing which rabbit holes I should go down. Makes the dingy darkness of the hole more, comforting y'know. Cause I know I'm there for good reason and not just some morbid curiosity for self-flagellation.

Link here: https://buff.ly/2Nwl9jN

Love and google forms to you all,
Honor x

06/09/2018

I've been cooking up something real special with the ABC (the national broadcaster here in Aus). It's a new podcast. A narrative documentary style one. All about mental health. And hopelessness. And what it means to find yourself hopeless. And what it means to everyone else to find you hopeless. I'm real excited about it and also s**t scared. And it's coming out in 3.5 weeks.

I have felt very blessed to have the support of a major broadcaster to make this thing. As an independent creative, I've never been in a situation where it's someone else's job to make sure my thing is the best thing it can be. It has been an absolute privilege, and has probably also ruined me because nothing I do after will be as good.

Anyway, I'm really excited / s**t scared. WOOP! YAY!

(If you're a person who want in your inbox updates. Sign up to The Big Feels Club mailing list at: buff.ly/2oNH8XW)

05/10/2017

Learning to negotiate is one of the biggest things I've learned in the past year or so. It's thanks to many hours writing emails and practicing phone calls with my boyfriend through the wall. Oh and lots of tears.
Last ep is up at https://buff.ly/2fLbHcI

Please take a moment to fill out the listener survey if you have time! (It's incredibly useful, and one of the only chances I get to properly hear from you all!) https://buff.ly/2fKw0qq?

02/10/2017

The curse of turning 25 in the age of Facebook. Did anyone else have a similar experience?

Latest (and last) episode: https://buff.ly/2fKUIqJ

Fill out the listener survey (and maybe win things) here: https://buff.ly/2fKUIqJ

28/09/2017

Good stuff to remember if you're looking around at others to try to work out what to do. Try to get some insider goss before making decisions I say!

Listen to the last episode here: https://buff.ly/2xEpPho

And go in the running to win stuff from my Etsy store by sharing your thoughts in the listener survey here: https://buff.ly/2xEckyk?

25/09/2017

Doing a listener survey for Starving Artist where you can win all of these things! If you have a minute it would also be a huge help to me! Comp ends Friday! https://buff.ly/2xyZelr?

25/09/2017

This week is the last episode of the season, so I took the chance to recap the three big things I've learned over the last 18-months of Starving Artist. This one is deceptively common-sense, but so easy to forget when you see everyone else doing fancy looking stuff.
Listen to the ep here: https://buff.ly/2hsNat0

And take the listener survey to go in the chance to win a bunch of stuff from my Etsy store (you'll also be massively helping me out!): https://buff.ly/2hsNb02?

25/09/2017

This is me after just having uploaded the final episode of season one of Starving Artist. It's taken 18 months, and has been one of the hardest things I've done, but also one of the most rewarding. This last episode is me recapping the Three Big Things I've learned, the kinds of things I've been tearing my hair out over, but which I haven't put down clearly for you guys yet. It made it a difficult ep to put together, but in the end, quite cathartic. I hope you like it.
You can listen to it here: https://buff.ly/2fjF1WV 🍋🍋

I'm also doing a listener survey to help me know what worked / didn't work, and your feedback is so so helpful. It will quite literally help shape what I do next. So if you have a spare minute I would love love love your thoughts. Also, one lucky person will win one of (almost) everything in my Etsy store.
Find the survey here: https://buff.ly/2fjF2Kt?

Much love to you all. I think I'm going to go drink a beer :)

13/09/2017

This week in “Honor Eastly tries Etsy”, my very obliging boyfriend came back to help me brainstorm another problem: what the hell should I - a creative who makes a lot of podcasts, but not a lot of things you can buy - actually sell? As you'll hear in the last episode, The Boyfriend Brainstorm Bonanza resulted in me making this print of the very first email I've ever written where I asked to be paid for my creative work, next to the most recent email I've written asking to be paid (can you spot the difference?).

It came out of my interest in how we can actually share that nitty gritty information. Like, I know I should negotiate more, but how??? And now this idea for a thing is actually a thing you can buy! Check it out on my Etsy store here: https://buff.ly/2wZTXmL

And if you want to start an Etsy store yourself, there’s a special promo code for Starving Artist listeners. You can find all the detailzzz here: https://buff.ly/2wZgLTE

10/09/2017

A message from Steve Roggenbuck (who's in this week's episode of Starving Artist) for all those out there who get haters.

