The Simple and Smart SEO Show

How Task and Content Planning Helps You Win the SEO Game

January 11, 2023 Crystal Waddell, Brittany Herzberg Season 1 Episode 34
The Simple and Smart SEO Show
How Task and Content Planning Helps You Win the SEO Game
Show Notes Transcript

Today we are talking content planning for 2023. Grab Crystal's free  content planning and task template.

It's a marketing calendar template in excel (Google Sheets) that's yours free as a listener of the podcast.

Happy New Year! Make it your own and get productive!

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1. How this conversation started: 

  • Crystal recognized the need to make sales calls and set aside time for client work.
  • She created an organized list of tasks for each day of the week.
  • We both feel it's important to set profit and revenue goals based on our experience with self-employment.

2. Crystal uses quarterly audits to analyze the progress of businesses.

  • A SWOT audit should be done every year (and updated quarterly).
  • SEO Audit should be done quarterly.
  • Etsy/Ecommerce and social media performance should be audited as well.

3. Productivity Tips: Batch create as much as possible.

  • Tailwind for Pinterest, Schedulers for Social media.
  • Get in "the zone" and avoiding distractions when working.
  • Try time blocking, setting aside a specific period to pay bills, celebrating successes, and improving workflows two times per month. 
  • Track Your mileage with MileIQ.

4. Seek to understand your clients and make connections with clients and peers.

  • Create monthly and daily tasks lists.
  • Incorporate UX activities to improve your customer's experience.

5. Make time for your own development.

  • Plan for conferences or courses you want to take.
  • Put time off in your calendar.


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This transcript has been machine-generated and has not been edited for errors.

So B and I were having a conversation about content planning for 2023, and we thought we should turn this into a podcast. So we did. So I hope you enjoy our conversation. Hello and welcome to the Simple and Smart SEO show Where we provide tips and advice to improve your website's search engine ranking. I'm Herberg SEO copywriter for Holistic health and Wellness Pros who want to show up as the answer to a Googled Question.

And I'm Crystal Waddell, an e-commerce seller and content creator. I help business owners communicate the value of their products and services through content so you can make more sales and grow your business. We are business besties who love learning and sharing what we've learned. So what are we waiting for? Let's jump in Right here. I'm the plan. The quarterly content focuses.

I've also been doing this where I'm like, okay, for this quarter, this is the product that I'm focusing on. I like that A lot. And so, but then I love what Brenna said about the, the prelaunch. And so like for collage and wood, we're always in prelaunch, essentially for something. Yeah. Because we're in prelaunch for a sport or we're in prelaunch for graduation.

So that's kind of an interesting way to look at it. And so I'm like, oh, that's how I will look at it from now on. And I haven't thought, and we can come back to it about that, that I've recently been tipped off to. Oh, no, go ahead. So I had a content planning session with Christina Hall last week,

and I know her through Elaney. She does all things social media. She's one of the people that I invited for 2023 podcast interviews about like figuring out which social media platform you should be focusing on with the SEO angle. But anyway, I had a one-to-one call with her and one of the things that she said, she was like, well, do you wanna be doing open cart close cart for the case study training?

And I was like, I mean, it's kind of something that it's hands off for me. I have Voxer, you know, messages that I'll need to attend or tend need to attend to. But other than that, it's kind of like self-sufficient. And I did that very intentionally. And she's like, well then maybe you could, if you wanna launch it once a quarter,

if you wanna launch it like once a month, meaning I could have like the first week of every month could be like, Hey, remember that case study training and do like a little pre-launch all the time. So yeah, I'm gonna kind of feel it out. I'm gonna do open cart, close cart this time, do open cart, close cart,

I think in March. And then from there, just kinda like work out any of the kinks and be really specific with like, this is what's going on and help me get data and testimonials and figure out what to tighten up. But yeah, so once a quarter or even once a month, you could just offer relaunches. And this is what Brandon said is like just putting that extra focus on whatever,

like drawing attention to it. Right, right. I Like This. Okay, well, so then the next one is setting profit and revenue goals. Because I learned this from Jamie Troll, you know, like you just gotta know your money, you know? Yep. And like I'm so excited because I got my final paycheck from Collagen Wood this year and I'm like,

okay, okay. We made it, we made it through a full cycle, a full year of being self-employed. Yeah. And this is what my numbers are. And so now I, I have a very realistic picture of what this looks like without an additional income. Because one thing I'm realizing a lot of people have an additional income, you know,

like Yeah, they do. There's a lot of side hustles going on, even at the most shiny top, whatever, you know what I mean? And I just had a, I just had a client, I'm not gonna drop her name, but just had a client that was like that and I was shocked. I was like, oh my gosh,

what? You know? And I tried to keep my things Neutral. That's the person that you and I talked about, Right? Maybe. I think so. Okay. It doesn't matter. Yeah. But I had that happen recently too, with another client who's very well known. And it's interesting when you realize that, yeah, they're not just doing this one thing and I'm not sure,

I'm curious if it's because of money, like financial reasons, or if it's just like, I'm multi-passionate and I like doing this, this, and this. And like it gives him an outlet for all those things. Cuz I can relate to that. Yeah. I think it's a combination of both, for sure. Yeah. Because I know for her,

she was like, you know, this opportunity came along and it was like me with teaching, you know, I had a really great teaching opportunity. It came along, was super flexible that was still gonna let me, you know, have an e-commerce store. So it's like, well, why not? You know, then you get benefits and all of those,

you know, things that are, you are just so comforting to have, you know, with a job. Right. And you still get to do what you really wanna do. I mean, it's like a win-win until you can't breathe, then you can't do it all. You know what I mean? So, yeah. Yeah. I can totally see both sides of that coin.

Okay. So, you know, and part of the strategic plan is doing a SWAT audit every year, and I already do that as well. And then this profit by product audit, I think maybe it kind of goes with this profit and revenue goals. Yeah, that's probably the same thing. Just like a part part of it. Yeah. So I think I'll take that out because it's already right there.

