How Anna Howard Used Creator Gravity to Make 170K+ Listeners Fall in Love With 'Wild Geese'
“Your podcast is of spiritual value to me.” “I cried watching this.” “This just changed my life,” and other comments from the virtuosic work that is Wild Geese.
In my five years of dib-dabbling in the creator world, I have never—and I mean ever—seen a comment section quite like Anna’s from Wild Geese. 🪿
If you haven’t heard of Wild Geese yet, I’m honored to put you on.
It’s the creative brainchild of podcast strategist and actress Anna Howard. Each episode explores creativity and the human experience, from “Creating a Digital Garden to End My Doomscrolling” to “How to Be an Artist Without Selling Your Soul On The Internet.” (Relatable.)
I found Anna’s podcast last August, while riding a cherry-red Chemin de Fer train through Chamonix’s mountain slopes. “Holy shit,” I remember thinking while listening to that first episode.
But I’m just one of thousands of people who are enamoured with Anna’s work. In just two years, Wild Geese amassed a reverent fan base of 167K subscribers on YouTube, 19.8K on Instagram, and 14K on Substack.
But let’s forget the vanity metrics. What’s far more impressive is how Anna’s touched countless lives by inviting us into her intellectual nook. In other words: Anna has Creator Gravity—a force around her online world that pulls in people and opportunities.
Creator Gravity is made of three pillars:
Pillar 1) Purpose: The creator has planted their flag in a clear direction.
Pillar 2) Health: The creator cares about creating “nutritionally rich” content.
Pillar 3) Energy: The creator has an unmissable aura and operates in their zone of genius.
In this interview, Anna graciously shares how to become magnetic online while staying true to you. I think you’ll love this one. ❣️
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Alice: I’m elated you’re here! Tell me: was Wild Geese the first time you started creating online?
Anna: No! For a few years before Wild Geese, I had a business Instagram account as a podcast consultant to try and land clients.
But the connection with the audience was so surface level. At a certain point, it was actually making me depressed. I didn’t want to keep showing up that way.
Wild Geese completely turned things around for me.
Alice: How did you first get the idea for Wild Geese? Did it scare you to start posting online?
Anna: I had a lot of fear around it, mostly because I was coming from the perspective of being a podcast manager for other people. I thought, “Okay, if I do this, I have to do it well,” even though I was a beginner.
But going from being behind the scenes to being the person hosting is an entirely different thing.
I had two choices. I could make a podcast about my podcasting expertise, but that felt strained from the get. Or I could find a way to make it feel like a hobby—to not put so much pressure on myself to come at it as a professional.
I went with option two. I wanted Wild Geese to feel fun, free, and playful, which interestingly, meant I had to break a lot of my own rules—the ones I’d give to clients on how to do things the “right” way.
Alice: Totally. It’s interesting–I find that when people launch a creative project, whether it’s posting on TikTok or starting a podcast, it comes with high expectations: This needs to earn me a lot of money. This needs to get me new opportunities.
Did you have that mindset with Wild Geese?
Anna: I went in with no expectations because I had the behind-the-scenes look (which was a big privilege!).
When you’re just hearing these big promises from other creators (”you can make X amount of money on the internet, all you have to do is record a 30-minute podcast!”) then of course you’re going to go into it thinking this is your ticket to financial freedom.
But that’s a big reason many people burn out quickly, because that’s not always reality.
The fact that I had the behind-the-scenes understanding gave me more clarity. I understood going into it that I could end with a podcast that only had 10 listeners. And if that happened, I needed to ask myself:
What do I need to give myself to make this worth it?
Alice: Tell me more about that.
Anna: In Wild Geese’ early days that answer was: If nobody ever listens, for this to be worth it, I need to talk to people who are interesting to me that I otherwise might not be able to.
As it went on, it became: to make this worth it, I need to explore my own voice and give myself permission to know that I have something to say, because I’d been hiding behind other people for so long.
Can I use Wild Geese as a way to expand myself, without relying on my audience growing and me making all this money? That’s been a guiding light for me.
Alice: I love this. I actually started posting videos on Instagram and TikTok in the past 3 months and nothing external has happened yet—as in no followers or brand deals. Which is expected!
But what’s been so rewarding is to see myself slowly get over the fear of speaking to a camera. It’s a huge internal expansion. I’ve realized the money comes absolutely last.
Anna: Exactly. People tend to position online creation as this very easy thing that anyone can do. And compared to a lot of other things, that’s true. But when you approach it as just a fast, easy way to make money, there’s nothing deeper keeping you there.
Alice: Next up: one of the big reasons people are obsessed with Wild Geese is how “healthy” the content is—almost as if it nourishes the soul.
Clearly, you care about your audience. But I’ve also heard you say: “I know this episode won’t perform well, but I’ve gained so much from it.”
