CREATIVE STRENGTHS

Hosted by Philippa Craddock

Business

Website RSS feed Instagram

Episodes

166

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-GB

About the show

Welcome to Creative Strengths, the business podcast for creative entrepreneurs who want to build a profitable, sustainable business, while honouring the way you naturally work. Hosted by designer and creative business mentor Philippa Craddock, the show is rooted in the belief that your greatest success comes from recognising and working with your natural strengths. Philippa grew her own design business from the kitchen table to a seven-figure global brand, and now supports creative business owners through her signature strength-led methodology. Each week, she shares practical, jargon-free guidance on pricing, marketing, mindset, and business growth, helping you charge with confidence, attract aligned clients, and build a business that supports your energy, creativity, and ambition. If you're ready to grow your business so it feels wholeheartedly yours, one built around your own unique creative strengths, this is where your next chapter begins.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 22, 2026Episode 16518 min

165. SEO and GEO for Creatives: The One Page That Gets You Found

When I checked, not one AI tool named me as a Creative Business Mentor, and Google's AI still had me down as a florist. The fix turned out to be surprisingly simple, and completely within reach: one clear page on my website, written to answer the exact question my ideal client would ask. This week I'd love to walk you through exactly what went on that page, why it matters far beyond SEO, and the four simple steps to writing your own. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER: ◼️ The surprising place the AI tools pulled most of their recommendations from, and why that's such good news for creatives ◼️ The one short paragraph at the top of the page that an AI tool is most likely to lift word for word ◼️ Why saying clearly who your work isn't for matters just as much as saying who it is ◼️ The kind of visibility that works quietly in the background, with no videos or reels needed ◼️ The four steps to writing your own page, starting with one question in your client's own words RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Missing Piece, Free Traning The Bright Line: Application form This week's Blog Post SEO and GEO series started at Episode 164. Subscribe: Weekly newsletter Website: www.philippacraddock.com Instagram: @philippacraddock Email: hello@philippacraddock.com SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS: What's the exact question your ideal client would type into Google or an AI tool when they go looking for someone like you? Reply to the Thursday newsletter or send me a DM on I nstagram . I'd genuinely love to see it. NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: My weekly newsletter is where I think out loud. It's where you'll find my behind-the-scenes thinking, where I share the tools I'm currently trying/using, where new resources are shared first and where the conversations happen that often form future episodes. I'd love you to join the many creative business owners already benefitting and joining the conversations.

October 15, 2026Episode 16429 min

164. THE BIG COMPANIES USED TO OWN GOOGLE, AI JUST CHANGED THAT

This week I'd love to explain SEO and GEO in plain English, because there is a part that genuinely surprised me: For the first time, AI search (GEO) is quietly levelling the playing field between the big corporates and small creative businesses like ours. And the thing that tips it in our favour is the exact thing I talk about on Creative Strengths more than anything else: Being known, clearly and consistently, for your one thing. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER: ◼️ What SEO and GEO actually are, explained in plain English ◼️ The one line Google's AI served up about me that showed the whole problem at a glance ◼️ Why AI has quietly levelled the playing field for small creative businesses, ◼️ The single thing both search engines and AI tools reward above everything else ◼️ A twenty-minute check that shows you exactly how Google and AI describe you right now RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Missing Piece, Free Traning The Bright Line: Application form This week's Blog Post Subscribe: Weekly newsletter Website: www.philippacraddock.com Instagram: @philippacraddock Email: hello@philippacraddock.com SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS: Try this: ask ChatGPT, or any AI tool, the exact question one of your ideal clients might ask, and see whether it names you. I'd genuinely love to know what comes back. Reply to the Thursday newsletter or send me a DM on I nstagram . NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: My weekly newsletter is where I think out loud. It's where you'll find my behind-the-scenes thinking, where I share the tools I'm currently trying/using, where new resources are shared first and where the conversations happen that often form future episodes. I'd love you to join the many creative business owners already benefitting and joining the conversations.

