Badass Is The New Black (Season 3) Episode #2: Killer Organizational Hacks And Professional Sales Page Design Tips With Tiffanie Teel, Expert Web Designer

As an entrepreneur, you should never let your messiness get in the way of building a blissful business. In this episode, Krissy Chin brings in expert web designer, Tiffanie Teel, who shares with us some killer tips to stay organized. If your desktop is filled with images, documents and videos galore, you will love adopting these organizational hacks. She also shares her expert tips with the key elements to a website and sales page that will lead more people to the sales button. You will also get to hear how Krissy’s Build a Blissful Business Course made a huge impact on her brand and her business in a short time. Stick around; this one is a good one.

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Listen to the podcast here:

Killer Organizational Hacks And Professional Sales Page Design Tips With Tiffanie Teel, Expert Web Designer

Tiffanie brought it in this episode. She gives us some killer tips to stay organized. If your desktop is filled with images, documents and videos galore like mine, you will love adopting her organizational hacks. You will get to hear how my Build a Blissful Business Course made a huge impact on her brand and her business in a short time. She shares her expert tips with the key elements to a website and sales page that will lead more people to the sales button. Stick around, this one is a good one.

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Let's welcome Ms. Tiffanie. She's an Atlanta-based web designer who helps busy moms with big dreams create the life they want. She combines her masterful design skills with years of entrepreneurial experience to passionately design custom websites, landing pages, and sales pages that convert. When she's not working with clients, chasing after her energetic son, or collecting and selling fresh farm eggs from her chickens, you can find Tiffanie riding ATVs or watching football with her large extended family. As a successful student of Build a Blissful Business, Tiffanie firmly believes that when you identify your brand message you will reach and be prepared to serve your ideal clients. Creating a brand to stand out online is possible if you're willing to put in the work.

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Welcome, Tiffanie. I couldn't have said it any better. You took the words out of my mouth. That's exactly what I believe.

Thanks for having me, Krissy. I appreciate the invitation to come on with you.

I'm excited to talk to you and pick your brain. We're going to learn a little bit about your background, how you got here, talk a little bit about your experience with Build a Blissful Business, and dive into some tips to help people with their website since that is your specialty. Let's start a little bit about how you got to where you are now in your journey.

I'm going to try to keep it in a nutshell. With years as an entrepreneur, was led with years in the corporate world. If I look back a long time ago, my dad was a corporate executive and I thought that's where I was supposed to be. We had similar personalities. We always found ourselves in leadership positions like my dad. That was natural for me to go that way. In that job, I did create a lot of opportunities for myself. For positions that didn't exist, if I felt that it was a good fit for both me and the company, I talked them into creating it. I worked my way through those years in that situation. Eventually, the company was no longer able to keep me doing what I loved. After a few years of being in that 9:00 to 5:00 grind, I knew that I wanted what my husband had, which was the life of an entrepreneur. We had started his business 4 to 5 years before this season of my life and together, we grew his business until that's all he had to do. I wanted that too. I wanted that time and freedom of not having someone else tell me where to be and when to be there.

I can completely relate to that and a lot of entrepreneurs can at some point. I'm tired of someone else controlling my life, the situation, and it is time to take it into my own hands. I love pointing out strengths and if you have other strengths that led to the jump in success in where you are now but it sounds like you're a total go-getter. If you don't see something that you want, you're like, “I'm going to create it,” like the positions in your corporate jobs. There's not a position for what I want to do, let me create it and convince them that they need this position for me to do it. That is one of the strengths that you have whether you recognize it or not. That has helped you be successful in your entrepreneurial journey.

That personality trait has contributed to my endurance as an entrepreneur because there are certainly ups and downs. There are not only highs that come with being your own boss. It can also be a myth that you immediately jump into time freedom. To be honest, as entrepreneurs, we work around the clock a lot of times, but when you're doing what you love to do and when you're invested in all of your whys versus someone else's, it makes it so much different. I have created those opportunities. Even when I've been in a role as an entrepreneur, doing something new like real estate is what I immediately jumped from corporate into.

