December 17, 2025 • 37 mins
What if the thing holding your brand back isn’t your strategy… but your relationship with being seen?
In this episode, I’m joined by Paul Culshaw for an honest, practical conversation about personal branding, visibility, and the quiet resistance many business owners feel around self-promotion even when they know it’s essential for growth.
We explore why visibility isn’t just about “doing more content,” but about who you believe you’re allowed to be in public. From blogging and guest speaking to stepping onto bigger stages, this episode is about building confidence, credibility, and clarity, without becoming someone you’re not.
What we cover:-
Why visibility is a personal growth journey (not just a marketing one)
-
The hidden beliefs that make self-promotion feel awkward, heavy, or “not you”
-
How guest speaking builds authority faster than endless posting
-
Why blogging still matters, especially if you want to be known for your thinking
-
How to choose visibility channels that actually suit your strengths
Listen in for grounded advice, honest reflection, and visibility strategies that feel aligned, not forced.
NOTES:
Visit Paul’s website
Join Paul on Facebook or search @coachpaulculshaw on the usual social media platforms
Want to see how you can leverage your PR as a multi-use asset? Book your free PR Audit here.
Visit Amanda’s website and join Amanda on Instagram
Join the Grow Your Brand With Amanda Facebook Community
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello everyone and welcome tothis episode of Grow Your
Brand with Amanda. And today Ihave with me Paul Kulshaw. And
Paul is a certified businessstrategist, AI innovator and
founder of Fuzzled, the calmgrowth movement for highly
attuned entrepreneurs. He'sgot 25 years plus in digital
and agency marketing and hespecializes in helping HSPs,
(00:26):
ADHDers and overthinkers growtheir business with clarity,
structure and sustainablevisibility. And I'm really
interested to hear a lot moreabout that. He's also the
founder of the AuthorityEngine, a strategic framework
that helps businesses buildtopical authority and show up
in AI tools like ChatGPT andGoogle's AIresults, which is
fascinating for me. Andthrough his consultancy,
(00:48):
podcasts and programs, Paulblends emotional intelligence
with practical strategy tohelp entrepreneurs move from
confusion to clarity withoutthe hustle. That sounds
amazing, Paul, and welcome.Thank you so much. Yeah,
thanks for the introductionthere. It sounds pretty good,
isn't it? So I've built thebusiness to kind of replicate
(01:10):
what, how I am as a person. Soit's very authentic, I think,
and I think it's a little bitdifferent as well, compared to
all of the businessaccelerators that you see in
the coaching world. So yeah,trying to be different. Yeah,
a few things jumping out at methere. I like calm. I've
always been fascinated byemotional intelligence. And
(01:31):
two years ago, I qualifiedmyself as a coach and I worked
really hard and I gained alevel five. And that was one
of my things that I really,really focused on. It's just
endlessly fascinating. Sobefore we get stuck in, I'm
going to ask you my threequestions because I think this
is very revealing aboutpeople. Plus, we can add your
(01:53):
choices to the playlist thataccompanies this podcast. So
do you have a favoritemotivational song? Luckily, I
do have a favoritemotivational song. So I had to
think about this because mytaste of music is quite
eclectic as well. So I'mactually, I'm a big fan of
(02:14):
Queen, the band. Yeah, so alot of their music, a lot of
their songs is very much abouttriumph over struggle. which I
think resonates with a lot ofpeople. So the main song that
comes to mind is we are thechampions on that. However,
that's not the song I'm goingto pick. It's something a bit
more obscure. So another bandI like, who is still famous
(02:36):
today, but big in the 80s, isMadness. So this is more of a
deep cut because I'm also afan of the band. So they have
a song called Keep Moving andit's a really underrated song.
It doesn't sound like baggytrousers or house of fun or
anything like that. So KeepMoving is my motivational
(02:56):
song. So yeah, it's it'sbasically it's not basically
about the It's in the title,isn't it? It's about keep
moving. It's about resilience.It's about life being messy,
but I'm still getting up thatkind of energy. It's a nice
steady beat as well. So it'snice to listen to. So yeah,
that's my choice. So maybe notone that yourself or a lot of
(03:18):
the listeners know uh but yeahchecking out keep moving it's
from it's from 1984 uh fromthe interesting it doesn't
spring to mind and i'm quite abroad knowledge like you my
taste is eclectic but i'mgoing to look that up it
sounds fascinating and i ikind of grew up with madness
and and queen as well i wasraised on queen I'm definitely
(03:40):
going to look that up and addthat to the playlist. Thank
you. I love the ones that havelong since forgotten in time,
and I love it when they comeback. And also, have you
noticed, you've got a daughtersimilar to mine, when they're
humming tunes or the singingtunes that are way back in our
youth, and I say, how do youknow that song, TikTok? all
(04:00):
the stuff that's coming backon TikTok that all our time,
all music for our, and I loveit that those, that music
isn't getting lost in time. Doyou have a favourite
motivational quote? I do. Sojust a bit of context on this
one before I give it to you.So I used to work in the
(04:20):
hotels, I used to work inhotels, the hospitality
industry, not in the hotels. Iwas doing the websites, head
office and the marketing. Butwe travelled down to one of
the hotels out of London,which is called the Stafford
Hotel. Still there. It's inSt. James's, a really nice
five-star hotel. hotel and Ispoke to the manager, the
general manager, in terms of,well, how do you stand out and
(04:43):
attract people to come to yourhotel when there are so many
lovely luxurious hotels allaround to, you know? And he
says, well, you can, Paul, buthere's something that you can
do. You can't be 100% betterthan the competition, but you
can be 1% better in 100different ways. And that
(05:05):
really resonated with me. So Iuse that myself in some of my
slide decks, but it reallyresonates in terms of digital
marketing, SEO, which I'veworked in as well, just in
terms of being that 1% betterin a hundred different ways. I
like that. That's reallydoable, not overwhelming and
(05:27):
very profound. Oh, yeah, I'mgoing to write that one down.
That is brilliant. I lovethat. And my final question,
because I'm nosy, do you read?And if you do, do you have a
favorite book? Doesn't have tobe personal development,
anything at all. Yeah, I doread. I do have an intention
to read more. next year. I'mhoping to get a Kindle
(05:49):
actually. Oh, the brilliant.Yeah. So yeah, I do have a
book. It's probably somethinga bit different as well. So
this book is called Watchmenand it's by a chap called Alan
Moore. It was written in the1980s. It's actually a mix of
being a graphic novel and likea written word novel as well.
(06:10):
So it's one of Time magazine'stop 100 novels. It's been made
into a film by DC Comics whodo Superman and Wonder Woman.
But it's not childlike at all.It's got such a great
compelling storyline. So justgreat storytelling, basically.
And a good medium, as I say,between the comic panels and
the kind of the written pageas well. So I think I like
(06:33):
this because I like thecreativity behind it. But
ultimately when we're talkingabout fiction books, in terms
of what's your favorite, it'sprobably because it's a great
story and have good charactersin it. So yeah, I'll go for
that one. If you're not awareof it, have a look at it and
read about it. So see, yeah,watch when it's a great read.
I will check it out. Unlikeyou, I love the creativity
(06:55):
behind that. And, you know,just imagine the journey that
they've been on to come upwith this concept and produce
it and everything. So yeah,that sounds absolutely
fascinating. And I will lookthat up. Thank you for that.
