Most importantly, it was to display my perspective into my efforts showing outcomes.
My personal style (like clothing, lifestyle, etc) has always been kind of "basic but elegant" and my site's aesthetics are a reflection of that.
It's going to sound terribly cliché, but I like working on projects where the people are passionate. While money is great, and I've worked both with some brands worth hundreds of millions of dollars and I have assisted brands reach millions of dollars, I think the passion is the most important. I've been hired under some PMM's who are just results oriented and money hungry which is cool, but I've worked with some people as first time founders and really getting a feel for their perspective and sharing insights form my perspective is what I really enjoy most.
Yeah totally, so my internal process is
1. Seek to understand.
2. Define & align.
Telehealth Nurse Network is more than a job board, more than a consulting & staffing agency, more than a community. It's a career changing company helping nurses find remote roles to maximize support to patients.
Right away. Instantly. I saw an abundance of traffic, a massive amount of positive feedback, and a signifiant amount of first-time visitors becoming paid users. Carter left no stone unturned and made me feel like I was the only person that mattered. I had thought about hiring an agency, and then Carter really sold himself on never being late, having personal-policies that aligned with my work ethics, and had ideas that just made sense.
Watching him put those ideas onto paper and then onto the web, it was like watching magic happen from the magicians point of view. He responded to me at all times of the day, the night, we would have brief conversations late night over the site and i just felt like I hired the right person for this. I couldn't have asked for seriously anything better.
Yeah so this was a great experience for the two of us, I think it was a little hard because seeing the past website was just somewhat of a let down personally, so I knew i had to really carve the brand into stone and make it ever lasting. Other than putting in lots of time on this project, no challenges on my end, it was smooth just time consuming.
Telehealth Nurse Network
Flybasis is changing the way people find flights. Built with simplicity and speed in mind, Flybasis is a search engine that helps travelers uncover and book the best possible flights across the web. Whether you're booking a quick getaway or planning a long-haul business venture, Flybasis makes it effortless to compare prices, discover hidden deals, and get where you’re going for less. Clean, fast, and user-first, they're building the easiest way to book smarter.
With all honesty, there's something truly amazing about Carter, that's hard to describe entirely. The way he perceives things, his knowledge, when he doesn't know something he finds it out and suggests pros and cons to the solution, the fact that he's very reasonable in his work, it's hard to kind of explain but once you meet with him, and if you're serious about hiring him to solve your problems, you'll understand what I mean. One of my favorite traits of his, is the way he responds; typically 1 hour or same day, and he's just a genuine person.
Overall, this guy is legitimate one of the best people I've came across. Funny enough, this isn't the first time we've worked together, I had him do a landing page on a product a few years back and he was just as solid then as he was recently with this.
Thankfully this was really smooth, and I think the reason that it was, was 1, trust, 2, aligned vision & respected my input, and 3, I kind of wanted to work on a site similar, so this was fun and a breeze to put together.
FlyBasis
ScribeMD is a voice to document taking application, while I didn't fully build the app itself, I did the branding, the site, a few coding snippets for the application's animations, along with a couple UI/UX things. While I'm not "all about AI", I think building tools is great and I'm seeking to get even more into that part of the internet.
I think for us, Carter really maximized our potential.
If you saw the before and after him you wouldn't believe it was the same application.
While we hadn't been able to pick a route we seek to take for this application, Carter really brought it to fruition.
One of Carter's big points was better connecting our AI Application in a very personal situation, when you're at a medical center you most often want to see someone taking notes on paper about your situation and our application is a voice recording - transcribing - and uploading important notes into a patients file, and so it's very tough to make that human connection, and we feel like he painted the picture very very well.
The project began with only a seemingly old PDF mockup and no clear direction, requiring a full redesign from the ground up. Creative feedback was inconsistent, with frequent shifts in preferences that extended the timeline. While the project felt urgent at first, communication stalled after kickoff, and clear goals were lacking, better upfront alignment would have helped.
ScribeMD
I'm very thankful to be a co-founder of this. I can't say too much just to avoid being a conflict of interest, but my time spent in sales and as an e-commerce manager have really helped the experience here. Shopsuccessors is an all-in-one Shopify agency, as if we're your e-commerce manager, designer, developer, customer success lead, product mananger, and more.
Within a month of launch, I had secured our first 3 clients from previous clients, and my small team around me have been very impactful. I can't wait to see the verticality we rise to and I'm super happy to be a part of this project.
Collaborating with Carter on this was a great first step in the right direction. This isn't our first project and not our last, we actually used to be interns together in the past and so I knew who I could partner up with and how he could help. While he did his normal, above and beyond for us, our longtime collaborations have only granted more and more success between us.
I think the hardest part of this, was not over doing the product development, they provided everything, I did some finer tuning of the coloration and the copy here. I really enjoy my role here,
Shopsuccessors
Glowsend is a powerful WhatsApp hub for operations. It streamlines invoicing, payments, and tracking, all within a single chat, so entrepreneurs can close deals and get paid better. By replacing multiple steps with an all in one flow, GlowSend empowers business owners to run smarter.
Working with Carter was a perspective changing experience. He set the bar high for our future contracts. He was genuine, wise, and almost like he had built a billion dollar business on his own, he really just knew. We agreed on a Monday and Friday email follow up, he would send one M/W/F and was very thorough with all of his details and ideas. I felt like I hired someone as a designer/developer as well as a mentor for marketing and scaling. He even did a few things that to him were "minor" that we had no clue we didn't set up prior. 10/10, would work with again and refer people to.
