The Confident Brand Tue, 26 May 2026 07:05:14 -0400 en-us © 2026 The Confident Brand yes 84f12e1c-d132-5f17-95d1-d22f7b0b6852 Kirstie episodic false Welcome to The Confident Brand Podcast, the show for entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to build a brand that actually feels like them. 


We will dive into conversations on building a visible, intentional and profitable brand. From showing up online and creating content to overcoming imposter syndrome, refining your messaging and building a brand people remember. 


Whether you're a creative, coach, service provider or growing personal brand, you'll walk away with practical insights, honest encouragement, and maybe even a dose of tough love from time to time.


Because confidence is'nt something you magically have before you start, its something you build by showing up. 


Hosted by Brand Photographer, Kirstie Veatch. 

]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) Kirstie https://storage.buzzsprout.com/2ermsjp8yso5l2pncyz14yv1tvx0?.jpg The Confident Brand Why AI Headshots Suck Why AI Headshots Suck AI headshots are having a moment… and I have thoughts.

In this episode of The Confident Brand Podcast, I’m diving into why I think AI headshots absolutely suck (yes, I said it) and why this topic feels like such a weird gray area for creatives and business owners right now.

We’re talking about the rise of AI in business, the ethical questions around AI-generated images, why trust matters more than “perfect,” and the real reason I think brand photos are about so much more than just looking good online.

I’m sharing my hot take on:

  •  Why AI headshots can hurt trust in your brand 
  •  The difference between helpful AI vs. replacing authenticity 
  •  The psychology behind confidence and showing up as yourself 
  •  Why real, imperfect content will always connect more than polished perfection 
  •  My honest thoughts on editing, retouching, and where I personally draw the line with AI 

If you’ve ever wondered whether AI branding photos are “good enough,” if they’re hurting your credibility, or if showing up imperfectly is still worth it, this episode is for you.

Because at the end of the day? People don’t want perfect. They want real.


Links & Resources


Let's Connect:


If you loved this episode, leave a review! It helps other business owners find our podcast and helps me create more content you actually want to listen to!🎙️✨

]]> AI headshots are having a moment… and I have thoughts.

In this episode of The Confident Brand Podcast, I’m diving into why I think AI headshots absolutely suck (yes, I said it) and why this topic feels like such a weird gray area for creatives and business owners right now.

We’re talking about the rise of AI in business, the ethical questions around AI-generated images, why trust matters more than “perfect,” and the real reason I think brand photos are about so much more than just looking good online.

I’m sharing my hot take on:

  •  Why AI headshots can hurt trust in your brand 
  •  The difference between helpful AI vs. replacing authenticity 
  •  The psychology behind confidence and showing up as yourself 
  •  Why real, imperfect content will always connect more than polished perfection 
  •  My honest thoughts on editing, retouching, and where I personally draw the line with AI 

If you’ve ever wondered whether AI branding photos are “good enough,” if they’re hurting your credibility, or if showing up imperfectly is still worth it, this episode is for you.

Because at the end of the day? People don’t want perfect. They want real.


Links & Resources


Let's Connect:


If you loved this episode, leave a review! It helps other business owners find our podcast and helps me create more content you actually want to listen to!🎙️✨

]]> Kirstie Buzzsprout-19225299 Tue, 26 May 2026 06:00:00 -0500 869 3 full false Confidence as a Personal Brand Confidence as a Personal Brand Hey, guys, welcome to the Confident Brand podcast. I'm your host Kirstie. And today I wanted to just dive right on into talking about confidence.

So I know that right now in the whole world of being an online business owner, having your own business, the whole entrepreneur journey, there's even more hats for us to all wear today than I feel like there ever has been before.

The importance of keeping up visually, making sure that you have good messaging and showing up personally for your business, it's just like an additional full time job on top of just the business you have yourself.

I think sometimes it can be really easy to kind of just look at all of that and fold into yourself and think this feels like too much.

I think, you know it can be really polarizing when you think of all the things that we can do and all the things that honestly, all the other gurus tell you you need to be doing this in order to have a successful business.

That usually just is not the case and you don't have to do all the things. Um, my advice to you would be find one thing to start off with that you can start practicing that is going to help move the needle in your business and help you show up in a more personal way for your business.

So an example of that could be either getting better at talking to camera videos or maybe taking behind the scene videos of yourself. Um, so you can create reels that show what it's like to work with you.

One of my favorite quotes and I don't even know who quoted this, maybe I quoted it, maybe I came up with this, I can't remember.

I'll take half credit, but it is that confidence is not a possession. Confidence is an action.

And I just love that because it means that you can't look at someone and say, well, she's confident or he's confident and I'm not. It really has to do with, have they built up a confidence muscle?

And maybe in this area of your life or your business, you just haven't worked that confidence muscle up yet.

I feel like that's just such a freeing way to look at confidence, that it isn't something that you have, it's something that you do.

And you don't get confident because you're good at something. You get confident because you started working towards your goal.

And in return, basically keeping the small commitments that you've told yourself you wanted to do in order to reach a goal that is worthy. You have gained confidence in yourself that you will do the things that you say you will do and you will put in the work to get the results that you desire.

