How I became a Booked Out Designer
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Today I’m chatting as a guest with the multi-talented Elizabeth McCravy, host of the Breakthrough Brand Podcast, course & membership creator, website designer and owner of a very popular Showit template shop!
Elizabeth says,
Katelyn and I first connected when she heard me on James Wedmore’s podcast and she sent me the world’s sweetest email. This was BEFORE Booked Out Designer even existed, but later, when I created the course, she joined and has been an essential part of our community ever since. We’re talking through her business journey, her advice for niching down and finding clients as a designer, and her experience with Booked Out Designer!
I love Katelyn; her unique approach to business and marketing and love of teaching what works for her is so evident.
Let’s dive into the episode transcription below, you can listen to it in the embedded player, or listen & subscribe on your favorite platform:
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Breakthrough Brand Podcast, Episode #186
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Read it: Episode Transcript
Elizabeth: Hey guys. I'm Elizabeth McCravy, a website designer and business coach for entrepreneurs and your host for the Breakthrough Brand Podcast, the show that's all about pulling back the curtain on how to actually build a successful business. I don't skim the surface around here. If you wanna deep dive into the nitty gritty details of what it takes to run a successful business and stand out in a crowd, you're in the right place.
After creating a multiple six figure a year website design business in my twenties, I'm ready to share everything I've learned and everything I'm still learning. Because I believe the keys to building a thriving business should never be a secret. Here you'll find episodes that are actionable, direct, and fun, like French chatting business over coffee, and a fresh, honest take on the reality of being an entrepreneur.
If you're ready to master online marketing, branding, website, design mindset, and business strategy, then this is the podcast for you. It's time to build your breakthrough brand. Let's do this.
Hey guys. Welcome to our final Booked Out Week episode and interview. I hope you enjoyed hearing from Katie Boykin and Stephanie Duke prior to this, and if you missed those, they're definitely worth going back to for a listen later, and I definitely plan to have more booked out designer students on this podcast. Cause I know you guys are really loving these interviews and I've enjoyed having them.
So today I'm chatting with Katelyn Dekle, and Katelyn & I first connected like two plus years ago when she heard me on James Wedmore's podcast and sent me the world's sweetest email telling me her story and how the episode with James was impactful to her.
And it was just like, Oh my gosh, she's so cool. And I enjoyed connecting with her in that way. And if you wanna listen to the episode on James podcast, I'll link to in the show notes. But that was episode 368 of his podcast.
So that interview though, was before Booked Out Designer ever existed. But then later once the course was created, Katelyn was someone who joined and she has been an essential part of our community ever since.
She's always in the group helping answer people's questions and giving thoughts and perspective on what's worked for her and her business.
And in today's episode, we're talking through her business journey, her advice for niching down and finding clients as a designer, and her experience with Booked Out Designer.
Um, she went from literally doing like $260-something in a month in her business to after implementing things from Booked Out Designer making $10k a month. Like really cool quick transformation there. So we're gonna talk about some of that, and I just love Katelyn. I love her unique approach to business and marketing, and her love for teaching what works for her is so evident, and I think you'll see that in this conversation and be able to learn from her.
She's gonna share some cool alternative ideas for niching down, uh, how she niched specifically to like, a personality type, not an industry, which is really cool and I think will resonate with a lot of you who have found like the traditional, like work with this one type of industry to not be exactly what you wanna do.
So I love that perspective and she shares how she's getting clients from Google, not Instagram, not YouTube, not making reals, but like from Google search and how you can do that too.
So really excited for this one. And I feel like I can't do this intro without saying, Today is my 30th birthday, um, October 27th.
So crazy and normally, Um, well normally I wouldn't even be airing an episode of my birthday cuz it lands on a Thursday this year. But normally I would do some kind of special like birthday type of episode this week. But instead I, because I am who I am, decided to do a promotional week during my birthday week, which my husband Adam was literally like, of course you would plan a promotion for your course that you love so much during your birthday week.
That is so you, and it does feel so me and so fun because I love launches and promo periods and marketing, all of that kind of stuff. But you can bet that today on my actual birthday, I will be relaxing, reflecting, doing tons of journaling. One of my favorite things to do on my birthday is my letters to my future self letters to my past self journaling practice.
Been doing that for over five years now and I'll be doing that, probably having some coffee I really love and doing a date night, hanging out with friends, things like that. So really appreciating life in these last 10 years as I leave my. And enter a new decade. And, um, perhaps a 30th birthday reflection episode will come later in a few weeks once I'm like, out of this promotional period.
But I'm just so grateful for all the things that have happened in my twenties. I know, um, you guys can relate that when you like, go from one decade to another, you can reflect back and it's like, Oh my gosh. So much has happened in 10 years. Like literally started my twenties just graduating college. I got married, I started this business, um, started our real estate business, had a baby, moved three different times.
Like a lot has happened in the last 10 years. So really fun. Um, and I'm excited for the year of my thirties and what that will bring. But now I wanna get into this episode with Katelyn Dekle, and I hope you guys super enjoy it. And again, as a reminder, Booked Out Designer week is coming to an end. So right now, if you want to join and get all the promotional amazing bonuses happening right now, um, join in the next two days before that ends.
Okay, now here's that interview with Katelyn.
Introductions
Elizabeth: Okay guys, I am so excited to welcome Katelyn Dekle to the podcast. So Katelyn and I, I was just telling her about this. I was reading this email this morning, but we first connected two years ago in May, 2020 after I was on James Wedmore's podcast. And she sent me a really long, sweet email about how she was a listener of my podcast and his podcast, and was excited when she saw our names together on his and listened to it three times.
Um, and Katelyn, you told me at that time, cause this was May, 2020, you were, um, at your nine to five, you said you had been there about nine years and for the last two of those years you were. Thinking about quitting and wanting to take your side hustle full time, but trying to figure that out. And now since then, you've quit your nine to five, your full time in your business.
You joined Booked Out Designer, um, six months-ish, I believe, after, um, being full-time in your business. You had your first $10k month around then and you've been growing so much, and I've just been obsessed with your business and your brand in particular, like ever since we first connected back then.
So, um, I'm excited to dive into your story and I have questions for you that I don't know the answer to, and then other questions I kind of know the answer to, but I'm like, I want you to expand on for everyone.
So anyway, welcome to the podcast, Katelyn.
Katelyn: Thank you. I'm so, so honored to be here!
Elizabeth: Yes. And to start. Okay, before we get into your story, I want you just to tell everyone briefly what kind of design work you do, who you serve in your business, your business name, and like how long you've had your business.
