Connie Holen is a web designer, digital strategist and Mindbody Certified Business Consultant. Her boutique web design agency, Pixality Design, works with yoga and fitness business owners to create search engine optimized, Squarespace websites that are easily found, are easy to update and provide visitors with an amazing online experience. Connie is also a retired Air Force Pilot, mom to 4 boys and lives just outside of Lincoln, Nebraska with her husband of 20 years.
On this episode of Yoga Biz Camp we talk about:
..... and much more!
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CONNIE AND PIXALITY DESIGN
Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pixalitydesign/
Connies Resources https://pixalitydesign.com/freebies
Software mentioned in this podcast:
WALLA STUDIO SOFTWARE
SPECIAL OFFER FOR YOGA BIZ CAMP LISTENERS:
BOOK YOUR DEMO AND CLAIM OFFER HERE
Michael Jay - Yoga Biz Champ
Michael Jay, the Yoga Biz Champ, stands as the go-to Yoga Business Consultant, embarked on a mission to elevate yoga studios from mere survival to genuine thriving.
With a rich background as a yoga teacher, former studio owner, marketing expert, and yoga studio business coach, he possesses the insider knowledge necessary to elevate your yoga venture to new heights.
His passion for yoga, combined with a sharp business acumen and a sincere desire to see studio owners excel, encapsulates his professional ethos. Michael is not one to offer one-size-fits-all advice; instead, he's dedicated to providing tailored guidance, tangible outcomes, and supporting your studio to emerge as the next Yoga Biz Champ in your community.
FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink
Subscribe, Rate, and Review:
Don't forget to subscribe to Yoga Biz Champ. Follow us on social media @yogabizchamp, rate, and review the podcast.
FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink
Connie Holen is a web designer, digital strategist and Mindbody Certified Business Consultant. Her boutique web design agency, Pixality Design, works with yoga and fitness business owners to create search engine optimized, Squarespace websites that are easily found, are easy to update and provide visitors with an amazing online experience. Connie is also a retired Air Force Pilot, mom to 4 boys and lives just outside of Lincoln, Nebraska with her husband of 20 years.
On this episode of Yoga Biz Camp we talk about:
..... and much more!
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CONNIE AND PIXALITY DESIGN
Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pixalitydesign/
Connies Resources https://pixalitydesign.com/freebies
Software mentioned in this podcast:
WALLA STUDIO SOFTWARE
SPECIAL OFFER FOR YOGA BIZ CAMP LISTENERS:
BOOK YOUR DEMO AND CLAIM OFFER HERE
Michael Jay - Yoga Biz Champ
Michael Jay, the Yoga Biz Champ, stands as the go-to Yoga Business Consultant, embarked on a mission to elevate yoga studios from mere survival to genuine thriving.
With a rich background as a yoga teacher, former studio owner, marketing expert, and yoga studio business coach, he possesses the insider knowledge necessary to elevate your yoga venture to new heights.
His passion for yoga, combined with a sharp business acumen and a sincere desire to see studio owners excel, encapsulates his professional ethos. Michael is not one to offer one-size-fits-all advice; instead, he's dedicated to providing tailored guidance, tangible outcomes, and supporting your studio to emerge as the next Yoga Biz Champ in your community.
FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink
Subscribe, Rate, and Review:
Don't forget to subscribe to Yoga Biz Champ. Follow us on social media @yogabizchamp, rate, and review the podcast.
FREE RESOURCES AND BOOK A CHAT LINK
https://yogabizchamp.link/podlink
Michael Jay 0:01
Today on yoga biz camp, I have Connie Holland from picks ality design. We're going to be talking all things a yoga websites and branding how to stand out in the market against our competitors, the process of starting up and updating a website and brand, the importance of call to actions, the psychology of a yoga business customer on a website and much more. Enjoy this episode
Welcome to Yoga biz camp. I have somebody very special today we have Connie Hollen who I consider to be the industry expert in websites and branding for fitness, wellness related businesses. Welcome Connie.
