316 - Creating Content to Get Web Design Clients with Brad Hussey

Brad Hussey of the Creative Crew Community shares how you as a web designer can create content that attracts the right type of customers for you.

In This Episode

00:00 - Content Creation Strategies
10:42 - Thought Leadership
17:13 - Amplifying Through Interview Series
30:46 - Building a Business on Rented Ground
37:10 - Tool-Specific Content
52:20 - Evolution of Web Design Tools
1:04:30 - Building a Community


Get all links, resources and show notes at:

https://joshhall.co/316

Transcript

Brad: 0:00

Whereas, like Instagram, short form content. It's like you have a bucket with a hole in the bottom and you're constantly trying to fill the bucket with, like your pieces, like you know content pieces or whatever you want to say. You're filling that bucket with and you're like why is it never full? Why is it like, why am I constantly trying to keep this thing fulls? Because it's falling out the bottom and it's never to be found again.

Josh: 0:25

Welcome to the Web Design Business Podcast with your host, josh Hall, helping you build a web design business that gives you freedom and a lifestyle you love. Hello friends, welcome into the Web Design Business Podcast. So if you are a web designer who's looking to get clients primarily online, one of the main strategies to do so is to create content to ideally bring the right types of customers and industries and fit for you. However, that is tricky. That is very, very tricky. Now, it's not a strategy that I advise against. In fact, I definitely recommend having a social media presence or some sort of online presence with content that you create to bring in folks, if anything, just for authority building and trust building. But the strategies to do that effectively are what's really tricky to figure out, depending on where you are in your journey, how comfortable you are on camera, what type of content you want to create. So, to help you with all those things and more, I am so pleased to have back onto the podcast a good friend of mine, brad Hussie, who is here to share with you a lot of his insights and strategies for getting clients primarily just online through content creation. So we're going to dive into that and a whole lot more. This is kind of actually kind of a two part or episode, because we cover content creation for web designers, but also just the state of web design right now and some of the tools that are popping up for web designers which you may end up wanting to create content for. So we're going to dive into that and all more with Brad Hussie. He is the community builder now behind Creative Crew. If you're not familiar with that, it is a 100%, completely free web designer community. So I'm actually in there and a lot of my members of my community are in there too, just to make additional connections and get the pulse on some other topics that maybe aren't covered in my community. And again, it is a free community. So a lot of my community web designer pro are utilizing it to find talent and to find people who use the same tools and builders they do to potentially scale their business. So join it. Check out what Brad has to offer for you at creativecrewcommunitycom. Again, free community for freelancers and agencies with creative web design is the core. So, without further ado, here is Brad Hussie Again, his community, creativecrewcommunitycom. You can also find the link to that and all the links we talked about in this episode at joshallco 316. That will have the show notes, the transcription for this episode and everything that we talked about, so go there as well Without further ado. Here's Brad.

Josh: 2:55

We're going to talk creative or, excuse me, we're going to talk content creation, and creative content creation for web designers Awesome. Well, brad, back on the show, round three. It's kind of cool because we're at the point where we're getting into like 300 plus episodes and I'm some of my favorite folks I'm having on for like the third rounds. It's like every century of episodes you get, you know, a next batch of favorites back. So bring back the greatest hits. The greatest hits are coming back. So, man, good to see you again.

Josh: 3:29

It's been a while, a lot of changes going on in web design and content creation and courses and community, but you have been somebody who's continued to stay on the leading edge. Man, I'm really excited to pick your brain about what you're seeing work for web designers, specifically with content creation. This is something that's hard for me to personally address, because this is not how I got clients. I got clients by going in person to networking groups and just doing a really damn good job for a core group of people, and that's all I did. I had like no social media, but I don't know. There's so many options to do it, so let's start there. Of all the options and ways to get clients, where does content creation stack up for you?

Brad: 4:17

Content creation is kind of like if you're investing in the stock market sort of thing. If anyone's familiar with that whole concept of compound interest, it's you don't see much going on for a while. As you're making deposits, as you're making those investments, you don't see much going on and it takes time. And the longer you stay in the game, that's where the magic happens, where that compounding effect it starts to boom and then it goes out of control and that's where all the opportunity is created. So there's really no fast track to it. You could expedite it or amplify it in certain ways and shorten the process. Some people, when they invest, they buy a lot of Tesla and then Tesla takes off and then there you go. You got a little bit more lucky, but generally it's a bit of a longer term of, like, you make deposits, you show up consistently to draw it back to content creation. You create the content, you do the videos, you do the podcast, you do the articles, whatever your medium is, whether it's all of the above or one of them and you consistently do that and eventually that compounds and takes off and quite literally in the form of well, your SEO is going to grow, you got your organic search. People are going to find you on YouTube, they're going to find your videos, they're going to find you on discovery engines like podcasts Spotify, apple podcasts and Google and all these places and over time that's going to compound organically. So there you go. You're going to get more traffic, naturally, from the piece that you wrote two, three, four years ago or recorded or filmed, and then also people will find it. So people find you, people talk, people comment, people share, maybe something goes a little viral or, more realistically, somebody in an important place or with more leverage reads your stuff, finds this whole treasure trove of content and gets to access your insights and or gets to access your personality from your podcast or your YouTube channel. And then they go.

Brad: 6:26

I'm like I'm going to fall, I'm going to check in with this person and then that compounds and then the opportunities start to come in and to me that's like how I like to see it. So if you're like, oh, I've been creating content or I'm posting, or I don't even know what to post about, you're like nobody really does. At first, you know you start and you go and you keep going and eventually it'll pay off. There's ways to make it more strategic. There's ways to amplify it. There's ways to speed it up. You know, but if you've been like I've been like sharing stuff on Instagram or like writing a blog or doing a YouTube channel for like a year now, I don't see anything You're like. That sounds about right, yeah you're right on track.

Josh: 7:05

Such an important foreign point, brad delayed gratification that is like I couldn't agree more. I found that when I started doing side note YouTube tutorials when I started this brand yeah, initially I didn't get much traction at all, but then suddenly people started seeing my videos, answering multiple questions. Or, like one of my students recently told me on the podcast here, sandy, who was like I just couldn't get away from you when I was looking for Divi tutorials. You were just everywhere, but it built enough trust that I was like an expert, even though I wasn't that great with Divi. I just shared what I knew. That is exactly how it plays out.

Josh: 7:41

It is harder to get instant wins, which is why I recommend personally, if somebody's needing clients fast, go the in-person route, do more direct, because you'll likely get a lot faster results, quicker results. The content creation thing, though like you said, it really acts as kind of a library that could be referred back to for months and years down the road, which is what's really cool. Like you can't repurpose a meeting you had in person, but you can repurpose a blog post or a YouTube video. Are there ways to speed it up, though, if somebody is like I want to post reels or YouTube videos or whatever it is. What are you mentioned? There are ways to expedite things, speed things up. What are those ways that you've seen work?

Brad: 8:23

Yeah, probably the most obvious thing to me is clarity on what you're posting. So if you're just throwing random stuff out there, if you're like, oh, I'm on Instagram and I like Instagram, I'm on it all the time. I like reels and I think I'm funny and I like doing little skits, but I also like talking about writing and I also like coffee and I play guitar and so I'm just like, okay, well, that's fun, I guess, for your friends to keep up with to see what Brad's doing in his personal life. I guess that's not going to really get you anywhere or get you anywhere anytime soon. Maybe you get lucky and you look back over the last five years and you're like hey, remember when I stopped doing all the other things and I just started doing the comedy thing and then all of a sudden I was a comedian, when I thought I was like a health person doing, like talking about alternative wellness and also music and this, but then all of a sudden I was a comedian. Okay, here we go. So that happens there, because there was clarity and there was a focus and there's some sort of audience for that. So clarity is the primary thing.

