Choosing the Right Business Model for Entrepreneurs with Chronic Illness with Cinthia Pacheco

I am so excited to have Cinthia on the show. I'm excited because we just literally recorded a podcast episode for her show, and it never usually happens where it lines up, where it happens, like, in the same week. So I'm excited for you to share with my audience who you are, what you do, and we'll just jump into our conversation.

00:00:39 - Cinthia
Yeah. So my name is Cinthia Pacheco. I'm an SEO expert. I founded Digital Bloom IQ, and I specialize in health and wellness SEO. So search marketing, and our mission is to heal more of the world by helping our clients get found in Google. So that's what I do. I'm also a mom, dog mom, human mom, and, yeah, I'm Argentine, Canadian, and the little fun fact there. But, yeah, I'm excited for the show. Yeah, I love your show. I think it's so important. So I'm excited to get into it.

00:01:18 - Nikita Williams
Yeah, I am excited to talk with you because we were just talking right before we started recording. You haven't done a show in a while where it's personal. Like, how did we get here, and how has it affected your life? So why is your mission to help the health world get found on social media? Like, what led you to this path?

00:01:39 - Cinthia
Yeah, so with a lot of this stuff is just, like, I've had my own personal experience. So I have chronic illness, polycystic ovarian syndrome. I've had just different journeys around mental health. We can get into that. And I found the Internet really helpful. Right. Especially with something like PCOS. For a woman, it can be a very shame provoking type of chronic illness because it changes how you view your body, and it's hard to talk to maybe your family or people around you about it. And so when you find these resources online and you find medical professionals, holistic, professionals who are passionate about it, and then other people who are also doing what you're doing and going through it, it just changes how you view yourself. And so for us at Digital Bloom IQ, helping our clients get found is so important. And I feel like a lot of health and wellness people just they can't market themselves. They struggle with their own marketing, and they struggle with doing SEO because it can feel very techy. So that's kind of like the story, a little bit of the story behind the mission.

00:03:00 - Nikita Williams
Yeah. I think what you said, because there's so much information right. Like, on Google, if you put that like, I feel like when I put things in, even for myself, usually a health coach doesn't pop up first. It's like all of these other things, right? And especially if I'm looking more locationally for someone who is a specialist in that. It definitely and back in 2017, when I was diagnosed with endometriosis, that was like, what is that on the Internet? What is that?

00:03:31 - Cinthia
What is that?

00:03:32 - Nikita Williams
Have you experienced with your own personal journey of managing with PCOS? Has your mental health been more affected because of that journey? That drama journey, I like to call it.

00:03:50 - Cinthia
Yeah. I mean, I remember in university, going to the library and looking for books on PCOS. I've been always obsessed with taking control or taking ownership of my own health, especially for those of us who have chronic illness. It's not like you're just healed, right? And that's so hard to accept that this is just something that you're going to for your life is just part of your life. So part of the mindset and the mental health, like you mentioned, is accepting. Like, this is part of your organism, part of your body, part of your mind. And once you accept that and you almost embrace it, it actually kind of becomes easier in many ways because you can take ownership of the lifestyle changes that are really kind of permanent, right, going forward or adapt. I absolutely feel like PCOS and endometriosis have a lot to do with mental health because it impacts our hormones. And so our hormones are connected with our emotions. And if you don't know that, right, if you don't have someone who's helping you understand that, you think you're going crazy, but it's literally a hormonal thing. And so you could go see the best therapist in the world, but if you're not also working on balancing your hormones, then you're not going to be able to complement that mental health side. So, yeah, it's a little bit can turn into a vicious cycle if you're not really careful about how you're taking care of yourself and just, like, educating yourself of what your body needs.

00:05:27 - Nikita Williams
Yeah. What are some of the things for you when you decided to start this SEO digital marketing agency kind of deal? Were you doing something else before that? Or was this kind of like a thing you kind of fell into? What made you decide to come and go down this lane, especially in SEO, of all the digital marketing? Even when I dabbled in digital marketing, somebody was like, you should do SEO. I was like, no, I shouldn't, because that is a whole nother beast. It takes a very special brain for it. So why SEL? Why was this business the vehicle for you to find more freedom in your lifestyle?

