#107 – How to Make Financial Decisions with Confidence in Your Web Design Business

Shannon Mattern: Hey there, and welcome back to the profitable web designer podcast. This week I've got another solo episode for you, diving a little bit deeper into a topic I talked about in my July income report, episode number 104, all about the places in my business that I was playing not to lose versus playing to win. So this concept came from a book I read called Secrets of the Millionaire mind by T Harv Eker. And one of the concepts he talked about in the book was playing to win versus playing not to lose, playing small versus going all in and asking yourself if you're willing to risk all of your time, energy, and startup capital with no guarantee of return, versus focusing on the potential loss and making decisions from a place of trying to avoid or prevent loss versus making decisions from a place of fully committing in your mind. And in my July income report, I talked about how when I read that part of the book, I immediately got out my notebook and I wrote at the top of the page, where am I playing small? And I had a list of things, but a few of them were business related. And one of those things was hoarding money and money insecurity. And so the author of the book went on to say that when you fully commit in your mind, then, quote, unquote, providence moves to a whole stream of events, issues from the decision raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would come his way, end quote. And so this episode is really all about the place in my life where I've been playing smaller in my business, at least, with hoarding money and money and security.

Shannon Mattern: And, I mean, I've been talking about this on the, the podcast in one way or another on both podcasts since 2018. And it's really, really interesting to see that how in the other places that I was playing small in my business that I talked about in episode 104 and how I, like, made the commitment and really experienced the outcome of what it looks like to make that. But I haven't quite done that yet with, with money and money insecurity. And so I felt like it really just deserved its own episode because I know I'm not the only one who plays not to lose versus playing to win when it comes to money. And I thought my exploration of this topic might be interesting to you. And so, you know, playing not to lose when it comes to money is totally a generational thing in my family. I was talking with my grandmother the other day who told me that her grandmother came to America on a boat by herself with zero money and from Ireland. And, you know, that kind of was the start of our family's money journey here, here, like, generationally.

Shannon Mattern: And so it's not like we. We grew up with money. No one in our family had money. I mean, everybody just, like, worked to try to survive, and you're. You're working to play, to not lose. And so what I noticed about how I'm playing not to lose when it comes to money is that I was massively overthinking money decisions in the business to the point where I just couldn't make a decision. And it has not always been this way. Like, I've been running my business since 2014, and I just added it up.

Shannon Mattern: And in the past ten years, my business has generated $1.68 million in revenue. I've created $1.68 million with my mind, with my ideas, and just putting my ideas into action and creating value for other people with them. And that's just so, so powerful. Like, mind blowing to think about. And it averages out to be about $168,000 of revenue a year. But the numbers don't look that steady. You know, my first year back in 2014 was 14,000, doing web design as a side hustle. My best year was 490,000 in 2021, at the height of the stuck at home pandemic spending.

Shannon Mattern: And that was all courses in coaching, the web Designer academy, and my since retired free five day website challenge and a couple of other programs, and then back down to 180k in 2023, when I and so many other online business owners experienced a revenue retraction, which, at the time, I thought was unique to me. And I went into doom pentecostal mode and made it worse, because our beliefs drive our thoughts, which create our feelings, which drive our actions, or inactions, which lead to wanted or unwanted results. And so, while certain things were outside of my control, I thought it was all within my control. And so, because I felt so out of control and panicked, I had a lot of thoughts that created a lot of unwanted results for me in 2023. And I've recapped all of that on previous podcast episodes. And I feel like I really have extracted a lot of the lessons, although I'm sure there are always more lessons to come from that. But what has never changed over the past ten years is that I know how to create things of value that help other people create more value, more value than what they paid me for those things. And so, in other words, I know how to make money as an entrepreneur.

Shannon Mattern: It's a skill that I have learned and developed over the past ten years. It does not come naturally to me. It is something that I had to learn and examine my thoughts and my mind trash and decide if I wanted to keep believing that or work on believing something new. And I've learned a ton about business and myself from all the ups and downs on the inflow side, like the money flowing inside, but on the outflow side, the, you know, money leaving my business, whether that's to pay myself, pay expenses, pay taxes, make investments in the business, that's where I've been getting tripped up and just getting stuck in spending analysis paralysis, and really just kind of unable to make some key decisions, like, in a timely manner. Like, of course I ultimately can make the decisions, but not without a lot of drama and mind trash that can create unwanted results. And so one example of that is our next level retreat. So we host an in person retreat every single year for our next level mastermind members. And I noticed that I was just, like, getting, like, tripped up in how much should we charge the budget, setting a price, planning all the things.