Brad: 9:38

I think the longest thing that delays any amount of opportunities coming in or success is you don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what you're doing, you don't know what you're sharing. There's no focus, there's no clarity. And so for web designers specifically if I'm, you know, be tied into specifically who's listening right now like your content creation needs to be relevant to what you're of, what you're trying to do with your business. So you're trying to get clients, you're trying to build a reputation, you're trying to grow your business's brand or your personal brand. If you're going to going more consultant, independent or freelancer style and you want to attract clients, you want to attract referrals. You want to attract people who ultimately listen to your advice for and your insights. You want to be kind of an industry thought leader as well. So your clients are not just Joe over here who runs the deli or the retail shop or you know this e-commerce brand. Sure, those are your clients and you should be getting those and that's a short term. That's like you mentioned. You go and you get those.

Brad: 10:49

Networking, you connect, you talk, you do in person stuff. Your content is almost like, not necessarily for those people, it's kind of like for people like you, like yourself. You're sharing your insights, you're sharpening the sword, you're trying to understand your industry better, you're trying to maybe spearhead something, you're trying to share some thoughts that maybe somebody else isn't thinking about, and you're you're better in your craft by talking about what you know, teaching what you know, sharing what you know or maybe like being like I think you know everybody's doing rounded corners in purple now and I actually think that's it's an awful idea. Here's the direction that I think that we should be going. And then you share your thoughts or your opinions on your content and your articles and your videos and podcasts. You create the audience of, basically, people like you or people who want to be in your position, or maybe there are people who are in your position but they want to like hear from other people who are like sharing their thoughts and insights and opinions and skills with them, and so think about it that way. I know a lot of web designers in the think of content. They're like should I be writing like the 10 ways you can improve your SEO on your dentist website? Sure, you can. Maybe you can reserve some time for that on your business's blog or whatever, and maybe that'll help you with SEO and whatnot.

Brad: 12:17

The content. For me, the purpose of it is less of getting your specific clients for your agency or web design and almost building a reputation in that industry as a thought leader, as an expert, as someone who people look to for guidance and advice or entertainment or education on the topic, and then that kind of serves as even more social proof for the clients who do hire you. Oh, why would I hire you? I don't know. You should ask 10,000 of these people back here who follow me for the one who tells them how to do their job. You're like oh well, why don't I hire other people? You're like well, I've got 10,000 other people here who are looking for work and they all come to me for my insights. So they're doing my methods.

Brad: 13:01

You know, and this is a more simplified version of that, but that's kind of how I see content rather than how do I write content that dentists will read Like I don't know. You know it's, but it's more so. It's a different arm of your business. And then those people, they talk about you. I can't count the times that I will get an email from someone. Goes, hey, jeff, or whomever from. He says he's in your community or on your email list and he's taking your courses and he runs a busy agency now and he said I need to talk to you about this. So it's like oh, I taught Jeff or Susan in my courses. They went on to do their own thing, they got a lead, they sent it my way. Amplify that by a thousand people, 10,000 people, 50,000 people, whatever your audience may be, and it's a massive kind of in incoming method for leads. Yeah, Okay.

Josh: 14:01

So this is interesting because it's enlightening for me to hear that point of view. It's not something I generally recommend. Well, I totally see how that can work and I've seen it work for me personally because I still get leads to do websites and I have to refer them out or deny them constantly. But I have seen web designers fall into the trap where they're making content that is specifically for web designers on their business profile and maybe maybe it's worth exploring whether you should have, like, a personal brand outside of your business profile that serves clients. Maybe that's a solution for this.

Josh: 14:35

But, like, I think about one of my students who was posting a lot about WordPress tips but she was just getting other web designers through her website and she was not serving web designers at all. She had no means of serving web designers. So she was like I keep on getting these DIYers and web designers DIYers can be clients. But I told her you know you're attracting web designers. So to that point, because this can work both ways, it can all work. But for those who are wanting to avoid that, brad and like, is that the solution to have a personal brand that's a little more your interest in that industry versus a business blog or content that is catered to the dentist sites or the type of clients you serve.

Brad: 15:17

Yep, that's a great pushback and you're right, any and all of it can work and there's no real rule. I always like to say, like all these rules that you hear, to take them as like kind of guidance and maybe a slight direction, but not like, oh, I have to do it this way to the T, otherwise it won't work, because there's always going to be someone who surprises us and goes oh, I didn't, nobody saw that coming, so I guess that works.

Josh: 15:41

Yeah, but you're right, like I didn't really think about even though I've seen this play out in my journey with YouTube tutorials and stuff you do look like an expert. Like I've got quite a few clients from my Divi tutorials outside completely different industries, but they just viewed me as the Divi expert, which got me and my agency a lot of clients. So you're totally right. It definitely there's a lot to be said about the authority and trust that you build that way.

Brad: 16:05

Yes, you're right. Now. The other arm to this might be, let's say, you're not building a personal brand as like the agency principal or the primary individual in your business. If you're a freelancer, let's say you're like, yeah, I don't really want to go that direction. I don't want to say, build my reputation as a thought leader in the space. I quite literally just want to create like content that attracts my target market. Yeah, great, okay. So you can find, find out a fun way to do that, find out a way that you would like to do that.

Brad: 16:41

Think a couple of things. And this might be one of those amplifiers where you're like how do you get, how do you speed up the effectiveness of this? Let's say you're an agency and your primary market is lawyers, law firms, attorneys and whatnot, and you want to get there, you want to get those clients. So you're going to do your primary outreach methods, your networking and all the other stuff that you do. But let's say content is a piece that you want to do. What you do is you say like, well, where do lawyers hang out? How do they consume content and what do I like to produce? So if there's like an overlap, so if you're like there's a lot of lawyers just listening to podcasts. They're busy, they're in their cars, they're listening. Podcasts are easier to listen to and stop and start. You don't have to sit and watch like YouTube or read an article, you could just like listen two times the speed in the car on the way to the office or wherever. And so you're like, okay, well, actually think that'd be great. And you're like, okay, well, what? What are they looking for? How can I kind of add my voice to that? And that might be.

Brad: 17:47

Let's say, you literally are creating a podcast where you interview lawyers and you ask them interesting questions that maybe they that aren't just like legal speak, and maybe it's entertaining. Maybe it's like lawyers unhinged, or like maybe I'm just like throwing things out just like you know, off the top of my head here you can just like spit ball a bunch of ideas. Maybe it's entertaining, maybe it's purpose is entertaining, and then lawyers follow along. You tie it in to what you're doing, so it's not just like lawyer comedy night, yeah right. And they're like, well, how, why would I hire your agency? It makes no sense. Maybe you tie it in in some way so like here's a little side example Agency hackerscom, their community over in the UK and a website and they do agency comedy nights and what they do is they like the guy Ian, he runs the community.

