Own Your Time with Rhiannon Louden
I’m joined this week by Rhiannon Louden for the first guest episode on Own Your Time.
In today’s episode I’m going to be chatting with Rhiannon Louden, formerly known as Small Fish Brand Co.
Rhiannon is a proud entrepreneur and owner of two small businesses. She’s a Photographer, strategist and mentor. Writer, podcaster and networking co-host.
She’s also a Mum of two and newly navigating the realm of disability parenting and advocacy for my youngest, who was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder six months ago.
In this episode we cover:
Being vulnerable on social media, and peeling back the curtain
Prioritisation, and what that looks like when you’re juggling lots of things
Self care and taking time for yourself
The benefits of having a marketing strategy and planning in advance
Read the transcript:
Please note - this podcast episode was transcribed by an AI tool, there may be some typos or errors.
Welcome to Own Your Time, a podcast for small business owners. Get ready to harness your most precious asset, your time, with intention, enabling you to create a life that thrives in simplicity, ease, and joy. I'm your host, Sarah Stewart, Glasgow based time management coach. My approach combines the wisdom of traditional time management strategies with the transformative power of mindfulness.
My commitment is to help you get more time for the things that really matter. If you're ready to ditch the hustle culture and overwhelm and instead embrace peaceful productivity, you are in the right place. In today's episode, I'm going to be chatting with Rhiannon Louden, formerly known as Small Fish Brand Co.
Rhiannon is a proud entrepreneur and owner of two small businesses. She's a photographer, a strategist, mentor, writer. podcaster and networking co host. She's also a mum of two and newly navigating the realm of disability parenting and advocacy for her youngest, who was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder six months ago.
Let's get into it. Welcome Rhiannon to Own Your Time. It's a pleasure to have you here. You are my first podcast guest. That's very exciting. Thanks so much for having me, Sarah. Yeah, no, it's a pleasure. Um, do we want to maybe start out by, you know, I'll have obviously done a little intro, but maybe you could share in your own words a little bit about you and your business.
Yeah, sure. Um, so
I'm Rhiannon. Um, I am mum to two girls and a very proud female entrepreneur. I have been full time self employed since 2017, but I had been, um, working part time On my business for quite a few years before I kind of took that leap. Um, I run a little bit of funny thing. They're two separate businesses because they are so closely tied, but I run small fish brand co, which is going through a rebrand at the moment, going to change into Riannon Louden.
Um, because I am so sort of intertwined with my business and what I do that it made sense. So, um, In that capacity, I do brand photography, brand strategy, and a little bit of mentorship for female entrepreneurs. The other side of my work is Rhiannon Neale photography, which is sort of alternative documentary style wedding and family photography, which is, yeah, absolutely love both sides of what I do and it keeps me very busy.
Yeah, it's fun and it's fantastic like I, you know, I really enjoyed watching all of your content and more recently you have been like peeling back that curtain a bit more and sort of letting your audience see more behind the scenes and what's sort of going on in your personal life. And there's been some challenges that you've been recently navigating that you have been sort of sharing openly about.
Um, do you want to maybe share a little bit about that with us? Yeah,
sure. So I guess before I kind of go into that, just to say that That didn't come that naturally to me at first. I was very concerned about sharing too much of my sort of behind the scenes or what I deemed to be my personal life that should be kept separate from my business life.
And what happened is I started sort of getting really tired of just creating the highlight reel, the kind of content that there's so much of on Instagram. And I felt myself very drawn to people that were talking about the tough days or the challenging things that were going on in their life that were showing this sort of unpolished.
behind the scenes if you will. Um, and so I started delving into it a little bit myself and then that's really where I found my niche and I found my people and I started to really enjoy that online space again, particularly in this sort of, um, confines of social media. Um, so I have been, as I noted earlier, I have two daughters, um, and the youngest is just about to turn three, actually, at the end of October.
I don't know when this will air, but, um, so my older daughter's seven and the youngest is about to turn three, and about a year or so ago, um, year and a half now. We started delving into the um, diagnostic process of why she was behind developmentally. We had quite a lot of concerns, which the older she grew, the more elevated they became.
