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Verbatim text
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Welcome to the Agency Trailblazer Podcast. This is an Agency Life episode coming to you every Wednesday Friday, where we interview an agency owner from around the world asking them the same questions because we’re all different, but we’re all the same. So let’s listen and learn from each other. Before we kick off the show, here is a word from our sponsor.
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Lee Matthew Jackson:
Hi, and welcome to another episode of hashtag agency life. This is Lee. And on today’s show, we have Tracey Ricard. How are you?
Tracey:
Yeah. Good. Thank you. How are you?
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I, I’m pretty good. A little bit sleepy because we have an Australian client, and I had to get up super early, which is okay. I normally am up at 5:30, but as it’s the end of their day, I I have to get up an extra hour early, and it’s kind of, it took its toll this morning. I’ve had 3 coffees. Oh. But this isn’t about me even though I’ve just spent the last minute, at least, moaning about myself. It’s about you, and we’re gonna learn all about your business. So thank you very much for coming on.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
You know the format. There’s a whole lot of questions we’re gonna hit you with. So are you
Tracey:
ready to rock and roll? Yes. I think so.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Ready as I’ll ever be. Brilliant. Okay. Well, first of all, could you tell us the name of
Tracey:
your business and what business you do? Tracey Ricard Digital Design. No? Web Design.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I like both. Both are equally good titles.
Tracey:
Thank you.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
No worries. And what is it you guys do?
Tracey:
I design and build custom themes on the WordPress platform. So I do lots of consultation with my clients in terms of what they really want and the functionality that they need, and then build it up on WordPress.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Brilliant. And is that themes that you code or is that themes that you’re using a framework for?
Tracey:
No. I code them.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I code them. And then design ways, do you I I love finding out how people do it because everyone does it in a very different way. Do you design the concepts in a graphic design application and then build, or do you design during the build?
Tracey:
Yeah. It’s all designed in Photoshop because
Lee Matthew Jackson:
we need
Tracey:
to get a handle on exactly what they want it to look like and and and, importantly, what they want it to do
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah.
Tracey:
And and what actions they want their clients to take. So there’s there’s quite a lot we need to consider at design stage. And then after they’ve signed that off, hopefully, without too many reviews, it goes on to the.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. I can I can hear you with regards to the revisions? We once got to revision 99, but that’s another story. Yeah. So if we were gonna have a massive birthday party, maybe a barbecue, invite all of our friends around, have some beers and all that jazz, when would we be celebrating your agency’s birthday and how old is it over the next year?
Tracey:
It’s it’s 12 years old, and it would be, August 28th. So the same day as today.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s insane. I I should have brought party poppers and everything. Absolutely. Happy birthday. That’s amazing. It’s also my mom’s birthday just so everybody knows.
Tracey:
Oh, brilliant. Thank you.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Happy birthday, mom.
Tracey:
Hi, mom. Oh, birthday,
Lee Matthew Jackson:
mom. Yeah. That’s awesome. Now then, let’s find out then about your business’ mission. It’s you, so we’re not gonna go into the team questions, etcetera. But, we’d really love to know, do you work in a particular industry or niche with your business?
Tracey:
No. I’ve tended to do a lot of holiday websites over the years because I suppose when I started, I started working for safari companies in Kenya, and I’ve got referrals then into other holiday companies. And I’ve just done a a website for ski chalets company in France. Brilliant. I’ve also done quite a lot of ecommerce now, but I tend to do everything. There’s nothing that I found that we can’t that we can’t do.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So so, really, I guess, is a big part of the decisions that you take on a project. You’ll do a project because it sounds exciting. You you’d love to be a part of that rather than necessarily sticking to one channel.
Tracey:
Yeah. No. Absolutely. It is it is how it sounds, and it it and it is, how prepared the client is. And as long as the client understands how much work they need to put into it, that’s a big factor as well because it’s not a one-sided thing as you probably know.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Absolutely.
