I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I never learned how to ice skate. I’m 28 years old, and I would quite literally start crying if you put skates on my feet and pushed me out onto a rink. Even if you gave me one of those push carts meant for toddlers.

I have a fear of falling, and skating looks slippery as all hell, so I’ve willingly avoided it for almost 3 decades, despite growing up in Massachusetts and spending almost 2 years living in Quebec (aka a literal winter wonderland).

Now, even though I can’t skate—and actively do not skate—that doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could skate. I desperately want to glide over the smooth ice, with the wind in my hair, looking effortlessly beautiful.

But we can’t all be Ashley Wagner.

Writing her business’s website copy is about as close as I’ll ever get. And you know what? I’m pretty damn happy about that.

(By the way, yes. THE Ashley Wagner is the subject of this Portfolio Piece. You know, the famous Olympian?! Winner of the World Silver? 3-time US National figure skating champion?! YEAH.)

⭐️ CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE WEBSITE WALKTHROUGH VIDEO! ⭐️

The Client

Picture this: it’s peak COVID season, and you’re sitting on the couch with your two best friends, bored out of your minds, reminiscing on the good old days. 

You start to talk about how much you miss the old-school power skating classes you used to take, and getting up at the crack of dawn for early morning stroking sessions, and constantly explaining that, no, you could not do a Triple Axel, and trying your hardest to rest a mitten on your nice, lifted back-side without it falling off.

And then it hits you: you miss figure skating so f***ing bad. 

Meet Ashley Wagner—World Silver medalist, 2014 Olympic Bronze medalist, 3X US National Champ, Tragic Taurus, and retired skater addicted to the feeling of ice under her blades (and watching women fight on the bachelor, but that’s beside the point). 

When she retired from figure skating in 2018, she’d never been so burnt out, or, frankly, over it. Having competed on the international stage at the senior level for more than a decade, the sport had become just a job to her, and she’d lost her passion for the ice. 

Deep down, though, she still had so much love for skating… but she would go back into the sessions she used to train on and feel like she was just in the way.

She wanted to get back onto the ice—a space she had always belonged in—but she didn’t feel like there was a place for her anymore.

Actually, let’s be real. There wasn’t a place for her anymore. 

Which is why she founded Skate & Sculpt (her brother wouldn’t let her name it Boots and Glutes, which she’s low-key thankful for)—to help all the other retirees out there ditch that ‘I don’t belong’ feeling for good. 

Skate & Sculpt is her way of taking the best parts of skating, and creating a space for athletes just like herself—and athletes unlike herself!—who want to get back into skating, take up their space on the ice, and get a kickass workout in.

The Brand

Founded by Olympic Bronze medalist and retired figure skater Ashley Wagner after a candid conversation with friends who also desperately missed the energy of it all, Skate & Sculpt was born to bring back belonging to adult figure skaters who felt like they’d lost their space on the ice. 

Sick of dodging babies doing double axels and trying to keep out of the way of run-throughs, Ashley knew there had to be a better way to preserve her passion for skating—and she found herself craving a clean sheet of ice and some glorious edges.

SO SHE GOT TO WORK AND CREATED THAT SPACE. Enter: Skate & Sculpt—because skating shouldn’t end after retirement, and retired skaters shouldn’t have to feel like they don’t belong.

Skate & Sculpt is the only figure skating fitness class made for adult skaters, designed for people who want to get their butts back on the ice.

And how awesome is that? Think about playing a sport growing up, falling in love with it, and spending all of your time getting good at it + enjoying it with your community…

…then never being able to play it again.

Skating isn’t like soccer, or basketball, or swimming, or tennis—you can’t just pick it up and play for fun. You need ice time. That’s not exactly readily available. And even if it were, it would likely be ridden with teeny boppers on middle school dates, families teaching kids to skate, and wannabe hockey boys zooming past you.

Retired skaters, you finally have a place to enjoy your sport again, thanks to Skate & Sculpt.

The Deliverables

We worked together to upgrade Skate & Sculpt’s website copy, to elevate the reader experience and speak to their pain points / desires more. Ashley wanted her readers to immediately understand that she was carving out a space for them—both on the ice, and on the Internet.

We also collaborated on a new email welcome sequence for Skate & Sculpt, so readers that wanted to continue interacting with and learning more about the brand could subscribe to their newsletter and be greeted with more (engaging!) info about the cultiest workout class on ice.

[Side note: click here for the details about my website copywriting services / click here for the details about my email marketing VIP week!]

The Project

The Skate & Sculpt project is SO near and dear to my heart for many reasons. Some personal, some professional. Obviously, I’m going to tell you all of them.

#1 – Ashley was referred to me by my literal queen, Sarah Fennel. You may know her as Broma Bakery. As in: the Internet’s best baking blogger, inventor of the brown butter pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies that have my family + friends thinking I’m Betty Crocker.

