This is transparent, no-BS marketing advice about the stuff most people don't talk about—pricing struggles, what didn't work, and lessons from my own messy middle (plus life as a soloprenuer behind the screen).
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Emotional Support Pizza's🍕 & the end of your "making it work" era
Published about 1 month ago • 8 min read
2ND EDITION | ISSUE #154
Depending on how long you’ve been following me, you may or may not know the lore surrounding our almost 100-year-old house and the renovation that's been one of the main characters in our lives since January of 2022.
If not, here’s the cliff notes version:
We spent the first year and a half completely gutting the place, commuting back and forth from our apartment to work on it.
Then we spent the next six months living in a camper in the driveway until we could get the house livable enough to move in.
We will have been in the house itself for two years in January.
And we’ve got a big goal by the end of the year.
A goal that has been two and a half years coming.
Something I’ve gone without since July of 2023…
Which was the last time I had a “proper” kitchen.
Needless to say, 2 1/2 years without a “real” kitchen has humbled me.
It has taught me just how convenient our lives can be. And how to be truly grateful for those things.
But that doesn’t mean it has been easy.
There have been more than one tear filled night where I am ordering a pizza (while feeling guilty for not fueling my body properly, eating processed foods etc.) because the mental effort of walking around in circles from the basement where the sink is, to the corner of my dining room where I keep the plates and things, to the front porch where I keep the “pantry” and trying to put something together from my mini fridge, hot plate, insta pot and the toaster oven that sits IN OUR BEDROOM - is more than my brain can take.
Not having a kitchen doesn’t mean we don’t eat.
Or that I don’t cook.
It just means that those basic daily tasks are 5x harder than they need to be.
And I can also tell you from experience that not having a website does the EXACT same thing
THE END OF THE MAKING IT WORK ERA
Much like making life work without a kitchen, I’ve also been making my business work without a website for the better part of a year.
I slowly started to dismantle the site in the new year, when I first really put my head down on repositioning my offer suite.
It was simple - all my offers were changing, so nothing on my site was super accurate.
Eventually, I got so sick of it saying “we're under construction” that I just scrapped the entire thing.
In the meantime, I have been making it work with the business equivalent of an Instant Pot and a hot plate.
Lead forms on Honeybook - digital products and newsletter hosting in ConvertKit.
But now - it’s a question of legitimacy.
Somehow, not having a website feels about as shameful and secretive as not having a kitchen.
Even though I still eat. I still make it work. I still sign clients.
But the thing is - deep down, I know the whole thing is a little more stressful than it needs to be.
That just like having a kitchen would make life a little easier. And more enjoyable.
Having a website would make business a little easier, and perhaps a little less stressful?
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU CAN'T SEEM TO GET "WEBSITE" OFF YOUR TO DO LIST
The problem with not having a website is simple. No one can stalk you.
It makes it harder to refer, so therefore easy math = fewer leads. Less sales. Less growth.
In a millenial world where we all found out our ex boyfriend was cheating through an intense search and review of tagged facebook photos and mutal friends (IYKYK) we like to do our research on people - online.
Whether that is looking up the menu for your emotional support pizza.
Ordering paint samples and pricing out different companies (which I literally did last night).
Or reading through the sales page for an offer you're interested in booking.
We need the time to marinate. To review. To compare.
And without a website - I could be taking myself out of that running (which really isn’t fair to all the cool people whose brands would be made that much cooler by working with me).
Which is why—the white whale of my website—is being tackled once and for all.
Not to sound like a broken record - because this has been a proclamation I have been making forever, but somehow….
procrastinating
avoiding
creating other tasks instead of
not being even a little realistic about how long it is going to take me
And I know I am not the only one.
Taking on our websites is no small task.
Especially when we are DIYing it.
Or even a piece of it.
So that’s why, until further notice, my focus is there. On my brand. On CJ, and getting back to a place where I feel confident in my online presence.
With Q3 just around the corner, if your website was on your to-do list for 2026 and it still hasn’t happened, despite your best efforts, I get it - trust me. I'm here to share exactly how to get out of the messy middle of what feels like the never-ending mush of getting your website up to date.
My hope is that documenting my journey helps you start the new year with a site that can make running your business and converting leads easier in 2026.
The most important thing to figure out strategically before opening a design tool for your site is your brand's positioning.
The thing that I think really trips most of us up about terms like brand positioning is that it is so vague - like, WTF does that actually mean? And why is it important to understand (someone remind me to write a blog post about this once ya - know I have a website up and running again, but in the meantime, here’s the quick and dirty).
In the simplest of terms:
Brand Positioning means - how you want people to perceive your brand.
That includes what they identify you by (a color, an illustration, an aesthetic), what they remember about you, the POV’s that stand out to and resonate with them - how you connect with them.
