Enter The Silence

Written by Sophia / Abundance Through Imagination
I help you create abundance in your life using the law of assumption and Neville Goddard teachings.
About | Contact | YouTube | Free Masterclass

Enter the silence where the answer resides.

Let go of the superfluous, the unnecessary. Let go of that which takes away from your vision of a good life.

Be bold in crafting your life in the way you desire.

Make changes. Step by step.

Look at a single part of your life and see what changes you can make there. Everyday take one small step toward that ideal.

Simplify. Contract in order to expand beyond your wildest imagination.

Reduce tasks & obligations wherever you can.

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Create Your Life By Your Design

Written by Sophia / Abundance Through Imagination
I help you create abundance in your life using the law of assumption and Neville Goddard teachings.
About | Contact | YouTube | Free Masterclass

Create your life by your design now.

Visualize your life with clarity and depth in your mind, within yourself. See your future self guide you from within you.

Take the steps to manifest the world and life that you choose, that you desire.

Step into your future self now.

Take the first step.

Do the things that bring your forward. Don’t look for ease - look for strength to handle challenges and ease will come.

Make the small decisions that will bring you to embody your dream, to inhabit your goals now.

So if you want to be a writer, write. Write daily.
If you want to be a person of integrity, then keep even the small promises you make to yourself.

Start today. Begin small. Don’t wait. Your moment is now.

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Birthing Your New Self

Written by Sophia / Abundance Through Imagination
I help you create abundance in your life using the law of assumption and Neville Goddard teachings.
About | Contact | YouTube | Free Masterclass

Birthing your new self in this world. It may not feel good in the moment. But allow yourself to go through it — with ease, without resistance. Let yourself emerge from the old you into a new fulfilling way of being.

Thank you for the seed of transformation sprouting.

Change, transformation and ease are at your doorstep. Don’t be afraid. Open the door to what lies ahead. Leave the cloak of struggle and effort behind.

Walk nakedly free of old burdens that don’t serve you.

One by one let go of that which no longer serves you.

Embrace flow, ease, joy, contentment.

You are meant to show up in the world differently — with lots of ease and spaciousness. Create that for yourself by embracing simplicity and that which is most natural to you.

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Expansion begins with contraction

Written by Sophia / Abundance Through Imagination
I help you create abundance in your life using the law of assumption and Neville Goddard teachings.
About | Contact | YouTube | Free Masterclass

Expansion happens when you allow new possibilities to exist in your vision, in your mind. In your mind remove the obstacles, the hurdles. 

Welcome the best version to exist with ease, without resistance. Like an artist’s blank canvas where anything is possible, let the most miraculous, joyful and beautiful version of your self and your life take form.

Step into an other-wordly dimension where your dreams can germinate, sprout and bloom. Where they can flourish without the mental, societal, familial and human restriction of shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Allow yourself to transcend those restrictions, first in the mind, in your vision, then in your body and in your physical environment.
From that place of openness and receiving mode, listen, look and feel for the next right step, the next right idea, the next right move.

Let the vision drop hints, receive them without fear or doubt.

From then on, be in a state of flow and ease. Trusting the process of receiving your guidance.

Walking with faith in your vision, not in what you currently see.

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Expansion happens when you allow new possibilities to exist

If you are feeling lost about your purpose in life, about what you are meant to do with your life, or how to move into a new, elevated version of your life, then these words will help you welcome in expansion.

Expansion happens when you allow new possibilities to exist in your vision, in your mind.

In your mind, remove the obstacles, the hurdles. Welcome the best version to exist with ease and without resistance.

Like and artist’s blank canvas where anything is possible, let the most miraculous, joyful and beautiful version of yourself and your life take form.

Step into an other-worldly dimension where your dreams can germinate and where your dreams can sprout and bloom, where they can flourish without the mental, societal, familial and human restriction of shouldas, wouldas, couldas.*

(* I define these terms in this way: Shouldas are the things we are told we should do according to outside voice, wouldas are the things we say we would do if xyz was different and couldas are things we regret about and cause ourselves even more mental agony and paid over the past.)

Allow yourself to transcend those restrictions, first in mind, in your vision, then in your body and in your physical environment.

From that place of openness and receiving-mode, listen, look and feel for the next right step, the next right idea, the next right move.

Let the vision drop hints. Then receive them without fear and doubt. From then on, be in a state of flow and ease. Trusting the process of receiving your guidance.

Walking in faith of your vision not in what you currently see around you.

You are the creator of your life

Take this moment to make a new decision, a new choice that brings you closer to the life that you want live. Don’t put too much emphasis on your current reality, rather put efforts towards the new version of your life that you want to bring into reality.

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Hi! My name is Sophia and this is my message to you:

It’s possible to live the life you want.
Get Clear on the life you want to live + Visualize the details + Know that it’s already done + Take inspired action + Sprinkle In Some Gratitude = Create A Life You Want

132: Designing an Online Summit Landing Page on Squarespace

Squarespace has versatility in its uses. Recently, I designed a summit landing page for a client on his existing Squarespace website. In this video, I walk you through the site and share some tips on how to design a summit landing page.

Click the image below to play video:

I designed a summit landing page on Squarespace. Here’s a walkthrough of the sections.

