Build Better Brands (Danielle Clarke)

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Alexis Kingsbury who runs software and consulting businesses that help leaders grow their business and their teams with less stress. He is a long-term entrepreneur and has scaled several businesses and helped them to systemise and grow.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• My background was as a management consultant with some medium sized businesses  and then I worked with some very large businesses like AstraZeneca, Honda and parts of the UK Government helping them to optimise their processes to achieve more with either the same or less resource, sadly in some cases. When I left the consulting world to set up my own businesses I had to take everything that I learned and completely unlearn it! Because a lot of what you do for large companies doesn’t immediately apply to small companies.
• There’s a temptation as an early-stage entrepreneur, to hold onto the concept or the idea that you have too tightly. Entrepreneurship is a really weird balance, you need perseverance and a thick skin when you’re getting rejections and friends and family are questioning your crazy idea, but on the flip side you need to be able to listen and change and pivot and iterate. The trick, or the solution, is to get passionate and focus on the pain and the customer. If you’re really clear on the people you want to work with and the problems you want to solve for them based on real problems they have, not ones you assume they have, then the solution itself matters a bit less and you can pivot and change that to find what fits and helps them. When you’ve got that you’ve got something magical that can then grow and turn into a successful business.
• We’ve had to rebrand a few times and it’s always incredibly painful to do. SpiderGap is an example of where the product and customer changed significantly and yet, when we reviewed it and spoke to customers, they liked the name and said it did stand out from the usual suspects of HR Solutions and so on. So, we concluded it was fine. You can spend so much time on renaming the business – and there are other businesses where we have changed the name and the branding.
• Often one of the most common areas for business owners and early stage entrepreneurs to let go of next is around sales. Perhaps they are the only sales person in the business, so when they get busy the sales pipeline slows up, which holds them back. Then they start to think about hiring, but that could hold them back from making sales and both things will impact money coming in. It’s a barrier for people to make that first leap. The mistake I and other entrepreneurs make when hiring a sales person is they assume the answer is to bring in a really experienced sales person to come in and solve all their problems. We did that, and that didn’t happen. We realised that at their old job they had a sales process, pipeline management, sales collateral and really clear sets of questions and things to cover. Making a mistake like that can cost you a year, but next time round you must implement a sales process.

BEST MOMENTS

‘At various points in my life I’ve started up 9 businesses, but it’s probably telling that, of those 9, I essentially have 3 still active and one where I’ve paused. The process of building a business is an iterative one, or at least it should be.’

‘As an entrepreneur, you do need to listen and have lots of conversations and that’s often one of the hardest things to do is go out there and have those conversations, but it’s only through that that you can truly pivot and innovate.’

‘One of the most important things when you’re looking at branding is messaging: What’s your description of the customer, what’s your description of the pains and frustrations that your customer has that you’re solving for them, and how do you succinctly describe what you do and demonstrate that?’

Continuous improvement is so valuable, like tweaks and changes over time add up to huge shifts I the results that you get over years. If you don’t document things and continuously improve them, you’ll get the same results and never grow.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Alexis Kingsbury is the Director of Bridging Insight and co-founder of Spidergap, AirManual & Parentpreneur.

Websites: https://www.spidergap.com/ and https://www.airmanual.co/ 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkingsbury/?originalSubdomain=uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexis.kingsbury 

Twitter: @Alexiskingsbury

Instagram: @alexis.kingsbury

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Made By James a.k.a James Martin to talk about his life from someone who was off the rails to a success in logo design and soon to be an author as well as starting to get into mentoring.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When you start to find your feet in design, you start to think “wouldn't it be cool to write a book one day?” and I thought maybe I'll do it in my dotage. But the idea came pre-Covid, in February 2020 and now it's all written, printed and is sitting in a shipping container ready to be out in the world.
• I always subconsciously wanted to be more, but when I was about 17-19 I was totally off the rails, didn't give a shit about what anybody thought, thought I was the big I am. There's a lot of deeper stuff too, like I was sexually abused by a teacher when I was 11 and growing up I rebelled and stopped trusting anybody. The turning point was, after one bender too many, lying there thinking “what's going on? What are you doing? Where are you going?” 19 years later, I'm here!
• Behind every successful person there's a past and a story and I think the story is what makes stuff interesting. If there's one person listening to this smoking weed and thinking I'm better, hopefully this might spur them on a little bit. I'm totally sober now and I now do everything, probably because it feels like I'm making up for all that lost time.
• I've always got a 10 year plan, for me the challenge is the transition that I'm in. For the last decade I've been building Baby Giant which involves lots of client work, which I love because it's what's got me to where I am today. But I now want to start being a good influencer on young creatives coming up and take on a mentor/educator role. The idea is to do half and half. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘I hope being open about what I've been through allows other people to talk about stuff.'

‘It's great that people are opening up about being gay or problems with drugs and alcohol.'

‘I'm a believer in that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be right now. I try to keep one foot in the present while looking at the future.'

‘There's way more opportunities for creatives these days than there were a decade ago, definitely more than a decade ago.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

James Martin grew up a creative, developed his skills in illustration, became a teacher, then a tattoo apprentice, and has now been in the graphic design world for over 15 years. He is now fully focused on Brand identity, logo design, and nurturing the new designers on this planet to find their own path in the creative industry.

His mission is to provide his clients with iconic and memorable brand identity solutions, and guide the passionate creatives of this world through transparent communication and engaging content.

Website: https://themadebyjames.com/ 
Book: Made by James: The Honest Guide to Creativity and Logo Design 
Instagram and Pinterest: @made.by.james
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/madebyjames

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER. Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Ed Nell, a BBC radio presenter who helps business owners engage more deeply and turns audiences into customers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Media Insiders has been going for 12-18 months and it came about partly because I felt like I needed a new career, but also because I felt like there was a need for what we offer as well. I’ve been a radio presenter for 20 years, it’s all I’ve ever done and thought about. That came to an end and usually I’d get another contract, but because radio has shrunk by about 60%, those opportunities weren’t there, so I sat with a blank piece of paper, wrote my skills down and thought about how I could turn them into something that other people might like!
• A lot of business owners, especially SMEs, think the media is one of those things that only big brands can afford. It’s just not the case. They say you can’t advertise on the BBC, but you can, it just depends on how you talk about it. If you’re not gratuitous about it, and add value, you can become the BBC’s go to expert in your field in your area, talk about your business and get loads of exposure to thousands, potentially millions, of people that you wouldn’t normally get to speak to.
• People often listen to podcasts on their own through headphones, it’s really in their ears, and often while they’re doing something else. But, at the same time, that message is still going on. Radio is the same. You’ve got a captive audience and it’s really effective to get your message out there, but it’s about how you do it and how you sell it, that’s what Media Insiders does. 
• So much of radio is not only about telling your own story,it’s all about connecting with the listener, talking about really relatable things on a really powerful level. If you think you’re a  good story-teller I can make you into a better one, if you think you’re not a great story-teller at all, I can give you basic techniques to start you off to become a really good story-teller. This is really good for business because people connect through story-telling.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The BBC does radio in a totally different way than I’d done before, it’s a lot more speech-based with guests. I saw a real opportunity for business owners to get themselves out there.’
We want to debunk the idea that: “it’s going to be terrible, I’m going to look really stupid”. It’s not, as long as you prepare, we can lift the curtain back for you, like the Wizard of Oz – it’s just a man working a few sticks, it’s not the voice of God!’
‘Repackage you interview after it’s been done, put it on your social media channels and then reach even more people by saying “look what I did, isn’t it great?!”’
‘It took me a long time, and probably only in the past few years of analysing it, to realise that story-telling is why I’ve always loved radio. The idea that, just with someone’s voice, you can make people feel every emotion imaginable, story-telling is what does that.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Ed Nell has 20+ years of experience in the media and is a CPD certified corporate trainer and high-performance coach with extensive experience as a BBC radio presenter and event host. He has worked with Premiership football clubs, national retail brands and some of the biggest UK radio stations.

Having lived and breathed their brands, Ed can teach you how they connect and delight their ideal customers to create deep and long-lasting relationships. He delivers in-person and virtual masterclasses on content creation and lifts the curtain on how you can become the media's go-to expert.

Website: https://www.themediainsiders.co.uk/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ednell/ 

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Matt Davies, a Level C certified brand strategist who runs his own consultancy business, helping businesses globally understand the importance of branding.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• What used to really upset me was that the reality of what I was being asked to do for other companies didn't match the internal culture, intentions and customer experience of the company. That led me to figuring out how to join the dots between what we put out and the reality of things, what the customer asked for and what the designers created.
• Branding has an identity crisis. The average person might think a brand is the logo, perhaps fonts and colour palettes as well. That would mean that if we created the world's best logo, we'd have created the world's best brand, but that's not how it works. The brand is way bigger than that – it's the meaning that people attach to you and your products/services that you offer. Ultimately, they control it, not you.
• To define a brand I ask four simple questions: 1) Why do you exist beyond making money? 2) Who do you exist to serve? 3) How do you show up for them and why should they care? 4) What is your offer and proposition at a high level? Once you have the high level answers to those you then need to drive those through your organisation and operationalise that thinking.
• The challenge is alignment. The first bit of the process is to define the meaning you want people to attach to you, you do that by listening to your staff, your customers – most importantly, the marketplace with trend research and analysis and listening to the ambitions of the leaders. All that gives you a sense of mismatches and where things aren't working out. Then you've got to define it with the leaders because they make the calls, your job as a brand consultant is to give them the reality and hold a mirror up to them. The next step is getting the employees in line with the message and finally you need to operationalise it within the organisation, getting the culture around the message both inside and outside.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I sat in on a workshop and wondered why this had never been done before. Forming alignment is the key thing, so I developed them for my company.'

‘Branding is actually the way you behave, the way you dress, the decisions that you make around how you pay your tax, it's all of those things because they all give people a perception.'

‘It's never done, you've always got to keep doing it.'

‘All successful sports teams have a strategy to win and have played that out.  To set yourself up for success you need that strategy'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Matt Davies began his career 20 years ago in graphic design but soon moved from execution into strategy and branding. He was always frustrated with being asked to create design veneers which were not in-line with reality. In a quest for truth and determined to make a real difference he took his design and creative skills into the boardroom to help businesses think differently about their brands.

He founded and ran his own design business for nine years. Sold it. Helped run a Digital Marketing Agency. Led an in-house team for a global corporate. Written a book. Worked with hundreds of clients all over the world from startups through to large corporates including Microsoft, Nestle, Boots, Virgin, Specsavers, Capital One, Nikon, Fred Perry and Experian. Spoken at all sorts of business events. United, excited and delighted his clients to create positive change which affects their bottom lines.

Today his quest is to help businesses find and live their brand truth.

Website: https://www.mrmattdavies.me/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgdavies/ 
Books: Storyategy: Unlock the power of your brand with a story based branding strategy

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER. Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle interviews Daniella Genas, the founder of Be the Boss. Daniella shares her journey of starting her first business and the challenges she faced along the way. She discusses the importance of having a clear vision and being intentional in business growth strategies. Daniella emphasises the need for diversity and inclusion in the business world, highlighting the value of relatable role models and support from within the community. She also shares her personal experience of selling her business and the lessons she learned from that tough decision. Overall, this episode provides valuable insights and strategies for building better brands and achieving sustainable growth.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Vision and intentionality are crucial for sustainable business growth. Starting with a clear vision and being intentional in your actions and decisions can prevent you from getting off track and help you achieve your goals more efficiently.

• Diversity and inclusion in business are important for creating a sense of belonging and providing relatable role models and support for underrepresented communities. It is not just about having diverse representation, but also about authentic support and understanding of the unique challenges faced by different groups.

• Failure can be a valuable learning experience and can lead to personal and professional growth. Embracing failure and learning from it can help you make better decisions and avoid repeating past mistakes.

• Overworking and lack of capacity are common challenges for business owners. Implementing systems, automation, delegation, and outsourcing can help alleviate the workload and create more time for strategic thinking and growth.

• Personal growth and mindset are just as important as financial success. Building confidence, overcoming self-doubt, and developing a strong mindset can have a significant impact on the success of a business. It is not just about the numbers, but also about personal fulfilment and happiness.

BEST MOMENTS

"A lot of the business support that was available was typically being delivered by people that had never actually run businesses." 

"The failure has actually been my greatest advantage… one of the things that makes me very good at what I do is because of that failure." - Daniella Genas

"I always say start with vision… when you have a clear vision, you can then become intentional with what you do and what you don't do." 

"I don't think that business has a diversity issue I think what we often talk about is the lack of diversity within the mainstream spaces." 

"You're saying you want to support black business, but actually it's not being delivered by people that look like the businesses that they're trying to service." 

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Carol Urry to talk about building her coaching business, Warriormum Coaching, amongst other things.

Books mentioned:

Open with a Close: The twelve point guide to closing more sales by Matthew Elwell https://amzn.to/3M2Ewze

Alcohol Explained Workbook (William Porter's 'Explained') by William Porter https://amzn.to/3UZzZBw

THIS NAKED MIND: The myth-busting cult hit for anyone who wants to cut down their alcohol consumption by Annie Grace https://amzn.to/3V1MUmM

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A lot of people doing Sober October just want to do it to prove to themselves they’re not alcoholics, which is a word that we don’t really use in the coaching space around alcohol freedom. There are a range of benefits to giving up alcohol for a month, it’s a great thing. But, from a coach’s point of view it’s hard to put yourself through that, and what have you actually learned at the end of it? As an alcohol free coach, the programme I teach looks at why we drink, why we need to drink and all the different scenarios around using alcohol – self-medicating, confidence, help sleeping, stress, need to chill.
• A lot of coaches go into coaching because of experiences they’ve had and they want to help other people, and that was the same with me. I started drinking in my early teenage years at the local disco in the pub, but drinking wasn’t really a big thing. I spend 13 years in the Army and drinking wasn’t a massive part of my life then – though there are a lot of veterans who use alcohol because they’re away from home a lot of the time and it’s quite difficult. Also, they’re quite bored, a lot of people drink through boredom. Drinking, for me became more of a habit over the years and the thing with a habit is you then get the tolerance so you need more to get that buzz.
• I love studying the stuff that goes on in your brain and your body when you take on board alcohol. It’s amazing. The one thing that blew me away was a single sentence in a book that I read that alcohol is a carcinogen, it’s cancer causing, and after some more research I found out that in 1987 alcohol was classed as a class 1 carcinogen and actually derives from ethanol, which is what we put in our petrol tanks. That floored me, and I just thought I want to be around for my kids and my grandkids. That was a big turning point for me.
• Thankfully, a lot of young people aren’t big drinkers. A lot of my clients are sitting around the 40-50 mark, the yuppie era where they were drinking champagne and partying and going to Spain and Ibiza and raving. There’s a lot of people in this bracket where alcohol has been part and parcel of their growing up. People don’t think about choosing an alternative, you’re either drinking or you’re not. I tell people to have one soft drink for every alcoholic drink as a starter.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I, like many other people, Googled “am I an alcoholic” and felt great when I didn’t score highly on that.’

‘After my divorce I drank at least a bottle of wine every night for over a decade. That’s why I do what I do because it breaks my heart to think of mum’s struggling out there, trying to keep everything together and turning to alcohol – and I don’t blame them for doing that – but it’s an addictive substance and once you get into that cycle it’s really, really hard.’

‘The night and day programme that I run is re-programming that subconscious thinking around alcohol because it’s not our fault. Society gives us an addictive substance, promotes an addictive substance, puts it all over the place – on TV and in the supermarkets – and then blames us for getting addicted. It’s crazy.’

‘If you have 3 alcoholic drinks a week you increase your risk of breast cancer by 15%. One additional drink increases that risk by 10%. The drinks industry don’t want you to know about these statistics because they’re making an absolute shed-load of money out of it.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Carol Urry: I am a certified This Naked Mind coach and a trained Integrated Coach to ICF standards.

I have been alcohol free since October 2019 and work specifically with Mums who are struggling to keep children, work, relationships and home life running smoothly.

Whilst raising two children of my own, one who lives with the challenges of autism and ADHD, I realised I was using alcohol to help cope with all of life’s responsibilities, including a challenging marriage that ended in divorce.

I have worked in the care sector since the 1980's, including 13 years' service in the Army. In 1997, after moving to a small rural village, I became involved in my local branch of the Royal British Legion, holding positions as Chairman, Case Worker, Treasurer & Welfare Visitor, and continue to be involved in our local Poppy Appeal. Community is very important to me and during my many years in my small community I have sat on several committees and been involved in many local projects and fundraisers over the years.

My Christian faith is very important to me. I love nature, bird watching, gardening, travelling, and am passionate about steam trains. I am now remarried and enjoy riding pillion on our Goldwing motorcycle and supporting our favourite football team. A lover of Yoga and meditation, I love a challenge and have always been an enthusiastic self-developer.

Website: https://www.warriormumcoaching.com/

Socials: @warriormumcoaching or @carolurry

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

The Build Better Brands Podcast is a labour of love created each fortnight by our small team of committed editors and producers. If you love the show, we hope you'll consider supporting our work – for just the cost of a cup of coffee (or tea): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Konstantinos Synodinos, a marketer and entrepreneur who helps businesses and athletes and sporting professionals become globally visible.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Tik Tok’s short video format has dominated the attention of people who really love the fact they can get tons of value, entertainment and inspiration within 10-20 seconds. It entirely changed how people consumed and created content two and a half years ago during the first quarantine in most countries. As a marketeer, when you see something that grabs the attention of people so much, so instantly, and in such a different way, and when I realised that organic reach is cheaper than ever, I had to jump in and see if there was something in there for me.
• By experimenting, being consistent, and adjusting to the different kinds of learnings that I got through the process brought me to this point, having the biggest digital marketing channel globally right now in Tik Tok, Instagram and Pinterest combined.
• Martial arts, as a kid, teaches you discipline and that you won’t see results the next day, you have to repeat specific movements thousands of times in a deadly boring way that doesn’t make sense until 6-12 months’ time when it’s become second nature to you. You improve and perfect. This kind of mindset and adjustment and discipline is everything in entrepreneurship because that’s how you need to adapt and adjust when you start a business.
• People need to get into NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and identify your limiting beliefs, working with a councillor who can really help you mindset-wise. Most people don’t even know they have a limiting belief because it’s so ingrained in their mind. It can really improve everything. Entrepreneurship is mostly about mindset.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I never had a plan of becoming a social media persona/influencer/whatever. I love digital entrepreneurship, which I got into in the last seven years after quitting my multinational corporate job.’
‘You don’t have to know exactly what you want to do, just take the first step as you see it at this point. Your vision will get better metre by metre, day by day.’
‘Some lessons need to be learned through making mistakes yourself.’
‘Mentors connect the dots faster for you trying to connect them yourself. Get a mentor ASAP, especially if they match your journey.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Konstantinos Synodinos has 10 years of experience as a Marketing Manager in Procter & Gamble and Diageo companies for products such as Duracell, Ariel, Pantene, Braun , Pringles & Johnnie Walker for Greece and Western Europe.

Website: https://simplydigital.gr/ 

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

A hybrid podcast combining interviews, conversations and solo talks about branding and business. The Brand better podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others. I'll be talking to experts in the branding field as well as business owners in the health, wellness and fitness space. We'll be talking about why your brand starts with you and why becoming a better version of yourself, by looking after yourself is the first thing to do to make your brand better. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently.

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and business owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including ŠKODA, Gtech, UK Biocentre, Healthful Mind Clinic and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/ 

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com 

Website - www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Simon Cooper, a.k.a. Damp Sam, who has built his own business and brand, All Dry Damp Proofing Ltd, and has his own podcast called The Damp Show where he discusses the trade with other tradespeople. He tells the story of how his own branding story has evolved from not wanting to pay to advertise in local papers which has eventually led to a successful side-hustle as a YouTube influencer.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I never knew things I was learning were sinking in, but when I did my surveyance qualifications, things to do with humidity and the way water evaporates. You think you're never going to use the stuff you learned at school but you do, later in life, even if you think you're not.
• Covid allowed me to slow down and look back at what I've done. I probably had mental health issues growing up, but they weren't called that at the time. In fact, it might have weighed down on me rather than allowed me to move forward. I think everyone's got mental health issues in some form or another, as long as you've got thoughts in your head, some people are maybe more mentally strong than others.
• When people started moving onto the computer to advertise rather than the Yellow Pages, I decided to get my own website, but I paid someone else to run it, which cost about £400 per year. I went to a networking event about 11 years ago and enrolled on a business coaching course where I was talked through different ways of advertising including social media. He told us to go away and make some videos about what we do. I made them, posted them to YouTube and didn't look at them again for a year. When I went back they'd got quite a few views and one of them is still the first video that comes up when you search for Damp Sam! It had more than 500,000 views and led me to monetise my videos and do more.
• Damp Sam sticks in the mind, it's become my personal brand. In the future when I can't plaster any more, I'll be able to create a digital project. I'm setting up a course on how to do the job, where to source the materials, etc for everyone from DIYers to tradesmen. It's going to help towards the preservation industry which will be a win for everybody.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I wanted people to see that I was the best in my field.'

‘Years and years ago the only way to get your brand out there, as a plasterer was posting in the local newspaper and then it was just your name and phone number because it cost a fortune and per word.'

‘YouTube is the second biggest search engine after Google.'

‘Lots of people in my space use long words to describe what they're doing. I positioned myself as no nonsense, straight talking and relatable. I've put everything that I've learned on YouTube so people can refer to it and get value. I've now done over 500 videos and earn about £200 a month from it, all borne out of not wanting to pay for advertising.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Simon Cooper left school at 16 after realising that school and exams weren't for him and was given the options of a number of manual jobs like bricklayer and plasterer as an apprentice. He chose plastering because he wanted to work in different places every day. He was laid off early on due to strikes going on in his hometown, in Yorkshire, so he started advertising his services as a plasterer for hire and went back to college to learn the trade and to hope that he could branch out from plastering.

Eventually he got qualified in building management and got a job as a finishing foreman for a company building flats. However, the company went bust by the end of the year and he decided to join the RAF as a photographer as it was the easiest job on offer. For this he went to take an exam which he failed. He was at his lowest ebb and in that moment he decided to be the best at what he knew: Plastering.

Eventually he moved into damp-proofing, became a surveyor and set up his own company: All Dry Damp Proofing Ltd. He now makes straight talking no nonsense videos which he posts on YouTube and offers a service giving free advice to people on their damp issues. In between running his company, Simon is also a landlord, trying to set up a hair salon, building an extension and being the world's best Dad.

“Why do I do it? Well, that's simple. I love what I do and I'm still learning. I have 35 years doing this stuff and hate to think I would be keeping it all to myself.”

Website: https://alldrydampproofing.com/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDh4nXWTEAPxsG5JIX3VdIg 

Email: dampsam@thedampshow.co.uk 

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by ultra-marathon runner, coach and Oxygen Advantage Master Breathwork Instructor, Matt Bagwell about how branding has changed over the last three decades as well as his move into breathwork and coaching.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I was right there at the beginning of things like e-commerce and the first dot com boom, and everything changed: Customers’ interactions with brands changed, channel strategies changed, and I was right at the very heart of that. Inter-customer experience design, which in 2008-9 customer experience – of UX as people might know it now – began to evolve and develop and subsequently you saw the emergence of social media. With that everything was disrupted, the role of brands, the roles of individuals, so my work was about the transformation of companies to interact in those spaces across channels in the most appropriate way, which I did for lots of international brands, leading significant, successful and very talented teams.
• My job was to inspire people to do their best, encourage them to do their best, support them so they could do their best, make sure that the conditions that surrounded those people encouraged, engendered and nurtured them in such a way that they could do their best. But, I needed great people around me to execute the work. There’s reciprocity in that, great thinking, great ideas, challenge, growth all comes from your interactions with other people.
• I’m the kid who used to take apart calculators. I took that curiosity into my adult life and went into companies and even breath work. I understand the spiritual modality and truly respect it. I love what Wim Hof does – never a dull day with Wim Hof – but I wanted to understand the science and the very practical application of ‘functional breathing’. In the pandemic I could tell that anxiety was through the roof, initially there was shock and then we started to become used to it. We all thought this was going to last for 4-8 weeks, which is why I drank so much rose wine! Not to misunderstand that it was a deeply stressful time with people displaced from their work and from their families. There was an unusual cocktail of high and low emotion and I looked at the issues that began to emerge very rapidly with social isolation and people began to carry anxiety. The way for me to help was to help people breathe through the anxiety to move into a calmer state, so I went live on Instagram and it took off.
• The internet has created a global village and I can interact with people, doing breathwork, with people in Texas, California, New Zealand, Australia and all over Europe. That’s really powerful, because there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of breath work instructors all over the world. It’s great that people internationally have been able to connect in these virtual communities that have been created and are so accessible with platforms like Zoom and Instagram Live. But even as brand marketeers, sometimes we overlook that stuff that’s literally within 5 square miles of where we actually live.

