Connecting the Dots

Connecting the Dots...with a web girl (Karen Ahl)

• Adam Leishman • Season 1 • Episode 42

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This week, I reconnect with Karen, a business owner whose journey started in adventure sports and led to digital marketing. We talk about how she transitioned from running a mobile rock climbing business to managing a thriving web agency, Web-Sta.

 In this episode:

  • The evolution of websites and digital marketing
  • The impact of AI on business
  • The importance of networking for entrepreneurs
  • The future of online branding

Tune in now to hear Karen’s insights on adapting, growing, and staying ahead in the digital world!

 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & wherever you get your podcasts.

#ConnectingTheDots #Podcast #WebDesign #AI #Entrepreneurship #SmallBusiness #MarketingStrategy #DigitalMarketing

Speaker:

Week 42 of me connecting the dots. Me catching up with people I don't know or I do know. And this week it's catching up with somebody that I met a long time ago. And I wanted to ask them about how that business for them that was just starting when I first met them it's grown into quite a business. About all things, well, it's, you know, in that geeky, techy space that I like. So it was great to sit down and go, tell us about the business these days and what you're up to and what you're seeing. So let's go meet a, well, she was called the Web Girl back in the day, so let's go meet a Web Girl!

Speaker 2:

This is Karen. Hi

Speaker 3:

everybody.

Speaker 2:

I feel like I've known you a long time, but there's been this big gap from when I first met you.

Speaker 3:

100%.

Speaker 2:

And, and now, and I get to now find out what you've been up to for probably a decade. I think when I first met you, you were doing, you were, you were playing in the field you're in now. But you also had a climbing tower?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so when you and I first met is actually over two decades ago. There you go. So I was in my early 20s, so definitely not there now. And yeah, so back when I first got into this industry, my other business was actually with my dad. Yep. And it was called No Gravity, and of all things, it was a mobile rock climbing wall. Yep. So fiberglass rock climbing wall mounted onto the back of a trailer, and That's how I, that was my kind of, you know, introduction into the business world. So it was a really kind of out there different thing to do. Yep. And because that industry, so the amusement ride industry and event hire industry is typically weekends. My Web-Sta, Web-Sta web design, the website business just ended up being my Monday through Friday gig. And No Gravity was my weekends. That's how I sort of got kicked off.

Speaker 2:

And you couldn't go to a function or an event in Caboolture there for a while without seeing your tower around in it. So it kept you busy.

Speaker 3:

A hundred percent. Like, we were volunteering left, right and centre. So I think there was one of the sleep outs in at the historical village. We used to go and do that every single year. Anything that was over at Caboolture Markets were always there, and any of the local community events and school stuff. We were always trying to put our foot in the door, trying to get that rock wall out there. And we ended up running that business for four years in the end.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, wow. And

Speaker 3:

so, I got to see a lot of South East Queensland because of it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, awesome. You mentioned The other thing your websites. So jump forward to now, tell me about the business now and then we can go back and you can tell me how you got started. Tell me about the business now.

Speaker 3:

For sure. So Web-Sta is now officially an agency, I suppose you'd call it. So we're sitting at around the 210, 220 client mark. We manage a couple of hundred websites for clients and we've expanded our services from everything from just websites, but right through the copywriting, finding images. Connecting people with the right business email services, business printers even. We've got great relationships with local printers and graphic designers. Also paid ad specialists. We've got a couple of local contacts that we refer customers to. Yep. So we've become, and we're becoming more and more of a full service digital marketing agency. which has been my plan this entire time. So the team has grown exponentially. So we're up to about eight and we're spread all over the place. And definitely didn't start there. It's taken a long time to get to this place, but yeah. And the most, we predominantly do service based business websites. Occasionally we do product based, but our websites for customers who are really just local businesses. Salt of the earth sort of Aussie bit local businesses and they're really honest and they genuinely want to look after their customers. So they're the ones that align with us. So that's kind of where we've morphed to over the years. Yeah. Awesome.

