Cass Aggett: From public servant to web designer for health & wellness brands
I recently chatted with Emily Osmond on her podcast The Emily Osmond show about how I went from a career public servant to a web designer working with dream clients.
If you don’t know me, I describe myself as a lifelong introvert. I’ve taken the Myers Briggs’ test upwards of 6 or 7 times over the years and never come close to that E for Extrovert. Being a classic millennial, I’m also a huge fan of not talking on the phone — so there was a whole lot of ‘NOPE, not gonna happen’ and ‘WTF do I want to be on a podcast for?!’ in my head before I decided to give it a go.
(Totally unrelated: who decided to change it from Gen Y to Millennial? While it’s taken many years, I’ve now come to terms with the moniker change — but I’d still like to know if there was any polls taken on this matter because I certainly was not approached about it /endrant, back to usual programming)
Surprisingly, once Emily and I got started there was no butterflies or I’m-gonna-pee-myself nerves like I was half expecting. I’ve put it down to two things:
The perhaps overkill amount of preparation I did beforehand
Because Emily is probably one of the nicest people you could meet (seriously, if you take a listen you’ll see what I mean).
I’ve not yet met Emily in person, but I’ve been a member of The Modern Marketing Collective that she runs for almost three years now — so that may have helped too!
We spoke about all sorts of things, like how I started my business and got into web design, what’s changed in the last couple of years, my current offers, and why I love doing what I do (among other things). Here’s a bit of an overview:
What I offer in my business
I’m a Squarespace website designer for women in the health and wellness industry. This is quite a broad area actually - some of my clients have included psychologists, midwives, coaches, astrologers and psychic readers! But there are so many more that fit into the health and wellness umbrella, whether that’s physios, osteos, naturopaths, massage therapists, women’s health support, fertility specialists, yoga studios, pilates studios… plus probably a whole lot more!
I love working in this area because there is such a variety of ways to support women’s health and wellness that it never gets boring, and I get to see how much my clients LOVE the work that they do and the difference they make.
And what I actually do? My main focus is on Squarespace websites because of its ease of use and ability to customise. My current offers include custom website design, semi-custom/template based website design, website audits, ongoing or ad hoc maintenance and tech support, VIP days and website templates. I also offer a complementary service of brand design for women in the first couple of years of business who are looking for the whole package, which includes logo design, a colour palette and typography/font selection.
How my business has changed / evolved
I started as a VA in 2020 as a side hustle and pretty quickly joined The Modern Marketing Collective – my first few clients were also members which was really nice.
Initially I offered some standard virtual assistant / admin tasks – creating and tidying up documents, creating Powerpoint and Canva templates and updating websites and related systems like scheduling. One of these clients had a Squarespace website that needed updating so I started getting to know the platform — compared to what I was using at the time, it was an absolute breeze and made so much more sense.
I started thinking hey, this could be a fun thing to add as a service, so I started learning as much as I could… SO many YouTube videos, blog posts and Facebook group posts to get my head around everything. Then I completed a course on Squarespace design and customisation through I Love Creatives, which was a great way to start learning and re-learning to code as well. I technically started learning to code when I was a kid, making my own websites on Geocities and Angelfire before moving to someone’s subdomain – those were the days!
I also started offering some basic branding packages. I’ve found this has been a good option to bring in some strategy to this part of the process when people are ready to move on from their DIY logo, especially when it’s time for a new website — having consistent branding that’s tailored to your ideal client is so important. I really wanted to be able to offer something here for people that hadn’t yet got that solid foundation set up as it makes such a difference to a website.
Since then I’ve also been doing the Standout Squarespace course through Squarestylist, and basically immerse myself in as much design and Squarespace content as I can!
How I’ve designed my business around life
In general, I keep a regular work schedule, with set hours for 3 days a week. Depending on the week, one or two weekdays are more flexible – I try to time these for when my wife’s not working as her schedule can change week to week – whether we head out for a coffee, or more exciting thinks like getting groceries or running other errands…
Being a small business owner, I do work weekends or sometimes do long days – but like to carve out certain times and days where I’m not on the clock. Being able to do this helps me to not feel like I’m working 24/7.
What marketing has worked well for my business
So far, Instagram and networking groups have been great marketing areas. Referrals have also been a great way to attract new business, and it’s nice to know I’ve already got a mutual connection when a new client comes my way. Like any business, unfortunately it’s not just a ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ deal, and requires constant review of what’s working and what’s not, and revising strategies where needed.
What my biggest challenge has been
I think the biggest one has been mindset! There’s all the usual challenges when you’re brand new to business and self-employment, like working out systems and processes, but that can be figured out using Google and YouTube or hiring someone that knows what they’re doing.
Mindset changes are much harder, whether you’re working through it yourself or with the help of a coach or mentor.
I’d been working with my coach for a while and had the funniest realisation – most of my fear of putting myself out there initially wasn’t about failure, but a fear of success – because it would mean that the secure public service career I had would have to go (which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just a radical change from what I’d known for so long).
My favourite moments in business
The feedback that I receive from clients is my favourite thing – the fact that I’ve managed to go from a career public servant, to being able to design and play and solve problems for women that are so passionate about the work they do in the health and wellness space.
How good is that?!
My biggest learnings from The Modern Marketing Collective
Apart from all the technical and strategic gold in all the modules, by two biggest takeaways are:
Progress over perfection – I’m a lifelong recovering perfectionist and sometimes have to remind myself that done is better than perfect
You can’t grow what you don’t know – it’s really important to set specific measurable goals, and actually track progress - then celebrate!
You can listen to the full episode here:
You can also check out the show notes and listen on Emily’s website - but promise you won’t judge me, because I had a look at the transcript and it horrifies me how much I say the word ‘so’ 🙉
