This Might Get Creative -With Brand Strategist & Creative Director Svenja Lyon

Caroline Benefield wrote a cozy fantasy series, won best manuscript at a writing conference, and had agents asking for more. Then she realized writing was healing her, not building her career. She founded Southern Grit Digital, a marketing consultancy for women-led businesses, and leaned into the part of her brain she'd ignored for years: data and testing. In this episode she talks about knowing w...

Sarah Mariano built The Stretch Therapists into a global certification company while traveling the world as a digital nomad. Then she made a decision that most founders dread: she stepped back from being the face of the brand she had built from scratch. Not because things were falling apart. Because she had a bigger goal in mind.   In this episode: •       Why stepping back as the face of your bra...

Episode 33. Dan Keller runs George J. Keller and Sons, a third-generation family roofing, siding, and windows company in Flanders, NJ. For the past three years, private equity firms have been offering family-owned roofing companies 15 times EBITDA to sell out and roll into a national conglomerate. Dan said no. We talk about what changes the day after a family company gets bought, the marketing pla...

In this episode, I sit down with Katie Dooley, founder of Paper Lime Creative in Edmonton, Canada, to talk about what branding really is, why a logo is the wrong place to start, and why consistency matters more than pretty design. Katie has been running her brand strategy and print studio for almost a decade, working with service-based businesses past the startup phase. We dig into the wedding pho...

Search is changing in real time, and most business owners are still optimizing for the version that doesn't exist anymore. Jacki DeVries spent 15+ years in digital marketing (including time alongside Neil Patel's team) before she pivoted her business from FireUp SEO to FireUp AIO last year. The shift came after a conversation with CTOs telling her that visibility would no longer be about rankings....

In this episode, I sit down with Andrea Klunder, founder of The Creative Impostor Studios, to talk about what podcasting really does for a business when it is working, and why so many shows stall out before they start delivering. Andrea has spent over a decade producing podcasts for arts organizations, cultural institutions, and changemakers, and she has watched the industry shift from "how do I s...

Katie Eberman went from corporate admin work to stay-at-home mom to virtual assistant to web designer, and she built every part of that path by paying attention to what she actually loved doing. Today she runs Simply by Katie, designing Squarespace sites and writing copy for women in business, specifically the helpers: therapists, coaches, mortgage brokers, real estate agents. Her whole approach c...

Most marketing isn’t failing because of bad ideas — it’s failing because marketing and leadership aren’t speaking the same language. Mari-Liis Vaher learned that the hard way, standing in front of a bank CEO with a polished digital report and no answer to the question: “How does any of this help me grow my business?” That moment changed the direction of her career. In this episode, Mari-Liis break...

Howard Rudin spent 13 years cooking in New York City kitchens before trading his chef's knife for a tape measure and walking into the family conveyor belting business. Thirty years later, he's keeping production lines running for commercial bakeries, pharmaceutical companies, cosmetic manufacturers, and a snack chip brand that went viral on TikTok. In this episode, Howard talks about what it actua...

Julia DeWolfe is a CBT-informed business coach and founder of Off The Record, a 1:1 coaching program for women in service and expertise-based businesses. She works with clients through Voxer — in real time, not waiting for the next scheduled call — to help them untangle the beliefs running their decisions and build a business that fits their brain. In this episode, Julia walks through how cognitiv...

Faith Morris moved back to the U.S. from Australia in 2023 with two kids under two, no local community, and a husband starting a stone masonry business from scratch. Within six months, that business turned profitable. Within a year of launching her own operations consultancy, she hit six figures. She did both with what she calls a minimal marketing plan.   In this episode, Faith breaks down exactl...

Most leadership tools tell you what to do. Chemp.ai lets you practice. Susanne Drews spent 15 years in middle management across media, IT, and healthcare, and she built this app because she lived the problem herself. Now she's an AI educator based in Malaga, Spain, helping leaders show up with more empathy and a lot less stress.   In this episode we talk about: •       Why the middle manager posit...

AI content is everywhere right now, and we all know it. Polished, perfect, and somehow completely forgettable. In this solo episode, Svenja Lyon digs into why authentic brand voice is the thing that’s actually cutting through in 2026, and what it really means to develop one that sounds like you.   In this episode: •       Why AI-generated content is creating a trust and engagement collapse, and wh...

