The Brand Mixology Podcast

What if your purpose isn’t something you need to find, but something you can create? In this thoughtful and very human conversation, Claire sits down with Will Polston to explore personal purpose and goal-setting, and why having a clear direction can matter more than chasing the next shiny milestone.Will shares the story behind his own North Star life mission, from believing that money equalled happiness to the moment he realised his real driver was helping people unlock their potential. He explains how a North Star gives your goals somewhere meaningful to go, while reverse engineering goals can turn an overwhelming ambition into one small, doable step.The conversation also gets into values-based action, the difference between “I can’t” and “I won’t”, and why so much of what we call a lack of motivation may actually be contaminated thinking or a plan that doesn’t fit who we are. Will and Claire talk about the “when-then” trap, gratitude, being happy during the journey, and how alignment can help us make better decisions in business and life.If you’re at a crossroads, working towards something important, or simply wondering why your current goals don’t feel quite like yours, this episode is a practical place to startKey moment timestamps•(00:01) Why having a big dream can feel like pressure•(00:02) What a North Star life mission really means•(00:04) The tiny first step that started Will’s public journey•(00:08) The lightning moment that changed Will’s direction•(00:10) Why you don’t need to “find” your purpose•(00:14) Escaping the “when-then” syndrome•(00:23) The difference between “I can’t” and “I won’t”•(00:25) Direction over speed: why strategy starts with clarity•(00:29) Making the next step smaller when fear gets in the way•(00:38) The STEM exercise for uncovering your values•(00:46) Alignment, inauthenticity and “amateurs compete, professionals create”Find Will at www.willpolston.com or on Social Media under his name. You can also find Will's book hereWhy not started with A Founder Growth Blueprint - if you're a founder of expert and you'd like clarity and a plan to grow your personal brand and business https://www.brandmixology.co/founder-growth-blueprint

What do you want to be known for?It's a question that has genuinely changed the way I think about myself, my work and the business I've built.When I first started working for myself, I really struggled with my identity within the business. What was I? What label should I give myself? I'd spent years learning different skills, working across different areas of marketing and bringing together all sorts of experience, but I couldn't quite work out how to package that up into a neat little box.I knew what I offered. I knew who I worked with. I knew the marketing strategy. But something wasn't quite clicking.Then I started to wonder whether I was asking myself the wrong question altogether.Instead of asking myself what I should call myself, I started asking: what do I want to be known for?And that changed things.It gave me a different way of looking at my work, my identity and the kind of business I wanted to build. It helped me see how all the different parts of me fitted together, rather than feeling I had to choose one thing and make everything else fit around it.It's also become a really important starting point for the work I do with founders and experts. Because you can have a clear offer, a business plan and a list of marketing activities, but if you haven't thought about what you actually want to be known for, you might be missing a much bigger part of the picture.So in this first Behind the Scenes episode, I'm sharing the thinking behind that shift, why your personal brand is about so much more than your job title, and a few questions you can ask yourself to start figuring out what you want people to know you for.Because the question isn't simply what do you do?It's what do you want to be known for?Why not started with A Founder Growth Blueprint - if you're a founder of expert and you'd like clarity and a plan to grow your personal brand and business https://www.brandmixology.co/founder-growth-blueprint

What if the relentless push for "more clients" is the very thing holding your business back?In this episode, Claire sits down with business coach and author Robin Waite (Fearless Pricing) for an honest, refreshingly commercial chat about pricing, productising and founder sanity.Robin went from running a boutique design and marketing agency in the Cotswolds to selling it, falling into coaching completely by accident, and building a business model based on working with fewer, higher-paying clients. Along the way, he shares the hard-won lessons from hitting burnout on a bicycle at 52mph, the psychology behind why a 10% price rise is actually a discount, and why an 80% conversion rate is a flashing red light that you're charging far too little.Whether you're trapped in an hourly-rate model or feeling exhausted by the constant feast-or-famine cycle, this conversation will give you the clarity and permission to rethink your pricing completely.What We Cover in This Episode:The accidental coach: How Robin stepped away from agency life and why he chose to work with 6 to 8 clients instead of dozens.The Sales Cycle of Doom: Why founders get trapped between delivery and selling, and how productised packaging breaks the loop.Charging for speed, not time: Why clients aren't paying for hours - they're paying to get to the outcome faster.The 80% close rate trap: Why closing almost every prospect means your prices are way too low, and what a healthy close rate actually looks like.Pricing psychology: Why a small price increase often feels like a discount to the right buyers.Should you put prices on your website? Robin and Claire debate transparency, positioning, and qualification.The Cocktail Shaker: The one trait Robin puts into the shaker for founder success, and why "neediness" gets frozen straight on ice.Timestamps & Chapters:00:00 - Welcome to The Brand Mixology Podcast02:15 - Coffee, cake, and accidental business coaching04:03 - Losing the reason you started: from employee to exhausted boss08:20 - 52mph on a bicycle: the burnout wake-up call15:10 - Speed is an outcome: why clients pay for results, not hours18:36 - Moving from "£100 a session" to an upfront transformation package22:31 - Escaping the Sales Cycle of Doom26:15 - The 80% conversion rate trap: why you're undercharging30:28 - Why a 10% price rise is actually a discount32:30 - Should you publish prices on your website?39:02 - Strategic proximity and spotting client red flags43:02 - The Cocktail Shaker: Fearless action in, neediness on iceResources & Links Mentioned:Fearless Pricing (Free digital copy): fearlesspricing.co.ukTake Your Shot (Get a free signed paperback): fearless.biz/tysRobin's Website: fearless.bizConnect with Claire & Brand Mixology:If you're a founder ready to build a personal brand and business you genuinely love, the natural starting point is Brand Therapy:Book your Brand Therapy session: brandmixology.co/brand-therapyReceive Weekly Mixology: brandmixology.coExplore the website: brandmixology.coEnjoyed this episode? Hit subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, leave a quick review, and share this with a fellow founder who needs to hear it today.

