Maria (00:01.452)
Okay, so hi Gabby and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast. Now, quick point before we start for everyone, this is a re -record because we did record it at Gabby's and have wonderful video footage, but the audio was horrible. So this is a re -record. So thank you for coming on. Again, Gabby, are, you know, you've been on this twice now, effectively. How are you doing?

Gabriele Swift (00:21.146)
Thank you, thank you Maria, it was so much fun. I mean the first time we actually really tried really hard to get it to work but it just wouldn't bond it, didn't it? And was really nice and comfortable to sit down but hey, we'll do it this way, it will be good fun.

Maria (00:35.638)
It has, and I said we've got great video footage so that will be on the show notes page for everyone to see in one form or another. So, now obviously to get us going, you are based in Wokingham but you are familiar with Reading, you've been in Reading for a long time. What do you like about Reading?

Gabriele Swift (00:52.97)
Well, you know what, it's really funny. has this forwards and backwards. Some people think differently, think everybody has an idea, but I really do like that Reading has tried to make an effort to keep the waterways and make this part of the town and that you have still nice little and big parks you can walk around, you can really enjoy yourself and relax. Yes, it's got all the shopping.

But that's fine, that's one thing. But I think it's really nice that you have this and it keeps it really nice together, I think. I guess it's because people forget that Reddy has got the River Thames flying through sometimes because you see the little canals, but you have the really big part as well and that makes it such a nice little thing. The one thing I don't like is the traffic. Just this is one thing I need to tell you.

Maria (01:41.122)
Yeah, no, I don't think anyone will say they like the traffic in Reading, it's horrible. And that's precisely why I like to try and walk everywhere, which is nice why you've got a centre with quite a few things in and a train station. yeah, totally with you on that one. Now you take brand and lifestyle photos. For anyone who's not very familiar, could you explain a bit about what that is and the importance of brand photography?

Gabriele Swift (02:04.79)
Of course, and thank you for the question. mean, brand photography has been around for some time. I have different names, but it's been more focusing on now. It's generally the focus on capturing the essence of a business, its values, its products, services in a visually compelling way so that you're creating a strong brand identity so people know who you are with the images. You are an expert to go with it. On the lifestyle photography, you portray people in everyday situations.

often showcasing the products and the service in a natural, relatable context. So that aims more at evoking emotions and connection with a larger target. You want to actually target or talk to your people, your ideal clients.

Maria (02:51.394)
Wonderful. Now, it sounds very easy, but I know this isn't easy to capture. So could you just walk us through your typical workflow for doing a brand and lifestyle shoot with someone?

Gabriele Swift (03:07.032)
Of I can, I've just realised. I should have actually told you that brand and lifestyle photography are essentially for creating a strong, memorable brand identity and connecting to your organ. So it's both work together. So when I work with a customer, we try and make sure we build a visual storyboard. What can be used anywhere in their marketing for their company.

And when I have a customer talking to me, I always say to people, you need to have a chat, you need to see each other, you need to have a little spark, you need to get on with each other. Because if you don't like the photographer, or if I don't like the client, you will see this in the pictures. And it's funny, but it is, you know? So, and especially as brand photography, because you have to have that connection, you're working something together. It's not just one or the other, you work together as a collaborator.

collaborative work, I can't say this word, isn't it? I struggled with this last time as a collaborative way forward. So for me, is the, it's a way of saying, let's talk first, let's have a little conversation, understand what you need, where you're coming from. And that's why I do brand clarity calls. So I just to help people to understand where they're at at the moment, where do they want to go to, what do they actually need? And then from there, we then, when we go through the whole, when the customer decides to do

one of my packages. I have a different way of workflow going through with them from small little workbooks to proper workbooks to other exercises I ask them to do. Then discussing all the locations, the props we need and then bringing the whole thing together before we do the shoot list which I then create, talk to the customer again about it. So on the day the customer will feel like...

I know you, I know what we're doing. Let's get on with it. And it's really so much easier to work together.

