Raising Kids & Running a Business
Raising Kids & Running a Business
040 | Data Driven Motherhood with Lauren Downey
What if your business could start seeing results tomorrow—and your toddler could learn the word “no” at the same time?
In this episode of Raising Kids & Running a Business, Kate chats with Lauren Downey, a digital advertising strategist and mom to a very opinionated toddler. From a French major teaching abroad to a full-time ad pro managing high-performing campaigns across Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and Reddit, Lauren shares how she pivoted her way into entrepreneurship.
They dive into the difference between long-term SEO vs. paid ads, the surprising impact of ChatGPT on lead generation, and how staying curious (and calm) powers both parenting and performance marketing.
If you’ve ever wondered how anyone manages PPC campaigns with a toddler in tow, this episode is for you.
Highlights
- From French to Funnels: Lauren’s journey from teaching in France to building a business in digital advertising.
- SEO vs. Paid Ads: Why paid ads offer faster results—and why Lauren prefers their pace over long SEO plays.
- The ChatGPT Effect: How AI is disrupting search behavior and emerging as a powerful traffic driver.
- Data-Driven Motherhood: How Lauren applies her analytical, problem-solving brain to both marketing and parenting.
- Marketing + Motherhood: The practical ways Lauren balances high-performing ad campaigns with life as a toddler mom.
Connect with Lauren Downey online:
Connect with Kate Christy:
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Kate Christy: Hello, Lauren, welcome to the podcast. Hi, Kate. Thanks for having me. I'm so glad you're here. I'm so excited to chat with you. our mutual acquaintance, not acquaintance, she's your relative. she's my friend, put us in touch. And so I really love how the internet and the world works like that, where we can just get to know anyone anytime and have a conversation.
so shout out to Alyssa for putting us, in touch and for getting you to come on the podcast. Yeah. Thanks for connecting us, Alyssa. before we get into everything, I would really love for you to just take a minute to introduce yourself to the listeners. Let us know who you are, what you do, how many kids you have, what ages they are, like all the stuff.
Lauren Downey: Yes, of course. So my name is Lauren Downey and I manage clients businesses, advertising. So my bread and butter is Google ads, meta ads, Reddit, LinkedIn ads, managing all of that and reporting on results. I've been doing this, full-time for about five years, but I really started, about 10 years ago doing this as a freelancer.
outside of my full-time marketing job and for children, I have a one and a half year old son.
Kate Christy: Okay. So still in the very early days, the thick of it with one child that is like such a fun age. I think that's when they have, a huge personality they're a little bit capable, but they're also very capable of.
Making messes and being a handful.
Lauren Downey: his new favorite word is No, no, no, no, no, no. So he's definitely getting more opinionated.
Kate Christy: I love that. I love that. My, 3-year-old who's my youngest, she's very strong-willed and every time she, acts very strong-willed, I'm like, this will serve her well.
Mm-hmm. In life. So just be glad that she's very sure of herself and she knows what she wants and she's demanding it.
Lauren Downey: Yes. Our son is very confident, very adventurous, no problem doing and testing limits.
Kate Christy: Yeah. Boys will do that. so you work in ads. Is this something that you were like, this is my passion?
Lauren Downey: Like, I always think about these jobs that I'm like, I have no idea, like how people do this, what they do, how it works, nothing. It's just this thing that exists that I know is important and I know people do it. So like how did you get into this business? So 10 years ago I got an entry level job at a marketing agency doing SEO.
Kate Christy: That's how I fell into marketing. But, before that I loved languages and I actually majored in French and I taught English and France, thinking that I would do something with French. but I came back to the United States after teaching abroad and worked as a waitress. I got a job at Enterprise Rent a car, so I did a bunch of non-marketing related, work, and then got entry level position doing SEO.
Lauren Downey: and that's, I. Where I got my start, I then moved over to the SEM or search engine marketing department where I managed Google Ads mm-hmm. For clients. And that's really what, I enjoyed and, continued to hone in my skills and
Kate Christy: create a career for myself. Mm-hmm. One thing that I really love about what I do in web design is that there's this creative component to it, but there's also this logistic problem solving, like getting really down in the, nitty gritty of the details and the data and like the problem solving. And so I can imagine with a job like yours that it's this almost like you can gamify it, right?
Where you're like tracking results and like moving levers and seeing, how that. Effects, like campaigns that you're running and things like that. So I can imagine that, can be exciting work.
Lauren Downey: Yeah, I mean, you really have to stay on top of what's going on. How many clicks did we get? What is the click through rate?
Did any of these clicks generate sales or leads? So, you have to be looking at results every day, every other day to make sure nothing, you're not wasting budget or your, ads are appearing for the right keywords. I mean, sometimes your ads will be disapproved by Google, and so you need to figure out why they're disapproved.
Usually it's like my spelling error or the landing page isn't working, or there's some policy, that you're violating.
Kate Christy: Yeah. So is this something that, 'cause like I know, like talking about SEO. That it's when you're teaching it or when you're practicing it in your business, that's like, this is a long game.
Like this is something that, you have to put the time and energy and the work and the money into for an extended period of time. And that feels like really uncomfortable for a lot of people, right? Of, oh, here's all this money and we'll just see what happens in three months time.
Lauren Downey: yeah, SEO is like a long term strategy with lots of work related to content keywords, on page optimizations. So like making tweaks to, headlines or meta descriptions, also making sure that your page loads quickly. It's a good experience. So there's a million factors that Google takes.
Into account to rank your page. so that's SEO but for paid advertising, it's great because you can say, okay, let's put a thousand dollars toward like these keywords and we know that our ad will appear. We know that our ad will be seen and very likely clicked on. So that's a short term strategy that can get immediate results.
I mean, it takes time to maybe reach those specific goals, but it's more of a short term, immediate
Kate Christy: response. Mm-hmm. Results. Mm-hmm. That must be a more pleasant working experience with your clients though. It's like, when you're doing the SEO stuff, it is like the long game and then you can have to kind of soothe their fears and concerns and, have those touch points along the way.
But here, like you're saying, you can kind of give them results really quickly.
Lauren Downey: Absolutely. And, you know, everything is changing with, chat GBT Claude, When people don't need to click on anything, you know, the Google search results anymore, they can just get their answers, or, results from chat GBT.
Mm-hmm. So, for example, a lot of my clients are now seeing their leads from chat GPT rather than Google Organic. and the conversion rate is much higher. So whereas for like organic, they might get a three outta 10 people or three outta a hundred people would submit a lead form with chat GBT if chat GBT recommends them, the conversion rate is like 50%.
So they're getting, five outta 10 traffic will submit a lead form. So the conversion rate from chat GPT, if you can have your website appear in chat, GBT is much, so far what we're seeing is I. Much higher conversion rates, more sales, more
Kate Christy: leads. Okay. This is wild. I promise we're gonna talk about motherhood.
let's take this segue. Okay. Because I know a lot of people listen to the podcast. Are creative business owners like this AI conversation. How is this gonna impact my job? How, how's this gonna impact how I do business? Like, this is a huge conversation. So having someone like yourself talking about what's changing and how it's changing, and those like shifts that you're seeing, like can you give us a little insight into like what you're seeing small businesses do now as part of a strategy to, increase their chances?