Connie 0:52
Oh, well, thank you. I'm glad to be here.
Michael Jay 0:55
Yeah. So, Connie and I met through the mind body one of the Mind Body consultants community and I just have a ton of respect for her because you you know I work with clients on niching. You know, and you are super niched. You our website and branding, right foot for fitness, wellness related businesses. And I know you have an interesting backstory to how you got there. So do you want to give a little bit of body barrier history and how you came to be where you are now?
Connie 1:30
Sure. Yeah. So yeah, the the backstory to your lawyer alluding to my I started out as a military pilot, so I have actually retired from the United States Air Force, 21 years, flew caissons, KC 135 refueling aircraft, most of that time was part time in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves. But yeah, I kind of had that career going early on started having kids started deciding I needed something else to do because that was only flying part time. All led me into web design. And wasn't too long after I started designing sites that I decided my favorite clients ever were the ones that were in the it was actually yoga studio was my first client that I was like, I really love this business. I love this yoga studio owner. She's still client after all these years. But then I realized I decided, Okay, I just these are the these are the type of businesses I want to help. Yeah, the ones I would like to you know, go to myself. So, yeah, that's how I ended up in this niche was just really loving. You know, I went to yoga all the time. And I was like, let's start with yoga. And yeah, definitely do a lot of boutique fitness now, too. So
Michael Jay 2:39
yeah. So what is it about the the yoga studio clients that you like? Like, what kind of what was the, you know, they're a different breed, right?
Connie 2:50
They are, I mean, I think their passion stands out that they, you know, most of them come to the business, not for the business opportunity. But yeah, they really want to share what they love and what's changed their life. That's really admirable. And I just love that, you know, they know their clients, they see them face to face, they are, you know, really grounded in what it takes to have a business versus, you know, online business owners and other types of businesses that are just guessing at a lot of stuff. Yoga owners, you know, when you when you've been through classes with people, you really know them. And yeah, you see the acts and the downs in their practice. So that's really why what just, you know, how down to earth and how realistic and how, yeah, yeah, owners tend to be.
Michael Jay 3:37
And there is, I mean, they're, they go into I talk about this a lot on the podcast, but they go into it for the passion and for you know, the service, not necessarily the business, which I think a lot of the some of the other boutique fitness type industries, I think go into it for the business side of things. I think it's rare, there are people for sure. And I've had them on this podcast that go into the yoga world thinking about a business deal. Would you agree with that with?
Connie 4:02
Right? Yes, yeah, definitely. I mean, there are the rare ones that do but yeah, I know, you just interviewed John Paul. Yeah, she's one that kind of came business background, but the vast majority of yoga business owners really are starting, you know, from ground zero from the business perspective, and that that's fun for me, because I feel like yeah, impact and I can help them through.
Michael Jay 4:23
Yeah, so this is I mean, I agree with you. This is where we come in, right. This is where we help because this is where we've been there. We've done that we've seen it pretty much seen it all and we know that we can help them. So can you take the type of okay, yoga studio owners coming to you. So I imagine there's a few types is probably the maybe the startup studio, there's maybe the startup solopreneur maybe and and then there's probably the existing studio that is looking at updating rebranding, would you say there's any other kind of audiences that come to you for your
Connie 5:03
Yeah, I think that's it. I mean, there's it really you, you know, you know, the yoga boom in the early 2000s, there tends to be a lot of studios that, you know, can't enter the market 20 or so years ago, 15 years ago, with big existing studios, you know, lots of stuff going on, then there's kind of the second wave of the personal brand, maybe personal brand turned studio and person, I think there is a new kind of wave in since COVID of these, these independent teachers, more personal brands that are that are trying their hand at having their own business. But yeah, I think it's, you know, pretty kind of break it down into like, Legacy studios that, you know, were the first to market back back when, who were still around who need need refreshing and need, yeah, keep up with the times and then kind of this new wave of like, Okay, now we're more and more hybrid, maybe some personal brand. You know, I'm not seeing a whole lot of like, straight in person studios open up recently. I don't know if you have you.