Maria (05:00.108)
Wonderful. So how do you work with clients to ensure that their brand vision is captured? Because obviously, you know, if you're a photographer, you can have the ones where you're holding a camera and you know, if you are a golfer, you can have the ones where you're holding a golf club. But there are obviously other ways in which you can bring out a brand vision. How do you work with clients to try and tease out what's important to them and how you can capture that in images? Because it's

It's a bit like therapy really, I imagine. You're trying to bring out something they're not very familiar with verbalizing.

Gabriele Swift (05:34.642)
I know what you mean. I it is that really deep dive you do with a customer. It's really trying to kind of become a best friend in a business way in a very short time. So you need to, that's why you need to trust somebody. You need to really feel that connection. I just try and have a couple of ways where I go forward. So it's a really deep brand immerse. So we have a really look and understand where you're coming from, what your values are and what your target is.

who competitors are, you need to have these ideas. We then have a little work through on the way of where can we go with your vision? What is your mood board? What do you want? What are your aesthetics? How do you really have that? So these things are important and they're not anything special. This is just what you need to understand as a company because I'm always thinking you need to know who you are, where you want to go and what you want to do and then I can create the story around it and get the information I need to have.

the visual language I want to show customers in and wants to actually look at their images. So it's, and it's always little bits, attention to detail. And I've always loved this is when I might have a really massive big idea. then right last minute when I go somewhere, go, Ooh, that looks good. I just come up with an idea what I didn't even think about beforehand. So, but that only happens because I get to know the customer, I get to know what they want and where they actually are and what they.

what their ideas are of their business.

Maria (07:03.682)
think this is important because this is where it's the difference of a brand photographer expert like you and just someone who can take a picture. Anyone can just take a picture, but knowing how to bring out those details and how to pull everything together into one picture, that's where the real expertise lies. So thank you for that. Now, what are some of the challenges that you find? I mean, I can think of many already, but what are some of the biggest challenges that you find in?

doing this and how do you overcome

Gabriele Swift (07:35.482)
Well, think it's very hard with some of the things. I think a couple of the times it's, let's start with the easy bit. Let's stop faffing around. The easy bit is you need to communicate. Communication is a very important thing. If you communicate with your client, then you can understand what they want to communicate to their clients. And that is really hard because some people are really scared of saying...

what they want to say and who they want to be. So overcoming the way of working with this, helping with maybe a little bit of a more of a clarity of them figuring it out. Okay. And I also help people with when I do a workshop. So let's just try and do in that one. If you have a, let's just try and do that again, shall we? Cause that did not just make no sense what I've just said.

Maria (08:28.812)
No, that's fine. I said, this is going to be edited. So just start again. That is not a problem.

Gabriele Swift (08:34.426)
So the challenges we have is a variety of things. So the first thing would be probably on the communication side. You need to be able to communicate with your customer. If the customer is really scary and does not think it's time, then you need to time out. You need this bit. You need to be able to talk to the customer to understand their business. The communication is key. And then communicating the brand essence is in visually way is a very big challenge. You need to figure out.

how you bring that visually over. So there are things like balancing the creativity and the commercial way of what you want to get done, how you move this forward. So I have my artistic ideas, I have some ideas, but you also need to understand that the commercial goal or the financial goal of a customer is what they want to achieve for this business, but it's pictures, so it can't just be a little picture. The picture needs to say something and you need to bring that into.

the image you create. And that needs to be understand by both sides again. Another challenge you will probably say is capturing or having consistent imagery across all your platforms. Some people just have amazing headshots and then they don't use them anywhere else. Some people just use them on brand photography pictures and they might use them, I don't know, on your socials. But why don't you use them everywhere?

on any of your marketing, on your billboards, on your papers and whatever you do, use your imagery so it's your images and your own stock images. One of the other challenges is brands evolve, Brands will change, especially when there are small businesses. You change, you might change your whole way of thinking. So you need to work with somebody who understands that then they can come back.

might just do a small little catch -up of some additional images at a later stage because they need something different or a customer decides they would like to have a photo shoot now because they need the images however they are bound to say sunflowers and a sunflower is only there at a certain time in a season so you need to make sure you work around with this with a customer. A big important thing is budget constraints we all have this some people have more some people have less

Gabriele Swift (10:53.742)
trying to work with flexible packages I have, working with my customers on different ways of the payment plans so they get what they want and I can help them with what they want without me working down and too much not getting my responses either. So I'm always working with customers and budget is important, you need to talk about it, okay? Because even the smallest customer will have some budget and there's a lot of help around as well, which a lot of people don't know and there's help for brand photography as well.

