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Simple SEO and Marketing, Business Growth, Organic Marketing, Copywriting, Online Business, Blogging, Content Creation
Ep 276 // She Didn't Believe Me, Until She Booked 5 New Dream Clients
00:27:14
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A
All right, y', all. So I got the chance to sit down with April Bennett. Y' all don't know her yet, but you will.
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And it's. This is a really fun chat because
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April has just finished my program, Simple
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SEO Framework, and she really didn't think
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A
it was going to work. She didn't think it was going to work.
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C
She.
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A
I don't want to say she fought me because she is one of the sweetest humans I've ever met. So it wasn't like we wouldn't. We weren't throwing hands digital. How do you throw hands digitally? But whatever. There was no throwing of hands. But she really fought me, kicking and screaming on a couple of things, and
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then she got to work and she booked five clients.
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So I want to let you listen to April talk about what a huge
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difference SEO and copy made for her business, because I want you to just
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see and hear firsthand what a huge difference, though, that combo can make for
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growing your business and how to make
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it work for you, even if you're
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not a mathy math brain.
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So listen in, take notes, and I
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want you to think through how can
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I apply this to my business?
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All right, y' all listen in and enjoy. Hey there, fellow entrepreneur. Welcome to Simple SEO and marketing. Do you want to grow your business with sustainable traffic sources? Have you heard about the power of search engine optimization? And you want to take advantage of it to get more traffic, more eyeballs on your business. But when it comes down to it, does SEO feel complicated and hard to implement? Are you tired of wondering what in the heck to do with your website to get more traffic and more leads knocking on your door? What if I could tell you that there was a simple, proven system for using SEO, blogging, and copywriting to get leads from your website? And not just any leads.
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Hi. Converting lead. Hey, I'm Faith Hannon, wife, mama, copywriter,
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SEO strategist, and barrel racer. And for the last eight years, I've
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been figuring out what works and what
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doesn't work in the world of online marketing to get organic traffic? And now I'm here to share all the things I'm learning in the trenches of SEO, copywriting, and content marketing. How does 300%, 500%, or even 12,000% more traffic in a year sound? What could your business do with that kind of traffic increase? How many more people could you help? So listen in and prepare to take notes. I'm about to drop simple, actionable SEO, marketing and copywriting tips, all with a heavy dose of Jesus loving encouragement. Let's get you more traffic and more leads so you can help more people with your God given gifts.
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A
Well, friends, I have my pal April with us today from the editing Soprano. And when I tell you that she is an absolute joy, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I've gotten to work with April since November of 2025, and she jumped into the simple SEO framework, group coaching, and I don't think she's missed anything. If she missed anything, it was like one. But she was always there, just ready to learn and grow. And she did question me a couple of times and tell me that she thought I was crazy pants. But she pushed through and has seen so, so much growth and so much success, like ROI from the program and the coaching. And so I was, I was begging to get on her calendar, to have her come on the podcast because she is almost overbooked with work, her words. So I was like, can you make 30 minutes for me, please? Because I just wanted everybody to meet her and to hear her story. So welcome April. Tell all the podcast pals a little bit about yourself and your business and how you got here.
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C
Well, my name is April. I am the editing soprano. My company is named that because when I started editing, I was also full time, part time, full time, working as a paid musician and a voice teacher. Covid kind of killed that part, but that's okay because I really segued right into editing full time. And so I've been doing editing as my full time job since 2020. And yeah, I just, I started because back in 2014, I wrote a book. And it was one of those things where I like, I didn't mean to write a book, but I wrote it and shoved it in a drawer. And a friend said, can I read it? When I told her about it, and I was like, really? You want to read this thing? Okay. And she read it and she was like, oh, you should publish this. And I had a friend that did self publishing, so I knew that publishing was not as daunting as it could be. You don't have to go through a publishing house. So I felt self published. And through that journey, I found a community of writers. Through that community of writers, I found out that I actually love editing much more than writing. So I stopped writing altogether and I started editing other people's words. And editing other people's words is very similar to voice lessons because you're trying to encourage them to find their voice, their style. You want to make sure that you encourage them without killing their spirit at the same time as you're forcing them into a growth pattern, you want to make sure that they're always getting better. And as a voice teacher, my job was to make myself obsolete. I wanted them to be so good that I had no more to teach them and they could go on to a better teacher. And to a certain extent, editing is like that to a much less extent, because I can. I can always find something to pick at if I am given the opportunity, because you. You want to make everything as streamlined as possible, and I can always do that, and I can always find commas because proofreading is my superpower. So anyway, that's. That's a little of my story as far as, like, my career goes.
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And I love.
