Marketing Stealth to Startups with Lysa Miller, Founder and CEO of Ladybugz Interactive Agency

Well, Lisa is delightful and we're really excited to share this interview with you. She comes from such an interesting perspective in the biotech space and I just can't wait for you to hear all of her insights.

So Lisa has a very cool insight into biotechs because what Lisa does is helps them think about their digital marketing, including their websites. She even helps with naming biotechs. I mean, just all the things that you think of when you think of a biotech company. Lisa has touched in some capacity. She has written the copy that you see on their website. She's done it all and it's a super cool field. She has a really interesting niche and I think people will learn so much from this. If you are interested in being in marketing and thinking about a biotech niche, perfect for you. If you are in biotech or you are a founder and thinking about how do I build my brand awareness? This is your episode.

Welcome to Building Biotechs by Recredomics Consulting. We've helped over 90 biotech, life sciences and venture capital firms strategize and hire thousands of employees to scale companies that impact human health. We speak with those at the forefront of growing biotechs to learn their tactics on building these companies from the ground up. I'm Karina Klingman, founder and principal at Recruitomics Consulting. Enjoy the show. So Lisa is the founder and CEO of Ladybugs with a Z Interactive Agency. And so they do all of the web design, the digital marketing, everything that goes into that kind of marketing and branding and awareness space from stealth mode companies, which is really interesting because what can you even say about stealth mode companies all the way through companies that are publicly traded?

Yeah.

She's also just an incredibly kind person and she has some really cool thoughts around networking and she's done some interesting things in that space. So without further ado, here's the episode. Hope you enjoy it.

We have been so looking forward to this conversation though I think ever since we chatted a few weeks ago, we've just thought that this is going to be a really insightful conversation. So thank you for joining us.

Yeah, thanks for having me. Awesome.

So we always love to ask our guests about their career path. So what did you want to be when you were 7? What are you now? And how in the world did you get there?

I guess I think I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, even though I didn't really realize that. So, you know, as a kid I had all these big dreams and stuff like that, but I've always been a writer, so Whatever career I've had writing kind of has driven that along with getting into design and web design and user experience and network, you know, all of that stuff combined together. But it all sort of stemmed from writing.

Very cool. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing now and a little bit of your day to day?

Yeah. So I just finished writing a portfolio write up for a startup that we just launched yesterday, which is awesome. It was called Tacit Therapeutics and they wanted this disruptive website. So it's very colorful and very edgy and so they just really wanted to stand out in a crowded marketplace. So that's what we do. We help biotechs tell their stories, create their vision and bring that to life digitally.

I think that is so interesting because it is such a niche, but it's so needed. I have so many questions, so this will be great. I really appreciate you being here to answer all of my questions, but I guess my first question is, what drew you to the niche? What made you think like, yes, it's biotechs that really need the help?

I think it was originally. I had previously had an agency and I had done a little there and at my next agency we continued to see a little bit trickle in, but we weren't winning a ton of it. So I was trying to figure out how could I win these and what do they need and how can we place ourselves in a position to give them the best product that they need. So it kind of started like that. It started with just a few trickling in and then I was just like they were just really successful. Our agile process really worked for them. We, we were really able to kind of walk this path of understanding their vision and getting them to their vision rather than us making the decisions and us telling them what they need to do. We really allow them to work in this collaborative environment. So we started seeing that a little bit and so I kind of went back to basic marketing which like product pricing issue and so what do they need? How much are they willing to spend? And then, you know, how do we promote this? So that was kind of my idea behind it. And the other reason we started doing it a lot more is because we just really, truly enjoyed it. It really allowed our design team to exercise their top level skills and not be bound to basic websites for commercial or manufacturing. We really enjoy helping biotech stand out in the space and telling their stories. Those are all of the reasons and we love doing it and they just keep on doing it.

What size are these companies like Paint the picture. Who are these companies that hire you and sort of what stage or size are they?

