Shaking things up – for charities and businesses

Known for her organisation and planning skills, marketer Rachael Dines never planned to be a business owner.

In a way, Rachael Dines has already come full circle. Her teen dream was to work in media and whilst that didn’t happen, in recent years she’s been on live TV, radio and in national newspapers. And despite no longer having the time to be in the organisation, she qualified as a Brownie leader at just 18 because Guiding had given her so many opportunities and she disagreed that only boys should have these (girls could not be Scouts until the nineties) – now she is an advocate of International Women’s Day.

Rachael’s business life began solo as a freelancer, was followed by five years in a business partnership and now she’s sole owner of her marketing company, Shake It Up Creative, and loving being at the helm.

In the early 2000’s Rachael was hosting camera crews, sports journalists and corporate sponsors at top-flight professional basketball matches in a packed Brighton arena, in her first marketing job.

She said: “I didn’t truly know what marketing was, but the job sounded fun and it came with the opportunity for paid study of Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) qualifications so I jumped on board – it was low pay but very cool, plus I had a Marketing Director to learn from.”

Following the sports marketing role and marketing positions across publishing, travel and software, the 2008-9 recession rolled in. In a shock announcement, Rachael was made redundant whilst in early pregnancy with her first child. She decided the best option was to set up temporarily as a freelancer.

“My first client came via a friend of my sister’s and that hospitality company ended up working with me for almost six years,” she said. “Their core need was PR but I was a generalist marketer so there was a lot I could help them with. I’d also set myself up properly, with branding, and following a UKTI scholarship to study B2B marketing in Chicago, I then purposefully achieved my Chartered Marketer status for credibility. I didn’t just play at it.”

With the realisation that she had a strong business head despite never thinking that she might work for herself, that temporary plan became an ambition to grow a successful marketing company. In 2015, she co-founded Shake It Up Creative. Keen to make the business stand out, an initiative called ShakeItHUB came to life, a free drop-in session for people to bring their marketing and website questions to. One lady even travelled down from London to get advice. The initiative grew in awareness and expanded into pop-up sessions across Sussex. When the pandemic hit, Rachael went through a stressful business breakup and ShakeItHUB moved online – it stayed this way as it was more efficient all round.

Rachael said: “A book taught me that my purpose is to help people and I really love helping others, so alongside the profit-making company, the ShakeItHUB hours combined with my other pro bono work (BIPC Sussex, Community Works and The Social Society) is united in the form of a brand promise; Shake It Up Creative gives an hour of free support to a startup or solopreneur for every project it works on and I’m incredibly proud of that.”

Rachael now has three sons and she is a Trustee and the Chair of her youngest’s primary school charity. She is an Ambassador for Worthing & Adur Chamber of Commerce, an Enterprise Nation Adviser and a Growth Champion for the Coast to Capital LEP.  Her Worthing-based marketing and web agency turns ten next year and is going from strength to strength with a couple of awards under its belt and a small team in place. Shake It Up Creative has worked with brand clients including Savile Row Company, BONRAW and Brighton Gin. But the company’s strengths lie within the arts and culture, hospitality and charity sectors, all of which Rachael feels personally connected to.

“I’ve worked in all of these sectors myself and had clients in each, stretching right back to my freelance days,” she said.  “I can’t seem to help but get behind every cause and organisation I work with either; I go to the performances, I eat in the restaurants and I champion the charities, as a company we are all about working in collaboration with our clients and not just for them.”

So what’s next? Shake It Up Creative is launching a new website this year and as part of that, there are some plans that are currently embargoed, as they say in the PR world.  The five core creative service areas won’t change though and the company will continue to do a lot of public sector work within funded business support programmes. 

When asked about International Women’s Day, Rachael says it’s something she has always supported in her business because she strongly believes in gender equality.

“IWD is a celebration of women’s achievements but more importantly, a day to loudly call for change. If we are to improve gender equity then it should not just be women gathering for IWD events or celebrating each other, we need other genders to do this too. When I held my own IWD event it was inclusive for all, both in terms of the speakers and the audience.  For me, this is essential so that we are not just hearing our own echo and we can unite as humanity in driving positive change. I’m honoured to be part of this year’s SBT feature, thank you, and I do hope I see men reading and sharing the stories being told!”

www.shakeitupcreative.com