Okay, I’m just going to admit it: I let my website go to crap.
It’s pretty embarrassing as someone who teaches web design to say that, but it’s true. There’s some saying about a cobbler’s children never having shoes? That’s what I felt like with my website.
My fonts were all out of whack. My images weren’t consistently branded.
My sidebar on my blog was a joke, and I kept testing out different email optins on my own site so much so that I didn’t have any consistency with what tool I was using or where it was placed.
And not to mention my courses site. The sales page for the BFF Academy looked like an entirely different brand, and then the actually Academy courses page looked like a third brand, and was super hard to figure out and navigate.
And that, my friends, is an exact reflection of how I had been feeling about my own business.
Confused. Disorganized. Not confident.
Yes, I teach WordPress, but WordPress is a means to an end. And that end is freedom and empowerment. The ability to do what you want, when you want and make enough money to support your chosen lifestyle. And your website is one tool that can help you get there.
And that’s what I’ve been struggling to convey. Probably because of imposter syndrome, probably because of fear of what people will think, and who knows what other limiting beliefs are lurking around in there that are holding me back…
… actually, I know who knows, my amazingly awesome business coach Vicki Fitch knows, she just has to patiently wait for me to figure it all out on my own because if you tell me, I won’t believe you. I have to experience the pain for myself. *bangs head against wall*
So I had this problem of a having an inconsistent brand and a messy website…
And I felt a general lack of clarity overall in being able to say that I help empower people to live the life they want to live in a way that attracts the people I want to help.
Because when I say that I build websites, unless you’re actively looking for help with a website, you don’t care!
But if I say that I help people who hate their day job build a side hustle, or help you turn your expertise into income, don’t your ears perk up a little bit more?
So I took a leap of faith and made a big investment in branding.
I had heard of Braid Creative through the Being Boss Podcast, and as I listened I kept hearing about their process over and over again, I just knew I had to work with them, and I was right, because the whole process was a blast!
First, the Braid team, Tara and Liz, sent me some cards with some thought exercises on them that I was to fill out before our first session. The questions they asked me were totally unexpected, but they got me to think about what I do and why I do it in a totally different way – and that really helps when you feel like you’re stuck in the way that you’re thinking about things.
Then we met on Zoom and the three of us went over the cards together. Tara and Liz took a bunch of notes of not only what I wrote on the cards, but other things I was saying about what I meant by what I wrote, why one question was harder than another. It really felt like I was just talking to a friend who was super, super interested in what I do!!
While my friends and family are supportive, they don’t really dig into what I do so I don’t get many opportunities like that to just TALK about it (besides my blog LOL)
Then Tara and Liz got to work boiling down what we talked about into a message and a design that fits me and my personality. We met again on Zoom, and Tara shared with me the messaging she had crafted, and Liz shared some design elements she was considering for me to get my feedback on… and for the second time ever (because the first was my business coach Vicki) it felt like someone really GOT what I do and why I do it.
It was such a feeling of relief, clarity and possibility.
We had one final meeting to review my brand platform, which is a beautifully designed document with all the images, fonts, colors and messaging that I used as a guide to help me create my website design and write my own copy.
If you want to see the final product, click here! It's pretty amazing.
You guys, this whole thing of building a business is so much easier when you have help.
When you have an outside perspective. When you have someone you can ask for advice, or have someone that you can just lean on and say, “I need your help figuring this out!”
The moment I got the branding from Braid, I got to work on my websites.
But there was just one little, huge thing that was still keeping me stuck.
Like, I built two websites, and then I couldn’t ignore that there was this one, glaring problem.
The BFF Academy.
The BFF Academy is my paid program that’s the next step after the Free 5 Day Website Challenge. But I’ve never felt right about the BFF Academy, and that’s why it’s priced so low for all the value that I packed in there.
That’s why it’s layout on my courses site was confusing. And that’s why I’ve struggled to update it for the past several months.
Mental blocks are for real, people!!
To be totally honest, I’ve never liked the name. It doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t tell you anything about what’s in it, what results you’ll get from it, and it doesn’t make you feel like you NEED it, amiright?
And then, even though I know that I put everything you need to know about how to grow your email list and turn your expertise into income, in order to do that, you can’t be stuck on knowing what to do next, you have to know what you want to do to make money with your website, and you know what tutorials to watch to help you do it when you have time to work on the tech.
