Women Like Me Stories & Business
🎧 Introducing "Women Like Me Stories & Business" - The Inspiring Business and Story Podcast by Julie Fairhurst! 🎙️
Julie Fairhurst is a speaker, movement leader, and the force behind Women Like Me. She doesn’t just host conversations, she pulls truth out of the places most people hide it.
As the founder of Women Like Me, she has helped hundreds of women tell the stories they thought they’d take to their grave, and turn them into something powerful. This isn’t about writing. It’s about being seen.
Women Like Me Stories & Business
Why Your Website Isn’t Getting Leads | Leesa Blankert
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Your website is either working as your storefront or it is sitting online like a locked door. We sit down with Lisa Blankert, founder of Lab Online Agency in Coquitlam, British Columbia, to get brutally clear on what actually makes a small business website perform: user experience, fast load times, conversion-focused design, and calls to action that make it easy for the right people to contact you. If you have ever thought, “I have a site, so why am I still invisible,” this conversation gives you practical answers.
We also unpack SEO in plain English and why “set it and forget it” does not work. A website that cannot be optimized, tracked, or improved over time becomes an expensive redo waiting to happen. Lisa explains why platform choices like WordPress vs Shopify matter, how brand authority builds trust, and why relying only on referrals can cap your growth when you need consistent lead generation.
Then we zoom out to what is changing right now: AI tools and AI search. More people are looking for services through ChatGPT and other platforms, which means discoverability is no longer only about Google rankings. We talk about how to use AI as a tool without losing authenticity, plus quick wins you can do this week like updating your Google Business Profile, asking for honest reviews, and getting a no-cost website audit to spot technical fixes.
If you found this helpful, subscribe, share it with a business owner who needs more visibility, and leave a review so more women can find the show.
Reach out to Leesa:
https://labonlineagency.com/
leesa@labonlineagency.com
Topics covered in this episode:
Small business website strategy, SEO for business, AI search, website visibility, lead generation, Google Business Profile, website audits, WordPress, Shopify, calls to action, brand authority, and online marketing for women entrepreneurs.
If this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins.
Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place.
I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power.
Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's Podcast
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_00Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Women Like Me Story and Business. I am your host, Julie Ferrars, and I have such a treat for you today because this, for all you business owners, whether you're big businesses or small businesses or home-based offices, you really are going to need to listen in to this interview that we're going to do. And I'm I'm excited to do it as well because I'm going to learn some stuff myself. So today I'm excited to welcome Lisa Blankert, founder of Lab Online Agency, a digital marketing agency based in Coquitlam, British Columbia. Lisa and her team help businesses grow through SEO, PPC advertising custom website strategy, and conversion-focused design. Her agency focuses on measurable results, honest strategy, and helping local businesses show up, stand out, and choose online. Or choose or get to chosen online. Sorry, I blurbed that. What I'm gonna love about this conversation is that so many business owners know they need a stronger online presence, but they feel overwhelmed by websites, Google rankings, ads, and all the techie bits that become behind the curtain. So Lisa, brings clarity to that messy middle and helps business owners understand actually what moves the needle. Lisa, welcome to Women Like Me Stories and Business Podcasts. Thank you so much for being here. Would you tell us a little about yourself?
From School System To Agency
SPEAKER_01Thanks so much for having me. So I've been running my agency for about four years now. And a little bit about me outside of that is I have a German Shepherd dog. I love dogs. I've bred him twice, which is amazing. And yeah, so my background is actually in psychology and marketing. And so that's where I like to come in and look at the online marketing space and support and help small business owners get seen online. So whether that's just rebranding their website, creating a brand new website for a new and growing business, and actually getting that website seen. The website means nothing if people aren't viewing the website and finding people that are intentional on that website. So you're connecting people that, if you're a service-based business owner, connecting people to your business in that sense too. So you want people that are searching for your services being connected to you. And that's going on a lot. And it's a missed opportunity if you aren't leveraging this for your small service-based business.
