#104 – July 2024 Income Report

Shannon Mattern (00:03.096)

Hey there and welcome back to the Profitable Web Designer Podcast. And today I'm bringing you my monthly income report for July 2024, where I break down what happened behind the scenes of the Web Designer Academy, how much money we made, how much we spent, and all of the lessons I learned along the way. So if you're new to the show, there are a few reasons why I write and publish income reports on the podcast every month.

even though I quote unquote retired from one -on -one web design services way back in 2019.

and now I am a business coach for women web designers. And so first, I'm always thinking about how the lessons that I am personally learning about marketing, sales, boundaries, and mindset and running our coaching programs for women web designers are relevant to your web design business and sharing those parallels with you on the podcast. And second, for me personally, it's really, really important for me to take the time

to do some reflection and analysis at the end of each month to look at what we tried, why we tried it, what our expected outcome was, what actually happened, why did that happen, and what can I learn from it? I celebrate and acknowledge our wins and examine our challenges, and it's really a chance for me to do a gut check and a head check and make sure I still want what I think I want to integrate what I've learned to uncover where I might need coaching from my support network.

and to just make clear headed future focused decisions. The third reason I write income reports is that money isn't everything, but how we do money in our business reflects a lot about how we show up everywhere else in our business. And so our thoughts about money and our financial successes and our failures often are reflection of what we think about ourselves, our worth and what's possible for us.

Shannon Mattern (02:00.112)

and these income reports help me examine that for myself and see where I might be getting off course or where I might be getting into some mind trash. And I hear from everybody that listens to this podcast that these are their favorite episodes because it helps you shine a light on that stuff for you too. So that's why I do those income reports even though my business model's like very different.

But to kick off this month again, July 2024, we're gonna kick right off with the numbers. Then I'll get into what happened and all of the lessons learned along the way. Ready? Okay. Our total inflow in July was $26 ,554. Our total outflow was $21 ,389 .05.

which allows me to add $5 ,164 .95 to our cash reserves. So if you listened to my June, 2024 income report, you will hear that I decided to stop talking about that as revenue and expenses slash investments and profit and loss and start talking about it as just inflow, outflow, adding to our reserves or using our reserves, which is such much more.

neutral language to me does not activate like my fight or flight, my nervous system. It's just like, I don't know. It's sufficiency, right? It's like, it's just a different way of thinking about it and talking about it. That doesn't create like pressure, I guess. So

Breaking that down even further, $11 ,625 of the inflow was registration fees for our in -person retreat for our next level mastermind, which I'll talk a little bit more about in this episode. And $4 ,918 .52 of that outflow was also for the retreat, which I'll also talk about a bit later. And the reason I'm breaking those out is

Shannon Mattern (04:05.474)

the next level mastermind retreat is what I think of as like a budget neutral event for us, meaning the money that I'm receiving for that now is going to be spent on the event later on in October and November and some of it's already being spent. I have my break even point for that event. So I know how many people we need to register.

versus what's the minimum cost of putting this event on. And so that's why I think of it as a budget neutral event. Now we can accommodate more people than what we need to have registered to break even. And so anything above that is profit, but it's not necessarily my intention to create overflow from this event. It's my intention to fund the event because the event

in and of itself is just, I don't know. It's like the best thing I do in this business. Like it's so incredible. It's so transformational just to be in the same room with you guys for a few days. People, just like, how are these people who are here so amazing? Just like as humans, not necessarily as business owners. And so I love having this event. And my first goal is to just fund

you know, with the minimum amount of people that we need to cover it. And then anything above and beyond that is just awesome and an overflow. you know, Erica helped put together my client success coordinator, Erica help put together like a budget and the minimum price we needed to charge to cover everything based on how many rooms and we come up with a price based on that. And then

you know, anybody above and beyond that who registers based on our available spots is overflow for, for that event. And usually it allows us, it allows us to like add more, add more to the event. So that's the money that came in for the next level retreat that we opened registration for in July. And that event is happening in November.

Shannon Mattern (06:19.19)

The rest of that revenue came from, or the rest of that inflow came from Web Designer Academy, the Next Level Mastermind, renewals for both of those, and profitable Web Designer premium subscriptions. So without the retreat registrations or like that came in, or the deposits that I made on our Airbnb and the photographer and some other things that I started paying for as soon as registration came, money came in, the actual

in July was $14 ,929 and the outflow was $16 ,470 .53 with the difference being $1 ,500 and change coming out of our cash reserves. And so that outflow includes about $10 ,000 for my salary, my client success coordinator's Erica's part -time salary.

all of the state and federal taxes that come out of our paychecks because we are both W2 employees of my company. And I used to take owner draws back in the days where our business was bringing in 20 ,000 a month and more. But I haven't done that in over a year, which is totally fine. I mean, I'd like to pay myself more, but right now I don't need to pay myself more.

And there are some other benchmarks and goals that I'd like to hit in the business that will require some reinvestment of that overflow back into people and projects and things to make that happen. So for now, I'm fine with what I'm paying myself, but the reinvestment back into the business is designed to create even more inflow in the future. So I have future goals to create more revenue, pay us more, you know, all of that. But for

It's, you know, we're making it like we're hitting our goals, right? So because we're hitting our goals, I think it's time to set some new goals. And I'll talk more about that a little bit later. But back to the money, the other 6 ,400 of outflow that happened in July is attributed to my tech stack training, non -employee team required to run the business.

Shannon Mattern (08:35.192)

so about 2000 of that is specifically tech stack. It's all the tools that I use for operations, marketing, sales, content creation, program delivery. I just counted them up and there are about 44 different paid tools in my tech stack. And a couple of times a year I go through that list and I'm like, what can I cut? What's redundant? What can I consolidate? And honestly, I can say I love the suite of tools that we use. And as far as like the out go for all of them.

