Megan Nichols

All I want to do is talk about art and money so I’m starting a podcast! As with most things in my life, I’m both very scared and overly inflated about my ability to pull it off.
Fingers crossed that calling it an “experiment” keeps me detached enough so that publishing at least six episodes is all I need to consider it a win.

What We Aim To Do is a podcast about vocation. What are you making, why do you feel you must? How do you design your life so you can make it?

I have a lot of big ideas about what I want this project to look like, but I’ve started enough things to know the project will take it’s own shape- there’s only so much I can do to influence how it unfolds. That said, here are a couple of questions and thoughts I have rolling around in the background:

1. The important changes I’ve made in my life are usually aided by speaking to people who have achieved the things I’m trying to achieve.
2. The more I relate to someone’s challenges, the more I believe I can overcome my own.
3. I’m burnt out by expert-speak.
4. The similarities between business building and art-making are obvious to me but why aren’t more people talking about this?
5. The word “niche” is ruining people’s lives.
6. The people who never think about “legacy” might should start and the people who are always thinking about “legacy” might should take a breath.

Expect the first episode this June!

Below is the announcement I posted on Substack.

I’m curious about what people are making, whether it be a book, business, literary journal, or nonprofit, and how they navigate making those things both emotionally and logistically. For those of us looking for meaningful work or for those of us who have found it, what is that journey like?

About Me!

I am the author of the poetry chapbook Animal Unfit (Belle Point Press, 2023). I write poems, flash fiction, and interviews. I’m a poetry editor at Variant Literature and a poetry reader for River Mouth Review.

I’m also a copywriter. I know too much about SEO and email funnels. I’m a person who started working remotely in 2012. I’ve been a virtual assistant, a project manager, a jewelry photographer, an employee, a business owner, a failed-business owner. I’m a side-project haver, a victim of hustle culture, a beneficiary of hustle-culture, an artist, an editor, a parent, a big fan of people who make things, and occasionally a person with a good work life balance.

I envy everyone who has ever had a podcast. Envy is helpful because it’s like an arrow pointing you to what you want.

What We Aim To Do is an experiment! I have a few episodes recorded, a handful of interviews scheduled, and a lot of excitement!

I hope you consider listening and if I’m terrible, I hope you don’t tell me so!