The Soap Box Podcast

I like to think of branding and marketing as tools for connection – ways to build trust, grow communities, and reach the right people. But what if the way we’re marketing is actually widening the gap instead of closing it? What if it’s making real connection less likely?This week on The Soap Box, I’m speaking to Emilia Kireli-Reed, founder and creative director of Kireli Studio, one of the few branding studios solely focused on social and ethical impact, about how the creative industries can unintentionally (and sometimes very intentionally) feed division.Whether it's the dominance of middle-class voices in Adland, or the relentless push for hyper-aspirational visuals being pushed out by AI, we unpack how branding shapes what people believe is normal, successful, and desirable. And we chat about what that absence of representation does to those who never see themselves reflected, including how it can leave people more vulnerable to being manipulated by political or cultural figures who claim to see and represent them.We also talk about:Emilia’s journey from a working-class background into the world of creative agencies, and what led her to start an agency of her ownWhy the idea that “more diversity” automatically solves the problem needs to be challengedClass culture, power, and the hidden assumptions embedded into so much of marketing and brand strategyThe need for purpose-led businesses to think critically about the messages we're putting out into the world. What tropes might we be reinforcing?If you're serious about using your business as a force for good (which, if you're here, I'm pretty sure you must be), this conversation invites you to look a little deeper. Because it’s not just about what you say, but who you’re saying it for.So grab a coffee, fold your laundry, or take us with you on a walk – and listen to Emilia get on her soapbox.Emilia's Links:Kireli are on a micro mission this year to help more women secure investment. If you're a female founder raising funding, or someone working in this space who’s keen to connect, they'd love to hear from you.Kireli Studio WebsiteFollow Emilia on InstagramConnect with Emilia on LinkedIn Looking for more? Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context! Follow Peta on InstagramFind Peta on LinkedInHire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

You know that moment when someone stands up to speak and you can feel the disconnect? Their words are polished, their slides are tidy, their branding is on point, but something’s off. It’s like they’re performing at you, not speaking with you. They’ve planned every word, they’re sticking to their script, and they’d deliver it the same way no matter who was in the room.This week’s guest, Stacia Keogh, has no time for that kind of stagecraft. She’s an embodied speaking coach, a traditional storyteller of over 40 years, and someone who has zero interest in teaching you how to sound more confident or look more polished. Instead, she wants to help you tell the story that’s been living in your body for years – the one you haven’t quite had the space, safety, or support to say out loud before.She’s worked with everyone from “naughty” kids like me to nervous founders, C‑suite execs and quiet rebels. Whether she’s in a boarding school or a boardroom, her mission is the same: to get people speaking with power, not just polish. Not because they’ve nailed their tone of voice, memorised a clever anecdote, or mastered a three‑step framework where all the points start with the same letter, but because they mean it.In our conversation, we talk about:Why injustice is the thread that runs through all of Stacia’s workWhat she really thinks about confidenceHow to find and structure the stories that actually matterWhy your story doesn’t need permission, polish, or branded slide decks to be powerfulThe myth of thought leadership and the rage that fuels so much of women’s workThe power of connection over performanceIf you’ve ever turned down a speaking opportunity because you didn’t feel ready, or thought your ideas didn’t count because you weren’t “qualified enough”, this one’s for you.So, grab a notebook, put down that Canva slide deck you’ve been working on for hours, and listen to Stacia get on her soapbox.Stacia's Links:Work with Stacia: "4 Hour Presentation" for the quick fix, or "Spotlight" for support stepping out of the shadow and into YOUR LIGHT!Stacia's WebsiteFind Stacia on SubstackConnect with Stacia on LinkedInEmail Stacia at info@staciakeogh.co.uk Looking for more? Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context! Follow Peta on InstagramFind Peta on LinkedInHire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

