202: Balancing Entrepreneurship, Authentic Marketing, and Life: Insights with Dionne Anderson

Dionne: 0:00

So understanding basically where your people are is the first thing. Content creation is nice, but people are also missing the essential kind of elements of showing up with content.

Camille: 0:21

So you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business, sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO. Welcome back everyone to Call Me CEO. This is your host, camille Walker, and here on Call Me CEO, we celebrate women, especially mothers, who are doing some incredible things in building businesses in many different facets, in many different ways, and I have met a few incredible women through threads on Instagram recently.

Camille: 1:00

I don't know if many of you are familiar with it, yet. I either know people who have tried it and love it, or people who get on and they say I don't know if many of you are familiar with it, yet I either know people who have tried it and love it, or people who get on and they say I don't get it and they just stop doing it. But I have found some really incredible connections, and today's episode is with one of those. It is Dionne Anderson. She is the creator and founder of Dion Anderson Creative, and what I loved about her and her perspective on marketing is that she really focuses on human first marketing and really dialing in what content marketing is versus just creating content for the purpose of creating content.

Camille: 1:41

So I listen, marketing is one of those things that I feel you know I've been in this business for over 14 years now. It ebbs and flows and changes and you think you're on top of it and then it switches. It's short form, it's long form, it's hit and it's miss. But today we're going to dial in what is happening today and how can we apply this so that we really feel authentic and true with the content that we're creating, so that we avoid burnout and we really connect with the people we want to connect with. So, dionne, thank you so much for being on the show today. I already feel so connected to you. I just love your energy.

Dionne: 2:17

Thank you, you're very sweet. That's cute. Thank you, I'm like very happy to be here. We've had a good kind of like book already about, obviously, star signs. I'm big on understanding. You know a little bit more about who people are and how they operate. That's kind of why we're here and how we connected, so I'm excited to get into it.

Camille: 2:36

Yeah, now tell our audience who you are. What. Tell us a little bit about your background and maybe we just start there. Born and raised. Obviously you have a gorgeous accent. Anyone in America's gonna be like, yes, keep talking, camille, be quiet.

Dionne: 2:52

Tell us about your upbringing yeah, so I grew up in a small town in England, in the south of England, and I was there until I was 19, before I decided to kind of like abandon ship and go to university. Basically, I never wanted to go the kind of academic route. I was always quite creative, but we know that sometimes, like there are influences in our life, whether that be parents or family, that encourage us to take that path. It actually came down to a circumstance and at 19, after finishing fashion college and working for a fashion brand at the time that's what I did I headed to Manchester, which is in the north of England. It's where my maternal family are from.

Dionne: 3:41

We kind of relocated or my parents did, at least before I was born to the south because that's where my dad, um, was born and raised. But I ventured back basically to Manchester and I studied for three years um, social change, communication. So basically looking at um, how society communicates, like in its you know multitude of forms, whether that be the public sector, the private sector, messaging, responding to crisis, what is now like content creation, like rhetoric, media blogging was kind of just becoming a thing yeah, what year was this?

Camille: 4:15

like what? What year are we this?

Dionne: 4:17

was like 2000 and I was like 2009, I think. Okay, um, and what happened is I got the opportunity to do an internship, um, as part of that course and then revisit um and do a following kind of internship upon graduation from graduating, sorry, and um, it was for something called the business center for enterprise and it was a part of the university that was kind of outward facing, so it supported small businesses in that particular area of England to figure out what the strategy was that was underpinning what they did, their operations and how they could grow from a small business to whatever that looked like for them in, like you know, five years, 10 years. Obviously, a big aspect of that was marketing. Um, so I had the most amazing manager, um, I still am in touch with her to this day and she basically gave me just like full reign to run everything marketing that I wanted to do. Um, anything I would come to, she'd be like, yeah, go do it, come back, tell me how it works. Like, yep, go do it, come back, tell me how it works. Like yep, go do it. Just one of those people that completely breathed this environment for you to safely try and fail. You know what I mean without judgment.

Dionne: 5:34

I realised pretty quickly that I had a strength writing and kind of played with that in terms of self-employment when that internship ended. I'd made some real connections with some of the businesses that I'd worked with during that time and they offered me some work freelance. So I'd kind of come out of uni and I had all of this kind of excitement, this I don't know vitality for wanting to go after this opportunity, but I had absolutely no idea how to run a business, so things did not last very long the first time around, like I started to kind of complete these projects and realized there was nothing else in the pipeline. So kind of life continues.

