00:00:00

Yoana: It. Hey, James.

00:00:37

James Redenbaugh: Hi, Joanna.

00:00:38

Yoana: Hi. How's it going?

00:00:40

James Redenbaugh: It's going well. How are you? This meeting is being recorded.

00:00:45

Yoana: Using your AI assistant?

00:00:47

James Redenbaugh: I am, if that's okay.

00:00:48

Yoana: Yeah, it's fine. I'm. We're good. Having a good time with the baby and my mom this last week. She leaves.

00:00:56

James Redenbaugh: Hey, darling.

00:00:58

Yoana: She leaves tomorrow. So we had a good time together over the last two weeks. How are you doing?

00:01:07

James Redenbaugh: I'm doing good. Busy time. Lots going on.

00:01:12

Yoana: Are you on the East Coast? I forget.

00:01:14

James Redenbaugh: Yes, I'm in Philadelphia.

00:01:16

Yoana: In Philadelphia, that's right. It was North Carolina at some point. No,.

00:01:24

James Redenbaugh: I used to live in Asheville. We might have talked when I was down there at some point.

00:01:29

Yoana: That's what I remember. Yeah.

00:01:31

James Redenbaugh: Yeah.

00:01:33

Yoana: Okay. Well, let's see where we are and how much progress we can make in about an hour or so. You know, what I gave you wasn't super polished. I basically just went ahead and updated the text that I had a little bit, and then I ran it through perplexity and he gave me some tips, and I was going to take a look at it again, but I ran out of time because I was working on some commission stuff this week as well. So we have a slightly updated text and I can continue to tweak it, but I would love to hear your thoughts and see what, you know, what we can do in terms of actually playing with Squarespace. I don't know if you've had any. If you've had a chance to go over and put something together. It's like a template on Squarespace.

00:02:25

James Redenbaugh: Great. I haven't gotten into Squarespace yet. I want to stay in the theoretical, but yeah, let's look at this content together so see what's coming into being, see what suggestions I can make. And. Then look at a quick prototype of this. And just one second. I want to get this thing loaded up real quick. And. Yes, this is definitely the latest April 25th version, right?

00:03:17

Yoana: Yeah,.

00:03:20

James Redenbaugh: 1 6. So, yeah, first of all, I wanted to ask about, overall, what's your sense of the purpose of the website? How are you feeling about the site in terms of your own clarity of what you want to put on there? Is anything unclear for you or kind of still emerging and just want to touch base on that.

00:04:35

Yoana: Yeah. Well, thank you. I think, like we discussed last time, the purpose is really twofold. One, to have a central place where I can record some of my work, some of my accomplishments, and to. To potentially find clients. Right. To. To share what I'm offering and be able to do Some consulting work in addition to the full time job that I have at Impact Justice. So those are, that's still the purpose. There's a lot that I'm unclear on. Mostly because I've never done this before and right now just don't have the, the time, the capacity to just like take my time to explore and really reflect more. And so the things that I'm unclear on is just, you know, when I describe the offerings, like do those things really make sense? They make sense to me. I don't know if they make sense to other people. Is there, you know, like how do I. Oops, sorry. Baby's nursing. So multitasking. Okay, that way. You got it, mama. Okay. You want make a break? Okay, good job. No, no, she's napping. I think because I'm not like relying on this as a source of income, you know, right now. I, I, I haven't done like, oh, a market analysis and you know, research like exactly the way I should be marketing myself. Instead I wanted to do something that is just feels authentic and put it out there and see what happens. And we can kind of adjust it over time, just the content over time. As long as I have like the structure of the website and the photos, everything up. So that's one. So there's some in, you know, there's some uncertainty around the content. And the second part is just, I'm not sure a lot about, you know, what it's going to look like, like the actual format and the photos and you know, I know I want it to feel warm, I want it to feel bright, I want it to feel inviting. But this is what I'm relying on you on, I think. Is that how you think that happened?

00:07:36

James Redenbaugh: Mm, great.

00:07:44

Yoana: Cool, cool, cool.

00:07:47

James Redenbaugh: So I have a mock up here of the site as a one pager. I think that we could also have additional pages if you want to go deeper into offerings or deeper into you or. Even have a blog or something like that where you can share things.

00:08:21

Yoana: That's actually a good idea. I mean the way we had talked about the format before was this. You saw it on the top, right? We would have, the homepage would have these things, but then we would have another tab that is like a longer bio. Another one that's offerings, another one that's publications. Can you hear my baby through the AirPods when she talks?

