#214 – August 2026 Income Report

Shannon Mattern (00:01.582)

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Profitable Web Designer Podcast. this is our August 2026 income report. And I'm joined today by our client success coordinator at the Web Designer Academy, Erica Nash, who's going to be my co-host for today's episode. Welcome to the show, Erica.

Erica Nash (00:24.207)

Excited to be here.

Shannon Mattern (00:26.328)

So every single month we Erica interviews me and we dive deep into our inflow, our outflow, our overflow or not. and we talk about the behind the scenes of the money and the mindset and all of the things related to the finances of the business. And we just like put it all out there for you guys because

Well, for me, it's really helpful for me to look at it month to month. So it's in this way, it's like a very selfish exercise for me because otherwise I don't think I'd look at it this closely and analyze it the this closely the way that I do. And I learn so much from doing this exercise. And then how we think about money like really affects a lot of our business.

Erica Nash (01:02.421)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (01:22.538)

And our business is like the collective us. And so I just like to do these episodes to to shine a light on all of the behind the scenes of what it really looks like to grow a profitable, sustainable business. And so I used to spend hours scripting these and writing them as like blog posts. And then I would record them. and then I don't know, it's been over a year now, Erica, hasn't it, since you've been my co-host?

Erica Nash (01:51.711)

been a while. Yeah. I don't know how long it's been. We should go back and look.

Shannon Mattern (01:53.743)

I don't know either, but it's been I think it's been over a year that we had the idea to have Erica come out from behind the scenes of really interacting with our web designer academy students and coming on the show to interview me. And I just love getting to have like these conversations with you and record them too. So

Erica Nash (02:16.547)

Same. Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (02:19.538)

so I'm gonna hand it over to you, Erica, and you can ask me all of the questions and we can just dive deep on where it'll go where it goes as it always does.

Erica Nash (02:30.485)

It goes where it goes. Yeah, so let's start with inflow. What was the total inflow for August?

Shannon Mattern (02:37.526)

Yeah, so total inflow for August was $25,640. and I get this executive summary from my from my CPA, Nikondra Morand of Exceptional Tax Services. And that is what is it down from last month by 33%, which

Totally fine. We know why that is. but it's up fit like we're up in total year-to-date revenue, 15% over 2025 for the period of time from January to August. This time, like, so this year last year, yeah. So revenue is up by 15% from the same time period last year, which is pretty exciting.

Erica Nash (03:21.091)

Amazing.

Erica Nash (03:30.935)

Yeah, how valuable it is to look at it like that too. Like what great reports to have.

Shannon Mattern (03:38.422)

Yeah, I love having the that level of detail when I when I look at those just look at those numbers and so I can kinda see like where we're at and why we are where we are. So it's pretty pretty awesome.

Erica Nash (03:47.543)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (03:55.48)

Yeah. where did that inflow come from?

Shannon Mattern (03:59.289)

Yeah. So we had about a thousand dollars in affiliate income. So I get random affiliate income from all kinds of of things. summits I participate in, things that I promote. I still get some affiliate income from old, old things that I used to do back in the day for my free five day website challenge. So I had that random thousand dollars of affiliate income.

come in in August. the next level mastermind, we had some renewals come through some year three, year four, year five. Like we've had renewals and payment plans for the next level mastermind. That was about eight thousand two hundred and sixty one dollars and six cents for next level a couple of random digital course sales

one that turned into a web designer academy enrollment in September, which we can talk about in a little bit. let's see. package matrix method. 2500 in in enrollments in the package matrix method course. So I had a couple of people like in between,

the beta cohort that I launched for it, and the next one starting that were like, please can I just get in? And I was like, sure. Like, you know, I'm not gonna like there was no really good reason for me to like say no. So I I said yes and I let a couple people into that program. and then

Web Designer Academy, we can talk about that. We did a six month cohort test of the Web Designer Academy. So total for Web Designer Academy was twelve thousand five hundred sixty one dollars or sorry, twelve thousand eight hundred eleven dollars. so we can talk more about that test. but I would say that was pretty successful.

Shannon Mattern (06:22.986)

So that all together made up our income in August of twenty five thousand. So yeah.

Erica Nash (06:23.065)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (06:32.367)

Amazing. yeah, excited to excited to talk about experiments. What was the total outflow?

Shannon Mattern (06:40.78)

Yeah, so the total outflow for August was, let me pull this back, get back to the right tab. Our outflow for August was $15,318. So like quite a bit less than our minimum baseline of $20,000. I need to look into I think that's just like a probably something's gonna hit in September that normally hits in August.

but nothing out of the ordinary, right? Our salaries are about ten thousand of of that combined. And then it's our podcast production, our conversion rate optimization, support. let's see, just like business insurance, bookkeeping fees, bank fees, like all of that stuff, software and web hosting, all of the

all of the subscriptions and all of the things that we have to run the business, just all of those little things add up to added up to about 15,000 this month. So I'm just like flipping through that to see like in August, is there something that I normally spend money on that is missing from this list. You know what it might not be

You know what might not be included in this is money I pay like I'm not seeing in here let's see.