Speaker 2:

So let's go back to the start. How did you get into, I mean, you started in the, you know, era where everything was self taught. So tell me back to the start where you first went, I'm going to build websites.

Speaker 3:

And I was self taught. Great assumption. So, so I actually studied marketing at the University of Sunshine Coast. a million years ago, and I studied double major of marketing and management. And so when my dad and I started the business, No Gravity, he sort of mentioned like, why don't you do this website thing on the side? And by that point my very first website I had built and was paid for was actually one of my still to this day best friends had started a recruitment company and we built his little website in three days. And he offers me some money for it, and I was like, I could do this as a job, this is kind of cool. I'd already done a little bit of web design in my previous role in marketing, and I actually was at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, and there was some, one of the members there had suggested that, why don't you promote your website stuff, not so much the Rockwall stuff. I think that's a better match to the membership here at the Chamber of Commerce in Caboolture. So, that's what I started. And, yeah, so. Thousands of customers later. Here we are. So yeah, it's all started out of a hobby.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Awesome. And cause what was your your, your nickname was the web girl or what was it?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I used to be the rock climbing web girl.

Speaker 2:

There you go. I remember it. It's something from the chamber of commerce meetings. So you've, you know, in, in, in this age of websites that, you know, You've seen probably some changes. Just a few. What have been some of the biggest changes along the way inside of building webpages?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so software definitely has changed. So, back in the day I'm not sure many people would, from a technical speak perspective, everything was all HTML and very basic, and even just the design trends were very different. The type of, like, if you look at a website that we had built 20 years ago, or 15 years ago, Look very, very different just from a design perspective to what they do now. So software's definitely changed. Integrations are definitely different, like social media has since come on board. Payment gateways, all that kind of stuff have all evolved. So there's a lot more functionality we can add to websites now. And automations. Automations was not something we even considered when we first started this. It was it just wasn't even on our radar really. You had to be a really big company for even an automation discussion to even happen.

Speaker 2:

And when you say an automation, give me an example. What's something somebody might automate?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so something like somebody going in and jumping into an online calendar and booking you online.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Like,

Speaker 3:

that was not not really heard of back then. But now there's, you know, so many companies that offer online calendar booking systems now that you can integrate into a website. Obviously shopping cart websites were still a thing back then, but even then, not, most local businesses didn't really have, they hadn't gone to the effort of actually investing in online shopping carts. It was, that was eBay. That was up to the big guys to do that stuff. So, well, the software has become more accessible and more affordable. And also too, what people want to put on their websites. So back in the day, local businesses used to want to put the family photo with the doggy and the cats and the kids and everything like that. Back at one point that was a trend and that's now since changed. We're all kind of going a little bit more professional, but it's now a storytelling angle that a lot of businesses are taking just to get their point across. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. It's a, it's a really odd transition.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So you might be able to answer me this. I'll be scrolling along, I'll see an ad for something, and then I'll go to the website, and I'll look at some things, and I might even click on something and put it in the shopping cart, and then go, you know what, that's an impulse buy, and away I go. And then a day later, I get an email saying, hey, did you forget something? How is, I mean, I'm guessing that's part of the automation you're talking about. How does that work? How is it that they're, Following me up from a shopping cart.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, for sure. And that is an automation. So what happens is the moment you put your email address in there, that business has at least something to contact you with. And if they've got the automation set up that says after X amount of hours or days, There's something left in the shopping cart that sale hasn't been complete. They'll send you an email just to double check.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's awesome. I've always, I get lots of them. I must put lots of things in shopping carts. Yes.

Speaker 3:

I've been abandoned shopping cart notification. That's what it is. Shopping cart abandonment. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

What's the buzzword in, in, in anything it or. Web related is AI at the moment. What are you seeing happening for your space in there, if anything?

