Over the past year I’ve been receiving texts and emails from friends about Rachel Allen, the Irish chef, ranging from “turn on your TV – you’re on live now!” to “I didn’t know you had a range of cookware”. From the various messages it appears she is frequently on TV and has launched her own kitchen range.
I was given a Rachel Allen- Bake! book as a housewarming gift last year and can certainly recommend some of her yummy recipes. I think it’s quite lovely to share my name with someone who spends her time creating a frenzy of activity in kitchens and rustling up delicious treats. I would like to say I do the same, but it’s more truthful to say I’m learning.
Rebranding and change
Branding is obviously really important and one of the reasons my Twitter ID and blog URL are RachAllen rather than RachelAllen are because they were already taken when I set my account up.
Rachel Allen to Rachel Miller
The reason this is all springing to mind at the moment is because I’m five weeks away from getting married and have been deciding whether to change my surname to Miller.
I had thought about keeping Allen professionally but I will be a Miller for far longer than the 30 years I’ve been an Allen and have decided to make the swap across all areas of my life. Oh yes I turned 30 a few days ago too – it’s very much all systems go in our household at the moment.
As if planning a wedding wasn’t hectic enough, I’m also about to change jobs – a personal rebranding and change programme all in one if you like! From mid-November (a few days after touching down from honeymoon), I will be working in comms for a global pharmaceutical company. This is a fresh change of sector for me and although I’ve enjoyed my three and-a-half year foray into the fascinating world of rail and my last 14 months in my current role, this is a new opportunity for me and one I can’t wait to start. I think that’s the beauty of comms, you can change the widget, service or sector, but the essential ingredients that make up an organisation are still the same and your skills are transferable.
Talking of ingredients, I’m sure there’s some of my birthday cake (pictured) left in the kitchen… Until next time, Rachel
It’s all change for you then Rachel. Best of luck with the wedding, the new job and the new brand. Always fancied going pharma myself, I’m sure you’ll love it. I did a quick Google on Rachel Miller hoping there was another celebrity chef that I could make a cheesy gag about, but the results were pretty unremarkable. Looks like the path is clear for RachMiller to become famous without any ambiguity 😉