And as business owners, sometimes we feel like we have to be on all the time or like we have to be there. And sometimes it just doesn't quite work like that.  I am so glad to have Karen Jones on the show. She is a grief, recovery and resilience coach, and we talked about some myths around grief and what to say to people, what not to say to people, and also understanding it a little bit more because there was a lot, I felt like grief and people going through a lot of stuff recently.

Enjoy the episode!

Timeline

00:45 Karen Jones' Background and Approach to Grief
01:37 Starting the Conversation on Grief
03:13 Debunking Myths About Grief
05:36 The Process of Healing and Coping Mechanisms
08:56 Addressing Different Types of Grief
10:43 Supporting Others Through Grief
19:16 The Importance of Witnessing Grief
22:24 Final Thoughts and Resources

If you’d like to learn more about Karen or download her guides...
Website: iamkarenjones.com
Guides: Download here
LinkedIn

👉 For all the links and resources mentioned in this episode, check out the supporting blog post here.

🌟 Wish your website pulled in more leads? The Website Power-Up Plan™ is built for service-based business owners who feel like their website should be doing more but aren’t sure what’s standing in the way. Let’s make that darned thing work!

🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool.

Peek inside my toolbox for all my tools.

🗞️ Like newsletters? Digital Marketing Takeaway

About This Show

Small Business Sweet Spot is a podcast show created by Compass Digital Strategies LLC. Founder, Barb Davids, wanted to create a show that was more direct and to the point around topics that improve our small businesses and personal lives. A self-professed podcast junkie, she listens to a variety of shows on her runs and road trips.

Compass Digital Strategies is for people who are tired of their website being the thing that stresses them out. Around here, it gets simpler. We’re not here to add more to your plate. This is about having someone who sees what you’re dealing with and helps you sort it out. Clearly. Personally. In a way that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.

A lot of business owners skip conversion tracking, assuming their inbox is enough, but without those numbers in your analytics, you can’t really see which marketing efforts are paying off. In this episode, we’ll walk through simple ways to set up tracking so you can make smarter decisions about where to spend your time and energy.

Enjoy the episode!

👉 For all the links and resources mentioned in this episode, check out the supporting blog post here.

🌟 Wish your website pulled in more leads? The Website Power-Up Plan™ is built for service-based business owners who feel like their website should be doing more but aren’t sure what’s standing in the way. Let’s make that darned thing work!

🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool.This week’s recommended tool is Streamyard.I use Streamyard for lives that I wanna do and sometimes for my podcast guesting because it has extra elements that I can put on the video while I'm doing it. So mostly the lives, but I can put banners down at the bottom. I can also share my screen and have somebody else come with me on the entire video. I can have snippets of like things to pop up in advance and ready to show on the screen. So for me, it's mostly for lives , but it can also be used for like workshop type presentations.

Peek inside my toolbox for all my tools.

🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is Self-Discipline is Easy, Actually by Dan Koe.

🗞️ Like newsletters? Digital Marketing Takeaway

About This Show

Small Business Sweet Spot is a podcast show created by Compass Digital Strategies LLC. Founder, Barb Davids, wanted to create a show that was more direct and to the point around topics that improve our small businesses and personal lives. A self-professed podcast junkie, she listens to a variety of shows on her runs and road trips.

Compass Digital Strategies is for people who are tired of their website being the thing that stresses them out. Around here, it gets simpler. We’re not here to add more to your plate. This is about having someone who sees what you’re dealing with and helps you sort it out. Clearly. Personally. In a way that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.

This was a great conversation with Kathryn Yarborough because I had questions. We talked about payment or paying for speaking engagements, we talked about whether or not to use slides. We talked about the time involved. We talked about the backgrounds of speaking, and she had a lot of great advice and perspective on how she runs her. Speaking and what she's done and things that we can think about.

Timeline

01:20 Getting to Know Kathryn
03:29 Kathryn's Sweet Spot
04:48 Hosting Summits: Kathryn's Passion
08:15 The Women Loving Life Summit Series
09:36 The Origin of 'Small Business Sweet Spot'
11:47 Benefits of Speaking for Small Businesses
14:37 Getting Started with Speaking
19:32 Engaging Your Ideal Audience
21:25 Payment for Speaking Engagements
26:41 Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking
28:53 Effective Use of Slides and Backgrounds
34:13 Optimal Presentation Lengths
37:25 Final Thoughts and Takeaways

👉 For all the links and resources mentioned in this episode, check out the supporting blog post here.