SPEAKER_00Right. Perfect. Well, thank you for that. Okay. Well, I want to know what made you start it because now you're telling, I didn't know about your psychology background, but I am very curious what led you to start lab online agency.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, awesome question. So I worked in the public school system for many years locally, and I started just working online from my computer when my car broke down and I could no longer physically go to schools. And I thought, well, the online space is growing. So I was at a point in my career where I could no longer return to my role. And I thought, oh, it's silly that I need to purchase a car just to continue working in my role. And I called HR. It happened at the end of the school year that, you know, my car broke down, the transmission failed on the biggest hill in all of Coquitlam. Oh no. And yeah, I got stuck and it was not a fun experience by any means. I I called BCA. They're like, we'll be there in if if you're not from Canada, we use BCAA for towing here. So I called BCA and they were like, We'll be there in three hours. I'm like, I'm stuck at the top of a hill obstructing traffic. Like I'm I got caught in a left-hand turn lane too. So yeah, that happened to me on the way home from a school one day. And it was like a lot of people describe it as, you know, what's your line in the Sat moment where you're like, hey, I need to make some sort of change in my life. And for me, it was that. So I had a few car accidents that I struggled to recover from all around the same timeframe. So I struggle with that. And so yeah, that happened to me with my car. And I just thought, okay, I'll finish out the school year. September rolled around. I called HR, thinking, you know, in this at this time it was like around 2021. So quite a few years ago already. And I asked, are there any online opportunities for work for me to work? Like, you know, maybe supporting students in that way. They said, no, you can return to the on-call list. And I had worked years to get off of that on call list. So I thought, oh, I don't want to go backwards, you know. And then I would risk being audited. So that to me didn't feel very stable because, you know, I could lose the on-call role. So I thought, okay, well, I'll just start to find online opportunities. So I started working for some small startup companies. Some were based in the US, some were based in Canada. And I started doing contract work on the side and just growing that way. And it wasn't easy by any means because the startups were quite unstable. Some of them would do, they're called a griff, a reduction in force. So out of nowhere, they would do mass layoff. It had nothing to do with our performance. So I was in a position where I was like, okay, I really need to have something of my own here because I can't risk just having that instability all the time. So I started to support small business owners and grow my agency. And yeah, that was in 2021. And now here we are in 2026.
Websites That Convert Not Just Look
SPEAKER_00Wow. You know, it's funny how the universe goes, hello, and then you don't listen. And then it goes, oh, bang, bang, hello again. Yeah, that's so true. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's fabulous. Good for you. So what makes a website actually work, not just look good?
SPEAKER_01I like that. So I think the user experience is a really big part of what makes a website work and work well. A lot of people don't think about, okay, you know, I'm besides making something look pretty, how is it functioning to the user? I think that's really important. So we want to be creating websites that load fast too. And so, you know, a lot of things people don't think about when they're creating the website, how is this gonna load? How is this gonna work for the user? You know, the call, the calls to action, you know, book a call and all those things. We want them to be user-friendly and find the right audience. So I think that's really important in the world of web development.
SPEAKER_00What do you think most business owners misunderstand about websites?
SEO And Why Visibility Pays
SPEAKER_01I think just that we have to optimize them for SEO. So a lot of people will do the DIY route and go, okay, I I created this website for really cheap. You know, my business is new and I want something affordable. But then I'm seeing that can backfire in a lot of ways. And we're seeing that with AI too, where people are just having taking these shortcuts basically to creating websites, whether that's using a free version, but then I find that it backfires a lot of times because then you you have a website that, okay, it functions, but is it getting traffic? Are your customers actually finding this website and using it and doing something with it? So I think that's really important too, is creating a website that can evolve, right? I think it's important just to create something that not can not only get seen, but also has the ability to evolve. Websites are not by any means a one and done, uh, they're an ongoing, ever evolving thing. So I think it's important for people to notice that too. Like don't get stuck in the okay, I need to make it. Think about, okay, what am I gonna do with this over time? How is this gonna evolve? And you're wanting to build it on a platform that can evolve. So thinking about that's important too. Can I do SEO on this platform? And some platforms don't even allow that. So I think that's an important piece to look at. Okay, what's the point of making this website if no one's gonna see it? I can't optimize it and I can't keep it long term. Because if you're just gonna have to create another one, that DIY website hasn't really served you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Can you explain for us out there who are not super clear what SEO is and why is it so important?
SPEAKER_01Search engine optimization is basically optimizing your website in a technical component so that more people can find your services on Google. So if you're basically wanting more people to find you and find your services, that's if you're a service-based business, you're wanting to get more views on your website and people can find you. And so whether that's people searching on Google, people are searching on AI platforms, you want to be connected to people, not just creating something where no one's finding your website because that's a useless website.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's um, yeah, it's like developing an ad and never sending it anywhere. Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So good marketing gets seen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, for sure. So why is online visibility so important for small businesses?
