Brittany Herzberg
SEO & Case Study Copywriter
Service providers call Brittany Herzberg when they want SEO to bring more traffic to their website. As an SEO & case study copywriter, Brittany uses the power of SEO, storytelling, & social proof to get impactful, purpose-driven business owners found online—organically. The fact that she's been a reliable safe-space-provider for 10+ years as a massage therapist only adds to her appeal. Brittany is known for keeping the mood fun, judgment-free, & basic—oh, so basic.
Connect with Brittany...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brittany_herzberg/
Website: https://brittanyherzberg.com/
Full Transcript - Episode 21
Chantelle: So Brittany, tell me what it was like when you first discovered what your profile was.
Brittany: Yeah. I'm so excited to get into all of this. When I first discovered that I was a 3/5, it was just immediately like, I need to soak up the information I need to like, figure out what this is.
And as soon as I started reading. You know, , as is the case with anything human design related for me, I'm like, oh my gosh, I feel so seen. I can't believe that this is like in some thing where, you know, other people also kind of feel like this and it was just very, like, validating, I guess would be the best word for it.
Chantelle: Yeah, and so surprising too, like, how did, how did they know about me? Right?
Brittany: It's a little creepy, but also very, very cool.
Chantelle: Yeah, absolutely. So we're both manifesting generators. We've got that in common. What does being an MG feel like for you?
Brittany: Oh, [00:02:00] that's a loaded question. All of the things that I love doing, they're really varied.
They're all over the place. I mean, my background is in massage therapy. I love pet sitting. I babysat since I was 11, like I have all of these things. And then I ended up in the world of copywriting and strategy. And so. knowing that I was a manifesting generator, that was also very helpful where it's like, Oh, okay.
The fact that I have all of these passions, like it's normal and it's okay. And there's a way to make magic from it. So that was really freeing. And now that I know that I'm able to evaluate and observe all of these different passions of mine and what catches my attention and figure out what is that through line?
What is it that I can, how can I merge these things? to do the helping that I want to do. It's, it's really, it's really cool, but there's a lot of ideas happening over here. There's things that want to go really fast. There's some frustration occasionally because things don't go as fast as I want to, but it's mostly fun.
Chantelle: Yeah, I think that's such a major part of being a Manifesting [00:03:00] Generator. I mean, frustration is our not self theme, right? So frustration is what we want to listen to, pay attention to, and steer clear of when we can in favor of chasing that satisfaction instead. All the ideas coming in all at once is very familiar to me as an MG.
I know you're a sacral authority like me. How do you decide which ideas?
Brittany: That has been my greatest lesson, let's say. I was going to say challenge, but it's been like a learning journey. A couple of things have been really helpful. One is knowing that it's totally fine to have all of these ideas and just jotting them down.
Making sure that I write them down and don't act on them immediately. And then when it comes to it, I kind of look for validation from an outside source where like, I haven't told anyone what's going on. This happened with an email course that I have about blogging with SEO.
And I had this idea. I jotted it down and then I heard from two people like, Oh, Hey, can you help me write blogs with SEO? And it was like, boom, [00:04:00] that's it. So then it was a matter of figuring out like, what do I want it to look like? How can I actually help them? And then pricing it, marketing it, filling it, all of that stuff.
But. Really looking for that validation outside of me, especially from someone that I haven't, like, hinted at or shared this idea with or anything. And then asking yes and no questions can also be really helpful. So if I don't have someone around me that I can have them ask me the question where I give a yes or no answer, I've started just like, talking that out loud.
Yeah. If anyone's around me, they would think I'm like probably nuts, but it really is helpful to just like talk it out loud and just like feel in my body. Am I drawn toward that? Or am I kind of like repulsed by that?
Chantelle: Right. Yeah. I've experimented with that. I'm not like an out loud talking to myself.
Not that I'm judging that, but my inner voice tends to be loud enough that I don't need to externalize it for sure. But I've been learning, when I'm comparing two things, to pretend that I've already chosen one of them and then noticing what the sacral response is to that because I [00:05:00] have trouble deciding between two. That compare contrasting is challenging for my sacral authority.
So I'll go. Okay. Well, what if you picked this one? And then it'll be either a yes or a no to that, right? So that's one way that I use to like eliminate the other possibility.
Brittany: Yeah, that's really smart. I hadn't thought about that. I would say for the most part, I'm pretty decisive. I know what I want.
Sometimes even before I know what I want. And so it's easy for me to go down a path. And then it's, you know, it's still good to get that confirmation though.
