#179 – 2025 Year In Review

Shannon Mattern (00:01.443)

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Profitable Web Designer podcast. I'm joined by our Client Success Coordinator, Erica Nash, and this is our 2025 year in review episode. So Erica, welcome back to the show.

Erica Nash (00:18.434)

I can't believe it's time for this. How did that happen? Where did 2025 go?

Shannon Mattern (00:22.243)

I know. I know. It's crazy. So this is where we'll share how much money the business made in 2025, how much we spent, all of the lessons learned along the way. It gets to go wherever it's going to go. So yeah, we're just here to share the behind the scenes of growing a business.

all of the mindset shifts and all of the lessons and all of the growth. even though we run different business models, you're a web designer and I run a web design business, web design coaching business. it, it's all the same. It's all the same no matter, no matter what. So I'm just here to like share all of those things with you and hopes that it inspires you and helps you grow and helps you maybe see things in a, in a new or different way. so.

Yeah. Anything before we get, before I hand it over to you, Erica, we get started.

Erica Nash (01:24.098)

I love it.

Erica Nash (01:28.174)

Amazing. So what was the total inflow for 2025?

Shannon Mattern (01:37.475)

The total inflow for 2025 was $304,785, so almost $305,000 in 2025.

Erica Nash (01:52.782)

Amazing. Where did that come from?

Shannon Mattern (01:53.783)

Yeah. That came from Web Designer Academy, which was our core program. So I can actually, let me just tell you, let me just tell you exactly where all that came from. Let me pull up my little spreadsheet here. So 154 ish thousand of that came from Web Designer Academy enrollments, renewals.

And so that's just money we collected in 2025. So if someone had a payment plan that extends into 2026, that does not count that we just count like the cash that we receive. 81,000 of that came from our next level mastermind. So that is our program for for web designer Academy students who graduate from the WTA and want to come in or for

women web designers and web design adjacent who are like more advanced in their business and career and who want that next level support. 21,000 of it is from my private coaching offer that I launched about three quarters of the way through 2025.

The Simply Profitable Designer Summit, that was about $25,000. That's ticket sales and sponsorships. Affiliate income that I earn from other people's collaboration with other people, about $5,300. Our Marketing Momentum membership brought in $6,224. Other workshops, just little things that I had done here and there.

Let's see, let me add that up. That was $3,200, which was significantly less than that in 2024. I got paid $1,500 to speak in 2025. One of those engagements is in 2026. Our profitable web designer premium podcast subscription, $820.

Shannon Mattern (04:11.714)

And then just miscellaneous income. I still have a legacy client that I do some work for. I have two actually. Barely do anything for $7,040. I got to see what else is in there because that seems like a lot for miscellaneous that wouldn't go in other categories. But yeah, the total is $304,785.75.

Erica Nash (04:41.71)

Amazing. And you know what I love too is that it's not just one thing. It's like several things. And I also love that some of those

Shannon Mattern (04:43.276)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (04:47.749)

it's so many things.

Erica Nash (04:58.548)

might like two other people might feel like it's insignificant, like too small or whatever, like the private podcast being $800. Like somebody might really discount that, but I think that that's like just such a beautiful display of like how you get to build whatever business you want and have whatever offers you want and do with it whatever you want.

Shannon Mattern (05:25.154)

Well, that private student podcast, know, the, sorry, not the private student podcast, the profitable web designer premium or our paid podcast subscription. And I'll be making some decisions on these things in 2026, but that was responsible for two or three people then turning around and paying us five grand, you know, to join the web designer academy because they got to see

Erica Nash (05:33.038)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shannon Mattern (05:52.385)

what it's actually like on the inside by listening in on those coaching calls. so strategically, that is priced where it's priced to as a stepping stone to build some trust, to create the next step of coming to work with us. there's strategic reasons to price things certain ways that aren't necessarily meant to

Erica Nash (05:57.102)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (06:22.016)

you know, bring in so much revenue, they have a different purpose and they have our price tag attached to them for a reason. And so, you know, every single one of those little pieces of revenue had an intention when we decided to like create the thing and put a price on it. And then we look at all of the data at the end of the year to decide what was my intention for this?

