Nurturing a brand ecosystem

With reflections from two years of navigating the creative rhythms that shape our lives + work

This space has held many things over the past two years. From newborn days and fallow spells to launch seasons and turning points, it’s been a place to connect through the sometimes cheerful, sometimes challenging rhythms of life and work.

What follows is both a reflection on two years of shaping this publication and an invitation to explore your own brand ecosystem. I’ve danced with every shade of doubt and fear in my writing here, so I’m also sharing three things this community has quietly cultivated in me.

If you feel moved to, I’d love to know what brought you here, and perhaps what kept you here. The comments are always open.

Caring for a fledgling idea

I first published my early thoughts on circling the seasons in life and work one month before my son was born. Soon after, I wrote about my plans to create a podcast and product along with my hopes of exploring our creative rhythms together.

Reading back over those first posts, I found notes about launching a guest series called This Creative Life (to think that became a real mini zine!) and shaping my tangled ideas into something tangible. It’s been a lot — energetically and emotionally, perhaps even physically — but also deeply affirming.

When the conditions are right, I can summon a kind of boundless enthusiasm. And while I am all for embracing creativity, I can also see how easy it is for the process to consume me. This is why I believe in making and playing, but also in setting checkpoints to reconnect and remember what sparked us in the first place.

With a deep period of creation behind me, I now find myself in a liminal space. From here, I can say how glad I am to have nurtured an inkling. Watching the podcast and my product come to life has brought a real sense of fulfilment and, at times, humility, especially when timescales shifted or I had to rethink my approach.

But more than anything, all of this has renewed my belief that my heart lies in helping you craft a brand that feels like home.

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”

– Rumi

Charting the brand landscape

Earlier this week, I was chatting with my coach and client

Sara Duigou

and we got onto the topic of brand ecosystems — what they are in practice and how we can harness them in our work.

You might think of an ecosystem as a community of living organisms, such as plants, interacting with each other and their physical environment. This can include elements like soil and water, and their relationship creates a system where energy and nutrients flow, supporting growth and change within that space.

Sara was weeding while we voice-noted and it felt like the perfect metaphor, because tending to an outdoor space is often less about polish and more about patience. Some things grow in their own time. Some thrive with a little neglect. The process of gardening or landscaping asks for trust.

I’ve been in a mulling and mulching phase myself. My literal garden is both abundant and unpredictable this year. Bees and butterflies are showing up. The blossom tree bloomed gloriously and is now scattering confetti-like petals over the dry, tired grass. Meanwhile, the tulips were devoured by snails and the alliums are noticeably sparse.

It’s not unlike my business. Some parts are flourishing, others need watering. So I’ve been thinking carefully about how I want to show up in this next season of work, and reviewing my brand ecosystem — taking a fresh look at the network of touchpoints that make up my brand — feels like a natural next step.

Creating a connected map

The Bedrock: Website

The solid ground beneath my brand. It offers structure and stability — home to my services, stories and the roots of all I share. It’s the place I shape with intention, where everything begins before growing outward. Quietly constant, it holds credibility, clarity and continuity.

The Weather: Instagram, Pinterest

These shifting skies offer sunlight and shadow. Instagram brings bursts of visibility and connection — but it can be unpredictable so I use it only when it aligns with how I want to show up. Pinterest is softer: a steady breeze of discovery, inspiration and playfulness: a dreamscape of promise and potential.

The Flourish: Email, Blog

These are the blooms that grow upwards and outwards. My Inside Story Letters follow the rhythm of the year, offering insights and invitations to pause, notice and imagine. My branding and design journal holds space for longer-form reflections — and together with my emails, they draw people in and nurture trust.

The Meadow: Substack (Podcast, The Portal)

A more open and relational space in the landscape. Here, I share reflections, ideas and articles. The community around it makes it feel spacious and supportive — a field where people can linger and listen. While still evolving, this landscape allows for deeper exploration and experimentation.

Note: I might create a visual to go with this part, but I don’t have the capacity this week — I’ve got a few branding and design deadlines to meet for clients. However, I can revisit the post soon and add a simple resource to help members map out their own ecosystems. Would that be helpful?

Crafting your brand supports

Keeping your brand moving is an important part of developing and maintaining a sense of connection — with yourself, your creative practice and your audience. These are some of the elements that sit around the ecosystem and help support my brand behind the scenes. What are your brand supports?

The Greenhouse: Notes, Plans (so many notes…)

This is where my ideas live while they’re still forming. At the moment, that includes branding courses, revived offers and writing projects. It’s a sheltered, protected space — easy to keep quiet or hidden — and I’m spending a lot of time here just now: editing, refining and occasionally sharing.