Um, so a lot of, I don't know if anybody listening has sort of navigated this system before, but you know, there's a lot of fighting to get answers. And you know, it really has felt like a fight these past 18 months. Finally, in April, after about a year of going down this route, we got a diagnosis for my youngest daughter of something called Rett syndrome.
Rett syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental genetic disorder, and it means that Poppy will have significant challenges for the rest of her life. So there are mobility impairments, fine motor skill impairments. She's nonverbal and likely always will be, but we do know that her cognitive understanding is quite good.
So it's been a lot of a lot of fighting a lot of extra time and energy that has to go into medical appointments and assessments and therapies and all of these sort of things to get to where we are now with our diagnosis and a bit of a treatment plan in place. Um, and on the other side of that, obviously trying to keep two businesses going and keep our older daughter happy.
And I certainly feel like time management or attempt at time management has become a key thing in my life. Um, but also, you know, has never been more challenging than it is now.
Yeah, and, yeah, it's a lot, isn't it? I know you've been through a lot as a family and that, the, you know, the language that you use there is really impactful as well, like the fact it's been a fight, like, it's hard, um, yeah.
Um, do you think, off the back of this and sort of the process that you've gone through that your relationship with time has changed or maybe, maybe like your perspective on time. Yes,
absolutely. So I have always been quite a busy person and I don't think I particularly minded or even mind being somebody who is busy.
I like having lots of things on the go. I like kind of keeping things exciting and interesting. But I think all of this has really made me stop and wonder how busy do I want to be and if I am busy, where do I want to attribute my time? What do I want to prioritize? And I don't think that was something I ever really considered before if I'm being honest.
I kind of think I just went with the flow and you. Times that work was busier, I just threw myself into that. Times that, you know, I was needed more at home, I threw myself into that. But it was only when all of the areas of my life needed me at that high level that I realized, actually, I do need to start being purposeful about about time and about thinking about what I prioritize and how thin I want to stretch myself as well.
Yeah and when you think then and maybe reflect like that's a lot of new commitments that you now have to manage um and you're still growing your business you know you I think you said in the in the notes at the start your your business is continuing to grow and expand so you you have less time than ever but you're achieving.
So much. So do you, do you have any like secrets or how, how do you feel that you're being able to manage that?
Okay, so I think I feel very silly sharing any secrets because I'm absolutely no expert on this stuff. Um, so obviously, you know, it's been a little bit of a journey and I think I'm getting there, but I, you know, I'd be lying if I said I thought I had the perfect handle on it.
I think actually contacting you to work with you one on one was one of my first sort of forays into this area. And even just things like mindfulness that I had really never given much notice to, um, that has been a really big help for me. So having an outside person who is but experienced in this sort of organizational and time management space.
who is able to guide me through looking at actually the way that I am spending my time. I think one of the things you talk quite a lot about is like an audit of your time and whether that's having somebody like yourself do that or people kind of DIY walking through that themselves. I don't think I realized how much time I was actually spending on the tasks, you know, my sort of day to day tasks.
I don't think I was attributing the right number of hours to things. And so I would have this massive to do list And I'd be frustrated with myself that I wasn't getting through it, but when I actually broke down the actual hours spent versus what I thought I was going to spend, of course I wasn't getting it all done because it was way too much to fit into a day or, you know, a work week or whatever.
So, I think that was a really good starting place for me is first of all having an outside person. looking in and also directing me through how to track and audit my own time and then using that information to look at my priorities and is the way that I'm actually spending my time measuring up with the priorities that I've set for myself and trying to rebalance things based on that.
Yeah, and you're right like, you know, it's been a pleasure to work with you And that is one of the first things I do with most of my clients is take them through some time tracking and we look At how they're actually spending their time Because what you think you're doing with your time and then what you were actually doing can sometimes be pulls apart.
So it is really important to take the time to sort of go through and work that, work that through. Um, in terms of the, you know, as well as your, your business and your family commitments and things that you have going on at the moment, you're still making an effort to make time to write. You're also, you know, maintaining a fitness routine as well.