Katelyn: I've been side hustling slash full-time freelancing for seven years now, since 2015. I wasn't always under the name that I am under now, though. So that was kind of a transition we could talk about later, that was a whole thing. Um, but basically I'm an introverted systems nerd that giggles way too much, drinks a ton of coffee, and I love to design and organize and strategize, and that's my home.
And so I ended up just working with, I'm a fixer by nature, so I end up working with people to fix things. That's like where I, I'm happy. So like overhauling websites and stuff. That's where I'm like, that's my jam.
Elizabeth: Love it. And I don't think you said this, but you're on Designer on Squarespace.
Katelyn: Mm-hmm.
Have you used platforms other than Squarespace?
Elizabeth: Um, so for people listening, that is, that's your platform you choose, which I'm gonna like, we'll talk about that more at the end. But have you done other website platforms besides Squarespace at different points?
Katelyn: Yep, I've dabbled and Showit and I've also dabbled in Webflow and my first website ever was in Weebly and I've done a couple in Shopify.
Elizabeth: Okay. I used Weebly too, back like a long time ago. this still thing now? I don't know.
Katelyn: It is, I think it's still, I get like emails from them saying something about my old email marketing platform that I used them for like ages ago.
Elizabeth: That's funny.
Yeah, I used that a long, long time ago as well. Um, okay, so I wanna start at like back it up a little bit cuz again, I think your story's really interesting that a lot of listeners will be able to relate to it.
Did you go to college to be a designer, or always know that’s what you wanted to do?
Elizabeth: But you went to college to be a designer, correct?
Katelyn: Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth: Um, okay. Did you always know you wanted to design or was that like, how did that happen that you ended up studying design?
Katelyn: Um, no, I really didn't. I, I had a good art teacher, but like even back then, which feels very odd to say, but like my junior, senior year of high school is when I started taking art classes in high school, and that was like 2005. It was my senior year.
And he was saying like, art careers, you know, what can you get into? And he was talking about like medical illustration and I was like, Whoa, an art career. But like, that's not me. Like I can paint and I can do stuff that's realistic, but it takes a lot more effort for me to do that kind of art than it does for someone who's naturally good at it.
So when I went to college, I was thinking, what's in the art department? What can I do that's like creative? So I ended up doing interior design my, um, first semester and I love the idea of the decoration thing, but, like not so much on the building code thing. That was like a whole other...
Elizabeth: There's a lot.
Katelyn: Yeah. So I remember sitting down with my counselor and she was like, What do you like to do? And I was like, Well, I've always played and [Microsoft] Publisher as a kid. And she was like, You need to be a designer. I was like, What is that?
Elizabeth: That's awesome. And that's so helpful. And those sorts of people come into your life and like tell you, this is what you should try doing.
Katelyn: Yep. As soon as I did it, like the first class, I was like, Yeah, this is it. That's what I need to do.
Elizabeth: That's awesome. So what was your actual major then? Once you graduated?
What was your major after graduating?
Katelyn: It was, that's another interesting thing. I haven't graduated!
Elizabeth: Oh, that's cool though!
Katelyn: Yeah. I was in college for a grand total of five to six years because I transferred so many times and I kept having to backtrack when I transferred. So I got really close. I think I was like six credits shy, which I know is like for someone who loves to finish projects, that is like killing me.
Elizabeth: That's funny. Well, that's cool though. Yeah. So when you did finish your time doing your classes and all that, you eventually, I don't know if that was your first job or a little longer, but I know you were in like in-house designer for a service business. Tell us a little bit about that.
Katelyn: Yeah, I did. I started, I actually got my first intro design like art department job in 2006 alongside my design classes, and I was making $6 an hour, no benefits, like yeah...
Elizabeth: Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
Katelyn: Yeah. Yeah. That was back in 2006. And Georgia is not widely known. labor... So that felt like high because my university jobs were like $5.15/hour.
Elizabeth: Wow. Yeah.
Katelyn: Um, so that was like not creative really. It was just like I knew Illustrator and that was what got me in the door there.
Elizabeth: Yeah. So you've clearly gone a long way since then. Um, so when you started, okay, so I know you started your business as a true side hustle in 2015.
What kind of work did you do as an entry-level in-house designer?
Elizabeth: So what were you doing at that time? Um, work wise? One, that's part one of my question in part two, Like what led you to like be like, Oh, I wanna do something on the side in addition to this.
Katelyn: Yeah, I, so I worked in the art department at a screen print and embroidery shop. And so I would be like designing the graphics that go on the shirts, basically
Um, which was really fun in the beginning cuz it was mostly designed, but it was like some illustration. And then it got to kind of where like we got busier, the company got busier, which was great, but you know, management dictates how you do things and it doesn't always align with the way that we want to do things as creatives.
Katelyn: And so there was always a lot of pushback and stress and eventually it got to where it felt like nothing was ever good enough because we couldn't do it fast enough. Or we had too many revisions, , or, But like I was always saying, we don't have enough information to provide like a one time, you know, now I hit it on the mark all the time because I'm actually asking the right questions, but like I couldn't dictate that then, so it drove me crazy.
So that was kind of where I started thinking, is this gonna be what my work, career life is gonna be until I'm like 65? Because that's not what I want. And so I was like, well, really, at that time, I think I was like $12 ish an hour maybe at that point. And no, it was more than that. $15? It was like still, it's like very negligible.
Katelyn: So we were living check to check kind of, and I remember checking out at the grocery store and I had just paid some like, I don't know, tax thing or whatever, and I had posted the check. The IRS ignored my post date and like deposited the check and my debit card got declined. Then I had to leave all my groceries and I remember in that moment I was like, Nope, I want better than this.
So I started freelancing, but I had no idea what I was doing because my art college classes don't talk about business. It was all about software. So I had no clue like how to do a website. Can I just have a Facebook page?
Elizabeth: Yeah, that's that's crazy. And that's cool to hear what pushed you towards like starting your own thing.
Would that, Yeah, like how did you learn about business then? Like at that time, Like what did you start doing to like figure it out? Cause I know a lot of people listen saying, well this might be the way they're starting to figure it out, like listening podcast. But like, what are some things you did that listeners might be able to like also try to help learn things?
Katelyn: Well, I did it wrong. I think.
What did you do that helped you learn the business side of things?
Elizabeth: Yes! So tell us what you did wrong.
Katelyn: I didn't learn, I didn't know about business. I didn't have contracts. I was doing invoices in PayPal. Like I was just doing like logistically, how do I collect money? Okay, I can send an invoice through a PayPal business account. There was no contract. That never even crossed my mind because none of the companies that I worked for used them.
And so, that was all like completely new until 2016, so I guess like a year later. So I got a contract then, but I was like literally flying by the seat of my pants; which I'm a risk averse person, so looking back on that now, I'm like, Oh...! That's terrifying.
