Adventures of the First Lady- Finding a Niche Pt. 1

Where shall I start?

We met with the Trek rep on the 20th. All went well and we came up with ideas to implement. (As said in the last post.) And on a side-note, there will be some really awesome things happening this year! I can't tell you what they are yet- but it will be probably the greatest thing since they put mushrooms on pizza.


Kai will be starting on Feb 1st, he came in to situate the first scheduled week. It will be different, I'm sure, having two new persons here for Travis to observe. On that note- we are still taking applications. (Heeeey! You know you wanna work at the bike shop!)

Then we shall fast forward to Sunday. I was starting to mess around with the Decorah Bicycles website. I figured it would be good for the website to be updated. Travis has been told it's one of the most informative bicycle store websites, ever. However....and I say that with a bit of an "uuugh" tone...the site was looking a bit dated.

The articles- I want to keep some of the same templates and talk about the items spoken of, but re-do it so it's more up-to-date, "with it", and current (in terms of photos.) First thing first, how the HECK do you work it?
I spent much of my Sunday evening finding myself frustrated over the fact that I couldn't figure out how to come up with a page. Then how to replace what was on there already with the new page(s). I hate being told to not worry about it. I hate admitting something was outside my mental capacity (for the moment) and I disliked the thought of having to ask help.
I went to bed feeling a bit defeated.

Monday I woke up and started tinkering, then made myself go for a bike ride. I was annoyed. I hated the thought I was going off for a ride. Annoyance, irritation, and frustrations were my emotions. Bubbling under my surface I just wanted to yell. (or something)

The ride was good. It helped me sort my thoughts and I started thinking about the website and made some mental connections. Then I ended up completely forgetting about the website as I had to stop myself from sliding down a hill. Oh ice....

I came home, emailed a tech, and continued to tinker.

Later that afternoon I deduced I knew what I was doing, and after-hours I would reset the cache and hope for the best.
I did....and NOTHING changed.
I freaked.
Then about 15 min. later it worked!!!

In that moment, amid my happy dance, the world became my oyster.

Tuesday was filled with non-work but of course, a little work. There wasn't much I could do given the circumstance that my eyes were dilated. In the darkness of home, I poked around the website to see if I could change the header photo. I didn't love the look of our site, it looked a bit dated.

When Travis came home, I broke the news. I wanted to find a new layout for us to agree on. (gulp!)
With success, we gave DecorahBicycles.com a facelift!
Now we're talkn'!
I felt that I had a renewed sense of purpose for myself and felt good about making necessary changes happen. A more up-to-date website, a fresher look, as well as more personalized content. I'm basking in the glory that is the beginning of my website editing.

End Note: If interested, you can submit your email on our website if you would like to be sent email newsletters in the future. They would show up on a once-a-month basis.