Diana Friedman found a journal from 1987 — she was in her twenties — where she had written that she wanted to run writing retreats for women. Decades later, she's doing exactly that: in the Basque Pyrenees of Spain, the Pocono foothills of Pennsylvania, and the mountains of Maryland. And she brought her longtime friend Valerie Berton along for the ride.   Together, Diana and Val are the co-founder...

What happens when you spend 16 years helping the world’s biggest brands find their voice — and then realize you’ve lost touch with your own?   In this episode of This Might Get Creative, I sit down with Eric Vasquez — a ProMax Award-winning Key Art Designer and Design Director based in New York City. Over a 16-year in-house career, Eric crafted high-profile campaigns for NBC, SYFY, Oxygen, Major L...

What does it take to build a culturally immersive travel company from scratch — no investors, no elaborate business plan, just a beach playdate and a shared passion?   In this episode of This Might Get Creative, I sit down with Amanda Cisneros and Kelsey Wilson, the co-founders of Travec — a family travel and immersive travel company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Travec specializes in group and...

Brand photographer Nicole Bedard has spent 16 years helping makers, artists, and designers turn their creative process into visual storytelling that attracts aligned clients. In this episode, she gets into why showing only the finished product is leaving money on the table — and exactly what to do instead.   In this episode: •       Why process content builds more trust than polished final shots •...

Ever wonder why some businesses look like a million-dollar operation while others — offering the exact same service — seem forgettable? The answer almost always comes down to branding. In this solo episode, Lyon Creatives founder Svenja walks through the real difference between a logo and a full brand identity — and why confusing the two is one of the most expensive mistakes a service business own...

In this powerful episode, host Svenja Lyon sits down with  Michele Schalin , mental fitness coach and author, for an inspiring conversation about what it truly means to thrive in today's high-pressure world. Michele brings deep insight into the connection between our inner world and outer performance — exploring why emotional resilience isn't just a "nice to have," but an essential skill for moder...

In this episode, Svenja Lyon and Nicoline Huizinga delve into the concept of authenticity in business and marketing, exploring how human design can serve as a tool for self-discovery and alignment. They discuss the challenges entrepreneurs face in being authentic, especially in the context of social media, and the importance of finding marketing strategies that resonate with individual energy type...

In this episode, I sit down with  Sarika Sake , founder of  The Sarika , to talk about reinvention, cultural preservation, and building a business rooted in identity. Sarika began her career at the United Nations and never imagined she would leave that world. But what started as an unexpected love for sake during a family trip turned into a mission: preserving Japan’s 2,000-year-old sake tradition...

In this episode of  This Might Get Creative – A Behind the Brand Podcast , I’m joined by  Ali Meehan , founder of  Costa Women . Ali shares how Costa Women began as a way to find connection after moving to Spain and grew into a global community of women from 137 nationalities. We talk about networking as a lifestyle, collaboration over competition, and the importance of mentorship and shared exper...

In this episode of  This Might Get Creative – A Behind the Brand Podcast , I sit down with  La'Zendra Danforth , CEO of  Studio D Meetings & Events  and founder of  Konfetti Carts . We talk about turning creative ideas into profitable businesses, building premium brands rooted in experience, and the role community and visibility play in long-term growth. La’Zendra shares how emotion-driven mar...

In this episode of  This Might Get Creative – A Behind the Brand Podcast , I’m joined by  Tayler Cusick Hollman , founder of  Enji , to talk about what marketing really looks like when you’re a small business owner doing it all yourself. We dig into Enji’s  State of Small Business Report  and unpack what the data reveals about effort vs. results, why so many business owners struggle with marketing...

Finding your niche can feel overwhelming—especially when you’re capable of doing a lot of things well. In this episode of  Behind the Brand , host Svenja Lyon sits down with Becky Imbimbo, founder of  The Always Busy Mama  and  The Always Busy Mama Consulting , to talk about what it really takes to move from chaos to clarity. Becky shares her journey from launching a handmade jewelry business duri...