Unlocking the Power of Metaphors in Podcasting with Alison Smith

Episode Transcript
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Carl Richards (00:04):
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community, the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news

(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episode.
You know they say a picturepaints a thousand words, and so
does a podcast.
Sometimes more than a thousandwords actually, but there's a
lot of, when done correctly,there's a lot of imagery and

(00:46):
there's certainly a lot ofparallel between a painting or
picture and the content that'screated for a podcast.
And we're going to chat withtoday's guest who's going to
expand on that even more for us.
Alison Smith is our guest today.
Alison has 23 years experienceas a coach and a speaker.
Her podcast, landscaping yourLife, is about getting back on

(01:12):
track when you're stuck andcan't see the woods for the
trees or can't see the wood forthe trees.
Alison lives in Scotland.
She loves going out for walks,open water, swimming, reading,
writing and nature.
I'm so glad she's here today.
Alison, welcome to the podcast.

Alison Smith (01:27):
Thanks for having me Delighted to be here.

It's phenomenal talking to another podcaster
which, as I've evolved mypodcast to be able to chat with
other folks who are podcastersand get a scope of where their
journey has taken them and howthey got to where they are is
always a treat.
So let me start there before wedive into the meat of what
we're going to be talking abouttoday.
How did you get to where youare today?

(01:50):
I know that's a loaded question, but what's the Coles Notes
version of the journey to howyou got to where you are?

I think it was when I was in business trying to
describe to managers why theyneeded to be listening to us
about supplier management, and Ican hear everybody sort of
yawning already and going, yeah,we'd not listen to you either,
Alison, but we needed them tolisten because lots of the
supplier relationships weren'tgoing well and what we
discovered was trying to givethem more theory wasn't helpful.

(02:21):
So giving them more detail,more evidence.
But as soon as we started usinga metaphor, people got it,
Because certainly here in the UKmost people have got gardens.
They've certainly been aroundgardens, they understand the
philosophy of gardens needingweeding, pruning, feeding time

(02:41):
in the compost, greenhouses.
And as soon as we said all ofwhat you know about gardening
can be applied to suppliermanagement, the light bulbs went
on and all these seniormanagers went yes, we've got
lots of suppliers that are likeweeds.
We've got a supplier that'slike the tree in the corner with
the roots undermining we.

(03:02):
We've got, oh, we expectedsuppliers to just hit the ground
running and we realized that weplunked them in the corner, we
haven't watered them, they'renot even the right soil.
So that was sort of in themid-90s where I realized the
power of Metabol.
I then did some coachingqualifications and found out how

(03:26):
beneficial it is and therefore,since 2000, have used it in
coaching, in vision setting days, in speaking.
Because when we're stuck,particularly, and when we don't
know what to do, we can get socaught up in the problem.
The story we're stuckparticularly, and when we you
know we don't know what to do,we can get so caught up in the

(03:46):
problem.
The story we're telling, andactually the story we're telling
reaffirms our stuckness.
Quite often it's like we've gotall the evidence about why
we're stuck and why there aren'tany solutions and metaphor sort
of cuts through that.
Um, for the same reason I gaveearlier, we understand metaphors

(04:07):
, so we understand how a gardenworks.
So if we're struggling and wemight say, oh, I'm not
flourishing as a person, whathas to happen in a flourishing
garden?
If I asked you about aflourishing body, I haven't got
the energy to do that and you'dcome up with quite a lot of
resistance to a whole load ofthings that you know you should

(04:29):
be doing.
Whereas if suddenly you look ata garden and say, oh, I need
the right soil and I need towater it and I need staking, and
in the winter things aren'tgoing to.
You know, suddenly you'd comeup with a whole raft of
solutions that you can then go.
So, what's the soil for my ownwell-being?
And actually every one of uslistening would have a different

(04:53):
answer to that in terms of whatkeeps us grounded.
But if I'd have said to youright at the beginning what
keeps you grounded, you mighthave.
You know it's like oh and what.
You might.
You know it's like oh and what,Whereas as soon as you're sort
of relating it to a plant andgoing, oh yeah, the soil, what
really?
Coming back to one of myfavorite phrases, you know, if a
picture paints a thousand words, a metaphor paints a thousand

(05:14):
pictures.
So it's like we're getting somuch richness when we're talking
about a garden.
I don't have to ask lots ofquestions If I just ask about
the soil you're getting.
Is it compact, Is it nutritious?
Is it the right soil?
There's so much in it and allI've said is is it the right
soil?

