- Category of [One]
- Posts
- Swipe Right on My Creative Crushes: All my fave podcasts, books & creators
Swipe Right on My Creative Crushes: All my fave podcasts, books & creators
Here's the secret behind all of my innovative ideas: A juicy list of can't miss podcasts, books, and genius creators you need to know about
š Get ready to slam down that follow finger, add some credits to your audible account and blow up your podcast subscriptionsš¤
Dive into this weekās email if you want exclusive access to my juicy, curated list of my current āinspiration content stack.ā
IN THIS EMAIL:
š¦ All of my favorite-y fave things Iām listening to, reading and watching RN to help keep me-n-my-biz in that ācategory of oneā status
ā³ My BRAND new podcast idea [omg, Iām so excited about it!]
š¦ FAVES: When I make a recommendation to you, you can count on the fact that I have spent HOURS researching this shit. I only share with you the things that Iām truly, madly, deeply in love with cause I know that we have super similar tasteā¦and youāre youāre probs gonna love the shit outta all this stuff too. So always know that you full permission to just copy the hell outta me.
EVERYTHING THATāS BEEN KEEPING ME INSPIRED, BRAINSTORMING, THINKING BIG AND ENTERTAINED LATELY
Everyone always seems to love to share their ātech stacksāāi.e. the undercover tools and apps they use in their businesses to make things run smoothly and make stacks of cash. I always love those lists too [and sidenote: that would make a fun future email], but this week I wanted to share my āinspo stackā with you instead.
You know I love to share lessons & mini trainings [in case you missed last weekās email, it was a mini-training on exactly how you could be running your biz like a tech startup. You can read it HERE], but one of the things thatās front and center for me RN is figuring out ways to help you and my clients get better at the practice of innovation.
Cause yeah: this needs to be a daily PRACTICE in your life.
Gif by abcnetwork on Giphy
And as Iāve mentioned before, this innovation thang isnāt really anything that I ever see anyone else talk about orrrrrr teachā¦espesh in the online coaching & service based world.
One of the best ways I think I can help you become an innovation ninja in your own biz is to share a curated list of all of the things Iāve been relying on lately to inspire the hell outta me.
Cause this isnāt about me giving you a checklist of items 1-47 that I want you to run through in order to become an industry disruptorā¦thatās not how this shit works.
I want to empower you to come up with your OWN brilliant shower ideasā¦connect the dots on things that have been bugging you for monthsā¦or finally taking action on that thing that you just canāt let go of.
So get ready for my big ass list of faves. Believe it or not, this isnāt even close to everything that I consumeā¦but I wanted to at least get you started with the best of the best.
**PRO TIP: you donāt need to follow and consume ALL of these content suggestions below in order to become that CEO Millionaire version of you. Pick and choose the ones that really resonate with you and leave the rest.
š¤ PODCASTS YOU NEED TO BE LISTENING TO š¤
Podcasts definitely represent the medium that I consume the most these days. Not too long ago I discovered I could even play them through my smart TV, which is now a fave way for me to listen [via the Spotify app]. Anyway, I cannot tell you how much Iāve learned from, been inspired by and also been entertained by all of my fave podcasts.
PODCAST
š§ MINDSET & BUSINESS
ā”ļø The Life Coach School
I maintain that this is the most poorly named podcast in the history of the universe. When I first heard about it, I was like: āuhm, Iām not a life coach so me no care.ā But trust me: this podcast is for everyone. Fast forward a couple of years and I actually got my 1 year coach certification from Brooke Castillo at the Life Coach School, and completely and totally shifted my entire life using the mindset principles she teaches. Pretty much ALL of my juiciest mindset tricks and flexes Iāve learned from Brooke. Since your brain is a dick just like mine, I would honestly just consider starting at episode #1 and listening all the way through. But if you want a quick hit, hereās another suggestion.ā¬ļø
This podcast is for you if: You want to actively work on your mindset by using tangible tools & practices rather than woo woo, quantum leaping type of shit. Also: this podcast will be mad helpful for you whether you have a business or not.
Start with: Episode #472, The Future Store
PODCAST
š„ļø TRENDS & POP/INTERNET CULTURE
ā”ļø ICYMI
Though they donāt know it, I consider the two hosts of this show my BFFāsā¦mostly because we share a love of talking about pop culture with the same approach weād take if we were writing a Phd dissertation annnnnd also because they just seem cool AF. Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim do twice weekly shows on all sorts of topics around internet culture, trends and social mediaā¦all the shit that the most plugged in ppl you know are DEFINITELY talking about.