Elizabeth: I know I, Yes, that's. That's tough. Um, yeah, and I don't think I, um, I don't, I don't think I told you this in the email whenever I, I was asking to do this interview, but, um, contracts are coming to Booked Out Designer, like a contract template, like complete one.
Katelyn: That's awesome!!
Elizabeth: Yeah. So the time this airs, it'll actually be in the course, which is pretty cool. Um, but I've worked with a, um, an attorney to like write, come up with a one specific to for Booked Out Designer students. That's pretty cool. But yes, like that's such a like important and needed thing early on.
Katelyn: And it felt like such a big purchase too at the time. Cause it was like, Oh, I need to spend like another $200. I've just bought this course and like now I need a contract. But I knew it would cost more to hire an attorney. So it was like, And there are a lot more now.
What services were you offering in the beginning?
Elizabeth: Yes. That's so true. Yeah. So when you first started your side hustle, what were you offering services-wise?
Katelyn: Pretty much everything. Like, Um, business cards, posters. I can't even think. Like Facebook profile pictures and cover pictures and like social media posts type stuff. And I think I even did some video editing. And then I had a client come to me that wanted to trademark his logo and he had a Photoshop file of it.
So I broke it down and recreated it in vector form so he could submit that. Cause I don't know if you've ever gone through that process before, but like you have to have every piece of the logo separate so that you can say like, this is the flower and this is like the whole icon. And this is the word mark and this is the logo or slogan.
So I just recreated the whole thing, but like, yeah, I would do like anything that anybody would pay me for.
If you could go back, would you do things differently?
Elizabeth: Wow. Yeah. And that's like, Okay, so a question for you on that. Do you feel like that was the right move early on? Or do you feel like you wish you had gone to just websites sooner? Um, and websites and branding, but like what do you, what would you say? Like, do you like the way you did it or not, I guess?
Katelyn: I can't say that I would really do it differently because you don't really know what you like until you try it. So, and at that point, I probably would not have felt comfortable calling myself a web designer having been on Weebly for like six-ish months.
And I don't know, like if, if anybody landed on that website at that time, they probably would've thought that it was run by like a 50 year old man. I had like no website design style. I didn't know like what was trending or... so yeah, that was not my expertise. And no, I couldn't have started with website design right out of the gate.
Elizabeth: Yeah. And I think we've, we've said before that our story, we have like similar parts of our stories, but I can relate to doing all the things. And I always say that like, I think that was the way to do it. Cause I would've made no money if I'd have said, I'm only doing this one thing. It's like, okay. That would've been like, maybe like $2,000 of the whole year.
Katelyn: Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth: Um, if you just said, you're only doing the one thing and Yeah, like you said, you might not feel like you have the skills yet, which is okay to not like, have it all figured out immediately.
Were you working full-time alongside all of this? Talk about time-management.
Elizabeth: Okay. And then, so you are working full-time still though?
Katelyn: Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth: So how are you making time for your business? Like what did that look like practically working on client work,
Katelyn: That was really tough because the job, the full-time job was on average 40 to 50 hours a week, so It was, yeah, it was tough. And then the commute back home was another 20, 30 minutes, so it took up a large portion of my day. So basically any free time I had for clients was, After dinner, before bed, um, which I tried not to do during the week or like Saturday and Sunday, which meant we became home bodies because, I didn't have time for anything else and the money was important.
So, and my husband at one point told me that it was like our third, um, a third person in our marriage, which is like definitely an issue we had to overcome because I just didn't have any boundaries. I loved it and I knew that I could become successful with some version of that later, but I knew it would take time and consistency and discipline and all of which I have plenty of, but not if I'm... not if I'm ignoring... like I would have to ignore him basically in order to get to where I wanted. I think my drive was just like too strong.
Did that drive take a toll on your personal life?
Elizabeth: Yeah. How did y'all work through that?
Katelyn: It was really tough. He's very like logically minded, very supportive, but at the same time he's very like, um, work is work and it's always gonna be hard.
And I just refused to believe that was true for me. Like maybe that's true for a large portion of the whole world, but I didn't want that to be my life. And so when he would say that, I was like, Nope. Mm-mm. That's, that's, I'm sorry. Like, that might be the case for you and you might hate your job. Um, but so there, there was a lot of clash around that.
But like, we just had to sit down and say like, I know I can do this. And he's like, I know you can do it too. I'm not worried about that. He was like, I just don't want you to be disappointed that it's taking longer than you think it's gonna take. Cause we just had to have like honest conversations. Like, 'Hey, I have a project.
I'm not gonna be available this weekend.' Or like, you know, we need to, to plan time for the fun stuff.
Elizabeth: So that's helpful of like knowing ahead of time what you're doing and planning the work, the extra work and all that.
And yeah. You said that you, you knew that like work is not always gonna be, that it doesn't always have to be hard. Um, it's basically what you just said.
Why did you feel so certain that work didn’t have to be “hard?”
Elizabeth: Like how do you feel like you had that mentality? Like where did that come from in you?
Katelyn: I think I just got pushed so far to the threshold of that that I was like, I'm not doing, like I'm only, I, what was I at the time, like the 28 and I was like, 'I refuse for this to be my life until I'm 65!'
Elizabeth: I get what you're saying though, like, yeah, it doesn't feel like it does not have to be this way. Okay. So you did go full-time in your business when, And that was in, during the pandemic, correct, right?
You went full-time during the pandemic, right?
Katelyn: Yeah. (laughs)
Elizabeth: Okay. Tell, tell us that story of like what happened there and all the details.
Katelyn: Yeah. So. Christmas 2019, like I told my husband, I cannot do this anymore. It is taking all of my energy away from me. I don't have room for positivity right now. Like I need to do something else, whether it's Starbucks or like whatever it is, I need to be somewhere else. So he, with his blessing, I went into work right before, we always closed for like a week over Christmas.
And so I went in right before that and I sat down with the owner who I have all the respect for, and I was like, I'm burnt out. I've been here eight and a half years. I need to do something different. I would like to phase myself out slowly. And at that point, I did not have a backup plan. Like all I knew was that I couldn't do that anymore and I would figure it out.
Yeah. And he was like, you know, 'I hate to hear, but you know, we've loved having you here and, and I respect that. Just let me know what you decide.'
So for months, nothing changed, and then the pandemic started to affect us. I lived in South Georgia at the time and we started seeing like cases, you know, and things like business started slowing down and it got to the point where they let go our remote designer.
So we went from four to three and then he cut us back to part-time and that was like, (sings) 'Oh!' because I had all of this like extra free time to work on my business at home. And then I was like, this is gonna happen. Like if he wants to let one of us go because business is slow, like I'm gonna volunteer because that's just what I needed to do.
