Focus On Talents: Serving Your True 'Why' & Mastering SEO - Lauren Gaggioli's Success Secrets

🎙️ In this empowering episode of Pathways with Amber Stitt, join host Amber Stitt as she welcomes the inspiring Lauren Gaggioli to delve into the vital role of resilience, the art of building an online presence, and how to align purpose with profession.

🌟 Lauren Gaggioli, a seasoned online entrepreneur and educator, shares her incredible journey from aspiring actress to a powerhouse in online education. With her hands-on experience in driving astounding organic growth to her ACT and SAT prep courses, Lauren reveals the strategies behind attracting 16,000 new users per month and discusses the nuanced balance between content quality and strategic SEO.

Episode Highlights:

- The transformative power of purpose and self-awareness in personal and professional life

- "The Big Why": Lauren's guiding philosophy for actualizing potential

- Incorporating downtime and personal fulfillment alongside career ambitions

- Gaggioli's transition from acting to impactful tutoring and her dedication to youth potential

- Entrepreneurial spirit and the hopeful, innovative mindset of teenagers

- Crafting passive income and the intricate dance of quality content and SEO

- Dissecting the differences between Google and social media engagement

- SEO demystified: Practical tips from keyword research to user engagement

- Embracing personal work patterns for a harmonious work-life synergy

- Insights from "Big Magic" by Elizabeth Gilbert on discovering internal treasures

- Confronting fears and actionable advice for improving your website

🔍 Lauren also extends an exclusive offer to listeners for a free DIY website audit to help kickstart their journey toward greater online impact. Don't miss this insightful conversation about finding your "Why," leveraging SEO to amplify your message, and setting the boundaries necessary for a balanced, fulfilling life.

👋 Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, content creator, or someone looking to infuse more purpose into your work, this episode with Lauren Gaggioli is a treasure trove of wisdom just for you!

🔗 Links:

- To watch this episode: https://youtu.be/c950DAAb71o

- Do your FREE DIY Website Audit: https://laurengaggioli.com/diyaudit

📌 Don't forget to subscribe for more inspiring stories and valuable lessons on Pathways with Amber Stitt. Hit the bell icon to stay notified about our latest episodes!

#PathwayswithAmberStitt #LaurenGaggioli #Entrepreneurship #SEO #ContentCreation #OnlineCourses #Resilience #PurposeDriven #BigMagic #WebsiteAudit #PersonalDevelopment

Connect with Amber and find out more about her:

- Website: https://www.amberstitt.com/

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-stitt-acp-chfc%C2%AE-cltc%C2%AE-clu%C2%AE-gallup%C2%AE-1b186821/

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amberstitt_

Connect with Lauren Gaggioli:

- Website: https://laurengaggioli.com/

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurengaggioli/

Remember to like, comment, and share if you found this episode valuable, and let us know what you're doing to bring your "Big Why" to life in the comments below!✨

Transcript

Amber Stitt [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways. I am your host, Amber Stitt, and today we have Lauren Gaggioli with us today. Welcome, Lauren.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:00:08]:
Thank you so much for having me. Amber, this is so lovely.

Amber Stitt [00:00:12]:
So I've been excited to have you on. I know I've shared that I'm excited to learn some tips and tricks from you. You've been an online entrepreneur for quite some time, and you've been helping other digital, online, or solopreneur business owners really just find their way into telling their story and they're putting their "Why" out there online. How did this get started? How did you find this as your passion?

Lauren Gaggioli [00:00:33]:
Oh, man. We're going in the way, way back machine. I was a theater major. Do not recommend it for Type A folks who do not want to direct and write and produce.

Amber Stitt [00:00:46]:
Do not. Yes, you did not.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:00:49]:
So all I wanted to do was act. And there's very little control you have over that.

Amber Stitt [00:00:57]:
You get your script and you just...you're told what to do and this is what it is.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:01:01]:
Hit the mark, right?

Amber Stitt [00:01:03]:
That's it.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:01:03]:
And I wanted to, like, call my own shots a little bit more, but I didn't really feel like producing film and tv like that just was not calling to me. So while I was acting in LA, I started tutoring kids and I was helping them get ready for the ACT and SAT. And I've always had a passion for serving young people because there's just so much potential in each and every life. And I think you see that nowhere more clearly than teenagers who have, like, enough of that idealism and, like, enough of that agency to really make change. So I enjoyed it. I'm probably one of the few who genuinely enjoys teenagers. I really enjoyed working with them.

