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[00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:07.360] Look, payday is awesome, but running payroll, calculating taxes and deductions, staying compliant, that's not easy.
[00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:09.360] Unless, of course, you have Gusto.
[00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:14.400] Gusto is a simple online payroll and benefits tool built for small businesses like yours.
[00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:18.400] Gusto gets your team paid while automatically filing your payroll taxes.
[00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:25.600] Plus, you can offer benefits like 401k, health insurance, and workers' comp, and it makes onboarding new employees a breeze.
[00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.320] We love it so much, we really do use it ourselves.
[00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:34.800] And we have four years, and I personally recommend you give it a try, no matter how small your business is.
[00:00:34.800 --> 00:00:38.880] And to sweeten the deal, just for listening today, you also get three months free.
[00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:41.360] Go to gusto.com/slash beingboss.
[00:00:41.360 --> 00:00:45.120] That's gusto.com/slash beingboss.
[00:00:46.720 --> 00:00:54.480] Welcome to Being Boss, a podcast for creatives, business owners, and entrepreneurs who want to take control of their work and live life on their own terms.
[00:00:54.480 --> 00:01:06.160] I'm your host, Emily Thompson, and in this episode, I'm joined by web designer Callie Edwards to talk about trends as well as tried and true tactics in the world of small business websites.
[00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:09.840] A perfect chat for all you online business owners out there.
[00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:15.840] You can find all the tools, books, and links we reference on the show notes at www.beingboss.club.
[00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:20.960] And if you like this episode, be sure to subscribe to this show and share us with a friend.
[00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:33.200] Whether you want to grow your business with content marketing, social media, or speaking on stages, or in highly produced Zoom rooms, I've got a podcast recommendation for you.
[00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:43.840] Cue up an episode of The Shine Online, hosted by Natasha Samuel, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.
[00:01:43.840 --> 00:02:08.520] On her show, Natasha interviews the brightest entrepreneurs she knows to bring you no-fluff advice, honest discussions about the mental health and lifestyle aspect of entrepreneurship, and actionable strategies and success stories of those who've mastered the art of shining online in this conversational podcast with some hard-hitting episodes on marketing your business and filling the latest of her lineup.
[00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:14.200] Give it a search and listen to The Shine Online wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:02:16.760 --> 00:02:23.080] Callie Edwards owns June Mango Design, a creative studio that works with helpers, healers, and holistic brands.
[00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:27.640] June Mango's sweet spot lies in the logo and web design process.
[00:02:27.640 --> 00:02:34.440] With her signature go live in five process, you get a fully designed logo and website in just five days.
[00:02:34.440 --> 00:02:37.160] You start on Monday, you're live by Friday.
[00:02:37.160 --> 00:02:44.040] Her designs have a unique ability to unearth emotions so that clients can deeply connect with their dream customers.
[00:02:44.040 --> 00:02:50.040] Callie has previously made an appearance here on The Being Boss Show in episode number 287.
[00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:52.360] Callie, welcome back to Being Boss.
[00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:53.880] I'm so glad you're here.
[00:02:53.880 --> 00:02:54.360] Yes.
[00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:54.760] Hello.
[00:02:54.760 --> 00:02:56.600] I'm so glad to be back.
[00:02:56.600 --> 00:02:57.640] Yeah, it has been.
[00:02:57.640 --> 00:02:58.440] I went and looked.
[00:02:58.440 --> 00:03:02.520] It's been a whole year since we last recorded.
[00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:11.640] So you were last back for episode number 287, an episode called Intentions for Small Business Success at Every Level with Callie Edwards.
[00:03:11.640 --> 00:03:16.440] And I don't know if I ever really followed up with you on this, but that was one of the most popular episodes of the year.
[00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:18.840] Well, hey, hi now.
[00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:19.960] Yeah, right?
[00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:20.440] Right?
[00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:22.520] They want to be small.
[00:03:23.160 --> 00:03:24.040] They do.
[00:03:24.040 --> 00:03:26.840] And I not feel bad about wanting to be small.
[00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:28.200] There's no reason anyone should.
[00:03:28.200 --> 00:03:42.440] So if anyone is interested in hearing more of Callie's story or interested in the topic of intentionally staying small or intentions for small business success at every level, go back to episode number 287.
[00:03:42.440 --> 00:03:44.520] We'll include links to that in the show notes.
[00:03:45.040 --> 00:03:50.720] It was such a great episode and really one of our most popular ones of the year.
[00:03:50.720 --> 00:04:03.600] So we're back for another great chat, but this time not around the sort of like, you know, 30,000 foot view, like small business owner mindset, but really what it is that you do.
[00:04:03.600 --> 00:04:05.920] And that's website stuff.
[00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:07.920] Website stuff.
[00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:10.880] So what have you been up to in the past year?
[00:04:10.880 --> 00:04:13.280] Give us a bit of an update.
[00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:21.680] So, well, we were just talking before we jumped on about how my little baby is 10 months now and he just started sleeping through the night.
[00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:29.840] So personally, I'm sleeping, which is exciting, which means that professionally I am thriving again because I can think.
[00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:38.160] So I think the main update is that, you know, my thing is Go Live in Five, where we build a website in a week.
[00:04:38.320 --> 00:04:41.600] And I've kind of expanded that to be doing a couple other things.
[00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:43.520] So now we're doing Go Live in Five logos.
[00:04:43.520 --> 00:04:46.000] So we're doing logos in five days.
[00:04:46.320 --> 00:04:48.000] And that's not a full branding.
[00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:49.680] It's more of the design only.
[00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:54.240] Anyone who does branding knows that you, it's a, there's a lot that goes into branding and brand strategy.
[00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:59.680] But, you know, if you just need a logo and an icon, we are knocking that out in five days too.
[00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:05.680] So we're kind of just expanding what we do and the fact that we're pretty fast at what we do.
[00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:06.400] Wonderful.
[00:05:06.400 --> 00:05:20.560] And just for clarification for anyone who's like, ooh, that sounds interesting to me, but also for painting the picture as to what we're about to talk about, what kind of websites do you do and for what kinds of folks?
[00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:24.480] So, we work with holistic brands and helpers, basically.
[00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:34.280] So, therapists, yogis, acupuncturists, anyone who's trying to kind of really get us all back on track.
[00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:37.640] I help them so that they can help me, basically.
[00:05:37.960 --> 00:05:39.800] And we, they're really small businesses.
[00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:43.800] And, you know, again, because what we talked about last time, my business is really small.
[00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:46.520] I think we even decided it's a micro business.
[00:05:46.840 --> 00:05:54.440] A lot of these sort of personal brands, you know, they don't necessarily know how to do the tech side or the design side of everything.
[00:05:54.440 --> 00:05:58.840] So, that's where I come in and kind of help them so that again, they can help other people.
[00:05:59.160 --> 00:05:59.800] Lovely.
[00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:00.600] Perfect.
[00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:09.720] Then, from that, we're here today to talk about websites and sort of the state of websites in 2023.
[00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:13.880] What we need to look forward to, what we need to sort of keep away from.
[00:06:13.880 --> 00:06:21.560] And I was talking to you too about before we got on to officially record that this used to be my wheelhouse, right?
[00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:28.440] I spent eight years designing and developing websites for all kinds of businesses, loved doing it.
[00:06:28.440 --> 00:06:36.440] But in 2018, right about the time the Being Boss book was coming out, I decided to step away from that business and go full-time.
[00:06:36.520 --> 00:06:39.880] Actually, no, I wasn't going full-time into Being Boss because I had launched Almanac.
[00:06:39.880 --> 00:06:42.840] So, I decided to split my time between two different businesses.
[00:06:42.840 --> 00:06:47.960] Instead of indie shopography and being boss, it became being boss and almanac supply co.
[00:06:48.600 --> 00:07:02.440] And the further in time I get removed from leaving behind websites in 2018, the further I get from what in the world is happening with websites in general.
[00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:03.320] I feel clueless.
[00:07:03.320 --> 00:07:07.560] I feel like we were making, you know, old like mom jokes.
[00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:14.880] I do feel like actually, legit in my house, I'm the mom who doesn't know how to use the television.
[00:07:15.200 --> 00:07:16.960] Like, that's where I've gotten.
[00:07:14.440 --> 00:07:21.280] I blame that partially on not doing websites anymore.
[00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:22.320] Like, I really don't know.
[00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.200] You just lost all of your ability to do any technology.
[00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:28.560] Yes, all technology knowledge left my brain immediately.
[00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:31.760] And I've definitely become the, I don't, I don't know which remote to use.
[00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:34.400] And I'm just like, just cue me up, whatever.
[00:07:34.400 --> 00:07:43.840] Like, I sent someone on their way to work the television for me, which is ridiculous, but I also don't hate it.
[00:07:43.840 --> 00:07:46.080] I feel like that a little bit with websites.
[00:07:46.080 --> 00:07:50.480] I'm excited to have you here to sort of be the fresh look at it.
[00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:57.440] So before we dive in really any deeper than that, still personal question.
[00:07:57.440 --> 00:07:58.960] What do you love about websites?
[00:07:58.960 --> 00:08:01.200] Like, why are you in the website world?
[00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:04.480] That is a really good question because I know we've talked about this before.
[00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:05.920] Websites are hard.
[00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:18.640] Websites tend to be at the end of the sort of exciting, you know, all the things you're doing in your business when you're branding and you're getting the beautiful logo and you are doing your copy and strategy.
[00:08:18.640 --> 00:08:19.920] And then you have to do your website.
[00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:20.800] And it's kind of hard.
[00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:22.880] There's a lot of tech stuff involved.
[00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:29.600] I started doing websites because I wanted to just make them more creative than they were at the time.
[00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:31.280] I mean, this has been a long time now.
[00:08:31.280 --> 00:08:33.200] I started in like 2013.
[00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:36.000] So that was like a heavy WordPress era.
[00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.120] And it was a little clunky and it was a lot of bugs.
[00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:42.800] And I just felt like, you know, this can be way more fun.
[00:08:42.800 --> 00:08:49.120] And just kind of like bringing a more designer eye and less, you know, like a coder eye.
[00:08:49.920 --> 00:08:53.760] And that was right when Squarespace and some of these other CMS platforms were coming out.
[00:08:53.760 --> 00:08:56.160] So you could do a little more with it.
[00:08:56.160 --> 00:08:58.160] So that's why I started it.
[00:08:58.160 --> 00:09:03.400] And now I really, like I said before, you know, design-wise, yes, that's still why I do it.
[00:08:59.760 --> 00:09:08.280] I love designing, but also I just really, really like the people that I work with.
[00:09:08.280 --> 00:09:13.960] I like getting to kind of lift them up a little bit whenever they don't ever want to touch a website.
[00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:26.920] And I totally, totally understand why, because there are just so many bits and pieces that are tough, you know, connecting your email and how do you, what is a domain and how, what is my hosting and what are you talking about?
[00:09:26.920 --> 00:09:35.560] So there's all those like technical pieces too, but even answering some of the questions, and I know we'll talk through some of them today, but like, what are the tools and integrations that I can use?
[00:09:35.560 --> 00:09:39.480] And what do, what do they even offer now that connects to my website?
[00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:45.000] And what can I do and showcase and how can I connect with my clients and all of those things?
[00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:55.240] So it's kind of nice to be able to just dig in with people so that they again can just focus on whatever their core calling is and kind of help them do the rest.
[00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:55.800] Yeah.
[00:09:55.800 --> 00:09:57.640] Oh, I love all of that.
[00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:09.880] I remember feeling very similar back in the day of like, what if it's not just UX and code, but like some good color theory, as you mentioned earlier, right?
[00:10:09.880 --> 00:10:13.400] Or like a designerly take on a website.
[00:10:13.400 --> 00:10:33.720] And so I think those of us who have sort of both of those skills, both like the very tech side as well as the design side, have a view of websites that's quite a bit more deep than people who are just one or the other, which I think brings so much to this conversation for sure.
[00:10:34.040 --> 00:10:45.440] And I will say that the complexity with which websites or the complexity that websites was sort of becoming engendered with.
[00:10:45.760 --> 00:10:57.520] Like websites were getting so complex by the time I threw in a towel in 2018 that these days it is a whole different ballgame.
[00:10:57.520 --> 00:11:13.920] And I have utmost respect for those of you who are still in there doing the things because integrations and all the things are so complex in a way that even just like managing my own, I hand off a lot of that as well.
[00:11:13.920 --> 00:11:29.280] So we're going to talk a lot today about websites in a super accessible way, but also know that if you need to hire help to get your website done or to do updates, you absolutely should, one way or the other.
[00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:35.280] This is not the kind of thing that everyone just has in their tool belt, I don't think.
[00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:44.800] Yeah, and I think that there's some things that I always say, you know, if you need to bootstrap it, bootstrap it, you know, if you're just starting out, like get the thing up, get it online.
[00:11:44.800 --> 00:11:51.040] It doesn't have to, you don't have to have this color theory background to be able to do that or hire a designer.
[00:11:51.040 --> 00:11:51.840] I get that.
[00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:52.800] We all get that.
[00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:56.800] But you do, I mean, at this point in time, you do need a website.
[00:11:56.800 --> 00:11:58.160] Everyone needs a website.
[00:11:58.160 --> 00:12:03.680] Even if you have an amazing Instagram following, even if you have a Facebook page, you really do need a website.
[00:12:03.680 --> 00:12:05.040] It's doing a lot for you.
[00:12:05.040 --> 00:12:08.160] You're always saying, Emily, it's this big marketing workhorse for you.
[00:12:08.160 --> 00:12:10.160] And that's very true too.
[00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:14.560] So all that to say, if you can't hire someone, we get it.
[00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.400] But if you can, you're going to get a lot of bang for your buck.
[00:12:18.400 --> 00:12:22.080] And you're also going to save yourself a headache.
[00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:28.160] The other thing I always say is, it's like, what do you either have a lot of time or you have a lot of money?
[00:12:28.160 --> 00:12:31.080] So, usually when you have a little more money, you have a little less time.
[00:12:31.080 --> 00:12:33.400] So, it just depends kind of where you're at.
[00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:34.520] Yeah, for sure.
[00:12:34.760 --> 00:12:40.920] Okay, let's get to the meat of this because I'm very excited to hear about what's up with websites these days.
[00:12:41.800 --> 00:12:44.920] Let's start with sort of a very broad question.
[00:12:44.920 --> 00:12:49.320] What is changing in the world of small business websites?
[00:12:49.320 --> 00:12:58.280] Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of design trends that we could get into, but more than that, sort of what we were saying, there's a lot of tools that people can use.
[00:12:58.280 --> 00:13:01.960] So, it's a lot easier to integrate things into your website.
[00:13:02.760 --> 00:13:06.520] There's a lot of integrations, almost so many that it's a little overwhelming.
[00:13:06.520 --> 00:13:12.120] But let's say, for example, you run a yoga studio and a lot of this came out of the pandemic.
[00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:19.480] So, for example, if you had a yoga studio and all of a sudden no one could come to your yoga studio, you were like, what the heck am I going to do?
[00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:21.640] So, there was a lot of scrambling.
[00:13:22.440 --> 00:13:36.120] I did, I witnessed a lot of scrambling, getting people trying to figure out how do I reach my audience and my customers and share, you know, these classes with people that they can no longer come in and get in person.
[00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:50.840] So, now that people, you know, again, software companies and Squarespace and all these people kind of figured out that we do need to be able to bring this online, they've now kind of caught up and made sure that there is a way to do that.
[00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:57.960] So, there's lots of platforms now that you can bring all of your, you know, fitness content, a lot of video stuff.
[00:13:58.600 --> 00:14:04.040] Videos itself is another big trend with TikTok, like videos are everywhere.
[00:14:04.040 --> 00:14:12.680] I tend to be on the on the further end of videos and will say, you know, you don't need to have a million videos on your website.
[00:14:12.680 --> 00:14:15.000] Let's kind of leave them on social media.
[00:14:15.760 --> 00:14:21.120] Having a few there, but I don't, people ask me sometimes, should I be adding all these videos to my site?
[00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:23.280] And I tend to say, you know, maybe not.
[00:14:23.280 --> 00:14:24.880] Let's kind of keep it streamlined.
[00:14:24.880 --> 00:14:27.200] But that's another trend.
[00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:31.600] So just like a lot of tools, there's a lot of different newsletter software.
[00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:38.720] Some newsletter software like Flowdesk is, they're doing like sales pages that you can do now.
[00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:41.440] You don't even have to sort of connect it to your website.
[00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:46.240] There's all sorts of course platforms that you can connect to your website.
[00:14:46.240 --> 00:15:02.160] So that's even just like, you know, the tip of the iceberg a little bit, but just all these different sort of softwares and platforms that you can then bring into your website and kind of weave them together depending on what your customer needs, what you're selling, what your audience is trying to do.
[00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:13.600] Yeah, I, one of the things I've definitely felt over the past, you know, 15 years with websites is, and was really expedited over the course of the pandemic, right?
[00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:14.480] Everyone getting in there.
[00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:18.480] And luckily, the tool, like the basis of all the tools is already there, right?
[00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:23.360] It just was like a speed up of making them all connect and do exactly what we want them to and all these things.
[00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:25.280] It's been really beautiful to see.
[00:15:25.280 --> 00:15:36.080] But it is a really great democratization of access to being able to build websites and have them do all kinds of things.
[00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:39.840] I was having a conversation the other day with my team at Almanac.
[00:15:40.640 --> 00:15:51.520] We were doing inventory in the store and there's, you know, whenever you're hooking up things to things electronically, they're not always seamless, right?
[00:15:51.520 --> 00:15:55.120] There's going to be lags in the updates or hiccups here.
[00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:56.000] I call them hiccups.
[00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.880] Like, you know, if some data doesn't sync, like it just hiccuped, okay?
[00:15:58.880 --> 00:16:02.840] Just like hit a refresh, it'll show back up, whatever it may be.
[00:16:03.160 --> 00:16:07.960] And for a couple of people on the team, that is the most annoying thing on the planet.
[00:16:08.280 --> 00:16:17.240] And, and of course, like me, who knows how all these things work and has been working, you know, in this realm for so long, like, this is the magic of technology.
[00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:18.680] What do you mean you're annoyed?
[00:16:18.680 --> 00:16:21.720] Like, I am fine with an occasional hiccup.
[00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:23.560] This is glorious.
[00:16:23.560 --> 00:16:30.040] And they were like, well, I just wish that, you know, we should find one platform that like does inventory and sales and POS.
[00:16:30.040 --> 00:16:33.720] And I was like, he was, they were like, it exists in the world.
[00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:35.160] Big companies have it.
[00:16:35.160 --> 00:16:35.960] And I was like, yes.
[00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:42.600] And big companies paid millions of dollars to have it custom built for them.
