Why I Pivoted from Course Creation to Squarespace Templates

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Like a lot of entrepreneurs, I got burned out with what I was offering in the previous iteration of my business. So I decided to make a major pivot. Here’s why.

From 2018 until very recently, I worked exclusively with experienced entrepreneurs who wanted to turn their expertise into courses and programs. I got into that work by accident. A web design client asked me to set up Teachable and that led to my working with course creators. I really enjoyed it for a bunch of reasons:

I’m a techie nerd who loves to learn how things work and I enjoyed learning new platforms
I got to see my clients’ courses come together in a way they envisioned
It was nice to help people who actually had the knowledge they were selling as opposed to all the people who just regurgitated what they learned on YouTube (or worse, just made shit up)

I was lucky enough to not really have to market on social media because I had some big clients and was regularly getting referrals. So I rode that wave for a long time and just worked in my little bubble.

My clients launched some interesting courses.

There were also some things I didn’t love about building courses.

The biggest was that the projects took forever. Like, really forever. Months and months. One project took two years. No matter what I did or how organized I was, I could not prevent these projects from taking so so long. It was no one’s fault. Building a course is a very labor intensive process and there’s no way around that. There are videos to be made and copy to be written and collateral to design. It’s a lot.

Because of that, my clients would experience fatigue. Decision fatigue and production fatigue. I’m not saying it’s not worth the effort. But it is a lot of effort. That’s one of the main reasons I decided to pivot.

The other thing I didn’t love was the platforms themselves. They are built to be universal, which means there are a lot of features my clients wished were there but that weren’t available. And to add them would have required more platforms and connections, all of which would have added to their monthly expense. So that was always a letdown. I had to come up with some workarounds, which were more things for my clients to manage after we were done.

Of course, nothing is perfect and no one loves everything about their job. On the whole, I really enjoyed building courses and seeing them launched. I did a lot of that during the pandemic.

And then that bubble burst. The world started waking up and leaving their homes again and that naturally led to slowing sales. It really didn’t matter how good the course was, the market just kept shrinking. That happens with every market. I was lucky to have some long-term clients so I had no reason to think about doing something else. But it became clear that the market was burning out on courses.

Add to that the fact that there is a lot of bullshit out there in the course space. People making big promises and not delivering. Or worse, courses that are just repurposed YouTube videos with nothing valuable. The market came to suspect and even ridicule courses and their creators. Once that sentiment becomes widespread, it’s hard to overcome. And I just didn’t want to try and overcome it anymore.

I was burned out too.

I found myself gravitating towards design again. I suddenly wanted to make pretty things instead of spending all my time enmeshed in these course platforms. I was tired of having to figure things out all the time. I needed to give my brain a rest.

So when I was trying to figure out what to do next, it hit me: templates. I can explore design trends and make interesting things with website templates. I can discover my own aesthetic again instead of adapting to my clients’ branding.

I first tried to make it work on WordPress where I had been for years. But WordPress is too difficult to learn for beginners - the kinds of people who would likely buy a template. So the next obvious choice was Squarespace.

I had built some client websites there so I knew the platform. But I had never really dug into what it can do. And to be honest, I had always said I would never move my website there. I kinda hated the builder. But I also never really gave it a fair shot.

I love the idea of a quick turnaround project. Something that just takes a week or two so the client can get on with what they are doing. Templates can be totally DIY or someone can engage my Studio to customize it for them. I’ve set up the customization service so the client has everything they need to work with us to get their website set up and live. Two weeks and they are done. That’s something I have never been able to do in my business.

The other thing I love is that my client base has changed. Now, I’m working with businesses who need to get a website online so they can start making money. That is mostly new businesses, but it can also be ones that need a website redo. Either way, I’m able to help people move forward quickly.

So now I have a collection of templates for service providers and coaches. That’s who I’m designing for these days. That will likely expand.

My Studio has a new website, a new platform, a new aesthetic and new services. After 9 years, we’ve earned a relaunch.

And now, we have a growing collection of Squarespace templates.