Speaker 3:

It's really interesting. So, for some of the stuff we do in house, AI is great. At the moment, we're using it for, like, ID generation or, like, to reword a script or a paragraph that we think we, oh, that could be said a little bit more eloquently. What we've generally found, particularly for website copy, That it still doesn't quite hit the market because one of our philosophies is that every business is unique and different and Unfortunately AI so chat GPT all of those platforms. They've all learned from information already on the website So they've learned from information that's not original or it's like it's just copying what's already there. So While in some applications it's fantastic. So it's great for social media posts on the fly. It's great for newsletter subject lines. It's great to create like an outline of an article. If you're writing a blog, for example, we use that quite frequently. I do it for my newsletter structure. Often as well, if I'm just creatively just run out of the creative juices that I need a little bit of a prompt. But when we're writing something specific for business and they've trusted and paid us to do that for them to, you know, present them in a unique way. We find that the AI hasn't quite got there yet. And another challenge with the AI images. I think we've all seen some pretty inaccurate images being generated by AI. It

Speaker 2:

still can't spell. It

Speaker 3:

still can't spell. It's, it's, you know, it's just a really weird thing. So, and that's all as a result of us having taught AI incorrectly in a few spaces. So I'll give you an example, I think you'll like this one. There was an AI platform that they wanted to test it and go, we want it to tell us or identify pictures of trout, as in the fish. And what happened was they uploaded, you know, a couple of thousand photos of trout. And then they were like, okay, cool. We believe we've taught the AI correctly to identify what a trout is. And then they uploaded a bunch of random. Photos of fish and then it wasn't pumping out trout results. They're like, well, what's happened? Something's broken And what had happened was the people who had inputted that original, you know Data set of photos didn't take into consideration that the fishermen are usually holding the fish with their hands So the AI was learning that fingers Had something to do with the identification of trout. So AI, at this point, is only as intelligent as we're teaching it. And yeah, there's a few concerns I have in terms of plagiarism either you being plagiarized because AI has learned from what you've put on the internet, and vice versa, where you're inadvertently plagiarizing someone else because the AI has borrowed it from another mob. So, yeah, there's a few concerns here and there, but, you know, but there's so many other applications it does, that's great.

Speaker 2:

Now, in terms of what else you do, you do lots of other things. I do. You're, you're, you bring people together, you do some coaching, you, you're active. You always do. doing something new that's active. So let's talk about maybe some of the things you've tried along the way, because I'm sure there was a Zumba in there at some point.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

What do you, what's, what's currently got your movement attention?

Speaker 3:

Okay. Currently couple of things. So Reforma Pilates has kind of captured my interest. I thought it was a fad, but I kind of did it and was like, actually, this is really challenging and very effective. Yeah. I injured my back about three years ago now. So weight training had to kind of. be put on the back burner, which I was devastated, but Reforma has been a really great replacement for that. And just to build up my flexibility, I now do Belesk. So, I've now performed with B'Less Lamore based on the Sunshine Coast. They've now got studios in North Lakes and South Brisbane. So, I'm part of the North Brizzy Girls and I've performed with them now for a bit over a year. Yeah, awesome. So, yeah, that's been really great. It's very challenging and, but I've always loved dance and used to be a dance fitness instructor at one point. So, the B'Less has been really interesting and fun. My body still hasn't quite healed completely. So, there's a lot of things I still can't do, but I can see the progression, which is great. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

The next thing I would ask you about is Peak where you're bringing people together. Tell me about that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So Peak was used to be, was called Peak Networking. And originally it was just a little kind of informal gathering hosted at my place in Wemurin. And and we would pick a topic and basically talk about it and a little bit like mastermind meets networking meets. workshop y kind of vibe. And I initially tested it doing it once a quarter, a couple of years ago, post pandemic, when we were actually allowed to see each other again. It was well received. And then the following year I did it bimonthly. And now this year we've kicking it back on again. We've now re tagged it to be Peak Business Connect. And it'll now be at a more formal venue. So our next one is actually at Stella Rosser in Moorayfield on the 11th of March. So, it'll be at Moorayfield. A plan is every six weeks and we're going to pick different venues. Yeah. So pick different time slots, different venues and sort of travel around sort of North Brisbane Morton Bay area with it. And yeah, and then the vibe will be still networking, still, um, like still that kind of workshoppy mind, mastermind kind of vibe. I feel like I've. I think one of my gifts is I can facilitate that kind of discussion quite well. Pick a topic and that's going to intrigue and benefit as many people as possible, but also something as many people as possible can contribute in as well. We're all in business. It's great to help. I'm definitely not one of guarding secrets. And then also a little bit of the referral angle as well. So, referrals was how I started my business back in my 20s. So, and I kind of miss the old days. I'm sure you relate too. But remember when there used to be so many really cool networking events happening in just the Caboolture Shire, back when it was that? And I feel like we've lost that a little bit. So I would love to sort of see that type of number of quality networking events coming back for businesses, particularly new businesses starting out and not really knowing where to start. So they served me so well in my early twenties.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, awesome.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And coaching. You do some coaching. Tell me about that.

