August 8, 2025 • 30 mins
What happens when your trucking company's website vanishes overnight? In an industry that revolves around freight, fleets, and delivery schedules, the digital foundation often gets overlooked—until something goes wrong. In this episode, Trucking Ray is joined by Paige Wiese, founder and CEO of Tree Ring Digital, to unpack the real risks behind neglected digital assets. From domain name lockouts to cybersecurity threats, Paige brings 16 years of digital strategy experience to the table, helping trucking companies understand what’s at stake—and how to protect their business. If you’ve never done a digital audit, this conversation could save your company thousands (or more).
Listen in and get the free digital asset checklist at: TreeRingDigital.com/thatsdelivered
Key Takeaways:
✅ Your domain name is one of your company’s most valuable digital assets—losing access can shut down your business overnight.
✅ Many companies forget to secure admin-level access for email, websites, and tools—leaving them vulnerable when employees exit.
✅ Social media logins and brand materials (logos, style guides, etc.) must be documented and protected.
✅ Trucking companies are prime targets for cyberattacks due to sensitive customer data they store.
✅ Without a digital transition plan, acquisitions and staff changes can lead to major disruptions.
✅ Documentation is critical—know who owns what, who has access, and where everything is stored.
✅ Paige shares a free digital asset checklist at TreeRingDigital.com/thatsdelivered to help companies take action immediately.
Other ways to reach Tree Ring Digital
Website: https://www.treeringdigital.com/thatsdelivered
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigewiese/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TreeRingDigital/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treeringdigital/
Tree Ring Digital LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/treeringdigital/posts/?feedView=all
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@treeringdigital
Interested in being a guest on the podcast? Click here to join the conversation!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome back to another episode of that's
Delivered.
I'm your host, trucking Ray,and today we have a special
episode for you.
Something about truckingcompanies that you know they
overlook until it's too lateit's their digital assets.
So we know you can protect yourcargo, but what about your
website, social media or eventhe brand name?
The digital tools are just asvaluable and also just as
vulnerable.
(00:32):
Joining me today is my specialguest, paige Wise, the founder
and CEO of Tree Ring Digital.
With 16 years of experiencehelping companies secure their
online presence, paige has seenchaos that happens when
businesses lose control of theirdigital footprint.
So if you ever said I think myweb guy, my old web guy, has my
login, this episode's for you.
Hey, paige, how you doing?
(00:58):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Good, good, thanks for having me.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Likewise, I'm glad you're able to be on the show.
So, man, we get to tell aboutyour experience and all the
trouble you've seen out there.
I'm sure it's quite a bit, sowe get dig right into it.
To kick things off, maybe youheard of a.
We all love to hear a story.
You know, maybe you work with alot of companies over the years
.
Can you share one of those ohno Moments, time where a
(01:26):
business came after losing theirassets or access?
What would you say to thosepeople that maybe lost their
website or their domain?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, there's so many .
That's, I think, one of thehard parts and also just where
we started to really identifyingthat this was such a needed
area to be paying attention to.
And I'd say one of those oh nomoments was definitely we were
working with a nationalfranchise brand and we were
working with their marketingteam and the senior marketing
director left the company.
(01:56):
There was still a marketingassistant there and she reached
out to me one day and was likedo you have access or logins to
the various platforms?
Apparently, it just took hercomputer and wiped it clean.
They didn't try to save how-todocuments, they didn't try to
save any of the templates thatwe had been using or notes or
whatever.
(02:16):
They literally just took hercomputer when she left and wiped
the whole thing.
And you know it's one of thosewhere, yeah, it's, how are you
looking at it?
It is just tasked a job toclean the computer up and get it
to the next person that comesin right.
And people are forgetting that.
There's a lot of information onthese pieces and that's just
(02:36):
one example.
That took quite a bit ofrecovery.
Thankfully we had had some, butyou know, working through all
of it is definitely a headache.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, it is Wow.
And now for folks out there inthe trucking industry, a lot of
us focus on physical operation,truck freight and schedules.
What do you think digitalassets get, you know?
Overlooked, you know,especially when the
transportation industry?
Why do you think that happens?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You know they're so focused on.
Hey, I have to, you know, moreor less meet the deadline.
I have to have the deliveryhere on this set time and I need
to make sure that that part isworking and the logistical side
of it that they aren't sofocused on.
But is my website still up andrunning?
Is you know?
Am I still generating traffic?
Is my contact form stillworking appropriately in order
(03:23):
to continue to grow?
Can customers see when thingsare going to be delivered and
what that shipping and trackinglooks like?
You know, and those are allpieces that they can find
through your website, throughemail communication, and so you
know, yeah, the day to day, howdo we get the product moved and
the trucks rolling?
We also need to make sure thatwe're continuing to grow a
(03:44):
business and focusing on thatcustomer experience as well.
Nice.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
That's perfect, and some people may wonder what even
counts as a digital asset.
Can you break it down forsomeone that's running a
trucking company or brokerage?
What are some of the thingsthey might not even realize that
they should have control over.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, so for digital assets, we've really been able
to kind of narrow that down andidentify it into seven pillars,
if you will.
That's going to get into likeyour domain name and hosting.
Your domain is obviouslyattached to your email addresses
as well in most situations, soyou lose your domain, you also
then are losing your emails.
Oftentimes, clients are settingup those two factors to the
email address, so even trying torecover some of those assets
(04:27):
are tied to potentially now adomain and email address that
you don't have control over.
It's going to get into socialmedia platforms and anything
you're using for marketingGoogle Analytics, facebook,
Instagram, tiktok, whatever thatlooks like for you.
And then it also dives intobrand assets and your logos,
marketing materials.
(04:47):
How are your invoices designed,whatever types of tools that
you're actually using, also frommore of a design side.
And then we also get intothird-party tracking.
So a lot of companies andagencies are going to look at
digital assets as just yourdomain and your social and what
does that look like?
But really, your third-partytools that keep your business
(05:08):
running as well are also reallyreally crucial digital assets
for your company.
Losing a crm login, losingshipment and tracking and
logistic logins you knowwhatever that is for you know
the business losing that canreally start to play a long-term
impact on it.
And we've seen that go to whereyou know employees the business
losing that can really start toplay a long term impact on it.
And we've seen that go to whereyou know employees the one who
(05:29):
set it up, trying to be helpful,trying to help the business
owner get a little bit furtherin business and streamline a
little bit more and then theyleave for whatever reason and
the owner wasn't really sure howit was specifically set up.
So you know it gets into thoseand then it gets deeper and
deeper into compliance, security, backups, recoveries.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Wow, thank you for breaking it down.
Is there any common mistakes orblind spots that come up over
and over again?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
You know I think, unfortunately, it's most of the
time related to a website ordomain that the issue is my
website stopped working.