So, yeah, whether you want to run six miles or lift 75 pounds, you don't start off usually being able to do that. And I can't do either of those things at all.

So this is just, just an example, not from personal experience, but confidence really is kind of like, um working out.

If you don't work out, you won't have the Santama and ability to walk around six miles or lift these heavy weights.

First step always sucks the most. Um, and I know that that might be cliche or you've heard that before that like, oh, getting started is the hardest part, but it's true, haha.

Um, restarting and getting your momentum going is always always more difficult than when you start momentum and can compound on that momentum.

So that is my encouragement for you today that no matter where you're at in your business, you can start creating a more confident personal brand and show up more confident, even if you don't always feel that way or always embody it.

I don't always feel confident.

And I also know that if there are times where I'm starting to feel down or disappointed and either like my Instagram reach or maybe I feel like I haven't got the inquiries that I've wanted to lately, usually it comes down to I have not been taking action and doing the things I know I need to do in my business. And that's when the self doubt starts creeping in.

So that is my short little lesson on confidence, and I hope it's encouraging to you because you can start building that confidence muscle up today.

No matter what facet that you need to in your business. Start small and just set small goals so that you have multiple wins under your belt.

But anyways, thank you so much for listening and I can't wait to record the next episode. Bye. That sounded like a phone call ending.

Links & Resources


Let's Connect:


If you loved this episode, leave a review! It helps other business owners find our podcast and helps me create more content you actually want to listen to!🎙️✨

]]> Hey, guys, welcome to the Confident Brand podcast. I'm your host Kirstie. And today I wanted to just dive right on into talking about confidence.

So I know that right now in the whole world of being an online business owner, having your own business, the whole entrepreneur journey, there's even more hats for us to all wear today than I feel like there ever has been before.

The importance of keeping up visually, making sure that you have good messaging and showing up personally for your business, it's just like an additional full time job on top of just the business you have yourself.

I think sometimes it can be really easy to kind of just look at all of that and fold into yourself and think this feels like too much.

I think, you know it can be really polarizing when you think of all the things that we can do and all the things that honestly, all the other gurus tell you you need to be doing this in order to have a successful business.

That usually just is not the case and you don't have to do all the things. Um, my advice to you would be find one thing to start off with that you can start practicing that is going to help move the needle in your business and help you show up in a more personal way for your business.

So an example of that could be either getting better at talking to camera videos or maybe taking behind the scene videos of yourself. Um, so you can create reels that show what it's like to work with you.

One of my favorite quotes and I don't even know who quoted this, maybe I quoted it, maybe I came up with this, I can't remember.

I'll take half credit, but it is that confidence is not a possession. Confidence is an action.

And I just love that because it means that you can't look at someone and say, well, she's confident or he's confident and I'm not. It really has to do with, have they built up a confidence muscle?

And maybe in this area of your life or your business, you just haven't worked that confidence muscle up yet.

I feel like that's just such a freeing way to look at confidence, that it isn't something that you have, it's something that you do.

And you don't get confident because you're good at something. You get confident because you started working towards your goal.

And in return, basically keeping the small commitments that you've told yourself you wanted to do in order to reach a goal that is worthy. You have gained confidence in yourself that you will do the things that you say you will do and you will put in the work to get the results that you desire.

So, yeah, whether you want to run six miles or lift 75 pounds, you don't start off usually being able to do that. And I can't do either of those things at all.

So this is just, just an example, not from personal experience, but confidence really is kind of like, um working out.

If you don't work out, you won't have the Santama and ability to walk around six miles or lift these heavy weights.

First step always sucks the most. Um, and I know that that might be cliche or you've heard that before that like, oh, getting started is the hardest part, but it's true, haha.

Um, restarting and getting your momentum going is always always more difficult than when you start momentum and can compound on that momentum.

So that is my encouragement for you today that no matter where you're at in your business, you can start creating a more confident personal brand and show up more confident, even if you don't always feel that way or always embody it.

I don't always feel confident.

And I also know that if there are times where I'm starting to feel down or disappointed and either like my Instagram reach or maybe I feel like I haven't got the inquiries that I've wanted to lately, usually it comes down to I have not been taking action and doing the things I know I need to do in my business. And that's when the self doubt starts creeping in.

So that is my short little lesson on confidence, and I hope it's encouraging to you because you can start building that confidence muscle up today.

No matter what facet that you need to in your business. Start small and just set small goals so that you have multiple wins under your belt.

But anyways, thank you so much for listening and I can't wait to record the next episode. Bye. That sounded like a phone call ending.

Links & Resources


Let's Connect:


If you loved this episode, leave a review! It helps other business owners find our podcast and helps me create more content you actually want to listen to!🎙️✨

]]> Kirstie Buzzsprout-19223958 Fri, 22 May 2026 14:00:00 -0500 403 2 full false The Confident Brand Podcast Trailer The Confident Brand Podcast Trailer Hey, everybody, I am so excited to be launching this podcast. I'm actually just sitting in my van in the garage, but I'm gonna pretend that we're actually sitting somewhere having a coffee because that sounds like so much more fun. But I am just really excited to actually get started this first episode.