Today’s guest is building something rare in the PR world, a business that delivers results without burning people out. Riannon Palmer is the founder of Lem-uhn, an award-winning B Corp and feel-good PR agency that works exclusively with companies that care. She launched the business in 2021 to fill a very real gap in the industry: an agency that actually puts people first.Why? Because PR has a problem. 91% of PR professionals say they’ve struggled with their mental health in the past year, and the same results come up in surveys year after year. At the same time, hundreds of PR and ad agencies continue to work with the fossil fuel industry and partner with brands harming people and the planet. Riannon created Lem-uhn to offer a different way, a PR agency built on happiness, purpose, and impact.In this episode, we talk about what it really looks like to build a company that breaks the toxic working culture mould – from menstrual leave, wellness days and “work from anywhere” policies, to handling 8pm client emergencies without sending your team into burnout.We also dig into what most people misunderstand about PR, why so many purpose-led founders are reluctant to promote their work, and why doing good isn’t enough – you’ve got to be willing to talk about it.If you’re building a company people are proud to work for, or you’re a founder trying to get your story into the press without selling your soul, this one’s for you.Grab your notebook and listen to Riannon get on her soapbox.Riannon's Links:Email Riannon at riannon@lem-uhn.comConnect with Riannon on LinkedIn[Lem-uhn] PR & Communications Looking for more? Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context! Follow Peta on InstagramFind Peta on LinkedInHire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

Let’s be honest, for a lot of people in my world, AI feels like a bit of a villain right now. It’s been decimating creative industries, disrupting business models, and flooding the internet with content that’s at best soulless, and at worst, dangerous. I’m recording this just as the whole Grok-goes-anti-woke mess is playing out, so feelings are certainly mixed.I’ve got plenty of thoughts about AI, and I’m happy to talk your ear off about them (do send me a DM). But today’s guest offers a different perspective. One that’s a little closer to the utopian vision we used to have: that tech might actually make our lives easier, and free us up to do more fun, creative, human things.Dr. Tamara Polajnar is a computer scientist with over 25 years of experience in Natural Language Processing. She’s the co-founder and CEO of herEthical AI, a deep-tech company developing ethical, explainable AI for the justice sector. She’s led AI research across academia, fintech, and public-sector innovation – including at the University of Cambridge – and is now focused on building AI tools that don’t just automate processes, but challenge systemic bias and drive real cultural change.Her team is developing tools to help institutions like police forces and family courts identify victim-blaming language, track bias, and hold their systems to account, with a clear emphasis on fairness, transparency, and survivor-centred innovation.In this episode, we talk about how bias shows up in official documents, what it really takes to build ethical technology, and how systems grounded in empathy and real-world constraints might be part of the way forward.If you’re suspicious of AI – good, me too. But this conversation shows what it can look like when it’s built with care and used to create meaningful accountability.So let’s get into it. Listen to Tamara get on her soapbox.Tamara's Links:herEthical.AI WebsiteFollow herEthical.AI on InstagramConnect with Tamara on LinkedIn Looking for more? Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context! Follow Peta on InstagramFind Peta on LinkedInHire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

Take my dulcet tones off speaker and pop in your earbuds because today, we’re talking about sex.This episode is a deep dive into what it really means to talk about sex, health, and education in ways that actually land. And a lot of it might surprise you.My guest is Dr Tristin Agtarap, a psychologist, researcher, and all-round brilliant human, who specialises in sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and the cultural factors that shape our well-being. Tris works at Brook, one of the UK’s leading sexual health charities, but her work goes far beyond the sex ed you might remember from school. She brings together academic research and applied practice to create culturally responsive, person-centred approaches to health education.We talk about why sex education is never one size fits all, what cross-cultural psychology can teach us about stigma, and how platform policies and censorship are making it harder to share essential health messages. Tris also shares why sex education is something we should be revisiting across our lives – not just in Year 9 PSHE, or you know, whatever the American equivalent is.It’s a conversation centred around nuance, human behaviour, and the real challenges of helping people make informed decisions in a world full of shame, silence, and misinformation. So if you’re a parent, an educator, a health professional, or just a curious person who enjoys unpacking interesting topics, then this one’s for you.Dig in through your earbuds, and listen to Tris get on her soapbox.Tristin's Links:Email Tris at tagtarap@icloud.comConnect with Tris on LinkedInFollow Tris on InstagramPublished Papers:Mindset and Sexual Health: Does Mindset Impact Receptiveness to Sexuality Education Curricula?Healthy Body, Healthy Mind: Exploring the Mental Health Implications of Comprehensive Sex Education Looking for more? Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context! Follow Peta on InstagramFind Peta on LinkedInHire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