Shannon Mattern (08:27.733)

An owner draw that I took. So I distributed some additional money to pay like my own property taxes. Like I I like have all my different little tax accounts, right? So I have my tax account for quarterly estimated taxes. I have a separate tax account for like we have to pay property taxes here in Ohio on our house and we pay it twice a year. And it's not like a lot of people just have it as part of their mortgage, but

Erica Nash (08:37.708)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (08:56.085)

We don't. We just opted to like just pay that twice a year. so I just set up a little account and like I just take an owner draw, but like I kind of set that aside to like pay our property tax bill twice a year. So really fun stuff that I'm doing with my profit, like paying all the taxes. and I also make a payment on my line of credit that I'm still paying down. I pay about a thousand dollars a month down on that. I

I'm really like looking forward to that being gone maybe in the next 18 months. So I think that's the discrepancy that I'm looking at on this PL statement that I'm not seeing the things that would like put it up to twenty thousand. I also put the max I can put in my four one K. so that would come out of that. that and I consider those when I add that up myself.

I consider those to be expenses, even if maybe technically on a balance sheet it wouldn't look like that. So or on a P L it wouldn't look like that. So I think that's probably where I'm like fifteen thousand, that seems low. I think it was closer to twenty. Yeah, with all those things that I just described, taxes, property taxes, four one K, paying down the line of credit, that would get us closer to what?

Erica Nash (09:58.352)

Sure.

Erica Nash (10:02.563)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (10:24.075)

my normal monthly outflow would be. So fun stuff, all the adulting, right?

Erica Nash (10:29.519)

All the adulting fun things. Hooray. For like that's always, you know, the day that we're recording. This is September 15th. And so it's quarterly tax day. And so I like got in my account and paid my quarterly taxes. And I'm like reminding myself as I'm like handing over these dollars, you know, like this is a good thing. This means we had a good year. Like this is a good thing. Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (10:40.535)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (10:54.677)

Yeah. Yep. I same this morning. it was like the fur it was on my calendar, pay quarterly estimated taxes today. It was like one of the first things that I did. And I'm like, thank you, past Shannon, for like just methodically, robotically carving out this money and putting it in this account so that I don't like have to stress, worry, or wonder that it's gonna be there. I just have to like

go do the thing, make the payment. and the fact that I'm even making a payment means that we made money this year. I've had years where I didn't have to make that payment. and those were some of the most stressful, hardest years of the business. those were the years that those were the reasons why I'm making payments on the line of credit now. So

Erica Nash (11:33.753)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (11:50.582)

I would much rather be paying the IRS than be repaying a debt with interest. So that's kind of my thought process. I'm doing both right now and that's okay. Like there's, you know, it I'm also paying myself a paycheck, like taking care of all the other things, like getting to have you on my team is like

Erica Nash (11:57.392)

Right, for sure.

Erica Nash (12:05.333)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (12:17.173)

I couldn't imagine this business without that. So I'm just grateful. Like if I have to write a check to the IRS, you know, plus all of the payroll taxes. I mean, I do think about how much money I send and I'm like, that is so much money. But also, like, it's not free to live in it's not free to just live somewhere, I guess. I don't know. I'm like, not to get in like a tax philosophy conversation, but

Erica Nash (12:28.345)

Yeah, yeah.

Erica Nash (12:41.249)

We need to find that place.

Shannon Mattern (12:46.963)

Yeah. So, yeah, that that was the outflow and where it all where it all went.

Erica Nash (12:54.007)

Amazing. well, let's talk about some of the important things that happened in August, some of the fun experiments and things.

Shannon Mattern (13:03.691)

Yeah, so we decided we made a pretty big shift to how we've run the Web Designer Academy for the past, I don't know, 10 years. this this August. and it was an experiment. I had no idea how it was gonna go. I think I mentioned at the end of the July income report that I was like, yep, we're trying this thing and I don't know what's gonna happen. We'll see.

Erica Nash (13:08.74)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (13:31.949)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (13:32.366)

but what we what we found was we have been always op the doors to the Web Designer Academy have been always open all the time. Like you listen to this podcast or you meet me somewhere, you do a search, w however you find me. you could just decide to like apply and come work with us anytime.

And we're all about incentivizing decisions around here. So we experimented with a lot of different ways to get people to make a decision one way or another, right? So like if if we don't have a reason to decide, we're just not gonna a lot of people are just gonna defer our decision. So I'm not saying that like

Erica Nash (14:10.328)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (14:31.743)

Everybody does this. Like, I loved having the doors open all the time for people who were just like ready to jump in. Like, and they found us, they were ready, they wanted to move forward, or they found us and they'd been listening for a while. And then like the timing just kind of lined up and the timing was right and they wanted to move forward. And that was great. But what was happening on the back end of the business is it was just getting really complicated in terms of like.