Chantelle: Right? Yeah. I love what you said about how you're almost like looking for a sign. It sounded playful when you were talking about it, like you were connecting with the universe in the sense of, like, I'm playing this game to see if I'm getting confirmation about that. Somehow that gamification feels a little three line to
me.
Brittany: I would imagine. I have to make things playful because I can get so, so serious, but I have to make things playful and I don't always do that. Sometimes I get stuck in serious mode, but [00:06:00] if I can bring in that fun, lighthearted element, then I respond better to it.
Chantelle: Three lines are all about experimenting and exploring and that fits right into there. What other kinds of experiments do you find yourself running or do you find yourself experiencing in your business?
Brittany: Yeah, the first thing that's coming to mind is, I mean, SEO and inserting keywords and doing keyword research, that's all kind of a giant experiment.
And that's something that I've actually been weaving a lot more into my messaging recently and into my teaching, where it's like, this is our educated guess. And now we're going to go test our hypothesis by writing the blog post and putting the keywords where they need to go.
So even I'm doing that with my own stuff, but even inviting someone else to do that, students, clients, whatever, that has also been making it fun for me and for them and opening that pressure valve. Mm hmm. Yeah, that makes sense.
Another one for me is like, in my more personal life, I [00:07:00] have never had a great relationship with cooking and being in the kitchen.
I love baking but as far as like cooking, just hasn't been my jam But I want to get in there more and do more of that stuff. So just experimenting with that like my boyfriend and I all look over recipes. Okay, let's try this and then as I do it. I have these wins under my belt. It feels better and I feel more confident and I feel like I can continue to experiment and maybe try some things that are a little bit more challenging or outside the box.
So that has been really helpful for me.
Chantelle: It's a great example of how a three line gains experience to gain confidence. Like that's our whole shtick. That's our whole deal.
As I've been talking with three lines on the show, I have noticed that we have this thread of cycles of experimentation and growth and like, adding new layers all the time.
In my personal life too, like, I used to be a knitter and every project I would choose one new skill.
So [00:08:00] I would choose one new stitch, I'd choose a pattern that specifically had one new technique in it. And I intentionally built my knowledge and my experience that way. Or, I would learn to block a piece or anything that sounded scary in the knitting world.
I would pick one little thing at a time so that I wasn't overwhelming myself. And I'm noticing as I talked to three lines that whether conscious or unconscious, we're all kind of doing that. We're gradually increasing the level ourselves as we grow.
Brittany: I like that. Even as you're talking, I'm thinking of massage therapy and how I would do that. And it's even interesting, like of how my brain was interpreting that. And then you were, you started doing like the level up with your hand and you were thinking of increasing in my head. I was thinking of going deeper with something. Oh, interesting. Right. So like that definitely resonates for me.
And even for, with the example of being a massage therapist, learn a skill. I could go deeper with that skill. I could go to the next [00:09:00] level of training. Like I took craniosacral therapy. Love it. Did level one and then I did level two and I would continue going with that. But I even got the books, you know, cause COVID happened and I was at home and I was like, Oh, let me just see what I can maybe glean from these books that were the deeper levels of the training.
So that's really cool though. Just thinking of like the up versus down and how my brain did that.
Chantelle: Yeah, that is interesting. I would have thought that as a line one, I would have gone deeper and a line five up, but like, no.
On your new podcast, The Basic B, you are experimenting with blending SEO, social proof and storytelling. MGs are kind of famous for combining things. How did that trifecta come about for you?
Brittany: Yes, I've seen this a lot with manifesting generators and it's so cool, especially once I learned that about me and just having it not feel so weird, because I was the kid in school, I was taking six different courses, I was in high school, but I was taking [00:10:00] college courses, and it was the weirdest thing because I was taking world religions, One of the history classes in like, I don't know, calculus among three other ones.
And I was finding these through lines, these like, themes. I love that you're nodding. 'cause I felt like such a weirdo at the time, . But knowing that someone else like does this,
Chantelle: I could not agree
more. I was in grade 10 taking grade 11 chem, and then in grade 11 taking grade 12 chem and then retaking my grade 10 math class, because I wanted to improve that mark, and then I was in the music world back then, and I was playing with university bands, both local universities, while I was in high school. That's an incredibly aligned experience. I don't know if that's our MG or three line or what, but I get it.
Brittany: Yeah. And yeah, so not only did I have the six courses I was taking, I had three part time jobs at one point. And now I'm like, how did I make it to adulthood?
