
From Nurse to Digital Ninja
[0:00] If you’ve ever considered shifting careers our guest today can speak into that with personal experience as she’s shifted in a very big way with Alex Pemberton
[2:01] How Alex pivoted from registered nurse to web designer and digital ninja.
[5:41]How Alex’s career choices seem dissimilar things from the outside end up being exactly the same on the inside.
[6:40] Family support and how Alex’s sister became her first paying client
[8:56] Do businesses really need a website today?
[11:58] The biggest mistake with websites and how it could be affecting your site now
[17:14] Alex’s favorite way to create content
[19:27] Using video as a Human Design Projector
[22:34] Where to connect with Alex online
Website: http://www.Alex-Pemberton.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APHQstudio
Check out Alex’s Class: https://alex-pemberton.com/tame-the-blocks/
Grab Alex’s 30-point inspection website checkup guide: http://www.Alex-Pemberton.com/amplify
[24:37] Next week you’re gonna hear from Yong as she celebrates the one year anniversary of Amplify Your Awesome and her birthday week. Plus, Yong has a special gift for you to celebrate these milestones together!
0:00
Hey there, Amplifiers! Welcome back to another episode of the Amplify Your Awesome™ Podcast. I am excited you are tuning in today because if you're someone that's ever considered shifting careers and you just weren't sure how to make that happen and worth the timing was right, our guest today can speak into that with personal experience. She's shifted in her career in a very big way. And you know how I love to bring you other entrepreneurs, and share their stories with you to inspire you on your journey, because entrepreneurship is definitely not a one-size-fits-all job for sure.
0:36
Have you ever felt like there was something missing in your business, something holding you back from the success that you're seeking? If so, you are not alone? For nearly 20 years, that's exactly how I felt as a business owner. It wasn't until I discovered Human Design, that it all became clear. And it turns out that I was the missing piece in my own business. joining me on this journey of discovering the real me and hear stories from other business owners, building businesses around all of their awesomeness. I'm Yong Pratt, and it's time my friend to Amplify Your Awesome™.
1:20
Our guest today is Alex Pemberton. And if you're ready to ditch the tech overwhelm, and focus on growing your business, you need Alex in your corner. She's a registered nurse turned web designer and digital ninja. And she creates and maintains beautiful and easy to use websites to help small business owners attract their dream clients. Yes, yes, yes. Give me more of that. Alex, I am so glad you said yes interview. We had an amazing chat before we even started this interview, and I'm ready to dive into some really meaty topics today. Welcome.
1:59
Thank you. Thank you for having me on.
2:01
So Alex, I want to know about this shift. Because I know when I share my story of being a dancer, choreographer, and now helping people with their content and repurposing and automation, they look at me like I had gone crazy. They think how could you possibly have been a dancer before? And now you're doing all this tech stuff? It doesn't even makes sense. But then when I explain to them, well, really, you know, choreographing a dance is very much like creating a new piece of content or putting together an automation to help people, you know, get to see your content more often. It's the same thing. So I'm sure going from nurse to web designer has caused some people to stop in their tracks. So let's talk about this shift and what caused the shift to happen for you.
2:52
Okay, so, as a nurse, I get to help people. And that's really why I got into it in the first place. I'm also very creative. I always have been. I've been sewing my clothes and making jewelry for as long as I can remember. And so this last job I had as a nurse was really, really tiring in in a mental way. There, there was a lot of stuff going on that was on the wrong side of ethical maybe. And so when we got ordered, I'm a military spouse. So when we got orders overseas, I said, Yes. This is the universe giving me a break. I can quit this job and do something different. And at first, I thought maybe I can just do some blogging, monetize it, talk about decluttering. That's my thing. And so I joined some groups, bloggers, and it quickly became obvious that many people felt completely overwhelmed with the tech side of blogging and their websites. And I thought this was funny because the tech part that's easy. I even even in nursing, I was always the one explaining to people how to use the system is unlike me, how do you not get it like this is? This is easy. You click here. You click there and submit them. Easy peasy, right? And when I explained it to them, people like Oh, that makes sense. I'm thinking well, it didn't before. Because I can explain all day, I'm happy to explain. And so I would help people in the groups. And eventually people were, you know, tagging me and saying, Hey, can I can I pay you to do this? Can I pay you to teach me to do this? Can you do this on my website? And I'm like, Okay, you know what, this is probably another sign from the universe. And forget blogging about the cluttering. Here's your new job, web design, and troubleshooting. And it really follows the same path as as in nursing, right. A patient comes in, you do the assessment, you figure out the diagnosis, you create a plan for for treating it. Execute, and then figure out if it's working right? You re-evaluate. Did it work? If it didn't? Okay, next thing we're going to try is this. And it's the same way with web design. You're looking at the existing website, or if there isn't one, that's the problem in itself, right? And you figure out what's wrong, what's working and what's not. To figure out a plan to fix it, then you fix it. And then you look, at the end, you reevaluate, right? You do get some diagnostics, like your analytics, Google Analytics, or what have you. And you're looking what worked, what didn't, what do we need to fix now? Okay, easy peasy. But it's really the same process.
