Episode Transcript
TPM Ep 34 Lazy Genius Your Website
[00:00:00] Shelley: Hello Playful Mompreneurs, it's Shelley Tonkin Smith here, and today we're diving back into our discussion about websites. So, if you caught our previous episode, you know that we explored all the different pages your website could potentially have, all the different jobs that those pages will do. It is a lot.
[00:00:24] And it can definitely feel overwhelming. To tackle a website project. I know because I'm in the midst of a website redo myself and I am a copywriter. I do this work for a living. So whether you are building a brand new website or refreshing your current one, or maybe you're creating a single sales page for a new product or service that you're offering.
[00:00:52] I do know that this process can seem daunting and you just don't know where to start. But don't you worry, because today I'm going to draw some inspiration from one of my favourite life organisation gurus. I don't know if that's what Kendra Adachi would call herself, but she is the author of The Lazy Genius Kitchen.
[00:01:14] So, this book focuses on organising your kitchen, but the principles can be brilliantly applied, as I've discovered, to our website projects. Now, I will say that I am a huge fan of all of Kendra's work, including her first book, The Lazy Genius Way.
[00:01:33] Also her Lazy Genius Podcast, and I can't wait for her upcoming book called The Plan, which is, by the way, currently available for pre order. I think it's coming out in October. So in true Playful Mompreneur style, we're going to borrow Ideas from the life side of our existences to help us play nicely in business.
[00:01:59] I'm going to use Kendra's Lazy Genius Process to make our website projects feel a little less overwhelming and more achievable. We're going to lazy genius our websites.
[00:02:12] Words+Web+Wisdom Program
[00:02:12] Shelley: so before I go through how you can approach building a website as a lazy genius, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be running a program called Words, Web and Wisdom, or www.
[00:02:26] Now it's starting in the second week of July 2024.
[00:02:29] In this program, I will guide you to write and design your own beautiful website at a fraction of the cost of outsourcing to specialist copywriters like myself, uh, to designers and to developers, And I'm going to do all of that in just six weeks.
[00:02:48] So this is a special beta version of a course that I plan to build out in future. So if you are in time to hear this before the start of July 2024, and you want to write and build your own websites, or you want to refresh your existing websites, then I'm going to say that this is a sign to sign up for Words, Web and Wisdom because it's in this beta form at the moment.
[00:03:17] And so I'm limiting numbers to just eight people. And it's also at a never to be repeated price too, because I am learning along with you, I'm putting together the curriculum and getting your feedback. And going to get super customized input from me, and this crazy good price.
[00:03:34] Do remember, you're going to be doing all your own copywriting. So you also need to be ready to put in some hours behind the keyboard. But really I'm going to guide you through the whole thing and honestly the clarity that you'll have about your business after going through this course is going to be so powerful.
[00:03:53] You won't just have an amazing website, but you'll also have clarity in all your other messaging that you put out into the world as well. So if that sounds like your jam, go to wordswebwisdom.carrd.co for more information, and that's where you can apply. And I would love to have you join this cohort of words, web and wisdom. All right. So are you ready to lazy genius your website?
[00:04:23] The Lazy Genius Process
[00:04:23] Shelley: Okay. So as I mentioned in the beginning, this could be for a brand new website, or it could be for a little like product website, like a sales page, or you're going to refresh. A lot of my friends at the moment are refreshing their websites, getting new branding, just new ideas, new messaging, new concepts.
[00:04:40] Now, I've introduced this idea that we are going to be lazy genius in our website according to Kendra Adachi's process, But I think it would be important to just explain why this term lazy genius. So Kendra Adachi says that we can go into this perfectionist genius kind of energy and this way of being where everything needs to be just so.
[00:05:04] And in our websites, for example, we have to have the best. The perfect branding, the perfect color scheme, the perfect copy, everything has to obey the rules and the templates of the copywriting formulas. And of course, if we approach doing our websites and building our websites and updating our websites with that kind of genius energy, we are going to feel completely overwhelmed Just completely like that we can't do this and like where to even begin on the opposite end of the spectrum in the lazy genius way is that lazy way and you could go, oh, you know what?