And then of course an SEO audit, an O like it needs to be done quarterly, but you know, at the start of the year it's like, okay, so I even did an SEO audit for myself and I did it just like we do for other people. And so, you know, I'll, I've got the actual data right there, you know,

so that I can, my little notebook and I can do it again in March and compare, you know? Yeah. Cause I look at it so often, you know, it's like, okay, but I need actual comparisons. You know? So, and then that's also an audit of an Etsy store or whatever type of, you know, other e-commerce type thing.

You have a social media audit like, because it's like, okay, look at this start of the year. What does your social media look like? You know, like I've never really tracked it. Like I can see over time it's grown and you know, I've taken a lot of screenshots over the years, but I've never actually written it down. Like,

okay, this is how many, how many, how many? Right. I Like that a lot. Yeah. And then from all that, actually making some goals, identifying which conferences I wanna go to and when. Right. And even with Ley, you could speak at Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. Make sure. And that might come up with your SWAT analysis,

but that's something webinars, conferences, I have had it, it was my intention. It was something that Britney Bean told us about when I was going through her program. And she was like, look at what other speaking opportunities, because that's where the premium clients are gonna be. That's where the people that she's encouraging us, you know, we go through her program,

we're looking to build a premium copywriting business. So the p the people that we want, the clients that we want aren't on social media really. They're mostly going to conferences, attending webinars, they're listening to podcasts, they're doing stuff like that. So it's like, where can you find those speaking opportunities and like, what do you wanna even talk about?

But I feel like that might be part of your, you could file it under conferences or you could file it under SWAT too. That is so awesome. Thank you for that. You're welcome. The other thing that I, this is what I really wanted to tell you. I didn't, well, no, I thought of it, I looked for it,

but I didn't really find the stuff. The stuff started finding me. So I had people that came to me like, Meg came to me, Hey, will you create a sales page training? Sure. I had people come to me to speak in their Facebook groups, their paid Facebook groups inside their programs. So it might be stuff that you find,

but even just you kind of like thinking that way and putting that out there. You'll probably have people start approaching you. Yeah. And you do such a wonderful job of networking. I mean that's definitely a, like a, on a, a weakness on my SWAT is that I have really turtle shelled on the internet. Yeah. You know, and it's like I'm good at putting stuff out,

but I also, you know, have a small lower capacity for relationships than I used to. So that's, that's a really interesting thought because yeah, networking needs to be a part of that as well. Like intentional. Right. And you can figure out whatever that looks like for you, because that my version of it may not be what you want it to be.

So like you'll figure out your, whatever works for You. Okay. So I'm just gonna put, you know, ad networking because that needs to be like a, a bimonthly task or something. So I can add it to the spreadsheet afterwards. Well, You've got the mini mind in January, so you've already got one. Yeah, that's true. Yep.

See, look at, you're already doing it, Man. B thanks girl. This is crazy. Okay. Okay. And so then for each quarter, these are all the things that I wanna do at the first of the quarter. Or if I was doing it for a client, this is what I would do for them. Hmm. You know,

so it's like review or do that content audit in surfer and then create the graphics for social. Yeah. And then create the, the words for social. Have Jasper just integrated that chat, G P T or whatever that thing is. Yeah. Yeah. People Are freaking out about it. And I'm like, guys, it's a tool. It's not like,

it's good. There's a purpose for it, there's a time and place for it, but it's not gonna replace people. Like people still have to implement it or make it better or whatever. And it's just so funny cuz people are like, ah, Can I share with you my favorite tip for using that tool or any tool like that. It's about the questions that you ask it,

you know, and like, you know, how you say you wanna show up as the answer to a Google question? Well, it's the same idea here. It's like if you don't know what you want it to say, or at least how you want it to come out, you know, like what question you're trying to answer be an authority for the output is not gonna be as good as if you do.

You know what I mean? So it's like, it's more about framing better questions for the AI than expecting it to write well for you. Great. And that goes into even a human interacting with another human. Cause something that's coming up a lot with like frequently asked question, with the case study training, it ha has been like, what questions do I ask in an interview?

And even you and I had this conversation and I just listened to a podcast that I did with Dolly DeLonge where it was, instead of being really broad with like, you know, do you ha could you write a testimonial about working with me? I could, but I'm immediately gonna follow that up with like, what do you want me to highlight? So instead of like having that back and forth exchange,

the person me, I can go to my client and say, Hey, what, like, what wins have you had since working with me? I could start there. Or like, what did you love about working with me? Or even start with what do you want? What would, what would've made it the experience even better? Because then yeah,

you're giving them something specific, they're gonna go there and they're gonna expand on it. So yeah. Just anyway, asking better questions. Yeah. That is so helpful too, because I need to go, I, I had a client who said, Hey look, I'll do a testimonial for you, but after talking to you and like hearing all about case studies and stuff and you know,

just all the things you've said over the years, I was like, I need to be real specific with, you know, my question to say, you know, because what do I want her to tell people? You know, what do people need to hear in order for them to feel comfortable working with me? You know? Yeah. And I,

yeah, I think that showed up for me with mis with my massage clients because I, I just had conversations with people and I had so many snippets that the way my brain works, I would have these conversations with people and then after their session was over and they went home, I was jotting down notes about what they said. And then I'm also remembering it when like the next client comes in and says something about whatever,

I can say, oh, you know, I heard recently that so-and-so either get acupuncturist or, oh, have you tried this thing? Like, someone just told me that it worked for them or anything. So that was, I was able to take that, put it on my website. And when, when I was doing massage therapy only, I was attributing the,

the testimonial to like initials. So if it was you, it was like cr, if it was me, it was bh because I wanted to protect hipaa. I hadn't asked them if I could use this, but it was stuff that came up in conversation and I still wanna use it, but I'm getting off on a testimonial tangent, I can Talk.