Okay, we're always promoting Web Designer Academy all the time. Lots of time, effort, energy, resources going into always promoting the Web Designer Academy all the time. Which was fine until

One, enrollment s slowed down. And we're figuring, like, there's probably a lot of reasons for that. but what that required was like a new strategy, right? Like, if we're always here and you can join anytime, and there's also so many other incredible business coaching programs out there for web designers. I'm friends with almost all of those.

Erica Nash (15:47.703)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (15:48.344)

program leaders, if we're not friends, we know each other and I consider them like colleagues, right? There's a lot of choice out there for people in terms of of where they're going to, who they're gonna work with. there's also like traffic is changing with AI. We were we've been implementing new strategies. just so many things where I'm like, I'm putting a lot of effort into this and I'm not getting the return.

in the time horizon that is making sense for my capacity. And I have a bigger plan for the vision of this business. And in order to create to create the space for that plan, I could not continue to put the same level of

time, effort, energy, capacity, and resources into the Web Designer Academy as I was, if I wasn't getting like the enrollments back out at the level that that amount of effort

Like should I don't want to say should create, but I expected it to create more and it didn't. And so it got to a point. I'm I'm being very careful when I say this because I don't want it to come off as I'm resentful. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze. But I don't mean that in a in a way that like I'm resentful, it's not worth it. any anything like that.

It was just a misalignment of resources. and because of that, that was what that was one that was like the internal thing that would that like kind of precipitated the idea anyway. Like the strategic internal business decisions where I'm like, I need to get some capacity back so that I can focus it on growing the package matrix.

Erica Nash (17:36.579)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (18:01.527)

Side of the business where we're now teaching. I'm working with all kinds of freelancers, consultants, fractional executives to implement package matrix in their in their business. So that was thing one was like creating capacity and kind of realigning some things internally. And also like putting a decision in front of people where it's like,

Would you like to move forward with this? Yes or no? And the doors are closing. This is not a decision that you can like I always would say, we'll be here when you're ready. And I tr like the Web Designer Academy will be here when you're ready, but it's not the doors are always open. We'll be here when you're ready. Now it's like you have a decision to make, the doors are closing. And I never did that before because I didn't want.

Erica Nash (18:46.968)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (18:59.339)

The person who needed us, who found us and needed us, to not be able to get in. But at what cost? And s wet we do this as web designers all the time too. Where we're like, I have to always be available to any potential client that could come to me and need me and work with me. And I have to be ready when they work with me because if I don't have space for them or if I don't say yes.

I might never get another client. They might go somewhere else. They might, you know, I might lose them. And I didn't realize that some of that stuff was like coming into play with the doors always open. policy for for me. I had really good reasons, like noble reasons for my doors always open policy. But I think underneath.

Erica Nash (19:45.399)

Mm.

Shannon Mattern (19:59.136)

there was some mind trash under that that like if I'm not always open then

You know, then I won't get any clients at all.

And so it's something we coach people on all the time inside of the Web Designer Academy about like, I heard, I I don't know who said it. I think it was Jonathan Stark. when we had a conversation on his ditching hourly podcast, he said time is a perip perishable resource. And that is true when it comes to like our development calendars, our schedules.

like those types of things. And if we act like we're infinitely available, we're not. And so that was that was that was part of that. But then on the that was like all of my internal Shannon reasons for testing that out. But then there are some very like external reasons like client facing reasons.

that it made sense to try it. And one of the things that Erica does when people enroll in the Web Designer Academy is that she reviews their intake form and she would make like a custom roadmap for them. She's like, based on your goals and what you want to accomplish in the next 30, 60, 90 daisy one year, here's the path through our curriculum that I think that you need to start with.

Shannon Mattern (21:40.793)

And we talked and you were kind of making the same pretty much the same path for most people.

Erica Nash (21:45.571)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Like I I'm gonna say I'm pulling this number out of thin ear, but I'm gonna say like 97% of people that I was making a roadmap for, I was starting them in the exact same place and moving them through the exact same way. Because for the most part, their number one thing that they wanted to do, it was it was always client generation.

It was always client generation and or more revenue, which in turn means client generation. So I was starting them all in the same place basically.

Shannon Mattern (22:25.483)

Which was like module five of the Web Designer Academy. so she'd like start on with marketing momentum and then it would be like, and then concurrently watch these modules about like modules one, two, and three, which are like foundational stuff, but like more mindset stuff. And and you know, people would join our program for a whole entire year. It was like it's a it was a year commitment, which that was a

Erica Nash (22:28.303)

Mm.

Erica Nash (22:43.503)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (22:54.093)

Pretty big bar for a lot of people where they're like, a year, I don't know what the world's gonna look like in a year. And my answer to that used to be, yeah, you don't. So we'll be by your side for a whole year and help you navigate whatever your life is gonna look like over the course of a year because you know you still wanna be in business for a year, right? So we got you. We'll hold your hand through it for a year.

But still people that was that seemed to be like a you know high bar for a lot of people to step over to like make that commitment. And also what we were hearing was people they'd be like, there's so much content in here to to get through. and and we really wanted to like expedite your path.