Like you're saying,
Lauren Downey: you know, we don't really know, I don't really know actually is, you can type in graphic designers in Asheville, North Carolina and see if Chacha BT lists you, it has to be able to chat to BT is different than Claude. But, so like for example, chat, GBT needs to be able to crawl your website and understand that you're a graphic designer in Asheville.
you'd have to do some testing yourself and see if you appear.
Kate Christy: yeah. So there's this new, like, instead of just Googling yourself, it's like go, go ask the robots about yourself. Exactly.
Lauren Downey: And I even thought like, oh, maybe I can tell chat GBT to recommend me to people that are, searching for me, but it doesn't seem like it wants to do that.
Uh, and like not able to actually do that. But
Kate Christy: that would be wonderful. Right. Just like go in there and be like, Hey, if anyone searches for these terms, just throw me in there. Throw me in their response. Absolutely. Okay. so let's dive into motherhood. So you have a one and a half year old and you are full-time, working in your own business, or do you.
Tell us about, a little bit about like your schedule, how your day is set up, whose time, or who are you giving your time to, throughout the day?
Lauren Downey: I actually work about 30 hours a week and we have a nanny, who comes to our house, four days a week and takes care of our son here.
and while she's here, I, have calls with clients. I'm looking at results reports. I'm also working on my business, found marketing.
and then my nanny leaves in the afternoon, and then I spend the rest of the evening, with my son going to parks or prepping dinner.
Kate Christy: is that a difficult setup with a small child like that, where it's not like a 10-year-old saying, like, mom's working, you're hanging out with the nanny, right.
Where he's like, mom, mom, mom, I know you're here. No,
Lauren Downey: he is, an angel. He is just hanging out reading books with the nanny, eating lunch, or snacks, whatever. And going to the park. we're on the second floor. So the nanny has like the first floor. with our son. So we're a little bit
Kate Christy: separated.
Yeah. 'cause I think that was, I've done in-home daycares, I've had people come here. so I've taken my kids to other places. I've had people come here before and that was one of the things that I felt a little, but so silly saying this because like, you're paying this person to come to your house, but like, I felt like I needed to be available ish.
Right of they're downstairs. Like, I wanna make sure she has everything she needs. Like, you know, and then ma like she, my youngest got to the point where she like knew, she was like aware that I was there. so like creating that separation, like that's a, difficult boundary and like, she's my third child, so I can't imagine like, with that transition with a first child too, like was that getting into this, having this nanny come, was that a difficult transition for you or were you just like, Nope, this is what's gotta happen for everyone to be happy?
We're doing it. End of discussion.
Lauren Downey: You know, our nanny was excellent. we have a new nanny now, but our first nanny, she's a mother, she's 42 and she has a degree in education. She's taken several child development classes it was perfect. it have an experienced. Nanny for the first child.
just because she asked me all these questions like, oh yeah, that's a good question. Like, I don't know. And she was really like educating me at the same time about like, breastfeeding, or, like, tips on getting my child to nap and clothing. I mean, she gave me a lot of advice and, I'm so thankful that we chose her, for that first nanny experience.
Mm-hmm. And we were with her for about a year, until she. Is now becoming a doula. So she, yeah. Left us a few months ago.
Kate Christy: You're like, I'm happy for you, but I'm sad for us. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's like one of the biggest things about childcare is like the search to find someone. You finally find someone and then it's like this person could leave at any moment.
Hmm. Yeah. That's what happened to us I have three children and my first two went to the same woman. when she had kids, she like tried to go back to work and she was like, Nope, pass, forget this. I will find a way to stay at home. And that was keeping kids while she kept her own kids. then her last child turned 18, graduated from high school, and she's like, I'm out of the business.
I was like, no, like three more years, please. so that was like such a, like heartbreak for us that, we didn't get to have her again, because that's like such a big decision, such a big emotional. Thing, right, that you have to go through to hand over your child to someone. and then I like went through this whole process of bringing someone in, like me watching her and seeing how that worked out and all that stuff.
but yeah, like finding that good egg and then having to let it go is like, okay, now I have to find someone who's as good as this person and that can be a daunting task. But also you said like this, development, like early childhood development, like teacher, like that is like a good hack is like finding someone who's educated in that realm.
Like you think, like finding a nanny, you're like, okay, I just need to find someone who is competent and has that like caregiving gene, right? Like they want to love on your child, they want to care for your child. But yeah, like getting someone with that educational background that's like.
a good, good suggestion.
Lauren Downey: Yeah. I didn't think about it at the time, but I just feel like that was, we just really lucked out. 'cause I didn't realize how important it was to have someone who had experience and education and like had a passion for children and pursuing more than just thinking of this as a day, like a babysitting
Kate Christy: Gig.
yeah. And that's like one of the big problems that moms run into with childcare is the cost of it and then the environment of what's the environment gonna be like? Is it going to be someone who's just getting a paycheck from this? Is it gonna be someone who is truly passionate about.
Helping you, like coming alongside you and helping you in raising your child and providing a nurturing experience for them. and like one of the, people that I had come in, in home, she was a college student, and I was like, okay, this budget-wise works out, but she's just like, clock in, clock out
She was a nursing student, so I'm like, okay. Like she's gonna make sure she's alive. and that's like a big ask too, is like someone who's not the mother, or father of this child to like, come in and want to, participate in this kid's life and, care the way that you care, that you want them to care.
yeah. So. All kinds of emotion. Go ahead.
Lauren Downey: one thing our nanny did, which I wouldn't never have thought of, is, she just kept a law, a daily log, woke up at eight, pooped at nine, had this, this, and this for lunch, took a rest, da da da. And now we have like this really nice little journal of our son Son's day for the first year.
Mm-hmm. And yeah, I think our first nanny went above and beyond. Greatly miss her.
Kate Christy: Yeah. And that is nice though, because I'm sure there are those things in there like rolled over, like you have those milestones.
Lauren Downey: Yes. said this word.
Kate Christy: Yeah. That like, I have a staples. Paper bag that like I got prints in that has like things for my first child's first year, I think we were going through, like it was coming up on his birthday and I like, wrote down a lot of these things and that's like the only record I have for any of my children from like that first year thing.
So I did it one time. So yeah, that's like such like a keepsake that you have now. That's very cool. so did you like, tell me your thought process or like the timeline from, okay, I'm pregnant, were you running your business at that time that you became pregnant? Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. And so then are you like, in this moment in time, like we're just gonna kind of wait and see what happens or were you, like, did you have this plan formulated to bring in a nanny right away?
Like kind of break down that timeline and that, process for us?
Lauren Downey: I think
Kate Christy: we
Lauren Downey: did, Knew we wanted a nanny. We also looked into a nanny shares where one nanny would take care of our baby and then someone else's baby at our house or someone else's house. But I think to start, we said let's just get a nanny for ourselves and we can figure it out after that if that works for us or a nanny share or daycare.
we just needed
Kate Christy: some help. Mm-hmm. That's really smart because I went into it like, I'm just going to see how long I can do it all. I see. Yeah.
