Celia Gaze
Conscious Founder
Celia Gaze is a Conscious Founder, TEDx speaker and B Corp leader who turned a rundown farm into an award-winning, purpose-led brand. Through powerful storytelling, humour and hard-won lessons, she inspires leaders to build profitable businesses that put wellbeing, sustainability and people first, while proving that impact and imagination belong at the heart of commercial success.
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Biography
Celia Gaze is a Conscious Founder, TEDx speaker, and multi-award-winning entrepreneur who is redefining what it means to build business with both heart and commercial impact. As the Founder and CEO of The Wellbeing Farm, a B Corp-certified wedding, events and hospitality venue in Lancashire, Celia has become one of the UK’s most visible champions for purpose-led business, conscious celebration and regenerative hospitality.
What began as a rundown farm has, under Celia’s leadership, become a nationally recognised destination brand, known for its creativity, sustainability and soul. The Wellbeing Farm has won numerous regional and national awards, hosted thousands of celebrations, and is now widely regarded as a flagship example of how hospitality can operate as a force for good. Becoming B Corp certified marked a pivotal moment in Celia’s journey, embedding wellbeing, ethics, environmental responsibility and community impact into every layer of the business.
But Celia’s story is not one of overnight success. Her journey has included burnout, financial pressure, self-doubt and rebuilding from scratch. Neurodivergent and proudly non-conventional, she brings refreshing honesty to the realities of leadership, growth and resilience. It is this lived experience, combined with commercial credibility, that makes her such a powerful and relatable voice on today’s stages.
Beyond the farm, Celia is the Founder of Conscious Day, a global awareness day encouraging individuals and organisations to pause, reflect and act with greater intention in how they live, work and consume. She is also Chair of One Woman At A Time, a charity supporting women and girls in rural Kenya through education, menstrual health and community empowerment. Her work in West Pokot has deepened her belief that business must play an active role in addressing global inequality, climate action and social justice.
As a speaker, Celia delivers high-impact keynotes for business leaders, entrepreneurs, hospitality professionals and purpose-driven organisations across the UK. Her talks blend storytelling, humour, vulnerability and practical insight, covering themes such as conscious leadership, sustainable growth, burnout and wellbeing, B Corp, regenerative business models, and building brand with meaning. Her TEDx talk, Is It Time for a Conscious Revolution?, explores our cultural relationship with consumption, celebration and success, and challenges audiences to rethink what “better” really means.
Celia is also the author of Why Put a Bow Tie on a Llama?. Through her writing, speaking and mentoring, she encourages founders to pursue progress over perfection and to build businesses that serve people, planet and profit equally.
Known for her warmth, authenticity and unmistakable sense of fun, Celia is as comfortable on a festival stage as she is in a boardroom. Her mission is simple yet bold: to prove that commercial success and conscious impact are not opposites, but partners and that business done with love, courage and creativity can genuinely change the world.
What I Currently Do
Speaking Topics
Conscious Adaptation: A Real-World Journey of Resilience, Revenue and Sustainability
Celia Gaze, founder and CEO of The Wellbeing Farm, transformed her B Corp-certified venue into a thriving, sustainable business through what she calls “Conscious Adaptation.” A former NHS leader, she now inspires organisations to turn cost pressures and sustainability demands into opportunities for growth and resilience.
Is It Time for A Conscious Revolution?
Celia Gaze is a purpose-driven entrepreneur and founder of one of the UK’s first B Corp certified event venues. After burning out in a senior NHS role, she transformed a neglected farm into a thriving hub for conscious, meaningful celebrations. Through her work, she challenges the commercialized norms of weddings, parties, and even funerals—offering a fresh approach rooted in sustainability, inclusivity, and intention. Celia inspires people to rethink traditions: Are we celebrating from the heart, or just following empty customs? By breaking away from outdated expectations, she believes we can create deeper connections and leave a lasting legacy. She’s also the founder of Conscious Day, a global movement calling for realignment with what truly matters. Is it time for a Conscious Revolution?
What If You Put A Bowtie On Your Business?
My talk, “What If You Put a Bow Tie on Your Business?”, is all about stepping into conscious leadership, using your business as a force for good, and asking the bold question: Is the world better off because your business is in it? If you’ve ever felt like there’s something more your business could stand for or if you've ever had a crazy idea but talked yourself out of it, then let’s start some powerful conversations. You only get one life - what are you going to do with yours? If you've been playing it safe but got a niggling feeling that there's more you could do, then come and find your version of putting a bow tie on a Llama!
Why Put a Bowtie on a LLama
This keynote tells the remarkable true story of how a broken-down farm, a bold idea and a llama in a bowtie sparked an award-winning, B Corp-certified hospitality brand — and an unexpected global movement for conscious business. With humour, honesty and heart, Celia shares her journey through burnout, self-doubt and reinvention, revealing how purpose, creativity and courage can transform not only a business, but a life. Audiences are invited to question convention, rethink success, and discover how small, quirky ideas can unlock big, meaningful impact. This is a talk about standing out, staying human in a fast-moving world, and proving that profit and purpose are not rivals — they are partners. Expect laughter, reflection, practical insight and a powerful call to build businesses (and lives) with intention.