🌟 Wish your website pulled in more leads? The Website Power-Up Plan™ is built for service-based business owners who feel like their website should be doing more but aren’t sure what’s standing in the way. Let’s make that darned thing work!

🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool.

Peek inside my toolbox for all my tools.

🗞️ Like newsletters? Digital Marketing Takeaway

About This Show

Small Business Sweet Spot is a podcast show created by Compass Digital Strategies LLC. Founder, Barb Davids, wanted to create a show that was more direct and to the point around topics that improve our small businesses and personal lives. A self-professed podcast junkie, she listens to a variety of shows on her runs and road trips.

Compass Digital Strategies is for people who are tired of their website being the thing that stresses them out. Around here, it gets simpler. We’re not here to add more to your plate. This is about having someone who sees what you’re dealing with and helps you sort it out. Clearly. Personally. In a way that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.

It's not just button colors that can improve conversion rates. And for most of us small business owners, changing a button color doesn't produce significant enough difference. But these 3 things inside the episode might. Learn the 3 ways plus a general guideline for what conversion rate percentage you can use as a goal.

Enjoy the episode!

14 Examples of Lead Magnets & Why They Work

👉 For all the links and resources mentioned in this episode, check out the supporting blog post here.

🌟 Wish your website pulled in more leads? The Website Power-Up Plan™ is built for service-based business owners who feel like their website should be doing more but aren’t sure what’s standing in the way. Let’s make that darned thing work!

🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool.This week’s recommended tool is Descript.My podcast and video editor. I like that I can highlight words and move or remove them. I can add “commercials” or snippets of things that are repeated in multiple pieces of content. I find it’s one of the easier editing tools.

Peek inside my toolbox for all my tools.

🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is How to Make Your Business Page More Professional with Carli LeBlanc on The Side-HustlHER Podcast.

🗞️ Like newsletters? Digital Marketing Takeaway

About This Show

Small Business Sweet Spot is a podcast show created by Compass Digital Strategies LLC. Founder, Barb Davids, wanted to create a show that was more direct and to the point around topics that improve our small businesses and personal lives. A self-professed podcast junkie, she listens to a variety of shows on her runs and road trips.

Compass Digital Strategies is for people who are tired of their website being the thing that stresses them out. Around here, it gets simpler. We’re not here to add more to your plate. This is about having someone who sees what you’re dealing with and helps you sort it out. Clearly. Personally. In a way that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.

If your business growth has slowed or you've found yourself saying "I'll get to that later,” this episode is a gentle nudge to pause and think. Complacency can sneak into your business under the disguise of comfort, hesitation, or routine. Inside this episode are simple, mindful steps to help you shift back into intentional action.

Enjoy the episode!

👉 For all the links and resources mentioned in this episode, check out the supporting blog post here.

🌟 Wish your website pulled in more leads? The Website Power-Up Plan™ is built for service-based business owners who feel like their website should be doing more but aren’t sure what’s standing in the way. Let’s make that darned thing work!

🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool. Peek inside my toolbox.

🗞️ Like newsletters? Digital Marketing Takeaway

Small Business Sweet Spot is a podcast show created by Compass Digital Strategies LLC. Founder, Barb Davids, wanted to create a show that was more direct and to the point around topics that improve our small businesses and personal lives. A self-professed podcast junkie, she listens to a variety of shows on her runs and road trips.

Compass Digital Strategies is for people who are tired of their website being the thing that stresses them out. Around here, it gets simpler. We’re not here to add more to your plate. This is about having someone who sees what you’re dealing with and helps you sort it out. Clearly. Personally. In a way that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.

Google ads can be a great supplement to lower lead periods. If you've been considering Google Ads, there are some things that are helpful to know for before the click performance vs after the click performance. Because just getting impressions and ad clicks doesn't equals sales or return on your ad spend. And that's what this episode is about.

Enjoy the episode!

👉 For all the links and resources mentioned in this episode, check out the supporting blog post here.

🌟 Wish your website pulled in more leads? The Website Power-Up Plan™ is built for service-based business owners who feel like their website should be doing more but aren’t sure what’s standing in the way. Let’s make that darned thing work!

🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool. This week’s recommended tool is Kling AI.

Turn your static images into video! I’ve had some fun with this one. I took one of my static photos and had it take my arm/hand reach out to Branch from the Trolls movie. Well, the reaching out part… I had to put a photo of Branch in my Canva and then I inserted a video. Add just a little movement to static photos and turn them into .gifs for some movement on your website!

Peek inside my toolbox for all my tools.

🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is How to Let Go Of Your Shame on the Solved show.