5:41
I love it. And I just the idea that you listened to the universe, and that when the universe spoke up and said, Okay, we're gonna move you to a new location so you get to figure out what you're going to do. And you literally thought you were going to do one thing. But then by participating in these groups, people started asking you questions, and they started sending you invitations, which as a fellow Projector, that's a really big deal in our world for people to give us invitations to recognize us for our skill sets. And Projectors, I think, we also have an interesting way to look at the world. Like we look through the lens at the world differently than all of the other types of human design. So I think that really, as a tech person, as a fellow lover of tech, it's interesting how these very unsimilar things from the outside end up being exactly the same on the inside. So let me ask you this when you switch your careers, was your family supportive of that switch?
6:40
Yes, my husband is incredibly supportive of whatever I do, I could probably say, I'm gonna raze this house down and back. But in some ways, like he thinks I walk on water, and I couldn't do anything wrong. So if I think this is a good idea, he's like, go for it. And I love that about him. I mean, we've been together for 15 years, and it's been a great 15 years.
7:05
Amazing. And what's the rest of your family as supportive? Your parents or siblings?
7:10
My sister was very Yes. She actually was one of my first clients. She helped me kind of get into the maintenance portion. She says, Well, you know, I paid my accountant so much every month and to do my stepsister. She says, I will pay somebody to do maintenance for my website. And I said, you would like you paid me. I'll send you, I'll send you an invoice. So go ahead and invoice. So she was one of my first paying clients who actually got me into the continuity. And so that was, that was really great.
7:46
I love that your sister was one of your first clients. What a cool story that used to tell because I know sometimes when it comes to making big shifts and big pivots in business, family can sometimes, without trying to be mean, they can sometimes not be super supportive. So I love that your family was was gung ho and your your husband, you're saying he's, you know, he thinks you walk on water. I think that's so sweet. And the fact that you've been married for 15 years, and he's so supportive of you, I just think that is exactly what we all need, right? We need those that support system that validates and confirms the ideas we have in our heads to let us step into a new space confidently. I love this. So let's talk about websites. Because I've heard a lot of different sides of the story. Some people say in this day and age, you know, you don't need a website. Some people say all you need a website, not these other things. So as a web designer, as someone who helps people attract their dream clients, with a website, what is your take on a website in this day and age in 2020.
8:56
So you can say that I'm biased, but of course, I think you need a website. It is your single piece of real estate on the internet that you own, there is completely under your own control. Right social media accounts. They don't truly belong to us. They belong to the social media company. Facebook can decide at any moment that they will shut down your account. And good luck appealing that same thing with Instagram and wherever else you may be. But your website is your website. Now, do I think that just having your website is enough? No, of course not. You need to have an email list. You need to be on social media talking to people you need to be talking to people in person. But your website works while you sleep. When people look you up, they expect to see your website. They expect to they expect you to at least have something there. Right? So think about it. You are looking for an electrician or a dentist in your area because you just moved there. You go online and you say, best electrician in I don't know, Cheyenne, Wyoming, one of the places we live. So you're looking to see who's there, right? So if you come across all these Yelp things, and they know websites, do you trust them? Or are you going to go with the tool that maybe they do have a website that may not be that great, but it's better than nothing? Right? So yeah, in my opinion, you need a website, everybody needs a website, if you have a business, you need one, because it's there. When you're not awake, when you're not on your computer, when you're on vacation, and it speaks for you. It's your best salesperson.
10:45
I couldn't agree more. I know, It baffles me when I, when I live in a small town. So I'll just preface it by saying that. So I think people in a small town, they have a different perception of what a website does, right? They don't necessarily understand that. Even though they have an offline business, having that online portion is really an important piece of their success. Because if people aren't able to find you online, find out your hours. I know, I get frustrated. So businesses that don't have websites, I usually don't do business with them. Because I was so frustrated trying to find them and Google them for 30 minutes trying to find all these different things, and nothing comes up. You have to for me personally, that's kind of how I, I do my shopping and choose who we go to for certain services. But yeah, I totally get that. Having our own address. Having our own home on the internet, as big as it is, is a really important piece. And yes, we all those kind of things, too. So let me ask you this a follow up question. What is the biggest mistake that you see from business owners looking to update their websites, or maybe even starting their very first website? But what's the biggest mistake You see?
