Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
In this episode, we dive into the important role of website design and branding in building a successful nutrition business. Courtney and Whitney share their experiences and insights on the impact of a well-crafted website, effective copywriting, and email marketing in attracting clients and driving sales. Join us as we explore the intersection of design, marketing, and nutrition entrepreneurship!
FREE Masterclass: How to get more clients with your Google Business Profile:
Hosted by Courtney on Thursday, November 16th at 1:00 PM EST - Discover how to leverage the untapped potential of your GBP listing, boost your visibility, and stand out from the competition. With these expert tips, you'll leave this masterclass with a new game plan, ready to make your practice the go-to choice in your area.
Whitney's bio:
Whitney Bateson, MPH RD is a business owner and digital nomad (she's been traveling and working outside the US for over 5 years!). She is the creator of The Dietitian Website System, a live 6-week group program that helps nutrition entrepreneurs create beautiful, functional, profitable websites (without the tech overwhelm!), that generate more traffic and attract more clients. Since 2018, Whitney and her team have helped 100+ entrepreneurs establish themselves online, help more people, and confidently build thriving nutrition businesses (that can be run from anywhere!).
Enrollment in Whitney's signature website program, The Dietitian Website System, opens soon! Go to whitneybateson.com/dws to see inside the course and get on the waitlist for the next cohort starting in January 2024. You'll also be the first to know about her epic Black Friday sale for DWS (save over $1,000!).
Download free resources to gain clarity in your business and thrive online, like Whitney’s Abundant Profit Planner or Service Mapping Workbook, available at whitneybateson.com/resources.
Want to make more in 2024? Join Whitney’s upcoming workshop, Planning Your Path to a $100k+ Nutrition Business: Learn How to CORRECTLY Price and Package Your Services to Build YOUR 6-Figure Nutrition Business (Without Overwhelm or Imposter Syndrome, Even If You’re Just Starting Out), on Tuesday, Nov 14 at 7 pm ET. Register at whitneybateson.com/pathto100k.
Websites, local SEO, and marketing strategy for dietitians in private practice. Hosted by Courtney Vickery, web designer and dietitian, helping you build a site and online presence that actually gets you clients.
In each episode, we'll tackle the practical side of private practice: websites that actually convert, tech tools that don't give you headaches, and strategies to streamline your workflow. Whether you're drowning in admin tasks or just starting your practice, we're here to help you spend less time managing your business and more time doing what you love - helping your clients.
Join us as we chat with successful dietitians and practice management experts who've figured out how to make technology work for them, not against them. We'll share real solutions for real practices, focusing on what actually works in the world of weight-inclusive care.
From fixing your scheduling nightmares to making your website work harder for you, Tech Savvy Dietitian: Websites, Local SEO & Marketing for Dietitians in Private Practice brings you practical strategies you can implement right away. Because your time is better spent helping clients, not fighting with tech.
All right. Hi everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Dietician Turn Designer. I'm excited because I have another dietician turn designer here with me, Whitney Bateson. Hi Whitney. Yeah, thank you so much for being here. So tell us a little bit about you and your journey.
Yeah,
I was gonna ask, can you tell us where you are? But you're in Bali, which it's like 1130 there right at night. And here it's like 10 30 in the morning. So we're in different time zones.
Yeah. What's been your favorite place that you've traveled so far? Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah. No, that's awesome. Mm-hmm.
Oh, that's awesome. I saw your, excuse me, I saw your Instagram with the little frog on the wind or your mirror the other day, and I was like, that's so cute. I love.
Yeah, no, I could definitely take geckos and frogs over, like the Huntsman spider in Australia or anything like that. So like I, I'm trying to not be scared of spiders 'cause I have a lot here actually, but they're not that big.
I am laughing 'cause it sounds like me. I haven't had like a giant spider in here, but, um, we have spiders called Ros that showed up here a few years ago and they're pretty big and they were just constantly making webs over my door to my office. Like I'd have to like, yeah. Yeah, we have those and we have wolf spiders and they're more on the ground.
They don't make webs, but they're giant and we have a bunch, like they're just like in your grass just hanging out.
But geckos I welcome geckos. They can come hang out with me. Oh, okay. Yeah.
You're like, you're not doing a good enough job. If I were there, I would be eaten up by mosquitoes because they love me. So I would be just my giant swelling.
I know, that's so funny. Yeah, I have my little swatters over there. I've got like three of them and yeah. So all of our bugs. Alright, well, coming back to websites, um, we had a couple of questions that we wanted to go through. So the first one we talked about was how can having a well-designed website help nutrition professionals in terms of attracting clients, in getting more sales?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yes. No agree with all of that. Yeah. So, um. I do this every time. I have all these questions in my head. I was telling Jennifer this the other day 'cause we were doing a podcast interview, like we've done so many and I'm like, I have all these questions and I'm like, I don't need to write them down. Then when the person's done talking, they just leave my brain immediately.
Um, but you said so many good things and I was thinking about the copywriting because I feel like it's such a balance between obviously the website looking aesthetic and nice and pulling people in. Having good copy, but then not having blocks of words, like just giant blocks of words, and I'm like literally just dividing them up into sentences a little bit and adding in italies here and there or something will help.
But then also not overdoing that. I've seen some websites like even recently, where they have like four or five different fonts and they'll use all five fonts in like one paragraph, and I'm like, my brain is hurting. Please don't. So. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Right.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm
mm
mm-hmm. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. I even saw an Instagram post this past week that was like, um, your fonts and how you use 'em consistently is way more important even than your logo. And I was like, yes, because people may, you know, see your logo once, but they're seeing your fonts and the way you use your fonts and everything.
So if they're not consistent, they, they feel that even if they don't realize it, they're like, Hmm, this feels a little off. Doesn't feel quite professional. So, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yes.
Hmm.
Oh, if it's not legible, then no, I was like, hmm. I was thinking about it because I've had that happen where I've used a font and a logo. But then, you know, for whatever reason they didn't wanna use that font on the website or they didn't wanna pay for the license and when they wanted a free Google font or whatever it may be.
But I'd find, I tried to find one that's like in the same family, but exactly what you just said. If it's something that, if it's a font, that I almost always edit the fonts in a logo to be custom to that logo. So I'm making it more legible even though I'm using the base of that font. So to use that font on the site and not have it be edited.
'cause you can't, I'm not gonna go in and like create a font like that would cost way more than anybody would wanna pay. No, I would definitely not use it if it wasn't legible. Nope.
Yeah.
Yeah. I don't either. Yeah.
It does look nice.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, exactly. Do you have fonts that you feel like look dated? Like you can see them and think like, oh, this font feels like 2005, which, that's way too long ago. Uh, probably at this point, 2015 or something. Yeah.
Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Yeah, I think like 20 20, 20 21 when everybody was being more online. There was one in Canva that everybody was using. And I still see it sometimes. It's called Brittany. And if I see that font anymore, stop it, stop using it, find another curse of font because it's not unique anymore. And then two, I think people see, and people being loosely.
'cause I don't know if dieticians are necessarily paying attention to fonts like I'm, but other businesses, um, there's a few on Instagram that they, I don't know if it's intentional or what, but they look so much like another brand that it's not doing them any favors. Because I see it, and I think that looks so much like X brand, but doesn't sound like them.