I loved marketing. I spent more time marketing myself and my properties than I spent face-to-face with agents. After that 2008 crash, I realized that I'm not going to survive this, I better jump ship before it's too late. All the work and effort I put into that, I managed to hold on to. I've kept my license active all these years, I continue my education, and I'm able to refer clients out. That’s one of the revenue streams that I have available to me because I was like, “How can I use this to my advantage and not give it up 100%?” I was able to switch roles, focus on the marketing aspect, and go into more of a marketing and sales-type situation in areas that I loved and had a little bit more passion for.

I love that you have multiple streams of revenue and income coming in. I'm a firm believer in that. Don't put all your eggs in one basket but at the same time, you can't build four brands and four businesses at the same time. You have to start with one, build it up, start generating revenue, and if there's something you want to evolve into or branch off into, you can do that. It sounds like you started with real estate, figured out how to make that work for you, branch off, and do something else while you figured out how to still bring in income from that.

What I also recognize is that you realize through real estate that you loved the marketing piece. It’s cool to see that one piece of your journey, one block if you will, or one chapter, you figure out even more what you liked even more. It’s like, “I like these aspects of this job and now I realize I like this.” When you live in different homes or apartments, you realize, “I like this about it and this about it, but I hate this about it. The next place I get is going to have this yard and a flat driveway, but it's also going to have X, Y, Z.” It’s funny.

Create the life you want so that you don’t have to make mistakes along the way by doing things that you don't like.

When we walked into my house for the first time, we were like, “Why is the dishwasher 2 feet off the ground?” It was bizarre and we were like, “Who does that?” The time we put dishes in the dishwasher, we're like, “I don't have to bend over.” No one's banging their shins on the door when it's open because it's lifted up. Now we’re like, “If we ever move, the dishwasher is going to have to be raised up.” It's these little things that you find and the home is an easy example everyone can relate too but it’s different for jobs, positions, and entrepreneurial ventures that do or don't work, you're figuring out along the way what your big picture and business are going to look like.

I don't think that this is a good example of the house analogy. It's like building your dream home as you live in all these other homes before you get to your dream home. You create that. My philosophy is to create the life you want so it doesn't mean that you've made mistakes along the way by doing some things that you don't like. It means that you've learned exactly what you do want. You tweak your life along the way and adjust it to be what you want. What I want tomorrow might look a little bit different than my vision today because life evolves and things change so I love that analogy. I'm glad you brought up the housing situation.

We have the same philosophy in terms of helping women and entrepreneurs build this dream life that they want. As you said before, it takes work, but you can absolutely do it. One of those things is not seeing things as failures and mistakes, but how can I learn from the situation and what am I taking away that's going to benefit me down the road. Let's talk a little bit about the Build a Blissful Business Course. We know that this is one of my courses now that I offer to people to help them build a standout brand amongst everyone else who's doing and selling the same thing that you are online. You are a guest in that course.

Tiffanie does guest training for us on websites, navigation, and the layout of your website to direct people to that buy button because that's ultimately what we all want. She was also a student in the course. Let's hear a little bit. As an experienced entrepreneur going through this course who may seem like, “This course is for beginners, people who are starting to build their brand or their personal brand,” but you're an experienced entrepreneur. You had marketing education and skills so what was it about this course that you loved or used to benefit the growth in your business?

Number one, clarity. It drives home the opportunity to clarify your message and what you want. I found myself coming in with a goal. I knew what I was working on, my existing project, and I was rebranding myself. I knew what I wanted at the end of it but I didn't know how to get there and eliminate a lot of the words. When you're telling your own story, you tend to use a lot more words that are necessary to say the same exact thing so it takes you through a process that gets you to that end goal with a lot of clarity. Clarity is the number one thing and it's so much more valuable than what you've even priced that course at.

Thank you. I've had a lot of different stages of people that have gone through the course. No matter how far you are, even me and my entrepreneurial journey with multiple brands, I'm still constantly evolving the message to be more clear. The process that I use is the process that I teach and I'm constantly going back over and over again, “How can I get clearer? How can I get more specific and more direct so I am attracting the perfect person for my business and being able to serve them in a way that I want?” It's always an ever-growing thing. I don't think you're ever too experienced enough to continuously be revamping the clarity in what you are doing.

