Divi with Kate

15/07/2026

03/07/2026

At least once a week I make a coffee, forget to move the milk steamer spout into the mug, and end up with oat milk absolutely everywhere.

The thing is, I know exactly why it happens – I love this machine and have used it loads of times – yet somehow I still manage to do it on a regular basis. But I don't think it's entirely my fault.

I don't really understand why the machine lets me do it. Surely somebody could have designed it so the milk frother won't start unless the spout is in the right place? It removes the option for a latte if the milk container is removed altogether, after all.

I realise this probably says quite a lot about how my brain works (uh-oh, here comes the 'LinkedIn business lesson' bit...). When I'm working to improve a client's website, I want to know what processes are causing friction, or resulting in the same mistakes, over and over again. I don't blame the person, I look at the system and figure out a better way.

If somebody is likely to make the same mistake over and over again, especially when they're tired, distracted, rushing around (or trying to make coffee before they've properly woken up), then maybe the answer isn't expecting them to suddenly become a better human being.

Anyway, if anybody needs me, I'll be cleaning hot milk foam off the kitchen counter and swearing at the coffee machine.

01/07/2026

This week, Facebook reminded me of something I'm really proud of.

In 2013, I created and ran The National Vintage Awards and, to be honest, I still can't quite believe I pulled it off.

What started as a random idea somehow turned into a national awards programme, with nominations, judging, sponsors, finalists, an awards ceremony with live music and hundreds of moving parts that all had to come together at exactly the right time.

The ridiculous part is that, despite never having run any kind of event before, I did the whole thing on my own (apart from on the day itself, of course - I wasn't pouring the drinks whilst simultaneously playing the drums...).

Doing it on my own didn't just mean organising the event itself, it meant creating the branding, building the website (including the complex voting system), doing all of the marketing and PR, securing sponsors, coordinating the judging process, keeping the nominees happy and, most importantly of course, finding myself the perfect outfit (I'm in the purple)!

At the time, I just kept asking myself, "What's the next thing that needs doing?" and worked my way through the list until, somehow, there was an awards ceremony (which went pretty much perfectly!). It's only when I look back that I see what an absolute feat of organisation (and possibly insanity?!) it was.

I think that's one of the reasons complex website projects just don't faze me. Having dealt with everything The National Vintage Awards threw at me, untangling a messy website feels completely manageable. It's not always quick or simple, but it's always something that can be broken down into a step-by-step process.

People often come to me feeling overwhelmed because there are so many things that need doing that they don't know where to start. Performance, SEO, plugins, content, customer journeys, hosting, forms... it all feels like one enormous problem, but I just don't see it like that.

My brain automatically starts pulling everything apart into manageable pieces and sorting what order everything needs to happen in, because, whether it's an awards programme or a website, it's never really about trying to do everything at once, it's about knowing what the next step should be.

29/06/2026

In a client meeting last week I compared myself to one of those cleaners you see online.

You know the ones. They walk into a house that most people would take one look at and run away from, where the owner is apologising before they've even opened the front door, and you can see they're just itching to get to work.

They're not excited because the house is a mess, they're excited because they can already see how much better it's going to be when they've finished.

That's pretty much how I feel when I know I'm about to get my hands on a website that needs a good tidy-up.

Clients often feel like they need to make excuses before I've even had a chance to look around, because they're a bit embarrassed about the state of it, and they're expecting me to be horrified.

But because I've been doing this for so long, the bits that feel overwhelming to the client rarely faze me. It's just a website that's evolved over the years without anyone having the time to step back and look at it as a whole.

By the end of those conversations, clients can be surprised that I'm not recommending a complete rebuild. Quite often, they don't need a fresh start, they just need somebody to untangle everything, work out what's actually causing the problems, and put a plan together for fixing them.

That's why I get so excited about getting to work on a website that a client describes as "a bit of a mess."

It's not just about fixing the website. It's seeing the relief when a client realises they don't have to figure it all out on their own anymore, because I'm going to put a plan together and get it sorted.

26/06/2026

Me in 2018. I've always been a bit unconventional! Not just in my style, but in how I think about work, business and life in general.

I've worked in marketing since I was 18 and I never really felt at home in traditional office environments. It wasn't that I disliked the work. More often, I could see a different way of doing something and found myself wondering why everyone was sticking to a process that clearly wasn't working very well.

The problem was that I wasn't always very good at explaining what I could see.

I'd have a strong feeling that something was too complicated, that a process was creating unnecessary friction, or that there was a simpler way to achieve the same outcome. I just couldn't always explain my reasoning immediately.

