How to build a brand through PR & VIP, with Kate Halfpenny, Halfpenny London

Before Kate Halfpenny designed wedding dresses, she dressed Kate Moss, Rihanna and Cate Blanchett for a living.

That client list didn't just shape her design eye, it built her a reputation before she'd designed a single dress for the public. When a commission for actress Emilia Fox in 2005 became the foundation of Halfpenny London, Kate already understood something most founders take years to learn: proximity to the right person, at the right moment, is one of the most powerful and least controllable forms of PR there is.

Kate's Advice: 

• Build a reputation through consistently exceptional work, not just advertising
• Paid marketing creates visibility, but trust has to be earned
• Word of mouth can't be controlled. Focus on creating work people genuinely want to recommend
• Choose collaborators because they're the right fit, not because they're famous
• Audiences can feel the difference between genuine love for a brand and being paid to wear it
• Be crystal clear about who your brand is for. It protects you from the wrong partnerships
• One great PR moment opens the door, but consistency is what keeps people coming back
• Never compromise the integrity of your product simply to gain attention
• Bring experienced external leadership into your business sooner than you think
• Treat mistakes as part of building a business. They're lessons, not failures
• Protect time for your personal life before your business takes all of it
• Don't compare your journey to everyone else's, especially on social media

Chapters

(00:00) Why reputation beats advertising
(01:25) Meet Kate Halfpenny
(02:00) Building a brand through reputation
(05:00) How Emilia Fox launched Halfpenny London
(08:15) Why authentic celebrity PR is priceless
(10:05) Choosing the right influencers
(13:00) Celebrity marketing mistakes founders make
(15:00) Turning one PR moment into a 20-year brand
(18:00) PR, social media and luxury branding
(20:30) Founder storytelling and personal brands
(23:00) Growing Halfpenny internationally
(24:30) The leadership mistake Kate would change
(28:00) Work-life balance as a founder
(29:30) Kate's question for the next guest

FF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts.
https://www.fallowfieldmason.com

Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.

Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on Instagram @fallowfieldmason.

MUSIC CREDIT: Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod.

Transcript

Kate Halfpenny: Advertising can make people know your name, but a reputation built through hard work and dressing real women, making them look and feel extraordinary, that's one that makes people trust you.

There's no elegant answer to this. It's just clear visibility brought people through the door. and the work had to make them stay and had to make them talk.

 someone who genuinely connects with what they're making. audience can feel the difference, I think, between a woman who chooses something that she loves and something that she's being paid to wear.

Juliet Fallowfield: 

Before Kate Halfpenny designed wedding dresses, she was a stylist dressing people like Kate Moss, Rihanna, Cate Blanchett, to mention a few. That client list didn't just shape her design eye, it built her reputation before she designed a single dress for the public.

When a commission from actress Emilia Fox in 2005 became the foundation of Halfpenny London, Kate already understood something most founders take years to learn.proximity to the right person at the right time is one of the most powerful but least controllable forms of PR there is.

So I [00:01:00] was really keen to chat to her about how she's managed this in the 21 years of her business, and what she may have done differently had she had her time again. Kate, welcome to "How to Start Up."

Juliet Fallowfield: Halfpenny London is a phenomenally successful brand and I'm so excited to talk to you about this because I've seen you grow the brand through various clever PR tactics. But before we get into that, I'd love it if you could introduce yourself and a bit about the brand that you have started.

Kate Halfpenny: So I am Kate Halfpenny of Halfpenny London, which is a British bridal brand. We are 100% made in London. we are 21 years old this year. it's quite a milestone. I spent a huge portion of my career as a celebrity stylist and costume designer, so I did that for nearly two decades, styling some of the world's most iconic men and women, not just women.

Juliet Fallowfield: how much of your early bridal business came directly from the people knowing your name in that styling world versus people discovering dresses on their own?

Kate Halfpenny: Honestly, in the very beginning it was almost entirely word [00:02:00] of mouth for sure. the people who came to me first were the women that I'd either worked with or I'd dressed for a shoot or someone who knew somebody that I'd worked with, and they trusted me and my eye before they'd even seen a single dress that I'd made.

