Many times in life and in our businesses, where we start is not where we end up. A tool (or website) that was good enough to get started isn’t going to cut it when your business needs to level up. When it’s time to level up and be the DEI consultant that you’re destined to be, that Wix or Adobe Spark site you started with isn’t enough.
In this episode I’ll go over some of the ways that WordPress is the next level that your website needs.
Your first website taught you the basics, but now it’s time to pave the way for other DEI consultants and marginalized populations to create lasting change.
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 five
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:of More Than a Brand Podcast.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Now, if you've been following me for a while, you know
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:that I'm a dance mom, right?
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:So my daughter Kennedy, she's 13 years old.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Hey baby.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:she's been a dancer for years and what I've noticed.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Is that every time she changes dance schools, cause we are a
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:military family, so we move around.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:It's her job to find a studio that she wants to dance at.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Now let's rewind to when Kennedy was five years old and she decided
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:that dancing was her thing.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:She no longer wanted to cheer.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:I was good with that.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:. So her first dance school in Kansas City, Missouri, showed her the basics.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:She learned a very important lesson of comradery and friendship and
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:teamwork when it comes to being a person that's part of the team.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Then we later on moved to North Carolina where she chose a dance team,
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:and this team gave her a little more of the technical side of dancing.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:now, she didn't have as much camaraderie as she did in the other team that was
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:in Missouri, but in this team, learning that technical aspect of dance, it
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:started putting her at another level.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Now, I remember during this timeframe, Kennedy would look at so many different
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:random dancers competing on YouTube.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:She would look at dance moms.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:She would talk about how good these different teams were, and
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:I wish I was on a team like that.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Like this was something that she dreamed of later on.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:After about two years, we ended up moving to Maryland where we are now.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:And her job, as always, is when we move Kennedy, it's your job to find a studio.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:This is a location we're living in.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:You find a studio cuz dancing is your thing.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:So with this studio she's in, they're amazing y'all.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:And if you follow me on Facebook when it's competition season,
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:you see all the goodies.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:But this team and the studio encompasses all those things
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:that she learned in the past.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:If it wasn't for the first team in Missouri.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Teaching her what it means to be a team.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Teamwork, teaching her the basics of dancing, teaching her, especially in
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:hip hop bra, how to expand her horizons and to move her body in different ways.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:How each.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Peace of your body.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Each joint can be popped and locked in different ways to move into North
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Carolina where she learned the more technical aspects when it comes to
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:ballet in lyrical and contemporary, the pointed toes and the reve.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Now we move to Maryland where all those things that she's learned
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:in the past are coming into place.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:You see, had we started in Maryland, She may not have had those tools
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:she needed to be a successful team member like she is now.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:But the truth about being on any journey, whether it's your dance journey,
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:your business journey, your website journey is you have to start somewhere.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:. So when you started your business, you started somewhere with your website?
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:It may have been.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:For me, it was an Adobe Spark page.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:couldn't even put a custom URL on it, and I called myself a web designer.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:But you start somewhere.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Just to get started, just so you have that web presence that you so desperately
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:need to expand your business and for people to find you, because people love
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:to be like, what's your web address?
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:And to be honest, a lot of people like to detox from social media now.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:. With that being said, that tool, just like Kennedy's first dance school, that first
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:website did not have what you needed to take you to this level of stepping into
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:corporate spaces and being the D E I consultant that you are destined to be.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:WordPress is like Kennedy's dance school here in Maryland.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:It encompasses all the things that you need to grow, not only to take
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:the things that you've learned in the past from the beginning part of your
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:business, but to take you into the next level when it's time to grow and.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:I know there's a million website builders out there, a million hosting
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:platforms that you could go with, but WordPress has so many options.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:When it comes to when you create your evergreen course,
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:I know WordPress can be needy.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:You know why it's needy?