I'm not sure why I'm gettingthis error.
My website's been compromised,sometimes it's just the domain
is down.
I think one of the biggestmistakes is a lot of people,
business owners really just settheir domain name as a set it
(06:21):
and forget it.
So what they do is, you knowcause we've sent email
notifications out to clientslike, hey, just a reminder, I
know you've got it, but yourdomain's up for renewal.
I'm like yeah, no, we knowwe're good, okay, and we keep
moving.
And then we get the call alittle bit later and it's they
forgot to update the credit card, though that was attached to
the domain name.
So while, yes, the domain nameis on auto renew name, so, while
(06:46):
, yes, the domain name is onauto renew, it's only auto
renewing, as good as your creditcard is.
And so you know, when we youstart to see that you know again
, they're just on autopilot,focusing on the business,
focusing on the deliveries,focusing on how to get things
where they need to go, thatsometimes they forget those
little pieces.
So I know it seems like a bitof a no brainer, but one that
comes up more often than itshould.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Let's talk about ownership.
A lot of people hirefreelancers or agencies to build
a website or logos.
What are a few key things thatbusiness owners should always
make sure that they actually ownat the end of the project?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, I think that's a great question on what they
should own at the end of aproject.
I think it really comes down toso often we're convinced that
we have the login details thatwe need, and really diving
deeper and asking like, but doyou have the admin login or the
ownership login details?
Is, you know, a small littledifference in what you're asking
for, but really can make a hugedifference at the end of the
(07:43):
day, what you're asking for, butreally can make a huge
difference at the end of the day.
Google, my Business and GoogleAnalytics, for example, are ones
that can have ownership oradmin roles, and so if someone
else is setting it up, they'retypically set up as an owner and
then often just assigningsomeone else as the
administrator, and so that wouldbe one crucial piece.
And then same thing with yourwebsite.
We've logged into sites only tofind out you don't have access
(08:04):
to half of your website.
Like, they've given you editorrights.
They didn't even give you adminrights to your website.
Like, how do we go back andactually ask for full ownership
and admin?
But beyond all of that, it alsogets into your two-factor
authentication right.
So great, you've got logindetails.
I can't tell you how many times,though, the two-factor
authentication is actually tiedto the person who set it up, or
(08:28):
maybe even someone on their team.
So, if you've hired a company,what are they using for best
practices and standard protocols, right?
And is it attached to thecompany?
Is it attached to you or is ittied to an employee within the
company?
And so, really understandingwho is supposed to be getting
the two factor, who's supposedto be getting admin email
(08:49):
notifications related to yourCRM, related to your shipping
tools, related to your domainname?
There's a lot, and that's, Ithink, the reason where this
starts to get so complicated,right?
Is everyone's like oh, I've gotlogins, I'm fine.
Or, to your point at thebeginning, right, like, my
developers got it somewhere, whydo I need that?
Or I'm sure they've sent it inan email at one point, but you
(09:10):
know that it's not necessarilyproviding you full ownership,
though, of the tools thatthey're setting up wow, I mean,
yeah, that makes a bigdifference.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I mean, if someone's also listening, um, only
checking on digital assets afterthe episode, what should it be?
Maybe that you could help them?
What's one thing that's mostcommonly lost but really
critical to have access to?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I think it's really probably going to come down to
domain name or email address.
I think too many things aretied to your email address for
the business side.
And we had it happen to aclient recently.
They had recently sold one oftheir businesses Well, I
shouldn't say recently, they hadsold it about eight months ago
and then we all of a sudden, outof the blue, get a call and
(09:58):
it's just like hey, thewebsite's not down, can you look
into it?
And we're like well, the domainexpired and down, can you look
into it?
We're like well, the domainexpired.
And she's like I don't knowwhat email address that's
attached to.
So we're trying to go throughall of the like can we get
through the forgot passwordtrick?
Can we get through this?
Can we, you know, do all thesethings and really identifying
what was used to set that up?
(10:19):
And oftentimes and I think itcame down to what we couldn't
reset the forgot passwordbecause she didn't have access
to the email, because it wastied to an at domaincom email
address, and so it really Ithink it took us seven to eight
days before that website wasback up and running.
By the time we really workedwith the third party and was
like hey, what do we need to doto prove ownership?
(10:40):
How long of a wait period isthis?
It isn't just like let's get acredit card on file.
It was let's go prevent presentlegal documents to make sure
that this is in fact the owner,and I think that's something to
point out too.
Domain names aren't yourtypical.
Just like if I renew or if Irepay, you know like it'll be
fine.
It is a process for sure, anddomain like registrars take that
(11:04):
very seriously and need to makesure.
Like I need ownership, I needto see Secretary of State, I
need to see tax, I need to seebills, I need to see things to
actually know that you are theowner, because there's a lot of
pressure and things that cancome back on then if they were
to release that to someone whoit really wasn't an ownership of
.
So you know that's where.
(11:25):
It's not just a hey, let's justput a credit card back on file
and get this thing running again.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Wow, I mean there's certain.
I think if domains aren't beingused and people you know maybe
they've had it at one time anddidn't they had it, I think
there's an option where thatdomain company can reach out to
them and see if possibly someoneelse can use it.
So if you don't respond and itexpired, I mean, I think they
(11:53):
only cost like ten dollarssometimes to just to make that
prompt.
I think I've seen that outthere yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
So there's like the domain brokerage, and that's a
good piece.
You that not everyone talksabout when it comes to assets is
to your point.
You could lose it very easilyand quickly for not a you know,
expensive cost.
We've also seen domainregistrars sell it back to you
because they know it's sopowerful, for $2,500 or more.
So, again, it's not just like,oh, hey, like let me just pay an
(12:21):
$80 late fee and get this backup and running.
Depending on how long it's been.
We've seen them try to sell itback to you for way way more
than it to exit at any point.
Domain names are an asset.
That is something that shouldbe looked at in that valuation
side as well.
As far as to your point, hey,I've had this for a very long
time.
It's got really high SEOranking, it's got a great
reputation, the page rank isgood, it is worth something, and
(13:00):
I think a lot of people forgetthat in evaluation side.
So it that's also where we getinto of, like, all of the assets
.
Right, they're so focused onthe tangible the trucks, the
buildings, the cargo, whateverbut they're not looking
specifically at the digitalassets when it comes to how to
make sure their business isstill running smoothly yeah, I
mean you look at the fact thatyou, you know most companies
(13:22):
want to grow, right.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
So they tell you you're going to have to let some
control go, you're going tohave to let people help you,
because you can't do it all, andother people have strengths and
they can help you grow faster.
So they have that mindset rightthere.