[00:16:42.600 --> 00:16:55.640] So because we are not that, we are going to continue with these really mind-bending tools that connect not quite seamlessly, but like almost, and do it with an occasional hiccup.
[00:16:55.640 --> 00:17:01.640] And it was just such a funny moment to sort of be on the other side of that, where they were like, I just want everything.
[00:17:01.640 --> 00:17:03.720] I want it to be all the things.
[00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:57.040] And I'm like, but if you just had any idea what the solutions were five years ago and to see what they are now, you would be as okay with these occasional hiccups as I am because the possibilities have become almost endless with the sort of business solutions that you can build for yourself by connecting two, three, four different pieces of software together through almost seamless integrations is crazy in a way that I remember building, I remember hand-building simple solutions for people 10 years ago because the option to get, you know, for me, it's a Shopify store and let's say an acuity scheduling account and hook them up was not an option even a decade ago.
[00:17:57.040 --> 00:17:58.160] Yeah, it's wild.
[00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:07.200] And I think, you know, one of the trends that I am seeing too is just this like, I think we're seeing it everywhere.
[00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:17.520] It's just like we have access to so much in every facet of our lives and everything is so easy that it's almost like we feel like we need all the things because we have them at our fingertips.
[00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:21.200] But I do think, so that's the trend.
[00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:23.280] I don't necessarily think that's a good thing.
[00:18:23.600 --> 00:18:35.760] I think that sometimes, like you said, it doesn't, it starts to feel a little piecemeal, you know, like it starts to feel like you're just slapping a bunch of stuff together on your website or anywhere else.
[00:18:35.760 --> 00:18:40.400] You know, we don't necessarily need to have 16 different types of social media platforms on our phone.
[00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:41.520] Maybe let's pick two.
[00:18:41.520 --> 00:18:42.080] No.
[00:18:42.080 --> 00:18:43.120] Yeah, right.
[00:18:43.120 --> 00:18:43.760] For sure.
[00:18:43.760 --> 00:18:45.200] There is a, there's a sweet spot.
[00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:51.760] So when it comes to integrations, I find if I have more than three things working together, it's too many.
[00:18:51.760 --> 00:18:55.440] Like, like the hiccups multiply, right?
[00:18:55.440 --> 00:19:05.520] They get exponentially larger and the speed with which they lose it is amplified by how many things you're pasting together.
[00:19:05.520 --> 00:19:12.160] So I always aim for incredibly, incredibly simple integrations.
[00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:19.600] One for sure, two if I have to, three, like if I really, really, really have to.
[00:19:19.600 --> 00:19:29.400] And it better really, like, it, it better be so far removed from like core processes that it's just like advantageous for somebody to have it over there.
[00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:31.400] And anything more than that is not going to happen.
[00:19:29.840 --> 00:19:32.200] So I think you're right.
[00:19:32.360 --> 00:19:52.360] There is this like this trend of like taking a hold of all the opportunities, but there is wisdom and keeping it down to what you most definitely need and connecting things, connecting things wisely because it can really get real messy real fast.
[00:19:52.360 --> 00:19:52.600] Yeah.
[00:19:52.600 --> 00:19:56.440] And you know, it's kind of like a business strategy decision too.
[00:19:56.440 --> 00:20:02.520] You know, there's, for example, another one is you can, it's so easy to do these drop shipping print integrations now.
[00:20:02.520 --> 00:20:05.000] So, you know, you could just say, well, I'm a designer.
[00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:06.680] I'm going to start designing t-shirts too.
[00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:09.240] And I'm going to just add that to my site because I can.
[00:20:09.560 --> 00:20:12.440] That's a silly example, but you can.
[00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:18.360] But, you know, then you're kind of distilling your message, your services.
[00:20:18.360 --> 00:20:21.000] So, again, there's a lot of stuff.
[00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:22.440] It's a cool thing.
[00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:32.440] We don't necessarily have to do all the things, but that is something it's nice to have them, you know, so that if you do want to, if you actually are selling t-shirts, now you have this cool integration that you can use.
[00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:42.280] Yeah, I think it's also really fascinating that you brought up this video piece as well, because that's also something over the past couple of years that I've seen becoming more and more of a thing.
[00:20:42.280 --> 00:20:53.720] And, you know, whereas, you know, five, ten years ago, it was kind of cool to have like a like a B-roll video on your home page behind, like, behind your opening text or whatever.
[00:20:53.720 --> 00:20:56.040] Like, that was, that was the trend and cool.
[00:20:56.040 --> 00:20:57.400] And is it?
[00:20:57.400 --> 00:21:00.360] I feel like that's a timeless design, personally.
[00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:04.440] I think, I think you can have one, right?
[00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:04.760] Yes.
[00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:06.440] Like, like that is the thing.
[00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:07.240] One.
[00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:08.040] Absolutely.
[00:21:08.280 --> 00:21:15.760] Right now, the thing is, let's make our own website look like TikTok or Instagram Reels or whatever it may be.
[00:21:16.080 --> 00:21:48.800] And so I think you're totally right there of like keeping that down because what, like the difference between someone who's building websites and understand how like data and all of those things is going to work versus someone who just wants the things on their website without thinking about the repercussions of those kinds of things is just how heavy of a load video is for both your website hosting, but also for someone trying to load your website while they're driving down a country road with little to no cell phone service or whatever it may be.
[00:21:48.800 --> 00:22:02.880] So it can literally be the difference between having a customer and losing a customer is making decisions around the video situation so that you are really optimizing, you're optimizing the experience.
[00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:06.080] And sometimes optimization is less, not more.
[00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:07.120] Exactly.
[00:22:07.120 --> 00:22:08.800] And that's really what I'm trying to say.
[00:22:08.800 --> 00:22:12.240] And I think video is a really good example of that because of everything you just said.
[00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:16.320] And also, you know, there's a lot that can go wrong with a video.
[00:22:16.320 --> 00:22:18.960] If a person's sound is not on, well, they're missing something.
[00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:32.880] If you're actually sort of speaking to them about something, if it doesn't load, if you have so many that then they're skipping over something, if you're putting a lot of important information in a video and it never gets watched, that information is just, you know, not going anywhere.
[00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:38.160] So it's, that's why the B-roll example is a good one because it's just a design element.
[00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:40.240] It's not like it's just nice.
[00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:49.520] You know, it gives a little personality to the site, but it's not like some critical thing if it didn't load for some reason.
[00:22:49.520 --> 00:22:49.920] Right.
[00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:54.480] I won't even go into search engine optimization with videos either.
[00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:56.640] How you're losing out, all that kinds of goodness.
[00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:57.040] So, good.
[00:22:57.040 --> 00:22:57.280] Okay.
[00:22:57.280 --> 00:23:00.360] Those are two things that you are seeing.
[00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:05.720] Um, that's not even really the videos, it's not like a changing thing, that just is where we're at.
[00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:31.880] But I do agree that this integration piece is probably the biggest change that we're looking at in terms of your website: this idea that you can really build semi-custom-feeling solutions by easily connecting a couple of different solutions together to give you the functionality that you want with your website.
[00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:39.400] Can I tell you something that I'm seeing in the sort of world of small business websites that I think is fascinating?
[00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:40.280] Totally.
[00:23:40.600 --> 00:23:42.680] People not even having them.
[00:23:43.800 --> 00:23:44.760] Tell me more.
[00:23:44.760 --> 00:23:45.880] I'm seeing this a whole lot.
[00:23:46.040 --> 00:23:49.320] I think it's really interesting and something that I've even thought about for myself.
[00:23:49.320 --> 00:24:00.840] Like, and mostly the growth of platforms and social media and those, like, those platforms are one side of it.
[00:24:00.840 --> 00:24:10.920] But the other side of it is Patreon and Substack and all of those platforms where you actually get to sort of quote unquote own your customer base, right?
[00:24:10.920 --> 00:24:19.240] They're not all owned by the platform or the company, but you actually have access to their contact information and can take them with you, those sorts of things.
[00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:23.640] I feel like I'm seeing more and more people foregoing traditional websites.
[00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:24.360] Isn't that cute?
[00:24:24.360 --> 00:24:27.240] Traditional, as if they've been around for 100 years.
[00:24:27.560 --> 00:24:37.560] Forgoing traditional websites in favor of just using these platforms or their place on these, or Medium, even I think is a great example of this.
[00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:41.640] Using those platforms as their online home.
[00:24:41.640 --> 00:24:42.440] Are you seeing this?
[00:24:42.440 --> 00:24:43.880] And what are your feelings?
[00:24:43.880 --> 00:24:52.720] Yeah, and I think that that is a very specific thing, actually, that only, maybe not only, but really works better if you're sort of a personal brand, right?
[00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:57.120] So that would not work for a therapist with a private practice.
[00:24:57.120 --> 00:25:09.280] But for the guy who has Substack and has like a huge Twitter following, and then he's converting that into all of these subscribers, well, that, yeah, that makes perfect sense for him.
[00:25:09.280 --> 00:25:13.760] But that's sort of like a business model, personal brand strategy.
[00:25:13.760 --> 00:25:17.760] So I think that that can work, but I almost think that those are two different things.
[00:25:17.760 --> 00:25:19.200] But yes, totally.
[00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:33.680] It's also an interesting thing because that guy who has 8,000 Twitter followers and is selling his newsletter subscription for $80 is like the fat tail of that sort of business model of Substack.
[00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:42.240] And so it sort of entices everyone else to be like, oh man, I could totally do that and make $80,000 a month or whatever it is that he makes.
[00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:47.040] But I think because there is that fat tail, it's like, it's a little misleading.
[00:25:47.040 --> 00:25:53.200] It doesn't mean that you can't do it, but it's just its own unique slice, I think.
[00:25:53.840 --> 00:25:54.400] It is.
[00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:54.800] It is.
[00:25:54.800 --> 00:26:04.080] And it's been interesting to watch it grow or like the interest in that grow and for it to become that sort of home for so many people.
[00:26:05.040 --> 00:26:10.320] Growing a business can feel like the Wild West, but there's a better CRM in town: HubSpot.
[00:26:10.320 --> 00:26:17.360] HubSpot CRM keeps all your teams on the same page, so you can spend less time managing your software and more time connecting with your customers.
[00:26:17.360 --> 00:26:23.840] When you hit your wagon to HubSpot CRM, your marketing, sales, operations, and service teams all have access to the same data.
[00:26:23.840 --> 00:26:28.720] Sales teams won't miss out on qualified leads, and marketing teams know where best to promote their offers.
[00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:30.760] That's how the Wild West is won.
[00:26:30.760 --> 00:26:32.840] Learn more at HubSpot.com.
[00:26:32.840 --> 00:26:34.920] HubSpot grow better.
[00:26:35.880 --> 00:26:38.040] So that's like the changing world.
[00:26:38.040 --> 00:26:42.360] Let's look at, let's look at what is staying the same.
[00:26:42.360 --> 00:26:45.080] So in the world of websites, what's not changing?
[00:26:45.080 --> 00:26:48.040] What remains ever important?
[00:26:48.360 --> 00:26:56.600] I think that some of those core, and again, this is more for like the small business, maybe less for the guy on Substack.
[00:26:56.600 --> 00:27:01.480] But, you know, well, even for the guy on Substack, I was going to say certain things like trust.
[00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:09.560] You know, no one's, this people who are spending $80 on his subscription have to trust that he's going to deliver what he says he's going to deliver, for example.
[00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:19.480] So having a trust and having that be clear, whatever your web platform is, website or something else, clarity in what it is that you offer.
[00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:22.040] Again, I think that applies to everyone and everything.
[00:27:22.040 --> 00:27:25.560] And it needs to be on your website or your web presence.
[00:27:25.560 --> 00:27:31.080] And then clear call to actions too is never, you always need that, obviously.
[00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:34.840] But that's the thing that I still see people don't have.
[00:27:35.240 --> 00:27:39.000] They seem to forget or they don't put a button on.
[00:27:39.160 --> 00:27:42.600] I've seen many, many sites where there's a page and there's just no button.
[00:27:42.600 --> 00:27:43.560] There's just nothing.
[00:27:43.560 --> 00:27:44.760] It's just information.
[00:27:44.760 --> 00:27:46.040] And that's fine.
[00:27:46.040 --> 00:27:51.240] But, you know, again, we want to think through what is the audience doing on this site?
[00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:52.760] What do we want them to be doing?
[00:27:52.760 --> 00:27:58.040] So what is the next logical step when they get to the end of this page or even the end of this paragraph?
[00:27:58.280 --> 00:28:00.520] So clear call to actions.
[00:28:00.840 --> 00:28:03.160] And then SEO, which you sort of touched on.
[00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:19.840] And that's a really big piece that maybe we don't need to get too deep into, but just kind of being thoughtful and even just kind of setting the groundwork by making sure you have, you know, clear page URLs and tagged images and some key phrases in there.
[00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:23.760] Just kind of again, thinking through like, what is my audience probably searching for?
[00:28:23.760 --> 00:28:26.800] Do I have that incorporated in here in some way or another?
[00:28:26.800 --> 00:28:29.440] Am I just being like a little bit thoughtful about that?
[00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:40.720] You know, you can really go down the rabbit hole there, but it's as important, if not more important today as it was 10 years ago, probably more so because there's so much content out there.
[00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:42.640] Yeah, I completely agree with that.
[00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:44.320] Oh, I love all of those things.
[00:28:44.320 --> 00:28:48.640] I think that all that website content things, like the things you have to get right, you're right.
[00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:50.560] They're just mandatory.
[00:28:50.560 --> 00:28:53.120] And no matter where it is that you're doing the things.
[00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:56.640] And then search engine optimization.
[00:28:56.640 --> 00:28:57.920] I'm so glad you brought that up.
[00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:12.480] So, for anyone listening to this, one or two episodes ago, I did a solo episode talking about Almanac or at Almanac in particular, but we also implemented a whole lot of things at Being Boss this year or in 2022.
[00:29:12.800 --> 00:29:19.200] SEO was something that we focused a lot of our energy on, and really around one of the things that you just said.
[00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:23.120] There is so much content, so much content.
[00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:34.880] If you think that you are just going to create something and throw it out into the world and it's going to be found by everyone who needs it, no, because someone else has thought that and they're better at SEO than you are.
[00:29:35.360 --> 00:29:36.560] And that's accurate.
[00:29:36.560 --> 00:29:36.960] Right.
[00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:44.720] And so you got to also be good at SEO if you're doing any kind of, or if you want to be found organically on the internet.
[00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:55.120] You know, if you do have a private practice, let's say, and it's all word of mouth, and you just need a website up to, you know, give the basics to the people who already know you or whatever it may be, then a little less important.
[00:29:55.440 --> 00:30:13.640] But if you're creating any kind of website content, actually, no, not even creating, if you have a website, if you want it to be found, and especially if you are creating more content, so if you are blogging or creating articles or whatever, having at least a working knowledge of SEO, I think, is never going to go out of style.
[00:30:13.640 --> 00:30:23.640] And as you said, are becoming as newly relevant as those chunky loafers from, you know, a decade or two ago.
[00:30:24.280 --> 00:30:26.760] You just get more and more stylish, right?
[00:30:27.320 --> 00:30:29.400] You just, yep, you just need to see them everywhere.
[00:30:29.400 --> 00:30:30.920] You need more and more and more.
[00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:31.720] Yeah.
[00:30:32.280 --> 00:30:32.680] Yeah.
[00:30:32.760 --> 00:30:47.960] I think that an SEO is tricky because, you know, even I feel like, and I sit around doing this all day, every day, and I still feel like it's hard to kind of keep ahead of SEO and knowing what we need to do because algorithms are always changing and it's tricky.
[00:30:47.960 --> 00:31:02.440] But there are, like I said, some things that you can do on like a base level, and you can just give that a quick, ironically, Google search and find, you know, a couple tips about SEO that then you can probably even implement today on your own site.
[00:31:02.440 --> 00:31:05.720] So, you know, again, just those are some like core things.
[00:31:05.720 --> 00:31:08.120] You can go down the rabbit hole with any of those things, really.
[00:31:08.120 --> 00:31:16.120] You know, you can hire a copywriter to make sure that your copy is super clear, or you can just come through it and think about it from your audience perspective.
[00:31:16.120 --> 00:31:23.880] You know, it does this explain what I want to say to someone who doesn't know the layman's terms of my industry, that sort of thing.
[00:31:23.880 --> 00:31:30.920] So, as long as you're kind of keeping some of these things in mind as you're going through, it doesn't matter what the trends are.
[00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:31.720] Yeah, for sure.
[00:31:31.720 --> 00:31:39.800] And I will say, one of the things that we've been working on in SEO is really just on knowledge of SEO that I started gathering 15 years ago, right?
[00:31:39.800 --> 00:31:42.200] The basics of it are really all about the same.
[00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:55.360] There's like, there's lots of like new things that, you know you can implement and do, but the core of search engine optimization is set on a baseline of principles that if you even can just get those going, um, you are winning.
[00:31:55.360 --> 00:32:09.680] And the algorithm isn't one like social media where you know things are relevant for 24 hours, two weeks, tops, but things that you've had on your website for years can be some of your best performing stuff if you do your job right.
[00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:10.880] I was just gonna say that.
[00:32:10.880 --> 00:32:14.160] Don't expect to get SEO results overnight.
[00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:19.360] You're gonna, the highest performing stuff takes years, which is people always want a magic bullet.
[00:32:19.360 --> 00:32:22.720] There isn't one, there isn't one to lose weight, there isn't one for SEO.
[00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:24.480] You just have to do the work, you know?
[00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:26.160] Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:35.840] Um, and just plug here: I am doing an SEO workshop, which I would actually love to see you in because I'd like to pick your brain a little bit as we show it.
[00:32:35.840 --> 00:32:43.440] Because I'm going to be walking through the entire process of stuff that we've done at Almanac and at Being Boss over the past year for the Being Boss Clubhouse.
[00:32:43.600 --> 00:32:45.360] It's free to all of those members.
[00:32:45.360 --> 00:32:48.800] So, beingboss.club/slash community, join the clubhouse tier.
[00:32:48.800 --> 00:32:49.440] It's gonna be fun.
[00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:53.280] I'm gonna bring Corinne in from the Being Boss team who's been working on a lot of this too.
[00:32:53.280 --> 00:32:59.680] And like, not like super heady theoretical stuff, but we're gonna be walking through literally step by step.
[00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:03.600] We're gonna show you our spreadsheets, all of our tools, all of those things.
[00:33:03.600 --> 00:33:15.760] So, if anyone would like to join in for that for some SEO, um, just sort of basic knowledge to get you started, I'm excited to dive into it because for us, that is that is where we're putting our online marketing efforts.
[00:33:15.760 --> 00:33:29.720] Like, screw social media, and and you know, even to some extent, to some on some level, like a lot of like the hardcore website overhaul stuff, it is making the content that we do have super work for us.
[00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:33.560] And it's not overnight, but I'll have to show you some of our stats.
[00:33:33.800 --> 00:33:46.280] Um, when choosing good keywords, we've gotten in the top 10 and then for like sets of keywords in three months, sometimes even less, which is amazeballs.
[00:33:46.280 --> 00:33:59.960] Yeah, if you can really dive in, I mean, if and again, this is really diving in, you have to go through and figure out what your key phrases are that are going to be actually, you know, pulling through and getting above everything else.
[00:33:59.960 --> 00:34:04.920] And if you can really like sit down and figure that out, you know, you could do some pretty amazing stuff.
[00:34:04.920 --> 00:34:09.640] And imagine even what that three months is going to turn into in six months, in a year, and anything else.
[00:34:09.640 --> 00:34:11.800] Yeah, I know, it's so exciting.
[00:34:11.800 --> 00:34:13.080] Okay, perfect.
[00:34:13.080 --> 00:34:16.280] So, that's what is staying the same, right?
[00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:19.880] We've talked about things that are changing, what's staying the same.
