#123 – Profitable Web Design Business Planning Series #4: Selling Profitable Projects in Any Economy

Shannon Mattern (00:02.39)

Welcome back. can't even like, I don't know how this time flies by so fast. It's crazy that we are already at the last session of the day. All of you that are here with us, you are amazing and incredible. And I hope you are having some massive breakthroughs and just awareness about, about your business and about things that you're thinking that you believe to be true and questioning all of it.

Is it true? It doesn't like, is it true? It's like, beside the point, is this a thought that is serving me? What else can I believe to help me create the results that I want to create? And so we are going to dig in to selling profitable projects in an uncertain economy. And it kind of all ties back to what we were talking about in session three is like your belief about what other people will and won't spend their money on.

and how we project our own thoughts and beliefs onto other people. And we don't even realize that we're doing it.

Shannon Mattern (01:16.012)

And when you become aware that you don't think, not everybody thinks like we think, and they might think completely different things. And what might they need to think to work with me at this level? And what might I need to think about myself to put myself out there at this level? And you get all of that going. Then you start to really create a momentum to apply the strategies like what we teach inside of our program.

So if you have not already applied for tomorrow's training where we actually talk specifically about what we include in our packages in the web designer academy, how we structure them so that our clients are communicating the value. They are speaking to investment minded clients. They are thinking about what do people at this level think they're staying out of their wallets, all of those things. If you have not already applied,

click that apply now link button below this, fill out that application. Allie is standing by to review that. And if you meet the criteria to invite you to tomorrow's training, if you have all kinds of thoughts about, well, what if I fill out that application and what if Shannon like makes an offer for the web designer academy for me and like, that's gonna make me feel really uncomfortable and all of these things, I just want you to notice those thoughts. Because if you have those thoughts,

about me inviting you to work with me, you probably have thoughts like that about your client, about inviting clients to work with you. I just want you to notice that. Whether you apply or not, notice if you're having any thoughts about that. We would love to have you there to continue this conversation about...

How do we work with our clients to create the results that they want to create, the results that we have shown you that our clients have been able to create? I thought I had that slide queued up again, but the 5,000, the 10,000, the 15,000, the 18,000, I think we've even had 20,000, those projects, people charging.

Shannon Mattern (03:33.614)

you know, twice, five, 10 times more than they were before working with us. We want to break that down for you. This is this is the last time the Web Designer Academy is going to be opening for enrollment in 2022. And it's the last time we will be offering enrollment at twenty twenty two pricing. We will detail all of that for you tomorrow. If you were even considering working with us.

at all, ever, anytime in the future, give yourself a chance to find out what that looks like, fill out that application and come to tomorrow's training. Angela says, knows where this, we're gonna continue, we're gonna wrap up with some CEO decisions. CEO decisions are you have actions,

Decisions you need to make to create the result that you want to create to align with your vision decisions about your time about your money About who you're working with who you're not working with how much you're charging how your marketing? how you're getting support and mentorship all of those things and Then you have thoughts about all of those things and those thoughts are either empowering or disempowering and so Angela discovered a thought that

She builds in Squarespace. She says, no Squarespace website can be worth $10,000. So a separate thought, but related, can we also address integrity and pricing? A beginning self-taught designer versus a 10-year veteran with a degree, those two people cannot give the same experience or results. This is so good. So good, Angela.

I want to, I just want to first say thank you for being so willing to let us examine these thoughts together in this container. So many other people think this and this is going to be so massively helpful to them and I hope it's really, really helpful to you. So let's start out. Why do you think that No Squarespace website could be worth $10,000?

Shannon Mattern (05:50.882)

And I'm going to pull up our.

Workbook from last session. This will be the last model that we do. And then I know I'm not showing it, but I will in a second as soon as I clear out the thoughts from the things from last time.

Shannon Mattern (06:23.076)

I think you have two things going on here. It'll be really interesting to clean up.

Shannon Mattern (06:33.194)

It has structural limitations to in comparison to WordPress and other similar platforms. So.

Shannon Mattern (06:44.95)

This is fascinating. So let me let me share my screen.

Shannon Mattern (06:58.72)

I know Kate had to overcome this also. So no Squarespace website is worth 10k because of its limitations compared to other platforms.

Shannon Mattern (07:24.632)

What is your feeling when you think that? How does that make you feel to think that?

Shannon Mattern (07:37.602)

And then your follow-up thought is those limitations seem to keep higher revenue business owners from needing it. They have needs beyond the platform, deflated. So you have a belief.

higher revenue earners won't use Squarespace because of its limitations.

Shannon Mattern (07:57.812)

What do you do as a result of that thought? What do do or not do?

Shannon Mattern (08:28.534)

I wish there was like three dots like when someone's like messaging you and you can see that they are responding inhibit my dreams or try to come up with other ways to generate revenue. This is really good. Okay, try to generate revenue other ways.

The result would be inhibit my dreams.

Shannon Mattern (08:53.427)

You probably also just don't charge 10k. Would that be a fair statement?

Shannon Mattern (09:10.848)

Okay, you said correct. So.

Shannon Mattern (09:17.164)

I just want to cut back to what Kate said.

