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The Story Behind Showit Code Camp – feat. Jordan and Chelsey Barhorst

Have you fully taken advantage of all that your Showit site has to offer? Maybe you’ve found the code snippets offered for your website, but aren’t quite sure how to use them. Well, you’re in luck, because Jordan and Chelsey Barhorst of Black Tie Design Co have created the resource you need—Showit Code Camp. In today’s episode, Jordan and Chelsey join me to share the reason behind launching this program for Showit users in order to help them learn the basics of coding to make better use of the features their website has to offer!

The Branded by Bernel Podcast is brought to you by Bernel Westbrook, lead designer and founder of Branded by Bernel, a design studio dedicated to building strong brands and Showit websites for creative entrepreneurs.

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What Are Code Snippets in Showit?

If you’re new around here, I first need to introduce you to Showit—the website builder that I design each and every client website on! Showit gives designers the freedom to create a website just the way they want it while having the creative freedom to do exactly what they want.

Within Showit, there are what we call code snippets, which essentially are little features that allow you to unlock a lot of cool things within your website. For example, you can use code snippets to create a typewriter effect, make scrolling text, create long pages, and so much more. With these code snippets, there are instructions to follow and a little bit of coding to understand—but not everyone using Showit has that coding experience, right?

Introducing Showit Code Camp

This is where Jordan and Chelsey came up with the concept of Showit Code Camp to solve this problem! Showit Co Camp is a program that provides Showit users with basic the basic coding foundations that will allows them to be successful with the code snippets they have available on their websites and understanding how they can be used.

As developers know, one small tweak to code can completely break the website and even trying to use two code snippets together won’t work sometimes. Therefore, building Showit Code Camp would help Showit users avoid making these mistakes when they’re trying to make website updates on their own.

The goal of Showit Code Camp is to encourage people to not only know what the code snippets do, but to know how the code does what it does, as well.

What Makes Showit Code Camp Different?

Rather than building out a course, Jordan and Chelsey wanted to create a community and an experience that felt like camp where people could connect—even if done virtually. Over time, they’re dripping out content that allows campers to absorb what’s being shared, implement them, and learn how to use the snippets being created.

Who Is Showit Code Camp For?

While designers would greatly benefit from gaining access to the different code snippets, they’re not the only ones who are attending Showit Code Camp. Anyone who wants to elevate their website and add some fun elements to it that aren’t necessarily available to the public can join.

How Drip Content Works in Educational Programs

One of the greatest values in creating a program, like Showit Code Camp, that operates by dripping education over time is that you’re getting real time feedback. When you’re creating a course, that content doesn’t get feedback until it’s all been created and you can’t pivot unless you redo the course.

Not only that, but website development education is hard to digest, especially if you’re doing a ton of it at once. Taking in that content in small chunks makes it so much easier for to learn and implement as needed. Plus, as the content drips out, they’re building a full library of resources.

Additionally, dripping content allows for easier access to the educator to gain social proof.

If you’re ready to learn more about coding to take your Showit website to the next level, make sure you join Jordan and Chelsey inside Showit Code Camp!

Three Actionable Steps to Move Your Business Forward

Now to my favorite question here on the show, I asked Jordan & Chelsey, what are three actionable steps that someone could take today to move their business forward?

1. Just start and do it.

2. Find your people—the ones that will champion your business.

3. Find a need that people are looking for.

Bonus: Be crystal clear in what you offer.

Catch the Important Sections:

Get to Know Jordan & Chelsey (2:09)

Building Systems in Business (3:18)

Introducing Showit Code Camp (9:48)

What Makes Showit Code Camp Different? (12:28)

Who Is Showit Code Camp For? (14:25)

How the Drip Content Works (15:41)

Resources on the Entrepreneurship Journey (20:34)

Challenges Faced as Entrepreneurs (26:00)

Three Steps to Take to Move Your Business Forward (30:19)

Mentioned in This Episode:

Showit

Showit Code Camp

The One Thing by Gary Keller

Get to Know Jordan & Chelsey

Jordan and Chelsey Barhorst are the husband and wife team behind Black Tie Design Co. These Showit Design Partners are passionate about helping businesses find their footing in their industry, and then pushing them up as far as they can go with beautiful branding and stunning web design. They’re big believers that implementing systems can make your business work for you – and not the other way around – and love crafting perfect solutions that fit their clients like a glove.