[00:34:20.200 --> 00:34:24.600] Let's talk about maybe some trendy stuff.
[00:34:24.600 --> 00:34:39.240] And I want to talk about this too, not like everyone should go review their website in this way, but more of a this is kind of what you might want to steer clear of a little bit so that because websites aren't cheap, right?
[00:34:39.240 --> 00:34:46.440] They take a lot of time and energy from you or from somebody else, um, and/or a lot of money.
[00:34:46.440 --> 00:34:51.800] And when you get a good website, you're gonna want it to stick around for a minute.
[00:34:51.800 --> 00:34:59.080] So, being too trendy with websites is not something that's going to be a great investment.
[00:34:59.080 --> 00:35:02.440] So, I'd love to hear from you what's trending at the moment.
[00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:06.840] What would you maybe encourage people to check out or try if they want?
[00:35:07.160 --> 00:35:10.600] And then, what would you get people to stay away from?
[00:35:10.920 --> 00:35:15.760] Well, let's start with some of the more fun ones that, you know, you could try.
[00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:18.720] And I think it's, I'm not going to say like this is bad or good.
[00:35:14.840 --> 00:35:20.000] It's just sort of interesting.
[00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:25.120] So I feel like there's, I've been seeing a lot of more interactivity.
[00:35:25.120 --> 00:35:31.200] And some of that is like, you know, interactivity, I usually think of like how the user is literally sort of interacting with your site.
[00:35:31.200 --> 00:35:35.040] So what's happening as your mouse is sort of scrolling over elements of the site.
[00:35:35.040 --> 00:35:38.240] So there's a lot of mouseover changes that I'm seeing.
[00:35:38.240 --> 00:35:44.080] So if somebody scrolls over like typography, it will shift to a totally different font, for example.
[00:35:44.560 --> 00:35:49.120] Or you might scroll over a piece of text and then an image sort of pops up.
[00:35:49.120 --> 00:35:50.960] So there's like some cool things like that.
[00:35:50.960 --> 00:36:03.280] I even added to my site after people subscribe to my newsletter, I send them to a page and they can doodle on the page with their cursor and they can just draw whatever they want, which is just silly and fun.
[00:36:03.600 --> 00:36:11.920] So just like little fun ways to kind of interact with your audience and seeing a lot more of that and cool options there.
[00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:23.360] Another sort of design one is I've been seeing a lot, you know, that used to be, we talked about kind of that b-roll video, which is usually in like a big sort of banner background.
[00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:31.360] I've been seeing a lot less big banners in general, especially as like that hero image, which used to be like the almost everyone had that.
[00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:33.360] You had that big hero image at the top of the page.
[00:36:33.360 --> 00:36:35.840] It was the first thing you saw and it's not gone.
[00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:46.720] But I've been seeing a lot of sort of interesting ways that people are pulling in different designs and elements that are just, you know, it's not just like the same old thing every single time.
[00:36:47.120 --> 00:36:48.480] So, those are kind of fun.
[00:36:48.480 --> 00:36:55.840] Some of the things that are important that I again think you should do is thinking about accessibility.
[00:36:55.840 --> 00:36:57.120] This is a big one.
[00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:00.840] There are, first of all, you can get in trouble.
[00:37:00.840 --> 00:37:02.600] You probably won't, but you could.
[00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:06.040] People are getting sued because their sites are not accessible.
[00:37:06.040 --> 00:37:13.640] So, that includes thinking about accessibility for a multitude of people viewing your site.
[00:37:13.640 --> 00:37:21.080] So, people who are experiencing blindness, for example, they have software that reads through the site and they will read your image tags.
[00:37:21.080 --> 00:37:23.560] So, making sure things like that are updated.
[00:37:23.960 --> 00:37:33.240] People who just, you know, like if they can't see as well, making sure your contrast is really good with your colors, text size is big enough, these sorts of things.
[00:37:33.240 --> 00:37:35.480] And there are ways that you can go through.
[00:37:35.480 --> 00:37:44.520] You can, again, kind of search through and see what the whole list is and just kind of comb through your site, check it out, make sure that you're just being conscientious for different folks.
[00:37:44.760 --> 00:38:03.000] There's also an app by, I think, user way, and you can do that as like speaking of integrations, is another integration you can do, but you can do this app that will basically allow the user to change the site so that they can read it or view it in the way that they need to do that.
[00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:05.400] There's a ton of different options that they can click through.
[00:38:05.400 --> 00:38:11.880] So, again, they're dyslexic, for example, it can change the font that they're viewing so that they can read it more easily.
[00:38:11.880 --> 00:38:15.560] So, there's a lot of ways that you can kind of think through making your site accessible.
[00:38:15.560 --> 00:38:18.680] And I think that's a trend that we should adopt.
[00:38:19.320 --> 00:38:23.960] There's some other little ones too, like typography is a big one.
[00:38:23.960 --> 00:38:37.560] I'm seeing a lot of different typography, and again, this is more design-related, but really like unusual sizes or really big typography, or a lot of like differentiation between typography and the same line.
[00:38:37.960 --> 00:38:45.200] I sort of mentioned how even just having people hover over the typography and it will change a lot of high contrast with typography.
[00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:47.760] So, typography is becoming, and it kind of has been.
[00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:51.120] This is one that's been like creeping into the forefront for a while.
[00:38:51.440 --> 00:39:01.840] But it's like I've seen some sites that are almost completely typography-based lately, a lot more, you know, hardly any imagery, which you know used to be never the case.
[00:39:01.840 --> 00:39:05.840] So, those are just some like fun and interesting ones.
[00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:09.200] Um, but I'd be curious what you think about any of those.
[00:39:09.200 --> 00:39:16.320] I mean, I am all for a mouse trailer or like a cursor trailer.
[00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:20.960] Um, I get so giggity about those every time I see one on the internet.
[00:39:20.960 --> 00:39:25.600] I copy and paste the link and send it to the Bean Boss team, and I'm like, when are we doing this?
[00:39:25.600 --> 00:39:27.200] Because I want them everywhere.
[00:39:27.200 --> 00:39:31.440] I want sparkles to follow my mouse everywhere it goes.
[00:39:31.440 --> 00:39:39.360] That is like 90s web designer, like high school Emily, who is just like living her best life, basically.
[00:39:39.680 --> 00:39:44.000] Um, or I guess that would be like right at the turn of the century, right at 2000.
[00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:47.200] Isn't that pretty spot on for that vibe?
[00:39:47.200 --> 00:39:49.600] Um, I think you're spot on with all the other ones, though.
[00:39:49.600 --> 00:39:51.440] That one is legitimately my favorite.
[00:39:51.440 --> 00:40:06.000] I was even on a site the other day, also sent to the Bean Boss team, um, that just had stars just falling from the top margin the entire time, and it was absolutely enchanting.
[00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:15.120] It's so interesting, though, because first of all, that 90s aesthetic is a whole nother trend that I wasn't even gonna dive deep into, but that shit is everywhere.
[00:40:15.120 --> 00:40:26.720] Um, but what's interesting to me about it is it kind of is an interesting juxtaposition with like this accessibility piece, too, because there's like a maximalism sort of to that.
[00:40:26.720 --> 00:40:31.320] Um, just it's like, it's like we're just throwing up all over our websites.
[00:40:29.840 --> 00:40:37.240] Let's just throw stars and cursor trails and, you know, all kinds of like wild gifts everywhere.
[00:40:37.560 --> 00:40:50.520] So it's kind of fun, but again, I think maybe that's why we have this duality of the accessibility being like, but wait, we really need to be able to actually read and follow through everything on your website.
[00:40:50.520 --> 00:40:59.480] So it's fun, but it also, you know, I don't know, it's kind of like in direct opposition to actually being helpful for everybody.
[00:40:59.480 --> 00:41:03.560] That is exactly why we do not have it on any of our sites.
[00:41:03.560 --> 00:41:10.760] I have a really great filter called A Deem who's like, this is cute, Emily, but not for us right now.
[00:41:11.640 --> 00:41:12.920] But I do love those.
[00:41:12.920 --> 00:41:17.080] The 90s Aesthetic is totally the trend that no one should jump on.
[00:41:17.080 --> 00:41:23.640] As much as I love it, as much as I absolutely love it and how it brings my heart so much joy.
[00:41:23.640 --> 00:41:40.200] God, can we just make like, like, I'm imagining like all kinds of hardcore, like 90s, early 2000s graphics that I want nothing more than to build everything out of, but I am not because it will be old in no time, absolutely no time.
[00:41:40.200 --> 00:41:47.320] So as much as I love it and appreciate it, and I'm so glad that some people have jumped on that bandwagon so that I can appreciate it.
[00:41:47.320 --> 00:41:54.440] If you are trying to build a website for your business that's going to last more than 18 months, don't do it.
[00:41:54.440 --> 00:41:56.440] Absolutely don't do it.
[00:41:56.440 --> 00:41:57.480] Yeah, totally.
[00:41:57.480 --> 00:42:04.600] I think that anytime you get, I mean, if there's, if there's a decade that that has come back, it will also go away.
[00:42:04.600 --> 00:42:06.680] So that's just like, you know, hot tick.
[00:42:06.680 --> 00:42:09.000] Let's not, let's not go down that road, right?
[00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:09.400] Right.
[00:42:09.400 --> 00:42:15.440] And in 2012 in 20 years, when that website is relevant again, it will no longer be functional.
[00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:16.880] So that's right.
[00:42:16.880 --> 00:42:17.680] Don't do it.
[00:42:17.680 --> 00:42:18.640] Don't do it.
[00:42:19.360 --> 00:42:19.840] Perfect.
[00:42:19.840 --> 00:42:21.360] I think all of those are really great.
[00:42:14.600 --> 00:42:22.080] And I think you're right.
[00:42:22.240 --> 00:42:27.120] There are some there that we should absolutely hold on to and continue forward with.
[00:42:27.120 --> 00:42:30.080] This also sort of harkens back to a conversation I had.
[00:42:30.640 --> 00:42:34.240] Actually, let me look at my little database here that I'm in.
[00:42:34.480 --> 00:42:43.200] So if you actually go back two episodes to episode number 340, I have a conversation with Autumn Whitboy about legal updates for business this year.
[00:42:43.520 --> 00:42:57.280] And one of the things that we talked about in that episode is how online business is becoming less of the wild, wild west, where we have the ability to just do business, create our websites, right?
[00:42:57.280 --> 00:43:15.920] Like, you know, have the colors be whatever we, you know, quote unquote want them to be, whatever it may be, and more into this structured, structured foundation that allows for accessibility and doing business in a good and right way that, you know, is accessible by all, like all these things.
[00:43:15.920 --> 00:43:26.160] We're moving out of that Wild West and into some rules that we kind of just need to follow in order to be and do good in the world.
[00:43:26.160 --> 00:43:27.600] And I'm, I'm all for it.
[00:43:27.600 --> 00:43:45.920] So if anyone is looking at doing any website updates, actually, if you're not looking at doing any website updates, but you're just wanting to make sure that your business stuff is super buttoned up, doing an accessibility audit of your website, I think, is a really great step for everyone to take.
[00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:48.400] And you're right, you probably won't get in trouble.
[00:43:48.400 --> 00:43:59.880] But if it is not accessible, there are grounds for you to get in trouble and for you to also just lose out on having what you do accessible to someone who might need it.
[00:43:59.880 --> 00:44:00.280] Totally.
[00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:03.560] You might lose in a key client that you might want to have.
[00:44:04.040 --> 00:44:17.000] Again, you know, as I said before, working with a lot of therapists and just people who help other people, it's really important if you do because you don't want somebody to feel like you are not, they're not able to get access to the help that you provide.
[00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:18.440] So it is a pretty big deal.
[00:44:18.440 --> 00:44:25.640] We have a blog post about it that kind of covers some of those baseline things on junemango.com.
[00:44:25.640 --> 00:44:30.920] And then I also link out in that blog post to the website, the ADA website.
[00:44:30.920 --> 00:44:37.160] So you can really get like, if you want to super dive deep, there's plenty of information out there that you can kind of go and find.
[00:44:37.160 --> 00:44:37.560] Perfect.
[00:44:37.560 --> 00:44:45.240] And we'll include links to those things in our show notes as well as that episode with autumn if you want to go back and listen to that.
[00:44:45.560 --> 00:44:46.120] Perfect.
[00:44:46.120 --> 00:44:49.240] And I think we can probably start wrapping this up.
[00:44:49.240 --> 00:44:55.720] But before we get too crazy, I would love to know where you see websites going.
[00:44:56.360 --> 00:45:25.240] So I think that we're going to, it's going to be sort of in the same vein of the accessibility sort of conversation where people and brands are going to start having to kind of merge this sort of like community-oriented, conscientious side now that we have social media and everybody is seeing everything that you're doing and your values with the sort of business professional side of your business.
[00:45:25.240 --> 00:45:30.040] So for example, putting literally those values onto your website.
[00:45:30.040 --> 00:45:32.680] I think that that's one place I've been seeing people do that.
[00:45:32.680 --> 00:45:40.680] So, you know, saying all of the things that they support, sustainability, you know, et cetera, racial justice, all of the things.
[00:45:40.680 --> 00:45:51.200] So putting that literally on your website and kind of weaving those values into your visuals literally, I think that that's going to become something that we continue to see more of.
[00:45:51.200 --> 00:45:53.520] And that's a trend, but I think in a good way.
[00:45:53.520 --> 00:45:57.600] So it doesn't matter so much about, you know, design or whatever.
[00:45:58.560 --> 00:46:08.000] And one of the other things that I'm seeing a lot of is just ways in which people are kind of pulling back from social media, which you sort of noted.
[00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:15.040] I know we're all feeling a little burnt out of social media and especially in trying to market our business there.
[00:46:15.040 --> 00:46:26.240] So there's some interesting ways that people have been kind of again pulling those elements of the socialness or just the updates into their website.
[00:46:26.240 --> 00:46:30.800] So another thing that I didn't mention yet is a now page.
[00:46:30.800 --> 00:46:39.600] And a now page is basically kind of if your about pages like your background sort of a little bit more about you and your contact page is obviously people getting in touch with you.
[00:46:39.600 --> 00:46:47.520] Your now page is kind of like a longer form blog post about kind of what you're up to and what you're interested now.
[00:46:47.520 --> 00:46:58.720] So again, that a little bit ties into like, you know, you could be talking about the, you know, the community that you're working with or what movies you're watching.
[00:46:58.720 --> 00:47:03.920] Like it could kind of run the gamut of whatever you want to mention or what projects are you working on now.
[00:47:04.080 --> 00:47:15.760] It's just an interesting way to kind of connect with people and show them this other side, this more personal side, where you don't have to necessarily be all over social media doing it.
[00:47:15.760 --> 00:47:21.000] And so I don't know, I think that just kind of that blend is going to be something that we're going to start seeing.
[00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:24.880] And that's going to trickle into web too.
[00:47:25.200 --> 00:47:40.040] Yeah, I feel like this is kind of the second time you've brought up bringing really the content that we're creating for social media into our website for kind of the first time ever in this way.
[00:47:40.040 --> 00:47:45.880] And we've been pulling in our Instagram feeds or, you know, whatever for as long as we've been able to do it.
[00:47:45.880 --> 00:47:52.680] But this idea of one, you mentioned bringing more video in to make it feel a little more like social media.
[00:47:52.680 --> 00:47:56.760] And two, this now page, which I've seen a couple of these and I find them fascinating.
[00:47:56.760 --> 00:48:08.680] I think they're such a really great little like peek into the lives and experiences of the people behind the brand or, you know, like into the back office, right?
[00:48:08.680 --> 00:48:15.080] You're like just opening up that back door and just seeing what everybody's doing inside and what's important to them and what it is that they want to share.
[00:48:15.080 --> 00:48:17.720] And I think, I think they're fascinating.
[00:48:17.720 --> 00:48:23.800] And I love that it is that blending of my home, my website, right?
[00:48:24.120 --> 00:48:29.880] With the things that I would traditionally just blast out on social media, but I'm doing it in my house.
[00:48:29.880 --> 00:48:30.440] So.
[00:48:30.440 --> 00:48:33.400] Well, and with and with intention, I think, too.
[00:48:33.400 --> 00:48:37.080] I think maybe that's the word that I was searching for and didn't, couldn't find.
[00:48:37.080 --> 00:48:47.720] It's like there's a little more intention to some of the things that are being shared and what we're showcasing and what it means to us and our audience.
[00:48:47.720 --> 00:48:49.240] Yeah, I think it's fascinating.
[00:48:49.240 --> 00:48:50.520] I'm going to dig into those.
[00:48:50.520 --> 00:48:59.240] Y'all, don't be surprised if, especially Almanac, I could imagine literally having a page where it's like everyone's favorite crystal at the moment, right?
[00:48:59.240 --> 00:49:00.280] Or fun things like that.
[00:49:00.280 --> 00:50:47.720] You can make it very relative to your business and what it is that's going on while still making them incredibly fun and just housed in that place, a fun little, a fun little bit of social, of socialness um in your website so those are fun ones good everybody go make it oh just wow tear my computer off my desk my hands went wild everyone and i almost pulled my computer right off um everyone go make a now page maybe if you want and i think we need to credit i i actually don't know how to say his last name derek sivers derek sivers and he has some good he's also the guy who so he created the now page or came up with it he's also the guy who wrote the book if it's not a hell yes it's a no which i know we talk about a lot in this community too so he's got some good ideas jason zook has a now page it really is becoming kind of a thing that i'm seeing a lot but i want to give him that shout out because that was his his jam so then i have one more question for you uh one more like contenty question here and that is if you had one tip or one action that everyone listening to this could take um into their business for making their website just a little bit better in 2023 what would it be well i think that just since we've been talking about trends too it's okay to look at the trends and pull them into your site in a smaller way so for example you can pull them into a blog post or some of the things we talked about with the now page but i think really what ultimately is the most helpful and the way that you know you can do it successfully with a trend is if you're starting with a strong branding foundation and and that can be, you know, your fonts and your colors.
[00:50:47.720 --> 00:50:51.160] Just, it's kind of like you know who you are before you go out into the world.
[00:50:51.160 --> 00:50:56.200] So if you know who you are, then you can pull that clarity into your website.
[00:50:56.200 --> 00:51:04.040] And then it's okay if you want to like dip your toe in the trend water for a second and you know you're not going to kind of like topple in headfirst.
[00:51:04.360 --> 00:51:18.040] So kind of checking in, even like going back and doing a little bit of a web audit or a branding audit and making sure, okay, does this actually, you know, is it clear who it is I help, what I do, who I do it for, all of that stuff.
[00:51:18.600 --> 00:51:19.800] Those sorts of things.
[00:51:19.800 --> 00:51:27.720] You can, I do a web audit sort of spring refresh in my newsletter every year because sometimes we just need to go back and comb through it.
[00:51:27.720 --> 00:51:34.760] But I think Branding Foundation, don't do all the trends and maybe do a web audit and you'll be good to go.
[00:51:34.760 --> 00:51:35.320] Love it.
[00:51:35.320 --> 00:51:35.640] Yeah.
[00:51:35.640 --> 00:51:39.240] We do, I do a web audit in both companies every year.
[00:51:39.240 --> 00:51:40.360] I think it's super imparative.
[00:51:40.440 --> 00:51:41.080] Just go through.
[00:51:41.080 --> 00:51:48.280] Things get broken, click all the things, read the things, update the things that aren't true anymore or have shifted and change, whatever it may be.
[00:51:48.280 --> 00:51:53.080] I think it's a very good step for everyone to be taking every single year.
[00:51:53.080 --> 00:51:54.600] And Kelly, this has been a treat.
[00:51:54.600 --> 00:51:56.200] Thanks for coming to chat.
[00:51:56.200 --> 00:51:57.480] Yeah, it was so fun.
[00:51:57.480 --> 00:51:58.040] Of course.
[00:51:58.040 --> 00:52:01.480] Where can folks find more about you and what you do?
[00:52:01.800 --> 00:52:05.720] I don't have a now page, but you can still come hang out with me on junemango.com.
[00:52:05.720 --> 00:52:07.560] I decided not to adopt that trend.
[00:52:07.560 --> 00:52:08.120] Perfect.
[00:52:08.760 --> 00:52:11.720] But yeah, junemango.com is my business website.
[00:52:11.720 --> 00:52:14.760] And then we're also on Instagram at JuneMango Studio.
[00:52:14.760 --> 00:52:17.720] And that is all I do because I try to keep it simple.
[00:52:18.040 --> 00:52:19.080] Lovely.
[00:52:19.080 --> 00:52:23.400] And last but not least, what's making you feel most boss?
[00:52:24.040 --> 00:52:26.600] I think just that I'm sleeping.
[00:52:26.920 --> 00:52:29.400] That's a good place to start.
[00:52:30.040 --> 00:52:35.240] I think now that I'm sleeping, my brain is functioning and I'm like, man, I have good ideas when I sleep.
[00:52:35.240 --> 00:52:38.200] So I'll go pretty boss when I can snooze.
[00:52:38.200 --> 00:52:38.920] Love it.
[00:52:38.920 --> 00:52:40.440] Perfect answer.
[00:52:40.440 --> 00:52:42.200] Thanks for coming to chat.
[00:52:42.200 --> 00:52:43.480] Thanks.
[00:52:45.040 --> 00:52:51.840] All right, boss, because you're here, I know you want to be a better creative business owner, which means I've got something for you.
[00:52:51.840 --> 00:53:08.400] Each week, the team at Bean Boss is scouring the news, the best entrepreneurial publications, and updates and releases of the apps and tools that run our businesses and is curating it all into a weekly email that delivers the must-know tips and tactics in the realms of mindset, money, and productivity.
[00:53:08.400 --> 00:53:10.240] This email is called Brood.
[00:53:10.240 --> 00:53:16.400] We brew it up for you each week to give you the insight you need to make decisions and move forward in your creative business.
[00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:20.880] Check it out now and sign up for yourself at beingboss.club slash brood.
[00:53:20.880 --> 00:53:25.840] That's beingboss.club slash b-r-e-w-e-d.
[00:53:25.840 --> 00:53:28.560] Now, until next time, do the work.
[00:53:28.560 --> 00:53:29.760] Be boss.

