Ryan Lakhan-Bunbury, the founder of Calm that Anxiety, is a leadership and wellbeing coach, specialising in psychology-based coaching to help leaders and entrepreneurs navigate everyday business challenges, and to support individuals in managing stress and anxiety.
Alongside coaching, Ryan engages in significant community initiatives and first made contact with Ethical Pixels through our Donated Websites Programme. Although his blend of commercial and benevolent activities made it tricky for us to offer him a completely pro-bono website, we immediately recognised the value of this work. Ryan’s approach is highly compatible with our own set of Ethical Values and we were encouraged by his frank and transparent story of his own struggles with anxiety. We therefore offered a competitive rate for the design and build of the for-profit parts of his site and included the development of the non-profit, community focused areas on a pro bono basis.
Ryan had a pre-existing but unfinished site with most of the necessary information, but was running into issues getting the layout and polish he wanted. He asked us to finish the site to a professional standard using the branding he had already established. After reviewing the site, we were ready to give it an upgrade with a user-centred approach that would clearly communicate his philosophy, outline his services, and offer visitors a calm, engaging experience from the outset.
Using the branding to create a responsive, modern site
The pre-existing palette of a calming blue was combined with a down-to-earth beige colour that complemented it to give the site a grounded but professional feel. The distinctive heading typography, paired with the legible Open Sans paragraphs, creates a pleasant and balanced visual identity. As always, we built this site to work seamlessly across all devices, regardless of what device the visitor is using.
The site features:
Display of key services
Ryan’s key services: Personal Coaching and Corporate Leadership Coaching were showcased on individual pages, along information about his growing demand for Speaking Engagements. This includes lists of packages offered, a how-to guide for those looking to begin coaching, a dynamic testimonials slider with service-relevant quotes and an in-page form for users to get in touch.
Introducing Ryan's journey
Ryan is disarmingly candid about his own journey with stress and anxiety, something that is reassuring to many who have been through this. The about page is where potential clients can get to know him, and where a lot of his personality comes through – including his story, approach to coaching, professional qualifications, accreditations and some facts about him.
Interactive elements
With over a decade of industry experience, Ryan aimed to highlight his extensive knowledge and personality through detailed text on the website. However, lengthy content can deter visitors who are visual learners and prefer to skim. Our solution was to progressively reveal text, making specific information easily accessible to those actively seeking it, while keeping it from overwhelming casual visitors.
Upcoming workshops
Ryan hosts several workshops and events throughout the year, and wanted to feature them on his website. To streamline this, we built a dedicated page that dynamically pulls event information directly from his Eventbrite page. This reduces the load on Ryan’s website and eliminates the need to manually update and delete the event or manage event registrations via the site.
Community efforts
The Community page features the work Ryan has done in the community and highlights his pro-bono coaching package. This page is complete with relevant testimonials, video content and calls to action directing people to his contact details.
Newsletter sign-up
Engagement with clients and community was of utmost importance, so we integrated a GDPR-friendly and simple newsletter signup form with just a singular field for email address.
Extensible blogs
An extensible blog section was created that can be used to share articles over time and can be easily filtered and sorted according to the reader’s preferences.
Contact page
Site visitors can contact Calm That Anxiety using one of the several methods provided on the page, including links to email and Linkedin, as well as a contact form. All social links are also prominently displayed with the newsletter form sign-up.
The new website was tested and transitioned from a dedicated development environment to replace the previous site without any issues or interruption to web or email service. Ethical Pixels have also taken on hosting of the site, which is powered by 100% renewable energy, as verified by the Green Web Foundation.
We’re delighted with Ryan’s kind feedback, and very happy that we could work out a hybrid approach to this site – supporting Ryan’s pro bono initiatives while keeping the spirit of our donated websites programme apart from commercial interests.
Many professionals at all levels (including our own Managing Director Larry Brangwyn) have struggled with stress and anxiety at one time or another. We believe every time someone speaks about their experience, it can help to reduce perceived stigmas and increase awareness of strategies to manage and reduce stress.
If you’re in need of a leadership and wellbeing coach who specialises in helping leaders and entrepreneurs to navigate everyday business challenges and supports them to manage stress and anxiety, then you might want to read more about Calm That Anxiety.
If you are suffering from acute stress or anxiety and feel you need assistance, you can refer to Mind's resources here.
