SPEAKER_00 0:35

There's a lot going on today in the world. You just turn on the news and you realize that there's one crisis, one tragedy. Something is going on everywhere, and there are people hurting. So, what does that mean for faith-driven entrepreneurs? How do we not only fuel our work with faith, but how do we implement our faith in the day-to-day workplace? That's what we're going to talk about today on the Resilient Faith Online Show. Welcome. I'm Arissa Shadrick, host of the Resilient Faith Online Show. I'm an online marketing coach and certified copywriter. In this podcast, you'll find a different perspective to the external and internal challenges we face as online content creators. Join me for some inspiration and practical tips as we create positive change online. To connect with me in my private Facebook group, go to marissach.com forward slash community. Welcome everyone. If you've ever wondered how to really incorporate your faith with your work online, we're going to talk a little bit about that. Today I have a special guest. She's a friend of mine, a lovely person who has a business of her own that she runs with her husband. I'm going to let her introduce herself, but we're going to just talk candidly, just having a conversation like at the kitchen table, about our faith and work. So let me introduce to you my friend Liz Cortez.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Hey Liz, how are you? Hi, thank you so much for having me on here. Woohoo!

SPEAKER_00 2:10

I'm so excited. It's just so awesome to have you here. You just have such a wonderful soul and heart. And when I talk to you, just so approachable. I just really enjoy having conversation with you. And you're a sister in the Lord. So it's so great to be able to talk with you today. Liz, tell us a little bit about yourself so everyone listening will have an idea of what it is that you do and you have a unique situation because you work with your husband. So tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Yes, we have worked together full time for seven years. So there's lots in the Bible for seven years. I'm like, seven years? What? What does this stuff look like? But um, that's really exciting. And we've been married for 10 years and we don't have any kids yet, but I'd love to have some twins. I've got my my necklace on 10-year anniversary necklace. But I'm like, this is for the twins that I'd like to have. So moms, if you think I'm crazy, that's okay. I think that's awesome. Twins, triplets, any of that would be great. But our business, um, when we set it up, we both were doing a ministry, a lot of ministry for fun. Like we enjoy planning churches. Um, we both have taken time off to go to a year-long discipleship school where it's like five, six days a week of school and learning and ministry. And so when we started our company, that was something really important to us. Yes, we want to make a difference for these local business owners, but we also wanted the time freedom. My husband really wanted to be able to do ministry part-time. And we're able to do that, um, do that a lot. Now, as we've grown, like we are definitely more focused on the business because we've seen like as we grow and help more companies, we can give more financially. And maybe that um we're just in a season where that's where we're at. So we're not giving as much of our time, like 20 hours a week, right? Like we used to. Um, I mean, we're in California, so there still people aren't like going out and doing a lot of stuff. Um, so the money is what people really need and want and just really makes a big difference. So that um that's a little bit about us, and we do primarily local SEO, but I love talking about copywriting. So I love like what you're up to and just um reading your posts on social media. Uh yeah, I just love being around other women that are just amazing at what they do and just really care about other people and talk about their faith online because not everyone is brave to do that.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

So yeah, I just so appreciate you here because I think for a while, and myself included, back in the day, we it's almost like we felt that we had to keep everything in silos. You know, we had our personal life and you know, old school, like my parents, they would never talk about their personal lives to people. You know, it's just you kept personal, personal. And so that's one of the things that kind of carried over in the beginning for me that what was personal and what should be public. And of course, when I became a Christian, you know, it was all about, you know, serving within the church. But then it felt like it was just within those walls. And I knew there would be more. And you probably felt that way too, that there's a way to be able to share your faith and not put it in silos and categorize that this is my church life, this is my home life, this is my public life, this is, but actually be yourself, be authentic. And there's a lot of talk about being authentic these days. Did you ever find it a challenge to share your faith when you were in a work environment?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

