The $20,000 Coaching Business Rebrand I Knew Wasn’t Right (But I Did It Anyway)

I once paid a branding company $20,000 to help me rebrand my business.

Yep, you read that right.

Twenty. Thousand. Dollars.

Which, in hindsight, is quite a lot of money to spend discovering that your gut had already given you a much better answer for free

The people I handed the cash over to were at the top of their game, they were respected, their thinking was clever and the changes they advised all made perfect sense in the grand scheme of things considering what I was trying to achieve.

There was just one problem...

I didn't like it.

Not in a “hmm, I’m not sure about that font” kind of way.

I mean I REALLY didn’t like it.

Deep down, I knew it didn't feel right for me or the business I wanted to build but instead of trusting my gut, I trusted the experts, their experience and their 'proven' process.

Because I mean, they were THE experts that pretty much EVERYONE was raving about as knowing their stuff about transforming businesses like mine, so obviously they must know better than my gut, right?

After all, it could just have been a bad case of wind that was putting my gut on edge, y'know?

The way I saw it was that they were the experts... AND I’d just paid them $20,000.

Which creates a certain amount of psychological pressure to nod thoughtfully and say things like...

“Interesting.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Hmm... bold.”

...when what you REALLY mean is “I hate this and I feel like I'm gonna puke in my mouth”

So, of course, being the forthright, direct, self-confident and high-agency kinda guy that I am... I went with it.

New name.

New branding.

New storylines.

New language.

New business identity.

Lovely... except it wasn’t. Because it wasn't me.

So yeah, I spent the next 18 months living inside a business identity I hated which is a VERY expensive way of finding out that alignment matters.

Of course, eventually, I changed it back to the way it'd been before.

It still wasn't perfect but by that point I didn't care because it felt more truthful.

More natural.

More me.

And that experience taught me something I've seen play out again and again in the coaching industry over the years and something that's become the cornerstone of the help I now give to the coaches I work with.

It's that a process can be intelligent, professional, well thought out and PROVEN.

Yet it can STILL be completely wrong for the person who has to live with the consequences of putting it into practice.

And to be clear, that doesn't mean experts are useless.

It doesn't mean you should ignore good advice or refuse support.

But it DOES mean the plan doesn't get to override the PERSON it's designed to help just because someone who’s got more knowledge, skill and experience says it's a great thing to do.

Because YOU'RE the one who has to deliver the promise, YOU'RE the one who has to show up speaking the message that's been created and YOU'RE the one who has to wake up every day and actually live inside the business you've created.

Not the experts.

YOU.

The expert gets to hand you the strategy but YOU have to live with the bloody thing.

THAT'S why listening to your gut matters a lot more than most people realise and why I wish I'd listened to mine.

Because that's the gut's job.

Sometimes it’s trying to save you 18 months of living inside a business you’ll secretly hate.

And sometimes it’s trying to save you from building the wrong bloody life altogether.