Shannon Mattern: And so I noticed I was stuck. I was ruminating. And so I handed off the budget planning piece to our client, success coordinator, Erica Nash. And, you know, I was just like, I noticed that I am getting stuck here. And sure, I could blame that on the lack of clarity I'd been having around next level that I talked about back in my July income report that once I fully committed to Providence, moved and, like, that, all just, like, snapped into clarity. And I'm sure that's a factor, but if the situation that I experienced, the ruminating and stuckness, was just related to next level, then I wouldn't have spun out on other outflow decisions, right? I've noticed myself doing it a lot when it comes to deciding how to spend money in the business. And so when I read what the author said in the millionaire mind that playing to lose means focusing on the potential loss and making decisions from a place, like, a place of avoiding or preventing loss, I was like, oh, I totally do that. And not just in money, like in card games, too, which is fascinating, like, any kind of, like, competition or sport or anything.

Shannon Mattern: I'm just, like, playing not to lose. It's just really interesting to notice all the places in my life that that comes up, but it's totally expense minded behavior. And if you don't know what I'm talking about and you want to learn more about that, I talk about the expense minded pricing paradigms in our free course at web designeracademy.com freecourse, and I dive deep into the three different pricing paradigms and how they come into play when you're selling your web design projects, especially higher priced web design projects. But playing to win, on the other hand, versus playing not to lose. Playing to win means that you're willing to fully commit in your mind and then risk all of your time, energy, and startup capital with no guarantee of return. And I'm like, okay, sure, that sounds good in theory, but what about all the times I've made a money decision in my business that I now regret, or that I feel like I shouldn't have made, or that I'm judging as wasteful or a stupid decision, or that in hindsight I just judge that that decision was, like, not the right move. And so really, what is underneath all of those thoughts is like, can I even trust myself anymore to make, quote unquote, good decisions? And I know I'm not the only one that thinks this, because not a week goes by that I don't talk to someone who's considering working with us in the web designer academy or the next level mastermind, who says, shannon, I really want to join, but I've spent so much money on courses, and I've got nothing to show for it. I don't want to make a mistake and even waste more money.

Shannon Mattern: And I was having this conversation, it was so funny, this whole I've got nothing to show for it, um, a comment. I was having a conversation with one of the girls in my local mastermind here in Columbus. We meet once a month, and she said something like, I've made over a million dollars in my business since I started it, and I've got nothing to show for it. And I was just like, what are you talking about? Like, what about the car you drive? What about the roof over your head? What about the clothes you're wearing? What about the food you ate? What about the school supplies you just bought for your kids? Like, do you really have nothing to show for it? And so when you notice yourself saying things about, like, nothing to show for it related to, like, inflow of money and outflow of money, I think that that's a sign that you have a trust, an opportunity to build some trust with yourself. And so what I realized and what I started to think about was, what would it look like to play to win in relation to money, specifically in my business? And I was like, okay. So one, I think that in order to play, to win, I need to release my, like, release and forgive myself from any judgment of past money decisions that makes me feel guilty or ashamed. And two, from that place of compassion, clarity, and self acceptance create some criteria for myself, some questions to ask myself so that when making future money decisions in the business, I can be confident one way or the other versus ruminating and overthinking and overanalyzing and then just delegating the money decisions to Erica from a place of I just can't make this decision. Versus delegating money decisions to Erica from a place of I think you're the best person on the team to make this decision.

Shannon Mattern: You have the capacity to do the analysis, and you can bring me some numbers, and I can totally make the final decision for us. So for me, another reason why it felt really important for me to do this money work is that my next level mastermind domino is to end my negative self talk or manage it. And I'll talk about this more in next week's episode in my August income report. But in our next level next level mastermind, we take our members through our next level framework process to find what we call a domino, which is like one goal that when you accomplish it, makes all of your other goals happen faster and easier. And what the next level framework revealed to me as I worked through it is that my own negative self talk was standing in the way of a lot of my other goals. And I've spent the past ten months intentionally working on rewiring my self concept in the way that I talk to myself about myself and my business. And it's had a massive impact on my business and my personal life. Like, I did not realize that my default state was just mid level anxiety.