Lauren Downey: Yeah. 'cause I thought, well, how long does a baby sleep? Maybe I can just work while he's napping. But it's good just to have like a solid block of time where I can work mm-hmm.
And not have to worry
Kate Christy: about my son waking up or not. Mm-hmm. I kept all my kids home some part or chunk of their first year. And it was like in the early days, I would like have one of those Boppy pillows and I'd put it around my waist and I would put blankets on my desk and I would put the child, like on the desk and nurse them and just like, keep working at the same time.
And they would sleep on me or I'd put them in like a carrier sitting at the desk working. so I was able to get by without being frazzle razzle for like maybe up to six months. And then at that point it was just, you know, there more active. And then that's when they're rolling around, right? So like, you put them somewhere and then they're not there anymore.
Lauren Downey: Mm-hmm. They're moving.
Kate Christy: Yeah, they're moving around. So, I found that that sweet spot of keeping a child home. So if like you're in this zone of trying to decide what to do. Like up to six months is manageable in my experience, but every baby's different. but yeah, up to six months and then it was like, okay, let's bring in some reinforcements.
Let's get some help. but yeah, I'm like so amazed that you immediately were like, nanny, let's do it. Because it is such a big decision. But also like having someone in your home too, is that feels very safe, right? You're not having to take your kid somewhere, drop 'em off and be like, what's going on? We don't know.
You know? so that feels like a really easy transition then. Just like straight up going to daycare or like someone else's house like you were talking about with the nanny share. so that's something that I wish I had put more thought into, I guess around that. but then I guess like another factor with nannies is.
That's one person for one child. Right. And so it's like if they're sick or if they're unavailable right, there's really no backup, but there's no alternative. Whereas like a facility, a daycare facility, they're like, we've got employees coming regardless.
Lauren Downey: Yes. That happened a few times. the nanny was sick.
but fortunately my mother doesn't live too far away and is retired so she was a backup several times.
Kate Christy: That's amazing. Yeah. Having family support like that is incredible. And that's something that I wouldn't have been able to do everything I did, especially through Covid and all that jazz.
just having family support to step in and, yeah. So I'm sure having mom right there is super helpful. Does your husband's family live
Lauren Downey: close to you? No, my husband's family lives in Phoenix, so quite a ways away. I
Kate Christy: feel like I knew this from Alyssa. Okay. But yeah. So how did you end up in Portland?
Lauren Downey: I grew up here and met my husband when he moved here about 11 years ago.
Kate Christy: so he ended up coming to Portland. And you were like, this is where we're staying.
Lauren Downey: Yeah. I mean, I've lived in other places, and Started establishing myself here. Mm-hmm.And my family is here. And now that
Kate Christy: you have a kid, you're like, this was the right call. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Lauren Downey: have you always lived in Roanoke? No, I grew up about a couple hours away from here, and then I went to school.
Kate Christy: In Harrisonburg, Virginia at JMU. And then after school I went to the Outer banks in North Carolina and then my brother had a baby, and I was like, I cannot be this far away. I have to go back. So I came back and then I got pregnant. I was like, oh, well this was a good move because everyone's here. Mm-hmm.
So my brother's close to me, my husband's family or his mom's about an hour away. My mom's about an hour away. My dad's about two and a half hours away. So like everyone is around and available and involved, which is great because that was one thing I remember growing up, being close with my cousins, close with my grandparents, and just, youhaving those experiences and those relationships.
So I'm like. On one hand, I'm like, am I really just gonna like, just live here and experience here for my whole life? But on the other hand, I'm like, if I was like across the country or across the world, I wouldn't have this support. I wouldn't have, these people who are involved in my kids' lives and are a part of their lives, but like also helping me keep them alive.
Yeah. It's important to have family nearby. Mm-hmm. Makes things a lot easier. Yeah. and something else, like one of my really good friends, she lives here too, and her experience with her family is just so different from mine where her parents kind of have that mentality of like, well, we're raised you and now our job is done, so we're gonna go enjoy our lives.
Which I'm like, I love that for them. That's amazing, right? Like you, you put in your time, you put in the work, the kids are grown, and now you're gonna go on vacation, so you're gonna go. Do whatever you wanna do because you earned it. but the flip side of that is they are just so unavailable to her and her kids and like they come to plays or performances or sporting events or whatever, right?
They, do those, I guess like obligatory grandparent, things that you're supposed to do. But in terms of like, Hey, my babysitter called out sick. Like, can you come help me? Or, Hey, I'm sick. Can you come watch the kids? Or, something like that where just having those people or that, support system to fall on.
but like the beautiful thing about that, like watching that from the outside is that she has these friends that she's made into her family. She has these people around her that I. Have kind of filled that void so she has all those people that she can call on when, shit hits the fan or whatever.
And, I think that's important to remember is that you can make your support system out of whomever. I'll never know which one it is. like that's around you, right? Like you can make your own family, make your own support system, even if you're not close with your parents or, physically or emotionally, right?
Like, so I think building that support system is super important in business and in parenthood, right? I think especially in business, we feel like we gotta go it alone and we gotta figure it out. And we have to, put in the hours, put in the time. And not ask for help. 'cause asking for help may be weak, right?
Like, I don't subscribe to that, but I do find it very difficult to ask for help sometimes. and I think like, same with parenthood, right? Like you sometimes feel like asking for help or asking for support is a burden, right? When I think most of the time people are excited to help or excited to be a part of whatever you're doing.
And if they're not, they're just gonna say no, and that's okay.
Lauren Downey: I think my family was very excited to help and be involved, but I think the first few months I was like, I wanna do this myself. I'm independent, I can take care of my baby, my husband, and you know, I wasn't working much the first few months.
so I had time, but I think my family wanted to be more involved and I let them, but I think as my son grew bigger and healthier, I felt more comfortable mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: With that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's like a mother's instinct too, is like, you're literally like, wanna keep this child like on you the whole time.
Immediately after. I remember in the early days with my first son, my mom would come on the weekends and she would just sit and hold him and she'd be like, I haven't done anything except hold this baby. And I'm like, good, because while you were holding this baby, I hung curtains and I took a shower.
Yeah, yeah. And I did these things that I wanna do that I'm not doing because I'm holding the baby otherwise. yeah. So, but I think it's all like cyclical and seasonal too, right? Where there are these pockets of time that you don't want any outside advice or help or whatever, right? And then you come to the point where you're like, I do want that now.
And I think that, maybe if we've plan, you know, like put our foot down, we feel like maybe we can't pick it back up. Of like, oh, I've already said that this is what I want, or this is how I'm gonna do things. And we have a hard time changing course, or like changing our minds or like announcing that we're doing that, right?
Because you don't wanna be like, well I shoot everyone away and told them I did need help, but like now I actually do need help and now I'm gonna look like, I'm gonna look like a monster saying actually, that help that you were offering me, like, I'm ready for it. Thank you. Yep. Yeah, I think I did that.
