Becky Mollenkamp (00:00.118)
goodies. And Rachel, I'm gonna have you basically introduce yourself because I don't want to misstate, but I know you're with Neogenesis. I know that you are a web designer and you're known for your cat ears, but I'm gonna let you give us more so that you can tell us all the good stuff about you and turn things over to you. My only question is do you want to be monitoring chat yourself? Do you want me to monitor chat? Do you want to do questions at the end or throughout?

That is a great question. maybe if you can keep an eye on the chat because apparently I'm not good at multiple tasking. So I've self-awareness key. Yes, absolutely. So I swear if you guys are dropping things in there, I'll have moments where I'll be taking a look at the chat, but by and large, probably after I'm done talking, that's what we'll have the bulk of our discussion. Sounds great. All right. Thank you so much. I'm turning it over to you.

Amazing. Hello everybody. It is so great to see you. Thank you for being here. I know end of September is really crazy. So for those of you who are able to make it, and even those of you who are gonna watch the replay, thank you. And I am very excited to be chatting with you guys today about websites. I'm actually going to share my screen because how can I talk about websites without showing you guys anything visual? So

I'm gonna hit share and then maybe give me a thumbs up if you guys can see my screen okay. Okay, awesome. So today we are going to be talking about building an MVP website and the most important part without burning out. I'm actually gonna dive into an introduction after this. So then that way, don't worry, you know who I am and why I'm actually qualified to speak on this topic. So hello, that weirdo. Yes.

Me. A little background about me. I am a designer and artist. So I was basically the art kid growing up, and I was that designated friend that all of my high school friends went to when they needed something to look pretty or when they wanted me to forge a doctor signature for a doctor's note to get out of class. I solemnly swear that I only use my powers for good now, though. So those days are behind me. but that's how I cut my teeth in design. I actually have formal training in design and

Becky Mollenkamp (02:15.668)
I worked for a while as a graphic designer before I decided that the nine to five life wasn't for me. And I started my own creative agency at the start of 2019. So I don't actually I didn't have a business bone in my body until then. And it was a really cool experience to go from learning just how to make things and just enjoying and loving it to actually building a business out of it. So today I run a visual branding agency called Neogenesis.

It is a bit of a weird name. So for those of you who are wondering, Neogenesis means new beginnings because what we're all about is about helping entrepreneurs own their weird, show up online in a way that feels bold and maybe a little different and scary, but it's 100% you. What people typically know me for, as Becky mentioned, one of them is my pink kitty ears. I wear them to all calls, especially the serious ones.

And for our one-week brand sprints, where we actually get a brand set up for our clients done in seven days flat. So that's enough about me. I actually want to start off with a question of I can maybe just get a show of hands to see who here has a website. And zero judgment if the answer is no. I'm just curious to see what we're working with here. Okay, okay, pretty good. I'm gonna move my camera so I can see. Yep, okay, pretty good. Now

Follow-up question. Who here is happy with their website?

Okay, pretty good. And I see some wiggly hands. I totally understand that. Just curious to see where things stand because, and I'm gonna dive into some statistics on the next slide over. And it's important that we address this because there are a few truths I'll say that is important for us to address. So when it comes to websites, believe it or not, there are about 20, is about 27% of small businesses who operate without a website.

Becky Mollenkamp (04:15.032)
Shocking in the age of 2026 where most of the things that are happening online. some people say that if it's not online, it doesn't exist at all at this point. but there is basically just over a quarter of small businesses that still operate without a website today. now the big thing that is important for us to focus on is that over seventy-five percent of customers actually doubt a brand's legitimacy if a website is missing, meaning

It's just non-existent. If it's broken, meaning they try to access it and whoops, error 404, you can't reach this page. Or if they do see a website but it's outdated. Maybe it doesn't look up to par, maybe the information on there is inaccurate. But if any of those things are true, then most customers will actually start doubting you before even the first hello. They might not even reach out, unfortunately, because of that fact. And

Most businesses who actually do have a site are almost never really happy with it. The comments I usually hear the most is I like it, but I don't love it. And that's usually where it stands for most people. and as a result, it's that you don't end up sharing it. And it's natural, right? Like if you're not proud of something, you don't want to put it out. In fact, you're like, please don't look at my website. It's so out of date. Like here, have this brochure instead. Please look at something else. It's a bad look. It

Actually takes away from the experience that your customers could be having with you. and overall, it's not good for you or the customers that you're trying to reach and help. So let's go on past the the not so happy facts and let's talk about what most of you are in the room for because we are a room of podcasters and you're thinking.

Yes, but Rachel, I'm a podcaster. Isn't it enough just to have a podcast and socials? Because the podcast is my main platform. And I'm just gonna have to say sorry. But the answer is no. Unless there's a caveat to this. Unless you are famous and you have hundreds of thousands of followers and the world already knows you. Unfortunately, in the absence of social clout, people judge your legitimacy based on what they see on your site or your lack of one.

