Joshua Lamothe is a digital strategist with a knack for reviving the digital presence of various projects. His philosophy hinges on the power of first impressions, focusing on giving websites much-needed facelifts to enhance user engagement and conversion rates.

Throughout his career, Joshua has witnessed numerous times where the simple act of redesigning a site led to a substantial increase in traffic and credibility.

His attention to detail and user experience has also proven critical in fixing underperforming elements, such as dysfunctional contact forms.

With his interventions, Joshua has turned countless unattractive and ineffective websites into lead-generating platforms, almost overnight, by making them appear more professional and trustworthy to visitors.

Key Moments

[05:36] Improving website appearance leads to increased conversions.

[08:02] Started as customer, shifted to web design.

[12:28] Unparalleled freedom and accountability in work.

[16:07] Integrity is measurable and real, unlike spirituality.

Find Joshua Online

https://grassrootsconsult.com

https://www.alignable.com/lake-worth-fl/grassroots-web-design-branding

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-lamothe/

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Transcript Provided By CastMagic.io

Seth [00:00:00]:
Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship to the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast.

Seth [00:00:35]:
I’m your host as always, Seth. Today, I’m here with Joshua Lamothe Lamothe, or is it French and it’s like Lamau Wolf?

Joshua [00:00:51]:
Exactly.

Seth [00:00:52]:
So Joshua and I met on Alignable, he is what we call a web head of sorts. I mean, he only runs the web head, could sort them of people, which is kinda cool. He has a varied story here, which we’ll get into, but he’s been doing web design and digital marketing for as long as I have pretty much. I think you said in your your bio, you say 15 years. I’ve known him for 16, so 1 year more.

Joshua [00:01:14]:
It’s about that. Yeah. 15, 16 maybe now.

Seth [00:01:17]:
Isn’t it kinda scary to think, wait, I’ve been doing this for this long? Like, what the heck?

Joshua [00:01:22]:
It’s it’s one of those things where you look and you go, time feels weird because, yeah, on one hand, I’m still the same guy. I was struggling to figure thing out then, and now I’m just doing the same thing. Exactly. But at the same time, I look back and go, man, but a lot has changed. You know?

Seth [00:01:36]:
A lot has changed. Has changed. From a family. He says Joshua is the chief bottle washer at Grassroots Consulting. So similar to Goldstein Media. He does web design, digital marketing for small businesses and solo practitioners. But you have an interesting origin story. Before we, before we got on the call, you said you were started out in the diamond industry in New York.

Joshua [00:01:56]:
Well, I got out of out of college with a degree in marketing communications and thinking thinking I was gonna do advertising, and I never really was into website building at that point. I never was formally trained. And I ended up taking an internship with my friend whose family formerly owned a mine in

Seth [00:02:12]:
in in

Joshua [00:02:13]:
a part, for precious gemstones, and then they ultimately owned diamond company, a wholesale diamond company. And I find myself sort of, like, learning how to market and sell some of the rarest gemstones on the planet. And they were

Seth [00:02:26]:
rarest. Because they were they were diamonds. Diamonds are not that rare.

Joshua [00:02:30]:
Gonna say that. I knew I it was literally reading your mind. I was about to say, so I was selling natural solar diamonds. Some of them are actually truly rare. And so, yeah, I was really dealing with some of the rarest gems and trying to figure out how to market and sell. Yeah. When we put one of the first websites in this industry online, I was sort of part of building it. And I kinda got this bug of, like, I wanna build brands for businesses and help them to put their stuff online

Seth [00:02:53]:
Yeah.

Joshua [00:02:54]:
So they can reach your wider audience. And that’s how it kinda connects a bit to when I left that industry and jumped into my own thing.

Seth [00:03:02]:
Yeah. It

Joshua [00:03:02]:
came from that. I wanted to help businesses use online tools and websites and things like that to create brand and messaging and systems and just help them connect with their customers, especially at a local level.

Seth [00:03:14]:
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So systems, you know, a lot of the small businesses don’t have systems in place. A lot of them are, like, oh, I built a website on Wix or whatever. Yeah. I’m not a big fan of Wix. But, they’re like, we build website, you know, oh, we’re good. We’re good.

