After 20 years in marketing and even running her own branding agency, Ceels Lockley was still DIYing her brand. And her business was growing! But soon, she realized her business had completely outgrown what she’d patched together.
In this episode of Brand Your Way to a Million, I sat down with Ceels Lockley, an offer strategist and business mentor who helps service providers create streamlined offer ecosystems and stop undercharging for their expertise. What makes Ceels’ story particularly compelling is our collaboration overseas and her perseverance through a major identity crisis.
When Your Business Outgrows Your Brand
Ceels had been in marketing for 20 years and even ran her own branding agency at one point. With that background, she felt confident DIYing her own brand. “I have a real kind of love of brand and design,” she explained. “I really have always DIYed everything I’ve done, and I have felt like, oh, well, I could probably do it myself and it will do.”
But last year, something shifted. “My business was growing and my brand was not growing with me,” Ceels realized. She had hit major income milestones, was at capacity with her one-on-one work, and had formalized her group program. Yet something felt off.
“It didn’t represent who I wanted to be or who I felt I was. It felt like I put together something which was a bit of a front,” she shared. “I realized that it didn’t feel aligned to me and I wanted something completely unique to me.”
This is such a common experience for entrepreneurs who’ve been DIYing their brand. What works in the early stages of business often becomes a limitation as you grow and evolve.
Choosing Strategy Over Safety
What’s fascinating about Ceels’ story is that she had been following my work for over a year before making the investment. “You were on my vision board for a long time,” she admitted.
As someone with a design background, she was particularly discerning about who she worked with. “A lot of branding I see as very conformative. It’s all very much like, we’re gonna put you in this box and it’s all gonna look a certain way. And I just didn’t want that for my brand,” she explained.
When she finally committed to the rebrand, her approach surprised even me. “I remember putting on my form, I don’t, I almost like, I don’t mind what you do, just like you’ve got full creative control. I trust you completely,” she said.
This level of trust came from understanding that strategic branding isn’t about personal preferences. “I didn’t want my preconceptions or my personal preferences about my brand to influence the brand because I feel like a strategic brand is a brand that isn’t necessarily because you like a certain color or because this is trending.”
Navigating an Identity Crisis During a Rebrand
Here’s where Ceels’ story gets really honest. The moment she committed to the rebrand, she experienced what she calls “a full-on identity crisis” that lasted from August through December.
“I had a real confidence drop. I didn’t feel very much in love with my business, my offers. I struggled and I felt like there was a disconnect,” she shared openly.
This is something I see with many clients, but Ceels’ experience was particularly intense. Once you have that awareness that your current brand isn’t serving you, it becomes almost impossible to use it with confidence while you wait for the new one.
But there was an upside to this discomfort: “It was the biggest kick up the ass I needed, to be really frank. I think there were some things in my business which I was feeling like they weren’t a hundred percent where I wanted them to be.”
During this period, Ceels overhauled multiple offers, refined her processes, and elevated her standards across the board. “Having a rebrand really pushes you to think about what you’re gonna be putting out there,” she explained.
The Magic of Creative Direction
One of my favorite aspects of Ceels’ rebrand was how we landed on the festival theme. The concept came from masterminding with Vix Meldrew, who suggested thinking about offers like a festival lineup – with warmup acts and headliners.
“I was like, oh my God, this is it. This is the thing,” Ceels remembered. “It gives me so much of a frame for my brand, which doesn’t feel contrived. It feels very genuine to me. I’m a British girl. I grew up in the countryside. I’m always outdoors. I love going to festivals. It’s like the part of me that I’ve been hiding because I was like, I need to be a professional and wear a blazer.”
This is exactly what I mean when I talk about reputation-led positioning. We weren’t just creating something that looked good – we were helping Ceels step into her authentic identity while maintaining the sophistication and premium positioning her business required.