Did it fulfill the intention we had for it? Did it do something completely unexpected that we didn't expect from it? And maybe now it has a new reason for staying, or maybe it didn't meet expectations at all, or maybe on paper it looks good, but in practice it's not profitable or sustainable. So we get to look at like all of those things in terms of like what makes up our revenue.

What's the actual level of effort of delivery? Did it do its job? Did it go above and beyond unexpectedly? Or did it really not do its job and it doesn't get to stay going forward? So that's how I like to look at all of those things. But what I'm really excited about, Erica, is that that's a 30 % increase over 2024.

Erica Nash (07:44.686)

That's incredible.

Shannon Mattern (07:46.179)

So when you think about what we did in 2025, the projects that we embarked upon, not only with your company that you run outside of the Web Designer Academy, Creative Studio, Zanatang Consulting, I'm pretty happy with the 30 % increase in revenue as an outcome from the initiatives that we took on in 2025.

Erica Nash (08:07.489)

You

Erica Nash (08:13.282)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (08:16.214)

huge deal. So.

Erica Nash (08:18.434)

Big huge deal, and we might get into this later, but I'm gonna ask you this now. Did you feel, did you at the time, you know, know it's like different looking back, but did you at the time feel like those things were huge big time risks to take on the cost?

Shannon Mattern (08:24.674)

Ask me anything now.

Shannon Mattern (08:41.218)

So do you mean like specifically the rebrand and like the investment in conversion rate optimization? I didn't think of them as a risk.

Erica Nash (08:45.454)

and the work with, yeah, yeah.

Erica Nash (08:52.406)

Amazing. How did you think?

Shannon Mattern (08:53.952)

Yeah, I'm curious. Yeah. Tell me, tell me more about that. The question.

Erica Nash (08:58.35)

I'm just curious about how like you, it created. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shannon Mattern (09:01.886)

I was looking at upside, pure upside, pure opportunity.

Erica Nash (09:07.052)

Amazing. I love that. I was curious because at the time I was wondering if it felt like, like this is really risky, but I am gonna do it anyway. And then, you know, now you're looking at a 30 % increase from a variety of, you know, efforts and different things.

Shannon Mattern (09:32.171)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (09:34.242)

So yeah, I was just curious if it felt really heavy at the time, but that you trusted that it would pay off and then it did. But it sounds like you were like, no, this is going to pay. You just decided that it was gonna pay off and did.

Shannon Mattern (09:48.811)

Yeah, did not feel heavy. And I think that that's kind of one of those. I'm not saying that if it feels heavy, it's wrong. I think that there are some stretchy decisions that sometimes we make. in terms of like,

When I reached out to you, I don't know over about this time last year over our break being like, Hey, I know I've talked about this, but I think now's the time. I really felt like now is the time I really could see like, here's what it's been costing me to not do this. Here's, here's what I want this to create for me. Here's, you know, here are all the problems it's going to solve. did not think.

The rebrands like the first thing on my list in terms of like the biggest thing that happened in 2025. I did not look at updating our, refreshing our branding as like someone's gonna come on our website and see this branding and immediately join the web designer Academy. Like that was not.

Erica Nash (11:06.574)

If only it worked that way.

Shannon Mattern (11:09.632)

That was like, that was, I'm sure when we talked about like, what are our reasons for this? You know, obviously getting more like clients was one of the things, but it's not that the brand was going to get us more clients. It was, it was what the brand was going to empower us to do as a business that was going to create the capacity and the circumstances.

Erica Nash (11:31.214)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (11:36.685)

for us to get new clients. And so I could look and see where all of the current or the prior branding was hamstringing me and holding me back in so many different ways. And so that project, there could be no downside. Like I was going to, at the minimum, was going to get time back and.

I know that that's all I need to create the outcomes that I want is capacity. And so it didn't feel like a risk. It didn't feel like there was a downside. And I kind of think about like,

Erica Nash (12:09.633)

Amazing.

Shannon Mattern (12:18.674)

One of the things that I've been reflecting on with how I've been marketing the Web Designer Academy is just this like heavy emphasis on ROI and dollars. And I think that that's important. And I think like it's a pretty tangible outcome that we help our clients create. And it's an easy one to point to. But it's not the only one. And

I think of the instant relief of, now I know why what I have been doing hasn't been working, and I know what to do instead. And there's immediate relief even before the implementation of that happens. There was immediate relief of embarking upon the rebrand process, even though we didn't even roll it out until July. It was like,

doing something to solve this problem of capacity in a really big way. So yeah, no, those decisions did not feel heavy. felt like overdue, if that makes any sense.