Yeah, no, I love it. It's so awesome. So, okay, so the idea here is just in the, in the quarterly responsibilities, it's like, okay, we have to review everything and make sure that everything's set up for the quarter, you know, and that includes using tools like Tailwind. I'm back on the tailwind train by the,

you are, by the way, if I hadn't told you that, you hadn't Oh, uploaded. Oh, uploading to Pinterest manually, Yeah. Is a time suck and a drain, you know, and it was just, you know, you know, it's not something that I want to spend every week doing. You know, especially if I have a quarterly plan,

I'd rather just mass produce the images over in Canva, mass produce the, the text using Jasper and uploading it, upload it to the tailwind and set it and forget it. Yeah. And that's the thing, like you gotta figure out whatever works for you, go over here. Yeah. And I've noticed, and with, again, with what Brenna was talking about with the pre-launch,

it matches up with what happens on Pinterest with just regular pins. You know, three months from now is about the time that a pin, a regular pin is going to get indexed by Google. So it's like, if I have a plan and I have it, you know, uploaded and ready to go, it's gonna be picking up steam by then,

you know, and then whichever one has really picked up steam, I can turn into an ad, you know, for that really hot timeframe over there on Pinterest. Right. And I can make it work like that, you know. And then in the meantime, I do have a weekly task of an idea pin. You know, just one idea pin a week.

Yeah, okay. So it's like, okay, I'm still, you know, using the platform in the way that they want, you know, but as a e-commerce seller, both, both Crystal waddell.com and collagen wood.com have products on Pinterest. So there's also that element of Searchie know. So yeah, feel pretty confident about that over on Pinterest. I just think that having the content in place in time will make it,

you know, better for running ads. So that's my goal there. That's good. I, I have a question for you about Pinterest. So the way that I, I had a conversation recently, I can't remember who it was with, but we were talking about how reels, I use them more to like get in front of new people. So I use that kind of like a lead gen arm and then any kind of like static posts or regular posts and even stories,

I use them more as nurturing, like nurturing the people who are, are there. So it's like I get more people in with reels and then I'm giving them stuff and talking to them and nurturing them. Do you feel like with Pinterest, the idea pins, the short little snippet video things, do you feel like that is similar to reels in that it's helping you with lead gen or something that's even coming to my brain as I'm saying this is like every,

is everything with Pinterest just getting you in front of more eyeballs or what do you think? Yeah, I think that both are legion, what do you call it? Vehicles, but idea pens for sure are more like reels in terms of legion, because that's the thing that Pinterest pushes out to people. Got it. So more people are likely to see an idea pin than are just like a static pin or whatever.

But Pinterest in general is just that platform that is about making people aware of what they want. Like I asked this one girl who bought a, a collage for a boyfriend from me, and I was like, how'd you find me? And she said, I, I didn't even know what I wanted. She was like, I knew I wanted something for my boyfriend for senior night.

And she was like, I saw your poster or whatever. And she was like, that's it. That's perfect. What a story. Yeah. So that's Pinterest. That's awesome. Okay, cool. Yeah, because like I said, as I was asking you that I was like, well maybe everything over there, because Pinterest is like, my brain is thinking of it with Linda Sadu knows the disk personalities and working with her and just being involved in all the stuff that she's involved in,

I have realized that like I D I S C, the I personality is much more like the networker. And I'm a pretty high I, but I'm also a pretty high S, which is like nurturing, taking care of everyone. If I'm at a party, like I'm make, if I'm hosting a party, I'm making sure that like every possible drink combination is there.

So everybody has what they want, but I'm also gonna like go around and make sure everybody's having a good time. And Pinterest, to me, in my head, in my brain, just like, feels like that I personality platform where it's like, go meet this person. Go over here to like, they're the master networkers. And that's what Pinterest feels like because they're just like,

go off meet all these people. Have you thought about this? Look at this thing. And your story matches up perfectly with that theory. Well, you know what I'm gonna say that sounds like a great podcast episode. We totally do that. Yeah, we should, we've Invited, yeah, we've invited Linda on and maybe what maybe what you and I can do is like ask her some questions,

ask some of the other social platform people that we've got coming on some questions and then we can kind of like make our, make our guesses. Yeah. And then have Come back on and tell us if we're Right or wrong. Yeah, no, I love it because I have this thing where I'm like, I believe social media can function as an employee,

like an extension of your business. Yeah, It really should. And I think you were the one that said that. And I was like, duh. Of course. Because it is like, and, and I, I think that makes sense with how I use it too, because I go and hang out over there and what would I do if I had employees?

I would be buddying up, I would be hanging out. Work would not get done because I would people He Scott with more Tennis go walk around do with work on That's better hair. No. Yes. And better hair for sure. Yeah. So that's really interesting though. You know, because it, it's crazy how you can make such alignment with each thing.

You know, you can align it to personality traits, you can align it to job titles. You can, you know, it's just, And that's just so fun how my brain works. So hearing other people, other people's takes, it's like, oh yeah. Or, or yeah, realizing that oth other people see it too. It's cool. I was the kid in school,

like a side note, I was the kid in school. Like I remember one semester so vividly, I was in high school and I was taking world, what was it? Like world religions. So it was like all these religions. I was taking that class, I was taking calculus, I was taking a history. I had six courses, history,

chemistry, two other ones, it doesn't matter. My brain is so interesting. And also kind of like weird because I found a through line for all of those courses. I couldn't tell you what it is right now, but it kept me engaged in those classes. Yeah. It, it was just so you're nodding like you, you know what I mean?

You, Oh yeah, no, I, I know exactly what you're talking about. Because you found alignment, you found something that connected from one to the other and how you could, you know, just essentially make the connection between each one of them. And that made it more interesting because yeah, understanding one more deeply helped you see the other one from a different perspective and understand it more deeply.

And yeah, my brain works the exact same way. Yes. Because as I, I was thinking just like we were talking a minute ago about it aligning with, you know, employee roles and but also relates to content and a funnel. You know, like, so I'm always looking for those associations in education, there's a concept called prior knowledge and it's a,

a piece of teaching technique or whatever where you want to associate prior knowledge with whatever new thing your introducing. And that always connected with me because obviously you have prior knowledge about this one thing and you hear about this new thing and you're like, oh, they kind of work in the same way and make those associations and connections and yeah. So I totally get it.

I think, do I get it? Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I should not be surprised that we understand that cuz here we are really. Yeah, exactly. I think that's what brought us together. It's like our desire to understand and make connections, you know? I mean I think it really comes down to that.