Basically we work with everybody from stealth to public. Some of the bigger ones that are maybe going public just really need to retell their story, revisit the site they may have done, revisit some of their messaging, improve maybe some of their different explanations of their technology and speak to different users because there's all different sort of phases that these companies go through. So, so one phase of their growth might be just speaking to investors. The next phase of their growth might be speaking to partners. The next phase of their growth might be other biotech companies. So it just really depends where they are. But I would say the majority of our clients are going through series A and series B. But we do a lot of startup, we do a lot of also public ones. So you know, so it's a real variety and you know, it's not really about how much money they have when they're ready to spend. It's more about, you know, we don't want to see people come up with these websites that are just like not working for them. If we're working for a client right now, for example, their whole entire website's done on wix and it just couldn't, not that I'm anti wix, but it just couldn't meet their needs for future growth. So, so now we have to step back and redo it again. And they only did it two years ago. So we kind of feel like if you invest the money in the beginning and not try to corners there and again our prices are still lower than, you know, than bigger agencies and maybe some other agencies they talk to. But if we can get them telling their story the right way, right from the beginning, it can just be a path of evolution versus like a path of starting over again. So just as an example, we started with a biotech two years ago they were just coming out of stealth. Now two years later they had all these new products and they wanted to kind of rebrand their website and we were able to kind of do that with the website they had and just allow them to evolve the site as they grow. They're now 100 person company. So they're a five person when we started. And that happens a lot. We see that a lot where it's five people, a couple founders, couple head people and then all of a sudden they have like 50 scientists. So that's kind of why we do it that way. And you know, in the end we're saving them money and you know, because they don't have to do it again. You just kind of have to let them know what that value is and why they need to do it.

So one of my questions is around working with the stealth companies because we have on the other side of it worked with stealth companies for recruitment and that can be really challeng because we really can't share any information. And so you're sort of like it's a really cool company doing really cool science, we promise. And candidates are like okay, thanks, that's not helpful. So how do you work with a stealth company when you're doing design and explaining their ideas and getting them going? Because you must be really limited by what you can share.

Yep, definitely limited. But I mean I think that is the point where you just really want to think about what they want to look like, who they want to be in the future, what that could look like. So a lot of times we'll do those sites and phases where you know, when we know they're coming out of stealth like a few months later or maybe a year later, we have a little bit of a plan in place for them. But I actually last year was working on a biotech that was in stealth and we basically, you know, started down the road of design. So we probably did half the project and and they showed it to the board of directors and it was like a no go that was canceled and that was that. And so a year later they came back to us and they wanted to do the whole shebang. They wanted to like rebrand. They wanted to although they had a logo, they just wanted it more polished. They wanted to re message they and they were ready to go. So I mean you can't always tell those things. I've built whole websites for companies that are making a big change and then at the end like the board says no. And I've done that a couple times too. And so that part's not fun because they spend the money and they don't get to use the product. But I think it's just part of the process that's interesting.

So when you're doing that they don't kind of clear anything with the board before it's built. They build it first. It sounds like, like they don't kind of come with lockups or how does that work?

Sometimes they'll involve them or sometimes the board will maybe say yes and then when they see the final product or parts of the product they just get a little scared. I think it's all, it's not really about anything other than that they're not ready and they're not 100% comfortable, you know, just launching that out there that way. So they want to give a little bit more time. So that's. I wouldn't say that they don't see it. I just think that maybe when they start it, they are not as ready to go as maybe they think they are. And so, yeah, that's. I guess that's how I would explain it.

Interesting.

It was nice that they hired us back though, because, you know, they could have went and hired another date. They loved us and they came back a year later and it was such amazing project.

Yeah, they probably had way more clarity too, which probably really helps your teams.

Working with these, some of these founders and scientists. I mean, at this level, you do get to work with them a lot. And so. And that is actually a challenge too, because sometimes it's like founders fear, you know, but learning to work around those issues and help them and help them be on board, help them understand, like, that's all part of the journey of the process that we do. And like, that's just really cool. You get to know them, you get to understand their vision, you get to understand where they want to go and they get to understand what you're trying to do for them. And I think when they understand and the team involved understands in the future, there's no questions around, like, why they did it or how they did it. And that's very clear. And so I feel like that's been really successful too, because you don't have other people coming in saying, oh, well, we should do it this way and we should do it that way. They understand why they did it and then maybe they will change. But for the most part, they made the decisions along the way. So if you come into them and you say, oh, well, the agency did this and we don't like it, they'll say, well, like, I actually did it, like I actually was part of this.

So it sounds like you partner really deeply with these founders, these early stage companies. You're very consultative in this process. Can you tell me a little bit about that? What are these decisions that they are, you know, so invested in and where are you bringing them into this process?