If you finally work out how to time block, then you’ll get everything done on that giant to-do list of yours, right? And once Amazon delivers that tomato-shaped Pomodoro timer, you’ll finally reach those big goals. You’ll get that offer written, create the thing, write the book.Well… not necessarily, according to this week’s guest. Vikki Yaffe says we’ve created systems and norms that don’t work for 95% of the population. And instead of desperately trying to find the right tool to squeeze ourselves into the right shape, maybe we should be changing the game completely.Vikki is the founder and CEO of Time Hackers, and host of the Hack Your Time podcast (which you should absolutely check out after this episode). After going through three burnouts, she’s focused on unravelling the time industry altogether, and helping people rethink how they relate to productivity, anxiety, procrastination and time itself.We talk about ambitious overachievers, people who complain about time as part of their personality (hi, yes, guilty), and the fact that our work week was developed by Henry Ford – and how we’re still organising our lives around something created a hundred years ago. Vikki shares stories from her clients, tools that didn’t work, and what she’s doing differently now.There’s loads in here that’s practical and helpful – for your business, your life, your mindset, your household, and all the life admin that comes with it.So even if you’re doing the washing or cooking the dinner, grab a notebook, open up your notes app, as well as your coffee, and listen to Vikki get on her soapbox.Vikki's Links:Create your Most Productive WeekListen to Hack Your Time podcastGet your Stop Wasting time guide Looking for more? Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context! Follow Peta on InstagramFind Peta on LinkedInHire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

We think we know what it takes to market a business online. A bit of Instagram wizardry here, a five-step LinkedIn funnel there, a sprinkle of referral strategy and maybe a course by someone who talks like Alex Hormozi but wears a skirt suit – and boom, marketing sorted. Right?Wrong.This isn’t technically a marketing podcast, but let’s be honest, if you’re a business owner with a social conscience, you need a way to market that actually works without selling your soul. You want to reach people, make money, and further your mission, but the idea of 24/7 content, manipulative tactics, and “girlboss” style strategies just doesn’t sit right. So what do you actually do?That’s exactly why I wanted to chat to today’s guest, Danielle Thompson.Danielle is the founder of Goldspun Support, a company that provides operational foundations for Fractional Directors, so they can focus on high-value strategic work, increase their revenue, and reclaim their work-life balance. With 16 years of experience spanning corporate, small and micro enterprises, she knows what it takes to run a business without burning out. Supporting people to avoid burnout is actually one of Danielle’s biggest soapboxes – though not the one she’s jumping on today.Instead, we’re talking about one of her other passions: demystifying marketing for every single business owner out there. In this episode, Danielle gets into the real essentials of what you actually need to do to market your business (and what you absolutely don’t). We talk about values-led marketing, ethical growth, and how to cut through the noise of overcomplicated, overhyped advice. No thousand-pound courses, no terrifying sales funnels, and definitely no dancing on TikTok required. If you’ve ever felt like you're failing at marketing simply because you’re not glued to your phone, this one’s for you.Danielle is brilliant, honest, and a joy to talk to. We chatted long before we hit record and probably could’ve kept going for hours after we stopped. I’m so excited for you to hear what she has to say. You’re going to love this one.So grab a coffee, probably a notebook, and listen to Danielle get on her soapbox.Danielle's Links:Follow Danielle on InstagramFollow Danielle on LinkedInContact Danielle via Goldspun Support Looking for more? Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context! Follow Peta on InstagramFind Peta on LinkedInHire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

Sustainability is on all of our minds right now. Whether it’s arguments about bin collections, fast fashion waste, or what the hell AI is doing to the planet, it’s everywhere. And let’s be honest, sustainability has also become big business. If people care about it in their daily lives, they’re definitely thinking about it when they make decisions about who to buy from and work with.Which is all well and good if you’re a product-based business with compostable packaging and tree-planting perks, but what if you don’t make anything tangible? How do you show that sustainability matters to you when your business is mostly digital? That’s exactly why I wanted to chat to today’s guest, Teresa Ferreira.Teresa is a Creative and Brand Consultant and the founder of Farrgood Studio. She helps businesses build timeless brands™ and impactful designs – ones that don’t just look great, but also align with the things you care about. With 16 years of experience across media, health, luxury, and fashion (and a stint as Head of Design at the Financial Times, no less), she blends strategy and creativity in a way that’s seriously impressive. Her studio partners with businesses that are all about positive change, whether through social impact, sustainability, or purpose-led missions—and she’s worked with the likes of Adobe, Somerset House, BBC, and Allbright.In this episode, we dive into what digital sustainability actually means, how your website might be leaving a bigger carbon footprint than you think, and how small design choices, like your images or hosting, can make a difference. We talk about using your brand and storytelling to carry sustainability through everything you do, not just your marketing blurb.There’s a load in here that might surprise you, and plenty of ideas you can actually apply – whether you’re deep in the eco-space already, or just starting to think about how your business fits into the bigger picture.So grab a coffee, get comfy, and listen to Teresa get on her soapbox.Teresa's Links:Book a call – Ferrgood StudioFollow Teresa on InstagramSubscribe to Ferrgood Studio on SubstackTech Hub Enterprise Nation X Google + Sage webinar: Branding, storytelling, and tools for growth Looking for more? Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context! Follow Peta on InstagramFind Peta on LinkedInHire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

