Why Being Great at What You Do Isn’t Enough (And What to Do Instead)

If you’ve ever felt like… 

You’ve done the work…
You’re really good at what you do…
But somehow, the less qualified people are getting the opportunities… 

This episode might hit a little close to home. 

Because today, we’re talking about something most experts don’t realize until it’s too late: 

👉 Being great at what you do does not mean people will find you. 

And in fact… if you’re not actively building visibility, someone else will take your place. 

In this conversation with Allison Lane, we dig into: 

• Why your credibility alone isn’t enough to grow your business  
• The biggest mistake people make before touching their website  
• And how to actually become known for what you do—without doing everything  

Plus, one of my favorite parts… 

👉 Why your website might look great… but still not be doing anything for you 

And what to fix first before you redesign anything 

If you’ve been trying to “figure it out yourself”… 
Or feeling stuck in your own little bubble… 

This one’s going to shift how you think about visibility, marketing, and your next move. 

Connect with Allison Lane

Allison Lane is a Publishing and Visibility Advisor who helps accomplished women experts become visible authorities people trust.

Linkedin | Instagram | Website

The Essential Bio Package: https://lanelit.com/package

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Transcript

Credibility Without Visibility Fails

Carrie Saunders 0:00

If you've ever felt like you've done the work, you're really good at what you do, but somehow the less qualified people are getting the opportunities, this episode might hit a little close to home because today we're talking about something most experts don't realize until it's too late. Being great at what you do does not mean people will find you. And in fact, if you're not actively building visibility, someone else will take your place. In this conversation with our guest Allison Lane, we dig into why your credibility alone isn't enough to grow your business, the biggest mistake people see before touching their website, and how to actually become known for what you do without doing everything. Plus, one of my favorite parts of why your website might look great, but still may not be doing anything for you, and what to fix first before you redesign anything. If you've been stuck trying to figure it all out yourself or feeling stuck in your own little bubble, this one's going to shift how you think about visibility, marketing, and your next move. Let's dive in. Struggling to turn website traffic into real sales, you're not alone and you don't have to figure it out all yourself. Welcome to Smarter Online Business, the podcast for course creators, coaches, and e-commerce entrepreneurs who want their websites to convert visitors into buyers without the tech overwhelm. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders, a website strategist and conversion expert with over 20 years of experience. Each episode delivers simple, proven strategies to help you generate more revenue and make your website your smartest sales tool. Welcome back to

Why Humility Hides Your Work

Carrie Saunders 1:31

the show. Today we have Alison Lane with us. She is a special guest. She is going to help you, the entrepreneur or woman out there, be much more visible with her strategies that she helps others with. So, Allison, I just gave such a little briefness about you, and I know you there is so much behind Allison. So tell us a little bit more about you, what you do, and how you got started.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Well, that is a big ask. Let me start by saying there are so many accomplished women who are really well known in their inner circles, but they have work and insight that deserves to be known by the other people outside of their silos who are looking for their perspectives. And it's my job to help those women build the leadership brand that is visible so that their ideas and their insights can reach the people that need the most. And those people are actually actively looking for solutions and ideas and inspiration. But if you're not making the effort to be visible, no one is coming to find you. In fact, the toughest pill to swallow is to know that other people less qualified are going to be found. Probably people you mentored. And that is a that stings. It really, really stings. So when you want your ideas to get to the people that need them, not because you want to be famous, but because the people who need your message deserve to find it.

Carrie Saunders 4:08

So what are one of the some of the top things that you like to do to break that barrier to get that ball rolling and get people a bit more known?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Well, one of the things that keeps people from becoming well known is that they think that the the validity of their work is going to speak for itself. And that is not unfortunately how the world works. You have to be the disseminator of the information. You are the distributor. You have to speak on its behalf, which means you have to be visible. And every one of my clients will say, I don't, I don't want to build a brand. Yeah, I don't care. That's I don't want you to build, have to build a brand either because it sounds disingenuous. But the truth is that those are the words we use to describe the fact that you have to be visible so that you can get your message out. And I think most people say I don't want to build a brand because they don't want me to think that they aren't humble. But your humility gets in the way of your goal. So I don't have any judgment whether or not you want to build a brand or not. Building a brand is really saying, I want to be discoverable. I want people to have access to my message, which means that you have to be willing to come out of the shadows. Period.