See, the first, so my previous business before our agency, I was in the fitness industry. And so I was a personal trainer and I took my personal training business online in 2009. So YouTube became an influencer, created online courses, did all the stuff everyone does now back 13 years ago. And I um it wasn't until our church did like a 30-day fast, and I reviewed what their fast was, and I'm like, wow, this pray, praying and fasting, like there's more to that versus just stop eating or do the Daniel fast, do that. And so my friend and I partnered up, and that was my first, I'd say, time faith-wise. I don't remember myself sharing much about faith online or combining business and faith, but we call it eat, pray, fast. I don't know when that movie came out, it must have been around that time, but so we partnered up together and we got a whole group of women um that were from our church and we got together to pray at the beach weekly as well as support, support them um through fasting. I think, yeah, you can cut out the food and do that right away, but there's a way to do it so that you don't like mess up your body if you've never done it before. So my background, I have a degree in nutrition dietetics. So people were like, I'm fasting. I'm like, oh, wait a second, what are you doing? You're on medication. Wait, don't do that. But um, that was the first time, but I had a friend, so that I think really helped um build up my confidence to do that. Then when we launched our agency, we from the beginning signed um all emails, God bless. Oh, and we put that on every email signature. We don't make like our employees do that. Some of them do, um, but Robert and I just decided to do that. Um, I still do that now when I'm on social media. I still say that. Um, and sometimes I'm like, oh, what do they believe? Like, I don't know, but um, I'm like, no, this is like our thing. Like, we've been doing this for seven years. Like, yeah, if that turns someone off, then okay, like we're probably not best to work together because we're not like shoving it down your throat, but um but it slips out, yeah. I want to say, oh yeah, I'll pray for you. Like, like if someone tells me something's going on, I'm like, okay, let me pray for you about that right now. And um yeah, and even when I had an employee call today this morning, my husband was on a client call and I kept getting distracted. And I was like, I was like, oh, this is what's going on. And then our employees like, okay, let's pray right now. And so it's like part of our culture. So not everyone that works for us as Christians, but the ones that are, um, will like stop and pause and pray or just like do that in the moment, which is really nice.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah, that's so cool. I love what you said about the signature because I I go between um stay resilient and blessings, one of the two. I kind of flop back and book back and forth with that. But of course, one of the things that we want to do, we don't want to always impose things. We shouldn't impose anything, you know, on people. We should give that people an option to ask for more or questions or whatever. But um being very sensitive and listening, becoming a better listener to see when there's opportunities and maybe even you know, asking permission. You know, I'm I'm a praying person. Can I pray for you? I remember in one job that I had, it wasn't before, way before I went online. I mean, my kids were little, and I was working this pipeline. It was a for um Bechtel pipeline, and it was a temporary job, but I remember all of the people there were all construction workers, you know, they were all there weren't any females there. I was the only female there working at the desk. And one of the gals had called and she was uh fiance to someone there, and she was so distraught, and he wasn't there, he was out of town. She was so distraught, just about in tears. And I was not in an environment where you would just pray, but I remember listening and inside just feeling so compelled to ask her if I could pray for her. And I thought, you know, if this cost me my job, oh well, so what? You know, it was one of those things where I just had to. And so I asked her if I would pray for her, and she said, Yeah. And so I prayed for her, and then I told her, if you want to talk later after I get off work, you know, I'd be happy to talk with you. And her husband that worked there, all the construction workers were scared of him because he was so he seemed like a toxic person, like he was very, he would speak his mind and he would curse a lot too, but everybody was scared of him. And so I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I'm talking to his to his fiance. What is he gonna say when he gets back to me? You know? Well, long story short, she gave her heart to the Lord, he gave her heart to the Lord, we ended becoming friends. I remember having dinner at their house, and my kids were little. My son was probably five at the time, my daughter was a little older, but they became uh really good friends. And had I not said something, and again, first I listened, and then I'm praying for discernment to see if it was the right time to do that, but you never know, right? You just never know when the opportunity is there. And I guess that's the main thing when we're a Christian and we're in business, we're among people, right? So it it seems like we need to be ultra sensitive to bring hope in a way that is palatable for them. You know, maybe they'll accept a prayer or maybe it's something else. Would you agree? I mean, have you anything like that ever happened to you where you just feel like, oh, I'm not sure if I should say something or not?

