Circle Live

Circle Live: Elevate Your Design Process with Hayley Fedders

• Squarespace Circle • Season 3 • Episode 7

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Landing bigger projects doesn’t have to mean bigger headaches. Learn how to start charging more for design projects with less stress in this episode of Circle Live featuring Hayley Fedders, web design educator and founder of Studio Seaside (https://www.studioseaside.com/), an agency specializing in health, wellness, and lifestyle brands.

In this episode, we chatted with Hayley about:

-Developing Square Sprints, her design process designed to save time and avoid burnout
-The importance of frontloading your work 
-Determining how much of a design process to reveal to clients 
-Effective ways to integrate client feedback
-Preventing scope creep

You can also watch the video version of this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oAatZ6HyQPI

Register for the next episode of Circle Live featuring Becca Harpain of InsideTheSquare (https://insidethesquare.co/): https://events.ringcentral.com/events/circle-live-032

Listen to last month's episode featuring brand stylist Fiona Humberstone: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2299108/episodes/17411347

Learn more about the Circle dashboard and other Squarespace updates at the News & Announcements board: https://forum.squarespace.com/news-announcements/

Plus, don't forget to register for Circle Day 2025: Design Differently, airing live online on Wednesday, September 17: https://circleday.squarespace.com/

Not based in the Americas, or just want to get in on even more Circle Day excitement? Join us for Circle Day 2025: World Loop, airing live online on Thursday, September 18. This live stream from Squarespace HQ will be replayed at times that are more convenient for international audiences to watch sessions and connect with one another in a real-time chat. Each encore replay will also include live presentations from local Circle members and the Squarespace team: https://events.ringcentral.com/events/circle-day-2025-world-loop/registration
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Thank you for watching!

Squarespace Circle is the partner program for professional designers and agencies. Like and subscribe to the official Squarespace Circle YouTube channel for recordings of past Circle events, including Circle Live, our monthly live interview series, and Circle Day, our annual in-person and online gathering of Circle members and Squarespace product experts. Here, you’ll discover need-to-know insights on how to effectively run a web design business, improve your design skills, expand your creative horizons, and more.

Set your Squarespace Circle channel notification settings to All under the above video to get notified any time a new Circle video becomes available!

Then, join Circle to access exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, and exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators together from across the globe: https://www.squarespace.com/circle 

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If you use a podcast player (like Overcast), use this link to subscribe to Circle Live: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2299108.rss

Already a Circle member? Check out the events calendar to see what’s coming soon! ➡️➡️➡️ https://forum.squarespace.com/events

To learn more about Circle, check out some resources below:

