In this episode, your hosts, Daniel Bisett and Tricia Ulberg delve into an insightful conversation with lyse Deanda-Zagada, a trailblazer in the fashion industry and the genius behind the renowned Joli Fashion Society, exploring the intersection of fashion, web technologies, and community-building.
Join us for a fascinating ride as we uncover Alyse’s journey, her strategies, and her visions for the future of fashion in a digital world. This is an episode you won’t want to miss! Remember to like, share, and subscribe to stay updated with our content. Let’s amplify your web understanding together!
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Daniel:
Welcome back to We Rock DM Amplified, the podcast that amplifies your digital marketing and web prowess. We, your hosts, Daniel Bissett and Tricia Ulberg, are absolutely thrilled to introduce our newest guest, the dynamic Alyse Deanda-Zagada. Known for impressive impact in the fashion world and as the visionary behind the Jolie Fashion Society, Alyse exemplifies creativity, style, and entrepreneurial gusto. In this episode, we’ll be diving into the exciting intersection of fashion, web technologies and the art of community building. So tune in and get ready to explore the fashionable side of the digital world with us. Alyse, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. You were once our student, now our colleague. How are you doing? And first and foremost, you said in the warmup to this podcast that You’re a polypreneur.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Thank
Daniel:
What
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
you.
Daniel:
made you choose the Jolie Fashion Society over any of your other side hustles for today’s show?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I think more than anything, I really want Texas to expand in their fashion community. And so when it comes to the website and what we’re going to discuss today, any way I can amplify that and get very well educated feedback would help me a ton in really making sure that my points and what I’m really trying to do for the Texas fashion community comes across well.
Daniel:
Okay, that’s awesome. So before we get too deep, I’d really like to kind of unpack the Too Long Didn’t Read, the TLDR of Jolie Fashion Society. So can you give us your like 45 second elevator pitch? What is it and who’s it for?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yes, so Jolie Fashion Society is for everyone to start with. It is a organization that supports each Texas city’s fashion community in order to elevate the Texas fashion community as a whole. So it’s really focused on the person that’s creating clothes in their house, the person that loves to write about fashion but is not… being supportive. So the website’s goal for that as well is to have a blog section for them. It’s to give all of the Texas fashion community a place to have a space, a healthy place. It’s not toxic, no one to be. Sorry, nobody
Daniel:
Sorry.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
to be, I have dogs.
Tricia:
It’s totally fine
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Nobody to be nasty or negative or like
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
any type of negative impact on the community as a whole.
Tricia:
Very cool. Alyse, and it’s okay if your puppies are barking a little bit. We know that you’re, we all did this from our home offices. It’s one of the things that makes it so awesome that we can work from home. So I wanted to know, was this your idea? Do you have a business partner? How did you decide to get into this in the first place?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I do not have a business partner. I am a solo creative
Tricia:
Pruneur.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
here. I have been in the fashion industry for about almost 10 years. I’m 25, so I started when I was younger. I started in the Valley and then I worked my way up from there. Now I’m in San Antonio. And so the goal of it all, I have cats too. So I’m sorry if I start
Daniel:
Hehehehe
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
looking it’s because I have one in particular that will sit on my laptop if I’m not careful. And I think y’all know that from class when she just
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
walks in front of me. So sorry.
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
If I’m looking at her like please stop. But I am solo on this. It is a fashion is a huge. I don’t say fashion is my passion, but fashion is a huge part of what I love and Ultimately, it’s where I want to work in and work towards. I’m currently in the financial industry. So being able to get out of that and by promoting this community and being able to work this full time would just be where my heart is happiest.
Tricia:
Yeah, that’s so cool. Okay, so tell me if I was so, you were targeting people who have a desire to do the same, like be part of the fashion community. And when you say like non-toxic, what do you mean by that? Like it sounds like there might be some, you’re trying to do something different than is out there. Right, pivot?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right, so a lot of the fashion industry, it’s very cutthroat. I think everyone knows that. It’s very… to think, oh, you’re gonna go in there and someone’s gonna probably scream at you and make you cry. I mean, we’ve all seen the devil wears Prada, okay?
Tricia:
Ha ha ha!
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
So, and it’s true in some senses. There are people, and in every career, you know there are people in this world that are not so nice or supportive. And what I’m trying to do is build that really strong, supportive community. It’s from the get-go of starting this, I said I won’t tolerate any nastiness, and that is true and true. opinion and it’s not what someone else’s opinion is. Respectfully either disagree or keep quiet you know. If you have nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all kind of situation. So I really want to create very healthy environment but also guiding people in Texas towards that higher end fashion, that higher quality of fashion. So when you think of fashion, there’s New York, there’s Paris, even LA is kind of thrown in there. We’re as large as the Miami Fashion Week. Miami has a fashion week, they also have a swim week and that’s huge for them. There’s no reason why Texas can’t sit at one of those lower tiers but still have a space and place to talk. A lot of designers do come out of Texas, especially Austin, which I know where you all are from. So, you know, just, I feel like if people had a little more encouragement and love from where they’re from, before they go out, because I think that is necessary for them to leave Texas to achieve the higher goals, but to come back, they’ll want to give back to their community a little more.
Tricia:
So you want, so your target audience are people who want a career in the fashion industry, but they’re living here in Texas, maybe they don’t have the opportunity to go move to Paris currently.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
And so this is a good place for them to get started in their career. That’s
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yes,
Tricia:
why you, okay.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
yeah that’s exactly it. And also I really want to make a name for Texas. I’m a huge Texas girl to the heart. I’m from the valley originally so even the valley does not have that type of support compared to San Antonio compared to Austin, even compared to Dallas. So trying to get every city to hit that level of Dallas would elevate Texas as a whole.
Tricia:
Okay, that makes sense. And I know that in Dallas, they have the market. That is where a lot of people, yeah. I’ve worked in retail here. So I know that that’s where the store owners tend to go when they’re restocking
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
their shops. That
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
And
Tricia:
makes
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
the home
Tricia:
sense.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
of human Marcus is Dallas. So
Tricia:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
there is quality here. And obviously someone had a vision for Texas to do that.
Tricia:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
It’s just now let’s encourage it to happen not so much on the mainstream corporate level. Let’s do the little people. Let’s get those small business owners.
Tricia:
And so, go ahead Daniel.
Daniel:
I was just going to say as Texas grows in the world of technology, because, you know, Silicon Valley is now turning into Hill Country Valley,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
I feel like there’s more and more opportunity because the fashion, high-end fashion, it ain’t cheap. And so, you know, the Benjamins have to be around to support the fashion society as a whole. And I think the more tech that comes, the more money enters even to the smaller locations. And I think you’re priming the pump, you’re getting ready for the positioning. So that’s really exciting.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
And that’s
Daniel:
I think it’s
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
crazy
Daniel:
a great time.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
that you bring up the technology because in New York and the larger cities, digital fashion is a major. I’m predicting that that is the next up and coming fashion way. I know people don’t want to admit it because it’s scary, especially for our models. They’re starting to use AI for modeling instead of actually allowing human beings to model. But it’s the way of the future. I mean, either we fight against it lose because it’s going to happen or we go with it and you become a pioneer. And that’s another thing I truly want to focus on wishfully is to focus on bringing the fashion technology to Texas as well because it’s such a frontier that we locally have not explored and just New York is barely tapping into it. And I’m really predicting it’s going to come in a massive wave within the next year.
Tricia:
I agree with that. I just bought a dress and it had an AI model, and I bet I could spin it and see how that dress would look 360. So I know what you’re talking about. That’s very cool. I was
Daniel:
and
Tricia:
gonna also say, Alyse, that I think that a lot of smaller stores are actually looking for Texas brands. Wouldn’t you say people like to carry local designers? So I can see that that would be another benefit to this.
