Hashtag Authentic - for creatives, dreamers & business owners online – Details, episodes & analysis

This is a republished episode from LFAHC

In today’s episode we dive into listener questions all about Instagram - from building engagement up, feeling hopeful and excited about the platform again, coming back after a long break, adapting to creating more video content, whether to use hashtags anymore and lots more.

Join Sara for her Instagram Summer School Class starts on Monday, the 29th, so you need to be quick.

Would you love some encouragement and support in your business? Submit your letter for an upcoming episode here.

More from Sara

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I first met Sarah D Rees through my class, The Insta Retreat, quite a few years ago, and we’ve worked together ever since. Sarah is a mental health nurse and CBT therapist with over 10 years of experience in private practice. Through her mentoring and coaching services, she supports other therapists in setting up and growing their private practices. Sarah struggled with the lack of a business plan and structure in her private practice, leading to dissatisfaction and confusion, and wanted to help others so they don’t have to feel the same way.

Her book, A Therapist’s Guide to Private Practice: Building a Values-based Business, is out this week (Happy publication week, Sarah 🥳), so it seemed the perfect time to ask her on the podcast to hear about it and how she supports therapists.

Things we talk about in this episode:

* Challenges of setting up a private practice for therapists and coaches

* Identifying values in business and personal life

* Marketing strategies for private practice therapists

* The benefits of niching for mental health professionals

* Using Substack for email marketing and membership platforms

* Using Substack for therapists to build communities and generate income

* Therapist social media presence and boundaries

* Mental health services demand, therapy training and book launch.

Links we mention in this episode:

* Sarah’s book

* Sarah’s website, Instagram and Substack group for therapists

* My Instagram Summer School

The Instagram Summer School

Instagram Summer School is my new 4-week refresher and revive-r for your instagram mojo! The whole of my bestselling Instagram Masterclass, The Insta Retreat, but condensed into 4 weekly highlight reels to get you straight to the good bits and set to work! With daily challenges, free templates, planners and guides, plus weekly AMA (ask me anything) calls with me, and mindset coaching calls with Katie Pulsifer, this is your sun-filled, breezy vacation from all the Insta drama! Check out all the details by clicking here ⬇️

PS. If you have done The Insta Retreat before, look out for emails about how to take part

Where to find Sara:

• Sara’s website: meandorla.co.uk
• Sara on Instagram: @me_and_orla
• Sara on Twitter: @meandorla
• Sara on Substack
• The Insta Retreat
• Sell Your Sh*t
• One to one business coaching with Sara

I know I seem to say this every week, but author and illustrator Helen Stephens is truly one of my very best friends. She's also brilliantly successful, with her books for children winning multiple awards, being adapted for stage, featured on BBC Children's television and appearing on the shelves of millions of happy children worldwide.

I first met Julia of Humphrey & Grace (nee @JuliaBesideTheSea) at a rooftop party on London hosted by Instagram. We've followed one another for years - four of them, to be exact - and I've seen her account grow from its early days to the massive 200k following she enjoys today. We caught up for a natter, and our chat covers changing your Instagram username, dealing with imitation and copying, the dreaded algorithm, calling yourself a photographer and oh so much more.

"Creating for Good is a London based collective of creatives who use their passions and skills to make a difference in the lives of women, men and families affected by war, political discord and poverty. " With a combined following of over 1.2 million. Through workshops, photo walks and individual tutoring we give 100% of all proceeds to charitable organizations which focus on providing skills to empower marginalized people and communities to secure a more sustainable future." I talk to Giulia, Jo, Elena, Jessica and Sarka from the team, to find out how it got started and what they've learned along the way.

Julia from Stylonylon is a journalist-turned-fashion blogger. I called her up to find out about how she sees blogging fitting into the world of journalism, and what skills she’s brought over for communicating directly with her audience. We also talk about podcasting, self-taught photography and the power of owning your own audience in this episode.

This week it's the Q&A I promised, and I'm diving into the questions you all sent my way. I cover blogging, Instagram, social media and getting everything done, plus lots of extra things in between. Sidetone - apologies for the glitches in audio quality this week. I didn't realise my settings were off until after recording, and didn't have time to redo it! Lesson learned. Done is better than perfect anyway, right?

Janet Murray is a freelance journalist turned PR-queen. She's passionate about PR and publicity being accessible to everyone, and shares insider knowledge of how to get press and media coverage for your business or blog, without selling out. In this episode she shares her top tips for getting featured, and why it matters more than you might think.

Today I am joined by Sally Gurteen, aka the Cafe Cat. Sally is a social media manager whose past clients include Caffe Nero, Selfridges, Lindt and many more, where she’s been responsible for blogger outreach, social media campaigns and sponsored content with influencers on Instagram and beyond. I asked her to come onto the podcast to give the inside scoop on the whole process - what brands are thinking, what they’re looking for, what turns them off. So if you’re an influencer, or thinking you’d quite like to become an influencer, this is essential information - and it’s equally useful if you have a business or are considering using influencer marketing at some point in future.