the podcast

Tired of struggling to get traffic to your website or Etsy shop? Unleash the power of blogging. It can help you build traffic and SEO for your creative business as well as improve brand awareness, visibility and customer and client engagement.

Award winning documentary filmmaker and former Canadian Olympian, Phyllis Ellis, joins me in this episode with the release of her latest film, Category: Woman. We dive into the big themes of the documentary (gender and gender equality, body autonomy racism) as well as the power and challenges of telling stories - whether they're your own or belong to someone else.

In just one year as a food photographer, Darina Kopcok was able to match her full time corporate income. She did it by investing in her skills and with the help of a photography business coach who got her dialed into her pricing and helped her identify - and connect with - her ideal clients. In this episode she talks about how to generate quality client leads as well as how to grow your revenue streams by offering education resources to other creative service providers and makers in your niche.

How do you manage inventory and demand in your creative business? Do you use and market a scarcity model? An urgency model? Or an always available model? We walk you through each of these and outline the pros and cons of each as well as showing you how you can use a mix of all three in your creative business!

Can I use that in my work?

Have you ever asked yourself that question about somebody else's work? Or has somebody asked you that question about your work? What happens when somebody uses your stuff without asking you? How do you get copyright? Is it different in Canada from the US?  What does it mean to sell your rights to somebody? What is licensing?  What happens to your copyright when you die? Canadian copyright lawyer Lesley Ellen Harris answers all your burning copyright and IP (intellectual property) questions in this absolutely jam packed episode!

Are you a photographer, designer of any kind, writer or other creative services provider? This week Melissa and Heather talk about how you can create products to sell alongside your creative services and open up new revenue streams - great for your slow season, to have earning income while you continue to serve clients or to help you break through the income ceiling a lot of us hit when doing client facing work.

When Stefanie Henderlin first started formulating her products it was with an eye to helping her midwife clients. But, she quickly discovered just how much she loved the process and the result was the birth of Mangata Apothecary. Stefanie shares her journey and how failure has resulted in growth for her and her business to the point where she's now auditioning for Dragon's Den and sourcing investment to scale!

Melissa and Heather, along with past guests and current listeners, share some of the business advice and wisdom they would give their younger selves if they had the chance.

When you have an Etsy shop, you wonder if you should open a stand along shop on a platform like Shopify or Wix. When you have a stand alone website you wonder if you should open an Etsy shop. When you're first starting out, you don't know which to pick. And if you're a creative services provider you might be wondering if this episode is even worth your time (it is). So which is it? Etsy? Your Own Shop? Or... should you have both? I cover the pros and cons of each and why having both might not be a bad idea!

All of us have money mindset challenges. Whether they're rooted in our childhood or our choice of a career (starving artists, anyone?), we can carry around a lot of money baggage that gets in our way and stops us from being financially empowered women. That's where today's guest, Ottawa based financial literacy consultant Pamela George, steps in. Today, with the help of her powerful story,  she's helping us get rid of that starving artist mindset and align our money mindset with our values.

This time last year I sat down with my planner for 30 minutes and did ONE thing that had a huge impact on my creative business in 2022. In this SBS (short but sweet) episode, I share what I did and how it changed my business and my life! And it's super easy and you can do it too!

The inner struggle between artist, maker, creative and female business owner is real for many of us. But as this week's guest, creative business coach and advisor, Sara Roach-Lewis, likes to remind us... if you earned money this year but didn't get a T4... you're a business owner.

So how do we learn to embrace the business side of creating for a living while still being the creators we want to be? That's our conversation this week! 

This week, Toronto based podcaster and c+p digital co-founder, Susan Diaz joins Melissa to talk about how creatives, artists and makers can get smarter and more efficient about making social media work for them - without wanting to pull their hair out or needing to be digital content creators.

The secret? Repurposing content. Susan breaks it down for us this very practical and sanity saving episode!

This week's episode started out to be our annual recap of our goal progress for 2022. But, we realized, almost immediately, that we had taken a turn and had a creative mindset episode on our hands! We quickly dove down into exploring the deeper (and sometimes darker) aspects of our creativity and how we work: meaning and resistance.

Toronto based sisters Katrina and Lexie von Hahn have known for years that they wanted to create a business that reflected their Latin American roots and that has resulted in Gallola - a fashion and lifestyle brand launching soon with their first product: a shoe they designed that's inspired by the timeless Argentine carpincho style and handmade in Mexico.

Melissa and Heather get into a dirty little secret of starting a small business that nobody talks about: lack of support from loved ones. It may be your parents, your partner or spouse or your friends. How do you deal with it? Let's talk about it.

Janice Lawandi thought a PhD in chemistry had cut out a clear career path for her. But like many grad students, she started baking to relieve her doctoral stress which led to completing a Pâtisserie de Base certificate from Le Cordon Bleu and a food blog. Now this doctor of chemistry shows other bakers how understanding the science of baking can unleash their creativity - and has opened up multiple streams of revenue for her in the process!

As a full time working creative, travel writer, videographer and YouTuber, Ayngelina Brogan of Bacon is Magic shares how she has used her small YouTube channel of just over 10 thousand subscribers to build an engaged community and double her overall income.

In our Season 4 opener, Melissa and Heather do a quick recap of the summer and hit a number of topics that we've been experiencing or following - including running a studio sale, incorporating new tech into our work, navigating more social media changes and planning & prepping for the upcoming holiday season.