Today I’m talking with Cait Flanders, the author of The Year of Less and the new book, Adventures in Opting Out . I wanted to get Cait on the show because she really represents a way of doing things differently and writes around taking aligned control of your life. Today we talk about all sorts of things, like taking not-perfect steps into self-employment, the realities of being a self-employed author, money, opting out of marketing, and making friends with who get it. Here's what I talk about i...
Oct 30, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 89
Today I want to talk about launching, whether it’s a new service, digital product, or physical product. I know there are many podcast episodes and resources out there about launching with all the tips and tricks about how to have a massively successful launch. But I know that they can feel a little out of reach or out of touch. I’ve listened to podcasts where someone talks through the step by step of their launch by laying out what each member of their team did or bringing in multiple six figure...
Oct 23, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 88
Today is a coaching episode with Kelsey Mech, a therapist working online and in-person in Canada. Kelsey’s business has grown and matured exceptionally quickly, and she now finds herself a little burnt out, needing to make things more sustainable and wanting to get a bit more of the joy and excitement back - a feeling I know well. In this episode we talk about pivoting a business model and balancing the different audiences you want to talk to, as well as the importance of getting a bird’s eye vi...
Oct 16, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 87
Today I’m doing a deep dive into one of the things I’m asked about most often - identifying your ideal customer. This is one of those things that you know you’re supposed to do, you know it will crack a code for you and help you to know what to do next, yet you always feel like there’s a secret you’re missing and you’ve not quite got it right. If this is something you want to uncover a little more, my new Customer Kit workbook is now available and linked in the show notes, and in this episode, I...
Oct 09, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 86
Today is a coaching episode with Charlotte Holroyd of Creative Wilderness, a designer who creates branding for conscious and ethical businesses. Charlotte has grow her design studio to a full roster of design clients, but with a few hectic years under her belt and the purchase of a camper van, she’s craving a way to reduce her client load and have her business enable a more remote style of working - and is working on a new e-course to help her get there. In this episode we talk all about some wa...
Oct 02, 2020•54 min•Season 1Ep. 85
Lately, I’ve been working on my thought leadership. Working on these things hasn’t been something that I have ever really done consciously. I think it’s been fair to say I’ve been in a test and learn mode - being confronted with problems from clients and students and coming up with ways to help those problems, and those ways, when they work, become subsumed into the canon of things I know how to help with. Through this episode, I thought I’d explore more about this process and what it looks like...
Sep 25, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 84
Today I’m in conversation with Sara Tasker, who you will undoubtedly know and love as the business and Instagram brain behind Me & Orla and podcast and book Hashtag Authentic. After the release her book last year, Sara went off the grid for months and re-emerged with a brand new programme different to what she’s done before - and I have been dying to know exactly how that came about behind the scenes. So today, Sara and I talk about how she came up with a brand new idea, her process for putt...
Jul 31, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 83
A week or so again I did an Ask Me Anything on Stories, and a question that came up more than once was “how do you find your niche?”. I found I couldn’t quite put into a couple of paragraphs what I think about niching, and as a few people had asked I thought it might be worth doing a podcast episode on niching - so here we are. I think niching is something that comes up over and over again in your business - it’s often something we want to get ‘right’ at the start, but it continues to rear its h...
Jul 24, 2020•16 min•Season 1Ep. 82
Today is a coaching episode with Bex Massey, the founder of Bramble & Fox, an online hygge store. After a brief hiatus, Bex is putting the shop lights back on and is struggling with managing her time around her family and knowing where her precious time and energy is best spent. In this episode we talk about creating processes and rhythms in the business, how to radically prioritise tasks, perfectionism and also, for good measure, whether it’s worth doing a newsletter. Here's what I talk abo...
Jul 17, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 81
Today I want to talk about self-trust. I have jumped into some many decisions and ideas without it ever occurring to me to check whether I actually wanted to do them - and as a result I’ve felt stuck and sad that my business reality doesn’t live up to my business daydreams. Because it is supposed to feel better than this. The pressure, the worry, the actions taken out of panic or uncertainty, the tasks you dread are rooted in a lack of self-trust. I acknowledge here my privilege as a white woman...
