THE STORY SO FAR
The reason for the four-client limit. And why it matters.
IT STARTED WITH AN OBSERVATION
I started Ibali in 2019 with one observation that I haven’t stopped seeing since.
Businesses often grow faster than the story they tell about themselves.
It happens at a particular threshold, usually somewhere between scrappy early-stage and properly established. The product gets better. The team grows. The clients arrive. And the marketing (the positioning, the messaging, the story on the website) doesn’t move with it. It stays in an earlier version of the company, describing what you do rather than making anyone feel why it matters.
The result is marketing that works hard and doesn’t move the needle. Sales conversations that compete on price when the quality of the offer should have made price largely irrelevant. The right clients not quite finding you, or finding you and not quite understanding why you’re the right choice.
The fix isn’t a rebrand. It’s the story.
Specifically: rebuilding the positioning, the narrative, the messaging architecture and then creating a plan to implement it so that the marketing finally reflects where the business actually is. That’s what Ibali does. And I’m still finding it the most interesting problem in marketing.
Why four clients?
Because seeing the story a business should be telling, rather than the one it’s currently telling, requires knowing that business properly. The history of what’s been tried. What the best clients say when they recommend you. Where the confidence is high and where it quietly isn’t. The commercial pressure underneath the brief.
You can’t see any of that clearly at scale, when working with more than 4 businesses. So Ibali doesn’t try.
A EMBARRASSING THING...
One slightly embarrassing thing, since you’re here.
I have been obsessed with stories since I was small. The torch-under-the-duvet kind of obsessed. The kind that still means forgoing reasonable human activities until a book is finished, followed by a mourning period of variable length before the next one can start.
I also (and only a lunatic would do this) recently moved house, started a renovation and got married within two months of each other while planning a larger wedding celebration in France for 2027. The coffee consumption during this period was significant and I have no regrets.
I mention this because it’s the most honest version of how I work: once I’m in something, I am completely in it. Which is also, probably, why the four-client limit exists.
Speak soon,
Lucy x
Transformative is a strong word. It gets used here because the shift wasn’t incremental, it was the kind of clarity that changes how a business thinks about what it’s doing and who it’s doing it for.
‘Lucy’s influence is nothing short of transformative.’
Jane Pikett
TWO WAYS TO WORK WITH IBALI
Both start in the same place: the story, the positioning, the foundation. Where they differ is how deep in we go, and whether the work is a defined project or an ongoing leadership relationship.
FRACTIONAL CMO SERVICES
Senior marketing leadership. Embedded.
For businesses at the stage where they need a serious marketing mind in the room: in the decisions, in the leadership meetings, accountable to the commercial results. Not just a consultant who submits a report.
MARKETING CONSULTANCY
Rebuild the story. Reposition the business.
For growing businesses where the story has stopped keeping pace. We rebuild from the ground up: positioning, audience clarity, messaging architecture, commercial strategy. A brief the team can actually work from.
‘I should have done this years ago.’
Emma Hughes
The most common thing clients say once the foundation work is done. The regret is always about time rather than money.
If this sounds like your business, or like your clients’ businesses, I’d like to hear about it.
No proposal. No pitch. Just an honest conversation about where the story is and where it should be.
lucy@ibali.co.uk - Subject: About Ibali
‘If you’re not working with Lucy already, what’s stopping you?
You’ll never look back.’
Bianca Topham