EP 54: SOLO - Building a Brand Ecosystem

Episode 54: SOLO - Building a Brand Ecosystem
Hosted by Katelyn Calhoun

This week on Crafted Connections, I’m sharing something I’ve been actively navigating in real time: what it looks like to build a brand ecosystem instead of forcing yourself into a neat, tidy box.

This episode starts with a simple moment — a DM conversation with a friend where I admitted that everything I’m working on feels like a bunch of puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit yet.

Her response stopped me in my tracks:

What if the final image is bigger than you can even imagine?

And that’s the thread we follow throughout this conversation.

Because if you’re anything like me — multi-passionate, curious, building a lot of things at once — you’ve probably felt the pressure to “make it make sense” before you share it. To niche down. To package it perfectly.

But what if the mess isn’t the problem?

What if the work is actually to keep showing up in process?

In this solo episode, I break down what I mean by a brand ecosystem — a way of showing up that allows all the different parts of you to exist, evolve, and even contradict each other a little bit.

From this podcast, to daily vlogs, to life on a boat, to client work — I share how each piece plays a role in expressing who I am, even when the full picture isn’t clear yet.

We also talk about the tension of being in a “mid-career” moment — where you’ve gained experience (and a few scars), but you’re still figuring out what’s next. And how trying to rush clarity can actually disconnect you from the very people you’re trying to reach.

Because here’s the truth:

Your story doesn’t need to be finished to be worth sharing.

And waiting until it’s perfect might be costing you connection.

This episode is your permission slip to stop forcing it to make sense — and start trusting that the picture will come together as you keep going.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

🧩 Why your “too many puzzle pieces” might actually be a good thing
 🌱 What a brand ecosystem is — and how it replaces the pressure to niche down
 🎙️ How different platforms (podcast, social, video) can hold different parts of you
 🔁 Why iteration — not clarity — is the real path forward
 💬 The problem with over-rehearsed storytelling (and what to do instead)
 ⚖️ Navigating the tension between early optimism and lived experience
 🚫 How perfectionism quietly blocks connection
 ✨ Why sharing in-process is more powerful than presenting a finished version
 🔥 “Joy is data” — and how to follow what’s actually lighting you up
 🧭 A reframe to help you trust that the bigger picture is still unfolding

Need Help Clarifying Your Story?

Story Strategy Sessions are designed to help you uncover your narrative, refine your messaging, and build a visibility strategy that actually feels like you.

🎥 Book your session and use code PODCAST for 25% off:
https://katelyncalhoun.as.me/story-strategy-session

Join the Conversation

📲 Instagram: @CraftedConnectionsPod
📬 DM me and tell me—what format makes you come alive when you communicate?

Crafted Connections is lovingly produced by Calhoun Creative Consulting, a strategic storytelling firm helping people and brands tell stories that resonate.

🌟 Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.
 Keep creating. Keep connecting.

Transcript

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Boom, boom, boom, boom,

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Hello. Welcome to Crafted Connections. I'm Kaitlyn Calhoun, and this is a podcast all about storytelling and building. Genuine community

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here, we'll dive into The art of storytelling, unpacks strategies for making meaningful connections and hear from incredible humans who are using their story to create impact.

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So grab your favorite beverage, settle in,

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and let's craft some connections.

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Hello and welcome to Crafting Connections. I am Caitlin Calhoun, and I'm here to help you tell your story.

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If you want

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to put yourself out there, if you want to share what you got going on, whether that be in a very small way or in a very big way. I am here to give you examples of how to tell your story, to do solos where we break down

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storytelling in all its facets, whether it be

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on the interwebs,

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in person, what have you, how to really feel confident in how you're presenting yourself and whatnot.

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I also interview guests to kind of show you how to pull story out of someone and and to hear other people's stories so that you get a little bit of permission to show up fully yourself.

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So that's what we're going to do. Let's dig into it. I'm so excited about what I'm talking about today, which is all about,

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why I'm building a brand ecosystem, why a brand ecosystem exists, why it matters.

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And let's kick it off with a little bit of a story, because that's what we're here to do,

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I was speaking to a friend in my DMs. In the Instagram DMs, I was talking to her and

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it was a catch up. It was like a, hey, how are you doing?

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And I was breaking down

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this is going on.

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This is going on. And it just feels like I have too many puzzle pieces and I can't make them fit. I feel like they're all essential, but I don't know how they fit together.

