May 3, 2025 • 39 mins
In this episode, Chantelle the Clever Content Creator and amazing podcaster, shares the deeply personal journey that shaped her brand. From getting married and divorced within the span of a year, to choosing a path of self-development that ultimately led her to launch her own coaching business.
We have a fascinating conversation about the shift from indifference to intentional living and the birth of The Single Girl’s Guide to Life podcast and its incredible 120,000 downloads.
Chantelle also shares her experience about building a business, facing burnout, and navigating the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship
Whether you’re building a brand, rethinking your path, or just need a dose of real talk, you’ll love this one.
Notes:
You can follow Chantelle on Instagram
Download your unmissable FREE Ultimate Personal Brand Story Planner
Join the free Personal Branding Academy community on Facebook
The ‘Bravery Behind The Brand’ Motivational Song playlist on Spotify
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Bravery BehindThe Brand podcast, the podcast
that dives deep into the heartof the stories behind the
brands we encounter on socialmedia every day. On the
surface, they make it look soeasy, but I guarantee there is
blood, sweat and tears behindall the reels, posts and
beautifully presentedproducts. I'm your host Amanda
Jane, a personal brand andvisibility strategist
(00:23):
originally from the north ofIreland and now calling
beautiful Cheshire, England myhome. I help purpose-driven
business owners getcomfortable being seen and
heard by building theirconfidence, clarity and
presence in front of thecamera, mic and the media so
they attract alignedopportunities that feel
exciting and achievable Allwhile seamlessly showing up as
the face of their brand. Iexperience first hand the
courage that's required tomove beyond our comfort zone
(00:46):
and these are theinspirational stories I want
to share. I'll also be doingsome solo episodes and sharing
useful tips that willhopefully help you to get
motivated with your ownpersonal brand and the scary
visibility stuff. Because it'smore than just a beautiful
website and glossy photos forInstagram, you do actually
have to go and talk to people.So let's get started.
(01:10):
Hello everyone and welcome tothe Bravery Behind The Brand
podcast. Today I have with meChantelle Dyson, the clever
content creator and I am inthe presence of brilliance
because she has 100,000downloads in two years. So I
doubt this very much shedoesn't know about podcasts.
(01:31):
I'm really looking forward tothis one. Welcome Chantelle.
Hello, thank you for havingme. Thank you for joining me.
So before we get stuck in, doyou have a favourite
motivational song? I wasthinking about this and it's
just one and it's not going tomean anything to anyone else.
It's more to do with like Iwas like what song like just
(01:52):
gets me excited enough andgoing I always have playlists
every single year and italways starts out that there's
kind of like theme for theyear but this one I was like
this is where it goesinstantly and it's it's called
Ember by James Newman and weentered it as one of our
Eurovision songs I would sayabout four years ago I guess
because I am a Eurovision fan.Me too. Very upbeat. I think
we got Neil Poir for it. Idon't know why because it's
(02:14):
It's not that bad but I mean Ido know why because there's
politics involved but that onehas positive connotations with
my time in single life getmoving into this house myself
on my own and getting it andthere's something about it
that I can mentally almostplay like a reel in my head of
various things and that's onethat I used to like dance in
the morning to to keeppositive and stuff like that
(02:35):
so motivational positivewhatever it might be I think
that's one that's really stoodout. That's fantastic. I love
Eurovision and I don'tremember that one but I'm
going to look it up and add itto the playlist. Have you
noticed this past few years,the quality of Eurovision has
been fantastic. I love a bitof Eurovision. I paid what
(02:55):
could be deemed anextortionate amount of money
to go and watch a rehearsalwhen it was in Liverpool
because we were wrong the yearbefore of Sam Ryder winning.
So when it got in Liverpool,nothing was going to stop me.
I was at work scrolling andgetting on Ticketmaster and I
got a semi-final previewticket and it was VIP, that's
all they had left and I waslike, I'm going to have to
pay, but it was great to seeit in person too because my
(03:19):
background is theatre, soseeing all the stagecraft as
well, you don't realise thatwhen they're doing the little
videos you have to watch,They're doing all the
backstage stuff and gettingthe set ready and obviously
I've worked into it I shouldknow that that happens but I'd
never thought about that untilI saw it and then they've got
35 seconds or so maybe aminute to get everything
swapped over from one act tothe next it's an operation it
(03:42):
was great. Wow, I am totallyleaning in, really fascinated.
Oh, I love that story. That'sabsolutely amazing. And
Eurovision, obviously me beingIrish, I just loved it because
we won a few times and it wasjust so incredible because
growing up in Ireland with ourhistory and sometimes it was
(04:03):
difficult. It was difficult alot of times, but to win this
fantastic prize, it was justso amazing. I was just
addicted to it every year,every year, every year. My
husband always said, no, hedidn't like it and he wouldn't
watch it, but he watches itwith me now. I've managed to
convert it. But yeah, recentyears has been some absolutely
(04:25):
fantastic sort of stuff comingfrom it and long may it
continue, but thank you forthat and it's nearly
Eurovision season, isn't it? Imean, as far as I'm concerned,
it's been Eurovision seasonsince September. Actually, I
haven't put any bets on.Normally, I'll have a little
flutter on who I think isgoing to be popular. I'm very
good at predicting the fanfavourites, but I always get
(04:47):
done over by the judges beinga bit more, I don't know,
formal. And that ruins me.Well I have seen I've seen the
UK entry and they lookpromising. I haven't seen
Ireland's entry yet so I'mgonna have to do some research
after we've recorded but yeah.Oh, what a brilliant thing to
be looking forward to, that'samazing, thank you. No worry.
Do you have a motivationalquote? So my motivational
(05:10):
quote, I was thinking aboutthis as well and I was like oh
I can't really think of onethat isn't you know cliche and
It was more like if I lookthem up now like that's not
the same either because Idon't really have one but I
was at my boot camp the otherday and I can't remember what
move it was or what exercisewe were doing and he'd given
the instruction and I wasdoing it and then I was like
(05:31):
I'll try and he was like.Chantelle we don't try we do
and I apparently have takenthat because when I was doing
my park run then the Saturdayafter last week I was trying
to get back to my 30 minutemark and I've been around the
32 mostly for this year but Iwas having a good run it was
looking good and I was like ohI could just like ease off at
(05:52):
this point because it's a lotof work to get there but I was
like no Chantelle we don't trywe do. And I didn't quite make
it in 30, but I'd managed toshave off a minute from the
week before. So it just wassomething that I was like, I
like that because it's justaction. And then when we say
we're going to try something,you do kind of give yourself
this pass, this excuse not toreally go full front. Or it's
(06:12):
actually if you just did itand went for it, we've got to
do it. Come on, get on with itrather than, oh, I'll try. No,
get on, do. I'm a bit likethat, very direct. So I'm
throwing that one in the hat.That is amazing and I think if
it's anything that just givesyou that last push to finish
it and you don't want to bethe one that finishes just
before the finish line do you?You want to get up there and
(06:33):
do that no matter what it isand you know what I think all
these motivational quotes area little bit cheesy so I am
owning the cheese whatever itis that gets you past that
finish line closer to thatgoal I just think yeah just go
for it regardless. And Ithink, yeah, that one's come
up before actually and I lovethat. It's very simple and it
is one that will just pop upinto your head whenever you
(06:54):
need it. No, I absolutely lovethat one. Yeah, I'm gonna put
that on my list as well. So,on to you and your business.
Tell me about it and whatinspired it. Oh gosh I mean
it's it's an interesting oneand it all like brings
together all these differentpieces but I've got to go back
to 2019 to begin with which isthe point at which I was a
(07:15):
year married but then wentinto my divorce. I had got
married in 2018 and then ayear after I just had this It
was a realisation that I wasin a situation that wasn't
horrendous, wasn't bad by anydefault or any assumption. It
was just not really anything.It was like an indifference
that I describe it as and Ifelt like I'd done everything
you meant to do, that tickbox, do well at school, go to
(07:38):
uni and met that person at uniand we just built that up. But
the reality was, I didn'treally know who I was what I
was doing I had what I wouldcall a court life crisis
classic one and most peopledon't talk about that midlife
is much more popular but thecourt life one has research on
it and I read a lot about itat the time and it really is
this you either feel lockedout or locked into a situation
(08:00):
and mine was a very much alocked in I mean don't really
know what I'm doing here so Idecided to Basically cut ties
with that even though it was asignificant investment of time
and everything like that andobviously it was a big jump to
then make that decision but Ifelt I had to because I didn't
want to live 50 years lookingat some of the people that I
(08:22):
knew around and thinking oh Idon't want to end up like that
I need it to be more like thatand so I need to do this and
if I make an error then wellwe'll work that out but I
decided to do that move backhome and I was single for the
first time as an adult, movingback to live with my parents,
my mum and stepdad for thefirst time really as an adult,
I mean I'd gone back from unibut I moved out in uni so this
(08:45):
was back then and it kind ofprompted the whole thing, this
deep dive of what do I reallywant, so self-help was well at
the top, I read 6,000 books,listened to plenty of podcasts
and everything else and it wason that journey that I decided
to do the training that JayChetty does for life coaches
and not because I wanted to bea life coach at all. It was
(09:07):
more like I've read all thesebooks, going to therapy, but I
really want something likethat sort of formalises all
this work that I'm doingbecause it feels like a lot.
