How to Showcase Your Voice with Brand Design
Shortcuts:4:55—Intro to Daniela's business journey—how did you get started and what was that like?
9:07—After you quit your corporate job, how did you get the word out? Did you have a website? What inspired you to become a designer?
12:35—What did your first website look like?
14:22—What are some of your tips and tricks you can share with our audience to create a brand and website that really resonates with them and their ideal clients?
18:17—How did you make such major changes, like moving from Washington D.C. to Arizona and now Mexico?
23:50—How have things changed? What's shifted in the way that you're doing business now?
26:40—Tell us more about your exciting new products! Your Squarespace Website Template Kits
28:35—We're all about giving here, so what kind of free gift have you brought for us today?
34:13—What can people expect to learn from your free masterclass?
Transcript from live interview between Michelle Kuei, Founder of Elevate LifeCoaching, and Daniela, Designer and Founder of The Humanista Co.
Michelle:
Good afternoon, everybody! Happy Wednesday. I'm Michelle Kuei and, if you are new to me, welcome to the group. I am the creator of the Visibility Confidence Lounge and you are watching my Wednesday live coffee talk. This is a show where you get to hear from all these successful coaches and speakers and authors who are just a little ahead of us, just a little bit, they're just a few steps ahead of us and they are having a successful wonderful business. So I am inviting them to the show so that they can inspire you and perhaps give you some helpful tips and resources that would direct you to your success.
And those of you who are new to me—welcome to the group! I'm a visibility confidence coach and I help women coaches to build their visible personal coaching business so that they can get out there get seen, get heard and get hired through their storytelling. So if you love my storytelling technique be sure to grab a copy of my Storytelling Story Like a Pro Workbook so that you can start telling your story. So welcome to the show.
1:50
Today, I am beyond excited—and there's no word to describe it because she and I finally connected—I invited her a couple of months ago but there were a lot of things that were changing and unfortunately she couldn't make it to the last show. And this time I finally grabbed her, I said, "Daniela, you need to come on the show and I'm gonna have you today no matter what!" So I make sure that I grab her every chance that I can.
So just give you a quick intro about Daniela—she is a designer, creative director, and the founder behind The Humanista Co., a holistic design studio that is specialized in branding and website design for service-based entrepreneurs. My ladies, that means you, and raise your hand if you are one—me—yay! That's how i came across her website. Her site was stunning, amazing, and she focuses specifically on helping conscious business owners showcase their voice by following their unique paths and bringing their whole human selves into their brand.
So I don't want to take up too much time because she and I have a lot to talk about and I don't want you to miss any part of this so I'm going to bring her onto the show right away [laughter].
Daniela:
Hi Michelle! I'm so excited to be here. Finally, we made it!
Michelle:
I know right, are you kidding me, I've been waiting for this moment! I keep telling people like they all went to my website they're like, "Michelle, your website is so beautiful," and then the other day one of my peer coaches, Helen, she went on to my website and she's like, "Michelle, I feel like I need a map to navigate through your website," and I say, "That's exactly the idea."
Daniela:
That's awesome to hear, like, it's an entire journey in your website. The journey of your story and your beautiful work and everything that makes you uniquely you.
Michelle:
And this is something that we were just talking about earlier before we came on to the show that I have this um…I have special needs, and I don't mean that in a very negative way. I mean that in a very positive way. I had really special needs when I started working with Daniela. She's like, "Okay, so tell me about your vision. How do you envision this website is gonna be?" So I start giving her pictures and I start describing to her like I want this, I want the arrow, I wanted to point it this way.
It needs to be like a map because I feel like a lot of us going through our journey—our coaching journey, our business journey—it's all about taking that journey and it's a storytelling website. So I wanted to be somewhat complex and so I remember you coming back and presenting the design to me and I was like, "YES, that's exactly what I want." That's the best reaction anyone could hope for.
So I would love to hear your business journey. How did you get started? What was that like?
Daniela:
Oh, my business journey, wow what a long and winding road right, probably like everybody. Such an interesting path. Well, I guess it all started in my corporate life, you know, I like to say, "in my past life as a corporate dropout." I worked in corporate about seven years. I would say after I graduated with my bachelor's. I was born and raised in the Washington, D.C area so it's a very ambitious area it's very go-go-go, very, very achievement-focused. And I felt a lot of pressure to achieve and be seen as "successful." And I guess for me, my idea of success was to climb the corporate ladder back then—you know, right after college—so I found myself in a lot of different roles in the dc area. I worked in HR, I was a bilingual recruiter, so I speak Spanish also which is a lot of fun, I worked in higher educational institutions, I worked with e-learning…. so I jumped around quite a lot in this corporate life.
