Quick Question
Mags Creative co-founder Hannah Russell on the power of podcasting and avoiding comparisons.
In Bustles Quick Question, we ask female leaders all about advice.
When Hannah Russell became a self-confessed podcast junkyback in 2017, she took her newfound obsession further than most.
She co-foundedMags Creative, an independent podcast production company, with her sister, Faith.
Yet Mags Creative is not the first venture the sisters have launched together.
Their previous business,Layer Home, was an online marketplace selling second-hand, high-end, furniture.
Here, Russell spent much of her day on Instagram, connecting with influencers and growing the companys following.
Faith and I were, with hindsight, suffering fromscreen fatigue.
We’d built Layer Home around content, and Instagram felt different in 2014/2017.
There certainly werent conversations around digital addiction ordigital detoxing, Russell recalls.
I remember developing emotional connections with people I had never met.
Through their stories, I felt very heard and seen.
And that became our objective: to make people feel seen, heard and part of a community.
We think that by platforming these conversations, we can make positive changes.
Below, she talks about the best advice shes ever gotten and working through the comparison trap.
What career advice have you received which you continue to live by?
My Mum once told me that comparison is the thief of joy.
I venture to remain focused on mydefinition of successand the things I am proud of.
If you find yourself falling into a pattern of comparison, how do you go about breaking that cycle?
I think it’s about noticing it.
Thats been quite powerful for me.
What about the worst advice youve been given?
If you’re striving towards something you believe in, working hard is not so much of a chore.
More often than not, people can achieve more than they think they can.
Values and work ethic can be just as important as experience because we all have the capacity to learn.
Having founded two companies, what is it that draws you to start your own ventures?
I really like the formative stage of business: the scrappiness, the forward motion and the hustling.
Theres something very gratifying in that.
Now were looking to spread that start-up energy across more people and projects.
Entering this new stage of the business gives us other things to prove which I continue to find exciting.
Lastly, any podcast recommendations?
We have just released a Spotify Original show calledPartners in Crimewith Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling.
They’re talking about the weirdest, wackiest true crime stories through the ages.
I’d also recommend Johnny Wilkinsons podcast,I Am.
I could go on!
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