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A
I love that you tied that to editing, to voice lessons. I don't think I've ever heard you make that connection before, but that's very true. Because you could go in and edit somebody's manuscript and, like, crush their hopes and dreams and, you know, just kill the whole book before it's even published. But because of, you know, your heart and your approach there. Yeah, you don't. I love that. I love that. How did you find ssf? How did you get in there? Like, tell me about what that looked like for you.
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C
So I was looking for podcasts. I found you through your podcast.
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A
Okay.
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C
It was at least a year ago, possibly two. I was looking for podcasts about Christian business women, and you popped up, and I was like, okay. And SEO? I don't really know anything about SEO. I guess I should probably at least try to learn. So I started listening to you, and that's how I found you. And I started getting your newsletter. I can't remember when I signed up for that because it wasn't immediately, but I started getting your newsletter, and that's how I finally, like, I think. I think I want to do this. I talked to my husband. I was like, I think I need to do this class. And you were offering a special back in November, and I was like, well, it's either now or never. So.
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So you did it.
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So I nailed it. Yes.
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I.
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Now.
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I love it. What were you doing for marketing before?
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C
I wasn't really. My marketing strategy was very loosey goosey. It was. Most of my clients come through word of mouth, which is an excellent way to get clients. I have an Instagram presence a little bit on Facebook, although I don't really. Everything on Facebook comes through Instagram. I don't really spend a lot of time on Facebook, and that's pretty much it. I had a website. I've had a website since 2018 and I didn't. I made sure that it was up to date, but I didn't really do anything with it. I didn't understand how SEO would help it become visible. And you know how every once in a while you'll just Google yourself. I would google myself and I'm like, nope, I don't even come up on page 15. I just don't come up unless I am, you know, very specific about like, you know, April Bennett editing. Then I come up. But if I just look for, you know, romance editors, there are like a zillion romance editors. So I didn't come up.
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Hey pal, quick question for you.
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Is your website actually converting like it should, or is it just kind of watching the traffic zip by as it goes straight to your competitor? Because I talk to business owners all the time who are air quotes trying to do SEO, who genuinely want to market smarter, not harder, who are putting in time to their website but they're still not seeing consistent ready to buy leads come in. And at some point it starts to feel like, is this even possible? Or. Or am I just missing something? That is exactly what we fix inside of Simple SEO Framework and Guided Group Program not by giving you more to do, but by showing you what to focus on, what to ignore and how to know for sure that what you're creating is actually going to convert to dolla dollars. And this time it's a guided live six week group program so you are not left alone trying to figure this out. You get clear weekly action steps so you're not spinning your wheels.
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Coaching calls for real feedback, community support
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inside of Slack, and a plan you can actually follow without second guessing every step. And here's the part I really want you to hear. Before June is over, you could have a website that actually makes SEO happy. A homepage that has people saying yes, this is exactly who I've been looking for. And content set up to drive conversions, not just looky loos. Or you can stay stuck in the same content hamster wheel you've been trying desperately to escape. Doors are open right now through May 5th. And spoiler, there's also a sale if you're ready for your website to find finally convert like it should. Come join us inside of Simple SEO
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Framework Guided Group Program.
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Head on over to faith hannon.com framework and save your spot because I am limiting seeds. I'm excited to see you with it.
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A
So one of the things I feel like we worked on probably the most, if not primarily with you, was your homepage copy.
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C
Yes.
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Tell me what that was like, because I. I mean, I think I know what it was like, but I want them to hear. Y' all can see her face right now. It's so great.
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So the first month, I'm, like, going through my SSF class, the coursework, and it is, you know, all of this stuff that is foreign to me, and spreadsheets and, like, Excel spreadsheets or Google sheets or whatever, and I. I don't do well with spreadsheets, so I actually had to convert things to just a Word document with lists because I. I couldn't do the spreadsheets. And I wrote a lot of stuff with my hand, you know, pen and paper. But one of the things that you recommend, highly recommend, is what you call the MJ23. And I was like, there is no freaking way. There is no way that I am going to put 25 or 23 points, like, boom, boom, boom, on my homepage, because I don't. I don't like that. I want. Just tell me the one thing I want to know. Tell me where to go. Tell me what to do. Just. Just give me that. And so kicking and screaming, I did, like, 11 of them. Yeah. And I was like, that's it. That's all I can do. And then I think we had a coaching call where it must have been just the two of us, or maybe there was one other.
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Yeah. I can't remember, but it wasn't very many people on that day. Yeah.
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Yeah. And we walked through the whole thing, and I was like, oh, I can do this.
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She. She was so mad, y'. All. She was like, I don't want to do this.
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You can't. I didn't believe in it, and I didn't think that you really needed all of that.
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Yeah.