Listen to the full video here: https://buff.ly/2vW3RC9

And then listen to the podcast episode here: https://buff.ly/2vVyUOu

09/09/2017

In this ep of talks a lot about learning about content marketing from tech bros.

https://buff.ly/2eS3YZT

08/09/2017

In this ep we talk a lot about learning about content marketing from tech bros. Definitely a really interesting look under the hood of how Steve became Steve.

https://buff.ly/2eRNpNP

07/09/2017

Personally I do a lot of free work, but for me when I'm doing free work I'm trying now to think of what I'm getting out of it, because there's always an opportunity cost to it. And sometimes that cost is not being able to do other free work that would be more beneficial to your end goal, and sometimes that cost is just not having any down time to recuperate and take care of yourself. That's where it's really helpful to make some guidelines or rules for yourself that you can work from.
Sometimes I think of it as choosing between spending time with my family or spending time doing whatever opportunity it is. Anyone else have a guide for how they make those decisions?

https://buff.ly/2iSddhc

05/09/2017

From the formidable

05/09/2017

oh yeah that rhymes. Kind of. Okay okay it’s a stretch.
I'm putting in the pre-orders for these mugs I made on the back of last week's episode TODAY. If you want one get on it! Thank you to everyone's who's bought one (which is way more people than I was expecting!) They're on my Etsy store, link is in bio or check em here: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/541592878/same-hours-in-the-day-as-beyonce-mug?ref=shop_home_active_4

03/09/2017

Economies of scale my friends. Economies of scale.

Great episode with Steve Roggenbuck this week about the financial side of being a YouTube poet.

https://buff.ly/2iTbacx

02/09/2017

I'm doing an experiment this week with my Etsy store by making my Very First Merch Type Thing!

So enter the You Do Not Have The Same Amount Of Hours In The Day As Beyonce MUG! Everyone liked this quote so much from last week's episode that I decided to be way meta and chuck it on a mug.

I'm making these as a pre-order thing, so you have till Wednesday morning to order one. Depending on how it goes I may never make them again so if you really want a mug for your artist studio / bedroom studio that SPEAKS SOME TRUTH (rather than self-flagellating inspo quotes) now is your chance!

Order yours at my Etsy store: https://buff.ly/2vSvg8d

01/09/2017

OMG IT'S STEVE

Steve Roggenbuck is an American video poet who’s most famous for his youtube videos, which really have to be seen to be believed. They’re feature mostly self-recorded footage of Steve walking through…

31/08/2017

smashing it again as per usual

30/08/2017

Dis me and my ex-fiance (Peter from episode 3 and last week's episode of Starving Artist) on our first anniversary way back in 2012. We've been doing a podcast, Being Honest With My Ex, for two years, and NEXT WEEK you can see us live and in person and probably doing weird stuff!

What many people don’t know is that the whole time we’ve been making this podcast, we’ve also been living on other sides of the world - Peter lives in Canada, I’m in Australia - but we ran a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year, and with the help of our listeners Peter is getting on an aeroplane and after 2 years, 130,000 downloads, and a lot of recorded tape of me crying, we’ll finally be reunited for these live shows in Melbourne Australia, and you can come join us, and have a beer with us afterwards to talk creative careers and ham sandwiches.

Clickety clack here to get your hands on a ticket: https://buff.ly/2x2L3p7

And if you're not in Australia and want to dive into that podcast, here's a guide for new listeners. Check it out at https://buff.ly/2x2O0pI

28/08/2017

Anyone else feel me on this?

https://buff.ly/2vPhupO

25/08/2017

I am a total hack as a music person, which is why I'm generally terrible at letting ppl know when I'm doing a show, because I'm mainly focused on not making an ass of myself rather than telling ppl about it. Anyway I'm playing a free show tonight with some big names for and thought y'all guys might be interested in what I get up to when I'm not making the podcasts.

25/08/2017

Peter C Hayward, who talked about how he made $87k on his first Kickstarter in episode 3, is nailing his current Kickstarter!! 7 hours to go and he's at nearly $120k!
If you want to check out his campaign to find stuff to steal go to ninjitsugame.com, and if you want to get the inside scoop on how he does it, you can pledge for $1 and you'll get access to all his updates. (This kind of thing is one of my own professional development hacks. If I want to learn something I'll find someone else doing it well and then stalk them however I can and learn from them that way!)
Or if you want to ask the man questions IRL Peter and I are doing some live shows together in early Sept for our other podcast, Being Honest With My Ex (Peter is my ex-fiancé!) check *that* out at beinghonestwithmyex.com/live ✨🌟💫🐥😎

24/08/2017

*silent crying sounds*

Listen here: https://buff.ly/2vOQdE2

22/08/2017

I'm sorry Beyonce, you are incredibly industrious, but I don't find it helpful or fun to compare myself to you

21/08/2017

I'm doing a live podcast recording of Starving Artist THIS SUNDAY at 3pm with these exceptional humans as part of Melbourne Writers Festival.