SPEAKER_01I would say it's so important for small businesses to grow and to connect with the right people searching for their service. So a lot of people and small businesses operate off of referrals these days, and that can only grow you so far. You might get some business, you might get, oh, my friend needs what you do. And that could get you a few random clients, but it's not sustainable in the long term. And that's where digital marketing comes in these days, where you can really be leveraging these online tools to get ongoing clients, ongoing lead generation, because systems matter too. Random referrals are not footing the bill anymore. They may have done so uh years back, yeah. Um, and they may serve some people well, but they're not gonna be sustainable in the long run.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it has really it has really changed business. I started in business, I was in a realtor for 36, 36 years. I just retired to do my women like me full-time two years ago. And from what I had to do back then to what I remember sitting at a typewriter typing out my uh letters that I was gonna send out to prospective clients, it is so completely different. Now, those might be emails or your email list, right? I think it's a lot more fun now than the old, you know, the old way to do it. And there's just so much creativity available to us now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that. The web developer on my team is incredible, and he's the most creative people I have ever met in my life, too. And it's amazing to be blessed to work with creative people and innovative people. And that's what's so great about business is you're continually growing, evolving, and innovating.
SPEAKER_00Yes, for sure. So can you explain to us what brand authority is and why does it matter?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a great question. I think brand authority is just building not only your personal brand, but your business branding. So you're basically using consistency in your branding and growing your business alongside that. I know a lot of PR experts can speak further to that, but that's in a nutshell, is you're basically you're branding yourself and your business to grow alongside. And it's so important because it creates you know a memorable space for your business.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I remember years ago when at I went to some a seminar or something, I don't even remember exactly what it was, but I remember this person was talking a lot about branding and about Google and all that kind of stuff. And and and this gentleman from the stage said, you have you be careful on what name you're using and all of that kind of stuff, because somebody is going to one day wake up and think they want to sell their house, and then they're gonna go, hey Google, what realtors are in my area? And you just may not be one of the ones that Google focuses on.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's why SEO is so important, too, is if you've done the legwork, a lot of people too. I'm seeing a lot of business owners that unfortunately give up on SEO too early. Like they might do it a little bit and go, okay, on to the next thing or or whatever, or they try something new. But SEO is something that it's not an overnight strategy. It does take time to implement and grow. But once you make that commitment to it, it can pay off dividends because people are finding you and connecting to you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. You have to think. I mean, I don't know how many billions of people are on the internet. I'm assuming an awful lot of us. And and yeah, how do people, how do you get their attention? And and it, it's a, it's, it's definitely a different way of just as I said earlier, it's a different way of doing business than than we're used to do years and years ago. And and it's it's a it's exciting, but you have to work at it.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah. And you have to keep a personal touch to it with a lot of the AI developments we're seeing. It's losing authenticity, you know, people are posting stuff that that's AI generated, but I think the people that are um finding genuine connection have a leg up because there's so much noise out there and you know, shiny object syndrome and finding the next thing. So the people that genuinely show up and a lot of people that are talking about the developments with AI are saying, you know, authenticity still wins. We want to still connect with people like you and I are doing right now, connecting with real people.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, for sure. So important. So, what do you think the biggest mistakes business owners make online? Oh, that's a good one.
SPEAKER_01I think just not investing in anything online is the biggest mistake you can make in 2026. If you're starting out in business and you're thinking, okay, I need to get going. I think it's really important to invest in the beginning because you might think, okay, well, I have referrals now and I can afford maybe to invest, but it's a matter of prioritizing things in your business and marketing shouldn't be prioritized.
AI Search And Authentic Marketing
SPEAKER_00Yes, marketing is so important. Yeah, and building a brand, you can't build a brand if you're not marketing yourself or your business. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So talking about AI, I know you touched on that a little bit, but how is it changing marketing and search?