Michael Jay 6:05
Yeah, I am. Yeah, I am across the country across the country, actually. Yeah, yeah. It's, and I'm finding a lot of people that I'm talking to you right now, especially in my introductions with them, that are thinking about opening a studio and looking because I think rents rents are good right now. There's opportunity. There's opportunities right now. And so coming out of the I think we're coming out of the pandemic, hopefully, but it's the people are getting a little bit more confident now. And so I am seeing, I've literally am working with three build outs right now. So I am seeing that. Yeah, yeah. So
Connie 6:46
first, and then they can Yeah,
Michael Jay 6:47
I'll be sending that I'll be sending. Also, let's talk about that, that that branding of a new business. So I've just, you know, I'm going through that right now with, you know, it's not just about a website, right. It's about, it's about logo, it's about your fonts, it's about your colors is about your overall visual, and it's about pulling that all together. So how do you come into that?
Connie 7:13
Right? And yeah, that is what you know, most people think about when they think a brand. And those are the the client facing brand elements in brand identity is what we know that the work that you do with clients has to happen before you get to the designing part, the final color stuff, everyone wants to talk about their colors, right. But they
Michael Jay 7:33
need their mission and vision values before that, right? Do.
Connie 7:37
They need that they need to know how they're going to stand out in the market. I think that's more important now than it has been in the last 20 years, you know, it's a competitive space, you know, you see all the online options as a consumer. So I think it's more important, you could get a good buy for a long time, just being the local, you know, the local studio. But now I think it really is important to do that foundational stuff about your mission, your vision, your values, and how are we going to stand out? Let's look at the layout. Let's look at our competitors. How are we going to be different? How are we going to look different? How are we going to sound different? How are we going to communicate different? Who are people? That's really, you know, that really, it needs to be done before? I mean, when someone comes to me and they say, Okay, I'm opening a studio, those the first questions I ask if they don't can't articulate that things, it's really hard to make a visual brand identity, the colors, the fonts, the logo, that are going to convey that they don't know what they're trying to convey. So yeah, part of the same process for sure. It'll come last though they do.
Michael Jay 8:39
Yeah. But isn't it a juicy stage, that that that that beginning stage where they're just kind of bubbling, and everything's kind of coming together, and the brand comes together. And I love that, that I love that building kind of stage. So they come to you and they wanted to start their website? What would the process be coming to you like, so brand new client brand new business? What would the process be? Let's say they've worked with me, they've got their mission vision values, they kind of figure out who the client is. Because the the copy has to work to that the images have to work to that as well. And then you have to put it together. So what is the process? How do you get them to pull it together and make it efficient?
Connie 9:22
Yeah, so you know, I always start just before we even get into the project, we just have a console call. And that's where it takes stock of like, okay, do you know what your businesses you have, you know, know who you're talking to that type of thing. And then there's three things that we need before we even start on the website. It's the visual branding, that logo, colors, fonts, it's the copywriting, the words that are going to go on the website, and it's the photography, so I can help them with both the copywriting and the branding, if they need those things. Clearly, you know, they need to find a local photographer, but I do have a photography guide that I'll provide them. So really on that initial concept called talk to those three things. Yeah, the three pieces that make a good website, yeah. And I can give either give them guidance on all of them, or I can help them with those too. But that's the prep work that needs to happen. Once we have those pieces together, then the website comes together just is just a much more powerful tool for them in their business.
Michael Jay 10:18
Yeah. Let's talk call to actions on the website. Yeah. Because it's great having a glossy, you know, a glossy, pretty thing. But if it doesn't lead you to something like a sale, or a download or something at the end of that. So I find that a lot in emails website, the social media, people put a lot of time into putting these pretty things out. But then they don't ask for something from that.
