After 11,000 subscribers and 4 years as “Summers in Africa”, I changed my YouTube channel name to Aminah Ibrahim https://www.youtube.com/@AaminahIbrahim/videos

Changing my YouTube channel name after 4 years hurt so bad, I cried.

If you’re a mom entrepreneur struggling to let go of what you’ve built, this is for you.

Rebranding your business will always feel like a huge risk and there’s no right time to do it. But you’ll definitely know when you need to pivot your brand. 

Letting go of what you’ve built is sometimes essential for more growth. Changing your business name, logo, or YouTube channel name will be painful but it’s sometimes the only solution to moving forward or rebranding your business.

When you’re creating content and thriving in your creative process you build something meaningful and connect deeply with your subscribers.

They can feel your love.Your pain.Your healing. The energy you feel within. And when outgrow your brand they can feel you going through the motions too.

What comes as a surprise sometimes is you may get to the point where you feel like you’ve accomplished your mission and it’s time to move on. Most people will view it as a risk.

Because essentially it is. If you rebrand in a way that your subscribers no longer connect to you then you may lose most of your audience. 

It’s a tough position to put yourself in. 

Why I Built Summers in Africa

I chose the name Summers in Africa because Summers is my husband and children’s last name.

I started the channel documenting our family’s relocation journey from America to Gambia as a large family of 10—including our 4 week old baby—The move was so emotion filled and resonated so well with other Muslim American families that my first video blew up and gained 1k subscribers within 2 weeks.

Before I started my channel I said I would make our family famous and I couldn’t believe how fast our family brand grew. We left America with 8 children without ever visiting any parts of Africa before. 

My YouTube channel name held our family’s legacy. I shared the beauty of raising a black teenage son in Africa and how he and our other children were so safe and free. I’m still so emotional thinking about everything we’re built and how letting go of my YouTube Channel name hurts so deeply. 

My YouTube channel name wasn’t just a name. It created an impact on so many families around the world. They discovered Gambia through Summers in Africa and relocated due to the impact of the content. 

I shared our journey as raw and authentic as possible and it felt so good to have the support I had from my subscribers. But then so much changed within me as I grew as a person.

The Signs I’d Outgrown My Brand

My values and priorities for my YouTube channel changed completely.

When I first started YouTube my goal as a mom entrepreneur was to “Make my family famous” by sharing our successful relocation journey as a family of 10—from USA to Africa—-after 4 years of creating family vlogs with building our family brand my goal shifted to protect the privacy of my children.

It’s what made me feel like my business pivot or rebranding was me abandoning my family’s legacy. 

My original mission was to show our process of leaving America as a large family to inspire other Black Muslim American families to have hope for also being able to experience the move themselves..

After about the 3 year mark I felt like my work was done in that area, like my channel had served its purpose and I gave all I was meant to give by showing how my family is doing. 

I’d started a real estate business in Gambia and branded it as “summers in Africa”. I was able to use sharing the real estate content as a cover up for no longer focusing on family vlogs.

But I still felt trapped in the identity. I would include my oldest son, Adam, in my real estate vlog content because he was working alongside me and I was clinging to the family brand content mentally. 

I felt like my Gambia Real Estate videos would appease my audience because I was still showing in a way the expat journey and how my son was adapting to life in Africa.

By this time my son was getting close to being 18yrs old and he no longer wanted to be in my content much. I would force him by telling him we’re building a brand and legacy in Africa. But deep down I felt like I was invading the privacy of my family…out of fear of disappointing my subscribers. 

The first sign that I’d outgrown my brand was when creating my usual content out of habit but  my heart was wanting privacy for my family. 

Where I used to get super excited about vlogging Gambia outings, beach trips,and special family moments I started feeling like vlogging was robbing myself and my family of being in the present moment and I was subjecting us to the evil eye.

The passion was in my mission but no longer in The Summers in Africa family brand I’d created. I had to rebrand but letting go was breaking my heart.

Mentally I made the pivot in my business but fear kept me feeling stuck in my YouTube channel name. I believed I was never supposed to change it, despite me struggling to maintain a creative process due to pressure—my content started to feel forced and about topics I no longer felt called to.

 As a Muslim mom of 9—include 5 daughters—teaching my daughters modesty became a huge priority. My values definitely shifted from share everything to keep as much as possible private.

I didn’t want my children to feel so comfortable so early in life being publicly exposed online. I thought about how they may choose to live later on in life (possibly prefer privacy with no photos/videos online) and making the decision for them wasn’t fair. They deserved to make that choice on their own, once they’re older. 

