9. Creating a Stand-Out Website: Expert Tips from Suzie Consoli of Lawson House

We're so excited to be joined by Suzie Consoli, Founder and CEO of Lawson House, a full-service marketing and design agency based in Atlanta! Lawson House helps businesses stand out and thrive in a competitive market through strategic branding, web design, and high-converting marketing solutions. They transform visions into impactful realities and ensure businesses get the recognition they deserve!

In today's episode, we explore effective marketing and web design strategies for calligraphy businesses with Suzie. She shares insights on the five pages every website should have, advice on selecting the best platform for your website needs, and the most common mistakes she sees businesses making when it comes to creating their websites. Suzie also gives an actionable process for DIY-ing your website, practical tips for SEO, and shares her expert opinion on whether or not to list pricing on your website. 

Stay tuned until the end, when Suzie shares more about her brand new offering, Launch38 -- a truly unique service that will give you brand messaging & design, a website, launch strategy, and content plan in just FIVE days! 

🔗 Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

• Apply for Launch38 here! Use code CALLIGRAPHY250 at checkout for $250 off! 
• Connect with Suzie below: 
  • Lawson House Website
  • Lawson House Instagram
  • Launch38 Instagram
• Try Squarespace for free
• Get a free month of ShowIt

🎙️ In this Episode:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:51 Meet Suzie, Owner of Lawson House
• 04:22 The Five Must-Have Pages for Your Website
• 14:50 Practical Steps for DIY-ing Your Website
• 21:09 Choosing a Platform to Host Your Website
• 28:28 What Really Matters for SEO
• 35:39 The Biggest Mistake People Make with Their Website
• 44:14 Create Your Website with Launch38!

Join Shaochen's Free Calligrapher Masterclass - 3 Steps to Booking Your Dream Wedding Clients 

Transcript

Alane: 1:09

welcome back to another episode of calligraphy biz corner. We are super, super excited to be back after a short break. I was away for a couple of weeks, so we hit pause. But we have a really amazing episode to bring to you today. We are super excited to have Susie of Lawson house as a guest on this episode. And she chatted with us about all things, marketing and web design. So I know we've talked a little bit before about like a website doesn't have to be the very first thing that you do when you start a business. But it is an important piece to eventually pay attention to. Susie shared with us the five must have pages for your first website, as well as shared her thoughts on the various platforms and how to choose which one is best for you. Cause that can be a really overwhelming part of it. And she also, also shared with us the biggest mistake that she sees people making with their first websites.

Shaochen: 2:06

favorite part about this episode was that Susie gave us pros and cons for each of these things that we were talking about, but also shared her story. Um, And I just love that it's super tangible and actionable and I felt like I walked away knowing exactly what platform to choose, whether to list my pricing on my website or not.

Alane: 2:27

Even though I already have a website, I also walked away with like new things to think about when it comes to my own website and like maybe some updates or tweaks that I'll make here and there. So I feel like regardless of where you're at in your business website journey, there's going to be something of benefit here for

Shaochen: 2:44

Yeah, I agree. And Susie and I got connected through the rising tide society. They were hosting a business booth summit. I attended Susie's session and her marketing expertise really stood out to me. So I shared a story on Instagram about her session. We started following each other on Instagram and then she reached out with an email asking to be part of the podcast. And then I also ended up hiring her team to help me with some pages on my website. So I just wanted to share that because I love these kinds of organic connections in our community, between our listeners, our guests. And again, it just kind of shows you that you never know what can happen when you put yourself out there or when you reach out to someone. So without further ado, let's dive into our episode with Susie. All

Shaochen (3): 3:31

Welcome Susie. We're so excited to have you on our podcast today to share all of your marketing genius with our listeners. So Susie is the CEO of Lawson house, a full service marketing and design agency that's based in Atlanta. Susie, would you mind telling us a little bit about you and your business?

Suzie: 3:51

Yeah, of course. Well, thank you guys so much for having me. I think what you're doing is amazing and the support you guys give to creative professionals is just awesome. So super excited to be on. I started this like a lot of people in 2020 really thought I just need to pay my bills for a little bit and kind of figure this out and really blew up on me. From the time we started to now it's become a seven figure agency. We have eight full time people and a huge army of contractors and get to work with people all over the world. So it's been quite a journey and uh, yeah. Can't wait to tell you guys more about it.

Shaochen (3): 4:25

You started off as like a web designer yourself, one on one with clients, designing websites. Right.

Suzie: 4:31

I really I started just designing brands and websites and kind of taking work where I could find it. I said, initially my ICA was anybody with a working credit card. I just really needed to get out there. We've been there. And just said, you know, I, I really want to grow this, but I don't know what that looks like. And started to build my portfolio, really try to put myself out there. But it was a one woman show for about 18 months and then started to add people on the team and kind of grow from there.

Alane (2): 5:00

That's awesome. As new business owners, as you're just starting out, you hear everybody say like, you should have a website, you should have a website, but what pages should actually be on that website? So your professional take, what are the must have pages for your very first website?