Shannon Mattern: And then one day, I don't know how many months into intentionally working on my negative self talk in all areas of my life by reading books about it, by having it lovingly pointed out to me by next level mastermind members and friends who I asked to do that. I started rebuilding my self concept, and then I started noticing I didn't feel anxious anymore. My mind has been quiet. I wasn't worrying, ruminating, talking crap about myself or my mistakes, or thinking about all the things that are wrong with me now or that could go wrong in the future. And my work habits were no longer driven by anxiety. You know, like opening up my laptop and just starting to work to quiet my mind and then meddling with things that didn't need to be meddled with. Because my anxiety was just telling me that, like, it was all falling apart or it was just a way to quiet my mind from everything that was going on. And I just felt very calm here, quiet present in the now, right? And I'm like, what is the sorcery? Like, I didn't know I could feel this way.

Shannon Mattern: I don't remember the last time I really did feel this way, if I'm really thinking about it. But whenever in this, like, state of peace, I should say, whenever there was a quote unquote big money decision to be made, I could flip right back into that mode so quickly because it's such a well worn path. And it's also fascinating to notice that it's business money decisions and not personal money decisions. I do not have the same drama in my mind around personal money decisions as I do with business money decisions at this point in time. I mean, I know I have in the past, like, when we were, like, building this house during the middle of the pandemic and, like, the spin off that I went on, but, you know, in the business, I'm just, I was just noticing it happening a lot more. And so I was chilling on my couch one warm mid August morning with my coffee, which may or may not have already had pumpkin spice creamer in it. And I'd already read the Millionaire mind. I'd already written and recorded and listened back to my July income report, and I was working on all of the content for the next level mastermind framework training for the training I did in August for next level open enrollment.

Shannon Mattern: And I'm just starting to, like, plan all the things out. And I get to the point where I realize, like, I will not have the capacity to create all of the content for the next level mastermind promotion myself. And I had already hired sales copywriter Sarah Geo to write the sales page for me. We talked to her in the last episode, episode 106, and now I'm sitting there thinking, oh, my gosh, I'm going to need help with the sales emails, too. And I just noticed my brain just start to slip into spin out mode. Like, I just hired her. I just spent this much. Can I afford to hire her again? What if I spend all this money on the next level mastermind and no one enrolls? And what if.

Shannon Mattern: And then I literally cut myself off and I was like, nope, we are not doing that anymore. That is playing small, that is playing not to lose thinking, that is focusing on the potential loss and making decisions from a place of trying to avoid or prevent loss. And then my brain's like, well, playing to win is irresponsible and way too risky. You've done that, and you've lost. So you might as well take all your money to the casino and just, like, bet it on black or something. And, like, I literally have these back and forth conversations in my head. Yes. But then I'm like, oh, my gosh, I see what is happening here.

Shannon Mattern: My brain is trying to protect me from huge future harm because I'm still judging myself for past money decisions. And I don't trust myself to make playing to win money decisions because I'm judging past money decisions that didn't work out as, like, that's a time that I played to win, and it didn't work out. So playing to win is irresponsible and risky. You've done that and lost. You might as well just go waste. Just go blow your money on a thousand lottery tickets, right? And these realizations start to happen pretty quickly. And so I flipped to a blank page in my notebook, and, like, the words just started to flow out of me, as they always do when something clicks in my brain. And so I really wanted to share with you in this podcast episode the process I went through to forgive myself about the past money decisions and the criteria and questions that I created for myself about future money decisions.

Shannon Mattern: So that no matter what frame of mind I'm in, the next time there's a decision about outflow to be made, whether I'm in a state of, like, calm, confident, patience, or maybe I got triggered by something and I'm in a state of hustle and panic mode, either way, I can refer to this list and create, like. Like, make a decision from a playing to win state of mind from which this list was created. So now I want to invite you to just grab your journal, grab your favorite morning beverage, and find a quiet spot to go through this exercise yourself. So, the first thing that I just started writing is I just started kind of looking at, like, okay, where. Where am I at right now? Like, what do I want? Where am I at? And I'm just gonna read this to you. This is kind of personal. I don't normally write in my journal about, like, for public consumption, but I thought that this might help you, and so I'm just gonna read to you what I wrote. So, the page is dated August 13, and at the top of the page, I have written $40,000 months.

