54. A blogger who wants to consolidate sites
It's a question every successful blogger asks: "Should I consolidate projects?" 🌶️ Our guest today, Marye from Restless Chipotle, is asking that exact question. With an ultra-successful food blog and many other projects in the works, Marye's wondering if there's a way to bring everything together. Hosts Phil and Lauren weigh the pros and cons of merging and also come up with some positioning ideas. This episode is great for anyone who's juggling many projects at once!
Episode transcription
Phil:
Hello and welcome to Brand Therapy. This is the podcast where we help you, whoever you are with your challenge related to your brand and your business. I'm Phil
Lauren:
and I'm Lauren
Phil:
and we are excited to be here and we are excited you are here. This is a fun episode. Her name is Marye and she's fun.
Lauren:
Yeah, spicy. Dare I say she's spicy.
Phil:
I'm going to call her a spicy juggler in this episode because she's juggling a lot of brands and a lot of businesses and projects and she comes to us. She trusts us for some guidance on how to manage all of it. Classic case where people got a lot of things on the go, but actually sometimes there's merit in focusing on doing one thing or the fewest number of things possible, really well, don't you agree?
Lauren:
I agree. So here's who this episode is for. This is for someone who has a client that likes to take on a lot of projects. This is for someone who is an ESTP in Myers Briggs. That's you. That's actually your title. That's you. Yeah. This is for someone who likes to start things, but not necessarily finish them. And is this for someone who is really, really passionate about the message they have to share in the world, but they're failing a bit stretched.
Phil:
Oh, it's gonna be good. That's so me. I enjoyed recording this, but I'm going to enjoy listening to. How about that?
Lauren:
I think that sounds great.
Phil:
Let's get to our conversation before I lose my patience and get distracted by something else. Here's our conversation with Marye.
Marye:
I'm Marye and my problem or my, the solution I need is I have a lot of irons in the fire and I need everything to come under the LLC brand, but that has to cover food blogs and SEO course and women’s encouragement blog.
Phil:
Wow, that's a lot of stuff.
Marye:
I know, but you’re magical. You're a master. So I know we're going to have great ideas.
Phil:
I just know from the beginning, after a few conversations, not even on the phone, but we follow each other on Instagram and I just know that you and I are trouble combined. I know that. So you've got some brands you're juggling and they're all different things, correct?
Marye:
Yes. I have a southern comfort food blog, which is Restless Chipotle that's kind of the big daddy of all of it. And then I have a low carb blog called Lowcarb-ology but I'm actually selling that and I'm going to be closing on that at the end of the month. So that's kind of not in there anymore. And then I have Search Engine Seduction, which is an SEO course. And it has analytics course. I take tech speak and turn it into mom speak. Okay. And so then I have maryeaudet.com, which is kind of where I put everything together. But I also have started doing a lot with talking with women who are changing their lives in mid life because I went from being a stay at home homeschooling mom to being a business woman person professional in about 24 hours time because my ex husband walked out and left me with six kids at home.
I have 8, so there were six kids at home. I had to find a way to feed them all and keep growing from their heads. So I started writing for people. So I have a lot of information and encouragement for women who are in difficult situations. And I was 15 when that happened. I'm almost 59 and so when you're that old, you just have that feeling of I have no value. Nobody's ever gonna want me. Nobody's, you know, I have nothing to offer because I didn't even have a college. I mean literally felt like I had nothing to offer. And so the blog is more about encouraging women in their midlife and later that, you know, obviously they have lots to offer.
Lauren:
Got It.
Phil:
Wow. Great. Thank you for this context because that paints a picture of where we can go in terms of tying all of these elements together. Now we don't know a whole lot about you, so we've heard just basically what the listener has heard. Lauren, your immediate thoughts before I dive in with mine, what do you think after you've heard this?
Lauren:
Well, I have a question first and then that'll dictate my thoughts. But Marye, do you have a personal website?
Marye:
Yeah, I have maryeaudet.com
Lauren:
and on that website, do you talk about everything that you've got going on? All the different projects?
Marye:
Yes.
Lauren:
Okay, great. I think my personal preference, and I mean you're the one with the SEO course, so you'd probably would know about this better than me, but I would just love if everything was brought under one roof for one concrete offering because it'll make your marketing and sales a lot easier than having different destinations like the food blog and also the SEO course and you got books coming out, they're all related and they're all resources that you've found and that you've created help people who are in a situation that was similar to the one that you were in years ago and you got thrown into all this. It does. I think consolidating would probably really help. Yeah.