The Photo Shoot: The First Taste of Transformation
“I have done quite a few photo shoots, but I’ve never done a photo shoot like this,” Ceels shared about her rebrand photo shoot experience. “The fact that there was so much attention to detail on styling was such a helpful thing for me because I’m always so lost about what to wear for a shoot.”
Working with a photographer she’d used four times before, but with completely new creative direction, Ceels felt like “a completely different new person” on her shoot. They shot five or six different outfits across studio and outdoor locations, bringing the festival concept to life.
“It just made me feel so much confidence and excitement for what was to come,” she said.
This is why I always say the photo shoot is often the first moment clients really feel the identity shift happening. Everything else is digital, but the shoot is where you physically embody your new brand.
Ceels’ Best Launch Yet
Ceels’ first major launch with her new brand was for her signature offer, Dream, in February. The difference was immediately apparent.
“I had so much confidence in what I was selling. And I really think the rebrand played a huge role in that,” she explained. “This offer was already established… I had this little reckoning moment. I was like, right, you’ve got this rebrand. You’ve got all these amazing assets. You’ve got an opportunity. Now you’ve got this proven offer. You know, you can make it better.”
This resulted in her best launch yet!
But it wasn’t just about the numbers. There was a fundamental shift in how people perceived her offer. “It had gone from an offer that I was proactively having to talk to people about… to people coming to me and asking me about it, and people saying, oh my God, I’m so excited for Dream. When are the doors opening?”
This shift in perception gave Ceels the confidence to raise her prices significantly for her next launch. “More people have told me, it’s like, whoa, yes, now it’s the right price. Like this is the price it should have been.”
The Operational Impact, Post-Rebrand
One of the most practical benefits Ceels experienced was how much easier it became to create new offers. “Now I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time when I’m creating an offer,” she explained.
She created a new offer called Parade in just two days – something that would have taken weeks with her previous setup. “I’ve got the pieces to be able to do that and it’s so much easier to be able to articulate what the offer is… rather than having to be like, oh, this needs a whole new design and this has got to have its own identity.”
Her new website also functions as a true marketing tool rather than just a digital brochure. “Previously my website was very much, these are my offers. This is my about page, this is my contact page. And it wasn’t behaving like a marketing tool in the fullest sense.”
Now she has comprehensive sales pages, multiple opt-in pages, and a links page she can easily update. “I don’t have to send people off to like a flow desk sales page or like a random other tool. It’s all on the site.”
As Ceels looks ahead to her first full year with the rebrand, her focus is on refinement rather than creation. “This year is all about deep focus. This is about more refinement, not creating loads of new things, and just being very focused on making my core offers even better and scaling those.”
This strategic approach reflects the confidence that comes from having a solid brand foundation. Instead of constantly trying to patch things together or create new solutions, she can focus on optimizing what’s working.
Key Takeaways for Your Brand Journey
Ceels’ transformation offers several crucial insights for anyone considering a rebrand:
- Recognize when DIY stops serving you – Even with extensive design experience, there comes a point where you need strategic outside perspective.
- Expect (and embrace) the identity crisis – The discomfort you feel during a rebrand often signals that you’re ready for the next level.
- Trust the strategic process – Personal preferences shouldn’t drive brand decisions when you’re building for business growth.
- Think comprehensively, not piecemeal – Patch-up jobs eventually stop working. Sometimes you need to invest in the full transformation.
- Prepare for operational efficiency – A strategic rebrand doesn’t just change how you look; it changes how efficiently you can operate and scale.
As Ceels put it: “I was tired of having to wing it with lots of different pieces that weren’t strategic. I was ready to go completely all in and have something that would take my business to a place which I could never do if I tried to piece all those together.”
The truth is, your business has probably outgrown your current brand. If you’re feeling that disconnect between who you are and how you’re showing up, if you’re tired of patch-up jobs and ready for strategic transformation, it might be time to stop DIYing and invest in the comprehensive rebrand your business deserves.
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