Hashtag Authentic - for creatives, dreamers & business owners online

I’m sharing something a little different today… the results of my ‘podcast affair’ with my Aussie bestie, the gorgeous Ms . Bonded over our love of storytelling and creativity, Keeley and I and came together to create - a gathering of resources, classes and a shiny new podcast, in the hope of passing some of that passion along.I chose this very first episode to share here with you on Hashtag Authentic because I really think the f...

This week I talk to Katie Leamon, who turned her love of paper and pattern into her eponymous family-run stationery studio. Her notebooks have been a daily companion to me for many years, so it was really fun to chat with her about her designs, her process and the realities behind running a product-lead business with the family on board!

Things we talk about:

* Building from a home studio to printing and selling at scale

* Designing p...

Things we talked about:

• The way multi-faceted careers can feel piecemeal (especially if parenting is added into the mix), or “like I’m doing five different jobs at once”
• Factoring in time to play as well as work
• Exploring your home town like a holiday destination
• Taking things home from real holidays that you might not expect (like appreciating the simple things, family meals, all your possessions in one suitcase)
• Avoiding habits of...

Things We Talk About In This Episode:

• Working with clients in the creative process and their reactions.
• How as humans we respond to visuals in a human way. Narratives that make it seem shallow to care about how things look. Like it’s superficial to care too much about the way you look and that this might mean you don’t have depth.
• Aesthetics are a luxury that comes after the essentials of survival and how you can still ca...

Things We Talk About In This Episode:

• The importance that established news organisations find ways to use social media if they want to engage a young audience
• TikTok has redefined the experience of social media, with short video content, and Instagram Reels and Youtube Shorts have followed suit
• How Sophia found an audience on TikTok (and later on Instagram Reels) by talking to camera about her media stories
• The way we can ...

Things we talked about:

• The value of owning your own audience
• Building a brand for yourself around the work you’re doing
• The growing online hunger for content by real people and the forging of real connections
• We seem to be entering an era that Farrah calls, rather poetically, "the Time of the Writer": the world has passed the period of devouring all the content on the Internet, now we are more discerning, and only want to consume ...

Things We Talk About In This Episode:

• The many ways for a book to “be successful” that don’t involve writing a New York Times bestseller (who knew?!)
• Lockdown lessons, and learning to live with uncertainty
• The surprising weight and reliance that we put on the future, without realising we’re doing it
• The “ladder of hierarchies” through which we try (and mostly fail) to feel better about ourselves
• Learning to enjoy the proces...

Things We Talk About In This Episode:

• Recognising the power of what’s possible when people come together with a common goal
• The value of creating your own, distraction-free destination for group learning and support
• Empowering creators to place higher value on the important business, community and content they are making - rather than being driven solely by the pursuit of money and influence
• The importance of community, pa...

Things we talked about:

• Trusting that you have enough, you are enough and that there'll be enough in the future and how that applies to you as a human
• Decluttering and finding your own style, starting with the external and slowly moving in
• Being diagnosed with cancer at 25 and having an existential crisis that kick-started a big lifestyle change
• Jess's realisation that if the worst happened she would have had so many regrets, that ...

Things we talked about:

• How it still doesn't feel quite normal to call herself a full-time artist and how that's something a lot of us struggle with
• Growing up with a parent who's an artist, the expectations that brings and how that comparison can make creating art feel overwhelming
• Finding your own path, however varied and wherever it takes you
• The feeling of not being good enough, how it can hold you back and the judgements we ma...

Things we talked about:

• The difference between writing as a journalist and writing a book (it’s just so long!)
• But: you only get to publish your first book once! Accept the nerves, and appreciate the moment
• The ever-present contention and push-back received when one writes about race
• Natalie’s very wise words that reaction is the point of writing - and those reactions don’t have to be positive every time
• The value of the interviews ...

Things we talked about:

• The trials and tribulations of being a “goat doula”
• Her new book Earthed, and its journey from concept, through to the transformation it underwent while she was writing, due to pressures from within (mental health) and without (a pandemic)
• How she actually managed to get it written, with all this going on
• The challenges and joys of writing autobiographically
• We dug into the need to be honest with ourselves ab...

Things we talked about:

• Why so many of us feel suspicious about new technologies, and how we can change the narrative
• The way artificial intelligence (AI) reads and interprets our interests and activities in order to deliver content to us… and the impact that content can have on us
• Approaching social media mindfully, by noticing the impact certain content has on our moods and behaviours, and carefully curating what we choose to co...

Things we talked about:

• Allowing ourselves to feel good when things actually go well
• The synchronicity of things happening when they’re supposed to (and when you’re ready)
• Defining success for ourselves (and it’s not always what we assume it might be)
• How lockdown taught Katherine to create her own “sense of safety” following the success of her book, by creating courses to shore up her income
• Finding ways to own your own story, mess...

WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT 

• Anna and I discuss the difference between the business of writing, and the writing of writing
• The fear that so many of us feel of showing up, and putting ourselves out there or “being seen to try”. Anna says this is “straight-up embarrassment,” and we feel this way whenever we step outside the norm (even if we are embarrassed for positive reasons, like receiving a compliment)
• But in addition to this, she says...