Unlocking the Power of Metaphors in Podcasting with Alison Smith

Unlock the art of communication as Alison Smith, a seasoned coach and speaker, joins us to unveil the power of metaphors in making complex ideas more accessible. Imagine transforming intricate concepts into relatable stories that stick, much like Alison's genius use of gardening metaphors to break down the complexities of supplier management. Her insights will revolutionize how you convey messages, turning confusion into clarity with the vivid imagery and curiosity that metaphors inspire.

Venture into the creative realm of podcasting with Alison's pioneering series, "Landscaping Your Life." This innovative journey, born from a concept in 2000, is now a full-fledged podcast exploring personal growth through nature and idioms. Alison shares her personal reflections from recording over 70 episodes, emphasizing the authenticity and flexibility that come from experimenting with podcast formats. Discover how embracing your unique voice and narrative style can connect with your audience on a profound level, allowing your genuine self to shine through the microphone.

We also navigate the metaphorical crossroads of business and podcasting, where the clarity of purpose and intention are paramount. Alison challenges the rigidity of traditional podcast formats and encourages embracing diverse perspectives, much like a coach guiding you to see your project anew. By weaving photography analogies, we explore the significance of timing and understanding the "why" behind our actions. Whether you're planting seeds for your podcast's growth or capturing its essence, this episode offers a roadmap to transform your podcasting journey into one of continuous discovery and growth.

Connect with Alison:
https://www.alisonsmith.co/

Social Media
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/LandscapingYourLife
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonsmitheu/
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/landscapingyourlife/
X
https://x.com/alisonrbcm
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@Landscapingyourlife

Chapters

• 0:04 Exploring Metaphors in Podcasting
• 6:58 Podcast Experimentation and Personal Growth
• 13:58 Communicating Impact in Podcasting Landscapes
• 26:09 Nurturing Podcast Growth and Exploration

Transcript

Carl Richards: 0:04

Welcome to Communication Connection Community, the podcaster's podcast. This podcast takes a deep dive into modern day communication strategies in the podcasting space. We chat with interesting people who make the podcasting and speaking spaces exciting and vibrant. We also dive into the podcasting community with news updates, latest trends and topics from this ever-evolving space. So strap in, it's going to be one amazing ride.

Carl Richards: 0:32

Let's dive into today's episode. You know they say a picture paints a thousand words, and so does a podcast. Sometimes more than a thousand words actually, but there's a lot of, when done correctly, there's a lot of imagery and there's certainly a lot of parallel between a painting or picture and the content that's created for a podcast. And we're going to chat with today's guest who's going to expand on that even more for us. Alison Smith is our guest today. Alison has 23 years experience as a coach and a speaker. Her podcast, landscaping your Life, is about getting back on track when you're stuck and can't see the woods for the trees or can't see the wood for the 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: 1:27

Thanks for having me Delighted to be here.

Carl Richards: 1:30

It's phenomenal talking to another podcaster which, as I've evolved my podcast to be able to chat with other folks who are podcasters and get a scope of where their journey has taken them and how they got to where they are is always a treat. So let me start there before we dive into the meat of what we're going to be talking about today. How did you get to where you are today? I know that's a loaded question, but what's the Coles Notes version of the journey to how you got to where you are?

Alison Smith: 1:56

I think it was when I was in business trying to describe to managers why they needed to be listening to us about supplier management, and I can hear everybody sort of yawning already and going, yeah, we'd not listen to you either, Alison, but we needed them to listen because lots of the supplier relationships weren't going well and what we discovered was trying to give them more theory wasn't helpful. So giving them more detail, more evidence. But as soon as we started using a metaphor, people got it, Because certainly here in the UK most people have got gardens. They've certainly been around gardens, they understand the philosophy of gardens needing weeding, pruning, feeding time in the compost, greenhouses. And as soon as we said all of what you know about gardening can be applied to supplier management, the light bulbs went on and all these senior managers went yes, we've got lots of suppliers that are like weeds. We've got a supplier that's like the tree in the corner with the roots undermining we. We've got, oh, we expected suppliers to just hit the ground running and we realized that we plunked them in the corner, we haven't watered them, they're not even the right soil. So that was sort of in the mid-90s where I realized the power of Metabol. I then did some coaching qualifications and found out how beneficial it is and therefore, since 2000, have used it in coaching, in vision setting days, in speaking.

