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PODCAST

indie business club

A podcast for independent creatives. Packed with tips, advice, and food for thought for freelancers, founders, and business owners in creative industries. indiebusinessclub.substack.com

business marketing

All Episodes

39:38

15 The Masterplan: goal setting

indie business club ·

2025/01/23

Hello, and welcome to our first full-length podcast episode of 2025 🙌🏻 If you enjoy the show, you can chip in on our production costs at ko-fi.com/indiebusinessclub please and thank you 💖In episode 15 “The Masterplan”, we talk about…how setting goals can help you to protect your boundariesthe power of writing your goals downhow setting a specific number as a target can have a limiting effectMel’s knowledge of the phonetic alphabet (what a treat)how “vanity” goals can still influence your business

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15:26

b-sides: word of the year

indie business club ·

2025/01/12

On this minisode we discuss the concept of having a "word of the year". In case you missed it, we’re speaking at the Alt Marketing School open day on Thursday 16th January. There are 14 speakers and we’re talking about tone of voice and why it’s important for your brand and your business. Click the pic for tickets.It’s an affiliate link so if you opt for the paid ticket for lifetime access to the talks, we get some cash which we’ll put towards the cost of making the podcast.See ya,Ben & MelFind our

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8:57

b-sides: LinkedIn revisited

indie business club ·

2024/12/30

Hello, Mel here,We’re rounding off the year with a b-side to revisit LinkedIn. The b-sides are shorter chats than a normal episode, so if you've got any topics you'd like us to chew over for 10-15 minutes, let us know.A brief, unimportant disclaimerTurns out I got my Paul brothers mixed up in this b-side. Apologies to any boxing fans. Though, true boxing fans probably don't know their Jake from their Logan either.Ben's meme banSince we covered all things LinkedIn in I Bet You Look Good On The

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31:56

Episode 14 - Handbags And Gladrags: Industry Awards

indie business club ·

2024/12/12

Hello, Award-Winning-Copywriter Mel and Non-Award-Entering Ben here.Today’s episode is called Handbags And Gladrags. It’s all about industry awards and whether they’re worth entering as an indie business owner. Spoiler: Mel says yes.Industry awards don’t always come with a great reputation. I (Ben) have definitely been a bit sniffy about them in the past. But it’s been a lovely thing to see the joy and confidence that winning first place in the Brand Copywriting Category at the recent Women In

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44:20

13 You're The Voice: tone of voice

indie business club ·

2024/11/28

Today’s episode is called You’re The Voice, and we talk about what tone of voice is, why it’s important to you and your business, and how to get in touch with your own unique verbal identity. It’s a bit of a high-pressure episode because we both offer tone of voice work in our businesses (me as a freelancer, Ben as part of Copy Or Die, the copywriting agency he runs with friend of the show Dave Harland) and we kinda need to know what we’re talking about. Did we do ourselves justice? You decide. What

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39:46

12 Plug In Baby: Software

indie business club ·

2024/11/14

There’s so much tech around nowadays, it’s hard to know where to start. Today’s episode is called Plug In Baby, and we talk about which software we use in our own indie businesses. Safe to say, we aren’t the techiest of bros. Tetchiest, more like.We’ve got a voicenote from exec VA and all-round processes legend Jo Shock, who talks us through what to consider when choosing your software. You can find Jo here, where she has a free Client Management Journey Checklist: Streamlines Virtual.In the

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33:47

11 Somebody Told Me: Referrals

indie business club ·

2024/11/03

We met up in Norwich this week (thanks, half term) to plan out our upcoming episodes. We’ve got topics up to #20, but we always welcome suggestions. Themes include tone of voice (suggested by Amy Nolan), software, and copywriting (it’s probably about time).Today’s episode is called Somebody Told Me, and we talk about how inbound referrals can boost your business. We picked this theme because both of us have benefitted massively from inbound leads. When you’re recommended by someone else, onboarding

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39:10

10 Paranoid Android: AI

indie business club ·

2024/10/17

Hi, Mel here,Today’s episode is called Paranoid Android, and it’s all about AI. Specifically, generative AI. Even more specifically, the large language model (LLM) kind. Think ChatGPT and the suchlike. This one's a re-record because my mic - despite being plugged in and switched on - wasn't picked up by the software. Even though the software said it was. I’m over it, though.Quick disclaimer...if you use AI, we aren't judging. We're just giving our views as (spoiler alert) humans who value human

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46:25

09 Shiny Happy People: Personal Brands

indie business club ·

2024/10/03

Hallo, Ben here,Today’s episode is called Shiny Happy People, and it’s all about building a personal brand. Mel and I dig into what a personal brand actually is, and what having one might do for your business.Have you got a personal brand? Do you want one?? Do you need one???In this show, we’ll ask and answer all those questions and more. As a slight spoiler, Mel will say that we’ve all got a personal brand whether we like it or not, and I’ll try and get over the slightly icky feeling that leaning