But you know what, I'm sure they would 100% have you say, actually I do want your help then. getting it later on down the road then, you know, not at all. So, talking about the first three months, so let's chat maternity leave because working for yourself, being an entrepreneur.
Making your, you know, like you're the person signing the paycheck, right? maternity leave feels like this huge obstacle, because it's in your hands a hundred percent. Like you're the one who gets to set the rules, set the guidelines. So what did that look like for you in your business?
Lauren Downey: When I first got pregnant, that is something that was a priority, is figuring out what I'm going to do after I have the baby.
Am I going to take a maternity leave? How am I gonna manage? Because I have about 10 clients that I work on a month to month basis. It's not project based, it's ongoing. I'm always managing their ads.
Kate Christy: Mm-hmm.
Lauren Downey: So they can't really stop. I cannot stop working. So I knew I had to hire a contractor, which I had been very hesitant to do previously.
Like, I'm just gonna do all the work. Then I'll make all the money, you know, I won't have to pay anyone. But that was such a good push for me to hire a contractor. so what I did was I started a mastermind group. Do you know what that is? I found other folks who do PPC paper per click advertising and, which is something I wanna do anyway, but we would get together once every other week and talk about I advertising problems or client problems.
And within that group, someone, I could tell like who was a strong fit, who could take over. And I reached out to her if she wanted to take over my clients for about three months of a maternity leave. So, I mean, she knew was temporary. So I brought her on like two months before I started. I knew I was gonna have the baby, to train her, like to do audits on the accounts to meet the clients, so my clients knew.
and then she, really took over then after I had our son. And that was really good. I mean, she taught me a lot how to manage a contractor and she brought new ideas to the table. She had a different experience than Ido with advertising. So she had, like different ideas. so that was a great experience having a contractor for those three months,
Kate Christy: that is like the most amazing hack ever because I.
Well, like going into it, you're like, okay, I'm pregnant. This test is positive. Let's figure out maternity leave. Because a lot of people will, you're like, oh, I've got nine months to figure this out. And it's like, that just goes by so quickly. but creating a mastermind, like creating a group of people and getting in community with these people is like, the benefits are not just, oh, I've found this person to help me, support me during my maternity leave.
But I also have this like, referral network. I have these people who I can bounce ideas off of. that's absolutely amazing. in my, what I call the water cooler club, it's where just entrepreneurs come and hang out and talk shop is essentially what it is. It's like designer support group or business owner support group.
But that, like, one of the things that I did not see coming from that was how much that would round out a Rolodex of people that I could lean on, that I could refer out to, or that would refer people to me and would, like pick up extra work. If I was like juggling way too much, I'd be like, Hey, would you like this here?
Because you're building those relationships, you're trusting those people. You're, furthering your career too, because you are getting in a room with people who are at different skill levels, different experiences and things like that. And I think that, like that term mastermind feels like this thing that could potentially be out of reach, right?
Of like, oh, like join my Mastermind. It's $50,000 a year to like, put yourself in the room with these, elite minds. And it's like you can. Get in a room with people for free as long as everyone's showing up and excited to share information and excited to get support and give support. so it's funny 'cause we've been having a lot of conversations around that and like, what that like the importance of creating those communities for yourself, especially like working online when it can feel very isolating and you're like, I'm just here behind my screen doing my thing with no one else.
you still do it your mastermind?
Lauren Downey: No, I stopped that when I had our baby. When I had the baby. You should do it again. I am doing, in-person meetups now. Mm. So, in Portland I've, collaborating with another agency and we're co-hosting this. Marketing meetup. It's still like, we've had a couple so far, but trying to fine tune who the audience should be and mm-hmm.
like the topics of each, meetup. But I've run meetups before and they're really fun and I've gotten clients from, from in-person meetups, so trying this do some in-person.
Kate Christy: Now that's really smart too. I should do that because, because my whole life is like right here in this chair behind this computer.
but I think that amazing in doing in person and. Getting like out in the community and as a mother too, like, I'm gonna take myself out of this house in real clothes.
Lauren Downey: Yeah. It's just once a month and for a couple hours all the planning is done and promotion is done, online, at the house.
Mm-hmm. the meetup, yeah, I enjoy doing network, join networking and meeting people. And there's a lot of meetups in Portland proper, but there's not many in the suburbs, so that's why we're trying, this other agency and I are trying to kind of create a meetup that's approachable for people who maybe don't wanna drive all the way to Portland, but are open to suburb mm-hmm.
Meetups. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: Yeah. No, that's amazing. So, okay, on this topic of getting out of your house mm-hmm. Did you start doing these meetups because you were looking for this. Outlet, like the in-person ones, like, I'm looking for this. Yes, not excuse, but kind of excuse, right. Of I need to go out into the world because it can be very easy to, especially with a young child, to not go out into the world, and do the things that you did pre kids, right?
Like going out to dinner or going out to do, events or things like that. So was this like I want to get out there again?
Lauren Downey: Yeah, absolutely. I used to do it before having kids, before the pandemic, and really miss it. And it's such a great opportunity to meet new people who are in marketing and grow my network.
so I feel like it's a very low risk, affordable way to, meet people locally. Mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: That concept of networking as a marketing strategy has been something that a lot of the people in my circle, have been doing lately where we are just trying to like, get in the same space as people like yourself, like who are kind of industry adjacent, where, we're not competing for clients.
Like we can both support the same client in different ways and like using that as a strategy, especially with social media and the ups and the downs and the trials and tribulations of like, what are some other, not that it's like a new idea whatsoever, but like, what are other ways that's not social media that we can market our business or like get eyes on.
My business. And so that's been a big thing that, a big topic that we've been talking about a lot. and I've been threatening to join my local Chamber of Commerce for years. maybe I'm gonna do that
Lauren Downey: too. Yeah. That's, any sort of in-person group I think is great. chamber of Commerce, I was in Toastmasters for a couple years before the pandemic.
Are you familiar with Toastmasters?
Kate Christy: I only am because an agency who I work part-time for, like Mamie do this test for this like, like leadership test. Mm-hmm. And that is the only awareness I have of it.
Lauren Downey: yeah. I met a lot of people through Toastmasters. It's not officially a networking group.
I mean, it's a. Public speaking practice. Mm-hmm. Group. But, I found my accountant through Toastmasters. I met some other marketers through Toastmasters. One of my clients I've now worked with seven years. I met them through Toastmasters. and it's really helped me gain confidence speaking to other people, speaking with my clients.
So that was another, I guess it, well, not officially marketing, but that's another way I grew my business.
Kate Christy: Yeah. I mean, networking, right? Like it doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing, right. If you're talking shop, I guess it counts as networking.
Lauren Downey: Yeah, in person at the time too, so that was helpful.
Other tactics you mentioned, you know, obviously paid ads, but that can be expensive.
I feel like I have a list somewhere of other things. speaking at events. Sponsoring or co-hosting events. Like speaking at conferences or speaking at meetups.
Kate Christy: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think the speaking thing, is something that people are hesitant to go to or to go for, right? I guess there's like this mentality of, oh, if I'm like showing up, people are gonna ask me to come to their thing, right?