That's very revealing. Very,very interesting. So moving on
to you and your business. Sowhat inspired you to start it
(07:15):
and how has your personalstory shaped your brand? So
yeah, great question. Sosomething to reflect on, isn't
it, this? So I don't thinkthere was one big moment in
terms of starting my business,I think it was probably a
build up of realizations overtime. So I worked in the
(07:38):
corporate world and themarketing agency world in
Manchester for about 25 years.Since the, it kind of ages me
now this, but it's fine. Sincethe internet began, or since
Google came, you know. We wentthis far. Exactly. But world
of wisdom I've now But yeah,kind of late 90s, early 2000s.
(08:01):
And I worked in the corporateworld for a long time. I've
seen so much change in thedigital marketing space. But I
grew tired, I think is theshort answer. I grew tired of
redundancy. So I was maderedundant a few times in my
career, not because I wasn'tany good at my job. It's more
about office politics. Allthis stuff I really don't
(08:25):
like. So I grew tired of thatand not being in control of my
destiny, as it were. I wastired of spending my career
spending or building thingsfor other people. But I'm
grateful that I was able tobuild things for other people
because it gave me theconfidence and the realization
that, ah, why don't you kindof build this for yourself? So
(08:46):
that was one of therealizations. And the other
thing was that I grew tired ofworking on client accounts in
agencies that I didn't reallybelieve in. So I didn't really
want to work with that type ofbusiness in terms of the
clients which were coming in.I wanted to work with the
people that I wanted to helpbasically. Yeah, so I feel
that I got... enoughexperience and enough
(09:08):
confidence to then be able tokind of ride on my corporate
experience in my own business.So that's why I kind of
started the business. I thinkthere were a few other things
behind it as well. So peopleused to say, so in the
corporate world, they used tosay that I explained digital
marketing concepts andparticularly SEO, which
(09:29):
confuses a lot of people. Ican explain those clearly.
Yeah, so people like theclarity that I brought. So
that was a good thing, a goodrealization. And then when I
started to kind of lead teamsor be a head of digital
marketing in agencies, youhave a team, yeah. And I
really enjoyed the mentoringside of it more than the other
(09:52):
kind of agency environmentthings that were going on. It
was the mentoring that Iliked, especially people who
were on like a digitalmarketing apprenticeship or
the just finished universityand it was the first job. It
kind of reminded me of, youknow, the late 90s when I
first started in Manchester aswell. So I liked helping those
people a lot. It's probablybeing a born teacher maybe and
(10:15):
caring for people, which isnatural to me. So I think all
of those things helped me tothen kind of leave the
corporate world behind andleave the hustle. of agency
world behind to start my ownbusiness and something that
would, something that's moresuited to me. So yeah, does
that help? Yeah, it soundslike with your personality and
(10:38):
your skills, it was aninevitable transition because
you wanted to grow your ownway and things were,
inevitably developing in thebackground and you wanted to
put your own identity onthings, you wanted to mentor
people. And when you talkabout clients, that's one of
the beauties of having yourown business. You kind of get
to choose what kind of peoplethat you want to work with.
(11:00):
And that's what keeps us freshand excited about our work
because we get to set thoseparameters. And I think, yeah,
not a lot of people arewilling to make the break.
But, you know, talking topeople like you, you can
clearly see that that was aninevitability, I think. You
just get frustrated and youdon't want to spend the rest
of your life building someoneelse's business when you know
(11:22):
you're more than capable ofbuilding your own. So was
there a turning point withinyour business when you had to
think about visibility and...you knew you needed to
increase your visibility togrow. How did that how did
that work? What did you do interms of growing your own
visibility? Sure, yeah. So Imentioned a moment ago that I
(11:46):
was I was riding on my owncorporate experience or agency
experience. And I was to apoint. So I focused more on
SEO, search engineoptimization. At the time,
it's very much about beingseen or being visible in
Google search. So I knew a lotabout that. So I was able to
do that for myself on my ownwebsite. So that's one part of
(12:09):
visibility yeah or maybe themaybe the original source of
being visible online was SEOso I was okay at doing that
and then being in the coachingworld or the entrepreneurial
world is quite different toactually working in corporates
in terms of digital marketinga lot of social media happens
(12:29):
being on podcasts happens aswell you don't do that when
you have a corporate job Yeah,something, yeah, something
struck me in terms of, Iworked with a lady who I think
you know and maybe some ofyour listeners know as well
called Lisa Johnson. Lisa'svery successful, you know, in
(12:51):
the online industry in termsof coaching and business
training and strategy. So I ampart of Lisa's world. I'm
actually one of herfranchisees at the moment. She
has a franchise company calleda business success company,
and I'm one of herfranchisees. So I do have some
one-to-one. Sometimes I'mworking with her team. So Lisa
said something that struckwith me, and that is that 80%
(13:15):
of your time should go onaudience building. Yeah. And
she wasn't just saying it, sheactually lives that as well.
So as people kind of want toemulate Lisa's success or
someone like Lisa's and havetheir success, it was good to
hear that from them. Yeah, soshe actually spends 80% of her
(13:35):
time on audience building. Sothat's a realization to me
that, well, I need to do thesame. So yeah, absolutely. I
do have SEO ticking on thebackground and SEO is probably
the the most peaceful orcalmest marketing strategy.
Yeah, it ticks along in thebackground and you should
always have it. I don't wantto talk too much about SEO or
(13:57):
I'm not advocating it too muchon this podcast. It's not what
it's about. But we've got thatin the background and it's a
it's a slow burn, but itcompounds over time. So in
terms of visibility, yeah, itwas about having more of that
80% on visibility. So doingmore guesting on podcasts.
(14:17):
Yeah, like we're doing that.Talking inside online
memberships, creating moreguides and kind of three
checklists to share whentalking memberships as well is
a good thing to do. I thinkletting people hear my voice
and not just read my socialmedia posts or blog posts is a
good thing as well. So peoplestart to get more of a sense
(14:40):
of of who the person is, andunderstand their personality.
So those are all beneficialthings, I think, just by
showing up more in differentplaces. But yeah, actually
being able to put a lot moreof your time into visibility
or audience building, I thinkis the important thing to do.
(15:01):
So the next thing where I'm atat the moment, Amanda, with
this is that I'd like to domore talking at events,
actually in person.guess-speaking. So that's what
I'm looking to do goingforwards. And you'd be glad to
hear, I'm a big believer inPR, very much so. So yeah, as
they're doing more PR andlooking at PR opportunities
(15:23):
and being in those spaceswhere bigger conversations are
being had, where there's morepeople, I think that helps to
accelerate your visibility.Yeah, you're so right. And
I've done Lisa's one to many.I'm a big fan of Lisa as well.
And when she said that aboutvisibility and then growing
(15:44):
your audience being the bigthing, it just clicked with me
because I thought, yeah, it'sright. She's right because
people like to be, they feelbusy doing all the things on
Canva and making spreadsheetsand doing all of this. But in
reality, your business isbuilding relationships,
getting people to know youmore, having conversations,
being in the room. gettingpeople to know your
(16:05):
personality. And that is, itcan never be understated. And
when I was on your podcast, wetalked about visibility. And I
always worry that people thinkvisibility is being this scary
thing. And it's not, it's justshowing up and being you. just
turn up as yourself becausethe minute you try to fake it,
people will see through that.And when people get to know
(16:28):
you, they remember you. Whenthey know what you do, they'll
recommend you. And it's assimple as that. And I like
that Lisa's always beenconsistent with that, but she
practices what she preaches.And when I first started, I've
had businesses before, butthis is the first time I've
really sort gone all in. Andlooking at social media, I was
thinking, I am not dancing onTikTok. I am not doing this.
