WEB DESIGNER FOR COACHES
A Career in Creating Websites for Coaches
Hi. I’m Kenn Schroder, a website designer for professional coaches. 25 years on the web helping coaches around the planet, here’s how it happened …
Two Hidden Lessons To Help You Attract Clients Online
A twinkle in my dad’s eye and a sparkle in my mom’s started a chain of events …
“Chiiiilllllll-dreeennnnnn! Dinneeerrrrr tiiiimmmmmee!!!”
I can still hear it today. Mom summoned us repeatedly for an hour, but we wouldn’t budge. We were mesmerized by the Commodore 64 — our gateway into the unknown world of computers back in the 80s.
Dad was more hands-on. My dad, a humorous, smart, hard-working man, had lost his patience one day, stormed into the basement and smashed the computer right before our eyes. Keys flew about like popcorn popping. Naturally, crying ensued.
Surprisingly, we figured out how to snap the keys back on. And the darn thing actually worked! There’s no way today’s laptops could handle that.
We were computer junkies from the start. When we weren’t bicycling around town or shooting hoops at the park, we were programming and gaming on the C64 for hours on end.
You can’t beat childhood passions. It’s no surprise that I’m online, creating and designing websites today.
~ Special Moment 2 of 7 ~
My dream house turn to dread.
My three-hour slogs to Manhattan were rough. But on the way, there was a street of beautifully built new homes. I loved them! They were modern, big, yet simple-looking. I dreamt of owning one with a neat sports car outside.
I dreamed. But then I dreaded. It looked cool, comfy, and simple. Maybe get a puppy. Put a nice sports car out front. That’s be sweet. I was in my 20s. A horrible feeling took over when I realized to make it a reality, I’d have to stick with my painful commute and a lackluster job forever. Scratch that idea.
Soon after, I left that job to pursue greener pastures. I do wonder how things might have turned out had I gone after that house and stuck out the 9-5. But then, you wouldn’t be here, would we? 😀
~ Special Moment 3 of 7 ~
Jumping the corporate ship.
My body spoke to me. In the last year of my nine-to-five job, I felt this dark, deathly piece of burnt coal growing in the center of my chest. My body was basically telling me that it was time to go.
My being gave me direction. Having invested four years in college and eight as an actuary (an insurance statistician), I quit and returned to my first love, “creating on computers.”
Passion took over. It was 2001, just after the Internet bubble had burst, the wrong time to become a website designer. But I decided to do it anyway.
And the 25 year new career sprang. I know it was a good move. I’ve been able to hop around the planet, work with superb coaches and earn a good income.
~ Special Moment 4 of 7 ~
My first-ever coaching session …
Dazed, delighted, and blow away. I remember my first coaching session lasting about 2 hours. With all the great questions, deep thinking, and big-picture dreaming, I left that session with a huge sense of relief, much clarity about the path forward, and ready to conquer the world.
Coaching was awesome! As I learned more, I quickly realized that I was coaching people all my life. With friends and family, I was the one who asked lots of questions, listened endlessly, and helped others see past limiting assumptions. And I always routed for the person willing to try new things.
And my new design focus too hold. I fell in love with coaching. It’s no surprise that I work with coaches and similar professionals today — leaders, mentors, guides, and caretakers — all folks helping others grow, change, and progress towards worthy goals.
~ Special Moment 5 of 7 ~
An Old Book on Selling, How to Earn More as a Coach, and Better Websites
I was excited even though I was struggling. In 2004, I lived in Huntington Village on Long Island, just a few years after leaving my city job. My fledgling website design business was slow-going and savings were depleting.
A magical book appeared. While I consumed all kinds of business advice, I clearly remember a book I stumbled upon in a local library. It was old-looking. I can’t recall the title, but it was about selling services. Oddly it had nothing to do with the Internet.
Thanks to Clem Onojeghuo on UnSplash.com for this photo
This book taught me two vital things that work for coaches too. I love library books because there’s a return date (deadline) and a threat of late fees (penalty) — which thus forces you to read them quickly. Talk about productivity 😉
Selling Wisdom #1. Don’t compete on price.
Don’t try to be the low-cost provider as a service professional — designers, consultants, coaches, and all. Price ought NOT be the primary reason to hire with you.
No, no, no, no, no. This is because there will always be someone else trying to undercut you. And that leads to an unsustainable business. And bottom-feeders will seek you out, caring less about your skills and more about saving a buck.