Okay, so now back to the monthly task. All of everything that's in the green is the same. You know, it's, you know, Pinterest, making sure those things are done. And obviously if I got it done in the quarterly section, those things can be removed and then I can focus on other green tasks, you know, and then handling the emails,

scheduling the emails monthly, staying on top of profit loss. You know, cuz I did that really well through the first two and a half quarters and business was booming and I somehow it kind of slipped in the fourth quarter, which was surprising for me, but I also wasn't paying as close attention to it. And I say one of the most re important reasons for that,

like paying attention is because of spending on the other side. So if you're not meeting those profit projections, then you also have to cut back on the spending side. So Yeah. You know, and then the UX task, that's just really making sure that the user experience is good. I have two major failures in this that could I tell you about.

I can believe that. Yeah. Tell me that. And then I wanna go back to the profit and loss, but tell me about your Ux. Okay, well, with Pinterest ads first was last year I was selling these giant 22 photo props. Yeah. Like number 22. They were amazing. I had that most amazing picture of this really like athletic dude in his graduation cap.

I mean, that ad was killing it on Pinterest, right. Driving so much traffic. Well, guess what I forgot to do? Wow. I forgot to make sure that that ad went back to that specific product page. Oh. And for some reason it wasn't, it was going somewhere else. I mean, it was somewhere like related. But if I like that product and I like that picture and I wanted to recreate that in my own life,

and then I click on it, right. And then I have to go on this wild goose chase to find it, I'm gone. You know, so I, and I was spending money on ads, so not only was I frustrating the leads that were coming through, I was also just losing sales because I could have easily served it right up. Like,

oh, you like it, here it is. You know what I mean? So that was mistake number one. And mistake number two was also with an ad. So you think Crystal, go back and check your landing page girl, you know, but well Now, you know. Right. Like, Yeah, now I know. And hopefully this helps you as well.

And so these are, these are user experience tasks that I'm talking about to just go back and check, make sure these links are working because I was running an ad for my volleyball collage, which is the other big thing that a lot of people like over on Pinterest. So I had this Facebook ad running and it was doing great. I mean, I'm getting engagements on it that are shares people are sharing.

I got like a hundred shares on that baby. Wow. It was amazing. Yeah. So anyway, I go to, I actually had somebody running a UX design thing on my site. I was just watching them use it and you know, try to order something. Yeah. On that page there was an air, there was a place where you had to upload the photos and if you don't upload the photos,

you can't buy the thing. And so what was the problem though is that's a separate app and it had applied that twice. So there was two places where you're supposed to upload the photos and if you didn't do both of them, it wouldn't let you add to cart. And that ad had been running for weeks. Weeks, oops. Learning opportunity. Yeah.

I was gonna say too, like, not even just you going back and using your own website and like poking around, but also having, you've done this or you've had people go do it. Yeah. And you watch them, but you can also just ask them, Hey, would you go do this? And then let me know what you notice.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Because like they're the ones that are really gonna be able to tell you what what's what. Yeah. And if they're kind of good at tech, you know, if they could record it, that'd be so great. Be without you there. Yeah. Just because I can tell that when I'm watching people like, Hey, do you like it?

Do you like it? Do you like it? You know, I mean, people have also a feeling of, I don't wanna say anything rude, right. Because I know this is your, your website, so you know, you have to think about that as well. But whatever you have, you know, run with it. Because even a friend,

just looking it over is better than, you know, not having anybody look it over and missing some of these things. So. Exactly. Okay. So to go back to the prophet loss stuff, you like Jamie tr I like Jamie Troll. I've also been reading a book by t Tiffany Aliche called Get Good With Money. I think I've told you about it.

But she is saying the way that she is saying stuff is like definitely what and how I need to hear things because she's talking about, she's, she's getting into like the mindset and the, like the emotional and like, just like the belief and like the stuff that people have around money. And it's good. And it's the things that I need to hear because I noticed that in 2020 when I was stuck at home and I wasn't making money,

I stopped doing a budget and I never really picked it up again. And that was not good. But I, I just wanted to put it in a closet, ignore it, because it was really upsetting to me and I felt like I had failed and really I hadn't, but I, I just like couldn't get past that. So working through this book with her,

I'm working through some of those like mindset and belief things. So I just wanna like put that out there that if you or whoever, anybody else needs to like, work through some stuff, that's, that's been really helpful for me. It's called Get Good With Money. Okay, awesome. If we ever make this into a podcast, we could link to it and show notes.

I know, I'm, I'm, I'm like anticipating that it'll go live at some point because this is good. Yeah. Yeah. It's really fun to talk about. And it was, it was almost cathartic to write it down, even though it looks like a lot. It's like, it's cathartic. It's like, for me, I'd like to be able to check things off a list,

you know? Yeah. So it's like, show me the monster so I can see what I'm fighting and Okay, now Good. I did that. It's, it's, and you and I had this conversation because we were talking about, I think we were talk, you were sharing about like ADHD tendencies of like, you'll get to a project and you just like won't,

I think I had this conversation with several people, but I relate to it for sure. I haven't been diagnosed with anything, but right now I have a giant client project. I have two other projects coming up very soon. And I've got my training, I haven't made the training yet. I haven't even really tackled the client work, which I've been sitting on for now,

like two and a half weeks. But, but she's also slammed. So when I told her like, Hey, I haven't touched this. She's like, I can't, like you're good. I can't. I was like, perfect. But instead of continuing to feel paralyzed for whatever reason, and I honestly don't know why or what's going on, I could,

I could go sit with that, but I, I would just rather like do stuff. So I took it and I made a, a master, there's like a master to-do list for the training. I listed out all of my done for you client projects that are coming up and I'm gonna break those down even further so that I know what's coming up and like what exactly I need to tackle.

So seeing this for me is great because I'm like, yeah, and even if hypothetically not putting this out there for you, but hypothetically, even if you only tackle like half these things, at least you tackled half of 'em. Right. And it feels good when you have a plan because it's like if you tackle half these things, you know that you tackled half your strategy.

