SPEAKER_00 0:02

I have a lot of people like that. Don't try to attract everybody. I attracted everybody. You're not actually attracted anybody at all. I think your marketing should magnetize everybody. One of the ones that it should repel, the one is that you don't.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Moxie Family, another episode of our podcast where we get to talk to an incredible business owner. And today we get to talk to Sarah from Simple Online Solutions, who has been in running her own business for over 20 years, which I think is just like an incredible milestone. And your current business in uh for the last over five years. Is that right? Yes. Which is amazing. It's amazing. I feel like kind of having that longevity is so amazing as a solo business owner, a solo trader. And so we definitely want to get into that. But I would love to have you kind of start and talk about uh who you are and um talk a little bit about simple online solutions.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Okay, well um my name is uh Sarah Lynn. I'm based in Swansea, South Wales, in the UK. Um I've been running Simple Online Solutions for the last six years. Um I'm a web designer um and all things online marketing. Um and I love working with small business owners. Um traders predominantly, um, but I would say no more than sort of five, ten people really uh is where I like to work with. Um and I just love empowering them um to be able to get visible online, show up. So many that I know um small business owners, they're really, really good at what they're doing. They're just not necessarily good at showing that online. So um I help them to do that, and um yeah, and I and I love what I do, they love what I do.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

That's amazing. I I love to kind of start back like thinking about when you were younger, what did you want to be then, and how can you see what you wanted sort of trail through to what you're doing now?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Oh, I've had w when I was much, much younger, I wanted to be a radiologist. No way! I know, I know that um um yeah, I've I've been through many different um sort of careers as it were in in my life. But I I've always had um well for a long, long time I've had a side hustle kind of uh going on, and I knew that I I loved working for myself. So many years ago I used to create greetings cards and um birthday cards and and and things like that. Then I went on wedding stationery, then I went on to um make cakes for for a little while. Um and I kind of fell into um holistic therapies when when my daughter was um was born. Well, before she was born actually, I went and did a reflexology course um and I absolutely loved it. Um thought I'd want to be a train uh training to um to be a reflexologist, um, but then got pregnant, so everything I put on on the whole. But then she was quite poorly when she was born, so it was like, what am I gonna do to help out? Went and trained a holistic therapist, and I did that for 20 odd years. Um but then when the pandemic happened, it kind of closed my business down because I worked from home and I couldn't see people in person, and it was a case of what am I gonna do now? Um, but but throughout that time I always done my own um websites uh and things like that, my own marketing. Um started up initially paying people to do my to work to do my websites and realized um very quickly that um I would then need to go back and tell them or ask them to do things and I wasn't in control of that. I'm not I'm a very impatient person, so um I w I wanted to be able to do it all now. Um so I I I learned how to do it myself and it's kind of escalated since then. So um I love that.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

It's it's it's escalated.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah. So from radiologist at seven through to kicks, greeting cards, holistic therapies, and no websites.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

I love I feel like though, you know, you you found such a fun way to bring all of those pieces together, right? Like radiologist, a bit on like the helping health side of things, then you did some design, and then you sort of brought that together in your own business, and now you're still working through that design bit. Like I can see the the thread.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yeah, I think I think the um the the thread for me is very much um um I'm I'm a fixer, I love solving problems. So um, yeah, along the whether it's fix uh trying to help people with it with their health or whether they're trying to help people with it with their business marketing, there it's uh solutions is in there, definitely. Yes, problem solver.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

That's excellent. Are you also the person like in your real life, people are like, I need this fixed, I've got to go talk to Sarah Lynn?

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. My friends say I'm a bit like Mary Poppins, I've always got something in my bag that can help them.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yes, that's the best.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

So I want to talk a little bit about online visibility because for me, I feel like it is a bit of a mystery. Like it just feels like you put it out there. But what I love kind of about your your online presence is you talk so much about like, okay, I see that your your lead magnet isn't working or your website isn't working. So can you kind of pull back the curtain on that mystery a little bit for us and share, you know, a couple of things that we should all know when it comes to being found online?