Amber Stitt [00:01:45]:
Someone has to do it, right? Yep.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:01:47]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:01:48]:
But there is something, and I'm in financial services and there is something trending where there's these blocks of these generations. Respect the wisdom that comes from the previous generations and the other generations think the others are doing X, Y and Z. X's don't want to be millennials. And then those Z's, I think this new wave of next generation, they are going to be...I feel maybe I'm overconfident with how they've learned. You talk about agency, but the resources they have now, they're not waiting for an answer in a school, in a classroom. They're also seeing the world do things very interestingly. And our economics have, you know, we won't go there, but I think they want to do better.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:02:25]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:02:25]:
And I think they might jump right in and do it. And so the naysayers, I think, just, we might want to watch to see, yes, they might be on their phone a bit, but they're going to be creating solutions, I think, using what we have.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:02:36]:
I think you're right. I mean, that's the thing that I've always enjoyed about them. There's, like, just this almost a hopefulness. Sometimes it's cynical, but, like, yeah, it's cynicism about what exists because of what could be. They see the gap and they know how to bridge that gap. Like, they have so many tools and so many resources and so much education, to your point, Amber, right at their fingertips. So, yeah, never underestimate a teenager who's got an idea about how they're going to change the world.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:03:06]:
That's the thing I also love about entrepreneurship. To be completely honest, (that's where I was heading), entrepreneurs, we're a hopeful bunch, too.

Amber Stitt [00:03:13]:
And I think you work with a number of people, or you've had, even for yourself, multiple income streams or passive income. A lot of that comes from what you teach and what you help people with. Let's talk a little bit about what you do for people and how you help, and then we'll dive into some tips and strategies you have. I'm really curious, selfishly so, but I think I also would love your experience on how you've been able to scale. And I tease you because I say it looks like you have so much fun, but I think when you're incorporating your strategies and information and what you've tested, I think people can have more freedom by using some of the systems. And that's really where I'm heading with it.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:03:50]:
100%. 100%. So after I started my...I was doing act and SAT test prep in home, and then I had a client who was like, "Lauren, you really got to check out Twitter." And I was like, "I teach in this, like, very small geographic area." Cause I'm in my car doing it. He's like, "Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. Go get on Twitter." So I started expanding into scalable offerings.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:04:11]:
I started offering my test prep services online. And so that, to me, was where a switch kind of flipped, and I was like, "Oh, like, I can be a solopreneur and I can still scale." That's where that, like, I'm no longer exchanging time for money thing really came to bear in my life that I was earning an ROI on that principle investment of time, of investing, in creating a course offering. So I'm hugely passionate about passive income, but it is the most active income you will earn for a while because it takes a while to make back what you put into it, but it can pay for years. And so I really love creating online courses. And then when I launched that first program, I sort of went, "It's here. I built it.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:05:01]:
Where are my people? Where is everybody?"

Amber Stitt [00:05:05]:
People don't have that problem ever, do they?

Lauren Gaggioli [00:05:08]:
No. I've never heard anybody else say that.

Amber Stitt [00:05:11]:
The traffic's not coming. And there were some stats, like there's a....well, someone was talking about ChatGPT, and they're grabbing all these stale websites that are out there. So some of the information from OpenAI is just like, grabbing the clunky stuff that's been out there.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:05:24]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:05:25]:
That, you know, just sits out and has not been perfected. And I think that's where it sounds like you started testing what is going to work here.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:05:33]:
Yeah. So I very quickly became friends with Uncle Google. That's what I call him. Uncle G. Big Uncle G. Yeah you want to be invited to his Thanksgiving table, let me tell you what.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:05:44]:
Because if you create quality content, he will matchmake you with your ideal prospects.

Amber Stitt [00:05:50]:
Matchmake. I like that.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:05:52]:
100%. That's all he does. And so when we look at it versus social, I always say, like, Google is like, serotonin snuggles, and Zuckerberg is dishing out just like, dopamine hits. And also you get them for, like, 24 hours and they're gone. Like, good luck, you better refill.

