Matt Levenhagen of Unified Web Design works with businesses to translate their visions into code. He's been working on the web for 20 years and his business just passed its five-year mark.

https://www.thebuilders.fm/
https://www.unifiedwebdesign.com/
https://twitter.com/mattlevenhagen

This episode focuses on why custom WordPress websites allow you to scale your business, how maintenance allows you to make "quick changes," and ends with five quick takes you'll want to hear.

"Once you have that website, especially on WordPress, the beautiful thing is that it can grow with your business." Matt Levenhagen

Did you miss my last appearance on his podcast (July 2022)? Watch it on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbmexJxfu6E

Listen to more episodes of the Launch With Words Podcast on your favorite podcast player or on the landing page for the podcast, hosted on Castos.

https://launch-with-words.castos.com/

LWW S3 Ep1 Matt Levenhagen -- Care About How You Show Up in the World

Sherry Holub of JV Media Design is "Your trusted partner for worry-free custom websites + design." She is the Creative Director at JVM Design with over 25 years of experience designing custom WordPress sites. When she's not helping support nonprofit and LGBTQIA+ businesses, she's taste-testing cupcakes and fostering cats.

https://jvmediadesign.com/

This episode focuses on why it's important to hire a professional, how custom sites help small businesses, and what you should look out for in security and marketing scams out there.

"You may be the expert in your business, but you're not the expert in everything." Sherry Holub

(Did you miss our first conversation? Watch it on YouTube.)

https://www.youtube.com/live/-RyoY1QTGbc?si=0OBv2nxwTCAMMWVS

Listen to more episodes of the Launch With Words Podcast on your favorite podcast player or on the landing page for the podcast, hosted on Castos.

https://launch-with-words.castos.com/

LWW S3 Ep1 Sherry Holub -- Hire a WordPress Pro

It's 2023 and the Launch With Words Podcast is back. If you haven't listened to episodes before, feel free to start at Season 1. I don't put my episodes behind a paywall.

 

This season is going to be all about WebDevs. I'll be interviewing people who build websites to help you, the small business owner, understand the process and participation that goes into website launches. 

 

WebDevs: I just released the Launch With Words SEO Mini-Pack and that is available here.

 

https://bit.ly/LWWSEO

 

September 2023 will include an eCommerce Mini-Pack. And I'll also be taking requests for topics. 

Season 3 Episode 0 -- Launch With Words is Back & The Season of the WebDev


Do you just post like a robot, schedule everything, and never respond? When's
the last time you took a look at your target audience? Who are they -- really?
In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast, Bridget
is joined by writer and developer Hashim Warren for an insightful conversation
on the importance of humanity in marketing.

"So the way that I've grown is understanding that not all of their business has
to transact through the website. So I used to oversell the website as a part of
the sales process now I'd say your website is your recommendation tool -- even
when you have great word of mouth. That person who's receiving that referral is
going to look you up online. You want your story to be the first thing there."
Hashim Warren
Follow Hashim on Twitter
https://twitter.com/hashim_warren
Justice Year Newsletter
https://justiceyear.com/

More Episodes

https://launch-with-words.castos.com/

Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress

https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/

Premium Packs Are Available Here

http://bit.ly/LWWPremium


                Your Website is Your Recommendation Tool with Hashim Warren 
            

Do you just post like a robot, schedule everything, and never respond? When's
the last time you took a look at your target audience? Who are they -- really?
In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast, Bridget
is joined by writer and social media manager, Carol Stephen, for an insightful
conversation on the importance of empathy in our marketing.

"I think empathy is more important than ever. And if somebody's bullying
somebody else, for example, that doesn't go over. You know? People are quick to
jump in and help that person. I think that's become more evident over the last
couple of years" Carol Stephen
Follow Carol on Twitter
https://twitter.com/carol_stephen
Carol Stephen's Blog
https://yoursocialmediaworks.com/blog
 

More Episodes

https://launch-with-words.castos.com/

Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress

https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/


Episode Transcript

00:22.64
Bridget Willard
Hey hey! Welcome to another episode of Launch With Words. This is season 2,
episode 8 with my very good friend Carol Stephen. Carol, how are you doing
today?
00:33.77
Carol Stephen
But I'm doing great today. It's a wonderful day. We just had a big rainstorm and
we're in the middle of a drought. So we're very happy. Oh yeah, everybody just
loves going outside after the rain.
00:41.50
Bridget Willard
Yeah, that's good and I love the way it smells after the rain. It's just, it
just feels, it smells so fresh and clean and it's just wonderful. Gets all the
pollen out of the air.