Shannon Mattern: And then I go on to say there's some inkling in my brain about wanting to create $500,000 in revenue over the span of a year, aka consistent 40k revenue months, and that I'm blocking myself in some way related to risking money. It's probably my immune system at play. And side note that we talk about that in the next level mastermind, what the immune system is. And I think where I'm stuck is a commitment to 40k months and that 40 that not only do I believe that $40,000 months are not only possible, they're inevitable. And I don't need to know how or when. I just need to know what I am doing or not doing that gets in the way of the result. And so let's start with some questions. And this is all like what I wrote to myself.

Shannon Mattern: I guess I'm like coaching myself through writing this. So I wrote what will create $40,000 months? One, an increase in leads to an increase in offers, aka frequency. What could create an increase in leads? One, increased ad spend. Two, increased visibility on podcast summits collabs. Three, search engine optimization, which side note, by the way, we're working on all of these things right now with our conversion rate optimization team at Zane and consulting, Lee Scott and her team over at Zanatain. She's also a next level mastermind member and it is working so well. I'm going to have to have Lea on the show to come talk to you about the work that we've done together. So I'm just listing these things out.

Shannon Mattern: What could create an increase in leads and then what could create an increase in offers? One, a promo calendar that I adhere to because at this point when I'm writing this, I've been like kind of wishy washy on what we are doing when for the rest of 2024 in terms of promotions. Like I have space on my calendar for promotions, but what things we're doing in those spaces kind of not nailed, nailed down to an easy, systematized way to launch new offers to our email list. And so what I mean by that is just like having a SoP because I kind of just dive in and I don't necessarily recreate the wheel every time, but I don't have it written down. I know exactly what to do. I'm a well oiled machine, but when I start to think about all of the moving pieces and parts, I always say something like, oh my gosh, that's just so much work. But when I sit down to do it, it's probably about 4 hours of work. And if I wrote it down, which I did this last time, by the way, but that's kind of where this came from, I'm like, if I wrote it down and truly knew how much time it takes, then I would stop telling myself that it's so much work. And so this last time when we did the next level mastermind, I wrote it down and I didn't.

Shannon Mattern: And it was like, oh my gosh, like, this is so fast. And I was telling myself, I am so glad I have the skill to just do all of this because I love doing it and it's so fun. It's one of those things that I have tried to delegate in the past and that I'm just like, why am I delegating things that I like doing totally different conversation for a different day? And then the third thing that I wrote that could create an increase in offers was a monthly promotional frequency and a pre written email series selling, quote unquote, the thing. And then I asked myself, what is in your way of testing those theories? And I think that this is an important distinction to note here because before Shannon would say that those were a surefire thing that would 1000% work. And then I'd go through all of the things and if it didn't work the way that I expected, I'd throw the whole thing out and like start over with something new. I have really been working over the past 18 months on just being willing to test things and gather data and then decide how to move forward with there. So my question of what is in your way of testing these theories? So I made a list, writing the content for the sales emails, sales pages and webinars. It seems to come in bursts of inspiration for me rather than on a schedule.

Shannon Mattern: And so, you know, my thought process there was that like, yeah, I can schedule the time to do it, but if I am not inspired to write the copy, then it's kind of a grind. The other thing I wrote was taking the time to research and pitch spending money on ads when we are already, quote unquote, scraping by on our inflow and outflow and overflow. Now you're starting to see that I'm getting into some mindset stuff here. I'm getting into like, ooh, what might really be in the way. I'm committed to preserving a reserve that makes me feel secure. So what that means is like, I have money in the bank and looking at that number makes me feel safe. And thinking about that number. Me releasing some money from that reserve makes me feel some type of way, right? So that's what I meant by that.

Shannon Mattern: Writing the pillar content for SEO capacity with all the other things, I have plenty of time. It's inspiration and motivation. So one of the things I've been working with my conversion rate optimization team is SEO. Like, I have just been totally just not even paying any attention to SEO over all these years. I'm just like winging it. And there's a big opportunity for us to clean that up and, like, leverage so much of the content that I've created. And it's going to require me intentionally creating some pillar content, which is basically already written. And so that's like something that I notice every time I go to write this article about pricing.

