Classic City Consulting

We help growing businesses transform their websites from cluttered and confusing to clear, focused, and conversion-driven. As companies expand—adding services, entering new markets, or targeting diverse audiences—it’s easy for their core message to get lost in the noise. We specialize in simplifying complex digital presences, creating streamlined experiences that connect with audiences and drive results. Through a proven process of collaboration, strategy, and thoughtful design, we help organizations clarify their messaging and optimize their websites to align with business goals.

Our approach isn’t about checking boxes—it’s about being a creative partner to CMOs and marketing leaders. We offer structured, iterative processes, balancing strategy with flexibility to ensure projects meet real needs and exceed expectations. Whether it’s refining navigation, tightening messaging, or reimagining how a website supports growth, we empower teams with websites that work for them, not against them. When your online presence is clear, your audience understands who you are, what you do, and why they should trust you—and that’s when real business growth happens.

Chief Executive Officer

Georgia CxO Forum

My goal is to foster community between the individuals within the Georgia CxO Forum. I dive deep on how to bring people together virtually and in-person in hopes to help create new relationships.

Chief Community Officer

Chat With Leaders

Short chats. Meaningful ideas. Chat With Leaders is a podcast to give resilient, servant leaders a platform for sharing the inspiring things they’re doing to lead their teams, customers, and themselves wisely.

Co-Founder

BW Missions

In my role, I work with BW Missions helping turn experts into thought leaders. I lead their client web development efforts building personal websites for Authors, CEO's, and Thought Leaders. We strive to help our clients stand out and belong with their message.

Head Of Web Development

BRADLEYWEST

People love telling stories as much as hearing them. They listen and interact if the experience isn’t just a shout-loud, buy-now message, but a dialogue, a relationship, an experience, where they’re at the center alongside the brand.

The BRADLEYWEST team includes senior advertisers, media strategists, social promoters, video producers, photographers, bands, filmmakers, musicians, crm, email & loyalty program experts, designers, writers, and…

Well, you get the idea. At the core, we are all senior producers, devoted to creating the content that puts brands right in the action, where the consumer is the star – ultimately shareable in large and small bites. Our unfair advantage comes from decades of expertise pushing that content out across multiple media channels, driving sales, shares, conversation, followers, engagement and advocacy.

We put your brand in the picture, song & the story.

Director Of Web Development

SOLTECH Inc.

SolTech brought me on to assist in a handful of projects they had in the queue which needed an apt PHP developer.

►  Inherited "half-way" completed, custom-built architecture from another firm and made client-requested modifications
►  Customized web application to pass data in both directions to physical devices provided by the client
►  Created budgeting application utilizing the Yii framework, SASS and AJAX
►  Assisted SolTech team with WordPress customizations
►  Across all projects we utilized Git as well as an AWS environment
►  Worked alongside Solution Architects to ensure server environments were setup appropriately for PHP projects

After working with Soltech as a freelancer, we converted our relationship to that of a B2B partnership.  Classic City Consulting actively partners with Soltech on WordPress and PHP projects.

Web Developer

SportChirp

SportChirp has a mission to be a one-stop website for athletes, parents and coaches that is meant to “level the playing field” across all sports and levels. The platform allows users to write and find reviews on teams, coaches and organizations. Users can also build SportChirp profiles to network, catch the eye of recruiters, and post pursuits for playing or coaching opportunities.

Our slogan, #LEVELTHEPLAYINGFIELD, represents our mission in two important ways:

1. REVIEWS: Right now, teams, coaches and organizations have all the upfront knowledge about athletes. SportChirp will change the world of sports by leveling out the amount of information available to athletes about the same teams, coaches and organizations they want to play for.

2. RECRUITING: SportChirp will provide a platform for athletes to get noticed -- anywhere in the world not just in the more “privileged” areas.

The Home Depot

► Managed Home Depot Garden Club WordPress website
► Initiated go-live process management website migrations between environments
► Implemented Home Depot-wide JS includes for the Garden Club
► Managed WordPress code for Garden Club to ensure browser compatibility
► Created new plugins to be implemented on the Home Depot's Garden Club website
► Collaborated with the API team to dynamically inject product information pods

Inward Solutions

► Initiated the shift towards WordPress for their brochure sites
► Developed responsive sites for clients
► Created complex and custom WordPress sites for clients who needed full control of every element
► Worked with connections between a LAMP stack and .Net environment
► Integrated PayPal recurring payments
► Built custom PHP applications

PHP and WordPress Developer

TenDotO

► Created initial Edify application that launched SmartFolks into the marketplace
► Ensured Edify was responsive so users could have flexibility to play whenever
► Utilized WordPress to create the Edify platform and it’s social elements
► Managed eight individual sites on the WordPress platform to ensure usability
► Assisted in the development of the new Edify platform which utilized the Yii framework
► Designed new site for the migration to Yii
► Automated the site creation process
► Streamlined the user experience in the process of moving over from WordPress
► Analyzed data and made easy-to-read charts for managers to track user progress
► Allowed clients to dynamically change the UI

PHP & UX Developer

Make it work, then make it work better | No more brochure websites.