00:06:12 - Cinthia
Yeah, so starting my business, I was coming off of a corporate job that was very stressful, long hours. And so that definitely was impacting my health. And I had a friend who had started to dabble in copywriting for smaller businesses, and she kind of opened up this entrepreneurial women entrepreneur world. I was fascinated because the women who I found there and I was talking to they were just kind of living a completely different life, to be honest. And I could definitely see how that would I mean, I was interested in the impact. I was interested in kind of being part of that world. But I could also see how from a health perspective, choosing your own hours, being able to travel and work a little bit, or just randomly take time off, right, and just not literally work less hours and have no limit in terms of financial reward and all that, that was very attractive. So that's kind of how I got started. I actually didn't start with SEO. My corporate job was web analytics. And so I started on the small business landscape doing Google Analytics analysis, reporting, and setup. But I quickly well, quickly it took a few years, I realized that for a small business to really invest in Google Analytics, they needed to be in a different headspace, right? Because as a small to medium sized business, there's so many things we can invest in. So I pivoted to SEO, which complemented the Google Analytics skills, and SEO had a much more direct return on investment for these types of businesses. And SEO is to me, it's fascinating, it drives my clients crazy, but I love it. I love it because it's got like a psychology element. It's got a technical element, which I have because I know how to code and I have that coding nerd background. But then it's got a very human element where you want to be thinking about why does someone search this and what kind of content are they expecting? And especially with health and know what is Google looking for to rank and to see you as a professional. So SEO just wasn't planned. It kind of happened as I started just with my own business, and I realized if I wanted to really impact this space, I needed to provide a service that was impactful. Right? And so I shifted and it's been great.

00:08:57 - Nikita Williams
Well, I think what you said about like, yeah, it wasn't first starting there. I think you do have to have a passion for mean. You really do. Because it is like, I feel like that for people who do Facebook ads and Instagram ads. When I talk to them, I'm like, I have done them. And the way they get lit up about like even how you just got lit up of talking about SEO and how all of these facets of it, I'm over here sitting like, kill me now, please don't make me have to try to figure that, right?

00:09:30 - Cinthia
Don't make me do it.

00:09:31 - Nikita Williams
That's probably exactly why you're so good at it. And also why it feels like easy in the sense of you could do it at your flow of however you want to do it. How important do you think it is for especially those living with chronic illness to decide on a business model and a product or service that really actually is exciting for them.

00:09:55 - Cinthia
Yeah. And I want to be clear, there are parts of SEO that feel very heavy to me, and that's why I have a team. And there have been stages, and there still are stages of a business where there's a skill or a task or something where I know eventually I don't want to be doing that. But I understand. And that can be such a relief because especially when you're starting, but even down the line, you can feel kind of guilty that you don't do certain areas of your business. Even with SEO. I don't really like some of the technical aspects. I understand them, but that's not where my genius lies. So I have a web developer, I have a technical person on my team, and I've made peace with that because I serve my clients better incorporating that person. So I just want to be clear, like, my vision is an agency vision, especially with something like SEO. So I guess the nugget of wisdom there is you can be passionate about something, but it's totally okay if you need help, right, to fulfill that passion, especially if you're doing I mean, all our businesses just have different layers and different areas. And it could even be like, for me, I love speaking on podcasts and I love public speaking. And so more and more, I'm actually trying to move away from the client execution side of the business as well. And that can bring up fears too, because it's like, well, I'm not actually doing SEO, but I'm still an SEO expert. How does that work anyway? That's important because that can easily lead to burnout. Like, you're trying to do all the things, you're trying to have all your hands in all the cookie jars and you're not helping your clients, right?

00:11:46 - Nikita Williams
Yeah, I really love that you said that, and I'm glad because that's kind of where I was going to come back around to, because I was recording another episode yesterday with someone else. And I feel like this industry of entrepreneurship, we have to start normalizing. Like, yeah, you can have a passion and enjoy something, but there's also the parts of it that you're not going to enjoy and that you can't wait to the day. You can have a team member or someone do it for you while still delivering on the things that you really enjoy in your business. So I really appreciate you saying that, because I really think and you let me know. I feel like people, when we start entrepreneurship, all we see, especially a lot of times on social media and even sometimes on podcast episodes, where it's like, all of these glitz and glam and everything's wonderful and unicorns and blessings all around. And you're like, yeah, but I've been doing this and feeling like I'm clawing my way and it's like, can we be real for a second?

00:12:48 - Cinthia
Yeah, I know my clients I know what needs to get done at this stage, I'm transitioning to more of the team. So maybe someone listening is in that right now or they're getting ready or they're past it. I know everything that needs to happen. So if an email doesn't go out or there's a client deliverable, I will stay up and I will do it. I trust myself enough to do that, but I'm leaning more and more into the systems and processes so that I can trust my team. Right. And I can trust them to resolve the problems. And I can also lean into what I'm meant to do at this point or what I feel the most lit up by. Right. And at the end of the day, I see how me doing that ends up. We provide a better service, our clients are happy, things go faster, things grow faster, but it can be hard to let go. It's like your little baby.