Carrie Saunders 5:59

Well, I find that really hard to do, especially as females, because we're so taught to be humble and to be potentially hush. Depends upon what generation we're from, right? And so, you know, I know for me that's really hard. And I'm in my late 40s, I won't say exactly how old I am, but yeah, but it's really hard to like speak up and say, yes, our business is awesome. Yes, we do these great things, and it's something obviously with the podcast and other things I'm doing past several years, I'm trying to practice that more, but that can be so hard.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

It is hard.

Platform Reality For Books And Stages

SPEAKER_01 6:32

And what's really uh just a kick in the shins is that once you realize, okay, this is what I want, I'm gonna go after it. You know, you want to get you want to write the book that you know you're meant to write, or you want to um be a guest on podcasts, and you think, oh, I'm just gonna reach out to podcasts because they'll see that I'm credible. Unfortunately, and this is you know, bad news for a lot of people, but we'll just we'll just say the truth as it is. Publishers want to know who wants your book before they say yes. They want you to have a platform, and a platform is the word we use to describe that you have access to the people who you will market to. And it does it, there's no magic number of this many followers on LinkedIn or this many uh subscribers on YouTube, but conference organizers want proof of an audience, they're not looking for the most credible person. That's what white papers are for, that's what academia is for. Conference organizers want to offer a stage to someone who's going to help them sell tickets, which means that your name has to have a draw. Podcast hosts want someone their listeners already know, or who their listeners immediately recognize the credibility of, not you know, how long have you been doing this? It's it's not an interview. It's you the the listener is looking for, hey, does this person have the chops? And a strong reputation in your field is not the same as a visible presence in the wider world. So even your, you know, 3,000 connections on LinkedIn, even if every one of them respects you, that's not a platform. Those are your former coworkers. And usually then people are having to face something they've never had to face. Building visibility from scratch in a world they don't know, using tools they've never had to use, because usually at that point they're the boss, right? You're not the IT person. And making decisions they have no training to make. So if this feels like too much, it's because it is. Because when you're an expert in your field, you want to stay in your zone of genius. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to step into anyone else's expertise and be expected to make all the right decisions. I don't think you should have to become an expert marketer either. That's my job.

Carrie Saunders 9:48

That totally makes a lot of sense. And so when you are working with a company, I'd love to know what are some of the first things you do to help build that brand?

Positioning Before Website Updates

Carrie Saunders 9:57

Is it like their website and the messaging on there? Where do you go first to help them build that brand and be more visible?