Becky Mollenkamp (06:33.602)
Unfortunately, that's just the way that it works. So less the world already knows you, the way that they do know you is through what you show online, mostly on social media and on your website. So I think it's important for us to actually zoom out for a moment and not talk about the websites just yet, but talk about the bigger picture that the websites fit into because it's one small part in the bigger ecosystem of.

what your podcast is. So we're gonna talk a moment about podcast ecosystems and how people find you, where what role your website plays into that, and then what happens at the end, depending on how good or not good your website is. So let's start off with a scenario of discovery. So people find about your show on social media.

You probably had a post, a clip of your most recent episode. Maybe somebody shared about your podcast on social media because they found your episode insightful. and people hear about it on social. Then they decide to go down the rabbit hole. They're very curious and they go on to whatever platform your podcast is hosted on, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and they're there to tune in. They want to listen and binge through your content. After that, if you did a good job of your episode with

Actually impressing them and inciting their curiosity to learn more, they're going to do some digging. And it's very natural, even for me. Like when I get obsessed with anything a show, a book, a fandom, someone cool that I met, I naturally just want more. You know, like you find someone cool, you're gonna stalk them on social media. Not in a creepy way, but just in a curious way. You want more content, more, more. Like it's very natural. And

When you give people the opportunity to do that by making it easy and accessible for them, they're super happy. But in the case that you don't have you don't give them the ability to do that, whereas, for example, in the situation where you don't have a site, some things can happen as a result of that. So let's say people are curious to learn more. They really want to get to know you and learn more about maybe your services or what you offer. And then they go to the about section or the details.

Becky Mollenkamp (08:48.492)
And then they realize there's no link for me to click on. no, there's no site. when that happens, they instantly lose trust in your credibility. And the worst case scenario is they actually stop listening to what you have to say. They write you off as, gosh, this is probably some suspicious person, some random person on the internet with an opinion. I don't know how credible they are. So I'm just gonna stop listening. That unfortunately is something that can happen if

They're so you got them excited and then they had a huge letdown moment because you didn't have a site there. Now let's say let's go a step better. Maybe you did have a site, but maybe it's not up to par. Maybe it's not a good representation of what you're about. Maybe it has inaccurate or outdated information. So I'm gonna put all of that under maybe bad sights a bit harsh. A not good site. let's say people go to do go check out that site.

They might walk away feeling like you might not be as professional as they first thought. So, of course, not as bad as the previous situation, but they might walk away with a little bit of that disappointed feeling in their stomach. And even if they do continue to listen to your content and they are still in your ecosystem, they might start taking everything that you say with a grain of salt because there was a little bit of that ding incredibility when they checked out your site and they had that disappointing feeling in their gut.

Now let's talk about what happens when you do have an amazing site, a site that reflects what you're about. It has accurate up and up-to-date information, and all around it's an amazing experience that's just like an extension of the content that they just listened to. Then amazing things happen. People start to think you're even more awesome than before. And in the best case scenario, they become a raving fan and they might even trust you with their money, you know?

There's amazing things that happen when you pay attention to your site and you do a really good job of taking care of it. So, all in all, having a great website positions you as a legitimate expert rather than some random person sharing their opinion on the internet because there's a lot of those. it gives your listeners an official place to go to if they want to learn more or potentially hire you for your services.

Becky Mollenkamp (11:06.516)
And it makes your content more easily searchable. So for people who are looking to find actual people like you, it makes you easily findable on the internet and makes it easy for people who want to browse or binge your stuff to access everything. So, too long didn't read TLDR. If you don't have a website or are not happy with your current one, you might want to give it some love. All right, I have another question for you. How many of you have a

podcast that's actually an extension of your business, meaning your business is your main thing. And then you set up your podcast afterwards for maybe marketing purposes or you wanted to put something out into the world. How many of you are kind of in that situation? Can I get a show of hands?

Okay, yeah, some of you. Good. Now I know that podcasting, it there's a wide variety of situations in which you have a podcast. And what I'm gonna share next is what happens when you have a podcast in the context of it being an extension of your business. So your business is your main moneymaker and your podcast is the thing that brings people into the world. I'm gonna be speaking about that situation. So that that

Tree diagram that I showed you earlier about how people find you and binge your stuff, check out your website, and then become a raving fan. The part about people giving you money for your products and services, this part of that entire flow, it only works if your podcast is properly connected to your business. And I'm gonna explain in a moment what exactly I mean by that. It's kind of like if

You want water to flow through a pipe, all of the pieces of the pipe have to connect together. If there's a disconnect, the water's not gonna make it all the way through. I'm actually gonna use a real world example to help make it easier to explain what I mean by a connection between your podcast and your business. So on the screen on the left-hand side, you actually see two brands, a business brand and a podcast brand. And this is actually

Becky Mollenkamp (13:11.572)
one of my clients, what they came to our agency with before we did a whole bunch of work with them. So their business was of course the thing that came first. They actually ran a bookkeeping agency, quite established, has a team, amazing rapport built with customers. And as you look at it, it has a certain look and feel to it. After a while, they decided, hey

Wouldn't it be cool if we started up a podcast? We think that it would be great for our marketing. It would be an awesome and fun and engaging way to bring new people into our world. Let's start a podcast. So they did. And you see on the right beside the business brand, that is the podcast brand that they set up. And this was introduced as an extension. So it's kind of like an add-on onto the house that was already existing. But when you look at the podcast brand, and then you look at the business brand and you hold them side by side with each other.