Some delays in receiving some content, and then said content was not being anywhere near the ideal aesthetic alignment so I went and found content that algined better with their build, other than that, everything was smooth.
Glowsend
Hotmetro is a new kind of real estate agency, Instead of starting with price tags, buyers name their budget, and Hotmetro finds and negotiates homes that match. It's a bold, flexible model designed to remove the usual pressure from real estate and give buyers more control, transparency, success in fast-moving markets, and cash back into their pockets.
Carter really brought home my whole project, while I sent over a couple of site's I liked, I didn't see exact copies of them but more "mine in my own way", and I felt like that was something I wouldn't have gotten anywhere else with anyone else.
Working with Sam was great. I love working with first-time founders because I get to seemingly be, a warehouse of impactful resources to them. I think the only challenege was spending time epxlaining things, but it wasn't really a worry with me. From finer tuning Hotmetro's branding, to writing some of the copy and content, and then building the little calculator, this experience was fun and a good little project to have under my belt, the domain has belonged to Sam since 1999 and I thought that was really cool.
Hotmetro
Reko brings local communities together, by connecting farmers with customers as a digital farmers market, you can order everything from meats to treats, vegetables and bread, RekoNow is empowering homestead style communities.
Would give 4/5 stars, I had asked him to design our landing page, which he did, but I was under the assumption that I was also getting the code, hosting, and the domain for it too, that wasn't the case, and when he tried to align and reset expectations with me, he tried to charge me more. I had him do three revisions and our old one was just a screen shot of what the app was. I think it would've been better if he would've given me everything.
Working within a budget was tough, no resources, no copywriting, no briefing, and a very tight and strict deadline. The CEO told me he was just trying to get investors which is understandable but he didn't want to work with me on a budget so I really could only provide about a days work on this, he also had a meeting the next day so he kind of abandoned communication afterwards.
Cactus is a one of a kind application for real estate investors. People can search properties, estimate cash flows, and checkout what's around locally.
At first, he was amazing.
We didn't have a timeline and stated that he should take as long as possible.
We had doubled our budget for him.
The first round of feedback we got was great, really exceeded our expectations.
Right after that, he didn't communicate for a few days and it worried us.
From there, he got in back in gear and did a really solid job.
However, there were somethings that just didn't make sense to us, and even though he would explain it then explain it again, it didn't make sense to us.
Honestly, I was overwhelmed here.
I think starting this project out requiring six meetings, four of which were just to chat about nothing related to the project, and to mention two of them were at like 3 am my time (8 hour time zone difference), then they would ask extremely corporate like questions, and I get it, you have investors, you need to make your investors happy, but at the same time, it just doesn't set a good tone. From there, everything was micromanaged and while I do typically provide updates either daily or every few days, with a workload like that, it was just impossible to. They didn't have anything prior, and didn't understand that while I provide base copywriting and content placeholders, it's up to them to really hash out and tune in finer details... they didn't like that, though it was in our contract.
From there, they had very unrealistic expectations, the site they "wanted me to pull inspiration from" (meaning duplicate it but not exactly) was like a $80K site, not even kidding you. and while that's okay, they had $80K expectations and a $2500 budget.
While the work outcome was great, it was hell to get there... I went over so many hours, I mean I put in as many hours on this landing page as a $15K whole site, and don't get me started on feedback with them, they would absolutely love one feature one day, and then the next hate it, and then the next ask to bring it back, so this was just kind of a learning experience for me, and then not to be emotionally attached to my works but I just put my best efforts forward so when I handed this off and then they just went and bought a cheap template instead it did get me feeling a little upset about it, this landing page video you see crushes everything they had prior and after.
Plants Planted is a cool little e-shop from NYC, operating out of a two story loft, Dennis grows microgreens, makes custom plant holders, builds grow shelfs, selecting hydroponic machines to sell, and other things. Beyond just selling products, he curates a unique earthy energy that brings his love for plants into every aspect of your home, ensuring his customers not only find what they need but also feel inspired to create their own green spaces with ease and confidence.
Carter has has a really thorough experience. You can tell he's been around for quite a while. He does all the things of which I had no clue go into this. I mean, I thought it was just a store, but he flipped every un-turned stone and got me set up for success. He did everything. I mean everything. Branding (Logo, color kit, font kit). Design. Development. Copywriting. Testing. Payment gateway integration. Third-party App integration (For reviews). Product image editing. Price uploading. Shipping zone set up. SEO. Social media share graphs. Social media integration. Mobile responsiveness. Domain connection. He literally did it all and because I needed the whole one on one education, he sat down for e-meetings to instruct me on everything. $7500 well spent, would and will hire him again, have already sent him a referral which I know went through!
This project was a little slow but really thorough, due to the founder, Dennis seeking to have more of a hands-on experience while I crafted elements, Dennis wanted to know every thing possible of a e-commerce store, which I didn't mind sharing with him. This was a 80 hour project with 50 of them being meetings. Starting from scratch, I built a V1 site, I had him market and run tests for about a month, then rejoiced to built a V2 site (as shown), after gathering the feedback from his people, family, friends, peers, and customers, I rebuilt the store to increase engagement more.
The guys at Hal&Al are one of a kind. Operating out of two state-of-the-art facilities, Hal&Al Meats specializes in premium, ethically sourced cuts that cater to a variety of chefs, tastes, and cuisines. Known for their dedication to quality and craftsmanship, they pride themselves on hand-selecting and delivering each product to perfection. Whether it’s specialty sausages, custom cuts of wagyu, or gourmet pre-marinated meats, they’re bringing exceptional meats with a strong commitment to sustainability and transparency.