So it was, a gift but also a huge pressure because they were already buying a gown, banking on a relationship and a point of view that they already believed in. So the discovery piece came much later, once there was something to discover really. But yeah, the very early days was all referrals and actually still very much is today.

Juliet Fallowfield: I often worry about that with my business 'cause it's been built off word of mouth and people putting my name into rooms that I'm not there, and I'm incredibly grateful. But when I was working with a business coach, it's like that's not a tap I can control, and it's not like I can ramp it up or ramp it down.

I just have to assume that if I do good work for good people, they will refer me. But for you, how have you mitigated that risk of word of mouth?

Kate Halfpenny: Or not. You just know that it works

We just know that it works and we create [00:03:00] a product that we truly believe in, and we give an experience that is truly authentic, and we make people feel amazing. I think there's nothing to mitigate here. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Cause I was gonna ask what is, what's the difference between a brand that's built through marketing, advertising, paid campaigns versus that brand that's built by reputation? Which would you rather, like where's your heart sit with those two options? Or is it a case of both?

Kate Halfpenny: It's, it is a case of both, and there is a huge, enormous difference between the two. Advertising can make people know your name, but a reputation built through hard work and dressing real women, making them look and feel extraordinary, that's one that makes people trust you. 

But, paid marketing's a shortcut to visibility, but a reputation is shortcut to nothing really. There's so much opportunity these days with marketing and paid marketing and placing yourself in those rooms and those environments that can elevate a brand very quickly.

But, sometimes it's very shallow, [00:04:00] isn't it? you scratch the surface and you think, "Mm, hang on a minute.

mean anything." No, there's no story selling. There'sthere's no authenticity. I am bored of that word to some degree because we're just harping on about it all the time and it comes up every single day.

But it is, it's true. 

Juliet Fallowfield: we often talk to our clients 'cause we do a lot of PR training and podcast training where we teach people how to do it themself. We talk about paid, owned, and earned. Paid being you put money out to pay for your positioning, wherever it may be. Earned is your PR, your earned media, because it's not up to you.

It's like that word of mouth, and celebrity falls into that, of course. And then owned are your own platforms, your Instagram, your LinkedIn bio. So between the three, but paid comes at a cost. It's not cheap. And what pains me for my entire career is that PR is so much more effective, but it's paid way less 'cause you have to pay for PR's time to try.

There's no guarantee of result, and therefore you can't charge the earth for it. Whereas back page of Vogue, 10,000, 15,000 pounds, job's a good 'un. But for you, the Emilia Fox effect, I wanted to ask you about this. You had a single commission for [00:05:00] Emilia Fox in 2005, which I believe effectively launched your brand.

Could you talk us through what actually happened in the press and the word of mouth after that dress, and how much of it did you have to chase versus what came to you after the fact?

Kate Halfpenny: So Emilia had three wedding dresses, one of which, another brand did, and two of which I did. And her best friend came up to me on that wedding day and said, "You've captured Emilia in every stitch of that dress." Like out of the first dress she wore and the two that then followed that were mine, she was just like, "It's just-- it's so her."

And her aunt worked at Vogue, amazing, journalist Fiona Golfer, and we were at a fashion show and she said, "Oh, Kate, I just loved the dresses that you did for Emilia." And we were just talking and then the fashion show ended at Claridge's and as we were walking out the door she s- we said, "Oh, we'll just jump in your cab with you, Fiona, and we'll chat on the way and then we'll just jump out when you've got out."

And she said, "Why don't you come and have a look around Vogue?" And Emilia and I were like, "Oh, this is like 'The Devil Wears Prada' moment." Neither of us had been behind the scenes. So we [00:06:00] potter into Vogue and then got introduced to some incredible journalists. One of them was getting married. She was writing an article.

Fiona was like, "This is Kate Halfpenny. She made one of Emilia's wedding dresses." And, Charlotte, the journalist, was like, "Oh, Fiona's told me all about it." And she said, "Oh, I've got this beautiful vintage hat that was my mother's I'd love to wear." And I said, "I'll help you turn that into something amazing."