And also, It felt like CPDbecause I was a head of year
at school, so I'm good atmentoring, but the reality was
I wanted to empower kids tomake those choices rather than
fit the blueprint that I feltI had followed. I was like, I
(09:28):
need to come up with ways tobring it out of them as early
as possible and encourage themto think for themselves. So I
did that. But at the end ofit, they said, oh, what
business are you going to setup as a result of this? And
that was part of theassessment. And I was like, I
don't know, because thiswasn't the plan. And so out of
desperation, as it were, Imean, they give you a prompt
and they're like, oh, who wereyou two years ago? Who was the
(09:50):
you that you could help fromtwo years ago? That's one of
the easiest things to do. Andso I stumbled across Okay well
I can help people goingthrough divorces or becoming
single and I had this conflictbetween being a teacher at the
time and wanting to do that soI had to name it something
that couldn't identify meenough yet I was definitely
using my face to create thisbrand but it grew into
Chantelle The Coach. So 2021was when that launched and it
(10:14):
was all about it went throughvarious phases quarter life
crisis coach, single lifecoach, loving like loads of
things as you do when youfirst start a business. We
sometimes turn to dating andwanting to find a partnership
because we feel lonely and Ifelt that was the wrong
(10:35):
solution to loneliness and Idecided that it was connection
in three parts. Connection toyourself, connection to other
people and then connection tothe stuff you do and I started
to work on those kind of threeprinciples. I created a single
girls club for people to meetone another, built out some
coaching programs to supportpeople to be happy on their
(10:55):
own, and then get back to dateat the right time. All that
kind of ecosystem. And as partof that, built the Single
Girls Guide to Life podcast,which is the one that got to
100,000 downloads in twoyears. I just had to check
now, it's at 120,000 now. Soit ticks away, as I say, I
sporadically... I sort of domini seasons if you want to
call them that at the momentbecause I'd still love it but
(11:17):
I don't run it as a businessbut it was that all of that
that I decided to package upbecause I love social media
basically if I fell into thatI mean it makes sense I do
sometimes dance on camera backin the day I don't do that so
much anymore but it was verymuch a thing in 2022 and you
had to be pointing things andthere's nothing else to do in
2022 was there? I was stillout as a teacher. Teachers did
(11:41):
not get the benefit oflockdown beyond 2020. 2020
Easter, this time five yearsago, we were all lapping up
our four-week Easter holidayand then it all came crashing
down because it was onlinelessons and it was... Oh gosh,
we were trying to get yearnines ready to do their GCSE
options and we drove packsaround to every kid's house
(12:02):
that we couldn't send them toand stuff like that. It was
wild. So yeah, I shifted intothat because I'd fallen in
love with that part, themessaging part. And it brought
me back to my roots. My actualdegree is in theatre sound, I
used to work on the West End,on Billy Elliot, We Will Rock
You, things like that, puttingmicrophones in people's hair.
So I have a whole degree insound, I don't just jump into
(12:23):
podcasting for fun. I didn'tknow much about the strategic
part of podcasting until Imade my own, but it seemed
like The tech part I couldhelp people with because to me
that's simple and then thestrategy part I like getting
my teeth into that psychologyand thinking well what do
people really want andactually you can't just call
it that title because no one'sgoing to click on it if you
call it that we've got to comeup with we've got to become a
(12:43):
Daily Mail for 20 secondsbefore we come up with this
title so and it's not just anyold podcast it's got to be
podcasts predominantly thathave a real It's an impact on
social reason behind whatthey're doing in some way. So
as simple as what Chantelle,the coach, was doing was
addressing loneliness. Acouple of people that I work
(13:05):
with, they're addressing theissues with policing for
police and the experience ofworking in that system.
Others, it's about I'm findingthe power within and doing a
lot of self self-help work soI don't really work with life
coaches and therapists. I canhelp other people generally
but I prefer that B2Cpurposeful element as well to
really have that impact on theworld because I think long
(13:28):
conversation, thought leadersand I think people such as
life coaches are going tochange the way that people
think probably moreeffectively than school and I
don't say that Because there'sa lot of commentary around
school and education. I saythat as someone on the inside
and I don't think there'senough of that in schools that
we could bring in quite nicelybecause I do PSHE now rather
(13:50):
than maths. So there's lots ofalways thinking like what do
people think? How do we growthese ideas? So yeah, that's
the answer to where we got tothe business. Wow, that is so
fascinating. You have to hearit all else it doesn't make
sense but it's as condensed asabout as I can get it. Wow
(14:11):
that is incredible, anincredible story and I was
just thinking to myself, youacknowledged that you were
following the good girl modelAnd then, you know, you said
you were head girl, is thatwhat it was? And then you were
probably taking the steps thatyou thought everyone thought
you should do and then justdecided, hang on a minute, is
this really what I want? And Ilove that you just stopped and
(14:34):
looked around and thought,well, is this where I want to
be? Do I want to be like thatperson? Do I want to be like
that person? And to have thatself-awareness. You know,
obviously quite young tothink, well, no, actually, I
don't want this and look andthe journey that you took to
the self-awareness, the innerwork, doing all that, the
coaching and study andeverything around it, I just
(14:55):
think, wow, that's so amazing,plus with your background in
education and obviously withthe work that you did with the
theatre, how amazing is that?All those skills,
cumulatively, just bring youto this point in your life and
just think that it's as if itwas mapped, as if it was
destined to be, you know, andI don't usually sort of make
(15:17):
comments like that, but itjust all does seem to have
formed this jigsaw that hascreated you. And this this
brand today it's amazing. Yeahit does feel really nice and
it's it's interesting becauseI wouldn't have acknowledged
that I had the self-awarenesswhen I made the decision to
leave I felt theself-awareness was delivered
after I suppose through thework that I did and one of the
(15:38):
things I held on to in thatperiod was very much I cannot
get myself back into arelationship the same again.
So people like so quicklywere, were you dating again?
The divorce isn't even, wehaven't even applied for the
divorce yet because at thetime you couldn't do the no
fault divorce. So you had towait a couple of years if
you're going to go down thatroute. And it's so funny how
people try to push you backonto the path so quickly. So I
(16:00):
did have enough awareness togo, I'm not doing, I'm not
doing this again. I can't dothis again. This is painful. I
refuse to do this again. Andit is nice to kind of go
because Some people would godown that route of, well, you
were a life coach and nowyou're doing the thing to help
life coaches, which I totallyam, but at the same time, it
was always the skill set. I'vegot the creativity and the
(16:22):
fun. I mean, when I was amaths teacher, I was not, I
was not a bog standard mathsteacher. Come on, I literally
was in classroom, a key stagethree coordinator, and I
wanted well two major thingswas one I don't believe in
setting children into top andbottom set and anywhere in
between because there's loadsof research that shows us why
(16:42):
that's a terrible idea itdoesn't really advantage the
top that much disadvantagesthe bottom quite a lot and if
you put them in mix itactually does a lot more for
growth mindset and stuff likethat and I therefore as a
result of that. I wanted tooverhaul the way we did the
curriculum. We've got anational curriculum we have to
follow, but how you deliver itis how you want. So we shifted
to booklets and we had thesebooklets that put themed
(17:05):
topics together, but it wasunderpinned by one problem
that could be accessed if youstudied the whole booklet. So
we had something called I GotBills, because everyone always
comments, oh, we never teachthem about bills. I'm like,
well, no, we do, but neverreally super explicitly,
whereas this was all thepercentages, fractions and
stuff wrapped in... So we werealways being creative with
(17:35):
that, and then bringing thefact that I had the technical
experience of sound andactually know what's going on
with sound. Software that I'veused since I was 16, so
literally half my life, nearly32 this year and yeah it all
comes together and thenteaching it. I run it for some
people and I teach it toothers so the teaching element
comes in and it's like anikigai version of my own life
(17:58):
I suppose and it does feelvery tied in a bow at the end,
even though 32 are like what'sto come in the next 32 more
years because that's wherewe've got to now, we don't
want to peak too early. It'sfascinating and I agree with
you I detest the fact that welabel children basically from
the minute they enter theeducation system and I don't
(18:19):
like labels anyway butespecially with you know our
tiny precious children hereyou are this is the box that
you fit in and they kind ofown that identity for the rest
of their lives but that'sprobably another podcast so
with all of that in that youknow that Beautiful picture
with all its elements. What doyou think has been the most
(18:40):
challenging? Great question.I think the most challenging
is... I actually think thebusiness element is the most
challenging piece because AndI do struggle with this. I
haven't actually shared thiswith anyone, though. I don't
think anyone at all. It's notdo do X to get Y, which is
(19:05):
very mathematical. There areso many ways to do to get the
result of Y and X does notalways equal Y in order Z or,
you know, it's or X plus Zdoesn't equal Y and so it's
easy I found it very easy todo that kind of build up the
steps lifestyle the good goalsystem because it was easy to
(19:29):
know how to get there so youjust had to do this to do that
and you had to do that to dothat and business doesn't work
like that it's not okay. Andso you have to shift into a
different mindset and I likeevery now and then I go I'm
just gonna go back into a jobbecause it's easy being in a
job you're gonna get paid yougot that reliable system and
oh there's like especially inteaching right so then there's
(19:51):
pay tiers yes you do this toget that and you do this to
get that and I'd be like oh itwould be so easy to be on like
60k plus right now and justNot have to work but I totally
wouldn't want to be back in afull-time job. I come back to
that very quickly afterthinking do I want to go into
a job but yeah I think it justdoesn't always feel as easy.
