It’s time to continue our blog series exploring how real people – just like you – are building successful online businesses using the tools within Thrive Suite.
But today we’re asking the hard questions... What do you want to achieve in life, and how can you find your path to self-transformation?
In other words, we’re looking at websites in the Life Coaching and transformative journey niche.
You’ll learn:
- How Journey Mindfulness customizes Thrive's professionally designed landing page templates to hit the ground running with layout and structure.
- How Dr. Wendy Hill makes it ridiculously easy for potential clients to get in touch.
- How the tools in Thrive Suite transformed Richard Modad's design business to improve the speed and enjoyment of building client websites.
If your coaching or personal brand business centers around emotional, spiritual or personal transformational therapy, then you’ll pick up some great tips from this post.
More...
Introducing the Thrive Theme Builder Websites
This week, we’re focusing on the Life Coaching niche to showcase some really nice Thrive Theme Builder websites, both designed by Richard Modad’s online marketing agency, Launchpad Media.
But first, let’s pin down exactly what we mean by Life Coaching...
Life Coaches help people to understand, form and achieve a goal or transformation in their lives. They’re part therapist, part coach, and they help their clients to internalize their emotions and sometimes spirituality.
These professionals and websites rarely define themselves as Life Coaches, but it’s a fitting label for brands that help their clients to navigate a journey towards a life goal.
In today’s post, we’ll share 2 great websites that use Thrive Theme Builder, Thrive Architect, Thrive Leads, and Thrive Apprentice, to build their successful online businesses.
For each website, you’ll hear about how they grew their businesses in their own words so you can learn from their advice and experiences. Then we’ll explore some of the impressive web design elements they use to deliver content, grow leads, and convert paying customers.
James O’Neill
(Owner and Therapist)
Journey Mindfulness is based around MBSR - Mindfulness-based stress reduction. MBSR was developed in the 1970s at the University of Massachusetts medical center and is a research-based approach combining meditation yoga and mindfulness practices to increase mental and physical wellness outcomes.
The website features an 8 week online course built in Thrive Apprentice with 9 hours of video content and dozens of text lessons.
Dr. Wendy Hill
(Owner and Therapist)
Wendy Hill, based in San Diego, has been in private therapy practice for over 45 years and decided to make therapy courses available for people who couldn't afford expensive one-on-one sessions. Wendy has been featured on the news in San Diego many times as the resident therapy professional for CBS8 San Diego. Her website also is home to her popular therapy podcast and other free mental health resources and engaging videos on topics like depression, anxiety, addiction, and relationships.
The website features over 600 blog posts that were effortlessly redesigned using Thrive Theme Builder and features 3 online therapy courses built in Thrive Apprentice.
Now let's explore the Life Coaching websites themselves...
Journey Mindfulness is a great example of a confidently and professionally branded coaching website.
It uses stunning full-width images and contrasting page sections to lead the visitor through each important piece of content, so the reader doesn’t get bored or lost.
I love the super-readable fonts and the subtle use of ‘sticky’ static background images that make scrolling just a little bit more interesting.
Journey Mindfulness’ website design conveys a feeling of calmness and curiosity – perhaps that’s exactly what they want to communicate with their brand.
Here’s just some of the best design choices and elements we’ve found on their website...
An Impressive Bottom Section
Showcasing interesting content with a blog list in the theme’s bottom section.
No cheeky jokes please 🙂
Journey Mindfulness uses a stylish post list across the website to bring visibility to recent blog posts.
The great thing about these post lists is how customizable and automatic they are – not only can they be made to look exactly like you want, but they can also be configured to show exactly which blog posts you want... whether they’re displaying using dynamic rules (e.g. most recent, just a particular author) or individual selections.
I love the gorgeous use of featured post images and minimalist titles to encourage curiosity, rather than overloading the visitor with information.
Embedded Audio Player
Embedding 3rd party widgets like audio players is easy in the Thrive Visual Editor.
To promote their meditation exercises, Journey Mindfulness embeds the Soundcloud audio player directly into their page. This is a great way to let their visitors listen to the tracks without leaving their website.
They’ve achieved this by using the Custom HTML element found within the Thrive Visual Editor.
The Custom HTML element allows you to embed any code snippets into your page, as if it was hard-coded into the HTML. This means it’s perfect for audio players like Soundcloud, as well as other 3rd-party embeddable applications like cart buttons, graphing tools, and other interactive canvases.
Journey Mindfulness uses a clean 3-column layout to feature these audio players to give some image and text context to each.
Interactive Contact Page
An embeddable, interactive Google Map brings your contact page to life.
