Posts

, , ,

Charging your worth, money blocks, and boundaries with Denise Duffield-Thomas

Denise Duffield Thomas

I can’t quite believe I’m typing this… this week’s Small & Supercharged Podcast guest is Denise Duffield-Thomas. Yes, DENISE DUFFIELD-THOMAS. Author of Lucky Bitch, Get Rich Lucky Bitch and Chillpreneur. I love Denise’s manner and ethos and what she teaches in her books is just brilliant. It’s not all about making money, it’s all around mindset and how to attract what you want into your life… and I promise you this podcast will help you feel inspired and like anything and everything is possible after you listen. It’s a big promise, but I’m confident on this…

 

Charging your worth, money blocks, and boundaries with Denise Duffield-Thomas

In this week’s podcast, my amazing guest Denise Duffield-Thomas talks about so many things. We start talking about how she got to where she is today (and it’s quite a journey!), and then we get into the meat of it. We then discuss money blocks. In simple terms, a money block is anything that stops you from charging your worth or prevents you from charging at all. Denise unpacks this in lots of different ways, talks about cultural differences, industry money blocks, family money blocks, and so much more.

Being paid for your passion or something you find easy…

We talk about being paid for passions and things that we feel are ‘easy’. As I say in the podcast, I speak with a lot of photographers and I know that many have issues with charging their worth. And it turns out that it’s not just equestrian photographers! Denise shares a story where a photographer she worked with recently didn’t want to charge her for the images he took, and then how he proceeded to heavily discount his work despite the fact Denise wanted to pay the right amount. As Denise points out, the fact it took the photographer a couple of minutes to take images isn’t the point. The point is that it wasn’t just the few minutes of work that Denise was paying for. It was the years of experience and the amazing kit and skills…

Let’s batch

Next up, we discuss batch working and the value of this. Denise comes up with some great examples of how batch working can work, not just for you but for the consumer too. We talk about how, if you create your content when you’re in the zone, the content will be better, meaning your readers and viewers get the best from you. We also discuss the other blocks around this, such as people who feel like their customers needs ‘fresh content’…without appreciating that the content is fresh for them.

And let’s not forget Chillpreneur

Moving on, we chat about Denise’s amazing new book – Chillpreneur. This book was inspired by a lack of business books aimed at female entrepreneurs with children. After reading through a stack of books on maternity leave, Denise became disheartened that all the books she read were aimed at men without children. So she wrote her own. Although Denise is  well known for money mindset, she took the opportunity with Chillpreneur to share her marketing and business knowledge; something she is really passionate about. We also talk about the benefits that Denise has seen from writing this book, the success stories, and the issues that her book is helping to address.

As I mentioned in the podcast, I’m running a giveaway to celebrate this amazing podcast. The competition will launch on the evening that the podcast is released and run for a week… hopefully you will pop on over to my Instagram and enter.

If you want to find out more about Denise Duffield-Thomas and order her book (or just find out more) all the links are below…

Denise’s website

Chillpreneur’s website

Chillpreneur on Amazon

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

P.S- if you liked this podcast, you might also like to have a read of these blogs here…

5 books for equestrian business

Behind my new obsession with Audible
Subscribe to the Small & Supercharged podcast on iTunes

/by
, , ,

5 top books for equestrian business

5 top books for equestrian business

Today is World Book Day (well, if you read this on March 7th, it is!). With this in mind, I thought that to celebrate this fab event, I’d write about five books for equestrian business. These books are NOT equestrian. They won’t be able to teach you your fetlocks from your forelocks, but if you run an equestrian or equine business, you’ll know that anyway. These business books should help your business, your mindset, your marketing and more.

If you follow me on social media, you’ll know I’m a bit of a bookworm. Whether I’m reading a book or listening to one when I walk the dog, I like to learn as I go… but the subjects can be quite varied! Mostly, I listen to and read books about business and mindset. Sometimes a bit about branding and marketing too. But business is the general genre. So here, on World Book Day, I thought I’d share my five top books for equestrian business..