You realize, gosh, they look like they belong to two completely different people, right? Like the feeling is just very different. Now, the issue that happens when this is the case is that people who first discover the podcast, that's kind of like the entry point into the business owner's world, they are only aware of this podcast brand. And there's a certain expectation that's set.

Now, after let's say the conversation goes really well and they're actually interested in talking to the podcast host about their business, then they get introduced to the business, and then whoa, suddenly, shock factor. They're like, what is this thing? It looks so different from what I'm used to. Are you sending me to somebody else's site? Suddenly there's a lot of questions and a confusion. And this again, moment of hesitation that happens because there was a disconnect.

And sometimes, unfortunately, you can lose people when you're in that situation. So what we ended up doing is we ended up repackaging everything. So those two pieces, the business brand and the podcast brand, they work together as a unit. So you see now the business brands, it has a certain look and feel, and then the podcast brand has a certain look and feel.

Becky Mollenkamp (15:20.024)
But both of these are more aligned with each other. And you could see the business brand, it kind of has a bit more of the serious feel. And then the podcast brand, a little bit more flair, a little bit more personality. But the two, when you put them beside each other, makes a heck of a lot more sense and it reduces the shock factor much more when the pass off happens between the podcast and the business. So all to say, your business and podcast brands.

They need to function as one system, one continuous pipe rather than two separate components. And your website, I promise we're gonna circle back to it. Your website is the hub where all of that lives. All right, I have another question for you guys. How many of you have tried to work on your website?

Got stuck staring at the blank canvas. You guys are trying your best, but then you're like, gosh, I don't have ideas, nothing's coming up. I don't really know what to do and feeling at a loss. Okay, yeah, so you guys see some wiggling hands there. it is very common, kind of like starting anything new, writing an essay before AI, designing something for the first time. Blank cursive syndrome is real and it happens a lot with websites as well.

So what I'm actually going to do, and this is where we actually talk about the websites, is we're gonna break down websites, but in a very non-technical way. Because I'm just gonna assume, let's say we're not gonna talk about anything super technical for marketing. We're not gonna talk about the technical aspects of this. I'm gonna break this down super simple and using a baking analogy, because I'm pretty sure everyone has tried to bake something in their life before. So we're gonna start.

with your ingredients because before you make a recipe, you need to make sure you have all of the pieces. When it comes to websites, the best way to think about it is you're baking a souffle. And that's the end product, but you need to make sure you have all of the right ingredients and you need to make sure you mix them all the right way in order for the end product to come out properly. So we're gonna start by talking about your ingredients because this

Becky Mollenkamp (17:30.348)
Is actually where most people get things wrong from the get-go. So the first ingredient that you need to start with is the thing that unfortunately is the first thing you should start with, but most people skip over this, is getting clear. And it's a clarity thing, it's not a tangible thing, a clarity thing of knowing what this website is supposed to do for me. I think most people actually skip over this and they just go straight to.

setting up a website because everyone said that they needed a website, but it's actually important to get clear on what the heck is this thing supposed to do for me. And I'll list out a few examples so it's easier for you guys to like visualize it. So sometimes a website is meant to display information so people can learn more about your services. it could have a sign up form of some sort where maybe you want people to subscribe to something or sign up for one of your services.

it could be a hub where people can binge all of your content. So it's more of like a searchability and discovery tool. So every website has an intention. And it's so, so important to be clear on what you want your website to do for you because that largely determines what pages do you have on your website, what content you end up writing on your website, where do I send people? What do I want? What action do I want people to take after they visit my website? Because if you don't get that clear.

Your website is just a sitting billboard with no phone number to call at the very end of it. And we absolutely don't want a situation where people are on your site, they're super excited, and they have no idea and they have been given no instruction about what to do next. So step one, get really clear about the purpose of your site. Now the second thing, make sure you get clear on what are the words that go on your site.

And I actually encourage people before even hitting the website builder to get clear on your copy first. And I actually did this the wrong way so I know what works properly. When it comes to working on your website, I actually encourage you to just have a separate Word or Google Doc and brain dump all of the words that you want on your website there first. So you're not tempted to fiddle around with photos or

Becky Mollenkamp (19:48.972)
Get overwhelmed by layouts or templates, just focus on the content first. And I say this as a designer. The words are literally the most important thing because what is a billboard without a message, right? So you have to get very clear on your copy first. And the best way to do that is to remove all distractions. The way that I actually prefer to build websites is I start off in a Google Doc and I plan out, okay, first from foremost, what are the pages that I want on my website? Kind of like the chapters of your book.

