# The Fiery Well > Magical advice from a witch about improving your website, maintaining a small business, and evaluating your relationship to productivity Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### Supporting service-based witches with their websites, businesses and tech URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/about/ Last updated: 2026-06-26T22:38:04.000Z ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/2026/06/DSC_4025_compressed-2.jpeg) ## Supporting service-based witches with their websites, businesses, and more since 2019 ****My vocation is to focus on your goal, direction, budget, desires, technical limits, comfort, and experience when guiding you in developing, maintaining, and growing your online business.** [Hire Me](https://www.thefierywell.com/witching-hour/) If we haven’t met yet, my name is Patty Ryan Lee and I *am* The Fiery Well. This website is currently my playground. I burned down my business in 2024 and I am spending 2026 easing back into everything. My essays and blurbs will reflect this growth and transition. I write about building websites, [updating websites](https://www.thefierywell.com/5-minutes-to-reduce-your-bounce-rate-in-2025/), choosing platforms for websites and... just a lot of website things. I make websites for witches, after all. I also write about [productivity through the lens of ritual](https://www.thefierywell.com/tag/ritual-of-work/). I'm an exhausted mother of two that has to lean into witchcraft to get anything done. Some of it's magic. A lot of it is mundane. All of it works. (What works works until it doesn't.) You can [hire me for coachsultations](https://www.thefierywell.com/witching-hour/). You'll realize I ask a lot more questions than you’re probably used to. I offer advice only when asked. And I love seeing my clients realize their full potential. I’m a solitary witch, tarot reader, serial entrepreneur, and mother of two. I’m old. I’ve seen shit. And I’m set in my ways: I’ve been making websites and supporting small businesses with their tech & related systems for nearly 30 years. I’m not for everyone and I no longer try to be. Because let's face it: it’s time to ditch what’s *expected of* you and build something that *supports* you. --- # A note on ethics in tech All tech extracts from the landscape and its inhabitants: literally, metaphorically, financially, socially, geologically, and politically. Having choices in technology, if not an outright illusion, is a privilege that is not equitable. While we fight for a better tomorrow, today we can only build our awareness of the impact of our use of technology and balance our choices against our values within the options available to us. That said, I will not be neutral in my recommendations of products and services on this website. --- # AI Disclosure I hate generative AI. All the writing on this website was done by a really flawed human. Me. What else can I say? I do not use ChatGPT or whatever the fuck else AI tools there are to create content for this site or guide me in decision making or design work for my clients. I barely use spell check. The typos are mine. The grammatical mistakes are mine. The overuse of the comma is mine. OpenAI can go fuck itself. ### Code of Conduct URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/code-of-conduct/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T14:42:39.000Z *Last Updated: July 24, 2024* This policy is a “living” document and is subject to refinement and expansion in the future. This community is for anyone who identifies as a witch and is currently working towards becoming, or currently is, a solitary entrepreneur & service provider — whatever that looks like for you. ## Server Rules 1. You are responsible for yourself, your feelings, and your experience inside this community. 2. This server abides by Discord’s [Privacy Policy](https://discord.com/privacy?ref=thefierywell.com), [Terms of Service](https://discord.com/terms?ref=thefierywell.com), and [Code of Conduct](https://discord.com/guidelines?ref=thefierywell.com), which means you do, too. 3. Respect that there is no one “right way” to be a witch. This community is non-denominational. We may all identify with the word witch in some way **and** respect that each person’s practice is their own. 4. Respect that there is no one “right way” to be an entrepreneur and your experiences may differ from someone else’s. 5. You understand the difference between swearing and being hateful. You can swear (fuck yea!), but you will be banned from the server for derogatory, inflammatory, or racist language 1. Usernames containing a known slur (such as g\*psy) it will result in an auto-ban of your account from the server. Please email the Admin team at [support@thefierywell.com](mailto:support@thefierywell.com) once you have changed your username and you will be permitted into the server. If you refuse to change your username you will not be permitted into the server. 6. Respect people’s identities and gender expression. Intentional dead-naming & continued misgendering will result in a ban. 7. Keep discussion on topic and in the appropriate channels whenever possible. This is not the server for “spell requests” or on-demand “spiritual guidance.” 8. No SPAM! (While a broad term, SPAM includes self-promotion if you have the Role of Guest, excessive multiple posting across channels, or within a single channel, and anything consistently reported as “spammy” by community members.) 9. Self-promotion is permitted in designated channels or under designated threads only. 10. You will not enter into any private or direct message conversation with another member without their explicit, written request or permission. One reported offense is a warning. A second is grounds for removal. 11. The Fiery Well does not respond to private or direct messages. If you have an issue to report, please email [support@thefierywell.com](mailto:support@thefierywell.com) 12. By participating in this community you consent to the use of any comments, portions of discussions, testimonials, and feedback made within The Fiery Well and its channels may be used to advertise The Fiery Well services in part or whole, with or without confirmation from The Fiery Well prior to its publication. 13. These rules may change based on the needs of the community and its members. ## Code of Conduct We want this to be a fun, pleasant, and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity, and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate the harassment of participants in any form. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately or face being banned from the server (and/or ejected from any paid membership.) This code of conduct applies to all The Fiery Well community spaces, both online and off. Anyone who violates this code of conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from these spaces at the discretion of the Admin team. Some of The Fiery Well community spaces may have additional rules in place, which will be made clearly available to participants. Participants are responsible for knowing and abiding by these rules. ## Harassment includes: - Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion. - Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, spiritual practice, and employment. - Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names. - Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behavior in spaces where they’re not appropriate. - Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop. - Threats of violence. - Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm. - Deliberate intimidation. - Stalking or following. - Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes. - Sustained disruption of discussion. - Unwelcome sexual attention. - Unwelcome spiritual attention. - Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others. - Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease. - Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse. - Publication of non-harassing private communication. The Fiery Well prioritizes marginalized people’s / underrepresented people’s safety over privileged people’s comfort. The Admin team reserves the right not to act on complaints regarding: - “Reverse” -isms, including “reverse racism,” “reverse sexism,” and “cisphobia” - Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.” - Communicating in a “tone” you don’t find congenial - Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions ## Reporting ### The Current Admin Team is: - @thefierywell If you are being harassed by a member of The Fiery Well community (either a guest or paid member), notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact the Admin team via email at [support@thefireywell.com](mailto:support@thefierywell.com) or complete the Reporting form below. We will respond as promptly as we can. This code of conduct applies to The Fiery Well community spaces, and the Admin team reserves the right to exclude people from The Fiery Well community based on their past behavior, including behavior outside of The Fiery Well community spaces and behavior towards people who are not in The Fiery Well community. In order to protect the Admin team from abuse and burnout, we reserve the right to reject any report we believe to have been made in bad faith. Reports intended to silence legitimate criticism may be deleted without response. We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. At our discretion, we may publicly name a person about whom we’ve received harassment complaints, or privately warn third parties about them, if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of The Fiery Well community members or the general public. We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent. ## Consequences ### Moderation Stages - One reported offense is a warning. - Two reported offenses will result in a temporary ban from the server. - A third reported offense is grounds for removal from Discord & any paid membership. - Attempts to rejoin Discord, or The Fiery Well membership, under a secondary or “alt” account to circumvent any removals will result in a complete lifetime ban from both. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the Admin team may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from all The Fiery Well community spaces and identification of the participant as a harasser to other The Fiery Well community members or the general public. > **Credits** > > This work is available to you to use, publish, and modify under the terms of the [Creative Commons Attribution License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/?ref=thefierywell.com). Please keep (but feel free to tweak) the paragraph below attached to your final version. > > We send virtual hugs and thanks to the multiple sources that we drew from to build this Code of Conduct, including: [Stark](https://github.com/stark-contrast/code-of-conduct?ref=thefierywell.com), [Spectrum](https://github.com/withspectrum/code-of-conduct?ref=thefierywell.com), [Figma](https://github.com/figma/community/blob/master/code-of-conduct.md?ref=thefierywell.com) and the Design Systems Slack which are in turn based on [Geek Feminism’s Anti-Harassment resources](http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Community%5Fanti-harassment?ref=thefierywell.com). ### Disclaimer URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/disclaimer/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T14:41:32.000Z Please wait while the policy is loaded. If it does not load, please [click here](https://policies.termageddon.com/api/policy/WTNGUlRDdG5jazlPVEZSQ1VWRTlQUT09?ref=thefierywell.com) to view the policy. ### Contact Patty @ The Fiery Well URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/contact/ Last updated: 2026-08-08T14:36:29.000Z ### Send me snail mail: The Fiery Well LLC 8235 Old Troy Pike #155 Dayton, Ohio 45424 ### Prefer email over forms? You can reach me at [inquiry@thefierywell.com](mailto:inquiry@thefierywell.com) and I'll reply within two business days. ### Are you on social media? [Let's Be Thriends](https://www.threads.com/@thefierywell?ref=thefierywell.com) ### Privacy Policy URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/privacy-policy/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T14:44:00.000Z Please wait while the policy is loaded. If it does not load, please [click here](https://app.termageddon.com/api/policy/VVVocE0zZzVRbEpoU1VacWExRTlQUT09?css-compatibility=true&h-align=left&h-depth=3&no-title=true&table-style=accordion&ref=thefierywell.com). ### Terms of Service URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/terms-of-service/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T14:44:48.000Z Please wait while the policy is loaded. If it does not load, please [click here](https://app.termageddon.com/api/policy/TTFrM1FVbHhURWRrWXpCcWJVRTlQUT09?css-compatibility=true&h-align=left&h-depth=3&no-title=true&ref=thefierywell.com). ### Cookie Policy URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/cookie-policy/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T14:45:05.000Z Please wait while the policy is loaded. If it does not load, please [click here to view the policy](https://app.termageddon.com/api/policy/UlVRd2RpdHlkMk5CZVVONGNuYzlQUT09?css-compatibility=true&h-align=left&h-depth=3&no-title=true&ref=thefierywell.com). ### Refund Policy URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/refund-policy/ Last updated: 2025-01-25T12:06:49.000Z **For digital product items** we have a 7-day refund policy. We guarantee you’ll enjoy your purchase, but if you are less than satisfied, just let us know and we’ll work with you to make it right, even if that means a full refund within the first week (7 days) of your purchase. **For any Services, such as participation in a membership or group program, website hosting, web development or design, consulting, retreat, or mentorship program**: Patricia Ryan Lee stands behind her work and her participation as a professional aiding in your success. If you find evidence that The Fiery Well, LLC has not performed its work in a professional and ethical manner, you may request a refund of any payments made in the 30 days prior to your submission of evidence. ### Accessibility Statement URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/accessibility-statement/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T14:45:36.000Z ## Measures to support accessibility The Fiery Well LLC takes the following measures to ensure accessibility of The Fiery Well - Include accessibility as part of our mission statement. - Include accessibility throughout our internal policies. - Integrate accessibility into our procurement practices. - Provide continual accessibility training for our staff. ## Conformance status The [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)](https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/?ref=thefierywell.com) defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. The Fiery Well is partially conformant with WCAG 2.0 level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard. ## Feedback We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of The Fiery Well. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers on The Fiery Well: - E-mail: [support@thefierywell.com](mailto:support@thefierywell.com) - Postal Address: 8235 Old Troy Pike #155, Dayton OH 45424 We try to respond to feedback within 5 Business Days. ## Technical specifications Accessibility of The Fiery Well relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer: - HTML - WAI-ARIA - CSS - JavaScript These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used. ## Limitations and alternatives Despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility of The Fiery Well , there may be some limitations. Below is a description of known limitations, and potential solutions. Please contact us if you observe an issue not listed below. Known limitations for The Fiery Well: 1. **Comments from users**: Uploaded images may not have text alternatives because We cannot ensure the quality of contributions. We monitor user comments and repair issues with 7 business days. Please use the ‘report issue’ button if you encounter an issue. ## Assessment approach The Fiery Well LLC assessed the accessibility of The Fiery Well by the following approaches: - Self-evaluation ## Formal complaints Please provide any details or issues you have come across and we will do our best to fix them and prevent them in future website creations. ## Formal approval of this accessibility statement This Accessibility Statement is approved by: The Fiery Well LLC Patricia Ryan Lee CEO This statement was created on 24 July 2024 using the [W3C Accessibility Statement Generator Tool](https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning/statements/?ref=thefierywell.com). ### System, business, and tech support for service based witches URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/witching-hour/ Last updated: 2026-09-03T15:18:41.000Z ## System, business, and tech support for service based witches What can you get done in business when your goals, your gut, and your wallet are all on the same page? You'll find out. [Book a Witching Hour](https://cal.com/thefierywell/witching-hour?ref=thefierywell.com) ## What is a Witching Hour? Accountability and access to an expert. Want your feet held to the fire while you update your website or email automations? Need to reduce your tech stack? Simplify a system? Get clear on an offering or service? Figure out why people aren't signing up for your newsletter from your website? You need a Witching Hour. These are private, agenda-less, solution finding consultations and soul searching coaching sessions with Patty Ryan Lee. *In less than an hour* we will work together towards clarity on anything from your business path to website issues. Hey, I'm Patty Ryan Lee and I'm not one for chit-chat. I am a seasoned web developer and designer, serial entrepreneur, tarot reader, witch, and mother of two that understands time is precious — let's get into it. ### What makes you different from the next coach or tech expert? I used to say I'm the Google that will ask questions back. But in the age of AI... I'm going to say I'm the *human* that asks the questions *that matter*. And your answers aren't just what you tell me, but *how* you say them. I'm watching your body language, I'm discerning changes in your voice, and I'm helping you navigate everything from sales funnels to website changes based on what you *actually want and need...* not just what everyone else is telling you. ## What gets done during a Witching Hour? Not only will I give you the permission to do what it is you want, I'll help you chart the path to *getting it:* - **Want your website done?** I'll help you understand if you even *need* one, or I can help you lay out your next sales page - **Can't seem to get over sending that first marketing email?** I'll lovingly help you get the fuck over it - **Not sure what tool to use for email marketing, your website, or ... anything else?** I'll help you *hire* the right tool for you and your budget - **Feel like you're wasting your time with social media?** Let's dive into the data - **Don't have the data?** Let's set you up to make those data driven decisions... they often matter just as much as the gut decisions (especially if you have anxiety or second guess every business decision) ❤️‍🔥 "Patty gets straight to the heart of things and is so good at providing both hard practical and gentle soul-level support.”– Sharon, **Swail Studio* ### What are the details for scheduling a Witching Hour with Patty Ryan Lee? - Appointments are available Tuesdays and Thursdays - are up to 45 minutes in length, held on Google Meet - cost $150.00 USD - Session notes, recordings, and transcript will be emailed within 24 hours Book Your Witching Hour Today [Book Now ](https://cal.com/thefierywell/witching-hour?ref=thefierywell.com) ### Some kind words from previous witching hour clients > **Allie came in “overwhelmed, anxious, procrastinating” and left “So relieved! Way more clear and capable.”** I was too overwhelmed to even start before, but after we talked I was able to get in and organize my \[Dubsado\] workflows. \[Patty\] is really easy to follow and understand. \[She\] worked with how my brain works rather than forcing me through a process. It was super helpful! —Allie, [*Something Greater Social*](https://somethinggreatersocial.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) > **Amelia went from “totally lost” to feeling like “I had the lay of the land!”** “Patty has such a no-nonsense, we-can-figure-this-out approach to tech and business systems. She can help me see the big picture. And when my head starts spinning with all the details, she is a grounding, we-got-this force. Highly suggest working with her!" – Amelia, [*Softer Sounds*](https://www.softersounds.studio/?ref=thefierywell.com) > **Yumi felt “VERY heard” throughout her session.** “\[Patty\] really listens to your needs and helps you make the most of the session. She doesn’t have a set agenda and lets you focus on what you want to accomplish. Love the flexibility she offers. She also doesn’t make you feel stupid for not knowing or doing things correctly!“ – Yumi, [*Yumi Matsuo Studio*](https://yumimatsuostudio.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) > **HanaKyle came in “discombobulated” and left “feeling confident with her plan”**“Patty was super helpful, insightful, and clear. She brought empathy and understanding and acutely helpful details as she answered my questions and helped me work through all the parts of my business that I brought to the table.”– HanaKyle Moranz, [*The Body Hotline*](https://www.hanakyle.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) > **Sharon came for a tech audit and received “a reality check”**“I got the much-needed validation that YES, I was trying to do A LOT, and assurance that I was in a normal phase of change in my business, as challenging as it felt. And the permission I needed to slow down and re-assess how I’d organized my business(es) and why. I got very actionable tech tips as well as a Tarot spread, book recs, and valuable context and perspective. – Sharon, [*Swail Studio*](https://www.swail.studio/?ref=thefierywell.com) > **Denise came in feeling “lost in the weeds of CRM systems”** **and left with “new sense of options”** After our session together, Denise had a “clear idea of next steps, developing workflows task, and new sense of options. Patty is practical and helpful, with experience in the online business world.”– Denise Hancock, [*Astrology with Denise*](https://www.astrologywithdenise.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) ## Book your Witching Hour today — spend less than an hour with me and save more than a day of struggling to do it yourself ## Can I ask follow-up questions after our session? If something from our session needs clarification, I am more than happy to oblige over email. Please allow up to 48 hours for a response! Otherwise, if you have additional questions stemming from our session (light bulbs or realizations afterward are common!), please book a follow up session. ### What is the agenda or breakdown of our session? We’ll spend a few minutes saying hello, of course! And then we will dive right into the main priority of our session, which you have outlined or detailed enough for me to isolate in your intake form, and go from there. Oftentimes, the session will be exhausted over one or two key points but sometimes we can get to a dozen things – clarity and focus on true priorities will arise as the session goes, so go with the flow! I’ve had clients come in thinking one thing was the issue, and it turns out there was a completely different root cause. It happens and is the result of working with someone not “inside the same box.” ### I have a question that isn’t answered here. Please [contact me](https://www.thefierywell.com/contact/) any time! I’m also happy to answer pre-session questions like “is this something we can cover?” ### Do you offer refunds? Patricia Ryan Lee stands behind her work and her participation as a professional aiding in your success. If you find evidence that The Fiery Well, LLC has not performed its work in a professional and ethical manner, you may [request a refund](https://thefierywell.com/refund-policy/?ref=thefierywell.com) of any payments made in the 30 days prior to your submission of evidence. ### Discord URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/discord/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T14:43:36.000Z [Discord has become problematic](https://proton.me/blog/discord-global-age-verification?ref=thefierywell.com) and I have since decided to close The Fiery Well server. If you would like to know when and where we are coworking or hanging out, please [sign up for the newsletter](https://get.thefierywell.com/?ref=thefierywell.com). ### Preference Updated URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/preferences-confirmed/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T14:43:21.000Z _No content available._ ### My Recommendations URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/tool-box/ Last updated: 2026-07-11T16:11:41.000Z ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/2026/06/anton-savinov-lDwKKjlHL2Y-unsplash.jpg) ## The Toolbox The tools and resources that I use, love, and/or highly recommend. Most are affiliate links. ## Books & Tarot Decks What does a witch web developer read? A lot of various things. What kind of tarot decks does she use? Way too many. [Find them all at my Bookshop.org page](https://bookshop.org/shop/thefierywell?ref=thefierywell.com) [The Fiery Well BookshopHave the privilege of not shopping at Amazon? Here’s what’s on my shelf–books and tarot decks.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)Bookshop![](https://images-production.bookshop.org/spree/affiliate_profiles/banner_images/17455/original/The_Fiery_Well.jpg?1687888658)](https://bookshop.org/shop/thefierywell?ref=thefierywell.com) My list of favorite books and tarot decks. ## Software & Services As a business owner, graphic designer, web developer, web designer, and writer... I go through a lot of SaaS (software as service) tools and software. There is no one tool to rule them all, and that's not a bad thing. ## For Writing ### Scrivener The ultimate tool if you are doing research heavy or multi-part writing pieces. Buy once and own it forever. [Scrivener does have a learning curve](https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview?ref=thefierywell.com), but it can be very helpful for big projects, such as essays and books. ### Obsidian [Obsidian is what Notion used to be–only better](https://obsidian.md/?ref=thefierywell.com). Local storage, simple and clean interface, easily organize all of your writing. Oh, and it's free and open source. While Obsidian does not have a database feature, I think that puts it above Notion as a place to write and store writing. ## Scheduling ### Cal.com A free alternative to Calendly, Acuity, and others, Cal.com is a fantastic booking software for free and paid appointments. [Start for free or upgrade to a paid account for more features, and save 20% off your first year.](https://refer.cal.com/thefierywell?ref=thefierywell.com) (affiliate) ## Email Service Providers ### Proton Mail I've been using Proton mail for the past year, after leaving Google Workspace. It has its limitations in exchange for secure, encrypted and private email. Not ideal for those that rely on Google Calendar for business / appointment scheduling. Privacy is a battle of choices. [Get two weeks free on your chosen plan today](https://pr.tn/ref/38JNQWPE?ref=thefierywell.com). (affiliate) ## Passwords and Security ### Bitwarden For password handling, there's [nothing better than Bitwarden](https://bitwarden.com/?ref=thefierywell.com). It's free. It's open source. It works in your browser(s) and in your phone(s) and you can share account details with family easily. ## Non-Google Browsers Ditching Google Chrome? Good for you! Try [Brave](https://brave.com/?ref=thefierywell.com), [Vivaldi](https://vivaldi.com/?ref=thefierywell.com), or [Firefox](https://firefox.com/?ref=thefierywell.com). ## For Your Website ### Fathom Analytics Privacy focused analytics for your website. No cookies required. Say Goodbye to Google Analytics and [get $10 off your first invoice from Fathom Analytics](https://usefathom.com/ref/CW4MTY?ref=thefierywell.com). (affiliate link) ### Namecheap I register all of my new domains thru Namecheap and love their pricing. I buy a lot of domains, y'all. [Give them a try and save on new registrations](https://namecheap.pxf.io/Z3MOK?ref=thefierywell.com). (affiliate) ### Ghost.org I use Ghost to host TheFieryWell.com and recommend it for all small businesses that have a content first structure. They are open source, simple to use, and worth the cost. Say [goodbye to WordPress for publishing and say hello to your friendly Ghost](https://ghost.org/?ref=thefierywell.com). (not an affiliate) ### Squarespace Squarespace can be your ideal website builder if you are a visual person and need straightforward e-commerce (whether digital or physical products) or a very simple members only area on your website. I used them for about a year before landing on Ghost and still [recommend Squarespace for folks getting started with an online presence](https://squarespace.syuh.net/4eax29?ref=thefierywell.com) but I recommend it be a temporary stop in your journey. (affiliate) ### Podia Do you need a website, and to sell digital products, courses, webinars, etc? And send targeted emails and newsletters? And you don't want to use a bunch of different tools to do it? Just getting started? [You need Podia](https://www.podia.com/?via=thefierywell&ref=thefierywell.com). (affiliate link) ### Kit (formerly ConvertKit) Social media is great, but having direct access to your audience is even better. If you are focused on email marketing and newsletters for 2026 I suggest Kit (formerly ConvertKit). Hate the name, love the product. [Get started for free and build your audience with their CreatorNetwork.](https://partners.kit.com/d9cc4dt444sk?ref=thefierywell.com) (affiliate) ### Termageddon As a website owner you *have* to have a privacy policy in place. And the right kind. At the right time. Or else: lawsuits. [Termageddon keeps me covered with a privacy policy that updates automatically based on what laws are changing](https://www.thefierywell.com/legal-pages-for-your-website-that-stay-up-to-date-as-the-laws-change-yes-please/), as well as the other legal pages I need for my (and my clients) websites. Do not use a static template from a legal template website: [use Termageddon (and save 10% off your first payment)](https://policies.termageddon.com/?fp%5Fref=fiery&ref=thefierywell.com). (affiliate) ### --- ## Hardware ### Leuchtturm1917 I'm a bullet journal-er of many years and use the [LEUCHTTURM1917](https://amzn.to/4vtRqvg?ref=thefierywell.com) (Amazon affiliate) for the majority of my journaling needs. I like a dotted A5 and I choose a new color every year or category of journaling (I have a system). ### BenQ ScreenBar Monitor/Desk Light If you hate overhead lights as much as I do and find desk lamps interfere with the light from your monitor I highly recommend a screen bar light. I have the [BenQ ScreenBar led one](https://amzn.to/4eVnfIi?ref=thefierywell.com) (Amazon affiliate) and it's done wonders for my office setup and eyes. The light adjusts in temperature and brightness based on ambient light or you can have full control over it. It fits my 21" iMac without covering the camera and lights up my desk without fighting for my attention. ### Keychron K10 HE If you like an "old fashioned" keyboard with an updated twist such as programmable keys, lighting, and a delicious thocky click-click typing experience I [highly recommend Keychron and their K10 HE](https://amzn.to/4vUeWT1?ref=thefierywell.com) (Amazon affiliate link). The keys are programmable (no software needed) and the typing experience is delightful. ### Newsletter URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/thecircle/ Last updated: 2026-03-16T13:32:35.000Z ## Sign up for The Fiery Well Business, tech, and productivity advice from a witch Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### Thank You URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/thank-you/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T14:41:59.000Z ## Thank You Thank you for being here and for being a part of this journey. Are you excited? I'm excited. While you're here... take a look at what I've written lately: [Tool BoxThe tools and resources that I use, love, and/or highly recommend. Most are affiliate links.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/icon/Sigil-Logo-Circle-Black-Transparent.png)The Fiery WellPatty Ryan Lee![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1731694411560-050e5b91e943)](https://www.thefierywell.com/tool-box/) [Legal pages for your website that stay up to date as the laws change? Yes, please.I don’t have the time to keep up with the ever changing privacy laws around the globe. Thankfully, Termageddon does it for me.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The Fiery WellPatty Ryan Lee![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1589216532372-1c2a367900d9)](https://www.thefierywell.com/legal-pages-for-your-website-that-stay-up-to-date-as-the-laws-change-yes-please/) [Starting over vs starting from experienceSometimes starting over is a faster, more streamlined, and more successful path than trying to stick to “what you’ve always done.”![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The Fiery WellPatty Ryan Lee![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1584907797015-7554cd315667)](https://www.thefierywell.com/should-you-start-over/) ### Likeness and Bio Release URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/likeness-and-bio-release/ Last updated: 2026-08-08T21:20:50.000Z The Client grants The Fiery Well the right to use the Client’s image, visual likeness, portrait, photograph, video and sound recordings (collectively referred to as "Likeness") in all forms and media. The Client grants The Fiery Well the right to use the Client’s biographical information ("Biographical Information"), including, but not limited to name, age, location, and other personal information conveyed to The Fiery Well. Such Likeness and Biographical Information will be used for the purposes of a State your purpose (ie blog, etc) (the “Material”). The Material may be published on certain channels, including but not limited to: - Blog post written by The Fiery Well, to be published on thefierywell.com; - Photos provided by “Client” to be published on thefierywell.com, Threads, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, or other social media channels; - Video provided to The Fiery Well to be published on Threads, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube; - Mentions on The Fiery Well social media channels. The Fiery Well agrees to only use the Client's Likeness and Biographical Information in connection with the above uses and for no other purpose or purposes without the prior written consent of Client. The Client represents and warrants that they have the right to grant The Fiery Well the above-mentioned rights without obtaining the permission of, or making any payments to, any third party or entity. This authorization and release shall inure to the benefit of the legal representatives, licensees and assigns of The Fiery Well. The Client hereby releases the The Fiery Well from, and agrees not to sue for, any claim or cause of action, whether known or unknown, for libel, slander, invasion of right of privacy, publicity or personality, or any other claim or cause of action, based upon or relating to the use of the Material or the exercise of any of the rights referred to herein. The Client agrees to indemnify and hold harmless The Fiery Well, and its officers, directors, shareholders and employees, from and against any liabilities, losses, claims, demands, costs (including, without limitation, attorneys' fees) and expenses arising in connection with any breach or alleged breach of any of the above representations, warranties or agreement hereunder. The Client acknowledges that, in the event of any breach by The Fiery Well or any third party, the damage, if any, caused will not be irreparable or otherwise sufficient to entitle the Client Name to seek injunctive or other equitable relief. The Client’s rights and remedies will be strictly limited to the right, if any, to recover damages in an action at law, and the Client will have neither the right to rescind or terminate this agreement or any of The Fiery Well‘s rights hereunder, nor the right to enjoin the production, exhibition, or other exploitation of the Materials. This contract is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Ohio, without giving effect to its conflict of laws. The nearest state and federal courts to Montgomery County, Ohio shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any case or controversy arising from or relating to The Fiery Well, including but not limited to this Agreement. The Client agrees to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of these courts and consent irrevocably to personal jurisdiction in such courts and waive any defense of forum non conveniens. Neither party may transfer its rights or obligations under this agreement to anyone else unless the other party agrees in writing. If any provision of this agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, the remainder of this agreement will remain in full force and the invalid or unenforceable provision will be replaced by a valid or enforceable provision. The terms of this contract may only be modified in writing signed by both parties. In any dispute involving the subject matter of this agreement, whether or not in a formal court or arbitration proceeding, the prevailing party will be entitled to recover its full attorney’s fees, expenses, and costs from the other party. ## Posts ### The forest for the link trees URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/the-forest-for-the-link-trees/ Last updated: 2026-07-25T20:03:14.