#215 - When is it time to rebrand your business, with Kate Addamo
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Rebranding gets talked about a lot in small business circles—but how do you know when it’s actually time? I recently caught up with Kate Addamo, a mentor to service-based and creative business owners, who’s just been through her own rebrand. Kate’s story and the work she does with her clients provide invaluable lessons for anyone questioning whether their brand still reflects who they are and where they’re going.
The Rebrand Journey: More Than Just a New Logo
Kate’s most recent rebrand wasn’t her first but it was by far her most authentic. After nearly eight years in business and several tweaks along the way, she realised her brand no longer reflected her growth or the direction she wanted to take. Rather than outsourcing the entire process, Kate took creative control, designing her own website, curating visuals and ensuring every element felt like a true extension of herself. The result? A brand that felt like “coming home”—aligned, powerful, and deeply personal.
Knowing When It’s Time
So, how do you know when it’s time to rebrand? According to Kate, it often starts with a sense of misalignment. Perhaps your messaging feels dated, your visual identity no longer excites you or you’re attracting clients who aren’t quite the right fit. For many of Kate’s clients, the realisation comes after a period of growth—when their confidence, clarity, and business processes have evolved, but their brand hasn’t kept pace. It’s not about forcing change, but recognising when your business has outgrown its current skin.
The Power of Clarity and Confidence
A key theme in Kate’s approach is the importance of clarity—knowing your offerings, your “why”, and your goals. We’ve all heard it said many times, “charge your worth”, but Kate’s advice encourages women to “charge like you run a business”. Often our “worth” is wrapped up in old stories and believes, leaving us charging way less than we should so this reframe is quite profound.
When you’re clear on your value and confident in your direction, you’re better equipped to attract the right clients and set boundaries that protect your time and energy.
Practical Steps for Small Business Owners
If you’re feeling that itch for change, Kate recommends starting with an honest audit of your business. Are you consistently following your own processes? Does your brand reflect where you are now, or is it stuck in the past? Sometimes, the answer is a full rebrand; other times, a few strategic tweaks can make all the difference. And while outsourcing can be powerful, don’t be afraid to keep some elements close to your chest—no one knows your brand like you do.
Rebranding isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about ensuring your business identity matches your vision and values. Don’t let the idea of “one day” hold you back. Prioritise the changes that will move your business forward, and remember: the investment in a brand that truly represents you is always worth it. If you’re ready to realign, recalibrate, or simply refresh your brand to reflect who you are, I know you’re going to find this conversation with Kate really inspiring.
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[00:00:20] Tracey: Hello everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm joined by a very dear friend of mine today who is a mentor to service-based and creative business owners, and that is Kate Adamo. This is Kate's third time on the podcast, and I love having her on because we have such fabulous conversations, which shares so much gold for business owners.
[00:00:40] And I know this because of the feedback that I get, and I've invited Kate on today to talk about. Rebranding in business because this is something that I've been hearing a lot about from my clients lately, and I know that this is something that Kate works intimately on with her clients.
[00:00:55] So there's a bit of a process and a journey attached to the rebrand. And how do you know when it's time to rebrand and should I rebrand? Or should I keep putting off the rebrand? So there's lots to unpack and Kate recently has undergone a rebrand of her own business and being as close to her as I am, I was privy to the inner workings of her brain and her thinking and what she was doing.
[00:01:17] And it was a really unique and authentic path that she took for this rebrand and I found it really inspiring. So I do think you're going to love this conversation with Kate. Let's dive in and I'll come back here with you at the end.
[00:01:33] Kate, welcome back to the podcast.
[00:01:35] Kate: Thank you so much for having me, Tracy.
[00:01:38] Tracey: Oh, it's always such a pleasure. You are the only guest that I've had on the podcast three times, and that's not to say this will be the last it. Most certainly will not.
[00:01:47] Kate: Probably not because we do love our chats and I'm very grateful to be back here again. I'm very honored to be the first one to make it to three.
[00:01:53] Tracey: I love it. Kate, what I really wanna talk about today is In all of the work you do with your beautiful [00:02:00] clients, I know that. You support women in such a variety of ways, and you and I spent a little time talking about financials recently and your fabulous financial spreadsheet that you have on your website, which I've since purchased and downloaded and introduced into my business Game Changer.
[00:02:18] We're not gonna talk about financials today, but the breadth of what you do is so far and wired. What I really wanna hone in today and talk about is rebranding and the power of a rebrand and why a rebrand becomes necessary, and how women sometimes don't even realize it's time for a rebrand. But for context for my audience, I just wanna let everybody know that you've recently rebranded and you rebranded this time in such a powerful.
