How to speak your truth when you've been programmed into silence

🔥 We've all been programmed into silence in some way. Maybe you learned early that speaking up meant conflict, and conflict felt dangerous. But what kept you safe as a child is now keeping you stuck as an adult.

In this deeply personal episode, Bonnie shares her current living situation with her 87-year-old nan and how it's teaching her to navigate the challenging waters between being a reformed people pleaser and speaking her truth when it matters.

What You'll Learn:

• Why your nervous system reacts when you're about to speak your truth (and what to do about it) 
• The difference between fear-based thoughts and intuitive knowing 
• How to create safety before speaking up using nervous system regulation techniques 
• The 4-step process: Dispel energy, Ground yourself, Activate your throat chakra, Connect to your womb wisdom 
• How to handle trolls and negative feedback without losing your voice 
• Why co-regulation with safe people is essential for brave communication 
• The body signs that indicate you're about to stretch your comfort zone

Bonnie's Vulnerable Shares:

• Living in a small house with her nan, two young children, husband, and a Labrador after a devastating flood 
• Navigating difficult conversations about boundaries and space 
• Her experience going viral (4 million views) and dealing with trolls 

Key Frameworks:

• The Fear vs Intuition Test: Fear contracts and speaks dramatically; intuition expands and speaks quietly
• The 90-9-1 Rule: 90% will love your content, 9% might disagree respectfully, 1% will be unpleasant
• The Throat Chakra Activation Toolkit: Practical techniques for unblocking your voice center
• Your Troll Toolkit: 5 strategies for handling negative feedback without shutting down

Key Takeaway:

Your voice isn't just your competitive advantage - it's your pathway to freedom. The goal isn't to eliminate fear, but to feel it, create safety, and speak anyway.

🧠 New episodes drop every Tuesday

Host: Bonnie Wicks - Brand & Embodiment Coach

Connect With Bonnie:

📧 Subscribe to the substack: brandbusinessbecoming.substack.com
📱 Instagram: @thebonniewicks
🌐 Website: thebonniewicks.com

Love the show?

Leave a review and share with someone who needs permission to use their voice. Tag @thebonniewicks and let her know which part of finding safety to use your voice feels most challenging for you.

Your voice matters. The world is waiting for what only you can say.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Copywriting (And How to Fix Them)

Why your copy isn't converting - and the exact framework to double your revenue

🔥 The most expensive copywriting lesson I ever learned? Thinking my luxury candles would sell themselves because they had "premium specifications." Wrong. Dead wrong.

I was selling features when I should have been selling feelings. I was listing specifications when I should have been painting moments. And I was committing the deadliest sin in copywriting - focusing on logic while completely ignoring emotion.

What You'll Learn:

• Sin #1: Vagueness - Why "unlock your potential" copy converts nobody (plus the One-Question Test)
• Sin #2: Overcomplication - The psychology of choice and why the 3-3-3 Rule saves sales
• Sin #3: Self-Obsession - How to make your customer the hero (not your business)
• Sin #4: Emotional Disconnection - The 3 buying triggers that drive 95% of decisions
• Sin #5: Trust Desert - Building your Trust Pyramid™ in a scam-saturated world
• Sin #6: Weak CTAs - The formula for calls-to-action that actually convert
• Sin #7: Copy in a Silo - Why great copy dies without design and strategy integration

Key Takeaway:

Copy isn't just about words on a page - it's about creating meaningful connections that serve your audience and your objectives. The cure isn't perfection; it's awareness.

The CONVERT Method Framework:

• C - Clarify the one thing you want them to do
• O - Outcome-focused messaging
• N - Numbers and specifics
• V - Value the customer's perspective
• E - Emotion before logic
• R - Risk removal
• T - Test and optimise

🔥 Ready to turn your copy from cricket-inducing to conversion-crushing?

Brand + Messaging VIP Day - Transform your messaging using the exact framework from this episode.

Investment: $1,111 AUD | Only 4 spots per month

Book: DM @thebonniewicks on Instagram Or find more info here: Brand + Messaging VIP DAY

Your 7-Day Copy Audit Challenge:

• Day 1: Run the One-Question Test on your homepage
• Day 2: Apply the 3-3-3 Rule to your main service page
• Day 3: Count your "I/we" vs "you/your" ratio
• Day 4: Identify your primary emotional trigger
• Day 5: Audit your Trust Pyramid
• Day 6: Rewrite your main CTA using the formula
• Day 7: Check one piece of copy across all touchpoints for consistency

Connect: 📧 Substack 📱 @thebonniewicks 🌐 thebonniewicks.com

Love the show? Leave a review and share with a fellow entrepreneur ready to stop committing copy sins.