Brad: 18:42

He said like they're actually really popular events because we book a space like a comedy space, and the comedy is about agency specific problems. You know, like client problems, like client requests, like stuff that only agency owners would laugh at, and everybody's together having a good time, having, like you know, food and drinks and laughing at the jokes that they all painfully understand, and so you know that's like a piece of content or an event that you know brings people to that community. Now, coming back to the agency for lawyers, maybe it's entertaining, maybe it's informative, maybe this is where lawyers come to to stay. You know, like these are all competition but they want to know what other lawyers are doing. And then this guy who interviews them, you know from such and such agency, which you make sure to mention what you do and how you serve lawyers, but you have a podcast where you glean insights and figure out what they're doing and their unique problems, lots of ways you can do this and then all you got to do is just get lawyers on the show Once you've had two, you could say, hey, I interviewed people, these lawyers, maybe you want to get on the show too.

Brad: 19:45

You got five, you got 10, you got 50, you got a hundred. Then you got a backlog where you're fully booked getting interviews, and then that grows. That inevitably is going to get those lawyers tuning in listening you as the podcast host who runs the agency, the lawyer agency, and so that's content for lawyers by your agency to bring you leads, and so that's just like one example of how you, how you could maybe do that.

Josh: 20:14

Dude, you are hitting on the hidden gym, the gold mine of one of my favorite strategies for getting clients and that is an interview series of some sort. And the cool thing about this this is so timely, brad, because I'm literally like I'm starting to map out a playbook for my community WebZenner Pro on how to conduct an interview series, like guiding you through how to do it, and what you said is exactly right. You could do it very hyper-nitched into, like a certain demographic or industry. We could also do it a little more broad, even locally, like I had a client of mine who did an interview series of local business owners and the cool thing about that is not only is that networking, but it's also content. It's like two birds you got networking and content and sales and trust and authority all together, because you can do these interviews.

Josh: 21:06

If you do them on video, you could put them on YouTube, you could SEO them, make them local so they're gonna be searched for a while, make it almost like a case study about an industry or about how Web design can help an industry, and then chop that up for social media and there's your content. So you don't even need to like sit down and think well, what am I gonna create this week, over the next few months? You could do an interview and chop out the little bits on that, and there's your content for any social media that you're a part of. I love that you're hitting on this early on, because I don't think it's something that most people are thinking about right now with the idea of getting clients or using content to get clients interview series.

Brad: 21:42

Yes, I love that one. Fillerly back you up on that, man. That's so great. I'm glad that you're so excited about that and that you've been thinking about it, because you just said it is it's content and marketing, but it's networking as well. That's the amplifier. So amplifying something or multiplying something is when you take it and you add a thing that makes it even bigger, and then if you can multiply that, then that's the compound interest that we're talking about, where you multiply, multiply, multiply, multiply. Then all of a sudden it's out of control. You start from single digits to you know.

Josh: 22:12

And, to that point, if you make, like you know, 12 weekly posts of reels and content for your social media, so you got three months of content. That's good, but what would be even more powerful in 12 weeks is to interview 12 people, 12 business owners, who are glad to talk about themselves, by the way, and glad to talk about their business, and have kind of a live, almost coaching chat, or you can do it on Zoom or whatever have like. Repurpose that, but most importantly, they share it with their network. So, instead of your 338 Instagram followers over 12 weeks, you're now talking with 12 people who have 338 people each. So you're getting into like thousands of people. If you have them, share out their interviews and those clips and tag them, you're spreading that reach.

Josh: 22:59

Like you mentioned the word, amplify it. That seems to be the key on how to do that and, man, I just love that strategy. I did this when I, before I started a podcast, I did like a little mini podcast and I'm only saying my personal experience on this because it translate to what I learned with content and I did this Divi Business Interview series. I did nine interviews, so it wasn't like I'm committing to a podcast every week forever. It was just an interview series and I got exposed to every one of their networks when I released that series and they're still being found on YouTube today. Same idea and that's how to truly amplify it. So this was a really in-depth and good long roundabout way to say like if you want to boost, I guess, and amplify the content, get other people to share it too, and if you can do it with an interview series there, it is your goal.

Brad: 23:48

It's right, it's right there, exactly. And then other people want to be on the show. Other lawyers want to be on the show because, well, it's promotion for their firm, let's say for talking lawyers, or their business, if it's something else. And then you get a reputation. And then you get to show up, show up to the lawyers, meet and greet the lawyers, golfing thing at the country club or whatever their trade events are, and you show up with, like your I don't know if you wear a shirt, you probably wear a suit, but if you had, like your car, that was the podcast thing and the agency or you're recognizable, you're the podcast guy. Yeah, you've interviewed this guy, this guy, this guy, and like, can I get on the show and then that can grow your reputation?

Josh: 24:30

Yeah, I would recommend web designers wear the black t-shirt, jeans or maybe a hoodie and jeans with your tennis shoes, Cause then you're going to stand out and then everyone's going to. You're going to be like oh, they're going to be like oh yeah, that guy knows computers, he can help me out.

Brad: 24:46

He's that podcast agency guy, yeah.

Josh: 24:48

Now, brad, for the people who are like, this sounds great, but I'm an introvert, I'm nervous. I don't have your guys's mics and camera. I get all that, but I will say, the interview series that I've seen being done, and even the ones I did for my YouTube channel, which was all the way back in 2018 when I did these, they were janky, they were a. It was on zoom, it was a you know shitty webcam that I had at the time, although, shout out to Logitech, they've come a long way with their webcams. That's how I did it.

Josh: 25:18

It really is not about, I mean, I guess the more professional you can be cool, but it really is more about just the, the actual content, and I I'm I'm asking this to ask your tips on this. I say, just be curious, like you don't need a script to follow. It's not like a formal interview. It's more of just a almost a casual Q and A kind of case study kind of thing. I mean, that's the approach that I would recommend having, because it takes all the pressure off. That way, you're just interested, like ask them about their story and their journey and what's worked for them, and that's going to be an hour of back and forth right there more than likely.

Brad: 25:53

Yep, yeah, I think there's like a couple of parts here. So the whole introvert thing, it's like some people see it as a weakness or like a you know it's maybe it holds you back and maybe in certain things, but it also helps you in other ways. As an extrovert, you kind of blab your mouth and get yourself into sticky situations that you shouldn't have. So there's like there's pros and cons to each. But let's say, as an introvert you have you're at a disadvantage because talking to people you don't know makes you uncomfortable. But if you want to say, if you're like I want that podcast and I want that video podcast and I see the value and actually kind of excites me, but I'm nervous about this. You're like, okay, well, get over it, let's fix that. Like, how can we make it easier for you to get over it and get better at it? See it as a muscle that needs to be strengthened and grow. So you start off with the smaller weights and in the safer amounts and then you script out the questions that you want to ask. But you also know, like this is just a person that you're talking to, that you're asking questions of, it's probably going to be a person that you're more comfortable with. Maybe you know a friend or a colleague who just started up that business that you're trying to start interviewing those people. You're going to be more comfortable with that person and certainly you've done a thousand Zoom calls and meetings and stuff at this point. You know, over the last few years. So talking to people on a screen in your room with nobody around, like it's not that much different, you know, than just being alone. So just like, work on it and build that muscle, exercise it, and then the more, let's say, you put five, you got five under the belt and then you start getting more relaxed and then you start getting better and better.

Brad: 27:29

Chris Doe of the future. He calls himself the loud introvert. You know this is a perfect example. Someone who's like, introverted, maybe uncomfortable around people, but people flock to him and he's, you know, he calls himself the loud introvert. It's just like it's a skill that you build rather than something that you go. Well, because I feel like I'm an introvert, like I can't. Therefore I can't do it Like that's not true.