Like it was strategic things, so it wasn't just like random, I got this done. Woohoo. But you can actually say, these are gonna have an impact on my business one way or another. Right. These are supporting the strategy that I created, so I'm making progress. Exactly. And that's all you can really ask for. And then, and then at least too,

like if you are the person like me who tends to beat themselves up about whatever you can, you know, this is how I could approach next month better, this is what I could do next quarter. And maybe it's just something like you've had before with your heart stuff, you know, and I've had migraines, maybe it's just a matter of like,

life happened, I had a health thing. Yeah. Really sucks, but I was able to get blah, blah blah, blah. Done. And that's great. Right, right, right. I'll get off. Yeah. I'm thinking that I could probably even add that the swat, you know, just reviewing the SWAT and you know, every quarter because it's like,

okay, then you can kind of see like what's realistic, what's not, you know, what's threatening your ability to be able to get those things done. So yeah. So those are like a list of the monthly things that I definitely wanna make sure that I touch on and touch on for clients. And you know, this is the best thing I think just because like working for other people,

you have to be able to demonstrate what you're doing, you know? Yeah. And it's rare that we take the time to write it down for ourselves. Yeah. So, you know, now I can say, Hey, this is what I offer, you know, this is what you're gonna get if you work with me. You know? Yeah.

On That note. And so you were talking about you have to be able to demonstrate stuff next year? The No, no, the biggest thing that I'm gonna be doing is doing case studies for the blog posts because I, I like case studies are my jam. So if I focus on sharing those and sharing what that can look like, then I can also like take that and repurpose it.

Because I can talk about it on social media. I can go and do like little green screen where I've got like my little face and I'm talking about what I did, all of that stuff. So yeah, that's gonna be my strategy and I'm gonna make myself do it. And I don't care if it's long or short and I can always go back and optimize it,

but I just need to like crank out some content. So that's, that's gonna be my goal. Yeah. And that's all very meta and it's, that's No, no, no. That's the crazy thing. And I don't know if you can relate to this too. It's like right now what you're doing as content is really, really valuable. Like,

I feel like I'm gonna go and record myself talking about some of the even more painful lessons that I've learned this year. And yeah. Some of the things that I'm not quite so proud of that I'm not quite ready to share, you know, like it gets worse than running those ads to the wrong landing page people. You're so not alone in that.

And, and whenever you do get to the point where you're willing to share that, you're not alone in that and you're gonna make someone else go, oh, thank goodness. Like it wasn't just Me. Yeah, right. But it's like I wanna get to the other side of it and so, you know, I wanna document it so that when I do get to the other side of it,

I can share it. But every my point here, I guess is just that everything's moving so fast. So, you know, I really do believe like the best days are ahead of both of us and probably all of us who are in online business. I'm, the longer that I'm hanging around in this virtual world, I'm realizing it's the people who stay and push through that make it,

because it's the relationships that you make along the way with the people who stay that kind of pushes everything forward. So that's really encouraging and inspiring. But, you know, I just wanted to point that out because there, there's gonna come a time in the future where the people who need your services or my services are gonna need where we're at right now.

Yeah. And so it's really important to document it, even though it's hard, even though it's embarrassing, you don't have to share it. Sure. But yeah. Or share it. Be like, oh, I'm an open book, I'm just, just not ready yet. That's okay though. That's okay. Like, there's things in my life that you know about that I'm not ready to talk about,

but I will one day. Yeah. So yeah, like there's, there's all kinds of stuff. No. So it's like once you have like a strategy, you can assess yourself against the strategy, talk about what you've learned, what you haven't learned, and put it into practice like what bee's talking about so that you're doing it while you're talking about it.

And it gives you, it gives you an even bigger launching point, you know? So I don't know, that was kind of jump. It gives you No, but it gives you the behind the scenes content. It gives you stuff you can repurpose, it gives you stuff you can talk about. And then you have data that you can talk about.

So it like Right. I'm excited cuz it's, it's, and I'll be learning stuff that I'll be able to help other people with. Buddy friend, what are you doing with your life? When is happening? Desi's finally inside on the couch, but, okay, so then it comes down to the two times a month tasks, which, you know,

we're monitoring and fixing technical SEO issues, double checking credit card balances and document, which goes back to that money mindset thing. You know, when things are not going well, I have the tendency, like you said, to just kind of, eh, I'm gonna put that in the closet and look at it later, you know? Yep. But again,

by doing so, you're missing out on the opportunity to still come out on top because if you can manage your spinning or cut back on certain things for a while, you still can, you know, even it out by the end of the year. But if you don't look at it, you have the opportunity to make changes. Yeah. So that's something I need to do.

And I put it on the list because it can get pushed to the side. I hear that. Yep. Yep. And so then the, the next two things are obviously are, you know, paying bills and making like a couple days to do that. You know what I mean? Because I tend to have like 50,000 tabs open at a time.

And yes, I feel like I work pretty well like that, but I know that I also work really well when I'm in a zone, you know, and I can't get into his zone. Just like John was watching this baseball documentary the other day about this amazing baseball world series game. It was like the final game. And the guy was like,

I was in the zone for one of the first times in my life. And you know, when you're just in that, you know, you know, like yeah. Whether you're working or whether you're playing a sport, it's like, you know, like you cannot be stopped in that moment. And it's like the best feeling in the world. The worst thing in the world is when you stop yourself because you got,

you get, let yourself get distracted by something else. You know? So really trying to Spending time like beating yourself up and spiraling. Yeah, exactly. So I guess it's essentially a little bit like time blocking, but I wanna just set aside, these are the times I'm gonna pay the bills, period. Yep. You know, and that way I can focus on work other times.