From Cult Programming to Authentic Voice: Breaking Free, Speaking Up, and Living Fully

How to deprogram limiting beliefs, trust your intuition, and build a business that serves your life

🔥 "Growing up in a cult, you are not allowed to speak about the cult in a disparaging way. They tell you that if you leave and you speak bad about it, that you'll be thought of as dead. That is the ultimate sin. There is no coming back for that."

What does it take to go from this level of programmed silence to becoming someone who helps others find their authentic voice? Today's guest, Courtney Wilder, has made this exact transformation - and her insights about programming, deprogramming, and authentic expression will change how you think about using your voice in business and life.

What You'll Learn:

• How abandonment wounds show up in business (and why they keep you small)
• The difference between you and your business as separate entities in relationship
• Courtney's Four Cups methodology for sustainable capacity building
• Why coercive control language exists everywhere (not just in cults)
• How to practice co-regulation as a powerful healing tool
• The difference between being a victim and having victim mentality
• Why expanding wide (not going deeper) creates lasting transformation
• Practical tools for navigating fear in your body while still taking action

Courtney's Incredible Journey:

From growing up in a cult where speaking out meant social death, to becoming an intuitive coach who helps others crack open and trust themselves. Her story is proof that our deepest wounds can become our greatest gifts when we're willing to do the work.

The Four Cups Framework:

Emotional capacity, physical capacity, mental capacity, and energetic capacity - and why understanding which cup needs filling changes everything about how you rest, work, and show up.

Key Takeaway:

You are not your business. You are in a relationship with your business. When you stop expecting your business to provide all your purpose, fulfilment, and joy, both you and your business can thrive.

About Courtney Wilder:

Courtney is an intuitive life and business coach, astrologer, and author who helps people come home to themselves through embodiment, pattern recognition, and following the breadcrumbs of joy and pleasure. She specialises in helping people deprogram from limiting beliefs and expand their capacity to hold the full spectrum of human experience.

Connect with Courtney:

📱 Instagram: @seekingwilder (her favourite platform!)
🌐 Website: seekingwilder.com
📧 Substack: Courtney's Substack
📖 Book: "Words to Experience" - available wherever books are sold

The Soul Seeker Society: Join the waitlist for Courtney's transformational membership currently in its phoenix rebuild phase

Connect With Me:

📧 Substack
📱 @thebonniewicks
🌐 thebonniewicks.com

Ready to deprogram your business and build authentic capacity?

Three Days to Transform Your Life (And Why I Don't Believe in Being 'Ahead')

The simple structure that creates space, expansion, and freedom in your business and life

🔥 Hot take: The goal isn't progress, it's expansion—expanding ourselves to feel and hold more humanness.

Forget everything you've been told about productivity, getting ahead, and being 1% better every day. What if the secret to a lighter, more spacious life wasn't about doing more, but about doing things differently?

After implementing this three-day framework into my business and life, I've felt more grounded, expanded, and free than ever before. And it has nothing to do with being "ahead" of anyone else.

What You'll Learn:

• Why I don't believe we can ever be "ahead" of someone else (and why that's liberating)
• The hidden cost of constant task-switching and multitasking
• My three-day framework: Admin Day, Implement Day, Digital Detox Day
• How to cycle sync your business for maximum energy alignment
• Why taking a day OFF actually increases your revenue
• The ripple effects of working WITH your natural rhythms instead of against them
• How to create space for expansion instead of just productivity

The Three-Day Framework:

Admin Day - Batch all your small, non-urgent tasks into one focused day. Sync with luteal phase for natural organisation energy.

Implement Day - Dedicate one day monthly to learning AND immediately implementing new skills. Stop consuming without action.

Digital Detox Day - Complete disconnection from devices and business. Sync with menstruation for natural introspection and perspective.

The Uncomfortable Truth:

Research shows multitasking can reduce productivity by up to 40%. We're fragmenting our attention with small tasks all day, every day. The average person checks their phone 96 times daily—once every 10 minutes.

This isn't sustainable. It's the fast track to burnout and wondering why your business feels like a prison instead of freedom.