(20:11):
Even if you have that in theback of your mind that that's
an option, it's a safety netthat's there, but you're never
going to use it because thereason that you're not there,
that never changes. I lovethat, that X doesn't always
equal Y. I think that's whatentrepreneurs have in common.
There's so many ways to dodifferent things. I don't want
(20:34):
to sound like a cliche, butnecessity is the mother of
invention. When you come upwith a new idea, you surprise
yourself with your creativityand you sit in a blank space
for a while. For example, whenyou shower in the morning, I
can't tell you the times Icome running out of the
shower, grabbed my pen andpaper and scribbled something
(20:55):
because you've had that blankspace time, you're not, you
know, you're not sat trying toforce the creativity and, you
know, it's allowing yourselfthat freedom and not everybody
does that or has the presenceof mind to do that, but we'll
have to come up for a word forthat, but it's, you know, I
think it's incredible whensomeone just has to write
something down that's in theirhead before they forget it. I
(21:16):
have this issue at 3am in themorning. I was awake really
early the other day and I waslike, I'm just gonna have to
get up because I can sit hereand try and get back to sleep.
But the reality is, is I'vegot for whatever crazy reason,
I've got the energy now at4am. So let's just get up and
do that. And if it means youhave to go to bed a bit early
or have a nap in the middle ofthe day, then so be it. But
(21:37):
the energy and for whateverreason your brain's going for
it, let's go, let's get thisdone and create this piece of
content or whatever it happensto be. And that is another
challenge, which is Having toomany ideas because X, Y and Z
all lead to Y, it doesn't meanyou have to do X, Y and Z.
There is that but I do I justlove that you know these ideas
(22:00):
people and yeah I always saythis my favourite question is
what if and I know I can feelit when it's coming to me I
Well, what if we did this orwhat if we tried that? But I
do, I love those people thatare always sort of coming out
with ideas, but yeah, thethree o'clock in the morning
scenario just isn't good ifit's happening persistently.
If you could give yourself onepiece of advice then, what
(22:23):
would it be? I thought aboutthis one as well and I really
like the concept of, and Idon't know if it fully works,
somebody just hitting theright year, but I think your
best approach, especially whenstarting in business, is to...
So we approach life or thatsection of life as university.
(22:46):
So everyone seems to thinkthat it's really easy to build
a business and that you'regoing to hit XYZ and do really
well in year one. Andtraditionally, let's look at
stats. That's not the case.Like you might break even if
you're lucky with all theexpenses you've got going out
and you might pay yourself abit or some, who knows what
you're doing. But if you cantreat it like the first three
years are uni and just giveyourself that grace of Well,
(23:10):
hang on. When I went touniversity at 18, I didn't
expect to get a job in thefirst three years. I had to
learn my craft, buildconnections, etc. And then
when I walked out of uni,maybe I walked into a graduate
job and then I moved up theranks. And I think just
having, even if you don't workto those exact years and
numbers, but understandingthat It doesn't necessarily
just all happen and for somepeople it definitely will have
(23:30):
done, but for the majority ittakes time, it takes
dedication, and you have gotto build it up over time. So
treat the first three yearslike you're still at uni
learning, what would youexpect of a second year, what
would you expect of a thirdyear, and hopefully by third
year you'd have worked a loadof stuff out because Marketing
in the first year is verydifferent to your marketing
(23:50):
and messaging in the thirdyear. And knowing, having that
clarity, having the feedback.There's just time isn't, you
can't account for it becauseof the conversations you've
had and how you've understoodyour business. We all start
out with an idea of what wethink we're going to be
pitching it around. And Ithink in the early years, it
changes so quickly and somuch. And you're developing,
(24:11):
especially if you're on yourown, I mean, there's
marketing, there's sales,there's legalities, there's
everything, client delivery,client success, payment
processes, all kinds of stuff.There's a lot to learn and to
take on and you can't do itall at once and expect it all
just to work. So, yeah, such areally good way of describing
(24:31):
it. Because when I think backto my own journey and what
I've seen my clients do, a lotof people beat themselves up
because they've not suddenlystarted making money and
that's because I think thepressure of social media,
you've got people on theresaying, oh, I made six million
in five minutes. No, youdidn't. You spent 10 years
building your craft, buildingyour audience, doing all your
(24:52):
stuff. And when I firststarted out, yeah, I had these
skills. I had a core set ofskills that I knew would help
me with my business, but Ididn't know what a funnel was.
I didn't know how to build asales page. You know, you just
want to go, here's my productand I'm really good, now buy
it please. And there's thepsychology of it and you've
(25:15):
got to do your lead magnet andyou've got to build your email
list and none of that comeseasy because you've got to
find your ideal client andthey've got to resonate with
you and all the things aroundthat, the way you've said it,
I just think you're absolutelyright. And if you are lucky
enough to suddenly startmaking money immediately, that
(25:35):
is absolutely fantastic. Butthere's no magic pill. There's
no magic formula. And even ifyou did, you'd probably burn
out really quickly. And what Isee in my line of work is It's
that you've got someone thathas this fantastic skill and
they say, oh, I'm going tostart a business, right? I'm
going to start a businessmaking widgets and then they
(25:57):
go, right? I've got mybusiness, I'm set up and then
they go, right? I need to goon social media, but I don't
want to put my face on there.I don't want to record myself.
I don't want to talk on stagesand they get paralyzed at
probably your equivalent ofyear one. And then that's
where they falter because theydon't want to have to put the
personality out there, they'reworried about being judged,
(26:18):
they're worrying about makingmistakes, they're worrying
about doing all the ums and asand they haven't thought past
that and that's usually whereI find people get stuck and
then that's when you need tostart looking at coaches and
not everyone realises that youneed to start Plug in those
gaps with additional educationbecause no one is born knowing
(26:38):
all this stuff so I love thatthat's a really interesting
way to put that so thank youfor that I'll be thinking
about that for a while sotalking about audiences then
how comfortable are you withyour audience and social media
are you happy to go do liveson social media do you do you
do talks do you go to placesto Yeah, pretty much. I mean,
(27:02):
I think having the podcast hassignificantly helped that
because when I first startedall of that kind of stuff,
being online, I rememberfeeling very nervous and I
always share this video whereI'm very softly spoken in how
I'm talking about what thecause of life crisis is, which
obviously is very different tohow I talk now. And I think we
all have to go through thatphase. It's important to have
(27:25):
to experience and yourself,keeping those podcast episodes
that were from the beginning,I thought I did edit them.
I've listened back. They'renot that well edited with the
younger ones. I'm like, what?You are and you actually know
how to edit Chantelle. So whathas gone on here? But it's
fine. And I think it's nice tohave that, you know, it's not
polished. It's not perfect. Soyeah, it took some time to
(27:47):
build those things up. And I'mputting a little bit, a little
bit more of an emphasis on,Shifting to doing more public
speaking, obviously being ateacher, so being in front of
a crowd, if you want to callthem that, isn't too scary in
that self. Sometimes it's morelike it's different because
when I'm teaching, it's veryworkshop-led, let's put it
(28:08):
that way, isn't it? And I'vegot PowerPoints and slides,
but it was maths predominantlyand even in PSHE it's prompted
by a big question and loads ofother people are contributing
to it. Whereas when you'respeaking on stage, that's And
with the intent of gettingleads is probably the thing
that you're trying to do, orat least build brand
likability, recognition, etc.You want it to be impactful.