And then I look at it, I'm like, it's not them. And I'm like, why would you pick the exact same font, hierarchy, and color scheme almost as another? Don't do that.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yes.
So,
mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
I know. Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, exactly. Or even like I, so like with my clients, when I give them colors, I do this, I think they like planets in a way 'cause they're circles and I'm like, this big circle is your main neutral background. And then like these two circles that are smaller on this circle are the accents to that one.
And then here's another little secondary option of a neutral background with one other accent color that goes with that one. So. It kind of, and then I give examples of like, you would use this here on the website, you would use this here so that it's consistency in where those colors are. Like all your buttons should have like a primary and secondary type of button, color and style so that you don't have a square button and a round button and a orange button and a blue button and a yellow button.
Like the eye's not gonna know which one's a button because they're all different and I dunno what's happening. So, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Right. Yeah. Right.
Yeah.
Yes. Yes.
Mm-hmm. Yes.
There's a reason.
Yeah. Yeah. It's like the basic principles of like user experience. And I tell people that too. I'm like, you know, if you just, and I'm sorry if this is hurting anyone's feelings, but if you just have the hamburger menu on the right hand side and there's nothing across the top, if you have anybody that's over a certain age, they're not gonna know where your menu is.
Um, they, and, and also like, depending on the age of your target audience, I know like me and Morgan have talked about this, like whether you have the word home in your menu and how much we don't like that. But if you have older adults, they're, they don't always know that the logo is the home button. So you have to have that home button, 'cause then you know where to click.
So it's kind of a mixture of knowing your audience, but then also following like basic principles of, of design and user experience. So,
yes. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
That is exactly what I was just thinking. It was giving me anxiety, just sitting here thinking about how I would have to spend so much time finding the perfect images to put in all those image spots.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Like a little collage of like four or five images in one spot. And it's like, all I can think is I gotta find four perfect images to put in that collage, and I'm gonna cry because I spend way too much time.
So think about that when you're looking at templates. How much time do you have to look at stock photos? And that's a whole nother, that could be a whole nother episode is finding stop photos because yeah. It stresses me out because I'm literally looking for their, you know, brand style of the image, the, you know, the feeling, which I feel like you can't describe, like just the atmosphere of the image.
And then most of my people really want like, diverse diversity, obviously, like included in there, and diversity and body sizes. And then it's got a, like I said, the brand colors of their clothes in the picture I have, I have used AI like to change the colors of clothes in pictures to make it like, go with their brand.
Like I have one going live this week that's like monochrome blue shades for the branding. And there was a picture I liked and the sweater was like orange. And I was like, I can fix this. So I like made it white Canva. Canva did it. Yeah. You can do Photoshop too, but like, don't, don't make it harder on yourself.
Yes. You can't do it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yes.
Yeah.
New. I know I was working on a logo this week and Illustrator and I was like, you know, the things that come so easily to me now, 'cause I've done it for so long, and I have to remind myself like, people don't do this all the time. They don't know how to do this. And like. Yes, I was just sitting here. I have two.
I don't, I'm always like mice mouses. I have two 'cause I have like my regular mouse, which probably looks dirty, but it's just my little ergonomic mouse. And then I have, I can't pick it up 'cause it's plugged in, but I have a track pad because I didn't realize I was doing it. But when I had my exterior monitors in my MacBook connected, I was using the track pad on my MacBook to like zoom in and move around the screen and then click with my mouse.
So I'm like doing both. So if you want a little trick on how to save some time and zoom in and out and then click, that's my my tip of the day. You should have two.
And now like if my track pad ever dies during, like I use it during like whiteboard sessions for branding strategy too. So I'm like zooming in and out and if it's ever like dead or whatever, I'm like this is torture. How do people not use this? I need the track pad.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Well, I was gonna say, you're traveling, so like that makes total sense. And I'm like, I'm just going in my backyard to my shed office. So
yeah.
Yes, yes.
That sounds like torture. I don't know why, but like, I cannot stand doing, like when people tell me they have an iPad and not a computer, I'm like, I do not understand you. Like, I don't understand. Yeah,
it's true. Yeah. Right.
Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Perfect. Yeah. So yeah, my, I always joke that, I know we talked about before that I, my, my obsession with tech, but my obsession with tech is software. I mean, I do like. The things around me, but my husband does all the external stuff, like the screens, the, the monitors, and like setting up all of my stuff that I have.
I don't wanna touch that because my brain is like, mm, I don't know how to do that. But software code stuff, I do that all day, but yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Wow.
Oh,
yes. Mm-hmm.
We tried that. Like, like I said, I mean, not to go on a tangent, but since my office is in my backyard as a shit, uh, we tried so many different, like extenders and like mesh router things, but like, and this was even before I opened my design studio. It was when I was doing like virtual nutrition counseling only, and the connection just wasn't the best.
And it was really stressing me out. It wasn't terrible, but like, it's just embarrassing if it's not perfect. Um, and so we actually ended up, um, we have two totally different internets for this in my house. So we had at t come out and like do a hard line, like in the ground. Um, so like I'm plugged in to the internet, not even like wifi, like I'm plugged in.
I, I have wifi, but I'm plugged in just to make it secure and stable. And then we have like charter internet in the house, which is funny because when we first moved into this house 10 years ago, there was no internet in this neighborhood. None. You couldn't get it. It was not an option at all. And they didn't tell us that until after we moved in and we were like, no internet.
Like how, what do I, what, what do I do? Yeah. And like the crazy thing was like the houses up above us, um, had internet, but it didn't come down to us. So I used a hotspot on my phone for like two years before we got internet. Yep.
Luckily, like I wasn't, it was pre pandemic, so, you know, I was online, but not anywhere near like I am now. But yeah, I was in school, so like I had email and, you know, submit assignments and stuff. So yeah, I was in grad school, so, but yeah, not fun to not have like, regular internet, so. Yeah.
Oh, I can hear 'em, but it's, I don't think it's a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. And like, I think when I edit it, I can like. I think I we're, so the reason I like using squad cast is 'cause it's two different, um, tracks. So like I can edit your track by itself and I can like maybe do some background cancellation if it's necessary.
So yeah, I think we're good. No, it's fine. Um, he was snoring a few minutes ago, so I hope that that didn't come through. Okay. I was like, really? Like you snore. My husband snores. Everybody snores so annoying.
No, I can't. I have to like every few months, like maybe once a quarter or probably less than that. I go to a hotel by myself for like two or three nights. Just literally I go and I speak to no one for three days.
Oh yeah. No. I just literally am like, they're like, oh, go somewhere and have dinner. I'm like, no, I don't think you understand. I wanna speak to no one. I'm an introvert and I need to like, recharge and do nothing. Um, okay. What questions do you think we should go to next? We have, um, people that have a website and don't think they need one.
I was kind of thinking about that because I don't know if you have, I mean, obviously people that end up working with me don't think this, but I know that there are some that rely on referrals and local stuff, which I think is a good idea, but then they have this conception that they don't need a website or they don't need a good one.