So she was writing a piece on weddings, and she put a little credit to me in the magazine, and that was the very beginning. So it was very serendipitous and right place, right time, but also based on the fact that they'd seen the beautiful craft and creativity that I'd created for Emilia and I didn't have a website.

Emilia was like, "Have you got a website?" And I was like, "No." She was like, let's do a shoot. Let's create a website." And literally I was going to Brazil on a huge big TV commercial and so Emilia was like, let's just do a shoot on Saturday." We got a friend, she did the photographs. Emilia modeled all the dresses.

I made a few extra ones. I'd got a big collection of vintage ones and I'd got pieces that I'd already started working on. So we just pulled this amazing shoot [00:07:00] together and created a website. And while I was in Brazil on this shoot, the magazine article came out and it was just like I had a little website and it just, snowballed from there really and I didn't chase anything.

It was just I'd been doing the wedding dresses on the side. I was styling Emilia if she was in an ad or presenting awards or, all of those things. 

Juliet Fallowfield: That's the true definition of word of mouth. It's being in the right place at the right time with a conversation and that dot connecting magic that is so powerful. And do you think that was the launch of your brand? Was that a moment for you where you're like, "I'm in"?

Kate Halfpenny: It was incredible because everyone was like, "Oh my gosh, Emilia Fox is modeling this whole bridal collection." It was brilliant. But it was truly authentic as well. the relationship Emilia and I had, the love of, the love affair of everything that we were doing w- within our work together. Like I understa- understood her.

I, I was doing her interior for her as well as dressing her for things. So it was truly real and I think people could feel that, and whenever she talked about it, it was, she loved them, and we 

continued to then [00:08:00] make dresses 

that we could then shoot for bridal that she'd wear to an event.

Juliet Fallowfield: Was your first piece of editorial coverage British Vogue?

Kate Halfpenny: yeah, I mean, it was tiny. It was just about a belt that I'd made, so it was... But yeah, it was, that was the springboard, Yeah. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. Cause that, that in itself is incredible. But so I wanted to ask you about the mechanics of celebrity PR, because paid owned earned PR is earned media. As you said, we'll speak to a journalist at a magazine, then they feature you, and they'll maybe put a link to a website, and that is more of the traditional PR in a print magazine.

You obviously have the digital coverage as well. Now you have Instagram, social media coverage from, influencers as well, so that's earned media. Earned media is also awards, newsletters, going to events, a conversation. it's public relations as opposed to press relations. But celebrity is such an interesting part of PR.

A well-known woman wearing your dress is a different kind of marketing to almost anything else. Is it ever possible to put a commercial value on that [00:09:00] piece? And I know the answer to this, but I was hoping to ask you the question in terms of that return. Could you ever put a number on it?

Kate Halfpenny: I think, these days more and more there's a commercial value to a celebrity wearing dresses. it's hard for a brand like myself to compete within the landscape of brands are paying everyone to wear the 

brand. And yes, I do believe in that respect there is, but when it happens serendipitously and naturally because the person, the celebrity wanting to wear your garment truly loves you and your brand, then, no, I think it's priceless 

Juliet Fallowfield: Well, you can never prove the actual return, and I think that's where I've struggled in the past with CFOs at the luxury houses I work for. It's why do you need to buy them coffee? Why can't they buy their own coffee?" You're talking about journalists. It's Bulgari are flying them to Rome, so we need to do something, and I just need to have their time.

But to have a proper ROI or that return on investment is really hard when it comes to public relations. But for you, that gut feeling, you [00:10:00] obviously have an intuition as to who you want to wear your, pieces. How do you work that out? How do you work out who's a good brand fit when it comes to celebrity?

Kate Halfpenny: we get approached all the time by, and I know we t- we're, we'll talk a little later on influencers, but we get approached by people that we just think we love their audience, that resonates with us. We love their style. We love what they stand for. And an example of that, from an influencer's point of view is, is Emily the nutritionist.