And then he offered me a furlough and I was like, 'Please!' Yeah, that was, I was on unemployment for the furlough from like June, 2020 to December, 2020, which was, almost nothing after that, like initial period went down, but at least I had something coming in and so that kind of took a load off of my, cuz we had savings and like, you know, backup or whatever.
But like that, that took the, the scary part out of like not having paychecks every week.
Elizabeth: That feels like it really, even though all that's really hard, it was like a beautifully timed situation for you of like the way that, cuz the way all that went down, which is really cool to hear.
Were you working in an office at your 9-5, not remote?
Elizabeth: So when you went from doing... you're used to being in like an office, right? You weren't working from home.
Katelyn: Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth: Okay. So you're used to being in an office doing design work for someone else, not being paid what you feel like you should be paid. Going from that to like, now you have all this time to work on your business. What was that like?
That transition mentally from like, Okay, I'm used to like, my husband's like, 'Please stop working so much' and now you're like, 'Okay, I actually just have a lot of time to work.' How did you start to settle out of that? Into more like, this is who I am, this is what I'm doing. Um, this is the hours I'm working, those sorts of things.
How hard was it to transition to working at home?
Katelyn: The hours were easy for me to tell people to abide by. I was the one that had the problem abiding by my own boundaries. Um, so like I just made sure that I stopped by the time he got home, like close to or about, and then at that time I was taking our dog for a walk, like every day around two or so in the afternoon.
And so I made time to do that. And she was really good about coming to me, like standing at my desk and staring at me to like make sure she was like, I know it's time. We're gonna go for a walk now.
Elizabeth: That's nice.
Katelyn: So I did have some boundaries there, but like if he was working late, I didn't stop. I just kept going.
Elizabeth: Yeah. And I literally completely agree with you cuz I feel like for me, when I first started my business, I worked a Io-, I feel like I've never worked as much as I felt like I did in the time. Like looking back, I'm like I really wasn't working that much. At least that was my experience. But I did do like, okay, husband's working late. I, and I don't have kids right now. I want to just like work on my laptop and like that's what I wanna do tonight and that's okay.
So I think it's good sometimes for people to hear that cuz there's such a big mentality right now of like work less, work less, work less. But it's like to build the business you might need to work more and it's okay if that's like what you wanna do with your Thursday night.
Yeah. So I like that perspective.
Katelyn: Yeah.
Then you joined Booked Out Designer
Elizabeth: Okay, so let's talk about Booked Out Designer and when you joined. So I have, I have a little, um, testimonial, really a review, I guess better way to say that You sent at some point after you had joined, but you had said you'd been full time in your business for six months, January 2021, after you'd slide hustled for years.
Katelyn: Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth: And that whole month, actually you told me you have the number, so I want you to just share it, but you had a huge wins like two or three months after joining Booked Out Designer.
Um, actually, okay, here, let's do this. I want you to tell me what made you join Booked Out Designer, and then I want you to like, blow everyone away with your QuickBooks numbers that you said you had to share.
Katelyn: Okay. So, yeah. So in January, 2021, we were house hunting for out of state, and I knew I was going to move. So February and March, I was purposefully making fairly quiet because I didn't know like how available I would be. And I didn't know what our internet situation was gonna be at the new house. We were moving from Georgia to Vermont, so I mean that's like 1300 miles.
Big, big deal. And so January, I was like taking clients, but a lot of people didn't wanna wait quite that long. And so there was a gap between January and like April. So yeah, the whole of January I made literally $269 even, the entire month.
Katelyn: And I was like, 'Well that's not a good sign!' But I felt hopeful about it because I was getting, like, I had just rebranded a few months before and I was getting traffic and my blog was doing really well, and so I knew it was coming.
It really kind of felt like the calm before the storm actually.
And when I settled into the new. I had systems that I needed to work out. I was in Notion really heavily at that time. And while I love Notion for note taking, it's not really great for project management. And I just, when I started booking stuff in like June and August, it felt very chaotic and I'd have invoices in one place and Calendly and then Dubsado and then Notion and all these pieces that didn't fit together.
Katelyn: And then I must have listened to some interview or I found out that you had just released Booked Out Designer like once before that. And I was like, Oh my gosh, that sounds exactly like what I need in my business.
And I listened to some of the interviews or something that you had done on this podcast and I was like, that's definitely, that's what I need.
So I signed up and like working through Module six, Pricing for Profit was like, I mean, wow, and then the Wow-Worthy Client Process and Module eight, those two are like, That was exactly what I needed. I would've paid that amount just for those two modules by themselves.
How did your business grow over those next few months?
Elizabeth: I love hearing that. Yes. Okay. And then how did your business grow over those next few months?
Katelyn: So I bought the course in, I think it was July, is when you launched it again.
Elizabeth: Yeah, that sounds right.
Katelyn: So it was like mid-July. Literally in August, I made $10,373.34.
Elizabeth: Woohoo!
Katelyn: (laughs) And I did, The funny thing was that I was so busy that I didn't even know that that had happened until like January the following year when I was going through my stuff with my accountant and I was like, 'What? ...what?' I made my first $10k month and I didn't even notice.
Elizabeth: I love that. And that does stink that you didn't notice it at the time, but that is, that is really cool. Yeah, I love that.
*Affiliate Link to Booked Out Designer
real quick!
Elizabeth: Okay, so isn't Katelyn awesome? I hope you guys are enjoying this episode with her.
I have to interrupt though, cause I want to remind you, you have two days left to join Booked Out Designer during Booked Out week.
Booked out weekends on 10/28. So on this Friday, if you'll listen this live, it's on a Thursday and you'll get the amazing course & community that you always get when you join Booked Out Designer, which is enough of a reason to join. But additionally, this week only, you're getting a discount on the Booked Out Designer program.
You can save $150 on the course price for two more days. You also get four months of group coaching with me. So there are three calls with me specifically for business coaching, and then one call with certified life coach Becky Hoschek for Mindset Coaching. So you're getting two calls with me, like before the call with Becky, and then we're doing the call with Becky in January to kick off the new year and really get like our mindset figured out as we enter 2023.
And then we're doing one more call with me after that. So four months total of group coaching and our group coaching. Seriously top-notch for helping you like implement what you're learning in the course or other things going on in your business, in your personal life that you wanna work through.
You're also getting a live financial masterclass specifically for designers hosted by myself and my awesome bookkeeper Madison. From Madison Dearly Bookkeeping. So we're gonna be talking about like financial basics for designers specifically. And I say basic, but it's not gonna be that basic. It's like stuff that you need to know foundationally.