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yes, definitely. I mean, you you definitely need to have discernment and listen. And I think it starts with like your quiet time with God, you know, in the morning, if that's what you're doing in your routine and being sensitive, like plugging in, getting connected so that throughout your day you can be sensitive to when you're being prompted to be quiet or to say something and what that is. Um, so I think that's a special gift that we have. But I I do have a chat or I thought of two different things um with sharing and you never know where someone is. And I've had multiple people like be thankful that I asked, like, would you like me to pray for you? Like, can I pray for you or something like that? And they're like, Oh, yes. And where I've had people um that are agnostic or they believe a different religion, um, reach out for prayer when they're in a really hard spot. Like they wouldn't have faith, but they're like, Oh, we know Liz prays. And I feel special when that happens, yeah, especially around business, like they lost a big client or a family member passed away. And I just I'm like, okay, I'm so glad they reached out to me. Like they see there's something different to reach out in their time of really struggle. Um, and I have another really good friend who is atheist, and we had a chat. She was going to um going to hire a coach, but she was concerned because this coach talks about her faith online. And I know this coach, she lives in our area, but um I was like, oh, so she's asking me. She's like, I don't want to sign up if it's too much about faith because I don't believe that. And I really hate it when business owners mix business and faith. She's like, it should be separation of church and state. That's her view. And um, I love it that we're really great friends. We talk weekly and like like we're just different, but there's similarities, and I just pray for every day. Yeah, she doesn't know. But um I so I reached out to a few people and um just to do some research for her, she ended up signing up for her program. What I do like with friends, I'm just like, God, send more people into their life. Like, I can't be the only Christian around here, but send more people so they can see that we're like whatever happened in their past, because most likely something happened. And like, whether you're gonna use me or you're gonna use someone else, like I'm willing and ready and able to like go, but like soften her so we can have those chats. And now um I was on a call two friends um in Europe. So I'm just like praying extra hard just with everything going on. Yeah, I'm like, now is the time, like things are scary, like over there and what's going on. And um on Friday when we had our call, I like I was sensitive because I knew one girl would be more open to talk about faith and the others, like, heck no. And so I've been like praying and just preparing that if I do, I'm probably have a one-on-one chat. Um, because yeah, that's how I felt like in that moment. So um yeah, yeah, you need to know who who you're around and like respect it because they trauma or whatever's happened. Um, right, you don't want to make things be worse. But for most of the time, people are really open, like they like and they'll reply back on LinkedIn. God bless you too. Like they like it and enjoy it. But um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Yeah, a couple of things that you said about just starting in the morning and just filling up and being sensitive to what God would have you have, you know, in the day. Because as entrepreneurs, you know, we plan, we set goals, we structure habits, we try to do the best that we can, productivity and so forth to maximize our day and be good stewards of the day, right? And if you're a type A like me, you can just like go out the gate without even thinking. So I have to really ground myself in the morning and spend that time with the Lord and journal to be able to even ask the Lord, help me not be me today, help me be sensitive to everything that I'm listening to, experiencing, coaching calls, the rest, because I can because I'm a type A, I could just like just run, you know, grab the ball and run. And so I asked the Lord to help me be sensitive to pick up on those things and he does, or help me recall a certain scripture, whatever it might be that I might need for the day. And he does that. So I love what you said about that, and then being sensitive to people, you know, even if people say to us, you know, that's not something that I'm interested in at all. Um we just have to know that some people plant seeds, other people water, some people reap. But our our our, I think you share this as well. Our heart is really to just to serve people, you know, meet them where they are and just to serve them and just to, I mean, gosh, we need help these days, don't we? Like you said, there's so much going on and coming out of the pandemic and then all the other things that have gone on in the world and now the war that's going on, you know, at the time of this recording, um, you know, everyone is praying that things will smooth over very quickly. But a lot of people um process things differently, and people need other people to lift them up when they're scared or when they're angry, and a lot of times anger is a form of fear, but um I think there's never been a better time for us as believers to step up and kind of ratchet up a bit and be available for those people that we can help. And I think it makes a difference. It doesn't matter if it's just one or two during the day. Can you imagine if everyone did that? We could blanket the world, right? Right. I know, I know. So your husband is also a Christian and you both work together. So, are there any like things that you do together as far as your business and your faith, how you bring that together? Or does he have his own quiet time and you have your own quiet time, or do you come together as a couple, or how's that work?