[00:05:44] Who cares? I'll just have a Facebook page. I'll just throw up whatever I'm thinking in the moment and just that can be my messaging and my copy. So we don't want to go To the genius end of the extremes, and we also equally don't want to go to that lazy side, because that's also not fun, right? Where you kind of, I don't care.
[00:06:07] And I think as heart centered entrepreneurs and playful mompreneurs, we do want to find this middle ground. And happily, that's exactly what the Lazy Genius Way is, is to actually take time and to do the things that matter to you with this lazy genius energy. And to be lazy about the things that don't matter and be a genius about the things that do.
[00:06:34] That is Kendra's tagline for everything that she does. And so that's the kind of idea that we're going to bring to your website. The things that matter on your website, the things that are going to give you traction and give you return on your investments of your time and money into your website tooling and the time that you spend writing your websites.
[00:06:54] We want to maximize that and make it feel good and make it feel like you. You. So that is the Lazy Genius Way and I just thank Kendra so much for coming up with this. Putting into words what I feel is a really amazing way of approaching anything in life. So Kendra Adachi outlines five steps for this Lazy Genius Process.
[00:07:19] Number one is to prioritize. And here we're going to name what matters. Number two is to essentialize. And this is a term borrowed from Greg McKeown's book Essentialism. And what we're doing here is we're removing what's in the way of that priority you've just named.
[00:07:42] Step three is to organize and put everything in its place. So notice, you're only starting to organize and starting to kind of do some work in step three of Kendra Adachi's Lazy Genius process. Then step four is to personalize, and that is to feel like yourself. And so how can we make our website feel like ourselves?
[00:08:07] And finally, in step five, you're going to systemize and stay in the flow of your website building process. So there's the five steps of Kendra Adachi's Lazy Genius process.
[00:08:21]
[00:08:21] Shelley: So let's talk about
[00:08:23] Step 1: Prioritize
[00:08:23] Shelley: step number one, to prioritize and name what matters. This is probably the most important step of the whole process and it's probably the one that we tend to forget and to leave out.
[00:08:36] So here I would ask yourself, what is the most important job that my website needs to do? So, in the Lazy Genius Kitchen, Kendra Adachi takes you kind of through a bit of a process of elimination. And the first question she asks is, what could matter? Because remember, we're naming what matters. So what could matter?
[00:08:59] So, here, go and list out all the things. Even including some of the shoulds that could matter. So, for example, you are going to build a website to establish yourself as an authority in your field. Maybe you need to get inquiries from that website. Maybe you need to do, like, immediate sales. So, like selling products on your website.
[00:09:23] Maybe you need to build your list. Maybe you want to build a website to express your creativity and it's less about the sort of financial transactions. Maybe the big thing that matters is getting people on discovery calls and then selling them your services. Maybe you need a place to display your portfolio.
[00:09:45] Maybe your website is the place that you build your social media following. Maybe you want to get more podcast listeners and subscribers through a website. Can you see here, I could go on and on and on of all the things that could matter. And if you've probably read the internet, you will see like, Oh yeah, you need, you need a website to establish your authority.
[00:10:09] Maybe that's not, maybe that doesn't really matter. So Start with a brain dump of all the things that could matter and that maybe should matter. You know, you get the shoulds, Then go and reduce that down to the things that could matter for you. All right. So I think let's just like bring that list down and then in the next step, we're going to bring it down even further to just three top priorities.
[00:10:35] So of all those things that you've listed there, like, what are the three most important things that that website needs to do? And so that is answering the question, what does matter? And then we get really, really, incisive. And we go and ask the question, what matters the most about this website? If we could eliminate everything else.
[00:11:03] What is the most important thing that this website needs to do? Is it just to get your contact details out there? Is it, yeah, is it to just prove that you're a legit business? Out of all of those things, what matters the most? So we're looking at one priority, which Greg McKeown in Essentialism would highly approve of, because he says the word priority In the original form of the word did not have a plural. You can only have technically one priority.
[00:11:33] Okay. So this is what we're doing when we are prioritizing. We go, what could matter? What does matter? And then what matters the most?
[00:11:44] Step 2: Essentialize
[00:11:44] Shelley: All right. So then step two of the lazy genius process. is to essentialize.