Erica Nash (13:32.578)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And like as the designer, I love hearing that. That's amazing. Like, yes.

Shannon Mattern (13:37.698)

Well, I know, I think I think your question kind of reflects maybe some of the thinking that our listeners might have about the decision to work with you being like, like your clients decision to work with you like being this like

It's like, I'm gonna kind of call you out a little bit. It's almost like from an expense mindset. Because you said heavy and you said risk.

Erica Nash (14:04.344)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (14:10.102)

Yeah. yeah, no, I am very much.

Shannon Mattern (14:11.764)

And when we're operating with an expense mindset, we are like, it must be a heavy risk for our clients to part with their money to work with us. And when you're not everybody thinks like that, you know?

Erica Nash (14:27.502)

Yeah, I have noticed that, you know, I've done a ton of work on my own like money mindset and like how I spend money and scarcity is gonna get me every single time. No. Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (14:31.51)

You

Shannon Mattern (14:45.942)

We all have blind spots, Erica. We all have blind spots. And if our default is expense mindset, and if you're a new listener to this podcast, we talk about pricing paradigms and how there are three of them, investment mindset, hustle slash hybrid mindset, and expense slash employee mindset. And if you operate with an expense mindset, you're like, because money is

scarce if I receive it from you, it's risky for you. And how we project our own money mindset onto our clients a lot of times and like, you can work on it all you want, but it's like, it can still be there operating in the background, like a little program on your computer that you don't even know runs, but keeps the computer running. And I just think that that's just like a blind spot for you to like,

be aware of because yeah, because like it's just as likely that I'm like, no, there was no risk at all. It was all upside. I could see no risk to doing this. All reward.

Erica Nash (15:44.29)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (15:54.83)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that is, you know, of course, beautiful to hear. And yeah, and I think that it is worth noting for anybody who like sort of resonates on that level that like,

Shannon Mattern (16:12.289)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (16:17.804)

I had done a lot of work in 2020, I mean, over the past few years of just like sort of dismantling my beliefs around money, around scarcity, around all of those things. And I got to a place where I was feeling like very confident in just like money stuff in general. I say that not to say that like I had an abundance of money because that was not a factor. I was in a, like whether there was, you know,

Shannon Mattern (16:36.258)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (16:43.714)

Yeah.

The amount of money is pointless in any of these discussions. Yeah.

Erica Nash (16:47.054)

whatever the number was didn't matter. Right, like it didn't matter. But I was like knocked down a few flights of stairs, right, in November. I had something happen with a client. And so like it like knocked me back down. And so I guess I say that to say that like, like you said, like it's kind of that well-worn pathway.

that program that's running sort of on autopilot. And as I've kind of dismantled things, there are times when it's easier to run the new program and times when it's harder to run the new program. And so I am still sort of on the recovery of like what happened in November in order to begin running that new program like I was. And so,

Shannon Mattern (17:34.475)

Yes.

Erica Nash (17:43.5)

that wouldn't be possible without people like you and like our community aware of those things and lovingly calling them out.

Shannon Mattern (17:58.154)

Yeah, I had wrote before we even started our conversation today that 2025 for me was the year of seeing all my blind spots that I didn't even know were there. I'm sure there are plenty more that I'll see in 2026. And I think you just stated that so beautifully. It's just like you had a blind spot about how you were thinking about, you know,

like the exchange of money of working with you being heavy and being a risk that how would you ever even know you have that you just say it like the sky is blue unless there's someone reflecting back to you like, I noticed you said it that way. And then it's just like, I didn't even realize I was still thinking that way. And so that's I mean, for me, that was like,

2026 was like the, or 2025 was like the year of being shown, lovingly shown my blind spots all throughout the year in so many different ways. So I could like have some awareness. But I told like, absolutely, you know, our subconscious mind and our nervous system is going to protect us. And

this well-worn neural pathway of your thinking about money is just a way you protect yourself. So it's so normal that you would go back there. It happened to me in 2023 when I had a very challenging year. I had worked so hard to install the mindset that I feel like I'm mostly back to as my default operating system.