SPEAKER_01 18:30

So we're talking about this, and I'm so curious to interview or chat with other entrepreneur couples too, and like what their routines are. Um, we have a marriage counselor, and we always we either have a grief counselor marriage, we go in between those two. Um, just we just find it's really important to pause, talk, and um, whether he's processing something or I'm processing and he's watching me go through the thing, um, it's just been great. I think we have a counselor for like five years. So half of our marriage, we've been counselors and most of our business because we work together and there's always stuff that comes up. So, but um I our counselors love us, making us for job security. And but we're fun, I think we're a fun couple too. But um, yeah, that was something in her book. It talked about having um spiritual intimacy. So in your relationship, you have emotional intimacy and spiritual intimacy, and that was something that like you know, when you go to a small group, like you're sharing what you are learning, you're becoming spiritually intimate with the people in your small group. And for us women, I think we're more like, yeah, sign us up for those. Like, I'll do three of them. Like, yeah. Men, I mean, it when we got married, we said, okay, we'll do one couple's Bible study per year. But um, even in our church, like small groups isn't a really like popular thing. Like, I have a small group going on right now, but everyone in my small group is all from other churches. There's anyone from our church there, so it's such a little like a silly thing or just a different, um, a different group. And so it's been a while since we've done a couple's Bible study. So we're not really following that agreement that we had, which I think is important. But we talked about this yesterday um after we just finished a relationship uh series at our church. And I was like, remember counselor talked about spiritual intimacy? Like, I would really love if like we both spend time separately. Like, I have my quiet time in the my husband. This is his third year of doing Bible in a year app. So he loves that they're like out in London, and um like it's really good. I did it one year, but he's done it three years in a row, and he loves that. And like he's solid with his time with God and praying, but we have not come together to like pray together or so. Yesterday I was just like, I think it'd be great if we set aside time to pray for each other like once a day, or like shared what we're thinking or praying for, do that more frequently, but also be praying for our business and our clients. So I proposed that yesterday, and we were trying to figure out like what would that look like in a routine? Because we are, even though we work together, we do things a lot independently. Yes. Um, and so our counselor is like, well, how can you do more of a we? Like, how can it be more of a we in your business? Because you guys are married and that so that's what we've been looking at this past week.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah, yeah. I don't think it necessarily takes away from what you already have together as a couple. Obviously, it would enhance it, but the practicality of it is difficult at times because I get up way earlier than my husband does and he works at home. But when there's something going on in my business or something that I know needs prayer, he's down the hall in another office. So I can go over there and I said, I need you to pray for me over this. And I he knows already, because we've been married over 35 years. When he prays, it's got to be out loud. Don't pray silently. Pray out loud. I said, I need to hear it. So he'll pray for me and he'll do the same, you know, that if he needs prayer, we will stop what we're doing and we'll stop and pray at that moment. Um, as far as the routine, it's hard because I get up early and I enjoy my quiet time. He studies differently, you know, the men are different. So he does his routine different. And so, but we do sometimes he'll tell me what he's been praying for, because I'll say, I've been praying for this for so long. And he'll say, Well, I've been praying for one of my kids, our kids, you know, this way. And I, and I thought, oh, I never thought of it that way. You know, so we kind of compare notes what we're praying for, but it's different. And I don't, I don't know if one is better than the other, but as long as both are connecting with God, you know, there's it used to be so funny because um years ago, uh, I know some people are kind of like do not like TV evangelists of any kind, but there was a program I used to watch for years when I was a young mom that was on TV. And I loved listening to some of the sermons, and I just couldn't get enough. You know, I was just feasting all the time. Early in the morning and at night, I would watch this program, really enjoyed it a lot. And some of the things that the Lord would speak to my heart in the morning, it's almost like they were talking about it in the evening in the show. And I'm going, it's almost like God sent a memo to everybody, the same memo. So I know God can communicate or put a message on people's hearts all across the globe without ever knowing each other. You know, I mean, that's where you hear, you know, about movements and things like that that happen. And I think that happens with my husband and I. Oftentimes God will put something on his heart and God'll put something on my heart, and it's confirmation. Because we had not talked about it before. So it's interesting. The dynamic is there. That you know, the more you could do as a couple, I think that's awesome. It's just, you know, I what I want people to know that are listening is not to guilt over the fact if it can't happen, because maybe one travels a lot, or you know, it the the schedule is just crazy. Um, don't think that God will not bless your efforts or God will not, you know, He will not withhold blessings because of that. Because sometimes uh, you know, we have these conceptions and we we fall into this legalism of things and God's just not that way. He's gonna bless every effort, every inch we we take toward him, he's gonna meet us tenfold. Wouldn't you say?

