Introduction
Kevin Watkins is the Founder and Creative Director of Farewell, a web design and development agency based in Bend, Oregon, specializing in nonprofit, outdoor recreation, and sustainability organizations. In this episode of Pathmonk Presents, Kevin shares how Farewell helps organizations modernize outdated websites, reduce user friction, and empower lean marketing teams to do more with less.
The conversation dives into Webflow’s growing role as a flexible alternative to WordPress, the importance of seamless user journeys for member-based organizations, and why referrals and reputation still outperform most acquisition channels. Kevin also discusses adapting to changing SEO dynamics, embracing paid traffic optimization, and using emerging tools to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive web landscape
Kevin: Hey everybody. Welcome back to Pathmonk Presents. Pathmonk is the AI for website conversions. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition Online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments with relevant micro experiences like case studies. Intro videos and much more. Stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50%. by, by adding Pathmonk to your website in seconds. Letting the artificial intelligence do all the work and increase conversions while you keep doing marketing as usual, check us out on Pathmonk.com. Hey everybody. Welcome back to Pathmonk Presents. We’re really looking forward to today’s conversation because we’ve got Kevin Watkins, the founder and creative director over at Farewell. Kevin, how you doing today? I’m
Kevin Watkins: doing good. How are you?
Kevin: Doing quite well. Thanks for asking. So we’re really looking forward to chatting about your agency, all the different types of work you guys do for your clients, and really getting into the nuts and bolts about everything that you guys provide over there. But before we do, so why don’t you give our audience just a little bit of a, wider statement about who you guys are and who you support.
Kevin Watkins: Yeah, so we are a, website agency over in Bend, Oregon, in the United States. And, we both create, manage, and grow websites for a variety of clients. but mostly these days we’re working in the kind of outdoor rec, and sustainability, fields. so yeah, that’s been. Both rewarding, and fun and yeah, just staying doing our best to, keep our clients ahead of the digital curve as it’s awesome. Pretty fast.
Kevin: Yeah, it definitely is. Every single day I feel like I’m seeing some sort of update. why don’t you give our audience a little bit of a background about, what sort of specific services do you guys offer to your clients? And you also mentioned you work in some specific verticals. Why don’t you talk a little bit about those verticals and the services that you’re providing.
Kevin Watkins: Yeah, so at the core of it all, it’s website design, which is a catchall term for much more than design. so it’s design development, copywriting, SEO strategy, integrating third party tools. So with the, organizations we work with, if they have a membership base, we’ll help them set up the member login and member management tools. yeah, a lot goes into it. and yeah, we initially started out as like a WordPress development agency and, in 2020 we shifted to web flow. so we’re now a web flow partner and create web flow websites. And yeah. At this point we’re also looking into, creating. More web apps as we grow, and the technology just allows us to do more with less. yeah, more.
Kevin: Awesome. I, have been seeing that more and more websites have been moving towards Webflow. It seems to be gaining a little bit more popularity. Like for such a long time it seemed like WordPress was like the go-to, number one lead generation type, content management system out there. What have you seen in terms of, Webflow gaining more popularity recently?
Kevin Watkins: it’s been around for 12 years, so it’s a, a mature in the terms of the web world company. Yes. but yeah, just WordPress, it’s been around for a long time and it’s, always gonna hold a, big market share, just being, what people built on, when the web, was getting going and, I think Webflow and kind of other competitors even are, starting to take chunks of that market. And, yeah, we really like Webflow because it’s both secure and fast and yeah, it’s less code. And also they’re just rolling out crazy new features like every week. where I think WordPress is now, it’s a bigger ship, too. Steer. So it’s a little harder for them to maybe, keep up. so yeah, just like they just release translation services so you can translate a whole site into a different language, using ai and I think we did like a. 30 page site in about a hour or two.
Kevin: Geez, that’s crazy.
Kevin Watkins: Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin: Yeah. That’s definitely an advantage. I know WordPress, as, as awesome as it is, and as much of a market share as they do have, you’re, right, it’s such a large ship. It’s hard to be dynamic and it’s difficult for them to provide new sort of changes, when they’ve got so many customers on, a platform like theirs. So that’s a really interesting perspective.
so going back to your audience, maybe you can talk. About what are some of the typical problems that you’re solving for your audience? it definitely sounds like you’re doing both the web design and development side of things, but also digital marketing. Are there any typical problems that clients are coming to you with that you handle on a more frequent basis?