Connect with Jordan & Chelsey

blacktiedesign.co

@blacktiedesignco

Showit Code Camp

Connect with Bernel

brandedbybernel.com

instagram.com/brandedbybernel

Review the Transcript:

Bernel
Hey, hi. Welcome to the Branded by Bernel podcast. I’m your host Bernel. You may know me as the branding and web designer who obsesses over the details. So you don’t have to, we all desire to be great at what we do. Although once we get there, no one seems to talk about the messy middle. This motivated me to set the table and invite industry peers over to share stories about living and working in the creative world. So grab the OJ and champagne, pull up a chair, join the creative community and be prepared to build a brand you fall in love with. This is the Branded by Bernel podcast.

Bernel
So today on the show, I am super excited because I am being joined by Jordan and Chelsea Barhorst. And if you don’t know them yet, you need to, they are a husband and wife team behind black tie design Co. These show at design partners are passionate about helping businesses find their footing in their industry, then they push them up as far as they can go with beautiful branding and stunning web design. They’re big believers that implementing systems can make your business work for you. And not the other way around. Yeah, let that soak in. And they love crafting perfect solutions that fit their clients like a glove. So I’m super excited to have Chelsea and Jordan here today. Welcome, guys.

Jordan
Thanks for having us. Yeah, super pumped to be. Finally on this thing. We were listening to a couple of episodes on a recent road trip that we did. So very excited to finally be on.

Chelsey
We’re excited to be here today. Awesome.

Bernel
So for you guys listening at home, you may not know but Chelsea and Jordan are the first show designers to be on the brand new eyebrow podcast. So I have never talked to another show designer before on here. So I am thrilled because I love that community, and love all the things that you guys are doing. So for those listening at home who are not familiar with black tie design CO can you tell me a little bit about what you guys offer?

Jordan
Yeah, so we like to consider ourselves kind of like a full stop design and strategy firm for those in the wedding industry. Not necessarily just weddings, but that that typically, is where most of our clientele come from. So when we talk full service, we’re talking, you know, branding, web design, business strategy, all things that kind of align with seeing where that business is in their market, and then trying to get them where their dreams, have them set. So we want to basically be dream achievers for these people. And every business needs something different. So we’re there to kind of, you know, take all that in, see what the business needs, and then push them forward as far as we can take them.

Bernel
Yes. So it sounds like we have pretty similar business offerings. I love that. All things branding and web design and strategy. One of the things you mentioned that you guys love doing, though, is building systems in place for your clients. So what does that look like? Because I feel like so many businesses are lacking, like basic systems and processes in their business.

Chelsey
I yeah, I totally agree with you. And I think because we’re photographers, and we kind of transitioned into that web designer brand developer role, we kind of have an insight to multiple different businesses. And we’re like, oh, there is a formula, there are systems that can be in place, no matter what the business is, as far as client communication, developing systems to organize your photos, I don’t care if you’re a photographer or branding, the web designer. Everyone needs imagery. And because of that, there’s a way to organize it, there’s a way to select it and curate it. Anything from A to Z in your business, we kind of like to help each client deep dive into that. Because when your business is working for you, you don’t have to grind to constantly stay on top of what it is that needs to be done. You can actually make real moves to move that needle in your business, instead of just feeling like you’re drowning, answering emails, where you could have canned emails that you sit down in pre write for one day for eight hours. And you can go and pull from that.