Amber Stitt [00:06:10]:
And then you gotta go back for more.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:06:12]:
Bottomless bucket. Yeah. So that's why I feed Google first. Not that I'm not on social, you know, but I would much rather find my ideal client when they're looking for me than hope that the 24 hours I chose to create content in, hit the right person at the right time for them to take the next right step.

Amber Stitt [00:06:31]:
Well, I think you're hitting on. There's a framework we talk about on my podcast, and there's a five step process, I think, that just builds resilience in life. I think sometimes people, when they're not getting the direct monetization or that result, the analytical, like, my business partner, "Okay, if I pay over here, I should get x. I need x." I think sometimes people just assume it's just...it needs to be something quicker, faster. So if you're creating content, you can repurpose that in different ways. Now, there's a lot of cool things we can do, but it doesn't always mean it's just going to happen.

Amber Stitt [00:07:01]:
Go viral. It might take some time to ramp up.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:07:04]:
Absolutely, absolutely. And I think the thing about SEO that I found with my first company, which was the test prep company, it took about two years, but eventually, as a solopreneur, I was bringing in 16,000 new users per month via organic search to a scalable course offering.

Amber Stitt [00:07:24]:
Wow.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:07:24]:
So you can see, like, "Oh, that's how you make money online." Like, you need people who need you to find you when they need you, and then a percentage of those people will say yes to whatever it is you offer. You do have to pave the way for that. But there's a very real trade off there in that you have to create the content strategically, first leveraging data, and then if you build it, they will come eventually. Right? You do have to wait, but instead of creating something every single day for social and praying you have data that says, "Okay, I'll be able to find the right people at the right time." So long as I create quality content on a quality website and do a few of the technical things correctly, I can signal to Google that I'm here to stay. I am a beacon for this work, and that will allow you to have that sort of effortless monetization down the line.

Amber Stitt [00:08:30]:
All of these things we're going to talk about are to allow ourselves to have purpose and family in combining it.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:08:37]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:08:37]:
Can you tell us what that is?

Lauren Gaggioli [00:08:39]:
Absolutely. So I came up with this because when I became a mother, I realized I had a real problem. I was one of those entrepreneurs who defined herself by how her clients did. And that was problematic, right. I was defining whether my measurable input was valuable based on what somebody did with that information. On the other side, I also had a tendency, and this was mine, I don't know if anybody else can relate, but I had a tendency to shape shift how I showed up in the world based on who I was in the room with. And so, you know, if I was showing up as daughter, I was wearing the daughter hat, and if I was showing up as sister, I was wearing that hat, or friend, or what have you, business owner, teacher, whatever it is.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:09:23]:
When I became a mother, I realized I was really fragmented. And suddenly mother became all encompassing, and I could see how I was losing myself. And so in kind of back solving this, I realized that a lot of the principles that I learned about with internal family systems around enmeshment was applying here with my business. And that was kind of the biggest drain because I spent the most time with my business above anybody in my life. And I had a number of clients that I was trying to serve through it. So I realized that this impulse to save my clients, this impulse to be everything to everyone and to go above and beyond, you know, being really unboundried in the way that I ran my business and with myself, it was nobody else's fault. You know, our email is open 24 hours a day. Whether I look at it, that's my boundary.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:10:17]:
And I wasn't holding one with myself. And it wasn't until I had my daughter that I realized I was in a real fix. Because now I want to be everything to her, and I want to be everything to all my clients. And I have other relationships, and I found that I was getting lost in the shuffle. And so I realized I really needed to solidify my purpose and to come home to my myself first, so that then I could fill my cup and also pour in to all those things that really matter to me. And so defining my purpose was actually the thing that allowed me to step back and go, "Oh, actually, the business I built isn't where I'm supposed to be. What I actually love to do is empower other people to leverage SEO principles." And so that led me down this whole path of selling the company and all of that.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:11:05]:
But really, that concept of entrepreneurial enmeshment is something we do not talk about enough. And I think it gets sort of labeled hustle, which I don't think it always is, just hustle.

Amber Stitt [00:11:17]:
Yeah.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:11:18]:
I think there's some deeper roots to it, and it takes a little more untangling.

