Brand It, Build It Podcast

When I say the word “conversion” what comes to mind? Over the years, conversion has become a buzzword in small business and small business marketing — but what does conversion mean, and why is conversion something you should be thinking of as a small business owner? In marketing and web design, the definition of conversion is: “When a website visitor completes a desired goal.” Therefore, a conversion-focused website, or a website that converts, is a website strategically-designed to help your visitors complete your desired goal or goals — to choose to book your services, purchase your products, or further engage with your business in the ways you hope. Today, I’m sharing 5 actionable ways to create a conversion-focused website — so your website converts your visitors to paying clients. Free Resources from With Grace and Gold: Free 5-Part Guide to Raising Your Prices Confidently: https://withgraceandgold.com/pricing  Free Showit Website Template: https://withgraceandgold.com/free For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

We wholeheartedly believe in the power of professional web design — how your web design can form a meaningful connection with each visitor, how your web design can seamlessly lead and guide visitors toward the products or services aligned with their needs, and how your web design can truly work on behalf of your small business, even beyond your business hours. Today, I want to explore 3 misconceptions about your web design. By exploring these 3 misconceptions, you may find yourself approaching your web design in a purpose-driven way. Resources Mentioned in Episode 055: Semi-Custom Brand Design: https://www.withgraceandgold.com/brand  Custom Brand and Web Design: https://www.withgraceandgold.com/services  Free Resources from With Grace and Gold: Free 5-Part Guide to Raising Your Prices Confidently: https://withgraceandgold.com/pricing Free Showit Website Template: https://withgraceandgold.com/free For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

With the foundation of your brand and web design in place, what are some other ways you can enhance and elevate your web design? Today, we’re exploring 3 website add-ons to elevate your small business: to better serve your website’s visitors and to grow your business. Resources Mentioned in Episode 054:  Drift: Our recommended live chat feature. FloDesk: Our recommended newsletter system. Save 50% on your FloDesk subscription when using our link! Interact: Our recommended quiz creator. Free Resources from With Grace and Gold: Free 5-Part Guide to Raising Your Prices Confidently: https://withgraceandgold.com/pricing Free Showit Website Template: https://withgraceandgold.com/free For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

In this week’s episode, we’re exploring the pros and cons for including — and not including — your pricing on your website. Just as we share within each episode: Every small business and every field is unique — and our hope through this week’s episode is to simply explore the pros and cons of including and not including your pricing on your website, so you can make the best decision possible for your small business — or simply experiment with one option or the other to discover what works best! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com Free 5-Part Guide to Raising Your Prices Confidently: https://withgraceandgold.com/pricing

One common question we receive at With Grace and Gold is: When is the best time for me to pursue a new brand for my business? We’re firm believers that your brand should always be working on behalf of your business — helping you to showcase your expertise and helping you to more seamlessly connect with and book your prospective clients. Today, we want to share 5 ways to know you’re ready to pursue a new brand for your business. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

This week, we did something a little different — and on Instagram @withgraceandgold we asked for your biggest questions about brand and web design. One recurring question we received was about how to make the choice between purchasing and customizing a website template — or pursuing a custom web design. Now, as we always say: There is no one-size-fits-all approach to small business ownership, so in today’s episode, we want to simply share and explore 5 questions to ask yourself so you can make a well-informed decision about whether a website template or a custom web design will serve you and your small business best. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

We are firm believers that your web design can lead visitors on a journey toward learning about your business, forming a meaningful and trusting connection with you, and ultimately, choosing to hire you or make a purchase from you. We also believe that journey begins with your website’s navigation menu — the resource your website’s visitors will use to explore your website as a whole. Every web design business and every web designer approaches navigation menu design differently, but today, we want to share our approach with 3 website navigation menu strategies we live by. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