See these resources mentioned in the video:

Summit landing page: https://www.mindfulfx.de/eathon
Blog + Video 131: How to link main navigation to a section on page (anchor links on Squarespace)
https://www.sophiaojha.com/blog/131-link-main-navigation-to-section-on-the-page-anchor-links-on-squarespace

Your Turn:

What question do you have right now about Squarespace or email marketing or any of the apps out there for online business that you are using. I might answer it in an upcoming video/blog tutorial.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

131: How to link main navigation to section on the page (anchor links on Squarespace)

The main navigation of your website are usually pages. But in some cases you might want to link to a section on your page instead of a separate page. For example, you might want to have a link that goes to an about page or the contact page as I have done on my client’s site here: https://www.paperplanevideo.com . Or you might want a link that jumps straight to a section of you page to help returning visitors cut to the chase, so to speak, like here on my client site https://www.dogswelcome.net where the search button in the top navigation jumps to the filter section.

In the video below, I show you two different ways of achieving this feature. Also watch toward the end because to make the links work from all pages on your site, there’s a little tweak that’s important.

Click the image below to play video:

Anchor Links on Squarespace

Also see two more blogs on anchor links:

078: How to add anchor links within blog posts
077: How to present a collection of pages using anchor links

Your Turn:

What question do you have right now about Squarespace or email marketing or any of the apps out there for online business that you are using. I might answer it in an upcoming video/blog tutorial.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

130: New Artist Website with Shop on Squarespace 7.1 for Stephanie Ruble

Update: This site no longer active shows my design. From time to time clients will move on to other platforms or even shut down their business. This is such a case where my original design is no longer visible on this client site. That happens. And it’s okay. I am leaving this blog post for SEO and to give you ideas and as a record of my work!

Type of Project: New Website Build - Website In A Day + bonus 2nd day
Client Site: www.sruble.com
Platform: Squarespace 7.1
Niche: Art & Design
Location: Delaware, USA

Color Scheme:
The colors palette includes the blue from the logo for accents and highlights and bright orange for links and navigation.
White: #fff
Black: #000
Green: #3aa251
Blue: #2c71b6
Orange: #ff9933
Purple: #794f99

Fonts Used:
Headings: Acumin Pro
Paragraph: Poppins
Miscellaneous: Poppins

Fresh off the website oven! Last week, I was on a two day project to create an artist website for Stephanie Ruble. The project was over Monday, Tuesday and because of some unexpected scenarios, I needed an extra day to complete the project. Through it all, Stephanie, was calm and composed and readily supplied any new materials or info I needed for the project.

Usually, I tell my clients that we have only three main checkpoints on any day we work together. But on this project, we had multiple email threads to get some things taken care of and my client was very attentive to my requests responding in light speed throughout the two days of our project. The main issue was the size of the images and renaming all of them. This is an important point to consider if you are designing an image heavy site to make sure the site does load fast despite lots of images: ask for both jpegs and pngs of the artwork and ask for both the original and small sizes. There are a lot of tips around image prep that I can possibly put into a separate blog post. But for now, suffice to say, that we have a lovely site with fun, creative artwork in different categories that showcases Stephanie’s versatile artistic skills.

The site showcases a home, about, commissions, portfolio and a shop with three products. My client has already begun adding new elements and started a blog. This is always a good sign telling me that my handover Squarespace training was good enough to build confidence in my clients to start working on their site and developing it further.

This was a Website In A Day + Bonus Day project built on Squarespace 7.1 with the new Fluid Engine.

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Trivia: Stephanie’s artwork is fun and creative. I enjoyed so much working with her art on the website. A lot of her work is adorable but the frog in the pond is my absolute favorite. While Stephanie has illustrated children’s books, she has a vast skill set including creating fun patterns. And oh, she loves cows (her about page bio will make this obvious!).

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Kind Words from the Client :

“Sophia was wonderful to work with and went above and beyond to make my site come to life. She patiently answered all my questions, found solutions for the complicated things I requested, and came up with a design idea I absolutely love.” ⏤ Stephanie Ruble, sruble.com

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Here you can see the frog that I love so much.

Your Turn:

What’s something amazing you’ve noticed about your clients while working with them on their websites? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

129: 15 Ways I Use Zoom to Run My Web Design Business

There was a time back in 2018-2019 when I was running my live Squarespace Fundamentals workshops, that I had to explain to my participants what Zoom was. Once they registered, I would send them links to tutorials on how to download Zoom and how to troubleshoot if it was not working. Plus, I would ask them to come 15 minutes early so I could help them with any technical difficulties on Zoom.

Fast-forward to 2022, thanks to the pandemic, Zoom has become a household name and there’s even a Zoom-fatigue that folks are experiencing through too much use of the app for communications.

Still, I use Zoom several times a week and on my consult call days, several times a day. It has made communication with my students and clients real easy. And so I thought I would round-up the many different ways I use Zoom to run my web design business.

1| 30 min Complimentary Client Calls

The first touch point with a new potential client is a complimentary 30 minute call over Zoom. In this call, I get to learn about the client’s needs and also share about my design workflow and packages. It’s a real conversation where the client gets to ask any question about the process and prep involved in building a new website.

2| 60 min Design Consult Hour - Day 1 of all of my design projects

This is an hour filled with in-depth review of all the content the client has put together as well as the time for us to get on the same page in terms of the visual aesthetic of the website I am building. We look at several example sites and discuss both design and functionality needs. This is one of my favorite parts of the design process as it is truly collaborative and I really get to feel into what the client is envisioning for their new site.