SPEAKER_01It's changing marketing and search a lot because a lot of the younger generation, like they're not always using Google. So they might be searching on Chat GPT for answers and you know what business owners are doing and all those things and searching for services. People are searching on Chat GPT, people are using different AI tools, they're building AI agents, so using Claude, using keeping up to date because the AI is currently basically revolutionizing technology and evolving our capacity in a lot of ways when you look at the positive sides to it. So it's changing search in a major way because people are not only using Google anymore, Google dominated a lot of search in the earlier days, but people are using other methods and other platforms to search answers.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, you're right, because I'm just thinking about myself and and I can't remember what I was doing over the weekend. Oh, I was trying to make a landing page. You know about that. And so I was stuck somewhere, and one of my buttons wasn't doing the right thing. So I just went into chat GDP and said, like, uh, this is the system I'm using. Can you help me? And luckily it was just a little thing that I had I had done wrong. But but I I I remember when AI AI first came out, and I remember thinking, well, I'm not gonna use that, you know, but but but you have you almost you have to. It's it's the way of the world, and you'll get left behind if you don't learn how to use these things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, completely. Because like you said, search is changing how the way we do things online, is it's constantly evolving. So I think it's important to at least be exposed to the tools.
Website Builds With SEO First
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I think we're not um, you know, it doesn't mean that you need to use them for in every aspect of your business. And I agree with you that we shouldn't. So I I do books, I help women write their true life stories. We do a lot of collaborative books. We've got 35 books out there now, hundreds of authors. And and and one of my questions in my when they have to fill out their forms is are you using AI? And so, you know, knock on wood, I have not had one woman who has used AI to craft or write their story. They've been using it for outlines and that type of thing, which I think is is good. Some of them have been using it a little bit for editing, and I think that that's okay too. But but we can't lose the our our our personalities, our our personal stories. Yeah, you can't, you just can't, you just can't. So, but I had I knew I had authors that were starting to use it in different functions. So I thought, okay, for my business, what am I gonna do? I can't outwardly ban it. So how can we allow it to be used within the women like me stories, but still keeping the our own voices and our own wording? And and we've so far we've figured that out. So incredible. So are you are you so what do you do then when you're doing? So if I came to you and said, okay, I want to, I need to get a website done. So what how does that work?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm running and actually a promotion for that right now, too, because I want to be helping more service-based business owners not only create a website, but create a website that has traffic that's intentional. So I can offer a website when customer or client signs up for SEO, and the website's completely complementary. So as long as you're signing up for the SEO. So that way you're not only getting, you're just you're not just building a website and no one's seeing it, you're building a website and people are seeing it too. So I think that's that's important too. So yeah, if you came to me and you were like, hey, I want to build a website for my business, I would say, would you like to get it for free when you sign up for SEO? And then you're getting really good value out of that because you didn't pay for the website and you're saving potentially thousands of dollars because you're not paying up front for the website and you're also building it with SEO in mind.
SPEAKER_00So, what kind of questions or what kind of information are you looking for then when you're building those? So if somebody comes to you, like take me, for example, a small business person. So what kind of information are you gathering or what do you need to put into their websites?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a really good question too, because I believe that when I'm working with a small business owner, it's very collaborative, right? I don't just say, hey, I'm gonna make this for you and and bust it up and then here you go. It's not like that at all with supporting small business owners. So it's really about collaborating. What do you want for this website? What is your intention with it? What do you want it to look like? And building it that way, having a meeting, talking about that and making sure everything you want and your vision for it is top of mind. So I think that piece is really important. It's your website. We're creating it for you, not for me, right? So I think it's really important for the business owners' needs to be met and their vision. And we're collaborating together to create your website. We're not just creating it and saying, here you go. And it's not a transactional process by any means, because you could come back a week later after the website's complete and say, hey, listen, I want to add this to my website. And it goes back how we were talking about how websites are ever evolving, right? So then we say, okay, great. Then we start adding to your website. So I think it's really important to build with longevity in mind too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Do you build stores? Yeah, absolutely. Our web developer that we work with has worked with many agencies in Vancouver and he's built Shopify stores. So if you're come to me and you're like, hey, I want to build an e-commerce based website and I want to build out a Shopify store, absolutely you can do that too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's uh yeah, that's so important, especially if someone has something to sell. I mean, I guess you could sell, I guess you Still sell your online services on a on a Shopify, could you?
SPEAKER_01It's Shopify is more product based, so it's project based. So service-based, we we create basically a WordPress website because that's that's the go-to at least. Yes, yes. So the Shopify, you're kind of confined to the way that their infrastructure is set up, if that makes sense. So you're confined to okay, you're paying to be on their platform and we're just building it on their platform for you, right? So that's a consideration too. So it's a really important, I believe, to look at the platform you're building the website on, the hosting you're using. Because if you're creating a website on it, you're gonna have to need if something goes wrong with the hosting on it, you're gonna have to need that level of support too. So I think it's so important to look at all those considerations, not just go, oh, I'm gonna go with this one because it's cheapest. Well, like I said, the that can backfire because then you're creating a website that fewer people can see, it's not optimized, it doesn't function as well, all these considerations.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So much to think, so much to think of. And and you know, I think that that so many uh people who were in is definitely small business, but large businesses sometimes as well. We're so focused on on our business that we don't see, you know, everything that happens out there. And I know I I agree with you that when they're doing those, you know, DYI websites, they're missing so much.