And what I noticed was a pattern in every job I ever had. It was this pattern of chronic dissatisfaction, I would say like within six months every time I started a new job in this life, I felt the same things. I was frustrated, you know, I had this feeling in my gut that I'm meant for something more, that I'm meant for something different… I don't really want to work for a boss and be told what to do every day. I don't want to work on someone else's schedule. So I had these nagging feelings during every single job I ever had.
And eventually I think the straw that broke the camel's back was—I was sitting in my little cubicle one day and feeling really frustrated dealing with some toxicity in the environment—a work bully, let's say—and they gave me this task that I had already finished. I spent a month on this huge project and they told me that some director had suddenly decided let's do it all over.
I sat at the desk really wanting to break down and cry. And that was the day, Michelle, that was the day when I was like, "I'm tired of building someone else's dream. What is all of this for?" I had reached my limit of building someone else's dream and feeling constantly undervalued and not seen. So that was the day I decided to make a change.
I remember, somehow, a friend of a friend connected me with a coach. And after starting to offer some coaching sessions of my own—career coaching—I realized that I wanted to be a coach and I actually became a career coach myself! That was actually the first business that I started. I don't even know if you know this, Michelle, that before I became a designer I actually branched off on my own and tried my hand at career coaching for about a year.
Michelle:
So as I'm sitting here listening to the story I can see myself. And I know a lot of people can see themselves sitting in the cubicle. I didn't have a cubicle, it's more like I have the entire nursing unit that I have to take care of and there's a lot of stress—people's always wanting something—and it's always about not being enough or not doing enough for someone else. Yeah, and I'm showing up being my best and what do you mean I'm not giving enough, right? Well, I can see myself almost getting up and just throwing my badge.
Daniela:
Yeah, you know that's what I almost did that that day in that cubicle—almost threw down the badge. In my head, that's what I did, like, "Here's my badge, I'm done, buh- bye, take it I'm out."
Michelle:
[Laughter] So after you quit the corporate job, how did you get the word out? Did you have to build your own website? How did you start your business?
Daniela:
So I worked with my own coach back then who helped me get the clarity that I wanted to be a coach myself, and she had a small business that helped me. They basically built my website for me, just to get started. It was a very simple website, you know, we had just a few sessions over two months to get the website filled out and just give me a starting point.
I remember when the website was built and revealed to me, I will be honest, I remember feeling disappointed, Michelle. I felt like this person didn't fully see me and get me. I think they saw me still as that corporate person but not my vision for myself—you know, who I aspired to be as an entrepreneur. I remember seeing it and I was like, "This is an old version of me, like, I don't connect fully with this anymore."
So actually, going through that process inspired me to transition into becoming a designer. Because that disappointment of investing my time and energy and money into my own website, and then to find it didn't reflect how I saw actually myself….I was like, "I don't ever want someone else to go through this experience. Life is too short and we deserve to have things that we love that reflect who we are and also who we aspire to be. You know, products that can grow with us. That's how I ended up becoming a designer myself.
Michelle:
I just went ahead and pulled up your website, like the website that you have right now, because I want to show people. Your website totally caught my eye because the way that it was designed—the colors and then you go down here, the photos of you everything—speaks to me. And I remember on our first call, that first discovery call, when I was talking to you and I'm like, "Say no more, Daniela, you are my person."
Daniela:
Of course, I remember that. I remember feeling—an instant connection with you. I can always tell because I get like a little tingly feeling at the top of my head. I don't know if you've ever experienced that?
Michelle:
You know, this is something that people don't know about me—I'm like totally into electronica music. I don't know, like I love the idea of going to that big festival, what's it called? The big festival like out in California, yeah in the desert, oh, Burning Man! Yes, I've always wanted to go to Burning Man so when I saw your website, I was like, "That's Burning Man for me." [laughter] So your website totally caught my attention and so, I'm curious, what did your first website look like?
Daniela:
Oh gosh, I wish I could have prepared a screenshot, I wish I had thought about that [laughter]. Well my first website, you know, it was good, it was fine. I was going under the name "Daniela West" at that time in my career coach days. That's my middle name—West—and I thought it sounded cool and pretty. But eventually I realized it was sort of a stage name and I just wanted to be myself, you know? The first website was fine, it just felt very corporate, it just felt very cookie cutter kind of like anybody could have done that and put that together. There just wasn't a ton of personalization for my personality and what actually makes me unique. It was very simple, yeah.
