#76: Client WIN with Katie Lepore: From Running to Her Car to Post to Running Ads Instead

Summary

Win With Paid Ads Podcast Summary: Episode #76 with Katie Lepore

Podcast Information:

• Title: Win With Paid Ads
• Host/Author: Ashley Brock
• Episode: #76
• Guest: Katie Lepore, Owner of Emberlin
• Release Date: July 10, 2025
• Description: The podcast is tailored for entrepreneurs and business owners keen on mastering paid advertising to reach the right audience with the right message, accelerating business growth.

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1. Introduction of the Guest

Ashley Brock welcomes listeners to Episode #76, introducing Katie Lepore, the owner of Emberlin. Katie is not only a client of Ashley's but also someone who has achieved significant milestones through the strategies discussed on the podcast.

Ashley Brock [00:00]: "Today, I'm really excited to introduce you to a special guest. Her name is Katie Lepore. She is owner of Emberlin and she's a client of mine."

2. Katie's Business and Niching Strategy

Katie shares her journey as a Squarespace website designer, emphasizing her decision to niche down by focusing specifically on female service providers. This specialization allows her to become an expert in her chosen platform, enhancing her service quality.

Katie Lepore [01:16]: "I work specifically with female service providers on their Squarespace websites."

Ashley appreciates Katie's courage to niche down, highlighting the importance of targeting the right audience rather than casting a wide net.

Ashley Brock [02:01]: "A lot of people are actually scared to niche... you're going to hone in on the people who want what you have to offer."

3. The Leap of Faith: Investing in Ashley’s Program

Katie recounts her pivotal decision to fully commit to her business by investing in Ashley's Mastery Mastermind program. Balancing a corporate job and her business, Katie decided to take a leap of faith after attending a summit hosted by Ashley. This investment meant quitting her 9-to-5 to dedicate herself entirely to mastering paid ads.

Katie Lepore [03:09]: "I decided that if I was gonna do this investment that I had to quit my 9 to 5..."

Ashley shares her admiration for Katie's commitment, emphasizing that success isn't solely about revenue but about the determination to grow.

Ashley Brock [05:15]: "Your revenue isn't the thing that should hold you back... if you will just be the person that will do this, you will get the result."

4. Successes from Paid Ads

Within six months of joining Ashley's program, Katie achieved remarkable results:

• ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): Katie shared a standout success where a retargeting ad yielded a 55 to 1 return.

  Katie Lepore [09:41]: "It was a 55 to 1 return."

• Client Acquisition: Katie has secured five clients through the program and referrals, demonstrating the effectiveness of her ad strategies.

  Katie Lepore [11:13]: "I've already within the first six months of the program have worked with five different clients..."

• Increased Revenue: She hit her first five-figure month shortly after investing in the program, highlighting the direct financial benefits of paid advertising.

  Katie Lepore [19:28]: "Within a month of taking the leap and investing in Ashley's program, I hit my first five figure month."

Ashley underscores the importance of proper ad setup and retargeting, which enhances visibility and client retention.

Ashley Brock [11:54]: "Anybody that even knew you from the past... can be retargeted."

5. Challenges and Lessons Learned

Katie openly discusses a significant challenge she faced: a failed three-day challenge campaign. Despite meticulous planning and a substantial ad investment, only one person signed up. This experience, though initially disheartening, provided invaluable insights.

• Identifying Issues: Katie is currently analyzing whether the failure was due to messaging, landing page design, or targeting.

  Katie Lepore [14:12]: "And not. I'm still looking at the data... was it my messaging? Was it my landing page, Was it the targeting?"

• Resilience and Growth: Ashley commends Katie's ability to extract lessons from failure, emphasizing that all data, even unsuccessful campaigns, are beneficial for making informed decisions.

  Ashley Brock [15:08]: "Whatever the data is, it's actually all good data because it helped us make a decision."

Katie reflects on the experience as her first full business failure, which nonetheless contributed to her growth by teaching her to analyze data and refine her strategies.

Katie Lepore [14:36]: "It was really the first full failure that I would consider a failure in my business. And it just taught me so much."

