✨capture attention on a budget
✨capture attention on a budget
and build trust at scale
My early creative bravery was fueled by small-yet-scary moves—like when I asked to be mentored by the first branded podcast agency’s co-founder, Steve Pratt. It’s shaped how I think about shows (and content) to this day. He joined us for our invite-only Genius Call, and I’m excited to share those insights with you.
—Rachel Elsts Downey, Founder & CEO, Share Your Genius
📊 So what is creative bravery?
Ahhh, creative bravery—it’s the framework for capturing attention in today’s oversaturated world.
Steve Pratt, co-founder of the branded podcast agency Pacific Content and author of Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers, shared his insights with our team and clients on how brands can make a lasting impact through bold, thoughtful content (without needing a blockbuster budget).
If we’re being real in today’s market, creative bravery is essential to building meaningful audience connections, especially when working with a limited budget.
Steve’s advice?
Stop chasing downloads (where have you heard that before? 😏) and start creating high-impact, memorable content that reflects your brand’s unique voice and offers true value to your listeners.
The mindset shift you need to do this effectively?
🎁 Craft Content Like the Gift It Is
Your content isn’t just “content”—it should be viewed as a gift for your audience.
A great gift is thoughtful. It’s meaningful based on the recipient.
You can do this with your show by taking the time to plan each episode. Thinking about it like this: “Is this from [me, your brand]” or “Is this about [me, your brand]”.
If it’s about me/my brand, then it’s not a gift. Sign off on it like you mean it.
📈 5 Quick Ways to Make Creative Bravery Work for You
1️⃣ Embrace Your Voice: Lean into what makes you different (even if it’s Nardwuar levels of weirdness). And take note of B2C brands like Oatly and Poopourri, who stand out by leaning into their unique personalities, resonating with niche audiences.
2️⃣ Prioritize Engagement Over Reach: Focus on keeping listeners engaged, not just reaching a lot of people. This means focusing on hours spent listening to your show, not downloads. This tells you where your audience finds real value.
4️⃣ Use All Your Channels (and all your content): Don’t let content sit on one or two channels—share it everywhere your audience already spends time, from emails to LinkedIn. And get creative with it—like adding a banner to your site, a podcast widget to your app, or linking it in your email signature. Don’t just check the distribution basics box.
5️⃣ Quality Over Quantity: Go for fewer, high-impact pieces. Memorable content sticks. (‘Nough said.)
Creative bravery isn’t about budget; it’s about doing things differently and building lasting connections.
So if you need a little inspo to up your creative bravery, take this as your sign to revisit your distribution plan, and make sure your content is crafted as a gift your audience wants.
Because when you get creative with how you connect, you’re building relationships that can outlast any single piece of content.
✨ Genius Musings
A collection of helpful resources, events, and other content highlighting what we’re paying attention to currently.
🎥 Want to upgrade your video and/or audio game? Here’s our video podcasting recs. Feel free to drop us a line if you want some more personalized recommendations.
🤓 Invite alert 🤓 Our partner, Vince Freeman (CMO at Harding Poorman) is joining us for our next Genius Call on 11/19 at 1pm ET. He’s sharing his breakthrough strategies of how to use AI in a meaningful way going beyond tactics and aligning on ‘how to think about it’ from the marketing executives’ perspective.
🤑 If you’re still in negotiation land for your marketing budget, we compiled some of the best tips for helping you win that budget and trust here. Thanks to our friend and partner, Devin Bramhall for sharing her insight.
▶️ Experimented with the longer YouTube Shorts yet? Let us know what you think of this feature upgrade they rolled out this month.
⚡ 80% of podcast listeners tune into niche podcasts, with 63% saying they are less likely to skip ads on those shows. And 92% of podcast listeners say they listen to podcasts because they cover topics more in-depth than other media. Want to read up on more stats like this? Acast’s Podcast Pulse report just dropped.
🔦 Content Spotlight: Earn It
It’s only right that we give this spotlight shoutout to Steve Pratt, who generously spent time with us last week.
If any of this newsletter piqued your interest, you wouldn’t be disappointed to read his actual words and dive into his strategies for earning attention and being a brave marketer. And because we stan you all - if you let us know our content his month helped you, we’ll ship you a book on us.
[Check out Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers here.]