October 8, 2026Episode 16318 min

163. HOW TO STOP MARKETING TAKING UP SO MUCH HEADSPACE

Marketing has a habit of taking up more room in your head than almost anything else in your business. It never feels finished, and so much of what we are told about it is just do more, be louder, be everywhere, which for most creatives feels like a huge performance. This week, I'd love to show you how marketing can feel so much lighter, because underneath it all, it's really just one simple thing you are already brilliant at. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER: ◼️ The difference between time and headspace, and why marketing quietly steals far more of the second ◼️ The one thing marketing really is underneath all the noise, and why you're already a natural at it ◼️ The 1966 line about advertising that takes almost all the pressure off ◼️ The simple habit that means you never sit down to a blank page again ◼️ Why a room of twelve people once beat posting to 125,000 followers RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Missing Piece, Free Traning The Bright Line: Application form Episode 153, Why Saying It Again And Again Is So Important Episode 156, The Thing That Grows A Creative Business This week's Blog Post Subscribe: Weekly newsletter Website: www.philippacraddock.com Instagram: @philippacraddock Email: hello@philippacraddock.com SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS: Where do you capture your ideas before they slip away, a notebook, an app, something else? Reply to the Thursday newsletter or send me a DM on I nstagram , I'd love to hear what works for you. NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: My weekly newsletter is where I think out loud. It's where you'll find my behind-the-scenes thinking, where I share the tools I'm currently trying/using, where new resources are shared first and where the conversations happen that often form future episodes. I'd love you to join the many creative business owners already benefitting and joining the conversations.

October 1, 2026Episode 16231 min

162. WHY THE BUSINESS SIDE FEELS SO HARD FOR CREATIVES

How do you find the time and headspace to actually be creative, when the business side of things seems to swallow both? It's the question Rosy wrote in with this week, and I suspect you feel it too, that constant tug between the creative work and everything else that has to get done. This week I'd love to answer it properly, and gently challenge the one idea underneath it that I think keeps so many of us stuck. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER: ◼️ Why you're almost certainly far better at the business side than you've ever given yourself credit for ◼️ The real reason most systems, tools and courses leave creatives overwhelmed ◼️ The small shift that stops the creative and business work fighting over the same hours ◼️ How to bring in exactly the right person to take something off your plate, right down to their personality ◼️ Where AI genuinely helps, but the one line everything depends on before it can RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Missing Piece, Free Traning The Bright Line: Application form This week's Blog Post Subscribe: Weekly newsletter Website: www.philippacraddock.com Instagram: @philippacraddock Email: hello@philippacraddock.com SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS: This whole episode came from a question someone sent me on Instagram. So here's my invitation: what would you most love me to talk about to help your creative business? Reply to the Thursday newsletter or send me a DM on I nstagram , and I'll either weave it into a future episode or reply to you directly. NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: My weekly newsletter is where I think out loud. It's where you'll find my behind-the-scenes thinking, where I share the tools I'm currently trying/using, where new resources are shared first and where the conversations happen that often form future episodes. I'd love you to join the many creative business owners already benefitting and joining the conversations.

September 24, 2026Episode 16120 min

161. HOW TO PRESENT YOUR PRICES SO THEY'RE UNDERSTOOD, NOT QUESTIONED

Presenting your prices is where so much of your hard work can quietly come undone: one hedging line at the bottom of a proposal or in a conversation, and the whole thing wobbles. This week, to close the pricing series, I'd love to show you exactly how I communicated my prices. The page a client read before they ever reached a number, the single sentence I used for the number itself, and the small, excruciating thing I learned to do the moment after I'd said it. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER: ◼️ The four little hedges many of us tuck into the pricing sentence, and how they invite a discount ◼️ Why the first page a client reads should never be the price, or a list of what they're getting ◼️ Why an itemised quote hands the client a pen to challenge you ◼️ How to write the number itself, in a single sentence, with nothing tucked in beside it ◼️ The three seconds of quiet that do more than any justification ever could RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Bright Line: Application Pricing series: 160: How To Price When You Are Not The Cheapest Pricing series: 159: How To Price What Comes Easily Pricing Series: 158: How To Price Creative Work This week's Blog Post Subscribe: Weekly newsletter Website: www.philippacraddock.com Instagram: @philippacraddock Email: hello@philippacraddock.com SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS: Will you try it this week, presenting your price as one plain sentence, then holding the three seconds of quiet? I'd especially love to hear from anyone who manages the silence, because it really is the hardest part. Reply to the Thursday newsletter or send me a DM on I nstagram . I read every one personally. NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: My weekly newsletter is where I think out loud. It's where you'll find my behind-the-scenes thinking, where I share the tools I'm currently trying/using, where new resources are shared first and where the conversations happen that often form future episodes. I'd love you to join the many creative business owners already benefitting and joining the conversations.