Tracey:
So it’s all about client commitment, the excitement of the project, and whether I think it’s actually something that I could add value to.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. And they’re really important questions to ask anyone who’s watching. I would definitely recommend, you know, you wanna make sure that you’re gonna be happy working with this client and finding out all of that. What’s their commitment as financially, but it’s also their time and their understanding. Yeah. And equally, are you the right person for them as well? Do you add the value? So they’re really, really good pieces of advice. So thanks for sharing that. So thinking about your clients, the different sorts of clients you work with, what do you feel is the main problem that you solve for them?
Tracey:
It’s really people that can’t find an off the shelf solution to do what they want to do or they don’t want to find an off the shelf solution. There are a lot of you know, you can just set up a WordPress site in a heartbeat.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Mhmm.
Tracey:
But it’s actually, people need need more. They need to understand how to how their branding will fit in with everything, how we carry that message, and also how we get clients to do what they want them to do. So it’s not kind of something really that any of the people that I work with feel that they can do without, you know, some hand holding, really.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So it’s it’s taking them from something they could do themselves, but helping them understand that entire process, and getting people to do what it is that you’d need to do. Again, such such a valuable, subject that you’re heading to start any relationship with is what is it do you want to achieve, and what do you want the visitors to your site to do? So, again, fantastic. Alright. Well, let’s talk about marketing then. How do you generate leads? You’ve been rocking on now for 12 years. That’s incredible. Yeah. So how are you generating leads? And how has that changed, I guess, over the last 12 years if if it has at all?
Tracey:
I get I get quite good leads through Google, so I’m still quite lucky there. And the, referrals I get are good. And I also get now repeat, of course, because people that had, an HTML site 10 years ago Mhmm. Need, a more dynamic site today, and they also need to they want to edit their own content. That’s the massive thing, really. So it’s about giving the clients the right site for them that they can then look after because it’s there’s an ongoing cost of ownership that that we can eradicate. So it costs more upfront to get, a a site they can edit themselves, but ongoing, they save they save the money.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Absolutely. That’s awesome. And, I remember the first HTML sites I built, and the first time I then did a foray into content management systems, it was a French one called Dixit, which was d I x I t. Yeah. Then very quickly, I think within days, I after making a site live, I discovered WordPress, like, the very first version. In fact, I think it was the version before WordPress had forked into WordPress.
Tracey:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
And I was like, oh, no. This is perfect. This is exactly what I needed.
Tracey:
Yeah. Yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. Hashtag Geek. Yeah. Alright. So how do you measure success? And that doesn’t necessarily need to be in business. It could just generally be in life. But how do you measure success? What makes you feel satisfied or that you’ve achieved something?
Tracey:
Okay. Well, client feedback is massive, obviously. So that’s that’s probably my biggest measure for success in my business because if a client is prepared to write something down about how good their experience was, then that that is, you know, as good as it gets, really. And then in the real world, I go and, teach people about websites and social media and in in the context of their website. So their website being their central hub and how they can use that to drive traffic to come back to their website through social media, things like that. So the success there is when people actually go away and actually do it. Yeah. So so that that’s a really good measure.
Tracey:
And, Jo, I don’t know. In in life, just to be happy, that’s really, oh, that’s really, cliche.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I think we all wanna be, though. It’s true, isn’t it?
Tracey:
Yeah. Just if I have enough happy days, then I guess that’s a successful life, isn’t it? Yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
A a a good happy day, seeing clients actually action whatever you’ve taught them, see your clients get results, and obviously receive that or send feedback. I think they’re all really good, different kind of key touch points, aren’t they, in our daily or weekly life that help to feed that happiness tank? Because let’s face it, if you switch on the news, there is a whole load of negative news on there, and you can very quickly feel down.
Tracey:
I know. I know. It is really depressing at the moment. So yeah. So we have to yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I’ve had But I do lots of limited it.