Brad: 27:53

You just have to work a little harder for that first part and you don't need to.

Josh: 27:56

you know Chris has kind of like a monk vibe about him.

Brad: 27:58

Like he can just look like everybody's like he's all like yeah, but Gary Vee.

Josh: 28:04

Yeah, yeah, gary Vee would be an interesting monk. That would be very interesting. He would be kicked out on the way, yeah.

Brad: 28:11

But you got to go, man.

Josh: 28:12

No, no, you, not you so content. When you think about content, I think everyone at least my mind immediately thinks about just like reels or whatever we see on social media that's hot. I have more and more fallen back in love with just like blogging, old school, good old, seo friendly blogs, and YouTube is still as big as and popular as YouTube is. I'm just shocked that more web designers are not doing freaking YouTube. Do YouTube Even if you're not a YouTuber you like.

Josh: 28:47

I just I see so many of my community members and web designer pro a lot of them who have made really amazing progress in less than a year. A large majority of them are using YouTube in some way. The really cool thing about that is, with the idea of like the interview series, you can keyword and target the videos to that lawyer, to that industry, to that location and have your web design business name in there. It's like a bunch of amazing things that can be found for months and years down the road. What are your thoughts on some of the like? I guess just with how congested things like reels are compared to just good old SEO, do you think there's still room for blogging and just old school principles?

Brad: 29:30

100%. So I think that You've probably heard the phrase building your business on rented ground or leased land. You don't own the land that you're building the business on and then the lease owner could at any time go, never mind. Actually, we sold to a highest bidder. You don't need to be here or we don't like your vibe anymore. You got to go. You're building your business on rented ground.

Brad: 29:54

That's social media in a nutshell. That's Instagram, that's certainly TikTok, that's X Twitter. Then it gets a little bit less like LinkedIn kind of. If you're building your business just on LinkedIn, who knows how that works? Then YouTube even though you don't own it, you still own the videos. You have all the videos on your hard drive. You go, take it to another platform. You could post it on your blog. These are assets.

Brad: 30:22

For me, youtube is not the same as building business on rented ground. That's actually akin to blogging, in my opinion, whereas Instagram short form content. It's like you have a bucket with a hole in the bottom and you're constantly trying to fill the bucket with your content pieces or whatever you want to say. You're filling that bucket with. You're like why is it never full? Why am I constantly trying to keep this thing full, it's because it's falling out the bottom and it's never to be found again. It's useless. It's a bad search engine. You can't find anything. You've seen it. When somebody like a friend or your wife is like hey, I found this great reel but I forgot to save it. I wanted to show you. Maybe I could search for it.

Josh: 31:04

The stories that disappear in 24 hours which drives me bonkers.

Brad: 31:08

Yeah, or I've had it where I've typed in Google. I was like maybe I can find this, where I was like funny Instagram reel where Guy slipped on the ice and I'm like in my mind it was viral, everybody's talking about it, it's in everybody's feed. Certainly it's going to show up on Google. Not a chance. It's like log into Instagram. It's the top hit. It's not a search engine. It's not like a discoverability engine. It's nothing that builds value. It's not compounding. This is what it is.

Brad: 31:34

You know how I mentioned investing and compounding. It's kind of like maybe just saving cash and just stuck like stuffing it away in your closet and thinking that you're doing a really good job. Cash over time depreciates in value $1,000 a hundred years ago or today versus 100 years ago like they're totally different. If you had $1,000 a hundred years ago and you just kept it in cash, like that number depreciates with inflation. That's just how it goes, whereas if you invested $1,000 a hundred years ago, like you'd be a multi-millionaire, if not more, at this point and that's the difference is creating content on short form, expendable platforms, where your content's not valued other than is it giving us a hit in this moment and making people addicted to it. That's like just like kind of stuffing cash away in the closet, hoping that you're actually like doing something good for yourself, versus investing in the stock market. It's not sexy, it's consistent, it's disciplined, it's a little up and down, but you revisit the cash pile in 10 years from now and you revisit the investments 10 years from now. And here's the key difference the cash pile. You could even keep putting that cash away, depositing that cash in the closet, for 10 years. You could invest in the stock market for like one or two years and then forget about it and stop investing in it and come back 10 years from now and that's probably going to be worth more than that cash pile because of the discoverability, because blogging, because your articles, because your podcasts, because your YouTube videos.

Brad: 33:17

It's a search engine and it grows and it compounds. I can't tell you the number of videos that. I can't tell you, actually, the number of videos I have it on my analytics that I've created on YouTube and I thought it was a great video and nobody watched it. And then a year later, I come back and go why am I getting all these? What's happening? Where did all these subscribers come from? Where are all these notifications coming from and that video, which seemed like a total dud view-wise a year ago, all of a sudden got picked up and now constantly, every day, it grows, grows, grows, grows and it's like the number one thing that gets me subscribers, and those are like my target market, who want what I have to offer. Watch my other videos and that compounds, whereas my Instagram reel that I created that I thought was hilarious two years ago, like you'll never find it again and it's probably somewhere in the bottom of my feed that no one's going to ever scroll to and Instagram will never show again.

Josh: 34:09

That's what I think.

Josh: 34:11

I mean preaching to the choir brother. Yes, absolutely 100% on all that. And then I have seen people have some success with reels and stuff. But I think that even if you have success with that what you said with the analogy of the bucket, that's the problem Is it's like you just have to keep filling it constantly. And, let's face it, a lot of the people who are the most like prolific entrepreneurs today have teams of people creating the content. It's not the creator creating the content and distributing it and publishing it out. It's a hard game to play, man.

Josh: 34:48

I couldn't agree more with going to blog and YouTube and audio route any of those work, and then, yes, you can repurpose them for social. But, man, I think about, like Michelle my. I have a SEO guru who I work with. She has, I think, eight blog posts on her site. She wrote them years ago and continues to refine them and they are what brings all her website traffic. Eight blog posts. Now, if she had done Instagram Reel, she would have done that once a week for two months and then had to keep on going, but because she spent time creating really in-depth, good, helpful articles that are like strategic and conversion based. That's where the true goal is.

Josh: 35:26

So, for anyone who feels like blogging is dead you know video, like on YouTube and stuff, whatever it is I hope your point there, brad, really makes people reevaluate the importance of yeah, like owning your digital landscape and your land, and because that really is the only way to own it. You're right, you can't own your online presence with Reels and social media posts. It's not the way Google or any other search engine works. Yeah, I am curious when it comes to some of that evergreen content that is gonna last a long time. This is where I think it could be really beneficial to take the approach of like, looking at your ideal demographic, your target graphic and creating content for that.

Josh: 36:05

I also think there's a huge place nowadays for, even as a web designer, creating tool-specific content. So what I'm finding is a lot of business owners are, even if they're not DIYers, they're interested in like the types of tools that are gonna run their online presence or, at least, if they're not managing their website themselves, they wanna know, like, what's the website agency gonna use? Now, you are all into Wix now. How recent is that? Or have you been using Wix for a while, cause I wanna transition this to like how could you create content that's based around the tools that you use to bring in traffic?

Brad: 36:40

Yeah, okay, so that is. That's another unique way of getting at your target market or opening up another market. So let's say you're creating tool-specific content. Let me say, for example, web designer creating content about well, you could use a platform. You could say Wix, webflow, framer, whatever other else no code tools are out there. Or it could even be a different tool, like a productivity tool. Let's say, like Notion.