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And I was wrong, and I hate that I was wrong, but I also love that I was wrong because it changed the way my website reads. And I've had two clients that have signed contracts in the past month who specifically said that my website copy got them to convert. And so I. I can't take much credit for that. That is all faith.
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What was funny, though, is, like, those words.
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Those words were in you.
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Yeah.
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I just had to, like, help you pull them out and put them within that framework.
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Yes.
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And you had to understand and believe me, that hitting your homepage from all these different angles is going to speak to all these different people at all these different places and help them convert.
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C
Yes.
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Yeah. And I think once we got going, you're like, okay, I don't hate you anymore.
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C
Well, I hate. So strong. Right. But, yes, I was. You were not on the top of my list of favorite people,
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but you did it. And I was like, once we got through that block, I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm so proud of April because it was just like. I feel like you made that switch from April editor to marketer.
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Yes.
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For your own business.
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C
Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Whereas before, I. I'm. I'm. I'm confident in my editing skill, but I'm not confident in my ability as a businesswoman, probably because I, you know, I just have let God do a lot of it, which kind of sounds like a cop out sometimes. But I do also, you know, I want to. I do want to be obedient. I do want to work on edifying projects. I do want to make sure that I show the light of Christ to all of my clients, whether they are Christians or not. Making that jump from the kind of editor I want to be to how I need to market so that I can be the editor to people that. That was my disconnect.
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Yeah.
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And I think that I'm starting to get it and align those. It's like they're two different people. They're not. But those two different mindsets, getting them aligned so that it makes sense for me. So. Yeah.
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Was there a moment in the whole process that you feel like it just clicked?
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Yeah, it was. I think it was the coaching call we had the week after I had done. We did all that work together, and I was putting everything into. Onto my website, like, one section at a time, and then having a little freak out and then come back and doing it again. And. But, you know, the coaching calls are like, every two weeks or so. And so by that second week, I think that's when I was like, okay, I think this is actually gonna work, so. And I could see that it was. It made. It made a difference to how my website read, how my offers appealed. I had a couple of my best clients who know me best, who've been with me a while, look at everything, and they read through it, and they were like, yeah, everything sounds like you, and if I wasn't already working with you, I'd want to work with you.
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Awesome.
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So, yeah, that's cool. I thought that was great.
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That's cool. Tell me again, how many people did you book? And it was like two weeks. And you signed.
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I had five new clients sign contracts. Now, of those five, one of them had contacted me back in February, so at this point two months ago, but I had to email her and say, hey, I am running out of space, and I know you wanted sometime this summer, so we better book that and be official so that I don't accidentally overbook and not be able to fit you in. So she's one of those five that sign contracts, but those other four, they found me and booked with me within two weeks.
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That's awesome.
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And I was, like, dumbfounded. It's like, what? I don't even know what's going on right now.
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That's awesome.
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But, yeah, because I, you know, I work steadily. That's not a problem. But it's like, I have. And I have a lot of repeat clients, but getting four new ones in two weeks without really having done anything. Like, I didn't. I didn't do anything to get them. They just kind of appeared. And I think it's because they were lurking. And then whatever it was in their life that made them come to my website, my. My new home page, that's, like, only new in the past six to eight weeks. I suppose. Maybe eight to 10 weeks.
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Yeah.
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That's what made. I think that's what made them convert.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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Especially since two of those clients said so.
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Yeah. What do you think it was on your homepage that made them convert?
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Like, that shift, One of them said she liked. She just felt at home.
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Okay.
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She liked the way it looked. So I didn't really change a whole lot of the way it looked.
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It was.
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But the information is integral to how it looks.
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Right.
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If that makes sense.
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And we did a lot of work,
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too, on, like, make this big, make this little. Give space to the eye here, bullet point, you know, like, that kind of stuff instead of just like, popping a word doc on there. Like, we worked through the layout and the framework too.
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Yes.
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Yeah, yeah. So how manageable was the time to implement everything? Like, were you working 247 all week long to get your stuff done or was it doable?
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Well, it's definitely doable. I would be like, oh, my gosh, I've got a coaching call. Like, so our calls are usually on Tuesdays, sometimes Thursdays. So, like, on Sunday afternoon, I'm like, oh, I better do some stuff to get ready for that. So Monday morning, you know, so I probably work, like, Monday and Tuesday of a week to make sure that I had homework done, you know, and it's not the best way to do that. It's just how my brain works. I'm like, oh, here's the deadline.
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Well, and that's part of the reason for coaching calls and for that accountability piece.
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Yes. Yeah, that works great for me via coaching calls. And accountability is. I think for me the most important thing about SSF is that I had an accountability partner. Every two weeks we'd meet and I had to have some progress. I mean I, I suppose I could have just said I didn't do anything yet, but I didn't want to.
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Yeah.