Right. I have my homepage, I have my about page, I have my services page if I'm selling something. in this case, maybe a page for your podcast so people can check out your episodes or even just go on to your podcast platform, and then a a contact page so people can actually reach you if they're interested in getting in touch. Usually most websites have those five pages, and once you kind of plan out what those pages are, then

Bring dump all of the copy that you actually want on there. Just from top to bottom, as if you were actually writing the content on your website. Write down all of your copy. It's gonna be a chunky ass Google Doc, but I promise it's worth it. Because once that is done, then you have permission to start planning for the pretty stuff. This is the stuff that I get excited about as a designer because this is where you get to determine what your website actually looks like.

Now, I think that there's a thing that people don't realize that has to happen first before you hit the website builder. And that is figuring out what your branding is. And when I say branding, I basically mean figuring out the style that is going to get applied. So your logos, fonts, colors, the overall look and feel of what goes on to your site. That's important that you determine what that is first because that is the thing that's going to get applied not just to your website, but to

Your podcast to your social media to everything that you put online and even offline. Your branding is the standard that people come to recognize as you. It's like the visual standard, just the way that people are used to you dressing and showing up, but in the online sense. So figuring out what that look and feel is as the standard before, again, before you even hit the website builder, that is very important. And then last but not least, photos.

Becky Mollenkamp (22:08.45)
I don't know how many of you have been on somebody's site where you were so excited to get to know them and you saw zero photos of them. You have no you never saw their face. You maybe saw some weird AI generated thing that looked kind of creepy. like, or maybe some generic stock photo and you walked away a little sad because you're like, you seem so cool on your podcast. I wanted to get to know you, but I don't even know what you look like. And it's kind of disappointing, right?

that's what happens when you don't actually have photos of you on your site. And of course, I know the context of this is very different depending on what your brand is and what your business is, but it's important to put some consideration into the photos that go on your site and as much as possible, put stuff on there that belongs to you. Even if it's a photo from your camera role, something that helps people see and feel connected with you goes so much further than having a generic stock photo because

As a designer, I will have to say, I can recognize a stock photo because it's been used and repurposed across a bunch of different sites. So I'm like, I saw that photo on that insurance brokerage site, on that mortgage broker site. I've seen that photo everywhere. people start to get a feeling when they don't see photos from you. So even if it's just pulling some photos off of your camera roll and then just finding some creative way to present it, that goes a very long way. So

Think of these as your site's ingredients. And I did number these on purpose because it's important to work on them in this order in order for your site to come out right, because otherwise you are building the pyramid upside down and you're gonna end up with a very bad time. All right, now we have all of our ingredients. We have them laid out on the table, and it's time to talk about your baking method. Think about your website as a

The thing that you use to actually bake your souffle. Let's say like you've it's the place where you mix you mix everything and then you put it in to bake it. A website is kind of like an assembly tool where you basically take all of your pieces, your copy, and then your design, and then your photos, and then you arrange them in a way that makes sense and is easy for people to see. So when I talk about your baking method, I'm actually talking about your website builder because, and this is the part where we might get a little technical.

Becky Mollenkamp (24:31.192)
There are a lot of options out there. It's the difference between your toaster oven, your regular oven, putting something in a grill or using a magnifying glass and sunshine to try to cook your souffle. There's a lot of different methods that you can use to bake your website. And I'm just gonna give you guys like a high-level overview of some of the most popular options. So again, you can make a more informed decision about which one might be the best fit for you. So I'm gonna start off with the easiest one.

I'm gonna talk about Wix. this is the most beginner friendly out of all of the website builders. It's a very easy to use drag and dropper that you don't if you know how to use Canva, just click the photo and drag it and then let go, and then it's there. if you know how to use Canva, you know how to use Wix. it is it Wix used to have this public reputation of being a very cheap.

An ugly looking website builder, but they've actually done really well for themselves over the years. They've made significant improvements to their platform. And I actually have friends who have some pretty impressive looking sites that they have built using Wix. And the barrier of entry is much lower. So you don't have to have any technical knowledge to know how to use it, just a little bit of maybe an eye for design. So whatever you drag and drop in there is arranged in a way that makes sense and people can see.

Now let's go up a step. So Squarespace is what I would consider something that's a little more intermediate. So it is similar to Wix. You could still drag and drop things and you don't necessarily need to know code to use Squarespace. but it's a little more locked down in that the interface or the the settings that you have to go through, they're a little more complicated than

Wix. So it's not as intuitive, and you do need a little bit of technical expertise to know how to navigate it. But I find that the sites that you produce on Squarespace, and my website is actually built on Squarespace, they have a much smoother feeling to it. It just has a little level of polish that I feel Wix websites tend to lack. and it's because Squarespace has these guardrails.