00:13:50 - Nikita Williams
Yeah, I think that's a real thing. Like your baby. I don't know, maybe it's because I've just been around at this point. I am to the point where I'm like, please take it. All of the stuff I don't want to do, I'm good. I'm good. If you do it, I'm good. If anybody wants to take it and do it, I can just do the thing I really enjoy doing, which is like, interviewing people on the podcast and coaching. That's all I ever want to do when it comes to Cinthia. What has been some fears? Because you've been doing this for a while, so what has been some beginning fears? You know how they always say new level, new devil. What was the first inklings of fears? And then as you're growing and I think you've kind of hit on it, but how have other fears transformed to being something you never thought or didn't even think it was going to be?

00:14:40 - Cinthia
Yeah, so when you have your own business, it's you, right? It's just you. You're the one on the sales call, you're the one delivering, you're the one everything. And so because you see all these sides of the business sometimes at the beginning, I found it hard to sell and then also just really value that selling. Right. Because being a salesperson is different than the person who executes. Right. Just like mentally. So just the mindset of valuing my own skills right from the beginning. And this I would say for everybody, you already have something to deliver to give. You don't need to wait. Right. Even if you're a coach, I feel like you can start charging from the beginning. I don't know if that's controversial, but.

00:15:26 - Nikita Williams
We'Re going to come back to that in a second.

00:15:28 - Cinthia
But yes, don't wait. So many people are waiting with their certifications, blah, blah, blah. It's like, no, you have something to give now. Start charging now. Whatever kind of feels you have to find that line of like this is slightly uncomfortable and also slightly exciting for me to receive this number. So that was a big mindset thing. All the money mindset, I really have had to work on that over the years of going up on my prices, trusting myself with that, and trusting that the right clients would find me with those prices. And then the other fear, that new devil, it's ongoing. I'd say the devil for me is like the same fear, but it kind of like hulks up over time. It's the same fear. So for me, it's always like, I don't know enough. Especially with SEO, things change so fast. It doesn't change dramatically, but there's like some shifts. And so I'm always scared that I won't be able to provide enough of an impact to really help my clients. And again, that's been something I've worked on. And I feel like I've made a lot of progress because again, I realize that if a client hires me, they're already doing better than yesterday, right? So if a client hires me today, the fact that they hired me, that's an improvement. That means that they're already working on their SEO. The other thing that helped me a lot is I have a personality type to want to help others and just take responsibility for others. So I've had to work on reminding myself that clients hire me. And I'm a small cog in their wheel of their business, right? So I'm working for them. I'm on their team. But their success in their whole business is not dependent on me. And so over time, I've also worked on getting hired by clients who are already successful, who already believe in their business. They're not looking for validation. They already believe in SEO. They just need someone who's the right fit to execute it for them and then to work with them as a partner. So that's, again, helped me a lot. Take away that burden of feeling so responsible for everything. And we've all had those clients that kind of like throw their business on you, and you're like, wait a second, it's your business. I don't need to convince you of anything, right? Yeah. So I think whatever your mindset stuff, whatever you're working on, there's the internal work that you're doing, but then looking at what would be that ideal client, because the internal work was always going to be there. And I think you can shortcut a lot of the results you want by just focusing on what do you want next? And then just getting over your own issues.

00:18:26 - Nikita Williams
You're all like, our mindset mess. That's really what it is.

00:18:32 - Cinthia
Yeah, because it's never going to be perfect again. My fear is just going to hulk up, and there's always going to be something new. And I'll be like, oh, that's a version. That's a new angle on that. Then it's more about I'm sure you've experienced this too, like the skill of just getting faster around how you look at a fear, how you have a relationship with it, even can just speed things up in many ways.