11:58
Okay, without going on a complete rant, the biggest mistake that I see people making is getting talked into a page builder. But let me start at the beginning. Okay. Back in the day, WordPress was wonderful. But you have to know how to code to create pages. So page builders came along as a workaround to that. And they allow people who didn't know how to code to create pages, right? The the post editor was really simple. It was very, you know, word based. So if you could do it in Word, you could do it on your website. But that wasn't, it didn't really give you anything to do your pages with only posts. And page builders are excellent workaround for that. However, we are now in the 21st century, and we have moved on. WordPress has moved on way past where it used to be. And we now have the block editor, which is excellent. And it allows you to create pages without any page builders. Now page builders, although they were great work around, they added to the weight of your website, right? They they slowed it down. So they came at a price. Back then it made sense to pay the price because nobody was really expecting a website to load in two seconds, right? People were so many people were you know, like on dial up. So they were gonna wait 15 minutes anyway.
13:27
So
13:29
I remember those days.
13:33
But, but now people are on their cell phones. And if it if it hasn't loaded in two or three seconds, they're gone. There's somewhere else. So it doesn't make sense to use a page builder. If If you want your website to load fast, because there is now a native solution that is so much faster. And second, if you're completely new to WordPress, it has a steep enough learning curve, that you do not need an extra piece of software to learn. They're not easy to learn, even though they they're sold, as you know, what you see is what you get kind of a drag and drop. There's a lot more to it. So please say no to page builders.
14:15
So I have a little confession then because when I started having to build my own websites kind of out of necessity, I knew nothing about them. And I do I knew nothing about code. So yes, the page builder for sure was the way for me to be able to quickly put a site together that didn't look like a three year old made it right. It kind of had some nice features to it, for sure. And, you know, I think we had this discussion last time we chatted as well, about the updates to the WordPress platform and how I still use the old version because I kind of liked that version. And you were trying to, you know, suggest that I might try the new version. But it's one of those things that trade off right there. At the end of the day, what is the opportunity cost for me to learn it or to hire somebody you know, because I will have to admit that I'm kind of a micromanager. I like to have my fingers and all the things and know how everything works. And I like to fiddle around. So sometimes it's hard for me to pass tech off to someone like yourself because I kind of like to go in there and, and, you know, do a little diagnosis on my own and say, Oh, I wonder what would happen if I just did this. I like to just play around. So it's interesting that you say that this page builder now in this day and age, though, I didn't realize that it actually slowed the load speed down. So I have I'll have to go reassess. Now, I'm using a theme. So I don't know if themes. Are those page builders? Are those considered page builders? Are those separate?
15:43
Now a theme is not a page builder, but there are themes that rely on a page builder or are built for page builders? And then there are those that are just made to work with the native interface?
15:57
No, I love it. So if you're listening, and you're thinking, what the heck are you guys talking about? I have no idea about WordPress. I have no idea about themes or page builders, it is okay. We're just having a conversation about you having a place to put your business online. So whether you use WordPress or another platform, there's lots to choose from out there. Just know that we're really talking about in this day and age, we want your page to load quickly. And we want it to look nice. And if you have questions for sure. Alex will share where you can connect with her at the end of the episode. So if you have follow up questions, because, of course me talking about this right now, I have follow up questions. But I didn't want to take up more time to talk about, you know, WordPress and the platform and page builders, because I think for some people, that might be something they've never encountered. And that's okay. We're just reach out to Alex at the end and say, okay, talk me through this, Alex, because I need some help. So let's shift gears a little bit Alex and talk about content. Because at the end of the day, a website in general, whether it's on WordPress, or a different platform, is really content. So when it comes to you creating content for your website, or for your social media, what is your favorite way to create?
17:14
So for a while, I did a lot of writing, not so much on my website. But I've been answering questions on Facebook groups, or in Facebook groups. But recently, I got into video. I did this ignite video challenge where we did a video every day now for like a little over three weeks. And the idea is that you go from really, like camera shy to really comfortable on camera. And that's how I want to go. Moving forward. I want to make videos for people, because I figure one you get to actually connect with me. And two, it makes it easier to to address questions as they come up. Because sometimes writing it down is like okay, well this this Do I have to have to worry about editing and how it looks versus getting on video where I just turned it on? And hey, how's it going? I'm Alex, let me answer your question by now.
18:14
Yeah, I love it. And I love video itself. But it took me a long time to say out loud, proudly that I love video. Because for me as a Projector with a defined throat center, speaking out loud and connecting with people, whether it's an audio or video is the easiest way for me to do that as well, even though I've written books, and yeah, I used to write a lot all the time. In this day and age, though, it's so much easier just to turn my phone on push record, just start talking. And whether that's a live video or in my notes app, or you know, on otter, my favorite transcription platform. Yeah, being able to just be in the energy of other people will be in the energy of the internet. And when it comes to reusing that content, video is the best content to repurpose, because it can be created into so many other things. And we have the most availability when it comes to video to audio to text to all these things. So I love that you said video because I'm always trying to talk to people about doing video and you know, there's always a lot of pushback. So what was it about video that drew you in now and why have you committed to doing video?
