A conversation with Danielle Hughes, Chief Personality Officer of More Than Words Marketing. Danielle is a sought after speaker and workshop facilitator, sharing her knowledge around how bringing more of you into your messaging creates deeper customer, co-worker and client connections.
As the Chief Personality Officer of More Than Words Marketing, Danielle Hughes helps individuals and institutions to develop their Genuine Personality Brands. This allows her clients to own and embody their message, feel comfortable expressing it, and convey what makes them different from their competition so they can attract the right audience and repel the wrong one.
Danielle shared that she grew up in a very middle-class household; her father was a dry cleaner, and her mom was a dental hygienist. She started working at the age of 12, and had summer jobs throughout college, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Advertising Design and Graphic Communications.
After graduating, she realized that she was a better writer than a designer. Writing came very naturally to her. She spent the first years of her career learning the ins and outs of business-to-business marketing copy, and then a decade or so at different television networks in ad sales marketing, creating the marketing materials for the sales people to sell programming to advertisers.
After her son was born, Danielle spent ten years working part time at a non-profit, helping them with their content, while freelancing on the side. She was able to grow their social media, reshape their newsletter, and be a keynote speaker at their gala, but her professional growth was limited and the money was never there. Eventually Danielle decided to step out of her comfort zone, and pivot from being a freelancer to being an entrepreneur full time.
"When I talk now in my business, it's all about bringing enough of yourself to the forefront so that you are finding people that value you for who you are and what you bring to the table, as opposed to filling a role that wasn't even written for you because it's written for anybody who has a bunch of skills. And the skills are the easy part. The fit is the hard part." - Danielle Hughes
Key takeaways:
- Recognize when you’re staying in a position that is preventing you from doing what you truly want to do, but you’re using it as a crutch. Danielle had enjoyed what turned into a 10 year part-time working as a writer for a non-profit organization. but at the end of her time there she realized that the amount she was dedicating to them was holding her back from other opportunities and, frankly, from actually exploring what it was she really wanted to do.
- If you run your own business, consider defining a particular niche. Danielle was particularly resistant to the concept of niching; she wanted to be able to work on website copy one day, and a blog the next. It was when she realized that she had become an order taker and wasn’t proactive in her own business that she recognized she needed to figure it out.
- Know that your unique personality is what helps you build connections with potential clients. Be yourself! On the advice of her coach, Danielle began to put more and more of her sassy and irreverent personality into her writing. And that became her niche, helping business owners put their personality into their content to connect better with their audience.
About the guest:
As the Chief Personality Officer of More Than Words Marketing, Danielle Hughes helps individuals and institutions to develop their Genuine Personality Brand. This allows them to own and embody their message, feel comfortable expressing it and convey what makes them different from the competition so they can attract the right audience and repel the wrong one. Danielle isn't a magician but she can hone your brand message, engage your audience and deadlift you or your employees, but not at the same time. That’s just irresponsible. (note: Danielle is available for office party tricks and accepts payment in bottles of Bordeaux.)
Linkedin:- https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellehughes/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniellezhughes
Website :- https://www.morethanwordscopy.com/
Free resource: Personality Brand Bio Checklist
Email: danielle@morethanwordscopy.com
Danielle Hughes
When I talk now in my business, it's all about bringing enough of yourself to the forefront so that you are finding people that value you for who you are and what you bring to the table, as opposed to filling a role that wasn't even written for you because it's written for anybody who has a bunch of skills. And the skills are the easy part. The fit is the hard part.
Narrator
Welcome to making change with your money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves. Now here's your host, Certified Financial Planner, Laura Rotter.
Laura Rotter
I am so excited to have as my guest today, Danielle Hughes.
Danielle is the Chief Personality Officer of More Than Words Marketing, and she helps individuals, perhaps like you, and institutions to develop their genuine personality brand, which allows you to own and embody your message. Feel comfortable expressing it and convey what makes you different from your competition so you can attract the right audience and repel the wrong one.
So welcome Danielle to the Making Change With Your Money podcast.
Danielle Hughes
Thank you so much, Laura. I'm so excited to be here.
Laura Rotter
I'm going to start with same question I always start with, which is what was money like in your family growing up?
Danielle Hughes
You know, it's so funny. I grew up in a very middle class household. I think my parents were both like. Quote unquote blue collar. So my dad was a dry cleaner. My mom was a dental hygienist, but we had money. I would never have said like we were wealthy, but money never felt like it was a big issue, which was nice. I think my dad always had lots of cash in his pocket from just, I guess, working in that kind of industry and was also responsible for emptying out the soda machines back then.