And anything negative around money will stay in its little spot, you know, and not, And you can give it a spot. Yeah, Yeah. Unless it's great. And then I wanna celebrate it and look at my bank account every day and be like, you know, so, cause there's been times like that too, you know? Yeah. I'm like,

what, this is great. I got this and I got this and I got this. Yeah. And then the last thing is like, two times a month I wanna work on improving a workflow. What do you think about that? I like that a lot. I like that a lot Because I doing That, I feel like you do that a lot anyway,

so I could See that happening. I do, again, I've gotta put it in a box, you know, to like make it a habit. Yeah. And you know, like kind of make a list and say, okay, these are the workflows that I wanna improve. And then, you know, when it's time for that particular task or whatever,

I have another list that I can work through. Say, okay, I'm gonna work on this particular workflow, you know, one thing Or this piece of the workflow. Yeah. One thing I think that is a huge opportunity for us is that once someone has an audit, you know, or, or even the private podcast, you know, it's like following,

setting up a system where we're following up with them in a meaningful way. You know, because again, like I was talking to somebody the other day when I was doing an audit for them it's like, it's so much information, but are you implementing it? You know? And, and I think I was, I think it was a page fly webinar that I was watching and the guy said from the beginning,

he said, look, if you don't do anything with this, then that's, that's the worst thing that you could do. You know, just not just listening and not doing anything. So I actually, after he told us the first thing, actually paused the video and went and spent three hours doing the thing he just told us to do. You know what I mean?

Wow. Because that's how I roll no time, like the present. Right? Yeah. Which is good though, because then you're motivated, you're getting the information and you can just like knock it out. That's great. Yeah. But if people aren't able to do it in the present, it's like, oh, how can we, you know, meaningfully follow up and this goes for any of us,

you know, like any, anything in our business that we do to help somebody else. Like how can we follow up? Yeah. I have something. So actually just this week I had someone get my, no, I had someone get my SEO checklist. And in that email sequence, what I have is email where it links to a video that walks me,

walks me, it's me walking them through the checklist and like how to use it. And I send it, I think out of five emails. I think it might be email three or four where it's just like a, Hey, remember this thing is over here and here, let me show you how to use it. Awesome. The, the lady wrote back and she was like,

that was so smart. I instantly went and looked at it and used it and like, that was so smart. I'm so glad that you put that in there. And I was like, it's doing its job. This is great. Yeah. So Yes, having those strategic touchpoints of, you know, th this could really help them to, to follow through with it.

Oh honey. So yeah. I, I like that idea. Yeah. Strategic touchpoints. I love how you come up with like the really cool words for stuff like that. Happy writer. That's true. Good job. Okay, so we're now getting down to like the actual weekly task. And this is like blogging, podcasting, creating the Pinterest idea pin for me.

I love to learn. So I wanted to make sure that I left time for like ongoing education. Yeah. Because I am constantly trying to find out new stuff about whatever, also personal time because Yeah. You know, if I don't schedule it, it's not happening. And then going back to YouTube, managing QuickBooks, double checking QuickBooks and Mile iq.

So that's for anybody who drives for your job. There's this app I love called Mile iq. And dude, I don't know, I don't know if I have an affiliate code. I don't think I do. But this app's amazing. It's kind of like the one that's in QuickBooks where if you drive somewhere it tracks it but it, you know, is something that you can export really easily and send to your accountant with all your drives through your business drives or whatever.

So that was a mistake that I made in 2021 because after 2020, you know when we didn't drive a whole lot of places, right. You have to use that in a habit of using Stuff. Yeah. I uninstalled it and then I realized for my taxes last year, I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't track my mileage. And I thought,

oh I'll just do it. No, I am not, that's not happen. I Done that. I actually, but this is part of why I like having a paper planner because I've always done my mileage by hand. Cause I always forget when I get in the car. I'm just, when by the time I get in the car I have put too much on my plate historically and I'm just like,

I gotta get where I'm going. And I completely forget to try and look thing on. So what I do is, I know when I went to the office, like for massage therapy, I know when I went to the officer, me and you going to WeWork, I know how many miles I know where I was. I know if I went there and left for lunch and came back,

like I know all of that stuff. So is it extra? Yes. But that's part of what I like about having the paper planner. Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. And I just ordered a planner. I can't wait to show it to you. It was a A D H D planner that was off of Etsy. Oh yeah. I can't,

and one thing I noticed about her planner pages was it was kind of like this how we're looking at multiple dimensions of responsibilities and the pages. Like there were some pages that were like this wide and then there were other pages that were like this wide neat. So it almost reminded me of like, okay, this is like a monthly task list. Yeah.

And I can flip it over and see the weekly or whatever. That's cool. So that's what I'm assuming. It's like when I get it I'll let you know it's on its way. So yeah. Lemme know. You know I love me planners. Yeah, if you like it, I'll get you one too. Aw, thanks. Yeah. So,

okay. So yeah, those are all the things that weekly need to touch on. And then twice a week we talked to Selena about posting to LinkedIn, you know, for the podcast. I think about it for my e-commerce business, I think about it for myself personally on my LinkedIn profile. So it's like, okay, technically there could be like three different pages to post to.

But the idea here is that I'm, you know, really strategically taking things from a website and bringing over to LinkedIn and committing to posting those twice a week. Maybe I'll do it once a week. You know, if just start there out. Yeah, that's, but then these other, What she said is like, start here and ramp up if you want to.

Right. I tend to like skip the ramp and just try to like do some sort of superman jump to The, and I think that's why we fall on our faces because we're like, this is gonna be fine. Yeah. No it's not Like that hurt, The hurt really bad. Excuse me while I Recover from my broken back. But then we stop because Yeah,

we do, We back Too far because your back is broken and you need time to heal and then you never get back on the whatever you fell off of. Yeah. Cuz it's scary. Nobody wants two broken backs. I actually have a friend who broke her back so Twice. No, she only did it once. Oh, Little firecracker though. Yeah.