Shannon Mattern: I just get, like, stuck. Right? And then, so that was the question, what's in your way of testing those theories? And then I wrote a what's really in the way? And I under, I underline the word really? And here's where I'm telling on myself. I am telling myself I have to be the one to do all of this work myself. Two, I am not allowing myself to spend money because I have $70,000 in business debt on my line of credit. And I blame myself for making, quote unquote, bad decisions on a coaching program, on an accelerator program for YouTube, you YouTube ads. And the ads did not convert as expected. Not effectively utilizing and managing teams that I have hired in the past for in, in the like, marketing role. So that has been like, in the past, I have tried to hire this like, almost like Ops manager role or like OBM role, different people, different role, different titles.

Shannon Mattern: And I personally have been unable to effectively utilize, delegate and manage that role and really get out of that role what I thought I needed to get out of that role. I've done a lot of reflection. We talk about this a lot in our next level. Mastermind about what that was. But the story that I told myself in number two, continuing on with what I wrote, is I wasted money and harmed my business. And so now I can no longer trust my financial decisions and should therefore just not spend money. Talk about playing not to lose versus playing to win. I mean, come on.

Shannon Mattern: Okay, so the third question or so then, you know, on my note page here, then I just wrote, what's possible if you decided to stop believing the story that you're wrong or stupid or bad, and decided to have some compassion for the version of you who made those decisions and to tell the truth about the ROI, the time horizon for it, and how it may not match what the sales page said, but you still got something out of it. And so I started writing down the things that I really didn't think I was ashamed about or feeling guilty about, but they just kind of poured out of me. And so one of them was like renewing into a coaching program that I had been in like a couple of years of that person's program, and I really, really loved it. And then she offered like a renewal for that and I was like, I love this person. Like, I'm all in. I'm joining this program. But the program was not like, it probably wasn't what I needed. I'm not going to say that that program wasn't like a good program, but I think that, like, in my business, at the time of my business, I don't think that in hindsight, I don't think that that move was there.

Shannon Mattern: I don't even know. I probably have to think about that more. But what I wrote, what I got out of that was it gave me the idea for next level. Enrolling into that program opened up the idea in my mind that there could be a next step for web designer academy students beyond the practical teaching of the strategy that we were doing in that room. And so the, the $20,000 for the year of that program, yes, I did get like some practical things out of it, but mostly what I got out of it is like, oh, there is like a whole different way that I can be serving these people that I'm not serving them now. So that's what I got out of that program that was not on the sales page. And so the second thing that I wrote was the coaching program that I enrolled in in 2003. And so I can see in hindsight why I joined that program on what I was trying to get out of it.

Shannon Mattern: And what I thought I needed was not what I needed. And I joined that program to reach a really big revenue goal. My business was not going to reach that big revenue goal in 2023. I just could not see it. And what I got out of that program was the coaching that I needed to make a really, really tough decision to basically save my business. And that was to, there were two things that came out of that. It was to let go of my operations and marketing coordinator and lay her off and to also roll back the pricing of the Web designer academy. And that came out of that coaching program.

Shannon Mattern: And that coaching program was a $50,000 investment for the year. And I was, and so here's what I wrote in my journal. I wrote I was in the highest performing room, but I had my foot on the brake full force for some reason. I'm sure there are some very valuable concepts I learned, like letting a team member go and protecting my profit, that I was changing too many things at once to really know what was working and not working because I was in, side note, because I was in total hustle mode, and I joined that program to try to basically, like, it's so funny, I joined that program to, quote unquote, save my business by. But I thought I was going to grow my revenue by joining that program. What ended up happening was I joined that program to save my business, but I had to make big changes on the expense side and the pricing side in order to do that. And so the results didn't look the way that I thought that they would. And therefore, I told myself I shouldn't have done that and that I wasted money.

Shannon Mattern: I'm actually having that realization now as I'm recording this. And so did I get out of the program? What was on the sales page? If I went back and looked at it, probably. I probably did. It was probably something about, like, growing into the leader that you need to become to run a seven figure business. But I thought I was going to make seven figures in the year that I joined. And so I think I will continue to get the return from that investment that I expected well beyond the container of that program. And so I have, like, so this is how, as I'm writing all of this out, this is how I'm, like, releasing myself from my self judgment, and I'm even, like, releasing myself from it more as I'm talking to you on this podcast. So the YouTube ads accelerator, that was a really, really cool experience.

