In 2019, I decided to teach myself how to build websites. I had always loved making things happen in Illustrator and anything techy on my computer, especially problem-solving type tasks. I had a friend who asked me to partner with her in putting on a goal-setting workshop. We developed our content and decided to produce a workbook for the attendees. I was all over that workbook. I went to work in Canva and produced this beautiful thing and loved every minute of it. When it came time to do the actual workshop, I didn’t want to. I wanted to design more stuff.
It didn’t click at first–that I could actually build a business doing what I loved. I said to myself, “I love figuring out tech and making things work together, sure would be nice to have a job doing this.” But I had no degree, still had a lot to learn, who would hire me and what even is this job I want to do?
But then it became so obvious. I would teach myself web design and open my own business. And that’s exactly what I did. I invested in myself, worked through a few courses and everything came so naturally and easy. I was in my zone of genius – still am, and it feels good.
My business was called Jenni Lanier | Web Design & Other Nerdery.
You’re probably wondering what “other nerdery” is?
Along the way, I’ve had the opportunity to design many beautiful sites for wonderful clients. I’ve learned so much it’s kind of insane if I really think about it. I’ve worked a few contract positions where I was in charge of all aspects of the various tech the businesses used, even found myself in a Director of Operations job (one I had always wanted to prove I could do and I crushed it). So, all those other tech experiences I’ve had other than web design, that’s the other nerdery. Basically, automating business processes – there is so much that can be done to make your life easier as an entrepreneur and that’s where my real fairy dust comes into play.
But this is supposed to be a post to explain what the Aviary Lab is, so I’ll get to it. Something I’ve wanted to do in my business for over a year is create and sell Showit templates. It’s something my ideal client could benefit from when they aren’t ready or don’t have the budget for a fully customized website. So, it’s happening in 2024! Two templates are ready to go and the plan is to have released TWELVE by the end of the year. Scary to put that out in the world, but also makes me accountable.
I’m so excited about it. The current templates are BEAUTIFUL. I’m finally recognizing my value and capabilities in this space and ready to serve my clients in multiple avenues.
More about the name: Aviary is connected to birds, and while I’m not a huge fan of all birds, my nickname my entire life has been JBird, so I am always drawn to cute little birds and the theme in general. Lab comes from a previous career as a chemist. Yes, I started this whole professional journey with a chemistry degree, so I love the idea of having my business lab where I concoct all sorts of nerdery that makes life easier for my clients and elevates their online presence.
I have hired some talented people to help me run this lab and am collaborating with copywriters, designers, social media managers, a fractional COO, and a few lawyers to give you everything you need to launch or grow your own business. Be sure to check out our collabs page to learn more about all these talented women!
That’s it! It’s taken some time to see this thing take shape, but I’m extremely happy with where it’s going and hope we can serve you in some way this year.
One more thing…… I’m no writer, but my friend (and social media manager) Jen tells me I need to blog so I’m giving in and doing it. In some ways it makes sense to me because with business automations, you don’t know what you don’t know and most people have no idea just how much can be done to make things run more smoothly. I need to share what’s possible, so here we go.
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