So whether you're a brand new designer and you're like, 'How the heck do I get my business finances in order?' Or if you've been doing it in a while and you're like, 'How can I like streamline this more? How can I make sure I'm like budgeting to pay myself and doing taxes and planning for things' like all of that.
Um, you're gonna love this class and if you can't attend it live, there will be a replay, but that is gonna be a live class where Madison's teaching and then doing a Q & A after. And you'll also get the new updates to the Booked Out Designer course, which include a full attorney drafted contract template for designers.
The only place you can get this specific contract is in the Booked Out Designer course, and you'll also get access to the new ClickUp templates for running your client projects. So if you use ClickUp or you're like, 'Oh my gosh, I'd love to! ClickUp sounds awesome.' Um, putting your clients specifically like into, um, click up as a guest user and like running the project, communicating with them and ClickUp, all that.
You can get my exact process and literally just swipe it into your ClickUp. I have video to show you like how to do that, how to use it, all of that. And then you can start using it, um, to streamline your client process. And seriously, I feel like those templates alone are worth the cost of the course. Um, and those are updates you get and you get access to all future updates to the course as well.
I'm always out for like improving my products. So you'll get lifetime access to that. So anyway, Booked Out Designer week ends on the 28th this Friday (October, 2022), so really soon. Um, so if this feels like something that feels right for you in your business right now, please come join us!
ElizabethMcCravy.com/bod
If you have questions, shoot me an email hello@elizabethmcravy.com and I'm happy to chat with you and help you figure out if this is a good fit for you or not.
So that is it. Now let's keep learning from Katelyn.
ok, back to the episode!
What helped you the most in the pricing & client experience modules?
Elizabeth: Yeah. And so you said that the, let's see, you said the pricing module and the client experience module were the two that really like impacted you. Do you have anything in particular, like you would say without, I guess like sharing everything, the modules?
Cause I know those are like a lot in there, but like what in particular helped you in those, maybe?
Katelyn: The brand personality workbook is amazing! I think I'm using it almost word for word, the example that you gave us. But like, my clients love to fill that out. And because my business is so personality driven for my clients, like they love filling it out and I love seeing their answers.
They always make me smile. Um, so that was really good and something I hadn't really considered doing. Cause I had always been thinking like, logistically, what do you want to put on X page? Or whatever. But that was super helpful in nailing down their, their actual design preferences.
But then also being able to go through it in the order that I needed. They're not like chronological, so they don't stack on each other necessarily. Yeah. And so I would just like, like I said, I did module one, six and eight to this day. Those are the only ones I've completed and I've dived into two, five and seven, but I haven't finished them yet. So just from the little bit that I've done, like that's just the growth that came from the little bit that I've done.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Which, that's crazy.
I know. And so for people listening, it might kind of be like, 'Wait, you have Katelyn on here to like talk with you about Booked Out Designer, but she hasn't even finished it!' And it's like, 'No, she hasn't even finished it.' And, and I think that's like such a misconception around courses sometimes. Like you said, that those two modules felt like worth the price alone.
And I, I hope you go back and take other stuff, especially as I told you, like there where I'm adding used stuff to it literally like when this airs, that like I think will help you at this point in your business as well. But it's also like, it's okay if you don't finish something as long as you get what you came to get out of it.
You get wins from it. You learn something new that helps you like make more money or grow your business or do whatever that course is supposed to help with. Um, so I think that's a good perspective of like you don't have to finish it.
And I did make Booked Out Designers such a way that module one is the one I would say is like the only one to take first.
Then after that I literally say like, skip to what you need right now. Versus taking it chronologically. Cuz a lot of the stuff earlier on you might have actually been like beyond that. Like some of the stuff early is like some stuff related to getting your website and your own brand messaging and things like that.
it's like you were already at the point where you'd figured that out.
Katelyn: Yeah. So then I jumped into like the business foundations, which your module on the credit card stuff. Really helpful too, which is crazy.
And the discovery call, like watching you do the discovery call with the client was super interesting cuz I wasn't actually doing anything different. My prices were just way too low.
Elizabeth: Yeah, and there's so much like specifics on that too. Even of Yeah, the, I think like you said, the pricing for profit modules really helpful to you and that's like probably one my favorite module in the course is the client experience one. Cause that's the one that I feel like was just so exciting for me to create.
And I felt like I literally poured my entire brain into it. But my second one would be that one. And I love the discovery call module too, but yeah, like there's so much in there like yeah, your prices were, you said like your prices were just too low as a big part of it, which like, what was that? I wanted to ask you that as well.
How have your prices changed?
Elizabeth: Like earlier on in your business versus more recently, like how has your prices changed?
Katelyn: I charged $1,200 to $1,500 for a website for years. Like, it just never occurred to me that it should change, cause I was just like too in the forest to see the trees or whatever the saying is. Like, So I hopped on a call, I think it was a coaching call with you during the course and I was asking a question about something and then you mentioned that they might be a little low and then the students in the chat were like, 'I looked at your site. I was surprised at how low --
Elizabeth: I literally remember that! Everyone was like, 'Katelyn, you're so amazing and talented. What the heck??'
Katelyn: Yeah. Yeah. It's was like, 'wait a minute, I'm doing this wrong.'
Elizabeth: Yeah. Literally remember that cuz I felt like a lot of people in the course had like been following you and loved your brand already and then they were like shocked that you were charging what you were.
Katelyn: Yeah. Yeah. So it's changed quite a bit. my average is now is like $5,000. So I don't know what the percentage is, but I mean that's a lot different than it was. and that's just for a website.
I still do a website and brand, so that's even more and, and then of course VIP days now I get $1,500 for the day as opposed to $1,500 for the entire website, which is a lot better.
What does your VIP Day offer include?
Elizabeth: Yeah. What is your VIP day offer? What is that like?
Katelyn: Um, usually it's a punch list. Like they have a list of things that they need to get done and they don't know how or don't have the time. And so we just go over that in a discovery call and I tell them, Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can get through these and maybe we'll get to those if we can.
And we just kind of have an agreed task list or whatever. So just for like an eight hour day.
Elizabeth: I love that. That's like, yeah. VIP days I know are, are really big right now. And that sounds like a really awesome one, like a good way to do that. So you're not doing a full website, you're just doing like specific things someone might need?
Katelyn: Yeah, just edits basically. Um, which works really well for me because like I said, I'm a fixer and I love to go in and fix things. It feels like I'm swooping in to save the day. So.
Let’s talk about your brand & business personality!
Elizabeth: Yeah. No, that's, yeah, that's really cool. Um, and I, and I,
Okay, I wanna talk about another thing I wanna talk about, um, Your branding and your business personality.