00:19:00 - Nikita Williams
Yeah, you said that beautiful. I'm going to have to keep that in mind, how you just said that. This is what I always tell people, especially when they're wanting to work with a mindset or like a business coach who focuses on mindset, and they're like, when are you ever done? I'm like, that's a hard question to answer because I feel like there's always I love the illustration of Hulks. You really don't know how deep sometimes those mindset dramas are until you get to a different level and you're like, oh, my goodness, this is hitting in a place that I never would have even imagined. Because you never experienced it or you've never gotten to that piece of growth in your journey. And the point, though, is having the tools to deal with them faster. Right, exactly. I love that you shared that. But I do want to go back to something you said about charging when you're just starting out, especially, I feel like even more so in an industry where so many people I was just listening to something yesterday, and was saying, like five and a half million people here in the United States alone have started up a business, and most of them are coming from corporate. And so all these people who may be coming from corporate who want to start and might like, let's say 1% of them want to be coaches and health coaches at that, and you're wanting to give your services away for free.

00:20:20 - Cinthia
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Right?

00:20:24 - Nikita Williams
Like, stop. So I love to hear your take on that.

00:20:33 - Cinthia
Yeah, it's just so frustrating because it's not even thinking about this as a concept. I know. I was just thinking of women in my life. This, for me, is a woman issue. A woman issue?

00:20:47 - Nikita Williams
100%. Yeah.

00:20:49 - Cinthia
The women in my life who have so many gifts, they're so talented, they do their work so well. They've got the biggest hearts ever, and they don't know how to value their gifts, and they struggle with that part of charging. Right. And not even the selling, just like putting a price tag on it. Right? Yeah. Because the selling is like a whole other conversation. Right. But just like valuing this, I have this friend, just to give an example, who she's just amazing at organizing things, and we have just, like a big mess in our kitchen, like stuff piled and people who just know how to put the dish use often in the corner, blah, blah, blah. And it's the stuff I hate doing. So I'm like, okay, I'll pay you. Come to my house an afternoon. I know this is a very not businessy example, but just like those simple things where it's like, she could charge me, it could be great, and I would love to pay her, but there's so much there. So I would say my advice is one thing that's helped me a lot is to think about this as if you're talking to a friend and seeing her gifts, because for some reason, it's so much easier sometimes to see the other person's gifts and to see how fabulous they are. And so sometimes when you start to look at yourself in that way and even might sound kind of cheesy, but writing kind of like a letter to yourself or trying to stimulate that, like, okay, how can I have a conversation with myself about this? Can help you see, oh, I could charge a little bit for this, or something symbolic, right. But this is so important because when you start charging for your work and there's a money exchange, the transformation, if we're talking about coaches, but any type of service is immediate, right? So you pay someone. We've all had that experience. We immediately feel that change, right? We immediately feel like something has changed in our life because money is energy. So there's so much work to do in that area, just like money mindset. And I've had my own journey with that. But I would say, yeah, sometimes it helps to look at other people who are doing what you want to do. Compare, but in a positive way of like, okay, she's charging this. Why don't I charge? I wouldn't say that should be a long term strategy, but we're human, right? So sometimes when you see someone else who's living that dream or getting started, it can be helpful to be like, okay, if she can do it, why not me? Right? Why not me?

00:23:37 - Nikita Williams
Yeah, for you. You said if you were to name one, I feel like you're kind of beating around the bus, but I'm going to try to see if I get called out. Love it when you're like you've been working on that's something you've had to work on specifically, money mindset. But what is the specificness of the money mindset? Because here's what I think. We talk a lot about money mindset often. I hear it all the time, but nobody really talks about the thing. The specific thing for me, even when I talk about money mindset, my thing has always been feeling like, am I charging too much? Because I'm trying to appear like a certain level when the value or the service or whatever the case may be is not really there yet. I haven't gotten to that transformation, even though technically in my brain, I have been I've got the certifications to prove it, but in my mind, it comes from that place, like, am I actually good enough? Am I good enough? That's my money mindset. It always comes down to that part of the thought, right. And so I hear people talk about money mindset, but I don't hear people go down to like, but really, what is the thought behind you're not charging? What's the thought you're not charging enough.

00:25:00 - Cinthia
It's tangled. It's so tangled, nikita there's so many. I think that's why it's hard to untangle it because there's the am I worthy? It comes down to our worth. But then there's also this thought of I'm ungrateful. There's a lot of this goodness sort of thing of like, I'm ungrateful or I'm not a good person if I'm expensive, if I'm like a nice brand like a Starbucks or whatever, if I'm charging over, whatever the standard, I'm being bad. And then I think for me, and again, for me, there's a lot of women. We're very community focused. We're family focused in many cases. So we worry about what other people will think, what will they say. Even the people who are so supportive of us, who want the best for us, who our partners, our families, our moms, our dads, whatever, those end up being like our worst enemies in many cases because they don't mean it. They just don't mean it. But they don't know what I've had to focus on. You know how, like the horses they put, like the racehorses they put the blinders on.