I’m Chris LaFay, an entrepreneur, strategist, and the founder of Classic City Consulting. For over a decade, I’ve been passionate about one thing: helping growing businesses simplify their digital presence so they can connect better with their audience and drive growth.

Many companies face a common, unspoken challenge: as they expand, their message gets lost in the chaos—whether it's through an overabundance of services or unclear website navigation. That’s where I come in. At Classic City Consulting, we specialize in turning scattered websites into streamlined experiences. We help organizations articulate their story, focus their messaging, and make their online presence a powerful tool for conversions.

When I’m not working with CMOs and marketing leaders to tackle website clarity, I reflect on the entrepreneurial journey through writing. My blog—where I share thoughts on growth, mistakes, priorities, and everything in between—has become my space to process the lessons I’ve learned navigating business and life.

I’m here to collaborate, problem-solve, and make digital experiences clearer for everyone. Whether you’re struggling with a website that doesn’t convert or you simply need a creative partner to help you focus, I’d love to connect.

What I bring to the table:

✅ Leadership in web design and development strategy
✅ Expertise in website clarity and conversion optimization
✅ Proven process for scaling websites alongside business growth

I went to NYC recently. I don't normally like to bother people, but I decided to get out of my comfort zone and send some people I didn't know messages to see if they'd like to connect while I was in the city.

To make it easier on myself, I went through some of the communities I am a part of, found some agency folks who looked pretty cool, and basically just said:

"Yo! I'm going to be in NYC on November 19th! We're both in <community name> and I love swapping stories with other agency owners."

And it worked.

To all the like-minded people pleasers out there who don't wanna bother anyone, I say this: *Just ask.*

And now, I have a lot of new friends in NYC. Makes me think I should try to do this in Atlanta. You know... where I live.

Chris LaFay

Websites | EO Atlanta | AMA | Enjoys 🎸⚾🥁

NYC did what NYC does - it grabbed my calendar, shook it like a snow globe, and filled every open space with people I’m incredibly grateful to know.

It started off with coffee with Brandie Knox where we dissected all the things founders should not be doing in their day-to-day.

Coffee with Liz Reitman, who immediately pulled me into an EO NYC event the next night.

A deep-dive with Jason Khoo on the realities of scaling (and the landmines that come with it).

Hanging with Ciara Lydon and Bunmi Familoni, dreaming up how Classic City could… you know… casually take over the world.

Meeting Kasey Kiser in-person and talking biz dev and why NYC just hits different.

And then dinner and drinks with David B-R - the man exudes joy and professionalism. If the universe is kind, we’ll run it back in 2026.

Oh, and Andy Milligan 🦒 tagged along for his first-ever NYC trip because the dude needed to escape Columbus for a few days.

At Evolve Digital, I ran into Tiven Weinstock 😄 and Hanna Furey (D&D nerds unite!) and ended up hanging with them post-conference.

Meeting up in-person is the jam. I highly recommend it.

Websites rarely fall apart overnight.

They slowly crumble under the weight of good intentions.

When a site first launches, it’s usually clean, focused, and intentional. Every page has a purpose. Every call-to-action points in the same direction.

But over the years, content starts to creep in.

You add a landing page for a campaign. A few pages for that short-lived idea of doing SEO in-house. One for an event. Another for a product test. Then a few more because someone had an idea for a “resources” section.

None of these decisions are bad individually. They’re smart, even necessary. But each one adds another branch to the tree and eventually, the site starts to feel more like a forest.

Pages pile up without clear hierarchy. Navigation becomes guesswork. Calls-to-action change depending on who wrote the last update. And suddenly, the story that was once crisp and clear now feels scattered.

That’s Content Creep.

The fix isn’t a total rebuild. It’s returning to focus.

My challenge for you (that you can do without a full-blown rebuild): Don't look at your site and write out the 5-7 pages your site *actually* needs to get a customer from the homepage to an actual action.