For small business owners, having a strong and long-lasting brand can make all the difference. Your brand can help prospective clients form an emotional connection with you and with your work. Your brand can work on behalf of your business — and your brand can serve as a roadmap for the direction you take in your business as a whole. If you’ve found yourself feeling as though your current brand and web design don’t accurately communicate your value or your expertise, or that you’re missing that little-something-extra that makes your favorite businesses and brands stand out — it could be time to explore how to create a purpose-driven, professional, and long-lasting brand for your small business. Today, we’re sharing 3 steps to a long-lasting brand! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

We’re kicking off the new year with Episode 048: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Rebranding. Whether you’re a brand new business owner and you are pursuing very first brand, or you’re an experienced business owner and you’re considering a new brand — answering these questions can help to save you time and money. Answering these questions can help you find the best designer to align with your vision and goals, so you aren’t pursuing a new brand year after year. And your responses to these questions can help to lay the foundation for an intentional, long-lasting brand for your business. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Both personally and professionally, 2020 has been a unique year for a wide variety of reasons. One unexpected discovery we’ve had is: Because our businesses are online, and because of quarantine, we have worked all year long, without a break. Maybe you can relate. According to an article in Harvard Business Review, on average, business owners in the U.S. work a 72-hour work week — which could mean vacation days are minimal. An Inc. Magazine article shares, “a lack of vacation can lead to anxiety and hinder our ability to think clearly in order to grow our businesses.” This article goes on to share that, as business owners, we should take, at minimum, four weeks of vacation per year — with at least one week each quarter to reboot our minds, rest our bodies, enjoy the present, and plan for the future. Behind-the-scenes of With Grace and Gold and The Preset Market, we have majorly failed in the vacation department — and maybe you’re right there with us. 2020 has been uncharacteristic in every sense, so whether personal circumstances, emotions, or stress have led to more work or more overwhelm — you are not alone. We believe every day, week, month, and year presents us with a new opportunity to learn and grow. And that’s why, today, we’re sharing how to prepare your business for holiday break. Because, there is still time in 2020 to feel rested. If holiday break is on your radar, or if you aren’t quite sure how to plan for a holiday break, we’re sharing the exact steps we’re taking to hold ourselves accountable and experience peace of mind over the holiday break. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Over the past four weeks and past four episodes, we’ve explored ways to enhance and elevate the Home, About, Services, and Portfolio pages within your web design. Every page of your web design serves a unique and essential purpose — and we are so hopeful the actionable tips we’ve explored have equipped you to enhance your online presence with purpose and strategy. This week, in our final episode of our web design series, we’re sharing 3 tips for a connection-driven Contact page — a page of your web design that can empower your visitors to contact you and set the stage for your client experience ahead. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

We’re continuing our web design series by sharing 3 tips for an elevated and impactful Portfolio page — creative ways to curate and present your portfolio of work so you can elevate your web design and more seamlessly showcase your expertise. Whether we’re serving our clients at With Grace and Gold through custom web design, or we’re creating a customizable Showit website template for our shop — we’re passionate about ensuring each Portfolio page is carefully-curated, user-friendly, and designed to help businesses grow. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Whether your business is solely service-based — or services are part of what you offer through your small business — your Services page plays an important role in how your website’s visitors understand your services. Every detail of your Services page can lead your visitors toward choosing to book your services. So today, we’re exploring 5 ways to accomplish exactly that! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Your About page can be so much more than a place to share who you are and what you bring to your business, and we’re excited to share how! Every small business is unique, so every web design’s features will be unique, too. However, these 5 details could help you to approach your About page in a fresh, new way — and could help you to create a more elevated experience for your website’s visitors. Your About page can help visitors to get to know you and your business more deeply — and it can help you to establish your expertise, too! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Your Home page sets the tone for your visitors’ experience learning about your business, your products, and your services. Though your visitors may arrive from blog posts or from social media, your Home page serves as the foundation from which your visitors can be seamlessly led through your web design, and therefore, through the most essential details of your business. Today, we’re sharing 5 must-have details for your Home page, so you can ensure your web design is strategically and intentionally-designed to serve your visitors and grow your business. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Since 2014, With Grace and Gold has served more than 400 creative small business owners through professional brand design. If you’re a small business owner, too, you’ve probably heard how essential having a clearly-defined and professional brand is — but why? When is the best time to pursue a new brand for your business? What is the professional brand design process like? And what types of results can you expect once you apply your brand to every area of your business? Today, we’re going behind-the-scenes of the brand design process at With Grace and Gold and answering all of those questions and more! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