Becky Mollenkamp (26:43.372)
That prevent you from doing weird, silly things that Wix sites, they don't have the guardrails for that. So, for example, on Wix, because you can drag and drop things anywhere, you can have a photo that's randomly flying off the page and is totally cropped in a weird way. And Wix is not gonna say no, you can't do that. It will let you do whatever you want. Squarespace has guardrails. It's not gonna let you do that. It's like, no, no, no, no, that is bad design. You actually are not allowed to drag your photo past a certain point.

So, Squarespace, it has some training wheels built in where it might feel more restrictive, but it actually allows you to build a site that's more polished, especially if you don't have too much of a design background. And if you don't mind being a little technical, Squarespace is a good in-between for you. Now I'm gonna talk about WordPress. I feel like people either love or hate WordPress because of how wonderful it is in terms of customizability and how

Freaking complicated it is. I personally have built a few WordPress websites in my lifetime before deferring to more technical experts on my web team now, because we have a team who handles that. I wanted to throw my laptop out the window, creating a WordPress site. And and I say this as somebody who doesn't prefer to code. I know enough to get around, but I don't prefer it. And WordPress is what I would consider to be kind of like building a custom PC.

versus just buying a MacBook and using whatever, you know, all the components are, they all come with it. WordPress is your custom PC where you go out and you buy your individual components. You are responsible for putting the darn thing together. And God forbid if a component doesn't fit or something breaks, you are going to troubleshoot all of that. So if you trust your technical expertise and you really want very robust design capability, WordPress might be for you.

It wasn't for me, but all the power and all the respect if WordPress is the thing that you are able to use. one thing that I do have to say for WordPress specifically on the design side of things is that there are a few plugins that you can use to make it easier to design with. Because most WordPress websites, if you don't have design things, you have to speak fluent computer in order to get your website looking like anything. for WordPress, the two

Becky Mollenkamp (29:07.246)
Plugins that I recommend are Elementor or Divi. those are really good that make your WordPress website as close to a drag and dropper as you can. So you don't again have to learn how to speak fluent computer in order to get a beautiful end result. So that's WordPress. Last but not least, GHL stands for Go High Level. This is more of a recent thing that has come up and

At least in the world of small business, Go High Level has become a very popular option. And it's not just a website builder, it's one of those all-in-one platforms where it's like your CRM, it's your invoicing system, you could host your community and your membership on there. It's your website, it's your funnels, it's your email marketing, it's everything all in one interface. And a lot of people who are running their business solo.

They love it. I I have one of my best friends swears by Go High Level because of how easy it makes things because all of your pieces talk together. Someone signs up on your website, they immediately get added to your CRM and they immediately get emails because all of that has been just set up within one system. So you don't have to sign up to a bajillion different things to get the end result. The one caveat is for design, and again, I'm speaking on the design side of things.

Go high level has more limited capability. So you won't be able to do some really crazy fancy things with it. but if you're okay with having something that's a little bit more simple and you prefer, and maybe if you're a systems person, if you prefer ease of use and having everything in your ecosystem talking to each other, Go High Level might be for you. So I'll just say the most important part, because there are a lot of options, the most important thing is to actually choose the

Baking method that you feel the most comfortable with. And I say this because the rule of thumb here is a basic site done well is always better than a complex site done horribly. And because if you're not confident in editing your own site, you're gonna end up in a world of pain. Because it's like driving a car that you don't know how to maintain. no, something breaks. Well, I I'm sorry, there's nothing that I could do. I guess I'll just leave it on the side of the road.

Becky Mollenkamp (31:29.044)
Most people end up in a situation where they go with a website builder that someone, their friends, aunt, mother, sister, recommended to them because they said it was the best. And then they built everything on there or maybe got somebody to set it up for them. And then when something broke or they needed to update something urgently, they then realized.

no, I don't know how to operate this thing. And then you accidentally you make an edit and then something breaks, something disappears, and then suddenly your website becomes this weird patchwork quilt of things missing, things half updated because you messed something up. You don't want to end up in that position. So I always recommend to let go of your ego. And I had to tell myself this too. Let go of your ego when it comes to choosing your website builder of preference.

Go with the thing that's the most comfortable and easy to use for you because it's so important to be able to be confident in making adjustments to your own platform when something happens rather than being left in a situation where you're stranded. Okay, last but not least, let's talk about what to do if, God forbid, your website souffle catches on fire because websites are known to break.

That's just that's just the thing about them. So help, no, my website caught on fire. Something broke, someone hacked into it. I deleted something and I don't know where to find it again. First, don't panic. Sight souffles catch on fire all the time. And it's just part of it. It comes with the territory. Sometimes tech is temperamental, and if it just doesn't feel like working, sometimes it's just like that. I always recommend a scaled approach. So starting with the first step.

