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How to Build an Authentic Personal Brand with Dr. Chelsea Shields - Part 2

Play It Brave Podcast

Release Date: 07/03/2025

HOW I WENT FROM $4,500 TO $10,500 IN 6 WEEKS show art HOW I WENT FROM $4,500 TO $10,500 IN 6 WEEKS

Play It Brave Podcast

Sometimes your work grows faster than your identity does. In 2012, I had spent years charging $4,500 for wedding photography when a dream client called me just 27 days before their Sundance wedding. When she asked what I would charge for the weekend, I heard myself say a number I'd never said before: $7,500. She said yes. Two weeks later, I booked my first $10,500 wedding. I didn't suddenly become twice as talented in six weeks. The work had been happening for years. My skill, eye, experience and judgment had already changed. My identity simply hadn't caught up. In this short episode of Play...

info_outline How I Lead My Clients Through a Major Transformation show art How I Lead My Clients Through a Major Transformation

Play It Brave Podcast

You can know exactly why you do something and still keep doing it. You can know where the pattern came from. You can have journaled about it, talked about it, analyzed it, named it—and then Tuesday comes around and there you are, doing the thing again. Because understanding a pattern and changing a pattern are two different skills. In this episode, I'm taking you inside the work I've fallen completely in love with: how I lead a client through a major Breakthrough. Not a quick mindset shift. Not another affirmation pasted over something you don't actually believe. The deeper work of finding...

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Play It Brave Podcast

If you’ve ever tried to force  yourself out of procrastination, you know how well that works. You can know exactly what to do. You can have the time. You can want the result so badly it aches — and still find yourself answering emails, returning something to Nordstrom, or deciding the junk drawer has to be dealt with right now. That isn’t laziness. Laziness would be doing nothing, and you are doing a great deal. You’re just not doing the one thing that matters. Which means the problem was never your character. It’s the state you’re in. In this first Rewire Friday, D’Arcy...

info_outline Starting Over at 48: I Fired My Team, Ended My Biggest Love, and Flew to India show art Starting Over at 48: I Fired My Team, Ended My Biggest Love, and Flew to India

Play It Brave Podcast

For the first time, the whole story of the last two years — told from the other side. In this episode: The heroine’s journey — the map: the hero comes home with the treasure; the heroine realizes she is the treasure, and she is the home The launch that cracked it open: 21 yeses where 90 used to say yes — and the sentence that took over December 2024: the call that was harder than the breakup — and why it turned out to be the first brave decision of the rebirth THE VALUES AUDIT — five signs your season is a values change, not a collapse: (1) the wins land flat, (2) you’re...

info_outline Content Is Dead: Why the Creator Economy Is Over — and the Artist Economy Is Next show art Content Is Dead: Why the Creator Economy Is Over — and the Artist Economy Is Next

Play It Brave Podcast

Most photographers aren’t studying photography anymore — they’re studying Instagram. In this solo episode, D’Arcy confesses to a decade of studying the wrong things — algorithms, funnels, hooks — and makes the case for what comes after the creator economy: the artist economy. It starts with Gene Kelly, soaked to the skin and swinging off a lamppost, and the strange grief of watching real devotion. Inside: The sentence the whole episode is built on — you cannot consistently photograph what you refuse to cultivate within yourself. How apprenticeship became consumption  The 4...

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Play It Brave Podcast

Success came easy. Love didn't. If you've built the business, the body of work, the beautiful life — and love is still the one thing that won't land — this conversation was recorded for you. D'Arcy sits down with self-love and relationship expert Sanaiyah Gurnamal — two-time TEDx speaker and host of Project Loving Myself (a Spotify Top 50 podcast with 1M+ downloads) — to name the three love blocks that keep high-achieving women single or stuck: the People Pleaser, the Commitment-Phobe, and the Runaway Bride. In this episode: why women who fight for everything never learn to receive...

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Play It Brave Podcast

What if the biggest thing standing between you and the life you want isn't a lack of opportunity, talent, or strategy, but your ability to receive? In this episode, I'm exploring a question that has fascinated me for years, both in my own life and in my work with clients: Why do we struggle to receive the very things we say we want most? Love, support, visibility, money, rest, belonging. So often, when those things finally arrive, something inside us pushes them away. I share personal stories, powerful insights from my Receiving Map sessions, and lessons from neuroscience and consciousness...

info_outline From Burnout to Resonance – Building an Elevated Brand from the Inside Out: Live Coaching Call with Kristen Marie show art From Burnout to Resonance – Building an Elevated Brand from the Inside Out: Live Coaching Call with Kristen Marie

Play It Brave Podcast

What does it actually look like to evolve from a successful photographer into a fully embodied luxury brand? In this deeply personal episode of the Play It Brave podcast, I’m taking you behind the scenes with my client and dear friend, Kristen Marie, as she walks through a massive identity shift, creative rebirth, and business rebrand. Kristen has been photographing weddings and adventure elopements for over eight years, and after years of success in the elopement world, her body finally told her something had to change. Together, we talk openly about burnout, redefining success, and the...

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Play It Brave Podcast

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on how I approach photographing a high-level, multi-day destination wedding—from the mindset I bring, to the creative direction, to the very real pressure behind the glamour. After more than two decades in this industry, I don’t just show up and “document” a wedding. I direct it. I shape it. I craft it into a visual story that feels cinematic, intentional, and deeply personal to the couple. If you’ve ever wondered how to elevate your work from delivering a gallery to creating a story that stops people in their tracks, this episode is...

info_outline The Truth About Manifestation and Reclaiming Your Intuition show art The Truth About Manifestation and Reclaiming Your Intuition

Play It Brave Podcast

On this episode of the Play It Brave podcast, I’m taking a conversation I started on Instagram and going deeper into something I care deeply about: manifestation, intuition, and personal power. Because here’s the truth, I don’t believe you when you say you don’t know who you are or what you want. I say that with love. What I’ve found, both in my own life and in working with so many of you, is that “not knowing” is often a protection mechanism. It’s a way we stay safe from the courage, change, and disruption that comes with actually claiming what we want. So today, I’m...

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More Episodes

This week, the brilliant Dr. Chelsea Shields and I continue the conversation about something that’s at the heart of every powerful brand and every transformational leader: authenticity.

We go deep into what it means to show up fully as yourself in your brand, your business, and your life. From emotional intelligence to the way you use your voice and body to communicate, this conversation is a masterclass in being seen and felt as the real you.

Chelsea and I talk about how hard it can be—especially for women—to strike the balance between being authentic and being perceived as credible. We break down the subtle cues that create trust (or mistrust), like body language, tone of voice, and what Chelsea calls “safety signals.” We also explore the role of vulnerability in leadership, and why being polished and perfect often isn’t what people actually connect with.

If you’ve ever felt like you need to be a certain version of yourself to be “taken seriously” or you’ve struggled to feel truly seen in your business, this episode is for you. We wrap things up with actionable tools you can use right now to show up more authentically, communicate with impact, and build a brand that doesn’t just look good—it feels right.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • Why authenticity isn’t about being the same in every room

  • The unique pressure women face to perform "authenticity"

  • How to use your voice and body to communicate clearly and powerfully

  • Why emotional intelligence is non-negotiable for leadership

  • What it really means to create safety and trust

  • How honesty and consistency build a brand people believe in

  • The difference between an authentic brand and an inauthentic one (hint: people feel it)

Connect with Dr. Chelsea Shields

https://www.brandthropologieagency.com