How KISS WP Websites Was Born — And Why I Stayed Hidden

When I started KISS WP Websites I was given advice that made sense at the time. Productise the business. Make it sound bigger than it is. Build something that could one day be sold — and to sell a business, it needs to be separable from the person running it.

So I built a business name. I built a brand around that name. And Karen Leslie quietly stepped behind it.

There were plans too — programs, standardised WordPress handovers, training products that would run without me. But life had other ideas. My personal circumstances changed. My goals changed. And the business that was supposed to be bigger than me started to feel like it didn't quite fit me anymore.

What Hiding Actually Feels Like

Hiding is safer. That much is true.

When there's distance between you and your business name, there's less exposure. Less vulnerability. If someone criticises KISS WP Websites, it doesn't feel quite as personal as if they criticise Karen Leslie.

But here's what I've learned — and what I probably knew all along if I'm honest with myself. Mine is a connection business. I connect with my clients. I connect with their businesses. I care about making their websites work for them as real human beings with real goals.

You can't build genuine connection from behind a business name.

The Woman in the Mirror

2014 was a hard year. Over Christmas my Dad had a major heart attack. And somewhere in the middle of all of that difficulty I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror — grey haired, joyless, a version of myself I barely recognised.

I dyed my hair pink.

It sounds like a small thing. It wasn't. It made me smile. It made other people smile. It was the first step in a long, slow journey back to being visibly, unapologetically myself.

My hair has been purple for years now. People assume I'm an extrovert because of it. I'm not — at least not all the time. But the hair was never really about being extroverted. It was about choosing joy. Choosing to be seen.

It took me a while to realise that my website hadn't caught up with that decision.

People Didn't Really Know Me

That's the thing I keep coming back to. People didn't really know me. They knew KISS WP Websites. They knew the WordPress Fairy Godmother. But Karen Leslie — biracial, purple haired, half Jamaican, half English, introvert who loves connecting with people, woman who has quietly grieved her parents without saying a word publicly — that person wasn't really on the website.

And she should be.

Because the business women I work with don't just need a WordPress expert. They need someone they can trust. Someone who is genuinely on their side. Someone real.

You can't get that from a business name alone.

So Here's What's Changing

I'm rebuilding my branding and my website. Not just the design — the whole story. Karen Leslie, front and centre. My name. My face. My voice. My actual self.

Will it feel vulnerable? Absolutely. It already does and it's not even live yet.

Am I working through it rather than having it all figured out? Yes, one bit at a time. 

But I've learned something important from 16+ years of working with business women on their websites. A website is never perfect. It's never finished. It evolves as you evolve.

I've been evolving for years. My branding, website and business are finally catching up.

I was going to set a hard launch date — June 24th, my late Mum's birthday, which felt meaningful and right. And it still is meaningful. But I've decided to do a soft launch instead, when it's ready and not a moment before. Because the most important thing isn't the date. It's that when it goes live, it shows who I am.

No more hiding.

Just me, Karen Leslie. All of me.