SPEAKER_01 10:05

The first thing people ask for is can you please help me update my LinkedIn profile or my website? They'll say, My website, I haven't touched it in six years. And I'll say, Yes, it does look dusty. And because they're thinking, well, I need to update that. And I'm thinking, I know we need it needs to be updated, but you don't even know how to what words you're going to put on the website yet. So before we just start editing inside of WordPress or Kajabi or Wix or whatever you're using, we're not going to just do that. We're going to do really simple steps so that we develop your elevated story first. And we do that inside of a week. I mean, please, let's not waste time. What this is all about efficiency and making sure that it feels easy. So you don't have to create anything new. Mostly it's using what you already have and putting the words in a different order so that instead of your bio, we have a marketing bio that features you and your presence in an elevated way. That's not the story of your employment, but is the message of the good things that happen in the world because you're in it. So nailing your positioning, your identity, that's the first step. And then, yes, we update your website or you know, whatever. And if you don't have a website, maybe we build one. You know, you can build a free website on Canva and it's good, it's plenty. You don't need to hire a designer. And the the thing that gives me great joy is keeping people from spending thousands of dollars doing something that I know isn't what they actually think is going to happen. If I had a nickel for every time somebody said, I found a designer who's going to build my website, like that's that's what you think build your website is and what they think, two different things. You found someone who is going to wait for you to give you the text, the design elements, the imagery, your color palette, your messaging, your look and feel. And they are they want you to give them all of these tools that you've already decided, and they will lay out the content on your website. That's what a website builder does. And mostly they're flapper gasted. They're like, I didn't know that. Like, that's well, that's you know, and you don't need to pay somebody $3,000 or $5,000 to do that. That's ridiculous. That's unnecessary. So we want to make sure that the wrong moves that most people make, we avoid because every wrong move costs you money and momentum and credibility. You can't get back. So, yes, we develop the positioning first and then we implement it on your very visible owned platforms, your website, your social. And we do that quickly. Because there's you, you know, you oh, that's okay. Well, we we do it quickly because we want to take action and we don't want to stay in the kitchen cooking up more, you know, messaging and planning more content. We want to start being visible. And there are plenty of ways to procrastinate. And we I I'm not a big fan of any of them. So I would rather that people at this level of expertise get visible faster. You've already done the work, the platform should follow. And what my job is to make it easy.

Carrie Saunders 14:34

I love well, I was getting right to say that I love that we're aligned on that because a lot of a lot of the things I talk about on this podcast is it's more about your presence and who you are. And many times we don't need to redo our website, we just need to tweak the messaging and and like you said, put it in the right order, have the right words that can help things convert so much better than getting a completely new redesigned website, especially if you're, you know, selling services rather than say products. You know, it you just really need that right messaging to help, you know, show your expertise and sell your services to those so that they understand the benefits to them and how it's going to help their lives firstmost versus like the features. You know, we talk a lot on the podcast. We want to talk about benefits first, not features. Features next. Um, and I love how you're super aligned in that and try to help people to use what they have and you know, let's tweak and adjust it and get you more visible visible, you know, quickly, you know, rather than you know, months of work or thousands of dollars of work to redo something that was perfectly fine. We just need to change the messaging on it.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Right. And we have to assume, and I know you do for your clients, assume that once you're visible, people will come. And if you don't have a way for them to engage with you, and it can't be send me an email, because that is that cognitive load is too much. That means that someone has to draft a business letter to you stating what they want when they don't really know what they want, they know they just want to talk to you. So you have to assume that people are gonna come to your website and they're gonna be like, dang, Carrie really knows her poo. How do I work with her? But if you didn't already anticipate this is how I want to work with people, then you're gonna be fielding requests to pick your brain, which that gets old after one afternoon. Three people pick your brain, that's an entire Tuesday afternoon. Or worse, let me take you to lunch. You don't want that Caesar salad. That's not, you didn't want to spend an hour with a stranger so they could pick your brain for essentially $12, the $12 Caesar salad. So you have to anticipate and believe in your chops enough that to know that when someone lands on your LinkedIn profile or they land on your website, their next step is how do I get what they've got? And that's that's that's why uh making some choices up front allows you to be prepared for

Website Messaging That Guides Action

SPEAKER_01 17:29

that. And Carrie, one of the things that I find with websites is that people spend far too much time trying to make them beautiful or essentially like the the digital equivalent of their of their um soul animal, like their their spirit animal. Like this does not have to encompass all of the shades of you. This has to be easy and also the back end of your website needs to actually use the tools that the interwebs are giving us. If your if all of your, you know, H1, your if your H1 headline literally just says your name, which is a big uh a common mistake that people make, you know, Allison Lane, visibility expert, then nobody is that's just a business card. Right. And that helps no one. Cause they're like, great, so I'm in the right place, but I still don't know what she does. That's not what we're looking for, or like worse, author or speaker. Again, we don't we we're not doing the translating of what your job title is to what do I get from engaging with you? So when people use their website um poorly or unwisely, it just it hurts because it's the one place where you should be welcoming people and that they should immediately know how they can get a little bit of you. And they don't and and really people don't want to pick your brain. I mean, they might say that, but they they would much rather pay for access to you so that they can have higher expectations.