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. Here’s the thing about "link trees" or single page websites with links to various things: they are a fantastic tool to have in your marketing tool box. When done right. What's so great about them? You can direct people to very specific things very quickly. What’s so bad about them? They, quite often, lack specificity. They end up being Great Redwoods when they need to be Bonsais. Buffets instead of curated menus. "10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife." A Cheesecake Factory menu rather than a curated culinary experience. A link tree page, whether it’s actual LinkTree, Beacons.io, LinkIn.bio, [Kit (formerly ConvertKit) landing page](https://partners.kit.com/d9cc4dt444sk?ref=thefierywell.com), or a dedicated page on your existing website—it needs to be *succinct*. ⚠️ If you give someone too many choices they will more often than not choose nothing at all. ## Things to *include* in your link tree or page of links for social media ### A link to your full website You'd be surprised how often I go to a link in bio, looking for a website, and all I get is a link to book, or a list of links to freebies. Let me see your website, please! ### A link to whatever main offer you have at the moment, whether paid or free And keep it short. One to three offers, max. The more someone has to scroll, the less likely they are to click. Don't give them everything. Instead, reduce decision fatigue. - Are you a published author? Put that book at the top of the list - Are you a tarot reader or astrologer? List your best selling reading/offering - Are you a writer? Put your best article up top - Do you work for tips? Put that Venmo on there - Holding an event? Put the details (when, where, how much) and link to it ### A quick bio that states who you are, what you do, and who you do it for I probably just found you and I am looking for clarity on who you are... so tell me! You have three seconds—give me the elevator pitch! ### **A newsletter sign up** You'd be surprised, again, how many people want to keep in touch *without* having to download a freebie. If that's something you offer, offer it! ### **...or a way to be contacted** Whether it's a contact form, or a link to the contact page, let people know how to get in touch with you directly. ### Your location If your work is offered in a specific geographic location, please state that, not only on your social media bios, but on the link page. City, state, postal code, or full address. And don't forget your hours if you have a physical location. ## What to *avoid* for your link tree or social links page ### Links to other social platforms This is one of those "it depends on your goal things" but generally speaking I suggest not linking to other social media platforms from your links page. Unless it's at the very bottom. Let that be the last thing they have an option to click away to. ### Too many links If someone has to scroll through your list of links, they will more than likely leave before making a selection. Keep it short: 3-5 links. (I've seen link trees that had fifty links... it was incredibly difficult to navigate) ### Popups It's not the space for them! You have to remember that someone on a social app is more than likely opening your website in the app's version of a browser, not an actual browser. And they are on a tiny screen. And they just met you. Not the time. ### Navigation Menus If using your website, turn off the main menu or header navigation if your theme or platform will allow. It's unnecessary links for the page and *could* cause confusion. But don't stress if your platform won't let you do this. ### Big images, video, and sound files We want this page to load *quickly*. Keep files as small and optimized as possible here. Again, folks are generally on their phones inside of apps... it's not the space or time! ## Things to consider about link pages once you have one ### Prioritize your goals A link page is a landing page that essentially breaks the rule of one page = one goal. Because you're directing people to any number of places. But you can still hold true to this if you really think it through and prioritize the links and information. Kind of like a home page of your website... only *much more* restrained. Don't just add links to the page because you can. Make sure each link has a clear and considered purpose. - Are you wanting to sell products and services? Which ones sell best to new audiences? - Are you wanting to build your mailing list? Prioritize subscription forms and show social proof. ### Use your domain, not theirs If you have no website of your own, invest the money into a domain and pay whatever upgrade you need to in order to use your domain. You may not own the links page, but you'll own the address, which is freedom for your future self. If you direct folks to a name you own: - you can print that name on everything and not lose out in the future - you can move away from your current platform and note lose everything ![A post from threads after LinkTree announced their new AI policy: "I'm against the use of AI. Unfortunately, I still have a linktree because all of my expensive signage has my QR code for that linktree. I can't afford to replace my vinyl banner or all the art pints I had made. Just know, I don't support the use of AI just because I still use linktree. It's just so expensive to change everything right now."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-06-15-at-10.30.41-AM-1.png) I saw a lot of posts like this after LinkTree made their new AI policy announcement and people felt stuck because they hadn't used their own domain. 🕸️ Having your own domain gives you ownership and portability. I buy all of my domains from [Namecheap](https://namecheap.pxf.io/Z3MOK?ref=thefierywell.com). ### Keep it up to date I know, it's one more thing to track and take care of, but it really needs to be done. Nothing says "don't buy from me" like a page that's filled with dead links or news articles from five years ago. ### Prioritize your links Put your links in order from most important at the top to least important at the bottom. Consider, if it's at the very bottom... do you really need it? ### Design the page Don't just put all of your links on the page and call it done. Break the page up with clear headings and design features to create clear sections of organized information. Group like links with like links. ### Analytics If you're going to have a page that gets a lot of traffic, it's worth knowing what links are working and where. This can be done with simple analytics (I like [Fathom Analytics](https://usefathom.com/ref/CW4MTY?ref=thefierywell.com)) or heat mapping (such as with Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity). Just be aware: these pages often have [higher bounce rates](https://www.thefierywell.com/5-minutes-to-reduce-your-bounce-rate-in-2025/), especially if you're linking away to other things like Lemonsqueezy, Amazon, or your scheduler. ### Tracking, Privacy, and Data Once you start adding in analytics, or tracking the people that visit your page/website, you get into legal issues. If you have a contact form on the page, you get into legal issues. If you have embeds on your page, you get into legal issues. Essentially, a link tree or social links page is *still* a website and you still have to comply with the never ending legal fuckery if you track, collect information from, or otherwise analyze the people that land there. So keep that in mind. (And use [Termageddon to keep yourself up to date as the laws change](https://www.thefierywell.com/legal-pages-for-your-website-that-stay-up-to-date-as-the-laws-change-yes-please/).) ## In summary Whatever your goal, think about the steps someone has to take to get there once they land on your page. How can your links page *eliminate* steps, confusion, decision fatigue, and overwhelm? Do that. ### Why every witchpreneur should keep a business book of shadows, grimoire, or journal URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/witchpreneur-business-book-of-shadows-grimoire-journal/ Last updated: 2026-07-11T16:21:19.000Z I can't over emphasize the necessity of pen and paper when it comes to processing thoughts, ideation, creation, and just plain confrontation with one's self. Writing by hand forces you to slow down, process, and digest your thoughts and is an act of magic [reinforced by modern science](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/positively-media/202403/writing-by-hand-can-boost-brain-connectivity?ref=thefierywell.com). There's a correlation, for me, of when I stopped journaling on paper and when my life and business started floundering. As I returned to, and have maintained, a steady personal journaling practice this year, I'm realizing that my business needs its own journaling space once again. While I am a solopreneur, and my business is fully intertwined with my personal life as a mother of two, wife, and witch, I want some place fresh to write about just my business. One place for my goals, my ideas, my values, my struggles, my joys as a business owner, and more. One place to write and reflect. A place where my business and its history can live and come to life. (That's not digital.) Consider for yourself: where are you now? Where were you a year ago? Do you have something concrete to look back on? How would your business be different if you had a resource to look back on that you had hand written in real time? For this lunar cycle (about a month) I'm challenging myself to dedicate time and space to journal just about my business–to put pen back to paper and build, in essence, a book of shadows for The Fiery Well. I'm challenging you to do the same. ## What is the difference between a book of shadows, a grimoire, or a journal? It depends on who you ask, but I see them as such: - A **journal is a mundane place** to put your personal thoughts and feelings. - A **book of shadows is a magically mundane place** to informally put your magical practice, spells, thoughts, ideas, dreams, etc. - A **grimoire is magical, sacred place** where you formally build a book of references, correspondences, ceremonial magics, and more. I see this project as a blend of the three. Some pages will be pure thoughts and feelings (my why, north star, dreams, values, etc.), some pages will be magically inclined (tarot spreads and readings), and some pages will be formal (business launches and transits). It's yours... call it what you want and do with it what you want. But as a practitioner of magic, or a [witch](https://www.thefierywell.com/when-i-say-witch-i-mean-witch/), consider that your business journal needs its own physical space. Not your Notion, not your Google Drive, and not your Notes App. But a physical place–a bound journal or three-ring binder–to put all your thoughts, notes, and feelings business related. ## What goes into a business book of shadows? Whatever you want. But I do suggest you start small. Start with journaling and add things in as you go. Trying to jump into the most perfectly designed witchy book of shadows–à la Charmed–from the start may only slow you down or stall you out. The idea is simply to keep record. Write about your services and products and **why** you created them. Rant and rave about your clients (or lack thereof) and notice patterns. Deep dive into why you started the business and discover the values you hold dear–financial freedom? Leaving a legacy? Making your mark? For me the act of journaling is, quite literally, a painful chore some days. Between my arthritis and preference to be able to type 90 words per minute (depending on the length of my nails), I find it easier to type rather than write. **But easier isn't always better.** The more I force myself to return to paper, even a sentence at a time, I am reminded why it was one of the best investments in myself and business all those years ago. It's why I'm returning to this practice and encouraging you to give it a try. ### As you build your book of shadows, you can add things in: - [Tarot spreads](https://www.thefierywell.com/before-you-begin-a-tarot-spread/) and readings for your business - [Dates, times and transits](https://www.thefierywell.com/5-things-to-back-up-before-mercury-goes-retrograde/) for launches - New and Full Moon notes and [rituals for your business](https://www.thefierywell.com/magic-rituals-for-work/) - Client rants, raves, and wins - Paste in [testimonials](https://www.thefierywell.com/thoughts-on-ethical-use-of-testimonials/) and wins - Your brand mission, values, and vocation - Your North Star - Doodles, ideas, sigils - Goals and ways to track them - [Spells you have done for your business](https://www.thefierywell.com/a-spell-for-observation/)–what worked, what didn't ## Articles like this, right in your inbox. Writings about the ritual of work, creating and maintaining websites, and business through the eyes of a witch. Sign Me Up Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ## Why start a business book of shadows now? Why not? It's almost too perfect of a time to do this with Chiron in Taurus, a full moon in Capricorn, Mercury retrograding thru Cancer, Mars squaring the lunar nodes, and Jupiter entering Leo. It's a hot time to get real with yourself and your business. Some questions that arise for this time that are ideal for journaling on: - What am I learning about sustainability in my own life and business? What does it mean? What does it look like? - What do need to better tend about my health when it comes to business? Mental? Physical? Financial? - What is my new definition of success? What [old definitions of success](https://www.thefierywell.com/shrinking-in-fear-of-success/) can I release? - How do I express vulnerability in my business without being too personal? - What boundaries do I need in my business? What [boundaries do I need to revisit](https://www.thefierywell.com/burnout-boundaries/)? - How can I take up more space in and with my business? - What does my anger tell me about my values? - How do I want to celebrate my business? My goals? My achievements? - What are the lessons from when I failed? Get out the pen and paper. Pick a question and write your answer. If you don't know what to write, write that down. Start a conversation with yourself. [Make it a ritual](https://www.thefierywell.com/tag/ritual-of-work/), if it helps. Have a cup of tea or coffee. Light a candle. Pull a card. Jot down the date, the time, any transits that stand out to you, and let the feelings come. See what words start to follow. 📓 Need a new journal? My favorite are the [LEUCHTTURM1917](https://amzn.to/4ftBeFs?ref=thefierywell.com) (Amazon affiliate link) in dotted or grid, depending on my handwriting that day. This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. ### Will my website ever be done? URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/will-my-website-ever-be-done/ Last updated: 2026-06-24T17:29:14.000Z Look, I know, I know. It's everyone's dream to finally have their website "done." To have this beautiful complete thing you can check off your list and call it a day and move on to the next thing. But there's a reason this dream feels... so far away. So daunting. So far out of reach. There's a reason that the need to "update my website... again" is such a *dreadful* feeling. ## Your website is never done. Read that again. Your website. Is never. Done. It's not that you are behind, or lacking, or don't know what you're doing. It's that a website's goalpost of "completion" is **constantly moving.** Your website will never be done, which means you’re always working on it. And always will be. Love it or hate it, it's true. Even and especially if you hire a professional to "complete" your website... it's going to need updating. Regularly. Why? ***Shit changes!*** You change! Your business changes! [Website laws & rules & regulations](https://www.thefierywell.com/legal-pages-for-your-website-that-stay-up-to-date-as-the-laws-change-yes-please/) & standards change! And your website will need to reflect these changes at some point. If you've got a web design **partner** they'll actively be on you to keep it updated. But if you're doing it yourself (DIY) then you're probably in there updating it all the time anyway or actively ignoring it. But the task remains. ## How do you keep yourself from constantly tweaking your website? Ask yourself **one very important question**: **“What does this do to my bottom line?”** That's the secret to knowing when you need to **actually** update your website. An experienced web design partner will be able to help you out here. When you log in to your site editor and want to make changes, consider: will this make me more money or save me time? Or will it cost me both? ### If it doesn’t move your business forward, save you time or make you money, don’t mess with it. Simple, right? Not really, because… what *actually* qualifies as an update that moves you forward or brings in revenue or saves you time? ## 12+ website tweaks that I recommend you do at any time 1. Make sure your [website covers the basics about you, your offer, your audience](https://www.thefierywell.com/6-things-you-need-to-know-before-you-build-your-website/) 2. Pick a post and update the technical search engine optimization (SEO) details: update the title, meta description, headings, and link text (no "click here" links, please) 3. Limit the number of things someone can do on any given page. A focused customer is a paying customer ​ 4. Add analytics to your site so you get *data* about all those blog posts you’re writing. I love [Fathom](https://usefathom.com/ref/CW4MTY?ref=thefierywell.com) (affiliate link–tell them The Fiery Well sent you and save $10) 5. Connect your site to Google Search Console **and** Bing Webmaster Tools so you can *see* what keywords are bringing people to your website ​ 6. Update, clarify and *simplify* existing FAQs. On that page, people want quick answers, not essays ​ 7. Add a Privacy Policy. One, it’s (in most places) the law. Two, it makes you *look legit* in the eyes of your customers. I love [Termageddon](https://policies.termageddon.com/?fp%5Fref=fiery&ref=thefierywell.com) (affiliate) because [*they tell me* when I need to update my privacy policy](https://www.thefierywell.com/legal-pages-for-your-website-that-stay-up-to-date-as-the-laws-change-yes-please/) and I don’t spend time wondering and questioning and updating unnecessarily ​ 8. Add blog posts that highlight [your authority in your niche](https://www.thefierywell.com/a-witchy-niche/) and save you time in the long run: answer questions (this is where you can expand those FAQs into essays), provide value (and share it), and share your expertise ​ 9. Update your theme so it’s more accessible. Larger fonts, better contrast of colors, underline all links, make sure no links say "click here", check that the navigation works with a keyboard only, etc. ​ 10. Update your content so it’s more legible: align it left, break it up with headings and bullet points​ 11. Add appropriate alt-text to your images or consider getting rid of the images ​ 12. Update old posts by linking to new ones; link the new ones to old ones 13. Check your analytics and make educated, measurable changes to your copy and design as necessary. This requires **going slow and making very few changes at any given time**. **Embrace** the fact that your website will never be done. It's a living testament to the work you are doing. It needs permission to **evolve** with you and your business. Slow, measured steps to improve your website will take you further than constant switching around of templates, colors, themes, fonts, and “branding.” Progress over perfection. ### Moving from Kit (formerly ConvertKit) to Ghost URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/moving-from-kit-formerly-convertkit-to-ghost-for-my-email-newsletter-and-blog/ Last updated: 2026-06-24T15:16:28.000Z I'm going to tell you how I realized that The Fiery Well is no longer marketable and how that realization lead to the decision to switch from Kit to Ghost for my email newsletter as I revive The Fiery Well as a blog and give myself permission to be directionless for a while. This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. ## In the beginning, The Fiery Well was a blog. A personal one. Did you know that The Fiery Well had started as a WordPress blog in 2013? I wrote about various things as I navigated life and came [out of the broom closet](https://www.thefierywell.com/i-am-a-witch/). It took a few years, but as I built my reputation on social media as a tarot and website witch, The Fiery Well slowly developed into a marketing website. Meaning, I was using it to sell my services, such as web design, [consultations](https://www.thefierywell.com/witching-hour/), tarot readings, and eventually my community membership. When I launched the membership in 2020, my writing became less reflective and more informative. My website became home to a community of witches that I supported with their tech, systems, websites, and more. And eventually what I was writing lived only behind a pay wall: pieces to answer questions from my community, tutorials, and workshops. ## From blogging to newsletters to email marketing It wasn't until about 2018 that I started sending a newsletter. I would email my small but mighty list about new blog posts, tarotscopes, website tips, and all sorts of things. All of it was chaos, and fun, but none of it was intentional marketing. In 2020, I left Mailchimp for Kit (known as ConvertKit at the time) and have been pretty happy about the switch. The focus at Kit at the time was on the subscriber and the content, not the design (my, how things change) and it was a **lot** easier to send emails. It was the anti-Mailchimp (and still is in other ways.) Deliverability was great–that was rarely a problem. And their new creator network, love it or hate it (I'm a mix), grew my list exponentially even when I was completely absent. Kit quite simply made it easy to send a lot of different emails to a lot of different audiences: tarotscopes, newsletters, freebies, community updates for my now-retired membership, and more. The more emails I sent, the more I would wax and wane between wanting to send a generic newsletter and only send marketing emails. It was organized chaos-marketing chaos-and it was great–up until the end of 2024 when life came at me. In 2025, after five years of near-weekly emails, I sent just **one**: to announce I had moved my website from WordPress to Ghost (and a few other notes.) My life and business had gone through hell and I didn't know what else to do. ## Switching from WordPress to Ghost For a bit of a backstory, I've been using WordPress near-exclusively for over a decade. I loved WordPress. It had given me a creative outlet, not only from a web design perspective, but also a programming one. I could dig into the guts and make any website I was working on do exactly what I needed it to do. I even created a few custom themes and plugins along the way. WordPress was the foundation for my growing business. So why go to Ghost all of a sudden? In a word: panic. (Yes, exactly what I tell folks not to do.) I had such dreams and plans for 2024\. What started as one of the most exciting years quickly twisted into one of the most painful of my personal life. And then it ended as one of the most depressing of my business life: I had to abandon one business idea due, among other things, to my diminishing capacity. And then, a few months later, I had to abandon another–the one I had really wanted to do for the longest time: I was going to make the push to return to web design full time. But then the middle aged white male co-creator of WordPress had a conniption fit that disrupted everything WordPress. I went from simply not liking the guy (always follow your gut) to losing all trust in the project's leadership and, for a while, I lost faith in the project itself. Did I really have to lose WordPress? On top of everything else? It was as if the gods were saying: Just. Stop. Everything. And so I did. I shut down. My brain. My business. Everything. Between life and business, I was exhausted and burned out. So I burned it all down. I watched the flames of burning down The Fiery Well settle into warm embers and cold ash. I moved most of my site over to Ghost as a way to move away from WordPress and still hold on to something. To give me breathing space. To entice me to come back someday. ## You can't force clarity, but clarity can force you And then, as it does, the dust began to settle a year later. My life calmed down. Things got quiet. In a good way. A really good way. So good that the urge to work again came through. What's more: the urge to write returned. And in February of 2026 I finally wrote something. And published it on my blog. And did the same thing again in March. It felt good. It felt like I was starting again. But not quite starting over. I was happy just to be writing and publishing again. To be focused on something again. I was taking things slow. I was writing more. Designing more (I'd taken on a client project for a new website as well!) and I wasn't pushing myself into any kind of schedule. I was allowing myself the space to breathe. To let things happen naturally and not force it. I didn't have a full business to run anymore. I had the space to think and write and play. I was forming ideas and making plans and connecting dots. It was... freeing. And fun. I was having fun with my blog. Drafting and dreaming. Like the old days. With my new-found writing momentum, I also decided to start emailing my list again in March. The first email felt great–like connecting with an old friend. But each email after that began to feel like a performance. It started to feel exactly the way I didn't want it to feel: forced. By May, I was finding myself in a very uncomfortable place. The newsletter no longer felt like a natural extension of what I was doing. Rather, it felt like it was a place I **had** to show up. I found that I was emailing things I wanted to be publishing. And I was publishing things I felt I "should" be emailing. I wanted to share what I was writing, but I was getting confused about what should go where and when. What this was revealing was a lack of clarity in my direction, my messaging, and my tech choices. Where was I supposed to put what? And it's not just me. I see it all the time in social media discourse around where to put things. Websites, blogs, email marketing, and newsletters are now becoming conflated with each other because of the tools available. They aren't interchangeable, but they do work together. ## The battle of choosing between Kit and Ghost Despite the calls to "bring blogging back", [blogging never died](https://www.thefierywell.com/blogging-in-2025-read-this-first/). However, the publishing tools are very different than they were even two years ago. They're vastly different than from when I was blogging back in the late 90's. There are very few blog first sites with open and free posts, engaged comments, RSS feeds, and a chronological feed. (I miss those.) Today, blogging is now more of a mix of email and publishing to the web, either for free or behind some kind of access gate (you have to either pay or subscribe to access the majority of the content.) There's the business push to obtain that coveted email address of your subscriber, and the tools today make it easier than ever to do so because of they are blurring lines. So let's take a look at some key differences between the tools I was using that were blurring the lines for me. ### Kit is email focused–you start with a broadcast. [Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is an email marketing service](https://partners.kit.com/d9cc4dt444sk?ref=thefierywell.com) that offers landing pages and what I would call a psuedo-blog: - You can send emails without publishing them and you can publish posts without emailing them - You have a lot of control now over how the email looks, but they retain most of the email formatting on the published side, which can look weird - Behind the scenes is a powerful marketing tool with automations, workflows, segmentation, tagging and more. When you use Kit, you can send more than just a newsletter. You can also set up fairly sophisticated marketing campaigns, sell subscriptions, and digital products. ### Ghost is publisher focused–you start with a post. [Ghost, on the other hand, is a website](https://ghost.org/?ref=thefierywell.com), offering pages and blog posts: - With Ghost you can also send emails without publishing them as posts and you can publish posts without emailing them - You don't have a lot of options for the email formatting from Ghost–it goes out in a format very similar to the blog post - Behind the scenes are revenue focused analytics for the blog and newsletter, blog categorization, and website management–pages, themes, RSS feeds. With Ghost, it's a direct relationship between the inbox and the web. The focus is on the writing. In my case the end result was effectively the same: something is emailed and something is published. So what was my issue? I was conflating them. It made no sense to continue using **both**, despite the numerous attempts to do so. Having two places to publish was starting to keep me from writing at all. I froze with indecision on where to publish next. And that was no good. And, to top it off, I wasn't using either tool effectively. And then the universe had a giggle. While I was tormenting myself, I got an email from a colleague and former community member. It was a simple compliment but it hit a nerve: "Okay but how much do I love that your website is an old school blog now?" I replied with thanks and said it was just temporary, but as soon as I hit send on that reply I couldn't stop thinking about it. Ghost *was* supposed to be temporary while I figured out what I wanted to do with The Fiery Well website and the business in general. Of course blogging didn't feel like work: I wasn't treating it as such. I thought I would spend more time growing and emailing my list, honing my messaging over email, and build my business back that way. But the more I tried the less I felt compelled to do so. Here was the universe going, "Here's your sign." I had to make a choice. Was I going to be an email marketer or a blogger? On top of that, a developing problem was my audience getting caught in the middle. Who was subscribed to the blog? Who was subscribed to my emails? Who was subscribed to both? And most importantly: who the hell was I talking to when I was writing? Is the audience the same? Not entirely! My email list was built through Kit's Creator Network and they were expecting what was recommended to them. And my blog subscribers were expecting more of what was already on the website. There was very little cohesion between the two. After so much time away, both were pure chaos. I felt everything coming apart again. That's when I had to get real honest with myself at this point, folks. This was the not so fun part: facing reality. And that reality was: I have no cohesive brand message because I have no idea what my offerings are anymore. I wasn't even sure if I was going to continue operating a business under The Fiery Well. So why was I trying to act like I did? ## What to sell when you have nothing to market When I burned The Fiery Well down to the ground, I really burned it down. I deleted three brand related websites. I deleted my archive of templates, freebies, downloads, workshops and more. I deleted my CRM, contracts, proposals, services... all of it. Beyond Witching Hours, which I can't host until Fall when both my kids are back in school, I have nothing to sell at this time. Nothing to sell? Nothing to market. Nothing to market? Not much reason to send a marketing email. And that's a hard muscle to relax after half a decade of sending marketing emails. Which is why blogging on the website, publishing articles through Ghost, felt so much more welcoming. It wasn't a place for me to try and market or build up excitement to buy something. It was a place for me to publish something, to share & connect my thoughts, and build a library of my perspectives. It was for me first and folks just came along for the ride. Temporary was honestly looking to become long term because during this debate between these two tools I realized something even more important. I'm in a very different stage of life. I'm a perimenopausal mother of two with diagnosed arthritis and undiagnosed ADHD. I need to move a lot slower than I initially thought or I risk [burning out once again](https://www.thefierywell.com/burnout-boundaries/). I need easy right now. I don't necessarily need The Fiery Well to be a business right now. I need a place to express myself again. That's the shift. It's not about the tech–they all do the same shit in different ways today–it's about the priorities. The direction of the business should determine the tools, rather than the tools determining the direction of the business. ## When you have no direction, choose a starting point and go with it My direction now is mostly directionless. Yes, I'm working on and building things behind the scenes, but those aren't necessarily going to be The Fiery Well. And they're going to take a while. So to use multiple tools, of any kind, right now when there is no direction is a waste of time, energy, and money. This is a period of transition as I figure out my next steps. It became more clear when I asked myself what I wanted, rather than what tool should I use. Where do I want to invest my time, money, and energy into finding those next steps? Email or publishing? **Publishing.