---

Side note: While I'm writing this, I went all-in on a single-scroll homepage that mimics our proposal. The primary CTA is Chat with Chris (with a handful of internal links for deeper dives). I decided I was going to put all the cards into a single page. We'll see how the experiment pans out.

---

If you can’t communicate who you are, what you do, and how to take action in that small space, no number of subpages will save you.

Everything else (the campaign pages, case studies, niche details) can live as supporting content -- linked where it makes sense. Optional for the reader who wants to go deeper.

Because a great website shouldn’t feel like an encyclopedia. It should feel like a guide: simple, directional, and confident enough to know what matters most.

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

"You're our number one candidate." Four different companies told Justin Deese this exact phrase in 2018. None of them offered him the job.

While dealing with a toxic work environment so bad that he fantasized about minor car accidents just to avoid going to the office, Justin was also facing rejection after rejection from what seemed like perfect opportunities. On Halloween morning, he got another "thanks but no thanks" email and found himself crying in a conference room, feeling like a complete failure.

24 hours later, his wife got an offer to work in Paris for three months. She looked at him and said, "You're quitting your job and you're coming with me." For the first time since he was 16, Justin stopped working. And that pause started a very large pivot.

You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes you just need to make it roll smoother.

We’re in the process of moving a client's site from a custom CMS into WordPress: no redesign, no new branding, no fireworks.

Just making what already works… work better -- and that’s often the smartest move.

Their old site had years of small add-ons: social feeds that didn’t work anymore, old-school scroll animations that were once "the vibe" but now just look cheesy.

Every one of those decisions made sense at the time. But together, they turned into noise.

The goal isn’t to make a new website. It’s to rediscover the clarity of the old one.

Because simplicity isn’t laziness. It’s focus.

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

If you're migrating a website from one CMS to another, you'll never get 1:1 parity.

And this image is why 👇🏻

When I dive into an existing site, I take screenshots of every unique layout I can find and then, I zoom in on the details.

That’s where Design Drift shows up.

Headers look slightly different.
Font sizes change from page to page.
And the buttons?
Every mood, every color, every style imaginable.

All of these buttons (👇🏻 see below) came from the same website -- no wonder the site feels “off.”

This happens when there’s no clear system for design components -- no agreed-upon definition for what a button, header, or callout should look like.

To combat Design Drift, you need structure.
Define what a button looks like.
Document it.
Don’t deviate.

It might start to feel boring to you over time -- but to your customers, that “boring” is consistency.

And consistency builds trust.

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

Marketers get bored before customers get clarity.

When we migrate a site, one of the first things we do is document every layout. Block by block. Page by page.

And we always find it: Design Drift.

Different headers, button styles, and font sizes depending on who edited what and when (and honestly… how that person was feeling that day probably played into some of it too).

It’s not that anyone meant to create chaos. It’s that over time, the internal team got bored. Someone wanted to “freshen up” a section. Another person tweaked a color or added a drop shadow.

Those little experiments feel exciting inside the company. But to a customer, it’s confusion.
They don’t see “variety.” They see inconsistency. And inconsistency erodes trust.

---

👉🏻 Quick aside: I’m a huge Savannah Bananas fan. I follow the owner (Jesse Cole) quite a lot. I’ve listened to a lot of his interviews over the years, and I’ve realized almost all of them are identical. It’s all about “Fans first. Entertain always.” Sure, there are derivatives and some unique stories to tell. But everything boils down to that. He’s said the same thing thousands of times now, and there are still people who haven’t heard it and don’t know. So he’s gonna keep repeating it.

---

So yes, defining one button style, one header size, and one color palette might feel **boring** to your team after a while. But “boring” to you is **consistent** to your customers. And consistency is what actually converts.

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

Partnerships aren’t transactions. They’re collaborations that look more like a jam session than a handoff.

I was on a call recently with a potential client and one of my agency partners.

This agency doesn’t build websites, which is why they brought me in: to handle the part that would ultimately make their work perform better. Our teams were going to be heavily intertwined, so their founder joined me on the various calls we had.

What stood out (although, I wasn't surprised) was how natural the collaboration felt.

When the client asked a question that was in his lane, he answered with clarity and then gave me space to tack on my perspective. When it shifted to something more technical, I’d lead and he’d support.

It wasn’t about being right. It was about building the right solution together.

The whole conversation felt like a rhythm of back-and-forth of ideas, resources, and expertise. The goal wasn’t to impress anyone -- it was to be good stewards of the client’s budget, timeline, and trust.

