Freedom Friendly Business

Full show notes at: https://www.josephinebrooks.co.uk/podcast 

I’m super excited to share this week’s episode, which is a chat with the wonderful Hannah Bullivant. Not only is she an incredible stylist, writer and mum of two but she also has a big place in her heart for planning, which started with The Life book. Hannah’s Life Book, which she now shares as a course and series of printables on her website, started life as a process her and her husband went through each year to figure out where they wanted their lives to go and how they were going to get there. Something Hannah’s discovered over the 10+ years she’s now been ‘life booking’ is how kindness and self-empathy can play a huge role in helping us make realistic plans and reach our goals (or to turn around that traditional concept of ‘failure’ if we don’t).

The other thing Hannah is passionate about when it comes to planning is planning for imperfect people, AKA anyone who feels like that don’t have their shit together, is a mum raising children, is someone struggling with their mental or physical health, the list goes on. Because in fact, we’re all imperfect in our own way and there’s lots we can learn from Hannah’s approach to planning for work and life, lots of which she shares in this episode.

You can follow us both on Instagram here @hanbullivant and @JosephinePBrooks

Full show notes and links at: https://www.josephinebrooks.co.uk/podcast 

In this mentoring episode I’m talking about making a product launch plan with artist and scientist Agnes Becker from We Are Stardust. Agnes has been running her business as a side-hustle since 2016 and she’s now juggling it alongside looking after her 18month year old daughter and doing some freelance work as well.

Agnes has a lot on her plate so understandably she often struggles to find enough time to work on her creative business which results in sporadic new product launches which are also sometimes a little last minute.

We look at introducing a launching cycle in her business to create a routine that will help her plan ahead more effectively and keep launching seasonal card designs and prints each quarter. We also talk through making a 12-week plan for the following few months to help embed this new seasonal routine.

You can follow us both on Instagram @wearestardustuk and @josephinepbrooks 

In this episode I’m chatting with writing coach, speaker and author of two books Greta Solomon. Greta’s mission is to help people better express themselves through their writing. 

Her latest book; Heart, Sass and Soul, journal your way to inspiration and happiness is the result of what she’s learned about writing from her career in journalism to training people in writing for business to what she does now as a writing coach through her workshops, programmes and books. It’s a complete guide to expressing yourself through your writing and that’s what we’re chatting about in this episode. Greta also shares some super practical exercises to help you boost your confidence with writing and blogging and help you express yourself better.

This episode turned unto a bit of a writing therapy session for me! But I’m know that my struggles with writing aren’t unique at all and I know there’s lots in this episode than can help anyone express themselves better through writing and blogging.

Full Shownotes at: https://www.josephinebrooks.co.uk/podcast

You can follow us both on Instagram here @greta.solomon and @JosephinePBrooks

In this episode I’m chatting with Kat Horrocks who is a women’s life coach based in Manchester. The ethos behind everything she does (and has done in the past, which we get into in this episode) is to empower women to put themselves first and make more time for themselves. Something that, I think it’s safe to say, most women struggle with.

In our chat we talk quite a bit about listening to and acting on your intuition. Kat took a big leap of faith in her intuition with she starting her business and has been using her gut instinct to guide her business journey ever since. 

Full Shownotes at: https://www.josephinebrooks.co.uk/podcast

You can follow us both on Instagram here @Kat_Horrocks and @JosephinePBrooks

Ingrid set up her own legal consulting business just over 12 months ago after nearly 10 years of working as a commercial lawyer. She was looking for a way to continue doing her work after having children, in a way that would give her the flexibility to raise a family. This is where she discovered her passion for helping other small businesses and parent-run businesses with their legal documentation like privacy policies, partnership agreements and terms and conditions. Ingrid clears away the fog and fear that comes with the legalities of growing a business and puts it all into plain English. 

In this episode Ingrid and I are chatting about what you can do if your work gets copied and, better still, what you can do to prevent it getting copied. Whether that’s having copy or images taken from your website, another small business copying your work or having one of your designs copied by a big retailer. Ingrid takes us through all of the options for dealing with having your work copied and advises on what you can do to prevent that happening in the first place. 

Full Shownotes at: https://www.josephinebrooks.co.uk/podcast 

You can follow us both on Instagram here @decanddash and @JosephinePBrooks

Full Show Notes at: https://www.josephinebrooks.co.uk/podcast

You can follow us both on Instagram here @ochreandflax and @JosephinePBrooks

Jo’s experienced what it’s like to run a business the busy way, working all hours and weekends with no sign of let up. Jo and her family decided it was time to make a conscious shift to a slower and simpler life.

It wasn’t just her lifestyle that changed but also the way that she was working (as we discuss in this episode, the two are very much tied together when you run your own business from home). With Jo’s business now, Ochre & Flax she’s taken the slow business route and found not only a less stressful and more sustainable way to grow a business but lots of other unexpected benefits as well. That's what we're discussing in this episode and lots more on the subject of slow business and intentional living. Enjoy!

Full show notes at: josephinepbrooks.co.uk/podcast

You Can follow us both on Instagram @DanethaDoe & @JosephinePBrooks

We all have baggage and learned behaviours around the way we handle our money, in this episode Danetha and I chat about how we can create more of a healthy mindset around money that will help us to grow businesses that thrive.

• Danetha’s experiences money when she was growing up and how it contrasts with my experience growing up

• Danetha’s unique outlook on money, seeing money as self-care and voting with your dollars

• Getting to the root of your money story and figuring out what your attitudes are to money

• Looking at what attitudes and mindsets around money you’ve adopted from your parents and their parents

• How to start adjusting your money mindset to a more positive place

• Aligning your spending with your values and feelings

• Setting up a weekly money date

• Addressing a lack mindset and how to flip it into an abundance mindset.

Full Show Notes at: https://www.josephinebrooks.co.uk/podcast

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week here in the UK (at the time this podcast goes out - 13th - 19th May 2019) and in honour of that this week’s episode is all about building a business alongside managing depression. My guest for this episode is digital marketing coach and retreat host extraordinaire, Alice Benham.

Alice has experienced what it’s like to go from working all hours and growing a hugely successful business to starting again and growing a business that’s more sustainable and offers much more of a balance between work and life. The catalyst for that change was her struggle with depression, which triggered a 6 month break and an opportunity to re-evaluate the sort of lifestyle and business Alice wanted, and needed to build in order to foster positive mental health. In this episode Alice honestly shares her experience with depression and how she manages her mental health alongside growing a business. If you struggle with your mental health and dream of escaping your 9-5 by building your own business, I hope this episode inspires you that it’s all possible.

You can follow us both on Instagram here @alice_benham and @JosephinePBrooks

Full show notes at:https://www.josephinebrooks.co.uk/podcast 

You can follow Josephine on Instagram @josephinepbrooks

Debbie’s been running a successful business for eight years now but she’s now yearning for a new challenge. After realising where her strengths really lie and what her purpose really is she’s embarking on pivoting her business over the next 12 months.

In this episode we’re talking about how to plan for a long term project without getting lost in the detail and also where to start with pivoting a business.

Full show notes at:https://www.josephinebrooks.co.uk/podcast 

You can follow Josephine on Instagram @josephinepbrooks

In this episode I’m chatting with Sophie Caldecott about SEO, a topic that she absolutely LOVES, but also a topic that can often sound quite jargon-y and daunting.

Sophie puts our minds at rest in this episode as she talks us through the basics of SEO. She covers what it is, how we can be making some simple tweaks on our websites to help our content appear more prominently in the Google search results and how do do things like keyword research which we’ve all heard of but most of us don’t even know where to start with!