What do you do when your creative juices have pretty much dried up?

When you need a jolt of creativity and new ideas, what do you turn to? Share Your Genius’s own Sarah Duvendack and Kassidy Zurbuch left Rachel a voicemail to get her opinion. Rachel’s shortlist:

• Reading fiction books
• Consuming content in different forms than where you create
• Seeking out conversations with other creatives

Press play to hear why and how these became Rachel’s go-to creativity-inducing activities.

Link up with Kassidy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kassidy-zurbuch-167926245/

Link up with Sarah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-duvendack-b897751b8/

Have a question for Rachel? https://www.speakpipe.com/vmswithrachel

Want more from Rachel and her crew of brand content experts? Sign up for Genius Cuts. https://www.shareyourgenius.com/genius-cuts

This might be one of the hardest questions we’ve posed on this podcast, and none other than our host, Rachel Downey, is here to answer it.

Kassidy Zurbuch, Show Manager at Share Your Genius, reached out to ask how do you define success in your career, and to dig deeper—how does that relate to the career ladder?

It’s not always about titles and money, but what creates a career you’re really proud of? And at what level do you find that? Rachel finds meaning in the skills she learns and the people she works with and for. Now press play to hear why.

Link up with Kassidy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kassidy-zurbuch-167926245/

Read Forming Storming Norming Performing by Donald B. Egolf

Have a question for Rachel? https://www.speakpipe.com/vmswithrachel

Want more from Rachel and her crew of brand content experts? Sign up for Genius Cuts. https://www.shareyourgenius.com/genius-cuts

AI is taking the world by storm—increasing efficiencies, speeding up processes, and so much more. So how is it impacting creatives, customers, and the market overall? Where do we go from here?

So Rachel reached out to Lindsay Tjepkema to ask just that. Lindsay is the Co-Founder and CEO of Casted—the first Amplified Marketing Platform and only podcast solution for B2B marketers—so she knows a thing or two about leveraging tech to create connections.

Lindsay says the brands that are more human are the ones who will win. Tune in to hear how she thinks AI fits into that winning lineup.

Link up with Lindsay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsaytjepkema/

Check out The Casted Podcast: https://podcast.casted.us/public/5/The-Casted-Podcast-52134

Have a question for Rachel? https://www.speakpipe.com/vmswithrachel

Want more from Rachel and her crew of brand content experts? Sign up for Genius Cuts. https://www.shareyourgenius.com/genius-cuts

Our host, Rachel Downey, deals in podcasts every day. If you follow her, you’ve heard her say “it’s never just a podcast”. It’s a call to think bigger about your media strategy. But what does that mean to others? And is Rachel correct in her thinking?

So she asked Devin Bramhall, marketing advisor and host of Don’t Say Content. And she says that media-first strategies are the future of brand-building.

Devin has spent over 15 years growing B2B Saas companies through community-led strategy. She is the former CEO of Animalz, the leading content marketing agency for B2B Saas companies, where she 3x’d revenue in 2 years to nearly $12M, and the co-host of Don't Say Content, a popular podcast for marketing leaders. She is also the former Executive Director of Boston Content, the largest community for content marketers in Boston, where she 2x’d membership in 2 years, and founder of The Master Slam, a poetry slam-style debate about startups and tech.

Now press play to hear her full answer.

Link up with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/ Listen to Don’t Say Content here: https://www.dontsaycontent.com/

Have a question for Rachel? https://www.speakpipe.com/vmswithrachel

Want more from Rachel and her crew of brand content experts? Sign up for Genius Cuts. https://www.shareyourgenius.com/genius-cuts

If you've been around our host, Rachel Downey, you’ve heard her say “it’s never just a podcast”. It’s a call to think bigger about your media strategy. But what does that mean to others outside of Share Your Genius? And is Rachel correct in her thinking?

Enter Margaret Kelsey, a marketing industry vet.

She’s spent a decade building scalable, effective marketing programs—and teams—for B2B SaaS companies like OpenView and Appcues. She now advises founders on how to do the same.

So what’s her take on “it’s never just a podcast”? It starts with the fact every business needs to focus on brand and distribution, and the fact that podcasts help do both of those things extremely well and extremely authentically.