Brad: 37:12

Or maybe you think about like what are the tools that these lawyers or this business or this SaaS company, these SaaS companies which are my target market what tools do they use or they want to use or they're relying on or what needs do they have? That, this tool that I love let's say it's Notion that they're gonna search for or that they're going to inevitably come across or I know is gonna help them with something that they're looking for. Then you creating that content can serve two purposes. One, you're attracting people who are looking for that, say, notion-based content, and you become more of an authority in that space, and that opens up a whole other bunch of opportunities. So maybe your target market they find that and they realize, as they're trying to figure out Notion, it's this whole universe and they don't know how to apply it.

Brad: 38:01

Maybe you have videos on like how lawyers and attorneys and other office professionals can use Notion to simplify their systems or to create the better onboarding for their clients, or whatever pieces. There's probably a thousand pieces right there of articles, videos, specifically articles and videos that you can show. So that's gonna be a great piece there. But it also attracts, say, a general market of people who are wanting productivity tips in Notion. Now, that's just kind of one example. It's kind of like a shoulder, like it's not like I'm creating content for my lawyers specifically about lawyer stuff. Or I'm creating content about web design so that web designers can see me as an authority, so that lawyers can realize I'm the top dog. It's like no, as the designer or the agency or the marketing agency, I create specific software tutorials on software that my target market either uses obsessively or definitely should be using, and it's something that I would employ in their tech stack when they hire me. And what just?

Josh: 39:11

I don't mean to derail us, but I think one important note on this is we're going back and forth on this idea because of me, of creating content based off of tools that you use versus for clients, but they do both work seamlessly. I think the most important thing is to just make the content that you enjoy and that you're interested in talking about, and if it's tool specific, then you can decide what to do with that traffic. And what I mean by that is have a call to action that says if you're a lawyer, for example, click here to get a quote and we'll get the conversation started. If you like this tool but you're not a lawyer, they're your web designer. Check out Creative Crew or check out Web Designer Pro.

Josh: 39:47

Like you can literally enjoy our affiliate programs. You can literally make it a win-win all around. You can kind of defer the traffic from there with a filter or a funnel, but make your content. Actually, adam Preiser with WP Crafter once told me we talked about this actually on the podcast a while back about a separate type of conversation about content creation, and he even said just make the content and it's going to attract the people, depending on how you make it. So do you have any tips on that, on like, just making the content but then figuring out the funneling process from there, or what to do with that?

Brad: 40:23

For sure, so I agree, but I think that there's a caveat to it to make sure that just making the content is just making the right content, because just making the content could be like I like music and guitar, so I've got like guitars surrounding me, I've got recording equipment. I also like playing games on the Xbox. I also like woodworking. There's a lot of things that I personally, as Brad, like, and just creating content about just my interests might not do much other than if I really like that and it's a personal outlet or creative outlet, fair enough. But if you're like a business owner, web designer, and you've got your design agency and you're trying to grow that through content, create the content that you actually so in that room let's say you're stepping in that category don't create content that you think is the right content for your target audience, for the lawyers or for the SaaS companies or for whatever your target market is. Like. Create the content that like actually genuinely excites. You find the overlap, so draw like three circles like event diagram, like what I really love talking about, like what's, like total I'm way over the moon for this, more excited than anybody and then who's my target market? And then like what medium could that be? And then find like the overlap between the three of those where you're like, hey, podcasting lawyers, like I like podcasting lawyers, they listen to podcasts and I'm so stupidly excited about productivity or about like making, like beautiful, award-winning designs. Where you're like when I design a site, I, on apologetically, make sure it's going to get an award. You know, that's at least the path.

Brad: 42:12

Some people say, well, that's vanity. Or like you shouldn't just design for the awards, you should design for the usability. You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, fine, boring, actually it's going to be award-winning and usable. How about that? Rather than just the boring, it's usable, but it will never win an award. I'm excited about like the most beautiful, like unorthodox, amazing, creative direction, but I don't throw usability and speed and optimization to the wayside, like I'm a professional at my craft and so there's my excitement, there's my market, there's the medium, there's the overlap.

Brad: 42:47

Create that content, you know, rather than lawyers, like interviews with lawyers. What questions can I ask lawyers? You're like, don't do that if you don't want to. If you're like I love I could talk, I could talk, I could talk, I could talk, I can ask anything, any question, I love it.

Brad: 43:03

I like the law firm industry for whatever reason, and there's a lot of money in it and I think I could really help. Perfect, you're the right guy, the right gal for the job. You should do it. So that would be my the creed gone that you want to create that excites you, but make sure it has an overlap that's gonna actually serve the needs of your business and your customers. To go back to your kind of earlier question, you're like if you're creating software tutorials or content around a piece of software and then said like well, when did I get into get involved with Wix and Wix Studio? So that came about from this is that compound interest thing that I talk about? So I've been creating content in the web design space for like 10 or 12 years about freelancing, about web design, about building websites. I've done everything from Udemy courses to YouTube tutorials on responsive design, on Photoshop, creating beautiful websites, to how to code, how to get started.

Brad: 44:04

You've used, like every platform, by this point have you, all of them, all of them, and even with my clients, like I've had, I've done projects from scratch. I've done things in expression engine. I've done things with Jumla, drupal, wordpress, cushycms I haven't heard of that, yeah, I don't think it exists anymore but like all of it, anything and all of it, and I've played with them. I've built sites for clients. I've done things myself personally and I've created content about virtually all of it. And Wix I've always known about Wix Most of us have, you know if you've been in the web design industry for the last 10, 15 years and it didn't necessarily come with the best. I thought reputation at first, and it was a lot of WordPress designers, probably a lot of WordPress people here too.

Brad: 44:55

Oh yeah, I've dogged Wix before in previous oh yeah, oh for sure, it's like and I get it, but I've done that too. And the reason why I did it because I heard another web designer who I looked up to do that not because I actually formulated my own opinion. So I fully outright say that because I realized like it wasn't my actual opinion, I think when I would quote, unquote dog Wix, I never logged into it, I never created an account and never tried it and I just was like, yeah, I saw that one YouTube video for that cool web designer that I admire, or a programmer probably, and he really didn't like it, and so me too. We were the same and that was kind of like the extent of it.

Brad: 45:34

So I had a client who came from my community who I coached through something, and she was like, can I hire you? Like, do you do web design services? Like yeah, that's like, that's my thing. Like what do you need? She's like well, I need a full website refresh and I like your style. You're, you know, I trust you, but I have one caveat. It's built in Wix, the classic editor, and I'm open to changing it If you feel professionally it's the right choice and I'm fully open only if you give me 30 minutes to try to convince you otherwise and to show you why this is actually a better choice. And I was like try me, let's go.

Brad: 46:18

And so I thought like I went in all like confident chest puffed out and she like walked me through her site what she needed, why she preferred using Wix and why her clients prefer using Wix. So she is a web design agency, first for a certain niche, and she wanted me to redesign her agency site using the classic editor. And so I was like thinking that I'd be like all right, by the time we're done the 30 minutes, like we're gonna overhaul this and we're gonna do a big whole campaign to switch it over to, let's say, like WordPress. And by the end of it I was like, well, I did not see that coming, because she'd not only convinced me, I was fully humbled and realizing my opinion was not based in anything other than like it's really cool to like knock on a platform that everybody else you know in this little niche market over here is complaining about on a forum one time. And so, anyway, from the usability standpoint, from the customer's perspective, she said I used to build all my sites on WordPress and all of my clients hated it because they didn't know how to use the dashboard. They were confused. There was always updates. They didn't know how to update things. When we'd update things to break. When this would happen. This would happen. There would be bugs, they'd get hacked and then some sort of like their website would be taken over by a Viagra thing. And then endless, endless, endless complaints and they just they hated the user experience and it made me look bad and I also didn't like building for it because it was complicated, confusing to me. And so she's like I came across Wix, I built it in Wix and my clients have been really happy from a usability perspective. They've been really pleased.