Looking back, I think a lot of it comes down to my pattern recognition ability.

These days, after years of working with websites, marketing and business owners, I've seen enough examples that certain things jump out at me very quickly. I can usually tell when a website is making life harder than it needs to be, when a customer journey feels clunky, or when a business has outgrown the systems it's using.

Sometimes I know exactly why within a few minutes.

Sometimes I need to dig around for a while before I can show someone what my brain spotted almost immediately.

What I've learned over the years is that not everybody enjoys working in that way, and that's completely fine.

Some people prefer detailed reports, regular meetings and a high level of involvement in every decision. They want to understand every stage of a project before anything moves forward, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that approach.

It's just not where I do my best work.

The clients I work best with tend to be people who know what outcome they want, but don't necessarily want to spend hours discussing every possible route to get there.

They want a website that's easier to manage, fewer headaches, fewer workarounds and fewer things on their to-do list.

Most of all, they want someone they can trust to look at the bigger picture, work out what's actually causing the problem, and recommend a sensible solution.

That's why my client updates are usually quite straightforward. If I can explain something in a three-minute video rather than a six-page report, that's generally what I'll do. I'd rather spend my time solving problems than creating documentation for the sake of it.

The one exception is my Website Once Over.

That includes a detailed report because the whole purpose is understanding what's working, what isn't, and where to focus next. The report becomes the roadmap for everything that follows.

After that, though, most clients are far more interested in progress than paperwork.

So if you're the sort of person who likes to hand over a problem, trust an expert to figure it out, and have a sensible conversation about the results afterwards, we'll probably get on very well.

If you'd like to monitor every keystroke along the way, you're better off looking elsewhere.

24/06/2026

A recent client came to me because she wasn't happy with her website, but unlike many enquiries I receive, she wasn't asking for a redesign.

She knew something wasn't quite right, but couldn't put her finger on exactly what.

The website belonged to a specialist dog trainer and, on the surface, there wasn't anything dramatically wrong with it. The branding was established, the content was good, and the services themselves were clearly valuable.

The problem was that the site had gradually become inconsistent. Different pages had been built at different times, with some using different layouts, so things like heading styles varied from page to page.

Because the site had been built this way, the customer journey wasn't always as clear as it could be, which made it harder for visitors to work out which service was right for them.

None of these issues were disastrous on their own, but websites aren't judged on individual details. Visitors experience the whole thing at once, and small inconsistencies have a habit of undermining trust.

After carrying out a Website Once Over, it became clear that a full redesign wasn't the best use of the client's budget as the foundations were already there, so the site just needed a careful tidy-up.

Instead of starting from scratch, I worked through the website page by page, improving consistency, simplifying the customer journey and making it easier for visitors to find the information they needed.

Along the way, I also fixed heading hierarchy issues, reviewed SEO titles and made sure the structure of the site made more sense for both visitors and search engines.

None of those changes would make for a particularly dramatic before-and-after graphic, but collectively they made the website feel more polished, more trustworthy and much easier to navigate.

I think this project is a good example of why I don't automatically recommend redesigns, because, while sometimes a website genuinely has outgrown itself and needs rebuilding, other times, the bones are good.

In those situations, the business doesn't need a fresh start, it just needs someone to look at what's already there, work out what's getting in the way, and make it all work together a little better.

22/06/2026

One of the most common patterns I see in business websites is the belief that if something isn't working, the answer must be to add something else.

This could mean a new page, more blog posts, a bigger homepage or a new plugin. Occasionally, those things are the answer but they're not usually where I'd start.

When I'm reviewing a website, it's very common to find that the issue isn't a lack of content. In fact, there's often plenty of content already there. The problem is that the website has evolved over time without anyone really stepping back and asking whether it still reflects the business behind it.

That's a big part of the reason I created the Website Once Over.

It's not a redesign and it's not a list of random recommendations.

It's an opportunity to take a step back and look at the website as a whole.What's working? What's getting in the way? What should be prioritised? Where are people likely to be getting confused? What changes would make the biggest difference?

One of the things I enjoy most about these reviews is that clients often come to me convinced they need one thing and leave with a completely different plan. Not because their original idea was wrong but because once we've looked at the bigger picture, the real problem becomes much easier to see.

And once you know what the real problem is, deciding what to do next becomes much easier too.

19/06/2026

I've been spending more time on social media again recently and, to be honest, I've found it a bit uncomfortable.

