From Myspace to Squarespace with Promise Tangeman of GoLive
Promise Tangeman-Wurzell is the CEO and Creative Director of the Web Design Company, GoLive.
Promise has a passion and drive for helping entrepreneurs quickly launch their website, so they can start living their dream. With over 10 years of design and strategy experience, Promise and her team have created thousands of brands and websites for clients such as, Girlboss, We Wore What, Sadie Robertson, A Beautiful Mess, Create & Cultivate, Jasmine Star, Marianna Hewitt, TLC’s Randy Fenoli, Kendra Scott, WorkParty, Margo & Me, ABC’s The Bachelor contestants Michelle Money and Tenley Molzahn and many others.
Learn the biggest mistakes new business owners make online and how to grow from a solo designer to a full design agency.
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Transcript via Rev.com
Omari:
Yo, what's up. My name is Omari Harebin and you are listening to the unofficial Squarespace Entrepreneur podcast. I'm your host, founder of sqspthemes.com and today we're going to talk with Promise Tangeman CEO and creative director of the design agency go live HQ. We're going to get a little bit into her story, how she got started and grew her design agency into what it is today. And also we're going to talk a little bit about how she got into selling website templates. So without any further ado, I'm going to pass it over to Promise who's going to introduce herself and we'll get started.
Promise:
Perfect. Yeah, I originally started back in 2010. Actually 2007 I graduated from design school and it's funny story, I actually fell in love with customizing Myspace profiles. This really dates me, but yeah, I made a cool background image for my Myspace page and my profile picture mash, I had some music. That was my first eyeopening experience creating my own unique corner of the web that represented my personality. And what I wanted my personal brand to be. And then I had just had a bunch of friends that wanted me to customize their, Myspace profiles as well. And that's where I really fell in love with web design. And then because I had a design background, I really dove into understanding personal brand and building brands for already established companies, helping entrepreneurs launch what they love.
Promise:
And my first business was called Promise Tangeman Creative. So it was my own personal name and then the demand just grew from there. And I fell in love with helping other people launched their websites, people that weren't necessarily designers but that were entrepreneurs and really wanting to launch what they love into the world, because sometimes when your website is live, your business actually feels real because it's your own corner of the web. It's your digital front door in a lot of ways. So that's kind of how I got started. And then as the demand started to grow, I was trying to figure out different ways to scale my business and help more people launch what they loved through their web design. So I started creating website templates. Yeah.
Omari:
So yeah. So catch me up with the website templates. I know you guys work on a couple of different platforms. But how did that start and how has that grown?
Promise:
Yeah, so the website templates just started as wanting to create a resource for people to do on their own at a lower budget costs. Because at the time I was only doing custom designs for people, that cost thousands of dollars and my schedule was full. And back in the day, this was 2010, so as a female in that web design space, there was a lot of creative entrepreneurs that were females that were launching their businesses. And the feedback that I got was, I feel like my schedule is filling up because people and other women were like, you just get my style, you get what I'm going for and what I'm trying to do online. And that's why they wanted to hire me. And so I was like maxed out. My calendar was maxed out with projects and so I was trying to figure out how can I scale and help more people for not as high of a cost.
Promise:
And so that's where I started dabbling in the template concept and I first launched with a web design platform called Show It and did that for years. And really liked the platforms that were easy to use for people, which I've tried to stay away from WordPress just because it's really not easy for my ideal client, which just wants to drag and drop things and customize things with buttons and stay away from code. So yeah, so Squarespace was an interesting challenge just given how the platform is created and put together. And so we were like, how do we work this? How do we do templates on Squarespace?
Omari:
Wow. Interesting. So it sounds like you started off with a really good problem of just being overbooked and needed to somehow scale yourself or scale your design aesthetic and that's what brought you into the template space. Tell me a little bit about your team. How have you been able to grow that over the years?
Promise:
Yeah, that was an interesting dynamic when I first started because, I mean I guess everyone would like to say they have a unique style, but I felt like people were coming to me, at least the feedback I was getting is that I had a style that they were looking for. So at first it was hard for me to have other designers designing for me because people were looking for my unique style aesthetic is how they would put it. So I did somewhere, I started art directing and kind of trying to micromanage. So my designers and I'm like this really isn't working. So that's really where I rebranded into to Go Live. And I fell in love with the concept of just launching quickly because I feel like so many entrepreneurs and small businesses wait for the moons to align and your website could take months and months or even a year to come to fruition just because you want it to be perfect and you feel like you have to have all your ducks in a row.
Promise:
But I knew, as a creative entrepreneur, that I needed my website up ASAP because it was my most strategic marketing tool for my business. So that's where we put together a live workshop for people where we would, people came from all over and we'd have them at different event venues or we even would kind of outfit my house to accommodate this live in person workshop. But we would help small businesses. They'd come from all over and we helped them build and launch their website in two days. So that was a kind of a rush, rush, go, go, go type of event. And we called the workshop, Go Live. And that's where I was like, oh I love this concept of helping people launch their website quickly and get it out into the world so they can get on with their business and really change their life because they're creating freedom and they're taking their side hustle full time for a lot of people.