Ever since one of my clients listed Broma as a “I want my brand to be this when it grows up” response on my questionnaire 3 years ago, I’ve been OBSESSED with her + everything she creates.

So, naturally, when I saw Sarah referred Ashley to me… I fainted. Broma Bakery knows who I am?! I’m still fangirling and this happened six months ago.

#2 – The brand is so fucking COOL. Like, you can’t tell me you’ve ever seen anything like this before. Workout classes on ice? Genius. Giving retired figure skaters a sense of belonging? Even more genius.

#3 – Ashley was one of my favorite clients I worked with in 2022. From the second we got on the discovery call, I knew we were meant to be—that instant *click* is always what I look for when I’m chatting with a potential new client, and Ashley & I clicked so much so that I would drive to her house right now to hang out with her if she asked.

#4 – I accidentally made one of my best friends through this project. If you know me at all, you know that this is the literal most ‘me’ thing EVER.

When we had our kickoff call over the summer, Ashley was on Nantucket (jealous!) and briefly lost Internet. I was sitting on the Zoom with her employee, Kim, awkwardly waiting to see whether or not Ashley would be able to come back, when Kim asked me a question about my life.

Because I’m physically incapable of giving a casual, small-talk-y answer, I told her the Long Story Long version about my entire existence on this Earth (basically) and she responded with lots of questions, resulting in even more not-at-all-necessary-to-tell-a-stranger details.

(I later learned that there’s nothing Kim loves more than a deep dive. Into literally any topic ever. I can practically hear her now: “let’s unpack this.”)

Once we’d been talking for 15 minutes, and it was clear Ashley wasn’t coming back, Kim told me that her life story was pretty damn similar to mine.

“Do you want to be best friends?” she asked.

“Sure!” I said. Then we exchanged numbers, and haven’t stopped talking since.

Now, Kim is one of my best friends, and I genuinely could not imagine my life without her. I love you, Kim! Thank you for entertaining me daily, babysitting my child, spending hours upon hours analyzing every situation we’ve ever encountered, and being such a fiercely loyal friend.

The Target Audience

If you’ve made it this far into the blog post, you already know who the target audience is: retired figure skaters, or anyone who wants a bomb workout on ice.

So, instead of telling you more details about the ‘who’ – I’m going to share how we convert them from readers to buyers—aka how we appeal to them, make them feel at home, and encourage them that Skate & Sculpt was made for them.

The first way, of course, is to straight up tell them that S&S was made for them:

The second way is to make sure they know that they belong:

The third way is to paint the picture of how they’re feeling right now, and reassure them that we feel the same & we understand what they’re going through:

& those are just a few examples.

Make sure you watch the video at the beginning of the blog post OR head to skateandsculpt.com to read the copy + see how we put the reader’s experience first, and spent the entire website relating to their feelings about not being able to skate anywhere anymore & providing them with a solution.

The Best Parts

My favorite part of the copy for this project was 100% the brand voice.

I love writing copy in all different tones—professional and assertive for the dating and image consultant for men in midlife, reassuring and knowledgeable yet casual for the CPA for bloggers, bold and clear for the custom event production company—but, I won’t lie: I freaking thrive when we get to be irreverent, direct, cheeky, polarizing, and FUN.

Their tagline is literally “let’s f*cking skate.”

(I’m waiting for them to put that on their next merch drop—Kim? Ashley? Can you make it happen? I don’t even skate, but I’ll buy two.)

Writing in the Skate & Sculpt voice felt so natural because it’s so close to Ashley’s voice, and Ashley’s so easy to get along with, relatable, and fun – but she still knows what the hell she wants. And I think that’s the perfect way to describe the tone of Skate & Sculpt.

The Review

“Sara is the best and never does anything wrong. We love her because she’s funny—like us—but mostly because she understood the brand, and was able to give it an authentic voice. If you’re thinking about working with a website copywriter, you should absolutely hire Sara. She is a master at SEO, and her copy is practically guaranteed to help you convert leads into business.” —The Skate & Sculpt Team

[Kim would like me to share that prior to working with me, they were depressed. Now, they are no longer depressed. Hire me for serotonin.]

The Acknowledgements

I’m so sad to see this project come to an end, because I want to make up 100 more reasons to work with Ashley and Kim—and my good friend Wilda, who designed the site!—but I’m also ridiculously excited to finally be able to show you just how fucking cool Skate & Sculpt is.

I can’t wait for you to check it out!

And, if you do, and you decide that you need a drool-worthy website copy project of your own, click here to learn more about my 1:1 copywriting services!

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If we haven’t had the chance to *virtually* meet yet, hi! I’m Sara Noel—website copywriter and marketing mentor for creatives, copywriters, and all-around cool people. If you like my content and you want even more BTL in your life, here are a few ways you can connect with me:

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