So there's lots of decisions, you know, everything from a headline and a tagline to, you know, a logo design, what colors it should be, even stepping back a little bit from that, you know, deciding what their name's going to be Sometimes we're heavily involved with companies naming their startups so it's, you know, it's basically everything. And so sometimes they're not sure, sometimes they'll put an idea out and they'll want feedback. And so, you know, you're kind of going through this like collaborative, like a mediator, you know, you're trying to come to the middle with like, okay, what does the agency think is best? And what do you think is best? And so like just as an example, we have a lot of founders that design their own logos. And that's really bad because, I mean, it's not bad that they did it, but if they use that logo, 100 multi hundred million dollar company, we've had a situation like that where we had a huge company, they had the logo from the original founder and it really limited the design and it limited what we could, how we could make them sort of appear and. But they had already established that logo. So that's why it's so important to work with somebody knowledgeable and invest the money in the beginning because that you could end up there. And you know, you want to make sure that you are working with credible people who have done this, who have helped these biotechs from whenever they started to a few years later. I mean, I don't know what the average length is that a company stays with an agency, but you just want to make sure that they're getting the right things done and so asking the right questions. Messaging is huge. Explaining science is huge. Who their audience is and how you speak to them is huge. Investors is huge. So there's all of that stuff. So there's the design part, there's the messaging part, there's just the whole website user experience part. And then they, you know, searches and other things. So, you know, a lot of companies want to come up under certain searches. So like, how do you do that without you know, hurting the integrity of the site that they had and the messaging they have? So those are all the things that they're highly involved in. They might like be stuck on a color like, I want yellow, I want yellow, I want yellow. And sometimes you just have to say like, yellow is, it's a great color. We actually just did a logo in yellow and it was awesome. But. And that's not a color that I'm shaming, but I'm just saying they sometimes have their mindset on these different things that they are not experts at. And so how do you take that vision that they have and kind of evolve it and still make it their vision, but do it the right way?

Can we please Talk about naming biotechs. I am like, we could go all in on this for the next 45 minutes and I would be so happy. I think it has got to be so fascinating to be in the room and like kick these ideas around because some of the names are like, wild. I'm like, how did you get there? And now I need to know.

Obviously I don't do any of this stuff. I just own the company, but I know a lot about it and I've been doing this for 30 years. But you know, in terms of design and messaging. But the biotech stuff is more in the last five to seven years. But, you know, it's a lot of research. It's a lot of like using different word structures and what's the word I'm looking for? Like Latin, you know, some Latin involved and just evolving words. And then you have to also contend with what domain names are available. So just there's a company that we just did their website solely and they are out of France. Well, they're in San Francisco now, but they are a French company. Or. Or he's from France, I kind of forget now. But so they wanted to name it Soleil, which is son in French. And so like, you couldn't name it sun in English, that would sound like weird or sunny or like whatever. But Soleil in English, you know, sounds so cool. And it was a beautiful name. And that's the yellow logo. So. And they, they named it. We didn't name that company, but that's how people come up with these names. A lot of times they'll have a name in mind, so, you know, we'll work with them on several names. There was another company out in San Francisco too, that they had an idea for a name and they had a couple of names. So they just kind of worked with us to help them. You know, should we use this name? Why should we use it? What? You know, so sometimes it's just a little bit of due diligence, but we've definitely done some names too, but so it's super fun.

That's so neat. I think that's just fascinating because, I mean, like, you can have the whole brand, right? But your name is like the thing that, like everyone know you by. And it's just really fascinating how they come up with these. I think it's so neat.

Yeah, One company is Orso Bio. And so they had this vision of bear, and so they wanted a bear in the logo too. And you think that's kind of crazy, but it's cool. It's, you know, it stands out, it speaks to them. It, you know, their heart and soul are sort of like in that name. And so, you know, it just kind of like ignites the excitement around the brand and around the company. So I think that's super cool. So you should check out their logo or so bio. We should.

In our show notes for this episode, let's link some of the websites that you're really excited about. And yeah, some of these. Some of these companies so that folks can take a little look. Because I always love looking at good websites and love looking at good branding and logos and so we can kind of pull that back. I love a list of them. We can definitely link those in the French naming. That's really interesting. We've worked a lot with Flagship and we've worked with their little companies that are the unnamed and so they'll spin these out and come up with these names. And one of them was La Ronde and they had a presence in, I believe, don't quote me on this, in Quebec. And so that was sort of the link there. But think means round and they were a circular RNA company and so.

Oh, that's cool.