Suzie: 5:17

Yeah, absolutely. So I like to give this analogy when I'm talking about websites with businesses, because I think a lot of us, feel like there's this big list of things that as a business owner, we should have, right? I should have this whole content calendar plan and I should have all my legal documents together and I should have all these pieces and a website that has 75 pages is on a lot of people's lists and it doesn't need to be that complicated. The analogy I like to give is that your website is. Your online business office, right? So the same as if you decided, I'm going to lease a space, I'm going to put my sign out front, and I'm going to welcome people in. I'm going to just take people off the street. That's exactly what your website's doing. And so first and foremost, you need some place for somebody to land. And so even if it's just a homepage that you get up, you're really saying, Hey, I'm here. That is the same as just putting a sign out front and saying, I am a business and I would love to work with you. I'm the real deal. And I'd love to have you come in and start a conversation. And so kind of that homepage is that first place to start. The next is we go through the who, what, why, how, all the different pieces. And so we kind of break those up into pages. Obviously you're who you need an about page, just kind of a, here's who I am, especially in the wedding industry. You're going to connect with brides on your, who are you about page, right? You want to connect with them for them to see you and feel like, Oh, I want them to be a part of this process with me. It's such a personal experience. You also need to have a services page. So having something that says what you offer, a lot of homepages are kind of a, here's kind of the overview. Here's what it is. But for a lot of people in the wedding industry, they don't know what they don't know. And so one of their friends has said, Oh my gosh, you have to work with this calligrapher. They're amazing. They've never hired a calligrapher. They don't know. So, you know, everything about the industry, but they have no idea. Like, do you only do signage? Do you do, I don't even know what to ask for. I don't know what's an option. And for you to give them clear services, or even just like, here's some offerings, I think is such a nice way to educate your clients. And then I also say portfolios and examples, that's going to be your why a lot of people say, you know, your portfolio and examples is your, what this is going to be. You know, what really sells them, but it's more of a, Hey, here's why you should book me. Here's the talent that I have. Here's everything that I can offer you and your day can be as beautiful as this one. And then lastly, on the essentials, we've got contact. So they have to have the, how, how do we work together? How do we move forward and actually do this? So that kind of is the. Basics, I would say your bonus page is putting together in our process page. How do you work with me? What is your step 3? Again, we're talking to people who have never hired somebody like you before and educating them is really beneficial. And that kind of answers that when, right? So when do we get started? When do I hire you? When is the right time? So we kind of get through all of that. The great news is you could put all of that on one page on your website if you needed to. If you are starting small, you could answer all those questions. But the main idea is having a website and getting all of those questions answered.

Alane (2): 8:35

Amazing. I can like, I hear our listeners just breathing a collective sigh of relief because you just broke that down so concisely for us. And when you put it that way, it doesn't sound as overwhelming as like, Oh my gosh, I need a website and I need all these pages and I need all this copy. And it's like, no, if you can just take each piece. Bite size, step by step and work on them one at a time. And like you said, if you can at least even just get that home landing page up saying, Hey, this is who I am. This is who I'm serving. And here's how you can contact me. Then like, you're already a step ahead than you were before.

Suzie: 9:13

Well, and the truth is, if you are a calligrapher, you have looked at 20 times more calligraphers than your audience ever will. You know, who are the rock stars in the community and who has the most followers and who you look up to so much, but you don't, your brides aren't doing that. They're not doing the same amount of homework. They might click around, they might see something on Pinterest, but if they connect with you, that's all you need. And so creating that space where you're answering these questions, building that clarity, I think is the best way to really grow your business.

Shaochen (3): 9:46

I'm so glad that Susie is saying this because I feel like Elaine and I have said it, but it's so great coming from you, someone outside the calligraphy community who knows that, like, we look at way more calligraphy and art accounts than our clients and probably everybody else does, right?

Suzie: 10:02

Absolutely. I think that that's such a it's such a big imposter syndrome for all of us, right? We're sitting there going, Oh, they're going to look on Instagram and see all these people who have been doing this for years. But truthfully, if they land and feel a connection with you, you have a stronger lead than they do. And that's all you really need.

Shaochen (3): 10:20

totally. So, just to recap, you covered, there were five pages, so it was homepage, about, services,

Suzie: 10:29

Portfolio and contact. And then you're feeling like you want the extra credit to put on an R process page as well.

Shaochen (3): 10:36

And I love that you said, if you don't want to build out 5 pages, you can combine some or just put the main elements of each page onto just 1 long page. I think that makes it way more accessible and easy as well. You know, calligraphers are, well, We're constantly building our portfolios, but if you're just getting started, you might not have a lot of photos yet. And that's actually one of the reasons why Elaine and I talk about how you don't need a website to start booking clients, um, that you can start working with people and then get photos and then create your website. So in a way that's a little bit easier, but let's say that you're starting your first website right away and you don't really have a lot of photos for a portfolio yet. Any suggestions for people in that boat?

Suzie: 11:19

Yeah. So I, the work that I had done previously before I started my business, I couldn't use, so I launched a, what was originally called Susie marketing. Without any prior work that I could share which is pretty intimidating as a website designer, because typically three questions and somebody's like, Hey, that's awesome. How much does it cost? And can you send me examples? And I was like, sure. And so I actually made some fake websites. I just made some websites as practice. I don't know if that's what you guys recommend to you, but I'm like, do some fun projects. Take your own pictures, share your kind of share your iPhone photos, share your videos. And what happened is I made this website that felt like me. I had some fun content that I was sharing. And all 64 of my followers, mainly being my mom commenting on all of my posts, like way to go. Okay. We're out of here. We're trying to convince everybody that I'm a real business owner, but really had some people take a chance on me and just say, Hey, I can tell that you're new. But I'd like to take a chance on you because I like the conversation we're having. And so the fact that I was putting myself out there, I was doing my homework. I was pretending like I had clients and sharing and not pretending like I was being very honest, like this is a practice project. But in my mind, treating it like a real client and sharing that online. I think a lot of people felt like I started there too. And I worked my butt off for those people. The people that really took a chance on me in the beginning. And then I was like, Please let me share this everywhere. And so the first website that I really did, that went all over my website. We did a million mock ups of it. And that kind of snowballed from there. So for somebody that doesn't have a lot of portfolio work, I would say, hey, you do. You actually have some projects you can get started on.

