Marketing, Magic, & The Messy Middle: Wickedly Branded

Hosted by Beverly Cornell

Business Marketing Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

208

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

About Marketing, Magic & the Messy Middle: Wickedly Branded® Marketing, Magic & the Messy Middle: Wickedly Branded® is a conversational podcast for women building businesses with purpose, impact, and heart. Hosted by Brand Evolution Strategist Beverly Cornell, each episode feels less like an interview and more like sitting down for coffee with brilliant women who are creating meaningful change in the world. Every conversation explores four themes: ✨ The Spark What inspired the guest to start their business, pursue their calling, or make a pivotal change in their life or career. 🌀 The Messy Middle The challenges, pivots, failures, lessons, and unexpected moments that shaped their journey. The part of entrepreneurship we don’t talk about enough. 📣 Marketing & Visibility How they share their message, build trust, grow their audience, and navigate the realities of showing up in today’s world. 👑 Legacy The impact they hope to leave behind, the change they’re creating, and what matters most as they continue to evolve. Beverly is known for bringing warmth, curiosity, and genuine connection to every conversation. Rather than following a rigid interview format, she shares stories, reflections, and insights alongside her guests, creating authentic discussions that feel relatable, inspiring, and deeply human. And yes, there may occasionally be a magic wand involved. Because building a business is serious work, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun along the way. What guests can expect: A relaxed, conversational experience. I love asking thoughtful questions, sharing observations, and exploring the real stories behind the business. My goal is to create a space where guests feel comfortable, seen, and celebrated while sharing lessons that will inspire our audience. Join us every Tuesday and Thursday for new episodes! If you want to be a guest , visit here: https://wickedlybranded.com/marketing-resources/small-business-marketing-podcast/ to sign up for our application, or send Beverly Cornell a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1742872522686428855f67e40 Visit https://wickedlybranded.com/ for all your branding and digital marketing needs. Your support matters and helps ensure we continue to produce this podcast. https://www.buzzsprout.com/2295030/support.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 20, 2026Episode 820 min

The Morning I Called the Nurse Line | Beverly Cornell

Send us Fan Mail One morning during a deployment, Beverly woke up convinced she was having a heart attack. A call to the nurse line began a very different conversation about perimenopause, anxiety, sleep, and the changes she had been trying to make sense of. In this episode, Beverly shares how a later AuDHD diagnosis added another piece of context, and why midlife can bring significant changes at the same time women are using some of the strongest judgment of their careers. From Chapter 2 of Wickedly Branded®, this is a story about acknowledging new information instead of expecting yourself to function exactly as you did at 25. Three marketing topics 1. Midlife changes and the invisible demands on women founders 2. AuDHD, hormonal shifts, and reconsidering old expectations 3. Why experience brings stronger judgment even amid uncertainty Dare to be Wickedly Branded Support the show PS. If you want your marketing to feel a little more magical: • Get our weekly newsletter WickedlyBranded.com/Newsletter • Read Marketing For Entrepreneurs - Revised Edition • Invite Beverly Cornell as a guest speaker

October 15, 2026Episode 716 min

First steps, twice | Beverly Cornell

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes the middle of the story asks you to learn how to walk again. Literally. In Episode 7 of the Wickedly Branded® special book season, Beverly shares the deeply personal season when her young son was learning to take his first steps while she was relearning how to take hers after hip surgery. At the same time, motherhood, health, business, and life were all changing. That experience became part of how Beverly understands the Messy Middle : the point where you have real experience, a business with a track record, and enough life behind you to realize some of the decisions that once worked deserve another look. The Messy Middle doesn’t mean you’ve failed or lost your way. Sometimes it means you finally have new information. Inspired by Chapter 2 of Wickedly Branded®: Claim Your Voice, Visibility, and Authority in a World Not Built for Women. 3 Marketing Topics 1. The Messy Middle Is Full of New Information Life, health, family, and business rarely evolve on separate timelines. 2. Experience Changes the Questions Early entrepreneurship asks, “Can I make this work?” Established founders get to ask, “Do I still want it to work this way?” 3. First Steps Can Happen More Than Once Starting again after change is different from starting from scratch. You bring your experience with you. Dare to be Wickedly Branded Support the show PS. If you want your marketing to feel a little more magical: • Get our weekly newsletter WickedlyBranded.com/Newsletter • Read Marketing For Entrepreneurs - Revised Edition • Invite Beverly Cornell as a guest speaker

