2. Reinventing Your Brand When You’ve Outgrown the Old One

We're back for the second episode of our new podcast!

In this episode, we'll talk about why evolution matters — and how to do it without losing your audience.

As both Flick and Verity are passionate about branding and the importance of knowing, living and owning your brand, they share some great insights into what you need to know as a business owner and as a person within your business.

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Don't forget to join us in our Facebook Group to continue the conversation and let us know your thoughts on this episode and if you have ever felt the same as we do here.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Wildly Intentional, the podcast of business owners who refuse to play small.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

This is where we'll have bold talks, honest conversations and dig into what it really takes to create big breakthroughs in business and in life.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

We're Verity and Flick, we're two business owners who have built, broken, rebuilt and grown businesses in our own ways.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

And we're here to share the lessons, the mindset shifts, and the unapologetic decisions that have really helped us to level up.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

So if you're ambitious, you're gross focused, and you're ready to do business on your own terms, you're in exactly the right place.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

So let's get wildly intentional. Hello. Hello and welcome back. Thank you for coming back if you've heard our first episode. Um yeah, that was that was that was that was wild.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

It was, and what's even more wild is we've come back for a second time. So we're actually in danger of being consistent. I know it's only two, but this is further than we we would have got in the past. So we're doing really well.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yeah, absolutely. We'd have gone off with the, you know, as we said last, you know, in the last episode of the excited puppy, we'd have done the first one and gone, yeah, nailed it. We did it, we've we've put it out there, and it's then uh yeah, doing it again, doing it consistently. Um, and and what's right for you. And this is definitely the last episode we don't need to go for by this is definitely us. This is definitely what we should be doing.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

It is, and do you know what? It's so much fun. I'm having so much fun doing this, and it goes back to a lot of what we said in the last episode about doing business your way. You are allowed to have fun in business, and this is just we kind of set this podcast as a you know, there's no targets on it, there's no um expectation on it, it's just let's just see where it goes. It was always kind of a fun project project to see what happened, and yeah, it's it's I'm really enjoying it.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Very much so.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

I think you stuck with me, Flick.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah, there were definitely key moments in the last episode where I was like, wow, this is you know, if I'd have if I'd have heard this when I was first starting my business, or when I was in that limbo of debating the different businesses ideas that I'd had throughout, like if I'd have heard that some of the things that we said to each other, I'd have gone, yeah, I can do this because I don't need to be somebody else, or you know, and all the all the things. If you haven't heard the first episode, definitely go back. Um, you'll learn more about me, more about Verity, um, you know, who we are, what we're doing, and why we're doing this.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Do you know what's really funny? Right now, so the listeners won't know this because we've only got the audio on, but I can see you, so we've got the video, and every time you move, your background moves, and there is a tiger in the background. Was that done deliberately?

SPEAKER_00 2:45

It really wasn't, but no, I've I've just noticed the same thing as well. Because I always have a green screen sort of background on uh all of my videos because it's to try and help me not get distracted by what's in my own background. Um, because you know, I will go off topic and you know, we'll we'll go galloping off into the the distance with with whatever I've I've seen or or sparked a thought. Um and yeah, I suddenly realised that the tiger was behind, which was actually, I think, this is where I used to sit when I first started working for you. And I like the tiger was sort of a lot of people, you know, when they were doing online networking because it was back in COVID times, and um, you know, everybody waited to see my tiger. It's just it's just a it's just a mirror on the uh it's a mirror with a picture of a tiger on it. I might have to put a post on on socials now of of what you're seeing.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yeah, absolutely. It just fits with the theme so perfectly. Well done.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

And I don't know why I've got my background on when yeah. Why haven't we got my background on when we've only got we're only doing audio, but yeah. It's got uh it's got a mum tiger and a and a baby tiger.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