Um, so yeah. Do you want me to ask that? Okay. So for any clinicians that don't have a website or don't think they need one, you know whether they get a lot of referrals or just local networking, what do you think are some reasons they should consider having either a website or a better website?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. No, I love that. Actually. I don't know why I never, you put it in words that made sense for my brain a little better. The fact that if that doctor left tomorrow, you wouldn't have any referrals. Like that's such an obvious and good point that I haven't put together yet. I've just been like, you don't wanna rely on that, but you just said it in such a better way.
That is so obvious, but.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's probably, I mean, I would imagine, and what I've experienced myself and what I've heard from other people is that they get overwhelmed with the fact that essentially you do have to kinda do all of these things. Like you really, you need the referrals, you need the SEO, you need the website, like you need the whole thing.
And I always, if you listen to my podcast, you know, I always come back to branding and branding strategy, but I'm like, if you don't have that foundation of understanding your customer journey and then you know, you know, not just marketing, but like making people aware of you and your brand awareness, then like, it's just not good for longevity.
Because again, like you said, if you put all of your stuff in one basket, then that basket goes away. Now what? So that's such a good point.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Right. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I think we have feelings about contact form. Do you wanna share those?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Like, what am I supposed to say? Your whole, my whole life story.
Mm-hmm.
Oh,
mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Oh my gosh. To nothing to.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Right. Um,
yeah. Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
yeah,
yeah. Because
no, it looks like they forgot about it. Um, that's funny. I'm looking at my screenshots. 'cause I actually took a screenshot, not a, not a dietician or anything like that. It was something totally different business. But I was like, wow, this is a perfect example of like a seriously, they forgot about this website back in the nineties.
Um, I can't remember what the business was, but I was literally looking for something that I actually needed. And it came up and I was like, okay, I'll click on this one. And then it was, it was crazy. I was like, this, I've not seen a website like this in a long time. But it's stuff like that. Like even, like you said though, from 2020, like me and Jennifer McGurk talk about this when I'm doing stuff, I'm, I update her site like every month on some, some of the pages.
And, um, we just laugh about how like things from 2020 look dated. But that's kind of what we tell, like branding people too. Like you need to kind of do some little refresh every, you know, two to three years, especially your website because things change so quickly and they're subtle, like we said, but people notice, you know, if you've, if you look fresh,
yeah. Mm-hmm.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Change your prides. Like literally just wanna type in a different number. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, like most of us don't have like a brick and mortar place. So if you think about like you wouldn't walk somebody to walk into your brick and mortar store and it look dirty or old or dusty or chaotic and like people are just gonna turn around and leave. 'cause they're like, what even is this place?
Yeah.
I'll be on the corner. Hand these things out.
Uh,
yep. Mm-hmm. Yep.
Yes.
Right, exactly. Yeah. Like whenever clients always ask like, should I do social media or should I do email marketing? I'm always like email marketing like or something. You know? I don't know if at some point email marketing will become like text marketing. I really don't know. Because I know like the younger generation, like my nieces who are in college, they're not really big into their emails, and this could be a whole nother conversation.
There's so many conversations off of this discussion that we've had, but like tech in general, they are not. I feel like millennials had, we had to learn like the basics of like how to do all, I mean, we were coding our mindspace, right? Like we were doing all the things and learning all the things, and they mostly had like touch screens that just like do things for them.
And that's okay. But like, it just means that things are gonna evolve at some point. And I'm just, I'm always like, where's that gonna go? Um, but right now, like email marketing, I always tell them, say you got 200 people on your email list, you know that those at least half are gonna open that, if not hopefully more.
And that's a hundred people versus if you share on Instagram a post and like 20 people see it and they're probably not even your followers. Like it's not gonna do anything.
Mm-hmm.
Everybody yelling at each other.
Yeah.
Right? Mm-hmm. Right.
Where everyone's not screaming at each other. Yes. Screaming into the void. Um, there was one other thing I wanted to mention and I was like, I should do an episode on like red flags for designers. Like what to look for because, uh, you mentioned the people that like don't know how to do their websites 'cause their website's being held hostage.
And I've had clients that, like this is recent. I had a client that is a really big business locally and we were setting up their local SEO 'cause I offer that like as a quarterly package for their Google business profile. And they did not have access to any of their analytics because the person they had before ghosted them and that business just shut down.
And so we don't have any of that data and we had to start all over. Yeah. So that's a lesson to always make sure you have admin access to your website, your Google Analytics and search console and anything else that is tech related, but especially your website. Yeah. Yes, and I, I don't know, I'm sure you guys do the same, but like I add them as admin on their website.
They're in the hosting, like they have, even if they're on a care plan, they have full control to do whatever they need to do. As long as, you know, like, don't break it please, but you can do it if you want.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. I wouldn't think you would, but I was just like, wow, that's a whole trust thing. Yeah.
Yes, I, yeah. And I always tell 'em, I'm like, if you need to like change a picture, change a number, a letter, and I use break dance now. And it actually has a setting that only allows them to change that. Like they can't change the layout, they can't change like margins or anything like that. It's just, you can change this image that is already here.
You can change the words that are already here. And that's usually the access I give them on a care plan. Um, because again, like if they wanna change their pricing, like they shouldn't, if they don't want to ask me to do it, then. I want them to have the option. Um, but I'm also happy to do it. Um, but yeah, like the businesses, I dunno how you feel about this, but I see them sometimes.
Like, I saw one the other day, it was in somebody's website footer, and I'm always nosy and I'm like, who made this website? And I like went to see who made it and it was some marketing firm and it was like budget websites. And I was like, okay, like let's budget to them, you know? And it was not budget website to me, it was like two or $3,000 upfront.
And then it was like you had a choice between like 300 or $500 a month moving forward forever. And I was like, how you guys are scamming people. Like, so if you're listening and you're paying that you should question that. Not be paying $500 forever a month for your website unless you have some ginormous like e-commerce site that has a ton of things.
I don't know.
Yeah, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I mean like whole new fresh designed pages. Like I do, I do that for Jennifer, like that is, I'm on retainer to do those things, but I think this was just like, you know, they got like 30 minutes of edits a month or something, and it wasn't like full design work. And I'm like, wow. So it's almost like you're leasing a website is kind of how I saw it.
It's like it's not really yours, you're leasing it. And that is just as bad as like using Wix or any of those other sites where you don't own your site.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Right, right. They own it. Yeah, exactly. It's not, we don't, we're not gonna keep it forever.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Yes. Yeah. Move along. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yes. Mm-hmm.
Yep.
I know,
I know. That's such a good point. 'cause. I, I think we talked about this before, um, but like it's hosting and maintenance, because I think sometimes people are like, oh, well, you know, I use Flywheel for hosting. They're like, I can do the tiny plan for $25, so why would I pay you X amount for a care plan? I'm like, because I'm paying that too.
I'm not getting necessarily a discount for your hosting. Um, so I'm paying, you're paying for your hosting through me, but I'm also taking care of it. So you're taking, you're paying for my time. I'm going in and like, you know, making sure that these plugins didn't break your site and if they did break your site, I'm restoring it from a backup.
Like, there's so many things that you never know that I'm doing because all you see is the website working and that's how I want it. But just know, like you're not just throwing your money away. Um, I, it's my time and also my, the software I'm paying for and the, the premium plugins that I've put on your site that I'm paying for too.
So yeah, so much.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. And the speed and the performance and the optimization of it. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. We wanna make it easier for you. That's the goal.