And most people, even if they don't have green
thumbs, know what a garden is.
They've been to one or they'veyou know, when they they were
kids, they worked in one becausetheir parents had one, so they
have, they have some.
That's what I did, actually,and I hated it.
Now I love, now I have my owngarden, and I still hate pulling
weeds, but it has to be done,right, uh, but, but we

(05:55):
understand it, we can, we candraw the relationship, and I
like how you know when, when welook at and, by the way, we're
connected through pod match a.
Alex is a great guy, phenomenalindividual, if you've met him
and chatted with him, butanyways, it's a phenomenal
platform.
And when you look at some ofthe things that Allison, if
you're listening, some of thethings that she talks about and

(06:17):
exactly what she just shared,it's a lot of metaphor, it's a
lot of pictures and and paintingthe scenery, as it were, and
that's the road that Idefinitely want to go down today
, because I think thatpodcasters need to be able to
course correct, and sometimesgetting the right picture is
certainly uh, is certainly agood way to do that.
Before I do that, though, letme get a feel for how things are

(06:39):
going for you in the podcastingspace.
What?
What led you to podcasting?

that's the first time somebody's asked me that it
goes back.
I have a vision for, becausewhat happened was I took
gardening and suppliermanagement and extending it to
landscapes more generally, tolife more generally.
So that's where the landscapingyour life mantra came from.
The terminology it really doeslend itself when I first thought
of it in 2000,.

(07:03):
We've not got social media thatwe've got now.
We've not got the visualelement, we've not got your
videos in quite the same way.
And I really do believe thatlandscaping your life would work
well as a sort of a tvdocumentary showing people how
to use the process.
And when I sat down to write a,a proposal for you know, all

(07:24):
right, let's get a tv program Irealized I didn't really know
what would work and whatwouldn't work.
And so the idea of well,actually I can test it with
podcast.
It might not be visual butnevertheless I can try different
ways of exploring, particularlyidioms.
So quite often I, when peopleare stuck, they quite often will
say I'm stuck in a rut.

(07:45):
Here in the UK we'd say can'tsee the wood for the trees.
But it could be.
It translates more broadly ascan't see the woods or can't see
the forest for the trees.
We might say it's an uphillstruggle, and so what each
episode of the podcast does is Igo out into nature and I
demonstrate the process usingthe idiom.

(08:08):
Now, that isn't where I'dstarted, so I think what's
happened is I've used thepodcast as a testing ground for
what I'd like to hope will be aTV program.
It may never be a TV program,but the interesting thing for me
was that for me, it's not aboutthe numbers.
I wouldn't even be able to tellyou what the numbers are, other

(08:32):
than the fact that I've doneover 70 episodes.
But I can remember saying to myPA oh, we're going to have to
work out on the.
You know what's the return oninvestment?
And that question lasted abouta month before I realized the
return in investment is me, forme, talking about a process.
I'm really passionate aboutDifferent people asking me
different questions in a waythat forces me to think about

(08:53):
the process, that enables me tosell the process better, that
enables me to articulate itbetter.
So for me, doing those episodesis just informing my own
understanding of my own process,really.
So that's why I've continueddoing it and I've tried
different things.
I've added in poems, I've addedin.

(09:14):
Um, the next series is going tobe slightly different, not
idiom based, so yeah, so that'sthat's where it came from.
Really, it was sort of yeah,we're quite like a TV programme,
what premise would that be?
And I've shortchanged it.
It's like I've found out whatdoesn't work.
The podcast used to have guests.
It just doesn't really workbecause we get so into that

(09:39):
person's challenge that I thinkpeople can quite quickly oh well
, that's not.
I can't relate to that, whereasit's much easier if I'm just
out there on my own.
I can then expand the thetights going out.
Do you feel like you've missedthe tide?
There's another tide coming.
Perhaps we can walk out to thetide.
So it just enables me a bitmore flexibility when there

(10:00):
isn't a guest.