You want it to be memorablebecause at any talking event,
(28:31):
there's multiple talks and youwant to use it to your
advantage, but also givepeople something to think
about and to... Have themgoing away remembering you for
a great reason whether theywork with you or not, but just
having that impact so that'ssomething that I'm very much
shifting into and you do haveto do that with a podcast but
you've got more chance toexperiment there whereas it's
a bit more high stakes whenyou're at a particular event
(28:54):
and you know you do learn akeynote over time but refining
that and getting it is thatkind of stage before you're
there. And you're never goingto master it, you know, your
first one and I think that,you know, that's okay, that's
got to be part of your journeybecause no matter what line of
business you're in, you'vealways got to be able to
(29:15):
evidence your journey and totell that authentic story and
say, well, when I started out,this was me, as you've just
illustrated. And the practiceand the doing of that thing
over time has got to get youto feeling more comfortable,
feeling more natural becausethat's where the authenticity
comes in and people are goingto be thinking well actually
(29:36):
she practiced what shepreaches, she's not afraid to
show her vulnerabilities, notafraid to admit the mistakes
because there's no human onthis planet that hasn't made
the mistakes and once youstart owning those and stop
trying to hide them, There'snowhere to go with that. No
one can wheel out an interviewthat you did 10 years ago and
(29:56):
go, look, you were terrible.You're going to well, yeah, I
was, wasn't it? Because we allstart from literally ground
zero. And yeah, you're right.I was just thinking to myself
then, which would be morefrightening, doing a keynote
at an event or talking to agroup of teenagers? They can
(30:21):
be harsh critics. They can beand so you know they don't
suffer fools very well theycan tell a disorganized
teacher compared to someonethat's freaking out about
what's going to happen becausethey're walking into a year 11
lesson and I do cover so I dowork particular days only one
now a week. But I walk intoclassrooms, it is the same
school, so that is anadvantage, but I walk into
(30:42):
classrooms not knowing whatthe lesson's going to be,
who's in there. It can be, wehaven't had someone turn up to
Alyssa, could you go in there?And I just walk in and we work
out who's in there veryquickly and there might not be
any work because they didn'trealise maybe someone's gone
off sick. Literally rightthere and then so you're like
okay guys what can we do orwhat can I just entertain you
with for 20 minutes so itkeeps you on the fly and you
(31:02):
have got to keep on top ofbecause I'm in that teenage
section so it's trickydepending on who's there. And
you've probably masteredthinking on your feet. No
matter what situation you'regoing into, you're obviously
going to think on your feet. Ithink that is the best skill
to have. So what is next foryour brand and where do you
(31:23):
see yourself in a few yearstime? Yeah. At the moment,
it's really in that phase ofworking out the, I suppose,
the progress through thefunnel. You mentioned funnels
earlier, I think. So I went inat the high ticket end to some
degree and it's kind of thenbridging the gap down to,
okay, well, you go and the...The theory behind that, I
don't know what everyone elsethinks or recommends, but that
(31:43):
high ticket and gets the moneyin quicker at the start.
Whereas if you build the lowticket first, you've got to
build the numbers at the sametime and that's quite hard. I
think I tried to do that withChantelle the coach and that
didn't always work. So thatwas in part why I shifted as
well. I got in such a rut withwhat to do. I was like, I just
need a blank slate for theclever content creator. So I
went in at high ticket andit's really working on what
(32:04):
else there is. So yes there'sa strategy session and then
we're working on a lot of minicourses like having these mini
offers and so it's almostcoming in at both ends because
the mini offers are definitelyone staging from a freebie
slash you found out about meversus top ends coming down
it's almost like the middlebridge isn't there it kind of
jumps from like 47 pounds forthe mini course start your
(32:24):
podcast to like a couple ofhundred for a more intense
course with live support andthen jumps up to a year long
but yeah it's that whole howdo you get create that product
suite so that's that but thereality of how I want to see
it going further is definitelyspeaking on stages is huge I
think I love talking liketalking to people. And it's
(32:47):
something that I really thinkI can ace. It's just a case of
getting there and doing it. Sothat's one thing. I toyed with
the concept of an agency andwhilst I do do editing, I
think my experience of doingit means I wouldn't want to
have teams where we're dealingwith loads and hundreds of
podcasts all the time. I thinkI've, by testing that I've
(33:08):
ruled that out. So there'salmost a bit of a question
mark over exactly what itlooks like, but having
definitely, it's very podcaststructured, it's very impact
based. One day would like torun my own event, but again,
don't want to try and walkbefore you can, no, run before
you can walk rather. Sothat's, I know how much an
event takes to put on being inthe theatre world. I've done
(33:29):
some events as part of thesingle girls club when that
was running. So I do, but nottill the right time, if you
know what I mean. It's such abig investment of time,
energy, thought, and then themoney and the insurance that
goes with it. So you've got tobe at, I think, a
particular... I don't have asize to really do that but
just that in-person connectionkind of sits with my values
(33:51):
the same as it did forChantelle the coach so there's
a vague plan there probablysome I would argue probably
should be clearer but I don'tthink so you wouldn't know
what you were doing if youcame straight out of uni
anyway so I'm going to applythe same thing. I'm nodding
because I'm agreeing witheverything you said. Your
product suite is going toevolve over time and that's
how it should be becauseyou've got to find the thing
(34:12):
that you love doing andthere's no point in just
coming up with a suite andsticking to it and doing that
for the rest of your lifebecause you're going to get
bored. And I'm nodding at theevent thing because I'm
itching to do an event. Butyou just said, I'm going, oh
the investment, oh theinsurance and I keep finding
all these reasons not to do itbut because of my personality,
(34:33):
I love in-person events, Ilove getting people together
and I love finding a commontheme and for me if I could
get people in a room to fixone element of the business
that's the kind of thing thatI love doing and it's probably
no coincidence at all that Ihave a podcast as well because
I'm doing the thing that Ilove which is connecting with
people but also it's that It'sa constant generation of ideas
(34:56):
and how can I expand thisbrand and what I want to do
with it and I think that'sprobably the most exciting
thing about having a businessbecause you've always got that
option to have the higherticket offers, do the lower
ticket offers and do whateveryou want because we're not
putting labels on ourselves wecan do whatever it is that we
want to do and you know youmight do an event at some
(35:19):
point maybe big might be smallbut you've always got the
choice And that's what I quitelike. But if it's giving you
butterflies and makes you feellike you should be doing it,
like I am at the moment, I'mquite time poor, but yeah,
these are the things that Ikind of bring on myself and
I'll end up doing, but yeah,it's nice that you've got all
(35:39):
those ideas and it just makesme laugh because it sounds so
similar to my brain at themoment. So what legacy would
you like to leave behind? It'sjust that it just needs to be
a better place than it wasbefore. I don't hold on to
anything. There are thingsthat sit close to my heart
(36:01):
that... I want to make suremessages are out there. So
things like making sure thatpeople that are single don't
feel like they have to be in arelationship. I think it's
core messages. There's lots ofexperiences I'm going through
now. I can't talk about themyet. One day I will. But it's
the idea that certain systemsand things need to change,
(36:22):
certain awareness needs to bebuilt about particular things
and that single element there.So I don't have a particular
legacy. It's more A couple ofthings that I'm passionate
about and care about and if Ican help other people do that
too with their podcasts I justthink that creates that global
ripple effect as it werebecause I can't be everywhere
(36:43):
and as I say there's certainthings I can't talk about
right now so I've got to letsomeone else do the job so if
I can find people andfacilitate them by going well
you've got a message andyou've got a podcast and I
think this could make a realdifference whether I help you
or not that's the kind oflegacy because It's not
looking great in some ways forthe world, so let's try and
make it great in others. No, Icouldn't agree more and it
(37:06):
kind of bothers me thatthere's this expectation that
it's odd if you're single, youknow, that it raises an
eyebrow and, you know, I'vegot two grown up girls, I
would hate for them to live ina world where people are
looking at them I'm strangelythinking, why are we not
allowed a choice? Again, itgoes back to what you were
(37:28):
saying about putting labels onpeople and putting them in
boxes and again, it's just mylittle way of shaking up the
world but I just always wantthem to have their own choice
and for that choice never tobe questioned. And for them
never have to justify theirchoices or explain themselves
in any way. So no, I shall bewatching you very, very
(37:51):
closely with your next moves.So speaking of which, where
can we find out more about youonline? And I put your links
in the show notes of thepodcast. Let's go for it,
shall we? We'll go with thesocials. Instagram is... At
TheCleverContentCreative it'sall got full stops in between
(38:12):
because the original accountgot blocked so that's fine and
then we've got Facebook lookup Chantelle Dyson and look
for the one in the blue topbecause you might accidentally
try and add my personalaccount which I don't add
people on and then LinkedInChantelle Dyson. Okay, that's
amazing. I will add those tothe show notes. Thank you so
much for joining me. It's beenabsolutely fascinating. I
(38:34):
could talk all day about thethings that we've talked
about, but it's just been sofascinating. And I'll probably
have you back at some point inthe future when you tell me
about all your updates. Butthank you so much for joining
me. It's been an absolutepleasure. No worries at all.
