PP 190: Taking Care of Tech with Brandy Lawson

Website:  https://www.fieryfx.com/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fieryfx
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Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. I am so happy that you’re here to join me today, and I’m also thrilled that you’re here to join our guest who I’m, well “thrilled” is the word of the day, I guess thrilled to introduce Brandy Lawson who is your chief online officer at fiery FX.

Brandy, welcome and welcome back.

Brandy Lawson: Whoa, thanks Kim. I really I actually love that we get to have another conversation. I just love chatting with you.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I love it too. Sometimes tech glitches are for the very best reasons and I love to continue conversation seriously, I’ve had I’ve built bigger and better relationships with the guests who have come back multiple times due to my tech glitches. So tech gods are are sending me a message do it more often.

Brandy, would you please introduce yourself to listeners and tell them what you do and how you got to where you are today?

Brandy Lawson: Sure, sure. That’s I’ll try to make it succinct. But yes, so as you mentioned, I am your chief online officer. Basically, business owners hire me to make the best digital decisions for their business. And that usually entails some of the digital marketing aspects.

So, making sure that Google finds them. Some of them are unintentionally hiding. Making sure that their website is secure. Because honestly, it doesn’t matter. Anything else I do, we could drive traffic, we could get you to page one of Google, we could do all the things, but if your website isn’t there tomorrow, none of that matters. So I’ve kind of got my soapbox out.

(Transcription still being cleaned up, but thanks for checking it out!)

Brandy Lawson: And also just building the right foundation, for your business for your business, not just the shiny object, not just what’s hot, not just what everyone else is using, but really making the right digital decisions for your business and getting a return on your investment of your time and energy. So that’s, that’s how I help businesses and how I got here. That’s kind of a journey. My my parents opened a restaurant in the year I was born. And when I was eight, I was helping my dad do data entry because he’d written his own computer programs to track sales and payroll for this restaurant because his background was in engineering, do not ask me why they decided to open a restaurant. And so that’s sort of my first taste of technology in business. And then, when I was in undergrad, I was getting a marketing degree and took a c++ class. There was no other marketer. And then I went to work for a technology company and my love of that intersection of marketing and technology grew via the web. I started as marketing planner but got sucked into the website. And that sort of evolved into becoming a product director. So then my last corporate gig was with the world’s largest domain registrar and I was running the system behind their email and calendar I responsible for the website builder so that that intersection of finding the real need and knowing what the technology can Marrying both things together. So when that corporate gig ended, and we found out a couple weeks later that we were expecting our son, I’m like, it’s fine. It’s fine. I’ll find another job. It’s fine. And sort of long story short, when I ended up turning down a job with Microsoft, like, Oh, I think I’m gonna do my own thing. So that’s kind of what has brought us in, in a roundabout way to here.

I had forgotten I’m going to start at the end and work our way back to the beginning. I had forgotten that you mentioned that you had gotten pregnant right after you lost or that you’d find out you were pregnant right after that, because I found out I was pregnant with our daughter, Nevada. That week, I gave my notice that I was leaving my full time job to do this full time. What is scary time? Oh, my goodness. But there was also that breath of relief of oh my gosh, now I don’t because I was in a contract position where I wasn’t going to get paid for any maternity leave. I mean, it was it was all going to be on my dime anyway, so why not just make it on my dime.

Yeah, well, that was the that was the one as I was, you know, sitting with the HR person because I got locked out, like, you know, officially on record, I was fired. So that was a bit of a blow to my ego, but I’m sitting with HR person and she’s processing Yeah, I’m like, Oh, this is fine, cuz I was what I would call a fairly high risk position there. Nobody had been in that position for more than 12 months maximum. I was past that expiration date. So I had made peace before that with you know, just it being over. But the thought ran through my head because at that point, we had been sort of trying, I’m like, Oh, crap, well, it’s fine. Oh, and then we find out that I am that we are expecting and my husband’s like, I’m sorry. You’re what? You’re you’re unemployed and what I think it’s fine. It’s fine. I’ll find him.