Connie 10:56
Yeah, I think there's two sides to that. One is, I mean, people love talking about their craft, they love talking about what they do. The first is figuring out what the headline is, or what the what's in it for me, you know, you have something to share, that's important to you, you need to pause for a second before you're putting it out there, whether it's on a website or social media and think about the receiver, the the reader of it, they're, they're more they're concerned about themselves, they don't really care about you, they care about them. So what is the that you want to convey? What's in it for them? What's in it for the reader? How do you flip that content? And then once you do that the call to action, the end piece, kind of naturally, you know, takes care of itself, which is what their next step? So I think it's the mindset of thinking about what you want to share. But getting in the mindset of Why does my reader care about this? What's in it for them? And what's their next step, if you can do that with every piece of content you put out, whether it's an ad, or a post or a page on a website? That's the conversation. That's the sales conversation that needs to be happening. And that's your absolute right, that's what's getting lost a lot in the picture. Because, you know, it's easy to talk about what we do, but it's really hard to wrap it around into what's in it for the reader and why why they should take.
Michael Jay 12:14
And it doesn't have to be complicated, right? It can be a standout button that says buy now click here for more details register here. Do you have any other good ones that might people might be able to? Link in bio?
Connie 12:28
Right? Yeah, let's
Michael Jay 12:29
do it. It's,
Connie 12:30
yeah, count me in. Voices. You'll have fun you get with that? Yeah, I always challenge people with those buttons. Start with a verb, if you can, like, what is the call to action, like what's the what's the verb, you know, by is a verb, that's a clear learn more is another common one. But we really like action oriented call to action, even if it's just learn more and taking them to another page. Great. We've given them that path we've given them. Yeah, like, what their what they need, what their question is in the back of their mind, which is okay, so what, what's in it for me?
Michael Jay 13:05
Yeah. And I mean, I think for a yoga studio, we all know, the most important call to action, if you have an intro offer, right, which is really easy, clear way to purchase an intro offer. So you've actually, I know you've actually done science behind this, that you've actually watched the way that people click through websites, and the site, sort of the psychology of that. Can you talk a little bit about that? And what you see on that?
Connie 13:36
Right, yeah, I mean, people, there are two types of people, viewers of websites, there's the like, action, I want to get it done. I'm familiar with your brand, I've already thought through this through ready to take action for those people. That's why we do put that call to action. Up on the front page. It also like provides context for the decision that the viewer is going to be making eventually. So button and your navigation button on your homepage. Those are the people who have been floating around finally made the decision, make it a direct path, they're going to land on your website, they're going to click the one button and be in the cart and checkout. Then there's the people who are a little earlier on in their buyers journey, who are doing their research, they're checking you out, they're checking your competitors out there trying to decide if yoga is right, or Pilates, or maybe I'll just join the why they're trying to decide what's going to solve their problem. They're going to look a little deeper into your site, they're usually gonna go to the homepage. First, they're going to look at the schedule page to see if it fits in their personal life pricing page to see if it looks in their budget. They may click on a class descriptions page to get a little more detail. They may, you know, go check you out on Google and your reviews and may click a few other places. Those three pages are definitely yeah, the important ones.
Michael Jay 14:55
I'm gonna hop in here and add a little tip for your yoga schedule. page. So when most studios are going to be signed up with a studio management booking software such as mind body online, or Wallah, or any of the other ones, they will come with an API where you can integrate the life schedule into your website, which is fantastic for booking, it's amazing. So basically, when I say it's a linear schedule, it goes from top to bottom. So Monday through Friday linearly on the webpage, you have to scroll down. But that's great for booking is not necessarily great for a potential client to make a decision whether they want to come to your studio, and if they see value in having a membership at your studio. So what you want to have is a visual weekly schedule Monday through Sunday, that shows all the classes and easy time slots, maybe even color coded by the different styles of classes. And that way, somebody can look at your schedule and go, Okay, I can come on Monday, oh, I could come on Tuesday night, I could come on Thursday afternoon, and I can hit a Sunday class, I can come three or four times a week, that's going to be value for my membership, right, make it easy for your clients to make the decision to come to your studio. That's it, let's get back to Connie.