Michelle:
So I think one of the things that a lot of our new coaches, and I was struggling with, too, was just starting out in business. Because I didn't have a large budget and—this is the honest truth—I had $2,500 that was left in my bank account. So I couldn't have hired or worked with someone to design my website. You know, I remember coming to you and I had already saved up because I already knew that I wanted an update for my website, so I had already saved up in order to have this budget to work with you.
So in the beginning, it was more like, "Okay, so I have to figure out how to put this website together and how do I do this?" So what are some of the tips or tricks that you can share with our audience? How do you put up a website that resonates with them?
Daniela:
I would say my secret sauce really has to do with getting clarity on my core values. That's how I started my own business. Because I came from a background in coaching, I already understood how to identify my values, and I realized oh my gosh, these actually become the building blocks for human connection.
When you understand your core values, you can then start to understand things like, "Who am I trying to target? Who do I want to work with? Who are the people that share these core values with me?" Because your values are what make you uniquely human— they really guide everything that you do.
So when you get full clarity on your values—this might not be intuitive at all, you know, people might just jump into designing something pretty—but it's kind of a waste of time to start designing when you don't take the time to gain clarity on what makes you uniquely you as a coach, for example. So starting with clarity on your core values and then from there, mapping out, you know, "Who's my ideal audience? What values do we share in common?" And then from there, I like to tell people to think of a brand theme. So a brand theme is sort of like, think of your brand as a novel—what's the overarching theme of the story?
For example, for The Humanista Co., my brand theme is "it's all about the journey." That just came to me in a flash, and then using that brand theme is what helped me, and what helps me create for my clients, all of the visuals that come out of that. So you kind of go from values to audience to brand theme to visuals, which is a lot of fun, then you can start doing like a Pinterest board and seeing what images jump out at you that capture your values that are going to be attractive to your audience as well.
So that's sort of a very short version of my signature design process. And I have seen it—that's what we used together for your site—I think it just creates magic to start with the values there.
Michelle:
It's totally magic. And I remember working with you on the values, I was really curious about your values. I think one of the conversations we had was like, "So Daniela, tell me about your core values," and I remember one of the core values that I saw was authenticity. I'm like, "Yup, that's my girl."
Daniela:
Yeah, I think authenticity is the core values I have in common with every client I've worked with. You know, it'll vary. I try to help people narrow down to top five core values. You're not gonna have every value in common with your people but you'll have at least one that's like a major must-have, you know, to work with me. You must value authenticity—that's super important.
Michelle:
Yeah, and I think from that point on it was totally clear, super clear to me, like, what are what are my core values and how do I attract people through my core values? And as I look back on all these clients that I have worked with, it makes perfect sense because a lot of them come to me because of the authenticity. And there are so many things that kind of just start to align with everything.
Daniela:
Yeah, true, I think so.
Michelle:
So, you went from a place in Washington D.C. to… where are you now?
Daniela:
Oh gosh, Michelle, I really have to draw a timeline behind me to explain my life in the last 10 to 15 years since D.C. [laughter] but right now, I am in Mexico. I made a very big move—I was in Phoenix, Arizona during all of COVID, and then just really got sick of being there and being all cooped up and I decided to come to Mexico and change the scenery. I brought my cat, his name is Freddy, he's here with me. So right now I'm in Puerto Vallarta.
Michelle:
How do you how do you go from, like, you know Arizona—and you had a really good career as a coach and brand design strategist—and suddenly you wake up one day and say, "You know what, I'm going to move to Mexico." How does that happen?
Daniela:
Yeah, I know, there's more to the story, that's true. So back in back in July of this year (2021) I didn't go on anywhere like from March of 2020 until this year, July—over a year and a half or so—I hadn't gone anywhere, Michelle. And I used to travel all the time. And I'd lived abroad before and I finally just got so sick of living in fear, you know? I was really afraid to travel with the pandemic going on, but July was the time and I was like, "Look, I've been working so hard, I am getting burned out and I really need to change the scenery."
So one thing kind of led to another. A girl on Instagram reached out to me out of the blue who also happened to live in Phoenix. She told me she loved my account and invited me to meet in person for coffee. So we met and somehow the topic of Mexico came up. And as soon as she said it, I felt a spark— I felt that little gut spark kind of light up in me—and I was like, in my whole life I have never thought to go to Mexico and it is right there, it's our neighbor! So one thing led to another after that coffee conversation. I just started doing some research, you know, went in different Facebook groups on travel. Somehow came across Puerto Vallarta and I was like, "Let me take a vacation there and check it out—it's calling to me."