Shannon Mattern (09:24.44)

So in terms of the value of a website, is something I need all of you to understand. The value of the website is not the website itself. The value of the website is not the platform that the website is built on. The value of the website comes from, remember that slide that I had, I wish I had it available to me, value equals emotional outcomes plus business outcomes plus

personal outcomes minus price.

So if, and we'll get to the integrity piece a little bit later, because I think that that's another thing that would hold you back. feel like it's not an integrity to charge that much.

Shannon Mattern (10:12.142)

How could it be possible that a Squarespace website could be worth 10k?

Shannon Mattern (10:26.976)

Is it possible that a client that one of your clients could create ten thousand dollars in revenue from their website from using their website as a tool?

Shannon Mattern (10:52.054)

Yes. So it is possible that your client could create $10,000 in revenue by working with you to create a site that meets their needs and their goals and their customer journey. And all of that saves them time, helps them be confident enough to put themselves out there because they absolutely love their site. Their experience of working with you was amazing. The project went quickly because

You didn't undercharge, so you got to fully focus on them. It didn't drag out. It didn't delay their results, and it allowed them to get going quickly and go make some money. You believe that that is possible.

Do you think that your client would be able to create 10 times more than that with their Squarespace website that you charge $10,000 for over the lifetime of the site, which is probably about two to three years without having to change it?

when you put it that way. All I did Angela was give you some new thoughts to think. I offered you some new thoughts to think. I broke your brain out of no website is worth this to it's possible.

Shannon Mattern (12:22.978)

that my client could create 10K in revenue.

by working with me at all of the things that I said. How do you feel when you think that?

Shannon Mattern (12:43.65)

Yeah, when it makes clients made $10,000 over Black Friday sales a few weeks ago in one weekend. Meg, how much did you charge for that site?

Shannon Mattern (13:05.014)

May thank you. May says this is why I'm in WDA. Yes.

How do you feel when you think it's possible? I believe it's possible. Like it's possible. Well, how do you feel?

Shannon Mattern (13:30.222)

Crystal apply for tomorrow's training. Crystal says, my disempowering thought, had no idea how I'd convince someone to pay me 12,500 for a website project. What would I deliver at that price and to whom? So we don't convince people to work with us. That's the first, what Brooke Castillo calls thought error. It's a disempowering thought. I have to convince people to work with me at this price. We make an offer.

with our strategies that we're going to talk about tomorrow and they get to decide and we're willing to hear no. But we're willing, we're pre-framing. We're anticipating they're going to think all of all of this stuff you guys already think. Like imagine if you were like, my price is $10,000, but I don't think you can afford it and it's not worth it. And it's, you know, probably shouldn't build on Squarespace because it's not good enough, but

Do you want to work with me? Like when you believe that that's how you're coming to conversations with clients, even when you're charging 2000 or 2500, you still are afraid that you're like doing them a disservice. So you're not. So Angela would feel incredible if she truly believed.

that it's possible that she could give her client a tool that would empower them to create that. And so what would you do? I'm just going to guess you'd be like charge 10 K.

Shannon Mattern (15:11.178)

and let them decide.

Shannon Mattern (15:17.632)

instead of making the decision for them.

Shannon Mattern (15:28.942)

And I'm just doing this for sake of quickness. If you have other thoughts or actions, like feel free to like share those in the chat. The result it's possible. create 10 K.

Shannon Mattern (15:47.074)

from ASS site.

Shannon Mattern (15:51.842)

But just want to show you guys, you can, the thoughts that you have, they are thoughts, they are not facts. Every single one of our Web Designer Academy students had the same beliefs that you had before coming into our program. We put, we have a whole module inside of the program where we sell yourself on the value of your site. You do a ton of work to identify empowering thoughts that you can believe in order to put yourself out there.

So Michelle, that's what we help our clients with. This is not an overnight change. Okay. It's truly not something that happens overnight. It's something that you have to intentionally practice over and over and over again. So the way you intentionally practice this is you're going to examine all of your thoughts. You're going to always have disempowering thoughts. Every single day that you're running a business, something is going to happen. You're going to have a disempowering thought and your choice is to either believe it.

or to become aware of it and actively work on what else do I want to believe that is empowering.

Shannon Mattern (17:01.206)

Michelle, that thought, write that down and you have to think what else can I think to get me to find them? How is that thought preventing me from finding them? I know they're out there. I don't know that we're hanging out in the same spaces. How is that thought preventing you from finding them?

Shannon Mattern (17:21.336)

So I wanna make sure.

Shannon Mattern (17:27.886)

So Tequila would teach something a little bit different in this program. use that, and I'm just gonna, I'm gonna touch on this really, really briefly. The speaker said to get around the issue of thinking you're asking too much is to ask the client what their budget is when asked what you charge. When they ask what they charge, this is a great way to see if they can actually afford 10K.

you're missing the whole step of pre-framing the value when you're only talking about price. And so if you haven't already applied for tomorrow, please apply for tomorrow. I'll be able to go into more detail on that because that doesn't quite get to the, know, if they say no, you're just like, okay, and then you move on. You didn't give them a chance to think about all the things that they don't know are possible for them when they work with you.