** Okay. Who does that better, Kit or Ghost? [Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is great as a platform](https://partners.kit.com/d9cc4dt444sk?ref=thefierywell.com), but today I need more than a landing page and less than a full website. And while Kit *can* function as a blog, **it isn't one**. Despite its attempts, Kit will always be an email marketing platform first and foremost. It's great when you're starting from scratch, don't get me wrong. I highly recommend Kit for that very thing, especially for the price. But that's not quite where I'm at. Ghost, on the other hand, is not meant for email marketing. It's a website, a blog, and blog delivery system. There's no automations (update: as of June 24, 2026 automated welcome sequences have been added in Beta) or workflows. [It's meant for publishing, distributing, and monetizing writing](https://ghost.org/?ref=thefierywell.com). It's very straightforward (dare I say basic) and it's incredibly portable–if I leave I can take *everything* with me. It's open and accessible and, when I'm ready to get into their templating system, I'll have complete control over its look and feel. I emailed my list at Kit to announce that, not only has the site moved to Ghost as of 2025, but in 2026, I'll be emailing them from there as well. This will be the first published and emailed post to my entire audience at once and I feel so relaxed about it. No more wondering. No more duplicating. No more managing. Just write and go. What will I write about? - Productivity? Probably. - Website and tech advice? Without a doubt. - Life and business? I'm here to share. - Witchcraft and tarot? Yes, please. That's it. No direction. Just vibes. I'm going back to basics and giving myself permission to work and play and build in public without the pressure of having to have a cohesive brand message or clear direction right now. At least for a while. I'll write what I want. Share what I want. Back to where I started. ### When "nothing" is getting done URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/when-nothing-is-getting-done/ Last updated: 2026-06-14T21:36:33.000Z Since my [thoughts on A.I. post was published](https://www.thefierywell.com/some-thoughts-on-a-i/) and I [went "viral" on threads for additional A.I. thoughts](https://www.threads.com/@thefierywell/post/DZVfHuQncTK?xmt=AQG0DruekN5ZopCmhl3ufVWsb20Tq6ObaylVFoUGW32N4A&ref=thefierywell.com), I've done a massive amount of competitor analysis, researched and created a few quizzes, laid out the basic structure of my framework, outlined a dozen articles, drafted a few of them, and published... nothing. In other words: **I got nothing done.** Feel familiar? If you ever ended your day with an "Ugh, I got nothing done" sentiment but you actually did a shit load of work... this is your sign to pause and step back and recognize what you're actually doing [before you burn out](https://www.thefierywell.com/burnout-boundaries/). You're working hard. You're cleaning your house. You're feeding yourself. You're feeding others. You're cleaning up after that mess. You're writing. You're researching. You're rewriting. You're selling. You're failing. You're fighting against AI slop. You're getting back up again. You're delivering services. You're doing the admin work. You're probably not drinking enough water. You're exhausted from the effort, but you're not acknowledging what you're actually doing. In the past, I'd have beaten myself up for having so much work done and yet have "absolutely nothing to show for it." *Story of my life.* But me today... says fuck that noise. I'm older, wiser, and more ~~tired~~ experienced. I recognize the **work** I'm putting in. And I want you to do the same. I can't tell you how many [Witching Hours](https://www.thefierywell.com/witching-hour/) I've held where I pause the conversation to say "Hey, hold up, now. Recognize what you did. Acknowledge the effort." I've had clients cry in that moment because they were never conditioned to pause, reflect, celebrate. Just go, go, go. Myself included. So I raise two questions for you today: 1. What would it have felt like to have been praised for your effort as a kid? As a young adult? 2. What would it feel like to, on your own, pause and recognize the effort you are putting into what you're doing now? 💡 I'm sure I've talked about this before, but keeping a "done" list alongside your "to do list" can help bring data to that whole "ugh, I got nothing done" feeling. ### Some thoughts on A.I. URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/some-thoughts-on-a-i/ Last updated: 2026-06-29T18:22:56.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. The computational requirements and benefits of A.I. has its place. I would argue it belongs in science fields, mostly. Please: [detect cancers early](https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ai-early-detection-breast-cancers-ucla-study?ref=thefierywell.com). Find new stars and galaxies. Help sea creatures. Research new vaccines. You get the idea… regulated industries with systems of review and desires to progress humanity forward. Don’t fucking give it to the general public to make shitty “[art.](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-45202-3?ref=thefierywell.com)” Don’t give it to the CEOs and [tech bros](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/technology/meta-layoffs-ai.html?ref=thefierywell.com) who want to [lay off hard working humans](https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/20/intuit-to-lay-off-over-3000-employees-to-refocus-on-ai/?ref=thefierywell.com) in the name of efficiency or [profit disguised as progress](https://x.com/DJ%5FCURFEW/status/2057522382315929802?ref=thefierywell.com). And please, for the love of all that is holy, don’t give it to those that would [do harm](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/08/uk-schools-remove-pupils-photos-online-ai-blackmail-threat-grows?ref=thefierywell.com). Look, I’ve played with the LLMs, or “Chat,” back in, what, 2021? 2022? I thought it was an interesting way to [rubber duck](https://www.thefierywell.com/rubber-ducking/), or summarize your own work, more than create anything. ([Because it’s not creating…](https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/how-does-chatgpt-actually-know-what-to-say-heres-how-the-ai-generates-its-answers?ref=thefierywell.com)) But beyond that? I couldn’t see its value. And then, pretty soon, these language models, or "AIs" were **widely** available. And then it started showing up in our everyday tools… and people were being encouraged to use it to “create new things” like write full books, craft photographs (what?) or make movies without even hiring actors. And, mostly, I was annoyed. Because I kept hearing my dad in the back of my mind going, “Mark my words. Technology will advance so far that they’ll make a new movie with Bruce Lee and you won’t even be able to tell it’s not actually him.” He said that to me in 2001. I thought he was nuts. I argued that people wouldn’t allow it. It was … indecent. He just smirked. Because he knew technology and he knew people. He died in 2002 and, so far, he’s been right about everything. Because look at us now. Fucking [Ozzy Osborne is going back on tour. Posthumously.](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/ozzy-osbourne-digital-avatar-ai-1235567057/?ref=thefierywell.com) We've gone from [hologram revivals of artists](https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/04/17/150820261/how-that-tupac-hologram-at-coachella-worked?ref=thefierywell.com) to full on [interactive avatars of the dead](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-09-26/stan-lee-ai-hologram-los-angeles-comic-con-avatar?ref=thefierywell.com). I guess this is more of a rant than any specific email… I have "AI" fatigue, y’all. It is beginning to feel like a Hydra. I get away in one area and it rears two more heads in another. You can’t get rid of it in Google Workspace. It’s even in Proton. Notion used to let you turn it off completely if you reached out to customer service (I don’t know if they still do. I did this a few years ago and some of the features have creeped back in.) Canva is filled with "AI" slop resources. I’ve come across several ["AI" generated sites](https://www.threads.com/@thefierywell/post/DYXMkmuEcbJ?xmt=AQG0kLDRLwHiRGKqGiSdLRYCQVCWt2cQ--agjdafG8W7UA&ref=thefierywell.com) in the wild. Even my local grocery store decided that "AI" asparagus was more appealing than… real asparagus… in their flyers. And now [MCPs have come to Kit](https://partners.kit.com/490ntbkr5d78-mcp?ref=thefierywell.com). If you use “Chat” then perhaps it’s going to be a natural extension of your workflow… checking stats and tagging people through a "simple prompt" or drafting and writing emails "in your voice." But I want to challenge you to not prompt “Chat” to do things that require effort simply because they require effort. Could you save time? Sure. But it could also **cost** you time making sure it's accurate reporting, or if you use it generatively, "sounds decent." So [is it](https://mashable.com/article/energy-ai-worse-than-we-thought?ref=thefierywell.com) [worth it](https://apnews.com/article/ohio-data-centers-biggest-tax-break-55e086634bdf0b5914828c29d5ab70be?ref=thefierywell.com)? Let's face it. ["AI" hallucinates](https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/05/06/why-ai-hallucinations-are-worse-than-ever/?ref=thefierywell.com). [A lot.](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/starbucks-abandons-its-ai-inventory-tool-after-only-nine-months/ar-AA23LdHI?ref=thefierywell.com) Kit’s own documentation [even warns developers](https://developers.kit.com/mcp/kit-developer-docs-mcp?ref=thefierywell.com#tips-for-working-with-ai-agents) about this for when they’re creating tools to integrate with Kit. > **AI agents can misinterpret or hallucinate details* \- Kit's Developer Documentation* So before you use “Chat” to ask Kit how your emails are performing, or what your open rate was… maybe we could ask Kit for better reporting, better functionality, and better interface design. Because what they’re pushing the MCP to us affiliates (yes, I'm [an affiliate](https://partners.kit.com/d9cc4dt444sk?ref=thefierywell.com)) being able to do... is what their reports could easily produce on their own. (And should because these "AI" agents also really [suck at math](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wx4iMMbsekE?ref=thefierywell.com).) I’d argue that people that use "AI" aren’t necessarily lazy… the companies pushing it are. And I want you to consider, before you ask “Chat” what your best performing email is, what metrics actually matter to you. Because the info, if accurate, is going to be one sided. Chat is not going to know what you actually **value**. - Do you value an [open rate](https://www.thefierywell.com/what-is-a-good-open-rate-for-an-email-newsletter/)? Or a reply rate? Kit doesn’t have that data. - Do you value people [staying on your list](https://www.thefierywell.com/5-reasons-your-cold-subscribers-look-warm/)? Or unsubscribing when it’s time. Kit can’t decipher this. - Do you value a click through rate? Or a specific outcome from that click? In that particular email. Chat can’t know. If done right, this is all data you can glean from a spreadsheet. Like this one [I made in Airtable](https://airtable.com/appMEarOVr5v5yiYw/shrM1Ser8k4PEIsTf?ref=thefierywell.com) that you can customize to the things that you actually value. And have a place to craft your emails away from your email marketing platform. And have a history and a backup. If you want to know what kind of emails your audience really want: ask them. If you want to know what your best email was… know what “best” is before you start sending. And yeah, this all requires effort. Having a business requires effort. Effort is what makes it worth it. Effort is what drives creation. And effort can be difficult. Creativity is difficult. Conception is difficult. Labor and birthing something, anything, is difficult. Learning is difficult. Problem solving is difficult. Teaching is difficult. Exploring is difficult. Being human is fucking difficult. And I have to wonder how much of our humanity are we giving over in the name of "ease"? ### 6 things you need to know before you build your website URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/6-things-you-need-to-know-before-you-build-your-website/ Last updated: 2026-06-14T21:01:56.000Z As I work on a *Secret Project*, aka the distillation of my years of experience in web development, design, strategy and small business... it's becoming abundantly clear why your website feels like such an overwhelming and daunting task and how I'm going to have to really break it down like I've never seen done before. I keep wanting to get to the juicy bits with this framework, much like people want to get to the juicy bits with their website: the branding, the content, the tech. And I keep having to come back and flesh out these (what should be) very basic and *foundational* things. Because I can't talk about "Z" until you've done the work for "A." And the work needed for "Step A" is not done deeply enough. It's talked about a lot. But from many different directions. Nothing is really cohesive or explaining *why* this is so important. Or how to put it all together. If this were a book, (so far) 15 out of 20 chapters would be about doing just this work. Why? Because these details are lacking in so many websites I come across, and yes, have even built for clients. Especially for those of you just getting started. (Building too much too soon is a topic we need to talk about... remind me... I'm building out a something for that, too.) But back to the basics. (See what I did there?) What kind of basic and foundational things are missing from so many websites? **So far, there are 6.** 1. Their Problem 2. Your Purpose 3. The Possibilities 4. Your Philosophies 5. Your Personality 6. Your Positioning If you can flesh out these six things you will have a massive jump on your competition. You'll get clear on **what** to talk about, **who** to talk to about it, and **when** to do so. And bonus: you'll build a clear direction for yourself and your business. These things answer the question: what copy do I need for my website? These things answer the question: what kind of branding do I need? These things answer the question: how do I reach the right customer? Want me to break these six things down? So do I. I'll be expanding on this more in the next few months. Stay tuned. ### Stop apologizing for what you don't know URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/stop-apologizing-for-what-you-dont-know/ Last updated: 2026-03-10T14:00:20.000Z I love my clients. All of you. And you all, every single one of you over the last six years alone, have one thing in common... **You apologize, to me, for not knowing what I know.** For not knowing how to set up DNS. For not knowing how to work Google Search Console. For not knowing what Kit can and cannot do. For not knowing the key differences between Squarespace and WordPress and Ghost. For not knowing how to setup a link page. For not knowing how to format something or where to find a setting. For not knowing how Dubsado can or cannot really work for you. For not knowing what you do or don't need. I can't count how many times I've sat across from someone during a virtual meeting and they've gotten flustered because they don't know how to do something, or where something is located. And every time I smile and say: "It's not your job to know. It's mine." You didn't hire me to show off *your* expertise in *my* field; you hired me because *I'm* the expert and *you need help.* Never apologize for needing help. Celebrate the fact that you asked for what you needed. And got it. ### Legal pages for your website that stay up to date as the laws change? Yes, please. URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/legal-pages-for-your-website-that-stay-up-to-date-as-the-laws-change-yes-please/ Last updated: 2026-06-14T16:09:02.000Z 🚨 I am not a lawyer. And while this is all **good* advice, it's not **legal* advice. This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. Unless you're working with a seriously devoted web developer and designer, such as myself, the legal requirements for your website are often an over looked element. And this can leave the website owner on the hook for whatever lawsuit comes their way. Because I'm not a lawyer, there's not much I can offer my clients except guidance based on experience and crowd sourced knowledge. To this end, I used to refer my clients to legal template sources, such as The Contract Shop. But, as great as they are for contracts and waivers, their privacy policies aren't updated frequently enough to keep up with the ever changing landscape of online privacy laws and requirements. A decade ago this wasn't *so* much of a concern. But these days? Ugh. It feels like a [new privacy law comes out every month here in the United States](https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/privacy/state-privacy-legislation-tracker/?ref=thefierywell.com#map-of-state-privacy-laws). And then there are larger, more in depth, global laws such as the[ General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from the European Union](https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/?ref=thefierywell.com) to adhere to. There are no borders to the internet. Privacy is a concern across the globe because the most valuable thing on the internet is *you.* And your data. And if you have a website: **you are collecting the data of others.** And you have to take that *seriously. Especially now.* SPONSORED Don't let the privacy laws keep you up at night and don't bury your head in the sand about how you **also collect data on your website visitors*... [Get Termageddon ](https://policies.termageddon.com/?fp%5Fref=fiery&ref=thefierywell.com) And that is a *daunting* task for someone that is a) not a web developer and b) not a lawyer and c) isn't usually even aware that *this is a thing.* I'm a web developer. I can dig in and see what things may be collecting or processing your data through a website and connected services (email marketing, social media, email platforms, etc) And while some tools exist to help, it can be an exhaustive and time consuming (read: expensive) process to do on your own. And as the website or related tools changes, these things need to be updated. I'm not a lawyer. (So nothing here is legal advice.) I can't always make heads or tails what is *required*. I'm also an exhausted mother of two running a business during never ending global generational trauma(s) and I can't keep up with the every changing global response to consumer privacy on top of everything else, okay? So consumed with work, the world, and my family, I didn't even *know* I needed this off my plate until I discovered [Termageddon](https://policies.termageddon.com/?fp%5Fref=fiery&ref=thefierywell.com) and... off my plate it went. A weight, however small in the scheme of things, was lifted. I came across [Termageddon](https://policies.termageddon.com/?fp%5Fref=fiery&ref=thefierywell.com) several years ago during an online summit for web geeks such as myself and I signed up immediately. Their monthly subscription service promised "website policies that automatically update as the laws change" and shortly after signing up and implementing the policies on my own site I switched all my clients from static policy pages over to their dynamic solution. Now, when a law changes that may affect me, or a client, I get an email. If needed, I go in and update the information (mostly it's checking a box: does this apply to me, yes or no) and when I log out I'm done. I don't have to update any of the pages on my website. And when a client needs to change or update their policies they don't have to call me with the changes: they are updated automagically. There are, as of this writing, there are [at least 20 states in the United States alone that have their own laws that govern the collecting and handling of personal identifiable information or "PII" for short](https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/privacy/state-privacy-legislation-tracker/?ref=thefierywell.com#map-of-state-privacy-laws). And the internet isn't just the United States: there's also [the General Data Protection Regulation from the European Union](https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/?ref=thefierywell.com) which protects citizens of the EU *regardless* of where they are when they *access* a website. Yeah, that's why there's those annoying banners on all the websites these days. Because they are *all* collecting utilizing data about you in some manner. And they *have to tell you about it.* Which means if you have a website: you have to inform your visitors what you're collecting, too. And you *are* collecting data. From analytics like Google Analytics, to fraud protection from payment processors such as Stripe, and even embeds from things like YouTube videos and Giphy gifs... everything is gathering *something*. The Fiery Well included. Which is why I utilize [Termageddon](https://policies.termageddon.com/?fp%5Fref=fiery&ref=thefierywell.com): to inform you and to keep me up to date on my legal requirements. It's an affordable investment that let's me focus on what I do best: taking care of my clients. And if you're not a client of mine yet, you can use [my affiliate link](https://policies.termageddon.com/?fp%5Fref=fiery&ref=thefierywell.com) or use code [FIERY at checkout to save 10% off your first payment at Termageddon.com](https://policies.termageddon.com/?fp%5Fref=fiery&ref=thefierywell.com). ### Should you start over? URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/should-you-start-over/ Last updated: 2026-05-23T15:24:32.000Z "Back in my day (1996)" there were no content management systems or visual drag and drop builders for websites. *Everything* was coded by hand. It was a lot of typing. And a lot of planning. A lot of work. And a lot of re-working. It would confuse people to no end that I'd be working on a massive pile of code for three months then suddenly scrap it and start completely over. Why would you work so hard on something only to toss it in the bin and try again? Honestly: because sometimes it's the shorter path to the finish line. When we start a project we have a clear path. We know how we want the code to be laid out, we know how we want this function to work, we know how we want this piece to integrate... we know, we know, we know. And sometimes what stands in the way of taking what we know and what we learn as we go and *applying* it... is the old code. We've learned so much as we've gone along that the old code hinders any further development. The code is how we used to think. How we used to put ideas together. How we used to see the world. The old code becomes the round hole for a square peg. Because as we worked, we changed. And our code... didn't. Or if it did... it got real sloppy real quick. The old code often wasn't compatible with the new code and making it backwards compatible was twice the effort. So, as it happens, we had to start over. But when we *start over*, as programmers – or business owners – we're not really starting from scratch. We're starting *from* *experience*. Starting a project over rarely felt like a monumental task once the decision was made. If anything it felt like a measured step back to make that giant, refreshing, leap forward. And it was always a worthwhile journey. So if you feel like you really want to streamline or consolidate or change something or grow from what you know and what is standing in the way is your "old code" – maybe it's time to start anew and begin from *experience*. ### What Inbox Zero is all about and how to approach it URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/what-inbox-zero-is-all-about-and-how-to-approach-it/ Last updated: 2026-02-24T18:00:05.000Z ## What is inbox zero? Coined and methodized by [Merlin Mann in the early 2000's](https://web.archive.org/web/20250211091914/http://www.43folders.com/2006/03/13/inbox-zero), Inbox Zero is a method of productivity and prioritization for email management. Inbox zero is not so much about the reduction of emails but the reduction of time spent on emails. The end goal? Reducing unnecessary brainpower on email. *Not having zero emails.* ## Why even attempt inbox zero? Beyond removing one more red dot from our screens vying for our attention as one more notification in a sea of notifications, inbox zero is a way of making your inbox work for you, instead of the other way around. There’s a reason email marketing is the single biggest return on investment: everyone lives in their email. Many of my clients and community members are hesitant to embrace email marketing for fear of “taking up space” in someone’s inbox and I quickly have to counter - that’s on the person receiving the email, not you. Provide value, yes. Don’t be a dick, true. But, ultimately, your feelings about your inbox are your own. Let’s take responsibility for ourselves and correct *our poor boundaries* around our inboxes. Why do you feel like you’re taking up space in someone else’s inbox? Because you’re drowning in your own. But projecting your issues onto someone else is, quite simply, unfair to them *and* holds you back. Instead, establish and hold your boundaries. This is a core tenet of Inbox Zero. Stop checking your email every thirty seconds. Stop replying to emails immediately. Close the program. Close the tab in your browser window. Turn off notifications. And instead, enter your inboxes on your own terms. Get in, take care of what’s inside it, and get the fuck out. That is the essence of inbox zero that I wish was touted, rather than the obsession over the number, or reduction of emails alone. Gain control of your time, your brain, and ultimately, your inbox and the number of emails begins to matter less and less. ## My inbox zero journey I was introduced to Inbox Zero by Jeff Su in a video published on YouTube in 2021 (now taken down) merely as a way to reduce my inbox clutter and *speed up* my time in Gmail. It led to a journey to *reducing* my inbox altogether. After further research into “who came up with inbox zero and what actually is it” I discovered that Merlin’s approach was indeed… magic… and fits well within what The Fiery Well stands for. > Know thyself. Awareness. End goals. Examination. Exploration. Experimentation. What works well, works well until it doesn’t. I had a piss poor habit of reacting to everything in my inbox. Note that I said reacting, not responding. I was not in command of my own time: my inbox was. Email was on my phone, on my tablet, on my desktop, and for a time, even on my wrist. It was always open, always on, always calling me into its depths like a workplace siren. My journey with inbox zero started with productivity, led to organization, and landed me firmly in boundaries on my time in my inbox. Now, emails are scheduled rather than replied to immediately. I use canned responses when necessary. I manage the expectations of others through signatures. And I enter my inbox ready for it to be my task, and then leave. My inbox no longer dictates my day. Finally. ## How to get started with inbox zero True inbox zero looks different for everyone and ultimately, you must develop your own spell for this magic to work. But I can provide a few choice ingredients: ### First, reduce your inbox altogether. First and foremost: stop subscribing to things that take you away from your goals, your time, and your needs. You have my permission to stop signing up for everyone’s freebies or random shit. Be intentional with what *comes into* your inbox in the first place. Do this and you've accomplished more than most. Then, utilize filters and folders to keep unnecessary emails out of your main inbox. Your inbox is your priority space, not your catch-all. Leave your inbox for only those things that are the highest priority to you (client responses, invoice payment notices, booking requests etc.) and filter out everything else into an actual catch-all (newsletters, social media updates, those chain letters from grandma–remember those?). ### Keep non-email things out of your inbox. Yes, everything coming to your inbox is an email, but its content doesn’t need to live in your inbox. If the email is purely a task, put it on the to-do list–now. Time block for it–now. Then archive (or delete!) the email. If there is something pertinent from the email, put it with the task. If it’s an appointment request, schedule it–now. And archive or delete the email. If it’s something you want to read later, such as a newsletter or long community update, then put it into a “read later” space such as Instapaper or a folder that lives in your email program. ### Unsubscribe from emails you continue to skip over. Be honest–are you going to read it later? If you continually say that you’re going to “read them later” but then don’t… unsubscribe. You’ll do your inbox and [their email marketing data a favor](https://www.thefierywell.com/what-is-a-good-open-rate-for-an-email-newsletter/). ### Utilize keyboard shortcuts Increasing the speed at which you process your email is a key component of the original Inbox Zero. Get in, do your thing, get out. Quickly. Keyboard shortcuts, once learned, reduce friction which increases speed, which reduces time spent on the task. By reducing the time spent clicking, and increasing the speed at which you process things, you’ll find just how much time you’ve been spending in your inbox simply from a mechanical viewpoint. Learn the keyboard shortcuts for the most basic of functions and go from there: checking mail, arching, sending email to spam or archive, deleting the email, adding labels, and finally: composing a new email. ### Stop reacting to your inbox. Start responding. Each email, once opened, requires one task: delete it, delegate it, respond to it, defer it for later, or do it now. Choose your action once you’ve opened the email. And then move on to the next. Just because an email has come into your inbox with a sense of urgency or entitlement doesn't mean you owe it an immediate reply. Be intentional with your time and attention. ### Dedicate time to the task of email. Choose your days and time(s) and stick to them. You can be in your inbox once a day or a dozen times a day: that’s up to you. But find a rhythm that works for you and keeps you in the inbox for a minimal amount of time. I suggest, when starting out, a time for checking email and a time for responding to emails. This makes email two separate tasks to accomplish in the day and makes it clear when the task is done. I check at 8 AM and reply at 1 PM. Done and done. ### The fewer labels you use, the better. Start small and don’t overwhelm yourself with labels. I’m sorry, but there is no “perfect label system” for your inbox. It’s not a spice drawer. Do you need a “Reply” or "Follow Up" label? Do you need a “Read Later” or "Send to VA" label? Without a [consultation](https://www.thefierywell.com/witching-hour/), I have no idea. What labels will depend on your brain & your business, who & what is in your inbox, and how you need emails to be sorted. But start with just a few key ones. The more labels you have the more time you'll spend *deciding* what label to use on each email and then their purpose has been defeated. Labels are there to save you time and give you an at a glance view of what's going on. They are not there to over-organize your inbox to the point of indecision. ### Announce your boundaries around emails, if it helps. We shouldn’t have to announce that if we’re replying at 2:00 AM that doesn’t mean we expect them to reply at 2:01 AM, but, hey, sometimes it helps to announce this. In short: utilize email signatures to inform your email recipients of your inbox schedules. - Going out of town? List the dates you’ll be radio silent. - Do you have specific working hours? State them. - Do you respond to emails within 24 hours or 72? Inform them. You can’t over-inform people today. And, with these, you'll begin to see folks embrace your boundaries, giving you more control over your inbox before you even log in. ### Utilize “schedule send” when drafting that reply at 2 AM. If you are the type to work at 2 AM (chestfeeding parents… I see you) you don’t have to *send* the email right then and there. The majority of email platforms allow you to schedule your emails to go out at any future date. Utilize this. Send those emails at 8 AM or 10 AM the next day. No one has to know you were checking email and responding to messages after you’ve put the kids to sleep (for the tenth time)… schedule that email for business hours! ### And finally, start slow and let your process evolve with you. Shave the time you’re spending in your inbox off one bit at a time, rather than moving in gung-ho to change everything at once in the name of “I’m going to be productive, dammit” – that’s just setting yourself up for failure. Don’t be rigid with this. Go with whatever flow works for you while it works for you. Change it up as needed. You’ll know it’s working when you get to your inbox and are… bored. Or, at the least, not stressed about it. ### Plan your exit from Google or Google Workspace URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/leave-google-workspace/ Last updated: 2026-08-08T19:22:28.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. *Original Article: February 13, 2025* *Last Updated: August 8, 2026* Full disclosure, I'm an affiliate for Google Workspace. And if you're starting out, privacy isn't a concern, you enjoy "AI" built into things, or you need the convenience or price tag of everything in one place... then Google Workspace is a great option for you. But for some folks, it's not worth it any more. (It wasn't for me in 2025, but nearly two years later, I've had to go back.) You have to make this decision for yourself and really reflect on a number of things, not least of which what you will use to replace the myriad of tools Google Workspace offers. This is not easy. It is not cheap. It takes a lot of time and effort. Workspace has email, calendars, documents, slides, spreadsheets, virtual meeting space, websites, groups, chats, and so much more. It is truly a convenient all in one place for your life or business. Leaving Google Workspace is not a simple or affordable choice to make and I want to be clear about this up front. It takes a lot of privilege to leave such a convenient ecosystem: financial, time, capacity, ability, etc. Whether this is by design and some huge tech-data-privacy-conspiracy to trap the tired, the financially constrained, and the overwhelmed in an ecosystem that preys upon them is another topic for this Aquarius sun to undertake at a later date. I digress. But it is important to start paying attention to just *where* Google Workspace is being utilized in your life before you make the decision to upend everything. Of the more than dozen "apps" within Google Workspace, what are you using and *how* are you using them? It's okay if you're not sure! I wasn't aware of how much I was utilizing Google Sign-in and that was a *wake up call* to how much I was relying on convenience vs. protecting my data with a password manager. The importance to the "how do you use these tools" leads to what your alternative options might be. There are very few, if any, 1:1 replacements for something within the Google Workspace ecosystem. Or, if there is, it often integrates or relies on an integration *with* Google (looking at you scheduling tools) Not all options work together and most of them carry a cost: either financially, a learning curve, or [risks of them selling to private equity vultures](https://www.revenuerulebreaker.com/airtable-was-just-acquired-by-bending-spoons-goodbye-to-airtable/?ref=thefierywell.com), forcing you to find alternatives. Again. So then you have to start answering other questions: - What is it that made you choose Google Workspace in the beginning? This tells us what you initially valued in the purchase. - Why are you wanting to leave now? This tells us what you value *now.