They say, man, you know, I wantto grow.
And so then they start takingmore risk and sharing their
information.
And so how did the risk changefor a company as it scales?
(13:47):
How does it help them?
Is there a tipping point wherethings get more vulnerable that
you could explain to them?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, I think you know growth is what we're all
working for as businesses and,at the end of the day, when
you're just getting started,it's really easy to be like it's
written down on a sheet ofpaper someplace, or someone set
that up and I won't forget whothat was.
But what we often forget isbusinesses do come and go,
especially in today's economy,like you know.
And so, while you might thinkthat that developer is going to
(14:18):
be there to help your websitealong the way, you might even
think the hosting company isgoing to be there, like down the
road, but you just don't know.
And so, really understandingand taking ownership of like,
where are these things?
Who is in charge?
What is the call to action?
If something were to happen?
What does that recovery planstart to look like?
Because, as you're starting off, or you know a couple I don't
(14:40):
know five, 10 years in a coupleemployees, you know, yeah, their
websites down for a little bit.
It may not seem extremelyimpactful, but when you start to
have a large team you've got alarge client base and maybe
looking to expand even more youdo like that website being down
for just a tiny period of timewill really, really start to
impact your business, youroverhead, your cash flow and
(15:01):
everything, and so you knowunderstanding what is the
recovery plan should somethinghappen.
What do you have in place to beproactive instead of reactive?
I think that's probably one ofthe biggest things that we see
clients missing is it's always areactive phone call that we
receive.
Very rarely is a client callingus up going, hey, I'm
(15:23):
interested in more of my digitalsecurity protections and
backups and all of that.
It's the I've lost something,how do I get it back now?
And so we're really more tryingto come at it from a proactive
side, whether it's your socialmedia accounts, your CRMs, your
third-party tool shipping, allof that.
What does that full blownrecovery plan look like Should
something happen?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Wow, yeah, definitely Cybersecurity is important, but
you still hear about businessowners still thinking that it
won't happen to them.
Have you seen clients andlogistics get hacked or security
breaches?
Yeah, what would you say shouldbe their first layer of defense
.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
First layer is just working with an IT company of
sorts to make sure that they'vegot the right things and systems
in place.
From a website side, it'susually making sure that you're
performing maintenance regularly, secure difficult passwords.
As much as we all hate havingthe extra long 15 characters and
everything you have to meet tomake that password secure, there
(16:25):
are reasons that those are outthere.
The 2FA installed as well Again, I know it's a nuisance, but
it's.
You know we do need it.
I understand the reasoning.
I know even when we talk toclients, we already know that's
going to be a pain point oftrying to get that.
And so how do we make it asmoother process?
But you know, those are thefirst few steps I would take.
But even as, like truckingcompanies who might not think
(16:47):
that that's really who a cyberattack would be going after
you're storing a lot of customerdata, from addresses to credit
cards, to phone numbers, tonames, all the things, sometimes
more than other companies are.
You know there's a lot of smallbusinesses that aren't storing
that in some sort of third partytool or their website database,
(17:08):
and so there actually is like astronger, more prone reason to
say, hey, we should actually goafter some of these because of
the amount of customer data thaty'all are carrying.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Wow, I mean, that's a , that's a lot.
I mean, what's the worst oneyou've heard for business owners
with cybersecurity?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Typically it is the like getting in and just holding
something kind of ransom tosome extent, sending an email
out saying, hey, we do haveaccess to these things, we need
to receive X amount of money andwe'll just let it all back over
to you, and that's, you know,probably the worst ones that we
tend to see.
But definitely it's also notjust that aspect of like the
(17:51):
ransom.
How do we go through this?
Again, it's now slowing downyour operations, it's now
pulling you away from makingsure that the customers are
getting the deliveries and then,in addition to it's also coming
into.
Just, you have to tell yourclients that that happened.
And it just starts to make themquestion who are they handing
their data to?
If you can't handle the digitalside, how are you handling our
(18:15):
precious cargo and what are youdoing to make sure that
everything is smooth, secure andunder control and where, if
you're making a skip and a gapin that area, where else are you
cutting corners?
And so I always say it reallycomes into perception when those
things start to happen and doesstart to damage your company's
reputation.
I mean, while, yes, it seemseasy, oh, we'll just send an
(18:37):
email out, let them know that itwas compromised and
everything's fine.
No, it definitely starts toplay a negative impact with your
customers as well, and theywill start looking at other
companies that have a little bitmore security in place.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, and I just think these, these individuals,
I mean, do they ever get caught?
I mean we hear about it so much.
I mean you think who are thesepeople everywhere?
Yeah, it's what a mess.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
They're trying to crack down on it more and more.
But I mean, yeah, it's crazyhow easy it is to set up.
You know, set up an emailaccount, set up a couple of
things and just start asking formoney and disappear and move on
to the next right and just.
It is unfortunate and way tooeasy to come at it if you will.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Wow.
So let's say, a truckingcompany.
You know you got anentrepreneur that goes through
an acquisition, wants to buy acompany, a trucking company.
If someone is buying anexisting trucking business, what
digital assets should theyconfirm are included in the deal
?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, we're seeing this more and more of one just a
standard acquisition, but alsojust the entrepreneurship
through acquisition of hey.
I would like to purchase atrucking company.
That's the business I want toget into and I think that that's
a space that there still needsa lot of education around.
As far as what assets should Ibe asking for?
Because it does come down towho is the ownership.
(20:04):
Do they have access to thedomain name or is that going to
be a while to try and recover,because the previous owner it
could have been with a co-ownerthat has already exited and is
you know, now hey know thateverything's tied to them.
It could have been that, youknow, someone passed away and
now we have to figure out how toget that back, and that's part
of why it's up for sale.
So, you know, there's thosepieces.
(20:25):
But it goes into who owns thedomain, who owns the email
addresses, who owns the Googlemy Business listing?
Who owns your social mediaaccounts?
Who owns your CRMs and yourthird-party tools there?
How are they integrated?
Who knows how these things work?
Because a lot of times we seethat they want to acquire the
business but they might havesomeone on their own team that's
(20:47):
like, oh, I understandmarketing, I'll handle it.
Or I understand these things,like don't worry about it.
I got a buddy over here that'sgoing to handle that part.
He's real tech savvy, only tofind out, like the systems and
the way they're integrated.
You do need someone to betrained in that area before you
know if you're acquiring.
That's part of what you'retrying to bring in is the
systems that they have in place,and so really understanding is
(21:14):
that someone that's currently onstaff?
Is that a third party vendor?
Is that someone who's no longerwith the company?
Is that person dedicated andgoing to stay with the company
post acquisition and posttransaction?
Or are they going to go?
Hey, I'm scared of if I'm goingto keep a job or not.
