New Coaching Website Goes Live: Refocus and Thrive
I’m in Brisbane, passing through on my way to New Zealand for another summer spell and operating from the Black Star Cafe, what one american expat claims is the best coffee in Brisbane. They roast their own coffee here and it can get very hot.
I want to share with you three great things about Shushanna’s website, a new site that went up about a month ago to help her grow her career-life coaching business. She works with women who are stuck in a work-life funk, and helps them make some changes to feel thriving and alive again – a key element of that is in their job/career/work/biz.
Three great things as I worked with her to build this site:
1. Speed.
A big sticky spot in growing a coaching business, especially when it comes to the web is getting a good website up in short order. There’s a lot to do. You’ve got to create content, focus your message, create visuals, and build pages. Getting it done quick is a huge challenge for many. We got it done in 6 weeks with a few small assignments each week. Getting a site up quickly is great for momentum. Long drawn out projects are buzz kills.
2. Chemistry.
Shushanna has a great voice and is a very diligent person to work with. I’ve been hearing how it “matters more WHO you work with” than “WHAT you work on”. Don’t people leave their jobs more so due to conflicts with people and not the work itself? So things went well between the two of us. When you do hire a designer or anyone you intend to work with on your business, pay some attention to how well you “jive”.
3. Strategy.
Your site must fit into your bigger biz growing strategy. In this case, what was important for her was a professional image and a site that supported her client-attraction efforts. We skipped the list building aspect and free giveaway due to the amount of work involved at the moment, but at the same time we did setup her site to clearly explain what she did (in a client-centered way I should add) and lead visitors to contact her for coaching – her call to action.
On a side note, she did add her email list opt-in right after to start moving towards a solid list marketing strategy, so her site is starting to grow.
The site is up new and she’s beginning to incorporate it with her business.
In the future, I would love for her to create a killer giveaway and rock-solid automated email to educate and win trust with new subscribers (aka potential clients).
Here’s her feedback to me on the website:
I told you on the call last night that I was happy with it, but now I’ve spent more time on it, I LOVE it!!! In our work together, the effort to think through content was the most helpful part. A few months ago if someone asked to see my website I was like, “Uhh …” and very reluctant. Now, I’m very happy to send them knowing it reflects what I do and will motivate them to action. The person I sent to it last night just jumped on my list.
Here’s her site: Refocus and Thrive with Shushanna Mignott.
Comments, thoughts, ideas, and reactions are welcome. Post below.
The site is warm and welcoming with an easy to navigate layout. I like the use of bold type to emphasis key points and break up long paragraphs. I would agree with Gary in that the call to action should take president over the image of the woman jumping. On the whole though I love it and get a sense of who you are and who you are trying to attract. Well done and al the best.
I love the tag lines and the vibrancy of the site. Clear and attractive, and easy to navigate. Great work Ken and Shushanna 😉
Thanks Sandra. It’s important to note that it is a joint effort. She’s got a great photo – that helps quite a bit.
Love the work you showed on this email! Awesome! I am working on building my site on my own due to affordability issues, with hiring it out, but i get the clear messages you seem to be creating on the site you design!
M
One thing I love that we did was to keep this thrive word throughout. Fun. When you get your site up Michael. Please share it.
I have my site up and running ken. http://www.LifeStrategistCaoching.com but my set up is through weebly, but some of the template restrictions make it not as amazing as what can be done through word press, kajabi, etc. or having a unique eye assist with the design element as you beautifully demonstrate in our work!
I will be jumping in to give it a go, myself through one of these other services. Going with the Kajabi platform, but i think once I get a couple more clients I will hit you up to create a smashing new design for me!
Hey Michael … you’re url should be spelled “coaching” with the o first then the a. FYI … it’s easy to goofup spelling. Nice work getting a site up – that in itself is a feat. I’d ditch the “welcome to my website” bit if possible. Make the header less and content more. I see you’ve posted testimonials – great move!
Thanks for sharing your experience on weebly/wordpress/etc. Great to see what experiences others are having.
Shushanna, your photo, header and background are gorgeous!!! Love them!!! If any design suggestions (minor) it would be these: I think your call to action for the Thrive Now, Find Out More Here could be stronger. When I look over there, the woman jumping is dominant and the link for Find out more here is not. You could have someone add the words Get Your Thrive Now Complimentary Call Now on the image and make that the same link. It would probably get more clicks.
For the lightbulb, that is too large and dominant and I would wrap the “Get the FREE E-Course” text around it so that text is higher on the page. In design, speak, it’s almost like they are two separate thoughts; not connected. It’s not hard to do in HTML or most newsletter signup form editors.
Thanks for sharing Gary. 😉