And yeah. We both recently ran the, the Great Scottish Run, we did the 10 K. Um, like when you think about the prioritization that you've touched on and, and maybe coupling that with sort of self-care, although I, I don't love the term self-care, but you know, making time for yourself, you know, how, what sort of strategies are, are you using?
Yes. So, uh, actually that was, I guess that's another tip and that's maybe something that I learned from you. And then actually when I started doing it, I realized how many people in different disciplines talk about the importance of this, but actually scheduling in your downtime or scheduling in the other activities that are important to you, whether that's hobbies or interests, or I'm also not a huge fan of the term self care, but yes, those sort of extra things that you do.
If you actually schedule those in as though they're client meetings, which you wouldn't skip, you actually start to prioritize yourself and the things that you need. And I think at first I used to think that that was me being selfish. It's like, well, if I go to the gym, that's time that I'm taking away from the girls or from doing stuff around the house or, you know, from catching up on work that I feel like I may be running behind on.
But what I realized is that if I take care of myself and I get to the gym or I go over that run and I get that stress relief. I'm actually a much better mom. I'm a better partner. I'm a better friend and I'm definitely a better business owner because I feel like I have had what I need for me personally.
It's that whole like, you know, you can't pour from an empty cup thing that people say all the time. It's really true. And I don't think I realized it before.
Yeah. It's the, it's the, the other saying is when like you're on the aeroplane and the oxygen mask falls down, you need to fix yourself before you can then sort of help others around you.
Um, And I, you know, from, from my personal story, like, you know, you know me well, and I, I've been working through some issues with my son in particular, um, and it is exactly that. It's taking the time for me, you know, as a parent, and carving out and protecting that time so that I can, you know, exercise or, you know, meet a friend for coffee or whatever.
allows me then to be a much more present parent and be able to navigate better some of those other challenges that, you know, I'm having to work through. Um, yeah, so I think, I think it is really important. And I, I, I guess like on reflection, you know, a lot of people sort of that, um, maybe resonate with my content.
A lot of them will probably cite that they don't have time for themselves and they feel maybe that they're at the bottom of the priorities, but we, we, we do have some choice there, don't we?
You know, Sarah, it's funny that you say that because I was thinking about this the other day, like, when I was younger and I had, say before I had my children and maybe I had a job and I was doing photography really part time, but I had all the spare time in the world.
And was I ever able to get myself into routine of strength training regularly or training to run a 10k or things like that? Absolutely not. I would have told you I was too busy. So it's interesting to me that now I am busier than ever in terms of what my business and my family need of me. And yet somehow I've been able to make time for it.
And I think you're right. It's easy. And I've done it myself. It's easy to sort of use that excuse of, Oh, I'm too busy. I'm too busy to allow myself to have an hour a couple of times a week or whatever it is, but you're right, it's being intentional. And I know that's where you use a lot that I maybe learned from you or from sort of reading, reading your content or content in that space.
But it is about setting those intentions and what you're going to prioritize and No, I don't have a lot of spare time in a weekend. Often, you know, if I take an hour out of my day to go to the gym, I make up that hour at night working. And maybe that takes away from time that I would have spent watching Netflix.
But what's more important to me right now is that I get to the gym and I have the stress relief. So it is, you can't have everything like everything in life, right? You can't. So it is picking and choosing, but also not feeling guilty for giving yourself an hour or a couple of hours a week or whatever you can manage.
Yeah, the guilt, I think is a big thing. I see that and hear that a lot. Um, and I think when we do have a mapped out You know, intentional thoughtful plan of our week, and we can see with confidence that we will get the things done that need to be done that then sort of can alleviate some of that guilt when we then put our feet up on a on a weekday evening or, you know, whatever it might be.
And so yeah, there's definitely lots of benefits of planning. Um, I wanted to sort of circle back round to your business, so, you know, what's so interesting with you Rhiannon, like you've obviously got a really great, um, story around time and your personal life and some of those challenges and you know you are, um, more, uh, pressed for time, I guess, with, with all these different commitments, but in your business, you also have a time element there as well, because you, with what you do, um, through your branding, you help female entrepreneurs with their time.