So that's quite interesting to see. For me, the other thing is probably staying updated with trends. I need to understand where I'm coming from, looking around, figuring out what else can I do, what's new, what makes it go. And you don't want to have all these same pictures you see around. You want to have different pictures which actually portray the people and stay on trend with their industry. And then of course, the biggest thing is managing expectations. And that again, goes back to right at the beginning, communication.

If you know what you need to do, if the customer knows at a stance what you're doing and you keep talking about it through the whole process, you have a lot better way of making this work.

Maria (12:03.704)
Hmm, that's really interesting, all the points you just said there. I think one of the main things that comes through for me is that this is a long -term thing. It's not like, a brand to you. I just need to go get some pictures, whack them up. Like you said, it goes right into the core of your branding with the stock images. Because I've had that too. got, I use stock images obviously for my videos, I need it. And suddenly I'm like, I need someone looking confused. So of course I need a stock image.

but you need to start and over time you'll build this up. So over time you'll get out the generic stock images and start putting in more and more of your own. So this is really a long -term thing that people will start and just gradually gets better over time. So that really sticks out for me.

Gabriele Swift (12:47.938)
Yeah, I think, I think some people sometimes come and say, I just want about five pictures. Well, not really, because you need to have a certain amount of pictures for your headshots, for your images. And then you keep thinking of your marketing drives. You want pictures you can use over and over and over again. And then you have these, as you just said, some stock images, which will part of be of, which are your own stock images, which have your own little thing on. So you can do what you want with them. Rather than using stock images.

other people use and people know they're stock images. Stock images are great and there's a time and a place that would be good to have your own. And then you have all these images you can use on different places. And that's what I have to tell people as well. How to use them, where to use them, because that needs to be done.

Maria (13:34.274)
Yeah, there is so much too, but when it comes together it looks so sleek and effortless that people just assume you sort of roll out of bed and you know, just whisk your hair. The other thing I found interesting was when you said about how obviously you need to cope up to date with trends and what people are doing, but obviously make sure that you're doing different stuff. So that was something else I wanted to ask you about because everything I see, I love everything you do.

Gabriele Swift (13:44.216)
just go out. Good.

Maria (14:03.234)
Where do you find the inspiration to just stay creative? It feels like it's nonstop. You know what's trending, but then you know how to make it different. It's like a, you just live it, don't you? You just live your brand.

Gabriele Swift (14:16.242)
Well, I think, I know where you're going from. It's not always easy, okay? But it's always a thing where, this is I think the hardest bit when people go like, it's just a creative little thing. You need to have the ideas and you need to have some kind of creativity in you. Otherwise it's just really hard to do it. And then it might just be not the right thing. And sometimes as I said to you, I see something and I say something to customers and they go like, you could write this and they go like, how did he get to that? And I'm like, well, that's my creativity coming in there.

So I just generally try and when I don't have suits, try and look around and come up with ideas. Look at some images, maybe somebody else did and go like, I quite like the idea, but maybe I can twist it to that customer with using some different kind of props, using something different. You experiment with ideas of, I don't know, of waters, of colors, of pictures, what might work. So I have my camera with me, my phone with me, and when I go somewhere, I try something and I go like, that might work. Or I go like, no, no.

work. So you need to also try and play always around with your camera, the camera change, the cameras nowadays, or the newer ones, they are, they have so much I mean, they've always had loads, but some of them are really like computers now. And it's hard to make sure that you bring your creativity and the camera together. So you need to make sure you have the right things there. And then don't forget about all the

documentaries you can see and little inspirations you can figure out and go like, I quite like the idea again of finding this trend and maybe we can utilize that for another customer. So trying to bring things across from different areas which might work and different backgrounds and colors in that perspective. So playing around with these a lot more. Looking at, think, trying to find...

what works with a person, for me is important thing. So if I have a person who is very calm and relaxed, I need to make sure that I get this one across. And there's a lot of things you can bring to this to keep the pictures calm and relaxed, because there's no point putting this into something which is so vibrant, which is just not that person. On the same side, I've had a customer who had all her pictures originally are dark and dingy, but she is such a smiley person. But then she actually works

Gabriele Swift (16:40.994)
with palliative care and that is just not really smiley, isn't it? However, she is that person. So it needs to bring that over and that makes people relaxed when they're in that situation. Trying to work with any kind of environmental areas I see, talking to other photographers, having a chat meeting and then go like, let's try and play around with...

whatever, macro photography, let's play around with any of the other ones we could bring in and learn more and then try and work on this for the customer. That's quite fun.