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Um I think it's not just one system that um that you have. I think we need to have a um a good marketing system, a good sales system, um, a good back-end system, and then a good um client retention system. So there's multiple systems that need you need to have in place. But I think a lot of people have got them, they just don't talk to each other. So that is the the frustration I think I see quite often is that they the gaps are that they're just not working smart for them. So it feels really, really hard. So they they try a little bit of social media, for example, they try a little bit of um websites, they um maybe do a blog or two, but nothing actually connects or works for really hard for them.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Yeah, I I think you recently had excuse me, you recently had a post about making kind of those things work together. And I think uh, you know, a lot of small business owners, it feels like, oh, I've gotta do everything. And then I those who are like, okay, I did it all, why isn't it working? What do you say when you, you know, you start working with a small business owner who that's kind of their what they're feeling currently?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

I would normally start by asking what what is the goal? What do you actually want to achieve? Because a lot of people when they know they should be on um social media, they should have a website, they should have Google Business, so but they don't actually think about what they want to achieve with it. Um, and so knowing that the actual goal that you want with each system can make a huge difference in how it's set up. Um, a lot of um small business owners that I work with, especially the sole traders, they uh their website is mainly just a online brochure. Um and it's not it's not that it hasn't been designed to convert um take people from inquiry through to uh to sales. So it's yeah, it's finding out exactly what they what people want want. I was just speaking to a lovely lady before um speaking to yourself now. And um her website has been up and running for oh probably eight years, um, but has never been designed. When I when I said what you want from it, it it was like, well, I've never been asked that before. And it's it's like if you don't know what what outcome you want, then that makes a big difference to how you're gonna design something.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yeah, I that's it's such a good foundational question. Like, okay, so what what is what's the plan? I I feel like I say I say that in Moxie as well, you know, as folks are getting started. I kind of encourage folks to think about, okay, well, what do you want your client to experience? Like that's a great way to set up. So I love that that's kind of your your first question in, you know, like, okay, what's what is your goal here?

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Yeah, definitely.

unknown 8:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

So that that's where I would I would start with it. Um, what what goal do they want for themselves as a business owner? But then what did they what do they offer? What solution do they provide? What transformation, what outcome can they provide to their um ideal clients? Do they know their ideal clients? A lot of people like um don't. They're they're trying to um attract everybody when in um by attracting everybody, you're not actually attracting anybody at all. So it's is uh I think your marketing should uh magnetize the people you want to work with, but also that it should repel the ones that you don't. Um I think I think people are a bit afraid sometimes to to repel people um and then maybe end up working with people that aren't a good fit for them, and then because of that they don't get the right results, and uh it's then it's a knock-on effect.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah. I I like, you know, as you sort of talked us through all of the ways that you sort of, you know, morphed your career. How are you seeing obviously like things are always changing online, especially when it comes to online visibility? So, how do you kind of keep yourself educated and agile to continue like helping your your clients as you know the world just changes constantly?

SPEAKER_00 9:56

I I love learning, um always learning. So, whether that's through um books, webinars, seminars, emails, there's I think there is so much information out there, but sometimes as well, you also need to take what you need and leave a lot behind because I for a long time I think maybe other people have done it as well. I was trying to be like everybody else and not necessarily listen to my own heart, my own gut, um, and my own experience. Um, so it's I think it's good to learn, but then take what you need and leave the the rest behind.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

I love that. There's uh that's a that's a very design concept. I um one of my friends always says the best designers know what to leave out. Um so sort of as we we wrap up here, I want to ask um two like quick hit questions. So um, first of all, you said you did some cake design and some greeting cards, and you know, like a lot of the like a lot of that is in your history as well. Do you still find like do you still make cakes? Are you still do you still like dabble in that area of your life? Have you made anything great lately?

