I Rebranded Before I Launched!
After letting my photography career lie dormant for several years, I decided to revive it and create a brand-new website to showcase my portfolio of feline photography. This time, I also planned to add a shop where I could sell my images, so I began searching for the right website builder.
After extensive research, I chose Squarespace. It offered the customization, features and integrations I wanted, including fulfillment options that could facilitate online sales. It felt great to make that first all-important decision.
Knowing there would be a learning curve, I immersed myself in online tutorials. And somewhere during that month of learning, something unexpected happened:
I realized I didn’t really want to return to photography.
I adore photography, but reviving my career simply wasn’t exciting me at this stage of my life. What was exciting me, to my complete surprise, was web design!
Maybe there was a reason I had let my photography career lie dormant for so long.
The niche I once loved had also changed dramatically. Cat magazines where I had once been published had struggled or disappeared. Cat Fancy, once the standard-bearer of feline publications, eventually became Catster. I was fortunate to be published in Catster during its early days, but before long, freelance photography largely gave way to stock imagery. More recently, AI-generated images have transformed the landscape even further.
The world changes, and we adapt as best we can.
Meanwhile, this new challenge of web design had completely piqued my imagination. Designing websites for others scratched my creative itch in a way returning to my former career simply didn't. I had found something new that genuinely excited me.
Enter Nine Lives Creative
As I began educating myself about web design, I discovered Katelyn Dekle’s Launch the Damn Thing® community. I joined and quickly realized I had found an invaluable resource—and a mentor whose advice would have a tremendous impact on my new business.
My original plan was to connect my new web design business with my 20-year career in feline photography. I would design websites while also incorporating the online shop I had envisioned for selling my cat portraits.
When I asked Katelyn for advice about potential business names, she encouraged me to embrace my feline photography background as a niche. It made perfect sense. I already had credibility in that world, along with an established audience of photographers and die-hard cat lovers.
Among the names we considered, one immediately stood out:
Nine Lives Creative.
I loved it.
The name was broad enough to encompass web design and photography, but it also had layers of personal meaning for me. Obviously, I’m a cat person. But as a multiple-time breast cancer survivor, the idea of “nine lives” also represented surviving hardships and beginning again.
The feline connection was icing on the cake.
After checking the trademark landscape, I moved ahead with Nine Lives Creative. I designed a logo, began building the website and was very excited about my new brand.
Initially.
Then Another Name Appeared
As part of setting up the business, I needed an LLC with a name separate from my own. Suddenly, I had to come up with another business name—something broad enough that Nine Lives Creative and any future ventures could operate under it.
I started scribbling ideas on a piece of paper.
I combined a few words. Crossed some out. Rearranged others.
And suddenly, there it was:
Launch Your Dreams Creative.
I immediately loved it.
The name had nothing to do with photography or cats. Instead, it captured something much bigger—the excitement of starting a business and helping other people build theirs.
Not just a business.
A DREAM.
And that's when I began torturing myself.
I loved Nine Lives Creative. I loved Launch Your Dreams Creative. My trademark application for Nine Lives Creative was practically ready to go; all I had to do was hit “Submit.”
I couldn't do it.
At least, not immediately.
I even contacted my trademark attorney to ask whether I could change the application to Launch Your Dreams Creative. He said I could, since I hadn't submitted it yet—but advised me to be sure.
After going over it and over it in my mind, I decided to stick with the original plan. Nine Lives Creative had so much going for it. I had put considerable thought into the name and had sought expert advice before choosing it.
So, I submitted the application.
Nine Lives Creative it was!
Or so I thought.
The Name That Wouldn't Leave Me Alone
I continued building the website. I had my logo. I had my color palette. I had my pages ready for images and copy.
I also opened a business bank account for my LLC.
As I was leaving the bank, the banker who had helped me looked at my newly minted debit card and said:
“Oh! I really LOVE your new business name—Launch Your Dreams Creative!”
My immediate thought?
I do too!
There it was again. That other name, staring me in the face.
Still, I went home and continued building Nine Lives Creative.
Or at least I tried.
I experimented with different graphics, copy and layouts, but I couldn't create a homepage I liked. I struggled to visually connect cat photography with web design. Maybe it was simply a creative block—writer’s block for web designers.
Whatever it was, I had it.
Day after day, I tried. Nothing worked.
Then, during a call with a friend I had made through Launch the Damn Thing®, she asked a simple question:
“Who is your target audience?”
“Cat lovers and photographers,” I told her.
And as I heard the words coming out of my mouth, I realized something.
I didn't believe them.
There was a total disconnect between what I was saying and what I actually wanted my new business to be. As much as I adore cats and admire photographers, I knew deep down that I didn't want to limit my new business to either group.
Funny how sometimes you have to hear yourself say the wrong thing before you recognize the right thing.
Then the Floodgates Opened
By this point, I had invested both time and money into Nine Lives Creative. But that little voice in my head was becoming impossible to ignore.
It felt as though the universe was preparing to kick me in the seat of my pants.
So I decided to conduct an experiment.
I temporarily forgot about Nine Lives Creative and began creating an entirely new website identity around Launch Your Dreams Creative—new graphics, a new logo, new copy and an entirely different visual direction.
I told myself I was just seeing what would happen.
After two months of struggling to create something I liked for Nine Lives Creative, something remarkable happened when I started creating for Launch Your Dreams Creative.
The floodgates opened.
I was producing again!
I was creating again!
My enthusiasm came roaring back.
Next, I opened a document and began writing copy about launching dreams. I couldn't stop. Ideas that had refused to come for weeks were suddenly pouring out of me.
And that was when I finally knew.
I needed to rebrand...
before I even launched!
Launch Your Dreams Creative
Once I made the decision, I went all in.
I applied to trademark Launch Your Dreams Creative and began steadily building the website you're visiting now.
More importantly, I redefined the people I wanted to serve: creative professionals and solopreneurs—artists, photographers, writers, musicians, dancers, designers, makers and other wonderfully creative people with dreams of their own.
Nine Lives Creative may someday become the photography side of my business. I still love the name, and I probably always will.
But Launch Your Dreams Creative makes my heart soar.
Because ultimately, this business isn't about cats.
It isn't even really about websites.
It's about people with dreams.
And if I can use my creativity, my photographer's eye and everything I'm learning as a web designer to help other creative people bring those dreams into the world, I can't imagine a more joyful or meaningful business to build.
Dreaming Up a Name of Your Own?
If you're in the process of naming—or renaming—your own business, I know firsthand how exciting, frustrating, and surprisingly personal that decision can be! Here are a few helpful resources I discovered that may make your own naming journey a little easier:
U.S. Small Business Administration — Choose Your Business Name
Practical information about choosing a business name and understanding the differences among an entity name, trademark, DBA and domain name.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office — Trademark Basics
An important resource for understanding trademarks, searching for similar marks and learning about the federal trademark registration process.
How to Choose a Business Name that Builds Your Brand'
How to choose a name for your business that stands out and supports long-term growth
And one final piece of advice from someone who learned it the long way: Don't ignore that little voice telling you when a name just feels right—or when it doesn't. Sometimes your business knows what it wants to become before you do!
