The Climb with Cherie Clonan

What changes after you survive a brutal season of founderhood? In this episode, we unpack calm leadership, the founder habits that help you protect your energy, and why reactive leadership can pull a team straight into chaos. Cherie shares the leadership boundaries, mindset shifts, and everyday decisions that help her choose calm leadership over overreaction, protect her energy, and lead more steadily when work gets messy. If you’re trying to build better founder habits, move away from reactive leadership, and create a more grounded version of calm leadership, this one’s for you.

Key takeaways:

• Calm leadership is built by choosing peace over chaos. 
• Reactive leadership creates stress, slower leadership creates better decisions. 
•  Protecting your energy is a core founder habit, not a luxury. 
•  Fake urgency trains founders to react fast instead of respond well. 
•  Healthy leadership boundaries stop other people’s chaos from running your day. 
•  Creator mode helps founders solve problems, victim mode keeps them stuck. 
•  Strong leaders ask better questions instead of rushing to fix everything. 
•  Quiet confidence in leadership comes from protecting, not proving.

This episode was proudly sponsored by PocketSmith.
Get 50% off your first two months of PocketSmith’s Foundation plan here.

Hosted by Cherie Clonan [@cherie_thedigitalpicnic] and co-hosted and produced by Steph Clifford [@stephssocials] 

Follow us on Instagram @theclimbpod_

Check out our agency @thedigitalpicnic > we teach digital marketing, and we can manage yours, too. 

Hyperfocus can look like a superpower from the outside, but living inside it is a different story. We get honest about what autistic hyperfocus actually feels like and how it helped build The Digital Picnic when the hours were long, the stakes were high, and the salary was, frankly, nothing.

Then we flip the coin to the part founders rarely admit out loud: boredom. Not the harmless kind, but the kind that creeps in when you feel underutilised, disconnected, or tempted to “fix” things that aren’t broken. We talk about why a bored founder can destabilise a business, create fake urgency, pick unnecessary fights, and chase dopamine at the team’s expense, plus what to do before that energy leaks into decisions you regret.

You’ll also hear a practical framework for separating boredom from true misalignment.

If you’re navigating neurodivergent leadership, founder identity shifts, or the messy middle of small business growth, this chat will give you the next steps.

This episode was proudly sponsored by PocketSmith.
Get 50% off your first two months of PocketSmith’s Foundation plan here.

Key Takeaways: 

• How autistic hyperfocus can drive early business growth 
•  Why founder boredom is a hidden risk in business 
•  The difference between boredom and outgrowing your role
•  How pattern recognition and deep focus create a business advantage 
•  Why underutilisation is dangerous for neurodivergent founders 
•  How bored founders create chaos, self-sabotage, and fake urgency 
•  Why updating your founder role and job description can reignite growth 
•  The bigger lesson, hyperfocus builds the business, but reinvention keeps it healthy
  
  

Hosted by Cherie Clonan [@cherie_thedigitalpicnic] and co-hosted and produced by Steph Clifford [@stephssocials] 

Follow us on Instagram @theclimbpod_

Check out our agency @thedigitalpicnic > we teach digital marketing, and we can manage yours, too. 

We unpack why you don’t need followers to build a personal brand, and why starting at zero can be the most strategic move you make. We share the content choices, boundaries, and mindset shifts that turn visibility into trust, leads, and real influence in an AI-first algorithm era.

If you’re an introvert, creative, strategist, or business owner who wants more opportunities from their social media, this one’s for you.

This episode was proudly sponsored by PocketSmith.
Get 50% off your first two months of PocketSmith’s Foundation plan here. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Why you can build a personal brand with no followers in 2026 
•  Why clear positioning matters more than follower count for personal brand growth 
•  How to use top of funnel content to grow
•  Why AI-first algorithms favour clear, repetitive content
•  How choosing 3 to 5 personal brand topics builds authority faster 
•  Why your first 100 posts are for positioning, not growth
•  How to create a personal brand that drives trust, visibility, and inbound leads
•  Why personal brand growth comes from clarity, consistency, and memorability, not vanity metrics

Hosted by Cherie Clonan [@cherie_thedigitalpicnic] and co-hosted and produced by Steph Clifford [@stephssocials] 

Follow us on Instagram @theclimbpod_

Check out our agency @thedigitalpicnic > we teach digital marketing, and we can manage yours, too. 