To results, which was which was what Erica was doing, like in the roadmap for people. So kind of all of these things came together to be like people are telling us that a year is too much of a commitment. People are telling us this. People are telling us that. We're getting this feedback on this. Erica's doing these same things over and over. I'm experiencing a situation where the door's always open, is creating a lot of work on my end.

when I need to divert some of those resources into other projects that are important to me and my vision and our revenue goals, what if we did doors open, doors closed, and we tested out a six-month enrollment versus open all the time. You can join anytime. When you join, you're in for a year. And

Shannon Mattern (24:48.67)

It felt like a risk to do it, but I also was like, what have I got to lose? You know, like I've I really didn't feel like I had anything to lose by doing it. So yeah, that was like the long story longer about that, my thought process behind all of that. And I'm curious, I'm curious to hear like your, you know, thoughts about the six month cohort model and like

what you like, what you thought about it and what you I don't know, in general.

Erica Nash (25:22.615)

Yeah. Yeah. I I think I mean I kind of felt very much the same, like we had enough data to show that we needed to experiment in some way. So, you know, we I I think we could say one of our core values is experimentation and and really kind of leaning into like we really don't know anything for certain.

And so everything is kind of an experiment. So we're gonna test this with the information we have available and like make our best guess, but it really is an experiment. And so I I felt like we had enough data to support the idea of changing something. And I mean, all roads really did point to this being like a really viable option.

But both of us were kind of like, well, you know, let's just see what happens. Like, we don't know. and I think for me it it there's something about it that feels

Don't know, more accessible maybe is like the best word. Like, like it just makes it a little bit more accessible. Like it's a little bit, I I don't want to say bite-size because it's still a it's still a lot of content, it's still everything that I don't even want to say a lot because I still feel like it's the necessary content that you need in order to like learn and implement what we teach and and get results. but bite-size in a way that it's like something that people could.

Shannon Mattern (26:35.744)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (26:49.792)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (27:03.097)

Like, I don't know, just really commit to, yes, that's exactly it, that they could really commit to and and feel really good about. And I know it was probably, it was probably this time last year, maybe last summer even, that you had you had talked a lot about maybe it was maybe it was going to a month-to-month model. I can't remember exactly. And and you had talked about like

Shannon Mattern (27:04.15)

Commit to

Shannon Mattern (27:28.946)

Yeah, yes, yeah.

Erica Nash (27:32.968)

I I'm just getting the feeling that people are very unsure about like what life is gonna look like in 12 months and like the world just kind of looks some type of way that is making people a little uneasy. And then you this was probably a couple months later, you were like, I had like a lot of you were like, I can justify things to myself very well. And you were like, I even had Erica convinced. I remember this conversation, you were like, I had Erica convinced too that this was a good, that this was the good like path to take.

And I feel like we're I feel like it's coming full circle now because I do think that there was something there. Like I I think that that sort of like inkling you had, I don't think it was fully like off base. And there's just something about the six month model that like obviously there's a different financial commitment, but there's just also a different like time commitment. There's just a different like it allows people, I think.

to kind of dip their toe in a little and and like commit to themselves for that committing to yourself for a year. A year is just it just seems like a really long time. Like even though it's not really that long of a time, like it just seems like a really long time, but I think there's just something bite-sized about six months that feels a little bit safer and and allows people to be a little bit more bought in like for themselves. And so

Yeah, I've really enjoyed like seeing this experiment be a success. Like that was I don't know what I I'm curious to hear what your definition, I guess, of success for this experiment would have would was or would have been. but yeah, wildly successful. and it has been so cool to like gather this data, you know, on the other side.

Shannon Mattern (29:31.773)

so many like so many thoughts about that like I had no expectations for any metrics of what I would consider this to be a successful experiment intentionally because I have I saw a pattern from myself in the past of

coming up with arbitrary random metrics of what success should look like that have no basis in anything other than I think this is what should hap like I'd be happy if this happened. And then if it doesn't happen, then I feel like I failed. Like r s why set arbitrary success measures? I really went into this the same way I went into offering the package matrix method course as a

as a thing where I'm just like, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I'm gonna make the offer and I'm gonna gather data. And that is exactly how I went into this six month model test. We are like, okay, you know, for six months, it's that's 50% of the time. The price point is like divide the full year of what in of Web Designer Academy by two. So it is a smaller commitment, but it's the same

price if that makes sense. I put the application back. I put that in quotes. I put it front and center. I changed like I had softened the language around the application before. So it used to be like fill out this application. If you if we accept it, then you get invited to this private training.

Where we're gonna teach you about our strategies and then tell you all the details about the Web Designer Academy. That's how I did it in like 2021, 2022, 2023 when things started getting weird. I started changing, I started testing all these different ways. Maybe it's the application, whatever. Maybe that turns people off. And maybe it did. I don't know. But I had a conversation. I've had a couple of conversations with

Shannon Mattern (31:56.353)

Web Designer Academy members. You expressed this to me when you joined back in twenty twenty.