Start with a small fix. One thing that I'm very grateful for, and I know people have mixed opinions about AI, but one of the good things is that if you actually use AI and you're comfortable with it, it is like having your own personal IT assistant. It because it is a robot and it speaks fluent computer, and you can actually get your AI to look at your website and actually ask it.

Becky Mollenkamp (33:37.186)
Hey, you know how to read the code. What happened? What broke? What is wrong? And you actually get to use these tools to do small troubleshooting things. Because even for me, I've started to default to either using AI to troubleshoot my website or the traditional way is.

Going to talk to the website support people because maybe there is a bug in their system. Maybe something glitched and something's not showing up properly. Website support is the good manual way to do it where you just reach out to whatever platform you're on, the support team, and be like, hey, help. Something's broken with my site. I'm not sure what to do. Can you help me with it? And from experience, the support teams for these website builders are actually really good. I've

having done websites for clients, like even for like Wix support, literally at like the ninth, 11th hour, 11 p.m. at night. Here I am trying to fix something that broke with my client's website. And I'm going back and forth with support tickets with the Wix team. They help me get it sorted like 11 p.m. at night. And so website support is actually a really good default way just to get things sorted if you don't have a tech friendly or tech savvy person around you to support.

Big fix. Let's say you tried it and nothing works. You couldn't figure it out. It might be recommended to hire an expert to save you time. Just kind of like you know, the situation where you could try to tinker with things yourself, or it's time to just hire the plumber because your toilet is overflowing and your house is starting to flood. There's a time and place when you try to fix it yourself, and there's a time and place when you need to just hire a darn expert. The rule of thumb here is that it's

Good to maintain your website just to try to avoid this situation. I'm kind of walking you through on a very high level the steps that you can take to fix something when it's broken. But of course, we're gonna talk about prevention here. The best thing that you can do to prevent situations like this from happening is to do a checkup of your website at least once a year. It's like taking your car in for an oil change because your business, it's always moving and growing. You're

Becky Mollenkamp (35:46.646)
website, there's always new advances in technology. Plugins get updated. Things just grow and evolve. And over time, something's gonna get broken or disconnected or get outdated. So we always recommend check up your webs, check up on your website at least once a year. Just you know go through all of the pages, make sure that all of the elements are good, make sure that the content on there is actually up to date. and go in and update it.

I actually find that once every three months as I go back through my website because I'm sending it to people all the time, I always get shocked and realizing, gosh, that our FAQ section is out of date. no, we forgot to update this thing. gosh, we don't even offer this thing anymore. Why is it still on our website? You'd be surprised with how often you need to update your site. So I'm not saying be the person to make adjustments and be trigger happy at every time something happens to change it, but maybe schedule at a time.

So at least once a year, once every six months is better, once every quarter, that is the best. But don't wait too long to fix it because you'll end up in a situation where your site is so broken and so ugly and so embarrassing that you decide not to share it with people. I have most of those people end up becoming our clients because they're like SOS, we it it's on it's so on fire that I need your help. Don't get to that point and you will be in good standing. Okay, I

fire host you guys with so much. I'm gonna give you guys a high level recap. Get a share briefly about how we can help if you are actually dealing with a on houses on fire situation. And then we'll have some time for a QA afterwards. So yes, if you have a website, yes you do need a website if you are a podcaster or honestly a business owner in general, the only caveat is unless you're famous and everyone and the world already knows you.

Your podcast and your business do have to connect in order for them to work together as a system. Otherwise, you're going to do a bunch of talking on your podcast and making zero dollars with your business because those two pieces don't connect together. Your website is the hub that connects all of these pieces together. And every site has four key ingredients. So starting with the first one, make sure you know what it's supposed to be about. The second one, focus on the words. What do you want your website to actually say?

Becky Mollenkamp (38:08.364)
Figure out your branding. Make sure that what goes onto your website for the style is consistent with everything else that you have online. And then your photos. Please don't AI generate photos of yourself or of people. Other things are okay, but I find that AI still really sucks when it comes to people. They look kind of weird and creepy. Try to find photos of yourself or photos that come from you. It allows people to kit have have that deeper connection with you. and it builds trust much easier.

Choose your cooking method. So basically pick a platform based on what you feel comfortable using. Again, there is no room for ego here. No one's gonna judge you on what you use to build your website. What people care about is that your website is up to date, it looks good, and they're able to read it properly. That's what people care about. So choose a platform that allows you to keep it up to date without losing any brain cells or getting any white hairs. And of course, it's recommended as per prevention.

Please do revisit your site at least once a year to make sure everything's up to date. I guarantee if the more often you check, the more you realize that things get out of date pretty darn quickly. and of course, last but not least, it's always better to ask for help than to stay stuck with a website that you are unhappy with that embarrasses you or is a bad representation of your brand because most customers, they're gonna take one look and they're gonna decide that they're not gonna even want to say hello. So you wanna avoid that situation.