Prompt 2: Key Takeaways

Now please extract the key takeaways from the transcript content I provided.

Extract the most important key takeaways from this part of the conversation. Use a single sentence statement (the key takeaway) rather than milquetoast descriptions like "the hosts discuss...". 

Limit the key takeaways to a maximum of 3. The key takeaways should be insightful and knowledge-additive. 

IMPORTANT: Return ONLY valid JSON, no explanations or markdown. Ensure:
- All strings are properly quoted and escaped
- No trailing commas
- All braces and brackets are balanced
Format: {"key_takeaways": ["takeaway 1", "takeaway 2"]}

Prompt 3: Segments

Now identify 2-4 distinct topical segments from this part of the conversation.

For each segment, identify:
- Descriptive title (3-6 words)  
- START timestamp when this topic begins (HH:MM:SS format)
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Most important Key takeaway from that segment. Key takeaway must be specific and knowledge-additive.
- Brief summary of the discussion

IMPORTANT: The timestamp should mark when the topic/segment STARTS, not a range. Look for topic transitions and conversation shifts.

Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted, no trailing commas:
{
  "segments": [
    {
      "segment_title": "Topic Discussion", 
      "timestamp": "01:15:30",
      "key_takeaway": "main point from this segment",
      "segment_summary": "brief description of what was discussed"
    }
  ]
}

Timestamp format: HH:MM:SS (e.g., 00:05:30, 01:22:45) marking the START of each segment.