Carter really helped me in a time of need, my business was getting overwhelmed with orders that had no meaning, no lifetime customer value after the first purchase. So when he took a step back, revisioned, realigned, and then rebuilt, he did it really well. I already had a ton of Shopify experience and so there wasn't any sort of meetings, I just paid him on his terms and he got to work, much quicker than I imagined too.
While analyzing customer analytics, I identified a missed opportunity to boost conversion rates and customer lifetime value. The data revealed frequent repeat purchases of one or two products, just outside of a regular monthly schedule. However, there was no subscription model to encourage consistency or incentivize larger purchases. From there, on the front-end, the brand's bold color palette, the black, white, and red, was visually strong, there were no call-to-action buttons on any featured products on the home page, limiting customer engagement and driving missed conversions. Additionally, the product descriptions lacked clarity in design, and persuasive language, failing to communicate the unique value of the products or encourage upselling opportunities. This, combined with an inconsistent navigation flow, made the user journey less intuitive, ultimately impacting the overall shopping experience.
UC3 studios is an awesome, awesome 3D printing home goods & decor store. I actually bought a couple of their lighting fixtures to give to my sisters and friends as gifts. They melt and reuse plastics to build cool objects you'd find around a cool pad. They set such a good vibe in your place, it's really hard to look at other home accessories the same way after seeing and owning one of theirs.
I hired Carter to kind of bridge our business concept to our audience. I somewhat have a hard time with pitching & verbiage. I had no clue what all I was looking for, but Carter did great. I wanted something that was a little more complex than what Shopify could do natively, and he built a strong solution that's seamless. I've really enjoyed the experience and the often small little 1 off things I hit him up to do occasionally.
Moving from a very barebones concept just off some notes, essentially I connected with the business due to it's sustainability ethics, and really built something that would connect genuinely with their targeted audience. Something that maybe to note as a challenge was expected turn around time and lack of budget, although I did get my regular price paid, it was more than his budget so I had to do some work around payments, all and all it was a smooth build out.
Calm Caterpillar is an emotional regulation company dedicated to helping children and parents navigate the challenges of growing families. They create products designed to help kids connect with, understand, and regulate their emotions, providing valuable tools for emotional growth and family well-being.
Having Carter rebuild our Shopify store was the best thing I've done for my business in a long time. While working with limited resources, he was able to totally transform our Shopify store. His expertise, attention to detail, and past e-commerce management experience made him a superstar, turning our online presence into a seamless, high-performing store that drives purchases.
Starting off, there were a lot of design elements that just lacked. Images and product images were blurry, poor quality copywriting, not a whole lot of interaction between them and I (They almost went ghost after paying the first initial deposit, I spent two weeks waiting on them to get back to me), and some other things. Though it wasn't a bad experience, it was just a little dragged out and there were a lot of missing elements I had to fill in the blanks on. I think they hired an agency after me to manage their site.
Primal is all natural, all organic gum based in the USA. With bold flavors that last all day, leaking no microplastics, and a 'stronger than most gum chew', Primal Gum opens a new perspective into the gum market, making a staple for it's "Anti Big Gum", which truthfully, I had no clue how bad gum was.
Not only was working with Carter insanely easy, within a half hour of meeting him, I knew he could crush the message we are trying to convey. While basically leaving it up to him, I think the best part was that he built the whole store and system in a full day. He did inform me on some things that I weren't aware and wondered about the workarounds, then he just made a better workaround than I imagined so that was great for sure.
This project was really nice, almost all of the content was provided but product images which I did do a some image creation/detailing but I wouldn't quite call it a challenge, that's normal to me.
Wellness Partners PLLC is a health collective based in Boise ID, the woman owned business is a strong, improvement encouraging, good vibe place all around. Crista is a pleasure to work with, as she has an array of passion and enthusiasm for her craft. They offer personalized physical training, massages for recovery, mental health therapy such as therapy, and then yoga for a clear mind and stronger muscles.
Working with Carter was really smooth, kind of a breath of fresh air because I am not a website manager or anything of sorts. I just connected with him, paid his price, and then he took creative control and structure initiative. He took care of things I didn't even know were things to consider.
Starting originally with just a landing page that was left incomplete from another freelancer, I rebuilt the whole thing while keeping the brand's aesthetics and implementing some smooth interactive animations.
PeopleJoy is a financial wellness company that specializes in student loan repayment assistance and other education benefits. The organization partners with employers to deliver meaningful, impactful support to their teams, helping individuals reduce financial stress and make informed decisions about their financial futures. With a focus on personalized service, PeopleJoy combines technology with one-on-one guidance to create a seamless, supportive experience for employees navigating loan repayment and broader financial planning.
Carter really set us up for success, I essentially hired Carter to build out the landing page and the website. My experience with him was a sight for sore eyes, and for lack of better terms, a major relief of several headaches...What I think I liked most about hiring Carter was the fact that he "just knew", he knew the vibe, he knew the desired results, he knew literally how to handle every single thing here. Design, development, mobile, SEO, connecting the domain, etc, he did it all and was smooth but prompt. I liked how he never delayed communication, he was willing to chat and answer questions about things, and he provided his suggested and then provided other options like cheaper options. He seemed to have really wanted to take care of us here and it was great.
Actually got this in one shot, no in-project feedback or anything like that for me, I was hired by their PMM and she shared all of the information that really helped me, colors, guides, and some other things, and then gave me creative control to really get to building.