Carrie Saunders 19:26

And so I wonder as you're talking about that, because I know some people listening might be wondering this too. They might be thinking, oh, my website kind of says things like that. Um, you know, they might be like, okay, well, what do I do next? So how would you help that author, that speaker, you know, that person adjust their messaging to be more inviting, be more conversational, as I like to say, so that it's almost like you're talking to an acquaintance or somebody might not be, you know, necessarily your best friend. This is our website, you know, we're talking about, but you know, how do we make them feel more like as a human being over there and we understand more about them?

Steal Real Language From Customers

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Well, the first thing I I do with the people I serve, and what I would tell you listening as you're on your drive or you're sitting in the Target parking lot, is stop, unless you're a writer, stop trying to sit and write it out. It's if if that's not your zone of genius, then I don't know why you're putting yourself through that, those motions. Because if you could have figured it out like that, you already would have. Instead, I would suggest that you talk it out and answer this question. Who do I serve? And what do they want? What do they want in the end? So when when people come to me, they're not looking for more visibility, they're looking to make a bigger impact in the world. Those are their words. And you can, and I had to stop trying to summarize what they thought they said into what I what I into elevated language or more poetic language. We don't need poetic language, we need clarity, clarity, clarity. So the best thing you could do is talk to a few people, record what they say, in 15 minutes. You can ask them, what do you really want? What's standing in your way? What's really annoying? What takes too long? What happens for you when if you achieve this thing that you want? You know, that you get to take the family vacation of a lifetime, that you get to lose the weight or gain the weight or make more money. Or I don't know, be more lovable. What happens? And use their language. Just record it. And if you already know those things, if you can already answer those questions, good on you. Take the dog for a walk, talk into your phone, and capture that really rich conversational language. Don't try and summarize it. Use their words, and the way to trick yourself into doing that is to say, here's what I heard them say. What I really want is this. And then if when you talk in first person, you automatically start thinking like them. That way you're not summarizing it back to yourself.

Carrie Saunders 22:47

I really think that's a great tip because many times we just we kind of write too professionally on a website. It's just something that's kind of, I don't want to say normal and natural, but it is kind of what we just tend to do. And it's something that I've been trying to pull myself away from the past, you know, probably five to seven years. Because, you know, back when we started doing websites, that was very, very normal. That's how you wrote on a website was more business-y, more, you know, business letter-y, or to a formal English teacher's writing kind of like that. And I love how you kind of grounding us here and having us, you know, even practice with ourselves that we're talking to another human being and answering for them or having them, you know, answer the questions directly. So we can get that natural human language. So it feels like we're not reading something, especially nowadays with AI, a robot spit out, you know, it sounds more human, it sounds more conversational to really draw that user in to into your world. I think that's just a great tactic there.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Right. And I would, I would, once you think you have a draft, I would speak it out loud to someone who is not in your field. And if at any time they say, wait, what does that mean? Then that's not conversational. That's conversational with you at work, but that means you're using jargony jargon. And people outside of your Bradiac circle do not know what you're talking about. And it's it really drives people away. So it it might feel uncomfortable, but if you can explain it to your mom, then better, you know, or the neighbor or your eight-year-old.

