Interview with Ceels Lockley

Ceels Lockley is an Offer Strategy Consultant based in the UK, working with service providers, freelancers, consultants and agency owners. Ceels specialises in consulting, guiding and coaching in niche marketing, offer suite design and messaging.

With over 20 years of experience in digital marketing, Ceels’ background includes social media and creative direction for Sony Mobile and Habitat as well as leading digital editorial and content for Tesco Magazine. Ceels left her agency career in 2019 to pursue self-employment to work around her baby daughter and has since built a thriving coaching and strategy business.

Ceels hosts the Peaceful Service Pro podcast, a weekly show aimed at service providers who desire peace and profit in business. With over 100+ episodes and 45,000 downloads, the podcast features a blend of mindset and strategy tips as well as guest experts.

Ceels, originally from Kent, lives in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire with her husband and daughter.

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What inspired you to start your own business, and what challenges did you face in the initial stages of entrepreneurship?

My parents have always been self-employed, so being an entrepreneur has always felt inevitable. I found the corporate world pretty gruelling and wanted to create a life and business on my own terms. Starting out on my own in 2010 was tough – there wasn’t the resources and advice online like we have now, and I felt very alone at times. It was difficult to know how much to charge, how to market myself and how to make my business ‘work’. I made so many mistakes!

How do you maintain a work-life balance while running a successful business?

I don’t believe in work-life balance as such, but I think you can create boundaries that help keep the two aspects of yourself separate. For example, I only work during school hours Monday to Thursday, and spend a lot of the school holidays off.  

Can you share a significant milestone or achievement that you are particularly proud of in your entrepreneurial journey?

My podcast, Peaceful Service Pro. I started it in 2021 on a bit of a whim, and it has since grown to 50,000 downloads and over 125 episodes. The show gets such a lot of love from listeners, and I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished with it so far!

Have you experienced any gender-related obstacles or biases since starting your own business?

One of the reasons I started my own business was to get away from the gender biases I experienced in the corporate world – I’ve done well to avoid them mostly. I did join a mastermind a few years ago that was very male-oriented and found as a woman that there was little understanding for the female experience of entrepreneurship, such as juggling big goals with parenting, navigating hormonal and mood fluctuations and dealing with things like imposter syndrome as a result of social conditioning as a marginalised gender.

How do you empower and support other women in business?

I strive to make my work via my podcast, content and delivery of my strategy and coaching services an empowering experience for women by leading them towards new ideas and perspectives that can change the way they run their businesses and lives. There’s a lot of BS out there and I aim to cut through a lot of that by being direct, honest and supportive in my approach.

What role has mentorship played in your career, and how has it influenced your growth as a business owner?

I’ve been mentored and coached in various ways in my career and it has been invaluable. I’ve loved having a second pair of eyes on my work, especially having had periods where I didn’t have a mentor and recalling the huge challenges I faced without that type of support. I’ve worked with coaches and mentors who have helped me to realise my ambitions, pushed me to start the scary work and chase my goals – I don’t think I’d have ever got anywhere close to where I am now without them.

How have you found marketing your business – has it been easy for you, or have you found it quite difficult? 

I’m a trained and experienced marketing professional with 20 years experience of working with everyone from small businesses right up to huge global brands. Whilst I know a great deal about marketing on a broad level, learning to market my own business was a HUGE learning curve. I found it incredibly difficult at first, and experienced all the imposter syndrome, visibility wobbles and struggles with staying consistent. I only now find marketing my business ‘easy’ because I’ve spent the best part of the last 5 years mastering how to do it, and failing ALOT along the way

What are your main marketing activities, and what do you find works best for you? 

My main ‘top of funnel’ activity is my podcast and I am also active across TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram and Threads. I also have an email list of around 250 who I write to several times a week. I find that my podcast does most of the heavy lifting in my business and brings me 80% of my clients, but I also pick up a lot of clients via my content on social media. I’ve recently started outsourcing my Instagram content and have found posting 4 times a week for the past 3 months to have significantly improved how I attract and convert clients. I think the key to my marketing strategy is consistency and repetition – my messaging is very focused and I talk about the same 3-5 topics constantly.

Can you discuss a time when you had to pivot or adapt your business strategy?

In 2021 I had been running a branding and content agency for 18 months and was fed up with it. I had completely burned myself out trying to create something that unfortunately wasn’t the best fit for my lifestyle as a mum to a small child, so I took a big pivot into mentorship and community building. It was terrifying as I’d worked so hard to build my agency, but I knew that long-term it would bring me more of the type of work I wanted to do – glad to say that is indeed the case now!

Looking ahead, what are your future goals and aspirations for your business?

I currently work 1:1 for the most part with clients, so I think the future for me is about eventually building out more 1:many offers and being able to serve at scale. I’m not in a hurry to do this though – I’m firmly focused on building my authority and reputation in my chosen niche for the next couple of years, and along the way I may look to start filming my podcast in a studio and growing that to 100K downloads!

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This is the first of a new interview series with inspirational women in my network. If you would be interested in participating, please drop me a line!