I think of it as like paying for a team member. Like all of the things that these tools do together are really, really powerful. They automate a lot of stuff for us. And I just don't think that any of it's a waste of money. And I also kind of love that I don't have all my eggs in one basket when it comes to our tech stack. Like there are a lot of platforms out there that are trying to be

all in one solution, especially for us, like course creators and membership providers. But if I had had my business set up with some of the popular ones out there, I would have been completely screwed back in April of 2023 when my payment processor was hacked and I got into a legal dispute with them and I can no longer use them, nor do I want to. I had to like, basically because of the way I had things set up, I was just able to switch out the plumbing instead of

building in a new house and moving. And a lot of those platforms out there that are all in one are very limited in terms of the payment processors that they use. And I would not have been able to use them. Like I can't use them. I've had people say, this platform's really cool. This other course that I'm in uses it. And I'm like, that's awesome. And I can't accept payments through them because of what happened.

so it's just really interesting that, you know, I'm like, there, my tech stack does really serve me really, really well. And I'm just proud that I was able to like build that for myself. So anyway, every time I look at our outflow and what we're spending on our tech stack, I think, is this necessary? Do I really need all of this? I could rebuild this or I could change that, or I can move to this shiny new tool. And then I think of the opportunity cost of

Shannon Mattern (10:56.025)

and the risk of switching tools, systems and platforms because all of that work is not a revenue generating activity for me. It doesn't help us grow our program. It doesn't help us have more impact or make more money. And we are far, far, far, far from outgrowing how we have things set up. So I think about it all the time where I'm like, $2 ,000, is that a lot? Could I be spending that somewhere else? Could I consolidate this? And then I'm like, do you know how big of a project that would be?

Shannon, like that would be a huge project that would take so much of your time. Yes, I'm sure it would be fun for your brain to do that, but it's not gonna help you make more money. And so I always just like, I evaluate it, I look at it, but at this, and I look to see is there something I'm paying for that I'm literally not using, but I'm happy with how everything's set up. And then the remaining 44 of that 6 ,400 includes things like saving up to make sure.

I have what I need to pay my CPA tax time, our bookkeeping expenses, business insurance, podcast production, the work that I'm doing on conversion rate optimization with Lee Scott from Zanotain Consulting, which has been invaluable. And also like funding our Instagram ads. We tested out some Google ads, which did not bring our ideal clients in. that was, you know, we tried that and it didn't

but we funded that experiment, right? Our welcome boxes for new Web Designer Academy students that have some really cool swag in them and for our next level members, affiliate payouts for people who promote the Web Designer Academy and have their colleagues sign up, things like that. that's where the outflow goes. so we had an overage

Shannon Mattern (12:49.304)

about $1 that came out of our reserves. That's what our reserves are there for, for the ebbs and the flows. And so, yeah, that's just, I'm really happy with how July went. And we also welcomed three new web designer academy students into the program in July, which is like awesome compared to like a year ago, July was

I think like historically it's been like a slower month for us. But like overall our applications are up and our enrollments evergreen enrollments in between our open enrollment promotions are up overall, which is awesome. Like we're trending in the direction that I want to go. We had eight new applications come in. I approved four of them of the four that I approved three of them enrolled. And one of those said they wanted to, but the timing wasn't good. And

the four other people I had some follow -up questions for because I literally do look at every application. You guys like it's not a marketing gimmick. I take a look at every application and I am like looking for how well our strategies help you reach your goals based on what you're doing in your business right now. And sometimes.

Like they're not going to help you. Or sometimes you don't give me enough information for me to determine if our program is right for you at the stage that you are in your business. And for these four applications that came in, I just couldn't tell from how they filled their application out, like really where they were at in their business journey. So I had some follow -up questions for them. I followed up, I didn't hear back. I followed up again, I didn't hear back. And so after

attempts of trying to get some additional information, I just went ahead and declined those applications. And so I just I don't make that mean anything. Like, a lot of people would be like, someone filled out my consultation form, and then they ghosted me and then they make it mean that they're wrong or they're bad or their prices are too high or like whatever. And I just don't make that mean anything. I'm not like, they ghosted me, they must not have liked something, I need to change something.

Shannon Mattern (15:05.494)

The truth is for me and for you, not everyone is a good fit for your services and that is okay. But I'm always going to give people the benefit of the doubt and not make their actions mean anything about me. Like if they fill out the application and I'm like, I'm sensing that you're not at the right place in your business for our strategies to help you. Like you're way too new. Like you're still trying to learn web design versus you've been working with clients and you're struggling with the business side of your business. If you're way too new.

our strategies are too advanced for you and it's actually gonna slow you down to try to implement what we're doing in the web designer academy. so, yeah, so I decline those and I don't make that mean anything. So that's what happened business and money -wise in July. We hit our minimum baseline revenue. We actually collected more cash than that in terms of what that is, our expenses.

were a little bit over what they normally were and that's okay. Like I looked through everything and I planned for like plan looked and saw where that was happening and nothing unexpected there. And so, you know, my July 20 and 24 income report, I know it's not like a new year or anything, but it almost feels like the start of a new chapter for me, if not the start of a new book because

If you listen to my June, 2024 income report, I did a recap of the like previous 12 months of my business and what happened and what I learned. you know, for some reason, July just feels like a fresh start. Like, okay, all of that happened. I've reflected on it. I learned a lot from it. I've integrated many of the lessons. And while I'm sure that there's always more to learn, I'm also just ready to like move forward and start thinking way more about the future than

trying to learn from the past. And so it just feels like a new beginning for some reason. Maybe it's because we're closed the first week of July, which means we don't have any meetings scheduled, we're unavailable, no live strategy calls in our programs, no responding to emails or being active in

Shannon Mattern (17:23.808)

in our student community, our team is offline the first week of January. We're basically closed. And we do the same thing the week between Christmas and New Year's. And that's in addition to like any vacations or other time that we take off throughout the year. But the July closure and the holiday, you know, end of year closure is pre -scheduled. Our students know about it way ahead of time. And it's not just for us to take a break. We also encourage our students to take a break too.