Seth [00:03:29]:
We’re good. And then they go out of business in 4 months because they don’t have the systems in place. They don’t know how to market their website. They don’t know how to use their website to mark them their business. It’s amazing why small businesses don’t know and what we need to help them with.

Joshua [00:03:44]:
Yeah. They they don’t see it as a tool oftentimes. They don’t see it as, you know, it can be basically a salesperson for you if if you wanna even just think of it at a basic level. It’s working whenever you are and whenever you’re not. It’s talking to customers if it’s done right, talking very well to them. It’s getting them to take an action. It’s bringing them to you and hopefully leading to a a sale of some kind. Yeah.

Joshua [00:04:07]:
And so if you have systems and treat it like a little bit of a a process, you know, to get you there as a tool, not to mention all kinds of other things you can integrate, you see it differently. And that’s I think what I always try to help clients realize is, you know, this is not about just you need a website, check it off the list. This is, like, this is a key element of your business practice.

Seth [00:04:28]:
Wanna take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show. Absolutely. I totally agree with that. I mean, obviously well, to me, I do the same similar things. You know? It it is very much a salesperson if you use it that way. If anything, it’s a brochure of what you do, and it shows some legitimacy, which which is why I think a lot of people don’t realize that if your website looks like poop, people don’t think of you as poop. They’re they’re just saying because they didn’t take it seriously. You know, that kind of thing.

Joshua [00:04:57]:
It’s the first impression thing. I mean, it just makes sense. I mean, I saw I I open up most of my talks by saying, you know, your website may be the first impression they have of you before actually interacting with you. And if it looks if it if it’s if it’s broken, if it’s messy, if it’s unclear, if it’s it reflects on your business. And there are lots of choices out there. And

Seth [00:05:18]:
Mhmm.

Joshua [00:05:18]:
Many people don’t consider how many people have possibly interacted with them, and then they just bounce and you never know what to do. You’ll never know.

Seth [00:05:28]:
And then you’ll never know until you find out one day that the reason why someone went with you was because of x on your website.

Joshua [00:05:36]:
Yeah. And, typically, if you start building your things around that, you see your conversions go up and and then you realize, wow. All I did I mean, I’ve had countless projects where we just gave this gave a face lift to it, and all of a sudden, it’s like the traffic was there. They were just so turned off by what they were seeing. The you know, I I have had some within within a day or 2, the, contact forms which were not working, you know, they were functioning. They just weren’t delivering contact. Mhmm. Started getting leads because people were finding their site and probably going like, this doesn’t look legit and getting off.

Joshua [00:06:10]:
Where now they were like, this looks great. And then

Seth [00:06:13]:
That’s confirmed. That’s where she has a show or Bob or Cindy, you know, about their product and stuff. It’s amazing how people don’t realize. Like, everyone’s like, oh, I can build a website. Yeah. Great. You can build a website. Great.

Seth [00:06:24]:
You know, it it does it is it run fast? Is it maintained properly? Is it spelled correctly? I mean, everyone finds the spelling correction every once in a while on the website. Even the best copywriters I find, well, there’ll be a mistake somewhere and you didn’t know you’d go fix. That’s not a big deal. We’re talking about like big time mistakes, like pages that just don’t connect. And, like,

Joshua [00:06:45]:
it’s like broken links, forms that don’t work, you know. I’ve had people come to me and say, you know, I I always check people’s forms when I go in to look at their site and sometimes I’ll say, you I just tested your form. It’s not even working, and they don’t even know it. And it’s like, how many, right, how many hundreds of plans could you have missed because they tried and failed. So, yeah, you you need to treat it. You know, it’s like a car. You know? You need to give it a little bit of maintenance Tune up. Yeah.

Joshua [00:07:10]:
Give it a tune up every now and then in testings, and don’t just leave it sitting there expecting, the deal breaker. A once

Seth [00:07:17]:
and done thing. And that’s what I think a lot of people don’t realize is that websites are not a once and done thing. SEO is definitely a once and done thing, and it’s crazy. So grassroots consulting has been around for 15 years right after your exodus from the gold the the, the diamond industry. And so what have you found? I mean, because it’s did you so you worked for the man or the person, what we politically corrected, the person, and then you’ve lasted them on your own 15 years ago. Have you done any stints with with the person since then, or it’s just been one one up and down ride?