Daniel:
Well, so we’ve identified kind of what you’re trying to achieve. And you mentioned that Jolie Fashion Society is for everyone, but from my experience, when you throw the net out so wide, you leave big holes in the net and it’s hard to catch a single fish. So If we’re going to explore this, could you identify the one or two primary types that you’re trying to connect with? Yes, in an ideal world, anyone who is interested in fashion and has a closet full of clothes or materials for designing would love to be a part of this. But who are the? the two people that you need to get in touch with first in order for this
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
to scale.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I guess it’s really starting with the local designers. I think designers. Nowadays everyone has an e-boutique in those or e-stores or they just sell on Instagram. Hey I made this, buy it. And people are loving that. So I think the local designers, maybe not so much boutiques right away, there’s a place for them but the designer, the creative. And so that’s where I’m focusing on is the creative of fashion. So that’s when I’m saying like oh I want bloggers and photographers and models because those are the creatives of fashion. They create the narrative. Boutiques are lovely, I like them. They’re very, still are staple, because that’s where a lot of the local models will start working, is those local boutiques, they get some of their experience through there. But I do have to say, I know it’s still gonna give you a broad spectrum when I say, oh, the fashion creative, but I don’t want to… necessarily close off like, oh, I care more about photographers and designers than I do models in and writers. And so I just want to say the creative because whichever space they’re in, me as a person that started this industry, I have interest in it. I’ve read blogs
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
written by fashion writers. I’ve watched models. I’ve been in modeling. I have modeling friends. I know designer friends that I went to college with. I know the spectrum. I know photographers
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
and I know the videographers. I know the spectrum, I don’t wanna say one in particular, but I do care about that creative aspect, where are they gonna really change the field for everyone?
Daniel:
All right. I mean, I think that that is, I feel like that is a tight enough net to really then focus your your content strategy. So right now I feel like your your content strategy, at least on your website feels a little vague. And that that kind of tracks with what you said at the very beginning that it’s for anybody. And so I think you can be more targeted without excluding, right? So if the content, the tone is more geared towards the creatives without excluding the non-creatives, then the non-creatives can see that they’re welcome even if you’re not speaking directly to them. But one of Mr. Rogers, We all love Mr. Rogers.
Tricia:
Hahaha.
Daniel:
We grew up with Mr. Rogers. I don’t, I mean, you will have grown up with reruns of Mr. Rogers, obviously. But one of the key strategies for Mr. Rogers that enabled him to reach so many children was that when he was speaking to the audience, he was actually looking and speaking to one child. And every other child felt like he was speaking directly to them. And so I recommend that you take that same strategy and you find that one individual, that one creative and speak directly to them and all of the other creatives will hear you and feel you, right? So
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
that’s where I think you ought to go.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
And I completely agree. And I think. you too as creatives of yourselves, you know, of your own, y’all can understand that when creative gets spoken to, you would feel it on some sort of level because you resonate with that creative, that creative like energy, that creative
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
spirit of being in that realm. And it’s not so particular to just designers or
Daniel:
Right.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
it can go up to web development, you know. I’m really not trying to close this off to people, but you’re right, you know, speaking to directly the creative will definitely get my passion and my heart across to them for them to feel it a little more personally.
Tricia:
I think that is great advice. And Alyse, I would like to see that more on your website. What you just explained to me, that makes so much sense that you are focusing on the creative aspect. Whereas, you know, before you started explaining that to me, I was kind of thinking more traditional local designers being picked up by local shops. I understand what you’re saying now. You’re trying to elevate the creative side and kind of push the envelope. right, and having a supportive network for these designers to go big and therefore elevate Texas. I would like to see that more in the content on your website. I
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Tricia:
was looking around on your website during that as you were explaining it to me, and it’s not completely clear. So
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
I feel like that’s something that we could talk about. Let’s dive into your website and talk about what we see there.
Daniel:
Yeah, I’m pulling it up right now for those that might be following us one day on the likes of YouTube. So, you know, looking at your website, I see straight in front of me, welcome to Jolie Fashion Society, which is great. I now know where I’m at, but I don’t know why I’m here necessarily. Right? And I don’t know that I’m in the right place for me. Maybe someone recommended I come here and I see Jolie Fashion Society and I go, okay, this is the right place, but nothing else. I take no other comfort from it. So
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
going back to the creative, the image, I mean, I feel like I’m looking at a shirt, maybe some lipstick or something down in the side, some shoes, but I don’t really know what that is supposed to mean to me. That’s just
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
clothes, right, in a setting. If I had a lifestyle image, someone on a runway, someone hemming a dress, someone doing something creative,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Mm-hmm.
Daniel:
that alone might make me feel like I’m in the right place.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
And
Daniel:
But
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
that’s
Daniel:
then,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
really,
Daniel:
yeah,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I’m
Daniel:
go
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
so
Daniel:
ahead.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
sorry, I’m gonna interrupt real quick. That is
Daniel:
No, it’s
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
really
Daniel:
fine.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
interesting you say that because I actually had an image of runway of people doing something and I thought, am I not getting across of my target? Like am I being too specific to, I
Daniel:
And
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
guess the person that’s looking at it? And so I changed it to this.
Daniel:
that’s a really great question to ask. And that’s why in class, we were always talking about A-B testing, right? And when it’s something that is low budget at the moment, and you don’t have the ability to A-B test something or the traffic really over a short enough time to get a real solid answer to that question. It’s good to ask that question. And I do think maybe a runway would be too specific, right? I think maybe the shot of someone sewing something on to a dress that’s on a mannequin might be more broad than a runway, which is also very busy. Right? Even if it’s just an individual, I can hear and see the people and the music and the lights. And it’s very, very psychologically busy and loud looking at something like that. Whereas someone stitching something, um, might, and you could have, you know, some, instead of a mannequin, you could have a human wearing it instead of, um, uh, a woman, you could have a man that’s doing it to make it clear that it’s you know, for more than just an individual. But it’s something that maybe you wanna test and you wanna put it out there to see. So the other thing though is at the very top, we have welcome to Jolie Fashion Society and below we have welcome to Jolie Fashion Society. We don’t need it twice. I would say that this top H1 element really should be something impactful that answers the question. So when somebody lands on your website, what is the question that they have in their mind? What are we trying to get them to do? What problem are we solving? Give that to them right here. So what is the problem that you see with the Texas Fashion Society or… Texas fashion in general? What’s the problem for the creative who wants to grow? And then answer that. So that’s a real question, not a rhetorical question. What’s their problem?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I think the lack of support. I really truly feel like a lot of these people that are very creative don’t have support. I’ll be very honest, me working in the financial industry, I do see that fashion is not, or retail in general is just not really, I don’t wanna say highlighted, but maybe somewhere fashion. Fashion’s not really like. Oh, that’s a career until they’re like big names in New York, you know, and in reality, you can be a career in fashion locally, you know, so really, I guess the support of the community through their levels of their career will really be like the pain point of Texas. That’s what I’m saying.
Daniel:
Okay, just real quick, Tricia, and then I’ll pass it over to you. But that to me then suggests, I heard you say career maybe several times. Um, that to me suggests that the pain point for the creatives in fashion in Texas is that it’s hard to scale. It’s hard to grow. So maybe. Um, you need to incorporate the wording here that clearly demonstrates grow your designer career or your fashion career with us. And I wouldn’t use those words, they would need massaging for sure, but you wanna convey that sentiment right there in the very large welcome to Jolie Fashion Society. instead of that. And you can have that a little bit larger below the image, perhaps, and make them feel welcome. But
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
we need to change those words there.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
And that makes complete sense. I think we spoke a little bit before as well that I created the website, you know? And I asked y’all to be as brutal as possible. I like y’all, so I love hearing the feedback to it. I wanna let the audience know it’s okay. But also, it’s very important that, you know, I do see that and since I created the website, you see it in one way until someone comes around and creates it in a different way.