(16:50):
So I was really studying,well, what do people actually
do for more visibility?Because I had to carve my own
way in a credible way. So thatI'm always a painstress out of
people. You really don't haveto do all of this. If you want
to dance, off you go, that'sgreat. That just doesn't fit
my persona and I'm notcomfortable. But always
(17:11):
remembering to be comfortable.And that's what I like what
you lead with about beingcalm. The minute you're doing
something that just doesn'tsit with your values or
doesn't sit with your brand,it just comes across as
inauthentic and it's painfulto watch. And I think your
audience picks up on that. Sofor me, it was always baby
steps. doing things thatyou're comfortable and step
(17:33):
outside your comfort zone alittle bit and just taking it
bit by bit because you can'tgo from setting up your
business to suddenly landingon big stages because it won't
work you're just not ready soeverything is just going step
by step so yeah I completelyagree with with everything
that you say in there and youknow yourself when you're
ready to move on to the nextthing so what advice would you
(17:55):
give to someone who says Ihate promoting myself I would
say to them to to pause firstof all on that thought to
actually stop and reflect onit so we can understand it
basically you want to lookinward with that because when
(18:17):
you someone says I hatepromoting myself I think it's
it's really about promotingyourself, it's usually
something deeper, isn't it? Soit's usually about visibility
fears, old beliefs aboutourselves, which might be
negative, or maybe someone'snot ready to be seen as well,
(18:39):
but it's about why are you notready to be seen because you
know you peel the The onionlayers off to get to the truth
And once you identify thetruth once you understand it
then you've got something towork with I think so you're
not kind of always battlingthe thought of I hate
promoting myself at a surfacelevel because I don't think
(19:02):
you would then become visible.You know, you've got to really
uncover the truth and grapplewith it to understand why so
you can then move forward. Sothat is something I learned
from mindset coaches in thelast few years, you know. So
again, when I was corporateperson. I don't come across
(19:24):
these things in terms ofhaving to hating to promote
myself. I didn't promotemyself. I just had my job. How
is she doing it in thecorporate world? But as an
entrepreneur, as a businessowner, there are these new
these new scenarios whichyou're coming across and a lot
of them aren't going to feelnatural to you. They're
certainly going to be new toyou and some of them aren't
natural to you. So it's aboutreally discovering why, I
(19:46):
think. I'd also say, Amanda,that Promotion as well or the
belief of what promotion iscan be a little bit skewed for
people as well. And that's sothey have a false narrative
running through their mind interms of what promotion is and
they don't want to do that andthat's the thing that they
hate. So it's not promotionisn't really about look at me.
(20:07):
It doesn't have to be thatlook at me and and be noisy
and loud on on Instagram. Ithink real promotion is simply
being helpful to otherbusiness owners or being
helpful to other people. Sosharing what you know in a
blog post is promotion,absolutely. Sharing what you
(20:27):
know on a podcast, a speakingon a podcast like this is
promotion. I'm doing promotionnow, yeah, but very passively,
but just by showing up andtalking about what I know and
my thoughts. the questionswhich you're asking me. Even
writing a thoughtful,well-structured social media
post is a nice, calm way toprovide your expertise, show
(20:50):
your expertise, but that's allpromotion as well. So I think
when you shift your mindsetfrom promoting yourself to
actually being useful, theneverything gets a lot easier.
So it's less about performing.It's more about, what is it?
It's more about contributing,I think. So again, it's that
(21:11):
mindset shift, isn't it? Yeah.That it's just being helpful.
Yeah, just being useful forother people. And people
remember that when whenthey've learned something from
you, you've provided value andit's having that
self-awareness and you'reright. I think you need to do
that. You need to do that workto have that. self-awareness
(21:31):
and in corporate, you know,you can go and do a
presentation because you'vegot that veneer of where
you're working. But when it'syou, there's nowhere to hide.
It's just completely you. It'sall your business and it's
just you front and center. ButI always, in the work that I
do, I've noticed that peopleare worried about appearing
(21:52):
braggy or, you know, look atme, aren't I great. And it's
not about that at all. It'ssimply, I'm here. This is the
service that I provide andthis is the impact it's going
to have on your business. Andthat's the existence of your
business. And I think you'reright, just changing the
narrative and what that lookslike. And if you just show up
and do your thing and say,well, you know, this can help
(22:12):
you or try this and beingpresent and offering to help
is simply enough and you knowyou don't have to show up and
I always joke about you knowmaking six million pounds in
five minutes on the beach it'snot that if you show up be
yourself and demonstrate thatyou know your stuff that you
know that will always standyou in good stead um so what's
(22:36):
been the most surprisingbenefit um for you putting
yourself front and center ofyour brand Yeah, I think I
might have alluded to it alittle bit already, but I
think it is personal growth atthe end of the day. So on
reflection of starting mybusiness and the last few
(22:56):
years that I've had mybusiness, I think starting a
business, and especially apersonal brand, is the
ultimate self-discoveryjourney. at the end of the
day. So for me, in terms of abenefit, it's been confident,
first of all, so it's beenconfident and being able to
(23:17):
become more comfortable oncamera. I have to say, maybe
three years ago, or when Ikind of left the last agency
that I worked with, and I dida first live on Facebook, so a
Facebook live, honestly, ittook me about 20 minutes or so
to kind of, you know, pressthe button, you know, and go
(23:39):
live, you know, that's likereally anxious before I did
it. But now, yeah, you kind ofjust do it, you know, the
thought of being on a podcastas a guest, people listening
to me or watching me onYouTube. four or five years
ago, I would never have donethat. I would never have done
that. So yeah, very much aboutpersonal growth. So being
(24:01):
comfortable on camera, so faceto camera. I think with that
also you start to retrain yournervous system. Again, I'm
trying to recall what some ofthe mindset coaches have
talked to me about and whatI've learned from them. So
retraining your nervous systemby actually doing these things
(24:22):
is a great thing to do. So ifyou're frightened or scared of
being visible. actually bevisible and then you retrain
your nervous system which thentells yourself that actually
it's okay you can actually dothese things yeah and then you
become more comfortable indoing it so yeah I think it's
(24:43):
all around personal growth forme I also think that by
being me a lot more becausewhen I started out yeah very
much I was a product of thecorporate world I was a
perfectionist which I think isa personality trait I do have
(25:03):
but I've become less so it'sabout being more authentic
online and I think by beingmore authentic my I don't like
to call it a target audience.I think that's too corporate,
but the people I'd like tohelp seem to be more attracted
to me as well. ATHD is HSPs,which is highly sensitive
(25:24):
persons, deep thinkers,creative people as well. I
think they resonate with me,they kind of see a calmer,
quieter style of marketing andmaybe feel safe to have a
conversation with me, listento my podcast a little bit
more as well, just by steppinginto who I actually am. So
(25:47):
yeah, very much about personalgrowth. And that's lovely
because you're creating thatspace and become a known for
that. You're making that spaceaccessible and people feel
welcome and they know that youget it. And it's just
interesting that you describedyour journey there and
everybody is terrified ofgoing live. And you described
(26:09):
your nervous system. And I doa lot of work behind that and
I help people get comfortable.And it's so interesting
because I always use thisanalogy. When you had your
first driving lesson. Yeah.And you didn't know what you
were doing. And you're justlike, I'm never going to be
able to learn to drive. It'sawful. And now majority of us
take it for granted. We get inthe car we drive because we
(26:31):
conditioned our brain and welearned and we our nervous
system got used to it. Andthen now it becomes an
everyday thing. And that typeof visibility is similar to
that. It's a new experience.your brain feels threatened,
your nervous system feelsthreatened, but the more
exposure you have, the moreyou do, the more it becomes
normal. For me, I'm quitecomfortable showing up on
(26:51):
camera. However, I don't likedoing it by myself. I will
talk forever on a podcast witheveryone, but I just don't
like turning the camera on andtalking to no one. But that's
still a block that I have, butI'm quite happy to admit that.