Prompt 4: Media Mentions

Now scan the transcript content I provided for ACTUAL mentions of specific media titles:

Find explicit mentions of:
- Books (with specific titles)
- Movies (with specific titles)  
- TV Shows (with specific titles)
- Music/Songs (with specific titles)

DO NOT include:
- Websites, URLs, or web services
- Other podcasts or podcast names

IMPORTANT: 
- Only include items explicitly mentioned by name. Do not invent titles.
- Valid categories are: "Book", "Movie", "TV Show", "Music"
- Include the exact phrase where each item was mentioned
- Find the nearest proximate timestamp where it appears in the conversation
- THE TIMESTAMP OF THE MEDIA MENTION IS IMPORTANT - DO NOT INVENT TIMESTAMPS AND DO NOT MISATTRIBUTE TIMESTAMPS
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Timestamps are given as ranges, e.g. 01:13:42.520 --> 01:13:46.720. Use the EARLIER of the 2 timestamps in the range.

Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted and escaped, no trailing commas:
{
  "media_mentions": [
    {
      "title": "Exact Title as Mentioned",
      "category": "Book",
      "author_artist": "N/A",
      "context": "Brief context of why it was mentioned",
      "context_phrase": "The exact sentence or phrase where it was mentioned",
      "timestamp": "estimated time like 01:15:30"
    }
  ]
}