It's been fabulous to speak.So I'm looking forward to
coming back in the future andgiving you the updates. Thank
you. Thank you for listeningtoday and special thanks to my
(38:58):
fantastic guest ChantelleDyson for sharing her
fascinating story with us. Ifyou want to increase your
visibility as well as yoursales, With your personal
brand strategy, don't miss outon my free resources. You'll
find all the relevant links inthe podcast notes as well as
the links that Chantellementioned in the podcast and
if you liked the episodeplease leave a review and
share it with your friends.Join me on the next episode
for more incredible braverybehind the brand stories. You
(39:21):
can follow me on Instagram atcoachamandajane or visit my
website amandajane.co.uk. Byefor now.
Welcome to the Bravery BehindThe Brand podcast, the podcast
that dives deep into the heartof the stories behind the
brands we encounter on socialmedia every day. On the
surface, they make it look soeasy, but I guarantee there is
blood, sweat and tears behindall the reels, posts and
beautifully presentedproducts. I'm your host Amanda
Jane, a personal brand andvisibility strategist
(00:23):
originally from the north ofIreland and now calling
beautiful Cheshire, England myhome. I help purpose-driven
business owners getcomfortable being seen and
heard by building theirconfidence, clarity and
presence in front of thecamera, mic and the media so
they attract alignedopportunities that feel
exciting and achievable Allwhile seamlessly showing up as
the face of their brand. Iexperience first hand the
courage that's required tomove beyond our comfort zone
(00:46):
and these are theinspirational stories I want
to share. I'll also be doingsome solo episodes and sharing
useful tips that willhopefully help you to get
motivated with your ownpersonal brand and the scary
visibility stuff. Because it'smore than just a beautiful
website and glossy photos forInstagram, you do actually
have to go and talk to people.So let's get started.
(01:10):
Hello everyone and welcome tothe Bravery Behind The Brand
podcast. Today I have with meChantelle Dyson, the clever
content creator and I am inthe presence of brilliance
because she has 100,000downloads in two years. So I
doubt this very much shedoesn't know about podcasts.
(01:31):
I'm really looking forward tothis one. Welcome Chantelle.
Hello, thank you for havingme. Thank you for joining me.
So before we get stuck in, doyou have a favourite
motivational song? I wasthinking about this and it's
just one and it's not going tomean anything to anyone else.
It's more to do with like Iwas like what song like just
(01:52):
gets me excited enough andgoing I always have playlists
every single year and italways starts out that there's
kind of like theme for theyear but this one I was like
this is where it goesinstantly and it's it's called
Ember by James Newman and weentered it as one of our
Eurovision songs I would sayabout four years ago I guess
because I am a Eurovision fan.Me too. Very upbeat. I think
we got Neil Poir for it. Idon't know why because it's
(02:14):
It's not that bad but I mean Ido know why because there's
politics involved but that onehas positive connotations with
my time in single life getmoving into this house myself
on my own and getting it andthere's something about it
that I can mentally almostplay like a reel in my head of
various things and that's onethat I used to like dance in
the morning to to keeppositive and stuff like that
(02:35):
so motivational positivewhatever it might be I think
that's one that's really stoodout. That's fantastic. I love
Eurovision and I don'tremember that one but I'm
going to look it up and add itto the playlist. Have you
noticed this past few years,the quality of Eurovision has
been fantastic. I love a bitof Eurovision. I paid what
(02:55):
could be deemed anextortionate amount of money
to go and watch a rehearsalwhen it was in Liverpool
because we were wrong the yearbefore of Sam Ryder winning.
So when it got in Liverpool,nothing was going to stop me.
I was at work scrolling andgetting on Ticketmaster and I
got a semi-final previewticket and it was VIP, that's
all they had left and I waslike, I'm going to have to
pay, but it was great to seeit in person too because my
(03:19):
background is theatre, soseeing all the stagecraft as
well, you don't realise thatwhen they're doing the little
videos you have to watch,They're doing all the
backstage stuff and gettingthe set ready and obviously
I've worked into it I shouldknow that that happens but I'd
never thought about that untilI saw it and then they've got
35 seconds or so maybe aminute to get everything
swapped over from one act tothe next it's an operation it
(03:42):
was great. Wow, I am totallyleaning in, really fascinated.
Oh, I love that story. That'sabsolutely amazing. And
Eurovision, obviously me beingIrish, I just loved it because
we won a few times and it wasjust so incredible because
growing up in Ireland with ourhistory and sometimes it was
(04:03):
difficult. It was difficult alot of times, but to win this
fantastic prize, it was justso amazing. I was just
addicted to it every year,every year, every year. My
husband always said, no, hedidn't like it and he wouldn't
watch it, but he watches itwith me now. I've managed to
convert it. But yeah, recentyears has been some absolutely
(04:25):
fantastic sort of stuff comingfrom it and long may it
continue, but thank you forthat and it's nearly
Eurovision season, isn't it? Imean, as far as I'm concerned,
it's been Eurovision seasonsince September. Actually, I
haven't put any bets on.Normally, I'll have a little
flutter on who I think isgoing to be popular. I'm very
good at predicting the fanfavourites, but I always get
(04:47):
done over by the judges beinga bit more, I don't know,
formal. And that ruins me.Well I have seen I've seen the
UK entry and they lookpromising. I haven't seen
Ireland's entry yet so I'mgonna have to do some research
after we've recorded but yeah.Oh, what a brilliant thing to
be looking forward to, that'samazing, thank you. No worry.
Do you have a motivationalquote? So my motivational
(05:10):
quote, I was thinking aboutthis as well and I was like oh
I can't really think of onethat isn't you know cliche and
It was more like if I lookthem up now like that's not
the same either because Idon't really have one but I
was at my boot camp the otherday and I can't remember what
move it was or what exercisewe were doing and he'd given
the instruction and I wasdoing it and then I was like
(05:31):
I'll try and he was like.Chantelle we don't try we do
and I apparently have takenthat because when I was doing
my park run then the Saturdayafter last week I was trying
to get back to my 30 minutemark and I've been around the
32 mostly for this year but Iwas having a good run it was
looking good and I was like ohI could just like ease off at
(05:52):
this point because it's a lotof work to get there but I was
like no Chantelle we don't trywe do. And I didn't quite make
it in 30, but I'd managed toshave off a minute from the
week before. So it just wassomething that I was like, I
like that because it's justaction. And then when we say
we're going to try something,you do kind of give yourself
this pass, this excuse not toreally go full front. Or it's
(06:12):
actually if you just did itand went for it, we've got to
do it. Come on, get on with itrather than, oh, I'll try. No,
get on, do. I'm a bit likethat, very direct. So I'm
throwing that one in the hat.That is amazing and I think if
it's anything that just givesyou that last push to finish
it and you don't want to bethe one that finishes just
before the finish line do you?You want to get up there and
(06:33):
do that no matter what it isand you know what I think all
these motivational quotes area little bit cheesy so I am
owning the cheese whatever itis that gets you past that
finish line closer to thatgoal I just think yeah just go
for it regardless. And Ithink, yeah, that one's come
up before actually and I lovethat. It's very simple and it
is one that will just pop upinto your head whenever you
(06:54):
need it. No, I absolutely lovethat one. Yeah, I'm gonna put
that on my list as well. So,on to you and your business.
Tell me about it and whatinspired it. Oh gosh I mean
it's it's an interesting oneand it all like brings
together all these differentpieces but I've got to go back
to 2019 to begin with which isthe point at which I was a
(07:15):
year married but then wentinto my divorce. I had got
married in 2018 and then ayear after I just had this It
was a realisation that I wasin a situation that wasn't
horrendous, wasn't bad by anydefault or any assumption. It
was just not really anything.It was like an indifference
that I describe it as and Ifelt like I'd done everything
you meant to do, that tickbox, do well at school, go to
(07:38):
uni and met that person at uniand we just built that up. But
the reality was, I didn'treally know who I was what I
was doing I had what I wouldcall a court life crisis
classic one and most peopledon't talk about that midlife
is much more popular but thecourt life one has research on
it and I read a lot about itat the time and it really is
this you either feel lockedout or locked into a situation
(08:00):
and mine was a very much alocked in I mean don't really
know what I'm doing here so Idecided to Basically cut ties
with that even though it was asignificant investment of time
and everything like that andobviously it was a big jump to
then make that decision but Ifelt I had to because I didn't
want to live 50 years lookingat some of the people that I
(08:22):
knew around and thinking oh Idon't want to end up like that
I need it to be more like thatand so I need to do this and
if I make an error then wellwe'll work that out but I
decided to do that move backhome and I was single for the
first time as an adult, movingback to live with my parents,
my mum and stepdad for thefirst time really as an adult,
I mean I'd gone back from unibut I moved out in uni so this
(08:45):
was back then and it kind ofprompted the whole thing, this
deep dive of what do I reallywant, so self-help was well at
the top, I read 6,000 books,listened to plenty of podcasts
and everything else and it wason that journey that I decided
to do the training that JayChetty does for life coaches
and not because I wanted to bea life coach at all. It was
(09:07):
more like I've read all thesebooks, going to therapy, but I
really want something likethat sort of formalises all
this work that I'm doingbecause it feels like a lot.
