Week one - It all starts with a dream.

Welcome,

I’m so excited to start this beautiful creative journey with you, let’s begin by taking a look at what this first week has to bring so you know what to expect.

• We will go over the basics of our six week journey.

• We will uncover your mission statement.

• We will explore what it is you want to bring to the world through this portal.

• ...and we will find your name (if you haven't already.)

Okay, we have six weeks of creative work ahead of us and I want you to get everything out of these weeks. So please, never hesitate to ask me anything. My goal is to create a website that is deeply aligned with your soul. And in order to do that we have to uncover your soul language. I know it can be challenging to explain what you are envisioning, to really put into words what you see when you close your eyes. That’s why we are going to work with visuals, feelings and a lot of questions.

Let’s start this journey and find your magic.

You will receive six emails from me, today’s email included. These emails will always be send to you on a Monday, that way you have the whole week to go over the material and submit your content. The practices in these weekly modules are designed to motivate you to write your heart out, and with your words I will create a website that is fully aligned with who you are and what you stand for. Although the practices are optional, I strongly advise you to take part in every practice to get the most out of our time together. That’s also why I recommend you to buy a notebook or journal specifically for the practices in this course, you can also use digital paper if that is your preference. Evernote is a really great and free app if you are looking for writing software.

Please make sure to work through each weeks material and send in your content before Sunday.

At the end of each module you will find a form that you can use to send in your work for that week and ask me any questions that you might have. I  recommend that you write down your questions during the week, and send them to me when you submit all your weekly content.

However, if you have any questions that can’t wait or that you need answered before you can continue with the material, feel free to email me!

Let start the journey.

When I first explored the idea of starting my own business I was so enthusiastic that I couldn’t stop brainstorming and daydreaming about it. I had a vision of what Nabalo was supposed to become, and when I closed my eyes I could see it so clearly. But when I tried to put my vision into words, I had trouble explaining my vision to others. And so I started to write down what Nabalo was standing for, what it felt like, what I could see it become in the future. I wrote down my dreams, my goals, and everything I wanted to bring to into the world through this digital portal, my online space. And in the process of putting my dreams in words I uncovered my Mission Statement. Writing this statement helped me to focus on the core of my soul business, it helped me to gain confidence regarding my dreams and it definitely helped me to share with others why I do what I do and what Nabalo is all about.

A mission statement is different from a business description.

We will dive deeper into your business description later, I want you to start with exploring your path of purpose.

Uncover your mission statement.

This is where it all starts, that intuitive nudge, that voice in the back of your mind, that feeling that is always there. I encourage you to grab pen and paper, take a moment to yourself and start to write down your dreams for this space, keep writing till you can see the vision clearly and have uncovered your statement. Your statement tends to come to you in one or two sentences once you have created clarity. If you need some questions to get you started:

• Where does your joy comes from?

• What do you believe in?

• What were you born to do?

• What do you envision for your online space?

Your business and brand description.

Now that you have uncovered your mission, writing your business and brand description will be a whole lot easier! I want you to write down in a couple sentences - straight from the heart without thinking to much about it - what your business is about. Imagine you only have 30 seconds to explain what you do. How would you use your words? We will dive deeper into the soul of your website when you're going to write your website manifest in module three, so keep this short and direct.

Your business name.

I'm assuming you already found your business name. If you haven't yet, please spend some time on this and really feel into a name that resonates with you. Your intuition is your true guide here, trust it! If you need some help, begin writing down every word associated with your business and your dream and see if that inspires you, or answer the below questions to kick start your brainstorming session:

• What do you want your name to communicate?

• Is the purpose of your business connected to the name?

Get a head start on your website photography.

One last thing in this first module, high resolution pictures can make a huge difference for your website, so I advise you to schedule a fun shoot with a photographer. Having your beautiful smile welcoming people to your website can be a great way for your customers or audience to feel connected to you. Even if you don’t like to be in the spotlight, you can have a photographer do a lifestyle shoot of your products, workspace, or your favorite places in nature. Here are some examples.

You did amazing, now let’s finish up this week.

By working with the above questions you have created the framework for your website, all that is left for this week is sending in the results via the form below. If you have questions, remarks, thoughts or just want to say hi, there is place for that as well.

We will meet again next Monday. In this second week of our journey we are going to create a Visual Style Guide!

Module One Form