From Dissonance to Design: A New Website That Reflects Our True Brand
Why I Hit Reset, Started Fresh, and Created a Website That Works for Our Company
TL;DR
I recently redesigned our company’s website after realizing it no longer aligned with our brand identity. Despite receiving expert advice, I put off making changes.
Frustrated with the disconnect between our online presence and who we indeed are, I finally decided to tackle it myself. Using a Squarespace template, I built a new site that now reflects our values and what we offer. The ‘Cal Newport-esque’ lesson is to do fewer things, work at your own pace, focus on quality, and enjoy the process.
Hold My Beer
A few weeks ago, I decided to redo our storefront—that is, design a new website. Since 2013, I’ve been primarily responsible for our online presence. Though the team has grown and the company has changed quite a lot in those years, my position in the creative chair has not.
When we started the company, I bought a web domain on Hover.com and grabbed a template from the Squarespace.com service. They were both active advertisers on many podcasts I was listening to. With my limited (yet necessary) experience working in the WordPress platform, it was apparent to me that I was more interested in running a company than maintaining a website. Still today, not much has changed.
I spent the last year reorganizing our company. Our co-founder and CFO stepped aside in October 2023, leaving a big hole in our operations. I wrote about the shift from hoping to sell our podcast agency to keeping ownership and making a fulfilling workplace for myself and our team. That spun us into somewhat of an identity crisis.
Who are we? How are we different? And who do we want to work with?
Much of this self-reflection came from weekly meetings with Steve Pratt - former co-founder of Pacific Content and godfather of "branded podcasting." Steve is an author, consultant, and marketing maven on paper and in practice. However, I see him as something more essential. Steve is a gifted producer. Like Rick Rubin, he has that almost magical combination of great taste, honed instincts, and singular ability to open space for an artist to create and experiment. Steve’s a cheerleader and upbeat accountability partner. Most importantly, he sees things in people that they can't see in themselves.
I heard Rick Rubin in an interview on the podcast Feel Better, Live More saying something to the effect that when we talk to people, they tell us their hopes, dreams, fears, and values. When we ask them in the same conversation what their hopes, dreams, fears, and values are, they say, "I don't know!" Yet, they always tell us through actions, words, and work. Through simply talking to us, Steve helped us see that we already know who we are and what we stand for. What matters next is what he kept saying and what I heard from many.
I don't see any of that on your website.
This feedback was a running theme. Everyone said the same thing, from outside experts to inside contractors to clients and partners: "The way you talk and work is nowhere to be found online. The only way I can discover who you are as a company is to work with you."
This disconnect only worsened. I hired a branding expert, Tara Kelley. She came in as a fractional Director of Content and worked with us on defining ourselves and our goals. Further, she devised a comprehensive action plan for 2024, emphasizing making public our market position and what makes us different.
It was like a morning light. Honest.
Now, we had two independent, qualified sources with the same diagnosis. Moreover, I knew what I needed to do next. So, what did I do? Well, nothing.
Yup. I put that all into a Trello board, Basecamp, Google Drive, somewhere on my reMarkable, or wherever one might bury the execution phase of a project. That spinning world of procrastination whose soil is excuses, water is complaints, and the sunlight is wishful thinking. There it sat while I wrote a Substack and made little “about me” podcasts as if that would help. Guess what? That helped.
I started making sales calls again.
We have an outstanding accounts director, Paul. He's a warm cup of tea on the phone and a steady hand for clients who need to sort through the tangle of making new content for their company. However, I found that what he had to take door-to-door and what we were selling differed. Instead of updating his materials, I decided to hop on a few sales calls myself. I love that part of the business. For me, talking to potential clients is fun—a lot of fun.
However, with each conversation, I found myself making excuses for our website. It had become dysfunctional and dissonant, and it was personally and professionally embarrassing. There was no clear North Star for our clients or team to look toward in the decision-making process, whether that be deciding to hire us or how to collaborate.
No one was certain where they were coming to work each day.
Enough was enough. I rolled up my sleeves, blocked off my calendar, and went to work. Sometimes, the best work is isolated from the good opinions of others. I made a kind declaration to my team and my family that I'm heads-down and unreachable while I build a new place where we will go to work each day. It was what Johnny Page commented on LinkedIn became a “hold my beer” moment.
Rather than update the old website, I simply started over.
I had a great head start and plenty of tools that made it very easy. We had enough from the brand work with Steve and Tara to formulate a framework market position. After months of blogging and podcasting about how we are different, I felt confident in how we talk about ourselves. Underneath all that was the best $1000 we had ever spent. In 2016, we hired Jonathan Vio to redo our logo and provide us with a professional visual branding guide. That has stood up all these years later. I started a fresh Squarespace account, picked a beautiful template (Condesa, if you’re curious) and went to work.
I was having fun, in the ‘flow’ (we used to call that concentrating when I was young), and showing my work to NO ONE. Side note: In that state, I am hyper-sensitive to any criticism or external suggestions. Fortunately, my life partner didn't ask to see it (she knows better), and our Creative Director was on vacation. Plus, we were heading into the Labor Day weekend, so none of our clients and team were about to check in on me.
I fell in love, and have invited you to the wedding reception.
It made it. It's beautiful. It's something that I take 10% credit for, as the people and platforms got me 90% of the way there. But that 10% is sort of the point. Nothing is built entirely from scratch these days. Were Podfly a web design firm, sure. Hand roll the site to demonstrate our extreme capabilities. What I needed was clear. When you visit our site, I want you to 1) feel a certain way, 2) understand who we are, and 3) decide if you want to talk to us. It’s a swipe right.
There still needs to be tweaking. I’m getting some great, welcome feedback now. The biggest lesson here is not on execution, productivity, time blocking, branding, etc. It's directly from Cal Newport's book Slow Productivity:
Do fewer things. Work at a natural pace. Obsess over quality.
I would add, have fun!
You can learn more about how We Are A Different Kind of Podcast Company at Podfly.net/insights.