Ask for help if you really can't figure it out because you don't want your website to be the thing that blocks people from getting into your world. So in the case that something is on fire and you don't have a fire extinguisher and you're trying to figure it out and you can't, we've got something for that.

So on the screen, I have a QR code and a URL that you guys can type in. this is basically for a free 30-minute visual brand console where we actually just take a look at your stuff. You're like, help, I don't know what's happening. Don't worry. For 30 minutes, you can actually borrow my eyes. I'll take a look at everything. Just make sure you have the right pieces. So we're gonna talk about your ingredients. Do you even have all of the right things first before we talk about how it's meshing together and helping you do the troubleshooting thing?

Becky Mollenkamp (40:20.158)
and we actually give you our free, I think it's eight pages now. Our free eight page brand start checklist. It's a very extensive checklist that just really helps you make sure you've got all of the right pieces and identify the things that you might actually be missing so that you could stop ripping out your hair and start focusing on building things the right way. So I'll also drop the links in the chat afterwards, but you can scan the QR code or type in that URL.

And of course, don't be a stranger. This is my contact info. would love to stay in touch with you guys if you have questions or anything you want to reach out to me for afterwards. let's be friends online. I'm on LinkedIn, sometimes Instagram more, but or you could just send me a good old email. I basically live in my inbox. and Becky, I'll make sure that I include a link to the slide deck. So for those of you who have been madly writing down notes.

Don't worry. I'll make sure that this slide deck is accessible to you afterwards so you can go back through on your own time. So I'll stop sharing my screen first. Hello, everyone. First of all, thank you. You're amazing. I I love you. And you did something inside of our community too, which was fantastic because you did an actual like brand audit for one of our podcasters. So if you end up joining or if you're already a member, go check that out. If you join, you can check it out. It's really it was super helpful. definitely take her up on that.

Free 30 minutes. I mean, 30 minutes varies, everyone in the room should do it. That's amazing. Okay, now I the one thing I want to ask you. I know you said we need a website. Hard agree. I think so. Two questions actually. One, and then if anyone else has questions, either put them in chat or raise your hand. k do you think it's enough to have your podcast exist as a page on your website if your brand is already and it's in support of your business? So, like Becky Mollencamp, I have a

I'm asking not for me because I have podcast pages, but for people who may be thinking about that or who are doing that. Does that feel sufficient to you? So I'm gonna start there and then I have second question. Yes, that is a great question because there are two ways actually to link your podcast to your website. One is literally just to have podcasts in your website menu and then people click it and it shoots them straight over to whatever platform. Like I actually I used to have a podcast myself. It's on pause now, but

Becky Mollenkamp (42:37.868)
Did it the lazy way because I just didn't have time to get something up. I just sent people straight over to Spotify where they could just binge through all the content. that is the lowest hanging fruit, and it's honestly bad. It goes a long way just to have that there. in the perfect world, you would actually have a dedicated page on your website set up. So they would have like

a podcast page and on there you actually have so much more control to share more about your podcast. the beautiful thing about your website is that you have so much more control over what you say, how it's presented. So you aren't left with whatever the platforms dictate. You know, they have like the the photo and then they have the tiny little two-line blurb that people even have to click

read more to see. you're not left or you're not restricted to that when you're on your website. So you could actually say all of the stuff that you want about your website, like or or about your podcasts on your podcast page. you can have like a section at the top with if you have like vid a a video podcast, you can have like this epic, like like this epic video. You can have like a description. You can even have clips, like you can get really creative in how you

present your podcast on your website if you do end up setting a dedicated page. Takes a little bit of work, but if you have the time, energy, and courage to do so, I definitely encourage doing that. Yeah. So if we think about like the degrees of building a website for your podcast, starting with just if nothing else, if you already have a w a website for your business or something else, adding it to the menu and linking it out to a

platform. And there are a lot of platforms as well, like listen notes and others where you can have multiple platforms listed listed, right? So you could go to there and from there they could pick their platform if you don't want to lock it into just Substack or something or Spotify or something. Then from there it would be building out a page on your website that's just about the podcast that has everything. And then from the I think then maybe a next level could be what Nicole was talking about, which is buying a domain for your podcast, but instead of building its own website

Becky Mollenkamp (44:41.356)
just redirecting it to that page that you have on your website. That way you can have its own domain, its own name. It is easier for people to remember, but you're not having to build out a website. And then the final like highest level is building out an entire website just for the podcast. Would you agree that's sort of the stair steps then that you can go on? Yes. Okay. Exactly. And if you're gonna have a dedicated page and or dedicated website and these may be two different answers, what are like the cause again, kind of the the world's on fire. We're all doing a lot.

