In this episode, Casie and I deep dive on my personal branding shoot, her evolution as a creative director and now photographer over the last decade, what it's like to collaborate with A-players and why creative fulfilment and trusting your staff is so important.

Casie and I have been working together for approx 8-9 months, first of all in my Messy Action Skool Community which led into 1:1 with me.

Casie wears a couple of hats, first up, her newest venture, Casie Jean - Brand Photographer & Creative Director. This is where you go if you wanna do a personal branding shoot similar to mine and have Casie's eye on your genius and business spark - https://www.casiejean.co.nz/

Second up being her design agency, with a decade plus of experience, Design Garage - think websites, logos, full brand identities. https://designgarage.co.nz/

You can find Casie over on socials https://www.instagram.com/casiejean___/ (that's two underscores)

and

https://www.instagram.com/designgarage/

Let me know how you found this podcast by sending me an email or DM on Instagram, you can find out more about Brooke's work at https://brookenolly.com/ but she hangs out on Instagram more - https://www.instagram.com/brookenolly/

I had a discovery call yesterday for our R&R retreat on Waiheke Island this Nov 3rd - 6th 2025 and I wanted to share her questions, objections and reservations. She signed up - wooo!

Maybe you can relate to her reservations so I wanted to make sure I addressed them here, so you've got even more clarity re making an informed buying decision.

Here's a wee snippet from the transcript:  

"I personally have been on many retreats where there's been someone that is clearly not a fit. And what I mean by not a fit is the rest of the group are in synergy and there is one or two people that haven't done the work or are not quite up to where the other folks are in business and life.

Not from a revenue point of view, but from an energy, self-responsibility 'have done the work' on themselves point of view. And when someone comes on retreat and they don't quite get that, it's punishing for others and as this guest said "one bad egg spoils it for everyone".

This retreat is about receiving and being generous but ultimately making sure that you look out for yourself and after yourself first and foremost.

Being completely sovereign and self-responsible, not looking for a leader or a guru leaving their ego at the door so their ego's not, 'look at me'.

'Look how much I know'.

'Look how I can help'.

Here's me giving you advice.

No one wants that when they come on my retreats. And anyone that does want that is not going to feel compelled or want to come on the kinds of retreats that I host, we don't do main character energy.

We don't do ego, we do care. Self-love, tuning into the energy, being respectful.

If you enjoyed this podcast and want to enquire about coming on retreat, we have 7 spots remaining and you can email me to book a call at brooke@brookenolly.com

This has to be my most honest and authentic episode to date. In this ep I talk about my fear of being a narcissist, codependent 'friend' clients, discounts, overgiving and the recipe for absolutely hating your business and what to do about it.