BEST MOMENTS
‘There’s an intention to ensure that everything that I’m doing is helping other people optimise their lives and live as extraordinary a life as possible.’
‘A problem shared is a problem halved, or even an opportunity doubled.’
‘They used to call me “Jazz Hands” in most of the companies I worked in!’
‘The beach is a nice environment for breath work, there’s the sound of the sea, a metronomic wave breaking and if you’re on a pebble beach, like Brighton, you can hear both the inhale and exhale. There’s something quite calming about that.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Once a designer, strategist, business leader and founder, Matt Bagwell is now a coach and Oxygen Advantage Master Breathwork Instructor.
He is on his own quest to fulfil his potential. From an intentional daily practice to purpose and values, Matt is curious to find, to expand, to be extraordinary.
Website: https://mattcoaching.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewbagwell
Instagram: @mattbagwell
ABOUT THE HOST
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.
Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.
The Build Better Brands Podcast is a labour of love created each fortnight by our small team of committed editors and producers. If you love the show, we hope you'll consider supporting our work – for just the cost of a cup of coffee (or tea): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke
Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]
Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Mike Villiers-Stuart, course director at Birmingham City University. He has worked in the creative industry for over 30 years running digital marketing and creative teams for global brands, including the BBC and ITV.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Familiarity is really, really important for brands. If I had to refine it down to one other word it would be ownership. Those are two very powerful words, and that kind of sums it all up really. Literally branding is ownership, right from branding cattle so it couldn’t be stolen. Fundamental mark making is super important, like the red tab on the back of your Levi’s 501s.
• When you’re looking after a brand, or starting one from scratch, it’s important to know where it’s come from. You’ve got to know what your product is and what its purpose is. Is there something special in the market or are you competing with lots of other brands? When you identify these things, you start to locate your brand amongst other brands where people are looking. You’ve got to position yourself in that competing market, so you have to find something to mark yourself out with which sets you apart as different.
• After you’ve found the core of your brand, you then need to ask who’s interested in it? Who’s going to buy it? Who’s going to invest in your brand and believe you? Once you’ve identified your target market, you’ll have a pretty good idea of who you’re trying to reach and convert. Now you’ve got a brand and an audience that you understand and the next trick is to find the shared values between the two – what have I got that they want – and in the middle is the zone where you’re doing it right.
• Designers say you’re taking away the creativity when you say you want to protect the integrity of a shape/logo. But, it’s not. Your job is to find ways to creatively articulate that message. It’s about preserving the integrity of the shape and being creative around it. So, again, you need to understand the product, the market and how the product differentiates itself from other products in the market, that’s where you find the creativity and make the difference.

BEST MOMENTS

‘What’s the secret ingredient that you’ve got that makes you stand out? That secret ingredient is frequently called your “unique sales proposition”. Once you’ve identified it, that’s the very core of your brand.’
‘Emotionally charged moments between a customer and a product make superb pieces of content for marketing campaigns because it celebrates the values of the brand at the very core of the brand and it celebrates what’s important to the user at the heart of their own experience.’
‘The iconic shape of the 2 for BBC 2 and you own that as a brand guardian, it’s a beautiful thing to work with. I work with that shape to protect the integrity of that shape.’
‘You don’t need to put badges on it, you don’t need to put wheels on it, you don’t need to turn it into anything that it isn’t, just go with the integrity of the shape (logo) because that’s what people recognise and buy in to, that’s the shorthand that everybody recognises without even having to read it, they see it and they know what it means.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Mike Villiers-Stuart: I'm a university lecturer in the Birmingham Institute of Creative Arts where I work with talented colleagues in teaching bright, hard-working students of design, advertising and digital marketing communications.

This follows 30 years in broadcasting where I worked with gifted and fun teams of professional creatives at the BBC, ITV, Al Jazeera and many more international TV, media and advertising agencies around the world to deliver fab briefs, get results and win awards.

Now I'm standing on the shoulders of giants and sharing the view... with inspirational colleagues and students at Birmingham City University.

Email: mikev-s@virginmedia.com 

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Kyle Stout, an email marketer, digital marketing consultant, founder of Elevate & Scale which helps e-commerce businesses unlock hidden revenue and put their sales on autopilot while spending zero on advertising.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Email marketing is in the back of the business owner's mind as something that’s always going to be there, so it goes on the backburner, and they don’t dive into it or realise how much potential is actually there until they talk to other business owners or they start to implement it themselves. Assuming you have an existing list you can get traction going pretty easily. 
• Email marketing is more valuable today than it ever has been because it’s one of the only places left where you have a direct line of communication with your audience on a platform that you own and control. With social media everything’s changing quickly where you can build up a following quickly on one platform and then the attention shifts to a new platform, or there’s a change to the algorithm and your content is seen by a fraction of the people who used to see it. Email is reliable and sustainable. But, social media is also stronger than it’s ever been before.
• Don’t over complicate things at first. First, you need to have a way to capture leads like a form on your website where people can opt in and offer them something in exchange for signing up because people know how the game works and don’t want to sign up to an email list for no reason, even the promise of exclusive content. You could offer a coupon for their first purchase, free resource or training, a consultation call – whatever makes sense for your business. Then, you need to have an automated email set up so as soon as they opt in they get more information about your brain, products, services, what kind of customer experience they can expect, customer reviews if you have any to share. Beyond that (for the vast majority of businesses) there are several other automated options you can set up that are tied to your sales process.
• Doing a storewide sale is the quickest way to get a spike in revenue, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do that, but it’s a tool to have in your arsenal. If you only send those kinds of emails people aren’t going to want to buy at full price anymore. Don’t rely on gimmicky subject lines to try to spike your open rates, your sender reputation – what they think of you – is way more important than the subject line, if you send them emails they like receiving you’ll find (to an extent) it doesn’t matter that much what you say in the subject line, your open rates will go up and down based on the content and when you send emails to specific segments of your audience  within you list. Don’t send every email to everyone on your list.

BEST MOMENTS
‘When life throws things my way I just want to say “yes” and jump on things that interest me.’
‘Social media is the tool to get the attention from your target customers and email marketing is the tool to capture that attention and turn it into revenue for your business.’
‘Wait until you get a few hundred emails on your list before you start to take on the additional challenge of coming up with new ideas and sending emails on a regular basis.’

ABOUT THE GUEST
Kyle Stout Started as a freelance copywriter in 2013 specialising in email marketing and sales process optimization. He has developed email marketing frameworks that generated over $50 million in revenue for clients. He launched Elevate & Scale in 2019 where his clients typically see 30-50% of their total revenue attributed to email marketing
Website: https://www.elevateandscale.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-stout-6804a117/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ElevateScale
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@elevateandscale

PODCAST DESCRIPTION
The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.
On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Karese Laguerre, an orofacial myologist and myofunctional therapist, to talk about and explain her profession.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I describe myofunctional therapy in a simple way as kind of like personal training, but for all the muscles below your eyes and above your shoulders. We work with the group of muscles that comprise your lower face and your throat. No one ever thinks about these muscles and why you would ever need to give them a work out, but these muscles surround your upper respiratory system and so having dysfunction anywhere in the chain there can create a lot of problem with you sleep, digestion, breathing, facial development, stability in terms of your teeth and how they shift, there’s a lot of influence these soft tissues have. Working with a myotherapist really helps to amplify that upper respiratory health into overall health.
• I never though that my son’s ADHD could be about sleep. You think it’s neurological and you have to get medication and that’s the only way to treat that. What we don’t talk about is that there’s a 70% overlap between the symptoms and manifestations of ADHD and those of sleep disorders in children. Children who are sleep deprived aren’t like sleep deprived adults, we get lethargic, fatigued and drag through the day, children get more ramped up, their bodies can’t slow down or focus their attention. 
• If muscles aren’t activating when they should in the neck or throat they’re under-developed, so I have to work on strengthening and training so we can get them to become stronger and learn to co-ordinate so we can use that muscle appropriately. People who grind or clench their teeth may have over-developed muscles in their jaw, so we have to relax those muscles and teach them to engage other muscles. It’s about finding a harmonious balance that’s going to leave all the hard structures well supported.
• The way that we breathe seems to be the least thought about thing when it comes to health and wellness. We focus on diet and fluid intake, but the way that we breathe is so impactful on our body. Sometimes it’s the simplest of things that we take for granted, how we breathe matters more than anything else.

BEST MOMENTS

‘There’s a lot of things parents don’t say about their kids when they talk to other people because of shame, we say they’re great. But, I was in the principle’s office all the time with my son who had ADHD, my daughter had every sleep issue under the sun for 10 straight years every single night. My littlest two had a lot of upper respiratory infections. All that stuff from all my kids came back to how they were using their facial muscles. Optimising that with myotherapy really changed my family.’

‘I love working with children because they’re so mailable and you see change rapidly. It’s incredibly rewarding.’

‘Every failure is an opportunity for us to learn and to move forward and be better.’

‘We can go weeks without food and days without water, but we can’t last a few minutes without air.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Karese Laguerre: As an EDUCATOR/SPEAKER I offer lectures that challenge dental professionals to re-discover their passion, achieve sustained productivity, and enhance their clinical perspective. 

As a MYOFUNCTIONAL THERAPIST I work with patient's of all ages on natural resolution of sleep, breathing and digestive issues. 

As a HUMAN I strive for excellence in all things I put effort towards and am in constant pursuit of the best opportunities to utilize my skills and knowledge to make a difference in the lives of others; while providing valuable service to my community.

I have various digital resources for learning more about myofunctional therapy and its benefits. My blog website, www.airwaymatters.blog, has many guides and free downloadable content, as does my practice website, www.themyospot.com. Amazon has both print and digital copies of my latest published book available, Accomplished: How to Sleep Better, Eliminate Burnout, and Execute Goals.

Website: https://www.themyospot.com/ 

Socials: @themyospot

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

The Build Better Brands Podcast is a labour of love created each fortnight by our small team of committed editors and producers. If you love the show, we hope you'll consider supporting our work – for just the cost of a cup of coffee (or tea): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Natalia, founder of Chai Soul to explain a little about who she is, what she does and the harrowing story of how she got there. Chai Soul is a health and wellbeing company that specialises in pop up yoga events, community yoga classes (online and in person) and retreats. Natalia is passionate about empowering people to become the healthiest, happiest versions of themselves. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When we're younger we have routines and habits instilled in us that are both good and bad, but there's rarely ever any mention of “strive to be happy”. We know we should do certain things, but what if they don't fulfil us or are damaging? These can manifest in different ways as we get older.
• Through all my experiences in life I realised that when you start doing good things for yourself people get offended and drift away leaving you to do things by yourself, so my events are for anyone who's suffering or is at the turning point in their lives so they have somewhere to go, they can turn up by themselves and know they are welcome with no judgement.
• At least every class there's always someone who says “I never take time out to do something like this”. Before people can be the best version of themselves, they first need to choose and show up for themselves. The next step is to get people to connect with their intuition
• Have one non-negotiable for yourself every day, like going for a walk for 10 minutes or an hour, reading a chapter of a book for leisure, etc. Doing this then adding to it so you have many things for yourself during the week and you'll start to see the benefits quite quickly.

BEST MOMENTS

‘We're surrounded by people who wear burnout as a badge of honour.'

‘We can all start again at any point in our lives.'

‘I'm used to being a unicorn as a black person in financial services, but I know some aren't comfortable. You're welcome at my yoga events if you're black, overweight, a man, etc.'

‘Think about what you want people to say about your business? Are you doing any of those things now?'

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The book Natalia read that really changed her mindset: 
What I Know For Sure - Book by Oprah Winfrey -  https://amzn.to/3xP5O55

ABOUT THE GUEST

Natalia grew up in the city of Birmingham in a single-parent home. As she started to get older she learned that she loved travelling, she went to university and responded well to that environment. After university she got a job in financial services and living her “best Sex In The City lifestyle” while still living with her family. 

However, this lifestyle led to weight gain which led her to do try fad diets. In her late 20s she started having difficulty eating and, while on the waiting list to be seen by the doctors, she started reading about what could be affecting her diet, but nothing seemed to help. In the end she took herself to A&E complaining of chest pains and it transpired she had a blood clot on her lung and achalasia, meaning her oesophagus wasn't working properly to move food – or even saliva – down her throat.

Having hit rock bottom, she began her path into healing and mindset, eventually returning to work where she was given a promotion. However, the illness gave her a new view on life, and she realised she wasn't fulfilled, so she looked around and took up yoga training.

Website - www.chai-soul.com 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Chaisouluk/ 

Instagram - @chaisoul | https://www.instagram.com/chaisoul/

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Darren Jamieson, Co-Founder and Technical Director of Engage Web, an online marketing agency that helps small to large businesses attract more attention to their websites.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I originally wanted to be the next Quentin Tarantino, I went to film school and nearly made it with a film, starring an actor from The Bill, that we went to the Cannes Film Festival to get finance for, but we couldn't get the finance together, so I fell into digital marketing accidentally through promoting the film and ended up working for GAME, which in hindsight was a great job, not every job I've had has been that good, so we created our own company to get back to what I had almost a decade earlier. My personal brand became a digital marketing nerd with a bit of a mouth, speaking out to people in a room with an audience. 
• Sometimes your brand evolves, sometimes outside of your control, but you should always try to be in control because it's going to massively affect your business. What you do impacts on your business and your business impacts on your brand. Some people I know try to separate their brand from their business, and I don't understand why they do that, people aren't seeing the real you and why you do what you do.
• People get hung up on the look and feel of their brand and logo and they're not really thinking about why, and who are their target clients and audience, what is it that turns them on and off, those are the real issues. One area we really see that is with website text/copy, it's the biggest backlog when working on web design. We write the text for them now because we know it fills them with dread to write and they write it from their perspective not from the client's perspective. They want to know what you can do for them, that's it.
• Your team is really important. Even if you're a one-person organisation there are always other people involved in your business: Who you use as a courier to deliver your products is your team. If they're chucking stuff over people's fences, that reflects on your brand. Your call answering service is your team, using Microsoft for your emails and half the incoming emails go to junk and you're not replying to them, that's an extension of your team. That all reflects on how people see you, your business and how they enjoy working with you.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I'm a large person that talks in front of people and has no qualms about getting up onto a stage and going for it. Usually there'll be some sort of rant that lands me in it as well!'

‘The branding, colours and logos aren't for you, they're for your target market. So many people don't get that.'

‘People make their buying decision based on emotion, then they'll justify it afterwards using logic.'

‘I've always wanted to be the centre of attention, right back to primary school. That's encouraged me to not just run an agency and help businesses with digital marketing and websites, but get up onto a stage and teach and entertain so they remember what I'm showing them and how it made them feel when they were there, that's why I'm doing what I'm doing.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Darren Jamieson says: “As a child, I dealt with Scoliosis, a spine condition that meant I walked differently to other kids and faced daily bullying. My need to be liked and make people laugh grew. I needed to be the centre of attention on my terms. Now I help clients with their online presence, through websites, video, or social media, because I need to attract attention. Their success is my success; that's why I do what I do now.”

Co-founder Darren Jamieson has over 20 years' experience of working online, having started his web career in the last century before Google was even a ‘thing'. His work on websites and affiliate networks in the 90s earned him the role of web designer at GAME, where he gained an important understanding of the needs of the client and the complexities of an industry-leading ecommerce website.

After leaving GAME, Darren worked for various digital agencies around the UK for clients such as Sony, the NHS, the Environment Agency and Manchester United (although, he's LFC all the way).

Over the years, Darren has worked with pretty much every type of content management system available, and has developed many of his own – including the ‘Writers' System' we use here at Engage Web to manage our global network of writers. Darren's experience of web hosting providers is extensive, having worked with many different companies over the years. The knowledge he has gained allows him to manage the many websites hosted by Engage Web for our clients on our own dedicated server.

It is within the field of search, online marketing and blogging where Darren has really found his passion, all of which fall under the banner of digital marketing. Darren formulates the marketing strategies Engage Web uses for each of our clients, which are then executed by our team.

Darren also has experience of speaking at conferences and giving seminars, and welcomes relevant speaking opportunities.

Websites: https://www.engageweb.co.uk/ 

Podcast: https://engagingmarketeer.com/ 

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Ryan Margolin, CEO of Professional Hair Labs to talk about his journey to help create world-leading products in cosmetic bonding and international businesses.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• My parents were both entrepreneurs running their own businesses, so I grew up well versed in business. Sadly, over years of using products in a hair replacement studio, my mother got chemical poisoning. She’s OK, but it forced her to retire early which pushed my dad to sell the business and he focussed his attention on building a product line that was safe for technicians. Since then it’s developed into a completely different business, but at its core that’s where the foundations of the company was built.
• Historically, the industry has used the same products for the last 40-50 years. Now, all of a sudden, here’s my dad and his company offering a new solution. The biggest hurdle was about education; why they should be using this product over the others. This required a high level of research and development and commitment to getting the product out there and validating it across industry, and we did that.
• By the time I came into the business the foundations had already been set by my dad’s idea. He had a really good baseline product, but it was missing a couple of key components that we had always felt would be beneficial to a water-based adhesive. The problem was the technology didn’t exist at the time. In 2009 we realised a company had created that technology, though it was patented and really expensive to buy, we started to reformulate our product with that ingredient which gave it its water and oil resistance. Within 18 months we’d tripled the revenue of the company.
• I felt I could now take this repeatable process and put it into any marketplace, so I moved back to Ireland and opened up and it fell flat on its face! I considered shutting it down. It was performing that bad, but stuck at it and we were able to build a couple of really good distribution relationships in Europe. What I realised was the difference between the US and Europe is the cultural approach of doing business and I had to adapt to that, go to trade shows and meet with a lot of high level hair suppliers who were really helpful. It was a year and a half before we had traction. That taught me that you need to research the marketplaces you want to expand into and learn how to do business internationally.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I had no intention of working in a family business, I wanted to do my own thing. But naturally opportunity aligned back in 2008 with the economic crash.’
‘I don’t tend to moan about anything because ultimately what does it achieve? If there’s a problem, there’s a solution, so you can moan about it or you can get on and fix it. That’s typically my mindset.’
‘It’s all about what you’re willing to put in and how much you’re willing to commit to learning and making not only your industry but the world a more ethical place to do business.’
‘Knowing what I know now, if I was doing it all over again, if you have a physical product or even a service that has intellectual property such as systems that can be protected, I would always start by protecting those in the US, Europe and China.’

ABOUT THE GUEST
Ryan Margolin: As an International Business Leader and Entrepreneur, I help create sustainable services and products for industries that are full of subpar options.

At Professional Hair Labs, I am an integral part of our family business where we have become the #1 Choice of Hair Replacement Professionals and are a World Leader in Cosmetic Bonding. We manufacture and supply high performance products to the cosmetic industry.

Website: https://www.prohairlabs.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmargolin/ 

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.
WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call
CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant
SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Robbie Swale who coaches people on the careers, work and lives to talk about what he does and how brands can succeed.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• My Mother, for the last 20 years of her life, was a counsellor, my Dad had some time as a psychotherapist, so they understand talking to people and helping them – it’s different to coaching but overlaps in some related ways – my Brother has worked in coaching a little bit and my sister is now doing counselling training so my immediate family gets it, I think. I tend to start with I’m a leadership coach and then I wait to see what people say because there’s no perfect way to explain what I do to everyone.
• If what I really want is in the end to have more clients then the thing that I want is to have actual connection with somebody who is interested in my work so that at some point they might think “I need some coaching, I should talk to Robbie”, or when they’re speaking to somebody else they think about me. To get someone to that place isn’t about telling them the perfect thing. Most people like, when they get into an interesting conversation, learning about them and that’s often what’s memorable. These days I give three examples of what I’m most interested in which gives them a lot of space so that if they’re interested in any of those things we can have a conversation about that so that I can find out about their leadership challenge, partly because that’s what I’m interested in and partly because it’s best for business.
• Everybody has self-doubt and procrastination happen to them and I’d take certain thoughts as proof that I shouldn’t do certain things (create a business, write a book). But you don’t have to listen to those thoughts, you can choose to believe that they’re resistance, which is something probably trying to keep you safe or out of harm’s way, but it’s stopping me doing the things I want to do. Instead, you can power through those and dance with them in different ways. Each thing I’ve done has been a different dance with all these ways that I hold myself back and try to avoid the creative battles.
• Big sportswear brands’ TV advs might feature different athletes, but the feel of them doesn’t, so you have a feel for what ADIDAS means and Nike means because you’ve watched a lot of those adverts over a number of years and have that feel for consistency and the fact the message aligns. We’ve got a baby and buying nappies, I remember TV ads for nappies when I was 6, Huggies Pull-Ups – we don’t buy Huggies, we buy Pampers – but I remember that so clearly and they’re essentially the same product now because they’ve got a winning mix. I know Huggies do Pull-Ups and I still remember that because they said it over and over again.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I’m interested in the craft of coaching, creativity and how we lead with what we might call honour.’

‘I’m a recovering perfectionist.’

‘If an idea comes to you and you don’t take it, it’ll go on to someone else.’

‘Any medium, like podcasts, where we share what’s influenced us and been useful for us is really useful. It’s how I’ve found loads of things that have impacted me.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Robbie Swale As a coach, my clients hire me because I have a powerful ability to see things differently.

I have cultivated for years the ability to understand different perspectives.

I see the truth in the world - I'm not afraid of it. And I'm not afraid to do or say the right thing.

I can dance in the moment, I have an ability to feel deeply, and I inspire and invite others to do the same.

My clients are innovative, loving and creative. They yearn to understand themselves and their relationship partner. They have a heightened sense of right and wrong and a desire to change the world.

My clients include entrepreneurs, investors, theatre directors and even other coaches.

If you feel "the rules" are holding you back... If you are ready to break the rules in your field... Or if you just want a partner to challenge the way you think (especially if you already think big!)... then get in touch. We should talk. And your world will transform.

