indie business club

Mel Barfield
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A podcast for independent creatives. Packed with tips, advice, and food for thought for freelancers, founders, and business owners in creative industries. indiebusinessclub.substack.com

  1. 20H AGO

    36 Delivery: newsletters with Molly Scanlan

    How to use a newsletter to grow your business💌 This time, I’m joined by Molly Scanlan to discuss how to grow your business using the ancient (okay, at least decades-old) art of writing newsletters. Like this one. But do as I say, not as I do. We talked about… - why you should start (or resurrect) your newsletter in 2026 - how a newsletter isn’t the same thing as email marketing - examples of newsletters we love and why - how a newsletter can “world build” as well as show your authority - why you should talk about your newsletter “to an uncomfortable degree” And your friend and mine Will Slater is back with #WillsBookClub About my co-host - Molly Scanlan Molly Scanlan is a web designer, event speaker, quizmaster puzzlenerd and karaoke diva. She builds sustainable websites for non-evil businesses. The websites she makes are “better for the planet – but don’t look like they’re woven from brown rice”. Like me, Molly is a columnist for Freelancer Magazine. She also co-founded a social enterprise and co-hosts Cowork Crew London with your friend and mine Ange Lyons. She is busy. Molly also has one of my favourite newsletters of all time (it’s SO short!) called Molly Gets It Done, which is why I’ve asked her to join me on this episode. She’s also one of my business besties. Find her on LinkedIn right here. Tracklist The name of this episode is Delivery, a song by Babyshambles from their 2007 album, Shotter’s Nation. I was single for the first time in my adult life in 2007. I had a great time. It’s also when I was last single because it’s the year I met Mr Barfield. 19 years ago?! Bloody hell. It’s classic 00’s Britpop-rock and I chose it because if you send out newsletters you might choose to monitor your delivery rates and open rates… geddit? Resources In the episode, we talk about newsletters we love. You should try ’em some time. But first, Molly’s newsletter again - Molly Gets It Done - it is SO SHORT! Ange Lyons’ Font Love FridayA monthly newsletter on fonts, typography, and designery things Lucy Werner’s Hype YourselfNB - in the episode, I called this newsletter “a substack” and spoke about how it’s on that platform, but it’s now hosted elsewhere. Partly due to the horrible situation we speak about in the episode. Signup is at the bottom of this page. Dave Smyth’s Five LinksA short roundup of links to do with user experience, privacy, accessibility and sustainability. Amy Nolan’s The Doodle DabblerA short newsletter by our favourite doodler (and friend of the show) Amy Nolan, which includes a doodle prompt to get you scribbling. The Welsh Kitchen by Ross ClarkeGet a recipe to a traditional Welsh dish along with links to Welsh songs and other Welshy things. Dave Harland’s The Word Friend of the show Dave can explain what his newsletter’s all about. Emails to “help you come up with the weird, witty and funny words and ideas that all of the bore-bag brands in your sector struggle with.” She’s so lucky As a freelancer, you've got to ask yourself one question… “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk? If not, Freelancer Magazine’s running a two-day masterclass series on 4th and 5th March. I’m running a workshop called “How to be lucky and win the freelance lottery” where I go into the (proven!) ways you can adjust your attitudes and behaviours to get more lucky. You get over a dozen other expert sessions, for keeps. Get your ticket here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiebusinessclub.substack.com