Kevin Watkins: Yeah, the user experience and user journey. overall like. How does somebody who’s interested in joining, like an outdoor alliance, get to the site, log in and, interact with the resources, and events and things that they offer to their community? right now there’s a lot of, friction for people to use these sites, especially like. ones from five years ago. So we helped ’em get up to date with the latest tools and tech stack, so their users. and a lot of times the companies we work with, like Chambers and associations, their users are also members. just making that, workflow seamless. And then on the other side of it, also empowering their. The management team, the executive directors, the marketing teams, to be able to update the site more easily. So that, is a big advantage of why we went to Webflow. And yeah, it’s just really easy for our. Our clients to manage and it doesn’t break.
Kevin: yeah. so it sounds like enabling these, groups to be a little bit more, hands-on and be able to control their own destiny, whereas with a lot of these older systems, they might have been out of date and they didn’t have the capabilities of doing this type of thing in-house, so they needed a little bit of extra help, Yeah, enabling this, this industry or this community to be able to move forward into, 20 25, 20 26.
Kevin Watkins: Yeah. We, say a lot. We want to like, empower the marketing team to, do more with less, especially in the nonprofit space. Like they’re often shorthanded, and are juggling a lot of different tasks. So just making their website one less thing to worry about, is. It’s like our goal and
Kevin: yeah. Yeah, that’s a really good point. Take one thing off their plate. For sure.
moving on, I want to talk about how your audience typically finds you. Are there any sort of top acquisition channels? It sounds like within, the industry that you’re in, I would imagine there’s a pretty decent amount of like word of mouth going on. But maybe you can talk about, are you guys driving more leads from an SEO perspective, paid advertisement, word of mouth, how do your current clients find out about you?
Kevin Watkins: Yeah, so the, best path is always the referral based path. So we’ve been around for a number of years now. I started in 2016, just nights and weekends and did it on the side for a bit and went full-time in 2020. so yeah, we’ve done. I worked with a number of people locally, just doing good work, and having a good reputation gets you pretty far, especially in a world where developers are yeah, Notoriously bad at communicating. And, there’s like this whole conspiracy, like they all disappear. It seems like There’s so many clients that come to me and they’re like, yeah, my developer’s, ghosted me. He’s just gone. and we haven’t heard from him. So yeah,
Kevin: you’re not the first to say that, for sure. I’ve definitely heard of a few of those cases as well,
Kevin Watkins: right? Yeah. That’s, that’ll always be our, strongest, source of leads, just picking up the phone and calling people back. yeah. And customer service. But yeah, we’ve grown, obviously we do SEO on our websites, so we do get a good amount of leads from our organic search. and we’ve made getting reviews top priority. So we’re, well over a hundred reviews now on Google. yeah, I think when I started that was like a goal. I looked at web design in Bend, Oregon, saw the agency with the highest reviews and just made it 8.2, past that. So I think we’re like four x the next person in town at least.
Kevin: that’s really, smart. Yeah.
Kevin Watkins: So that, seeing that in the map, really helps with organic search. but yeah, as, the landscape is changing rapidly and, I don’t want to say SEO is dead, but it’s, the game is changing. so yeah, we’re now shifting to, a more balanced approach. we’re getting into paid ads, and making sure that. Both the paid and the organic traffic we’re getting, converts. that’s a big focus. so yeah, we’re starting to use Path Bunk right now to see, AB test, the different like call to actions and things that Path MON can do for us, to convert those users into. Hopefully clients.
Kevin: yes. Sounds good. And we’re looking forward to helping you with that.
I wanna move the conversation a little bit away from Farewell and a little bit more into Kevin as the marketing professional. So some questions that are a little bit more specific about you, maybe you can tell us, what does a typical day to day look like for you? what are some of the tasks that you’re most frequently focused on?
Kevin Watkins: I’m, yeah, we’re a small team of 10 still, Yeah, we wear a lot of hats, so every day is wildly different. the things that are on my list to do, is yeah, stay up to date on the latest tools and trends. yeah, just watching YouTube is like a big part of my job, which is, fun, yeah. Looking for opportunities to bring these new tools and, New innovations to our clients. That’s probably my top priority right now.