Exactly. Was there anything else that you feel like we should let listeners know when it comes to websites or, I know we've talked a little bit about email marketing and we touched on social media. If there was like three things you wanted them to take away from today, what would that be?
Um.
Mm-hmm.
Yep. Mm-hmm.
Right.
Yeah,
I'm not gonna read it.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Awesome. Those are three awesome things. So tell us about any upcoming events you have and how people can work with you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, wow. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
are hard to.
Oh no geckos. Hmm. I can't think of what kind of, yeah, I was like, I can't think of what Japan has. I never bugs report back what Bugs and animals you find.
Yeah. Maybe it'll be some cute, some cute little buggy find.
Yes. So go and that's on your workshop is on Tuesday. Right? Tuesday. And then, so go to hers and figure out your services and then on Thursday come to mind about Google Business profile and local SEO so that you can promote your services locally. Perfect.
Awesome. Well thank you so much for being on here today. I love chatting with you And everybody, go follow Whitney on Instagram and have a great week.
All right.
Hi Courtney. Thanks so much for having me.
Yeah, so like yourself, I am a dietician. I was working in school nutrition for 10 years before I decided to pivot just a little bit. I found that I was more drawn to technology and design and communications and marketing, but really passionate still about the field and helping all of dieticians succeed.
So, uh, founded my business to do that, to help dieticians show up online and get more clients and be seen as the experts that we are, but that sometimes our marketing, uh, doesn't do us justice. Uh, so I've been doing that since 2018 and we've helped over a hundred dieticians and businesses at this point.
Um, nutrition businesses with their websites and get them more clients and get them, um, online. So that's been amazing, uh, to do. And I've also been doing it while traveling the world, so I travel full-time as well. And I started the business first and then decided to start traveling soon after. So that was the sequence of events, but still going strong, uh, coming to you from Bali today.
Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You just make it work, you adjust.
Honestly, Bali has been, it's really, I, so I traveled my fiance and I, and, um, we've, we've been, you know, to so many different, um, continents and parts of the world in Europe and South America, and, um, different parts of Asia and just Bali with like the tropical feelings and like all like. Anyone who follows me on Instagram knows that I just fricking love geckos.
Like so much geckos in my house, in my, on my ceiling anywhere. I, I just, I love them. They can never be too many of them, too close, too big. Like they're all, they're all welcome. And so there's so many of them here. And so I just love the casual vibe here, the warm weather in the sun. You get to go to beautiful places.
The food is amazing. The people are awesome. And also, it's so close to Australia. So many Australians have come here over the years that there's so many things that feel like Western conveniences. They're actually Australian conveniences, but it, it feels the same. Like you can press an app to get, deliver like delicious cookies delivered to you at like nine o'clock at night for like pennies.
Not, not pennies, but you know, not very much money. And they're really good and it comes fast. Um, so just, it's got a little bit of everything that you could want. Except for the time zone difference, but that's, that's where having an online business and having, you know, systems working and, you know, I have a, a team that's all remote and we're across all sorts of time zones, and so just gotten really efficient at the asynchronous communication and managing clients asynchronously and all that.
So, make it work.
Yeah. Yeah. He's just watching me, like, brush my teeth and like, okay, like I'm, I'm gonna leave. I'll let you be, you know? So, yeah. Yeah. Oh, when we,
oh, no. Yeah. Well, the other place that we really loved that we were actually for the entire pandemic, we were there for a year and a half, was the island of Mauritius. Which is in the Indian Ocean, so it's, you go Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius. So it's like very small. They have, they also have a lot of geckos, so I love that place, obviously, but they have gigantic spiders and we had many encounters.
One while I was about to start a video call with clients and I looked down on the floor and that spider is on the floor and I had to make a decision. Do you go on with the call or do you tell all these people, I'm sorry, I need to go kill a gigantic spider, so
Oh, oh,
oh, no. Oh, right. We talked about that last time when we were chatting. No, no, no.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I just can't do it. I can't do it. Yeah. So, yeah, in theory they eat the spiders. I've never seen a gecko eat a spider. Oh wait, no, no. They probably don't eat the spiders. They eat the ants and the mosquitoes and all of that. And then the spiders are also supposed to eat all the creepy crawly things and mosquitoes.
But I'm like, you know, I dunno that you're pulling your weight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got my racket. I mean, people watching can't see. But I have my mosquito racket with me nearby in case I get, um, yeah. Buzzed a little too much, so
yeah. Just in case. Yeah. Yep. Yeah.
Yeah, so, you know, obviously web designer to web designer, you know, these are things that we both, so I'm not, I'm teaching not teaching you anything new. Um, but I think one of the biggest things is just showing our expertise and then forming that connection with our customers. I think we underestimate how that, that instant connection and that feeling.
Um, when someone lands on a website and it, it connects. Um, I used to, you know, read books. It was like, good design is designed, you can't see. It's like not obvious. It's almost, it just already hits you and I feel like a well-designed website. You feel good. You start interacting, you start reading, you, you become interested in the content.
That's what we want our customers to feel, but a poorly designed. It just, it's like there's this wall there that you're not going to be able to get through because it doesn't look good. The words feel very like mechanical or technical or scientific or generic. And our customers are just not getting that warm and fuzzy feeling, and they're not wanting to move forward.
So they're, they're leaving, you know, they're going to your competitors, they're going in and finding other things. So I think that, um, and it's not just the prettiness of the website, right? Like I a pretty website's great, but I don't think, this is my feeling that we need to spend so much time on the aesthetics of getting it that perfect, you know, curated.
I think words and usability go a lot further than pretty, pretty aesthetics. Aesthetics are great. I get that. We want something that represents us. That is going to convey our personality to our customers and that we can feel really proud of. But I think if people are, if dieticians out there are feeling, um, a little intimidated or they're seeing these like gorgeous websites and they cost, they can cost a lot of money to, the more complicated you get in the design, the more money it can cost.
And I feel that a website is so critical for every dietician who wants to be running your business, whether it's online or virtual, um, or, or in person. That I think getting past that and recognizing that there is more to a strategic and functional website than just how it looks, but also the words that we have on it, the sales processes that we have in it, how we're talking about our services, what are we putting out there?
How are we collecting email subscribers? How are we generating traffic to it? Um, so yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Right? Yeah.
Yes. Yes.
Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And it's those subtleties, right? And that's why it is good to have some kind of designer helping you, I think, with your website. Um, it doesn't, again, it doesn't have to be this, you know, multimillion dollar project, but a good designer is going to know how to have a font hierarchy so that, okay, we're using this font when we are an H one header at the top of the page, and we're only going to use that in certain places, or we're going to use this font in these places.
And having that consistency. You may not, as a non-designer realize, wait, you may, may not see it at all and may not think that it's important, but those little things are what add to a brand feeling premium and. Feeling consistent and easy to read. And yeah, if you're using a bunch of fonts, there's nothing wrong with having like a few different typographies that you use for different things in your business, but you need to use them consistently, consistently, and, uh, intentionally and not too many.
It's like,
oh yeah.
Yes.