6. Website Optimization Tips

Towards the end of the episode, Katie offers three crucial tips for optimizing business websites to enhance trust and conversions:

1. Incorporate Testimonials Everywhere:

   • Testimonials should be strategically placed not just on the homepage but across all pages, including the About and Contact pages, to build trust.

     Katie Lepore [21:18]: "It is vital that you have testimonials on your website... they are everywhere."

2. Simplify Navigation:

   • A clutter-free navigation bar with clear and focused links ensures visitors can easily find essential information without distractions.

     Katie Lepore [21:50]: "The main navigation should be super clear. It should have very clear action to your Services to your contact."

3. Use Clear and Actionable CTAs:

   • Calls to Action (CTAs) should be specific and encourage immediate action, avoiding generic phrases like "Learn More" in favor of more direct instructions like "Book a Call" or "Get a Quote."

     Katie Lepore [22:37]: "They should have an action word in that call to. It's called a call to action for a reason."

Ashley adds that using third-grade language—clear and simple language—helps in conveying the message effectively.

Ashley Brock [23:07]: "Clear and understandable what they're getting from you."

7. Final Thoughts and Motivation

In her closing remarks, Katie emphasizes the importance of perseverance and continuous investment in one's business. She likens her journey to a tree that keeps growing its roots, ensuring future growth and success.

Katie Lepore [18:03]: "I have to endure some pain... it's my root system before the fruit system."

Ashley echoes this sentiment, encouraging listeners to embrace resilience and determination to achieve their goals.

Ashley Brock [24:02]: "If you're the person that is willing, that has that grit that Katie does, you can do literally anything."

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Notable Quotes:

• Ashley Brock [05:15]: "Your revenue isn't the thing that should hold you back from doing this."
• Katie Lepore [09:52]: "It was a 55 to 1 return."
• Ashley Brock [15:08]: "Whatever the data is, it's actually all good data because it helped us make a decision."
• Katie Lepore [21:18]: "It is vital that you have testimonials on your website... they are everywhere."
• Ashley Brock [24:02]: "If you're the person that is willing, that has that grit that Katie does, you can do literally anything."

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Conclusion

Episode #76 of the "Win With Paid Ads" podcast offers a comprehensive look into Katie Lepore's journey from balancing a corporate job and her business to achieving significant success through paid advertising. Despite facing challenges, Katie's determination and strategic approach to niching and website optimization have proven highly effective. Her insights provide valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and business owners aiming to harness the power of paid ads to accelerate their growth.

For listeners interested in mastering paid advertising, Ashley Brock invites them to join the upcoming "Win with Paid Ads" challenge, promising actionable strategies to scale their advertising efforts effectively.

Transcript

[Ashley Brock]

Welcome to the Win with Paid Ads podcast for small business owners, entrepreneurs and really anyone who has anything you want more people to find. Whether you're starting from ground zero or scaling an eight figure business, you are exactly who this podcast was created for. Because you being the best kept secret helps no one. Right? That's why in every episode I'll show you how you can use paid ads to hit your goals 10 times sooner. It's time you finally learn how to win with paid ads. You or someone, someone on your team can do this. I'll show you how to score and be known by more. Let's get started. Today, I'm really excited to introduce you to a special guest. Her name is Katie Lepore. She is owner of Emberlin and she's a client of mine. We actually met at the summit that I hosted in January. And what's really cool is Katie has some wins that she's going to share with you about her business and some of them actually aren't from ads. Like, in a way, we're going to tie it back to the ads you're going to see, but it's actually really special how we've been able to connect and how you've been able to have some really good results even though you're just getting started. We've also had some hiccups. We're going to talk about all of it because that's just real life. And this is not like, oh, ads are a miracle podcast. This is how can you win? Well, you don't win every single time, right? So anyway, can you tell everybody who you are and a little bit more about what you do specifically?

[Katie Lepore]

Yes, I am Katie Lepore. I am a Squarespace website designer. I founded my company in 2023 after a lot of experience in corporate market in different scenarios. And I found myself longing for something more in the corporate world. And I loved the part of my job that I got to do the websites. So I really took that on and it's been such a good experience since then.

[Ashley Brock]

So, you know, I love that you are specific with Squarespace. And the reason I say that is because a lot of people are actually scared to niche. They're like, I'm so worried if I say this, you cast everybody else out and I'm like, and you, you really hone in on the people who want what you have to offer.

