creativity, productivity, entrepreneurship, organisation, marketing, social media, start up, business, blogging

#36: It's not luck, it's hard work with Maddy Rawlings from The Binding

A podcast helping creatives get started and become known for their something.Join host Jaharn Quinn as she chats with other creatives and tackles the topics you want to hear about the most, including why individuality is your best asset, the pressure to be a girl boss, building a community for your business, creating content that sells your brand, creating an influential online presence, marketing your business, building business resilience, the power of community, and lots more. Jaharn also asks her guests to give behind-the-scenes access, including how they really got started, the lessons they’ve learned along the way, as well as wisdom bombs, actionable advice and practical tips to help you in your own business and life.

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Thank you so much for joining me this week to celebrate 50 episodes. It's a very special milestone for me, and to celebrate, I am thrilled to welcome Jasmine Dowling back on the show for this surprise bonus episode! For those of you who don’t know Jasmine, she’s a designer from Brisbane, Australia. She kick started her career in 2012 by creating personal design projects and commissioned work for clients. Fast forward to today, and she has made her passion into a full time gig and has worked with the likes of Nike Australia, Hallmark, David Jones, Nespresso, Mecca Brands and lots more. She also has an online store, which she launched in 2014 as a place for her to sell her art print collections. Now her days consist of shooting, styling, coffee, postal runs, ink covered hands, and editing away in her home studio.  If you've been listening along since the start, then you'll know Jasmine was my very first guest on the show. I will always remember nervously emailing Jasmine, about two years ago, to see if she would be interested in being on the show. And when she said yes, I couldn't believe it. Especially because my podcast hadn't officially launched. Her support gave me a huge burst in confidence that maybe, just maybe what I wanted to create, would provide an engaging and encouraging platform to help other creatives in their own businesses and lives. And it seems only fitting to have her back on the YCS Podcast to celebrate 50 episodes and to chat about the pressures to be a girl boss. She actually wrote a blog post about this, and it really resonated with me. With social media playing such a prevalent role in how we feel, it's important that we all know we are in this together - no matter what someone’s success is, or "looks like". I think this episode, albeit recorded a couple of months ago, couldn't have come at a better time with Instagram removing like count from the app recently. And as a quick side note: As this episode goes live, you can actually still see like counts on any desktop computer. But enough about that for now. Ever since reading Jasmine's blog post, I’ve had so many thoughts whirling around in my mind so I asked her to come back on the show so we can discuss and debate the pressures of being successful and having a successful business. On today’s episode Jasmine and I chat about social media and being the next big thing, "authenticity" becoming a trend, what happens when being a Girl Boss makes the rest of us feel like failures, building a successful business and the stereotypes that come with this, defining your own success, learning to feel and know that what you’re doing is enough, things that don’t make us feel successful, why we love working for ourselves, the pressures of success and becoming of age, and as always - lots, lots more I really hope you guys enjoy this episode, because it holds a very special place in my heart. As always, you can except lots of wisdom bombs, actionable tips and practical advice, so I advise you get your pen and notebook at the ready.  
FIND JASMINE DOWLINGJasmine Dowling www.jasminedowling.comInstagram www.instagram.com/jasminedowling
 FIND YOUR CREATIVE STARTYour Creative Start www.yourcreativestart.comInstagram www.instagram.com/yourcreativestartPinterest www.pinterest.com/yourcreativestartSoundcloud www