00:26:16 - Nikita Williams
Yeah.

00:26:17 - Cinthia
That's what I've had to do with the most loving, the most caring people in my life. I've had to do that because they don't see my potential. That's not their responsibility. They see my potential. They have their vision, right? Because they care and they want me to be successful. But the person who's responsible for really reaching there and getting to that or whatever that vision is, is me. And sometimes to get to that, you need to put the blinders on. You need to absolutely ignore whatever you need to do, like put the headset on, get out of the house, follow women, follow people who are doing it, who are going to really tell you and say the things that are going to help you and just ignore everything else because no one knows your potential but you. And it can just be hard because we think others think they're supporting us and we think they're supporting us, but sometimes there can be some holding back, especially with money, because it's tangled. Like, there's so many emotions, there's so much not to get cliche, but like society, movies, all the things, it's all kind of against us, unfortunately.

00:27:34 - Nikita Williams
Yeah, I agree with you. Cinthia about a year or two ago, I had someone come into when I was having my group, we were doing like a whole money mindset things.

00:27:45 - Cinthia
Yes.

00:27:46 - Nikita Williams
And some of the questions that they were asking, I was like my brain was blown up just being like, whoa, whoa. I didn't even realize how deep it had gone. So much it had gone. And it really was like, if you work with coaches, if you're around coaches, if you're around anyone who's in any personal development, the moment you become aware of it, you become really aware of how tingle like you're saying, it really is because you're like Dang even outside of business is like how I feel about buying them shoes is all wrapped up in this too. Like how I feel about toothpaste.

00:28:27 - Cinthia
Because we need to use money every day, right? Money isn't like it's every single day. And so if you're not paying attention to your thoughts and your beliefs and if you're not willing to shift that because the truth is it's easier to keep thinking how you've been thinking now. And it's scary because it's not just about you, it's about everybody. But I will say it's worth it. I will say that there are so many examples now of women who are doing that and at the same time, it's like, on one hand it seems impossible, but the other side, it's like, this is inevitable. This is inevitable. Like this goal, this whatever the vision is, it's like, of course I'm going to get there because that's what I see. This is the options I see available to me. Why wouldn't I get there, right? So I think that's the best investment you can make. One of the best investments that I've made in my business has been money mindset, coaching money courses, obviously hiring an accountant, like the practical side, but the brain stuff. Oh my goodness.

00:29:36 - Nikita Williams
Yeah. And I don't know, here in the States, we deal with a lot of, especially when it comes to healthcare. I always am curious to hear how has that affected your mindset around money and in your business? Because here in the States, getting the kind of support we need for chronic illness, I mean, the bills, that's a trigger for most of my clients. We're like, yeah, I've got so many bills that it's kind of like, yeah, whatever.

00:30:03 - Cinthia
It's just a funny I call it.

00:30:05 - Nikita Williams
The funny pile at this point. It's like, it's a funny pile. What are we going to do? And so I, for me personally have found that over the years, I've had to learn to have a different relationship with my chronic illness medical bills because it can start adding all these thoughts on your worth and your ability to perform and all those different things where that's complete has nothing to do with my business. It's just the matter of fact of having chronic illness and what happens. So the thing is, our business gives us the vehicle to at some point take care of those things in a more flexible way than if we were to work sometimes corporately. So I guess what I'm saying is, has living with chronic illness affected how you view money and how has it viewed how you run your business?