And also, It felt like CPDbecause I was a head of year
at school, so I'm good atmentoring, but the reality was
I wanted to empower kids tomake those choices rather than
fit the blueprint that I feltI had followed. I was like, I
(09:28):
need to come up with ways tobring it out of them as early
as possible and encourage themto think for themselves. So I
did that. But at the end ofit, they said, oh, what
business are you going to setup as a result of this? And
that was part of theassessment. And I was like, I
don't know, because thiswasn't the plan. And so out of
desperation, as it were, Imean, they give you a prompt
and they're like, oh, who wereyou two years ago? Who was the
(09:50):
you that you could help fromtwo years ago? That's one of
the easiest things to do. Andso I stumbled across Okay well
I can help people goingthrough divorces or becoming
single and I had this conflictbetween being a teacher at the
time and wanting to do that soI had to name it something
that couldn't identify meenough yet I was definitely
using my face to create thisbrand but it grew into
Chantelle The Coach. So 2021was when that launched and it
(10:14):
was all about it went throughvarious phases quarter life
crisis coach, single lifecoach, loving like loads of
things as you do when youfirst start a business. We
sometimes turn to dating andwanting to find a partnership
because we feel lonely and Ifelt that was the wrong
(10:35):
solution to loneliness and Idecided that it was connection
in three parts. Connection toyourself, connection to other
people and then connection tothe stuff you do and I started
to work on those kind of threeprinciples. I created a single
girls club for people to meetone another, built out some
coaching programs to supportpeople to be happy on their
(10:55):
own, and then get back to dateat the right time. All that
kind of ecosystem. And as partof that, built the Single
Girls Guide to Life podcast,which is the one that got to
100,000 downloads in twoyears. I just had to check
now, it's at 120,000 now. Soit ticks away, as I say, I
sporadically... I sort of domini seasons if you want to
call them that at the momentbecause I'd still love it but
(11:17):
I don't run it as a businessbut it was that all of that
that I decided to package upbecause I love social media
basically if I fell into thatI mean it makes sense I do
sometimes dance on camera backin the day I don't do that so
much anymore but it was verymuch a thing in 2022 and you
had to be pointing things andthere's nothing else to do in
2022 was there? I was stillout as a teacher. Teachers did
(11:41):
not get the benefit oflockdown beyond 2020. 2020
Easter, this time five yearsago, we were all lapping up
our four-week Easter holidayand then it all came crashing
down because it was onlinelessons and it was... Oh gosh,
we were trying to get yearnines ready to do their GCSE
options and we drove packsaround to every kid's house
(12:02):
that we couldn't send them toand stuff like that. It was
wild. So yeah, I shifted intothat because I'd fallen in
love with that part, themessaging part. And it brought
me back to my roots. My actualdegree is in theatre sound, I
used to work on the West End,on Billy Elliot, We Will Rock
You, things like that, puttingmicrophones in people's hair.
So I have a whole degree insound, I don't just jump into
(12:23):
podcasting for fun. I didn'tknow much about the strategic
part of podcasting until Imade my own, but it seemed
like The tech part I couldhelp people with because to me
that's simple and then thestrategy part I like getting
my teeth into that psychologyand thinking well what do
people really want andactually you can't just call
it that title because no one'sgoing to click on it if you
call it that we've got to comeup with we've got to become a
(12:43):
Daily Mail for 20 secondsbefore we come up with this
title so and it's not just anyold podcast it's got to be
podcasts predominantly thathave a real It's an impact on
social reason behind whatthey're doing in some way. So
as simple as what Chantelle,the coach, was doing was
addressing loneliness. Acouple of people that I work
(13:05):
with, they're addressing theissues with policing for
police and the experience ofworking in that system.
Others, it's about I'm findingthe power within and doing a
lot of self self-help work soI don't really work with life
coaches and therapists. I canhelp other people generally
but I prefer that B2Cpurposeful element as well to
really have that impact on theworld because I think long
(13:28):
conversation, thought leadersand I think people such as
life coaches are going tochange the way that people
think probably moreeffectively than school and I
don't say that Because there'sa lot of commentary around
school and education. I saythat as someone on the inside
and I don't think there'senough of that in schools that
we could bring in quite nicelybecause I do PSHE now rather
(13:50):
than maths. So there's lots ofalways thinking like what do
people think? How do we growthese ideas? So yeah, that's
the answer to where we got tothe business. Wow, that is so
fascinating. You have to hearit all else it doesn't make
sense but it's as condensed asabout as I can get it. Wow
(14:11):
that is incredible, anincredible story and I was
just thinking to myself, youacknowledged that you were
following the good girl modelAnd then, you know, you said
you were head girl, is thatwhat it was? And then you were
probably taking the steps thatyou thought everyone thought
you should do and then justdecided, hang on a minute, is
this really what I want? And Ilove that you just stopped and
(14:34):
looked around and thought,well, is this where I want to
be? Do I want to be like thatperson? Do I want to be like
that person? And to have thatself-awareness. You know,
obviously quite young tothink, well, no, actually, I
don't want this and look andthe journey that you took to
the self-awareness, the innerwork, doing all that, the
coaching and study andeverything around it, I just
(14:55):
think, wow, that's so amazing,plus with your background in
education and obviously withthe work that you did with the
theatre, how amazing is that?All those skills,
cumulatively, just bring youto this point in your life and
just think that it's as if itwas mapped, as if it was
destined to be, you know, andI don't usually sort of make
(15:17):
comments like that, but itjust all does seem to have
formed this jigsaw that hascreated you. And this this
brand today it's amazing. Yeahit does feel really nice and
it's it's interesting becauseI wouldn't have acknowledged
that I had the self-awarenesswhen I made the decision to
leave I felt theself-awareness was delivered
after I suppose through thework that I did and one of the
(15:38):
things I held on to in thatperiod was very much I cannot
get myself back into arelationship the same again.
So people like so quicklywere, were you dating again?
The divorce isn't even, wehaven't even applied for the
divorce yet because at thetime you couldn't do the no
fault divorce. So you had towait a couple of years if
you're going to go down thatroute. And it's so funny how
people try to push you backonto the path so quickly. So I
(16:00):
did have enough awareness togo, I'm not doing, I'm not
doing this again. I can't dothis again. This is painful. I
refuse to do this again. Andit is nice to kind of go
because Some people would godown that route of, well, you
were a life coach and nowyou're doing the thing to help
life coaches, which I totallyam, but at the same time, it
was always the skill set. I'vegot the creativity and the
(16:22):
fun. I mean, when I was amaths teacher, I was not, I
was not a bog standard mathsteacher. Come on, I literally
was in classroom, a key stagethree coordinator, and I
wanted well two major thingswas one I don't believe in
setting children into top andbottom set and anywhere in
between because there's loadsof research that shows us why
(16:42):
that's a terrible idea itdoesn't really advantage the
top that much disadvantagesthe bottom quite a lot and if
you put them in mix itactually does a lot more for
growth mindset and stuff likethat and I therefore as a
result of that. I wanted tooverhaul the way we did the
curriculum. We've got anational curriculum we have to
follow, but how you deliver itis how you want. So we shifted
to booklets and we had thesebooklets that put themed
(17:05):
topics together, but it wasunderpinned by one problem
that could be accessed if youstudied the whole booklet. So
we had something called I GotBills, because everyone always
comments, oh, we never teachthem about bills. I'm like,
well, no, we do, but neverreally super explicitly,
whereas this was all thepercentages, fractions and
stuff wrapped in... So we werealways being creative with
(17:35):
that, and then bringing thefact that I had the technical
experience of sound andactually know what's going on
with sound. Software that I'veused since I was 16, so
literally half my life, nearly32 this year and yeah it all
comes together and thenteaching it. I run it for some
people and I teach it toothers so the teaching element
comes in and it's like anikigai version of my own life
(17:58):
I suppose and it does feelvery tied in a bow at the end,
even though 32 are like what'sto come in the next 32 more
years because that's wherewe've got to now, we don't
want to peak too early. It'sfascinating and I agree with
you I detest the fact that welabel children basically from
the minute they enter theeducation system and I don't
(18:19):
like labels anyway butespecially with you know our
tiny precious children hereyou are this is the box that
you fit in and they kind ofown that identity for the rest
of their lives but that'sprobably another podcast so
with all of that in that youknow that Beautiful picture
with all its elements. What doyou think has been the most
(18:40):
challenging? Great question.I think the most challenging
is... I actually think thebusiness element is the most
challenging piece because AndI do struggle with this. I
haven't actually shared thiswith anyone, though. I don't
think anyone at all. It's notdo do X to get Y, which is
(19:05):
very mathematical. There areso many ways to do to get the
result of Y and X does notalways equal Y in order Z or,
you know, it's or X plus Zdoesn't equal Y and so it's
easy I found it very easy todo that kind of build up the
steps lifestyle the good goalsystem because it was easy to
(19:29):
know how to get there so youjust had to do this to do that
and you had to do that to dothat and business doesn't work
like that it's not okay. Andso you have to shift into a
different mindset and I likeevery now and then I go I'm
just gonna go back into a jobbecause it's easy being in a
job you're gonna get paid yougot that reliable system and
oh there's like especially inteaching right so then there's
(19:51):
pay tiers yes you do this toget that and you do this to
get that and I'd be like oh itwould be so easy to be on like
60k plus right now and justNot have to work but I totally
wouldn't want to be back in afull-time job. I come back to
that very quickly afterthinking do I want to go into
a job but yeah I think it justdoesn't always feel as easy.