None of us want to burn out with all this. We want to do the least we can for the maximum return, right? Because we all have limited capacity. What is the like what are the must-haves in your mind on either that page and or on a dedicated website that you really should be putting out there for your podcast for people? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it's funny. The the lowest hanging fruit is just make sure that

On your website, there's somewhere that links to your podcast and also vice versa. So make sure on your podcast page there is a link that goes to your website so that no matter which platform people are on, they have a way of finding their way back to the other lowest hanging fruit. All you have to do is paste the URL and then and then have it be that. a step beyond that is to make sure that you have the appropriate contact info.

so not just a link to the website and the podcast and vice versa. but for the people who are curious to learn more, let's say they do want to binge that in your about section, maybe on your podcast page, your feed, wherever, that you make it easy for them. Like, here's where I hang out on social, here's where you can interact with me, of course, a link to your website.

just make it easy for people to reach out to you because the more that you make them fish and the more energy you're asking them to put in to even figure out how to get in touch with you, you start to lose people really quickly. And you'd be surprised the number of people where I'm like, maybe they don't want to be found. Like they chose not to include a link to their website. And it's kind of sad because you put in so much energy, you want to make sure that you make it easy and accessible for people.

Becky Mollenkamp (46:49.652)
so honestly, those are like the must-haves. Just please make sure you make it easy for people to get in touch with you, even if they can't find anything. At least they can reach out and ask you a question, right? Make yourself accessible. and then of course, the next thing and this, these are the nice to haves is like have like a nice layout so then people can like read more of your information, having more information about your podcast.

having the subdomain and all of those fancy things, like those are nice to have. Bare minimum is make sure those two platforms are linked and talking to each other. So since the world is on fire, the least you do just make sure those links are present on each of those platforms. And they know how to reach each other. So thinking to back to Andrea's presentation yesterday, or for anyone watching this and hasn't seen that yet, you know, she's talking about building community and a big part of that is can people reach you? Right. Often we're thinking we're not hearing from people.

But how easy are you making it for people to be able to actually reach out and initiate conversation with you? And the website's a big part of that. So I mean, for some people it can be that you really want to lean into Instagram and that's also okay. But your website is a do is a space you own, right? So if Instagram suddenly no one uses it anymore and all of your old stuff talks about find me on Instagram, now it's gonna be harder when people stumble cross stumble across those episodes to find you. If you're always telling them go to this website or to this page.

That's gonna always be there. You can update that page then for people. If you suddenly are like, you know what, I don't like Instagram anymore. I want people to find me here. so for something to think about. And when Stephanie asked you, when you're working with people, what baking style do you use? Yes, that is a great question. Because I now have a team that handles the setup of websites for our clients. We actually do WordPress. And this is kind of where I specialize in.

coming up with the branding and the style. And then our, I call them the tech wizards and experts on our team, they are responsible for actually getting the website set up, managing and maintaining it, and working together with you to make sure that you understand how the website actually works. So now because we have some tech savvy people on our team, we're able to do WordPress websites. But when it was just me designing websites for clients myself, it was literally Wix and Squarespace. I attempted the WordPress myself. I I almost

Becky Mollenkamp (49:02.21)
quit my business because of how bad that experience was. So yeah, if you don't have the tech skills, you can really cause more problems than good with with WordPress. Or you can like me be dangerous enough to know just enough and then cause problems and not know how to fix them. So it's always a word of caution if you don't have a web developer in your back pocket, be careful with WordPress. any other comments? I one thing I wanted to mention as I was listening to this, I just wanted to share. I was like, you know what I realized? I don't think in our show notes

We we may link to our website, but if we do, we do it pretty far down. And I'm like, I think from now on I'm gonna put just the first line in my show notes is come find us on messyliberation.com or come find us on yesonotherwise.com. Cause that when you're looking at a when I look at a pod platform, the very beginning of the show notes is really all you see, right? And if I happen to see that there, I might be more likely to click that. And I think that could help with some getting more traffic to your website, getting more people connecting and going back to what Andrea was saying.

Like having those conversations. So something to think about that out came up for me as I was thinking about this. I'm like, we have a great website, but we're not telling people a whole lot about how to get to it. So something to think about. Yeah. And exactly. Any other questions from the room before we say goodbye to Rachel?

thank you. Ishaelle said she has to run. This really good. Thank you so much. Yeah, they have to run, but thank you for considering that. so much to work on. I know that is true. But that's why I think Rachel, and I want to just reiterate and appreciate like thinking about the minimum that stair step approach for right now, if nothing else, just put podcast in your menu and link it to a platform. So at least it's there, right? If you already have a website. Now, if you don't already have a website,

Than building out a one page very simple website and it the menu can be just the home page and then the one that links to the podcast, right? and you can build on from there. So thank you so much, Rachel. I appreciate you. Anything else that you wanted to say or and I know you've already shared where people can find you, but anything else about that or anything else? I think that should be everything. just wanted to thank you guys for being here. I've

Becky Mollenkamp (51:06.691)
have been terrible at keeping up with the chat, but I've been seeing all of the things popping up. So thank you for I will do my best to remember to send you the chat so that you get to see everything after. Yes, that would be fantastic. Thank you. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you for doing this and thank you for being in the community as well. You've been amazing. Of course.