Marye:
Interesting. I don't know. I mean I get that and I can understand that with the courses and with my personal website, but I don't know how to put like Restless Chipotle in there and have it makes sense. But that may just be me because I have ADD and stuff, so my brain doesn't always work like other people.
Phil:
Well, you're all so close to it cause you are the brand and I, there are some times we have guests that come on and I know nothing about them all admit that I do follow and enjoy you on Instagram. I just find your sense of humour hilarious. And so I know a little bit more about you than I might any other guests and you are such a personal brand. So let me just kind of just go delve into this idea. But all of the brands that you've outlined are interesting to me. They're sub brands of you. People care what you have to say because of how you say it. Your personality is a very big part of how you share your information. Obviously the SEO component is super cool. In all the episodes we've done, we've never had anyone that focuses on SEO and usually not to stereotype, but if it's someone who focuses on SEO, it's usually like a nerdy guy and you're such a vivacious, hilarious, relatable, sweet Mama. And you're the brand. So Chipotle brand is interesting, but it's not as interesting as you and I know in the food blog world we have a lot of these catchy names, Blah Blah blah.com catchy food blog. But there's something about you that I feel if the brand is not positioned to focus on you, it's a disservice to you because you are so interesting. Those are my initial thoughts anyways and I know it's, it's a little bit of a different course than that path you’re on now.
Marye:
Wow, thank you. Now that I'm kind of at a crossroads right now because I am still in Lowcarb-ology, so I can dive into the search engine production a little bit deeper, lot steeper and I think that's the direction I'm going. But I don't really consider myself interesting.
Phil:
None of us do. None of us do. And the SEO stuff is really interesting to me. Lauren, do you feel the same way just because, so different from what I've heard?
Lauren:
Yeah. I would so much rather take an SEO course from you than like a guy like a young guy.
Phil:
I’d be interested in recipes from an SEO expert because of how you're writing them. And honestly that's so interesting and different that it excites me.
Marye:
I don't have very many guys in my group for obvious reasons, but when guys want to take one of the courses or join a group, cause I have a group on Facebook, I always tell him that if they can handle the lingerie department at Neiman's and they can probably handle the group, but then I am not their Flash Gordons!
Phil:
I that's so good. So that's like just a perfect example of your personality and how that's just interwoven in everything you do. I'd hazard to guess that it wouldn't even matter what you did, but people are gonna pay attention and go look at her go. But the fact that that personality is combined with something like SEO has me paying attention even more. So another backstory friend of mine, Jenny Melrose, really knowledgeable in the industry, an amazing expert is how we discovered each other. I went on one of her Facebook lives and I said to Jenny after I said, Marye is cracking me up and Jenny said you guys will get along great, but also Marye is amazing at what she does. She's got an SEO course and it's amazing. Wasn't going to tell you that because I wanted to hear your answer to this question. Now you get to answer the question, but like that's how others are perceiving you and introducing you when you're not in the room, which is your brand. How would you introduce yourself to a room full of strangers if you only had one sentence?
Marye:
I'm Marye, I'm from Texas. I have kids and I still can write a complete sentence.
I don't know. That's what I always get hung up on. I mean it's like people say what you do and I said, well I do all this stuff. Whatever I have to do that day, I do it. Yeah. I love doing food photography. I love doing the recipes. I have empty cookbooks from the 1880s all the way up to the 1980s and I love taking those recipes. I have a fudge recipe that says start with a 5 cent Hershey bar. How do you even do that? So I take those recipes that have been like forgotten for 5,000 years and I recreate them and make them so that people can use them now. And I love doing that, but I don't know how I would explain me. I don't know. I had 30 years of being told I was stupid and unintelligent and not very good looking. So I have a very hard time with who I am. It's been 10 years, but it's still kind of learning who I am.
Phil:
But you've got some, it makes perfect sense and you've got some openness to explore where that could go. But listen to me, those projects that you've listed, I would consider sub brands and I'm so curious to hear your perspective on this from an SEO standpoint because it would be a shame to build five different projects or brands and have them all live separately because that's five times the work. It's five Facebook pages, five Twitter profiles. It's impossible for one person to do well. It would be a shame to send people in five different directions when we could actually have, instead of sending them in five tunnels, we have five tunnels that come to one place where they can consume what they want but also, even what they didn't want, but now enjoy. If that makes sense. And this all goes under your name, which is unique.