It taught me even for myself and gave me a new perspective that now I use with my clients which is, “Done is better than perfect,” because there’s no such a thing as perfect. Get your website done, get it built, get it out there, and then come back as you get new ideas and constantly let your site be an evolution of your brand and who you are. While I finished your course, Build a Blissful Business with a lot of clarity, since then, I've continued to revamp that site, page-by-page.

I'm adding new stuff and I'm taking away stuff that doesn't fit anymore. The evolution that my site is continuing to go through. If you're not building your own site and you're having it done for you, you want to go through a lot of that clarity and that work before you have it built. Know that if you have the option to keep that site in a stage of evolution where it's constantly evolving. Google will like that too, by the way.

As an experienced website developer builder, you create landing pages, and you've created a sales page for me for this course, which is amazing. In terms of having this course, setting you up to have the content that you need to hand it over to a web developer or someone who's creating a page for you and be like, “Here are all the pieces of my brand and this is what I want to create.”

The worksheets that you provided with your course make you put pencil to paper. You physically have the content that you need. Once you're working with a web developer or web designer, they may be able to say, “Narrow this down,” and they’ll help you identify exactly what you need for each page. I do recommend a professional copywriter to help you do that but you would have everything you need to hand over to a copywriter and say, “I need my website and I need the content for it. If you have any questions, let me know.” You need to have that content available.

I remember when I hired a copywriter to do some things and she’s like, “We need him an hour-long session.” She asked me all these questions. How can I help someone set up to where they can be like, “I already have the information that you need?” As she took me through that process, I was like, “This created so much clarity for me and all the other things that I'm doing or if I even am creating a simple email, and paying a copywriter to do it.” It opened my eyes so much more. That’s what I wanted for my students. It’s to give them this process to have them get clarity, build that standout brand, so they can stand out from everyone else but have everything that they need to keep building it and keep letting it evolve with support.

When you want to help people create the life that they want, I do too but I believe that in order to build an empire, you need support. At some point in time, you're going to have to hire a VA. three years in with one of our brands, and we hired web developers to make all these modifications and help us in this process. We had a successful business before doing it on our own and it was like, “It's time to level up. We've got to hire some professionals that know SEO, website design and all this.” I've learned so much but having all this clarity and the content was easy to get across what we wanted and have them completely blow our minds.

When you have clarity and someone asks you a question, you know the answer. It's not like, “Can I sleep on that please?” You know it. You know your content. If you like to be organized and get organized, it structures things in a way where you store them in this little corner of your computer of that space in that hard drive. You know where it is, when to reach for it, and it's there.

That's the perfect segue. I want to get a quick best system or process that you've put in place to help you. I'm a blue personality. It's unorganized but everything that I do and teach my students is how to take that organized chaos, make it organized, and work for someone who's not organized. Is there a system, process, or platform that you use that helps you stay organized?

The number one organizational approach that I've taken since computers were developed is a file system. I don't have a filing cabinet where I'm opening drawers and pulling out files and papers anymore but I'm doing that on my computer. Keeping things organized in my file system on my computer is super important. I need to know where it is. You’ve got to find a process that works for your brain because sometimes, we operate differently. For me, I have a client folder, a Krissy Chin folder, and I have my other clients’ folders. Within Krissy Chin, I have a sales page. I have built a Blissful Business and all these things so I know where to go. I have logos, graphics, and photography separated so I know exactly where I am looking for a file that I need at any given time.

In design, I might be trying to upload from Safari at one point, the next minute I might be uploading from Google Chrome, and it defaults to the last folder you are in. I need to quickly be able to get back to where those files are and know where they are. I would say that's one of the little tricks that I use and always stay on top of besides my planner, keeping me where I'm supposed to be when I'm supposed to be somewhere. That system has been with me for many years. I can't change it no matter how hard someone tries. If they don't dig it and they don't know it, I’m like, “My computer, my space, my system.”

If it isn’t broke, don't fix it. If it's working for you, that's great. My organizational skills on that are fairly broken. I save everything to my desktop because once I pull something up, that's the easiest to find. My husband will come in and be like, “Your entire desktop is filled with images. The computer's running so slow.” He'll highlight them all and put them in a folder as Unmarked Desktop Stuff. I have three folders of all this stuff I've saved on my desktop.