Brandy, I’ve been walked out myself. And the funny thing is, is that I had been unknowingly manifesting it myself. For a while. I wasn’t even introduced to law of attraction yet, but I am had said more than a couple times, maybe Today’s the day I’ll be fired because it was to be there. So then that day came, I had actually been out with the flu for a few days, my annual review had come out. I went to the office with 103 or 104 fever with the flu, like my eyes were so swollen, I had this hacking cough that you could hear on the other side of the office. And they actually told me that they just didn’t want to do my review because they didn’t want to all get sick. So I went home, and they quite literally, I think two days later, I was walked out. And I already said I didn’t want to be there. But for some reason, it was the ego, the ego round trip. I was crying on my way to the parking lot and I am not a crier. Well, I mean, I cried to movies or to once like TV show that I will not mention my boys actually sorry. Parallel tangent story disorder PTSD, I could forget which probably Our guest said that but I totally have it. This is us. I’m addicted now. And they’re like, you’re not gonna watch that and start crying again, are you? This is my voice in this. But anyway, I was crying on my way to the parking lot. And then I hyperventilated for my one and only time ever on my way home because my ego is just shattered, like, what am I going to do? But it was also 2008. I was doing interior design for schools, the bond issues were failing. So the tax money wasn’t coming in to pay for the architects to design the schools. I mean, it just happened. But anyway, backing up a little bit earlier in your story, you actually gave me a huge aha moment. And I didn’t intend for this to be a promo for Kim episode. But in the interior design world, I one of the favorite most favorite parts for me, was actually working in AutoCAD and laying out the designs and figuring out how everything was going to work together. And while you’re talking, I realized that such a parallel to what I do in Infusionsoft on a daily basis, like I’m laying out the plan Right. So I want to dive a little bit deeper. And there’s something that you said about shiny object syndrome. Because Infusionsoft is a great example of how so many people can see it. They can see like the big names using it because it says at the bottom of their emails powered by Infusionsoft. So they think that that’s what they have to get, you know, this magic ticket to my success. But I know that you’ve seen it quite differently. So can you jump into that aspect? Just a little bit?

Yeah. And actually, this is, you know, this is kind of the conversation that you and I had at the new media summit about choosing the right tools for you and your business. And I think there’s kind of two syndromes I’ve found. One is the aspirational sophomore syndrome, which is I think what happens with Infusionsoft is that you see people ahead of you and where you want to be and you see the things that they’re using, like Oh, if I use that, because we’re always looking for the quick fix, right? If I use that, that’s going to help me The other thing I’ve seen is the the shiny object Or the squirrel? It’s the Oh, this thing does all the What is this? Do? I also like to call it the tool drool? You know, and I love appsumo so much, but at the same time, it is. It just puts a new thing in front of you, oh, what does this do? How can I use it? Oh, that seems cool. I should use that. And what I have learned from all of my years in product development, is that if you start with the solution, that’s not going to get you what you need. You have to first start with really being very clear about your needs and your priorities. Because that’s the other thing is, you know, with my dad, he had to write his own software, there were no options. He so he had to develop from from the ground of what he wanted it to do. Today, we have the opposite problem. There’s too many options there is probably exactly what you need out there. But you’re never going to find it unless you stop and first really get clear about what it is you need in your business. And, you know, if you many of the business owners I work with are not super technology savvy, they don’t quite get what the capabilities are. So I have to kind of walk them through. Forget what you think you know, think about your business. Think about how you want to serve your clients. Think about how you want to onboard your clients. Think about how you want to interact with your clients. What is it that you need? And what are your priorities? Because that’s the other thing is, is that we can get really caught up in the the wish list. I need this. But wouldn’t it be cool if it wouldn’t be cool? So if you get really clear about what your needs are and prioritize them, then it gets a lot easier to find the right solution for your business at this point. There’s also the factor of things change, right? And so I advise my clients think 24 months out, what is you What are your needs set for the next two years? And you know, at some point, it’s a bit of a gasp, but you’re trying to look at that horizon and understand, okay, this is our plan for growth. This is what we’re doing. These are how many people this is our need set. Great now. Now that we’re really clear, we can go out and pair that with a technology solution or a set of solutions. Because honestly, everything is integrating now. So you may not be ready to use all the things and Infusionsoft. So let’s start with you know, Active Campaign and maybe you need an affiliate program but it’s it becomes much easier to get your hands around what the right tool is when you know the job you’re trying to do with it.