Ultimately, once people reach out, they understand that I am the one that's going to help them versus them coming and saying like, this is what I need, and I need you to do it. They're looking for me and my creative expertise. So it begins before you even do that. The square spread, a lot of upfront work. It starts there. Hello. Entrepreneurs, designers, digital nomads and business gurus. Welcome to Circle Live, our internet talk show just for Squarespace circle members, I am Sam Z, your senior community events manager. And I'm Sarah G, team lead for the Circle Program team. Last month we had Fiona Humberstone, the brand stylist, joining us to talk about using colors and shapes and design principles to create brands that connect on an emotional level. You can watch the replay video anytime on the new Squarespace Circle YouTube channel. Like and if you want, subscribe today! We're joined by Hayley Fetters of Studio Seaside. She's going to be talking to us about the process she uses to level up her design business. Coming up will share our interview with Hayley. We'll also have her joining us live for an audience Q&A. But to start us off strong, let's go into another edition of Release Notes live. Each week, our Release Notes email goes out to circle members containing information about all the product and community updates. You need to run successful Squarespace businesses. And in every episode of Circle Live, we dig deep into one of the items from a recent release. Notes. Today's product, Deep Dive is an exciting update that's been a long time coming. This rollout has been so exciting to be a part of, and we are absolutely thrilled to bring it to you. We'll let our colleague Emily Tenenbaum explain more. Hi. Circle. My name is Emily Tenenbaum, pro user product engagement lead, and I'm here today to walk you through the new circle dashboard. We've heard your feedback between things like project points and new releases. It can be tough to stay on top of all things circle. That's why we created the new Circle Dashboard, which you can access alongside projects and domains by clicking circle in the new extended Navigation from the top of your circle dashboard, you can see your current status as well as the benefits that come with it. If you're a silver partner, you'll also see some of the benefits you can get by earning gold status, and same thing for platinum status. If you're a gold partner here, you can also check the number of points you have, as well as how many more you'll need to earn your next status. Plus, you can sign up for referral payments to earn commissions for new projects. Scrolling down, you'll find the latest on all things Squarespace, including new platform features, community updates, and circle exclusive betas. There's also a section containing handy resources tailor to creative professionals such as blog posts and upcoming circle events. You can register for. Finally, at the bottom, you'll see a breakdown of all the benefits of Circle Membership by status. With this new dashboard. Your circle benefits are more integrated with your work on Squarespace than ever before. Over time, we'll continue to iterate on this space. Just check in regularly to see the latest news and updates, and we hope you love it as much as we do. For more product updates, circle members can check out the news and announcements on the forum at the link Taylor is sharing in the chat or in the show notes of course, many of these updates will appear in your circle dashboard, and make sure to watch your email for more release notes. Now, Sarah, I'll hand it over to you for. A segment we call Circle Member Moments. We love hearing about your business wins, and every month we ask circle of yours what their proudest moment was from the last month. Here are some of their favorite responses. Asia are expanding their business to Puerto Rico. Vamos Milan de Virginia B was invited to join circle and has already connected with some other businesses to help each other with learning and tweaking. Welcome to circle Virginia. Marianne El helped a neighbor with their first website. Good websites make good neighbors, she Jeet em helped a local wellness coach launch her first ever website. She booked her first three clients within the first week of launching. She. Bridgett says moments like these remind me why I am doing what I do. It makes us love what we do to Collin and was able to build and launch a website in a matter of hours rather than months, Colin says. Without needing a developer, we were able to save over $20,000 and get exactly what we needed. Now, if you can't always get what you want, Mary Vee is working on a tutorial showing people how to use Squarespace. Mary says it's not done yet. Might be done by the 30th, though. Mary, we love that you are celebrating the process. Mirror M land in an ongoing digital marketing program for a new luxury real estate company. Mara. I hope that comes with access to a pool. I just love the way that this one is written. Toni F says, quote, did my first two hour support session. She didn't have much of a budget, but after talking with her a little bit, I found out she had already created a Squarespace Squarespace site, but was stumped and did want to do did not want to do it. Enter me. What an entrance! Toni. Natalie also has a really fun one. She says I found my first non friend client. This is only my second paying client and so it feels like proof that I'm doing a good job and chose the right thing to quit my corporate job. Careful, Natalie. Sometimes non-French clients can become friend clients. One more. Just because I really love it. Her sway says they built a website. Also, I purchased a new drone, and I love it. We should all be celebrating the recent purchases we're proud of, I think. Sarah, just for fun, what's a recent purchase that you're just so proud of? You need to tell the world. Recurring circle Live. Yours will know that my New Year's resolution this year was to host a party every month. I'm here to report back that that has become a very expensive hobby of mine. And, every month I find myself spending low hundreds of dollars, to execute. These themes that I have concocted most recently was a Princess Diaries two themed, sleepover party, which obviously needed sashes. I'm going to decorate the sashes, glasses, tiaras, streamers. There was a lot of party decor needed. Not a want need. But every dollar was worth it. Sam, what about you? So I have a lot of insomnia. The other night, when I couldn't sleep, I saw that Jurassic Park evolution was $11 in the Tendo store, so I just went for it, and, I proceeded to lose three nights of sleep since then. Got to take care of those dinos. That's fatherhood. It's certainly. It certainly is. Fatherhood finds a way. Normally we go into an ad break right now, but I want to actually spend this time talking about Circle Day. The annual conference for professional Squarespace sign. Designers, Circle Day is coming up on September 17th in New York City and live streaming around the world through September 18th. If you haven't gotten your ticket yet to join us online, now is your chance. It's online. It's free. It's business, education. You have no excuse. So, I think Taylor is going to share the link in the chat. We just announced programing, which is great. There's so much happening. So, Sarah, since we've both been involved intimately with the programing of Circle Day, I just want to take a minute to talk about what we're most excited to see. You wanna go first? Yeah. Some feedback that we got last year. Is that as much as folks, like, learning from one another, they also want more opportunities to talk. And so, to fellow circle members. So this year, in person, we're, hosting Breakout conversations, roundtable style chats, where we have nine circle members hosting, kind of these, like, intimate conversations about a topic that they are passionate and knowledgeable about. And folks will be able to, yeah, gather in conversation about it and learn from one another. And, we're hosting them twice during the day. So, we have, yeah, so many good topics. We knew only one would feel limiting. So super excited to be offering that multiple times for our in-person attendees. What about you, Sam? I'll mention online attendees will also be getting unique and designed content for online, so you'll feel like you're part of the experience as well. One thing that's special about circle Day is that it's really a day for all of circle. We know that there are many, many circle members around the world who don't want to tune into a conference at 11 p.m.

