Banish Beige: Welcome to hayleyesther.com

Hello Bestie.

I have a new blog.

Now, if you know anything about me, the words “I have a new blog” probably aren’t going to cause anyone to fall off their chair.

I’ve been blogging for more than 15 years. I’ve started blogs, grown blogs, changed blogs, lost blogs, rebuilt blogs and had ideas for more blogs while I was supposed to be working on the blogs I already had.

I love this strange little corner of the internet.

And now I’m putting my own name above the door.

Welcome to HayleyEsther.com.

Home of your Girl Boss Bestie.

And we’re starting with one very important rule:

Banish Beige.

I’m not just talking about the colour.

Although, looking around here, you’ll notice I’ve gone for pink and orange, so actual beige isn’t exactly getting much airtime either.

I’m talking about beige business.

Beige branding.

Beige content.

Beige advice.

That peculiar corner of the business internet where everybody seems to have the same website, uses the same five phrases and tells you that the secret to success is waking up at 5am, journalling for precisely seventeen minutes and developing seven passive income streams before breakfast.

Bestie.

No.

I Want Business to Be Fun Again

I love business.

I love that moment when an idea first pops into your head.

I love buying the domain.

I love choosing the colours.

I love scribbling plans in notebooks.

I love figuring out what people actually want.

I even love the slightly terrifying moment when you finally put something online and realise that actual human beings can now see it.

What I don’t love is the idea that becoming serious about business means becoming incredibly serious as a person.

Professional doesn’t have to mean boring.

Strategic doesn’t have to mean soulless.

And ambitious women don’t all have to build identical personal brands.

You can know what you’re doing and still have pink on your website.

In fact, you can have pink and orange.

Look at us being rebellious.

So What Are We Doing Here?

HayleyEsther.com is going to be my place to talk about the business of creating things online.

We’ll talk blogging, branding, content, business and creator life.

Some posts will be proper guides.

Some will be experiments.

Some will be things I’ve learned after years of blogging that I wish somebody had told me much earlier.

And occasionally we’re going to have a conversation that begins:

Bestie, we need to talk about this.

Because I don’t want to build another website where I pretend I’ve discovered the single magical formula for internet success.

I haven’t.

I’ve discovered lots of things that work.

I’ve also discovered quite a few things that absolutely do not.

Both are useful.

I’m Building Too

That’s probably the most important thing to understand about this blog.

I’m not standing at the finish line shouting instructions at you.

I’m building alongside you.

I’m a blogger, writer, marketer, stylist, strategist and creative business owner.

I’ve worked online for years, and I’m still experimenting.

I’m still launching things.

I’m still changing my mind.

I’m still looking at an idea at 11pm and thinking, Oh no. That’s actually quite good.

And then buying another domain.

Occupational hazard.

But that’s exactly what I want to document here.

Not just “Here’s how to build something.”

I want to talk about:

Here’s what I’m building.

Here’s why I tried it.

Here’s what happened.

Here’s what I’d do differently.

And sometimes:

Bestie, that was a terrible idea. Moving swiftly on.

Because that’s what creating a business actually looks like.

Your Girl Boss Bestie

I know the phrase Girl Boss has had approximately seventeen different internet lives.

I’m reclaiming it.

Not as the woman who has everything figured out.

Not as the CEO shouting motivational quotes at you from beside a swimming pool.

Your Girl Boss Bestie is the friend who pulls up a chair, opens the laptop and says:

Right. Show me what we’re working with.

We’re going to sort out that blog.

We’re going to make your branding look like you.

We’re going to question whether you really need another social platform.

We’re going to talk about making money without pretending money magically appears because you bought a pretty planner.

We’re going to celebrate when something works.

And when it doesn’t?

Tea.

Biscuits.

New plan.

There Is No Perfect Time to Start

I could have spent months preparing HayleyEsther.com.

I could have written fifty posts before launching.

I could have created the perfect content calendar, perfected every graphic and made sure every tiny corner was finished.

But that wouldn’t be a particularly truthful way to start a blog about building things, would it?

Sometimes you need to start the thing.

Then improve it.

So that’s what I’m doing.

This is post number one.

The chairs aren’t all straight.

There’s probably something I’ve forgotten.

And I already have more ideas than available hours.

Perfect.

We’re officially open.

Welcome, Bestie 🩷🧡

If you’re building a blog, starting a business, creating content, launching a product, reinventing your brand or simply sitting there with a notebook full of ideas wondering which one deserves a chance…

You’re in the right place.

We’re going to learn.

We’re going to experiment.

We’re going to build things.

We’re going to change our minds occasionally.

And we’re going to make the internet considerably less beige while we’re doing it.

Welcome to HayleyEsther.com.

I’m Hayley.

Your Girl Boss Bestie.

Now, what are we building?

Hayley x