Erica Nash (32:05.209)

One mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (32:07.212)

Five years ago. That's crazy. And then at the next level meetup that I did back in June, we had the same conversation again. I've heard it I've heard this anecdotally from more like handfuls of Web Designer Academy members that the application process was an important piece of their decision to join the Web Designer Academy.

in in that like it helped you decide if you were serious. Like it helped you kind of make a pre-decision. Like if my application accept is accepted, I would like to actually join. Like making a decision ahead of time. like it helped you I feel like it helped it it's like an int it's an intentful step.

Erica Nash (32:44.099)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (32:52.066)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (33:05.23)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (33:07.37)

that like helped people like pre-think about what they wanted. So I was like, I'm gonna test putting pull putting that back front and center the way that I had it before and examine all of my thoughts about it being like uncomfortable for me to have an application or what am I making the application mean or feeling like I'm putting pressure on people and just be in and just examine all of that, clean all of that up.

Put the application back, stand firm in why I have it, which is I really want to make sure that I'm only inviting you to join WDA if I'm very, very confident that you will create the outcomes that you want in the time frame of the program, which is now six months, versus 12. And so I wanted to make sure that like,

Shannon Mattern (34:09.024)

We've been doing this for a long time. I can tell who has the foundational stuff that they need to implement our strategies. and I'll help you with the mindset stuff and any questions that come up along the way. Like Erica and I are there for like we help we fill all the gaps. So I felt like it was important to put the application back.

But I also felt like it was important for me to have no expectations at all and just gather data. Just gather data because the whole point was like, I'm gonna do it again in six months. And I'm going to also do it the exact same way I did it this six months. And if I decide that what happened this six months wasn't good enough, guess what I'm gonna do?

Erica Nash (34:40.623)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (35:05.024)

The same thing I've done to myself for the past three years, change it and make it harder on me every single time. And I don't want to do that anymore. So if I know that this round led to this many applicants and this many enrollments, and that's the data, then next time I do it, that's what I'll plan for. And it'll either meet or exceed that or it won't, but I won't be like,

Erica Nash (35:12.889)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (35:35.916)

grinding so hard to improve something that maybe doesn't need to be improved.

Erica Nash (35:43.543)

Yes. I think I and I think that's it right there is like grinding so much to improve something that doesn't need to be improved. Like

I think, and like in business, like, and we we want to know things for certain. We want to know that things are gonna work, we want to know this or that, we want to know that the next time we do something, we're gonna have the same results or better. And like we just can't. And I think that it's very natural and very human to try to fix and try to go in and like let me test this, let me adjust this, let me adjust that. And sometimes

Nothing is broken. Like sometimes there is nothing that needs to be fixed. There's nothing wrong. And that is just really hard. That's just really hard.

Shannon Mattern (36:26.218)

Yep.

Shannon Mattern (36:36.012)

Yeah. And if I wanna create more revenue, maybe I'd do it in different ways.

Then

I'm sure that there are things that I could do to, you know, it's like it's a funnel, right? It's like I have people on my email list. I invited those e people on my email list to fill out the application. A percent like there's a conversion percentage there, right? From the number of people on my list to the number of people that opened to the number of people that clicked to the number of people that filled out the thing to the number of people that were accepted.

To the number of people that attended the live training and then ultimately enrolled. That's there are metrics all along the way. And what we do then is we analyze all of those and then we decide, like, okay, well, where could I like what what do I need to do? Do I try to like increase the conversion percentage? Do I try to like where do I?

Is where is the funnel leaking? Are there fixes to do? Can I get this number better? Can I do all of this? And that's the work that I've been doing for many, many years. And could I let's say we like all of the numbers, all of the conversion percentages? Could I then go all in on just like funneling more people into the funnel? Sure, I could keep doing that.

Shannon Mattern (38:11.83)

But I could also go and sell one license for my new package matrix method license for $20,000. And that would take a whole lot less effort. So it's it's one of the it's like what levers do I have available to me? What do I want to do? Where's my capacity? And same goes for all of us.

For people listening to this, it's like

Shannon Mattern (38:46.96)

Yes, you can sell the $200 template, but if you want to make the money that you want to make, your effort is then going to be building, getting the number of eyeballs on the $200 template required, figuring out what it converts at, and then just like getting all of that traffic to it.

And that's fine. Like that is absolutely fine. There's nothing wrong with that, but just know what your business model is. What I kept running up against is like

capacity and like all of these other things where I'm like, maybe it's okay for this to just be what it is for now. And it's not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. But I don't have to put that much effort into filling up the funnel if I could just let the funnel be what it is and open it every six months. And like the people that come in the door are incredible.

Like I'm I'm I don't know if I've said this on the podcast before or maybe we've talked about it, but Jen Boss, who's my financial strategist that I work with, meet with her quarterly to to to talk about stuff like this. Like, where's the revenue come from? like w what where are the expenses going? What expenses are going towards

Things and does is it in alignment? Where's my effort going? And that's you know, part of the way that I was able to see outsize effort on an underperforming revenue for my favorite thing in the world that I love to do so much. And it's not going anywhere, but I have to realign what I'm doing. But what she said to me was I don't have kids, but.