Here are my five top books for equestrian business…

Gary Vaynerchuk – Crushing It

In all honesty, this blog was always going to include at least one Gary Vee book. I went for Crushing It because it’s one I’ve listened to most recently (and is also the most recent of his books). Actually, not just listened to, I have the hardback book too! Crushing It is a kind of continuation from a previous book, Crush It, but can also be read and enjoyed alone. If ‘Crush It’ was a blueprint for how to achieve entrepreneurial success and leverage all you have, ‘Crushing It’ shows you using examples. Gary interviewed many entrepreneurs for this book, including lots I knew before (and many I’m pleased I know about now). It’s inspiring, interesting and packed full of ideas and real life examples that you can apply to your business too.

How to get to the top of Google – Tim Cameron-Kitchen & Exposure Ninja

If you’re even a little interested in Search Engine Optimisation, content marketing, and Google, have a read (or a listen!) to this. I downloaded this on Audible and have listened to it more than once. I love knowing how things work, and SEO is something that I have more than a passing interest in. To get an all in one, plain English, crash course appealed to me. I didn’t have hugely high hopes when I started. Part of me was concerned it would be too basic, and a larger part that it would be WAY too complicated… but it wasn’t either. The background was covered but more advanced ideas and strategies around SEO and getting to the top of Google were explained in a way that was really easy to understand and apply. As an extra perk of this book, you can actually have a free assessment of your website. I should say that I have the Audible version of this and I also found it really easy to listen to. A bit like a friend was chatting to me about SEO. It’s always important to listen to the voice of the narrator to make sure you gel with it. That sounds crazy, but trust me on this!

Chillpreneur – Denise Duffield – Thomas

If you haven’t read Denise’s other books (Lucky Bitch and Get Rich, Lucky Bitch) do… I feel that Chillpreneur is a great extension of this. You might think that these books revolve around money and being lazy – they don’t. To me, hearing a different view point from a self made multimillionaire was really interesting and something I enjoyed and took inspiration from. It’s more about stacking the odds in your favour – whatever form that takes – and making sure you’re leading a life that you really REALLY want. Not just going along with the tide and feeling rather unhappy about things. This is Denise’s latest book and one that I will be reading again very shortly.

Building a StoryBrand – Miller Donald

This book is seriously good. It explains the process businesses go through to build a story brand, where the client is always the hero and the business is always the guide. It’s a fascinating look at how all good stories, whether fictitious or real, are built around this brand story idea. The ones that succeed understand the pattern – the ones that don’t… not so much. Building a StoryBrand talks about the seven universal story points that all humans respond to. If you’re looking to improve your brand story, to guide your customers on the right journey for them, improve loyalty and a WHOLE lot more, this is for you!

Brand Brilliance – Fiona Humberstone

Not only is this book incredible to read, but it is a thing of beauty too. But you’d expect that from The Brand Stylist, wouldn’t you? This book is all about branding, colours, design, the way you position your brand, and how you stand out (for the right reasons!) is a busy world. This book is beautifully produced and although some of those topics might sound overwhelming, I promise you that the way they’re presented in this book makes them very accessible. Brand Brilliance will inspire you and get you thinking about your brand and what it stands for, but in a way that’s so, so useful!

So there are my five top books for equestrian business. To be honest I could have written a short book on books I recommend, but I do think these ones are really, really great! They cover different aspects of business, and would be a superb additions to your business library. What books would you recommend? What are your top books for equestrian business? Pop over to my Instagram and comment on the post with the image above!

Rhea Freeman Newsletter Link

/by
, , , ,

When is it OK to rebrand?

When is it OK to rebrand?I was watching a video on Denise Duffield Thomas’s Facebook page last week all about her retiring. No, not herself, about her retiring her incredibly well known Lucky Bitch brand. It got me thinking a lot about rebranding actually… and I’m not talking about a logo tweak… I’m talking about why people decide to change their business name/colours/vibe entirely. Is it OK to rebrand? Why would you rebrand? And what should you think about when you do.

