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A smiling person with blonde hair featured in a graphic labeled "PROFITABLE WEB DESIGNER #108 - SHANNON MATTERN" against a teal background.

#108 – August 2024 Income Report

In this episode of the Profitable Web Designer Podcast I’m diving into the August 2024 income report and sharing the numbers behind the Web Designer Academy, how much we earned, spent, and the valuable lessons I learned along the way.

If you're curious about to hear how I handle business expenses, marketing investments, and mindset shifts, this episode is for you!

I’ll be breaking down how we hit over $20,000 in revenue for the third month in a row, what it took to get there, and why I’m so excited about this milestone. Plus, I’m getting real about managing a business line of credit, setting bigger goals without falling into the hustle trap, and how important mindset is for both personal and business growth.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the balance between spending, saving, and scaling your business, or you’re looking for inspiration on how to set and achieve revenue goals without the pressure, don’t miss this episode!

IN THIS EPISODE, I COVER:

  • Breaking down the August 2024 revenue and expenses for the Web Designer Academy
  • Why it’s important to track and understand your rolling six-month revenue average
  • How marketing investments paid off (even after some costly mistakes)
  • The mental shift I made around using a business line of credit
  • Exploring big-picture questions for long-term business planning

A BREAKDOWN OF THIS EPISODE:

[00:04] – Introduction and a recap of August 2024 financials
[02:32] – A look at marketing expenses and the importance of data-driven decisions
[07:12] – Shifting my mindset on using a line of credit for business growth
[09:30] – Setting bigger goals without falling into hustle culture
[14:08] – The real challenges many web designers face: setting boundaries with clients

Resources Mentioned in the Show

Web Designer Academy
Next Level Mastermind

Transcript

Shannon Mattern (00:03.662)

Hey there and welcome back to the Profitable Web Designer podcast. And today I am bringing you my monthly income report for August 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 money and business lessons that I learned along the way. So let's just dive right on into the numbers, shall we? So our total inflow in August was $21 ,858.

And our outflow was $18 ,108, which adds $3 ,750 to our cash reserves. And in August, 100 % of our inflow came just from new Web Designer Academy and Next Level Mastermind enrollments and Web Designer Academy renewals. And this is a pretty big deal to me because this is one, my third month in a row with over $20 ,000 in inflow.

And two, it's the first month of that inflow being exclusively from our existing programs, not from me doing anything above and beyond like a paid live workshop or opening a retreat or doing a summit. And so the other number that I'm tracking related to inflow is our rolling six month average, which is what it sounds like. I averaged the last six months of revenue or inflow that comes into the business and we're averaging

around 19 ,000 a month over the past six months. And so our minimum baseline revenue to operate the business is on average about $15 ,000. So sometimes it's a little bit more like this month you saw that it was 18 ,000, but that's like our minimum baseline. And so what's been really great to see, especially since 2023 was such a challenging year is that not only are we

our inflow is more than our outflow that, we are consistently bringing in about $5 ,000 more than what we need to operate the business on average. And so we're heading in the right direction and yeah, I'm just very excited about it. So in looking at our outflow, as always 10 ,000 of that is for my salary, my client success coordinators, coordinator Erica's part -time salary.

Shannon Mattern (02:31.662)

all of our state and federal and local taxes that come out of our paychecks because we're both W2 employees of the company. In August, $2 ,795 of our outflow was all for marketing, specifically podcast production, conversion rate optimization. About 700 of that was ads. And I'm definitely seeing a return on my investment in marketing, which is really exciting. The momentum is building.

We can see it in the data. We're able to see like what's working, what's not working as well as we'd want it to work, where we're putting our time, you know, all of those things. And we just have like data to back up the decisions that we're making, whether we're just waiting to see how some things play out, starting some new things, stopping some other things. I feel just like I'm making data driven decisions and not in a vacuum of my own mindset, which feels awesome.