If no media is mentioned, return: {"media_mentions": []}

Full Transcript

[00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:07.360] Look, payday is awesome, but running payroll, calculating taxes and deductions, staying compliant, that's not easy.
[00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:09.360] Unless, of course, you have Gusto.
[00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:14.400] Gusto is a simple online payroll and benefits tool built for small businesses like yours.
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[00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.320] We love it so much, we really do use it ourselves.
[00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:34.800] And we have four years, and I personally recommend you give it a try, no matter how small your business is.
[00:00:34.800 --> 00:00:38.880] And to sweeten the deal, just for listening today, you also get three months free.
[00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:41.360] Go to gusto.com/slash beingboss.
[00:00:41.360 --> 00:00:45.120] That's gusto.com/slash beingboss.
[00:00:46.720 --> 00:00:54.480] Welcome to Being Boss, a podcast for creatives, business owners, and entrepreneurs who want to take control of their work and live life on their own terms.
[00:00:54.480 --> 00:01:06.160] I'm your host, Emily Thompson, and in this episode, I'm joined by web designer Callie Edwards to talk about trends as well as tried and true tactics in the world of small business websites.
[00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:09.840] A perfect chat for all you online business owners out there.
[00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:15.840] You can find all the tools, books, and links we reference on the show notes at www.beingboss.club.
[00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:20.960] And if you like this episode, be sure to subscribe to this show and share us with a friend.
[00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:33.200] Whether you want to grow your business with content marketing, social media, or speaking on stages, or in highly produced Zoom rooms, I've got a podcast recommendation for you.
[00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:43.840] Cue up an episode of The Shine Online, hosted by Natasha Samuel, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.
[00:01:43.840 --> 00:02:08.520] On her show, Natasha interviews the brightest entrepreneurs she knows to bring you no-fluff advice, honest discussions about the mental health and lifestyle aspect of entrepreneurship, and actionable strategies and success stories of those who've mastered the art of shining online in this conversational podcast with some hard-hitting episodes on marketing your business and filling the latest of her lineup.
[00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:14.200] Give it a search and listen to The Shine Online wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:02:16.760 --> 00:02:23.080] Callie Edwards owns June Mango Design, a creative studio that works with helpers, healers, and holistic brands.
[00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:27.640] June Mango's sweet spot lies in the logo and web design process.
[00:02:27.640 --> 00:02:34.440] With her signature go live in five process, you get a fully designed logo and website in just five days.
[00:02:34.440 --> 00:02:37.160] You start on Monday, you're live by Friday.
[00:02:37.160 --> 00:02:44.040] Her designs have a unique ability to unearth emotions so that clients can deeply connect with their dream customers.
[00:02:44.040 --> 00:02:50.040] Callie has previously made an appearance here on The Being Boss Show in episode number 287.
[00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:52.360] Callie, welcome back to Being Boss.
[00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:53.880] I'm so glad you're here.
[00:02:53.880 --> 00:02:54.360] Yes.
[00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:54.760] Hello.
[00:02:54.760 --> 00:02:56.600] I'm so glad to be back.
[00:02:56.600 --> 00:02:57.640] Yeah, it has been.
[00:02:57.640 --> 00:02:58.440] I went and looked.
[00:02:58.440 --> 00:03:02.520] It's been a whole year since we last recorded.
[00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:11.640] So you were last back for episode number 287, an episode called Intentions for Small Business Success at Every Level with Callie Edwards.
[00:03:11.640 --> 00:03:16.440] And I don't know if I ever really followed up with you on this, but that was one of the most popular episodes of the year.
[00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:18.840] Well, hey, hi now.
[00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:19.960] Yeah, right?
[00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:20.440] Right?
[00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:22.520] They want to be small.
[00:03:23.160 --> 00:03:24.040] They do.
[00:03:24.040 --> 00:03:26.840] And I not feel bad about wanting to be small.
[00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:28.200] There's no reason anyone should.
[00:03:28.200 --> 00:03:42.440] So if anyone is interested in hearing more of Callie's story or interested in the topic of intentionally staying small or intentions for small business success at every level, go back to episode number 287.
[00:03:42.440 --> 00:03:44.520] We'll include links to that in the show notes.
[00:03:45.040 --> 00:03:50.720] It was such a great episode and really one of our most popular ones of the year.
[00:03:50.720 --> 00:04:03.600] So we're back for another great chat, but this time not around the sort of like, you know, 30,000 foot view, like small business owner mindset, but really what it is that you do.
[00:04:03.600 --> 00:04:05.920] And that's website stuff.
[00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:07.920] Website stuff.
[00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:10.880] So what have you been up to in the past year?
[00:04:10.880 --> 00:04:13.280] Give us a bit of an update.
[00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:21.680] So, well, we were just talking before we jumped on about how my little baby is 10 months now and he just started sleeping through the night.
[00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:29.840] So personally, I'm sleeping, which is exciting, which means that professionally I am thriving again because I can think.
[00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:38.160] So I think the main update is that, you know, my thing is Go Live in Five, where we build a website in a week.
[00:04:38.320 --> 00:04:41.600] And I've kind of expanded that to be doing a couple other things.
[00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:43.520] So now we're doing Go Live in Five logos.
[00:04:43.520 --> 00:04:46.000] So we're doing logos in five days.
[00:04:46.320 --> 00:04:48.000] And that's not a full branding.
[00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:49.680] It's more of the design only.
[00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:54.240] Anyone who does branding knows that you, it's a, there's a lot that goes into branding and brand strategy.
[00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:59.680] But, you know, if you just need a logo and an icon, we are knocking that out in five days too.
[00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:05.680] So we're kind of just expanding what we do and the fact that we're pretty fast at what we do.
[00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:06.400] Wonderful.
[00:05:06.400 --> 00:05:20.560] And just for clarification for anyone who's like, ooh, that sounds interesting to me, but also for painting the picture as to what we're about to talk about, what kind of websites do you do and for what kinds of folks?
[00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:24.480] So, we work with holistic brands and helpers, basically.
[00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:34.280] So, therapists, yogis, acupuncturists, anyone who's trying to kind of really get us all back on track.
[00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:37.640] I help them so that they can help me, basically.
[00:05:37.960 --> 00:05:39.800] And we, they're really small businesses.
[00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:43.800] And, you know, again, because what we talked about last time, my business is really small.
[00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:46.520] I think we even decided it's a micro business.
[00:05:46.840 --> 00:05:54.440] A lot of these sort of personal brands, you know, they don't necessarily know how to do the tech side or the design side of everything.
[00:05:54.440 --> 00:05:58.840] So, that's where I come in and kind of help them so that again, they can help other people.
[00:05:59.160 --> 00:05:59.800] Lovely.
[00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:00.600] Perfect.
[00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:09.720] Then, from that, we're here today to talk about websites and sort of the state of websites in 2023.
[00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:13.880] What we need to look forward to, what we need to sort of keep away from.
[00:06:13.880 --> 00:06:21.560] And I was talking to you too about before we got on to officially record that this used to be my wheelhouse, right?
[00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:28.440] I spent eight years designing and developing websites for all kinds of businesses, loved doing it.
[00:06:28.440 --> 00:06:36.440] But in 2018, right about the time the Being Boss book was coming out, I decided to step away from that business and go full-time.
[00:06:36.520 --> 00:06:39.880] Actually, no, I wasn't going full-time into Being Boss because I had launched Almanac.
[00:06:39.880 --> 00:06:42.840] So, I decided to split my time between two different businesses.
[00:06:42.840 --> 00:06:47.960] Instead of indie shopography and being boss, it became being boss and almanac supply co.
[00:06:48.600 --> 00:07:02.440] And the further in time I get removed from leaving behind websites in 2018, the further I get from what in the world is happening with websites in general.
[00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:03.320] I feel clueless.
[00:07:03.320 --> 00:07:07.560] I feel like we were making, you know, old like mom jokes.
[00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:14.880] I do feel like actually, legit in my house, I'm the mom who doesn't know how to use the television.
[00:07:15.200 --> 00:07:16.960] Like, that's where I've gotten.
[00:07:14.440 --> 00:07:21.280] I blame that partially on not doing websites anymore.
[00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:22.320] Like, I really don't know.
[00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.200] You just lost all of your ability to do any technology.
[00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:28.560] Yes, all technology knowledge left my brain immediately.
[00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:31.760] And I've definitely become the, I don't, I don't know which remote to use.
[00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:34.400] And I'm just like, just cue me up, whatever.
[00:07:34.400 --> 00:07:43.840] Like, I sent someone on their way to work the television for me, which is ridiculous, but I also don't hate it.
[00:07:43.840 --> 00:07:46.080] I feel like that a little bit with websites.
[00:07:46.080 --> 00:07:50.480] I'm excited to have you here to sort of be the fresh look at it.
[00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:57.440] So before we dive in really any deeper than that, still personal question.
[00:07:57.440 --> 00:07:58.960] What do you love about websites?
[00:07:58.960 --> 00:08:01.200] Like, why are you in the website world?
[00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:04.480] That is a really good question because I know we've talked about this before.
[00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:05.920] Websites are hard.
[00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:18.640] Websites tend to be at the end of the sort of exciting, you know, all the things you're doing in your business when you're branding and you're getting the beautiful logo and you are doing your copy and strategy.
[00:08:18.640 --> 00:08:19.920] And then you have to do your website.
[00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:20.800] And it's kind of hard.
[00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:22.880] There's a lot of tech stuff involved.
[00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:29.600] I started doing websites because I wanted to just make them more creative than they were at the time.
[00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:31.280] I mean, this has been a long time now.
[00:08:31.280 --> 00:08:33.200] I started in like 2013.
[00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:36.000] So that was like a heavy WordPress era.
[00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.120] And it was a little clunky and it was a lot of bugs.
[00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:42.800] And I just felt like, you know, this can be way more fun.
[00:08:42.800 --> 00:08:49.120] And just kind of like bringing a more designer eye and less, you know, like a coder eye.
[00:08:49.920 --> 00:08:53.760] And that was right when Squarespace and some of these other CMS platforms were coming out.
[00:08:53.760 --> 00:08:56.160] So you could do a little more with it.
[00:08:56.160 --> 00:08:58.160] So that's why I started it.
[00:08:58.160 --> 00:09:03.400] And now I really, like I said before, you know, design-wise, yes, that's still why I do it.
[00:08:59.760 --> 00:09:08.280] I love designing, but also I just really, really like the people that I work with.
[00:09:08.280 --> 00:09:13.960] I like getting to kind of lift them up a little bit whenever they don't ever want to touch a website.
[00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:26.920] And I totally, totally understand why, because there are just so many bits and pieces that are tough, you know, connecting your email and how do you, what is a domain and how, what is my hosting and what are you talking about?
[00:09:26.920 --> 00:09:35.560] So there's all those like technical pieces too, but even answering some of the questions, and I know we'll talk through some of them today, but like, what are the tools and integrations that I can use?
[00:09:35.560 --> 00:09:39.480] And what do, what do they even offer now that connects to my website?
[00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:45.000] And what can I do and showcase and how can I connect with my clients and all of those things?
[00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:55.240] So it's kind of nice to be able to just dig in with people so that they again can just focus on whatever their core calling is and kind of help them do the rest.
[00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:55.800] Yeah.
[00:09:55.800 --> 00:09:57.640] Oh, I love all of that.
[00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:09.880] I remember feeling very similar back in the day of like, what if it's not just UX and code, but like some good color theory, as you mentioned earlier, right?
[00:10:09.880 --> 00:10:13.400] Or like a designerly take on a website.
[00:10:13.400 --> 00:10:33.720] And so I think those of us who have sort of both of those skills, both like the very tech side as well as the design side, have a view of websites that's quite a bit more deep than people who are just one or the other, which I think brings so much to this conversation for sure.
[00:10:34.040 --> 00:10:45.440] And I will say that the complexity with which websites or the complexity that websites was sort of becoming engendered with.
[00:10:45.760 --> 00:10:57.520] Like websites were getting so complex by the time I threw in a towel in 2018 that these days it is a whole different ballgame.
[00:10:57.520 --> 00:11:13.920] And I have utmost respect for those of you who are still in there doing the things because integrations and all the things are so complex in a way that even just like managing my own, I hand off a lot of that as well.
[00:11:13.920 --> 00:11:29.280] So we're going to talk a lot today about websites in a super accessible way, but also know that if you need to hire help to get your website done or to do updates, you absolutely should, one way or the other.
[00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:35.280] This is not the kind of thing that everyone just has in their tool belt, I don't think.
[00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:44.800] Yeah, and I think that there's some things that I always say, you know, if you need to bootstrap it, bootstrap it, you know, if you're just starting out, like get the thing up, get it online.
[00:11:44.800 --> 00:11:51.040] It doesn't have to, you don't have to have this color theory background to be able to do that or hire a designer.
[00:11:51.040 --> 00:11:51.840] I get that.
[00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:52.800] We all get that.
[00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:56.800] But you do, I mean, at this point in time, you do need a website.
[00:11:56.800 --> 00:11:58.160] Everyone needs a website.
[00:11:58.160 --> 00:12:03.680] Even if you have an amazing Instagram following, even if you have a Facebook page, you really do need a website.
[00:12:03.680 --> 00:12:05.040] It's doing a lot for you.
[00:12:05.040 --> 00:12:08.160] You're always saying, Emily, it's this big marketing workhorse for you.
[00:12:08.160 --> 00:12:10.160] And that's very true too.
[00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:14.560] So all that to say, if you can't hire someone, we get it.
[00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.400] But if you can, you're going to get a lot of bang for your buck.
[00:12:18.400 --> 00:12:22.080] And you're also going to save yourself a headache.
[00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:28.160] The other thing I always say is, it's like, what do you either have a lot of time or you have a lot of money?
[00:12:28.160 --> 00:12:31.080] So, usually when you have a little more money, you have a little less time.
[00:12:31.080 --> 00:12:33.400] So, it just depends kind of where you're at.
[00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:34.520] Yeah, for sure.
[00:12:34.760 --> 00:12:40.920] Okay, let's get to the meat of this because I'm very excited to hear about what's up with websites these days.
[00:12:41.800 --> 00:12:44.920] Let's start with sort of a very broad question.
[00:12:44.920 --> 00:12:49.320] What is changing in the world of small business websites?
[00:12:49.320 --> 00:12:58.280] Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of design trends that we could get into, but more than that, sort of what we were saying, there's a lot of tools that people can use.
[00:12:58.280 --> 00:13:01.960] So, it's a lot easier to integrate things into your website.
[00:13:02.760 --> 00:13:06.520] There's a lot of integrations, almost so many that it's a little overwhelming.
[00:13:06.520 --> 00:13:12.120] But let's say, for example, you run a yoga studio and a lot of this came out of the pandemic.
[00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:19.480] So, for example, if you had a yoga studio and all of a sudden no one could come to your yoga studio, you were like, what the heck am I going to do?
[00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:21.640] So, there was a lot of scrambling.
[00:13:22.440 --> 00:13:36.120] I did, I witnessed a lot of scrambling, getting people trying to figure out how do I reach my audience and my customers and share, you know, these classes with people that they can no longer come in and get in person.
[00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:50.840] So, now that people, you know, again, software companies and Squarespace and all these people kind of figured out that we do need to be able to bring this online, they've now kind of caught up and made sure that there is a way to do that.
[00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:57.960] So, there's lots of platforms now that you can bring all of your, you know, fitness content, a lot of video stuff.
[00:13:58.600 --> 00:14:04.040] Videos itself is another big trend with TikTok, like videos are everywhere.
[00:14:04.040 --> 00:14:12.680] I tend to be on the on the further end of videos and will say, you know, you don't need to have a million videos on your website.
[00:14:12.680 --> 00:14:15.000] Let's kind of leave them on social media.
[00:14:15.760 --> 00:14:21.120] Having a few there, but I don't, people ask me sometimes, should I be adding all these videos to my site?
[00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:23.280] And I tend to say, you know, maybe not.
[00:14:23.280 --> 00:14:24.880] Let's kind of keep it streamlined.
[00:14:24.880 --> 00:14:27.200] But that's another trend.
[00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:31.600] So just like a lot of tools, there's a lot of different newsletter software.
[00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:38.720] Some newsletter software like Flowdesk is, they're doing like sales pages that you can do now.
[00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:41.440] You don't even have to sort of connect it to your website.
[00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:46.240] There's all sorts of course platforms that you can connect to your website.
[00:14:46.240 --> 00:15:02.160] So that's even just like, you know, the tip of the iceberg a little bit, but just all these different sort of softwares and platforms that you can then bring into your website and kind of weave them together depending on what your customer needs, what you're selling, what your audience is trying to do.
[00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:13.600] Yeah, I, one of the things I've definitely felt over the past, you know, 15 years with websites is, and was really expedited over the course of the pandemic, right?
[00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:14.480] Everyone getting in there.
[00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:18.480] And luckily, the tool, like the basis of all the tools is already there, right?
[00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:23.360] It just was like a speed up of making them all connect and do exactly what we want them to and all these things.
[00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:25.280] It's been really beautiful to see.
[00:15:25.280 --> 00:15:36.080] But it is a really great democratization of access to being able to build websites and have them do all kinds of things.
[00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:39.840] I was having a conversation the other day with my team at Almanac.
[00:15:40.640 --> 00:15:51.520] We were doing inventory in the store and there's, you know, whenever you're hooking up things to things electronically, they're not always seamless, right?
[00:15:51.520 --> 00:15:55.120] There's going to be lags in the updates or hiccups here.
[00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:56.000] I call them hiccups.
[00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.880] Like, you know, if some data doesn't sync, like it just hiccuped, okay?
[00:15:58.880 --> 00:16:02.840] Just like hit a refresh, it'll show back up, whatever it may be.
[00:16:03.160 --> 00:16:07.960] And for a couple of people on the team, that is the most annoying thing on the planet.
[00:16:08.280 --> 00:16:17.240] And, and of course, like me, who knows how all these things work and has been working, you know, in this realm for so long, like, this is the magic of technology.
[00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:18.680] What do you mean you're annoyed?
[00:16:18.680 --> 00:16:21.720] Like, I am fine with an occasional hiccup.
[00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:23.560] This is glorious.
[00:16:23.560 --> 00:16:30.040] And they were like, well, I just wish that, you know, we should find one platform that like does inventory and sales and POS.
[00:16:30.040 --> 00:16:33.720] And I was like, he was, they were like, it exists in the world.
[00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:35.160] Big companies have it.
[00:16:35.160 --> 00:16:35.960] And I was like, yes.
[00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:42.600] And big companies paid millions of dollars to have it custom built for them.
[00:16:42.600 --> 00:16:55.640] So because we are not that, we are going to continue with these really mind-bending tools that connect not quite seamlessly, but like almost, and do it with an occasional hiccup.