Link up with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/ Her website: http://www.margaretkelsey.com/ Listen to Don’t Say Content here: https://www.dontsaycontent.com/

Have a question for Rachel? https://www.speakpipe.com/vmswithrachel

Want more from Rachel and her crew of brand content experts? Sign up for Genius Cuts. https://www.shareyourgenius.com/genius-cuts

”Movement is fuel.” - Lara Heimann, LYT Yoga Founder and CEO

As a high performer, incorporating movement into your day can be a struggle sometimes. We’re balancing lots of goals, lots of daily tasks—how can we make sure our health is still an important piece of our day?

Rachel turns to Lara Heimann, creator of the LYT Yoga Method to answer the question.

Listen to LYT here: https://lytyoga.com/blog/category/podcasts/

Link up with Lara: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lara-heimann-8a556b13/

Follow Lara: https://www.instagram.com/lara.heimann

Check out LYT Yoga: https://lytyoga.com/

Have a question for Rachel? https://www.speakpipe.com/vmswithrachel

Want more from Rachel and her crew of brand content experts? Sign up for Genius Cuts. https://www.shareyourgenius.com/genius-cuts

It’s one thing to create great content, it’s a whole other thing to create great content with mass appeal. We’re talking about pitching to the big brands (think Netflix, Hulu, etc).

So what takes a pitch to that next level? Rachel turns to Co-Founder of Flow Studios, Matt Naylor. He’s pitched and sold series to both of those big brands we mentioned and co-founded an Emmy-nominated and Clio-winning creative studio. His answer to this question will have you thinking about how to bring your content to life.

Listen to Milkless: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/milkless-dads-investigating-legendary-fatherhood/id1681137694

Link up with Matt here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-naylor-96130a4/

Check out Flow Studios here: https://flowstudios.com/

Have a question for Rachel? https://www.speakpipe.com/vmswithrachel

Want more from Rachel and her crew of brand content experts? Sign up for Genius Cuts. https://www.shareyourgenius.com/genius-cuts

[If you haven’t listened to the voicemail pod with Meg Johnson, scroll back (1 episode) and listen to that first.]

Introducing phone calls with Rachel. Because sometimes you just need a full conversation.

After Meg Johnson (Head Producer at OpenView) left Rachel a message on how brands should be thinking about video strategy, they got back together and recorded their entire conversation for us. From metrics of success to brand affinity strategy, Meg deep dives the importance of thinking through the bigger picture (and strategy) behind your video strategy. Or really any marketing effort.

She drops a few Mean Girls quotes, shares some of her favorite resources, and will leave you inspired to create great content.

Link up with Meg here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/redheadmeg/

Subscribe to her newsletter here: https://sorryimissedyou.substack.com/

Check out OpenView’s video content here: https://www.youtube.com/@OpenViewVenture

Have a question for Rachel? https://www.speakpipe.com/vmswithrachel

Want more from Rachel and her crew of brand content experts? Sign up for Genius Cuts. https://www.shareyourgenius.com/genius-cuts

Video content has been and continues to be a powerful tool in the brand and creator’s tool belt, from video podcasts to social media and beyond. But how are big brands thinking about video? And how do you use it strategically to get closer to your goals?

Enter Meg Johnson—head producer at OpenView, an expansion-stage venture capital firm. She’s got her hands in all kinds of media at all times, including her own email (and audio) newsletter. Listen in to hear her POV on video strategy.

Link up with Meg here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/redheadmeg/ Subscribe to her newsletter here: https://sorryimissedyou.substack.com/ Check out OpenView’s video content here: https://www.youtube.com/@OpenViewVenture

Have a question for Rachel? https://www.speakpipe.com/vmswithrachel

Want more from Rachel and her crew of brand content experts? Sign up for Genius Cuts. https://www.shareyourgenius.com/genius-cuts

On this replay episode, we’re throwing it back and flipping the script. Gretchen Schott, CLO of Threefold and Host of Made for Impact, listened to Rachel’s mini-series on Scared Confident called The First Million—an intimate look at how she built Share Your Genius from 0 to $1M. Inspiring Gretchen to ask, how did you learn to bet on yourself?

Press play for Rachel’s answer.

For the podcast that inspired Gretchen’s question - listen here: https://tiffanysauder.com/scared-confident/takeover-rachel-downey-and-the-first-million-part-1/

Link up with Gretchen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchenschott/

Listen to Gretchen’s podcast, Made for Impact: https://www.growthreefold.com/made-for-impact

Have a question for Rachel to find the answer to? Leave her a voicemail:

https://www.speakpipe.com/vmswithrachel

Want more from Rachel and her crew of brand content experts? Sign up for Genius Cuts. https://www.shareyourgenius.com/genius-cuts