Jordan
Yeah. And it’s really, you know, everything is obviously designed for it as well. Right. So, you know, our main offering is web design and brand design. But we really found that, you know, when helping people with that in the past, it always came down to well, really they need x, y and z as well. And so being able to just be kind of that full service offering for people has been really, really nice.

Chelsey
Yeah, absolutely. I think it all kind of comes full circle to right. You can’t have this. I never know I know you’re really passionate. About this, but you can’t have this big, beautiful website if your business is a mess. I’ve heard you talk about that before. And that’s something that we kind of were like, well, that’s kind of the bare minimum. I’m not, you know, this is a big investment. And we don’t want people to kind of dive into that before they’re ready.

Bernel
Yes, I tell people, why are we painting a house that the foundation is shaky? The house is literally getting ready to cave in, but you want me to paint it? So?

Chelsey
Absolutely, absolutely.

Bernel
So yeah, we got to have that strong foundation. And speaking of foundations, Chelsea, you touched on the fact that coming from the photography side of things, you guys run a very successful photography company as well, what is the name of that?

Chelsey
It’s Chelsea bar, Horst photography, we used to be a husband and wife duo. So Chelsea and Jordan was our former name. But Jordan founded black tie design Co. And he’s the face of that. Now, I’m the face of our photography company, we both can both very

Jordan
involved in both companies, though, you know, as as we kind of get into like the luxury space in the wedding photography industry, it’s a lot easier to make connections and you know, talk at events and just be known if you’re one person as opposed to two. So we decided mutually to kind of push forward, Chelsea is the face of that company. And, you know,

Chelsey
it was a very strategic branding decision, as well, one of those

Jordan
things that we you know, we really were our own clients in that situation where, you know, we kind of knew what was best for the company. And even though, you know, all those years is Chelsea and Jordan, we had a lot of fond memories of it. But you know, this, this DNA is the same. It’s just a name change. And we help clients with that every day. So

Bernel
yeah, oh, my goodness, I love that. How do you feel like that has helped you? I guess, specifically, Jordan, with black tie design? How do you feel like running a photography business has given you insight into running a web design and branding business?

Jordan
It’s huge. And for I mean, the obvious reason is that over the years, we’ve made so many connections that, you know, I had pretty much an instant client base, which anyone that starts a business knows the hardest thing, when you’re starting is to actually find people to work for. So that was huge, upfront. But as far as, like, from a system standpoint, you know, kind of if you’re if you have a successful business, you probably know why you have a successful business, right? You know, what you’re doing right? What you’re doing well, and what you need to improve on. So I know that, you know, our brand, and our website, as a photography, business has always been strong, because I’m a designer, right? So I knew that I could lean into my design aesthetic, as well as some of the coding stuff. You know, I’m also a developer, you know, I can do some advanced code within show. And so a lot of that is going on, in my own website, and my clients websites as well. All that stuff kind of helped us stick out as wedding photographers. And now those are kind of the foundations I use to build black tie.

Chelsey
I also feel like we used the communication techniques with our clients. And we kind of transitioned the claim experience from Yes, it’s wedding photography, but at the end of the day, clients want to feel valued, and heard and feel like they’re, they’re special to you. That’s the whole point of a luxury service. I mean, photography, and you know, high end web design, those two things are not necessarily a need. I mean, they are if you want to be really successful in your industry, but I think that we took a lot of those experiences and kind of those learning moments from dealing with clients and that communication to be crystal clear with our black tie design co clients as well. And that’s

Jordan
elevated, right, because my clients, our business owners, for 99.9% of my clients will always be business owners, as opposed to as wedding clients, you know, they might be, you know, busy people that have full time jobs that don’t really want to get involved in the nitty gritty communication, stuff like that. But business owners want to know where their money is going. They need to have a plan for it. They need to know that they’re in good hands. And so that’s that was a really solid foundational piece as well. Yeah.

