211 – 5 Lessons Learned in the 5 Year Anniversary of JoshHall.co🎉

[00:00:00] Josh: And welcome friends welcome into episode 211, which is a very special landmark style episode for me personally, because I realized recently that hot dog! This is the five year anniversary since I started this personal brand@joshhall.co and this endeavor to help you as web designers, build your dream web design business.

[00:00:26] Josh: I figure in honor of this five year anniversary, I had to do something and I, I do in this episode, wanna share with you a little bit about where this came from, especially for those of you who are new to, to my brand. I don’t know if you know the. The beginning story of how this all came about, but I wanted to share a little bit about where it was, where it’s been and where it’s going as well.

[00:00:48] Josh: But also of course, I’m not gonna just, you know, share something without giving you some value and giving you something to, to take and apply to your business. So I have put together five really important lessons I’ve learned on this five year journey so far and building this brand that I hope is gonna help you as.

[00:01:06] Josh: And it was kind of funny because I didn’t even realize it or think about it until I got hit by some Facebook memories on my personal Facebook. And those memories reminded me that I started sharing some posts about what I was up to with this little passion project that Josh hall.co. And that’s a hundred percent what it was in the start.

[00:01:26] Josh: For those of you who don’t know, I had built and ran my own web design agency, and I got it to a place where I started scaling. And then that opened up some time for me to kind of explore an interest of mine, which was teaching I, at that time, I was in a, um, like a mentorship program for a local high school here. And I loved it. I so loved getting down, getting a chance to sit down with some students, at least the students who were interested, most of the students back then just wanted to do game design. Um, but they couldn’t hit deadlines. So I don’t know how that’ll go. Uh,

[00:02:00] Josh: But there were a handful of students who were really interested in online business and design and stuff. And I just loved that and it really kind of sparked an interest for me to, to teach. So when I was scaling my web design agency, I. Let me just start teaching. I’ll share what I know. We just, uh, the last episode we had Geno Quiroz on who is one of my very good colleagues, who I was really inspired by, along with a ton of other people, particularly in the divvy community and the WordPress community about feeling open, to share what you know, and that’s how it all started for me.

[00:02:29] Josh: But it was, as I just said, 100% a passion project, it was not a legit business. It was a side hustle of mine. And more importantly, I had no. Where it was gonna go. I did originally I was planning on doing child themes for divvy. That was my whole thing. As I figured, I would share some tutorials. Maybe, you know, build a little YouTube channel that shows how I build websites.

[00:02:55] Josh: And then eventually I’d be like a product creator and I would sell templates and, um, you know, packages and stuff like that. I had no idea or, or plugins, I might say I had no idea that I would get in. I would get into like online courses and business building, which is a hundred percent what I do now. So that’s kind where it all started for me.

[00:03:12] Josh: I’m just kind of giving you a recap if you’re new to my brand here and you’re not familiar with, with where it came from. And then I realized pretty quickly that a lot of people were interested in my processes and my knowledge and sales and expertise. Well, I could say expertise, but just my experience, I should say in like growing my business.

[00:03:33] Josh: And then I realized there are a lot of people who build plugins and build child themes and, and resources and tools and stuff. There are not that many people who share their processes. Why? Probably a lot of the different reasons they may, number one, they may just not have that much time to be able to do it.

[00:03:50] Josh: Most business owners just simply do not have time to share what they know at scale or do it in depth. But I had scaled my agency at that point to, like I said, I think I said in the beginning, I had a little bit of time to be able to devote to this, which is important. If you’re gonna build a side hustle, you need to make sure if you’re already extended at like a hundred percent in your main job and in your duties, then anything else you do on top of that is, is gonna suffer likely.

[00:04:15] Josh: So I was at a point where I was able to free up on average, at least 10 to, to 15 hours a week or so in, in my, you know, day to day, week to week to be able to create tutorials and start my brand. But I realized long and short that. People were interested in my processes and how I grew a six-figure business.

[00:04:34] Josh: I. Even though I had a six-figure business, which was closing in on, uh, at one point almost a quarter million dollars is what I nearly got up to as a web design agency, just me and the subcontractor and a couple other subcontractors that I would hire out. Occasionally. I didn’t think that was terribly impressive because I was kind of comparing myself to other people, either locally or in the space who were doing like seven figures, like million dollar agencies.

[00:04:58] Josh: But then I also realized a lot of those agency owners got burned. Or they, yeah, maybe they made like a million dollars, but their expenses were like $950,000. So they actually weren’t making that much money personally and much profit. So anyway, I, I realized that I was, you know, I, I had something to share and.

[00:05:20] Josh: This isn’t a point I have listed out here, but something I want to encourage you with, particularly when it comes to getting your clients is you may feel like you have nothing to share. You may feel like you’re new to the industry, or maybe even you’ve been in the industry for a while. I see a lot of this with some of my students who are running six figure web design businesses, but they feel like I’m not, who am I to, to you know, share or, or educate.