Like to let their clients know to like take these quiet weeks and let their clients know they'll be offline and unavailable and then practice being offline and unavailable. You know, it's one thing to say you're going to be on vacation and then quite another to be like, with like a side note of like, so I can get all these projects done uninterrupted. It's like, no, be on vacation. It's so hard for so many of you to do. It's hard for me to do not going to lie, but

so necessary to your wellbeing. And so that's why we model it in the Web Designer Academy. And listen, I love what I do. Like my online weeks don't feel like work to me. I truly feel free to design my weeks, my days, my time, however I want. I'm in total control of my time. I never feel like I have to do anything. Like I truly have like achieved that full autonomy.

that I've been chasing, but my weeks look very much the same. And that's very much by design. I saved myself a lot of mental energy by just scheduling things the same way. Always know when certain things are happening and what's happening when, kind of like how all the tech bros like wear the same outfit every day. So they don't waste brain power on choosing what to wear. Like that's how I design my schedule. And so in...

That, that first week of July, when I can be offline, it's just a break. It's a break from the norm and it like shakes up my brain and it really helps me, just have new thoughts and think differently and get out of my rut and get out of my routine. And so also in July, I tagged along with my husband on a work trip to Phoenix, Arizona for like a Monday through Friday work week for him. And that was another shakeup in my routine.

Shannon Mattern (19:48.116)

And so it was just awesome. And even though Phoenix was like face -meltingly hot, I got up at sunrise. I went hiking in the Phoenix Mountain Reserve every morning before it got too hot. I did podcast interviews from the hotel room. I did a workshop for Moxie, which is the proposal and invoicing and client management tool our Web Designer Academy students are using and loving and like moving to in droves right now.

July was just awesome because I got out of my normal routine. And when I get out of my normal routine and have downtime, that's when I just, I have lots of ideas. I get really inspired. I get these moments of clarity. And one of the things that I have been seeking clarity on, I don't know for like three years now is how to talk about the magic that happens inside of our next level mastermind and what we do in there. Like what do we do in there?

Why are, like, why is it so special? And our next level mastermind is for women web designers whose biggest challenge isn't like consistent clients or revenue. They're beyond that stage in their business. They're what I would call like the experienced seasoned web designers. So they're beyond that, those early and mid stages of their business, but they're like maxed out on time or they've hit a plateau in their revenue.

And it's usually a mix of mindset and mechanics that's in their way. it's not usually mechanics, I should say. It's almost always mindset. And they have some beliefs about how they have to run their business that's keeping them stuck in

They might also be missing a few key strategies here and there that we teach in the web designer Academy that will help them raise their prices without like changing their packages or systems and processes or that will help them work less. But generally they come into next level with being having been in business for many, many years, having built their own systems and processes, having taken a lot of other programs and courses and just kind of feeling like they've hit their max

Shannon Mattern (22:00.438)

what they've been able to do up until now on their own. And so that's really the next level mastermind and the difference between the web designers in next level and the web designers in the web designer academy is that in the web designer academy, I'm coaching people through like implementing our foundational systems, strategies and processes, like how we teach marketing, how we teach paid discovery in our irresistible package matrix.

how we teach our project management process and how we teach like boundaries and autonomy. And so I'm coaching them through the implementation of the processes that we have designed for them to run their web design business and help them build a strong mindset along the way. But in next level, we might have people in there who have learned web designer academy processes, but we also have people in there who made their own processes.

tried a whole lot of other things and pieced together and created their own thing. They're not all just like doing the web designer academy processes and they already know how to like market, make offers and manage clients. So we're not trying to fix anything in their business that's not broken. We're not trying to be like, hey, if you come in a next level, you have to use all web designer academy processes. But what it does, what we do uncover in there is

They are stuck. They have some mind trash around it. And they realize that they want more from their business. It's like they wanna make more money, but they can't see how. Or sometimes they don't even wanna make more money because they're making a lot of money. They're just burnt out. They're working constantly. They're not enjoying their life. They wanna work less or just create more freedom.

Maybe they think that they need to hire, but they don't want to manage people. And so they feel really stuck. And so the work we do in next level, we're not trying to figure out how to get clients. And we're not trying to figure out how to market your business. That's usually not next level people's problems. It's not systems and processes. And even if your revenue isn't as consistent as you'd like it to be or as much as you like it to be,

Shannon Mattern (24:18.966)

And next level, the web designers and their businesses are making money. And like, while we all have imposter syndrome from time to time, as we go for bigger goals, have like confidence in our design skills and what we offer to our clients. It's rarely a discussion in the next level room. Now, sometimes it is if you're like pivoting from like, I'm the one pushing all the buttons and doing all the things to I'm consulting and just selling my ideas instead of selling my skills.

that can trigger some imposter syndrome, but generally that's not the conversations that we're having in the next level room. And it's also unusual for someone to come into next level and not have any systems and processes that they've created over the years because these web designers have been doing this for a long time. They've built their companies and businesses to where they are. And just like I'm not gonna rebuild all of my

tech stack systems and processes because the opportunity cost is too high and it doesn't make sense and it's actually gonna not help me make more money. That's the same thing for the people that come into next level. We don't need you to rebuild all of your stuff to come work with us. We don't need you to change anything that's already working for you, right? Because that's not a revenue generating activity and it's not a time saving activity, right? So.

The women in our next level mastermind, they've basically outgrown the rooms and programs that they're currently in, or maybe they're just not in any, and they're like floundering out there on their own. And until landing on us, all the other advanced business coaching programs that they've been in, like didn't really fit them well, because maybe they'd be the only web designer in the room or the only woman in the room, or what up the only non -course creator in the room, the only non -life coach in the room, right?

So they just haven't been able to find their place. And that's why I created Next Level One, because I had a bunch of women in the Web Designer Academy after our first year of offering it as the group coaching program format that we offered. They're like, okay, awesome. Our first year's over. We love this. We did it. We know how to do it. Now what? And I'm just like, yeah, like we need what's next for them. Right?

Shannon Mattern (26:42.904)

I give you, tell you all that because like it's easy for me to talk about next level as like an extension of the web designer Academy. And upon reflection in this podcast episode, I'm able to clearly articulate what it is we do in there because of, and you'll understand why as I talk more about this, but I have like 10 discovery calls with web designers over the past year who would be perfect for the next level mastermind.