Like naming it circle is not so fun. But Laurent was better. It's such an interesting psychology behind the naming. I love that. I bet that, you know, your team, whoever is is doing that work on your team, really thinks about the psychology too, of, of some of these names, colors, things like that.

Yep, all of that. It's evolved because when we first started, I guess we didn't do as much of that. So a lot of it was just a lot of websites. I mean, we had the capability to do it, but we just hadn't really started doing it a lot. And so, you know, we just really felt like we need to be completely full service guys. They need someone who can bring it all together right from the beginning. So we also do pitch decks too. So that was another thing that we felt that people needed so people can come in and they can kind of get the whole package. And so, like last year before the J.P. morgan show was probably the craziest time in my life because it was the first show and everybody wanted a logo website. So, like, I swear to God, we were working on like 20 websites before JP Morgan. So that was quite the experience. Experience. But it was super fun. It's not as crazy this year, actually.

Lisa, I'm going to poke at that one for a second because last week I went to a really interesting conference and it was basically all about Venture capital. And it was sort of a combination of like startups who were pitching venture and like, venture kind of teaching them, like, what you need to know. I walked away and my biggest takeaway was like, oh, my gosh. Apparently pitch decks are like what make the world go around. And all the venture capital was saying was like, you guys need better pitch decks. Like, your pitch decks are like, what are you sending us? So what do you see on that end? Like, what comes through that? You're like, oh, my gosh, no, we have to redo this. Like, what makes a really good pitch deck. Because apparently this is like a critical component that everyone's missing the mark on the whole.

I've seen the worst pitch decks ever.

Tell me all about them.

These are scientists, not marketers. And again, so they're so early stage, they don't have the money to invest in those pitch decks. So they already have the pitch deck done. A lot of times they'll come to us. They already have it done, but then we'll just go, you know, and. But they're still pitching, you know, they're going through different series of funding. So, you know, we'll help them redo it. But the biggest thing is the wordiness. Just explaining the science, having it be too technical and not based enough on financials or the financials are there, but it's not as highlighted as, say, like an investor would want. So I mean, I think explaining the science is really important also, like, who the, you know, the key players are in, you know, in that industry and like, what their previous accolades are. And then, you know, obviously the financial part is pretty big too. And so I've been working on some content right now with one of our clients called Brown Consulting, and they're fraction, fractional accountants, operational advisors, all that stuff for startups. And so just like in that mindset of talking about finance, you know.

So, okay, so anyone who is creating a pitch deck, just talk to Lisa because she knows what she's doing and apparently this is an issue and like, you can solve it for people.

Yeah. And a lot of times they don't just need a pitch deck. Like, they need several different pitch decks for different things. They might need a pitch deck for a conference versus for, you know, an investor. They might need it for whatever. They might. It's usually a bunch of different ones. So a lot of times we'll also work with creating a template for them and giving them lots of design elements that they can, you know, to make that whole thing, like, feel really cohesive. So that's kind of how we do that.

Yeah, I'm totally fascinated by that. I think the investor piece is so key and that I think when it's tied together with your, with the website and the branding, the messaging, the name, all of those things, if you can take that off of a founder's plate, that just seems really, really valuable. And I don't think people realize that this is a service that is on offer. So can you tell us a little bit about, like, when the ideal time you said, you know, money is sometimes a challenge, but when is an ideal time to start to pull you in? Is it before the website maybe? Because they do need those pitch deck materials and that could be spun into the website. Like, what does that look like?

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good time to progress in or, you know, when they're starting to think about their message and their brand. A lot of times it's too early in the pitch deck phase for them to really invest. So, you know, if they have a pitch deck and they don't have a logo, like, they're probably not going to invest in their logo that at that time and all their messaging. So it's kind of like a lot of times with that, we'll just maybe do a pitch deck, like template or give them some guidelines or just consult with them, whatever it might be. So right now we're trying to create a package for like baby bios. So incubators. And you know, this isn't something. Something we've really done before, but again, it's all about how can we help people a little bit more in the beginning. So can we put together some kind of a package for a baby bio that, you know, we can sell to them reasonably priced and then maybe when they come back, when they do get a little bit farther, we can still kind of use what they've had and then, you know, build upon it again. So that's something that is really new to us that we're trying to figure out. And it's not really because we want to make more money or anything like that. It's just we see these people all the time. Like, these people are people we know, they're people we see at events and, you know, they come to you and they're like, well, I only have like, you know, 10 grand and I don't even know what I can get for that. And I'm just going to go to this company that does, you know, $3,000 websites. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, like let's like step back and like figure out what do you really need, like what can you really spend? And you know, I hate saying no to people that I know and that I hear great stories about and I'm in enough environments where I'm with startups and, and stuff like that that I feel like I had to do this, had to start thinking about this. Actually it wasn't me, it was Billy, my partner. So she, you know, so we're doing that now and that's a test and we'll see how it goes.