Dionne: 6:15

I went back to the normal, like nine to five and you know time shifts, time changes. I met my partner, who we talked about before. I've been with for 10 years now, but I met him, um, and we just started to build a life together basically. So I'd always kind of like had this craving and missed that and blogged, like you know, a little bit, and written and journaled, but kind of left that where it was and it wasn't until, um, we kind of had our first child in 2018, after a very messy like two years renovating a house, um, and life just went a bit crazy and we ended up basically moving to Barcelona, which is a very kind of different story, but we've been here for five years and that was basically the catalyst for me to go back into business and build this beautiful, soft life that I have today yeah, okay.

Camille: 7:11

So one thing that you mentioned that I really appreciated about you and that you identified in yourself, is that you have a strength for pester power tell our audience what pester power is and how that helped you to grow your business and grow your life really well I mean it was from the perspective of childhood.

Dionne: 7:29

So a funny story, like my mum tells this to everybody. She was like Dion has always been somebody that buys into marketing, like I'm talking from being in a buggy. So she tells this story when I was like two or three. Um, we were walking through like a car park lot and she was like you know, talking to me, you know, do you like any of these cars? Dion, that's pretty. You know, that's a nice color. Which ones do you like? So I'm like pointing right, first car BMW, pointing she's like any more like any more.

Dionne: 7:58

She's like yeah, mercedes, any more like you're just like going through this range of like top end cars yeah, she's like okay, like like, how do you know this?

Dionne: 8:10

at like three, like I couldn't tell you what they were, but I've just always had this thing. And similarly at home, like whenever we needed something new, like a new appliance, a new whatever, like a microwave, a new oven, I was like, well, this is like the top of the range with this, this spec. And then I was that child and just retained this information from whatever I basically received from marketing, watching tv. I was of the tv like era and so, um, I've always been really interested in basically like how we put messages together and what makes them attractive to people, to basically move from kind of being aware but then prioritizing it as something we want to know more about because, that's effectively what happens in that process of becoming a follower to then converting to someone that's then a customer.

Camille: 9:02

Yeah, yeah, gosh, that's the golden ticket, right? I feel like there are so many directions and ways that people say is the best way to do this, whether it's the latest short video and now it's longer video, and use your email and make sure you're doing video and make sure you know? There's this laundry list. But let's imagine for a moment, with the way that you approach content creation versus content or creative marketing, what are those steps that someone should go through creatively? Or maybe the questions that they should ask so that they really identify who it is that they're talking to and creating a buyer's journey, if you will, or a follower to converting journey?

Dionne: 9:46

So the first thing is we're going to throw out should, because I feel like what needs to kind of like be asked is how we feel. Firstly, what we're showing up with in terms of our values, what resonates with us, what I see a lot in my day-to-day work as a copywriter, um, and a small business coach, is that people do things because somebody else did it, you know not, because it felt right to them. This, for me, is like the quickest way to reach burnout and the quickest way to reach dissatisfaction and the quickest way to think you're doing it wrong and thinking you're failing, like you have to really understand who you are before you can know who you serve. That's where I would start. So that's about that inner work, that questioning, um, but equally understanding that what we want to offer might not necessarily align with who we think it will, and that comes down to research. So a big part of what I do is actually speaking to people and asking whether that's my clients when they're going through that onboarding process, whether that's their customer base when I'm doing a project for them. You really need to understand what it is people are looking for, and that can't come if you're not having these conversations. So research underpins everything and I know that can be a little bit overwhelming for some people if they're not data people or they're not really sure how to go about that, or maybe even people that haven't yet started a business venture but want to because they're like okay, so what do I base it on? There are always people out there that are willing to support you in this, whether that's like doing kind of desk space research that we would call it, you know.

Dionne: 11:34

So just diving into um who you think your ideal client group is, like doing simple things, like looking at search, intent is a big one. You know when, when we type something into Google that either we're looking for or we think our ideal client might be looking for, what other people also ask questions, you know telling us, because it kind of shapes this understanding, this idea of what else the barriers are for that person to then maybe become, you know, a customer of yours. So, like when you type, you know, in google, below that falls, you know the people also ask and it gives you this range of questions, similar things, um, that kind of match, the original search. You know intention.