A cute little can I no, I can't get the screen again. We've gone off topic, we've gone clear. We haven't even started and we gone off topic topic. Okay, so today, today we are going to be focusing on reinventing yourself. So this is about reinventing your brand when you've outgrown the old one, but there are so many layers to this. So we're gonna talk about what it's like to change in business, um, and actually take the guilt of the shame away from that because I think we do feel a lot of guilt and shame when we decide to change things and we really panic over it.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Yeah, we think the fact that we're gonna lose people, we're gonna people are not gonna understand who we are or what we're about, and you know, they're you're gonna face these questions of well, why have you changed? Because what you were doing before was, you know, was good for them, basically. Um, you know, most people will change their their business or reinvent themselves when you know the the version of themselves that they are, the business that they are at the moment no longer serves.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

I feel like I've I've lost I've lost with my pronouns here, but I'm like I'm too lost. So, you know, if I were to to reinvent like the social dragonfly, it would be because the version of the social dragonfly right now doesn't serve me, flick as I am now, and I'm evolving and I'm changing. So I need to change the business with it. When you know my my clients and my customers might question that because the version that I am was serving them, and and I don't mean serving as in like you know, a client sort of in you know outlast outsource freelancer kind of serving. I mean in the terms of you know who I am as a person, you know, now it fits their idea of who I should be. And I I I very much don't like using the words should, so I've I've gonna smack myself on the wrist there for not gonna apologize though, are you? No, I'm not. No, I'm not. I'm not apologizing. I'm just chastising myself.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

We don't do that on this podcast. No, yeah, I agree. I mean, God, if you I've been in business for about 13 years now, 13 or 14 years, and I I've lost count of the amount of times that I've reinvented myself. And sometimes it's because I got bored, which we all know, you know, the excited puppy comes out and then it goes back in again, and I get bored. Um, sometimes it's been because I just it just what I was doing doesn't fit with where I was going in the first place. Sometimes it's because I lost track of where I was going. That has happened so many times. And even with the agency, I don't know whether you know this, but we started with a different name. Do you know that?

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Well, yeah, because I came I came on board with you when you were IMC Pro Solutions.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Did you come on that early? Okay, so that was a huge conversation when we changed it to IMC Social, and it became because we became niche in what we were doing, so it just made sense that the original name didn't fit anymore what we were doing, so we wanted something else. So we rebranded completely, and we were told that our logo was probably um not bought the way it should have been bought, so there was a panic around that because we didn't know as we thought we'd bought the logo on a certain site, and that was ours to keep. We didn't know about all the laws around copyright and everything else. Um I know, so we completely rebranded. We had a logo designed specifically for us, changed the name, and we panicked. We were like, Are people going to get on board with this? And obviously they did, and actually it brought in new customers because we were more clear in what we were doing. But even with Blue Giraffe, I have kind of I kept the name, but I've reinvented Blue Giraffe and I've reinvented myself so many times. I've introduced different products, um, I've cancelled different products, I've gone in so many different directions, even with the Tower tribe. You know, how many directions did that go in over the two years? It was constantly changing or evolving, it was constantly evolving. And it isn't because, and I always felt real fear around that. We're talking about fear again. I always felt a huge fear around making any changes or doing anything different until I realized, and it goes back to being unapologetically me, until I realized that actually it's nothing to do with boredom, it's nothing to do with ADHD, it's nothing to do with the fact that I can't stick to anything. It's the fact that as a business owner, you also go on a journey. Your business isn't alone in the journey, you personally go on a journey and you grow. And when you grow, you start to outgrow things and you outgrow a lot of what you're doing in your business. So you change it. I'm not going to use the word, but you do that thing that Ross and Chandler did with the sofa. And you know, you change your business to suit where you are now. And I had to get really comfortable with that because it was something that I was really uncomfortable with because I did it so often, and I thought it was an ADHD thing until I realized actually, no, I'm just growing. And I've got really comfortable now with the idea, you know that I've literally just burned down my business. I have taken away everything I've built over the last couple of years, and I'm redesigning the whole thing. Yeah. And I'm so happy in that process because I know that I outgrew where it was.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Although I have to tell you, just to put your wonder ease, is the fact that when you did do things like that, you know, in the Tower Tribe or anything like that, you weren't met with criticism. Like most people were like, That feels so much more like you. That feels so much more like what you you should be. Should I use that word again? Um I'll bring out the P-word in a minute. Um, but you know, everybody, you know, would always go, no, that that feels right, that feels good. So, you know, if those people are really your your tribe, your people, you know, as you said in the last episode, finding the right your people is so powerful in business. Um, you know, when you evolve, people kind of evolve with you, and your clients, you know, if they are actually truly aligned with who you are, um, even if you can't see it, because that's a big thing in business, is the fact that sometimes you you get so lost behind your business that you can't see it, but other people can.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah, and that is key because you do get lost. And we talked about this on the last episode about getting really bogged down in your business. And you do, you go on this journey and you get really lost. And the number of times I've woken up, or in the middle of the night, because that tends to be when I'm do my best thinking. I wake up and I'm just I'm sat there thinking, I can't remember why I started this. And you have to really kind of have a word with yourself and go back to the planning and think, why did I start this? Where am I going? Where have I gone wrong? And be okay that you actually did, you know, you I'm not gonna use it. You went around a little bit, you took a point.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