So about 1500 of our outflow this month is our tech stack. Again, I take a look at this every month and I'm glad that I do because this month I was double charged for renewal of my affiliate management software to the tune of about $750 and was able to like request a refund for that. And another thing that I've forgotten to mention in my past few income reports,

is that I'm paying about $1 ,000 a month to my business line of credit. So I mentioned this in episode 107 last week where I talk about money shame and I'm sitting here thinking, did I really forget to mention it or do I unconsciously feel ashamed of it and not want to talk about it? So last month I talked about forgiving myself for past money decisions and there's part of me that shames myself for using my line of credit. Like if I make quote unquote better decisions,

I wouldn't have had to use it. And another part of me that's like, you bought some money and you're paying for it, no big deal. It doesn't mean anything about you. You get to make it mean whatever you want. So why don't you make it mean that you're smart for using it instead of making yourself stupid for using it? Another part of me that's like, is like grateful. Like I'm so glad you jumped through all the hoops you jumped through.

Shannon Mattern (04:49.036)

with your bank to secure that small business administration line of credit just in case you needed it because it was there when you needed it. So I can tell myself the story that I wasted money and that like I shouldn't have done that or I can tell myself the story that my return is on its way and that in fact it's currently flowing in and that I get to be patient and that is exactly what that line of credit was for. And so that's the story that I'm choosing because

you know, I've been thinking about this and I've been thinking about like, I want to figure out how to best resource leverage the resources available to me now that we have data and a track record to be able to make more educated decisions and to look at my financial picture in a completely different way than maybe I've been open to seeing it before and make a plan for

the next three to five years in terms of like, okay, we've stabilized the business, we're starting to grow again after 2023. And what do I want 2025 through 2030 to look like? Because I don't plan to go anywhere. Like I don't plan to like this, this I'm in it for the long haul with this business. Like I'm definitely not a,

fly by the seat of my pants kind of person in terms of like, know, wanting to pivot, right? Like this is, this is definitely part of the long term, my long term vision. And I'm turning 45 this year, which is crazy because I still feel like I'm 25, but whatever. I'm turning 45 this year and like, what do I want this business to look like when I'm 50? You know?

I can't even imagine myself at 50, but whatever. But anyway, my urge is to like, my like primal urge, I guess, is to pay off that line of credit as quickly as possible. And that's what I do with my personal finances, right? Like I would make sure that I didn't owe anybody anything, but I'm curious, like, are there different considerations for business, different considerations for like growing the business, different considerations for leveraging?

Shannon Mattern (07:11.714)

the capital that I have available to me, new ways of thinking that I'm not seeing. And when I consider those, what comes up for me? Like, does it feel super risky? Like, where is that coming from? So I don't know what the answers are to those questions. I'm just excited to explore those questions. Like, how much of a cash reserve do I really need?

Am I holding onto the money I could be using to help me grow because just seeing the number in there makes me feel safe. Could it best be used elsewhere to help us find and help more web designers? Do I personally feel solid enough to let some of that go and not get my nervous system all out of whack and start slipping back into like the sky is falling self protection, self sabotage mode? Those are all ideas I'm exploring right now. I don't know what the answers are. I'm open to discovering those. And as I

contemplate those and meet people and talk to people and consider that. I will be sure to share with you that journey in this episode of the podcast that I do every month all about money. So out of that outflow, that 18 ,000 ish outflow, we also spend about $500 on bookkeeping insurance and setting aside money to pay my CPA at tax time. You know, I'm a

S -Corp, so I have to do like the S -Corp taxes and personal taxes and all of that. So, you know, I'm setting aside money to pay for taxes when that comes around. I also put down a deposit on a guest expert for our next level retreat in November and I hired Sarah G again at saradesign .com to write sales emails for me for the next level mastermind enrollment that I did at the end of August, which I'll talk about in a little bit. So,

You always hear me talk about how my minimum baseline revenue is $15 ,000 a month to pay myself, my team, whether they're employees or contractors, fund our operations, the marketing, the delivery of our programs, admin and the tech, like all of those pieces that go into running a group coaching program.

Shannon Mattern (09:25.742)

And at the end of my July income report, I talked about how I'm ready to set some bigger goals, but from a place of what I've learned about goal setting that has finally clicked for me instead of the way I used to think about goal setting. so what finally clicked for me after kind of, I don't know, just reading a lot of books and thinking about this in a different way and thinking about like what we do in the next level mastermind, that it's not about setting a specific

goal and then putting a bunch of pressure on it and creating rigid plans to reach it and hustling for it and then making it mean something if I don't reach it in this certain amount of time. It's about setting a specific goal and then being open to it happening however it's gonna happen and not putting pressure or a timeframe on it. And so I'm ready to start saying that my inflow goal is 40 ,000 a month and that gets to look however it looks.