Bernel
Oh, my goodness. Yes. I love that. I think I’m pretty sure that a lot of the show at design partners were once photographers or had been in that industry of some sort. I think I’m the only person who doesn’t hold a camera and

Chelsey
really that is so

Jordan
I’d love to see your camera skills. Next time. Next time we hang out. You gotta we’ll show you our cameras.

Bernel
I tell people the only time I’m caught holding a camera is when my photographer needs to get something out her bag.

Chelsey
Guys, so funny. I get my camera to my clients to hold all the time. I’m so glad I’m not the only one that does that.

Bernel
Yes, yes. Um, okay, so you guys launched a service recently that I mean, it just blew my mind. So just to give you guys a little bit of background My degree is in web development. So I started in coding kind of hated it. But it is what it is. I liked the pretty, I liked the design, but it gave me an excellent foundation to know how it works. I think everybody should know how things work before they focus on just the pretty. Um, but so many designers don’t have that foundation. So many designers do not have the Development Foundation. And Jordan actually launched something specifically for that group of people who want to learn how to take their client sites up a notch by bringing in some custom code. Even if you’re not a designer, I feel like this is just an amazing community to bring your own website up a notch. Like if you’re a bootstrapper, or just someone who, you know, is just interested in how things work. So the name of this new service is show aid code camp. Yeah, like I literally screamed because of the alliteration. I love alliteration. Here too. Yeah, I’m like, It’s branded by Brunel over here, like I hear for it. I love alliteration. So without further ado, Jordan, tell us all about show it code camp, what it is, who is it for? How are the students doing? Like, I just have so many questions.

Jordan
Yeah, so show code camp started about two months ago, I think we’re in month two now. And essentially what it is is, so to start all the way at the back. So there is like a sort of service slash product available, but made back made available by some show designers called code snippets. And essentially, they’re just little snippets of code that designers can copy and paste, follow the instructions, essentially. And it’s basically like a new feature that they can add to their show website. A great example of this, you’ve probably seen, like the typewriter effect, scrolling text, long pages, that kind of thing. And I’ve always been a huge fan of that, because I am a developer, my background is in development as well. And I know that you can unlock a ton of stuff, just knowing a little bit of code. And so the one problem that I had with these code snippets is that, yes, they can be injected into your website and do some really cool things and sometimes work, right. But as developers know, one stray character here or there can completely take down a site.

Bernel
And they don’t always play well with others. So if you add a new snippet, it doesn’t always play well with the one that was there before.

Jordan
Exactly, exactly. And so what I really wanted to do was, I did want to get into this space and create snippets for other users, because you know, I know of a lot of really cool things that you can do with some code. But I also wanted to give these people the basic coding foundations to be able to be successful with these code snippets. So I wanted them not only know what the code snippet does, but I want all of these campers to know how the code does what it does as well. And so that was kind of the dream, that was the vision, and we kind of set off from there. So it’s that mixed with like this really cool like summer camp vibe like this, you know, the theming from like, going to summer camp, I really wanted it to be like an immersive experience, I didn’t really want it to be like another, just like a course that you can buy. And you get all the content up front. I wanted the community

Chelsey
community is crucial, right with any community with any industry. And anytime you learn something new knowledge is power, but also the community behind that is power. And that’s something we didn’t want to just be another Facebook group that gets kind of gets forgotten about. We really wanted it to be a place where people could talk and brainstorm and help one another.

Jordan
Yeah. And by dripping content, you’ve always got something to talk about, right? So you’re not releasing, and then everyone does the thing. And then it’s gone right? By dripping the content. We’re not only providing milestones where people can check in every month, but we’re also taking it slow, right? So I’m gradually kind of introducing these coding concepts to all of our campers. And it’s been really great. So far, our campers have shown, you know, a lot of progress so far, it’s just month two. But even now, they’re you know, sending over examples in the Facebook group have some stuff they’ve been able to implement into client projects, which is super cool. And they’ve gotten some really cool snippets already, even though it’s just month two. I think we’ve got like six now. So

Chelsey
Wow. And it’s not like you said Brunel, it’s not just show it or in general web designers. It’s we have people have I have a planner in there. I have a photographer in there. This is for anybody who wants to elevate their website and add some fun elements that aren’t necessarily publicly available.