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Because I didn't want you to be disappointed. 12 year old self right there. I don't want to disappoint the teacher.
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Well, and you were, you know, you were invested. You know, you were, you came to see progress and you, you were read ready to get her done. You know, and I know one of the things I had actually talked with April and another gal in a coaching call is just kind of asking them how they thought the new format would work with like the group program aspect and having calls every week for six weeks back to back and homework and deadlines and the slack community and what are. Because I want to always be improving. Right. Like let's take what's working and make it even better, you know. So what do you, what are your thoughts about that, like that new format, how do you think that'll work?
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I think for the right people, it'll work great. Because if people are work to deadline types of people, having a weekly deadline will be really helpful. So I actually had to sign up for three months extra coaching.
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Yeah.
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So that I had the accountability to finish the course and finish my web copy and finish my SEO upgrades as I like to call them. Otherwise they'd be like, I'll get that. Not now. Which means possibly never.
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So if you guys jump in, you'll see April in there because she's still in. She's.
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C
I'm still in. She's.
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Which is okay. That's okay.
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Yeah.
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Yeah. And that's what I, you know, like I want people to get in and get it done.
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Right.
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But I recognize that sometimes life be life in. And you need extra time or extra support or you have extra questions. And that's, that's why I offered that continued coaching, you know?
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C
Yeah.
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How long do you think it would have taken you to figure everything out on your own without ssf?
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C
I wouldn't have, I would, I wouldn't have figured it out. So I, I really think that I would still be invisible and all of my clients would be word of mouth and nobody would have organically found me.
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A
Let's chat. Roi. I actually made April do math before this call. I was like, april, have you done any math? She's like, oh, no,
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because.
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Because the math brain and the, you know, the artist brain, it's. Okay. Exactly. So you don't have to share numbers, but you. You have at least you've about doubled back your investment. Is that correct?
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C
That is correct.
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Okay. You've about doubled back your investment.
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C
But if you want different numbers, which I'm just thinking about, I worked with eight different clients last year.
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A
Mm.
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C
I already have 10 different clients on my books.
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Wow.
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C
Yeah.
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And the year's not even half over.
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C
No.
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That's awesome.
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So that's. That includes completed projects for the first quarter. That's a number I can hold on to too.
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A
Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. That's exciting. So if somebody is listening to this and they are on the fence, what would you tell them?
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C
Do it. I really do think that if you're. If your brain's like me, you're never going to figure SEO out by yourself. You need help. I liked the. I like the way SSF is set up, even though it makes my brain bleed a little bit. The coaching calls are worth it. The coaching calls are worth it. Right there.
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A
Well, thank you, April. I appreciate it.
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C
Thank you.
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A
Well, why don't you tell everybody where they can find you?
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C
Okay.
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In case we have any. I'm sure I have some off listening.
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C
That's true. So I specialize in romance, specifically closed door, inspirational Christian romance, which if you
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like me and you don't know what that means. It means no bedroom scenes. That's what.
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C
Yes.
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No bedroom scenes. I didn't know. I didn't know.
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C
Think Hallmark. If Hallmark movies would make a movie out of it, I will edit it so they can find me@theditingsoprano.com. that's my website. I'm on Instagram at the editing Soprano. You can find me there most days. And of course, you can always email me through my website or DM me. That's fine too.
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A
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, April.
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C
You're welcome.
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All right, y'. All. And if you listen to that interview
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with April, if you listen to her story and you're like, man, I could
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really use results like that.
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Then hop into simple SEO framework and
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group guided program, y'. All. I'm taking you through it step by step.
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B
Like homework, due dates, turn it in, get it done. Whole nine yards, limited number of seats so that I can be all up in your business. Your business business, not your business business,
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A
and bring my copywriter and SEO strategy
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to the work that you're doing. Go on over to faith hannon.com/framework. The sale ends May 5th and we are jumping right into it with this live cohort so you don't want to miss it.
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I'm excited to help you grow your
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business and get more sales from your website and the content that you're already trying to create. So faith Hannah.com framework and we'll chat with you soon.
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A
Bye.
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B
Thank you much. So thank you so much for listening in today. Hopefully this episode gave you some really tangible tips for better SEO and marketing to get more leads and more sales from your website. If it did, can I ask you a quick favor? Would you please share this episode with a friend and then just take 10 seconds and go leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. That is the very best way to help more Jesus loving entrepreneurs scale their businesses so that they can help more people with their gifts and make an even bigger impact for the Kingdom of God. And guess what? We now have a Facebook community where we can learn, hang out and laugh. Go join the Facebook group now. It's linked in the show notes and all the other things, courses, coaching and copywriting can be found at my website faith hannon.com until next time. God bless and I'll talk to you soon.