The Messy Success Podcast

Hosted by Elizabeth Henson

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Episodes

260

Latest episode

Nov 2026

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About the show

Welcome to the Messy Success Podcast. Our host, Elizabeth Henson, is an expert in community based marketing with a focus on leadership and self development. She helps entrepreneurs, artists, and creative leaders grow and scale communities so that marketing is easy. She used her experience helping seven figure business owners to build out her own unique methodology in community building and marketing. The Messy Success Podcast combines business tips and real life experiences in being a creative entrepreneur. This podcast will leave you feeling confident, and normalizes the day to day struggles we all experience as business owners. We can't wait to connect with you!

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60 recent

November 11, 202619 min

261: Get Local Clients: Why Your Next 100 Customers Might Be 10 Miles Away

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. In this episode, I'm sharing how I built a local audience without going viral, even though my business runs entirely online. About 80% of my clients are now local, and I'll walk you through the three things that made it happen: local meetups, community involvement, and backing it all up online. This conversation is for you if you're tired of social media and the pressure to have a big following, and you suspect your next customers might be a lot closer than you think. It works whether your business is fully remote or fully brick and mortar. If you want to get local clients without chasing every trend online, this is a good place to start. I talk about why I resisted local meetups for a while, how a small gathering with seven women changed my mind, and why hosting your own meetup, even with just a few friends, can become a lead generator. We also get into sponsoring events in a way that actually puts you in the room, why being willing to move chairs makes you a better leader, and the one simple post that became my repeatable process for sharing every meetup. I'll be honest that this is not a quick strategy. It has taken years of consistency. But you may start to see small changes much sooner than you expect.

November 4, 202652 min

260: How to Stand Out as an Artist: The Part of You You've Been Leaving Out

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. In this guest episode, my friend Hannah Katherine, a fine artist and board-certified behavior analyst, shares what happened when she stopped trying to sound like everyone else and started showing up in her real voice. If you've been wondering how to stand out as an artist, her story is a reminder that your differentiation isn't something you need to manufacture. Sometimes it's the part of yourself you've been leaving out of your marketing. This conversation is for artists, creators, and anyone who considers what they do a creative process. Hannah was one of my coaching clients, and she shares how one moment in our work changed her coordinates. She had been keeping her professional side and her messy artist side in separate boxes. Once she brought them together, her following grew 10x, and opportunities like a hospital exhibition and a commercial licensing opportunity started finding her. We also talk about how she found her signature art style, the scavenger hunt cards she created to help people look at art more deeply, and why she believes you can call yourself an artist before you are full-time.

October 28, 202625 min

259: Why Most Creative Businesses Fail: You Stop Before People Find You

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. In this solo episode, Elizabeth shares why creative businesses fail and why she believes it has far less to do with a bad product or bad marketing than most owners think. She walks through her own failed ideas, from digital scans on Etsy to stock photography to planners, to show what actually happened each time. If you are a creative business owner who has been thinking about throwing in the towel, or you've had businesses in the past that didn't work, this one is for you. Giving up on your business too soon is far more common than having a bad idea, and the things we're not doing are often surprisingly simple. Elizabeth talks about why repetition builds trust, why creative people are especially vulnerable to newness, and how to think in questions instead of statements when a post flops or nobody buys. She also gets into what consistency in business really means (it isn't posting every single day) and why your audience should never be responsible for your motivation.

October 21, 202612 min

258: Invisible Work in Business: Why the Parts Nobody Sees Matter Most

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. Elizabeth spent six hours doing work in her business that not a single person will ever know about, and she thinks that is a beautiful thing. In this short, recorded-on-the-go episode, she reflects on the behind the scenes work that rarely gets applause: the systems, the onboarding, the small improvements that make a business run well. She talks honestly about the days it feels like you are talking to no one, and why that feeling does not mean you are doing it wrong. If you have ever wondered whether the quiet, unglamorous parts of your work actually matter, this one is for you. Listen in for a gentle reminder that invisible work in business is not the price of success. It is where a sustainable business gets built.

October 14, 202630 min

257: The Coaching Industry Is Getting Called Out! My honest take...

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. Today's episode is a candid conversation about the coaching industry, including the pricing debates, the pyramid scheme chatter, and what to do if all the online buzz has you feeling skeptical about hiring a coach. Elizabeth is a full-time business coach, and she shares her perspective as someone inside the industry, along with a few hard truths. This episode is for anyone who is considering working with a coach but isn't sure who to trust, and for fellow coaches who are tired of watching the industry get a bad rap. Elizabeth walks through why pricing is relative, why a coach's price should match the clients they want to attract, and why you never need to pay five figures to find the right fit. You'll also hear two red flags when hiring a coach: anyone who bashes others, and anyone who encourages you to go beyond your means. Along the way, Elizabeth talks about personal responsibility, how to tell whether a coach has integrity, and why strong leaders stay in their own lane.