We're going to be getting the low-down on how to make the life / art / money / anxiety equation work! It's FREE, but spaces are v v limited. You can bag yourself a spot here: https://buff.ly/2x4teU4

SEE YOU THERE!

21/08/2017

Up now on the feed, a special episode that documents the moment I threw it all in an quit my only normal job!
Listen in here: https://buff.ly/2wejARf

21/08/2017

I'm doing a live podcast recording of Starving Artist THIS SUNDAY at 3pm with these exceptional humans as part of Melbourne Writers Festival.

We're going to be getting the low-down on how to make the life / art / money / anxiety equation work! It's FREE, but spaces are v v limited. You can bag yourself a spot here: https://buff.ly/2v5wdtW

If you have questions you'd like me to ask these ladies TELL ME THEM!

And I'll SEE YOU THERE!

14/08/2017

I’ve always struggled to be gracious. Maybe because it requires a certain slowness, an acreage in my mind that I never seem to carve out. Usually I’m madly dashing, rather than calmly assessing. But I’ve been in NZ for the past week, and although I have failed in small ways at my Don’t Do Any Work plan, I’ve largely stuck to it.

The past couple of days I’ve even been without the internet, which is A Thing for me, a welcome thing in this case. I’ve been walking and cooking and assessing how black black sand really is (it’s more of an anthracite grey really?). I’ve been reading and pondering and stretching my weary body, and, I have found myself not wanting.

I’ve never been on holiday like this before. Last time I went on a “holiday” was right after I launched Starving Artist. I was high on the success of that and up at all hours trying to find good locations to record in, and skipping out on hikes and reading and pondering all to service The Work. Some of you will already know the end of that story: I got salmonella poisoning and ended up having a less than good time, and I still can’t eat dairy.

I thought that I might struggle with the listlessness, the lack of actionable tasks, perhaps because I have this creeping fear of being alone with my own brain, of where we may go together.

But I have found not fear, but an open-mouthed gratitude. The kind that is in awe of the sky and the sand, the one that says “oh wow!” and is unashamed at celebrating the shockingly beautiful reality of our own existence. The one that sounds like a slightly cool hallmark card, and that doesn’t care because maybe greeting cards are right about life a lot of the time??

And this extends not just to the landscape, not just to my friends and family, but also to my work. The thing is, my life is kind of my work, and much of my work has this unnamed guilt attached to it. Genuinely one of the things I find hardest is as simple as wrestling with the emails I get. The kind that say things like “thank you”, and “me too”. Despite what I would sometimes like to think, I can reply to so very few of them, and so usually they just sit on my chest, immovable, heavy.

But something about being here, about the conversations I’ve been having, about the things I’ve been reading, has helped me to shift that slightly, and to simply just hear it.

I feel p self-indulgey writing this, like “oh it’s so hard having ppl connect with my work”, but I think just generally it’s hard to really hear good feedback. We are biologically wired to give space to things that threaten us, and so appreciation for our work often gets sidelined, hell I even went through a period of not being able to even read nice emails from ppl, because it just inspired too much guilt.

It’s funny really, for me I spend so much of my time trying to make useful stuff for people, stuff that speaks to ppl in a particular way, and then when people tell me it’s working, I clam up. I guess it’s like stage fright. Or perhaps it’s actually just kind of scary when things seem to be working, because you’re afraid of losing it.

I dunno, and I think it’ll be some time before I do know. But what I know for now is Thank You. Thank you to everyone over the past few years who’s found me, who’s connected with my work, and particularly to those who have sent me some of the most gorgeous emails over the past few years. You make my heart swell in a way I am genuinely afraid of. Thank you for the fear, I think it means something is going right.

14/08/2017

Watching interviews with Grimes is my current vice.
Love her answer her to the "follow your dream" question.

13/08/2017

Monday morning feelsssss from

13/08/2017

"There will always be people that do stuff cheaper ... I prefer to attract people who treat things a little bit more preciously and the more expensive you are the more you tend to attract that kind of people. Whereas if you are doing very cheap quick stuff it's for a certain market." - more gold from Sarah Firth this week!

Listen here: https://buff.ly/2uyE17n

12/08/2017

Raise your hand if this is or has been you. I'll start: :raised_hands::hand::wave::open_hands::point_up:

12/08/2017

in the latest ep. I need this pinned on my wall, or tattooed on my hand or some such.

Listen here: https://buff.ly/2vVdMwk