Alison Smith: 3:38

Because when we're stuck, particularly, and when we don't know what to do, we can get so caught up in the problem. The story we're stuck particularly, and when we you know we don't know what to do, we can get so caught up in the problem. The story we're telling, and actually the story we're telling reaffirms our stuckness. Quite often it's like we've got all the evidence about why we're stuck and why there aren't any solutions and metaphor sort of cuts through that. Um, for the same reason I gave earlier, we understand metaphors, so we understand how a garden works. So if we're struggling and we might say, oh, I'm not flourishing as a person, what has to happen in a flourishing garden? If I asked you about a flourishing body, I haven't got the energy to do that and you'd come up with quite a lot of resistance to a whole load of things that you know you should be doing. Whereas if suddenly you look at a garden and say, oh, I need the right soil and I need to water it and I need staking, and in the winter things aren't going to. You know, suddenly you'd come up with a whole raft of solutions that you can then go. So, what's the soil for my own well-being? And actually every one of us listening would have a different answer to that in terms of what keeps us grounded. But if I'd have said to you right at the beginning what keeps you grounded, you might have. 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 and going, oh yeah, the soil, what really?

Alison Smith: 5:08

Coming back to one of my favorite phrases, you know, if a picture paints a thousand words, a metaphor paints a thousand pictures. So it's like we're getting so much richness when we're talking about a garden. I don't have to ask lots of questions 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 all I've said is is it the right soil?

Carl Richards: 5:35

And most people, even if they don't have green thumbs, know what a garden is. They've been to one or they've you know, when they they were kids, they worked in one because their 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 own garden, and I still hate pulling weeds, but it has to be done, right, uh, but, but we understand it, we can, we can draw the relationship, and I like how you know when, when we look at and, by the way, we're connected through pod match a.

Carl Richards: 6:04

Alex is a great guy, phenomenal individual, if you've met him and chatted with him, but anyways, it's a phenomenal platform. And when you look at some of the things that Allison, if you're listening, some of the things that she talks about and exactly what she just shared, it's a lot of metaphor, it's a lot of pictures and and painting the scenery, as it were, and that's the road that I definitely want to go down today, because I think that podcasters need to be able to course correct, and sometimes getting the right picture is certainly uh, is certainly a good way to do that. Before I do that, though, let me get a feel for how things are going for you in the podcasting space. What? What led you to podcasting?

Alison Smith: 6:42

that's the first time somebody's asked me that it goes back. I have a vision for, because what happened was I took gardening and supplier management and extending it to landscapes more generally, to life more generally. So that's where the landscaping your life mantra came from. The terminology it really does lend itself when I first thought of it in 2000,. We've not got social media that we've got now. We've not got the visual element, we've not got your videos in quite the same way. And I really do believe that landscaping your life would work well as a sort of a tv documentary showing people how to use the process.

Alison Smith: 7:20

And when I sat down to write a, a proposal for you know, all right, let's get a tv program I realized I didn't really know what would work and what wouldn't work. And so the idea of well, actually I can test it with podcast. It might not be visual but nevertheless I can try different ways of exploring, particularly idioms. So quite often I, when people are stuck, they quite often will say I'm stuck in a rut. Here in the UK we'd say can't see the wood for the trees. But it could be. It translates more broadly as can't see the woods or can't see the forest for the trees. We might say it's an uphill struggle, and so what each episode of the podcast does is I go out into nature and I demonstrate the process using the idiom. Now, that isn't where I'd started, so I think what's happened is I've used the podcast as a testing ground for what I'd like to hope will be a TV program.

Alison Smith: 8:18

It may never be a TV program, but the interesting thing for me was that for me, it's not about the numbers. I wouldn't even be able to tell you what the numbers are, other than the fact that I've done over 70 episodes. But I can remember saying to my PA oh, we're going to have to work out on the. You know what's the return on investment? And that question lasted about a month before I realized the return in investment is me, for me, talking about a process. I'm really passionate about Different people asking me different questions in a way that forces me to think about the process, that enables me to sell the process better, that enables me to articulate it better. So for me, doing those episodes is just informing my own understanding of my own process, really. So that's why I've continued doing it and I've tried different things. I've added in poems, I've added in. Um, the next series is going to be slightly different, not idiom based, so yeah, so that's that's where it came from.