I was like, your business is in the perfect place for this. I see exactly what is in your way. I know exactly how I know exactly what tools exercises pieces of our next level process are going to help solve this for you. But I just could not articulate that to them. Like, and after a discovery call, those people were like, yeah, it sounds good, but I'm not ready. Like they just were not saying yes.

And I knew I knew it was me. I knew it was me and not them. And I knew it was me not in the way of like next level is not good enough. But it was like, I don't know how to talk about this. Like I knew how to I had a clarity problem. Like if I'm not clear, if I can't even articulate to you how and why this will help you get what you want, you're not going to feel psychologically safe to say yes to it. Right. You're not you're not you're not going to take the risk.

But here's where it gets interesting. Well, at least interesting to me. And I think you might find this interesting too. In late June, I was reading a book called The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Ekkard. And it's been in my Kindle library for a while. I read it a long time ago in my business. And I was just scrolling through my Kindle library to find something to read with my morning coffee since I've successfully quit my Apple News scrolling habit like many months ago.

And I've never been like Instagram or social media scroller ever. So I read in the morning and one of the concepts that the author was talking about in this book was playing to win versus playing not to lose or playing small versus going all in and asking yourself if you're willing to risk all of your time, energy and startup capital with no guarantee of return.

Shannon Mattern (29:08.546)

versus focusing on the potential loss and making decisions from a place of trying to avoid or prevent loss versus from fully committing in your mind. Let me say that again. He was talking about playing to win, which is going all in, being willing to risk all of your time, energy and startup capital with no guarantee of return versus playing not to lose, which

focusing on the potential loss and making decisions from a place of trying to avoid or prevent loss. And I was like, okay, this is interesting. And he went on to say that when you fully commit in your mind to playing to win with no guarantee of any return, then quote unquote, providence moves to a whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one's favor.

all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way." End quote. So I was just like, huh, where have I been playing small? It made me think like there are some areas where I've been playing not to lose instead of playing to win. And I want to invite you to think about this for yourself and your business too.

What I did, and I invite you to do this, is I just got out my notebook, open to a blank page, I wrote at the top of the page, where am I playing small? And I immediately wrote down a list of seven things. They just like poured right out of me. Three of them were pretty personal. I'm not gonna share those here today. Maybe once I've like processed them and have some lessons to share, I will share them on the podcast.

They're definitely related to worthiness, which I'll talk about a little bit later. But the four business related ones were number one, next level mastermind, promoting it. And this is exactly what I wrote, by the way, promoting it and believing I really can and am helping web designers who are at that level. Number two, social media, showing up on stories and reels, which if you heard

Shannon Mattern (31:24.444)

Last income report in June, I talked a lot about this and like the mindset that I had around it. And then after I wrote down where I was playing small with this, I had a conversation with Liz mostly about gamifying and rejection and all of those things. And so I'm sure I'll have more to talk about with no longer playing small there in my August income report.

The other thing that I wrote down was being a victim and how I think about my business by constantly thinking that things are quote unquote not working and then changing things that are broken and self sabotaging. I would felt like I was definitely playing small there. That's like the epitome of playing not to lose versus playing to win. And then just hoarding money and money insecurity, like money insecurity and thinking just continuing to allow myself to think.

it's all gonna run out, it could all go away tomorrow. Like I'm so tired of thinking like that when I open up when it's not true. So I'm like, that is also something that my brain does in an attempt to quote unquote keep me safe, but it's actually not helping. It's causing me to play not to lose instead of playing to win. And so after I admitted to myself,

that it wasn't that I didn't know how or that it would be hard, but that the problem really was that I hadn't yet decided that I was willing to risk what was required to create the return I wanted, something in my head clicked. Lots of things clicked in July, but that was like the first thing that clicked. I was like, my gosh, I've been playing not to lose. I haven't been willing to risk.

what was what's required to create the return that I really wanted. And that's why this is where it is. And so I looked at the first item on that list and I was like, what have I been unwilling to risk with the next level mastermind? And I was like, okay, I keep telling myself, like, I know what we do in their works, but I kept telling myself, I don't understand.

Shannon Mattern (33:41.468)

I don't know how to talk about it. I don't know how to tell people about it. I don't know how to get people to say yes. Like I just kept telling myself these things. I was like, I know what we do works, but I don't know how. Right. And so therefore I'm telling myself this, of course, I can't like talk about it well enough to sell it. And I would even hear myself say on consultation calls, like, I don't know if I explained that clearly. Does it make sense? Like what?

Who wants to buy something from someone who says that? You know, if I caught someone, if I heard someone saying that on a recording of a sales conversation, I would point that out to them in 0 .5 seconds to be like, you don't sound at all confident that you can help this person. And that's what I was doing. And so what was underneath me playing small is

underlying like soundtrack or thought loop or chatter for lack of a better word, which I'll talk about a little bit later too, is like, what if someone pays to be a next level and then doesn't reach their next level goal? And then I've harmed them and then whatever big bad things that happened to them in their life are my fault. Listen, this is the same stuff I coach web designers on every day, day in and day out. They think I can't charge that much because insert reason why your brain says that you're not good enough here.

And it's like the same stuff that came up for me when I changed the web designer Academy from an online course to a group coaching program and basically tripled the price back in 2020. And it's that one sneaky little self -worth thought. That's what's really been keeping me from going all in and playing to win with the next level mastermind with what I know it can help people do. And

I'm pretty sure that my BFF and mindset coach, Alicia St. Germain hosted the conscious ed pod cat conscious edge podcast would tell me that that thought's a worthiness issue. And I have these imaginary conversations with Alicia in my head after listening to her podcast episodes. She's going to get a kick out of hearing that. And there was.

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one where she said something that like, again, broke my brain open in a way that it has been resisting being broken open for a long time. She said something on one of her podcast episodes, like, when you feel worthy, it means that you love yourself unconditionally, no matter what. And I was like, because up until hearing her say define worthiness that way, I would have completely disputed that I have a worthiness issue.