Brandy, I don’t normally date episodes, but considering this episode is being recorded right before the Thanksgiving holiday in the US and Black Friday, and it’s being released on Cyber Monday. I can just I know that I’m going to have clients messaging me and I’m sure you’re gonna have clients messaging you. Oh, look at this great deal. I just got, can you figure out how to like incorporate it and especially appsumo That one’s that it’s like a nemesis. I don’t know if this is the right word, but I have one client and specific You know, I’m talking to you, if you’re listening will undoubtedly have three or four offers that you Picked up? it no matter how hard we try to rein the clients in, there’s just some who can’t get the squirrel or I’m just going to abbreviate because and I know I don’t cuss often on here but as as aspirational or syndrome Yeah, they can’t get the squirrel or ass under control it But seriously, don’t be one, just look at create your business Wish List of where you want to be and then backwards engineer it.

Right yeah and understand that when a deal is not necessarily a deal if you don’t take into consideration the time and effort it takes to implement it. So you know, it might be $47 for a lifetime license, which is you know, super great. I you know, there’s a couple things I’ve bought off of app Sumo that have been more than worth their weight, like Q. But if you if it’s not already on your list of things you need, then you have to get real real real, real brutally honest about? Is it really something you have the time and space for? And if you do buy it and try to implement it, what is that taking away from on your priority list?

Oh my gosh, I’m so glad you brought that up. Because Infusionsoft is is so huge in that bucket. And I don’t know if you’re aware, I think we may have actually when we were chatting last week, I might have briefly shared this with you. listeners, if you’re considering Infusionsoft please think about what Brandy just said, because they’re actually and this is not a promo to go buy Infusionsoft right now even though I would love it if you would come to buy from me when you’re ready. But they’re about to take away the kickstart fee, which up till now, it’s been about $2,000 and they’re reducing the subscription the monthly subscription to $79 a month. So that’s opening up the doors to a lot of people who previously couldn’t really afford it. But just because the monthly subscription goes down to $79 a month does not mean You can afford it now because the reason I get a lot of my clients is Infusionsoft is synonymous for a lot of people with Infusionsoft. So you end up having to bring in a certified partner or a professional who really knows Infusionsoft and pay them a minimum of 100 hundred and $50 an hour to get your system up and working. And all those hundred $250 an hour’s that adds up so fast, like, especially when you’re creating something really awesome, which you deserve to have, but not until I mean, but don’t do it until you’re ready. You can get those same results off of Active Campaign or ConvertKit, or any of the others. And you could I think you should always be building your team. However, you can even manage those on your own until you’re ready for the big leap.

Brandy Lawson: Well, that’s when people have come to me and said they’re considering Infusionsoft. I’m like, great. So tell me about all the systems that you have in place in your business and they’re like, what? No, really, I think you’re ready to move into Infusionsoft. When you have actively put all of the systems in place in your business either. They’re like manual checklists or they’re or you’ve created them in ConvertKit or Active Campaign. If you have defined all of your systems then you’re ready for Infusionsoft. But you’re going to pay a very what I like to call the Infusionsoft tax even though the barrier to entry is now lower. So that barrier to entry being that previous Kickstarter fee and or the the monthly costs, even though that barrier to entry is lower, there is still a very large investment and it being taxed that you’re going to pay. If you don’t already have your systems figured out. You don’t want to figure them out with Infusionsoft, you want to figure them out, and then be like okay, now we know how this works. We’re going to use Infusionsoft to automate it and put it all on one place.

Kim Sutton: Exactly. So if you’re considering Infusionsoft or any other software, work with somebody like Brandy or me to get your strategy in place, well before you make that purchase, Give yourself I would say at least six months. It’s like buying your dream car if you do it tomorrow, unless you win the lottery, which I mean, I still wouldn’t recommend you got to plan these things out.

Brandy Lawson: Well I like I like to use so when I talk to potential clients I talk a lot about you know, there’s a lot of spaghetti on a lot of walls before you get to me because you’ve cooked a lot of spaghetti and put it on a lot of walls and you’ve not had anything to sit down and eat. Well, I think of Infusionsoft is like the commercial kitchen. If you’ve got a recipe, you usually test it at home, you do small tests, you make sure that it’s all good, you’re gonna figure out how to scale that like how to how to make massive amounts of it before you go rent or buy a commercial kitchen that has all the cool fancy stuff. But if you don’t know what you’re doing when you get there, it’s gonna be a waste.