Brad: 48:01

I've been getting nothing but great reviews. I've been getting more and more clients. It's easy for me to build. Actually, it's a joy for me to build and I like it. And she's like and I have ADHD like 10 out of 10 and this really helps me. I enjoy it, it's a nice experience, it's good for me, it's good for the clients. And then I was like okay, well, can it like do this? And she's like well, here, here's the tools. And I played around and I was like oh, I guess it can. What can I do this though? Well, here, try these tools. Oh, yeah, I guess it can.

Brad: 48:32

And I walked away from that, realizing you're only as good as your own abilities and your own restrictions. The tools don't matter. You can take a master woodworker and give him a black and decker basic tool set from Walmart and he's gonna make a piece of art. Versus the beginner who's really confident and cocky, using like the fanciest, most expensive tools, and he's gonna make a big piece of trash. But he's got the big, loud voice saying like, oh, you should only use these tools or we should only do it this way, because that's what we do and you're like but you suck at this, you're not actually very good. The person who's humble and actually good at it realizes like I can do anything I want with any of the tools that I want. There's gonna be boundaries and things that I can and cannot do, but in most cases you don't need to push those boundaries. And so, coming now to present day, with all the content that I created and all these tutorials and the splash I made in the space of web design and freelancing and creative agencies, I'm gonna go ahead and do a little bit of a review of these.

Brad: 49:46

Wix got in touch with me through Editor X, so Editor X was the precursor to Wix Studio, which is the advanced platform for agencies. So it's not the classic editor, which is the more basic drag and drop tool that, like anyone, can kind of build their site, and that's like they've become a household name for that Wix Studio, which was previously Editor X, but now it's all in all of its glory. It's a much more sophisticated tool than even what Editor X was. It's for agencies and professionals who wanna build sites and have no restrictions, and they've provided the resources and the tools and the capability with this platform. And it's not just a website building tool, it's like a whole suite Dashboard you could do invoicing, payments, bookings, restaurants, there's business solutions, there's tons of stuff, and so it's far more than anyone ever realized, especially if you spend a little bit of time looking into it and not just going off of what somebody said in a forum one time, and so they reached out yeah, that's not the case for me too, because I don't know too much.

Josh: 50:50

I'm sure a lot of folks listening are like, yeah, I didn't know anything. I mean, a lot of my audience is still largely WordPress, although my community is agnostic towards platforms, so I'm yeah, I'll share my thoughts on this after. But, yeah, this is helpful for me, too to know For sure.

Brad: 51:04

And being platform agnostic is the right way, positioning yourself and being niche or niche and choosing like a tool that's your preferred tool and the tool belt great. But when I went to a workshop out in Toronto where it was a Wix Studio workshop and I talked to a lot of agency owners, I filmed content and everything there. I had my camera and everything and I talked to a bunch of people and I thought it was really interesting. I assumed that it was gonna be like all Wix Studio based agencies or Editor X or Wix agencies and there was like really good agencies there. I had award-winning agencies like some top players in the game over in Toronto and they're like yeah, our main tool is Studio, so Wix Studio, we have some Editor X sites but we do a lot Like we've got a team that takes care of the WordPress side of things. We've got a couple of webflow projects. We're transferring some people over from this tool over to this one, but the bulk of it is like we try to get the bulk of it through Wix Studio because we want to specialize, but we get a lead coming in who needs a custom site with a custom CMS. We got the resources to handle that and so I actually found really interesting. It wasn't just like I'm just this tool or I'm just this tool. It was like here's a preferred tool. But if a client comes in and they have unique needs that maybe they already have an established presence or an established system on another tool, they're not gonna just like wipe that clean and start it fresh over in Wix Studio or whatever the preferred platform is, they say, oh yeah, we can do that, we can make that work, so long as you want that client.

Brad: 52:40

Now, kind of going back here for a sec, I didn't know much about, say, editor X at the time and so I did a little research, I played around with the tool, I got access and I started playing and building and creating and I was like, oh, this is not at all. What? Even the classic editor, which I had some familiarity with at the point, because my client who I built out of Wix site for, I was like this is totally different. I see the Wix branding and common user interface elements and certain user experiences, but like I can throw some serious stuff at this and I can do whatever I need to here. And then Wix Studio is a totally different category at this point with its capabilities and it's the support, the security, the tools.

Brad: 53:24

If you're building a website that serves restaurants or lawyers, or you're doing a subscription based offering where you bill on a recurring basis or you wanna track your finances and you wanna, it's endless and it's incredibly powerful tool. It's not just like a website building tool, it's an ecosystem, it's a platform and then it's a community, it's resources and it's got Wix behind it, which is a big international team. And so, in terms of security, in terms of speed, I know people have tried to say, like well, seo. I heard somewhere that they're not good at SEO. You're like well, tell that to their army of SEO experts hired who are constantly researching this, no more than any of us, and are employing that in the tool all the time.

Josh: 54:17

Yeah.

Brad: 54:18

My mind on that was busted.

Josh: 54:20

When I interviewed Page Brunton a couple of years back on the podcast who's Squarespace and she showed me her Squarespace, like her blogging SEO game on Squarespace, I was like, wow, oopsie, I did used to say Squarespace sucks at SEO, but yeah, I never did Squarespace.

Brad: 54:35

So it's like it's not the tool, it's the designer. So, if you like, it's what it is. That's what I realized. It's like you can be given a tool that's anywhere from basic to advanced and if you're a beginner, you're only going to have your beginner capabilities, but if you're an expert and you're humble, you can take anything, for the most part, and do and make it do whatever you need it to do. So, like saying this platform is not good at SEO, that tells me, actually I think you're not good at SEO. That's what it is. Yeah, that's what I think.

Josh: 55:10

So your content creation compounded, which was a variety of tools, a variety of strategies still in the web design space and freelancer space, and that's what has compounded to lead you to, yeah, the opportunities that you have now Look, the same goes for web designers if you're going to do tool or if you're going to tutorials or tip videos, how to videos on tools that you use, it really does. It all works together, you know. Side note, before we kind of put a cap on this content creation talk, like I have definitely changed over the past few years with the idea of, like WordPress, is it? Everything else sucks.

Josh: 55:49

Because I definitely had that mindset and I think a lot of that stems from the vitriol that, like WordPress, web designers and developers feel towards Squarespace, wix and some of the others. I think is mainly just because of marketing. I think it's because you get the like build your site for a dollar kind of commercials or a go daddy builder or something, and we all know where that leads and, yes, it brings a lot of DIY crowd in. So and I think that's what has caused issue with web designers, because I faced this myself is clients would say well, why am I going to hire you for $5,000 if I can build my own site for a dollar.

Brad: 56:24

And inevitably.

