45:4 From in-person to online

Lee:
Welcome to trailblazer FM. This is your host Lee Matthew Jackson, and on today’s show, we have the return of the one and only Candy Phelps. How are you today?

Candy:
I’m doing amazing. Thanks, Lee. I’m excited to be here.

Lee:
Well, I’m happy to have you because as we had you back in 2019, Season number 28, Episode 3, folks, you can check out a link in the description where Candy shared how to create a buyer experience. And in today’s episode, we’re going to jump in that time machine back to them and kind of work our way through to the present day to see what’s changed. Candy and I were chatting before this episode, and we were saying, so much has changed in just a short period of time. If you think of June 2019, we had no idea what was coming around the corner. We were just cracking on with life, and then suddenly we won’t mention what happened, but we all know what happened in 2020. So, Candy, first, before we jump into that time machine, how are you right now? How’s life? And for anyone who doesn’t know you, could you just give us a little bit of a 60 seconds all about Candy?

Candy:
Sure. So I’m Candy Phelps. I’m the founder of Bizzy Bizzy, which is our web design agency, also the founder of 1 Day Works, which we’ll talk a little bit about later. And I’m from Montana, which is a state in the US. Living in Madison, Wisconsin, in the midwest now with my husband and daughter and dog named Crouton. I feel like life is great right now because we live in a northern climate. So we just are coming off a beautiful summer, and we have lovely fall weather coming up. And after two and a half years of the pandemic, this starting to feel like a little bit more normal. I went to my first conference last week, and that was so energising to be around people and just to start feeling a little bit more like myself and life was a little bit less treacherous. I’m just feeling so grateful that it’s not over, but it’s feeling a little more normal.

Lee:
My wife and I were driving home just yesterday, and I said that life is starting to feel normal. We’re using our car more again. We’re going shopping and not worrying about wearing masks and being around people anymore. We’re being cautious. It’s not still fully normal, but it’s starting to feel more normal, isn’t it?

Candy:
Yeah.

Lee:
So back when we chatted to you in 2019, your agency looked very different than it does today. Could you just describe to us what life was like for Bizzy Bizzy back in 2019?

Candy:
Sure. So the big thing for us is that we had fully gone all in on the 1 Day Website concept where our whole team works with clients in real time to build a website in a day. So at that time, we had an office which we still have, but we were actually doing this in person with folks. So we were really trying to make it not just you’re getting a website from us, but we would sometimes bring in a massage therapist in the afternoon. We had all of these little delightful experiences buying the customers lunch and having all these fun things planned for the day in addition to cranking out an awesome WordPress website. So it was really about this experience and making it easy and pleasant for the client instead of painful and horrible, which is usually how the project management of website feels for clients. So it was really fun. I loved it. I love working in person. It’s a very high energy, collaborative, fun environment. But then, of course, it was March 13, 2020 here when everything changed and we stopped working in person with everyone. So that was a big thing we could never have predicted.

Candy:
And everything has kind of changed since then.

Lee:
So you said everything changed. How did everything change for you guys? Because you were all focused on creating those buyer experiences. People were on site with you, the massage therapist sounds insane. I can’t even imagine, like, being able to build a website after having a massage. I don’t want to have a sleep. But things must have changed drastically. How did you carry that over into the digital world?

Candy:
Well, there was definitely a panic right at the beginning because we had some people lined up for things and people were cancelling because their business was dropping off in specific industries. So the very first thing was just kind of scary survival mode for us. And that meant me doing a lot more stuff on my own and not hiring contractors and trying to just grapple to save money and make sure that we were going to be able to survive. So there was definitely just like a scary month or two where we weren’t even sure if the business was going to be able to make it. But as most web designers, I think, found through COVID, websites were actually becoming more needed in a lot of industries. And there was a kind of a mini boom that happened for us for specific people, a lot of online learning management systems that people needed. A lot of people who needed stuff right away, which is where our 1 Day Website really shined because we could get people up and running within a week of when they contacted us. So that was really valuable and it was also really rewarding for us to be really doing something that was helping people.

Candy:
A lot of these businesses that were suffering or didn’t know what they were going to do, we had a lot of people who were speakers and all of a sudden all the events were cancelled for the year. So they were trying to figure out how to keep their income and we were able to help them. So that was really amazing. But in general, before the pandemic, we had tried doing some remote 1 Day where everyone was on a Zoom. And the fact that it was still really difficult for the customers, they just weren’t good at using Zoom or, like, sending files. And so it was still kind of painful. We would spend seriously 45 minutes every time just getting them on the Zoom. So one of the sort of side benefits of the pandemic was that everybody learned how to Zoom. Even my mom knows how to Zoom now. So everybody having to work remotely and having to have their lives be more remote helped our customers become more tech savvy, which was very helpful. And then we were able to do remote 1 Days with our whole team virtual and the client virtual. The experience is no longer like a fluffy, fun thing.