[00:02:48] Authentic aligned way. And they're not cliche words because I was talking to you throughout that rebrand, and I think I said to you very early on, as soon as I saw it, Kate, this just feels like a coming home.
[00:02:59] It really does the the power of what you've done. So can you just share a little bit about your rebrand story and then let's just dive into the work you do with business owners when it's time to rebrand, because I think there'll be so many listeners that'll get so many nuggets of gold from this, and they'll be wondering, huh?
[00:03:15] Am I aligned? Do I need to rebrand? But let's just go back and talk a little bit about your rebranding story this time.
[00:03:22] Kate: Yeah. Thank you Tracy. This one was really unique 'cause I've been in business, it'll be eight years in December. I think this might be the third or fourth rebrand or there's been like tweaks or iterations to it. Not full rebrands. And this one came about very organically. There was nothing forced about it.
[00:03:39] I had an idea that I wanted to tweak some things. A couple of things weren't landing. think I'd outgrown the website I was in. I was in a very different place when I did that website. My mom had just passed and I, I think I was in a different head space and I knew I had grown and evolved so much. So it was time for my.
[00:03:54] Website and my, my brand to match that evolution and for this next chapter that I'm now ready to step [00:04:00] into. And it was such an organic, I, I sort of met with someone to help support me with some, some messaging and some evolution of, of my business. And it turns out she actually came up with a bit of a concept, which I didn't know was part of it for some visuals.
[00:04:14] We explored that and played with it together and then I took it a step further and said, I think I actually want to create my own website this time. Which is very strange. I have very little tech skills. I've got my head around Canva now, but to use Show It, I thought, okay, I've tweaked a few things but I really just persevered with it.
[00:04:30] And it was one of the best experiences that I've had because I felt like I had this creative control and this is not to say that, you know, there is so many beautiful web and brand designers out there who do an incredible job, and I did have one of them do a VIP day to tweak this and bring it to life as a brand.
[00:04:45] But I felt really comfortable because I've done so much work on myself and really knowing who I am, to really just fully speak from the heart to create it, to add the canvases in myself and the slides and move it around and add the photos and just really bring it to life and i've got a photo shoot coming up in, I think October and I'm creative directing that at the moment with outfits and the props and the location with just another level of creative direction because I'm really, I just really know what I want this to look like.
[00:05:17] I don't feel like I have to outsource that. I'm so connected to myself and where I'm going, that this is just flowing with so much ease to the fact that I can't turn the ideas off at the moment. I feel really excited by my brand and I think that's not something I see women feeling all the time.
[00:05:30] It's like, well, what do I post and what do I share? Whereas when you really know who you are and who you wanna help, everything just changes.
[00:05:36] Tracey: And you've just said something, Kate, that goes against the grain of everything that we hear on socials and in all of the places, which is outsource everything. Outsource everything. But you've just bought it all home. And I know that you did the copy tweaking yourself and throughout the process when we were talking, you were so anchored to your why and your purpose that it all just came naturally and it just [00:06:00] flowed
[00:06:00] What I wanna shine a light on here is, yes, there's power in outsourcing for the web design and the graphic design and the brand design and the copywriting and the creative direction and the photo shoots.
[00:06:11] There's power in outsourcing all of that. But sometimes it's actually okay to give yourself permission to hold onto some of it because no one knows your brand like you do.
[00:06:23] Kate: absolutely and I'm also the queen of outsourcing for things that, you know, aren't my power and aren't my strength. And, you know, my beautiful team definitely helped me with some of the tech things. Like I don't know how to connect the flow desks links and the that to that. I don't know, I'm not even gonna try and entertain that because that would just be a waste of my time and energy.
[00:06:38] So I get the people who know how to do those things and I think for some people, like not everyone's gonna be able to do this. Not everybody has the creative eye or has an interest or, or a, you know, a strength in it? Like, I
[00:06:48] Tracey: I don't, I don't.
[00:06:50] Kate: Yeah. I, I wouldn't imagine a lawyer be interested in, you know, picking colors and fonts,
[00:06:54] but, it, it just, it's something that comes naturally and I have really just designed and curated my life, like my wardrobe, the capsule wardrobe, my home, my business, my brand. I just want it to be an extension of that, which is why there's so many florals and the pinstripe and all of those things that are uniquely me.
[00:07:10] Like there's pinstripes all around my house. There's florals and there's plants in the background here. I love that. That's who I am, but I think it, it brings a beautiful strength and softness with the masculine and feminine. I, I love those feminine elements of the brand, but I also am a girl that, you know, this, Tracy loves a spreadsheet and loves a tight process and just boundaries and all of those things, and I think there's a, a beautiful sort of you know, connection with the two.