Dionne: 12:19

This is a really good place to start because you can start to kind of build a picture about where there might be gaps and if it aligns with what you're wanting to show up to offer um. This is a really simple way if you are currently you know not in operation but want to be um slightly different, of course, if you're already established testimonials, like asking questions. I feel like this should be built in at least once a year to just kind of touch base, check in with people that you've worked with. Like you know, utilise that connection that you have in a way that it doesn't feel forced.

Dionne: 12:51

It should be, I would say, like regular anyway. So you should have this room to maybe ask you know your people, how they feel You're like is this still what you want from me? You know how can I make this better, how can do this differently. We spoke about, didn't we, I think, before we started, how you've shifted also your strategy because it needed to suit you in the season you're in, and this is like what I advocate for everybody.

Dionne: 13:15

You need to know what season you're in, because that's going to shift and you know we grow, we change as people, and that's okay, but so do our customers and so do the people that are our ideal audience. You know we might start serving a particular group, which may be mothers, for example, or stay at home mums, and then we move to working mums or visit you know. So we have to understand where we need to differentiate and I just think, really diving into that, the research bit is the biggest, I guess, like aspect of making yourself successful and having a real strong start building the foundations that are built to last in your business yeah, that's a really good point.

Camille: 13:58

I think what I'm curious about, too, is I love when I google something. Another place that I'll ask questions into is Pinterest, because that's a big part of my blog, part of my business, where I'll see kind of where, as what people are searching for there, where the gaps and how. I mean I've watched entire courses that I purchased that help you just to rank with Pinterest. Like each algorithm has its own database, which is really fascinating. I'm curious if you have an SEO engine or keyword engine that you love to use for researching for purposes for long-form content.

Dionne: 14:35

Yeah, so the main two would be like RFs and key search, and I mean there's not real difference between them. It's just like looking at, I guess, variety and seeing if they come up with the same kind of things in terms of ranking difficulty, um, you know, and search volume. I would say something that is even like before that a simpler step is making sure that you've submitted or updating your site map and having kind of search console. A lot of people put all of this um effort into, like setting up their website. Like I'm going into business, I need a website. Like they build this website, whether they're at the stage where they're diing it or they're paying someone to do it, and sometimes you don't know the right questions to ask, especially if it's your first time you know, like at the radio.

Dionne: 15:22

So a web designer is different to a website developer, for example, and understanding the difference or that there might be need for both, or there might be a need for one that feels like their skill set covers both areas of not only front end but back end development of your website is important because a website designer, for example, might make this thing that looks beautiful, but if they've not set you up for search console so you can see, like, how you're showing up in the search results, and they've not submitted a site map for Google to come and like look at your website, make a decision about you, know who you are and where your best place um to show up in search results, then your efforts are kind of like falling flat before you've even got out the gate, and it's just little things like that that I really love.

Dionne: 16:05

Um sharing and empowering people to know and understand, because these are things that are actionable. Um, as a solopreneur, like everything feels task driven, everything feels like the list just gets longer, you know, but there are just real simple steps, things you can do like once a quarter, you know, once a quarter, once every month, depending on how you prioritize your marketing channels that can really support your efforts. Um, because what I hate more than anything is people that are just fighting the uphill battle every day because they're just missing like vital bits of information that can underpin that strategy and help them flourish.

Camille: 16:42

Yeah, that's a good point. Even as you're saying this, I know that my blog has good sites, you know, like ranking or authority. But my newer website, I'm thinking, thinking gosh, I don't know that I've done much on the back end, you know, to get people there and make sure that it's ranking well, so it's a good reminder for me too yeah, it's like, but it's the thing in, isn't it?

Dionne: 17:07

I think as well, you have to like prioritize when it's going to be. But this is why it's important as well to really like I don't know if you do this, but I do, like a I book myself in as a client once a, you know, once a quarter to really go through everything I'm doing and look outwardly and look inwardly and be like am I even going in the right direction? Like you know, we really fail to step outside of what's going on for us sometimes and have this 360 view of is this what I set out to make? Is it fulfilling me? More importantly, am I happy? Is there balance? I mean, probably not.

Dionne: 17:44

I think it's the eternal struggle to get the balance piece right. But yeah, at least having kind of more time than we would in another circumstance, for example, if we were back working for somebody or the whole point of solopreneurship or of business ownership right Is to build a schedule that works for us. It's not necessarily that we have to be just working two days a week and having like every Friday off. That might not work for everybody, but it's flexibility to make the decision, you know.