00:59.35
Bridget Willard
So, when it comes to like you're small. I mean I know like you have roots in
technical writing and you've worked with a lot of startups in the Silicon Valley
area of the Bay Area of California but you also work with small businesses. So a
lot of times you're doing the writing but I imagine sometimes people are like
where do I even start? I mean what is your advice to small businesses who know
they need to be blogging like we've said it enough like how do they even start.
01:32.74
Carol Stephen
Oh my gosh. Well I think the number 1 thing is they have to find their audience.
So they need to know who their audience is. Like who is that person in the
middle of their target? And I think for some people, that's probably changed
since they started their business and they might not have revisited who their
audience is. So if it's been two or three years I'd really recommend that people
revisit figuring out who their target audience is. Now you don't necessarily
have to pay somebody to help you do this but you you know you could find
somebody who's just outside your business and someone who'll be honest with you
to give you some advice.
02:14.35
Bridget Willard
Yeah, that's really important. Rhonda with Fat Dog Creatives and I are doing a
presentation at our small business chamber in a couple weeks. And we're like
your website has to talk to your customer. It's not about you and then we both
said that to each other and then we both went and looked up our own websites
really quick.
02:35.25
Carol Stephen
Ah, well, that's right because I was thinking about my own business and it's
changed so much. So I mean this is something that I'm telling myself as much as
I'm telling the person listening to this that um that person that you were
targeting is not the same person. And that that goes for everybody. So a refresh
is good even if it is the same audience is it's a good reminder to do this
exercise to figure out


                Empathy is More Important Now Than Ever with Carol Stephen
            

Is blogging bad or a waste of time? Do home remodelers and design-builders have
to blog? In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast,
Bridget is joined by SEO Writer, Tess Wittler, for an insightful conversation on
why small businesses should care about publishing regularly on their websites.

"Your website is your Number 1 piece of digital real estate." Tess Wittler
Follow Tess on Twitter
https://twitter.com/TessWittler
Tess Wittler's Website
https://tesswittler.com/
Are you ready for the Done For You Newsletter?
https://bit.ly/DoneForYouTess

More Episodes

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Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress

https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/


Episode Transcript

00:19.11
Bridget Willard
Hey, hey! Thanks for joining me again on another episode this time with my
longtime friend Tess Whitler. She is a remodeler and custom home builder
marketing solutions person. She is that Marketing Department that you want. She
has a Done For You Newsletter Program. She is amazing. She is smart. Tess,
welcome to the show. So I know that you have been writing in the service
industry for contractors for
00:40.92
Tess Wittler
Oh it's great to be here. Bridget thank you.
00:52.41
Bridget Willard
a very long time enough to have a MBA if if we were just handing them out. How
do we get people who are small business owners, how do we get plumbers and yoga
teachers and manicurists to care about having a blog on their website?
01:12.79
Tess Wittler
Wow so you know that's kind of like the million-dollar question but it really
boils down to a couple of things, right? So it. It boils down to um Google likes
fresh websites and fresh content. So what better way to do that than to have a
blog? But more importantly than that, I think that 1 thing that a lot of small
businesses sometimes forget is as we're feeding that Google Monster, you know,
common, everyday customers -- they check you out before they ever pick up the
phone to call you. You know they go to your Facebook page and they go to your
Instagram and they go to your Google My Business or Google Business Profile as
it's called now. And they definitely go to your website to learn more about you
to see if.
01:54.94
Bridget Willard
Hm.
Bridget Willard
02:07.76
Tess Wittler
number 1 you offer the services that they're looking for and number 2 if you are
the right solution. So I think even more important than, than SEO which is
definitely my geek zone and I love that space. But I think even more importantly
than that, it's just to be able to be there to help your potential customers
understand what you do and get to know you better.
02:28.41
Bridget Willard
Oh for sure. I mean yeah, if Marcy told me to go to Alamo City Plumbing because
my bidet is leaking, Ah, I'm gonna go look and see if they even talk about
bidets. I'm gonna look and see if they have reviews I'm gonna check out their,
you know, Facebook Page. Are they still even in business? Do they have
Instagram? What is going on with this place? And I think that most people have
overly obsessed on what's being found ah on a Google Search Engine Result or the
SERPs. Um as opposed to "plumber near me."
02:49.93
Tess Wittler
Yep.
03:06.77
Bridget Willard
Ah, "manicurist near me." I mean how many of us are doing those searches?
03:10.77
Tess Wittler
All the time every single day.
03:14.10