How business can be a force for good
In this powerful and practical keynote, Celia Gaze challenges the outdated idea that profit and purpose sit on opposite sides of the table. Drawing on her real-world journey from derelict farm to award-winning B Corp hospitality brand, she reveals how conscious decisions, courageous leadership and human-centred values can drive both meaningful impact and commercial success. Through honest storytelling, hard-won lessons and uplifting humour, Celia shows how businesses of any size can embed wellbeing, sustainability and community into their DNA — without losing their edge. Audiences leave inspired, grounded, and equipped with simple ways to use their business as a genuine force for good in a fast-changing world.
Why culture, values and wellbeing are your strongest competitive advantages
In a world obsessed with growth at all costs, this keynote flips the narrative and proves that your greatest commercial advantage is not your product, price or tech — it is your people, your culture and your values. Drawing on her journey from burnout to building an award-winning, B Corp-certified hospitality brand, Celia Gaze reveals how wellbeing-led leadership, values-driven decisions and a fiercely human culture have created resilience, loyalty and long-term profitability. With warmth, honesty and practical insight, this talk shows leaders how to future-proof their businesses by putting humans, not hustle, at the heart of success.
How to stand out in a crowded world (without selling your soul)
In a noisy, look-at-me marketplace, standing out can feel like a performance. This keynote cuts through the hype and shows how true differentiation comes from clarity, courage and staying rooted in what actually matters. Through the story of building a bold, award-winning, B Corp-certified brand with a llama in a bowtie at its heart, Celia Gaze reveals how authenticity, values and wellbeing are not soft ideas — they are serious commercial advantages. With humour, honesty and practical insight, this talk empowers leaders and creatives to build brands that are distinctive, human and profitable, without compromising who they are or why they started.
How putting a “bow tie” a spark, a signature, a soul on your business could be the turning point you never expected
What happens when you stop trying to fit in and start deliberately standing out? In this uplifting and practical workshop, Celia Gaze shares how one quirky decision — putting a bow tie on a llama — became the unexpected catalyst for transforming a struggling farm into an award-winning, B Corp-certified brand with national recognition. But this is not really a story about a llama. It is a story about finding your signature, owning your difference and building a business with soul. Through humour, hard-earned lessons and powerful moments of reinvention, Celia shows how your “bow tie”, the spark that makes you unmistakably you, can cut through crowded markets, deepen customer loyalty, energise your team and reconnect you to your original purpose. Audiences leave inspired to stop polishing what is safe and start amplifying what is bold, human and meaningful. This is a talk about courage, creativity and the commercial power of authenticity — and how one brave choice can change everything.
Media Appearances
Is It Time For A Conscious Revolution?
Tedx Talk for Tedx Scarisbrick
Speaker Showreel
Celia Gaze speaker showreel
Podcast Recording
BBC Breakfast
BBC
Why I left my career for a life on the farm
BBC Sounds
Want to succeed in business? Be the purple cow
Business Cloud
From livestock to llamas: How farm diversification turned a Lancashire enterprise into a £1m success
Farmers Guardian
'How my ADHD became my superpower'
BBC News
Weather and your wedding
BBC Breakfast
Feedback
"Today, 🦙 Celia Gaze, MBA 🦙, Founder and CEO of The Wellbeing Farm : B Corp Certified Venue Experience and Entrepreneur in Residence of University of Lancashire Business School, delivered a guest lecture to the students on the Responsible Marketer module. In her fascinating lecture entitled ‘Conscious Adaptation: A Real-World Journey of Resilience, Revenue & Sustainability’, Celia told her inspirational story of how she set up the Wellbeing Farm, from the initial spark of inspiration through to the business as it operates today. Celia explained how sustainability is at the heart of everything that the Wellbeing Farm does. With a mission to become one of the UK’s most sustainable, carbon-neutral venues, the Wellbeing Farm does not stop at reducing their own impact, but also wants to set an example, innovating and inspiring others to do the same. The audience also gained insight into the intense process of successfully gaining B Corp Certification. The presentation was interspersed with plenty of humour and the audience enjoyed hearing the tale of why you would want to put bow ties on lamas! Many thanks Celia for such a stimulating and entertaining lecture!"
Dr Maria Sherrington
"Celia Gaze, MBA 🦙 Gaze delivered a standout keynote on purpose, resilience and transformation through her ADAPT framework — a reminder of what’s possible when wellbeing, trust and sustainability lead the way."
Melissa Browne
"Your session was a key part of making the event such a success… the feedback from delegates so far has been incredibly positive. It sparked some great conversations and added real value to the programme.”"
David McKown
"I love listening to you and your inspirational story"
Katie Webster
"We were warmly welcomed by Celia Gaze MBE, CEO and Founder of The Wellbeing Farm, who shared her powerful and personal journey. From a stressed NHS manager and new mum in 2013 to the visionary behind a B Corp-certified wellbeing venue, Celia’s story is one of courage, transformation, and purpose. Her passion for sustainability, community, and joy radiates through every corner of the farm—and it was the perfect place to bring our SSF UK leaders together."
Lynsey Oakes
"I really enjoyed looking through your presentation - from seeing the neglected farm you’ve transformed, all the way through to the summary of your impact. It’s a brilliant story"
Chris Turner
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