Carrie Saunders 24:44

Better. I was gonna say 10-year-old niece is what was coming to my head. Exactly. Yeah. And and they even say, and I don't think I've said this much lately on the podcast, is you know, we should be writing to a lot lower grade level, like third to fifth grade level. You know, that kind of makes us more a bit more conversational and less jargony and less stiff and you know.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Yeah, I I've heard that too. And I think that um, when I hear that, I think, like, well, I don't exactly know what that means, but I do know that when I talk to my 15-year-old, she doesn't use words like like credentialed. She would say, She has so much street cred. Yeah, because that's the way we talk. So she wouldn't say uh visibility, she would say sh I want to be well known because that's how people talk. Yeah, one of yourone's thinking, can I talk to your daughter? No, you can talk to me. I'm happy to. And this is 30 plus years of brand marketing and publicity and being a thought leader from when I led Media Relations at Pepsi and PR at Unilever and Birdsby's and the body shop. This is in my blood. I don't want to do what's in your blood because that would make me uncomfortable, but certainly allow me to do this for you. My clients have landed book deals with big five publishers and premium hybrid publishers, launched podcasts, been accepted to South by Southwest, and now have columns with Psychology Today, TED Talks. The possibilities are sitting out there for you. But you have to be your very best marketer. No one's going to do it for you, and they certainly are not coming for you. No one's going to knock on your door and be like, I had to depict it. Now I found you.

Carrie Saunders 27:15

How do I get out there? How do I do those things? Because, you know, for us, you know, we're website technologists. You know, we help make sure everything's running smoothly in the back end. Um, and we do understand marketing some, but we're definitely, you know, not marketing experts. And I think it's really good for those listening to really hear that, you know, once you're at that point, you really do need to get a marketing expert to help you break through that ceiling and get to that next level and and be found much more naturally without you having to be on like some sort of social media grind or something that nobody wants to be on,

Choose One Marketing Path That Fits

Carrie Saunders 27:56

right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Nobody wants to do all the things, but I what I hear so often is there are so many things and we have to be everywhere. There are so many things, but you do not have to be everywhere. Just like when you go to the cheesecake factory, that menu is ridiculous. It's like a phone book. I know that, but you know that you're gonna end up getting the lettuce wraps and the strawberry cheesecake. You don't have to do everything, you can skip to the things that are good. And if you're thinking, I haven't been to the cheesecake factory lately, get the lettuce wraps. They're the best, right? So once your leadership brand is clear, then I help you build the marketing plan and the tools and the processes and give you the right context. If you want a book deal, let's pitch the right agents that are going to say yes. But I know them and I know what they're looking for. And if you don't have in place something that's an easy yes for them, a no is a no for that project forever. So it's not like you can come back a year later and be like, you know what? Here it is again. They'll be like, no, no, no. It didn't work then, it didn't so it doesn't work now. Uh they're literary agents are like realtors, they're looking for the like completely gutted, ready to sell million-dollar listing. They are not your marketing director, you are, or I am.

Carrie Saunders 29:37

So then if somebody's listening and they're like, I'm, you know, I feel like I'm getting ready to break through that ceiling. I feel like I'm getting ready to hire somebody like you, Allison. Walk me through like the first steps. What would you do first? And how would you decide what medium makes sense for them? I I kind of want people to kind of think through this so they can picture themselves in this process.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Well, one, here's what I don't want you to do. Don't write your book first. Call me before you write the book. Call me before you start pitching podcasts. You don't need to know what you're going to do yet. But if you're feeling an itch that you want to go bigger, don't start, even though I know you're so accomplished and you're like, well, I'm sure I could figure it out. Yeah, I'm sure I could figure out exactly how to do what you do as well, given enough time. But we don't have that kind of time. That's I'm I'm not going to start from scratch and do 30 years of what you whatever you've been doing for 30 years, nor should you try and do that. So if you're feeling the itch and you're frustrated and you know you have five or 10 or 15 or 20 more years of your career ahead of you, then don't try and plan it out and do it all yourself, because that's what happens when people finally come to me and they say, I can't believe I just wasted two years trying to do this myself. And I got a round of rejections from this and that. And now, you know, that conference knows me because they've rejected me so many times. Like, ugh, that does hurt. So, and and maybe that conference wasn't the right one. So we choose the format together. Maybe it's a book, maybe it's a podcast, maybe you should actually be focused on getting paid speaking gigs and charging enough for them. No one ever thinks that their pricing is right and it's never right, but they're never charging enough to make it look like they are really serious. And but whatever makes the most sense for you and your work, that's what we need to do first. You don't need to know which one is right for you. You don't need to have written a word of the book or the column or your website. You need a plan and someone who's done this before. So please don't get ready to be ready. That's procrastinate learning. Uh, we don't we don't need that. We we need a disciplined approach. So um here's how that works to you know, to reach out with me. I like to just get clear on where you are, what's getting in your way, what's really bothering you. Usually it's I'm seeing somebody else keynote the conference that I should be keynoting. Like, ooh, that burns like lemon juice in a cut. So if that's you, we need to decide what your next move is and where you want to end up. And book a visibility breakthrough call. It's free. You can go to my website, lanelit.com backslash uh visible uh or or backslash authority. Let me say that again. It's lane lit.com. And you can book a call with me right there. It's at the top in the top right. Um and let's talk. You leave with a direction, it's not just a chat. And then you'll have some things to think about, and we can define what you're known for. What do you want to be known for? Choose the right paths forward. Build what you're doing in a way that