Josh: 56:24

I'd like, well, go ahead, you know, try it out and then come back to me when you're done messing around and you have lost some hair. But I do think that's where a lot of that stems from. The reality now is like you said with studio. I haven't played around with it so I can't say anything about it. But hearing your perspective, brad, is really enlightening for me. It just goes to show that there are so many options nowadays and it's truth. Truth is, they all work If you like it. You trust the company, the communities behind it, whatever you like, use that. That's kind of my motto now, and my tune really changed on that when I started using circle. You know we're both circle users for our communities.

Josh: 57:03

I have never been down with an all in one solution. I was always against those until I started using circle and then saw evolve and now it's like. I love it Like it is. It's freaking nice not having. I'm not. I don't plan on making any changes with using WordPress and Divi, but I'm certainly at the point where I'm like things are different now in the landscape, which is, I think, we all just need to realize how things are evolving across the board, no matter what tools we're using. So anyway, all that's say. I appreciate hearing that man Absolutely.

Brad: 57:39

No, it's, you're right, it's like anything could work and it's up to you and any of the vitriol that people have or the opinions, like it's people, it's the whole tribalism sort of like.

Brad: 57:49

You know, like you like to identify with that, with a group, and if the group is really passionate about something and you have a semblance towards that, then okay, then it's easier to kind of like feel safe in that group and that opinion and that's okay. But you have to I think you have to see it that way. Yeah, when you talk to real people, when you go to real conferences and you get from behind the keyboard and the screen, you know and you actually talk to, you go to conferences, you know, you go to these workshops and you talk to people and you see these respectable professionals who are building an agency, hiring employees, like feeding mouths, like creating really cool things, winning awards, you know, like, and you're like, yeah, and we use this platform. You're like, wait a minute, I was told on a forum one time by a really angry username that that's bad. Yeah, and I really believed it, like it was a religion or something. And then I was like but I think I'm, I'm embarrassed now. That's humiliating that I even held that opinion.

Josh: 58:45

Yeah, like that's actually one of the side and one of the best things you can do to if you are kind of the grumpy web designer who's in one page builder or one group go to a conference and meet somebody from some of these companies Like that. I mean, I know how I see so many people who are like SiteGround. Freaking sucks are the worst hosting company. They up their pricing. They're just a bunch of capitalist pigs. I met SiteGround at word camp and they were the nicest people, like they were such great people. And that's the where it's like. They're like humans behind all this, like real people with families and you know feelings and they're all trying to make it work too. It's like, yeah, I don't know. I actually kind of liked that.

Josh: 59:23

I think there's a tide turning with that because of conversations like this, where it's, I do think, some of the tribalism. It's funny. So I know like I grew up, my family grew up in church and I just remember seeing like different denominations and, like you know, like the umbrella of Christianity there's like different denominations for those who don't know. So there's like Baptists and Nazarene and Methodist and Luther and every one of them were like, yeah, baptists, you know, you don't want those. You want to be Nazarene. Nazarene's like oh, you don't want to be Lutheran, you want to be Methodist, whatever.

Josh: 59:51

Yeah, and coming into the web design world, I'm like, oh my God, it's the same way. Everyone's under the umbrella of, like WordPress, but now it's like Divi's the best builder. Elementor sucks no Elementor sucks, or Elementor is great. Oxygen is terrible no, oxygen is terrible. Bricks is the new thing. Bricks is the best one. It's the same freaking thing. So, yeah, I'm almost like I'm almost done with all that. Now to where I'm like just use whatever you want to use and you like it. Awesome, it can all work.

Brad: 1:00:15

Exactly, Exactly. It's like, when you get down to the heart of it, it's about the person and the human behind it. You know, whether using like like a religion metaphor, you know, or a politics metaphor, or identity group metaphor, or like a web design platform or tool metaphor, whatever it is, People like the feeling of people like us do things like this because it's safe in that kind of group, but at the end of it it's like we're all just people, we're all just here, we're all doing this kind of alone, and then people come along for the journey with us. And so when you meet these people in any of the group whether it's a group you disagree with professionally, personally or anything and you actually start talking to a person, it's really.

Brad: 1:00:59

It's really disarming. It's really hard to be mad when you go like, wait a minute, you're like me. Or like, oh, you have a, you have kids. Or oh, you grew up in that place too. Or oh, you like that team. Or oh, like you, you grew up in a similar situation to me, or we had hardships that you're like oh, I like you.

Josh: 1:01:20

Yeah, I know you're supposed to be the enemy. Why don't I continue out with you?

Brad: 1:01:23

Darn it. Exactly that's where I think community and what it's why I think it's attractive to people is because we've had so much people so much where you're separating yourselves and and you're you're, you're bad, I'm good, you know, good guy, bad guy. It's like. The community part is when you like bring people together and, whether it's online or even, especially if you can incorporate an offline part to these communities, you start to see less, you start to see more of the people behind it and you get to hear the stories. You get to see what they're struggling with. You can help.

Brad: 1:01:58

When you help a person, you probably disagree with 50 to 60% of what they, what their opinions are on X number of things. But when they're like, hey, I'm trying to do this, I have a client and this is the problem and I don't know what to do and I'm really having a hard time. This is my first client in a long time and it's really going to help me out you could be, instead of being like, well, I heard that you don't like this and I like that, so we're not friends, you're like I can help and you help the person. You feel great, they feel great and you can. You connect as a person. So you kind of transcend the whole tribalistic thing. Or I like this tool or this software is bad, or blah, blah, blah, and you go back to like the heart of it is like you're trying to help the person and you're trying to serve the person, and and that brings you more joy and value than any empty opinion you might have had on a tool which seems trivial once you think of it.

Josh: 1:02:48

Content, then community. Well, one final question for you here, brad, a perfect segue into your community. Tell me about creative crew, what you have going on there, man.

Brad: 1:02:57

So creative crew is a community of web designers, creative directors, agency owners, various stages, whether you're starting, growing or scaling, and our kind of mission behind it and this is what's kind of unique about it is I want to create one of the best possible spaces for people in web design professionals. I know that you have. This is funny because people like wait, doesn't Josh have web designer pro? And you're talking about your web design community? Yes, we're directly doing very similar things and one might consider it competition, but I'm sure we both have thoughts. Yeah, co-op addition Exactly, I heard you say that and I really liked that, because I don't see it like that at all, because if I saw it like that, I'd be like no, no, there's no way, josh, I'm not doing this at all because we're competitors. You're bad, I'm good. I don't think that at all. More than enough room at the table. Creative crew is a community that it's to help you, give you the resources, the training, the mentorship, to partner you up with people who are further along down the road, to give opportunities for more experienced professionals, to put the ladder down, to give you the training that you need at various stages. Maybe you're weak in your pricing game, or maybe you're weak in your product design game.

Brad: 1:04:15

We want to bring people together through events. We have events. We're experimenting with in-person events too. I got to dabble with that last year at an event in Toronto and it was so cool meeting people, not just user names. That's been really cool. I really want to make one of the best spaces for web designers and agency owners to come, grow, connect, learn. The kicker here is that it's free, because Wix Studio is my brand partner. So this is a unique arrangement. That's not, just, say, a sponsored YouTube video, which we all know how that works. You get a sponsored YouTube video and unless you can really creatively weave it into the video, it's usually just you skip it. You understand, hey, they need money too, all right, but I'm going to skip the sponsored placement. This is totally different because it's an organic, holistic approach where the three parties win the brand wins, the creator wins and the audience wins.

