When Jennie Lakenan set out to certify as a coach, she never imagined that her entrepreneurial journey would lead her to become one of the most sought-after website designers in the coaching industry. Like many great business stories, hers began with a problem hiding in plain sight.
“As I was prepping to certify as a coach, I kept bumping into coaches whose sites didn’t represent them well at all,” she recalls. “Some didn’t even have a site. Others were half-finished templates with lorem ipsum text still in place. As we do as entrepreneurs, I saw a problem that needed to be solved and figured out a way to solve it.”
With a strong tech background, a keen eye for design, and a growing team of specialists, Lakenan turned her initial frustration into a thriving business. Today, she and her international team have built more than 150 websites for coaches and entrepreneurs. But her work extends far beyond eye-catching visuals. Lakenan is equally a strategist, a branding advisor, and what some call the “coach’s coach” when it comes to creating digital shop fronts that actually convert.
Why Websites Still Matter
In an age dominated by social media, some coaches assume a website is optional. Lakenan disagrees. “You are who Google says you are,” she explains. “In an AI-influenced digital world, your site is credible proof you’re real, trustworthy, and serious about helping people.”
She’s seen how powerful even small updates can be. “A single page revision led one of my clients’ referral partners to say, ‘This looks so legit and clear!’ and they immediately sent their 65,000-person audience our client’s way. Open the door by updating and using your website. Make it easy to trust you.”
From Websites to Client-Attracting Platforms
Lakenan is quick to point out that a website is more than a digital brochure. Done right, it’s the centerpiece of a coach’s client attraction strategy. “I show them it’s a central spot for making your coaching offer clear, hosting lead capture, and an easy path to take the first step in your sales process,” she says.
That trust building begins with messaging. As part of her Success Planning process, Lakenan’s first question to new clients is deceptively simple: “How do you describe your coaching business to someone who knows nothing about you?” She listens for a one-liner: problem, solution, result. That response tells her where the coach is with messaging and where that messaging needs to go next.
“When the words, images, and overall flow of your site feel like your personality, your calls end up being warmer and yeses increase because they’ve come to know you through your online presence before they ever meet you.”
She warns against relying on design alone. “Pretty without strategy doesn’t convert very well. Before design can make much of a difference, you must use the right words to make your offer attractive.”
Anchoring to Your “Why”
For new coaches overwhelmed by technology and branding choices, Lakenan offers a mantra: “implement imperfectly.” She says perfectionism can keep good work from ever reaching the people who need it most. “When you remember the potential client on the other side of the screen—the person up at 2 AM searching for relief with burnout or grief or whatever you help with—perfectionism stops feeling noble and starts feeling like withholding.”
That perspective has guided many of her clients, including Krista St-Germain, who once told Lakenan, “I wish I had perfected less and implemented faster.” St-Germain, whose unique niche is coaching widows through their grief, says Lakenan’s technical expertise is matched by her ability to help coaches clarify and convincingly promote their unique value propositions.
Messaging That Resonates
As both a certified coach and seasoned marketer, Lakenan has a dual perspective on what makes messaging land. Too often, she says, coaches make the mistake of “coaching” on their website. Instead, she advises, “meet people where they are, in their words, and speak to the problems they believe they have right now.”
To help coaches find the right words, Lakenan often uses StoryBrand, a messaging framework used by more than a million businesses worldwide. “The first thing we create is your BrandScript—a one-page map of your message that spells out, in plain language, who your client is (the character), the problems they feel right now, and your plan to help them get the success they want.”
She pairs that structure with real-world language. “We pull exact phrases from client interviews, testimonials, Reddit threads, Amazon reviews—anywhere your people talk honestly—so the copy mirrors their pains and aspirations. That combination of a clear structure and lived language is what makes messaging land.”
Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Lakenan sees three mistakes repeatedly in the coaching world:
- Solving problems nobody wants solved,
- Trying to solve too many problems at once, and
- Choosing a niche that’s too vague
“Lead with one pain your best clients already feel, tie it to one clear offer, and name the specific person it’s for,” she advises. “When those three are clear—audience, pain, offer—your message gets sharper and more compelling, and the right clients find you faster.”
The Power of Story and Empathy
If there’s one thing competitors can’t copy, it’s a coach’s personal story. “Two people can teach the same thing and still be distinct because of the lives behind the lessons,” Lakenan explains. She recalls highlighting the unique journey of one client, Danna Owen, a single mom who took over a construction equipment rental business in a male-
dominated field. “That’s something no one else can copy and a core part of what brought her to where she is.” Owen says Lakenan and her team asked smart questions that enabled her to clarify for clients—and even for herself—the coaching value she offers.
Empathy, Lakenan underscores, is a crucial ingredient of effective marketing. “People want to build relationships with others who understand them,” she says. “If you can convey on your website that you understand what your clients are struggling with, they’re going to feel understood and want to work with you. People buy from those who understand them.”
Building for Growth
Lakenan believes a website should be treated as a “living asset.” She encourages coaches to review and tweak their sites quarterly, publish fresh content, and refresh messaging as their business evolves. She also integrates psychological triggers into design and copy. For example, reward-based calls-to-action like “Get my free guide” or “Send me the checklist.” Humans, she points out, are conditioned to respond to the promise of getting something valuable, and using first-person language helps people see themselves taking that action.
Aaron Jacobs, another of Lakenan’s clients, praises her website development and marketing skills and calls her project management prowess “super smart and off-the-charts effective.” With a background of working more than a dozen years at Microsoft, Jacobs has a credible frame of reference.
Lessons from Her Own Journey
Like many entrepreneurs, Lakenan’s professional story is inseparable from her personal one. In early 2020, she faced a crossroads: she and her husband wanted another child. But she feared pregnancy would derail the business she had built as the family’s sole breadwinner. “I was convinced the business would crash and burn if I couldn’t be fully present,” she admits.
Instead of abandoning the dream, she built a plan—saving a cash cushion, creating systems her team could run, and designing a waitlist strategy. When she did become pregnant during the pandemic, the plan worked. “We didn’t grow a ton during that time, but that was part of the plan. And I took the time I needed to snuggle that newborn and enjoy this new family of five.”
For Lakenan, entrepreneurship is not about constant hustle but about intentional design—of both business and life. “You don’t have to choose between being present for your family and building something meaningful,” she says. “And you don’t have to be full-go all the time to succeed. You can intentionally build your business or career around the kind of life you want for your family.”
Jennie Lakenan’s story is proof that strategy, empathy, and authenticity are as essential online as they are in real life. She has shown hundreds of coaches how to transform half-finished templates into websites that speak directly to their audiences’ needs and aspirations. And she’s demonstrated through her own journey that success doesn’t come from doing everything at once. It comes from doing the right things with strategic focus on heartfelt values.
For coaches and entrepreneurs wondering whether their website truly reflects who they are and what they offer, Lakenan offers both a challenge and an invitation: make your online presence not just a placeholder, but a living, breathing extension of your mission.