She truly came to us. she only wanted to try one dress on she loved in the collection, and she did only try that one dress on and she was like, "This is the dress for me." it was just really beautiful, she wanted to buy the dress. It was just a beautiful meeting of minds and,she's super authentic and truly delicious and gorgeous in the same way Emilia is, and it was just such an honor and a privilege to dress her.

I just thought, I know this will be a great partnership. I know that, her audience respect and adore her for [00:11:00] her true storytelling. So yeah, it's hard to exactly know how it's gonna take off and, we've also worked with other people that in my gut I was thinking this, it doesn't feel quite right, and then I just thought that audience isn't for me.

and I think the 

person was just hunting to find a partnership 

Juliet Fallowfield: Yes. 

Well, I remember, I mean, I fortunately worked for some incredible brands, Chanel being one of them, but Shangri-La was actually the worst. I'd get probably 10, 15 influencers a day DM'ing me going, "Hi, I'd like to stay for free for three nights, and I'll give you a grid post of this, that, and the other."

obviously you're running a business, your P&L is the most important part to keep that business alive. If you were to gift left, right, and center, you'd have no bandwidth to make commercial pieces. Where do you draw the line on who you gift and who you don't?

Kate Halfpenny: We don't, give away, I think for the integrity of the brand, it's just,

it devalues it. I also think people want to pay for something that's as important as this to, for it to feel so kind of throwaway, and you're bartering a deal on this, it, it [00:12:00] just, it feels slightly wrong as well.

 the case?

Juliet Fallowfield: You're 21 years in, you've got an amazing brand reputation. Everybody comes to you 'cause they know that you have beautiful pieces. When you were at the beginning and you were being approached by celebrity or you were going after celebrity people to wear your pieces, how did you broker those conversations?

Kate Halfpenny: I just think I've been really lucky in the fact that they've all been great conversations. I might have met that celebrity at an event and, said that I'd really love to dress you and love to work with you and it's happened naturally. I suppose in the earlier days, there was more opportunity to,to gift more pieces, which I think it's actually the opposite when you're in that kind of tension point of growing from a small brand to a couple of million pound brand.

That middle bit is actually, is more difficult

Juliet Fallowfield: And is it something you sort of forecast for? You look at your quarterly plan and go, "Right, we need this many celebrities wearing our pieces." is it something you actively go 

Kate Halfpenny: No

Juliet Fallowfield: Is it integrated in your plan or is

Kate Halfpenny: It's very organic We're not, chasing and putting that into the plan for sure

Juliet Fallowfield: What do [00:13:00] you think founders get wrong when they go after celebrity? 'Cause I'm constantly looking at brands

and their activity across influencer celebrity press, and you're like, "Ooh, that doesn't fit." And then you see incredible collaborations like what Barber have been doing with the Ganni collab and things like that. what do you feel founders can get wrong? 

Kate Halfpenny: Yeah, I think sometimes they go after the name and not the fit, and I think they want a celebrity rather than the right person. So I see that. someone who genuinely connects with what they're making. audience can feel the difference, I think, between a woman who chooses something that she loves and something that she's being paid to wear.

I mean, I certainly do, and, you sometimes see it on people's grid posts, and you just think, "Mm."

That's the thing with declaring what's an ad, what's paid. It's becoming a lot more regulated, so people do need to declare what partnerships they're in so readers or watchers are not led astray, and it can feel a little bit awkward. I think when you see some of the reality TV stars go into sort of Dove or [00:14:00] Fairy Liquid and and it's so sort of '80s, like perfect.

Juliet Fallowfield: You, you want it to feel really natural. And I guess for you, when you've met people and you've had good chats with them, and then you maybe have a further conversation about working together, that has much more integrity behind it because they genuinely love your brand and you genuinely love them. How do you protect a brand from a celebrity association working against you if the wrong person wears it for the wrong reason?

And I put this question in here 'cause I remember when I was in the Chanel press office Victoria Beckham wanted to call in the ski suit, and they said, "No, she's not right for the brand." This is way, way way, way back. And she just went out and bought it, and she was all over the tabloid press wearing the Chanel ski suit, and everyone was like, "Oh my God, I can't believe Chanel gifted her.