Tricia:
Absolutely. Alyse, I was just going to echo what Daniel said. When I think about what kind of imagery would resonate on your website, I did start thinking about the production cycle. Maybe somebody stitching a dress on a mannequin. I think, and maybe this is part of the problem, I don’t know. When I think about the fashion world, I think about the movies that I have seen that depict the fashion world. And it’s usually high fashion. right, like Paris, you know, kind of that level that does seem really unattainable to most people. In fact, Daniel and I had, we had a client last year, a potential client we were researching, I’m a watch client, and I was in Paris when we were talking with this client, and I went into some of the designer shops on the shop, Olysses, and I felt so out of place. Like here we had this potential fashion, you know, they they had, you know, like really high quality watches. And it just felt so out of unattainable almost to be able to match the level of what I was seeing in Paris. So I love the idea. Does that make sense? I feel
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
No, 100%. And I think
Tricia:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
you’re speaking exactly to people should not feel uncomfortable in fashion.
Tricia:
Yeah. Yeah!
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
And
Tricia:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I know some people would walk into Neiman Marcus, even locally for us and be like, I just don’t fit here. And with what we’re doing here, that’s my goal is to break that stigma of you belong here if you are a creative in fashion.
Tricia:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
We’re here to support you. You don’t have to feel uncomfortable.
Tricia:
Yeah, I love that. And so you could, yes, so again, your imagery could really help that. Maybe not models, maybe, you know, average people making, doing the work, making the dresses, doing the writing, doing the photography, something that people can resonate with, the average person, not, you know, high fashion on Paris, which was completely overwhelming to me when I was there. So I think that is a great, great place to start. I do also have a comment about your black and white theme. I know why you did this. It’s because you’re trying to make it, it’s kind of an artsy thing to do. You want it to look high fashion, but maybe based on what you’ve been telling me, that’s not the direction you wanna go, right?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
And I’m listening to you and I’m gonna interrupt real quick because I understand that. I think when I was creating like the brand picture of this in my head, I wanted to give a very, I don’t even wanna say uppity, but a more of a, this is not just any organization kind of feel.
Tricia:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I might have misstepped with going fully black and white because even on my Instagram I am too. you know, but I’ve never, I didn’t explore, I would love to hear your thoughts on that, Trisha, and Daniel, about kind of what kind of creative way that I could keep that vision of mine without fully sacrificing those monotones that I’m trying to get that feeling for.
Tricia:
Well, what I think you’re trying to do, you’re trying to represent fashion and the ability to go big and be like a high fashion designer. I don’t know what the term would be, but if your target audience are people who are still growing that, I would make it a little bit more, feel like a little bit more, I don’t know. This feels very,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
So, yeah, that’s it. Thanks for watching.
Tricia:
Yes, thank you. Cold is the word
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Be a
Tricia:
I’m
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
little
Tricia:
trying
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
more
Tricia:
to think.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
friendly.
Tricia:
Yeah, I would actually like to see some colors. I would like to see a rack of dresses with the color. And it just because you’re in introducing color doesn’t mean that it can’t be sophisticated. That’s the word I was thinking sophisticated. So you can still make it sophisticated, but maybe not. I feel black and white. That is. That’s a very artsy cold. top designer thing to do, right?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Hey, Yuri! So what I like a lot, I’m over huge, my favorite color is black, so that’s where it stems from is my own love for the dark colors.
Tricia:
Black
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
So…
Tricia:
is still great, but it doesn’t have to be all black and white. So so still keep it clean and simple. That’s my recommendation. Still think clean and simple. And you can have just like your overall you like maybe what you do is your theme is black and white, but your pictures add color, right, the photograph add color. And I do have something to say about white text on black backgrounds. it can be a little bit jarring to the eyes. Sometimes you can, if you look at your title here on your black background, see how there’s kind of a little bit of a glow around the letters? There’s a glow. Typically, I don’t recommend doing white on black. I would flip it. And then we don’t even use actual black Alyse. We always go like for, with a hex color. 333, which is a very dark gray. It’s a very dark gray to help with some of the readability of that just because it’s so stark this way. So yeah, so again, I still think it’s a great idea to do clean and simple and maybe still black and white grays as your base, but then bring in some color with your photography. And that would be my recommendation.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
No, 100%, I completely agree. I didn’t think about doing a fully black page. Like I said, it stems from my love of black. And so, you know, I did try to add in it to be a little more creative. I did add in some backlinks on some of the website to give where I’ve had other articles published about us. So I’m trying to… gather everything y’all taught me in the last, in like the 18 weeks that I was with y’all, and then put it all on the website to be very not so amateur.
Tricia:
No, that’s great. And this is why we love that you’re in our podcast so we can help you with that. And I agree with Daniel that some of the images don’t quite make sense. Like you’ve kind of got this cool, it’s like a cool video behind where published, but is that really, what does that have to do with fashion? Not really anything, right? So yes, going back to the photography, I would kind of rethink some of those choices. I think that’d be really helpful.
Daniel:
So just to demonstrate, you know, the impact that your wording can have, I’ve swapped out your welcome to Jolie Fashion Society that occurs above. And I can’t get it to swap into the desktop view, unfortunately, so it’s stuck in the mobile. But transforming Texas creatives into fashion industry leaders. speaks directly to the creatives. It speaks to their desire to grow, to become leaders, and it highlights that they’re Texan, right?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
Something like that might better resonate with your target demographic. And it might make them sign up
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
inspired.
Daniel:
because they’re ready to transform. They’re ready to do that, right?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
We haven’t spoken to community or support or fostering growth, but the words themselves give that kind of feeling. They do a lot of that for us. And then the content that we provide later, deeper into the page, can do that for us as well, if these
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
seven words don’t cut it.
Tricia:
That is, I read that and I know what this website’s about. It really does make a big difference.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
It changes
Tricia:
Yeah,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
the narrative. It
Tricia:
it
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
does.
Tricia:
does. Yeah.
Daniel:
Um, so your website, um, I’m going to get a little brutal here for a second, Alyse, your website is built
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Feel
Daniel:
using Wix. If I’m not mistaken.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
for it. It is.
Daniel:
Okay.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I know we learned on WordPress.
Daniel:
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I’m not gonna lie. I started building this on WordPress and there were different bumps in the road that I was having regarding. And as simple as I couldn’t get the containers right, okay? Like it was simple things, but it was… At the time, I didn’t want to not have a website up. In the future, I would love to move it over, do a higher quality server or host, and
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
then having those options. Yeah, it is on Wix. I know you told me when
Daniel:
Okay.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I started class, too, about Wix. And it was just easier for me.
Daniel:
No, I understand that it’s easy. And that’s the beauty of tools like Wix, tools like Squarespace. They help non-professionals in the web development world spin up a decent website really quick. And kudos to you for doing that. You’re right. WordPress, they… we advertise WordPress as, oh yeah, it’s easy once you, once you learn it and once your website’s built, it’s easy to maintain and it’s easy to change things. No, it’s not, that’s a lie. It’s not. It’s easy to break things. It’s easy to change things and ruin them, but it takes a lot of know-how.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
So seeing
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I
Daniel:
that
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
knew
Daniel:
you’re,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
you were going to come
Daniel:
You
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
for
Daniel:
started
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
me for
Daniel:
in
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
the
Daniel:
that
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
wig.
Daniel:
space.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I
Daniel:
You
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
knew
Daniel:
started
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
you were going to.