Joshua [00:07:54]:
I’ve no. I’ve been pretty much solo. I I had a friend of mine who, sold advertising sales, like, door to door.

Seth [00:08:01]:
Oh, wow.

Joshua [00:08:02]:
So he had he had a collection of customers, and they were not doing their company that he was working for was not doing web design. So some of his company some of his his personal customers, he was able to say, you know, would you would you like to do some web work and then and then give me the business. So I was able to actually sort of get off the ground through his help initially. Thank you, buddy. Started outsourcing. Yeah. But then I you know, I started outsourcing and I was like, I think I can do this better. And that kind of that kind of drip has driven me this whole time to be very independent and do a lot of it myself because, you know, I I care.

Joshua [00:08:38]:
I don’t know if that’s a simple answer, but it’s like I actually care. And sometimes I found that when you outsource it, they don’t they’re not as connected to the client or the product as you may be. And, you know, I put a lot of heart and soul into my work and and for what it’s worth. And,

Seth [00:08:51]:
is it is it just you or you’re still a solo prac, or is it you and a few people? Or

Joshua [00:08:55]:
I I have I have, I have but, basically, an independent model, but I have partners that I work on depending

Seth [00:09:02]:
on the model.

Joshua [00:09:03]:
So And I like that. Yeah. I it’s I haven’t quite coined what it is, but it’s it’s a loose agency model where, you know, we have contract we have contract work with each other, and it’s great. It allows me to, you know, do what I love to do and not do what I don’t love to do, but I

Seth [00:09:16]:
can’t do it. And if you can’t scale up. And if you

Joshua [00:09:18]:
can’t scale up, you’re like,

Seth [00:09:19]:
first thing you sit there, you’re like, well, I’m doing it all. I’m like, well, how are you gonna scale that sucker? You need to have some bandwidth, you know, some people that you can pull from to say, Hey, I got this gig. I need some help on this, or I don’t have time to do all of the development my development myself. Can you jump in and help me out with this project?

Joshua [00:09:37]:
Yeah. Exactly. And that’s part kinda what what I, am starting with this other brand that you mentioned at the beginning, which are called the web heads, which is basically the ideas. You know, we need reliable partners. So Yeah. If we can kind of form an alliance that we can lean on each other, get a referral, get advice, see who can jump on a task project, and just help us out and we trust each other. Mhmm. That’s that’s what I need to be

Seth [00:10:03]:
a part of. So I’m trying to build it because I want it. If you build it, then it will come. Yeah.

Joshua [00:10:06]:
Spirit. It’s that independence. Like, if I need it, I’m gonna build it around my me because I

Seth [00:10:10]:
I’m

Joshua [00:10:10]:
sure there’s lots of opportunities out there. But

Seth [00:10:13]:
Mhmm.

Joshua [00:10:14]:
Yeah. So but it’s it’s a need out there. It’s it’s you know, I think people like us, there’s a lot of people in this industry entering the market basically saying, yeah. I know how to do this, that, and the other thing, and they don’t really have the experience. And

Seth [00:10:25]:
Exactly. When it

Joshua [00:10:25]:
comes down to it, you know, can you really trust them? Are they reliable? Are they here today, gone tomorrow?

Seth [00:10:31]:
Well, that’s

Joshua [00:10:31]:
the worst. Tend to go anywhere. You’re not going anywhere if

Seth [00:10:34]:
you can help it. I hear such horror stories of of web designers that they hold websites hostage or don’t do or they like, one tip I’ll give people who are listening, buy your domain name on your own. Own your damn domain name. Don’t let them buy your domain name for you. Like, hosting, you can lose your site, but if you lose your domain name, then that’s that’s Europe Europe s s is creek right there. So

Joshua [00:10:59]:
Yeah. And that’s a good example of why, you know, you might you might have someone just getting started. Oh, well, hey. I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care of it. And it’s like, well, where’s your site files? Where’s your email? Where’s your host? Where’s your domain? Where’s it all? I don’t even know what that is. Well, all the time, Stefanie, and you I I don’t go

Seth [00:11:15]:
back to these clients, but I love these clients because it’s like, alright. Let’s get you untangled. Let’s figure this out. And then

Joshua [00:11:22]:
bread and butter. They’re my bread and butter. I feel bad, but I’m also grateful at the same time because somebody’s gotta do it. You know what I mean? It’s a challenge.