[00:07:33] Tracey: Thank you for sharing it that way. I know that for me, your rebranding journey has been inspiring, and I know that there's many listeners who are going to be listening to this and taking little nuggets of gold and thinking, huh, what does that say about me and where's my brand? Let's dive in a little bit and talk about the work you do with women.
[00:07:51] I know this could go so many different ways, but you are very good at articulating to your clients. This needs to happen. We need to [00:08:00] work on this. Let's go down this path, this journey, and guess what? We need to have a conversation around a rebrand. It's time. So I really wanna answer the question, how do you know when it's time for a rebrand?
[00:08:11] We've gotta come a few steps back for that. So what's the process? What are you seeing? Talk to me.
[00:08:16] Kate: for me, like I can see it for a lot of clients when they first come to me for a lot of my flourish clients, which are established, you know, creative and service-based business owners, when they come to me, I can see it and some of them really desperately need it and some just need a few tweaks or there's some messaging misalignments or, or some of the colors feel a bit dated and some of the women just say, yeah, maybe it's something I might look at in the future.
[00:08:36] It's not something they've really entertained. And then when we go on the journey of getting them to understand their brand, where they're positioning things, their unique offering, building their confidence, understanding how they need to charge, and having the process be really tight. When they start to up level, all of that, they feel more confident, they feel more connected to their offering and to their audience.
[00:08:59] It all starts to change. And from something that I've just gently mentioned a couple of times and maybe almost planted the seed, they're then coming back to me and going, I think I need to rebrand Kate. I'm like, I know, welcome. Um, but it's, it's really beautiful. But I don't, I don't sort of wanna force that on them.
[00:09:14] I want them, like, it's up to the woman. I want them to reach that place themselves of just being ready and knowing and then I want to guide them with that of what some of the the visuals and the message. And I've sat down a few times with clients on Pinterest and color palettes, and we've really started to develop something together and start some strategy and some messaging to then hand that over to a brand designer for it to be even better, rather than just going to a brand designer and saying, Hey, I, I need to rebrand.
[00:09:40] It's a bit dated. They have more of a story and a purpose and clarity and vision of who they want to be. So it becomes even ea, well, not easier I guess, for the brand designer, but also it's got a chance to go even deeper because we've done that first layer and there's such a trust between, you know, myself and my beautiful client, that we've been able to go that bit deeper and I really know [00:10:00] them.
[00:10:00] So when we hand that over, it's already at a different level. It's a very cool experience.
[00:10:04] Tracey: Wow. It, it sounds it. So where does it start though? So give me two things that you would say are big signs for you that you can pick up on straight away to start having conversations with women to support them on that journey? Is it pricing? Is it the way they talk about their offer? What is it that you can identify really easily so that listeners are going to be able to go and look at that in their own business and say, oh, okay, that's not in alignment. Or Kate mentioned that that's not working. What would it be?
[00:10:33] Kate: I think a big part of it comes down to pricing and the confidence there. Because I think there's so much focus on the service offering or that creative business and not of the running of the business and charging what you think you should charge, rather than charging what it actually should be.
[00:10:52] And there's a, a post that I'm actually, you know, mentally written but haven't physically shared on social media lately, uh, that I'm gonna do in the next week before this comes out, is that I don't want women to charge their worth. I want them to charge like they run a business. Because when we talk to women about charging their worth, that's the worst thing that we could tie to for a woman, because so many of them have people pleasing, issues with their own worth and they don't feel good. So if we tell a woman to charge her worth, of course she's gonna undercharge because that's all she feels like she's worth. So I probably said it years ago too, but now I think I've just been thinking about it.
[00:11:21] I, it came to me with a client last week. I just said, you need to charge like you run a business because she was struggling to Pay herself. She was struggling to charge to that next level. She had years of experience in a high level job that she had studied to get to a high level business. And when we really looked at what she wanted to earn, all of her business expenses, the tax and how she wanted to grow and to fund the rebrand, she really then understood what she needed to charge and how she was undercharging.
[00:11:49] So it was a real journey of understanding sales and expenses and then understanding the cash flow, and then understanding what she needs to make to charge that and where the gaps have been in the [00:12:00] process, where she's being burnt out, where people are dragging things out. And when you just close all of those little gaps and loops and the woman becomes really confident to run all of those things in a really succinct way, then she just sees her brand and her business differently.
[00:12:15] And then she's ready for the brand to elevate to match that new level of her. But we had to get her to that level to see that that needed to happen to now continue to bring in the clients at that price level for it to match them
[00:12:26] and for that visual to be something that draws them in.