Daniel:
in that space and then you were like, ah, this isn’t working for me. I’m gonna pivot, congratulations. Yes, good, you’ve got to. You can’t just get stuck in on the one thing and give up because it’s not working for you. But the problem with Wix is you don’t have the fine controls, the finer controls. with regard to search engine optimization, with regard to the metadata in the backend from a technical perspective, with regard to performance and accessibility. You have handcuffs with any tool that’s Wix or Squarespace, Shopify, not Figma, Flywheel, they’re all different problems. So… What I would recommend is, not flywheel, Webflow. What I would recommend is. When the budget is there, bring somebody in to change it. Work within the platform that you’ve got currently. Make all of the changes that we recommend that you’re able to. And take note of the ones that you’re not able to change. And prioritize them later. The website is relatively fast. to say that you have a chat bot on your website, it’s doing pretty well, but it’s really quite empty. When we grade the performance of a website, typically the core web vitals are associated with how long it takes the initial above the fold page to load. And so, you know, they’ve probably deferred the JavaScript for the let’s chat until after the, the DOM has loaded. Um, and so that helps spin it up more quickly, which is good. That’s great. But, um, Wix feels less professional. And if you are trying to enter into a space where people are spending thousands of dollars on an item of clothing that they may only wear once. And you’ve spent. whatever you’ve spent over at Wix to spin this site up quick and easy, there’s a disconnect, right? And so we want to put that, put the most professional face forward that we can, that we can afford to, that we have the time to, and then over time improve it. So I’m not saying drop Wix today. I am saying as this grows, drop Wix. move to a more professional place when you’ve
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
And that
Daniel:
got the
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
is
Daniel:
budget.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
the goal. Yeah, and it’s definitely the goal. I do see that in the future, definitely, you know, moving to a more professional site. Like I said, I really wanted to have a platform to start with. It was a brand new, like I said, I’m a single. I guess owner of all of my businesses. So really doing stuff, I don’t wanna say budget friendly cause that’s not true. I’ve invested a lot in a lot of the things that I do personally, but if I was able to create it to just get my message to people where I’m not
Daniel:
financially
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
just relying on
Daniel:
conscious.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
my. Yes, and not just relying on social media. You know how I
Daniel:
Right.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
love social media. That was a very easy way for me to get my message out, but I wanted the website to show, look, I’m really serious about this, and understanding, yeah, it’s not a highly professional website. Like I said, be brutal, and I love to hear it, because I’ve already had plans in the future to switch over. and get someone bring someone in to do this and have it all the little like silver bells and whistles on it that I’m wanting. But I also have to tell myself to slow down a little.
Daniel:
So
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
It was a long place.
Daniel:
let’s talk about a couple of things that you can hopefully do within the platform that you’re currently connected to. And these are items that both Trisha and I independently brought to the conversation before meeting with you. And we’re both like, oh yeah, snap. So the very first thing, and you’re not seeing it on my site because I’ve already closed it, is when I land on your page the very first time, There’s a pop-up
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yeah.
Daniel:
to take an action. Um, that will never work because
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
if this is my first touch, I don’t even know who you are or what you are. Why ever would I give you my digital currency, which is my email?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
Um, I’m only going to feel comfortable and confident doing that after I’ve seen the transforming Texas creatives into fashion industry leaders and I go, Oh snap, that’s me. I’m trying to grow with this. Yeah, help me, right?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
So you wanna kill that instant popup. Popups may work when somebody’s moving their mouse to close the tab, but I would hesitate to believe that that would work under this current scenario.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
I’m curious if you’ve ever had anyone sign up for the very first time when they land on your site and they have that pop-up. You could trigger that pop-up maybe after they’ve been on site for X number of minutes, like two or three minutes, then bring up the pop-up. That might be the perfect opportunity to get them to, oh, snap, yeah, of course, I totally wanna do that, right?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
And the thing is, is on every page at the bottom, there is a space for them to add their email as well.
Daniel:
Right. Well,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
So.
Daniel:
the pop-up could work. I can totally see it working, but not on load
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
right away.
Daniel:
and not on close, right? Not on close. I would have it set at a delay of time on site or on page, depending on what the parameters you have available to you.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
Another thing that Tricia and I both identified was, what? Is the, what is the intention? What do we expect our first touch website visitors to do when they come to our site, to your site? Is it go to the about page, membership, services, forum, shop, contact or search? Search is so big.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yeah.
Daniel:
It’s in your face and. What in the world are they searching for on your website?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
I’m curious if they would ever even use the search bar. Maybe within the forum, we need a search bar because people want to be able to search for a conversation that tracks. But I can’t get
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Great.
Daniel:
to the forum from here unless I’m a member and I’m signed in. So having that search bar straight out in front of my face as big as it is, it feels like a miss.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right, and maybe I need to work on how to access the forum as well because the goal for that is not to have just members being able to speak. I really wanted it to be more of a community space to have conversation. So maybe I need to go in and re structure the requirements to get into it.
Daniel:
At least to access and read.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yes.
Daniel:
That would be one thing. Not to write, not to comment.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Ready.
Daniel:
They need to be members in order for that. Otherwise you’re gonna have bots doing all the work. And it’s gonna get ugly real quick.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Tricia:
Alyse, were you using a theme that maybe had some of these things already in place, like the search bar, or is that something that you can easily turn off?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I did use a theme, but a lot of it’s not even the same.
Tricia:
Okay.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I moved a lot of stuff around, I reorganized, I liked stuff differently. I use a theme as just a mental template for myself. And then mostly I just, it’s like when you like have a house already decorated and you just go in and you redecorate it anyway. That’s kind
Tricia:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
of what
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I use my templates for.
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
It’s
Daniel:
Staging.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
not so much, yeah, it is staging and it helps me kind of see like, okay, this is what they have there, but I don’t really like a whole conversation there. I wanna move it lower or I wanna move it to the right or you know. I always remember y’all saying if I ever put a picture, have it facing the text.
Tricia:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
So
Tricia:
Ha
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I’ve always remember that since.
Tricia:
ha.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
But yes, I did use a template to start. I could probably take off the search
Tricia:
Okay,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
and
Tricia:
yeah,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
it’s
Tricia:
that’s,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
not a huge deal.
Tricia:
okay, cool. Yeah, that’s something that I don’t think is really necessary for the majority of sites unless you have a really content heavy site. And there’s just no reason to use real estate up there for that, right? And another thing I would like to see if you have the option, I see that you have a shop in your, a shop. Sometimes you have the ability to have the shopping cart. up in your nav bar. And I feel like that that’s just a second indicator to people that, oh, I can buy stuff here, right? So
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
I would look into settings and see if that’s an option to have your cart show up on your homepage. It usually is. I also have another thing to say about your header. Your logo is very tiny. And I don’t know if you have the ability to change that. And I would also take the tagline off it. You can’t see the tagline at all. It’s just like a little, little blur. little blur of something there, right? So take
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
the tagline off and see if you can make that logo a little bit bigger. That would be my recommendation.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Would you recommend it staying in the square?
Tricia:
I would have to see what your options are. I think your logo is fine. It’s just not very big. And again,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
I don’t know
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Tricia:
if that’s the limitation of the theme you chose, but hopefully you can just make it a little bigger. That’s,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
can
Tricia:
and
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
adjust
Tricia:
then I think it would
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
it.
Tricia:
work.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I just didn’t want
Tricia:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
to do it. Although I’m adjusting things. I’m like, Oh, that looks fine. I never wanted to be like, Oh, why is that logo so massive for no reason. And I didn’t
Tricia:
Oh no.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
want to
Daniel:
Well,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
make it like weird.