It can be a mix of Web Designer Academy and next level payment plans, pay in full enrollments because we incentivize the decision to pay in full with some bonus savings because it helps our business out to get all of the money at once instead of having it spread out over 12 months. It can be paid live workshops, sponsorships, summit revenue, renewals. It can look like something else completely that I am not aware of right now. It can look however it looks. I don't need to know how.

but I wanna see $40 ,000 of inflow coming in monthly. And I don't know what the outflow would need to look like to create that, but if the outflow was like 20K and the inflow was 40K and I was adding 20K to my cash reserves every month, that would have that line of credit knocked out in like three months and I could reinvest back into team and all the things that we need to think about to make sure our students, our web designers get the best results in their businesses.

So why am I telling you this? Well, because like I talked about in my July 2024 income report, our conscious minds program, our unconscious minds when we set a goal. And then much like a self -driving car, our unconscious mind goes to work on reaching that goal without the intervention of the conscious mind. And in fact, too much intervention from the conscious mind can cause overcorrection and put you even more off course.

Shannon Mattern (11:47.84)

And so you can either program your unconscious mind with goals you want, also known as success goals, and your brain will operate as an accelerator, as a success mechanism. It will like knock you back on course if you start to go off course, or you can program it with goals you don't want, also known as a negative goals, and your unconscious will operate as a break. And if you start to veer off the course towards success, it will knock you back on the path to

the goals that you don't want, your negative goals. And so it is a very new thing for me to not get stuck in the how and to not put a ton of pressure on the how. What I'm doing instead is what we teach in the next level mastermind. Instead of putting my foot down on the gas and hustling, and then all of this negative self -talk about not making it work, right? Or it not working. I'm mapping out where I have my foot on the brake.

and putting my effort into removing my foot from the brake, which actually takes way less effort and energy. And it actually feels uncomfortable to do less and create more results, at least for me it does. Or it used to, it's starting to feel more comfortable and more normal. And I don't have all of the thoughts that it's like too easy or whatever. And so I'm actually following.

the exact same processes I teach our students in the next level mastermind to do that. And so I will keep you posted on my progress over the next several income reports towards my new goal of 40K revenue months. And you know what that process has looked like for me personally to like map out where I'm getting in my own way. Like I already mapped out last year at our next level retreat.

And that revealed to me that my negative self -talk was in the way. And now I've really worked on that. And that's allowed me to reach my first goal, which was to get back to minimum baseline revenue. Now we're beyond minimum baseline revenue and I'm ready to like go to my next level. Right? So I'll keep you posted on my progress over my next several income reports. And so some other important things that happened in August, we received

Shannon Mattern (14:08.418)

five new web designer academy applications, enrolled four new students into the program. And the theme that I'm noticing right now is that one of the first things that we're doing with our new students when they join most recently is like most of them need help setting boundaries with current client projects that have gone off the rails. Most of them need help getting zombie projects that have been dragging on and on forever moving. And so with a lot of our new students, that's what we're helping them with first.

And then we're having them dig into our curriculum and apply our paid discovery and package matrix strategies to their business. And it's interesting to notice this because there's this tendency for us as business owners to think, let me just endure this mess. Let me just power through and finish this. Let me just clean this mess up and then the runway will be clear. And then I can start fresh.

and get some systems and processes in place to prevent this from ever happening again. And you wait to come work with us because you feel like things are too messy right now. And once you get all that cleaned up, then you can start fresh. But when you wait to come work with us, when you wait to let us help you clean up the mess, you miss out on the goal that is learning how to clean up the mess.

because there is so much gold in the mess that you're in right now, that when you learn how to clean it up the way we teach you how to clean it up, you are going to learn so much from that that's gonna help you with future projects. Because no matter what systems and processes you put in place, or how many guardrails or fail -safes you build into your processes, your clients are gonna be humans, and they will give you messes to clean up no matter how beautiful and slick your processes are.

And so learning how to do it now with support when things feel like they've gone too far off the rails. And when you think things like, it's my fault because I didn't set it up right in the first place, or it's my fault because I underestimated or underscoped this, or it's my fault because I didn't say no back then when I should have and it's gone too far. It's my fault because I did this to myself, so I just gotta get through it. If you're thinking things like that, please, please go to webdesigneracademy .com forward slash apprl.