And because of the work that you do, it's it's
allowing you to develop thatknow, like and trust factor
through you know and also putyour IP out there, your
experience, all of those thingsthat you've done.
And I think that's one of themisconceptions in the podcasting
space is there's a number ofhosts who believe, well, I can't
have a show without guests, orI need to have this and all of

(10:21):
these pieces need to fittogether.
Well, it does need to fittogether, but at the end of the
day, it's your show.
You need to decide how that'sgoing to, how that's going to
line up for you.
So, congratulations on stickingwith it and and building it and
and having fun with it andexperimenting with it.
I think that, again, podcastersI think are I have a show.

(10:41):
I don't want to mess with itbecause if I do, it'll screw
things up, and I was like no,it's not necessarily the case.
It's okay to have fun with itand experiment and play a little
and allow that playfulness.
I guess, if I can use that tocome through.

Because that allows the human side of Alison
to come through, as opposed tothe coaching side.
Well, I think and theinteresting thing was that I
started off doing it in theoffice because I did it based on
sort of past experience I'd goI'm going to talk about, can't
see the wood, the trees.
I'm just going to share withyou what's happened, um, in the
past and that didn't reallyexcite me as much and therefore,
you're right, the alison bitdidn't come over.
So, as soon as I got out intonature which is what landscaping

(11:29):
your life is all about, so itseems a bit silly that we
wouldn't do that as soon as Igot out into nature and said,
actually, I'm looking at it withfresh eyes.
Yes, I will share with you pastexperience, but today I'm
looking at we're at a crossroads, making decisions at a
crossroad.
I'm going to notice what Inotice in this landscape today,

(11:51):
with whatever's going on for mein my life and therefore I think
what happens is is people hearthe penny drop for me and I'll
get.
I'll always remember there was,um, an episode about being at
the crossroads and it was arounda poem that I'd written and the
poem says some paths along thelines.

(12:12):
Some paths are simply a meansof sort of getting to a
crossroads and you don't need toknow what you're going to do
till you get to the crossroads.
So you've just got to keepwalking on the path you're on,
wait to the crossroads, then youcan make a decision.
No need to make a decision.
So I was replicating that innature and I'd literally been on

(12:32):
the path and I didn't know itwas a new path to me, so I
didn't know when the crossroadswere.
But it wasn't a big wood, so Imean, the crossroads was going
to come within the next fiveminutes.
Crossroads was going to comewithin the next five minutes.
But oh boy and this is whathappens on coaching is that we
bring the patterns with us.

(12:56):
So my desire to want to knowwhere the crossroads were it was
so great and I'm giggling awayon the podcast because I'm
saying I've walked for twominutes and and I haven't found
the crossroads yet.
And I'm getting really reallypanicky, I'm getting really
really agitated and I wouldrather turn around and go back
to the beginning than continue,because it feels like I want to

(13:18):
know where I'm going andcurrently I'm having to just
walk this path and wait until Iget to the crossroads, and it
was such a great mirror for myown pattern of setting out on a
path and just trusting thatsometimes you don't get to the
end of that path for a bit andthat is might take a few weeks
or even a few months to get tothe next crossroads, and you

(13:40):
just got to commit and do so.
Yeah, I think what happens is Ijust get quite giggly because
it's like oh my god, I I neverthought of that before.
You know, in 23 years I'venever seen, can't see the wood
for the trees in that way, andso I think that helps because
I'm getting excited as well.

It's a good analogy, though, because how
many of us in business, or howmany of us in the podcasting
space are, we're ready.
We're ready for the split,we're ready to continue down
whichever choice we have, andwe're ready.
We're ready for the split,we're ready to continue down
whichever choice we have, andwe're ready.
And we almost want to build thecrossroad.
Okay, we're ready for it.
Now let's build it ourselves.
That's not the crossroad, right?

(14:19):
That's not the point.