[00:05:43] Josh: I’m like, are you kidding me? You’ve been doing this for like eight years and you’ve got, you know, you just made $200,000 share what, you know, that’s incredible. Go for it. So you are likely in that position too, whether you are a little more established or whether you’re just starting out, you know, way more than you think you do and you should share it.

[00:06:01] Josh: And here’s the really cool thing about getting clients I’ve, I’ve learned. And we’ve talked about this on the podcast a lot, but just as a reminder, Even if you’re like two months into your website journey to your clients who don’t know anything about websites, you are an expert. So share what, you know, even if you just know a little bit.

[00:06:17] Josh: Um, but anyway, I am gonna get to these five points that I wanted to share as I’ve looked back and reflected on this incredible journey of five years. Because like I said started with just a little side hustle, I basically committed in the beginning, which I think is something that really helped. Is I committed?

[00:06:34] Josh: Is it a really important C word? I committed to doing one tutorial per week for 12 weeks. So three, I gave myself light at the end of the tunnel. Cuz what I did not wanna do is just say, I’m just gonna do a tutorial a week and then suddenly it’s extremely daunting. Like have you ever done that? Have you ever thought about something you wanna do?

[00:06:52] Josh: This happens with a lot of clients. They’re like, I’m gonna blog. So I’ll blog once a week and then they do it for three weeks and then they’re completely. So I gave myself light at the end of the tunnel, 12 tutorials in and around Dian tutorials. I use, uh, the tools I use, which by the way, you can see all my first tutorials.

[00:07:10] Josh: If you go to Josh hall dot coast slash YouTube, and, uh, you can subscribe there and go back to the very beginning, look at all the tutorials. Maybe I’ll even link a few here in the show notes, but I started that and I started growing this brand at Josh hall, do co originally it was just in the divvy community.

[00:07:24] Josh: And again, It was mainly around divvy and, and the tools I was using. But then as I started exploring some resources and sharing my knowledge and business, I realized pretty quickly that I have a lot to share and it, I got a lot of different ways I can share my knowledge. So then I tried a course. I was so passionate about recurring income.

[00:07:46] Josh: That I had built with my maintenance plan. At one point I was making almost $5,000 a month on my maintenance plan, managing almost 75 clients, just me and my wife was doing reports and doing some updates. And that was pretty much it I’d never really got additional help on my maintenance plan. And it was key for my family.

[00:08:03] Josh: Those of you who know some of, some of my story, my first daughter Bria, uh, she was in the NICU for two months when she was born. So the recurring income we had through my maintenance plan was crucial at getting us through that. So. Long story short. That’s what inspired me to do my first course, which is my maintenance plan course, which version two is out today.

[00:08:21] Josh: And it’s helping people make thousands of dollars a month now, which is incredible. Um, but that’s what started the, the course itch for me. And then once I launched that first course, It’s like a light bulb turned on. I knew this was it. This is exactly what I wanna do. This is what I’m really good at. Like, I’m pretty, I’m pretty dang good at tutorials, but I’m way better as a course creator.

[00:08:42] Josh: And I, I feel like I’ve learned to be more succinct than taking a complex subject that could go for hours and hours and hours and hours and just boil it, bullying it down to the most important things you need to know to get a result. And that’s what all of my courses and all my programs now and moving forward are, are, are here to help you do as well.

[00:08:59] Josh: So anyway, I started with the course and then the course bug hit me and then boom, I’m off of the races doing courses. And at that time still scaling my, my web design business and it was awesome. And now, as I look back, let’s see, that was my first course launched a year later after I started my business, my first course was the fall of 2018.

[00:09:18] Josh: Uh, actually it was August, 2018, so four years ago now for my first course. Um, but I realized, gosh, that was, this is like, this is the impact. And now as I look back. I’ve got 10 courses together. I’ve got a membership of my web design club, which is incredible close the note, 2 million YouTube views. This podcast thanks to you listening right now. We are now officially in the one and a half percent of all podcasts globally. And that is not, I’m not building myself up for that at all. It’s due to you listening and downloading,

[00:09:51] Josh: I guess it registers the same, basically. And then the amazing guests that come onto the show and just share their gold and their experience. So, um, all that to say, This little project as Josh Hoak, this little passion project has turned into a legit online business, and it’s a leader now in the industry, this entire brand between my YouTube channel, this podcast and my courses, it is a leader in the web design industry, and I’m really focusing now moving forward as you’ll hear more and more.

[00:10:24] Josh: On shocker, the business side of web design. That’s one reason I recently renamed this podcast to the web design business podcast, because there are so many people doing tutorials on websites and stuff, and I’ll continue to do some of that stuff as it pertains to growing your business.

[00:10:41] Josh: But I just realized my power, my power where I am right now and what I’ve been fortunate to kind of a place I’ve been able to, fortunate to put myself in is in a place where I have an incredible worldwide network of people who are building successful web design businesses. And I feel incredibly fortunate between this podcast and just. Web design club and the relationships I have.

[00:11:05] Josh: I get a chance to see all of it, the goods, the bads, the pros and the cons. I see what’s working. I see the different models. I see the different types of marketing and sales that work for certain personality types. So my whole goal now, and moving into the future, just to fill you in and, and give you a glimpse at what’s ahead.