                Your Website is the #1 Piece of Digital Real Estate with Tess Wittler
            

How do you start writing if you keep staring at a blank page? Are you in your
own way? In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast,
Bridget is joined by marketer and coach Jen McFarland for an insightful
conversation on why small businesses should put their audience first with their
website content.

"You just have to get started." Jen McFarland
Follow Jen on Twitter
https://twitter.com/jensmcfarland
Jen's Blog Post on ClickFunnels
https://womenconquerbiz.com/clickfunnels-review-2022/ [Jen's%20Blog Post on
ClickFunnels: https:/womenconquerbiz.com/clickfunnels-review-2022/]
Take an Ephipahy Course and Stop Decision Fatigue
https://epiphanycourses.com/

More Episodes
https://launch-with-words.castos.com/

Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress
https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/

Episode Transcript


00:19.23
Bridget Willard
Hey hey thanks for joining me on this latest episode. I'm here with the Jen
Mcfarland. Welcome! I am doing fabulous.
00:26.61
Jen McFarland
Hey hey how are you doing, Bridget? How you doing listeners?
00:33.64
Bridget Willard
And so we're we're talking to our small business owners. You and I have worked
with a lot of clients and what's like so something that you kind of wish I feel
like you wish they had an epiphany about?
00:49.16
Jen McFarland
Ah I feel like all of us as consultants give our clients small epiphanies every
single day and that's one of the reasons why I started a new business called
Epiphany Courses -- because it's our job as consultants to do that. But then
there are people who can't afford us as. Consultants. So Why not give them
little epiphanies? And that's my new business called EpiphanyCourses. They are
courses based on business decisions, so in in an hour or less, you can make some
exceptional business decisions on things that often confuse a lot of people.
Like I am a total tech Nerd. We've just spent the last.
01:25.62
Bridget Willard
Um.
01:26.80
Jen McFarland
What hour talking about all of our tech nerdiness? And so a lot of things that I
am passionate about people get really confused about. And so that's kind of my
focus whether it's on my podcast or my website or now with courses is to just
help people untangle the techie bits that seem to really keep them from taking
action on things.
01:47.95
Bridget Willard
Yeah, um, with the Launch With Words starter pack the whole point of it is that
it gets imported as a blog draft and so they know how to use the Draft Folder in
WordPress. So just write. You know? A lot of people wanted it to be complicated,
like a course, I'm like no -- small business owners don't have time for this
crap. They just need to get in there write a blog post.
02:11.56
Jen McFarland
Yeah, and well what I love about what it is that you've done is it's like you're
giving them drafts and you're giving them prompts. Like so many people hate the
blank page and I'm one of them. And I've actually sometimes hired people just to
help me keep the blank page from staring back at me. And when I see somebody
else start it then I'm like oh okay now I got this. Now I can do this because I
love to write; I hate the blank page. And that's what is so powerful about
Launch With Words, I think, in the people that I work with they're like: I don't
even know how to get started. So now I can be like well actually here's the
thing.
02:45.69
Bridget Willard
Yea


                Don't know what to write? Take a stand. (Jen McFarland)
            

How much does SEO matter to a small business? How complicated is coming up with
blogging topics? In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words
Podcast, Bridget is joined by writer Kitty Webb for an insightful conversation
on why small businesses should put their audience first with their website
content.