I’ve been there. Tried that. It’s crap. Don’t lowball your fees. And, ironically, you’ll won’t feel like going to the moon for your clients. The framing is fear and failure focused — all bad! So what do you focus on when talking to a possible client?
Selling Wisdom #2. Deliver high value.
Focus on value. Aim to help the potential client in a big way. For coaches that clarifying and painting vivid dreams for clients. It means giving structure and support for their success. It means mastering your skills.
Both wisdoms — don’t try to promote yourself based on fees, discounts, savings — and instead aim high, go big, and serve clients greatly. That’s a win for all.
So much coaching goodness here. That book taught me to do better for the coaches I worked with. It taught me to bring more value to them succeed in business.
~ Special Moment 6 of 7 ~
Taking My Show on the Road
I would have been on The Santa María with Christopher Columbus. In 2006, I was living in mid-town Manhattan, laptopping at the local Starbucks on Park Avenue, when the travel bug bit hard. It was time for a change — and a challenge.
Trial remote work-ation in Paris. I went to visit my girlfriend at the time and test-run remote operations. Could I work and travel at the same time? Luckily, I pulled it off, and more multi-month trips followed. Some of my faves …
Sunset-blessed beach town of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I failed to convince this young-preneur to sell his springy animals online.
Straight from the airport, high on excitement, Greg and I headed to One Tree Hill for a “sweet as” view of Auckland, New Zealand.
Downtime, beach, pools, and history were on the menu when I went to Greece. I’m at the Acropolis in Athens, mimicking that statuesque star.
In Buenos Aires, days were filled with co-working, city walking, meat, and Tango. This was my first three-in-a-row summer experience. Wild.
L’Etoile de Montmartre, The Star, is a cute little café and the Parisian branch office for my first work-abroad stint of six weeks.
That is a giraffe. A very tall, spotted, unreal creature. I’m a short walk away. An arica’s wonder of the world.
~ Special Moment 7 of 7 ~
Paris. 10k in a week. Wait what?!
Testing out the new “design with the client in mind” approach. I wanted to see if I could travel and work at the same time. I visited my French girlfriend at the time, staying in a tiny maid’s quarter in the Northern part of the city, Montmartre.
The universe was rewarding me for bravery. The universe was rewarding me for bravery. Here, the planets aligned, and I managed to sign three new high-paying clients, in one week, for over 10k USD.
And the big lesson was …
Make everything about your website (pages, headings, emails, images, calls-to-action, etc.) to speak to the needs of your clients. Everything is about the client’s journey, with you there to support them.
Kenn’s big takeway for websites (and incidentally your business).
I took that discover to my design process. After that trip, I started to apply my learnings to make even better websites, help coaches find more clients, and do that via the Web.
I’ll admit, and I’m sure you’d agree that the greatest joy is not so much about my own growth and success, but watching it happen in support of our clients. It’s like double the joy.
And that leads us to today.
New Zealand / New York.
I go between New York and New Zealand, chasing summers, enjoying the beach, and helping coaches with their websites.
There are so many interesting people doing important work and being a part of their journeys keeps my soul a glow.
If you want one juicy PDF with my best learnings, check out my book, The Coaching Website Guide.
Definitely enjoy my blog posts, especially the top posts, which will teach you a lot.
And if you need a designer to get online, revamp a website, or take your biz to the next level, learn more here.
Thanks for reading.
~ Kenn
Hi Kenn,
I quit my corporate executive job several years ago to retire early with my husband. I took a certification course from the S.W.A.T. Institute and recently graduated as a Master Empowerment Coach. I’m looking to help people with stress, burnout and focus as well as helping them find their best work. All I need is a website that attracts people!
Wow! I love your story. I have had two ‘hobby’websites for many years and now it’s time to turn them into an income.
I have a lovely friend, Nikki Brown, who is helping me get started with finding websites that offer the kinds of things that I want to.
Well, guess what? I tripped over yours yesterday when I googled web content writing help….or something like that.
Of course I downloaded your 16 points guide and will be getting back to it in a minute.
Thanks for the help
Val Rainey
Great to have you here Val. Thanks for sharing that. What are the hobbies? And post your links to those sites, for a peek.
Oh Ken! You’re funny…….I meant hobby as in not very busy businesses.
My two sites…both under massive revisions over the summer are:
https://www.theelfandtoadstool.com
and
https://www.raineydaywritingandresearch.com
Cool! Fun graphics, did you create them? Grats on getting them up, it can be work. We should talk about turning that hobby into a paying gig that’s still fun.