(20:11):
Even if you have that in theback of your mind that that's
an option, it's a safety netthat's there, but you're never
going to use it because thereason that you're not there,
that never changes. I lovethat, that X doesn't always
equal Y. I think that's whatentrepreneurs have in common.
There's so many ways to dodifferent things. I don't want
(20:34):
to sound like a cliche, butnecessity is the mother of
invention. When you come upwith a new idea, you surprise
yourself with your creativityand you sit in a blank space
for a while. For example, whenyou shower in the morning, I
can't tell you the times Icome running out of the
shower, grabbed my pen andpaper and scribbled something
(20:55):
because you've had that blankspace time, you're not, you
know, you're not sat trying toforce the creativity and, you
know, it's allowing yourselfthat freedom and not everybody
does that or has the presenceof mind to do that, but we'll
have to come up for a word forthat, but it's, you know, I
think it's incredible whensomeone just has to write
something down that's in theirhead before they forget it. I
(21:16):
have this issue at 3am in themorning. I was awake really
early the other day and I waslike, I'm just gonna have to
get up because I can sit hereand try and get back to sleep.
But the reality is, is I'vegot for whatever crazy reason,
I've got the energy now at4am. So let's just get up and
do that. And if it means youhave to go to bed a bit early
or have a nap in the middle ofthe day, then so be it. But
(21:37):
the energy and for whateverreason your brain's going for
it, let's go, let's get thisdone and create this piece of
content or whatever it happensto be. And that is another
challenge, which is Having toomany ideas because X, Y and Z
all lead to Y, it doesn't meanyou have to do X, Y and Z.
There is that but I do I justlove that you know these ideas
(22:00):
people and yeah I always saythis my favourite question is
what if and I know I can feelit when it's coming to me I
Well, what if we did this orwhat if we tried that? But I
do, I love those people thatare always sort of coming out
with ideas, but yeah, thethree o'clock in the morning
scenario just isn't good ifit's happening persistently.
If you could give yourself onepiece of advice then, what
(22:23):
would it be? I thought aboutthis one as well and I really
like the concept of, and Idon't know if it fully works,
somebody just hitting theright year, but I think your
best approach, especially whenstarting in business, is to...
So we approach life or thatsection of life as university.
(22:46):
So everyone seems to thinkthat it's really easy to build
a business and that you'regoing to hit XYZ and do really
well in year one. Andtraditionally, let's look at
stats. That's not the case.Like you might break even if
you're lucky with all theexpenses you've got going out
and you might pay yourself abit or some, who knows what
you're doing. But if you cantreat it like the first three
years are uni and just giveyourself that grace of Well,
(23:10):
hang on. When I went touniversity at 18, I didn't
expect to get a job in thefirst three years. I had to
learn my craft, buildconnections, etc. And then
when I walked out of uni,maybe I walked into a graduate
job and then I moved up theranks. And I think just
having, even if you don't workto those exact years and
numbers, but understandingthat It doesn't necessarily
just all happen and for somepeople it definitely will have
(23:30):
done, but for the majority ittakes time, it takes
dedication, and you have gotto build it up over time. So
treat the first three yearslike you're still at uni
learning, what would youexpect of a second year, what
would you expect of a thirdyear, and hopefully by third
year you'd have worked a loadof stuff out because Marketing
in the first year is verydifferent to your marketing
(23:50):
and messaging in the thirdyear. And knowing, having that
clarity, having the feedback.There's just time isn't, you
can't account for it becauseof the conversations you've
had and how you've understoodyour business. We all start
out with an idea of what wethink we're going to be
pitching it around. And Ithink in the early years, it
changes so quickly and somuch. And you're developing,
(24:11):
especially if you're on yourown, I mean, there's
marketing, there's sales,there's legalities, there's
everything, client delivery,client success, payment
processes, all kinds of stuff.There's a lot to learn and to
take on and you can't do itall at once and expect it all
just to work. So, yeah, such areally good way of describing
(24:31):
it. Because when I think backto my own journey and what
I've seen my clients do, a lotof people beat themselves up
because they've not suddenlystarted making money and
that's because I think thepressure of social media,
you've got people on theresaying, oh, I made six million
in five minutes. No, youdidn't. You spent 10 years
building your craft, buildingyour audience, doing all your
(24:52):
stuff. And when I firststarted out, yeah, I had these
skills. I had a core set ofskills that I knew would help
me with my business, but Ididn't know what a funnel was.
I didn't know how to build asales page. You know, you just
want to go, here's my productand I'm really good, now buy
it please. And there's thepsychology of it and you've
(25:15):
got to do your lead magnet andyou've got to build your email
list and none of that comeseasy because you've got to
find your ideal client andthey've got to resonate with
you and all the things aroundthat, the way you've said it,
I just think you're absolutelyright. And if you are lucky
enough to suddenly startmaking money immediately, that
(25:35):
is absolutely fantastic. Butthere's no magic pill. There's
no magic formula. And even ifyou did, you'd probably burn
out really quickly. And what Isee in my line of work is It's
that you've got someone thathas this fantastic skill and
they say, oh, I'm going tostart a business, right? I'm
going to start a businessmaking widgets and then they
(25:57):
go, right? I've got mybusiness, I'm set up and then
they go, right? I need to goon social media, but I don't
want to put my face on there.I don't want to record myself.
I don't want to talk on stagesand they get paralyzed at
probably your equivalent ofyear one. And then that's
where they falter because theydon't want to have to put the
personality out there, they'reworried about being judged,
(26:18):
they're worrying about makingmistakes, they're worrying
about doing all the ums and asand they haven't thought past
that and that's usually whereI find people get stuck and
then that's when you need tostart looking at coaches and
not everyone realises that youneed to start Plug in those
gaps with additional educationbecause no one is born knowing
(26:38):
all this stuff so I love thatthat's a really interesting
way to put that so thank youfor that I'll be thinking
about that for a while sotalking about audiences then
how comfortable are you withyour audience and social media
are you happy to go do liveson social media do you do you
do talks do you go to placesto Yeah, pretty much. I mean,
(27:02):
I think having the podcast hassignificantly helped that
because when I first startedall of that kind of stuff,
being online, I rememberfeeling very nervous and I
always share this video whereI'm very softly spoken in how
I'm talking about what thecause of life crisis is, which
obviously is very different tohow I talk now. And I think we
all have to go through thatphase. It's important to have
(27:25):
to experience and yourself,keeping those podcast episodes
that were from the beginning,I thought I did edit them.
I've listened back. They'renot that well edited with the
younger ones. I'm like, what?You are and you actually know
how to edit Chantelle. So whathas gone on here? But it's
fine. And I think it's nice tohave that, you know, it's not
polished. It's not perfect. Soyeah, it took some time to
(27:47):
build those things up. And I'mputting a little bit, a little
bit more of an emphasis on,Shifting to doing more public
speaking, obviously being ateacher, so being in front of
a crowd, if you want to callthem that, isn't too scary in
that self. Sometimes it's morelike it's different because
when I'm teaching, it's veryworkshop-led, let's put it
(28:08):
that way, isn't it? And I'vegot PowerPoints and slides,
but it was maths predominantlyand even in PSHE it's prompted
by a big question and loads ofother people are contributing
to it. Whereas when you'respeaking on stage, that's And
with the intent of gettingleads is probably the thing
that you're trying to do, orat least build brand
likability, recognition, etc.You want it to be impactful.