"Always think about your customer first." Kitty Webb

More Episodes

https://launch-with-words.castos.com/

Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress

https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/

Transcript

02:23.25
Bridget Willard
Hey hey it's season 2 episode 5 with Kitty Webb Webb -- one of my favorite
people on the planet: SEO, writer, dancer. All the things.
02:34.62
Kitty Webb
All the things.
02:39.90
Bridget Willard
So We're talking to small business owners, Kitty Webb, and like to me everything
I know about you makes SEO so easy like it's not really that hard. Like what are
some of your like top-of-mind tips to small business owners who are writing
their own content?
02:58.29
Kitty Webb
Well first of all, you're not writing for Google you're writing for people.
Google is a tool that is trying to connect actual human beings with the
information that they want to find and it gets better and better at that as time
goes on so you see a lot of these trends in SEO. And everybody's talking about
things like keyword density and neural networks and now they're like looking at
different keyword categories and you look at Wikipedia and then you look at the
subcategories in the Wikipedia category to make sure that you have your internal
linking. None of that is necessary because all of that has to do with Google
trying to find ways to connect actual human beings with the answers that they
want. And it gets better and better and if that's what you're focused on then
you really don't have to worry about all those complexities of SEO. Um,
honestly, that really only comes into play when you're in the corporate SEO
category and it's hyper-competitive and you're competing against Walmart or
Petco or something like that, you know, which I've done. And that's a different
ball game. But if you are you know a roofing company a contractor, a dentist. Um
Google's not going to put you up against dentistry.com. I assume that's a thing.
Ah, it's.
04:05.44
Bridget Willard
It should be.
04:09.51
Kitty Webb
It probably is and if it's not I'm sure the domain is like a hundred thousand
dollars
04:11.38
Bridget Willard
Right? I mean that's the thing is we hear about these giant eCommerce stores and
then we think we had to compete with that. We don't even have to compete with
that. We just have to compete with ourselves and our other small businesses.
04:26.14
Kitty Webb
And the truth is that SEO is such a small part of small business strategy at
this point. My corporate job right now, Um I'm building their SEO strategy just
knowing that that's not how people find us. Nobody is Googling what we do
because they're at a different phase. And maybe that's really the key where to
start with SEO is understanding how people are finding you and what they want
from you. Um, because if they don't know that you exist they're not looking for
you yet.
04:47.97
Bridget Willard
Yeah. Yes, I mean your industry, especially if your your industry is like not
really known to them. I always talk to people and they go, "what I didn't know
that was a choice?" So of course I wouldn't be looking for a laser vacuum.
05:05.33
Kitty Webb
Hear that.
05:11.58
Bridget Willard
You know, but my friend saw it on Tiktok and then she bought it and I saw it and
you can't uns


                You're Not Writing for Google with Kitty Webb
            

Why should your small business value writing as part of its marketing efforts?
In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast, Bridget
is joined by writer Robert Nissenbaum for an insightful conversation on why
small businesses should consider writing as part of their SEO efforts.

Follow Robert Nissenbaum at @RNissenbaum on Twitter and check out his company
website at tso.media [https://tacticalsocialmedia.org/].


More Episodes

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Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress

https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/

Transcript

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02:23.27
Bridget Willard
Hey, thanks everyone for turning in season 2 episode 4 with my friend, writer,
SEO consultant, and kayaker Robert Nissenbaum. Welcome to the show, Robert. So
um. It might be that you're muted. It happens. It happens. It happens. Yeah, ah
hey it happens. Ah you know it. This is technology is not always easiest thing.
But you know.
02:43.26
Robert Nissenbaum
Oh there we go I wasn't muted a few minutes ago. Ah.
02:58.25
Bridget Willard
We live with it. It's it's working for us remote working writing um. Hey can you
tell a little bit about yourself and what what motivates you to the audience?
03:07.96
Robert Nissenbaum
Ah, from a writing perspective I've been writing for thirty some odd years. I've
been published forever in some form or another. First real thought as to this
being something I was good at was back in college. So would have been like 87
where I -- first week and on campus ended up reading something as like oh no and
sent a quick letter to the editor to the yeah school newspaper was immediately
asked to start writing for him and just kind of went from there.
03:41.50
Bridget Willard
Nice. So ah, you've been writing a lot for your clients and small businesses for
you know, a lot a long enough amount of time that we probably shouldn't be
telling people.
03:55.69
Robert Nissenbaum
Um.
03:59.60
Bridget Willard
But it's definitely longer than me and um, what do you think small business
owners kind of miss when it comes to content on their website?
04:12.31
Robert Nissenbaum
They're not putting any on it. I mean I. I mean they're just missing it all
together. Um.
04:20.43
Bridget Willard
Concisely put by Robert Nissenbaum. Thanks for watching everyone. No for real.
Like because people talk to me a lot about Launch With Words and duplicate
content. I'm like you know what's worse than duplicate content? No content.
Waaka Waka Waka
04:22.54
Robert Nissenbaum
Are.
04:29.95
Robert Nissenbaum
Exactly so and I think they get worried about having saying the same things over
and over again or having repeate