Camille: 18:12

Absolutely. I think that's why it's so important that even as a business coach, I invest in coaches. I feel like there are so many resources for you know, having an outside perspective and understanding. You can't be an expert at everything, so it's good to get you know that bird's eye view that a lot of times we're too close to see that we need someone else to take a look and say, oh this, you're missing some low-hanging fruit here that could really make your life easier absolutely, and I always say build for the business you want.

Dionne: 18:45

You know, I mean, like people at the beginning it's very, um, could be very kind of touch and go. We have to make a lot of decisions, don't we about? Am I investing in systems? Am I investing in services? You know, like, what's the priority here, and that could be a hard juggle and it could be a hard decision to make, but I try and encourage everybody that, um, that I work with to think about where they're going.

Dionne: 19:06

You know, like, what does the journey look like for you? Because it's a thousand percent easier to build when the foundations are strong than to like come back five years, ten years later and think, oh, why did I do this at the beginning? Why did I invest in that good like? I know so many horror stories of trying to like build infrastructure around something that's already kind of moving and like it might be that it's successful in a form, but like behind the scenes is an absolute mess, um. So I just I always encourage people to really kind of like weigh up. You know, see it as an investment in yourself if it's something that you people see you through for at least like the first five years and then you can kind of be like you know.

Dionne: 19:48

You can always look at things as well, like quarterly or yearly, and be like you know. That was a bit too much.

Camille: 19:55

I don't need that level of you know support or whatever it is, and and change and adapt yeah, it reminds me of a quote I love from Oprah that someone asked her and said you've interviewed so many people.

Camille: 20:08

What is the difference about the people who reach their goals and the people who don't reach their goals or who obtain the level of success that they're looking for?

Camille: 20:16

And she said for sure, it's the people who understand what the goal is and where they want to end up, because if you don't have a direction or what that end point is, an understanding of that creation of life or that creation of the business that you're going for, then you're probably not going to get it, and so I love that she points that out, that it's really defining what it is that you want and where you're heading, and so which is a good reminder for all of us, I feel like quarterly is the best way to do that, to just reevaluate where you are in the season of your life and how you want to push that forward. That's actually it's funny that we're talking about this, because my sister and I are starting a group coaching program for women in business in August and it's all based around seasons and quarterly check-ins with the balance of your life in business and and your life, so it's so necessary, isn't it like?

Dionne: 21:10

and I think what happens as well is everybody can probably tell you they've got a goal and they might even be able to tell you what it is. But if you ask them to like pinpoint 10 steps in that process to get from where they are now to get, they're like maybe they can give you two or three like. It's one thing to have an idea about what you want to achieve but, like you say, you really need to break down. How are you going to get there? How are you doing the action daily to like move the needle in the direction of your dreams?

Camille: 21:39

yes, how do you like to break down steps in the goals that you make or that you help others make?

Dionne: 21:47

so I'm a big accountability girl excuse me sorry um, yeah, big on accountability. So I have a coach um as well and I have, um an accountability group separate to that. So with other women in business that I meet with on a Tuesday, um, and we all have like we can see each other's notion board. We have to put our goals for like the month and the quarter and the you know the year, and then the big goals, like the 10-year kind of vision. That really helps me, actually, because everybody's got like a style right of how they show up for themselves, like mine is. I like to know that other people have seen me do something like because I know they're going to ask me. I hate having that thing of like, oh, they're going to ask me and I've not done it, you know. So, yeah, setting myself a goal, like knowing I'll revisit that conversation in a week and I can also then reflect on like this didn't work.

Dionne: 22:41

This did work it. I didn't achieve it because I'm like that's okay or I know actually there could have been things I've done better and I would have ticked that off. So, uh, that works for me really well. Um, having strategy days, as I mentioned, like this last week I had one with a friend that's also in the copywriting space and we spent the day going through everything like comparing our offers, comparing our pricing, comparing our like proposal for the next quarter. You know just everything.

Dionne: 23:09

Having somebody I think that's in your field, in your sphere that understands the questions that you have daily as a business owner, is like super crucial. I have obviously my partner at home and he's great, but he's also employed and I feel like that also presents a little bit of a difference sometimes, because the way I work and the way he works are very obviously different. He has a job description and a responsibility list to do and I'm like doing 10 jobs at once on any given day. Um, and you know, there's no like personal development budget for us as solopreneurs, as business owners. There's nobody, there's no HR, there's no, like you know, training plan. We are in charge of, of everything and how we flourish and grow in our business yeah, yeah.

Camille: 23:57

I would love to hear about your definition of content creation versus content or, sorry, versus creative marketing.

