The Climb with Cherie Clonan

We unpack what actually helps you succeed in your first 90 days at a fast agency and why “dazzle” often backfires. We share the boring basics that build trust, how to handle culture shock, and what to do if your probation period ends with a no.

Key Takeaways:

• The first 90 days in a new job are about risk reduction, not trying to dazzle
• Reliability is the fastest way to build trust
• Strong new hires ask thoughtful...

We pull back the curtain on what actually gets someone hired at The Digital Picnic. We share the practical steps that help you stand out, plus the mindset shifts that keep you grounded when you’re applying to a workplace you admire.

Key Takeaways: 

• To get a job at The Digital Picnic, tailor your application instead of mass applying.
• A good resume should be clear, relevant, and submitted as a PDF.
• Creative job app...

We break down what it really means to hire people who protect a neurodivergent founder’s energy. We share the frameworks Cherie uses to spot friction early, set boundaries and build a team culture that supports performance and wellbeing. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Hiring the right team means hiring people who protect your energy, not just fill a role.
• Energy raisers reduce friction, support momentum, and make...

We break down how to grow on LinkedIn in 2026 without chasing daily posts or virality, and why the platform still rewards real thinking over polished noise. We share practical ways to choose a single topic, add a true thought leadership angle, and use comments, carousels, and social SEO to get discovered. 

Key Takeaways:

• LinkedIn growth in 2026 starts with one clear thought leadership topic.
• LinkedIn rewards people of...

What changes after you survive a brutal season of founderhood? In this episode, we unpack calm leadership, the founder habits that help you protect your energy, and why reactive leadership can pull a team straight into chaos. Cherie shares the leadership boundaries, mindset shifts, and everyday decisions that help her choose calm leadership over overreaction, protect her energy, and lead more steadily when work gets messy. If you&r...

Hyperfocus can look like a superpower from the outside, but living inside it is a different story. We get honest about what autistic hyperfocus actually feels like and how it helped build The Digital Picnic when the hours were long, the stakes were high, and the salary was, frankly, nothing.

Then we flip the coin to the part founders rarely admit out loud: boredom. Not the harmless kind, but the kind that creeps in when you...

We unpack why you don’t need followers to build a personal brand, and why starting at zero can be the most strategic move you make. We share the content choices, boundaries, and mindset shifts that turn visibility into trust, leads, and real influence in an AI-first algorithm era.

If you’re an introvert, creative, strategist, or business owner who wants more opportunities from their social media, this one’...

Today we talk about unoffendable leadership and why staying hurt makes leading a team harder than it needs to be. 

We share some of Cherie's honest stories from business ownership, plus the practical tools to regulate your reactions without becoming cold.

Key Takeaways:  

• Unoffendable leadership means still feeling hurt without leading from hurt.
• You cannot control other people’s emotions, only your ...

We unpack how the labels founders wear can start as a joke and end up reshaping trust, authority, and decision making. 

We share the “Rogue Clonan” story, why neurodivergent leaders get labelled so fast, and how to reclaim your voice.

Key takeaways: 

• How self-deprecating founder labels can undermine leadership 
• Why calling someone “rogue” can damage neurodivergent found...

Instagram didn’t “break”, it evolved and if your reach has tanked lately, you’re not imagining it.

We unpack what an AI-first, user-first Instagram looks like in 2026 and why so many businesses feel like everything that used to work has fallen off a cliff.

The big reframe: follower count is no longer the main lever. Authority, relevance, and clear signals are.

If you want a cleaner, ca...

You dialled into episode 1 where Cherie talked about TDP's no-good-very-bad-year... but episode 2 is where we talk about how Cherie - quite literally - CLIMBED her way out of that no-good-very-bad-year.

This year [21/22FY] was that one point in TDP's x11 year history where even Cherie, wired for perpetual optimism, says this was the moment where she thought to herself: the only reason I'm not closing this business right now....

76% of your clients vanish in a day. Your team is looking at you through a Zoom screen for reassurance. You can do the maths and you know the runway is short, but you still have to lead. That’s where we start Episode 1 of The Climb, as Cherie tells the raw story of The Digital Picnic’s darkest stretch through COVID and beyond, and why it became the “no good, very bad year” that actually lasted years.

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Welcome to The Climb, a podcast about the messy, brilliant, relentless journey of building something meaningful.

For more than a decade at The Digital Picnic, Cherie has had the privilege of shaping other people’s climbs... helping brands, teams, and leaders grow in ways that actually last.

Now, after close to x2 decades working in marketing and leadership, she's turning the mic around to focus on the thing she's most o...