Yeah, she okay. She's good. She's totally good. Okay. Like I, I only know that she broke her back cuz she's also a massage client and I'm like, what? Okay. All right. Because I'm like, I'm smiling but I'm like, okay. No, she's good, she's good. I wouldn't have even brought it up if she wasn't good,

but yeah. Okay. I figured, I figured Beth, you know, just in case this does go public one day, how to clarify that. Like she's fine. We are Not laughing at anybody. She laughs at herself. It's all good. Yeah. Okay. So, and then that other thing that Selena talked about was like connecting with people,

you know. Yeah. For anybody who doesn't know, if this isn't a video, which it probably is not a video, if anything it'll be a podcast. There's, we have dogs Around and dogs everywhere. These, these dogs sitting in addition to having her own dog jack. So the other dog is loving the camera. Now my dog woke up Maggie,

like she, she has the most human facial expressions and it's hilarious cuz she'll like give you the side eye like, Yeah, I'm losing that's side-eye, that's, yeah, Desi's good special side eye. Yeah. Jack kinda does it, but he's more like, I'm judging you. Like what's going on over There. Yeah. I don't know if you can hear,

but that's Actually happening. Weird sundown is my dog drinking water so I can't hear it. Okay. So, you know, making sure that we engage with people for 30 minutes. That's gonna be interesting for me because I've never really engaged on LinkedIn. I've shared a couple posts here and there and I've made a comment, but never really intentionally, it's just been very random.

So I'm kind of excited to see what I found impact that's actually gonna have over On, I've done it and I've done it like maybe more like 15 minutes or 20 minutes or something like that. After I'll post and then I'll kind of hang out and see what else exists. The more that I do that, the more it's showing me stuff that I actually like interacting with.

And that was one of my biggest complaints was like, I don't wanna see, there's kind of like the typical post that you see on LinkedIn and I was like, I don't wanna see that again. Like, I'm good. Yeah. But the more that I interact with the stuff that I like the algorithm, duh. Like the algorithm is like, oh,

okay, here you go. And then what do I do? I hang out longer. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. Because like, like you said, I'm not really loving, like what I see on LinkedIn, I'm kinda like this whatever, for whatever reason, these things aren't interesting to me. And I don't know like who I'm connected with that it's showing me whatever's showing me,

but don't have, have a clue. Yeah. But I guess if I go show the computer what I'm interested in, then the computer, I'll have a better idea. Right. It makes sense. But yeah, it just, it takes, it does take a little bit of time investment. No, you're fine. I can't really hear her. I see your face.

Okay. And she's like having trouble with her food over there. I'm like, oh gosh. But okay, so here's something that is probably the most important thing. Yes. And that is making sales calls. You're gonna do calls. Tell me more about this. Okay. Outreach. Okay. So, you know, we've talked about this before. Collage wood.com,

I sell photo props. One of the big SEO learnings that I've had recently, I don't even know if I told you this, was because I did some UX with research with photographers and they were looking at my site, they were pointing out that like, if you're the type of senior photographer that goes out on site, you know, like to the mountains or in the middle of a field or whatever,

you're already taking a lot of equipment. So it's not likely that you're gonna wanna also take a bunch of giant photo props with you. You know? Right. I mean, it's just hard to carry. That's a, I don't know what, just a realistic example of why that's not gonna work very well. So having said that, I then recognize the fact that most of my images,

like from the professional photographer that I used to shoot the, are from studios. I mean, he is a, they have a giant studio. They're studio photographers. And so there's a difference between photo props and senior photo props and you know, studio posing props. Yep, yep. So opportunity. Yeah. So that's my, yeah. So that's my new target and that's who I wanna call,

call and make sales calls to, you know, every week, twice a week, just con contacting the studios, you know, and set aside 30 minutes or whatever, how, you know, if I need longer, great. But if I, I'm gonna start with 30 minutes because this is really outside my comfort zone. Yeah, I'm with you.

No, I get it. I have a friend who does a lot of cold calling, if you want me to put you in touch with it. She does it and she's like super confident with it and she's made a career off it, so Yeah. You need someone to talk to to, she's your girl. Yeah, I probably would love to talk to her.

I do have, it's A broken back one calling. Yeah. Oh really? Gosh, she is really coming up today. There must be a reason. She is. I just, I hung out with her yesterday. Oh wow. Okay. So top of mind. All right. In very top three times. There's a reason. But yeah, I used to sell yellow page advertising.

Oh no. So yeah, so I had to cold call on the phone. I had to like walk into businesses or whatever. I love talking to businesses and I, I don't mind cold calling when I know what the, you know, in-game is, you know, I wasn't as confident. That's good with Yellow Pages because I hadn't worked there long enough.

Cuz I just show up and be like, you wanna buy an ad? You know, like, Well this is also something you care about and you've created so you're more probably invested in It. Yeah, yeah. Which has its own pros and cons. But yeah, so, so I feel like that's gonna be, that's a huge opportunity. That's a big one in the opportunity column there.

And then for crystal waddel.com and just improving, you know, our SEO services and stuff. You know, really engaging with those types of clients on Instagram. Yeah. And then two times a week making time for client work. Client work and then also the audits that we're doing. So, you know, those are the the things that I really wanna focus on,

making sure I've got time for twice a week. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. Is there anything else you would add? I think for me, if I was looking at this for myself, like I would need more time for the client work. And something that I'm trying to get better about is, and maybe this will help you, is that when I'm feeling overwhelmed,

I'm learning, I've been giving a lot of research and listening to stuff about like the masculine and feminine energy and like polarity and stuff like that and how it shows up in my friendships, in my relationship, in my work. And just like in life. And when I'm feeling overwhelmed instead of buckling down and forcing myself to finish a task, I need to walk away.

Yeah. I need to go for a walk. I need to go like cuddle with my dog. I need to go, you know, out for like a random date or something. Like I just need to walk away. And that is hard for me because I think it's more of a masculine trait to want to force yourself to sit down and just like power through it and just stay focused and you got this.

And I, I don't know if that was what was modeled to me. I don't know if that was what like, just feels like a natural instinct to me. But I'm like, whoa, okay, I gotta walk away. And I've been doing it more and it's getting a little bit easier. And then when I come back to actually work, I am able to focus,

I am able to crank stuff out. And so instead of giving myself this three hour time block of like, I'm gonna force myself to get this done, it's like you have 45 minutes and I'm super efficient with that 45 minutes. It's amazing. I love that. That is that is so great because have you ever noticed that you're more productive at one time of the day versus another?

Always the morning. Always the, yeah. Here's the problem. I like grocery shopping in the morning. I like hanging out with my dog in the morning. I like going for doing my workout in the morning. I like doing so I can't shove everything into the morning. So it's kind of like I, I'm still figuring out what my weeks look like.

