Chapter 11
The Rise of
SQSP Themes
After over a year of hustling without a clear direction, I finally found my niche in Squarespace. The next step was to build a sustainable business around it—something that could generate income without me being hands-on with every project.
The early success of finding leads through Craigslist and Upwork was encouraging, but it was clear that I needed to create something more sustainable. Excited by the possibilities, I called my friend Jiv, who had given me SEO advice years earlier.
“Yo, this is it! Squarespace themes!” I said, feeling a new idea taking shape.
While platforms like WordPress and ClickFunnels catered to marketers with themes and templates, Squarespace was focused on creatives who weren’t as concerned with business-oriented tools. I saw an opportunity in this untapped market and quickly launched SQSPThemes.com, a site where people could buy templates for their own Squarespace websites. My goal was to create passive income—digital products that could sell themselves, day or night.
However, I quickly realized that while my marketing was effective, my design skills weren’t up to par. I couldn’t create a Squarespace template that met my high standards. I tried hiring designers, but they were skeptical about the viability of Squarespace templates. Faced with these roadblocks, I pivoted to offering "tweak bundles" as productized services. For example, if a client needed three tweaks on their Squarespace site, it would cost $150, with delivery the next day. This stop-gap solution generated income while I worked towards my template vision.
To scale the tweak offer, I knew I couldn’t be the one delivering all the services. I started thinking about productizing my services—standardizing packages to address common needs, allowing me to streamline processes and serve more clients efficiently.
I doubled down on learning how to do the tweaks myself and began offering free training and workshops to grow my email list and Facebook group. This approach allowed me to build a community around my brand and establish myself as an expert in the field.
I followed a framework that became the backbone of my business strategy:
Capture: Identify specific problems clients faced with Squarespace—customizations, CSS tweaks, design issues.
Develop: Create standardized offers to address these problems, like tweak bundles.
Expose: Position my services in front of the right audience through Facebook groups, email marketing, and job posts.
This process allowed me to refine my service, build confidence, and transition from scrambling for clients to having a steady stream of leads.
One day, I got a call from the Arts Space about an opening. “Are you interested?” they asked. The opportunity was a dream come true—a place where I could live and create, surrounded by other artists.
The business was finally working, and I was able to move out of my mom’s old house. By the fall, I no longer felt like a failure. I had a business with a consistent flow of leads,
We moved into a loft at the Arts Space—a place we’d once only dreamt about.
A month later, I was making enough with Squarespace tweaks that my wife could quit her retail job, and I was all in.
What once seemed like a distant dream was now our reality—a place to live, create, and grow together as a family. The loft, with its high ceilings and wide-open space, was more than just a home; it was a symbol of the life we had fought to build. I was no longer just surviving—I was thriving, and the future felt full of possibilities.