Marye:
That's really cool. I really like that. I really like that. But I have no idea how to do that.
Phil:
Yeah. Cause when you listed the names of the projects you have going on, it wasn't clear to me how those could be interwoven right away. But when you list the f the more literal description of what they are, food, recipes, SEO, you know, training or courses, these programs, you know, people are buying, you know, online programs or intellect in some way. The way to categorize those all under you with a fancy little tagline. Like to me when you start to get literal about what those things are, it's like all the facets of a personal brand. So for me, for example, I've got a podcast, I've got a blog, I've got programs, I've got one on one. When we brand individuals, those are the different tunnels in which people usually find us because they have a need that they're trying to investigate. Whether or not we satisfy that need, but they may not have been looking for a podcast, but maybe they find one because they've found us through this tunnel and not everyone can pull it off in an engaging way. Particularly in the food world where a lot of times personalities are hiding behind recipes and content. People aren't quite as confident to be on camera or to put their personality out there, but you're totally the type to to pull it off successfully, in my opinion. Those are my thoughts, at least. Lauren, what do you think about how all of this would play together if we're not trying to, the names might have to just evolve slightly if we brand as a personal brand, but how do you see this fitting together?
Lauren:
Yeah, I see it as that Marye helps moms become better in the kitchen and smarter on the web.
Marye:
Ooh, I like that.
Phil:
I like it too. She always comes out with these big ideas. She's quiet and you know, she's working away over here. Well over there. We're not together anymore. I'm in London. She's in LA. Um, so that encompasses what Marye does. And then Marye has specific verticals in which she creates content. Let's revisit those. But I would consider sub brands. You've got a blog or you've got recipes.
Lauren:
Well, two right, one low carb and then one that's Southern comfort.
Marye:
I'm selling that. I'm closing that on the 29th of this month.
Lauren:
Okay, great. So that's a non issue.
Phil:
Okay, perfect. We should also know is the blog that you're building now, something you would want to sell later or is this going to be more of a kind of a lifestyle business for you?
Marye:
I've been blogging on Restless Chipotle since 2006. Yeah. And I have over 2000 pages of content. So you know, it's evolved with me. I started it as a hobby blog. And so I don't know if I would sell it or not. I mean, but at the same time when I started the blog, I had eight kids at home and you know, my family has gotten smaller as kids have gone into the military and gone off to college and stuff. So where I was making eight to 12 servings of things, now I make them four to six servings. So there is a point in time where it's probably just going to be my husband and I, my new one, his name is Mark 2.0 because my first husband's name was Mark. I upgraded and it is so much better. Hardware works better, the software works better and we don't have any downtime, it is awesome. Anyway, so there's going to be a time where it's just him and I and all have to just like cook for two people or not cook it all. So potentially there's a point in time that I'll sell the blog when it just doesn't fit in anymore.
Phil:
Yeah. I'm not sure that I would bring Chipotle into the personal brand if it's something you plan on selling later, if it's got that much information existing now, why disrupt that when it's something you might sell down the road. So that's probably the only thing I wouldn't fold into the personal brand. But everything else, the reason people buy it, watch it, listen to it, pay for it, all of those things, they do it because it's from you. Whether you realize it or not, you know the information is valuable, but the way in which you share that information is the reason they're choosing you and not another resource online. So I think that's important for you to reflect on. And I think that should point you objectively in the direction of really owning a personal brand because that's you and you get to dictate what you want with that. So that's just food for thought.
Marye:
I love being a dictator. Thanks. So like right now on maryeaudet.com I have links to all this stuff I do. I haven't really written, I haven't really blogged on that yet because it's a relatively new thing. But I do have a page that links to the Restless Chipotle blog and a page that links to the Lowcarb-ology blog word that's going to be gone. So just leave it like that and then build that blog as a me brand is what you're saying. I'm trying to understand.