Jul 10, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 80
Today is a coaching episode with Rosie Harriott, a textile designer who has worked across fashion and homewares both in-house and as a freelancer, and who is now shifting from being freelance to a business. Rosie has also had a personal journey of wellness and awakening over the last few years which is the reason for the business shift - but she’s worried about how to communicate this in her content without looking like she’s jumped on the bandwagon. In this episode we talk about starting to tal...
Jul 03, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 79
This month, on my blog and on Instagram, I’ve been sharing the experience of transitioning and simplifying my business model in response to my values and I how I want my business to support the life I want to live. I know that this is a perennial problem for many - the moment where you have out grown the old skin of your business but don’t know quite how to shed into and evolve into a new skin. It is a natural part of business, of life, but it is also one that is messy and feels, at times, insur...
Jun 26, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 78
Today I’m talking with Nesha Woolery, an educator who started her online design business aged 18 and has evolved and developed over the last 8 years in business. This year, Nesha cancelled a huge launch the night before the cart was going to open because she realised that the whole thing was out of alignment and disconnected, and instead spent weeks reconnecting with her why and redefining what she really wanted. In this episode we chat about this journey, from how to know if you’re out of align...
Jun 19, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 77
Today I’m going to share more detail about my approach to content creation, how I think about it and how I try to make it valuable and inspiring. My approach to content has changed over the last couple of years, both because content trends have changed, and because I’ve developed as a writer and learned more about what makes people tick, and click, when it comes to my content. So in this episode I’m going to share more about the story of my content progression, and the major change I’ve made. He...
Jun 12, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 76
Today is a coaching episode with Giulia Mazzola, who you may know online as Giulia Writes. Over the last four years Giulia has been on a personal journey of deconstructing her version of success after leaving corporate finance, and exploring and getting confident with sharing her writing online. She wants to be supported by her writing, but doesn’t know what that is going to look like - and is going round and round with ideas and what does and doesn’t feel right. I loved having this meandering c...
Jun 05, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 75
Today I wanted to go into everything content, because content is everything. Often we hear the word ‘content’ and think it’s just blogging, but it’s not. In marketing we tend to break channels up into silos because it’s easier to think and talk about them all separately - so you have your blog over here, your Instagram over there, your email list in the back room, Pinterest, perhaps a podcast or video channel in your back pocket. While they all link up, we tend to treat them as separate entities...
May 29, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Today the coaching episodes are back, and I’m talking with Cate Terry, a yoga teacher and holistic health therapist . Cate has been toying with the idea of starting a podcast, but keeps talking herself out of it - because it might not be the right thing to do or she might not be able to stick with it. We talk about how to know if an idea is the right option for you, how to differentiate your content channels, how to stand out as a new podcast and making the space for a new marketing channel in y...
May 22, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 73
I was going to dive right back in after this break with a “normal” episode, but something was stopping me. It didn’t feel quite right to barrel back in and not take a minute. I know for many this is a reflective time. A time that is sharpening priorities both for your future, and the future of society. In this episode I'm sharing what I've reflected on over the weeks since we last spoke, some breakthroughs, and the changes they've sparked. Here's what I talk about in this episode: How to restore...
May 15, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 72
Today is the last in the Staying The Course series of episodes, and having spent time looking at your goals, your routine and your mindset, I thought we’d look practically at focus. Focus is something that ebbs and flows at the best of times, but particularly during times of stress it can be even more fleeting than usual. Particularly during this pandemic, apathy is rife - that feeling of not wanting to really do anything, but also feeling like you should, or need to do everything. In this episo...
Apr 17, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 71
So far in this Staying The Course series, we’ve looked at letting go of the old plans and goals and creating a daily routine, and this week I thought we’d look at mindset. During times of uncertainty, mindset can be something that holds you, an anchor point to keep coming back to when you feel worried or stressed or lost. It is a way to care for and support oneself. In this episode, I’m going to talk about how I perceive and use mindset and some ways to start cultivating your own mindset during ...
