The Brandsmith

This episode is dedicated to telling you about something really cool I’m doing in October — a free event that's all about embracing the power of values in your business. So, grab your favourite bevvie, get comfy, and tune in to hear what this is all about. Episode links: The Brand values, not bland values! roundtable Eli Trier

My friend Jennifer shares all her best tips for building thriving and engaged communities — you really don’t want to miss this! In the world of online business, it seems like everyone has a community — whether it's paid or it's free — tied to their brand, which isn't really surprising at all, considering it's a pretty effective way of encouraging deeper relationships with the people you want to im...

Welcome to another episode of Brand it! — where today I am joined by Laura Robinson of Worditude. Laura is a marketing mentor for people who sell their expertise online as 1:1 services, courses, memberships and programmes. She has business, marketing and copywriting qualifications up the wazoo, and she especially loves to apply her 20+ years of experience working with people who want a comfy busin...

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed for Authority Magazine’s series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand. (Also: can we take a moment to acknowledge that for all of about ten minutes I got to share screen real-estate with Seth Godin?!) So in case you missed it, or you prefer to listen rather than read, I’ve recorded it and turned it into this podcast episode! I...

A bit of a rare occurrence today: I don’t often have a guest return to the podcast for a second interview. In fact, I think it’s only happened once before! But when my friend Petra Fisher messaged me to say basically: “Hey, I had a ball when I was a guest last time — my focus has shifted a bit now and I talk even more about values and purpose, would you have me back for a second round as YOU seem...

—Oh, you’re so creative, can you just whip up this [pretty design] for me? —If you can just play around with some sketches, it probably won’t take you long! —You work in marketing, right? —I need someone to draw this for me, and I know you’re into artsy stuff so… The other day, as I was chatting with a potential client, it dawned on me that; to someone who isn’t in my line of business; branding, d...

For this episode, I am joined by Rachael Cumberland-Dodd, an ex-corporate marketer turned niche-whisperer. She loves helping do-good business owners get to the heart of what they do, why they do it, and for whom, so they can market their mission with more ease, and less urgh! Today, I’ve invited Rachael to share a conversation with me on a topic that sits right in the intersection of brand strateg...

In this episode, I have the pleasure of introducing you to Rachel Allen.  Rachel is the owner of Bolt from the Blue Copywriting, where she and her team make words make money. She loves mixing the neuroscience of communication with the art of great writing to create the words and strategies that make it possible for businesses to take the cap off their income, impact, and influence. Ultimately, all...

Authenticity. It’s unfortunately become a bit of a buzzword in the branding world, and that is a pet peeve of mine! Because so many companies have been misusing authenticity as a marketing gimmick to appeal to people’s yearning for something genuine, trustworthy, sincere products and experiences, “authentic” no longer carries the same meaning as it used to.  So now, when a brand claims to be authe...

In this episode I want to dig deeper into a topic I emailed my list about a couple of weeks back, and I want to challenge you to ask yourself: are you falling into the trap of building a shallow brand? I want to make it clear: I’m not implying that you, as a person, are shallow! Firstly: I don’t think you’d be listening to this podcast if you were, tbh. I would have scared you off a loooong time a...

With all the recent talk about artificial intelligence I thought it would be fun to “invite” ChatGPT to be my guest for a podcast episode about the importance of a human approach to branding in 2023 and beyond. I hope you appreciate the irony of the topic as much as I do 😆 Anyways: I asked ChatGPT to script an episode, and dropped a few questions into the mix along the way, and here’s the resulti...

It should come as no surprise to regular listeners that I take a very strategy-driven approach with my work. A little while back I connected with today’s guest, and as we chatted it soon became apparent that the “strategy first” approach is something we share, and that we both implement in our respective professions. Today, you’ll hear us chat about how strategy and branding come before a website...