00:31:01 - Cinthia
So I live in Argentina and we have, I have to say, an excellent healthcare. It's two tier, it's very accessible. But anyway, it's a completely different situation than the US. And I don't want to get into the socioeconomic differences. However, I will say that I have had moments in my. Business where I did feel like my PCOS or just the mental health side has been like, a burden. Definitely either, because I can't work eight straight hours. I won't even say I can't even work with four straight hours right now. My eyeballs. So I've changed my perspective of like, no, that's actually normal for me. I used to be shamed. I felt shamed, like, oh, I should be able to work 40 hours weeks, or whatever. It's like, no, this is normal for me. Let's not even compare what the human standard, whatever. Because that could also be a whole conversation of what is the actual but then it's like, well, what if we just focus on Cinthia? What if I just worked less and made more money and that was actually more productive, more effective, more impactful? And so I've again had to switch my mind of like, no, my chronic illness is part of my life, and I get to take care of myself. And it doesn't have to be a limiting factor. Now I know depending on your chronic illness and depending on what stage you're at in it, it will feel maybe limiting at times. There might be I don't know. I've had friends who have chronic illness where they get like, migraines and stuff like that, right? And PCOS, you can have migraines, and it's just like you can take drugs to alleviate that, but you literally can't work. How can you design your business so that you could take those days off for again, instead of seeing it as a limiting thing, seeing it as like, this is the reality I'm creating, right? And this is how I'm healing myself. And the other thing I want to mention, that's not really chronic illness, but it's kind of related. So I've always struggled with numbers, and I think I've got some sort of Dyslexia. I've never gotten tested or anything, so that's not chronic illness. But I just struggle with numbers in general. And for a long time, I just made it mean, oh, I must be bad at numbers. I must be silly, stupid, whatever. And at the same time, I love data, I love analytics. I love looking at that. So how is that possible? So I've learned to separate things where it's like, who cares if I pull out my calculator? Who cares if I don't remember what the multiplier things are? I'm not an accountant. I don't want to be an accountant. So I think there's also skills, like we kind of talked about at the beginning. If you have a skill in your business that you're struggling with because of your chronic illness or because of whatever, you get to eventually hand that off. And in the meantime, if you're not there yet, you just get to either ask for help, take it slow, make a coffee or a tea, because I still do my bookkeeping, hoping to hand that off very soon. I just make it like, a ritual, and I've actually gotten better at it. I'm still super slow and I still make mistakes sometimes, but now it's kind of like a rite of passage. And I'm like, man, look at how much I've learned. And I feel so intimate with my numbers now. I still use my calculator all the time, but I've just found systems and structures to help me with that area, and so it's not a limiting factor at all because, again, I don't need to do everything to be successful. I just need to do the right things.

00:35:06 - Nikita Williams
I just got goosebumps. Oh, my gosh. That's like the epitome of what I want women to do when they work with me to get to that point of where they're like, yeah, this looks like a limit, but it doesn't have to be. It just means when you said, I get to, I tell my husband all the time, we talk about this kind of stuff, I'm like, well, what if you didn't have to? But you get to. Just making that shift from I have to is a complete different mind thing. It's a completely different feeling. Right. And so to say, oh, I get to be intimate with my numbers, or I get to for me, it's been email. I'm very much of a communicator. And my brain, when I start to type or write something, my brain goes way faster than I'm able to write or anything. And I do have a little Dyslexia, too, with letters. So for me, it used to be like this thing, like, I am horrible at a writer. I'm just a horrible writer, but in school I write in language arts and writing, and I'm like, when did I develop this narrative, right, that I'm just so horrible at this one thing? When it was just like that's where it became. Wherever that came from was probably when someone said something about it and called me out for it. And now I have this feeling about it. Right. And now I've learned, like, over the last few years, I've been working on that too. Like, well, I don't enjoy writing, but I actually enjoy it more when I put on a great playlist and I have my tea and I'm taking my time. So I love that you shared that, too, about you and your numbers. Like, making this thing that feels limited, accessible, and you get to it just changes the conversation in your mind completely. That was amazing.

00:37:00 - Cinthia
Yeah. I think you have to identify the tasks. Like, my bookkeeping has to happen one way or another, right? So I get to choose. Do I want to hire someone? Do I want to put this on a credit card? Do I want to do this for myself? And at this point, I look forward to it, but I know when I hand this off to a bookkeeper, I'm going to be so happy as well. So it's like those two parallel universes get to exist. And I mean, even with the SEO, like you said, you don't like writing. I struggle with I like writing. It's complicated. So what I've done in the past, and this has worked with me, or worked, is that I'll record episodes and then I have a tool like otter, for example, that will transcribe it. And then I've had a copywriter take that and make it a blog post. And then I'm the one who puts the cherry on top, goes in and does that final editing that I love doing. And I'm an SEO expert, so it's like some of you are like, oh, that's not real. It's like, doesn't matter. I don't need to like everything. Why would I like everything? Right? My time is best spent in other ways. And how I guide myself with that is like, where do I get my energy back? Right? Yes, that's your guiding factor. If I feel drained after something that goes on the list of things I'm going to hand job, I feel reenergized that goes on the list, and that list will change over time. So it's like something you just have to be always looking at and paying attention to.

00:38:39 - Nikita Williams
Yeah, I love that so much. So let's shift gears a little bit. Let's talk about SEO for a second. For all of those folks out there who are, let's say they're service based entrepreneurs, what is one of the most important aspects if they want to use SEO in their business to help them grow that they should start looking or paying attention to right now.