* And you may as well take it to the next level: - Will you keep a Google account in any fashion? This decision tells us how you will continue to *intentionally* stay in the eco system. - What other aspects of Google do you want to get away from? This tells us just how much you want to "get away." ## Leaving Google can be a bit like trying to check out of Hotel California. > "You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!" - Hotel California by The Eagles I want you to build the awareness of how much you rely on Google before you begin, because so many people I've talked with don't realize just *how much* they use or rely on the web of Google products. And when you start moving away from them things get... well, they become a lot less easy. You start to see just how *convenient* Google was. You start to wonder if this was a good idea. You have to do a values check before proceeding. Because a switch actually requires a lot more "more" in the beginning. More effort, more time, tools, money, accounts, realizations, and more energy requirements of yourself. From a basic tech aspect, there are multitudes of alternatives to each of the tools offered by Google and Google Workspace. But from a life, business, values, and reality aspect: it's not going to be simple and straightforward. It requires re-training your brain. Your habits. Your workflows. And, it may even require changing how you operate your life or business entirely. Entire processes **will** change within your life or business. Leaving Google Workspace is an investment in diversifying the way you utilize the internet, grow your business, and even your understanding of your own values. And along the way you **will** have to compromise on something. 👉 Update in Fall 2026: I've been using Proton and a collection of alternative tools for over a year and find myself in a season of my business where I've had to make the return to Workspace for various parts of its ecosystem due to finances, time, and capacity. All the things I had last year that I don't now. I'm not happy about it. ## How others have left Big Tech As the conversation in May 2026 has turned to a lot of everyone leaving Google because of their all in on AI over traditional search, here's some other folks that have written about leaving Google and Big Tech in general. Worth your time to read: [How I unshittified my digital life. Big Tech alternatives | Daniel PrindiiMy journey in finding more ethical, European, and open-source solutions to Big Tech apps.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/icon/logo-daniel-prindii-180x-crop-21b17f6dc3d9e991b1f66d0eab2bbc494f4374b197e36128c164e84fd7af8615.png)Daniel PrindiiDaniel Prindii![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/thumbnail/azopan_00005541-copy-1200x630-crop-e7c4b1dcb5b2a2694e9befffc107a0563b16e0fcebca1aad8f8f22270d63d619.jpg)](https://danielprindii.com/blog/how-i-unshittified-my-digital-life-big-tech-alternatives?ref=thefierywell.com) [Read this before ditching Google WorkspaceMy year with Proton![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/icon/9559102b-d4aa-4595-8052-69dd7e74107b-f9c059cb7b7b9ac4507b7d9f239b16f958526b6d6bd70c74cdb7ae971cecfe36.png)Rebellious SystemsAndrea Reeves![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/thumbnail/cd88d8ea-6141-42f4-96a2-394fe597056e-59fad7ed0c4a284aa7a8aa28f0c7fbb4ab21b7e52133eb6ccdd18cfd2e5a4d9b.png)](https://buttondown.com/typeccreative/archive/read-this-before-ditching-google-workspace/?ref=thefierywell.com) Have you left Google and other Big Tech? [Drop me a line](https://www.thefierywell.com/contact/). I'd love to read any blog posts you have about your experience. ## Alternative Tools to Google Workspace - Do you need a way to send and receive basic email and use your domain? [Proton](https://pr.tn/ref/38JNQWPE?ref=thefierywell.com), [Namecheap](https://pr.tn/ref/38JNQWPE78A0?ref=thefierywell.com) or [Zoho](https://www.zoho.com/mail/?ref=thefierywell.com) could do the trick. - Do you rely on meeting scheduling in Calendar? [Proton Calendar](https://pr.tn/ref/38JNQWPE?ref=thefierywell.com) may be an option for you. (Update 2026: they've added scheduling and video conferencing) [Cal.com is a favorite option](https://refer.cal.com/thefierywell?ref=thefierywell.com). - Do you need a Meet alternative? There's still Zoom or one of my favorites: [Whereby](https://whereby.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) (Update 2026: [Proton now has a Meet alternative](https://pr.tn/ref/38JNQWPE?ref=thefierywell.com)) - Do you lean on the ecosystem of Sheets? [Notion](https://notion.so/?ref=thefierywell.com) *might* work for you. [Airtable](https://airtable.com/invite/r/ko01m844?ref=thefierywell.com) or ClickUp could do it too. [LibreOffice](https://www.libreoffice.org/?ref=thefierywell.com) or [Grist](https://www.getgrist.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) might be better bets. - Do you use Docs to write? [ProtonDocs](https://pr.tn/ref/38JNQWPE?ref=thefierywell.com), [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/?ref=thefierywell.com), [Notion](https://notion.so/?ref=thefierywell.com), [iA Writer](https://ia.net/writer?ref=thefierywell.com), [Scrivener](https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview?ref=thefierywell.com), [LibreOffice](https://www.libreoffice.org/?ref=thefierywell.com) are all great alternatives - Do you use Docs to collaborate on documents with clients? Elipsis might work (it's made for authors), Paper by Dropbox is another option - Do you rely on Chat for communications? [Signal](https://signal.org/?ref=thefierywell.com) is my go to - Do you rely on Drive for Photo storage? Anyone remember [Flickr](https://flickr.com/?ref=thefierywell.com)? DropBox? OneDrive? - Do you need the space of Drive? Old fashioned portable hard drives, [DropBox](https://www.dropbox.com/?ref=thefierywell.com), [ProtonDrive](https://pr.tn/ref/38JNQWPE78A0?ref=thefierywell.com), and OneDrive - Analytics? I love [Fathom Analytics](https://usefathom.com/ref/CW4MTY?ref=thefierywell.com) - Fonts? Download them. - Browsers? I use [Brave](https://brave.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) and [Firefox](https://www.firefox.com/en-US/?ref=thefierywell.com), but am eyeing [Vivaldi](https://vivaldi.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) - Search engines? [Ecosia](https://www.ecosia.org/?ref=thefierywell.com), [Brave](https://brave.com/?ref=thefierywell.com), [udm14](https://udm14.com/?ref=thefierywell.com), [DuckDuckGo](https://duckduckgo.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) - Maps? Good old [Mapquest](https://mapquest.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) ### What to do when you can't think of what to do URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/what-to-do-when-you-cant-think-of-what-to-do/ Last updated: 2026-07-09T23:07:39.000Z I've not been actively working in or on my business since September 2024\. After the WordPress debacle began I just... stopped. WordPress is dead or dying, so what's a WordPress designer/developer/witch to do? This has been the weight on my shoulders for several months now. I'm not working, so I don't know what to do with myself. I have no ... purpose. Yes, I'm a mother to two wonderful children, and a wife to an amazing man, and the caretaker to our dream home. But... I'm left wondering what to do with my time after the snacks, naps, school pickups, meal prep and bed times. Generally, I sit at my desk every and stare into space. But today, I'm writing the very article you are reading now. Because I'm tired of asking the question: what do I do next? My brain is wandering aimlessly around looking for something it can do. I can do what ever I want. And I'm overwhelmed by my choices. Excuse the pun, but I'm Frozen. ![Anna, from Frozen II, against a cloudy background. White text at the bottom reads: "And do the next right thing."](https://media.tenor.com/nQUk11UUy4wAAAAC/do-the-next-right-thing-princess-anna.gif) Anna, from Frozen II, "And do the next right thing." I journaled about this a few days ago, hoping that would help. And it did some. But so did something else. For several hours in a local coffee shop I was the only patron. Between sipping my mocha and journaling I watched the staff. They talked amongst themselves, tidied cups, restocked beans, wiped counters, and otherwise took the simplest of actions when you can do nothing else at work. They cleaned. As I watched one of them haul out the Windex and shine the glass of the front door then move to wipe away the tiniest of smudges from the dome of the display cases, it brought back my own memories of working in a coffee shop oh so many years ago. When there was nothing to do: you cleaned. It accomplishes a goal–because something is always in need of a clean–and it passes the time while you wait for the next customer. It's physical activity. It's meditative. It could be even seen as [devotional](https://www.thefierywell.com/tag/ritual-of-work/) if you want to get deep about it. It gives the brain a chance to organize itself. Run amok. Or find the triggers for what it *wants* to do next. It was a reminder that I **do** know what to do when I don't know what else to do. Clean. So that is what I will do today. I will [light a favorite candle](https://effingcandleco.com/?ref=thefierywell.com), get the dust cloth and cleaner out, and begin my work. Books will be returned to their shelves. Papers to their proper place. Dishes to the sink. Cords hidden away. Today–to clear my mind–I will clear my desk. Perhaps my whole office. And I will remember that when I don't know what to do, I will clean. I will clean my way to clarity. And if I don't find clarity... well. At least my space will be clean. ### Due vs Do URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/due-vs-do/ Last updated: 2026-06-12T16:23:35.000Z A "Do" date is the date you have decided to focus on the task and a "Due" date is the date it needs to be completed by. Due dates can give a sense of urgency for when the task needs to be done, but not necessarily a timeframe for when you're going to actually ... do the task. And, depending on your task management system, traditional "Due" dates can cause tasks to fall out of view until that date approaches. Until then it just [lingers in your brain](https://www.thefierywell.com/a-magic-w-a-n-d-for-your-to-do-list/) with everything else you need to... do. Or is lost to the task list and suddenly becomes an urgent task to complete on top of everything else that day. "Do" dates, on the other hand, can give you a set timeframe for *working* on the task. They can help set you up for success by making you pause to think: *when* will I *do* this task? - Do I need a week before its "Due" date? Do I need two? - Is there a day where I can "Do" this task with others and batch my efforts? When you set a "Do" date, you give your future self permission to focus only on what you said you were going to "Do." All other tasks have a lower priority that day. (Of course, shit happens, but this is the goal we are working towards!) Setting a "Do" date also builds the muscle of judging one's time: [you'll begin to see how long tasks *actually* take you to complete](https://www.thefierywell.com/a-spell-for-observation/) and how much of a sense of urgency you need to tackle them. So next time you set a task for yourself, consider: when is this task "Due" and when will I set aside the time to "Do" it? ### When I say Witch, I mean Witch URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/when-i-say-witch-i-mean-witch/ Last updated: 2026-06-25T17:18:15.000Z I want to make one thing clear: The Fiery Well is for **witches**. And witch *does not automatically* equal woman. Or, gods forbid, “female(s).” If you disagree with your whole chest… you’re not going to like what I do. Look, I get it. Growing up, the witches I saw on the screen were predominantly depicted as as women—whether as awful hags or gorgeous women. And in books, a witch that wasn’t a woman was always referred to as… something else. Even in books on magic! It was as if a distinction *had* to be made. Maybe you experienced the same thing. That doesn’t make it correct. Or true. To restrict the identity of witches to include only women is to exclude the magic and vibrancy of so many people in this world. And that feels awfully bleak. And limited. And… un-magical. **“Witch” is not a gendered term at The Fiery Well.** I’ve done a poor job in making this clarification in my content and marketing. This is a mistake I want to apologize for and correct going forward. When I say witch… I mean **witch:* a practitioner of magic.* So, when I say witch and you only hear “women and females” I invite you to expand your horizons. Or stay away. ### Backing up your Squarespace or WordPress Websites URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/backing-up-your-squarespace-or-wordpress-websites/ Last updated: 2026-02-24T17:59:39.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. ## 3 reasons why website backups are important, but not usually considered: ### 1\. “Oh, shit,” moments. Let’s face it, shit happens. [Mercury goes Retrograde](https://www.thefierywell.com/5-things-to-back-up-before-mercury-goes-retrograde/) and your entire site glitches, website platforms make political decisions you disagree with and you want to (and can) leave, your host is really cheap and you got flooded with malware, or you did something drastic and fucked up the entire thing on your own, or are terrified that any of the above will happen and you want to be prepared. ### 2\. Changes in design and other reversible decisions This is one a lot of people don’t consider, but sometimes you make a drastic change to the visual aesthetic of your website and realize, in the end, that you hate everything you just did and would rather not now have to go through and *undo* everything. A complete backup that restores a previous version would be a headache reducer. ### 3\. Backing up your website helps build routine & habits When you get into the habit of backing up your website, you often find yourself getting into other content security habits automatically. Such as backing up your social media content, your mailing list, your own computer, and local content storage devices, and convincing friends and family, and strangers on the internet that backups are the best thing since sliced bread or discovering horoscopes for your *rising sign.* Backup systems rely heavily on routines. Once you have a routine in place, it can become a stress-less, highly automated system that frees up physical and emotional bandwidth. - No more worrying if you’re going to break something; if you do, restore the backup. - No more worrying that the change you made was bad for business; restore to the previous version that worked. Let’s look at how to back up your website based on *the type* of website you have: ## How to back up your WordPress.com website ### If you have the free, or no plug-in uploads allowed plan(s): If you do not have a plan that allows for **plugins**, you can [*export* most of your *content*.](https://wordpress.com/support/export/?ref=thefierywell.com) Exporting will export all of your posts, pages, comments, categories, and tags into an XML file. It will *not export your images.* Your images will be hyperlinked to their original location. Remember if you *take your content with you* you *will not have the image files themselves.* Exporting *will not* export your website theme, plugins, or any customization you have done. The design of your website is not backed up. ### If you have a paid WordPress.com account If you *do* have a plan with plugin access, you can use the [Jetpack backup feature](https://wordpress.com/support/restore/?ref=thefierywell.com). Or install your own backup plugin so you can get a single file with your *entire website* all packaged up. Personally, I would stick with Jetpack because it was created by Automattic and is fairly seamless to use on [WordPress.com](http://wordpress.com/?ref=thefierywell.com). If you **really** like to have control over your backups, I [recommend Updraft Plus. Even the free version is fantastic! And they walk you through a complete backup process.](https://updraftplus.com/how-to-backup-a-wordpress-site-step-by-step-guide/?ref=thefierywell.com) ## How to back up your [WordPress.org](http://wordpress.org/?ref=thefierywell.com) site (aka “self-hosted”) With a self-hosted installation of WordPress (aka [WordPress.org](http://wordpress.org/?ref=thefierywell.com)), you can utilize any backup plugin that your *host* doesn’t object to. Check your WordPress host support pages for any “non-acceptable plugins”. In addition, I highly recommend that you also utilize your *hosting’s* backup system. You can find this option in your Account or cPanel, depending on your host. I use [Flywheel](https://share.getf.ly/k11c7x?ref=thefierywell.com) (a subsidiary of WPEngine) to host all of my WordPress websites. They offer, among many other things, backups every 24 hours that you can download and keep for yourself. (I have an external drive I use, in addition to Google Drive) On top of that, I like to use UpdraftPlus as a secondary backup system. They give you a lot of control over what gets backed up and when. Even the free version of the plugin is fantastic! And they walk you through how to do a complete backup: [https://updraftplus.com/how-to-backup-a-wordpress-site-step-by-step-guide/](https://updraftplus.com/how-to-backup-a-wordpress-site-step-by-step-guide/?ref=thefierywell.com) ## How to back up your Squarespace website In short: you can’t. Squarespace doesn’t let you *actually* back up your website. At least, not that you can take with you in one neat package. However, you *can* export *some* of your content into an XML file. This way you at least have *something* of your website stored away from Squarespace. If you have [Squarespace 7.1 and a smaller website (under 100 pages) you can now *duplicate* your website](https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039396131?ref=thefierywell.com). But you don’t walk away with any kind of file you can save that *contains* your website. It merely duplicates it to a trial website *on your Squarespace account.* This, in my opinion, only duplicates *the problem.* My recommendation is to consistently export your content. And take *screenshots* of every page of your website each time you update them. This way you at least have a visual record of the changes you’ve made. There’s a [very handy browser extension called GoFullPage (available for Chrome and Microsoft Edge)](https://gofullpage.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) that screen captures the full length of your pages so you don’t have to stitch anything together in Photoshop. ## Do Squarespace and WordPress.com Backup *Y*our Website for you? Relying on platforms means relying on *their* system for backing things up. Especially if you have a lot of blog posts, or member’s only content people are paying you for. If the site goes down… what comes back up? ### **Squarespace** I reached out to Squarespace support to inquire what *their* backup system was since we can’t back up our own Squarespace sites. The conversation went as follows: **Me:** “Does Squarespace have a backup system in place? I know I can’t back up my own website, but do you have a backup system in case something happens?” **Squarespace:** “I see you’re wondering if Squarespace a backup system in place. We do! All Squarespace sites are hosted across our private cloud with full redundancy, and we store site data in multiple Tier III data centers across the United States. If a primary service fails, we can switch to a backup service. Our Operations team monitors Squarespace sites 24×7 and is ready to respond to incidents within minutes of detecting an anomaly.” **Me:** What is the rate of backups? Hourly? Daily? **Squarespace:** That’s a great question! Our support wouldn’t have that information, given that this falls under our Operations team’s scope, but I’m happy to escalate this question for further insight if you’d like. If you do, what would be the best email address for them to reach you? *Narrator voice: they did get back to me and* [*directed me only to their Security page which doesn’t answer the question*](https://www.squarespace.com/security?ref=thefierywell.com) *and they never responded to any further inquiry* **Me:** Thank you! I’d also love to know if I could have a site restored from a specific backup if ever needed? **Squarespace:** You’re welcome! As for that question, I can confirm that there aren’t necessarily save states that can be retrieved from specific points in time, so it wouldn’t be possible to request that. However, in the unlikely event of content loss, we still recommend reaching out to us, as content can be restored in certain cases. We also note situations and tips for preventing content loss, here: [https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206543417-Troubleshooting-lost-content](https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206543417-Troubleshooting-lost-content?ref=thefierywell.com) ### **WordPress.com** In contrast, WordPress.com backs things up every 24 hours. They also allow you to [restore a backup from any point in your Activity Log on a paid account](https://wordpress.com/support/restore/?ref=thefierywell.com) WordPress.com’s support documents leave a lot to be desired. They aren’t easy to search, but they [*are* upfront about their backups](https://wordpress.com/support/export/?ref=thefierywell.com#using-export-as-a-backup-tool). > “If your site is hosted here at WordPress.com, we handle all necessary backups. If a very large meteor were to hit all the WordPress.com servers and destroy them beyond repair, all of your data would still be safe and we could have your site online within three days (after the meteor situation died down, of course).” > > WordPress.com Support Documentation ## How often should you back up your website? The more often you create new pages or posts on your website? The more often you will need to create backups. It comes down to how much content are you **okay with losing**, in the event something happens. - Blog weekly? Back up weekly. - Blog daily? Back up daily. - Blog monthly? Buck up monthly. - Don’t update content often? Backup monthly or quarterly. ## What to do with your website backups I like to store my backups in duplicate. One copy goes on an external hard drive (I love LaCie). Another goes copy on my Google Workspace Drive. If you have Dropbox, place it there! Don’t try to over-organize this and create “the ultimate system” right out of the gate. To get started, just drop the files into a single folder and see what develops over time. Develop a routine that works best for you and your content creation cycle. What is less perfect now has room to be perfect *later*. Start small, but start now. Back up your website. And then write down & keep a log of when you did this bit of site maintenance last. ### A magic W.A.N.D. for your to-do list URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/a-magic-w-a-n-d-for-your-to-do-list/ Last updated: 2026-06-12T16:24:07.000Z There are days I wake up, look at my to do list, and dive right in. And then there are days, like today, that I look at my to do list and walk over to make another coffee and suddenly feel inspired to organize my collection of mugs. Am I procrastinating? Or am I overwhelmed? Yes. This is a sign of a few things: 1. An overloaded to do list 2. Not enough resources to complete the list (time, energy, dopamine, serotonin, coffee, etc.) 3. As a person that menstruates, it could also be whatever phase I’m in What’s a witch to do? Why, grab our magic wand, of course! A system I have been playing with the last few days is something I am calling WAND. (I love a witchy acronym, okay?) It’s a way of choosing a task, even when my priority task list is still overwhelming. As I juggle simultaneous active client projects, run an online membership, chauffeur my oldest kid around to their summer activities, chase a toddler that enjoys trying to disprove the existence of gravity, maintain a home, family, and relationships, oh and work on new projects and offerings in the background while also working to streamline, maintain, and improve my business… I get overwhelmed by my list. Often. So I’m starting to look at my list and ask myself the following questions: 1. What do I ***want*** to do? (W) 2. What is causing me ***anxiety***? (A) 3. What can I ***neglect*** a little longer? (N) 4. What needs to be ***delegated***? (D) Let’s break this down a bit: **What do I want to do?** These are the tasks that are a joy to *do*, not just complete. These kind of tasks I either use to jumpstart my day for a quick dopamine hit, or use as a reward system. I can work on *my* website once I’ve finished a task for a *client’s* website. **What is causing me *anxiety*?** These are the tasks that are actively building up anxiety for either not being done or having to do them. Things like doing the dishes or sending an email I really don’t want to have to send. I know I’ll feel amazing once it’s done, but the fact that it’s there on my list gives me anxiety so I avoid it. Which gives me anxiety. I’ll tackle these items in between my “want” tasks as a kind of task sandwich. **What can I neglect a little longer?** These are the tasks that I can let go until I can’t let them go any longer. For me this is usually something around the house, like folding and putting away the clean laundry instead of living out of the basket. Or, in business, it’s updating a non-critical component on the website or in my systems. My life isn’t interrupted or negatively affected by these tasks remaining undone, especially when it’s a choice between this or an anxiety task, but it feels good to *have* them done. Just be careful that the neglected tasks don’t become anxiety tasks! **What needs to be delegated?** This is the one I struggle with the most: is this actually *my* task to do? In my business, it’s just me, so there is no delegating to someone else! Which means in my personal life I delegate as much as I can … do I have to be the one to put all the laundry away or can my kid put theirs away on their own (the answer is yes.) Do I have to meal plan or can I hand that off to HelloFresh? This new system has helped me to organize even my priority to do list. Because there’s always a task within my tasks that I want to do, or cause me anxiety, or could be neglected a little while longer, or I do honestly need to delegate or find a way to automate. And it’s helping me better understand and track my tasks and their importance. This system is new, and only slightly tested, but I wanted to share in the hopes that it would help you if you also struggle with task overwhelm. ### Thoughts on Ethical Use of Testimonials URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/thoughts-on-ethical-use-of-testimonials/ Last updated: 2026-06-16T01:47:48.000Z When it comes to the voice of customer data for your marketing and referrals for your sales, there is no stronger statement than a customer testimonial. They provide valuable feedback and verbiage to use in our marketing and strengthen our perceived value in the eyes of potential customers. A testimonial is an incredibly powerful tool that must be wielded *ethically* because you are using *someone else’s words* to sell *your* product. With their name, their person, their brand… still attached. That’s an awesome power to wield **responsibly**. As business owners, we gather testimonials at every stage of our business. When we are just starting, when we are testing and pivoting, and when we are finally tried and true and know our path. So this begs the question: ## Do testimonials expire? I believe so, yes. How do you know one has expired? Simple: when the product changes drastically from what someone gave their heartfelt testimonial for into something different, it’s time to retire that testimonial. Either outright, or reach back to the person and ask if it would still be valid considering all the changes. **It’s a true sign of a “holistic business” that puts the weight of someone else’s words before the desired weight of their purse.** And where do we draw the line in their use? How do we differentiate what testimonial is for what service or product? ## How trustworthy is a testimonial if it’s not served up with the product or service for which it was directly given? Even more-so, how trustworthy is the business that uses testimonials completely out of context? These are thoughts I have about the various ways I use testimonials in my business and marketing material because, well, I do rather poorly at collecting them in the first place. The Fiery Well is the best-kept secret in the witch-verse because I don’t collect testimonials consistently and when I do… I rarely display them. (Don’t be like me.) For example, I offered a few SOS, or Session on Signal sessions at the start of 2021\. It was a trial for VIP days and they were a great success I loved them and the feedback was exceedingly valuable. But that feedback was for SOS, something I ended up not offering as a service, so I don’t use the testimonials. Could I use the testimonial as an example of working with me? Sure! But that requires specific and clear copy that I want to make sure I get right so I don’t put words in my client’s mouths about a product or service they haven’t received from me or risk promising something to a potential customer about what it is I can do for them, that isn’t even what I’m selling. As my business pivots and transitions, I think about testimonial usage a lot. So I’m very specific in how I go about asking for them. When I do (I’m getting better.) I ask specific questions so I can frame all testimonials specifically for the work that was rendered. And when I pivot, I of course reach out to customers to ask if their testimonial is still be valid, or if they would like to update or rescind the testimonial in that specific instance. **Because… consent isn’t permanent.** But maybe that’s just me. This was inspired because I found that a testimonial I had provided for a coach for a specific service they provided was being used to sell a program that they created long after I worked with them and that I never took. Nor would I ever, ever, ever endorse. They warped my words to promote something I never participated in and it made them look like my success was due to them. Never been more pissed in my professional life. I wrote this in 2022\. It’s 2024 and I’m still mad. Hence, this post. ### The 5 “big things” you need to “worry about” when it comes to your business name URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/the-5-big-things-you-need-to-worry-about-when-it-comes-to-your-business-name/ Last updated: 2026-06-28T15:59:38.000Z ## 1 — Be sure it’s not already claimed or in use - some names are taken and taken legally through trademarks and trade names and unavailable to use, no matter how much you want to. - not all names will be available on all platforms, all state/country regulatory boards, as a domain, etc. ## 2 — Your business name contains no illegal or derogatory words, phrases, or terms You may think this is easy, but it’s a bit more nuanced than you’d think. When it comes to the legality of words in your name, you will have to check with your local government authority. This is especially critical for anything financial, legal, or medicinal in nature. (Example: you cannot use the word “apothecary” in New York unless you are [a pharmacy licensed by the New York State Education Department](https://www.op.nysed.gov/professions/acupuncture/use-of-the-word-pharmacy?ref=thefierywell.com)) Prohibited words or phrases, such as profanity or words or phrases that are generally considered a slur against an ethnic group, religion, gender, or heredity. ## 3 — Your name is the same everywhere you have it When you have a name, the biggest thing you want to keep is *consistency.* You want to secure the same name, whenever possible, all across the board. This is crucial to maintaining a seamless experience for your clients down the road and builds trust with your audience now. This is also the hardest thing to achieve, no matter the brand or budget. \*\* We are The Fiery Well all across the internet, with no variation across all known platforms. If you find @thefierywell somewhere, it’s 99.9% likely it’s us. You want to avoid variety in your name by avoiding specific characters in your name, specifically - Hyphens ( – ) - Underscores ( \_ ) - Periods ( . ) - Special Characters ( # $ % ! @ / and more) **You cannot have an underscore, special characters, or periods in your domain name.** Underscores are a sign of “this same name exists and wasn’t available” and often can’t be avoided on social media. The caveat there is that underscores are one of the first “varieties” scammers will use to replicate your account on social media; most notably Instagram. One of the biggest tells of scammers is the introduction of extra characters, letters, numbers or symbols, to the username of the person they are trying to impersonate. Especially underscores. Having a consistent naming experience can help reduce the confusion around “the real” account. ## 4 — The name “works over radio” or during a podcast interview When we say our name out loud, such as in a podcast interview or over the phone, and we want to be easily found through a search, on social media platform, or we want folks to be able to go to our website directly, we want to make sure we can convey our name clearly, succinctly, and without having to spell it out, letter by letter, whenever possible. Depending on your language or culture, sometimes, this *can’t* be avoided. In English, however, there are a few key ways to attempt to avoid this: - **Don’t use numbers in your name.** This eliminates having to explain if you “use the number 8” or “8 spelled out, eight.” - **Don’t use words that sound one way, and are written different ways.** In English, for example, for, four, fore; eight, ate; they’re, their, there; read, red; read, reed. English is really difficult without surrounding context, even if you are a native speaker. - **Don’t repeat letters.** When it’s *in your name* this is really hard to overcome. But do you spell your name Michelle or Michele? Are you apart of the Adams family or Addams family? Chappel, Chappell, or Chapel? Glen or Glenn? - **Avoid silent letters.** Again, this comes down to language. If your audience is within your language, this is less of an issue. In English, again, without context is it reign, rein, or rain? Isle or aisle? ## 5 — Your business, or username, fits the character limits If you want to secure your name as a Twitter/X username, it must be between four and fifteen characters. As of this writing, Twitter/X has *the most strict* of username restrictions on character length for the social media platforms. This can make securing a username *incredibly difficult*, but if you *can* manage to fit your name within 15 characters, you have a very short, succinct name and this is a *competitive* advantage. The shorter something is, in theory, the easier it is to remember. Think, again, of the brands and names of people and small business that you routinely engage with, recommend, and recall. Are they long names or short names? Can you break these rules? Of course! They're not actually rules... more like guidelines. ![Captain Barbosa (Pirates of the Caribbean Movie) says: The code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules.](https://media.tenor.com/aeV80XD4CSgAAAAC/guidlines-pirates-of-the-caribbean.gif) Captain Barbosa (Pirates of the Caribbean Movie) says: The code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules. ### Before You Begin (A Tarot Spread) URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/before-you-begin-a-tarot-spread/ Last updated: 2026-02-24T17:58:59.000Z Consider the project you are going to start, shuffle, and pull five cards: 1. What is my motivation? 