Bernel
Yes. I love that. I love that. And then I love the community aspect of learning together with people because I feel like you learn just as much from the questions of others as you do from the instructor. Because a lot of times when we’re teaching people things we don’t know specifically what their question is, you know, you know what they like me to learn ultimately, but you don’t know if they have a question about x y&z and so it’s so good to have that group setting where they can learn from each other. And it’s active

Chelsey
too, which is exciting. There’s people in there really excited to share there

Jordan
started a Facebook group that fell on its face pretty quickly, right? Yes. Yeah,

Bernel
sorry, to all my Facebook group members. I haven’t been in there in six months.

Jordan
Knock on wood, this one sticks around for a while.

Chelsey
But they’re they’re really active in the community. And it’s fun. For me, it’s my favorite to see them actually putting it into action and giving feedback. So we love it. Yeah.

Bernel
I love that. You touched a little bit on a question, actually, that I hit next about starting a programming your business with drip content? Can you tell people a little bit about how that has helped your business model or even helped your business to grow? Because I know a lot of people in adjacent industries does course creators. podcasters are often like, hey, I want to do a course. But I don’t know if I should drip content. I don’t know if I want it to be a group. I don’t know if I want it to be a webinar. So what are some of the benefits you feel like from a business owner standpoint of dripping your content.

Jordan
So the biggest benefit I’ve seen so far is being able to get real time feedback as you’re building the greater whole, right. So if you’re building a course, and it’s the standalone course, you’re building it all up front, and then you’re releasing it. And if it doesn’t resonate with the people you want it to resonate with, it’s probably going to flop, right. So with code camp, what I really wanted to do is release chunk content, drip it on, obviously. And then as the content grows, and as the community continues to give feedback, I can adjust based on that feedback, what I’m actually offering and the kind of stuff that we’re covering. So that was that’s a huge benefit. And obviously, like we want to cater to the people that we’re trying to cater to, we don’t want to just throw something out in the world. And you know, bait people with false promises or you know, something that they might not know that they’re getting, they might think that they’re getting something else, now they can get a month of the content. And if it’s not what they want, they can unsubscribe or they can provide feedback. And we can build off of that.

Chelsey
I also feel like as you’re doing things real time, it gives people time to digest the material. So we are content and course creators and numerous industries. And it feels a little bit detached when you release a course and you push it into the world. And you don’t quite know if they’re digesting what you’re saying, because it’s too much to eat at one time, it’s too overwhelming. If Jordan gave them 12 monthly snippets at the very beginning with you know, 12 different videos, they might be feeling really overwhelmed and not really sure how to actually implement that to move the needle in their business. And that goes for any content.

Jordan
In this specific instance, that would also kind of defeat the purpose of the entire thing, they would grab the snippets, they would just paste them into the website. And they wouldn’t learn, you know, what the snippets are doing, how they’re doing it. And so that’s, that’s a really key thing, developing is not an easy thing to do. So, you know, introducing it all at once would be really hard to digest. And that’s also a benefit of that of dripping that content.

Chelsey
I also feel like there’s, I feel like there’s so many benefits to dripping content. This is the first time we’ve done it. And as an educator, I am so passionate about it now because you’re able to get social proof. And a lot of it, I Brunel had to pull teeth to get social proof, even if it was working. Even if the course was great. It was really hard to get that social proof. But because you’re dripping it and people are kind of on edge and excited for the next piece that it feels a little bit more exciting. Because each month you get some value. It feels like a little bit like a surprise at people post their wins. And you’re able to screen grab those wins as a business owner, and, you know, use it to promote your next month.

