Coach Website Case Study: How Heather Blair Launched Her Practice in Five Weeks

Heather Blair spent 25 years in senior HR leadership, 14 of them at Four Seasons, before leaving to start a coaching and HR consulting practice. We built her five-page Squarespace website in five weeks. Within a month of launching it, she confirmed a $20,000 consulting project. Here is how it came together, and what any coach can take from it.

Who Heather Is

Heather led HR teams in luxury hospitality for more than two decades, most recently at the St. Regis in Toronto. People had told her for years that she should do this on her own. When she finally left, she knew what she loved about the work: the moments when a colleague would pop their head in and say, "Do you have five minutes?" and the five minutes would turn into an hour of helping them think through a hard decision.

That became her coaching practice. Heather Blair & Co. offers one-to-one coaching, and it also offers HR consulting for organizations. She needed a website that could carry both.

Where She Started

Heather found me through the website of Alli Rizacos, a business coach whose site I built. She told me she needed a website. She had patched something together herself with AI, but she did not know where to start.

When we spoke, her messaging was a collection of bits and pieces. The AI draft covered the basics, but it did not sound like her. She also had no photos. We talked about that on our first call, and she booked a photographer in Toronto before we started building. That one step saved weeks, because a coaching site depends on the person's face and presence.

The Challenge: A Resume, Not a Story

Heather's About page read like a resume. It focused on her career, her titles, and the brands she had worked for. That is the most common mistake I see with coaches, and it is an understandable one. After 25 years, you want people to see the work.

But a coaching client is not hiring a resume. They are choosing a person. So we spent more time on the About page than on any other, and it was the last piece to come together. We moved her story to the front: why she left a steady career, what she has lived through, and why she coaches. Her credentials moved into the background, where they support the story instead of replacing it.

Heather also wanted a site that felt modern and polished without being overloaded. Many coaches she had looked at felt generic or cheesy, and she wanted the opposite.

What We Built

The site has five pages: Home, About, Coaching, HR Consulting, and Contact. We built it over five weeks. The decisions that mattered most:

  • Two services, two pages. Heather offers coaching and HR consulting, and these speak to different visitors. Instead of one Work With Me page, we gave each service its own page, so each one stays clear instead of competing for attention.

  • One signature offer. After working through it together, we built her coaching around a single three-month plan. It gives a potential client a guided path and avoids the confusion of a long menu of packages.

  • No pricing on the site. The goal is a discovery call. On that call, Heather walks through her process and shares the investment options once the client understands the value.

  • Testimonials on every page. Heather had one current client, a mentee, and several former colleagues who were willing to speak for her. We placed a testimonial on each page instead of putting them on a page of their own.

  • A clear next step. The booking steps are simple. A visitor can book a time directly through her calendar.

The Launch

Heather announced her new business on LinkedIn, and we worked on that post together so she could introduce herself clearly and in her own voice. It reached more than 5,000 impressions, with 140 reactions and 90 comments, mostly from people she had worked with over the years. Her photographer shared the photos the day she launched, and others in her network began passing along her link.

The Results

Less than a month after launch, Heather confirmed a consulting project worth $20,000. When she first saw the finished site, she told me, "It looks amazing, like super cool." A friend with a marketing background who looked at it was, in her words, "completely blown away." That was the first impression she wanted. Today she runs both coaching and HR consulting.

Heather's own words:

“Shawn is amazing to work with. Not only did he help me to craft and design my incredible website, he shared insights and experience from a marketing perspective that really enhanced not only the end product, but the entire experience working with him. He listens closely, gets it quickly and is intuitive, creative, kind and patient. I would highly recommend working with Shawn on your website design and implementation and the best part, you’ll gain a great cheerleader who is detailed and spot on!”

Heather Blair, Founder, Heather Blair & Co.

What Other Coaches Can Take From This

  1. Tell your story before your credentials. People hire people they relate to. Your experience matters, but it is not what makes someone reach out.

  2. Give each service its own page. If you offer two things, do not make visitors figure out which one is for them.

  3. Build around one signature offer. A guided, defined way of working is easier to say yes to than a menu.

  4. Spread your testimonials. One on every page does more work than a page of them nobody visits.

  5. Get your photos first. They shape the design, so book the photographer before we build.

The goal of the site is simple. A potential client should feel that if they decide to work with you, the process is guided, and that you bring real experience and expertise to their situation. For the full list of pages and principles, see The Essential Website Pages Every Coach Needs.

Related Reading

The Essential Website Pages Every Coach Needs  |  When to Hire a Web Designer  |  How a Freelance Web Designer Works

 

About Me

I'm Shawn, a Brand Strategist and Squarespace Web Designer based in New York, with over 20 years of experience in marketing, sales, and design. I help coaches build websites that tell their story and give the right clients a reason to reach out. If you are ready for a site that sounds like you, let's get on a call.

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