That’s what real partnership looks like.

You can make great music as a solo artist.

But when you bring in a few more instruments -- each with its own tone, timing, and texture -- the depth of the sound changes entirely.

That’s the kind of harmony I want in every collaboration.

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

Is your website something you actually use in your sales process?

The first thing I ask when someone says they want to redesign their site is to tell me about their marketing. What emails are you sending? What ads are you running? What SEO plays are active? What momentum exists outside the website?

If you’re not actively marketing, you’re probably not using your website either. And if you’re not using your website, I don’t want you investing months and money into something that just… sits there collecting dust on a digital shelf.

A website, over time, becomes a reflection of whatever team has touched it. Small marketing teams add plugins to solve one-off problems, free tools get bolted on, and random pages get created because someone just “needed it done quickly.” Before you know it, the whole thing feels held together with duct tape.

And the thing is, when a site feels like that, people avoid it. Editing becomes scary because things might break. People don't know how to make new pages look consistent. And now (since it takes so much dang brain power to actually edit), no one wants to touch it.

So what happens?

Sales stops sending prospects to case studies because the site isn’t a good representation of who you are. Marketing slows down because every campaign points back to a website they’re embarrassed to show. Everything starts bottlenecking around a tool that’s supposed to move the business forward.

So when you’re thinking about a rebuild, the real question isn’t, “What should the new website look like?” I don't care about aesthetics. Yes, a nicely designed website is a *good thing.* But, it needs to be usable. The question REALLY is: “How will our marketing actually use this website?”

Because the right website is the one that converts customers and your team is proud to point people to.

Your website doesn’t need more art. It needs more rhythm.

I was chatting with someone recently about how their website was migrated from WordPress to Shopify to HubSpot over the span of a few years

Each time, the goal was to keep the site looking similar. With each new CMS, features were tweaked because the same feature didn't exist in the new system. Unique styles got replaced with more generic ones that were easier to code. What used to feel handcrafted now felt a little … generic.

The big illustrations and colors were still there -- the vibe of the brand survived. But the details didn’t.

Those small, human touches that make a website feel alive (the iconography, the spacing, the visual consistency/rhythm) had gone away one migration at a time.

It’s easy to protect the big stuff: logos, colors, fonts. It's a lot harder to protect the feel of a brand.

But rhythm lives in the details -- and the details are what make people believe you.

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

The longer a brand lives, the easier it is to lose sight of what made it great.

But it never happens all at once... A new landing page here. A color change there. Someone swaps out a photo, adjusts a font, or updates a headline because “it just feels fresher.” Each change seems small and makes obvious sense when it's done. Add up a hundred of those well-intentioned tweaks, and you start to realize something’s off.

The brand aesthetic that was sharp out of the box slowly turns into a patchwork of good ideas that don’t quite fit together anymore.

That’s how Design Drift happens. Not from neglect, but from progress without alignment.

And for those of us on marketing teams, it’s not because these folks are bad at their jobs. You’re moving fast, launching campaigns, reacting to data, responding to leadership’s new ideas. The pace of the work almost guarantees that consistency becomes a casualty.

The real challenge isn’t speed -- it’s memory. Do you have a shared understanding of what’s sacred? The pieces of your design, tone, and message that should never change, even when everything else does? In all honesty, it feels boring most of the time. The same blocks, the same colors, the same fonts.

Without that clarity, every new initiative starts from scratch. Every update becomes a new interpretation of what the brand “should” be. And before long, you’re spending more time fixing inconsistencies than creating momentum.

Protecting a brand isn’t about slowing down or policing creativity. It’s about creating the structure that lets your team move faster without drifting apart. The clearer your foundation, the freer your creativity becomes.

Your brand doesn’t lose its soul in one decision. It fades in small increments of compromise. The question is: who on your team is watching the edges?

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

[Almost] every dollar we’ve made has a name attached to it.

Fifteen years in business. No ad spend. No full-time marketing team. Just relationships.

Nearly every project we’ve closed has come through someone we already knew: a referral, a friend, a former client and that definitely didn't happen by accident.

It happened because we made staying connected part of how we operate. It's nothing super-fancy -- I simply try to stay in touch with folks every couple of months and drop a quick message with a personal note from my week on what I've been up to (and ask the same for them). Just staying human.

This year alone, those conversations led to $200K in new contracts -- all from people we already had a relationship with.