Shannon Mattern (40:53.543)

She does, and she was like, you know, it's like you have the kid who loves the sport, but they're not gonna play at the competitive level. Like, but you as the parent keep putting all of this pressure on them to

Like you're putting them in camps and in clinics and in this and you're putting them on the travel team and you're just trying to like get them to be like the all-star when they're just wanting to like play and have fun and have a good time, but like you think that they should want more than the than they do. She was like, It's possible that that's the Web Designer Academy for you, and maybe you just get to let it be what it's gonna be.

Because you have these other goals, but you keep saying that you don't have the time or capacity to go after them. And she's like, what if you could just let that be what it is, put some constraints around it, and then like go build this other thing. But you don't have to like shut that down to create the capacity to go build the other thing, which has never even been an option on the table for me to

Erica Nash (42:08.793)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (42:10.203)

not do the web designer academy or not do next level mastermind, but I had to do it in a different way if I wanted, you know, to achieve the goals I want to achieve. So it's not like I'm giving up on it or I think it's not good or I think it's not all-star. I think it's not professional worthy. But just had to I just had to look at it completely differently.

Erica Nash (42:35.801)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (42:37.289)

And I don't know what's gonna happen when I open the doors in February of twenty twenty seven. and I think I like not like having that like, okay, well now we gotta get the same resul like it just feels like more mission driven when I don't have like so much pressure on it. So

Erica Nash (42:51.235)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (42:55.395)

Yeah.

Yeah. Excuse me. I think that there like on on my end, when I'm looking at you, it does seem like I realize we have other changes in the business, but that could be contributed to this. But it does feel like your capacity has opened up. Like you had like it does seem like you are sort of freer to.

you know, sort of chase these other things. Do you feel like this change has allowed that?

Shannon Mattern (43:34.932)

Yeah, I definitely I definitely am starting to feel it. Like I get I look at my calendar sometimes and I'm like, like I was planning out the next so I'm wrapping up ninety day shift clients, right? So I do private coaching and I have five five, yeah, five spots. I coach five clients privately every quarter. And that's like

big chunk of time on my calendar. And I love like this is a th like I love it. It does not feel like work. And when I look at my calendar and I look at like all of the appointments and all of the time and all of the things, I do start to feel I start to feel that feeling of pressure, of like time scarcity. But I had this realization that like

Erica Nash (44:06.958)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (44:33.063)

that's where I stop myself every time is when I look at my calendar and I have that feeling, I think that there's an external problem to solve, which would be like hiring, like outsourcing or taking like whatever, or like rearranging something, or you know, and there's logistical things like we combined our global life strategy call and our regular call into one call.

middle of the day, I'm like, why didn't I think of this years ago? Like that's been amazing. There are logistical things that we can do. I s but what I realized is I was like, this is where my foot goes on the break every single time. And I don't think I realize that this is what happens because the solution is not, my gosh, I have too much on my calendar. There's so much to do. My to-do list is so long.

Erica Nash (45:05.455)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (45:30.055)

I need help or it's too much or I shouldn't be doing this. It's to examine those thoughts and question whether or not they're true.

And they're not true. Like, they're not true. And so it's then it's like, I actually do have there's plenty of time.

Erica Nash (45:44.409)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (45:53.342)

I always get it done. I always make it happen. The only problem that there ever has been is that when I get to here I stop myself.

And I don't go bigger, I try to solve that problem. And it's like, no, actually, like that's a noble obstacle for me going after the bigger opportunities of like the what the opportunities that scare me or make me feel like an imposter. It's real easy to say I'm too busy to take on those things and then go about the problem of solving busy. It's a whole other thing to be like.

Erica Nash (46:30.925)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (46:34.225)

Actually no, that's a big fat lie that my brain wants to tell me. I'm not too busy. I have plenty of time to go after those big things. All I have to do is stop thinking I'm so busy and stop thinking I don't have enough time.

Erica Nash (46:47.727)

What a huge shift, truly. I mean, like, and it and it's and it it's real hard for somebody to argue with you about feeling busy. You know what I'm saying? Like it's real hard for somebody else to like call you out call you out on your own stuff when you're like, I'm just really busy, I have no time. Like, cause I mean, they don't know. Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (46:50.579)

So yeah.

Shannon Mattern (47:07.455)

I could be like, look at my calendar, look, see, see all of these things on. But like the truth is, I don't schedule stuff in the mornings. Like I like there's there's an abundance of time there. Like when I add it all up, there's plenty of time there. So it's not a problem that needs to be solved.

Erica Nash (47:12.301)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (47:28.761)

Well, I love that we have been able to do some things that have s freed up some capacity for you in one way or another. You know, I I I know for sure that like I've I because I've seen it, how it has at least freed up mental capacity and capacity inside like our like email schedule and like things like that. Like there have been things that like have opened up because of some of these.

Shannon Mattern (47:37.834)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (47:58.028)

shifts that we have made that have been a source of stress in the past. So I I am grateful you know for that. But let's talk about some of the results that we've gotten or that our our members have gotten just recently from this wildly successful experiment of the six month cohort.