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And, you know, it was just a kind of a side comment that I ended my message with.

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Her response blew my frickin mind. And

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She basically framed it as such.

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What if the puzzle and the final image is bigger than you could possibly imagine? So all of these puzzle pieces matter, but it's bigger than you even

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can visualize. And I don't know if you've been through this. I myself have found that I never can see the whole picture in until I collect the pieces, until I start fitting them together

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like I have to be in process to to actually get to the point where I'm like, oh, that's why, right,

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Hindsight is 2020, right? It's clear after the fact. So if you're feeling this right now, then this is the perfect episode for you. I cannot wait to dig into it.

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And I think it comes from a place of being a person that has a lot of interests. So I've spent a long time trying to squeeze myself into a smaller box or picture or make it clear,

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before presenting myself

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it's the classic idea that you need to, like, niche down.

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And frankly, for me, that's so exhausting, so inauthentic.

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And I just, I feel too confined and too small when I do that. And I get it, like, I get it's confusing as as I'll get out when I am presenting all these different pieces and parts.

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Because it's,

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being reflected to the people that,

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I'm speaking to that I don't really know what's going on, but

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it's going to make it more clear and exciting. If I'm moving through this stuff confidently.

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I see this inauthenticity in the interview questions I ask sometimes too,

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recently have been trying to start my interview episodes by saying something other than tell the listeners about you, because time and time again, starting an interview with a very generic tell me a little bit about you.

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It's such a hard question to answer. It also will easily elicit the response that somebody's, like, composed

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and is like just spewing straight back to you like it's almost too cookie cutter, it's almost too rehearsed.

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so I'm trying to mix it up by, by just digging in with like, a genuine like how you would start a coffee conversation

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so at this moment, right where we're feeling like we need to push ourselves into something that we're not, we we feel like we're leaving pieces of ourselves behind.

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And so this is the moment we start asking,

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What if the mess isn't the problem and we're actually focusing too much

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on

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being

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perfect, clean cut and presented

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with a little bow on ourselves.

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What if it's actually about enjoying the process? And so I recently,

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have started reframing this like, you're too much, you're putting out too much, you're presenting too much into.

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No, it's actually this brand ecosystem that I'm building. It's a it feeds each other. It allows people to get to know me.

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It's a container in which I get to.

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to express myself more fully and figure myself out along the way.

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committing to certain cadences.

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I'm committing to expressing myself

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And I'm allowing each piece of myself to to find a home. And so this isn't about forcing pieces together. It's it's.

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Adding what feels good and distilling it down. Adding what feels good, distilling it down. And and it's a in process.

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It's a cyclical thing. I, I often when I teach story strategy, I always start with the idea of like

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our stories are so cyclical. We as people are not the same people we were even yesterday, let alone two years ago, let alone

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who will be in a year from now.

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So it's

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this brand ecosystem has allowed me to

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include all those parts and, and to iterate and figure myself out along the way while also sharing who I am and what I'm doing and and my enthusiasm.

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So what does it actually break down to in this snapshot of time? Right. Like you're you're hearing me talk about a brand ecosystem.

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You're like, maybe you've heard it before, maybe you haven't. You're like, what does that even mean? Caitlin, how are you defining this?

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What can I do to to also

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make myself feel a little bit more

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authentic, a little bit more

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true to who I am, a little bit more allowing the multifaceted nature of my existence into my personal brand, into the way that I present myself

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or market myself. And so I'll give you some examples. I have a few different like ways that I'm expressing who I am and what I'm doing online.

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First things first, I mean, not to get super meta about it, but I've got this podcast crafting connections.

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I realized about a few years ago that while I have this video background and I do love video production, it really is all about the story.

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I. I found myself in the editing bay really enjoying the a roll cut, which is when you take the interview and you structure it versus just like a raw conversation.

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And then that is like the, the arc of the story that you're telling. And then the B-roll is what you cover it with. So I was finding myself

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really enjoying a roll cut, being obsessed with that stage of the editing process, of the storytelling process.

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And the same thing, too, in the research phase, like getting to know characters and leaning into that. And so how do I find a space to, like, tell the world

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that I love, love, love story, that I love the interview. I love the people, the human. I love the,

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construction of the arc,

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a podcast, of course.

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We all know podcasts are everywhere, but I felt like this,

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platform, this modality, this way of showing up

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really, really, really allows for me to express that part of myself. And I both get to kind of talk about

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and geek about,

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business related things, story related things.