If you’ve been with us since January, you may have noticed new podcast art and a new name. With Grace and Gold: The Podcast is now the Brand It, Build It Podcast. Today’s episode is not only about our name change, but it’s also about our philosophy when it comes to making changes within your small business. If you’re in a season of wondering about a name change, a brand or website change, or any change in direction within your small business — today’s episode is for you! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

As your business runs, it’s likely you’ll find that some of those foundational decisions aren’t quite serving your business as well as you had hoped. It’s a natural part of small business ownership that, as we become more familiar with our roles, our clients, and our businesses — we learn and grow, and need time to apply what we’ve learned so our business can reach new heights. That’s why, today, we’re sharing 5 areas of your business that are worth revisiting — 5 areas we revisit at With Grace and Gold every year around our business anniversary. Revisiting foundational areas of your business can equip you for long-term success, so we’re excited to share our recommended approach! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Saying “no” isn’t always easy — or comfortable. But it’s an essential part of being a successful small business owner. Saying no can actually be really powerful and helpful. Today’s episode comes from one of our most-read blog posts, “How to Say “No” Kindly and Professionally.” We’re excited to share our simple 3-step process for saying “no” so you can experience clarity within your business and serve your clients well. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com Sponsored By: Sourced Co. Today’s episode is brought to you by Sourced Co. For small business owners, finding great-quality, elevated, and diverse stock photography and videography can be a challenge. We’ve personally subscribed to Sourced Co. to source our stock photography and videography — for photos and videos to use in our website templates, in our social media marketing, and more. A new collection of elevated, unique, and professional stock photography is released monthly. Visit sourcedco.com to learn more — and use code WITHGRACEANDGOLD for 15% off the first 3 months of a subscription and 15% off any purchases in the shop. That’s sourcedco.com!

On October 1, 2020 With Grace and Gold celebrated its sixth year in business. Whether your business is 1 year old or 10 years old, every business anniversary is so special — it’s a reminder to remember how hard you’ve worked and how far you’ve come — and it’s a moment to dream big about where you’d like your business to go next. This year has been challenging and bittersweet for all small business owners, but we wanted to bring a little ray of sunshine in by sharing 6 lessons we’ve learned in these past 6 years of business. We hope they encourage you — and help you to jump-start a new season in your business. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com Sponsored By: Sourced Co. Today’s episode is brought to you by Sourced Co. For small business owners, finding great-quality, elevated, and diverse stock photography and videography can be a challenge. We’ve personally subscribed to Sourced Co. to source our stock photography and videography — for photos and videos to use in our website templates, in our social media marketing, and more. A new collection of elevated, unique, and professional stock photography is released monthly. Visit sourcedco.com to learn more — and use code WITHGRACEANDGOLD for 15% off the first 3 months of a subscription and 15% off any purchases in the shop. That’s sourcedco.com!

If you’re a small business owner, chances are, you’ve outsourced for one or more areas of your small business. If you’re a photographer, maybe you’ve hired a brand and web design business to build your online presence. If you’re a brand and web designer, maybe you’ve hired a photographer to capture your head shots. Or, if you’re a wedding professional, you’ve likely hired or collaborated with fellow vendors to create one-of-a-kind celebrations. Last week, we talked about creating an elevated on-boarding experience — focusing on the experience you provide to your clients through your business. So today, we want to talk about what it’s like when YOU are a client — and how to improve YOUR experience as a client. These quick tips can make all the difference when it comes to the experience you have when you work with or hire a fellow small business. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