So they're just thinking of like, it's a website, it's 10 pages, it's this, it's branding, it's that. Like they're not thinking about it the way we teach our students to communicate the true value of a website after you fully integrate it and understand it and can communicate it and then go out and sell the project and then see your clients get crazy results. So back to Meg, Meg charged $5,000 for her Black Friday, her client who made

$10,000 on Black Friday. So Meg, she got two times return on her investment in one weekend. That's the result people can get when they work with you. That's awesome. That's an awesome testimonial. That's an awesome thing to share with future clients is like, and it's awesome thing for you to integrate into your own mind that like I build websites that my clients can do this as a result of us working together. Okay. So.

I wanted, of course, like I was like an hour and a half is more than enough for each one of these things. I get too excited about these, about these topics. So let's come back to booking profitable web design projects in an uncertain economy. So.

Shannon Mattern (19:42.528)

This topic has been on the mind of our Web Designer Academy students, not necessarily our Web Designer Academy students so much because they do such a great job managing our mind, but our Web Designer Academy applicants. I'm hearing this like with our applicants when I'm speaking on summits, I hear it. I'm hearing it all over the place. And I've really been like studying how I want to help our students navigate this. And I've been looking at it personally with like my strategic planning process because

It is an inescapable fact that if you plan to be in business for any amount of time, the economy is going to change. It's going to be up. It's going to be down. We're all over the world here. We all live in different economies. Our local economies are different. It is an inescapable fact that if you are in this for the long haul and you want this to be your business, the way you make money over the long term, that you have to learn how to navigate uncertainty.

in your business. And so we just talked about what it looks like to think and make decisions like the CEO of a business. You have to manage your own mind also. Nothing is ever certain. Navigating uncertainty is always, always about 100 % managing your mind about yourself and your clients. Always. Nothing is ever certain. A good economy, a bad economy, a stagnant, like

None of that is ever, ever certain. So we talked about the model and how our circumstances create our thoughts, our circumstances trigger thoughts, our thoughts create our feelings, our feelings drive us to act, and those actions create results for us that ultimately prove that thought true. And we talked about identifying empowering thoughts and disempowering thoughts. And when we

identify a disempowering thought. I want you to ask yourself what else could be true? What if this weren't true?

Shannon Mattern (21:49.59)

And I want you to like ask yourself that Lisa, I will, I will answer that in the chat. We'll just give you, we'll just give you the link. so you don't have to fill out the application or anything since you're already in the web designer Academy, if you want to, to go through that again. through this lens, that's the lens through which I want to talk about navigating the navigating an uncertainty economy and booking profitable projects, even in an uncertain economy. So.

What's fascinating is that like, I don't know if you all read the news, I had to kind of stop reading the news because I was going down this like spiral of inflation is up, the economy is down, blah, blah, blah, blah. like, literally, I have friends that like, don't read the news, don't watch the news. I had a bad Apple News habit every morning while I'm like, while I'm drinking my coffee, just scrolling Apple News. And if you

don't know how Apple News works, the more it works just like algorithm on social media, the more stuff you read and click on, it shows you more of that stuff. So for a while was great. I'm like Jennifer Aniston haircare tips and Reese Witherspoon movies and like all of my like Buzzfeed shopping lists and all of this fun stuff. And then like before I know it, it's like, I must be like,

doom scrolling and clicking on like bad news about the economy and inflation. And so suddenly like my feeds full of it. And then I did not notice myself for a while starting to believe that that was like, not that it's true that inflation is this percent, that's a circumstance, but my thoughts about it. started to believe my thoughts being true about it. And so I did not realize that I was having thoughts about it, that I was believing my thoughts about it.

And those thoughts for me were creating the feeling of worry. And when I worry, I overwork like crazy. I change stuff about my business with like zero data to back it up. make decisions from an expense mindset rather than an investment mindset. And so the result of that is if I think the economy is unwell and I'm thinking like, my business might be at risk. Like I'm putting my own mental.

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health at risk, my own physical health at risk because I'm doing all of these things that I'm like super stressed out, overworking, cutting off opportunities because I'm like, I'm so busy. can't like do this collaboration call with this person. And so if I was creating my own thoughts about my day to day, instead of getting them from external sources and just believing the headlines,

and not looking at the facts and deciding how I want to think about the facts, then I am in my own way. These are a bunch of disempowering thoughts.

The fascinating thing was like the date, my day-to-day experience did not support the thoughts that I was thinking. Our students results inside of our program did not reflect the things that I was thinking. And it was just fascinating. And like even the other business owners, like my mentors in the programs that I'm like the, my colleagues, my peers in the programs that I'm in, they're still selling. Like they are still booking new clients.

They are still meeting their revenue goals. Maybe they aren't growing. Maybe they didn't double their revenue over last year, but they're still like selling and enrolling clients. And I'm still making investments in my own mentorship and support and strategy and growth. Like I just flew out to Salt Lake City a few weeks ago to spend three days in an incubator, with some marketing strategists, which was like mind blowing. I'm still investing in the future of my business.