It's very different from massage therapy. It's so easy for me to see, okay, I have four massages tomorrow and like I can know what that looks like to manage my energy for the day. But it's very different when you're in charge of structure your entire day in your home and you, you have that window of time where you're really good and then you have these responsibilities.

So it's just like, okay, what do I need to do? And I'm trying to just let myself experiment. I'm like, okay, we're gonna try this. Did that work? Yes. No. What do we need to like tweak or whatever? And it's a lot of it is kind of like a swat analysis for my time management. That's funny.

I love it. Yeah. I realized that I'm more efficient in the morning. I used to get up really early, like when I had a job, I'd get up like at five 30 and Well, you do Have a job. Goofy. Well, I mean a job that I was responsible to report to someone else. Yeah. But yeah, so I would do that,

but now I don't really wanna get up as early for some reason. And, and my time is most efficient in the morning. But one thing I realize is, like you said, I used to try to force myself at night to get things done and it would just take so long and maybe I wouldn't even finish, you know? So I've had to say that to myself too.

Like, look, you're not even efficient at night. You don't wanna be working at night. You wanna be with your family or you wanna be doing, you know, X, y, z, go get your life back and just close the computer, you know, and leave it alone. Pick it up tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. And that's something that's really hard for me is like,

your phone can do a thousand things. Your computer can do a thousand things. And so I, I want to come on here and use this for a certain task, but I've got, like you said, I've got multiple tabs open. So even just like trying to start off on the right foot has been an interesting angle for me. So I will make sure,

like before I close the laptop for the day, it's like, okay, what are the three things I wanna get done tomorrow? This, this, this. Okay, let me have those tabs open so that I can open my computer and I'm not tempted to go check on this or I'm not tempted to go start start this other thing. It's like,

this is where I'm starting. Yeah. I really love that. Okay, so let me drop down here to the last things, which are the daily tasks, you know, which are checking to email, responding to email, responding to comments in dms and checking Etsy and Shopify and Amazon for, you know, anything I need to handle there. Shipping products,

designing products. Because site design, collages, you know, any graphic design, you know, any, any other client work. So I guess I kind of separated this into client work for one side of my business and client work for the other. Because right now, you know, when you're, when you're shipping something in e-commerce, you have to kind of take it as it comes.

You know, you have to be able to adjust. Yeah. And that work might look different from day to day. So you know, maybe shipping, I might be designing the clothes I might be painting. So those are things that I need to block some time off for. Yeah, this is good. Yeah, I'm proud of you. Does so,

but it feels good to be able to see that. Well it feels great and you know, like I said, I then, you know, kind of dropped in what I wanted to accomplish each day of the week. And on Friday, Friday's kind of my day that I wanted to take a look back at the budgeting stuff, you know, and clean up QuickBooks and you know,

if I need to run a profit and loss report or whatever, you know, if I can get these things done on a Thursday because these things, you know, my Thursday tasks are done, I'll definitely do that because Friday I really don't wanna work Friday's more of my personal day and I love crystal day. And so, but there are things that I can do,

you know, that are annual tasks or monthly or weekly that are quick and I can just knock those out really quick and then I'm done, you know, for the day and I can go do my thing. But yeah, I feel, I feel good about this. I feel like, like you said earlier, even if I didn't accomplish everything, I accomplish something that's Yeah,

moving towards a goal. So, and Celebrate the little stuff because it matters. Like it all adds up. And I feel like me and several other people I know, like we skipped the celebration. Like even with, with the launch, the training that I'm doing that I'm launching my, my business coach Meg, she was like, so how are you celebrating?

And I was like, oh that's a great question. Never even thought about that. Let me do this. So I think I like ordered some tea. There was another friend introduced me to some fancy tea and I was like, I'm gonna get the big one. Yeah, that's nice. That's awesome. Yeah. But it was good. So like whatever that looks like for you to be able to go Yeah.

Like this is great. Even if it's just the act of marking it off the list, it's like you did it. Yeah. This is so funny. I feel like this is going to make a really great podcast, but it totally like you need to, wasn't a podcast, you know? Cause it's like we don't have our mics, you know?

But one Of us might. Oh yay. Good for you. You sounded fine. Oh, okay. I actually, Actually prepared because we never know what's gonna happen. Yeah, well it's Funny, I have my mic, I should just start like normal but it's not plugged in so I don't even know. Yeah, yeah. It was on, I wanted to tell you,

and I think I've shared screenshots with you throughout the, the week and last week as well. But people comment that they love how, and people being podcast guests, podcast listeners and just like new friends that I've found, they have commented so much recently that they like how conversational we are. They like how casual things are. We had someone, our editor was going through an editing stuff for the SEO shorts episode and she was like,

you can hear my kid saying mama. I was like, it doesn't matter. Like, people like so sweet to fly on the wall stuff. It's, you know, it's who we are, it's what we're about and people really like it. So I'm really glad that we did this. I'm really glad that we're keeping it fly on the wall and like super casual and conversational because that's who we are and that's what,

that's the magic we knew we had. And I'm glad that other people are seeing it too, cuz that feels really rewarding. Aww, I know. Heart's everywhere. What's wrong with my heart? My heart smashed Do do yours like this it, yay. I did it. I did it. I made a heart. Woohoo. Thanks. B. Okay.

Alright, well Asher's here anyway, so this is probably a good time to say goodbye. Yay. Hi Asher. Bye Asher. Yeah, after we log off I'll have 'em come over here and say hey to you. So, but anyway, thanks for listening. This is a podcast. Yeah, I'm sure will be. Thanks for taking a look and giving feedback and I can't wait to see if you know what happens with all of it.

I think we should put this as like a beginning of the year episode cuz maybe other people would be able to feel empowered to make their own checklist situations. I like it. Yay. Okay. All right, let's do it. It's done. It's done. It is done. Okay. Bye y'all. Bye. Thanks for joining us today. If you like this info,

subscribe before you go so you never miss out on something related to seo. See you next time.