You changed your angle on an actual point.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Yes, um, to get to where I am. So, you know, we need to stop. I think actually, I'm gonna be really, really like bossy about this. I think what we need to do as business owners is stop feeling guilty when we need to change something and actually start feeling really proud that we are growing as business owners, because that's what it is. You are growing as a business owner.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

And that's why I think, you know, from from my point of view, it was so I spent so long coming up with my business name, but then once once I come up with it and I started telling people about it, because if you think it, you know, it was beginning of August that that you know the decision to to close IMC Social happened, and I started, you know, the Social Dragonfly on the 1st of September. So it's like I say it took so long to come up with my business name, but it really, you know, in a lot of terms, in a lot of business terms, it didn't take that long at all. Um, but I agonised over that decision because I knew the fact that once I landed on the right thing, I didn't want to have to change it, I didn't want to have to reinvent it or do a rebrand because I'd seen what it was for you guys to go through from IMC Pro Solutions to IMC Social Um and how much work and effort that was in. I was like, I you know, when I pick a a name, it needs to be completely right. But you know, if it's not, there's no there's no shame and there's no guilt in changing it. No, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

There isn't. And in terms of the visuals, I remember people saying to me, you know, aren't you scared that people won't recognise your brand? And I used to say, you know, how many logos do you think? I don't know if I can say can we use can we say brands on this? Are we allowed to say?

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I don't know. I don't know. Okay, so let's we've said Ross and Chandler, so we've kind of mentioned like yeah, but I didn't mention the the actual and in the last episode you mentioned Yellowstone. So you are mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Okay, let's just go for it and hope for the best. So I always use kind of John Lewis and McDonald's as an example because they're two huge brands, but they have been through so many rebranding processes. McDonald's didn't used to have the golden arches, it actually started as a grey, um, it was like two names together because it was two partners that started it. John Lewis were never what they are now, it has evolved massively over the years, but their whole brand has evolved with it. So it's not just the look of it, it's the experience you get with it and the feel that you get from it. What you we always used to talk about it when we talked about branding, you know, the courses we used to run on it was very much about, in fact, I think it was one of the things I asked you when we initially interviewed you was tell me what brand means to you. And it's always about the feeling and experience that people get from it. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about it? And yeah, with John Lewis, it was never the logo, and with McDonald's, it was never the golden arch is you saw, but that's not their logo. The golden arch is just a symbol within their logo, and actually, you know, remember the days of the kids' parties at McDonald's and Ronald McDonald and the, you know, I know they brought him back recently, not that I go there a lot. Um, but you know, the um Robert.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Yeah, the the purple, there's the purple one.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Uh yeah, but yeah, all those characters that we you know, all of you think about what McDonald's was when we were children. When I was a child, it was such a privilege to go to McDonald's. It was such a treat to do it. You used to have birthday parties there. Now they've branded themselves as restaurants, which personally I think is a little bit of a a reach, but just my personal opinion. Um, but you know, they've rebranded themselves over the years massively, and nobody actually what they've done is is get a more consistent customer base. They've got bigger and bigger and bigger, despite the rebrands, but they're true to themselves, they are absolutely true to who they want to be, and they stick with it all the way.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