Connie 16:20
And we can't forget the fact that you're running a business and there is a there's a goal for your website. And it is to move people through that buyers journey wherever they're starting from, we just want to progress them down that buyers journey. So you know, typically your website, it's for your new clients, it's for the new prospects, your existing clients, they're gonna book you know, either via the app or in person, they're gonna have their schedule, they're going to pop on your website, they're gonna go directly to the schedule, they know what they're looking for. So your website needs to be written and needs to communicate to people who are making that buying decision for the first time. So you know, one set of person that's going to visit your website, they've already done the research, they're ready to act, you know, they may be heard of you, they've got a good referral, they're like, just, I'm ready to jump in. So we want to make sure that your intro offer is really available for them wherever they land on that website. Typically, that means it's on the homepage, it's a really clear, you know, button, it's in the navigation, you know, we just want to make that very, very easily accessible whenever they make that decision. The other person that's coming to your site is someone who's just still doing the research. So checking you out, or checking your competitors out there trying to decide if yoga is right for them or Pilates better, or, you know, they're they're trying to you're trying to move them closer to that decision. So for those type of people, they're going to visit your homepage, your schedule page to see if it fits into their lifestyle, your pricing page to see if it fits into their budget and your about page to see if they can trust you. So those pages need to be have that clear call to action. Yeah, once they get there to lead them towards that next purchase stuff. But this
Michael Jay 18:01
is not you just making up that those pages are important. Right? So this is you This is based on you've done research on this, you have installed things that track how people click around a website. And so based on the fitness, customer, and yoga customer, you know, when people click first,
Connie 18:23
right, yeah, I look at the stuff all the time, the whole
Michael Jay 18:26
psychology behind it, right? It
Connie 18:29
is yeah, it is buyer psychology, it's the sales, conversation and action. And you can see, by looking at analytics of all my customer sites, I can see what pages get the most clicks. I put, they're called heat maps, if you've ever played around with those where you can literally see where people's mouse moves, where they
Michael Jay 18:48
can, we can talk about that a little bit for pizza. People understand that one? Because I wanted that you told me that I'd never heard of it before until you spoke about it. So it's like hot, it's like hot spots, right?
Connie 18:59
Yeah, exactly. The tool I use is called Hot jar. But there's several out there. You basically put a little bit of code on the back of your website. And then you can like kind of spy on your visitors. You can see who they are privacy information, of course, but you can see where they click on the page, you can see when they scroll when they stopped to read something, what they're clicking on that isn't clickable, you can see where they're going next what pages so it's really fascinating to take a look at that. Think through Okay, put yourself into the chair of the viewer, the reader and see what information do they want more of what are they you know, where where's the path going? And yeah, you know, you can do that on your own site for sure. If you're curious oftentimes if I do get an older site that has a lot of pages we do that just to make sure you know it's it's good for me as a communication tool to talk to the client be like you think these pages are important, but they're really not and here's
Michael Jay 19:54
that so let's talk about the for the yoga studio that has an intro offer and mean, you just cannot get away from top? Right, right?
Connie 20:03
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, like action. Generally people leave in the western world people read left to right. The like the call to action is usually on the last day on the navigation, make it a button make it stand out visually. And I think there's a whole lot I use and arguing with the What Works.
Michael Jay 20:22
Yeah, exactly. And so I'm going to on my last podcast, with Daniel Baba, I'm not sure if you listened to that. But we spoke about you. And, and she talked about hiring the best in the business, which is you? And you know, and she talks about hiring experts in their fields. And I gotta say, well, first of all, I mean, she is so impressive. If you haven't listened to Daniel Bobo on the life last podcast. I mean, she's phenomenal. Like, she is just rocking her world. And if you haven't seen her website, which is done by Pixar at design, which is Connie, I kind of think it's perfection. This website, I really do, you know, like I work with a lot of clients and a studios. And I think this studio there, though, I think you can't get any better than we think we seek the river.com. That's correct. But like right in the top, right, new here, question mark. And then the other thing I like about, and I spoke to her about this is, the simplicity of it is not all these offers everywhere, when you go to her website, you can purchase a expensive drop in, or a well priced intro offer kind of is where all that shows up. Alright. And the the purchase experience is very simple and very easy. And I think that's important that our studio software's you know, there's a lot of them out there lately, but I think it's important that our studio software helps cells make that click first purchase easy. And I think you did a really good job with that website.