As small business owners, everything we do is designed with our clients — our prospective clients and our current clients — in mind. From the way we talk about our business on our websites and on social media, to the way we design our process and our client experience — every detail of our business is designed to connect with, guide, and serve our clients. That’s why the on-boarding process — the process of welcoming your new clients to your complete client experience — is such an important part of your business and client experience as a whole. The on-boarding process is your client’s first impression of your process. It sets the tone for their experience ahead. And offers you a unique opportunity to ensure your client is prepared for — and excited about — what they’ll experience when working with you. Today, we’re going to explore how to create an elevated on-boarding process, so you can make a positive first impression, so you can successfully prepare your clients for their experience while working with you — and so you can better ensure a seamless, engaging, and fun process from beginning to end. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

When we think about the small businesses we love and look up to, we often wonder, “How did they do it?” Maybe you look up to fellow small business owners who seem to have a brand, web design, and social media feed truly reflective of their personality, fellow business owners who offer both services and products, or fellow business owners who fearlessly pursue and create new facets of their businesses. Wherever you are in your small business journey — new business owner or experienced business owner — we wholeheartedly believe: we can always learn from one another. By picking up pieces of inspiration and strategy along the way, each of us can build the small business we’ve always wanted. We believe what’s most essential is for your small business to be created with your unique definition of success in mind. Today, we’re going to share exactly how we scaled our small business — specifically, how we’ve been able to expand our reach, serve more clients, diversify our offerings, and multiply our revenue. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

At With Grace and Gold, we’ve become big believers in the idea that the time you spend outside of your business is just as important as the time you spend within your business. When we were new business owners, we found ourselves believing that the more time we spent working — or the more time we spent within our business — the more productive we would be, the more work we could get done, and the more we could grow our business. But after about a year and a half, we knew something needed to change. Today, I want to share 3 signs of burnout — 3 signs you’re working too much or spending too much time within your business. And in addition to that, I want to share 3 surprising reasons for rest — or for spending time outside of your business. As we approach a holiday weekend here in the US, I am so hopeful today’s episode will encourage you to step away from your business when you can, with the confidence that doing so will make you an even better small business owner. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

What if I told you that your website can be so much more than a place that shares your recent work? That your website can do more than serve as a detail of your small business? At With Grace and Gold, we have had the complete joy and honor of serving more than 400 small businesses and small business owners through brand and web design. We have noticed, first-hand, how the standards of web design have changed and evolved; how your website can be a foundation from which your business can gain real momentum, build meaningful connection, and help your business to exponentially grow. Today, we want to share 10 things we believe your website should do — so you can do exactly that: gain momentum, build connection, and experience exponential business growth. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