    57 min
  2. b-side: how I'm going to grow this podcast

    JAN 29

    b-side: how I'm going to grow this podcast

    I blagged a mini strategy session from the wonderful Charelle Griffith 👌 In episode 34, Charelle talked us through how to do our annual plan. I then asked her for a little bonus chat at the end about how she thinks I should grow this podcast. Her first question absolutely stumped me. Why do I want to grow this podcast? Errrrr… 🤷‍♀️ In brief - to build my profile, help as many people as I can, hopefully get it to a point where it pays for itself. Charelle then gave me the best bit of advice I think I’ve ever heard. And it’s so beautifully obvious. It’s easier to get people to listen to your podcast if they already listen to podcasts. So guesting on other people’s podcasts is a great way to bring in new listeners who are already podcasty. So I did what I was told. I posted on LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok saying “please can I come on your podcast”. Now I’ve got around a dozen invitations to work through. Thank you everyone who’s reached out or tagged their podcast pals. If you have any podcasts you think I should pitch to (or your own that you’d like me to guest on 😉) please reply to this email to let me know. Creator Day I’m back at Creator Day in May to record another live episode of indie business club podcast. I’ve got two special guest co-hosts lined up to do it with me - all will be revealed next week. I can’t wait. It’s always such a fun time in Poole. Speakers at the event include previous guests Gus Bhandal and Phil Agnew along with Lea Turner, Michelle Goodall, Jon Alexander and Katie Stokes. 📅 Thursday 14th May (with my live podcast recording Friday 15th, in the morning) 🌊 Poole, Dorset 🎟️ Tickets from creatorday.uk 🍦 Save £20 on your ticket by using the code TeamMel There’s also a special Cowork Crew on the Wednesday 13th May, so I’m going to try and get there for the Wednesday through to Friday. Freelancer Magazine Masterclass Series Freelancer Magazine is running a two-day masterclass series on 4th and 5th March. I’m running a workshop called “How to be lucky and win the freelance lottery” along with a tonne of other freelancer experty people talking about topics like branding, onboarding, tone of voice and PR. More info right here (my affiliate link, where it costs you the same as it would if you bought it anywhere else, but I get a bit of cash to help fund the podcast). You get 14 practical workshops designed by experts especially for freelance business owners, with recordings to watch back whenever you like. The value is ridiculous so get your ticket here (again, there’s recordings, so don’t worry if you’ve got other stuff on that week). LinkedIn Algorithm Be Like I enjoy everything has ever written but this post in particular tickled me. Go follow him here and on LinkedIn. I’ve cut and pasted his post to maximise the chance you’ll read it but please go and thumb it here too. Andrew’s post: ————————————————————— HAGGLING WITH LINKEDIN OVER THE REACH OF MY POSTS: ME: Hi LinkedIn. Do you reckon you could show this post to a decent chunk of my followers please? LINKEDIN: Dunno. What’s it about? ME: Just trying to let more people know about the work I do. LINKEDIN: 15. ME: Excuse me? LINKEDIN: 15 people. That’s how many people we can show it to. ME: That seems… a little low. LINKEDIN: Now it’s 12. ME: Well, what about this. A pal of mine is looking for work, what can I get for a post telling people how good they are? LINKEDIN: 4. ME: Come on. LINKEDIN: 7, but three of them are chickens. ME: You’re joking. LINKEDIN: Yeah. They’re all chickens. ME: Can you show it to anyone who aren’t chickens? LINKEDIN: Do you have Premium? ME: No. LINKEDIN: Then you get the chickens. And we hate you. ME: Fine. How about a post congratulating an independent agency I know on a brilliant campaign they’ve just done? LINKEDIN: We can show that to literally one person. His name is Ken. ME: Will he be interested? LINKEDIN: Not really. He’s more into the chicken content. ME: So… why… LINKEDIN: Plus, he’s super angry, like all the time. ME: Ok… LINKEDIN: You want us to show this thing to Ken? ME: Definitely not. LINKEDIN: That’s probably best. He’d really hate it and he gets super rude. You got anything else? ME: Well, there is this one thing, but I doubt it’s worth mentioning. LINKEDIN: Let’s hear it. ME: Well, I used A.I. to create this shoddy video of me playing crazy golf with all the different Batmans and… LINKEDIN: 100 million. ME: Woah, really? LINKEDIN: 200 million. Everyone should see that A.I. Batmen Crazy Golf Video. It’s super aligned to our vision and values, somehow. ME: Wow, that’s amazing, thanks LinkedIn! Then I can just add a link to my… LINKEDIN: A single chicken. And you’re shadow-banned. And we killed your fish. —————————————————————— Byeeeeeee, Mel Find my producer, theme composer and certified grownup Ant Henderson on LinkedIn. And listen to indie business club wherever you cast your pods. 🎙️ Spotify / Apple podcasts / Amazon Music and Audible This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiebusinessclub.substack.com

