about
Website Alchemy is a husband and wife team, John Leonard and Serena Star-Leonard.
Together, we travelled the world for 8 years, focusing on community projects and caring for our clients remotely. Now, we are based in a quiet part of beautiful New Zealand, where we enjoy the adventure of raising our tiny human.
We are passionate about online business; the technology is ever-changing; the language evolving and style is a combination of crucial factors... it is a constant learning curve!
Despite that, we pride ourselves on giving our clients a website that is more than just a pretty face!
It must work for your business and it must feel like home.
8 reasons why
we should design your website...
We provide a depth of service.
We can help you with design and development, writing and formatting, SEO, digital publishing, E-learning platforms, email marketing, website strategy, skills training, backups and security, video production, and more... just ask!
We are both best selling authors.
published through Penguin and John Wiley and Sons. We have both enjoyed exciting book journeys through traditional publishing and have assisted a number of clients through the technical aspects of independent publishing.
We are friendly, knowledgeable & reliable
and have a depth of skills in website production, community building, and marketing.
We have experienced success
through our own websites and many wonderful, life-changing opportunities from our work online.
We are compassionate, loving people who want to make a difference in the world.
We can teach you how...
to manage your website and grow your community. Our one-on-one training will ensure you feel supported and confident to expand your offerings online.
We are all-rounders.
We have a solid understanding of most facets of building communities online and will build you a website that not only looks great but is designed to be genuinely useful to your business for the long term. We will help you understand how marketing works so that you can think of future based strategies.
Although we do keep abreast of advancements in technology, we have found that focusing on best-practice fundamentals will give your website a sturdy foundation upon which to grow.
We are patient and explain what we are doing and why!
We are used to working with people who have little or no technical knowledge. We will look after things that you haven't even considered and we will help you feel confident to put yourself out there.
introductions
serena star-leonard
Serena Star-Leonard is a renaissance woman. A social entrepreneur, business coach, writer, and the best-selling author of two books, Serena has big ideas and the passion and drive to bring them to fruition. She has founded or contributed to dozens of projects from music festivals to web communities to social enterprises.
Serena has taught hundreds of business owners how to produce their own website in her popular Website Launchpad courses and with her first book: How to Retire in 12 Months. Together with John, she has travelled for over 8 years through 35 countries collecting stories for their project Five Point Five.
She is creative, intuitive, and passionate about client outcomes. She has a gift for capturing the essence of a business and communicating that in website form and works tirelessly to ensure clients are thrilled with their new home online.
Offline, her current obsessions include being a great mum, making time for art, planning a mini food forest and wellness centre and embracing our small-town community in Ruakākā, Northland, New Zealand.
john leonard
John Leonard is a proud Dad, happy husband and all-round grafter. He is a writer at heart but loves the technical aspect of website building. He loves to fix things. He loves providing security. He is most happy (in a business sense) when providing no-nonsense clarity to our website clients.
A former Dublin GAA player and the award-winning author of Dub Sub Confidential (Setanta Sports Book of the Year 2015). John looks after the installation, security and development of the websites we build.
He is also a creative storyteller and handles the filming, editing and production of all video projects for Website Alchemy and Five Point Five.
He is a real people person and has over 10 years experience working & managing in the hospitality industry. He makes a delicious cocktail and loves nothing better than seeing people enjoying their nights out.
He enjoys working with Serena to provide an all-around, personable service to our much-loved and valuable clients.
He loves to spend time with his 7-year-old son and can be seen tramping through parks, forests, beaches and other awesome wilds of New Zealand.
catarina carvalho
Cat is a Portuguese web and graphic designer who joined the team in 2018. With a high sense of aesthetics and functionality, we have trained her to design the most beautiful and practical websites since then.
She has a degree in Art and Design and more than 15 years of experience in graphic design. Her first job was with a local children’s book publisher and at the same time, she was designing wedding stationery as a side hustle. 7 years later she felt stuck in her career and became curious about the nomad lifestyle and remote work. That curiosity brought her to meet us back in 2018.
Today, she loves creating meaningful branding and websites that are both beautiful and functional, tailored to each client’s taste and needs.
Outside work, she is a nature and animal lover, the owner of 3 cats and a van that takes her to the most amazing places where she climbs mountains and forages for mushrooms as a hobby.
ARE WE YOUR PEOPLE?
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