You need to write a blog article about that. That’s, that was awesome. And I may have to borrow that and give all credit to brandy to discuss the future. Infusionsoft, you know, I love you and I hope I don’t lose my certified partner status as a result of What I’ve already said In this episode, but I’m really just trying to our goal is icps and Infusionsoft school as a company, and I’m not an employee, I just want to make that clear is to see the members and the subscribers success. So we just want to make sure that you’re prepared. Now I’m going to let’s back that up a little bit earlier in what you were saying about security, because to me, unless you’ve got your systems protected, and just the basic systems, you shouldn’t even be thinking about any purchase. So let’s dig into that a little bit.

Brandy Lawson: Ah, security. Yeah, so um, I have I wrote a blog article earlier this year on is your online presence, expense, or is it an asset? And I’ve had a couple qualifications around that basically, you can’t have an asset and once it has a job like was it doing for you and how much are you investing in it? And are you getting are you measuring it as a return on investment, and now I’ve added the fourth item, which is Is it insured? Basically, are you protecting this asset? And that comes back to the website security. And even you know, as I’ve talked to other clients, I’m sure you can, you’ve had this experience where people come to you, and they’ve had someone create something for them. And they know and they don’t have access to it directly, either like it’s a, it’s a system or Facebook page or something. And so this this fourth part about ensuring or protecting the liability of this asset, so when it comes to websites, if you’ve got WordPress, you really have to protect your asset, you need to make sure it’s backed up and updated and secured. It’s just the name of the game I like to say with with great power comes great responsibility. And I think that’s the same way of playing with Infusionsoft. But when you have a tool that’s capable of a lot of things, you have to make sure that you also are protecting that you’re doing the right thing so that you are are ensuring that asset

listeners if you haven’t already heard my own story the weekend after brand And I met actually back in September of 2017. I went to put up my most recent podcast episode on my site and found that none of my sites were accessible. They all had a big 500 error. I think it was. And when I called my hosting company I found out that I had been hacked coincidentally it’s a program that I’m launching today like the day that this episode goes live the positive productivity pod I was building the website and had not installed any security on the site. Randy I know you like I themes that that’s typically what I use. I’m just the free version is even good. It gives you something and a hacker had gotten in. I’m just gonna blame it on that site because again, the security wasn’t there. Went into my server and deleted all of all of my website files. So not just the pod website, but the KIM SUTTON Sutton strategic solutions. And in about, I believe it was probably I’ve always said seven I think there were probably eight or nine websites in there, that completely deleted all the files deleted. And what got worse. And brandy you and I have talked about this and I want you to expand is that I didn’t have a backup system in place, the only backup system I had, and I didn’t even know about it until that point was that my host had a backup However, my server was full. So the most recent backup they had was in February in I asked them to restore it, but it took them so long that by because my server was suddenly not full, because all the files were deleted. A week later, my backup my backup was by a more recent backup. So I have all

the money

out of me when you originally told me that that have

no no, here we are, what Two months later, and I am still not restored. I have three quarters. No, not even three quarters because I have maybe 40 Past episodes up, I’m putting all the most recent ones up. And then I’m slowly My team and I are slowly backloading. The old ones, listeners if you’re going through this archive. org is brand new, I think you even recommended that to me. He has records of they have cached files of websites. So you can go in and get blog articles and individually the copy for individual web pages and like all the podcast transcriptions and everything that we didn’t have stored anywhere else. But we’re having to do it slowly because we can’t abandon everything else that we’re working on. So KIM SUTTON calm while it may look good at first glimpse, and like three quarters of the content is missing. And then the pauses You know, I’ve had to rebuild that. So it’s two months later, and I’m not even a 10th of the way there yet. What would What do you recommend where do people need to start here?