Maria (17:17.196)
And I think the nail on the head I think that you touch upon there is that it's to do with playing. It's not like you think, yes, I'm an expert in bravotoff. You know, you're constantly testing and failing and pushing the boundaries and playing and learning. It's fun for you and you like thinking, that doesn't work, but let's try this. It's a constantly evolving thing, which is great. And I think what everyone needs to do, if you are in a place where you think, yes, I'm an expert on this and I know everything, no, that's...

That's not gonna work.

Gabriele Swift (17:47.194)
I'm telling anybody does and I think nobody can say this. I've always said this, said, if you would be an expert, we are an expert and we know probably most of it what we need to know, but we need to have the gap, the little gap between the perfect 100 % to actually move around and change things and learn and additional and that's always, is that always something new, always something additional, something different you could do and somebody designed something which makes you like, look at all the photo editing now, how has this changed?

mean photo editing is around for a long, long time, but it gives you things which you didn't do before. So I can sit and change and edit things. That's a lot of my time, but you can try and be creative in that perspective as well. And you can just change little bits, not massively amounted bits as well.

Maria (18:33.464)
wonderful. So do you have any tips for anyone who maybe is a bit new to brand photography or they've just started a business they know they need to start doing it. Have you got any tips for people to dip their toes into the water?

Gabriele Swift (18:47.78)
Well, I think one of the things is always saying there is this thing, there's a lot of photographers around. If they're really interested in looking at what brand is about, go and pick a couple of calls with different people and have a chat because majority of photographers will have a discussion with you about your business and about your images. And then you can figure out, this is quite a good idea. I quite like the idea and or follow somebody on Instagram, on LinkedIn.

look at their website and see if you like the feeling of what they're creating. It's something like this. And then I would always say to businesses, if you are a new business or if you are, even if you're an established business, remember all the business -y things you need to know. If you are a business, you do it because you have the knowledge of what you're going to do. Or you've learned the knowledge, you gained the knowledge. But you also need to try and understand

What are your values? Who do you want to work with? Who do you want to reach? And that is with everything. So you need to figure out that your logo is your logo. There's never a problem. I've changed my logo about three times since I've been in business because I didn't like it. So I changed it and changed it. Now I love it. Okay. But then you have the ideas of maybe getting some, some, colors, look at your colors. Are they really your colors? You know, I've had one to customer who

loved all the colors in the blue ranges and then she had a yellow and a purple in so I questioned her and she went like well I don't really like purple and I don't have anything in yellow ever anywhere and I was like so why are they in your colors because if they don't really reach you if they don't talk to your customers if you don't like them then there's no reason for that then take them out because as I said there is about a million and one shades of blue use all of them because I'm a turquoise to dark blue they're so different use all of them

So you need to figure out these things and you can change. And it's the same with your fund. Is it a playful fund? it? There's so many good bits and there's so many specialists I work with on the logo side, the branding side, the marketing side, and we all bring it together. And then you get that and ask a question because it doesn't have to cost everything. It needs to be valuable to you. And then there is lots of different steps you could do with.

Gabriele Swift (21:09.572)
photographers including me. So I have the smaller packages, the bigger packages. I can have people on workshops, on webinars, so do a mix of all of this.

Maria (21:19.566)
Hmm, and I've been on one of your workshops and I can say with certainty that they are really valuable. So get onto one of Gabby's workshops. You've also got a book coming out, haven't you? So with other authors.

Gabriele Swift (21:31.45)
Yeah, yeah, that was that is something really interesting. So our mentor, Jelinde Wine, she came up with the idea of having a book which will be launched on World Photography Day, which is in 19th of August. Only 10 more days. I'm getting really scared now. And it's 23 of us, including her, who wrote chapters. We're all brand photographers and our own rights.