 I didn’t want my adolescent and teens daughters to start worrying about how they’re showing up in the world. What people think of them and how they see them. If I’m putting them out there that will encourage my girls to also put themselves out there online. And I don’t want that. 

As young teens and adolescents they will go through identity confusions and everyone knows social media worsens this for teens. How do I know what content would be the piece that may make my children experience cyber bullying, self-consciousness etc.? I didn’t know. 

But what I did know—my family brand content was making that risk higher for them. My young girls aren’t allowed to have social media platforms so what hypocritical act would it be to post them to mine.

My job is to help protect my children which meant I had to choose between growing my family brand even more (because the channel kept growing) or rebranding by changing my YouTube channel name..

Why Letting Go Felt Like Grief

I had inspired so many people to relocate from the USA to Gambia. My subscribers would call my name out when I’d be in a store or in the mall “Summers! Is that you?”

I never got used to that feeling. It’s amazing and I was so grateful for the success and love my subscribers would show me and my family.

 They’d tell me how watching our family’s story is why they are in Africa. I met people who moved from the USA, UK, Sweden, Jamaica, and other countries who said they moved because of my channel. 

There are many Muslim families who made hijrah from all parts of the world and would email me to let me know they made it! My subscribers have become a huge part of my life and I love the community we’ve built.

They have been loyal and supportive and I too feel loyal to them. Although I have to do what’s truly best for myself & my family.

The emotional side of business is that you will have to rebrand sometimes and that comes with  internal battles with departing from the brand identity.

While you may be able to save a marriage where you’ve “outgrown” your spouse as what many people experience, you MUST divorce a brand you’ve outgrown or your business will fail because you won’t be willing to put in the necessary work to take you to the next level.

My channel name held my bravery, my story, the community I’d built of supportive subscribers which I love so much! I did feel like I would lose subscribers but deep down I also felt like my most loyal followers would stay. 

I would lose subscribers anytime I traveled to America to visit in the past. Apparently they didn’t agree with my travels back home for medical reasons. Which is why at the end of the day I have to do what’s best for ME.

 Some will stop supporting you when you do one thing they don’t like or agree with so how can you keep an entire brand for fear of losing people when ultimately they will choose why and when they continue to follow you.

I felt all of this but letting go of my channel name still made me cry! Parts of me felt like I was wasting the work I’d put into my brand.

Business opportunities were filling my inbox and I was running in the opposite direction. I had so many mixed emotions. Parts of me felt like I was abandoning the people my channel helped wit relocating.

 I’m still scared and I must admit the fear even made me consider switching it back the next day. But that was just the emotions of not wanting to let go. 

I had to change it, because I’m doing so many different things in my life, like returning back to wellness coaching, and started business coaching for moms.

My website didn’t match my YouTube channel name and it’s the businesses I’m growing right now. My channel name wasn’t aligned with where I am in life or in business today.

Not to mention my family is on an extended visit in the USA and people keep asking me when I’m returning to Gambia. 

I know once I return to Gambia, I won’t be willing to share the same type of content, because I’d gotten to the point that it made me feel boxed in…smothered like I couldn’t breathe.

This is what I had to remind myself… My subscribers found me because they were meant to find me and were aligned with where I was in that chapter of my life. The people who need the message I share today and forward will find the me in the chapter I’m currently living. 

You can’t choose who will stay and who will go and I had to be more afraid of losing myself than I was of losing subscribers.

When you really think about it, you can keep your channel name and they may still leave because there’s no longer passion in your message, because mentally you’ve moved on.

 You’re not the same person anymore.

What I learned about growth in business 

Creating something new sometimes requires you to let go of something old you’ve built. Even when you love your original brand. Even when it’s personal.  

You’re not betraying what you built in the past, you’re honoring the present–you! 

What’s important to understand about pivoting your brand is, what got you to where you are today won’t necessarily take you to where you want to be in the future—especially if your values and mission has changed from what initially brought the success. 

I have learned that some of the greatest decisions you make in your business are ones that can either make or break what you’ve built. You have to do risky things. And you can’t reach your potential by playing it safe and avoiding those risks. 

A business growth mindset understands that YOU are the business. You are a person, not a name. Not a brand identity. And if you allow yourself to stay stuck instead of learning when to pivot your business, you’ll always feel lost.

 I had to allow myself room to grow and move forward. You can’t move forward and stay stuck at the same time. 

Only you know when you’re thriving in your potential or not. But a sign that you aren’t is when you’re scared to do what you really want to do in your business. 

God gave you that intuition for a reason. It’s a gift of guidance. A feeling that you own in your gut and no one else can tell you the right move to make. 