    14 min

  3. JAN 15

    35 Hysteria: promoting yourself with Gus Bhandal

    Make 2026 the year you promote the absolute heck out of yourself 👌 This time, I’m joined by Gus Bhandal to talk about ways you can build up some good old fashioned hysteria for your personal brand and your business. Gus is a LinkedIn expert. I have an unhealthy relationship with LinkedIn. So of course we gave the platform some air time :) But we also talked about… how speaking at events has grown our profiles the time Gus was a pub landlord (I didn’t ask if he ever got to shout “get outta my pub!”) stuff we see other people post online that makes us go “oh noooo” 😐 why it pays to be positive when you’re putting yourself out there getting famous (in our tiny bubble) And your friend and mine Will Slater is back with more bizpiration in #WillsBookClub Sidenote On the topic of LinkedIn, I did a poll this week asking “If you know something was written by AI, do you keep reading?” Depending on what time you read this email, you might still be able to vote. But if you’re too late, you can at least see what the final tally was by clicking the picture below. I find it so interesting that despite all the hype around AI and how we’ll get “left behind” if we don’t use it, 57% of this sizeable sample of humans finds AI generated writing a major turnoff. Something to bear in mind when deciding whether to a) get a robot to do it or b) bring in me and Dave at Copy Or Die copywriting agency to get some squidgy human brains on the project. About my co-host - Gus Bhandal Back to the episode, and my guest co-host Gus. He’s a marketing strategist, social media specialist, LinkedIn trainer, and founder of The M Guru. He recently launched The Squeeze, a LinkedIn focused membership for freelancers and founders who want to get more out of the platform. Gus also co-created the LinkedIn focused conference UpLift Live. Find Gus on LinkedIn (chronically, like me) and on Instagram. Next steps… If you want to take LinkedIn more seriously, get yourself to UpLift Live to hear from the world’s leading LinkedIn experts and influencers. Including your friend and mine Dave Harland, who’s speaking at this year’s event. The full line-up is on the Uplift Live website. It’s in Birmingham on Thursday 26th March and you can get £20 off your ticket right here by using the code MELB. I get a few quid when you use the code, which will go on paying sound guy (and sound guy) Ant’s next invoice. Tracklist BTW, today’s episode name is Hysteria, a single by Muse from their 2003 (whaaat?!) album, Absolution. I picked it because as business owners we need to hype ourselves up and whip our clients into a frenzy of hysteria, so that they’re uncontrollably excited to work with us. Also coz Muse were the first band I saw live when they supported Skunk Anansie at Cambridge Corn Exchange in 1999. Good times. Let me know, how are you going to hype up yourself and your business this year? I’m going to try and bag a couple of speaking gigs, run more workshops (IRL and in person) and get onto more podcasts as a guest (it’s less work than making my own episodes) 😉Speaking of workshops… Freelancer Magazine Masterclass Series Freelancer Magazine is running a two-day masterclass series on 4th and 5th March. I’m running a workshop called “How to be lucky and win the freelance lottery” along with a tonne of other freelancer experty people talking about topics like branding, onboarding, tone of voice and PR. More info right here (my affiliate link, where it costs you the same as it would if you bought it anywhere else, but I get a bit of cash for aforementioned sound guy). You get 14 practical workshops designed by experts especially for freelance business owners, with recordings to watch back whenever you like. My talk is called ‘How to be lucky and win the freelance lottery’ (no lotto win guaranteed). Also speaking are… ​Alex Thompson - ‘Go from order taker to trusted partner: earn more by doing less’.Amy Nolan - ‘Amy’s lunchtime doodle creative livener’.Alastair Thomson - ‘Getting funky with finance’.Angela Lyons - ‘Create a memorable freelance brand across all platforms’.Anita Ellis - ‘First contact to signed contract – take control of your sales and onboarding process’.Eman Ismail - ‘Turn followers into clients: how to turn your newsletter into a lead machine’.Gus Bhandal - ‘The LinkedIn content superstar strategy’.Heather Murray - ‘Reach new revenue levels (without hiring) with AI’.Jess Bruno - ‘F*ck the algorithm – how to build a personal brand and double your visibility’.Lucy Werner - ‘Using your personal stories to get PR’.Penny Brazier - ‘Write like yourself (everyone else is taken)’.Ryan Percival - ‘Create a LinkedIn profile that works while you work’.Tamu Thomas - ‘Impossible to ignore: 3 steps to get paid to speak and build a magnetic expert profile’. The value is ridiculous so get your ticket here (again, there’s recordings, so don’t worry if you’ve got other stuff on that week). Byeeeeeee, Mel Find my producer, theme composer and certified grownup Ant Henderson on LinkedIn. And listen to indie business club wherever you cast your pods. 🎙️ Spotify / Apple podcasts / Amazon Music and Audible This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiebusinessclub.substack.com

