Have you been to YouTube University and Google College trying to figure out what to do with your website? Not very helpful, is it? Before you do something you want to do, there are some things you need to have in place first. 

In this episode, I’m like your Hello Fresh for websites. I am going to give you all the ingredients you need to get it done.

1. You need a brand. Your voice, who you’re selling to, what you’re selling, your strategy, and your visual identity - your website designer won’t build them both at the same time. The brand builds the website, not the other way around. Having this will boost your credibility.
2. You need to have a domain. Whenever you have a great idea for a domain or a program name, just go buy it even if you don’t have anything to build on it yet. This is a start to helping you solidify your brand and start building your brand consistency.
3. You need hosting - a place to build your website. My favorite that Fierceified Agency uses for clients is Flywheel, but there are several.
4. Take the time to find a copywriter. You need a wordsmith to make sure that you’re saying what you really want to say.

If you bought a template, great. But, at some point, you’re going to outgrow that template and you will still need your site to take people from cold to sold. Your website is a 24/7 employee and a free little Canva site isn’t gonna cut it now that you’re doing business for real. You deserve better.

Connect on IG @fierceified.agency

For more tips, connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fierceified-creative-consulting/

Learn more about Fierceified Creative and Consulting at https://fierceified.agency/

Music credit: Trust The Vibes by Vincent Tone

A Podcast Launch Bestie production

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to episode three,

season two of More Than a Brand Podcast.

And I am excited about this episode because if you don't have a website, if

you do have a website, if you jumping from Squarespace, the word Press, this

is gonna help you know what you need to have before you even think you about

the Embark on this website journey.

It is a new journey that you're having with WordPress.

Now, anytime you start something new, you gonna get overwhelmed.

And we get overwhelmed because we go into, YouTube University,

go to Google College and try to find all the things that we need.

And there is an abundance of information on the.

Some good information, some bad information, but if it's just not in your

lane and it's not in your wheelhouse, you going to be like, forget all this drama.

I'm just gonna keep selling from a Google Doc and keep it moving.

But I'm here to tell you, friend, you cannot show up in corporate spaces with

a Google Doc looking like a hot ass mess.

I'm gonna need you to figure out.

What you want to do, who you want to sell to, and then get this website popping.

Now, just like when you start anything new, you are going to

have to have some things in place.

before you actually do the thing you want to do.

So let's think about a recipe.

If you wanna cook this new meal, you gotta have all the ingredients

before you can make this meal.

this is like the HelloFresh . I should probably call this episode

the Hello Fresher websites.

I'm giving you all the ingredients you need now.

If you don't know how to execute it, you better find somebody else, but I'm giving

you the blueprint doing in this episode to help you stop being overwhelmed and

stressed the hell out about this whole website thing because there are pieces you

need before you contact me, the designer.

Okay, so first and foremost, we gonna start from the very nitty gritty.

You need a brand, and I'm saying that because your designer does not

have time to be building your brand by while building your website.

It doesn't work that way.

The website doesn't build a brand.

The brand builds the website.

So when I say your brand, that means who you're selling to, your voice, your

strategy, and also, your visual identity.

So if you don't know who you're selling to and what kind of journey

you want them to have, a web designer.

can't make that shit up.

okay?

Because what will what'll happen is we'll make something up and you'll be like,

that's not what I wanted, but you didn't know what you wanted when we started.

So that doesn't make sense.

So you need to know when you reach out to the people that you want to sell to,

what is the purpose of this website?

is it to just for them to see your services?

If so, girl, just put a bunch of pictures on a page and call it a day . But if

you actually want to navigate them through a journey, we have to know who

those people are and how to get them from point A to point B design wise.

your brand.

Identity is important because your designer has to know what colors to use.

We have to know what fonts to use because all those things, when you

combine them together, Psychologically makes people either one, it can repel.

Cuz if your website is designed terribly, 53% of your visitors and that is a fact,

will not purchase from you and they will definitely question your credibility.

But your colors and your fonts, all those things have a psychological

effect on the tendencies that people have to buy or to leave your website.

your web designer does not create that identity.

We take that identity and we incorporate it into your website

so that everything is aligned.

So your number one thing before you even contact or breathe and the web designer

or developers way, is to make sure you got your brand strategy and visuals together.

because I'm trying to tell you, designing your website and building your brand

strategy at the same time is like building a plane while you're flying it.

It's a hot ghetto mess and you don't wanna add that extra stress to yourself

cuz you're already overwhelmed.

Cuz you looked at 10,000 YouTube videos, went to 5,000 webinars, and

you think you need all the things in reality, you probably don't

need as much it as you think you.

So to keep that dress down, let's get our ducks in a row.

Let's get our ingredients together for our recipe for a great website.

All right, so Brandon, we know we need that.

Write that down.

Check Brandon.

Next.

You need to have a domain.

So most people be snatching up domains like Pokemon and when I

mean most people, I'm talking about me cuz I got about 10 domains.

If you, and this is one rule, one business tip that I can give, I would give anyone.

If you come up with a business name or idea or a name of a program and you like,

oh, this shit popping, I'm gonna need you to go to Google Domains and buy it for 12.

It is only $12 a year.

Buy it.

Buy it.

Even if you don't have anything to build on it, because you

can always use it later.

You can use it as a vanity url, and we can get into those later.

But hold on to those little veins.

Grab 'em up like Pokemon.

Okay, so once you got your domain, if you are moving from a, let's say

you're moving from WS or a Squarespace.