Tracey:
I do lots of walking and Yeah. I, you know, get out and about as much as possible. So that all adds to it, really.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. Awesome. Alright. Well, let’s let’s go into confession time. It’s just me and you and a few 1,000 listeners. So, you know, we’re all good. Secret’s safe. What do you feel the biggest problem you have within your businesses?
Tracey:
Oh, god. Being able to stop. So I don’t stop early enough on time. That’s a massive problem. And because sometimes I don’t do that, I get I can get to feel that I really need more time out. So if I stopped at 5 o’clock and started at 8:30 in in real terms, then I could probably work a lot more weeks before me feeling the need to take breaks. So it’s kind of that’s the self defeating thing. You just got to stop at the right time.
Tracey:
So that’s my biggest problem. I suppose, no. I can’t I can’t think of any other. I did actually consider this question, and I did try to write down some, but that was the immediate thing that came came to my head is that
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So it’s the best to go with the gut, I think. Yeah. And that’s clearly big. It’s something I think we all struggle with, a lot of the time. What we’ve done, it may or may not help, I think I mentioned it on another Agency Life recently as well, is we’ve set our hours from 8 till 4, and we’re being really strict with ourselves with regards to 4 o’clock is the finish point.
Tracey:
Yeah. We
Lee Matthew Jackson:
don’t open emails, and we walk away from our desks. No. No. Kinda helps train our brains, get stuff done 44. If I think that I can just keep working until I’m done
Tracey:
I know.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. Take my time. So it may or may not help. Everyone’s wired differently, aren’t they? But that’s up to me at least. Just give myself that invisible Yeah. Rule that, well, self enforced rule that I’ve gotta be finished at 4 and then I’m, you know, go go and get a beer or whatever and chill out. Although, I can’t do that every single night because then I’ll never lose the weight. So
Tracey:
But I’m being being a freelancer as well. I used to just think that I had to take every job that came along, and that’s also a mistake because there’s always a better one behind it. Absolutely. I’ve learned that. That was a big problem for me, but I’ve learned that now to to get the right job for you and the one that you fit best as well. So yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Really true. Really true. I’ll echo that, for every either horrible client that we fired or job that we’ve said no to, there’s always been something better around the corner, both financially and just generally nicer people as well. And you’re a nice person. I know you like to work with nice people as well. So I can tell. We have each other clocked. Well, let’s talk about well-being because I think you have just confessed that you struggle with this one.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
And I was gonna ask you, how do you switch off? It sounds like you do struggle, but when you manage to, what do you do out of hours to kind of just chill out?
Tracey:
Okay. We I go walking. I get out because I work from home. It’s really important to get out and do a lot of walking. We’ve got a dog, and, I also enjoy kayaking. And we live we now live back near the sea again, so that’s that’s great. So we get involved in sailing and all all the things that we used to do before. So that that I find, is great because it’s actually away from here, but the key to, winding down well-being is I have to do it away.
Tracey:
I have to go away from home. But, yes, of course, I can spend time at home relaxing, and shut the office door, but, really, the best for me is to get out and go and do something somewhere else.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I’ve definitely found we’re we’re in between offices at the moment because the new place we’re having is having some work done to it. Yeah. So we’ve been working from home, and I’m definitely finding that kind of feeling of, I can’t quite escape the workplace. The office is there. It’s at the back of the room. It’s very tempting to go do something or check email. Or looking at the office door as I walk past it kind of reminds me of something about work. So I I totally get you.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Just escaping from the house is
Tracey:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s the biggest thing.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Freedom. Yeah.
Tracey:
But we do some we do some really nice things. We walked around the New Forest for 3 hours yesterday, which was Cool. Yeah. We have some nice days, and that’s important, I think. Yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
There was a a book, really old book. Is it Children of the New Forest?
Tracey:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Loved that book as a kid. It was, like, so magical to me. And Yeah. Would love to travel back in time and, like, go back to the New Forest then.
Tracey:
Yeah. Yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Completely off topic, but just kind of reminded me of that. And it took you right back to 11 years old.