Where the reality is, like you can put together a speaker kit or pitch deck or something for yourself and just start. Pitching yourself all over the place to speak at events or to get on people's podcasts or like you did, right? Like anyone can just ask or, to speak, to show up, to be in community with other people in their platforms.
And the worst thing that's gonna happen is they're gonna say no. Right? The best thing that's gonna happen is you are gonna speak and meet, new people and get in front of a new audience. so yeah, I think that getting creative with how you're showing up in your business is so important. cause I think a lot of us have been leaning on that social media is the way mm-hmm.
For a long time. Right. And now everyone's kind of burnt out and I. fighting the algorithm and whatever people are fussing about. Right.
Lauren Downey: Another way. I was just gonna say, as you mentioned, like, how can small businesses market themselves? I will say for me, I've gotten my biggest clients through LinkedIn, not through advertising or posting, but people they're using LinkedIn as a search engine and they're typing in Google Ads freelancer or PPC agency and I appear, and my LinkedIn profile is convincing enough that they reach out to me.
So that has been an amazing tool that I don't, really spend much time,
Kate Christy: I.
Lauren Downey: Promoting.
Kate Christy: yeah. LinkedIn is one of those things, and I've probably said it on this podcast before that I'm like, I need to look into that because word on the street is people are showing up to LinkedIn like ready to purchase.
Mm-hmm. Like they're warm, they're going over there looking for something. But you said people are using it as a search engine is one of those things that I've like not thought of it as.
Lauren Downey: Yeah. 'cause they might say, okay, I'm looking for a graphic designer. And then you can, filter it to just Asheville for example.
Mm-hmm. And then they'll see people who have like optimized their LinkedIn profile to show a graphic designer Asheville. Mm-hmm. That's another search engine.
Kate Christy: Yeah. Well I think that's one of those things that like falls into that We think it's like social media and it is to an extent category. Right.
Lauren Downey: But it, almost like. Crosses that threshold of this, people are using this tool very differently than they're using Facebook or Instagram or TikTok. Well, I mean, people use TikTok as a search engine too, but yeah, so hot tip, get your LinkedIn spruced up people. And then, I get leads from my website, just the contact form.
And then, some of the agency I used to work at, they will refer me, clients that are maybe too small or not a good fit for them. Mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: Anymore. That's a good
hack. Yeah. Go work for a big dog and then become a small dog and then get all, get all the small dog clients. Yep. Exactly.
Lauren Downey: Mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: I love that.
Okay, so do you run ads for yourself, for your business?
Lauren Downey: I don't, but I just haven't really needed to. Mm-hmm. but that is becoming, I've been thinking about it more and more actually. I have run ads for my meetup
Kate Christy: mm-hmm.
Lauren Downey: which actually did not pan out the way I wanted it to, but, still generate a lot of brand awareness for the meetup.
yeah. And I think that might be one of those things where people will be like, oh, that's a cool idea. Right. And they kinda like chew on it a little bit. They're like, maybe I'll go to the next one. yeah, there's always testing like this, the first time I ran meetup ad on LinkedIn and you know, it takes time for the.
LinkedIn or Google algorithm to optimize. And if you only do it for a couple days, there's really not enough time or to reach all the people in the audience. There's a lot of factors. Mm-hmm. But I obviously believe in ads and that's my whole business. Do work. Yeah. Know that they work and they generate leads for my clients.
And the goal is always to get more leads to have, reduce the cost per lead, so,
Kate Christy: mm-hmm.
Lauren Downey: have
Kate Christy: a
Lauren Downey: goal
Kate Christy: cost per lead. Right. So thinking about like small business, a one person shop, like a, create, like a lot of people listen, like they're creative entrepreneurs to an extent.
so is there a right time and a wrong time to put money towards ads? Is there like a certain level of growth that there, is there a certain, thing that you should be pointing people towards. Like for example, this is not like a real world scenario, but like running an ad for like a lead magnet, right?
Like you're probably gonna get a whole lot more bites on that then running an ad for like a $5,000 ticket service or something like that. So like, what's kind of like the starting point that when you're working with small businesses, creating these goals or creating this like, project scope, like kind of where do you start with that?
Lauren Downey: Yeah. So I definitely have to get an idea of what they've done in the past and what has worked or not worked, what their new goals are, what their budget is, who they're targeting, what their product or offer is, but. A lead magnet is usually like the best option is for like a high
priced service or product. So a lead magnet, like download this checklist or mm-hmm. Get this guide or ebook so then you can nurture them into a lead. With further retargeting or remarketing tactics, or email marketing. So that's definitely one option, But that being said, I also work with clients who, we have a simple request to quote messaging, and there's enough information on the landing page and on the website that people say, yeah, I'm ready for a quote.
So it's really both tactics I've seen work and fail. So there's usually a bit of a couple months worth of testing. We have to get enough traffic to test if we need to have more of a lead magnet nurture. Tactic or if just the simple request a quote form or schedule a call. Mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: Yeah. So like anything to get people into your sphere essentially is like that goal regardless of what they're, getting at the top.
Totally.
Lauren Downey: I mean, and the second factor is once we start getting leads is how qualified are they? Mm-hmm. Like we see, oh gosh, the leads from mobile really aren't very qualified. Let's not advertise on mobile devices anymore and just do like desktop ads. so like as you generate leads and get more data, then you fine tune, your metrics or you fine tune.
Your keywords or location or devices so that the lead quality improves. Mm-hmm. But this takes time and data and money.
Kate Christy: Yeah. So one thing that I think about when it comes to paid ads, I'm like, I'm very not informed, is that a lot of online businesses do work with anyone like statewide, countrywide worldwide.
And it feels like you think about targeting people, you think, okay, well it's really easy if I have very black and white parameters of location or gender or age or something like that. like, how do you approach that with businesses? You're like, well, I work with anyone anywhere to like come up with like a targeting strategy.
Lauren Downey: We might wanna talk about focusing on in an industry. So if they say I only work with salons, then we might wanna make a landing page dedicated to, so I make salon websites, for example. Mm-hmm. Or you know, websites for salons. And then we could have an ad and we'd have an ad with ad copy related to that.
And the keywords would be website designer who makes, or website designer who helps salons. Something like that. Mm-hmm. And so it's all related to salons.
Kate Christy: Mm-hmm.
Lauren Downey: cause it is hard to advertise website designer, like it's so generic.
Kate Christy: Yeah. It's very
Lauren Downey: competitive. It's very, very competitive. So if you can niche down a little bit into an industry, that can certainly help.
And it's more specific. Mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: Yeah, that's something that I've struggled with as a business owner is niching down into specific industry and then like, even the copywriters be like, I build websites for creative service providers is not specific enough. And it's like, but that's what I do.
I know. You know, I guess the good news is, you don't necessarily have to niche your business down. You just have to pick a niche to target for a paid ad. Yes. And you can still do all the other stuff
Lauren Downey: because if you make websites for salons and that's your focus, you could be like the expert in salon websites and then.