Key Construction builds with care, ensuring safety for every project while earning the trust of clients through dependable service and expert craftsmanship. Focused on maintaining the highest standards of safety, they prioritize the well-being of both their team and clients throughout the construction process. With a reputation built on reliability and attention to detail, Key Construction delivers quality results that clients can count on, every time.
We hired Carter to build our entire site and the experience was none than other, beyond our expectations.
This client was great, they came to me with all things necessary but 1 which was a clean logo file, which was easy enough for me to rework and export. They had their portfolio well built which was super helpful, I did some minor video/image editing to get it aligned for web use.
Becker General is one of Los Angeles' oldest construction companies. With four generations of brainstorming, blueprinting, and building, Becker General is streamlined for its clients' success. Their legacy of craftsmanship is matched by a forward-thinking approach, ensuring every project is completed with precision and innovation.
This is my third time working with Carter on my family's business, we're one of the longest operating construction firms in L.A, we've been working with Carter for years now, he helped us with branding way back when, and then when we were ready we had him build our site. He listened to what concepts I had and kind of propelled them or fit them better, he put pen to paper.
Working with the Beckers is always good, I'm friends with Adam the son, and him and I go way back from a conference. I've done various works for them, from editing video and images to meta ad's creation, some print media works, and then lastly their website. I think the only challenge here was as per usual they are a little back and fourth on their decision making but that's normal.
Cup Corner is a cozy, curated coffee shop nestled in the heart of Amsterdam. Known for its expertly crafted brews and handpicked beans sourced from around the globe, it’s a haven for coffee lovers seeking quality and community. With its cozy atmosphere and attention to detail noting that most people will just be picking up their cups off the corner counter, Cup Corner doesn’t just serve coffee, it serves an experience, blending the art of brewing with the charm of Amsterdam’s vibrant café culture.
Carter freaking crushed this, essentially I was worried about the whole thing, for some reason it's overwhelming to me. Carter took care of everything from A to Z, he built out everything, sent & met up with me for feedback, then updated improvements.
He did all of our assets and then walked me through all the maintenance things of Webflow. He was really great and just was a pleasure to work with. I think him taking care of the whole thing made me realize just how much goes into this and him taking care of it really got rid of that overwhelming thing for me.
Working within a tight budget and a tight deadline weren't ideal for me, they also provided low quality content which I had to spend some time touching up. While it was just a landing page build, there were around 100 small elements that required exporting and various animations set up. This was a $1.5K project which I don't offer anymore.
TL;DR:
Knowing your target audience and defining it well, enhances the probability of a greater return.
Design (UI/UX/IxD) & Development is simply not a cost, but a multiplier of income. I don't think I know of anywhere else where one could get a return as good as in this space.
A thoughtful experience, optimized, connects better, and converts more.
I know, it seems crazy.
And while it seems crazy, there's significant evidence that states my claim (Actually, several articles written like so but I wanted to apply my perspective as it's different from agency's or companies attempting to get cash grabs off this article title).
Getting into this,
it's very interesting, having had clients of all budgets, retainers, and fixed prices,
I can confidently state that an investment only returns as much as you invest.
A great example, is one of my clients spending $20,000 with me.
Before, his site was slow, hard to pay-to-enroll in, and then, had a lot of truly irrelevant content and information on it, and had a little over 10000 visitors, and just 300 members paying $39.99 a month ($11,997 per month in total), which is a 3% conversion rate.
After, his site was electric, engaging, and pulled visitors in willing to enroll. Spending 13.87% of their annual income, or just 1.6 months of income, the website I made for him started getting double the traffic, and 3x more conversions.
So how do you maximize your investment?
And
Well, I've somewhat always had a eerie feeling about this... because we've broken apart every aspect of a site, and rightfully so.
But there's company's spending $60K on a copywriter for their site... while other company's may tell their marketing team, their designer(s), or their developer(s) to do it, which I personally feel like the marketing team knows best.
Now what about small businesses, or first time founders?
In that case, it's important that you find someone aligned enough with your project scope. What I do, now, because I'm not just going to hand off a non-scripted site, is that I provide base level copywriting included. While I'm certainly no copywriter, the whole vibe of the completed project can be corrupt by just placing Lorem Ipsum everywhere. It doesn't set the tone very well in my experience.
What you should really be looking for is someone who knows their craft. They don’t need to be an exact, one-to-one match. For instance, saying, “I’m launching an online wellness brand and will only work with someone who’s built sites specifically for yoga studios” can actually be limiting, and here’s why: a designer or developer with a range of experience brings a broader set of perspectives, and often, more creative, adaptable solutions. I’m not suggesting that all industries are the same, but many share similar foundational structures and principles of user psychology. The key is knowing how to translate and tailor those to suit your specific goals.
What played the biggest part?
Great design, great animations, engagement theory, and then herding (if you will) the users to enroll without being demanding or hostile.
What els
TL;DR:
Do everything you can to make your customers feel like they're the only person (customer) in the world
Taking a temporary "loss" will bring bigger success in the future
Before getting into this one,
I want to sincerely thank you for reading my writings, I know in the age of shorter form content, video content, etc, people don't really read as much anymore, and
me personally, I've always been more behind the camera than in front of it, and then more realistic and genuine, while being hard at putting words together verbally, so my
articles are really a great way to almost hear how I talk and think how I think. So thank you, it's great having you here.
Hopefully my message above has impacted you enough to get the feeling of what I'm saying in the title.
Creating exemplary experience isn't just slightly better than basic packaging and quick shipping, it's making the user or customer feel like they're the only one here.