So if the circumstances of my life aren't supporting my actual thoughts, I have some mind trash to clean up. Okay. We're talking about this in our year two program. So, so our students are with us for one year and then they can graduate or continue or stay in year one, not year one, but like the level, or they can join us in next level. And we were having a conversation over there where I'm like, my gosh, I had like a pile of mind trash that I was just like spraying air freshener on.

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not paying any attention to, letting it like drive decisions in my business instead of examining my thoughts and questioning, are these true? Are these, whether it's true or not, is this helping me create the result that I want? So I don't have to think the economy is good. Inflation is whatever. don't know. Like inflation is, I don't know what I would think other than this percentage. I don't have to think something

that doesn't feel true to have an empowering thought, I can think no matter what happens, I'll figure it out. That takes the temperature way, way down. That thought creates willingness. creates action of persistence. And the result is that I'll figure it out one way or another. So you do not get to control the timing of what is happening in the world around you. So there's no such thing as like a better time. There's no such thing as like a better time. The time isn't right. It's like

If I want to create this results on this timeframe, the time to get started is now to really look at those CEO decisions and bring them to life. So navigating uncertainty is a hundred percent managing your mind, but it's truly also understanding how your clients think at each of these three levels of the pricing paradigm. How do investment minded clients think? How to hybrid minded clients think and how to expense minded clients think?

And so as I'm like chicken littling about the economy, like three months ago and like reading everything that I can read to be like, that's another thing I do when I'm worried. I consume information at like ridiculous amounts thinking that like the answer to life is somehow in there. It's crazy, but it led me to this and I want to,

How can I make this like the full focus? Focus? There we go. Okay. So in my massive research, I came across this Harvard Business School article that was written in 2009, right after the economic crash in 2008, like when the housing market fell out and like foreclosures all over the place and all of that stuff. And I was like,

Shannon Mattern (28:42.958)

This is like the, this is the pricing paradigms. Like this is exactly what I've been talking about. And so you get to understand how your clients behave in a changing economy when there's bad economic news. But like, honestly, this is how they act in good economic times also. Okay. Like, so this is

This is this grid and I want to explain this to you. So let's talk about like this is green, how people behave in a stable market. Like when times are good, things aren't changing. This is how these segments behave. And we'll talk about this in a second. This is how they behave in a mixed market. So when things are a little bit iffy and then when it's like the economy is bad, this is how people behave. And so this was a study done by these two people.

and they published it in Harvard Business Review.

It's fascinating to see like they don't show their thoughts about the economy, like circumstances create thoughts, our circumstances trigger thoughts, thoughts, create feelings, create actions and create results. So when times are good, these are your expense minded clients. They're always looking for the lowest price, always, no matter what the economy looks like.

and your expense minded clients are not buying when they think the economy is bad, when they have thoughts that the economy is bad. You're pain, but patient. These are your hybrid minded clients. They are going to seek out their favorites at lower prices. They might settle for cheaper, but they aren't necessarily always going for the cheapest. But when things are a little bit iffy, maybe they will delay the purchase.

Shannon Mattern (30:41.454)

They're going to delay the purchase, they're still going to do it. They're just going to wait till things feel a little bit better or they're going to save up. And if they think the economy is bad, they're not buying. Your investment minded clients, they're just going to do what they're going to invest and get what they want. Regardless, they might be a little bit more selective. And this is where I talked about earlier, like they can't afford to buy, they can't afford to not get the result that they want.

Like they have the money, but they are going to be pickier about making sure that who they're working with is going to give them exactly what they want. They're not going to be so willy nilly about it. And then live for today. I know I'm like, there are people like this. This is fascinating. They don't care about what's happening in the economy. If they want it, they're going to get it. If they don't, they don't. And they don't aren't really affected by, affected by that.

So these are your clients. These are all the clients in the world, right? All the people in the world are operating within this matrix or within our pricing paradigms, right? And so I just wanna offer to you, stop marketing to expense minded clients in good times and in bad, right? You guys think that it's not within your control. It's all within your messaging.

your prices, how you're talking about what you do, if you're selling a website versus selling the result that the website can create for you. So I see like people apply for the Web Designer Academy and they give me their website and they tell me what they're struggling with and then I go and I look at their website and everything on their website says affordable web design services for business owners on a budget.

you know, we'll make sure that you don't spend more than you'd spend with other people. And I'm like, why are you marketing towards expense minded clients? Right. And it's because you're probably operating from an expense mindset yourself that you feel like if you charge too much, you're harming your clients and it's out of integrity to charge that much because it's not worth that much because you have not shift you. You have not identified your thoughts that make you think that your services aren't worth that much and shifted them.

Shannon Mattern (33:10.03)

So, expense-minded clients are not your clients and your slam on the brakes and pain but patient are also not your clients. You are going to have all of your messaging, your packages, your pricing, all of these things speak to this person. You're going to have options that would suit these people, but you're not going to give the same level of service and outcomes and customization. We'll talk about this more tomorrow. So if you have not,

applied for that apply now. If you're watching this in the future and you're like tomorrow has passed, still go ahead and click that button below. You'll either be put on a wait list to be invited to that training later, or you'll get to fill out the application. just depends on where we're where we're at in our enrollment, but still get on the list to get access to that training. Okay, don't be like, well, it's too late for me. It will be available to you at some point. So

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business owner in any economic environment is to assume that nobody's buying, that nobody will buy at the price that I want to charge, and to make assumptions about how much money people do and don't have, and to try to make decisions for them about what they can and can't afford. It's none of your business. And there are plenty of these people out there

who are ready to work with you, all you have to do is speak their language and say that language to everybody you know and don't assume that the person you're talking to because they're in a networking group of new business owners isn't investment minded. It really, you know, it could be new business owners that if we make this assumption, new business owners don't have money. We have no idea.

