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2026 has officially been deemed ‘the year of analogue living’. The internet is going crazy for pen and paper, crafty hobbies, and physical media. In this week’s episode, we discuss the rapid rise of this trend, explore how it’s being interpreted online, and what this might mean for us as small business owners. We also chat about our own analogue habits and hobbies, and ponder why GenZ seem to love poor quality, ‘vintage’ digital cameras so much! Links and Further Reading Are You ‘Team Analogue’ or ‘Team Digital’? Wildflower Illustration Co. The Sunday Letter Project Join the conversation on Substack to share your thoughts on going analogue {or not} in 2026. We’d love to hear from you! Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

We’re kicking off the new year with our annual cosy conversation filled with reflections and intentions. Find out what went well for us last year and what we learned from the things that didn’t. We also chat about our words of the year, share a few goals for 2026, and make some solid(ish) plans for Q1. Links and Further Reading Get Wildly Free Join the conversation on Substack to tell us all about your plans for the year ahead. We’d love to hear from you! Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

In our final episode of the year, join us as we run through some of our non-business related faves. As well as our favourite films, TV shows, music and books, we chat about the habits and experiences we’ve enjoyed the most. It’s an episode filled with recommendations, just for you! Thank you for listening throughout 2025 and happy new year! Fancy filling us in on your own favourites? Join the conversation on Substack. We’d love to hear from you! Links and Further Reading Isabel Paige Shelby’s Cottage Horticulturalish Java Ceridwen Bere Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

You’ve heard of doom scrolling, but what about bloom scrolling? Instead of mindlessly consuming content, bloom scrolling encourages you to interact with the digital world more thoughtfully. In this week’s episode, we’re exploring the concept from a few different angles and offering practical tips to make your time online more nourishing. We cover everything from managing screentime and curating your feed to creating bloom-scroll-appropriate content of your own. Links and Further Reading Bloom Scrolling explained Realfunwow Ulyandernesto Monalogue Abbeysy How do you feel about bloom scrolling? Join the conversation on Substack to share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you! Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

‘Tis the season for a work Christmas do! But what happens when you’re self-employed and the office party is no more?! In this episode, we’re reminiscing about corporate Christmas parties of the past and sharing ideas and encouragement to help you mark the end of another year in your creative business. We cover who to celebrate with when you work alone, and how, from dinner and drinks to craft parties and more. Links and Further Reading Transform Your Business with Co-Mentoring Being Freelance Community DIFTK Community How will you be celebrating the end of another year in your creative business? Join the conversation on Substack to share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you! Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

This week, inspired by Emma Gannon’s recent article, ‘Unbranding Myself’, we’re chatting about personal brands. Are they still relevant? What does a personal brand look like in 2025? How do you go about building one, and what are the pros and cons of doing so?As well as these more general observations, we discuss our own personal brands and share how things might be evolving as we head into 2026. Links and Further Reading The Hyphen by Emma Gannon What the Heck is a Personal Brand in 2025? Change Your Life in One Year (Build a Personal Brand) How do you feel about building a personal brand? Join the conversation on Substack to share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you! Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

Created by Julia Cameron in the 90s, The Artist’s Way is a 12-week creative recovery programme designed to help you unlock your creativity by overcoming common blocks like self-doubt and fear. It uses core principles like ‘morning pages’ and ‘artist dates’ to help you reconnect with your creative self, find more passion and purpose, and fulfil your creative potential. Earlier this year, Charlie completed The Artist’s Way for the second time. In this episode, we chat about her experience and discuss five things she learned from redoing the programme. As well as sharing what she loves about Cameron’s approach, she’s brutally honest about its shortcomings. Links and Further Reading Julia Cameron Studio Gently The Hyphen by Emma Gannon Big Magic Have you ever attempted The Artist’s Way? How did you get on? Join the conversation on Substack to share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you! Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

What happens when a post on Instagram or Substack Notes suddenly and unexpectedly gains momentum? How does it feel on a personal level, and what impact does it have on your business, if any? In this chatty episode, we’re discussing some recent viral moments we’ve experienced online. As well as digging into what virality looks like in 2025, we cover why we think our posts popped off, what we learned from their popularity, and the mindset needed to process sudden, rapid growth. Links and Further Reading Charlie’s Viral Moment Franky’s Viral Moment What Happened When Charlie Went Viral? Have you ever had a viral moment online? How did it make you feel and what impact did it have on your business {if any}? Join the conversation on Substack to share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you! Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