3| 10 min Design feedback during the course of the project
These are quick check-ins that I do with my client during the course of a project - whether it’s a two week project or a Website In A Day project, a 10 minute touch base makes communication flow much faster than several email threads.

4| 45-60 min Design Training + Website handover call
This is the magical end of the project call where I go over the final design of the site, do a live training of the Squarespace platform and officially handover the website to the client. This is when the final oohs and aahs are released and I see a wave of satisfaction on my client’s faces, which is truly fulfilling.

5| 90 min Squarespace 1 to 1 Training
Clients can hire me for a one-to-one training where I can give a custom training on using Squarespace. This training is super unique each time as each client will have different needs and are stuck at different parts of the website building process.

6| 60-90 min Paid Client Consult Calls
These are more of a strategy call that client can hire me for. They are dedicated for return clients who want to touch base about a new task or want to brainstorm a new product or strategy for their online presence.

7 | 90 min Squarespace Fundamentals Workshop
This is my 90 min live workshop for Squarespace beginners or those who want to refresh their knowledge of Squarespace. We go over the foundations such as creating new pages, adding galleries and links and so son.

8| 60 min Webinars for launching my courses and coaching program
I have done several webinars over the years for various courses and coaching program that have offered to my email list. I enjoy doing webinars very much and Zoom has been a reliable platform for that.

9| 60 min Coaching call for my MWD students
These are my weekly calls I do for coaching my students in my coaching program. And Zoom is my go to choice.

10| 90 min course delivery calls during live cohort for my course
When I deliver my course live, I use Zoom. These 90 minute sessions are perfect for screenshare where I teach a certain topic inside my course. Live courses are quite more fun than a pre-recorded course I think for my students as they can ask questions and see each other through out the program.

11| Personalized Assessment Delivery for my MWD students
Inside my coaching program I (or my team) make video assessments of any asset that my students submit. This way each student gets personalized feedback on everything they create as part of the coaching program. I use Zoom to record these as I can make the recording easily available to my students (instead of downloading and then uploading large video files separately).

12| Website Walkthrough Videos
Rare but once in a while walking through my first draft of the website if client is not available for a live call (often use Loom instead). I like making a video instead of sending an email because the client can see the site and hear my voice and understand the reasons behind my design choices. I highly recommend making a video if you cannot show the client the site in a live screenshare call.

13| Interviewing new hires for graphic design or team
Of course, for interviewing new hires, Zoom is my go-to tool.

14| Interviews for my YouTube Show (coming this fall)
I will be using Zoom for doing interviews for my new YouTube Show that’s coming this fall. I am researching other broadcasting apps so this is likely going to change but for now, Zoom it is.

15| Talks with my Business Mastermind Buddy
Since 2015, I have been chatting monthly or sometimes several times a month with my business mastermind buddy. We share a Zoom link with each other and it helps us keep in touch and share our learnings with each other with ease.

Things in the tech world are always changing and developing rapidly. But so far I am happy with Zoom. This app has become an important part of my business and writing this list makes it even more clear how much I rely on this one app for so many different aspects of running my web design business.

To your success,

Sophia

Your Turn:

For which of these 15 things do you use Zoom for? Do you have other apps that you have found more useful? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

Note: There may be affiliate or paid links on this post and/or other pages throughout this website.

128: New Website for Dog-Friendly Vacation Rental Listing on Squarespace 7.1

Type of Project: New Website Build - Website In A Day + hybrid
Client Site: www.dogs-welcome.net
Platform: Squarespace 7.1
Niche: Travel - Vacation Rental Directory
Location: Northeast USA

Color Scheme:
The colors palette includes the blue from the logo for accents and highlights and bright orange for links and navigation.
White: #fff
Black: #000
deep Blue: #152982
light blue: #dae8f7
Beige/Brown: #dd9159

Fonts Used:
Headings: Cormorant Garamond
Paragraph: Adelle Sans
Miscellaneous: Adelle Sans

A few weeks ago, I got an opportunity to serve dogs through my web design service. Actually, I got to serve travelers who want to bring their dogs along wherever they go. Sara Sokol who owns a vacation rental herself and is an accomplished dog trainer herself, got the idea of creating a resource for people who want to travel but are heart-broken when they leave their dogs with friends or at a kennel. They would rather travel along with their furry companions. Thus, Dogs Welcome was born - a directory of North American vacation rentals that welcome dogs on their property. She asked me to create a website that includes a directory of vacation rentals that welcome dogs (and cats) along with their human companions.

The color scheme for the site was derived from the logo which was created by Garry Atkinson. Garry is not only a graphic designer but also a Squarespace web designer and you can contact him here for your graphic and web design needs: https://www.texplora.media/

The creation of the directory itself was quite a technical process and I used two different plugins (pre-designed code) to make it happen. My client was a delight to work with and we had a few outbursts of laughter (especially when co-creating the fun lines of moving text at the bottom of the home page). How can you not when you are writing about Sarah Jessica Barker and Dumbledog!

This was a unique project (was outside of any of my packages) on Squarespace 7.1 with the new Fluid Engine.

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Trivia: My client Sara is the owner of Mr. Dog Training, a positive reinforcement dog training facility that has been voted best dog trainer in Maine for the past seven years!