Having worked in "the top globally recongized brands" or whatever cringey hype-y title you want to call Adobe and Apple,
The thing that has stuck with me throughout, really from my first experience at Adobe, and then followed through and refined at Apple,
While working at Adobe (and at 17 years old mind you), I've come to understand that the true strength that lies in the ability to build meaningful connections, establish strategic alignment, and elevate their vision through thoughtful insight and collaboration. If you can do this with every person of yours (visitor, user, customer, stranger, friend, family member), you can really enrich both of your lives. And sure, you can use it to get them to spend more, or refer more, or share content more, etc.
What I really love, is that I've had friend share me as a referral, do the greatest work I can for them, and then them refer me to another person, and the cycle repeats itsself. While everyone is all about "going viral on social media", I'm all about genuine, long-lasting relationships with my clients.
Back at Apple, they had a few conversional points to be made that were shared with a select few, and it's nothing propriety so I can share them here.
You've got the FORD method, Family, Occupation, Recreation, and Dreams, which often in times, we'd run in reverse for those building things rather than watching netflix on a $1400 device.
You've got Acknowledge, Align, and Assure, this I use daily. To break it down, I Ackowledge and Align with my user's needs, then assure them I can handle the task with ease.
I think taking these and altering them can be really beneficial to creating exemplary experience.
A very long time ago, I had bought something small, wasn't anything I think it was a blank T shirt, a nice one, and not only was the packaging nice which was a nice touch, I received 2 other free items that weren't mentioned, a sample bottle of cologne, and a thank you card as a business card with a discount on y next order. Which surprisingly, got me to purchase again.
What I'm getting at here,
TL;DR:
Do everything you can to make your customers feel like they're the only person (customer) in the world
Do everything you can to make your customers feel like they're the only person (customer) in the world
There’s a world in all of these aspects, but one I’ve always really indulged into the science behind converting.
While you can have a beautiful website, it’s nothing without direction that leads visitors to either purchase or enroll.
While you have social media, it’s nothing if you can’t connect to your audience and say “go buy our product, link in bio”, and to take it a step further,
if that website in the bio sucks, you’re not converting at all.
To my surprise, when I first started in e-commerce, one of my jobs had a surprising 4.0% conversion rate, off a website that was truly awful. It felt like one of those old school wholesale buy everything and here’s a ton of ads everywhere on our site. I’m unsure how they did it, but I’ll tell you, it was a very trendy product at the time. Doing several million in sales per variant, and 8 or so variants, they had a warehouse in San Antone, but it was more or so a quick repackaging center more than anything.
An example of this is that one of my most recent clients had a “Add to cart” action on a catalog style website, but when users would click on it, it would automatically take them to checkout, which is fine if you have a smaller catalog or maybe a single product you're trying to sell, but in a large 50+ product catalog, you probably want to do some more cross and upselling.
Now, this whole thing is very much written in the sense that all brand owners want to convert better.
Sometimes, some brands really just lack their ability to convert, in these days of cheap websites like Temu or whatever, some business owners are being beaten by cheaper solutions, but I truly believe theres always a way. It may take a harsh time period of trial and error, but I think it’s all worth it to truly get that conversion.
90% of business fail because… (theres several reasons but hear me out)
Failure of proper allocated spending.
From my perspective, many startups spend in places they shouldn’t.
A prime example; I had a client a while back,
who started his company on Monday (little to no research), by Thursday, he had a small office space (probably a 12 month lease), a new computer set up with no tech skills, a had hired 4 bang-up job companies for plugins on his site, which he bought the most expensive versions for, they were necessary, however, I just don’t think the highest price of them really were, and then all the other misc expenses. I would have probably started with all of them on the entry option and scale up.
He did all of this, without having a single client inline ready to pay.
A few months go by, and he built and hired a small team, which is great to hear!! We love that.
However, he went and hired upper-class like managers, which are good for leading teams, but he had no teams in place.
Which hey, I’m okay with that, I’d probably rather probably take the route of hiring quality entry-mid level individuals whom knew what they were doing, and paid them well.
Essentially, if I were starting something, which I currently am, have done, and have been a part of many other people starting their things, I would do it like this,
Find something you’re good at or passionate about. Ideally for me, passion wins. Passion ignites something different in you, the love for it usually lasts longer,
in the game of business, isn’t it just who lasts the longest?
Then, I would conduct research on it.
I would look up, learn, be educated and educate myself (shoutout Youtube)….
How to be the best at it(at what I'm trying to offer), Companies that do great at it or similar things, How is the industry now and where is it heading, and Accomplishing Target Market, this for me is #1, why?
If you can’t tell me the very last detail in great detail, you’ve failed. Product Market research, Market conditions, making sure that it doesn’t have one hot day a year (ahem, Best Buy and Black Friday... they have 1 day of year where they see more sales then the entire year combined and thats Black Friday) And then finally, write a deeply detailed document of analytical research, supply chain, profits, sales, incomes and outcomes, and various other things such as targeted ebit & ebitda.
Take some time doing this; I think it's one thing to be super quick and excited, it's another to be structurally sound and build, research, strategy, and planning all take time.
Then, I’d act on it.
All good things take time, do not rush anything.
I'd do as much as I could do before outsourcing. Don't know code? learn it. Dont know finance? learn it. Don't know about connecting to customer? learn it.
Most overnight successes took years of daily failures to become what they are today.
In fact, you would be surprised at how many people are utilizing quality AI prompts to speed up their research and increase their knowledge of how to operate.