I would have told her like, I like myself. I think I'm good at what I do. Blah, blah, blah. I don't have worthiness issues. However, the fact that I have a lot of negative self -talk historically, that's been my next level goal. The domino that I set for myself, which that's the goal that we call, you know, the goal that when accomplished will make all the other goals happen faster, easier. My domino is massively reducing my negative self

And that's because I have a worthiness issue or, you know, it's there. It's like a core wound, right? And so that unconditionally loving myself, no matter what happens or what I do, that's a huge area of opportunity for me in my personal life, in my business. And I've been making tons of positive progress on it. So I will give myself a lot of credit for that. But me thinking...

that I could harm grown adults who make their own autonomous decision to join my next level program and that means something about me that I'm not good enough and that I'm flawed, that's a worthiness issue. And I'm telling you all of this because you probably think this about your clients. You probably think that you could harm them by taking their money.

and something not going well in their business or whatever big bad thing that your mind goes to. And so I just want you to know that you're not alone in thinking that. And that's the kind of stuff that we work on in both of our programs. But anyway, in The Millionaire Mind, the author also says that whether you are worthy or not is just a made up story in your head. No one comes around and stamps you as worthy or unworthy and worthiness is just a decision.

Shannon Mattern (38:23.274)

So why not decide that you are worthy? And I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna decide I'm worthy. So I just did in that moment. I was like, I decided I'm worthy. I'm worthy. mean, why not? What have I got to lose? Because walking around feeling like I'm not worthy feels like crap. So why not feel good? And from that frame of minds, like everything that we'd already been doing in the next level mastermind, like all of the exercises, the tools, the discussions, the...

things we did in person in the retreat over the past three years, literally like almost formed themselves in my mind and like snapped into place as like a framework that had been there all along. But I had been unwilling or unable to see it. I think it was more unwilling to see it because I was like deciding to like be stuck in a victim me unworthy place and also was playing small and not willing

Go all in and risk without, take a risk without guarantee of reward. So I think I was unwilling to see it and either I made a decision that I was clear because I decided to stop playing small. The answers were just like, they're like, it's like the clouds parted and the answers were there in my brain. I don't know how it happened, but like, like the author said, quote, when you fully commit in your mind, then Providence moves to a whole stream of events.

issues from the decision raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents meetings and material assistance, which no woman could have dreamt would come her way and change the man to a one end quote. So from that clarity, I wrote down an outline of all of the things that we've done at our in -person retreats and in our weekly mastermind calls and in next level workshops that I've hosted to just help people get like really clear on their next level goal and put together.

a realistic plan to reach it and organize that into a framework. And then I was like, okay, so that is the next level framework. Now, how are we going to like run these mastermind calls? Because I had a lot of thoughts that no one else but me shared about how those mastermind calls were running. like, I keep thinking that these aren't good enough. And then I go talk to our mastermind members and they're like,

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We love it. Don't change it. but I just like formalized some things that they told me that they loved most about the calls to make sure that I was incorporating those every week. And it's so funny to me because I'm like, this is the exact process I did with the web designer Academy when I was like pulling all that together back in 2016 is trying a lot of things, keeping what worked, getting rid of what didn't doing that through feedback from the people who are there. Like so obvious, but anyway.

I also then decided to risk my money because hoarding money and DIYing everything has been another place I can tend to play small. And so I hired Sarah G, Sarah Geo, who is a sales page copywriter, and she's a member of Next Level. I hired her to write a sales page for the program. One, because she's one of the best copywriters I've ever worked with. And two, because Next Level has had a huge impact on Sarah's business. She joined Next Level last year.

came to our in -person retreat in November of 2023. And she was in this place in her business where she was like, this is either going to work or I'm going to go get a job. And she set a goal that she wanted to create a certain amount of revenue, I think by the end of January, 2024. And if she didn't do that, she was going to start looking for a job. And not only did she do that, she...

Also just kept continuing to hit her goals. And so like, she was like, my gosh, now I've made it like, think in January she had made enough to pay herself through all of Q Q one. If I'm, and she's coming on the podcast to talk about this. So she'll tell you specifically in upcoming episode, what this looked like. And then I just talked to her last week. So this is August.

that I'm recording this last week on our call, she was like, by the way, I've made enough money to pay myself through the end of 2024 in August. And I spent like extra money on things outside of my business, like a couple of retreats, including ours. And so like seven months ago, or I guess that would be eight or nine months ago. Yeah. She was like, I think I'm going to have to go get a

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And now she's like, yeah, I've made enough money to pay myself through the end of 2024. So not only her being an amazing copywriter, she was the perfect person to hire to write the sales page because she's been through both sides. She knows what's in the program and she's like been through the transformation herself. And so we did that in July. I was willing to risk my money in July. We met, I just did like

I gave her everything I'd ever like put together about next level just did like a verbal verbal vomit of like, here's all this clarity that I have now about what this is, who it's for, who it's not for, what we do in there. And then Sarah took that away and went away to write like one of the most amazing sales pages. like, I read what she wrote and I was like, my gosh, yes, this is what I've been trying to say, but just haven't been able to articulate.

And you just said it so beautifully. So she did that. And then quite by accident after putting my money where my mouth is or stopping playing small or because Providence was moving too. I don't know. I started reading about, I started hearing about and deciding to read books that were explaining to me why what I've been instinctually teaching in the next level actually works from like a brain science

And I say instinctually teaching in next level because like what I led our next level students through are like an amalgamation of all of the things that I have been doing over the years on my own to like grow my business and you know, like things that have been transformational for me, things that have clicked in my brain, including the transformational mindset work that Alicia St. Germain does.