I'm going to start looking.
Those are all things that needto start coming into play.
So it's not just great.
You know I've got the tangibleassets, I've got this business
(21:35):
and everything's ready to go.
It's how is the operation goingto continue and what is
happening with those digitalassets once acquired?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Wow, I mean, that's a , that is a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I mean so how did you get into this business?
I mean that's pretty cool.
You get to help people besuccessful.
How did you get this allstarted?
And so I was just like what doI do?
Where do I go?
How do I make something happen?
And so I just started teachingmyself website design and was
like I'll put a business uponline, I don't know, we'll do
something.
And so I started and ended upjust ended up selling website
(22:19):
designs and everything fromthere.
And then clients started askinglike the website's great, but
it's not converting, it's notdoing anything.
And we started looking atwebsite traffic, realizing they
weren't marketing.
And so that's when we're like,well, it's hard to have a
website actually work if we'renot doing anything to drive
traffic to the website.
So then I started teachingmyself more on the marketing
side as well.
(22:40):
And yeah, after 16 years inbusiness with all of it, I mean
it's.
I think, too, in a space rightnow where we've got so many
people hiring vendors, vas, youknow, employees with a retention
rate that seems to be, you know, every couple of years turning
over where, back in the day,they stayed for so long, we're
seeing this issue come up moreand more with the digital asset
(23:02):
side and I think, yeah, that'spart of it.
Yeah, that's part of it.
To your point is we just havegotten so many calls in the last
year that it was like this is abigger issue than just like,
oops, I forgot.
This is something that peoplereally don't know how to get a
grasp on, and we're able to growat a much faster rate as
businesses, but we're losingtrack of what's actually
(23:23):
important to stay successful inthat growth.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Wow, and I mean you think about people that it's
just a different time.
I mean times have changed andso fast, like you said, 2008,.
I mean that seems like so longago.
Have you come across a lot ofresistance trying to explain
this stuff or to moretraditional business owners?
Maybe they're like I don't needthat.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
We do all the time, you know.
I mean like we talk about it,we explain it.
We can give dozens and dozensof case studies over the years
and, like I said, I think that'sone of the hardest parts is how
much people are reactive.
And it's always hard becauseyou're on the other end of that
phone call feeling for them, andat the same time they're
frustrated in general, whichthen comes out on us or, as you
(24:08):
know, on the team, because theyjust want it fixed immediately,
not realizing we haven't touchedyour website.
You know you're coming to usout of the blue because your
site's down and you want animmediate fix, but we've never
even seen your site.
So now we have to understand theinner workings, or you know
what's going on and how arethings set up and configured and
who is in charge of.
(24:29):
Do you have an IT team?
And so you know, a lot of timesI think the resistance also
comes from we've been making itthis long on our own, we're fine
, we don't need that until ithappens.
And then the other resistanceis we have an IT team for that.
They're going to handle it, andI can't tell you how many
conversations I've had with ITcompanies over the years where
they're like I don't know how tolog into analytics for clients,
(24:52):
I don't know how to log intosocial media accounts, I don't
know how to log into thesethings Like, that's not us.
We are cybersecurity and we aredomain names and you know
emails typically, but we don'tgo beyond that.
And so most traditionalcompanies think that their team
has it covered, but they don'tknow actually who is taking
(25:13):
ownership of that, and it issomething, as they're growing,
that the business owner doesstart to just assume someone on
the team has handled Wow.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
So let's flip.
What's one myth ormisconception about websites or
branding that drives you nuts?
You know, something people sayor believe is just isn't, isn't
true.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I think that it's not working.
People you know I don't need awebsite.
It's not working and it's notdoing anything that I need.
And it's such a myth Like youabsolutely need it, no matter
what you're doing, no matterwhere you're at in business.
Like you have to have a goodweb looking website and if it's
not converting, sometimes, sure,it's because of a poor design,
but typically it's becauseyou're not doing anything with
(25:58):
it to make it convert.
And that could be.
Are you marketing?
It could be.
Have you updated it recently?
It could be.
Have you even just checked yourcontact form to find out if it's
still working appropriatelyright?
I mean, oftentimes that's one ofthe first things to kind of
break on a site and people don'tknow until six months down the
road and someone happened toreach out through a phone call
and was like I've contacted youseveral times and I haven't
(26:20):
heard back.
It's because the form wasn'tworking.
Or just give them a reason togo to your site, check shipping
status and say what is thetracking number?
Where is it at?
When's it going to get thereand turn it into a really
successful tool so that you'reactually standing out from your
competitors, instead of lettingthat website be such a dormant
like.
It's there because I need tolook professional, but really it
(26:44):
should be a really, really goodtool for your customers to be
using too.
To understand, you know, go tomy account sections and see when
the past orders were orwhatever it might be that
they're looking for, and you'regoing to start to see a huge,
huge change in what that websiteis doing for you from a company
side.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Thank you.
That's awesome.
We want to leave our listenerswith something they can do today
.
You know we want to leave ourlisteners with something they
can do today.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
You know, if someone's not tech savvy, what
is a special?
You know something simple habitthat they could do as a special
checklist or a tool that theycould use to keep their assets
protected and organized?
Yeah, a tool that they could beusing one is at least start
taking some documentation.
I, you know as much as I wouldsay don't do it on paper.
A simple step just start startpaying attention to where these
things are.
Second step, though, would bewe do have a digital asset
checklist that they can downloadfor free, and that's it.
Tree ring, digitalcom slash,that's delivered and that's just
(27:43):
going to go through, like Isaid, those seven pillars, and
give you check by check, like doI have this, do I have that?
Do I know who has it?
Do I need to do somethingbetter here?
And it'll start to help youidentify those gaps and start to
see like okay, this is a biggerissue, or oh, let me at least
start with this one bullet pointon the checklist and handle
that, and then start slowlyworking through that checklist
(28:03):
as well.
As you know, how do we get abetter grasp on all of this?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
That's awesome.
Thank you so much.
I think that's perfect to helpthem out.
Last thing for you, paige ifsomeone was launching a new
trucking company, what's one ofthe smartest digital move they
can make on day one to protecttheir brand in the long run?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Smartest digital move to protect their brand.
On day one, I would say itwould just be start documenting
every single thing that you'redoing.
Start documenting whether youknow whatever you're setting up,
whatever you are having fortools, how to use the tools,
start recording training videos,everything like that document,
and it will make things a loteasier.
(28:49):
Long-term training newemployees understanding how your
website's working, whateverthat looks like, it will better
support you in the growth if youstart documenting day one Nice.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well, I guess that wraps it all up.
I mean thank you so much, paige, for this conversation.