She's posh spice. It's all wrong." How would you advise founders to protect their brand against celebrity?

Kate Halfpenny: I think, you protect it long before it happens. So you're clear on who you are and who you're here for. And if your brand has a genuine point of view, then an unsolicited association doesn't fit well and [00:15:00] reads exactly that as unsolicited. So politely distancing yourself from it really. if your brand has no point of view, any association will stick, I think, and then you have no defense.

So as long as you are clear on who you are and your brand, then I think that's how-- And I'm sure, the whole conversation around the Chanel thing at the time, I just don't think it would've stuck, would it? It was fine because you had a complete, clear vision on who Chanel was and who their consumer was.

Juliet Fallowfield: Yes, and they proactively went after the other people that they wanted at the time. Ironically, now obviously they'd bend over backwards to dress Victoria, so that's fine. and for you, when Emilia and that moment happened, how did you turn that early visibility into something that was repeatable? 

Kate Halfpenny: By doing the work and doing the work consistently over a long period. So there's no elegant answer to this. It's just clear visibility brought people through the door. and the work had to make them stay and had to make them talk. And it was feeling, it was emotion. it was the bride remembering how she felt and then she told [00:16:00] somebody, "Oh my God, I felt incredible there."

that's the most important thing, and that's something that you can't buy. Sothat's how you sustain this journey. That's true kind of hard work and great product. and it's harder now more than ever in a sea of white. you have a client, they go on Instagram, they have been recommended you, they find you, they look for you, and then their algorithm sends you, 20 other dresses that are riding off your coattails that are paying to be part of your search or, 

sometimes when I'm looking for an archive dress in my collection to show my design team, I won't remember the name of it, and I'll just type Halfpenny London, the Georgie skirt, Net-a-Porter.

And then I see who is buying that airtime, which is just, you know, you're always just like, "Oh, they're buying anyone that searches for your dresses." they're, something similar pops up 

Juliet Fallowfield: Well, it is riding off your coattails, and I find paid search fascinating and very effective. We do it a lot for our podcast training course, and then seeing-- And it's almost like a compliment 'cause we're a s- very small business, but when we come [00:17:00] up against the big dogs, like, "Oh, wow, you know, that's quite cool that we're in there."

But the fact that you can kind of get in there without having necessarily done the work, or these dress companies are kind of knowing that they want to mimic your consumer and bring their eyeballs over to their brand, and it's pay to play and it's how much budget you've got to put in there. But your reputation, that word of mouth, if somebody has personally said to their friend, I call it the mascara effect.

When your girlfriend has great mascara, you're like, "Oh, I'm definitely gonna buy that." it's that power, that value is so much more important and it has a lot more longevity to it. But also for you because it's not like you're gonna have repeat customers. They're not coming back every six months.

I remember doing a lot of PR around engagement rings. It's really hard 'cause you're marketing it to the woman, but the man is purchasing it, but they're only gonna do it once and they're not gonna be a repeat customer. Maybe they buy their wedding bands and their wedding jewelry, but then the, that's pretty much it.

It's a hard one for you, bridal. what role does PR and press play in the business today? You're 21 years [00:18:00] in compared to those early years with sort of single client relationships. Where does PR sit within the business in your marketing strategy?

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Kate Halfpenny: I think now it's more about reinforcing what we are, reaching the right brides at the right moment, and maintaining a presence that feels considered rather than constant, really. social media changed the volume. There's far more noise, which paradoxically makes earned media more valuable and not less.

So, genuine editorial placements, a real recommendation, a review from a woman who loved her [00:19:00] dress, these things cut through in a way that paid content often doesn't. 

 How do you now manage the rise of the influencer and the social media content? 

we were one of the first 100 businesses to Instagram. They reached out to us to ask for some metrics and how it had impacted our business, and it truly did. We dressed a, an influencer very early over 10 years ago, Lydia Millen, and it was stratospheric for the brand because it gave us such a massive global reach.