Um, do you want to maybe expand a little bit there? Yeah, sure. So
I never saw it that way until very recently, but actually a lot of what I do is helping people put systems in place that make it more. More easy, more accessible for them to get their message out to the world. That's a lot of really what branding and what marketing is, isn't it?
It's finding a way to get the message, the right message out to the right people. And I think that what I have learned in my own experience as a business owner, in many years of working with other business owners. Is that if you are not strategic about your marketing, the kind of content you're creating, how you're presenting that business out to the world, it actually ends up taking you more time.
And I think I've spoken to so many people who say that they find the biggest struggle is figuring out what they're going to write about, whether it's blogging or, you know, You know, changing up things on their website, or in particular, social media, because we are sort of told that we need to be creating new stuff all of the time
And if you sit down at your desk and go, oh no, I haven't posted for three days, I have no idea what I'm going to post, I'm going to have to go back and look at what I've talked about recently, and you spiral into, it becomes a whole process before you can even start creating your piece of content.
Whereas if you have a plan in place. You can sit down at your desk and look at your calendar and say today I am going to post about this new product that I'm launching next month. Even if you haven't actually created the content, but you're sitting down, you have a plan for what you're going to post, you have a folder of photos sitting there on your desktop that is specifically for those products, you pull a folder out, it takes you five minutes to write your caption, you're good to go.
And it just simplifies the whole process. And I think it boils down to we all have a million decisions that we have to make every day from first thing when we get up in the morning. And so if you can take some of the decision making out of it and have a plan in place, it actually saves you a lot of time and also stress.
Yeah, 100%. I completely agree. Like, I love the fact that I have a plan and I'm, you're right, I know that I can sit down at my desk and not have to then spend an hour or two hours trying to wait for the inspiration to come. I know exactly what it is that I'm going to be writing about at any particular time.
Um, and it is a massive time saver. Yeah, so it's um, is that something, so then you sort of said there that that's something maybe new to you or a new thought in terms of what you offer. So, Has that time saving element maybe not been in your messaging?
Yeah, I think, you know, now that you say that, probably not.
I think I've always looked at it as a, um, I can offer you some sort of assistance in putting this together if you're struggling to look at it, and more so seeing the benefit of I can help you create the strategy. But actually, the knock on effect of having that strategy or content plan in place does end up saving you time and it does help you be more organized.
And it does, there's all of these sort of added bonuses. And I think, you know, I don't know how directly this relates to time or not, but I guess it ends up saving you big picture time, because if you are strategic about what you're doing, then you know that you're kind of going off in the direction of whatever your next goal is, or whatever your next launch is, or whatever the next big things come in your life, you know, that you're.
Headed in the right direction. Whereas if you are just kind of posting on a whim or blogging on a whim and you've not really thought about a strategy, it's going to take you way longer to get to where you need to go. So I think it helps in this sort of big picture time sense as well.
Yeah. And I think, you know, when we think about branding, You know, a lot of people will jump to like having a pretty logo or whatever, but it is so much more than that, isn't it?
So you've touched there, you know in terms of like the marketing and the content, the like the copy and stuff. What are the other elements that you sort of help your clients with?
Yeah, so a lot of it is the big picture strategic things and this happened really organically for me So a very brief history.
I studied journalism and marketing were my sort of university and education and I found that when I would sit down with small business owners, they were absolutely brilliant at what they do So like say I'm working with a jeweler amazing jeweler so good at creating these products But we would sit down to sort of plan out their brand photo shoot and I would ask them questions like, um, Who's your target audience?
What are your key messages? What are your brand values? And they didn't know because they hadn't thought of it before. And I think for most of us, we're very good when you start a business. You're good at your craft, but not necessarily at running a business. Most people don't come from a branding background or a marketing background, or you know, not everybody has an MBA.