Shannon Mattern: Like, it was. It was amazing. I flew out to Salt Lake City a couple times for all of the work that we did to craft the ad. You know, it was just a really, really cool experience, and I learned a lot. And what that experience showed me is that I had a conversion problem that I didn't quite understand that I had. I thought that if I could just get more leads, the revenue side would take care of itself. But it revealed to me that my conversions were broken. And that was partly me and my mindset, and it was partly me changing too many things at once.

Shannon Mattern: And it was partly that I wasn't that, like, the business landscape had changed a little bit and I hadn't adapted to it yet. And so had I done the work with our conversion optimization, conversion rate optimization team and then done those YouTube ads, I bet they totally would have converted. I'm sure I could test those and turn those back on at any point and, and try them again and. And we could test them out. Um, so I. But in my mind, I was telling myself, like, what a waste. We turned those ads off. They weren't converting, and I wasted $25,000 on that, on that program.

Shannon Mattern: And the truth is, that $25,000 revealed to me that I needed to put my work somewhere else first. And then the other decision that I was low key. Beating myself up for Washington was not just, like, having, like, not just hiring an operations and marketing coordinator, but, like, all of the different flavors of trying to hire that role and not being successful. And not that the person in the role wasn't successful. It was that I was not successful in fully delegating that role and letting go of the things that I thought that role should be, taking off my plate and not being honest with myself about what things that I want to keep in the business and want to keep doing. And so I think I beat myself up about that, too, where I'm just like, I have spent a lot of money trying to find the right person for that role over several years, and I told myself the story, like, that's money I could have paid myself. And so I get to forgive myself for that decision, because the truth is, I know how to create money by creating value for other people. I've known how to do that for at least the past ten years as I've owned this business.

Shannon Mattern: I can always create more money. There's always more on the way, and I get to take what I learned from those decisions, even if it's not what I thought I needed to learn and just forgive myself. And so the next question that I wrote down here on my, in my notebook is, what did you learn? One, to slow down. Two, to make data driven versus emotion driven decisions. Three, to be willing to learn all of the lessons, even if they're not what I thought I paid for. Four, to be aware of when I'm in a low emotional place, stressed, anxious, depressed, whether personal or business, and not to look for a fix outside of myself or outside of therapy, meaning another coaching program or strategy. The next question I wrote down on my paper is, where have you made excellent spending decisions? And the first thing on my list is Eric and Ash, our client success coordinator, as evidenced by student results and renewals. But I could probably have a whole three hour episode on just Erica and how impactful she's been to the web designer academy, to me, to the team, to all of our students.

Shannon Mattern: But more specifically, she. Like, if I'm looking at, like, revenue, specifically with Erica, um, like, our student results and renewals are up. You know, and that's, that's, you know, she is a huge part of that. Um, our conversion rate optimization team, the money that I spend with Zain attain consulting every single month has created, um, more money for us in the business, more consistent money, more predictability, and it's growing, and we're reaching the goals that we set when we started to work together. Hiring Sarah G for copy, I mean, like, she writes emails that make money, like, she just does, and she. She does it because she does not have the same mind trash about that I have. And so she can write from my highest version of myself if all of my mind trash was cleaned up. And I wanted to say what I wanted to say, that's what Sarah does, and that's an excellent spending decision that I make every time I hire her.

Shannon Mattern: I signed up for a program earlier this year from a mentor from afar of mine that's like a membership, and I've admired her business and I've watched it for a long time, and it was really intriguing, and it inspired me to create the free course funnel and nurture sequence that we tested out for the web designer Academy back in May that has been converting really, really well for us. And so while at the time I was like, oh, is this one of those things where I'm just trying to feel better by joining another course? It's like, no, this is, like, very practically helping me implement it helped. It's just helping me plug a bunch of leaky spots in my business, and it has absolutely paid off, like, just paying myself more back in the day. So pre 2023, I was paying myself way more than I am right now, like, in 2021, 2020, and 2021, and even 2022 were really, really good years, and I was paying myself really well, and we built up our personal savings quite significantly. And that was a fantastic money decision that I made, because not only did I have a challenging 2023 and paid, didn't pay myself for a few months and also, like, reduced my salary. My husband was out of work for six months, and he had a severance that covered a, I think most, if not all of that, but our savings allowed us to just, like, still be able to move forward without worry that we just knew we were fine. And so that was a great money decision to pay myself, quote, unquote, that much, because I had had some thoughts about, like, oh, I shouldn't have taken so much money out of the business back then. I shouldn't have paid myself that much.