Like the work she does called immunity to change it. So, so powerful. Like I went through it, it unlocked so many things for me and helped me understand like why some things worked. But I also just like, I understood that part, but I just didn't know why other things worked. And I didn't know why all of the things that we did in next level, like worked together to help someone like Sarah do what she did. And if you know me or if you're a listener to this podcast or my last

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podcast, you know, I'm not woo, like, I'm not in a manifestation, like, from the perspective of like, if I just think this is true and have a vision vision board and sit here and wish for it, it will magically come to me. Like, I don't believe Providence moving works that way. Like, I don't know. Like if visualization, and our goal if like visualizing our goals and our future works, I want to know why it works. I want to

what is happening in my brain, in the world, whatever, I need to know why. And I need to know why acknowledging our and successes works to create more wins and success. I wanna know the mechanics behind why. If someone tells me setting goals, the way we were taught in corporate doesn't work and actually works against us, I wanna know why it doesn't work. And I wanna know what works instead. And so...

And I know this is probably a conversation for another time and definitely an area of opportunity for me to just accept that there are some things that are unknowable, that there are greater forces at work. But I am very curious and I want to know why. And if you tell me that's just the way that it is

You know, I just, you just have faith that it is that way. I'm not saying like, don't believe in God or anything like that, but I'm just like, I want to know why show me like where it says that. Like, you know, I need to know why. So me knowing why in terms of next level helps me be 1000 % certain that I can, that I can help you, you know, like it helps me. it just like, if I don't know why it works.

I can't tell you why it works. And then you just have to trust me that it'll work. And that's a heavy lift, especially if you're coming in from outside of the web designer academy, if you haven't already spent a year with us, like implementing the things that we say work and having them work for you. And it's probably why I could never get those people who like talk to me about next level to say yes, because I couldn't articulate like, here's what we do and here's why it works.

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Obviously, I laugh when I say it, because I wouldn't buy something from someone where they're like, well, it just works. I don't know why it works. It just works. So anyway, I decided I was worthy and everything clicked into place. And I guess Providence started to move, or more accurately, parts of my brain were activated to start paying attention to things related to the next level framework. And I started unintentionally reading books that scientifically explained why.

Why it worked. you know, by unintentionally, I mean, I was not acting consciously, but I was acting subconsciously. Like my subconscious mind was like, Hey, that thing's related to this thing. So, you know, and so, and it's because I told my subconscious what to look out for, even if I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time. So I'm like, that's how that works. so the first book that came my way after like talking to Alicia and reading that other

book that's like telling me that once I just decide that I'm worthy, things will start happening. The first book that I came upon totally randomly through listening to a podcast with Johnny Knoxville from Jackass, not about business at all, was a book called Psycho Cybernetics. And it's a classic help self -help book from the sixties, apparently that argues that our unconscious mind operates like an automatic goal striving machine.

also known as a cybernetic system. And the author uses the example of a self -guided missile to describe an automatic goals driving machine, which obviously was the sixties. But a more relevant example today would be like driver assist on our cars or even chat GPT. And the author argued his name is Maxwell Maltz that we are conscious minds, like my conscious mind, the thinking parts program, our unconscious mind.

when we set a goal. And then much like a self -driving car, our unconscious goes to work on reaching that goal without the intervention from our conscious mind. And in fact, too much intervention from our conscious mind can cause overcorrection and put you more off course. And

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The key thing to know about this, and this is where I'm like, okay, if this is really true, this is exactly why what we do in the next level mastermind is so powerful. Because if you can program your unconscious mind with goals that you want, or what Maltz calls success goals, then you can also program it with what he calls negative goals. And then it will operate as a failure mechanism. So.

That explains so much that you're programming your mind one way or the other. And so being very intentional about programming your mind with goals that you want is really, really important. And that's what we help you do in next level. But the other thing that we help you do is you also have

negative goals running at the same time that are in conflict with the positive or success goals. And we have to find the negative goals and get them out of there so that your success goal can operate unimpeded. Right? And so I'm reading this book and it's blowing my mind. I'm like, my gosh, this is why what we do in next level works. If this is true, like I'm like, I finally understand.

why it's so important to intentionally set goals and then not spin out into how or try to control them too much or even try to avoid making mistakes and failure. Like it all finally clicked again, like I said, so many clicks happened in July. And so if you listen to my 100th episode with my BFF Alicia St. Germain and how we talk about like the four unhealthy goal habits that she talks about and how my aversion to setting goals came from doing exactly

Psycho cybernetic said not to do. And it also explained why and how I basically got locked in to setting negative goals and was operating from my failure mechanism instead of my success mechanism. And I didn't realize it and I didn't know it. And so one of the things that Maxwell Balt said in psycho cybernetics, which

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side note, the title made me think that this book is like, whatever, but he explains why the title is what it is in the book. But he says, the means he says, quote, the means by which your success mechanism works often take care of themselves and do so effortlessly. When you supply the goal to your brain, the precise action steps will come to you without stress, tension or worry about how you are going to accomplish the result that you

Many people interfere with their success mechanism by demanding a how before the goal is clearly established. After you formed a mental image of the goal you seek to create, the how will come to you, not before. Remain calm and relaxed and the answers will arrive. Any attempt to force the ideas will not work." I was like, when I read that, I was like, okay, I totally understand why

Now that I have intentionally slowed down, intentionally practice patience, that it feels like I'm like so patient and slow that it feels like I'm actually being kind of lazy. Like it's a little uncomfortable. I'm not being driven by anxiety to overwork. Like I'm not working nearly as much this summer compared to how much I was working last summer. It explained why all of the exercises we do in the next level of mastermind are so powerful, especially when

I don't try to meddle with what everybody's doing by like, here's this new lesson, here's this new curriculum, here's this new thing. Try this, we're doing this to like over deliver to them. Even though, like I said, to me, what we do in there just feels like not enough, which is, or has felt like not enough until now. Now I know why it's like perfect, which is hilarious because I coach our Web Designer Academy students all the time.

about how stuffing your packages full of unnecessary bells and whistles to make it feel worth it or to make your clients feel like they're getting their money's worth actually creates more work for both of you and slows down the return on investment and that it's about the long -term value of what they can go on to create after using the tool you built for them and all the time, money and capacity you've invested in learning how to do what you do, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was not taking my own advice.