And she has authored all of Coastal Humane Society’s behavior handouts, training class descriptions, and their “Caring for Your Newly Adopted Dog” packet. Her wealth of experience and love for the furry ones is truly admirable.

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Kind Words from the Client:

“Perfection! One of the best decisions I've made was hiring Sophia for my project. Sophia is easy to work with, beyond helpful, supportive, and fun. I look forward to having a chance to work with her again!” ⏤ Sara Sokol, Dogs Welcome

Your Turn:

What’s something amazing you’ve noticed about your clients while working with them on their websites? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

127: Website In A Day - Video Production Company Website on Squarespace 7.1

Type of Project: New Website Build - Website In A Day
Client Site: www.paperplanevideo.com
Platform: Squarespace 7.1
Niche: Art & Design: Video Production Company
Location: NYC, USA

Color Scheme:
The colors palette includes the blue from the logo for accents and highlights and bright orange for links and navigation.
White: #fff
Black: #000
Light Beige/Neutral: #F5F3EB
Blue: #1498D5
Orange: #D55114

Fonts Used:
Headings: Europa
Paragraph: Proxima Nova
Miscellaneous: Proxima Nova

In early September, I had the chance to create a website for a video production company run by Christopher Nuut of NYC.
It included a Squarespace 7.1 walkthrough training (recorded) and moving the domain from his old 7.0 site to the new one. This project involved a lot of gifs, multiple video embeds for the portfolio as well as a full-bleed video on the home page banner. Although the Website In A Day package includes 3 pages, I built only two pages (Home and Social Media Ads) as each page contained multiple sections (9 and 7 respectively). Christopher was able to use those two pages as templates and went on to build some more pages on his own. He was super easy to work with because of his prompt response and availability throughout the day and sending all the visual assets and web copy well in advance of the project start date. And by the way, his videography is truly outstanding and makes this website shine.

This was a Website In A Day Project built on Squarespace 7.1 with the new Fluid Engines.

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Trivia: Christopher’s videography is really outstanding and after the site was built I went on to watch a lot of his example videos on the home page and the Social Media Ads page. When I get a video made about my business down the road, I hope I can get Christopher to create one for me!

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Kind Words from the Client :

“Sophia is very friendly, professional, and talented. She worked with me to understand exactly what I wanted beforehand, and provided a new website in just one day.” ⏤ Christopher Nuut, Paper Plane Video

Your Turn:

What’s something amazing you’ve noticed about your clients while working with them on their websites? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

126: On a personal note - Celebrating my mom

I don't usually share my personal life on social media, blog or here on the newsletter but today I am sharing on a personal note (Squarespace Web Design content will be back in my next email).
​
The first half of September has been relaxed and easy going for me - by choice. I closed down the "tap" on 99Designs/Squarespace Marketplace to be able to spend some time with my mom who has been visiting from New Jersey. (Tap is my word of endearment for the client flow that comes from my profile on the 99D/SqMkpt platform). I did create a website in a day (sharing that in my next blog) and also cared for my Millionaire Web Designer coaching student. But overall it was mostly about being with Mom.
​
My mom, Hema, has been an important influence on my life. Not just as a caring mother who instructed me to always sit on the front seat in my classroom growing up back in Mumbai. Not just as a nurturer who helped me excel in school (helping me to consistently rank 2nd in class from 1st grade through 9th grade). But also as someone who without batting an eye included my German husband into the family while so many Indian American mom's are hellbent that their kids marry other Indians - or more specifically those from their own language, region and religion. As soon as I mentioned to my mom that I would be marrying Cristof (see photo below) who is from Stuttgart, she made wedding preps with love and acceptance in her heart (same for my dad too, by the way, who embraced Cristof as his son immediately upon being introduced!).
​
My mom is also the one who patiently encouraged me back in 2015 to look into Odesk (now Upwork) for freelance work when I was stumbling with my mediation workshop business. She also had never judged me for not working in the field of film after receiving my very prestigious NYU BFA in Film and then not implementing after receiving my master's degree in International Relations in Germany. Instead, going on to start a photobook design business!
​
Thankfully, I took her advice and created a profile on Odesk which eventually became the place where I started getting hired for ConvertKit account setups along with Mailchimp email marketing and other such projects. I am now running a web design business that's bringing in $10K average months, allowing me to live in a beautiful natural reserve (in the Appalachian mountains dozens of miles away from a major city), work from home and have a positive impact on those whom I serve.
​
I am grateful to my mom for all of that and much more. But most of all, I am grateful to her for the 20 years of waking up 3 in the morning to go do hard physical labor at a warehouse in New Jersey as a new immigrant from India so that we, the family, could survive and so that I could get a scholarship from her worker's union to go to NYU (+ lots of student loans!) and medical insurance for my Dad's heart which would have been totally unaffordable otherwise. And she did all of that with love in her heart and no expectations.
​
And now as she enjoys her retired life, I only want to shower her with love and appreciation and make her life as comfortable as I can.

Thank you Mom for all that you have done for us and all that you are. I am so happy she was with me for two weeks this September.

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Trivia: My mom loves to draw and make illustrations. Plus she loves to create amazing dishes from around the world and of course, most delicious Indian foods from Dosa and Uttapam from the South to vegetable Biryani from the North of India.