You know that feeling when you stumble across someone on social media and immediately think, yep – they’re one of my people? That’s exactly what happened when I found Lauren, aka L2, on Threads.While most of the coaching world was busy copy-pasting their Instagram strategies onto this new platform (and wondering why it wasn’t working), Lauren stood out by doing the opposite: saying what she actually thought. Thankfully, she’s not just insightful – she’s also scathingly funny, allergic to bullshit, and one hell of a communicator.Lauren is the founder of LBee Health, a neuro-affirming mental health clinic in the U.S. that’s committed to making care genuinely accessible for people of every identity. With over a decade of experience in clinical operations and digital health strategy, she’s on a mission to foster open conversations about mental health and create resources that actually meet people where they are. Through LBee Health, Lauren empowers others to prioritise their mental well-being and access the support they need.I first came across her content when she was talking openly about her own autism assessment journey. As the parent of an autistic child, this hit home – especially knowing just how stressful and inaccessible the diagnostic process can be.In a world where American healthcare is… let’s say less than straightforward, Lauren is doing radical, meaningful work. And she’s doing it in a way that centres integrity, transparency, and humanity, while also building a business that supports her bottom line. Because yes, you can do both.You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes peek at how she runs LBee Health, why she believes in swearing on the internet (spoiler: it’s liberating), and how she infuses her values into every part of her communication.Grab a notebook, pour your coffee, and settle in, because Lauren’s getting on her soapbox, and you won’t want to miss a word.Lauren's Links:Follow Lauren on ThreadsConnect with Lauren on LinkedInFollow Lauren on InstagramLBee Health WebsiteSign up for updates and to learn more Looking for more? Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context! Follow Peta on InstagramFind Peta on LinkedInHire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging

What if the way you’ve been told to run your business isn’t working for you—not because you’re doing it wrong, but because it was never designed for you in the first place?In this episode, we sit down with Pippa Parfait, co-founder of the Disobedient Business® Co., to unpack why traditional business rules often fail us and how to build a business that truly works for you.We dive into the patriarchal origins of business norms, the pressure to follow so-called "best practices," and the guilt that comes when they don’t fit. Pippa shares her insights on commerce vs. capitalism, the myth of meritocracy, and why embracing your unique way of working is the key to success.As the founder and one half of Disobedient Business® Co., alongside her eldest sproglet and biz partner, Lucy, Pippa is on a mission to help anti-status quo business owners figure out their shit, chuck the business BS rulebook, and actually create businesses they love—without burning out or compromising their values. A proudly neurodivergent business coach (sometimes a mess, often awesome), she works with rebellious, often spicy-brained entrepreneurs to craft integrity-packed plans that are simple, sustainable, and achievable. For Pippa, success and integrity aren’t an either/or situation—they’re both a big fat 100.She’s also a brilliant human, full of wisdom, humour, and a healthy dose of swearing—so, you might want to grab your earbuds for this one.We also touch on:How outdated business advice makes us feel like we’re failingThe power of self-trust, mindset, and courage in entrepreneurshipWhy the business BS rulebook needs to be thrown outThe ways we can redefine success to fit us, not the other way aroundThis is an eye-opening, laugh-out-loud conversation that will leave you feeling empowered to do business on your terms. So grab a coffee, get comfy, and listen to Pippa get on her soap box!Pippa's Links:Disobedient Business® MastermindConnect with Pippa on LinkedInFollow Disobedient Business® Co. on Instagram Looking for more? Join The Soap Box Community - Peta's membership for businesses with a social conscience is now FREE! Come and join us to survive the current torrid political context! Follow Peta on InstagramFind Peta on LinkedInHire Peta to work on your copywriting and brand messaging