Erica Nash (19:29.699)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (19:46.996)

in an instant, it was like back and it took a while to create safety to make different decisions easier. Right? So, you know, before it would take a lot of conversations with people and a lot of thinking and a lot of journaling and a lot to get to the point where I feel comfortable doing the thing. And then it just became easier and easier and easier. So

Erica Nash (19:48.152)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (19:58.498)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (20:14.667)

what you're going through is like so very normal and why it's so important to surround yourself with people who understand what is happening and can like safely guide you through it and not just like push you into the deep end before when you're not ready to go there. yeah.

Erica Nash (20:29.091)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (20:35.726)

Right, exactly.

Yeah. Well, I will say that like, in the last episode we talked about, you know, taking an extended break. That was the best thing that I could have done for myself in, in, sort of restarting the new program, and, running, running something different, giving myself that time off allowed me just like the distance from my business for just a little bit to be able to.

Shannon Mattern (20:57.322)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (21:07.285)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (21:09.45)

get perspective, to be able to rest, to be able to just like be away from my computer. just that space and the like, I don't know, like renewed sense of energy allowed me to like, just be a little bit more aware of my thoughts and like how I was thinking and just like, kind of like you said, like just deciding like we don't think like that anymore.

and like moving in. I think I'm close to the other side, but yeah, yeah.

Shannon Mattern (21:45.1)

I love that. it does take a pause, a strategic pause, as one of our podcast guests, Andrea Leibroes, called it, a strategic pause to rest. Our brains constantly work. We don't rest them enough. I almost feel like rest can give us a quantum leap.

Erica Nash (21:51.148)

TJ Puck.

Erica Nash (22:02.69)

Yeah, yeah.

Shannon Mattern (22:11.765)

we think like, if we just keep working, keep working, keep working, we'll get there. Sometimes the strategy is counterintuitive and we need rest to get perspective and energy and all of those things. So I'm just so glad that you gave yourself that and that you intend to give yourself more of that this year.

Erica Nash (22:34.732)

Yeah, for sure, for sure. So let's talk about the outflow. We haven't talked about that yet. I know everybody's waiting. So what was the outflow for 2025?

Shannon Mattern (22:40.522)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (22:44.609)

The outflow was $287,000. Oh my gosh, let me try this again. $287,073, which has us adding 17,712 to our reserves. And so that was like paying you, paying me, putting money in my 401k, owner draws, paying down.

Erica Nash (22:51.465)

Hahaha

Shannon Mattern (23:14.475)

the line of credit from last year. That was.

investing in the rebrand, investing in conversion rate optimization, just like all of the things. so I was talking to my financial strategist, Jen Boss, and she was like, A, what a comeback. And I was like, I just felt like, so proud of us, Erica.

Erica Nash (23:45.71)

You

Shannon Mattern (23:49.666)

She was like, A, what a comeback. she's like, B, it's been one of your most profitable years. She was like, She's like, look at 2022. She was like, even when you made almost $500,000 in 2022, she was like, your profit wasn't what it was this year. And I'm like, on paper, that looks true. But I paid myself a lot more in 2022. So that's not quite accurate because.

Erica Nash (24:12.814)

Sure.

Shannon Mattern (24:18.527)

You know, I took a higher salary back then, which made it like look less, the business look less profitable, but still like, you know, we're trending in the direction that I want to be trending. And she and I talked about, you know, sometimes when businesses set big goals for set goals for big growth,

Erica Nash (24:28.237)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (24:48.097)

in too short of a period of time, they actually like sabotage the growth that could have happened. And she talks about how growth comes from a healthy business. She was like, so if we shoot in 2026 to have the exact same year that you had in 2025, she was like, more likely that you will grow in 2026. But if you set an aggressive goal,

Erica Nash (24:53.955)

Mm.

Shannon Mattern (25:17.825)

to grow for 2026, you might divert resources into things that aren't going to be, you're gonna like take nutrients from the roots and like kill the tree. And I was like, that is so interesting because I love the idea of just doing a repeat of 2025.

Erica Nash (25:31.63)

you

Erica Nash (25:45.837)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (25:46.486)

with some strategic changes, right? Like we don't need to do a rebrand, but what we are doing now in 2026, one of our things is kind of re-engineering our workflow and bringing some support on to take some of the more like repetitive tasks off of your plate. So I can give you more higher level things to do and

Erica Nash (25:51.331)

Right.

