The Business Proposal Podcast

Hark! Is that Herald Angels singing? No, it's Ellie and Rachel returning for a one-off Christmas special. We felt it was only right to wrap up our final year with a round up of 2024, and a look forward to 2025. Merry Christmas! @eleanor_mollie / @rachelemmawaring From Inside The Jar private podcast / 2025 Trends

Well, here we are: we've come to the end of the road. 5 and a half years later, RE: The Podcast is shutting its proverbial doors. On this episode we discuss what's on the horizon for both of us - will we find new business wives? Will we start new podcasts? Are we abandoning the internet forever? And how can you keep in touch with us/we keep in touch with you in this next adventure?  THANK YOU! @eleanor_mollie / @rachelemmawaring And a special thank you to Jake at Casts and Reels for his editing help and advice over the years!

ICYMI - RE: The Podcast is coming to an end. It's been an incredible 5.5 years...and we can't quite believe we made it this far! Here's Part 1 of the Final Episode, where we answer some listener questions, and look back on what the podcast has brought us. Keep up to date with Rachel and Ellie here: @rachelemmawaring @eleanor_mollie rachelemmawaring.com eleanormollie.co.uk

Talking about causes you care about online can seem fraught with difficulty, but still super important - so how can you broach the subject? We talked to copywriter and strategist Peta O'Brien-Day on how to share the causes you care about without getting cancelled.

If you feel like you can never get off the endless treadmill of creating content, then you need Felly Day. Her Content Repurposing Strategy is all about making the most out of what you create, getting multiple posts out of one piece of content! Freeing up our time whilst still serving our followers loads of top-notch content? We'll take 5, please. 

After building up her watercolour illustration business as a side hustle, Imogen Partridge went fully self-employed in January this year. We catch up with her about transitioning from a full-time position to full self-employment: the mindset she found helpful, how social media played a positive role, and her helpful advice too.

From putting lil summin-summins in with an order to bigger gifts to welcome clients onto courses or programs, client gifts are a fun way to add some more delight for your customers. But how much should you be spending? What works as a client gift? How should you send them? We chat through it all, including our best and worst gift experiences too! 

If making your marketing shorter and more manageable sounds like your bag, you need to know about Hannah Isted. As the founder of Hi Communications and author of The Best 90 Days Ever, she's also the queen of 10 Minute Marketing. We chat to her about her transformational approach to marketing, where she breaks down your to-do list into small daily chunks to overcome the overwhelm and actually post, with a sneaky preview of her book too. Grab The Best 90 Days Ever here (aff link)

It's April, so you know what means: reflecting on our Q1 experiences as small business owners, and sharing our plans and goals for Q2. We discuss our challenges, including calendar management and falling back into old patterns, as well as the successes we achieved, like being more daring, gaining clarity, and refining their offerings.  & a special thank you to our sponsors, The I Do Handmade Hub. Created for small businesses specifically, the team behind it have collated hundreds of opportunities into one place: from markets and pop ups across the UK for in person selling, to shops looking for new brands to stock, to a live feed of journalists looking for PR products to feature in upcoming articles. Plus within the platform there are groups to meet like-minded businesses, grow your community, share problems and discuss ideas to help you grow your business.     

Want a real behind-the-scenes look at a successful recent launch in the small business world? Luckily for you, our Rachel is armed and ready with all the stats, highs, lows and lessons that she learnt from the launch of the latest round of Ignite Your Pinterest Strategy. Tell us how you really feel, Rach...

Networking gets a bad rap - but not all networking is pale, male, stale, and soul-sucking. Here's a fresh perspective on how to approach it, emphasizing the importance of genuine connections, indirect networking, and the power of making friends in the business world. 

Best-selling author on the podcast today pals, no biggy: Sara Nasser Dalrymple, author of More Sales Please, sales expert, strategist, and all round good egg! Sara's mission is to help small business owners (but especially women) make more sales to ultimately make more money -- but she's not about sleazy tactics. She wants everyone to enjoy selling, and bring it in in an ease-filled way...and if that sounds impossible, don't worry, she's got the methods to make it happen.  Sales With Ease (affiliate link) @saleswithsara saradalrymple.co.uk

A tech stack is just the platforms and technology you use in your business - and there's real benefits to listing them out every now and again. We list out ours, as well as the ones we want to add too!  Check out all the links to our tech platforms here (there's some affiliate goodies in there too)

Here it is: the big reveal. Our brand new name! Our new brand name! Either way, we c*ck it up multiple times, so that's fun! The Business Proposal Podcast has officially become RE: The Podcast, and as ever, we take you behind the scenes on how we got to that journey, why we did it, and how it feels. Whaddya think?! 

You might have heard of Substack as a new platform - part blog, part newsletter, it's a newcomer on the block. It's a great space for readers and writers alike - but how can it be part of your business? As an avid Substack user and fan, Ellie lays out her case to Rachel. 

