Every technology project has a moment where you realize it’s time for a reset. For me, that moment came when I changed my site’s SSL certificate—an update that should have been routine, but it caused some conflicts since I had multiple sites (non-client) running from one hosted instance. Cost-effective for myself but NOT ideal.
What started as a quick maintenance task turned into a full-blown rebuild. And honestly? I’m glad it did.
When an SSL Update Breaks Everything
If you’ve ever swapped out an SSL certificate, you know they tell you it’s straightforward: update the key, verify the domain, confirm the install. Except when it isn’t.
After the change, I suddenly couldn’t log into the CMS. The admin dashboard rejected every attempt, and troubleshooting turned into a rabbit hole of expired tokens, cached redirects, and configuration mismatches. The site was technically online, but I couldn’t update anything.
As frustrating as it was, it sparked a question I’d been avoiding:
Was it time to refresh the entire website anyway?
Choosing a Full Site Rebuild vs a Refresh
I had a full backup. I could have restored the site exactly as it had been. But I realized that my online presence needed to reflect the evolution of my work—especially given how quickly AI, product leadership, and digital transformation are reshaping the industries I work in.
Instead of just restoring the old build, I decided to rebuild from the ground up.
Moving to a New Foundation: ConsultWP Theme
To accelerate the rebuild, I moved to a modern, flexible WordPress template: ConsultWP. It strikes a balance between clean design and customization options, and includes many of the elements I needed without heavy coding. My old website was more like a visual page layout of my resume and an executive profile.
You can check out the template here:
https://themegrove.com/products/consultingwp/ConsultWP WordPress Theme
The new foundation also gives me more freedom to structure content around the themes that matter most in my current work.
*NEW* Blog/Posts as a personal goal
Once the Consulting Pages are finished, going-forward, my focus will be creating posts centered around things I encounter every week in my real-world work, my observations working in various industries, the people I’ve come across, and some life lessons:
“Explore weekly insights drawn from my real-world experiences in AI, product leadership, and digital transformation. Each article delivers practical lessons, industry perspectives, and stories from a career spent building enterprise-scale innovation.”
This rebuild isn’t just a technical update—it’s a creative reset. A chance to share more openly about what I’m learning, what I’m building, and how organizations can move faster and smarter in a world reshaped by AI.
Please excuse some of the unfinished content pages as I’m working on these new changes and formats.