Apr 10, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 70
In today’s episode, I’m going to be talking about structuring your days and weeks. This is an important part of staying the course, as routine and structure a) helps you to get things done and b) helps to reduce stress and make you feel comforted by the predictability of it. I will share with you how creating a daily routine has helped me as someone who really didn't want one, and my tips for thinking about your own. Here's what we talk about in this episode: Thinking about why you want to creat...
Apr 03, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 69
Ordinarily, I’d be sharing an interview or coaching episode with you this week, but this isn’t an ordinary week. I have decided to keep the podcast going to give you a little support, direction and normalcy week to week, but with a few changes. For at least the next four weeks, I will only be publishing solo shows. I thought I'd do a series on staying the course. One particularly apt for our current times, but not so peculiar to them that you can’t revisit these episodes when we’re on the other ...
Mar 27, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 68
Today is a solo episode that follows on from episode 63 from last month because I’m answering the second half of the questions you guys submitted on Instagram. These questions are all about content and about strategy, planning content, Instagram, business growth and transition, finding your values, dream clients and many more. Here's what we talk about in this episode: How to write a Content Plan? I am struggling to organise and categorise content on my blog, any tips? How to start incorporating...
Mar 20, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 67
In today’s coaching episode I’m talking with Hira Sameer Ahmed, an artist with a multi-passionate creative practice and creativity coach. Hira is finding that she worries she confuses her audience by having lots of different artistic projects and can feel like a jack of all trades, and that this a block to getting paying customers. Through this episode we unpick this, thinking about how to own your status as a multi-passionate creative and bring everything together so it make sense, how to talk ...
Mar 13, 2020•45 min•Season 1Ep. 66
One of our challenges as creative people running or starting businesses is idea wrangling. For sure there are periods where we think we’ll never have a good idea ever again, but there are also times where it feels someone’s plugged a cosmic USB stick into us and we’re just downloading and processing all these different ideas. Sometimes they are really specific this product or that product kind of ideas, sometimes it’s a billion blog posts ideas over a weekend, sometimes they are more general, ar...
Mar 06, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Today is a coaching episode with Kim Heemskerk of De Alchemista. Kim started her business 18 months ago and it’s exceeded her expectations but now it’s starting to feel like it’s not entirely under her control - it’s been growing organically, but not necessarily in the way she would choose. Today we talk about ways to reclaim the control and managing a business which sells both physical and digital products - we discuss the customer and customer journey, defining how you want the business to be,...
Feb 28, 2020•48 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Today I am answering your questions that you submitted via Instagram Stories last week, so thank you to everyone that did. In fact, you submitted more questions than I could answer in one episode, so I have split them into a doubleheader. Next month I will answer your strategy and content questions, but this week we’re talking about productivity, motivation, habit setting work/life balance, and I’m throwing in a couple of questions about creating and selling online courses for good measure too. ...
Feb 21, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Today I’m in conversation with Nicole Antoinette, the host of the Real Talk Radio podcast and someone who is the best example I could think of of creating an income from your passion and values. I was keen to get Nicole on the show because she is always so honest and frank about money and the realities of life and business, and because I knew she would have so much wisdom to share from her 12 plus years navigating the internet. In this episode we talk about community-building, Patreon and subscr...
Feb 14, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 62
Today I’m talking about a topic that someone mentioned in a survey I shared - so if that was you, thank you for the great question! We’re talking Instagram. So often the default when we think about marketing - it’s the first place we think of to be able to talk about new products or share a piece of coverage or introduce changes. As consumers too, I know that if I hear about a business or someone is recommended to me, I go off and find them on Instagram as a first stop, following or saving like ...
Feb 07, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Today is a coaching episode with my friend Jo McCarthy, who you may know as Firain Shop. At the end of 2019 Jo closed down her online shop, despite enjoying it and it being in profit, to pursue work that felt more aligned with her values and the life she wanted to live. Of course, that then opens the door to a new set of problems! In this episode we discuss the decision around changing the business model, naming a transitioning business, the difference between freelancing and business owning, ni...
Jan 31, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 60