Candy:
It’s just us sitting on Zoom for 9 hours. But the output of the sites are just as good as they ever were, and we’re still doing all 1 Day Websites, and this allows us to work with anybody in a lot more places. So in the end, I think it was a blessing in disguise for us to have to move to remote, because I’m not sure I would have done it. I was just so clinging to the in person stuff because I personally loved it so much, but kind of forced us to do that with the business. And in the end, I’m sure it was a beneficial move.

Lee:
I imagine if the opportunities present themselves, you still do in person ones and will continue to in the future.

Candy:
Well, we actually decided very recently that we are no longer going to do that. Partly it’s because I’ve been maintaining this office for six years, and I have literally been the only person here for two and a half years. And so I just took on some roommates because every time a lease comes up, I’m like, why am I spending $850 a month on this space? And so we finally just decided we’re going fully remote because it’s been honestly, it’s been difficult to get my employees back to the office. Like, everyone’s happy, remote working, they’re able to do their jobs remote, and nobody really wants to drive into the office. So we decided both for financial reasons and also because we’re trying to scale, and most of the people that will be hiring in the future will not be located in Madison, that we’re pretty much going to be doing all virtual. That could certainly change, but for now, that’s our strategy.

Lee:
So in the previous episode, there was a huge focus, wasn’t there, on creating that experience? How have you managed to translate the experience digitally? Because I know when I sit on zoom calls, personally, I find it very hard to stay motivated, to stay focused on the meeting. I’m very tempted to start kind of going on Facebook or looking at other things. I’m also very often just in my own home where I can also hear what’s going on around me. So it’s quite hard to focus when I’ve got a two year old screaming at the top of his lungs and I know my poor wife is about to lose it. If I was a client, I imagine I’d find it difficult to focus for 9 hours with you guys. How have you managed that?

Candy:
Well, I mean, the client doesn’t have to be on the Zoom for 9 hours straight, so that’s good for them. They basically just need to be available for us all day long. So there’s meeting in the morning and then there’s exercise we have them do, the writer will interview them and all of that stuff they have no problem being engaged for. And it’s really like it’s such a focused, intense day. You would never be able to do like three days of this in a row. From our perspective, we do one or two a week at the most. But one of the big things that we did, you may or may not remember, but we had all these fun brand exercises that we had people do that were physical items. So I had developed these decks of cards for core values, choosing Your Core Values. And we had this physical puzzle piece wireframe kit that we were using and clients loved that stuff. We got so much feedback on how much fun it was and they just loved it. So that was something I was desperately clinging to and didn’t want to lose. And for a while I was like, should we mail them a deck of cards?

Candy:
Like, how can we keep those things? And in the end, what we did was we developed our own WordPress plugins that are there this drag and drop interface that feels like you’re sorting cards. So instead of just saying what are your five core values? We still have people go through these fun little apps that we built that are colourful and easy to use and people still really enjoy that experience. So there’s a lot of fun things that they get to do during the day. We have an online brand archetype quiz that we have people do that’s kind of like a personality quiz for your business. We have a brand voice exercise that’s sort of similar to the core values, like a drag and drop kind of thing. And we’re developing more and more of these fun little apps that help us with our jobs but also have that fun experience for the client. It makes it really memorable for them and it also just acts as inspiration so they don’t have to think so hard. We can help them extract the words or extract the ideas by giving them a lot of tools, I guess.

Candy:
So, yeah, that’s been really helpful. And then in the end, we try to have fun or try to watch a cute cat video or something if people are starting to feel tired at the end of the day, it’s definitely physically draining. And I think it’s more physically draining when you’re on Zoom all day. But we’ve been able to do it and it’s going really well and so I don’t think we need it to be in person anymore.

Lee:
That’s quite a leap though, isn’t it? You were staunchly enjoying the physical. You are energised by the physical by meeting in person. You had so many things in the physical that were important, like a deck of cards or the experience of having the massage or all of those sorts of things. And now you’re like, yeah, digital is the way. But it’s kind of blowing my mind that somebody who enjoys it, that one extreme can actually embrace it. And I think that gives hope for us all, really. Things can change significantly and we can still embrace them, even though at one point in life we think this is how we do it. This is always going to be the way things can change and it can still be awesome. The fact you guys have created as well these digital tools that emulate what you are doing in the physical just goes to show how all in you guys now are. And that’s phenomenal.