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Absolutely. Yeah, I've as I like see like friends dating or getting married and they're older, they're like doing Bible studies every day and praying for each other in the morning at night. And I'm like, uh, you don't do that? I'm like, no, we we have our own time with God.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

You must love Jesus more than we do.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Sometimes, yeah, I think that's just the thing is like watch out for comparison, especially like, and so that's where like I do like to like hear from other couples that have been married a long time because it's it's different and unique. And um like for I'm with you, I wake up really early at 5:15, and it's quiet. But I I learned that from my mom, that's what she did, and it's quiet, no one's around, and um like that is my favorite time of the day. And then you hear the birds and the sun rises, and like um, but that means that you're in bed by like eight o'clock and getting ready to sleep by nine. There you go. That's me. That's me.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

I start doing the fade. Everybody sees me. I walk across the living room and they go, There she is, she's doing the fade by 7:30. I'm off getting ready to go to bed, but that's the only way I can get up as early as I do because I get more done in the morning and I'm more creative and I'm a writer, so I get that stuff done in the morning. So, but yeah, I think just the heart and the desire to connect with God, to honor our husbands, to be there for them. You know, I think one of the greatest things that isn't very spiritual, but my husband and I, you know, being married over 35 years is just humor, having humor and being able to laugh. It's one of the greatest blessings, I think. And one of the things that I keep I think keeps our marriage so great is just we do, we laugh every day. There's just something, you know, we just play off each other, and there's always a giggle or a laugh or some sort because he knows me so well and I know him so well. So anyway, for sure, for sure. So this is interesting. So in your business, um, have you found um times that maybe were challenging? And again, for those listening, if there's if somebody is is listening and struggling in their business, what would be some advice that you could give them? Or what would be something that God did for you to help you hold on day after day while you were waiting for that breakthrough, or maybe waiting for revenue, or whatever it might be, how would faith play out during those times when it's difficult?

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Oh my goodness, there's so many scriptures. Um, I was a homeschool kid and of three sisters, and we all did a wana. And I think in a wana, you memorize like 3,000 Bible verses. Yeah. So that verse trained up a child on the way they should go. Like how we live that out because it's like I memorize all these scriptures as a kid, and then as an adult, like I'll remember the words or just the thoughts. I don't always remember the references, but um, I was gosh, there's so many. I I know just the other day, I was just thinking about like God takes care of the birds or like just little things like that. And it just I in the times where I'm struggling, um sometimes I'll pause because like when you're creative and strategic and you um the decisions that you make for what you write or a strategy that you're gonna do for a client impact a lot of people, it impacts your client, it could impact employees, it could impact hundreds of people depending on the decision you make. And so I um I like really like watch what is going in my mind or what I'm thinking about. And if I'm not creative, things are not flowing, like then I pause and like even recently, like taking like a week off of work because I was like, hey, what is going on? Like things aren't flowing, and let me just take a week off. And I'm always like, okay, what's my meal plan? Am I exercising? What are the basics? Like do that. What are the basics? Okay, am I grieving? Okay, is this do I need to take off a grief week? Because you know, if you lose someone and it's fresh, like that can impact your business and the quality that you give to clients. And so I've just learned and I teach that like in our culture too, like just um with our client or with our um staff, like to pause to spend time with God if they're Christians or take a break. And if it's not flowing, do another task that's not a creative one, do something different. Um, yeah, there was one time where I took off like a whole month, and that was the advice that I got from a coach, and I was getting ready for launch, and she's like, Unless you hear from God, uh, don't move forward because you're building your business on your own. And I was like, What? Like, I'm in this program. I signed up for 90 days of coaching. What do you mean? What would you take a month off in the middle of this? I just paid you all this money. What? And um, that was the first time where I really paused and just did silence and solitude on a daily basis, just sat quiet, listened, studied the Bible, just trying to figure out. And then um, when I felt like I got clarity, I wrote out the course, filmed the course, launched it, did all of it in like seven days.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Crazy, super quick. Um, it was a 30-day like program that I created and I did it in seven days, did all of it, the whole funnel, everything. And so that was pretty cool to have that. And then 300 people signed up for it.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Wow, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

