New Year, New Website

I have been wanting to set up a website for my coaching for a while – spread my net a little wider now I have more time to give to coaching clients. But without a set deadline for when I needed it to be done, I found I was never quite getting round to it. There was always something more urgent!

So, putting my coaching into practice, I created a plan, with the firm deadline of getting it done by January 2026. I wrote a lovely to do list (I love a task list!) – wrote down every step I needed to do, including getting some sage advice from my IT expert big brother. Then I got down to ticking everything off.

By December I had all the bits ready – I knew what platform I was going with, what I wanted to say, what images I wanted to use. But then I got stuck. And yes, I realise the irony of that!

I had done all the prep I needed, I knew I was excited to have the website but still couldn’t bring myself to set it up. And this was weird for me – I have built/refreshed numerous websites before in my work as a policy and communications expert. I have written countless blogs, media statements etc; and never had a problem clicking publish before.

But of course this was different as this was personal. I wanted this website to tell people who I am, what they can expect from me if they sign up for coaching. And that was a bit scary. What if I didn’t explain myself right? What if people didn’t like what I had to say, when I did explain myself right?

Just articulating those fears to myself was like a release valve – making it easier to see a way forward. I decided to use a strategy that has worked for me before, when faced by something scary. Take it just one step at a time and try not to think beyond each step.

So the first step was to sign up to the platform – set up the framework of the website. Next step was to copy all the text onto the relevant pages. Then I added the images. I left it all alone for a few days, then came back to it for a final check – tweaking a few things that didn’t seem quite right.

Finally the only step left was to click publish. A few weeks before, I would have said this was the scariest step of all – but actually it was pretty easy. And finally I had my website.

I know I will probably keep tweaking it, as I spend more time with it and get feedback. Knowing it is a website in progress made it a lot easier to make it live.

But for now, I am starting the year with a sense of achievement. First challenge of the year – massive tick. Bring on the next one!