Today we talk about unoffendable leadership and why staying hurt makes leading a team harder than it needs to be. 

We share some of Cherie's honest stories from business ownership, plus the practical tools to regulate your reactions without becoming cold.

Key Takeaways:  

• Unoffendable leadership means still feeling hurt without leading from hurt.
• You cannot control other people’s emotions, only your own response.
• Trying to keep everyone happy is a fast path to leadership burnout.
• Being constantly offended is expensive, emotionally, physically, and professionally.
• Feel the hurt, but don’t stay there, pitch the tent, don’t live in it.
• The 4, 24, 48 rule helps regulate conflict before reacting or making decisions.
• Victim mode keeps you stuck, creator mode helps you move forward.
  
  

Hosted by Cherie Clonan [@cherie_thedigitalpicnic] and co-hosted and produced by Steph Clifford [@stephssocials] 

Follow us on Instagram @theclimbpod_

Check out our agency @thedigitalpicnic > we teach digital marketing, and we can manage yours, too. 

We unpack how the labels founders wear can start as a joke and end up reshaping trust, authority, and decision making. 

We share the “Rogue Clonan” story, why neurodivergent leaders get labelled so fast, and how to reclaim your voice.

Key takeaways: 

• How self-deprecating founder labels can undermine leadership 
• Why calling someone “rogue” can damage neurodivergent founder authority
• How humour and masking show up in neurodivergent leadership
• Why founder labels can lead to exclusion from key business decisions
• How language shapes trust, credibility, and leadership perception
• Why neurodivergent founders are often labelled for what others cannot predict
• How to reclaim authority when a founder label no longer fits
• The bigger lesson, you’re not rogue, you’re the one who built it

Hosted by Cherie Clonan [@cherie_thedigitalpicnic] and co-hosted and produced by Steph Clifford [@stephssocials] 

Follow us on Instagram @theclimbpod_

Check out our agency @thedigitalpicnic > we teach digital marketing, and we can manage yours, too. 

Instagram didn’t “break”, it evolved and if your reach has tanked lately, you’re not imagining it.

We unpack what an AI-first, user-first Instagram looks like in 2026 and why so many businesses feel like everything that used to work has fallen off a cliff.

The big reframe: follower count is no longer the main lever. Authority, relevance, and clear signals are.

If you want a cleaner, calmer Instagram growth strategy for 2026 that’s built for search behaviour and AI discovery, hit play, share it with a business mate, and subscribe so you don’t miss what changes next.

Key Takeaways: 

• Why Instagram growth in 2026 looks completely different 
•  How AI-first Instagram algorithms are changing content performance 
• Why follower count matters less than content relevance 
• How to teach Instagram’s algorithm who your content is for 
• Why topic clusters and repetition drive Instagram reach in 2026 
• How social SEO on Instagram improves search and discovery 
• Why keywords in hooks, captions, on-screen text, and comments matter 
• How watch time, completion rate, saves, and shares signal strong Instagram content

Hosted by Cherie Clonan [@cherie_thedigitalpicnic] and co-hosted and produced by Steph Clifford [@stephssocials] 

Follow us on Instagram @theclimbpod_

Check out our agency @thedigitalpicnic > we teach digital marketing, and we can manage yours, too. 

You dialled into episode 1 where Cherie talked about TDP's no-good-very-bad-year... but episode 2 is where we talk about how Cherie - quite literally - CLIMBED her way out of that no-good-very-bad-year.

This year [21/22FY] was that one point in TDP's x11 year history where even Cherie, wired for perpetual optimism, says this was the moment where she thought to herself: the only reason I'm not closing this business right now... is because I *actually* can't afford to.