Right. Yeah, that is such a good point, because yeah, they're interacting with your fonts and your typography throughout the page, throughout all of your content everywhere. But your logo, it's, it's there. Here's a question for you. How do you feel about if someone has one font in their logo that's like a stylized font, and then feeling that they need to use that on their website, even if it's not very legible?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right,
right, right. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, no.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, and it's a question that comes up when, um, we have our, our students in our, our website course, and we work with them. We give them logo templates, and we have a, a great number of our students come through who had a logo. It was maybe a logo that they got from someone that just kind of gave them a quickie logo, or they did it themselves.
And they have some templates from us. They're getting some coaching, and they're like, their juices are flowing, but then they're feeling like, ah, this, this one font that I'm using in this logo, do I now need to also use it all across the site. And I really am a firm believer in that it's okay to have a logo in a font in your logo that it, but I agree that it had, should have, like if it's a crif, then use a Crif font.
Somewhere on your website, in my opinion, preferably in your, your headlines. I don't love a crif for a body font, but it's, you know, to each their own, it can look good. I've definitely been on some sites where I'm like, Ooh, I like, I like what they did there, so it's possible. But yeah, I, I think permission to use fonts the way you want.
'cause it's, it's such a good point. You know, you can write, write great copy, but if it's not laid out on the site in an appropriate way, and you are feeling like you're shoehorning your fonts into the, you know, the site because Oh, I use them in my logo. It's like, no, it's okay. You can break the rules a little bit every so often.
Right, right. I know, I know time has gone way too fast. Um, yeah, there are definitely some fonts and just general aesthetic like design styles that I'm seeing. Like, okay, it's time to change and, you know, we are actually in Q1 going to finally redo our own website because it has been too long. But I think it's also validating that, you know, I made the, made sure the copy was good.
It made sure that there was lead generation on it. We are putting out blogs, we, yeah, it's, is it, you know, the fanciest website? No, but it's been working and generating, you know, thousands of dollars for the business. So I think it's a testament that simple can be good, but it also is, you know, it's no longer representing me where I, I feel the brand is.
And so there are fonts on it that I don't like anymore and feel that they're dated. Um, and just different stylistic choices that at the time maybe felt like a little cool, and now it's like, no, not so much. So yeah, I definitely have some fonts that I'm like, oh yeah, those that I remember the, that year. I
Okay. You're like, oh, Brittany.
Yeah, Uhhuh. Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh hmm.
Right. Yeah. And that's exactly what a brand like for all of us. I mean to just, that's such a perfect case in point of how powerful a brand can be that you're like, this sounds like X brand, just by how it looks. You're like, I feel like that's X brand. Oh, it turns out it's Y brand that, but it's because they've established such a strong brand identity, visual identity that you are equating that brand with that visual identity.
And even if we're a small business, there's, you know, yeah. We're not the Nikes of the world and you know, like we don't have to worry about that, but. For your customers, you do want to establish this brand identity, this visual identity, which is how it looks, the logo, the fonts, the colors, and then also just your brand positioning, like your values, the way you speak, what type types of topics you talk about so that when people do see your stuff popping up in different spots, you're like, oh, that's Anne.
I know Anne. And the different stuff that she works on. Um, because also it's all about like repetition and seeing people seeing, we want people to see the same colors showing up in one spot and another spot. And I think that's the other thing too, that it's just like such a simple tweak that people don't do is being consistent with their brand.
Uh, like style guide. And what are your colors and your fonts use the same ones because it can be so tempting in Canva. They have so many wonderful templates. They look good. They've got fonts that you've never used before and they've got colors. I've, I've fallen into the trap. I've done it occasionally for like a, we're hiring post or something like that where I'm like, you know what?
I don't care. But don't use the font. Don't use the colors. Change the template. Change the template to your brand colors and your brand fonts. Just do it.
Uh,
yep.
Yeah, yeah.
Yes,
you are right.
Mm-hmm.
Right, right, right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and I, I tell our, our students too, I'm like, okay, it's good to have a few varieties of your brand colors. Like, I think having, I think two, sometimes three main colors is good. Just as you're doing social media stuff. It can sometimes feel a little drab if you're like only playing with two colors, but then you don't want to have all the full color, like my colors are a blue, a pink and a yellow.
I wouldn't want my most saturated blue to be a section on my website, and then my most saturated pink, and then my most saturated yellow like. Then it looks like clown school, like it is not good. So yeah, it's the proper and subtle use of the colors and then the consistent use and yeah, I completely agree.
And people, we also want, there was actually a couple years ago, I remember being at a FE session and they had studied websites and one of the things was prototypicality, I think was the term that they used. And it's basically don't try and do something cute on your website, do the thing that everyone else does, because that's what people like.
You have the logo in the upper left corner, and when you click on it, it goes to the homepage. I've seen menus. Sometimes they're cool, but sometimes they're really annoying where they like slide out from somewhere or they're like angled somewhere and you're, they're hiding. Or Yeah. Going and saying, I'm gonna have buttons that are all different colors across my website.
'cause I don't see anyone else doing that. If you don't, if you don't see anyone else doing it, don't do it yourself. Um, yeah.
Yeah.
Oh yes. Yeah. Right. They don't know. Yeah. Yep. Yep.
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, I think there's, and you can, if you've seen this too, I feel like there's a little bit of the templates out there sometimes the web designs and, and all of that, that they're, they look beautiful, but they almost seem to be more for photographers or you know, these creatives.
And so they're really cool looking. And then business owners that are service providers serving people, just typical people start using those because they're really great looking, but they're not for a service based business that is just selling something that people need to read about and they need to click around the site and navigate.
And you know, also too, that just puts a lot of pressure on you to find like really great imagery.
Yes. Yeah, it's hard enough finding like a hero image to go, you know, across the home that's like, good resolution, the right layout, you know, all of that. But yeah, there's just some some page website designs out there that it's like, oh man, you're, you're setting yourself up for a world of hurt, uh,
right,
right. That are on brand. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's tough. So, yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
Hey, Barb, can you hear me? I can't hear you, right? Yeah.
Yep, yep.
Oh, that's nice. Um, yeah. Uh, the device, Uhhuh,
what did you use? Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. Canva is rolling out. Yeah. I used to really like hate Canva. I still hate aspects of it because there are certain, like typography things you cannot, you know, it's just like one or the other. Like, okay, fine, we're just gonna go with the spacing. But it has made. So things so much easier.
But I do think like it's kind of one of those powerful tools that, uh, you know, you gotta use it wisely, but it's, it's a blessing 'cause Yeah. Uh, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, those are not easy programs to, to learn or pick up.
Oh, you have to remember the keystrokes of
Uh huh.
Uhhuh.
Yeah.
Oh. Wow, that's impressive.
Use both hands. Wow. Yeah. That's, that's amazing. Yeah.
Uhhuh.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, and I, you know, I, before doing like the design stuff, I was PC all the way working at a job, you know, and all of that. And I was like, how, how do people use track pads? Like, what is this? I hated it on, on a PCI, it was totally like traditional mouse. And then I got my Mac and I was like, oh my God, this is so amazing.
And now, yeah, my travel setup is I, I have a travel, um, keyboard, I have a travel track pad, and then I've got my. Laptop on a stand and I finally broke down and did get a second monitor. Like I'm all about the minimal stuff, you know, and like every ounce, like I literally, like I was, I was buying something and I was weighing, I was literally holding two pens in my hand because that was the equivalent weight of the thing I was buying.