So what I realized is that most people need some help with that sort of strategic side of branding. So not the logo and the fonts and the, not all of that, but Actually thinking about your brand as an identity. And so that's a lot of my work now is sitting down with people, whether they're going through a rebrand or maybe they're about to launch a business, or maybe the sort of offering of their business has changed and they've either never sat down and really ironed out these key brand elements before, or they haven't, it's time to change and having an objective person guide you through that process and ask the right kind of questions.
Most people know, they know what their brand values are. For example, They maybe don't see them that way. So it's asking them things like, well, where do you source the ingredients for what you do and what's important to you and getting people to think in a different way that doesn't feel like corporate marketing speech is really what it is.
Yeah, I love that. And values and sort of whether that's brand values or our own personal values that I really like all of that, um, um, as a concept as well. And it's our, our values and the, the vision or the goals that then can help us, um, prioritize and make decisions like you touched earlier on making decisions.
We do waste a lot of time making decisions. Yeah. Yeah, I'm
trying to remember, I don't want to say the wrong thing, but is it the Atomic Habits guy who talks about decision making, or I feel like I've read a fair few books or listened to a fair few podcasts on this recently, so I don't want to say the wrong thing, but there is a lot of, I guess, chat about the time impact of decision making, and Decision fatigue, really.
And, you know, thinking about things like, okay, you wake up in the morning and you take a shower, but maybe you stop and think, oh, do I need to wash my hair today? Do I need to condition my hair? Will I exfoliate my skin? And then it comes down to like, what am I going to wear today? What am I going to make for breakfast?
And all of these things are decisions, which, well, those things aren't a big deal. And they maybe don't have a massive impact in terms of importance. But they are things that you're constantly thinking about. So if I've already had to make 15 decisions before I sit down at my desk and then I sit down and I don't have a plan for my day, I have a giant to do list, but I've not allotted any specific things for the day in front of me.
Don't know what kind of content I'm going to create. It's just, it's adding so much to what I already have to do. And anything you can do to sort of make your life easier and save yourself a bit of time. I mean, who doesn't need more time? Let's be honest.
I know. Yeah, it's, it's such a, it's such a common thing.
Like I go out and we'll do, um, public speaking at networking events or whatever it might be, and I'll pull the audience and I'll say, you know, have you ever used the phrase? I don't have time for that. Or I'm too busy and everyone. puts their hands up, like everyone, you know, it's, it's such a common thing.
Um, do you have anything else, Rhiannon, that you'd like to share with the listeners? I
think, if anything, it's that time is so much more important than, you know, I thought it was that sounds like a silly thing to say or maybe a bit of a naive thing to say, but what I have realized both as a business owner and just as a person is that time is the only thing I can't get more of, like, so I can better manage my time, but it really is your most valuable resource.
And so treating it that way and prioritizing the way that you're going to spend that time. It makes sense, right? Because, you know, you can always earn more money. You can always have more things, but time is finite. It is what it is. So finding a better way to use the time that you do have is such a good thing to prioritize.
And I think that's something that I maybe have learned the hard way or taken the long, you know, way around to, but, um, and I think, you know, working with somebody else or putting some time and energy into Doing some research into this space if you know if you're not ready to work with someone like yourself one to one Maybe you're ready to join some kind of a group program Or maybe you're ready to buy a book about time management or listen to more podcasts like this and just start sort of Surrounding yourself with this message and I think the more that you enter into that space the more you start to consider things and find new bits of tips and advice and things that work for you and I know that I've definitely got a lot better with it, but I still have a ways to go, and I think, um, it'll be a work in progress, but it seems like a good one to prioritize.
Yeah, and I think we are always a work in progress, you know, even when I think, you know, My story obviously started, you know, I, I, I lost my mum to cancer when I was a teenager and, and that sort of then at that point made me open my eyes to the fact that time is precious and, you know, this sort of concept around being intentional with our time and I've always made a great effort to, to use my time well.
Um, But uh, if you, if you don't have that, it's, it's then, yeah, that opening people's eyes to the fact that there, there is more, um, to, to life, I guess, than just like collecting stuff. Like it's, you know, I, I, I feel really passionate about spending time well, yeah.