So he would have, like, pounds of quarters and change. So we would go out to breakfast and he would, like, stack quarters on the table.
But we went out to eat a lot. We took family vacations. My parents took vacations. My mom put herself through college when I was a young child and we had babysitters. So I don't know. It felt like money was never the source of contention. I mean, it wasn't like we got whatever we wanted, although there were we knew that we could go to my dad for things probably more than my mom.
She was definitely the coupon bargain shopper. But it was never like, oh, we can't Have that because we can't afford it. It was more like, you don't need expensive jeans or, you know, we're not going to spend on that. Butover the years , my parents cars got nicer.
So yeah, it's interesting because I look back on it now. And I had a savings account and my brother did we had the actual savings book and I remember like my mom was always writing the checkbook and they were always balancing the checkbooks. I have never been able to balance.
Laura Rotter
My husband says that's why he married me because
Danielle Hughes
You can balance a checkbook. Yeah, so it's it's funny because I think back and I wasn't scarred in any way by it, but I also feel like it may have partially been a detriment because it wasn't like a big conversation. And so there wasn't a lot of talk about savings investing. Like I just knew like we had savings accounts and whatnot and checking accounts, but I didn't really learn about money until much, much, much later in my life.
Laura Rotter
Thanks for sharing that Danielle. I think that's true for a lot of people. I mean, money is not often discussed in families. It's communicated in other ways, which you've talked about the coupon clipping, the, you don't need the fancy jeans, you know, so few of us really are surrounded by discussions. Did you have summer jobs and just, you know, like, what was the culture in your house?
Danielle Hughes
Yeah, I always worked. I've been working since I was like 12. So I was babysitting when I was, I mean, I was babysitting like an infant at 12 years old. There's no universe in which I would let a 12 year old take care of my child. It's so crazy to me now. To be fair, I think it was across the street. So there was a safety Distance of like , God forbid something happens.
I was close to home, I could get someone, and obviously there were cell phones, but yes, so I worked at like the local stationary store across the street from my house. My dad managed the dry cleaners, so a lot of times we would go work there and work at the store and I worked at Footlocker for a couple years in high school.
Full on had to wear the referee uniform, super sexy, polyester.
And then I had summer jobs all throughout college. I worked at Jones beach at the concession stand for years with my friends and I worked through school. I had work study program. so I worked almost all four years, I think of school in different jobs, working for the magazine. I worked at the student convenience store. I worked at the bookstore. So I was always earning money in some way.
Laura Rotter
And was that money yours to play with or it was expected to help fund actual needs of yours?
Danielle Hughes
I mean, I think when the summer jobs and stuff was just mine, I think, like for anything that I wanted, like if I wanted CDs or clothes that my parents wouldn't get for me or like posters or, you know, concerts and things like that.
I assume the work study was part of my arrangement for college. So I would assume that maybe that money went for books and things, but to be honest, I don't remember. And then I'm sure some of that I used for, you know, my entertainment expenses in school. So it's very funny because now I have a son and he doesn't see anything here and it all goes into the savings for him or somewhere that he has zero access to it.
Because I just, yeah. Don't think he needs it. So I have been siphoning away all his money. He has some money to play with, but for the most part, we just pay for everything. And I am like, you're going to thank me one day when you have a nest egg and you come out of school with all of the savings and you don't have to start at zero.
Laura Rotter
Very interesting. How old's your son?
Danielle Hughes
He's almost 18.
Laura Rotter
Oh, so Danielle, were you a directed person when you went to college? Did you have a concept of what you wanted to be when you grew up?
Danielle Hughes
I mean, I thought I did. I went to school for advertising design. I thought I was going to be an art director. So I had to submit a portfolio and put together and I graduated from the art school.
So I got a bachelor in fine arts and advertising and graphic communications, but I realized during my program that I was a better writer than I was a designer. So I think I can conceive of design and I have a very design, I'm very visual, but I can't actually execute. Like I just suck at the actual designing of design.
Laura Rotter
Well, tell me about your skills that had you imagine that you were going into design and then what shifted?
Danielle Hughes
Sure. I mean, I loved art. And I used to be a talented artist. It's just not not enough. Right. So I think that there's like, I love it and I'm good enough to maybe go to school for something like this.