I should say, this rebranding blog is just my own thoughts on it. I do love all the elements of branding and I am fairly knowledgeable on the subject, but these are very much my own thoughts on rebrands and how it all works.

Is it OK to rebrand?

Of course it is. On one level. If you’re self-employed, the head of your own business and, therefore, in charge of your own destiny you can, in theory, do whatever you like. If you want to rebrand your business as something completely crazy, you do it if you want. But you really should have a good old think about it before you go mad, as it could have repercussions. Although, referring to point one, if it is YOUR brand, you can do what you like… well, as long as you don’t infringe on anyone else’s trademarks and break laws…

Why would you rebrand?

As I listened to Denise’s Facebook Live, she explained her reason for retiring one brand and focussing more on her other, her own brand, and the reasoning was bang on. In many ways, she’s outgrown the Lucky Bitch brand. Yeah – it was fun, it got her on the map, it got the point across and it did the job. It was also different and it broke the mould. It ticked a lot of boxes. But she’s always been behind the brand, so when people understood and got on board with the Lucky B philosophy, they knew it as Denise behind it. Lucky B was (and is, in my view) a good brand… and has done a good job. Could people be offended by the ‘b’ word? Without a doubt. Did that matter? Not so much. If you’ve ever read any of Denise’s books (and I would recommend them!), they aren’t offensive in the slightest and offer really good advice. So why change?

You’re not that person anymore…

Businesses evolve and grow. I can tell you this because I have experienced this first hand with mine and it’s still evolving and changing at a slightly alarming (and exciting rate). As you may know, I’ve run a very successful PR and marketing agency for well over 10 years and I was very happy with that. I had a client list that many would give their limbs for. I got great coverage for my clients. They were pleased. I was pleased. All was good. But there was something missing. I do enjoy helping big businesses because of what you can do, but I really really love smaller businesses. So I changed my business model. It sort of started by accident when I dipped my toe into coaching a handful of clients but I LOVED it. The work we were doing was creating huge shifts in their businesses and I absolutely adored the energy, the brainstorming, the mental challenge and the strategy. I loved being able to think outside the box and have people go ‘yeah, I’m going to do that’, and I continue to adore this now. So I tweaked my logo and moved away from the PR element. Truth be told, it could really do with another tweak as although a lot of the work I do is social, marketing and PR related, there’s a lot of business development and other stuff thrown in. But I digress. In my case, I just wasn’t what my old logo said. It didn’t fit. It wasn’t who I was. And this was just a logo. I’ve always (rather creatively!) been Rhea Freeman PR… kind of says what it does on the tin… so I dropped the PR. Not a big step. But I wasn’t that person… and I probably need to give everything a shake up again based on how much my biz has changed since that logo was developed… but I digress.

So, imagine if your business shifted so much that, actually, the name of your business didn’t really describe what you did anymore. What if you realised that when people stumble into your website they are looking for YOUR name rather than your brand name (as I believe is/was the case with Denise…). What would you do then? If your brand feels like a slightly tight shoe, do you stick with it, or do you change it up?

You need to think about your rebrand

Rebranding shouldn’t be a knee jerk reaction to something. It should be considered. You need to think of the impact it could have on your business – could it alienate some of your customers? This might make you think ‘yes, so I must not’, but that’s not the full story… will it alienate your IDEAL customer? If it won’t alienate your ideal customer, then don’t remove it from the table. Will the rebrand feel more you and better represent your brand? Do you have a key time where it would make sense to do it? How are you going to tell people? How are you going to feel when people tell you they don’t like it/preferred the old one (because they will… everyone has an opinion…)? Can you handle it?

It’s important to grown and evolve

…and your brand is a part of that. It’s what people first encounter when they see your little profile picture on Facebook and find you as a result of a Google search. That logo – that wording – matters. There’s HUGE amounts of information in this area and there’s an art and a science to it. Don’t be afraid to rebrand. Don’t be afraid to evolve. Just make sure it’s for all the right reasons and will help you progress down your desired path rather than hold you back.

/0 Comments/by