And that's just one of thethings I'm more comfortable
chatting to. people and I'mnot going live with anybody,
(27:14):
but going live by myself andit just doesn't do it for me.
But it's, but getting to, youknow, as you said, creating
that space, personaldevelopment and getting known
for that and your nervoussystem could be adapting. We
put ourselves under so muchpressure and having that
self-compassion andunderstanding. just gentle
(27:35):
exposure over time, it'llbecome normalized. But
remember that analogy of thedriving lessons. I mean,
imagine your knees used toshake whenever you're trying
to try to just drive and thecar used to judder. And most
of us forget those days. But Ithink it's the same when you
think about your ownvisibility and business. And
it does get a little biteasier and easier. So you
(27:57):
strike me as being confidenton camera and I imagine, yeah,
as you said, it probablywasn't always the case. But do
you have any ritualsbeforehand to make you feel
confident or can you just showup now or do you do anything
to sort of get yourself ready?Sure, yeah. So I do have a few
things which I still do. So ifyou watch on YouTube, you'll
see that I've got my glasseson. So where my glasses helps.
(28:22):
I've only needed these sincethe start of the year. They're
reading glasses, these ones.Not that I'm reading anything.
But wearing these glasseshelps me. I think it just
helps me to step into beingsomeone else, you know, a
business owner, Paul, maybe,are stepping into a character.
It's like I become Clark Kent,you know, I don't become
(28:45):
super. I go the other way,that kind of thing. It's a
good idea. But yeah, kind ofwearing the glasses, I tend to
dress a bit smarter as well.I'm going to work at home, but
I tend to dress a bit smarterwhen I'm on camera or do a
talk in a membership or on apodcast. I think these does
help me to feel more confidentand maybe become someone else
(29:11):
as well a little bit which isa trait which I think all
performers have don't they soall the kind of best singers
tend to be quite shy and quietoff camera we talked about
Queen earlier so FreddieMercury is a great example
there of being a bit quite anarticulate very intelligent
and quiet and shy chap, offstage, but on stage, you know,
(29:34):
becomes a persona, which weall know and love. So, yeah,
it's that type of thing,really. That helps me, whether
it helps someone else, I don'tknow. If you're looking for a
way to feel more karma orconfident, try those things.
Even having like a pen thatyou can hold maybe whilst
(29:57):
you're on camera. or speakingat an event or something.
Maybe we all need somethinglike that just to help us in
terms of our confidence. Now,that's useful to know. And you
mentioned working at home. Ithink it's maybe it was, you
know, over COVID, we didn'thave to sort of dress up for
(30:17):
work. But for me in mybusiness, I like to look
smart. But my thing is Ialways spray my favorite
perfume because there's alwayssomething to anchor me to
doing this thing. and justhaving that little ritual is I
think it maybe is a switch inour brains to to think, right,
(30:38):
this thing's happening now.And I work from the same spot.
I'm very lucky. I have a studyat home and I have this space.
But there is definitelysomething where I need to slot
into I'm doing this thing now,this little ritual. And yeah,
I imagine the best people inthe world do it. I suppose in
the famous circles, they callthem riders where they have,
you know, like, what is it,only green M&Ms or something.
(31:00):
But I think it's good if youhave, if you have something
that helps you make that shiftto I'm doing this thing now.
And it just, it's just a wayto kind of gear yourself up.
And maybe there is that littleveneer of I'm becoming, you
know, Amanda, the businessperson, now that this is the
thing that I need to do. And,you know, every time you
mention Freddie Mercury, youwon't believe this. After all
(31:21):
these years, I still feel sad.It makes me feel so sad when I
hear of him. And I've just,I've adored him all my life
and it just never leaves. Ilove him so much, huge fan.
Anyway, moving on. Whatvisibility channel has moved
the needle most for yourbusiness? So, podcast, video,
(31:42):
live events, social media. Isthere anything in particular
that you feel works for youthe most? Yeah, so the thing
that works for me the most,sorry, is SEO, which I
mentioned before, butspecifically blogging. It
works for me. Yeah, andblogging is going to come back
in a big way. It already has,but it's going to come back in
(32:03):
a big way in 2026 and beyondbecause it provides AI
systems, ChatGPT and Google'sAI results. It serves them
with the content which theyservice to your clients, you
know. But blogging for me hasbeen the biggest driver. Yeah,
(32:23):
I also think because it's longform content, So I like to
write, you know, I like towrite, I'd rather write a
letter to someone than do ashort text message. Not that I
write letters too much, butI'd rather do that, you know,
I'm quite a deep thinker, Ilike to express my thoughts.
So long form content. is goodand that's why I feel at home
(32:45):
and it's part of my strategyas well as I talk about car
marketing to having blogs blogposts as part of long form
content so that helps me interms of traffic as well so it
brings in steady organictraffic and that compounds
over time because a good blogpost lasts you know if you're
talking about something thatpeople will always search for
(33:10):
in terms of question, whichyou call an evergreen topic.
If you have a good post, it'salways going to be surfacing
in results. So that's allhelps me very much so. But on
top of that, yeah, absolutely.The big one for me also is
guest speaking. So guestspeaking podcasts like we're
(33:31):
doing now, membership talks,which I mentioned before, and
larger events. So that's whereI want to go, you know, in
terms of speaking at largerevents. And particularly in
Manchester, where I'm based,I'm sure there's lots of
events that I could talk outthere. So that's part of what
I'd like to do next year. Soyeah, it's a combination then
(33:51):
of SEO, traditional SEO, andthen speaking at events. And
in memberships, I think that'sthe sweet spot for me. Good to
know about the blog post thathadn't occurred to me. That's
a really good tip for anyonethat's listening. You heard it
literally from the horse'smouth. That's brilliant. Thank
you for that. And then to myfinal question, Paul, it's
(34:14):
just been absolutely fantasticlistening to you today. Where
can we find out more about youonline? Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you. So everything withme lives on my website, which
is paulkalshaw.com. So you'llfind me there and all of my AI
services. And you'll also finda whole section on the website
(34:35):
about Fuzzled, which is allabout marketing clarity for
highly attuned entrepreneurs.So there's lots there that I
offer. as well so that's thekind of hub of my website. If
you prefer listening, I dohave a podcast as well, so you
can search for the Fuzzlepodcast. That's a good
starting point. So we've gotshort and calm episodes there
(34:58):
and one with yourself, Amanda,coming up soon. So yeah, have
a look at that, Fuzzle podcaston all of the platforms. You
can also find me on Facebook,Instagram, where I am at Coach
Paul Kulshaw. I'm on LinkedInas well. So I'm all the right
places wherever you prefer tosit down. Wonderful. Thank you
(35:19):
for that. And I will put thoselinks in the show notes. So
thank you so much, Paul, forjoining me today. It's been
absolutely fascinating. AndI've loved hearing about your
business and your journey andreminding me that channels
that maybe were established along time ago are still
relevant, like the SEO andblogging and all of that.