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when it came to the next level mastermind. I was just like, there's not enough stuff in here. It's not good enough. And then I came to realize that there's the exact right amount of stuff in there. I saw with clarity why every piece is there, exactly why they work, how they all work together to help you break through to your next level after reading that book and talking to Alicia and being like, my gosh, this is why. But being the skeptic that I am, I am such a skeptic.

I'm like, okay, this book was written in the sixties. And I'm like, sure. We landed on the moon in the sixties. Who am I to judge how smart people were back in the sixties? I mean, we were able to freaking put a man on the moon with a computer that wasn't as powerful as our iPhones. Okay. But does the science still hold up? Like what more do we know now in the past? What is that 65 years to prove or disprove these theories? And so I started to do some research.

And I read a few more books and I talked to a few more people and I'm like, okay, like these concepts in this psycho cybernetics book actually have a basis in brain science. And these concepts make sense. They're falling into place. I talked to Alicia St. Germain who in addition to her conscious edge podcast is a certified immunity to change coach

immunity to change is a methodology developed by two Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty members, Professor Robert Keegan and lecturer Lisa Leahy, and it's based on 30 years of adult developmental research. And it's, as they say, a way of helping people take a mental x -ray of their own mindset and then letting you see how you're thinking and what you believe.

may actually be making errors and distortions in your thinking that keep you from letting new ideas come into your head, which prevent you from being able to change your behavior. so Alicia has studied this methodology. She's certified in it. She uses it in her own coaching practices and we use it in next level. She guides us through it in next level. so all of these things, I'm like, my gosh, this

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This is it. This is like why what we do in next level works. So what we do in next level is we go through a process to help you figure out what you really want your business to look like, how much you really want to make, how much you want to be working, and then strip away all the things that you think you need to do to create that, but don't actually really want to do. And then after you get clear on that, we help you select a goal we call your domino because

It's the one thing that's going to make all of the other goals happen faster and easier. And your domino might not be what you think it should be. I would have had no idea that my domino was going to be reduce the negative self -talk. Like that's not a domino I would have ever come up with on my own, but my gosh, if it hasn't massively helped with the momentum in my business. So you find your domino, we help you find your domino and

There's something in the way of you knocking that domino over there. There's just something preventing you from knocking it down to knock all the other things down. And if there wasn't something in the way you would have already figured out what this is and you'd already be doing it, you wouldn't be stuck. And the immunity to change process that Alicia guides us through in the next level mastermind helps us figure out what's standing in my way from just knocking that domino down. What's that one core deep.

subconscious belief that I have that is making me feel like it's not safe to knock that domino over. That's standing between you and your next level goal because it's knocking over the domino that sets off the chain of events that ultimately results in you creating the next level vision that you really truly want for your life and your business.

And so we find that we go through, she, takes us through a mapping process that like zeros in on that, that core belief that really drives your thoughts and your feelings. And we bring it to light. We bring it to the surface and we look at how it's playing out in your business and in your life and, how it's affecting you and wanted or unwanted ways. And then we work on like shifting it and dismantling it and disproving it.

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and finding where is it true, where is it not true? Like how do you want to shift and change that through just various different exercises and group discussions and experiments like that? Because when you have big goals that are outside of your comfort zone, your brain will always do its job, which is to protect you and keep you safe.

and prevent you from doing things that it seems, it feels like are dangerous to your nervous system. That's going to activate your nervous system. So you'll actually get in your own way and pull yourself back down the ladder. You're climbing towards your goals and it's not self -sabotage as Alicia would say, it's self -protection. So it's like your self -driving car over -correcting. Like if you have that lane assist turned on and you need to like pull over and you're trying to like go over the line and it's trying to steer you back.

It's like that because it thinks what you want to do is wrong or unsafe and you have to learn how to override it and keep it from preventing you from doing what you wanna do by making it safe for yourself. So in other words, we gotta get your success mechanism fully online and turn off your failure mechanism so that it doesn't interfere. And that's the work that we do in the next level mastermind. It's not

we're going to turn you into an agency and we're going to teach you how to hire and you're going to charge $40 ,000 and we're going to give you all for per project. And we're going to give you all of the systems and processes to do that. That actually might end up being what you do, but only after you go through a process to decide that that's what you really want for your business. might be like other web or next level mastermind students and you're already making $350 ,000, $400 ,000 a year.

in your web design business, but you're burnout and miserable and you don't know how to get out of it. And you don't even want or need to make that much. And you need to dismantle some of the thoughts that keep you from being willing and able to stop working and allow you to make less and feel safe making less. That's situation that we've done with a couple of our students too.

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where they're like, I have enough money, but it never feels like enough. And I don't feel like I can stop and I'm miserable. So it's different for everyone in next level. Anyway, a failure mechanism can cause you to make more money than you need to. As crazy as that sounds, right? But hey, some of you listening might be like, my gosh, that's me. So I talked to Alicia.

I learned more about the brain science between immunity to change by reading the book by Keegan and Leahy about like how they came to this process and the science behind it. read Upward Spiral by neuroscientist Alex Korb and he explains all of the different regions of the brain and what systems they're responsible for and how they act and react and

how our thoughts activate certain parts and how they can just how all of the neurons work. It's just, it's fascinating. But he talks about like how things we do can contribute to a downward spiral or how we can change things and create an upward spiral. And like a lot of the things we do in the next level mastermind actually create an upward spiral, which is really cool. And

That also vibed with everything that the author of Psycho Cybernetics was talking about. And that vibed with the immunity to change methodology. So I'm like, okay, who am I to come up with all of these tools that seem to work? I feel like I'm like, again, what you guys think, I didn't go to school for this. I'm not qualified. I'm self taught, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, now I feel like I'm

I think I did a pretty dang good job pulling all of this together. And now it's all like, all of my theories are being proven by scientists, which I think is cool. So then another book that I read, I read so much in July. Like I just read a ton. I had lazy mornings and I was just consuming all of this information. But one of our next level mastermind students recommended a book called Chatter, highly recommend.