00:39:06 - Cinthia
Yeah, so I would say understanding the foundations around keyword research and how keywords work. So keywords are phrases or words and phrases that we are trying to rank for in Google. Something like anxiety, OCD, and anxiety, for example. So there's someone who's ranking for that right now. And so understanding the concept of how to use that phrase, OCD and anxiety in your blog, in your website, so that you start appearing for that. So understanding that foundation is a great place to get started, because once you understand that that's one area of SEO, you can again decide, do I want to hand this off? Is there a process that I could already integrate with this information? Like, do I have a VA who's writing social media posts? Could she round up five Instagram posts that are already written and then recycle that into a blog post and maybe target a keyword? Right, so, yeah, that's one area that I tell a lot of people to get started in, because it's easier to understand than other areas of SEO, like technical or backlinking that just require a little bit it's not impossible, but it's just a little bit more technical. Right, and so for some people, their eyes kind of glaze over.

00:40:37 - Nikita Williams
What are you talking about? Yeah, I'm looking at you. Yeah, she's probably looking at me right now because I'm like, already. Like, okay, that sounds great. I mean, I do think it's really important. I have a client, she's actually based in Tampa, and she is a destination wedding photographer, and she has a marketing background in SEO, and she does that, as she calls her, the job that pays for her dream job, which is destination photography.

00:41:08 - Cinthia
Right.

00:41:09 - Nikita Williams
And she's amazing at it. Last year, she really focused, and we created a plan together to figure out how she can and blogging has been literally how she has scaled from around $3,000 a month to, like, ten and 20K months because of just solely SEO on her blog. And, I mean, honestly, I feel like photographers are in my personal opinion, that's probably one of the easier things to use SEO for photographers. It's like a really dream little place to be, but I definitely understand. She always explains to me about the keywords and how they're important, and I'm just listening to her. I'm like, yeah, so great. That's wonderful you're doing this. I'm like, okay, so let's talk about some mindset. Social media, it's just like, not but I have seen the power of it, definitely.

00:42:02 - Cinthia
Yeah. And for chronic illness, we talked about this on our episode, is if you look at other marketing options like Instagram and social media, it just requires a different rhythm. It's not good or bad, it's just different. And so if you have a chronic illness where you do have mood swings or you just have cycles of, like, you can't work something like complementing your social media strategy to something like SEO can be really nice because you can still have leads come in. You can still have sales come in. If you have like, a funnel or something like that, you can kind of be making money consistently, just have that base income every month that are coming from people who are already searching for what you want on Google. So that's one of the reasons also why SEO has you know, how you feel like your job chooses you. I feel like like I chose SEO, but it chose me too, because I'm on my own journey of my own SEO, of like, how can I just automate this? And I'm not saying it doesn't require any effort that doesn't exist, but just like this thought of like, okay, I've set something up, and then I kind of let it simmer for three to six months, and those sales are just kind of coming in, and then I'm tweaking it, and I'm growing it, and I'm playing around with different things. So can be fun for that.

00:43:24 - Nikita Williams
I wanted to ask this question because I thought about this when we were talking in our chat, and I was like, have you found, like, for SEO? Does podcasting support SEO in a way that is, how would someone go about incorporating SEO with their podcast?

00:43:41 - Cinthia
Yeah, so having show notes on your website just sounds very basic. But I know a lot of you listening don't do that. And I didn't do that. Like, I have a whole set of podcast episodes that don't have show notes. Don't tell anybody I am going back and updating them, but just doing that there you've got your blog. Like you've got your consistent blogging if you're doing weekly, monthly, quarterly. Well, not quarterly. Well, I mean, you could, but like biweekly, let's say even daily. I don't know. There's episodes like there's podcasts like that if you've got show notes going out that are thoughtful, right. It's tough because I think for a lot of people and I have this happen to me too, you can do show notes that take a long time, or you can do show notes that are kind of more shorter. So find your sweet spot for whatever you can invest in right now, whether it is transcribing, having a VA, have a bullet list of talking points. If you can ideally make the podcast its own blog, that would be pretty cool. You can again, have a VA, look at a transcription and then make it more like a blog format. There's so many things you can do in terms of tactical SEO, but it absolutely goes in hand in hand because once you have a podcast episode, you've got the prime material and then you can kind of mold it and make it just something that's more SEO friendly.

00:45:13 - Nikita Williams
Yeah, I love that. I love that. So tell us something that you're most excited about coming up in your business or something happening in your life that you have coming up soon.