or 4:

00 m, their time as dedicated to Squarespace as they may be. That's why last year we introduced World Loop, a double bill for, extra programing time specifically for circle members who live in different time zones. Not only does World Loop feature encores of the same content you'll get to see in the live stream, but there's also new location specific sessions presented by Squarespace designers in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific region. One of my favorite parts of Circle Day is seeing everyone connect in real time. In the chat world, loop gives more chances to chat and meet one another around the world. There will even be one session in French, as I mentioned before, and one in German. On the world loop stage, you'll see familiar names like Rachel Luna, Florence Nicole and Marina Dahlberg, Sarah Stark, Henry Purchas just to name a few. We want everyone around the world to experience Circle Day together, so if you live outside the US, we hope you'll join us this year for Circle Day World Loop. There's actually going to be one presentation given in French. It's in English it's called design with buddies. French. I guess that's design avec buddies, I don't know, but, but, it's going to be given by Florence Pickle and Marina Dahlberg. They are both buddies. They are both going to be speaking in French. I just love that we're able to offer some some cool stuff in different languages, on Circle Day and then different time zones as well. So that's all very, very cool. It's gonna be awesome. It's going to be such a great time. Sign up now. Get involved. Ask anybody about it. It's the greatest time. If you've never, never been, attending online is super, super fun and attending in person. You already know. So let's get to our main interview. Today on Circle Live, we are thrilled to welcome Haley Fetters. Haley is a fantastic web design educator and the brilliant mind design, the brilliant mind behind Studio Seaside, an agency that truly shines with health, wellness and lifestyle brands. And speaking of Circle Day, Haley spoke at Circle Day last year. We loved it. I don't I don't know, there's anything else to say. We just loved it. I love hearing her speak. She's got so much knowledge. This month, we sat down with Haley so she could share her insights on how you can elevate your design process with her tried and true Squarespace process. Here is our interview with Haley Fetters. So I want to start with some numbers. I've heard somewhere that Squarespace sites start around $3,000, but you told us that you can charge much more than that. And a lot of the reason why is because of the processes that you've set up to make things easy and fast and professional for your clients. Can you tell us what is the square sprint and how does that offering deliver on its value? Yeah, so essentially a square sprint is, completed Squarespace website, in one week. So starting on Monday, finishing on Friday, and a more simplified Squarespace site. So nothing e-com or setting up scheduling more of like a portfolio or services based site. And, I'm able to do that so quickly because I've refined my process, so well, and I have really great communication and onboarding with my clients. And I think that there's a lot of value and that clients really want, quick turnaround. You know, the world moves fast these days. People want it yesterday. And by being able to deliver quality work quickly, people are willing to pay for that. And, just with my experience and, and pricing that starts around 5000. I know from your earlier conversation that you like to be a control. Me too. But we also know that a lot of times with, designers, it can feel like the customer is the one in control. How do. You. Kind of, like, stay in control of this process with such a tight turnaround time? Yeah. So that starts way before we're even diving into the process. A lot of it comes from my own personal branding and the content that I put out and the way that I attract clients. So they see me as a creative expert rather than just a designer for hire. And so that's translated on my website and my social media. The discovery call that I'm having with the clients where I'm guiding them through my process, ultimately, once people reach out, they understand that I am the one that's going to help them versus them coming and saying like, this is what I need, and I need you to do it. They're they're looking for me and my creative expertise. So it begins before you even do that, the square sprint. A lot of upfront work. It starts there. I think increasingly more. We're seeing circle members offer a website, end a day website in a week. How did you know that this was something that would be a good fit for you and your business? Yeah, I just started getting really burnt out on long, drawn out projects. You know, a custom super custom site, which I still do like. I'll do bigger websites that need more time. They need more customization or, features that cannot be done in a week. And I still do that. But, I found that for these smaller projects, like even these portfolio sites, I would leave for weeks. Right. That was kind of like the standard. And then all of a sudden it would bleed into six weeks, eight weeks. And I'm just like waiting to get paid, waiting for content. Once I realized I needed to be more clear and communicate with clients, that I needed content, in a timely manner in order to move forward with the project. I was able to tighten up that timeline, and then refine my process even further. Community communication is so key, so continuing to communicate with clients expectations and boundaries. And then once I really refined that for me process, I was like, you know what? I can make this even faster. And I was able to get it down to a week. And the way that I think about it also is that the clients are happier because they're getting it sooner. But it's also more profitable for me because if I'm charging $5,000 for a four week project, but I can actually do it in one week. I get my time back, I get, the opportunity to take on even more clients. So