A Client Story That Skips The Book

SPEAKER_01 33:46

is feels easy, which is the greatest thing ever to hear. Like you make everything so easy. Yeah, because it's supposed to be easy. None of this should feel like an extra work stream. And it doesn't when you have the right tools and the right methods and the right context and the right plan, but you're not going to figure that out. And it's not just gonna poof come into your life. That's why I was so glad to meet you, Carrie, because I was like, gosh, you do what I don't know how to do. You know, all the you know, the website building, like the uh technology makes my brain shut down. My job is to make sure that your ideas get to the people who need them and that you get paid for it. Not this is not just volunteer work of, you know, I'm already a millionaire, I've won the lottery, I just do this because I need to give back to the world. Like you can give back to the world and also get paid.

Carrie Saunders 34:51

I find this so refreshing because most of the marketers I've talked to don't do a similar thing. I feel like you're almost doing a similar thing to what we do, and you you kind of pull back and and zoom out and see where they want to go, where they've been, and and what they're where they want to go next. And you know, what's the least path of resistance that has a long-term future as well, backed behind it, too, not just a quick fix. Um, so I love how you apply that to marketing because I honestly you're probably the first person I've talked to who talks about this process that that our brains go through here when we're, you know, deciding if you need to move to a new website platform because your old one is out of date and not serving you well anymore. You know, I'd love how you are thinking this through and offer that um roadmap and that thought process for somebody who's about to work with you. Um, it just sounds so refreshing and and like you're not one of those people who's like, oh, well, you got to do it this, this, and this, and this way. You know, you look at it and you know, pull apart the problem and find the best solution for them, not one that, you know, they're you're not trying to fit one solution to everybody.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Let me tell you a story that is uh a good example of someone showing up and asking for one thing and being so relieved when I said, I don't think that's what you actually need to do. That seems hard. So I have a client, Melody, who is selling her third healthcare company, which is amazing. And she got in touch, she saw me speak uh at for Chief, which is a women's leadership membership. It's global. And she said, I I want to write this book because I know so much about the healthcare industry, but I think I need to build my brand first. And I yes, we can do that very quickly. And then after we talked a little bit, I said, I don't think this is a book because you are doing so much speaking. Being writing an entire book is a time investment, and you're traveling internationally. Like, let's just take a look at your life. You're still running this company, even though you sold it, you're still there for the next 18 months. And maybe you'll stay on, and maybe you don't, but you're still speaking, you don't have time to do what you think you need, but also people don't want all of your knowledge in a book. That's like eating an entire flourless chocolate cake all by yourself. Like it's too much. People want healthcare tips, itty bitty, you know, itty bitty pieces, like how to get an appointment at your specialists when you need it without having to wait three months when you know something is dire. That would be helpful, right? I said, I think it's a podcast. And I think your podcast episodes are like 10 minutes or less because I'm learning so much when I'm talking to you. I cannot believe how much you've helped me with her just saying, Oh, that you know, now here's the word you need to know that in a hospital that that's this role and it's new. And unless you worked in the hospital setting, you wouldn't know this. Like, oh my goodness. So we launched her podcast, which is called the Take Care podcast. It's not called hospitals R Us or you know, whatever, where you know, because people want to take care of themselves and their family. The Take Care podcast in September of 25, and by November, it was in the top 10% of podcasts globally. And all she's doing is answering the most fundamental questions. How do I decide between insurance plants? These are the same question that you know I had to answer for myself when I first started working. The healthcare industry has changed. I still needed to know how do you decide? Is Cobra really a good idea? How do you get a second opinion when your first opinion goes, you know, feels wrong? Do you have to pay for the second opinion? You know, or do you have to is your insurance going to uh deny that? So these are questions. She didn't have to put all of that in a book. And she needed a way to share what she knew in a way that was easy for her. So it's a podcast now, it's not a book.