September 17, 2026Episode 16020 min

160. HOW TO PRICE WHEN YOU'RE NOT THE CHEAPEST

If you charge what your work is really worth, won't clients just go and find someone cheaper? It's the pricing worry I hear most, and this week I'd love to show you why it isn't the threat it feels like. Because a client comparing you to a cheaper option is only ever seeing the one part of your work they can actually see, and once you change that, long before they reach the number, comparison quietly stops being the thing that decides. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER: ◼️ Why arguing for your price never works, and the thing that quietly does instead ◼️ What a client is really asking when they push back on price ◼️ Why "getting three quotes" is the best opportunity you'll get, not the threat it sounds like ◼️ How deVOL sell handmade kitchens at the top of the market while putting every price on the website ◼️ The three specific things to name this week that a cheaper option simply doesn't include RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Bright Line: Application Pricing series: 159: How To Price What Comes Easily Pricing Series: 158: How To Price Creative Work This week's Blog Post Subscribe: Weekly newsletter Website: www.philippacraddock.com Instagram: @philippacraddock Email: hello@philippacraddock.com SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS: What are your three things, the specific ones a cheaper option simply doesn't include? send me a DM on I nstagram . Join the conversation, I'd genuinely love to know NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: My weekly newsletter is where I think out loud. It's where you'll find my behind-the-scenes thinking, where I share the tools I'm currently trying/using, where new resources are shared first and where the conversations happen that often form future episodes. I'd love you to join the many creative business owners already benefitting and joining the conversations.

September 10, 2026Episode 15934 min

159. HOW TO PRICE WHAT COMES EASILY: WHY EASE IS ACTUALLY EXPERTISE

Pricing the work that comes easily to you is one of the hardest things a creative ever does, because we've quietly decided that ease means low value. This week I'd love to take apart the sentence I hear more than almost any other, "I can't charge more for that, it comes so easily to me," because the speed you're discounting to nothing is very often the most valuable thing you do. What if it isn't the reason to charge less, but the very thing you spent years earning? IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER: ◼️ The tiny word you don't even hear yourself say, and what it's costing you ◼️ Why "how much effort did this cost me today" is exactly the wrong question to ask yourself ◼️ The reframe that changes everything about the work that comes easily to you ◼️ The three disguises this sentence wears ◼️ The single change I made after years of underpricing, and why it had nothing to do with the number RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Bright Line: Application This week's Blog Post Subscribe: Weekly newsletter Website: www.philippacraddock.com Instagram: @philippacraddock Email: hello@philippacraddock.com SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS: What's the one thing clients thank you for that you've never once charged for, because it comes easily to you? Reply to the Thursday newsletter or send me a DM on I nstagram. I'd genuinely love to hear from you. NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: My weekly newsletter is where I think out loud. It's where you'll find my behind-the-scenes thinking, where I share the tools I'm currently trying/using, where new resources are shared first and where the conversations happen that often form future episodes. I'd love you to join the many creative business owners already benefitting by getting involved in the conversations. "The thing you can do in twenty minutes may contain twenty years." Philippa Craddock