Bonus Episode: The pressures to be a girl boss with Jasmine Dowling

I can’t believe this is the 50th episode of the YCS Podcast! Firstly, I want to say a huge thank you for listening and supporting my podcast, and guests. As you know, it truly means the world to me. To celebrate 50 episodes, I am coming back next week with a surprise episode. So, make sure you stick around because I’ve got someone very special on the show.  Now, back to this week’s YCS Podcast episode. I am so excited to introduce you to Claire Deane, from Deane and Co. For those of you who don’t know Claire – she is a marketing gun who is all for working smarter, not harder. And she is the founder of her own marketing business, Deane & Co, which is based in Brisbane Australia. I’ve been lucky to cross paths with Claire on Instagram and in the last few months, I’ve attended two of her workshops. I am a huge fan of constantly learning and skilling up, and when I went to her workshop about growing eCommerce stores – I knew I had to get her on the podcast. I am really excited about this episode because we get stuck into the nitty gritty about selling products and services online. And I know this is going to be relevant to so many of you guys. Me too with the launch of my own business, Smør Store.  On this week’s episode we chat about the importance of designing a website that actually sells including designing for mobile, which platform to use, and DIY templates and website designers. Claire reveals her must have eCommerce tools for business websites, and shares her tips for attracting, and most importantly, retaining customers.  Claire also shares her tips and tricks for growing your email database, and we discuss in detail packaging trends, shipping strategies that attract and retain customers, and why every business needs trust cue’s. We also chat in detail about the check-out experience, measuring and reporting, and lots, lots more.  And as an added bonus, Claire has generously shared her “10 Step Checklist” to help you launch your own business, which you can download and print for free from the YCS website. This checklist provides the perfect overview of exactly what you need to do to get your business up and running. With tips for choosing your platform, to how to get your customers to hand over their cash – this checklist will help you on your way to making your very own sale. Head over yourcreativestart.com to download it for free. You’ll find it in the Podcast section of our website, under Claire’s episode. Now, back to the show. 

FIND CLAIRE DEANEDeane & Co www.deaneand.coInstagram www.instagram.com/deaneandco
 FIND YOUR CREATIVE STARTYour Creative Start www.yourcreativestart.com Instagram www.instagram.com/yourcreativestartPinterest www.pinterest.com/yourcreativestartSoundcloud www.soundcloud.com/yourcreativestart


Taking your eCommerce from start-up to success with Claire Deane from Deane & Co

I am thrilled to have Stevie Dillion from Stevie Says Social on the YCS Podcast today. A former lawyer turned social media marketer, Stevie has had an incredible career that has seen her work in London and Australia. She’s worked with some of the biggest brands in Australia, including Red Bull, and has experienced the power of good socials and a strong content marketing strategy, that completely transformed the big businesses she worked with.  But on the other hand, she saw small businesses spending their time on the wrong things – obsessing over the tools and followers, but ignoring the strategy side of social whilst struggling to stand out. It became her mission to change that, and Stevie Says Social was born.  Now, we all know social media is obviously a great platform to grow a brand, connect with a desired audience, and sell services and products. But how do we exactly do that? This is why I’ve got Stevie on the show this week. Her specialty is educating passionate small business owners to lift their social media game with thoughtful strategies so they can build a profitable business they love. She says, “if you’re not having fun – you’re doing it wrong”. On today’s episode Stevie and I chat about whether or not Instagram is a great space to launch a brand, the most important thing you need to launch a business on social media, how you find and create the best community for your business, tips for building a great newsletter database, strategically using a blog to grow your community, how you actually launch a brand on Instagram, how many followers you should have before you launch, what things should we do to build a genuine following who will buy from you, tips for creating really, really good content, Instagram stories and how we should use them, working with Influencers (and no they will not solve all of your marketing problems), and lots, lots more Remember to sign up to the Your Creative Start Podcast newsletter for more actionable advice and wisdom bombs, as well as secret episodes! When you sign up, you’ll also receive a Getting Started Checklist - for FREE! Sign up here.