Visit Episodes I Like Playlist for other recommended episodes I've enjoyed.

🗞️ Like newsletters? Digital Marketing Takeaway

About This Show

Small Business Sweet Spot is a podcast show created by Compass Digital Strategies LLC. Founder, Barb Davids, wanted to create a show that was more direct and to the point around topics that improve our small businesses and personal lives. A self-professed podcast junkie, she listens to a variety of shows on her runs and road trips.

Compass Digital Strategies is for people who are tired of their website being the thing that stresses them out. Around here, it gets simpler. We’re not here to add more to your plate. This is about having someone who sees what you’re dealing with and helps you sort it out. Clearly. Personally. In a way that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.

What in the world does journaling have to do with business ownership? For me, it's been a huge helper in the success of my business. I see a lot of people offering journals or the idea of journaling. The other day I saw somebody on Instagram doing a skit about journaling and I can't remember who it was, but they were writing in their journal and then they got really mad and they tore the journal up and said… "oh, great! The journaling works!" And so, I want to share with you my journaling story and whyyyyy it's something to consider doing if you're not already.

Enjoy the episode!

👉 For all the links and resources mentioned in this episode, check out the supporting blog post here.

🌟 Wish your website pulled in more leads? The Website Power-Up Plan™ is built for service-based business owners who feel like their website should be doing more but aren’t sure what’s standing in the way. Let’s make that darned thing work!

🧰 I love me a good digital marketing tool. This week’s recommended tool is BetterLinks. Super handy for short URLs (aka vanity URLs). Instead of showing someone a super long URL, you can set it up so it's shorter and if you're an organized gal like me, put them in categories so you can track the URLs. I have categories for tools, podcasts, operations, affiliate (links I share with other people). And it will show you how many times the URL is viewed and clicked so you can understand if the link is popular.

Peek inside my toolbox for all my tools.

🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is When Business Threatens to Take Over Your Life on the Small Business Casual show by Emily Aborn.

Visit Episodes I Like Playlist for other recommended episodes I've enjoyed.

🗞️ Like newsletters? Digital Marketing Takeaway

About This Show

Small Business Sweet Spot is a podcast show created by Compass Digital Strategies LLC. Founder, Barb Davids, wanted to create a show that was more direct and to the point around topics that improve our small businesses and personal lives. A self-professed podcast junkie, she listens to a variety of shows on her runs and road trips.

Compass Digital Strategies is for people who are tired of their website being the thing that stresses them out. Around here, it gets simpler. We’re not here to add more to your plate. This is about having someone who sees what you’re dealing with and helps you sort it out. Clearly. Personally. In a way that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.

I’m sharing 6 types of blog posts every service-based business should have on their website. Blog posts aren’t just for filling space. They’re help your site rank higher in search engines and give your visitors a reason to stick around and take action. You’ve only got one shot when someone lands on your site to prove you know your stuff, show you’re the right fit, and answer the questions already spinning in their head. These blog post types will do exactly that.

Enjoy the episode!

👉 For all the links and resources mentioned in this episode, check out the supporting blog post here.

🌟 Wish your website pulled in more leads? The Website Power-Up Plan™ is built for service-based business owners who feel like their website should be doing more but aren’t sure what’s standing in the way. Let’s make that darned thing work!

🎧 This week’s recommended podcast episode is Embracing the Full Spectrum of Emotions: A Guide to Mindfulness and Self-Discovery with Tara Brach. I love Tara Brach. Tara is an engaged Buddhist specializing in the application of Buddhist teachings to emotional healing.

I think the thing I liked best about this episode is the chat around the logistics of meditating and thinking about setting an intention before you start. I don't set intentions normally because I feel like what kind of intention should I set. But now I'm doing more around just intending to be open and not expecting any "thing" to come from the session. I think a couple years ago it would have been just let me get to the grocery story without screaming bloody murder at someone who just cut me off. lol

Visit Episodes I Like Playlist for other recommended episodes I've enjoyed.

🗞️ Like newsletters? Digital Marketing Takeaway

About This Show

Small Business Sweet Spot is a podcast show created by Compass Digital Strategies LLC. Founder, Barb Davids, wanted to create a show that was more direct and to the point around topics that improve our small businesses and personal lives. A self-professed podcast junkie, she listens to a variety of shows on her runs and road trips.

Compass Digital Strategies is for people who are tired of their website being the thing that stresses them out. Around here, it gets simpler. We’re not here to add more to your plate. This is about having someone who sees what you’re dealing with and helps you sort it out. Clearly. Personally. In a way that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.