Carrie Saunders 40:02

I love that because I mean, honestly, that sounds like the right answer to me because somebody like that, you know, as us as consumers, you and I would be interested in that. Probably most of our listeners, you know, want bite-sized information, wouldn't want to read a book that and and honestly in her field too, some of those answers might change over time. And so she can make a new quick episode that's up to date about that special person you talk to in the ER to get you what you need, for example, or you know, the insurance thing, you know, insurance policies change regularly. So I think it's just perfect that you helped her walk through that. You know, it's kind of like sometimes our clients will come to us and we're like, oh, we think we need this kind of a website. And we're like, Well, what's your goals? You know, like, no, you we don't really need to go that far yet. We can use this, and you know, it'll still be a good long-term solution and help be flexible with you. So um, I love how you just like break the marketing and the branding apart for uh clients so that they can really succeed.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Well, I think it's just too hard. If you don't have a plan, you keep doing more, you make more content. You I have a client who's on her third website platform because she keeps choosing them because she thinks, well, this will be easy. I'm like, well, no, I told you not to go with that because you have to have all these plugins and you don't know what you're doing, and you deleted your website by accident by clicking something that you can't even replicate. You know, more effort doesn't equal more success. Sometimes it's just more sweat and pain. And it's exhausting, especially when you don't end up where you really want to, no closer to the result you really are looking for. Uh, and if you're figuring it out alone, it's usually because you're accomplished and you have confidence in your ability. I have confidence in your ability as well. Your ability to learn how to do everything that Carrie knows how to do, sure, if you want to spend 30 years and then become Carrie. Or you could just have Carrie work with you. Right. And I I think that accomplished people are very confident. Like, I'm sure I could figure it out. I'm sure you could too, given enough time. Or you could just work with Carrie, or you could just work with me because we want to shortcut everything. And and we know where the pain comes, and we'd like to avoid those pain points entirely.

Carrie Saunders 42:50

Exactly. We've we've been through the pain points and we try to help our clients avoid them.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

Yeah. I mean, don't spend another year doing too many of the right things at the wrong time or too many of the wrong things.

Free Resources And Final Push

Carrie Saunders 43:07

Yeah. So then, Alison, as we wrap up here, I know you have um a potential freebie for us today, besides that booking a call. Um, you want to tell us a little bit about it?

SPEAKER_01 43:19

Yeah, what I find is that when people are really ready to shift, if you're really ready to shift into being visible, what you need is to build visible authority. You you already know you have massive screet street cred inside your circle, but you need to shift to be more public and to be very discoverable and to get paid for what you know. So if you go to lane lit.com backslash authority, you will get a Free resource so that you can stop doing the right things in the wrong order and get seven steps that you can do today to build your authority and to be more visible. I think that those are the first steps that you need. Um, and then I like to always give people one more thing, one more thing. Um, everyone needs a marketing bio. It's this is your anchor content, what you say about yourself, not um a lawyer. Like we don't know if you're a mob lawyer or you know, a real estate lawyer. Sorry, that's boring, or if you're protecting the rights of children and trees. You know, these are these are different things. So a marketing bio takes your job titles and turns them into a power statement. And I have shared for years my method with a video and a walkthrough of my own marketing bio, my template. You can have it. It's at lane lit.com backslash package. It's really the bio package that every expert needs to have and and keep in one place. So that sounds like these grab these, they're there for you.