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Your Turn:

Who are the people who have supported you on your entrepreneurial journey? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

125: Website In A Day - Foundation Website for Tim Howard Foundation on Squarespace 7.1

Type of Project: New Website Build - Website In A Day x .5 (built over 1.5 days)
Client Site: www.timhowardfoundation.com
Platform: Squarespace 7.1
Niche: Non-Profit, Youth Development
Location: NYC, USA

Color Scheme:
The colors palette includes dark grey from the logo and bright blue for links and navigation.
White: #fff
Black: #231F20
Light Grey: #EFEFEE
Dark Grey: #7C7B7A
Blue: #031E9B

Fonts Used:

Headings: Anton
Paragraph: Proxima Nova
Miscellaneous: Poppins

Recently, I had the chance to create a website for a foundation that serves youth development in our communities through soccer. This foundation has been started by US Soccer legend Tim Howard and aims at bring mini-soccer field into communities where there are no such resources. As the website’s about page states, they have partnered with the U.S. Soccer Foundation to help build mini soccer pitches in underserved communities to provide the opportunity to explore the sport of soccer, to learn about teamwork and build confidence while participating in a healthy activity. What a wonderful mission!

This was a Website In A Day * .5 Project (Built in 1.5 days) and built on Squarespace 7.1 with the new Fluid Engines.

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Not so Trivial Trivia!: Tim Howard is an American soccer legend. He has the most caps and wins of any goalkeeper in US Soccer history. He played in three World Cups and holds the record for most saves by any goalkeeper in a single game in World Cup history.

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Kind Words from Tim Howard’s team :

“Sophia was great to work with! Efficient, professional and helpful. Very happy with how my website turned out.” ⏤ Amber Olivieri, Team Tim Howard

Your Turn:

What inspiring moment you can recall while working with your clients? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

124: Idaho = potatoes?

Whether or not you like potatoes, can we agree that Idaho sums up to more than that?
​
Maybe, maybe not. But why am I talking about Idaho today?
​
Well, it's because a few years ago, I got to witness Nathan Barry (founder of ConvertKit) have his Steve Jobs moment in Boise, Idaho. Imagine the scene. A room full of online entrepreneurs watching Nathan do a live demo of the email marketing platforms' newest feature - Visual Automations. As he clicked through an automated sequence of emails and trigger rules, the audience was releasing "oohs" and "aahs" like the famed Apple CEO Steve Jobs caused in his presentations.

Okay, enough nostalgia.
​
I am writing to you today to invite you to a brand new workshop I am doing where I show you how to use this email marketing platform to build your email list, send newsletters and to create automations based on actions of your readers. It's an in-depth live foundational workshop on ConvertKit which is designed for the perfect newbie as well as someone who has dabbled with it, yet wants a complete walkthrough from the beginning!
​
This is the workshop I wished I had access to back in 2016 when I became a user and then a ConvertKit Certified Expert. (Psst... That's how I got my start in online business before I pivoted to becoming a Squarespace web designer - as an email marketing expert and consultant.)
​
By the end of the workshop you will know how to add an opt-in form to your blog and website, how to send out an email to your email list and how to deliver a PDF using sequences and even how to create automation rules for creating an evergreen marketing system.
​
It's called ConvertKit Foundations Brunch Workshop and is happening online via Zoom on Saturday, Sept 3rd from 10 am to 1 pm EST (sorry, brunch is not provided!).
​
Early bird price is a mere $95 but the regular price kicks in at $295 next Wednesday, Aug 31st at 1 pm EST.
​
​See all the juicy details of what the workshop consists of and enroll here.​

​
To your email marketing + business success,
Sophia

123: Website In A Day x 2 - Artist Website for Theodora Miller on Squarespace 7.1 (Using Fluid Engine)

Type of Project: New Website Build - Website In A Day x 2 (built over two days)
Client Site: www.theodoramiller.com
Platform: Squarespace 7.1
Niche: Art & Design
Location: Richmond, Virginia, USA

Color Scheme:
The colors palette is soft cream and light olive green and grey for section backdrops and some title colors. The navigation and links are in the main brand color of teal.

Fonts Used:
The fonts are light and elegant.
For Headings: Minerva Modern
For Paragraph text: Montserrat

This week I got to work in a completely new way. Most of my projects are done either via my Website in A Day workflow or my Two Week Website workflow. Theodora Miller, a fine artist in Richmond, Virginia suggested a third way: Website In Two Days! Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we collaborated on moving her 7.0 artist site to 7.1 and up-leveling the design and functionality in the process.

This 6 page-site features a portfolio of her art work, commissions page, a shop for prints and gifts, an about page, a contact page and a home page. Of course, SEO, keywords, image optimization and mobile optimization plus an hour training of Squarespace was part of the package. Theodora has an inspiring healing story which guides her art that takes inspiration from her Greek heritage. Even before she hired me, I looked at her work and started dreaming of a vacation in the Greek islands!

This was a Website In A Day * 2 Project (Built in 2 days) and built on Squarespace 7.1 with the new Fluid Engines.

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Trivia: Theodora takes inspiration from her Greek heritage and memorizes inspirational quotes in Greek and then transmutes those words into her art!