Oh, that's the first.
I love it.
Build the crossroads.
I'm writing that down.
There'll be a blog.
I'll perhaps even do an episodeon.
you know, it's in the same wayas when we can't see the wood
for the trees or woods forestsfor the trees is, even when
we're in that situation, it's asif we then still go out and

(14:42):
plant more trees.
It's that realization of oh,I'm making it worse because I'm
planting more trees.
I've been told I've got toplant more trees.
I'm going to plant more trees,even though I can't see the
current wood or the currentforest for the trees.
I'm going to keep planting them.
So yeah, I'm loving that.
Planting new trees or buildingthe crossroads oh, that's

(15:04):
hilarious.
I love it.

No charge for that little piece of content.
Yeah, yeah, thank you, hilarious, I love it.
No charge for that little pieceof content.
That one's free.
I can have that one.
But no, seriously, I find that.
I found that in my own businessand in my own journey and I've

(15:30):
seen it with other people andwith podcasters when they launch
and six months in they go.
Okay, I'm ready to build thecrossroad, so to speak, and
monetize.
Let's make that happen withoutany realization that wait a
minute, enjoy the journey, itwill happen when it's meant to
happen.
It's not saying you can't takeaction to have things happen,
but again, it just doesn'tmagically happen.
After there's no, you know thepodcast, heavens don't open and
the podcast God shined down onyou and now, all of a sudden,

(15:52):
you're a Joe Rogan or the nextbig podcast star that is ready
and willing to now monetize yourshow and be a superstar.
It doesn't, for I would say 95%, if not more, podcasters.
It doesn't happen that way.
But we do get bogged down withwith so many aspects of it and
I'm glad that you've alreadyalluded to where we're going to

(16:13):
go with our conversation andwhat we're going to talk about
today.
It's forest and the trees, butit's also the painting, a
picture.
The picture has a thousandwords and the metaphors that go
with it, because, again, I thinkthat we get hung up with the
impact that we're having or thatwe're not having when it comes
to things such as content, andmaybe it's, it's a direct

(16:33):
relation to our communicationand how we're expressing
ourselves.
Yeah, definitely, how do you goabout?
And again, let's think about itin the podcasting space, let's,
let's explain it, let's getthose metaphors out there.
How do you, how do you get thatcommunication in line with
where, with where you want it tobe?

Well, I'm going to use a metaphor that I used for
a speaking audience.
So they were speakers wantingto make impact and I think that
translates really well becausepodcasters want to make an
impact.
And I thought about, because Ido landscapes.
I thought about, okay, well,photographs are.
So pictures are things that wewant to have impact.

(17:12):
It's like we can all take apicture, but we'd love people to
go, wow, that's a brilliantphotograph.
Yes, some people take picturesof lots of pictured people, but
quite often, if you're takinglandscape photographs, then most
people are doing it as a yeah,you know, I'm going to get the
right angle.
So when I looked at it, Irealized that there was an

(17:35):
acronym, but unfortunately, it'san acronym that spells bit
that's spelt backwards, Isuppose in terms of we need to
have clarity.
So, in order to have impact, weneed to have clarity, but the
acronym spelt backwards.
So we're going to start withthe why, and it is why actually.
So it's still a bit of a cheatIn terms of why are we taking
the photograph?
Why have we got the podcast?

(17:56):
You know, in order to know.
You know, before we even pickthe camera up, before we even
start rolling, before we eventhe word comes out of our mouth,
it's like what is the intention?
Am I taking a picture of theNorthern Lights?
Am I taking a picture of mygarden?
Am I talking a picture ofsunrise or sunset, and why might
that be so?

(18:17):
I think that's the first thingto think about in a podcast.
Why are you doing a podcast?
And to be clear about that, soif we're going for clarity, the
next one is tea and the nextthing's about timing.
Now, in terms of a photograph,and then we'll have to think
about how it relates to podcasts.
For a photograph, timing'severything, because if I want to
take a picture of the northernlights, then certainly here in

(18:39):
the uk.

You're going to do it in the winter, you're
going to do it at night, youneed to be um facing north, not
south that's a good point ifyou're taking a picture of the
Northern Lights, but how manypeople try to do it facing south
and go?
I don't know why I can't seethe Northern Lights.