 FIND STEVIE DILLONStevie Says Social www.steviesayssocial.comInstagram www.instagram.com/steviesayssocialTalk To Me Social Podcast www.instagram.com/steviesayssocialpodcast
 FIND YOUR CREATIVE STARTYour Creative Start www.yourcreativestart.comInstagram www.instagram.com/yourcreativestartPinterest www.pinterest.com/yourcreativestartSoundcloud www.soundcloud.com/yourcreativestart



Launching a business on social media with Stevie Dillon from Stevie Says Social

Sometimes you need help expressing who you are and what you do, and that’s why I am so excited to have this week’s guest on the Your Creative Start Podcast this week. Her name is Anita Siek and she is the founder of Wordfetti, a copywriting haus  who don’t do normal write. Yes, if that last bit didn’t sound exactly right, then head over to Anita’s witty website and you’ll see why.  An ex-corporate ex-lawyer turned professional copywriting wordsmith, Anita just has this clever yet super relatable way of grabbing your attention that’s warm, honest and sometimes quirky, and that’s why she’s in top demand from her clients, and has a waitlist for those wanting to work with her and her creative team. What stands out most for me is that Anita is passionate about the phycology of writing, and how it shapes our behaviours. I have always loved how writing creates an emotional reaction in people, so I am excited to dive into this episode and divulge all of the wisdom bombs, actionable advice and practical tips Anita shares about copywriting and how it can make, or break, your business.  But don’t worry, with Anita around, she’ll make sure copywriting only makes your business better for you, and your clients and customers. On this week’s episode, Anita and I chat about nontraditional career paths, exploring what you love through side gigs, the importance of good copywriting for business when you are trying to sell something, understanding the importance of language, creative copywriting and strategic copywriting, where you may need copywriting assistance (and it may not be where you expect), brand voice, cutting through a sea of similarities, brand bibles, budgeting for a copywriter, investing up your own copywriting skills, tips for crafting great copywriting, writers block and lots more. 


FIND WORDFETTIWordfetti www.wordfetti.comInstagram www.instagram.com/wordfetti
 FIND YOUR CREATIVE STARTYour Creative Start www.yourcreativestart.comInstagram www.instagram.com/yourcreativestartPinterest www.pinterest.com/yourcreativestartSoundcloud www.soundcloud.com/yourcreativestart


Copywriting can make or break your business with Anita Siek from Wordfetti

Realising a vision, and turning it into a brand new business, with no customers or social media followers is quite daunting. It’s certainly no walk in the park. It takes a good story, persistence, a strong vision, attention to detail, resilience, consistency, useful content, perseverance, attracting the right audience, a little social media knowhow and a sprinkle of magic, which in my opinion is doing what you love.  So that’s why I’m completely over the moon to have my friend and interiors expert Chelsea Bennie from Hello Trader on the show today. She was one of the first people I connected with when I moved to the Sunshine Coast, and she had a big part in making our wedding look stunning last year! Just over a year ago Chelsea launched her dream and her vision, a true extension of herself - Hello Trader. Fast forward to today she has amassed a cult following of 60,000 likeminded fans and customers on Instagram. Her retail store is thriving and her online store is going nuts. In fact, I don’t have any friends who haven’t made a purchase from Hello Trader.  On today’s episode Chelsea and I chat about realising your vision, turning your vision into a business, developing the vision for your business on Pinterest, steps to opening a physical retail space, sourcing products, managing inventory with Shopify, POS, and TruckIt,  building a product website for future expansion, tips for opening an online store, collections and working ahead, setting up a business with no capital, staying true to your vision, creating hype, launching with an event, managing the juggle, learning not to overcommit, and lots more.“I am a very visual person and created the business from pictures; my vision was very strong.”“You just know. You just know in your gut. When starting a business and it feels right, you have the fire burning and you keep pushing forward and have the passion for it, you just have to do it.”

FIND HELLO TRADERHello Trader  www.hellotrader.comInstagram www.instagram.com/hellotrader
 FIND YOUR CREATIVE STARTYour Creative Start www.yourcreativestart.comInstagram www.instagram.com/yourcreativestartPinterest www.pinterest.com/yourcreativestartSoundcloud www.soundcloud.com/yourcreativestart



#36: It's not luck, it's hard work with Maddy Rawlings from The Binding

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