    53 min

  4. 12/11/2025

    34 Running/Planning: plan your business year with Charelle Griffith

    Create a plan to make 2026 your best year in business yet 👌 Producer Ant says this might be his favourite episode so far. But is he just hyping me up since it’s my first episode of the post-Ben era? 🤔 Have a listen and let me know what you think. My first guest co-host is Charelle Griffith, a business growth strategist, award-winning Chartered Marketer, event speaker and The Annual Planning Queen 👑 Planning your business year I’m the voice of the (lazy) people - I don’t do much planning in my business. But Charelle’s seen the difference it can make when people take planning their business seriously. In the episode, we talk in-depth about each step of Charelle’s framework: 1) Review and reflect on the past year2) Set and record your goals for the upcoming year3) Marketing strategy4) Monitoring Charelle gives a compelling case for why we need to plan. For example, did you know, one study found self-employed/freelance workers take an average of just two weeks off each year? One of the (many) golden nuggets of advice Charelle gives is to book out your time off at the start of the year, to make sure you’ve ringfenced your downtime. There’s a heaptonne of similar gems of wisdom in the episode, so let me know which part resonates with you most. And if you’re put off by the enormity of planning for a whole year, remember that while the plan you get at the end is important, it’s the process that’s the most valuable part. The thinking, the reflecting, the decision making. It’s vital you set time aside to think properly about all elements of your business. I hope this episode helps to convince you. I couldn’t have hoped for a more generous, fun guest. Thanks Charelle for giving us so much businessy goodness. And in a new feature, your friend and mine Will Slater dips into a not-so-obvious business book to give us a bit of inspiration in #WillsBookClub About my cohost - Charelle Griffith Through her business, CharelleGriffith.com, Charelle provides business growth and marketing consulting, mentoring and training to help small, but mighty, business owners to strategically grow thriving businesses they love, and that enable them to live their best life. Find Charelle on LinkedIn and on Instagram. Resources and next steps… You can download Charelle’s free Annual Planning Checklist and her Annual Reflection Questions. And if you want to book your private 1:1 Annual Planning Strategy Day with Charelle, you can read more about it right here. Tracklist Today’s episode is named after the song Running/Planning by CMAT. Because we often spend so much time RUNNING our businesses we forget to make time to PLAN, geddit? Also, I’m obsessed since seeing her perform live last month (ICYMI). Needy feedback request As you know, I’ve been a bit *gulp* about going solo(ish) with the podcast. So I’d love to hear what you think about the new episode and format. I’m open to constructive criticism obvs, just maybe save it til January after I’ve had a nice little rest. Hit reply to this email, or comment if you’re reading in Substack. Cheeeeeers, Mel Find my producer, theme composer and big biz boi Ant Henderson on LinkedIn. And listen to indie business club wherever you cast your pods. 🎙️ Spotify / Apple podcasts / Amazon Music and Audible This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiebusinessclub.substack.com