Yes, it's a bit like when I was at Uluru Ayers
Rock in Australia is that, asthe sun is setting, the sun is
reflecting on Uluru and so mostpeople are there looking towards
Uluru with the sun settingbehind them and completely miss
this beautiful sunset that'shappening behind them because

(19:18):
they're facing the oppositedirection.
So there's something aroundtiming.
So that's where the T is.
It's like what's the timing?
So, from a podcast point ofview suspect it's about, you
know, we might have wanted towrite, to have a podcast about a
particular topic, but thattopic's no longer.
It's like things have moved ona bit so I think it's about what

(19:41):
makes it more current.
That is that what's the current.
So I suppose I'm looking at mysort of the tagline to my
landscaping life in terms ofcurrently.
It says it's about problemsolving.
I'm going to change that a bitin order, looking at
transformation, about personalgrowth.
So I'm looking.
So I suppose it's that startingto think about well, I know why

(20:01):
I'm doing it.
The timing might be oh,actually, I need to nuance what
it is that I'm doing in order toyeah, to get onto the zeitgeist
, I suppose, about what'scurrent.

It's almost like an evolution to your show,
because what you did, maybe 10years ago if you've been
podcasting for a while might notbe as relevant, so you might
need to style shift or dosomething different with the
show.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, I think so.
I think it's that.
Oh yeah, well.
Well, I'm just going to bringout this thing that I've done as
you say for 10 years, becausethat's what I know, whereas I
think that comes back to when Isaid oh, I didn't want to do you
know, I didn't want toregurgitate what happened.
I want to go out now and andsee what's happening in nature
right I is interesting becausephotographs need to have some

(20:50):
interest.
It needs to be something quirky,I suspect.
What's your point of differencefrom other people?
If other people are doing apodcast, what's your?
You know, as in, I suppose mineis about metaphor.
Mine is about helping seethings differently.
There's not many podcasts thatare doing that, so I think it is

(21:10):
about how is yours going to bedifferent?
Otherwise it ends up being lostin a watch with lots of others,
where lots of people have gotguests and actually the same
questions are being asked, likeyou're being really clear about
who your audience is.
Therefore, even though I'mtalking about something I talk
about a lot on other people'spodcasts, your questions are

(21:33):
tying it back to your audienceand what they're doing.
What's that interest?
What's your USP, what's yourniche or niche or whatever.
You know different ways ofpronouncing it.
So yeah, so what's your pointof reference would be
interesting.
Going back for clarity so we'vegot Y, we've got T, we've got
the I.
The R is rainbow of colour.

(21:55):
If we're taking a photograph,we've got to know are we going
to have it in black and white?
Are we going to dial up some ofthe colours?
So quite often we don't want itto be.
I don't know what's the word,Although I say rainbow of
colours, I think sometimes ifit's too many of lots of
different colors, then we get abit bombarded.
It's like, actually sometimesit's better.

(22:16):
Well, actually we're going tofocus, we're going to dial it
down.
It's going to be more bluish ormore pinkish.
I'm going to take a picture ofa yellow flower with green
background, so it's thinkingabout the color.
So I think on a podcast, thatis about where are you going to
direct people's attention ratherthan it just be the same
conversation every time?

(22:37):
How is this conversation withme going to be different for the
conversation you had with thelast person?

it's about your content creation, then.
And how are you what?
What color palettes are youusing?

yeah, I think bring it to, to bring it to
light, okay, yeah and I thinkthere's something as well about,
if you think about it, aphotograph you'd like to be able
to go yeah, that's an allisonphotograph versus a carl kopp
photograph's gonna lookdifferent because how you see
nature, how you hold your camera, what you do with the camera is
going to be different.
So that's what we're lookingfor.

(23:08):
We don't want that yourphotograph and my photograph and
anybody listening photographall look the same.
It should even be that if wewere sent into and told take a
picture of this redwood, thatwe'd all look at it differently.
The A so the A in clarity isangle.
Because, again, if you thinkabout it, if you're looking at a

(23:30):
tree, are we going to take apicture face onto the tree?
Are we going to take a pictureface onto the tree?
Are we going to take a picturelooking up into the branches?
Are we going to take a pictureof the roots?
So there's a.
Again, it's the being clearabout where are we going to look
, because you know it comes backto.
We've only got, so you know, afinite amount of time in a
podcast.