This podcast is for you if: Youāre a biz owner who already knows who Alix Earle and Tube Girl are, but you wanna stay on top of the trends and potentially apply some of this trendy shit to your own social media, branding, etc.
Start with: Is āAlgospeakā D@ngerous?
PODCAST
š§ SALES PSYCHOLOGY
ā”ļø The Brainy Business
I think at some point I wanna pull a āKim Kardashianā and go back to school to get my masters degree in Behavioral Economics, also known as sales psychology or āwhy people buy.ā Iām deeply obsessed with this topic and absolutely love learning all I can about it, which is why I lurv this podcast from Melina Palmer so damn much. Sheās a sales conversion expert that has this amazing ability to breakdown complicated topics into bite-sized, easy to understand little chunks, and she also has on a slew of great guests [most of whom have books we should probs all be reading].
This podcast is for you if: Youāre also sales psychology obsessed like I am and want to dive way deeper than basic shit like āwhat are the 4 buyer types.ā Note: this is DEF not focused on the coaching/service provider industry, which is probably why I love it so much.
Start with: Episode #312 The Science of Influence: Dr. Robert Cialdini Reveals the Secrets [Cialdini also has a book thatās often considered the bible in the field of behavioral economics in case you wanna read that too.
āļø BONUS TIP: In the last 6 mos Iāve made the full switch over to Spotify as my podcast listening app [before that I was using Overcastā¦for the record: I haaate Appleās podcast app and havenāt used that in eons]. Iām actually really digging Spotifyā¦espesh because of the easy breezy āplaylistā options. I like to group podcast eps and make myself playlists to go back to for diff topics Iām interested in for my biz [i.e. my new glasses chain product line] or for diff mindset things Iām working on [i.e. money mindset].
PODCAST
š° BUSINESS
ā”ļø Acquired
The former nerdy honor roll student that still lives inside me goes gaga for these deeply researched, crazy in depth looks at all the back stories [and sometimes back back stories] of some of the most successful businesses of our time. While it might seem like looking at the history of companies like Walmart, Enron or Amazon has fuck all to do with you-n-me and our businesses, I get SO much out of learning about the inner workings of these businesses and I totes feel like it keeps me so much sharper as a CEO. The LVMH I reccomended below is almost 3 hoursā¦but I soaked up every single minute of it.
This podcast is for you if: If you already love shows like How I Built It but want to dive even deeper into the back stories and juicy details of how some of the most iconic businesses in the world were built.
Start with: LVMH
PODCAST
š BUSINESS, BRANDING & INNOVATION
ā”ļø The Business of Fashion
Host Imran Amed has a rotating group of wildly fascinating people on his show to discuss the business of fashion, culture, branding, advertising and innovation. Again: I donāt have a fashion business [at least YETā¦my glasses chain line will hopefully debut in 2024] but Iām still hooked on hearing from all these leaders of the fashion scene about this convergence of fashion, culture and business.
This podcast is for you if: If you have a fashion or fashion adjacent business, you will for sure LOVE this show. But even if you donāt, I think youāll still really dig this show if you want to open up your your perspectives on marketing, branding or product based businesses.
Start with: Pharrell Williams On His Vision for Louis Vuitton
PODCAST
šø BUSINESS, BRANDING & MARKETING
ā”ļø Not Your Average Brand
This is the one any only podcast Iām including on my list from a fellow coach/service provider [truth time: I do listen to many others, but this one is my current fave]. I think the host, Kierra Conover, has a really stand out, unique take on marketing and branding that I find really refreshingāand this is sentiment that doesnāt pop up often for me now that we seem to be in the āvanillaā¦blend inā¦just repeat what everyone else is sayingā era in this online biz space. Sheās straightforward, isnāt afraid to share controversial opinions, and has a really interesting background working for big brands like the Gap and Banana Republic.
This podcast is for you if: If youāre a marketing and branding STAN like me and want to sharpen your understanding and skills around how to use it to better connect with your customers and make more cash money.
Start with: Episode #10 Omni Channel vs Multi Channel Marketing: Why Your Clients are Only Buying from One Platform
PODCAST
š± SOCIAL MEDIA
ā”ļø Shine Online
There are a LOTTT of āsocial media expertsā out there RNā¦like a LOT A LOT. But Natasha Samuel is one of only a handful of people that I think are teaching about and talking about social media in a really unique and innovative wayāsheās def not doing that whole ācut/pasteā approach to Instagram with the same old advice that you see in reel after reel. She also has a āalways give mad valueā focused approach to teaching that I absolutely love because EVERYTHING she shares just feels so juicy and actionable. Sheās also figured out a formula thatās resulted in one of the most valuable community channels on Instagram that Iām currently a member of.