October 13, 2026Episode 617 min

The Tornado Had Rules | Beverly Cornell

Send us Fan Mail What if your packed calendar isn’t the real problem? In this episode of the Wickedly Branded® special book season, Beverly looks at the unwritten rules that quietly shaped her Tornado of Overwhelm: urgent went first, helpful meant available, competence earned more responsibility, and temporary solutions somehow became permanent. She introduces capabletivity —the trap that happens when being good at handling things keeps earning you even more things to handle—and explores what fragmented time actually costs your thinking, leadership, and ability to make intentional decisions. Because sometimes the first step out of the Tornado isn’t becoming more productive. It’s finally seeing the rules that have been running it. Inspired by Chapter 1 of Wickedly Branded®: Claim Your Voice, Visibility, and Authority in a World Not Built for Women. 3 Marketing Topics 1. Capabletivity: When Competence Creates More Work Being capable can quietly become the reason everything keeps coming back to you. 2. The Seven-Minute Hour An open hour on your calendar may exist technically while interruptions make deep thinking nearly impossible. 3. What Rules Run Your Tornado? “Urgent goes first” and “helpful means available” can become operating rules without anyone consciously choosing them. Dare to be Wickedly Branded Support the show PS. If you want your marketing to feel a little more magical: • Get our weekly newsletter WickedlyBranded.com/Newsletter • Read Marketing For Entrepreneurs - Revised Edition • Invite Beverly Cornell as a guest speaker

October 8, 2026Episode 513 min

Let The Possibility Breathe | Beverly Cornell

Send us Fan Mail A decision can make perfect sense in one season of life and keep shaping your business long after the conditions that created it have disappeared. In this episode, Beverly Cornell asks a deceptively powerful question: What possibilities have you stopped considering because an earlier version of your life taught you they were unrealistic? You’ll explore the old assumptions that can quietly become business rules, the difference between curiosity and impulsive reinvention, and why you do not have to restructure your entire business just to test whether a new possibility might fit. Beverly looks at founder dependence, old business models, changed circumstances, small experiments, and what happens when you allow desire into the conversation before practicality shuts it down. Because sometimes the limitation is real. And sometimes it is simply old. This episode is part of Season 11, inspired by Beverly’s upcoming book, Wickedly Branded®: Claim Your Voice, Visibility, and Authority in a World Not Built for Women. 📖 Want to follow the book journey? Join the Wickedly Branded® Book List Three Key Marketing Topics 1. Expired Constraints How old life circumstances can become invisible business rules long after the original constraint has changed. 2. Curiosity Before Commitment Why you do not have to blow up the business to explore a different future. Curiosity can reopen possibilities without forcing an immediate major decision. 3. Test the Assumption How small experiments can help founders distinguish between a real constraint and one the business has simply stopped questioning. Dare to be Wickedly Branded Support the show PS. If you want your marketing to feel a little more magical: • Get our weekly newsletter WickedlyBranded.com/Newsletter • Read Marketing For Entrepreneurs - Revised Edition • Invite Beverly Cornell as a guest speaker

October 8, 2026Episode 414 min

You Only Need the Next Brick | Beverly Cornell

Send us Fan Mail Some decisions feel impossible because we are asking them to answer questions only the future can answer. In this episode, Beverly Cornell explores what happens when a founder stops demanding perfect certainty and starts focusing on the next strategically meaningful move . You’ll hear the difference between the Next Right Step and the Brave Step , how to make a decision with the evidence you have now, and why the best next move is often the one that creates better information for the decision after it. Beverly applies this thinking to founder access, client scope, positioning, team decision rights, delivery, and the evolution of Wickedly Branded®. Because you do not need the whole road mapped out. Sometimes you only need the next brick. This episode is part of Season 11, inspired by Beverly’s upcoming book, Wickedly Branded®: Claim Your Voice, Visibility, and Authority in a World Not Built for Women. 📖 Want early looks, behind-the-scenes updates, and launch news? Join the Wickedly Branded® Book List Three Key Marketing Topics 1. The Next Right Step How to make a strategically meaningful decision using the evidence available now instead of waiting for impossible certainty. 2. Brave Steps Create Evidence Why action matters because it makes a decision visible enough to learn from. A choice that changes nothing observable can be absorbed by the old business. 3. Stop Asking One Decision to Predict the Future How founders can reduce decision paralysis by designing the next move to create better information instead of trying to solve the next three years all at once. Dare to be Wickedly Branded Support the show PS. If you want your marketing to feel a little more magical: • Get our weekly newsletter WickedlyBranded.com/Newsletter • Read Marketing For Entrepreneurs - Revised Edition • Invite Beverly Cornell as a guest speaker