That sounds really valuable. Honestly, that service I think will really land with baby bios. And we have a book, it's a virtual book of services that really small early stage companies, you know, through probably some services that we know the service providers, we trust them go through, you know, IPO and beyond. But really folks that work with those early stage companies on these various spaces. So I would love to add that service to the book because I don't think that's something people really even would think about. But they could grow with you and they could leverage your skills and expertise really early on and then that morphs into all the things they need down the road into their fourth iteration of the website someday when they're public and you know, we're billion dollars usually we.

Don'T work with them usually. Then they usually hire a big agency or they have a marketing department by that point. But you know, I do see most of our clients are probably, I mean our earliest one was probably almost three years ago. So that was probably our first biotech client and it was a CRO. They were opening a second location and so they're still with us and so they grew to a second location. And I'm trying to think of like some of the other earlier ones. They. One was a small one and then they did a couple of other different ones. So they have like three brands now. Because that's something people are doing now in biotech is they're creating different companies per science. So we've seen some of that. And so yeah, so all of our clients are still here actually that we've started with. Nobody's left yet. I mean some people have left for support or hosting or whatever, but they might not have been our original client or something like that. But for the most part we, all of our biotech clients have been with us the whole time since they've signed on with us.

That's awesome.

I think just one left for. They were on WP Engine or something and they decided to do a different kind of support package, but they had a marketing department. Like, when we started with them, they were 10 deployees. By the time they were gone, they're 60 employees. So they're ready to kind of move on, which is totally fine.

Well, that's what you want, right? That means that your marketing is working if they're growing. I think what's really smart about offering a comprehensive package is it gets really difficult to manage assets and to have them tie together and make sense. When you're like, okay, I'll get an upward person to do, like, this logo, and then I'll get a different website designer to do this, and then I'll do this. And then you're stuck with a bunch of things that vaguely resemble each other, but, like, it's not cohesive. And then you're also like, let me pull in a random content writer to write this thing. And there's no real strategy behind it. And to your point, you are where you are now. But if you're going to grow, start thinking ahead of that and, you know, really strategizing around, how would you morph your brand to encompass other brands or other things that you might want to do down the line? So I really like that because, I mean, we've been. We've certainly seen and, you know, experienced it ourselves, that when you're spread thin and you're sort of pulling in people to help, it's great at the time, but then down the line, it can be a real problem to sort of make it all work.

Yeah. And that's when they usually come to us and then they're like, how did you come up with the name Ladybugs? That's like a question that we always get asked. But, like, it's kind of funny that that's our name and we probably do more biotech websites than in pretty much any agency that I know of. So, you know, and the reason that we do more is because they're smaller, typically. And we just have an agile process that kind of takes us like two to three months to get the process finished. We have lots of people here, lots of resources, so that's probably why we've done so many. Like, we'll probably do anywhere from 20 to 30 a year. 20 on the lower end, maybe 30 on the higher end. So depends on the year. This is year three, so it hasn't been that many years.

Hey there. Just a quick break. I wanted to let you know that if you're listening to this podcast, because you are exploring careers in Biotech, which, it turns out, quite a few of our listeners actually are. You might be interested in the Biotech Career Coach podcast. It is brought to you by our sister company, the Collaboratory Career Hub, which is our career development community. If you would like actionable tips on job seeking and career development, that is the place for you. It is a companion podcast to our Career Coach column that we write monthly in Biospace, but we go a little more in depth and sometimes we have special workshops and all of that good stuff. So if that sounds interesting, click the link in the show notes or search for the Biotech Career Coach on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts back to the show.

Can you walk us through what the Agile process looks like? I'm really interested in how you've implemented that.

