How to use this: each question has options. You do not need to write essays. Pick an option, or say "none of these, actually it's X". Where you genuinely do not know, say "park it" and we move on. Roughly half of these are 10-second answers.
You said: "a website similar but focused on me and my different activities."
That word activities is new, and it is the most important thing you said. It changes the site from "a coaching website" into "Rob's hub, of which coaching is one part." Those activities become the top-level navigation, so we need the list before anything else can be designed.
What are all the things you do that deserve a place on this site? Coaching, obviously. What else? Writing / Substack? Sport (Hyrox, triathlon, swimming)? Advisory or board work? Investing? Speaking? Something we have not discussed?
If a stranger lands on the homepage, which activity is the one you most want them to click? This determines what the hero section sells.
For each activity: are you trying to sell something, or is it there to show who you are? Both is a valid answer, but we need to know which is which, because it changes whether a section ends in a "book a call" button or just ends.
Two options, and it is genuinely a choice:
(a) Activities are the frame. Nav is Coaching, Writing, Sport, About. Body/Mind/Spirit lives inside the Coaching section as the coaching philosophy.
(b) Body/Mind/Spirit is the frame. Nav is Body, Mind, Spirit, Coaching, About. Your activities get sorted into those three buckets (sport under Body, writing under Mind, and so on).
(a) is more honest to "focused on me." (b) is more distinctive as a brand and closer to the original brief. Pick one, or tell us it should be something else.
You said "similar in overall design." That phrase can mean two very different things, and the build goes in different directions depending on which you meant.
The look: their palette (bone, sand, bronze), the big Futura headings, the square corners, the quiet-luxury / private-members-club restraint.
The structure: the order of the homepage. Hero, philosophy essay, four pillar cards, testimonials, closing call to action.
Both.
Their four pillars are Executive Leadership, Venture Building, Wellness & Vitality, Inner Growth. That is basically your Body/Mind/Spirit, except they split Mind into two commercial offers. Do you want to steal that move? Your Mind pillar is currently the blank one.
Say it out loud, even if it is petty. Dislikes are more useful to us than likes, because likes tend to be generic and dislikes are specific.
React to these:
Unlsh is one data point. Two or three more, from outside coaching (a magazine, a restaurant, an architect, a fund), will make the result custom rather than a reskin of your friend's site.
You said: "within the coaching section I have links to other coaches too."
Good, that settles a question we had open. This is not a multi-coach platform like Unlsh. It is your site, with a curated directory of other coaches inside it. That is consistent with the resource-engine idea: you point people to the right people. Now the details.
Five people you rate, or forty?
Goodwill. Plain links. Costs nothing, builds reputation, generates reciprocal referrals.
Referral. They pay you, or you pay them, on a closed client.
Affiliate / listing fee. They pay to be listed.
Goodwill is the fastest to ship and the safest for your brand. If you want money in it, the design has to change (we need profiles, tracking, and terms), so decide now rather than later.
Just a name and a link? Or a card with photo, one-line specialism, and "best for..."? The second is far more useful to a visitor and far more work.
Do you want to be listed on their sites? That is a distribution channel and it might be worth designing for.
This is the thing that makes your site a product rather than a brochure, and it is the thing Unlsh outsourced. Original concept: visitor tells the site about themselves, site returns tailored recommendations (people to follow, podcasts, books, practices), then offers 1:1 coaching.
Strong recommendation: native. It is your differentiator, it keeps the visitor on your domain, and it is the only part of the site a competitor cannot copy in a weekend, because the recommendations come from your judgement.
Level 1: a static "choose your focus" page. Three buttons, three curated lists. Ships in days.
Level 2: a 5 to 8 question form, weighted scoring, returns a mixed set of recommendations.
Level 3: an AI-driven conversational recommender that reasons about the answers.
Our suggestion is to ship Level 1, watch what people pick, then earn Level 2. Do you agree, or do you want the AI version to be the story from day one?
A list of resources? A "your profile is X" result you can share? An email capture? Email capture is how this becomes a business rather than a toy.
Homepage hero, or a dedicated page you drive people to?
The name is still the single biggest blocker. Logo waits on it, branding waits on the logo, and the site's typography waits on the branding. You said you would start playing with a logo in HK on Wednesday.
Even a shortlist of three is enough to unblock us. If it is still open, tell us the feeling the name should have and we will generate candidates.
Genuinely on the table. "Focused on me and my different activities" argues for robtaylor.com with the activities as sections, rather than an invented brand. An invented brand is better if you ever want to sell it or add coaches under it. Which future are you building for?
Share whatever you made, even if it is bad. Bad first passes are useful, they tell us what you reject.
Anything the mark should carry? A triad (Body/Mind/Spirit)? Movement? Stillness? Strength? Or purely typographic, like Unlsh's wordmark?
Any you love. Any you refuse. Any brand whose look you admire. Note Unlsh's palette is bone, sand and bronze: warm, muted, expensive. Is that you, or is that them?
How should the brand feel? Grounded, premium, energetic, human, credible, irreverent, calm, sharp. Pick five, in order.
Send us your LinkedIn and a few paragraphs on your story. The more context the AI has, the more accurate the first pass, and the fewer rounds we burn.
Do you own one? Do you own the name you are about to choose? Check before you fall in love with a name.
Shivy will handle deploys. You get an environment where you can edit content yourself without breaking anything.
One voice for everyone, or a "simple view / deeper view" toggle like Shivy's site? Who is the primary reader: a potential coaching client, a peer, or a recruiter/partner?
Confirm we pull your posts onto the site automatically, with links back.
Site and brand first. Confirm nothing has changed.
By the end of the call we should have agreed:
If you only do five things before the call:
Bonus, if you have time: five adjectives, colours you like and hate, and the names of the coaches you would want in the directory.