[00:11:50] So good that I brought up Greg McKeown. This is his jam and this is his kind of big contribution to our thinking. And what we're doing here in terms of the Lazy Genius process is we're going to remove what's in the way. So an interesting kind of second step, right? We're not starting to add stuff and put stuff into the mix that we don't need.
[00:12:13] We're actually just going to remove. Particularly for those of us who have got websites, we've got online content, go through your current websites or online presence. And sometimes you can just straight up delete things. Or you could mark it for deletion. Or maybe you're going to archive some of the things that are getting in the way of that priority that you've just named.
[00:12:41] So If your priority is to display your portfolio, and maybe you then have portfolio pieces that aren't relevant anymore. Again, maybe you're displaying your authority in one field, but now you're niching down. And so then you need to remove pieces that don't demonstrate that authority.
[00:13:01] So what are some of the things that you could remove? You could look at your actual web pages, like maybe there are pages that you don't need anymore. Blogs, like you could delete a whole blog or particular blog posts. And yeah, when I say delete here, maybe you want to just archive these kinds of things.
[00:13:20] Or mark for deletion and go let's let me see if that actually works in the future. Podcasts, you, I mean I have a podcast that I probably am not going to keep on the airwaves anymore, it was a short term podcast, so I might just archive that, that whole podcast. I'll still have it on my computer, but I don't need to keep paying for hosting.
[00:13:43] Uh, social media posts, social media accounts. Maybe you don't need to be on all the socials anymore. And at this point, maybe it's like, you know what? I don't feel like being on Instagram and I'm not getting any joy. So I am going to mark Instagram as a whole for deletion. And so then you don't have to worry about that and bring that into the rest of your process, right?
[00:14:10] And this is also where you can look at your different subscriptions to tech and tools. Because there might be some easy just cancellations you can do of stuff that you're no longer using or that is just not returning on the investment that you are making every month or every year.
[00:14:28] So, before you move on, cut a few things out, alright?
[00:14:32] And as I say, maybe it's not a complete deletion, maybe it's just an archive.
[00:14:36] Step 3: Organize
[00:14:36] Shelley: Because then in step three, we move on to the lazy genius step Number three, which is organize. And here we're going to put everything in its place. So from your essentialized step, you're going to have all the leftovers, all the good stuff that you want to keep.
[00:14:52] And now you're going to like put that into its place. So in terms of a website, you are going to create something like a site map. To me, it could look like a little mind map where you go, Okay, these are the pages I need, or these are the sections I need for my sales page, if it's just a single page. This is also where you can do some wireframing, so rough drawings on paper.
[00:15:18] Where you kind of draw out how do you want your website to look and kind of what order do you want it to be in and a basic idea of where everything's going to fit, right? You can also start thinking about your process and organizing your process and your customer journey. So a basic flow diagram here of like when someone lands on your homepage, typically where are they going to go?
[00:15:40] So then where are you going to funnel them off in different directions and so on.
[00:15:45] So, When you're organizing, you're of course going to go back to that first step of prioritize and going, well, is this a priority? Do I need this page? Do I need this section or do I need this kind of content? And then you will put that in your organizational framework.
[00:16:04] Step 4: Personalize
[00:16:04] Shelley: All right. Then it's time to move on to step four of the lazy genius process. And that is to personalize, to feel like yourself. That website of yours needs to feel like you. So what is going to make this website communicate who you are and also who your people are? So that when those people arrive at this website, they go, yeah, this is a person that I can get behind.
[00:16:32] This is a person who I resonate with. So it's communicating who you are, but not just like leading with like, here I am, I'm so great and this is how we do things because this is my way. But it's more attracting your customers, your people, attracting them into your community and into this place, this home that you've got on the internet that is called your websites.
[00:16:59] So at this step, I do things like your messaging foundations. And I've realised, you know, when you write in a novel, you can be a pantser or a plotter. So this means like, writing by the seat of your pants is a pantser. And a plotter is someone who plots out their whole story from beginning to end and has everything perfect.
[00:17:20] Your message in Foundations, you can Be either a pantser or a plotter about your foundations, but the idea here is to get a bit of clarity on what are your main messages that you're going to put forward that are you, and that are going to draw people in and make people go, yeah, this is for me.
[00:17:38] Then the other thing that I do here is come up with lots of stories. Bring in stories from day to day life. I love listening to The Office Ladies, a rewatch podcast of The Office, and amazingly, Kendra Adachi's podcast is now part of The Office Ladies Network, so all of these people are all my people!