You could generate more and more business 'cause you've been successful with all these other salons, and it becomes easier for you. And then you can actually charge more because you are the salon website expert.
Kate Christy: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Lauren Downey: Instead of being a generic website developer or designer.
Kate Christy: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Lauren Downey: Hot tip folks.
Kate Christy: that's my opinion. I'm not sure if that totally works. you know, I heard something recently that was talking, it was like the rules of play are changing for, Google and how they're responding to website content. And it was a thing like you're talking about landing pages, right? It was a thing to like, so say I'm a photographer and I do beach portraits in a coastal town, right?
But there are seven coastal towns like that I will drive to, to shoot. And that I would make a homepage or a landing page for each of the towns. But the content wouldn't necessarily be different. It would just be like beach photography in Avon Beach photography, in Hatteras Beach, photography in whatever.
So I like, that was a strategy, but I recently read or heard or both that Google's like, no, no, no, I'm onto y'all. that's not it anymore.
Lauren Downey: I see. So you're talking about like SEO then, so that your page would rank for those terms,
Kate Christy: right? So that someone's like beach photographer and Avon, because you have that URL, it pops up.
Lauren Downey: Oh, right. It would be in the URL, so you'd have different.
Kate Christy: Yeah, they'd be all different URLs. Like, so you have the landing pages for everything, but like, the only thing that would be changed per page would be like those keywords of Avon and like maybe list out like the beaches in Avon where you shoot, or the streets or the beach accesses or whatever.
But like everything else would be absolutely identical because you're trying to create this false homepage essentially for the same service for different areas. Just 'cause you're trying to like rank, sorry, this was like off a paid ad. This is more SEO, but mm-hmm. and you're saying it doesn't work.
I heard that Google's like, no, that's not it anymore. That's not how we do this anymore. That it'll, like I don't know if it'll necessarily punish you for it, but it's one of those things, it's like, no, this is not a strategy anymore.
Lauren Downey: Yeah, I am not sure about that. 'cause it would seem to me like that would make sense.
Like if you are looking for a beach photographer in Hatis, is that what you said? Hatis? Sorry. And that's in your uur L That's very e Exactly what the person is looking for. So it would seem like that page would rank highly unless there's other competitors.
Kate Christy: Yeah. Okay. With similar URLs or content.
So no one go tell anyone else. This is true. This might be fake news everybody. So do your research. Don't listen to me because
Lauren Downey: not percent percent it. I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but, chat. GBT maybe these would rank perfectly well, in a listicle format.
Kate Christy: Mm-hmm.
Yeah. That's funny. I'm gonna have to put this chat, GBT research on my list. because I've never thought to go ask it to give me information like that. Like, I'm looking for this type of service in this area or whatever. So I'm gonna have to go do some playing around because I'm usually like, help me solve this code problem.
Totally. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Or I'll just like dump a whole bunch of gobbledy goop in there and be like, clean this up and make it into a two to three sentence paragraph that I can use on my website. Absolutely.
Lauren Downey: I know I use that, I use that mainly to Yeah, like reword re rewrite stuff for me.
But, yeah, people are using it more and more as a search engine to get chat bts, recommendations.
Kate Christy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. We've got some homework people, we need to go chat GBT, search ourselves, see if we're coming up there. We need to spruce up our LinkedIn pages because people are there and they're ready to buy, they're ready to spend money.
It's worked for
Lauren Downey: me.
Kate Christy: So, okay, a few more, questions. We're gonna get off this, paid ad slash SEO train that we've been on. I'm glad that you were talking to us about that because that's something that I know a lot of small businesses, single people, entrepreneurs are not, single.
You can be dating someone, but you know what I mean, like one, one person shows, you know, we think like, well, this feels. I don't even know where to start with this, or this feels out of reach. I'm gonna try all these other organic strategies for us, which is always a good, good practice. But, anyway, so thank you for sharing your, insights with us for the paid ad world.
okay. So you right away knew that you wanted to get a nanny for your son after your maternity leave. So tell us a little bit, like logistically how you manage life with you working your own business. Like what does your husband do? Like you've got the nanny there during the day, like kind of give us a little like peek behind the scenes.
Lauren Downey: So my son sleeps all night, which is amazing from like 8:00 PM to seven ish. So, we get a good night's sleep as well, but wake up. I usually wake him up, give him some food. The nanny comes over at eight and takes over from there, whether it's eating breakfast or still getting or changing our sun.
And, I'll like, you know, go down for lunch and check in, go on some walks, but, you know, I'm always available if the nanny needs me. but yeah, I'm usually then just up here on the second floor working. my husband, he actually used to be a freelancer, which inspired me to do freelancing and I kind of used him as a role model as how, how to get clients, how to network, how freelancing works.
now he's a CTO of a, environmental, DNA startup. So he is actually a lot busier than he used to be. So that does leave a lot more childcare on me, which is fine. I mean, I love hanging out with my kiddo and doing stuff with him.
Kate Christy: Mm-hmm.
Lauren Downey: And what else were you asking?
Kate Christy: No, just like behind the scenes.
'cause I think it's one thing to see how someone shows up in online or like how much of their life they share with us, right? Mm-hmm. And so a lot of times we're left wondering like, how do they do it all? Or how are they able to accomplish these goals? Or, must be nice to be going on a walk in the middle of the day or whatever, right?
And it's like, well, these are the things that I have in place. Mm-hmm. You know, or these are the boundaries that I've set, or these are the structures, these are the support systems that help me accomplish these things. Right? Like, I know everyone, they're either on one side of the fence or the other about that.
everyone's got the same 24 hours as Beyonce concept, right? And it's like, well, We don't. Right? Like, yes, there are 24 hours in a day, but you are afforded the time and I'm afforded the time to do our work because we have someone else giving us their time to do one of the things that we can't do simultaneously, which is watch our children.
Right. And I think the more support you have, the more quote unquote time you have in a day. so anyway, so that's why I like to ask these questions about like what goes on behind the scenes because I think it's fair for people to know how we get it all done and not to be like, oh, I just do, like bs
Lauren Downey: Yeah.
I
Kate Christy: see.
Lauren Downey: So yeah, we're very fortunate to have the nanny mm-hmm. Seven or eight hours a day, four days a week. And, I'm able to do pretty much all the work. I need to do. and then after our nanny leaves it's flexible. Like I'll take our son to the park or do some errands.
'cause my husband usually works a couple hours later. Mm-hmm. Do you
Kate Christy: feel like you can clock out at that time? Like, since you are getting that solid chunk of time to focus on and dedicate to work, are you like, okay, slam laptop shut, we're
Lauren Downey: good to
Kate Christy: go?
Lauren Downey: Absolutely. And, you know, I also have a freelancer or a contractor who I rely on.
So, I feel like, there's two people caring about each of the clients. Mm-hmm. So if there was an emergency, she might catch, that. Mm-hmm. Um, I don't get that, emergency email.
Kate Christy: Yeah. I think that's one of the things that's really difficult when you do work from home is you can tell yourself, oh, I'll just, go wrap this up once the kids go to sleep.