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Kind Words from Theodora:

She is truly excited about her website and this is what she had to say about our work together:

"Sophia has been an amazing partner from the moment of our initial free consultation to our customized 2-day sprint. She has the perfect mix of technical prowess and creativity. She was thoughtful about making value-added design solutions that delighted me and elevated my brand even further than I had imagined. Her compelling expertise of Squarespace 7.1 features made the training portion of our project a breeze. In a very short duration of time, we developed a comfortable rapport that made the collaborative nature of this initiative so enjoyable. All of this is attributable to Sophia’s willingness to think outside of the box, investing the time to understand my unique needs and developing a web design that showcases my art in the best light.

As if that was not enough, she blew me away with the SEO capabilities that she built into the site and taught me do so I can optimize performance in the days and months ahead. She’s joyful and optimistic to work with and I will likely have withdrawals tomorrow after working together for two solid days.

I can’t wait to see what my friends and art collectors say about my new website.” ⏤ Theodora Miller

This is the commissions page.

Your Turn:

What inspiring moment you can recall while working with your clients? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

How I Found My Lost Wedding Ring Using Visualization

Creative Visualization is highly powerful for manifesting your dream life and this website is all about using this method for creating our future. But one area where visualization is very useful is in finding lost items.
In this other article, I share with you the one question I asked to find a lost nail.

In this post, I want to share with you another incident where I was able to retrieve a lost item using visualization and inner-guidance.

This is a story of many years ago - around 2012-2013 when we had published our first CD on Creative Visualization. (Yes, it’s that old!). I was living in Asheville, NC and wanted to get the CD out to various stores. I made a list of some alternative healing, yoga and mystic shops in the area and one day set about visiting each of them in person. My quest was to go to each of these shops and ask them if they would carry our CD for sale.

This went on for an entire day. I would drive from shop to shop.

At the end of the day, I got home only to realize that my wedding ring was missing. I didn’t have a huge reaction to this realization as I had grown to be detached to items and I had begun practicing remembering the people and meaning behind things and not get too attached to the things themselves. But this ring was special - it was my wedding ring afterall.

I started to think back at all the places I had been.

Then I closed my eyes to “see” where the ring was. Immediately, I got an image of my ring laying on tarmac - the tar/asphalt concrete of a parking lot. It was a close-up image of the ring - and I could see about a few inches around it and what I saw was some kind of a parking lot.

I got back into my car and went to one of the shops where I had visited that day. I parked my car and started to look around the parking lot. And in a couple of minutes, I saw it. My ring!

It was laying on the parking lot. It was right there, waiting for me to pick it up!

I was stunned that this happened - that I found the ring exactly as the image that came to me in my mind. Of course, I was relieved and went home happily.

The Method of Finding Lost Items

So the method was quite simple. I just closed my eyes to “see” where the ring was. That’s it. No question asked like in the last article where I was looking for a nail. I only closed my eyes and in the next instant, I got the image. The process was easy and smooth. I didn’t skip that image with disapproval, instead, I trusted it and then took action.

Step 1: Remain calm and close your eyes to “see” where the missing object is.
Step 2: Trust the image right away. No second-guessing
Step 3: Immediately take action based on what you see (provided the action will not hurt you or others and doesn’t break and moral, ethical or legal rules and laws).

Keep This In Mind

We may have the habit of neglecting the first answer if we don’t like what it showed you. But it’s important to listen to the first answer and to act on it (again, as long as it doesn’t harm you, others or break any moral, ethical and legal rules and laws). The fact that you take action based on your intuitive guidance sends a strong message to your inner-voice, showing that you trust it and are listening to it.

Also, don’t rely on the first thing you see as the final destination. So in other words, don’t think that the first answer you see is where the thing you are looking for is located. It could be that your inner-voice is guiding you to the next step and then you will have to ask again to get to the next step…kinda like a treasure-hunt. Think of the process like getting cues to get to the first point and once you arrive there you will be getting the cue/hint/guidance for your next step and so on.

If you are more of an auditory person, meaning you get messages in terms of sounds or thoughts/ideas, check out my other article about finding the nail - this is where I audibly asked a question out loud.

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Now, it’s your turn.
Let me know in the comments if you have used your visualization and inner-guidance system for finding a lost item and how you did it.

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Hi! My name is Sophia and this is my message to you:

It’s possible to live the life you want.
Visualize the Life of Your Dreams + Believe + Take Action + Sprinkle In Some Gratitude = Create A Life You Want

To learn more about my approach to creative visualization and how you can use it in your life , see all the details here.

How Creative Visualization Can Be A Tool For Finding Lost Items

Creative Visualization is a useful tool that I have begun using for everyday problems. An aspect of creative visualization is tapping into your intuition or your inner-voice or higher-self to get guidance on day-to-day issues. A very common use is to find lost or misplaced items. Recently, I used this method to solve an immediate problem such as finding out “where is the nail?”

Let me expound on that.

Yesterday, I went into my husband’s home office and my eyes fell on a calendar that’s hanging on the wall. The calendar hung on a measly little nail that was strong enough to hold the weight of this tiny wall calendar. But as I flipped through the pages, the calendar came undone and the nail went flying somewhere. Since the floor is covered in carpet, I did not hear it fall.

I first checked the calendar to see if the nail had sneaked in. But no, it was not there. So I got on to the floor and started scanning the area. I could just vacuum the whole room and trust that the nail was picked up. However, we have many tiny soft paws running around our house and to protect our kitties, I wanted to be absolutely sure that I retrieved the nail.