They could have just gotten a big inheritance. They could be ready to invest. They could just have money. We don't have any idea. Let's not make assumptions, right? Let's not make assumptions. And what we talked about at the beginning is like, if you are just targeting in your messaging established businesses who are ready to shift into the next evolution, then

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you're aiming high in your messaging and those new business owners will be like, that's not me. So I'm going to go over here and do this thing that's more in alignment with what I want. So whether that's your niche or not, we cannot make assumptions about how much money people have. And so we help our clients in the Web Designer Academy reposition what they're already doing, rebuild their belief about the value of what they're doing,

and shift that to, regardless of whether the economy is good or bad or whatever, to be able to speak to investment-minded clients and put themselves out there to investment-minded clients confidently.

Yeah, I was like, I have this story here. I was like, yeah, so I was just like, yeah, this did literally. I was like, when did this happen? Tuesday morning, literally Tuesday morning. We have a what we call the global live strategy call on Tuesday mornings for me. But who knows what time it is for you if you're in the UK or Australia or wherever in the world. And one of our students.

Her name's Angela. She is about to close a project that's going to pay her entire minimum baseline for 2023. And I was like, how did you create that result? And she was like, I changed my messaging to speak to investment minded clients. And then I just went out there and told everybody who I work with. And I'm about to close this proposal that's going to pay for my minimum baseline revenue for an entire year. Yeah.

It's Angela in the in the Web Designer Academy group, Kim, if you want to connect with her because I know you're in there too. Yeah, I know. Right. So people are still buying. People are still buying. So like. She lives in the UK and uncertain economy, they're doing quote unquote just as bad over here. Melissa, she's in the she's in the WDA. We can ask her.

Shannon Mattern (37:45.62)

I will be happy to ask her to share her sales page and all of her messaging in there because in the web designer Academy community guys, are not like we are collaborators. It is a family like we share with each other. lift each other up and we show everybody like what's when we start every call with share your wins, right? And those

Sharing the wins are to use other people's wins for yourself, not against yourself, right? It's like, if someone else is winning, I want to know what are they thinking? What are they writing? What is their messaging? Like, I don't want to be like, well, like, I'm not doing good enough because I'm not like getting those results. It's like the thought shift is like

I want to like pick their brain. I want to know what they're thinking to create these results. I want to know what they're doing. I want to know what they're saying. I want to know who they're targeting. Right. You guys are awesome. All you WGA fam in the chat. You guys are amazing. So in any economic environment, there are investment minded clients in any economic environment. Selling your services as part part is like 100 % your mindset.

And it's a hundred percent your mindset about how you can connect with clients who operate in this paradigm. You'll get people here and that's great. You'll get people here and that's fine too. But you don't, you don't offer them the same level of service at a price they're willing to pay. So your messaging has to speak to clients who are ready to work with you at sustainable prices for you, for you.

and you have to believe that you are capable of serving them or you have to grow into the belief. We say something that Lashay, who's here, one of our Web Designer Academy students, it's like, get paid to do it scared and we'll support you through it in the Web Designer Academy. You're going to freak out the first time someone pays you that much for a website. You're going to have all kinds of thoughts like I'm ripping them off. What if I can't do it? All of that stuff. We help you and hold you through that fear. And then you

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deliver an outcome, you have all this fear, like what if they hate it? All of that stuff. We coach you through all of that. And then at the end, you're like, they loved it. And a lot of times you're like, and I still didn't charge enough. And then you raise your prices and you do it again. And we hold you through all of that. So we want you to fill out that application for your invitation to tomorrow's training so that you can learn more about that. But here are your steps.

for how to book profitable projects in any environment. You must manage your own mind. We gave you the tools to do that today. So you have your vision, you have your time blocking, you have your CEO decisions, you have all your thoughts about your CEO decisions. You have to look at that and identify those disempowering thoughts.

Create empowering thoughts. And if you decide to apply for the Web Designer Academy and you decide to work with us, if we offer you a spot, we will help you through every step of the way of that. Every single step of the way of that. So you must manage your own mind. You have to examine your own thoughts and beliefs about the value of what people are and are not willing to pay. Find the thoughts that are disempowering that are creating the results you currently have that aren't serving you.

Shift into the thoughts that are empowering and it will create results that serve you and continuously, continuously catch those old thoughts and practice new ones until the new ones become true for you. They're not going to feel true in the beginning, but you'll be like, it's worth thinking this because it's going to help me create a new result. You must focus on opportunities and results for your clients and look for ways you can help them get what they really want as a result of working with you. Remember that slide value equals.

business outcomes plus personal outcomes plus emotional outcomes minus price. Your packages and messaging needs to need to speak to those personal business and emotional outcomes, not how many pages and not the branding and not all the things that they get, not the deliverables. We'll talk more about that tomorrow. Focus on your client, not your deliverables. Focus on your client, not you. So many of you have thoughts about or your platform.