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37:22

08 Chasing Rainbows: Business Plans

indie business club ·

2024/09/19

Hi, Mel and Ben here,Today’s episode is called Chasing Rainbows, and it’s all about business planning. There’s a strong theme of “do as we say, not as we do” in this episode 🙃. We both tend to approach our business planning with the start point of, “how do we want our family life to look?” We both have young children and share school run duties with Mr Barfield & Mrs McKinney. For others, business goals might be all about earning as much as possible even if it means working 80-hour weeks. Alastair

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52:13

07 A Design For Life: creating for yourself

indie business club ·

2024/09/05

I’ve got a special guest co-host this time, because Ben’s been on paternity leave. This one’s called A Design For Life and features the lovely Dan Nelken. In this episode we talk about the importance of creating stuff for ourselves. It’s a long one, as we covered a lot of ground. Dan explains how adding structure into your routine can improve your creative output, even if it feels counterintuitive to try and control the flow.There's a science behind why we get our best ideas when we're relaxed but

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36:21

06 I Bet You Look Good On The Timeline

indie business club ·

2024/08/22

This episode is called I Bet You Look Good on the Timeline, and we’re talking about everyone’s favourite/most hated social media platform… LinkedIn. In the episode we talk about how incredible LinkedIn and how much Mel (hi) loves it. Ben is… slightly less enamoured.We went to top LinkerInner and Friend Of The Show Dave Harland for a voice note about the impact a single post can have.And as always, we shout out a fellow indie business owner we think is top notch. This time it’s Jonathan Wilcock, a

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36:10

05 Flaming Lips: Public Speaking

indie business club ·

2024/08/08

This episode is called Flaming Lips, and we’re talking about public speaking as a way to build your profile and attract more clients. We’ve both spoken on large stages, and one of the reasons we wanted to start a podcast was to…* improve our public speaking* get more speaking gigs, both in-person and on podcastsIn the talk we mention Ben’s speaker performances at Creator Day this year and at Copy Cabana in 2017, which you can watch here.In this episode, Pascalle Bergmans gives us her top tip for

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36:35

04 A Little Respect: Client Relationships

indie business club ·

2024/07/25

This episode is called A Little Respect, and we’re talking about Client Relationships.We’ve got a contribution from creative force of nature Jodie Newman at The Business Allotment and as always we shout out an indie business owner we think is ace. One thing that came out in the discussion is just how much running an indie business relies on having processes and boundaries in place. We also touch on the danger of falling into the classic “employee mindset” trap. But we also talk about how to surprise

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34:24

03 All Together Now: COMMUNITIES

indie business club ·

2024/07/11

This episode is called All Together Now and we’re talking COMMUNITIES.We’ve both been part of various communities as freelancers, and in this episode we mention…Freelancer Magazine including its virtual co-working sessions and The Marketing Movement on LinkedIn by editor Sophie Cross.You Are The Media including the annual event Creator Day by Mark Masters (who features on the episode).Being Freelance, the community and podcast by Steve Folland.The usual beg to please follow, like, review,

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38:51

02 It's Oh So Quiet: Finding Clients

indie business club ·

2024/06/27

Ben McKinney and Mel Barfield discuss strategies for attracting clients during economic downturns, emphasising the importance of diversifying marketing efforts, posting on LinkedIn, and avoiding relying solely on one platform or approach. They also discuss the value of authenticity, consistency, and specificity in leveraging social media platforms for business growth, and share tips for managing challenging clients and projects, including taking a step back to assess situations objectively. Finally,

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41:11

01 Fools Gold: Pricing your projects

indie business club ·

2024/06/27

Ben McKinney and Mel Barfield discuss pricing strategies for freelancers and small business owners. They emphasise the importance of understanding value propositions, having a sales process, and being confident in pricing. They also addressed gender disparities in confidence and pricing, with findings from Ben's call for writers revealing a consistent gap in rates charged by men and women. Mel and Ben also covered intricacies of pricing and payment, including managing client expectations,

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10:00

00 What's The Story?

indie business club ·

2024/06/12

Mel Barfield and Ben McKinney have been learning all about podcasts.Especially about how microphones work. And how they don’t.First sound guy (and sound guy) Ant informed Ben his microphone was back to front. Then Ant insisted an episode be re-recorded because Mel’s mic was “way too hot”. All good fun though. This episode is “What’s The Story” - a shorter introductory episode to give some background to the podcast. Mel and Ben detail how indie business club came about and try to give one another's

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1:49

Podcast trailer

indie business club ·

2024/06/07

A podcast for independent creatives. Packed with tips, advice, and food for thought for freelancers, founders, and business owners in creative industries. Hosted by Mel Barfield and Ben McKinney. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barfieldandmckinney.substack.com/subscribe

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11:47

Barfield & McKinney's Podcast Experiment: BALANCE

indie business club ·

2024/04/18

Hi, Mel here,Ben and I went back to our roots on Monday by using whatsapp voicenotes to record our recap. Hence the varying audio levels… SORRY 😬This was the last Barfield & McKinney in its current form because as of next month we’ll be recording proper podcast episodes under our new name…Indie Business Club PodcastWhich will be properly audio produced by lovely Ant Henderson, who’s also created us a bespoke theme tune. There’s a heavy 00s rock/indie influence as you’ll hear. Thanks to everyone who

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44 results

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