I am getting better about it because it is so helpful. When it's like, “The stock photos that I've used for all the images on the Build A Blissful Business Course are in a folder in my Google Drive.” I use Google Drive as opposed to Dropbox. There are stock office photos or whatever. Now I know, “That's where I can go and look,” as opposed to like, “Was it on my desktop? Is it in a random folder now? Did it get deleted?” I'm getting better at that but I wanted to adopt some Tiffanie organizational skills there.

The key is none of us are perfect. My desktop has a slew of stuff on it, too, but when I am ready, I'd stop and I try to do this consistently. Stop and take 5 or 10 minutes to take it and put it where it belongs. It's like walking through your house since we're on the house analogy. Are you going to dedicate a whole day to clean your house from top to bottom and let it turn into a mess in the meantime? Are you that person who likes to walk through, pick up an armful of things, and put them where they belong on your way through the house? We each have our systems and it’s not that one is wrong over the other.

I would say that I’m the first one where the house is a disaster and then it's like, “Forty-five-minute cleaning time.” If I do it the other way, I feel like I'm constantly cleaning which is not something that I love to do. However, I will say that when you pick up the small things, it seems like it takes less time overall. You're doing it more and life seems less chaotic. We're bringing that back to our business. I don't crap on myself so I never say I should. I like to do the organizational piece little-by-little like, “As soon as I download that, stick it in the folder.” Let's move on to a couple of things that you were going to teach the readers here at Badass Is The New Black how to increase some website traffic for sale. You're going to talk a little bit about copy, some clear next steps, and the soft sell. Give us what you got.

I know your readers want to know how they can increase traffic to their website and I have some expert tips that will make everyone want to run right over to their website and refresh it. We're going to refer to a service-based business website versus a product but know these tips can be applied if you sell a product. No big deal. Number one, let's talk invest in the writing. Copy is key. You nailed it. I wanted to talk about copywriting because it's made such a difference for me.

I'm someone who likes to write but working on your own project is difficult. I learned how important a copywriter can be. Copywriting is meant to steer your visitors to the action that you want them to take. You've got to capture and entertain your readers. If you can highlight the true benefits of your service, and then you want to come back and answer, “Why should I work with you?” They want to know, “Why do I need your service?”

You have to capture them in the first six seconds. They're coming to see if you can solve their problem or help them with what they want. Right off the bat, “This is what I'm going to do for you first and foremost.” If you kept them that long and they're like, “That's what I'm looking for. That's what I need,” then you can go take that next step.

You want to get your customers ready for a close-up. A bonus tip, too, is while you're preparing to build your site or even refresh your site, this is one of the prep steps that go with copywriting. Invest in high-risk professional photos. If you provide a service, there are pictures of yourself typically maybe of your hands at the computer or whatever. Whatever looks natural in your own space is a situation that will create a connection between you and the people who visit your site. If you're selling a product, high-resolution images of the products that you sell are important.

I’ve got a question about that because high-resolution images are usually larger files. Our web developer was like, “You got to downsize all these images because it's stalling your load time.” I was like, “The clarity is not so good.” He's like, “It doesn't matter. You need that quick load time.” How do you make a smaller file, but not lose clarity?

I'm a Photoshop girl. I know a lot of DIYers are investing in Photoshop and they're using apps like PicMonkey or whatever. There are some hacks that you can use to downsize. You want to go from a 300-resolution image down to 72, which is for the web and that's pixels per inch. I try to convert from TechLingo to StreetLingo.

Done is better than perfect.

When you have your image pulled up on your computer, go to tools or something, and there's the resize, and it gives you all these numbers in pixels, it usually says 300 pixels and then you move that to 72?

You want to at least cut it in half. It depends on how big it is. If you're in the 1,000 range, you’ve got to drop it way down. As far as some tips for what types of images to upload, JPEGs are going to be smaller than PNG files. PNGs are going to have your transparent background so you're going to need a few of those probably with your logo or whatever, and that's okay. Just make sure that they are sized down. You can also do a little cheat sheet if you go to TinyPNG.com. The other one might be CopycatPNG or something like that. You can go upload your images and then they'll spit them right back out in a reduced image size where you can barely tell the difference in the quality of the image as you go through a system like that.

TinyPNG is the one that I know and use, so I was like, “I hope she’ll mention that.” I upload them all, hit downsize, and it makes them small so that's the easy button there. I use it for free. There may be a max limit of how many you can do for free but I’ll close the window out and then reopen it back up.