And that's the thing. I think you know, when you are talking about reinventing yourselves or rebranding yourselves, it's like if it's if it's you know, it needs to be a reflection of who you are and who the business is. And if you get it right, then nobody bats an eyelid about that rebrand. They kind of go, okay, yeah, that feels like a natural progression. That feels, yeah, that feels right for them.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Um, whereas, you know, you'll, you know, there are certain other brands and people go like, Oh, why have they done that? And they really question it because the new brand is potentially quite jarring and it's it's very different, and it doesn't feel aligned with who you've always known them to be. Um, and you know, and you've got the the big hitters on you know, LinkedIn, like influencers who will have gone through different iterations of who they are as an influencer or who they, you know, TikTokers or Instagramers, and you know, though those people who've been with them for so long, if it still feels aligned to their brand when they reinvent themselves, they're not they're not reinventing, you know. I think we need to move away from the word reinventing because we're not inventing something, we're evolving, you know, evolving your brand when you've outgrown the old one, I think is the the better thing, as much as I want to steer this conversation away from butterflies because um there's a reason why I'm called the social dragonflies, because butterflies annoy me. Everybody uses a butterfly, everybody wants to be a social butterfly. That's why I want to be different, I want to be a social dragonfly.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

And actually, our first logo was a butterfly.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Yes, it was.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

See, you're right. Because it's social butterfly, it fit, but you wanted to be different from the start, and you love dragonflies, but you wanted to be, you didn't want to be like the same as everybody else, so you did it differently.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah, I did it my way, as we said last last week. It was like my um, you know, I didn't want to I wanted it to feel like it was me. Um, and it so totally is, and you know, the amount of people that just went, yeah, that is so your business name because you know, everybody wants to be a butterfly. And and lots of social media marketers, lots of social media marketing agencies use butterflies as their their symbol because it's a natural thing of like that that phrase of being a social butterfly. Um and I actually came up against not violently, not viciously, or anything like that, but it was, you know, when I first started the amount of people that were calling my business the social butterfly, and it was just so like grating of like, no, I'm the social dragonfly, like trying to correct people without, you know, as we said last week, without being rude, without being but equally that's a that's a boundary, and I want people to, when they think of me, I want them to think of dragonflies. Um, you know, so I started making sure the fact that I I was always wearing a dragonfly, you know, um, so that there was that connotation of you know, a dragonfly. And now I get messages from people, and I love you the world over. Um, you know, people see a dragonfly or they'll see a necklace or something like that, you know, that's got a dragonfly on, and they'll take a photo of it and send it to me. And they're just like, you know, or like happy birthday messages, and it's like the amount of ones that I get that are good just covered in dragonflies. And I'm like, this is when I know my branding is right for me and my my marketing has done right for me because that is people hear the word dragonfly and they think of me, you know. That's it's so aligned with who I am and what I'm about.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

And that's really important to note, actually, because you know, I'm just thinking about how you kind of rebrand yourself or evolve your business without losing your audience. And I think being known for who you are and the experience you give is really important. Even when we changed our name, we still, you know, that we were never called our original name or our new name. We were called the girls in pink. That is what we were known by because we rocked up to really professional networking events in pink hoodies because we chose to stand out, we wanted to be different. So we were always known as the girls in pink. So when we rebranded, nobody cared because they didn't know the original name in the first place because that's not how they knew us. They knew us through the experience they got from us. We were the fun brand, we were the ones that you went to for the real advice. You know, we we didn't give them the overpriced advice that doesn't really work for anybody. We gave them the real raw honest advice, and that's what that's the experience they got with us. And I think it's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Interestingly, sorry, I was just gonna say interestingly, I've still got my my girls in pink hoodie. Oh, I have, I don't think I'll ever get rid of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

It is there in the background.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

