The DIY Approach to Branding & Website Design
If you’re a DIY entrepreneur like me who wears many hats in your business - you know what a relief it is when you find like-minded folk who can help you do what you do and do it even better. This website wouldn’t have been as fun to create without the help of two women whose eCourses guided me through the branding and website creation process. I was drawn to both of them because of the very REAL way that they market their courses. No hype. Authentically themselves. Great writers. Plus, their courses are well organized and beautifully presented.
If you'd like to create a website or business that reflects who you are and what you care about - check out these two women and their courses. I highly recommend them!
Branding
"Better Branding" with Caroline Winegeart
https://www.betterbrandingcourse.com/
Caroline’s course is incredibly comprehensive. From the very first lesson, she goes right to the heart of what’s important to achieve with your branding…
“The 3 Things You’re Trying to Achieve w/Branding:
Here’s how I like to think about it. There are three different levels of achievement when it comes to branding: attention, understanding, and resonance.
There's attention - someone saying: "Oh, look at that."
There's understanding - someone saying: "Ohh, I see what she does."
Then there's resonance - someone saying: "Ohhh, she's talking to ME."
— Caroline Winegeart
Resonance. That struck a chord. I’m in!
Caroline’s process consists of helping you discover your brand story, your business values and beliefs, and your audience, and then creating text and visual content that tells that story, reflects your values, and speaks to your audience in a unique and authentically you kind of way. She made me think more deeply about the WHY of my business - and I love how the finished branding and website reflect that.
Here’s a mood board I created for the course using Caroline’s template and Canva. The words at the bottom are “tone words” - five words that I honed out of a list of values that I created in the course. Each one has meaning for me that I wanted to be reflected in any visuals or text if I got lost in the process. Even if you don’t end up creating your own website, going through Caroline’s process of creating tone words and a mood board will help you communicate with whoever you are going to be working with to design your website.
This is a style sheet I created in the better branding course.
If you’d like to get a taste of Caroline’s eCourse style, check out her free email branding mini-course - "Discover Your Differentiator." https://www.betterbrandingcourse.com/free-branding-course
Squarespace Web Design
Squarespace 101 by Kerstin Martin
https://kerstinmartin.com/squarespace-101
Next, I dove into creating the website with Squarespace using Kerstin’s course.
photo by Kerstin Martin
Kerstin has a beautiful design aesthetic and a wonderfully organized and easy-to-follow way of teaching. From signing up for a Squarespace account to launching and SEO, Kerstin really knows her stuff. In fact, she is a Squarespace Authorized Trainer and Web Designer.
She hosts all her eCourses on her own website - and even has a course to teach you how to do that if you so desire! She also has an "Ask Me Anything" offering where you can schedule some time to work with her on, well... anything! I took advantage of that service towards the end of the course and spent a delightful hour with Kerstin going through my list. By the time we were done, I felt like we were old friends.
But the thing that really clinched the deal and had me signing up for my first course with Kerstin? Underneath all this know-how is a heart-centered business. Here’s how she writes about it on her About page:
"As an empath and HSP it is very important to me to act from a place of integrity, substance, and caring.
I am not a hustler, my approach is more gentle and personable.
Above anything, I believe in great service and delivering high-quality work, and my business has grown very organically as a result.
As my client or student, you will always be seen and heard.”
– Kerstin Martin
Seen and heard. There’s the resonance piece again! When I read those words, I felt like Kerstin “was talking to me.”
