How I Got My Start (And What I Learned from Watching My Most Successful Clients)

It’s not about the perfect strategy, it’s about clarity.

When I started my business, I fell into it. I never intended to be an entrepreneur. All I knew was that I didn’t want to go back to law school, and I was struggling to write novels—my chosen career at the time.

At one of my writers’ meetings, a fellow writer came in showing off what I thought was a pretty ugly website. I mean, it was bad. I took one look and thought, I could do better than that. So… I did.

I taught myself Photoshop and a little code, and I created websites for several different authors I knew and one for our writing group. Word got out that I had a knack for design, and pretty soon, I was making more money from building websites than from writing unfinished novels, so even though I didn’t have a business background, and didn’t even know anyone who worked for themselves, I suddenly found myself running my own small business.

And that’s when things started to go wrong.

One of my very early offices in RiNo in downtown Denver.

As soon as I started treating it like a real job, I put a ton of pressure on myself to get it ‘right.’

I’d gotten sucked into this weird new thing called ‘entrepreneurship’ and I felt unprepared and overwhelmed by what I was afraid I didn’t know. Because I hadn’t gone to school for it and didn’t know anyone who was a business owner, I was convinced I was doing it all wrong.

All the fun and sense of exploration that I’d had in the early days of building websites were lost to the fear that someone would catch on to the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.

All I knew at that time was that I thoroughly enjoyed designing websites, I really enjoyed learning about marketing, and I knew there had to be a way to create a happy life.

That, actually, was my secret weapon. Even though I was scared, I somehow knew there was a way to succeed that was easy and didn’t require constant hustle and stress.

My whole life, I’d seen people thrive and enjoy life with seemingly little effort (not in my family) but I knew wealthy people first-hand who weren’t exhausted and overwhelmed all the time; I just didn’t know how they did it.

But this way of ‘lucking’ into running my own business, something I’d never seen anyone in my family do, seemed like it might hold the key to a better life, a life of ease and confident decision-making, a life where I worked hard, sure, but I loved it. I didn’t feel the need to hustle for my worthiness or sacrifice myself to earn success. If only I could find it, surely there existed a roadmap to that kind of success and life.

So I went on my own personal little crusade to find the ultimate secret to marketing and growing a business, something that would magically attract new clients and save me from the hustle, overwhelm, and vulnerability of being a business owner.

Surely that existed, right? That’s what those other happy people must have found, right?

So, I took every marketing and business course I could find and afford. I learned about SEO, funnels, blogging, tripwires, JV stuff, Google ads, and anything else that was trending at the time.

But no matter how much I learned, who I hired to help me, or how much I invested in a program to teach me (sometimes a lot, an awful lot), I never heard the great-big-marketing-secret-that-only-a-few-know that would explode my business and solve all of my problems.

And in all that searching, it never once occurred to me to tap into what I wanted to do or trust my hunches on how to run my business.

After all, what could I possibly know about how to run a business? I didn’t go to school for this. I didn’t have anyone to mentor me. I was alone, with only my imposter syndrome desire for a better life keeping me company, and I didn’t yet have the confidence to trust that.

One thing that should have made it better, but actually somehow made it worse, is that even with all of my insecurities, I managed to grow from a small, one-person shop to an agency with over a hundred clients and nine people working for me. But, rather than feeling legitimized, my imposter syndrome really kicked in, and I struggled to feel ‘expert enough’ to run my biz.

Me teaching one of my over fifty workshops and still feeling somehow inadequate. #bizownerlife

And that’s when I started to notice something interesting about my clients.

By the time I’d been in business for a few years, my client base had shifted from writers to mostly healers and wellness practitioners, like acupuncturists, chiropractors, therapists, etc. These clients weren’t interested in ‘dude-bro’ marketing or fancy marketing funnels with tripwires and scripted sales pitches. Instead, they were completely committed to aligning with their vision for their businesses.

They wanted to be successful, sure, but they really wanted to be aligned with their best selves as they grew their businesses, and they weren’t growing their businesses in conventional ways.

The clients who were doing really well weren’t necessarily the clients who bought the fanciest, most expensive website. They also weren’t the clients who were doing all the ‘right’ things to market their business.

They were simply crystal clear on what they loved to do, who needed it, and how they wanted to deliver it to them.

That’s it. Just those three things.

They weren’t the least bit interested in following marketing trends. If they didn’t want a list? They didn’t have one. Instead, they rocked social media. Some of them hated social media, and instead focused on having an unbelievably popular newsletter. Some only worked in the mornings, or two days a week. Some had an entire team of support, and some insisted on handling all the details themselves.

They were simply doing what they felt was best for themselves and their clients. They had a clear understanding of who they were and what they wanted from their business, and they delivered it to their clients without compromise.

And here’s the thing: they were thriving.

I witnessed this over and over again, and it kept me baffled. What about all the marketing Do’s and Don’t’s? What about all the rules on how to run a successful business? What about all the fear-mongering that I was reading about and listening to from other business coaches who insisted that the only reason I was struggling was that I didn’t know their way of marketing?

What if there was no ‘right’ way to grow a business?

These clients of mine certainly didn’t think so, they were breaking all the rules!

That’s when I realized, it wasn’t the strategy or system that mattered, it was the clarity.

The clearer they were on who they were and what they wanted, the easier it was for them to run successful businesses.

I began to see that marketing my business the ‘right’ way might not have been as important as I thought, and all the marketing how-to’s and sales blueprints in the world weren’t as powerful as my vision and desire for my own company and life.

I tapped into that long-held belief of mine that work could be fun and maybe, just maybe, success was meant to be easier than we were all told it had to be.

One of my early brand strategy workshops in Boulder attended by more healers than I’d ever seen. Almost every single one of these people worked with me in some capacity. I have such affection for this photo.

I began to prioritize what I wanted. What if I just started taking action toward what felt like fun instead of waiting to get gigs that would feel validating? Could I just start hosting free workshops? Would that build my business? Would anyone even come? (The answers of course were yes and yes.) What if I could hand off all the coding? Was it possible for me to just consult? (Yes.) Could I start coaching programs and help people focus on joyful marketing? Would anyone even buy that? (Yes and yes.)

As my business grew, I began to trust myself more. It got easier to make decisions that aligned less with who I was and more with who I wanted to be. I began to intentionally create the life I wanted to live.

So when I decided to build another website design company, I made sure that identifying your vision and aligning with it were essential parts of the process.

Everything I do is set up to help you clarify what you’re amazing at (instead of what someone thinks the market wants), who needs exactly that (instead of trying to bend to where the market is), and how you want to deliver it to them (without comparing yourself to others or trying to do what everyone else is doing).

We dive into what you want to do and we build an effective, powerful strategy around it.

Of course, the ultimate goal is always to sell more of your services and stuff, but it’s always from a place of serving your ideal client in the way you want to, and never from a place of shoehorning you into one-size-fits-all strategies, blueprints, or systems.

If that sounds like a fun process and you’re ready to dive in, take the first step and reach out to me today.