Grown from Within Podcast

Well, friends, this is it. Episode 40 is the final episode of Grown from Within.

After 17 years of running Branch, I’m stepping into a new role as a Product Marketing Specialist at Aerostar. I'm feeling all the feels, but I’m also really excited.

In this episode, I share a peek behind the scenes: the practical reasons behind this change, the personal ones too, and what it feels like to close such a big chapter. I also talk about something that has made this decision feel so right. When I started Branch, I had one big goal. I wanted to be present for my girls. And looking back, my business did exactly what I built it to do.

So grab a coffee (or a tissue for the happy tears) and join me for one last conversation. Thank you for listening, for growing with me, and for being part of this little corner of the internet. It has meant more than you know. 🩷

There comes a point in business when the things that have always worked simply stop working. You push harder, do more, and nothing moves. It's tempting to decide something is wrong with you, when you may just be standing at the edge of what's next.

In this episode, I talked with Lauren Golen, founder of The Crossing, about decision making, leadership, and what it means to listen to your body as well as your strategy. Lauren coaches women in what she calls their best years of life (usually 50 and beyond), who have already built the success and still feel like something isn't quite right.

Her work centers on body-led discernment, a way of tuning back in to the inner knowing that busyness and performance tend to cover up. That listening matters most at what Lauren calls a threshold, the point where you're gripping something that is no longer yours to carry. It's why a threshold shows up as control, exhaustion, and work that used to feel easy suddenly feeling hard. Once you can name it, the question shifts from what's wrong with me to what am I being called to let go of, and Lauren is honest that letting go usually involves some grief.

We also talked about what decision making feels like when it comes from strategy alone versus when your body is part of it, why brand strategy should start with your natural gifts instead of someone else's website, and the book Lauren is writing about life's crossings.

If this resonates, consider it your sign that feeling stuck doesn't mean you've lost your drive. Start where Lauren starts her clients: for one week, just notice where your decisions come from and how they feel in your body. Then find the women you trust enough to talk about it with.

There is a certain discomfort in doing something well before anyone is watching. Repetition feels tedious, showing up consistently feels invisible, and it is tempting to chase the shiny, viral moment instead of trusting that quiet, steady work builds something real. But trust, in business and in life, is built the same way: slowly, through repetition, long before you ever see the return.

In this episode, I sat down with Caleb Hoover, founder of The Video Lab, a content studio in Sioux Falls built specifically for podcasts, YouTube, and educational video creation. Caleb also has a YouTube channel, that started almost by accident during COVID, and it has since grown into a business of its own, complete with brand deals, product sales, and trips to Tokyo with Panasonic Lumix.

Caleb's approach centers on one long-form "anchor" video a week, repurposed into shorts, blog posts, and newsletters, so the same message reaches people again and again until it finally lands. He also named "silent engagement," the idea that your best future clients may be watching for months before they ever show up at your door, which takes real trust in the groundwork you laid before you hit record.

We also talked about why customer-focused content beats chasing virality, why FAQ videos are the easiest place to start a channel, and why YouTube, the second largest search engine, is an underused knowledge library for most businesses.

If you have been sitting on a backlog of expertise, wondering whether it is worth turning into video, consider this your reminder that you do not need to go viral to build something lasting. You just need to keep saying the true thing, in the same direction, long enough for the right people to notice.

Somewhere along the way, marketing became something we brace ourselves for. We show up because we are supposed to, on the platform we are supposed to be on, at a pace someone else set for us. Then we wonder why the whole thing feels like a treadmill we cannot step off of.

In this episode, I sat down with Kelsey Buelow, owner of Wonderfully Made Gifting Company, to talk about what she calls gentle marketing. Kelsey was on the show last fall in Episode 19, where we talked about thoughtful gifting, and I invited her back because her approach to marketing has stayed with me since the first time I heard her explain it.