We all have a lot of knowledge to give. We all have a story to tell where we're coming from, what we're doing. So there will be really individually placed chapters of people and it will be really interesting for people to read and gain things. So there will be tips and tricks in there. There will also be connection places. So there will be link trees in there. So you can actually follow up and talk to somebody afterwards. And the book will come out on the 19th as I said.

The book will be on the day as a very special, very special prize to download, which will be fantastic. And then at a later stage, you will get the paperback and the proper hardcover, which I will definitely get because I can't wait to have this in my hand. I think it will be a really good thing because a lot of people always say, but you are, yes, we are, but we are all so different and we all look at different businesses and different kind of specialities.

Maria (22:55.918)
That's great, so that gives a nice overview of all 23 brand photographers, shall we say, and their different styles and approaches.

Gabriele Swift (23:01.978)
Yes, and the book will be, it's called Be Brand Rich. And there is a Facebook group. And if anybody's interested, just message you or me and you just go in. It doesn't cost anything. And you can start learning about the authors, learn what's going to happen and when the book actually will be out. Exactly.

Maria (23:23.214)
Wonderful, so if anyone's looking for a general overview, then that's probably a good place to start.

Gabriele Swift (23:29.186)
Yes, definitely, definitely.

Maria (23:32.28)
So do you have a key takeaway that you'd like to leave everyone with today, Gabby?

Gabriele Swift (23:38.49)
I think I would like to say to everybody the easiest bit is to just look at what you've got and do you feel happy to go out and say that's me. If you don't, my telephone is

Gabriele Swift (24:01.346)
ring again stop now if you don't have that idea sorry you hear that

Maria (24:07.062)
Yeah.

Gabriele Swift (24:09.188)
Can't turn it off either, Who says this one which doesn't work?

Gabriele Swift (24:16.73)
Wait a second, let's hope it will finish.

Maria (24:19.032)
fine just re -say that when it's finished that's a nice tone

Gabriele Swift (24:25.518)
Yeah, there you go. So, do you want me to do the whole thing as a tip?

Maria (24:32.558)
I can't remember when it went off.

Gabriele Swift (24:35.418)
So if I just would say as a general tip for everyone, what I would suggest is look at what you've got out there at the moment. Would you love to go out and say, that's me, have a look. If you don't, well, I need to change something. That could be just your logo, that could be your wording, that could be even your name. You can change the name of your company, not a problem. And then make sure you get the right...

bits together from the colour, if it works together you will go out and then the images will actually help. If you have the images all over your marketing and have really good expert images that will make a difference. So there you go.

Maria (25:16.92)
Brilliant! thank you, Gabby. Go on.

Gabriele Swift (25:18.106)
You know what I realised what I didn't say? We haven't talked about that I actually do a style headshot, eh?

Maria (25:27.544)
Well, let's do that now. would the question be for that? So you want to say about doing a headshot day.

Gabriele Swift (25:32.378)
If I just go and quickly, briefly say what I actually do offer very quickly and give you like two little bits.

Maria (25:41.912)
Wait, we've not done, sorry, I've just realized I did this when I redid them before and I haven't printed it out. I haven't asked you to do an intro and that's when you could say that. Can you? So if I say, could you introduce yourself? Because I said for the podcast thing, this just all moves around anyway. So if I say, hi, could you please give us an introduction to yourself? Yep. And then you can also tag that bit on and I'll put it under one of the sections to make it fit.

Gabriele Swift (25:52.396)
Okay. my God.

Gabriele Swift (26:08.698)
I need to have my face out, or else I look at it. I get so confused looking at my face.

Maria (26:11.198)
Okay, I don't mean so could you give us a brief introduction to yourself?

Gabriele Swift (26:19.502)
Hello everyone, my name is Gabrielle, Gabriele Swift. am a photographer specializing in brand photography. that is? Well, it's helping business owners at different stages of their business to get seen, be visible and then ultimately grow. So I have the help of visuals in their marketing, which they can use whatever they want. And I do this in a variety of

packages I offer from the micro mini shoots to the three hours and the yearly shoots with monthly ones as well and I have a special styled headshot day where I go and work with a makeup artist who makes sure you look good for the women and apparently she does for the man which we haven't done yet because man seem to be scared with this finger massage that just come without it and then we do the headshot afterwards

Next to all of that I then decided I created a workshop which helps how to bring all these pictures in because even though I do this with my customers and explain to them where to use them some people still don't so on the workshop it's a proper nail down on your strategy making sure that you know what you have and how to bring this together with the images you have or if not create more images.