Bernel
I love that. That’s excellent. I feel like so many people want to be educators in their unique industry. And so often it is detached when you when you said that word Chelsea that really resonated where it’s like, okay, we work, work work. We make this course we throw it out in the world, and we hope for the best and then we beg for review so that we can do it all over again and open enrollment. Yeah, it

Chelsey
feels a little bit. It I’m not really sure the word detached as I guess the best part. It feels like you’re not getting fulfilled the way you want to be fulfilled as an educator.

Bernel
Right? Well, I think one is just kind of guiding someone by walking in front of them and hoping they follow and the other ones holding their hand. So I think that’s great. As I said, I’ve been very impressed just by what I’ve heard from The Code Camp. Um, so if you are interested in web design, or if you are a web designer looking to level up your business, then that’s definitely something you guys should check out. I’ll have a link to that in the show notes as well. But why don’t have you guys here, I want to talk a little bit about how you got here. And some of the, you know, people or resources that helped along the way, because I do feel like the journey of entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. So what are some of the resources that you guys had or currently have?

Unknown Speaker
Yeah, so a lot of it, loaded

Chelsey
question for now that Whoo, that’s all that’s, there’s a lot. Let’s dig in.

Jordan
So a lot of it came from us starting as wedding photographers, right? So well,

Chelsey
before that I was a middle school teacher, right? Really many lives.

Bernel
So you’ve just you’re a teacher by nature, that’s what I’m a teacher

Chelsey
by nature. Yeah.

Jordan
And a lot of it is us wanting to kind of give back what we were given early on in our careers. So our education is all based off of, you know, that feeling that we got when we invested in really, really good education, as wedding photographers, a lot of that was in the show community. So I remember our first show at United that we went to, we were there strictly as photographers, obviously. And just learning from, you know, everyone that’s affiliated with that group, I’m talking like, Amy and Jordans of the world, Caitlin James’s of the world, they were, they were crucial in our upbringing, as wedding photographers, and just their education style really spoke volumes to us, and what they were able to do for their, you know, extremely large community of photographers. Now, we want to do that for kind of the, the everyone that has a show at website. So that’s kind of that’s kind of where we’re at, we wanted to definitely make sure that we’re giving back to the community every way that we can. And that’s really kind of why we why we kind of created code camp, and why we continue to do some educational offerings like that. And I

Chelsey
also think you asked a really good question, you said, what resources specifically helped us get to where we are. And I think that the answer to that is just community. And I know that’s not a resource in a traditional sense of the word. But the second, we decided to stop being on an island stopped hustling for 1314 hours a day trying to move the needle on our business, we were like, wow, let’s be with people. And the second, we’ve started putting ourselves in the room with the right people, and you don’t know who the right people are, until you start getting in those rooms. And you’re able to see, like, Oh, this is where i my heart in my businesses. This is where this relationship is going to take me. And I don’t mean to sound like relationships and communities are transactional, because they’re not, but those transactional parts of the business are rooted in actual friendships. I mean, for example, Brunel, the first time we met, we met at a little get together. And I think I didn’t know you for five minutes. And I was like, I like her. I’m claiming her. She’s my friend now. And then here we are, you know, some months later, and we’re talking together in this space. And I think that, you know, if I had to just name one thing that drove our business forward in both aspects, it would hands down be community and relationships.

Bernel
Yes. Oh, my goodness. I love that. I definitely remember meeting you guys. And you just have the like bubbly is personality, Chelsea. For people who’ve never met me in real life. My personality is just as big in real life as it is online. I love it. And so I’m often like, okay, am I too much? Like, maybe I need to tone it down, because everybody else is in chill mode. And then I met Chelsea, and she was right at a 10 with me. And I was like, Yes, I have found a person like my person.

Chelsey
Yes. And I love it so much. And I also think like, this is totally I’m derailing. And I’m just gonna say it anyways. But I think that being yourself is so crucial. I think, like you mentioned, like, oh, my gosh, am I being too much? Am I too much of this or too much of that. And at the end of the day, your true personality, and your true values are going to come out no matter what. So you might as well just be yourself from the beginning.

