How Building Websites Made Me a Better Business Coach, Consultant, and Brand Evangelist

I’ve been building websites for over 30 years. I started as a designer, learned custom coding along the way, and eventually discovered something unexpected. Web development helped shape me into a stronger and more effective business coach, employee, partner, and consultant.

Here are the lessons that shaped the way I coach, consult, lead, and guide others.

Systems That Strengthen Leadership Coaching and Consulting

When you’re producing 20–30 websites a year, you quickly learn the importance of efficiency without sacrificing quality.

To deliver consistent, high-end results, I built systems such as:

• Checklists and workflows
• Client and brand guideline forms
• Project scopes and estimating processes
• Reusable templates
• Onboarding steps for new developers

These organizational habits became the backbone of how I work today as a brand evangelist, business coach, and consultant. Systems empower people, create structure, and help turn big visions into manageable action steps.

Helping Others Cast Vision Through Business Coaching Strategy

People often turn to a website developer because they understand their limitations. It is the same advice I give my boys: if you want a good haircut, let a professional handle it. Trust me, you do not want Dad experimenting with clippers.

My role was never limited to building a website. It has always involved listening closely and helping clients:

• Clarify their goals and expectations
• Organize their scattered ideas
• Turn vision into an actionable plan
• Create a strategy and design that truly reflects who they are

That ability to draw out someone’s vision has been with me for a long time. When I was in my late teens, I used to take a taxi to work at Micro Pulse. One morning the driver asked what I did. I told him I built websites. He looked at me and said something I have never forgotten: “You get to make people’s dreams come true.”

Now, I know he meant that I help people take what they have in their mind and bring it to life. But as a young guy, I also took it a little literally. I thought, “Wow… I’m basically a digital fairy godmother with HTML.” I laughed about it then, but the truth is that comment stuck with me. Even today, all I really want to do is help people bring their dreams, visions, and ideas into reality.

And that is exactly what a strong brand evangelist, business coach, or business consultant does. Many people carry incredible ideas inside them, but they need someone who can listen, interpret, guide, and turn those ideas into a clear and achievable strategy. Helping others cast vision is not just a service. It is a privilege, and one that still brings me joy all these years later.

Thinking Ahead: A Core Skill for a Business Coach and Consultant

Coding forces you to think ahead and anticipate the “what ifs.” What if:

• Someone visits the site using an outdated browser?
• The university expands from a single site to a multi-site network?
• A small team grows from five employees to five hundred?
• My SEO efforts suddenly bring in thousands of new leads each month for my clients? (Not uncommon, of course.)

Good developers plan for scalability and flexibility. A strong business coach or consultant takes the same approach, helping clients prepare for future growth and potential challenges. It is not enough to solve the problems that are right in front of you. You also have to help people prepare for the ones they cannot see yet.

Thinking ahead means guiding clients to build systems, habits, teams, and processes that will not crumble when success arrives. It means preparing them for the opportunities that come with growth, not simply reacting to obstacles.

The more you train yourself to anticipate the ripple effects of every decision, the more valuable you become as a developer, a coach, a consultant, and a strategic partner in someone’s long-term vision.

Empowering Clients Through Teaching and Consulting

I’ve always valued empowering clients instead of trapping them in a system they cannot manage. That is why I trained each website owner to make updates on their own, publish blog posts, and manage their site confidently.

This required:

• Documentation
• Training sessions
• Step-by-step guides
• Teaching best practices

This mindset naturally evolved into a consulting approach. Whether I am serving as an employee, partner, or consultant, my goal is always the same: equip people to succeed long after our work together. True empowerment happens when clients feel confident enough to take action on their own.

It involves more than teaching someone where to click. It requires helping them understand why certain choices matter, how their decisions affect long-term results, and what strategies will set them up for future growth. When clients learn to navigate their own tools with clarity and purpose, they become more independent, more effective, and more capable of building momentum without constant outside support.

That is the real win for both the client and the consultant.

Listening: The Secret Skill of Every Effective Business Coach or Consultant

Listening became one of the most important skills I ever developed. Every person is unique, and every client wants to feel heard. When I listened well, I did not just hear their requests; I understood their goals, concerns, questions, and the deeper motivation behind the project.

Listening well helped me:

• Gain buy-in from stakeholders
• Avoid going over budget
• Get the design right the first time
• Achieve the results clients wanted
• Build strong relationships that turned into long-term partnerships

Listening is not passive. It is a strategic skill that informs decisions, strengthens relationships, and guides the entire process. Whether I am working as an employee, business coach, or consultant, listening remains foundational to everything I do. It helps people feel seen, and it allows me to guide them toward solutions that truly fit their needs and long-term goals.

Business Coaching, Consulting, and Personal Development

The work we do inevitably shapes who we become. Every project, every client, and every challenge carries a lesson if we are willing to notice it. Building websites taught me far more than how to design layouts or write clean code. It taught me how to lead with clarity, teach with patience, guide with empathy, and empower people to reach the goals they once thought were out of reach.

Those skills now influence every part of my work as an employee, business coach, consultant, and brand evangelist. Whether I am helping a business owner refine their strategy, guiding a team through a digital transformation, or championing a brand’s message so others can catch the vision, I draw directly from the years I spent solving problems, organizing ideas, and bringing dreams to life through design and strategy.

Personal development is not something that happens outside of work. It happens because of the work. The more I leaned into these experiences, the more I grew, not only as a professional, but as a mentor, leader, and advocate for the people and brands I serve.

Today, I use that blend of skills to help organizations build confidence, strengthen their digital presence, and pursue growth with purpose and direction.

Final Thoughts for Future Business Coaches and Consultants

Whatever role you are in today, whether you are a developer, marketer, manager, or owner, the experiences you are stacking right now may be preparing you for leadership roles you have not even imagined yet.

Embrace the process. Every skill compounds. Every season prepares you to guide someone else, whether as a business coach, consultant, or servant-leader in your field.