2. What is blocking me? 3. What do I need to understand better? 4. What do I need to let go of? 5. How do I move forward? Record your answers in your project journal or online document. ### 5 Minutes to Reduce Your Bounce Rate in 2026 URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/5-minutes-to-reduce-your-bounce-rate-in-2025/ Last updated: 2026-06-16T01:59:35.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. Pick **one** of these things and watch your bounce rates drop and your conversion rates go up: 1. Simplify your main navigation – keep it under 5 items 2. Put social media icons & links in your *footer*, not your main menu 3. Check and correct [the color contrast](https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?ref=thefierywell.com) on your website 4. Add [up to date terms/privacy](https://app.termageddon.com/?fp%5Fref=fiery&ref=thefierywell.com) pages to your website (they each get their *own* page!) 5. Add [a refund policy](https://thecontractshop.com/products/refund-recon?ref=thefierywell) to your website 6. **Align your body text left** 7. Update the © on your website to this year: 2026 8. Update [old articles](https://www.thefierywell.com/blogging-in-2025-read-this-first/) with links to new ones ### You are allowed to change your name URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/you-are-allowed-to-change-your-name/ Last updated: 2025-01-26T19:17:47.000Z The first place a lot of folks get stopped in starting a business, a website, or even a social media account is The Naming of The Thing. There is so much pressure to “get it right” and I’m here to tell you that’s simply a roadblock to hold you in place and keep you from proceeding. Names can be changed. Apple did it. You can, too. ## It’s all a matter of opinion You have a name already. Either your given name, a name you use in your social circles or the nickname you’ve used since you were a kid (and actually *like*). You can use any name you want, but know this: names are powerful things. When we name something we are giving, or taking away, its power. When we name our fears, we conquer them. When we name our children (human, animal, and plant), we imbue them with our love. As our businesses change, as they grow, as they evolve we are allowed to change their names. Apple did it. In 1976 Apple was Apple Computers, Inc. In 2007, it dropped “Computers” and became Apple, Inc. because the company had evolved into so much more than *just computers.* Google did it. In 2015, Google became a *product* of a new company Alphabet. The Google name stayed, but the company that controls Google is no longer Google, but the new parent company Alphabet. Most recently, Facebook, Inc. became Meta. Since its inception in 2004, Facebook was just that… Facebook. And then in 2021, Facebook became a *product* of Meta. What do these name changes have in common? Yes, they’re big brands, but note the time differences. Name changes happened *decades* after they had started and after their companies had evolved to be *more than what they started*. Their audiences evolved, their product line evolved with their audience, and at some point they went “Hey, we’re more than what we started. We need to restructure a bit.” And *you can do that, too.* So is there pressure to get the name perfect at the start? Yep. And most of it is coming from outside sources you’re currently following: brand strategists, branding designers, copywriters, and people you pay thousands of dollars to polish and tighten up things for your brand *long after you have been established.* You are not starting at the top of the game and you don’t have to pretend you are either. In fact, I suggest you embrace the stage where you are now: the beginner. Stop following brand strategists. Stop following web designers. Stop following social media coaches. Stop following anyone that is telling you that you “should” be doing something at the start of your business that is *meant for established, well-defined, consistently earning businesses.* Stop listening to advice meant for established businesses and trying to apply it to your beginning: such as trademarks, incorporating, spending thousands of dollars on websites, branding, or photo shoots, etc. It’s a quick path to frustration. The name of your business can simply be *your name.* If you are *satisfied* with your given name, I recommend this option for many reasons: 1. You already have it 2. It builds name recognition directly for you 3. Folks are used to calling you by it 4. It gives you room to change course on your offering without changing your name 5. If registered, it can easily become your *parent company* of any other ventures down the line Now, if you have a popular name or one that’s taken everywhere, it can be harder. That’s when you have to play with modifiers, middle names, middle initials, last name initials, full last names, etc. If your given name is your dead name, or name you just really have always disliked, *choose a name for yourself.* Embrace who you are *today* and bestow that person a name imbued with the love and care you have for yourself. ### Blogging in 2026? Read this first. URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/blogging-in-2025-read-this-first/ Last updated: 2026-06-23T19:36:56.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. There’s been a lot of talk about blogging in my feed on Threads. Do it. Don’t do it. It’s too late. It’s never too early. [Davis Carr | Astrology & Tarot (@meridiantarot) on ThreadsEvery time I see “you should start a blog” content on here, I think of @thefierywell.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/icon/Pcnemah90K8.png)Threads![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/thumbnail/407643438_1089968015750317_1474051350216524588_n.jpg)](https://www.threads.net/@meridiantarot/post/C0wiZ9ZMzNS?xmt=AQGzYxqafdWBZVRHU0uJinGR1xchg1kQK4XDSvpp0m16GWA&ref=thefierywell.com) There are so many opinions on blogs, I’d love to see a blog post about it (ahem.) But so far, I’ve only seen social media posts. This is why when I see the “*this* is the year for blogging…” I hold my breath. I’ve been blogging on and off since 1996\. Blogging is work. Even when it’s for funsies. But especially if you’re blogging *for* business and using it as a marketing tool. So if *you* are considering blogging I’d like to offer my seasoned and unsolicited advice: If you want to do it–do it. It’s a creative outlet like no other. It’s a business marketing strategy that has worked since the internet became mainstream. When I can convince clients to blog and they do it… they *stand out* in their industry. But like anything else, you must go into it with a plan. And a decision. Will you be ​blogging for you​ or [​blogging for your business​](https://www.thefierywell.com/moving-from-kit-formerly-convertkit-to-ghost-for-my-email-newsletter-and-blog/)? To work in the open and share your process? To sell products or ideas? To just have fun? The right answer is the right answer *for you.* Just beginning? Then begin. Embrace the mess. Embrace the unknown. Start. Publish. Share. Repeat. Seasoned, but starting over? Get organized. Plan. Prepare. ## A few blogging tips: - [Own your domain.](https://namecheap.pxf.io/Z3MOK?ref=thefierywell.com) Build *your* brand/authority... not the blogging platform's. Owning your domain gives you the ultimate portability–you can move and keep your address! - **Write for the human reading it. Not a search engine. Not an AI Bot.** - Link to your “Blog” in your main navigation - Always date your blog posts - Make your excerpt, or description, shareable - One category per post, lots of tags - One keyword or keyphrase per post - Put the main keyword for your post in your URL - **Speak to *one* person. Share *one* idea. (Per post)** - Add a call to action, such as your newsletter, at the end of every post - [Be original. **AI is not for authoring**](https://www.thefierywell.com/some-thoughts-on-a-i/)**.** - Do what you want. It’s your blog! - Don't forget to make sure your [site complies with all the legal requirements](https://www.thefierywell.com/legal-pages-for-your-website-that-stay-up-to-date-as-the-laws-change-yes-please/) ## A few of my favorite tools for your blogging journey: ### [Squarespace](https://squarespace.syuh.net/4eax29?ref=thefierywell.com) [Squarespace is great if you a very visual person and prefer a drag and drop experience when building a website](https://squarespace.syuh.net/c/1960356/557360/9084?ref=thefierywell.com). You can build as many pages or blogs as you want under one website and their templates are fairly straightforward and highly customizable. They have e-commerce, memberships, subscriptions, and email marketing all in one place, as well, once you start building more than a blog. ### [Ghost](https://ghost.io/?ref=thefierywell.com) You're reading this [blog on a Ghost hosted website](https://ghost.org/?ref=thefierywell.com). It's a very writer focused platform and makes publishing a breeze. The sites are very clean, you don't have to mess with any code, and the writing experience is like a blend of Notion and Obsidian. You also have the option of sending your blog posts directly to your subscribers as an email newsletter. ### [Kit (formerly ConvertKit)](https://partners.kit.com/d9cc4dt444sk?ref=thefierywell.com) While Kit is first and foremost an email marketing system, for those of you just starting out with blogging *and* emailing, it's a great place to start for the price: free. I'd treat it as [a great alternative to Substack](https://partners.kit.com/d9cc4dt444sk?ref=thefierywell.com) rather than a great place to build a traditional blog. ### ​[Notion​](https://notion.so/?ref=thefierywell.com) You may not think of [Notion as a blog](https://notion.so/?ref=thefierywell.com), but it's a great option if you are already into Notion or need something down and dirty. It also functions as a place to store your writing, whether it's published or not. Like [Kit, it's not meant for blogging](https://partners.kit.com/d9cc4dt444sk?ref=thefierywell.com), but when you are just starting out, you can start scrappy! 🚫 [I do not recommend Substack](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/substack-extremism-nazi-white-supremacy-newsletters/676156/?ref=thefierywell.com). You are building **their* business and brand–not yours, it's a walled garden, and [they support Nazis](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters?CMP=Share%5FiOSApp%5FOther&ref=karlbode.com). ### Planning Your Blog & Content: You do not have to have a plan when blogging. You can write and hit publish whenever you want on whatever topic you want. But if you are blogging for business or to eventually sell something... a plan doesn't hurt. [​Your Content Empire​](https://thefierywell--yourcontentempire.thrivecart.com/bundle/?ref=thefierywell.com) is a very detailed system of planning, organizing, drafting, and writing your content from a business first perspective. Her formulas will help you make money from your content. [The Fiery Well Yearly Content Planner​](https://affiliate.notion.so/template-yearly-content-plan?ref=thefierywell.com) is a very, very, basic but well rated Notion template that lets you see everything you want to do at a glance. ### 5 reasons your cold subscribers look warm URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/5-reasons-your-cold-subscribers-look-warm/ Last updated: 2026-06-14T20:24:42.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. We’ve looked at [9 reasons why your subscribers look cold, but may not actually be so](https://www.thefierywell.com/10-reasons-why-you-have-cold-subscribers/). Now, let’s look at the flip side: subscribers that **are** cold, but don’t *look* like it. You’ll notice nothing in email marketing is black and white or straightforward! (Unfortunately!) As with the rest of this series, we’re looking at this through the lens of email open rates. ## Judging by open rates alone, here are 5 reasons your subscribers look warm, but may actually be ice cold ### 1\. SPAM & Network Bots Emails opened immediately after they arrive aren’t always a good thing. You may have a very engaged subscriber that is *waiting* for your email to arrive, sure. Or, more than likely, a bot opened the email, or it was a false positive (notorious in Gmail). People, universities, & companies that take [SPAM seriously can set up filters](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/anti-spam-policies-configure?view=o365-worldwide&ref=thefierywell.com) through their email provider or local program that opens, scans, and filters the content of the emails before delivering it to the recipient (your subscriber). While the email is open, did the human you sent it open it for themselves? Unknown. ### 2\. Preview Windows & Reading Panes If your subscriber has [set up their Outlook](https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/use-and-configure-the-reading-pane-to-preview-messages-2fd687ed-7fc4-4ae3-8eab-9f9b8c6d53f0?ref=thefierywell.com) to use Reading Panes, or if they use Gmail’s Preview mode, it loads the email, and thus the image tracking pixel. This doesn’t mean the person is *actually* reading your emails, only that they are opening them. ### 3\. Inbox Zero. Avid misinterpretation of the [inbox zero method](https://www.43folders.com/43-folders-series-inbox-zero?ref=thefierywell.com) (myself previously included) will have people opening emails and then sorting them away “for later” only … later never comes. Yes, your emails are being opened by your subscriber. But are they being read? No idea. ### 4\. Filters Your emails are being automatically opened and sorted for later consumption, and they are getting lost in the subscriber’s web of email folders. Your emails are arriving, perhaps even being opened, but the tool is keeping them from their view. Gmail is notorious for hiding emails away from view due to their priority inbox rules. ### 5\. Cold Subscriber Re-engagement Sequences Congratulations! They opened one of your engagement emails; they are no longer a cold subscriber according to services like [Kit (previously ConvertKit)](https://convertkit.com/?lmref=iJJx9w&ref=thefierywell.com). Opening a single email resets the clock on determining a cold subscriber. ### Bonus: Auto-clicking – just for funsies – a non-open-rate metric! Just because your subscribers are clicking on links, does not necessarily mean that they are the ones actually doing the clicking! When you see that a subscriber consistently clicks on *every. single. link.* in an email, you can make two assumptions: 1) every link you send is worth clicking on *or* 2) a bot did it. Again, due to SPAM and phishing attempts, many companies set up strict SPAM protocols, which include following links in an email to ensure they are safe for the recipient, or the subscriber, to click on when they read it. But when did the subscriber click on it for themselves? Unless your email marketing service shows you how many times a specific subscriber clicked a link, there’s no real way of making educated guesses. Can you see why The Fiery Well does not like open rates as the only metric for determining the health of your list? So what’s an email marketer to do? ## How to know if a subscriber really is cold Honestly, it’s a lot of educated guesswork and assumptions you’ll have to make to determine if your subscriber has gone cold or not. This can amount to a lot of “busy work” when you begin investigating. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when starting this whole thing: 1. Have a large enough list, and send enough emails that your data is statistically significant and can help you make data-informed decisions going forward. 2. Know your email marketing strategy and how your emails fit in with your overall marketing and product ecosystem. Know what outcome you are ***expecting*** from email marketing. 3. Take a detailed look at your current subscribers: 1. When are they opening? 2. What is their average time between email send and email open? 1. If it’s instant… that’s a sign it’s likely a bot opening their emails! 2. If it’s a day or two later, that’s likely them catching up on emails! 3. What emails are they opening vs not? 4. What emails are they clicking on? 5. What emails are they buying from? 6. What emails are they unsubscribing from or opting out of? 4. Define what a “cold” subscriber is for yourself! 1. Never opens – If they signed up for a freebie and never opened another email again… they are probably cold and worth removing. 2. Never clicks – If you have lots of links in your emails and a subscriber never clicks on ***any*** of them, it’s worth considering if that subscriber is just not interested and needs to be removed. 3. Never replies – If you are someone who really values engagement via email and there is a subscriber who has never replied when asked, it’s worth considering if that subscriber is not a fit for your business or style of newsletter. 4. Never buys – If you only send “buy now” emails and subscribers aren’t buying this could highlight several issues, but if you have had subscribers on your list for years and they never purchase, it’s worth considering removing them. Now, if your emails are your free content and you consider your newsletter as part as your overall business offering, then ignore this. ### What is a good open rate for an email newsletter? URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/what-is-a-good-open-rate-for-an-email-newsletter/ Last updated: 2026-07-09T14:24:28.000Z The discussion is everywhere: what are your open rates? How often are people opening your newsletter? Is the metric that big of a deal? Just what is a good open rate for a newsletter? Having a healthy and engaged newsletter is a huge goal for email marketers (including me at The Fiery Well.) And determining what health is between you and your email marketing service. But are *open* rates the best metric for determining the health of your email list? ## What those open rates really mean I often get feedback from clients, colleagues, and members alike that their open rates are “fantastic” or “satisfactory”. Yes, they are an important piece of a very large puzzle. Is that all you look at? Then they’re just another vanity metric. (Yeah, I said it. And believe me– I used to be in it, too!) If you tell me your email open rate is over 30% I’ll congratulate you and ask: how many sales did that translate to? What segment of your subscribers? What’s your click-through rate? What’s your reply rate? Literally, what is any other metric of evaluation that you have? Why? Email open rates are a fickle metric. ### Tracking pixels: a game of digital ping-pong How does your email service provider count your email as opened? Tracking pixels! > We embed an invisible image (tracking pixel) into the footer of your emails. Once that image/pixel is loaded, we log the email as opened. > > [Kit (previously ConvertKit)](https://help.convertkit.com/en/articles/5324850-what-are-open-rates-and-how-are-they-calculated?lmref=iJJx9w&ref=thefierywell.com) > When open tracking is enabled, each time you send an email campaign through Mailchimp, we embed a tiny invisible graphic in the bottom of your HTML email. This open tracker graphic, or web beacon, is unique to each campaign you send. When someone opens your email with images turned on, that graphic is downloaded from our server, and it’s recorded as an open on your campaign report. > > [Mailchimp](https://mailchimp.com/help/about-open-tracking/?ref=thefierywell.com) 0:00 /0:05 1× These Minions illustrate the problem with the tracking pixel perfectly. Is the ping-pong response accurate? Or not? It’s like a game of ping-pong. When the tracking pixel loads, it sends a signal back to your email marketing service and says “Ping! Hey, this image loaded! That means someone, or some*thing*, opened the email!” One problem here is that not everyone **allows** images to load in their inbox, which skews your data. [Gmail lets you turn image loading off](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/145919?hl=en&ref%5Ftopic=3394652&sjid=16302330642384290112-NA&ref=thefierywell.com) for various reasons, including: saving data usage, decreasing load times, or reducing SPAM emails. Similarly, Outlook will let you [load everything in plain text](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/read-email-messages-in-plain-text-16dfe54a-fadc-4261-b2ce-19ad072ed7e3?ref=thefierywell.com), preventing that tracking pixel from ever loading. For the privacy proactive folks, there are even browser extensions, like [Ugly Email](https://uglyemail.com/?ref=thefierywell.com), that will block the tracking pixel from loading. And that’s just on the subscriber side! Did you know you could send an email that’s way too long and screw up your metrics? Too long of an email and that tracking pixel never gets a chance to load, and your email is “not opened.” For it to be counted, your subscriber has to get to the bottom of the email and click “view entire message.” All this to say: open rates will not tell you if a ***human*** opened and read your email. ## Alone, open rates are a flawed metric You want to look at the **pattern** of your open rates, not the number alone. What else goes with them? - Click through rate - Subject line A/B tests - Reply rate - Conversion rate - Bounce rate - Unsubscribe rate - Message length & type - Segmentation Open rates are a **long-term metric**to measure*.* Track them to look for trends! Look at them as part of the bigger picture. Looking at only one point of data will give you a skewed and incomplete picture. Like a pointillism painting, you have to step back and see the whole picture to have it make any sense. Up close, they’re only dots. And if you think that purging your list of cold subscribers will help those open rates, you are right! Yes, removing cold subscribers will automagically improve your open rates. It’s basic math! > Your open rate is calculated by dividing the subscribers who opened your email by the number of subscribers who received the email. > > Kit (previously ConvertKit) Did your marketing efforts improve? Or just the math? What’s your **big picture**? ## Q: What is a good open rate for your newsletter? ### A: An open rate that continually improves over time. How do you get it to improve over time? Look at your data. A sudden drop in open rates from one week to the next isn’t necessarily very informative data. A steady decline, or increase, in open rates week over week is potentially more helpful. Send a lot of emails. Experiment. Track your open rates. Focus on your message, [segment your subscribers](https://www.thefierywell.com/5-myths-about-email-segmentation/), and send them value through email. And yes, prune those cold subscribers. We’ll get into removing cold subscribers next. Let me know in the comments below: **what do you think of open rates now?** ### 9 reasons why you have cold subscribers URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/10-reasons-why-you-have-cold-subscribers/ Last updated: 2025-01-23T19:10:53.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. Each email marketing platform, service, or system, will have different metrics for what counts as a cold subscriber, but generally speaking: a cold subscriber is someone that just isn’t opening or clicking on your emails. Before we get further into **cold** subscribers, let’s first answer “what is a subscriber?” A **subscriber** is someone that has given you their email address and permission for you to show up in their inbox regularly. This article makes the assumption that you are a business and have an email marketing list through an email marketing *service* such as [Kit (previously ConvertKit)](https://convertkit.com/?lmref=iJJx9w&ref=thefierywell.com), Mailchimp, Mailerlite, Flodesk, etc., and that you are sending your marketing emails through this system and NOT your regular email service *provider*, such as [Proton](https://pr.tn/ref/38JNQWPE78A0?ref=thefierywell.com), [Google](https://referworkspace.app.goo.gl/BL9T?ref=thefierywell.com), Zoho, [Namecheap](http://namecheap.pxf.io/Z3MOK?ref=thefierywell.com) or the like. Kit, the [email marketing system we use](https://convertkit.com/?lmref=iJJx9w&ref=thefierywell.com) here at The Fiery Well, defines cold subscribers as: > a **subset of your confirmed subscribers** that we detected haven’t been engaging with your content. For subscribers who have been active for *more* than 90 days, **anyone who hasn’t opened or clicked an email in the last 90 days**. For subscribers who have been active for *fewer* than 90 days, **anyone who hasn’t opened or clicked an email in the last 30 days.** > > *– definition of* [*Kit (previously ConvertKit) cold subscribers*](https://help.convertkit.com/en/articles/2502651-the-subscriber-profile-page-status?lmref=iJJx9w&ref=thefierywell.com) from their official documentation The usual advice around the internet is to purge or delete those cold subscribers immediately to keep your open rates high and your list healthy. And, to a point, I agree: cold subscribers should go! But are they *really* cold? ## Nine reasons why your subscribers *appear* cold There are any number of reasons that your Kit (previously ConvertKit) (or any email marketing service) subscribers have gone “cold” but here are a few to consider before purging your list of cold subscribers outright. You’ll notice that many of the things that make any subscriber *look* like a “cold subscriber” are either actions you are taking (or not taking) or are the implicit choices of the user. What does that mean? It means start looking at the **big** picture of your email marketing strategy and how your subscribers respond. It means your subscribers are people, too. Not just numbers. ### #1: you *never* send emails to your mailing list This is the biggest reason your subscribers are cold. Are you sending emails to your list? Or are they subscribing to something such as a freebie, you send it, and… that’s it? Do you follow up? Do you engage *them*? If you don’t send emails on some sort of regular basis, what are you doing? You need to think about how email fits into your overall marketing strategy. If you have no strategy, it’s time to consider one. ### #2: you stopped sending emails to your subscribers for a while Much like reason #1, your subscribers are cold simply because they had nothing to open! When you stop sending emails for whatever reason (you market seasonally, took a break or vacation, or something came up and you just… stopped), especially without notice, your subscribers may no longer recognize you when you come back and stick with the pattern of not opening your emails. (Or worse, marking them as SPAM!) ### #3: your cold subscribers are temporarily “out of office” People go out of town, on vacation, have a baby, adopt a pet, or just stop looking at their inbox for an extended period of time. It happens! But this means your emails are not being opened, and often, auto-deleted when the subscriber returns from their break. ### #4: your cold subscriber has simply over-organized their inbox If your subscribers have over-organized their inboxes, your emails could be filtered away into a folder that rarely, if ever, gets looked at. Or, they use [Gmail and it’s organizing their emails **on their behalf**](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/186543?sjid=16302330642384290112-NA&ref=thefierywell.com)**.** ### #5: you are not delivering on your cold subscriber’s expectations This is a hard reality to face, but sometimes you just don’t deliver the value they were wanting you to, or expecting you to deliver and the subscriber goes cold. This could be because you haven’t nailed down your messaging or weren’t clear about what emails you would be sending and they had their own idea of what signing up for your emails meant. This can cause subscribers to lose interest and stop engaging with your emails. ### #6: you have changed, but they haven’t This happens a lot, especially as you start to progress toward your final business messaging! When folks sign up for your newsletter in your early stages, such as in the midst of your “what the fuck muck”, they either grow with you through the evolution or feel left behind. When your message no longer resonates, they stop opening the emails. ### #7: you haven’t segmented your subscribers, and are mixing warm and cold Do you have local workshops? Why are you emailing people across the country about them if there is no virtual option? You’re sending emails to folks that want to be on your list, they just don’t want those particular emails and you’ve trained them to not open your emails because they aren’t often relevant to them. Use [email segmentation](https://www.thefierywell.com/5-myths-about-email-segmentation/) to your advantage and send specific emails, or show specific content within an email, only to the people that it’s relevant to. ### #8: they read your emails in plain text If your subscriber is loading the [plain text-only version of an email](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/read-email-messages-in-plain-text-16dfe54a-fadc-4261-b2ce-19ad072ed7e3?ref=thefierywell.com), it’s not going to load the [image pixel tracker](https://help.convertkit.com/en/articles/2502687-how-email-open-tracking-works?lmref=iJJx9w&ref=thefierywell.com), which is the key indicator for an email marketing platform to count the open. [Plain text = no images](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/145919?ref=thefierywell.com) and no images = not opened. They could be opening and reading every email you send and, if you’re only tracking open rates, they won’t be counted as “warm.” ### #9: you send emails that are way too fucking long That pixel-tracking image doesn’t get loaded unless the *entire* email message is loaded. So if your email marketing service puts the open tracking pixel at the *bottom of your email* and your email is too long? It’s going to get clipped, or cut off. And, despite your email being opened, it won’t count. Now, [email clipping in Gmail](https://www.emailonacid.com/blog/article/email-development/gmail-email-clipping/?ref=thefierywell.com) is a long contested and confusing thing, but when in doubt… keep those emails short. If it’s going to be long – put it on your blog! ## Do you have cold subscribers for any of these reasons? Did we miss anything? Can you think of any other ways your subscribers may have gone cold? Or did we surprise you with a few ideas? What do you think is the number one way *your* current subscribers *appear* to be cold? And yes, we say “appear” because there is no 100% surefire way to know for certain if a subscriber is cold. Coming up in this series, we’ll look at the opposite side of the coin: [when a subscriber looks warm](https://thefierywell.com/5-reasons-your-cold-subscribers-look-warm/?ref=thefierywell.com), but actually **is ice cold.** ### A spell for observation URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/a-spell-for-observation/ Last updated: 2026-06-14T20:50:18.000Z Observing yourself, your work, your habits, your interruptions, your mood, and your feelings while doing a Pomodoro not only helps you track how best to utilize the method, but also lets you tap into a flow and zone of work. You are crafting a thorough and thoughtful intention practice while you work. Using the [Pomodoro® Technique is a long-term practice](https://www.thefierywell.com/pomodoro-primer-for-magic-makers/), like any other mindfulness practice: meditation, movement, or magic. Allow it to become what it needs to become to support you best. ## Cycles & Productivity As a human, you have many cycles: circadian rhythms, diurnal rhythms, ultradian rhythms, infradian rhythms (such as menstruation), and chronotypes. Are you accounting for them during your working periods? Or are you striving to work a full, set, Monday through Friday 9 – 5? You may still *have* a 9-5 as a solitary business owner & entrepreneur. This isn’t to knock that work but to point out that you are a human in the post-industrial age and you *cannot* be “productive” for 8 hours per day, every day, for weeks on end. Work within the system you are given, whenever possible, to optimize your day *for you.* Whenever and however you can. Into astrology? Note the dates and times at which you work. This gives you a record you can return to and note: what were the transits? What got done? Is there a correlation? Do you feel energized or drained when the Moon is in Capricorn? When Mercury or Saturn is Retrograde are you more distracted, or find yourself more prone to errors? Do you menstruate? Are there *types of work* that are better suited for you during a luteal phase than follicular? Note these details wherever you log your Pomodoro sessions. You may be surprised by what cycles and rhythms reveal themselves. With this information in your arsenal, you can use **your** rhythms to **your** advantage. ### Rest is not wrong There is no set manual on how to spend one’s time when you are self-employed. You have to make your own rules and we often continue the toxic practices we have grown to know simply because they are familiar. Anything that goes against these familiar rules feels “wrong.” And more often than not, what feels the most wrong is rest. I challenge you to choose rest. To build systems that make room for, if not necessitate, rest. The Pomodoro® Technique is merely one way to begin to see the hours of your day and your available time as a partner on your journey, rather than an obstacle or something you have to fight to squeeze every second out of. And never, ever, ever, ever use the Pomodoro® Technique in areas outside of your work. Let your hobbies take up time without requiring yourself to notice their passage. Slow down, my witch. Enjoy life. The work will always be there. And you are worthy of rest. Regardless of your productivity. And finally, let’s take a look at how we [utilize the Pomodoro® Technique inside The Coworking Coven](https://www.thefierywell.com/how-we-use-the-pomodoro-technique-inside-the-coworking-coven/). ### How we use the Pomodoro® technique inside The Coworking Coven URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/how-we-use-the-pomodoro-technique-inside-the-coworking-coven/ Last updated: 2026-06-15T01:55:41.000Z Inside The Coworking Coven, my online coworking space, we utilize The Pomodoro® Technique Sprints in our guided coworking sessions every week. Every Tuesday we first come together and discuss our goals. Then we mute ourselves and get to work. In the end, we unmute, check in on our progress, and celebrate. It’s become a weekly ritual that members look forward to. They *know* they will *get shit done.* It’s a combination of focus, community, and accountability. ## Coworking + Pomodoro = The Secret Productivity Sauce We’re solitary entrepreneurs. We work alone. And we are often *lonely*. That said, being a solitary business owner doesn’t require a solitary *experience*. Coworking is a way of bringing structure, community, camaraderie, and accountability to your work week on *your terms.