But it was nowhere to be found.

I looked and looked and looked.

I was looking not for a needle in a haystack but a nail on my carpeted floor - the feeling was the same. Overwhelm! How was I going to find it? I lay on the carpet and put my face to the ground so I could be eye-level to the carpet and perhaps, this way I might be able to notice a pointy nail jutting out of the carpet. But to no avail. I then tapped with my palm the entire floor under the wall calendar. Nothing.

Then out of nowhere, I asked out loud, “Where IS the nail?”
And I heard an answer in my head, “In the book.”

As soon as I heard it, I knew intuitively that what was called the “book” was actually the calendar. I didn’t think the nail was hidden in the “book” as I had already checked it. But I checked again anyways. You know how you look for your lost keys throughout the whole house and then when you finally find it, you say to yourself, “I swear I had checked this area before and it was not there”. This has happened to me as well. So I looked again.

Lo and behold, the nail was there. It was snuck between the page and the metal ring and since there was a pen attached, not clearly visible on first glance.

The nail was hidden in the metal ring of the calendar. You see it on the top right corner of the calendar. I’ve placed the nail in a way so it is slightly more visible in this photo.

It was amazing! Simply amazing!

I am still just stunned how quickly the answer came to my question and I how I found this nail! Actually, I should be that surprised as I have used a similar technique to find my lost wedding ring many years ago. Read that technique for finding lost things in this blog post.

So now that I had found the nail, I decided to share this with you so that you too can use creative visualization to solve such everyday problems.

How To Use This Method ?

1. Ask a simple question.
In this example, my question was, “Where is the nail?” Ask it out loud if you can or in your mind or in a private space where you are by yourself and can ask this out loud.

2. Listen to the answer that arises immediately.
The first answer is the one. Don’t skip it to look for “better” next answers.

3. Take action.
It goes without saying but I must mention this: Do what the inner-voice suggests but only do it if it doesn’t harm you, others or break any moral, ethical and legal rules and laws.

Keep This In Mind

We may have the habit of neglecting the first answer if we don’t like the sound of it. But it’s important to listen to the first answer and to act on it (again, as long as it doesn’t harm you, others or break any moral, ethical and legal rules and laws). The fact that you take action based on your intuitive guidance sends a strong message to your inner-voice, showing that you trust it and are listening to it.

Also, don’t rely on the first thing you hear as the final destination. So in other words, don’t think that the first answer you hear is where the thing you are looking for is located. It could be that your inner-voice is guiding you to the next step and then you will have to ask again to get to the next step…kinda like a treasure-hunt. Think of the process like getting cues to get to the first point and once you arrive there you will be getting the cue/hint/guidance for your next step and so on.

If you more of a visual person, you may enjoy reading how I found my lost wedding ring using visualization.

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Now, it’s your turn.
Let me know in the comments if you have used your inner-guidance system for solving everyday problems and how you did it.

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Hi! My names is Sophia and this is my message to you:

It’s possible to live the life you want.
Visualize the Life of Your Dreams + Believe + Take Action + Sprinkle In Some Gratitude = Create A Life You Want

To learn more about my approach to creative visualization and how you can use it in your life, see all the details here.

Creative Visualization - Meet Your Future Self For Insights And Guidance

Today, I have a brand new video for you. It is a creative visualization where I guide you through a visual journey into the forest where you meet your future self and get guidance on a question. Take a nice 20 minute break from what you are doing, find a calm, quiet, safe place and experience this visualization. Have a little notebook and paper with you as I will be guiding you with some prompts to fully benefit from this visualization.

122: Website In A Day - Squarespace Website for Actor and Voice Over Artist (Using Fluid Engine)

Type of Project: New Website Build - Website In A Day
Client Site: www.jenniferugarriza.com
Platform: Squarespace 7.1
Niche: Entertainment
Location: Connecticut, USA

Color Scheme:
The colors palette is monochromatic with black and white as the main colors with a splash of terracota orange to add some color for links and buttons and footer.

Fonts Used:
The fonts are elegant and modern at the same time. Squarespace offers a plethora of font combination options so there’s no lack of choice there.
For Headings: Acumin Pro
For Paragraph text: Poppins

This week, I had a lovely opportunity to build a Squarespace website for an Actor/Voice Over Artist - and I built it in a day!

Jennifer purchased my Website In A Day package to get a lovely site that serves as a digital business card for her acting and voice over work. We presented her voiceover demo on the Media page along with acting clips as well as a separate page for all her headshots. With everything in one place, she can send the link to this website to potential clients, agents and post it on her profile.

This was a Website In A Day Project and built on Squarespace 7.1 with the new Fluid Engines.

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Trivia: While we were doing Zoom calls to review the new design I created, Jennifer’s dog, Paco, a little dachshund, was barking softly while sleeping, which I found totally adorable!

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Kind Words from Jennifer:

"I loved working with Sophia--she made the process super easy and seamless for me and was responsive to all of my questions. The website design turned out exactly how I wanted--actually even better than I had anticipated! I would recommend Sophia, she is friendly, professional, and knowledgable in graphic design. Thank you for your great work!!”
⏤ Jennifer Grace Ugarriza

Your Turn:

What inspiring moment you can recall while working with your clients? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers to you and your abundant creativity,
🦄🦄🦄 Sophia

A New Chapter Begins: Reflection Pond is now Queen of Visualization

Many of you have followed my journey with Reflection Pond. Some as far back as 2010 when I first launched reflectionpond.com.

