New Starts in Los Angeles

Earlier today I realized that this might be one of my last chances to write from San Diego - and since I’ve been REALLY bad about it in 2020 so far, this is my chance to redeem myself and at least get back on track for the 2nd part of the year.

In any case, 2020 for me has gone quite differently than I expected at the beginning of the year. I imagine, if you are a human (and not a bot), that you can probably relate. Since my last post I’ve taken a new job and at the time of this writing, made plans to move to Los Angeles. Definitely not where I was expecting to be 6 months into the year. But life has a way of giving you what you need, so I’m excited for the opportunity to try something new. 

For one part of my ‘trying something new’ efforts, I’ve also decided to explore something that has always been interesting to me: writing children’s books. This is particularly exciting for me because it is something that is so entirely different from my professional experience thus far that I’m not really sure what to expect at all. To do so, I’m dipping my toe in by taking a course on Udemy called: Writing for Children. I plan to take notes along the way, so maybe I’ll use those as my basis for content until I get going with the books themselves. :) 

I’ve had a few plotlines that have been bouncing around my mind for quite a while now, but I was never able to take them and turn them into a tangible concept. I’m hoping that with this course I can add some structure where there currently is none. If nothing else, I figure it will be a fun way to be creative in a totally new way. And who knows, maybe I’ll really enjoy it.

Another major part of moving and starting this course is that it gives me an opportunity to expand my copywriting while in Los Angeles. You might say “well, you can write from anywhere if you’ve got a laptop” - and yes, while this is absolutely true, and something that has carried me from place to place, I do believe our environments can seriously impact our outputs (and of course the overall quality of our lives). So, all of this to say, that I’m hoping that our new home will give me the mental refresh I’ve been searching for; along with the bravery necessary to do what is needed. 

So, since if it’s not in writing, it doesn’t exist, here are my goals for the move to Los Angeles.

1. Reach all of my goals professionally in my current professional role.

2. Help Chara to develop his Part 107 tutorial for drone pilots

3. Finish my children’s book course

4. Write my first children’s book

The good news? There’s never been a better time to build our futures from the time and skills that are available to us today. And I’ve never felt like there’s been a better time for it. 

Introducing Myself (and to 2020) - Plus 5 Thoughts on Squarespace for Beginner Bloggers

It’s interesting what finally motivates us to make the changes necessary to achieve our dreams, big and small, in life. Whether it’s moving to another country, starting a new job, creating a blog, or anything else that takes some amount of effort and bravery, the catalyst sometimes comes from the most unexpected of places.

So, if you’ve recently started something new, or are looking for the courage to do so, I’m rooting for you. (and if you’re only reading this for the Squarespace part, go ahead and skip to the bottom)

With that being said,  welcome, bienvenido, hoşgeldiniz, I’m happy you’re here. This is the first ‘real’ post here (we’ll call the older ones practice, but do feel free to take a look at them as well!) - because this will be the one where introductions are made and expectations are set. 

My name is Francesca and I’m a British / American writer and marketing professional based in San Diego, California. When I’m not working, you can find me traveling, running (marathon training), reading,  and trying out new recipes (some of which turn out nicely). I’ll be documenting some of these things, with honesty, minimal photo editing, and humor (mostly). 

Some topics you can expect to find from here on out include:

• Nutrition and some variety of cooking / baking {the latter could be more entertaining than valuable to start}

• Languages - tips for learning them, interesting tools etc

• Marketing - particularly content marketing and real estate marketing as these are the areas I feel I can best expand on

• ½ and full marathon training tips 

• Book reviews! Yay :) 

I imagine over time I’ll whittle these down to a focus, but let’s start broad and narrow down. In the meantime, back to the topic of the day: this blog and what I’d like to achieve with it.

Writing a blog has been something that I’ve considered (and attempted) to do on a number of occasions. For whatever reason, I did not pursue it - I think primarily because I hadn’t found the right motivation to continue. And I look back on those days and do think it would have been nice to have a written account of the travels and experiences that I had previously. 

