The Speak Easy Podcast

Crying is important. As babies, we’re not yet equipped with useful tools such as words, so crying is how we communicate our needs. And boy does it do the trick. Even as tweens, teens, and adults, crying remains a vital form of communication. Sad cries, ugly cries, tears of frustration, and tears of joy — they're all part of what makes us beautifully human. Crying even provides physical and emotion...

We’re happy to be joined by Chief Strategy Officer Amanda Blondeau from Northern Initiatives — a nonprofit, Community Development Financial Institution. They work with businesses that can’t get access to traditional financing and provide them with coaching and support that small businesses don’t get from typical lenders. According to the Small Business Administration, 49% of people in Michigan wor...

“Your ego is showing” is a phrase uttered when someone is getting a little too full of themselves. Or in other words, a little too egotistical. Ego, on the other hand, is simply your sense of self. Everyone has one and as long as we’re cognizant of it, we can use it to be inspirational leaders, collaborative team members, and overall good humans. The pretty side of ego is often overlooked, so join...

As parents, the last thing we want to do is raise entitled people. The kind of people who never clean up after themselves and expect the red carpet to unfold everywhere they go. As employers, the last thing we want to do is work with entitled people. The kind of employees and clients that have a “me, me, me!” mindset. Most commonly, these types of people are the products of helicopter parents. Or...

100 rapid fire questions for our 100th episode. We’re talking everything from mom jeans to aliens to weird food combinations. (Jen’s is really weird.) (Honestly, Karen’s is too.) To be fair, we do dabble in some industry-related questions and heavier topics, but mostly we learned a lot of new interesting things about each other — and ourselves. Thank you for listening to 100 episodes of our musing...

We all have one. That potential hire with a stunning resume and agreeable ethos. The one that you just need in your organization. Sometimes, it’s a client — a project or bid that your organization didn’t get. For whatever reason, it just doesn’t work out. Such is business. Whether they’re a potential hire or client, the one that got away can be more than just a faded photograph on your dresser. If...

Our first jobs humble us. They teach us humility and hard work and help us decide where we want to end up down the line. The lessons we learn from our first jobs are skills we still use to this day. So, what were our first jobs? This episode, we're delving into the past and chat about the first jobs we ever worked. From cashiers to camp counselors, we've done a lot of odd jobs between the two of u...

This week we're welcoming a friend, advocate, and fierce feminist to our show: Barb Byrum, Ingham County Clerk. Barb has worked as state representative for the 67th District and is now serving as the Ingham County Clerk. Barb is also a champion for advocacy, and officiated the first same-sex marriage in the state of Michigan While we’ve known Barb for years through our children all attending the s...

Creating a brand and launching a brand are exciting and important moments for your business. They present opportunities to elevate your work, change direction if necessary, and take new steps forward. But these monumental and transitional tasks require a strategic approach. What's the difference between new brand creation and the actual brand launch? How can we think outside the box when it comes...

Freelancers have become increasingly popular in the creative industry. Not only are clients relying on them more, but agencies also outsource to freelancers in order to offer additional services to contracted clients. Freelancers often offer a niche skill set for work that is completed on a limited timeline, while agencies have the capacity to take on larger scale projects and offer a broader rang...

From Sesame Street, to cooking videos on YouTube, or even the information you get from TikTok, educational entertainment is all around us. It's become a staple for educating people young and old, and is also a great way for organizations to get their own messages across. So, how can your brand or company's edutainment stand out in a sea of content? This Strategy Series, Karen discusses the ins and...

The last year has been a case study in how fatigue and boredom have a ripple effect across every area of our lives: at work, at home, and with our families. Most of us have battled with both of these feelings, whether we were aware of it or not. The pandemic and work from home life brought with it a new kind of monotony, and after a year of being confined to a very limited number of safe activitie...

rning and perfecting our work-life balance every day, while trying to push ourselves and our careers to continue to grow. Alignment isn't something in our lives that happens overnight. It can take decades of hard work and learning to achieve. Luckily, for the first time in a long time, Karen has found that balance for herself and her business. While this past year presented countless challenges, K...

Brand awareness goes beyond big-name products and companies — it reaches to the neighborhoods we live in and the streets we walk. When you can find a way to harness strategic branding to your advantage, you're able to sell anything. And a strong city brand makes for an even stronger city. Beyond consistency and cohesiveness, building a strong brand for a city helps build awareness. It helps establ...

Habits are psychological patterns that we form over time through repetition in our daily lives. Whether we notice it or not, the work we do each day contributes to our good and not-so-good habits. Our habits could be as simple as taking a daily vitamin, or more complex like procrastinating on a deadline. Addressing all of our habits gives us more awareness and insight as we move forward. It's impo...

We've all heard the age old adage, "Curiosity killed the cat." Still, as entrepreneurs, we're familiar with the addition to the phrase: "But satisfaction brought it back." Sure, there are risks that come along with being inquisitive. But there is true satisfaction (and, ultimately, success) in asking the hard questions and keeping our curiosity alive. In this Strategy Series, Karen explores the po...

We hear a lot about the "creative industry" — but what makes a certain business, team, or idea "creative"? Creativity is as subjective as we make it, and it manifests itself in many forms. For one, creativity is how we foster innovative work environments amongst our staff. We want to grow our team's creativity, while ensuring that they know the end goal and boundaries of the client. But this can b...

When creating a new brand identity, it's important to keep your end goal top-of-mind. From brainstorming a brand name to designing a logo and tying it all together on a shiny new website, a new brand is a multi-faceted process — and all the while, it is imperative not to get swept up in the process and lose sight of the client's broader goal. At the end of the day, a brand is more than clarifying...

What makes you happy? Is it finishing a project you've been working hard on? Giving a gift to a loved one? Reading a good book on a rainy day? Or, is it even more subtle than that? To us, happiness is something we can practice in our day-to-day lives. Joy can often feel elusive; unfortunately, we aren't always conscious of the moments that make us feel happy when we're in them. With that in mind,...

Working in a client-based industry means that, first and foremost, we are problem solvers. Our clients come to us with specific goals, visions, or a problems to be solved, and it is our job to deliver a successful end product that does just that. Our ability to create the best product possible means working in the most efficient and effective manner we can, while also staying realistic about clien...

We know credibility as the foundation of trust. In all areas of life, it is so important to be known for delivering on our promises: your staff needs to believe in you, your clients need to trust you, your friends and family need to depend on you. And while all of that is important and at the face of being credible, credibility runs much deeper than that. Credibility is established over time, and...

n her nomination acceptance speech, Vice President Kamala Harris shared some moving words that stuck with us: "While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities." We thought Inauguration Day would be a fitting time to break into this beast of a topic, the glass ceiling, and all of the nuance...

Our senses are directly linked to memory. That's why some of the most iconic brands in the world are attached to sounds (PlayStation's startup sound), taste (Olive Garden's mints), and scent (Delta Airlines). Our senses help us remember hyper-specific factors of a situation, thus cementing a brand in one's long-term memory. As marketers and business owners, it only makes sense that we would want t...

Working your way up from an entry-level job all the way to CEO sounds like a dream come true — but professional success doesn't happen overnight. We're thrilled to kick off the new year with an episode featuring our special guest April Clobes, president and CEO of Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU). April is proof that success comes from inner strength, community-mindedness, a...

The holidays might look different this year, but that doesn't mean you can't still celebrate. This week, we wanted to wish all of our listeners a happy holiday season and give you all the tools you need to make a special holiday cocktail in this festive minisode. We've almost made it to the end of 2020 and that feels celebratory in its own right. This year has been nonstop start to finish, and eve...