Friends with Business Benefits – Détails, épisodes et analyse

This week, we’re chatting all things email marketing.

To kick things off, Franky shares a personal dilemma about whether or not she should move her mailing list away from Mailchimp and/or start a Substack. As well as covering the pros and cons of various email marketing platforms, we also discuss strategy, consistency, outsourcing and AI, what we write about and how we come up with ideas.  

Links and Further Reading:

What Makes a Good Email Lead Magnet?

Are You Going to Start a Substack?

How Are We Showing Up On Substack This Year 

Flodesk (affiliate link)

Boatman Admin Services

Plotting by Katie Sadler

Liz Mosley

Hi Communications

Join the conversation on Substack where you can share your thoughts on this episode and tell us about your own email marketing in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!

Connect With Us 

Friends With Business Benefits on Substack

charlieswift.com

love-audrey.com

Find Us On Instagram

@loveaudrey83

@_charlieswift 

Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists

Franky’s Mailing List

Charlie’s Mailing List

As we head into the darker, colder months of the year, we’re how we embrace and survive the autumn/winter season. Whether you love this time of year or not, there’s something in this mini-episode for everyone.  

Charlie describes some of her favourite seasonal rituals and Franky raves about her beloved thermal leggings. From making our homes feel cosy to working from home when it’s cold, we share tips and advice to help you get the most out of this time of year.  

Links and Further Reading:

The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater

Wintering by Katherine May

M&S Thermal Leggings

Franky’s Wrist Warmers

Charlie’s Autumnal  Playlist

Join us on Substack where you can share any reflections on the episode in the comment section. Come and tell us your own intentions for Q4…we’d love to cheer you on!

Connect With Us 

Friends With Business Benefits on Substack

charlieswift.com

love-audrey.com

Find Us On Instagram

@loveaudrey83

@_charlieswift 

Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists

Franky’s Mailing List

Charlie’s Mailing List

In this episode, we’re reflecting on Quarter 2 and looking ahead to Quarter 3. Find out what felt good, what didn’t and what we’ve learned in the process.

We also talk about our words of the year and how they’ve been showing up for us since we last spoke. As well as sharing a few sources of creative inspiration, we dig into our plans for the next three months of the year and discuss what we’re both hoping to achieve before the end of the summer.  

Work With Us

charlieswift.com

love-audrey.com

Find Us On Instagram

@loveaudrey83

@_charlieswift

We kick-off season 2 with an in-depth chat about productivity, asking why something so simple often feels so hard.

As well as sharing things that impact our productivity in positive and negative ways, we discuss the relationship between productivity and creativity. We also chat about the powerful link between our ability to be productive and feelings of self-worth.

Franky shares her philosophy on being productive from a place of rest and Charlie describes her strategies for mastering to-do lists. We talk about ‘getting in flow’ and what we’ve learned from Gretchin Rubin’s ‘The Four Tendencies’. Finally, we talk about redefining productivity on our own terms.

Links and further reading:

Gretchen Rubin’s The Four Tendencies quiz

Brooke McAlary on having a shorter to-do list

Our morning routines

Follow us: @_charlieswift @loveaudrey83

#friendswithbizbenefits

In the final episode of the season, we spend some time reviewing the first 3 months of 2019. Echoing our real-life co-mentoring sessions, we reflect on the goals we discussed back in January and share our progress so far.

We talk about our words for the year, how they’ve been showing up for us, and where we’d like them to take us next. We also discuss how we’re feeling as we head into spring and some of the things we’re planning for Q2.

Links and further reading:

Mailing List Q&A Episode on Letters From A Hopeful Creative

8 Reasons Why You Need To Build That Email List

Thank you for listening to Friends with Business Benefits. If you've enjoyed listening we'd be so grateful if you'd like to leave a rating, review or share the podcast with a friend. 

In this episode, we’re talking about growth, what it looks like, and whether it’s something that motivates us.

We reflect on the different seasons of business we’re currently in. Charlie talks about growing hers alongside growing a family and Franky describes reaching a tipping point and having to consciously think about growth for the first time. We also discuss why growth can be scary.

Finally, we talk about Instagram growth or lack thereof. We describe how it feels to not be gaining followers and chat about the perils of measuring our self-worth on the basis of our follower count. We also consider the perks of staying small and why we don’t need to wait until we have a big following to do things.

Links and further reading:

Follow us: @_charlieswift @loveaudrey83

#friendswithbizbenefits

When we asked you what you wanted to know about co-mentoring, the overwhelming response was how to go about finding a co-mentor of your own.

In today’s episode, we talk about how we met and started co-mentoring. We also share the stories of three other co-mentoring duos, touching on how they found each other and how co-mentoring has benefitted their businesses so far.

Finally, we chat about the boundaries you might want to set with your own co-mentor and discuss the difference between co-mentoring and paying for a business coach or mentor.

Links and further reading:

Episode One of Friends With Business Benefits

Blogtacular

Being Freelance

Our fellow co-mentors...

Jo @ocheandflax & Camilla @slowfarmingcompany

Steve @sfolland and Frankie @doingitforthekids_

Katie @katiemorwenna and Jen @sillyheartco

In an episode dedicated to podcasts, we’re chatting about how we first discovered the medium and how our listening habits have changed over the years.

Discussing the rise of creative business podcasts, we explain why we wanted to start our own. Charlie explains how we make Friends With Business Benefits and what she’s learned from the process. We also chat about podcasts as content marketing and share some of our favourite shows.

Links and further reading:

Lucy Lucraft’s Courses

Blogging or Podcasting - Which is Better for Your Business 

Explore Your Enthusiasm with Tara Swiger

Desert Island Disks with Trevor Sorbie

Charlie interviewed on What She Said

Franky interviewed on Being Freelance

Franky interviewed on Work Like A Mother

Franky interviewed on Shoot Edit Chat Repeat

Franky interviewed on Ask The Therapist

In this episode, we’re discussing a topic that’s very close to our hearts - self-care. We share what self-care means to us personally and what it looks like in our lives and in our businesses.

After a period of burnout and poor health, Franky describes how self-care now helps her cope with chronic illness. Charlie chats about prioritising self-care from the beginning of her freelance career, having worked in offices where well-being was often an afterthought.  

We also discuss wider perceptions, asking what constitutes self-care and why some aspects of it are considered frivolous.

In this episode, we’re chatting about services and offerings. Charlie has been getting to grips with her new creative mentoring packages and trying to figure out exactly what she’s selling.

Franky shares her experience of writing multiple sales pages for numerous clients and outlines the questions she takes business owners through when she’s developing their copy.

We talk about avoiding the comparison trap and the importance of knowing what sets us apart. As well as coming back to our ‘why’ and what it is we want to be known for, we agree offerings can and should change over time, so we shouldn’t get too hung up on perfecting them from the outset.

Links and further reading:

Playing big by Tara Mohr

Our own service offerings...

Charlie's Creative Business Mentoring

Franky's Copywriting Services