It’s hard to believe that I started my design business in 2016 — over 8 years ago — and that I’ve been teaching online courses for 7 of those years.

I’ve always been the kind of person that enjoys tinkering, experimenting, and figuring things out for myself. When I find something that saves me time and makes life easier, I’m always excited to share in the hopes that I can help light the way for others and save them the headache and hardship of needing to start from scratch or do it alone.

This is one of the core values my business is built on — sharing the knowledge, the wealth, the light, and the love — and so this naturally evolved into me sharing my experience, process, and sacred systems through my own online classes.

Teaching over the last several years has been an amazing journey to share with my students and creative community. So when I made the choice to move all my classes from Teachable to Squarespace — true to form — I knew I had to pull back the curtain on just why I decided to make the switch.

As I write this, our beautiful and brilliant baby girl, Iris Lee, turns 18 months today. My pregnancy was filled with joyful anticipation and planning. I worked hard to dial in my courses and sales funnels to work on autopilot during my maternity leave so I could truly unplug. I assumed I’d be out for 6 months like I was with our firstborn, Theo, and I couldn’t wait for the time away filled with baby snuggles and priceless (though sleep-deprived) moments with my kiddos.

What unfolded was the most difficult season of my life.

One of my all-time favorite quotes is from author Rebecca Campbell, “I believe that your tragedies, your losses, your sorrows, your hurt happened for you, not to you. And I bless the thing that broke you down and cracked you open because the world needs you open.”

Well, here I am, 18 months later, cracked wide open and finally ready to tell our story.

For a long time this feeling had been weighing on me—the feeling that I'd outgrown my website and branding. They no longer felt like a good stylistic match for my business. They lacked the depth and complexity I pride myself on building into my clients’ brands. Not to mention, I just plain ran out of room.

Times They were A Changin’

You see, my business has evolved a lot since 2016 and the things that were important to me then were getting in the way of more important areas where I feel called to grow today. I launched my Illustrator Essentials course last July and realized that I had no space for it. I had all these exciting new offerings in the wings and nowhere they could call home.

All of these factors combined to tell me one thing. It was time for a change.

In my previous post, I shared the first 10 lessons I've learned from building and launching my first online course, Illustrator Essentials. I knew a post with all 20 would be way too much to digest all at once, so today I'm excited to share the next ten lessons with you!