And I was trying to confirm. I'm like, how much, how valuable is it for this other thing? You know, if it feels, you know, this much heavier, like every ounce matters in, in travel. Yeah,
yeah. Add on all the tech you want. But yeah, having the second monitor like does save my sanity. 'cause I worked just from a laptop screen for, for a couple years and during the pandemic my computer broke and I worked from a, um, an iPad. Uh, out of stubbornness because I didn't want to pay like 700 extra dollars for a a, a MacBook to be imported into Mauritius.
Um, but 'cause it was the height of the pandemic and all that. But yeah, working from an iPad, on the one hand I was really impressed. I was like, that just proves I can, I can run my business from an iPad. I was not efficient during, during those two months. Not at all. So, yeah.
Yeah. I think it also depends on the type of work. Like, luckily I, by that point, you know, I had my designer and project manager and my developers doing stuff. So, you know, I was like, okay, I'm not touching if you need me to like qa a site on a desktop and. You know, look at the code. That's not gonna happen.
But I can QA the site on an iPad and the iPhone. I can check mobile responsible responsiveness until the day is long. Uh, so yeah. Yeah. So you just do what you can.
Oh, nice. Uhhuh Uhhuh.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. To an extent for me, probably I, you know, like I'm, I'm also rusty on, you know, the, the code stuff. But yeah, my fiance does it. He's like. You know, done network engineering and all of that. And so like he is responsible for ensuring that we have a mesh network wherever we go. So, you know, because some of these places that we live in, the wifi signal does not reach to the place that is most ideal for working from.
So, traveler tip, bring a mesh network, which is basically just two wifi hotspots, like an extender that just makes your, uh, wifi router, you know, more powerful and makes you not wanna hurt yourself. Yeah.
So, yeah. Yeah. That, that's the vibe I got because I think when, when I first made the chat group before you guys got in, he was like out of the gate with the gate. Yeah. It was like, yeah. Yeah. Um, right, right. Oh, is it okay, what you guys think? Should we record this and transcribe it only, or,
oh my gosh. Yeah. I dunno. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You don't mind? Okay. Say Oh. Oh my gosh.
Yeah. What do you mean? 10 years ago? Yeah, that's not even like that.
Um, transcription. Okay. Should I record? Oh my gosh. Are we, oh my gosh. I would've gone insane. Insane.
Yeah. Okay. Um, okay. The basic stuff, you know? Yeah. Oh my God, we really, can we check in? You check in? Yeah. No, it's the worst. And I wanna just double check my fiance's having to call downstairs. Can you hear? Yeah, it's gonna be okay. Okay. Try and,
oh, okay, okay, okay. Sorry. Yeah. Beauty of Bali Villas, like,
I didn't, I didn't hear him. Yeah. Good.
Yeah. Yeah. Just, yeah. You just can't win on the sleep front. No,
I support that.
Good for you. Yeah, so my business coach does, she does like staycations. She gets her sushi dinner, she does whatever else she needs to do, massages, and like. Good for you,
you,
yeah. Good for you. It's amazing. Yeah. Love it. Okay.
Yeah. For the holidays before, weeks before the trip trip. Really nice. Get here early. Yes. Let's go there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. I, I hear it a lot and I've heard it like in the Facebook groups of, uh, the question comes up, you know, people are asking, should I have a website? And a lot of people saying, oh, I just rely on referrals, and it's all, you know, it's all fine. And referrals are awesome. Like, they help me build my business.
They continue to be a wonderful thing, but referrals, it's like putting the fate of your business in someone else's hands because you don't know if that doctor that's referring to you is suddenly gonna go on vacation or sabbatical for a year and then they're not gonna send you any more patients, or those referrals are just going to dry up or whatever the case may be, or the local networking.
Like it's just, it's inconsistent. Um, so I think having your own platform and your own way of building your audience and driving leads is going to just assure the consistency and longevity of your business. And so one of the things that I'm really like hinting at here is building your email list. And you can do that from your website.
So a lot of the people that come to your website are going to maybe love a lot of things you say, but they're not going to be ready to move forward with you yet. So they need something else that they can kind of sink their teeth into. And that's where having a lead magnet, uh, some kind of download or quiz or assessment, um, that people will give you their email and then they'll, they'll get that and they'll be happy.
And then you can keep nurturing them. And so you just keep month after month building this pool of people who have told you, Hey, I'm, I'm somewhat interested. I don't know enough about you yet, but I'd like to know more. So you keep nurturing those people and hey, those referrals can keep coming in. That's amazing.
But then you're also building this pool, this lead pool, this pipeline of people that also will be ready to work with you. Um, so that's one thing, actually. Yeah. Uh, Alex, Alex just asked if you could pop in. Are we cool?
Well, I faced it in my own business. You know, I do affiliates for my, my course launches and they're wonderful. But if I was relying, and sometimes they've been, it's just been fantastic. My, all of my affiliates have said, yes, I am, I have time in my calendar to promote your course. That's great. And we get all these people coming in from it, and that's wonderful.
But then other times I go to them and they say, ah, I'm also running a launch at launch at this time. Or, oh, you know, I have something going on. So it's, it just, I, I've, I've lived it and I, I feel it. And so I, I know you cannot rely on that. It's wonderful when it happens. But it can't be the thing that you are building your business on, because otherwise you're never going to know how much income you're going to be making and like, you're just not really taking it in your own hands.
Um, so, so yeah. Trying to do more meaningful stuff and not working and, and basically like really focused on, um, like Yes. Oh yes. Good point. Living better instead of working. Yeah. Okay. Lemme put some, instead of working, help organize this, this reunion. Awesome. Bring the people together. You can think.
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. So maybe Alex will hop in there. Right. Um, okay. Awesome. Uh, right. Yeah, you've built a reputation in that doctor's office. Great. But that's just, you know that, that office. And I think, yeah, I like your approach of like the brand, you know, the website too is just like the center, the foundation, if you think about it, these concentric circles of you just keep adding new things.
So you add social media, you add the email marketing as like a thing that you start working on. You add doing some speaking and, um, appearances in the community or virtually, and getting people on your email list that way. These are not things that you have to do all day. One, it can feel super overwhelming.
Um, you're not going to do all of them well, right at the beginning. None of us do. That's why, you know, we're all learning and we all get better over time. Um, but that's why having that website at the center of it is so critical because. As you build onto your marketing and your awareness and your audience, you wanna be sending people to a place that actually is going to convert people either into email subscribers or into clients of course.
And so if you don't have the right copy, if you don't have the branding, if you don't have an easy way for people to move forward with you, with a good, you know, schedule or a sales process, whatever it is, for them to take some kind of action, that ha is not just a contact form, it's an actual action.
Maybe just a little bit, I think everyone still needs a contact form, a contact page. Um, because I think that that does build trust so that someone who does want to just reach out to you, there's not this barrier of you have to book a call on my calendar. Like, what if I have a legit question, like at the end of the day, we are here to help people.
I know sometimes we can be like, oh, I don't wanna have to respond to a bunch of emails. You're probably not going to get a bunch of emails. You can always adjust, you know, and see how things go, but, um, I wouldn't worry about that. And so having the contact form is great as a contact form. It's just for people to contact you and ask a question that hasn't already been answered or addressed on your website.