Amber Stitt [00:11:22]:
Working in financial, in the industry, there's a way that we've been, I think, how we grow up and think about retirement planning and all those things. When I hear you speak about this, what you have done is you're creating, you're doing some reflection, you have self awareness, and we go through our seasons, but you're essentially building financial freedom for yourself. And it's not in a way of, like, I have to have this one account way out there into the future for retirement. It's you're creating. And you've talked about passive income, and I think sometimes you could still have a retirement goal, but looking at opportunities now, it can take different forms, and it can be okay to sell and start anew and just see where things might go, but giving yourself the opportunities and just working through that. But then the purpose, I think that allows you to not feel the guilt being in a business with your family, too. Gotta have purpose. Otherwise it's draining.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:12:15]:
Oh, absolutely. And I think, too, it's important that that purpose not be in the same way that I was feeling defined by my relationships to other people. And again, that's something I put on myself. Nobody else put that on me. That was just my natural tendencies and how I went through life. And, like, the patterns I had built. I took a while to untangle that. But similarly, I think a lot of people are like, "Well, my purpose statement here is to do this, and my purpose statement there is to do this," I think you need an overarching one.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:12:41]:
I think you need one that defines what your purpose is and that it's not so specifically tied to an action that you can only live it out in one way. And so what I mean by that...So I call it my "Big Why". My Big Why is that I help others actualize their unrealized potential. And so there's sort of two phases built into that. I help people see themselves. I help uncover what's already there that's amazing.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:13:07]:
And then give paths to bring that out into the world. I do it when I'm homeschooling my kids. I do it when I help my entrepreneurial friends and clients build businesses that can get found on Google. I do it with my friends when they're facing trouble, because that's innately my gift. And I think if we can unpack what already exists in us, what already is, who we are, and what we can bring into the world and just clarify it for ourselves. I know when I've spent 15 minutes living my purpose in a day, and that gives such a sense of fulfillment. I'm not craving happiness. I have a lot of happiness, but I'm not going for happiness.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:13:47]:
What I want is fulfillment and feeling like what I've done at the end of the day has mattered or moved the needle in some form or fashion in that direction, and then if I want to pull off to the side of the road and knit a sweater, or have a picnic, or decorate for the holidays, great. Like, that's all good and welcome.

Amber Stitt [00:14:05]:
And you can dive right into that. And that is what I'm doing at this moment.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:14:08]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:14:08]:
Inbox is not open.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:14:10]:
Exactly. It brings such presence to your life, such greatness.

Amber Stitt [00:14:13]:
I didn't say the word boundaries. I think you're building some boundaries, too, with this.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:14:17]:
Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

Amber Stitt [00:14:19]:
Saying no.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:14:20]:
Yeah. Yeah. You have to. You're one person. You're finite.

Amber Stitt [00:14:24]:
I know I'm saying no to a lot of people lately because of certain roles that I'm in. And I feel bad, but so I appreciate you sharing all of that. And for entrepreneurs, I feel that I've seen colleagues have this one thing tied to their business, and then they're supposed to go off in this retirement mode and they don't know what to do. I think if you have the purpose, there could be one business, there could be this other thing, it could be the other thing. I'm not saying multi niche it out and get crazy with it, but I think if it's not established, there could be some problems on the identity along the way. And I think a lot of my colleagues that are older than I, because I'm in my mid-forties, are going to be dealing with that, that are transitioning out in their sixties, succession planning, all those things. So sounds like you work with people helping...It could be helpful in that transition phase as well for the other side, not just into business, but maybe on the way out as well.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:15:19]:
Absolutely. I think we talk about this so little in our society, and we have a lot of people who feel kind of empty if they're not doing, right? And so I think the thing about naming your purpose that is so helpful is at the top of your decision making matrix. Is this in alignment with my purpose? Yes. Okay. Then we can have more conversation. Is this in alignment with my purpose? No. Okay, then.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:15:46]:
Do you have room for more hobbies? Because that's what this falls under, right? It just, it's one of those things that I think it helps folks kind of stay laser focused on what really ultimately fills them up. Because if someone listening to this is wired like I am, it's like something new and novel. Yay. My brain is so down to learn something new and novel.

Amber Stitt [00:16:08]:
Are you the disco ball?