Yeah. So, I mean, it kind of started with web design, but now it's kind of like filtered into everything that we kind of do here, along with the way we even, like, manage the company. So, I mean, I wouldn't say that we follow the process as much as the mindset. So, you know, in a lot of web projects, you're doing the design kind of first and then you're kind of building the pages and getting the content after the design is done. So we're doing all three at the same time. So basically, you know, we're working on the messaging with the design, with the page development and seeing it all together, rather than building it all, putting it all together and then going back and fixing it. We're literally collectively building that. And every page, pretty much like on every site we do, every page is almost like a homepage where it's very custom, it's got very specific messaging. And so that's kind of how we see the Agile process. And it's very collaborative. And, you know, I would say there's a lot of hands on deck too. So, like, you're never just going to be meeting like with one project manager, or you're always going to be able to talk to the designer, you're always going to be able to talk to the writer, you're always going to be able to talk to whoever you want on that team. And I mean, I think that's really important. I mean, we still have a project manager, it's not like we don't have a project manager, but it's just not set up. It's just set up more like a team without a leader, you know, in a way where everybody has equal say and sometimes, you know, the designer will have something to say. About the content and the content, content person will have something to say about the SEO. And so I feel like that's sort of that full access, like they have everybody there at the same time, they can ask questions and then, so as we get through that process, you know, something could change and then, you know, we have to go back and fix it. But I think it allows us to get sections of the project done really fast rather than waiting for everything and then building it and then putting it together. Because if the client decides like I don't have anything, like I'm not ready, that could really hold you back and you really haven't started yet. So I think getting somewhere all the time is really, really important. Like getting that homepage, getting that messaging, let's just, just focus on that. If you're overwhelmed, let's just get the homepage, let's just get it perfect. And so that's, I guess how we see agile, not waterfall, like where it's like one process, the next process, the next process. So we feel like that allows us to really get closer to the vision of the client. It's all about their vision. Because like, like, like I said, these people are like phenomenal people. They're just phenomenal. They're the geniuses of the world. There's curing cancer, they're, they're using AI now to do all kinds of therapeutic things. So there's like crazy gene therapy that you can't even imagine. Like, it's just all so crazy. So you just, you have to tell it from their side. You have to, because you have to get in there, into their brains and just get that out of there. Because that's what's really going to sell the science and that's what's really going to get them the money they need to do what they want to do. That's, you need that.

So when you're working with different types of companies, if you're working with a startup that's more like on that therapeutic side or versus more of a CRO, which is going to be a service provider or you know, have a product, how do you think about that and how you actually go about that process? Is it any different? Is it like if you're going to approach a CRO project where they have something to sell and they have, you know, assets and they, they're able to market that versus brand new baby bio that they're not anywhere near selling anything. They're just going to be drumming up excitement and probably funding.

I would say a majority of our Clients don't sell anything or plan to sell anything. Even though we do some CROs and you know, some of those, they do promote their products and even some of the bios, you know, they have these certain products that they want to promote and they want to get out there. So some might be more heavy in terms of content and what's on there. We just did a CRO that was just a big, really big project. They had a lot of pages. They. So for those, I always like to say, like, cut it down as much as you can. Like, you don't need to. It's more about speaking to them in those pages, like, so that they know what they need and how you can help solve their problems. So I would say CROs are definitely a little bit different. And all Sierras are so different too. You know, they have the analytical type you have like the more bio, you know, experiment type you have like the CTDMO type. So they're all. Those are all different too. So that's like, to me, that's a whole different. Maybe conversation for another day. But they are very different. Yeah, that makes sense.

So do you find most of your clients through word of mouth? Is this like you do one for someone and then they just kind of like spread your name everywhere? Because that's a great client base you have.

I love my friends at Sona Thera. They always send me leads, I gotta name drop them. So, yes, I think, think, you know, some of it in the beginning just came through projects we'd previously done, but, you know, we targeted it, so we market it, we spend a lot of time marketing it. And so. And now, you know, with events back, you know, it's getting out, it's seeing people again. It's getting to know who the players are. It's partnerships, it's meeting people like you, bringing people like me together. And so that's basically, you know. But I think a lot of it too is just building that reputation and building the education around like what we do and why we do it and how we do it and are we right for you? I think that's been a lot of it too. So if people are looking around, they're finding things on our website that we've done or they're finding articles that we've written. And so I think that's a lot of it too.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think the word of mouth thing is so key in the baby bio space because they want to know at least the folks we speak to, they want to know that you get the space, that you understand that the challenges that they have, the funding, you know, challenges and just all of the things that they are going through. And so I think the networking piece is key. Allison has been our networking superstar lately. I live really far away, so I try and do what I can, but it's definitely, you know, it is a small community, smaller than you would think.