This podcast is for you if: If youāre sick of the ā7 second looping reelā type advice and want to go all in on making your content truly unique and unforgettable.
š¤ MY NEW PODCAST: A few weeks ago I connected the dots on a podcast concept for myself that got me SO damn excited, I immediately made this graphic on Canva [which was more action than I had taken in 5+ years of saying out loud that I wanna start my own show]. Iām sharing the podcast description with you below cause: 1. I want you to yell at me until youāve seen that I launched it and 2. Because as per uzsh, your opinion means everything to me and in case you have any genius. ideas I wanna hear about them.
GAHHHHH! OK, hereās the description I wrote of the show:
A podcast that takes a deep dive look at business, marketing and personal branding through the lens of bad reality TV, pop culture and juicy TikTok trends. If youāre a business owner who wants to learn how to brand yourself like a Real Housewife, connect with your audience like Emma Chamberlain, set the trends like Tube Girl and document your life like Gary Vee so that you can truly become a ācategory of one,ā put your headphones on, grab your Amazon Skims dupe āhot girl walkā matching set and strap in.
š¤ My next step is going to be recording a trailer and then recording the first episode [which will be a solo one about my category of one concept]. I have a bunch more ideas for show topics as well as a long list of guests so stay tuned, yoā¦this baby is coming s-o-o-n.
Giphy
WTF DOES GILMORE GIRLS HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR BIZ?:
About a month ago I fired up season 1, episode 1 of Gilmore Girls. š
Iām almost embarrassed to admit this, but for some reason, I just never watched this series before.
So I fired up Netflix [in case you need to catch up too, all 7 seasons are there as well as the reboot from 2016], put on a matching cozy lounge set, a face mask, grabbed a maple tahini latte and strapped in for 153 episodes of early aughts deliciousness with Lorelei, Rory, Luke and the lovable cast of characters in Stars Hollow.
Of course I immediately wanted Lorelei and Luke to get together, Rory to get her acceptance letter from Harvard and Suki & Lor to open their inn. But being the branding & marketing STAN that I am, I immediately noticed something else that was happening to me while watching this showā¦the vibes were front and friggin center on every single episode.
The vibes were vibin.ā
And honestly: by episode two, I was able to rattle off a list of āvibesā this show was evokingā¦some super obvious and some less so:
ā”ļø New England prep
ā”ļø Cozy Fall
ā”ļø Comfort food [and a rejection of diet culture]
ā”ļø BFF mom relationships
ā”ļø Unapologetic badass women
ā”ļø Independence & chutzpah [financial, emotional, etc]
ā”ļø I donāt need a man to ācompleteā me
ā”ļø Non traditional workplaces
ā”ļø Local diner as your secondary āliving roomā
ā”ļø Sarcastic, self-depracating humor
ā”ļø āCoffee as a personalityā trend [which I feel like this show pioneered]
ā”ļø Teen moms arenāt all like the ones we see on the MTV show
ā”ļø Music as a connection point
Honestly, I could on and on here. And my guess is, if you did this exercise too, a lot of my vibes bullet points ā¬ļø would overlap with yours.
And I need you to take a second and realize HOW FUCKING COOL THAT IS from a branding perspective.
Because not once [ok, Iām only on season 2, ep 14, but this is my guess] did the show creator Amy Sherman-Palladino or any of the writers come out and directly SAY: āloving coffee can legit be your main personality traitāā¦or āstop counting your weight watchers points and just order the damn fries.ā
But even as a brand new viewer, I deeply felt these in every episodeā¦I embraced them as I continued to watchā¦and now their vibes have become my vibes.
I got hooked and I got hooked f-a-s-t.
These characters feel like my friendsā¦my peopleā¦my town.
You too?
Well, uhm, thatās ALL about vibesā¦whether you realize it or not.
Lemme land this plane and bring us back around to WTF does Gilmore Girls have to do with your biz? And here it isā¦
I love that you probably already have branding guidelines for your bizā¦a color paletteā¦an ideal customer persona. But the āvibesā of your biz go WAY beyond thatā¦and are sometimes hard to identify and develop on your own.
So I decided to put together a āHow to Create the Vibes of your Bizā Masterclass thatās going to fill you in on exactly how to create those same Gilmore Girl type undeniably magnetic vibes.
Because yes: you have the SAME EXACT opportunity with your own personal brand and social media presence to evoke those āIām all in no matter whatā¦give me more cause I canāt get enoughā¦I wanna hear about everything you have to say and everything you have for saleā vibes too.
š” How to Create the Vibes Of Your Business Masterclass is going down on Thursday, November 16th @ 10am PT, 11am MT, 12pm CT and 1pm ET. You can grab your spot HERE for only $67. And yep, there will be a replay.