Shannon Mattern (48:01.173)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (48:21.611)

Every single batch of people that come through the door, every single person that comes through the door. I like it's the moments where I'm like, how is this my life? How did this person find us? I'm so grateful for the idios like just the the not idiosyncrasies, the synchronicities of like the internet and just the way the world works because the women that find us, the people that listen to this podcast, the people that ultimately like

Erica Nash (48:31.95)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (48:52.085)

Commit to themselves and take that scary step to like fill out the application and make that commitment and come through the door. They are like the most brilliant people. And what strikes me every single time, and I don't know, I know you get to read the intake forms and you get to see the applications and you get to meet them. I want them to see themselves the way we see them.

Erica Nash (49:21.145)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (49:22.589)

Like that's my ultimate goal by the time they walk out of the doors of the Web Designer Academy, which usually takes them a few years before they decide to do that. Ha ha ha master plan, right? but I want them to see themselves the way I see them and you see them because they are incredible. So just one

Erica Nash (49:35.009)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (49:52.512)

We had the most incredible people fill out the application. The only reason I would not have I didn't approve applications is if they weren't a woman web designer or they were wanting to learn web design. The rest of everybody who applied, one of the one of the people, and I could talk about this in the September income report, one of the digital product sales in August.

was a woman who bought our paid discovery mastery course. And then she reached out to me with like a question. And then she reached out to me with another question. And I like, I always stalk your websites, guys, when you reach out to me. Like I I lightly stalk you because I just I want to know. So I like went and looked at her website. And then I looked at like how long she'd been on my email list. And I looked at like what, you know, she bought Paid Discovery Mastery. And I was looking at her questions. I'm like, she just needs to be in the cohort.

Erica Nash (50:34.659)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (50:50.623)

Like she just needs to be in there. And I reached out to her and I was like, Hey, here's the answer to your question. But also, I know the doors are closed and you didn't fill out the application, but you should be in there. And I, you know, if you want to come in, I you know, you can have through Friday to decide, but we'd love to have you in. And she wrote back and she was like, I thought I was too new to to join.

And she was like, I thought it was for more established designers. And I was like, you're not wrong. that was that's definitely a messaging tweak that I had made like a couple of years ago because I don't because I don't think I was confident in my ability to coach people who were in that early stage.

And who were like feeling that struggle, right? I I like took that really person, like personally, or like not personally, like I took it hard, but I didn't have a boundary around like getting codependent with them, I guess, for lack of a better way to describe that, where I'm like, I took that on as like my personal success or personal failure. if you came in and like

didn't get clients as fast as maybe you wanted or something like that. and so I really like I was like, oof, I think I overcorrected there. I have so much more maturity now on like how to help people who are struggling like that without like becoming feeling like so responsible for it.

Erica Nash (52:41.879)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (52:51.491)

so basically I was just like, you're not wrong. I I did do that. I was like, but I'm I'm coming back now to like no, it is for that person who is you know how to build a website, you've had a couple of clients under your belt, and you want to

like build the client pipeline, do all those things, not undercharge over deliver all of that stuff. And so she she just enrolled and I was reviewing her intake form today and I'm like, how in the world would she ever like sh I just I'm so excited for what's next for her because I saw that. And then like another one of our students like she enrolled the moment she could, like the day she could.

Erica Nash (53:36.717)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (53:47.894)

Like the day like I did, she applied, I did the I accepted her application. I did the private training just for accepted applicants. And she enrolled like over that weekend. And we didn't even start the cohort till September first. But from like August 22nd when she enrolled to what day did you say it was? August thirty first. She posted in our community that she had sold her high end.

Erica Nash (54:05.679)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (54:14.339)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (54:17.589)

package. And we didn't even start yet.

Erica Nash (54:18.863)

It was so fantastic.

Shannon Mattern (54:24.531)

And then like another person was like, I just sold I just booked a new client this morning. Like, and then other like those are just some of the splashy results, you know, the fun. But like other people are thinking about marketing in a way that they never thought about it before. They're like, I didn't realize this. And I didn't realize this is what was holding me back. And so for me.

Erica Nash (54:42.359)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (54:54.119)

I just really needed to come full circle for myself about like I really do want and need to help people create a consistent client pipeline. Like that's the number one biggest struggle everybody has. They try to solve it in a thousand different ways, except for the one way to solve it, which is the way that we teach inside of the Web Designer Academy.

Erica Nash (55:13.359)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (55:20.441)

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (55:23.293)

And so like that's why we started the cohort there with marketing. the first five weeks are all about like staying in the potential zone with your marketing and not falling into the chaos zone or the comfort zone, our whole entire method and getting that like installed. And then we're gonna coach you on it for the next five months as you implement all the other things when we know all of the things that people go through.

with their marketing. So that was a very long answer, but I'm just very, very honored to get to work with the people who said yes.

Erica Nash (56:02.997)

Absolutely. Absolutely. I talking about them not really seeing themselves the way that that we see them.