Key Takeaway:

Worth isn't tied to productivity or being "ahead." Our worth is intrinsic. The goal is creating a life that feels expansive, aligned, and deeply satisfying—not optimising yourself into a productivity machine.

My Personal Story:

How two hours pulling weeds in the sunshine after the worst month of my life reminded me that expansion comes from stepping outside our normal box and remembering there's a whole universe beyond our phones and problems.

🔥 Ready to create more space and expansion in your business and life?

Brand + Messaging VIP Day - Let's design a business that works WITH your energy cycles and natural rhythms, not against them.

Investment: $1,111 AUD | Only 4 spots per month

Book: DM @thebonniewicks on Instagram
Or find more info here: Brand + Messaging VIP DAY

Connect:
📧 Substack
📱 @thebonniewicks
🌐 thebonniewicks.com

Next Week: Episode 8 - The 7 Deadly Sins of Copywriting

Love the show? Leave a review and share with a fellow entrepreneur ready to stop chasing productivity and start creating expansion.

The Golden Thread: Why Traditional Niching is Dead (And What Actually Works)

The framework that lets you be multi-passionate AND wildly profitable

🔥 The uncomfortable truth: Traditional niching advice is keeping multi-passionate entrepreneurs small, confused, and constantly second-guessing themselves.

Right now, the business world is having an identity crisis about niching. Traditional gurus scream "NICHE DOWN OR DIE!" while rebels yell "YOU ARE THE NICHE!" Meanwhile, thousands of entrepreneurs are paralysed, not knowing whether to specialise or diversify.

But we're asking the wrong question. The real question isn't whether to niche or not to niche. The real question is: What's your golden thread?

What You'll Learn:

• Why traditional demographic and service niching is limiting your potential
• The McDonald's gourmet disaster (and what it teaches about brand coherence)
• How Dan Koe makes millions talking about "everything" (spoiler: it's not random)
• The Golden Thread Method that lets you be authentically multi-passionate
• Why "airy fairy" transformation words actually work better than specific demographics
• The difference between strategic authenticity and scattered authenticity
• Real examples of transformation niching in action

My Personal Story:

How my daughter's daycare meltdown reminded me why I built a business that serves my life (not the other way around) - and why this flexibility is only possible when your positioning is crystal clear.

The Game-Changing Framework:

Transformation Niching - Instead of niching by WHO you serve or WHAT you do, niche by the transformation you facilitate. Find your one golden word (Freedom, Confidence, Clarity) and weave it through everything.

Key Takeaway:

The gold isn't just in the niches. The gold is in the cohesion. You can be everything you are - you just need to know why it all connects and be intentional with what you spotlight.

🔥 Ready to discover your golden thread and create cohesive positioning that attracts premium clients?

Brand + Messaging VIP Day - We'll uncover your transformation niche and turn your multi-passionate nature into magnetic messaging that makes perfect sense.

Investment: $1,111 AUD | Only 4 spots per month

Book: DM @thebonniewicks on Instagram
Or find more info here: Brand + Messaging VIP DAY

Connect:
📧 Substack
📱 @thebonniewicks
🌐 thebonniewicks.com

Next Week: Episode 7 - Three Days to Transform Your Life And Business

Love the show? Leave a review and share with a fellow multi-passionate entrepreneur who's tired of trying to fit into someone else's niche box.

How to start imperfectly, learn publicly, and build sustainably without burning out

🔥 The uncomfortable truth: Waiting for "perfect conditions" is the most expensive business mistake you'll ever make.

While you're perfecting your sales page for three months, someone else is testing their Google doc offer and making sales. While you're investing in professional equipment before you even know if podcasting fits your life, someone else is building their audience with their phone camera.

What You'll Learn:

• Why school trained us wrong about learning (and how to unlearn perfectionism)
• The strategic difference between being shit and being sloppy
• My vulnerable confession about this very podcast
• The Consistency → Optimise → Maximise → Repeat framework that changes everything
• Why stopping isn't always quitting (and when it's actually smart business)
• How to test fast and learn fast without burning out
• Real examples of when "strategic shit" beats perfection

My Honest Confession:

In six months, I'll probably cringe at this episode's audio quality. And that's exactly why we needed to have this conversation.

Key Takeaway:

The real risk isn't starting imperfectly. The real risk is never starting because you're waiting for conditions that may never come. Your ideal clients want authenticity and value, not perfection.

🔥 Ready to start imperfectly and learn as you go?

Brand + Messaging VIP Day - Let's find your authentic voice and turn it into magnetic messaging, even if you're still figuring things out.

