We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Donellia L a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Donellia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I’ve always been someone who takes risks, but the one that changed me the most was walking away from something that looked secure and choosing to rebuild my life on my own terms.

In 2024, I was working as a Branding Director at a real estate company in Chicago. I had the title, I had consistent income, and from the outside it looked like I was in a solid position. But my day-to-day reality felt completely different. I was overworked, constantly stretched, and operating in an environment with very little structure or boundaries. I began to get sick too often, and that’s when I realized my time didn’t belong to me, and it started to affect every part of my life.

I remember having a moment where I realized I couldn’t even show up for my family the way I needed to. One of my aunts became seriously ill, and I was still tied to work in a way that made it difficult to just be present. That stayed with me. At the same time, I was dealing with constant anxiety, stress, and my body was reacting to the pressure I was under. I felt stuck in survival mode, and I knew I had more in me than what I was able to access in that environment.

So, on August 8, 2024, I left.
I didn’t leave to immediately replace one marketing role with another. I stepped away intentionally. I started substitute teaching, as a way to stay grounded, challenge myself to new environments, stay active in my community, and give myself space to reset. I needed distance from the industry so I could come back to it on my own terms, without the pressure or anxiety I had built up.

At the same time, I was still doing brand strategy freelance work and consulting on the side. I knew I wanted to build something of my own, I just needed the clarity to do it right.

In January 2025, I launched my social series “If I Were Your Brand Coach.” That was the first time I fully stepped into my voice publicly. It brought in clients and showed me that there was real demand for the way I think and approach brand strategy. But I was still navigating consistency and trying to find my footing.

By April 2025, my body forced another decision. I was getting sick often, my energy was low, my car kept breaking down, and even my day-to-day life started to feel unstable. So I had to stop substitute teaching and go all in on my business, even though I didn’t have everything figured out.

That year stretched me in every way. I was pitching larger opportunities that didn’t close, refining my offers, and positioning myself at a higher level. I was also navigating real-life pressure—financial strain, shifts in relationships, and moments where I had to accept that I couldn’t be everything for everyone while I was rebuilding my own foundation.

There were people who supported me along the way. I had a small circle (friends and family), who checked in, encouraged me, and reminded me they were proud of what I was building.

At the same time, I didn’t have that same support from many of my immediate family members or some people in close proximity to me. A lot of the voices around me questioned my decision, and I had to separate myself from that noise in order to stay focused. It created distance, and it forced me into a more isolated space than I was used to.

However, my partner started showing up for me in a way that made it possible to keep going, especially once he saw how serious I was about what I was building this. My sister was a steady source of support as well. Even with that, there were moments where I felt deeply uncertain and had to keep moving without external validation.

Now in 2026, I can see the shift clearly. I have a level of clarity and confidence that I didn’t have before. I understand my value, I’ve refined my voice, and I’ve grown into a stronger leader within my business.

That decision required me to trust myself before there was proof. It changed how I move, how I think, and what I’m willing to accept.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into this industry early, before I had the language for what I was doing.

Right after high school, I took a marketing strategy internship where I was going into local businesses, studying how they operated, and building ideas to help them grow. I hadn’t even chosen a major yet, but I already knew I was going to build something of my own.

In college, I studied fashion with a focus on merchandising and marketing, and I built my experience across different angles at the same time. I worked in retail, learned sales and visual merchandising in real time, mentored students on campus, and studied psychology, consumer behavior, and business. I also started my own clothing brand while I was in school and ran a team, which forced me to understand how to position, sell, and build something from the ground up.

After graduating, I rebuilt my business plan during COVID and eventually stepped into corporate roles across digital marketing, social media, and brand leadership. I worked on rebrands, content systems, and growth strategies across different types of companies. Every environment taught me something different about how businesses operate, especially when they lack structure or clarity behind the scenes.

That range of experience shaped how I think today.

I provide brand advisory for founder-led brands, primarily working with founders who are approaching or have reached six figures and are preparing to scale. Most of them are still the main operator in their business, and the brand has grown to a point where what worked in the beginning no longer holds. I step in to restructure the foundation—clarity in positioning, messaging, offers, and overall business direction—so the brand can grow without breaking.