Tracey:
Yeah. It was wonderful. I mean and that they were that was a place we holiday when I was kids. So yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So I’ll
Tracey:
still go, but I’ve been going back there for so many years. I won’t tell you. But yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. Well, yeah, at least 20 years then. So, well, folks, completely off topic. You you don’t have to be a child to read it. Children of the New Forest. It’s just a great read. Yeah. It’s really, really nice.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So, yeah, I I I recommend sharing that. And, also, if you’re in the UK, go ahead and check that area of the country out. It’s beautiful. So Yeah. And we’ve just had a run of amazing weather.
Tracey:
Yes.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So mind you, it’s beautiful, I think, any weather. We’re Brits. We’re kinda used to the rain. We don’t really care, do we? We just
Tracey:
get our No. We can still operate when it rains, thankfully. Because, well, that’s a good thing.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Exactly. Well, I think you’ve already alluded to this, because you you go out quite a lot with regards to walks and that. But, how do you stay healthy? Is it the walks and the sailing, etcetera?
Tracey:
Yeah. Loads of Mediterranean food. We eat really nice food.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Really?
Tracey:
Very healthy food. And I used to I’m I love cake. Okay. I’m an absolutely cake person, but I have to keep that to once a week if if that.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Once a week. Wow. Yeah.
Tracey:
I’m quite good now. But I actually you know, I used to look at people who eat brown rice and brown pasta and think, oh god. How can you? And now I that’s all I eat. I love brown rice, and we just yeah. Totally Mediterranean food. Wonderful. And, yeah, lots of exercise.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Do you mind describing to me then maybe 1 or 2 of your favorite Mediterranean dishes? Oh. So cool. Just just so we can get an insight into your kind of your healthy eating because I think a lot of us have got a really warped concept of what healthy eating
Tracey:
is. Okay. So, we we would have, some chicken in maybe in a kebab format, not actually on a stick, but, cooked in a kebab style, perhaps a stir fry format, but with very little olive oil. We’ll go for some Mediterranean roasted vegetables on the same plate and some brown rice on the same plate, and that is lush. Wow. Really tasty. Okay.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So not lots of olives then. That’s a good thing.
Tracey:
No. No. And then we, let me think of another one. I don’t I’m not a big fan of pasta.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Mhmm.
Tracey:
But, I also enjoy risotto type meals.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Oh, yeah. As you
Tracey:
probably gathered, I love rice. I also, we enjoy fish, lots of fish, sardines, things like that. So, yeah, so we do do have yeah. It’s just great. It’s just lovely food.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I’m now starving. I wish I hadn’t asked the question. Yeah.
Tracey:
Yeah. I do. I like it. I like something on the plate to have some flavor and some spicy in the rest of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So good. I I love cooking. And yesterday was it yesterday or the day before, I switched up the recipe a bit. I kinda make my own recipes up, and we made a a vegetarian cottage pie, but with sweet potato as the Oh, wow. As the topping, and it was absolutely phenomenal, if I say so myself. Yeah. Because I love my veggies. I do like my pasta and my rice as well.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
But, yeah, my veggies are are great. My problem is is we do eat healthy, but I don’t actually get out enough. Like, the physical activity going out for lots of walks in that 3 hours in the New Forest, that’s that would probably happen once a blue moon in my life. Yeah. So I really need to get my butt out there and and do
Tracey:
some sort of exercise. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. It’s a shame. Oh, Definitely. No.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
It’s a shame.
Tracey:
Oh, no. No. I’m
Lee Matthew Jackson:
not trying to.
Tracey:
I’m not trying to. But, hey, I I like a Cornish pasty every now and again as much as the next person.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Hallelujah.
Tracey:
Yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Right. Well, we’re coming into land. We’ve just, helped everybody change their diet. So, you know, we could probably become those online health experts or something, couldn’t we, you know? So let’s try that next time. But, this is the oh, I’m knocking my microphone. This is my last question. And if you could name one tool that you feel has, been essential to your success, then what would it be and why?