Our first in in our like full program, like with the full curriculum, you know, when I would make roadmaps, I was always like, you know, you're gonna start with your marketing, but concurrently, you know, these first three modules and like our the first three modules, I would tell them like these are foundational, not foundational to business, but foundational to like how we believe, you know, just like our philosophies and just like the things that we believe, how we believe business and blah, blah, blah, blah. And

It never fails. There would be people who would fill out, you know, the especially the first workbook. The first module takes a look, it really just like has you look at yourself. That's really what it does. Like it just has you take a good hard look at yourself and and and you know get you to answer some questions. And there are a lot of people that have like really struggle with filling out that first workbook. And

I always say pretty much the exact same thing. Like whenever they submit that and they tell me, like, this was really, really hard. There is no right or wrong way to answer the questions in that workbook. It really is meant to just begin to change the way you think about yourself. That's literally like the whole purpose of the workbook, is just for you to just kind of like take the first step on that journey towards seeing yourself.

as different than the way that you're seeing yourself right now because there are s there's so much like I don't even want to say untapped potential because it's not it's not that it's just that the there's like untapped like point of view. I don't know like that that that they're just like missing a whole side of themselves that we get to see that's very obvious to us, but it's not to them. And so those those

Erica Nash (58:15.145)

modules have so much value in like allowing them to like really kind of uncover, uncover those things alongside of the things that they need to do, you know, in in order to get their business. So I do think that by the time they leave us, they are seeing themselves in a completely different way. and I think it all starts with that really challenging like

look at themselves that they that they take, you know, in that very first module.

Shannon Mattern (58:50.28)

Gosh. Yeah, it's like the untapped identity or the unseen identity. It's like there is this, there is this version of them that it hasn't been safe for them to be for whatever reason. And I always call like the Web Designer Academy the benevolent bait and switch because of course we are going to teach you how to package price, market, package, price, and sell your projects, how to deliver them, how to create a profitable, sustainable web design business.

Erica Nash (58:53.741)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (59:02.584)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (59:10.691)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (59:20.158)

But as part of that transformation, you are going to see yourself and think of yourself in an entirely different way at the end than you saw yourself at the beginning. And I think one of the reasons I'm excited about like the six month cohort curriculum as we've kind of plotted it out is.

were kind of sneaking that identity in through the back door instead of like confronting people with it like immediately, which they can get stuck there and then maybe make a little bit slower progress. So also part of the shift from one year to six months is like, let's kind of pull some of these speed bumps out of the way. and maybe you can go over them a little bit later when

Erica Nash (59:49.113)

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (01:00:07.768)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (01:00:14.47)

when when you're ready, but it's just it's we're only two weeks in and so far I'm just like it feels I'm so glad we made the decision. and so if you're listening to this, get on the wait list for the next cohort. We open in February of twenty twenty seven. You can go to web designeracademy.com forward slash program. Just enter your name and email address to get on the wait list.

Erica Nash (01:00:16.623)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (01:00:26.083)

Yeah.

Shannon Mattern (01:00:44.538)

As we get closer to that date, I'll be sending you more information about the program, about everything that you need to know so that when applications open, you know when you fill out that application. If you are going to move forward if your application's accepted, you don't have to move forward if your application's accepted, but filling that application out is what gives you the opportunity to say yes.

if your application's accepted. So we would love to work with you. And we're excited to I'm excited to have the doors closed to focus on our current students for six months without my attention being distracted on like marketing it and delivering it and you know, so that's that's a new experience too. which is pretty cool.

Erica Nash (01:01:26.756)

Yeah.

Erica Nash (01:01:38.371)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (01:01:42.925)

Yeah, I love that.

Shannon Mattern (01:01:44.5)

So yeah, there were more things that happened in August, but we've already been talking for an hour. So this is what happens when Eric and I don't meet often enough. and we're talking for the first time about like the cohort. Like you're hearing our like team meeting conversation basically about this. So our unscripted, unplanned, I don't yeah.

Erica Nash (01:01:52.783)

Whoops.

Erica Nash (01:02:02.787)

Mm-hmm.

Erica Nash (01:02:08.127)

Yeah, our unscripted combo.

Shannon Mattern (01:02:14.186)

Convo. So yeah, that's that's a wrap on the August twenty twenty six income report. Any final words for our listeners, Erica?

Erica Nash (01:02:29.401)

You know, I think the theme of today is experiment. And I I I just I I there's just so much value in experimenting. I I think it would be experimentation, like paired with passionate detachment. Like those two things, yeah, we are on the same wavelength. Th those two things together can literally catapult you into your next level of just like being.

Shannon Mattern (01:02:34.654)

Mm-hmm.

Shannon Mattern (01:02:46.718)

I was literally just thinking that.

Erica Nash (01:02:58.947)

And I yeah, so for anybody listening, I would just encourage you, like where can you experiment and where can you detach passionately but detach from those results.

Shannon Mattern (01:03:10.442)

So good. All right. That's a wrap on our August 2026 income report. So thank you all so much for listening and we'll see you back here next week. Bye everyone.