OK, so this is exciting! And terrifying. But mostly exciting. When you're a brand designer, one of the hardest damn things in the whole world is working on your own brand! And yet, that is exactly what I've been doing for the past few months. I'm 42 today, and this is my gift to myself: a bolder, braver, and more edgy iteration of my brand. I'll be rolling it out across all my platforms and collat...

“I have done many values exercises but found absolute clarity in embracing your challenge.” That was the response from Stephanie Graham, after taking part in my Brand values, not bland values! challenge. In this episode, we get to hear how Stephanie worked through the mini course, and the difference it made in how she approaches her brand values. Stephanie is an artist, photographer, and filmmaker...

Do I have a treat of a conversation for you today? Yes, yes I do! In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Maddie Peschong — a branding photographer and coach who is obsessed with teaching creative entrepreneurs how to build a profitable business by being themselves. If you’ve been listening to this podcast, or following me on social for more than about three seconds, you know that th...

What makes us trust a brand? I know, hard to put your finger on, isn’t it? It somehow feels so… subjective and intangible. Yet, trust is one of the key ingredients in building a successful brand. If people don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. But how do you build that trust? Last week I learned something that I wanted to share with you. I attended a business related conference, and one of the...

Tune in as I chat with Suzi Gray, an online business mentor who likes her humour served dry. You can already tell this is going to be a good one, right? Suzi works with quietly ambitious coaches, consultants and creatives who want to position themselves as pioneers in their industry and radically redefine success for themselves. She's also a new mum, former lawyer, and she lives on a little marina...

You can’t rush quality. In this episode, I talk about the current obsession with instant gratification, and why it’s not a great approach to take when building a brand. I see it all the time, across all industries: people are chasing after results, and they want them NOW. “I need a full rebrand, and a full visual identity system, and some branded templates — and I need it ready to go in three week...

I'm kicking autumn off with a special client spotlight episode to highlight my Brand it! Group programme . For those of you who are new around here, Brand it! is an intimate group experience where I help you go from confusion to brand clarity → in just 12 weeks, as you discover and define your brand’s unique purpose and personality, find the confidence to own your sh*t, tap into your uniqueness to...

In this episode, we’re going to be diving into the topic of… emails! And I have invited a guest on, who is just the perfect person to teach us a thing or two about using email to boost your brand! Eman Ismail is the person to call when you want to make money from your emails.  As an email conversion strategist and copywriter, she helps 6-figure (and above!) online business owners and ecommerce bra...

Today’s episode is brought to you by throat lozenges and cough mixture, and you can probably hear why! I’ve come down with a nasty cold, so to spare my voice this episode will be short and sweet. It’s another behind the scenes episode today, where I’ll be talking about why I went back to custom proposals, when “everyone” says you need to productise and package up your service offerings in order to...

I dunno about you, but I’ve been feeling overwhelmed lately. Take the daily grind of juggling running a business with family commitments, add all the expectations to show up everywhere, be on every platform, say yes to everything… top it with the stress that builds up during a couple of years of global pandemic, and add in a war, political polarisation, looming climate changes. It’s a lot. With ev...

Welcome to another behind-the-scenes episode, where I share a glimpse behind the curtain of my own business. I’m firmly on team #keepingitreal, and I’m sick of only hearing the success stories, and nothing about the hiccups, and that’s why I want to share about some of the less glamourous things that happen in a business. In this episode I pull back the curtain on a recent setback and how I’m usin...

In this episode I’m joined by Christine Baird – a media producer who teaches small business owners how to use podcasting and YouTube to attract their dream customers. After six years in corporate sales, Christine did a career 180 and has been working in podcasting, event production, and influencer branding since 2014. She worked on Lewis Howes’ brand, The School of Greatness, for four years, where...

Welcome to the first in a behind-the-scenes series I cooked up whilst laying on my sofa feeling a bit blah because I woke up to snow and my period. You can already tell I’m going to be such an effin’ ray of sunshine today, right? Today I want to talk about my word of the year for 2022, and how that’s affected my plans and my offer suite. I want to give you a glimpse into the brain of a small busin...