By focusing on our clients, we can bring value to our clients, and live out the purpose we started our business for. But what about all the other areas of small business ownership? As much as all business owners wish they could focus solely on their clients, business housekeeping — like bookkeeping, accounting, social media marketing, blogging, newsletter writing, and so much more — have to happen in order for us to maintain and grow our businesses. In other words, without working ON our businesses, we may not be able to work IN our businesses in the long-term. There are tasks we need to complete to keep our businesses running and moving forward so that we can continue serving our clients to the best of our ability. So, how do you do it? How do you work ON and IN your business? How can you provide an elevated, seamless client experience and manage your business simultaneously? Today, we’re going to share 3 ways to work ON and IN your business so you can build a foundation for short-term and long-term business success. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Today, I want to share one unconventional approach we have to brand and web design. At With Grace and Gold, we do not offer what are called brand or web design “refreshes” — the process of making adjustments to an existing brand and web design to meet a client’s needs. Instead, we offer only our full Custom Design Experiences, through which we create a complete brand — or brand and web design — from scratch. In today’s episode, I’m going to share the heart behind our decision! We hope today’s episode inspires you to create a business you love and believe in — and to embrace the creative, one-of-a-kind approach you bring to your business and your clients. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Reflecting upon our past episodeshas brought us to today, because we realized so many of those episodes were focused on you -- and what you alone can do to help your business grow. So, today, in Episode 029, we want to focus on strategic partnerships -- the reasons why strategic partnerships matter, and the ways that you can partner with fellow business owners to grow... whether that growth means simply learning something new, or whether that growth means adding a new offering or layer to your business that didn't exist before. Let's get started! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Have you ever had an extremely busy work week — or had a completely overwhelming workload — and thought to yourself: “Well, that’s just the way it is for small business owners.” While owning your own business is different from working for someone else’s business, I wholeheartedly believe there are decisions you can make and systems you can create in order to make small business ownership easier, more profitable, more sustainable, and more fun. Today, I want to share 5 actionable ways to make small business ownership easier — 5 decisions you can make on behalf of your business to experience more balance and peace of mind each day — to avoid burnout, and to begin running your small business the way you’ve always envisioned. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com Sponsored By: Sourced Co. Today’s episode is brought to you by Sourced Co. For small business owners, finding great-quality, elevated, and diverse stock photography and videography can be a challenge. We’ve personally subscribed to Sourced Co. to source our stock photography and videography — for photos and videos to use in our website templates, in our social media marketing, and more. A new collection of elevated, unique, and professional stock photography is released monthly. Visit sourcedco.com to learn more — and use code WITHGRACEANDGOLD for 15% off the first 3 months of a subscription and 15% off any purchases in the shop. That’s sourcedco.com!

Empathy is defined as “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” Maybe being empathetic comes naturally to you — or maybe you need an occasional reminder to put yourself in the shoes of someone else. But all in all, being empathetic can help make the world a better place; it can help us to understand one another better and to lift one another up in intentional and thoughtful ways. In today’s episode, we want to focus on being empathetic toward our customers and clients. Business coaches and researchers alike have agreed that being empathetic can make you a better business owner. But why — and how? For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com Sponsored By: Sourced Co. Today’s episode is brought to you by Sourced Co. For small business owners, finding great-quality, elevated, and diverse stock photography and videography can be a challenge. We’ve personally subscribed to Sourced Co. to source our stock photography and videography — for photos and videos to use in our website templates, in our social media marketing, and more. A new collection of elevated, unique, and professional stock photography is released monthly. Visit SourcedCo.com to learn more — and use code WITHGRACEANDGOLD for 15% off the first 3 months of a subscription and 15% off any purchases in the shop. That’s SourcedCo.com!

According to an article from Australia Business News, research conducted by Yale University has shown that, over the past century, the average lifespan of a business has decreased by more than 50 years. On average, each new business has a lifespan of only 15 years. According to a professor at Princeton University, enduring companies share similar values and approaches within their businesses: redundancy, diversity, and adaptation. So, today, we’re going to explore 3 ways to embrace slow, meaningful business growth — 3 ways to create a successful business, rooted in sustainability. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com Sponsored By: The Preset Market When you scroll through your phone, what do you see? Chances are, you see hundreds — maybe even thousands — of photos just waiting to be revisited. Chances are, you want more for your photos than to have them quickly scrolled past every now and then. Maybe you’d love to celebrate the photos you capture — share them more freely on social media, or even frame them. The Preset Market offers easy-to-use mobile Lightroom presets… essentially, professional filters you can seamlessly apply to your phone photography to create beautifully-enhanced photos. Visit thepresetmarket.com to discover your preset style — and create beautiful, Instagram-worthy, frame-worthy photos!