Gentle marketing sits underneath a larger idea Kelsey calls slow business, which is simply running your company in a way that matches how you actually function instead of how everyone says you should. For her, that meant stepping back from Instagram and pouring that energy into blog posts, Pinterest, and a physical newsletter with a scripture print tucked inside. Her sales went up, and the people finding her were the right ones.

We also talked about the fear that comes with making these shifts, got into her Etsy shop, where her engraved Bibles took off, and best practices for selling there. What she found on the other side of that fear was that people could tell she was happier talking about her work, and that is what sells them.

If you have been quietly wondering whether the thing everyone says you have to do is actually the thing working for you, consider this your permission to find out. Kelsey's advice is to keep doing what you are already doing, then pour a little more into the one marketing avenue you genuinely enjoy and leave it alone for thirty days without second guessing it.

Most small business owners start a business to do the thing they are good at, then end up having to be a content creator, designer and marketer too. So how do you keep showing up for the work you actually love without letting the marketing side fall through the cracks?

In this episode, I sat down with Selena Gonzales, founder of Enrich Digital Marketing, to talk about organic social media, going viral, and what it really takes to show up as yourself online. We also pull back the curtain on the recent rebrand we did together for the Enrich brand right here at Branch Creative Co.

We get into the difference between organic and paid social, the behind the scenes of when one of her clients went viral with no ad spend at all, getting over the fear of appearing in front of the camera, the importance of having a website, and many other social media insights.

And of course we also talked about AI. Selena's opinion is one I keep coming back to: AI can be a helpful tool, but it should never be the creative behind your post. We talk about how social media is oversaturated with posts that all have that same 'plastic' look, and the current backlash this type of post is currently receiving.

If you're a business owner or just someone who wants to start growing your social media presence organically, Selena's advice of one small shift you could make this week is simply to show up consistently, so that when your potential client happens to need the service you offer, you are the one they think of. Done is better than perfect!

Most of us were trained to hide behind "we." We learned it in our first jobs, we carried it into our own businesses, and we tell ourselves it sounds more professional. But when you are the face of your business, hiding behind "we" isn't humility, it can be a missed connection.

In this episode, I sat down with Jill Ivey, founder, principal, and chief storyteller of Jillitante Creative, to talk about story-first copywriting. Jill works with professional service providers, often solopreneurs who left larger organizations to build something of their own in crowded markets full of people offering the exact same thing.

She talked about coaching clients through their instinct to write "we, we, we" even when there's no team behind them. We also chatted about her "peeling-back-the-layers" method for finding a client's story and about how you don't have to expose everything, just enough to feel real.

This matters even more now that AI is everywhere around us. Jill talked about how language models are predictive text engines, not creative thinkers, and when everyone leans on them the same way, every brand starts to sound identical.

Making your brand memorable and authentic is probably closer to the surface than you think. You don't need a polished narrative or to overexpose yourself, you just need to get honest about the moment that actually got you here.

Marking 17 years of Branch Creative Co. has given me a deep appreciation for the ebbs, flows, and quiet evolution of building a business. Looking back to when I first stepped out on my own, I was driven by the desire to leave office life behind, mother my kids differently, and be able to have the flexibility to be at home. What I didn't fully anticipate was the grit, blood, sweat, and tears required to sustain both.

Over nearly two decades, all I can say is that it's been a blast and I'm looking forward to many more. If you are feeling that internal call to step out on your own or take a similar leap in your journey, definitely check out Episode 32, "Taking the Leap: From Corporate to a Free Spirit Business with Kris Schneider", where she talks about taking that leap and pursuing that fire inside of you.

To celebrate, I’m taking you behind the curtain to walk through a real-life case study for a client brand we recently launched: The Pissed Off Farmer. What began as a decade-old, anonymous blog by David Kolsrud became a bold, legacy brand with a clear mission: to challenge complacency, advocate for independent agriculture, and activate the next generation.