On 31st January, the podcast turns FIVE years old -- half a decade of inane chats about small business. We reflect on what this ✨ journey ✨ has taught us, as well as our favourite bits thus far.  Thank you for listening and making it possible!

We're not talking minute-by-minute trends here in the tiktok fashion sense, but the wider directions the industry is moving towards this year. 8 different, fun new ways to think about your social media and content this year? Yes please! 

You know the drill by now; it's our yearly tradition of announcing our Words Of The Year on the podcast. This time, we're discussing how 2023's WOTY (think that acronym will catch on?) went, what we've picked for 2024 (obviously) and how you can use keep your WOTY front and centre to make it practically useful.  

It's that time again! When you hear those jingle bells, you know that small business accounts telling you to do an end-of-year review isn't too far behind. But there's a reason -- they're a really good way to look back on everything you've achieved. Today we chat through some of our favourite ways to do an end-of-year review, focusing on different things.

We take our roles as your pod pals very seriously, which is why we thought we'd give you an insight into all the business bits we're currently loving, so that you can love them too if you so wish.  Don't forget to check out the full list and links on the website! 

What if we told you you were sat on a goldmine of content, strategy & information pretty much ready to go and you just weren't using it because you didn't know it was there? That's your past work, friends, and today we're going to talk about making it work for you, so you can have more time/headspace/whatever you need in biz. Let past you help current you?

We knew we had to chat to Ifeoma as soon as we read that she helps creative people minimise business clutter -- I mean, sign us up! We loved chatting to Ifeoma all about what she views business clutter as, and her approach to getting rid of it in a way that works for you. Check out Hey, Ifeoma here.

Today we're diving into the seminal book The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron (affiliate link) -- creator of morning pages, artist dates, and much more. If you're wanting to tap into your inner creative, we highly recommend - why not join in?  This episode was sponsored by Hobbycraft Plus. 

Ellie's currently on a mission to grow her email list, so we thought we'd talk about list building today: what it is, why it's a good idea, and how you can do it. (We can't believe we've never done an episode just on this before?!)

Welcome to Season 6 of The Business Proposal Podcast! Today Rachel delights us with a dramatic reading of the time she asked ChatGPT for copy help, and we talk about how (and how not!) to use AI for your copy and content. 

In the words of High School Musical 2: Summer, summer, summer, summer... As we prep to go on our summer break, we thought we'd talk about how to prepare to take some time off (whether over the summer or any other time). Wishing you some rest and relaxation over August, and we'll see you back in September! 

Finally, her ears were burning enough to have her back on! Fashion & Textiles Brand Consultant Elizabeth Stiles is the queen of "selling through the silence": both as an established business owner herself and as a specialist who helps her clients sell and scale. We talked about how to keep showing up and showing out for your business even when sales are slow to non-existent.

TODAY we're sending you a little reminder through the airwaves, a pep talk on the joys of being self-employed! We're also giving you a challenge: can you do something every day that you wouldn't be able to do in traditional employment? This episode was sponsored by Hobbycraft Plus. 

As we're both currently going through Glow Up phases on our websites (shout out to Emma from Beautie for that phrasing!) we thought we'd chat through what we're loving, what we're not loving, and what we wish we knew. Head to the website for the full show notes and all our reccs! 

Today we're talking about the importance of flow, and the flow state - what it is, why it's important, and how you can find more of it in your life, both in work and outside of work. When are you in flow? We'd love to know!

As we near the halfway point of the year, it's a good time to down tools and reflect on how it's going so far. (Tbf i's always a good time to do some reflection, but essentially when we're somehow speeding through June!) We're sharing one of our favourite exercises to go through that's super simple, but super helpful: stop, start, continue. 

Have you ever considered affiliate marketing in your business before? Whether you're thinking of using it to sell your offers or promote other people's, we're chatting through them today.

Today's episode is an absolute corker of a convo -- with the brilliant Selina Barker. Life design and careers coach, author of "Burnt Out" and founder of Project You, Selina has dedicated the past 17 years of her life to helping people love the life they live - and a huge part of this is in managing burnout, dealing with stress, and managing your energy. We delve into all of this with Selina's totally refreshing (and right!) view on it, which is: burnout isn't inevitable, you deserve better, and we can make it happen. Find Selina on IG @projectyouprojectyou @selinathecoach and follow us @businessproposalpodcast Take the Burnout Archetypes quiz here Sign up for Time To Thrive here (affiliate link!)

If visuals feel like a sticking point in your business - whether that's colours, photos, video or more - this is the episode for you: a whole new way to think about them, and make sure they work for you (and how to make them fun along the way, too!) Sign up for Be The Art Director Of Your Brand here. 

We love you!!! And we'll be back soon!!! And this is the first time I've ever been able to confidently mark an episode as "clean" rather than "explicit"!!!