But here’s the caveat: You can be too reliant on referrals. (*raises hand*)

When your only sales motion is sitting on your hands waiting for the next email to come in, you’re basically praying. And that takes the roller coaster of agency life and turns it into a free fall.

So as much as I believe in relationships, I’ve learned they need structure too.

The goal isn’t to replace referrals -- it’s to systematize them. To build a referral playbook that generates introductions intentionally, not randomly. And to pair that with a dedicated outreach strategy for people ready to buy sooner rather than later.

That mix -- referral partnerships plus proactive lead gen -- is the next frontier for us heading into 2026.

Because most agency owners I know don’t have a referral problem -- they have a lead generation problem.

Relationships will always be the heart of what we do.

"Hiring on a hope" is a common phrase we throw around a lot. But also, a business built only on hope isn’t a strategy — it’s a gamble.

“You get to be you. You have permission to be you.”

Andrew shared a story about one of the hardest and most formative moments in his career. After a couple of unexpected layoffs, he stepped into a new agency role determined to prove his worth. He cared deeply about being a great teammate, about showing his value to everyone around him. And he did so by piling on the details.  But that same drive to fit in sometimes had the opposite effect.

But "communication" isn’t about proving your value: it’s about understanding how others receive it. He learned to stop leading with reassurance and start leading with empathy. To listen first. To meet people where they are instead of trying to convince them of who he is.

That mindset shift changed not just how Andrew Graft worked, but how he saw himself.🎧

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

This year, my word of the year is/was consistency. I don't typically do the whole "word of the year" thing, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

And to no one's surprise: this has been one of the most inconsistent years of my life. 🎉

But I've realized that's not such a bad thing. While I haven't been consistent in the traditional sense, I have been consistent in one way: trying new things. My wife and I have traveled to places we've never been. We've picked up new hobbies. And most recently, I started hosting D&D sessions.

If you've never played, it's basically organized make-believe with friends. You sit around a table telling stories about adventurers trying to save the world. I'd played before, but running the game? That's a whole different beast. It requires planning, structure, and the ability to completely pivot when your players do something unexpected.

A few weeks ago, I ran my first session. I spent way too much planning. But, everyone enjoyed themselves.

So maybe consistency isn't about doing the same thing over and over. Maybe it's about consistently pushing yourself into new spaces.

On the flip side, I overheard someone talking about Craiglist. I hit up their website and I believe that THEY win a gold star for consistency. That website hasn't changed since launch.

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

"My website looks like it was designed by committee... because it was."

Sound familiar?

You've got Sarah from accounting updating the pricing page, Mike from sales adding his testimonials, and someone's nephew who "knows computers" helping with the blog.

Each person brings their own idea of what looks good, and over time, green buttons become blue buttons, headers get bigger (…then smaller), and pages start looking like they're from completely different websites. And here is where stress hangs out. The more of a “wild wild west” the website becomes, the more daunting any task to edit it becomes.

Here's the thing: managing your website shouldn't require a computer science degree.

Marketing people, knock this out this week:

Spend 2-3 hours having ONE person go through your current site and save each unique section as a template or component (every platform calls this something different, I've added a lot of links at the bottom for help).

Create a hidden "Block Library" page on your site. Drop all your saved templates there with clear names above each one.

Now when someone needs to build a new page, they're not staring at a blank screen trying to remember "was the button supposed to be rounded?" They just grab the blocks they need and focus on writing good content instead of recreating your brand from scratch.

Here are links to how to do this with some of the most popular CMSs and page builders:

Wix calls them My Designs: https://lnkd.in/eaxdS5hR

Squarespace calls them Sections: https://lnkd.in/eJqFqUNc

WP's Elementor calls them Templates: https://lnkd.in/eJKw6sxF

WP's Divi calls it the Library: https://lnkd.in/e4VJdCzn

WP’s native block editor calls it Reusable Blocks (and Patterns). Scroll to the 7:40 mark on the video: https://lnkd.in/exeSypxP

👇🏻

The result? Pages that actually look like they belong to the same company.

Your website doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be consistent.

What's the weirdest "creative interpretation" someone's made to your website?

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

In a previous version of Seth Goldstein's business, every other web designer was a competitor. Every client was a must-take. Every project was built while flying the plane.

Then life threw him a curveball. His newborn son forced him to close his agency and take a corporate job for stability. For a year and a half, he dealt with corporate politics, learned business systems, and watched how "real" companies operated.

When he returned to entrepreneurship, he didn't just restart his business. He rebuilt it completely.

Contracts instead of handshake deals.
Systems instead of chaos.
Collaborators instead of competitors.
The maturity to say no to the wrong clients.