(35:41):
It's, you know, the stuff thatmaybe the, online world was
built on is still relevanttoday and I think it's amazing
and I'm going to revisit someof those things. So thank you
so much for joining me. It'sbeen fantastic talking to you.
That's Amanda. It's been apleasure.
Hello everyone and welcome tothis episode of Grow Your
Brand with Amanda. And today Ihave with me Paul Kulshaw. And
Paul is a certified businessstrategist, AI innovator and
founder of Fuzzled, the calmgrowth movement for highly
attuned entrepreneurs. He'sgot 25 years plus in digital
and agency marketing and hespecializes in helping HSPs,
(00:26):
ADHDers and overthinkers growtheir business with clarity,
structure and sustainablevisibility. And I'm really
interested to hear a lot moreabout that. He's also the
founder of the AuthorityEngine, a strategic framework
that helps businesses buildtopical authority and show up
in AI tools like ChatGPT andGoogle's AIresults, which is
fascinating for me. Andthrough his consultancy,
(00:48):
podcasts and programs, Paulblends emotional intelligence
with practical strategy tohelp entrepreneurs move from
confusion to clarity withoutthe hustle. That sounds
amazing, Paul, and welcome.Thank you so much. Yeah,
thanks for the introductionthere. It sounds pretty good,
isn't it? So I've built thebusiness to kind of replicate
(01:10):
what, how I am as a person. Soit's very authentic, I think,
and I think it's a little bitdifferent as well, compared to
all of the businessaccelerators that you see in
the coaching world. So yeah,trying to be different. Yeah,
a few things jumping out at methere. I like calm. I've
always been fascinated byemotional intelligence. And
(01:31):
two years ago, I qualifiedmyself as a coach and I worked
really hard and I gained alevel five. And that was one
of my things that I really,really focused on. It's just
endlessly fascinating. Sobefore we get stuck in, I'm
going to ask you my threequestions because I think this
is very revealing aboutpeople. Plus, we can add your
(01:53):
choices to the playlist thataccompanies this podcast. So
do you have a favoritemotivational song? Luckily, I
do have a favoritemotivational song. So I had to
think about this because mytaste of music is quite
eclectic as well. So I'mactually, I'm a big fan of
(02:14):
Queen, the band. Yeah, so alot of their music, a lot of
their songs is very much abouttriumph over struggle. which I
think resonates with a lot ofpeople. So the main song that
comes to mind is we are thechampions on that. However,
that's not the song I'm goingto pick. It's something a bit
more obscure. So another bandI like, who is still famous
(02:36):
today, but big in the 80s, isMadness. So this is more of a
deep cut because I'm also afan of the band. So they have
a song called Keep Moving andit's a really underrated song.
It doesn't sound like baggytrousers or house of fun or
anything like that. So KeepMoving is my motivational
(02:56):
song. So yeah, it's it'sbasically it's not basically
about the It's in the title,isn't it? It's about keep
moving. It's about resilience.It's about life being messy,
but I'm still getting up thatkind of energy. It's a nice
steady beat as well. So it'snice to listen to. So yeah,
that's my choice. So maybe notone that yourself or a lot of
(03:18):
the listeners know uh but yeahchecking out keep moving it's
from it's from 1984 uh fromthe interesting it doesn't
spring to mind and i'm quite abroad knowledge like you my
taste is eclectic but i'mgoing to look that up it
sounds fascinating and i ikind of grew up with madness
and and queen as well i wasraised on queen I'm definitely
(03:40):
going to look that up and addthat to the playlist. Thank
you. I love the ones that havelong since forgotten in time,
and I love it when they comeback. And also, have you
noticed, you've got a daughtersimilar to mine, when they're
humming tunes or the singingtunes that are way back in our
youth, and I say, how do youknow that song, TikTok? all
(04:00):
the stuff that's coming backon TikTok that all our time,
all music for our, and I loveit that those, that music
isn't getting lost in time. Doyou have a favourite
motivational quote? I do. Sojust a bit of context on this
one before I give it to you.So I used to work in the
(04:20):
hotels, I used to work inhotels, the hospitality
industry, not in the hotels. Iwas doing the websites, head
office and the marketing. Butwe travelled down to one of
the hotels out of London,which is called the Stafford
Hotel. Still there. It's inSt. James's, a really nice
five-star hotel. hotel and Ispoke to the manager, the
general manager, in terms of,well, how do you stand out and
(04:43):
attract people to come to yourhotel when there are so many
lovely luxurious hotels allaround to, you know? And he
says, well, you can, Paul, buthere's something that you can
do. You can't be 100% betterthan the competition, but you
can be 1% better in 100different ways. And that
(05:05):
really resonated with me. So Iuse that myself in some of my
slide decks, but it reallyresonates in terms of digital
marketing, SEO, which I'veworked in as well, just in
terms of being that 1% betterin a hundred different ways. I
like that. That's reallydoable, not overwhelming and
(05:27):
very profound. Oh, yeah, I'mgoing to write that one down.
That is brilliant. I lovethat. And my final question,
because I'm nosy, do you read?And if you do, do you have a
favorite book? Doesn't have tobe personal development,
anything at all. Yeah, I doread. I do have an intention
to read more. next year. I'mhoping to get a Kindle
(05:49):
actually. Oh, the brilliant.Yeah. So yeah, I do have a
book. It's probably somethinga bit different as well. So
this book is called Watchmenand it's by a chap called Alan
Moore. It was written in the1980s. It's actually a mix of
being a graphic novel and likea written word novel as well.
(06:10):
So it's one of Time magazine'stop 100 novels. It's been made
into a film by DC Comics whodo Superman and Wonder Woman.
But it's not childlike at all.It's got such a great
compelling storyline. So justgreat storytelling, basically.
And a good medium, as I say,between the comic panels and
the kind of the written pageas well. So I think I like
(06:33):
this because I like thecreativity behind it. But
ultimately when we're talkingabout fiction books, in terms
of what's your favorite, it'sprobably because it's a great
story and have good charactersin it. So yeah, I'll go for
that one. If you're not awareof it, have a look at it and
read about it. So see, yeah,watch when it's a great read.
I will check it out. Unlikeyou, I love the creativity
(06:55):
behind that. And, you know,just imagine the journey that
they've been on to come upwith this concept and produce
it and everything. So yeah,that sounds absolutely
fascinating. And I will lookthat up. Thank you for that.
That's very revealing. Very,very interesting. So moving on
to you and your business. Sowhat inspired you to start it
(07:15):
and how has your personalstory shaped your brand? So
yeah, great question. Sosomething to reflect on, isn't
it, this? So I don't thinkthere was one big moment in
terms of starting my business,I think it was probably a
build up of realizations overtime. So I worked in the
(07:38):
corporate world and themarketing agency world in
Manchester for about 25 years.Since the, it kind of ages me
now this, but it's fine. Sincethe internet began, or since
Google came, you know. We wentthis far. Exactly. But world
of wisdom I've now But yeah,kind of late 90s, early 2000s.