So there’s goal number one: to consistently keep track of the days and experiences, while hopefully finding patterns to things to improve from.

As for goal number two, I’m also hoping that keeping this record could help others who are trying to find their own inspiration. Or could even benefit from some of the things that I’ve learned along the way. It’s worth a try at least. :) 

And that catalyst I mentioned at the beginning? This time it was found in a moment of quiet and balance at a yoga studio in Purcellville, Virginia. Maybe one day I’ll write a post about that by itself. Though I built this blog in September, I would say this moment was the one that actually sealed my commitment to it for at least a year. Here we go! {Did you recently start a blog? Are you considering starting one? Let’s connect: hello@fjcelik.com) 

But enough about me and this blog, how about something slightly more useful? I promised some notes on Squarespace for beginner bloggers, who like myself, have a reasonable understanding of how websites should look, usability, marketing, and how to use Google to fill in the blanks. 

Without further ado, here are four things you should know about using Squarespace to build your first blog: 

1. It’s easy to make your site look good.

It took me about an afternoon to create this site from zero. Of course, I’ve since then made some changes to the structure and copy, but the overall site was quick and easy to get up and looking nice (in my opinion). On a scale of 1-10, I would rate my  ‘techyness” at around say 4. Which means if I can build a half decent site in that much time, it’s worth the effort.

There are certainly some things that still need to be done for me to get the site where I want it to be, but I would say it’s overall quite intuitive and easy to use. 

One other major bonus? The site goes mobile with literally no extra steps on my behalf - something that isn’t always the case with other site builders that don’t require coding.  

2. It’s not as customizable as say, Wix (but this is for the best).

Last year I built a site for our video production brand on Wix, and while the site turned out quite well, it was not an easy process. It took a few weeks and because unlike Squarespace, where the templates are quite a bit more constrained in what can be done, everything can be moved. In other words: you have literally an entirely blank slate in front of you.

Now, if you’re ready to spend some time learning a new software and you have a clear vision of what you want, this is fantastic. You can build (almost) anything that your mind can create, without having to do any coding. 

But there are some drawbacks to this:

• It’s very easy to get ‘lost’ in the site and overwhelmed by choices

• The site can get very heavy and slow down, quickly

• It does not always translate to mobile well, and oftentimes you have to rebuild the mobile version yourself 

Here are a few screenshots from that website:

To sum it up: if you want something that is quick, easy, and straightforward, Squarespace is the way to go. If you want to get fancy and build the site of your dreams, you may want to give Wix another look.

3. Hosting, analytics, and email are incredibly easy to set up.  

With some platforms you have to take the time to go to different sites to set up hosting, domains, and email. Not with Squarespace. It was so nice to be able to pay once (though a monthly plan is available) and have everything be done for a year. The pricing is also quite competitive for what you get.

If you use Google Analytics or Ads, they are also easy to integrate with just a few clicks. 

4. It has the option to integrate shopping capacity.

Though this isn’t super valuable for me at the moment, I can definitely see the potential for many types of brands. I spent a little time setting up a shop as test; and comparatively speaking,  it did take a bit more effort to understand than the majority of Squarespace’s features. I was able to figure it out, but the first few steps were not super intuitive to me. Having said that, if I get to the point where I need to ever products, I’m confident that I’ll be able to figure it out without too much difficulty. 

Thoughts overall? If the reason why you’re not building a site is because you don’t think you can do it, Squarespace could be exactly what you’re looking for. I’m impressed with the value and ease of the platform so far and hope to remain this way (stay tuned for an update if that goes south, though). 

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope that you stick around and find some value (or at least entertainment) from the content that is here. And if not? I hope you find some content that does resonate with you, wherever that may be on the internet.

Wanna keep in touch and see when I write another equally as fun post as this one? (ha ha). Make sure to sign up for my newsletter or join me on Instagram. 

See you next time!