Speaker 3:

Yes. I've just been dabbling my foot into it a little bit more and more. So, and at one point I refused to call myself a coach because I was like, everyone and their dog is a coach. I don't want to be a coach. And then I figured I was actually already coaching clients with their marketing anyway. So that has now since evolved into me writing a couple of programs, one of which was called, is called the profit program. So I've now delivered that probably three, three runs through, and that was covering everything from efficiency, systems and automation. Memberships and subscriptions of recurring revenue and then marketing for your personality type. So, that last one, everyone loves that topic because it's seemingly something that a lot of people haven't considered yet. But it's basically covering all the things on my business journey, how I've made things more efficient, how I continue to make more things, things more efficient. But that marketing piece is a really cool one because. Generally, the traditional marketing coaching that's out there is go do videos and go post on social media and do your newsletter and do all these big things. But if that doesn't suit your personality type, you might do it once, feel really awkward and uncomfortable and never do it again. So I was like, how can we still leverage those marketing tools that are available and reposition in a way that's going to suit the person who's actually the one doing the marketing? Because That's how they attract the people that are similar to them and like them. So, that's where that particular program came from. And also to I am a member of Sean Gordon's boom team. So he is a Bob Proctor graduate from Thinking Into Results. And I have been a student of of Sean Gordon's now for probably two and a half years.

Speaker 2:

Right. And

Speaker 3:

I actually met him at a BPW Caboolture event. He came and presented and I saw the affiliation with Bob Proctor and I was like, Ooh, I got to go meet this man. And so now I'm actually part of his boom team. So if someone was to sign up for the thinking to results coaching program. which is a mindset program over six months. You not only get Sean as a coach, but you also get me. Awesome. So I've done that course now. I'm up to my third run through on that course.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It's a

Speaker 3:

really powerful course.

Speaker 2:

My doing this passion project of connecting with people came out of a mind mastermind course that I've done with James Whitaker. And this is out of it was like, Oh, I want to connect with people and learn about video and podcasts. And that's so that's a, you know, byproduct of just. Yeah. One of those types of courses. Mm-hmm Five years from now, what do you think with the advent of AI or everything else going on in the world what do you think is in, in all of the things you do, what's gonna have the most change and what do you think that might be?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I think if AI is continuing on the route it is and still being taught by us, we'll call it inaccurately then what I feel is gonna happen, it's already starting to happen. It's a little bit of a trend. is this whole by humans, for humans angle. And I kind of quite like that because I think there's the romanticism behind AI that it's going to make things cheaper and easier and everything. But then what happens is everyone becomes a bit cookie cutter. And we already know that people do business with people who they know, like and trust. And what I found with what AI is currently able to produce, it's not bringing that Authenticity, and I really don't like that word because it's so overused, but it's not as genuine, and I feel like there's this human touch that's still missing, or is something that I think people, they don't realize it's not there until they kind of see an example where it is there. So we're still very much on the angle of still creating websites by humans for humans. Leveraging AI functionality where it's relevant and applicable and can assist with creativity and that kind of thing, but not 100 percent relying on it. Again, you know, things like copyright issues and that kind of thing, plagiarism, that's a really big issue. And that then has flow on effects down the track, just not from a legality perspective, but it impacts like your Google ranking and that kind of thing. Because if everyone's websites are identical in, say, the accounting field, Good luck anyone standing out. So, yeah, so I feel like that's an angle. And subconsciously I think we can feel when something is written by a robot versus something that is not. Even if you're not aware of that yet, I think we're still relatively savvy enough to pick that up. Bit like a facial cue. It's a little bit like body language. So, yeah, I still feel there'll be this desire for this human section, human connection part that AI still has not yet honed. Has not yet kind of mastered. Yeah, and then I think in terms of software, it's just maybe some more of the technical stuff will be a little bit more. You can just, AI will be the place to go for that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know, I'm, I now get those phone calls, and I'm sure everyone does, where you get about three sentences into it, and you're like, I don't think this is a real person. So it's getting, it's getting good. But you still catch it.