I also work with scaling teams and corporations, but my core focus stays on founders who are in that transition point where growth is happening, but the backend and brand architecture haven’t caught up yet.

Clarity sits at the center of everything I do. When a business lacks clarity, it starts leaking money in ways most people don’t immediately see. Founders often invest in new visuals, content, or offers without understanding what actually needs to be fixed. There are too many companies making decisions based on assumption instead of direction, and that’s where things get expensive.

I come in to identify what’s actually happening beneath the surface. Once there’s clarity on positioning, audience, structure, and priorities, decisions become sharper and more intentional. Resources get allocated correctly. Growth becomes more steady.

I see this at every level. Early-stage founders feel it when they keep investing without seeing traction. Scaling brands feel it when growth starts to plateau. Larger companies feel it when they lose touch with their audience or rely on strategies that no longer reflect how people think or buy today. Markets shift fast, and brands that don’t stay aligned with where they stand lose relevance quickly.

What sets me apart is the way I built this perspective. I didn’t come up through one clean path or one type of company. I worked in corporate environments, underpaid roles, spaces where I was often the only Black woman in the room, and I had to learn how to navigate, adapt, and still perform at a high level. I didn’t have the luxury of waiting for perfect opportunities. I took what was available and extracted as much as I could from every situation.

I also had to build my life early. By the time I graduated, I was already figuring out how to support myself without a traditional safety net. That pressure shaped how I think about business. It made me practical, resourceful, and very aware of how to make things work in real conditions.

I’m most proud of becoming someone who trusts her own voice. There was a time where I second-guessed myself and questioned if I could really step into this level of leadership. I didn’t grow up seeing people around me fully pursue their vision, and that created doubt early on. At the same time, I watched what struggle looked like up close, and I made a decision that I wasn’t going to repeat that pattern.

Now, I operate with a different level of clarity and conviction. I don’t just help brands look better. I help founders think better, move differently, and build something that can actually sustain the level of growth they’re aiming for.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I built my audience in layers, not all at once.

Before I ever posted consistently on my brand page, I was already active on social media. I had a foodie page and a personal page where I was posting vlogs, recipes, and reviews. That’s where I learned the algorithm, how to edit, hold attention, and how content actually moves. I understood how to create videos that people would watch, share, and come back to.

When I started posting under my brand, I already had that foundation. What I didn’t have at first was clarity in my positioning. I was showing up, but I hadn’t fully decided who I was speaking to or what I wanted to be known for. That showed in the audience I attracted.

Everything shifted when I launched my “If I Were Your Brand Coach” series. That content connected quickly and brought in attention and clients, but it also attracted people who were more focused on ideas and aesthetics rather than strategy and execution. That experience forced me to get sharper about who I actually wanted to work with.

I raised my prices, refined my messaging, and repositioned myself from brand coach to brand architect. I stopped trying to appeal to everyone and started speaking directly to founders who were serious about building and scaling.

My advice is simple. Know who you’re talking to before you focus on going viral. Growth without alignment creates the wrong audience, and it takes more effort to fix that later than it does to be intentional from the beginning.

At the same time, you still have to show up and refine your voice through action. Your clarity builds as you create, but your direction should be intentional.

The goal isn’t just to grow an audience, it’s to build the right one.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Consistency on TikTok has been the most effective for me.

I showed up consistently and spoke in a way that people could actually understand. I break things down simply, but I speak directly to a specific type of founder. The people I’m talking to know I’m talking to them. That level of clarity in communication makes the content land differently.

When I repositioned and started targeting higher-level founders, my content shifted with it. I wasn’t trying to appeal to everyone anymore. I was speaking to people who were building real businesses and needed real structure. That changed who started paying attention and who started converting.

I also had to align my pricing with that shift. Raising my prices forced me to show up with more conviction in how I communicated my value. The content became sharper because it had to match the level I was stepping into.

What made it work was consistency in message, voice, and in who I was speaking to.

I stayed clear, direct, and I stayed myself. That’s what built traction and brought in the right clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://DesignsByDonellia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designsbydonellia?igsh=MXNtajhqaGZuOTZmaw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donellia-levy?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@designsbydonellia?feature=shared
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@designsbydonellia?_r=1&_t=ZT-94lbqhT8xpN