DIY your website or hire a designer? The right answer depends on your business stage—not your confidence.

For service-based business owners debating DIY vs hiring a website designer, this solo episode breaks down website strategy, copywriting, SEO, and the 6 roles behind a site that actually converts—plus when outsourcing works and when it backfires.

👉 Watch the free class: From Overlooked to Fully Booked

https://dearkatebrandstrategy.com/fully-booked

Follow the show for practical website strategy that helps you book clients without relying on social media.

Chapters:

00:00 — DIY or Hire a Website Designer? The Answer Depends on Your Season

Why this isn’t a yes-or-no decision—and how your business stage changes everything.

00:31 — Lauren’s Story: How Strategic DIY Built the Foundation to Outsource Later

Same business, different seasons, different decisions.

01:22 — The 6 Roles Behind a Strategic Website (It’s More Than Design)

Why design is only one piece of the puzzle.

01:39 — Role #1: Brand Strategy — The Step Most Business Owners Skip

Positioning, clarity, and why strategy must come before visuals.

02:45 — Role #2: Brand Design vs Website Design — Ingredients vs Recipe

Why your logo isn’t your website.

03:56 — Role #3: Copywriting — The Conversion Engine (and Why It Takes Longer Than You Think)

Why writing your own copy is harder—and more powerful—than expected.

05:03 — Role #4: Design + Development — Turning Strategy Into a Site That Sells

How layout guides the customer journey.

05:34 — Role #5–6: SEO + Ongoing Maintenance — Get Found and Keep It Working

Why visibility and updates matter long term.

06:34 — When Hiring a Website Designer Makes Sense: 5 Signs You’re Ready

How to outsource strategically.

07:51 — Outsourcing Done Right: Why Lauren’s Rebrand Worked

What happens when clarity comes first.

09:06 — The Trap of Hiring Too Soon (Photographer Case Study)

Why a beautiful site doesn’t always convert.

10:06 — Why DIY Can Be Powerful: Build Clarity, Confidence, and Marketing Skills

Messaging muscle + long-term growth.

12:24 — DIY vs Done-For-You: Honest Pros, Cons, and Tradeoffs

Time, cost, control, and flexibility.

15:15 — “I’m Not Techy” Myth: Why No-Code Website Builders Make DIY Possible

The tech isn’t the hard part anymore.

15:50 — Final Takeaway + Free Training: Build a Website That Books Clients

How to move forward with clarity instead of guessing.

🔗 Links Mentioned

Free Training: From Overlooked to Fully Booked

Learn the 3-part framework (Strategy → Site Design → Showing Up) to build a website that books clients:

https://dearkatebrandstrategy.com/fully-booked

Related Video: Is Your Website Missing These Key Pieces?

https://youtu.be/z1sA9sOPNhc?si=PADCQPVaSUnlNdBy

Thinking about your website

and wondering, should I just

2

hire someone to do this for me?

3

If you're a service-based business

owner stuck between DIY or designer,

4

trying to figure out what makes the

most sense right now, you're not alone.

5

It's a smart question.

6

But here's the thing, the answer

isn't as simple as most people make it

7

sound, So let's break it down together.

8

I'll walk you through when hiring a

pro makes sense when it doesn't, and

9

how to make the best choice for where

you are in your business right now.

10

But first, let me share what strategic

DIY can actually do and why the

11

right answer changes depending on

where you are in your business.

12

I worked with Lauren, a realtor,

who had already tried building

13

her site on her own, and like

a lot of people, she got stuck.

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It looked fine, but it was pretty generic.

15

It didn't help her stand out or connect

with the clients she really wanted.

16

It didn't sound like her, and she

cringed When someone asked for the

17

link, when she came to me, we worked

together to get clear on her strategy,

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what made her different, how to talk

about it, and how to position herself.

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Then I guided her through

putting those lessons to action

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on her site and it worked.

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Her business grew steadily

over the next couple of years.

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then when she was ready to

rebrand and move into a higher end

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market, outsourcing made sense.