Shannon Mattern (26:14.977)

So we're just kind of re-engineering our workflow and creating more capacity for both of us to do more things that are revenue generating. I think that that's like, like last year we did the outside of the business. Now we're doing the inside of the business. And I think that that's, you know, we, we set ourselves up to be able to do that this year with all the work that we did last year.

Erica Nash (26:31.82)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (26:41.928)

I totally, I totally agree. And I think that like the, the, the systems and the processes that we already had in place, plus like just the very strategic way we went about the rebrand with the intention of how do we make these things so much faster, so much easier, so much more repetitive. Like

even if we decided like let's just do a repeat of last year, the capacity that's created from that, my goodness, like plus bringing in additional support, that is wild. Absolutely wild. How cool. It's very exciting.

Shannon Mattern (27:16.576)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (27:24.287)

I know. It's exciting, right?

Yeah. So, yeah, so that was our outflow for 2025. About the same as last year. If I, let me look, let me just double check that statement.

Shannon Mattern (27:48.194)

The other interesting thing, and I think I talked about this in previous income reports, is Jen is helping me build some more dashboards so that I can see these numbers all in one place. Because that was a blind spot that I didn't know that I had. It's like, I'm like, oh, I tracked my numbers. Of course, I know all of these things, but like,

I did not have the full picture and I was missing key because I didn't have everything and all in one place. I was just missing key pieces of the puzzle that weren't there because I didn't have them all. It's like I had all the pieces of the puzzle spread out all around the house. And so we're building some more.

Erica Nash (28:40.28)

Mm.

Shannon Mattern (28:46.817)

tools for me to be able to like, look at projected, like projected revenue, committed revenue, what does that look like? So when I'm making spending decisions in the future, I see, like, I can see the future committed revenue more clearly than what it is right now. So yeah, looking at last year, our outflow is actually 230, 233. So our outflow this year was 50,000.

Erica Nash (29:06.306)

Yeah, I love that.

Shannon Mattern (29:16.361)

more than it was last year. And so once I meet with her, I'll look at exactly what that was. But I'm pretty sure it was paying down the line of credit, paying myself more, the rebrand and the extra projects that we took on this year that we didn't take on last year. But I'll look into exactly what those were. It's only January 6th. I haven't had time to look at it.

Erica Nash (29:41.878)

And he paid me.

Shannon Mattern (29:45.055)

These numbers haven't been audited by the time we get to it. could adjust by a few thousand here or there if I like miss something in my calculations, but yeah.

Erica Nash (29:55.886)

Well, you paid me more in 2025. So that was part of that as well. Yeah. Much appreciated. So let's talk about, I know you have some things that you have listed. Let's talk about some of the important things that happened in 2025.

Shannon Mattern (29:57.762)

Yes, I paid you more.

Well, we're so, so worth it.

Shannon Mattern (30:14.303)

Yeah, so I think hiring the financial strategist, name's Jen Boss from Peak to Peak Solutions was pivotal. Again, another case of, we talked in the last episode about how one of our web designer Academy students, Lindsay, was like, I'd been doing this thing on my own for so long. And basically, like the time was passing, I wasn't making progress.

And so then she decided to just go ahead and work with us. My situation was a little bit different because I didn't know I needed help. That's kind of been like the theme that I have been seeing with myself. Like there are so many things that I'm competent at that I do well enough that I don't realize how much I'm missing by not working at someone who is an expert.

Erica Nash (30:55.31)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (31:14.215)

in that thing. And so, you know, hiring Jen to help me just look at different ways to think about my financials and planning and analyzing and all of that, like, I didn't have the experience and perspective to think like how she thinks. She spends her days looking behind the scenes of

all of her clients' businesses, she's been doing this for many, many years. She has a expertise, vision, and a language that like, I don't have anywhere close to what she has, but I'm like, I'm competent enough to do my books and handle the day-to-day financial operations, but I don't have the experience to strategize or do what she does. And so.