V2 is a bit better for everyone.

Your website should evolve - not erode.

I was chatting with a friend about his website's journey over the last few years:

It started in WordPress.
Then moved to Shopify.
Then to HubSpot.

Each time, the goal was simple: keep it looking the same.

But every migration left small fingerprints: a font swapped here, a module replaced there, a color that didn’t quite match. None of them were major decisions at all. Simply “quick fixes” to make things work.

Over time, those small tweaks compounded into something bigger. The brand that once felt handcrafted now felt... off.

That’s what I call design drift: when a website quietly loses its way one update at a time.

You don’t notice it happening. But six months later, you realize your once-cohesive site looks like it was built by six different people.

The fix isn’t another redesign. It’s rebuilding structure and rhythm: so every new block, button, and page snaps back to the same visual DNA.

Because your website doesn’t just tell your story through words. It tells it through consistency. And consistency is what keeps brands believable.

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🤷🏼‍♂️ Stuck on figuring out what is next for your website? You also know you're going to be getting proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 (and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between them). It shouldn't have to be this hard. I'll help you craft your Website Plan for free so you don't have to tell the same story to 7 different agencies.

https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

“It doesn’t bother me anymore. I’m just used to it.”

That line came up when I was chatting with a friend of mine who is the founder of a business here in Atlanta. He was describing the small frustrations of managing their website: fonts that break, forms that don’t align, layouts that used to feel handcrafted now feeling clunky.

And when I asked if it drove him crazy, he just shrugged.

There's two ways I look at that line:

(1) Good enough IS good enough --
Whether its about a website or other business tools/structures/operations, sometimes, "good enough" is exactly what it needs to be. I'm someone who LOVES to over-engineer tools/systems to try and get something from 85% to 88%, so I'm preaching this to myself quite often.

(2) Good enough is holding you back --
There are other times where the "status quo" begins to actually hurt you. In my role, I do find that while I try to delegate out the work of the business I suck at, there are seasons where it is good for me to feel that friction to better understand how it needs to be resolved. 

---

The challenge is knowing what side the friction falls on.

Pop-ups don’t show engagement. They show panic.

I was on a website recently doing some research. Before I even started reading, I was greeted by:

- A chat bubble with a bright red notification dot.
- A loyalty discount pop-up blocking part of the page.
- And a full-screen form that stopped my scroll until I either gave up my phone number or closed it.

Three interruptions before I’d even read the first headline.

So I did what most visitors do: took a screenshot for the sake of LinkedIn education and left. (I'm normal, right?)

None of these pop-ups were bad ideas on their own. But stacked together, they told a story of desperation, not clarity. When everything is shouting for attention, nothing gets heard. I see pop-ups, chat prompts, and scrolling banners often used as a safety net in case the main message doesn’t land. But if you have to chase your visitors around the page, your message isn’t doing its job.

The real goal isn’t to show more offers or more messages: it’s to show the right message at the right moment. A clear, empathetic statement that makes your audience think:

“Yep, that’s exactly what I need.”

One strong message and one confident call-to-action will outperform a dozen pop-ups every time.

Because clarity converts and noise simply drives people away.

Retention isn’t a department. It’s a discipline.

In the agency world, keeping clients is the Primary Objective.

A mentor told me over a decade ago that if you don’t have a solid retention plan in place, your business will always be in "scramble mode" no matter how many new clients you bring in.

We all know that it’s a heck of a lot cheaper (and smarter) to keep a client than to win a new one.

So here’s what I’ve been doing for years (granted, I've been "off and on" with this process over the years): Every client (project or retainer) gets a recurring meeting with me personally. Monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly depending on the engagement type.

When we meet, we don't talk about deliverables or tasks. The goal is to zoom out and look at three things:

- How has communication been?
- How’s the quality of our work?
- Are we delivering on time?

Those 15-minute check-ins do two things: (a) it catches small problems before they become big ones and (b) it creates space for future planning (not just project management).

We’ll talk about what’s coming next quarter, next year, what’s changing, and how we can bring more value as an outside set of eyes. Because when your team is in the weeds of day-to-day work, it’s hard to see opportunities to collaborate differently or grow together.

As a founder, this also keeps me connected. I may not be in every project meeting, but I’m still part of every relationship.

These check-ins aren’t about control. They’re about clarity, alignment, and trust.

And if you keep those three things in rhythm, retention takes care of itself.

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https://lnkd.in/etc_ZX_r

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