What WordPress Theme To Choose as a Newbie and Why You Customize it Last

Shannon Mattern is a pricing expert and creator of The Package Matrix™ Method that helps freelancers, fractional execs, consultants, agencies and service providers stop undercharging, overdelivering and overworking by using pricing, proposal and sales strategies backed by behavioral economics and sales psychology.

Hey BFFs! Happy Valentine’s Day! My v-day gift to my husband is my total lack of shits to give about Valentine’s Day and then later today we’ll meet some friends for Corona-ritas and mexican food. Yay! Best day ever!

If you ask around about what theme to use with your WordPress site, you’re going to get a million different answers. Genesis. Elegant Themes. Headway. Bluchic. I could go on.

They’re all great – but I don’t recommend them for newbies.

I know you’re super smart and can figure stuff out, but the learning curve for those themes will make you curse WordPress’s good name and throw your laptop out the window.

So why torture yourself? Just because everyone else is doing doesn’t mean you have to (wow, I just turned into my mom… she said it would happen one day…)

Why not use a theme that will get you up and running FAST and you can make it look like your vision of gorgeous?

The reason I recommend and teach the Make theme by Theme Foundry is because you can make it look like WHATEVER you want, and it’s all drag and drop. Easy peasy. And it’s free and I don’t like to spend money if I don’t have to!

I created a super-quick tutorial for you on creating basic graphics in Canva and all the page builder options in the Make theme. I teach this in-depth in the 5 Day Website Challenge – you can sign up in the sidebar.

Many of my BFFs have mentioned the sheer amount of time they spend on design… and that’s not a bad thing! But to avoid overwhelm there’s a specific order in which to do things, and design is LAST on that list. Yep, last.

I want so badly for you to know how to build and maintain a WordPress site because when you have the ability to make ANY change to your site some amazing things happen!

You gain confidence. You let go of perfectionism because you don’t have to get it right the first time. You gain the freedom to change direction without incurring huge expenses. You become unstoppable!

I encourage you to get your content (i.e. WORDS) done and on your site. Get your header the way you want it. Create all your pages. Pick some fonts and colors, and then…

JUST GO LIVE ALREADY! Put it out there! Start tweeting it, linking to it, telling everyone about it!  It’s the words on the page that matter.

You can tweak the design when it’s live as much as you want whenever you want. And here’s how to do it:

Pricing, Proposal & Sales Strategy For Freelancers, Fractional Execs & Consultants

ANCHOR HIGH™ PODCAST

Pricing Strategy for Service Providers & Consultants

If you sell your expertise and hands-on implementation, deliver solid work and have happy clients – but you’re maxed out and feel like you’ve hit an income ceiling, this show is for you.

Each short episode breaks down how pricing psychology and proposal strategy influence prospects’ decision-making and helps you rethink everything you thought you knew about how much you can really charge for your services and expertise.

THE PACKAGE MATRIX™ METHOD

The Package Matrix™ Method is a pricing framework built on behavioral economics, sales psychology and a decade of results. It strategically designs a value-based decision for your clients, so you stop pricing based on what you think they can afford and start pricing based on the value they can create by working with you.

How It Works ⟶

ANCHOR HIGH™ CERTIFICATION

If you’re a business coach or consultant who’s an expert at helping your clients grow their businesses and reach their goals – but you don’t have a strategic pricing and sales framework to help your clients confidently close more proposals at higher prices (without working harder), our Anchor High™ Certification program might just be the missing piece of your coaching methodology.

Learn More Here ⟶

ABOUT SHANNON MATTERN

Shannon Mattern is a pricing expert who helps Freelancers, Fractional Execs, Consultants and Creative & Professional Service Providers stop undercharging, overdelivering and overworking by using pricing, proposal and sales strategies backed by behavioral economics and sales psychology.

She helps other business coaches and consultants integrate her pricing and sales methodologies into their coaching, group programs and consultancies so they can help their clients make more without burning out. 

She’s also the founder of Web Designer Academy, where she has spent a decade helping women web designers move from undercharging to premium pricing, and where she developed the offer framework now used by service providers across industries.

Topics

90 DAY REVENUE ROADMAP

Increase your income without rebranding, niching down or adding more services or skills.

RELATED posts

Pricing Education for Business Coaches & Consultants

The Hidden Pricing Mistakes That Could Be Costing Your Clients Money: What Business Coaches & Consultants Need To Know About Pricing

How business coaches and consultants who work with freelancers, consultants, agencies and other types of service providers can help their clients create better outcomes faster when they help their clients apply proven principles of behavioral economics – the brain science behind why people buy or don’t buy – to pricing and sales strategy and stop treating the symptom of undercharging as a confidence or credibility problem.

Read More »
Pricing Strategy for Service Providers

Shannon’s Story: The Origin of The Package Matrix™ Method

It’s not about about how much you’re charging – it’s about how you’re making the offer. If you’re struggling with undercharging, overdelivering, overworking, trying to justify prices, trying to compete with other freelancers in the industry and stand out in a saturated market – I’ve been in your shoes, and that’s why I created The Package Matrix™ Method.

Read More »