[00:16:55.640 --> 00:17:01.640] And it was just such a funny moment to sort of be on the other side of that, where they were like, I just want everything.
[00:17:01.640 --> 00:17:03.720] I want it to be all the things.
[00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:57.040] And I'm like, but if you just had any idea what the solutions were five years ago and to see what they are now, you would be as okay with these occasional hiccups as I am because the possibilities have become almost endless with the sort of business solutions that you can build for yourself by connecting two, three, four different pieces of software together through almost seamless integrations is crazy in a way that I remember building, I remember hand-building simple solutions for people 10 years ago because the option to get, you know, for me, it's a Shopify store and let's say an acuity scheduling account and hook them up was not an option even a decade ago.
[00:17:57.040 --> 00:17:58.160] Yeah, it's wild.
[00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:07.200] And I think, you know, one of the trends that I am seeing too is just this like, I think we're seeing it everywhere.
[00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:17.520] It's just like we have access to so much in every facet of our lives and everything is so easy that it's almost like we feel like we need all the things because we have them at our fingertips.
[00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:21.200] But I do think, so that's the trend.
[00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:23.280] I don't necessarily think that's a good thing.
[00:18:23.600 --> 00:18:35.760] I think that sometimes, like you said, it doesn't, it starts to feel a little piecemeal, you know, like it starts to feel like you're just slapping a bunch of stuff together on your website or anywhere else.
[00:18:35.760 --> 00:18:40.400] You know, we don't necessarily need to have 16 different types of social media platforms on our phone.
[00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:41.520] Maybe let's pick two.
[00:18:41.520 --> 00:18:42.080] No.
[00:18:42.080 --> 00:18:43.120] Yeah, right.
[00:18:43.120 --> 00:18:43.760] For sure.
[00:18:43.760 --> 00:18:45.200] There is a, there's a sweet spot.
[00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:51.760] So when it comes to integrations, I find if I have more than three things working together, it's too many.
[00:18:51.760 --> 00:18:55.440] Like, like the hiccups multiply, right?
[00:18:55.440 --> 00:19:05.520] They get exponentially larger and the speed with which they lose it is amplified by how many things you're pasting together.
[00:19:05.520 --> 00:19:12.160] So I always aim for incredibly, incredibly simple integrations.
[00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:19.600] One for sure, two if I have to, three, like if I really, really, really have to.
[00:19:19.600 --> 00:19:29.400] And it better really, like, it, it better be so far removed from like core processes that it's just like advantageous for somebody to have it over there.
[00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:31.400] And anything more than that is not going to happen.
[00:19:29.840 --> 00:19:32.200] So I think you're right.
[00:19:32.360 --> 00:19:52.360] There is this like this trend of like taking a hold of all the opportunities, but there is wisdom and keeping it down to what you most definitely need and connecting things, connecting things wisely because it can really get real messy real fast.
[00:19:52.360 --> 00:19:52.600] Yeah.
[00:19:52.600 --> 00:19:56.440] And you know, it's kind of like a business strategy decision too.
[00:19:56.440 --> 00:20:02.520] You know, there's, for example, another one is you can, it's so easy to do these drop shipping print integrations now.
[00:20:02.520 --> 00:20:05.000] So, you know, you could just say, well, I'm a designer.
[00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:06.680] I'm going to start designing t-shirts too.
[00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:09.240] And I'm going to just add that to my site because I can.
[00:20:09.560 --> 00:20:12.440] That's a silly example, but you can.
[00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:18.360] But, you know, then you're kind of distilling your message, your services.
[00:20:18.360 --> 00:20:21.000] So, again, there's a lot of stuff.
[00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:22.440] It's a cool thing.
[00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:32.440] We don't necessarily have to do all the things, but that is something it's nice to have them, you know, so that if you do want to, if you actually are selling t-shirts, now you have this cool integration that you can use.
[00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:42.280] Yeah, I think it's also really fascinating that you brought up this video piece as well, because that's also something over the past couple of years that I've seen becoming more and more of a thing.
[00:20:42.280 --> 00:20:53.720] And, you know, whereas, you know, five, ten years ago, it was kind of cool to have like a like a B-roll video on your home page behind, like, behind your opening text or whatever.
[00:20:53.720 --> 00:20:56.040] Like, that was, that was the trend and cool.
[00:20:56.040 --> 00:20:57.400] And is it?
[00:20:57.400 --> 00:21:00.360] I feel like that's a timeless design, personally.
[00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:04.440] I think, I think you can have one, right?
[00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:04.760] Yes.
[00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:06.440] Like, like that is the thing.
[00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:07.240] One.
[00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:08.040] Absolutely.
[00:21:08.280 --> 00:21:15.760] Right now, the thing is, let's make our own website look like TikTok or Instagram Reels or whatever it may be.
[00:21:16.080 --> 00:21:48.800] And so I think you're totally right there of like keeping that down because what, like the difference between someone who's building websites and understand how like data and all of those things is going to work versus someone who just wants the things on their website without thinking about the repercussions of those kinds of things is just how heavy of a load video is for both your website hosting, but also for someone trying to load your website while they're driving down a country road with little to no cell phone service or whatever it may be.
[00:21:48.800 --> 00:22:02.880] So it can literally be the difference between having a customer and losing a customer is making decisions around the video situation so that you are really optimizing, you're optimizing the experience.
[00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:06.080] And sometimes optimization is less, not more.
[00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:07.120] Exactly.
[00:22:07.120 --> 00:22:08.800] And that's really what I'm trying to say.
[00:22:08.800 --> 00:22:12.240] And I think video is a really good example of that because of everything you just said.
[00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:16.320] And also, you know, there's a lot that can go wrong with a video.
[00:22:16.320 --> 00:22:18.960] If a person's sound is not on, well, they're missing something.
[00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:32.880] If you're actually sort of speaking to them about something, if it doesn't load, if you have so many that then they're skipping over something, if you're putting a lot of important information in a video and it never gets watched, that information is just, you know, not going anywhere.
[00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:38.160] So it's, that's why the B-roll example is a good one because it's just a design element.
[00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:40.240] It's not like it's just nice.
[00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:49.520] You know, it gives a little personality to the site, but it's not like some critical thing if it didn't load for some reason.
[00:22:49.520 --> 00:22:49.920] Right.
[00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:54.480] I won't even go into search engine optimization with videos either.
[00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:56.640] How you're losing out, all that kinds of goodness.
[00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:57.040] So, good.
[00:22:57.040 --> 00:22:57.280] Okay.
[00:22:57.280 --> 00:23:00.360] Those are two things that you are seeing.
[00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:05.720] Um, that's not even really the videos, it's not like a changing thing, that just is where we're at.
[00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:31.880] But I do agree that this integration piece is probably the biggest change that we're looking at in terms of your website: this idea that you can really build semi-custom-feeling solutions by easily connecting a couple of different solutions together to give you the functionality that you want with your website.
[00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:39.400] Can I tell you something that I'm seeing in the sort of world of small business websites that I think is fascinating?
[00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:40.280] Totally.
[00:23:40.600 --> 00:23:42.680] People not even having them.
[00:23:43.800 --> 00:23:44.760] Tell me more.
[00:23:44.760 --> 00:23:45.880] I'm seeing this a whole lot.
[00:23:46.040 --> 00:23:49.320] I think it's really interesting and something that I've even thought about for myself.
[00:23:49.320 --> 00:24:00.840] Like, and mostly the growth of platforms and social media and those, like, those platforms are one side of it.
[00:24:00.840 --> 00:24:10.920] But the other side of it is Patreon and Substack and all of those platforms where you actually get to sort of quote unquote own your customer base, right?
[00:24:10.920 --> 00:24:19.240] They're not all owned by the platform or the company, but you actually have access to their contact information and can take them with you, those sorts of things.
[00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:23.640] I feel like I'm seeing more and more people foregoing traditional websites.
[00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:24.360] Isn't that cute?
[00:24:24.360 --> 00:24:27.240] Traditional, as if they've been around for 100 years.
[00:24:27.560 --> 00:24:37.560] Forgoing traditional websites in favor of just using these platforms or their place on these, or Medium, even I think is a great example of this.
[00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:41.640] Using those platforms as their online home.
[00:24:41.640 --> 00:24:42.440] Are you seeing this?
[00:24:42.440 --> 00:24:43.880] And what are your feelings?
[00:24:43.880 --> 00:24:52.720] Yeah, and I think that that is a very specific thing, actually, that only, maybe not only, but really works better if you're sort of a personal brand, right?
[00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:57.120] So that would not work for a therapist with a private practice.
[00:24:57.120 --> 00:25:09.280] But for the guy who has Substack and has like a huge Twitter following, and then he's converting that into all of these subscribers, well, that, yeah, that makes perfect sense for him.
[00:25:09.280 --> 00:25:13.760] But that's sort of like a business model, personal brand strategy.
[00:25:13.760 --> 00:25:17.760] So I think that that can work, but I almost think that those are two different things.
[00:25:17.760 --> 00:25:19.200] But yes, totally.
[00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:33.680] It's also an interesting thing because that guy who has 8,000 Twitter followers and is selling his newsletter subscription for $80 is like the fat tail of that sort of business model of Substack.
[00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:42.240] And so it sort of entices everyone else to be like, oh man, I could totally do that and make $80,000 a month or whatever it is that he makes.
[00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:47.040] But I think because there is that fat tail, it's like, it's a little misleading.
[00:25:47.040 --> 00:25:53.200] It doesn't mean that you can't do it, but it's just its own unique slice, I think.
[00:25:53.840 --> 00:25:54.400] It is.
[00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:54.800] It is.
[00:25:54.800 --> 00:26:04.080] And it's been interesting to watch it grow or like the interest in that grow and for it to become that sort of home for so many people.
[00:26:05.040 --> 00:26:10.320] Growing a business can feel like the Wild West, but there's a better CRM in town: HubSpot.
[00:26:10.320 --> 00:26:17.360] HubSpot CRM keeps all your teams on the same page, so you can spend less time managing your software and more time connecting with your customers.
[00:26:17.360 --> 00:26:23.840] When you hit your wagon to HubSpot CRM, your marketing, sales, operations, and service teams all have access to the same data.
[00:26:23.840 --> 00:26:28.720] Sales teams won't miss out on qualified leads, and marketing teams know where best to promote their offers.
[00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:30.760] That's how the Wild West is won.
[00:26:30.760 --> 00:26:32.840] Learn more at HubSpot.com.
[00:26:32.840 --> 00:26:34.920] HubSpot grow better.
[00:26:35.880 --> 00:26:38.040] So that's like the changing world.
[00:26:38.040 --> 00:26:42.360] Let's look at, let's look at what is staying the same.
[00:26:42.360 --> 00:26:45.080] So in the world of websites, what's not changing?
[00:26:45.080 --> 00:26:48.040] What remains ever important?
[00:26:48.360 --> 00:26:56.600] I think that some of those core, and again, this is more for like the small business, maybe less for the guy on Substack.
[00:26:56.600 --> 00:27:01.480] But, you know, well, even for the guy on Substack, I was going to say certain things like trust.
[00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:09.560] You know, no one's, this people who are spending $80 on his subscription have to trust that he's going to deliver what he says he's going to deliver, for example.
[00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:19.480] So having a trust and having that be clear, whatever your web platform is, website or something else, clarity in what it is that you offer.
[00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:22.040] Again, I think that applies to everyone and everything.
[00:27:22.040 --> 00:27:25.560] And it needs to be on your website or your web presence.
[00:27:25.560 --> 00:27:31.080] And then clear call to actions too is never, you always need that, obviously.
[00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:34.840] But that's the thing that I still see people don't have.
[00:27:35.240 --> 00:27:39.000] They seem to forget or they don't put a button on.
[00:27:39.160 --> 00:27:42.600] I've seen many, many sites where there's a page and there's just no button.
[00:27:42.600 --> 00:27:43.560] There's just nothing.
[00:27:43.560 --> 00:27:44.760] It's just information.
[00:27:44.760 --> 00:27:46.040] And that's fine.
[00:27:46.040 --> 00:27:51.240] But, you know, again, we want to think through what is the audience doing on this site?
[00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:52.760] What do we want them to be doing?
[00:27:52.760 --> 00:27:58.040] So what is the next logical step when they get to the end of this page or even the end of this paragraph?
[00:27:58.280 --> 00:28:00.520] So clear call to actions.
[00:28:00.840 --> 00:28:03.160] And then SEO, which you sort of touched on.
[00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:19.840] And that's a really big piece that maybe we don't need to get too deep into, but just kind of being thoughtful and even just kind of setting the groundwork by making sure you have, you know, clear page URLs and tagged images and some key phrases in there.
[00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:23.760] Just kind of again, thinking through like, what is my audience probably searching for?
[00:28:23.760 --> 00:28:26.800] Do I have that incorporated in here in some way or another?
[00:28:26.800 --> 00:28:29.440] Am I just being like a little bit thoughtful about that?
[00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:40.720] You know, you can really go down the rabbit hole there, but it's as important, if not more important today as it was 10 years ago, probably more so because there's so much content out there.
[00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:42.640] Yeah, I completely agree with that.
[00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:44.320] Oh, I love all of those things.
[00:28:44.320 --> 00:28:48.640] I think that all that website content things, like the things you have to get right, you're right.
[00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:50.560] They're just mandatory.
[00:28:50.560 --> 00:28:53.120] And no matter where it is that you're doing the things.
[00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:56.640] And then search engine optimization.
[00:28:56.640 --> 00:28:57.920] I'm so glad you brought that up.
[00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:12.480] So, for anyone listening to this, one or two episodes ago, I did a solo episode talking about Almanac or at Almanac in particular, but we also implemented a whole lot of things at Being Boss this year or in 2022.
[00:29:12.800 --> 00:29:19.200] SEO was something that we focused a lot of our energy on, and really around one of the things that you just said.
[00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:23.120] There is so much content, so much content.
[00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:34.880] If you think that you are just going to create something and throw it out into the world and it's going to be found by everyone who needs it, no, because someone else has thought that and they're better at SEO than you are.
[00:29:35.360 --> 00:29:36.560] And that's accurate.
[00:29:36.560 --> 00:29:36.960] Right.
[00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:44.720] And so you got to also be good at SEO if you're doing any kind of, or if you want to be found organically on the internet.
[00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:55.120] You know, if you do have a private practice, let's say, and it's all word of mouth, and you just need a website up to, you know, give the basics to the people who already know you or whatever it may be, then a little less important.
[00:29:55.440 --> 00:30:13.640] But if you're creating any kind of website content, actually, no, not even creating, if you have a website, if you want it to be found, and especially if you are creating more content, so if you are blogging or creating articles or whatever, having at least a working knowledge of SEO, I think, is never going to go out of style.
[00:30:13.640 --> 00:30:23.640] And as you said, are becoming as newly relevant as those chunky loafers from, you know, a decade or two ago.
[00:30:24.280 --> 00:30:26.760] You just get more and more stylish, right?
[00:30:27.320 --> 00:30:29.400] You just, yep, you just need to see them everywhere.
[00:30:29.400 --> 00:30:30.920] You need more and more and more.
[00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:31.720] Yeah.
[00:30:32.280 --> 00:30:32.680] Yeah.
[00:30:32.760 --> 00:30:47.960] I think that an SEO is tricky because, you know, even I feel like, and I sit around doing this all day, every day, and I still feel like it's hard to kind of keep ahead of SEO and knowing what we need to do because algorithms are always changing and it's tricky.
[00:30:47.960 --> 00:31:02.440] But there are, like I said, some things that you can do on like a base level, and you can just give that a quick, ironically, Google search and find, you know, a couple tips about SEO that then you can probably even implement today on your own site.
[00:31:02.440 --> 00:31:05.720] So, you know, again, just those are some like core things.
[00:31:05.720 --> 00:31:08.120] You can go down the rabbit hole with any of those things, really.
[00:31:08.120 --> 00:31:16.120] You know, you can hire a copywriter to make sure that your copy is super clear, or you can just come through it and think about it from your audience perspective.
[00:31:16.120 --> 00:31:23.880] You know, it does this explain what I want to say to someone who doesn't know the layman's terms of my industry, that sort of thing.
[00:31:23.880 --> 00:31:30.920] So, as long as you're kind of keeping some of these things in mind as you're going through, it doesn't matter what the trends are.
[00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:31.720] Yeah, for sure.
[00:31:31.720 --> 00:31:39.800] And I will say, one of the things that we've been working on in SEO is really just on knowledge of SEO that I started gathering 15 years ago, right?
[00:31:39.800 --> 00:31:42.200] The basics of it are really all about the same.
[00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:55.360] There's like, there's lots of like new things that, you know you can implement and do, but the core of search engine optimization is set on a baseline of principles that if you even can just get those going, um, you are winning.
[00:31:55.360 --> 00:32:09.680] And the algorithm isn't one like social media where you know things are relevant for 24 hours, two weeks, tops, but things that you've had on your website for years can be some of your best performing stuff if you do your job right.
[00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:10.880] I was just gonna say that.
[00:32:10.880 --> 00:32:14.160] Don't expect to get SEO results overnight.
[00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:19.360] You're gonna, the highest performing stuff takes years, which is people always want a magic bullet.
[00:32:19.360 --> 00:32:22.720] There isn't one, there isn't one to lose weight, there isn't one for SEO.
[00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:24.480] You just have to do the work, you know?
[00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:26.160] Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:35.840] Um, and just plug here: I am doing an SEO workshop, which I would actually love to see you in because I'd like to pick your brain a little bit as we show it.
[00:32:35.840 --> 00:32:43.440] Because I'm going to be walking through the entire process of stuff that we've done at Almanac and at Being Boss over the past year for the Being Boss Clubhouse.
[00:32:43.600 --> 00:32:45.360] It's free to all of those members.
[00:32:45.360 --> 00:32:48.800] So, beingboss.club/slash community, join the clubhouse tier.
[00:32:48.800 --> 00:32:49.440] It's gonna be fun.
[00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:53.280] I'm gonna bring Corinne in from the Being Boss team who's been working on a lot of this too.
[00:32:53.280 --> 00:32:59.680] And like, not like super heady theoretical stuff, but we're gonna be walking through literally step by step.
[00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:03.600] We're gonna show you our spreadsheets, all of our tools, all of those things.
[00:33:03.600 --> 00:33:15.760] So, if anyone would like to join in for that for some SEO, um, just sort of basic knowledge to get you started, I'm excited to dive into it because for us, that is that is where we're putting our online marketing efforts.
[00:33:15.760 --> 00:33:29.720] Like, screw social media, and and you know, even to some extent, to some on some level, like a lot of like the hardcore website overhaul stuff, it is making the content that we do have super work for us.
[00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:33.560] And it's not overnight, but I'll have to show you some of our stats.
[00:33:33.800 --> 00:33:46.280] Um, when choosing good keywords, we've gotten in the top 10 and then for like sets of keywords in three months, sometimes even less, which is amazeballs.
[00:33:46.280 --> 00:33:59.960] Yeah, if you can really dive in, I mean, if and again, this is really diving in, you have to go through and figure out what your key phrases are that are going to be actually, you know, pulling through and getting above everything else.
[00:33:59.960 --> 00:34:04.920] And if you can really like sit down and figure that out, you know, you could do some pretty amazing stuff.
[00:34:04.920 --> 00:34:09.640] And imagine even what that three months is going to turn into in six months, in a year, and anything else.
[00:34:09.640 --> 00:34:11.800] Yeah, I know, it's so exciting.
[00:34:11.800 --> 00:34:13.080] Okay, perfect.
[00:34:13.080 --> 00:34:16.280] So, that's what is staying the same, right?
[00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:19.880] We've talked about things that are changing, what's staying the same.
