Free is one of my favourite price points and, boy, do I have some exciting news for you!

Hi, I'm John Lacey and this is Build A Presentation Muscle, the podcast about showcasing your expertise through content creation.

I don't know if you're familiar with the Affinity suite of Apps but they consisted of:

• Affinity Designer - for vector image creation
• Affinity Photo - for raster image editing
• Affinity Publisher - for desktop publishing

They were available to purchase for a one time fee. In a world where so much software now requires a monthly subscription, this was HUGE, and this software is genuinely super powerful and useful.

Affinity actually removed the ability to purchase the apps from their website and a lot of people feared the worst.

But much to my surprise, they've returned with a single app that combines all of this functionality and they have made it completely free.

You will need a Canva account to use the software —Affinity were acquired by Canva some time ago— but you can use a free Canva account.

Paid Canva users will get some additional AI functionality but as someone who doesn't love AI, I can definitely live without this.

I purchased the version 2 suite back in 2024 and have been loving it ever since.

The new single Affinity app is not missing any of the functionality I have come to know and love.

Content creators often need graphics software to do things like create video thumbnails and podcast artwork, banners, livestream backgrounds and overlays and documents more generally.

You might need to spend some time learning how to use this powerful software and for this I definitely recommend the university of YouTube. There are so many great tutorials out there. And this is software that will support you as you continue to learn and grow.

So if you haven't already checked this out, head over to affinity.studio to get started.

Hi, I'm John Lacey, and this is Build a Presentation Muscle, the podcast all about showcasing your expertise through content creation.

• The elephant in the room: Where this podcast has been.
• Can you build a reputation through content creation?
• Getting back to basics: build a body of work, showcase that work, and avoid distractions and practice self-care.
• This is all an experiment, and experiments can fail.

For more information about this podcast, check out JohnLacey.com

To subscribe to my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@LearnLivestreaming

We all start somewhere, and it can be painful to be a beginner, personal growth can be very (ahem) "character building."

And I don't tell you this to scare you. In fact I tell you this to reassure you.

No matter how you feel about where you are right now, if you apply yourself and practice you will improve over time.

Hi, I'm John Lacey and this is Build A Presentation Muscle, the podcast about showcasing your expertise through content creation.

https://johnlacey.com/build-a-presentation-muscle/we-all-start-somewhere/

I see a lot of people refer to the idea of “vanity metrics.” And while it’s true that some statistics may be more meaningful than others, I think —especially for beginner content creators— we need to acknowledge all the wins and not just the impressive sounding ones.

Hi, I’m John Lacey, and this is Build A Presentation Muscle, the podcast about showcasing your expertise through content creation.

For more information about today’s show, head over to JohnLacey.com

This one's going to be a bit of a car crash, so please fasten your seatbelt securely.

Hi, I'm John Lacey and this is Build A Presentation Muscle, the podcast about showcasing your expertise through content creation.

I think outsiders and beginners might assume the hardest part of content creation is the content creation itself. But the truth is you can relatively easily create the things you want to share, whether they're videos, livestreams, podcasts, articles or graphics.

For more information about today's show, head over to JohnLacey.com

I saw a tweet during the week where someone was lamenting feeling like they should be on video, but not having "the skin" to do it yet. So I wanted to talk about that.

Hi, I'm John Lacey, and this is Build A Presentation Muscle, the podcast about showcasing your expertise through content creation.

Do you, as a content creator generally or an audio podcaster specifically, need to be on video?

You might've heard me say this before, but unless you've signed a contract or have a boss or a sponsor telling you that you have to do something, you can (mostly) do what you like.

Follow laws and platform terms and conditions, and the rest is pretty much up to you.

But I think a lot of anxiety about this comes from a sense that what we're doing isn't reaching enough people, and, maybe, just maybe, video might actually help.

And, frankly, it might. But it might not. Opportunities are everywhere, but opportunity cost is real. No one can guarantee your results.

If you're not interested in doing video, you don't have to do video. You have my blessing. Don't feel bad. Work on what you want to work on.

But here's the thing...

I want you to be ready to take opportunities when they present themselves.

Some of those opportunities might require you to be in front of a camera.

I don't want you to turn down a huge opportunity because you don't have enough camera experience to not feel nervous.

I have a prescription for you. Try it and let me know how you get on.

For more information about today's show, head over to JohnLacey.com

When you first realise you want to showcase your expertise through content creation, you may wonder, “What should I talk about?”

And it might seem like a daunting challenge at first, but I want to explore some starting points here today.

For more information about today’s show, head over to JohnLacey.com

Content creators can be really self-conscious about repeating themselves.

They'll say things like, "But I told people about this back in February 2018. I can't post it again."

You can —and should— repeat yourself.

But even more than that, you need to work smarter. And part of that involves creating a content library.

Hi, I'm John Lacey and this is Build A Presentation Muscle, the podcast about demonstrating your expertise through content creation.

I'd love to hear more about your content creation workflows. If you would like to tell me about them, head over to JohnLacey.com and leave me a message via SpeakPipe or follow the social media links.

Keep on creating!