Yeah. I’ve been out of, my client has removed me, or my team has removed me from client work, probably almost about two years. So yeah, just Leading the team. and then marketing and sales, like at our size now I’m the marketing and sales person.
Kevin: Yeah, makes sense.
I also wanted to talk, a good transition. ’cause you mentioned all keeping an eye on YouTube, trying to mention, trying to keep an eye out for what new tools are out there and how can you stay up to date, but. In terms of just growing as an individual and also as a founder of an agency like Farewell, where are some of the other places that you go to try to, stay up to date and try to understand, how can you and your business always be growing? are there any places outside maybe I’m sure LinkedIn, maybe things like, Maybe some books or some other podcast that you listen to. Are there any sort other sort of media channels that you’re constantly going to try to, improve upon yourself?
Kevin Watkins: Yep. A lot of podcasts. yeah, to and from, work. Listen to podcasts or audio books? yeah. Podcasts, books, yeah, different newsletters and blogs that are curating. Things for you. ’cause there’s a lot to follow. So if you can find a few good newsletters that provide value, that’s really helpful too.
yeah, just all those different channels and yeah, also kinda spreading it and not just doing all digital web stuff, but learning leadership skills, team building skills, making sure we’re a great place to work so we can hire and keep talent. build culture too. yeah, it’s not all just nerdy stuff. It’s, yeah, digital,
Kevin: Yeah. Sometimes you gotta, spread your wings and go into some different areas as well. I’ve definitely heard of some folks utilizing, different communities, whether it be on LinkedIn. a lot of people use some of these publicly available, slack channels where they can chat with other individuals, in other organizations that might have some feedback or some knowledge on some things that you might not know about. some other folks have mentioned, Reddit as a great place because you can always go find some answers about a question that maybe you don’t have the answer to right now, but there’s probably someone out there on the web that has run into the same problem before. yeah. are these some of the channels that you’ve utilized in the past as well?
Kevin Watkins: slack channels, yeah. I’m in too many Slack channels. but yeah, those communities are great as well. and then the web flow community’s been really good. There’s, They’re pretty active on Twitter and YouTube. so yeah, those are great resources and yeah, I try to go to the, Webflow conference every year, so that’s great to do those. And I think that’s probably our, next step is looking to, yeah, go to different conferences and, meet people around the world that way.
Kevin: Yeah. Face to face. getting back to it.
So I want to move this conversation into kind of like the final stages of the call. It’s gonna be like the rapid fire round where we’re not necessarily gonna be asking questions that are specifically about Farewell or about Kevin as an individual, but more thought provoking questions that are meant to have some fun before we, wrap up the call.
the first one that I’ll ask, nice and easy one. what’s the last book that you read?
Kevin Watkins: The last book I completed was, called Pick Up the Phone and Sell. So as I’ve moved into more of a sales role, and being a designer and developer and not a salesperson by, by trade or by personality, yeah, it’s been a new skill. So that book. I’d highly recommend is just talking about like how people under utilize the phone as a selling tool. And most people it talks about proactive calling. so not just calling when something is wrong, but just calling to check in with current clients and past clients and yeah, that’s been honestly, yeah, one of my favorite books and systems in the last, few years.
Kevin: I would 100% agree with the idea of just pick up the phone and call. I haven’t read the book myself. I’ll probably add it to my list for sure. but yeah, the idea that not a lot of people do that anymore, email, maybe send some sort of a message across some sort of communication channel, whatever it might be. Yeah, people don’t really utilize the phone as much nowadays, and if you get someone at the right time, you can get all the information and all the answers you need right then and there. So I really agree. just pick over the phone and call.
okay. Next one. If there were no boundaries in technology, and snap your finger and ev anything is possible, total magic, what would be the one thing that you would wanna have fixed for your role as a marketer today?