October 7, 202618 min

256: The Next Big Marketing Opportunity Isn't AI

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. In this episode, Elizabeth shares why the biggest marketing trends 2027 has in store are not about AI, but about human connection in marketing and giving people the experience of you. As we step into the fourth quarter of 2026, she is already looking ahead and sharing what she is noticing, both as a business coach and as a consumer. Elizabeth walks through her experience on Whatnot, a live selling platform, and why watching sellers move hundreds of items helped her understand how powerful live selling really is. She also talks about going all in on a local community strategy through the Hampton Roads Creative Network, and what the evidence economy means for anyone trying to stand out while AI floods the internet. This episode is for service-based business owners, coaches, creatives, and community builders who want to market with more clarity and less pressure. You will hear why content is no longer the competitive advantage, how AI can be a tool that supports connection instead of replacing it, and what it looks like to move from the creator economy into a host economy.

September 23, 202624 min

255: Make More Money Working Less: What Changed When I Stopped Rushing

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. In this solo episode, Elizabeth explores what it looks like to make more money working less, and why staying out of the weeds might be one of the most powerful shifts you can make in your business. She shares what she has noticed since building her days around not rushing, and why the more outward facing she is, the easier revenue seems to come. This conversation is for service-based business owners at any stage, whether you are just starting out or already running a profitable business. It is especially for you if you feel stuck creating offers, tweaking messaging, and trying to get everything just right before you sell. Elizabeth shares takeaways from a recent mastermind day, including why you do not need a perfect offer and the one thing you do need to be certain about. You will also hear her simple filter for busy work: what can you eliminate, what can you delegate, and what do you still really need to do yourself. And she offers a gentle invitation to audit your energy, your output, and the days your biggest wins happened.

September 16, 202621 min

254: Buy Back Your Time: How I Turn Everyday Purchases Into ROI

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. This episode is all about a time versus money mindset, and how the small decisions you make every day either buy you time or cost you time. It started with something Elizabeth overheard at her local coffee shop during her weekly CEO hour, a comment about not being able to afford an $8 cup of coffee, and it sent her down a rabbit hole about saving vs investing money and what it really means to buy back your time. This episode is for anyone who has ever felt guilty about a small purchase, or who has been told to "just save more" without anyone explaining what that actually builds toward. Elizabeth breaks down the difference between saving and investing, shares why she believes the worst thing you can do with your money is hoard it, and walks through real examples from her own life, from flight upgrades to a $100 silent retreat that shaped an entire year of content for her business. You'll walk away thinking differently about the $8 coffees, the flight upgrades, and the small splurges in your own life, not as guilt, but as opportunities to buy back your time and put it toward something that actually moves you forward. Give this one a listen, and then ask yourself where you're spending time to save money, and where you could be doing the opposite.

September 9, 202621 min

253: Dealing with Rejection in Business: Moving Through It Instead of Around It

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. Some weeks hand you all the rejection at once. This is one of those episodes. Elizabeth shares what it looked like to sit with a string of no's in her business, the old story it stirred up from childhood, and why she's chosen to see it as evidence she's playing a bigger game, not a smaller one. She also shares something lighter: a content hack she stumbled into the same day, built on the idea of document over create instead of constantly having to invent something new. It led her to try a simple day in the life content idea, and it ended up connecting her with a real person in a way she wasn't expecting. Two different stories, one honest episode. Come sit with her in the messy middle of both.

September 2, 202654 min

252: Doing the Big Scary Thing: What It Actually Takes to Go All In with Candice West

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. Today's episode is all about doing the big scary thing, and Elizabeth sits down with her friend Candice West, an advanced practice nurse, somatic practitioner, and founder of The Soma Center, who is producing her first ever live performance, Permission Granted, at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach. This conversation is for anyone who has an idea sitting on a shelf, the book, the event, the big leap you keep talking yourself out of. Candice opens up about what it actually feels like to commit to something this size with zero production experience, and how detachment from outcome became the thing that let her keep going even when a lead dancer broke her foot weeks before opening night. She and Elizabeth talk honestly about fear of failure, why financial risk isn't the risk people think it is, and what it means to stop shrinking and finally take up the whole stage instead of the smaller, safer room. If you've ever had a big scary thing you've been sitting on, this episode is your permission slip. Take a listen, and let it stir something loose.