Alane (2): 13:07

I love that. Like Xiao Chen said before, it's so refreshing to hear you say that. Cause we, we have the same exact advice. I mean, that's also how I started. It was personal projects on my kitchen table with iPhone photos. But, you know, we talk a lot about like creating the work that you want to be hired for and sharing that. And so even if it's not a real wedding. It doesn't matter. Like you can make a fake welcome sign. You can make fake stationary and you can start to build your portfolio in that way. So it's very refreshing to hear somebody in another industry say the same thing.

Suzie: 13:40

I'm so glad. Well, here's the other thing I'll tell you. And I will preface this with, I am not an accountant or a lawyer. So make sure you check this with a professional. But one of the things that my accountant helped me do when I was first getting started was actually did some projects for nonprofits and then build it, quote unquote On my taxes is time that I gave away. And so I did some work for nonprofits, just pro bono, got some work under my belt and said, Hey, if I did a website for you guys for free, I can still write that off on my taxes. So for the laptop that I bought for the things that I was spending money on, and then later, I You know, bringing in clients in the second half of the year, I was able to save so much on taxes because I built my portfolio about working for nonprofits. And so it is a really, and you meet some awesome people. They love to refer you. They love to share about you. And so it's low pressure, but it's real work and that can be really beneficial.

Shaochen (3): 14:35

Yeah, I think and that applies to calligraphers to like I talk about in my courses that working for friends and family, sometimes it makes sense to do a few free pieces for them because it in return what you really need at that point is photos and portfolio of your work. Right? So if you are making like a free sign for someone, you can also write off the supplies that you bought for that. So I love that. That's a really great point.

Suzie: 15:01

Also nonprofits have so many events and a lot of times they don't have the budget to hire somebody with your expertise. And so to just lend them that help. They are so quick to refer you friends and family. It gets a little hard to be like, Hey, write me a Google review, mom. But if you work with a real established business and they can leave you a Google review, they can help you with some of these things. That's really beneficial for your portfolio to share. I've worked with real organizations.

Shaochen (3): 15:27

Love that. Okay. So let's say that I am going to now, now that I know what the five pages are to build, I'm going to DIY my website, my first website. What kind of like high level process would you suggest to tackle this, you know, overwhelming task?

Suzie: 15:47

So I'll tell you what most people do and then I'll tell you what you should be doing. So most people start on Pinterest and I've been there and they click through all the websites that they like and they find a design or a template that they're like, Oh my gosh, this is beautiful. I want my business to feel like this. I'm going to pick this template. And then they end up just jamming in all this content into this template that may or may not be an actual good fit for what they're trying to offer. And so it can be really difficult because these templates are built to be beautiful, but they're kind of like model homes or showrooms. The furniture might actually not be functional. So when you get in there and you're like. Actually, I would need 64 photos to fill up this page and I don't have them. Um, And so that can be really difficult. What I recommend instead is starting with a blank piece of paper and a pencil. And luckily I'm recommending this. I've done some podcasts where I'm talking to people who can't draw. I'm assuming this is an audience that can really tackle this well. But start with a blank piece of paper and draw out. What are the sections you actually want on your website? You don't have to design the whole thing, but just say, you know, on my homepage, I want there to be really beautiful photo. And then I'd like for there to be some text and a button. Okay. Next section. I want to have a longer paragraph here and then use your outline to start shopping around for templates. Before you choose one, write on your website, copy, say, what are the words I want on here? What are the pieces I actually need? That way you're looking at websites. You're looking at programs. For what you're actually trying to build

Alane (2): 17:20

that's a really great tip. And again, I feel like that's very. Manageable for people. Um, I'm like a big fan of taking big tasks and breaking them down into smaller pieces. And so even the idea of just being like, okay, just starting with the homepage, like, how do I kind of want that to flow? What do I want people to feel and experience while they're landing on that page? And then doing that for the next four pages feels very something like you could accomplish.

Suzie: 17:46

Templates to charge more money, they try to be more complicated. They try to have more pages. And so you end up with this homepage that has. 27 sections and you're like, I actually don't need all this and deleting it makes it complicated. So I would just say starting from what you actually need and having the words and then kind of rough sketch ready to go will make your starting place so much easier.

Shaochen (3): 18:09

I love that because you kind of know once you have the sections, you know where you're going and then you can basically pull up a word doc and write the copy that you want that goes into each section, I really resonate with what you said about templates. Sometimes over complicating things. I had purchased a website, a beautiful website template. It had so many sections, like you said, and then scrolling galleries and all this stuff. And I did realize at one point, as I was trying to figure out what content I wanted to put in there, that it was taking me so, so long because there was so much stuff that I really didn't need. And that's when I started like removing things and streamlining it more. So I really love your approach of just kind of starting from your own ideas of what you need. And like Elaine saying, like how you want your audience to feel, that's really going to be the core of it. You don't need to fill a template that has the 45 photos or whatever, you know, in order to have a great website that works for you.

Suzie: 19:09

I also think my bonus advice there is tell someone what day you're going live. And say, my website will be live June 1st, right? You can check it out. I worked for a guy for a long time that he would throw out a deadline and not have any kind of roadmap of how he was going to get there or any kind of project timeline, but it holds you to it. Right? And we always hit the deadline because we'll figure it out. You can put together a project plan once, you know, when it needs to be done, right? The problem with small business websites is it can always be better and it can always be unfinished. It's never going to be good enough. It's always going to feel like, well, and I say this with so much compassion, the wedding industry, but every time you get your new dream client, well, I want to wait and watch my website until I get those photos back and then until those photos are back and it seems like you're always waiting for it to be picture perfect and. Having something up is better than nothing. Always, always, always. Even if it's just your homepage and your contact page, where honestly, even if it's just your contact page, having nothing out there costs you money every day.

Alane (2): 20:12

That's such a good reminder.

Shaochen (3): 20:14

We're both sitting here nodding, furiously, like, yep, yep, that's happened.