Yeah. And to touch on that, you actually, you're the founder and the president of the Metro West Women's Network. Can you tell us kind of all about it? I. I am very into networking. I actually used to be terrified of networking, but I forced myself to get over it, and now I love it. So I'm super interested to learn about this.

Yeah. So I started that probably around 2016, just out of a lack of anything being in this area. And because we're sort of suburban west, there was nothing really out here to help women that were wanting to grow their businesses. And, you know, at that time, you know, people started wanting to, you know, the growth towards freelance work and owning your own business has been. It's not just Covid that costed. It was already happening before COVID even happened. Covid just like accelerated it. So I wanted to create a space for that. And it kind of took off really fast. We had great events. We had a conference. It was called Sales Empowerment Summit. We did that in like 2019. And so, you know, it was really great. And a lot of people will say, like, I grew my business here like I did, you know, So, I mean, I love hearing that. For me, it was just. I love being a part of something, and I wanted to create something that everybody could be a part of. Whether you're a business owner, whether you work for a company, whether you're a mom, like, whatever, just come to our events, come to our wine nights, come to our conferences, like, whatever, work that. Be in our group and support each other. So, you know, and there are a lot of great groups like that out there. Ours just was a little bit more targeted. And at that time, maybe not as much like now, there's a lot more, especially again since COVID So we're having our first event since COVID on November 8th.

This is women of from all different types of businesses, not just biotechs.

Right.

This is agnostic of industry.

Yeah. And there's amazing people in there. I've met some, so many great people. And, you know, I think I love being able to share my knowledge, you know, with people. I love to. I mean, because I don't Think it's that often that, you know, a woman starts like a digital agency and has the kind of growth path that I had this time. And so just being able to tell people like, you can do it, you can do it by yourself. Like, maybe you might not be able to do it as fast or maybe you wouldn't do it the same way, but you can do it, you can do it. It's. It's a thing. And so, you know, I just want to encourage people, share my knowledge, help them figure out what they want to do. I have another friend that she has an agency all around education marketing, very specifically, like around Google Ads and stuff for independent schools. And so, you know, she's. I met her through that. We're great friends. We are on a similar growth path. And so it's just always great to have peers, mentors and people that you mentor also. So it's kind of personally rewarding, I guess.

Can we talk a little bit about social media and how you leverage that or don't for biotech specifically? So, I mean, we're mostly on LinkedIn, I would say, but we hear all about the rise of video and short form and all the things. What are you thinking about that?

So I think a lot of our clients aren't really there yet. And so, you know, they're already being careful what they say on their website, so they're not as much into the daily posting and stuff like that. But we are starting to see the ones that are starting to grow now wanting to want it. So we're working with a firm that we are helping them with thought leadership and getting out there. We have another company that we help them, you know, design all the ideas around their social media and provide them with the graphics and images and coach them like, how to do it. So there's all different ways that we can do social media. We have a system ourselves that we typically use for certain clients, but this particular product that we use for our B2C or B2B clients doesn't necessarily fit our bios and where they are. But we are implementing one right now. So it's just a little slower because, you know, you have to be careful. You have to make sure you're saying the right things. There's a lot of confidentiality involved when it comes to bio. So working on that one now. And. And so we started that one with. With the other company too. So we have something called the, the. It's called our Jumpstart package. And so basically what we did is we created a system to create social media and implement that, to kind of help take over that for you so that you don't have to worry about it every day. But it also like pushes your brand. It, you know, gets, it drives your SEO and stuff like that. So that's a system that we have. So this particular client bought the system, we went through the process with them and there she's like, well, we're not ready to do any of this content yet. Like, all these content ideas are great and I want to do them, but like, you know, I'm getting a little pushback from like where we are on these products and saying certain things. So we just need to kind of like take it over and instead of doing it all at once, which is what we do with this jumpstart, is we get it all implemented, you know, within a three month to six month period. She's just like, well, I just want to take it. You show me what to do, you give me everything. You guys do what you can do that we don't have to worry about. And then so instead of just doing the whole thing, we trained her, we showed her and I see her on there now. It's mostly conferences, it's mostly like stuff that we wouldn't manage anyway, you know, white paper things. So, you know, we're just flexible again. That's just part of the being agile and wanting to help people. And I know that a lot of people say system and process is is is it and it is it, but that doesn't mean that you can't flex sometimes. You can't create different processes for different people. It doesn't have to be one process. So if we're going to do a jump start, we have five or six ways we can implement that for the client. So that's how we're doing that. And it's again, it's fun because you're working with founders and you know, all that stuff. I miss working with some founders because now they're too special for us. But you know, because they grow and it's like, oh yeah, no longer. The CEO is not going to be on the calls anymore. Chief scientist isn't going to be here anymore. I'm like, oh, so sad.