Shannon Mattern: If I wouldn't have, then 2023 wouldn't have gone so bad. Or, like, whatever I was thinking, like, no, that was a great money decision. That one paid off. And so the next question I wrote on my paper was, what are some places you could strategically invest to create 40k months in the future? And Sarah G. Will be very happy about this because I wrote down copywriting, and we've already talked about this, like, sales email sequences for next level, which, Spoiler alert, I did hire her to write for me, our paid discovery mastery live workshop that we did a couple weeks ago. I'm like, that worked out really well. I would love to test selling that as a standalone course outside of our web designer academy, which requires a sales page and sales emails and a funnel. And I wrote a couple other things that I'm not going to share here because I haven't decided whether or not I'm doing them, and I don't want to, like, say on the podcast that I'm doing them, but, you know, just, like, outsourcing a lot of the writing that I normally take on myself because she's just really fantastic at it.

Shannon Mattern: And then, like, delegating, pitching, finding collaborators and sponsors and increased ad spend or just three ideas that I wrote down. And so that's kind of the process that I took myself through to rebuild the trust with myself. So I'll recap those questions that I wrote down in case you're interested. I was like, I started kind of with, like, the goal, which was, what did I want to create? And that was $40,000 months. And then it was like, okay, what are some of my best ideas on what will create that? And then what will, like, what will create. Yeah, what will create that? What do I think? What are my theories? What's in my way of testing those theories? And then I asked myself, what's really in the way of testing those theories and got a little bit deeper. And then I asked myself, what is possible if you decided to stop believing your story? So that was in response to, like, what's really in the way? Because what's really in the way is just a story that I'm telling myself, right. So what's possible if you decide to stop believing the story? My story is about that I've, like, made bad decisions.

Shannon Mattern: And so what would happen if you had compassion for the version of you who made those decisions? And what would happen if you told the truth about the return on investment, the time horizon, and how, and what did you get out of it, even if it didn't match the sales page? So I listed out, where are all the places that I'm judging myself and what's the truth? What's the truth from a really compassionate, powerful place? And so then I asked myself, where, what did you learn from those decisions that you made? Where have you made excellent spending decisions? And what are some places that you could strategically invest to create 40k months in the future? I guess that was kind of like a recap of the theories. And so those are the questions that I asked myself. And then, like, I shared with you, I was like, I think I need, like a, like a list. I need a criteria from this place of, like, forgiveness, of telling myself the story that I'm, like, bad or wrong, that I made some of these decisions. And then, you know, had a, quote, unquote bad year. I just had a year of less inflow than I had planned for. What questions can I ask myself the next time I'm going to make a financial decision from a place of trust and compassion and that, like, takes into account, like, what I have learned? And so I'm going to give you my list. I had, I did not have a number that I wanted to write down of things, but it ended up being 25 things that, that I will use the next time I make a decision of outflow decision in my business.

Shannon Mattern: So number one, is there a clear and immediate, within three months return on investment potential for this quote, unquote, investment for this outflow? Will I be left with a reusable revenue generating asset as a result of this investment? So, like, I think of Sarah G's sales page that she wrote for the next level mastermind. Will I be doing that again? Yes. Will that sales page continue to work for me for a very long time? Is that a revenue generating asset? Yes. The sales emails, revenue generating assets. So the answer that, that answer is yes. Is this teaching me how to do something or is it having something done for me? If it's done for me, why is it better to hire this person to do it versus me doing it myself? And I also wrote, and time is never an okay answer to this question. And I wrote that for myself because I know that I will tell myself, I don't have time to hire someone to do this for me or I don't have time to delegate this, or it will take longer to delegate this. So I've just taken time off the table because I have a big time excuse around hiring people to help me.