Dionne: 24:06

What are the differences in those and where are people getting tripped up in the confusion so what I am experiencing a lot is speaking to business owners at the start of, like, a working relationship and I often ask them what are you doing to? You know, market your business like? What's your strategy, what your marketing channels? And I guarantee, like nine times out of ten, someone's like I've got an Instagram, I've got a Instagram, I've got a TikTok. I'm like okay, like, what kind of research did you do before you set one up like is that where your ideal like audience group up? I don't know like, I just thought everybody else has one and I'm like okay. So this, for me, is the biggest kind of like pitfall and, I guess, sticking point. We need to understand that content creation and content marketing, creative marketing, are different things, and also the fact that these platforms are in their original form and the iterations we're seeing now with, like, recent announcements about subscription models and really prioritising the content of people that are paying. These platforms are and were established to support people that are content creators. That's the job, that's the industry. So, as a business owner, we're arriving to these platforms trying to attract people we want to work with and we are becoming frustrated, we're becoming fatigued, we're becoming just like at the end of our like frustration with how to make this all work. How do we make this marketing thing work? Um and that comes from research again I hate to bring back to, but like understanding if your ideal audience are there to begin with, um, and if not, how else can you find them?

Dionne: 25:58

For example, my biggest kind of pull and attraction of new clients is things such as in-person networking. I'm really charismatic, as you know, so like yes, for me to kind of get out um and speak to people attracts a lot of people to me energetically. Like you know, people want to know more about what I do. They see my passion. So, for example, social media isn't my primary platform, like networking is, or going to like business events is because people get to see me. And this is what I'm all about is teaching other people to show up as who they really are as well, and if you can be that kind of authentic immediately, you're magnetizing people that want to work with you because they see the truth you know and what you're doing and what you're showing up to to help them with. So understanding basically where your people are is the first thing.

Dionne: 26:50

Uh, content creation is nice, but people are also missing the essential kind of elements, um, of showing up with content. You're spending, like you know, an hour, two hours, three hours making shiny reels and stitching things together, making the carousels and like all that, but it's like call to action, the hook to attract people and actually confidently showing up to sell. How you're solving a problem are things that I see like daily are missing. People, I have to say, particularly women, struggle with showing up to sell. They struggle with showing up to say this is what I offer, this is how I can help and, more importantly, this is my price. You know, and there's this thing as well of like trying to hit everybody as a target market. It means that you get nobody you know what I?

Dionne: 27:42

mean, yeah, so it's really like being clear on your pillars if you're showing up to kind of make content, being clear on who it is you're trying to reach with that, making sure that you know, like, what you're sharing about how that process is transformative if they're going to buy into what you're offering works. And also, like people need to be led to what action to take next. You know you spend time doing the captions and then it's like okay, so what's the? You know, what's the pull, what's the buy in? Here we need to be like directing people, you know, is it like call me, book with me? Like you know, comment and a lot of the time as well, we're doing things like maybe just asking, asking for comments, which is great and we get interaction, for example, and we get good engagement rates on the post. But is that the best call to action? To finish on, you know what I mean Is that going to generate more conversation, for someone to come into your DMs and ask for more information about what you're doing? So this is one aspect and then I think we also touched on as well, starting with long form content and working backwards.

Dionne: 28:51

When I say long form, I'm talking email or I'm talking blog posts because the other thing is time. Right, we're all time strapped and yes, we are, it's, it's, it's like it's twofold. So for me, if, if you are, if you have a mailing list or you're starting to build one um, and even if you don't, but you're generating content for your website, it becomes legacy, you know. I mean it's something that can be used and reused and repurposed, something that is a thousand words. Let's think about like a thousand word blog post.

Dionne: 29:22

I would guess you can make 20 to 30 bits of like social media content from that and it's making your job like twice as easy. You know what I mean. And half the time, by investing in something that you do well once and serves you for I don't know, like months, you know a month of content, um, and it's about that. You know people in the camp of you know blogging is dead. Seo is dead, it's, you know. But when you think about the practicality of the time you have as a business owner and the fact that, unless you are a marketing business owner, you didn't show up to market, we're looking at ways to make things easier for ourselves in the day-to-day and this is one of them. You know, using long-form content and working backwards if you then want to show up online in social media spaces once you're sure that that's where your ideal people are.

Camille: 30:20

Yeah, I love that. I think I'm curious to hear when you create long form content, how do you like to piece it out. Do you use any AI tools for that, to say, take this long piece that I wrote and create social media from it, or do you just I mean, you're a copywriter, so probably not.