Investment: $1,111 AUD | Only 4 spots per month

Book: DM @thebonniewicks on Instagram
Or find more info here: Brand + Messaging VIP DAY

Connect:
📧 Substack
📱 @thebonniewicks - Insta
🌐 thebonniewicks.com

Next Week: Episode 6 - The Death of Niching

Love the show? Leave a review and share with a fellow entrepreneur who's ready to stop waiting for perfect and start creating with courage.

Permission granted. Ready to rise?

WTF is Messaging (And Why It's Your Secret Weapon)
The spotlight strategy that turns strangers into superfans

🔥 The most expensive messaging mistake I see entrepreneurs make? They think messaging is just their Instagram captions or website copy. But that's like thinking branding is just your logo.

What You'll Learn:

• What messaging ACTUALLY is (hint: it's not what you think) 
• Why messaging vs. niching confusion is costing you clients 
• The 3-pillar framework for multi-passionate entrepreneurs 
• My mountain analogy that makes everything click 
• The accordion strategy for testing what resonates 
• How to manage your "spotlight" strategically

Key Takeaway:

Messaging isn't about choosing one thing and abandoning everything else. It's about being strategic with your spotlight in a world full of noise.

🔥 Ready to stop scattered spotlights and start attracting dream clients?

Brand + Messaging VIP Day - Nail your messaging and become magnetic to your ideal clients.

Investment: $1,111 AUD | Only 2 VIP spots available next month

Book: DM @thebonniewicks on Instagram
Or find more info here: Brand + Messaging VIP DAY

Connect:
📧 Substack
📱 @thebonniewicks
🌐 thebonniewicks.com

Next Week: Episode 5 - TBA

Love the show? Leave a review and share with a fellow entrepreneur ready to stop playing messaging roulette.

Ready to rise? 

How to rewire your mental operating system for unstoppable success

🔥 That voice in your head saying you're not enough? It's not random self-doubt. It's your self-image doing exactly what it's programmed to do: keep you "safe" from stepping outside your current identity.

What You'll Learn:

• Why your self-image acts like a thermostat controlling your success ceiling 
• The two competing systems in your brain (and how to choose which runs the show) 
• My vulnerable Bali story
• The 5-step Identity Expansion Framework you can use immediately 
• Why failure mechanisms are actually divine redirections asking for change

Key Takeaway:

You will always act like the person you conceive yourself to be. Change your self-image, change your results.

🔥 Ready to upgrade your internal operating system?

Brand + Messaging VIP Day - Align your external brand with your expanded internal identity.

Investment: $1,111 AUD | Only 4 spots per month

Book: DM @thebonniewicks on Instagram
Or directly at VIP Day

Connect: 📧 Substack
📱 @thebonniewicks
🌐 thebonniewicks.com

Next Week: Episode 4 - "WTF is Messaging (And Why It's Your Secret Weapon)"

Love the show? Leave a review and share with a fellow entrepreneur ready to stop sabotaging their success.

Ready to rise?

 Business Is Personal (Whether You Like It Or Not)

Why treating business like it's separate from who you are kills growth

🔥 The uncomfortable truth nobody wants to talk about: Your nervous system determines your business capacity more than any strategy ever will.

Most business advice treats you like a machine that needs optimisation. Input strategy, output results. Follow this blueprint, get that outcome. Scale faster, hustle harder, optimise everything.

But here's what they're missing: You're not a machine. You're a human with a nervous system, values, life circumstances, and a unique way of moving through the world.

And when you try to force yourself into a business model that doesn't honour who you actually are, two things happen: Either the business fails, or you do.

What You'll Discover:

• Why your nervous system is your secret business weapon (and how to work WITH it, not against it)
• The real reason successful businesses feel empty - and what to do about it
• My complete entrepreneurial journey: from BAS agent to candle maker to copywriter to this
• How to identify the difference between growth challenges and drain challenges
• Why your capacity determines your ceiling (and how to expand it authentically)
• The 4 nervous system states that sabotage your success
• How to design your business for your worst days, not your best days

My Story Includes:

• Why I crashed and burned multiple times (and what I learned each time)
• The candle business that taught me about authentic differentiation
• How becoming a primary parent changed my entire business model
• The energy mismatch that forced me to shut down a profitable copywriting business
• Why I've seen EVERYTHING work for someone, somewhere

Key Takeaway:

There is no universal right way to build a business. There's only the right way for you, right now, in this season of your life. Your business should enhance your life, not consume it.