So um, so after that, and then I went and I did an analysis of the rest of the podcasters websites and 80% of them were using WordPress which isn’t surprising, which is about four already three sites and only five of those sites were just from looking on the outside completely secured. And I like I can’t even tell if you have a backup just looking from the outside. But I can tell if you’re running an old WordPress version or if you have some plugins out of date, not all plugins, but there’s some plugins you can see if you’re if, if I can see users if I can see users, that’s probably an indication you don’t have a security plugin. So yeah, only five of those 43 sites were what I would consider secure and I can’t even tell if they have backups. So I put together sort of this practicing safe WordPress here are the three steps to practicing safe WordPress one you have to have a plan B, which is backup. And a backup is not a an actual backup if it’s still stored on your hosting server because of what happened again, because hosts are you know, they do the best job they can but sometimes stuff happens and it’s beyond their control. So if you have a backup, it should be stored someplace that is not your hosting account when we manage client sites. We take those backups and they are stored on Amazon s3. You can store it on Dropbox, you can serve it on group Google Drive, you can download it, I don’t care, it just needs to be somewhere in your control. That’s not the hosting server. So that’s number one, Plan B. And number two is choose your protection. So I theme security is great. They’ve got the free version, which will do it wordfence I use for our clients. And we use a combination of IBM Security pro and wordfence together because we lock it down like Fort Knox, but you need a WordPress security plugin not because WordPress itself is insecure. But it adds some additional functionality and removes all the default settings because we’re in restaurants make it easy to use. So when you install it, it sets a lot of things and default, which is fine except for those are then known by all the hackers and so if you leave everything default, they have known places on your website to hook into so using a WordPress security plugin just helps you not use those default, it adds extra security layers like limiting login attempts. And it just basically helps put the lock down on your site. Now, if you’re using managed WordPress hosting, like if you’re hosted with WP Engine, or some of the other managed WordPress hosts, they don’t allow those because they’re taking care of that for you. I like to say that your your web host is the neighborhood, you’re building your website. And so your your houses your website, your host is your neighborhood. So where you’re choosing to build your house really will determine how many bars you need on your Windows. So if you’re in WP Engine, that’s like the nice gated neighborhood where there’s a security guard driving around all the time. If you’re at other hosts, ones that have just more shared hosting that aren’t really monitoring it. It’s kind of like building your house in the projects, you probably are going to want to have bars on your Windows and security system. So that’s, you know, the level of security you need to think about when you’re choosing your protection. And then number three is we’re regular checkups. So you need to be updating WordPress and your plugins and your theme. You need to be in there at least once a week, if you’re doing it yourself, because updates happen all the time. Sometimes the updates are functionality, but most of the time the updates or bug fixes and security fixes. And there’s a way to figure out how much of a change this update is by looking at the version number. So WordPress, I think is on 4.9 now, but it was on 4.8 point three. So four is the major version number and then the point eight is the minor. And then there’s another point. So if that third number changes, that’s a very minor release. It doesn’t necessarily add any functionality. They’re just fixing stuff. And so that’s usually very low risk. If it’s a change to the second number, that’s a bit more significant, but usually, again, fairly low risk if the first number changes, that’s a major version change. And so those are the kinds of version changes you may want to sort of wait on, see what’s going on. Just make sure You got backups. So that those are my three steps to practicing safe WordPress,

I want to add a fourth. But maybe it’s a 3.0 dot two sanity saver. When you’re using WordPress, you should also be using a child theme. Because those updates happen. You do not want to have to contact your developer to redo any custom coding that they did on the site. And I fell victim to that I probably went three and a half years without using child themes. And I would get so frustrated because I was doing it all myself. Oh, no. So

yeah, there’s a what I would call a right way to customize WordPress and a child theme is a great way to do it. What themes nowadays are, are getting better and even WordPress has evolved into trying to help you customize the right way. So the wrong way to do it is to modify the files directly if you go in and write To your, your style dot CSS or your functions dot php file and your main theme files, those changes are not going to stick they’re just not because they’re gonna get overwritten. And the right way is to either use a child theme which is great or most of the quality themes these days are giving you places in the theme options to add your own custom CSS, or header or footer or even some PHP code. The other way that you can do it is you can also write if you want to make changes that would otherwise go in the functions dot php file. And you add like a child theme seems daunting You can also write your own plugin and legitimately writing a plugin is one line of code to quote unquote rather plugin and then you can pop in your the things that you would have otherwise put in the functions that php file and you have your own plugin. There’s there’s a right way to modify WordPress and there’s a wrong way and the wrong way is to modify theme files directly.

Thank you was like, seriously five years ago when I started the business four years ago when I was building my first WordPress site, because I did start with one of those website in a weekend type of packages from a company that we won’t mention. But on that no I do you were mentioning the gated community hosting versus the perfect. Yeah, that’s such a great way of putting it because what happened to me was that I was on a shared server, even though my one website that I had at that time wasn’t taking up much bandwidth. I don’t know if I’m using the right expression. My website was going down quite often because other sites on the server that didn’t even belong to me, were sucking all the juice away from my site. So then I moved you just sometimes you need to move to you might not be able to move to the the gated community quite yet but get to a nicer neighborhood.