Maria (27:44.91)
I know I'd feel really relaxed after a massage, so I can see how that would work very well. yeah, just to plug Gabby's workshops, I've been on one and they're absolutely amazing. So sign up for one and check out her website if you're interested.

Maria (28:00.822)
Okay, thank you for reminding me that because I haven't, because obviously I'm using them on the laptop rather than printing them out. So I'm really glad you mentioned that. That would have been really annoying if you hadn't. So before we finish off, we've captured everything. We've gone through all the questions, we've done your intro, we've got the book in as well. Is there anything else we've not mentioned that you think it would be really good to get a clip of this or to capture this?

Gabriele Swift (28:24.174)
fun I do.

Maria (28:26.284)
The fun you do!

Gabriele Swift (28:27.842)
I do. I don't know. I mean, the interesting thing might have been some testimonials.

Gabriele Swift (28:37.102)
somebody wants that, just to say this is what somebody says and or this is how people work.

Maria (28:41.324)
Yeah. That'd be great. Cause you know, we've got, you'll have the show notes page and the idea of this page is it's just going to, it's basically your page. So any up -to -date information you can send me and I can add it to this page. So on the page, there will be this podcast for people to listen if they don't have a podcast place, they listen to podcasts. There'll be the video clips that I'll do. I'll take out key points and put, do little video clips on there. There'll be all the links to your website and anything that you've mentioned, including your book.

and information on where to get the book. and then obviously we can put highlight. And then at the top, I've done this for Reader, actually, who I've did an interview with. They've got the current event they're doing is the fancy trail in the town center. So I've highlighted that at the top of the page. And when it changes, I'll just change the highlight. So anything that you want to focus on that page, I'll just keep changing it. So the next workshop will be next workshop.

So I'll do that on the page. yeah, testimonials would be really good to have on there as well. If you could just send me some across, I can include them on the page too.

Gabriele Swift (29:47.16)
I'll have a little think about it. It's one thing which was really good because I did a shoot on Wednesday evening and the lady I met through networking online, she came over to see her daughter who was to move for like four months towards Asia and she said, I was hoping so much that when I come you can do my headshots. And I was like, yay!

So we did that. So that was really fun. So it's like, yeah, she's coming from America, especially, not really especially, but it looked like it. And it's just, I think you need to feel what a lot of people say to me always is that I'm, they might be, because everybody's nervous and I'm nervous. Okay. I'm no different than all of this. And I've been talking about this and it's just that bit where you then feel, my God, I actually, as much as I'm nervous, I really like.

Maria (30:22.306)
Wow.

Gabriele Swift (30:42.382)
having my pictures taken out and then when you see one you go like this is quite nice actually or I don't like it or and I've had customers who said to me as well well I'm not sure the picture is great but I don't like myself in the picture and I said well that's good so how about if you're really desperate to change something change it and then we'll reconsider when you get to that point because it's not point having these pictures taken and you go like I don't know I feel like bloated I feel too big in the pictures

you know, I can take pictures off, but you don't want to do too much. Okay, you want to make sure that people are still look like them.

Maria (31:15.298)
Yeah.

Maria (31:20.61)
Yeah, I think that's really important. We all have those days or something where we don't feel good. And if you take a picture of it, you're just remembering that day you didn't feel good. You felt ill every time you see the picture.

Gabriele Swift (31:31.898)
Exactly, exactly. So you need to make sure it's fine and you remember what you're doing and how you feel about it and then you get on with it, I think.

Maria (31:41.623)
Do you have, what image would you like me to use in the thumbnail for the video and podcast? Because I just have like a headshot of the person and you've got quite a lot of lovely ones. So which one would you like me to use?

Gabriele Swift (31:53.178)
I can send you the green one. That's quite nice. Quite a one.