Shannon Mattern (16:32.416)

apply and consider working with us. Consider letting us help you clean up those messes so you can shorten the timeline for getting them cleaned up. You can do it with our support and you can move forward in your business from a place of confidence. The runway really will be cleared and you will take everything that you learned from cleaning those messes up the way that we help you do it into your next projects.

So I just wanted to put that out there because I noticed that that is like why a lot of people are coming to work with us right now is like they come in just with a mess and they need help. They need help getting a handle on their clients and their projects. So also in August, I tested out open enrollment for our next level mastermind. You've heard me mention this in past episodes.

It's for women web designers who have basically cracked the code on getting clients. That's not a problem in their business. In fact, they have like too many clients and they're making money, but they're feeling trapped by their success for whatever reason. like either they're putting a ton of pressure on themselves. They're doing all the things they're overwhelmed by their workload. They're completely time -starved. They feel like it's all on them and they want to grow, but they can't figure out how. And they also feel like...

these are next level problems to have. They feel guilty for having these problems. And they feel guilty for having these problems because like, they're like, well, newer business owners would love to have the problems I'm having. So I feel like I can't get help or I don't wanna ask for help because I should be grateful that I'm making enough money and have enough clients. But in reality, that feels just as bad as

not knowing how to get clients. Like it's just, you know, it takes away, you're supposed to enjoy your success. We want you to enjoy your success. We want you to be able to enjoy your business. And we help web designers on both ends of that, right? The newer web designers who are still trying to like figure out how to put it all together. And those of you who like have

Shannon Mattern (18:56.778)

one side of the equation figured out, but the other side is just a mess. You have no time for yourself. You're not enjoying it and you're resentful of your clients. So we've had the Next Level Mastermind. It's existed for three years. We just haven't publicly promoted it, right? It was just for web designers who had been through our web designer academy or for people who were referred to us by people in Next Level.

who like would be a good fit or for people who, when they filled out the web designer Academy application, I was like, they'd actually be a better fit for next level. But I wanted to like put an official, like, I don't know, customer journey directly into next level together because we've never had that before. And so I put together a private application only training, that breaks down our next level framework.

I put that together. wrote that training. I wrote an email series inviting people to the training. I wrote the training itself. I put together a minimum viable slide deck. I set aside all my crappy thoughts about how bad my slides looked because I'm not a designer. And I just kept reminding myself like I'm not helping people like learn design. I'm helping them build a design business. So it's OK if my slides don't look as good as let's say other people who are designers.

I had hired Sarah G back in July to write the sales page for me. And then I hired her again to write the sales emails because I didn't have the capacity and she's the best person to do it. And it leaves me with a revenue generating asset once she's done, right? The sales page and those sales emails are revenue generating assets along with the webinar that I wrote. The training, I guess you would say on our next level framework. And so I also built the application page.

the review and acceptance automations, the checkout pages. set up all of the automations to enroll people from like outside of the Web Designer Academy into the program. And I also gave the next level dashboard, like a quick update, like once people are enrolled in the program, like where they go to access all the trainings I recorded, ads for the podcasts and our premium podcasts, and also like made some reels and some stories.

Shannon Mattern (21:19.338)

I had a massive checklist and project plan to do this open enrollment for the next level mastermind. And it was like so easy. It just flowed right out of me. And that's how I know that like I'm in alignment on something and that I have my foot off the brake when something just feels that easy and I feel like I'm unstoppable. And that's pretty much all I worked on in August outside of my like normal

podcast production, Wednesday email, like those types of things outside of my normal like supporting our students in Next Level and Web Designer Academy. So that was my big project for August. And I ended up sending all of the like invitation emails like, hey, if this is you come to this, fill out the application to come to this training. I sent those emails to my entire email list.

because I just don't have any idea of how many people on my email list fall into that trapped by my success category. This was totally an experiment and it was an experiment that I was like willing to invest time and money in, but still an experiment. And while I didn't know what to expect because I didn't have a baseline, I still set some goals. I was like, okay, it would be really cool to get 10 applications for this training.