It’s what makes your brand tick, click, work.
Without brand positioning, you can’t create effective messaging (aka the words, phrases, and communication style you use to translate your brand's positioning to the written and spoken word in audience-facing copy and content)
Without messaging, you can’t write effective copy and content.
Without both positioning (how you want people to perceive your brand) and messaging (how you communicate that to them), you can’t create effective content that shapes the perception that your audience has of your brand.
Its the foundation for everything, and without it, your website still won't work effectively. It would be like having a kitchen - with no running water or electricity.
Still there, you could still figure out a way to eat, but it would still not be as effective as it could be.
Whether you are DIYing your entire website or just a sales page, there are a few design elements that will help speed up the design process and remove some of the analysis paralysis that comes from communicating your brand identity through your website design.
First off, color. Creating a set of guidelines for the colors to be used for backgrounds, the font colors that complement those backgrounds, and the chosen pop of color helps to speed up the design process. Most design platforms, such as Showit and Squarespace, allow you to set design settings to override the color scheme and create overrides for your buttons, headings, and other elements.
The same goes for your fonts. Upload all your fonts to your site builder ahead of time and create guidelines for the sizes that will display and which fonts belong to each type of heading.
Then comes the time to design (granted you have your site copy already - but we will talk more about that next week).
If your brand colors need some TLC - check out my bestselling resource The Brand Color Kit
If you want to sharpen your understanding of color usage, font pairings, and composition before tackling your next website design project, check out this 90-minute masterclass.
Or even better - if you want this all done for you instead, you can refresh your brand identity inside Brand Brushstrokes and get a custom DFY website inside The Signature Site.
Okay so now you’ve got a grasp on the strategy behind your site, you have your identity in a place that you are proud of it. Sooooo now what.
Next week we’ll be talking more about the content you’ll need before you can hit publish, and sharing the BTS of my website framework & design process - but first, I want to talk about making the time to do any of this. Whether that’s the prep work you need to do before you can even open a web design software.
Making the time for your own brand is hard.
I don’t have the facts and figures - but I am pretty sure we can all agree on that.
As solopreneurs - or even those of us with a small team, you’ve got four things you need to balance.
Your clients/delivering your offers
Content & Marketing - getting people in
Your business - the numbers, and admin
Your brand - how you continue to grow, evolve, and make all of the above even better.
The problem is - the first three tend to demand more of our attention. If I am being honest, I feel like I’ve spent the majority of my self-employed life trying to find the perfect balance in all of this, and I’m starting to wonder if it really is possible on a day-to-day basis?
But the problem is, if you don’t make the time for the fourth thing on that list, things get outdated, stagnant, they no longer convert - the world moves on without them.
That’s just the reality of it.
chief creative officer weeks
The one way I have been able to consistently make time for my brand, going deep and making moves like - rebuilding my offer suite, redoing my brand strategy and messaging, rewriting my website copy, and now redesigning an entire website - has been something I like to call a CCO week.
Chief Creative Officer weeks are 7-14 day periods of time where you are your client. Perhaps there are a couple of meetings on the schedule, but the work you have to do for your own brand is the main focus.
I have been toying with the idea of creating a free CCO week challenge, where we all participate in a CCO week together and share daily updates of our progress.
I would create some prep content leading up to it and daily journal prompts or challenges - plus there would be a couple of really cool giveaways at the end.
If you would be interested in taking part in this, be sure to vote at the link below and let me know which date you would prefer to do it. If I get enough votes, I will do it on both dates!
When would you want to join the FREE CCO Week Challenge?
I don't really consider myself a Swiftie - but I do think that if you can figure out how to use her engagement, album launch, etc., and join in on the conversation in your content, you should do it.
I feel like I am ridiculously late to the game on this, but I've been binging Downton Abbey. How did it take a period piece & Britsh TV lover like me this long to watch it? The storylines are pretty slow to progress, but I honestly like that.
I feel like some of the more recently created shows burn through storylines so fast. That was honestly my biggest critique of the latest season of Wednesday.
Catie's Fall Curriculum
I feel like this behind-the-scenes section has been a little all over the place, so if you've made it this far, I appreciate it!
I've spent the month of September feeling like I am in a constant state of "catch-up" and trying to reach a point where I can switch gears and tackle my website. That mode can kinda kill my creativity✌🏼.
One real-life brand highlight, three sticky note-worthy strategies - packaged in a weekly marketing resource designed to help you take aligned action to build & grow your brand.
This is transparent, no-BS marketing advice about the stuff most people don't talk about—pricing struggles, what didn't work, and lessons from my own messy middle (plus life as a soloprenuer behind the screen).
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