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and because she'd spent that time

getting clear on her messaging and

25

testing her audience, the team that

she hired had so much to work with.

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Same person, different seasons of

business, different approaches,

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and both were the exactly

right choice at the right time.

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That's what I wanna help you figure

out today, which approach makes sense

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for the season you are in right now.

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To help you understand that, I wanna

walk you through the six key roles that

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go into building a strategic website.

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Most people only think about the

designer, but there's so much

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more happening behind the scenes.

34

We're going to cover strategy,

copy, design, SEO, and more, so

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you'll know exactly where you're

at and what to prioritize first.

36

The first role we're gonna

talk about is brand strategy.

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Now, this is the step that

most people skip, and it's why

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so many websites fall flat.

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Your brand strategy defines who you

are, who you serve, and what sets you

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apart so that every design choice and

every word on your site has a purpose.

41

In my experience, the business

owners who feel the most joy and

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alignment in their work usually

start by building their offers around

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their skills, their strengths, their

experiences, and their stories.

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And then we use market research to find

the right people for those offers and

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figure out how to reach them through

clear messaging and intentional design.

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This way, they're doing more of

the work they love, and we're

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making decisions based on data,

not just vibes or favorite colors.

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Here's the thing, both copywriters

and designers often include some

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level of strategy in their process,

especially at those higher price points.

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Which is amazing when they're

communicating with each other

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and working toward the same goal.

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But I've also seen projects where

the designer and the copywriter were

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working separately, and you could

tell the design said one thing, the

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word said another, and the overall

message got lost In translation.

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When strategy comes first and

everyone's aligned around it, the

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end result is cohesive, clear,

and so much more effective.

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The next role is brand design.

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This is things like your logo, your

color palette, and your font choices.

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This is the part most people

picture when they think of branding.

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that cute mood board with all

your colors, fonts, and logo

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variations all lined up together.

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And yes, it's fun, but it

should also be strategic.

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Your brand design should

visually communicate what

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your business is all about.

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It's that immediate first impression

when someone comes across your business.

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When done well, your brand design becomes

the foundation for everything you create.

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Not just your website, but your

social media, graphics, client guides,

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proposals, even your presentation decks

or email signatures or thank you cards.

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It keeps everything consistent

and recognizable, and that builds

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credibility for your business too.

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Here's where I see people

get tripped up, though.

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Brand design and website

design are not the same thing.

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your brand design, gives you

the visual ingredients, but your

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website design is the recipe.

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It uses those colors, fonts, and

photos alongside your copy to create

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something compelling that walks your

visitor through the customer journey.

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And yes, even buying a pre-made brand

kit or templated logo from Etsy can

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work if you're clear on the strategy and

what those visuals need to communicate.

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It's not about whether it's custom or DIY.

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It's about whether it aligns with

your message and feels cohesive

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with the rest of your brand.

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The next role is copywriting.

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This is the part that connects and

converts your copy is what draws your

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audience in and turns them into clients.

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It's not just about sounding good,

it's about saying the right things in

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the right order so that visitors feel

understood and ready to take action.

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Now here's something that

I've seen over and over again.

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When I build websites for clients,

especially when I'm just customizing

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a template, they often plan to write

their own copy to either save time or to

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save money, but it always turns out to

be a much bigger job than they expect.

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I'm not saying that you can't

write your own website copy.

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It's absolutely possible, but it's

just setting that expectation.

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Writing your own website copy isn't

just filling in a few paragraphs.

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You need enough words and the right words.

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To tell your story, build

trust, and sell your services.

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Without that foundation, even

the prettiest design won't

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perform the way you want it to.

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And honestly, this isn't

unique to my clients.

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I hear other designers say

the same thing all the time.

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Projects get delayed not because

of tech or design issues, but

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because clients are still trying

to pull together their content.

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Even when you hire someone to build your

site, there's still work you'll need

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to do as the business owner providing

clarity, direction and those personal

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insights that only you can bring.

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the best designer in the world can make

your site shine, but they can't create

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your story or strategy out of thin air.