Connie 22:04
Well, thank you, I appreciate that. That was a that was a fun one. Because like, yeah, they've got great branding, they know who they're talking to, they know who, what they are and what they aren't great photos. I mean, it was a good, good site to put together there. Yeah, Wallah software, which I do love how easy that is making things to to purchase. Well, you've
Michael Jay 22:23
probably been hearing me speak a lot about the wall of software lately. And I gotta say, I'm a bit of a fan at the moment. It's very forward thinking. And if you want to know a little bit more about the studio management software, you can go back to season one, episode 13, with Laura, from Walla software, and you can have a listen to that. And also, if you go to my last episode, which is season two studio chat with Daniel Barbeau, she talks about her experience switching to Wala. Now listeners of yoga base camp have a special offer here, which you can find in my show notes, or by going to my website yoga is camp.com. And just check on resources and partners. And there's a link there to all the software's that I work with. But while it has an offer, if you click on the link, you can have a free demo just to have a look and see what you think about it, no obligation, got nothing else to lose. So just check it out. And then if you like it, wallet is offering yoga base camp listeners 50% off the first four months. So again, head over to the show notes, link in bio, wherever you're listening from, or go to my website, yoga base camp resources and partners. One thing I'd love to talk about is, you know, this, this can be uncomfortable for some yoga teacher yoga businesses, but it's like being comfortable with selling. And one of those things is, you know, a landing page, you know, for a program or so you kind of got to scream and shout about your programs. Right. And so I think a landing page is a really good place for that. Whether it's for registering or collecting an email database, do you want to talk a little bit about what you've seen in the world of landing pages in the yoga world?
Connie 24:17
Yeah, definitely. And let me just kind of define the landing page because a lot of clients that I talked to are quite sure you know, is it a sales page? Is it a homepage? What is a landing page. So a landing page is just a page that has all the information someone needs to make one decision so as a very focused call, single call to action. It is can be a sales page for if you're selling something, it can also be a page or if you want someone to sign up for your free trial or subscribe. So lots of different purposes for it retreats, you know, combat can be a landing page too. It's the goal there is just really to get people to make a decision on that page versus having them jump off to a bunch of different pages to get all the information they need. So, the one landing page, I think every yoga studio, every yoga business needs is a for their intro offer, right? Yeah, the very first step. And, you know, I don't see seeing this a little bit more, and I do it on all my clients sites. But this is like such a great tool for you to have as a business owner where you can link to it from LinkedIn, or you can send it out in emails, knowing that that sales conversation is going to happen on that page. And it's a very well crafted sales conversation in one place. So with an intro offer, you know, you're definitely putting the button where they can buy it, put in all the details of the specific offer, but you're also talking to the pain points that new client has, you know, maybe you've tried working out at home, and it's not working, maybe you need more flexibility, feel more flexibility, less stress, whatever those things are. It's also a great place where you can do include frequently asked questions from beginners. So what are those questions that people usually have before they buy your intro? I'm not flexible enough. I can't connect to that, you know, address those in a frequently asked questions kind of style. And now you're overcoming buyer objections right on the page, too. So a lot can be done on the landing page. And I think they're an underutilized tool for yoga studios, specifically, who just figured, well, they'll click around and find the information they need, like no, actually lay it out Form Layout yourself. Yeah.
Michael Jay 26:23
Well, yeah. And again, at the end a call to action of, you know, doing some enter that you can't leave that. But yeah, that's such an important, especially on the intro offer, and, and addressing the things in the copy. I think, like you said, I say this on a daily basis, people will pay for a solution to a problem. And so you address those problems, whether it's, I had a conversation yesterday, well, you know, do people have low back pain in your area? You know, like, if there's a problem, you know, you can create a program out of, for people with low back pain, you know, like that. So addressing those in that those problems that people will pay for a solution to, I think is a really important thing when you're putting your offers and your content out there.