She just went completely viral in her, outfit that she wore. So social media's super important and it's definitely something that we hugely focus on. We, do invest a lot in creating content, user-generated content as well. We look at in real weddings, which really resonate, and Pinterest is super important for those brides looking for boards and trying to create inspiration there constantly.

So yeah, the landscape constantly changes, doesn't it? it changes the algorithm and this, and you now need to change your squares into, portraits, and you need 

to 

Juliet Fallowfield: not put hashtags 

Kate Halfpenny: on it and all of those things. 

Juliet Fallowfield: It's like they like pulling the rug from everybody, and it's like, [00:20:00] guys, we all need each other. Like, just make it simple for us.And for you, obviously the paid, owned, earned mix is really working really well for you. What advice would you give to new founders when they're entering into building a brand? 

Kate Halfpenny: I think they really need to know what their story is that they're telling, and then that should influence all of those areas. You know, everyone wants to know about the founder and their stories and their successes and their failures as well. It's difficult, isn't it?

 But it really resonates and it drives brides to us, and they love the storytelling, and they love that I'm real and that 

I'm approachable.

and the experience that you have in the boutique is that, and I don't hide behind some big marble columns and a big shiny sign and, you know, that there's no access.

Juliet Fallowfield: Well, it's a hard one, isn't it? 'Cause a, a brand is scalable when the founder could leave and no one would notice. But at the same time, it's something like this where people... It's Halfpenny London, it's Kate Halfpenny, they want access to you. So that balance, I think for founders to work out how much of [00:21:00] themselves they're happy to give the business, 'cause a business will take as much as it, 

Kate Halfpenny: It'll take all. Yeah, it will not just take nothing, 

for sure. I was listening to some incredible podcasts with Nicola, who founded NEOM, and just her journey and her story, and again, that naivety of... I just think you have to be naive, and I think it's harder these days now to s- to start businesses because we know too much.

There's so much out there, and actually it's more difficult to launch a brand on the social channels to, watch those little, one extra follower or you've lost a couple or, that growth of it and constantly chasing that viral moment that will make a huge difference.

And truly, I just think to start a brand now, even though you have all those platforms, it was much easier to be a little bit more anonymous 

and to sort of, step by step, when they say, you don't have to eat the elephant all at once, you just, it's a bite at a time or however that quote goes.

I think it's... 

Juliet Fallowfield: But now we have 20 elephants [00:22:00] because you have to be a content creator. Well, you don't have to. I have voted not to. My team are like, "Oh, you could do this." I was like, "I could, but I'm not going to." I have a line. It's my business. I'm drawing it. I don't want to be a content creator. But you look at someone like Grace Beverly, who is insanely good at content, running four businesses, like where do you find the time?

We only have 24 hours in the day. I'm convinced we actually have 48, and I try and do too much. But you're doing your P&L, you're doing your payroll, you're having to fire someone, you're having to hire someone. To then think creatively and like flip your brain into content creation, it's another hat. So I think maybe when I started my career, you know, we used to fax coverage up to the Paris office, and we'd look at the print magazines, and then the rise of and, then social and.

And and.

And then you see it in the journalists. It's like, well, we now have 10 jobs to do. But as a founder, when you're starting, when you're doing everything yourself, it's very hard to know what to give what. And I think a lot of people get distracted by Instagram and think that, and social, that they need followers to be successful.

It's like, well, is that where your client is? Is that where they're gonna consume [00:23:00] you? but that's word of mouth when other people are doing the 

job for you, then dreamy.

Kate Halfpenny: So something that we ask guests is about now, next, and never. What is the one thing you're focused on with Halfpenny London right So continuing to grow in this treacherous and tricky UK business environment. 

we are, and we're having a, we're doing great things. and major growth for the brand internationally. So the US is a huge focus. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Brilliant. Which I'm sure celebrity will come into play massively in the US, the way they 

Kate Halfpenny: yes, that would be nice, but that is, I think, an entire ballgame, and you need, I feel, to, to be-- have a permanent showroom in the States 

to access that. we did just dress Jess Glein. We sent her our beautiful waspy corset, she wore to a Pride event the other week and with just normal clothes underneath it.