So July and August (2021) I was in Puerto Vallarta for about two weeks. I really fell in love with it. People were very friendly and open and laid back and I kind I came home on such a high—I was like the most mellow, tan, best self me that you can imagine—I was on such a high when I came home in August and went back to my routine in Phoenix…got kind of depressed. And I met this girl in Phoenix at a coffee shop one day—another coffee shop—and after I told her my about my vacation, she said, "Well, why does it have to be just vacation that you have that lifestyle? Why can't you create a life that embodies all these things you're telling me about? Why can't you make the vacation your lifestyle?
And I was like okay, stranger! This was this is very inspirational. It lit another spark in me honestly—that conversation kind of did it—and it sort of planted that seed to decide to start a new chapter. So that's how a series of events led me to making this big move. Why not make leisure more of a lifestyle, you know?
Michelle:
It's crazy, yeah, for a lot of people it's like ideal, right? And I've always wanted to have that type of lifestyle where I'm traveling and then I'm working at the same time, you know, like taking calls, working with clients, that's my ideal lifestyle that I want to live. So you are living my ideal life! And I would imagine that for many entrepreneurs this has become the ideal—you know, the whole digital nomad concept—it's become so trendy especially since COVID hit. You know, the world has shifted so much and it's been super challenging but it's also opened up some interesting opportunities that many people didn't have to work remotely.
Daniela:
I think I've been working remote, actually since 2019 pre-pandemic, and I've realized, you know, it's not without its challenges, Michelle, it's not easy to get into that ideal. I think it gets glamorized a lot. But once you learn what sort of daily structure works for you and what type of environments you can thrive in the most—I think it's important to get that kind of clarity first before making a big move like to another country. I definitely journaled a lot for months to really make sure I had the clarity and the vision I needed to make to make this leap. I didn't want to do it blindly.
Michelle:
So how have things changed? What's shifted in the way that you're doing business now?
Daniela:
Oh, so much, Michelle. This past month, I just moved to Puerto Vallarta—let's call it PV—and it was just a huge roller coaster trying to get settled here. I had a lot of certainty that fell apart when I moved here. For example, I had a big client project that was booked but, for personal reasons, that client came to me and canceled last minute. And so that was unexpected, and then right after that I had signed a lease here for a year and I thought I had a home here and that all kind of fell through very unexpectedly. So suddenly I—you know, my financial plans had to change, my living situation had to change really fast and it was stressful. And I realized wow, even when we think we have certainty, things can change in in a second.
I'm now looking at things that seemed negative at the time and I'm trying to approach it like, "Okay, you know, I have faith in myself that I will figure this out because I really think the universe is redirecting me and it's shutting doors on things that probably weren't in alignment with who I'm trying to evolve into."
So, how it shifted my business is it's caused me to re-evaluate some services and the way I have been working. Let's just say there have been a lot of changes in what I'm focusing on now, and there are actually a lot of exciting things coming up.
Michelle:
When she told me about this I'm like, "Yes, this is what I want! This is what they want!" Just know that you will get more from Daniela now than ever before. Let me just put it out there—so her lifestyle changed and that led to a business change but let me tell you that the value that she's providing now, it's enormous, and you get more opportunity to work with her now. So tell us about the exciting changes that you have coming up!
Daniela:
She gives such a good introduction, it's just so exciting! So the thing I'm most excited about in terms of my services changing and how I work with people—I decided I really wanted to focus more on early stage entrepreneurs. I had been working with entrepreneurs that were several years into business and they were really well-established, so I then realized but what about people that are just getting started? You know like, they need clarity, I think they might need the most help just to get started and gain the confidence to put themselves out there.
So I created a digital product for early stage entrepreneurs and brands. It's called a Squarespace Website Template Kit. So it's just in Squarespace for now, and these template kits are basically DIY. They have step-by-step video tutorials taught by yours truly where I basically walk you through every step of building your own website from start to finish. We start with brand clarity, we go into design, we then go into building the site, and then those final logistics to get it launched.
featured website template kits:
Examples of some of the included brand bonuses in each website template kit
Michelle:
I'm super excited! And I know you came with gifts because we're all about giving, right? Yes, we're all about giving, so what is your gift?