And when I got an application right after the first email that I'd sent out, I was like, okay, I'm messaging is on point. It's on now. Like, here we go. And at about five applications and I reached I was like, okay, I know I'm gonna have more than one person at this training, which is cool. And even if I only had one person, I would still do it, I would never cancel it, I would totally still do it. But after I had five,

I reached out to the 10 women web designers that I'd had discovery calls with about the next level mastermind in the past year, who, like I mentioned in a couple episodes ago, who like, couldn't close the sale, I guess you could say. I couldn't like convert them because I was not clear on, like I was clear on the results of next level, but I wasn't clear on like how.

Shannon Mattern (23:38.414)

Those results were created. I'm like, I know what we do and I know that people get results, but I don't know why it works and I need to know why it works. And so, as you heard me talk about a couple episodes ago, I'm like, I'm so clear on like why and how it works now. And so I just, that was what the next level framework training was all about. It's like me showing you how and why it works. And so I invited those 10 women who had said no previously to come to this training.

And so the day before the training, I'd received 14 applications for the training. I'd approved 10 of those applications. And then of the 10 people that I had reached out to, four of them that I'd invited said, yes, they'd like to attend. And then there were four applications that I didn't approve to attend the next level mastermind training because they were a way better fit for the web designer academy. What we were doing in

next level just would not be applicable to them where they're at in their business right now. They still had a ways to go with just even applying strategy to reach their goals first before they hit the wall of like, the strategy worked until it stopped working. And that's really where the web designer, who the web designer academy's for. These four applicants, they weren't at a place yet where they were trapped by their success. So I let them know that and I was like, hey,

Thank you for filling out the next level application. I think you'd be a better fit for the web designer academy. Would you like me to send you that information? Because I never want someone to like not fill out one of our applications because they're not sure that they're good enough like, or that their business is in the right place. Like it's okay if it's not, I'll let you know. Like if you're, if you have an inkling that you might want to work with us and you're not sure, just fill out the application. I'll let you know, I'm not mean about it.

I'm just like, hey, like our program's not going to be a good use of your time yet. Here are some other resources sources for you. Right. If I think our program's going to be a good use of your time, I'll let you know. So I did all of this. I processed all of those applications, meaning I reviewed their website. I looked at their goals. I was like, I do like a little gut check with myself. Like, do I think I can help this person in? Do I have a good idea of what they're?

Shannon Mattern (26:05.606)

challenges and if the answer is yes, then I'll invite them to the training. And so I. Processed all of those applications and then I hosted the training on Thursday, August 29th. Well, about a week before the training life started, with three different pretty serious family emergencies happening in my family in the same week. And.

I talked about this back in my December year in review episode number 75, but every time I'm about to quote unquote, like go big or go all in or playful out, something happens. Like last year I noticed I'd get sick and I talked about how I noticed that and I just reread the big leap by gay Hendrix. And I said in that, episode 75 that I was open to considering that me getting sick before open enrollments was an upper limit problem.

And in the big leap, Gaye talks about how we all have upper limits in our capacity for abundance, success, and love. And he describes it as a thermostat that kicks on. Like once you reach that threshold, the thermostat's going to kick on and just knock you back to where you were and maintain that homeostasis, right? In the next level mastermind, we talk about it as having your foot on the brake in the gas at the same time to maintain that homeostasis. And you can think of it also as like,

reaching the end of your comfort zone. Like you have a comfort zone and the level of abundance that you feel comfortable with. And like when you go past that, like with this much abundance or money or opportunity or time, you don't feel greedy or guilty, but if you go over that, your greedy guilty switches tripped and your subconscious will kick on and cause you to like put your foot on the brake and do something to bring you back into your comfort zone. I'm about to like...

make a lot of money. So I'll use this family emergency situation as a excuse to not go all in on this open enrollment, for example, because if I make a lot of money, that means I'm taking money from people. That means I'm now responsible for their results. And if I don't feel ready to be responsible for their results, then at least I have a really good excuse to pull back and not go all in. So if people don't enroll, it still looks like I did all of the work, but now on the flip side, I don't have to put