Kevin Watkins: Oof. probably something to help with educating, our clients about the things that I’m learning. yeah, as we learn all these new tools, I’ve got a lot of things in my head and a lot of ideas, but, yeah, something to help communicate that both to my team, as I find new things and ha also vice versa as they find new things. So communicating. Figuring out a way to easily communicate, our learnings to others. yeah,
Kevin: that would be a really good answer. Snap your fingers and all the information you have in your brain is already in someone else’s brain. that would be perfect,
Kevin Watkins: right? Yeah. Yeah. even if it’s yeah, just, yeah. AI bot, that’s like asking you questions or. There’s something there maybe
Kevin: may give it, give AI two or three more years. There’s probably gonna be a solution for something like this.
okay, next one. if there was one repetitive task that you could automate and out of, I’m sure there are a lot of different, tasks that you wish you could automate, what would be the one that you would wanna have automated for your role?
Kevin Watkins: checking my email. Yeah.
Kevin: And going through and figuring out like, what do I actually need to respond to? What’s urgent? what’s top priority? Maybe, give me a little bit more information.
Kevin Watkins: yeah, just sorting through it, knowing what’s important, what’s timely, what can be delegated. And one step further, just do the delegation as well. yeah, so there’s a tool, there’s
Kevin: probably some sort of solution out there for that, I would imagine.
Kevin Watkins: Yeah, I was about to say, I’ll, give a plug to, this email tool I’m using right now, I’m using a superhuman, it connects to my Google account and, yeah, it’s got like a AI feature they just released where you can ask it like a question. so this morning, as I was prepping for. Our call, instead of searching for the email, I just opened like the search and said, what did Kevin, what were the questions Kevin wanted me to, cover during the call? And it brought up, brought that up without having to like comb through emails, so
Kevin: Oh, that’s perfect. Yeah, I’m really interested in that and we’re always looking for new AI technologies ourselves here at Pathmonk. I’ll definitely be checking that one out for sure. If there’s some sort of way to trial it. 100%. That’s something I’d be interested in.
Kevin Watkins: Yeah, I’m sure there is. I think there’s a free version.
Kevin: and these are, this is the type of conversation that our audience is looking to find out about new, tools, new tricks, new tips like this. So yeah, that’s an awesome plug right there.
okay, so the last question before we wrap things up. What is one piece of advice that you would give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer today?
Kevin Watkins: Oh man. That is a really good one. probably, I’d probably wanna start a journal, on things move so fast. yeah, that’d be nice to Have that. I know people do that a lot. but yeah, having that, point in time where you can go back and just see how much progress you’ve made, my wife keeps a, a journal every day. She writes a little note and that’s always really fun, especially with young kids, going back and seeing what happened like on this day, two years ago. Yeah, things change fast, so it’s nice to just,
Kevin: I totally agree. From a sentimental perspective, I also agree from a work perspective, because nowadays, like you said, things move so fast, right? And there might be one day where you learn like a really valuable lesson, but you’re so busy, the next day you’ve already moved onto something else, right? And if you could take the time to go back into this journal and remember, oh yeah, that was really important. I should spend a little bit more time like doing this, or, figuring that out. Yeah, maybe this is something we don’t do enough. ’cause it, nowadays in 2025, we’re all moving so fast and we’re constantly going forward, right? Being able to take a step back and go backwards and take a look in back in time. yeah, this is a really good answer that I don’t think a lot of people answer on this call.
A lot of people say, oh, I, be more assertive or, get out there earlier or, things like this. A lot of the answers I typically get on this show are people thinking about how they could get started earlier or start seeing success faster. And I think what you’re saying is actually take a step back, which is a really unique perspective. So I think that’s an awesome answer.
Yeah. So Kevin, we’re wrapping up and I just wanna say thank you very much for joining the show today. We really enjoyed having you on, but before we wrap things up, why don’t you give our audience just one more plug about Farewell. Just tell us about the company and how they can find you.
Kevin Watkins: Our website is hey Farewell.com. I’m also on LinkedIn, Kevin Watkins. It’s Farewell. yeah, if you wanna connect with me on LinkedIn or visit our site and see some of the things we’re building, that would be the best place. And yeah, always happy to connect with other marketers and yeah, there’s really no such thing as competition in my eyes, so I like connecting with other creatives and have found a lot of value from, just. Picking up the phone and saying, Hey, we’re jumping on a video call in a lot of cases.
Kevin: Awesome. Thanks for the time, Kevin.
Kevin Watkins: Yeah, thanks Kevin. All right.