From inklings to insights

Opening to possibility, trusting our feelings + crafting a podcast

Imagine, six months from now, having found strength in your brand strategy, pride in your brand style, and trust in your brand story.

This is how I’d like members of my Brand Seasons community to feel by the winter of 2024, and I’m inviting you to join us.

For just £5 per month (£60/year), you’ll have access to seasonal resources and bonus posts to accompany each of my branding and business podcast episodes, and you can begin nurturing your brand foundations right away.

Since the turn of the year, paid members have been working on their brands in a slow, simple and sustainable way. Some are running businesses, others are cultivating their creative practice, and over the winter months, I shared three resources to help them explore the basics of branding.

1. Benefits of branding

2. Branding terms explained

3. Your branding checklist

This week, I’m offering a glimpse behind the scenes by temporarily removing the paywall from the first of those resources and lowering it on the second. I welcome you to dig in, take what you need, and leave the rest. Perhaps you’ll find that this is a time to gain clarity, or maybe you’ll decide that this is a time to start building a brand.

Opening to possibility

With the publication of my latest article for The Author Stack, on the topic of intuitive brand strategy, I’ve been thinking about what it takes to be flexible with our goals and plans:

“Crafting a brand doesn’t follow a one-size-fits-all approach; there’s no magic formula or secret ingredient. While there are established methods and techniques, it’s our intuition that often leads us to the most meaningful outcomes.”

This has become curiously resonant as I lean into the push and pull of family life and studio life, and as I make choices that I hope will strengthen and support my business from the ground up.

Intuitive brand strategy for writers

Recently, while contemplating how I might find more harmony at home and in work, I reminded myself of my compass words for the year—possibility, compassion and abundance.

1. Possibility

   Stay open to new experiences, and foster an attitude of willingness to embrace growth and change.

2. Compassion

   Meet myself with warmth and care as I navigate this creative life and make room for chance, fate and risk.

3. Abundance

   Tend to this feeling, for it encourages a mindset of health and wealth and of appreciation and celebration.

Circling back to my intentions has helped me feel lighter and brighter, and what strikes me about this combination is the sense of calm and flow they elicit.

Trusting our feelings

This week, I found myself tapping back into that sense of abundance again when I stepped into what will become my new studio. It’s currently filled with antiques and furniture and needs a scrub and paint, but when I walked through the doorway, I could see beyond the dust particles into what was simply space.

Space. Space. Space. I immediately exhaled, because it gave me the anchor I’ve been seeking, yet also felt expansive. And while I’ve loved the flexibility of working from home over the last decade, to restore some harmony, I know I need to find this separation between life and work again.

I love the mantra find what feels good, and this was it in action, proving just how helpful it can be to quieten the outer noise, if only in stolen moments, so we begin can hear ourselves.

Crafting a podcast

One of the tools I’m using to explore this idea of working with our creative rhythms is a podcast, and in the first episode about seasonal branding and business, I touch on the origins of the Brand Seasons project.

It was interesting to arrive at the point of recording and production because I told myself all kinds of stories about how it would go. Perhaps you understand because there’s something in your life or work impacting your confidence or stopping you from showing up. For me, that thing has been public speaking, and any form of sharing my voice can become a barrier.

So, I set about creating the podcast in a way that supported me, and I hope the following insights into the process are useful for anyone thinking about taking this step. I would also encourage you to tune into my guest conversation with 

Anna Dunleavy

, where we talk about our first steps into podcasting. The episode will be with you next week.

1. Ideation

Before I looked into the logistics of creating a podcast, I spent time thinking about my niche. What could differentiate it from similar productions? How might I explore a range of topics in solo and guest episodes? Would it make sense to bring my various interests together in one space?

It’s not so much that I believe a niche is needed, but to feel confident in my decision to create a podcast, I wanted to focus on a blend of themes that would stop my inner demon from chirping away about how this was nothing new.

So, I decided to focus on living and working creatively and seasonally. Inspired by In Haste, I also plan to share bonus posts for paid subscribers to accompany each episode so the podcast can live beyond the recordings.

2. Preparation

This was important because I tend to dive into shiny new things with my energy and excitement, taking me beyond a plan and into action!

However, I needed to develop my confidence, which came in the form of appearing on other podcasts and discussing my plans with clients and friends to help me cultivate trust. There was also practice, which involved writing scripts for solo reflections, listing bullets for guest conversations, rehearsing aspects of speaking parts, and recording test episodes.

The more familiar I am with my material, the more positive I feel while recording. And it is so important to test equipment. I ran into some teething issues with my mic settings, resulting in re-recording my part in two conversations, which was challenging!

3. Hosting

I could have chosen to host here on Substack. Instead, I opted for Captivate, as I wanted the content to be independent of any social platform. Yes, there is a cost, and fees vary depending on your needs, but the service is reliable, and the analytics are useful. Other popular choices include Anchor, Libsyn and Podbean.

Ensure your hosting platform can distribute your podcast to major directories like Apple Podcasts and Spotify because this will help you reach a broader audience.

As far as I know, there is no way to feed your podcast directly into Substack, so you have to manually upload it, but I enjoy that because I publish content with each episode.

4. Production

Good sound quality is helpful, and I invested in a decent microphone and headphones. However, I’m not producing the podcast because if I had to edit it, it wouldn’t be live yet!

It was essential for me to know my limitations and consider how much I was prepared to learn and do, and this encouraged me to seek out support from an old client and friend who now happens to be a bookseller and a podcaster, and she was the perfect match for Brand Seasons.

I use Squadcast to record solo and guest conversations. My producer downloads the audio from there, and then, once complete, I transcribe it using Descript (which now owns Squadcast, so it’s a single fee for both). I then add the audio and transcript to Captivate and Substack and populate both with the title and show notes before distributing and publishing. I also have a podcast section on my website for SEO purposes.

5. Sponsorship

The advice is generally to focus on growing your audience before seeking sponsorship. This is because sponsors are more likely to invest in podcasts with a growing and engaged listener base.

However, in some cases, you can approach businesses that align with your values. After a false start with a brand I trusted and believed would be a good fit, I approached a client about the prospect.

After sharing my media kit highlighting my plans for the first series, plus sponsor marketing plans, Saorsa Psychology came on board. And I can’t tell you what a boost it was to have a client put that level of trust in me. My media kit is available on request to paid subscribers.

I hope these insights are helpful, and I’m happy to answer any further questions in the comments.