Shannon Mattern (28:29.804)

all of the responsibility into it. Right? So that's kind of how that works. So the work is to expand your upper limit, to expand your capacity for abundance and money, opportunity, time, all of that, to take your foot off the brake, to eventually dissolve that, that like,

edge that limit so that your comfort zone is the ultimate levels of abundant success and love to feel amazing about all of it to know that you can deliver and so that you're not sabotaging yourself to bring yourself back into what you feel like you're allowed to have or capable of giving. Right? So this time in August, a week before my next level mastermind training when life started, lifeing with my family members, it was just like,

no big deal. Like yes, I was very concerned for my family members. Yes, my schedule needed to be adjusted and changed and altered so that I could like help out wherever I could with the things that I could help with because my family is my number one priority. But I wasn't stressed out and telling myself like, of course this happens right when I have a launch or I'm going to need to move it or I don't have the capacity to do this or whatever like

I wasn't stressed out and telling myself that anything was happening to me, right? Things were happening around me to people I love and not to me, right? And I, because of how I was talking to myself and how I was thinking about things, I had the capacity to be there for my family and support them and jump in where I could and provide like physical support and emotional support.

and also continue my next level plan.

Shannon Mattern (30:28.928)

And that next level framework training that I did was probably the best training I've ever done. Almost everyone I invited came live. They engaged in the chat. They had amazing, amazing questions. We even had someone enroll in the mastermind, like during the training on the call. It was incredible. And all of the while I'm thinking, this is how this is supposed to go. Like life can life. I have the capacity to handle it. It's both and.

not one or the other, and I can fully show up for both things. And I didn't play small in my enrollment because I knew I had the capacity to serve and support the people that enrolled on the other side. And so a few years back, I did this pretty intense leadership training. And one of the things that they talked about is how 100 % is possible 100 % of the time.

meaning I can give 100 % of myself 100 % of the time without burnout. And I was just like, I would always think like, how is that even possible? Right? And I was like, this in this situation, at the end of August, when life started, life and life is still lifeing at the time I'm recording this.

It's because I don't have a flurry of negative self -talk telling me the story that everything's falling apart, that nothing's going to work out, that I'm not going to have the capacity to support my new students. So I'd subconsciously tank my presentation or the sales process afterward to bring myself down to what I feel like I'm capable of or allowed to have. And so that was like my next level domino, right? That was like the thing that I was, the one thing that would make everything easier.

was to really get a handle on the negative self -talk. And I think it's expanded my upper limit, right? I expanded my capacity by applying our next level framework by taking my foot off the brake. And I love how I'm seeing it work on me. And I'm excited to see how it plays out for the women who are joining us in the next level mastermind.

Shannon Mattern (32:46.154)

this open enrollment for the women who are renewing into the next level mastermind from the web designer academy and from the women who are already in there. It's really, really amazing to see their transformation. And so the other thing that came up in August is that I decided to put a cap on the number of people in the next level mastermind. I have never considered doing that before and it's because

Our program containers are structured to be scalable, but with a very personalized level of support. But with the next level retreat, even though it's designed to be scalable with a very personalized level of support, we also have an in -person retreat. And the way we've been running it, putting everybody in an Airbnb together, you know, we're really capped at a certain number of people. If we want to give everyone the chance.

to attend the retreat and keep it structured the way that it's currently structured. And it took me a hot minute to feel okay with putting a limit on the number of people in the next level mastermind because I want to allow everyone that wants to be in there to be in there. But also putting a limit on it gives me some boundaries and some data to work within because when we reach like, when we reach the limit of people that we can like put in the house for

the retreat or the number of people that we can serve like on a mastermind call. Like when we reach that limit, I can either raise the price of the mastermind or I can look at what we can tweak to be able to let more people in the room without messing with the integrity of the program or the retreat. And so I had such a simple solution to this whole like

back and forth ping pong, was doing like, my gosh, what if we have more people join the mastermind that we have spots for the retreat and then I'll have to get the house next door and then I'll have to do this. And then like, just kind of like this overthinking spinning out. And I was like, Shannon, it's okay if you just cap the number of people in the program. Like it's okay. And also it will, it will like create a decision, like a, like a deadline for a decision.