00:45:28 - Cinthia
I'll start with the life first. I'm getting on a plane in less than a month. I'm so excited, actually. Yeah, I haven't been on a plane for over two years.

00:45:41 - Nikita Williams
Girl me neither. We're going on a plane next weekend too. And I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to feel. It's like, what is happening? It's exciting, right?

00:45:52 - Cinthia
Just like that feeling. Anyway. Yeah. For those of you who like to travel, you just know when you're getting in the airport. Just kind of like feels like you're. So that's life exciting stuff. And then business wise, yeah, I'm really excited. I actually have an SEO course and I'm making a bunch of changes to it. I'm re recording some of the episodes. So podcast brain. Yeah, some of the trainings and yeah, I've been having a lot. For those of you who have courses, it can just be hard sometimes to get that student engagement. And I've been working on my mindset of just showing up, as in like, there's 100 people watching me, right? Or whatever number feels grand to you. That's been an upgrade for me, that mindset of like, I'm recording this. Maybe there's no one watching, but I feel like there's 100 people watching. And so how you show up and how you deliver and how you give value is completely different. Anyway. So I'm excited about that SEO course because it's a great resource for a lot of people who want to learn the basics of SEO without getting super technical or they just want their VA to learn and so they like, hear this.

00:47:20 - Nikita Williams
Yeah, I love that. Well, you'll have to definitely send us a link so we can put it in the show notes so that folks can check it out. Yeah, that's definitely on my list of to do for my VA that will want to do that part because yeah, I mean, not all VAS love that. Yeah, but definitely I think it's a great piece. And then you brought up a really good point that I just wanted to bring up again for anyone who's listening. Finding a business model to market your business while living with chronic illness that serves you versus you serving it is so much more powerful. I mean, that's why I even started the podcast, because of that very fundamental thing of like, I don't have to show up on video, I can repurpose this for my blog or for social media or for an email, like so many different things. I could use this content without having to be on for this thing. And so I think it's powerful to know that you can be empowered running a business even when you are in a flare up or even when things are going really difficult for you.

00:48:25 - Cinthia
Yeah, and there's a lot of talk about consistency, there's a lot of talk about productivity. And if you have a chronic illness that can feel really scary and it can worsen your chronic illness because you fail anxiety because you're not able to do your whatever. Crazy 06:00 a.m. Morning Routine those people, I love you.

00:48:45 - Nikita Williams
People, I love you people.

00:48:46 - Cinthia
But I am on the other side of the camp. Morning routines are great, but anyway, it's just like if that's all you think, if that's all you believe is going to lead you to success, you just feel like you're designed for failure. So when you have a chronic illness, yes, finding the marketing that lights you up, finding the marketing that heals you literally makes you feel good, is not only good for you, but it actually shows up. Like the way I know I show up on my podcast, I know that's just better for my audience. So it's like a win win. And that exists. I think a lot of people struggle with that. But just keep looking, keep experimenting, keep pivoting, try different things, try different rhythms. Like I love Nikita. You've got a podcast every two know, for some of you, maybe the thought of doing something weekly freaks you out. So what can you shift and remember? Nothing's. Like, you can take breaks. You can say to hey, like, I'm not going to be emailing you for a month or whatever. You can batch content, there's so many options. But if you don't yeah. Sometimes it's just hard to see it for yourself. So it can be helpful to have support around that too.

00:50:06 - Nikita Williams
Yeah. I love that. That is so true. Yeah. I have been weekly. I have been once a month. I have been two times a week, every week. This show has been, like, on all different kind of things depending on what's going on. And it hasn't affected my ability to grow. It just hasn't. So I think one of my really good friends and clients, she's like, it's not about being consistent. It's about being persistent and being consistent. And I love that. Yeah, right. It's so good. So anyway, how can everyone find you so they can check you out? Obviously, we'll have it in the show notes, but let us know.

00:50:45 - Cinthia
Yeah. So you can go to my site, Digitalbloomiq.com. I have a bunch of free SEO resources there. I have actually a keyword guide for health and wellness. I've got some specific SEO resources for health and and then you can go to my podcast, which is digitally overwhelmed. And Nikita's episode is going up soon on there too. And then you can also hang out with me on Instagram, which, speaking of consistency, I haven't been posting on there at all, but I'm okay with I love it.

00:51:17 - Nikita Williams
Well, thank you so much for being on the show, Cinthia.

00:51:20 - Cinthia
Yeah, thank you.