Website: https://www.robbieswale.com/

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

The Build Better Brands Podcast is a labour of love created each fortnight by our small team of committed editors and producers. If you love the show, we hope you'll consider supporting our work – for just the cost of a cup of coffee (or tea): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Kate Richardson-Walsh, ex-GB hockey captain and national record holder, to talk about how to use her on-pitch expertise with team building in the coaching and business world.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We all find ourselves in challenging situations and the majority of times we pull ourselves through somehow, someway to the other side, and sometimes it takes a long time. During surgery for a broken jaw during London 2012 I really relied on my support network and the team around me to get me through, I’m not sure I would have done had it not been for them. They literally gave me all their energy.
• I grew up seeing leadership as one person at the front shouting at everyone else, very “I say you do”. Leadership looked like the most alien thing in the world, I was really shy as a teenager and didn’t want to use my voice at all, which is actually really common in the teams I’ve been in since or have coached. I prefer connecting with people, understand them and each other and build out those different spaces that people really need. But, sometimes not speaking at all is totally fine, just taking things in, taking time, going away to think about it and bring your thoughts back to the team.
• We need to look at other people’s experiences and what they’re holding back because of the negative narratives and stereotypes that have been built by the white patriarchy that have put us in these positions and are holding us back. Managing our state and emotions is important, but at the same time there also needs to be an understanding that unless we hear from people about they’re feeling and experiencing, how are we ever going to move on as a society. The moments that I’ve experienced homophobia or sexism or where I’ve experienced someone else experience racism or ableism are the moments I wish I’d spoken up more and it’s something I’m trying to get better at. Otherwise those people carry on in their lives thinking they’re right and have the dominant voice, we all need to challenge that status quo.
• Mission statements, goals or values often live in the meeting or on the piece of paper they’re written on, they wouldn’t transcend that time we were discussing them. But having more time to talk about it helps embed it into our processes, habits, how we behave, interact with and show up for one another.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The culture we created in the team was that everybody was leading themselves and leading the team, it was the most amazing thing to see and be a part of.’
‘We’ve got to celebrate our differences. Wouldn’t life be so boring if it was all the same, we need to lift difference up.’
‘In 2012 our vision was gold, it was simple – athletes have simple minds! Some of the women couldn’t even say the word “gold”, the fear of failure was real for a lot of people because we’d failed a lot. When we built out a behavioural framework, things started to change because we could see what we could challenge each other against and celebrate our successes as well.’
’10-11% of organisations operationalise their values into behaviours which kind of blows your mind, but when you think about it it’s obvious. You can really tell the ones that do. They’re engaged and in tune with who they are., but there’s not many that have it.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Kate Richardson-Walsh, OBE is an Olympic Gold and Bronze Medal winning English field hockey player. She was capped a record 375 times for her country and was the England and Great Britain Captain for 13 years.

An inspirational and charismatic leader she has been widely credited for helping build the incredible team ethos and commitment that drove the GB team to victory at the Rio Olympic Games.  In winning gold Kate also made history in other ways, becoming one half of the first same-sex married couple to win an Olympic medal playing in the same team.

Having retired from international hockey following Rio, Kate is now turning her experience towards coaching, encouraging the grassroots development of the game and applying the leadership and performance lessons of a career in elite sport to the corporate environment.

She currently serves as a Patron for the Women’s Sport Trust and UN Women, supports disability hockey as an ambassador for Access Sport, and sits on the International Hockey Federation’s Athlete’s Committee.

With the pressures of international hockey behind her she is also indulging a few of her other passions, including travel, fashion, cooking and Manchester United.

Website: http://www.katerichardson-walsh.com

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Mark Shayler, the owner of Ape, a sustainable innovation studio that works with companies of all sizes to reduce the environmental impact of their products, packaging, processes and business models. Mark is also a renowned public speaker and has published two books, one on presenting (Do Present) and one on disruptive thinking (Do Disrupt).

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When you can change someone's mind about sustainability, you can normally change their mind about other things. I'm usually invited into businesses as “the sustainability guy” in a bigger innovation process. I'd sit and watch the whole process and thought “I can do this' ', I'm getting paid ‘x' and they're being paid ‘10x', so I began working in innovation too.
• As individuals we move through life like a sponge, soaking up the things that happen to us, more importantly everything that happens to other people, and they become debilitating, like a fear of flying or that your voice has nothing to say – even if it was originally told to you from a point of care. When we look at brand and the way a business functions – purpose – if we have really tight or constrained beliefs about what we can and can't do, it's like a plant in to small a pot and our roots can't spread, then our crown can't grow higher and wider, meaning it doesn't photosynthesise properly so the roots aren't fed. You become small on purpose, for all the right reasons, but you're not supposed to be small, you're supposed to be you-sized.
• Organisations usually start off brave, hungry and foolish and they make amazing mistakes and do great work, then they have too much to lose and they get worried about the way they're seen by the world and about stepping outside of their land so their lane gets narrower. Before you know it a business can have the same constraining beliefs and reticence to play and think big as individuals do.
• When I work with companies on their purpose and “why”, I like to keep the “why” as hippy-ish and broad as I can. If your “why” is broad – like Apples: to challenge the status quo – you could make a car instead of a laptop, or food, or a service. If a company works out its purpose on its beliefs other than its functions (which are “how” and “what”), then you'll never stray from it. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘We can build bad brand better or we can build better brands, that's an important differentiation that sometimes we forget when we're talking about branding.'

‘It's not good enough to be the best of the best, you need to be the only one doing what you do.'

‘In your first 11 years you're pretty free, then you or your parents and teachers point out your eccentricities and we take our rough edges off. The thing that made you weird as a kid is what makes you unique today.'

‘I use music in my presentations to explain what you're listening to now is normally a reaction to what came before. It can be a build, but it's usually a revolution. As a band changes its first group of fans doesn't want them to, but the band has to, otherwise they're remaking album one.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Mark Shayler helps big companies think small and small companies think big. Making stuff better and making better stuff. He is an innovation and environmental advisor who works with clients including Nike, Samsung, John Lewis, Tesco, RS Components, Coca Cola, Fenwick, Kier, Tesco Bank, Amazon and some of the greatest small companies in the world. 

Mark is the author of "Do Disrupt: Change the status quo or become it". He also builds start-ups inside bigger organisations and is a public speaker and compere, business coach, strategy advisor, brand provocateur, teacher and STEM advisor.

Websites: http://thisisape.co.uk/ and https://www.reasonstobecheerful.co.uk/ 
Podcast: Making Things Better and Making Better Things
Instagram: @markshayler
Books: Do Present: How to Give a Talk and Be Heard and Do Disrupt: Change the Status Quo or Become it

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Julia Burkin, a life guide who helps people and business owners get through their ups and downs. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We’re one human being and we do lots of things, and if you get an imbalance in any area of the one human that you are, that can have a knock on effect to other parts of your work/life/activities that you’re trying to do. It’s a fine balance to look for, be that physical or mental. It’s not really me finding the balance for them, it’s them realising they have to find the balance for themselves.
• Most people feel that they can look after themselves and make decisions that work for them. Some people recognise that the things that they’ve been doing over and over again are still keeping them in that ‘stuck place’ that they’re in. They might have tried every other way of moving from where they are now to where they want to be, and at that point they realise that they could read another self-help book or listen to another podcast or talk to a different friend, but they’re still stuck and they need to have some help. I guide people from being stuck to being unstuck. Once people realise that someone can listen to what they’re saying and identify perhaps some of the reasons why they’re stuck and explore them in a safe and caring environment.
• Imagine you’ve solved all the problems that are stopping you from being where you want to be, imagine what that life looks like for you and the we explore what you see, hear, feel, touch, taste, who might be with you. Then I let the person paint a picture or create a visual or something about themselves in this future place that they want to be. The longer you do that and the more detailed it is there’s a shift between saying “I want to be happier” and being able to see what happiness looks and feels like, which makes it a lot easier to get there because you’re going towards something you’ve imagined. 
• Self-care, for me, is the ability to check in on yourself from top to toe and look at what’s working, what’s feeling a bit achy/croaky/not quite 100% and what can I do to fix it?

BEST MOMENTS

‘Some people recognise the imbalance and decide to act, and it’s that deciding to act that allows you to get your life back on track.’

‘Sometimes as a life coach you need to be challenging and you might push people to go where they don’t want to go, but you have the skills to hold them in a safe space if you do go there. Other times you say: “I’m listening” and for some people that’s all they need – somebody to listen to them.’

‘If you imagine something to be true and you put that out there into the universe your internal systems don’t know if that’s true or not, so they assume it is true because you’ve said they are there.’

‘You should always keep your own cup filled and only give to others from the overflow that goes into your saucer.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Julia Burkin is a life coach who has had her fair share of family and career ups and downs; some of which are relevant to her clients. Regardless, she has a great deal of life experiences and learning that she brings to her coaching work.

Website: https://www.juliaburkin.co.uk/  

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Rhiane Fatinikun, founder of Black Girls Hike, to talk about how things have been going and where Black Girls Hike is going to go in the future.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The idea behind Black Girls Hike was just me wanting to create a space because I wanted to do something for my wellbeing, like taking up a new hobby. But I'd always been involved in community. Exploration into the countryside has never been something that I've done, I always wanted to live in a city, but as I've got older I've started appreciating the countryside more.
• I dropped out of uni three times because I didn't really enjoy it and I worked in the civil service and doing volunteering part time so I could get into community work, but I was always really conscious that I wasn't doing enough and I wasn't getting to where I wanted to be in life fast enough and I wasn't reaching certain milestones of ages. That was one of the reasons I started Black Girls Hike, I wanted to do something where I felt like I was using my time wisely for my wellbeing and not thinking about doing anything else.
• It wasn't supposed to be a brand, it was just the name of the group and it became a brand by itself. At the end of the first year we decided to do Snowdon, and somebody said it'd be a really nice idea to make some medals made, but we didn't have a logo so I got one designed on Fiverr just for those medals. But it became the logo that everyone associates with us and it's just so basic! We've needed to update it and our website for ages but it's been me running it on my own while working full time. We tried a rebrand, but I found the calls really difficult because you don't know what you don't know and the stuff they were coming back with wasn't great and I wonder if that was down to me being bad at explaining or them not understanding what I wanted.
• The outdoors is never marketed to black people, as though they would never go outdoors. That's obviously not the reason, there's loads of different reasons that we've been excluded from the outdoors and it's all ways that systemic racism manifests and creates ‘invisible barriers'. I want us to challenge stereotypes of who the outdoors is actually for because the outdoors is for everybody. I want to make it more accessible, more inclusive, create an environment where our community can really thrive and develop and experience all the benefits od the outdoors that we've historically been excluded from.

BEST MOMENTS

‘A CIC is a Community Interest Company, so it's a non-profit, everything we make goes back into the organisation to subsidise other activities and help reach more people.'

‘It was just supposed to be a really small social group and an opportunity for me to get out explore and meet new people, but because it was on Instagram it grew and got so much more demand. I was forced to grow it, it wasn't the initial plan!'

‘Wellbeing's the most important thing. We need to be able to pour into ourselves. So many people are pouring from an empty cup and running on empty because we're in a society that's all about productivity and you always feel like you have to be doing something.'

‘The UK is so beautiful. When I was younger all I wanted to do was go abroad but now I'm like: “Let's go to Scotland on holiday!”'

ABOUT THE GUEST

After being inspired by a train journey through the Peak District, Rhiane founded Black Girls Hike to challenge stereotypes and the lack of representation in the outdoors. With no hiking experience herself, she put a call out on social media and Black Girls Hike was born. Since then, they've gone from strength to strength, launching groups nationwide running regular group hikes and outdoor activity days.

Audiobook by Etaf Rum: A Woman Is No Man: https://amzn.to/3M2Uybv 

Website: https://www.bghuk.com/ 

Instagram: @rhianesworld and @bgh_uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bghmcr/ 

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com 

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Elle Money, an Instagram coach who helps small businesses and entrepreneurs to get the most out of and monetise their Instagram.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The reason I even started on Instagram was because I was making content for The Futur and people would reach out and say: “Chris, this is such a good post”, no one knew who I was. Everyone at The Futur was building their personal brand, so I started an Instagram page and tagging myself in The Future’s posts to drive people to my page.
• If you’re already on Instagram chances are you’ve been focussed on growing that community aspect, which is great because your community values what you have to say and offer rather than feeling like they’re being sold to. But, you need to start trickling that in and getting them to a place where they’re ready to buy. Now you need to ask what they need from you and create the solution to their problem whether that’s a download, a program, a consulting call. Then you need to get them to realise they have that problem. Finally you have to be able to tell them why you’re the solution and why you have that for them.
• If you’re a content creator you need ‘vanity metrics’ like followers and likes, but if you’re a business owner these don’t matter. People seem to be coming to terms with this, but followers do not equal sales. It looks good to have a bigger following but I was selling on Instagram with 1,500 followers and I wasn’t even selling anything, I had people reaching out to me. I now have a lot of people wanting to work with me but that’s because I promote my offers. It’s not about how many followers you have it’s about how you position yourself.
• What I found after being a social media manager for year is that you could tell me about your business for weeks and we can do loads of discovery calls to pinpoint it down and still you’d want to word it slightly differently. Why would you pay me to do it for you and still not know how to do it yourself when I can teach you how to do it yourself on Instagram in a way that’s easy enough to manage. Instagram is a small part of what business owners do, even for me it’s only a tenth of what I do a day. I teach people to make it as easy as possible, know what efforts are working and focus on that rather than just do it for them.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I was first hired in 2017 to write clickbait articles and that helped with my copy writing skills.’
‘When I started at The Futur its Instagram was at 30,000 followers but it had been left alone because the focus was on YouTube. I asked to take it over as I was doing Facebook ads and in the four years I was there I grew it to over 400,000 followers.’
‘Sell the why not the how.’
‘You know what you need and what your audience needs, you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, I help reign that in and make it as best as possible on Instagram.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Before joining The Futur, Elle Money studied Fashion Marketing and Branding where she dove headfirst into the intricacies of buyer psychology. This curiosity for what makes people buy led her to tap into Facebook Advertising, and master how to promote products.

Elle teaches businesses and entrepreneurs to utilise Instagram as a strong, organic marketing tool to accelerate their business by creating great content in less time that attracts new leads and helps them grow on Instagram.

Instagram: @elle.social

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Emily Redfearn, independent illustrator, animator and designer, to talk about her business which she started in 2020 after becoming a freelancer at a very difficult time.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• It’s taken me a long time to develop my own style and it is something that’s ever changing and evolving, but it’s something that so many people struggle with. Some people like your style to be diverse where others want to hone in on a specific visual aesthetic and everyone wants to be unique and different. But, it’s inevitable in this day and age that nothing’s entirely unique or different, some things will break that mould. But something I’ve come to realise is that I should be doing what makes me happy rather than what’s going to change the world and how can I be immortalised? 
• I can’t choose what my favourite piece of work for a brand is. I’ve always been in quite varied roles doing multiple things. I love doing book covers, I love doing animations, I really enjoyed the documentary I worked on for Quorn, but it’s really hard to say because there are different benefits to all of them.
• One of the biggest challenges as a freelancer is making time for yourself, giving yourself the boundaries between work and personal and letting yourself have that holiday, whether it’s a day or a week. It’s easy to neglect if you run your own business, you want to succeed and get more work. 
• I wish I’d thought about budgeting for tax better, it’s something people don’t really talk about. It needs to be like a bill you pay every month to put aside for your tax and pension. But, I have an accountant who helps me to take a portion off each job to put aside now rather than leaving it til I needed to pay it and scraping it all together. Maths has always been such a struggle for me and I think it is the same for a lot of creatives.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Who am I trying to please? Is it the art directors, clients, my peers, is it something where people will remember me and is bigger than myself? Asking those questions has got me nowhere, in the end I’ve thought about what makes me happy? What do I enjoy doing the most? Through a process of elimination, I’ve found what’s most fun for me to do: animation, fruit character, character design, illustration.’

‘You can’t force things; you’ve got to try it ‘til it feels right.’

‘The five-day working week doesn’t work today, what the hell’s that about?! I can’t imagine doing a regular week, 9-5 with an hour break. I like a two hour lunch so I can go on a long walk with the dog.’

‘Set yourself lists to do so you don’t go to bed and can’t sleep because you’re thinking about what you’ve got to do.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Emily Redfearn is an illustrator, animator & designer based in Sheffield, UK. Some of the work Emily has been commissioned for ranges across TV documentaries, TV commercials, social/digital advertising, OOH advertising, GIFs & animations, hand drawn murals, branding assets and infographic designs.

Previously Emily has created work for Vodafone, Intel, Quorn, Beauty Kitchen, True North Brewery Co, Heist Brewery Co, Bodog, DCMS, The Leadmill, Terrace Goods, Lucky Fox, Crooked, Hooch, The Scout Association, Sheffield Hallam University, Grimm & Co, Dig Deep, Printed by Us, Cathedral Archer Project and more.

Website: https://www.emilyredfearn.co.uk/ 

Tag for all social media: @emredfearn

Email: emily@red-fearn.co.uk 

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Peter Wilken to talk about his career and what both corporate and personal branding means to him and how he helps clients with their branding challenges.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Brand is what you stand for in people's minds, it's a territory in the mind that you own. It carries meaning that helps you stand apart, that helps you differentiate and, that if you manage well, allows you to shape people's perceptions to have a consistent image of who you are and what you wish to be. 
• The biggest misinterpretation that I've encountered, consistently over a 30+ year career, is the difference between ‘brand building' and ‘branding'. Some people now interpret branding as giving meaning to brands, and that's very meaningful, but my older definition of branding has always been like the hot iron you put on your cow – the act of branding. Logos, visual identity, design colours, etc are not unimportant, but it's what we used to call the ‘superficial packaging of brands', not the substance of who you are, what you stand for and the experiences you deliver. Then you think about the packaging of logos, etc.
• Change management can be done through the brand and the brand's DNA to drive change through the entire organisation; the way in which you communicate to your people, the products and services you offer, the systems and structures that enable and hinder you from your promise, all of those things carry through. I still use a ‘four D process': Discovery, Definition, Direction and Delivery and it's still extremely effective, you don't need to be more complicated than that.
• Our world is so complex now, everyone diversifies and multiplies. All of a sudden, there are a million Spotify equivalents and each one is trying to find their niche. That's great and the way the world works, but you need to find your niche and stand apart because, if you're trying to dominate in a category, there are rules about how brands work and typically there's only 1-3 brands in a category that make a ton of money, everybody else struggles, even in large categories. The best way is to try to create a niche that is so distinctive that you re-define a subcategory that you can own.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The strongest brands are relevant to people, they have a compelling promise, they differentiate themselves from their competitors and above all they do what they say they're going to do.'

‘A lot of the younger generation are extremely brand literate and well-read but not necessarily well experienced – with due respect. There's a huge difference between theory and practice and applying experience can really help it cut through.'

‘Typically CEOs of corporations are left-brained and logical, they won't conceptualise as well as a brand/graphic designer.'

‘When you're building your house, like the three little pigs, your DNA is only as good as the amount of understanding and effort that you put into it.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Peter Wilken was Head of BBDO Asia Pacific, the No. 1 Creative Agency in the world, then as now. 

Having run agencies for Leo Burnett and Ogilvy too, he has worked with five out of the world's top 10 brands and across a myriad of categories in Europe, Asia and North America. 

He co-founded, built and sold one of the first specialist brand consulting firms; The Brand Company.

Peter is one of the few ‘suits' to have won a coveted Cannes Gold Lion, the creative Oscars of the advertising world.

He is a published author and speaker on how organisations and individuals can unleash their creative thinking powers to transform their world.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwilken/ 

Email: peter@dolphinbrandstrategy.com 

Book: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Dim+Sum+Strrategy&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss 

Website: https://www.peterwilken.com/keynotes 

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com 

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle interviews Arlyne Chingyanganya, the founder of Roots to Froots. Arlyne shares her journey of creating a platform that demystifies finances and provides a friendly and approachable approach to financial knowledge. She emphasises the importance of understanding brand awareness and its impact on revenue, offering insights on pricing strategies and common mistakes new entrepreneurs should avoid. Arlyne also discusses the work she is doing with HSBC and Lloyds Bank to make finance accessible and support individuals and businesses in managing their finances effectively. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Open a business bank account: One of the first steps for new entrepreneurs is to open a separate business bank account. This helps to keep personal and business finances separate, making it easier to manage and track expenses.
• Create a business plan: Having a well-defined business plan is crucial for success. It provides a blueprint for your business and helps you understand your goals, strategies, and financial projections. It also helps you make informed decisions and adapt your strategy as needed.
• Seek help and advice: Don't be afraid to ask for help and seek advice from experts or experienced entrepreneurs. There are many free resources available, including consultations and networking opportunities, where you can gain valuable insights and guidance.
• Understand your market and pricing: Conduct market research to understand your target audience, competitors, and pricing strategies. Pricing your products or services appropriately is essential for profitability. Consider factors such as costs, value, and market demand when determining your pricing strategy.
• Focus on brand awareness and reputation: Building brand awareness and a positive reputation can have a significant impact on your revenue. Invest in marketing and branding efforts to establish your brand in the market and differentiate yourself from competitors. Consistently deliver high-quality products or services to build customer loyalty and attract new customers.

BEST MOMENTS

"The mission, especially for 2023, has been being loud and being visible and also taking a lot of people, the community, along with us along the journey." -

"People actually gain something in terms of tools, resources or knowledge. And the more people that we can support, the better." 

"The first thing is getting rid of the jargon, because sometimes that's the thing that scares people when they don't understand certain terminologies, certain words." 

"So first things first, open up that business bank account, understand what you need to do, you know, government-wise."

"The more people that I can help, the better." - Arlyne Chingyanganya

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU FREE E-BOOK: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Sam Warner, The Autistic Interpreter, who helps business owners attract and keep talented neuro-divergent employees.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I discovered that I thought the grass was greener elsewhere, but it actually isn’t. The same systemic problems were cropping up everywhere in my previous roles and I lost my get-up-and-go so I got-up-and-went! I now help attracting the right people for diversity of thought at work because diversity of thought is really healthy for a business. If you’ve got a team of “yes men or women” who agree with everything the boss says and they all have the same interests and hobbies, and they all get along famously, there’s no diversity of thought there at all, no one’s going to challenge anything, come up with awkward questions and potentially you might not have innovation and invention going on because everybody’s towing the line. This was a side-hustle I started in 2008 and I quickly realised I preferred it to my main job.
• The job interview is such an outdated way of assessing potential new staff, it doesn’t work for anybody, but especially not for neuro-divergent people, because it’s actually showing people under stress not under pressure. To test people under pressure you need to give them a timed test of some kind, it’s a more accurate way of checking they can hit a deadline, or cope with something that comes in last minute. How do you know if someone’s a “good fit” if they haven’t met the team? How many times have you seen in a job advert “salary negotiable or TBC”, why would you even apply for that job if you don’t know you can pay your mortgage? What I earned previously has nothing to do with this job, you’re just trying to find out if you can pay me less, I not interested in working for you f that’s what you want from me as an employee – maximum work for minimum money.
• To me, the term neuro-divergent means that you were wired up differently in the uterus. It’s formed as you’re forming. It’s a different way of connecting all those synapses and connections in the brain. People who are neuro-divergent see the world through a different lens, they interpret the world differently and often it’s a bit confusing.
• The biggest challenges businesses bring up include ‘conflict’, which is a misunderstanding of how to use language. Some people aren’t prepared for someone who has a lot of questions, they think that their knowledge and ability is being questioned or their ego has been bruised or they’re embarrassed. But that’s actually a reflection on them and their abilities and their way of receiving a question. Another is about the expectation of the speed of taking something new and running with it. Quiet often people give instructions, but they don’t give you all of the instructions, there’s an assumption made about some things instead of making sure there’s a baseline that we’re all OK with and then giving the instructions.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Many companies believe they’re doing the right thing by telling individual staff members to ask for what they want, which is really hard when you don’t know what you’re allowed to ask for. You don’t want to be the diva that gets special treatment because that never goes well, you actually want a list of reasonable adjustments that anyone in the company can access, such as wearing headphones.’

‘If I go on your website and I don’t see any reference to diversity, equity and inclusion, I’m not going to feel 100% confident that you have a reasonable list of adjustments, or that I could ring up or email before the interview and say “I just want to let you know I’m autistic so I’m very sensitive to things like temperature and I struggle when people sit in front of a window and all I can see is a silhouette because I need to see you facial expressions to understand a little bit extra on top of the words you’re using. Can I get a copy of the questions in advance so I can have time to give you a great answer instead of being put on the spot?”’

‘Let’s just stop the fluff and get to the point, say what you mean and mean what you say.’