I actually wrote a blog article on this. There are shared hosts who are sort of actually more like a hybrid. So they’re not plain Jane shared. hosting, but they’re not full managed WordPress. So siteground is an example of one of these sort of hybrids, where their hosting plans are shared hosting, but the way that they are structured and and the services they offer. So I’ve got a go geek plan with them, which gives me staging capabilities for sites. It has some, if I want, if I needed to apply an SSL certificate, it’s literally three clicks to get the certificate and apply it to the site and make sure that everything is changed on the site to point to HTTPS. They just have some really great tools that are part of shared hosting and and it’s not crazy expensive. Like I said, it’s sort of the hybrid middle ground. They also have very good technology and the way that they they set up their shared hosting separates things so you don’t experience that Oh, somebody else is sitting on the server and draining the resources. So when you go shopping for a neighborhood or web host, it’s good to educate yourself on the types that are out there so that you can make the right decision for your house.

I like how you said it’s not very expensive because it sparks something in me like sometimes we can’t necessarily think about the cost. And listeners this specific section about website security, I want you to consider this in a completely different light from our earlier discussion about Infusionsoft and all of that. Sometimes it’s worth the added investment to get to the better neighborhood because like, in my case, if I had made the investment in security, I wouldn’t have nine sites down right now. And the the cost and I’m not going to say the investment, the cost of getting all those up is going to be huge compared to if I had just spent a nominal fee of getting the security up in the first place in the backup system. But I looked at it as a cost and not an investment and I’ll kick myself in the butt for that. If you are listening to this episode, or if it sparks in your head further down the road and you have a big disaster in your own company and with your websites, I want you to contact brandy right away before you make a purchase. Yes, because I’m not going to mention who I signed up with for security. But my host said to me that if I wanted to get my sites restored, then I needed to talk to this company and get my websites cleared of any malware in any of that. What I didn’t realize was that I was signing up for a yearly contract, which I can’t get out of, and it’s not necessarily the best. I’m not saying it’s not a great company. I’m gonna leave their name totally out of this. But I wouldn’t have signed up for an annual contract if I had known all my options that were out there. So duck KIM SUTTON, calm forward slash p p 190. Just store that in the back of your brain so that when you need this, you can come back and get Brandis contact info,

and hopefully you are going to go and at least make sure you’ve got a backup and make sure that you’ve got a security plugin. I really want you to also update your website, but like Make sure that you have those things. If you don’t feel comfortable, then you know reach out and and get some resources and because like I’m going to start offering a workshop on doing this so that you I’m going to give you the plugins. And I’ll walk you through getting them set up because I get it. You know, it can kind of be intimidating. You’re not sure. It feels like a lot of work. Sometimes. Insurance is not sexy. Like, oh, but this isn’t going to add anything to my website. No, but it will protect you from losing it and the anguish and heartache and rebuilding, like just take the moment. Take the time to invest in a good house with the appropriate security system for the neighborhood you’ve chosen.

Kim Sutton: I love how you said that insurance is not sexy at all. But it’s not let me just think it probably about four years ago, my family and I were living in actually a rent controlled apartment complex and we got back from church one morning and there were police and fire trucks all over And these are townhouse rows.

So in our row of townhouses — so there were probably eight to 10 units all attached –just three doors down from ours, a mom was doing her laundry and there ended up being there in the in the dryer vent and her her whole apartment went up in flames. Thankfully, she got out her kids out, but everything was lost and she didn’t have renter’s insurance.

Kim Sutton: Insurance is not sexy, but whether it’s for your apartment or your house, I mean, I think homeowners insurance is required. Car Insurance, those we know why we need to have those. But what we’re talking about today with the backups in the security for your website, if you are running your business online, these are just as critical as any of those other three like insurances that we have. And health insurance depending on where we live, you know, health insurance listeners not even go there right now. But yeah, absolutely.

And Going back to your workshop, I don’t know, listeners, if you picked up on the fact that Brandi said that she is offering a workshop and she is giving you as a member, the plugins, can you talk a little bit more about that, Brandy, please?

Brandy Lawson: For sure. For sure. Um, so this is like you mentioned, Kim is one of the objections is that, you know, premium plugins, cost money. And the ones that I use are about $80 a year apiece, and I’m happy to pay that. Like, I have a developer’s license. But I get that sometimes that feels daunting.