I think every business owner,especially in the industry,
where digital isn't always onthe top of their mind and
they're thinking about the low,keeping that secure.
Thank you for helping themunderstand that, so I appreciate
that.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me.
I hope that you all found itenjoyable and just something to
have a little takeaway.
To have a little takeaway thisis an industry that we have
definitely seen tends to focus alittle more on the deliveries
and not so much on like, how dowe update the website and make
sure everything's moving thereAwesome yeah, so everyone out
there listening, don't waituntil something breaks or gets
(29:42):
hacked.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Protect your digital assets.
Now.
We'll link you up with the pageinfo and her company Tree ring
digital in the show notes sothat you can check them out.
So, yeah, I appreciate this.
This is a great opportunity tohave you on and talk about what
you guys do and helpingindividuals out there stay
successful, so it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah, so that's this.
Is it for?
That's delivered and I'll seeyou next time.
Welcome back to another episode of that's
Delivered.
I'm your host, trucking Ray,and today we have a special
episode for you.
Something about truckingcompanies that you know they
overlook until it's too lateit's their digital assets.
So we know you can protect yourcargo, but what about your
website, social media or eventhe brand name?
The digital tools are just asvaluable and also just as
vulnerable.
(00:32):
Joining me today is my specialguest, paige Wise, the founder
and CEO of Tree Ring Digital.
With 16 years of experiencehelping companies secure their
online presence, paige has seenchaos that happens when
businesses lose control of theirdigital footprint.
So if you ever said I think myweb guy, my old web guy, has my
login, this episode's for you.
Hey, paige, how you doing?
(00:58):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Good, good, thanks for having me.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Likewise, I'm glad you're able to be on the show.
So, man, we get to tell aboutyour experience and all the
trouble you've seen out there.
I'm sure it's quite a bit, sowe get dig right into it.
To kick things off, maybe youheard of a.
We all love to hear a story.
You know, maybe you work with alot of companies over the years
.
Can you share one of those ohno Moments, time where a
(01:26):
business came after losing theirassets or access?
What would you say to thosepeople that maybe lost their
website or their domain?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, there's so many .
That's, I think, one of thehard parts and also just where
we started to really identifyingthat this was such a needed
area to be paying attention to.
And I'd say one of those oh nomoments was definitely we were
working with a nationalfranchise brand and we were
working with their marketingteam and the senior marketing
director left the company.
(01:56):
There was still a marketingassistant there and she reached
out to me one day and was likedo you have access or logins to
the various platforms?
Apparently, it just took hercomputer and wiped it clean.
They didn't try to save how-todocuments, they didn't try to
save any of the templates thatwe had been using or notes or
whatever.
(02:16):
They literally just took hercomputer when she left and wiped
the whole thing.
And you know it's one of thosewhere, yeah, it's, how are you
looking at it?
It is just tasked a job toclean the computer up and get it
to the next person that comesin right.
And people are forgetting that.
There's a lot of information onthese pieces and that's just
(02:36):
one example.
That took quite a bit ofrecovery.
Thankfully we had had some, butyou know, working through all
of it is definitely a headache.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, it is Wow.
And now for folks out there inthe trucking industry, a lot of
us focus on physical operation,truck freight and schedules.
What do you think digitalassets get, you know?
Overlooked, you know,especially when the
transportation industry?
Why do you think that happens?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You know they're so focused on.
Hey, I have to, you know, moreor less meet the deadline.
I have to have the deliveryhere on this set time and I need
to make sure that that part isworking and the logistical side
of it that they aren't sofocused on.
But is my website still up andrunning?
Is you know?
Am I still generating traffic?
Is my contact form stillworking appropriately in order
(03:23):
to continue to grow?
Can customers see when thingsare going to be delivered and
what that shipping and trackinglooks like?
You know, and those are allpieces that they can find
through your website, throughemail communication, and so you
know, yeah, the day to day, howdo we get the product moved and
the trucks rolling?
We also need to make sure thatwe're continuing to grow a
(03:44):
business and focusing on thatcustomer experience as well.
Nice.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
That's perfect, and some people may wonder what even
counts as a digital asset.
Can you break it down forsomeone that's running a
trucking company or brokerage?
What are some of the thingsthey might not even realize that
they should have control over.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, so for digital assets, we've really been able
to kind of narrow that down andidentify it into seven pillars,
if you will.
That's going to get into likeyour domain name and hosting.
Your domain is obviouslyattached to your email addresses
as well in most situations, soyou lose your domain, you also
then are losing your emails.
Oftentimes, clients are settingup those two factors to the
email address, so even trying torecover some of those assets
(04:27):
are tied to potentially now adomain and email address that
you don't have control over.
It's going to get into socialmedia platforms and anything
you're using for marketingGoogle Analytics, facebook,
Instagram, tiktok, whatever thatlooks like for you.
And then it also dives intobrand assets and your logos,
marketing materials.
(04:47):
How are your invoices designed,whatever types of tools that
you're actually using, also frommore of a design side.
And then we also get intothird-party tracking.
So a lot of companies andagencies are going to look at
digital assets as just yourdomain and your social and what
does that look like?
But really, your third-partytools that keep your business
(05:08):
running as well are also reallyreally crucial digital assets
for your company.
Losing a crm login, losingshipment and tracking and
logistic logins you knowwhatever that is for you know
the business losing that canreally start to play a long-term
impact on it.
And we've seen that go to whereyou know employees the business
losing that can really start toplay a long term impact on it.
And we've seen that go to whereyou know employees the one who
(05:29):
set it up, trying to be helpful,trying to help the business
owner get a little bit furtherin business and streamline a
little bit more and then theyleave for whatever reason and
the owner wasn't really sure howit was specifically set up.
So you know it gets into thoseand then it gets deeper and
deeper into compliance, security, backups, recoveries.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Wow, thank you for breaking it down.
Is there any common mistakes orblind spots that come up over
and over again?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
You know I think, unfortunately, it's most of the
time related to a website ordomain that the issue is my
website stopped working.
I'm not sure why I'm gettingthis error.
My website's been compromised,sometimes it's just the domain
is down.
I think one of the biggestmistakes is a lot of people,
business owners really just settheir domain name as a set it
(06:21):
and forget it.
So what they do is, you knowcause we've sent email
notifications out to clientslike, hey, just a reminder, I
know you've got it, but yourdomain's up for renewal.
I'm like yeah, no, we knowwe're good, okay, and we keep
moving.
And then we get the call alittle bit later and it's they
forgot to update the credit card, though that was attached to
the domain name.
So while, yes, the domain nameis on auto renew name, so, while
(06:46):
, yes, the domain name is onauto renew, it's only auto
renewing, as good as your creditcard is.