But it was nice to get that sent out there. So yeah, celebrity is still 

there for us and important and, exciting. 

Yeah 

Juliet Fallowfield: Brilliant. And in terms of next, what's next for you as a 

Kate Halfpenny: Personal development, irons in the [00:24:00] fire and some exciting things happening and leaning into creativity and creating space for me and my family and that work-life balance. So it is yeah, I put a head of design in for the first time 

ever,and sort of relinquishing some control.

 they're super talented and we're very collaborative, so it's not that I don't have a voice or that my DNA isn't represented there. So it's exciting and 

yeah, I think it is that succession planning and that scalability and how much of a founder is in there.

And then there's some other exciting kind of personal business projects on the side as well. 

that you're not gonna be sitting just twiddling our thumbs on a sofa. It's like, "Right, now I've freed up this time, I'm gonna put it all into something else."

Exactly 

Juliet Fallowfield: Said every founder ever, and it's actually David Abramovich from Grind said, he's like, "I wanna sort the work-life balance out." It's like, "But you look on Instagram like you've got it sorted."

He's like, "Yeah, 

Kate Halfpenny: That's life versus reality

Juliet Fallowfield: And in terms of never, what is the one thing you would never do visibility or for celebrity or for the brand or for [00:25:00] you as a founder? 

Kate Halfpenny: I think compromise the integrity of the product for the sake of a name. So if someone wants to wear Halfpenny London, but the dress would need to be something we wouldn't otherwise make, it had a different aesthetic or a shortcut on craft, then that's not a trade I'd make. I think the brand is the work.

If you hollow out the work to get the visibility, then what you're promoting isn't really anymore. It's an audience. they'll notice, that you're compromising or pivoting 

Juliet Fallowfield: And it makes it really easy for you to go yes and no. And I remember someone saying that about pricing. It's like, just be resolute in your pricing, and then you won't flip-flop on proposals and waste time trying to talk yourself off asking what you're worth. I was like, "Oh, well, that saved me a bunch of time. And then

 something that we also do is a question from the previous guest, which was Hailey Dawes, the founder of Dreem Distillery. So she suffered chronic insomnia and then found that broad spectrum CBD, really helped fix that for her. And her question for you was, if you could turn back the clock, what would be the one thing you would do differently for your business?

Kate Halfpenny: [00:26:00] I would not have promoted from within like I did for the growth decade that I had. I would've sought external talent

and got them to run my business because I think that stopped more growth than I had.

It would've been more, it would've been bigger, it would've been better and it's something I have to let go but I do feel that now all of my senior leadership team are recruited with tons of experience of other businesses and I think that is crucial to a business 

for people to bring in their ideas to know what works and what doesn't within the growth instead, that kind of, you know, I thought it was a wonderful thing to constantly grow people and roles from within.

And also knowing that the people that you work with, they know everything about the brand and you don't, you won't survive without them is s- another lesson that I've learned that you can and you will grow and I think those battle wounds and scars are [00:27:00] badges of honor to, to progress through your business and I don't think any mistake that you made you should be ashamed of and hence talking about, things that I feel, 

yeah, quite passionate about. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Thank you. I had a chat recently, I was-- when I was living in Battersea before I moved, someone's Why is it in America you have to kind of have three startup failures before you're a successful entrepreneur? It's like you're not an entrepreneur unless you've actually failed. Whereas in England, you can't fail.

It's, it's disgraceful. God forbid. And when I was made redundant and thought, "Right, sod this, I'm gonna do my own thing," the next day I was on Companies House registering a business that I'd never thought I'd ever do. And I said, gonna have to put this on LinkedIn so I can't back out." And it's like, oh.

And it's like, well, no one's watching. No one cares. As long as I'm happy, that's all they care about. But putting your foot out then and going, "Right, I'm doing this," the kind of the shame attached to it is, quite pertinent and can be quite painful. But then you realize 

Kate Halfpenny: Yeah. 