I literally put in my notes, it's a little sassy and spicy is how I describe it, which I think you describe as like you, you're, you're very personality driven business. Yeah. Um, but you have a very strong brand presence. Um, and I also know that you chose to niche to a personality type instead of an industry.
So instead of being like, I will only work with photographers as an example, cause that's a common one, you've gone more to like a personality you work with. So I just want you to talk about that. Like how did you decide that, What does that look like in your business?
Katelyn: Yeah, that, that was, it took a long time to get there.
Um, I started under my own name at Katelyn Dekle Designs, and then, um, I moved into a studio cause I thought maybe eventually I'll have an agency or something. I don't know, like where I was.
Elizabeth: Like a studio type name you mean?
Katelyn: Yeah. It was literally Studio 1862 because our cabin was orig, the original portion of it was built in 1862 and the upstairs was where my office was over that original portion.
So that was, that was the name that I landed on. And I did that for like, I don't know, three-ish years.
And it never felt right. I changed my fonts a million times. I changed my color palette a million times. I redesigned my logo three times, and I couldn't ever settle on it. And I could never figure out why I couldn't land on something that I could just stick with.
And I also felt like, The people that I'd worked with before always felt like websites are going to be expensive and they're not gonna do anything. Like, it's just a box that you check when you have a business, you have to have a website, you have to have a Facebook page, you have to have all these things.
And I was like, I don't want it to feel that way. That feels so heavy, and coming from a very like conservative bible belt kind of area. My dad's an ordained Baptist minister, so like just throwing that into the mix. Um, I don't know if I'm like unusual in that kind of area, but like I couldn't. I couldn't do the professional thing if I also wanted to do like personality driven.
And I was noticing the people that I attracted were people more like me. My personality, which is like if an occasional word falls out of my mouth that is not okay in one kind of group, then like those people were gonna be okay with it. And eventually what I kept hearing was that those people were like, I'm just ready to launch it.
Like I just wanna get it done. And so when I was trying to think of a new name, like I finally just was like, 'Just launch the damn thing!' because that attracts the right type of person that has the fun, like carefree, lighthearted. It did all the work for me basically.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I mean, yeah, you're, it really does feel like you just like carefree, lighthearted, like, let's do this, get it done.
Um, And your business name really does like, stand out so well in that way, which is cool. You went through. Okay. So we both have, also have three, have had three business names, which like, I want, I, I feel like regular podcast listeners have heard my whole take on what that's like. But how do you feel about the fact that you've changed it three times, Like has that affected you negatively? Anything like, Cause you said, you said one of them you had for like three years, one of those names.
Katelyn: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Studio 1862, I still have that domain actually, it points to my current one. And yeah, I had that one from I think 2016 to like mid 2020 when I started. Cuz initially I was thinking I'll keep Studio 1862 as my like design brand and then I'll have Launch The Damn Thing as the template shop.
But when I actually put that into practice, I was like two social media platforms for everything. Like two pages for everything. Two Instagram accounts, two Facebook accounts, two email marketing. And then when I realized I had to have two email marketing plans and two website domains, I was like, 'I don't even like Studio 1862 that much!'
Like where I felt at home where I could feel like the most comfortable in my own skin was Launch the Damn Thing. So I just had to merge them together.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Those business names are so different that they, if you had both of them existing together, like one is a temple shop, one is like you're, uh, the other side, it's like they, they don't feel like they, they feel like two separate businesses too much. I feel like, from the name perspective.
Katelyn: It way too different.
And they like the personality was different behind, like when I would show up for one, I was this person. When I would show up for the other, I was this person and I didn't like switching between the two and one of them wasn't me anyway.
Elizabeth: Yeah, that's a great point.
And I want people listening to just hear that like, you picked a name when you first started. You said you went with your own name.
Katelyn: Mm-hmm..
Elizabeth: Um, and you were able to change it. So like you don't have to have the name. It's Yeah, it does have to be. And you, you still own the second businesses domain name. I also still own my second business name, domain name. And I'll eventually, I'll cancel it. I keep feeling like I'm, I'm like afraid to.
I'm like, I dunno how much traffic is still coming to this. I hope it's not much, but you never know. Um, so yeah, it's like okay to change. Um, and what you start with doesn't have to be what it ends with. Um, Yeah. And okay.
A question I have for you, you've told me that 98% of your clients are finding you through Google traffic to your blog and you do use social media some. We can talk about that. I think maybe you do, but not really much for like the past two years.
But so you are running a business where clients are finding you through Google, which I know sounds so dreamy in this age where we're like, people are feeling kind of over Instagram, which I'm like, it's okay to feel over Instagram.
I like, doesn't mean you're a bad person or do anything wrong in your business. It's hard times right now. Um, but tell us about that. Like what are you doing that's making that happen, all of that.
You said most clients find you on Google; how does that happen?
Katelyn: Well, when I first started and I got my website up and I was like, okay, now it's live. And this is back when I was on Weebly and I was like, Now it's Live
Like 'now what? How on earth is anybody even gonna know that it exists?' And everybody was saying, 'SEO, SEO, you have to blog!' And I was like, Ugh, I don't wanna blog. Like all I've ever written are. What is that, like college style, MLA or something like that? My like research papers for art history and stuff. And so I was like, I don't wanna do that. Like, that sounds terrible.
Well, I did it anyway. I started like every other week and I did that for years.
Elizabeth: Wow.
Katelyn: And um, then in 2019 I was comfortable enough with it that I did every week. And then when I relaunched my, or rebranded in fall 2020, I started doing twice weekly.
And I noticed at that point took a while, but I finally figured it out. Every time I increased my consistency on the blog with the stuff I was posting, my traffic increased on the website.
And it's not because I'm an SEO expert. I'm not, I was doing my URLs wrong, like, but I was consistently posting constant people were looking for, and eventually it got me where I am now.
So I'm back to once a week because that's really all I can handle with my client workload. But I do once a week and I have a decent SEO strategy for DIY and people find me that's, that's basically where everybody finds me is on Google.
Elizabeth: That's awesome.
Katelyn: On my Dubsado form where it says like, 'Where did you find me?'
Google's a choice, but then the next question down is like, 'please tell me more details.' and everybody's like, I was searching for, they named this thing like 'how to do X on Squarespace and I found your blog,' but then on my blog and all my blog posts are doing double duty.
So I have, at the bottom of every post, a call to action to get them to do something.
So not just more posts, but also like, this blog is related to a service I offer, or this blog is related to a thing that I sell. Um, so I guess that leads them to the path to spend money, I guess.
Elizabeth: Yes. I love that. I love how you're asking that question in your contact form. Cause I'm very pro that and asking them to explain it after the dropdown, that is so helpful when someone's willing to actually type out like, I search for this.