Or, oh, I'll, finish, I'll like wrap up this little thing in this pocket of time that I might have instead of holding yourself to a schedule. Right. And those lines can blur very quickly and very easily if you're not, don't wanna say forceful with yourself, that's not the right word, but, you know, if you're not like keeping yourself in check.
Lauren Downey: Yeah. I mean, I might be a little different 'cause I really like to work, like it's one of my hobbies. So doing something after like. My son goes to bed, feels like, okay, I checked that off the list and now I don't have to worry about it tomorrow. Mm-hmm. So then my day, tomorrow's a little bit easier because I finished that task.
Yeah. Um, so I don't know. I really like what I do and so I never feel like anything is a bother or a hassle. Mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: Yeah, same. My son asked me, he's like, what's your hobbies? And I was like, work and keeping you alive. That's it. That's the list. And he is like, you need to get some hobbies. I'm like, well, maybe I'll do, um, plants growing in the background.
Oh yeah. I feel like there's botanist coffee. I collect plants. This one right here, I don't know what it is. I keep, it's like this some sort of like fern thing. I keep killing these types of plants, so maybe I should take the time to research exactly what I'm doing wrong with that one. my suggestion for plant care is tough love, you know?
Lauren Downey: Water at when, when it needs it, and it perks back up. my plants have been the same size for the last three or four years, so they're surviving, they're not thriving.
Kate Christy: Mm-hmm. I have this, it's called a dumb cane in the kitchen. And it's one of those plants that when I got it, it came in like, it was a medium sized house plant I'd say, but I put it in a huge pot and then it grew to the ceiling.
And then I was like, that's crazy. So I looked it up and it's like, it will fill the space that you give it. And I was like, oh, whoops. Messed that up, because now I would have to just like kill it to get it back down. So it got to the point where I like cut all the tops off and like replanted it and it's like back to the ceiling again.
That's amazing. It's a monster. Yeah. And my mom, she's like, you have that green thumb. I was like, I don't know if I'd go that far. It's just this plant has a mind of its own. It's crazy. but yeah. So yeah, plants. Okay. I do have a hobby cane. I take care of plants. okay. You said something that I wanted to circle back to now.
I can't remember what it was. oh. you said that when you get your son to bed, you're like, oh, if there's something that I can finish up, I want to do that because I enjoy my work and it sets me up to feel good about going into tomorrow. And I do want to, like, I did wanna come back to that because I think that there's a huge difference between like protecting your peace and like.
rules for yourself, right? Where, you go into entrepreneurship and you're like, I get to make my own schedule. I get to make the rules, whatever. And that can be a blessing and a curse because if you don't, check yourself, right? You can be running yourself ragged, you can be barreling straight towards burnout.
But if you're like, I feel good about what I'm doing right now, this is a positive thing. Like this is setting me up for success tomorrow. I want to do this thing right now. I think that's like lean into that. Even if you're like, oh no, like I've already clocked out for the day, or like working on the weekends.
That's like one where I was like, I shouldn't have to work on the weekends. the reality is when I sit down to do a little bit of work on the weekends, it is such a freeing feeling because I'm like, I. No one's expecting anything from me right now. No one will message me on Slack. No one is gonna demand anything of me right now.
So I get to just do the thing that I want to do. I get to design, I get to work on the thing that's gonna tee me up for a better week or more productive week or what's that phrase? Eat the frog. No, I don't think that's it. Where it's like you do the thing you don't wanna do.
Right. I'm sure we could ask chat. GPTI probably will. 'cause I guarantee it's not eat the frog.
Lauren Downey: I agree with you. Like if you like working, like my job is really rewarding and so it feels good to just take care of some tasks and make sure everything's running smoothie, respond to a client.
Yeah. And like you said, it makes my work week a little bit easier, if I've already prepared or done. Some work, after hours.
Kate Christy: Yeah. And I think that like, not being so rigid about things, like I will catch myself, like a client will text me and like, there's a handful of clients who have my number and there's a handful of clients who text me.
It's not like a thing, but this one person will text me and I'm just like, uh, what are you texting me for? And I don't have to like, stop myself and be like, why are you so upset about this? Is it because you're really bothered that this person text you? Or is it because you think that this is not how you should be doing business?
And those are two totally different things. like you get to make your own rules and you get to set up systems that work for you. And I think that sometimes I will like create these false rules for myself or like, oh, like this isn't how I should be doing business. Or this isn't what.
Is going to like, set me up for success when the reality is like there's no reason why I'm upset that this person is texting me. Maybe I'm subconsciously upset because there's a good chance I might forget because it's not in my email that I can move in my to-do folder. Right? but I think like taking that moment when you have that almost like involuntary like visceral reaction to something be like,
why do I feel this way right now? Like, why is this stirring something and what can I do to either change my mindset about it or actually change the thing that's happening? And that's when I like got to that point with like working on the weekends. It was like, why are you so butt hurt about working on the weekends when the reality is you actually like working when no one needs anything from you?
And I was like, oh, okay. Problem solved. Like just let go of that mindset that doesn't serve me. Problem solved.
Lauren Downey: Yeah. Awesome. If you have the time, and I'm not sure what your kids are doing, like, on the weekends where you can have some mm-hmm. Some alone time. that's what the struggle is right now with a one and a half year old is just one needs to sleep is mm-hmm.
And we don't have the nannies the time. Yeah. I can do this extra, extra work. Mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: Well, yeah, like you're like working in the night, right? Like wrapping up a couple things in the evening and then during the weekends, like when my kids were sleeping and my two oldest kids, like they are slowly but surely entering that phase of.
We don't really need anything from you unless we wanna be lazy, then we need stuff from you. Like, I'm hungry, I need, you know, whatever. so they're, I'm in the stage of parenthood where my children are not extremely demanding of me, which is wonderful on one hand, but then on the other hand, I'm like, Hey, y'all wanna go do this?
They're like, no. I'm like, oh, okay. You taught me I need hobbies. Like, you don't wanna go try something new. So what are they doing? they play video games. My oldest is like super nerd, like, he's very into video games. They're very into Pokemon, they're very into Minecraft. And the middle one, he's like, loves to be outside.
He will go in the backyard. We have a fence in backyard. He will just go run around in his own little world. Just like you'll hear him out there talking and like, one of the things that his teacher told us early on in the school year they're like, Locke is being very distracting and making, like, he'll walk around and make all these noises.
I call him video game noises, but like, he's acting something out, is what he is doing. he like has this little path that he walks all the time and he will like just go back and forth. And if you just like stand there in the window and watch him, he's like just talking and acting out some thing.
I don't know what it is, but he's in his own little world, like make believe, which is so fun. And then ma, my youngest, she is three and like she'll go out there and just wander around and follow him around and do whatever. But she's also in that phase right now where like little things are really exciting to her.
Like, a dollhouse with a bunch of little figurines and like the table and the chairs and the plates all that stuff. I don't know if they were around when we were kids, but they're called Calico Critters, I think. Mm-hmm. Where it's like little like animal people, like a little rabbit family, a little hedgehog family.