My former partner in crime created Sarena the elf for The Elf and Toadstool
The daisy is a photo of a pin that belonged to my mom. The pain is a straight pen because that is what I learned to write with ink……way back in ’59 or 60.
Hi Ken,
Just read your story which is awe inspiring. I have been coaching for 4+ years, initially part time & now – since 2017 – full time. Here is a link to my web site http://www.streamlinedmindpower.com Would appreciate your valuable comments on appropriateness or improvements.
Congrats on going full time. Exciting!
Your website has quite a bit going on. I’m curious what’s working and what’s not.
I took a quick look, seems your website was running slow at the time. You might want to watch that. A slow website is pretty much the death of it. It could have been momentary, but use pingdom’s free tool to start testing.
Here:
https://tools.pingdom.com/#!/onHqf/http://streamlinedmindpower.com/
Hi Kenn, thank you for all your tips and for your exciting story! I’ve just finished my site and my about page is: https://lindseyladhams.com/about/…
Cheers,
Lindsey
Grats Lindsey! Nice smile on your face. You may want to bump that font size up a few, it’s coming in very small on my Macbook air 13 laptop – quite a common viewing size. Love the white.
Not currently coaching, but looking to work with them like you do, just in a different capacity. I love your 7 special moments and can relate to the feelings, emotions and some of the experiences. In my personal and work life, I have had aha moments over the last few years of being more present in the moments and to stop living in fear. I am currently making career changes and no longer am afraid of myself or failure. I have come a long way in my relationships and life in general. Love to see your success!
Thanks for sharing that CJ.
Yes, fear, is fearsome. I’ve not found a way to make it go away, but rather found ways to move forward with them, and then they sort of just have less impact or weren’t really there. Interesting creature this fear is.
I have been following your advice to create a better site for my relationship coaching business. You asked me to leave a link to my revised About Me page. It is http://scottshannon.online/about/
Thank you for all of your help.
Now I know why you’re so good to work with Kenn!
🙂
Thanks Mary.
People need your help.
Keep that travel/work dream alive.
I just recieved certifiecation as a coach. We actually hosted the training so I was agressivly invested! I have had many careers including 30 years is a hairdresser, 10 years as a recovery coach and now working with my husband in our mental health practice as a Clarity coach.
Kenn, thank you for sharing your story it is very inspiring. Your humanity and kindness shines through!
GRATS!!! Exciting! Thanks for the kind words about my work. Happy to be of help.
Grats on that Gretchen! Super! Hosting it too, wow!
Hi Kenn
Feeling inspired; I am just beginning the journey. I am aware my web presence is extremely important.
Precious inspiration 😉 Exciting times ahead for you Robin. What made you start the journey (become a coach)?
Hey Ken
I can relate to many of your special moments that connects us I’m just going to reply to just two however #6 was huge for me.
This is my response to #7. I love to travel it started back when my family would drive across the US in the summer to visit different family members. Then when I was married my ex-husband was stationed in Australia (2 years) then Alaska (10 years) where he still lives with his new family in which I moved to Texas (mom’s family) and I been here for 19 years.
While working my current job I’ve worked in every state in the US/Territories except 5. I’ve worked in Canada and Puerto Rico. I have visited on vacation Mexico, South Africa, Jamaica and Fiji. I still love road trips and the following places are on my bucket list: Spain, Italy, Greece, Bora Bora,Paris, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Costa Rico, Singapore and Dubai.
I recently decided to quit my 16 year career in the field of clinical research. Yes everyone thought I was crazy and yet envy of me making this decision and actually doing it.
Well I didn’t fair to well because of some unforeseen circumstances happen and I will need to go back to my career for awhile (1 year) while building my coaching business part-time. However I have many things already in place and I’ve got my first coaching group started for the next 7 weeks (It is my pro-bono group of friends) so I can get some testimonies of my program before launching the paid one. I don’t feel I made a mistake when I did leave my job and need to return to it for a brief moment however I did learn some good lessons behind all of this. No matter what go for it because most people will just sit on the side-lines wishing they had the courage to do it even if it didn’t go as planned the first time.
Hey Dawn … new coaching group? SWEEEET!
Grats on the move to your dreams – love it!
Looking forward to seeing how your biz unfolds and the group goes.
Be sure to jump into the fb group so we can join in your journey.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/coachingwebsites/
Great story Ken and well written! thank you for the inspiration.
Thanks Anila … what lead you to me and this site? How’s your journey?
Hi Kenn…
Loved your story and you well deserve where you’re at in your life.
Cheers for now mate
Bill O’Mara