Hey, it's Jeane 👋

This week's memo is a little different. No algorithm news. Just the best hour of my week, and the habit I'm starting because of it.

I gave myself a 2 out of 5

This week Selena Soo was the guest on Julie Chenell's Digital Insiders call. Selena wrote the book Rich Relationships, and she had all of us score ourselves on three things.

Build: do you know the right people for where you're headed? I gave myself a 4.

Nurture: do you actually stay in touch with them? I gave myself a 2.

Activate: when it counts, do those people show up for you? Another 4.

That 2 is the cobbler's kids problem again. On a small team, client work wins every day, and the people who matter most get "I'll reach out next week" for months.

This connects to everything else in this memo. Google and AI help strangers find you. But our best clients almost always come through referral and reputation, and I'd bet yours do too. That's findability as well, and it only works if people remember you.

Three things I wrote down

Here's the actual page from my notebook.

1. Ask for one thing. Selena's GIVE formula: gratitude (thank them first), inspire (share why it matters), very specific (one clear ask, not seven options), and an easy out (make no a comfortable answer).

2. Two by two. After you meet someone you want to know better, plan two meaningful touches a month for two months. Post the photo of the two of you. Send the guide they mentioned needing. One touch is nice. Four build a foundation.

3. Gift your service. I asked Selena how to turn a happy client into someone who opens their network. Her answer: stay in touch, and give a gift you can manage. The writer who helped with her book handed her a certificate for 18 months of extra help when their project ended. Or make it one your client can pass to a VIP of theirs.

Now let me try her formula on you

Thank you for opening this every week. You're the reason I keep writing it.

Small businesses like ours grow the way Selena described, one trusted person telling another. Julie Chenell, who hosted that call, is a Website HQ client. When she changed her name, we spent about 14 months moving it across four websites and all of her Google records, checking her socials and going through her backlinks. She kept her rankings and her traffic the whole way. If you've ever worried about being found, that's about the hardest findability test there is.

Then, without me asking, she told her newsletter list, "She's also the person who helped me with the monumental task of changing my name across all my digital real estate." People reached out to us because of that one sentence.

So here's my one ask. If you know a business owner whose WordPress site is a constant headache, introduce us. A quick email with me copied (jeane@websitehq.com) is perfect, or they can just mention your name when they reach out. If they join Site Care Club, we send you $200 as a thank-you.

And if nobody comes to mind, that's completely fine. I'm just glad you're here.

(That was G-I-V-E, start to finish. Steal it for your Friday batch.)

See you next week,
Jeane (sounds like Genie) Sumner
Website HQ + Findability OS

P.S. Selena's book is Rich Relationships, and it's full of the exact scripts she uses for all of this. Here's the link (it's my affiliate link, so I earn a small commission if you buy).

P.P.S. Know someone who would like a note like this every week? Forward it. They can subscribe here: websitehq.kit.com/findable-email​

P.P.S.S. I always get asked about my notebook. It's a brand called Unruled, and the notebooks are ahhh-mazing!