It’s easy to add basic contact information to your website, but Journey Mindfulness has gone the extra mile by embedding an interactive Google Map. This lets their audience find their location, especially on mobile devices where this can be used for navigation directions.
They do this using the fully customizable Google Map element in the Thrive Visual Editor. Just drop it onto your page, set the address, and Thrive will do the rest.
But that’s not all. They also feature a functional enquiry form to their contact page...
Collect leads and enquiries with a stylist contact form in WordPress.
This Contact Form element lets potential clients get in touch without opening their email, and turns them into leads that can convert to paying customers.
As you’re probably noticing the trend here, this is easy to achieve from within Thrive Theme Builder, simply by using the built in Contact Form element. You can receive enquiries via email, or link it to a more advanced lead generation process using an API connect.
I love that Journey Mindfulness gives visitors multiple methods of getting in touch: email, phone, physical address, and contact form.
Stylish Blog Design
Blog posts can be displayed in any way you choose on your Thrive Theme Builder blog homepage.
Now this is one stylish blog post list!
We touched on this before when we looked at the bottom section (still no jokes!), and this page takes that same design language and runs with it.
Strong, eye-catching featured images are shown dynamically, along with a simple post title to pique the visitor’s curiosity.
There’s also some great use of white space to keep it from looking too busy or overwhelming.
So what do the individual blog posts look like?
They’re clean, professional, readable, and consistently branded with Journey Mindfulness’s colors and typography.
Richard has achieved this by using one of Thrive Theme Builder’s blog post templates to get the basics in place, and customizing it to meet the needs of his client.
And because he’s using Thrive Theme Builder, he can control the global typography and global colors to guarantee consistency.
Customized Online Course Landing Page
Before we move on, I want to share a great landing page that Journey Mindfulness uses to sell their MBSR 8-week program.
In fact, they’re using a customized version of our Smart Online Course landing page set that comes bundled with Thrive Architect.
This is a great decision by Richard, as it’s already crafted to showcase online courses, workshops and programs professionally out of the box.
Journey Mindfulness makes it their own with vibrant videos, attention-grabbing calls-to-action, and lots of friendly written content.
Flowers, pastel colors, images of people on beaches with arms outstretched... Forget about whether this fits your view of modern web design. That’s missing the point.
Dr. Wendy Hill’s website only has to connect with her audience. People looking for a personal transformation in life, whether that’s emotional or spiritual growth.
It’s reassuring, friendly, and centered around exploring what makes us human, fallible, and capable of deep introspection.
I love the constant layering of Dr. Wendy’s authority as an industry leader, from her PhD and 45 years’ experience, through to multiple positive video testimonials.
Let’s explore some of the best parts of her website...
Customized Video Course Landing Page
The first thing that really stood out from Dr. Wendy Hill’s website is the great use of landing page templates included in Thrive Architect. Rather than reinvent the wheel, Richard Modad recognized that most of the layout and structure work was already available in our professional templates.
This freed him up to focus on content, and customization link branding and imagery.
You can see below how Dr. Wendy Hill uses a Video Course Lead Generation template for her online workshop.
Compelling Video Testimonials
Video testimonials are compelling social proof for any coaching website.
Life Coaches and therapists rely heavily on recommendations from previous clients to attract new leads. Think about it: if your friend had a great experience with a coach, you’d be more likely to choose that coach over others.
So how can you harness the power of recommendations online?
Use video testimonials, like Dr. Wendy Hill!
These embedded testimonials use responsive video containers that allow you to simply add videos anywhere on your page, and know they’ll look perfect on desktops, tablets or mobile devices.
I love the use of video testimonials throughout Dr. Wendy Hill’s website, as they provide that human connection and voice that is often needed with emotional journeys in life.
Animated Data Graphics
Animated data graphics help make statistics pop inside your content.
And what do we have here?
Animated statistics graphics!
I was really excited to discover that Richard Modad had utilized the Fill Counter element and Progress Bar element to show how the “mental health epidemic is getting worse”.
It’s a great way to tell a story and introduce some visual flair to an otherwise static page. Seeing the data animations as they scroll into view definitely caught my attention, and made me want to read more.
Professional Footer with Embedded Contact Form
You can add anything to your website footer. Here you can see a helpful contact form embedded directly in the footer.
Richard has used a customizable footer section to provide the visitor with helpful links, social media badges, and contact information. It’s clean and professional, but nothing to write home about...
... until you see the embedded contact form that allows potential leads to get in touch with Dr. Wendy Hill on any page of her website!
Like we mentioned earlier, Life Coaching websites should be focused on starting a conversation with the visitor, and nurturing that initial connection until they become leads and paying clients.
Why make this more difficult than it needs to be for visitors?