I was like, oh, there are so many things that I'm like competent at that I also am missing so much of what an expert could bring. And I think that that's, that was a huge blind spot that was revealed to me in 2025 that I get to stop thinking that because like I'm competent and I do it good enough that I'm like,

doing it well. Like, I'm not. Or that, like, and maybe I'm doing it well, but like, there's probably so many opportunities that I'm missing. And this makes me think of like, our listeners here who are like, I'm doing these things in my web design business. It's going just fine. Sure, I like what Shannon and Erica talk about on this podcast. I like what the guests are, but like, it's fine. I don't need help. And I'm like,

Erica Nash (32:42.028)

Yeah, that's so good.

Shannon Mattern (33:09.511)

I am you and also like I didn't know what I was missing. And that's like what I have been shown over and over again. And I would say to you like, you don't know what you're missing. Like we can bring so much more to that picture. But like that's what almost everything on this list has some like flavor of a blind spot of I didn't know what I was missing.

Erica Nash (33:11.374)

You

Yeah.

Erica Nash (33:23.693)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (33:38.343)

or something like that, but that was a huge one, was, know, competence is masking my blind spots in a lot of areas.

Erica Nash (33:42.094)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (33:48.174)

And was it, did you hire Jen in May or right before all of those like big months? Do you think that was any, do you think that's connected in any way? Yeah, I think, I remember whenever you did that and we met and I could just see the relief like in your face, in your shoulders, just like it was true. You were like, I gave.

Shannon Mattern (33:55.179)

Yeah. Yeah. I hired.

1000 % connected.

Shannon Mattern (34:10.614)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (34:16.778)

us a gift and it truly was such a gift.

Shannon Mattern (34:18.399)

Yeah. I was like, didn't, I learned that I didn't screw it all up. And that was such a relief. And then I got clarity on how to move forward. Clarity and insight and guidance and someone to go to and be like, Hey, how should I think about this? So we talked in December.

about how November, our December income report about how November was a standard month of no new enrollments. December, we had one. I have my meeting with Jen in December and she's asking me some questions and she's like, okay, well, you know, if January is, is out of the norm or something weird happens, she was like, then we'll discuss what to do. But she was like, no, I think there's nothing to do here, but stay the course. And I'm like,

I thought so too, but then I questioned myself. And so it's so nice to either get validation or get advice or a plan or whatever. It's just, yeah, it's pretty awesome.

Erica Nash (35:31.31)

Yeah, yeah. It makes me think about one of the strategies that we recommend is paid discovery. And I don't know how many times I have seen people ask, or not really ask, but say, I kind of feel bad for charging XYZ for this paid strategy or whatever, because

Shannon Mattern (35:41.365)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (36:00.354)

I'm really like, they're just giving me the information. Like they're just filling out this workbook. Like they have all this information. And I'm just here to say, and this is what I say every time is like, okay, but they don't know what to do with the information. Like they don't have perspective. And so that's the value. And like what you're saying right now, like that's the value of having somebody who knows what to do with the information and what that information means and how to talk about it and how to.

Shannon Mattern (36:13.876)

and they don't have perspective.

Erica Nash (36:30.146)

you know, sort of stack it in a specific way to achieve a specific outcome. That's the value that you're bringing to the table whenever you do any sort of strategy.

Shannon Mattern (36:34.442)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (36:41.312)

Yeah, and the things that your clients say, like the sky is blue that are meaningless to them that you're just like, but that's everything. Like they don't know they have their blind spots to say, you know, so just having someone else there to to be the sounding board is is huge. And so please don't discount like what you bring to the table in terms of

Erica Nash (36:48.727)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (37:06.304)

Like you are that person for your clients who has done this for so many other people that has the perspective that they don't have, even though they're the ones holding all of the information. So yeah, that was huge. it's like, was just like, tell me how I can give you money for next year. You know that it's like, I want a spot. I want this spot.

Erica Nash (37:29.71)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (37:35.745)

help like tell me how I can keep working with you because that's just going to be a critical, critical thing. She, she helped me. She, she encouraged me to launch the private coaching offer that we, that we launched in, in 2025, which was also pivotal, like, you know, to work one-on-one with clients in a way that I had never done, like done before or considered doing before.

that was huge. it was, I didn't realize how much I loved doing it. It was incredible to see how much progress people were able to create in just a 90 day, coaching container. And that was one of the highlights of 2025, but also something that came out of, of my work with Jen as well was adding that offer on. so.