Nobody has been unpleasant or anything like that, and I've got nothing against people celebrating their achievements (I actually enjoy seeing people have good things happen to them). I just tend to come away feeling like I'm falling behind compared to everyone else.

A few minutes of scrolling and I start measuring myself against people who've landed book deals, won awards, or reached major revenue milestones. I've been left feeling that I'm not achieving enough.

What I've been reminding myself though is that those aren't the type of things I value the most. Don't get me wrong, they're great achievements and people deserve to be proud, but they're not the measurements I've built my life around. When I stop and think about the things I'm genuinely proud of, the list looks very different.

I'm proud that my children feel safe being themselves, whether that's through how they dress, what they believe, or the questions they ask. And I'm proud that they feel comfortable disagreeing with me and discussing the tough subjects.

I'm proud that I've lost more than three stone and become stronger than I've ever been. If you'd told me a few years ago that I'd be bench pressing 50kg, I'd have laughed (but also been delighted)!

I'm proud that I still enjoy learning new things, even when they frustrate me. Divi 5 has certainly tested that commitment more than once.

I'm proud that I've built a business that allows me to be there when my family needs me.

I'm proud of the relationship I've built with my husband.

None of those things are particularly flashy, but if someone offered me a choice between looking wildly successful on paper and having those things, I'd choose those things every single time.

And I think that's why social media sometimes feels uncomfortable. It's very good at encouraging us to measure ourselves against other people's definitions of success.

I often think about the version of me who started this business: a single mum on benefits, trying to work out how to build something better for her toddler. She wasn't dreaming about book deals, awards or revenue milestones, she just wanted a better life.

She would be absolutely amazed by the life I have now.

When I remember that, I realise I'm probably doing just fine.

17/06/2026

One of my clients came to me through a recommendation from another client, which is always a lovely way to start a new project. She wasn't particularly happy with her website, largely because the previous developers weren't really WooCommerce specialists and the site never seemed to get the attention it needed.

As we started talking, the conversation quickly moved onto hosting costs. The business was paying well over £250 a month for hosting, and some months the bill had crept close to £1,000. They had also been told that these higher costs were likely to become permanent in the future. This had been going on for months and their current website devs didn't seem to be rushing to offer them any permanent solution.

The more I dug into it, the more confused I became.

The hosting setup was aimed at developers managing multiple websites. It wasn't necessarily a bad service, but it wasn't an obvious fit for a single eCommerce business, and the storage charges were becoming increasingly expensive.

What struck me most was that nobody had really explained why this was the best option for them or whether there were alternatives worth considering.

For most business owners, hosting is one of those things that sits firmly in the "I don't know enough about this to challenge it" category. If a provider tells you that's what your website needs, it's difficult to argue otherwise.

After performing a Website Once Over (a full website review), I suggested moving the site onto my hosting platform and pairing it with an eCommerce care plan. The new setup reduced their monthly costs significantly while also giving them ongoing support, updates and someone to contact when things need attention.

The thing they've commented on most often, though, isn't the money saving.

It's the responsiveness.

By working with a bigger agency, they'd become used to waiting days, and sometimes weeks, for issues to be looked at. Now they know that if there's a problem, they'll get a response quickly and someone (me!) will actually take ownership of it.

I think that's a good reminder that clients don't always come looking for a redesign. Quite often they're looking for clarity, reassurance and the confidence that somebody cares about their website enough to look after it properly.

15/06/2026

Sometimes when I'm asking a new client for more info about their website, they (reluctantly) admit "I actually haven't logged in for a while...". 😬🫣

But they don't need to be reluctant — I know it's not just because they can't be bothered.

Usually these websites have grown bit-by-bit over months and years, with pages added by one person, plugins added by another, and a previous developer's setup that nobody understands.

Opening the back end feels like opening a precarious kitchen cupboard. You know there's a good chance something's going to fall on your head.

So they avoid it.

The blog doesn't get updated. The team page still lists someone who left in 2023. The services list doesn't quite match what the business actually does now.

None of that is their fault, it's just built up over time and now it feels too big to even know where to start.

In my experience, when the website is organised and matches how the business works, logging in stops feeling like a chore. Small updates get made, the site stays closer to the business and it does it's job of bringing in new business. It just needs someone to get stuck in and figure out what needs chucking out and what need re-arranging!

Have you ever avoided updating something on your website because it feels like everything is going to fall on top of you? How did you overcome it?

ps. Anyone got any ideas for organising my tupperware? It's always a mess no matter what i do!