**If youāre a current 1:1 client of mine or a client of the Icon Agency, woo hoo: you get in for free! Message me for your 100% off coupon.
š BOOKS YOU NEED TO READING š
Pull out your kindle or fire up an audio bookā¦thatās up to you. But these are some faves that I recently read [all within the biz realm]
āļø As part of the membership weāre gonna be launching soon, I want to do a monthly book club. So get a head start if you want by grabbing these books now cause theyāre all on my list of book club picks.
BOOK
ā”ļø CONTAGIOUS: Why things catch on by Jonah Berger
This author, whoās also a Wharton professor, has broken down the process of virality into 6 steps and shares loads of real life examples to help you to understand what each step actually looks like. One of the most fascinating things I learned from the book is that the vast majority of āword of mouthā buzz does NOT happen onlineā¦in fact only 7% of it is goin down on the interwebs. I devoured this book in a day and by the end of it I had sooo many ideas kicking around in my head about my own business.
This book is for you if: If you want to stu
BOOK
ā”ļø The Business of Aspiration by Ana Andjelic
This is, hands down, the best book Iāve ever read about marketing and branding, full stop. Itās very short [only 87 pages] AND it was written during the pandemic so there are a lot of references in there that arenāt necessarily relevant today. However, I still think itās 100% worth your time. This author goes deep into the concept of the development of our new aspirational economy and how the means by which we all convey āstatusā has shifted substantially to things like aesthetic innovation, curation and taste. I highlighted so much shit in this book, my highlighter actually ran out of ink.
This book is for you if: If you want to dive into a more modern take on our culture and how it applies to the way we think about marketing and branding our businesses.
Ok, I have not actually read this book yet. š«£ But Iām so damn excited to, I didnāt want to leave it off my list. Hereās a quickie description: We can use status to explain why some things become ācool,ā how stylistic innovations arise, and why there are constant changes in clothing, music, food, sports, slang, travel, hairstyles, and even dog breeds.
This book is for you if: If you want to keep learning about the whole virality thang but more through the lens of popular culture.
š¬ CREATORS YOU NEED TO FOLLOW š¬
Hereās the truth: following other coaches is officially boring AF for me. In fact, Iām so damn over it, Iām actually UNFOLLOWING as many as I can every day on Instagram while desperately trying not to get flagged by the algo.
So because I wanna keep you-n-me in this realm of innovation, Iām gonna share with you creators who are currently inspiring the hell outta me, have unique POVs and are getting me to think differently.
āļø Iām linking to all of these peeps are on TikTok but you can probs also find them on Insta.
šŗ @KIRAMACKENZ: Like Maggie Sellers, who I highlighted in last weekās email, Kira is another tech investor who also happens to be a marketing and branding genius.
START HERE: Her breakdown of Kylie Cosmetics brand evolution
šŗ @ITSNEETIE: I honestly have no idea who this chick is cause her bio is super vague, but I seriously love her hot takes on branding and trends.
START HERE: Is Gap doing another rebrand?
šŗ @THENATEBROWN: This dude has been a creative director for BeyoncĆ©, Drake, and Jay-Zā¦heās a friggin genius and I could listen to him talk all day about creativity, fashion and his hot takes on products.
START HERE: Paul Grahamās essay on how to do great work
šŗ @ORENMEETSWORLD: He calls himself āthe internetās creative directorā which, hello, I think deserves itās own standing O for the sheer brilliance of that one liner. But he talks a ton about product based business stuff [branding, trends, factories in China roundups, etc].
START HERE: The everything aesthetic [which is basically a variation of my āmerch your life concept]
šŗ @KATARINATERENTIEVA: Ok, I just checked her bio and she ALSO calls herself the āinternetās creative director,ā so not sure if she or Oren pioneered this title. But also I donāt really care because I love all of her hot takes on branding and packaging.
START HERE: Packaging ideas that donāt suck
šŗ @COCOMOCOE: This creator used to work at Buzzfeed, but now has a podcast and a TikTok account [which is almost at a million followers!]. She covers internet culture and trends, and is always talking about stuff WAY before Iāve heard about it or even identified the thing as a trend I should be paying attention to.
START HERE: Kylie Jennerās subliminal marketing strategy [Kylie is killing it lately]
Gif by SuccessionHBO on Giphy
āļø So these are all my favorite-y faves RN. ā¬ļø
Let me know if you end up subscribing, reading or following any of my recommendations cause I wanna know which things end up being your fave too. Also! Hit reply and let me know if you have a fave that I missed and need to know about ASAP.