A global contact form can make reaching out and starting that dialogue so much easier.
Popup Lightbox Calls-to-Action
A helpful, responsive lightbox makes it easy for potential clients to get in touch.
Speaking of making reaching out even easier, Dr. Wendy Hill’s website features some pretty slick contact forms that open in a lightbox.
This allows people to submit enquiries without having to go through the conversion-killing process of clicking through multiple pages, only to have to find their way back again to the article that first caught their interest.
This is one of my favorite techniques to see on a website, as it shows great consideration for your audience’s time.
You can achieve this by following the instructions in this article, where we break down a similar strategy.
Let’s Meet the Designer Behind the Websites!
I reached out to Richard to share his story and advice with you, so you can hit the ground running building your own Life Coach website with Thrive Theme Builder, and the other great tools available in Thrive Suite.
What’s your business story?
I started doing web development, graphics, marketing and video production in 2011, working across many industries for both large and small businesses. I have been able to produce websites and media content for everyone from battle rap leagues to medical device manufacturers and my work has reached millions online.
What separates me from most of the competition is the creativity and high attention to detail I provide. While I still do graphics, animations, videos, and marketing for my clients, I am primarily focused on web design and development.
What is your favourite part of your Thrive Theme Builder website?
As someone that has used every WYSIWYG "What You See Is What You Get" website editor in the last 10 years, I can say the quality and intuitiveness of Thrive Architect and Thrive Theme Builder is simply miles beyond the competition.
I love the ease of being able to visually design global elements that can immediately update on hundreds of pages with the click of a button.
This greatly enhances both the speed and enjoyment of building responsive WordPress sites.
With the ability to incorporate dynamic content, global fields, and seamless API connections to CRM software, there is really no other suite of plugins in the same playing field as Thrive. I am constantly telling my peers to make the switch and begin picking up this incredible set of tools.
There are multiple options for updating global elements across your Thrive Theme Builder website.
What advice would you give people who are starting their own journey building a successful online business?
The most important thing I can recommend to anyone starting an online business is that nothing is really as important as your ability to innovate.
Be someone who is constantly learning and implementing new techniques and tools in your marketing and production work.
Participate in online forums and soak up all of the information available to you. With all of the distractions of social media, video games, and news online, it takes discipline to make your time on a computer as productive as possible.
As someone that has worked remotely for years, I can also say that consistency and routines are fundamental to staying focused, productive, and balanced at work. Be gentle with yourself but also be tough with yourself and build a routine that is flexible yet steadfast. There are days I need to pry myself off my computer and force myself to walk around the neighborhood and there are days where I can barely stay on task without chaining myself to a computer desk - having a consistent routine conditions you to stay productive without burning out.
Speaking of desks - I highly recommend anyone that is creating an online business to get a standing desk - the physical toll of sitting on a computer all day can be lethal! Make the effort to stay in motion and take breaks to stretch and move around. A few simple tools like having some resistance bands in your office can make a huge difference over the years.
Stay focused, stay consistent, stay productive, take good care of yourself, and you are going to accomplish great things!
Inspiration for Your Website
Wow, this was a really fun showcase to explore. The Life Coaching and personal therapy industry turned out to be a great example of one of the core tenets of building a successful online brand... facilitating a personal conversation and connection with your audience.
Thanks to Richard Modad for sharing his work on both Journey Mindfulness and Dr. Wendy Hill, two very different websites that highlight how you can use the tools in Thrive Suite to build your successful Life Coach business.
Do you have a personal therapy or Life Coaching brand website built with Thrive Theme Builder you’d like to share?
Let us know in the comments below!
Hey David just what I needed as an inspiration to improve my website.
Thanks Yael. I hope you can find a few ideas to add to your website.
Thanks for the inspiration, and the great advice from Richard Modad.
Thanks Seen. I’m glad it was helpful.
Hi David,
I make better than these but never show here.
If you don’t mind may I know which things you look then share here.
I am developer and I created and designed 300+ websites.
I am not doing promotion or anything here. It’s a simple question.
Which things you like in the websites then decide to share in Blog post?
Thanks,
Nazam H.
We look at several criteria depending on the blog post the websites are featured in.
If you want a chance to get your sites featured, you can add them to the post in the Facebook group which allows us to see them.
Hey David, I can’t visit the Journey Mindfulness website because my Avast anti-malware software says it is infected with URL:Phishing. Maybe you could warn the owner or designer? I like the preview you’ve given though, and your article is very helpful!
I am looking to use Thrive Themes on several websites, so need to get started with one for professional services, and I thought this article would help me to understand how to go about it.
That’s great, Alan. Did you find what you were looking for?