Connie 27:07
talked about earlier, right? It's like, yeah, flipping around what you want to say into a why do they care? Yeah, yeah, but what an intro offer conversation needs to look like to
Michael Jay 27:17
Yeah, just gonna jump in here to talk about the intro offer, you hear me talking about the intro and the offer and the importance of it a lot. But what is more important than just selling an intro offer is that special time between when they purchase and conversion to membership, that's where the magic happens. So if you're not, if you don't have a plan, or retention plan for that stage, for every stage for every week, during that intro offer period, then you are really missing out. So if you're feeling that, please reach out to me, you can go to yoga biz camp.com. Right. On the homepage, you'll see a little video of me, you take three steps to answer a few questions. And you can book an appointment with me and we can have a good little chat about your intro offer. And if it's working for you, you work a lot with Squarespace Correct.
Connie 28:14
I do pretty much exclusively with Squarespace. I've done some Shopify work, but mostly Squarespace. I just think it's a great platform for studios.
Michael Jay 28:22
Well, I think you know, I mean, I've, I've been through every platform, probably, I think, you know, my first studio website was WordPress, which is, you know, it's powerful, but it's not an IT for the average studio owner. It's not the easiest piece of software to, to navigate, right. But I think things like Squarespace and things like that make it a lot easier right to, for them to update themselves on simple things.
Connie 28:52
Right, yeah. And that's something I really feel strongly about in this industry. I used to work on WordPress back in the day, and then I would deliver a website to the client along with like a big checklist of like, here's all the things you need to do to keep it contained. And for yoga business owners, you know, boutique fitness, they just don't have the time for that. Like, they just don't, they don't need that. And that cause puts causes problems with wordpress if you don't keep up with it, right. So I switched to doing Squarespace and really happy with that, because my clients are really happy with it. They can go in and make basic edits and changes. And, you know, we really saw the importance of having that capability as a business owner during the pandemic. Yeah, quickly. And, you know, I saw a lot of very like panicked business owners because they couldn't change their website because they had to go through a developer and the developer. Yeah. So it is really important to me that the business owner gets the training that they need to feel comfortable making basic things not to design a whole website, but you know, changing staff, changing classes, making announcements, you know, changing some things up. So that that's part of my process. When I work with clients. I think that's really important and I feel Like, studio owners have been kind of told for a long time by design agencies and marketing agencies that, you know, they can't do that. And I don't think that's right. I think we have tools like Squarespace, you absolutely can maintain your own website.
Michael Jay 30:15
I haven't spoken about this much. But my path, you know, I used to be a graphic designer and in the marketing business, and so I was around when the website design first started, and I was doing websites. And I was, it was before Adobe. Didn't want to before Adobe did that. And I was on Dreamweaver, like, I've literally been on every platform, from really dating myself, when Netscape Navigator was like a gray screen with blue text links. And yeah, so yeah, when I first got into yoga, I traded. So I created the studio, I went to their very first website. And so I traded doing website design for a yoga studio for my first yoga class. That's kind of
Connie 31:10
how you got into industry. That's how I
Michael Jay 31:11
got into it got into the yoga world, for sure. But it literally was from doing websites for her. So yeah, I've been around this website business for a long, long way. Yeah. What So who's your ideal client, you work with yoga studios, but boutique fitness, who's your, your, we're talking about, you know, our yoga ideal clients, Who's your ideal client? Like, if someone was to listen to you today? You know, who do you love working with? Who's the?