Lauren Gaggioli [00:16:09]:
Oh, yeah, 100%. Like, give me all the distractions. I'll do everything. I need lots of "to do's" in the hopper. And what I'm finding is that then there's no downtime. And I don't look at my babies in the face once a day, and that's problematic. I'm just constantly doing. I'm never just existing.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:16:30]:
And so if it's in alignment with your purpose, it just gets more weight, more value, and then you decide if you have room to take on something new. But also if your purpose is broad enough, you can deliver it to yourself. You can do it through volunteer work.

Amber Stitt [00:16:46]:
Yeah.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:16:47]:
You can choose a way in which you take action in that direction in some form or fashion. I like to do it each and every day because that's what brings me joy. You might have a different cadence, but then as you have fewer responsibilities as you head towards retirement, allows you to shift. But I think big life transitions sort of spotlight when there's a deficit here. I am in the process of writing a blog post right now about why I think a lot of mothers struggle during the holidays. And I think it's because if we start to realize I'm not anchored to anything, and now I'm also responsible for everyone's happiness and doing all the things to make that happen, and if I fail there, then what am I even doing with my life? Whereas if you're tethered to something that actually matters to you and only for you, maybe even selfishly, we're allowed to be selfish in that.

Amber Stitt [00:17:40]:
Yeah.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:17:40]:
If we're anchored there, then we can go, "Oh, kid didn't like the present. That really stinks." But it doesn't, like, completely knock us off course, right? So I think becoming a mother, you know, getting married, retirement, any of these huge life shifts, things that cataclysmically change and alter our own state of being and our identities, it can make stuff bubble up. And when it does, if we have the courage to look at it, then we can come out the other side of those moments stronger, more resilient, more clarified. It's a moment of refinement, really. Right? We can refine our direction, and we can refine our approach. And I think a strong purpose statement is a beautiful place to start.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:18:27]:
It just sets the compass on your life's needle, so clearly. And when that happened for me, that's where I was like, "Well, I gotta get out of my business."

Amber Stitt [00:18:36]:
Mmm.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:18:36]:
I had so many friends who were like, "Lauren, look at your numbers. You should absolutely keep this business." I was like, "No, it's an albatross around my neck." Yes, it's profitable. And I am miserable. And it's no longer in alignment, so I'm gonna get rid of it.

Amber Stitt [00:18:51]:
And that's where I think just to wrap up the succession situation that's probably out there. Sometimes there's the right way to leave and exit a business, and then if it's too late, it could blow up. It could be wrong, and it could just be more of a disaster. So do you think that there's truly work life balance? Because I've heard people swat that out, "No, that's not a thing. We are just in it." So, like, what's your philosophy on work life balance?

Lauren Gaggioli [00:19:17]:
I think one of the best sentences I ever read was in Denise Duffield Thomas's book chill and prosper, and she said, "I love my business. I am always going to be the person who gets business downloads while getting a massage on holiday." And it was like such a permission slip to be like, "Oh, I just love my business. My business is my life. I enjoy it. That's okay."

Amber Stitt [00:19:42]:
Yeah. I feel like the deficit comes from when you don't feel like that.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:19:45]:
Yes. I think I'm very seasonal. I know that about myself. I want to eat an elephant and then hibernate and then eat another elephant and then hibernate. I'm not doing the one bite at a time. I'm eating the whole thing in one bite. And so this concept of, like, I can grind really hard. Cause I'm super excited about something and I can do that for a month and a half and get a course put it out into the world, and really just go all in on it.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:20:13]:
And then I need to sit back for two weeks and do nothing.

Amber Stitt [00:20:17]:
Yeah.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:20:17]:
You just have to know how you ebb and flow and when you can honor that and not label it lazy because you didn't show up every day, if you're showing up in the ways you need to, then I think finding your own cadence and not insisting that it fits in a box somewhere is really important.