‘Wouldn’t it be really great if we were already teaching this stuff in school so that by the time people were leaving school there is no fear. Kids are the most acceptable, tolerant, flexible people on the planet, so when you teach them about ‘different’ people they wouldn’t be judgemental about it, they would have greater insight.’

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samwarner/

Website: https://get-your-message-across.com/

ABOUT THE GUEST

Sam Warner works with organisations wishing to attract and retain neurodivergent talent.  Supporting them in enhancing their recruitment and onboarding processes, including job adverts, interviews, & inductions. Sam runs the The New Rules of Engagement (TM) training course to inform, combat conflict, alleviate difficult conversations and create an inclusive team culture. Sam helps businesses put together a list of offered reasonable adjustments/accommodations/adaptations they can offer to any new starters to help them achieve approx 15% increase in profits.

Sam also provides an interpreter service for adults & older teenage children with diagnosed or un-diagnosed Autism, ADHD and PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) & helps them, their friends, family & co-workers to communicate better. She shares a lot of techniques she employs as coping mechanisms for various behavioural problems & challenging situations. Sam understands the different ways in which the brain processes information & makes sense of the world. She offers an informal pre-diagnosis consultation to help people find the words to self-advocate for a formal diagnosis.

She uses her broad knowledge when working with a variety of people from different backgrounds and is known for her communication and behaviours interpreter work with Neurodivergent adults and their friends, colleagues and families.

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle was interviewed by Tze Ching Yeung on her podcast "Lead with purpose" about branding for businesses and personal brands and her creative journey.  

Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing and home furnishing ecommerce business. 

Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed, through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring and digital marketing company.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

When people talk about a brand, it’s someone’s gut instinct, initial reaction to hearing a company name, seeing a logo. It’s often a feeling, there’s often associations, these are things brands like Nike have put out into the world for years that we now associate with them. That’s what brand is, it’s way more than a logo, some colours, a strap line.

Brand strategy is all about figuring out your why – why is your company going to exist? It has to be something beyond making money, there has to be a reason you’re starting this brand. Is there something in the world that you want to change?

What’s your purpose, your vision, your values? They define your foundation. Look at your product/service, and if it’s actually viable in the market? If there is no competition; worry, because if no one else is doing it perhaps it doesn’t make money. Competition is always a good sign. Once you’ve got your offer/product/service, who’s it for? Not just the individual but the tribes/communities then look at how you attract them.

BEST MOMENTS

‘A brand is what people say about you and what you are when you’re not in the room, people’s gut feeling about your brand when they hear your name.’

‘What’s the one thing that no one else is doing that you can attribute yourself to? What makes you unique and different? What are people going to care about?’

‘A lot of decisions are made on assumptions, but until you ask and do research you never really know.’

‘If you’re the founder, and it’s your business, your brand is an extension of you. The company will change as it gets bigger, but the core essence shouldn’t really change.’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU FREE E-BOOK: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by lifestyle entrepreneur, Sue Parker, who educates women on the how, the why and the what to help them create a life that works for them.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When I had my kids I realised that this corporate career had no flexibility or freedom, I couldn’t deal with the school holidays, I was never going to see them. I saw dads going through this as well, we all wanted to be successful in our careers and have purpose and contribute, but at the same time you can’t get a work life balance when you work for somebody else. So, I thought enough’s enough.
• I didn’t know what my values were. We have a lot of conditioning when we’re growing up. For me, success was having the career ladder, having the status/title, earning more money, doing better every year (while constantly hitting the glass ceiling). People think you’re doing well when you have a good job, parents and family will comment on it. For me, when I became a mum, all this stuff I’d worked for, all these values I had were somebody else’s, not mine, they didn’t matter.
• You’re brain-priming all the time. If I expose myself to negative people who don’t believe in what I’m doing all of the time, and I let that become my inner monologue, I wouldn’t have done this. But I didn’t, I literally consumed and absorbed every influencer that was having a positive impact on me, every person in my life who was on a similar journey or interested, I would go for it.
• I was finding out who the person I was when I was a teenager and I felt like the world was my oyster. I’d suppressed this for so long to be this perfect professional that I’d forgotten my personality. When I’m with the kids I’m most me, authentic, open and honest, I laugh, dance and do stupid things and I was OK with that. But with my husband, family members and friends, I just couldn’t be like that. I found that it was as much about showing up bolder, a little bit sillier or authentic every single day. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Becoming an entrepreneur, I’ve literally had to forget all the things I would have known, trusted, valued and leant on. I now check off against a different set of values which means my decision-making has changed.’
‘For me, having a lifestyle business is not to do with building a Fortune 500 company, it’s about having a business that works for your life, and I think so many of us need this now.’
‘If you’re in this position, it’s going to take a long conversation [with your partner] over a long period of time. They want to know you’re serious and that you’ve bought into this goal, that it’s not just a whim because you’ve had a bad day or an argument with your boss.’
‘If you listen to too much news it feels like everything’s out of control, and that makes you feel powerless. You need to feel empowered, and the only way to do this is to change and control your narrative.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Sue Parker: Like most of us I studied hard and went into a tech career. I found myself in a male dominated space proving myself over and over. After finally climbing the career ladder to become a data leader I thought I’d have more time as the boss, more control and freedom to finally use my potential. Instead, I was stressed, I had no time and hardly saw the kids.

My passion is helping women to unleash the best version of themselves while creating a business that works for their dream life… one with freedom, fulfilment, and joy.

I started questioning every career choice. Frustrated and resentful of people with more freedom. Then I realised I must use my personal power to create a business that works for my dream life. It can be hard on your own without support to make a massive transformational change in your life. 

When I started my business I had commitments, I was the breadwinner with a successful career, and I had two kids under 5. And no one around me believed or supported my ideas. It's about choosing yourself & knowing how much others will benefit.

Website: https://sueparker.io/ 

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke

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Danielle interviewed Kingsley Peters founder and Creative Director at Kingel, a creative agency based in Birmingham. They talk about making the jump from being a freelancer to founding and running a successful creative agency. 

Kingsley started his journey a freelance art director before becoming one of the founders of Kingel back in 2015.  

KEY TAKEAWAYS

For Kingsley, starting an agency wasn’t about making loads of money, it was about finding balance in life. After having his second son he didn’t want to spend his life leaving the house at 7:15am every morning and getting back home after 7pm in the evening.

Kingel, as an agency, specialise in helping clients stand out. They work with large corporate brands to identify that one thing that makes them different and then turn it into something that's really attention grabbing. 

Clients often don’t think there’s anything special about what they do so the job of the creative agency is to help them talk through their challenges and understand where they want to go and what they want to be. Kingel gives clients their experience and knowledge to help them know where to look and the right questions to ask. 

Moving from a freelance perspective, where you do part of the job, to an agency model where you are doing everything all hinges on pricing. It’s easy to quote for the creative time but you must always include the account management as well. 

Energy is a key part of creativity. Everybody experiences stress, pressure and anxiety but understanding your mind and body and noticing the signs can really help avoid problems like burnout. 

BEST MOMENTS

Discussing branding workshops - ‘A lot of the time it’s like a therapy session. Clients talk about their problems, challenges and competitors. Quite often it can be an inspiring process because you are giving the client the opportunity to say what they want to be’

‘Ideas take time. What you are buying is not just an idea, it’s also my time, experience and judgement’

‘I was under a lot of pressure and stress. I had this horrible overwhelming feeling and I literally could not think. I remember standing in the office and I couldn’t function. Looking back now, that was burn out’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU FREE E-BOOK: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle interviewed Ezequiel Abramzon, is a global creative leader and brand strategy consultant with 30+ years of experience in creativity, branding, innovation and entrepreneurship. Ezequiel is founder of Lalo, which helps take startups with brand strategy. They talk about how branding is a key part of a startup's birth.

Ezequiel became a global creative leader while working as an executive at The Walt Disney Company for 22 years, where he helped develop brands such as Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar in Latin America and Europe. After many years of living a corporate life, Ezequiel is back in the independent world to help transform your business through brand building.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Ezequiel was always a fan of Disney and told his teachers at high school he would work there one day. 

When Ezequiel joined Disney he was responsible for creative marketing. From this he led hundreds of people and built 8 figure businesses within Disney where he found himself interacting with entrepreneurs, which led to the next phase of his career. He has completed countless trainings on creativity, innovation and branding, including Brand Architect certification with Marty Neumeier’s Level C.

Ezequiel knew that when his journey with Disney came to an end he would either be an entrepreneur or work with entrepreneurs.

Having a brand strategy helps startup’s navigate the early part of their journey and marry it with the long term perspective for their company. 

Ezequiel believes that startup B2B’s can learn so much from long established B2C brands. They may be different on the surface but the essence is very similar. 

BEST MOMENTS

Discussing how Lalo helps entrepreneurs - ‘I always say I’m in the business of clarity and confidence. Strategic clarity leads to operational confidence. Because if you are strategically clear you know who you are and what you need to mean to people”

‘Unless you have hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars you can’t rush brand. If you are starting your company unless you have all that power you have to trust time’

‘Demand excellence in everything you do. Quality on your onboarding, the product and your relationships. Understand what quality means for your business and customer’.

‘Having no budget or lack of resources is not an excuse for not pursuing greater quality. If your website looks crappy it’s not because you don’t have money, it’s because you didn’t figure out how to do it right’.

Ezequiel LinkedIn Twitter Instagram

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU FREE E-BOOK: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

This show was brought to you by The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle interviewed Sane Mafa, co-founder of Studio M.  After gaining a degree in Product Design from Birmingham City University, Sane gained experience designing a wide range of products including jewellery & retail displays before co-founding Studio M.

Studio M is a sustainable interior and furniture designs studio. They are passionate about creating beautiful, functional spaces that promote health and wellbeing. 

In nature there is no waste, everything is a resource. This narrative of repurpose, reuse, and recycle, inspired the concept behind a new material developed by Studio M, called Erth, made from excess cow manure. Their furniture collections work with materials and resources that are readily available, even waste streams. 

They have exciting plans for next year, which include their first show and some big projects.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Sane talks about how Studio M’s values - Knowledge, Integrity, Adventure, Love and Simplicity - are so important to the brand and why they continually revisit them to stay on track.

Studio M has developed Erth, which is a new sustainable material made from cow manure. Cow manure is an abundant waste product of the agricultural industry, and is currently associated with environmental concerns. Studio M has decided to do something about it.

The design style of Studio M is very much influenced by natural environments. Sane tells Danielle why this is so important to them and their clients and the mental and physical benefits of providing them with a space that echoes the environment.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Nature is our biggest inspiration and not even just in terms of our values but when it comes to design too’.  

Speaking about the new material Erth, which Studio M has developed ‘The purpose of Erth is to create a new demand for a material that is considered waste and that is causing environmental concerns. 

Talking about design elements in projects that describes Studio M ‘It’s attention to space, how it’s laid out. It’s the colour palette that screams Studio M. Those elements that are speaking to the inside/outside’.

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle interviewed James Roffey, also known as the Mental Health PT, is a well-being performance coach for CEOs, entrepreneurs, athletes & leaders. James is on a mission to change people's lives by improving their minds as well as their physiques.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

James talks about his early life as a promising footballer and how, when that career didn’t go to plan, it was the start of his battle with eating disorders.

After a long struggle with anorexia and then bulimia, James managed to work his way back to health and became a personal trainer. He talks about how his business focuses on mindset as its key pillar. 

Becoming a PT wasn't straightforward as James broke his leg 3 times shortly after qualifying. He's now making great progress in his business and recently launched his own app for clients.

James speaks about his business journey, what he's learnt along the way and how he's driven to give clients the tools to get back control over whatever it is in their life that they are struggling with.

Authenticity is super important to James' brand; he made a deliberate choice to leverage his unique experiences. He recognises the power in sharing his story (which is pretty unique) and using his journey for positive impact—a calling he feels compelled to fulfil.

BEST MOMENTS

James talking about his journey to this point: ‘I was in hospital and my parents had to sign a do not resuscitate form. I was at such a high risk of going into cardiac arrest my kidneys were failing’

‘I think my core values are slightly different to your generic PT online coach. My most important pillar is your mindset and mental health’

'I love giving stuff back to people just as they've enabled me to do what I'm doing now. I want to give people value, for them to see what I can give them in a month, for free. Show them what I can do because I know I can help change people's lives'

On how he wants to be remembered: ‘As the person that never gave up? I think it would be that. I think you've gotta keep going. As the guy that went through all that stuff but still managed to have a happy family life’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle co hosted a live webinar with Viktoria Jancurova - a personal brand manager who helps coaches, creatives or founders in creative spaces leverage their LinkedIn and really brand themselves as the go to experts that they are. Danielle and Viktoria talked about the power of branding and actionable takeaways to make your business ready for 2024. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Danielle and Viktoria demonstrate an exercise you can do to check the power of your brand to make sure you are on track for the new year.

They discuss the differences between personal and corporate branding and the key elements to building a successful brand. They also share actionable tips so you can create a brand strategy for 2024

At the end of this LinkedIn live, which has been turned into a podcast, you’ll hear a selection of questions asked by attendees and the answers given by Danielle and Viktoria to help you take action.

BEST MOMENTS

Danielle responding to the question of what branding is: ‘One of the key things that I always try to say to people is there's a broader concept of branding beyond a logo. Branding is the sum of every interaction, every tactic, everything that you put out into the world’

Viktoria: ‘I see so many people just neglect their branding. They think that posting on LinkedIn or Instagram using colourful carousels and adding some colours to their brand, that's it. They have a logo but do they have a brand?

Danielle: ‘When you get it (branding) right and you do it consistently and you put out quality products or services that people know are going to solve their problems, they know that once they buy it, it's not going to let them down and you continuously reaffirm that, it builds trust’

Viktoria on how branding helps your business: ‘Your sales are made easy because if people recognise you, they’ve already established some trust, they already have certain feelings about your brand, they’ve already set their expectations on a certain level’ 

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TRIGGER WARNING We do talk about suicide in this episode. For support go to samaritains.org

Danielle spoke to Ben Gallagher. Ben is a veteran, athlete, explorer and keynote speaker. Ben suffered life changing injuries while serving in the British Army and now shares his experiences and how he's overcome lots of challenges, to help others.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Ben served in the British Army and had a very successful military career. He was deployed worldwide on operational tours and exercises and embraced all of the opportunities that the military gives you. 

In 2019 while serving in the British Army on active duty, Ben was involved in an incident where he received multiple gunshot wounds to his upper torso and blast and fragmentation injuries to both arms.

After a long period of rehabilitation Ben tried to be the soldier he was before the injuries but, unfortunately couldn’t cope physically or mentally. The effect of his injuries and having to leave a career he loved took him to a very dark place.

Ben has gone from that incredible low to competing in the Invictus Games, becoming a keynote speaker, a mentor to the next generation and has hopes of competing at the paralympics.

KEY MOMENTS

‘...Fortunately for me, I woke up the next morning, and I woke up because I was that broken and that committed to taking the pain away, that I drank a bottle of whiskey too quickly and it knocked me out’

‘In terms of the Invictus Games itself, it allows you to test yourself again, it allows you to be around like minded people. We all lost that connection when we were medically discharged from the military. So we all lost that comradeship, that humour and humility, the banter that flows through the military environment, you get all that back again. But you also get the sporting element as well’

‘I wanna prove to myself and my family, my kids, my loved ones, that I'm capable of pushing forward and continuing to be Ben. And be the person that I was in the military and so successful through my military career, that I can still be successful even though now I've got a disability and an impairment’

On the message in his talks: ‘The word failure is something that comes up every time I talk and that's both with kids, the younger community and in corporate companies. If we're not failing, we're not trying. Failure is about learning and developing as human beings’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle was interviewed by Darren Jamieson for his podcast called The Engaging Marketeer. This episode of Build Better Brands revisits that episode where Darren asks Danielle lots of searching questions about her childhood and how she’s ended up doing what she does. 

Darren has worked within digital marketing since the last century, and was the first in-house web designer for video games retailer GAME in the UK, known as Electronics Boutique in the States. After co-founding his own agency, Engage Web, in 2009, Darren has worked with clients around the world, including Australia, Canada and the USA.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Danielle Clarke has always got a buzz from solving problems, going right back to fundraising for her school as an infant, through to refusing to settle for unsuitable work experience at school, and on to responding to the heartbreak of redundancy by going it alone in a male-dominated industry.

As creative as she is determined, Danielle runs Danielle Clarke Creative, which specialises in branding, design and marketing solutions for the health, fitness and wellbeing sector. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘My mum was a single parent and we didn't have much. I used to hate going home from school with these fundraising letters because I never wanted to ask my mum for money. I had this idea of doing a school magazine. Can't remember how much money we made but parents were buying them. That is the first memory I have of having a problem and feeling like I had the solving it’

On becoming self employed ‘The main thing was because I've been made redundant a few times and even that word redundant. It's horrible, isn't it? You are of no use. You are no longer needed. That is what that word means, which is horrible’

‘I think what I've learned (about being self-employed) is about having a balance, knowing when you need to take a break and understanding that there's always going to be something that needs to be done. There's always going to be quotes to do. There's always going to be emails to answer. There's always going to be work to do and it doesn't matter how long you work’

‘I love what I do. I love working with brands and helping to create better ones. I love talking to people. I don't get bored doing my job’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle interviewed Radim Malinic, Creative Director, Designer and best selling author. He lives and works in Southwest London and runs Brand Nu, a multidisciplinary award winning studio.

Before finding his calling in the creative industry, Czech born Radim was an ice hockey player, a bassist in death metal bands, an indie DJ, music journalist and student of Economics and Business management.

At the break of the new millennium he moved to the UK to explore the music scene, only to find even greater interest in art and graphic design. Since then his eclectic interests have seen him working with some of the biggest brands, companies and bands in the world. Clients include Harry Potter, London Film Museum, SyCo, Sprite, WWF and USAID amongst many others

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Mindfulness is important for Radim and he believes it’s especially useful in the creative industries; creatives have set a level of perfectionism, which may not even be possible. As a result we don’t always know when to stop. This is reflected in his book ‘The Mindful Creative’.

Radim has always loved trying different things. We discuss his new book releases - Creativity for Sale and The second Mindful Creative. Both books aim to provide anyone with a proven and tested framework for finding success in their career and systems to avoid burnout and stress. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘I think my life motto is seeing something I like and thinking how hard is it to do? Let's give it a go and see if I can get through that entry point. OK, we'll do it for a while, if it doesn't work I'll just see something else. And I think, as a human beings, we are the collection of experiences of wins, failures, inspirations and information’

‘I can tell you 20 different ways we can avoid burnout yet people will go and burn out because we followed that passion and expression in us. But it's then realising, OK, I have made a mistake even though I knew it was coming. How do I get out of this? How do I recover? Because we underestimate recovery. We underestimate the impact of the problem because it takes you to recover as long as it took you to break yourself’

‘I just liken it to like the highway of life and creativity. Imagine a 5 lane motorway and you've got the self-made, self certified millionaires bombing it in the in the fast lane in their little flashy cars and you're in a slip road going, I'm sort of happy here going 20 miles an hour in your bashed up Fiesta and this is my beginning’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOUR 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whether you are a long time listener or you've just found us, thank you for supporting the show. Danielle wanted to highlight and look back on some of the incredible conversations she's been lucky enough to have over the previous 62 episodes and re-share some of the learnings that may help with your journey.

In this episode we hear from Kingsley Peters - founder and creative director of Kingel, Tze Ching Yeung from We Disrupt Agency, Sane Mafa from Studio M, global creative leader and brand strategy consultant Ezequiel Abramzon, the mental health PT James Roffey, personal brand manager Viktoria Jancurova and Ben Gallagher - veteran, athlete, explorer and keynote speaker.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Are you a student looking to get into the creative industry? Hear about the skills you need to learn from being newly qualified to actually doing the job. 

What about starting your own brand? You’ll hear how branding is a key part of a startup's birth and what you need to start building your brand.

You’ll also learn from people who are currently building their brands. What has their journey been like so far? What impact are they having on their customers?   

BEST MOMENTS

Kingsley Peters: ‘One of the things I was kind of saying to them (students) is that when you come out of university you might have a craft, but actually you don't really know anything about the industry. As a creative director, I'm not looking for them to come into the business and know everything about everything. What I'm looking for them to come into the business with is passion and ideas’

Viktoria Jancurova: ‘I think of competitors as collaborators. They might have the same processes, they might have the same systems or similar, but they will never give branding the same personality as I do just because it's me. It's what makes me unique. My clients know exactly what they're going to get and that's a really important aspect to think about. Again, linking back to branding’

Sane Mafa on the importance of brand for Studio M: ‘I will literally have this conversation with the partners everyday - How are we sticking to who we say we are and can we practically say that's what we're doing as a brand. I think continuous reflection (is important) on what it is that your values are, your philosophy is, and how you are as a company and sticking with those things in a practical sense’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is a recording of a live webinar Danielle did with Katie Brown, who is a social media marketing consultant. Katie helps small businesses, or SME's, refine and create a social media strategy that really speaks to their target market. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Danielle and Katie discussed why brand consistency is important for building trust, why consistent branding on social media is really important, and how to translate branding onto social media effectively

Social media strategy and branding overlap. Often clients aren't really sure who they're trying to communicate with, what they're trying to say, how they want to come across. The starting point for branding and social media is to focus on this

If you want to actually make some progress and you want results and you want to know that what you're doing is actually moving you further towards your goal, then at some point you need to move away from reactive decision and become more strategic

BEST MOMENTS

‘I talk a lot about the social media funnel. You've got the top of the funnel which might be that first time that you see something or maybe I'll just give them a follow. Visibility, repetition, consistency is where we get to the middle of the funnel. You're building that relationship, you're building that trust which hopefully ends up with that person then reaching out or whatever it is you want them to do’

‘When I do strategy with clients we'll look at competitors and we'll look at who else is out there that's doing similar things. And the difference could be in price, the difference could be in terms of location and the difference could be in terms of efficiency or the quality of the product or how quickly they can turn things around. There's lots of different areas that you can look into to go or how are we different?’

‘It's about moving away from that idea of branding being a logo and a colour, and actually brand is more of a living, breathing thing. Your business, however many people are in, it doesn't matter if it's one or if it's 3000 it should still be this living, breathing thing that's made-up of human beings’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Matt Clutterham who is a transformational brand strategist and founding partner of Q Branch Consulting. He's also a speaker, board member and knows a lot about branding. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Matt talked about his background in creativity, passion for graphic design and how his career in theatre lighting led him to the world of branding

Danielle and Matt discussed their love for branding and how storytelling and creating a feeling in the customer is key to a successful brand. Brand building is getting the customer to recall the business at every possible opportunity. The aim is to link the business and brand with a deeply emotional experience.

Matt explained how his business has changed since he started working with his partner, Jenny. Working together has allowed him to deal with the emotions and the audience psychology of building a brand that connects to people outside while Jenny deals with the people inside the brand and helping them control and build the right emotions that are going to accelerate what they are doing.

BEST MOMENTS

‘In psychology, they call it anchoring. That for me is the whole purpose of what we're trying to do when we build brands is to anchor our business and what we're doing with people because they're the people who are buying and they're also the people who are going to come and work for you and invest in you’

‘Overnight a team of people with diggers and machinery dug up all of the grass outside of City Hall in London and planted a fake UFO in a huge crater with smoke machines pouring smoke out of it. The press came down and are taking photos and we're like a UFO crashed in central London. We built the story up over a couple of days’

‘I think it comes down really to one question, which is a powerful question and it's hard to answer. What do we want people to feel?’

‘We want to help as many people with great ideas as possible, with the strategies and the confidence to take the action that will make all our lives better’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Simon Dixon, co-founder of DixonBaxi, which is a global agency that's worked with clients like AC Milan, Warner brothers, Google and Samsung to name a few.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Simon spoke about how and why he started DixonBaxi, what brand is and what is important to him as a business owner.