How do you balance creating for your audience versus yourself?
Anna: At the end of the day, I’m always giving myself, first and foremost, what I need.
If I need inspiration, I’m going to inspire myself. If I’m feeling stagnant, I’m going to teach myself something. That always snowballs out to the audience. I think the reverse—of sitting down and being like “Time to create for people today!”—would drive me to burnout.
I’m going to trust that what I need is also what some other people need. I never need rage bait. I never need things that are going to leave me feeling more anxious afterward. And that’s what I carry into Wild Geese.
Alice: Love it. When Wild Geese first started picking up steam—with hundreds of thousands of eyeballs suddenly on you—how did you deal? Did it impact your creativity?
Anna: After I went viral for the first time, I thought: “Okay, I have to keep this up. I have to maintain the standard that brought all these people here.”
But that’s a huge level of pressure and weirdness to put on yourself, because you’re not going to show up the same way twice. Even if you do have repeated elements of what you’re doing, you as a person are going to be changing.
I started having this thing in the back of my mind:
“You’re losing it, Anna. You’re losing your spark. People can tell.”
Truth is, you have to coach your way out of those thoughts. Because if I just tried to guess what my audience wants or likes, I’d completely lose it.
Alice: 100%. There also has to be self-preservation—not getting too affected by what others say about you or when a post “flops.” How do you go about that self-preservation?
Anna: I don’t shame myself for falling into any internet trap, such as a vanity metrics rabbit hole. These platforms are engineered to make you feel that way.
I tell myself: I’m just a human being relating to these destructive pieces of technology. And yes, while these tools can be lovely and great for self-improvement, they’re also designed to degrade our mental health.
But there’s also an element of this—I call it my inner mother. It’s this voice in my head I can tap into that is loving and compassionate, but also puts her foot down to take care of me.
For example, when I’m free-falling, looking at comments and realizing that my episode didn’t perform well, she says:
“Anna, we’re going to close our laptops now. I understand why you’re upset. We’re going to rub our little hearts and give ourselves a hug. But we’re closing the laptop now, going on a walk, and reaching out to a friend.”
Alice: I love that. Elizabeth Gilbert talks about something incredibly similar in Eat Pray Love. In a moment of deep depression, she takes out pen and paper and asks aloud: What do I need to do?
Suddenly, a voice from beyond answers. And she coaches herself through it all.
Next question: How do you get the idea for a podcast episode?
Anna: It kind of feels like magic.
Digital gardening is a big part of this. It’s a constellation of disparate ideas coming together. Sometimes an idea for an episode comes from a conversation with a friend. Sometimes it comes from a TikTok or a book.
Right now I use two platforms: Sublime and Capacities.
Capacities is where I do all my writing. If I’m consuming anything, whether it’s a TV show, a book, a movie, I’m taking notes as I take that thing in.
Sublime is where, anytime I’m anywhere on the internet, I can highlight something and put it into a bucket. The buckets are usually episode ideas.
Alice: I love Sublime! And what’s great about this process is that it requires you to be an active observer—you’re scrapbooking life so to speak. It reminds me what Mary Oliver said:
Any pieces of advice you’d give to somebody who wants to post online and build gravity? 🪐
Anna: Yes! We touched on them earlier but to reiterate:
Make What You Need
Use your creative practice to respond to your own needs and values.
If you need rest, give yourself rest through what you’re making. If you need to learn something, learn something new and make something on the other side of it. That’s how art and creativity become such a catalyst to meeting yourself in a different way.
Have a Connection to Your “Inner Mother”
If you’re going to put anything out there on the internet, make sure you have a connection to that caring voice in your head that doesn’t use shame as a motivating factor.
Alice: 100%. It reminds me of this meme: “Wanting to be liked by everybody is insane, because some people are bad.”
Anna: Definitely. You have to become okay with being misunderstood. And the best way to do that is to become really connected to yourself, so that when people misunderstand you, you can say:
It’s okay. I understand me.
Thank you Anna for such a beautiful conversation. 💌 You can find her on Instagram, YouTube, and her Substack, Geese Press. She’ll also be launching a Patreon come August so keep your eyes peeled!
If you liked this interview don’t forget to give it a ‘lil heart or comment!
Have a beautiful rest of your day.
I am a HUGE fan of Wild Geese and Anna! I loved this interview because I want to understand how the creators I love do their work, what motivates them, and how they deal with the weird world of the internet. She has inspired me (a 65 year old grandma, with a little youtube channel) to start a digital garden and keep plugging away, week after week, talking about things that interest me, in hopes of connecting with others.
This was fantastic and very much what I needed to read right now. I had never heard of Anna or Wild Geese before and I'm very happy to be switched on to both.
It gives me a lot of calm to know that there are other creative people out there searching for and finding their own answers through their process.