00:08:46

James Redenbaugh: Yeah, a little bit.

00:08:48

Yoana: A little bit. Okay.

00:08:50

James Redenbaugh: She's great.

00:08:51

Yoana: She's Queen Beeves.

00:08:53

James Redenbaugh: Yeah.

00:08:55

Yoana: Anyway, so that's how I envision in my head. But if you want to yeah, definitely. Show me the onepage and we can see.

00:09:00

James Redenbaugh: Yeah. So the hero or the top section of the homepage is something that's always the most difficult because it's the most important, because it's the first thing that people see when they come to the website. And this is placeholder, obviously. I think it would be good to. We can think about what kind of image to have in here or even a video. It can totally be a view. But also, so much of what you're doing is about the community. It'd be great to bring the focus for that and community collective. And I think that the. The text for this section can.

00:10:07

Yoana: Yeah, we're gonna have to change these. I'm not going to be practicing collective healing. That's going to have to change.

00:10:12

James Redenbaugh: Yeah, yeah. And. But I think that it can kind of come last, like, once the. The website is worked out. I think it'll be clearer what we want to say here. And we can find, like, a pithy, poetic, captivating statement that represents what you're doing. So don't worry about that too much because people always get hung up on that, and then it makes everything else harder. Yeah. And then I like how you led with the why. Why this work. A nice text section, you know, and this is a good opportunity for you to share about why you're doing what you're doing and why it's important and for users to kind of see themselves in. In that if, you know, if they're gonna hire you, it's most important that their why is aligned with your why, so they get a. They get a sense of that short bio. Here's where we're gonna want a good picture of you.

00:11:37

Yoana: And.

00:11:39

James Redenbaugh: I love your points. Clear and to the point. You can also think about, you know, these are really practical and intangible, but you can also include education and other credentials.

00:11:59

Yoana: All right, I should do that now. Yeah. Your point? Okay.

00:12:04

James Redenbaugh: Yeah, yeah. Think about what, you know, what's. What people want to know. And then it can link to a fuller bio on another page. And then the offering section. These are really great. I'm just going back to your. Your actual text. So you gave a lot of context for each one. But I think on the homepage, we want to find a way to just like, make them really clear and pithy, and then people can click to learn more. Maybe that's. Maybe there's a fuller explanation on offerings page. And we give people just a little bite here. And it's good to think visually as well. So, like, if each of these could have a little icon or an image. These are super simple. But even these simple ones help people kind of digest what's being spoken about here and what's being offered.

00:13:26

Yoana: And.

00:13:29

James Redenbaugh: So, yeah, something to think about. If you have, you know, if you have great images that could go with each of these, we could drop those in there. Otherwise, I can make little icons for these. And it's nice seeing them together because it gives people a sense of the breadth of what you can do. Because likely, you know, they might be interested in a particular thing, conflict resolution. But it's helpful for them to see the other offerings that you have. Because I imagine that when you're doing any one of these things, it's a holistic process and you're also bringing a policy perspective and a ritual perspective, political perspective to these things. Is that accurate?

00:14:30

Yoana: Yep, exactly.

00:14:32

James Redenbaugh: Cool. So, yeah, we can start to illustrate those. I partner with individuals, organizations, and campaigns to change policy, transform conflict, and sustain movement leaders. Great. I'm actually working with another client right now who's attending. We're also very much framing him as a partner and not as like a consultant or a particular role. I think a partner is. Creates a lot of opportunity for all kinds of activities and deep engagement that can be really valued. Because like I was just saying, it's not about any one thing that you can bring. It's about the breadth and depth of perspective. So they might practically need somebody to draft a document. But when you're actually in the room with them, bringing your presence and authority and wisdom, they're like, oh, this isn't just a technical request. This is somebody who can, you know, be with. Be with something bigger. Is that accurate?

00:15:57

Yoana: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that sentence I partner with, you know, we may need to make it, I don't know, a little shorter, a little better. I don't know. It was something that I edited based on what Perplexity gave me as a one sentence summary.

00:16:12

James Redenbaugh: So.

00:16:13

Yoana: But I think for now we can leave it as good. Yeah, I agree with you. I like the partner part as well.

00:16:19

James Redenbaugh: I like it. I think it's, it's super clear. And the change policy, transform conflict, and sustain movement leaders. It's great. It's like both specific and vague enough to, to preface your five offerings. And. Yeah, and of course, you know, seeing all this stuff in context can be helpful and you can sit with it and evolve it as you, as you wish. And right now, I don't love how the fifth one is on a, on its own row down here. I would do these a little differently, but it's a work in progress. Collective liberation is not an abstract concept. It's a daily practice.