Alison Smith: 9:22

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 what doesn't work. The podcast used to have guests. It just doesn't really work because we get so into that person's challenge that I think people can quite quickly oh well, that's not. I can't relate to that, whereas it's much easier if I'm just out there on my own. I can then expand the the tights going out. Do you feel like you've missed the tide? There's another tide coming. Perhaps we can walk out to the tide. So it just enables me a bit more flexibility when there isn't a guest.

Carl Richards: 10:01

And because of the work that you do, it's it's allowing you to develop that know, like and trust factor through you know and also put your IP out there, your experience, all of those things that you've done. And I think that's one of the misconceptions in the podcasting space is there's a number of hosts who believe, well, I can't have a show without guests, or I need to have this and all of these pieces need to fit together. Well, it does need to fit together, but at the end of the day, it's your show. You need to decide how that's going to, how that's going to line up for you. So, congratulations on sticking with it and and building it and and having fun with it and experimenting with it. I think that, again, podcasters I think are I have a show. I don't want to mess with it because 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 it and experiment and play a little and allow that playfulness. I guess, if I can use that to come through.

Alison Smith: 11:05

Because that allows the human side of Alison to come through, as opposed to the coaching side. Well, I think and the interesting thing was that I started off doing it in the office because I did it based on sort of past experience I'd go I'm going to talk about, can't see the wood, the trees. I'm just going to share with you what's happened, um, in the past and that didn't really excite me as much and therefore, you're right, the alison bit didn't come over. So, as soon as I got out into nature which is what landscaping your life is all about, so it seems a bit silly that we wouldn't do that as soon as I got out into nature and said, actually, I'm looking at it with fresh eyes. Yes, I will share with you past experience, but today I'm looking at we're at a crossroads, making decisions at a crossroad. I'm going to notice what I notice in this landscape today, with whatever's going on for me in my life and therefore I think what happens is is people hear the penny drop for me and I'll get.

Alison Smith: 11:59

I'll always remember there was, um, an episode about being at the crossroads and it was around a poem that I'd written and the poem says some paths along the lines. Some paths are simply a means of sort of getting to a crossroads and you don't need to know what you're going to do till you get to the crossroads. So you've just got to keep walking on the path you're on, wait to the crossroads, then you can make a decision. No need to make a decision. So I was replicating that in nature and I'd literally been on the path and I didn't know it was a new path to me, so I didn't know when the crossroads were. But it wasn't a big wood, so I mean, the crossroads was going to come within the next five minutes. Crossroads was going to come within the next five minutes.

Alison Smith: 12:43

But oh boy and this is what happens on coaching is that we bring the patterns with us.

Alison Smith: 12:56

So my desire to want to know where the crossroads were it was so great and I'm giggling away on the podcast because I'm saying I've walked for two minutes and and I haven't found the crossroads yet.

Alison Smith: 13:07

And I'm getting really really panicky, I'm getting really really agitated and I would rather turn around and go back to the beginning than continue, because it feels like I want to know where I'm going and currently I'm having to just walk this path and wait until I get to the crossroads, and it was such a great mirror for my own pattern of setting out on a path and just trusting that sometimes you don't get to the end of that path for a bit and that is might take a few weeks or even a few months to get to the next crossroads, and you just got to commit and do so. Yeah, I think what happens is I just get quite giggly because it's like oh my god, I I never thought of that before. You know, in 23 years I've never seen, can't see the wood for the trees in that way, and so I think that helps because I'm getting excited as well.

Carl Richards: 13:58

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

Alison Smith: 14:22

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 episode on.

Alison Smith: 14:30

you know, it's in the same way as when we can't see the wood for the trees or woods forests for the trees is, even when we're in that situation, it's as if we then still go out and 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 to plant more trees. I'm going to plant more trees, even though I can't see the current wood or the current forest for the trees. I'm going to keep planting them. So yeah, I'm loving that. Planting new trees or building the crossroads oh, that's hilarious. I love it.

Carl Richards: 15:06

No charge for that little piece of content.

Carl Richards: 15:12

Yeah, yeah, thank you, hilarious, I love it. No charge for that little piece of content. That one's free. I can have that one. But no, seriously, I find that.