Alane (2): 20:18

I don't know. I'm like, we need to have that printed on like tote bags or a t shirt or something

Suzie: 20:23

I seriously, and I'm, I say this as somebody who I struggle with this too, but a website with typos and broken links is still better than no website. It's it is because, and I think so many people are like, but what about my brand? And what about no one can contact you? And no one can actually reach you. You are disconnecting your phone number if you have nothing out there. And so while I do think there's an element of put your best foot forward and make sure it's professional run it through a spell checker. So many people are so scared of making a mistake and looking bad that they waste so much time and money.

Alane (2): 21:01

I just want to like take a moment and thank you for. All of that, because I feel like you're giving so many people just permission to move forward right now. And I feel like that's what a lot of people are also waiting for. Like, they're waiting to just get that, like, okay, or that little bit of reassurance that, like, it doesn't need to be absolutely perfect.

Suzie: 21:18

Absolutely. And the fact is it's a website. There are things that are going to go wrong with it. It's almost like you have to publish a website before you find all the bugs and it's just how it works. I've worked on million dollar website projects and it still happens. and best developers in the country, they'll tell you, you have to carve out time for the go live day, everything breaks. So it's not you, it's just being a business owner and putting things out there and making sure that. Your people can find you.

Alane (2): 21:46

That brings us to our next question, like talking about templates and things like that. I know one of the things that I personally struggled with when I was getting ready to launch my first website is deciding. What platform to use? There's a ton of different options out there, and it can get really overwhelming when you're looking through, you know, what does this one offer and this one, and what's the price point of that one versus that one. So do you have any tips for choosing a platform or what is your favorite platform for getting started? I mean, some of them are Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, show it. What's your advice there?

Suzie: 22:22

Yeah. So I'll go through each of them. I think that this isn't something that a lot of people talk about in podcasts and I wish they would, because there are such differences between the platforms. But the thing to remember is that anytime you're researching which platform to use, you are being marketed to every blog, every. Placement, everything you're seeing, they are trying to get you to choose their platform. And so it can be really hard to kind of know which one to go with my overall pick. And this is a personal preference of Squarespace. I really like Squarespace for beginners. I think that the backend user interface is really awesome and allows you to put something together quickly. But you can inject custom code. And so when we build websites, we actually take out the whole backend, we custom code everything, and then we hand you back your really nice, pretty website. That's super easy to use. You can still swap pictures. And Squarespace used to get a bad rap because their SEO wasn't as strong, but they recently purchased Google domains and they are on the rise. So the biggest negative for Squarespace has been their lack of SEO and it is neck and neck with them. Um, And so I would say for somebody who's like, I'm looking for just general best overall. It's such a great place to start. I would say cons are, it's not awesome for Ecom. So you know what? It's fine for Ecom. It does the job. It, it will check the box. Shopify is your best bet. If you are looking for e com Shopify will always win. When I talk to somebody and they tell me I'm doing a service based business and I want to open a shop, I tell them to do their shop on Shopify and their Squarespace site for service and link the two together because you want the best of both worlds. I'll jump right to my least favorite. I've played around with Wix. I did all my homework. If you're thinking about Wix, just go to Squarespace. You'll be so much happier and you can call me and thank me later. I spent hours and hours trying to make that work and they sold me on their ads and I was so excited about it. it. felt like a combination of Squarespace and show it. And I was so pumped and this is going to be so cool. And it just, the flexibility is not there. You'll spend a lot of time on design.

Shaochen (3): 24:33

I'm actually really curious about the Wix aspect because that is one of the main ones that I think it's compared with or like considered with Squarespace. So, I guess, What are the main drawbacks that make you feel like that's something we should avoid?

Suzie: 24:49

So Squarespace, to me, spends a lot of time on their client, which is you, right? They are trying to create this experience that you can log on and have your whole business dashboard there. Wix has tried to build something similar. The problem is they've tried to do responsive design without really clear breakpoints. All that means is I have to, in the same way you do for ShowIt, I've got a design for iPad, I have to design for iPhone, and then I've got to design for the iPhone 15, and not just the regular iPhone, and all these different breakpoints where Squarespace says, Hey, we got you. We're going to put in some breakpoints and make this really easy for you. Because if you're listening to this, You're not trying to start a website business. You don't care about break points and how all this works. You need to just get something up and make sure it looks nice on a phone and Squarespace will help you take care of that. Wix is every detail matters. And you end up just spending time designing seven websites instead of one.

Shaochen (3): 25:47

Hmm. No, that's really helpful. I'm sure you're going to probably talk about show it too, but that does remind me of my, so I started on Squarespace and I think Elaine did as well. And we both recently moved to show it mostly for the design and the aesthetic being in the wedding industry and whatnot. Um, But I do agree that it is a lot more time consuming because you have to build the, Desktop version, then you have to make sure the mobile version looks right and it's not nearly as seamless as on Squarespace. And the other thing about it is that the latest versions of Squarespace allow you to do some of the things that I was looking for and show it, which is like being able to move elements. They used to be very. Static, like you have to stack each element on top of each other. Now you can kind of move elements around and they can be like overlapping, there's more of like a grid where you can move all the little elements to instead of only being able to have a very fixed placement, if that makes sense. And that was one of the things that I had wanted out of my website. And one of the reasons why I wanted to show it, but now Squarespace can do that. And so I totally agree. I think it's a great, like jack of all trades, easy to use type of platform.