But that did not answer your question. How did this come about? It started with, and I think I [00:11:00] actually talked about this maybe in one of my podcast episodes, but it started with social proof.
I was at home, lockdown. This was when a whole lot of stuff happened for a whole lot of people.
And for me, it was when I discovered the copywriting world. I knew that I wanted to redo my website. I was going around looking at other websites as well. And I was like, how can I make it better?
What's missing? That kind of thing with, with that lens on. I had no testimonials. I was getting so many bookings from people finding me on Google, but I had no testimonials and I wanted a good excuse to check in with my clients anyway. And so I was like, well, let me ask them. You know, what are you looking forward to when we get back in the massage studio?
Why do you like coming to see me? All that kind of stuff. So I gathered, I want to say like 30 or 40 testimonials. And that was my segue into the world of copywriting and marketing. So that's where the social proof came from. Later on, I realized that case studies were something that I was already using.
And just in like a brief high level example, I had two clients that had neck issues where they needed to [00:12:00] have surgery, and the surgeries and the diagnoses were pretty similar. They were feeling very isolated, they were having this super unique experience, they didn't have anybody they could talk to.
And I saw both of these people at least twice a month, if not three times a month. What ended up happening is person A would come in and tell me like they saw a surgeon and they had a not so good feeling about them or blah blah, whatever.
And then person B would come in and they would say things. And what ended up happening is I was relaying these messages of like, you're not alone. Maybe you should go talk to Dr. so and so over at this hospital. Have you ever heard about this type of fix?
So I was doing that in the massage room, and then I ended up doing that in the copywriting world. But, like I said, first step was getting the testimonials, the social proof, from my massage clients.
And then it was SEO. Again with massage, because that was my first step. I was all about like, I'm going to use whatever tool makes sense in the moment.
I'm not going to upcharge for massage cupping. I'm not going to upcharge for craniosacral therapy. It's just, you're coming in presenting this, I'm [00:13:00] going to use the tool that makes the most sense or the combination that makes the most sense.
And so for copywriting, it kind of felt like I was doing a partial job if I wasn't including keywords to help your website copy or your blog post or your case study actually like go out there and market for you.
That was still putting a lot of the work on the business owner.
And then step three was the storytelling because, I realized I was doing case studies. I had a dream, woke up one morning and it was like case studies, that's what I want to write. And that's what I want to be known for. It was a giant piece of social proof.
I could weave in SEO, and I knew that the biggest thing it needed was storytelling, because I was finding so many like dry, boring case studies out there.
Chantelle: You've given me so much to respond to.
Brittany: I know, I'm sorry. I could see the wheel spinning.
Chantelle: I could have taken notes and come up with eight questions, I think, during that.
Okay, the coolest thing I think you said is how the multimodality approach in the wellness space turned into your multimodality approach in the online business space.
So I am [00:14:00] a multi passionate person. I attract multi passionate people. My clients are often wellness people who have all the trainings and certifications and want to connect them all.
That's a very, very common thread in the people that I'm around. So. There was a lot of recognition there as I was listening to you. I love how you described that in such an embodied way, how that all came to be.
And also it's fascinating to me that you described it all in steps because manifesting generators love skipping steps, but like you clearly identified what your steps were and how that all combined.
Brittany: Yeah, it took me some time to get to that point. Usually I'm living it and I'm in it and then I'll get questions from people and I'm like, Oh, how did I do that? Hold on. Let me get out the whiteboard and jot it all down and figure out what the three steps were.
Chantelle: I think that's a very three line experience, being so deep in the experiment that you're not even really sure exactly how it all came to be. And just that meandering path to where you're going.
Brittany: Yeah. And [00:15:00] just like trusting it. That was a big lesson for me. It was just learning to go with it, even if it didn't make sense in the moment.
Chantelle: A big aspect of 3/5 is this element of finding solutions to problems, and it sounds like in everything that you're doing, you discovered it by solving some kind of problem, but then also each of the elements solve the problem for clients.
How do you think that you were able to take your own personal experiences and then translate that from like your specific case with massage and SEO into the client world?
How do you apply those solutions through your experience?
Brittany: Ooh, that's a good one. I will say a good chunk of it just feels like intuition, like knowing what to do, when to do it, and then needing to find the research to support that or having that desire to find the research but noticing just kind of like, again, following the path that feels like it's laid out in front of me, trusting that that is accurate.