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All right.

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Our next role is design and development.

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Here's where we pull together all

of those ingredients, your copy,

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your strategy, and your brand design

to actually build your website.

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This is the person.

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Most small businesses contact first

when they're ready for a website though.

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But as you can see, there's a

lot that comes before this step.

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Design and development make your

message visual and interactive.

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Guiding visitors from curiosity

to confidence to conversion.

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A great layout supports that same

journey, leading visitors naturally from

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their first impression to taking action.

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When you have clarity first, your design

becomes not just pretty but profitable.

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Our next role is SEO or

search engine optimization.

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Now, even the best design and copy won't

do much if no one can find your site.

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SEO helps Google and even some of

those chat GBT AI tools understand what

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your site is about and who it's for.

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So you show up in the right searches.

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It's the difference between

having a beautiful storefront on

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a busy street versus a back alley.

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You want people to actually find you

when they're looking for what you offer.

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It's how you turn visibility into

opportunity and start getting

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warm leads straight from Google.

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And then finally, our last role

that we're gonna talk about today

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is ongoing maintenance and updates.

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this is the part that

almost everyone forgets.

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Your website isn't just

a one and done project.

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It's a living, evolving

part of your marketing.

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Regular updates, blog

posts, and small tweaks.

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Keep it fresh, secure, And

performing well behind the scenes.

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A healthy website grows with your business

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by the way, if you're starting to

realize that your website might be

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missing some key pieces, I've got a

whole video that breaks this down.

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I'll link it here and in the

description so you can check it out too.

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That way you'll know exactly

what gaps to fill before you even

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consider investing in a designer.

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So now that you've seen how many

moving pieces go into a website,

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let's talk about when it actually

does make sense to hire a designer.

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Once you understand those different

roles that are involved, you

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can hire more strategically.

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Maybe you just need a designer,

or maybe you need a full team.

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Maybe you need a branding designer

instead of a website designer,

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just depending on your goals.

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Here's when hiring makes sense.

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First, you already have crystal

clear messaging and positioning.

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You know exactly how to talk about

your business and what sets you apart.

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Second, you've tested your offers, refine

them, and you know what language converts.

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That means you're not just guessing

and you have data to handover.

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Third, you can give your team brand

strategy, market research, and

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insight into your client journey.

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They'll be able to build something

strategic instead of winging it.

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Fourth, you're ready to

scale and free up your time.

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Outsourcing isn't just about pretty

design, it's about reclaiming hours

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to focus on the work only you can do.

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If you're clear on your goals and you

know which pieces you need help with,

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whether that's just design or a full team.

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Hiring now can help you move faster.

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Or finally fifth.

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You've got the budget to move

fast and you need something

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launched now to test the market.

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You understand this might be version 1.0,

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something you'll refine or rebuild

down the road once you have more

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data and clarity and you're okay

investing again later for you.

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Speed matters more than getting

it perfect the first time.

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If that's you, awesome.

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Handing things over can

be a total game changer.

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Remember Lauren that we

talked about earlier.

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Here's what made her hiring

investment so effective.

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By the time she was ready to rebrand,

she'd spent two years really refining

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her message, testing what resonated,

and really understanding her market.

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She knew exactly who she wanted to

serve and what they needed to hear.

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We got really dialed in on what

set her apart in the market.

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She had been a teacher before real estate,

and instead of hiding that or thinking

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it wasn't relevant, we leaned into it.

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Her whole message became about

educating clients through the

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process, making sure they actually

understood what was happening at

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every step, not just signing papers.

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They didn't fully get.

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She also drew from her own experiences

buying, selling, and moving.

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She wasn't just selling houses.

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She got what her clients

were going through because

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she had been there herself.

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So when she invested in a rebrand,

the team she hired wasn't guessing.

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They pulled from the messaging she had

already proven, worked, and elevated it

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to speak to that higher end audience.

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Then they elevated the visuals

to match the caliber of

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clients she was going after.

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Now, she didn't have to start from scratch

or hope they'd figure out her positioning.