Your website is like your digital storefront — a place you can welcome your Ideal Clients to, a place where you can form a real connection with your visitors, and a place where you can openly and honestly sell your products and services. Over the past 6 years, we’ve observed that websites have become so much more than an online space to showcase products and services; they’ve become a place for building and fostering community, they’ve become a more solid and more detailed foundation from which small businesses can truly expand and grow. Websites have become a critically important tool for small businesses: they can help to communicate your message, connect you with your audience, and sell your products and services, — or they can nudge visitors to move on and continue exploring their options. And for so many small business owners, the question remains: How can I elevate my website? How can I make my website a more accurate reflection of my knowledge, experience, and expertise — so visitors know I’m capable of providing a really elevated experience? That’s why today, we’re sharing 7 actionable ways you can elevate your website. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com Sponsored By: The Preset Market When you scroll through your phone, what do you see? Chances are, you see hundreds — maybe even thousands — of photos just waiting to be revisited. Chances are, you want more for your photos than to have them quickly scrolled past every now and then. Maybe you’d love to celebrate the photos you capture — share them more freely on social media, or even frame them. The Preset Market offers easy-to-use mobile Lightroom presets… essentially, professional filters you can seamlessly apply to your phone photography to create beautifully-enhanced photos. Visit thepresetmarket.com to discover your preset style — and create beautiful, Instagram-worthy, frame-worthy photos!

As small business owners, we tend to feel very connected to our businesses; our businesses are a blend of our creativity, our passion, and our work — so it can be challenging to separate who we are from what we do. The results of not having boundaries can vary. Maybe you’ve found your mood is sometimes correlated with the highs and lows of your small business — or maybe your sense of self or self-worth seem tied to the performance of your business. In today’s episode of With Grace and Gold: The Podcast, we're going to talk about boundaries and how we can create healthy boundaries as small business owners. With healthy boundaries, we can build a foundation for successful and sustainable small business ownership. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Creative small business owners have many strengths — thinking creatively, being innovative, and boldly and passionately pursuing new ideas… At With Grace and Gold, we’ve always believed new ideas are worth exploring. The quote “A year from now, you’ll wish you had started today” rings true — so if there’s an idea that you’ve been holding onto or waiting to pursue, we hope today’s episode inspires you and encourages you to pursue it! Today, I’m going to share how and why we’ve created a second small business: what led to our decision, why we've decided our second business should be separate from With Grace and Gold, and how we’ve strategically designed our second business so we can effectively manage both of our businesses. There’s a lot to share in today’s episode, so we hope you enjoy! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve not only done a great deal of personal self-reflection, but we’ve also been in awe as the world’s collective voices have joined in unison to fight racism. We’ve learned and determined ways we can actively be anti-racist, ways we can actively make the world a better place for people and for communities near and far. While we know being actively anti-racist will require seasons upon seasons of learning, unlearning, and daily, personal and professional decisions — today, we wanted to share how to incorporate giving into your business, to begin the journey of serving people beyond the products and services you provide through your business. Incorporating philanthropy into your business is just one small way you can use your business for good — so we are hopeful today’s episode serves as encouragement that, our collective voices and actions are changing and can continue to change the world. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Over the past six years, With Grace and Gold has diversified its offerings. Having these unique revenue streams has shown me, first-hand, how diversification can serve businesses of all sizes. As seasons change, as trends change, or as unique circumstances come and go — diversifying can help ensure your business still serves customers or clients, continues generating revenue, and keeps moving forward. Today, we want to share why now is the best time to diversify your business — along with 3 ways to do so! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

According to a study published in the Harvard Business Review: Two thirds of people will settle into a new job in around three month’s time. But what about for entrepreneurs — people who are literally creating their jobs each and every day? With plenty of information available to us — but no one, official road map to follow — the choose-your-own-adventure aspect of being an entrepreneur is both exiting and a big responsibility. Because, like we talked about in Episode 019, the decisions we make today can impact the trajectory of our businesses in the weeks, months, and years ahead. So, today, we want to share 5 bad business habits we, ourselves, broke — 5 seemingly small habits which changed the trajectory of our business, and are definitely worth breaking! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Being a small business owner, particularly a work-from-home small business owner, means our daily decisions are often completely up to us. It’s up to us to decide what each and every process looks like — and what our workday looks like. What we do and how we do it is completely up to us. At first glance, making all of those decisions can seem a little overwhelming — but on the other hand, being in control of all of those decisions gives us a unique and special opportunity to create a structured, balanced workday — to create a schedule aligned with what we value, what we need both personally and professionally, and what we have to accomplish within our businesses. So if you’ve ever found yourself: Struggling to design a workday in a way that makes sense to you, working all day long, migrating from your desktop computer to the couch with your laptop in hand, or ending your workday with a sense of guilt that you didn’t accomplish everything you set out to do - today’s episode is for you. Today, we’re sharing how to create a structured, balanced workday. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