That’s a tall order. Most people don’t come out of the Free 5 Day Website Challenge knowing how to monetize their website other than knowing that they want to sell their own time as a coach or a consultant.
So I got out my old copy of Becca Tracey’s Hey Nice Package! and went through it, which got my thoughts super organized about exactly how I want to help people after they complete the Free 5 Day Website Challenge.
You guys, if you want to know exactly how I was feeling about the BFF Academy, just read Becca's sales page. She gets inside your head like no other.
So I knew that I wanted to add the actual strategy for making money with your website to the course when you’re starting from brand new website, zero subscribers and nothing to sell.
And I knew I wanted to add that one-on-one component into the program also – to help people have the same kind of breakthroughs that I have from working one-on-one with Vicki and Braid Creative.
But the name… I could not think of a freaking name!
I got out a piece of paper and wrote down all the names of every online course I’d ever heard of in the online marketing space.
Ugh, all the good ones are taken! I wrote down everything I could think of! I asked my husband, my friends, my nieces and nephews, and still, nothing was right. Vicki and I were Facebook Messenger-ing (yep, that’s a word I just made up) names back and forth.
Finally, I decided to email Braid Creative to ask for their advice, and here’s what I wrote to them:
“So I've got my new website built, I've got my courses site close to finished and I cannot come up with a freaking NAME for the BFF Academy!!!!!
It's my signature program, and it's not fitting for me to say they are “DIY courses to help you build your audience and turn your expertise into income” without a name…
So since you guys were all up in my business (yeah, I know how that sounds) wondering if you had any brilliant insights for me?
I want the name to actually mean something… because BFF Academy does not convey that I help people build a website that makes them money.
Plain and simple, thats what I do.
There are certain technical steps and tools you need to implement on your website and social profiles in order to literally connect with your target audience, get them on your email list, market your products and services to them, collect their money and deliver your products and services.
I don't teach how to build just any kind of website, it's a really specific kind of website for online entrepreneurs that want to generate more income from their expertise than they could if they were working with people one on one or selling their time by the hour.
It's the kind of website that frees up their time because it's the engine that runs their business for them so they don't have to be the engine anymore.
All the DIY courses that I have, they lay out HOW to do this, step by step. Like, “Here's how you can make money with affiliate marketing on your website. Here's how to sign up for affiliate programs and get your affiliate links. Here are the tools you need to keep track of all of your affiliate links on your website. Here's what you need to put in your disclaimer on your site. Don't have a disclaimer? Here's how to make one and here's exactly how to put it in the footer of the website. Here's how to not be a sleazeball and do this in an authentic way that builds your credibility.”
Like, it's that specific, it's not theoretical. It's what to do, and exactly how to do it. It's the strategy and the step-by-step.
So if your creative brains have any inspired ideas I'd love to hear them!!”
And after I pushed send, it hit me. The name of my signature program is “Websites That Make Money”.
You know when you hit on the right thing because the floodgates open. The sales page copy just flowed right out of me. The course modules, and the order they’d be delivered and how they’d be taught just flowed onto the page like never before. The email marketing sequence, the funnels leading into the program just appeared in my brain and I couldn’t stop myself from getting it all out of me.
I finally felt a surge of confidence, like yep, regardless of your niche, I can help you build a website that makes money.
And right now, I’m beta testing the program. I held my Website Monetization Workshop where I taught a few strategies from the course, and I invited attendees to join the beta test and a majorly reduced price in exchange for helping me shape the content and a testimonial.
So if you’re feeling stuck, if you’re not sure it’s possible for you to have what you want…
Here are some questions I’d like you to ask yourself – and I’d love to see your answers in the comments below:
- If you take a look at your own website, what is it reflecting back at you?
- If you’ve resisted putting an image of yourself on your homepage, ask yourself why? How does it make you feel when you think about putting your face on the homepage of your website.
- If you’re struggling with putting together your brand and you don’t want to invest in a graphic designer, ask yourself why? Can you really not afford it, or are you afraid of never recouping that investment (i.e. failing).
- If you’re feeling stuck and like you’re spinning your wheels and you can’t seem to get traction, and you’re consuming every last piece of free content you can get your hands on but you’re not reaching your hand out to get one-on-one personalized help, why not? What is that little voice inside your head telling you?
It's my goal to help you through these things and have the life that you dream of. Because after all, what are BFFs for?