it's ultimately more profitable for me. And clients love it because they're like, oh, wow, I have a whole website in a week and I'm ready to go. I'm curious, with only having five days and, yeah, I would love to get into kind of the breakdown of each of them. But how do you prevent scope creep? I imagine, you know, in some of those discovery calls, you're understanding what the client's looking for and whether it's, like, actually doable in five days that what does that what does that process look like? Communication is just so key with clients. You have to be really upfront. And so prior to them deciding like after that initial discovery call where we're seeing offer a good fit for each other, I send a project proposal that outlines the scope. And so that's very specific. And then the contract that they sign also outlines that scope also. And then there's a line in the, contract that sounds like if you want anything outside of this scope, then we can negotiate it, whether it's hourly or for an additional fee. And then making sure that I stick to that. Right. Because I tend to be, I want to make people happy. I want my clients to be happy. Right. So, like, depending on the client, I might, be like, oh, sure, a lot that extra page on or, you know, or but then it like snowballs. So making sure to be really clear and upfront and sticking to your boundaries and then, outlining you know, everything in writing. Cool. Yeah. I'd love to get into the breakdown of the five days and, and kind of how you landed on structuring it this way. So there is the pre-work, like the onboarding that we talked about, contract invoice questionnaire that's before day one. Then they're given a link to schedule their meeting. Day one, we have a kickoff call where we're talking about the creative direction for the site. The goal for the site, obviously, we still want the site to be designed strategically so that we are, having it achieve the goal that they want. So whether it's their portfolio, whether it's a sales page, or, mom and pop restaurant, whatever it is, we want to make sure that we're targeting that website to the correct audience. And then talking about any like, features that they have or any examples of sites that they like, the overall kind of tone and vision for the site. After that call, I put together a creative direction and site map. So the site map is basically just kind of like outlines each page and where that page will flow to, as well as the goal for each site. So or each page. So you know, do we have a call to action on this on this page like where is what's the point of this page on the website. So a site map and then a creative direction, which if they have brand guidelines, I'll pull in those brand guidelines, any sort of imagery. At that point I'll kind of hop in Squarespace and start to like build out sections that I think might work on that site, and then I'll screenshot and put it on that creative direction. And then that way and then I send that to them on day one. So that's Monday. That evening, they are they need to go through that creative direction and leave me any feedback. The point of that creative direction is just make sure that we're on the same page. So in my branding process, I use the one contact method. And I also use it with my web design process where essentially I'm only delivering one concept. I'm not giving them three ideas and letting them choose from it. And the reason that that is successful is because we do that creative direction before so that they can approve the colors and the typography and, all of those site features before we actually jump into doing the design. So that's day one. They've given me feedback beginning of day two, if I, need to make any changes to that creative direction, I'll go ahead and make it. And then I build out the home page. And depending on how detailed that homepage is, I sometimes will have time for like a second page on day two also. And then I get that over to them to review, get their feedback, make any changes if needed. And then day three and four I'm hopping into Squarespace and building out the whole site. So, you know, starting I always start with a blank template. So adding colors, typography, site styles, I like to do like the footer and the header before I begin anything that's like how I get myself set, and then I'll build out the, the main nav, and just kind of like work my way through there. So that's three and four, typically around like midday day four, I'll be able to send them a link to a site to review, they'll review it, send me any changes. And then day five, we're making any final changes, any backend needs. So, you know, just like configuring our SEO settings. Any, like, those little tweaks that you need to do on the backend that the client probably isn't even aware of that is happening, but is really important for a successful site. And then we'll hop on a final, call and we'll, we'll transfer their domain or connect it if needed. And then the site is launched and that's the end. I. I, I just, I love that we got to join you on this journey and it only took five minutes. So cool to hear about your process and have you break it down like that. I'm curious if you've taken advantage at all of being able to save, save sections and now use them across sites, to help speed up some of that, like initial design work on days like 2 or 3. Yes, absolutely. So that is one of my favorite features, even being able to save it through the same site or other site. I haven't used it a ton through other sites, but I think like what I might do since I have like next time I have downtime is yeah, like build out a bunch of footers and save that like across other sites, or build out a bunch of, just like, you know, different sections that can translate well to other sites. And then once you can, once you update it with colors and everything, then it looks unique. But yeah, I definitely use that a lot within the, it's a single site, but then across multiple sites, it's going to be a game changer for sure. Oh. What do you think is the biggest pitfall that