But, during school was when everything went digital. And so all of the sort of Photoshop and quark express and illustrator and all these programs started to come out and maybe it was just that I could do drawing if it was much more manual and I was in that vein, but the minute I had to use a computer to draw for some reason, it was very challenging for me.
And I think it was more because understanding the technology of the software. I knew what I wanted things to look like. I just couldn't get them there and it was hard and frustrating. And it would take me 10 times as long as it should to do simple things and somehow because my program wasn't paired with writers.
So we had to write our own copy and design our own ads. And I realized I was much more excited to always come up with the tagline or the headline, than I was to think about what it would look like.
Laura Rotter
Ah, interesting. And were you still creating visual art on your own for fun, or studying it took all the fun away?
Danielle Hughes
Um, I mean, I played around in school with, what we all had to do, Like, illustration, and we had to do painting classes. I took photography for fun, and I loved photography. Like in the dark room, black and white with, really figuring out, you know, aperture and all of that more technical stuff for the camera.
so I think that was my very creative escape That I just really enjoyed for fun. But I didn't know that I enjoyed drawing and painting. I wouldn't just go and draw and paint like I'm not one of these people. I wasn't a huge doodler, but I also always really enjoyed writing. Like I was just, it just came really naturally to me.
I was always able to write papers and write stories. And I think I could just make things up and get really creative with words. So it was there. I just didn't know that it was there.
Laura Rotter
Just tell our listeners. What was your path after you graduated from college?
Danielle Hughes
So it was perfectly linear. No, I'm just kidding. It was not.
Laura Rotter
Yes, you're human. What about me?
Danielle Hughes
Nobody was, right? Um, so I graduated, couldn't get a job. It was a really rough year for the job market. I ended up...
Laura Rotter
What year was that?
Danielle Hughes
Not this one. 1994. The time it was one of the toughest job market years that we'd had. I ended up working where I had interned, which was at an ad agency, but in like a corporate communications department, which is not what I wanted to do.
And I was sending out resumes and I was taking my portfolio everywhere, all over the city. And I just couldn't get anything. And it took me off and on several years between, like, stints here, stints there, receptionist, I worked at a commercial production studio in Hoboken for a couple of years, I waitressed for a while, and then I finally, got reconnected with an old high school friend very accidentally. At a place that I was temping for a week and she hooked me up with someone she knew at ABC daytime and they were looking for someone to work for the director of marketing and the director of on air promotions and I took the job because I wanted to work in on air promotions. I was like, oh, I'll get to create the graphics and all the things that introduce all the different shows.
But, of course, my marketing boss is the 1 that ended up giving me more work and kind of took me under her wing and I started writing sale sheets and media kits and program descriptions and learning the ins and outs of business to business copy. And then I spent the next 10/12 years in television at different television networks in what's called ad sales marketing. So creating all the marketing materials for the sales people to go out and sell programming to advertisers.
Laura Rotter
Which is a great skill set to have.
Danielle Hughes
It is a great skill set to have. It was really fun at the time. You know, I worked at Oxygen when it was launching, so I helped launch Oxygen, which was exciting.
I worked at Discovery Channel when it was still privately held and not a corporation, and that was also really fun. We traveled around every year for the upfront road shows to different cities. This was like back in the days. It's like expense accounts and we ate well, we drank well, we stayed in, you know, five star hotels.
So it was, it was a lot of work, but it was also really fun. But always on the side, because I felt like I was selling out, I was writing blog posts. I was doing like movie reviews for websites. I was always trying to do a creative writing. I wrote a couple of screenplays. So I always felt like I neededthat creative outlet and it took me a very long time to just admit that this was something that I actually was good at and enjoyed and that I didn't need to qualify by saying, Oh, this is my sellout job, but I'm really still a creative writer.
And I don't know when that happened, that like click, I don't know if maybe I just got burned out. It could be when I gave birth and I was just like, I don't have time for this. But, uh, at some point I just had to reconcile and say, you know what? I'm a pretty good writer in the professional world. I don't need to do creative quote unquote, creative writing on the side that this is a form of creative writing.
Laura Rotter
I'm so glad you finally came to that, Danielle, because there is this sense of like having like this chip on your shoulder or this sadness that you were selling out and I feel like it, you know, didn't take, it took me quite a long time. I didn't have that feeling when I was enjoying Wall Street, the expense accounts and the nice hotels and the travel and the good parts of the job. And I hope you did enable yourself to enjoy it and to realize that again, this is an amazing skillset that you built for yourself. And of course, when you don't have kids at home, you can enjoy the travel and the sexy parts of the job.
