My background

I work for a company called Skylark Camps. It’s the third nonprofit startup from one founder who decided to take a kind of business function, so we really operate like a business but with a nonprofit, and to really do good in the world. This is his third iteration of that. The first one is called Apartment Life. The second one is called Lionheart Children’s Academy. And the third one now is Skylark Camps.

We partner with local churches, so there’s a religious element, but really, one of the primary goals is to give kids a safe place during the summer for working families that’s affordable and cares about the child. I came to the team about two years ago. It’s a lean startup. There were probably about four really true full-timers, and I was tasked with overhauling their whole communication strategy.

My challenge

To support the growth of a lean startup and deliver better outcomes for families and clients, I needed to:

  • Overhaul our vendor setup: We had one vendor where we were really low on their totem pole. We ended that relationship and replaced it with three to four specialty vendors, but this still left significant gaps in what a full company should offer.

  • Fill the remaining gaps myself: With limited internal resources, I realized that I had to personally fill many of those gaps in our capabilities.

  • Upskill effectively and affordably: I needed a practical, thorough resource for learning that wasn’t trying to upsell me or push bloated content. Most platforms I found were too product-driven, unstructured, or full of fluff.

  • Equip my team with relevant knowledge: I was looking for something that could help not just me, but my whole team grow, without wasting time on bad YouTube tutorials or generic content.

  • Modernize our communication strategy: Historically, our outreach relied on door-to-door and phone calls. As we scaled, I had to lead a shift toward more effective digital communication, especially through email and web.

Finding my solution

I knew that I needed to find a platform or an app that could help me acquire the new skills I need in the shortest amount of time. I’ve used Medium, ChatGPT, Udemy, Google, and YouTube, and nothing was helpful and specific enough.

Uxcel was the most clear, the most practical resource, and really helpful for day-to-day. It was answering questions I didn’t even know existed. It was really just thorough and had me thinking in a lens of user experience that was brand new to me. The human element of Uxcel was so obvious. You guys did the work ahead of time. It allowed me and my team to just glide.

Uxcel stood out to me in two areas, particularly. The first was obvious: when I wanted to learn something, I just went through the course at Uxcel. And not only the whole course, but whenever I needed something specific, I could find it at Uxcel. Almost like a better Google!

The second part was helping us with our digital marketing strategy. Historically, we were really reliant on things like door-to-door or just picking up the phone and calling. But this idea of trying to scale with size meant we gotta go more digital.

Uxcel provided invaluable resources to me and to my team as we were thinking through how to make compelling emails. When we overhauled our website, I worked with an agency, and that’s where Uxcel was one of the most helpful. I was able to acquire the language needed to be able to say, “Hey, what if we change the UI component right here? This isn’t compliant.” It really did play such a big role.

The effect on my career

The way I use Uxcel depends on the season and what’s going on. When we were overhauling things, I’d sit down for an hour and take the course on email. Now, I want to continue to grow. I’ve been putting it on my calendar to sit down for an hour. I watched the webinar Uxcel co-founders did, it was fantastic.

Once you’re in, you’re in. Uxcel is not trying to upsell you. It’s a flat rate. They have nailed down their specific audience. After overhauling our website, our digital conversion rate went through the roof. The agency did great work, but also I was also able to speak the language because of the upskilling from Uxcel.

We’re now combining the second two nonprofits. My role is pivoting to being the marketing director of the Children’s Academy as well. The website’s pretty rough, and basically, they said, “What you did for Skylark, we want you to do here as well.” A lot of the skills that I’ll be continuing to learn will be implemented there, too.

Advice to other professionals

I think Uxcel is the resource that keeps me up to date with best practices, allowing us to correct what we did wrong before I got here or that I’ve done wrong, while also allowing us to diagnose what needs to happen in the future.

It’s kind of both: it says, here’s the standard, either get to the standard or change what you did to get to the standard. It’s an expansive learning platform. It has the pieces of a blog where I can read through things. It has the benefits of a Quizlet, with flashcard-style questions to track progress. The notes feature is great, being able to take practical notes, bookmark things, and reference specific pages.

I keep it bookmarked on my homepage. My goal is to either start my day or end my day with a lesson, just to make sure I’m staying relevant. I’m a big fan of everything you guys are doing. I’m in your corner.