That's the restriction but it's totally manageable. You can manage on the free app. It might take you a couple of days to do all the images you need if you're restricted by day but you can get it done.

Copy is important and how you structure the copy and then images.

Next is choices. Give your readers choices. You want to showcase multiple price points or display them in multiple ways throughout your site. If you have packages for your service, you have a small, medium, and large package, you could call them your bronze, silver, and gold package. Whatever you want to call them in order to highlight the different levels of pricing you offer. If that's clear to your readers then they're not immediately feeling like they're left out. They can't afford you or you're not going to offer a type of package that they want.

You want to make customers buy the package you want. How do you do that? You make it bold or bigger. Make it look like it's jumping off the page. One of the most popular ways to highlight a package. If you have three on your webpage would be to add a little ribbon and say, “Most Popular,” or label your Buy Now button as, “Choose this plan.” Readers want to be told what to do, so you have the opportunity to direct to their eyes where you want them to be. Be sure you have your site optimized for desktop and mobile because that's the number one choice readers want. They want to be able to clearly visit your website on either/or and that's important that it's visually accepting to the eye on both platforms.

That’s something that we experienced when you were building out the sales page for Build A Blissful Business. Many people access it from their phone and I was like, “We need to have it looking good on the mobile.” That was playing back and forth, switching it to mobile and desktop. “What does it look like? What is here?” It's chopping off the top of my head. They’re figuring out how to get that to stay in sales. It's nice that I didn't have to deal with it like you have to deal with it. It’s important because many people are accessing from their phone that you need to have it mobile-friendly.

There's one new platform. I cannot spit the name of it out but the design is for mobile-first, which is unusual but not dumb by any means. More people do access from mobile these days than desktop. On that subject, you want to make sure whatever platform you choose, especially if you're designing for yourself, has the option to optimize for mobile. A little expert tip for you, that's going to be the last step that you do. Design it for desktop if that's what the platform was designed to do if your main site is meant for desktop. The last thing once you get everything perfect is then to go in and optimize for mobile. If you've got a tool or platform to do that on, it's simple.

I remember when you're like, “Check out the sales page. Take a look and let me know.” My head is chopped off and I’m like, “Stop looking from your phone or don't tell me those things. Read the copy and help me know design-wise.”

The last thing we're going to do is confirm it works on mobile too.

One last little note about the plans and having options like love options, too many options can be overwhelming so I love that you said three. It’s almost like this illusion of giving people options but then whichever plan you want them to go to. It's like, “Choose this one.” You're giving them the illusion that they have these options and if they don't want it, they can dip their toes in with the starter plan or something. Your end goal is you know what plan you want people to be on. If all the arrows pointing to it don't work, the funnel and how you're training them once they pick that other plan needs to lead to that plan that you want them to on the back end. That's a whole another episode. What is your last tip?

Let me bulletize the last few points that I have for you, but we won't break them down. Tell and show. Your customers want to touch and feel. While we can't serve on that sensory, we can tell them and show them. Providing a software tour or creating a video of your services. If you're a designer like me, make sure that you showcase the benefits of having both the desktop and the mobile site. Another important aspect of design is to boost your customer’s confidence. You want to set those expectations upfront so that they know how to expect to hear back from you. No one wants to guess what to expect. Share your process, articulate your refund policy, and stuff like that. Spread your customer testimonials throughout your site. You want to boost their confidence in you.

Showing past projects that you've done, giving them easy access, and displaying logos of different projects that you've worked on before. That would be a good way to do it. Simplify the purchase process. Make the next step clear. This goes back to call to actions and all those areas that you talked about pointing right where you want them to point. You want to be sure you've designed a clear call to action for each page. Only use one call to action per page to eliminate confusion. Even though you might offer three package options, your call to action on that page is still the same by now. All of your copy is directing them that, “This is the next step.” Have a clear next step.

I find myself tripping up in emails. When there are multiple things that I want to have them do, I'm like, “Click here to do this and then click here to do this.” You've got four call to actions in this email. You've got to do one topic and one call to action. You need to make other emails because if you're giving them too much, they're like, “Which one do I do first?” They end up clicking on one and not the others so it’s important for the landing pages and such but even for emails, too.

