Episode 38: Small Steps, Strong Roots: The Long Game of Entrepreneurship

In this heartfelt and inspiring episode, Jennifer Kok sits down with Rebecca, the founder of a successful web design studio in West Michigan. From building websites for her dad’s agricultural business to launching her own creative agency, Rebecca shares her 20+ year entrepreneurial journey rooted in curiosity, faith, family, and community. Listeners will hear how she grew her business intentionally—without rushing—and how she balanced motherhood with meaningful work. Rebecca’s story is a powerful reminder that slow, purposeful growth creates lasting success.

Whether you’re in the early stages of business or navigating growth alongside life’s other responsibilities, this episode offers encouragement, wisdom, and practical advice from someone who’s walked the walk.

✨ Top 5 Things Listeners Will Learn:

1. How to grow a business at your own pace – Why Rebecca intentionally “contained” her growth and how that decision led to long-term sustainability.
   
   
2. The power of saying “yes” to learning new things – How a single book and a curiosity to figure things out sparked an entire business.
   
   
3. Balancing family and entrepreneurship – Real talk about nap-time hustle, late nights, and prioritizing kids while building a business.
   
   
4. Why slow growth can be smart growth – The value of building strong foundations before scaling.
   
   
5. The impact of believing in someone’s dream – How a simple gift of a computer from loved ones became a symbol of support and belief.
   
   

Meet our Guest: 

Rebecca VandenBerg,
Since founding VanDenBerg Web + Creative in 1999, Rebecca VanDenBerg has helped hundreds of businesses look great online. With over twenty-three years’ experience, she combines web development expertise with design savvy to build websites that capture attention and convert to sales.

 Rebecca credits her “just figure it out” farm upbringing for her strong work ethic and resourcefulness. Whether designing sites for farmers, bakers, contractors, or veterinarians, Rebecca finds creative solutions for their online marketing needs. She brings clarity, organization, and results to each website project, freeing business owners to do what they do best: run their businesses.

http://www.rebeccavandenberg.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/builtbyrvws/

About the Host: 

Jennifer Kok has been a business owner for over 25 years and now is a business coach.

She turned her first business into a franchise and successfully sold it 20 years later.  She was passionate about building a business and a family at the same time.

And if you’re ready to go beyond visibility and truly grow your business, I invite you to check out the Earn More Stress Less Growth System. It’s designed to help creative business owners like you increase revenue, improve profits, and finally pay yourself more—without burning out.

You have three options to join, depending on where you're at in your journey—and all of them are built around real-world strategies that work.

3 Keys to Growing a Profitable Business Free Masterclass Replay
And how to fix them so their business can actually support their life

Curious about the Earn More…Stress Less Program?
 Here’s the breakdown:
 💻 Learn more: Program Info
🎧 Prefer to listen? Podcast episode here
📞 Want to talk it through? Book a call

Transcript

Jennifer Kok (00:02.614)

Rebecca, so good to have you here today. I'm doing great. How are you?

Rebecca (00:05.635)

Hi Jennifer, how are ya?

Good. Good.

Jennifer Kok (00:10.71)

As you mentioned, you're getting ready to on vacation in a little bit, so that's always fun, something fun to look forward to.

Rebecca (00:15.861)

It is. It's always good to have something to look forward to. 100%.

Jennifer Kok (00:19.663)

Exactly. So Rebecca, you own your own web and creative agency. Tell us a little bit about your business and what you do.

Rebecca (00:27.085)

Sure. We've been here in Granville for probably 20 plus years. I started the business out of my home. We are a website design studio is kind of like how I like to contain it. don't, we're not what we call full stack agencies. We don't compete with the big agencies in downtown, but we are a specialist. We do WordPress websites. We do Shopify websites and we do all the things that come with it. Marketing strategy, SEO, e-commerce.

anything you can think of, you dream it, we can build it. And we love working with businesses here in West Michigan, helping them find direction when they don't have it, coming up with ideas I hadn't thought of, and making their website their marketing hub, and really getting the most out of their investment there.

Jennifer Kok (01:16.014)

Wow, that sounds like quite a service that you offer. So take us back 20 plus years. I guess I didn't realize that you've been in business that long. What were you doing before you started your business?

Rebecca (01:24.386)

Yeah.

Rebecca (01:27.735)

Well, I did graphic design. So I kind of did some print work and graphic design work either in college or kind of as a little job. That was my...

entry into web design when I when I got first exposed when I was first exposed to it, I was actually Someone handed me a book. I'm like, can you figure out how to do this? And that was right up my alley. I love like figuring things out So I kind of found all the pieces right the domain name the hosting and then the file like it all just kind of I figured all the little pieces out and then I was like

light bulb went off. All my families have businesses. They were in the agriculture space and I immediately knew I needed to build a website for my dad's business and it just snowballed from there. I built websites for businesses in our ag space that all the people already knew and it was like...