October 1, 2026Episode 318 min

Who Gets a Vote? | Beverly Cornell

Send us Fan Mail A client wants an exception. A peer questions your positioning. A competitor launches something new. Someone on your team has an opinion. An algorithm changes, and suddenly everyone seems to have advice about what you should do next. Before long, your business can start being redesigned by a committee you never intentionally formed. In this episode, Beverly Cornell asks a deceptively simple question: Who actually gets a vote in your business? Through the Should Suitcase and the Flying Monkeys , Beverly explores how outside expectations, comparison, fear, habit, and other people’s preferences can quietly influence decisions about pricing, scope, availability, positioning, and leadership. The goal is not to stop listening. It is to become more intentional about whose input deserves influence, what evidence deserves weight, and which decisions belong to you. Because the loudest opinion in the room is not automatically the most qualified one. This episode is part of Season 11, inspired by Beverly’s upcoming book, Wickedly Branded® . 📖 Want early looks, behind-the-scenes book updates, and launch news? Join the Wickedly Branded® Book List Three Key Marketing Topics 1. Who Gets a Vote? How clients, competitors, peers, coaches, algorithms, team members, and old expectations can gain influence over business decisions without the founder consciously deciding how much influence they deserve. 2. The Should Suitcase + Flying Monkeys How inherited expectations and outside voices show up in very practical places: pricing, responsiveness, scope, availability, positioning, and what the founder believes she is supposed to do. 3. Weight the Input, Don’t Count the Opinions Why evidence, expertise, preference, fear, habit, and comparison should not all receive equal weight when making strategic decisions. The established episode specifically emphasizes evaluating feedback by its source, evidence, and relevance. Dare to be Wickedly Branded Support the show PS. If you want your marketing to feel a little more magical: • Get our weekly newsletter WickedlyBranded.com/Newsletter • Read Marketing For Entrepreneurs - Revised Edition • Invite Beverly Cornell as a guest speaker

September 29, 2026Episode 229 min

The Tornado Was Built One Reasonable Choice at a Time | Beverly Cornell

Send us Fan Mail Overwhelm rarely arrives all at once. It can build through years of perfectly reasonable decisions: saying yes to a client because the relationship matters, rearranging work around family, staying available because responsiveness helped build trust, adding one more offer, solving one more problem, and finding one more pocket of time to make everything fit. In this episode, Beverly Cornell introduces the Tornado of Overwhelm and explores what happens when flexibility, responsibility, care, opportunity, and unfinished decisions begin competing for the same finite attention. You’ll look beyond another productivity fix and examine what has accumulated, what still belongs, and what may be asking for a different decision from the woman and business owner you are now. This episode is part of Season 11, inspired by Beverly’s upcoming book, Wickedly Branded® . 📖 Want to follow the book journey, get behind-the-scenes updates, early looks, and launch news? Join the Wickedly Branded® Book List Three Key Marketing Topics 1. The Tornado of Overwhelm How reasonable adaptations, responsibilities, opportunities, expectations, and automatic yeses accumulate until the founder is trying to manage a system she never intentionally designed. 2. The Work Behind the Work Why your calendar does not show the whole workload. Anticipating needs, remembering details, coordinating people, shifting between roles, and holding unfinished decisions all consume real attention. 3. Recognition Before Optimization Why the first question may not be, How do I manage all of this better? Instead: How did all of this earn permanent access to me, and does it still belong? Dare to be Wickedly Branded Support the show PS. If you want your marketing to feel a little more magical: • Get our weekly newsletter WickedlyBranded.com/Newsletter • Read Marketing For Entrepreneurs - Revised Edition • Invite Beverly Cornell as a guest speaker