Phil:
I would say so, yeah. I would say so. I wouldn't disrupt what you've already got, what's working and what you could easily sell. I just wouldn't disrupt that, but I would start something new for you. You've got people already paying customers but people buying your courses engaging with you. I'd look for creative ways to send the Restless Chipotle consumers to your new site, give them a reason to go and engage. But then yeah, I think I would juggle the two. If I were you, I wouldn't disrupt what you might want to sell later, but get creative about how you can start to drive traffic back and forth. So we're effectively reducing four or five brands into two. And all of your Search Engine Seduction, that's a sub brand of Marye. That is something that lives as part of you. Something you've made, you know, a course doesn't mean you can't promote it on Restless Chipotle or promoted everywhere for that matter. But you'll notice for example, look at the engagement you get on on Instagram and platforms like that as you an individual. That's another key indicator that that's something that would be successful cause people want to hear it from you. Not just the content but how you say it, your perspective.
Marye:
Right. Cause that's what basically wanted to doing is lifting up my, my Instagram feed is all of the food feed is food. And then the Instagram stories, Instagram lives and um, have all been just me. And then Instagram TV has been Search Engine Seduction and that has kind of worked well. But I didn't know if it was okay because it makes me feel like people are gonna think I have multiple personalities, which is probably true. I really do. But I don't know in a business as anyone. So that's all about Instagram. That's why it's like it is.
Phil:
Well and you get to decide the purpose of your feed and the purpose of each channel on Instagram. Some of that, the feed, the stories, the Live, the IG tv you get to decide what that is and how it serves your audience and then how it evolves from there. Just cause you decide that that's what it is today doesn't mean it won't, doesn't mean it won't change a year from now. You get to decide that as the content creator but I think our point is the best umbrella for these projects excluding Restless Chipotle which is probably something you'll sell down the road. The best umbrella for all of this is you. You are not going to change. You are that reliable source of information and personality that ties all of these things together. In fact, it's exciting that you've got Restless Chipotle to start to drive traffic through to your personal site and I don't think people will be upset that there's two websites for them to visit.
I think because they both function very differently. The fact that you've already got an existing audience that you can interest, engage an up sell makes your life that much easier as opposed to starting from scratch. But I think if it's just you or even a small team, you can't effectively have four brands. You just can't, you'd have to have a little mini army managing and doing all of that really well by having a personal brand that's always what people are gonna prefer because it's more likely coming directly from you, which is what people want. I don't have a Phil Pallen Collective Instagram account and probably could, but it's double the work. I'd would rather just treat it as me and that's what people want. People want to message me. They don't want to message a person hidden behind a brand name. So that's just, you know, something to think about there.
Marye:
You’re so smart! You did take your brilliant idea hat and put it on this morning.
Phil:
Haha, which is funny. You put that in your Instagram story. Better put my brilliant idea hat on. And Lauren as well. Like, you know, you've got a great little brand sentence there. I help moms become better in the kitchen and smarter on the web. You’ve grabbed by attention. We know who you're talking to and how you can help them. So that's kind of fun.
Marye:
Yeah, I really love that. Y'all are awesome!
Phil:
Well, thank you for though that you know, for being open to explore this because every challenge is a little bit different. Everyone is in a little bit of a different position and it's kind of fun to see where we're at and where we can go.
Marye:
Well, I love your podcast and I'm looking forward to meeting you in real life. Personal though I think that, um, but the Salt Lake area is probably gonna have earthquakes and experience strange things, but that's okay because it's just gonna be weird having this in the same place. It's gonna be like an inter dimensional, you know, wrong thing. But anyway, um, I know what I'm saying, but I'm just losing it right now. My ADD meds have not come in yet. This is pharmacy and we can tell. Yeah, thank you so much.
Phil:
Thank you so much. It's been so fun to have you on Brand Therapy. Marye, we will chat with you soon. Best of luck with everything and I look forward to meeting you in real life.
Marye:
Alrighty. We'll see ya. Bye Bye.
Lauren:
Bye. Bye.
Phil:
I did a lot of talking there. So you didn't have much time to actually get your thoughts in.
Lauren:
No, that's great. I think we reached some pretty pretty cool conclusions.
PhiI:
I said to her from the beginning, you and I are going to be a dangerous combo and I was right, but I know the conversation we had was very much about taking projects and having them live under a personal brand because that's often as a sustainable solution. Your name is not going to change, but it does make it harder if you want to sell something. So I think, um, that was a fresh perspective. It's always hard to think of yourself as a personal brand. Right? And then when someone says it to you, it's like, actually that makes some sense.