Suzie: 26:57

I think that it is the best general. I do like show it. I think that show it has its place. And I think if you were in the wedding industry, that is who they cater towards. And so I see a lot of people who try to morph show it into A website that they want to feel really high end and modern, and it just isn't going to necessarily have that feel. It's meant to feel elegant and beautiful and appeal to the kind of work that you guys are doing. And so I think that for people in the wedding space, I really like it. I tell people show it's awesome. If you have Photoshop experience, it's very similar. There are layers, you're able to move things around. So as somebody who is more classically trained on Photoshop, I was like, this makes so much sense intuitively. I'm able to move things around. If you are looking to just build a website and you've never used graphic design tools, it's going to be complicated. And it's going to just have a learning curve. So I would say show it as awesome for people who do want to put that flair on it. Especially if you're like, I want to drop words in that I've written and I want to have that stamp on there and make sure that everything is more detailed and custom and artistic show. It's definitely a great platform for that. My last one is WordPress I think WordPress for everybody that I'll be talking to here is not a great fit. I say it's a great fit. If you have people who will run your website for you and help you manage it. The thing with WordPress is you have to have plugins. You have to have security. You have to have all of these different pieces that. Keep it running the way that it is safe. If you don't have all of these extras built in, you are at risk to get hacked to have them take everything down. There's just a lot more risk there. And so the websites are beautiful and you can do so much in WordPress. So WordPress, you can buy templates and plug them in and do your thing. It also has a whole back end that really technical developers used to build websites from scratch. And so it can just get really complicated being in the world. WordPress universe, right? It opens you up to a lot of risk. I think that's unnecessary with all the other awesome platforms you have to build on.

Shaochen (3): 29:05

I know sometimes people use WordPress for the blogging element, right. And like the SEO, like you were saying, so let's actually talk about SEO. I feel like we hear about it all the time. I have personally taken some courses on it and, you know, attended webinars and all that, but i, for some reason, just have a hard time getting a grasp on SEO. So can you kind of give us like the bare bones, just like boil it down in terms of what really matters, like what we really need to pay attention to when it comes to SEO?

Suzie: 29:36

Yep. So one thing I think it's important to talk about is wherever your website's built, you are able to rank well in SEO. It has a lot more to do with the type of content you're putting out and the keywords that you're focusing on. The ads that website companies will run will tell you otherwise. They will say this platform's the best for SEO. And there are some tricks and tools of the trade. But at the end of the day, if you are doing the fundamental things for SEO, you will rank well. A lot of times people call me and they're like, I really want to work on SEO. And I'm like, okay, what do you think it is? And I've gotten some wild answers, but I'll tell you how we describe it to people. So if you think about Google as the company that you're interviewing for a job for, right? Your website is essentially your resume. And you are saying, Hey, Google, I'm a legitimate business. You should show my business to people who are searching for things on the internet, right? You should hire me for this. I am a reputable source. What Google is looking for is keywords and proof and references that say, you know what, you are a real business and I am going to recommend you to people and I am going to, you know, include you in my network. What happens is people start to think that, If they just put in some keywords, they'll rank higher. What Google wants to know is that you're a real business. So the things that you can do are things like playing Google's game, having a Google my business account with reviews is actually one of the best things you can do for SEO. And that has nothing to do with your website and it's free and you can easily set it up. But that's one of the first things they look for is actually having a Google, my business account. And so as soon as you do that, Google says, Good job, Susie. Now let's see what else you got. As soon as you start sharing three different types of content and pieces, Google is going to say, yes, I've checked your references and now I'm going to move you up in the queue. So they're essentially looking for. People who have the best score, if you will. So yes, there are some technical things on your website. That's number one. We like to have keywords. It needs to be set up the right way, but it's almost like you're trying to just tell Google, see, we filled out your form. We did the thing. We, we followed all the rules. That's all it is to set up SEO correctly. Having your H1 tags, doing the things that make it so that Google can easily read your website and make sure that it's clean. So when we talk about references, it's kind of like making sure that everything's spelled right and looks good. When you apply to a job, the next thing is content, having blogs, having things that say, Hey, I'm producing content about this topic. I am adding to the community doing things in this space. And then lastly, as backlinks, you want to be featured on other people's websites where they can say, yes, we sign off on them. They also are doing this. So if you can feature on a friend's blog, if you have a link out to even a social media profile, Things like that, Google says, yep, good job, Susie. You've checked all my boxes and they'll start to move you up after that. If you're producing that content just takes time. You just have to kind of wait to see that payoff and keep doing those things over time. So I don't know if that kind of breaks down SEO a little bit more simply, but it took me a long time to even get my arms around what that is and how it all works.

Shaochen (3): 33:00

Yeah, we should define SEO is search engine optimization to

Suzie: 33:04

Yes.

Shaochen (3): 33:05

right to the basics. Well, what about like, I feel like we're told to change the file names give our images all text. Put page descriptions, some of that like metadata, I think it's called, right? You know, all of that takes time, obviously, in addition to everything we talked about with building your website. So how important is going through and doing that?

Suzie: 33:26

So all of it helps, right? It's very similar to, you know, we're kind of using the analogy of applying for a job. It's very similar to like, what should be on your resume? Well, there's an infinite number of things that you could put on that are the right answer and how you combine that and what that could be. You could spend all of your time. 24 hours a day, just working on SEO. That is the truth of it. So I think what you have to do is say, is SEO going to be my main lead gen option? It doesn't have to be. And that's something I talked to a lot of people about. You can generate leads in a lot of different ways. For some of my clients who are like, I have no minutes and I want instant results. I don't want to wait on SEO to rank me higher. I'm like, Google ads are for you friends. They are. Similar to SEO, you're going to just pay to be right at the top. And you don't have the long term benefits of growing over time, but you will be on that front page when people are searching for you, if you are looking to reach businesses right in their inbox, cold email might be better than SEO. And the point I'm trying to make here is that a lot of people think. To grow my business have to have good SEO, but what you need is a marketing plan. An SEO can be a great marketing plan. So all the things you're talking about are awesome. If SEO is your marketing plan,

Shaochen (3): 34:44

I love that reminder that it's like one component of a more comprehensive strategy. Like for us, if we're working in the wedding industry, our best clients come from referrals. So for us, it's really about networking with vendors and outreach with vendors and things like that, that that's a big part of our marketing strategy. We don't have to have a blog, for example, right. Although Elaine, you have a blog and it works really well for you. So SEO is a big part of your strategy.