Spend time and money on your research, make sure you build up an incredible investors or spending pitch deck, and then step into another perspective and tear it all down, and reverse engineer it.
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them - Albert Einstein
Branding is undoubtably undervalued still to this day.
For some reason, I can’t fully grasp why.
Branding is the first thing a potential user/customer sees.
Branding is what connects them to you.
You may have the best product in the world.
It may solve all problems and give back to charity in abundance.
You may have a million customers, ready to pay.
You may have a ten million dollar purchase order.
But without branding, You don’t have any of that.
Though I don’t support the brand mentioned,
Why is coca-cola the largest beverage company in the world?
Back in the 90s,
it had the cutest and coolest merch, remember the polar bear ads? How about those cool polar bear shirts from the 90s?
They gave polar bears a good name.But no seriously, look at the impactful branding of coca-cola.They have a main logo, they have sub variants of it, they have a great color scheme…
But more importantly…
The branding creates the experience.It’ has a great flow state, the logo is split in two parts which they use in really good product derivatives I’d call it (You know, sub-products, or secondary products maybe better terminology, I.e. Diet-Coke, Cherry-Coke, Etc)
But, away from Coca-Cola, it’s important that I say, you need to have good branding too.
Branding is so valuable, It’s almost invaluable in my eyes, spend a great amount of time and a great amount of money dialing it in.
Personally, for my projects and businesses, I like to take time to get into a subconscious state and a “different-perspective” state, both are different but nonetheless,
I like to get as logically-creative as I can.
Usually, I call these sessions, "hyper-sessions"
Everything for a few days needs to be perfect, from morning rituals to nightly tasks, and consistency of everything in-between and after.
Reading, water intake, meditation, diet intake, exploring different things whether that’s a hike or a small trip somewhere I’d never go, all just in the name…Of branding.
I think while most people in today’s times are “hurry up do it fast and first, fix it later” for me, with branding, you really only get one chance at it.
Yes you’ll have revisions and different versions along the way, but complete re-brands after success, often prompt for failure.
I don’t even need to give examples on bad rebrands, but they’re out there.
Wondering whats the right amount to spend on branding?
This is where it gets a little crazy.
Some people, will only spend $30, some will spend $30,000.
Whether they want just a single logo (which a lot of well-talented designers don’t offer just that single service anymore), some may want a main logo, a secondary, a third, and then various versions of it.
Along with, compatible fonts, color kits, and more.
It's all worth having a well-knowledgeable designer do your branding for you.
Did you know, the original definition for “Competitors” was to strive together? The word "competition" is derived from Latin word meaning "to strive together," but most of us think of it as striving against.
It's intriguing how the word "competition" stems from a Latin root that implies cooperation rather than solely opposition. Though in modern times, we often perceive competition as a game where one must outdo another.
If we delve deeper into the essence of competition, we might uncover a more collaborative narrative.
A great example of this, are the tech giants Microsoft and Apple.
Without Microsoft, there would have been no Apple, and vice versa.
These two companies, once startups themselves, engaged in a symbiotic relationship that fueled innovation in the tech industry, and still to this day go back and fourth in supporting and rug pulling one another.
They competed fiercely, yet their competition was not merely about dominance; it was about pushing each other to excel and evolve. Even today, amidst their status as industry titans, Microsoft and Apple continue to influence and inspire each other. Whether through direct partnerships or indirect market trends, their interdependence remains evident.
This dynamic serves as a powerful reminder that competition doesn't have to be a solitary pursuit.
Rather, it can be an opportunity for mutual growth and advancement. Imagine if more businesses adopted this mindset—viewing their competitors not as adversaries to defeat but as partners to collaborate with.
In such a landscape, industries could flourish through collective innovation and shared success. Instead of seeing rivals as threats, entrepreneurs could find common ground and strive together towards common goals.
So, how can we apply this concept of "striving together" in our own entrepreneurial endeavors?
One approach is to foster a spirit of collaboration within our industries.
Rather than isolating ourselves, we can seek out opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals and businesses.
By sharing insights, resources, and experiences, we can accelerate our growth and create a rising tide that lifts all boats.
Moreover, we can reimagine competition as a catalyst for innovation rather than a barrier to overcome. Instead of viewing competitors as obstacles in our path, we can see them as catalysts that inspire us to push beyond our limits and reach new heights. Through healthy competition, we can challenge ourselves to constantly improve and innovate, driving positive change within our industries.
Whether in business or in life, collaboration breeds innovation, and competition fuels progress.
By embracing this mindset, we can create a future where competitors aren't adversaries but allies on the journey towards greatness. So, let's strive together, not just to win, but to elevate each other to new heights of achievement.
As a designer and developer, I’ve noticed something that’s become increasingly common: the overuse of templates. Don’t get me wrong—I understand their appeal. They’re marketed as cost-effective solutions, but they often fail to deliver what’s truly needed. Here’s the issue: templates sell you a dream that’s already been accomplished—but for a different product, a different vision.
You upload your content, and no matter what.. it just doesn’t feel right.
Why? Because these templates weren’t made for your business. They were created as a quick way to generate revenue, not to genuinely solve your design problems.I’ll give you an example. Someone I know bought a Shopify e-commerce store template for $480. It was beautifully designed… for an energy drink brand. When the founder tried to adapt it to their own product, it was a healthy snack mix, and the end result was disastrous. The final version looked awkward and disconnected from their brand.