So you should have FAQs on your website. You should have a really great description of your services. You should tell people about what your sales process is so that they understand what the next steps are, and then give them a way to move forward to book a call, submit an application, whatever the case may be.
But those things are customized to them moving forward in the journey of becoming a customer. They're asking questions about their goals and their struggles and, you know, any other, depending on what kind of business you're running, you know, if you are asking a little bit about their prior health history or what insurance they have, you know, whatever it is.
Not too many questions, but just enough to prepare you for the sales conversation. Um, but that way people are knowing that you're actually taking interest and you're putting, you're putting some questions together to learn more about them. And it's this instant feedback. Hopefully if you're doing a scheduler, that they're booking the call on their calendar, they're getting some kind of email confirmation, whereas a contact form to me, especially the generic ones that are literally like, type your message here.
Oh my God, I hate those so much. And like, I, what do you want me to say? And I was, and I run into this as I'm searching for business services online. So I was trying to schedule a picnic, uh, a couple months ago. I didn't end up doing it, but I was, we were going to get someone to like put together a nice picnic for us.
And so I found a bunch of, was Googling, just searching on Google, finding the businesses. Some of their websites were a little janky. And I was like, and then their prices were listed and I was like, I don't really feel that they should be charging this price. Like, I'm just not really sure. You know? So all the things that I teach, you know, that we talk about, like it's so, it's so there.
And the ones who had the great branding that made me feel like, okay, they care about their brand, they know what they're doing. This is a legit business that hasn't, what I found out is that some of the businesses had just been put up during the pandemic because that's when I think the picnic picnics really blew up.
Um, and then the sites were just left up, but no one's minding the store. And so I'm submitting these contact forms and nothing, no response. I have no idea. And so when I had people responding to me right away. And allowing me to do some kind of action. Those are the people that got my business, that got, you know, further along.
And it's the same thing for any clients that are wanting to hire a dietician. If you don't have some kind of instant feedback to people, they're going to move on because they're trying to get an answer. They took the time to put some information in your contact form and then, you know, and because we don't know as the customer sitting back whether you are actually an active business responding to your contact forms or not.
I always take a second before I submit a contact form because I'm like, I don't know if this is worth it. This other one allows me to book. So, you know, I, I just, I've encountered too many websites that are just dead on the internet and no one's taken them down and. So I'm like, you know what? I'm just, I'm not even gonna bother with this site.
You know, it says like, the copyright and the footer is like 20, 20 13. I'm like, I don't think anyone's home anymore. I'm not gonna waste my time. Um, and I see that, and I see those are I Sometimes those are active practitioner websites, you know, that, that they are actually expecting to get business from that site, but it doesn't look like they are.
Yeah. Yeah.
Uh, I support that. I was thinking that too. Look, oh, no. Good morning, Uhhuh
location.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep.
Right, right. Yeah, exactly. And that's where, you know, like in my program, the dietician website system, like we. We give templates and then we teach our students like how to make edits. And I'm sure you teach your, your clients after the fact. Like, hey, if you wanna make some of these updates, you know, granted not a, a whole, whole overhaul, but those basic edits.
But there's so many people that I encounter who have had these horror stories of, they got a website from someone, and then it's like they're just handcuffed to that website and they can't make, they don't know how to make edits. They forget how to make edits. They have to contact that person every time.
And your business is evolving and the slight designs and and things like that are evolving too. You get a new headshot that you wanna put on your site or you know, you have a new service that you are Yeah, right. Exactly. And then, and it's this chain reaction. So going back to this question of like, why should people have a website or why should they have a better website?
I've heard people say they don't pursue speaking opportunities or new business opportunities because their website is not up to date and it's, it's holding them back. So it becomes this snowball effect of, if you don't have this thing in place, not only is it just hurting you from people that are searching on the internet for your services, that you don't even know that they found your site and that they looked and that they left, because they're not gonna tell you that.
So there's these people that are, are leaving and then the referrals that you're doing, you know these clients that are coming from doctors, if they're still getting your website, they're still looking at the website and they're still making a decision. It's possible that if your website's not good, that 10 referrals that you're getting could be 20.
It could be more if you were to have that update. And then also it's holding you back from putting yourself out there, and you may not even recognize that you're not. Pushing yourself and seeing yourself as, hey, this growing business owner. Um, so I just think, I think a website has so much, it's, it's the soul of the business in a sense.
When it, it's, it's how you show up online and it's everything, you know?
Right. So for attendance right now, we're looking at approximately 20 people that they would likely, mm-hmm. Um, could go up or down, um, right. And you would never dream of having a store out there in the world, forget about the internet and sell things, but then not actually have a store or tell people, like, go down the street.
I'll be, uh, in front of the Yeah, I'll be, yeah. I'll be talking about things on someone else's corner, which is what we're doing on Instagram, you know, is we are on someone else's platform. Sharing things, and that's all well and good, but we need to send people somewhere that then they come to our home and they continue to be part of our community.
Um, and, but yeah, we would never dream of like trying to open a business and not have a store to sell the things.
Should we draw the line at your Yeah.
Huh?
Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah,
yeah,
yeah. Right, right, right. Yeah. And there's no way that you can convey enough information and get people's attention enough to, to get them to actually do anything. I know when I go on Instagram, I immediately forget what I was planning to open Instagram to do. You know, first off, and it's just a chaotic, loud space, and it's granted.
Right, exactly. I mean, social media is still necessary. I use it to grow my email list, which I think is the advice that most people, um, have out there, is it's good to have a following, but what you're trying to do is convert people to your email list by promoting your lead magnet or promoting a free, promoting a pre-workshop or whatever the case may be.
You're not promoting all the time, you're putting value out there and all of that. But, um, the goal is to actually get those followers onto your email list so you can properly nurture them and talk to them in a quiet, calm environment in their inbox. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Um,
yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Oh,
historical. Oh, no. Yeah. Also I,
yeah, yeah, yeah. Your domain, your hosting. Yeah. Or someone that's, yeah. That you trust.
Yeah.
We, we, yeah, we, we do not go that far with the hosting access, but we are literally like an email away. And we've, you know, we have over, we have a hundred websites that we're managing for, like, we're not gonna ghost anyone. And if any Yeah, yeah. No, but it's, I think it's, it's important, right? Yes, absolutely.
Yeah. And you know, anyone that is just like Gate gatekeeping, a website from someone and saying, you have to email me anytime you wanna make an update. Now granted, there are some things that are just faster and easier for a designer or a developer to do. You know, if you're like, well, can you just tell me how to make this page, do this thing?
And it's like, I, I can't, like, I just need to do it for you, you know? So there are those moments, but. Yeah,
yeah,
yeah. Uh,
everywhere around that time, so I mm-hmm.
Keep looking at, yeah. Yeah,
yeah. Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah. They really are. I think basically, yeah, that's too much. We'll take it back to everyone. Not, yeah. And what's the date for Most people can come, right? And you're making edits constantly to the site. You know, if, if you're making constant edits, then I think it is good to have like a care plan because you are changing layouts, you're changing different things, and, but I don't mean like just blogging.