Tracey:
I have to have to say WordPress. I have to say WordPress. That’s right. I’ve loads I’ve I’ve never I’ve never come across a problem I couldn’t fix with WordPress, which is amazing and or a requirement that we couldn’t meet, and it’s flexible, scalable. You know, everything they say it is, but it is. And, yeah, without that, I wouldn’t have my business. That’s for sure.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Absolutely agreed. I can’t imagine operating on a Drupal model or any other platform.
Tracey:
That once.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Once.
Tracey:
But, yeah. Yeah. I’m glad I found WordPress. Let’s just leave that one there.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Well, that’s fine. I mean, let’s just quickly unpack that a little bit because we’ve got a little bit more time. But, would it be what’s the most beneficial to you in the WordPress air kind of ecosystem? Is it the availability of, say, premium plugins or, great plugins that are very flexible, or is it more the availability of other people’s brain resource? Because everybody shares so much on the Internet, so we’ve got kind of 2 major advantages. Which one do you think appeals to you the most?
Tracey:
I think, the availability of people’s brain resources has been invaluable over the years, but I think probably for me, actually, the biggest thing is the is the user, the ability for users to just pick it up and run with it,
Lee Matthew Jackson:
which
Tracey:
is fantastic fantastic because if you’ve got I mean, you know, for clients that collect come to you and say that they’re, technophobes to then find them be adding their own posts and all the other stuff that goes with it is just so rewarding. So I think that that element of it, the user friendliness of it is is is a huge thing. I know. And Gutenberg, I’m not sure about at the moment. I’ve tried that a few times. So I’m I’m kind of thinking I’m not quite seeing what that’s bringing yet, but I’m sure we will.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I have an opinion. Yes. I’ll share it if you want me to.
Tracey:
Yes.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Okay. So, Gutenberg is probably okay. Yeah. There is the classic editor anyway people can turn on temporarily, and I think they’re gonna support that, from what I can tell from their information probably for a few years. So Yes. Not the end of the world yet. Gutenberg really is just, it’s not a page builder. People think it is, and I thought it was.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I think I’ve worked it out. I think what it is, it’s it’s meant to be, a a a replacement editor which allows people to structure their content Yeah. In a format. So that means we, as the developers, can still make it look however we want to in the front end. Yeah. And and Gutenberg is just help to help the client kind of understand, alright. This is this section, and this is my call to action. Yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
This is my image. So I think that’s what it’s trying to achieve. Yeah. I do like it personally, but I am concerned. I think you are I’m guessing you are as well.
Tracey:
The user.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Clients. Yeah. Exactly.
Tracey:
And I think that, I’m not sure we’re in a world where people have used Microsoft Word for years where they build things in a document in one frame effectively. So to take people away from from one frame to me is is kind of going against the grain a bit, but we’ll see. I’m not closed minded, and WordPress is fantastic, but we’ll we’ll see what happens.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. I I’m I’m with you. So I think it’s brilliant, the the structure of it. I am very concerned about client. Yeah. Onboarding clients and will it make make it more complicated or not. But I’m also relieved they’re gonna support the classic editor for some time. And like you, we had a conversation inside of the, Facebook group just the other day where we were saying clients are used to Microsoft Word.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
They’re used to Word documents. They know how to highlight text, press enter, do all that sort of stuff. So this is kind of a a big leap for them. So, hey,
Tracey:
let’s see.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Watch this space.
Tracey:
Yes. Well
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. Thank you. It’s been brilliant. I’ve loved chatting with you. I now feel starving, so I’m probably gonna have to make some food.
Tracey:
No. I’ve enjoyed it. Thank you. That that was great, actually.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Awesome. Well, how can people connect with you and then we shall say goodbye?
Tracey:
Okay. Go by my website, https://traceyrickard.co.uk/.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Awesome. Thank you, Tracey, and have a wonderful day.
Tracey:
Yeah. Thank you, And. Bye. Bye.