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I get to have conversations with a bunch of connections, both, you know, friends and strangers alike. And it's just a lot of fun community building. So it's got all these different parts of me expressed in this format. But that's not the only way that I am telling my story,

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Or sharing stories.

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if you've listened to the podcast before, my partner and I, Phil,

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live on our boat in the summer and find places to rent in the winter.

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So we've got this boat, You Tube, for when we're doing the boat adventures

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as we learn how to drive the boat, as we learn boat safety, as we fix the boat up.

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And, like, spend our summers full time on this

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boat.

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And it shares how we actually live.

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It's an interesting thing. It's an outlier. It's also why I ended up getting into video in the first place. I loved travel shows in high school. I just the idea of traveling has been such a passion of mine, and honestly, I haven't done as much as I wanted to in adulthood and us taking on this boat, life has opened up a whole path, a whole trail of like

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adventures to come, travel, to come, connections to come and

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again, like how does the boat and the like?

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It is awkward to like have a conversation and be like, well, I've got the podcast, I've got the YouTube, I've got this. But like the people that know me, the people that hire me, the people that I like love to have coffee chats with in the cozy corners of cafes. They are the kind of people that enjoy both parts and or enjoy one part.

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And forgive me for like having another creative piece, right? It allows my like humans to pick and choose. Which then brings me to a third thing that I've been doing, which is these daily mini vlogs on Instagram, which they are. Sometimes they are so raw, sometimes they are fun, sometimes they, have collaboration. They always bring

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the creativity though, even on the days where like the post itself is not that creative, I have to use a creative part of my brain to come up with something to share, and that shows like a real time, unpolished version of me, like the daily things it obviously

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covers.

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Sometimes when when Phil and I are doing things related to the boat, it covers. Sometimes when I'm recording the podcast,

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And so it's fun

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to do those

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daily quick little videos that people can, like, just get the little snapshots on a regular basis. And then as I review it, right,

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over 130 days into this, this daily vlogging and it allows for me to see a bigger picture and reflect on like, what my life looks like.

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And these are a bunch of different puzzle pieces. Like I said, it is kind of awkward to describe them to people, but as I lean in, as I keep doing it, as I keep connecting with people, I see how like

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The pieces are related because they all relate back to me,

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but they don't necessarily give the full picture yet. And so that brings it to I'm still figuring it out.

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I've been thinking a lot recently about how we rush ourselves to the finish line. We want it to be as I mentioned earlier, we want it to be tidy with a bow on top. So before we present it.

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But sharing ourselves in process is actually quite magical and

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connects people more than we think.

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Even the other day I was interviewing someone on the pod and gosh, she is such a cool person.

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We both came in a little bit clunky

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in the conversation, but when when we finally like, just were like, okay, this, let's do a reset, let's restart the conversation.

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I don't think we're going to forget each other any time soon. And I'm so excited for this. Like new lifelong friend who, frankly, was a stranger before I brought her onto the podcast.

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And

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that's cool. That's cool that like, we didn't have this, like, this is exactly who I am. And she's like, cool. This is exactly who I am. It's gross. It's so gross. It's like, you don't want it to be that neat and tidy because it's not human. It's not. That's not what your personal brand is about. It's not what your

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brand ecosystem should be about.

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waiting to have it be perfect is costing you connection.

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Hey, y'all. You know, I love telling stories, gathering stories,

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and finding a way to help people

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connect their story with the people that will will get it.

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And that's what my story strategy sessions are all about. So over at Calhoun Creative Consulting, my strategic storytelling firm, we do one on one

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and or

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facilitated workshops in relation to really honing in the strategy around your story,

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it's a bit of messaging, meets

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content creation, meets storytelling,

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And then how do we

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put that out in the world? How do we show up regularly? There's a bit of mindset work around it, right, to actually tell your story.

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whether you're launching something new or trying to rework your brand

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or just feeling a little foggy on how to communicate with your people,

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this is how to get clear.

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We'll dig into things like your narrative,

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how to uncover what matters most. Maybe

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map out a few

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content pillars while we're at it.

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You'll also get a recording of our session so you can revisit the conversation anytime you like.

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let's shape a story that actually feels like you.

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So book yours today.

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There is a link in the show notes.

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And

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hey, while you're at it, use the code podcast, All caps podcast for 25% off

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your session.