Dionne: 30:41

So AI is a funny one, right? Yeah, because it's here and it's here to stay. There's no doubt about that. What I would say is like I think I played around with it like last year, when everyone was like panic. You know, there was like panic stations, especially people in the marketing field. They were like do you have a job?

Camille: 31:01

yeah, are we still here?

Dionne: 31:02

yeah, yeah, and I think what happens is for the season I'm currently in in my business. People that are ready to invest in a copywriter already know the value, and people that aren't might be depending on AI, and that's not necessarily a problem until we get kind of like new announcements from Google, for example, who are going to be massively trashing, basically, websites that have a certain degree of AI generated content.

Camille: 31:37

Yes, oh, this is a huge topic in my blog community right now. You would not believe the drama that is going on over in that area, which I still have my toes in. So I see it and it is.

Dionne: 31:50

It is serious where a lot of websites are getting yeah, they're getting like downgraded like getting completely like brutal, but also of like human touch. Human first is always going to win yeah like AI can be a supportive tool. I do not disagree. There are, for example, there are like AI you can put in. This is what I have to do this week, like how can I optimize my time?

Camille: 32:18

and see what it's like. You know, I love that, yes, and I've helped business creators do like operation, operating procedures and also even or even like outlines. But I think you're right when it goes to the long form of like really coming from your heart and what it is that you're trying to. It goes to the long form of like really coming from your heart and what it is that you're trying to communicate. Ai isn't going to deliver, it's not going to cut it, I don't care how much you prompt it to like, rewrite, reframe every like.

Dionne: 32:44

I don't see the infusion of brand, I don't see the infusion of personality, I don't see the infusion of human connection, of understanding, of knowing and also like how do we verify that it hasn't turned this same thing out to like someone that I just I'm for me I've got too many questions.

Dionne: 33:03

I feel like, like you said in the ideation stage, maybe it's valuable, like you can use it, for example, if you have a day where, for example, I'm in my autumn right now, so next week it'll be my winter. I don't know if you do like menstrual cycling, like.

Camille: 33:15

I'm familiar with it, I don't practice it okay.

Dionne: 33:19

So like this week is kind of high emotion, brain fog kind of week, okay before the arrival of, like my winter. So some days, for example this morning, I woke up and I was like you know, like which of these things to tackle first? I've got things in my diary but my body is telling me I'm not ready to to do any of them. So then I could, for example, like look at my to-do list and ask you know, chat, gbt, like you know how to prioritize this best with gaps, like you know, with gaps that serve me. So I feel like I'm not. You can ask it anything. I feel like test it, try it, of course, but for me, for what I do, the way I work, is all about human connection. So I will always prioritize getting to know the person on the other side of the screen, the phone, or the person in front of me. You know, before turning to AI.

Camille: 34:14

I love that really. I'm right there with you with networking events. That's when I really connected with people the most especially in terms of getting coaching clients and just people feeling the energy of who you really are, I feel like some people are better than others at really saying who they are and that that's really the real person.

Camille: 34:35

And again, being in this space for many, many years, there are some people who present online one way and then you meet them in person and you're like oh, who are you, you know, like it could feel really disingenuous or different, and that is something that I think we all would hope that someone would not say. We would want someone to meet us online and in person and say she is who she is everywhere, like that's what we really want. And has there been a practice or a mantra or a way that you've really helped others to stay authentic and in themselves so that they can present human first and really connected and grounded in who they are?

Dionne: 35:18

oh, that's a good question, camille. Um, I mean, so I'm slightly woo woo, depending on that's okay, we have woo here.

Dionne: 35:28

Yeah, go ahead so, for example, depending sometimes I do like a one card draw of, like my guidance, oracle cards or tarot, for if I'm meeting a client and they're like open to that kind of thing, just to kind of get a sense, maybe we always have a talk about just them, what's going on for them in their life right now, because I think what we also miss as well is just having like this feeling of colleagues or a team or a team. So often when people come to me they've not really had any space made for them, you know, to just be like.

Camille: 36:01

This is what's going on for me right now.

Dionne: 36:02

This is what's causing me stress and this is what.