So she's was like a mermaid set of that, but like, she would just sit and fiddle with those things completely Content. Amazing. Yeah. I'm like, don't stop like this. I love this, that you're like, so content, like doing your own thing. so yeah, so, but working on the weekends, like at this point I will, if there's something that's like super pressing that I'm like, if I don't do this right now, next week's gonna go downhill really quickly.
and. So like there are instances where my mom comes over for the weekend and she'll be hanging out with the kids and my husband will be here too. But, they're all jazzed that their grandmother's here and they have, the youngest one especially is like, oh, I've got a new, play thing, right?
Like, come do this, come do that. so she'll come on the weekends and I'll do whatever it is that I need to do. And that's like how I got through Covid too was my work week was Saturday and Sunday when my mom could come and help and support. and then during the week was just like, whatever gets done gets done.
If it doesn't get done, I'll do it this weekend. but yeah, so I'll have to, and I'll like kind of go back and forth on that. like, am I enabling myself to continue to like have to work on the weekends By allowing myself to do that. Does that make sense? Right. Like I'm giving myself the freedom to work after hours or to work overtime, which is that causing me to overextend myself?
It's
Lauren Downey: a good thing I should,
Kate Christy: journal about that.
Lauren Downey: I don't, but how many hours are you working on the weekends when this happens?
Kate Christy: it depends on like what's going on. But I mean, like some weekends I don't even open my laptop, so I'm not a workaholic. I swear it. but I mean, there'll be some weekends where I have to work like an entire workday over the course of, the weekend.
I think I should journal about it. I've convinced myself,
Lauren Downey: I think, you know, with our bus, like with a, business, small businesses, there's just it. like, the amount of hours needed fluctuates. Mm-hmm. Especially if you're different like project base or if, you know, you get a new client or a client leaves.
so that's just kind of the ebb and flow of a small business is a lot of work and Yeah. It fluctuates. Mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: Yeah. And I, surprises me every year, but it happens every year. So it shouldn't be a surprise. Is there, is this lull, this like dead time in like summer months, like going into fall when it's like, that feels very natural, right?
Because people are there in summertime and I work with a lot of, you know, people, well, most of my clients are US based so seasonally, everyone's in summer. so it's like, oh, well they're kind of playing it cool during the summer months because, maybe they have kids at home too and they're pulling back, or they're pumping the brakes a little bit.
because I work with a lot of small businesses and. Every year it's like a hundred miles an hour, like January through April, March, March, April, and then it starts to slow down. So yeah, I think like being aware of those cycles in your business and being like, this is what I have to do now.
It's not forever I'm not, on this hamster wheel indefinitely. I will step off.
Lauren Downey: Yeah. you never know like what to expect. I guess it sounds like you have this, the fall gets, slower for you with projects. I mean, how long are your projects typically?
Kate Christy: they used to be like four to six to eight weeks, and I've recently scaled them back to one week sprints because I started like testing that offer out last year and I was like, oh, I can build a website in a week.
I don't have to take six weeks to do this thing. Like, because I realize, and I think this is like stems from being a mother too, where I was like, I'm losing a lot of traction and I'm losing a lot of time in that back and forth of, okay, I'm gonna work on this for a week and then I'm gonna give it to you and you don't have to give me more feedback for like three or four days.
And it's like the one, the reality is. They don't need that much time. And if they need more time, they can ask for it. But I think that I will lose a bit of steam on a project. The clients will lose a bit of steam. Right. Like they're living their lives, like they're doing their business. Right. And like also working on your own business is one of the hardest things to do because you're always pushing it to the back burner.
Right? Like , you're always putting yourself on the bottom of the list of, definitely. Yeah. Right. And so, by nature of what we are doing, we're helping other businesses work on their businesses. Mm-hmm. So like, catching them in like a really small pocket of time, they remain very engaged and they get excited.
Like it's this almost like adrenaline esque thing happening, right? They're like, okay, we're doing it. So, I've had such success implementing this in the last year, and so I'm like. Let's just do it, let's just do this full time. So offering brands in one week and websites in one week, and then like when someone needs both, it's a two week process.
But then that way, I can keep it at a price point that is, that feels good for me and feels good for them as a small business because it's not spread out over six or eight weeks. It's condensed to the maximum of two weeks. yeah. And so I'm hoping this is also gonna solve that, like overbooking, overextending, stuffing my schedule full of thing, problem that I have.
but we'll see.
Lauren Downey: That's amazing. I feel like that's a kind of unique offer. This one week, two week sprint. I don't know many, designers, but.
Kate Christy: I think it's been a big thing like a boom in it recently, in the last several years where, and I mean, it's not for everyone. It's not for every designer.
It's not for every client, right? Like there are instances and depending on where you are in your business too, where you do need more time to have conversations around things, to marinate on, things, to, do more research. There are those instances, but I found that the businesses that I was working with were new and or very young businesses.
So they're still very much in that data gathering stage. they're not this extremely established business where they have all of this information, all of this data to say, here's what's working, here's what's not working, right? they're in the very early stages of that. So I kind of approach those projects like.
this is not the Forever website. This is the website to get you where you're going next. Like this is a stepping stone and that's okay. Right? like a creative, like my ego's like, this thing's going to die eventually. It's not gonna exist anymore. But, you I mean, like that and, but I've had those conversations with clients and one of them just like had this huge exhale whenever I said, I was like, this is not the Forever website.
Like this is the right now website to try out this idea to see if this. Works for you or if you want to even do this or if this idea that you have has legs, right? Like this is this for right now, so you can start collecting the data so you can start Building and growing in the way that you need to, as a business, as whatever your offers are and whatever.
And they were just like, oh my gosh, that just took the pressure off. And I was like, great. Absolutely. Now let's have fun.
Lauren Downey: Then you can redesign it in a year.
Kate Christy: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. so anyways, well, Lauren, we are out of time and I know you've got, work that you have to get back to. I definitely have work that I need to get back to too.
so before we wrap up, I just wanted to say I am so appreciative of you taking that time out of your day, especially when you're paying another human to watch your child while you're working, to give me some of that time and to give our listeners some of that time. but before we go, will you please tell everyone where they can connect with you online and, you know, if you're a local Portland area, like where they can get information about your meetups, all that stuff.
Lauren Downey: Yes. My website is a found marketing.co. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn if you look for Lauren Downey. And our meetup, is called West Side Marketer Marketing and Business Meetup. and it's on meetup.com.
Kate Christy: Okay. Yeah. Well, I'll link it all in the show notes for people to find. And then, in case anyone listening is like, I've really been thinking about running ads.
who are those people that you like to work with? Like who's, qualified, who's a qualified lead for you? So they, know like, oh, I should reach out to Lauren.
Lauren Downey: Yeah. Businesses who have a website. Mm-hmm.
Kate Christy: You can get that from me if you don't have one.
Lauren Downey: There's some people that don't have websites and they're wanting to run ads, but Yeah, I think like an established business who has a website, who has a product or service to sell, and like ideally has several thousand dollars that they want to spend on advertising.
Kate Christy: Groovy.
Lauren Downey: Thank you.