* Combining coworking and the Pomodoro® Technique adds self-accountability, structure, peer accountability, and a sense of community. It’s a palpable combination. Although we are each focused on our tasks, we are working together. And the act of working together, even virtually, builds a magical momentum and ritual around the work we are doing *while* together. We all have shit to do and often it can help to hear what others are working on to know that hey, we aren’t alone. Systems are spells and the Pomodoro® Technique is an awesome starting guide to building *your* system, *your* spell, for more spacious productivity. Whatever that means for *you*. Above all, it’s a way to create a container for your work. And in doing so it becomes that much easier to detach yourself from work. To end your work day. To move on to more things that bring you joy, without the feeling of “I should be working” interrupting that joy. Being self-employed, in any capacity, means to so many “always working” and that’s something I work very hard to help people move away from. Myself included. I hope this [series of articles on the Pomodoro® method](https://www.thefierywell.com/tag/ritual-of-work/) have helped you understand the technique through the lens of a practicing witch, rather than a toxic productivity bro. ### A spell to prepare for rest URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/a-spell-to-prepare-for-rest/ Last updated: 2026-06-15T01:52:31.000Z When utilizing the [Pomodoro® Technique](https://www.thefierywell.com/pomodoro-primer-for-magic-makers/), do you know what you are going to do during your breaks? Witches of The Coworking Coven have: - worked on knitting projects, - stretched, - done a bit of breath work, - refilled water and snacks, - watered the plant babies, - scrolled social media, - journaled, - made art, - chatted in the community, - and otherwise pulled their brain *away* from their tasks. This is critical to completing the work. I repeat: rest is critical to completing your task Don’t work through the breaks. Don’t do *other work* during the breaks. Stop. Rest. If you aren’t naturally inclined to take breaks (cough, internalized corporate world, and Capitalism), come into your Pomodoro session with a plan of *how* you will take breaks. Why do I reiterate this so much? Because not breaking and not resting invites the brain to wander and to look for rest during task time. ## Your brain will seek rest. Give it some! What can you do in five minutes? - Stretch, breathe, meditate - Stare into space - Stare out your window - Have a quick dance party - Play with a pet - Water your plants - Water yourself - Go to the bathroom - Knit a row on a project - Build Legos - Doodle, draw, sketch - Light a new incense or candle - doing absolutely *nothing* is an acceptable break “task” Take the fucking breaks. You have your list of tasks, you have your list of go-to break ideas, now actually take the breaks. Put down the work when the timer goes off and take a break. Rest. Disconnect. It’s five minutes. I know the urge to keep going, especially when you’ve hit a flow state. But try to stop. If you find that you consistently hit a flow state within 25 minutes, that’s a sign that your Pomodoro should perhaps be 30, 35, or even 40 minutes. This is where *observation* of your work is critical to the success of your Pomodoro sessions. Next up, let’s take a look at [crafting a spell for observing yourself and your work](https://www.thefierywell.com/a-spell-for-observation/). ### A spell for choosing tasks URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/a-spell-for-choosing-tasks/ Last updated: 2026-06-15T01:51:20.000Z The tasks you do during your work or [Pomodoro sessions](https://www.thefierywell.com/pomodoro-primer-for-magic-makers/) matter. A lot. Your tasks should be *selected* and chosen with intent. - What tasks will chip away at your goals? - What tasks are causing anxiety that you could face head-on? - What tasks will make you *feel* good once they’re completed? - **What tasks can *you complete* in a Pomodoro or two?** That last one takes time. And observation. If you’ve been doing and tracking your Pomodoros for a period of time you have observed, and learned, what tasks and what *type* of tasks *you* can complete in a Pomodoro. If you are new to Pomodoro, this is your chance to learn what *you* can accomplish in *your* Pomodoros. Writing down what tasks you want to do and marking how many sessions it required to complete the task, how many times you were interrupted and for what, and what else came up helps you to see how you can better tune those boundaries around your time and focus on the task(s) at hand. It also helps tune and “perfect” your time estimating going forward. The Pomodoro is here to support *your work methods,* not force you into a specific *way* of working. The Pomodoro is a container, but like any good box, you have to choose the right size for the job. ## Brain dumps are not to-do lists A brain dump, while highly recommended, is *not* a task list. Don’t try to Pomodoro your way through an entire list of brain-dumped randomness. This will only lead to a sensation of defeat, overwhelm, and anxiety. Use the first Pomodoro of your session purely for brain-dumping, envisioning, and getting a top-down view of what needs to be done. I find this highly effective! Especially for our guided coworking sessions inside The Coworking Coven. Because it’s *timed*, members can often feel anxious coming into their first guided coworking session. Questions arise and perfection rears its head. *What do I work on? What* should *I do*? All things you only learn as you show up and attend the coworking sessions. I suggest the first Pomodoro is spent actively brainstorming, brain dumping, and preparing themselves *for* the work. This reduces the anxiety around task selection. And if this means staring off into space for 25 minutes–so be it. Finally, at the end of that Pomodoro session, spend a few minutes selecting what *feels best* for that day’s time. Everyone works differently on different things. Embrace the uniqueness of you and your working method, always. Brain-dump everything and [choose your tasks with intent](https://www.thefierywell.com/a-magic-w-a-n-d-for-your-to-do-list/). Next up, let’s [prepare for the *rest period*, or break between Pomodoros](https://www.thefierywell.com/a-spell-to-prepare-for-rest/). This step is just as important to prepare for! ### Productivity Spells for Focused Work Sessions URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/productivity-spells-for-focused-work-sessions/ Last updated: 2026-07-12T18:36:36.000Z ## A spell for handling interruptions Not all interruptions are created equal! There are internal interruptions: - that sudden good idea, - that sudden urge to check Twitter, - that thing you remembered from last week that you forgot about, - the need to go to the bathroom, - a sudden desire to make a coffee or grab a snack, etc. And there are external interruptions: - a phone call, - a text or Tweet notification, - a child begging for more juice, - a pet whining to go outside, - a co-worker wanting to chat at the water-cooler (aka your desk), - your boss coming over to check if you got the email he sent five minutes ago and to discuss, etc. ## Write everything down The Pomodoro® Technique gives you a *system* for interruptions. An *effective* system begins with *observation*. As you begin your journey with the Pomodoro® Technique, begin noting down the interruptions as they arise. Don’t let your brain linger on them. Put them someplace! This aids in keeping the focus on your Pomodoro® and tasks. It also tracks what interruptions come up, when, and how often. And how you respond to them. This allows a system to emerge naturally if you do not have one already. Effectively handling interruptions requires having an actionable process for them *before* they arise. This takes time. For a long while this will be a back-and-forth cycle of tracking interruptions, resolving the interruptions, and developing repeatable methods to combat them. Having that growing list of responses and how to handle each will ultimately reduce the decision fatigue of “what do I say here? how do I respond to something like this?” Systematize and automate yourself. Remember, systems are a spell. ## A spell to let people know you’ll be a.w.a.y. I like to let those around me know I will be A.W.A.Y. while working. It’s a handy acronym for the following steps I take before working: **Aware –** Make those around you aware that you will be unavailable. (Need a visual cue? A sign or [color coded light](https://amzn.to/4vRq1UW?ref=thefierywell.com) \[amazon affiliate link\] can be helpful!) **When –** Let those around you know the date and time you are unavailable so anything that comes up will need to be scheduled later. Provide a link to your time scheduler and allow them to schedule an appointment with you for a later, focused, time. **Assign –** If what you’re interrupted with is beyond your scope of work, it is assigned, or delegated to someone else. (Keep that running list of tasks that pop up and who can handle them best.) **Yes –** These are the interruptions you will allow and say “yes” to, and abandon the Pomodoro. Emergencies, celebrations, etc. Clear boundaries and expressed expectations benefit everyone – not just you! Next up, let’s cast [a spell that will help us choose what tasks to do](https://www.thefierywell.com/a-spell-for-choosing-tasks/) during our Pomodoros. Or during any working session, for that matter! ### Magic & Rituals for Work URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/magic-rituals-for-work/ Last updated: 2026-06-23T21:31:00.000Z When I say ritual you may be picturing large, elaborate, ceremonial-level events. Robes. Candles. Religious archetypes and rules. But ritual, I see, as small repeatable actions. Rituals are opportunities to commit to yourself mind, body, and soul in *tiny* ways every day, throughout the day. Often, we build upon them and create systems and *routines.* When I say ritual I mean: - stirring my coffee clockwise with an intention every morning - pulling out the Pomodoro sprint sheet, brainstorming, writing down the tasks as I do them, and putting the sheet in the binder when done - dusting off my workspace before beginning any workings Since the Coronovirus pandemic, many folks had the blessing and curse of working from home during lockdowns and quarantines. It was a struggle for many to separate work life from home life in a space that wasn’t always conducive to the blend. Not everyone has a dedicated office space, or even room at the kitchen table, for their work. So how did so many people find a way to make it work? Grit? Determination? Yes. And ritual. ## Get into focus with pre-work rituals Our brains need the signal “it’s time to work” and we can achieve that through small, repeatable, buildable rituals. Like lighting a candle, or taking a deep breath. Or it can be as detailed as a full-blown spell for focus! It can also be the way we interact with the space around us! Working at a specific table at our favorite coffee shop, using your favorite coffee mug at the kitchen table, clearing your workspace, and setting out your favorite pen for note-taking or filling out sprint sheets. Alert your brain that it’s time to “do the thing” by - Clearing a specific spot off of the kitchen table - opening the curtains - playing particular music - having a talk with the kids - lighting a candle These small gestures can be enough to help move our focus, and alert our brain, “It’s time to do the thing!” When I led virtual coworking spaces, we would spend a few minutes discussing our plans for our Pomodoro’s before we began working, we muted ourselves, gave a thumbs up, and the clock started counting down. What made it ritual was the pattern. We did this every week. And every week that witches showed up for virtual coworking, it became part of their ritual. A ritual is yours and can always be discovered. Rituals can be communal and they can be personal. Slowly build a supportive one for yourself. ## Release your brain with a post-work ritual What’s *more* important than a pre-work ritual? The *post-*work ritual. It’s how you pull yourself *away from the work* once done! The act of following up and reviewing your tasks and then breaking for lunch, or a walk, is a nourishing way to break away from work. In addition, blowing out the candle, taking another deep breath, doing a tarot pull, journaling, and doing additional brain dumping can all aid in transitioning you from “work” mode to “free from work” mode. How can you begin to separate yourself from your work, your workspace, your work brain, on command? Detachment from work is just as important as the work itself. Next up, let’s [cast some spells for productivity](https://www.thefierywell.com/productivity-spells-for-focused-work-sessions/). ### 4 Rules of the Pomodoro® Technique URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/4-rules-of-the-pomodoro-technique/ Last updated: 2025-01-25T12:36:58.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. Francesco’s technique has several unbreakable rules for which I leave you to [read his book](https://bookshop.org/a/17455/9781524760700?ref=thefierywell.com) for all of them. A few will be covered here as they are, in my view, the most critical and are the ones I encourage all witches of The Fiery Well to abide by and make their own. (At the time of this writing I am not certified in the Pomodoro® Technique, I am merely an avid fan and user of the method.) ## Rule #1: The Pomodoro is Indivisible The Pomodoro is a unit of time itself. It is unbreakable. With this method, there is no such thing as a “half” Pomodoro. How long is a Pomodoro? As a rule, it is 25 minutes of active work and 5 minutes of active rest. As you use the method you may learn that a Pomodoro for you is 30 minutes of work and 10 minutes of rest. The flexibility of the Pomodoro is in being able to define its parameters. You decide what equates to a Pomodoro and use that measure of time as the tracking method going forward. The goal is to be able to align Pomodoros with your tasks: Task X takes Y Pomodoros. This moves us away from “Task X takes 35 minutes.” It cannot be divided! You don’t accomplish your tasks in 1.5 Pomodoros. You accomplish them in 2\. This is important as you begin to observe and *estimate* your time as you use the method. And frees you from the brain load of calculating, down to the minute, your time spent on tasks. Are you a service provider that bills by the hour? Try billing “by the Pomodoro” and see how your time estimates evolve over time. ## Rule #2: Protect the Pomodoro The Pomodoro ® Technique is a great introduction to working boundaries. Remember, boundaries are a spell. Your time must be honored. Your Pomodoro must be *protected* against interruption. There is no way to remove all interruptions from our lives. But you can prepare yourself *and* those around you to mitigate them. Communicate your availability, your needs, and what constitutes a good enough reason to interrupt you. This takes prior planning, clear communication, and a willingness to **hold** the boundaries with those around you. This takes effort. It takes knowing yourself: - what tasks *can* you do, but *ought* to be delegated to someone else to complete (understanding your zone of genius) - which tasks can be *deferred* for two hours or more (understanding priority of tasks) - which tasks simply are *not* for you to complete (understanding what is *your* work) Create a list of what tasks you will and will not do during any given Pomodoro, what tasks you know those around you handle best, and what tasks are simply not for you. Having this list ahead of time can allow you to begin to see what you need to be focusing on during your Pomodoros. ## Rule #3: Results are achieved Pomodoro after Pomodoro In the productivity space, there is this toxic urge to focus more and produce more in less time. To be fair, that’s how the Pomodoro® Technique began. It’s not where & how the Pomodoro method continued to grow. Francesco repeatedly brings up the need to observe yourself and understand what is working and what is not. Not just keep working. With each Pomodoro you observe your work, your methods, and your output, allowing yourself to slowly optimize *your* way of working best. Within Pomodoro itself. Having the time box of a Pomodoro (or focus for a set time period) allows you to focus on *that* Pomodoro. Reflect on *that* Pomodoro’s tasks. Before moving on to the next session. In his book, Francesco stresses using the first and last few minutes of each Pomodoro to pause. To reflect and review what you’ve done. Not judge. Reflect. Not simply rush into the next Pomodoro’s tasks. Each Pomodoro is an opportunity to learn more about yourself, your work habits, and your work environment and track over time: - How do *you* approach your time? - How do *you* deal with interruptions? - How do *you* focus on a single task? - What is *your* evolution in each of these areas? Because a Pomodoro is indivisible, you may wonder “What should I do if there are five, ten, or even fifteen minutes left?” Don’t move on to the next Pomodoro! If there is excess time: over-learn. Go over what you did, review it, refine it, research further on it, etc. Take notes on the task, your mood, time of day, etc. Commit to that Pomodoro and let it finish before moving on to the next. Tracking your work and your Pomodoro’s will depend on what kind of data you *want*. Keeping a log of everything you *finish* during your Pomodoro session, and how many Pomodoros it took to complete, will help you learn a lot about how you work and what data you need to gather. **For example:** June 1, 2022, 10 AM 1. Wrote email – 1 Pomodoro 2. Designed, edited, and scheduled social media Post – 3 Pomodoro Again, it’s not about cramming as much productivity as possible into a Pomodoro. It’s about understanding how you work best and using Pomodoro to support that. Keep a log of the work you are doing and watch the evolution of your tasks, focus, and Pomodoros over time. What do you see? How do you feel? This can be incredibly difficult to take the time to do, but can make a huge difference in your work. ## Rule #4: The next Pomodoro *will* go better Pomodoro’s are not timed tests asking “what can you achieve in 25 minutes?” They are a time *box*: you *have* 25 minutes. See what gets accomplished. Then optimize. Each Pomodoro is a chance to improve upon something: your focus, your task, your timing, your observations, and more. Cut yourself some slack. We are long past the industrial revolution and you are not a machine on a production line cranking out widgets. You are a human being with emotions, responsibilities, desires, and physical, mental, and emotional limitations. If you thought you could get something done in one Pomodoro and it took four, it’s not that you tanked the “productivity test.” It’s perhaps a sign that you were interrupted a lot, or you could work to improve your time *estimation* skills, or you had an *off day.* The goal is to figure out: *how* could you have completed the task in one, rather than four. Not beat yourself up because you *couldn’t.* ## Time to bring the magic. Now that we understand the Pomodoro ® Technique is more about the observation of work than productivity output itself, can you see the parallels between this method and … your craft? - The gathering of resources to support a goal. - The intention of the moment. - The observation of the work. - The tracking of the work and results. - The reflecting and reviewing. **It’s a spell.** I don’t know about you, but when I craft a spell I gather specific ingredients, have a specific goal, observe myself during casting, and track the results. Is it repeatable? It goes in the Grimoire. Did it go as planned? Regardless, I make corrections each time I give it a go. I reflect often on its progress and review any changes. Once I began treating my usage of the Pomodoro ® Technique more like a magical process, it *became* a magical process. I have a Pomodoro Grimoire now, even. And I can see the evolution of my work, my habits, my interruptions, and more. The more I do the Pomodoro ® Technique, the more I layer in other pieces of my solitary practice. Next up, let’s dive in and [see just how magical the Pomodoro® Technique](https://www.thefierywell.com/magic-rituals-for-work/) is and how to combine it with every day rituals. ### Pomodoro® Primer for Magic Makers URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/pomodoro-primer-for-magic-makers/ Last updated: 2026-06-14T20:39:41.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. ## What is the Pomodoro ® Technique, or method? The Pomodoro ® Technique, or Pomodoro method as it’s more commonly called, was discovered and developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s. He was a university student looking for a way to get more studying and homework done in less time. He challenged himself to accomplish his tasks within the timeframe of a timer – a pomodoro, or tomato, shaped kitchen timer. It worked. And he subsequently spent the next several years developing what we now know as The Pomodoro ® Technique (or method). The technique is a method of working very focused on a task for a set period of time, followed by a short break. After four Pomodoro’s you rest for a longer period. Repeat until you are done with your work day. Fairly basic, pretty straightforward, and deceptively simple. ### How we get the Pomodoro Technique (or method) wrong The Pomodoro ® Technique is an amazing way to focus your labor for a more productive output. Through *detachment* from work. To be able to stop working. To work *better*. It’s not about cramming your focus for everything into 25 minutes of work, continuously. It’s not about constantly & only striving for increased output of your input (time, labor, focus, attention, etc.) It is about giving the work a dedicated time and observation of the work being done, which leads to optimization of work within the time and eventual detachment from the work itself. Which, in turn, increases the quality of the output of your work. Under Capitalism, no one wants to discuss stopping as a strength or asset in our work. The risk to the system is having the workforce wondering: how much more often could we stop? For how long could we stop? And… what *else* could we stop? > **“**By applying the Pomodoro **®** Technique, many people have begun to understand the value and effectiveness of detachment. A break every 25 minutes lets you see things from a different perspective and enables you to come up with different solutions; you often find mistakes to correct, and your creative process is stimulated. Detachment enhances the value of continuity. … *Stopping becomes synonymous with strength, not weakness*.” > > **– The Pomodoro ® Technique Book** ### How we can get this method right Continued use of the Pomodoro® Technique shows us that stopping is an act of strength. **That rest is productive**. This isn’t something you’ll read in a Forbes or WeWork productivity article. *Stopping? Rest? In today’s economy? Impossible!* - *Work smarter, not harder!* - *Want to play hard? Work hard first!* - *Work 50 years & get retirement* Let’s throw out the productivity hack article advice and go to the source. Francesco has a fantastic, short, little book called “The Pomodoro ® Technique” that details his method and the process behind it. It is well worth the read! I was elated to discover that the Pomodoro ® Technique is more aligned with the desire for **attention** and **intention** than the pure output of labor. Which, I realized, aligns with my *craft.* Is Francesco a witch? That I cannot say. But the Pomodoro method and system? Pure magic. But first, let’s look at some of the mundane qualities of the system. Namely, [four of the rules of the Pomodoro® Technique](https://www.thefierywell.com/4-rules-of-the-pomodoro-technique/). ### Do you audit your business? URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/do-you-audit-your-business/ Last updated: 2026-06-22T16:28:44.000Z ## What is a business audit? If you’re in the United States and hear the word “audit” you probably have visions of IRS agents combing through your tax returns or carting you off to jail. But an audit for your business doesn’t have to be scary. An audit is merely an inspection of or examination of something (most often financial.) From our tech to our time, to our content, and even our goals… anything is worth an audit. If it is to change, it must be observed! Inside The Coworking Coven, we do various audits every quarter. One, as a way to keep ourselves informed and appraised of aspects of our business, and two, to develop the habit. And the habit is built around our unique audit framework. ## How does The Fiery Well audit system work? The Fiery Well A.U.D.I.T. framework is deceptively simple in design. It is a five-step framework for creating your system of evaluation and observation in your business, or area of life: ### Audit Step One – Assess Assess where you are, and what you have. Even if it’s nothing – that’s still something. To be able to assess something means you know what you’re looking at, and what you’re looking *for. There is a need to identify something, a system, or a pattern*. Go through the thing you want to audit and gather every bit of information you *currently* have on it. ### Step Two – Understand Understanding something requires paying attention to things we may not necessarily want to pay attention to. Often this can include things that don’t seem relevant to the thing we are auditing. Nevertheless, as you begin to understand more you *will* have more questions. Which creates more things to asses and build awareness upon. ### Step Three – Decide When you have an understanding that feels solid enough to continue building on then it is time to make a few decisions. We audit to **initiate** change and must decide what needs to change. Based on all the things you currently understand and *want* to understand, you need to make some decisions, most importantly of which is “what is the priority?” ### Step Four – Implement Based on the decisions you have made, and the priorities you have in mind, you need to start implementing the changes you want to see. This is often where learning to do less to accomplish more comes in handy. ### Step Five – Track You’ve made your decisions, you’re implementing changes, and now you need to track the changes. This is where you are going to expand on that list and develop an informative system for tracking. ### Audit Bonus Step – Simplify Simplifying is quite difficult because it most often requires *removing* steps, or things, from what we are doing. It requires further awareness, understanding, decision-making, and tracking. Again, this is a cyclical process that you will weave in and out of as you move along. And as you move along, you have the opportunity to simplify at every stage and every pass. This is not a one-and-done system. Passing it off to your virtual assistant is not something we recommend, either. These are steps that we encourage the business *owner* to go through, iterate upon, and develop a system that works inside their business. (Care to hear a member’s perspective on the framework? Listen to the discussion between [Amelia and myself on her podcast, Off the Grid](https://www.softersounds.studio/off-the-grid/business-systems-patty-ryan-lee?ref=thefierywell.com)) The first audit is often the most difficult. Why? Because you’re navigating the framework while completing the audit, which is like juggling two tasks at the same time. And your second pass of the same audit, which is highly encouraged, will go much quicker. The more you do the same audit, the faster it goes. And the more simplified you can make the system for yourself and your business, the better for everyone. ## What type of audits should you do in business? What should you audit? Anything you want to understand better and make data-informed decisions about your time, your tech, your content, your finances, your marketing, and on and on! This is the beauty of the framework alone: it’s specific enough to guide you and flexible in requirements for what you need to evaluate. > I was able to **streamline my tech stack AND shave money off my monthly business budget** — to the tune of $564/year! – Emily Prentice (Artist, and owner of The Mycelium Shop - this audit took place during Emily's time inside The Fiery Well paid membership, now closed) ### 5 tech choices that hold you back from success in your business URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/5-tech-choices-that-hold-you-back/ Last updated: 2026-06-14T20:35:20.000Z - Overwhelmed with Dubsado workflows? Often a sign your business systems aren’t “flowing” as much as you thought they were (if they even exist!) - Constantly adding Pages and Databases in Notion to get organized and end up feeling even less so? Often a sign you are struggling with the *things* you’re putting into Notion, not Notion itself. (How satisfied are you with the tasks, goals, and systems that you are putting *into* Notion?) > Many tech-related issues small business owners have, such as choosing tools, getting started with the tools you’ve chosen, and even searching for “the right tool” has an underlying issue. Put a name to that, and you’ll do more than conquer just your tech. > > – Patty Ryan Lee - Undecided about what email marketing system to use? Often a sign you aren’t ready for email marketing (or if you even want to do it!) - Torn between Squarespace and WordPress quite often? More than not, it’s because you want to use one but feel that you *should* use the other (and you just need to make a choice!) At least 90% of the time the issue or hangup you have about the technical side of your business (software, systems, process, etc) is a symptom of something else going on: in your mind, your heart, your life, or your business. And not understanding this can hold you back from making the decisions you need to for your business. Here are five very common choices you are making in business tools that are holding you (and your business) back. See if anything pops out at you right now, or brings up a memory of a past decision: ### Are you choosing form over function in your tech? #### Don’t fear basic, boring, tools. Utilize them to their fullest extent. The boring shit works best. More often than not “the simpler” the tool… the more it will return investment for you on your time. By a) keeping you out of it unless necessary and b) the more likely you will follow through with its use *because* it is simple to use. Getting distracted with a focus on “aesthetics” can keep you in the tool longer than needed, which can cost you time, money, and energy. ### Are you choosing not to commit to a particular tool? #### Explore the fears you have about commitment and business success; be open and honest with yourself. You try one tool for a little bit, get overwhelmed by making the commitment to learn it all the way, abandon it for something new or prettier, or the latest recommendation from a friend, and rinse and repeat. This way, you make no progress no matter the tool you choose because you aren’t facing a potential fear of commitment, the fear of advancement, head-on. ### Are you choosing to use the wrong *number* of tools? #### Get intimate with your business finances, make a budget, and *hire* tools only as needed. This comes down to inexperience, inattention to financials, or inability to “pick one” for fear of “making a mistake” or “shoulding” on yourself in business. You then end up with too many tools that overlap in functionality, or not enough tools that do enough unique things, which keeps you on the lookout for the ultimate “all in one” or frozen in place. Hint: there is no ultimate all-in-one. There is no magic number of tools to use. Your business is unique and your “tech stack” will be as unique as your business needs. ### Are you making the mistake of not choosing to *hire* your tools? #### Flip the script. Write a job description for the tools you want and go hunting with those requirements. You rely on the recommendations and feelings of others to choose the tools you use, rather than facing the requirements of your business head-on. What does your business *need* to function? If you can’t answer that, you have a problem. (Don’t panic: we’ve all been there.) Hire your tools based on *your needs.* ### Are you choosing things based on price alone? #### Pay for automation over aesthetics & simplicity over style and watch your investment pay off in leaps and bounds. This is, by far, the most common thing that can hold you back from making the best tech choices for you. Putting aside systemic economic issues, this is a sign you’re shopping with yesterday’s budget. And that’s incredibly unfair to the business you will have next year. Stretch your imagination, invest your money where it will have the highest return the quickest: where it will save you *time*. --- Did you see yourself or your decisions in a few of these? You’re not alone. I have made all of these choices, and more! There is no quick recovery from these ways of thinking: it’s a process of learning, working through things, growing, and making new choices. It takes time, patience, experience, and a willingness to keep fucking going. ### Brand Guide Notion Template (Free) URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/brand-guide-notion-template-free/ Last updated: 2026-06-16T02:00:40.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. Are your brand details scattered to the wind? Do you have to look everywhere for a hex code? Or do you keep choosing a “close enough” color whenever you have to “pick” a color somewhere? Stop. You’re creating more work for yourself and brand inconsistencies for your audience. Instead of trying to remember everything, or changing details on yourself every day put it all in this Notion document! The [Brand Guide Notion Template](https://www.notion.com/templates/brand-guide?ref=thefierywell.com) is the ideal starting place for all of your brand details: colors, fonts, values, pictures, and more. **The first step to feeling like you have “a real brand” is getting all of its details out of your head and into a central location for easy reference. It’s a boss move, my witch. Because:** Stop trying to remember everything – put it here! - Do you know, by heart, the hex code for your brand color? Or does it only exist on a sticky note taped to your monitor? - All those pictures you spent so much money hiring a professional photographer for – have they made it out of the file folder on your desktop? - Do you have all the copy “snippets” for your brand in one place, such as your Why, and your Values, or are they scattered across social media profiles without consistency? Put all of your brand details and assets in one place: this [Brand Guide Notion Template](https://www.notion.com/templates/brand-guide?ref=thefierywell.com). This template is your first step in developing your own brand system that you can hand off to your virtual assistant, graphic designer, copywriter, or anyone that needs to know details about your brand or access its bits and bobs! ## This Brand Guide Notion template gets you started with: - Brand Statements & Values - Brand Voice & Tone - Colors - Fonts - Assets, such as photographs, PDFs, and more - Screenshots of your website - And more… this is a basic and open framework for you to further expand upon in your own way! This template works with any [free Notion account](https://notion.so/?ref=thefierywell.com); if you upload large images to the assets database you may need to upgrade to a paid account. ### Astro-writers, where are your portfolios? URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/astro-writers-where-are-your-portfolios/ Last updated: 2026-06-22T14:58:00.000Z Astro-writers. Astro forecasters. Horoscope writers. Astrologers that want to be hired for your **writing*.