[Katie Lepore]

Right? And I think one of the benefits of I work specifically with female service providers on their Squarespace websites. And so while I don't niche within that, like within an industry specifically. And a lot of people in my. In my industry do that. I think that female service providers and Squarespace is specific enough.

[Ashley Brock]

I do.

[Katie Lepore]

And what's amazing is I can specialize in a platform versus two, diversifying across many platforms. You'd never become an expert. And that's what I'm devoted to being, is a Squarespace expert.

[Ashley Brock]

I love that so much. So you have to tell everybody this saga. Like, even before we clicked record a minute ago, I was like, turn the microphone on. This is so good, because it's just such a good reminder of the big change that you made in January. And the reason I got emotional before we recorded the episode when I was like, katie, stop. I cannot pry off my makeup that we just did. But the reason I thought it was so special is because you made a really big jump. Like, you really took a leap of faith. So tell everybody what that leap of faith was. And I also want to know, why did you feel so confident to make such a huge change, like, all of a sudden?

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah. So a little bit of backstory. I was working at my corporate job for over two years while running my business, and so I was working in the mornings. At night, on the weekend, I would leave my lunch, and I go sit in my car and post on Instagra any second I could. I was devoting to my business, and it was hard. And what I found is that the reason I've been successful is because of my determination and my patience, that it didn't happen for me overnight building this business, and that if had I not had the patience and the determination to keep going during all those times that I didn't want to, that I wouldn't have found the success now. So I came to Summit. I was like, I'm gonna go all in. This is gonna be my room of my ideal clients. So I'm gonna get that VIP ticket, and I'm gonna go. And so, yeah, I showed up there, and I had no intention of buying your program.

[Ashley Brock]

Did you think about it beforehand? Like, were you like.

[Katie Lepore]

I think I was like, I don't know how much the offer's gonna be like. You know, I knew about you. I'd been following you for years, listening to your podcast, but I didn't know how much the offer was. And so I had just had a baby not that long before that. So I was like, yeah, it's just not the time to invest in something. And then I went to Summit, and I was sold too. And I called my husband outside, paced the sidewalk, and was Like, I think this is the thing, I think it's the thing that I need to invest in this year. And we both prayed on it that night and decided that if I was gonna do this investment that I had to quit my 9 to 5 because I needed to go all in and actually be able to devote my time and show up every single week to your calls and implement the things that you were teaching me so that I could master ads. And yeah, so we, we made that decision. I think you, you had even voice memo'd me the next morning about one of the concerns that my husband and I had and that tell everybody what.

[Ashley Brock]

The concern, like what was yalls hesitation.

[Katie Lepore]

Initially because I wasn't officially at that like six figure business mark yet and I had kind of disqualified myself. And you were like, I don't remember exactly how you put it, but you said, well that's not true. You can join my program if you want to invest in yourself, you know. And I felt like that was really important.

[Ashley Brock]

So, so the way that I think about it and I feel like I actually remember what I said to you and it was like, your revenue isn't the thing that should hold you back from doing this. It's are you going to be so committed and be the person who is relentlessly determined to achieve that? Because I have people that come into the programs with multiple six figure businesses and they're not willing to do the work. They want it to be magic. Their mindset isn't great. And I was like, if you will just be the person that will do this, you will get the result. Like you will have a six figure business. So it's really because in the, in the way I've structured the business, there's three kind of layers so that no matter where you're at, like you can find the path. But the reason I was really excited for you to do the Mastery Mastermind was because you were the person that I could just tell. You're like, I'm going to commit to this. Like I'm going to, I will figure it out. And it's just crazy because you made a big investment in your business and then like let go of guaranteed revenue. That is not normal.

[Katie Lepore]

And I had no business investing in that, in your program, especially at the mastermind level when I did. And it has been such a blessing and a leap that I needed to take for myself.

[Ashley Brock]

You know, my yesterday I was meeting with my died Melissa who spoke at the summit. Yes, she was my client and then I became her client because she sold me on how good she was with operations. And she just goes over and over and over again and she says what you just said. She says, I had no business paying for this. And yet now she's at over $750,000 in revenue in less than a year from that investment. And it's like, that's why I say, I don't care what your revenue is. Are you the freaking person that will just go all in and be relentless and learn a new skill? If so, you freaking belong. And so that's why when I hear someone say, I have no business doing this right now, I'm like, that could be the very reason that you should.