Daniel:
yeah, that’s a very, very valid point. That’s something that we complain about as designer
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Thanks for
Daniel:
developers
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
watching!
Daniel:
all the time is our clients are like, oh, I want the logo bigger. You’ve heard us complain about it in class, I’m sure.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yeah.
Daniel:
So you’re right. It shouldn’t be massive in your face, but it could stand to be a fair bit bigger and still not feel like it’s in your face, especially if we get rid of the search bar.
Tricia:
Yeah.
Daniel:
Another thing that needs to be bigger is your nav items. They’re all really quite small.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
And I don’t feel like they’re easy to access. I feel like they’re probably what 14 point font, maybe 15, they could probably be 18 or 20 and
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Probably
Daniel:
still
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I know
Daniel:
work
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
when I
Daniel:
really
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
created
Daniel:
well.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
the website I had it more intended for like mobile use
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Which is probably why I’m gonna pull it up on my phone real quick
Daniel:
And on mobile, they’re sized really well. So I wouldn’t
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Good, because
Daniel:
adjust
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I
Daniel:
anything
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
made sure to
Daniel:
on
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
do them
Daniel:
mobile.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
really well on mobile.
Daniel:
Yep, yep.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yeah, so I just because I feel like when someone goes to look especially nowadays everyone’s using their phone Um
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
having that really great mobile site is a lot more important than doing it I feel like
Daniel:
for desktop,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
just whenever
Daniel:
yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I use my stuff I use my phone a lot more when i’m looking up stuff and when i’m on the website
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
But I am creating the website with it built out on To a laptop to start if that makes sense
Tricia:
Well, I would say
Daniel:
Yeah.
Tricia:
as a designer, you need to think about both formats. For sure, people are using their phones and that’s super important, but desktop is still widely
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Go wrong.
Tricia:
used. Yeah, exactly. So you do need to consider that as well. Another thing I wanted to point out, Alyse, is I can tell that your nav is aligned. differently than the logo is. Your logo is inside the, what we call the fixed area of your website, whereas your nav is going wide. And so if when you like move the screen, they don’t move together. Do you see that? Like your logo ends up
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
like way over here on the right and your nav is way over on the left. So that might be another setting. Just make sure you’re either going full width for both or fixed width for both. Go and
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Tricia:
check that setting.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I will.
Tricia:
Yeah. So I was going to talk about the chat bot, Daniel. Should we talk about the chat
Daniel:
Yeah.
Tricia:
bot?
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Thank you.
Tricia:
So we noticed you have a rather large chat bot here. That’s
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I’m sorry.
Tricia:
another thing that we don’t typically see on this kind of a website. And how are you using that? Is it helpful or is it just kind of a feature that’s not being used?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I do get some questions. It’s just kind of for those people that want to ask the really short questions. I’m not getting it like massive in the senses of like, it’s constantly used. I am getting some of the, let me, I’m looking real quick. I do get people, but you know, sometimes they’re like spam. So it’s like, oh, you
Daniel:
Well.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
want to update your website? I’m like, no. I’ll do it myself.
Daniel:
Let’s try to unpack what questions you are getting, because what I’m not seeing here is a frequently asked questions page, which
Tricia:
Yes.
Daniel:
would
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
help with search engine optimization, it would help with getting potential feature snippets in Google search results, and it would reduce the need for something like a chatbot. And then the contact page itself, could be more encouraging for those harder questions to answer.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
So I would recommend building a fax page and having all of those FAQs there, easy for people to find, and then having the contact page really open to If you have any questions that are not answered in the facts, come to my contact and fill out the form. So that will link
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Mm-hmm.
Daniel:
over to your contact page. And then the contact content can say, have any questions that aren’t in the facts,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
hit me. I’m happy, I’m here for you. Or join the forum to answer, to look for other questions that are more related to fashion rather than the society.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
Um, but so I feel like, uh, the chat bot, it’s good that it’s being used. You now have the data, you know, as we say in class, you either start with data or you build data. So you’ve built some data, use that data to reverse engineer what types of FAQs you need, at least from the onset for building that page. Uh, but then maybe kill the chat bot. The chat
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
bot. removing the chat bot feature from your website may also improve the user experience because it could potentially be slowing the page performance down.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
And if you remove it, then your performance score could go up five, 10 points. Depending
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
on how it’s integrated, it may not have any impact at all. video animation that’s playing behind the We’re Published page. I don’t recall if she mentioned the black text on the white buttons, but it’s so thin I can’t see it.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
So we need to make that font weight like
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
thicker.
Daniel:
five or six hundred for Voyage Dallas and Canvas Rebel to make it
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
really stand apart. Okay. Otherwise it just disappears into the white. Um, and we did talk in class a lot about choosing your images, um, making them meaningful. I, that also applies to your animations.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
This animation doesn’t really mean anything to me. It’s cool looking. It’s cool looking, but it doesn’t
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I think that’s
Daniel:
mean
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
where I’m
Daniel:
anything
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
trying
Daniel:
to
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
to
Daniel:
me.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
get in the energy of bringing in more of a technology focused field since
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
we were, you know, kind of bringing up, doing it a little more. Sci-fi kind of I don’t I don’t know
Daniel:
No,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
how to put
Daniel:
I,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
it I feel like
Daniel:
yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
when fashion is going
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
in with AI like that gives me that sci-fi
Daniel:
Mm hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
feeling that I wanted
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
to give My audience when they were going to look at things like oh, it’s super Wow, that’s really different of the page to do then, you know Because like I said, I think AI fashion is like the next frontier and we’re about to head there. So
Daniel:
Well, I see where you’re going with that. Yeah, I see where you’re going with that. I like that. And it does give me that feeling. But the news, the links that I go to don’t really correlate to that same concept. So I would say it has an application somewhere, but maybe to a link that’s talking about integrating AI in fashion,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yeah.
Daniel:
okay?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay. Great.
Daniel:
and then going that direction.
Tricia:
Alyse, so I am looking at your membership page and I have a question. How do I become a member?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Um,
Tricia:
Hahaha!
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
literally at the moment all I have is contact us. Um, I have not built out that page as well as I want and intend to. Um I was really trying just to focus on creating a very beautiful first step, if that makes sense. Like I want people to understand what we’re doing. I didn’t, I have not pushed memberships hard at all. I really wanna just build the community’s trust and say like, look, this is not some scammy thing. I’m not gonna try to like poach you for money right away. This is what we’re doing. This is what we’re, like, this is what we wanna get done. So. You’re right, it hasn’t fully been developed thoroughly yet.
Tricia:
So this is interesting that you said that this, it sounds like the membership may not be one of your, the primary focuses of your program. Would you see that that’s true? Is that not what you’re focusing on?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
In the future it will be.
Tricia:
Okay?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I am giving myself like about a year to a year and a half of just pure, I want to build the trust of the fashion community. Because then after that people will know what you’re about, know what you are doing and then they’ll be like, okay, well now I’d like to be a member. I know what you’re doing, I see your vision. I was telling y’all like. I’m really trying to support that creative. And so building the trust of the fashion creative is like, I’m a nobody in a lot of cities. Nobody knows who I am. They don’t know my background. And so what I’m trying to do is just build the trust of like, look, I’m true to my word. I’ve gone to the Valley multiple times. I had my launch party in Austin. I have a trip to Dallas coming up for fashion that I’m going to. I have a trip to Houston as well in August. So I’m trying to show Texas, like I’m a singular like owner of this, but I am going to go. I’m true to my word, you know, I’m going to go support your cities I’m gonna go show up and then I’ll push memberships when people are like, okay, like Yes, I see what you’re doing. You’re saying true to your word. You’re not being the fashion industry What a problem is is that it’s scammy sometimes depending on organizations It’s a very easy way to promise a lot and not give a lot So you can be like, oh,
Daniel:
So.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
join my model camp. Here’s an example. And they go around all the US. Join a model camp. You can be a published model. You can get signed with an agency. And the agency’s the model camp. It’s not a real agency. It’s the model camp. You take photos, and the photos just end up on their social media. And
Tricia:
Okay.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
so I’m very much trying to do stuff. without requiring people to pay at first so that I could build that trust. Like, look, I’m not in this for your money. I’m not gonna promise you these things because you’re gonna give me membership money.