[00:34:20.200 --> 00:34:24.600] Let's talk about maybe some trendy stuff.
[00:34:24.600 --> 00:34:39.240] And I want to talk about this too, not like everyone should go review their website in this way, but more of a this is kind of what you might want to steer clear of a little bit so that because websites aren't cheap, right?
[00:34:39.240 --> 00:34:46.440] They take a lot of time and energy from you or from somebody else, um, and/or a lot of money.
[00:34:46.440 --> 00:34:51.800] And when you get a good website, you're gonna want it to stick around for a minute.
[00:34:51.800 --> 00:34:59.080] So, being too trendy with websites is not something that's going to be a great investment.
[00:34:59.080 --> 00:35:02.440] So, I'd love to hear from you what's trending at the moment.
[00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:06.840] What would you maybe encourage people to check out or try if they want?
[00:35:07.160 --> 00:35:10.600] And then, what would you get people to stay away from?
[00:35:10.920 --> 00:35:15.760] Well, let's start with some of the more fun ones that, you know, you could try.
[00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:18.720] And I think it's, I'm not going to say like this is bad or good.
[00:35:14.840 --> 00:35:20.000] It's just sort of interesting.
[00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:25.120] So I feel like there's, I've been seeing a lot of more interactivity.
[00:35:25.120 --> 00:35:31.200] And some of that is like, you know, interactivity, I usually think of like how the user is literally sort of interacting with your site.
[00:35:31.200 --> 00:35:35.040] So what's happening as your mouse is sort of scrolling over elements of the site.
[00:35:35.040 --> 00:35:38.240] So there's a lot of mouseover changes that I'm seeing.
[00:35:38.240 --> 00:35:44.080] So if somebody scrolls over like typography, it will shift to a totally different font, for example.
[00:35:44.560 --> 00:35:49.120] Or you might scroll over a piece of text and then an image sort of pops up.
[00:35:49.120 --> 00:35:50.960] So there's like some cool things like that.
[00:35:50.960 --> 00:36:03.280] I even added to my site after people subscribe to my newsletter, I send them to a page and they can doodle on the page with their cursor and they can just draw whatever they want, which is just silly and fun.
[00:36:03.600 --> 00:36:11.920] So just like little fun ways to kind of interact with your audience and seeing a lot more of that and cool options there.
[00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:23.360] Another sort of design one is I've been seeing a lot, you know, that used to be, we talked about kind of that b-roll video, which is usually in like a big sort of banner background.
[00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:31.360] I've been seeing a lot less big banners in general, especially as like that hero image, which used to be like the almost everyone had that.
[00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:33.360] You had that big hero image at the top of the page.
[00:36:33.360 --> 00:36:35.840] It was the first thing you saw and it's not gone.
[00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:46.720] But I've been seeing a lot of sort of interesting ways that people are pulling in different designs and elements that are just, you know, it's not just like the same old thing every single time.
[00:36:47.120 --> 00:36:48.480] So, those are kind of fun.
[00:36:48.480 --> 00:36:55.840] Some of the things that are important that I again think you should do is thinking about accessibility.
[00:36:55.840 --> 00:36:57.120] This is a big one.
[00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:00.840] There are, first of all, you can get in trouble.
[00:37:00.840 --> 00:37:02.600] You probably won't, but you could.
[00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:06.040] People are getting sued because their sites are not accessible.
[00:37:06.040 --> 00:37:13.640] So, that includes thinking about accessibility for a multitude of people viewing your site.
[00:37:13.640 --> 00:37:21.080] So, people who are experiencing blindness, for example, they have software that reads through the site and they will read your image tags.
[00:37:21.080 --> 00:37:23.560] So, making sure things like that are updated.
[00:37:23.960 --> 00:37:33.240] People who just, you know, like if they can't see as well, making sure your contrast is really good with your colors, text size is big enough, these sorts of things.
[00:37:33.240 --> 00:37:35.480] And there are ways that you can go through.
[00:37:35.480 --> 00:37:44.520] You can, again, kind of search through and see what the whole list is and just kind of comb through your site, check it out, make sure that you're just being conscientious for different folks.
[00:37:44.760 --> 00:38:03.000] There's also an app by, I think, user way, and you can do that as like speaking of integrations, is another integration you can do, but you can do this app that will basically allow the user to change the site so that they can read it or view it in the way that they need to do that.
[00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:05.400] There's a ton of different options that they can click through.
[00:38:05.400 --> 00:38:11.880] So, again, they're dyslexic, for example, it can change the font that they're viewing so that they can read it more easily.
[00:38:11.880 --> 00:38:15.560] So, there's a lot of ways that you can kind of think through making your site accessible.
[00:38:15.560 --> 00:38:18.680] And I think that's a trend that we should adopt.
[00:38:19.320 --> 00:38:23.960] There's some other little ones too, like typography is a big one.
[00:38:23.960 --> 00:38:37.560] I'm seeing a lot of different typography, and again, this is more design-related, but really like unusual sizes or really big typography, or a lot of like differentiation between typography and the same line.
[00:38:37.960 --> 00:38:45.200] I sort of mentioned how even just having people hover over the typography and it will change a lot of high contrast with typography.
[00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:47.760] So, typography is becoming, and it kind of has been.
[00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:51.120] This is one that's been like creeping into the forefront for a while.
[00:38:51.440 --> 00:39:01.840] But it's like I've seen some sites that are almost completely typography-based lately, a lot more, you know, hardly any imagery, which you know used to be never the case.
[00:39:01.840 --> 00:39:05.840] So, those are just some like fun and interesting ones.
[00:39:05.840 --> 00:39:09.200] Um, but I'd be curious what you think about any of those.
[00:39:09.200 --> 00:39:16.320] I mean, I am all for a mouse trailer or like a cursor trailer.
[00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:20.960] Um, I get so giggity about those every time I see one on the internet.
[00:39:20.960 --> 00:39:25.600] I copy and paste the link and send it to the Bean Boss team, and I'm like, when are we doing this?
[00:39:25.600 --> 00:39:27.200] Because I want them everywhere.
[00:39:27.200 --> 00:39:31.440] I want sparkles to follow my mouse everywhere it goes.
[00:39:31.440 --> 00:39:39.360] That is like 90s web designer, like high school Emily, who is just like living her best life, basically.
[00:39:39.680 --> 00:39:44.000] Um, or I guess that would be like right at the turn of the century, right at 2000.
[00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:47.200] Isn't that pretty spot on for that vibe?
[00:39:47.200 --> 00:39:49.600] Um, I think you're spot on with all the other ones, though.
[00:39:49.600 --> 00:39:51.440] That one is legitimately my favorite.
[00:39:51.440 --> 00:40:06.000] I was even on a site the other day, also sent to the Bean Boss team, um, that just had stars just falling from the top margin the entire time, and it was absolutely enchanting.
[00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:15.120] It's so interesting, though, because first of all, that 90s aesthetic is a whole nother trend that I wasn't even gonna dive deep into, but that shit is everywhere.
[00:40:15.120 --> 00:40:26.720] Um, but what's interesting to me about it is it kind of is an interesting juxtaposition with like this accessibility piece, too, because there's like a maximalism sort of to that.
[00:40:26.720 --> 00:40:31.320] Um, just it's like, it's like we're just throwing up all over our websites.
[00:40:29.840 --> 00:40:37.240] Let's just throw stars and cursor trails and, you know, all kinds of like wild gifts everywhere.
[00:40:37.560 --> 00:40:50.520] So it's kind of fun, but again, I think maybe that's why we have this duality of the accessibility being like, but wait, we really need to be able to actually read and follow through everything on your website.
[00:40:50.520 --> 00:40:59.480] So it's fun, but it also, you know, I don't know, it's kind of like in direct opposition to actually being helpful for everybody.
[00:40:59.480 --> 00:41:03.560] That is exactly why we do not have it on any of our sites.
[00:41:03.560 --> 00:41:10.760] I have a really great filter called A Deem who's like, this is cute, Emily, but not for us right now.
[00:41:11.640 --> 00:41:12.920] But I do love those.
[00:41:12.920 --> 00:41:17.080] The 90s Aesthetic is totally the trend that no one should jump on.
[00:41:17.080 --> 00:41:23.640] As much as I love it, as much as I absolutely love it and how it brings my heart so much joy.
[00:41:23.640 --> 00:41:40.200] God, can we just make like, like, I'm imagining like all kinds of hardcore, like 90s, early 2000s graphics that I want nothing more than to build everything out of, but I am not because it will be old in no time, absolutely no time.
[00:41:40.200 --> 00:41:47.320] So as much as I love it and appreciate it, and I'm so glad that some people have jumped on that bandwagon so that I can appreciate it.
[00:41:47.320 --> 00:41:54.440] If you are trying to build a website for your business that's going to last more than 18 months, don't do it.
[00:41:54.440 --> 00:41:56.440] Absolutely don't do it.
[00:41:56.440 --> 00:41:57.480] Yeah, totally.
[00:41:57.480 --> 00:42:04.600] I think that anytime you get, I mean, if there's, if there's a decade that that has come back, it will also go away.
[00:42:04.600 --> 00:42:06.680] So that's just like, you know, hot tick.
[00:42:06.680 --> 00:42:09.000] Let's not, let's not go down that road, right?
[00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:09.400] Right.
[00:42:09.400 --> 00:42:15.440] And in 2012 in 20 years, when that website is relevant again, it will no longer be functional.
[00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:16.880] So that's right.
[00:42:16.880 --> 00:42:17.680] Don't do it.
[00:42:17.680 --> 00:42:18.640] Don't do it.
[00:42:19.360 --> 00:42:19.840] Perfect.
[00:42:19.840 --> 00:42:21.360] I think all of those are really great.
[00:42:14.600 --> 00:42:22.080] And I think you're right.
[00:42:22.240 --> 00:42:27.120] There are some there that we should absolutely hold on to and continue forward with.
[00:42:27.120 --> 00:42:30.080] This also sort of harkens back to a conversation I had.
[00:42:30.640 --> 00:42:34.240] Actually, let me look at my little database here that I'm in.
[00:42:34.480 --> 00:42:43.200] So if you actually go back two episodes to episode number 340, I have a conversation with Autumn Whitboy about legal updates for business this year.
[00:42:43.520 --> 00:42:57.280] And one of the things that we talked about in that episode is how online business is becoming less of the wild, wild west, where we have the ability to just do business, create our websites, right?
[00:42:57.280 --> 00:43:15.920] Like, you know, have the colors be whatever we, you know, quote unquote want them to be, whatever it may be, and more into this structured, structured foundation that allows for accessibility and doing business in a good and right way that, you know, is accessible by all, like all these things.
[00:43:15.920 --> 00:43:26.160] We're moving out of that Wild West and into some rules that we kind of just need to follow in order to be and do good in the world.
[00:43:26.160 --> 00:43:27.600] And I'm, I'm all for it.
[00:43:27.600 --> 00:43:45.920] So if anyone is looking at doing any website updates, actually, if you're not looking at doing any website updates, but you're just wanting to make sure that your business stuff is super buttoned up, doing an accessibility audit of your website, I think, is a really great step for everyone to take.
[00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:48.400] And you're right, you probably won't get in trouble.
[00:43:48.400 --> 00:43:59.880] But if it is not accessible, there are grounds for you to get in trouble and for you to also just lose out on having what you do accessible to someone who might need it.
[00:43:59.880 --> 00:44:00.280] Totally.
[00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:03.560] You might lose in a key client that you might want to have.
[00:44:04.040 --> 00:44:17.000] Again, you know, as I said before, working with a lot of therapists and just people who help other people, it's really important if you do because you don't want somebody to feel like you are not, they're not able to get access to the help that you provide.
[00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:18.440] So it is a pretty big deal.
[00:44:18.440 --> 00:44:25.640] We have a blog post about it that kind of covers some of those baseline things on junemango.com.
[00:44:25.640 --> 00:44:30.920] And then I also link out in that blog post to the website, the ADA website.
[00:44:30.920 --> 00:44:37.160] So you can really get like, if you want to super dive deep, there's plenty of information out there that you can kind of go and find.
[00:44:37.160 --> 00:44:37.560] Perfect.
[00:44:37.560 --> 00:44:45.240] And we'll include links to those things in our show notes as well as that episode with autumn if you want to go back and listen to that.
[00:44:45.560 --> 00:44:46.120] Perfect.
[00:44:46.120 --> 00:44:49.240] And I think we can probably start wrapping this up.
[00:44:49.240 --> 00:44:55.720] But before we get too crazy, I would love to know where you see websites going.
[00:44:56.360 --> 00:45:25.240] So I think that we're going to, it's going to be sort of in the same vein of the accessibility sort of conversation where people and brands are going to start having to kind of merge this sort of like community-oriented, conscientious side now that we have social media and everybody is seeing everything that you're doing and your values with the sort of business professional side of your business.
[00:45:25.240 --> 00:45:30.040] So for example, putting literally those values onto your website.
[00:45:30.040 --> 00:45:32.680] I think that that's one place I've been seeing people do that.
[00:45:32.680 --> 00:45:40.680] So, you know, saying all of the things that they support, sustainability, you know, et cetera, racial justice, all of the things.
[00:45:40.680 --> 00:45:51.200] So putting that literally on your website and kind of weaving those values into your visuals literally, I think that that's going to become something that we continue to see more of.
[00:45:51.200 --> 00:45:53.520] And that's a trend, but I think in a good way.
[00:45:53.520 --> 00:45:57.600] So it doesn't matter so much about, you know, design or whatever.
[00:45:58.560 --> 00:46:08.000] And one of the other things that I'm seeing a lot of is just ways in which people are kind of pulling back from social media, which you sort of noted.
[00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:15.040] I know we're all feeling a little burnt out of social media and especially in trying to market our business there.
[00:46:15.040 --> 00:46:26.240] So there's some interesting ways that people have been kind of again pulling those elements of the socialness or just the updates into their website.
[00:46:26.240 --> 00:46:30.800] So another thing that I didn't mention yet is a now page.
[00:46:30.800 --> 00:46:39.600] And a now page is basically kind of if your about pages like your background sort of a little bit more about you and your contact page is obviously people getting in touch with you.
[00:46:39.600 --> 00:46:47.520] Your now page is kind of like a longer form blog post about kind of what you're up to and what you're interested now.
[00:46:47.520 --> 00:46:58.720] So again, that a little bit ties into like, you know, you could be talking about the, you know, the community that you're working with or what movies you're watching.
[00:46:58.720 --> 00:47:03.920] Like it could kind of run the gamut of whatever you want to mention or what projects are you working on now.
[00:47:04.080 --> 00:47:15.760] It's just an interesting way to kind of connect with people and show them this other side, this more personal side, where you don't have to necessarily be all over social media doing it.
[00:47:15.760 --> 00:47:21.000] And so I don't know, I think that just kind of that blend is going to be something that we're going to start seeing.
[00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:24.880] And that's going to trickle into web too.
[00:47:25.200 --> 00:47:40.040] Yeah, I feel like this is kind of the second time you've brought up bringing really the content that we're creating for social media into our website for kind of the first time ever in this way.
[00:47:40.040 --> 00:47:45.880] And we've been pulling in our Instagram feeds or, you know, whatever for as long as we've been able to do it.
[00:47:45.880 --> 00:47:52.680] But this idea of one, you mentioned bringing more video in to make it feel a little more like social media.
[00:47:52.680 --> 00:47:56.760] And two, this now page, which I've seen a couple of these and I find them fascinating.
[00:47:56.760 --> 00:48:08.680] I think they're such a really great little like peek into the lives and experiences of the people behind the brand or, you know, like into the back office, right?
[00:48:08.680 --> 00:48:15.080] You're like just opening up that back door and just seeing what everybody's doing inside and what's important to them and what it is that they want to share.
[00:48:15.080 --> 00:48:17.720] And I think, I think they're fascinating.
[00:48:17.720 --> 00:48:23.800] And I love that it is that blending of my home, my website, right?
[00:48:24.120 --> 00:48:29.880] With the things that I would traditionally just blast out on social media, but I'm doing it in my house.
[00:48:29.880 --> 00:48:30.440] So.
[00:48:30.440 --> 00:48:33.400] Well, and with and with intention, I think, too.
[00:48:33.400 --> 00:48:37.080] I think maybe that's the word that I was searching for and didn't, couldn't find.
[00:48:37.080 --> 00:48:47.720] It's like there's a little more intention to some of the things that are being shared and what we're showcasing and what it means to us and our audience.
[00:48:47.720 --> 00:48:49.240] Yeah, I think it's fascinating.
[00:48:49.240 --> 00:48:50.520] I'm going to dig into those.
[00:48:50.520 --> 00:48:59.240] Y'all, don't be surprised if, especially Almanac, I could imagine literally having a page where it's like everyone's favorite crystal at the moment, right?
[00:48:59.240 --> 00:49:00.280] Or fun things like that.
[00:49:00.280 --> 00:50:47.720] You can make it very relative to your business and what it is that's going on while still making them incredibly fun and just housed in that place, a fun little, a fun little bit of social, of socialness um in your website so those are fun ones good everybody go make it oh just wow tear my computer off my desk my hands went wild everyone and i almost pulled my computer right off um everyone go make a now page maybe if you want and i think we need to credit i i actually don't know how to say his last name derek sivers derek sivers and he has some good he's also the guy who so he created the now page or came up with it he's also the guy who wrote the book if it's not a hell yes it's a no which i know we talk about a lot in this community too so he's got some good ideas jason zook has a now page it really is becoming kind of a thing that i'm seeing a lot but i want to give him that shout out because that was his his jam so then i have one more question for you uh one more like contenty question here and that is if you had one tip or one action that everyone listening to this could take um into their business for making their website just a little bit better in 2023 what would it be well i think that just since we've been talking about trends too it's okay to look at the trends and pull them into your site in a smaller way so for example you can pull them into a blog post or some of the things we talked about with the now page but i think really what ultimately is the most helpful and the way that you know you can do it successfully with a trend is if you're starting with a strong branding foundation and and that can be, you know, your fonts and your colors.
[00:50:47.720 --> 00:50:51.160] Just, it's kind of like you know who you are before you go out into the world.
[00:50:51.160 --> 00:50:56.200] So if you know who you are, then you can pull that clarity into your website.
[00:50:56.200 --> 00:51:04.040] And then it's okay if you want to like dip your toe in the trend water for a second and you know you're not going to kind of like topple in headfirst.
[00:51:04.360 --> 00:51:18.040] So kind of checking in, even like going back and doing a little bit of a web audit or a branding audit and making sure, okay, does this actually, you know, is it clear who it is I help, what I do, who I do it for, all of that stuff.
[00:51:18.600 --> 00:51:19.800] Those sorts of things.
[00:51:19.800 --> 00:51:27.720] You can, I do a web audit sort of spring refresh in my newsletter every year because sometimes we just need to go back and comb through it.
[00:51:27.720 --> 00:51:34.760] But I think Branding Foundation, don't do all the trends and maybe do a web audit and you'll be good to go.
[00:51:34.760 --> 00:51:35.320] Love it.
[00:51:35.320 --> 00:51:35.640] Yeah.
[00:51:35.640 --> 00:51:39.240] We do, I do a web audit in both companies every year.
[00:51:39.240 --> 00:51:40.360] I think it's super imparative.
[00:51:40.440 --> 00:51:41.080] Just go through.
[00:51:41.080 --> 00:51:48.280] Things get broken, click all the things, read the things, update the things that aren't true anymore or have shifted and change, whatever it may be.
[00:51:48.280 --> 00:51:53.080] I think it's a very good step for everyone to be taking every single year.
[00:51:53.080 --> 00:51:54.600] And Kelly, this has been a treat.
[00:51:54.600 --> 00:51:56.200] Thanks for coming to chat.
[00:51:56.200 --> 00:51:57.480] Yeah, it was so fun.
[00:51:57.480 --> 00:51:58.040] Of course.
[00:51:58.040 --> 00:52:01.480] Where can folks find more about you and what you do?
[00:52:01.800 --> 00:52:05.720] I don't have a now page, but you can still come hang out with me on junemango.com.
[00:52:05.720 --> 00:52:07.560] I decided not to adopt that trend.
[00:52:07.560 --> 00:52:08.120] Perfect.
[00:52:08.760 --> 00:52:11.720] But yeah, junemango.com is my business website.
[00:52:11.720 --> 00:52:14.760] And then we're also on Instagram at JuneMango Studio.
[00:52:14.760 --> 00:52:17.720] And that is all I do because I try to keep it simple.
[00:52:18.040 --> 00:52:19.080] Lovely.
[00:52:19.080 --> 00:52:23.400] And last but not least, what's making you feel most boss?
[00:52:24.040 --> 00:52:26.600] I think just that I'm sleeping.
[00:52:26.920 --> 00:52:29.400] That's a good place to start.
[00:52:30.040 --> 00:52:35.240] I think now that I'm sleeping, my brain is functioning and I'm like, man, I have good ideas when I sleep.
[00:52:35.240 --> 00:52:38.200] So I'll go pretty boss when I can snooze.
[00:52:38.200 --> 00:52:38.920] Love it.
[00:52:38.920 --> 00:52:40.440] Perfect answer.
[00:52:40.440 --> 00:52:42.200] Thanks for coming to chat.
[00:52:42.200 --> 00:52:43.480] Thanks.
[00:52:45.040 --> 00:52:51.840] All right, boss, because you're here, I know you want to be a better creative business owner, which means I've got something for you.
[00:52:51.840 --> 00:53:08.400] Each week, the team at Bean Boss is scouring the news, the best entrepreneurial publications, and updates and releases of the apps and tools that run our businesses and is curating it all into a weekly email that delivers the must-know tips and tactics in the realms of mindset, money, and productivity.
[00:53:08.400 --> 00:53:10.240] This email is called Brood.
[00:53:10.240 --> 00:53:16.400] We brew it up for you each week to give you the insight you need to make decisions and move forward in your creative business.
[00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:20.880] Check it out now and sign up for yourself at beingboss.club slash brood.
[00:53:20.880 --> 00:53:25.840] That's beingboss.club slash b-r-e-w-e-d.
[00:53:25.840 --> 00:53:28.560] Now, until next time, do the work.
[00:53:28.560 --> 00:53:29.760] Be boss.