Danielle Hughes
You know, now that I have my own business, it's very, of course, I can fully embrace and say that, like, this is my choosing. And this is what I choose to write about. But I think when you are working for companies, you're getting told what to write about. So it feels I have lots of issues are in control. So it feels like you're not in control of what you're producing. so that's where the shilling or selling out is like, of course, I don't want to be writing about cars or diapers or whatever.
That's not why I do this. But I think at some point you're like, but I can do it well. And how do I say that this is still something that is valuable? And I did spend 10 years part time at a nonprofit helping on their content side. So that helped because I felt like I was doing good in the world and I was writing content that mattered.
And, you know, we could argue that both things matter, but I think it's just about where do you want to focus your energy and like what lights you up the most in terms of what you're creating.
Laura Rotter
So was the transition to the nonprofit did that take place after your son was born and you had a sense of burnout?
Danielle Hughes
I decided to go freelance, which meant I was fired from, like, my last corporate job. And I said, this was sort of also, like, the genesis of everything that I talk about now, which is. If you know who you are, and you know the environment that you want to be in, and you know what you bring to the table, you will hopefully find the right fit.
But if you don't know who you are, or you're holding that back, you're going to end up in a job where you had no business going and they had no business hiring you. And that's what happened is I took a job. Where they positioned it one way, I heard it another, and it was a really poor fit. And, you know, getting fired was like, thank God. I was like the greatest thing that happened to me. I hated it. I was miserable. It was just not, not good for me, but also very scary. And so when I went freelance as a copywriter, one of my friends was working at this nonprofit and she's like, we need someone part time. She's like, I don't think the money's there for you. She's like, but it might be worth an interview. And I ended up making a lot out of that job and turning it into a 10 year part time job while I was freelancing and, you know, the money was never there, but I got to do a lot. I got to grow their social media from nothing. I got to reshape their newsletter. I got to speak in front of 1500 people at their gala. And like initiate their first contest and I got to feel good about a lot of the work that I was doing. Um, and it was around women and diversity and inclusion. And this was 10, 15 years ago before anyone was really talking about any of this. So it feels like that really helped me in kind of where I'm going now and the narrative of the country and everything.
Laura Rotter
I love, Dania, how you mentioned. You know, having a company position a job and you hearing it differently because you wanted to, I did have an experience. I don't even know how long I worked for them. I think it might have only been 3 months, but I interviewed with a hedge fund that was starting up and it was. I spoke to someone, it was one of those, you know, pick me up in a, in a private car and,and someone who knew the guy who was starting the fund said, he's a workaholic. You do not want to work for him. But, I wanted the job. So I heard what I wanted to hear. I had three young children at home and the first night I didn't leave the office till 10 pm. And the set like he would call meetings for 6 o'clock at night, 7 o'clock at night. But I was someone who had left positions frequently. I said, this will look terrible on my resume if I leave anyway. Thank God after three months I was called. It just was not the right fit, but I so understand what you talk about when you convince yourself somehow it will be different for you.
Danielle Hughes
Exactly. I'm like, it's, it's, the money is great. The title is great. They're telling me they want me to come in and shake things. I'm going to do that. They did not want me to come in and shake things up. So or maybe they did, but not in the way that I did it. Or so there's a lot that yes. And, you know, when I talk now in my business, it's all about. Bringing enough of yourself to the forefront so that you are finding people that value you for who you are and what you bring to the table as opposed to you're just filling a role that wasn't even written for you because it's written for anybody who has a bunch of skills. And the skills are the easy part. The fit is the hard part.
Laura Rotter
And I do think a big part of that is learning to listen to the wisdom of our own bodies, to listen to our own wisdom, which is a frightening thing for many of us to do if we can even hear it. So, Danielle, what what was the catalyst for you leaving the nonprofit and just having your own business?
Danielle Hughes
I mean, great organization, but the catalyst was a couple of things. I had, you know, been freelancing for a few years while doing this. And I felt like I couldn't go any further in the nonprofit. They wanted me to come in full time, but they couldn't pay me what I wanted. It wasn't going to be the right fit. And I felt like the amount of time I was dedicating to them was holding me back from other opportunities. And so I had decided to pivot from being a freelancer to having a business. And I hired a creative coach and I told her my goal by the end of the year is to not work there anymore and it was scary because it was guaranteed money.