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She handed them a foundation that already

worked and they helped her scale it up.

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That's what outsourcing looks

like when the timing is right.

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And again, this is the same person who'd

successfully DIYed a couple years earlier.

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The difference, the season of business

she was in, that's the dream scenario.

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And it's only possible when you

have that foundation built first.

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but here's where I've

seen things go wrong.

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I worked with a photographer

who came to me after investing

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thousands in a done for you site.

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Gorgeous visuals, professional copy, the

whole package, but it wasn't converting.

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the site looked stunning.

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The design was on point.

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The copy sounded great, but it

wasn't bringing in the clients

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she actually wanted to work with.

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Here's what happened.

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She hired before she was

100% clear on her goals.

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She knew she wanted to book more

clients, but she hadn't quite

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figured out which clients or which

services she wanted to focus on.

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And when you're not clear, the designer

and copywriter, no matter how talented

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they are, have to fill in the blanks.

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They make their best educated guest

based on what you've told them.

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And sometimes that guest

doesn't quite hit the mark.

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The result was a site that looked

polished and professional, but didn't

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actually convert with her dream clients.

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This is the trap of hiring too soon.

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You end up outsourcing decisions

you haven't fully made yet, and

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when your clarity shifts, which it

does, as you grow that expensive

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new website no longer serves you.

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It's not that the work was bad, it's

that the foundation wasn't there yet,

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and that's why for many business owners

starting with DIY isn't just practical.

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It's super powerful.

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It gives you the space to experiment,

to understand what works for your

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audience and to build confidence

in your own message and design.

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This is where DIY becomes so

much more than just saving money.

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It's about building the foundation

your business needs to grow.

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When you DIY you start to see the bigger

picture of how your brand, website, and

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marketing all connect you're not just

learning design, you're learning strategy.

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Lauren had already tried building a

website on her own before we worked

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together, and she ended up with

something that felt very generic,

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didn't make her stand out, didn't sound

like her, Or help people know that

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she was the right realtor for them.

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Does that sound familiar?

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That's what happens when you DIY,

without a framework, you end up with

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something that exists, but doesn't

actually do anything for your business.

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But when she had the right strategy

and roadmap, understanding how to

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position herself, how to talk about

what made her different and how to

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structure site to actually convert,

she built something that worked.

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And here's the key.

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She did the work.

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I gave her the framework and guided

her through the process, but she's

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the one who showed up, made the

decisions, and built the site.

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That's why she owned that message so

confidently because she created it.

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That clarity didn't just live on her

website, it showed up in her social media,

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her client conversations everywhere,

and that's what made her business grow.

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when you DIY.

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Here's what you get.

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You build your messaging muscle.

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Writing your own copy forces you to

get crystal clear on what you do,

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who you serve, and why it matters.

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You learn how your clients actually think.

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Search and buy.

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This kind of insight is priceless

for every part of your marketing.

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You stay agile.

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Instead of dropping money on a

designer, every time your offer

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shifts, you can tweak, pivot,

and evolve without the stress.

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You create a site that reflects your

current clarity and grows as you do.

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Your business doesn't stay static

and your website shouldn't either.

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Think of DIY.

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Like cooking from a great recipe.

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You've got high quality ingredients,

clear instructions, and the

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full control over the flavor.

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That's the power of doing

it yourself the right way.

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When you follow proven frameworks and

systems, you're building a foundation.

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You can actually stand on.

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In my free training from Overlooked

to fully Booked, I break down the

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exact framework strategy, site design,

and showing up These three pieces

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work together to create a site that

doesn't just look professional.

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It actually books clients.

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While you sleep, I'll walk you through

all three plus show you how to avoid

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the biggest mistakes most DIYers make.

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I'll share more on that in just

a minute, But first, let's take a

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look at how DIY and done-for-you

sites really compare because I

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wanna be honest with you about both.

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With DIY, you get full control.

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You can update any time, pivot when your

offers change, and you're never stuck

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waiting on someone else's timeline.

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but here's something people

don't talk about enough.