you'd want to avoid? And something that typically doesn't go well and how to handle it during the sprint process. So I would say if you if you're not comfortable in Squarespace or if you're fairly new to it, and to working with clients and being able to set boundaries and communicate with clients that it's probably not going to go as smoothly. And then if you are not clear and upfront about the scope and the process to start, then there are going to be things that are added on or the client is not going to get you feedback in a timely manner. And it's going to drag on or bleed into the next week. So experience and then process needs to be nailed down. Otherwise you're not going to have success. By nailed down you mean not just for yourself but for the client. Yes. Yeah. Well, your own process, you know, knowing that your what your web design process is like this, this is what works for me, right? Like and I'm not I always say this to like my core students and my coaching clients. Like, just because this works for me. I'm not saying that you have to do it this way. I want you to test and change as needed. But knowing what your own process is so that you can guide the client through, and then communication with the client being super upfront, about expectations, boundaries, all that stuff. Are there things that you're strategically not communicating to your clients? Yeah, I would say like a lot of the back end stuff that they don't even know is happening. So like setting up the, you know, description of each page, social image thumbnail, favicon, just like all those little things that, yeah, I don't need to ask them for. I know that they need it, and I know that they have no idea what that is. I'm just going to do it because ultimately, like, I'm not giving them a website, right? Like I'm giving them a tool for their business. I'm giving them, I'm helping them achieve their goal, like whatever that is, whether it's attracting more clients, whether it's getting people in the door, whether it's selling, you know, portfolio item, that's what they want. They don't want the website, like the website is a means to that goal. And so that's what I try to focus on too, when, when building the site and when talking to them initially in that discovery calls like, what's the ultimate goal here? What do you actually want to achieve? You don't actually just need a website. You need like something to help you achieve this goal. What is that? And that's kind of the root of, the whole project. Right? So they don't need to know all the nitty gritty stuff. I already know that I'll do it for them. That's why they're coming to me. Because I'm the creative expert. That's why they are paying what they are instead of just like hiring somebody off Craigslist. You know? Wow. I've never heard of somebody hiring a website designer off of Craigslist. I'm sure it happens first, I guess I a long time ago I heard about it, but I thought that no longer happening. If designers wanted to start their own sprint process, what are some of the foundational skills in Squarespace, or even soft skills that you think they would need? Before setting up that first client call? I would say, definitely have like a handful of sites under your belt, so that you know how it all works, right? And each section's, quickly being able to, connect or transfer domains like understanding, like there are some hiccups that can, happen, especially if there's a third party registrar. Squarespace makes it easy now because the domains are in-house and, you know, all you it's like so easy to connect. But if there is a third party registrar and if they're males over there, that can be a little bit tricky. So, you know, understanding that is helpful. And then like, we're designers, right. So understanding composition and and colors and typography and being able to convey that brand story is really important also in that. Discovery call, what are the signs that a client is going to be more appropriate for a premium experience as opposed to the the one week design? Yeah. So a couple things. Initially it can be scope based too. So if they need any sort of e-com scheduling set up, any sort of third party integrations, any extensive just build out. So like if they have a huge blog that they want to add or if they're migrating content over from another platform, if they have courses that they're wanting, set up content uploaded scope alone, that's not what we're going to do for a right. Like that's going to be a longer process. And then and then it would come to like design or features. So if they, you know, want any super customized sections or they're showing me an example of a site that maybe it's not on Squarespace, but they're like, I want to make this happen, and I have to, custom code or use third party plugins to like, make that happen for them. That would be, something beyond a spring scope. I'm curious. You seem to have such a lock on the square sprints model. What are your other revenue streams today? And and what's exciting you that maybe you'd want to explore in the future? Yeah. So I have a few different, revenue streams in my ecosystem. I have my studio, CCI, which is client based only. So that's branding and web design. And then on my personal brand side for Kelly Fetters, I do, one on one coaching with designers. And then I have two kind of signature courses where I have for sprints, and then brand process copy, where I'm teaching them my branding process. Which is also very methodical. If you couldn't get that. And then I think moving forward, I'd love to do more like in person. Speaking engagements or conferences. I'm super excited to come Circle Day this year. Can I say that? You sure can. We're excited to have you. You can be excited about Circle Day. Stop anywhere from being excited. I'm like pretty stoked right now with where I'm at. So I think that's okay to not have like, huge ambitions beyond like what's already happening. Because I feel like I've made what I've always wanted to happen, happen. And now I have more time back to where I'm on, like a couple