Candy:
Yeah, I think as an entrepreneur, adaptability is one of the top assets that you can have. Because if I was just so stuck in my ways or in my own personal preferences, which admittedly I kind of was, we would have failed. Like, we couldn’t do our jobs. We were like the only web design company in the country that was going to get shut down because we couldn’t do the work the way we were doing it. So you got to be scrappy, you got to be persistent with your ideas, but also know when you need to pivot. And for sure, I think our pivots were beneficial in the long term. We’re able to help more people. We’re able to offer those tools to anybody on the internet. Whereas before it was like you had to come into our office to use these fun things. So, yeah, it’s awesome being able to build your ideas, change your ideas quickly, and be able to build things that suit your new life and be able to adapt quickly I think is important for every entrepreneur.

Lee:
So now that you’ve described what you guys do right now, can you tell us a little more about 1 Day Works?

Candy:
Yeah, so 1 Day Works is it’s sort of a baby business right now, but basically we have a certification process for freelancers where they can learn how to be a part of a team, 1 Day Website. So it’s for writers, for designers or developers. So we have certifications for freelancers in that way. And then we also have certifications for agencies, people who want to sell 1 Day Websites and build their own team. So this could be for existing agencies who want to change the way that they are working in order to be able to turn projects around quicker and not be stuck in email inbox hell. It definitely solves a lot of problems. And it’s also for freelancers who are ready to take the next step. Like they have a lot of work or they’re really busier than they can handle themselves, but they’re not fully accustomed to having employees or don’t quite have the leverage to start hiring employees. By being a part of our network, they can use our trained freelancers as contractors. So it’s a way to kind of level up your business without taking so much financial risk. And we’re planning to build a marketplace for the 1 Day Websites.

Candy:
This is something that we’re working on right now to basically have customers coming in and looking for one day projects and then we’ll kind of match make them with the agencies and the freelancers who can do the job and basically have it be a gig website where freelancers can make a good amount of money. Can plan their schedules and say an Uber style scheduling where they get to say. Yeah. I have a free Wednesday. I’d love to be a part of that project. Or no. I’m going to take three weeks off because I’m going to be in Bali. So no projects that week and then they can really plan their best lives or plan their daycare or whatever. People need to have a balanced, flexible schedule where we’re giving them work and they are doing the work, but they don’t have to do all the gruelling project management or sales.

Lee:
That sounds beautiful. Where can people find more information about that?

Candy:
1dayworks.com is the website and if you sign up for our email newsletter, we’re just always kind of giving away free tools and things like that. But also you can keep up to date with what’s going on with the marketplace and some of the other fun tools and things that we’ve been building.

Lee:
And that’s the number one. 1dayworks.com there will be a link in the description. Folks, I also want to let you know about an up and coming season that Candy and I will be doing together. We are focusing on finance for agencies and we will be unpacking things from pricing in a weak economy, how to price for web design, business planning and projections, employees and benefits, and also the success reality check. It’s going to be a five part season and we’re already recording it together. So I am super excited. If you are not subscribed to the show, can I recommend that you subscribe to the podcast, head on over to trailblazer.fm and all the subscription options are there for you. So Candy, as we come into land, this may be a bit of a big question, but it’s clear to me what you’ve done is you’ve taken what is a complicated service and productized it and then taken it further as you’re evolving 1 Day Website and you’re teaching other people how to do that. I know this isn’t a short answer, but where would people at least start if they wanted to take what they do and look at how they might position it as a productize service?

Candy:
Well, I’m excited to talk a lot more about some of these pricing models and ways that you can rethink your business model as a freelancer or agency in our next season. I’m excited to dig deep into that. But in general. I think if folks can think about like. You don’t want to commoditize your business and get into the point of race to the bottom pricing. But there are certain aspects of your business. Whether it’s like a website audit or an SEO audit or some type of little thing that you can do for a customer for a fixed price and using that as basically a lead generation tool or an add on to something that you’re already selling them is a great way to either increase your revenue or get more leads. So, again, I’m excited to talk way more about this type of stuff in our next season. But just thinking now about things that you do regularly and repeatedly that you can kind of put a fixed price on without taking too much financial risk is a great way to just upsell or in sell your customers.

Lee:
Guys, it is as simple as that to get started. Look at those small, easy to pitch services that you offer. That’s a great in as well too. Many potential businesses, isn’t it? An SEO review, a website check up, anything like that is a good place to start. So all that’s left from me and Candy is to say goodbye. We will see you in the next season. Cheerio.

Candy:
Thank you so much Lee.