As small business owners, there is so much we can do today that will benefit our businesses in the days, weeks, months, and years from now. In a time in which it’s hard not to be filled with fear — holding onto peace and purpose, both personally and professionally, will help us to become stronger people and stronger business owners. Today, we want to share 3 seeds to plant in your business today — 3 ways you can grow your business with purpose and strategy — and prepare your business for long-term success, if you just start today. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Without an advisor, a business partner, or a sounding board — we tend to follow own voices — taking our own suggestions, and wholeheartedly pursuing our own ideas — perhaps without considering there may be a better way forward. Today, we want to share a few ways you’re in your own way… 3 areas of your business where you might actually be blocking your own path to success — along with 3 ways to get out of your own way! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

To get people to subscribe to your newsletter, you can create what’s called a lead magnet — an offering to attract people to your newsletter and encourage them to subscribe. This means, it’s not always enough to say something like “Subscribe for updates!” or “Sign up for my newsletter!” We, as business owners, have to create an incentive for subscribing. Today, we’re sharing 3 lead magnet ideas for your creative business — 3 creative ways you can encourage people to subscribe to your newsletter, so you can connect with, serve, and share your products and services directly with your audience. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

We believe that when you say “yes” to the wrong projects in business, you’re really saying “no” to the projects you created your business to do. And the more you say yes, the farther your business goes from the vision, goals, and purpose you had in mind when you first created your business. Today, we want to share 3 signs you need to find more clarity and focus in your business — and 3 ways to find that clarity and focus decision by decision. Because when you do, you’ll not only begin a season of purpose in your business — but you’ll also be able to serve your clients well, with the products and services you are gifted in providing. With more clarity, your audience will have more clarity in what you do, too — and you’ll give your business an opportunity to become the go-to business in your field. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

The way you price your products and services matters. There are so many details to consider like — your overhead, the cost to produce your products and services, the value of your time, and how you hope to position your business. The decision to raise your prices often stems from an idea like this: In order to work fewer hours - or, let’s be honest, in order to work reasonable business hours - and serve fewer people through a more personal experience, the prices of your products and services should or need to be raised. So, should you raise your prices?  It’s a question that seems to lead to even more questions: What will happen if I raise my prices? What if prospective clients say my prices are too high? In today’s episode, we’re going to share when — and how — to raise your prices. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Someone once told us, “Every successful business owner knows when to outsource.” If we think about the businesses and business owners we look up to, we see how knowing when to outsource can make all the difference. Outsourcing for your brand design, web design, photography, videography, or social media management can truly uplift your business. As business owners, we are stronger together — so when we outsource, we can experience a type of success we simply couldn’t have experienced alone. Today, we’re going to explore when it’s time for you to hire a web designer for your business. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

If you’ve followed along with With Grace and Gold for awhile, you know our favorite place in the entire world is… Target. We refer to Target as the mothership, because it’s basically our happy place — a place we always want to visit. But, why do we — and so many of us — love Target so much? Like, how has Target become more of a lifestyle than a store? In our opinion, from a business perspective, Target does so much well. Today, we’re sharing 3 business lessons we’ve learned from Target — and because With Grace and Gold clearly has a completely different business model than Target does, these lessons might surprise you and serve your business, too! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Just as in life, small businesses have seasons — busy seasons, quiet seasons — and even seasons of working on our businesses, and in them. These seasons can create hills and valleys — schedule-wise, revenue-wise, and peace-of-mind-wise. These hills and valleys aren’t always easy to journey through. As business owners, we create our own schedules and our own structure — in seasons like the one we’re in now, not knowing what to do next can feel overwhelming. You might have questions like: How can I create consistency in my business all year long, and therefore, experience more peace of mind in my business? Today, we’re exploring a passive income action plan. Based upon our experiences at With Grace and Gold, we’re sharing how we recommend approaching passive income and diversification within your business. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Having a professional brand is something we believe every small business owner should experience — because having an intentional brand creates peace of mind. You can rest assured knowing your brand and website are working for you and moving your business forward — even when you’re not working. Today, I’m excited to share about rebranding and when it’s best to pursue a new brand for your business. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