[Katie Lepore]

Right.

[Ashley Brock]

But it's just, Katie, it just says so much about you and who you are that with a baby you would leave a full time job. And so you're losing. Like if you look at money, money was leaving and you were adding a new expense. And then tell everybody because we all want to know, what are the ways that this, the ads have paid off for you, for you so far? Because it's been about five or six months now.

[Katie Lepore]

Yes.

[Ashley Brock]

So what are the ways that at this program and ads have paid off for you so far?

[Katie Lepore]

So specifically, I began running my ads almost a month and a half after the program started in the end of January. So it's like March time frame.

[Ashley Brock]

Can we pause on that real quick? I feel like people ask me, how much time does it take to get an ad up? And it really depends on how much time you can commit. But I really feel like you need maybe a month or two to get through some of the stuff to get the foundation laid. Like you, you know, you could launch an ad the next week, but it's almost like you don't want to, you want to like, do a little bit of work.

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah. And I think it depends on where you're coming in the door. I, I had almost no experience with Meta ads or Google when I came in. I didn't have meta even set up. So I think a lot of my beginning legwork, like the first month was getting the proper things in place to even begin to run the.

[Ashley Brock]

Totally.

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah.

[Ashley Brock]

Yeah. And so then. Okay, so you got about a month and a half in. You got your first ads live.

[Katie Lepore]

Yes. And so I started with retargeting ads and then we went to. And Google and then we went to the prospecting ads after that.

[Ashley Brock]

That's right.

[Katie Lepore]

And I found success with. I actually launched a website yesterday for the client that found me through an ad. Oh, that's awesome. Yes, she originally. So we talked about it yesterday.

[Ashley Brock]

What was her business?

[Katie Lepore]

So she is a therapist, A counselor here locally actually.

[Ashley Brock]

Lovely.

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah. And so she. I targeted counselors, therapists, clinical social workers. Direct crazy target people.

[Ashley Brock]

Yes.

[Katie Lepore]

And she. You taught me how to do that. And she found me through a prospecting ad and converted on a retargeting ad and it was a 55 to 1 return.

[Ashley Brock]

A 55 to 1?

[Katie Lepore]

Yes.

[Ashley Brock]

That makes me so happy. So for people that, I mean some of you are listening and you're like, yeah, I know exactly what that means. But just in case you don't basically return, roas is return on ad spend. So a 55 to 1 means for every dollar Katie spent, she got 55 back. So that was a bigger one. That's not always the case. What I can't do is guarantee. If you're listening, this cannot guarantee you a 55 to 1 return. I can say I'm not surprised when. Because it's not always the case. Sometimes it's a three to one, sometimes it's a zero because you are not targeting the right people. But it sounds like that went really well. That's really cool. I just wanted to remind you really quickly that if you haven't joined the Win with Paid Ads challenge, the doors are closing soon. And just as a refresher, this is five days of you and or someone on your team learning my five part strategy to scale your paid ads. So day one is messaging, which is what you say and how you say it. Day two is setting, which is all the different places you can place your ads. Think Google Ads versus YouTube, Meta or TikTok. Day three is targeting, which is how you can get in front of your exact right person. Day four is testing so you can know what to test and how to improve your ads. And day five is scaling and profiting and how you can 10x whatever you're spending on your ads now so that you can have more profit and return and impact which is ultimately what you want. Right? So click the link below and I cannot wait to see you in the Win with Paid Ads challenge. The other thing that I think was, is like helpful for you people to hear is that you have gotten clients from the Mastermind.

[Katie Lepore]

Yes, yes. So I have booked a client specifically two clients through the Mastermind and then two clients through the Playbook actually who aren't in the Mastermind but they found me through you and the Playbook and then another client through one of the clients that I worked with. So I've already within the first six months of the program have worked with five different clients from either directly through your program or somebody that has referred me outside.