Going through and at some point, like I said, usually not at the [00:16:00] beginning, but at some point going, okay, what are the steps, writing them down, figuring it out, looking at the data and, and what that suggests. And then. Just trying to apply that to someone else. So I'll, I'll give an example.
So for blogging, I have a call later today where I've run this email course about blogging with SEO. They've gone through all of the trainings and then we're going to get on this call and talk things through. And I was going through and looking at the questions in the hot seat, things that are coming through and I've already spotted some issues.
A lot of it is just getting people to express things, and then either pinging back to an experience I had, or a problem I had, or something that I helped another client through, and having those examples helps that client or that student get through, work through, whatever it is- the wall that they're hitting.
Having these questions, just like assessing them and identifying whatever the gap is or whatever that element is that they're missing because they're in the jar, figuring out what that is.
Doing the [00:17:00] research, recording a video you know, piecing things together for them. I like doing that before I get on a call. So getting that all together, walking myself through it, and then being able to demonstrate it, or at least share the findings with them. I find that to be really helpful both for me and the client that I'm talking to.
So, you know, with one of the questions that came up, they were saying .I'm not sure how to write this, like the person who's going to be reading it.
And I was like, oh, my example could have been off during the training, or what the student heard was that you have to write the descriptions as if it's the person who's reading it.
So I'm going to go ahead and clarify, you want to write to that person, you want to be using examples, you want, in two sentences for them to feel like you're in their head and you like really know what's going on. And here are two examples from two of my recent blog posts of these, these pieces that I want you to learn how to write.
Chantelle: Yeah, it's like that fine tuning and adjusting that you love to do as three lines, tiny little micro adjustments to make it make [00:18:00] sense.
Brittany: I'm always learning. I'm always taking from whatever client, student, course, interaction, collaboration, like, whatever it is, I'm always like, oh, that could apply to this other really random thing.
Chantelle: Yeah, it's like us three lines are concurrently building 40 puzzles and each new piece, like, we know exactly where that's locked in.
Brittany: Yeah, in all of the different projects.
Chantelle: So one thing we haven't talked a ton about is the five line which, I mean, it's easy for me as a 1/3 to hop on the three line train, but is there any five line- specific thing that you've really noticed rings true for you, or any expression of the five line that you find comes up in your life?
Five is the problem solving. It's also the misconception of, like, who you are, what you do, they've created a picture, they've told themselves the story about you and how you can help them and how you can fix things. And that may or may not be accurate because there's like a big projection field with five.
Brittany: At least with the problem solving aspect of it, like, that's just where my [00:19:00] brain goes, for better or worse. And, you know, when you're in a relationship with someone, be it a friendship or like a romantic relationship, that's not always ideal.
So that's one thing that I've had to learn just to like rein it in a little bit. Because my brain just like instantly goes there. I like fixing, I like problem solving. I feel best and I feel most helpful when I'm doing that. So it has enabled me to be a really great massage therapist, to be a really great copywriter and SEO strategist, which is wonderful.
In my experience, it's been better suited for the business side of things versus the personal side of things, but, and people come to me for that as well. They're like, Oh, surely, you know what to do with this. And it could be a tech question, which stay away from me with those. It could be like a communication thing.
I I have a lot of friends who will come to me and they're sharing with me what's going on and just kind of looking for someone to like bounce ideas with, to help them navigate the problems that they want to solve. And [00:20:00] as I'm even saying this out loud, that's always been, from the age of seven, like all the way on. That's always been a thing for me.
But having that, people coming to me, assuming I can help with certain things, the tech thing is definitely one of those where people will come to me and I'm like, no, no, no. I know just enough to be dangerous. You don't want me to help you with that.
I will say it has inspired some different offers with my business where someone will say, Oh, do you write things like this?
And it will excite me. It will light me up. And so I'll be like, Oh, yeah, let's try that. It's not on my website, but sure, I can help you with that. So yeah, there's, there's kind of like the, the two sides of the coin with that with me.
Chantelle: Yeah, 3/5s are very well represented in applying to be on this show, but then also very well represented just as entrepreneurs in general, because it's all a big experiment when you're running your own business.
It's not like there's some predetermined path to follow. You're creating that path through your experiences, through your experiments, solving problems, questions that you get asked, [00:21:00] especially as an MG, like your responses to other people's content, businesses, problems, all of that.
So that all really makes sense. And especially, I love the part you said about how it inspires offers. Even on your stories today, I can see that 3/5 process working in how you're asking people, like, how would that feel if I did this?