nonprofit boards here in town. My kids are, growing, and I get to be like at their sports games and all that stuff, and, and I am at a point where I'm like, I'm good, right? And I'm sure down the road I'll have higher aspirations. But at this point I'm like, hey, I made it. I made it to where I wanted to be, and I'm here and it's okay to just like sit in that for a little bit. I just want to ask the question that I think that a beginning designer might ask you. What got you on the right path to getting to the place where you are today? I've been doing this for like over ten years. And I struggled a lot in the beginning. I started my business when my kids were little, and a lot of late night working or working during nap time. And that was really hard. And that felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. And, you know, you're constantly comparing yourself to people that seem like they've made it overnight. And then also realizing that I struggled a lot with how much to charge and talking about pricing and, feeling confident in my pricing. And so working with a coach to help me figure out, like, what I should be charging, how to have those conversations with clients, and then really working on my personal brand. So figuring out my personal brand, being like city was a seaside at that point. Figuring out, like, the clients who I wanted to work with and attract and really narrow that in. And once those like the pricing and the branding aligned, my, the way that I talked about my own business felt more clear and I was able to market myself easier. And so my voice became more clear, online and my marketing that I was sending and then clients started to come in. So I would say, like the breaking point was feeling like I'm working nonstop and like I have no money. And then like, I don't have enough time to be with my kids, right? Because I'm, like, working all the time. And I'm at that point I knew something had to change. And something I always tell, like, new designers is like, it's okay to go slow. Especially people who are parents. You feel like there's just never enough time, to be able to get your goals achieved. But if you just do a little bit every day, like, eventually you'll get there and it's okay to have that road be longer. Because you will get there. I had so many people asking me, like, how do you do this? Like, how do people, agree to this? Like, what? Do you have templates for this? And I was like, well, I can't answer all these questions individually. I might as well just like, put it in, of course. And, so that I can teach it to other people. So that kind of happened organically, but I found that I really enjoy it. I love connecting with other designers and, especially in the online world, like, you can feel so isolating. And I think it's so important to have a community, of people who are going through the same thing that you are and, and learning from each other. I'll never gatekeeping formation. Like, I just think that it's so important for us to teach each other. And so, yeah, of course, was the number, the goal. But that's kind of where I ended up. And I'm, I'm grateful for the community that it's that it's brought me. Haley, thank you for talking to us and being so efficient with your answers. I'm glad it didn't take a week because we don't have time for that. You don't have the time for that. But if I do need a website in a week, I know where to go. I'm here and thank you so much for having me. It's a lot of fun and I'm excited to see you guys in person. Oh, so excited to see you in person next. I just trust everything she says. 100%. She's obviously an expert, Expert, expert expert. And, we have to join the conversation. A special guest with us here live. Hi, Haley. Hi, guys. All right. Yeah. So great, so great. And so inspired by your interview just now. As you can see, there's many others in the chat who are also inspired. Viewers, keep those questions coming for Haley. Sarah, let's get right into them. What are some of the questions that we're seeing in the chat? Yeah, we have a ton of questions for you, Haley. So, some of them we may have, you know, touched on a little bit so we can hopefully get to as many as possible. So first question from Lynn. Who is curious what specifically you ask of clients, during pre before kind of onboarding them to the process. Yeah. So I always make sure to have a discovery call. So before they've even signed on, it's just kind of like a gut check for both of us to make sure we're a good fit. And a sprint or custom project is a good fit for them. And if they decide to move forward from there, then I'm sending them like a whole full on questionnaire about, their brand, about their ideal clients. It's like it's almost too much to even list here. I'm sending them a lot of questions because again, like, communication is key. And I need to get all that information, from them, before we start any of the design process. So like, for example, it's like I said, branding stuff, but then it's also the more technical stuff, like what, is your login for your site or like where is your domain hosted? All that kind of stuff too. And then again, we're going to go over all that in a call. So they answer the questionnaire and then we go over it together in a one on one call in that first day. So I hope it's like not as specific as maybe she wanted, but it's a lot of questions. No, that was great. I think it's helpful to understand, like some of them are about the brand and what they're like, what you're creating and what they've already done. And then some of it's like very tactical. And I think that's super helpful. Yeah. All right. Question from Riley, who says do you start with a particular template? Are there a few that you like? I think you mentioned using the blank template. Yeah, I always start with a blank template. That's just my preference. Because I have been doing it so long and I know Squarespace well enough. Like, I know like what I can do. I know what the limitations are, especially if I'm not doing anything super custom. So I prefer to just start with a