Danielle and Simon discussed DixonBaxi’s Essentials book, the practical thinking that drives them. How they run the company on principles and an ethos rather than technologies or what people say they should do and how diversity is so important for DixonBaxi.

How the business survived Covid was a big talking point and Simon’s view on remote working. People will still want to interact in some way, but there's now space for people to have time to themselves and privacy.

Simon and Danielle discussed how to take your first steps into the industry and the attitude you need to succeed. Simon feels there is tension between education and the industry, where education is teaching people great creativity, but also there is a perception that everybody should have everything and should have it easily.

BEST MOMENTS

‘People get a little caught up or confused between identity and the design aspect of branding and branding conceptually, in terms of what it means as a whole. Basic branding is people's relationship with the company, the benefits of the service or the product or the business's relationship with them’.

‘When we started the agency, we wanted to go back to something simpler, a bit more selfish and a bit more kind of refined how we wanted to create, because it was a kind of pivotal stage of our career and it obviously was something new, so we could build it in a different way’.

‘You have to literally invest in training people, because if they haven't had the ability to go to St Martin's and you have to train those basic skills to get them into the industry, you might have to get visas and bring them from different countries and help them get into the industry’.

‘The eternal thing is doing work that makes us excited. We'd rather be better than bigger, or we'd rather be the size that allows us to do the work we want, rather than it being about a certain size of company. So it's how it feels to make the work and make the work we want to’.

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Andy Starr, Managing partner of Level C, an education program teaching principles of modern brand to business professionals, which he co-founded with international brand expert and author Marty Neumeier. Andy helps clients outmanoeuvre competition and conditions in their markets, and make marketing, advertising & PR content work better, land stronger, and drive real results.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Disruption is something that Andy is really passionate about so he and Danielle talked about what this really means and why it’s so important.

Andy explained to Danielle how his collaboration with Marty Neumeier began and how Level C originated from his personal circumstances at the time.

Branding hasn’t always been Andy’s thing. He’s a trained musician, majored in English Literature, worked in finance and studied law before coming to the world of brand.

Andy spoke about how his branding classes with Marty work, why they are different from traditional teaching and how they teach you how to think about brand.

BEST MOMENTS

‘These days, if you're a brand, if you're a business and you're trying to stand out and you think that just being different will get you there, we make an argument that it won't, that it's not enough’.

‘Creative thinking, strategic thinking, design thinking - more and more so called experts and coaches and mentors out there, they've been doing the whole how to do thing - how to do this, how to use this template. More and more of them have been trying to copy us now and it's kind of weird because they end up almost completely contradicting what they were doing just a couple of years ago’

‘I won't work with anyone now who won't acknowledge that this is what I'm doing, who won't allow me to have the opportunity to teach them how to be a great client, teach them where I'm coming from right now’.

‘We believe that creativity is more valuable in problem solving than just being more productive, but it needs more people who are able to think about what they do before they do it, while they do it, and after they do it’.

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Caroline McQueen, Founder and Chief designer at Impulsiv®, a digital consultancy specialising in branding and custom Shopify Themes. Impulsiv® helps independent companies in fashion, beauty and lifestyle connect with customers through engaging brand experiences. They blend neuroscience, brand psychology, and cutting-edge design to craft engaging customer interactions.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Caroline delves into how she decided to pivot during the pandemic from focussing on tech and, thanks to a grant from Baroness Karren Brady, founded Impulsiv®, an ecommerce consultancy specialising in interaction design. 

Danielle and Caroline discussed how brands can enhance their online presence and make meaningful connections with their audience. Caroline suggested a good starting point is to do a website audit. Making sure the brand is communicating its values in a way that customers can really understand.

Caroline shared a case study of working with a client and how Impulsiv® helped reduce the bounce rate from the clients website from 70% to 40% by making one change.

BEST MOMENTS

‘If you can get your customers to engage in the brand building process with you, especially if they're early adopters, then they are very open to giving you their feedback on what they think of your website or what they think of your products and how you can actually use that.’

On working with clients - ‘I take it all the way back to the beginning and start looking at the strategic approach. What their goals are, what their visions or intentions are, and then also who their customer is and also what research they've done on their competition and how they're different’

‘It was a lifeline because it came during the pandemic. If you're running a tech company, you are burning cash. She (Baroness Karen Brady) awarded us the grant money and I was chuffed to bits when that came through because it was just enough for me to just kind of go, okay, this is what we're going to do’

‘Depending on what conversation you're having on social media will depend on whether or not someone will sign up to your list. If you've taken the time to understand what their needs and wants are, that would determine whether or not they're actually going to click through onto your website and buy something.’

ABOUT THE GUEST - CAROLINE MCQUEEN

Impulsiv®: https://impulsiv.io/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinemcqueen/

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN

SUPPORT THE SHOW

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Ria Burrage-Male, founder and director of Kibo, which helps leaders achieve personal and professional growth through mentoring, communication, and performance. Previously the CEO of Hockey Wales, Ria has a background in sports coaching, having been an international hockey player and a Commonwealth Games athlete. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Ria takes us through every step of her life, from growing up in Wales, becoming an international hockey player, rising to CEO of Hockey Wales, her family and how they’ve inspired her latest project, Kibo.

Danielle and Ria discussed how life experiences, good and bad, make you the person and the brand that you are.

Sport has played such a crucial role in Ria’s life and she explains how she competed at an elite level, representing Wales at hockey, while juggling a full time career and how there just weren’t enough hours in the day. 

Authenticity and confidence are key themes for Ria and she explains that you’ve got to be kind and positive to yourself as you are the most consistent voice in your head.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I'm very passionate about exposing people or holding up a mirror to people to show them that they have so much potential and people are there to support and guide them. I think as women, there's still a lot we need to do on that.’

‘I was a teenager in the valleys, in a church school, knowing that I was a gay, and I spent my whole life being somebody that I wasn't because of that inability to be authentic and therefore not being able to be vulnerable.’ 

‘I feel like I've gone through all of these experiences and now I'm in a position where I can reflect and also share those experiences with people and help them on their journeys, because I feel like I've lived through so many different iterations of authenticity and vulnerability and weakness and communication and, you know, psychological safety and also working in high performing teams and all of those facets that I think are imperative for leadership skills and leaders at executive levels.’

‘Another part of Kibo as well as the coaching is eat, sleep, breathe, connect. I talk a lot about and with businesses and with individuals around these four pillars that before you look externally, before you challenge culture that might not need to be challenged, let's stop and pause and look at ourselves first.’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Mike Kirby, Founder of Find & Finance. Their focus is not on selling cars, but on guiding people through the various stages of buying a used vehicle and making it simple, safe and special. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Mike takes us through every element of Find & Finance from the challenges of launching, the customer journey, recruitment, growth and scaling. At the centre of everything they do is - Simple, Safe, Special.

Find & Finance have an exciting year coming up in terms of growth but Mike explains they’ve had challenges along the way and he’s very open about how he faced them.

Danielle and Mike discuss what success looks like and how, as a business owner, you don’t always have time to step back and assess what success would be.

Mike finishes the episode by sharing advice for anyone who wants to start a business, has an idea and wants to build a brand.

BEST MOMENTS

‘There were a few key factors why I decided to start the business and what I identified quite early in my motor career was a few, I don't want to say negatives to the industry, but some challenges within the industry.’

‘We're trying to create a relationship with our clients. We're not selling the car to them, we're selling a service to help them to effectively find a car. Right from the first communication, we're trying to find out exactly what's important to the clients.’

‘If you don't have that clearly defined set of values and you don't have a clear direction with your value statement, when you start growing your business and you bring staff on, you bring people in that might not have lived and breathed these values before. They're highly likely not going to work within your business even if they have the experience that you're looking for.’

‘This year is very exciting for us from a recruitment perspective, growing the team and also some key accounts, and then the launch of our three key brands, ensuring that we stick to our core values.’

ABOUT THE GUEST - MIKE KIRBY

Mike Kirby is Owner & Director of Find & Finance Limited 

CONNECT WITH MIKE ON LINKEDIN

FIND & FINANCE ON INSTAGRAM

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Adam Housley the founder and coach at T3 Functional Fitness. Adam’s mission is to help you discover an active, healthy lifestyle that you love making it possible to regain your energy & reduce your stress in a way that is easy & enjoyable to sustain.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Adam talks through his journey into the fitness industry and how he ended up creating a training method that was very different from his competitors.

Danielle and Adam discuss how running a business is hard, the key skills you need to make it work and how help and support are invaluable.

Adam explains how he had a belief that he needed to target a certain type of person to make money, or do a certain type of thing from a content perspective. When in actual fact he needed to do it in a way that sits well with him because that will attract the audience he wants.

You’ll also hear about the challenges Adam went through when moving from an in person training business to an online coaching one.

BEST MOMENTS

‘One of the biggest shifts that I've made recently is instead of focusing on necessarily just time efficient strategies, it's wanting to really emphasise the enjoyment because my journey with health was a long one.’

‘I've maybe kind of stuck with a message that didn't quite resonate because I was like, maybe if I give it enough time and people start coming in, it'll sit with me better. That kind of stuff, it takes a lot of experience, knowing the difference between this is right, but I need to give it time versus it just doesn't feel right and I need to change it early.’

‘It just got to this point where I was like, why is this so hard? It came so easy beforehand and it was just over that time, trying something and thinking, okay, it's not quite working, and just kind of building that resilience. Every time I got knocked back to be like, no, there is a way that I can make this work.’

‘When it comes to health and fitness, I believe the key is changing the beliefs because when you're stressed and tired, you think doing exercise is going to make you feel worse, whereas weirdly, kind of doing that physical exercise makes you feel more energised and helps relieve the stress.’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and University Lecturer. She spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Stephen Houraghan, brand strategist, consultant, CEO and Founder of Brand Master Academy and BrandBuildr.ai. He hosts The Brand Master Podcast, featuring guests like Seth Godin and Marty Neumeier.

With a background in business and finance, he later gained qualifications in design and marketing, founding the Iconic Fox Agency, and offering brand strategy and creative services globally. Stephen has contributed to publications such as Hubspot, Marketo, Creative Bloq and has appeared as a guest on countless industry podcasts and summits.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Stephen talks about his early career in finance and stockbroking, moving into creating design and how he pivoted into branding. All of this experience has given him a great understanding of business and how to speak the right language to business owners.

Artificial intelligence is already a big part of life and Stephen speaks about his AI-powered platform, BrandBuildr and how it streamlines the brand development process and enhances strategy outcomes.

Stephen explains how the last four to five years have been spent on building the corporate brand of Brand Master Academy and how he became obsessed with the idea of being consumer driven and consumer led.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I didn't want to go back to a job, I wanted to work for myself. That led me down the road to asking, if there are all these other designers in this space, how can I convince my prospects to choose me over them? It's a fundamental question at the centre point of first positioning and then broader brand strategy that I didn't even know existed.’

‘I knew I needed to get my ideas on my concepts out there and I struggled with the idea of, why would I put all of this in an article if people are just going to take it? It was a real struggle to overcome that mental challenge of look, this is how the industry works now, this is how the world works.’

‘As we venture into the world of AI, that human connection and that ability to connect with your audience and to provide them that human guidance and that arm around their shoulder, that's going to become increasingly important in the coming years and it's a big part of what we do beyond the steps and the processes.’

‘When we sit down with our clients, what ingredients we get is dependent on the questions we ask. The better the question, the better the ingredient. The better the ingredients, the better the outcome.’

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Grant Mitchell, Creative Director at Future and Associate Lecturer in Graphic Design at Staffordshire University. Grant is an international award-winning graphic designer with over 25 years industry experience. As Creative Director at Future he works with his team to design brand identities and creative communications for clients across a diverse range of sectors including; healthcare, cultural, not-for-profit, education, property and SME's.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Grant talks about his early steps into branding and how he started his own business but it isn’t for everyone.

Danielle and Grant know each other from Staffordshire University where Grant is a lecturer and Danielle was a student. Teaching wasn't part of the plan but Grant has found it to be humbling and flattering that he’s been able to have a positive impact on so many students' lives.

Future is a creative agency working across four key disciplines; design, websites, branding and motion. Grant talks us through how working with a client is about collaboration and that pushback can help the project become stronger.

Grant and Danielle talk about the changing world of creative design and how time and circumstances have played a huge role in that. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘When you get feedback, when you're generating ideas like the process we go through, do your homework, speak to clients, speak to stakeholders, understand the audience, understand the parameters of the project, understand the sector and then generate, generate as much stuff as you possibly can.’

‘What you are trying to do is move a client forward from one position, to a much better position that will help support their business objectives. Whether that's designing a better website that helps drive inquiries or creating a campaign that communicates important information, making a difference, it's very hard.’

On working for Future: ‘I feel like I'm starting again and in a good way. I love seeing the team create stuff and I love us winning new clients and I love us pushing on, adding to the team.’

On advice for starting a business: ‘You've got to love what you do but that love and passion has to be coupled with business acumen.’

CONNECT WITH THE GUEST

Grant Mitchell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantatfuture/

Future: https://designbyfuture.co.uk/

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Susan C. Allen Augustin, Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer of Here We Flo, which makes natural plant-based personal care for life’s messiest moments. They tackle sustainability and stigma with natural products and funny, feminist and fierce approaches.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Susan shares how Here We Flo came about from meeting Co-Founder Tara in the toilets at The London School of Economics, to taking the business global.

Menstrual care brands have always been built around being discrete. Susan explains how they had to cut through a lot of cultural shame and embarrassment around menstruating, and build a dedicated fanbase.

Susan tells the story of how they won the Sky Zero Footprint Fund, which recognises brands that are committed to driving positive behaviour change and tangible impact towards a more sustainable future. This secured them £1 million worth of ad spend with Sky.

Here We Flo launched their products in Tesco recently, Boots is a long term partner who’ve quadrupled their distribution and they are soon to be launching with the UK’s second largest grocer. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘It was really helped by a lot of progress around the climate change movement and recognising the damage that single use plastics were doing in the ocean. As a small business, there's only so much pressure you can put on your manufacturers or suppliers to use alternative materials’.

‘There's a reason why funny is first, and funny feminists and fierce is really using humour to break the ice, because there is generally a stigma and a shame that's been socialised around these topics’.

‘Early on, there was a tendency to challenge or question what we were doing, but we met in one of the top universities in the world. We did the research and Tara wrote a dissertation on the business case for this so what we were saying, we weren't saying flippantly’.

‘We were really intentional from the start to spend the time thinking about our mission, our vision, our values, and then we got to design our recruitment processes, which is super important. That's how you're bringing people into the company and those values are a part of that from that first phone interview’.

CONNECT WITH THE GUEST

Here We Flo’s website: https://www.hereweflo.co/

Search ‘Here We Flo’ on social media

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danielle spoke with Courtney Ismain, Co-Founder of Jamii, which is a community and home for black British creators and makers. Jamii is a discovery platform for British brands on the up. A discount card that is a community giving users up to 40% off. They want to introduce you to the small businesses who know what you need.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Courtney shares how Jamii came about from the first wave of the Black Lives Matter movement and how off the back of that, there was a growing interest in where people could find black-owned businesses. 

The Jamii card, which is a discount card, incentivises people to go off the beaten track and discover new black-owned businesses they might not have heard of before.

Jamii is impact-driven and community is a really important part of what they do. Courtney explains how they always try to be easily accessible to make people feel involved and be action-led.  

Courtney explains how Clear Channel approached Jamii to collaborate on their Compass initiative, aimed at supporting black-owned businesses. Together, they launched a competition that attracted hundreds of applicants, with ten winners receiving two weeks of free high-street advertising.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Customers, businesses and organisations alike, are able to kind of identify what we're about and align themselves with our mission and the opportunities present themselves because I guess these people who agree with our mission, they make themselves known and then we're able to work together, if that makes sense’.

‘The way we work with businesses, we kind of have a package called partnership. These are all the businesses that are our partners. We list their products and we send them regular opportunities’.

‘We decided that we want to refresh Jammie membership a little bit so something that we did in February was we hosted a focus group with some of our ride or die members. Honestly speaking, we're not trying to hide anything or make maybe membership look better than it is’.

‘We reached out to Airbnb. We asked them for a donation for a grant fund so they gave us 20,000 pounds and we were able to distribute that to four businesses, 5000 pounds each’.

CONNECT WITH THE GUEST

Jamii website: https://lovejamii.com/

Search ‘ukjamii’ on social media

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand Strategist and spends her time consulting and working with health and wellness business owners to help them attract and retain their ideal customers.

GRAB YOU 3 ACTIONABLE STEPS FOR BRAND GROWTH: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO BUILD THE BRAND STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/d/48p-6ck-vy4

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-brand-strategy-consultant/

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by: The Media Insiders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Lorna Phillip, or as she’s better know, the Birmingham Doula who has recently started Black Mamas Birth Village – a group for black pregnant women. Lorna talks about her business background and explains what it is a Doula does as well as the challenges she’s faced as a black entrepreneur.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I’d worked in health for a long time and had two children myself, but I didn’t realise before working in a children’s centre how important people’s birth experiences were to them. They either didn’t feel supported or felt let down by the system, I heard about doulas and decided to train to become one. Doula’s support people during pregnancy, during those first few tricky weeks of having a new-born, I teach hypno-birthing to relax people very deeply for the birth, I run anti-natal courses and am a massage therapist.
• It’s hard work, we make it look glamorous on Instagram, but there’s some things about it that aren’t very glamorous. If you’re not into “birth goop” – bits running out of women – if you’re not into late nights and overnights, being awake for over 24 hours on the job – we don’t work in shifts, if that labour runs into 14 hours you can’t go home, though sometimes we work in couples – sleeping in the back of your car.
• People do drop out of doula-ing very quickly with burnout because they struggle to make it work for them. You have to have a certain amount of heart but also hustle – business sense. A lot of people come into it wanting to help and not charge. How are you going to sustain yourself if you don’t charge and don’t charge your worth so you can live too.
• Black Mamas Birth Village came off the back of Covid as black women are almost five times more likely to die in the perinatal period (just before childbirth), during childbirth and right after childbirth. It’s an informal place black pregnant women and women with small babies can sit and breathe, we do first aid courses, talk about what’s happening in their lives. We’re already at 103 women.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I want to help people have better birth experiences.’

‘Being self-employed is hard, there’s no monthly salary coming in, it’s down to you and you only. But, if it doesn’t feel like work, and it’s your passion, it’s not a job.’

‘How much [money] do you need to make your life work? I factor in my own self-care into my fee so I can look after myself so I can look after more people.’

‘It takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to raise a mother.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Lorna is mom to two grown-ups, born in 1989 and 1993 and grandma to two gorgeous bundles born in 2016 and 2018. She had two very different births and single-handedly raised two amazingly wonderful young people

More Black women than ever are seeking out doula support for their births. To ensure that as many Black women as possible feel supported, Lorna has created a new online community called Black Mamas Birth Village where she offers information and support for pregnant Black women and mums of new born babies.

The Village is a safe space for Black women to sit a while and breathe whilst sharing information and tips for pregnancy, birth and beyond.

On the launch of Black Mamas Birth Village this year, Lorna’s 1st goal was to welcome 100 Black Women into the Village; we are now at 111 and growing!

Lorna has also included a fillable birth plan that can be downloaded for all Mamas to be.

Lorna is also a doula mentor and co-facilitator for Abuela Doulas for whom she helps train new doulas and guide them on their doula journey as they gain experience.

After spending 30+ years supporting parents and their children – first as a nursery nurse in the 1980’s and more recently as a deputy manager of a SureStart Children’s Centre – coordinating family health services, promoting and supporting breastfeeding, teaching infant massage etc; Lorna found her life’s purpose and became a doula.

As a birth and postnatal doula Lorna has supported many, very different births and although she’s passionate about all births, VBACs (vaginal birth after caesarean) and positive birth experiences after previous traumatic births are the ones that make her heart really sing. Observing a woman coming into her own power, overcoming fears whilst still allowing herself to be vulnerable is one of the most powerful and emotionally charged experiences that anybody could have.

She says: “I don’t profess to be a ‘birth geek’, I’m told it’s my experience and reassuringly calm and confident nature that moms are drawn to.”

CONTACT INFO:

Email blackmamasbirthvillage@gmail.com  IG https://www.instagram.com/black_mamas_birth_village/  FB https://www.facebook.com/groups/blackmamasbirthvillage

Website - https://birmingham-doula.co.uk/ 

Instagram - @birminghamdoula or @black_mamas_birth_village / https://www.instagram.com/birminghamdoula/ https://www.instagram.com/black_mamas_birth_village/

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Amir Harvey Bazrafshan, head marketer and Apricot Sky, founder of Apricot Box, and MD of Apricot video marketing. Amir shares his extensive experience of audience building for B2B brands and how he helps businesses build audiences focussed on future buyers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I got into the Nottingham film scene in my late teens, early 20s which was thriving with independent films being made and government funding. There were a lot of opportunities to write, direct, work on film sets, learn how to shoot, etc. That was my entry into the industry while also working in marketing as a day job. After a while I was hired as head of marketing for a small film distribution company to source independent films, buy the rights to the ones we thought would be successful, and come up with marketing campaigns. After 4 years I got the itch to work for myself so I set up the video agency.
• Too many people go straight to tactics. The “over-ratification” of marketing is something that isn’t good for the discipline and the people that do that. There’s an opportunity cost there as well; it’s costing you the ability to actually do something that’s impactful.
• I was someone who always understood the importance of empathy and wanting to have a positive impact on people. But the impact and influence that going through the AltMBA has had on me is underscoring the absolute importance that if you want to do work that matters and make change you don’t have a say, you have to be empathetic. It’s a generous and difficult thing to do.
• In B2B there are a lot fewer people buying than you might realise. There’s a 95/5 rule where around 95% of your audience aren’t buying, but that means there are far more future buyers than people that are buying now. That should have a big impact on the way you do your marketing. You need to optimise and capture as much of the existing demand as you can, but you also need to be reaching, influencing and priming future buyers to think of us when they come to buy in the next quarter, the quarter after or next year. It’s really important for long-term growth.

BEST MOMENTS
‘People in marketing can make a change… marketing is change.’
‘Build the habit of noticing where there’s resistance when you do something and get used to sitting in that feeling. It’s just a feeling, it shouldn’t stop you from doing work that’s important and that matters.’
‘Use the most customer-centric lens you can to understand what their priorities are, where their struggles are and create a strategy around those.’
‘Storytelling is vastly under-used in B2B, but it’s leverage, it’s a really good mechanism for articulating the change that you make but again in a customer centric way, in a way that someone who’s not buying will care about.’

ABOUT THE GUEST
Amir Harvey Bazrafshan: I’m a lifelong learner with an interest in strategy, marketing, persuasion and psychology.
Before starting my agency in 2012, I worked in marketing in the film industry.
Since launching my own business, the work we have done has helped b2b brands grow their brand, increase their audience and make more sales, faster.
I’ve also coached on Seth Godin’s altMBA since 2016 and worked with leaders from brands such as Google, Adobe and Oracle.
ApricotSky is my latest venture. It’s my most significant project to date because audience building is a key missing part of the b2b marketing puzzle.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amir-bazrafshan/

PODCAST DESCRIPTION
The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.
On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Joan Idowu, CEO and Founder of Several Seats which is a mental health service for ethnic minority women to talk about her mission to empower, inspire and educate women of colour.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Several Seats is led by women of colour  for women of colour to empower, inspire and educate our future queens of this generation through mental health awareness as well as providing them with loads of opportunities for mentorship for those aspiring to become mental health professionals as well as those who just need a break and want to learn more about different things going on in the community, different barriers and challenges that other people are facing. It's about peer-to-peer support and learning.
• People normalise mental health to such an extreme that people just think it's an everyday thing that people just go through. Rightly so, it should be normalised to an extent where there's not a stigma around it where people feel like they can't talk about it, but the normalisation shouldn't take away the value of it – there should still be a level of concern around it that stays consistent.
• I've always been very much about women empowerment and I've always wanted to do something for women in the community, as well as something that helped me to understand my identity as well, as a woman, in my class, ethnicity, my culture and even in my religion to some extent. When I was studying my masters I was on the verge of leaving, I was knee deep in imposter syndrome, I didn't want to be there any more, I wasn't enjoying the process, I was mentally and physically exhausted. I drafted up a letter to send to the board saying I'd like to remove myself from the course. I called my mum in hysterics and she said: “Take a seat, let's talk.” That was the first time I'd ever spoken to my mother about mental health and it was the first time my mother had ever actively listened to me, every word. It made me realise the power of speaking and finding your voice .
• We want people to take the tools they're learning from us and start their own table, start their own network, start their own community groups, even inside Several Seats and they can start looking after other women in those areas. It's why we have a mentor scheme, we always invite women in our community to become mentors to help the mentees and vice versa. We invite the mentees that have just finished this years' course to come back next year to become mentors to the next mentees because they now have their own little tables that they're helping.