(08:01):
And I worked in the corporateworld for a long time. I've
seen so much change in thedigital marketing space. But I
grew tired, I think is theshort answer. I grew tired of
redundancy. So I was maderedundant a few times in my
career, not because I wasn'tany good at my job. It's more
about office politics. Allthis stuff I really don't
(08:25):
like. So I grew tired of thatand not being in control of my
destiny, as it were. I wastired of spending my career
spending or building thingsfor other people. But I'm
grateful that I was able tobuild things for other people
because it gave me theconfidence and the realization
that, ah, why don't you kindof build this for yourself? So
(08:46):
that was one of therealizations. And the other
thing was that I grew tired ofworking on client accounts in
agencies that I didn't reallybelieve in. So I didn't really
want to work with that type ofbusiness in terms of the
clients which were coming in.I wanted to work with the
people that I wanted to helpbasically. Yeah, so I feel
that I got... enoughexperience and enough
(09:08):
confidence to then be able tokind of ride on my corporate
experience in my own business.So that's why I kind of
started the business. I thinkthere were a few other things
behind it as well. So peopleused to say, so in the
corporate world, they used tosay that I explained digital
marketing concepts andparticularly SEO, which
(09:29):
confuses a lot of people. Ican explain those clearly.
Yeah, so people like theclarity that I brought. So
that was a good thing, a goodrealization. And then when I
started to kind of lead teamsor be a head of digital
marketing in agencies, youhave a team, yeah. And I
really enjoyed the mentoringside of it more than the other
(09:52):
kind of agency environmentthings that were going on. It
was the mentoring that Iliked, especially people who
were on like a digitalmarketing apprenticeship or
the just finished universityand it was the first job. It
kind of reminded me of, youknow, the late 90s when I
first started in Manchester aswell. So I liked helping those
people a lot. It's probablybeing a born teacher maybe and
(10:15):
caring for people, which isnatural to me. So I think all
of those things helped me tothen kind of leave the
corporate world behind andleave the hustle. of agency
world behind to start my ownbusiness and something that
would, something that's moresuited to me. So yeah, does
that help? Yeah, it soundslike with your personality and
(10:38):
your skills, it was aninevitable transition because
you wanted to grow your ownway and things were,
inevitably developing in thebackground and you wanted to
put your own identity onthings, you wanted to mentor
people. And when you talkabout clients, that's one of
the beauties of having yourown business. You kind of get
to choose what kind of peoplethat you want to work with.
(11:00):
And that's what keeps us freshand excited about our work
because we get to set thoseparameters. And I think, yeah,
not a lot of people arewilling to make the break.
But, you know, talking topeople like you, you can
clearly see that that was aninevitability, I think. You
just get frustrated and youdon't want to spend the rest
of your life building someoneelse's business when you know
(11:22):
you're more than capable ofbuilding your own. So was
there a turning point withinyour business when you had to
think about visibility and...you knew you needed to
increase your visibility togrow. How did that how did
that work? What did you do interms of growing your own
visibility? Sure, yeah. So Imentioned a moment ago that I
(11:46):
was I was riding on my owncorporate experience or agency
experience. And I was to apoint. So I focused more on
SEO, search engineoptimization. At the time,
it's very much about beingseen or being visible in
Google search. So I knew a lotabout that. So I was able to
do that for myself on my ownwebsite. So that's one part of
(12:09):
visibility yeah or maybe themaybe the original source of
being visible online was SEOso I was okay at doing that
and then being in the coachingworld or the entrepreneurial
world is quite different toactually working in corporates
in terms of digital marketinga lot of social media happens
(12:29):
being on podcasts happens aswell you don't do that when
you have a corporate job Yeah,something, yeah, something
struck me in terms of, Iworked with a lady who I think
you know and maybe some ofyour listeners know as well
called Lisa Johnson. Lisa'svery successful, you know, in
(12:51):
the online industry in termsof coaching and business
training and strategy. So I ampart of Lisa's world. I'm
actually one of herfranchisees at the moment. She
has a franchise company calleda business success company,
and I'm one of herfranchisees. So I do have some
one-to-one. Sometimes I'mworking with her team. So Lisa
said something that struckwith me, and that is that 80%
(13:15):
of your time should go onaudience building. Yeah. And
she wasn't just saying it, sheactually lives that as well.
So as people kind of want toemulate Lisa's success or
someone like Lisa's and havetheir success, it was good to
hear that from them. Yeah, soshe actually spends 80% of her
(13:35):
time on audience building. Sothat's a realization to me
that, well, I need to do thesame. So yeah, absolutely. I
do have SEO ticking on thebackground and SEO is probably
the the most peaceful orcalmest marketing strategy.
Yeah, it ticks along in thebackground and you should
always have it. I don't wantto talk too much about SEO or
(13:57):
I'm not advocating it too muchon this podcast. It's not what
it's about. But we've got thatin the background and it's a
it's a slow burn, but itcompounds over time. So in
terms of visibility, yeah, itwas about having more of that
80% on visibility. So doingmore guesting on podcasts.
(14:17):
Yeah, like we're doing that.Talking inside online
memberships, creating moreguides and kind of three
checklists to share whentalking memberships as well is
a good thing to do. I thinkletting people hear my voice
and not just read my socialmedia posts or blog posts is a
good thing as well. So peoplestart to get more of a sense
(14:40):
of of who the person is, andunderstand their personality.
So those are all beneficialthings, I think, just by
showing up more in differentplaces. But yeah, actually
being able to put a lot moreof your time into visibility
or audience building, I thinkis the important thing to do.
(15:01):
So the next thing where I'm atat the moment, Amanda, with
this is that I'd like to domore talking at events,
actually in person.guess-speaking. So that's what
I'm looking to do goingforwards. And you'd be glad to
hear, I'm a big believer inPR, very much so. So yeah, as
they're doing more PR andlooking at PR opportunities
(15:23):
and being in those spaceswhere bigger conversations are
being had, where there's morepeople, I think that helps to
accelerate your visibility.Yeah, you're so right. And
I've done Lisa's one to many.I'm a big fan of Lisa as well.
And when she said that aboutvisibility and then growing
(15:44):
your audience being the bigthing, it just clicked with me
because I thought, yeah, it'sright. She's right because
people like to be, they feelbusy doing all the things on
Canva and making spreadsheetsand doing all of this. But in
reality, your business isbuilding relationships,
getting people to know youmore, having conversations,
being in the room. gettingpeople to know your
(16:05):
personality. And that is, itcan never be understated. And
when I was on your podcast, wetalked about visibility. And I
always worry that people thinkvisibility is being this scary
thing. And it's not, it's justshowing up and being you. just
turn up as yourself becausethe minute you try to fake it,
people will see through that.And when people get to know
(16:28):
you, they remember you. Whenthey know what you do, they'll
recommend you. And it's assimple as that. And I like
that Lisa's always beenconsistent with that, but she
practices what she preaches.And when I first started, I've
had businesses before, butthis is the first time I've
really sort gone all in. Andlooking at social media, I was
thinking, I am not dancing onTikTok. I am not doing this.