Daniela:
So I teach a free masterclass called 5 Steps to DIY Your Dream Website—it's about 45 minutes long, it's basically a whole mini course from start-to-finish about how to build your website. But primarily focusing on how to get the clarity first that you need to write the copy, get the images, and put the whole site together. It's an on-demand class so you don't have to wait at all to watch it.
And I'm also offering to everybody in Michelle's audience a special 10% off discount code if you don't want to watch the class and you just want to skip ahead and get a website template kit. So if you're somebody who's just like, "Daniela, I don't want to watch the class, just give me the website kit, I'm ready to get started!" Because I'm kind of like that and very impatient [laughter].
For those who want to skip ahead to the 10% off discount, all you have to do is enter the code THEHCO10 at checkout once you've added any website template kit to your cart.
Michelle:
I love it. I was telling Daniela earlier, I wish I had known you since like early on in the beginning of my journey because I would have—instead of spending money to hire someone who put together a very generic website for me—and I remember I had to do some aftermath. I had to shift things around because it didn't really speak to me and and I do have like beginner knowledge of some of the coding that I had picked up. So I ended up spending $250 to hire someone to do that and I still had to put in the hours and time to fix it myself. I would have just gone and straight up downloaded a template kit.
Daniela:
I would have too, honestly. When I first started, I didn’t know that template kits existed!
I wish I had known, too, because you know I hired someone and I ended up redoing most of that website myself. I mean, that experience led me to becoming a designer, so I can now see why it was a necessary experience, but I don't want people to waste their time. I want to give them a shortcut.
Michelle:
And I would add also that before you create or invest in a website, you've got to think about what Daniela talked about—your brand values, what content do you want to put in the website, how do you want to portray your stories. So, JJ is a great copywriter and she helped me write all the copy, and so by the time I had reached out to Daniela, I already had the whole picture of my vision—how do I want my website to look, the story, the words that matched my vision, everything came together in order to make this picture-perfect website together.
And I think, while I have you here, there's a reason why I truly believe that a website is a must for a business owner because this is like your digital business card to pass out to someone—on a podcast interview or pass it out to someone, hey send people to check out my website—so definitely it draws traffic and attention for you, so a website is a must.
Daniela:
I love how you say that, yeah like a digital business card, I've never heard it like that. I like it.
Yeah and honestly what I notice whenever I finish a client project for example, in their website launches, I see every single client's confidence skyrocket. They're like, "Oh my God, this is me in a website! This is my voice, this is everything I stand for and this is the work that I love." They're so proud and so confident once they see it all on a screen as the overall puzzle of their brand. So I can say from experience it's very empowering when you get your first website. It's magic happening, it's your dream right like right there in front of you.
Michelle:
Yeah, it's true. So one last thing before I let you go because I know people will be interested in hearing more about this free masterclass. What can they expect coming out from this masterclass?
Daniela:
Sure, so with the free masterclass you also get a free brand clarity workbook to guide you, which will walk you through my signature five-step process for getting that clarity you need to build your website from scratch. We’ll go through your story, your business journey, your values, your audience, your—I call it brand values alignment— so the values you share with your ideal audience, and then your brand theme to help you identify the visuals you want to use.
I'll also be walking you through how to create and find brand photos and how to put all the content together for your website. So you'll be getting tons and tons of clarity from this masterclass.
You'll also learn the top mistakes that a lot of DIY-ers make when doing their first website and how to avoid those.
Overall, you'll walk away with so much more clarity and confidence in how to build a website. So you'll have a very targeted strategy for tackling your own.
Michelle:
Love it, love it! Thank you so much, Daniela. Oh my gosh I wish I could go on for like days and hours talking to you. Let me see, we need to have a retreat in Mexico
Daniela:
Oh yes, you can come to Puerto Vallarta and we'll have some margaritas! [laughter]
Michelle:
All right, I'm gonna wrap up but before you go, just a reminder—enter the discount code THEHCO10 at checkout when you purchase any website template kit for an extra 10% off!
So be sure to check out her website and also check out her free masterclass, 5 Steps to DIY Your Dream Website—it's really helpful, especially if you are in the beginning stage and you're making your website—just extra resources for you to have in your toolbelt.
All right, ladies, so hopefully that will give you some idea of how to create your website or where to even begin. I think a lot of us struggle from where do we begin and hopefully from this episode you will have more ideas and at least know the resources or the places that you can go to find the answers for your questions. So come back to me next week at the same time actually Wednesday at 11 o'clock. I'm going to bring another guest who will be giving you a lot of resources and tools so that you can keep moving on courageously and confidently on your coaching journey I will see everyone next time, bye!
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