These days, having an online business can mean you’re not only serving clients within your community — but you could also be serving clients from all over the world. For many of us, communication is at the heart of our businesses. So, how can we ensure we are communicating as professionally, and as effectively as possible — creating a personal client experience and running our businesses smoothly? Today, we're exploring 5 tips for better client communication! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

For the past 6 years, we’ve offered just three packages. We have 3 clearly-defined processes for each package, and as a result, With Grace and Gold runs really smoothly. We’re able to clearly communicate who we are and what we do, we’re able to connect with Ideal Clients who are looking for what we have to offer, and we’re able to experience clarity and purpose when we open our computers every day and get to work. Today, I’m going to share the problem with offering too many services — and how you can strategically decide which services are right for your business. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

For service-based businesses, the way we present our services matters. As small business owners, we are so familiar with our own businesses — which means we may accidentally overlook the details of our businesses and our services that our prospective clients will connect with most. Today, we’re excited to share how to write your service descriptions so you can connect with your audience and more effectively sell your services. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Having a new brand can be a blend of both exciting and overwhelming. Once you’ve got a new brand for your business — a new logo design, new patterns, new font styles, a new color palette — what do you do? Where do you even begin? Having a new brand means beginning an entirely new season in your business. Whether you worked with a professional designer over the course of several weeks, or you worked tirelessly at perfecting your own brand, it’s likely you feel pressured to get the debut of your new brand right.  In today's episode, we’re sharing 5 ways to debut your new brand. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

At With Grace and Gold, we believe the most important thing to do in your small business is to be proactive all year long so that you can create as much consistency in your small business as possible — to build systems into your business so you’re continuously uplifting key areas of your business. That way, whether you’re in a busy season or a slow season you can rely on a foundation to earn more consistent revenue all year long. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

At With Grace and Gold, we feel so honored to serve creative women in business through brand design. While brand design is part of our everyday work, we understand how new and unfamiliar brand design is for our prospective clients and current clients. Today, we wanted to share three things your brand designer wants you to know about your business, your brand, and the process of creating a brand for you. While we can’t speak for every brand designer, we can speak from our years of brand design experience. Here are three things we want you to know! For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

At the start of our small business journey in 2014, we aimed to write 3-5 blog posts per week. Nowadays, we approach blogging in a much more relaxed way. Still, we can’t say enough about how big a role blogging played — and continues to play — in our business. Today, we’re excited to share why your blog is more important than you think — along with a few ways to create blog content whether you’re not feeling very creative, or you’re just feeling a little nervous to click publish. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Investing in the right kind of marketing for your business is important. In fact, investing in the right kind of anything for your business is important. But, for many small business owners, investing in products or services to enhance their business isn’t always possible. That’s why we believe in the power of marketing your business for free. In today’s episode, we're sharing why we believe the best kind of marketing can be done for free. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com

Every small business has a story — a story of why it began, or in our case, where it began. Your story not only allows you to feel "at home" in your business, but it can also help you to build a meaningful connection with your audience, and therefore, grow your business. In today's episode, we're sharing the story of how With Grace and Gold came to be, along with 3 tips for understanding and using your story in your small business. For custom brand design services, custom web design services, and easy-to-customize Showit website templates for photographers, event planners, wedding professionals, interior designers, and creative small business owners, please visit With Grace and Gold: www.withgraceandgold.com