For $480, they could’ve hired a design intern to create something more aligned with their product and customers, something with a little more thought behind it. And that’s what I’m all about: creating meaningful connections between a brand and its audience.Another huge issue with templates is how often they come out of the box broken. They’re marketed as “one-size-fits-all,” but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Mobile optimization is frequently an afterthought, and layout issues crop up constantly. For instance, a content box might expect a 1280px image, but when you upload something smaller, say 620px, the whole design breaks. It’s frustrating, and it limits creativity. Instead of creating something unique, you’re stuck with a copy-paste solution that lacks originality and makes your brand feel generic.What really concerns me, though, is how normalized this has become.
One of my recent clients assumed that my quote included the use of a template, and they were okay with it! Which really honestly blew my mind.
When you hire a creative professional, you’re paying for a creative to create a unique experience, something tailored to your brand or app, with the goal of aligning your targeted audience with your mission and getting them to engage and convert.
You’re not paying for someone to slap your content onto a pre-existing template and call it a day.
Another client of mine had previously purchased four templates, each costing $250, and still couldn’t “connect the dots,” as I like to say. When they finally hired me, I recreated some elements from those templates, but instead of just copying and pasting, I curated their site to align with their mission: getting more views as an artist and signing more contracts. For the $2,500 they spent in total, $1,000 on templates and $1,500 on my services, they could’ve had a far better experience from the start.
Honestly, $2,500 goes a long way when invested in the right designer or developer. I’ll admit, I’m underpriced compared to a lot of my peers, but I pride myself on being quick, reliable, and intentional with my work. I believe in the power of business, and I don’t feel the need to dig deeply into my clients’ pockets. With that being said, I’ve seen the extremes in this industry. Some charge $10,000 for a basic site with limited functionality, while others charge $100 and disappear without delivering anything.
There are no clear guidelines for what’s good or bad, and that’s a huge problem for people trying to find quality design services.At the end of the day, templates might seem like a shortcut, but they’re rarely worth the trade-offs. If you’re serious about your brand, invest in a professional who can create something that truly resonates with your audience. It’s not just about having a website; it’s about having the right website, one that works for you and your customers.
In today's time's all I see is overcomplicated methods of accomplishing things.
The story that inspired the post:
Years and years ago, I started adapting this method; even more so recently, I really started implementing it and seeing the benefit of it. However, let me take you back to the first experience I had pitching it; the outcome wasn't good and I can't help but to think it would have been better if the client would have really heard me out for it.
So back in like 2014, I had began accepting clients here and there, usually really small, really early, friends and family type clients, you know, getting a feel for my place for it;
I had a gent which I had worked with in the past reach out and ask for assistance setting up a Shopify store. Of course I said yes, wrote out a scope of work, agreement, etc, and the situation of it was that he had 6 products, 5 were "eh" 50/50 might make it might not, probably not, nevertheless type products and 1, was really good. The one that was really good, had a lot of eyes on it, basically 90% of his audience as there, for tat one product. I knew that, he knew that, it was obvious.
So, I built the store, putting that main product; first. Simplified the checkout process, added up & cross selling features for it, then below, placed the other products and content on a interval style design concept, it was really nice honestly.
Last minute, the night before the launch he texts me and goes "Hey, I want to throw out everything you did and put all the products on a single line no add to cart CTA, no nothing, catalog style.
I went back and forth with him, told him it was bad idea, he said "My mentor sells $100K a year in shirts just like this", and demand I do it. So I did.
And then,
...the flop happened.
Released the site, posted the content, and 0 checkouts.
Fact; I think he had 4 in total for that whole week... and the were all 4 that MVP.
I told him politely that every additional click to successful checkout was a 10% detractor on likelihood of successful checkout. I even presented the option of me reverting the site. I told him that with no sense of direction, users have no clue how to operate things, they very much like so have to be told where to go / what to do. Even though you and I may understand the catalog vibes type of a site, that doesn't mean it's engaging enough for others / targeted audiences to checkout upon.
Weeks go by and I follow up, and the guy is salty at me as if I did something wrong.
I'm pretty sure he still has all 96 tees in his garage, but like that has nothing to do with me, I presented a great site, I provided options and solutions, and it wasn't good enough.
I can't help but to believe, his several hundreds of active followers showing interest of the MVP would have purchased that.
So, onwards with the whole concept of simplicity sells,
There's so many sites these days where it's an overwhelming experience.
You're gonna put 3 popups on your landing page? Do you hate customers?
Put yourself in your customers shoes, and reverse engineer you're shopping experience.
When you buy something, how often are you like "Yay a popup where I may or may not save $X%", how likely are you to do that?
If you're just browsing, it's a little annoying. And now a days, places seem to be placing multiple popups on their site, so it seems like it's getting worse.
...
When it comes to all of this, the designing, the developing, the sales, the marketing, the branding, the startup stuff, and all the other things, for me, my perspective is that if you create a unique experience, you’ll have an easier time accomplishing goals.
It’s certain that it’s not about keeping up with trends, or even staying ahead of trends. It’s about creating an experience that wows the users and converts them into retaining /// superstar customers. By superstar customers, I mean customers who buy an item 1 time, and have such a great experience, they tell their circles, their audience, and their friends and family on their own without the brand asking for it.
You may be asking, how does one make a “superstar customer”?
This can be accomplished in several ways, but it requires a little of each to really dial it in.
Creating an impactful brand
Creating an impactful product
Creating a website with direction
Creating an impactful purchasing experice
Having incredible customer relations
I’m going to do this in reverse.
Incredible customer relations trickles down from having a brand identity and atmosphere, being responsive online (Not with some AI text chat bot that sucks), and replying to people on social media.