I got some benefits from it but it also became a little bit of a crutch and I knew that it was a crutch and that it was preventing me from other things because I had this time commitment. I couldn't be as flexible with my schedule. I couldn't be flexible with hours and it wasn't going to pay enough of the bills for me to keep doing that, but it also just was hampering me getting more clear on the work that I wanted to be doing moving forward. And it didn't really align with the work that they were doing. So, ironically, they ended up, it was like, I think we wound down my official part time role in the summer and they were going to keep me on contract because they were going to hire a full time writer, which was great and exactly what they needed.
They ended up finding someone sooner than they thought. So I did a couple little projects with them. And then by like, November, December of that year, it just kind of naturally went its way.
Laura Rotter
And what year was that early 2000s?
Danielle Hughes
Oh, no, no, no. This was like 2018.
Laura Rotter
Oh, wow.
Danielle Hughes
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, only like five years ago. So maybe 27, 2017, 2018. One of those.
Laura Rotter
Relatively recently.
Danielle Hughes
Relatively recently. Yeah. Cause I've only had my business since 2018. So in the same timeframe,
Laura Rotter
Can you share a bit of like the work you did with the coach to envision what you wanted your work to be?
Laura Rotter
Yeah. So I didn't know what I wanted. Which was part of the problem, and I was just a freelance copywriter.
I was doing everything, all types of content, all verticals, all platforms, and I was very resistant to the concept of niching. Because I was like, I want to do all the things no one's again control. No one's going to tell me that I can't do a website. If I just say, I want to be a blog writer and no one's going to tell me that I can't work on finance stuff.
If I say I want to do health care. So I was super reluctant, but I also knew that I had no control. I really wanted control, but I had zero control that by taking everything and anythingI had no point of view. I was being an order taker and I wasn't being proactive in my own business. So I knew that I needed to figure it out, but I didn't know what that looked like.
And so when I hired my coach who I had heard on podcasts before, and she had talked a lot about niching,and the first time I ever spoke to her and she was like, you're going to have to like niche down. I was like, nope, not doing it. Not ready. Nope. Hang up the phone. And then six months later, I heard her again kind of redefine what niche meant and which was it doesn't necessarily have to be a platform or vertical.
It could be the way you think or your process. It could be your niche. And something like completely changed. I was like, okay, now this is interesting, but I still didn't really understand what that meant. So I ended up hiring her. I came up with the name for my company and I knew I wanted it to be more than words because I think everything that's part of the nod to the design to right, it is more than words and words are so much more powerful than just words.
And, my original focus was that I was sort of your, you know, out of house, in house writer that would partner with you because I had that expertise. Not really a niche either, like super generic and everybody says this, but I thought this was niching down. And when I was writing the copy for my bio on the website.
My coach was the one who said, you're, you're holding back . You're so funny. You're so sassy. You know, she's like, you curse. She's like, I think you need to put that on here. I think you need to give people a clearer picture of who you are. And I was so afraid because we're all just ingrained to be toe in the party line and quote unquote professional, whatever that meant. And I was very resistant, but I started to do it a little bit more and then a little bit more. And then I realized that the more I was like vulnerable and the more I put myself out there and the more that I talked in my own voice and shared who I was the more it actually resonated with people.
And before I had been vetting all of these prospects that weren't right for me and weren't a good fit. And when I started to be much more authentic and myself, 95% of the people that came my way were like, I love you. Like, you're exactly the person I need. You're exactly what I expected. And it was so easy to start to have conversations with prospects as so instead of coming from a place of fear or discomfort, we came from a place of ease and friendliness and warmth and then I long, long, long story short.
In the process of writing my newsletter, which she also made me start doing and I was resistant because I didn't just want to write a marketing newsletter. I conceived of this concept of what I call personality branding versus personal branding. And it was a throwaway idea that I had where I said personal means private.
So why do people have to share their private information? But our personality is who we are, and that's what builds connection. And so how do you put a little bit out there to build that connection? And then, so I wrote about it and I put it away and didn't reference it a couple of weeks later. I might have re referenced it briefly and then people started to like. Kind of see it and say, what, you know, what is this personality branding thing? This is interesting to me. Way to explain that. And then now that is my niche and that is my business is all around putting your personality into your content. And how does that help you connect better with your audience?