00:17:14

Yoana: I need to work. I'm trying to figure out a theme. You know, before the theme was collective liberation. Now that I'm older, sounds a little too woo woo. And I need to be more practical, as my mom likes to remind me. And so trying to figure out what's a team that connects at all. Like, I don't think it's collective healing either because I'm not my therapist. I don't think it's, you know, it's some. It's probably something around, you know, it could be something abstract like finding a new way, etc. Right. But sorry about all the sound. My mom is at the same time. Hold on one second. Mommy.

00:17:57

James Redenbaugh: No problem.

00:17:58

Yoana: Can you to speak a little quieter? When Bulgarians talk on the phone, we speak very loudly. It's a very specific thing. It's not like you can't hear me on the other side, but we just speak them a lot.

00:18:11

James Redenbaugh: My mom's the same way. And she's not Bulgarian.

00:18:15

Yoana: She's not. Okay. We're not the only ones, but we definitely do anyway, so I'm looking for a theme and I really am open to your thoughts on this. Having read each of the five thesis. Something that you know, it is about systemic change, but it is also about personal change in alignment with systemic change. Yeah. I'm trying not to make it so woo. And west coast and abstract and try and be a little bit more practical.

00:18:54

James Redenbaugh: Yeah. Personally, I love collective liberation. That's, you know, ultimately my goal as well. And it doesn't have to be your stated goal.

00:19:10

Yoana: Yeah.

00:19:12

James Redenbaugh: You don't want to change who you are to meet your audience, but you don't want to, you know, speak to them and put out what. What's most helpful for them. And so, yeah, I guess thinking about this. And it also relates to the hero section as well. Of course. Right.

00:19:45

Yoana: Yeah. But I like how you did overall, the outline and the material. And it's nice to see it with pretty text on an actual mock up. So that gives me a sense that, yeah, it will come together.

00:20:00

James Redenbaugh: Great. Yeah. And I can do the same thing for the other pages as well, if that's helpful.

00:20:06

Yoana: Yeah.

00:20:08

James Redenbaugh: Are you liking the colors and the fonts so far?

00:20:12

Yoana: Yes. Give me one second. All white people. You want to look at Squiddy? You want to look a little squeaky. Okay. I mean, look at this. I definitely like the font. And these grow up a little. Bit. Yeah, I definitely like the font, the.

00:20:40

James Redenbaugh: Color,.

00:20:46

Yoana: I think it's a little,.

00:20:53

James Redenbaugh: A little brown. Also we have your logo.

00:20:55

Yoana: It's a little brown. It's a little bit more muted than I like. I think I like a little more like some more color popping up. I mean that would happen with the photos as well. But just like the logo itself, you know, we were looking at bright yellows and bright red and bright green. Those are really the colors that I wanted to show.

00:21:21

James Redenbaugh: Yeah, great. Cool. We could definitely bring those in. These fonts are on the right track, but I can also give you some options, some different, different fonts to, to pick from because these are pretty standard right now. There might be one that feels more authentic to you so we can play with some different things for you to look at there. Coming back to here. And I feel like there's something in the domain of community led vision. Yeah, you. I really like how you say policy analysts dedicated to realizing a community led vision for justice in the Bay Area and beyond. So maybe there's some statement here about like how like none of us can see the path forward alone or on our own. We need to learn to see together and co create a community led vision for justice and prosperity for all or something like that. Speaking to what I'm sure many people are sensing that there's, you know, the challenges we face ahead can't come from the top down. Can't come from Gavin Newsom deciding the best way to do everything for everybody. But we need community led vision and bottom up solutions and ways for voices to be heard at every scale. So maybe something, something along those lines.

00:23:33

Yoana: Yeah, sorry, I'm muting because my mom is talking to the baby. Yes, I like that a lot. And I agree. I mean this is, it's always been kind of how I've operated. I think the older I get the. No, no. I guess I'm not in so many spaces now. It's not true. I was going to say I'm not in so many spaces where we actually practice the full collaborative process. I think the older I get, the more hierarchical things got even in the spaces that I function in. But I still believe in that, you know, so I'm, I just took down some notes on what you shared so I can, and absolutely feel free to also jot down text and phrases and sentences that we can include throughout.

00:24:22

James Redenbaugh: Cool. Yeah, I can draft a new version of this prototype, also flushing out the other pages and incorporating what we talked about today. And then you can sit with that. See that in context and continue evolving the copy doc.