Carl Richards: 15:16

I found that in my own business and in my own journey and I've seen it with other people and with podcasters when they launch and six months in they go. Okay, I'm ready to build the crossroad, so to speak, and monetize. Let's make that happen without any realization that wait a minute, enjoy the journey, it will happen when it's meant to happen. It's not saying you can't take action to have things happen, but again, it just doesn't magically happen. After there's no, you know the podcast, heavens don't open and the podcast God shined down on you and now, all of a sudden, you're a Joe Rogan or the next big podcast star that is ready and willing to now monetize your show and be a superstar. It doesn't, for I would say 95%, if not more, podcasters. It doesn't happen that way.

Carl Richards: 16:06

But we do get bogged down with with so many aspects of it and I'm glad that you've already alluded to where we're going to go with our conversation and what we're going to talk about today. It's forest and the trees, but it's also the painting, a picture. The picture has a thousand words and the metaphors that go with it, because, again, I think that we get hung up with the impact that we're having or that we're not having when it comes to things such as content, and maybe it's, it's a direct relation to our communication and how we're expressing ourselves. Yeah, definitely, how do you go about? And again, let's think about it in the podcasting space, let's, let's explain it, let's get those metaphors out there. How do you, how do you get that communication in line with where, with where you want it to be?

Alison Smith: 16:50

Well, I'm going to use a metaphor that I used for a speaking audience. So they were speakers wanting to make impact and I think that translates really well because podcasters want to make an impact. And I thought about, because I do landscapes. I thought about, okay, well, photographs are. So pictures are things that we want to have impact. It's like we can all take a picture, but we'd love people to go, wow, that's a brilliant photograph. Yes, some people take pictures of lots of pictured people, but quite often, if you're taking landscape 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, I realized that there was an acronym, but unfortunately, it's an acronym that spells bit that's spelt backwards, I suppose in terms of we need to have clarity. So, in order to have impact, we need to have clarity, but the acronym spelt backwards. So we're going to start with the why, and it is why actually. So it's still a bit of a cheat In terms of why are we taking the photograph?

Alison Smith: 17:54

Why have we got the podcast? You know, in order to know. You know, before we even pick the camera up, before we even start rolling, before we even the word comes out of our mouth, it's like what is the intention? Am I taking a picture of the Northern Lights? Am I taking a picture of my garden? Am I talking a picture of sunrise or sunset, and why might that be so? I think that's the first thing to think about in a podcast. Why are you doing a podcast? And to be clear about that, so if we're going for clarity, the next one is tea and the next thing'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's everything, because if I want to take a picture of the northern lights, then certainly here in the uk.

Carl Richards: 18:40

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

Alison Smith: 18:56

Yes, it's a bit like when I was at Uluru Ayers Rock in Australia is that, as the sun is setting, the sun is reflecting on Uluru and so most people are there looking towards Uluru with the sun setting behind them and completely miss this beautiful sunset that's happening behind them because they're facing the opposite direction. So there's something around timing. So that's where the T is. It's like what's the timing? So, from a podcast point of view suspect it's about, you know, we might have wanted to write, to have a podcast about a particular topic, but that topic's no longer. It's like things have moved on a bit so I think it's about what makes it more current.

Alison Smith: 19:42

That is that what's the current. So I suppose I'm looking at my sort of the tagline to my landscaping life in terms of currently. It says it's about problem solving. I'm going to change that a bit in order, looking at transformation, about personal growth. So I'm looking. So I suppose it's that starting to think about well, I know why I'm doing it. The timing might be oh, actually, I need to nuance what it is that I'm doing in order to yeah, to get onto the zeitgeist, I suppose, about what's current.

Carl Richards: 20:15

It's almost like an evolution to your show, because what you did, maybe 10 years ago if you've been podcasting for a while might not be as relevant, so you might need to style shift or do something different with the show. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Alison Smith: 20:27

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

Alison Smith: 20:51

It needs to be something quirky, I suspect. What's your point of difference from other people? If other people are doing a podcast, what's your? You know, as in, I suppose mine is about metaphor. Mine is about helping see things differently. There's not many podcasts that are doing that, so I think it is about how is yours going to be different? Otherwise it ends up being lost in a watch with lots of others, where lots of people have got guests and actually the same questions are being asked, like you're being really clear about who your audience is. Therefore, even though I'm talking about something I talk about a lot on other people's podcasts, your questions are tying it back to your audience and what they're doing. What's that interest? What's your USP, what's your niche or niche or whatever. You know different ways of pronouncing it. So yeah, so what's your point of reference would be interesting.