Amber Stitt [00:20:36]:
You've described yourself how you work in the day, what might be good, or, you know, I feel like you have a good rein in on personal development or personal assessments, essentially, in the sense, like, I don't know what you've studied, but I think that that's always an ongoing thing for any one of us to understand how we are going to show up and how someone might be opposite of us and bring other value to the team and the talents, and that's even in the home. Like, having that awarenes. I work with families, you might not be as financially competent, but doesn't mean you're not supposed to show up and find out where things are and get organized with it. And it's okay. One person can play a role and let's not be mad about somebody not being the same. So there's different personalities and we have to celebrate that and understand. So, I was going to ask you if blogging's dead, but you just gave it away. You're blogging still.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:21:22]:
I am, yeah. I think as long as you are blogging with SEO information as the wind in your sails, and what I mean by that is keyword research, as long as you understand not just the queries that are being typed into Google, but also that human being on the other side of that data, what that person is really looking for, if you can come at it and please the bots and then also meet that potential inbound lead with empathy, then you have a winning fit right there. So if you can hold both of those threads and weave them together as you create content on your website, and it can be podcasts, it can be videos, it doesn't have to be blogging in like the, you know, 2012 semblance of the word, you can really drive so much traffic to your site. Quality traffic, people who want what you have to offer, it's incredibly valuable. And that idea of meeting prospects right where they are and helping facilitate a first transformation is just so powerful. So, yeah, blogging is not dead.

Amber Stitt [00:22:31]:
It is not. Okay. Now we have all these AI opportunities to get our hashtags populated. I don't know know what's really working, what's not. So are there trusted sources to find appropriate keywords?

Lauren Gaggioli [00:22:44]:
Yes. So the big three are Ahrefs, Moz, and Semrush. Those are kind of the ones you hear bandied about. They are incredibly expensive. But Ahrefs has free SEO tools. So if you search for Ahrefs keyword generator, it's a little slow going, I will tell you, I pay for their service because this is what I do for clients.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:23:06]:
So having the ability to save it in there is really helpful. But if you're just curious about what kind of queries people are typing in, and that's a fantastic way to go and just kind of type it in and see where it lands you. You know, this is something that I also teach folks. I have a course where I walk them through how to do their SEO, but keyword research is the heart of it. And again, it comes from really understanding the different kinds of queries. The two main ones that, you know, air quotes here, "regular folks" who are not super technical or running like a huge corporation, need to know about are informational queries and transactional queries. So informational queries are like, "What is organic marketing?" What I see so many people do is show up for that query and they're like, "I'll tell you what it is. Here, give me your credit card."

Lauren Gaggioli [00:23:57]:
No, no, no. They just wanted free information from the Internet. Like, meet them with a free resource. That is the conversion there. Bring them into your email list versus "Organic marketing course". Can I ask for a sale there? Absolutely. Because "course" implies value implies that person understands they're going to have to pay for something.

Amber Stitt [00:24:16]:
Yeah.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:24:16]:
So thinking about those two queries as you do your keyword research and really parsing that for yourself. Hugely helpful. As you just start to kind of put them in different buckets and think about how you treat the human on the other side of that query.

Amber Stitt [00:24:31]:
We talked about content, putting it out there. It could take some time. This is going to be the gasoline to the car, right? It's going to be the thing that's going to drive all this work product that you've been putting out there.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:24:43]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:24:44]:
If you're not tagging...Is it called tagging? You're not putting the right keywords? I guess tagging could be...

Lauren Gaggioli [00:24:50]:
It depends because WordPress has, tagging, as categorization. If you're on social, tagging means something slightly different. It's kind of confusing, but yeah, you weave the keywords into your copy. Google is a very fine linguist. He understands variation of keywords. So you don't have to do...In the olden days what we did, which was keyword stuffing and just like shove it in as many times as you can. No, write quality content.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:25:16]:
Do not pander to Google to the deficit of the human. And so what I always say is, if you have to choose who to please, please the human, because Google is sophisticated and smart. And if you please the humans, he will follow those.

Amber Stitt [00:25:31]:
They're going over here. I better pay attention.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:25:33]:
Yes. So if people stay on your website, if they stay engaged with your content, if they go through to a second page, which is why when people opt in, you want to have a thank you page rather than just a little pop up that's like, "Thanks for subscribing." If that first email they get directs them to fresh resources on your website and you get a third page visit, Google's watching that. He's tracking it and he's going, "Wait a minute, somebody landed here because I matchmade them. And now they keep coming back to this really trusted resource. That's pretty fascinating." And he notices and he will reward you with more traffic if you treat the humans, he sends you kindly and well, and keep them really taken care of with a quality nurture sequence and all of that.

Amber Stitt [00:26:15]:
He's kind of like he has FOMO then, and he wants to show up at every party to see what's going on.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:26:20]:
Absolutely. You'll get a second look and he'll...