I just wanted to do like a quick hello and tell you a little bit about who I am and why I even wanted to start a podcast. So for as long as I can remember, I have always been a yapper, haha.

So I, lowkey have, kind of, always thought man doing a podcast would probably be right in my wheelhouse because I can just sit and talk out all of my thoughts and share all of these ideas or tips I have with you guys when it comes to businesses and personal branding.

So when it comes to writing content, I have always just been like, this just doesn't feel as natural. I always voice to text. Your girl just likes to talk.

I think my longest phone call conversation with someone was a 12 hour conversation, and I'm not exaggerating, haha.

I have been doing brand photography for, um, well, I've been a photographer for 14 years now. I picked up a camera when I was a senior in high school and have loved ever since.

And photography has just served me really well throughout the different aspects of my life, whether I was in college or a newly wed and, kind of realized, oh, um, even though I grew up in southern Iowa where it seemed like you really probably couldn't be a photographer full time. Um, at least that's the impression that I got growing up, um, living in a really small town.

I moved to Iowa's bigger city and realized that there was definitely way more possibility in the photography realm than I thought. And so I started off shooting weddings exclusively, did that for quite a few years.

And then in 2019, I started working with more local brands and then just switched completely over to exclusively working with brands, entrepreneurs, solo panures, lots of realtors, and also commercial work and corporates.

So I absolutely love it. I feel like I get to merge my artistic drive with strategy and marketing.

And it has been just like one of my favorite things. I absolutely love specializing in this niche. And it has been so much fun to continue to hone my craft and kind of start taking a more creative director role when it comes to a lot of my clients' brand sessions where I'm even more involved with the design process of what images they need to have their brand look elevated and allow them to take that next step in their business.

So my goal with the Confident Brand podcast is just to share even more tips about branding and marketing yourself and becoming a stronger personal brand that is gonna help you in your business.

If you have a good personal brand, it's gonna carry through no matter what life throws at you and what your business might shift and pivot throughout the years.

That's my goal with this podcast and to also highlight some other local amazing entrepreneurs and business owners and just to get to learn from each other, maybe talk about some, you know controversial things or have some hot takes. I just want this to be fun and light hearted but also helpful. I'm just really excited.


Links & Resources


Let's Connect:


If you loved this episode, leave a review! It helps other business owners find our podcast and helps me create more content you actually want to listen to!🎙️✨

]]> Hey, everybody, I am so excited to be launching this podcast. I'm actually just sitting in my van in the garage, but I'm gonna pretend that we're actually sitting somewhere having a coffee because that sounds like so much more fun. But I am just really excited to actually get started this first episode.

I just wanted to do like a quick hello and tell you a little bit about who I am and why I even wanted to start a podcast. So for as long as I can remember, I have always been a yapper, haha.

So I, lowkey have, kind of, always thought man doing a podcast would probably be right in my wheelhouse because I can just sit and talk out all of my thoughts and share all of these ideas or tips I have with you guys when it comes to businesses and personal branding.

So when it comes to writing content, I have always just been like, this just doesn't feel as natural. I always voice to text. Your girl just likes to talk.

I think my longest phone call conversation with someone was a 12 hour conversation, and I'm not exaggerating, haha.

I have been doing brand photography for, um, well, I've been a photographer for 14 years now. I picked up a camera when I was a senior in high school and have loved ever since.

And photography has just served me really well throughout the different aspects of my life, whether I was in college or a newly wed and, kind of realized, oh, um, even though I grew up in southern Iowa where it seemed like you really probably couldn't be a photographer full time. Um, at least that's the impression that I got growing up, um, living in a really small town.

I moved to Iowa's bigger city and realized that there was definitely way more possibility in the photography realm than I thought. And so I started off shooting weddings exclusively, did that for quite a few years.

And then in 2019, I started working with more local brands and then just switched completely over to exclusively working with brands, entrepreneurs, solo panures, lots of realtors, and also commercial work and corporates.

So I absolutely love it. I feel like I get to merge my artistic drive with strategy and marketing.

And it has been just like one of my favorite things. I absolutely love specializing in this niche. And it has been so much fun to continue to hone my craft and kind of start taking a more creative director role when it comes to a lot of my clients' brand sessions where I'm even more involved with the design process of what images they need to have their brand look elevated and allow them to take that next step in their business.

So my goal with the Confident Brand podcast is just to share even more tips about branding and marketing yourself and becoming a stronger personal brand that is gonna help you in your business.

If you have a good personal brand, it's gonna carry through no matter what life throws at you and what your business might shift and pivot throughout the years.

That's my goal with this podcast and to also highlight some other local amazing entrepreneurs and business owners and just to get to learn from each other, maybe talk about some, you know controversial things or have some hot takes. I just want this to be fun and light hearted but also helpful. I'm just really excited.


Links & Resources


Let's Connect:


If you loved this episode, leave a review! It helps other business owners find our podcast and helps me create more content you actually want to listen to!🎙️✨

]]> Kirstie Buzzsprout-19222316 Fri, 22 May 2026 08:00:00 -0500 325 1 trailer false