Juliet Fallowfield: and no one 

really cares, 

Kate Halfpenny: I just think we're the biggest critics of ourselves. the other thing is, comparison is the thief of all joy, and social media is deadly. And I really wish I could [00:28:00] put my phone down when I walk in the door and not look at it. 

Juliet Fallowfield: How do you manage that? 

'Cause Rhian from Alta said the same thing. She's like: I would love to not be on Instagram, but I have to be because it's the strategy that we've decided upon. But everyone has said that. It's like for work-life balance and a boundary, you need to be able to throw your 

phone in a river and walk away from it, but you can't. 

Kate Halfpenny: How do you manage that boundary? 

in truth. I j- don't, and I have to because, I think the thing is as well in that self-development for next stage is, I think when you're 50/50, when you're trying to be a mother but you're on your phone and you're answering email, I'll be like, "Oh, Sylvester, just one second.

I'm just replying to this." And my husband will just say, " When you walk in the door, we think we've got you and you're done, but you're still needing to do stuff." and he's "That's absolutely fine, but maybe walk in the door and go in another room, finish what you've got to do, then put it down, and then come and then we've got you 100%."

And I-- and that isthat mom guilt. It's like when I just feel like I've got half a head of business, half a head of mom, and I don't do either of them well when both of [00:29:00] them are in the same room. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Well, they both feel incomplete. Yeah, you're stretched across too many 

things anyway, And what would your question be for the next guest? It could be anything on entrepreneurship, startup, scale up

Anything you like. 

Kate Halfpenny: Having been a founder and worked alone for all of these years, how do I find the ultimate CEO business partner to pair to work with? 

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah, that's huge 

' Cause I've heard so many horrible stories of people being defrauded and let down, and ultimately you are handing the keys to the castle over, and it's-- you will always be more passionate about it than somebody else on payroll. But I'm the same as you. I-- A friend's like: "Well, you should get a co-founder."

I'm like: "Absolutely not. I would kill them or they'd kill me. It just wouldn't work." But I would like support in a senior hire, so how do we do that? And yeah, I will find out 

for you and let you know. 

 And there's a few questions I keep asking everybody of kind of work-life balance, imposter syndrome, managing the boundary of social media, how much of yourself do you give the business? There's all of these things 'cause everyone's a bit like, "It's a [00:30:00] lot. How do 

Kate Halfpenny: Yeah. 

Juliet Fallowfield: bring it back?"

Kate Halfpenny: I think we all need to lean into AI and for it to take the pressure off. I'm testing some email thing called Superhuman and also Whisper, where you can just talk to it, load all your notes, 

Juliet Fallowfield: I love Whisper because I'm sending much nicer emails because I don't have to have typed them. It's much quicker to go, "Oh, hi, da, da, da, da." I was like, "Oh, I sound very friendly." Whereas an email I'm very, like, professional. 

And every time we talk about AI in the business, it's like, well, we can say that today, but let's check back next week 'cause it might have fixed itself by then. 

 Like, everything's changing, but it's exciting. But yeah, it's a whole other job learnt. You need an AI CEO.

Kate Halfpenny: Oh, it was so nice to talk to you. Juliet. Thank

Juliet Fallowfield: Thank you. thank you so much for your time. It's delight to meet you and, thank you for everything you've done because you've done it in such a kind of elegant swan-like way that kind of looking in on the business, you've just put your head down and got on with it, which I really respect 

Kate Halfpenny: Literally in exactly that swan-like way, paddling furiously under uh, under the 

mill pond 

flat water. 

Juliet Fallowfield: If you'd like to contact Kate, you can find all of her details in the show notes, along with a [00:31:00] recap of the advice that she has so kindly shared. And tune in next time to hear the answer to her question, 

how to recruit the right CEO or business partner to come into her business 

and please, please subscribe, rate and review, interact with the podcast somehow through your listening app because it really does make a difference to me, the host, to know that you're there and enjoying it.

Or DM us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com to suggest future guests or questions that you might like answered in your own entrepreneurial journey. Thank you for listening, and I'll speak to you soon.