Tricia:
Okay.
Daniel:
All right, but
Tricia:
Haha.
Daniel:
how does this business thrive?
Tricia:
Yes!
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Not wrong. So that’s why I say in the future. I’ve been at this for about since October and then I launched that it was mine because I kept it a secret for a while and then I launched that it was mine officially in February. So the memberships will be coming up more prominently in the fall where I’ll start marketing that more. Right now I’m just trying to get… a few events in different cities to show that I travel and then build up just kind of like my connections. So when I go work in those cities, then you know, I go one time as an introductory. So I do business development in my financial institution. So introductory visits are always super important to me. And then I follow up with, okay, now this is what I’m selling instead of just I don’t want to hard hit them. It’s not
Daniel:
Sure.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I don’t I don’t like functioning like that. So I didn’t want to do it to others
Daniel:
No, and that’s fair and that’s great. But we have a disconnect. On one page, you’re eventually selling memberships and that’s probably how you’re driving the bulk of the revenue for the company. On your about page, however, you have donations and it feels like a major disconnect to be… accepting donations for a for-profit business.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
So it was two different, and I understand, it’s two different things. I’m creating a scholarship. So
Daniel:
Okay,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
within
Daniel:
so.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
the organization, the donations are for a scholarship. Everyone, all the students that are under the membership of the protege one,
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
will have an opportunity to get the scholarship. And so my goal is to help graduating seniors in their fashion degrees have a little money. to either finish out their last semester, or like mostly, it’s mostly for school. It’s just to help them out in their last semester. So when they do be able to go be a creative after school, they don’t have to go work a lower pay grade retail job and give up their dreams of not doing
Daniel:
Sure,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
design or
Daniel:
which is
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
not
Daniel:
great.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
doing the creative aspect.
Daniel:
And that’s fantastic. I would say you need a dedicated page to that and have that a separate section where you can encourage others to donate towards the Protege membership scholarship. But have it a separate ask entirely. Right now it looks like that money is going to you. because it’s
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay, because I’m within
Daniel:
right next
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
the same
Daniel:
to it.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
aspect.
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
So Alyse, something you just said is really interesting to me. So you are traveling and you’re pitching this. OK,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Mm-hmm.
Tricia:
so this is good to know. You are, it sounds like primarily you are making connections first. You’re talking with people first. And this is probably the second touch. After you talk to them, you say, here’s my website where you can learn more. And the
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
purpose of your website is to help establish you as an as authentic, trustworthy, space and not scammy. That’s those other words that you used, right?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
Okay, so this is good to know. I think that you really need to evaluate your content and the hierarchy of things, right? So
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
a lot of times when people are looking at a nav, for instance, the order of the things you have in your nav kind of highlight what’s most important on that. on the website. So
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
you have home you have about the next thing you have is memberships I honestly for me, thought that that was a very high priority for your site. And you’re saying that’s actually something you’re going to work on down the road that the line that that’s actually not what you’re primarily using this website for yet. That’s like a side idea, right? So
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right. So also,
Tricia:
I would
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
like we were talking about that second, sorry, real quick, that second tension point, my main source of connection with people is also social media. So
Tricia:
Okay.
Daniel:
Yeah,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
you
Daniel:
Instagram.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
go to the web, my social media first, and then you go to the website. So it,
Tricia:
Okay.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I wanted it to be a deeper dive into Jolie, what they’re not seeing on the, on the social media, but that correlates efficiently to where it’s like, oh, I see her traveling because I post all our videos of everywhere we go I post where we’re going all the shows I do I take videos I make a real like I Dedicate that page to that And then okay, look I see her she’s moving everywhere Oh, how do I learn more about this? and so the website supposed to be not a capture but a place where people can sit and read and learn and Truly enjoy if you’re going to the Instagram connected to my face. That is my personal Instagram just saying
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Tricia:
think that your website could really benefit from a blog, Alyse. Having a blog
Daniel:
Oh yeah.
Tricia:
where you’re writing about your travels and posting pictures from your travels and I’m doing this now and I’m about to go here and I just went to this city.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
It’s a hidden page right now, so I’m working on that. That’s
Tricia:
Yes.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
where I’m also getting, I’m trying to get in, if you go back to the home page, at the bottom it’s saying, I’m looking for bloggers. I did not give a connection to that, but I’m basically trying to get them to inquire to where if they wrote about the up and coming fashion season, what’s the summer trends, and they wanna write about it. I want to give them that space, calling all fashion bloggers and writers. And yeah, maybe it’s not displayed as well, which we’ve talked about a lot of the colorations and stuff and I completely understand. But it’s a work in progress. I do have a newsletter that goes out right now. Not. consistently because I don’t have enough content yet. I don’t want to send something out and it’s like, oh great, she sent me another email and it has nothing in it.
Daniel:
Yeah. Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I delete them or I just unsubscribe. So instead of, but at some point when a blogger submits, there’s an option of that blog piece, it to be cropped and put into the newsletter. So they get highlighted again through the people that actually interact with us.
Tricia:
That
Daniel:
And
Tricia:
is a great
Daniel:
I think
Tricia:
idea.
Daniel:
that that’s a great idea. It’s not too premature to be advertising it, but you want to make sure that all of the necessary pieces are soon to be in play. Otherwise it does, we need a coming soon feature, right? Something like that, that makes it clear
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
introductory
Daniel:
that it’s
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
blog
Daniel:
not there yet.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
that I’m gonna post soon. I’m finishing it up actually this week, this weekend. So the blog is very like within hopefully the next week. It should be up and like a space for them to see and read.
Daniel:
And so we’ve got this join the club down at the bottom. This feels a little confusing. Am I joining the membership when I sign up or am I joining the newsletter membership when I sign up? Or is
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
The
Daniel:
it
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
newsletter.
Daniel:
one in the same? Okay, so
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
No,
Daniel:
with
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
it’s
Daniel:
it
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
the
Daniel:
being
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
newsletter.
Daniel:
the newsletter, I would have that CTA closer. to something about the newsletter itself, right? I know
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
we have the email list here, but that doesn’t mention the newsletter. And it doesn’t have to be connected to this because this is calling for the bloggers referencing the newsletter.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
So we need some other information highlighting there’s a bi-weekly newsletter, join here, subscribe here.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right, and I think my, where I’ve been also not putting as much on my home page, and I want your honest opinion about this, I didn’t want the home page to be like a mile long.
Daniel:
Right. I think that that’s accurate.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
But you do need your home page to at least hit on the key points. And then all of these different items can dial deeper in. We need to link
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
to the page that actually talks about the newsletter that may have like, this is the. the most recent newsletter, you can read it for free here. And so you could dynamically perhaps pull in recent newsletters to that page so that they can see, oh man, yeah, this is a really good newsletter. I would love to receive this in my inbox so that when they do subscribe, they are genuine and they will open your newsletters because they know what’s inside that box. So yes, you would wanna link to describing the newsletter you would want to link to your memberships you’re right you don’t want to to be too heavy with content that’s what the other pages the internal pages are for but we need to at least be a little bit more clear with the ask or the directives
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
right because when somebody signs up as a member they are not necessarily unless you make it abundantly clear They’re not necessarily joining the newsletter. They may want to be members and they may not want to receive your bi-weekly emails.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
Right? So they have to opt in rather than opt out. And so you’ll need to be able to segment those. Well, similarly, if I see join the club and I don’t know that this is for the newsletter, I might think because like Tricia was saying, the membership signing up for the membership is kind of confusing. I might think that I’m signing up for membership with this. So we need to have
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
more clear terms over in the membership area that say, membership is currently locked. It will be unlocked in the fall of 2023 for new members to join, right? And then that makes it clear for me.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right, and then
Daniel:
So
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
it’s like more about
Daniel:
just,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
coming soon.