How do you feel when someone asks you what you do? Do you clam up? Mumble? Try and climb out of the nearest window? Today we're talking about the importance of finding your 'red thread' -- that is, the thing that explains what you do, and helps you explain what you do in turn. Ellie's new focus (as Eleanor Mollie) is on this red thread idea, so you also get a sneak peek into what she's working on!!! 

INTRODUCING: The Business Proposal Bundle, over £700s worth of brilliant business offerings for JUST £29! We've spent the month off putting together this bundle, with the help of our wonderful previous guests. Here we chat about what's in it (and why you should get it), as well as what else we got up to on our time away.  p.s. we have a new intro - do you like?!

Today we chat about your marketing priorities: looking at all of your channels (not just instagram!) and seeing where you want to focus on for the next period of time. Rachel also chats funnels, because she loves funnels. 

Pals, buckle up: today's guest is Katie Tucker from Product Jungle, and she's about to blow your mind. She specialises in market research for small businesses, teaching us how to find out exactly what our customers want - which means deeper connections, even happier customers, and more orders. Ever wondered how to approach your customers? What questions to ask? When it's even appropriate? She answers all of that and more. Sign up to Katie's newsletter Jungle Juice here, and preorder her book, Do Penguins Eat Peaches? here (affiliate link)

In this week's episode we interview the ray of sunshine that is Ghenet Randall - or as you might know her, Ghenet Actually. Ghenet is a brilliantly talented content creator who uses those exact same skills to help small businesses with their digital marketing. We talked about her love of storytelling, the importance of boundaries, and so much more around how to navigate selling online as an indie biz.  Follow Ghenet over at @ghenetactually, and check out her services at ghenetactually.co.uk Follow us @businessproposalpodcast

Happy birthday/anniversary (we haven't quite figured out which one yet, answers on a postcard) to us! To celebrate our fourth birthday, we took a trip down memory lane - with some of our favourite lessons, episodes, and memories. Plus for some reason, Rachel requests a live reenactment of the Original Email. She doesn't know why, either.

Accountability is key in business - because if you're not accountable to yourself or anything else, then nothing gets done. Simple, but sad! But turn that frown upside down — today we chat different ways that you can keep yourself accountable (as ever, without any nauseating hustle culture or hacks!!!) 

For 2023's first guest episode, we chatted to the lovely Rachel from Rachilli. We talked about all sorts over her 10 years in business - including how she prioritises values in her business, having a magpie brain, working with the seasons, and running a business with a chronic illness too.  Enjoy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! And in the spirit of the new year - we're chatting about our words of the year and our intentions for 2023. We discuss what they are, how we came to them, and what we think they're going to mean this year. We check in with how we got on with last year's too!  p.s. if you're not feeling the new year new energy then don't worry: this podcast isn't a guilt trip or something to beat yourself around the head with. It's just a nice warm hug from your business pals!  

For 2022's end of year episode, we wanted to give you a permission slip: to end the year however you want. At the end of every year there's a real focus on ending the year strong (and stable) but if you're running on fumes, that can feel like a bit of a tall order - so here's 10 alternatives instead. Have a wonderful Christmas, and see you in 2023! 

Today, we're tackling the dreaded L word...LinkedIn.  We've got Phoebe Dodds from Buro 155 to not only tell us how to use LinkedIn as a small business owner, but how you can even make it fun. We know, we know - we were sceptical too! But Phoebe presented us with such a pressure-free way of using the platform, that we have to say...we've been won round.

Today we're chatting about routines - but not in the way you might think. Routines are super useful, but they can feel harsh and unforgiving. So we wanted to talk about the other side of routines - the ones that actually help us run our small businesses, and aren't sticks to beat ourselves up with!  VOTE FOR ELLIE in the Holly & Co Independent Awards! 

Today we're chatting to the lovely Beth from SPK-TRM, all about the importance of creative play. With a creative background, Beth spent years being told how important it was to 'find a style' and, once found, stick to it - but for her, the best thing about creativity is the variety & experimentation. We chatted to her about how creative play slots into her life, and how she recommends small businesses who feel they need a bit more too.  

With so many wonderful courses, products, and services on offer, we could be learning new stuff 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But sadly, we don't have that amount of spare time! So how do we prioritise and decide where to spend our well-earnt money and time next? That's what we discuss in today's episode.

Today we focus on one of our true loves: learning. Whether you like to learn new stuff for your small business or outside of it, the world is FULL of so much goodness to wrap your brain around! We chat about what we're currently learning, and what we'd like to learn in the future - and we'd love to hear yours, too. (This episode is basically a permission slip to invest in yourself and your learning. You're welcome.)

Welcome to Season 5! For our first episode of the season, we wanted to revisit a topic we last discussed in spring 2019 - email marketing. What's changed since then? How do we look at email marketing now? How do we feel about it as small business owners vs consumers? We chat through it all!