Dionne: 36:04

So I just try and create this like opportunity for them to feel safe enough to share, because that then leads to everything else, like they might, might present, for example, saying I need this email flow written for me, I need this website written for me, but I want to know why now, like why you're showing up for yourself now, and normally we notice a shift. You know there's something that they can share with me that has brought them to this point, whether that's they're overwhelmed because the business is doing whatever xyz, or they're in a new iteration of the business and they know that what they had doesn't reflect them anymore. You know, and that's about who they are as people, because I work in, you know, with independent solo business owners and brands. That's about who they are and we show up, like you said, online as a version of ourselves, and when you're doing that on your own day to day, it can be quite lonely. You've not always got the space to share with anybody about what else is going on. You know, because you don't show that stuff on social.

Dionne: 37:04

You have the bts hashtag, but you're not really showing the real, real you know, yeah, no yeah, so that for me, like I I always say I miss my calling as a therapist because I get into it, I get. I get voice notes, like when I have um catalyst calls, which is like a free call that I offer to people when they're just kind of stuck with what they're going on, like what's going on for them at the moment in that season, like no pressure, um, it's just an opportunity for them to kind of have a sound on board. Because what tends to happen is when you're given the room and the grace to just bounce ideas, you kind of come up with your own solution, but it's just having that room to talk it out.

Camille: 37:42

Yes, I believe in this so much.

Dionne: 37:43

Yes, so this is something I practice a lot and like I get voice notes, like on the weekly, like I'm still reeling and thinking about this conversation. You know, because like people just thanking me and saying this space you've made for me, like just the impact it's had, and for me this is like it brings me pure joy to know that I've just been able to support someone to feel soft and in their daily life of trying to kind of be so, to get a man's world.

Dionne: 38:10

You know, because this is what business looks like really doesn't it that's the model we've been given, and it doesn't always fit.

Camille: 38:17

Yeah, and that's what I love about talking with women on the weekly is that that's being redefined and that we can operate differently and we can talk about our cycle and how we're going to show up, and that it can be done super effectively. You know that it doesn't have to look one certain way. Well, this has been absolutely fantastic. There are three, well, two questions that I ask everyone that comes through that I would love to ask with you before we end but what are you reading, watching or listening to? And then also a motherhood moment that you want to share okay, these are good, these are good questions anyone think you did this for a?

Camille: 39:00

living like um, okay, so you said reading, watching or listening to yes, you can name one of each or just one, it's up to you um.

Dionne: 39:10

So my mission this year was to read a book a month. Um, I'm falling down on that a little bit, but um, I read a book by um. Elizabeth Gilbert, you know, like the writer of Eat Pray Love, but this one is called um. I forget the name Big Magic, I think yep yeah, have you read? Have you read this?

Camille: 39:35

I'm familiar with that. I have not read that one yet, you like so.

Dionne: 39:39

I liked it. Um, I'm very much a like, a non-fiction lover, like what can I take and apply today? You know, like yeah when I finish this book, what can I go and do in my own you know life and that book was that for me this year, talking about like the death of creativity when we're trying to always basically make money from it yes like not just having a creative pursuit to fill us with joy? Yes for the sense of being creative.

Dionne: 40:11

Yes, yeah, and that has prompted me to kind of start two passion projects this year. Um, one is a in-person event in Barcelona for business owners, um, that basically want to slow down, and it's called slow social for humans ready to rest. So we've been doing like monthly events for people to kind of come together and dream together about what this idea, like you said, of of a rich, soft life looks like while building a business. And the other is, uh, hosting a black women's circle, which was something I've wanted to do for a long time and I've just not had the time to do. But you know shifts and changes. My boys are getting bigger. Now there's a little bit more room, uh, in the evenings to kind of fit these things in. So that was a great read. Um, watching this is like nothing comes to mind. There was a series called um baby reindeer and I don't know like it was on netflix, but I know every country kind of has a different viewing.

Camille: 41:10

I actually saw that as a suggestion and then I remember I started watching and I'm like this is weird, what?

Dionne: 41:15

is it? Yeah, I don't know, I didn't watch it. Yeah, have to really brace yourself like I was tense for the whole is it like a?

Camille: 41:24

thriller action. Like what is it?

Dionne: 41:27

I, I don't it's like a, it's a modern day horror story excuse me.

Camille: 41:34

Is there anything okay?

Dionne: 41:35

it's not really. It's basically one man's um a man's story or memoir of being stalked oh, and it's based on a real story in the UK and it will lead you probably to never want to visit the UK. So I don't know if I should tell you to watch it. Like the, the layers of this thing are intense, but we watched it in the night. It was that gripping, but yet that like I can't believe this is like someone's real story. It was just crazy Intriguing.