Nurturing an email list is a challenge and I have learned that as far as scaling goes, as much as I love to write, and I want to be in control of it all, somebody to manage my list and write my emails for me might be the first type of assistant thing that I hire out. Working with a copywriter to edit my stuff has been such a huge help and stress reliever that I'm like, “I'll let you do it all.”

It gets addicting. When you're like, “They're good at it. I'll send you more stuff to do.” It's freeing stuff off your plate. Tiffanie and I are teaching people who want to create the life that they love. At the end of the day, that means not working all the time, even though it's something that you're passionate about and love doing because we know that there's other stuff that you like doing, too. It’s such great tips.

The things that you love the most may bring you joy. It’s more important than having that control over every little piece, even if you like it.

You've got a freebie for the audience. Do you want to tell them about the freebie?

I've got a free eBook out there. It's called Designing Your Website for Traffic. It's got some of these tips and it's got some more tips in it. If you are a DIYer and even if not, it's a great little book to grab. Go back and reevaluate your existing site and make sure that you're using all those tips. We want to constantly refresh that site. Google is going to love that for search engine optimization. Grab that eBook at TiffanieTeel.com/kc.

You're working on your first course. That's exciting. You're going to have to go to Tiffanie's website to see it. Tell us briefly what the course is going to help people with.

The platform that I work on a regular basis is Wix. Whether it's free and/or you have a paid version, everyone is getting stuck in the same place when they think they're going to design their insight. That is, “I don’t know my way around the tool. I've never designed anything. I'm not that creative, but I'm not on a budget that can afford an expert.” I have put a course together, designed like a Wix expert, and it's going to walk you through all of the issues that stop you from getting your site done, designed, and launched.

If that's interesting to you, then go to Tiffanie's website and see if it's launched. We talked about Build A Blissful Business, and Tiffanie is a guest expert in there. She was also an amazing student there. Before we go, I want to play a little game with you. It's like a little rapid-fire, this or that, ‘would you rather’ type of game. I'm going to say it and you're going to spit which one you want to get to know you a little bit more. Are you ready?

I'm nervous but I'm ready.

Books or podcasts?

Podcasts.

I you want to increase traffic to your website, you need to invest in the writing. It makes a big difference.

Would you rather sleep with crumbs in your bed or have a hair tickling you that you cannot find?

Crumbs.

Heels or flats?

Flats.

Phone call or text message?

Text.

Movie or TV series?

TV series.

Would you rather have Ed Sheeran or John Mayer sing you to sleep?

That is tough but I'd have to go with John Mayer.

Dine-in or delivery?

Dine-in.

Would you rather be in a feud with Kanye West or Nicki Minaj?

Probably Nicki.

Bath or a shower?

With my age comes bath.

Toilet paper over or under?

Over.

Last but not least, a big party or small gathering?

Big party.

This has been fun. Tiffanie has taught us so much about websites and organizational tips in there too. Thank you for being here. You can connect with Tiffanie on Instagram, @TiffanieTeel, Facebook and LinkedIn. Check them out. Until next time, remember to channel your inner badass and take imperfect action every single day. Thank you, Tiffanie, for being here.

Thank you for having me, Krissy.

We'll see you in the next episode.

 Important Links:

• Tiffanie Teel
• Build a Blissful Business Course
• PicMonkey 
• TinyPNG.com
• Designing Your Website for Traffic
• TiffanieTeel.com/kc
• @TiffanieTeel - Instagram
• Facebook - Tiffanie Teel
• LinkedIn - Tiffanie Teel

About Tiffanie Teel

Tiffanie is a professional (expert) Web Designer using 15 years of entrepreneurial experience to help momtrepreneurs grow their online presence by creating websites that make money. Determined to remain the primary influence in her son’s life, Tiffanie refused to give up her mom's schedule for a 9-5 and she’s here to help other moms create the same freedom from a future J.O.B.

Tiffanie designs custom websites and landing or sales pages for your business, freebie, and online courses.

As a successful student of Build a Blissful Business, Tiffanie is a firm believer "When you identify your brand message you will reach and be prepared to serve your ideal clients! Creating a brand to STAND OUT online is possible if you’re willing to put in the work.”