Those all inclusive platforms usually include your domain

and your hosting in one price.

Now with WordPress, cuz you know we all about the WordPress over here

with WordPress, you have options on where you can host your website.

Now there's two things now.

WordPress has wordpress.com and they have wordpress.org.

It's the.org that I'm talking about.

The dot com's a little different.

You don't wanna mess with that, but the.org has the ability to

be hosted at various places.

That's when you get like your blue hosts, your GoDaddies,

and my favorite is Flywheel.

Now, the perk we're working with Fify is that we.

Give you the hosting through flywheel that's included in the price for a

year with any website that we build.

But you have options.

Do your research.

but I'm telling you, it's gonna be information overload and you're

gonna end up asking somebody what's the best one anyway.

So it's best to just hire a designer that already knows what you need

and stop with all that stress.

All right, so that's the third thing.

I'm gonna do a recap cuz you know, I'd like to recap.

First, you gotta have branding.

Second, you need your domain.

Third, you need your hosting.

Now while you grabbing up, you're hosting in your domain,

take

the time to find a copywriter, and I'm gonna say it again.

Take the time to find a copywriter.

Now, I don't care if it's a.

You write the copy and you find a copyright that's gonna fix it

up for you, or you just pay a copyright and say, write this stuff

for me so I can get this website.

But you have to have someone that understands the importance of words.

A wordsmith, a copy whisperer.

You need to have it.

A beautiful website with shitty copy is not gonna sell.

And shitty copy on an ugly website not gonna sell.

So the two have to go hand in hand.

Same with branding.

Like all these things work together.

So when you're ready to be like, I'm ready to jump in these corporate spaces,

I'm not trying to jump up in Amazon.

I'm gonna say Amazon because everybody knows who Amazon is.

I'm not trying to go roll up and be Amazon's diversity and equity consultant,

and all I got is this Google Doc.

You need to have all your ducks in a row.

That means you need to have your branding.

You need to have your domain.

You need to have your hosting.

You need to find a copywriter to write this copy.

And last, and certainly not least, you need to hire a web designer

that understands how all these things intertwine together to

get you up off that Google Doc.

in on these website streets.

On these internet streets instead of looking a mess, because that anxiety

that you're feeling around your website and, and the anxiety that you're feeling

about putting yourself out there in the world and owning a piece of the web.

It's because you don't know what you're doing.

You've grabbed an abundance of information.

And I'm trying to tell you, I've seen people do it all the time while

I built my own site or I brought a template and I'm not, if you

brought a template, I'm here for it.

But once you get past that template phase, You are gonna

need to know these analytics.

You are gonna need to know that this site is sighting like it's supposed to

because it is an investment and it's supposed to work for you 24 7, and it

is supposed to do the heavy lifting.

The goal is for people to go to your site and go from coal to sold.

But if you don't have these foundational pieces, if you're confused about.

The user experience or if you don't have copy that makes sense.

Or if your branding is saying one thing and your vibe and you yourself

is saying another, or if your branding is saying one thing and your copy is

saying another thing and your website is looking a different way, and none of

that stuff is talking, nobody's going to.

Know who you are and you're not gonna be able to show up in that corporate

space because you done confused somebody and you done catfished them

out here in these internet streets.

We're not doing that anymore, y'all.

It's 2023.

If you are choosing to move to WordPress, you have to have a.

and I need you to have a plan so you're not dealing with the anxiety.

I know it's stressful.

My first website was a Adobe Spark page and I was calling myself a brand designer.

I think that's what I was calling myself.

I changed my name like 10,000 times.

So it is, if you pivoting, it's okay.

, but it was on Adobe Spark page and I remember.

It was bright and in my head it aligned with who I thought I was.

And then I had someone tell me that people don't like buying from like bright

websites or light in areas what sells.

And this was for someone that.

They're still doing well in business, but we are in two

completely different playing fields.

They're in the wedding industry, and I'm not in the wedding industry, so

light and area, I guess it does so, but for me, that's not what I needed.

But I changed because I thought.

That's what was needed.

And mind you, my Adobe Spark page, it did not have a domain . It

didn't, it had nothing custom.

It was a free little page that I slapped on my Instagram was

like, I'm doing business now.

And that's okay in the beginning, but now that you're playing ball

with the big leagues, I'm gonna need you to put your big girl panties on.

And.

Fix your website, get the foundation done, find you that branded person

that understands what your brand needs, that understands how to build your

strategy and how to create visuals that definitely represents who you are in

your business and what your goals are.

Find you that copywriter that understands how to speak your language.

Yo, my copywriter is popping.

I didn't write my copy, but you would think I, I did just

based on how it was written.

But find somebody that captures your brand voice.

And then lastly, find that web designer, that web agency that's

gonna take those key pieces and put 'em together and build you a site

that's bold, beautiful, and authentic as you are because you deserve it.

you don't deserve to be selling from a Google document because the

work that you're doing as a D E I professional is too important.

It's bigger than a Google document.

It's bigger than any little document that you can put up or some little, lead

magnet that you just put up on a page and you don't necessarily have a web home.

And I'ma say it, I must go a little further and I love Canva.

Canva is bay, but it is bigger than that little Canva website

you just put together on Canva.

You deserve better and you deserve not to be stressed out about it.

Okay.

Now I hope y'all enjoyed episode three.

I will be back with episode four and I can't wait to talk to you guys more.

Y'all season two is hot of more than a brand podcast and I hope

you're enjoying it as much as I am.