A few of my favorite brands doing this well are... Audi, the car brand, they reply to every social media comment. Chomps, the snack company, 1, their content is warm and inviting, 2, they have a sense of direction, every post points to the link in bio, the link in bio is quickly updated to fit the post most recently mentioned, creating a seamless shopping experience from the Instagram. and lastly, Wholefoods. Wholefoods makes content that seems real, it’s relatable, it doesn’t have big photography / videography equipment, you can tell the team is just recording off iPhone with some genuine creative direction. They also don’t necessary over promote products, they make funny videos and trendy feed posts to stay relevant, and they reply via DM most of the time.
Creating a website with direction.
Too many call to actions: way too desperate, or what my slang would be, “reachy”. No call to actions: what are users going to do? Leave confused? yes.
A website with good direction captures the users experience that right away, makes them say “wow” and without having to scroll or wait on anything, they can see things like the branding, the valuable tagline / slogan, and the call to action.
Creating an impactful purchase experience.
This flows from a nice website / onboarding, to a nice packaging experience when your customer receives their order, or in the tech world, a nice interactive experience when signing up for our saas. I can't emphasize this enough, make every shopping experience feel like it's one of a kind. In e-commerce, regardless of how small or big you are, writ that hand written note on that nice card material saying thank you. In the digital space, send that thank you message from your professional-personal email. The impactful experience
Impactful product.
Creating a impactful product goes past just what the customer sees. There’s a ton in prototyping, testing, and conceptualizing.You only have to be right 1 time. You only have to have 1 product that’s as perfect as possible to win.If you ever wonder about pricing, my solution is this book called How To Master The Art of Selling by Tom Hopkins.
For this, please see my article, why branding is everything.
When all of these are perfectly aligned, you’ve built a strong structure.
Having incredible customer relations.
It's not difficult to be a company with a human-first aspect and respect with your customers.
Like for me in all of my ventures, if and when a customer has needed something, I've been there to support. Being transparent and being reasonable always wins.
The absolute best thing about providing a unique experience, while getting over the first initial bump in the road of uncertainty, is that it wows the customer/user/client.
They most often come back or remember who it was where they had that unique experience at, and it creates a really uplifting feeling that many people don't comprehend.
If this didn't resinate with you,
In a summary, the journey from conceptualization to fruition in the world of business revolves around the creation of a unique and captivating experience for customers. This involves a holistic approach that encompasses impactful branding, product development, website design, and customer relations. By prioritizing the cultivation of "superstar customers" – those who not only make a purchase but also become enthusiastic advocates – businesses can foster lasting connections and drive sustained growth. From fostering genuine interactions on social media to crafting websites with clear direction and creating products that exceed expectations, each element plays a crucial role in building a strong foundation for success. When all these components align harmoniously, they form a robust structure that propels businesses towards achieving their goals and solidifying their position in the marketplace.
My client journey is usually pretty simple.
Typically, you either fill out my contact form below,
Then I reach out, same or next day (I'm known to be prompt),
We hash out details either via email or call, I do try and avoid too many calls as they get long and time consuming.
I've had clients of $20K previously not ever want to meet up with me, only contacted via email and was great with it.
From there, I send you my payment link, as soon as you pay, I send over a paid invoice, receipt, and digital drive folder.
I begin working, and send you an update either as soon as I have one for us, or as soon as work is at a good point. I don't schedule out regular meetings for this stage, typically it's 1-3 days wait for an update and then cycled back through until complete.
Near competition, I'll ask for feedback and we will change any notes either one of us have.
And after you confirm everything, we part ways as needed, or I'm around as needed.
Main:
• Webflow
• Shopify
• Markup
• Google Business Suite, Analytics, Adsense
• Affinity Suite
• Adobe Suite
• Cloudflare
• Godaddy
• Ionos
Code:
• HTML
• Css
• Javascript
• React
• Liquid
+ Design
+ Development
+ Copywriting
+ SEO
+ Testing
Currently, my weekly rate is $1,500.00 USD which includes:
Webflow or Shopify Building
Multiple Pages With Content
HTML/CSS, Javascript, React, Tailwind
Copywriting, Videos, Images
Social Media Embeds
SEO & Google Analytics Integration
Tasks, Revisions, and Recommendations
Responsiveness, Testing, and Publishing
Yeah so I'm sure this sounds crazy, but I'm thankful to have not had too many issues with revisions. Quite often, I nail our project out in one go and maybe one or two pieces of small feedback like font or wording. Although all of my works are subjective to feedback and change as needed, if you're not happy with it, just let me know, I do my best to get things right for us.
I've had such a range of clients, starting out was only worth a couple hundred dollars, now a day's I'm between $75-125 per hour, depending on all of the things required to build out any site. So let's say you enroll in my $1500.00 weekly, you can pause or cancel any time theres no commitment, and for the whole week, I'm building your site. It may take one or two weeks, it may take four or five weeks, it's all very subjective depending on how much work you seek to allocate to me. For me, a landing page, a 3 pager, a 5 pager, and a 10 pager, are just time variations. Now there are some crazy 20 page site that people want to have login access, products and checkout options, comment board access, switchable blog content for free/paid, marketing sites, are similar builds to some of my basic sites, with or without animations, specific applied styles, and content. So I'm able to build out 1-3 pages per day, just depending on what goes on those pages and how they function.
I usually just have a 1 hour wait time via email or text, I try and be around to support my clients contributing their success. Email and text are my go-to, while on a necessary bases I'm available for calls or video chats, though,, I try and keep them to a minimum just for minding time purposes, there's so many things we can get into about every single thing.