So that made a difference. And so um recently I took a week off because I'm like, is it grief? Is it what what's going on? Is it change in direction? Do I need to make some big business decisions? And so lately my prayer, I used to pray for wisdom a lot, and now I'm like, God, just give me the knowledge, give me the download of the knowledge, of the actions to take to at least goals. So I'm like, I've never prayed for knowledge, but recently I've been praying. Just give me the knowledge, tell me the actions, put together my to-do list. Yeah, exactly. But um, that's what I've been doing here recently.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Yeah, yeah. I pray for wisdom too, and just grace, because I know grace will cover a whole lot. So and uh help me not again, since I'm a type A, I said help me not be me today and just be sensitive to your spirit and see things with your eyes, hear things with your ears, and just have that at the top of mind. So, yeah, I love that because when I have struggled in business, and I think everybody does at some point or another, there's a season. I think pausing is good. And I love how you kind of take inventory. I do the same thing on a daily basis. I check my heart. How am I feeling? Am I feeling anxious? Am I feeling angry? Am I feeling how am I feeling? Why am I feeling that way? You know, have I eaten right? Did I get enough sleep? You know, those kind of things like check, check, check, check to kind of process of elimination. I think that's great to do that because sometimes what we're feeling is simply fatigue. Maybe we just need to go to bed and get some rest, right? Or maybe we're just hungry, or maybe it's just not having clarity about something. So it could be a number of things. So I love that. That's such good advice to just stop, pause, take inventory, and then seek the Lord if you can. And and what you do as far as you know, connecting with God, that's something that um about every month, every three months, I kind of review for the quarter. And then every month I take the weekend, I take a couple of days. If I can, Thursday and Friday. If not, I'll do a Friday and Saturday, and I'll just really do a lot of the praying and planning. So that as best as I can. And then with the disclaimer, Lord, if I've missed it here, you know, correct me, show me what I need to do. And and that happened in January. Something I was going to promote, it was like all everything was not right. I just felt in my spirit it was not a go and it was to wait till February. So I did. But um, you know, everyone else might think, Why are you procrastinating? But it wasn't procrastination, it was obedience. So a lot of times procrastination it might not be procrastination, it might be obedience. So, anyway, I love that. That's awesome. So, in the time we have, tell us a little bit about what you do and who we serve because everybody's probably wondering, oh, I love Liz. What does she do? Maybe I want to work with her.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

So tell us what we serve local business owners. And local where where are you? So we're in San Diego, but we serve them across the US. And I am running some ads to Canada, London, and Australia. We have worked with people in other countries in the past, but the past about five years, I've been really focused on US companies and helping those small businesses. And my coach, my Facebook ads coach is like, why don't you, doesn't your strategy work in other countries? And I was like, Yeah. He's like, Why are you excluding them? I was like, okay, we'll try this out. But everyone's on different time zones. You got to really like market to them differently and be aware of it. And so I'm like, okay, what time is in Australia in London and all that? But um, yeah, so we we love doing traffic strategies. So local SEO and Google ads, those are the two primary strategies we do. So that's why I love copywriters because when you um you could drive traffic to your website, and I think everyone's like, I want more traffic, I want more people coming to my website, but you probably get plenty that are coming, they're just not connecting with what is on your website. Yeah, something's missing. That's why you need to have a really great copywriter to help you with your offer, with your home page, whatever pages are getting visited the most. And um because you could spend money on traffic or write amazing blog posts, but you attract the wrong people, or no one even sees the blog post because you chose the wrong title.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