Viral Versus The Right Audience
SPEAKER_01Yes. And it's it's a short-term thought process because it's like, oh, I just need a website and I just need to get going. Uh it's great, it's better a website than no website, but at the same time, it's kind of like you want to build it with a structure in mind, choosing the right platform and longevity. Because if you're opening a business, it's gonna take years to build that business. You're not in it for an overnight win, you're in it for the long haul.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah. What would you say to a woman entrepreneur who feels invisible online?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love that question. For female entrepreneurs that feel invisible online, maybe they've created a website that like no one's visiting. So I would tell them if if you want to get understanding, start understanding your website metrics. You know, it's it doesn't cost anything to connect your Google Search Console either. So if you want to understand your metrics and start looking at why you feel invisible, is it because no one's finding your website? So visibility is really important in the small business world. I think it's important to look at, okay, why is this happening and what can I do about it? So whether that's just starting out by understanding the metrics and then understanding, okay, I have very few visitors. How can I change this?
SPEAKER_00Right. What about with with social media? Because I've heard that it's not about your likes anymore. It's it's about interest. It's about the interest of of the of the people online.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a really good question too. I'm seeing there is a guy that created a podcast matching site actually, and his name is Alex San Filippo, and he actually recently posted uh on this exact topic you're talking about. He said basically going viral isn't always the goal. So a lot of people are like, oh, it's so fun to go viral, but just because you've gone viral doesn't mean you're making more money. You might have more eyes, but are they the right eyes, right? If you've gone viral, the people that don't care or have no intention of converting or becoming a client or anything of what you do, they're they just saw, oh, this person made a cool video. You might get some interesting viewers. You might some people even monetize from that. I know you talked to another small business owner that that happened too. But I think it's really important to think of like, okay, what's your goal with this? If it's to connect with more like-minded business owners to support them and collaborate with them, then think about okay, I want to be talking to the people and you know, speak their language, all of those things, and be a real person showing up online, not just like, how can I go viral? Right. Those are two very different goals.
Google Business Profile Quick Wins
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, exactly, for sure. So, what is one simple thing a business owner can do this week to improve their online presence?
SPEAKER_01Love that. Okay, here's a very simple thing. If you have ever used or created a Google business profile, those are free to create. And if you don't already have one, create one for your small business and optimize it and update it. A lot of people just create it and forget it exists, but it's free to do and you can be updating it continually. So when's the last time you've uploaded anything? When's the last time you've put a promotion on there? When's the last time you've updated photos, videos, anything on your Google business profile? And you want to be optimizing it as well, too. So that doesn't cost you anything, but a little bit of your time.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yeah, that's a great, yeah. I have a business one. And uh, two of my sons are still in real estate, and they both have business Google pages. And yeah, they they help a lot for sure.
SPEAKER_01And make sure that if if you've offered good service to someone that you ask them for a review at the end if they're feeling satisfied, and another update Google has done is, and a lot a lot of people are not talking about this, is they're prohibiting incentivized reviews. So people that are like, I will give you a gift card or whatever it is to review. You're not supposed to be doing that on Google. You know, when you shop at Sephora, it says it reveals when it's incentivized, right? So that's a different thing. Yeah. Oh, this this review of this product has been incentivized, but on Google, we're looking for authentic reviews, not basically incentivized ones. So businesses that are incentivizing their reviews should not be doing that anymore.
SPEAKER_00Well, how would they be? So, so one of the things that I do is um is I have a link in when I give my podcast information to my guests, you'll be getting one. And it says, you know, if you felt that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, if you wouldn't mind leaving me a Google review. I have lots of people who do, I have lots of people who don't. So no big deal, but it's on there. So is that incentivizing?
