Ep: 06 Squarespace vs Showit: The Truth No One’s Talking About with Alex McGinness
“You can’t judge your day one to someone’s day one thousand. It’s just not sustainable.”
Alex McGinness
I lit this episode with a match and a mic, literally, because we pulled tarot on air and asked Spirit to weigh in on the show. The first card? Anger. Which honestly tracks, because I’ve got a lot to say about the website platforms service providers are being sold. If you’ve ever wondered why I ran back to Squarespace after a three-month fling with Showit, or how to blend something as woo as astrology into something as technical as web design, you’re in the right room. I brought on Alex, a designer who blends astrology with web and brand work, and we went all the way in on templates, pricing, capacity, and why you should stop judging your day one against someone’s day one thousand.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode
I’ll walk you through why I left Showit and came home to Squarespace, even after investing time, energy, and templates.
I’ll rant about the gatekeeping and upgrade hoops that made blogging on Showit a whole ordeal.
I’ll ask Alex how she uses astrology in branding and web design without it feeling fluffy, and why it actually helps clients make decisions.
I’ll break down why your offer ecosystem can include templates, and still not cannibalize your done-for-you services.
I’ll walk you through a capacity and pricing check, so you stop assuming higher prices always equal better clients.
I’ll share the exact thought that delayed this podcast by months, and how moving platforms unlocked momentum in one day.
The Squarespace vs. Showit Reality You Don’t Hear Enough
Here’s what I really want you to know about my platform switch. I’ve been a Squarespace girlie since 2012. Not because I’m a designer, I’m not. Because I want clean design, easy edits, reliable analytics, and a blog without ceremony. I wandered over to Showit because I wanted pixel-perfect drag and drop without having to custom code, and I got seduced by shiny templates. Three months later, my last straw hit.
To upgrade to a plan that included a blog, I had to contact support. I couldn’t push a button and move up in my account. I had to submit a ticket, wait, and then be moved to a gated WordPress server that limited plugins and users unless I paid top tier. I don’t want to be at the mercy of anyone’s office hours to publish content or tweak my stack. If it’s Friday night and I get the itch to ship, I’m shipping.
That bottleneck stalled this show for months. When I finally canceled Showit and rebuilt on Squarespace, I moved my domain, spun up the blog, and redesigned the entire site in a day. Is Squarespace perfect? No. Tech gets glitchy. But the baseline functionality, the “I can do this now” factor, and the support actually support me.
Templates, Custom Work, and the Cannibalization Myth
Designers are the one service category where offering templates doesn’t automatically nuke your custom services. Why? Because different buyers exist at different readiness levels. Alex sells Squarespace templates, yes, but most of her template revenue comes bundled inside a “template remix” service. Clients want her eye, her strategy, and her ability to make it not look like a template. That’s not cannibalization, that’s laddering.
Here’s what I want service providers to hear. If you’re going to sell a lower-priced DIY thing next to a premium done-for-you, you can’t pretend you’re talking to one audience. The $300 buyer and the $10K buyer have different constraints, different goals, and they hang out in different rooms. Speak to each clearly, and design a middle step for the folks who don’t want to DIY but aren’t ready for full custom. That middle can be insanely profitable and far less draining.
Authority Anchors, Astrology, and Why Your Method Matters
When I talk about authority anchors, I’m talking about the thing you want to be known for, the lens you use to solve problems regardless of the deliverable. Alex’s anchor is spiritual strategy. She reads client charts, pulls archetypes, and translates identity into brand and web choices. You don’t have to be “woo” to get the point. Your methodology is your moat. It attracts the right people, repels the wrong ones, and makes marketing infinitely easier because you’re not trying to be everything to everyone.
I loved the pull we did for this show. Anger, then Positive Affirmations. Translation, we’re going to get spicy, say what others won’t, and always point you back to agency. We’re not rage-posting. We’re calling the thing what it is, then asking, okay, what can we do about it.
Pricing, Capacity, and Choosing the Right Consequences
I am never going to be the person who tells you to keep your rates low and grind. We’re going to look at your numbers, your capacity, and your desired lifestyle, then price accordingly. But here’s the nuance people skip. Raising your rates changes your buyer, your scope, your complexity, and often your energy cost. If you raise rates and start attracting clients who aren’t your people, that’s data. It doesn’t mean you “failed.” It means the business you’re building might need different offers, not just bigger ones.
Alex hit that fork. She could have kept chasing $15K custom sites, but the work was draining and required more team, more JavaScript, more project management than she wanted. So she expanded sideways, not just up. Template remixes, brand add-ons, even designing oracle decks for clients. She built a business she actually wants to run, not a business Instagram told her to want.
Chapters
00:00 - Cold open, tarot decks, winter solstice ritual, movie-theater apartments
08:40 - Showit hot take, “I’m not a fan,” and why the platform exists at all
11:36 - The gated blog upgrade, WordPress overlay, and plugin restrictions
16:34 - Canceling Showit, moving back to Squarespace, rebuilding in a day
21:30 - Astrology in design, why I loved the Gemini template, chart placements
33:32 - Tarot pull for the show, Anger then Positive Affirmations
41:00 - Do templates cannibalize services, or create a profitable middle?
46:08 - Pricing up vs. attracting the right clients, missing custom work on your terms
51:17 - Launching templates after reps, building process, real marketing differences
58:18 - Stop comparing your day one to someone’s day one thousand
01:10:00 - Should you add low-ticket offers or sell the damn service, risk and capacity
Resources & Mentions
Prism Oracle deck (affiliate link)
About the Guest
Alex is the creative behind Arcoíris Design Studio (pronounced ARC-OH-EER-ES). Arcoíris Design Studio is a branding and web design studio based in the PNW that focuses on creating brands and websites that embody her clients. Alex is a bold, maximalist design who loves color, thinks beige design is super boring and loves to create out of the box brand. Alex majored in Human Biology in college and transitioned into web design after completing her yoga teacher training in 2015. Soon after, Alex discovered her intuition when she created The Desert Oracle Deck. Since then she's been melding her intuitive, magical approach to design with strategy to create unique experiences and brands for her clients.
Connect with Alex:
Interested in Being on the Show or Working with Emylee?
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If you’d like to see a library of all published episodes in a gallery with easy-to-find links to all listening platforms be sure to check out the Sell The Damn Service Episode Library.