So true. And you do um a done for you service. So so if people wanted more, is it SEO for their org again organic reach for the stuff that they have on their website and so forth that you do? Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

And for the local strategy would mean this would be for a brick and mortar business or a service-based business that wants to connect locally. Um and I even with coaches, coaches, yeah, you might be working from home and yeah, you're not gonna put your website, your your address up on a Google page like publicly. But um, even for coaches, I believe like having a Google business profile can help you get some local reach and being being known in your city, like um we live in Point Loma, which is part of San Diego, but we could rank for Point Loma is a lot easier than ranking for San Diego for something. So if you have little like suburbs in your area, if you're an online business or a coach, like there's ways to get found locally because there are people looking for you in those areas. And the Google, um Google does like near me searches, and so they know like where you live and where you're searching from your phone, and they'll show you different results. So your ideal client may be like down the street, but if you're only focusing on national, I want to get found, like for these really crazy keywords, and then you're like, I'm not getting any traffic. Well, there's probably some little ones or little ones in your city that are really good to go for.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

You want to be as they say, the the the big fish in a small pond as opposed to a little fish in a big pond.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Yeah, so for example, you're in San Diego, I'm in Las Vegas, so you could do SEO for someone like me for coaching or service-based work like copywriting. And instead of using Las Vegas, I'm in the Henderson area. Henderson would be a better area for my local area.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

Yeah. So first would be Henderson, get found on some Google searches there, and then you can move over to Las Vegas, the larger city area.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

Um, I just want to make sure everybody was clear because when she says local SEO, I don't want you to think that she just services people in San Diego. So yes, it does people everywhere. So how can they get a hold of you? What's the easiest way if they're interested in that?

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Yes, Instagram is great. Um, I do lots of videos on Instagram and what's your handle on Instagram? It's Liz Cortez with an S online. So Liz Cortez online. I do lots of videos for our company's Instagram as well. That's RebelfishLocal. And um, but I'm kind of using my Liz Cortez online a lot more, just because it's just natural. You just film a quick video when it's like your company page. I don't know. It's just like more professional and stiff. But when it's your own, you can talk about whatever you want.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Hey, adding that personal brand, that's perfectly fine. That's great. Yeah, I could see I could see you speaking in large platforms. I mean, I could totally see you, and I've told you this before in social media examiner, they should snatch you up. You're so knowledgeable.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

All those people there. Yeah, social media marketing world, uh, you should be that their conference. You're really, really good at what you I was there two years ago.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

I didn't speak there, but um, that is on my list.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

So if anybody listening is connected, she should be on there. I keep seeing you talking in one of those workshops and sharing in there. So that's awesome. So I'll put the links in the show notes, but you guys know Instagram, you can connect with her. She's very personable, very approachable. And SEO might be the answer for you. You just never know. It's like there's a whole bunch of components, you know, as far as your audience and the copy and all of it. It's not just one thing, it's getting all the pieces right. So, Liz, thank you so much for just having this open conversation about faith and work. I just so appreciate it so much. And I know we all got to do what we can, and we have opportunity. Every day is a new opportunity. It's a brand new day, right? Hasn't been lived. So make the most out of every opportunity. I believe that's biblical as well. Awesome. Any last words for everyone?

SPEAKER_01 39:49

Yeah, this was fun, Marissa. Thank you for having me on. And I just say keep encouraged. It's uh it's a great time to be alive, but it's hard. It's challenging navigating all the different roles and what do you do or not do? And so um, I think it's really uh good to stay connected to uh people that encourage you or challenge you um just to keep going. That's what I think sometimes you need to hear, just keep going, even if things are challenging. Um like you have this desire in your heart to have a business or to serve people. And so just don't give up, keep going. And I know that God will provide what you're looking for, you'll get connected to the right people. Um, but don't give up because you wouldn't have that vision in your heart, like if he didn't put it there.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

Absolutely. And you're never alone, he's always with you, and we're better together, as obviously in this podcast, it helps being together talking about our faith. So thank you so much, Liz.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

Alrighty, take care. Wait, before you go, if you found this podcast helpful, subscribe so you never miss an episode. Every subscription, review, or rating means so much to me. Remember, cultivate resilient faith online to create positive change in the world!