Promise:
So that rebranding really helped me be able to bring on more designers and I wanted to move away from it being about me and my design aesthetic and being more about the team and what we're creating together as a team. So I feel like the rebrand really helped. And then I kind of just took my hands off of trying to micromanage my designers design aesthetic and I handpicked the designers that I feel have a similar look to what the brand is going for. And then I just trust them completely with their design style and aesthetic and their intuition.
Omari:
Right, yeah. You can let go when it's already in the line with kind of where you're oriented.
Promise:
Yeah.
Omari:
So you've got a little over a decade here of working with entrepreneurs online, specifically getting them started. What are some of the mistakes that you see that pop up over and over again? I mean you mentioned kind of the procrastination thing that happens when we're just kind of, if humming and hawing. What else do you see?
Promise:
Yeah, I see a few things. I also see people trying to do everything and trying to launch a business that, I mean really, this concept that I'm going to explain is counter intuitive. But a lot of people think, oh, the more I offer and the more people I can offer it to, the more business I'm going to get. When in this online space, you actually need to niche down and really focus on one thing and become really good at that one thing. And then you become known for that one thing. And so that would be like my biggest advice for entrepreneurs that are just starting out is, kind of try to stay away from the temptation to be everything to everyone and really try to focus on that one client and that one product or service that you're going to get really good at. Because your name will spread faster in a smaller group of people than it will in a big sea of what everyone else is doing.
Promise:
So I feel like that helps you stand out. And then, yeah, and I was going to say then the other thing was I feel like so often I see people's websites and it might just be because they're really in their head when they're creating their website. But I feel so many times people forget to just plainly state what they do or what they offer. I find myself looking on the website and trying to actually figure out, what does this person actually do, I can't tell. So just having a one sentence statement that helps people identify what it is exactly that you offer and then what makes you different is really important on your website. I would say those two main things. Yeah.
Omari:
Yeah, no, those are great because I mean I've gone through that myself and niching down is one of those things, it's like a commitment thing. You're like, oh my God, if I just choose this one lane, I'm alienating all these other possible potential people who probably wouldn't care anyway. So I'm glad you mentioned that. And then also, you mentioned kind of how we speak through our websites.
Promise:
Yeah.
Omari:
And I find the same thing too. When you're presenting yourself online or when you're presenting yourself kind of as a business and you're coming from maybe let's say the corporate world, you still kind of think that you have to speak like not human or like some type of entity that that isn't actually you. And it makes so much difference when you stumble on a site where it's like, ah, yes, this is for me or maybe it's not for me, but at least I know who it's for and I can kind of send someone there, if it makes sense.
Promise:
Exactly.
Omari:
Cool. So let's wrap it up. So you've talked a little bit about the story behind Go Live HQ, growing your team, some of the mistakes that entrepreneurs make. Any parting words that you can leave for our audience? Specifically people who maybe they're serving clients now and they want to enter into the digital product space and maybe create their own templates. What is some advice that you can give there?
Promise:
Yeah, I would say one big piece of advice that I got early on in my business in terms of scaling, I am all about having a service based business and really servicing your clients well. I think that's a great way to get started, a great way to maintain. One of my mentors had said, when you make your business about serving other people, you will always have plenty of work. And I totally believe that and I've seen that to be true in my own business. But the one piece of advice I have gotten in terms of scaling my business and creating sustainability has been to figure out what my byproducts are of my service based business. So for example, when we were creating custom, when I was creating custom websites for people, I might do two or three iterations of what their website could look like and then I would take some of those scrapped versions and create those into website templates.
Promise:
And so you're really utilizing something that you've already created and making it scalable. So I'm creating a product out of it. So it doesn't have to be web design for the listeners that are better listening to this, but just thinking what is a byproduct that you create on a regular basis, in your business, that you could package up. Maybe it's information, maybe it's knowledge, maybe it's a course of some sort or maybe it's just like scrap things that you use. Say like if you're, this is taking it out of the digital space, but if you cut down trees for a living, what can you do with the saw dust that you create from cutting down the trees, or something similar like that. But I think just thinking through, how can I use what I'm already creating to create sustainability and just some consistency in the business that really helps with freelancing and when you have a service based business to have some of the extra income coming in.
Omari:
Awesome. I love that piece of advice so much because it's something that I don't hear. I don't really hear it too often.
Promise:
Yeah.
Omari:
But it's something that I've learned firsthand as well, is that there's so much value in your processes and the things that you do for yourself within your business that are valuable to people who are even in the same field as work as you, your peers. It's a really good way to turn people who possibly would be your competition into customers and clients too, because you just serving all around.
Promise:
Yeah.
Omari:
I really love that Promise. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for coming on the show. It's been great talking with you.
Promise:
Sweet, yeah. Thanks for having me.