SPEAKER_01Oh, not at all. By that, by incentivizing, I mean like uh say, for example, you go to the spa today, and they're like, we will give you a Starbucks gift card if you leave us a review. That is kind of like creating a biased review because you're just like, oh, cool, I'll just go write this review. I want a Starbucks gift card, right? So then your review is most likely biased because you're happy you're getting a free gift card, right? So we want to be creating like authentic reviews that aren't like incentivized by anything, right? Got it. The ones you're sending are completely like honorable and authentic because you know, you're just sending the person, okay. Do you mind saying what your experience was like? Like that's totally different.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay. So it's still okay to ask for it. Absolutely. Yeah. And some people like to automate that and ask everyone however you want to do it. Yeah. So yeah, reviews, positive reviews help your Google rating and they're great to get. And to keep them recent too, to show that you're currently in business, right? To show like I'm a business owner that's still in operation.
SPEAKER_00Yes. No, that's so true. You have to, if people aren't seeing your name and your face, then they you just kind of go by the wayside. And and yeah, it's and all of a sudden it's like, are you even in business anymore?
Overwhelm Priorities And AI Myths
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So it's important to let people know that. So if you haven't updated for people listening, go update it right now. And it it doesn't take much of your time to update anything on there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure. So, what is one piece of advice that you could give to a small business owner who wants to grow online but feels overwhelmed?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I like that one. Feel it, it is overwhelming. There's a lot going on in the online space. So, anyone that feels overwhelmed, I think take a step back and and focus on like what do you think you need to prioritize in your business? And I think that's a really good way to reduce the overwhelm. So you look at your business and go, what's what's one thing I could do to move the needle? And if you feel it's like getting more consistent leads in your business, then you can talk to a marketing strategist. There's never any obligation to do anything, but at least you're getting an objective viewpoint on your business. So to people that feel overwhelmed, I say take a step back, think about what your priorities are in growing your business and talk to someone that has experience with growing businesses.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Just have that conversation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, great advice. Great advice. Yeah, because I think people get so overwhelmed, and the next thing you know, they're like, oh, I'm just gonna leave it for now, and then they carry on and but they're missing out on an important part of growing their business.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah. So it can take time too. And like we spoke on, it's a collaborative effort too. So I think just having that conversation and knowing what's out there and what are your options too, because if you don't know your options and you're overwhelmed, then you're gonna just stay in that place. And it's the same thing with marketing, with coaching, when you get support with it and an objective lens on your business because you're emotionally tied to it, someone that has an objective lens can help you a lot quicker than you could trying to look at it and staying in that situation yourself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And and it's it's that old saying, you don't know what you don't know until you until you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. It's like, have you ever tried cleaning your own house versus having someone come in and clean it? Right. It's like that too, right? Like someone that comes in is gonna go, okay, let's get going, but you're emotionally tied to all your belongings and all your stuff. So it's a lot harder to clean your own stuff. Same with working on your own business. It's harder to work on your own business than someone come in with an objective lens and they're like, hey, let's just do this. It's simple, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, for sure. Yeah. So what is one marketing myth that you would love to bust today?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love that one. Marketing myth. I think one of the biggest marketing myths out there right now is that AI can create you websites that work really well and all those things because we're seeing a lot of changes with AI where it's creating websites, but we're also finding new problems.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01So I think that's a myth I'd love to debunk. And I talk to web developers all the time that are like, these are tools. And uh, one of the web developers I work with, he's amazing at coming up with analogies for things. He's like, it's like having a power tool, right? You still need the person to use it. It's the same with AI. It's how are we prompting? How are we driving these tools? So they are just tools at the end of the day, and we have to look at how are we driving these tools, right? So huge marketing myth to debunk is like people are just saying, hey, even with Google Ads and you know, with meta ads, people are saying, hey, just hook it up to AI, it'll do all the work for you. But then they're like, But DM me of how to do it for you. So they're they're doing it to get, you know, people talking to them and benefiting their own news feed a lot of the times. Yeah. So I think it's important to look at, okay, is this a solution that's gonna fill in all the puzzle pieces for me, or maybe it'll fill in like half of them? And then I still need to think about how am I getting this website up? So I think it's important to look at, you know, what problems it's solving, but also what problems it's creating too. Like even if it breaks, if we go and we make all these AI-generated websites, if we don't understand how they're created in the first place, it's just like building a house when something breaks in our house, we go fix the construction behind it. But with AI and even with video AI tools, when we go back to try and edit them, well, it was created with a bunch of tokens in this AI platform. So how did we go edit it, right? Yeah. I ran into that situation where there was an AI generated video created for a small business. And they were the owner was saying, can you not just go back and edit it and remove that thing about it? Well, you can't really do that. It was created in a platform, an AI platform using tokens. So I think we have to look at that too, is if something in it breaks, how are we gonna fix it?