Suzie: 35:09

So, and this is what I like to tell people has to do with how you want people to find you and how your clients are coming to you and what you want that funnel to be. You can jump into the SEO game at any time and start to work on that. But if you're going right off the bat, I'm hoping to just rank higher than other people who have been in the business longer, I'd say save your time. Don't start writing blogs, go to wedding vendors and go meet people and network. Before you start doing some of that offered to guest blog on other people's blogs and send them back to your website. Just start to make some of these connections and make sure that you're not just trying to follow the rules and then being like, I didn't get any inquiries because it does take time to build that up. They're all good things to do. But SEO is more of the, like. Slow play than necessarily trying to get business going.

Alane (2): 36:00

You have given us so many great tips, so many actionable things that I feel like our community can leave this episode and do right away, you know, from drafting out their pages, to knowing what kind of platform to choose and how SEO works. So switching gears a little bit, we would love to hear what is the biggest mistake that you see people making with their websites?

Suzie: 36:24

My team is probably so sick of hearing me talk about this, but I think that going back to the idea that you have researched your competitors way more than your clients ever will. Most people create their website for their competitors, for people who are in their industry, who are experts in their field, right? All their copy speaks to, Hey I'm a calligrapher and I know everything about that. And I'm going to prove to the calligraphy community that I'm, I'm the best option. Right. When really you're talking to somebody that might not know anything about this and you want to speak to your ideal client and not necessarily speak to the expertise that you have, you want to sit down with them and your website should sound like. You sat down one on one with somebody and they said, Hey, what do you do? And you're just answering the question and you're answering it honestly and making it about them. You don't necessarily want to say, Hey, let me fill you in on the business of calligraphy and how I got here and all this stuff. You want to sit down and say, Hey, your wedding is going to be beautiful. Let me tell you why, and I'm going to show you how,

Alane (2): 37:32

Can we just like take a minute to let that sink in? Cause that was such good advice. Like don't base your website off of, you know, speaking to your competitors. You want to speak to your ideal client. Cause you're right. So many of us, I feel like fall into that trap, especially because we are gathering, especially if it is your, even if it's your first website or your third or fourth iteration, you're gathering inspiration from other people who are in your industry. So it's easy to kind of start to get into that mindset. And to be like, well, I want to establish myself as X, Y, or Z calligrapher. And that's not, that's, you're losing sight of what the actual goal of your website is, which is to attract and educate. If you're in the wedding industry, then, you know, couples, brides, maybe even planners, you know, whoever it is, that's going to be landing there, that's going to want to be hiring you. So that's such, such good advice. I love that.

Suzie: 38:25

This is the example I give for people in the wedding industry when they're like, what does that look like if you are worried looking at other people's websites and you're like, well, I don't have any awards. I haven't been featured anywhere. Your brides don't know that. That's a big deal, right? They're not looking at this going. Well, you don't have any awards. They couldn't name a wedding award. They couldn't name. What publication you should be in or all these different things. They're really looking for somebody to say, Hey, I see you. And I'm so excited about your wedding day and to pull them into that conversation.

Shaochen (3): 38:56

I just got goosebumps because I remember that person looking at other people's websites and being like, look at all these badges they have and places they've been published and feeling like, yeah, exactly. Like I don't have that, but you're right. Like our clients don't know that. I mean, when I started, I didn't know green wedding shoes is a blog style me pretty. Like I had no idea that those were like the blogs to be published in. So yeah, that's such a great reminder.

Suzie: 39:23

And the wedding industry is so interesting because you're dealing with people who. Most of the time, this is their first time they're planning this and they are so excited and they are looking for somebody to be excited with them. And so. And I think that if you can match their energy and just be like, Oh my gosh, I can't wait for this. This is going to be incredible. That connection is so important. And that's going to outshine so much more than you saying, here's my technical skills. And here's this piece that really shows this detail that I did here. They want to see happy people, beautiful work and get a vision for what their day can be.

Alane (2): 40:00

So there's one other. Thing that we would love your take on if you're willing to share. I feel like this is a debate that goes on in the creative business world, in the wedding industry, in the calligraphy industry as well. And it comes down to pricing and whether or not it should be listed on your website. I feel like people have very strong opinions of listing their pricing or not listing their pricing. So do you have any kind of take on that of if it is, yes, you should, or no, you shouldn't, or what the nuances are there?

Suzie: 40:29

Yep. So I'll start by saying, I don't have strong opinions on it because I believe that if you are, especially if this is your second website, because that's most of the time when people are asking this question, most of the time, new, new businesses don't want to list pricing because they don't know how to price things quite yet. But if this is your second website and you were toying around with, do I list pricing or not? I don't have a strong opinion on it because you know, your client best. So all the advice I'm going to give, I preface it with. If you're like. No, you don't understand. I am getting 50 inquiries a month and they're all low budget. And I need to raise my minimum. And there are a lot of reasons I would agree with you. Right. But overall, my advice is to not list pricing because I think you end up losing money. I think for a lot of services, you can undersell yourself for people that would come in and if you can get their budget, You might be able to upcharge and that's how you grow over time as being like, I didn't know people would pay that much. And now the next one, I'm going to price myself a little higher and start to build from there. If you want to list it and you are struggling with inquiries and you're feeling like, you know what? I really need to get it out there. I always like the idea of hiding it behind an email. So you can say, put in your email and I'll send you my investment guide. And that way, at least you can follow up with them and give the value. But most people are worried about losing people because their pricing's too high. I worry about people undercharging for people that would be willing to pay more.

