Today we’d like to introduce you to Denise Reid.
Hi Denise , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I often joke that entrepreneurship is in my DNA, but it’s actually true.
My mom has been an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. Over the years she owned a hair salon, a restaurant, a Jamaican black castor oil company, raised chickens, and found countless ways to create opportunities for herself and our family. Watching her taught me that entrepreneurship isn’t just about starting a business. It’s about resourcefulness, resilience, adaptability, and being willing to figure things out when there isn’t a clear path forward.
Professionally, I spent more than a decade helping organizations tell their stories, engage communities, and connect with the people they serve. Along the way, I realized I was less interested in marketing as promotion and more interested in marketing as clarity. I loved helping people make sense of complex ideas, uncover what made them different, and build strategies that actually fit their goals.
As my experience grew, friends, creators, founders, and organizations started coming to me for advice. What began as helping people on the side gradually turned into consulting work. I found that many people didn’t need more marketing tactics. They needed clarity about their audience, their message, and where they should focus their efforts. Those early projects eventually became the foundation for Purple Mango Co.
I launched Purple Mango as a strategy-first marketing consultancy while still working full-time. Then, after more than a decade in my career, I was laid off. What could have been a setback became an inflection point. Instead of asking what job I wanted next, I found myself asking what I wanted to build.
The answer was to fully invest in the business that had already been growing in the background.
Today, I spend my time consulting, teaching, speaking, creating content, and helping founders and organizations grow with intention. In many ways, Purple Mango’s tagline, “Grow Clearer,” reflects my own journey just as much as it reflects the work I do for clients.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definitely not.
One thing I’ve learned is that building a business is never a straight line. Most people see the finished version of an idea, but they don’t see all the iterations that came before it.
Purple Mango has evolved quite a bit over the years. Early on, I was balancing consulting work alongside a full-time career, taking on projects where I could, learning what kinds of work energized me, and figuring out where I could create the most value. Like many entrepreneurs, I spent time questioning everything from my pricing to my services to whether I was building the right thing at all.
One of the biggest challenges was learning that being good at marketing and building a marketing business are two very different skill sets. I knew how to help clients succeed. Building the systems, processes, operations, and confidence required to run a business was an entirely different learning curve.
Then came a layoff after more than a decade in my career. While it wasn’t something I would have chosen, it forced me to get honest with myself. I had to stop treating entrepreneurship like a future plan and decide that I was going to fully invest in it.
There were definitely moments of uncertainty. Moments when I wondered if I should take a safer path. Moments when things felt slower than I wanted them to. But every challenge pushed me to get clearer about who I am, the work I want to do, and the impact I want Purple Mango to have.
Looking back, I don’t think the biggest challenge was the layoff or even the uncertainty. It was learning to trust myself enough to build something that reflects my own vision instead of someone else’s.
Ironically, that’s the same lesson that eventually became the foundation of my business: clarity creates momentum.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Purple Mango Co?
Purple Mango Co. is a strategy-first marketing consultancy that helps founders, entrepreneurs, personal brands, and organizations build marketing grounded in research, strategic direction, and audience clarity.
In simple terms, I help people make better marketing decisions.
Over the years, I’ve noticed that clarity sits at the center of almost every marketing challenge. Whether you’re building a business, growing a personal brand, launching a campaign, or pitching yourself for an opportunity, it’s hard to make confident decisions when you’re unclear about who you’re trying to reach, what you want to be known for, or where you’re headed.
That’s where Purple Mango comes in.
I work with clients to understand their goals, audience, and opportunities before jumping into tactics. Depending on the need, that might look like audience research, marketing strategy development, campaign planning, content strategy, or consulting. The goal is always the same: helping clients make informed decisions that support sustainable growth.
What sets Purple Mango apart is our belief that strategy should come before execution. Before we worry about what to post or where to show up, we take the time to understand what’s actually worth building. That approach helps clients focus their time, energy, and resources on the things that will create the greatest impact.
What I’m most proud of is that Purple Mango has developed a clear point of view. Our tagline is “Grow Clearer,” and it reflects how I approach both business and marketing. In a world that encourages people to move faster, do more, and constantly chase the next thing, I believe there is value in slowing down long enough to make intentional decisions.
Good marketing starts with clarity. Once you know who you’re serving, what you want to be known for, and where you’re trying to go, you can make decisions with a lot more confidence and a lot less guesswork.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Something that might surprise people is that marketing was never the thing I was most fascinated by. People were.
I grew up in a Jamaican household that just happened to be in the United States of America. Inside my home was Jamaican culture, Jamaican values, Jamaican food, and Jamaican perspectives. Outside my home was the U.S. Navigating those different worlds made me curious from a very young age about people, culture, identity, and the experiences that shape how we see ourselves and others.
I’ve always been the person asking questions, observing people, and trying to understand what motivates them. I was fascinated by different cultures, different communities, and different ways of seeing the world. That curiosity followed me into college, where I studied Organizational Communication with minors in Business and Sociology, and it continues to influence how I approach my work today.
I think that’s why people are sometimes surprised to learn that I’m actually much more reflective than they assume. I genuinely enjoy speaking, teaching, networking, and building relationships, but what those things have always had in common is curiosity and community, not a desire to be the center of attention.
That same thread shows up in some of my passions outside of work, too. I grew up singing in choir and I still love music. Music has always felt like one of the most powerful ways people connect with one another. Whether it’s marketing, teaching, community building, or music, I’m drawn to the things that help people better understand themselves and each other.
When I look back, it makes perfect sense that I ended up in marketing. At its best, marketing is really about understanding people.
Pricing:
- Pick My Brain / Consultation Sessions: $125
- Marketing Strategy & Consulting Engagements: Starting at $4,000
- Audience Research, Campaign Planning, and Strategic Marketing Projects: Custom pricing based on scope
- Speaking Engagements, Workshops, and Training Sessions: Custom pricing
- Additional resources and lower-investment offerings are available for founders, creators, and small businesses looking for strategic guidance at different stages of growth
Contact Info:
- Website: https://purplemangoco.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denisefelisha/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denise-reid/
- Other: https://mail.purplemangoco.com/