Shannon Mattern (42:20.162)

So many of you have thoughts like, my skills aren't there yet. I work on this platform. That platform's not worth as much as that platform. Your clients don't care about that. Can you create a tool that's gonna help them get the results? That's what you talk about in your marketing. you have to look for like, and remember how I said, like they can't afford.

to just go buy a 10 page website with branding. That's not going to help them create the result that they want. You have got to step out of being a pixel pusher and lean in to really like being a collaborative consultant who works with your client in a strategic way and talk about outcomes and results and not deliverables. That's how you're going to excel in a downturn and it's how you're going to excel in a stable economy and a good economy. It's just

It's how you differentiate yourself from everyone else who is not doing this. You have to price sustainably for you. We figured that out today through actual planning and doing the math of what is the value of one spot on your calendar. If you do one project a month for 10 days, that's 80 hours a week, by the way, 80 hours to complete a website. You absolutely.

can do that in 80 hours when you have processes, systems, boundaries, and empowering thoughts about all of it. Okay? You can absolutely do that. So you know what you're working toward. You know the number that you're working toward. It's not going to happen overnight. Your thoughts have to grow into the person who's charging that much. That's what we help our students do.

Position your offers to appeal to investment minded clients in whatever niche you serve. Whatever niche you serve. You're always gonna speak to the investment minded client. Don't assume that someone can't afford to work with you. Don't assume that someone doesn't have an investment mindset. They might show up to a consultation with you as an expense or hybrid minded client. And the way we lead you through a consultation with

Shannon Mattern (44:33.528)

your clients might shift them into becoming a hybrid or investment minded client. It might not, it might, you never know, but no one's ever given them the opportunity. When you undercharge, you're just assuming, I know what you can, I know what you can afford, this is all you can afford, this is all I can charge.

So don't make that decision for your clients. Stop making decisions for them. You must take massive action to put yourself out there regardless of what's going on in the economy. And if that is hard for you, if you have a belief like I'm an introvert, which that's a circumstance, right? I am an introvert is a circumstance. You have thoughts about that. That means I can't do these things. That means it's hard to get clients. All of those things examine all of that.

What are your thoughts about putting yourself out there? I need to learn more. I need to do this. Are those thoughts empowering or disempowering? And what else could you think? What else could be true?

So taking massive action to put yourself out there, regardless of the economy, letting people know how they can work with you at this level. Be willing to hear no and pursuit of yes. Be willing to hear no, not right now, you're too expensive. In the pursuit of yes over and over and over again, you have to be relentless in the pursuit of yes and not make a no mean anything about you. Not make that no mean anything about you.

That no has nothing to do with you. You get to decide how your business looks, what your pricing is, all of that, and you keep going after the clients who are like, I've just been, this is exactly what I've been looking for. They are out there. So that is running your business like a CEO instead of a solopreneur. And when you do all of these things, everything will change.

Shannon Mattern (46:32.152)

So if you have beliefs that clients aren't buying right now, it's just not true. We have so much evidence inside the web designer Academy that that is not true. Right. So it's your thoughts that get the shift so that your feelings and actions change so that you can create the results that you want. We want to help you with this. We want to help you. So many of you were like, I just, I'm going to leave this retreat and I'm not going to do this work. Well, apply to learn more about working with us.

tomorrow we'll give you all of the details, everything that it looks like, we'll dig deeper into those packages. We want to help you and I can tell you we have over 100 people who have applied. We cannot take 100 people in this final enrollment. So if you are even thinking about joining or working with us, please come tomorrow to get all of the information. We are not pushy. We are simply here to give you

all of the information you need to make a decision for you if this is the right time for you or if it's not the right time for you. Okay, we want to help you. So go ahead and fill out that application for the bonus day. If you're watching this in the future and applications are not open, you will either be added to a wait list to be invited to the training where we talk all about it or if applications happen to be open, we will invite you to watch the training.

And there is always a replay of every single thing that we do. You never have to do, never have to attend anything we do live, whether it's a marketing event or a web designer Academy event, we record everything. We, we are like time act like asynchronous when it comes to everything. So if you are interested at all, we'll send you the replay. So where are we at on time?

Q and A. So we've gone through your vision, your project calendar, your pricing, the CEO decisions that you get to bring your vision to life, our core strategy for booking profitable web design projects in any economy. And I would love to hear from you in the chat, what is one CEO decision that you're going to make after you leave this retreat? Yvette raised her prices, Kate raised her prices. Maybe you're going to...