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I would be honored to spend time with you and suss out your story.

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Let's dive back into the episode, Joey.

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I had the opportunity to see,

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a mentor and

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honestly, my first client. So like, when I was, 24 and still working full time somewhere,

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she hired me for my first video project ever,

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on my own. And it was so amazing. And

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I often reconnect with her about where I'm at and what what's up with things?

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And I'm finding myself in my early 30s

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in this weird mid career moment, where when I was in my early 20s, I was super optimistic. So excited about all the potential, all the possibilities, and about ten years. And like,

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I've got a few scars, right? I've got a few wounds and I'm things, you know, approaching new ideas or new potentials can be a little ouchy because of the experiences that I've had.

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And so I've really been struggling in this moment

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between that.

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Place of eternal optimism with so much excitement and enthusiasm about potentials and,

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oh, I have it all figured out.

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Between those two places has been where I've been living

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for a few years now, and I feel like to go back to the puzzle metaphor. I feel like the puzzle should already be complete.

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And when I was talking to this mentor about that,

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she was sharing with me, about her early days and her nowadays, and how in the early days, she's like, whatever you need me to do for money. And now, like, she's so specialized, right? And we, we are told to niche down to pare down,

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but I think we forget that that takes work, that takes iteration, that takes putting yourself out there and I personally have been trying to rush that process.

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I have tried to race to the finish line so that I have this perfect package to present people. I've got this perfect personal brand that everything makes sense, that it all fits together, and I have this perfect offer at the end of of, you know, me telling you about myself,

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And I'm realizing that's not the point,

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because, frankly, I love what I do.

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I love the work I do. I'm really. If you can't tell, I'm really enjoying this conversation. I'm really enjoying.

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talking to the mike right now. And when I actually look at, like the things on my plate, I'm like, oh my gosh, this cool project is happening. That cool project is happening. Even I'm putting like, Joy into my sales pipeline, like to connect with I've got this amazing group

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of people that are in

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my HubSpot.

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And I'm like,

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oh, I can totally reconnect with them. And it's not about anything other than like, hey, just so you know, this is what I'm up to right now. And then you get to like, really collaborate with cool people. So like, if I love the work, just do the work. And along the way it will come together.

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The ecosystem is a place for me to live in.

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in the brand ecosystem is a place for me to

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iterate and play and share who I am so that I

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can connect with people who

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connect with

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who I am. And then I will connect with who they are. And then it's like, we got this friendship ecosystem, if you will.

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And so figuring things out in real time is the work.

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your story doesn't need to be finished to be worth sharing. And I mean this especially because like if your story's done, then you're dead, right? Like, not to get morbid about it, but like, if it's if it's all tied up and tidy, then like,

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you're done, it's over.

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There's there's nothing else to add.

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But like.

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There is so much more.

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am sure if I come back on this episode, you know, ten, 20, 30, 40 years from now, if I'm that lucky to,

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be out here doing things for that much longer in my life,

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I will listen to this 33 year old version of myself and I'll be like, oh, that's so precious, right?

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Because I'll know the bigger picture.

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All know that I actually have so much more time to air quotes. Figure it out

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I really hope that I'll recognize that. Like.

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I'm proud of myself for enjoying the process, because process is where it's all at. And

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my brand ecosystem allows me to play and process.

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So with that

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joy is data

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and it's telling you that you love something. So follow it and I hope you can find this in your life as well.

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I want to land with this final question. Back to the back to the puzzle piece journey,

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What if the final image is bigger than you could possibly imagine? I love taking time to figure out what I want, but sometimes we can't even dream that big. So you have to just iterate and play and and enjoy the process.

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Think about your own experience with too many pieces and like sit with the reframe of not forcing it to fit, but rather

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considering how big

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the picture actually might be. I love this idea. I hope that it resonates with you, and I hope that you enjoyed this week's episode. If you did, please share it with a friend and maybe you guys can do a little bit of an accountability, like where you check in with each other and make sure that you are enjoying process and sharing your joys and and sharing the ways that you're showing up before things are all tidy with the bow.

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With that, thank you so much for listening to Graphic Connections.

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crafted connections, is lovingly produced by Calhoun Creative Consulting, a strategic storytelling firm dedicated to helping people and brands tell their stories in a way that resonates.

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If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and connect with us on Instagram at Crafted Connections Pod.

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Keep creating. Keep connecting until we meet again.