And so you know, when we youstart to see that you know again
, they're just on autopilot,focusing on the business,
focusing on the deliveries,focusing on how to get things
where they need to go, thatsometimes they forget those
little pieces.
So I know it seems like a bitof a no brainer, but one that
comes up more often than itshould.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Let's talk about ownership.
A lot of people hirefreelancers or agencies to build
a website or logos.
What are a few key things thatbusiness owners should always
make sure that they actually ownat the end of the project?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, I think that's a great question on what they
should own at the end of aproject.
I think it really comes down toso often we're convinced that
we have the login details thatwe need, and really diving
deeper and asking like, but doyou have the admin login or the
ownership login details?
Is, you know, a small littledifference in what you're asking
for, but really can make a hugedifference at the end of the
(07:43):
day, what you're asking for, butreally can make a huge
difference at the end of the day.
Google, my Business and GoogleAnalytics, for example, are ones
that can have ownership oradmin roles, and so if someone
else is setting it up, they'retypically set up as an owner and
then often just assigningsomeone else as the
administrator, and so that wouldbe one crucial piece.
And then same thing with yourwebsite.
We've logged into sites only tofind out you don't have access
(08:04):
to half of your website.
Like, they've given you editorrights.
They didn't even give you adminrights to your website.
Like, how do we go back andactually ask for full ownership
and admin?
But beyond all of that, it alsogets into your two-factor
authentication right.
So great, you've got logindetails.
I can't tell you how many times,though, the two-factor
authentication is actually tiedto the person who set it up, or
(08:28):
maybe even someone on their team.
So, if you've hired a company,what are they using for best
practices and standard protocols, right?
And is it attached to thecompany?
Is it attached to you or is ittied to an employee within the
company?
And so, really understandingwho is supposed to be getting
the two factor, who's supposedto be getting admin email
(08:49):
notifications related to yourCRM, related to your shipping
tools, related to your domainname?
There's a lot, and that's, Ithink, the reason where this
starts to get so complicated,right?
Is everyone's like oh, I've gotlogins, I'm fine.
Or, to your point at thebeginning, right, like, my
developers got it somewhere, whydo I need that?
Or I'm sure they've sent it inan email at one point, but you
(09:10):
know that it's not necessarilyproviding you full ownership,
though, of the tools thatthey're setting up wow, I mean,
yeah, that makes a bigdifference.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I mean, if someone's also listening, um, only
checking on digital assets afterthe episode, what should it be?
Maybe that you could help them?
What's one thing that's mostcommonly lost but really
critical to have access to?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I think it's really probably going to come down to
domain name or email address.
I think too many things aretied to your email address for
the business side.
And we had it happen to aclient recently.
They had recently sold one oftheir businesses Well, I
shouldn't say recently, they hadsold it about eight months ago
and then we all of a sudden, outof the blue, get a call and
(09:58):
it's just like hey, thewebsite's not down, can you look
into it?
And we're like well, the domainexpired and down, can you look
into it?
We're like well, the domainexpired.
And she's like I don't knowwhat email address that's
attached to.
So we're trying to go throughall of the like can we get
through the forgot passwordtrick?
Can we get through this?
Can we, you know, do all thesethings and really identifying
what was used to set that up?
(10:19):
And oftentimes and I think itcame down to what we couldn't
reset the forgot passwordbecause she didn't have access
to the email, because it wastied to an at domaincom email
address, and so it really Ithink it took us seven to eight
days before that website wasback up and running.
By the time we really workedwith the third party and was
like hey, what do we need to doto prove ownership?
(10:40):
How long of a wait period isthis?
It isn't just like let's get acredit card on file.
It was let's go prevent presentlegal documents to make sure
that this is in fact the owner,and I think that's something to
point out too.
Domain names aren't yourtypical.
Just like if I renew or if Irepay, you know like it'll be
fine.
It is a process for sure, anddomain like registrars take that
(11:04):
very seriously and need to makesure.
Like I need ownership, I needto see Secretary of State, I
need to see tax, I need to seebills, I need to see things to
actually know that you are theowner, because there's a lot of
pressure and things that cancome back on then if they were
to release that to someone whoit really wasn't an ownership of
.
So you know that's where.
(11:25):
It's not just a hey, let's justput a credit card back on file
and get this thing running again.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Wow, I mean there's certain.
I think if domains aren't beingused and people you know maybe
they've had it at one time anddidn't they had it, I think
there's an option where thatdomain company can reach out to
them and see if possibly someoneelse can use it.
So if you don't respond and itexpired, I mean, I think they
(11:53):
only cost like ten dollarssometimes to just to make that
prompt.
I think I've seen that outthere yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
So there's like the domain brokerage, and that's a
good piece.
You that not everyone talksabout when it comes to assets is
to your point.
You could lose it very easilyand quickly for not a you know,
expensive cost.
We've also seen domainregistrars sell it back to you
because they know it's sopowerful, for $2,500 or more.
So, again, it's not just like,oh, hey, like let me just pay an
(12:21):
$80 late fee and get this backup and running.
Depending on how long it's been.
We've seen them try to sell itback to you for way way more
than it to exit at any point.
Domain names are an asset.
That is something that shouldbe looked at in that valuation
side as well.
As far as to your point, hey,I've had this for a very long
time.
It's got really high SEOranking, it's got a great
reputation, the page rank isgood, it is worth something, and
(13:00):
I think a lot of people forgetthat in evaluation side.
So it that's also where we getinto of, like, all of the assets
.
Right, they're so focused onthe tangible the trucks, the
buildings, the cargo, whateverbut they're not looking
specifically at the digitalassets when it comes to how to
make sure their business isstill running smoothly yeah, I
mean you look at the fact thatyou, you know most companies
(13:22):
want to grow, right.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
So they tell you you're going to have to let some
control go, you're going tohave to let people help you,
because you can't do it all, andother people have strengths and
they can help you grow faster.
So they have that mindset rightthere.
They say, man, you know, I wantto grow.
And so then they start takingmore risk and sharing their
information.
And so how did the risk changefor a company as it scales?
(13:47):
How does it help them?
Is there a tipping point wherethings get more vulnerable that
you could explain to them?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, I think you know growth is what we're all
working for as businesses and,at the end of the day, when
you're just getting started,it's really easy to be like it's
written down on a sheet ofpaper someplace, or someone set
that up and I won't forget whothat was.
But what we often forget isbusinesses do come and go,
especially in today's economy,like you know.
And so, while you might thinkthat that developer is going to
(14:18):
be there to help your websitealong the way, you might even
think the hosting company isgoing to be there, like down the
road, but you just don't know.
And so, really understandingand taking ownership of like,
where are these things?
Who is in charge?
What is the call to action?
If something were to happen?
What does that recovery planstart to look like?