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Because if you want something that's high maintenance that is able to grow
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:with you and not just you grow out of it, now you have to build on something else.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:WordPress is your best option, a reason why WordPress is your best option.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Because it integrates with almost anything, almost any business tool.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:And because I don't know if every business tool integrates with it, but
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:I'm gonna say almost any business tool that you're using as a small business can
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:integrate into your WordPress website.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:With your WordPress website, you can get as technical as you want to.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Now, you know, I'm not a fan of custom coding.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:But if you love custom coding and you desire it, WordPress is one of the
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:few platforms that you can build on to make sure that your custom coding
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:is doing what it needs to do and is creating a website that you need.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Now, WordPress also gives you that flexibility to.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:expand, to have private pages, password protected pages.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:The possibilities are in endless when you come, when it comes to WordPress.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Another reason why WordPress is the boss.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:It's blogging.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Blogging is one of the number one ways to improve your SEO on your website.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:And SEO is another reason for WordPress because it's easy to optimize your SEO
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:on WordPress cuz there's so many options.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:But when it comes to blogging, blogging is one of the.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Number one way is to create content that belongs to you.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Cuz you know when you put your content on different social media platforms,
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:that doesn't necessarily mean you own it.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:With WordPress, you own that content.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:It's yours to keep.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Another reason why WordPress is
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Instead of choosing something that is what you would consider
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:user-friendly, like let's say show it.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:One thing about Showit, I love Showit.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:I used to design on showit.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:My website is show, was on Showit.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:However, with Showit, to get some of the capabilities, That you
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:want for your website, let's say a membership, or to have a blog,
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:even a simple blog with show it.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:It integrates with WordPress.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:So technically you still have to learn how to use WordPress to have all the
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:things you want on your show at site.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:WordPress has been around for a long time, guys.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:WordPress has been around since 2003, so they've had plenty of time in the
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:internet and website game to make changes, make updates, and to evolve.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:As the internet evolves to evolve, as the internet evolves, that means
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:they're putting in work over there.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:WordPress, you want something that will evolve as you evolve,
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:and WordPress is the way to go.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:WordPress.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Also, out of all the websites in the world, and we know there's a
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:whole bunch of websites, there's a estimate of 43% of all the websites
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:in the world being WordPress.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:That's a whole lot of websites.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:So in the Army, we just released a portal, a customer service portal that
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:integrates our pay taking days off.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Any HR requests, they all go through this portal.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Guess what?
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:That portal was created on WordPress.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Now you mean to tell me if the United States Army believes in WordPress
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:enough to have a site that is responsible for that much information?
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:HR stuff don't, and pay.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:You don't wanna mess up nobody's pay or anybody's human resource stuff.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:The Army believes in WordPress enough to trust it, to host all that
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:information for everybody in the Army.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:So that means that WordPress has exactly what you need for you to grow
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:as big as the US Army for you to grow.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Into the biggest D e I consultant that you can even, you can't even imagine.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:You can be.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:That's why you choose WordPress.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:That's why you don't create your website on Canva.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Canva not gonna give you a membership site.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:a Canva Website is something that you create when you're first starting.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Your Canva website Is your dance studio in Missouri.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Remember what talks about Kennedy?
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Your Canva website is something that teaches you the basics and
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:you kind of know what's going on, but it ain't that big of a deal.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:WordPress is the goal.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:WordPress is what people see when their eyes light up, and they're intrigued
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:by what's going on in your website.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:WordPress websites gives you that vibe that young Kennedy saw while she was
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:sitting there watching these teams that she so desperately wanted to be a part of,
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:and now she's being a part of that team.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Now she is a part of the team that other young dancers are looking
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:up to and saying, I want that.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:That's what your website can be.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Your website can pave the way, not only for other d e I consultants,
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:cause they'll look at you and they'll say, I need to set my damn game.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:But it also paves the way for you to step into those corporate spaces cuz
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:you're walking in being confident, knowing that your website is up to
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:par, is wowing and it is working.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:It's not looking like amateur hour.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:You are surpass looking like amateur hour.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:You are above that.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Your work is above looking amateur.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:your work is important because the work that you are doing now will
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:affect seven generations later, and we won't need no damn laws telling us
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:we can wear our hair how we want to.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:That's why you need to invest in your WordPress website.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:That's why it's more than a brand.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Are you gonna continue to stay on that candle website, continue to stay in
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:that dance studio that doesn't teach you all that you need to be a champion.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Are you gonna go do what champions do?
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Step into a platform that can house everything that you need and represent
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:you in the right way so that you are paving away for other d e i
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:consultants and for other minorities and marginalized communities so
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:that they have a safe space to work.
Lindsay Tramel-Jones:Think about it, and thank you for listening.