Seth [00:11:29]:
It’s a challenge. It’s, like, literally one of those, like, one of those little things they have at, like, ends in the Poconos or something like that or ends in the in Vermont where there’s little chain link puzzles.

Joshua [00:11:40]:
Yeah.

Seth [00:11:40]:
And you try to un undo the keys and make it so on on the because in the one fuss. Bad in that very bad analogy.

Joshua [00:11:47]:
I know what I’m talking about. I got what you’re saying. But, yeah, I mean, you’ve got you’ve got elements that are workable and elements that are not. Elements are known. Elements are not. You gotta put it all together and say, you know, where can we start and what can we do? And and may and get them back in control, I think,

Seth [00:12:01]:
is part

Joshua [00:12:01]:
of it too. You know, that that’s a big part of it is when they don’t feel like they have control Yeah. And they’re asking for changes and changes are not getting done. Now it’s like, yeah, they’re gonna go and tell everybody to go there. They’re embarrassed. They don’t want anybody to see it. That’s not good in business. You wanna be sharing this stuff like you love it.

Seth [00:12:19]:
Yeah. You know? It’s okay. So in your mind, since you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you know, independently, what’s the best thing about being an entrepreneur in your mind?

Joshua [00:12:28]:
I have a level of freedom that I think is is unparalleled. I mean, I there’s trade offs, there’s pros and cons, but, you know, I don’t have to I don’t have to ask my boss the permission. I don’t have to if I wanna take a break, I’ll take a break. If I wanna take a day off, I’ll take a day off. You know, I’m accountable to my clients, and Yeah. There’s nothing like that in my opinion. I hope I I hope I can stay this way forever. I hope other people can do it.

Joshua [00:12:54]:
That’s why I love helping independent businesses because I I want a world where there’s more and more individual entrepreneurs doing the

Seth [00:13:00]:
the backbone of the economy as much as people don’t wanna admit it. You know? That kind of thing.

Joshua [00:13:04]:
True. And and we are essential and we’re you know, corporations are not sustainable the way that small businesses. And maybe that’s why I do what I do at the end of the day is because I care about that. But,

Seth [00:13:14]:
yeah. We’re going down the flip side. What’s the scariest thing about being an entrepreneur?

Joshua [00:13:20]:
Oh my you don’t really know

Seth [00:13:23]:
Mhmm.

Joshua [00:13:23]:
What tomorrow brings. Imagine you have, like, okay. It’s Thursday. I spent all my money. Okay. Well, next week, I’m gonna get my paycheck and I can right? We might have be in a position where it’s like, I don’t know what’s coming next

Seth [00:13:36]:
Ugh.

Joshua [00:13:36]:
So that I can make that work. You know? Yes. And there are degrees of that. You know? And it’s not always like you’re in poverty. I’m just saying you might be like, I just took on a big office expense, and now the project just fell through that I was counting for 6 months. You know what I mean? And

Seth [00:13:49]:
Oh, I know that feeling.

Joshua [00:13:50]:
That kind of stuff. Yeah. That’s where it gets it gets rough. But, you know, if you gotta take risks and reward. You gotta I know there’s ups and downs.

Seth [00:14:01]:
Mhmm. I have

Joshua [00:14:02]:
a good family that supports what I do and and

Seth [00:14:05]:
tolerates it at least?

Joshua [00:14:07]:
Yeah. Where my wife’s also, independent and entrepreneur of

Seth [00:14:10]:
social entrepreneurship. Oh, wow.

Joshua [00:14:12]:
We’re just kind of just we’re just sort of, you know, maybe

Seth [00:14:15]:
we’re just brave. You’re both doing the in independent stuff.

