What an honor to be asked back to create more branding images for a business. Three years ago, Orthopaedic Center of Southern Illinois had their first branding session with us, and it was time for an update to their website, socials, and billboards. It’s always exciting to initially be asked to partner with a team, but it’s a huge honor to be asked to come back and work alongside them again. I was thrilled to get to see how the team is continuing to be cutting edge in the Southern Illinois region.

These images will help share their story to prospective patients in the area. I’ve found that most healthcare facilities don’t feel that they need to or should market their services. They typically feel that their knowledge and expertise should sell its self. While that might be an old way of thinking, it’s not a good one to keep. I’m proud of OCSI for being ahead of the curve. They understand that while their expertise is enough, it doesn’t tell the story of the care they continually give to their patients. Our hope was to showcase the care that providers give to their patients day in and out.

We are so excited to share these images! The team at OCSI has grown over the last three years, and our equipment has evolved. We’re now able to offer photos on a paper backdrop at your location. We loved using this option with OCSI. They have a large team, and it made it easiest on their team to have the photos all taken within their building. We love the final images, and we love how the paper backdrop allows their team to use these images for a multitude of options.

Take a look at their session below!

All the best,
Haley

P.S. We’re now booking business branding sessions for 2025. This is a great way to speak to your ideal customers about your services. Imagery speaks in today’s market — both good and bad. Let’s tell your story through branding images that are tailored to your specific needs.

Hey friends – I’m so excited to share about this topic with you. I’ve been able to design websites for years using different programs and technology. I was blown away when I discovered Showit six (or more) years ago. Showit completely changes the game for small business owners, and I’m thrilled to get to share more.

Let’s dig in!

If you’re reading this post, it’s likely because you either 1) are redesign your website personally and trying to decide if Showit is a good fit for you 2) you’re interested in my services and you’re confused what Showit is and why it’s the platform we solely use for websites.

You can easily take a tour around Showit’s website, but I’ll fill you in quickly. Showit allows web designers to design and create with ease using their drag-and-drop editor. Yes, there are other programs out there that say they do the same. However, in my experience they are a lot more “clunky,” slower, and are much more limited in their offerings. I LOVE how Showit provides designers with so many options to create.

Are you a nondesigner, no worries!

The best part though is truly for non designers. If that’s you – then congrats! I’m so excited for you to get to experience the blessings of Showit. As your designer, I will craft each of your webpages with your target market in mind. However, as a business owner myself, I know there are things that need changed or updated from time to time. It is EASY to update page, text, and photos. No coding needed to update any of these items! Long gone are the days that you have to get reconnected with a web designer or coder to update just one or two things.

SEO, we’ve got ya!

Showit also works with WordPress to give you incredible SEO on your blog and website. If you have a pre-existing WordPress blog you can easily migrate to your new Showit website. Many years ago, I was hesitant to switch (because change can be hard), but when I found that Showit can be used in collaboration with WordPress, I knew it was going to be a good fit. WordPress is one of the top blogging platforms in the world, and it provides users with so many options.

If you’re curious what the set-up process is like, here’s a little checklist. If you’re booking with More Than Marketing, we’ll take care of everything for you. We will set up all accounts, and we’ll provide instructions for how to login to manage once we’ve completed your set up.

Showit Website Launch List

• First, you will purchase a Showit subscription (that fits your business model).
• Next, set up a WordPress account (if needed).
• Then, you’ll decide if you’ll be designing your site from a pre-made template or a custom site from a design (hey there 😉 ). Templates can be beneficial for start-ups, but to maximize your customers’ experience you’ll want your website to be unique to you.
• Before launching, you’ll need to own your URL.

If you’re ready to dive into creating your dream website to give your customers the best experience. We’d love to hear from you!

Send us an email at morethanmarketingco@gmail.com

Alright y’all, I’m going to let you in on a little secret called batch working!! Years ago, I implemented batch working into my systems, and y’all – it is a GAME CHANGER. If you haven’t heard about this, or maybe you just haven’t implemented it into your business – now is the time to start!

Batch working is really simple. Instead of doing a little bit of editing here, office management work there, and then some phone calls here and there, you group all of your topic specific work together and focus on it at one time. Okay, so let me reword that in case it doesn’t make sense.

I know for many people it’s easy to make a list of ALL of the tasks you need to get done in a day/week. You do the tasks as it seems fitting or in order of urgency. This is completely understandable. However, what I’ve found is that I actually waste MORE time when I switch from task-to-task throughout the day and week. I have found that I am much MORE efficient with my work and time when I batch or group all of the same type of work at the same time. For instance, right now I’m writing this post. I’ve decided for an hour that I am going to batch work and focus on blogging – that means that I am going to blog as much as I can in this amount of time and focus on blogging. Yes, I could write my two posts for the week, and then switch over to something else. Then, next week I could do the same. However, what I’ve found is that specifically with blogging – I can write so much faster and complete so many more posts if I focus on just blogging for a set amount of time. If not, every week, I have to find time to sit down, refocus, and get restarted on blogging.

I know this might not seem like that big of help, or maybe you’re thinking – I don’t blog! That’s okay! I use batch work for SO many things!! I batch my editing (for my full-time job, I like to choose a day to only edit). I batch work my admin/book keeping (this is SUCH a help because I actually really dislike this part and batching everything makes me focus!). I batch Instagram and Youtube content (this is so helpful to plan ahead!). To some extent, you could say I batch meal planning and even house projects. Instead of hoping around during the day or week – I pick time to focus in on one task, and it helps me be SO much more efficient!

