We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christine Belan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christine below.

Alright, Christine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

My formal education was in political science; however, my career path, straight out of university and until about 10 years ago, was in multi-residential, residential, commercial, and industrial real estate.

The real estate industry weighs very heavily on sales, contracts, and fulfillment, from an industry standpoint. It was essentially a trade of money for access or ownership to property (whether it was an studio apartment, or anchor space in a retail mall) with specific obligations and privileges performed by each stakeholder.

As a Realtor, in residential real estate, I worked at the beck and call of buyers and sellers previewing home, showing homes, networking with other Real Estate Sales Reps, attending inspections, quelling worries, negotiating details, and closing deals. I was tasked with helping my clients with the biggest purchase of their lives, and I took that responsibility seriously.

When I transitioned to owning and operating my own creative website design and development business, I knew that I wanted to function in a way that benefit my physical and mental well being, and provide me with the opportunity to be flexible, while maintaining very clear working boundaries. And what I mean by that is I consciously chose to work primarily from a desktop computer. Having been tethered to a laptop, tablet, and phone previously, I knew that I had to start and end productive working time by walking away from my computer and adhering to reasonable boundaries so that I could participate in my family with my full attention.

Christine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I became a website designer and developer, out of necessity, at first. I was an entrepreneur in real estate, and my husband owned and operated two businesses (one as a general contractor and the other as a home inspector, and no, we seldom worked together). We needed three websites for our businesses, and when I sat down with an agency and learned that each website would cost approximately $5,000. we decided that I would make an attempt to learn as much as I could and build them myself.

At first my education was completely self taught, but then as I learned and understood, I wanted to continue learning and building my skills. Those first three websites took the longest time to launch, but all three of them were online within a year, and looked pretty darn good. After taking many courses, and building my confidence and skills, I started to get noticed.

One of the most important tasks I undertook early on in my business was to define my ideal clients, so that I could understand their specific needs. I wrote about The Ideal Client Avatar Exercise here: https://thewpstylist.com/exercise-changed-business-creating-ideal-client-avatar/

I partner with other professionals to provide a suite of services that assist startups, and established small and medium sized businesses with their online needs. A snippet of the services offered are:

The Name Game
Branding
SEO – search engine optimization
Copywriting
Website design and development
Digital marketing (like opt ins and newsletter design), and so many other things too.

What am I most proud of? I would have to say that I am proud of the relationships I build with my clients. I attribute those relationships to active listening, taking time to understand, checking in and making sure I understand their asks, and needs, communicating clearly and asking questions, and being kind. I am to treat all of the humans that I interact with first with dignity and respect, and patience.

I aim to solve one of the biggest problems that business owners face in the beginning of their journey, which is the shame that accompanies being the everything in your business. In the beginning entrepreneurs need to be brand and communication experts, website designers, and accountants, among other things. And although some people can learn how to DIY all of their business needs, not everyone can, and when someone cannot, there is a kind of shame that builds. I work hard to call that shame out and put it away.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

My education in digital marketing isn’t formal, it is self-taught. For me, that caused imposter syndrome that I had to work hard to quell. There are times when it rears it’s ugly head, and I struggle to dissolve the feelings of being less than others.

Today our world is made up of all kinds of different people who provide all levels of services and offerings, each has a place and value.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There are so many wonderful sources of positivity and inspiration that I can offer.

The book Big Magic is incredible.
Danielle LaPorte’s book, The Fire Starter Sessions: A Practical Guide to Creating Success on Your Own Terms.

Resources like Dubsado for CRM Management, and Flodesk for newsletters ( I have a toolkit on my website with affiliate links: https://thewpstylist.com/toolkit/)

Programs like Marie Forleo’s B-School was great years ago.

Amy Porterfield’s offerings.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thewpstylist.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewpstylist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWordpressStylist/
• Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/thewpstylist

Image Credits

https://www.instagram.com/aimeepineauphotography/