And you know, Sarah, the other thing to add to that, um, in terms of like, I guess, sort of tips or advice or things that I've learned.
And I know, again, this is something that you talk about too, is thinking about outsourcing. So, I mean, things you can outsource in your personal life, absolutely, but especially in your business. I think The way that I've always looked at business expenses is just at cost. Like, okay, this costs X amount. Can I afford to add that into my monthly expenses?
Is it worth it? But what I wasn't thinking about, what do I charge myself at per hour? How much do I value my time? Where do I want to prioritize my time? So if I want time to upskill, for example, I can't fill every hour in my diary with client work. So where can I outsource to sort of have some help and I think that has made a massive difference for me sort of in my business, a little bit in my personal life too, in allowing me to prioritize the tasks that I want and save me loads of time.
So yes, these things all cost money, but if they save you time, they're worth it, in my full opinion.
Yeah, and it is, there's, there's, I think there's lots of, um, thought in that space around like how you then work out what your time is worth and, you know, the, like a simple approach is, yeah, thinking about how much you earn for the time that you're working.
But then there's also the, the other lens to sort of look at it as is, You know, I would put a higher price on my time sort of outside of work. So like, being able to get an hour back at the weekend is worth a lot more to me than maybe even what my hourly rate would be working. Um, so then it, it does then make sense to sort of bring in help, whether that is, um, you know, with, with sort of business activities or.
Personal stuff. Um, yeah, and I think there's also, there's a bit of research, and if I can find the link I'll put it in the show notes, but there's something around like people who outsource or buy, buy in help are happier than people that are just buying stuff. So if you're, if you're using your money to buy back time, you're happier than if you were using your money to buy things.
That makes a lot of sense. I think you're right. It's easy to get caught up in this, like very capitalist, like keep doing more and keep buying more. And, um, you know, I was chatting actually with an accountant about this and she was talking about when people get to that, like that threshold level and trying to figure out like, do you want to push forward and, you know, cross that barrier?
And then you've obviously got this tax bill, but you have this big potential to earn. But is that worth it for you? Do you want to have a period of time where you maybe are stretching yourself quite thin? Or actually, are you happy where you are? Is it more valuable to get some time back? And I guess that's something I've been thinking about a lot too, as my business has grown, like, do I want to keep pushing forward and keep growing bigger and being busier and earning more?
Or am I at a point where I can be very happy where I am and get some of my time back? And what's more important to me in terms of How do I view success? And it's easy to get caught up in this with being successful as having a certain job title or a certain salary or driving a certain car. Whose idea of success is that?
Is it yours? And I think, you know, taking some time to think about that for me, it's, it's not, I want more time back. I want more time with my family. I want more time with my friends. I want more time to work on writing and getting stronger at the gym and maybe next time running a half marathon. I don't know.
So, um, yeah, it really makes you think about the big picture things when you really. Look at time as a priority.
Yeah. The half marathon is interesting because that's something that I've also been, that idea has been in my mind as well. So maybe, maybe we can take that offline and decide and have that as our next challenge.
Excellent. Um, Rhiannon, thank you so much for joining me. It's been a real pleasure to chat with you. Um, do you want to share as well where the listeners can find you? I will, I will put some information in the show notes, but maybe you can just share where, where best to find you.
Um, so I'm most active on Instagram, so I am going through that rebrand.
So everything is switching over. So it will be Rhiannon Loudon, L O U D E N dot co dot UK. Um, website address is the same. And if you want to take a peek at my alternative wedding and family work, that is over at Rhiannon Neil, also Instagram being the place to find me.
Amazing. Well, thank you so, so much.
And, um, yeah, I'm sure I'll, I'll chat again with you soon. Thanks Sarah. Okay. Bye for now. Thank you for joining me on another episode of On Your Time. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you can. Connect with me on social media for additional resources, community engagement, and updates.
You'll find me on Instagram at sarahstewart.co.uk Until next time, bye for now.