Laura Rotter
I love that. Danielle, would you be okay sharing the name of the coach that you?
Danielle Hughes
Oh, sure. Sure. Sure. It's, Elise Benin. She is the marketing mentor. So if you want to look her up, marketing- mentor. com. And yeah, she's great.
Laura Rotter
Sounds like she really pushed you.
Danielle Hughes
Yes and no, which is so interesting because she's not really that person. Like she's like a lot of coaches, I think are like, we're going to do this and we're going to do this. And it's very prescriptive. And Elise is much more, very much like you, Laura, like very like intuitive, very just, we're going to see how this goes and like reads from other people. And so, you know, she, encouraged, if you will, and maybe instead of like, because push feels like it was more aggressive and that can be my own interpretation, but it was more just like, she was like, I think that you are doing yourself a disservice that this is the right step for you.
And it took a while. Like, I would and I tell my clients to, like, we got to ease into it. I'm not telling you to put everything out there. Like, Give me something that's enjoyable for you outside of work and then see how that feels and then then maybe we can add something else and then maybe we can add something else and it was the same for me you know i'm sure my first bio had like a hint of humor and personality and then I got really comfortable and i was like oh i'm gonna add a little more i'm gonna add a little more.
I probably could even add more because, you know, of course, you know, it's like the shoe, the shoemaker shoes. I probably haven't gone back and looked at it, but I'm sure I could take it, you know, to 11 versus where it is now at like 9 or something. So, yeah.
Laura Rotter
As you know, this resonates with me, which is why you and I met and are talking that. You know, so I started this business, it's about seven years ago. And so, yes, there's a mold like, Oh, I have a background in financial markets. I'm comfortable with money and financial concepts. I love women. Um, so I'm going to work with women, helping them organize and clarify their finances, but still in my financial advisor head, I have noticed that I, you know, when I left Wall Street, I, at around the same time, I had let my hair go curly and wavy, and now here I am talking to you with straighter hair. I mean, I'm wondering, to a certain extent, without even realizing how much I've sort of adopted this persona, but what drew me to make the change is that I'm a yogi, and I'm a meditator, and I discovered mindfulness practices, and you know, little by little, putting more of my personality and more of the work that I do personally to recognize that, you know, it's not about how much money you have. It's about all the scarce resources, looking at your values and do you have relationships and do you have time for friendships? And are you sleeping enough? And what's your self care and putting all of that together and being brave enough to put that out there. So looking forward to doing that exploration with you, but. You said to make a long story short, but could you give an example perhaps of, you know, you gave the personality brand example, but, ways that you started to tiptoe into being more authentic.
Danielle Hughes
I mean, I think it's like anything. It's the first, the step is encouragement, right? You get the encouragement from someone that tells you to do this and then it's response.
You know, I think all of us are wired for response and seeing how people responded to the copy that I was putting out there, seeing how it felt, realizing how much easier it was when I just took off the guardrails and just started writing whatever and. You know, at first you're like, I don't know how,and I'm, I'm not a people pleaser.
So it wasn't like, are people going to like me, but it was, how does this. How does this help me? How does this help my clients? How do I connect with people? Where do I connect the dots, so to speak? And I think what happened was, like, people would just start to respond to things and send me emails. Like, I loved this or this line really stick out to me or. I've seen your writing is changing. You're becoming more vulnerable or you're becoming more, you know, real love that you cursed in this last piece. Is it like, I just started to get so much positive reinforcement, but also relate ability that people were relating to what I had to say. And then eventually you get to a point where you say, I don't really care if something's rubbed someone or the wrong way, and like, I'll put something out there that is a very strong view on, let's say, my politics or something like that. And I just didn't care if it rubbed people the wrong way. Because then those are not my people. But it's again, it is baby steps, right? It's like with every newsletter or with LinkedIn. How do I dial it up a little bit more. How do I push the boundaries a little bit more?
Laura Rotter
Exactly. So, Danielle, how has your business evolved?
Danielle Hughes
So originally it was doing content deliverable work for companies. So helping companies with their messaging with their content, whether it's like blog posts and newsletters or PowerPoint presentations, website copy.
And I still do a lot of that. I still do the traditional content creation for a lot of companies. But what happened was right around before the pandemic, I had started to think about this idea that I wanted to do more speaking, and I wanted to do workshops. And I think because perfect timing. I didn't know.