You're like, Thank you for just telling me. Yeah.
Katelyn: Um, and I get the most interesting add-ons to that too. They're like, I found your blog and I love your "business vibe." Everybody says that your, your brand vibe or something like that. It's just, it's such a common thing.
Elizabeth: Yeah. And that's like, yeah. I mean, you've done so many things, like to differentiate yourself and just thinking about your story like you went from.
You're, you're freelancing on the side of your full-time job doing all the things, um, and under your own name and then under a name that didn't really resonate with you.
And now it's like you've refined your services, you've refined who you're talking to, You have a marketing strategy that isn't necessarily what, um, maybe the world is telling you you have to do for marketing right now, but it's what works for you, um, and what you wanna do.
And it's working beautifully, which I just love hearing.
Um, and with social media, I'd like to tie back into that cause I know do, are you, are you using social media much? I guess that's my first question. Like what does that look like? Since blogging's your main marketing outlet?
Are you using social media?
Katelyn: I used to post at least once a week when I blogged and it was like, um, a mockup of, I don't know, an iPad or something with my blog thumbnail. And it was like super basic.
And then last summer, I think they had Reels come out and I was like, Oh, more video! Like that is not my thing. And so I dabbled in that. I actually had one go viral-ish, it hit like 800,000 people, which for me it was like, um, that was an accident. Like that was not intended.
Elizabeth: What was it about?
Katelyn: It was There's a song that was like, um, shoot. Now I can't think of the name of it where it was like, I know what you did or, or tell me. I don't remember. Anyway, but like the point was the thing was playing in the background and it was like, um, something you don't know about me or something like that.
And what I said was, my mother-in-law, who is like a modern day Mother Teresa, she is the sweetest, most caring, most kind, peaceable woman I have ever met and she still does not know what my business name is cuz I cannot bring myself to--
Elizabeth: oh my Gosh.
Katelyn: --to tell her. That's the Reel was like, I don't whatever this song is, and it was like, that was what the text said.
It was like my mother, I can't tell my mother-in-law what my business name is, because that's legally what it is. Like in the state of Vermont, my business is Launch the Damn Thing.
Elizabeth: That is funny. I'll have to link to that Reel and go watching myself so I can see it. But that does sound like a funny, a funny fun Reel there.
Yeah. So, So you are though posting regularly now?
Katelyn: I'm not now though. I posted a Reel recently where I had a blooper Reel of some video that I made and um, I just had to share it with people cause it was just like, you know how when you take a video of something, like you can have outtakes or like your cat.
Walks in front of the screen or like your video goes blurry or something. So I took all the outtakes and like pushed them together and posted that. That was the first time I had posted in like a couple months.
Do you ever worry that you’re falling behind, by not posting?
Elizabeth: Yeah. And do you ever worry, you're like behind by not posting much or you feel confident in what you're doing?
Katelyn: No, I, Instagram's definitely where I want to be the most active, of all the places that I have an account. If I post on Instagram, I'll often cross post Facebook. I don't even know who's over there on my page. And I do have a TikTok account, a LinkedIn account, and a Twitter account and a Pinterest account.
I, at one time I was like super heavy on the Pinterest. I was pinning like 50 things a week or a day. I think it was a day. It was crazy. And I used Tailwind for like two years. I was like in it, in it to win it and I was getting like a hundred thousand account views a month or something. But eventually I just realized the ROI for that just wasn't, it wasn't there.
And I was spending all that time and energy on something that wasn't actually bringing me clients. People were finding me on Google and I was like, Okay, I gotta pick one.
Elizabeth: Yeah. And it's good to know of like just paying attention to like where people are finding you. And that's, that's something that's like so fun to me.
Um, and interesting about this kind of advice because like, I want people to apply everything you just said to their business instead of applying it to your business, right?
Katelyn: Mm-hmm.
Elizabeth: Cause like, someone else's contact form might be saying they're finding you on Instagram or on TikTok or on Pinterest. It's like you have to go with what's working and also combine that with, um, what you enjoy doing, the kind of like marketing you want to be creating.
Um, and I also want to just note for people too, listen, saying that like, right now, I feel like it's, sometimes people wanna say blogging's dead. I'm always like emphasizing it's not, And if you do podcasting or YouTube, you've got to be blogging as well. Mm-hmm. , like, those things need to be on your website.
But you're a great example. Someone who is, you're not doing a podcast, um, at least right now. You might eventually, I guess, but you're not doing a YouTube channel. It's
Katelyn: Yeah. I, I did start doing video in May this year.
Elizabeth: Okay.
Katelyn: So not every post, but like when it's relevant and whatever I'm talking about, like needs to have something on the screen.
Elizabeth: That's cool.
Katelyn: Growing.
Elizabeth: So is that going on YouTube?
Katelyn: Mm-hmm!
Elizabeth: I love that. Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Figuring out what works for you. Okay, so I have two questions, um, to ask you to close.
What’s your favorite thing about being a Squarespace designer?
Elizabeth: First thing is that I want to know, as someone who's a show at Designer, what your favorite thing about being a Squarespace designer is?
Katelyn: I really like tinkering with things and like making it work. And Squarespace gives you enough freedom that the ease of use on the back end for the client is like almost no brainer.
And so I can flood the site with all these custom features and make it do all these fun things, but like, make, keep, make sure that they don't have to do any of that themselves.
Um, and it's really easy for them to like reorder their pages or like make a dropdown menu and the navigation and they don't have to like apply canvas for the footer and like just basic stuff.
So my clients aren't probably all super tech savvy, so it's a good fit for them. Um, and they just have so much like included in the box.
It's like one plan for the blog and for the commerce and for the, um, you can add like membership to it and like all this stuff comes with it. Um, and video hosting now too, which is crazy.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Katelyn: Yeah. So it's, it really is like a all in one box kind of thing.
Elizabeth: I love that. And I love that you're using Squarespace.
I think all the platforms, I'm always like, I know I use Showit, but hey, designers like you, like try them all and find the one that works for you and for the clients--
Katelyn: Absolutely. People ask me that all the time and I'm like, I've picked up Webflow. Like, I like the idea of it, but I mean, I'm. --people aren't coming to me for Webflow, so why would I take the time to learn a whole new platform?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Katelyn: If people are more interested in Squarespace right now. I can always pick up another one. That's the thing, like if I, It's all kind of the same. The rules for what you put in your navigation and what you put in your footer are not specific to Showit or to Webflow or to Shopify or to Squarespace.
So it's just like learning a new software if you ever want to pick up another one.
Elizabeth: Yeah, very true.
What’s an unpopular opinion you have about design?