blank template. I think there are like some really great base templates to use. Also, if maybe even if a client says, I really like this site, can we like customize this template for, mine? So yeah, always a blank for me, but I don't think that that's like a right or wrong answer or anything. It's just a preference for the designer. Cool. All right. Christine says when you agree to work with a client, do you schedule their week? I guess kind of like, what's the process? Like? Okay, you have the discovery goal. You agree that you're a good fit. How do you get them on the calendar? Yeah. So I use, like a calendar scheduling to block out my own availability. So I'll kind of look into the future. Like, all right. This week would be a good week for sprint week. And I'm not doing like four in a month. Typically I'll do like 202A month like max because I want those three weeks. So I'll just make sure I block out my calendar and then I'll send them that link and they can choose a start date that, is good for them. And I'm also kind of flexible to like, and I work with clients all over the world. So, you know, my Monday might be someone else's Tuesday. So I'm flexible in that way as well. Okay. It's like a no. I question from Karla, what systems do you use Hayley communication for feedback, project management, etc.. Yeah, I've tried a few over the years like Asana or Notion, and I think those work really well for big projects that have a lot of moving parts. But I have found for the sprint weeks and clients who are like smaller businesses with not a lot of decision making decision makers, like just good old email kind of works best for me and my client. They're comfortable with that. They don't have to learn like a whole new system just for this short, week long process. So we just kind of email back and forth. I will do zoom meetings a lot. I will record loom videos often if I'm trying to explain something that needs, a visual, explanation, I'll use that and then, for onboarding and like client relationship management, I use, a CRM for that to, like, send the contract an invoice. The questionnaire, all that stuff. Great. Question from Sarah, but not me. Do you collect all assets upfront images, copywriting, logo, etc. before starting any design? Yes, 100% like that. That's part of the communication that I'm telling them upfront is like this all needs to be ready before we start on day one. So that's in the inside of the questionnaire too, is like they're sending me all of those assets, content and stuff like that. Sometimes if they don't have content ready, I'll use AI to like write the content as a placeholder for them. But I'm letting them know, like, hey, this isn't ready. You can go in and edit it, as needed afterwards. But yeah, all that stuff has to be delivered before. I love it. That probably streamlines it a lot. Interesting question from Denise, who says, do you allow a buffer week between projects to manage any potential overflow beyond the five day build? Yes. Yeah, I wouldn't I if I could avoid it, I wouldn't do back to back sprint weeks just because it's it is kind of draining for me. Also like I want to be able to have that that time. And that's kind of one of the reasons I like to do sprints is because I can just do two of them in a month and get more of my free time back. So yeah, buffer weeks for sure. And then I have other client projects going on sometimes too, right. So I'll need that week to be able to check in with my other clients. And all that stuff. Yeah. Just to kind of double click into niece's, question how often is a five day sprint actually overflowing beyond five days? Not very often. Like, it kind of depends sometimes if they are, delayed with like the last little bit of feedback or occasionally if, there's technical stuff with like the domain or transferring, sometimes people will have a domain hosted elsewhere, and I always recommend transferring it into Squarespace. It's just so everything's under one house. So sometimes there's kind of little delays with that. But part of the agreement for Squarespace, for square sprints is that I'm moving forward. Whether you get back to me or not. I'm launching the site on Friday. So for the most part, like it's launched on Friday. And if they want to go in and make edits afterwards, they can. Or sometimes it does bleed over. If, they're not available on that Friday for me to do a tutorial kind of like hand off walk through. Yeah. Related question from Manny who says, Haley, do you ever have clients who request to have edit access to the site as you're actively designing? If so, how do you manage changes that they may make to your design? I typically don't hand over access until after sometimes if they have already started the website and we're building in their account, then they will have access. I if they were to do that, I would just kind of ask them to not hop in and kind of like undo anything that we've done until after. But it will depend on the client. Like people, anybody who works with clients knows that sometimes people like to, jump in and do it themselves, even though they're paying you to. So it kind of a case by case basis. But I try not to have them in there until after I hand it over. Yeah. And something that we hear on our side sometimes is, folks handing over a site before they've been paid. And our recommendation is to not do that, so that you don't need to fight with over, ownership of the site with your client, ensure that they've, paid their final invoice, and then you can hand over the reins. You can always give them billing, access if you need them to literally pay for the site. But, we recommend not handing it over until they've paid for it. Yes, I agree, All right. Hannah says, how do you manage who to outsource help to? It's hard to let go of control and trust other people. Yeah, I, I found that when I was first, looking for outside help. And I think if you haven't guessed already, I'm such a process nerd. I think that if you have all of your processes, in place and streamlined, that it makes it really easy for you to hand