Meet Heather Sharpe | Website Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Heather Sharpe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Heather, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
When I started The Editor’s Touch, I wanted to fill a ‘hole’ I saw in the website designing industry (at the time, this was 2015) … there were a lot of tech minded website designers, but I wanted to create websites that looked like editorial magazines; something that wowed people upon first clicking into the website they were visiting. A lot of my connections (hopeful clients) came from the wedding and style blog I was an editor of for 8 years, and I wanted the websites I designed to exemplify the gorgeous weddings and events my clients were creating for their clients. I wanted to be known for creating gorgeous websites that wedding and event industry business owners would want for themselves.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The Editor’s Touch was born from one of my lowest points in life … I was the owner of a wedding and style inspiration blog and found out I was losing that blog the day it happened. When people ask me what made you create The Editor’s Touch and how did you begin to start new? … I have a hard time answering with a single ‘quick’ answer and since it’s a number of things I thought it may be helpful to share the things I did when I started The Editor’s Touch, which is my website designing business:

I HELD ONTO RELATIONSHIPS THAT I COULD GROW WITH AND LET GO OF ONES THAT WERE KEEPING ME STILL

This is a hard thing for a lot of people because it sometimes is confused with ‘using someone’ to gain something. When I was the editor of Style Unveiled (my wedding and style blog) I met LOTS of amazing business owners and a lot of those relationships turned into friendships – or at least something BEYOND just the ‘business small talk’ that we all do. I have never been a person that likes to be held back – if I have an idea (whether it be good or bad) I like to DO IT – try it out and see if it sucks or not. I don’t do well with people who talk in circles and never seem to get beyond ‘talking about an idea’ and so, for me, it worked better to grow the relationships with people who moved forward than with ones who stayed still. I believe that mindset helped me challenge myself and become a better business owner and person.

I STAYED OUT OF FACEBOOK GROUPS AND OUT OF THE ‘GIVE ME ADVICE’ COMMENT STRINGS

Yes, feel free to hate on me. But again, for me, reading a bunch of answers in a FB group and trying to sort through the good and the bad advice is still STAYING STILL – it’s not action. I would much rather go and try my own ideas than sit and read what other awesome people did. Do I believe that FB groups can be helpful? Sure! But I try to stay out of them as much as I can. I feel like they are bandaids for doing the real things in life that creates results. It’s like if we are reading it and getting excited we feel like we are DOING IT << and we aren't.

I WASN’T AFRAID TO LOOK LIKE A FAILURE

When you LOSE everything publicly, your ‘care about what people think’ sorta goes right out the window. When for 8 years you are running one of the top wedding blogs and doing well and then one day you aren’t it strips you down to your core. You have NO choice but to parade around naked and try to find new clothes to wear. Or, I suppose I could have just stayed naked in the dark afraid to come out because people would see my bits and pieces … No, not me. I had to just deal with it. Figure it out – put your failure out in front of everyone and what are they going to say?? Probably not a whole lot they can say except: WOW, good for you!

I APPROACHED PEOPLE FIRST

When you are starting over and people don’t know what you’re up to it’s scary! So, I emailed people. I offered my services for free, I started a blog and shared the posts on FB, I emailed people who looked like they needed help and told them how I could benefit them. I didn’t sit and wait:

I CHARGED AT THE CROWD

This sorta goes along with ‘not being afraid to look like a failure’ … going up to someone and saying: “can I do this for you?” is a risk! It can be greeted with a weird look and the middle finger … but if you approach 10 people and 2 of them hire you or take you up on your ‘free service’ then you’ve just reached 2 people who may refer you to 2 more people … and who cares about the 8 who told you “no”!

I REACHED OUT TO OTHER BUSINESS OWNERS WHO WERE DOING THE SAME THING AS ME

Now, there is a HUGE difference between reaching out to another business owner in your same field to learn from them (which can be HUGELY annoying – that’s what FB groups are for) and reaching out because you want to PARTNER or GROW with them. When I reach out to another company it’s usually because I want to refer them business. What’s amazing about this is that if it works out and you feel they are a fit for your clients – a new relationship is formed and there’s no telling what that can do! But don’t reach out to people and ask them to give you some tips … srsly, don’t. Sign up for a workshop if you want to learn << that is what they are there for. Apply for an internship and learn << great idea! But don't cold call or cold email someone you admire and ask them to answer your questions ... trust me on that one ;)

IT’S NOT IMPOSSIBLE TO START OVER

It’s not. It’s also NOT easy. I think a lot of people believe that it was an easy transition for me to go from running a wedding blog to designing websites … couldn’t be further from the truth.

MANY DAYS OF CRYING. MANY PANIC ATTACKS. LOTS OF WEIGHT LOST. TOO MUCH FEAR TO MEASURE.

But it was a test. It was a test to see what I was made of … could I rally? Could I survive? Did people like me enough to support my new venture? Was I any good at what I wanted to do?

I hope to never be tested like that again … I think my bag of tricks is empty … only time will tell.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’ll be honest, I have always been a dreamer who walks alone … when I was growing up, I would sit in my room with the door closed and create things with paper, glue, scissors, anything I could find to bring whatever was in my mind to life. I would sit and write for hours in a journal or collect sticks on a walk outside to create something with that I couldn’t stop thinking about. Creating and visualizing has always been a part of me and when I was at an age when I needed to have a job, I learned very quickly that working for another person or having a ‘boss’ wasn’t the life for me. I decided to take my creative skills and passions and start something that could create an income for me. I will say that I have always had very supportive people in my life … and that is definitely something that makes being an entrepreneur easier.

Website: https://theeditorstouch.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/editorstouch

Image Credits
no need