If you haven’t started batch working – you should! I love blocking off time to focus on one task, and it might seem difficult if you’re not used to it, I promise it gets better and easier over time! For me, I’ve found that sometimes giving my self a set amount of time makes my batch work “fun!” Quotes around “fun” because I know timed work doesn’t really sound like fun, but when give myself a realistic, but slightly challenging time crunch – I feel like it’s a competition. I enjoy the challenge, and it feels especially great when I get a lot done in the timed session.

Give it a try – and let me know what you think! I’m excited to hear what you’ll do with all your extra free time!

 

Y’all she’s here!!! I am so excited to finally blog that our daughter is here! Goodness gracious, we have prayed over this child, and we are so blessed that God answered our prayers through a healthy and beautiful baby girl!!

Our sweet Amelia Kate made her arrival late Tuesday, February 7, 2023, and we have been busy and in love ever since! I was in shock that she came before her due date especially since I had told everyone that she would be so late that I’d have to be induced! I even made plans for her actual due date since I was so convinced she was arriving late. I was wrong!! She came four days early when my water naturally broke on its own! Amelia is a total sweetheart, and we are so blessed that she is almost always happy and very healthy!! We are aware that this isn’t the reality for all babies, and we are just so overjoyed that God has blessed us with good health in little Amelia’s newborn life.

We’ve had many people ask about her name. It doesn’t have any special meaning to us other than Hayden told me he loved that name before we were married. Ever since Hayden mentioned this name, I just knew it’d be our baby girl’s name. We’ve talked about it on and off since, and when we found out we were expecting a girl this last August, I just knew this would be her name. I couldn’t picture any other name. We love how classy “Kate” is, and I love the nickname “Mia Kate.” So we plan to call her both Amelia and Mia Kate. So far, we mostly call her Amelia, and Beckham calls her Mia Kate (and baby sister…since that’s what we referred to her as my entire pregnancy).

The last month has been busy!! Goodness, I can’t believe it’s already been a month. I thought time flew by with Beckham’s first year, but I can tell this is already faster. I guess that’s what happens when you never get a chance to sit down! We are either wrangling a two year old or taking care of a newborn…and a few moments here and there we take a nap sitting straight up. Ahhh, the newborn stage! We can’t complain though, life is so sweet, and we have prayed – and begged – God for this opportunity. While we are looking forward to sleeping through the night again, we can’t begin to fully express how much we love this stage of life with our two littles!

This time around, Hayden and I decided to book a newborn session. I can’t even begin to tell you what a BLESSING this is and was to our family. For Beckham’s newborn photos, I set every photo on a tripod and had my MIL help snap the photos. It was so tedious, and I was so exhausted!! I figured it would be much much harder this time around, and I just didn’t want to miss out on the newborn stage for photos. We had our friend Courtney Longnecker of Courtney Smith Photo capture our family, and we love how the images turned out! The last time we paid someone to take our photos was our wedding (almost 7 years ago), so this was a real treat. It is so fun to have photos of Amelia and Beckham together.

2022 has challenged me like never before. I’m not sure when you’re finding this blog post, but there’s a good chance that if you’re reading this than you’ve had a hard year. Perhaps your year has been met with loads of disappointment, let down, grief, or just not meeting your expectations. Whatever the reason that you’re reading this post, I’m sorry.

If you’ve followed along, you know that we actually started our year off with the worst day of our lives (read the post) when we lost our daughter at 13 weeks. It was challenging to say the least that we were only five days into the new year, and every thing I had envisioned for my year came to an abrupt stop. I am a typical goal planner, and I love planning things weeks and months in advance. However, all of a sudden I was smacked in the face with reality, and I was just trying to make it to the next minute or the next hour without panic.

Of course, the year moved along, and while we did experience many joyful moments and days, but it’s easy for me to look back on this year and label it as a loss in of itself. Here’s where I’m leaning – and I’d love to encourage you.

This may have been a hard year, but there was still good.

It’s easy to write things off, but I know that I still have breath in my lungs and that God still did good in 2022. If you’re reading this – then guess what – God is still using you and that means there is still good!!!

A new year is a fresh start, but we have the freedom to start fresh EVERY DAY.

I won’t lie – I love New Years. Truthfully, I love any celebration, and of course, if it’s a national holiday, I’ve probably tried to see how we can celebrate or decorate. It’s just who I am. So naturally, I’m all about New Year resolutions, planning and preparing, and starting fresh! It feels good – ya know? However, I’ve had to remind myself that there is nothing magical about January 1. I, of course, can allow that to be a launch pad for a great new year, but what happens when troubles come my way next year…do I have to wait until 2024?!! I’ve tried to remind myself a new “year” starts every day! From Dec 1 to Dec 1 or March 13 to March 13. There is nothing magical about January 1, and I can restart every day if I have to. Lamentations 3:22-24 says,

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

23  they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

24  “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”

Every day His mercies are new EVERY MORNING. I think we need to give ourselves some grace and mercy EVERY MORNING – remind ourselves that we don’t have to be a prisoner of our past or our hurt. We can have hope that He conquered today, and we don’t have to wait until January 1 for that beauty.

Believe that there is good to come.

As I start a new year, it’s easy for me to think “is this going to be another 2022?!” You know, it very well could be – and I know that. However, I am staying encouraged knowing that this place – Earth – is not my home, and I can have hope that even if I experience a decade of heartache and pain…He is still in control. I pray that I do not have to experience that or be challenged to what I’ve just typed, but I know that there is good to come…even if it’s not in this lifetime.

Here’s a few verses that make me SO excited for what is to come:

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” Philippians 3:20-21

We can have HOPE! Let’s end this year – no matter what it has brought to us knowing that we’ve been carried through it!!