Daniel:
yeah, yeah. And from a behavioral economics kind of perspective, psychological perspective, the reference to membership is currently locked and will be unlocked could mean a lot of different things. It sounds like it’s active and I’m not allowed to join exclusive, right? As opposed to coming soon, sounds like underdeveloped.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right, right, right.
Daniel:
Right? So,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Just the way you word stuff.
Daniel:
uh-huh. So.
Tricia:
police. So to-
Daniel:
I’m sorry, I just wanted to say one more thing on your about page. I know that
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yes.
Daniel:
this Instagram links to your personal Instagram and I know that you’re big on Instagram. I would have another one next to it for LinkedIn and I would be clear somewhere that this is a visit, a Lisa’s personal social media accounts because there’s no difference between these two icons to tell me that one takes me to the. JFS Insta and the other takes me to the ADZ Insta.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
That
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I do
Tricia:
is a
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
a
Tricia:
really
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
lot
Tricia:
good
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
of
Tricia:
point.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
fact that it is a great point. I do a lot of fashion stuff on my personal Instagram as well that I post. So
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
which is why I thought it was important to include because I am
Daniel:
Sure.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
signed. I don’t know. I didn’t say that throughout this whole thing. I’m signed with agencies in New York, LA and Louisiana for acting and modeling. So, and I also am a talent agent for fashion
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
creatives that are hair, makeup, and stylists out of Chicago. So I am an active working member in the industry. And I wanted people to know, hey, this lady that created this, it’s not just, oh, a side passion. Like she’s an active working member that’s already currently involved in larger markets.
Tricia:
And you talk about that in your Meet the Owner section, which I think is great. Those are really great things to highlight and very cool. Congratulations, you’re
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Thanks.
Tricia:
making your way, my friend. It’s awesome.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
a lot.
Daniel:
Legit.
Tricia:
Yeah, you do. Just echoing what Daniel was kind of saying about your homepage again, do use that real estate to just direct people to what’s most important in the website, right? That’s so it doesn’t have to be long and it shouldn’t be just like you said, spaces to direct people to the most important content on your site. And then I would suggest back to your home, your nav. Think about the hierarchy again. I think about is in a good place because that is so important. I would build out that page, but maybe you put memberships and the forum under about because those aren’t taking priority right now, but there are things that are kind of about you. And then that’s gonna move services over, which seems like a big thing you’re working on right now, because that has to do with what you’re presenting to these clients, potential clients that you’re talking to, right? And
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
then you’ll have shop, which should be at the end, because it’s just, it’s kind of a side thing you’re doing. And then end with contact. And on your contact page, you’ll see that you have a contact page that you can use to get in touch with your clients. we were noticing, well one thing that we noticed is you have this little social media Instagram button above your form, which I don’t think really needs to be there because you already have the icon in your footer. And
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
it’s funny because it’s like really bright, it’s like the only color on the page. So it’s like social media.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
And I’m like, yeah, check us out.
Tricia:
So you don’t need that there because you clearly have the So yeah, so that’s what I would say about that. And again, contact us. I would probably choose some images here that represent you more. Maybe even pictures of you on here. Because when people are contacting us, who are they contacting? They’re contacting you, right?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
So I think that would make sense to have it obvious that you are the one they are contacting.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
It’s me,
Tricia:
Yeah,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
not
Tricia:
it’s
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
a
Tricia:
you.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
broken up face.
Tricia:
Exactly. Exactly.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Makes sense.
Daniel:
So there were two other small points. I need to… up on the screen. One of them, well they’re both typos. So on the about page you reference the exclusive follow ship of the Texas Fashion Elite. Follow ship is actually a word and it means followers rather than leaders, but you’re
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
really trying to set a leadership standard. So fellowship
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yeah.
Daniel:
and that tracks because that’s the word that you use on another space. And then I can’t remember where it was, life and, oh. it oh live and breathe it on the same page that breathe
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
needs an E that’s like live and breath it
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Daniel:
so it needs an E
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Oops,
Daniel:
minor
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
sorry.
Daniel:
minor things yeah that’s all right
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I can read it a thousand times and I probably would never catch it.
Daniel:
oh I know
Tricia:
This…
Daniel:
me meet I’m the same way I’m the
Tricia:
Yeah.
Daniel:
same way
Tricia:
We typically have somebody read through the websites, we design a lease and proofread it for us because just like you said, when you’ve looked at it and you’ve read your own content, 50 times you’d miss stuff.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
So it’s always good to get another pair of eyes on it. Something I noticed, and I noticed this specifically on the memberships page is you’re also misusing caps. Like you have a lot of words and caps that don’t need to be in caps. So go
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Okay.
Tricia:
in and check that.
Daniel:
Um, right. So, uh, we haven’t really talked much about. Your, your current digital marketing practices outside of your website. We’ve, we’ve mentioned that you’ve got your two different Instagram channels. You do a lot of live events, which is, uh, traditional marketing.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
Um, I’m guessing that at this stage you’re not running any paid ads and that would make sense. I wouldn’t spend any money on paid ads yet, not until…
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
social actually.
Daniel:
Are you? Okay.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
On social
Daniel:
And
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I do.
Daniel:
what’s the goal? What is your objective with running those ads on social?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
larger reach. I’m really going for more of just a reach. I’m trying to get
Daniel:
Okay,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
more people
Daniel:
so it’s.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
to see my content on social
Daniel:
Okay,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
at least.
Daniel:
are you right? So you’re not driving people to your website
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
No.
Daniel:
yet. That’s not the objective. It’s to get more engagement, larger follower base, something like that.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
Okay. You know this from class. I’m just gonna go ahead and mention it. I highly recommend against running paid ads for followers on Meta. Facebook in particular. Instagram is slightly different, especially if you’re trying to establish yourself as an influencer and you’re running it on your personal Instagram page rather than your business Instagram account. But on Facebook, it’s going to go against you. seeing that you don’t have Facebook advertised anywhere in here, I’m assuming that we’re safe from that. But what I would do is try to, like you said, reach the simple objective for brand awareness, getting the message out, getting people to come and see your account is fine. But what could end up happening even in Insta is you get a very large follower base because you gone after it, but they’re not genuine followers. And that will dilute the efficacy of your messaging being spread organically without paid ads later. So the larger your non-genuine follower base grows, the more expensive it’s going to get over time for you to actually get your messaging out to people who genuinely might care. Whereas,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Daniel:
if you are trying to establish yourself as an influencer, and you can get yourself up to, you know, 100,000 followers, and you’re harnessing those numbers, the vanity metrics to demonstrate, hey, look, this is how many followers I have. That’s great, but you need to make real sure that those followers are also engaging with your posts because anyone with any sense will look at your follower base and then look at the engagement numbers and
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
and be
Daniel:
see
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
like,
Daniel:
there’s
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
it’s not
Daniel:
a mismatch.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
adding up.