SPEAKER_00 11:09

I do love to um to to cook and to to bake. I don't do it as much as I um as I should do. Um, but um yeah, I just I do it for fun now as opposed to doing it for for money or for business.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yes. But we won't like see you. Well, we see you someday on like um the Great British Bake Off.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Oh I don't think so. We do watch that regularly. Yeah, yes. Gosh, their skills are so yes, they're way above mine. So recipe, but uh I don't think I'm I'm gonna be um taking on any of the the winners yet.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Um and then uh you also you love to read. Are you reading anything great lately that you love?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Um I tend to have a couple of books on on the go. Um I'm reading I I do love a bit of um crying, a bit of drama. So at the moment I'm reading The Intruder by Frieda somebody. Um can't remember her name now. Um that's on my Kindle. And I'm also reading um oh gosh, it got me cut. I should have known this now. Um I've just finished a book which I'm gonna read again. That was on my Kindle. Um it's basically about being staying a Soul Trader.

unknown 12:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Because so many, so many books. Um I find Want You to Grow. Um no, I mean take on your next employer or employee or whatever. And it's like, I'm happy being soul trader, and to find a book which said concentrate on being a soul trader and make it good, I was very, very impressed. So I I will I'll let you know the name. I can't remember the name of the the author, which is but um no, I'm so I I try try and do one sort of business book and one uh fictional book, depending on when when in the day I'm reading it.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Yes, oh yes, I love that. I do, I I feel like that I I don't think I asked this, but I would love to hear kind of your thoughts on what do you love about working for yourself and and by yourself. I think that's like I mean, that's like my my jam too. So I just love to hear your perspective. Like, what do you love about what you get to do and the way you get to do it?

SPEAKER_00 13:34

I love I I I started for the freedom uh aspect of it. Um but that hasn't quite worked out as yet. I think when you when you love what you do, then it there is I find it hard to to turn off because your brain is constantly out wearing. But what I absolutely love is basically being able to make decisions in the here and the now. Um and course correct as you go along. You know, if something isn't working, then then okay, that's fine, then we'll try something else. Whereas when I obviously when you're employed, you can't do that without passing it by your boss or the boss's boss. So I love being able to to make decisions um based on what I need in the now. That that's one of the biggest ones for me.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

I love that. Um, so the last question I have been asking is you know, if you you have this opportunity to kind of talk to other soul traders and business owners, what's one thing that you think that business owners should hear? Or or that maybe that they don't hear enough, what would you share with them?

SPEAKER_00 14:42

That they're doing a good job. That um when you're a small business, when you're a soul trader, um, you have to wear all of the hats. And um they just a lot of them don't realise how good a job that they do, and they think they tend to concentrate on the negative sides. Um when they when you actually break it down, it's not even necessarily a negative side, there's learning curves are all the way along the way. Um, and I I think I would really I love being able to point out to people, well actually this you're doing this, this, this, this, this, this really, really well. Let's just connect them, for example, in in a networking, I'm sorry, a marketing point of view. But um Yeah, I I think they a lot of people concentrate on the the negative side that that they're not good enough, that they should be doing, that they and it's like, but should we just concentrate just for a small second on what you've actually achieved so far? Because if you're in business even for a year these at this day and age, then you're doing something right.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah, absolutely. And I think you know, coming from someone like yourself with so much experience and staying saying in your own business and running things um for so long, I feel like that is so meaningful to hear, like, okay, like that you've done it and you can see how I'm doing it. Like, I feel like that must be such a a gift for your clients.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Well, I I hope so. I'm I'm I feel like um as a holistic sort of therapist as well as um website designer, then it is about looking at everything in a bigger picture. Um, and um yeah, it all the small parts make up one. So it's it's looking at the the good and the bad, and um sometimes you just need somebody to reflect that back to.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

I love that. Well, thank you so much for your time. I it was so fun to get to hear about you and about your your businesses and the way that you have made pivots and changes to kind of continue doing the things that you love. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Oh, thank you. Really appreciate your time, Chef.