Get Out As Much Content As You Can with Robert Nissenbaum

Why should your small business value writing as part of their marketing efforts?
In this episode of the second season of the Launch With Words Podcast, Bridget
is joined by writer Maddy Osman for an insightful conversation on how small
business owners can DIY their content or hire a writer.

Follow Maddy Osman at @MaddyOsman on Twitter and check out her company website
at theblogsmith.com.

More Episodes
https://launch-with-words.castos.com/
Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress
https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/
Transcript
00:19.53
Bridget Willard
Hey hey season 2 another episode. This is episode 3 with Maddie Osman -- the
Maddie Osman. If you have seen anything in WordPress written about anything
you've seen her byline. Maybe you haven't seen her byline. D you ghostwriting?
yeah.
00:34.26
Maddy Osman
I Do some ghostwriting.
00:39.13
Bridget Willard
She's she's pretty ah prolific, is the word we would use, welcome. I'm like
career goals I want to be like Maddie Osman. Will you be on my podcast?
00:44.20
Maddy Osman
I'm glad you think so and thank you for having me.
00:50.84
Maddy Osman
Well I'm I'm super happy to and I feel like Bridget like we learn from each
other. You know, like we both have these different approaches but we both like
ultimately are trying to do the same thing which is like help businesses
communicate better.
01:06.18
Bridget Willard
Yeah, and that is a problem because they have a passion and an an expertise and
knowledge for what they do, but sometimes they feel inhibited ah by writing.
01:13.60
Maddy Osman
Right.
01:19.22
Maddy Osman
So yeah.
01:21.31
Bridget Willard
So like what are some of the things you think small business owners need to know
or to get over that inhibition. Like for me I'm a something is better than
nothing person. Like just put it on the internet fix it later.
01:33.99
Maddy Osman
Solo. Yeah yeah.
01:36.52
Bridget Willard
So like what kind of tips would you give a small business owner?
01:40.47
Maddy Osman
Yeah, no I think that's ah, a really great start and I think that the beauty of
the internet as a publishing medium versus print or even you know like media
like TV or radio or something like that is that we can change it. Right? after
we publish it. We have that power and not that the bar is like lower for things
like grammatical errors or making mistakes. I mean that's still super important.
But I think that because of the medium that we're publishing on and the fact
that a lot of content that we're creating has some sort of timely nature to it.
There's also this like forgiveness like if you do make a mistake or you know
maybe you like need to dig a little bit deeper into something for it to really
provide the value that you want somebody to get out of it or if you made you
know, just a grammatical error or whatever, you always have the option to go
back in and edit it and I don't think that many people are are going to be upset
about that. Versus like a print book and it's like oh crap that's how it is now.
02:45.40
Bridget Willard
Well I started my career working at a publisher of college textbooks. There are
errors in every book Always as they just have those redlined for the next
edition. It's not that big of a deal even in print.
02:49.70
Maddy Osman
Nice Oh sure.
02:59.68
Maddy Osman
Right.
03:01.67
Bridget Willard
But now with "screenshots are forever" - everybody's like you did this wrong. I
just read a job opening today for a mortgage company that had the wrong like
plural. The plural was missing like ah all you're only going to use 1 resource I
guess not many of it. So but that's me.
03:0

The Perfect Answer is Not a Novel with Maddy Osman

Launch With Words is a podcast that supplements the WordPress Plugin of the same name. As small business owners, we sometimes forget how important it is to focus on the content on our websites. What’s content? Well, it’s the words. So, let’s talk about business marketing that centers around words. Get the Launch With Words Plugin for free on WordPress: https://wordpress.org/plugins/launch-with-words/