[00:12:29] Tracey: So that's a journey you've described and what I've taken away are two big things. One, the journey of stepping into confidence, but also clarity.
[00:12:40] Kate: Huge.
[00:12:40] Tracey: Clarity of the offerings, their why and what they ultimately want to achieve. I love that you've just reframed the charging. Don't charge your worth charge like you're running a business because that, again, here we are going against the grain of all the things today, which is not uncommon for us. We hear it so often and we see it in social media and there's so much noise. Charge your worth. Charge your worth. You're undercharging. Charge your worth. And that's right. How do you know what your worth is? It's so open-ended. I've never liked that question charge like you're running a business and you can only do that if you have absolute crystal clear clarity on your offerings, your end in mind, what you wanna achieve and your objectives.
[00:13:20] And you mentioned paying yourself and i've, you and I talk about this a lot with clients not charging enough to be able to pay yourself consistently. That's not a business. And I've said this, it was a little polarizing when I said it on social media, but sometimes we need to be honest with ourselves and just accept the fact that we're running a hobby, not a business and stepping up.
[00:13:40] And so I suppose for many people, the branding, starting out, we just put something together, wasn't quite sure how this would go, didn't know how it would land, but guess what? I've been so busy in all the doing.
[00:13:51] 3, 4 years have passed and I have not had time to take a breath to even think about my brand.
[00:13:57] Kate: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:58] Tracey: And that then can lead somebody to be in that [00:14:00] position where, guess what? It's time to think about a rebrand to either realign or recalibrate so that the brand is representative of where you are now as a business owner.
[00:14:10] The other thing, Kate, that clients share with me, and I know that they share with you, is I want more clients. I want more aligned clients. I want to show up in a different way to attract a different type of client. I'm feeling burnt out.
[00:14:24] Kate: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:24] Tracey: What I've seen over the years and talk to me about this is when the brand doesn't align with where the business owner's at, they'll be attracting the wrong sort of client.
[00:14:35] Kate: Yeah.
[00:14:36] Tracey: So talk to me about that and the representation of where the business is at in order to magnetize those, those dream clients.
[00:14:42] Kate: Yeah, I guess there's a lot of avenues with that one, Tracy, and, and one that sort of comes in. The first thing is I think when we are not charging enough, we're always gonna get the wrong clients and those lower end clients are usually the most exhausting, the least respectful of your process and journey.
[00:14:56] And they're gonna burn you out. So it is so important to take the time to really reflect on that, and I think so many people don't. They just get so caught up in the service offering or that creative offering, and they head down in that and they think that that's running a business. No, that's, serving your client.
[00:15:11] Running a business is a very different thing and imperative that you take the time to, to do that. Something I do every year and I'm always refining and taking time for that. This is why I go on retreats to step away from life and have a look at things. You always come back with fresh ideas. But I think one of the biggest issues, and I was just gonna say before Tracy, is when it does come to that rebrand journey, so many women think they can't afford so they put it off and they just go, it's something I'll do one day. And it becomes a one day for so many women until you teach them how, and that's why this inflow to grow the cashflow spreadsheet has been so helpful because there's a few clients that we've worked through this and they know, say if they want to come to you and get new contracts, 'cause they wanna upgrade and they don't have a privacy policy in their website or something, which is terrifying or client, staff contracts or agreements.
[00:15:55] It's okay. We want, we want to upgrade these things with Tracy and maybe we wanna get dub sarto, [00:16:00] or we wanna get a rebrand or a website done. We put those through the spreadsheet each month, and maybe it's in three months or two months, or in six months for the rebrand, but we've got the allocation there and they know what they're working towards and they're bringing the income in to cover that, and so they can see a path towards that.
[00:16:16] So again, it comes down to the clarity. And when we don't know, and we are just flying blind, we are missing out on so many opportunities that we potentially could have rebranded six months ago, got our contracts done, paid ourself an extra grand or two a month, but because we didn't know we're stuck in that I can't, and that that stagnation isn't going to bring you those aligned clients or that abundant business that's going to continue to grow.
[00:16:41] Tracey: Oh, I love that. Kate, you've just touched on so many things. It's a trap, isn't it? I'll get to it one day. It's not important right now. Make it happen, prioritize it, make it happen. There's so much there that you've just touched on that I know is going to resonate so deeply. And again, the cashflow spreadsheet that's on your website, if, if anyone listening to this doesn't have a cashflow projection spreadsheet, go and check this out.
[00:17:03] I've always had a spreadsheet. It was a bit agricultural to be honest. Then I got yours and I've actually implemented it at home as well. So I've got two, one for the business and one for home, and I got so excited about it, it's been fabulous. It's such a game changer. So, so check that out.