AI Can Write Your Copy. But It Can't Understand Your CustomerWhat happens when we stop thinking of copywriting as simply “words on a page” and start seeing it as a strategic tool for understanding people, shaping behaviour and driving growth?In this episode, I’m joined by copywriter, strategist and marketing expert Arfa Iqbal, someone I’ve known professionally for many years and whose thinking I’ve learned so much from.Arfa helps coaches, consultants and experts scale to their first or next seven figures through sales funnels, strategy, messaging and a deep understanding of their ideal clients.We get into what really makes marketing work, why so many campaigns fail despite having great individual assets, and what happens when businesses start outsourcing their thinking to AI.In this episode, we explore:Why copywriting is about far more than putting words on a pageThe difference between strategy and tactics and why businesses need bothWhy every part of your marketing funnel needs to work as a coherent wholeThe costly mistake Arfa made early in her career by targeting the wrong audienceWhy understanding buyer psychology is at the heart of effective marketingWhether AI is actually killing the copywriting professionHow to use AI to make your marketing faster without outsourcing your thinkingWhy generic AI-generated content is becoming increasingly easy to spotHow to identify the different avatars within your ideal client baseWhy your sales calls, social media comments, YouTube comments and book reviews can be a goldmine of customer researchArfa's “100” exercise for uncovering your ideal client's deepest pain points, fears, desires and motivationsThe difference between talking about a feature, explaining a benefit and communicating the emotional benefitWhy people buy emotionally and justify their decisions logicallyHow going deeper into customer psychology transformed the performance of two very different campaignsWhy your imagery needs to work as hard as your copyHow tiny visual details can influence whether your marketing resonatesWhy consistency and familiarity matter in building a recognisable brandThe danger of creating content simply for the sake of creating contentWhy intentionality is such an important principle in marketing and businessWhy sometimes the smartest thing you can do is launch at 80% and learn from the responseOne of my biggest takeaways from this conversation is that effective marketing isn't about producing more. It's about understanding more.When you truly understand the person you're trying to reach, your messaging, offers, campaigns, imagery and customer journey all become much clearer.And perhaps most importantly, AI can help us execute faster, but it cannot replace the human understanding that makes marketing meaningful.A few ideas to take awayGo deeper than demographics.Your ideal client isn't just their age, job title or income. What are they worried about at 2am? What do they secretly want? What frustrates them? What are they trying to prove, avoid or become?Stop looking at marketing assets in isolation.Your advert, email, landing page, sales page and follow-up should feel like parts of the same journey rather than a collection of disconnected tactics.Use AI as a tool, not a substitute for thinking.AI can help with research, ideas and first drafts. But the strategy, judgement, nuance and human understanding still need to come from you.And stop overthinking.Arfa's advice for what to put “on ice” is simple: if it's 80% good enough, get it out there. You can always create version two.About ArfaArfa Iqbal helps coaches, consultants and experts scale to their first or next seven figures through sales funnels, strategy and messaging.She is also the author of Mind Hack Marketing, which explores buyer psychology and how businesses can better understand and connect with their ideal clients.You can find Arfa on LinkedIn and Facebook, or visit her website at arfasilviaiqbal.com.Connect with Brand MixologyIf you're a founder or expert who knows you have something valuable to say but you're struggling to get seen, known and chosen, I'd love to hear from you.Find out more about Brand Mixology at brandmixology.co.

What happens when the experiences that could have broken you become part of the story that shapes you?In this episode of The Brand Mixology Podcast, our founder, Claire, sits down with storyteller and author Jody McHugh, all the way from Atlanta, Georgia, for a deeply personal conversation about childhood, trauma, addiction, crime, survival, kindness and finding a way forward.Jody's story is anything but conventional. At eight years old, his perfect family life ended in a single morning. What followed was hunger, crime and a court battle to stay out of prison at 15. But alongside the hard moments came a group of hippies, a determined lawyer and an actress who helped him write his book - people who showed him what kindness and positive influence can do.This one is a powerful reminder that we never really know which moments, people or experiences will change the course of our lives. Sometimes, the hardest chapters can become the ones that shape what comes next.What you'll hear in this episodeThe morning at eight years old that turned Jody's perfect family life upside downJudy Hansen and the "hippies" who gave two hungry boys hope - and a reason to believe in a futureWriting to Legal Aid himself at 15 to fight the judge's last-minute change to his sentenceQuitting drug dealing and learning to fly planesWriting The Damage Done with actress Polly Craig, and the podcast he now hosts with his daughter, KatieWords to take awayPut in the cocktail shaker: Positive influence - find the people who will lead you in a good directionPut on ice: Drugs - Jody saw what they did to his brothers and everyone around themConnect with JodyWebsite: https://www.jodymchugh.com/The Damage Done (Amazon): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Damage-Done-Jody-McHugh-ebook/dp/B00B6T246WConnect with Brand MixologyWebsite: https://brandmixology.coWork out what you should be known for: Brand Therapy - https://brandmixology.co/brand-therapyTake the quiz: Too Close to See It - https://brandmixology.co/quizInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/brand.mixology/Guest bio Jody McHugh is a storyteller and author from Atlanta, Georgia. He co-wrote The Damage Done with the late actress Polly Craig, co-created the Murder Link podcast with his daughter Katie, and tells true stories on stage with The Moth. His story runs from childhood trauma, crime and prison to a life built on kindness, honesty and positivity, and he is now working towards bringing it to the screen.