So as part of this workshop, as part of your workshop fee, I’m including a year license of the items security pro and iTunes, backup buddy, because I find that these ones have been the best user experience. Backup buddy not only gives you great backups, but I’ve restored a site in under 15 minutes while using backup buddy. So it… like the ability to not only have a backup, but use the backup because that’s why it’s there.

Brandy Lawson: So that’s why I’m including those with those workshop because then I can show you exactly how to get them all set up. I know you have quality software and and it will be updated and it’s from a reliable source. So yeah, I thought it was really important if I was going to offer this workshop about securing your WordPress site that included the tools that we would need.

Kim Sutton: I am still embarrassed to say, I mean, I now have access to backup buddy through Brandy, but I have not taken the two minutes to install it yet. Oh, how horrible is that?

Brandy Lawson: Okay, we talked about I guess, like a month ago?

Kim Sutton: I’m actually putting a note in my Trello right now that that needs to be done as soon as I get off, but there are so many things going on in our life every single day. In our business. The clients can wait two minutes, if it means that your website assets or if it means your digital assets are secured.

Brandy Lawson: Yeah, yes because the other the other unfortunate part about getting your website hacked and having to rebuild besides…

Kim Sutton: Oh, it’s crazy.

Brandy Lawson: …recreating content and all that other yucky stuff is that the goodwill that you’ve built up with Google is dissipating, if it’s giving 404 errors, and the content’s not there, and the stuff that it crawled before is no longer there. Also, if you get hacked and Google finds it, then you have to go get unlisted as a bad site with Google. There’s just this sort of avalanche of you know, snowball effect that happens when something bad happens to your website. And some of those effects you may not actually see until later when you’re like, Well, why is my organic search traffic way down? Well, that wrote that blog post that was so popular is no longer there. So Google can’t send traffic to it got a 404 and you got pulled off the page.

Kim Sutton: That is such a valid point. I mean, I was getting most of my traffic from Pinterest for an article that I had posted. And that article now that I think about it is not one of the articles that’s been restricted, so diagnose at the top of the list. Uh huh. And then I have I use me Edgar which Brandy I don’t know if you know, but Edgar now has an affiliate program.

Brandy Lawson: Oh, yeah

Kim Sutton: As of last week. So yes, listeners, there will be an affiliate link just to be in full transparency. But Edgar was fully loaded with all my blog articles, a good majority of my podcast episodes, and all my lead magnets, and it is no longer it’s paused. Thank you is paused because the content is not up yet. So looking at my Google Analytics, oh, it’s painful being that traffic go down for the last two months. However, if for nothing else, it was a learning experience which we can now be talking to you about today listeners to tell you exactly why you need to take these steps. B

Brandy, I just want to thank you so much for not only coming on today, but coming back for the second time due to tech glitches. I actually think that this this chat was even more powerful than the first one. I think it was just how it was supposed to be.

Where can listeners find you online connect and well and enlist your support

Brandy Lawson: So You can find me at fieryfx.com and I’m on Facebook and LinkedIn I also do quite a bit of speaking so you know I get out and speak to groups but yeah all of my blog content and getting access to my programs and other things I offer you can find me at fieryfx.com 

Kim Sutton: and that’s F-I-E-R-Y-F-X.com.

Brandy Lawson: That’s right.

Kim Sutton: Great! Listeners, if you’re driving if you’re away from your computer right now and you just can’t pull it up, you can go to thekimsutton.com/pp190, where you will get a whole list of all of the ways that you can contact Brandy as well as a list of everything that we’ve talked about today. And eventually the transcript but that is on hold until all my sites are restored.

Brandy Lawson: Yeah, prioritizing.

Kim Sutton: Brandy, thank you so much again for joining us. Do you have a last piece of parting advice or a golden nugget that you can offer to listeners before we go?

Brandy Lawson: I think when it comes to digital decisions, always take a moment to consider your… where you’re at, where you want to invest your time and what kind of support you would need to make the most of whatever you’re about to decide to do.

I think that that can help you make the better decisions of building the foundation of your business so later when you come to me or you come to Kim and you want to add an addition to this house, that we don’t have to revisit the foundation.

Brandy Lawson: So, yeah, just taking that moment and being like, okay, where am I? Is this fit my needs? Does this fit into the plans I have laid? Is this the right priority for me just taking that moment before you make a digital decision can help you go down the right path and not not have to backtrack so often.