Just seeing how the people who took me up on that offer, like how their businesses have shifted, but just all of our students in 2025, I think I like to like think back to all of the celebrations that they've shared throughout the year and all of the challenges that they've overcome and just even the courage to come work with us in the first place, just even making that decision to

join our program and invest in themselves in that way is a big huge deal. So I like to think of, just think of like, all of the people that said yes to themselves in 2025. And like what, like how that shifted everything for them, and how they did things that they never even fathomed that they could do. Like how they've

Erica Nash (39:30.424)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (39:32.981)

blown their own minds. so that's my, just reflecting on their success has been really very rewarding. And then just a couple of other things that happened in 2025, I finally realized that our package matrix strategy is the through line of everything

that we do at the Web Designer Academy. It really is like the linchpin of all of the strategies. And so I started a, like I launched like a new webinar talking about that, just doing little quarter turns every time of like, okay, let me tweak how I'm talking about this to kind of bring that strategy to the forefront. I just gained so much clarity in.

2025 about like, who we are, what we do, how I talk about it, who, um, who is like the best fit for us, who's not quite ready for us yet and how to like pivot that messaging a little bit. Um, you know, we tried some things that, um, didn't turn out as I thought they would, which I found really interesting. And maybe we can talk more about in our January, uh, 2026 income report. Um, but.

our marketing momentum experiment. I launched a membership this time last year because everybody tells us that getting clients is their number one challenge. And it was actually not a successful experiment. And I was surprised by that. But what I'm, I'm reading this book and I can't like, I'll, I'll be able to talk more about this once I finish it.

Erica Nash (41:21.036)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (41:31.604)

but it's called what your customers really want and can't tell you. And so I think that there's like a little bit of a disconnect between people telling us, I need more clients and what they actually really need. And I've kind of been playing with this idea with some of the things that we're doing is like,

There might be other ways to solve the problem that you're trying to solve by thinking that you need more clients. But also is our ideal client the person who needs more clients? Because there are plenty of other people out there serving the people who are in the stage of business where they need more clients.

And what might happen if we focus in on the people who have solved that problem and are experiencing the problems of having the clients and then all of the other things that come with that. So those are just some things that I've been reflecting on and thinking about. We've talked about a lot of the highlights in our previous income reports.

Erica Nash (42:38.893)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (42:53.344)

And we are at about time for this 2025 year in review, but a 30 % increase in revenue, huge progress on some big initiatives. Are students having incredible success? Their testimonials are all over the website and they shared them on the student panel and so many more than that. But are there any final reflections that you have?

Erica that you're thinking about as we kind of wrap up 2025, put a bow on it and move into 2026.

Erica Nash (43:26.894)

Yeah, I, of course, like some of the things that you said were definitely, you know, things that I was thinking of as well that were just like big moments for the business. But one that for me signifies that we have built something incredible is the fact that in 2025, our students started co-working groups themselves. And it was so beautiful to see them take that initiative and like,

Shannon Mattern (43:52.468)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (43:56.674)

continue to form the community outside of our guidance. And it just made me so happy. It just made me so happy to see that they like each other, to see that they want us to spend more time together and learn from each other and just do things together, and to see that they could create that space for themselves within the space that we've created. that's really the one for me that is, it just makes my heart so happy.

Shannon Mattern (44:00.5)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (44:27.348)

That makes my heart so happy too. And I also love when the ones who like live near each other meet up for coffee and like post pictures of it. And I would also say, shout out to you. Our renewal rate is significantly higher than it's ever been. you know, I know that like you put a lot of effort.

Erica Nash (44:34.496)

Yes.

Shannon Mattern (44:52.992)

into making sure every single one of our students is, you know, is connected and has what they need and, you know, all of those, all of those things. And so that's, that's a big part of our revenue and our growth in 2025 too, is like people, people get here and they want to stay and they want to stay not because they need to stay, but because they feel.

so connected and they see how we can help them continue to grow beyond the initial reason that they joined. So 2025 was an awesome year. There's not much that I would do differently. I think that there are some quarter turns that we're going to make. Thank you, Nikki, from Clarity Branding. And yeah, we will.

Erica Nash (45:36.216)

for sure.

Shannon Mattern (45:51.604)

We'll continue these income reports every single month again in 2026. So we'll continue to share our insights with you. So thank you all so much for listening. I will see you back here next week. Bye everyone.