    45 min
  5. b-side: training and CPD

    10/30/2025

    b-side: training and CPD

    This is the last episode I recorded with Ben before he left the podcast. If you didn’t want to do your CPD homework you just had to say so, Ben 😏 This will be the last indie business club episode for a little while. I’m going to take some time off to plan out how to move forward with it. But whatever the format ends up being, I’ll definitely have… indie business insights guest co-hosts and my sound guy (and sound guy) Ant Anywayyyy, back to today's b-side: training and CPD (that’s Continuous Professional Development). Ben and I discussed the benefits of attending conferences and training, as well as talking about budget-friendly free (and nearly free) ways to get your CPD fix. I was surprised at how little budget people who responded to the ProCopywriters survey commit to CPD. But then I am an absolute schlaaaaag for a conference. And I class that sort of in-real-life CPD as a massive part of my marketing. It’s also worth noting, times have been difficult for many freelancers out there so the budget isn’t always there to do all the courses, conferences and meetups you want to. But if you’re looking for an affordable way to get out of the house and learn, the Marketing Meetup has local in-person events. You get pizza, drinks, and a marketing talk from as little as three quid. I host the Northampton one - come along on 6th November if you’re close by. TMM also has a huge back catalogue of recorded webinars on their website. Including the one that we were on :) It can be really difficult to prioritise CPD as a business owner when you’re juggling a million and one other things too. But even just dedicating 10-15 minutes a day to reading, listening to a podcast, watching a webinar, it adds up across the week to make a big difference. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiebusinessclub.substack.com

    16 min
  6. b-side: awards, revisited

    10/14/2025

    b-side: awards, revisited

    When we covered the topic before (in episode 14 Handbags and Gladrags), we set ourselves the goal of becoming an award-winning podcast. And if you want to be award-winning, you have to actually enter awards. Even Oscar winners have to be put before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences “for your consideration”. So we stuck in our application. Indie business club got shortlisted in the Podcast Jingle Of The Year (well done, Ant!) and Podcast Of The Year in the business and money categories at the Independent Podcast Awards. As finalists we'll also be up for the big one, the overall Independent Podcast Of The Year🤞🏻 Soon, we’ll find out if we won. Will report back 🫡 In this b-side, we also chat about how winning a copywriting award last year has impacted my business and why you should put yourself forward for stuff too. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiebusinessclub.substack.com

    16 min

  7. 10/02/2025

    33 Freelancing - indie business club x TMM

    Ben and I are on our way to Manchester today for CopyCon 🤩 I spoke at the event last year and the year before that, our Copy Or Die pal Dave Harland spoke. Dave’s meeting us there and this time, we're looking forward to a totally talk-responsibility-free CopyCon with lots of learning, loadsa laughs, and hopefully a sizeable karaoke sesh. We do love giving an event talk, though. Last week we spoke together at Nottingham Digital Summit all about how you can “shorten the gap” by using three strategies; tone of voice, curiosity, and reciprocity. Maybe you were there? :) If you weren’t but you're nosy (or just like chocolate brownies) we've popped the resources right here. You get: - the best brownie recipe in the world - our guide to tone of voice - our talk slides (which you won't have context for if you weren’t there, but they sure do look pretty if I say so myself) New episode out today This podcast episode is our conversation with The Marketing Meetup’s Joe Glover all about freelancing. We look at… - our freelance origin stories - what to think about before taking the leap - how to attract clients - how to cope in tumbleweed times - pricing your work - and loads of other stuff Dedicated listeners will spot that this is recycled content. Yes, it is :) but we recorded some new podcast content this week… Awards, revisited Yesterday, we recorded a follow-up to our previous episode about awards (Handbags and Gladrags). It’ll be out in a few weeks. It’s almost a year since I won the Women In Marketing Brand Copywriting Award, so the next episode is a look back on how it’s impacted my business (spoiler alert = 💰) And ICYMI indie business club has been shortlisted for Podcast Jingle Of The Year, and Podcast Of The Year in the business and money category at the Independent Podcast Awards. We’re off to London in a few weeks for the awards show. I might pack my sequinned dress for max glam points. Ben’s outfit is TBC. At lunchtime on the awards day we get to go and poke around at Apple Podcasts HQ in Battersea. We’ll (obviously!) let you know how we get on. YouTube The episode is already on the TMM YouTube channel right here 👇 Cheers, Mel (& Ben) Find our producer, theme composer and bald-faced beaut Ant Henderson on LinkedIn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiebusinessclub.substack.com