BEST MOMENTS

‘No matter where you are in life, imposter syndrome comes at you consistently in all areas! Where you are in life, or your position or status, doesn't stop you from having doubts sometimes, especially when you are the minority amongst the majority – being a woman and a woman of colour.'

‘Celebrating someone else's success without questioning your own is the most important lesson you need to learn.'

‘For a long time I was trying to take a seat at other people's tables, I was trying to find my voice in the midst of other people. Then I realised I didn't have to do that anymore, I could find a seat at my own table and other people could take a seat and hear my voice and what I had to say because I Had just as much to say as other people, but I didn't know who to share it with. That was the birth of Several Seats.'

‘When you start something yourself, especially something so personal, you become the brand. You're the face, people want to know who you are, you are the storyline behind it. It took a while for me to be confident and put myself out there, but my motivation is this is bigger than me and I believe in the vision of this organisation.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Joan Idowu is CEO and Founder of Several Seats – mental health service for ethnic minority women – and Assistant Research Psychologist at Young Epilepsy and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Website: https://www.severalseats.org/ 

Instagram: @several_seats_

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Danielle as she speaks to Simon Ward, CEO of ITG (Inspired Thinking Group). Simon shares his journey of founding ITG and discusses the importance of brand building and achieving marketing excellence. He highlights the need for businesses to identify and solve problems in the market, as well as the significance of having a strong company culture and passionate team. Simon also touches on the challenges faced by businesses in the current market, such as budget cuts and the impact of AI. He emphasises the importance of staying ahead of the curve and embracing new technologies while maintaining integrity and a focus on sustainability. Overall, this episode provides valuable insights and strategies for building better brands in today's ever-evolving business landscape.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ITG focuses on building brands with a creative approach and strategy, putting strategy at the heart of thinking.

•  Innovative marketing solutions have been one of the key ways ITG has generated success, such as the Missions and Motivations Engine, which generated significant revenue for Wickes.

• Simon prioritises the well-being of his employees and ITG has been recognised as the UK's Wellbeing Company of the Year.

• The company is committed to sustainability and has implemented a sustainability program, including planting a million trees.

• ITG embraces AI technology and has its own AI coding business, using AI to enhance its services and stay ahead of the curve in image and text creation.

BEST MOMENTS

"Richard Branson has the same mentality and strategy"

"We're on a mission to help as many people as possible start and build stronger brands so they can create happier, healthier lives for themselves and those around them."

"We have a complete sustainability program here. We have, I think, the Good Human Manifesto, which is… Do you know that off by heart? Yeah, I do. Yeah. Or pretty much, because I helped to write it."

"AI will help to bring different things forward. So you got to jump on the, you don't need to obsess about it. It's not going to change the world so much that we can't live anymore. We have to coexist with it."

"The way to my heart. Anything my daughter does gets a big tick in the box. Always melts me."

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Matt Fiddes who owns the world’s biggest martial arts brand worth over £120 million, he was featured on Rich House Poor House and was Michael Jackson’s best friend for many years. He knows all about building a brand and shares his expertise on today’s podcast.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I think everybody who has built something that’s gone big had painful childhoods. Most of my entrepreneur friends were teased or bullied at school or had some kind of trigger point. For me bullying was the thing and not being good at school, being under-confident, wanting to achieve more and being told you’re no good at anything. The only thing I was good at in my head was martial arts. Even then I knew that was all I wanted to do somehow. I’m quite a strong believer in the law of attraction.
• Everything the school system teaches I provide within my martial arts school’s life skills programme: anti-bullying skills, stranger danger, fire safety, water safety, goal-setting, persistence, how to make money, what’s good or bad debt. That set me apart from everyone else and made me go on to build the world’s biggest brand in my sector. I focussed on putting an incredible service out there that no one else was doing.
• A brand is something that’s been around and is trusted, you put the name in Google and you’ve got pages and pages of proof going back years, that’s a brand. A person with a logo is someone who’s just put together a mastermind or knocked together a franchise and called themselves a brand, but if you put their name in Google there’s nothing there, there’s no social proof. The definition for me is that a brand is people who don’t want to mess around, who want to be in mainstream media (TV, radio, newspapers), because people will choose you over people that have no social proof. I’m not interested in personal brands, I think it’s a load of nonsense. Personal brand is for people who don’t know who to build a brand.
• I believe, to make a franchise, you’ve got to do things ethically. If your business is making money, you’ve got at least 3-5 years of profitable accounts, then it makes sense to take that business and do it over and over again. Where people go wrong in business is always looking for the next shiny object. Having a successful business, with proof of its success, makes it easier to sell as well.

BEST MOMENTS
‘I was bullied quite badly at school and if it wasn’t for the first one, Anthony, I wouldn’t be where I am now as it spurred me on to take up martial arts to defend myself. Anthony now is the Anti-Bullying Ambassador for my company.’
‘I collaborated with Jermaine Jackson, Michael Jackson’s older brother. We toured the UK, went to schools talking about our success and experience and the rough times we had as kids.’
‘I’ve got no qualifications, I didn’t do well at school at all, I failed at everything which I’m not proud of. But, at the same time, it shows people they can be whatever they want to be as long as they study the greatest to make themselves better and believe in themselves.’
‘The more I give the more I receive. You’ve got to lead by example. There’s too many fake-it-til-they-make it in this industry who say they’ve got a brand and they haven’t, they’ve got a logo – big difference.’

ABOUT THE GUEST
Matt Fiddes is one of the most respected experts in the international world of martial arts and fitness. Matt’s achievements have seen him honoured at the highest level, after being inducted into the UK Martial Arts Hall of Fame and presented with the prestigious ‘Martial Arts Superstar Award’.
Matt’s unique training programmes are designed for both children and adults and have proved to be a massive success with over 600 training schools across the UK, Europe, and South Africa.
He is a 7th Degree Black Belt Master in Tae Kwon Do and holds Black Belts in Kickboxing and Kung Fu is now one of the most in-demand personal trainers thanks to front covers and interviews in newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has numerous celebrity clientele including actors, supermodels and singers. Undoubtedly Matt’s biggest client was superstar Michael Jackson. Introduced to Matt by his close friend Uri Geller, Matt was Michael’s personal UK bodyguard for over a decade before his tragic death in June 2009.
Website: https://mattfiddes.com/

PODCAST DESCRIPTION
The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.
On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE
As a Brand Strategist, University Lecturer, and Business Owner, Danielle dedicates her time to consulting and collaborating with health and wellness businesses, helping them stand out in the market and expand their customer base.

GRAB YOUR FREE COPY OF DANIELLE'S E-BOOK: https://danielle-clarke.ck.page/b1043e5d05

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Wes Henstock, a.k.a. Mr.Confid3ntial, Founder of Confid3ntial.com, knows as “ Shoes” to some. New York trained, strategic disrupter and creative rebel. Level C Certified Branding Specialist & Strategist. Skilled in brand-building across the disciplines of brand design, strategy, management, education, leadership and culture.a level 3 certified brand consultant. Wes joined the show to talk about brand and running a business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I fell into brands in 2001-2 by launching Puma Kids in North America, a job I should never have started in. But, it showed my how branding should work, not just colours and logo, they were building the brand back into society through consumer engagement, pre-social media. Nine years later I became creative director at America's largest sports brand where the boss, Ed O'Hara, talked to me about brand in a way that spoke to me and I worked with giant brands like David Beckham and the Miami Marlins.
• I've never had a client that has never known me indirectly before. My morals live proud, they're all about over-delivery, over-expectation, growing a relationship and collaborating with your client/the person you are branding. That relationship will act as your marketing.
• Covid has made us realise that the world is open, it's no longer about giving you the best paycheque or working in the best city. Brands and companies now have to give you more than that, they have to offer you more. People coming out of school now can choose to work from home, and brands have to learn from this, they have to sell themselves in a different way and offer something more.
• What you have to understand first about the business you're going into is about understanding people, I got a real understanding people when I learned about emotional intelligence. As soon as you work out the emotional intelligence of a person you then know how to deliver the best/worst news to them, you understand what makes them tick, how to start a conversation. It's like having a superpower.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I surround myself and talk to people I want to be because I think that's how you learn and grow.'

‘I want people to buy into me, not the colourful things I've created or the brands I've worked with. I don't show my work.'

‘Transparency is key for client relationships, if you set boundaries and expectations at the start means there are no surprises down the line.'

‘Understand the value of you, what are you worth?'

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Wes talks about his mentor and boss, Founder of FUBU, Daymond John playing a big part in his early career. You can find one of his books Rise and Grind, here: https://amzn.to/3DnrExD

ABOUT THE GUEST

Wes Henstock secretly creates brands that are strategically grounded, culturally relevant, and a little bit unexpected. He collaborates with and guides businesses on their journey to revealing their greatness through a blend creative passion, strategic insight and off the record ideas, delivering brands to a more meaningful, effective and impactful destination.

Website - https://www.confid3ntial.com/ 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/weshenstock/?originalSubdomain=uk

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mr.confid3ntial

Links to Inspirational people Wes mentioned -

Nick Brooks ( business coach and mentorship )
linkedin.com/in/nik-brooks-coachnottingham

Daymond John ( mentorship, Brand, goal setting, inspiration and drive)
https://www.instagram.com/thesharkdaymond

Ed O'hara ( Sports branding )
linkedin.com/in/edohara

Stern Rockwell ( mentorship, art, personal branding and graffiti)
https://www.instagram.com/stern_rockwell
linkedin.com/in/stern-rockwell-6658151
https://www.sternrockwell.com

Matt Davies ( Branding, mentorship and inspiration)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgdavies/
https://www.mrmattdavies.me

Lucy Warner ( the boss, a great photographer, Wes' wife, a super mum, personal support, inspiration and his daily motivational speaker)
https://www.instagram.com/lucyewarnerphotography
https://www.lucyewarner.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by business and relationship coach, Peter Gregory who has experience in business and building personal brands. The pair talk about the importance of putting yourself at the forefront of what you do and understanding your values.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• It took me a while to understand who I was in order to communicate better. Know thyself. If we don't understand who we are and what values are important to us and what we want out of life, when it comes to branding, it's going to be false and the true meaning is lost and customers can't get a handle on who you are and what we do.
• We need to align with the right people who are easy to work with and share the same values as us. Life's too short for drama and bad relationships.
• We see people putting on personas and wanting to become influencers, these aren't their true selves, and it will come through and people will pick up that it's false. Don't be your full self all the time – sometimes I'm grumpy – look at the genuinely positive aspects of your personality forward because at the core of it is you. It's not inauthentic, it's your brand personality.
• Avoid talking about religion on social media, steer clear of politics and don't ask if it's right to have pineapple as a pizza topic, because that's incredibly divisive! But, a small business making controversial social media posts could cause half the potential client-base to walk away, which is disastrous for small businesses and tarnishes the brand.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It's lonely being a business owner and people don't like to ask for help, but if you get the right people around you it becomes so much easier.'

‘Sometimes our drivers happen to us in our early years, and they define us. Being helped drives everything I do, I build communities.'

‘Mr T was a bouncer before he became a TV and film star. He's still his authentic self, but he built a brand around himself.'

‘The rebranding of Facebook to Meta is changing their look and distracting people, their core values haven't changed. But I don't think it's going to distract anyone now.'

VALUABLE RESOURCES
Check out one of both Danielle's and Peter's favourite books: Start With Why - Book by Simon Sinek https://amzn.to/3EljKWF

ABOUT THE GUEST

Peter Gregory is a proponent of working smarter, not harder, and how effective referral marketing can help achieve this. He has worked for over 20 years for some of the world's major IT outsourcing companies, leading technical teams in the deliver of worldwide IT systems.

Without personal relationships, built with other individuals around the world, Gregory would never have achieved the success he has. “It's not what you know, or who you know – it's how well you know them”. You can be very knowledgeable, or have the most outstanding product, but without people to help you then success is hard to achieve.

By understanding a client's wants and needs, conscious and unconscious, we are able to agree on suitable solutions that they can commit to achieving through proven processes. He believes we all have strengths and weaknesses and by understanding them we can use them to gain the success we deserve.

Website - https://iampeterg.co.uk/ 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/peteradriangregory/ 

Instagram - @i_am_peterg https://www.instagram.com/i_am_peterg/

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Colin Mobey, who doesn't like titles, but could be described as a teamship consultant, teamship developer, trainer, guide, challenger, ally, coach, mentor. However, looking beyond the job title, he works with teams to help them move beyond their struggles to enjoy work a bit more, find their mojo, be more productive, improve the bottom.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Generally speaking, we're conditioned to focus on one target, one job title, one profession. My daughter went to a jobs fair a few years ago and was told that she would have nearly a dozen careers, not jobs, careers across her lifespan because of the way the world's going. She could be a nurse one week, a chartered surveyor the next week. The world's cottoning on to that but the education system is still stuck in the old ways rather than asking: What do you want to do? What experiences do you want to have? What kind of difference do you want to make?
• A key part of my journey was a layby, just off the M1, near where I live, I would pull into it almost every night on my way home because I was physically shaking with stress. I'd talk myself down and take some deep breaths and say “everyone goes through this, it's part of the job”. One day I downloaded a yoga app in that layby and that was the start of my journey to a healthier body. It was where I started to see things that I wasn't able to give myself the space to see and I started to leave the corporate world to expand the people part of my job.
• When I was younger I was adamant I was never going to be a person in a suit, away from home all the time, working 78 hours a week and not enjoying it. Then one day you look round and thing: “How did I get here?” There's always a reason you stay and the reason is usually “me”, I'm choosing to stay in this place. That doesn't mean it's easy to get out of, but once you realise you have some choice, some control over this you can start. Self-awareness is really important, the body usually knows before the spirit knows
• Instead of saying: “This is what we're here for and this is the way we're going to do it”, start the other way round: “Why are you here? What's going on with you? Right here right now, why are you doing this job?” Nobody ever asks that question. Once you start to understand and listen to that you start to understand you've got things in common, how can we use or adapt that to meet the mission or purpose here? Work on it from the inside out and you've got the buy-in before you get there, you don't have to work through the resistance that you get by imposing company values like honesty – why does that have to exist?

BEST MOMENTS

‘Yoga was the start of my health journey and my interest in my health and getting stronger built from there.'

‘Find something you enjoy and make it not “hard work”.'

‘You don't have to give up your individuality to be an efficient part of a team, but you do have to be contextual – don't talk about your love of board gaming or Love Island all the time, but you don't have to give them up to fit in.'

‘The best jobs you've ever had conjure strong emotions. But every single job advert still leads with “competitive salary, 20 days holiday, flexible working”. They might throw in words like diverse, innovative and creative, but their just thrown in. We think people want the logical stuff, but it's not the most important.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Colin Mobey helps people become happier and more successful. He says: “I could dazzle you with buzzwords and labels about what I do and what I am, but neither of us really want that.”

He enjoys yoga in the garden or anywhere outside; geeking out on geek, cosying up on the sofa with the family to watch a comic book movie; seeing how much heavy stuff I can lift; boardgames with intricately designed pieces; cooking for my wife; writing things which inspire me in the hope they touch other people; truly awful puns; hacking my health with great nutritional food and science-based fitness routines so tough I forget how to think; really, really, dark chocolate; anything that blends  woo-woo with cutting edge neuroscience; listening to my kids groan at one of my truly awful puns; sitting in the middle of nowhere with a great book.

Website: https://www.colinmobey.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinmobey/?originalSubdomain=uk

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this introductory episode your host, Danielle Clarke explains how this podcast will help anyone that wants to know how to build better brands for their businesses know where to start and how to do it, as well as what to expect from the upcoming episodes. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I want listeners to this podcast to be business owners, especially small business owners in the health, wellness and fitness space, because experience has taught me that a lot of small business owners don't feel like they deserve a good brand, let alone a better brand.
• I can see the positive impact that focusing on health and wellbeing can have on yourself and your business. The two go hand-in-hand. Amazing things will happen and if more people focused on those things the world would be a happier place.
• When I started focusing on me, on eating right, going to bed at the right time, getting enough time asleep, drinking enough water I really notice the difference. It's like night and day and things got better and it allowed me to have a better business and brand and be a better boss.
• I want to show people that if you have a “why” and you care you can start a brand, you've just got to back yourself and make it happen and you can have a positive impact on people's lives.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Anyone that wants to help and improve themselves and other people's lives are pretty amazing.'

‘Me and some friends started a school magazine and it was really exciting. I still get that buzz helping others in the business world.'

‘This podcast isn't about me, I'm here to help you.'

‘You don't have to be as big as Nike to start to focus on your brand.'

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Natalie Bailey, a business owner who helps entrepreneurs get real focus and clarity around where they want to take not just their business but their health and unleash their inner confidence.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We cover “the triangle of life”: health, wealth and happiness. If you’re in business you still have your body to look after, you still have relationships, you still have family, you still have things you want to do outside of business. That holistic view gives you so much more value that you can then bring to the world. We figure out what you’re confident at, what do you want to be more confident at, and how do we do that?
• You didn’t know how to do things like tie your shoelaces or even walk. You had to learn to do those things. If you can learn how to do the mundane things, the daily activities that need to be done in order to exist, then you can learn to do anything, you can learn to do the things that take you out of your comfort zone, to feel more confident in doing that task. It sounds really simple and it is that simple, though it’s not always an easy process.
• If you don’t fully believe in what you’re doing and your abilities nobody else is going to buy into you. Without that utter belief and the confidence to get out there and do whatever business you’re in, whatever thing you want to do in life, you’re not going to get to where you want to go because people won’t believe in you because you don’t believe in you. You need to get internal validation before you go seeking external validation. Confidence is the foundation to your success because it gives other people the belief and the hope that they can do something too.
• There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Confidence is knowing and believing in yourself and what you do and being able to help other people. Arrogance is looking down on other people which is not the right thing to do at all.

BEST MOMENTS
‘Everybody has confidence in them. Where do you have confidence? You just need to unleash it in other areas of your life you want to improve.’
‘If you don’t have confidence in yourself why should anybody else?’
‘When you are healthier your body functions better, your brain functions better, you feel better. When you look better you feel better and more confident. Why would you not look after the one space you have to live in?’
‘If you have the right people around you and the right support you can do anything.’

ABOUT THE GUEST
Natalie Bailey supports entrepreneurs to realise their own worth, gain confidence in their unique abilities and level up to get out there and tell the world what they do, with pride. You CAN have the income you desire, along with the freedom, the network, and the life you deserve.
She says: “I'm a property developer and confidence coach, and have been helping other entrepreneurs to be more confident and ultimately more successful for many years now. My clients routinely achieve more from working with me, following the health, wealth and happiness system: the Gold Star way.
“I have helped exceptional but introverted individuals go from not wanting to even talk about their property portfolio to thriving by hosting their own networking event, helping people to create and launch new businesses, adding ££ to the bottom line and so much more.”
Website: https://nataliearabella.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliegoldstarbep/

PODCAST DESCRIPTION
The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.
On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Danny Allen-Page, CEO of Gravity 7 – a disruptive marketing agency that helps brands find their voice – about building his brand, building a personal brand and how he helps other people do that as well. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• As an entrepreneur my downfall is that I don’t celebrate any wins, I’m always chasing an expectation, I’m always trying to push. I’m growing my business, my passion is to go down the coaching side more, but the agency isn’t in the position where I could leave it and it’ll do its thing, so I’m trying to build the infrastructure for the agency to grow so that I can start being a coach as well.
• Being an entrepreneur, building a brand or a business, being a coach, all these things are hard. People like to paint a picture that it’s easy but it’s hard, so you need to gamify what motivates and drives you. These are all levers that you can pull to get yourself going. On socials everyone’s just spouting info, you’ve got to digest it and then apply it to what it means for you. It’s not gospel. It’s a way that they might have found, they might have read it and copied it, or they don’t even know anything about it, they’ve just put it in ChatGTP and it gave them some content – that is the reality of our world!
• Since 2020 one of the funnels I set up for a client has generated £20 million in sales. It does around £800,000-£1 million a month. Ultimately, to make those types of sales there needs to be synergy, an irresistible offer, an offer that’s in demand. It needs to be a growing market and then you need an acquisition machine, a sales funnel, a system that’s going to take them from cold to giving you money. With those three things in place you have a funnel that can scale to those numbers. Most people have an offer and a sales system but not the market demand which means it’s really hard to grow to the millions because there’s either no demand for what you’re selling or loads of people are selling the same thing. You’ve got to try something different.
• You need to understand who you are, who you help, what you do, and what you’re going to sell that at. People often go for the logo and brand identity, but that to me is just another kind of procrastination. What you should do is understand your values, understand who you help, and understand how you help them. Once you understand that at least you start putting out consistent content – don’t even expect it to be quality, be consistent first – you’re already going to be ahead of someone by building the muscle of consistency. Then you’ll naturally get better and you start putting out better content. Then I would start to spend money on potentially branding and things of that nature.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I respond better to negative than positive, which is not always better. I'd rather you say something negative or critique me and I grow and learn from it rather than from a pat on the back. I’m not saying it’s the right way to do it, it’s just how I am.’
‘AI is here and it’s happening, you’ve got to understand what it means to you and it could not mean anything right now, or you could leverage it for your business.’
‘If you’re a coach or even an agency you’re better off having a sales funnel than a website. If you’re a brand agency or consultant you might want a website to showcase your portfolio and case studies, but it depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to make money and create leads you need a sales funnel.’
‘You can grow faster on social platforms leveraging a personal brand in my opinion, unless you’re exceptionally good at creating content. Scaling full-stop on social media right now is a nightmare and it's a game that will drive you crazy.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Danny Allen-Page is CEO of Gravity 7, a marketing agency that isn’t like the others. He likes to ensure that course creators and coaches get more attention, more leads and more sales by creating high converting sales funnels.

Instagram: @dannyallenpage

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Anne Leatherland who helps people make a real impact with their voice.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Very often, people who use the voices in their businesses don’t realise that they’re a professional voice user, especially if that voice use is quite extensive during the day. Even people using their voices less so will nevertheless depend upon them for when they’re liaising with new clients or colleagues or staff, so it’s relevant to all of us really. The biggest challenge as a voice trainer and personal growth coach is helping people to realise that their voice is something that’s important, that they need to look after and that they can work with to make it better if they want to… and why shouldn’t we want to? Why would I be happy with it just being OK?
• Human beings are very sensitive to even small nuances in a voice (pitch, pace, tone, volume), and sometimes it can even be subliminal. So what they can understand from a voice is going to be important to you, you might be giving out messages that you don’t mean to give out if, in certain situations, the nuances in your voice aren’t the ones that people need to tap into. These can all affect how someone understands us, but also, whether they trust us or feel that they can work with us. Ultimately this will be part of our business success and these are all things we can learn to control and work with.
• People in advertisements or people who are aggressively trying to sell me things and politicians, I can tell at a thousand paces whether they’re A) telling the truth and B) whether they’re genuinely interested in what they’re speaking about. And they can’t help it from leaking through to their face, you can see it in the eyes and you can hear it in the voice. It’s those nuances that give it away. Having a relationship with your own values as a person and what message you want to bring across is absolutely vital if you want to sound believable and speak with integrity.
• The coaching side of my business is important because I have to take people on a journey sometimes. They think it’s their voice and they might lack confidence or they might not like their own voice or they might not get their message across. But, when we actually start chatting, it turns out to be that they’re not very clear on who they are as a person and how they want to get that across to the world. That’s where that lack of confidence, or that inability to speak to a group of people, actually starts.

