In this solo episode of the Seen podcast, Kady O Connell shares four practical strategies and mindset shifts she will use in 2026 to expand her visibility and grow her brand without burning out. First, she will delegate daily posting to a virtual assistant (or use scheduling tools with manual‑post reminders) to create accountability, free up time, and enable an omnichannel presence while preserving the personal touch of manual posting. Second, she will eliminate energy‑draining habits—specifically giving up alcohol—to improve sleep, energy, and consistency, noting that any personal habit that saps vitality can hinder content creation. Third, she will institute a weekly accountability date with a fellow creator (Melissa Ambrosini) to make content work more fun, reinforce commitment, and provide mutual feedback. Fourth, she will adopt the identity of a creator, internalising the habit of “I am a creator” so that content creation becomes a priority, guiding decisions about offers, calls, and workload. Throughout, she frames these tactics as ways to focus on mission‑led brand building, leveraging consistent, authentic content to attract an aligned audience and simplify client acquisition, rather than relying on complex funnels. She also acknowledges the slower start to the year, using the Chinese zodiac metaphor to reassure listeners that planting seeds now still leads to growth. The episode ends with an invitation for listeners to connect on Instagram.
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Hello, my love, and welcome to Seen, the podcast that helps you to stop hiding, claim your worth, and build the most vibrant version of your life possible. Thank you so much for being here. Hello, my love, and welcome to Seen. And in today's episode, I'm so excited to share with you 4 strategies that I'm going to use this year to really expand my visibility that you can also do to really grow your brand this year. So the first thing that I'm going to be focusing on this year, and I was chatting to a friend of mine, uh, recently who is a big creator on Instagram. He's got about 600,000 followers, and we were talking all about content, and he said, you know what, it actually takes me just too much time each day to just hit post. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, like, if you think about it, even if you've got your content created and it's ready to go, you you still have to go in there and spend 20 minutes putting in the caption, adding the location, adding the trending sound, whatever it might be. And usually, if you want to do it at a set time that's a good time, like early morning or later afternoon that a lot of people are online, it's very disruptive to your day. And I was like, wow, I actually really resonate with that because I've had a bank of content ready to go for my podcast for the past couple of weeks, and it hasn't been posted even though it's ready because of those exact reasons. And so he was talking about how he's getting his VA to double up as a social media manager and just post the content for him each day. And I was like, that is absolutely genius. So the first thing that I'm going to do this year is I'm actually getting my VA, virtual assistant, to post my content for me each day. Now, this is actually giving me a next level of accountability because it's not just me. And I do like to plan in advance and have things saved in Notion. But this is making me be much more accountable if she's the one that has to post each day. And because she's posting each day, I'm getting her to post on a couple of different platforms as well. To have more of an omnichannel presence. Now, I'm very much someone that advocates for picking one platform and being strong there before you go everywhere else. But luckily for me, because I have this resource, I can actually do that. And I'm still going to use Instagram as my predominant platform and then repost to other channels. Now, the importance of posting manually is that a lot of the platforms, they do take preference to content that's posted manually because it obviously means you're on the platform, you're engaging, you're actually there and present. And so I do feel like it's very important to post manually. Now, if you're someone that doesn't have a VA, you can still adopt a similar, a similar strategy. There are a lot of scheduling platforms that allow you to schedule your content in advance, and all you need to do is instead of it like auto-scheduling, you can set a reminder that at that exact time you get a reminder to your phone automated, it automated kind of populates into the app. So you would just hit post and it would auto-populate into Instagram, for example, and then you would just need to literally press the last button of post. So that is a way that without a VA, you could also adopt a similar strategy. And this just gives your content and your business— it still has that personal touch because you're still the one posting it, it's still manual, but it just makes it a little bit more set and forget, and it gives you that next level of accountability and structure like you're actually treating your account like a business. So that is one thing that I'm doing this year to really help me uplevel my account. Now the next thing that I'm doing is, and this might be a little bit unconventional, but I have decided to give up alcohol. And the reason for that is that I was finding over the Christmas period, you know, I had a couple of glasses of wine here and there, and you know, I've got two kids, I don't get great sleep as it is, and I just find anything that disrupts my sleep or affects my energy is a no for me this year. So as much as I really enjoy a beautiful glass of wine, It is just not worth it this year because it actually just takes me away from feeling present, feeling connected to my message. It stops me from showing up because I kind of have a bit of an excuse. It's like, I don't have the energy today, I'll do it tomorrow. It just puts me into that funk, which I am just wanting to go all in this year, take what I'm doing so seriously and make it really, really impactful. Everything that I'm doing this year that I don't even want to waste today, and I want to have full energy every single day. Now, for you, it might not be alcohol. Maybe it's, you know, eating a lot of sugar. Maybe it's drinking too much caffeine. Like, what are the things? It's not always about your social media strategy. Sometimes it's the things that affect your personal life that actually affect the energy that you need to show up, because all of this is an energetic game and a mindset game. And if you're not showing up, often it's not because of the strategy. Like, we all know how to hit post. We all know how to create a post. Like, yes, I'm better than others, but we all know how to do it. It's mostly a mindset and an energy problem. And so you need to really be doing everything in your power to have the most energy and the most vitality so that you can show up and continue to do so in the best way. Now, the third thing that I'm doing this year is having a weekly accountability date with a friend. So one of my friends, Melissa Ambrosini, also has a big platform. She's got a podcast, she's got an Instagram account. She's really committed to creating amazing content. And so we're going to meet up once a week. We're just going to go hang out for an