19:27
So with video, I think. So I'm a Projector as well. And with video, I figure you get to feel my energy. And you get to decide if I'm the person for you as a Projector. I don't get to tell you come work with me. Right? I can say, here's who I am. Here's what I have to offer. But the invitation has to come from the other person who says I love what you have to offer. Can you please do this for me and then and I am very right brained. So I have a lot of information that I don't even know is necessarily, and I don't always know how to pull it out, but other people can get it out of me. A lot of times, if you ask me a question, I'll give you an answer and then thinking, I knew that I didn't do that. So, so that's why I figured with video, I will attract the right people, and repel the ones who kind of look at me and go, Wait, she is crazy. Okay, fine. If you think I'm crazy, then don't even contact me, right? It'll save us both a lot of frustration. But if you think I am the person for you, then please let me know. And I will be happy to help you.
20:43
I love that. And I love that you use the word crazy, because I think we're all variations of crazy, we just have different kinds of crazy in our lives, right. And I know when I first came in, especially to the online business, I didn't want to rock the boat. I didn't want to offend anybody. I tried to speak to everybody. And that led to speaking to nobody, because I didn't know who I was speaking to. So being able to stand up and say, You know what, I'm kind of weird when it comes to this, and I am crazy about this. But if you want to hang and you'd like to be crazy to then come on over. So in and this podcast is really a testament to that is about helping business owners really stand in, in the spotlight of their own business, confidently, not saying okay, well, this is kind of weird. I'm going to hide this over here or this. I don't know if I want to share this. I'm going to show that over there. Because I lived that segmented, boxed up life, and tried to run a business like that. And it was so hard. Because nobody really knew who I was. Therefore, nobody really had an emotional connection to me. So yes. So if you're out there thinking, I don't know how I want to share this, I'm gonna challenge you all to go share that thing or go do the thing. Be crazy, in your own way. Be weird and embrace that, because that is how people find you. That is how you stand out from somebody who could literally be doing a video at the same time on the internet, attracting different people, right? There are people for all of us, there's enough to go around for sure there is no shortage of people who need all the things you have to offer. Now, Alex, I do want to make sure that if people have questions about their website about WordPress about not using a page builder, how do they go about finding you on the interwebs?
22:28
So obviously, I'm going to say on my website,
22:31
Absolutely!
22:34
www.Alex-Pemberton.com. I am also on Facebook as APHQ Studio. I'm pretty sure. And I also have a little freebie for the listeners that. So I have this website checkup Guide, which is basically a guide that takes you through a very quick 30-point inspection, kind of like if you would do your car, right of your website both the front end and the back end. So you can see where your website needs a little bit of TLC? And you can get that.
23:08
I love this. So where do we get this I don't want to stop.
23:12
Sorry, you can get it at www.Alex-Pemberton.com/amplify
23:18
Whoo, I love that you use the word amplify. And I will make sure I put all those links in the show notes for today's episode. Because I know there are people listening who are saying, Okay. I'm ready. I need someone to to look at my website, or I want to do this checkup with Alex do this 30-point checklist and make sure I'm doing the right things. Because when it comes to the world of tech, there are so many things that can go wrong. If you don't know what you're doing, right. I've been there. I've had to hire people, because I thought I knew what I was doing when it came to tech with my website. And then I literally broke things and I had to hire developers. And that gets really costly on the back end. So just do yourself a favor, save yourself some time headaches and money. Call Alex make sure you connect with her on Facebook or her website. Grab this checklist because I think once you've diagnosed yourself, you can then be armed with the information you need to say Alex, Okay, I'm ready to amplify my awesome with an even better website. So good. So Alex, I want to thank you so much for being here today. I enjoyed this conversation immensely. And I know that we'll have many more conversations to come
24:31
Thank you, Yong. This has really been fun. I was scared to come on here but I had a lot of fun.
24:37
Stay tuned because next week you're gonna hear from me. It happens to be my birthday week and we're celebrating the one year anniversary of Amplify Your Awesome™. And I have a special gift for you so that we can celebrate these milestones together. I'll see you then.
24:57
Thanks for tuning in to the Amplify Your Awesome™. podcast. Be sure to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss any tips, tricks or secrets on building a business based around your awesome. Hey, and while you're there, leave us a rating and review. Let us know what you think of the show. And until next time, my friends, go out there today and Amplify Your Awesome™!
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