Daniel:
And then, yeah, you’ll be like, yeah, you bought those.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yeah,
Daniel:
One way
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I’ve
Daniel:
or
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
seen
Daniel:
another,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
people
Daniel:
you
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
at
Daniel:
bought
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
that bottom
Daniel:
them.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
and it’s like
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
why you’re totally messing up your metrics on that like your
Daniel:
Right.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
numbers of
Daniel:
Right.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
how many people follow you are trash compared to like your real like views.
Daniel:
Right, exactly
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
No,
Daniel:
right.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
and I understand when I did I’ve laid off a lot on the paid ads for social media, especially for Julie Because it was initially just to try to get knowledge out like just oh, this
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
is a new organization. I Don’t say get some followers but get people that would look at the ad and be like, okay I follow and then they do
Tricia:
So for
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
That’s
Tricia:
you,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
basically it.
Tricia:
it seems like having the right followers is super important. Have you ever used influencers as guests? Have you tried doing that? This feels like something that might work in your space.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
not yet I do have some goals of the future maybe I was thinking of doing see the thing is like I’m doing a lot so
Tricia:
Yes.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
at some point I would love
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
to do like like not a podcast, but a podcast in a sense of where I can get highly respected fashion creatives in the industry, bigger, larger markets, to have conversation, whether that’s in their respective fields. So if it’s a designer, talk about how they got started, give some tips and tricks, kind of like what we’re doing here, but for the fashion creative. And I have a friend that’s in New York, she’s a model, and… We have it scheduled soon. She works a lot, so it’s always like, oh, I’ll do it, but then, so I have it TBD, but she’s gonna come on and talk about modeling. she got started, how she started it all, and then the goal is to record that and put that on the website. So over time having a bunch of those where people can opt in of seeing it live and asking live questions, kind of like a Zoom, record it, and then on demand.
Tricia:
I think a podcast is a great idea for your business. That makes so much sense, Alyse, and I think you would have so much interest. In fact, it’s interesting, we have another student who is a fashion photographer that we are interviewing in about two weeks. I’m gonna connect you two.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Yes!
Tricia:
You’re doing some similar things. That is such a great idea. I think that that is… would produce a lot of content for you too. That’s why Daniel and I started our podcast. This is a good way for us to create content for our own social media and for YouTube
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
and Instagram Reels. Are you on TikTok? Because it seems like TikTok would be good for you too.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I personally am, Jolie is not. So um. I dabble in to talk. It’s not my favorite platform.
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I’m a huge Instagram per shockingly. It’s not my favorite. It’s I love Instagram. So my heart’s with Instagram. And then obviously, since Facebook’s in meta, I know how to do Facebook too. Because that my financial institution, I do all of it except tick tock. So I do Twitter, LinkedIn, and all of that.
Tricia:
So this brings up an interesting question I have that I feel will resonate with a lot of people listening to our show. So there’s a balance when you are choosing which social media platforms to focus on. And it’s the balance is where are where is my target audience? What platform is my target audience using versus what do I personally like using? What do I feel comfortable using? How much time do I have to dedicate to this? It’s a balance. So how do you see that playing out? You’re in the fashion world. Where do you feel like your potential clients and followers are visiting most? Where do they live?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
I do have to say Instagram. A
Tricia:
Okay?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
lot of these startup fashion designers do like Instagram to sell and do a little more like guerrilla selling, I like to say. Not guerrilla marketing, but it’s like guerrilla selling where they just throw it on a picture and they try to sell it that way. I do intend on doing TikToks in the future. I have, so all the videos I’ve created for Jolie, I’ve created them on a separate platform and then I uploaded them onto Instagram. So the videos are already pre-created. I just need to add songs to them. So then that means I can keep all the content, it being my own without having to save it and Instagram has, yeah, I hate the watermarks and all that, no. I do see myself going to… Either YouTube or TikTok. YouTube because of the YouTube reels or the shorts. That’s super, super popular right now, and it’s only growing. And I’ve gotten some insight from, I don’t know if you know, the Kim Dawson Agency in Dallas. They’re a really, like, they’re a legitimate, like, high quality agency. A lot of girls come out, they start in Dallas, and then they’ll go to New York through Kim Dawson. So the way that works would be like, I live in Tech, I live in San Antonio, I have a mother agency locally. She takes care of me. I sign in Dallas. She gets 10% and then or 5% and then Kim Dawson gets 10% of my work And then what Kim Dawson does will connect me with another market So their goal is to get me to another market. So then the money they make they’ll get money It kind of like it’s like a funnel down but
Daniel:
Yeah.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
um They’ve told me that YouTube shorts way to go and I talked to them in November So I’m shooting for YouTube more so than TikTok just because I feel like creating a YouTube video is a little more long-term and it doesn’t need to be so hot so fast. TikTok, it’s like, oh God, I have to always think on my toes which is fine because I love social media which is my other business, but it’s like, not me, is it, I don’t know,
Tricia:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
it’s okay. I do it for myself, but. Business-wise, it’s a hit or miss for your business. I think
Daniel:
Yep,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
TikTok is.
Tricia:
I agree. You’re
Daniel:
I do
Tricia:
right
Daniel:
too.
Tricia:
that YouTube shorts are the fastest growing social media platform right now. And what’s really cool is if you are doing a lot of video, it’s pretty easy to put them on a real YouTube short and then TikTok if you want to or not, right?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Right.
Tricia:
That’s what’s so great. Anytime I’m shooting video for a client, I have the different links that real requirements or the short requirements or TikTok in my head as I’m filming. or video that’s under a minute, because then I know I can go and use it everywhere, right? So shorts are only a minute, you only get 60 seconds right now. So that tends to be the first thing I focus on, and then I can go make it into a reel and put on TikTok. So yeah, that’s a really good, if you know that most of your follower base is on Instagram, then focus on that and some reels. But yes, maybe consider. making your instead of 90 seconds, which is what you can do for a real consider filming, making real or video that’s 60 seconds. And then you can go put it on YouTube too, and kind
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Which
Tricia:
of
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
is
Tricia:
kill
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
shocking
Tricia:
two birds
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
because
Tricia:
with
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
when it
Tricia:
one
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
comes
Tricia:
stone.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
to even reels on Instagram, they are telling you to hit about 10 seconds. That’s after
Daniel:
Yeah,
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
that, people
Daniel:
10
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
are trying
Daniel:
to 15
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
to scroll
Daniel:
seconds.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
after that. So if you don’t create
Daniel:
That’s
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
like a
Daniel:
right.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
good 10 second reel, like, kind of
Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
like give it up. So I try to do a few short reels here and there for the reels on Instagram and then periodically after that. And obviously my show, like the shows that I’m recording that are a little longer, they’ll be about a minute. So.
Daniel:
Well, this has been a really great conversation, Alyse. We’ve loved having you. We
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Thank
Daniel:
do need
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
you.
Daniel:
to wrap it up, but before we do, is there one little golden nugget, one key takeaway that you want to tell the creatives in the fashion world, be they in Texas or anywhere else, about what you’re doing or just anything at all?
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
two things. One, don’t be afraid to ask for help and be willing to take all advice. Not all advice is good advice, but if you’re willing to listen to it and digest it a little bit, it could be useful for you. And then for Jolie, you know, we’re here for everyone and I truly mean that if you have questions, I might not know them, but someone else in the industry will that I know and there’s there’s always room at the table for people in fashion and it doesn’t have to be nasty like it used to be is you know everyone can have their space you like photography there could be another photographer I mean the world is huge why stop at one you know
Daniel:
Right, and that’s Jolie Fashion Society, J-O-L-I, fashionsociety.com. Once again, thank you so much, Alyse, for joining us. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Lovely seeing you, as always. And hope to hear more about the success of Jolie as it grows. Thank you.
Alyse Deanda-Zagada:
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Tricia:
Bye, Lies!