In this episode, we unpack the story behind the memorable business name, explore the step-by-step process of creating the brand strategy, and dive deep into each one of the its visual identity elements.

Because branding is such a visual and multi-layered process, I invite you to explore the full details and design execution for The Pissed Off Farmer brand on our portfolio.

There is a distinct difference between being capable of doing it all and being genuinely happy doing it. As women, we slip easily into multiple roles at the same time, organizer, mother, business owner, volunteer, mentor, etc. But when you are constantly operating outside of your natural zone of genius, you aren’t just working hard, you are quietly burning yourself out.

In this episode, I sat down with Megan Peterson, the founder of Be Freaking Fantastic, to talk about self-awareness, identity, and the deep business value of knowing your strengths. Megan shares how discovering the specific vocabulary for what you do naturally well completely shifts how you show up in your life and your business.

So many of us worry that acknowledging our excellence will somehow diminish someone else. But this conversation was such a beautiful reminder that owning your strengths isn't bragging, it’s simply stating facts. And when you treat your strengths as data, you can finally stop overthinking and start leading with authentic authority.

We leaned into two of Megan's favorite personal knowledge systems: CliftonStrengths and Human Design. And unpacked what it looks like when women undervalue their most potent traits. Like empathy, for example.

Knowing what you excel at gives you an automatic permission slip to say no to the things that drain you. Your strengths are your boundaries. When you know your lanes, it becomes much easier to step back, gather the right complementary mentors or teammates around you, and protect your creative energy.

What most people don't realize when they start a business is how much it will ask of them personally. It shines a bright light on your self-worth, your fears, your boundaries, and your beliefs. You grow as your business grows.

In this episode, I sat down with my dear friend Kris Schneider, the brilliant force behind Kindred Spirits Creative, for a conversation about truth, evolution, and what it really means to jump off the corporate cliff. Kris spent two decades working in the banking industry and today, she runs a fluid, multi-passionate business helping small business owners with everything from tedious web migrations to office interior design.

Kris describes the reliable income and predictable routine of corporate life as "the golden handcuffs." Breaking free isn't about having a flawless, 10-step plan figured out beforehand, it’s about trusting your inner foundation and choosing to surrender to the unknown.

If you are standing on the edge of that cliff right now, looking out into the fog and waiting until you feel completely "ready," consider this your sign. The survival instincts telling you to stay safe are completely normal, but magic happens when you shuffle forward anyway.

We also dove deep into a common struggle for women entrepreneurs: the hesitation to delegate and ask for help. Too often, we treat outsourcing as a sign of personal failure, believing we need to wear every single hat in our business perfectly.

If there is one major takeaway from Kris’s journey, it’s that action is the best fighter of fear. When you choose curiosity over criticism and start exploring your natural talents, your path will naturally evolve. You don't need all the answers to start taking up space. You just have to push the button and do the thing.

There is a strange comfort we find when a new AI tool isn’t quite perfect yet. We see a wonky design or a clunky piece of copy generated by a prompt, and we breathe a quiet sigh of relief, thinking, Okay, my job is safe for a little longer. But the reality is, this is the worst that AI will ever be. And instead of waiting around for tech to become flawless, the real challenge for entrepreneurs is shifting our mindset today.

In this episode, I’m continuing my conversation with John T. Meyer, and we are diving deep into the messy, exciting, and rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence. We explore why the pendulum is swinging away from deep technical coding and back toward generalists, creators, and big-picture thinkers. If you can articulate a vision, communicate a problem, and stay curious, you hold the ultimate technical skillset for the future.

We also talk about redefining success for the future. How do we guide our kids when the career paths of tomorrow haven't even been invented yet? And as entrepreneurs, should we simply delegate AI to a team member or get our hands dirty and stay intensely curious?

If this conversation resonates, consider it your gentle nudge to move past the intimidation. Pick one repetitive task in your business or personal life this week, sit down with a tool, and just start tinkering.