They're growing up, they're flying away.

Yeah, they're all grown up.

Okay, so Lisa, how do you approach helping people get content onto the website in terms of like, whether it's thought leadership or it's content that they are hoping will leverage maybe dollars coming into their company? How do you work on that?

Yeah, So a lot of times, you know, we're writing the content for the clients when they come in and they need a new website and we're doing the messaging and all of that. So typically, you know, it's all about their goals and what their goals are. So just as an example, you know, a client of ours actually went to another marketing firm because we weren't doing marketing. Like, when these people were hiring, it was like almost two years ago. And so, you know, they had these search terms they want to get and these, but they weren't really thinking about the audience. They were just like, they're thinking about the search terms and stuff like that. So the company had just written a bunch of educational, like, information for them to get them to rank. And they were like, well, this isn't really what we want to present. This isn't. So there was kind of like a misalignment with like, what the SEO was versus, like what the thought leadership or what the vision was behind the company for the content being put out there. So that's always a challenge, I think, because, you know, obviously you want to get rankings, so you want to do SEO, but to get rankings, you really have to put out content. It might not always be the content that you want to put out. So that's definitely challenging. So I think I always take a step back and try to figure out what their goals are and then base the content on like, what the goals actually are. And, you know, sometimes the goals, like, might not be searched. The goal might be a brand goal, and then, you know, maybe there's some other search things you can do to drive that. So it's really. Every biotech has a different strategy, has a different way they want to present themselves and stuff like that. So it's always a very unique strategy per client. And, you know, it never looks the same. And it's never just an SEO strategy. It's always more about a brand strategy. SEO is a part of it, but you don't want to misrepresent any content out there by just trying to put stuff out there to get traffic. And there's also the whole, like the PR side. So biotech should be doing PR press releases on a regular basis if they're making strides, because that's great content. You can put that on your website. You also get the backlink from the, the company that puts it out. But the cool part about that is you can take pieces out of that and create even more content from that. So it's a lot easier to create a press release than say, like a thought leadership piece. But those press releases, you might be able to look at them all together and say, okay, this is where we were last month. This where is. And create a thought leadership piece around how we got from point a, like to point. So there's just lots of ways to do it. And the part that's hard is you really do need the client to be collaborative and to be really on board with it and be a part of it. And sometimes they're just so busy that they can't, and that's just where they are. So it's. It is sometimes a little bit of a challenge, but it's important. I think it's important to always be iterating what you're doing a little bit, not just launch your site and be like, okay, this is all we're gonna do. We're just gonna have a site. We're not gonna provide anything else. I think that you should always look like you're doing something. You know, I have lots of clients that don't post content, but they post lots of stuff, you know, around the science of what they're doing. There's a CRO that I worked with and they. They're always putting like, what their clients are doing and what other people are doing and what the industry's doing as. Not as much as like what they're doing.

Anything else you want to link for our audience or where can they find you?

Yeah, so everything's on our website, basically. You can't really forget our URL. Ladybugs with a z.com and on there we have, like, our blogs, we have all of our project portfolios. We're on LinkedIn, so we do a lot of stuff on LinkedIn and actually on Instagram and YouTube, we show a lot of our projects and stuff like that, but just more in terms of like, like biotech marketing information. Definitely our website. And yeah, so that's pretty much where we are.

Amazing. Well, this was so much fun. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, thanks for hopping on Lisa. This was a lot of fun.

Building Biotechs is brought to you by Recruitomics Consulting. You can find Building biotechs in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Make sure to click subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes, and join our mailing list for a weekly dose of biotech news and a podcast overview. And if you need to install a recruitment engine that saves time and money for your growing company reach, out for a free strategy session. I'm always happy to share my expertise and show you techniques to simplify your hiring process and maximize returns. On behalf of the team here at Recruitomics Consulting, thanks for listening.