We’re back from our summer break! As we head into autumn, we’re reflecting on Quarter 3 and looking ahead to Quarter 4 in our respective businesses. Find out what felt good, what didn’t and what we’ve learned in the process. We also talk about our words of the year and how they’ve been showing up for us since we last spoke. Finally, we share a few sources of creative inspiration, dig into our plans for the next three months and discuss what we’re hoping to achieve by the end of 2025. Links and Further Reading How to Innovate and Evolve in Business Looking At Picture Books The Lazy Genius Join us on Substack where you can share your thoughts on this episode in the comments. Come and tell us your own intentions for Q4… we’d love to cheer you on! Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Larking About Content Creatives with Charlie Swift Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

For most of us, coming up with ideas is an essential part of running a creative business. But whether we need them for client work or our own content, sometimes generating fresh ideas can feel hard. Inspired by our own struggles, this is what we’re chatting about in today’s episode. As well as exploring why you might be short of ideas, we discuss strategies for navigating the natural ebb and flow of your creativity, offering advice to help you get those ideas flowing again. Links and Further Reading The Self-Belief Episode Do you have any tips for coming up with ideas? We’d love to hear from you! Join the conversation on Substack to share your thoughts. Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s episode, we’re discussing some recent Internet drama — Glennon’s Doyle’s arrival and sudden departure from Substack. To be clear, we’re not interested in gossip and hot takes. Instead, we’re chatting about our experience watching these events unfold, and how they made us feel about Substack and its users. As well as touching on the dangers of positioning Substack as the antidote to everything that’s wrong with social media, we talk about the constant evolution of the Internet and what this means for online business owners. Embracing our status as Internet dinosaurs, we also share advice to help you navigate these inevitable changes. Links and Further Reading Are You Going to Start a Substack? How We Are Showing Up on Substack This Year Glennon Doyle We Can Do Hard Things Letters From Love with Elizabeth Gilbert Everything Glennon Doyle Did Wrong by Polly Vernon How do you feel about what happened to Glennon? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Join the conversation on Substack. Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

As we hit the midpoint of the year, we’re reflecting on Quarter 2 and looking ahead to Quarter 3 in our respective businesses. Find out what felt good, what didn’t and what we’ve learned in the process. We also talk about our words of the year and how they’ve been showing up for us since we last spoke. As well as sharing a few sources of creative inspiration, we dig into our plans for the next three months and discuss what we’re hoping to achieve before the next time we have this chat. Links and Further Reading Making Time for Non-Business Activities During the Working Week The Self-Belief Episode The Artist’s Way Studio Gently Through The Gentle Lens by Anna Considine Join us on Substack where you can share your thoughts on this episode in the comments. Come and tell us your own intentions for Q3… we’d love to cheer you on! Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s episode, we’re talking about the Wheel of the Year, a seasonal cycle of eight festivals, or sabbats, that mark the passage of time through the year, connecting with the Earth's natural rhythms and the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Charlie explains the significance of the solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days, describing some of the symbols and traditions associated with them. We also discuss different ways you can use the Wheel of the Year within your creative business. From seasonal projects and activities to intention setting, this episode contains lots of resources and ideas to help get you started with this seasonal framework. Links and Further Reading Wheel of the Year on Google Calendar (add the one titled Pagan/Wiccan Holidays) Brand Seasons Katherine May Creating Everyday Rituals Everythinglooksrosie Are you familiar with the Wheel of the Year? Is it something you use in your creative business? We’d love to hear from you! Join the conversation on Substack to share your thoughts. Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

Inspired by a recent conversation during one of our real-life co-mentoring sessions, today we’re asking whether a picture is REALLY worth a thousand words. Spoiler alert - Franky doesn’t think so! We’re constantly told we live in a visual world, especially when it comes to doing business online, but are headshots, logos, and brand colours really the most important thing? Listen as we explore this topic, chatting about ocularcentrism, the perils of neglecting your website copy, audio branding and more. Links and Further Reading Emma Dabiri on How to Fail The Ultimate Guide to Sonic Branding with George and Luke from Hear Me Out What do you think about the relationship between words and visuals? Is one more important than the other? We’d love to hear from you! Join the conversation on Substack to share your thoughts. Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe

When it comes to your business, how much self-belief do you have? In today’s episode, we’re answering this question and exploring why self-belief is so important when you work for yourself. As well as discussing how our relationship with self-belief has changed over the years, we dive into the differences between inner work and external validation. We also share some of the things we’ve tried to boost our self-belief. Links and Further Reading The Art of Requesting, Receiving and Giving Feedback Transform Your Business with Co-Mentoring What Gives Us the Business Scaries Is self-belief something you need to work on? Or are you already nailing it? We’d love to hear from you! Join the conversation on Substack to share your experiences. Connect With Us Friends With Business Benefits on Substack charlieswift.com love-audrey.com Find Us On Instagram @loveaudrey83 @_charlieswift Subscribe to Our Mailing Lists Franky’s Mailing List Charlie’s Mailing List Get full access to Friends with Business Benefits at friendswithbusinessbenefits.substack.com/subscribe