(23:50):
I know I'm rabbiting on, but wealready got so much time and
therefore, how are we going toagain pull out what we think is
going to be most of interest.
That brings out the best in theguest but also delivers why the
people listen to the podcast.

So that would be the A, so it's angle, which is
your perspective and yourpositioning of where you're
going with that particularepisode.

Yeah, and then we've only got two more.
L is for the lens, in terms ofwe're going to zoom in, are we
going to zoom out?
Is it going to be, are we goingto just have fuzzy edges and
really zoom into that?
Like you know, minuscule, we'rejust going to do that B on that
flower, or is it going to bebig picture?
So I think we need to thinkabout what lens we're using.
And the C finally, even thoughwe think we may have done it,

(24:39):
when we've thought about thetiming of day, whether it's
interesting, the colors, theangle, what lens we're going to
use.
It then becomes so what's thecomposition?
You know, and I suppose, from apodcast point of view, that's
going to be how do we start theshow, how do we finish it?

(25:00):
Is that if the certain thingsthat are always in it or not,
you know, in terms of thatpicture that we're taking see, I
always get wood trees in mypictures, but I think it's that
do we have it in the middle?
You know, don't they always saythat you need to have things in
thirds for photographs?
So, again, it's that sense of,yeah, I suppose, some rhythm to
the podcast, some routine to thepodcast, at the same time as

(25:20):
adding all of that interest anddifferentiation and you-ness
really, because I think podcasts, people should be able to come
away with a sense of the guest,but also a sense of you know the
host and what they're about inthe same way.
So that's that spells outclarity backwards, but it's that

(25:40):
using taking a photograph as ametaphor for either, you know,
having impact, whether that'sspeaking, writing I suppose you
could apply it to but alsopodcasting.

And speaking too, and I'm glad that you shared
that, because I think thatbreaking it down letter by
letter has has hopefully.
I know I was taking some notesand if you've been listening to
Alison, hopefully you've takensome good notes as well.
By the way, Alison has takensome good notes, because she's
been taking them as we go.
But, but certainly it and Ithink this is one of the
challenges is that we don't takenotes enough on our own show.

(26:15):
We don't allow ourselves to putit under the microscope or to
do things that have us makingthose changes or exploring
different things and having funwith it.
It's we have a show.
It goes in this direction.
It always has to do that.
It's always we have a show.
It goes in this direction.
It always has to do that.
It's always done that when justallowing ourselves to, like you

(26:37):
said, just taking a differentlook at it or even having
somebody else do that.
There are people that that dopodcast evaluations or podcast
assessments to to help us reignwhere we're going with it and
help us improve where, just likea coach does, right at the
appropriate time in business,you hire the coach that's going
to get you to the next level,and this is about taking that

(26:59):
clarity backwards model to getyou to the next level, or have
you look at your showdifferently.
So thank you for for sharingthat.
Oh, my goodness, there's a lot.
There's a lot to chew on there.
Has this been beneficial toyour show as well?
Allowing you to and I know thatwe just put it together, but as
you've been taking notes, as ithas, it helped you even just
opening up your mind to to yourshow, and yeah, I think, I think

(27:21):
it's enabled me to.

I keep saying I'm going to do a series four and
haven't done a series four.
So it is that what you'vehelped me do is remember why I
did it, and then it helps meinform where I'm taking Love
Scape and your Life.
So actually, yeah, let's getout there and do something
different with it, because up tonow it's the episodes have been
so if you resonate with it's anUphill Struggle, you'd listen

(27:51):
to that one.
If you resonate with StuckBetween a Rock and a Hard Place,
you'd listen to that one.
But that then means that eachepisode only resonates to some
people, whereas this time I am.
Somebody said to me well, can Ibe on your, can I be a guest?
And I said, oh well, I don'thave a guest.
I suppose you could argue thatnature is my guest.
And then I thought, okay, sowhat does this tide have to say?