Amber Stitt [00:26:22]:
Buy you the drinks. If it's a cool enough party.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:26:25]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:26:25]:
Not a good analogy, I don't know,

Lauren Gaggioli [00:26:27]:
I like it. I like to think of Google buying me drinks. That's nice.

Amber Stitt [00:26:31]:
They probably owe you a few, actually. So how do people find you?

Lauren Gaggioli [00:26:36]:
So my website, of course, all of.

Amber Stitt [00:26:39]:
Or just put your name up there. That's how I found you. I mean, we could just look you up, but yes, anything that's top of mind, or that should be top of mind for people right now, for resources?

Lauren Gaggioli [00:26:50]:
I think the thing about SEO, the reason I built a purpose course first, is that if you are not crystal clear about who you are, especially as an entrepreneur, you're not going to be able to share your message about why you do do what you do as clearly.

Amber Stitt [00:27:04]:
Yeah.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:27:04]:
So I think there's this tendency to put ourselves on the back burner for the sake of our business, and that will actually not allow you to serve the people you are meant to serve as well. Especially as we head to the future. Think about pouring into your own cup a little bit more, because ultimately that pays off for the people you work with, the family members you love. It serves everybody. And so I would say start there and then if you would like more ease and abundance in your business, SEO is an amazing tool. 91% of the web pages on the Internet are not getting organic traffic from Google.

Amber Stitt [00:27:44]:
Yeah.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:27:44]:
So you just have to be better or as good as 9%. That's not that hard. That's not such a heavy burden. And if you can just learn a little bit, you can take this a long way.

Amber Stitt [00:27:55]:
I wonder if people don't do the purpose first because it's a little bit hard to. You got to think about, "Who are you?" And I think people, sometimes that's tough to dig into that, but how can you celebrate it and share that passion and that story with people? You gotta do that first. I would imagine. But I bet it's hard for people sometimes to sit down and be like, "Who am I? Let's get real."

Lauren Gaggioli [00:28:13]:
Yes. Well, and I will say, I think Liz Gilbert's "Big Magic", she talks about how the treasure's already inside of you, right? Like, she talks about that, I think in like, the first chapter. And so, my whole approach....What?

Amber Stitt [00:28:27]:
Page 36 is my favorite, or 34.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:28:30]:
OK, Amber's read it, too!

Amber Stitt [00:28:32]:
It's the entity that's floating around.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:28:33]:
If you don't take care of that.

Amber Stitt [00:28:35]:
It's gonna go somewhere else. You'll be like, "I could have made money over there because..." And her story about meeting someone she looked up to and the story that that person wrote, she already had in her head, it's just a different variation.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:28:48]:
Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:28:52]:
Affiliate link!

Lauren Gaggioli [00:28:53]:
Yes. Do it. But truly, I think a lot of us think, "If I do this work around purpose, it's going to put so much more on my plate." And actually, the opposite is true. It's about digging deep and going, "What brings me the most sense of fulfillment? Groundedness? What already exists? How do I say no to the stuff that isn't in alignment with that?" And so don't be afraid of it because it feels like more work. There might be some dark things you have to face, of course, but there's such power in it. And everything in your life will feel better if you do that work first.

Amber Stitt [00:29:27]:
Well, that is a beautiful way to wrap this up, I think.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:29:31]:
Thank you.

Amber Stitt [00:29:32]:
I'm going to link up how people can find you in the description box. Is there any little nugget of something that they can take action with today? Just something they can consider just doing now.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:29:42]:
If you are nervous about your website, if you are nervous about your website traffic and it all just feels insurmountable, I have a DIY website audit. It is totally free. You sign up, it's a free mini series, three part video, and you can find it at www.LaurenGagioli.com/diyaudit. Go there, sign up. Look at the ugly. It's probably not as bad as you think. And if you have questions about next right steps, I make myself available. So go check it out.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:30:14]:
Rip off the Band-Aid. Just get it done.

Amber Stitt [00:30:15]:
Rip it off. Thank you so much for being here.

Lauren Gaggioli [00:30:35]:
My pleasure. Amber, thank you so much.

Amber Stitt [00:30:35]:
Thank you for joining us on today's episode of The Amber Stitt Show. For more information about the podcast, books, articles, and more, please visit me at: www.AmberStitt.com until next week, enjoy your journey at home, and at work. Thank you for listening!