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definitely read it. It's all about our inner voice and how it can help us or harm us and the brain science behind that, which also clicked into all the other things that I had been reading and the methodologies that we teach in next level. And that led me to starting to read another book about how the unconscious mind works to influence our conscious mind.

And the brain regions activated in all of these processes too, not just like theory, but like, here's this part of your brain that comes online when your unconscious mind is doing this. And you know, that type of thing. And it's called before you know it. And so I'm in the middle of reading that one. So long story longer, which I had a boss that used to say that. And I'm like, I love that I'm stealing it. Long story longer after three years of seeing web designers go through really powerful business.

personal and life transformations in our next level mastermind, I finally understand why the process works. And I formalized a framework for it and we have a sales page written for it and now I'll be recording everything that we've been doing live at our retreats and in our mastermind calls into a framework. So just like the Web Designer Academy, web designers who are interested in the next level mastermind can

apply and join anytime in between open enrollments through our application process if they qualify. So that's actually available right now if next level sounds like something you're interested in. If you're that seasoned experienced web designer who's at a place in your web design business where you've got systems and processes down for the most part, getting clients isn't an issue for you, but what you're doing is no longer working. It's not fulfilling.

You've got an inkling that you want more, you're made for more, whether that's more time, money, capacity, or even just more connection to other women like you, then you can go to webdesigneracademy .com forward slash next level to check out the mastermind. You can fill out the application form just to start the conversation to see if it's, if it's the right fit for you. And so everything that we do, what we do in those modules,

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how we lead you through the process of setting your goal and figuring out what's in your way and all that. All of that can be found on that next level, salespage at webdesigneracademy .com forward slash next level. And our in -person retreat, which is so awesome and so magical and so transformational and restorative and fun. At the time I'm recording this in August of 2024, we have two spots left for the retreat in November, 2024. It's in Destin, Florida.

and all the details can also be found at webdesigneracademy .com forward slash next level. So that was basically July. July was a whole bunch of clarity, a whole bunch of changes scenery, and change up of the schedule. I didn't work as much, but my brain obviously was like really excited to have all of this clarity. And that's really

All of that clarity that set in motion was the big thing that happened in an otherwise chill month. I was also approached by WIC studio to do a podcast sponsorship after I had set a goal in my local mastermind group to get more, inflow from sponsorship. So I guess, quote unquote, Providence is moving. I mean, I set it out loud in one room and it happened with people in a different room, but it's still all about relationships.

Right? It's still all about relationships because here's what I'm noticing. When I decide on what I want and I believe I'm worthy, meaning I unconditionally love and accept myself no matter what anyone else thinks of me or no matter what the outcome is, and I'm not playing a small, meaning I'm willing to risk my time, energy, and startup capital with no guarantee of return, and I do my part without trying to control the how, things start happening. But maybe not in the way that I planned for it to happen.

Or that I think it should happen or thought it would happen, but it's not just like magic. It's having relationships with other people and saying what I want, want out loud to them. Right. So like I tell Josh Hall that I'm exploring sponsorships for our summit and it connects me with Wix who sponsored the summit. I tell my mastermind group, I'm thinking about podcast sponsors. Wix Studio reaches out to sponsor the podcast. I already had a relationship with them because of my relationship with Josh.

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But like things are, they know, they knew when I talked to them about the summit, that podcast was an opportunity. But I'm telling, by saying it out loud to my mastermind group, I'm telling my brain, pay attention to when these opportunities come through. This is something that you want. I reach out to Moxie to pitch a collaboration. Simultaneously, Josh introduces me to their CMO. So like I'm pitching myself, he's connecting me.

Their CMO also happens to be an author and a business coach for freelancers. Austin Church, you heard him on an earlier podcast episode. He's incredible. At the end of our conversation, he's like, Shannon, how can I support you? And I tell him, I don't just go, just sharing this interview with your audience. like, I'm looking to meet these types of businesses who would be into these types of collaborations and sponsorships. And Austin's like, great, let me introduce you to a couple of people. And I've had some conversations. And so it's

Because I feel okay to say what I want and I'm going to be okay with myself no matter what happens. I'm not going to like judge myself or talk crap about myself for saying what I want. Like things are happening. Right. And another thing is like, I've always wanted to travel more. Like ever since I started this business, my vision was like, I'm going to make enough money so that my husband Floyd won't have to work a day job and we can just travel and do whatever, whenever.

And he loves to travel too, but it turns out that he loves having a day job. He does not want to not work. We've tried it. He's miserable, but lo and behold, he gets a job with a private airline that has him traveling to really cool cities. And I get to tag along whenever I want. And so I'm traveling, I'm doing cool things and it gets to look different than I thought. And that's okay. So it's really interesting to see these theories play out. I'm fascinated by the brain science and psychology behind

all of it and how what we're doing in next level is like almost like a lab for proving these theories true. And also for me from the perspective of it gets to look different than I thought and I don't have to know how that feels so freeing and I feel ready to set bigger different goals from a completely different mindset than I've ever had in the past.

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And I'm sure I'll tell you more about those goals in August's income report because then I'll want to like backtrack in a year from now and see what I said and see where we're at. But it's just all, like I said, July felt like a new chapter, a new start and a new beginning where I'm like thinking about things in a different way, thinking about the future, thinking about, my gosh, I really can set any goal I want and all I have to do.

is decide to set the goal and decide that I'm worthy and not get in my own way and I can have it. Like that feels so empowering. And that's what I want for you too. So that's it. That's all I got for you for my July income report. I hope you heard something that helped

And if so, I'd love for you to take a moment to leave a rating or review on the show. It helps us get in front of other web designers that need help with their businesses. So if you're listening on Spotify, you can just go to the show page and tap rate show. And if you're listening on Apple podcasts, just scroll up on this episode and you'll see a link to web designer academy .com forward slash review. Tap on that. It'll take you to the right place to in the Apple podcast app to leave a review and

Thank you in advance for taking the time to leave a rating or review. Thank you so, much for listening and I'll see you back here next week. Bye.