(28:15):
And then it's just a bit more.
It requires me to think a bitmore.
Perhaps that's why I've notrecorded it yet, but I think
that then means that everyepisode would be applicable to
anybody listening if they had anissue that they wanted to see
differently, because it's not asaying that they'd be resonating
with.
It's just what does this pathyou know, I'm walking along this

(28:35):
path in this world today.
What does this path have to say?
And next time I could be on acompletely different path and
get different insights.

And just don't create your own crossroads.

No, no, no, no, no .
But I just love that, I lovethe idea of going out to a path
and going, but I can't do it.
How am I going to do a path?
Because I can always rememberon one path it was the poem
something about going, somethingabout path left travelled or
something.
And I looked in one directionand I realised that I really

(29:09):
think that I'm great at pathsleft travelled.
But really what I mean is I'mquite happy where there isn't a
path, as long as it's grass thatI can walk on, because I turned
and looked the other directionand it was brambles and you just
couldn't.
You'd need some implement tocut through it to get in it.
It's like, no, that's not mysort of adventure.

(29:32):
I am not the adventurer goingto cut a path through all the
branches and cut it, but I willgo on this grass and go.
Well, I'm going to go in thisdirection, etc.
So, yeah, it's, uh, it's reallyinteresting what happens when
you get out there, really, andlearn about yourself a
phenomenal conversation, Alison,that we have had.

Thank you so much for sharing with us today your
insights, your wisdom, yourknowledge, allowing us to paint
the picture or look at ourpodcasts differently.
I really appreciate that.
How can people best connectwith you?
What would you recommend?

Well, alisonsmithco is the website,
but there are lots of alisonsmiths everywhere.
But if you use landscaping yourlife on most social media so
landscaping your life onlinkedin, twitter, tiktok,
facebook, instagram you'll findme, so landscaping your life.
If you did landscaping yourlife, so alison search, you'll

(30:31):
find me, because whilst thereare lots of alison smiths,
there's not lots of landscapingyour lives, um, but the podcast
is landscaping your life withalison smith and we'll make sure
that that link is in the shownotes.

Well, all of that will be there the best ways to
connect with alison.
It's been a phenomenalconversation.
Alison, thank you so much forbeing my guest today.
Before I turn you loose to goand touch nature or paint the
picture, or maybe not blaze atrail, but walk through that
gentle path or create your owncrossroads, whichever it is,
I'll give you the final thought.

I think from a podcast point of view.
I think so often we plant theseed and then we keep expecting
it to pop up immediately, andthat's not how seeds work.
You know, some seeds I meanmost seeds you know you might be
able to grow them, you know,sow them in the spring and by
autumn we've got flowers.
But some, actually, seeds don'tflower.

(31:25):
They're I can't remember whatthis term is, but they flower
every other year, so they flat,they the set.
The seeds are set this year,they don't do anything next year
and then they come up thefollowing year.
But so a seeds take time.
And the other thing is is wedon't poke seeds um in the
ground, we let the groups, wejust give them the conditions

(31:46):
they need to, you know.
So actually, some seeds need awinter, so so sometimes it is
about cold, sometimes it's aboutwater, sometimes it's about the
fact that here in Scotland wewouldn't be sowing seeds before
June, quite often because of thefrosts.
So it's about nurturing thepodcast and not expecting

(32:06):
miracles as soon as.
Ah, I've done one episode and Iexpect it to, you know, to
flourish, because that's not howplants grow and I suspect
that's not how podcasts groweither.

And enjoy the journey.
Alison, that's a great place toleave it.
Thank you so much.
Alison Smith has been my guesttoday.
Thanks for joining me on thepodcast.

I had a great time .

Thank you and thank you for joining us today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, Dom
Carrillo, our music guru, NathanSimon, and the person who works
the arms all of our arms,actually my trusty assistant,
Stephanie Gafoor.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
review and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your

(32:49):
enemies.
Oh, and if you have asuggestion of someone who you
think would make an amazingguest on the show, let us know
about it.
Drop us an email, askcarl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.

(33:12):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space, because, after all, we'rePodcast Solutions Made Simple.
We'll catch you next time.

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