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When you DIY, your website, you get

so much better at talking about what

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you do, whether you're on social

media, writing an email, or having a

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conversation at a networking event,

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you will have this clarity about your

messaging, your brand, your offers,

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that makes everything so much easier.

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Suddenly, you're not stumbling

over how to describe your services.

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You know exactly what to say, and that

makes it so much easier to book clients

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and show up consistently everywhere else.

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These marketing skills help you long term

understanding what messaging works, what

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your clients respond to, all of that.

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The trade off?

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It takes your time.

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There's a learning curve and

you are the one doing the work.

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Now done for you when the

timing is right can be amazing.

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It takes way less of your time.

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You hand it off, they handle it.

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And you can focus on serving clients or

growing other parts of your business.

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You get expert design and

copy and a polished result.

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One thing to note though is that good

designers are often booked months out.

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So even though it's less of your time, you

might be waiting longer than you expect

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to actually launch, and it's expensive.

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Thousands, sometimes tens of thousands

plus, and this is a big one, if you're

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not clear on your strategy yet, even

the best designer can't read your mind,

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they have to guess, and that's when you

end up with something beautiful that

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doesn't actually work for your business.

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Neither one is right or wrong.

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It just depends on where you are.

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If you're still figuring out your

messaging, testing your offers, DIY

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gives you that room to learn and grow.

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If you're already clear and established.

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Hiring can help you scale up

without taking your time away

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from revenue generating work.

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The key is knowing which

season you're in right now.

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\ now, if you're thinking, yeah, I tried

DIY before and it looked like a Pinterest

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fail, not a professional website.

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I totally get it.

316

I've been there too.

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What changed everything for me

was learning the systems and

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frameworks behind great design,

understanding why certain things work.

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Once I had that, everything about DI Ying

got easier, faster, and actually fun.

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and here's what I know now.

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A DIY website doesn't have

to look amateur either.

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When you build it with strategy,

it can look every bit as

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professional as a custom design.

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Some of the best performing websites I've

seen weren't built by big design agencies.

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They were built by

business owners themself.

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When you understand your audience

and strategy, your website

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becomes way more effective than

something that just looks good.

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With the right structure, visuals

and copy, your website can speak

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directly to your dream clients and

do the heavy lifting for you, selling

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your services, booking leads, and

showcasing your expertise while

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you focus on what you do best.

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That's what I teach my students to do.

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Create a website that not only

looks legit, but actually converts.

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because when strategy leads the

design, it doesn't matter if it's

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DIY or done for you, it works.

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Now if you're hesitating because you

think I'm just not techie enough to

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build a website, here is the good news.

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We've come so far with

website development.

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The platforms available now.

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Nothing like they used to be.

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we're talking.

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No code drag and drop builders.

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Like show it that are

visual and intuitive.

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you're not messing with

complicated backend stuff.

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I've had clients tell me, I can

barely figure out how to attach a

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PDF to an email, and they've built

beautiful, functional websites.

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If you can move things around

in Canva or create an Instagram

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story, you can absolutely do this.

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The tech isn't the hard part anymore.

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The strategy is, and that's

exactly what I teach.

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Your website is often the first impression

someone gets of your business, and

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it should be so much more than an

online brochure, whether you DIY, it

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or hire it out, it should tell your

story, attract the right clients and

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work for you behind the scenes Even

while you're focused on everything

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else that keeps your business running,

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if you want that kind of clarity

and direction, that's exactly what I

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walk you through in my free training

from Overlooked to fully booked.

358

It's the same roadmap

I use with my students.

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The ones who want a website that

doesn't just look pretty, but actually

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book stream clients on repeat.

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Even when you're off the clock,

You'll walk away knowing the three

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key elements your site needs to

convert, plus how to avoid the

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biggest mistakes most DIYers make.

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Click the link in the description

below to watch the free class, and

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let's get your website working for you.

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If you've been waiting for

a sign to finally make your

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website work for you, this is it.

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You don't have to keep guessing.

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You just need the right strategy.