Elizabeth: Um, okay, next question. An unpopular opinion you have about design. So that could be about being a designer, about design trends, about working with clients, like whatever it is, just the unpopular opinion about design.
Katelyn: I probably have a few.
Elizabeth: I know. I feel like you might would too.
Katelyn: Um, niching is my number one. Like I, when I was told for so long that like, you need to niche down, I always assumed that it had to be an industry. And so when I finally decided that I really just don't care about the industry that much, I really just wanna work with a certain type of person, um, that, that was like hitting the gold mine for me. It was just like that 'duh!' Like why didn't I think about that earlier?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Katelyn: So just wanna be like super clear that niching is important, but it doesn't have to be to like a specific industry. Um, if you don't want it to be.
And then maybe another unpopular opinion I have is that you don't have to be everywhere.
Like, I feel like that's not really said by anybody, but. The bigger businesses that have the visibility that the smaller people are looking at. They see everybody on YouTube and everybody on LinkedIn and everybody on TikTok and everybody doing Instagram Reels and everybody doing Instagram stories, and Facebook and Pinterest, and it's like,
Elizabeth: yeah,
Katelyn: it's not feasible for you to do all of that in the beginning. Those people have help, you don't very likely. So I always just tell people like, No, none of those things are important.
Like just pick one, pick one and run with it. When you get really comfortable with that one, you can stack something else on top of it.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I love that. I love those. I agree with those unpopular opinions as well. Um, that's great. Okay.
What advice would you give someone considering Booked Out Designer?
Elizabeth: And then my last question then I want you to tell people where they can find you after this, but for someone thinking about joining Booked Out Designer, what advice and things would you tell them?
Katelyn: Oh my gosh, so many things. Um, it's worth, every penny and probably a lot more. The... watching Elizabeth sit down with her clients, like if you've ever been uncomfortable or unsure or insecure in how you talk to your client on a discovery call and like what questions to ask and when do you give them the price? And like she answers all of those questions.
And even if you're already doing all of those things, which I was, it's just the validation that you get. You're like, 'Okay, I'm not doing anything wrong,'
So all of those, just those modules, the pricing for profit was incredible. Like just realizing what simple things you can change and doing the math and like figuring out, okay, if I'm charging a thousand dollars, --like I was just listening to your episode with Josh (Hall) last week and he was like, his light bulb ding moment was doing $1,000 websites.
You'd have to do like a hundred of those to make the, --and that's just not possible. So at some point you have to realize like, you do have to price to make a profit, and I don't know why.
It just takes people a long time to figure that out. But when you laid it out, it just made sense. So do it. It will be worth it. You will make that money back. I mean, what did I like nearly 5x that amount in like a month?
Elizabeth: That's awesome. Yes, I love it.
Um, and then they get to hang out with you in the Facebook group. Um, if they, if they join as well, they can ask your take on things as well.
Um, you're so active in our group too, which I've always appreciated that you're good at. Yeah. And coming in there and, um, asking questions and answering people's questions in like extreme detail. You're a very, like, --
Katelyn: I'm so detail oriented--
Elizabeth: whenever you answer questions really long. But I'm always like, Oh, this is great. She's really helping out here with her long answer.
Katelyn: I cannot be short winded to save my life.
Elizabeth: Yes, I can relate to that. I feel like Yeah, and that's why we've talking so long. I told Katelyn this to be like a 30 minute interview and she's probably like, 'What the heck, Elizabeth? What? Stop asking me questions.'
Katelyn: I didn't even notice.
Elizabeth: Yeah, we've been talking a while, but it's been so fun and I like I keep asking you questions, but I do want to close this up, and tell everyone though where they can find you, um, about the different resources. I know a lot of people see right now are designers, but also a lot of people are not and could be like your dream clients who are freaking amazing. So tell us about, um, the ways to work with you and all that.
Katelyn: Yeah, so I am at LaunchTheDamnThing.com and I also have a mini course for website strategy. Cause a lot of the people that I'm in coaching calls with are like, I don't know where to find clients and I don't know how to read my analytics. And so I did like mini lessons on some of those things. So you can hop into that.
It's $47, I think you can save like $20 bucks by doing SAVE20 at checkout. Um, so less than 30 bucks. And it's really, really good. Um, and then I also do a blog every week and some of those have videos on YouTube.
Always thought that I used to sound like Daria and so the last couple years as I've been doing more video, people have said like, No, I don't think you sound like Daria.
So whatever. That's always what I associate with myself. So it took a long time to do video, but I'm doing it now.
Elizabeth: I love it. I need to go watch your videos. Um, yes, and everyone go connect with you and look at your website.
And I really do believe that like your, your whole business is such a good example for designers and other service providers of like how to, like you're saying like really niche in a unique way from what the norm the people say is of like niching to an industry. So,
Katelyn: It is kind of hard to put your finger on cuz it's kind of a loose, like when you know, you know, kind of personality type.
Elizabeth: Yeah, yeah. It resonates with people well, when it's the right it does that there.
Katelyn: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Yes. Well, I love that. Thank you for your time and for chatting, Katelyn. That's been wonderful.
Katelyn: It's been an honor. Thank you!
wrapping up!
Elizabeth: Hey friend, thanks for listening all the way to the end of this episode. I hope you feel encouraged and inspired. If you loved this episode and you want more, I just gotta tell you, you need to check out Booked Out Designer. I know I've already mentioned this episode. But in case you miss that part, it's my course and coaching program that teaches you how to build a successful business as a designer.
Students literally call it the best course they've ever taken, jam packed with value worth every penny, and like having a seasoned mentor holding your hand through every aspect of running a design business. And it's the course that keeps on giving. You get access to any changes, future coaching calls in our community.
As long as the course exists, you'll get help with things like financial decisions, like when you need to hire a bookkeeper, how to find an accountant, things of that nature. Templates to help you track your finances, my exact strategies to network your way to more clients in a relational and fun way. How to create a marketing strategy for your business that works for you.
And then for your season of life, you'll learn how to run client projects from start to finish, including an entire module and discovery. Things like onboarding, doing the brand project, doing the website project calls with the client throughout the project, all the templates and forms that go along with that, and so much more.
You'll also get a contract template that you can swipe and that customize for your own business to use for your brand and website design projects and so much more. It is a 90 module (video) course, nearly a hundred modules (videos) , so that's just the tip of the iceberg as they say. There's a lot more to it and you can learn more in the sales page.
So I would say if that interests you, that sounds like something that could be, uh, a good fit for the season of business you're in, go check it out at elizabethmccravy.com/bod. Feel free to message me on Instagram or shoot me an email with any questions, and I'm happy to chat with you and I hope to see you inside our community.