Dionne: 42:10

So, yeah, that was a watch Baby Reindeer and listen, I mean I started, uh, doing. We have an app also over here called couch to 5k and I have a really good friend that turns 40 in December and she's like I would really love to run 5k or 10k for my birth. Like this is my goal. Do you want to kind of like come with me and go on the runs? At least I am not a runner, I'm just not really a sporty type full stop, but I love my friends, I love supporting their goals. Like I've been doing this since, uh, I think February.

Dionne: 42:43

So I've been going like every other day for a run and I have just on Spotify like my chill out playlist and it really gets me through. Like everything I loved as a teenager growing up is what I've been listening to. So no one's specific, um, but the type of music that I'm in, it's like a, an artist called Leanna Havas. Um, I like Maverick Sabre, like just kind of a little bit alternative I would say Florence and the Machine, that kind of thing. Okay, so just kind of building my playlist makes me happy and having those kind of songs to get me through my run. And what was the second part of the question a motherhood- moment.

Camille: 43:18

So anything with your kids that has happened recently, or something, it could be funny, it could be serious, it could be touching, whatever comes to mind annoying.

Dionne: 43:29

There are like a thousand things like that happen a day, um, trying to think of something, so a motherhood moment. I have really good ones, like every day, so it could be. For example, we spoke a little bit about my son this like this week early this week on Monday, um. So I had a friend staying with me this week. She didn't have kids, she's been uh, nomading, like digital nomad traveling, for 15 months. She came to just kind of get a base for a week and like gather herself and her bearings. So I'm always like when I have friends with no kids visit, I have to give the warning, like do you know?

Dionne: 44:06

what you're letting yourself in for like this.

Dionne: 44:08

This is not a quiet yes to be here, you're gonna get woken up with someone probably smacking a drum in your face like, yes, but she came and she loved it. And on the first day it was like a long school day for my son. He had swimming on a Monday. So he came home and he was really um upset, like he came straight over to me and he just said, mum, like I just need a hug. I like I need a hug from my mum, I'm so tired. I'd like it just was like I just need, I just need mum.

Dionne: 44:36

I was in tears, like with my friend. She looked at me. She was like is this normal kids? Like how is he so emotionally, like attuned with what's going on for him? And I was just really proud in that moment that he is able to do that. He so eloquently like articulates himself and what's going on for him as a five-year-old boy. Um, and I know that you know it's not always the case that days are easy. You know, like running around and after 10 times, get your coat, it's gonna be late to school. Like get your this, have you done your teeth?

Camille: 45:07

and um, but that's, it's beautiful to have those moments and I hold them dearly yeah, well, my goodness, it's been so wonderful getting to know you better and talking about connecting as humans and slowing down and really finding that soft balance that we're looking for. Please tell our audience where they can find you. And then also, you had mentioned that we have a special discount for your DIY website, course.

Dionne: 45:38

Yes, so we've talked a little bit, haven't we, about like website and showing up and online. I'm big on if you haven't already realized supporting people to like live their authentic life when they're building a business, and that looks different for everybody.

Dionne: 45:54

So, website wonderful DIY is for business owners that are maybe not yet ready to invest but are willing to give writing their own website copy a go, and it's a 17 lesson course multimedia so you have some videos, you have some content to read and you have templates to support you to write um the copy you need for the five cornerstone pages of your website and there is a discount code for listeners um to get that course. Um, it retails at 379. So I think, um, it's kind of like a good investment, um for people that are maybe willing to revise their copy and kind of have the confidence to do so, or at the start of their journey trying to write copy for their website for the first time, because I go from the foundations of what writing is about in terms of copy and what it should be right through to basically optimizing the copy at the end so that you can show up online in the best possible way.

Camille: 46:56

Awesome, yeah, and that code is CEO1010. We'll put in the link in below. And then to connect with you online, what's the best way to find you?

Dionne: 47:03

um. You can find me on threads at dionandersoncreative, um or on linkedin is also an option and um. Otherwise you can um drop me an email, like I have a mailing list as well, which I think we'll put in the notes and I drop into people's inbox on a Sunday with anecdotes about building a business and actionable steps you can take right now.

Camille: 47:29

That's wonderful. We'll make sure to put that in the link below and thank you so much for being on the show.

Dionne: 47:34

It's been a pleasure, thank you.

Camille: 47:36

Hey CEOs, Thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment and a five-star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram at callmeCEOPodcast, and remember you are the boss.