September 3, 2026Episode 15835 min

158. HOW TO PRICE CREATIVE WORK: THE 4 THINGS CLIENTS ACTUALLY PAY FOR

Pricing your work is one of the most quietly stressful things you do, and I don't think the problem is confidence or your numbers. I think it's that you sit down to price one thing, when your clients are actually paying you for four. This week I'd love to show you the four separate kinds of value you deliver every single time, and why three of them have perhaps been invisible to you all along. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER: ◼️ The quiet pricing wobble almost every creative knows, and why it has nothing to do with confidence or arithmetic ◼️ The four separate things a client actually pays for, and why ◼️ Why the layers holding most of your value are the very ones you genuinely cannot see from the inside ◼️ What a client really means when they tell you "you were so easy to work with" ◼️ The twenty-minute exercise that shows you what you've been giving away for free RESOURCES MENTIONED: Florian Gadsby, @floriangadsby The Bright Line: Application This week's Blog Post Subscribe: Weekly newsletter Website: www.philippacraddock.com Instagram: @philippacraddock Email: hello@philippacraddock.com The Base Notes is returning! A single live workshop 22/09/2026 £97, (90 mins plus Q&A, you keep the recording and The Base Notes Library). Registration opens 10 September. SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS: Of the four layers, which is the one you're not accounting for? Send me a DM on I nstagram or reply to the Thursday newsletter. I'd genuinely love to hear and open up a dicussion. NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: My weekly newsletter is where I think out loud. It's where you'll find my behind-the-scenes thinking, where I share the tools I'm currently trying/using, where new resources are shared first and where the conversations happen that often form future episodes. I'd love you to join the many creative business owners already benefitting and joining the conversations. "What feels effortless feels like nothing. And so it gets left out." — Philippa Craddock

August 26, 2026Episode 15711 min

157. WHY "YOU'RE DOING SO WELL" NEVER REALLY HELPS

Have you ever asked someone what they think of your business and they come away with a warm but bland "oh, you're doing so well, keep going!", and honestly nothing you could actually use? There's a real reason you received this answer, and it's completely within your power to change it through the questions you ask. This week, to close the summer series, I'd love to show you the small shift that turns kind but useless reassurance into answers you can genuinely act on. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER: ◼️ Why "what do you think?" almost always gets you a kind compliment but nothing you can actually use ◼️ The small change to a question that turns a shrug into real, specific, useful help ◼️ Why the most valuable thing about you is so often the very thing you can't see ◼️ The one vague worry to turn into a single precise question this week and why the answer might surprise you RESOURCES MENTIONED: Free Training: The Missing Piece The Bright Line: Application This week's Blog Post Subscribe: Weekly newsletter Website: www.philippacraddock.com Instagram: @philippacraddock Email: hello@philippacraddock.com SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS: So here's my question for you: If you could ask one specific question about your work this week, what would it be? Send me a DM on I nstagram or reply to the Thursday newsletter and maybe I can help sharpen it so it gets you the best possible feedback. NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: My weekly newsletter is where I think out loud. It's where you'll find my behind-the-scenes thinking, where I share the tools I'm currently trying/using, where new resources are shared first and where the conversations happen that often form future episodes. I'd love you to join the many creative business owners already benefitting and joining the conversations.

August 19, 2026Episode 15625 min

156. THE THING THAT GROWS A CREATIVE BUSINESS (IT'S NOT MORE MARKETING)

The single most important way a business like ours grows isn't posting more, or being everywhere, or finally cracking the algorithm. It's something much quieter, something you're very likely already brilliant at, even if you'd never think to call it a strength. This week, I'd love to show you why it matters more than almost anything else, and how to do it in a way that feels entirely like you. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER: ◼️ Growing through relationships, not algorithms and why it's the opposite of the cold thing it sounds like ◼️ Why being gentle, thoughtful and maybe a little quietly spoken makes you especially good at it ◼️ The quiet distinction between working for Instagram and doing the thing that's actually yours ◼️ Three women inside The Bright Line, three completely different styles and what each of them did that changed everything ◼️ The step almost everyone skips and why silence is almost never the rejection it feels like RESOURCES MENTIONED: Free Training: The Missing Piece The Bright Line: Application This week's Blog Post Subscribe: Weekly newsletter Website: www.philippacraddock.com Instagram: @philippacraddock Email: hello@philippacraddock.com SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS: Who's the one client you'd most like to reach or the collaboration you would love to form if you were feeling brave? Send me a DM on I nstagram or reply to the Thursday newsletter, I'd so love to hear and help where i can. NEVER MISS AN EPISODE: My weekly newsletter is where I think out loud. It's where you'll find my behind-the-scenes thinking, where I share the tools I'm currently trying/using, where new resources are shared first and where the conversations happen that often form future episodes. I'd love you to join the many creative business owners already benefitting and joining the conversations.

Is this your show?

Claim this listing to keep it up to date, reach guests who want to pitch you, and manage bookings with Guestify.

Claim this listing

More Business podcasts

The Bottom Line

Alexander Spencer

BusinessInterviews guests