Shannon Mattern (48:54.83)

Maybe you're going to tell that client, Arwen, that you have been undercharging, that you have new pricing coming out in 2023 and let them decide whether or not they're going to stay with you or not. Maybe you don't feel ready to do that, but that's something that you could do. Maybe it's reaching out to your current clients and asking for a referral. Maybe it's removing any reference to expense, like budget, affordable, cheap.

off of your website. Maybe it's doubling your prices. That would be a bold move for some of you. For some of you who are massively undercharging, that would be a bold move. Maybe it's filling out that Web Designer Academy application and coming to learn more about what it looks like to have support with all of this over the next year. But I want to hear what you are planning to do in the chat. So Diana says, is a live event tomorrow available to?

available to a certain amount, then a replay available to everyone who applies. It's only if your application is accepted. we are looking at like, if you apply and you basically give us no information about your business, we're not going to accept your application. If you apply and you say, I want to make $10,000 by the end of next week, we are going to say, yeah, I mean, we don't.

We understand that this is going to take longer. So if that is the result that you want, this is not the program for you. So when you apply, if you are accepted, we will send you the replay when the event is over. That replay will be available through our open enrollment period. So that's going to close on Sunday, December 18th at the end of the day. That replay comes down and then we do other enrollment events.

which we have live events and replays and stuff like that. yes. So there was a question, and I don't know if this person is still here because the Q &A box is different in every event. I noticed this question and the one question was like, is there a script for consultations? We provide scripts for all of that to Web Designer Academy students inside our program. So we don't have a script for, it was for onboarding.

Shannon Mattern (51:12.812)

We don't have scripts for onboarding here in this retreat, but we have scripts for all of that inside of our program. And then the other question this person had was, what about if I work, what if I work with government or corporate corporations that have RFP, RFI, and proposal processes? So that is something that if you worked with us, we would help you adapt our strategies that we're going to talk about tomorrow.

to that RFP process. an request for a proposal, if someone's like, here are our specs and we want you to give us all of this information for the proposal, we help you adapt our strategies if that comes up for you. Like, you could submit that to us for review and be like, here's their RFP, here's what I did, here's how I attempted to adapt the strategy to that. And our team, or Erica, would look at that and be like,

Yep, that is exactly how you should apply our strategy to responding to that RFP or here's some opportunities that you missed. we review our clients, our students, like packages, pricing, sales, copy, all of that stuff. So let's see. One thing that you are going to do when you leave here.

Shannon Mattern (52:41.858)

So Michelle is gonna block marketing time on my calendar. Amazing, Michelle, that is awesome. And remember, like if you get there and you're like dreading doing it, hold the time anyway, write down all your thoughts. That's the stuff you need to clean up to get yourself to actually do marketing. Brenda, same for you. Yvette, I definitely need to fire a client or raise them up. Here's what I wanna offer to you, Yvette.

Raise your prices, let your client know that the new price is happening on this date and let them decide if they want to stay or go. You don't have to fire clients. Your pricing can compel them to stay or go. And you might be surprised at how many decide to stay because people have an inkling when they're like, she's so cheap. This is awesome. I bet they're going to raise the price on me. They know they're underpaying.

So, and if they don't think they're underpaying, they're not your ideal client. They don't align with your sustainable business. Sharon's gonna focus on getting her new website completed. Sharon, you're in the Web Designer Academy. I wanna ask you, like, I wanna challenge you on that, because I don't know what your goal is, but I'm like, do you need to get your website done to get your next client? Just wanna plant that in your mind, and if we need to talk about that on a strategy call, we can.

Crystal is going to work more on her scheduling and really wants to learn how to speak that investment mindset language. Yes. So we'll talk more about what that looks like tomorrow. Hey, yes, I plan on increasing my prices in the new year. I'm just going to do it now. I mean, what's the difference? It's like three weeks. What's the difference? And make my marketing time non-negotiable.

Boom, Melanie is going to raise my prices and work on my mindset continually to reframe my mind that it is possible that people can't pay me at these new prices and I'm going to start sending out email marketing to companies I would like to work with. That's being relentless in the pursuit of yes. Boom. Love it. nay. Awesome. She says she's worked with RFP clients and adapted the WE strategy. They were impressed. If you guys are like, why is she reading the comments out loud? I do this because when we pull this out of

Shannon Mattern (55:05.55)

When we pull these replays out of this platform, no one can see the chat and there's good stuff in the chat. So Cynthia, you are welcome. This was a client that told me he knows someone who could do it for cheaper, but he wants to support me. Well, you know, if he wants to go pay someone less and risk getting less service and all of this stuff, he can go, that's That's his choice.

But you have to stand firm in the fact that I am the best at this. I provide the best service. Even when I raise my prices, it's still a bargain for my clients because I'm so good at what I do. You're not going to believe that in the moment. Maybe you will, but you get to believe that. Every single person in this room gets to believe that they're the best at what they do for the clients that they serve.

Ooh, Anshin's on a five day solo CEO retreat and today is day one. So this will form the basis for my strategy for the rest of my time. Yes. Love it. Melissa's finishing up her Dubsado setup. Amazing. That's going to be so fun. Margo is going to listen again and explore hindering mindsets. Awesome. My AirPods just died. I can't believe they lasted this whole time.

And Melissa is going to send marketing emails in January to check with past clients. So you guys are taking massive action, which is incredible. I'm so excited for you all. Does anyone have any questions before we wrap up?