It lives in my office, and I'm like, it's just a reminder of like that's who I was that you know, I was part of the girls in pink sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Yeah, you can never lose it. You know, there was like, you know, I've still got my awards, and part of me is like, well, that's not for this business, but actually, we still won those awards, you know. It was it was part of our success story, it's part of who got us to where we are today. In both, we've gone in different directions as um business owners, but I mean, we're still the best of friends, she's still my sister, but we're you know, in very different we we've kind of evolved from our journey as IMC, you know. But you've got to how you do it without losing your audience is by and I do know, I think the theme that we did last week might run through every single podcast we do because it is about you are it's looking like it's gonna. It is, it is about staying true to yourself. Oh, my doorbell's just gone. And my dogs are gonna go. And I'm not even gonna say some race. So what I'm gonna do is pause recording. Oh, I I don't know if I can pause.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

We're even gonna have some. Hang on, let me see if I can pause.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

No, I can't pause. This will be this will be a testament to my video editing and audio editing thing.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Talk to yourself for a minute, talk to them on yourself, I'll be back.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Oh this is this is what we say is about that you know, this is we're we're real business owners, we're real people who are you know doing this, doing this podcast, and sometimes things go wrong, like you know, Verity's talk balls just gone. And I'm now left sitting on my own and facing that very real fear of talking to myself. I tried filling in. I think I'm gonna have to try and edit that now. I tried to fill in and keep going and it felt very strange. Yeah, I definitely shouldn't be doing a podcast on my own.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Yet it's it's evolving, it's about evolving, yet, yeah, is the word yes, yeah. My natural instinct now is to apologize, but I'm not gonna do that. No, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

No, and if the editing doesn't go wrong and you've just had like you know a few minutes of silence, I do apologize. We do apologize to you listeners. No, we don't. No, we don't.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

We're not apologising. And apologetic. We're not apologizing. It is what it is, it happened. Stay tuned or fast forward that bit. It's life, it happens.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Apology bingo, I guess I get the one. Yeah, absolutely. I get that one.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

We go if we go video, we're gonna have to put stickers like to just you know announce when there's been an apology and then we have to take it back. We are not apologizing. You can fast forward it. Listeners, if you can't edit it, just fast-forward it. Or listen to Blick's ramble. I don't know, I'm gonna listen back to it later and see what you said. So it'll be interesting.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Reinventing yourself. We're on that topic. Evolving your yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

And we have to be very careful, I think, for both of us here, because it's we're we're talking about, you know, reinventing your brand or evolving your brand. Um, and for those of us, those of you who've never heard me and Varati talk about branding, um, we could be here for the next three hours talking about branding. We get very passionate about it. We do, we do. Because it's got to be right. And I think that was why I spent so long, you know, when I was looking at going self-employed, when I was looking at starting the business name, it was like, do I want to just be, you know, trading as me or do I want a business name? Um, because that's a decision, you know, when you start a business that you can go, you can just trade as your own name. Um, and a lot of people do, and a lot of people, you know, are very successful with it. But I knew that what I wanted from the business that wasn't something that was going to last long term. You know, I didn't want to be, you know, the flick hamnet day social media marketer or marketing or whatever it was going to be, because I didn't also want, you know, like down the line when I've got plans of the fact that I do want to have employees and I do want to grow the business that way. I didn't want people to be coming to the Flick Hamnet Day social media marketing expecting me when actually they're going to get one of my employees, and and you know, I didn't want that brand disconnect. Whereas actually, when I get to that point, and I do say when, not if, when I get to that point, people are going to be coming to the social dragonfly because they align with the brand of the social dragonfly, the fact that there'll be, you know, possibly a small army of us that are all social dragonflyers, um, that they're they're still going to align with the brand that I've built, and the people, you know, and that's such an important thing as well. When you come to employ somebody, um, you've had more experience with that than than me, of making sure that they're aligned with your business brand as well.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