Bernel
Yes, exactly. I definitely think knowing who you are, and then being able to embrace who you are is a key to being an asset to the community. Because as you said, we don’t want to just build relationships for them to be transactional. So, you know, what can you bring to the community, you’re gonna get things but what can you bring to it? And so, we have love. Yeah, I’m speaking for the whole community. We love having Jordan as a show at design partner. For you guys,

Unknown Speaker
because Chelsea comes along with

Bernel
I mean, I wasn’t gonna say that for

Chelsey
you. I’m just like the extra fries at the bottom of the Five Guys bag Jordans the burger. He brings the skill on just the extra french fries.

Bernel
Yes. Yeah. I love it. I love it. So we, the show a design partner group is growing, um, a lot. And so that’s that’s also just an amazing community. If you don’t have a show at website yet, you know, I say this on almost every episode, you should probably get one. There’s two show at design partners sitting here. So definitely check out our

Unknown Speaker
Hey, yeah, you need to be on show it

Bernel
you need to be on show it for sure. Um, so you know, we’ve talked about building these successful businesses, I think it’s very clear that you guys have an amazing business foundation. But for somebody listening at home, who is just getting started, who just they’ve decided they want to be an entrepreneur, and they haven’t quite landed their spot in a community yet. What was the biggest challenge that you face? And then how did you guys overcome that? What would you tell them?

Jordan
So I think, I think the answer is the same for both questions. And it’s just getting up and doing it. Right. So the biggest challenge is getting it out of your head, right? So you might think, yes, I want to do this, I want to do this, I want to do this. And then 15 years go by and you still haven’t done it, right? So the biggest thing that you have to do is just do it, go to a meeting, make a connection on Instagram, you know, send a DM asking someone, hey, you know, how can I get into this space? If you’d never take that first step to do something, you’re never going to do it? And so like I said, that’s kind of the answer to both questions. Because once we did take that first step into doing something like this, you know, I batted around the idea of being a design partner for a long time. You know, we were in the show community already as photographers. And I’m a designer. That sounds obvious, right? It sounds like, yeah, I should have done this a long time ago. But it took me a really long time to say yeah, you know, I can absolutely do this. Let’s, let’s do something about it. So I still remember the day we sat down, trying to come up with, you know, a great business plan a great business idea for, for this business that, you know, I didn’t even know I was starting when I woke up in the morning, right? Yeah. And

Chelsey
how going oh, like, there’s, it’s almost like a light switch, whether it’s making a move or change or initiating a business?

Jordan
Yeah. So my number one piece of advice for anyone that’s even thinking about starting a business or starting a new venture in life, is just stand up and do something about it. Whether that it could be small, it could just be getting your ideas out of your head and onto paper or onto the screen or whatever that means for you. Or it could be you know, let’s formulate our business idea. Let’s get everything down. How am I going to do this make your roadmap. It can be big or small. Just doing something is hugely important.

Chelsey
I love making roadmaps. And that can be anything from doodles on a piece of paper to my Google Drive document. I think anytime we have an idea, it feels big and scary and overwhelming. And it feels like there’s 150 steps to get to where we’re wanting to go. I think for both of our businesses, and even our prior careers. It was just literally one day at a time. What can I do today to drive my dream forward? And it actually there’s a book called The one thing we have to look up the author. Yeah. Well, we will link it in the show notes. Yeah, it might be very killer. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So it’s called The One Thing by Gary Keller. And this is a book that I actually just read. And I because I have some goals in my photography businesses that I that I have not yet accomplished. And it’s all about what can you do for one hour each day to meet that goal? It works. I’m telling you, it works, which is really exciting.