Shaochen (3): 41:59

I love that take. Yeah. Like, I feel like when it comes to pricing, whoever sets the first pricing is the anchor, so it's really good to get their budget first and understand what they're willing to spend. I think one of the challenges that we have, those people don't really, you know, like you said, there's the first time they're hiring a calligrapher. They don't really have any good expectations for how much they're going to spend. So I think in addition to getting their budget through like a dropdown, which we've talked about on this podcast before I also try to indicate Some kind of expectation for how much they can get for my minimum. What do you think about listing a minimum on the website? So we're kind of on the same page with people who come in.

Suzie: 42:38

totally. I think that the way you're talking about it, even it's kind of going back to our last topic of making it about your customer. So if you're listing out these prices and you want to be like, no, I'm, I'm in my high end tier, right? I want to, they need to know what my prices are. You can reshape that to say, People don't know what to ask for. They don't know what to expect. How can I educate them on, Hey, at a minimum, you're looking at this, but here's what you get, right? I've seen so many people in the wedding industry put starting at 2, 000, but then they, they have no idea. I'm like, I don't know what that is, especially photographers. I remember my engagement photographer was like, I started at six 50 for engagements and I was like, is that, A picture. I've never been engaged. I have no idea. I'm just super excited. So when you're kind of researching this, helping them see like, hey, here's kind of the, like, I would even call that page like under services, you could have. Basic package. Here's what you're looking for with a calligrapher. And that way they're comparing apples to apples. So you can say most brides invest in X, Y, and Z, and that's starting at this. But I want to talk to you about your unique day and what you're looking for and put together a custom price for you. So it can be a little bit of both, but you definitely want to spin it as like, I'm trying to make this easy for you. I think it can come across, especially like the whole investment. Side of things, it can come across like you might not fit our budget over here, but if you can come across as approachable to people and say, Oh man, I'd love to work on your wedding. I hope we can work it out. Then that's such a better way to invite people in.

Shaochen (3): 44:19

So we've talked about all these different components of websites, which should or shouldn't be on them. How long do you think it takes to build a website?

Suzie: 44:28

You're doing this yourself I would say it's going to take probably 10 hours a week for about two, three months. And that will include kind of that coffee and putting everything together. So it's a good chunk of time. I would say if you're having somebody who's building it for you on average, that's going to be 6 to 8 weeks. So similar, but it's going to be off your plate. So you're saving those. 1015 hours a week. We have a program that we do your messaging your brand. So that's logo design, color palette your website and a content plan all wrapped up for you in 5 days and we've actually designed it for people who are. Exactly in your shoes who are trying to get started and just want something to generate income quickly. Want this done? The pages that I've listed are all included in it. And within five days, we'll have your whole brand and website ready to go and ready for wedding season.

Alane (2): 45:20

That's an incredible turnaround time.

Suzie: 45:24

Well,

Alane (2): 45:26

much. You know, I, I like to think of like cost savings and opportunity loss, all of that. And it's like, wow, if in five days I can have something up and running that I can now start to use to attract, collect the leads and start to get business going, like, as opposed to waiting, you know, three months or six months, or maybe even a year to finally get. My crap together along the website. All of those jobs that you could have been missing out on are now at your doorstep in five days, which is amazing.

Suzie: 45:59

and I look at online courses for business owners, and I think about um, your course and how amazing that would be for a calligrapher to invest their time there, right? They are trying to break into the calligraphy world. We wanted to launch our own course and it was going to be called launch 38 and it's gonna be 38 days to launch your website. And then we said, wait a minute. These people don't need to learn how to build websites because they're not trying to be website developers, right? They need to go take courses from people who are doing what they want to be doing to generate income. But unless you want to be a website developer. You don't need to learn that, so let us take it off your plate. We ended up calling it launch 38 anyway and saying, we'll do it in 38 hours. We're going to get it done. What you were going to do in 38 days and 38 hours, all of this ready to go. All of the words, all of the writing, the development, everything all wrapped up so that you can. Spend the rest of your time and energy learning from experts in your field.

Alane (2): 46:57

That's amazing. I have a couple other questions just about how it works, if it's okay to dive into some of the nitty gritty details. So if say I was going to sign up with you and I was going to do launch 38 to help. Me get my new website up and running in five days. So what would I expect as the client that would be needed from me as far as like, to help get you going?

Suzie: 47:18

We spent weeks and weeks developing each of these different stages but what we did was we built out a framework and a formula that you actually go through with us. And so we took all of our questionnaires and really painstakingly said, If if we ask these questions in a certain way, if we give people examples of what they're looking for and help them articulate what they're trying to communicate, will that lead them to a result faster? And so when you register for launch 38, you get added to a custom dashboard with these three forms. You're going to go through your messaging, so you're going to answer some questions and a lot of messaging forums because. I've been through a bunch of different programs. They say, great, write your mission statement. And you're like, that's what I'm here for. I have no idea what to put down. We actually ask you questions like there is a problem in the industry that you have seen. What does your service do to solve for that pain point? What do you do? That's unique. What kind of clients do you love? And we have you answer some of this. We have you take a brand quiz that feels like there's really fun throwback buzzfeed quizzes where you get to click on lots of different images and really give us information for your brand of what you like and don't like and give us your feedback there. The question isn't. What do you want your logo to look like? We're guiding you through that process. And then the last form that you fill out is about your business logistics. That's where we say, where's your domain? Do you have, when do you need one? We'll help you with that. How do you, how much time do you spend on social media? Creating content. Do you like that balance? And we help you kind of formulate some of these things so that our team can take all of these answers and they go to all these different people and by the end of the week, they've consolidated all of this into an awesome marketing package with everything you need to get started.

