June 2023 Recap - Business Growth & Website Enhancements
JUNE 2023 Recap
In the Business
Finishing up a family-run digital marketing agency Squarespace website located in Portland, Oregon
Completing my first Design In A Day website built for an executive and leadership coach in Northwest Arkansas
Working with an (amazing) artist to build her art portfolio site
Signing on a new client based in Texas who’s in the property management/short-term vacation rental industry
On the Business
Education
Invested in an SEO for Copywriting course from a woman Forbes calls ‘The Pioneer of SEO’. How cool! She’s been in the world of SEO since the 1990s, and has a lot of really helpful and actionable content in her course. I just started it, and am hoping to not only deepen my knowledge of SEO, but start offering SEO services to clients within the next couple of months.
Purchased a Graphic Design Masterclass on Udemy on supa sale!
My website
Added more custom code to my website, including borders around text boxes and images for a more aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-read look.
Added hot pink to my color palette, because who am I kidding, and why did it take so long?
Moved my portfolio to the home page so website visitors can see my past works right away.
Added new testimonials to my website 🙌
Minimized the website audit service and introduced my new Design In A Day service. Now I offer two services - Two Week Web Design and Design In A Day. My goal is to have one Two Week Website service and two Design In A Day services every month for the rest of this year. 💃
Continue to write and publish two blog posts every week on Monday and Thursday, 10:10 am PST.
Other website work
I got dressed up to be a witness at a friend’s courthouse wedding (🥰), and had an extra 20 minutes to spare —
So I did what I’d been thinking about doing for months: I set up my little phone tripod and took a few photos of me working. It’s (definitely) not professional level, but my website desperately needed some updated photos of me not drinking hot wine at a German Christmas Market in 2019.
Decisions
Decided to offer my past clients referral bonuses for the remainder of this year so they can benefit from a lil boost while I grow my business.
Decided to offer my Facebook friends a discount on my Design In A Day services - the first three to book get a 20% discount (which is quite steep and the marketing gurus on the internet do not recommend this, but I like trying new things just to see how it goes!)
Decided to keep my website pop-free. Most ‘industry’ folks say to gloriously sprinkle pop-ups throughout your website. They say that even though people say they get annoyed by a little pop-up asking you to subscribe to their newsletter, download their freebie, or purchase their course, most people still enter their email address. Pop-ups have high conversion rates, period.
→ So why am I NOT using pop-ups? Well, I’d rather have people opt in to my newsletter or freebies because they WANT to, not because I annoy them until they say yes. 😜 I want people to have a pleasant experience on my website. And I make my newsletter very obvious in my footer on every page, and there’s a tiny announcement bar at the top with a freebie download, so it's easy to find if you want to hear from me.
And finally, I decided to launch my newsletter sooner than I planned. I originally intended to wait until I hit 50 subscribers, then 25 subscribers, but now I’m thinking, I’m just gonna for it! I really have no reason to wait. I’m currently at 16 subscribers. Starting in mid-late July I’ll begin sending out my weekly newsletter. Interested in subscribing? Sign up here, please and thank you! 🙏
Travel
No travel this month! Just workin’.
Books I read in June
A New Kind of Country. Dorothy Gilman. A memoir by one of my favorite authors about her solo move to Nova Scotia in the 1970s. Incredible.
The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life: Before 8AM. Hal Elrod. I surprised myself by liking this! There were a couple of takeaways from this book that I really enjoyed. More below on how I incorporate them into my daily routine.
Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love From Day One. Emily Hayward. A book about how some brands build obsessive followings from Day One. Interesting read, but not terribly pertinent to what I’m doing at the mo.
Everything is Figureoutable. Marie Forleo. I had never heard of her before the last couple of months, but apparently she’s a Big Deal in the entrepreneur world. I started the Audiobook, and got around halfway through, before just not feeling connected to the author and her style.
Thursday Murder Club. Richard Osman. Cute cozy mystery set in a retirement home in the English countryside.
Big Magic Creative Living Beyond Fear. Just started, so I’ll probably finish in July. I like Elizabeth Gilbert and am enjoying this book so far. I love the supposition that ideas and inspiration are alive and float around the world looking for places to land. How, well, magical! ✨
Note: I read the majority of my books through the Libby app, though occasionally I’ll buy or borrow one. All links above go to Amazon, and are not affiliate links.
Misc.
I incorporated a few things from The Miracle Morning into my morning routine. Now when I wake up, I immediately:
Get out of bed and brush my teeth and wash my face before drinking a big glass of water
Stretch for a bit, usually while I’m walking around my apartment reading my daily affirmations off my phone
Look at my digital vision board (I make one every January 1), visualizing what I want my life to look like.
And then I journal. I’ve started journaling in categories like:
Moments of delight
Gratitude
Wins/Accomplishments
Goals
Improvements
I do NOT wake up at an extremely early hour like he recommends, I do not exercise right away, and generally I’m not meditating during my morning time either. I’m good with all of this.
Things I’m loving
My new cordless vacuum - I’m not a lazy person, but I am generally a low-effort person. Since I got my new cordless vacuum, I’ve vacuumed like 90% more! I love vacuuming now!
Iced coffee - ‘tis the season!
Trader Joe’s Peach Black Tea Candle is back!
Laying in my little patio hammock on late afternoon weekends, reading a book (Thursday Murder Club, last week), and drinking chilled orange wine with my boyfriend
Coming Up
Work
Client work
Finish the SEO copywriting course
Start offering SEO packages to clients
Organize my desktop & Canva storage
Create another value-packed freebie
Create a Tools & Resources page
Figure out Squarespace’s Impact Dashboard so I can start offering my website readers (that’s YOU) 10% off your Squarespace websites!
Personal
Continue going to the gym at least three times a week
Hike at least once a week (training for 👇)
4 night backpacking trip at the end of July
Close friends from the Netherlands coming to visit, yay!
Figure out health insurance ughhh