If you're just adding blogs to your site, that's, that's fine. But if you're, yeah, what is it? We can figure out that structure, right? And then say like, give people two or three options. We can throw in the chat. Can you do this one? Maybe two. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's too bad. Yeah. Get a, um, mm-hmm. Um,
so,
right, right. Yeah. That's, that's the, like, kicker about those platforms is like, you have to keep paying Wix and you can't export your content anywhere else. You're gonna be copying and pasting that stuff somewhere, whereas WordPress Yeah, you can export all of it. You can change it to a different theme.
Yeah. It might look a little wonky, you know, but you'll, you'll, you know, fix it up and all of that. And Yeah. With our hosting and maintenance, we're, if anyone ever wants to come off of it, we'll transfer the site, no problem. Like, put it all, we'll switch it over to you, like, no problem. Um, because it's their site, you know, it's, it's their site.
They spent, they already paid us to help them make it. So not gonna It's yours. Yeah. Yeah. Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. But the reason, and this is sometimes, and probably like the last thing I just maintenance and care plans for WordPress sites. Like I think sometimes there's this like balking of the price of that and why should I have to be paying that?
Because you can see that Squarespace charges less, or Wix charges less or whatever, you know. But there are more moving parts to a WordPress site, and frankly, and I'm sure you feel the same way, I want your site to stay healthy and not hacked and not have it break and not have security issues, which are like.
I hacked, I've been through a hacked website. Like it is stressful as, I mean, the easiest thing is to just restore from a backup and then, you know, you're good to go. Um, yeah, yeah. Like don't worry about it. Just like, it's just forget it never happened and like, make, you know, make sure your, all your firewalls are good and all that, but change some passwords.
But, um, but it's, you know, we're doing this because Okay. We, I know that people don't do their software updates that they should on WordPress. They don't make sure that they have working backups. Um, and so it's like I just, it pains me to see someone have a site that they spent time on and then it gets outdated and, uh, in terms of software, not even like the content, just the back, back end of it.
Um, and then it's really hard sometimes to bring it up to date because if it's super old, like. You make one update, it breaks everything else, and then you have to do a stepwise and it costs more to, to go, you know, piece by piece. So we're, we're offering these plans because we care about your site and we wanna help you, and it does cost us money to do these things.
Um, you know, the,
the
15th uhhuh?
Yeah. Yeah. I think we
Right, right. We're preparing for it. Yeah. It's right.
Yeah. Um, so Right, right, right. Or stay away from them expertise and the Yeah, exactly.
Right. I think that that's kind, yeah. It's more than just, you know, uh, yeah. It's more than just hosting. It's, it's really keeping it, and, you know, we do the hosting for people and so we can also answer any hosting related questions that come up. And we're also looking at the resources being used on the sites and, you know, making adjustments and things like that, so, yeah.
Yeah. So you don't need to be worrying about those things. So Yes. Yes. That is the goal. We have enough to worry about as business owners. Yeah.
Okay. Well first off, you may not realize the power of a website for your business if you don't have one, or your current one was kind of like DIY with not much strategy behind it, but truly a, a well positioned website can make a lot of difference. It's just that possibility that you're not seeing yet.
So we, we've seen it both in our clients that once they put that better website out there, they had more clients coming in. They had more traffic coming in, more calls getting booked, people saying that their sales calls were going better because. People come on the call saying, I feel like I already know you.
Like they're already bought into you. So it makes every aspect of your business easier. It's just sometimes hard to see that because you're not seeing it right now. Um, but that's, that's one thing. Um, I'd also say that it's the, the branding on your website, but definitely that copy and making sure that you have just great words that are the words your customers are using.
Um, so if there's nothing else that you work with a designer on, or a copywriter or, you know, take away is like, make sure that that wording is good and that it's like you brought up a really great point about the sections of it. It's not just a long paragraph. No one's gonna read that. So. Need to be the, the right mix.
Um, and both of us help help our clients with, with figuring that out. Um, and then the final thing I would say the email marketing. If, if you're going to invest your time, um, which we all, especially when we're start getting started or trying to build some momentum, we have limited time. Rather than spending an hour every day posting on social, I would invest that time into creating a great lead magnet and then maybe getting a blog post out once a month that's been optimized, that has that lead magnet embedded within it.
And then trying to get that lead magnet and in, in, as in front of as many people as possible. So that's networking and going into Facebook groups and posting on social occasionally, but not burning yourself out. And then also realizing the reason I'm posting on social. Is to try and build my audience and get more people onto my email list.
So at least you have a strategy. And then getting, of course, having that, um, lead magnet on your website. Um, so as your email, as your website's being shared around, you're getting it that way. So yeah, I think those are my, my three things. Awesome. So one big house is definitely not gonna work. Yeah. Thank you.
So, uh, I mentioned it a few times, but, um, our, our course that, uh, is the way that I work with dieticians and nutrition business owners these days, it's called the dietician website system. It's a six, six week live course where my team and I do a lot of the tech for you, but then you focus on through watching modules, how to write that copy.
What's your strategy for your site based on. Advice I'd give you in terms of, um, depending on your services, how you want people to flow through your site, um, helping with the branding. We talk about email marketing, we talk about all the stuff that we just talked about today. So, um, do all of that. You get coaching calls and a community forum to answer questions, and then we get your website put together and launched in, in the six weeks.
So, um, it's a great way to really jumpstart or revise a website that you, um, had built a long time ago. Maybe it's not good anymore. Uh, so we'll be opening enrollment in, um, well our, we'll do our next cohort in January. We will be opening enrollment on Black Friday. So we'll be doing a Black Friday sale, um, for a big, big discount.
We'll be doing a thousand dollars off of the course, so it's going to be big. Um, so anyone who's interested, go to whitney bateson.com/dws for dietician website system. Uh, you can learn more about the course there. You can click to get on the wait list. So that way you'll be notified of the Black Friday sale and you'll get some emails in advance to learn more about it and what includes.
Um, and then the other thing that I have coming up right immediately is a workshop all about how to position your services, package your services and your pricing so that they sell better. And, um, 'cause we really, before we move into a website, we need to have our services in order. Um, and I know that can be a sticking point for a lot of people, whether you're getting started or you have current business, but your services are just like not really selling.
And so you're like, why am I gonna go work on a website when, you know, things are not working already? So, um, I'm going to lead people through some hands on, um, exercises to really get that mapped out. So that is happening on November 14th at 7:00 PM Eastern. So you can go to, um, it's called the planning Your Path to a 100 k plus nutrition business.
So the, um. URL will have it in the show notes, but it's whitney bateson.com/path to TO 100. Just number 100 K. So better, better in writing than than words, but, uh, you know, you'll, you'll figure it out. Um, and if anyone wants to connect with me on Instagram, I'm at Whitney Bateson. Uh, I share advice and uh, also all my travel stories and geckos, so many geckos.
Although I'll be in Japan. I'm going to Japan actually tomorrow night, so there's no, I don't think there's gonna be geckos in Japan. No. Just lots of sushi.
No, we would have, yeah. Yeah. Hopefully it'll be like for the best and not just like random gross things. Uh, so, okay. That's what we're gonna manifest, that they're gonna like put the crap out on the. Yes. Setting.
Yeah.
Ooh. Yeah. Oh, amazing. Yes. Such synergy.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Courtney. I had so much fun.