*..this is for you: ## Publish your work on your own website. Social media is a fantastic and wonderful avenue for *distributing* your works. Not storing them. Whether you keep a blog where you write forecasts, interpret transits, or scream into the ethos about traditional vs modern astrology, or you have a dedicated portfolio of your most special & precious interpretations, your writing deserves a special place on your website. Don’t give it all to the algorithm. Look, I get it. You can build an audience with social media. Instagram captions are great for syncing an image to a thought, and those likes, shares, and saves are enticing little dopamine hits. Twitter threads are quick and “easy” for getting information and ideas out of heads and into people’s hands for retweets and spreading the content. I’m not saying to stop doing those things. I’m saying if you want to be found for your work, to put work on your website. On something **you** own. And *then* share it. When you write solely on Twitter and Instagram, you are building a body of work **for Twitter and Instagram – not you. They** profit off of your work. And they can, in turn, disable your account before dinner and without an afterthought or avenue to restore it. What happens then? One, dessert is ruined. Two, your body of work disappears. Consider that. And, consider, too, how much more attention you *could* be getting on your work if you had a central place to direct folks to browse, specifically, your work? Work that other folks could then share on **their** social platforms. That search engines could pick up and you could be found by folks not even **on** social media. Consider it. - Am I telling everyone reading this to stop posting on social media and only publish on their websites? No. - Am I telling everyone reading this post to stop doing anything they’re doing now? No. - Am I telling everyone reading this to start a blog? Again, no. I’m asking you, as someone that is looking to hire an astro-writer, to please have a portfolio that is easily accessible and highlights your work. And, I’m asking you as a web developer and designer to witches, to please put that labor somewhere where **you** benefit the most: on your website. ### Rubber Ducking URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/rubber-ducking/ Last updated: 2026-06-15T01:48:18.000Z I’m a web developer. Languages change, ways of programming change, and now… I barely touch code because of WordPress. But one thing that hasn’t changed in my 20+ years is how helpful Rubber Ducking is. When I started in web development, I had my programmer dad to talk to when I ran into an issue. We could converse together and bounce ideas back and forth like a game of tennis and dizzy my non-programmer mother. But when he died, I lost that back and forth problem-solving and brainstorming. Or so I thought. In the midst of a massive programming project something weird happened: I began talking to my mom about different things and ideas and issues I was running into and she’d smile and nod and go “Oh, that sounds… hard?” but she couldn’t offer me any programming help because that was not her world. And her complete and utter lack of feedback helped me help myself problem solve. I didn’t realize it, but I had discovered rubber ducking. ## What the hell is rubber ducking? [Rubber ducking is a programmer’s way of debugging code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber%5Fduck%5Fdebugging?ref=thefierywell.com). It’s referencing the literal toy, a rubber duck, and the story about a programmer that would keep one in his pocket and debug his code by forcing himself to explain each line of his code out loud to the duck. I can’t remember when I first heard of the term, but the concept is the same regardless of what, or who, you’re actually talking to. Sound bizarre? It’s not really. You ever read instructions to do something and find yourself re-reading them out loud? Or you read something, aren’t quite sure what they’re trying to say, and read it out loud? It’s almost an automatic response to overwhelming information. We pause, read it out loud and *listen* to what we’re saying. By talking out loud you are forced to slow down and process the information in a new way. The object is to bear your own witness to the processes of your brain. To slow it the fuck down. When we talk about our problems out loud, whether they’re code or a new business direction, we have to slow down and think about what we’re going to say and how we’re going to explain it. In the midst of this process, it gives our brain a new task: actively listen to and comprehend the problem. So it can be processed and solved. I’m not a neuroscientist, I’m barely science-ish, but I have bared witness to the power of Rubber Ducking. I’ve solved massive programming problems, helped myself make business decisions, and figured out what to make for dinner that night. So the next time you’re stuck *thinking* about a problem, and your thoughts are going in circles, try Rubber Ducking. You can rubber duck with anything: a favorite crystal, your monitor, your cup of tea, and even, yes, your partner. It’s especially helpful when rubber ducking if the person you’re talking to has no fucking clue what you’re going on about. Because this forces you to either a) explain it in greater detail to break it down for them to understand or b) go off on a higher-level tangent with yourself about why it’s so complicated in the first place. Talk about the problem, rephrase the problem, and keep explaining the problem. You may surprise yourself with a solution. ### Awareness in Business URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/awareness-in-business/ Last updated: 2025-01-23T18:50:52.000Z What are you not aware of in your business? When you start a business there’s a lot to be aware of: your budget and income, your goals, your clients and customers, your metrics and marketing, branding and website and technology “stack,” and on and on and on. How about awareness of … you? The business owner? > Business growth requires personal awareness. And personal awareness is good for more than just business. > > – Patty Ryan Lee So much of our business is about being aware of the external (see list above) and yet, so much **more** of our business actually factors on us, the business owner. How we feel one day to the next, what we can physically or mentally manage from one hour to the next, and how we can connect and *disconnect* with our workday today all show up in our work. Are you aware of what days you work best? What hours? On what things? If yes, how did you come to this awareness? If no, when will you start? Because let me tell you: an awareness of self highlights a lot of things to be aware of in business. Business growth requires personal awareness. And personal awareness is good for more than just business. At the start of 2021, I knew something was wrong on Mondays. And not just the typical “aw, fuck, it’s Monday.” Something in my body felt… off. I literally woke up not feeling well and had to drag myself in front of the computer and physically force myself to put my hands on the computer keyboard. So in April, I decided to “close up shop” on Mondays and focus on connecting with my body again, giving my brain a rest, not working, and just… be. Is this a planetary day thing? Monday’s belonging to the Moon, which governs our body? Is my body syncing with an astrological clock? Perhaps. But knowing I don’t “function well” on Mondays has given me this sort of permission to not force myself to show up on Mondays. This, in turn, has altered a multitude of mindsets and habits inside, and outside, of my business. The habits that got me to that point themselves vary and are tenuous, but the results of being here are not. My business has shifted immensely already. I am more focused during my work week, which means more quality work and “higher productivity” and more relaxed on my days off, which means I’m able to actually take days off and not work. Had I not become aware, and had the desire to thus understand why Mondays weren’t working, where would I be in business right now? I can’t say. How about you? Are you aware of yourself in your own business? You audit your books, your social strategy, your metrics, and engagement… When was the last time [you audited… yourself?](https://thefierywell.com/do-you-audit-your-business/?ref=thefierywell.com) ### 5 Myths about Email Segmentation URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/5-myths-about-email-segmentation/ Last updated: 2025-01-23T18:47:38.000Z ## First, what is Email Segmentation? In short, it’s focus… or, as Mailerlite puts it: > “Email segmentation is a targeting technique where you divide your subscriber list into smaller audiences, based on a set of characteristics that you choose. Segmentation allows you to personalize your messaging to specific people which results in higher engagement, because the topics are more relevant.” > > Mailerlite ## 5 Common “Myths” or Misconceptions In preparing for the membership’s Email Segmentation workshop, I asked on Instagram what questions folks have. Combining those answers with all my research and my even own hang-ups around segments (yes, I took forever to make it to the segment party…) I discovered (give or take) five commonly rooted misconceptions: ### Myth #1 – Everyone on my list wants to hear everything I want to say If this were accurate, [email open rates](https://www.thefierywell.com/what-is-a-good-open-rate-for-an-email-newsletter/) would be 100%, and unsubscribe rates would be 0\. Don’t ya think? Now, if these are your numbers, then congratulations, you are a magical email unicorn. Please reach out and let me know how you did that. But the truth is not everyone wants to hear about everything you want to say. Smart brands recognize this and extend those courteous opt-outs for seasonal sales and product launches, achieving higher open rates and brand loyalty. ### Myth #2 – Email segments don’t help What did we just say in Myth #1? More importantly “Doesn’t help” **what**? If you’re saying “it doesn’t help” then you already have in your mind something. Which means you have an idea, data, or just a feeling, predetermined around something that you’re holding onto. What is that? Can you answer the question? If not, examine if it’s an excuse to not do it. You can’t help something that doesn’t want to be helped. ### Myth #3 – Segmenting an email list is hard Hard requires context and thus “hard” is filled with nuance. That said, segmenting your email list is not difficult in theory: you’re simply grouping your audience with specificity. What can make it difficult is the email marketing service that you’re using. If you’re [service-based and/or sell digital products, Kit](https://convertkit.com/?lmref=iJJx9w&ref=thefierywell.com) (previously ConvertKit) makes it not only easy to create segments but also move your audience around *within* them. Automations + segmentation = a whole lot of fun. ### Myth #4 – I’m just starting out and don’t have enough data to segment on You’re already doing it. You just may not be aware of it. Most email marketing services have segmentation built right in and group your subscribers by their location, their email address (Gmail? Yahoo?), active subscribers, cold subscribers, complained, bounced, confirmed, etc., etc. Now you need to add to these segments: what do you **want** to send, what do folks **engage with** most, what engagements do you want to get more of: - Clicks? Send “clicky” emails to those that click. - Replies? Send reply worthy emails to those that do reply. - Purchases? Send easy to buy from emails to those most likely to buy (purchased before, nearly purchased last time, enjoys coupons, loves a sale, etc.) ### Myth #5 – My audience, or email list, is too tiny to segment. If you have more than one subscriber, you can segment your list. Because again, grouping already takes place by the system you’re using. Just add on: - they clicked on a link, - they opened the third email in a five-email sequence, - they click on links instead of buttons, - they click on buttons instead of links, - they want emails only about tarot, - they want emails about website maintenance, - and on and on… It’s *entirely* up to you. ## Why is Email Segmentation so Important? Focus. My favorite f-word. (Not really.) When you focus on what segments you have, want, or need, you begin to think about what kinds of emails you’re sending, which is almost just as important as the email you send in the first place. Intent matters in email. What do I want a subscriber to do with this email? Open it? Click on a link? Open a video? Forward it to a friend? When you can focus your message on a concentrated segment of your audience, you will have more focused engagement. Try it. Not sure where to start? The next time you want to send an email to your entire list, try instead sending it only to the people who have opened your last, oh, five emails. ## Try & Try Again One less often discussed reason to segment your email list is to practice being a scientist in your own business. A concept that I learned from a coach inside Hello7. > Be the scientist of your own business. > > C. René washington, hello7 coach Being a scientist in your own business requires a few things: one, curiosity. Will this work? What happens if it will? Two, data. Did it work? What about it worked? Did it not? What about it? And, finally, a willingness to try the experiment over and over again, changing controllable & measurable variables as you go. You’re going to [lose subscribers](https://www.thefierywell.com/10-reasons-why-you-have-cold-subscribers/). Your [open rates will waiver](https://www.thefierywell.com/what-is-a-good-open-rate-for-an-email-newsletter/). You’re going to gain subscribers. Your click-through rates will change. You’re not going to get it right, right off the bat. Try. Make observations. Try again. And tell me, what’s the first segment you’re going to experiment with? ### 5 Things to Back Up before Mercury Goes Retrograde URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/5-things-to-back-up-before-mercury-goes-retrograde/ Last updated: 2026-06-22T16:27:02.000Z This post contains affiliate links for products or services I use and/or highly recommend. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission. There is no charge or increase in price for you. ## What is Mercury Retrograde? Mercury rules communications and its moving parts. When it’s retrograde, everything related becomes slowed. Muddled. Or tends to break. Phones get dropped. Websites go down. Apple pushes updates for the iPhone and immediately has more updates because something invariably broke with the first one. You send emails with your butt to absolutely no one (been there.) And Slack goes down. (Watch. It’ll happen.) **But it’s not something to fear.** When I first started paying attention to Astrology, I thought it was! But it happens so fucking often (3 to 4 times per year?) that it has become more of **an invitation into awareness** than fear. Especially with my business and the technology that runs it. Every few months, I now pause to look at what systems I need to have in place for the technology stack, or all the different technology-based moving pieces, in my business. Or, y’know, everything these days. You can also get your contracts lined up & thoroughly reviewed, send that important email now, make any significant tech purchases, etc., before Mercury Retrogrades. Today we’re mostly talking tech because… this is The Fiery Well, and we talk witchy tech. ## How do you prepare your *tech* for Mercury Retrograde? You prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Extreme? Perhaps. I have what I like to call Mercury Moratorium: a period where you don’t update anything on your website that is critical (WordPress core, plugins, and themes) and don’t buy any new tech (plugins, themes, hard drives, computers) if you can help it. If Mercury Retrograde has taught me anything, it’s this: **take it slow and be deliberate**. Before Mercury goes Retrograde I back **everything up.** ## What do you need to have backed up? As much as fucking possible. As often as possible. Which is why you need to develop a backup system. ## How do you develop a backup system? First, know thyself. I am horrible at remembering things on my own, especially this year. I have to have a system in place even to remember my systems. For this, I use a maintenance log in my Bullet Journal and a Notion task list in tandem. I write down when I need to do backups for myself or a client, and then I put that in Notion to remind me of all the particular steps for each client. If you have a hard time adding new things into your routine, know this, and do what you are able as you are able. If that’s first adding a cloud backup system because you have nothing… that’s better than nothing. Because, second of all: ### Know what you are willing to lose. What’s often not considered in creating a backup system for yourself is: **how much data you are willing to lose**? Blog daily and backup daily? At most, you’ll lose a day’s worth of data. If you blog daily but only back up monthly… you could lose a month’s worth of data. If you never back up? Well. That’s everything gone. ### Develop a system for yourself. You do not have to suddenly back everything up and have this massive plan with everything in place as soon as you decide to start a system. Take one thing at a time. Make it a habit. Add another. Build your system slowly. “But, Patty, it’s all in the cloud now. Off-site. So why worry?” Well. You don’t own the cloud. You, quite frankly, own nothing while it’s on the internet (yeah, even your website… that’s another post for another day.) So you should **always** have the cloud backed up to your computer and/or external hard drive. Not just during Mercury Retrograde. But always. **If you want to own it, you need to be able to hold it.** ## **What** needs to be backed up? This is going to look different to everyone and every business: some will need to add in accounting data, customer information (be mindful of GDPR), inventory data, and more. But everyone should back up their computer, their mailing list, their social media accounts… And their website. ### Wait. Can you back up your social media accounts? Yes. Yes, you can. And you should because they can delete you in an instant and without notice. If you have that content nowhere else… that’s potentially years of images, video, text -poof- gone forever. Take a look at this handy list of things to back up and links to **how** to back it up! ### The 5 Things Checklist #### Back up your Computer 1. Back It up to a Cloud Storage system ([Dropbox](https://dropbox.com/?ref=thefierywell.com), [Google Drive](https://www.thefierywell.com/leave-google-workspace/), [iCloud](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207428?ref=thefierywell.com), etc.) 2. Back it up to a spare external drive (I like WesternDigital, Seagate, and Lacie) #### Download *&* Back up your Mailing List 1. [Download your Kit (formerly ConvertKit) Subscriber List](https://help.convertkit.com/en/articles/2502489-how-to-export-subscribers?lmref=iJJx9w&ref=thefierywell.com) 2. Mailchimp: Download [**Your** data](https://mailchimp.com/help/export-back-up-data/?ref=thefierywell.com) and [Your List](https://mailchimp.com/help/view-export-contacts/?ref=thefierywell.com) 3. [Flodesk: export your subscribers](https://help.flodesk.com/en/articles/3323678-how-to-export-a-csv-of-your-subscribers?ref=thefierywell.com) #### Download your Social Media accounts (yes, seriously) 1. [Download a copy of your Facebook Page](https://www.facebook.com/help/466076673571942) and your [Personal Profile](https://www.facebook.com/help/212802592074644?helpref=faq%5Fcontent) 2. [Download a copy of your Instagram Account data](https://help.instagram.com/181231772500920?ref=thefierywell.com) 3. [Download your X (previously Twitter) Archive](https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/how-to-download-your-twitter-archive?ref=thefierywell.com) 4. [Download your LinkedIn Account Data](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/50191/downloading-your-account-data?lang=en&ref=thefierywell.com) #### Pull down your Cloud Services Wait, didn’t we just put everything ON the cloud? Yep! It’s good to pull it down, or download it, once in a while, and put it on a hard drive. Because services, such as Google, are more than just your files: it’s also your data. It’s yours. Take it once in a while. - [Google Takeout](https://takeout.google.com/?ref=thefierywell.com) - [Apple iCloud](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204055?ref=thefierywell.com) #### Back up your Website Check out our [guide to backing up your Squarespace and WordPress websites](https://www.thefierywell.com/backing-up-your-squarespace-or-wordpress-websites/) for more information on backing up your site! **What will you back up this week and continue to do on a regular basis?** You don’t have to wait and rush before Mercury Retrograde! Craft that system. Back up your shit, my witch. And do it often. ### What do you mean it's "not the tech?" URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/what-do-you-mean-its-not-the-tech/ Last updated: 2026-06-15T01:46:41.000Z I mean it’s not the website. It’s not the sales funnel system. It’s not the email marketing software. If you are uncertain of where to start, or how to finish your website to a point where you actually enjoy sharing it… it’s probably not the tech. It’s probably you. And your why… or **lack** thereof. Can tech overwhelm and pause the entire process? Absolutely. But **why** did you choose that piece of technology in the first place? Because you wanted to start a website and asked in a Facebook group which was the best service to go with and you got umpteen answers that all worked for what **they** were doing so you picked one that **cost the least** and dove in? How’s that going? Yeah, not well! Without knowing **why** you want a website you’re going to spend a shit ton of time, money, energy and **frustration** trying to build a website that has zero purpose or direction… and you’re going to hate the end result (if any) no matter what. You are going to absolutely overthink the entire purpose of a website and then give up four months down the road and never launch a damn thing. You are going to compare what you have to someone else’s fully why-informed website and get frustrated. And then you’ll blame the website and technology for it. And ask someone else again and try a new thing, a new template, a new service… and keep doing the same fucking thing. Over and over again. And then you’ll either figure out why you’re doing what you’re doing or you’ll just give up. Don’t give up. ## How do you build a website in 2026? **With intention.** You’re a fucking witch, right?! Would you rush into a spell without a clear intention and purpose? No! You’d start with a **why**. [It’s the same for your website.](https://www.thefierywell.com/blogging-in-2025-read-this-first/) - **You start with why.** Why do you want one? - **Which leads to what.** What will you offer? - **Which leads to how.** How will you deliver it? Do you want to start a membership site? Why? What kind of experience do you want to provide? How do you need to deliver on that experience? The answer could reveal a need for an entirely custom setup or a need for a separate service like Teachable, Mighty Network, Circle, Patreon or [Podia](https://www.podia.com/?via=thefierywell&ref=thefierywell.com). If you want a website to build your mailing list and that’s… it? You don’t need a website. You need a good landing page and an incentive on the other side designed well enough that people will give you their email address. [Sign up for Kit (formerly ConvertKit) today and do that for free.](https://partners.kit.com/d9cc4dt444sk?ref=thefierywell.com) Do you want to start a witchy blog? ### *Why* do you want to [start a witchy blog](https://www.thefierywell.com/blogging-in-2025-read-this-first/)? Do you want to share your path to magic or teach tarot or astrology? You don’t need an entire fancy-ass website setup to blog… you just need a blog. Start small. ### Do you want to sell tarot readings online? What kind of readings? In person? Zoom? Email? All three open three entirely different avenues for the technology required to do it in the easiest way possible for you… and your clients. Acuity is not for everyone, but it is the most amazing solution for many to get out of DMs for scheduling and start acting like a business. It all depends on why you’re doing it, what you’re offering, and how you **want** to offer it. ## What is the best way to get started? **Go Slow.** Fucking hate it, but it’s the truth. To go fast, we must first learn to go slow (fencing taught me that.) To go right, you sometimes have to turn left (Doc Hudson taught us all that.) I know with 2027 just moments away everyone is feeling the urge to “Finally start that website!” but unless you’ve been considering, understanding, and crafting a Why-informed plan since Samhain… I’m telling you now: **you’re not ready.** **Even if** you’ve taken my Get Online, Witch! mini course you are probably beginning to feel that overwhelming sensation of “what the fuck have I gotten myself into.” (That’s because you didn’t do the homework before the course started… I know. No one wants to **do** this part. It’s not as fun as band-aid branding or picking out a name!) But it **must** be done. Put the work into your website the way you put the work into your spells. **Know your why.** And watch what happens. Maybe… just maybe… - You begin to ask deeper questions and get more specific & supportive answers - Font choices matter less & copy matters more - Technology becomes a partner & not a hurdle to overcome - You begin to serve your audience more quickly and effectively - … and more. ### Shrinking in fear… of success URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/shrinking-in-fear-of-success/ Last updated: 2026-06-16T01:54:17.000Z It’s the last week of 2021 and I don’t know about you but this week is one of those weeks where time moves differently. We’re not quite done with 2021 (despite absolutely **feeling* done* with this year) and we’re not quite ready for 2022 to begin. It’s the perfect time to pause and review what I did in 2021\. And you know what I did? 👉🏻 I stayed small. Why did I do this? Fear of failure? Nope. It snuck up on me again, this old, deep-seated fear. You see, I’m **afraid of success**. Yes, it’s a thing. And it usually looks like this: Me: It’s doing well. I’m seeing my impact. I’m making money. I’m enjoying it. I’m growing. I’m … succeeding. My brain: Success is unknown, thus unsafe! Stop! Shrink yourself! But the thing is… I want to succeed. I **want** my definition of success. I mean, for fucksake, **I defined it!** Why would I hide from what I want? Because brains are assholes and we’re conditioned by society to shrink. It’s easier to be small. The habits we have that keep us small also keep us safe. Because that’s what our brains equate with safety… what we know. (Whether it is actually safe or not.) > “The unknown is dangerous! Success is an unknown! Best keep away from it!”Our Brains Success is new. Success is scary. And thus, if I’m not careful, I end up shrinking away from it and staying small. ## Overcoming a fear of success So how do we move through this bullshit cycle? We have to train our brains to accept success and overcome habits that keep us small, or shrink us. Which is hard and takes *practice*. And awareness. Often, the habits we have that keep us small are so subtle we don’t even notice. And sometimes they’re significant but we don’t recognize that’s what it is. Awareness helps us recognize these things. ### How I shrink myself to stay “safe” Awareness helped me realize that, for me, **a subtle shrinking shows up as procrastination and perfectionism.** It’s not having an email opt-in on your website because you don’t have the “perfect” welcome sequence, which causes your email list growth to stagnate. Or waiting to put that scheduler online until the booking page looks “just right.” **For me, a significant shrinking is my anxiety actualized.** It’s being “too busy” to make the announcement that you were on a podcast, to write an email and a blog post and a social media post that quite simply says “Go listen” because you are “overwhelmed” with “all the things” going on right now. And all that busywork is just that… busywork. All these things kept me small. I didn’t grow my email list. I didn’t book as many consults as I needed to. I didn’t share the things I worked hard on. I just kept… going. Now, subtle shrinking habits can be overcome fairly easily with “just fucking do it”-ness (put the fucking form on the page), but significant shrinking is much harder to overcome because it’s so deeply ingrained within us and allows us to hide it better. That’s that busywork. It’s when you’re constantly working and writing off what you did as “par for the course” and moving on to the next thing. Without pausing. Without acknowledging what you did. Without sharing it. Without celebrating. You just keep… going. Do you see the common thread? ## Practice makes progress I stress to The Fiery Well community to pause and share their work with everyone on Slack, and celebrate. And often. To the point that I now check in weekly with the prompt “What are you celebrating?” In part, because I have such a hard time with it! And in part, because it’s a way to combat the desire to stay small and safe: say the thing out loud. Don’t shrink. Shout. And this is the *practice* I mean. We have to *practice* saying “Hey, I did this thing and I’m really proud of it. Here it is.” and pausing before moving to the next thing. We have to *practice* saying “this is a goal I’m reaching towards, and this is my progress” and pausing to reflect, rather than going through the motions of what we feel we “should” be doing in our business. Now, this can bring up **a lot** of childhood stories about work, praise, giving and receiving compliments, and more. This goes much deeper than just being afraid of success and I suggest lots of talks with a therapist, many journaling sessions, and even consulting with your cards. But especially, I suggest you *practice* pausing & praising yourself: your effort, your work, your finished projects, your failed attempts, and your lessons learned. Pause and acknowledge yourself and your actions in your business. Practice celebrating what you’re doing until that becomes the habit, and you’ll notice how you used to shrink instead. Build that awareness. Start small. Pause often. Write down your praises. Track your wins. And do it regularly. Start a spread in your bujo, a list in ClickUp, or a page in [Notion](https://affiliate.notion.so/thefierywell?ref=thefierywell.com) (affiliate), and jot down your accomplishments *as they happen.* And revisit this list often. As small business owners what’s going to keep us going is our Why and our Wins. Because if we won’t celebrate ourselves… who will? Join me in 2023 in building a better habit of, not just setting and tracking goals, but actually acknowledging the work we’re doing and pausing to celebrate the fact that we’re doing it. ### "Am I annoying you?" URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/am-i-annoying-you/ Last updated: 2026-06-14T20:33:54.000Z Annoying someone. That’s what used to worry me every time I talked about what I do. I felt like a damn broken record, repeating the same boring message over and over. Surely I was annoying someone every time I repeated myself. Indeed, by now, you roll your eyes every time you see or hear the phrase “I make websites for witches” from The Fiery Well. Or do you? Maybe this is the first time you’ve heard me mention that. Maybe you heard it from someone else, and now it clicks in your mind just who it is that does that. (Hi, it me.) Maybe you read it a few months ago, forgot, and now your memory is refreshed. Maybe you think it sounds familiar, and now you’re wondering if it was me or someone else that told you first. There are a lot of maybes when it comes to branding and messaging, but consistency isn’t one. You need to be consistent at all times. And consistency requires repetition. Because here’s the thing: you have **no control** over who hears any part of your messaging or when. Think about that for a minute. Don’t let your fear and feelings cloud the reality of your business. You may **feel** like you’re repeating yourself to the point of annoyance… but someone may only be hearing your message for the **first time**. Or they aren’t on Instagram and have no idea what is going on over there because they only get your emails. Or they didn’t open every single email you sent and are jumping in the middle of the conversation. Someone will miss out on your message at some point. So I’ll ask you: Are you repeating yourself? Are you repeating yourself **enough**? Am I? ### 3 Signs You’re Overthinking Your Website URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/3-signs-youre-overthinking-your-website/ Last updated: 2025-01-25T18:57:30.000Z ## 1\. Perfection rather than *iteration* You spend more time working on your entire website, waiting for everything to be perfect, before you tell anyone about it or start making sales, rather than creating a website that you can iterate upon in stages. ## 2\. The platform and not *your goal* You’re stuck in **where** your website should be, rather than what it **should do** for you and your audience and so you are spending more time in Facebook groups asking for recommendations than working on your business. ## 3\. The price it costs rather than the *problem it solves* You’ve chosen a platform and now you need to pay for it. You’re stuck looking at your bank account rather than your watch. You can earn money. You can’t earn time. How much time would an upgrade save you? What could you do with that time? ## You’re overthinking your website because you’re not focused on what it actually is: a hub. It’s what you use to clearly direct your audience to where you want them to **go or do next** and provide them the proper information to get there. It’s the Grand Central Terminal of your **web *presence***: - Contact Me - Join My Membership - Buy my products - Find me elsewhere - Understand what I do - Signup for my newsletter - and on… That’s it. That’s a website. So why do you overthink and obsess about it and turn it into this big production? Because you’re one of two things: ### One, you’re overwhelmed You’re not sure how to even get started. You say things like “I understand Instagram better, so I’ll just use it” or you are in the “where is the best place to build my website” or “I can’t afford to have a website” or “where do I go to get a dot com?” phase. ### Two, you're scared You’ve started, but now you’re not sure why you’re doing what you’re doing or how to talk about it now that you have to actually put it out there. Once it's out there... you will be perceived! So now you’re going to spend more time on your website than any other portion of your business because it’s where you can feel like you’re “doing something”. This is where you can set yourself up to self-sabotage and confirm the self-bias that “I can’t do this” when you need “an out.” --- Do you see yourself here? Even I, a seasoned web developer and designer, find myself back in this place often. Especially when I'm scared. So what's a witch to do? Well, I'd recommend subscribing and [joining our Discord ](https://www.thefierywell.com/discord/)where we can work through this together. Because you're not alone. ### A Witchy Niche URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/a-witchy-niche/ Last updated: 2026-06-22T16:26:07.000Z Are you considering niching? I struggled with it for years. I fought against it. Railed against the notion! What is niching down? It’s focusing on one area, one market, and going all in. Which is why I fought against it for so long. I like doing too many things! I like helping everyone! “Dammit – I’ll make a website for anyone and everyone!” I used to say. But that lead to burnout and a return to researching niching down. How the fuck do you decide to actually do it? To pick a “zone of genius” and a “viable market” and dive down and get to work? Well… for me? Quite simply? I got pissed. I was reading ebook after ebook, taking so many notes and reading blog post after blog post, about niching down, I could have made **that** my profession. I finally slammed my pen down on my desk, sat back in my chair, and with hands up, I yelled at my computer… “What am I supposed to do? Make websites for witches for a living?” And like that, I could feel the heat from the light bulb over my head. I got excited. Why the fuck **not**? Well, a few reasons. ## Reasons Not to Niche (aka My Excuses) **Number one:** I barely admitted to myself I was witch, let alone anyone else. Witchy? Yes. Witch? … can… can I call myself that? Do I call myself that? I mean, that sums me up more than anything… but… am I really? (Yes, Patty. You are a fucking witch.) **Number