It was just a light bulb moment. It's the best way I can describe it. Like once I figured it out, I was like, this is awesome. And it was when the internet was getting going. So 1999 was when I first discovered it. So it was relatively new. all, nobody knew what we're getting into.

Jennifer Kok (02:46.414)

I have to ask, did your dad look at you and say, why do I need a website? I I could just picture back in 1999, we probably didn't really feel like we needed it.

Rebecca (02:55.787)

Yes, in fact, I, he thought it was cool, but he was sort of an early adopter, but not really. Growing up, my dad convinced my cousin, who was an engineer for General Motors, to bring us a computer, and it had like word perfect.

Lotus, I don't know what else. he wasn't afraid to try things. even though he wasn't the one using it, I got exposed to those things early on. So early adopter, he was one of the first guys I remember having one of those cell phones in your truck, because we hauled cattle around, we delivered cattle. And so it was in this giant zipper bag and it was the thing. So he wasn't afraid to try new things, let's put it that way. But in general, the Ag community were

some of those folks were later adopters. But also in the ag space you have people with technology where some of them were more early adopters. So it just depended on the personality. But it wasn't an easy sell at all.

Jennifer Kok (03:59.49)

No, I can imagine that it wouldn't be, especially because like you said, that audience probably doesn't see the need. And you know, this is before e-commerce and all of those things were so rel, know, prevalent like they are today. Okay. So you start this business because it sounds like problem solving was really what drove you and it's perfect for that. Has it, was it all roses? Like, did we just slowly kind of just continue to grow every year and things got smoother and things got a little bit bigger?

Jennifer Kok (04:44.672)

Yes, we do.

Jennifer Kok (05:56.462)

Aww.

Jennifer Kok (08:12.809)

my gosh.

Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. And there was a couple of things that really stood out to me. First of all, that gift of that computer from your in-laws, your parents, your husband, that was so, like you said, so much more than just a tangible gift. Here's a tool that you need to grow your business. That was a I believe in you gift. And that to me is just so priceless. mean, that makes me tear up.

Well, me too, because there's just so much to that. as business owners out there grinding it, and when someone comes alongside you and isn't asking you how much money are you making, how much are you going to make, it's just more like, here you go. I see that you have a passion for this. That is just so beautiful. And then I thought it was interesting how you said, obviously you were putting your family first and your children first.

And so you were doing this at night and I can just picture you as a mom, because a lot of us have been there, especially those that are building a business and a family at the same time, where you're trying to do it all. You're doing the laundry, doing the pickup, working with the kids and then nap time, we're pulling out the computer at night, we're pulling out the computer. And like you said, how did you find customers? And they just kind of found you.

Jennifer Kok (10:40.734)

Have fun. What a full circle moment for you.

Jennifer Kok (11:24.206)

Yeah.

Jennifer Kok (11:39.884)

Right, and that's still, that's a great piece of advice for anybody today, whether you're working your business full-time or not, is just network and authentically where you are. Like you said, you are not trying to be salesy, you are just out doing your job and people would ask questions and you would probably just answer them and there you go, you know, a relationship is formed.

Jennifer Kok (12:06.988)

Right. that's fun. So one of the things I think is really powerful about your story is how you kind of, like you said, contained your growth, because you couldn't grow too fast too soon. And I feel like there's this internal pressure on business owners, especially today. And maybe that's because we are just inundated with so many social media messages and all these success stories. And we only see the good side of anything, right, out there.

And so, know, what really struck me with that is, you know, you were containing your growth on purpose and I have seen businesses that grow really fast and burn out and end up not surviving long-term. And obviously you've survived 20 years, you you're going on 20 years. Were there ever a time, did you ever feel frustrated with that? You know, and.

You know, it's like I look back at me growing my first business and I had three kids at home and you know, there's this pull sometimes, a little bit of what I called mom guilt or business guilt. You know, I felt guilty if I wasn't working my business. I felt guilty if I wasn't at home doing what I wanted to do with my children. And it can be this internal conflict that we have with ourselves. Did you ever feel or how did you manage that?

Jennifer Kok (14:09.038)

In ways that we weren't expecting,

Jennifer Kok (14:55.811)

Okay.

Jennifer Kok (16:08.642)

Yeah, and you know, everything you said, you were just so like building roots. You were building really strong pillars, roots, foundation, whatever we want to call it, that you could continue to build on. So your business kind of evolved as you evolved, which I love, and as your family evolved.

So now your kids are a little bit older and your business is now you rent an office space, correct? You're not in your home anymore? Okay. And.

Jennifer Kok (16:54.188)

No, I just think that I just love your story. It's so powerful. So now let's talk a little bit about marketing. I feel like we've learned a lot about a really smart way to grow a business. And I just really appreciate your patience with it. You know, I think a lot of times we're so eager to keep, to grow and to get bigger. And you really just were.

You really felt at peace. And I know that was God's hand in it, that you were right where you, like you said, supposed to be. And you just took one step, one step, did one little thing at a time, which is just such a valuable lesson for anybody listening. You know, that our expectations, it's a long game.