Alane (2): 49:07

that's incredible. So as the client, do you have an idea of like, you know, I'm thinking about people who may not have a ton of time on their hands cause either they are side hustling their business or they're also a mom or they're like in, you know, busy entrepreneur mode right now. How much time do you think they should set aside in order to get those questionnaires completed and really feel good about like getting things up and running with you?

Suzie: 49:32

Yeah, so it's about 90 minutes to fill out the forms. So we ask that those are completed the Thursday before we get started. So if you book it on Wednesday, we just say, Hey, make sure you've got 90 minutes on Thursday to fill this out. By the time you get started with us on Monday, the first email you get from us on Monday is, Hey, here's your messaging guide. So you actually have something to review every day at 10 a. m. Eastern. You give us your feedback by 12, which is intimidating to people, except that we've made an awesome feedback guide that gives you questions. Hey, does This does this resonate? So for the brand, for example, we say, how do you feel about the colors? And it's all conditional logic. So if you say not loving them, we say, does it feel too bright? Does it feel too muted? And we ask certain questions to help guide you through that process. Every day though, you get a deliverable at 10 a. m. You make a decision by 12 and you get your final results by four. And so we're making progress every day. So you really only need to have carved out. About 30 to 45 minutes on each of those days to make sure we get everything ready to go.

Alane (2): 50:32

So a huge difference between like the 10 hours a week, if you were going to DIY it yourself.

Suzie: 50:38

And I'll tell you just full transparency. Most of the time people look at it and they're like, I love it. We've really, that is on the high end. If you're like, Hey, this feels off. Which I always feel like people hate telling designers, Hey, this feels off, but design is subjective. And we take it as, Hey, great. Sounds awesome. How can we make this better? So you're not gonna upset us if you're like, we want to go a different direction. But it's a really fun process. It's very hands on with our team and very hands off for our clients.

Alane (2): 51:06

Amazing. And then I just have one other question that's kind of twofold. Are you designing on Squarespace? Is that the platform that you're using?

Suzie: 51:14

So everything's on Squarespace.

Alane (2): 51:15

Okay. And so if this is my first like interaction with Squarespace as a platform, you're designing my website. Would I receive any kind of like Offboarding guide of like how to be able to update the website after if I want to put in new photos or if I like Needed to add a page one day down the road or something like that Like would I be set up for being able to take care of updates after the fact

Suzie: 51:38

That's a great question. So once we, and this is true for any Lawson house projects that we're giving you a custom site, or we're going through launch 38, we will actually film videos on how to edit things longterm. So we'll tell you if you want to switch out copy, if you wake up a week from doing launch 38, and you're like, I don't want it to say awesome. I want it to say amazing. There's a video on how to swap that copy and save it correctly. We also have a whole FAQ guide that you can reference. And also we're a really nice group of gals and would love to answer your questions. So we have a phone number you can text and we have an email that's monitored by our customer service team. And we love to work with people who come back and say, Hey, hello to my launch 38 site. I've grown a lot and I really want to make some tweaks and I want to add seven more pages. Awesome. We would love to work with you on that. So while we're going to leave you alone, we also would love for you to come back and for us to be helpful. There are some clients that over the last couple of years as they've started new businesses and grown their current businesses, we come back in as that marketing team for them and continue to make updates and support them along the way.

Shaochen (2): 52:43

I think that's really incredible. What I love about this program is that it has that structure that you were talking about. So someone who's really busy knows exactly what time to block in their calendar to do the reviews. So that you guys have a really smooth, like, working relationship to get everything you need within that, like, 5 days,

Shaochen (3): 53:00

and we actually have a special discount code for our listeners. So can you tell us how much this program costs and then also what the discount code will save them?

Suzie: 53:10

Absolutely. So the whole program costs 2500. If you pay up front, we also do have a payment plan option to make it a little bit easier, but it's 2500 all in. And there's no ongoing website maintenance fee after that one time payment, we're out of your hair and we're done. So you'll hear from us sometimes with a super fun newsletter if you want, but other than that, we leave you alone. And we want to make sure that you have everything you need for that 2500. If you go with the code I think your code is calligraphy to 50 you will take 250 on that registration and be able to get going as early as next week.

Shaochen (2): 53:50

I'm like so blown away that you get not only your website and also branding and messaging and a content plan and like for the price of 2, 500, that's honestly a steal because I've also I've looked into and research when I was trying to create my website, how much these things would cost. And just for a website alone was, I was getting quotes for like twice that, you know? So if you have the ability to trade money for time, kind of like Elaine and I talk about in a lot of our episodes, I feel like launch 38 is a really great option. So we'll link in the show notes, how to apply and also our discount code career free, two 50, if you want to move forward, you can get 250 off. Susie, we really loved having you here today. There were so many great gems in this episode that we're going to have to figure out which ones we want to highlight in our, in our reels, Please tell us how can our audience connect with you,

suzie-_2_05-09-2024_141903: 54:44

Yeah. So we'd love for you to follow us at Lawson house agency on Instagram or launch 38 on Instagram as well. Um, We share a lot of great tips and tricks there for how to make sure people can find you and how you can grow your business. If you are looking for information on getting started, or you're not sure if launch 38 is right for you, you can check out our agency at Lawson dash house. com. I, we link out from launch 38 there too, and you'll be able to find all of our awesome resources and somebody on our team would love to chat with you.

alane_2_05-09-2024_141903: 55:16

Definitely go check that out. Susie, you have just been a wealth of knowledge today. I feel like you've dropped so many like truth bombs on us that I'm just going to go home and ruminate on afterwards. I feel like you've given our listeners so many actionable tips. So thank you so much for sharing everything with us and sharing your time.

suzie-_2_05-09-2024_141903: 55:37

Well, thank you guys so much for having me. I love what you guys are doing here. I think it's awesome.