I mean, this was like, right, probably like in the winter before the pandemic, I started to talk to other women that I knew when, we were like, let's get together and let's do workshops. Let's do a conference. Let's get women together. And people had been reaching out to me because they liked my linkedin or my bio and they wanted help with theirs.
So I thought, well, maybe I could start helping people with their bios, which I didn't really have a background in. I didn't know much about, but I felt like we could create something where it gave them the opportunity to infuse themselves. And so I started doing workshops on creating a kick ass about page and started having people just. Go through my process. I have some materials that I took them through and got them to rework their about page or their bio or their resume. And then it started to evolve into. How do we make this even bigger? Like, how do we reach more people? How do I do bigger workshops? And why should this be limited just to individuals are solopreneurs. What about people who work at organizations who feel like they need to be more visible. They need to have more presence because they can't be thought leaders because they don't like their bio or they don't feel like it represents them. So then I said, what if I go into organizations and I do workshops for employees and help them with their own branding and messaging.
So it's really evolved from just doing content work for companies to focusing on everybody being able to be more themselves in the workplace, whatever that looks like for them and delivering it in different ways to different groups. So, and I still work with individuals 1 on 1, but of course, I always prefer a larger group, more impact.
Laura Rotter
And so you're enjoying that you like working .
Danielle Hughes
I mean, it's my favorite thing. My favorite, favorite thing.
Laura Rotter
I can see that you get energy from being in front of people and in front of groups.
Danielle Hughes
Yes. And I think, you know, it's the adage too, with, you know, the teach Amanda Fish, right? Like I could do your bio and I could make it over for you, but if I teach you how to do it. As you evolve and grow in your career and your business, you're more likely to be able to make those changes yourself and update it because you have the tools now versus, and you know, look, people hire me all the time. I, I'm going to work with you. Right. So it's like, I do work one on one with people and there's nothing wrong with that. And I always say like, there are people who are like, I think I can do this myself. And then there are people who are like, nope, this is not going to happen. I can't, I can't step away from it enough. I need a push. I need the encouragement. I can't see what's interesting about me, but I can do it for everybody else in my life. Right? All of us can see what's great about other people, but we have a hard time seeing what's great or unique about us.
Laura Rotter
Thank you so much for saying that, especially for women. I think that's so true. I've realized recently how much I still have imposter syndrome and I still have a sense of like, yeah, but it's just me. And just being aware of that is already a learning for me. So, Danielle, how is your definition of success? It's been a while since you sort of left corporate and were part time. Have you felt that your definition has shifted and perhaps even financial success?
Danielle Hughes
Um, yes, I mean, I think I see what's possible now that maybe I didn't think was possible for me from like from a financial perspective, or it feels more attainable to get to certain levels. I think when I started this, I always thought I would just be a single solopreneur and the past couple of years.
I have a virtual assistant that helps me out and I hired a writer who helps me out now part time. So I don't know that I'm ever going to want to scale to some large entity, but I have a vision of how I can grow this. And I think a lot of that growth slash success is about impact, right? Being able to reach more people and help more people.
And that's really where I want to be going these days. So just helping more people And being able to just have everyone feel like they can bring their personality. Like to me, that is the true, the true definition of success is for everyone I know or don't know in the world to be able to feel comfortable being themselves professionally, whether you work for yourself or you work for an organization, like that would be the greatest achievement for sure. Yeah. Personality brand for the world.
Laura Rotter
It's a great mission because so many of us. Oh, my God. I mean, the financial services industry has shifted. But when I 1st started to work, I mean, my 1st job was in like an analyst training program at a bank and I was told you have to wear pantyhose, you have to look like a man, you have to like wear a suit and a little bow tie. And I remember saying I like this work. I like working with numbers. I like the work I'm doing, but I don't want to dress like this, you know, like I want to be myself. But And yeah, I mean, and how many of us as women are told that would like, we basically have to mimic men and the way men strive in the way and define success
Danielle Hughes
And how men lead and all of these things and look where that got us. Right. So.
Laura Rotter
So I love that you're mission driven.
Danielle Hughes
Yes. Yeah. I think, I mean, to a point, I mean, of course I'm financially driven, but I'm also, but I think the mission drives the finances and it's a 360, right? It's a constant, like, you can't just do something for money. And I don't believe that BS adage that like, do what you love and you'll never, you know, you'll make all the money.