And that's scary. It is really scary. I mean, you were number three, you know that. So we'd kind of been through it twice before you, and it hadn't been particularly sex successful, and not for any reason, they were they were lovely women that came to work for us, it just didn't work out. And part of you know us coming to you in the first place is because we'd literally trained you, so you already did it our way, and that's the lessons we'd learnt when we'd employed in the past. It's really hard to teach people to do it your way, unless they're really kind of on a journey with you, so you've got to work so much harder. So you made it really easy, but when you employ people, it is really it is a difficult journey because you do have to make sure that they stay on brand, and they're not gonna be as passionate about it as you are.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

No, they've not built it from the the the ground up, which is yeah, which is difficult, but it's it's doable. I'm not saying we're not saying the fact that it's not doable, it's it's absolutely you will find um, you know, it's a praise of that you will find the diamond in the rough, or you know, you will find them out there, they are out there, but it's you know, you've got to be really clear on your recruitment process of the sort of person that you want to find, the sort of you know but what's important about that is knowing who you are before you get to that stage.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Um I would give that advice massively. If you're you know, if you're well, actually, there's two bits of advice if you don't mind. Can I just go off on one for a second? So the first one is if you are a brand new startup and you are because I think we've all been in a position where we're not sure what to call our business, what to do, whether it we come under ourselves or whether we do a business name. Just there's two sides to this. One is understand that as you grow, if you do want to grow the business, then you will become the brand, which will become a problem in the future. But also at that point in time, don't put too much thought into it because you can evolve and grow over time. So you can start off as you and then develop into a business name. That's fine because you're doing your business your way. So either of those options is not you can change it at any time, so don't panic over it.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Yeah, and there are some really big examples of who people have done that, like marathon bar. Like nobody, nobody really calls it a marathon bar anymore. Like we all know it's a Snickers. Yeah, you know, um, Opal Fruits. Yeah, like you know, we now so many people wouldn't even know what Opal Fruits is because Starburst is such the you know the better name in the event. So you can change it. Um, we're definitely not saying that you, you know, you have to stick with your original idea.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

You don't, and you know, don't get worked up over things like that when you first start out. That's the least of your problems when you first start out a business. Don't spend too much time on that. And then the other thing is if you get into the stage then where you need to employ, um, which you know you might you might choose to employ, you might choose to outsource instead, but whichever direction you're going in, either or actually, before you do that, do a real deep dive into who you are and who your business is. And I say who your business is because you need to treat your business as a person, they have their own personality, they have their own brand. So it's you've got to understand fully, and I think that's where we went wrong initially, because we didn't really know who we were. So when we tried to teach somebody else how to become a girl in pink, if you like, it was a disaster because we didn't know who that was in the first place. So by the time we got to you, we'd nailed it. You know, our brand was the girls in pink. You knew the first thing we did was order you a pink hoodie. You were going out in a pink hoodie, whether you liked it or not. But you were gonna encompass our values. I really hated the colour pink. You did. You said I hate the colour pink, and it's I don't care, you're wearing it. End of story. You want to be a girls in pink, you're gonna have to wear it. But it wasn't pink sparkling shoes. Do we remember the pink sparkling shoes?

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Because I was like, if I'm gonna embrace it, yeah. I very much did that as that it was like, well, if I'm gonna be, you know, a girl in pink and I'm going to be a representative of IMC Pro for Solutions or IMC Social, you know, as it became. It's like, I, you know, it's not me and and my brand, it's somebody else's brand. But I'm gonna step into it, and you can bet I'm gonna give like 110% to being part of that brand and that that reputation, because woe be it on me, is the fact that oh, I'm I'm selling out here selling myself at networking events or whatever, as a girl in pink, and yet I'm always wearing blue, for example, or you know, I don't always wear blue, but it's like, well, that's not or you know, I was going to networking events and feeling really corporate and really like you know, suited and booted. When it's like, well, actually, you and Alison have built it on being girls in hoodies that were fun and exciting and bubbly, and um, you know, it just really would have felt a disconnect. So I was like, if I'm gonna if I'm gonna embrace it, I'm gonna embrace their brand wholeheartedly.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