(16:50):
So I was really studying,well, what do people actually
do for more visibility?Because I had to carve my own
way in a credible way. So thatI'm always a painstress out of
people. You really don't haveto do all of this. If you want
to dance, off you go, that'sgreat. That just doesn't fit
my persona and I'm notcomfortable. But always
(17:11):
remembering to be comfortable.And that's what I like what
you lead with about beingcalm. The minute you're doing
something that just doesn'tsit with your values or
doesn't sit with your brand,it just comes across as
inauthentic and it's painfulto watch. And I think your
audience picks up on that. Sofor me, it was always baby
steps. doing things thatyou're comfortable and step
(17:33):
outside your comfort zone alittle bit and just taking it
bit by bit because you can'tgo from setting up your
business to suddenly landingon big stages because it won't
work you're just not ready soeverything is just going step
by step so yeah I completelyagree with with everything
that you say in there and youknow yourself when you're
ready to move on to the nextthing so what advice would you
(17:55):
give to someone who says Ihate promoting myself I would
say to them to to pause firstof all on that thought to
actually stop and reflect onit so we can understand it
basically you want to lookinward with that because when
(18:17):
you someone says I hatepromoting myself I think it's
it's really about promotingyourself, it's usually
something deeper, isn't it? Soit's usually about visibility
fears, old beliefs aboutourselves, which might be
negative, or maybe someone'snot ready to be seen as well,
(18:39):
but it's about why are you notready to be seen because you
know you peel the The onionlayers off to get to the truth
And once you identify thetruth once you understand it
then you've got something towork with I think so you're
not kind of always battlingthe thought of I hate
promoting myself at a surfacelevel because I don't think
(19:02):
you would then become visible.You know, you've got to really
uncover the truth and grapplewith it to understand why so
you can then move forward. Sothat is something I learned
from mindset coaches in thelast few years, you know. So
again, when I was corporateperson. I don't come across
(19:24):
these things in terms ofhaving to hating to promote
myself. I didn't promotemyself. I just had my job. How
is she doing it in thecorporate world? But as an
entrepreneur, as a businessowner, there are these new
these new scenarios whichyou're coming across and a lot
of them aren't going to feelnatural to you. They're
certainly going to be new toyou and some of them aren't
natural to you. So it's aboutreally discovering why, I
(19:46):
think. I'd also say, Amanda,that Promotion as well or the
belief of what promotion iscan be a little bit skewed for
people as well. And that's sothey have a false narrative
running through their mind interms of what promotion is and
they don't want to do that andthat's the thing that they
hate. So it's not promotionisn't really about look at me.
(20:07):
It doesn't have to be thatlook at me and and be noisy
and loud on on Instagram. Ithink real promotion is simply
being helpful to otherbusiness owners or being
helpful to other people. Sosharing what you know in a
blog post is promotion,absolutely. Sharing what you
(20:27):
know on a podcast, a speakingon a podcast like this is
promotion. I'm doing promotionnow, yeah, but very passively,
but just by showing up andtalking about what I know and
my thoughts. the questionswhich you're asking me. Even
writing a thoughtful,well-structured social media
post is a nice, calm way toprovide your expertise, show
(20:50):
your expertise, but that's allpromotion as well. So I think
when you shift your mindsetfrom promoting yourself to
actually being useful, theneverything gets a lot easier.
So it's less about performing.It's more about, what is it?
It's more about contributing,I think. So again, it's that
(21:11):
mindset shift, isn't it? Yeah.That it's just being helpful.
Yeah, just being useful forother people. And people
remember that when whenthey've learned something from
you, you've provided value andit's having that
self-awareness and you'reright. I think you need to do
that. You need to do that workto have that. self-awareness
(21:31):
and in corporate, you know,you can go and do a
presentation because you'vegot that veneer of where
you're working. But when it'syou, there's nowhere to hide.
It's just completely you. It'sall your business and it's
just you front and center. ButI always, in the work that I
do, I've noticed that peopleare worried about appearing
(21:52):
braggy or, you know, look atme, aren't I great. And it's
not about that at all. It'ssimply, I'm here. This is the
service that I provide andthis is the impact it's going
to have on your business. Andthat's the existence of your
business. And I think you'reright, just changing the
narrative and what that lookslike. And if you just show up
and do your thing and say,well, you know, this can help
(22:12):
you or try this and beingpresent and offering to help
is simply enough and you knowyou don't have to show up and
I always joke about you knowmaking six million pounds in
five minutes on the beach it'snot that if you show up be
yourself and demonstrate thatyou know your stuff that you
know that will always standyou in good stead um so what's
(22:36):
been the most surprisingbenefit um for you putting
yourself front and center ofyour brand Yeah, I think I
might have alluded to it alittle bit already, but I
think it is personal growth atthe end of the day. So on
reflection of starting mybusiness and the last few
(22:56):
years that I've had mybusiness, I think starting a
business, and especially apersonal brand, is the
ultimate self-discoveryjourney. at the end of the
day. So for me, in terms of abenefit, it's been confident,
first of all, so it's beenconfident and being able to
(23:17):
become more comfortable oncamera. I have to say, maybe
three years ago, or when Ikind of left the last agency
that I worked with, and I dida first live on Facebook, so a
Facebook live, honestly, ittook me about 20 minutes or so
to kind of, you know, pressthe button, you know, and go
(23:39):
live, you know, that's likereally anxious before I did
it. But now, yeah, you kind ofjust do it, you know, the
thought of being on a podcastas a guest, people listening
to me or watching me onYouTube. four or five years
ago, I would never have donethat. I would never have done
that. So yeah, very much aboutpersonal growth. So being
(24:01):
comfortable on camera, so faceto camera. I think with that
also you start to retrain yournervous system. Again, I'm
trying to recall what some ofthe mindset coaches have
talked to me about and whatI've learned from them. So
retraining your nervous systemby actually doing these things
(24:22):
is a great thing to do. So ifyou're frightened or scared of
being visible. actually bevisible and then you retrain
your nervous system which thentells yourself that actually
it's okay you can actually dothese things yeah and then you
become more comfortable indoing it so yeah I think it's
(24:43):
all around personal growth forme I also think that by
being me a lot more becausewhen I started out yeah very
much I was a product of thecorporate world I was a
perfectionist which I think isa personality trait I do have
(25:03):
but I've become less so it'sabout being more authentic
online and I think by beingmore authentic my I don't like
to call it a target audience.I think that's too corporate,
but the people I'd like tohelp seem to be more attracted
to me as well. ATHD is HSPs,which is highly sensitive
(25:24):
persons, deep thinkers,creative people as well. I
think they resonate with me,they kind of see a calmer,
quieter style of marketing andmaybe feel safe to have a
conversation with me, listento my podcast a little bit
more as well, just by steppinginto who I actually am. So
(25:47):
yeah, very much about personalgrowth. And that's lovely
because you're creating thatspace and become a known for
that. You're making that spaceaccessible and people feel
welcome and they know that youget it. And it's just
interesting that you describedyour journey there and
everybody is terrified ofgoing live. And you described
(26:09):
your nervous system. And I doa lot of work behind that and
I help people get comfortable.And it's so interesting
because I always use thisanalogy. When you had your
first driving lesson. Yeah.And you didn't know what you
were doing. And you're justlike, I'm never going to be
able to learn to drive. It'sawful. And now majority of us
take it for granted. We get inthe car we drive because we
(26:31):
conditioned our brain and welearned and we our nervous
system got used to it. Andthen now it becomes an
everyday thing. And that typeof visibility is similar to
that. It's a new experience.your brain feels threatened,
your nervous system feelsthreatened, but the more
exposure you have, the moreyou do, the more it becomes
normal. For me, I'm quitecomfortable showing up on
(26:51):
camera. However, I don't likedoing it by myself. I will
talk forever on a podcast witheveryone, but I just don't
like turning the camera on andtalking to no one. But that's
still a block that I have, butI'm quite happy to admit that.