You want it to be memorablebecause at any talking event,
(28:31):
there's multiple talks and youwant to use it to your
advantage, but also givepeople something to think
about and to... Have themgoing away remembering you for
a great reason whether theywork with you or not, but just
having that impact so that'ssomething that I'm very much
shifting into and you do haveto do that with a podcast but
you've got more chance toexperiment there whereas it's
a bit more high stakes whenyou're at a particular event
(28:54):
and you know you do learn akeynote over time but refining
that and getting it is thatkind of stage before you're
there. And you're never goingto master it, you know, your
first one and I think that,you know, that's okay, that's
got to be part of your journeybecause no matter what line of
business you're in, you'vealways got to be able to
(29:15):
evidence your journey and totell that authentic story and
say, well, when I started out,this was me, as you've just
illustrated. And the practiceand the doing of that thing
over time has got to get youto feeling more comfortable,
feeling more natural becausethat's where the authenticity
comes in and people are goingto be thinking well actually
(29:36):
she practiced what shepreaches, she's not afraid to
show her vulnerabilities, notafraid to admit the mistakes
because there's no human onthis planet that hasn't made
the mistakes and once youstart owning those and stop
trying to hide them, There'snowhere to go with that. No
one can wheel out an interviewthat you did 10 years ago and
(29:56):
go, look, you were terrible.You're going to well, yeah, I
was, wasn't it? Because we allstart from literally ground
zero. And yeah, you're right.I was just thinking to myself
then, which would be morefrightening, doing a keynote
at an event or talking to agroup of teenagers? They can
(30:21):
be harsh critics. They can beand so you know they don't
suffer fools very well theycan tell a disorganized
teacher compared to someonethat's freaking out about
what's going to happen becausethey're walking into a year 11
lesson and I do cover so I dowork particular days only one
now a week. But I walk intoclassrooms, it is the same
school, so that is anadvantage, but I walk into
(30:42):
classrooms not knowing whatthe lesson's going to be,
who's in there. It can be, wehaven't had someone turn up to
Alyssa, could you go in there?And I just walk in and we work
out who's in there veryquickly and there might not be
any work because they didn'trealise maybe someone's gone
off sick. Literally rightthere and then so you're like
okay guys what can we do orwhat can I just entertain you
with for 20 minutes so itkeeps you on the fly and you
(31:02):
have got to keep on top ofbecause I'm in that teenage
section so it's trickydepending on who's there. And
you've probably masteredthinking on your feet. No
matter what situation you'regoing into, you're obviously
going to think on your feet. Ithink that is the best skill
to have. So what is next foryour brand and where do you
(31:23):
see yourself in a few yearstime? Yeah. At the moment,
it's really in that phase ofworking out the, I suppose,
the progress through thefunnel. You mentioned funnels
earlier, I think. So I went inat the high ticket end to some
degree and it's kind of thenbridging the gap down to,
okay, well, you go and the...The theory behind that, I
don't know what everyone elsethinks or recommends, but that
(31:43):
high ticket and gets the moneyin quicker at the start.
Whereas if you build the lowticket first, you've got to
build the numbers at the sametime and that's quite hard. I
think I tried to do that withChantelle the coach and that
didn't always work. So thatwas in part why I shifted as
well. I got in such a rut withwhat to do. I was like, I just
need a blank slate for theclever content creator. So I
went in at high ticket andit's really working on what
(32:04):
else there is. So yes there'sa strategy session and then
we're working on a lot of minicourses like having these mini
offers and so it's almostcoming in at both ends because
the mini offers are definitelyone staging from a freebie
slash you found out about meversus top ends coming down
it's almost like the middlebridge isn't there it kind of
jumps from like 47 pounds forthe mini course start your
(32:24):
podcast to like a couple ofhundred for a more intense
course with live support andthen jumps up to a year long
but yeah it's that whole howdo you get create that product
suite so that's that but thereality of how I want to see
it going further is definitelyspeaking on stages is huge I
think I love talking liketalking to people. And it's
(32:47):
something that I really thinkI can ace. It's just a case of
getting there and doing it. Sothat's one thing. I toyed with
the concept of an agency andwhilst I do do editing, I
think my experience of doingit means I wouldn't want to
have teams where we're dealingwith loads and hundreds of
podcasts all the time. I thinkI've, by testing that I've
(33:08):
ruled that out. So there'salmost a bit of a question
mark over exactly what itlooks like, but having
definitely, it's very podcaststructured, it's very impact
based. One day would like torun my own event, but again,
don't want to try and walkbefore you can, no, run before
you can walk rather. Sothat's, I know how much an
event takes to put on being inthe theatre world. I've done
(33:29):
some events as part of thesingle girls club when that
was running. So I do, but nottill the right time, if you
know what I mean. It's such abig investment of time,
energy, thought, and then themoney and the insurance that
goes with it. So you've got tobe at, I think, a
particular... I don't have asize to really do that but
just that in-person connectionkind of sits with my values
(33:51):
the same as it did forChantelle the coach so there's
a vague plan there probablysome I would argue probably
should be clearer but I don'tthink so you wouldn't know
what you were doing if youcame straight out of uni
anyway so I'm going to applythe same thing. I'm nodding
because I'm agreeing witheverything you said. Your
product suite is going toevolve over time and that's
how it should be becauseyou've got to find the thing
(34:12):
that you love doing andthere's no point in just
coming up with a suite andsticking to it and doing that
for the rest of your lifebecause you're going to get
bored. And I'm nodding at theevent thing because I'm
itching to do an event. Butyou just said, I'm going, oh
the investment, oh theinsurance and I keep finding
all these reasons not to do itbut because of my personality,
(34:33):
I love in-person events, Ilove getting people together
and I love finding a commontheme and for me if I could
get people in a room to fixone element of the business
that's the kind of thing thatI love doing and it's probably
no coincidence at all that Ihave a podcast as well because
I'm doing the thing that Ilove which is connecting with
people but also it's that It'sa constant generation of ideas
(34:56):
and how can I expand thisbrand and what I want to do
with it and I think that'sprobably the most exciting
thing about having a businessbecause you've always got that
option to have the higherticket offers, do the lower
ticket offers and do whateveryou want because we're not
putting labels on ourselves wecan do whatever it is that we
want to do and you know youmight do an event at some
(35:19):
point maybe big might be smallbut you've always got the
choice And that's what I quitelike. But if it's giving you
butterflies and makes you feellike you should be doing it,
like I am at the moment, I'mquite time poor, but yeah,
these are the things that Ikind of bring on myself and
I'll end up doing, but yeah,it's nice that you've got all
(35:39):
those ideas and it just makesme laugh because it sounds so
similar to my brain at themoment. So what legacy would
you like to leave behind? It'sjust that it just needs to be
a better place than it wasbefore. I don't hold on to
anything. There are thingsthat sit close to my heart
(36:01):
that... I want to make suremessages are out there. So
things like making sure thatpeople that are single don't
feel like they have to be in arelationship. I think it's
core messages. There's lots ofexperiences I'm going through
now. I can't talk about themyet. One day I will. But it's
the idea that certain systemsand things need to change,
(36:22):
certain awareness needs to bebuilt about particular things
and that single element there.So I don't have a particular
legacy. It's more A couple ofthings that I'm passionate
about and care about and if Ican help other people do that
too with their podcasts I justthink that creates that global
ripple effect as it werebecause I can't be everywhere
(36:43):
and as I say there's certainthings I can't talk about
right now so I've got to letsomeone else do the job so if
I can find people andfacilitate them by going well
you've got a message andyou've got a podcast and I
think this could make a realdifference whether I help you
or not that's the kind oflegacy because It's not
looking great in some ways forthe world, so let's try and
make it great in others. No, Icouldn't agree more and it
(37:06):
kind of bothers me thatthere's this expectation that
it's odd if you're single, youknow, that it raises an
eyebrow and, you know, I'vegot two grown up girls, I
would hate for them to live ina world where people are
looking at them I'm strangelythinking, why are we not
allowed a choice? Again, itgoes back to what you were
(37:28):
saying about putting labels onpeople and putting them in
boxes and again, it's just mylittle way of shaking up the
world but I just always wantthem to have their own choice
and for that choice never tobe questioned. And for them
never have to justify theirchoices or explain themselves
in any way. So no, I shall bewatching you very, very
(37:51):
closely with your next moves.So speaking of which, where
can we find out more about youonline? And I put your links
in the show notes of thepodcast. Let's go for it,
shall we? We'll go with thesocials. Instagram is... At
TheCleverContentCreative it'sall got full stops in between
(38:12):
because the original accountgot blocked so that's fine and
then we've got Facebook lookup Chantelle Dyson and look
for the one in the blue topbecause you might accidentally
try and add my personalaccount which I don't add
people on and then LinkedInChantelle Dyson. Okay, that's
amazing. I will add those tothe show notes. Thank you so
much for joining me. It's beenabsolutely fascinating. I
(38:34):
could talk all day about thethings that we've talked
about, but it's just been sofascinating. And I'll probably
have you back at some point inthe future when you tell me
about all your updates. Butthank you so much for joining
me. It's been an absolutepleasure. No worries at all.
It's been fabulous to speak.So I'm looking forward to
coming back in the future andgiving you the updates. Thank
you. Thank you for listeningtoday and special thanks to my
(38:58):
fantastic guest ChantelleDyson for sharing her
fascinating story with us. Ifyou want to increase your
visibility as well as yoursales, With your personal
brand strategy, don't miss outon my free resources. You'll
find all the relevant links inthe podcast notes as well as
the links that Chantellementioned in the podcast and
if you liked the episodeplease leave a review and
share it with your friends.Join me on the next episode
for more incredible braverybehind the brand stories. You
(39:21):
can follow me on Instagram atcoachamandajane or visit my
website amandajane.co.uk. Byefor now.
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