[00:17:59] And, often in the Office Ladies Podcast, they talk about the writer's room and the board in the writer's room with all these note cards. And whenever the writers, or even the actors, or the cast and crew, have ideas for stories or these crazy little life situations, they would write it down and it could be a one liner of like, product recall.
[00:18:20] They put it on the board and, That is the fodder that those writers use to write such amazing scripts for The Office. So, do that in your business. And you can do this electronically, on a spreadsheet or something like that, or you can do it on notecards. And just write down basic ideas for personal stories.
[00:18:40] That's Make you seem like a human. Not just seem like a human, you are a human. So in the world of AI, you want to sound more human and make it very evident that you are a human, that you have these experiences. On Two Booked Up, my other podcast with Rowena Mabbott, I was talking about dropping a Harry Potter book on my foot and like that story just like really resonated with so many people.
[00:19:07] So it's nothing like amazing, but it's, it's keeping track of those personal stories.
[00:19:13] Okay. At this stage of your website's development process, you are also going to do some design and visual detail thinking of. How do I want this website to look? Now, don't get in the weeds here.
[00:19:26] If you've already got a logo that you're going to run with, then run with that. Don't get too bogged down at this point. Especially if we're going to be wanting to get this website out quickly. But this is where you will bring a logo. the visual side of your personality into your website.
[00:19:44] And this is also where I'd suggest you research website builders and the kind of tech tools that will work for you and your priorities. So that's what's going to boundary this whole thing, right? Is those first priorities that we did in step one. When we named what matters. So if what matters is taking online payments, then absolutely, then you need some tech and a payment processor that can take those online payments immediately without you having to issue an invoice.
[00:20:13] But like, for example, for the beta course that I'm going to be doing, Words, Web and Wisdom, I've only got Eight spaces available. So I'm not taking online payments. I'm just invoicing people as they apply and as I'm accepting them into the course. So you can make decisions around tech that will work for the priorities.
[00:20:33] So you can see why those priorities are so important, because I think in this personalized step, you can start getting like, Oh, wow, I can do all these cool things. And like, Oh, let me like spend the whole day on Canva. So your priorities Give you a beautiful boundary, which is very playful, by the way.
[00:20:49] When we play games, we play them within the boundaries of a field or a court, and that's what makes the game fun. So, we're personalizing, but within the boundaries of our priorities. I love that so much.
[00:21:03] Step 5: Systemize
[00:21:03] Shelley: Okay, lazy genius step number five, and the last step of this Process is to systemize, and this means we're gonna stay in the flow.
[00:21:15] So at this point for a website project, this is where you're really gonna do the work of writing and then designing and developing your website. And this is really where Kendra's first book, the Lazy Genius Way comes in. 'cause she's got 13 principles that you can use to stay in the flow. And one of the, principles I love so much is to start small .
[00:21:38] So here, you've organized your website. You've seen what you've got and what you don't have. So choose one of the pages in that plan that you've done, the sitemap that you've done. Maybe you've got an about page that just needs to be updated. That might be the easiest place to start, the smallest place to start.
[00:21:56] One of the things I am loving about the latest Squarespace iteration is that it uses AI to help you not start from a blank slate. So it tells you just write 200 words or even two, I think it was 200 characters, just about who you are and what you do and like a little bit about your business.
[00:22:16] And they were like, don't worry, don't, you don't have to make it perfect. But they take that, put it into AI or ChatGPT kind of model. And instead of starting with lorem ipsum text and like all blank pages on your website, you're starting with things of like, Oh, Shelley Smith Creative does this. And, uh, the Playful Mompreneur does that.
[00:22:35] And it feels so cool to not be starting from a blank slate. So you could use ChatGPT, whatever tool you're using, you don't have to even be using Squarespace, but you can use ChatGPT to help you not start from that blank slate and feel like you're making a start small step. And from there you can then edit and then the momentum's going.
[00:22:56] So yeah, at this point you're going to just write the first page, then you're going to write the next page, and You're going to write the next page. Now, the temptation is going to be to try and perfect each page before you move on to the next one. And my tip here is to get to 80 percent and then stop.