And that's just one of thethings I'm more comfortable
chatting to. people and I'mnot going live with anybody,
(27:14):
but going live by myself andit just doesn't do it for me.
But it's, but getting to, youknow, as you said, creating
that space, personaldevelopment and getting known
for that and your nervoussystem could be adapting. We
put ourselves under so muchpressure and having that
self-compassion andunderstanding. just gentle
(27:35):
exposure over time, it'llbecome normalized. But
remember that analogy of thedriving lessons. I mean,
imagine your knees used toshake whenever you're trying
to try to just drive and thecar used to judder. And most
of us forget those days. But Ithink it's the same when you
think about your ownvisibility and business. And
it does get a little biteasier and easier. So you
(27:57):
strike me as being confidenton camera and I imagine, yeah,
as you said, it probablywasn't always the case. But do
you have any ritualsbeforehand to make you feel
confident or can you just showup now or do you do anything
to sort of get yourself ready?Sure, yeah. So I do have a few
things which I still do. So ifyou watch on YouTube, you'll
see that I've got my glasseson. So where my glasses helps.
(28:22):
I've only needed these sincethe start of the year. They're
reading glasses, these ones.Not that I'm reading anything.
But wearing these glasseshelps me. I think it just
helps me to step into beingsomeone else, you know, a
business owner, Paul, maybe,are stepping into a character.
It's like I become Clark Kent,you know, I don't become
(28:45):
super. I go the other way,that kind of thing. It's a
good idea. But yeah, kind ofwearing the glasses, I tend to
dress a bit smarter as well.I'm going to work at home, but
I tend to dress a bit smarterwhen I'm on camera or do a
talk in a membership or on apodcast. I think these does
help me to feel more confidentand maybe become someone else
(29:11):
as well a little bit which isa trait which I think all
performers have don't they soall the kind of best singers
tend to be quite shy and quietoff camera we talked about
Queen earlier so FreddieMercury is a great example
there of being a bit quite anarticulate very intelligent
and quiet and shy chap, offstage, but on stage, you know,
(29:34):
becomes a persona, which weall know and love. So, yeah,
it's that type of thing,really. That helps me, whether
it helps someone else, I don'tknow. If you're looking for a
way to feel more karma orconfident, try those things.
Even having like a pen thatyou can hold maybe whilst
(29:57):
you're on camera. or speakingat an event or something.
Maybe we all need somethinglike that just to help us in
terms of our confidence. Now,that's useful to know. And you
mentioned working at home. Ithink it's maybe it was, you
know, over COVID, we didn'thave to sort of dress up for
(30:17):
work. But for me in mybusiness, I like to look
smart. But my thing is Ialways spray my favorite
perfume because there's alwayssomething to anchor me to
doing this thing. and justhaving that little ritual is I
think it maybe is a switch inour brains to to think, right,
(30:38):
this thing's happening now.And I work from the same spot.
I'm very lucky. I have a studyat home and I have this space.
But there is definitelysomething where I need to slot
into I'm doing this thing now,this little ritual. And yeah,
I imagine the best people inthe world do it. I suppose in
the famous circles, they callthem riders where they have,
you know, like, what is it,only green M&Ms or something.
(31:00):
But I think it's good if youhave, if you have something
that helps you make that shiftto I'm doing this thing now.
And it just, it's just a wayto kind of gear yourself up.
And maybe there is that littleveneer of I'm becoming, you
know, Amanda, the businessperson, now that this is the
thing that I need to do. And,you know, every time you
mention Freddie Mercury, youwon't believe this. After all
(31:21):
these years, I still feel sad.It makes me feel so sad when I
hear of him. And I've just,I've adored him all my life
and it just never leaves. Ilove him so much, huge fan.
Anyway, moving on. Whatvisibility channel has moved
the needle most for yourbusiness? So, podcast, video,
(31:42):
live events, social media. Isthere anything in particular
that you feel works for youthe most? Yeah, so the thing
that works for me the most,sorry, is SEO, which I
mentioned before, butspecifically blogging. It
works for me. Yeah, andblogging is going to come back
in a big way. It already has,but it's going to come back in
(32:03):
a big way in 2026 and beyondbecause it provides AI
systems, ChatGPT and Google'sAI results. It serves them
with the content which theyservice to your clients, you
know. But blogging for me hasbeen the biggest driver. Yeah,
(32:23):
I also think because it's longform content, So I like to
write, you know, I like towrite, I'd rather write a
letter to someone than do ashort text message. Not that I
write letters too much, butI'd rather do that, you know,
I'm quite a deep thinker, Ilike to express my thoughts.
So long form content. is goodand that's why I feel at home
(32:45):
and it's part of my strategyas well as I talk about car
marketing to having blogs blogposts as part of long form
content so that helps me interms of traffic as well so it
brings in steady organictraffic and that compounds
over time because a good blogpost lasts you know if you're
talking about something thatpeople will always search for
(33:10):
in terms of question, whichyou call an evergreen topic.
If you have a good post, it'salways going to be surfacing
in results. So that's allhelps me very much so. But on
top of that, yeah, absolutely.The big one for me also is
guest speaking. So guestspeaking podcasts like we're
(33:31):
doing now, membership talks,which I mentioned before, and
larger events. So that's whereI want to go, you know, in
terms of speaking at largerevents. And particularly in
Manchester, where I'm based,I'm sure there's lots of
events that I could talk outthere. So that's part of what
I'd like to do next year. Soyeah, it's a combination then
(33:51):
of SEO, traditional SEO, andthen speaking at events. And
in memberships, I think that'sthe sweet spot for me. Good to
know about the blog post thathadn't occurred to me. That's
a really good tip for anyonethat's listening. You heard it
literally from the horse'smouth. That's brilliant. Thank
you for that. And then to myfinal question, Paul, it's
(34:14):
just been absolutely fantasticlistening to you today. Where
can we find out more about youonline? Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you. So everything withme lives on my website, which
is paulkalshaw.com. So you'llfind me there and all of my AI
services. And you'll also finda whole section on the website
(34:35):
about Fuzzled, which is allabout marketing clarity for
highly attuned entrepreneurs.So there's lots there that I
offer. as well so that's thekind of hub of my website. If
you prefer listening, I dohave a podcast as well, so you
can search for the Fuzzlepodcast. That's a good
starting point. So we've gotshort and calm episodes there
(34:58):
and one with yourself, Amanda,coming up soon. So yeah, have
a look at that, Fuzzle podcaston all of the platforms. You
can also find me on Facebook,Instagram, where I am at Coach
Paul Kulshaw. I'm on LinkedInas well. So I'm all the right
places wherever you prefer tosit down. Wonderful. Thank you
(35:19):
for that. And I will put thoselinks in the show notes. So
thank you so much, Paul, forjoining me today. It's been
absolutely fascinating. AndI've loved hearing about your
business and your journey andreminding me that channels
that maybe were established along time ago are still
relevant, like the SEO andblogging and all of that.
(35:41):
It's, you know, the stuff thatmaybe the, online world was
built on is still relevanttoday and I think it's amazing
and I'm going to revisit someof those things. So thank you
so much for joining me. It'sbeen fantastic talking to you.
That's Amanda. It's been apleasure.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.