The Toolshed: Slack, Trello

Every ecosystem needs a few trusted tools. For me, Slack and Trello are the ones I return to. Slack offers a space for real-time conversations with while Trello helps me stay on track with marketing and service delivery. Together, they bring structure, clarity and a sense of steady momentum.

The New Terrain: AI

AI can be disruptive, but it’s also made so much possible. I use it not to replace creativity but practically. There’s a lot of all-or-nothing thinking around AI, but I believe there’s an in-between: a space where it can support our work without preying on the originality of artists or authors.

The Footpaths: Client Journey

This is how people move within my brand landscape — pausing, exploring and often circling back. There are signposts and detours, with plenty of space to encounter my big and small offerings and everything in between. For me, it’s about the experience. Paying close attention to how clients navigate this path reveals what’s resonating, what needs tending, and where things might evolve next. The insight shared by my Brand Seasons Playgroup has been a lovely reminder of how co-creative this can be — and why it’s worth tending with care.

I’ll be delving deeper into the tensions between visibility, technology and creativity in my new private podcast for members, launching this month. It’s a softer space, somewhere I can speak more freely, and it might be better described as a long voice note than a traditional podcast.

In the first episode, I’ll be exploring something that’s been sitting close to the surface lately: responsibility, influence and the abandonment of platforms. And also the bigger question that’s been echoing in the background of my work: what are we actually building — and why?

Join me or upgrade your subscription and listen in this month!

Tips for building an ecosystem

• Let your capacity lead

  Begin with your life. Let your ecosystem take shape around it — especially if you’re in a season of change.

• Think like a gardener

  Remember, different plants (and platforms) serve different purposes. Not everything needs to grow all at once.

• Tend, don’t overhaul
  You don’t need to reinvent your brand. Begin by checking in — what’s thriving and what’s dormant? What can you let go of?

• Know your core

  What’s your bedrock? Is it a platform or something like a private client portal, digital product library or a podcast?

• Stay with the landscape

  You might be reshuffling priorities, but the landscape is still yours. Presence doesn’t have to be loud to be meaningful.

Three things I value about Substack

If you’ve got the space to read on, I’d love to close by sharing three things I’ve come to value about Substack, to acknowledge how much this platform has given me, and to reflect on the importance of belonging, collaboration and expression in any ecosystem.

1. Belonging

   When I created this space, I was heavily pregnant and sleep-deprived but brimming with ideas. Substack became my creative sandbox. I shared behind-the-scenes glimpses, tested ideas and shaped projects like the deck and zine alongside a generous, thoughtful community. What made my crowdfunder a success wasn’t just momentum, it was this web of connection across Substack, Instagram and my Inside Story letters. Each platform serves its own role, but Substack has held the depth and helped me build my Brand Seasons publication with intention.

2. Collaboration

   I love shining a light on fellow makers, seekers and thinkers, and this is what Notelets on Nurture was born of. Collaboration here feels less transactional and more organic. And I’ve shared wisdom from writers such as

   Claire Amritavani Brown
   on turning to the magic of tarot,
   Lyndsay Kaldor
   on making space for creativity and
   Nadja de Oliveira
   with kindling curiosity with the shifting of seasons. And others have kindly invited me into their own ecosystem, helping to weave a stronger, reciprocal network. This experience has taught me that generosity is vital — but so is discernment: noticing which invitations align with your energy and values.

3. Expression

   Finding your voice as a writer is an ongoing, often messy journey. Balancing personal fulfilment with the practicalities of business and family life isn’t always graceful. If I followed my whimsy alone, I’d be creatively full, but probably broke. Still, I write to feel connected, to build something sustainable and to grow from a place that feels good — for me, and for you as a client, reader or subscriber. Substack has helped me honour that balance and stretch my voice through articles, interviews and experiments that deepen the creative work I love to do in the world.

The more I return to the idea of creating and supporting a brand ecosystem, the more I see that it’s about more than structure. It’s about relationship. Because when we build from a place of connection, we create something far more sustainable. Something evolving. Something attuned to the seasons.

For me, belonging, collaboration and expression are the roots that hold everything together. Your ecosystem, if you listen closely, will tell you what’s thriving and what’s asking to be rethought. And don’t forget to trust your creative energy. It always knows.

When things feel unclear or scattered, perhaps you can come back to these questions: What parts of my brand feel most alive right now? Which spaces are supporting my creativity? And what people or places might be quietly draining it?

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To mark two years of writing on Substack — and to thank you for being here — I’m offering 25% off an annual membership to the Brand Seasons Clubhouse for a limited time.

This behind-the-scenes space offers branding support and creative encouragement through seasonal voicenotes, a monthly branding clinic and quarterly co-creation sessions.

When you upgrade, you’ll also receive This Creative Life, a mini zine celebrating seasonality, playfulness and adventure. The offer takes £20 off an annual subscription, and with the mini zine included, it’s a total saving of £35.