Because, as you're starting off, or you know a couple I don't
(14:40):
know five, 10 years in a coupleemployees, you know, yeah, their
websites down for a little bit.
It may not seem extremelyimpactful, but when you start to
have a large team you've got alarge client base and maybe
looking to expand even more youdo like that website being down
for just a tiny period of timewill really, really start to
impact your business, youroverhead, your cash flow and
(15:01):
everything, and so you knowunderstanding what is the
recovery plan should somethinghappen.
What do you have in place to beproactive instead of reactive?
I think that's probably one ofthe biggest things that we see
clients missing is it's always areactive phone call that we
receive.
Very rarely is a client callingus up going, hey, I'm
(15:23):
interested in more of my digitalsecurity protections and
backups and all of that.
It's the I've lost something,how do I get it back now?
And so we're really more tryingto come at it from a proactive
side, whether it's your socialmedia accounts, your CRMs, your
third-party tool shipping, allof that.
What does that full blownrecovery plan look like Should
something happen?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Wow, yeah, definitely Cybersecurity is important, but
you still hear about businessowners still thinking that it
won't happen to them.
Have you seen clients andlogistics get hacked or security
breaches?
Yeah, what would you say shouldbe their first layer of defense
.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
First layer is just working with an IT company of
sorts to make sure that they'vegot the right things and systems
in place.
From a website side, it'susually making sure that you're
performing maintenance regularly, secure difficult passwords.
As much as we all hate havingthe extra long 15 characters and
everything you have to meet tomake that password secure, there
(16:25):
are reasons that those are outthere.
The 2FA installed as well Again, I know it's a nuisance, but
it's.
You know we do need it.
I understand the reasoning.
I know even when we talk toclients, we already know that's
going to be a pain point oftrying to get that.
And so how do we make it asmoother process?
But you know, those are thefirst few steps I would take.
But even as, like truckingcompanies who might not think
(16:47):
that that's really who a cyberattack would be going after
you're storing a lot of customerdata, from addresses to credit
cards, to phone numbers, tonames, all the things, sometimes
more than other companies are.
You know there's a lot of smallbusinesses that aren't storing
that in some sort of third partytool or their website database,
(17:08):
and so there actually is like astronger, more prone reason to
say, hey, we should actually goafter some of these because of
the amount of customer data thaty'all are carrying.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Wow, I mean, that's a , that's a lot.
I mean, what's the worst oneyou've heard for business owners
with cybersecurity?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Typically it is the like getting in and just holding
something kind of ransom tosome extent, sending an email
out saying, hey, we do haveaccess to these things, we need
to receive X amount of money andwe'll just let it all back over
to you, and that's, you know,probably the worst ones that we
tend to see.
But definitely it's also notjust that aspect of like the
(17:51):
ransom.
How do we go through this?
Again, it's now slowing downyour operations, it's now
pulling you away from makingsure that the customers are
getting the deliveries and then,in addition to it's also coming
into.
Just, you have to tell yourclients that that happened.
And it just starts to make themquestion who are they handing
their data to?
If you can't handle the digitalside, how are you handling our
(18:15):
precious cargo and what are youdoing to make sure that
everything is smooth, secure andunder control and where, if
you're making a skip and a gapin that area, where else are you
cutting corners?
And so I always say it reallycomes into perception when those
things start to happen and doesstart to damage your company's
reputation.
I mean, while, yes, it seemseasy, oh, we'll just send an
(18:37):
email out, let them know that itwas compromised and
everything's fine.
No, it definitely starts toplay a negative impact with your
customers as well, and theywill start looking at other
companies that have a little bitmore security in place.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, and I just think these, these individuals,
I mean, do they ever get caught?
I mean we hear about it so much.
I mean you think who are thesepeople everywhere?
Yeah, it's what a mess.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
They're trying to crack down on it more and more.
But I mean, yeah, it's crazyhow easy it is to set up.
You know, set up an emailaccount, set up a couple of
things and just start asking formoney and disappear and move on
to the next right and just.
It is unfortunate and way tooeasy to come at it if you will.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Wow.
So let's say, a truckingcompany.
You know you got anentrepreneur that goes through
an acquisition, wants to buy acompany, a trucking company.
If someone is buying anexisting trucking business, what
digital assets should theyconfirm are included in the deal
?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, we're seeing this more and more of one just a
standard acquisition, but alsojust the entrepreneurship
through acquisition of hey.
I would like to purchase atrucking company.
That's the business I want toget into and I think that that's
a space that there still needsa lot of education around.
As far as what assets should Ibe asking for?
Because it does come down towho is the ownership.
(20:04):
Do they have access to thedomain name or is that going to
be a while to try and recover,because the previous owner it
could have been with a co-ownerthat has already exited and is
you know, now hey know thateverything's tied to them.
It could have been that, youknow, someone passed away and
now we have to figure out how toget that back, and that's part
of why it's up for sale.
So, you know, there's thosepieces.
(20:25):
But it goes into who owns thedomain, who owns the email
addresses, who owns the Googlemy Business listing?
Who owns your social mediaaccounts?
Who owns your CRMs and yourthird-party tools there?
How are they integrated?
Who knows how these things work?
Because a lot of times we seethat they want to acquire the
business but they might havesomeone on their own team that's
(20:47):
like, oh, I understandmarketing, I'll handle it.
Or I understand these things,like don't worry about it.
I got a buddy over here that'sgoing to handle that part.
He's real tech savvy, only tofind out, like the systems and
the way they're integrated.
You do need someone to betrained in that area before you
know if you're acquiring.
That's part of what you'retrying to bring in is the
systems that they have in place,and so really understanding is
(21:14):
that someone that's currently onstaff?
Is that a third party vendor?
Is that someone who's no longerwith the company?
Is that person dedicated andgoing to stay with the company
post acquisition and posttransaction?
Or are they going to go?
Hey, I'm scared of if I'm goingto keep a job or not.
I'm going to start looking.
Those are all things that needto start coming into play.
So it's not just great.
You know I've got the tangibleassets, I've got this business
(21:35):
and everything's ready to go.
It's how is the operation goingto continue and what is
happening with those digitalassets once acquired?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Wow, I mean, that's a , that is a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I mean so how did you get into this business?
I mean that's pretty cool.
You get to help people besuccessful.
How did you get this allstarted?
And so I was just like what doI do?
Where do I go?
How do I make something happen?
And so I just started teachingmyself website design and was
like I'll put a business uponline, I don't know, we'll do
something.
And so I started and ended upjust ended up selling website
(22:19):
designs and everything fromthere.
And then clients started askinglike the website's great, but
it's not converting, it's notdoing anything.
And we started looking atwebsite traffic, realizing they
weren't marketing.
