Every founder we meet has a version of the same story. It starts somewhere completely unexpected, takes a few wrong turns and somehow ends up exactly where it was meant to.
So for the very first episode of The Zesty Mill Podcast, the new Belfast business podcast. We kick off with co-host Morgan from the Spinners Mill Podcast Studio, and for this first edition we did something a little different. No guest in the hot seat this time. We interviewed each other.
It was meant to be a warm-up into our first series. But, it turned into a very honest chat about burnout, big leaps, and why the road to running a business is anything but straight.
What is The Zesty Mill?
The Zesty Mill Podcast asks “What’s the Craic” with small businesses in Belfast and Northern Ireland. In each episode, we sit down with a local founder and get the real story: the wins, the wobbles and everything behind the scenes.
It's a collaboration between us at Yellow Zest, a branding and digital marketing agency on the Newtownards Road, and The Spinners Mill, the DJ and podcast studio just down the same road in East Belfast. (Yes, we did their rebrand. Yes, I'm still smiling about it.)
Juliana’s Story: From civil engineering to candles to branding
My path has been, let's say, scenic. I was studying civil engineering in Brazil, met an Irishman volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and was meant to go to Canada. I came to Ireland instead. That was 12 years ago.
I learned English from scratch, did a business degree, then a postgrad in international business at Queen's University. I ended up as an import-export manager, moving raw materials around the world right as Brexit, COVID and the Suez Canal crisis hit at once. Tight margins, tight turnarounds, a lot of Excel. Safe to say, I burned out badly.
So I started a candle business, as you do. From workshops and markets, and everything inbetween, Victoria Square, the Ulster Folk Museum and Pinterest all contacted me to run events for them. And I realised the part I loved most about my candle business was the branding, the website and the social media. People started asking me to do theirs. The rest is Yellow Zest.
Morgan's road: From as far back as GCSE music to running a podcast studio in East Belfast.
Morgan's story has just as many plot twists. She started making music on Logic Pro for GCSE music at just 16, completed A levels in completely different subjects, but still wasn’t content. She went on to study Music Technology at Belfast Met where the passion for audio engineering reignited, then headed to the Netherlands for a degree in Arts, Culture and Media to pursue a career in music events management and live sound..
Then COVID cancelled every event she'd planned to manage. She packed up life abroad, came home, worked in public service jobs, including running corporate events just to satisfy the creative craving and suddenly found herself working weekends at Banana Block, and spotted a brand new concept for a podcast studio there in 2023. Fast forward, and with her business partner Conor rebuilding the space from scratch for video, The Spinners Mill Podcast Studio is now a full-service podcast and DJ studio in Belfast, from concept and recording to editing, short-form clips, distribution and even original music production. (Wow!)
The biggest challenge? Knowing when to leap
This was the part of the conversation that hit hardest. Morgan spent years running the studio alongside a full-time 9-to-5, editing into the night, until burnout made the decision for her.
Her take: there's no magic moment. No revenue figure or client count tells you it's time. It's when you hit the wall and ask yourself whether you're taking this seriously or is it just another hobby that you’ll eventually give up.
My one piece of advice if you're thinking about leaving your job to start a business: build a six month financial cushion first. Without it, you'll end up taking bad deals out of desperation. You want your decisions driven by strategy and gut feeling, not by needing to make ends meet this week.
"Did you ever think it wouldn't work?"
Every day. (Joking. Mostly.)
Going from solopreneur in a spare bedroom to an agency with staff and an office lease is daunting. I'd go hungry before I'd miss paying my team. But those moments of doubt are usually the moments of growth, and saying yes to them has led to projects I never imagined, including branding work now being used in schools across Northern Ireland.
Branding is more than a logo
When I asked Morgan about her first big win, she said the rebrand. (Not sponsored, I promise. Nobody was held at gunpoint.)
She described it as the moment she finally felt confident about who the business was and who it was for. And that's the point. Your brand is how you're positioned in front of your clients, across every single touchpoint: your email signature, your proposals, your LinkedIn.
It's why Jo Malone can charge £90 for a candle while a small maker struggles to charge £25. It's still a candle. The difference is positioning.
Our best advice for new founders
Don't start a business purely for money or recognition. Both will come and go, and they won't keep you going on the hard days. Do it because you genuinely love it. That energy is infectious, and people want to be around it.
And you don't need everything figured out on day one. Do your homework, know where you're going, and give yourself credit for how far you've come.
The Zesty Mill Bonus tip: one podcast = weeks of content
A little marketing trick I preach more than I practise. Record one long form podcast. Turn it into a blog (hello!), then a newsletter, then short clips for social. One recording can fuel your content for weeks. If you've been on the fence about starting a podcast for your business, this is your sign. The guys at The Zesty Mill can make that project in reality!
This episode's recommendations
Juliana: the TV series From (very Lost, very creepy) and Widow's Bay for something lighter but still mysterious.
Morgan: the Liz the Music Manager podcast, all about music publishing and your rights as an artist, and Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, produced by Quincy Jones.
Are you ready for the hot seat?
If you're a founder anywhere in Northern Ireland with a story to tell, we'd love to have you on The Zesty Mill Podcast. Listen to Episode 1 on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and give us a follow so you don't miss the next one!
And if Morgan's rebrand story landed a bit close to home, that's exactly what our Brand Strategy Workshop is for.
Catch you at the next one!
