Creation of the Website Story
When I started the corporation named Rise Up, Inc. three years ago, I held in my spirit only a little tiny spark of an idea. The name of the company was inspired by the song “Rise Up” from the musical Hamilton, and the work I wanted to do was the expression of a compelling calling on my life to serve and invest in leaders, especially women who lead.
I didn’t have a grand business plan or a clearly laid out long-term strategy, but I knew that the Habit Finder assessment and curriculum were the tools through which I would be able to most deeply impact leaders because they had so profoundly changed my own life and leadership journey over the last decade.
The experience of starting the company felt a little like I had invited everyone over to my house to gather and grow together, but I didn’t even actually have blueprints for the house! However, with my Habit Finder tools, a spark of an idea and a whole lot of passion to serve leaders, I invited, and to my astonishment and wonder, they came.
The company started three years ago with two groups of women ready to invest in themselves and who trusted me enough to say yes to the Encounter small group experience.
The next semester, we had three Encounter groups, and several clients also asked if I could work with them in a one on one capacity, so I started adding one on one clients and named this experience Empower.
As we continued with the Encounter groups, the amazing women in them were going back to their places of work and thriving. Soon, their leaders started asking what had changed and how their companies could experience the same growth and we expanded to work with teams at small and large businesses. We named these half and full day workshops with businesses Elevate and the team engagements within companies and organizations Engage.
Today, we celebrate over eighty female Encounter graduates who have completed that small group engagement, and I have traveled with over three hundred people through group, individual or business engagements using the Habit Finder tools.
I often look with astonishment at what has grown from a small spark of an idea. Even more, I am in awe of what the leaders and teams we have worked with have created with their healed and healthy thought habits.
Together, we have celebrated promotions, bonuses, new careers, years of highest sales ever, dramatically increased revenue and expansion of businesses.
We have been even more overwhelmed with gratitude for restored relationships, healthy boundaries created between work and home lives, improved confidence and deep peace experienced by these leaders.
Along the way, as the company and the leaders in it have grown, I slapped up a wall in my new “house” here and added a room there to accommodate what was happening. I pieced together a quick website just to have some sort of online presence, and I created some simple systems for tracking clients and finances, but this past spring, it became evident to me that the business needed a significant investment in the behind the scenes systems that support its growth.
Mostly, I needed new software and communication technology to track and serve my clients and potential clients, and I needed a fresh brand and online presence that truly represented the work I was doing.
In May, I hired a new business manager, Jen Montfort, who has created an entirely new behind the scenes foundation of technology and tracking for the business.
She introduced me to an amazing marketing expert and website designer, Katie O’Brien and to Tamsen Webster, a brilliant and challenging message strategist, who helped me walk through the grueling work of putting clear and concise words to the important work we are doing.
With the guidance, talent and collaboration of these three women over the last six months, we have created not only the blueprints but also the actual “home” for my current clients and also a welcoming entryway for all of the clients we will serve in the future. We also decided to retire the name Rise Up, Inc. as the public face of the company and simplify to just my name.
The process of creation is always full of messes and trial and error and joy and celebration.
In the creation of this brand-new logo, branding, messaging, website, and blog, I have felt inadequate and scared.
I have felt bold and confident and excited.
I have felt alive.
I have felt challenged.
And I have felt absolutely confident that this work is what I was created to do.
So today, with a little trepidation and a whole lot of enthusiasm, I present to you my brand-new website and branding!
I welcome you and all of the leaders we will serve in the future to our newly renovated and updated home. Welcome. Come in and stay awhile.
We exist for you and we are honored to travel this journey of personal and leadership growth with you.
