tldr - the only way out, is through, but I'll get to that...
Well then!
To anyone that had seen this website prior to this blog post: you're probably wondering what happened and why it looks so different.
Great questions!
The truth be told, I committed a cardinal sin of marketing for a small business:
I didn't do my research.
It may seem like a minor thing, but because I didn't know my market, I had to rebrand the site and basically my entire business structure, top to bottom.
I'm gonna be honest- it sucked.
Though completely unintentional, I had built my brand using a moniker that was unfortunately just too similar to another local photography studio.
Immediately, questions like "How did I miss this?" and "Why did this have to happen?" flooded my brain.
I had spent weeks meticulously building this brand that I was so proud of, only to find that it was, essentially, in vain. Needless to say, I was pretty broken. I spent the rest of that day running calculations for just how much work it would be to undo everything and rebrand. I spun myself into a bit of a frenzy and almost called it quits. My fiancée can attest to just how wound up I was, having to talk me down from giving up on the business.
I was reminded of the work that had gotten me here, of the foundation that I had laid in a blitzkrieg month of endless website design, SEO, and content writing.
Yes, a lot of things now had to be changed, and rebrands can be a nightmare, but I wasn't starting over, not really. The work up until this point did matter- it all stacks.
Here's another hard truth: I was being fatalistic.
The world hadn't ended, my computer was not on fire, I was not on fire-
Okay, I joke, but do you know what I mean?
A failure is only a failure if you stop breathing.
Until then, it's under construction, a work in progress, to be continued-
it's not over.
So, what do you do when you fail?
You take inventory of where you are, look at where you need to be
and then you make a list and start with item number one.
There may be a hundred, even one thousand items on that list, but you plant your butt in a chair and start working on the first thing. If you focus on just one step at a time, pretty soon that list will be gone. And even better yet, you'll look up from that list and realize that you're standing where you wanted to be in the first place.
And that's what I did- I made a list and just went item by item.
Before I knew it, the site and my business were completely rebranded, and I was able to tackle new projects with a completely polished website...
...okay it still needs some work- how about a completely functional website?
Regardless, thanks so much for reading! If this is the sort of thing that you enjoy, be sure to leave a comment and heart react the post. If you have questions or anything to add, I'd love to hear it.
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