Alison Smith: 21:49

Going back for clarity so we've got Y, we've got T, we've got the I. The R is rainbow of colour. 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 of the colours? So quite often we don't want it to be. I don't know what's the word, Although I say rainbow of colours, I think sometimes if it's too many of lots of different colors, then we get a bit bombarded. It's like, actually sometimes it's better. Well, actually we're going to focus, we're going to dial it down. It's going to be more bluish or more pinkish. I'm going to take a picture of a yellow flower with green background, so it's thinking about the color. So I think on a podcast, that is about where are you going to direct people's attention rather than it just be the same conversation every time? How is this conversation with me going to be different for the conversation you had with the last person?

Carl Richards: 22:42

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

Alison Smith: 22:48

yeah, I think bring it to, to bring it to light, okay, yeah and I think there's something as well about, if you think about it, a photograph you'd like to be able to go yeah, that's an allison photograph versus a carl kopp photograph's gonna look different 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 looking for. We don't want that your photograph and my photograph and anybody listening photograph all look the same. It should even be that if we were sent into and told take a picture of this redwood, that we'd all look at it differently.

Alison Smith: 23:24

The A so the A in clarity is angle. Because, again, if you think about it, if you're looking at a tree, are we going to take a picture face onto the tree? Are we going to take a picture face onto the tree? Are we going to take a picture looking up into the branches? Are we going to take a picture of the roots? So there's a. Again, it's the being clear about where are we going to look, because you know it comes back to. We've only got, so you know, a finite amount of time in a podcast. I know I'm rabbiting on, but we already got so much time and therefore, how are we going to again pull out what we think is going to be most of interest. That brings out the best in the guest but also delivers why the people listen to the podcast.

Carl Richards: 24:08

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

Alison Smith: 24:17

Yeah, and then we've only got two more. L is for the lens, in terms of we're going to zoom in, are we going to zoom out? Is it going to be, are we going to just have fuzzy edges and really zoom into that? Like you know, minuscule, we're just going to do that B on that flower, or is it going to be big picture? So I think we need to think about what lens we're using. And the C finally, even though we think we may have done it, when we've thought about the timing of day, whether it's interesting, the colors, the angle, what lens we're going to use.

Alison Smith: 24:47

It then becomes so what's the composition? You know, and I suppose, from a podcast point of view, that's going to be how do we start the show, how do we finish it? Is that if the certain things that are always in it or not, you know, in terms of that picture that we're taking see, I always get wood trees in my pictures, but I think it's that do we have it in the middle? You know, don't they always say that 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 the podcast, at the same time as adding all of that interest and differentiation 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 in the same way.

Alison Smith: 25:37

So that's that spells out clarity backwards, but it's that using taking a photograph as a metaphor for either, you know, having impact, whether that's speaking, writing I suppose you could apply it to but also podcasting.

Carl Richards: 25:52

And speaking too, and I'm glad that you shared that, because I think that breaking it down letter by letter has has hopefully. I know I was taking some notes and if you've been listening to Alison, hopefully you've taken some good notes as well. By the way, Alison has taken some good notes, because she's been taking them as we go.

Carl Richards: 26:09

But, but certainly it and I think this is one of the challenges is that we don't take notes enough on our own show. We don't allow ourselves to put it under the microscope or to do things that have us making those changes or exploring different things and having fun with 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 just allowing ourselves to, like you said, just taking a different look at it or even having somebody else do that.

Carl Richards: 26:41

There are people that that do podcast evaluations or podcast assessments to to help us reign where we're going with it and help us improve where, just like a 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 clarity backwards model to get you to the next level, or have you look at your show differently. So thank you for for sharing that. Oh, my goodness, there's a lot. There's a lot to chew on there. Has this been beneficial to your show as well? Allowing you to and I know that we just put it together, but as you've been taking notes, as it has, it helped you even just opening up your mind to to your show, and yeah, I think, I think it's enabled me to.

