GoFitJo Is Live On Squarespace
Joanne Encarnacion of GoFitJo is LIVE on Squarespace after giving her brand and site a Restyle with us. After leaving her corporate job in October 2016 to blog to be a full-time solopreneur for her business, Joanne knew her brand and website needed some updates so it could grow up and scale with her journey.
Joanne is a powerful girl boss with great style and an inspiring message, so she absolutely needed a design that was clean, minimal and fun. Joanne chose the Radar template from the shop to Restyle, which made her homepage incredibly dynamic and interactive while maintaining clean simplicity. Her homepage is seriously GOALS and was our favorite part of this project.
"Sometimes in an online business, you want things to be so glossy or so perfected, but I truly love to embrace the messy because that’s where the magic happens." – Joanne Encarnacion
CHECK OUT OUR Q&A WITH JOANNE ABOUT HER RESTYLE
From learning the importance of vulnerability to chatting about how her brand evolves and grows as her life does, Joanne's dishing out advice to fellow solopreneurs who are ready to go full-time.
GO LIVE: WHERE DID YOUR PASSION FOR HEALTH AND FITNESS START?
JOANNE: My passion for my industry came form my own personal wellness journey. I started sharing my personal experiences of my fitness journey online on Instagram, and it just was me sharing progress pictures, meal tips, but also the mental changes I was overcoming as I was trying to face different obstacles like the failures, the successes.
Then, slowly, it became a blog where people wanted to be able to have a way to search for information and search for the inspiration all over again. So, I launched my blog and it became this organic growth of just people wanting more and me feeling cathartic in a sense where I was finding my own healing in sharing my story.
GO LIVE: WHAT'S THE BEST LESSON YOU'VE LEARNED IN YOUR BUSINESS?
JOANNE: I think the hardest lesson I’ve learned in my business is learning how to scale your business as you grow and also how to maintain your authenticity as you grow. Meaning, how does your story evolve as you grow and how do you keep your followers as you grow? That’s always a big challenge because this is a personal blog of mine, and it develops as my story or as my journey develops.
I think what works for me is constantly reminding myself that there are still new people who I’ve never met and they’ve never met me. You’re going to constantly get a new evolution of people who follow you, or you’re going to continue to grow and people will fall off, it’s one of those things that I have to keep in mind. But, from time to time I will cliff note where I began or how the journey began when I’m feeling like no one is feeling connected with me because they don’t know the whole story.
GO LIVE: WHAT DO YOU WISH SOMEONE WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?
JOANNE: One of the things I wish someone had told me in the beginning was to remember that sometimes getting vulnerable is really really okay. A lot of my storytelling thrives in vulnerability and honesty and genuine conversations.
I wish people would be more open to having those conversations online and would say, your genuine rawness about your struggle are things that need to be heard. Sometimes in an online business, you want thing to be so glossy or so perfected, but I truly love to embrace the messy because that’s where the magic happens.
GO LIVE: WHAT HAVE YOU GAINED BY MOVING TO YOUR BUSINESS FULL-TIME?
JOANNE: I got more clarity. Before deciding to go full time with my business, there was this part of me that questioned can I do this full time? Is this something that can be sustainable? Is my passion worth hearing? Is my story worth telling? That’s always a hard question to ask. There’s no form of measurement especially when you go on your own.
Then, I realized after going out on my own that this is really worth it. I’m really fulfilled in the things that I do in sharing my story, connecting with people, creating content with brands, but more importantly empowering people that see my life and see an example that they can live by.
GO LIVE: WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO TAKE YOUR BRAND & WEBSITE FOR A RESTYLE?
JOANNE: I think there was a part of me that felt GoFitJo needed to grow up. As the person who started your brand, maybe you get bored of your own branding, or maybe you created your brand yourself like I did. I’ve learned working at a startup that you need to rely on help right before you begin to scale or before things begin to take off for you.
This is something that I’m going to need someone else’s professional touch on this because I just knew that I didn’t have the bandwidth for it or the skills to do that. That’s when I decided to go for a Restyle and have someone else do the remodel.
GO LIVE: WHAT'S YOUR BIGGEST PIECE OF ADVICE FOR SOMEONE WHO WANTS A RESTYLE BUT HASN'T TAKEN THE DIVE YET?
JOANNE: If you’re having that conversation once in awhile with yourself or with other people, then it’s time. It’s time to really look at your brand or business and decide if it’s time to grow up or take it one step further.