ALERT THE PRESSES.You can make a body of work that reveals you to be an unpredictable genius pop star at age 42, if you so choose.Do you so choose?If this is the year you want to stop grinding against the rickety machine that someone else built and always breaks down right before you’re supposed to get paid…and instead you want to heroically hurdle yourself into space at rocket-speed toward your biggest goals like Matt Damon launching himself off Mars in nothing but a spacesuit and a tarp…Then you’ll need to make a paradoxical move.What’s a Paradoxical Move?A paradoxical move is, as Michelle Pellizzon Lipsitz explains in this week’s episode, an intentional break in the pattern of your personal thinking. It’s going left when you’d usually go right.But it’s not a grind. And it’s not random. It’s actually fast and somewhat effortless, super strategic and exceptionally fun.I wanted to talk with Michelle about this because she introduced me to this concept back in 2021, and there’s literally no one smarter I could ask to explain it to me.Michelle isn’t just the founder of Holisticism or the host of The Twelfth House or the creator of SPACIES or the brain behind sublimatrix — a Matrix of Destiny cipher or a consultant that offers incredible status quo-changing experiences to her clients.After almost a decade of running a very profitable company, she could sit back and let the hits keep coming. But instead, she’s soon going to UCLA to pursue her PhD.So truly, there is no one better with whom I could ask about making unknowable, unexpected, and career-intensifying moves than Michelle.In this episode, we discuss:* The spectrum of age and how it changes your understanding of the creative process* The way independent artists can use institutions as a way to make their body of work at a faster rate* Infinite Games vs. Finite Games (thanks Yancey Strickler & Joshua Citarella for the inspo there!)* How to discern what you think is cool when you feel indoctrinated by the culture* How to become more unknowable and more unpredictable and evade AI from co-opting your brain* And how to use paradoxical moves in your career to find way more opportunities and get where you want to go much fasterThe episode vibe is as follows:MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:🔥 Metalabel’s New Creative Era podcast (if you like this episode, you’ll love their whole first season)🪩 Price Pritchett’s book, You Squared🍿 Kinsley Vs., my independent web series⚾️ Ted Hope’s Q&A with Carson Lund about his new movie Eephus: "When trying to express the intangible parts of your mind and soul..."I can take on 2 more clients for my currently-running 1:1 experiences in May.These are the tracks available:* Copy & Content Sessions: helping you craft noise-cutting copy* Mastering the Release: designing a release campaign for your work* Scene-Building Startup: setting up infrastructure for your indie careerWe can work on one of these tracks two different ways: either a one-time private intensive, or a 4-week work sprint.Curious? Let me know what you need in 30s here…And let’s chat.⌨️ Tell me in the comments: What would be a paradoxical move for you?✨ If you like this episode… text it to a friend! ✨ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit queensbirdzine.substack.com