Like, I don't believe any of that, but I think you can find something that makes you happy that also hopefully brings you the money that you need to do whatever you do to help people to live, to, you know, uh, support people to travel to see the world, whatever it is.
Laura Rotter
Right. As we started it's always a balance between our scarce resources and I'm finding, which is why I do love that you've defined a mission for yourself, Danielle, that I can't push just for my ego. I've got to do this. I've got to post on social media and I have to get my blog out all these shoulds because like that's on my list and that's, what's going to help me grow my business. It, you know, I've come to recognize that it's got to come from a sense of mission, a sense that, you know, women have a lot of anxiety and insecurity and shame around their money. And so I'm helping women and whatever I define my mission to be, but that's what has to get me up. I hate the has, but that's what gets me up in the morning. Can't be just the, the check off of the shoulds.
Danielle Hughes
No, I don't, you know, they would say, don't shit on yourself. Right?
Laura Rotter
Exactly.
Danielle Hughes
It just doesn't work. You know, I talk about this a lot with, like, in the gym, it's like, oh, I should be able to lift this. I should be able to do this. And it's like. Says who? Like I'm unique why would I should this should that I'm not comparing myself to what what are we what are we comparing ourselves to we're all 100% unique and distinct and there is no should and everybody's path is different and everybody's ways to get to where they are is different and, you know, all of our shoulds could have derailed us. From getting where we are, so, yeah.
Laura Rotter
So I'm assuming some of our listeners are listening and saying, I have to talk to this woman. So, how would people get in touch with you?
Danielle Hughes
So, the best way is to come to my website, morethanwordscopy.com. You can sign up for my newsletter, which goes out every other week and we'll never tell you ten ways or five things or anything like that. It's always.
Laura Rotter
I thought you should, you should always have a number
Danielle Hughes
And no, you should never have a number. And then I, you know, if they want to find me on LinkedIn, Danielle Hughes on LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram. I just started on threads, which hopefully was relevant at some point. Um, even though I was not a Twitter person, I was like, I'm going to try this. Not sure. So it's one more, it's one more thing. So I'm trying to do it not from a business perspective, but more just amusings and personal perspective.
Laura Rotter
And finally, I guess I see you have a free resource. Can you talk about the checklist?
Danielle Hughes
Yes. So, and I will give you the link and you can put it in the show notes cause it's probably the easiest way, but it is my, so I just said like, I don't give you 10 things or whatever. It is my personality. It is my personality brand bio checklist and it is 10 really quick little ways that you can infuse personality into your bio. Very small micro tweaks that anybody could make right now. To just bring a little bit more of themselves to their bio, and I will give you the link and we can put that in the show notes because that's it's too complicated to give you the URL for that.
Laura Rotter
Perfect.
Danielle Hughes
Thank you so much. This has been delightful. And I mean, I've not really ever talked about money on a podcast before. So it was kind of a. It was a new one for me and I really enjoyed it.
Laura Rotter
Thank you, Danielle.
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Danielle Hughes, Chief Personality Officer of More Than Words Marketing.
Some of my takeaways are.
One, recognize when you're staying in a position that's preventing you from doing what you truly want to do, but you're using it as a crutch. Danielle had enjoyed what turned into a 10 year part time job working as a writer for a non profit organization.
But at the end of her time there, she realized that the amount she was dedicating to them was holding her back from other opportunities and frankly, from actually exploring what it was she really wanted to do.
Takeaway number two, if you run your own business, consider defining a particular niche.
Danielle was particularly resistant to the concept of niching. She wanted to be able to work on website copy one day, blog the next. It was when she realized that she had become an order taker and wasn't proactive in her own business that she recognized she needed to figure it out. Finally, know that your unique personality is what helps you build connections with potential clients. Be yourself. On the advice of her coach, Danielle began to put more and more of her sassy and irreverent personality into her writing, and that became her niche. Helping business owners put their personality into their content to connect better with their audience. Are you enjoying this podcast? Please don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss next week's episode and please share it with a friend. If you love the show, I'd love a rating and a review on Apple podcasts. Thank you so much.
Narrator
Thanks for listening to making change with your money. Certified financial planner, Laura Rotter specializes in helping people just like you, organized, clarify, and invest their money in order to support a life of purpose and meaning. Go to www. trueabundanceadvisors. com forward slash workbook for a free resource to help you on your journey.
Disclaimer, please remember that the information shared by this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. It's for information purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.