    59 min

  8. 09/18/2025

    32 All These Things That I've Done: portfolios

    This episode is called All These Things That I’ve Done and it’s all about how to put together a portfolio to show off what you can do. We look at… creative ways to give a good account of yourself why it’s best to get something out there, even if it’s just “for now” the importance of making your portfolio as “you” as you can Make sure you subscribe to the channel to get your bell poked when the YouTube video goes live. Voicenoted Today’s voicenote is from long-time (day-one listener!) friend of the show, copywriter and poet Gemma Strang. Mel first met Gem at the Women In Marketing Awards where they were both shortlisted. Gemma is a true creative with a fizzy brain. It comes through in her portfolio, which you can ogle here: Gem’s Portfolio and find her on LinkedIn here. Your Friend And Mine This time our friend of the show is photographer Wendy Gannon, who you can find on LinkedIn. Wendy is the Queen of Angles, a personality-led photographer and consultant for unapologetic female founders. You can read more about her empowering project, femalefivemillion.com Stuff we said we’d put in the show notes Cain Lewis’ portfolio Joe Coleman’s incredible website - getcoleman.com A creative prompt generator shared by Leigh James Pat on the back Finally, some news we’ve been itching to share with you… indie business club has been shortlisted for two awards at the upcoming Independent Podcast Awards 🎉🥳. We’re in the running for Podcast Jingle Of The Year, and Podcast Of The Year in the business and money category. Way back in episode 15, The Masterplan, we set a goal for indie business club to become an award winning podcast. At the time we didn’t even know if there were awards for pods like ours, but we found the IPAs soon afterwards and nominated ourselves. That’s right, we nominated ourselves. Initially I felt a bit cringe about it. But I re-listened to our episode on industry awards (episode 14, Handbags And Gladrags) and got over myself. Mainly because of what our voicenoter from that episode Charles Commins said: “It's lovely recognition of the work that you have done, and it can give you a little bit of gravitas. And even when you put yourself up for awards, to get nominated, to be seen by maybe your peers, whoever it is that's judging those awards, to be recognised as one of the best entrants into that category in that awards that year is fantastic. So it gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling.” We wanted that warm, fuzzy feeling. And Charles* is right. To be shortlisted feels amazing. I’m really proud of us. The awards night takes place in London in a few weeks. Mel and I will be there, and we’re hoping to tempt Producer Ant down from the North. We’ll keep you posted (about Ant, and whether we win). Cheers, Ben (& Mel) Find our producer, theme composer and beardless (*sob*) beauty Ant Henderson on LinkedIn. *Charles’s podcast “It’s All Cobblers To Me” is also shortlisted at the IPAs, in the sports category 👏👏👏 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit indiebusinessclub.substack.com

    39 min
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About

A podcast for independent creatives. Packed with tips, advice, and food for thought for freelancers, founders, and business owners in creative industries. indiebusinessclub.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Mel Barfield
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    43
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Mel Barfield - @allcopymel
  • Show Website
    indie business club