NewLeaf had no digital presence at all: no website, no booking system, no social accounts. Everything needed to be built and launched together, coordinated across a remote team with a US-based client, starting from nothing.
Overview
NewLeaf Wellness is a US-based wellness company that needed to build its entire digital presence from scratch. The brief covered everything: a public website, a booking system that could manage practitioners and handle patient appointments end to end, and a social media presence ready to go at launch.
I came in as the project manager and coordinated the full execution. My role was not to write the code but to own the brief, manage the relationship with the client, keep the build on track, and handle the non-technical pieces the development work depended on: content decisions, design direction, social media setup, and marketing assets.
The result was a live WordPress website, a working appointment booking portal integrated with their practitioner management workflow, active social media accounts set up and branded, and a library of marketing materials ready for use at launch.
My Role
Managed the end-to-end project: scope definition, timeline, client communication, and delivery coordination across a distributed team
Handled all client-facing meetings: translated requirements into clear briefs, managed revision rounds, and kept stakeholder expectations aligned throughout
Coordinated the WordPress website build: content structure, page hierarchy, copy decisions, and go-live checklist
Managed integration of the booking portal: practitioner setup, scheduling logic, patient-facing flow, and confirmation messaging
Set up and branded social media accounts across relevant platforms for the launch
Oversaw production of marketing materials including fliers and promotional assets used in the initial outreach campaign
Acted as the single point of contact between the client and the technical team throughout the project
Stakeholders
NewLeaf Wellness client team (US-based)
Practitioners (scheduling and availability stakeholders)
WordPress developer
Booking portal technical team
Key Decisions
WordPress as the website foundation
NewLeaf needed a site that non-technical team members could update themselves after launch without depending on a developer. WordPress gave them a familiar admin interface for page editing and blog posts, reducing the ongoing operational dependency on external support.
Booking portal integrated with practitioner management
A generic booking plugin would have required the client to manually coordinate practitioner availability. The portal was set up to manage practitioners as first-class entities: each practitioner has their own schedule, and patients book directly against a specific practitioner.
Social setup as part of the launch scope, not an afterthought
Accounts were set up, branded, and ready to post before the website launched, so the company had a consistent presence across channels from day one.
Challenges
Coordinating across a distributed team with a US-based client
The client was in the US and the execution team was not. Managing the time zone gap meant being deliberate about when meetings happened, keeping written briefs tight enough that the team could act on them without waiting for a call, and batching feedback rounds to avoid constant back-and-forth.
Getting practitioner availability information before the portal could go live
The booking portal could not be configured until the client had confirmed which practitioners were active, what their schedules looked like, and what service types each offered. That information came in pieces and not always on time.
Discovery
The client was referred through an existing agency relationship. The initial brief was a straightforward website. But in the first scoping call it became clear they had no booking infrastructure at all: practitioners were managing appointments manually, through phone calls and text messages. The scope expanded in that first conversation to include the booking portal, because a public website without a working operational backend would have created a marketing surface that connected to nothing.
Stakeholder Friction
The main friction point was around the booking system integration. The client had an existing practice management portal they were already using for client bookings in the US, and the expectation was that the new website would connect to it directly. Getting clear alignment on which system was the source of truth for pricing and availability required a specific decision meeting before the build could move forward.
Outcomes
Full digital presence live in 6 weeks
Website, booking portal, branded social accounts, and marketing materials all launched together within 6 weeks of kickoff. The client went from zero digital presence to a complete, consistent presence across every channel simultaneously.
40+ appointments booked in the first month
The booking portal was in active use immediately after launch, with over 40 appointments booked in the first month. Practitioner count grew from 1 at launch to 3 within the first two months.
Client independent and expanding post-launch
The client team added new practitioners and updated the site themselves without returning to the development team.
Technology Decisions
WordPressCustom Booking PortalSocial Media SetupMarketing Asset Design
What I'd Change
I would have brought the practitioners into the requirements process earlier. The booking portal was specced based on the client's description of how scheduling worked. The practitioners, who were the ones whose time was actually being managed, had specific preferences around how their availability was surfaced to patients that did not come out until the first demo.