How would you respond to that? Would you want this? There's that testing the waters kind of elements happening there, even that I can see.
Brittany: Yeah, for sure. And I do it a lot. So sometimes it is one of my ideas where I'm like, okay, I'm hearing a lot of this from people.
And I just want to see like how, like you said, how would it be received? Is this something that people want on a bigger scale? Or it's the people coming to me and asking like, Hey, do you do this? So that it is fun once I figured out responding is a good thing for me and kind of leaning into the stuff that is lighting me up and really going away from the stuff that I don't want to do that I'm feeling that body response to not do.
That's been really [00:22:00] cool.
Chantelle: And, are you still actively in massage therapy as you're also doing SEO, social proof, storytelling?
Brittany: Not at the moment. And it's only because my boyfriend and I had a big move from North Carolina to Connecticut and the way Connecticut does things, I have to know what county I'm going to be practicing in.
Unless I want to pay like hundreds or thousands of dollars to update it.
So I decided just to focus with the online business. I'm glad I did that because I've learned a lot. I've had a lot of growth and lessons and not always monetary growth, but like it has been really helpful just to give myself this one project that does have lots of different arms, but it's like one project that I'm focusing on, but massage therapy isn't going away.
That's one thing my clients are like, are you like done forever? No, I'm not done forever. I'm not currently running both businesses at the same time, but I did for, I guess it was like six months or 12 months.
Chantelle: And what has that switch been like from wellness and like real life to [00:23:00] online and strategic?
Brittany: It was much more challenging than I realized or anticipated because my in person practice did so well so quickly and was so sustainable. And then getting into the online world, not only was it not all of those things, but it was also really internally, personally challenging. Like a lot of my stuff started showing up and it really wasn't showing up in person in real life work with massage clients, so I did not anticipate any of that stuff, but as I'm grateful for the opportunity and, you know, of course, experimentation and stuff, and I've met a lot of cool people, I've healed a lot of stuff, and it's been great, but I just did not anticipate it.
Chantelle: It's tough to predict, really, how we respond when we make a pivot.
Brittany: Yeah, and I'm one of those people that like, even when I started my massage practice, I had a backup plan for my backup plan for my backup plan.
Chantelle: Well, that probably serves you [00:24:00] really well in, especially like the SEO case studies, social proof kind of realm, like having those different backup options is probably good.
It's good to have kind of a fail safe. You can't just rely on one kind of content or one kind of marketing strategy. You've got to really diversify that to see what works first, right? And then, and then keep focusing on that.
Brittany: Yeah, and even to see just what feels good like I love Instagram, but I've actually not been posting other than on Stories I haven't done reels or carousels or regular posts in a hot minute But I'm really enjoying stories and the follower count went up, the engagement has gone up, in the DMS Which is already really high anyway, but I I'm still trying to figure out how that happened, what might be responsible for that because I wasn't blogging as much at the time, but I did have the podcast out.
And so I'm, I got to go back and look at the data for that.
Chantelle: It's always fascinating to poke through and see just what is going on. You've got that intuitive hit first and then you want to see like the [00:25:00] analytical side of it, the data side to see, if it backs up your intuition.
Brittany: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Chantelle: We're going to shift now into drawing a card. So I'm holding the 3/5 cards created by Christina from Glow Glow Juice. When you're ready, we will take a deep breath in together
and let that go.
The card that's come up today is: I know who I am and what I am capable of, even when others may perceive something else. Am I taking on responsibility that is not mine to hold?
Brittany: Oh, this card is so perfect. I. Yeah, that question, I'll say this, that question has been coming up a lot for me because there are responsibilities that I've taken on that are definitely not mine to take on.
And the first part of that card really just like being me, embracing who I am, knowing who I am, [00:26:00] and just kind of like shining from that spot out has been really something I've embraced over the last six months. And the podcast is the ultimate thing that came from that. So this card is totally applicable.
Chantelle: And speaking of the podcast tell people where they can find that and also where they can find you in general.
Brittany: Thank you so much. This has been a blast. So my website is BrittanyHerzberg. com. Don't worry about trying to spell that. I'll make sure that you have the link. And then Instagram, I do hang out on there.
Like I said, I post the stories. I'm in the DMs. Come say hi.
I have the podcast, The Basic B Podcast. It's definitely on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. And then there's, of course, all other places that it can be that's definitely linked on the website. Come over, say hi, find some stuff, download some things, ask me a question.
I'm here for it.