Carrie Saunders 45:34

Um I'm honestly after we're done recording this, gonna go grab them myself. They sound wonderful and like I could use it because being in business since 2002, I mean, we've kind of rebranded a few times, but honestly, never really truly. And it we I could use some guidance, so I think I'm gonna use those myself. And for those listening, we'll have all those links in our show notes too. Um, that way it's easy for you to grab. So Alison.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Uh I should say too, if you want easy tips as well, just while you're in your car, you can listen to my podcast, The Author's Edge, which is marketing tips for experts, speakers, leaders. If you have an idea that you want to get out there, you are the author of that idea. And on the author's edge, I provide all of the mini tips, so many more, that uh you could be taking you could be taking these steps now. So now you have three resources. That's too many, but still.

Carrie Saunders 46:41

I love that though. So um, as we wrap up, what were what are the best ways to like get a hold of you if somebody wants to get in touch with you besides your website, uh lanelit.com?

SPEAKER_01 46:53

The best way to get in touch with me, aside from my website, which is lanelit.com, is DM me. DM me wherever you're comfortable. I'm on LinkedIn, most of all, at Allison Lane Lit and DM me. I I respond. It's just me responding. So you'll know it's me because I usually don't capitalize all the things that I should because I'm too fast. And then yeah, let's talk.

Carrie Saunders 47:25

Sounds great, Allison. I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. You're really making me rethink my marketing and branding for sure. It's been in need of a makeover for a few years now. So I really appreciate you being on our podcast. Thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

I love it. It's my pleasure. And, you know, as you go and think about your own marketing, just remember this. You're a big effing deal. And if you aren't able to claim that, no one else is gonna come up to you and say, let me rebrand you for yourself. You have to claim that. So, Carrie, you're a big effing deal.

unknown 48:07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

When you when you start shushing your marketing messaging, just go bigger than you feel comfortable. We're all taught so much humility, but your humility is boring. And you know, we we accept it when someone says, Oh no, I'm not, I don't, I'm not comfortable being called an expert. Like, okay, well, I'm gonna move on to the next person who will claim that. So just claim it. Go bigger because you're a big effing deal.

Carrie Saunders 48:45

Thank you, Allison. I absolutely love how you're given all of us permission for that because we really need to hear it. It's stuff we just we don't hear enough.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

Well, hopefully, such a nice way I'm giving you permission. I'm giving you a kick in the tuckus, is what I'm doing. Because you should already know. You have permission. I'm so not that kind of guy, like of course, but I will shove you into this opportunity um with joy.

Carrie Saunders 49:16

Lovingly shove us, right?

unknown 49:18

Yeah.

Carrie Saunders 49:19

Well, thank you again for being on our podcast, Allison. It's been such a pleasure to talk to you.

SPEAKER_01 49:24

Oh, my pleasure indeed.

Carrie Saunders 49:27

Wasn't that such a powerful, awesome conversation with Allison? I know I thoroughly enjoyed it. And if there's one thing I hope you take away from this episode, it's this your expertise is not the problem. You don't need more credentials, you don't need more experience, you don't need to wait until you're ready. What you need is to be seen. And like Alison said, if you're not putting yourself out there, someone else is who may be far less qualified and they're going to be found instead. And since I know that's not what any of us want, here's a few next steps. I want you to take a look at your website, look at your messaging, and ask yourself, would someone landing here actually know what I do and how to work with me? If the answer is no, I want you to start there. Not with a full redesign, not with more tools, not with clarity. And if you want help with that next level of visibility and positioning, definitely go check out the free resources Allison mentioned. They are listed in our show notes and description. And at the end of the day, you don't need more stuff on your website. We like to keep it clean and clear over here. You need the right message in the right order to the right person. And when you get that right, that's when your website starts working great for you. And we will see you next week.