Bernel
Oh, that is so exciting. I definitely will have to check out that book. i This is the year of education for me as far as like giving education back, um, as you talk about Jordan, how you just kind of ended up being a show at design it like it made sense, but it still took you a minute to do it. That’s kind of how I feel about education platforms. Um, I love public speaking. I speak at conferences, I’m on podcast, but I have never really taken that leap to say hey, I’m gonna teach others what I do. Um, so yeah, I that advice that you just gave? I feel like I can apply it as well. Um,

Jordan
there’s nothing really like it. We we love educating. She’s more of a natural educator than I am but I still absolutely love being able to give back to the community.

Chelsey
And you’re really smart. I talk pretty words. Hey, we’re really smart. We recorded

Unknown Speaker
this we can listen back to this. Yeah. All right. You guys.

Chelsey
Play it every morning. Do me dirty.

Bernel
Everybody heard it. Oh my goodness. Well, I’ll Love that, well, this is my favorite part of the show and every show like this. So grab your PIN, grab your paper, because Chelsea and Jordan are gonna give you three actionable steps that you can take today to move your business forward. A sneak peek, they kind of told you one of them, but I’m gonna let them take it away.

Jordan
Okay, just pull this up. Go ahead, Jordan. Ready? Yeah. Okay, so one, like we said, we kind of touched on that earlier, let’s just start. So get it out of your mind onto the paper onto your note taking app, whatever you got, just get it out of your head and start that’s obviously you can’t get this step 150. Without doing step one, make it tangible. So number two is to find your people. Find the people that will champion your business, this could be anyone, this could be your best friend, this could be someone in the community that you know is your intro into the community, find them. Just someone that will listen to you, if you need to just ran for a second, someone that just can be a champion for your business, find your people. That’s number two. And then number three is find a need. So what are people looking for kind of identify what people are looking for? This is a big thing that we do. Anytime we start a piece of educational content for our photography business we look for, okay, what do photographers need? And so we do that, because it’s really hard to stand out in any industry, especially if your goals are kind of vague. And your industry is kind of vague. So what you want to do you want to identify what people are looking for, find out if you know something about that, right. So if you can fix that need, that’s a niche, and that’s, you know, gonna take you really really far in your business.

Chelsey
Can I piggyback off of that? I think just being crystal clear in your goals and your vision, you have to know what you want. In order for anyone to invest in you no matter what what business you’re starting, what industry you’re in, if you are not crystal clear about what you are known for. It will be vague to everybody else.

Bernel
Yes, I love that. And then I’m gonna piggyback on that again, and just say with finding a meet people tell you what they need. So often I hear people say like, why don’t know what the need in my industry is? And I’m like, What? Are you reading the comment section under people’s posts? Are you reading Facebook group questions? Are you reading like the help questions, maybe to the software that you like to use, that’s what the need is people tell you what the need is. So you just have to, as you said, get started and go find that need. So I am thrilled to have had you guys on this show. I am so excited to see all the things that you guys are working on this year. And then hopefully, I’ll see you again and show you not well. It’s not called show at United go

Chelsey
it’s far. So it’s Spark, which is for all business owners and all entrepreneurs this year.

Jordan
We’re excited to have all for a couple of fresh new faces. Maybe this year, not photographer.

Bernel
Yes. So if you’re listening at home, and you’ve heard us talk about show united and how much fun we have, but you weren’t a photographer, Well, now’s the time to come join this community because there’s always a seat at this table. So

Chelsey
There sure is. And we sure have a lot of fun at that Gala.

Bernel
Yes. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So we have a lot of fun at the gala. Prove it.

Chelsey
Thank you so much for having us on today.

Bernel
Yes, thank you so much. And I will link to their showit code camp. I will link to black tie design code and to the book that Chelsea mentioned this. All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Wow, that went by really fast. As always, thank you so much for showing up in my little corner of the internet. I would love to hear your thoughts on the show. So please, please subscribe, leave a review and share what you learned with friends. Some of the best things in life are freebies. So don’t forget to head over to brandedbybernel.com to check out our free branding goodies, the show notes and more educational resources.

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