Alison Smith: 27:24

I keep saying I'm going to do a series four and haven't done a series four. So it is that what you've helped me do is remember why I did it, and then it helps me inform where I'm taking Love Scape and your Life. So actually, yeah, let's get out there and do something different with it, because up to now it's the episodes have been so if you resonate with it's an Uphill Struggle, you'd listen to that one. If you resonate with Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place, you'd listen to that one. But that then means that each episode only resonates to some people, whereas this time I am.

Alison Smith: 28:01

Somebody said to me well, can I be on your, can I be a guest? And I said, oh well, I don't have a guest. I suppose you could argue that nature is my guest. And then I thought, okay, so what does this tide have to say? And then it's just a bit more. It requires me to think a bit more. Perhaps that's why I've not recorded it yet, but I think that then means that every episode would be applicable to anybody listening if they had an issue that they wanted to see differently, because it's not a saying that they'd be resonating with. It's just what does this path you know, I'm walking along this path in this world today. What does this path have to say? And next time I could be on a completely different path and get different insights.

Carl Richards: 28:44

And just don't create your own crossroads.

Alison Smith: 28:47

No, no, no, no, no. But I just love that, I love the 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 remember on one path it was the poem something about going, something about path left travelled or something. And I looked in one direction and I realised that I really think that I'm great at paths left travelled.

Alison Smith: 29:12

But really what I mean is I'm quite happy where there isn't a path, as long as it's grass that I can walk on, because I turned and looked the other direction and it was brambles and you just couldn't. You'd need some implement to cut through it to get in it. It's like, no, that's not my sort of adventure. I am not the adventurer going to cut a path through all the branches and cut it, but I will go on this grass and go. Well, I'm going to go in this direction, etc. So, yeah, it's, uh, it's really interesting what happens when you get out there, really, and learn about yourself a phenomenal conversation, Alison, that we have had.

Carl Richards: 29:53

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

Alison Smith: 30:08

Well, alisonsmithco is the website, but there are lots of alison smiths everywhere. But if you use landscaping your life on most social media so landscaping your life on linkedin, twitter, tiktok, facebook, instagram you'll find me, so landscaping your life. If you did landscaping your life, so alison search, you'll find me, because whilst there are lots of alison smiths, there's not lots of landscaping your lives, um, but the podcast is landscaping your life with alison smith and we'll make sure that that link is in the show notes.

Carl Richards: 30:43

Well, all of that will be there the best ways to connect with alison. It's been a phenomenal conversation. Alison, thank you so much for being my guest today. Before I turn you loose to go and touch nature or paint the picture, or maybe not blaze a trail, but walk through that gentle path or create your own crossroads, whichever it is, I'll give you the final thought.

Alison Smith: 31:02

I think from a podcast point of view. I think so often we plant the seed and then we keep expecting it to pop up immediately, and that's not how seeds work. You know, some seeds I mean most 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't flower. They're I can't remember what this 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 the following year. But so a seeds take time.

Alison Smith: 31:38

And the other thing is is we don't poke seeds um in the ground, we let the groups, we just give them the conditions they need to, you know. So actually, some seeds need a winter, so so sometimes it is about cold, sometimes it's about water, sometimes it's about the fact that here in Scotland we wouldn't be sowing seeds before June, quite often because of the frosts. So it's about nurturing the podcast and not expecting miracles as soon as. Ah, I've done one episode and I expect it to, you know, to flourish, because that's not how plants grow and I suspect that's not how podcasts grow either.

Carl Richards: 32:19

And enjoy the journey. Alison, that's a great place to leave it. Thank you so much. Alison Smith has been my guest today. Thanks for joining me on the podcast.

Alison Smith: 32:26

I had a great time.

Carl Richards: 32:27

Thank you and thank you for joining us today. Special thanks to our producer and production lead, Dom Carrillo, our music guru, Nathan Simon, and the person who works the arms all of our arms, actually my trusty assistant, Stephanie Gafoor. If you like what you heard today, leave us a comment and a review and be sure to share it with your friends. If you don't like what you heard, please share it with your enemies. Oh, and if you have a suggestion of someone who you think would make an amazing guest on the show, let us know about it. Drop us an email, askcarl at carlspeaksca. Don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter as well. You'll find all those links in the show notes, and if you're ready to take the plunge and join the over 3 million people who have said yes to podcasting, let's have a conversation. We'll show you the simplest way to get into the podcasting space, because, after all, we're Podcast Solutions Made Simple. We'll catch you next time.