Joshua [00:14:20]:
Yeah. It’s, it’s Did you build a website at least? Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good husband. It’s a good husband. That’s for sure.

Seth [00:14:27]:
And you build Ignite’s website for her. Right? The best one out there.

Joshua [00:14:31]:
She loves it. Others love it. They’re great positive feedback.

Seth [00:14:35]:
Good.

Joshua [00:14:35]:
Yes. I put my heart

Seth [00:14:36]:
in there. Wife, happy life. Exactly.

Joshua [00:14:39]:
You got it.

Seth [00:14:40]:
And does your kid I know you have one kid. Does do they have their own website yet?

Joshua [00:14:45]:
No. No. I’m I’m she she asked me to come into career day, and I didn’t and I forgot and I didn’t do it. But I would be talking about websites to kids, and I’m thinking, man, I probably should have done that because

Seth [00:14:57]:
I want my kids to be teach her.

Joshua [00:15:00]:
I I don’t I’m like I’m like, you know what would be great if if she could, like, even when she’s a teenager, like, just I could just throw tasks to her to practice. I’m like, that would be nice. A little in house assistant who’s learning. You know? But I also know that, like, sometimes they’re not interested at all what you do.

Seth [00:15:15]:
Yeah. So you had, like My kid has a few my kid had a phase. He’s 11. He had a phase where he was, like he wanted a website. And I had his full name as as a website. I got a short one that was, like, alan.ninja because why not? He thought that was cool. He built on it, and then, like, he was done with it. So I’m like, alright.

Seth [00:15:34]:
We’ll let we’ll let it lapse. You know? He didn’t need it anymore. You know, that kind of thing. So but so here’s a question for you. What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

Joshua [00:15:44]:
Integrity.

Seth [00:15:45]:
Oh, I love that. Good one. I’d love to say you can go as woo woo as you want, but you want woo woo, so that’s good.

Joshua [00:15:52]:
Well, yeah, it’s kind of woo woo. It’s like on the cusp. Well, I On

Seth [00:15:56]:
the cusp of woo woo. I like that.

Joshua [00:15:58]:
Kind of. You know? I mean, it’s something that’s, I think, important to have.

Seth [00:16:03]:
Absolutely. In our industry when there’s a lot of non not a lot of integrity.

Joshua [00:16:07]:
It’s measurable and real. You can tell. So it’s not that way. Like, I can say I have spirituality. Well, do I or don’t I? But if I have integrity, it’s like, you know, did I show up on time to this call? You know? Did I do what I said I was gonna do? Did did I deliver on time? Did I Mhmm. Would I honor my word? That’s measurable stuff.

Seth [00:16:24]:
It is. Absolutely. I believe that fully.

Joshua [00:16:26]:
That’s kinda why I like to try to carry that around with me because if if I stray too far from that, I’m in trouble.

Seth [00:16:31]:
You’re in deep doo doo. Exactly. Yeah. So, Joshua, where can people find you online? Where’s your big watering hole?

Joshua [00:16:38]:
My main source is my own website because why not? Practice what I preach. My website is grassroots consult, c o n s ultgrassrootsconsult.com. And you can go ahead and book a call with me if you wanna have a consultation about how I can improve your your web presence or just wanna talk and and hang out for 30 minutes.

Seth [00:16:59]:
Exactly. And it’s it was I n g taken?

Joshua [00:17:03]:
It was taken, and it’s taken by a lower lower quality company at the time. I was a little embarrassed. I was like, how many people are going there? Oh. Yeah.

Seth [00:17:12]:
Did you get it since then?

Joshua [00:17:14]:
No. It’s still a comp it’s still around. They’re like a a major consulting firm, but maybe I’ll get some of their business someday.

Seth [00:17:20]:
Hey. And you never know. Sometimes they only bought by

Joshua [00:17:22]:
the I don’t know. Who knows? Yeah.

Seth [00:17:24]:
Know. Exactly, buddy. Well, Joshua, it’s been so great to have you on, and we’ll see everyone next time. That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the marketing podcast network at marketing podcasts.net. Goldstein gi.

Seth [00:18:16]:
I hope you have enjoyed this episode.