[00:23:16] And at that point, go and seek some feedback. Ask someone to, not even proofread it, but more like structurally edit it to go. Is my message coming through here? Is this clear? This is what I'm trying to communicate. Is this coming through clearly? And get someone else to read it at that point. So, as I say, that 80 percent mark, that is very lazy genius, I feel.
[00:23:39] It's not that 100 percent type energy. Because the problem is that, you know, we know this, it's never perfect. There's always going to be some, gaps of things that you've filled in in your head that somebody else might still have questions about and getting someone else to read it can be very helpful at this point.
[00:23:55] So rather than wasting that time to get it 20 percent better, get someone else on to it at that point and then implement that feedback And then I think you can get it closer to that hundred percent at that point
[00:24:06] And at this point you can use things like copywriting formulas can be very helpful if they help you Uh, you can use AI, I've mentioned AI now a few times, if it helps you, but always please use AI responsibly and please do not just put like what I call naked AI on your website.
[00:24:28] You're going to have to edit it for your own voice, even if you have trained it. You're going to have to do some edits. There are some real telltale AI words that I'm now starting to see. And I think the world is becoming a lot more sensitive to AI generated content. They can sniff it out. So add in your own vibes and that's where your stories, remember your storyboard, those stories on your writer's wall, those come in useful because your stories are your own and AI can't make up those stories for you.
[00:25:01] So just go page by page by page, not forgetting things like thank you pages and these little extra pages that come up. And at that point you can go and build the website in your website builder of choice. Then go and ask a few trusted confidants to go and test the site But like two or three people and then launch it go for it Get it out into the world again kind of getting to that 80 percent mark. Get your people to test it so that there's not any glaring errors, but it's never gonna totally feel totally perfect I think you are going to be thrilled with it, having followed this process.
[00:25:42] And, yeah, my encouragement to you and to me, is to get it out into the world and launch it.
[00:25:49] Summary of Lazy Geniusing Your Website
[00:25:49] Shelley: So, that for me, would be applying Kendra Adachi's Lazy Genius process to your website,
[00:25:56] So if you are now feeling inspired and ready to build your own website, or you're looking to refresh your current website, but you're maybe looking for some accountability, some copywriting support. You're looking for some help navigating the world of all website tech, which is constantly changing, especially with AI now.
[00:26:17] And if you're just looking for a bit of big picture business wisdom of your business and how the website fits into the big picture of your business, then please, you are warmly invited to join my Words, Web and Wisdom beta program, which as I say is starting now in July, 2024. You can go to wordswebwisdom.carrd.co, that's Carrd with two Rs, and I will put that link in the show notes. There's a form there that you can apply for the program. Grab one of those eight spots. Hopefully by the time you hear this, it hasn't all been filled.
[00:26:55] And if you are hearing this in the future and you didn't manage to get into the beta launch of this program, I am going to be offering this as a do it yourself course or a self-paced course So, go and have a look, I will leave links to the Words, Web and Wisdom program that you can use to become your own copywriter, to become your own website developer. And while you may not hang on to that forever, I think it's so important for business owners to have a handle on their messaging, on their copywriting and on all the tech tools that they use.
[00:27:31] It just brings so much ease and flow into your business and you really can be the CEO of your business even if you do eventually outsource some of those tasks to other people.
[00:27:42] So again, a warm invitation to Words, Web and Wisdom and a warm invitation to go and Lazy Genius, your website, Don't fall into the trap of being too perfectionistic and too genius and don't fall into the trap of just being like, Oh, I can't be bothered.
[00:28:00] I'm just too lazy. There is a lazy genius way.
[00:28:03] If you love the sound of this Lazy Genius Way, go and listen to the Lazy Genius Podcast. You'll find it wherever you listen to podcasts. And go and buy Kendra Adachi's books, The Lazy Genius Way, The Lazy Genius Kitchen, and come in October 2024, The Plan as well.
[00:28:21] If you'd like more of the Playful Mompreneur, please make sure you're subscribed in your podcast player. You can also contact me at shelley at shelleysmithcreative. com and connect with me on LinkedIn. I am Shelley Tonkin Smith over on LinkedIn.
[00:28:38] I'm Shelley Tonkin Smith, the Playful Mompreneur. Thanks so much for listening.