Maria (31:56.746)
Yeah please. Yep send me that and then I'll make sure that is like the nice thumbnail for the videos and everything.

Gabriele Swift (32:03.544)
nice little one I've got loads of them but I do like that picture that also because I said to Katherine's I had a double chin but I took the double chin off so it's not too much as much as I love you but I don't want a double chin

Maria (32:19.33)
Beauty of Eddington. So the book is out on the 19th that is one week on Monday isn't it?

Gabriele Swift (32:25.732)
Yes. Yes. that's not the Facebook group is fantastic. I think did you join it? I think you joined it didn't you? You joined it? Okay, I put this on on my on my original post, I think Catherine put it on as well just join. And I can send you a link quickly directly in a minute and then join and then you see all the bits which happening on there at the moment. So there will be all the authors that are getting introduced one by one. And with a little bit of a bio of what they're doing, where they're from with a picture.

Maria (32:31.623)
I don't know, I didn't know there was a Facebook group for that.

Maria (32:45.814)
Okay, perfect.

Gabriele Swift (32:53.402)
And then what I would do as well when mine comes out, I would take that and say, I'm in chapter, I think it's 17, I don't know, need to go and look at that again. Just go and send it out. And there's no specific why somebody's in one and why isn't it early. I think it's just how we signed up. We all signed up within a day. We said, yeah, we're doing it. Then we're like, my God, why did I say yes to?

Maria (33:01.923)
Ha ha ha ha!

Maria (33:14.862)
At least it's just a chapter though, but I'm so excited for you.

Gabriele Swift (33:18.106)
It was still in 3 ,000 words, but I'm like, god, I'll never get there. I'm like, I'm writing. They're like, it's about 100.

Maria (33:24.642)
Well, I don't know, it's nice to summarize, but you can find once you start to get into it and you're going to details in different sections, it really adds up quickly before you realize it. And then you need to try and cut it down.

Gabriele Swift (33:35.182)
I know, definitely, definitely. So I'll have to try and do that. Yeah. Cool. Fantastic.

Maria (33:38.036)
It's up to process. Okay, lovely. if I, it's either 22nd or 29th, I'm hoping to get this published by, suppose 22nd would be good. Leave it with me, but pop the picture across. I'll join the Facebook group. I really need to get better with social media. I need to get into a habit of doing it regularly. I don't know why I've got this relationship with social media. I'm like, it feels like a task rather than something I enjoy.

Gabriele Swift (34:04.686)
Yeah, and that's a moment when you then need to figure out, you might have to go and get somebody to go and help you with it.

Maria (34:11.554)
I know, I'm definitely, I'm gonna get to a stage where I like it. I just have to find that trigger for me.

Gabriele Swift (34:16.152)
get to that stage. I think what you should do is if you go in and even if you just now go in and just go and try try it on a JetGBD or Gemini AI and just saying and really nail it down saying give me four topics I could talk about on my social media doing X, Y and Z and this is who I am blah blah blah you get four little ideas it's just you know it is but then you put them down on your on your screen and go like today I'm talking about this and do it.

Maria (34:45.26)
Yeah, I think I just need to do it. Yeah, because I actually do a lot of stuff and if I just took a picture and put it on social media, it'd be done in seconds. I just need to get in the habit of doing it and thinking. Yeah.

Gabriele Swift (34:45.306)
Because sometimes you have too many ideas, isn't it? And then you don't talk about any.

Gabriele Swift (34:56.516)
doing it then, then. I I know. I've been doing the same with Catherine. We went and moved it to shoot. She posted it in the next morning. I posted it a week later. I just forgot. I'm like, my God. But this is something what you need to try and do. But did you get that thing? have our next, which will probably be the last free one on that day. Next Friday, the Box Sparks, where I could actually talk to people. On the 16th, next Friday.

10 .30 to 12 in Bracknell.

Maria (35:29.23)
That's the one that I said I'm doing filming in the morning.

Gabriele Swift (35:33.592)
Is that the one? There's one afterwards. I don't know why we're doing it because we might move into the fourth Friday despite it I've realised that the following month I'm just not there.

Maria (35:34.702)
That's the one. Yeah, because I said.

Maria (35:45.398)
I forgot, let me stop this and, well, cause it's got to...