Now, as of July 2022, reflectionpond.com is queenofvisualization.com.

Below is a bit of the backstory of how this change has come to be.

From 2010 to 2022

The aim of my videos, blogs and programs on reflectionpond.com so far has been that of helping people create inner-peace and happiness. I have been guiding meditation classes since 2010, first for friends in my living room, then for a music band who hired me to guide a visualization before each of their practice for several weeks. We (Cristof and I) even published our first CD: Creative Visualizations for Abundance. I was also publishing many useful videos doing book reviews as well as cultivating new habits of gratitude and cover many other personal development topics on my YouTube channel.

Later, I conducted guided meditations for individuals online via Skype and eventually group sessions via weekly Zoom sessions for our local High Country Meditators group (HCM).

When the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, people were still meeting in groups indoors. But I had a strong intuition that this is different. I made a last minute decision to move our in-person meeting to an online Zoom meeting back in Feb 2020. This decision was an important one and it may even have saved some of us from contracting the virus at a time when there was no vaccine or a cure. Since then, Cristof and I held weekly guided meditation sessions for the HCM group on Zoom along with delivering short presentations on things ranging from cultivating inner-peace, topics of forgiveness, gratitude and the Buddha’s teachings of the Noble Eight-Fold Path.

Something new was brewing
And as 2022 came around, I started to feel that something new is wanting to emerge. I didn’t know what it was. But what I knew was that the weekly sessions needed to come to a stop.

Isn’t it often that way in life? We have to make space for the new by shedding the old. To add a new book to an already full bookshelf, we need to choose which book needs to be donated. The old book fulfilled its purpose and can now go on to help another reader.

It was something similar that I was feeling. I know that our meditation group members enjoyed our weekly meet-ups online and loved to meditate together. But for me, instead of an enriching and enlivening experience, these sessions had become energy-draining. I couldn’t understand why that was. It could be that showing up on video each week live was getting to me. All I knew was that I needed to stop doing these sessions.

I am pretty happy with what Cristof and I have created for our community - a total of 93 sessions over a period of two years. That’s quite a consistent effort and output. You can watch all these sessions here as part of the High Country Meditators Video Series.

We stopped our weekly HCM meditation sessions in Jan 2022. And I went quiet for more than 5 months.

Then, towards the end of June, this new but also not new desire came to surface - do creative visualizations.

A New Chapter and a New Journey

Throughout these years, one thing that people in my sessions really enjoyed was creative visualization. If you want to know my approach to creative visualization, read about it here but in short, these are guided visualizations where I create a world of imagination which is out of this ordinary world of ours. We go to a place where we receive guidance from our future self or higher self or guides as well as create a vision of the life we want.

So creative visualization, itself, is not new for me; the desire to fully focus on creative visualization, however, is new. And I am very happy about it.

Over and over again, folks have told me that they enjoyed these visual journeys. Plus, I also love doing them. So in short, here are some of the reasons why I have chosen to go on this path of Doing Creative Visualizations from now on:

1 | People have liked my visualizations. They have come back for it. They like the rest and relaxation factor. Guided Visualizations are attractive to people. Almost everyone has said that “I could use some of that.” They have received messages, they have felt peace.

2 | My visual skills are my strongest skills/ talents. This shows in my poetry which is very visual, in my speech as well as in my imagination. I have a very strong sense of visualization when something is mentioned, I can very clearly SEE it. So don’t ever mention worms when I am eating! LOL!

3 | It comes naturally. It is the only thing, that I don’t need to prepare for. It comes to me naturally. The words flow. The images flow. And it all comes so beautifully to me with ease and I enjoy it. It seems to be coming directly from the divine. I am rarely nervous or doubting whether I can do it. I just know that I have it in me and the guided meditation will come out beautifully. I feel good doing it. And I feel confident and happy when I am guiding a visual journey.

What this means for you?

Now that reflectionpond is queenofvisualization, what this means for you is that you will receive content in your inbox and on the website and on my YouTube channel that is all about creating a life of our dreams using the method of creative visualization. There will be free youtube videos with guided visualizations, book reviews of books on creative visualization and related topics as well as workshops and retreats around creative visualization.

You will get these in your inbox, so sign up here!

I am working to build the best resource online for creative visualization so that you can have the tools, methods and inspiration for creating a life that you want by design.

If this resonates with you, I am happy to have you part of this email list. If you are not finding this exciting, I will not mind if you unsubscribe. And if you are not sure, stay on the email list for at least until Aug 31st to see what kind of content I am sharing and assess if it’s helpful to you. Only then make a decision to unsubscribe - that’s my recommendation!

Onwards!

I am super excited for this next chapter on my journey and I can’t wait to share all that I have envisioned for you plus all the new things I will be inspired to create for you down the road.

With gratitude,
Sophia

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Now, it’s your turn.
Let me know in the comments any supportive comments you have on my new chapter!

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Hi! My name is Sophia and this is my message to you:

It’s possible to live the life you want.
Visualize the Life of Your Dreams + Believe + Take Action + Sprinkle In Some Gratitude = Create A Life You Want

To learn more about my approach to creative visualization and how you can use it in your life , see all the details here.