DIY Professional Development for Creatives with Gabriela Pereira

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This week’s guest on The 21st Century Creative podcast is Gabriela Pereira, a writer and teacher who is on a mission ‘to empower writers to take an entrepreneurial approach to their education and professional growth’.

Having earned her own MFA – which for those of us outside the US, is a Master of Fine Arts degree, the main creative writing degree in the States – via the traditional academic route, she founded DIY MFA, to make this kind of education available to writers without the time or money to invest in a degree program.

She teaches via her website DIYMFA.com, her book DIY MFA and her podcast, DIY MFA Radio.

This interview will obviously appeal to you if you’re a writer, but even if you’re not, Gabriela has a lot of valuable insights to share about the mindset it takes to achieve in any creative profession.

One of the big themes of The 21st Century Creative podcast is that it’s up to you and me to take responsibility for our own careers – for making things happen rather than waiting for opportunity to knock. And DIY MFA is a great example of doing this with your education and professional development

Listen to Gabriela and you’ll hear how passionate she is about taking control of your learning process, just as much as you do for other aspects of your career or business.

Whether or not you’re not a writer, I recommend you take on board Gabriela’s approach to education and see what you can take from it and apply to your own professional development.

This is the DIY MFA pie chart, which Gabriela refers to in the interview:

About The 21st Century Creative podcast

Each episode of The 21st Century Creative podcast features an interview with an outstanding creator in the arts or creative industries.

At the end of the interview, I ask my guest to set you a Creative Challenge that will help you put the ideas from the interview in to practice in your own work.

And in the first part of the show, I share insights and practical guidance based on my 21+ years experience of coaching creatives like you.

Make sure you receive every episode of The 21st Century Creative by subscribing to the show in iTunes.