Connie 31:42
Yeah, love it. You know, I do have a lot of yoga clients, I would say I love the independently owned or operated boutique fitness of any kind type of studio 123 locations. You know, I love someone who comes in with a clear, you know, picture of like, a passion. And they just, they're open to, you know, developing that into something. In reality, I love taking this like, person who feels really like, overwhelmed with like, here's all my ideas, but I'm like, help me get it out into the world in a way that it makes it powerful. I love coming alongside that person. And, you know, in when they're open to back and forth assessing like, you know, how are we going to convey this? That's really exciting to me. Yeah. Love the independent owner, operator. Yeah. And
Michael Jay 32:29
I think, man, I think you know, you're similar to me, it becomes a relationship, right? And you almost feel like you're part of that team. And I know that, you know, the studios that I've helped launch lately, you know, when I'm online, I'm, I'm so excited about watching what they're doing. It's ridiculous how I invest invested in how much I care, and I kind of feel it, you're that way as well with your customers. Honey, let's, let's kind of end this with a few fun questions. So tell me business wise, what kind of what's your favorite app or tool?
Connie 33:09
favorite app or tool? I love it's been yours that to do list app? It is a very I don't know if you're familiar with that one. Yeah, very simple to do list. And yeah, it's on my phone and my computer. Like I think I just love it for the simplicity of it. I keep coming back to it. I use project management software, Asana, I, you know, use other kinds of tools, but that's like the word like my daily focus list. And I just want the simplicity of it. So to do list app would be my,
Michael Jay 33:40
I've been using clickup So I've tried that. I feel like I keep trying them all. I don't know why I keep flipping around them right now. It's clickup that I'm using, but it is nice to have one place to kind of go What about a fun? What's what's a fun go to website or app or?
Connie 34:00
Yeah, right now and probably with the rest of the world on the Wordle craze,
Michael Jay 34:04
are you really Yeah. I haven't I keep seeing my friends post
Connie 34:08
it's kind of fun. And my I have four sons and even my nine year old and my husband we're all on the same text chain and everyone you know says shares their Wordle of the day so that's been kind of fun. We'll see how long that lasts. But I think that's kind of a fun little fun little game right now that's website
Michael Jay 34:28
can you tell people how to find you and Germany intro offers Can you what's going on in your world for people to find you?
Connie 34:40
Yeah, you can find me on my website at pics ality design calm. I'm also on Instagram a pixel at design and that's pix al it why it's a combo of pixel I will Tality you probably get that
Michael Jay 34:53
I will and I will drop it into the show notes.
Connie 34:56
Okay. Yeah, you can that you can check out there all my services. If you fill out the contact form on my website, we'll probably jump on a call and do a free consult and just talk about where you're at and give you some advice on that and see if I'm a good fit to work with you. If you want some free resources, if you scroll down to the bottom of my website, the bottom is free resources. And I have a website photography guide for studios. So if you're thinking about getting a photo shoot, and you want to make sure that your photos will work well on your website, that's a popular one there. There's also a website, messaging guide, and some other some other stuff that actually bottom.
Michael Jay 35:36
You put a lot of free resources out for people or in regards to websites, I really do encourage every listener to go to the website, we'll drop the shownotes links, but there's some really, really good information on her blog. Like it's very thorough information. So I think you kind of put the best resources out there, Connie.
Connie 35:56
Good. Yeah. Yeah. Just go to my website, scroll down to the footer. And you'll find that yeah, so
Michael Jay 36:00
again, folks, Khan is the best in the business. If you are looking for a website, you're looking for a brand refresh. She's your girl she does. You are the best in the business. I really, truly believe that. And I think anybody hiring you is going to have a fantastic website and brand. So thank you for spending the time with me today, Connie.
Connie 36:22
Well, thank you very kind, always, always fun to chat with. We do it anytime, Michael.
Michael Jay 36:27
Alright, thank you so much.
Connie 36:29
All right. Thanks. Bye, bye.
Michael Jay 36:32
Once again, thank you so much to listening to my podcast. I just love Connie. I love the work that she's doing. And again, please do go to the show notes, you'll get all the links to things that we spoke about. Don't forget to go to my website, which is yoga is counted.com. Click on Resources and you'll find all sorts of goodies there to help your business. And if you want to work with me, you could just go from the homepage and just go a few little questions on my video there. And that will get you an appointment and we'll have a quick 15 minute chat, no charge no obligation. And once again, if you enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review and I'll see you on the next
Unknown Speaker 37:14
one.