"No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again"

today i’m excited to begin again officially. what’s been under wraps and in development for a few months while i prepared all the documentation a business needs, asked friends for advice, and designed documents and branding that i’m pleased to put in front of clients. so, as something i’ve wanted to do for years but not necessarily had the right idea for, i’m so glad to finally show the world the idea i have that i am confident will work for me after my experience in the podcast industry for so long now, and my love of marketing and saas companies.

and what is that idea? well, i am now the owner and operator of what i call ‘hazel maker’—a silly little pun on my last name. it’s a business focused on helping b2b marketers and saas companies showcase their brand, vision, and marketing goals through podcasts that sheds light on human values people actually care about hearing. in addition to why your tools are going to revolutionize their lives and workflows, of course.

i firmly believe that appealing to people with good storytelling that reinforces positive values is an underutilized type of distribution strategy, and in my experience it has yielded such incredible results for clients and their businesses in the past—results that turn into real people showing up at their businesses to engage, spend their time getting to know you, and yes, spend money to support you.

and why do i want to do this? i love working with people, and i absolutely love the role i have been able to take the past four years helping customers with podcast production at startups and agencies i was employed at in a traditional 9–5 sense. but in every experience i encountered caveats i couldn’t control for with my company. if i were on my own, operating a business the way i wanted to, situations could be more immediately remedied or worked on.

for instance, there were situations where a customer’s work would be outsourced by companies i worked for in order to keep costs down. production work is worth its cost, and i found it somewhat disingenuous that a client might not be getting the level of attention i could be giving with conceptual first drafts, production edits, or even content calendar deliverables. so this time around, i want to make sure my clients never have to wonder if their project is being shortchanged, and can trust that their work is getting my full attention.

there are a million other reasons why lately especially i feel empowered and confident in my ability to help customers with this work. after being successful and having so many people say nice things about my work over the past five years in podcast storytelling especially, i am so grateful and excited to help bring customer visions to life alongside their current marketing goals. thank you to everyone who believes in my abilities, talents, and going into business for myself. let’s make beautiful things together.