that off to someone else. So whether it's, you know, creating, a page in Squarespace or on the branding side, if you're having someone do the brand guidelines, just like knowing what that process is. So it's really easy to hand off to them. And then, once you do find someone that you that you enjoy working with, like doing your best to kind of keep them happy and make sure that they're wanting to continue to work with them. So you're not having to train someone new every time. I love that, that's fine. We have a question from Virginia. We have a lot of questions to get this. I'm just going to answer this one because kind of the answer to this really quickly for Virginia is, is do we have a test area where we can test design ideas how they look and be able to optionally adopt the block? I guess I can say what we recommend and then maybe Haley, if you have a different way that you do it. But, typically folks will, kind of like orient the site and get it set up first with like look, feel, colors, fonts before they start building is typically what we see. So, I know some folks will make a page on a website which has like all of the headings, all of the paragraph, text buttons, that kind of thing. And then they'll, you know, adjust the colors in the site styles panel and see how they reflect before they go start designing. Haley, is that how you do it or do you do it somehow? Before I answer that question, that would be a really good idea to use to build a page like that and save it across sites so that when you're, you are first starting a site, you can just go to that page and then adapt it all from there, because I don't do that and that actually, I think I might start doing that. That would make it really easy. And yeah, kind of what I do is, I always start with that blank template. So I'll just go in and adjust from there. But I think I'm going to start doing that. Yeah. Okay. I'm really glad that I can help today. I think we have time for two more questions. My gosh, we have like 50 more questions. It's okay, because if you don't get your questions answered, we're going to have a little online after party. We'll send out the link for that. But you can join the after party. You can ask your question as well. Yeah. And if I didn't get to anyone's question, like, you can hunt down my email and shoot me an email or DM me on Instagram. I'm here to answer that. Yeah. I like liked this comes from Amani, which says, how do you handle clients who agree to the direction for the brand and the website? And then after you design it, they they don't end up liking it. Yeah. So, this comes down to again, clear communication. So with that creative direction, you want to be really intentional about that creative direction. So you're including colors, tone, stock images, site features that you might be putting in the, in the site and having them review that before, design begins. And then that way, if it does come to the point where you create a design that they're not necessarily happy with, you can go back to that creative direction and kind of say, well, you know, like we we made this choice because you liked these colors and you liked this typography. And if someone's not familiar with the one concept method, that's essentially what it is. You can look up the one concept method, and it's really all about front loading the, the strategy and design ideas so that when it comes to presenting that concept, oftentimes, like there are no surprises and they're happy with it. That being said, changes or design ideas, maybe not, don't always translate. And sometimes people want to see changes. And if it's within, the scope which I offer three rounds of revisions, I'm happy to make that. And with, sprints weeks, I've again like told them with community like communication in the front end, like you won't have a ton of time for changes and, and switching things up so they are aware of that, like when they're giving me their feedback. Awesome. All right. And last question that I think we have time for right now, Mark said, how much time do you spend training your client on the back end? What areas do you cover and how do you fit that into the process? Yeah, so, we do on that final day, I'll do just like a final, tutorial call and usually like book out about 30 minutes because it is a more simple site, like there's not a lot to go over. There's not a lot of custom features. I'm walking them through, the pages and settings, billing settings. If there's, you know, like a lot of images on their site or galleries, I'll teach them how to upload images. And then I always point them to the help section on Squarespace, because honestly, it's more, in-depth than I could ever give them. And then I let them know, like, that's there if you need help. And then, of course, I'm always here if you have questions. I really try to be, available to my clients, obviously within reason. Because I want them to come back. I want them to refer me and, and and I do get invested in them in their business. And I want them to be happy and succeed. So, depends on the client. I usually book about 30 minutes. Sometimes it's less, sometimes it's more. Love it. Haley, thank you for making yourself available to us. Yeah. Thank you for having me. This has been wonderful talking to you. You're such a pro. I, I want to I mean, just listening to you answer all those questions. You, you lined up and you knocked him down. It's so it's so impressive. Such a such an impressive, impressive designer. We're going to have to have you back on the show sometime. I would love that. Right. Well, looking forward to seeing you at Circle Day. That's all for today's show. Thanks for joining us live. We will be back with Circle Live next month, where we will be joined by another Squarespace pro, Becca Payne of Inside the Square, to talk about optimizing your websites for AI overview search results. I've been searching for something just like that. You sure have. You sure have. Until next Circle Live. I'm Sam. And I'm Sarah G. Reminding you nothing travels better in mobile design. Bye everybody.