Shannon Mattern (35:05.986)

for people, right? that's something that I've noticed that, and it's a strategy that we teach in the Web Designer Academy too. It's like if you never put a deadline for a decision on anything or a criteria for making a decision, people will delay making the decision forever. It'll always be someday. And so it's like when you put a decision in front of somebody,

you're actually like doing them a favor by making them decide like, do I want this? Yes or no. And I think that that's, know, it's a gift for us, but it's also a gift for them because then they don't have to like, it's not like an open loop in their brain. And so, it was just fun to think about though, that I'm like, I have this many spots. This is the exact number of people I need.

to fill it and it was just fun to think about like filling all of those spots. And I'm in the middle of the sales process now with people who attended the August training at the time of recording this, we filled two of the spots so far and I'll keep you posted next month on how it turned out. Two of our available eight spots. We had eight spots available. I filled two of them at the time of this recording and I'll keep you posted on how many more we filled.

And so if you are interested in the next level mastermind, if you are the person I described who's feeling trapped by your success and you have next level problems and you need some help and support with that, just go to webdesigneracademy .com forward slash forward slash next to learn more. If we have spots open, the application will be there and you can fill it out. and you can fill it out anyway. And if we don't have spots open, I'll let you know how the wait list works.

So the other remarkable thing to note about August is that all of our applications and Web Designer Academy enrollments came through our evergreen funnel. I did no live trainings or promotions for the Web Designer Academy, no collaborations, no summit speaking, no podcast guesting. And all of our applications came in through our evergreen funnel and we had like the most evergreen enrollments.

Shannon Mattern (37:28.878)

the more, the most we've had in the past 18 months in August. And so I'm just starting to like see the wave of momentum from all of the work that we've done over the past six to nine months. And that's really what I want to leave you with in my August income report. You have got to take action now and be patient for your results. Don't wait to build relationships with potential clients when you need a client.

do it before you're ready to take on a new client or when you don't need clients. I know it feels risky to reach out and have conversations and let people know how you can help them because what if you're not ready or available when they are? What if you get overwhelmed or what if they tell you that you're too expensive or not good enough or whatever? And when you think those things, it is safer to do nothing. It is safer to wait for a referral or it feels safer.

It feels safer to just be generous and Facebook groups and hope you get noticed or asked. It feels safer to work on SEO and social media and hope it starts sending you clients soon. And yes, those things can work, but it's not proactive. It's waiting on other people to take action, to find you, to ask you. that's not like, momentum's not gonna come from that. So if you start now,

If you take action, even when you are not ready, even when it feels risky and you just keep doing it, the momentum will change. The pendulum will swing the other way. Everything will change. And that's where we come in. We come in to help you figure out like, not only what to do, but to figure out why you aren't doing those things and to help you like get out of your own way so that you can take real action and

create real results. you know, when you wait until you need a client to try to get a client, that's when it feels gross and desperate and like you're just after people's money and it makes you feel even worse and it makes it even harder to market. We want you to market all the time from a place of adding value to your clients and wanting to help them and from that energy. And when you do that,

Shannon Mattern (39:53.472)

all the time, no matter whether you're booked out or not, you can, you'll create the momentum and the relationships that you need to create consistent revenue. So you can learn more about how we can help you with all of that at webdesigneracademy .com forward slash apply, or you can start with our free course at webdesigneracademy .com forward slash free course. So that was August. We had our best

month of evergreen enrollments ever. We're hitting our minimum baseline revenue. We had a really great next level event with some incredible powerhouse women web designers. in the process of filling the spots in our mastermind and I really got to experience like evidence that my capacity

that my upper limit has been expanded and that I'm on my way to my next level. So that's all I've got for you for my August income report. I hope you heard something that helped you. And if you haven't done so already, I would be ever so grateful if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review. It helps us get in front of other web designers that need help with their web design businesses. So if you're listening on Spotify, you can just go to the show page and tap right show.

If you're listening on Apple podcasts, you can just go to webdesigneracademy .com forward slash review and that will take you to the right place on Apple podcasts to leave us a review. So thank you in advance for taking the time to do that and I'll see you back here next week. Bye.

ABOUT YOUR HOST, SHANNON MATTERN

I help ambitious women web designers reclaim their time, book web design projects they love, and make more as a freelance web designer than they ever thought possible.

I created the Web Designer Academy to give you everything I wished I would have had when I started freelancing:  step-by-step processes and fill-in-the-blank templates for your messaging, marketing, packages, consultations, sales and project management combined with next-level support so that you have everything you need to create a consistently profitable web design business doing work you love for clients you love.