Lauren:
Yeah, because you, the individual are the through line between all the different endeavours. We see this a lot. People have many passions and want to start all different projects and have an entrepreneurial spirit, which is fantastic. But with that, with those different endeavours comes the risk of having to start, you know, the marketing efforts from scratch. That's how having a personal brand makes things a bit better.
Phil:
Completely. And I would have loved to have a whole second conversation with Marye about as SEO for food bloggers might be a future episode. We'll have her on as an expert. That'd be fine, Marye. I thought, you know, that was definitely this. That's definitely a theme and what she's offering her clients, but also one of the ways that she's been successful, I'd say, you know, because SEO is just as important to driving traffic to your site. Should we talk about it for a few minutes?
Lauren:
Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Lay It on. Sure.
Phil:
Well, it's, the timing couldn't be better because this is right around the time that I am in Salt Lake City for the fourth year in a row, speaking at Everything Food Conference. Shout out to Kami Kilgore, who I love, who continues to invite me to speak at this conference every year. I love it. Some of my favourite people, but in the interest of Everything Food Happening, a lot of food bloggers gathering a one place, let's Ah, you know, we're not SEO experts, but it's something we do then consider and incorporate
Lauren:
and are trying to get better at.
Phil:
Yes and incorporate in all of our projects. But let's go through a few quick tips that every food blogger can integrate and ideally become more profitable in this endeavour. You know, going from a hobby to a business, that's always the goal. So let's start with as SEO, I think embracing it is point number one, embrace SEO and make sure that when you're creating content and putting effort into the editorial side of things, right, the recipe give is not just food bloggers as well, the content that you're crafting, the narrative, the story, the examples, the message. So much work goes into that, that a lot of times SEO becomes an afterthought. Oh, well let's plug in a few tags and categorize it and keywords last minute. But actually if you think about it, that's arguably more important than what you're saying is positioning so that it actually gets discovered. So I think embracing SEO is really important.
Lauren:
Yeah, it's inevitable. And you can write about what you're passionate about and I think that's critical for a blogger, but if you aren't writing in a way that other people will discover it, then you need to reconsider your thinking.
Phil:
And let's break down what SEO means for a second. So I'm talking your blog titles, I'm talking your Meta descriptions, alt text to one that gets forgotten a lot. So when you add an image to your blog post indicating in the all to text what that photo is for accessibility reasons and also for search value interlink within your blog posts. Another thing that people forget, right? To get that post up and then they forget about it. Platforms like Pinterest are great because it's a great way to drive traffic to your site even sometimes years later after writing it, if it answers a question, or, leads to point to answer, create content that answers a question that people have. Like you may have just gone to an event and you want to share what you found or what you learned, that's great, but take a second to rewrite that headline or reposition that topic just slightly so that it directly answers a question.
You know, a query that people might literally be putting into Google or Youtube or Pinterest, a simple re-shift of that or a reframing of that could drive incredibly more traffic to your post.
Lauren:
Awesome. I think that's a really good way of thinking about it.
Phil:
The third tip, this is almost like on my, little to do list, we, if I'm working with a food blogger or with someone else that people forget, is to check the speed of your website. Your website has a speed, a low time, and our tools, Google Insights is one that will actually tell you your load time of your site. And most people expect to load time within, I think it's two seconds and up to 40% of people will leave. If it takes three or more seconds to load, that increases what they call your bounce rate, which is people who only visit the homepage of your site and don't go anywhere else.
So Google Page Insights is a tool that you can use to determine your speed of your page. How about that for some SEO facts, bet you didn't expect those coming from me.
Lauren:
My mind is blown. Thank you.
Phil:
You're welcome. You're welcome. Again, we're not SEO experts, we're branding experts, but in order to do our job effectively, specifically building websites, it is something we have to know about and we have to account for in our build. But thank you Marye, for coming on and for sharing your perspective and letting us guide you in the direction of building a personal brand. If you found this episode useful, I hope you did food blogger or not personal brand, whatever it is you are, we're glad you're here. I'm @philpallen
Lauren:
I'm @thelaurenmoore
Phil:
#brandtherapy is where we'll continue this conversation and if you enjoyed this episode, take a second and leave a review on iTunes.
Five-Star, please. If that's how you really feel, it does help others discover. And if it's how you don't feel and it's okay, but that is how people discover our podcast. It really helps. So thank you for that. Thank you for hanging out with us right here on brand therapy. We will see you back next episode. Until then. Bye.
Lauren:
Bye. Bye.