🔥 READY TO BUILD A BUSINESS THAT HONOURS YOUR ENERGY?

Tired of fighting against your nervous system and ready to work WITH it?

My Brand + Messaging VIP Day isn't just about discovering your magnetic voice - it's about creating messaging and positioning that aligns with your actual capacity and energy. We'll uncover what lights you up AND what drains you, then build a brand that works with your nervous system, not against it.

What you'll walk away with: 
✨ Your Brand Soul Word and core essence that feels authentically YOU 
✨ Messaging that attracts dream clients without burning you out 
✨ A business model assessment that honours your current season of life 
✨ Capacity-aligned strategy that supports sustainable growth ✨ Your signature perspective and frameworks that set you apart

Investment: $1,111 AUD

Ready to stop fighting yourself and start building something that actually fits your life?
DM me on Instagram @thebonniewicks with any questions
Or book your VIP day now - we only accept 4 spots a month

🎧 New episodes drop every Tuesday

Host: Bonnie Wicks - Brand & Embodiment Coach

Coming Next Week:

Episode 3: "The Identity Expansion That Changes Everything" - How to grow your business by growing yourself, without losing yourself in the process

Love the show?

Leave a review and share with a fellow entrepreneur who's ready to stop fighting their nervous system and start working with it. 

Your business should enhance your life, not consume it. Ready to rise? Let's light it up.

Why personal branding has never been more important (and what most people get wrong about it)

🔥 In an age where AI can generate "perfect" copy in seconds, your authentic voice has become your ultimate competitive advantage.

We're living through the biggest shift in content creation since the printing press. While everyone's debating whether AI is good or bad, I'm watching something fascinating happen: personal branding has exploded. Google searches are up 300% since 2020, and 92% of people now trust individual creators more than traditional brands.

What You'll Discover:

• Why AI is making personal branding MORE important, not less
• The 3 misconceptions keeping brilliant entrepreneurs small
• Why "branding is for big businesses" is the mindset that keeps small businesses small
• How to build brand coherence across every touchpoint (not just complete a workbook)
• Why traditional funnels are dead and what's replaced them
• The Personal Brand Funnel Blueprint - my proprietary 4-element system for building magnetic authority

The 4 Elements That Build Upon Each Other:

Brand Essence - Your gravitational centre (the unchanging truth at your core)
Brand Expression - How your essence comes to life in communication
Brand Edge - What makes you impossible to ignore
Brand Ecosystem - How it all works together as your funnel

Key Takeaway:

Your brand isn't something you build around your business. Your brand IS your business. When someone resonates with your authentic voice, your unique perspective, your way of seeing and solving problems, the actual mechanics of selling become almost irrelevant.

🔥 READY TO DISCOVER YOUR MAGNETIC BRAND?

Want to uncover your Brand Essence, nail your Expression, sharpen your Edge, and build your Ecosystem in just 4 hours?

My Brand + Messaging VIP Day is where phoenixes rise from the ashes of "shoulds" and borrowed strategies. In one intensive session, we'll excavate your authentic voice and turn it into magnetic messaging that makes premium clients obsessed with your work.

What you'll walk away with: 
✨ Your Brand Soul Word and core essence 
✨ Authentic positioning that makes you THE obvious choice 
✨ Voice and tone guidelines that sound unmistakably like YOU 
✨ Your signature perspective and proprietary frameworks

Investment: $1,111 AUD

Ready to burn what's false and rise into your magnetic authority?
Book your VIP DAY here - Only 4 spots per month
DM me on Instagram @thebonniewicks for any questions x

🎧 New episodes drop every Tuesday

Host: Bonnie Wicks - Brand & Embodiment Coach 

Connect With Bonnie:

📧 Subscribe to the substack:https://brandbusinessbecoming.substack.com/about
📱 Instagram: @thebonniewicks
🌐 Website: https://thebonniewicks.com/home

Mentioned in This Episode:

• The Personal Brand Funnel Blueprint
• Why coherence beats completion in branding
• Examples from my candle business days

Coming Next Week:

Episode 2: "Business Is Personal (Whether You Like It Or Not)" - Why treating business like it's separate from who you are kills growth

Love the show?

Leave a review and share with a fellow entrepreneur who's ready to stop hiding and start rising.

Ready to burn what's false and rise in your truth? Let's light it up.