From the Earth to the Moon
I don't know if you ever watched the HBO television series, From the Earth to the Moon, but it may be one of best things Tom Hanks or Ron Howard have ever been part of. Just watch this 2 minute clip and see if you don't get chills – it's the opening of the HBO series.
Amazing, isn't it?
Well, if you watched it, or if you buy the DVD set, you'll love it. And you'll discover tons of leadership lessons too.
But I'm writing about the best WordPress theme for your business, right? Not leadership lessons.
So why did I reference this amazing mini-series? Because of a particular episode, and a particular scene in the episode.
Maybe picking a theme is rocket science
It'll take another two minutes to watch. But trust me, I'll tie it all up in a second…
Most business owners “can't see it”
The problem you've had, finding the right theme from all the various options, is the same one that you saw at the beginning of the clip.
It's virtually impossible to imaging the themes you're evaluating because your content and the stuff they put in the demo don't match.
After all, seriously, how many of you have gorgeous and high resolution images of you, your company, and some of your clients?
Most of us don't have that.
More importantly, if form follows function, then looking at theme samples that have tons of content when you only have 4 pages of it won't help you.
Alternatively, looking at a theme with four categories and only 5 posts per category won't tell you much if you have 10 categories with hundreds of posts.
Stop looking at theme demos
When you watch that video clip, what you likely noticed was that the engineers were all thinking about things the way they'd always been. They were comfortable with the status quo because it was comfortable.
But they reached a point where their existing approaches weren't working.
If you've purchased over 5 themes on ThemeForest and none of them have worked for you, isn't it time you stopped doing the same thing, hoping for new results?
I'm not saying the issue is ThemeForest (though I did tell you about some other shops to consider the other day). The issue is that you keep judging the book by the cover. You watch the demo, it looks cool, and you purchase. Only to discover your site doesn't look anything like it.
If you take nothing else away from this post, let me just say this: if your theme has more than one slider option, comes packaged with a few plugins, and/or takes up more than 5 Mb zipped, you may need to step back from the computer and take a break.
I know you want your site to look awesome. I get that. And I feel like I'm about to go on a rant, but I won't.
If you walked into a hair salon or barber shop and asked to have someone else's haircut, the stylist or barber would likely encourage you to get something that worked for you, right?
Maybe you don't know me or haven't seen what I look like, but when I was a kid, one of my closest friends had a Jheri curl. If you know me, you know that would never have worked.
You need to be you. Not me. Not someone else. Just you.
So stop looking at theme demos.
But wait? What should I look at then?
I know you're going to hate this. I know you won't believe this. You're looking for me to tell you a specific theme name, aren't you.
But that won't work. Because the best WordPress theme for you is one that takes you into account.
- You
- Your Goals
- Your Content
Instead, look for someone who can help you take a plain and basic framework and turn it into a site that's right for you.
If they've been doing their thing for a while, they will know how to help you “see it.” Just like those engineers who didn't sleep.
- My friend Rebecca will take any one of her many themes and customize for you, so that it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg.
- My friend Alex has a simple baseline theme that he can use to build your theme from there.
- My friend Natalie can do the same thing.
- And my friend Chris can help you dig into your brand first and help you sketch out a design based on it for any of the rest of our friends to build.
You know what they have in common?
Every one of my friends has one thing in common – something I'm sure you'll love. You don't see it in the video clip, but if you watch the series you'll catch it right away.
They all care more about the mission than they do themselves.
They care more about you and your business than they care about html, php, and css. They want to see you win. Win the whole internet.
Here's the thing I know. I know that right now you may feel like your web project is impossible. You've tried three developers already. The don't return phone calls. They're not up during daytime hours. They use English words but their sentences don't make any sense in your world. It feels impossible.
And that's why I started with the clip from the series From the Earth to the Moon. Because it was an impossible mission. One that a few committed folks pulled off.
So hit up any one of my friends (Rebecca, Alex, Natalie, or Chris) and start dreaming of the impossible. They'll help you make it possible.