Speaker 3:

100 percent and you know, I think it can be used for evil on so many occasions unfortunately and even just like deep fake technology and something simple like you see a form of a person on a camera and you can't really tell if the mouth is actually them speaking, sounds like them, but if you look differently, the mouth might move on a different rate. So I think AI and the quality of that output is going to be way, way better. I feel like I'm relatively good at picking it, but a lot of people aren't, especially when they're in this sort of social media, quick, quick snippet kind of industry. Now that's kind of how we are as a society. Things like Facebook and Instagram and, you know, all that quick stuff, TikTok. We're used to just sort of seeing something in 20 seconds and being done and making a judgment of it. We're not going to go back and analyze it. So, and the more and more realistic these AI generated content, particularly videos are I think we're going to, there's going to be a little bit of a moment for humanity where we just go, Okay, cool, we now need to learn how to tell the difference.

Speaker 2:

Yeah,

Speaker 3:

awesome. Yeah, it's a little bit of a concern, but that's, yeah, it's an interesting thing.

Speaker 2:

If you were going to leave. Somebody with a tidbit and, and on everyone's website, somebody, everyone should go look at their website right now and go, have you done this or not? And what would that be? If there was one thing people should go

Speaker 3:

One thing, it's hard to narrow that down. I think first impression. Okay. So first impressions. So within, I think it's about the statistics, probably a couple of years old now, but it's about seven seconds that we judge your website, even if we don't know you're, we're judging your website. So colors, fonts, the resolution of those first images you see just that first impactful wow moment. Yeah. If that is you've captured them. And people aren't hitting the back arrow and abandoning your site. That I think is a very much a priority. Get that part right and you're kind of halfway there. It's

Speaker 2:

just like meeting people in person, isn't it? It really is, yeah. Thank you very much for chatting with me today. No worries,

Speaker 3:

thank you.

Speaker 2:

Cheers. Cheers. What happened to the rock climber?

Speaker 3:

We sold it. Oh, did you? Yeah, one of our competitors actually had a car accident.

Speaker 2:

Oh, no. And one of the

Speaker 3:

employees who I was mates with sent me the photo of it. And I said, well, we can, not only can we do your midweek work, can we do, well, do you want to buy my rock wall? And within two weeks, we did the deal. Oh, right. Yep.

Speaker 2:

Awesome.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So I was kind of done by that point. I wanted my weekends back.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I bet.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. It was pretty crazy.

Speaker 2:

What's your favorite website to go to? Favorite website?

Speaker 3:

Ooh. At the moment, it's a clothing one.

Speaker 2:

Right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah. So I'm, I'm very much a sort of organic, plant based material kind of gal. So I like buying like, you know, organic cotton outfit and all the rest of it. So there's actually two. So this, what, my skirt for example is Synergy. And they're a lady is based in Australia. She gets all her stuff made over in India. And supports women over there and it's all plant based dyes and organic cottons and everything like that. So Synergy clothing and then another one called Pact.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, so they've got all these really beautiful, organic, ethically sourced clothing lines. So that's my goal for this year is to fill my wardrobe with organic, lovely to wear clothing.

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