[Ashley Brock]

That's cool. And then also because you have your ad set up the right way, anybody that even knew you from the past or knows you now, or even if someone says, okay, go check out Katie's profile, like, Katie has it set up in a way that people would see her again.

[Katie Lepore]

Yes.

[Ashley Brock]

And I think be retargeted. That's right. People devalue that so much. Like, yeah, well, they knew me, they were a past client. I'm like, well, thank goodness they saw you again so they could remind themselves to book you again. It's just that follow up.

[Katie Lepore]

So, yeah, I've gotten a lot of comments about like, oh, your ads are so good. I'm seeing you everywhere. And I'm like, oh, yes, the Ashley effect.

[Ashley Brock]

That's so sweet. It's such a simple thing to do now that you know how to do it.

[Katie Lepore]

Yes.

[Ashley Brock]

But it's like any business owner that doesn't know how to do that the right way is missing out on just the lowest hanging fruit. You know what I mean? Yeah.

[Katie Lepore]

Because we all want our content to be seen. We are putting so much effort as business owners into getting content out there every single week. And one of the more guaranteed ways that you can get your, your content in front of the right eyes is by retargeting them.

[Ashley Brock]

That's right. So, okay, we talked about good stuff. Let's talk about challenging things. Because I feel like there's totally two sides of it. And what I don't want is for anyone to try to say, yeah, I want to bring ads in house, either me or my team, and then think, wow, this is just always so perfect. But it's not right. So let's talk about like an honest thing that you've learned of, like a challenge that you've had with maybe some ads that didn't go well.

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah. So I had decided that I was going to put on a three day challenge and this is going to be the thing in my business that was going to transform everything. And it didn't. And so I, I, I followed Ashley's program. I, I did all the things, you know, I had put two months of work into making this challenge perfect, like the content and the, the social media, the emails, like everything that goes into launching something brand new. And I was super excited about it. And then I had one person sign up who was a friend and I love her dearly. Thank you, Hannah, for joining My challenge.

[Ashley Brock]

What was her name?

[Katie Lepore]

Hannah.

[Ashley Brock]

We love you, Hannah.

[Katie Lepore]

Thank you for buying my ticket. Thank you, Hannah, for buying my ticket. And so I invested a couple thousand in running my ads how you suggested, and it didn't pan out. And not. I'm still looking at the data. This is very fresh. And figuring out what was it. Was it my messaging? Was it my landing page, Was it the targeting? But you know what ultimately it did for me is help me to realize that maybe this wasn't the right thing.

[Ashley Brock]

Yeah.

[Katie Lepore]

And it was really the first full failure that I would consider a failure in my business. And it just taught me so much. And it's not all for loss, because now I know I can look at the data from the ads and see what to do better next time. And I still have all the content I created that I can repurpose in other ways.

[Ashley Brock]

And the way that I like to think about it. And I admire you for being able to be like, hey, this didn't go as well. This is not good. But there's always some takeaways. So when I looked back at it, because, of course, as an ads coach, one of the things we look at is we say data makes decisions, and decisions make dollars. I think people confuse it and say good data helps us make good decisions that make us make lots of dollars. And I think it's actually sometimes data that isn't. Whatever the data is, it's actually all good data because it helped us make a decision. Maybe we don't want to let go this direction right now. I will say we did look at it together. And one of my biggest pieces of feedback was like, the title or name of it.

[Katie Lepore]

Yes.

[Ashley Brock]

And so a little bit of backstory. Because Katie is so good at websites, one of the things that she had called the challenge was like, the homepage refresh. The homepage refresh. And I think this will be helpful for people too. Katie. It's like I told Kati in the kindest, most loving way I said, that isn't sexy to me. I know many people that I've referred to you even. And I'm like, hey, would this have appealed to you? And they are client. And they're like, no. And I'm like, okay, that's good to know that someone who actually was a client would be client would not be attracted to this one thing. So here's the thought behind it. When we. When we create something, we think about the naming of something. It's so small. But even this morning, one of my clients, she actually owns a she. I'm actually hosting my son's birthday party there. She owns Ready Set, Fine. And Elena. Yeah, Meg. So she was like, having me look at something today, and on her website, it says the Ready Set Fun Shop, because she has a separate shop and it's all balloons. And my immediate gut reaction was I sent her a message this morning. I said, meg, is there any reason we're not calling it the Ready Set Fun Balloon Shop? Because all balloons. And I'm like, that clarity and that one piece of specificity just changes the game. So one thing I said to Katie, as I said, I asked her, I said, what do people get when their homepage is refreshed? Like, what's on the other side of that? If your homepage is so powerful and so strong, you have immediate trust, immediate credibility, you're proud of the brand that you have to offer. People are more likely to act and convert. I'm like, it could be the convert more secret, the one thing you can do. And it's like having a homepage that just communicates it so well. So it's these little nuggets of, yes, we may not do a challenge or there may be a point who knows down the line where we're like, hey, let's refresh and let's rethink about the messaging and what we put on there. And you're getting more testimonials. I mean, we could have some video testimonials on there.