Josh: 1:05:19

Yeah, it's a very cool setup. I like that approach to where you're the personality, you've got the backing behind the Wix Studio stuff which you use. And the one reason I wanted to hear your insight and thoughts on that? Yeah, because I imagine if somebody, if you're going to be supported by somebody, you're going to want to know and use the tool and trust the company behind it Exactly, otherwise it falls apart.

Brad: 1:05:41

Otherwise it falls apart. You need to actually believe in trust in the tool. I've used it. I've done client projects. I've done urgent client projects where there's a massive deadline and a Netflix debut. There's a client at a certain level and I was like we're going to do this. At the time, at a Directs, I was like we're doing it like this, we need to get it done, because your debut you're in New York, you're doing this thing, netflix, a lot of stuff happening here and we're going to build it on a Directs. Let's go, it was saved the day. Yeah, completely trust the tool, love the tool.

Brad: 1:06:13

I have so much involvement in it. I get to play with it, teach on it, use it. Because of the brand's partnership, they're like hey, we want to pave the way for you to create the best community for your audience. Bring us along for the ride though. I'm like great, let's do it. Now. What that means is my audience gets the unrestricted, untethered version of me who goes I love creating this and this and doing this, and I want to facilitate this. Here's my strengths, here's my weaknesses. I want someone to help me with that. I'm like all of these things I would otherwise be like I can't do it. I can't do that because I need to sell more, I need to get more money, I need to get some sort of capital or I need to get a windfall. It's going to be a little more slow and steady here for me and you don't get that. But I could go to Wix Studio and be like here's what I want, here's what's going to happen and here's what I think is going to be great. The audience really wants it. This is going to be really good for the community. You enabling it makes everybody there going. I've had people send me messages in the community going Brad, when are you going to send me a bill? Are you tricking me? And then eventually there's a bill here. Too good to be free, it's too good to be free. And I was like no, it's not. Here's how it works and I explain clearly yeah, it makes sense.

Brad: 1:07:34

The brand invests in the creator. The creator creates the best possible space. The audience wins because it's not just the ad placement, it's a holistic experience. Then they look at it and they go oh, so this is possible because of that brand. I think I'm going to look into that and it's like a really good environment. Everybody's happy, everybody's like kind of welcome, there's no animosity, there's nothing strange. I get to do my best work. I don't have to worry about making sales all the time. The brand is happy because they're building a community and enabling something that's going to boost that brand recognition and the audience customer base who end up using the tool for their agencies.

Brad: 1:08:12

And the audience is like I get high production, quality content, I get free events, I get mentorship from that person, I get this, I get this, I get this, I'm in and to say it doesn't take away from other spaces. I have people in my community who say I'm a part of Web Designer Pro, I'm a part of this other community that's paid. I'm a part of SPI Pro, I'm a part of this community, and they pay money. They don't cancel their subscriptions because they like your flavor, they like that flavor, they like this style. They prefer these people, but they also like these people. You get to pick and choose and you get to have.

Josh: 1:08:43

You can have both and it's also, you know, at the time of recording this, I'm wrapping up my scaling course and one of the points in there is talking about different community options for being involved in. Yeah well, the free community, but still quality community. It's different than a free Facebook group, you are. It's a nesting ground for a really good talent people to partner up with. So so many cool things. Brad, Love how you're up to me and we'll, of course, link Creative Crew and, like you said, it's free to join. So do you have to use Wix or Wix Studio to be a part of that or do you accept? You know what's us mean, wordpressers and stuff.

Brad: 1:09:20

Oh, mean wordpressers? It's a great question, a common misconception that I, you know. I try my best to find ways to make sure people know that the community is platform agnostic. We are not shy about our preference because the whole experience is made possible because of Wix Studio and so and I love using it and I've seen the light, let's say but I understand, even from our agency owners who primarily use Wix Studio and Wix products.

Brad: 1:09:51

They have clients who are using Webflow, squarespace, custom coded stuff, word wordpress, you know some obscure content management systems and they use various tools and platforms and I realize that, like this whole space is not here's the one way. You have to do it my way or the highway. And Wix Studio, as the brand partner, also knows that it's like bring them in, because what, let's say, you got the wordpress person who doesn't like that brand, and we have a number of them who send me messages and go like I don't want to, I don't think I want to be here because it's a Wix thing, and I'm like no, no, no, no. What's the problem?

Josh: 1:10:24

Can you?

Brad: 1:10:24

hide my profile. Can you hide my profile and not do that? And you're like, no, no, no, look, here's how this works and I explained like you're trying to get clients, you're trying to build your business, you're trying to do this and you're trying to improve in all these ways, what if we can help you do that and help you succeed in your business Using your tool of choice? And the reason why we were able to help you and add value and take you to a next level in your business is because of this unique partnership. And how would you feel then about Wix Studio as a brand which you previously were not so happy about, knowing that they had a hand in transforming your business and where you are, you'd probably feel pretty good about that and you wouldn't be so grumpy about it.

Brad: 1:11:05

And so that brand recognition and that connection, it changes. It changes entirely. And we have Wix Studio staff and teams in there answering questions, telling you things, showing you things, going in your DMs, helping you out about where you are in your business. And a unique problem or an SEO problem or a design problem or a responsive design problem where I need to tear down of my website so it looks better Like they're there and they're not like. Well, here's our prerequisites. It's not that at all. Just know that we're not apologetic or shy about our admiration for the tool and the platform.

Josh: 1:11:40

Very cool man. This is a lightning for me in a lot of ways, dude, kind of a two for one conversation between content and community and where things are heading, and just the landscape of different platforms now. So, brad, awesome man, listen, I know you need to bounce off to go to brunch with the wifey. So, man, really good, catching up, awesome chat. I think we are. While we have different opinions on some things, we're very aligned in most everything and I think the reality is you can make any type of content you want. It all works. There's faster routes, different roadmaps, every tool can work. It really is just a matter of like yeah, do what you want to do and find the people who, like you said, find the flavor you like, and hopefully some of these tips help. So, as always, dude, appreciate your insight and yeah, been really cool seeing what you're up to.

Brad: 1:12:27

Man Already looking forward to round four. Awesome, I look forward to that too. Thanks Josh. Cheers Brad, thanks Brad.

Josh: 1:12:35

Well, I hope you enjoyed this one, Friends. Again, kind of a two-part conversation in this one between content creation and just a lot of what's going on right now in web design, which is always a fascinating topic. I think I could talk about that once a week and it never gets old because so much is evolving and changing. But folks like Brad and myself are here to help you with the evolving landscape. And again, his community, creativecrewcommunitycom, is 100% and completely free, so there's no reason not to go check it out, and Brad is doing a lot there in the way of trainings. I think yours truly is gonna be coming in for a training here sometime soon. Brad's gonna be likely doing a training in my community, Web Designer Pro. So, as they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. That's definitely the way I feel, because Brad and I I do not view as competition. We are co-opetition. I wanna help him, he wants to help me, and we all wanna help you with your web design agency as well. So go to creativecrewcommunitycom to join Brad's free community. And again, thank you for joining on this episode.

Josh: 1:13:37

Friends, Thank you if you're one who stays to the very end. Maybe I need to cook up something special for those of you who stayed to the very, very end of episodes. I'm gonna think on that. Maybe I'll just be doing that. Look out for the next episode. Maybe I'll do something special at the very, very, very end for those of you who get this far. All right, friends, make sure you subscribe and I'll see you on the next episode. Some doozies coming up, I'm telling you right now some doozies. I'm pumped. I hope you're pumped too. Cheers.