And so she persisted, and TDP went on to hit its best EVER season thanks to that persistence... and we are breaking it *ALL* down in this episode.

From half a million dollars down, to
BEST YEAR IN BUSINESS > EVER

This episode was proudly sponsored by Mel Browne Money.

Key Takeaways: 

• Why a full business audit is the first step in a business turnaround 
•  How business clarity can help a founder rebuild confidence and fall back in love with their business 
•  Why cutting operational expenses can improve profitability faster than chasing more revenue 
•  The hard truth about people-pleasing leadership and the courage to be disliked in business recovery 
•  Why financial visibility and founder-friendly reporting matter when making tough business decisions 
•  Why systems, operations, and workplace culture matter more than revenue growth alone 
•  How hiring for kind genius, not just talent, can strengthen a service-based business 
•  Why business recovery happens one good decision at a time, not through hope alone 

Hosted by Cherie Clonan [@cherie_thedigitalpicnic] and co-hosted and produced by Steph Clifford [@stephssocials] 

Follow us on Instagram @theclimbpod_

Check out our agency @thedigitalpicnic > we teach digital marketing, and we can manage yours, too. 

76% of your clients vanish in a day. Your team is looking at you through a Zoom screen for reassurance. You can do the maths and you know the runway is short, but you still have to lead. That’s where we start Episode 1 of The Climb, as Cherie tells the raw story of The Digital Picnic’s darkest stretch through COVID and beyond, and why it became the “no good, very bad year” that actually lasted years.

We talk cashflow shocks, founder stress, and what it’s like to carry a pandemic in 30 different ways for a team that’s lonely, burnt out, and stretched thin. Cherie owns the leadership mistakes too: people pleasing, avoiding hard conversations, a feedback culture that turns explosive, and the slow erosion of accountability that quietly poisons company culture.

Then the numbers get real. We unpack delayed financial advice, the e-learning boom, the half-million-dollar course built from a walk-in wardrobe, and the money mindset decisions that stopped that win from becoming true stability. By 2022, Cherie is half a million dollars down, tries to close the business, realises she can’t even afford to shut it, and attempts a sale that falls apart. The turning point is brutal and empowering: nobody is coming to save you.

If you’re a founder, leader, or marketer building a business, this is a clear-eyed look at resilience, financial management, accountability, and the cost of delaying tough decisions.

This episode was proudly sponsored by Mel Browne Money.

Key Takeaways: 

• Founder honesty matters, but so does financial transparency
• People-pleasing leadership can damage business culture
• Poor financial visibility makes bad decisions worse
• Revenue growth does not fix broken operations
• Founder burnout is a business risk, not a personal weakness
• Delaying hard decisions usually makes the outcome worse
• Nobody is coming to save your business
• Values still matter, even in the worst seasons

Hosted by Cherie Clonan [@cherie_thedigitalpicnic] and co-hosted and produced by Steph Clifford [@stephssocials] 

Follow us on Instagram @theclimbpod_

Check out our agency @thedigitalpicnic > we teach digital marketing, and we can manage yours, too. 

Welcome to The Climb, a podcast about the messy, brilliant, relentless journey of building something meaningful.

For more than a decade at The Digital Picnic, Cherie has had the privilege of shaping other people’s climbs... helping brands, teams, and leaders grow in ways that actually last.

Now, after close to x2 decades working in marketing and leadership, she's turning the mic around to focus on the thing she's most obsessed with: real, honest stories about climb.

This podcast is where we talk honestly about the three things Cherie lives and breathes: marketing education, founderhood, and neurodivergent leadership.

As an introvert who believes in adding value, not noise, every 40-minute conversation is built to respect your time and actually teach you something useful. 

Hosted by Cherie Clonan [@cherie_thedigitalpicnic] and co-hosted and produced by Steph Clifford [@stephssocials] 

Follow us on Instagram @theclimbpod_

Check out our agency @thedigitalpicnic > we teach digital marketing, and we can manage yours, too.