[00:17:18] Before we finish up, Kate, I just want to talk a little bit about your Aligned Woman program because I know the doors have closed now, but you will be running it again and I know because I'm gonna ask you to put a wait list there because so many people have spoken to me about wanting to do it, but the time wasn't right.
[00:17:33] talk about that though, because it needs to be shared because I've known you for so many years and I know the value that's in this program.
[00:17:40] Kate: Thank you, Tracy. It's honestly like I've been mentoring nearly eight years and it's one of the most profound and best things aside from my retreats, which are in person. So that is amazing at a whole other level. But to go on this journey, it was three now, four months with a, you know, a beautiful, tight-knit container of women and I'm so grateful my business always attracts just really beautiful women who [00:18:00] just wanna support each other. And that's something a lot of women in business don't have. Their friends and family don't understand that they don't get it. So it's such a, just a relief to turn up of women who just, who get it, and to be really vulnerable.
[00:18:11] It's a really beautiful, unique experience where we are building the woman up and her confidence and the way that she takes care of herself, her vision in her life. And when we get really clear on her vision, she starts to put better boundaries in place. She starts to charge differently. She just starts to raise the standard in everything.
[00:18:29] And at home, the way she dresses, the way she shows up, you know, we go into human design, how that impacts in business. We do a lot about our environment, our health, our home. Low tox living. So many like open conversations about women, women's health. We have a naturopath join. I think six of the women last time booked in with her 'cause they were so blown away from just conversations they'd had with their gps or being turned away.
[00:18:49] And they just felt so seen and heard in that, that they are now on their journey. One's gone off antianxiety medication. a couple of having much better relationships with their tween daughters now because of the experience and they're more present and one of 'em even said, mom, you're a cool mom now, which blew her away and she just hadn't ever heard that from her daughter because she had just been not present in anything. And I think there's a presence. There's been, the women that did the first round said they just feel so much more permission to live life on their terms.
[00:19:18] Some have sold bigger houses because it felt like it was keeping up with the Joneses to take pressure off to change the business structure, to just have more space. So the first round just started actually two days ago and it was, it was such a beautiful experience of the women just holding and supporting each other and wanting to be better together.
[00:19:34] And like, it's, it's such a different experience when women come together. Like, I can have these conversations one-on-one and they get it, but it's not until women come together, like as we're supposed to, women did for, for centuries to come together. And now we're, you know, so solo that it's almost like one woman gives the other one permission and they all start rising together and they level up together with their confidence. It's the most amazing thing to witness. Like honestly, I feel [00:20:00] so grateful to be able to do that and call that, you know, my job.
[00:20:02] Tracey: It's so nourishing for the soul is, is how, how I would describe it. There's so much to it. And as I've shared on here so many times, I, I went to one of your in-person retreats and it changed my life and the way I view so many things. But I love also that it's for the whole woman and it's not just business and it's not just personal.
[00:20:22] it's both because we are a whole person across all the things. Thank you for sharing that. I'm gonna put the link to that in the show notes, so if anyone wants to check that out, because I think this is going to be an episode that we will refer back to Kate. Certainly I will. Because there's so much value here and I think this is just a little insight into what it's like to know you, to work with you, to connect with you, to follow you. And if anybody doesn't follow Kate, please do go and jump over onto Instagram and follow Kate and we'll put the details in the show notes. But for those driving and listening, Kate, can you just share your handle and your website?
[00:20:57] Kate: Yeah, so the website is kateaddamo.com and I've recently changed the handle to @kateaddamomentor. My podcast is currently on pause, but it'll be coming back in a couple of months time, all going well. So keep an eye out for that one. But yes, Tracey, thank you. It's about the whole woman for me, not just one part because all important.
[00:21:14] We've gotta look at it holistically.
[00:21:16] Tracey: Thank you, Kate. Thank you so much for joining me for our third episode.
[00:21:19] Kate: Thank you for having me.
[00:21:20] Tracey: My goodness. I love having conversations with Kate, and I'm sure you can see why we are so connected on so many levels and she's so generous in the value she shares, both in terms of her own journey and things that she works on with her clients. We will put all of the links in the show notes, so you can track Kate down on her website and over on Instagram and if our conversation around Kate's aligned Woman program resonated, the link for that one will be in the show notes as well. Definitely worth taking a look. Thank you as always for joining me.
[00:21:49] I'll catch you next time. [00:22:00]
LINKS:
Connect with Kate Addamo:
Website: https://kateaddamo.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kateaddamomentor/
Flourish - 1:1 Mentoring Program: https://kateaddamo.com/mentoring
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