hour, do our our own content. We're not even necessarily going to be doing each other's content, but we can just bounce things off each other. And the reason for this is, again, accountability and also just making it fun. So last year in 2025, we met up multiple times a week at 6 AM and went to the gym, and it made me so much more accountable to actually getting my bum to the gym. And I was there so frequently, I was working out, I was feeling great, and just having that accountability is just, you know, next level. It just means that you'll do it, you'll show up, you'll commit to what you say you're going to do, and it's just more enjoyable. So find yourself a friend. I mean, who doesn't need to be creating content these days with their business? Like, I'm sure you could find a business bestie that lives nearby that you can meet up with even for an hour a month to begin, whatever it might be, even if it's an hour on Zoom. But why not just do it and have that in the diary and have a bit more fun with it. So I would really encourage you to really look at doing that. And last but not least, the last thing that I'm going to do this year, and again, this might be a little bit unconventional, but it's more of a mindset shift, is really just thinking of myself as a creator. So it's more of like a self-image thing where I identify as a creator. It's like James Clear talks about in his book Atomic Habits, which I absolutely love. He talks about getting 1% better each day, and he also just talks about stepping into the identity of what you want to do. So if you are wanting to be a runner, it's not about, I want to run every day. It's like, I am a runner. What do runners do? They run every day. So it's really adopting that identity and then doing the things that make you feel like that person. So by Thinking of myself as a creator, it means that creating has to come first and foremost. And so, if I apply that lens to all of my decisions, it means that I'm not going to take on too many crazy projects. It means I'm not going to spread myself too thin by creating 500 different offers. It means that I'm not going to commit to being on calls every day of the week. Why? Because I'm going to need, if I'm a creator, I need to be dedicating at least 1 to 2 days a week creating. And that means creating content, podcasts, all of those good stuff. And the reason for that is that all of my offers and everything that I do will stem off the back of creating. Because if I'm a mission-led and a purpose-led business, then it's really about getting that message out there in the world. I want to impact thousands and thousands of women and help them to be seen, help them to feel worthy, help them to put themselves out there without being, you know, scared of what other people are going to think. And for me to get that out there to the masses, essentially, what better way than social media, which is free? It's like the best way of getting your mission and your message out there. And then, you know, a fraction of those people are going to join your paid programs and you'll make an income from that. So you're still making money that way versus spending all your time putting out fires or, you know, just having all these different offers or just being in the weeds with operations. Like, if you spend all your time on that, then how are you even going to get clients into the program? And then you're going to spend so much time tearing your hair out because you don't have enough leads coming in, you don't have enough clients coming in, and you don't have time to even do anything about it. So wouldn't a better way be to focus first on your content, get the right audience around you, and then it's just easy to get clients from there, right? Because if you think about it, it's just a mathematical formula, an equation. There's going to be a certain percentage of your audience that are going to sign up for your paid offers. So the bigger your audience— and I don't mean big to be viral, and you don't need to be like some crazy influencer, but I just mean the biggest audience of aligned clients that you can bring into your world— then you'll be able to get a portion of those into your paid offers. So it's just a different way of thinking about it, and it's building so much trust. If you can be, if you can be consistent and if you can show up and if you can be credible and if you can offer value, then there doesn't even have to be such a complicated 20-step funnel. There really doesn't, because you've already proven your worth, you've already established that trust, you've already given people a sample of what it's like to be in your world. And the next obvious step is just to sign up and work with you. And of course you need to have offers to get them in there, but that can all be worked out. But the main focus needs to be on that actual brand and that marketing and just getting that message and that mission out there. If that really is your goal at the end of the day, is to share a message and share your beliefs and help people, like genuinely help people, what better way than building your brand so that the people that need that help can find you. And so this is just a short and sharp episode today because I really wanted to just give you a few nuggets to think about. And as we enter this new year, I still feel like we're still just entering it because it's been a slow start to the year. And I know a lot of people have been feeling this slow start and they're like, oh my God, I'm not ready. I thought 2026 was going to be amazing, but I still feel the same as last year. What's going on? And I actually caught up with a friend this morning for coffee and she talked about how the Year of the Horse doesn't actually start till mid-February. So we're actually still in that Chinese Year of the Snake. We're still doing the shedding. So if you feel like you're behind, don't worry. You've still got a little bit of time. We're planting the seeds. We're still planting the seeds. We're still putting down the roots. We're still making the plans. So I love that concept because I don't feel like I'm in 2026 yet. I don't feel like I've started my year yet. And so these are the things that I'm going to be committing to. As I'm still working out other things. I'm putting together a new program at the moment that I'm so excited to share with you soon, but I'm leaving myself the space to work through that. But I know that while I do, building your brand is always going to be something that you need to do no matter what your plan is, no matter if— even if you don't know exactly what 2026 is going to bring just yet, doesn't matter. You're still going to need a brand, you're still going to need a message. So these are the things that you could focus on even while you're not sure of what your next step is, even while you're not sure exactly what your next offer is, even while you're not sure exactly what your next direction is. Just know that's all coming through. But you can always be working on using your voice, getting comfortable. Don't wait for perfection. Just start using your voice, sharing your message, and it will get better and better and easier and easier every single time. So hope you have an incredible week. I hope this episode has helped. Come say hello on Instagram and send me a DM if this has resonated on Kady O Connell. And I can't wait to see you next week.