[Katie Lepore]

Right.

[Ashley Brock]

There's just so much more goodness. But, like, we would never have thought about this or even had a plan to think about it for the future if it had gone exponentially well the first time.

[Katie Lepore]

Right.

[Ashley Brock]

We wouldn't have asked questions.

[Katie Lepore]

Exactly.

[Ashley Brock]

I think something else, which I always tell people, which I feel like, you know, is even when something doesn't go well, if it was the right people, which if you did your what. I felt like we looked at your audiences, and I. And I loved your targeting. So I was like, I don't know that it was the targeting. It might have just been the messaging. But what's cool is Katie got all these people to her website, and all those people will get retargeted, too. And you even said this at the beginning of this episode. You've been kind of following along for a little while. So there's some people that from that bunch might be following you around for a while, and when they are ready to pull the trigger, they're like, I want Katie to do it.

[Katie Lepore]

Exactly.

[Ashley Brock]

So some of those delayed gratification. But I'm so glad because I do feel like it's so true that if, if someone can't tolerate this. Let me ask you this.

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah.

[Ashley Brock]

What did you tell yourself in your brain to like, not just get so defeated like I hate ads just because this, this one like campaign didn't go so well. Like how, what did you have to tell yourself?

[Katie Lepore]

Well, I think this goes back to that whole perseverance and determination thing and knowing that my, my ultimate goal is to not have to go back to my nine to five and I'm not doing that. And so what that's going to entail is me enduring some pain. And there is always growing pains in any business. I've seen that in the corporate world and I've seen that in entrepreneurship and I had to endure a little pain in order to grow. And you know, you always talk about your root system before the fruit system. And I have been plant, I've growing my roots, you know. And yes, I've seen some massive success really recently, which is so, so amazing. I'm seeing some fruit of all the roots that I've been growing, but I'm still continually growing roots. Right. Like a tree doesn't stop growing its roots and.

[Ashley Brock]

No, it doesn't.

[Katie Lepore]

I'm still like.

[Ashley Brock]

That's a good point.

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah.

[Ashley Brock]

It doesn't stop growing roots.

[Katie Lepore]

No, the roots are still growing and I'm going to produce new fruit later and this is that to me, like I am growing roots that are going to eventually show me the fruit. And I don't know what that fruit is yet, but I'm going to figure it out. So.

[Ashley Brock]

Yeah, because you're the person that figures it out.

[Katie Lepore]

Yes.

[Ashley Brock]

I'm so proud of you.

[Katie Lepore]

Thank you.

[Ashley Brock]

So you said you're, you're booked out this month and next month.

[Katie Lepore]

Yes.

[Ashley Brock]

Yeah, yeah. And you had your like one of your biggest months or the biggest month so far?

[Katie Lepore]

Yes. Within a month of taking the leap and investing in Ashley's program, I hit my first five figure month, which is so exciting for me because with a one to one service based business, the amount of money I can make is based on my time, especially being a single team member at this point.

[Ashley Brock]

Right.

[Katie Lepore]

So I was limited in my capacity when I was doing both. And now that I have freed up capacity, I have time to work in my business. And one of the things I was thinking about this morning is that, you know, a lot of people talk about and what happens in the service based industry is that we have time when we have no clients. You have the time to Market, market, market your business. And then you have all these clients, so then you don't market your business and then you find yourself two months later with no clients. And so you are on this roller coaster of feast and famine. And what ads can do for me is allow me a little wiggle room in those times when I'm super heavy in my client work that my ads are marketing for me, just going, yeah. And it's not that I don't still need to market in other ways and I can just let all of it caution to the wind. I still need to do my marketing and I have a little more wiggle room and flexibility because my ads are, are working so awesome.