SPEAKER_00Right, right. Never thought of that. That is a great, right one to bust for sure.
SPEAKER_01So we still need we're still relying on people to fix a lot of it, like humans still need to be filling in the gaps, steering the tools and figuring out how to fix them and even correct correct the new problems that they're creating.
SPEAKER_00Yes, for sure. Wow. Okay, so what is one thing a business owner can do this week to improve their online presence?
SPEAKER_01Okay, so we did talk about the Google business profile already. So yeah, you can definitely do that. And you can also we can get so I'll say that one. And the second one is you can get a lot of agency owners will give you audit of your website, and that doesn't cost you a dime. So go update your Google Business profile, go get an audit of your website and go get tips from an agency owner or a digital marketing strategist and just ask them, hey, what can I do to improve my website? And you can do some things without completely revamping your website. And there are little technical things that you can be doing. So have that conversation with the business owner and just get to know, okay, what can I be doing?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I have now I have a question about that because I probably get four or five emails a week from people who are saying, Oh, I looked at your YouTube or I looked at your website or I looked at this and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like what you could improve. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so any idea about all of that? Like, do you think they're legit, or do you somebody told me once, I think they're just using AI to I don't know.
Values, Next Steps, And Closing
SPEAKER_01Well, it depends on you, it's like case by case basis. Obviously, you don't know who all those you'd have to look at who all those individual people are or what exactly you're saying. But in most cases, they're probably sending you, they probably looked at your website and found some things you could improve. So they're just showing you, like, hey, if maybe if you work with me, I could help you with these things, or hey, did you know? Because a lot of people don't know what's even wrong with their website, they're just pointing things out and saying, like, here's what you could improve. Right. And then the attention, intention behind that is maybe you fix them on your own if you know how. And if you don't know how, then you connect to someone who can help you fix them, right? So that's the intention behind those is people just noticing, like, hey, I didn't, it's probably them being like, Hey, I did an audit on your website. Here's what I noticed you could improve because there's always something to improve, right?
SPEAKER_00Okay, got it. Well, what do you want lab online agency to be known for?
SPEAKER_01I want to be known for actually showing up for business owners like it was my own business and not being transactionally based. So it's about what are we doing to help support business owners and show up for them every single day? And it's not just about setting it and forgetting it and creating all these quick transactions for people, it's about the person behind the business and intentionally growing their business, not just saying, okay, we need to do all these quick transactions because anyone can create a bunch of transactions. Like, how are we genuinely helping businesses grow?
SPEAKER_00Yes, perfect. Love it. Oh, wow. Well, Lisa, this has been a fabulous conversation. I, as usual, have learned some stuff. So I appreciate that. It's uh I think people, well, you know, I'm gonna talk more women because that's who who uh my audience mainly is. And I think that we, I think we as women, we we get overwhelmed, we fear it. I was in a meeting a couple of weeks ago, actually, and and and there was a hundred people in the room, and the person talking said, How many of you posted on social on social media before you left the house today? And I uh, you know, there was a few of us, right? And then, well, how many of you have posted on social media in the last week? Like it, I was I looked around the room and I'm like, people, you're missing out. It's not that hard. But they don't know what to post, they don't know, you know, it's so easy to overcomplicate it too. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Yeah, yeah. So I I just think that and then to get into websites and SEO and and then that's a whole other avenue, but but so needed, so needed. If you're good, if you're serious about building your business, you have to have a website that is gonna work for you as well as all the other social media stuff. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, I want everyone to know that I will have information in the show notes on how you can reach out to Lisa if you want to get a just more information, you want her to have a look at your website to see how you could optimize it a little better, or to actually, if you don't have one, to maybe reach out and find out how you get one and how what that is involved, because you know, you you need it. You need it. It's your storefront. It's your you you gotta have it. It's just so it is so important out there for everyone. Well, Lisa, thank you so much for being willing to take the time to do this. I I greatly appreciate it. And do you have any last words, any closing statements for our any of our for our audience?
SPEAKER_01Statements go out there today and make something happen.
SPEAKER_00Perfect. Love that, love that. Okay, everyone. Well, thank you so much for being here for this episode, Women Like Me Stories and Business. And we will see you again in our next episode, hopefully within a day or two. Take care, everybody. Bye.