But the fact that you did that and you felt that says that we had it right in the first place. By the time you came on board, you knew what we needed you to encompass, and there wasn't huge conversations about it because you got to. I mean, we had the advantage that you were in our training academy, so you knew kind of how we worked anyway. But coming on from the business side is a very different angle, so you kind of got that immediately. You could see what our values were, what we represented, because we knew it at that point, we didn't know it previously, so it's really important that if you are going to employ, we've gone off topic topic a little bit here, but I kind of it kind of all goes in the same thing, I guess. Um, if you are at the level where you're thinking of employing, make sure you really do the deep dive into who you are and who your business is first.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Yeah, definitely. So come on, we've talked about um your your sort of evolutions of businesses and stuff like that. I'm just gonna, you know, and you can you can reinvent yourself or evolve in a business, you know, as we said at the beginning, without having to rebrand um and change your colours or change your logos. I mean, you know, you know very well, Verity, that you know, six, seven months ago I had sort of quite an uh an ep epi uh I had an epiphany.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Epiphany, yeah, not an epiphany.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

I was trying to say whatever the oh I don't know what I was trying to say. There we go. I'm not apologizing for that. I'm not. Um I had quite an epiphany in the fact that you know I've been I've been doing the business for sort of two and a half years at that point, and it suddenly resonated with me that actually the the persona that I was putting out, while it was me, it was not me the business owner, it was me the friend. And actually who I am as a business owner needed to shift and needed to adjust because actually I realized my my purpose and my passion is for helping other people to grow. And for so long, you know, I thought you know, I'm a social media marketer and I would always be very real and very vulnerable on online and social media, but I would hide certain things about what I was doing because you know I wouldn't put out the fact that you know I'm a scout leader or the fact that or I'd feel judged if I talked about the the beer festivals that I volunteer at. That was a real shift for you. It was because it was like, well, actually, everything I do is about helping other people to to have more fun, to and get more from life, and get to to be and have more. Um, and that scouting the beer festivals weren't a separate entity to who I was as a business owner. They were actually supportive of that. They were just it was more me. And it it sounds, I don't know whether it doesn't sound very, very much like a shift in in persona, you know, when I'm talking about it now, but at the time it was just like I felt like I've been driving with my eyes closed, or you know, and I suddenly opened my eyes and went, wow, this is this is all me. Um and and I shouldn't be hiding things, I shouldn't be, you know, it's all part of my brand and it all it all fit when when I realised, you know, what I'm here to do.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

And when it clicks, it clicks. It's an amazing feeling. And I remember when you have that shift.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

I spent hours in tears because I was like, oh my god, I've I've just got this so wrong up until this moment. And it's it's you know, I I think I've used the word powerful far too many times in this podcast, you know, we're only on episode two. Um, but it was it was so enlightening and just such a shift. I felt the whole thing, my chest and my mind everywhere. It was like, wow, you know, going, you know, the the same sort of shifts that I imagine people went when they've gone from black and white TVs the their entire life to suddenly having full high definition colour TVs. That was kind of that wow moment for me.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Um, but nothing changed with the business. I've still got my brand colours that I first started with, I've still got the band business name, the the strap line, everything you know stayed the same while shifting at the same point. And you can do that.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

You can do you can absolutely do that. So, what would be then your wild words of wisdom? Yay! Isn't it wild words of wisdom? What would be your wild words of wisdom around reinventing yourself or your business or your brand?

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Um and I'm gonna I'm gonna liken this almost to like the the butterfly analogy just because it works, you know. When a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, it goes into the crystalist, but it basically becomes mush, it goes back to its basic formula of becoming, you know, goo for want of a better term. And I think that's what you need to do. You know, that's you know, you have to go back to the basics, you have to go right to the core of who you are on the inside before you can transform the outside. That was really good.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

I'm gonna struggle to be that one. All I'll add to that is growth is inevitable, so don't fight it, just embrace it and go where it clicks.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

I like that. So that's been us on Wildly Intentional, and we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

See you next time. Thanks for spending this time with us on Wildly Intentional. If this podcast sparks something for you, take it with you and act on it. Don't forget to subscribe, share, and come and say hello online.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

And remember bold talk leads to big breakthroughs with no apologies.