BEST MOMENTS
‘Our voice is obviously a vital part of our communication along with our facial expression and movement (which both affect our voice as well), so the whole package goes together.’
‘There are certain aspects of voice that some people might find annoying. For some reason they can’t put their finger on it, they just don’t gel with a person and that can be the voice.’
‘I’ve been thinking about Liz Truss for the last couple of days, and she’s doing that thing that female politicians are probably instructed to do, which is to lower the pitch because you sound more serious. But what that does to the voice is that I can’t get any tonal variety down there because I’ve a female voice and it makes it really difficult for me to make those nuances, which is why she sounds a bit robotic, in my view.’
‘I think confidence comes from being secure in who you are as a person, what your own values and beliefs are and your message, and then having the control and skill to express that fully with your voice – as well as being secure in what you have to offer in your business and how your values and beliefs actually show up in your business day to day. If you’re happy with that, the voices will follow and you will sound more authentic.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Anne Leatherland: I have always been a singer but only came to formal singing training in my late 20s when I was producing a school musical. I simply wanted to know more and explore what my voice could really do. So, whilst training with Coral Gould MBE I gained my singing teaching diploma and left school teaching behind to run my own studio. After about ten successful years of this I was hungry for further training. I undertook the Vocal Process Accreditation programme with Dr Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher, becoming their first Accredited Associate Trainer in 2012.
There followed eight years of working with Musical Theatre and Acting Undergraduates at Liverpool Theatre School and LIPA, training them in Singing, Singing Technique and speaking voice for Acting.
I decided eventually to return to developing my own business, VocAL Intuition as I wanted to work more widely with professional voice users of all kinds. It has become obvious to me that voice use depends not only on physical processes, but also on the way we see ourselves. So, as part of my own development I took a training course in Life Coaching, completing this in 2020. I am now passionate about integrating this with my voice training.
In my downtime I love drawing, photography, walking, books, acoustics and going to shows and plays!
Website: https://anneleatherland.co.uk/ 
Email: anne@vocalintuition.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anneleatherland
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vocalintuition/
ABOUT THE HOST
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.
Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.
The Build Better Brands Podcast is a labour of love created each fortnight by our small team of committed editors and producers. If you love the show, we hope you'll consider supporting our work – for just the cost of a cup of coffee (or tea): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke
Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]
Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Illana Gambrill, lover of dance and founder of Dance Box. Illana runs online and pop-up dance classes for all, with a focus on empowerment. She has turned her passion into her career and the pair talk about how starting a business and growing a meaningful brand are achievable.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When I was 12 years old, I decided this was what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I started at a local dance school because I had this innate passion to move, I just loved it. I begged and pleaded to be allowed to spend all day on Saturdays at dance school, from 9am-6pm. I stepped into the first class and took to it like I’d done it my whole life and many lifetimes before. 
• I got into a professional dance college, but it was really toxic, they turned you into robots and encouraged eating disorders. At 27 I decided to take my life into my own hands and stop putting my worth into what other people thought of me, and I wanted to give back to the human race rather than just to dancers, that’s when Dance Box was born.
• I’ve had the business for nine years and it’s been hard. I used to do classes seven days a week and people wouldn’t show up, because they’ve got other responsibilities as adults. But, I persisted, I never let it go and I kept it going, there’s more to come.
• Dance studios are notorious for being unwelcoming to new people and scary. It’s vulnerable to dance in front of a room full of people. If you’ve never danced before you really need to feel safe. That’s what sets Dance Box apart, you could never have danced in your life but you’re going to feel so welcome, so loved and supported. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘At 13 I was asked to join a dance class that was 16 and up, and I’d never felt so honoured, it was the best time of my life, I was so inspired, I was obsessed.’
‘My motivation comes from an unshakable knowing, deep down that this is what I’m supposed to do and that everything isn’t going to be easy to get where you want to be.’
‘Dance is such a special thing and such a magical thing to do with your body. I’m going to bring back joy for other people and I’m healing my wounds as well.’
‘You need to be showing up as your authentic self, if you’re not it’s soul destroying to watch.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Illana Gambrill has been dancing since the age of 12 – starting her professional career in dance at the age of 18.

Illana has worked alongside many artists in music videos, TV shows and tours.

After travelling the world with dance, Illana gained an extensive amount of experience and now shares her incredible passion of dance with the world – DanceBox

Website: https://www.dance-box.co.uk/ 

Instagram: @danceboxofficial

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Emma Glover, founder of Victress Digital, a social and paid media agency to talk about all the amazing stuff she does in digital marketing and social media.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• All I wanted to do was do an ethical business. I’d been in an agency for a long time and I always wanted to try and be the boss that I never had. It’s my goal to have a team – not necessarily a big team – I like to refer to us as a micro-agency, bridging the gap between a freelancer and a 60-80-man agency. It’s quite personal in that regard, but I like managing people and being around people.
• From the minute I started freelancing I never referred to the business as me, it’s always been Victress throughout, which made an easier transition between me as an entity on my own and growing the team. Always in the back of my mind I wanted to grow it at some point and that would be an easier transition. The need to grow the team came from the demands of my clients, they were asking things of me I couldn’t deliver on my own. I created the agency around what the clients were asking for.
• Naming the company Victress future proofed me. I wanted to work very hard, but I wanted to allow the time and freedom that comes with working for yourself. If clients didn’t meet other people they would always rely on me being the only person they could talk to which puts you in the position of not having a holiday or a break, which is problematic when you’re the only person people can rely on
• We predominantly focus on social media and paid media, but with the freelancers we have we can service other types of marketing. We focus predominantly on SaaS brands and B2B brands, not a lot with eCommerce brands because they need to be serviced by people with that specialism. We’re more numbers people, getting into data and getting into strategy. Predominantly we look at lead generation, so if you’re a business that needs to get more leads down into your sales pipeline or you’ve got a sales team that needs to have more leads to handle, we look at creating those leads from a combination of either organic or paid media. It tends to be LinkedIn focussed and PPC – Google search, Microsoft search – though we handle a little bit of Facebook and Instagram for a couple of brands.

BEST MOMENTS

‘There’s a lot going on in the world, especially with Gen Z where you need to have a work/life balance, which I completely appreciate and, if I’m honest, I don’t want my team to have to think about work when they’re not at work. But it’s what I signed up for and chose, so if I need to work on a weekend that’s fine.’
‘Previously people wanted to go into shops and wanted things they could hold, now in a digital marketing space, the world has become more obsessive about how we make everything digital now.’
‘A lot of the brands we work with are not doing something no one else is doing, they’re doing something that 10-12 other people are doing, but they’re marketing it slightly differently and they’ve found a gap they can get in with.’
‘I wanted to set the standard that this is a female-owned company that is going to give heavy weight to females at director level. I had a vision of female founder female led company. It wasn’t and isn’t something I’ve seen before in this industry, so I’m flying the flag for that.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Emma Glover is a social media specialist with more than a decade of digital marketing experience. She’s managed the accounts of Kellogg’s South Africa, Dulux, and Barclays Africa, and worked as the lead social advertising strategist on multi-million dollar SaaS brands.

Website: https://victressdigital.co.uk/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmakglover/

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

The Build Better Brands Podcast is a labour of love created each fortnight by our small team of committed editors and producers. If you love the show, we hope you'll consider supporting our work – for just the cost of a cup of coffee (or tea): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Tom Ross, CEO of Design Cuts, he's known as a community branding guy and community builder. He also hosts the podcasts The Honest Designer's Show and Biz Buds which explore his passion for community building and mentoring others. The pair talk about his journey from designing websites from the age of 12 to building his own company and personal brand and now helps others do the same.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• There's a lot of confusion about what ‘community' means. People talk about social media following, newsletters, podcast listenership. There's no finite line for me, but typically a community platform is a space where members can chat to each other – many-to-many rather than one-to-many (e.g. Discord server, Slack group, Facebook group, Circle forum).
• Being able to see someone else having the same interests in certain brands as you gives a sense of identity and belonging. This is massively proliferating in the digital world right now with things like NFTs.
• People have become bored, apathetic and to some extent blind towards their social media news feed. There's only so many years that we can sit there like zombies scrolling through for hours on end looking at peoples highlight reels. Particularly with the pandemic and pandemic of loneliness, people are craving human connection and depth and social media doesn't necessarily offer that.
• There are a few key principles to community building: 1) Much like any business you need to have a strong foundation: have a clear value proposition, have a clear structure, understand the expectation of your members or it will die out. 2) It takes more work than anything else online so you've got to love it and invest serious time and effort in it. 3) Don't focus on the quantity of members, it's better to have a smaller community who properly engage and are aligned around your purpose and understand why they're there and what they're getting out of it.

BEST MOMENTS

‘We're seeing a shift where, historically, community building has been seen as ‘fluffy', unmeasurable and doesn't elicit ROI for businesses. There's starting to be investment in brand and community.'

‘The barrier to entry has lowers, there's greater awareness and more data available where you can measure ROI.'

‘NFTs aren't new, it's just starting to hit scale. People were selling digital items for real money in video games 20 years ago. Now we're seeing that concept at a major scale.'

‘If you haven't thoroughly educated yourself on something and really lived it, you shouldn't speak too strongly about it.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

When he was 12 years old, Tom Ross and his best friend right clicked on 'view source' a web-page they were looking at. The screen of code that appeared blew his mind.

They taught themselves HTML and went on to start countless web projects over the next few years, many of which never saw the light of day, some made them a few hundred bucks, but mostly, they were just an incredible learning ground.

Alongside these web projects, Tom embraced his inner creative, learning Paintshop Pro, and later Photoshop. He began creating endless graphics and websites, eventually leading him to enter design contests. These contests taught him early lessons in working with clients. A successful run of contest wins developed into a more steady freelance career, alongside school, building online communities, simply for the fun of it.

After several more successful ventures, Tom discovered his 'hustle'. After binge listening to a bunch of hustle pornstars and internalising their workaholic mantras, he became a working machine. Starting Design Cuts, Tom worked 18 hour days, 7 days per week for the first 18 months, culminating in a hospital visit, major stomach surgery, and years of chronic health issues to follow. Despite the tumultuous journey, Design Cuts flourished into a thriving community of 750,000 creatives.

In his spare time, Tom explores his passion for community building and mentoring others. His podcasts, The Honest Designer's Show and Biz Buds have now attracted millions of downloads, and he gets immense joy in providing value to his community.

Websites: https://tomross.co/ and https://tomross.co/newsletter/

Social media: @tomrossmedia

Circle forum: learn.community

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by agency veteran Michael Janda to discuss and share his experience of running a business, creating a brand, mentoring and training his employees to what he does now: Helping creatives figure out how to maximise their careers, to make the money they should be making and helping them reduce their stress.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The top things you should have in place if you're going to be successful are: Relationships and relationship skills – to be able to connect with other people in a way that makes them want to buy from you and that they can trust you. Understanding business fundamentals – the numbers, how to make decisions based off the analysing the data, how to price your work. Have a network of support – people who fulfil some of your tangential skills and that overlap some of your skills.
• One of the big objectives of branding is to differentiate your business from other businesses, to make you stand out and resonate with a target customer and make you unique in the marketplace. Every human is unique, no one is the same as you, we're all individually branded, let that become manifest in your business and it will become unique like you.
• I used to think “that person's killing it, their agency's so good, how did they get there?” and then I got big enough that I could go to lunch with these people and it wasn't all roses, they were having the same problems I was and my eyes opened to the fact that their outward representation said. Most entrepreneurs are the same. The reality is not the same as what they portray.
• What is the fusion between your personal brand and your business brand? Are you intentionally making your business brand a manifestation of your personal brand? Are you making yourself the face of your business brand? Someone needs to be the face of your business brand, you should be your own influencer of your businesses, don't pay someone else to sell your brand for you.

BEST MOMENTS

‘So many creatives are uber-creative, but not uber-analytical. If you're an entrepreneur, you have to tap into both sides of that. If you can't, hire someone who is to do that for you.'

‘It's detrimental to the success of your business to emulate a brand like Nike or Apple.'

‘In the end my agency was a success, but there were plenty of dark days on the road. I'm glad that phase in my life is over, but grateful to have had the experience.'

‘Say what you want about Donald Trump, but that dude was branded, he was a walking brand.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Michael Janda is an executive level creative leader with more than 20 years of experience in both in-house creative departments and agencies working with some of the greatest brands in the world.

He founded the creative agency, Riser, in 2002. Over 13 years he led Riser to a 31% average annual profit margin. Riser was a nationally recognized agency creating high-profile work for clients including Disney, Google, ABC, Fox, Warner Bros., NBC, TV Guide and numerous other notable companies. The company's work quality and successful business practices yielded some of the most coveted awards in the industry including Webbys, FWA, Awwwards, AIGA and Addys. 

In 2015, Michael sold Riser to a competing Utah marketing agency named Eli Kirk where he became one of four partners at the agency and its Chief Creative Officer. Following the acquisition he orchestrated a rebrand of the agency as EKR, which has acquired new notable clients including Google, National Geographic, ABC, Intel and Netflix.

In addition to his experience managing creative and marketing teams, Michael is the author of the 2013 book, Burn Your Portfolio: Stuff They Don't Teach You In Design School, But Should. The book's success has resulted in opportunities for Michael to be a keynote speaker at AIGA, Advertising Federation and University events across the nation, as well as at HOW Design Live in Atlanta in 2016 and Boston in 2018, the headline speaker at the 2018 Behance Portfolio Review in Moscow and a keynote speaker at a national event for Mercedes-Benz.

Website - https://michaeljanda.com/ 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/morejanda/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/morejanda

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/morejanda

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtMijHO1MVzw_Mjkh7_amw 

Books: The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing: Price creative work with confidence

Anatomy of a Design Proposal 

Burn Your Portfolio: Stuff they don't teach you in design school, but should

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER. Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Gabriela Pulido, a business owner and entrepreneur who has worked with over 300 brands globally, helping clients implement the best in branding and communications solutions. In this episode Gabriela talks about starting and scaling businesses across the world, how to run successful businesses and making sure the branding and communications enable the brands to grow.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I originally started in industrial engineering and what I learned there was how to solve problems creatively. I was planning on working in a paper plant in my home country of Venezuela. But management consulting brought me into a new realm of problem solving for people. These are not divorced from each other, they’re both bridged by problem solving and connecting dots.
• Brands come to me when they want to enter a new market or release a new product or even talk to their own employees or collaborators because they might be needing to grow or add a different competency into their solutions. Those are the things that I like. Companies and people in Chapter 11 or bankruptcy are a bit more tricky, I prefer to see companies when they’re in the midst of growth and I can help them do that.
• New companies and startups are figuring out the power of branding earlier on now, when they go fund-raising or putting together their team. You need to get the right message and that’s not only verbal, it’s visual, it’s an experience. 
• Nobody’s perfect. I don’t believe in perfection, and it took me a long time to realise that. At this point, what I strive for is excellence and finding the best way. I hate complacency and excuses, but I try to take a step back and try to figure it out with my team. Do good without looking back, this is part of my essence, my religion, what I believe.

BEST MOMENTS

‘You can easily confuse a consumer when you package things similarly. How can your brand make a difference? What is the problem you’re trying to solve?’

‘We figure out your ‘why’ and lock it into your brand and communication so that it makes sense.’

‘People buy from you emotionally in line with what you’re doing and the essence you express. You need to understand what the passion is within you that you’re trying to fulfil. This may not be that unique, so how do you make it more unique? Differentiate yourself and then begin offering products.’

‘Get the right mentors. Pick their brains and take their advice when you think it’s relevant to you, if it’s not you have another opinion about it anyway.’

Recommended book: Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience by Brené Brown

ABOUT THE GUEST

Gabriela Pulido is an experienced strategic marketing executive with more than 30 years of building emblematic brands. From strategic consultant to creative entrepreneurship, she is assertive and creative developing strategies fuelling the business intent, advising companies on transformation processes, portfolio management, branding, and digital transformation. Built strategies promoting business objectives for more than 100 brands such as Amerant, Shelton Academy, Endeavour, Insigneo, Lifeinvest, Kawa Capital, Empresas Polar, Mercantil, Cafam, Avianca, Nestlé, Miami Symphony Orchestra, Fundación Eugenio Mendoza, among others.

She has served as a founding partner, CEO, director, advisor, and mentor in different companies as well as non-profit organizations. Recently she pivoted her company towards solving creative scalability challenges and created Scalto, a Creative Consultancy, to help organizations navigate through the challenges of becoming truly scalable, from a client perspective. When exploring scaling options, Scalto believes in creatively thinking three steps ahead and generating smart solutions, with a comprehensive perspective, to set the company to scale.

Venezuelan born, mother of four, Gabriela is a passionate believer in the power of the right mindset, a strong purpose to generate value while doing good. 

Website: www.scalto.com 

Instagram: @scaltoglobal

Facebook: @scaltoglobal

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]

LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]

Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]

Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com

Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Peter Hopwood, Global Speaker Coach & TEDx Coach / International Pitch Coach / Storytelling for Sales / Virtual Speaking Specialist. Peter shares some insights into speaking, mindset and behaviours and the skills that are needed to build trust with people through the way that you talk.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• People may still appreciate you even though they may not show it. Somebody who really tries to listen well – not just to how you're showing up, but to how others are reacting – you can get a feeling of if you're sharing value or not. Don't always look for the ‘likes', you know if you're giving value, or helping people, or not. Trying to get away from the ‘like' mentality is a good thing.
• Helping people to show up well is essentially what I do, helping them to share their messages in a way that people can connect with and relate to, that they're intrigued to hear more and to share that in the right way. Connection is what we're looking for, whether that's being relatable, connecting on a deeper level or simply agreement – because if people agree with you, or you can muster an emotion from them that matches the one you're talking about, they're more likely to listen.
• If it's predictable and we know what's going to happen, your brains aren't intrigued. If you speak in a calm, warm tone which is appealing at first but less so when you carry on in the same tone, brains will switch off because it's predictable and boring. We love gossip because it's emotional and people want to know. Moments of emotion drive what stories are all about. In sales, as soon as somebody feels like they're being sold they switch off. If you bring in stories (success, things that have happened to you, maybe with a conflict or a change in there) we listen more. We want to listen to stories and are more likely to retell that same story to someone else.
• People are number one in all this. You can look at a brand or a logo and you don't always know who's behind them. If you take that and flip it on its head and look at the founders and how they came up with and started their business we can relate and believe in why they're doing what they're doing. Again, it's all about showing up and creating a connection.

BEST MOMENTS

‘When we appreciate things, we need to let people know and give reasons why – we don't often do that.'

‘It's just as much what you say, and the content, as it is how you deliver that.'

‘Focus on the value of what you're sharing, how you want people to feel, what do you want them to walk away with/do/feel?'

‘If you can show up in a way that makes people want to connect with you, even if it's on Zoom, do it.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

British born Peter travels the globe (physically & virtually) supporting executives, leaders, founders and teams to craft and deliver engaging stories, increase their leadership presence and persuasive connection - with impact.

Essentially, Peter guides professionals to adopt a set of speaking behaviours and insights to create stronger chemistry and connection, using storytelling techniques to get closer to better outcomes.

From Dubai to Amsterdam, Shanghai to Berlin, Peter's engaging coaching skills are in high demand taking founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and TEDx speakers to the next level in their confidence, storytelling abilities and presence on stage or in a virtual setting.

Equally, as a global events MC / virtual host and presenter, Peter has built an extensive portfolio of shaping some of the strongest tech events on the planet. 500+ events, professionally shaping stages worldwide – delighting audiences globally and through the screen.    

Chair of the Communication Committee of the The World Innovation and Change Management Institute (WICMI), Peter has worked in 42 countries (physically) and lived in 7 - now based in Split, Croatia.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterhopwoodpublicspeaking/?originalSubdomain=hr 

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Sarah Bayliss, a business owner who also works in nutrition. She has been helping Danielle with her diet and nutrition regime and has changed her life. The pair talk about the link between running your own business and looking after yourself.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Nutrition is more than food, I help people think about how they're living their lives, how they're restoring themselves, how they fill themselves up, what imbalances they have around them, what areas of dysfunction they may have. I help them identify these and improve the way that they live every day – sleep, relationships, work. 
• Stress is emotional, mental, physical, but it's also personal, it's very perceived. Anything you feel stresses you as in individual will cause stress response for your body. So, I need to understand in detail how somebody lives and how those things impact their lives.
• A pattern that I see all the time is that people don't recognise when they're in a stressed state. When you're self-employed you have a greater responsibility to yourself than if you're employed, because you are your business. You don't have somebody behind you and you need to be your best and therefore you have to put yourself first. A lot of people see the idea of them coming first as selfish and wrong, but it's not. If you put your energy into your wellness, you can put all of you energy into the function of your business and family. People wear burnout as a label of pride, we all know it's not a good thing, but this has to change.
• If you're experiencing headaches, digestive issues, skin issues or frequent coughs and colds, if you're feeling anxious, these are all signs that things aren't at equilibrium balance. They are often little signals to remind us to stop and pause. If we can stop and pause more often we can listen to the way that we feel more often. Take a few moments every day to check in with yourself, do you have a headache, are you hungry, how's your skin feeling, are you sad? More presence on your self will give you more signs about how you are responding to the environment in which you're living.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Manage stress, restore balance and achieve greater happiness.'

‘It's about getting under the skin of how someone lives and how their environment is working for and impacting on them.'

‘I wanted my daughter to grow up seeing her mum being happy and enjoying what she did.'

‘If you're not feeling well, don't go to work, don't perform. Rest up so that you can perform better the next day. You wouldn't get an athlete take part in their sport if they weren't feeling well and we need to apply this mindset to the corporate world.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

An early career in marketing meant fast-paced, long and highly demanding hours. Sarah was burning the candle at both ends paying little attention to what was going on with her body. She was running on cortisol and heading towards burnout. 

Little did she know that her choices were causing numerous health issues: poor digestion, poor sleep, fluctuations in weight, imbalanced hormones and sub-optimal mental and physical performance.

A move to Bristol and a change in career allowed Sarah to take stock. She adopted  a few simple lifestyle changes. In just a few months her physiology changed dramatically. She lost weight, had more energy, focus and felt brighter and more alive.

Sarah was able to create space for herself, listen to her body and connect with what she needed to continue feeling so good. Shifting reactive behaviours to proactive ones was key. This meant regular eating, balanced meals, a better sleep routine, improved hydration, daily movement and boundaries around work.

We can all do this. You can do this. But its not always easy. 

Modern life means we often prioritise external pressures above our own needs. This is where Sarah comes in. By first clarifying what you need and then supporting you in creating the right behaviours and boundaries, Sarah can help you take control of your lifestyle to modify your body and mind. Once you find your balance, you'll feel more alive and able to fulfil your potential.

Changing her food was the first step Sarah  took on her journey of self-discovery. Realising the power of food in 2016 she enrolled to study nutritional therapy to understand nutrition and habits affect health and performance. 

She says: “I can honestly say I have never felt this great. And now I know what great feels like, I can't wait to share this knowledge with you.”