And so that's when we're like,well, it's hard to have a
website actually work if we'renot doing anything to drive
traffic to the website.
So then I started teachingmyself more on the marketing
side as well.
(22:40):
And yeah, after 16 years inbusiness with all of it, I mean
it's.
I think, too, in a space rightnow where we've got so many
people hiring vendors, vas, youknow, employees with a retention
rate that seems to be, you know, every couple of years turning
over where, back in the day,they stayed for so long, we're
seeing this issue come up moreand more with the digital asset
(23:02):
side and I think, yeah, that'spart of it.
Yeah, that's part of it.
To your point is we just havegotten so many calls in the last
year that it was like this is abigger issue than just like,
oops, I forgot.
This is something that peoplereally don't know how to get a
grasp on, and we're able to growat a much faster rate as
businesses, but we're losingtrack of what's actually
(23:23):
important to stay successful inthat growth.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Wow, and I mean you think about people that it's
just a different time.
I mean times have changed andso fast, like you said, 2008,.
I mean that seems like so longago.
Have you come across a lot ofresistance trying to explain
this stuff or to moretraditional business owners?
Maybe they're like I don't needthat.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
We do all the time, you know.
I mean like we talk about it,we explain it.
We can give dozens and dozensof case studies over the years
and, like I said, I think that'sone of the hardest parts is how
much people are reactive.
And it's always hard becauseyou're on the other end of that
phone call feeling for them, andat the same time they're
frustrated in general, whichthen comes out on us or, as you
(24:08):
know, on the team, because theyjust want it fixed immediately,
not realizing we haven't touchedyour website.
You know you're coming to usout of the blue because your
site's down and you want animmediate fix, but we've never
even seen your site.
So now we have to understand theinner workings, or you know
what's going on and how arethings set up and configured and
who is in charge of.
(24:29):
Do you have an IT team?
And so you know, a lot of timesI think the resistance also
comes from we've been making itthis long on our own, we're fine
, we don't need that until ithappens.
And then the other resistanceis we have an IT team for that.
They're going to handle it, andI can't tell you how many
conversations I've had with ITcompanies over the years where
they're like I don't know how tolog into analytics for clients,
(24:52):
I don't know how to log intosocial media accounts, I don't
know how to log into thesethings Like, that's not us.
We are cybersecurity and we aredomain names and you know
emails typically, but we don'tgo beyond that.
And so most traditionalcompanies think that their team
has it covered, but they don'tknow actually who is taking
(25:13):
ownership of that, and it issomething, as they're growing,
that the business owner doesstart to just assume someone on
the team has handled Wow.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
So let's flip.
What's one myth ormisconception about websites or
branding that drives you nuts?
You know, something people sayor believe is just isn't, isn't
true.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I think that it's not working.
People you know I don't need awebsite.
It's not working and it's notdoing anything that I need.
And it's such a myth Like youabsolutely need it, no matter
what you're doing, no matterwhere you're at in business.
Like you have to have a goodweb looking website and if it's
not converting, sometimes, sure,it's because of a poor design,
but typically it's becauseyou're not doing anything with
(25:58):
it to make it convert.
And that could be.
Are you marketing?
It could be.
Have you updated it recently?
It could be.
Have you even just checked yourcontact form to find out if it's
still working appropriatelyright?
I mean, oftentimes that's one ofthe first things to kind of
break on a site and people don'tknow until six months down the
road and someone happened toreach out through a phone call
and was like I've contacted youseveral times and I haven't
(26:20):
heard back.
It's because the form wasn'tworking.
Or just give them a reason togo to your site, check shipping
status and say what is thetracking number?
Where is it at?
When's it going to get thereand turn it into a really
successful tool so that you'reactually standing out from your
competitors, instead of lettingthat website be such a dormant
like.
It's there because I need tolook professional, but really it
(26:44):
should be a really, really goodtool for your customers to be
using too.
To understand, you know, go tomy account sections and see when
the past orders were orwhatever it might be that
they're looking for, and you'regoing to start to see a huge,
huge change in what that websiteis doing for you from a company
side.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Thank you.
That's awesome.
We want to leave our listenerswith something they can do today
.
You know we want to leave ourlisteners with something they
can do today.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
You know, if someone's not tech savvy, what
is a special?
You know something simple habitthat they could do as a special
checklist or a tool that theycould use to keep their assets
protected and organized?
Yeah, a tool that they could beusing one is at least start
taking some documentation.
I, you know as much as I wouldsay don't do it on paper.
A simple step just start startpaying attention to where these
things are.
Second step, though, would bewe do have a digital asset
checklist that they can downloadfor free, and that's it.
Tree ring, digitalcom slash,that's delivered and that's just
(27:43):
going to go through, like Isaid, those seven pillars, and
give you check by check, like doI have this, do I have that?
Do I know who has it?
Do I need to do somethingbetter here?
And it'll start to help youidentify those gaps and start to
see like okay, this is a biggerissue, or oh, let me at least
start with this one bullet pointon the checklist and handle
that, and then start slowlyworking through that checklist
(28:03):
as well.
As you know, how do we get abetter grasp on all of this?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
That's awesome.
Thank you so much.
I think that's perfect to helpthem out.
Last thing for you, paige ifsomeone was launching a new
trucking company, what's one ofthe smartest digital move they
can make on day one to protecttheir brand in the long run?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Smartest digital move to protect their brand.
On day one, I would say itwould just be start documenting
every single thing that you'redoing.
Start documenting whether youknow whatever you're setting up,
whatever you are having fortools, how to use the tools,
start recording training videos,everything like that document,
and it will make things a loteasier.
(28:49):
Long-term training newemployees understanding how your
website's working, whateverthat looks like, it will better
support you in the growth if youstart documenting day one Nice.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Well, I guess that wraps it all up.
I mean thank you so much, paige, for this conversation.
I think every business owner,especially in the industry,
where digital isn't always onthe top of their mind and
they're thinking about the low,keeping that secure.
Thank you for helping themunderstand that, so I appreciate
that.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me.
I hope that you all found itenjoyable and just something to
have a little takeaway.
To have a little takeaway thisis an industry that we have
definitely seen tends to focus alittle more on the deliveries
and not so much on like, how dowe update the website and make
sure everything's moving thereAwesome yeah, so everyone out
there listening, don't waituntil something breaks or gets
(29:42):
hacked.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Protect your digital assets.
Now.
We'll link you up with the pageinfo and her company Tree ring
digital in the show notes sothat you can check them out.
So, yeah, I appreciate this.
This is a great opportunity tohave you on and talk about what
you guys do and helpingindividuals out there stay
successful, so it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah, so that's this.
Is it for?
That's delivered and I'll seeyou next time.
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