September 24, 2026Episode 120 min

When Your Business Keeps Telling an Old Story | Beverly Cornell

Send us Fan Mail My son once described me in three words: Mom loves working. That comment sent me down a real rabbit hole about what our businesses are actually teaching the people watching us, family, clients, the market. This episode is about accumulated evidence: the idea that your brand isn't your tagline, it's the pattern formed by every promise you keep, boundary you hold, and hour your calendar actually protects. I also walk through a simple audit you can run this week to see whether your website, your calendar, and your referrals are all telling the same story. Three key marketing topics Accumulated Evidence — the core framework: a brand is built by repeated behavior, not a mission statement, and people (family, team, clients) learn who you are from the pattern, not the pitch. The Vanishing Finish Line, revisited — why yesterday's milestone quietly becomes today's baseline instead of staying something worth celebrating. The Website / Calendar / Referrals Audit — a concrete three-part exercise listeners can do immediately to find where their public brand and their lived priorities agree, or don't. •See your brand perception gaps with our FREE Brand Magic Lens App ; it only takes 4 minutes and you get easy-to-implement ideas. Dare to be Wickedly Branded Support the show PS. If you want your marketing to feel a little more magical: • Get our weekly newsletter WickedlyBranded.com/Newsletter • Read Marketing For Entrepreneurs - Revised Edition • Invite Beverly Cornell as a guest speaker

September 22, 20269 min

TRAILER — When Your Business Outgrows Its Story | Beverly Cornell

Send us Fan Mail What happens when your business has evolved, but your brand, message, or reputation is still introducing the woman you used to be? Season 11 of Marketing, Magic & The Messy Middle: Wickedly Branded® explores brand evolution: the gap that can open when your experience, authority, ambitions, and business have moved forward, while the story people know about you has not. Beverly Cornell goes beyond surface-level branding to explore what happens when founders outgrow old positioning, inherited expectations, outdated ways of working, and even definitions of success that once made perfect sense. Because sometimes the next chapter of your business begins with recognizing what no longer reflects who you have become. And there’s another chapter unfolding. Beverly’s upcoming book, Wickedly Branded®: Claim Your Voice, Visibility, and Authority in a World Not Built for Women , takes this conversation even deeper—into the expectations we absorb, the choices we inherit, and what it means to build a business and life that reflect the woman you are becoming. Join the Wickedly Branded® Book List for behind-the-scenes updates, early looks, launch news, and more → Dare to be Wickedly Branded Support the show PS. If you want your marketing to feel a little more magical: • Get our weekly newsletter WickedlyBranded.com/Newsletter • Read Marketing For Entrepreneurs - Revised Edition • Invite Beverly Cornell as a guest speaker

September 15, 2026Episode 1048 min

Finding Your Focus Without Chasing More Productivity | Wendy Elover

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Marketing, Magic & the Messy Middle , Beverly Cornell sits down with joy and clarity strategist Wendy Elover to explore what happens when too many mental tabs compete for your time, attention, and energy. Wendy shares the everyday moment that brought her overwhelm into focus: finding her keys in the refrigerator beside the Parmesan cheese. From there, she and Beverly discuss creating space to think, taking action before you have complete certainty, and accepting the experience of being a beginner while building something new. The conversation also moves into brand evolution and marketing. Beverly explains why founders can focus on one platform that suits both their natural communication style and their ideal audience. Together, they explore how personal stories, client feedback, and small signs of progress can provide evidence of the value you already create. This episode offers a grounded conversation about clarity, intentional action, authentic visibility, and allowing your message to evolve alongside you. Three Marketing Topics Let your message evolve with you A brand message can lose its relevance as the founder, business, or audience changes. Revisiting your positioning helps your public presence reflect who you are now, how you serve, and what you want to build next. Choose a platform you can use consistently Beverly recommends concentrating on a platform that fits your communication strengths while also reaching your ideal clients. Learning one platform deeply creates a stronger foundation for visibility, and the resulting content can be repurposed across other channels. Use personal stories as evidence of your brand Specific moments, such as Wendy finding her keys beside the Parmesan cheese, make an abstract idea like overwhelm recognizable. Testimonials, client language, and everyday experiences can also reveal the patterns people already associate with your work and give your audience a clearer reason to remember you. Dare to be Wickedly Branded Support the show PS. If you want your marketing to feel a little more magical: • Get our weekly newsletter WickedlyBranded.com/Newsletter • Read Marketing For Entrepreneurs - Revised Edition • Invite Beverly Cornell as a guest speaker