Website: https://sarahbaylissnutrition.co.uk/
Instagram: @sarahbaylis_nutrition

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Andrea Pacini, a presentation coach and founder of Ideas on Stage UK who specialises with working with business owners, leaders and teams – especially those who want to become more confident presenters. He’s on a mission to help people get their ideas out and make sure they present them well.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I’ve noticed a couple of things have changed since Covid. One is the importance of technology. When you are presenting, pitching, and communicating in person there are a few things to consider like if you are using slides you need to make sure that everything works, but apart from that technology shouldn’t make a huge difference. Online it does. We need to pay more attention to things like having a good microphone, webcam, lighting, etc. Another thing is audience interaction, which is always important, but online it’s even more important because it’s even harder to keep their attention.
• Ideally you should make good eye contact in-person with each person in the audience for a complete sentence or thought and then change the person you’re looking at for the next one. Online, rather than looking at your screen at the other people or your slides, you should look at the lens of your camera as much as possible because that’s where your audience is. 
• There are two types of speakers: memorisers and improvisors. Memorisers like to have a script word-for-word or rely on their notes whereas improvisors prefer to have more freedom on stage. There’s no right or wrong approach, it’s whatever works for you, and it’s also a spectrum. I always encourage improvisors to rehearse (not practice) a number of times beforehand and have some notes to fall back on in case everything goes wrong. 
• You can have the greatest idea in the world but if you can’t communicate it it doesn’t matter. I’m sorry to say that, but our ideas are worthless unless we can communicate them. This is so important if you want to build your brand and grow your business. 

BEST MOMENTS
‘An audience’s attention is a bit like the sand in an hourglass: It runs out after a few minutes. But, it’s very easy to flip it over and start again. As presenters we can flip you over and start again, which means that every now and again we need to find ways to interact with the audience. When you’re presenting in person you need to do that every 10 minutes at least, online you need to do that more often, every 3-5 minutes.’
‘80% of your confidence comes from your ability to develop a compelling message. If you don’t have a story that resonates with the audience or a message which is simple for them to understand, easy for them to follow, relevant to them and their needs it doesn’t matter how strong you are from a delivery perspective.’
‘Great presenters rehearse in the real world. In an environment either physically or mentally that is as close as possible to the real environment that they will have in the presentation.’
‘ABC of preparation: Audience, Burning needs, Context.’

ABOUT THE GUEST
Andrea Pacini Andrea is Presentation Director for the UK for Ideas On Stage where he has worked with many business leaders, including clients like General Assembly, Fiverr, ISTAO Business School, as well as TEDx speakers. Andrea is also the main voice of the Ideas on Stage Podcast.
He specialises in working with established business owners who want to grow their business and increase their influence through great presenting.
Andrea is on a mission to change the way people think about presenting. He is a big advocate of business as a force for good and his 10-year vision is to help 1,000 purpose-driven entrepreneurs share their message, make an impact and be memorable.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apacini/?locale=en_US
Website: https://www.ideasonstage.com/
Confident Presenter Scorecard: https://presentationscorecard.scoreapp.com/

PODCAST DESCRIPTION
The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.
On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.
WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call
CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant
SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Anthea McCourtie about her career from full-time employment to finding her passion, to having a side hustle which eventually became her full time job as a nutritional therapist.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• As a teenager I was into the dieting approach, I was very obsessed with calories and all the unhealthy attitudes that a lot of us had in the 90s. I became really interested in what food could do for us, so I did a BSc in nutritional therapy part time while I was working and finally qualified at the end of 2012. I was also doing martial arts about 14 hours a week until I had to have shoulder surgery which meant I had some free time, so I got a personal training qualification which bolted on to nutritional therapy.
• People are never just looking for help with their nutrition, there’s factors of weight loss or fitness. Now I work with my one-to-one clients at their homes (for the initial consultation at least) so I can get a feel for how they’re living and their lifestyle. If they do the transformation programmes with me, they’ll be doing nutritional therapy as well as personal training and/or yoga. We work on lifestyle changes as well, it’s more all-encompassing than when I first started.
• Becoming more of a personal brand, with You By Anthea, to incorporate the different things that I do gave me a lot more freedom because, at the end of the day, you’re buying from the person. When I work with people one-to-one, they are buying into me. That allows me to put a lot more of myself into what I do than in my early days on Instagram, it was soulless and very factual. Now I post pictures of myself climbing and doing pole fitness, I don’t teach those things but I feel like I can show it because I want to share what I’m about.
• Calorie counting is a massively flawed system, I don’t use it. Calories are not the same across all foods. Half the time they’re not measured correctly, especially when you’ve got food that’s more than one ingredient, it’s not possible. Calorie output is such a difficult thing to measure – even the machines at the gym or smart watches, it’s wild guess work. But also, food is information: 100 Calories of almonds is going to have a completely different impact on my body than 100 calories of gummy bears! So much of it depends on our hormones, our sex hormone balance, sleep levels, cortisol levels, blood sugar levels and insulin response. The gut and the microbiome have a massive impact on how much energy is extracted from food. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘I like to really immerse myself in things, I’m a bit of an all-or-nothing person.’
‘I work a lot locally, but since the pandemic we’ve all figured out we can do more online than we realised before.’
‘Having my name in the brand has given me a lot more scope to show myself.’
‘My mission is all about empowering mainly women, though I do work with some men as well, to feel amazing about themselves, not just discovering their health, there’s a massive mindset thing in there as well that will directly impact their health and their food choices.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Anthea McCourtie: I am a registered Nutritional Therapist with a BSc in Nutritional Therapy from the Centre for Nutrition Education and Lifestyle Management (in partnership with Middlesex University).

I am a Level 3 qualified Personal Trainer specialising in at-home and outdoor training using a range of equipment including kettlebells, suspension (TRX) equipment as well as Thai Boxing fitness.  I also have a Level 3 award in designing Pre and Post Natal Exercise Programmes and am a Master Kettlebell Instructor. 

I am a qualified yoga teacher, registered with Yoga Alliance Professionals and offer vinyasa, yin and ashtanga yoga classes as well as individual and partner yoga instruction.

I am a full member of BANT (British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine), the CNHC (Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council) and Personal Trainer.

Website: https://youbyanthea.co.uk/ 

Instagram: @you.by.anthea

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Sid Saraiya founder of Effinlazy, a brand and business consultant. The pair talk about business and brand insights and share his story from designer in an advertising agency to owning his own brand strategy and consulting business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Towards the end of my time in the advertising industry diversity and representation wasn't great, compliance was a big thing and ideas were coming from the top rather than from the creatives in the business. I was feeling unfulfilled and cynical after realising that careers weren't working like I was promised in university and there was some shady business being done. My coach career coach a few months ago and she asked whether I thought I'd changed, not the company and it all clicked.
• Now I run a business design and brand strategy business delivering meaningful marketing for customers. We look to differentiate and how that can help the customer. For example Gillette and Harry's Razors, Gillette had the monopoly on the market and Harry's came in and disrupted the market with a much lower budget, being funny and they got a decent market share.
• You have to be able to capture the idea and sit down and turn it into something tangible very quickly because your earning potential relies on that, that's the professional skill part – not just the idea generation, the development and execution part is the professional part.
• The real companies that are going to stand out post-pandemic are the ones that will put the employee first. Recognise that some people need to schedule time for day care. Leadership needs to move away from the 9-5 mentality. People take pride in getting shit done and if leadership needs to instil fixed hours that's a massive flaw in trust and the working relationship.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The way you treat people is tantamount, not just your customers but the culture you build in-house.'

‘Big companies aren't ready to compete with disruptive independent companies.'

‘Creativity doesn't always work between 9am and 6pm, my best ideas come to me in the shower or as I'm going to sleep.'

‘I can only do focussed work for 3-4 hours a day and I'm done. 8-3 and 9-5 comes from the industrial revolution and it doesn't work anymore, we're seeing burnout and mass resignations. Things can be done differently.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Sid Saraiya

Sid is a Brand Strategist and Consultant who helps business owners gain clarity and confidence to stand out and connect with their ideal customers. After 10 years in advertising, leading multi-national campaigns for some of the world's biggest agencies, publishers and brands he started Effinlazy.com in 2019 to bring that knowledge and insight to small business owners. Feeling fulfilled in his work and life is the most important thing to him and he prides himself on bringing that feeling of fulfillment to other business owners.

CONTACT INFO: instagram @sidsaraiya // effinlazy.com/contact / sid@effinlazy.com

Sid and his team don't have any downloadables, they just give everything they know away on their blog page, effinlazy.com/blog. 

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Luke Tonge, brand designer and director of the Birmingham Design Festival to talk all about his career and branding.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Everybody has a personal brand whether they like/realise it or not; how people describe you when you are or are not there. That really is your brand, and it might not be what you hoped it would be or what you might want other people to think of it. That’s true of consumer brands as well and about what customers think of them. We create these by telling stories and consistently doing certain behaviours, acting or coming across in a certain way.
• In your teenage days your tribe, culture, music, sport and all that stuff is really fundamental to what crowd you fit in with, how you dress, how you self-associate. Alternative music, BMX-ing, rollerblading and that scene was a part of my identity. It becomes less important as you get older, but it’s definitely seeped into my psyche, language, tastes, how you dress, etc. How much of that you hold on to and how much you are is interesting to think about.
• Something people don’t often warn you about as a young person, especially in a very connected and visible industry, if you come out and are having a go – it’s easy to snipe on projects and to pooh-pooh work that you don’t like. But, you don’t realise that work that’s gone on behind the scenes and why that stuff has happened, or the reality of working on some of those big jobs. You can easily get a name for yourself if you’re not careful by sounding off about things. Be cautious and careful of how you come across, but don’t let that stop you from having an opinion.
• People like to overcomplicate things to make it seem like they’re doing a really lofty and special thing. But really, we’re just very fortunate to be designing for a living, creating work for people, we’re sharing it, we’re having an opinion on things, that’s all there is to it really.

BEST MOMENTS

‘There’s always a worry in many different industries that if you don’t look the part you won’t fit in there. I think society has learned that lesson now, it’s important to have diverse voices, backgrounds and interests.’
‘Things tend to work out for those that are prepared to work hard. In every industry the ones that want it the most and are prepared to go the extra mile are the ones that succeed.’
‘Be doing stuff, be active, be proactive, be enthusiastic, be consistent, persevere with things, be visible, be kind to other people, and be gracious.’
‘No one bit of advice fits all people.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Luke Tonge is a Brum-based, shorts-wearing, type-nerding, eyebrow-raising, ice-cream-loving independent graphic designer – specialising in brave brand identity & editorial work – currently found running Luke Tonge Studio, guest lecturing at BCU and co-directing Birmingham Design (inc BDF & Gather)

Website: http://www.luketonge.com/ 

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call 

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by James Bacon a.k.a The Body Fix Coach, who is much more than just a personal trainer, he helps people to ultimately get out of pain (he's helped Danielle get out of the pain she sustained from an old injury). The pair discuss health and wellbeing and how that affects you as a business owner.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Sometimes I think people want to get fit and they think about hiring a personal trainer and they don't know the difference between a personal trainer and the other types of coaches available and might just go for the cheapest option or who they like the look of. Being a coach means I help people, not just beating them and telling them what to do like some personal trainers.
• The pandemic was a tough time, going from a busy physical location with about 75 clients down to about six in the space of 3-4 weeks. But that's the adapt, pivot, change point and you either do that or quit, and I'm not a quitter.
• I'm not a natural salesman, but it's something you learn as you go along. I'm a big believer in that if you've got a good set of testimonials behind you that breaks down those barriers anyway. When you shop on Amazon you always look at the reviews first. At the end of the day it's all about how I can help you.
• If you're in pain it could start to drip down into other areas of your life affecting your business, you family, your income. If someone's in better physical health, that goes hand-in-hand with better mental health. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘I love doing what I do, both in the training and in business.'

‘If I can change someone's life by getting rid of their pain, that's massive.'

‘I gained about 15kg during Covid because I wasn't moving as much and I started thinking about getting another job, but then things started picking back up again.'

‘Movement is medicine.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

James Bacon a.k.a The Body Fix Coach is a personal trainer who uses his own weight loss journey to help him motivate his clients. He weighed about 19 stone at the age of 19, but then started going to the gym every day and lost about eight stone in two years which made him feel more energised and he noticed he was enjoying life more. This inspired him to help other people do the same thing. He studied to be a personal trainer then on strength and conditioning coaching and human movement science which helps him to get people out of pain and back to health and fitness.

Website: https://www.thebodyfixcoach.co.uk/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejamesbacon/

Instagram: @the_body_fix_coach

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thebodyfixcoach  

ABOUT THE HOST

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.

Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people's lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke](https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke)
Email - [hello@danielleclarkecreative.com](http://www.danielleclarkecreative.com/)
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Angela Lyons, an award-winning freelance graphic designer with a focus on print, including magazines and branding.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I’ll have been a freelancer for 11 years this April. I started off in a publishing company, then a software company before deciding to go freelance. It can be quite hard to do initially because of the fear that you’re really stepping away from a salaried career and out of your comfort zone. You were going into other companies' offices (before working from home became a thing) trying to work out what’s going on while working for them too.
• When I first started I Googled ‘freelancing’ and nothing came up, so I attached myself to recruitment agencies, and they had a lot of networking events which I went to. I’d go to the offices of companies I was freelancing for and talk to the people there in the break rooms and told them what I was doing there .That’s how my work developed over the years, those people would tell other people what I was doing and that I was good and would help them out with what they needed.
• I didn’t have a social media strategy. I just followed a lot of people, saw what they were doing, I spoke to someone about whether I should join this group to get tips and she said: “No, you’re clever, you can see what’s going on around you, don’t copy people. Just be yourself”. I’ve met the most amazing people through social media, like yourself. But if I do see anything negative there I just block and move on. There’s too much going on in the world for you to have negativity on your phone as well.
• I always want to plan, but then stuff happens and gets in the way. I don’t know if it's luck or being blessed but stuff comes to me, or people put things in my way. People have asked me to do webinars and I haven’t done any yet, mainly because I haven’t had the time but also because I was nervous. But, I could put a webinar together from repurposed bits of work I’ve done in the past. I think social media is going to become monetised soon and your content is going to be paid for so people can see it. LinkedIn is the best place to be at the moment, especially for reaching potential customers because  they haven’t introduced any form of monetisation yet. Instagram and Twitter are asking the user to pay. I’d much rather post content only to my website because at least I own that.

BEST MOMENTS
‘I got headhunted by a software company to do graphic design for them and it sounds really terrible but I hated it. The people were lovely, but the work just was not me, it wasn’t creative at all. I got ill, my body broke out in hives. I spoke to my husband about it and I decided to go freelance.’
‘My husband says I like to talk too much and I really do, I even talk to people at the bus stop! They look at me a bit funny, but they tend to talk back.’
‘I never used to use social media until a couple of years ago, I thought it was an awful place, but I’ve started using it recently and have found out it’s not. Now a lot has changed!’
‘I’m a graphic designer, but I hadn’t had a proper website in about five years, terrible, I know! We’re working freelancers and solopreneurs, there’s a lot to do.’

ABOUT THE GUEST
Lyons Creative is owned and managed by Angela Lyons. I am a freelance graphic designer who creates clear and engaging designs. I offer graphic design services from initial design concepts to final produced graphics. Designs include magazines, brochures, branding, logos, social media graphics, event design and marketing materials for startups, corporates, and charities.
Website: https://www.lyonscreative.co.uk/ 

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call
CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant
SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this, slightly different, episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Michael Janda (and a live audience) to discuss big branding mistakes that companies make. They cover several examples of rebranding failures, such as the Leeds United and Gap rebrands, as well as the importance of valid reasons for rebranding and why businesses should be careful with brand research.

They also talk about the importance of building a community for your brand, choosing the right social media channels, and the fear of social media and personal branding. Michael and Danielle also touch on the topic of recession and how brands can survive during a recession. They emphasise the importance of speed to market and choosing the right brand name.

Overall, this episode provides valuable insights into branding and marketing, highlighting the importance of avoiding mistakes and making informed decisions when it comes to rebranding, social media, and building a community for your brand, especially for business owners and marketers looking to enhance their branding strategies and avoid costly mistakes.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Leeds United’s rebrand, changing their logo was a mistake. The Premier football club has a rich history and heritage going back about 100 years, which is something that fans really care about. In January 2018 they unveiled their new crest after 6 months of research, questioning about 10,000 people, and it received a huge backlash from the fans. 77,000 fans started a petition to reverse the rebrand. So, if you ever decide to rebrand it’s really, really important to make sure what your true fans really want.
• GAP spent $100 million dollars on a rebrand on their new logo, and it was up for six days before they bailed on it because the backlash was so massive. They got 2,000 negative comments on Twitter, 14,000 parody designs were posted on the make-your-own-gap-logo website. I love when people hijack a trend like that! They’d seen slumping sales, nothing dramatic, but they’d made an assumption that a rebrand was required to solve that.
• Some reasons to rebrand: If you want to appeal more to a different audience, if the data suggests you should rebrand (slumping sales, losing market share to a new competitor), if you’re still hobbling along with your startup brand but you business has taken off and it needs to level up so it reflects the company as it is today – like Google did with its ugly serif font logo.
• In 2001 Royal Mail spent £1.5 million to rebrand to Consignia and it was such an epic fail they really did their best to cover it up and make people forget it happened. No one knew how to say ‘Consignia’ and that the public thought was ridiculous, it was too long, too fussy and just didn’t feel comfortable to say. Within just over a year they completely scrapped it and spent another £1 million to get it back to where it was before. The moral of that story is pick a name that people can say and feel comfortable saying and that aligns to what you already do, especially if you have the history and position you have in the market.

BEST MOMENTS

‘There’s a difference between you audience and who your ‘true fans’ are.’
‘When doing research sometimes people feel like they have to answer in a certain way to ‘pass the quiz’. If you don’t do your research right and ask non-leading questions, you can have massively skewed results in your research.’
‘Why are you doing a rebrand in the first place? Oftentimes we’ll find with a client that they have brand fatigue – they’re sick of their own brand – and will want to change it to the detriment of their own business.’
‘Don’t kneejerk, take your time, think about it, do some brand strategy, don’t confuse your customer.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Michael Janda: I am an award-winning creative director, designer, agency owner and author. In 2002, I founded the creative agency Riser, which provided design and development services for clients that included Disney, Google, Warner Bros., Fox, NBC, ABC, National Geographic and many other high-profile brands. Following 13 successful years, I sold my agency to Eli Kirk in 2015. The combined agency rebranded as EKR where I served as a partner and Chief Creative Officer for a little over two years.

Prior to founding my agency, I served as a Senior Creative Director at Fox Studios where I managed the design, editorial and development teams for the Fox Kids and Fox Family brands.

My book, Burn Your Portfolio: Stuff They Don’t Teach You In Design School But Should, was published in 2013 and is currently available in English, Russian, Chinese Traditional and Chinese Simplified languages. In 2019, my book, The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing: Price creative work with confidence. Win more bids. Make more money., was released and is now available in both English and Russian languages.

Website: https://michaeljanda.com/  

PODCAST DESCRIPTION

The Build Better Brands podcast is to inspire small business owners and help them realise that they don't have to be Nike to have a great brand, and the sooner they start to focus on making it better, the sooner they can improve their lives and the lives of others.

On the show I’ll be talking to business owners that have built brands from the ground up. Branding is how you present your best self to your audience consistently. And if they can do it, so can you!

ABOUT THE HOST - DANIELLE CLARKE

Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.

WORK WITH DANIELLE TO HELP BUILD THE BRANDING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO GROW: https://calendly.com/hello-danielle-clarke-creative/free-15-min-discovery-call

CONNECT WITH DANIELLE ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative-brand-designer-marketing-consultant

SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Build Better Brands, Danielle Clarke is joined by Paul David Perry and William Gadsby Peet, founders of Literal Humans, who have a focus on creating not just resilient brands but brands that are mission-driven and have real values.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We gambled a little, but were thankfully proven right on, as there probably wasn’t a better time to start than in the middle of a pandemic. Obviously the first six months were pretty rough, everyone battened down the hatches and no one had any budget. But then everyone realised that the only way we can make money is online and it was a good time to run a content and digital marketing agency because to sell stuff online you need content and digital marketing, so it proved to be a bit of a lucky/strategic masterstroke.
• The name gets us a lot of mileage, I think it sticks in people’s heads and maybe they laugh about it initially, but they ask about it. To be fair, your first job as a marketer when you’re starting an agency is to build something memorable, build a memorable brand for yourself that will be sticky in people’s minds and thankfully we’ve accomplished that, I think.
• SaaS is Software as a Service – Dropbox is SaaS, technically Netflix is SaaS – it’s anything you pay a recurring retainer for and in return you get software as a tool, like Adobe, Figma or Canva. With the world we live in today those are the ones that tend to be unicorns. The reason we focus on startups in the SaaS space is they tend to grow very quickly and very interestingly. With regards to mission-driven, we work with people we think are making the world a better place in some regards. We don’t work with anyone we think is doing something actively bad and we don’t work with anyone we think is not going to be into our style and our marketing, anyone who’s going to be too by the numbers, boring, uninterested in what we do. 
• One of the most common things that annoy us about brands is 1) that they’ve drunk their own Kool-Aid and they think that they’ve created a revolutionary product, then you use the product and you’re like: “Mate, this is just a rip off of something else with slightly different branding and one USP.” Be eyes wide open about what you’re selling. 2) No one has any fucking creativity or interest in being risky any more. In the 90s brands’ logos and work marks were made, now every single brand copies Apple’s; a straight monochrome word mark because everyone would rather be non-offensive than actually inspiring. One of the things we love about our agency and the people we get to work with is they’re up for taking risks. They’d rather delight 70% of their market and piss off 30% of it than be a bowl of oatmeal to all 100%. That’s one of the biggest things branding is missing at the moment: Risk takers.

BEST MOMENTS
‘Most marketing is shit. The reason that it’s bad is it just talks at people rather than to them. All the best marketing tells a story, treats people like humans and tells a human narrative.’
‘Everything we do is for humans by humans.’
‘Bad branding is bad branding, I don’t think by doing a bad job you should be crucified online. But, you kinda should do it.’
‘A principle we laid down early on, and we’ve seen the data and we just know intrinsically and morally, frankly, that diverse teams perform better. It’s not even just about performance, it’s the ethical right thing to do in 2020 in one of the most diverse cities in the world.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Prior to launching Literal Humans, Paul David Perry worked as a freelance writer and content strategist for a number of different tech brands, including Contentstack, Submittable, TransferWise, and Toptal. He also helped build a previous agency from $500K ARR to $1.5MM ARR in under two years by providing high-quality content strategy + execution across a range of clients and building internal agency systems. Before his career in content marketing, he worked in education and nonprofit management in the US.
William Gadsby Peet is a former journalist turned digital marketer that specialises in content and digital marketing strategy. Before co-founding Literal Humans, he worked as a performance marketing specialist and consultant, generating millions of pounds in profit for a roster of international clients.
Website: https://literalhumans.com/
Socials: @literalhumans
ABOUT THE HOST
Danielle Clarke is a Brand and Marketing Consultant, University Lecturer and Business Owner.
Since 2006 Danielle has provided brand design and marketing support for clients including Škoda, Gtech, UK Biocentre, UK Mail and GIRLvsCANCER Danielle is committed to helping brands that want to have a positive impact on people’s lives. She spends her time consulting and working with business owners to help them attract and retain their best customers.
The Build Better Brands Podcast is a labour of love created each fortnight by our small team of committed editors and producers. If you love the show, we hope you'll consider supporting our work – for just the cost of a cup of coffee (or tea): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielleclarke
Insta - @danielleclarkecreative | [https://www.instagram.com/danielleclarkecreative/]
LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-clarke-creative/]
Twitter - @D4nielleCl4rke |  [https://twitter.com/D4nielleCl4rke]
Email - hello@danielleclarkecreative.com
Website: www.danielleclarkecreative.com 

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.