two:** what would current clients think of having a witch for a web developer? Would there be a mass exodus? Pitchforks and crosses? Would they fire me? (Turns out… people really don’t care!) **Number three:** is there really a market for it? Or was it “too narrow.” Because… that’s pretty fucking specific. ### Self Examination Addressing issue number one actually made me take an in-depth, glaring look at myself. Why was I hiding this part of myself? Why was I scared to embrace a part of my own identity? What would it mean to just finally say, “Yes, I’m a witch.” I wrote a [blog post about it](https://www.thefierywell.com/i-am-a-witch/), actually. It took me months to finally push that blue Publish button. Being honest with myself and my potential audience was intimidating. And then the damn thing went viral on [Pinterest](https://www.pinterest.com/thefierywell/?ref=thefierywell.com). The cat was out of the bag. My site had a proclamation that I am, indeed, a witch. It felt scary, and then it felt amazing, and now it just feels like … what, you didn’t *know*? Lesson learned: be authentic, even when it’s scary. ### Keeping Clients, Finding New Ones Issue number two: what *would* clients think? I didn’t outright announce to my clients that “Hey, did you know? I am a witch,” because… it was unnecessary. I’m still providing the excellent level of web development I always have; that’s not changed. Did I announce to them when I got married? Or had a kid? No. Not unless it interrupted their service. Being a witch doesn’t disrupt their service, so no need to make a huge announcement. I just don’t *hide* it anymore. Lesson learned: people really don’t give a shit unless they **really give a shit**. And the folks that are **that** concerned? Aren’t the clients for me. Another lesson learned here? Claiming the word “witch,” embracing this part of me as a whole, actually allowed me to focus on my work, and pivot where I would look for clients and what clients I would turn down. I spent a year working on market research and creating my ideal customer avatar and niching even further down on my offerings. I began turning clients away, and not offering my services to everyone under the sun, which was really hard. I’m the go-to person for website help in my circles. Suddenly I’m not working on **everyone’s** website? Hi, that’s boundaries at work and a topic for another day. But it’s also about **marketing**. By turning away clients that didn’t fit my ideal customer avatar (ICA), I was turning down referrals that didn’t match that ICA. And that meant keeping the work I didn’t want even further at bay. Because, it’s been my experience at least, that one client will refer the same kind of client. (I learned that when I raised my prices.) ### If the Niche Fits… Issue number three surprised me: is the market too specific? Turns out: nope. Witches need some fucking website help. I had attracted an [audience of witches on Instagram](https://instagram.com/thefierywell/?ref=thefierywell.com) once I was open about my witchy side and sharing more posts about the occult and tarot. Then, as I began considering my pivot in my development business to working exclusively with witches, I started posting WordPress tips and doing Q&As on the same Instagram account. My personal and business accounts began to blend, and I ran with it. I am my business, after all. (For all those folks touting separate Instagram accounts for personal (witchy) and professional (web development)? Yeah, fuck that.) Suddenly I had fellow witches DM’ing me with website questions. That lead to my first witchy client and now, a little over a year after starting down this journey to niche, I am solidly the #websitesforwitches web developer. Folks are often surprised at how specific my “branding” is. And you know what? The accidental tagline attracts who I want as a customer while turning away anyone that would be uncomfortable working with a witch. Win, fucking win. Not only did I find my niche, I feel that I am now in service to the exact people who need what I’m offering. So if you are considering niching down, consider it more! It’s painfully simple advice that is too often repeated, but dammit, it’s working for me. I almost hate to admit it. I had to get angry about it to find it, but that argument and outburst with myself have really helped me focus on my goals. By niching down, I found my voice. I found my tone. I found who I am speaking to when I market myself. Blending witchcraft and web development together has been a fucking dream come true. I’m so fucking excited about it because I’m writing it for a very specific audience, which has helped me craft the lessons in a very specific way. And, it’s something I would never have attempted to do before. It’s new for me, and very scary: another reason to actually go forth and do it. So if you are fighting against the idea of niching down… do a dive and ask yourself some questions. Like… why? Why not? And why again. ### On Slowing Down URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/on-slowing-down/ Last updated: 2026-06-16T01:53:10.000Z My child started school last month. They’ve been home with me since day one, we’ve never had a babysitter outside of grandparents and never more than a few hours. My heart, or rather my undiagnosed postpartum anxiety and depression, wouldn’t allow it. When I started going to therapy, my mother watched them for the time. I had to relax into that arrangement, and as time went on, I did. Eventually, she was watching them the whole of the day, even an additional day of the week, and finally a few overnight stays. I have had a lot of growth over the past year. And I’m very proud of how far I have come. My anxiety held my kid back from a lot of experiences, but I was determined not to let it get in the way of their education. Without turning this into a post about the state of education, schools, and guns in the United States… let’s just say I had a whole hell of a lot to be anxious about beyond separation anxiety. We knew we wanted to get them into the best education system we could afford as soon as we could. But with school fast approaching, I found myself wanting to give them more experiences and one on one relaxed-Mommy time before our free time would come to an end. I had to choose action over anxiety. We went to the aquarium, we went to the arboretum and climbed a 75' tower together, and we had more short outings out and about. I was finally in a place where I could feel in control of my anxiety enough to do these outings, alone, and enjoy the time with my child. Enjoy their smile at seeing a turtle swim up to them, enjoy their delight in climbing a scary tall tower and being brave and chasing butterflies. But I had no idea how much I was rushing. I was rushing my day, my routine, my time. And in turn, I was rushing my child. Rushing from one chore to the next, rushing from one corner to the next on a walk, rushing from one exhibit to the next, rushing to the store and through the aisles. Rushing. Until I had my first day alone after sending them to school. I spent an hour in the grocery store just walking around, aimlessly. I began compiling ideas for meals, checking coupons and sales, and comparing my list to my mental inventory of supplies still at home. An hour passed. Then when I got home, I went to the bathroom (alone) and put the groceries away. Like away-away. Not just slapping them on the counter and trying to put something away while thinking of what needs to be done next. And when I sat down on my couch, it hit me. I can go slow. There is no task I need to rush through today. Because I suddenly have allotted time tomorrow. I can span goals across days, not moments. I can spend an entire day doing one thing. One. Like. I could spend the day doing laundry and get it all done. I was flabbergasted how clear my thinking was. It was like a fog had lifted. The sun was coming out to shine a light on my day and highlight all of its sudden availabilities. I couldn’t make sense of this feeling until I went to therapy. My therapist just gave me that knowing smile, made a note on her pad and said, “You have the space to think uninterrupted. There’s a lot of anxiety in not being able to do that. Like at the grocery store – you’re thinking, then distracted, then re-thinking, distracted, trying to remember what you were thinking, distracted.” And she was right. Now that I am aware of how much I was rushing, I can take actionable steps to mitigate the anxiety around feeling the need to continue the behavior. I still want to rush; it’s a habit I have to work now to change. Their absence from home for a large portion of the day is also an anxiety trigger, but I’m working through that one by accomplishing the tasks I want to get done so I can slow down when I am with my child. Does that make sense? I feel like that scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where the crew of Davy Jones is playing Liar’s Dice and gambling the only currency they have: their time. I’m betting and trading with myself my own anxiety. Where can I handle it best? Where can I manage stress the least? What trades do I need to make to balance myself out? What can I handle better today than tomorrow? If I finish all the laundry today, will that allow me time to work on business tomorrow? And when the kid comes home… it’s all about the kid. This is so new to me, and it is still bizarre. Their night routine hasn’t really changed, but I have more incentive to get them to bed on time, so they are prepared for their day tomorrow. I find myself still rushing them through the night routine, but I am aware and working to scale it back. Yes, they must get to bed. Yes, they must brush their teeth. But no, they don’t have to do it in the exact timeframe I’ve laid out. I can see now how my rushing really has been detrimental and causes them to stonewall as a reaction to my pace. They just shut down. I thought it was them before, but I can clearly see now that it is me. They very much want to go slow and engage with what they are doing; it’s age-appropriate. And I’m the one always saying let’s go on to the next thing. Damn. How long was I unaware? Oh, the mom guilt was heavy these few nights. But again, I am aware of this NOW. I can move to change. So, to end, I’m just going to say this. You’re probably rushing through life, and you’re probably doing it for various reasons. But are you aware of how much you are rushing? You don’t have to change it, and if it works for you, I wouldn’t suggest changing it. But are you aware? I had no clue or refused to see it. ## The Cards Saw It On September 11, I pulled the Two of Wands Reversed in response to the #tarotforgrowth challenge question “What kindness do I need to gift myself?” My answer was to slow down, or not be so “White Rabbit” in life, constantly rushing and feeling as if I’m missing a “very important date.” The cards always know. You can see my interpretation to this question, and more, on[ the @fierywell Instagram account](https://www.instagram.com/p/B2Ud0O6nnwV/?ref=thefierywell.com) ### Asking for Help is a Journey through Trust URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/asking-for-help-is-a-journey-through-trust/ Last updated: 2026-06-16T01:50:05.000Z Participating in this month’s [Tarot for Growth from @bujowitchcraft on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/B1lx9PuHJMu/?ref=thefierywell.com) has really helped me this month in several ways: 1. I’m connecting more with a new deck through everyday use. 2. I’m writing every day. 3. I’m actually diving in and doing “shadow work” in answering these questions. And today’s question left me with a cramp in my hand I was writing so much. Too much for Instagram’s caption space, so I thought a proper blog post would be just the thing. It was also a timely prompt because today I **had** to ask for help. More on that in a bit. But first, today’s question “**How can I become more comfortable doing so?**” was a follow up for yesterday’s prompt “Where may it be beneficial for me to ask for help?” And while yesterday’s answer was more business inclined about where I need to be asking help, today came through loudly about how to get to the point I can ask for the help I need in business. > [ View this post on Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/p/B2GFFRLju7Y/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) > > [A post shared by The Fiery Well - Sites, Systems, Spacious Productivity (@thefierywell)](https://www.instagram.com/p/B2GFFRLju7Y/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) Practice is the resounding answer I received from a Reversed Eight of Cups. The Eight of Cups can generally represent a journey, and all that goes with it: the baggage, the change in routine, the path you take. The image in The Linestrider Tarot is of a person carrying a bundle on their back. They carry papers with them, dropping a few along the way, and are guided only by the light of a crescent moon. Here they are bundled up in layers of coats and thick pants, leading me to think of how those layers must feel like protection from the elements, but in the incorrect environment, they can choke you from the heat. Reversed, I see this as an inner journey just as much as a literal journey. The moon can represent how we feel and how little we show those feelings. This card reversed is telling me not to drop hints along the way, but be direct in what I need, when I need it, and how I need it. I have a tendency to not ask for help and then resent the person for not helping me. No one can read minds! But I work so hard to predict **what I think** the other person needs, I begin to expect the same behavior from the other person. It’s a one-sided and vicious cycle. So why do we not ask for help, or communicate our needs? I don’t know about you, but I do it out of fear. To ask is to be vulnerable. It’s to put yourself out there and say, “Hey, can I trust you to help me?” And when we are used to trusting the wrong person, or the right person for the wrong thing, we are shown that “No, you can’t.” So we stop at some point and start taking it all on ourselves. On top of that, some of us were also raised just to do it all and not complain or risk titles of weak, selfish, demanding, overbearing, nagging, bossy, etc. So we don’t ask. We hide our needs because we were never taught how to communicate them. Instead, we load up our inner dialogue like baggage and weigh ourselves down. This can show up outwardly as stress, anger, resentment, fear, anxiety, and other non-good feeling things. And that can show up more by not asking for the help we need when we need it. The card this morning perpetuates the message I’ve been receiving all month to work on myself, rather than others. To look inward. Perhaps I have such a hard time asking for help because I can’t clearly see where I need it. I’m just storming ahead without mindfulness or awareness about my own needs. I end up doing a lot of thinking about what I think the other person is thinking when in reality, that other person is probably thinking absolutely nothing I am. I need to work on what I’m asking for. I need to be direct. The reason this resonates so clearly today is that today I **had** to ask for help. I had a long, late-night with my kid. They were up with nightmares, couldn’t fall back asleep, and we both ended up on the couch struggling to sleep. Then I woke up, saw the clock, and realized, in a panic, I had a half-hour to ready them for school. And ready me for my day. My brain “was on fire,” as I like to explain it, with the running list of everything that had to be done at once that I knew I couldn’t accomplish alone without burning up the rest of my system. So I rushed into our master bedroom, saw my husband was awake and clearly stated: “I need your help getting them ready.” Boom. He was up, at attention, and took point with our kid while I rushed around getting dressed, preparing lunch and breakfast for the kid, something that resembled breakfast for myself, and mentally trying to slow down. He got our kid awake, focused, dressed, and kept them calm while helping usher them along. It was a rushed morning, but my child was off to school on time, and I returned home able to slow down finally. Now, I was irritated and pissy and snappy upon my return because my anxiety built up, and now it needed an outlet. I apologized to my husband for snapping, sat down with a lovely coffee he had made me while I was gone, and was able to pull myself back to focus and talk about my irritation. I hated that I had to ask. But because I had an open dialogue from asking for help in the first place, we had an open discussion, and I was allowed to vent and be validated in my feelings of frustration. Before, instead of asking, I would have just stewed and resented my husband for not waking up “on time” and helping me unprompted when I needed it most. This would have lead to me stonewalling, or cutting off all communication, about anything else for the rest of the day, which is unhealthy. So when Eight of Cups popped up, a card about a journey, I realized that asking for help is a journey in trust. It has steps. It has a destination. Here’s what mine looked like: 1. I realized I was overwhelmed and made a choice to ask for help. 2. I showed vulnerability to my husband by making the ask. 3. I was concise with what it was I needed at that moment. 4. This showed faith in my partner that I trust him enough to ask for his help. 5. My needs were met, and my goal (getting the kid to school on time) was achieved. 6. A trusting bond was made with my husband, and this builds intimacy in our relationship. 7. I returned home and was able to further speak about my needs, further building on “the ask” and showing trust again. This is hard work: trust. It also requires trusting that you can trust, which is an odd sensation. Asking once and having that need met builds up a lot of confidence quickly and makes it easier to ask again. For example: when I ask my husband to stop for milk on his way home from work, and he says, “No problem,” there is nothing hidden in there. He’s not thinking I’m a horrible wife that can’t manage to keep milk for our child at a sustainable level in our fridge to maintain their health and vitality. And I’m not asking him to drive to a dairy farm, milk the cow, bottle & pasteurize the milk, and ensure the cow was a happy, healthy heifer. So why would I feel the need to project that he thinks I’m horrible or that I’m demanding too much of him… **on to** him? It’s unfair to both of us. My husband is literally telling me he will stop because it is no problem for him to stop off at the store on his way home, and I need to allow myself to trust this statement. Every ask is an exercise in trust, and I need to be asking enough to build a relationship of trust with myself just as much as others. I need to trust myself that I am asking for what I need, either at the time or in advance of me needing it. To be able to do that for my business, I need to dive deep and understand my wants and needs more clearly. Like this morning: I knew what I needed and asked for it. If I can’t ask for what I need, I won’t get what I need, and I’ll be back at square one of lack of trust, resentment, anger, anxiety and on and on. As with any journey, it’s going to have its ups and downs and twists and turns, but it is essential to keep moving forward. The paths can change, hell even the destination can change, it’s critical just to keep moving. ### Burnout & Boundaries URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/burnout-boundaries/ Last updated: 2026-06-16T01:49:09.000Z Like a lot of adults, I spend a great deal of time doing absolutely nothing on my phone, other than continuously leer at it. Have a spare second? Pick up the phone. Going to the bathroom? Take the phone. I’m not even present with what I’m doing: I am merely zoning out. Last week I’d had enough of my own behavior and announced a social media break. It lasted about four days, and over a weekend in which I picked up my phone only to take pictures at a festival. My break from social media allowed me to see just how much time I spend reaching for my phone. To tune out. Escape from living in the moment. Even if I’m not fully aware that’s what’s happening? That’s precisely what is happening. I’ve spent much of this year developing and setting boundaries with my phone. As much as I want to ditch the iPhone for the most basic flip phone available, there are things that the smartphone offers me: a quick camera, a music & podcast device, and my mental health apps. Instead of chucking the phone altogether, I am adjusting my relationship with the device. For the last few weeks, I’ve had a rule of No Screens after 10 PM. That means no phones, no laptops, and no TV. I sit in bed with a cup of herbal tea, my journal, and a book until I can’t keep my eyes open. When I adhere to this rule, I sleep well and wake up in a decent mood (so long as I am up before my three-year-old). When I don’t: everything suffers. My attitude, my to-do list, my focus; and that impacts my entire household in one way or another. One thing I’ve noticed is that, in “giving up” my phone by 10 PM, is that it makes me reach for it instantly at first light. I need that dopamine hit first thing in the morning. Or, at least, I thought I did. I saw a YouTube video about how looking at our phones first thing in the morning makes us reactionary. We wake up, still in mushy brain, and are pulled into the problems of the world and our mood is then set for the rest of the day. When this time of day is most receptive for creation, we are consuming, and getting stuck. This made me realize that that was precisely what I was doing. Encouraged by this new found knowledge to take action with, I put my phone charger in my office, far from its original home on my nightstand, and closed the door on it for two nights in a row. I didn’t have my music to help drift me off to sleep, but having to work with my thoughts and let them come and go (also known as meditating) is a learning curve I’m willing to keep going following. (I did it for 20+ years before the iPhone, I think I can relearn this skill.) I was up earlier these two mornings than I had been in previous months, and I sat down immediately to write and/or read with a quiet cup of coffee. I didn’t reach for my phone until I had completed at least one task on my to-do list. That was a fantastic feeling, I have to admit. The problem I have encountered is that once I’ve achieved that goal, my phone becomes a free-for-all time sink again. Yesterday was the perfect example. I was up at 6:30, wrote a bit, had a cup of coffee, and didn’t look at my phone until 9 AM. And then it was only to see what time a local store opened so I could plan my day’s itinerary. I dropped my son off at his grandmother’s, went grocery shopping, came home, and sat. I just sat. For hours. Looking at my phone. I tuned the world out. But I didn’t really. Did I? Because I was looking at the world… through my phone. And all I did was consume. Tweets and Instagram stories and feeds and bad news and horrible news and good news and more terrible news. I burned out in an afternoon. Later that evening, my husband asked me how my day was, and I told him it was the first time I did absolutely nothing in ages. “Did that feel good,” he inquired, knowing I am not one to simply do nothing at any point in time. “It was interesting,” I replied. My husband looked at me from around the refrigerator, his eyebrow cocked and mouth open, not entirely sure how to take the comment. In his household, “interesting” is what was said when his father didn’t like a meal but didn’t want to say it outright. I paused to consider how to explain my choice of words. “I needed to do nothing today to realize that it is not something I like. To just sit is not my kind of doing nothing; I need to create, to bead, to read, to write. That is my kind of ‘doing nothing all day.’ But I needed today to learn that. “ And it is so fucking real. I am burned out and so tired, I realize because I didn’t create. I consumed. I ate but wasn’t fed. My brain tuned out my soul and tried to escape. And this leaves me tired. I am trying to convince myself to feel that I didn’t waste yesterday, but rather instead, I learned something valuable about myself and the person I am and the way I interact with the world. Awareness allows change, right? I am now at least mildly aware of how much I let my phone to control me, my time, and my day, even when I have clear boundaries set. Now I can build more boundaries around my phone even further and test how my days go from here. For that, I am thankful I exhausted myself yesterday by doing “nothing.” Now I am armed with new knowledge to take action upon. I blew past my 10 PM No Screens limit to write this, but my phone spent the night in my office. Screen time is now scheduled for today, with specific goals in mind. First, editing and publishing this post. Then, share this post on social media. When these goals are reached, the phone goes away again. How about you? What is your relationship with the phones and screens in your life? ### I am a witch. URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/i-am-a-witch/ Last updated: 2026-06-14T20:31:18.000Z I had always dabbled in the occult, much to the eye-rolling of my parents, and always said my “religion” or “faith” was closest to witch than anything else. Nothing else seemed to fit, despite wanting to have a concrete, unmovable faith and religion in my life. As a young girl, perhaps seven, I can distinctly recall being in a church with my mom and looking up at the ceilings with a sense of dread. I would look up from my pew at those large arches in the church nave and feel like I was in a capsized boat, looking up at the ship’s hull. Everyone else around me was happy to be sinking: praising, and singing in the water. I felt like I was the only one that knew something was wrong. Every church had the same feeling. It was then I realized that, though we all heard the same words, we all heard different sermons. We were all individuals, with our own interpretations of the same thing. I heard, from those sermons, that this concept of individuality was not something to strive for. So perhaps, what was wrong… was me. I was the rat on the ship. My mother was raised Protestant, my father was a reformed Catholic, whose entire family (save for him) converted to Jehovah Witness when he was a teen. Dad never went to church willingly, and mom always wanted to attend “for the music and community.” When we all went together, it was an uncomfortable experience. My moral compass was built on a foundation of logic, history, science, and the Christian reed “Do Unto Others”… in other words, I was lost and desperate for something other than my own free will to choose. Free will was not comforting in the dark of night when I feared for my immortal soul at the age of twelve. For what it’s worth, I tried countless times to accept Jesus of Nazareth into my life, yet He always said, “Nah, girl. You’re good.” At least, for all my tear filled attempts, that’s how I eventually took what felt like a lack of response. All this is to say: my Christian church experience taught me that I don’t have a place in that religion. I sought out other religions but often felt the same way: out of sorts. You can be a witch within any religion, don’t mistake me. Being a witch in my mind simply means stepping into your own power. Your own individuality. Organized religions tend to disagree with this notion and prefer you stay within certain boundaries: a collective hive if you will. I even found this to be with Wicca. (To clarify, I am not currently a member of the Wiccan religion.) Your definition of “witch” will differ from mine. That’s okay. You have to find your personal meaning, voice, and path. Your own practice. Being a witch allows me to be in a constant state of individual practice, and I have learned to love this. I have noticed a definite shift in my perspective once I owned the word “witch” and began embracing a life “out of the broom closet”: I am more confident and more aware of the world around me and my role as a citizen in it. I am working from a place of self-care, rather than self-detriment. Nor am I working on my interpretation of anyone else’s idea of my identity, but my own. I am happier because I am active and present in my own life, my goals, and my future. This wasn’t always the case. When I was thirty, I gave birth to my first child. I suffered over two years of deep and life-altering postpartum depression. Either I didn’t know that’s what it was, or refused to admit it, but after contemplating suicide, I sought and began therapy and pharmaceutical treatment. It was after I began to heal that period of my life, and what turned out to be decades of trauma, that I came to witchcraft more completely. Working through the past and beyond my own crafted demons that held me down, allowed me to reclaim what I had forgotten I’d lost in my life: me. In the battle to be a good daughter and carry on a legacy, to be an amazing wife and support a whole other individual and then become an extraordinary and selfless mother, I had lost and forgotten who I, as an individual, was. I had to relearn who I am and what this version of me wanted in life. This me craved magic. Through journaling and constant self-reflection, meditation, and monitoring, witchcraft began to peek through the lifting fog more and more. I picked up my tarot cards more steadily and with enthusiastic practice. I started new moon rituals and crafting intentions as a way to learn more about, and alter, my own identity. Witchcraft taught me how, and treatment gave me the tools and permission to be, an ever-evolving person. Embracing this new me was, and still can be, as scary as hell. The idea that I could be evolving, always, was absolutely foreign to me and incredibly uncomfortable. I didn’t have to be who I was ten years ago? Five minutes ago? I stepped into that vulnerability, and it’s taken me two years, but now the more I step into my own truths, in all areas of my life, the more empowered I feel to continue. It’s still an effort, and I’m still (gratefully) in therapy, but now I allow my path to change and evolve and it’s less scary because I am the one that has a say in how it happens. For me, that is magic. For me, that is witchcraft. That is why … today, I am a witch. ### Figuring it Out URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/figuring-it-out/ Last updated: 2026-06-16T01:57:03.000Z I spent a year trying to figure out what my niche was. Every step of the way I was annoyed, agitated, and overwhelmed by the thought of impending boredom. Am I going to do the same thing for the same people every day for the rest of my life? On top of trying to figure out what to do with my business, I was trying to figure out what to do in my personal life. Too much was going on at once. I was attempting to balance an inherited family business (that I didn’t want to admit to myself that I did not wish to have) with the company I thought I was building and wanted; while being a mother and battling postpartum depression and anxiety. I dove head first into cryptocurrency in an attempt to have a topic other than kids to discuss with my husband. And just because I like to add stress, I spent my spare waking moments trying to prepare a house I fell out of love with for a move I didn’t want to partake in. I imploded. I started pulling things back one by one: I began closing out the family business, put a pause on my marketing, got into therapy and became medicated for anxiety. I stepped away from the crypto world, and I started to invest in my space, my home. I wanted to fall back in love with my house and reimagine it as my home. My chest felt like it could take in a full breath again. 2017 nearly killed me. 2018 saved my life. I began to reconnect with myself. 2019 is the year I shoot for the moon. The year that I will claim what I want for myself. So what do I want? I do want to continue to make websites, but more than that I want to help people. I want to teach people to help themselves. I want to gather up my resources, write about them and direct people to the tools that can help them succeed. I want to try new creative things, like video and paper crafts. I want to start designing jewelry again. I want to embrace my spirituality and share it, and my journey. I want to paint and draw. Pick up a camera again. I want to blog again. I haven’t blogged in a decade. 2019’s business goals? Worry less about the business and worry more about creating something. I’m going where the wind takes me on this one. Let whatever needs to come forth from it, come forth. Rather than chase down leads, or market myself, I’m just going to concentrate on creating what I want to see out in the world. I’m going to break all the rules and merely throw things at the wall until something sticks. Build it until they come. Not stress. Not hustle. Just… enjoy the process of discovery and share the journey. I don’t have to force myself into a niche, I’ll come by it naturally. ### Perfectionism URL: https://www.thefierywell.com/perfectionism/ Last updated: 2026-06-16T01:57:59.000Z Perfectionism is something I have fought against, dealt with and agonized over most of my life. The older I get, the more I strive to lean into vulnerability and aim for progress, not perfection. Never have I fought with perfection and the anxiety behind it, then in my art, and sharing my art. Imposter syndrome, anxiety, fear of success, fear of failure… call it what you will. Perfection is something I have strived for my entire life. And if I couldn’t achieve success? Why bother to start? ## Inspiration on a Sleepless Night I could not sleep last night. It was not for trying, I simply could not sleep. I was exhausted, my eyes would close, and yet sleep would not come. This happens once in a while, and usually I spend this newfound time wasting away on Pinterest or Instagram. Last night, however, I decided to do something creative. Inspired by the color work of Minnie Small and the fog drenched view from my kitchen window, I set to work on a digital painting. The late night YouTube video that inspired my digital painting. ## Working with Limitations The experiment in “progress” was just what I needed. I couldn’t achieve perfection. I knew I was going to make mistakes from the start. This was itself liberating. If you start, knowing you’re going to fail, you only have an upwards direction to go. Right? Right. Drawing trees is something I love to do, despite always hating the result. I’m never happy with them. “Happy little trees” are not something I’ve ever achieved. Last night, however, I didn’t let myself “Undo” strokes. I had to work with what I had done. I worked with a limited color palette and took my time with each stroke of the “brush” on my iPad. ProCreate is something still new to me, thus I don’t know its full powers or capabilities… but last night I really didn’t need to know. One or two layers, a handful of green hues, and I was set. ## The Result ![A ProCreate painting of trees and fog featuring a limited palette of greens.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/0c/770c280c-8342-4367-8272-fd2bff5d02d3/content/images/2025/01/HappyLittleTrees-TheFieryWell-ProCreatePainting.jpeg) A ProCreate painting of trees and fog featuring a limited palette of greens. Surprisingly? I’m happy with the result. I’m happy with the progress I made on the piece. Is it a Renoir? Or DaVinci? Nope. It’s a Ryan Lee and that makes me happy. I’m happiest that it let my mind wander and relax and I fell into a fairly restful sleep after calling the image complete. I even want to print it out on some watercolor paper and hang it up in my office. I never want to do that. I’m never happy with my own work… but now.. I see the benefit in admiring your own work. It makes you want to do more. And more. And the more you do the better you become. It’s not about perfection; it’s about bettering yourself. It’s about progress.