Category Archives: Episodes

Crowdfunding Hope for Animated Sci-Fi: Jeff Saamanen – Episode 73

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It’s my pleasure to kick Season 4 of the Podcast off with this chat with Jeff Saamanen, one of the two minds behind an animated sci-fi epic called Lost Hope. Jeff and his co-creator Natalie Harvey are currently running a Kickstarter to fund the first four episodes of this fusion of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and Archer, and it’s my pleasure to help promote their campaign!

It was great fun to have a virtual sit-down with Geoff and geek out about science fiction, animation, independent projects and games in general! Please listen and enjoy!

Oh, and: Back Lost Hope on Kickstarter!

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What’s Your Play? – Episode 72

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I’ve spent over seventy episodes talking about my guests’ play and my own. But what abut your play?

I want to hear from / read you! Please let us know, whether by email, by comment here or on Facebook (including the Fans of the Podcast group), Google+, Twitter or Patreon (if you’re a backer – and if not, why not?), about the things that you’re doing right now or have been doing that you love to do, that you can’t not do, even if you have no idea of the value they might have for anyone else!

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2015 in Review and the Podcast in 2016 – Episode 70

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2015 has been a great year for the Paid to Play Podcast, with folks backing it on Patreon and even a live panel at Cairns’ first pop culture convention! It’s had a few rough moments too, mostly of my own making.

In this last episode of a solid year, I count down two Top Tens of your favourite episodes, look at how the podcast changed for the better and what I’m looking forward to bringing you, and experimenting with, in 2016!

Happy New Year, everyone!

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Keeping It Private – Episode 68

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As 2015 draws to a close, I talk about how I want to do things differently in 2016, in the hope of getting more things done.

This is the first of the two Lost Episodes of Paid to Play 2015 – in other words, I didn’t get around to recording them in time for their release in show order. I intend to record and release Episode 70 before the New Year.

This is also the first episode that I’ve seriously edited together for the YouTube format. The podcast episode itself is twenty minutes of ramble; the YouTube version is half that (with a few slightly dodgy cuts, thanks to Windows Movie Maker).

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Gamified Geeky Fitness: Tonja Davis – Episode 71

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Tonja Davis is an incredible fusion of geek and fitness enthusiast. She’s not only worked in technology and for one of the biggest business names in the geek world, she’s also taken her own struggles with with chronic illness and injuries – in her own words, “If there’s something you can break, I probably broke it!” – and turned them into programmes to help those whom the mainstream fitness industry neglects.

The business born of the fusion of these loves is Action Hero Fitness, a comic book-themed body and health coaching business that aims to help geeks struggling with fitness. Tonja levers web technology and even online-enabled game consoles to run coaching sessions for people whose health issues prevent them from going to gyms or outdoor fitness courses.

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Bringing Princesses to Life: Sharna, Ever After Parties – Episode 69

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It’s interesting how things tuned out: The recording order of my chat with Sharna, owner and operator of and performer in Ever After Parties, comes out twelve months after she started the company!

Ever After Parties specialises in making make-believe a little more real by bringing beloved characters from animated movies to children’s parties. It’s cosplay in one of its purer forms; it’s no coincidence that Sharna was a cosplayer before she got into performing at kids’ parties.

We chat about Sharna’s love of anime and Disney, going from a princess party company employee to staring her own company at just sixteen years of age (while still at high school) and the support you can get from the most unlikely quarters as long as you stand by your paid play!

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Video Game Freelancing: C.J. “Rhykker” Miozzi – Episode 67

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C. J. Miozzi is the paid player I want to be when I grow up. He’s a writer, graphic artist and voice talent, and he’s built his revenue streams around his love of video games, especially Diablo III. He’s probably best known for his YouTube channel of advice for players of Diablo III, for which he goes by the handle of Rhykker.

We chat about the difference between personalities and content providers on YouTube, the conflict between outsourcing and the desire for complete control, pursuing a career almost completely outside your field of study and planning for the inevitable changes in any modern career, not just freelancing. Oh, and we have a bit of a geek-out about Dungeons & Dragons.

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Executing the Podcast? – Episode 66

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The time has come. Execute Order Sixty-Six.

– Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, telling his clone army to put the Jedi to death shortly before declaring himself Emperor in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Is this it? The end of the Paid to Play Podcast?!

Perhaps not. But I think it’s time I tried to crack through my self-doubting ways and throw myself at playing before working out how to get paid to do it. And, for the moment at least, the Podcast has stopped being play to me. Listen as I endeavour to explain why.

tl;dr: I’m putting the podcast on hiatus for a few months. I’ll publish my outstanding chat episodes every fortnight and do a video / audiolog in the intervening weeks, then take a break over Christmas and see where the show and I are at.

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From China with Life Orgasms: Frank Macri – Episode 65

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Frank Macri has been grappling with the idea of Work since his late teens. He’s made it his purpose to help those who are educated and passionate but still not sure where how they can take what they have and make their lives about their true selves.

Frank is currently working on a book called Life Orgasm, “a provocative guide to living with passion.” You can currently download his free guide, “How to Climax (On Life)” from his website and catch his weekly YouTube show where he vlogs on his experiences in China, to where, as of this writing, he’s recently returned after teaching there for a year just after finishing university.

We had a great chat about going it on your own in another country, looking at failure in a positive light and how the cliched phrases of positivity and self-help sometimes need a little shaking up!

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Planning and Scheduling: Episode 64

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After a fortnight of delayed schedules and projects not quite working out due to lack of planning, I thought it wise to touch on the subject of scheduling again. I also discuss some ideas for the future of the podcast!

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