[Ashley Brock]

It's the best feeling.

[Katie Lepore]

Yes.

[Ashley Brock]

Okay, so before we wrap up, I thought it could be cool if you could just like. And I. We didn't talk about this. Okay. But I. If you were to give three things that when you look at someone's website, you're like, God, I see this over and over again. I feel like these three things are important. And maybe some people know this, but maybe they don't. What would some kind of go to default website tips be for a business owner or even a service provider?

[Katie Lepore]

Okay, so she's ready. She got it. I'm ready.

[Ashley Brock]

I got it. What you got?

[Katie Lepore]

I think right now and something everybody is talking about is this trust recession. The trust recession and people are. Trust is hard to come by because the, the online market, everybody's being sold to something all the time.

[Ashley Brock]

Right.

[Katie Lepore]

And so it is vital that you have testimonials on your website. They're prevalent and they're everywhere. They're not just on your homepage and they're not just on your services page, they're on your about page and your contact page. They are everywhere.

[Ashley Brock]

That's so good.

[Katie Lepore]

And one of the things I find specifically, I help a lot of DIY people go from DIY to a professional website and they clutter their navigation with things that aren't vital.

[Ashley Brock]

And you came to me am.

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah.

[Ashley Brock]

Oh my gosh. And Ann, they do it and then they change it and then there's no, there's no focus point. Yes, yes.

[Katie Lepore]

There's. It's distraction from the important stuff. And it's not saying that you can't have a blog or you can't have a portfolio. There are other places within your website to put those links in the footer, you know, throughout the page, it doesn't matter. But the main navigation should be super clear. It should have very clear action to your Services to your contact. It should be easy.

[Ashley Brock]

So good.

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah. And then that third thing would be clear CTAs. Yeah, yeah. I think we've talked about this. In just making the buttons super clear and actionable. The words that are on them are should be actionable. And I think that's what people lack. They might say, learn more instead of buy now or book a call.

[Ashley Brock]

Get, you know, contact me. Like, there should be an action word in that call to. It's called a call to action for a reason.

[Katie Lepore]

Yes. People default to things like learn more. And while that's not bad, it's not going to necessarily lead to a clear path to conversion for people.

[Ashley Brock]

Yeah. Someone's had let's chat. And I'm like, I. What about what? Like, I don't have time to, like, what are we chatting about? I need like a quote and a demo.

[Katie Lepore]

Right.

[Ashley Brock]

You know, so I think get a quote facility.

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah, Specificity.

[Ashley Brock]

Give me the number. That's how.

[Katie Lepore]

Yeah, yeah. And we can go on all day. But one thing you talk about a lot is the third grade language on your website that people need to just be clear and understand what they're getting from you.

[Ashley Brock]

So good. Katie, I love this so much. Is there any last final thoughts you have for people listening as they think about ads or as they think about their website? Anything else that comes to mind?

[Katie Lepore]

No, I think we covered it. I think you just have to continue to just invest the time and. Yeah.

[Ashley Brock]

The resilience and the pursuit, I think that is like your determination and your resilience and your. Honestly, persistence with things is why you're so successful. So if you're listening to this right now and you are that person, you can do anything. You could learn how to ride a motorbike. You could learn how to fish. You learn how to do ads. If you are the person that is, like, willing, that has that grit that Katie does, you can do literally anything. So.

[Katie Lepore]

Literally anything.

[Ashley Brock]

Yeah. I'm so thankful for you.

[Katie Lepore]

Thank you. I'm thankful for you.

[Ashley Brock]

And by the way, if you want to learn ads, the Win with Paid Ads challenge is happening soon, so make sure that you go to Ashley. You can click the link below this video or this podcast episode, or if you're listening and driving, keep your hands on the wheel and go to ashleybrock.comchallenge because it all starts at an event, just like how I got to meet Katie. So click the link. I'll see you soon and I'll see.

[Katie Lepore]

You on the next episode.