I’m sure people will read this and think I had made an emotional decision and will regret it.

But I know that I spent a year weighing the pros and cons of rebranding my business and trying to decide what to do with my channel—how to reflect my new mission—One of my favorite business YouTubers,Vanessa Lau, I started following her right before she dismantled her 6-7 figure online business. She had a perfect YouTube channel and a course that made her millions. 

I received an email from her newsletter announcing she was taking a sabbatical from YouTube. She didn’t say how long but she was away for a year. Every few months I came to see whether she posted a new video or not. 

When she came back she posted videos sharing her struggles with pivoting her YouTube channel content. She and her husband had gone into a boba tea business together and she had to re-learn how to make content that would perform in this new niche she was in.

I made a comment telling her to just post what she wants, we will watch! But I was struggling to “just do it” on my own channel.

Her original videos were for Youtube Channel growth hacks but her showing the real raw authentic journey of what it looks like when you’ve outgrown your brand is what made me so connected to this YouTuber.

She is nearing 1 million subscribers and was struggling with rebranding. That made me feel human and less guilty for knowing I’d outgrown my business. 

Your evolution is part of your story, not your departure from it. Before I published my first book— Gambia Through Our Eyes— https://shop.beacons.ai/aminahibrahim/bdb30b61-54aa-4363-ba6d-aee1cb6464bc I mentioned to my eldest daughter that I was thinking about rebranding and using my full name Aminah Ibrahim instead of “Summers in Africa”. She said “Oh heck no, you used the family name to get famous and now you want to be a solo artist”.

We both laughed so hard! Her statement was hilarious but it also fed my guilt about wanting to depart from the family brand.

The thing is, in my heart the work was done. I rebranded but needed to make it official by changing my channel name. 

How to know when it’s time to rebrand

This is how you’ll know when to change your business name, pivot, or rebrand your YouTube channel. Here’s some practical signs for mom entrepreneurs:

• You avoid creating content because the brand feels too restrictive. (I did this. Wanted to post to my channel but audience expectations kept me feeling constrained).
• Your mission has changed and your name is trapping you in an identity
• You’re building a dream to help others instead of your own (*guilty* The “Summers in Africa” Real Estate business was for my husband and son. But I carried the weight of the brand).
• You’ve rebranded everywhere else except one place (my website: http://www.aminahibrahim.com and my facebook: deactivated my “Summers in Africa” business page and changed my personal page to Aminah Ibrahim. BUT procrastinated to change my YouTube channel name. Saved it for last).

What Happened When I Finally Changed My Name

Two seconds after I changed my YouTube channel name I felt a massive lightness of relief from the pressure to show up in that identity. It relieved me of the identity crisis.

I felt like I had permission to show up as myself presently in the chapter I’m currently living in. My family is on an extended visit to the US and I don’t have to talk about when we’re returning to Africa anymore or how much I miss it.

Not to mention that part is traumatic for me because I’m in America but my heart is in Gambia. 

I now have the energy to respond to all the emails that were previously weighing so heavy on my chest I couldn’t find strength within to respond to.

I have the energy to be a YouTube creator again and thrive in my process instead of making videos to hack an algorithm I no longer wish to figure out.

I have more energy to have boundaries about my family’s plans and how we’re doing. I no longer feel like I owe an explanation to the public due to a family brand.

I can fully thrive in my new business of helping mom entrepreneurs heal their relationship with themselves to turn their stories into books and courses, without referring clients “Summers in Africa” which doesn’t match the business models I’m building presently.

Pivoting my business will still serve the same audience but in a different way. In a way that I can keep my private life private and I love that for my family. 

If you know in your heart it’s time to change your YouTube name, Facebook name, IG name etc to rebrand your mom entrepreneur business here is permission. Change it. Do it now, it only takes 30 seconds to relive yourself of an identity that no longer fits who you are right now. 

Your business is supposed to be your freedom to evolve the way you were meant to and you shouldn’t feel trapped as if you’re at someone else’s job with a description. You are the boss. YOU make the call. 

Letting go is healthy but holding on to something you’ve mentally moved on from can cause you to be in a constant battle with self.

Choose healing. Choose growth. Re-brand. Because it’s okay to start over.

Everyone has a story to tell, including you! I became a published author as a mom of 9-after relocating my family to Gambia. If I can do it-you definitely can too!

If you’re ready to turn your story into a book, grab my free guide to get started-Turn Your Story Into a Book: https://shop.beacons.ai/aminahibrahim/461287c2-d1f2-42f4-947b-e3d9e0d8349f

Write like no one else will read it. Feel the healing in writing!