Shannon Mattern: And I also have a time excuse the other way, like, oh, I don't have time to do this. I just need to have someone else do it for me when the real reason is probably I feel insecure about it or I feel like there's some other reason why I would say that I didn't have time to do it and wanted to offload it to someone else. And even if that is true, I don't want to make this the decision based on that, because I've found in the past that I have made, I'm not solving the right problem when I do that. So if teaching me how, this is the next one. When will you do the thing that you've learned how to do? This is me asking myself if I'm spending money to teach me how to do something or I'm having something done for me. If it's teaching me how, when will I do the thing that I'm learning how to do? So this question is getting me to, like, not just be like, ooh, shiny object, or ooh, I think I should be doing that. It's like, oh, is this part of my plan and do I need to learn how to do this? Next sub question. Under that, if teaching me how to do something, what's the ROI from me learning how to do this thing and implementing it myself? Will I be creating my own revenue generating asset as a result of implementing what I learned? Am I really the best person to do this? Why or why not? And who are you already paying that could take this on? So that's all related to the question of, if I'm wanting to spend money on something to teach me how to do something, when will I do it? What's the Roi for me learning it? Will it result in a revenue generating asset for me? Am I really the best person to do it? Who am I already paying that could take this on? Next question, if this investment is a time saver, what will you be doing with the time saved? Should you be the one doing the thing you intend to do with the time saved? Would that thing be better done by someone else? That is this the most effective place to invest or are we trying to solve the wrong problem? Let's see.

Shannon Mattern: What number are we on? 123456. Question seven. Does this help us better serve our students and help them get better results faster? Number eight, what evidence or information or data do we have to determine if this investment should be made a at all or b right now? Number nine, what's athenae? If you don't make the investment, what are you missing out on? Number ten, what are you expecting to get out of this investment? Number eleven, if you don't get what you expect, what will you think, feel, do or make it mean? Number twelve, if you don't get what you expect from this investment, what is your next step? Number 13. Is this a Hail Mary? Are you trying to save something? Number 14, do you secretly or otherwise expect instant overnight, huge results, like a six figure launch? Six figure launch or similar? Number 15, if you had to wait 30 days, would you still want it? Number 16, how much work will this add to your plate? Number 17. Is this coaching a course, a tool? Is this coaching a course, a tool, an asset or a service? A service that relates to so service that results in a reusable direct revenue generating asset in the next 90 days. Service that results in more revenue. Coaching that teaches me something new, that helps me better, help our students. Coaching course tool that helps me market or get more clients, which I wrote next to that one red flag because it's going to help me, it's going to require me to do more.

Shannon Mattern: And that's not at the place I'm at in my business right now. And I already know how to do that. I already know how to market my business and get clients. I don't need another course that helps me market my business or get more clients. That's just where I'm at in my business right now. Let's see, what number are we on? I don't know. I lost count. So I'm just going to.

Shannon Mattern: I just wrote check boxes next to all of these in my notes, so I don't know what number we are on. Where will the money for this investment come from? What ROI are you really seeking? What return on investment are you seeking? Is it monetary? Time? Whatever? And how will you measure the return on investment? So Roi, different types of roi listed. Money, time, capacity, emotional and personal outcomes over the short and long term. And I would add to this, like, what's the time horizon for the ROI that you're seeking? Because how quickly am I expecting to get a return on any of those things? Because I know myself, if I'm too impatient, then I will say, ah, that didn't work and I won't see it through, and then I will end up wasting the thing because I won't follow through. So those are the questions that I asked myself, and there is a transcript, you know, that comes with this if you want to see them all listed out. I totally lost count, but for some reason I counted 25 here at the top of my page and you can go back and listen to those, but I really encourage you to, like, do this for yourself. My questions that I wrote down for my criteria are really specific to me and mind trash and blind spots and behaviors that I have personally been aware of in myself and really paying attention and noticing how I make decisions through my unique lens and framework. And so I really invite you to do this for yourself so that you can make these decisions for yourself.

Shannon Mattern: And that's really how I have decided. Like, that's what playing to win means for me, is that I'm not just going to be like, oh, yeah, it's a sure thing. I'm going to like go all in on this because it's going to like give me overnight instant results, which is what playing to win sounds like to my brain. What playing to win really is, is slowing down, asking myself these questions and, you know, applying this criteria to outflow decisions so that I can make really informed decisions from a place of self trust and empowerment versus playing small and playing not to lose. So that is all I have for you this week. I hope you heard something that helped you, and if so, I'd love for you to take a moment to leave us a rating and review. It just helps the podcast get found by other web designers that need to hear this. So if you're listening on Spotify, you can just go to the show page and tap rate show.

Shannon Mattern: If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, you can just scroll up on this episode. You'll see a link to tap web Designer Academy.com review that'll take you to the right place in the app to leave a review. Thank you so much for taking a sec to leave us a rating and review. It means the world to me. And I'll see you back here next week for episode 108, which will be my August 2024 2024 income report. Bye.