00:24:55

Yoana: The copy doc? What's the copy doc?

00:24:58

James Redenbaugh: The content document. Where'd it go?

00:25:01

Yoana: The Google Doc.

00:25:02

James Redenbaugh: The Google Doc. Yeah.

00:25:04

Yoana: Yeah. Okay. And so does that. So, okay, so are you drafting a version of the prototype and it's going to look like what you just shared with me.

00:25:20

James Redenbaugh: Right. But an updated version a little more involved. I'll bring in your logo and the colors and give some different font options and yeah, update things. Update the copy and. But it won't have, you know, all the images and the polishedness that we'll eventually going to want in the Squarespace site.

00:25:45

Yoana: All right. Okay, got it. And then I will work on adding education to my bios and then you wanted me to look at little images for the offerings.

00:26:00

James Redenbaugh: Yeah. Think about. And if nothing comes to mind or if it feels tedious, I can totally just create icons or something relevant. But if you have images that you want to accompany these or any particular part of the website, that'd be helpful as well. You could just make notes in the Google Document like I have this. This image here. I think it could work well in this section. But if you don't have a clear sense of that, that's fine too. I can put some things in that I think will work well.

00:26:40

Yoana: Okay. I mean, yeah, I remember I'm looking at the figma. We had put together some images.

00:26:47

James Redenbaugh: Yeah, a lot of images.

00:26:49

Yoana: A lot of images. Too many images. God, this is where I feel like I'm just gonna get lost in like. And this is, you know, two years ago. I have so many just. But I can. Did. I don't know if I can still edit this. Should I edit. Should I put them in the figma? Do you want them in the Google Doc?

00:27:16

James Redenbaugh: I would put them in the Google Doc. Yeah. Or I'll start a fig. It's up to you. What would be easier for you? I can give you edit access in Figma again. Or we could just use Google Doc and Google Drive. It's totally up to you.

00:27:52

Yoana: Okay, let me think for a second. Hold on. I'm going to put myself on. Can you hear my mom or is it not.

00:28:00

James Redenbaugh: It's not bad.

00:28:01

Yoana: It's not bad. I think. It is helpful to see them next to each other and in Google Docs. It's not so easy. I guess it's just like you. Yeah. Just give me access to the figma for now and I'll see if it's easier to do it in Google Docs or figma.

00:28:30

James Redenbaugh: Okay, I will do that. I'LL actually copy this into a fig jam board, which is easier to use and cheaper, so.

00:28:47

Yoana: Okay, great.

00:28:49

James Redenbaugh: Yeah. And I'll just delete the. Or I won't include the things that we don't need anymore.

00:28:59

Yoana: Okay,.

00:29:05

James Redenbaugh: Cool.

00:29:07

Yoana: Yeah. Okay, so I'll do basically a little more edits on the content, some thinking about the theme, and then photos. Okay,.

00:29:24

James Redenbaugh: Let me see.

00:29:35

Yoana: Okay. And then. I forgot to ask you last time. I'm sorry, I. How do I pay the thousand dollars?

00:29:44

James Redenbaugh: I can. I'll send you an invoice, but also Venmo. Venmo works. Or Zelle or whatever works for you. There's lots of ways.

00:29:53

Yoana: Okay, you want to just give me your Venmo now or you have to. I have to do it via the invoice.

00:30:00

James Redenbaugh: No, I can give it to you now. It's just my phone number. Okay.

00:30:13

Yoana: What is it?

00:30:14

James Redenbaugh: I put my phone number in the chat.

00:30:46

Yoana: Okay. So I just send it. So that's done. And so do we want to continue to have like. Like, short touch points like this? I know when I book your time on your app, it's like an hour and a half, but we don't need an hour and a half.

00:31:03

James Redenbaugh: Yeah. Next meeting you can just put in 30 instead of 90 and it'll book a little session with me and. Yeah, let's just have another little touch point next week. We can look at your copy and I'll have evolved the prototype and. Great. Then we can talk about moving it into Squarespace.

00:31:25

Yoana: Okay. Awesome.

00:31:27

James Redenbaugh: Perfect.

00:31:27

Yoana: Thank you so much, James.

00:31:29

James Redenbaugh: No problem.

00:31:30

Yoana: Have a good rest of the day.

00:31:32

James Redenbaugh: Good to see you. Enjoy the last moments with your mom. And thank you. Next week.

00:31:38

Yoana: I will. Bye.

00:31:40

James Redenbaugh: Bye. Ciao.