Any questions about selling profitable projects in any economy? Any, any mind trash that we want to work on? Because this one we, can. If there are no questions, I know it's been a long day. We can wrap up, but I will stay till the end of the session in order to answer any questions.

Shannon Mattern (57:12.992)

Dion says, this might be a question for tomorrow, but how do you sell high price packages when reaching out to potential clients? My negative thought is I can't charge high prices if I'm the one reaching out. that one is a fascinating thought. me, tell me why, tell me why you believe that you can't charge high prices if you're the one reaching out. I would love to know that in the chat.

So you guys go ahead and fill out that application, click on that apply it now button. Allie is standing by to get that application reviewed and approved for you. So you can attend tomorrow's training. Just give yourself the opportunity to learn about what it looks like to work with us. Like I said, we believe that you are adults who can make your own decision about what's best for you. We truly do. And we wanna share with you what it looks like to work with us.

and how we can help you with what we talked about here today over the next 12 months because our community of Web Designer Academy students is absolutely incredible. Like they are the most generous, kind, brilliant people you'll ever be in a room with. And it's a room you're going to want to be in. Miriam, thank you so much. So Dion says, I feel selfish.

Melissa, I'm glad that supported you. Melissa or so Dion said, how do you sell high price packages when reaching out to clients? I can't charge the high prices to find the one reaching out because I feel selfish. Do you feel why do you feel selfish? I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I have some thoughts about why you might feel selfish. So go ahead and put that in the chat. What's the underlying thought of I feel selfish?

Shannon Mattern (58:56.044)

I'm biting my lips to not put thoughts into your brain.

Shannon Mattern (59:10.828)

I'm not really sure. Okay. So is there something about I'm, I, I'm just reaching out because I want money.

Shannon Mattern (59:22.84)

Does that, does that resonate at all?

Shannon Mattern (59:32.974)

Kind of. So there's something about feeling selfish. Crystal says yes, that's what she thinks. There's something about feeling selfish. So.

What if it's not about what if there what if like you could just take money off the table for your outreach? What if instead of thinking like high price, it's high value?

Shannon Mattern (59:59.978)

What if it was high value? And remember our value equation value equals personal outcomes plus business outcomes plus emotional outcomes minus price. What if you're reaching out to create high value for that person? Does that feel selfish?

Shannon Mattern (01:00:28.344)

High price, I can see why that would create some selfish thoughts. High value, that means they're benefiting.

So I'm curious how that hits you. Yeah. there's, those of you that do have to drop off, like catch the end of this, come back and listen, come back and catch the end of the replay so you can adopt some of these thoughts as well.

Shannon Mattern (01:01:02.774)

Yeah. Sharon says, I felt I couldn't charge that much, but Shannon helped me understand that I was worth it for one. Sharon, you did the work to help yourself understand that. I just created the container for you. So you did the work and I'm so glad that you did. He said, no, and I'm totally behind that. But how do I do that? I don't want to assume that they need the value. Are you willing to let people know?

What you do and demonstrate the value to them and let them decide if they need the value or not.

Shannon Mattern (01:01:41.1)

That's the thing. It's like, I feel selfish. I feel pushy, like whatever. It's like, I know that what I do creates value for my clients. And I'm going to reach out to you and I'm going to ask you if you're interested in talking about this. If you're not, cool. If you are, awesome. I'm going to let you know what I have, like how what I do creates personal, emotional, and business value for you.

And I'm going to let you know the price and then I'm going to let you make a decision on whether or not you feel like that is valuable, valuable or not. Because you might, you might not think that it's valuable or it might not be the right time for you or whatever. So Michelle asks, how do you demonstrate the value? Sign up for tomorrow. We're going to go into that during our packages training about how we, how we present

our offers in a way that demonstrates the value. Case studies and metrics are always great, but a lot of times you guys don't have it because maybe you've done a lot of projects and you didn't follow up to get those things and that's okay, you don't need that.

Shannon Mattern (01:03:02.446)

Amazing. This has been such a super fun day. I love helping you guys really get aware of what you're thinking and how powerful you really are. And you really do get to control all of this and become the CEO of your business. And you really can create that vision that you designed. And we would love to support you for the next 12 months to do that.

If that is something that you're interested in learning more about, click the apply now button below this video. You will either be taken to an application or a wait list, just depending on the time of, depending on the timing of you watching this and applying. And then we will share more about what it looks like to work with us in our program. And so, like I said, if you're even considering it at the time of

This live event, we have over 100 applicants. We do not have that many spots for Web Designer Academy students to be able to enroll and support them. So if you're even considering it, fill out the application. It will be either through December 18th or until we fill the spots that it will be open at 2022 pricing, which is what we will talk about. All of those details tomorrow, Crystal, the commitment, the price, all of those things.

I will go into detail about all of that tomorrow. So make sure you apply to either attend live or get the replay. And it's our last enrollment event for 2022 at 2022 pricing. So give yourself the opportunity to just find out about it, see if it's right for you. And I hope to see you all tomorrow. And I'm so glad that you guys

spent this time here with us to really focus on your business. It is possible for you and we gave you the tools to create that and yeah we just we're so excited for what you're about to create in 2023. So thank you all so much for being here and we hope to see you tomorrow at the live private.