[00:11:21] Josh: Is to just help you further and further in building your dream web design business. And I I’m, I, I guess I’ll, I’ll go, I’ll give you a little, I’ll give you a tip. I’ll give you a hint on the next big thing that I’m working on, uh, which kind of coincides with my book that I’m working that I’m I started writing, I got put up the breaks on it because I’m working on this new program, but I am working on a mastery web design business program.

[00:11:45] Josh: Um, So I’ll fill you more in, on more on that moving forward. But, uh, that is the next big thing I’m doing. I’m basically looking at all that I’ve learned in all in my business and what’s working for my students and Sony, my colleagues. And then I’m really excited to kind of expand on all the different things to help you really master your web design business.

[00:12:05] Josh: So keeping your for that that’s that’s up ahead next, but that’s kinda where things have led me in these last five years to this point where I know my focus and I know my, you know, ideal customer avatar as my, my friend and, uh, mentor Amy Porterfield likes to call it. A lot of people will call this your ideal client or whatever you want to call it.

[00:12:26] Josh: But this is how I got clear, which is actually a point that I’m gonna come up to here. Um, but that’s where things are at and that’s where things are headed. I told you, I wanna give you some value to help apply some of what I’ve learned in this been building this online brand@joshhall.co back to you. So there are probably about 3,200 points that I could list out, but for 10 time insanity sake, I tried to boil down to five.

[00:12:52] Josh: Now these are not the five most important things I’ve learned. These were simply the five. Like if you asked me Josh, what are like five important things you’ve learned? These were the top five things that came to my mind today, at least. So this is what I wanna share with you. Five quick, important lessons that I’ve learned on this journey of building this online, personal brand.

1) Consistency Beats Intensity

[00:13:10] Josh: Number one, this is a quote, most of these are quote, you know, quote ish, quote, like this is a quote that actually I heard from my really good friend and colleague, Tim strife for, of divvy life all the way back in episode two of the podcast, he said this quote and it stuck with me and has not left me ever since.

[00:13:27] Josh: It’s another reason I so glad I started this podcast. The amount of knowledge I’ve gotten that hopefully you’ve gotten as well, but the quote was that consistency, beats, intensity. And I could not number one agree more, but I also could not have heard that at a better time because when he told me that I was getting ready to go really, really ham on finishing some of my courses that I had created.

[00:13:53] Josh: And I, and it kind of just reminded me that. You gotta stay. The course, consistency is so important, mainly from a business perspective, for a lot of probably obvious reasons you wanna be consistent in the content you produce. You wanna be consistent in emails. You wanna be consistent in how you show up.

[00:14:10] Josh: But personally, consistency is what leads to sustainability. That’s kind of a. Point number two under this, uh, this quote is the people who I see who are really like they’re successful in whatever that means to them, but they’re like content and they feel like they can sustain their business. They’re consistent.

[00:14:30] Josh: Now uh, most people go so intense with the content they produce and goes so well, especially in the. with how much they do that. They burn out. And we talked in the last episode with gen about his lessons learned and how he burnt out and how he, you know, gained a lot of weight and had a lot of health problems.

[00:14:51] Josh: And now how he’s combating that and doing an incredible. Job at, uh, really making a lot of lifestyle changes that have filtered down to as businesses. But I’ve learned that as well on, on, in, in different seasons of life where it’s so easy just to like work well outside and, and hustle. So far past what you can do long term, and I think there’s a time and place for hustle for sure.

[00:15:14] Josh: And there’s busy seasons in your life and in your business versus slower seasons. Like I’m coming out of a slower season right now and kind of going into a busy season. Which I still love and still fires me up. Um, but I’ve learned that you’ve gotta manage it and you’ve gotta balance it. And really the key to doing all that is consistency.

[00:15:33] Josh: So the things that you do on a consistent basis, that it may not feel like you’re doing that much, but if you look at things at, in like a, a monthly recap or a quarterly recap, and then years down the road, you realize like, wow, like the tutorials I mentioned, for example, I was only doing one tutorial week, which I got faster and faster at.

[00:15:52] Josh: And I, I started bulk recording some tutorials. So at one, I think it was like the second month I did tutorials. I didn’t do technically much@allunderjoshhall.co that month aside from getting the emails and stuff ready. But it’s because I had recorded a bunch the first month I did it. And it kind of all published out.

[00:16:10] Josh: So I stayed consistent publishing, but I wasn’t as consistent actually creating the, the stuff. But that’s what you can do when you create content. You don’t have to do it once a week or once a day. You can bulk and batch things and then push it out. Publicly, uh, distribute it consistently, but that was so much better than like going so wild on tutorials and doing all my things that I would burn out within a few months.

[00:16:34] Josh: That’s what I wanted to avoid. And that’s what I want to help you avoid as well. Cause so many people do it. I get the draw. I know there’s such a push to, to hustle, uh, but hustle in seasons and hustle in short bursts is, is where it’s at. If you’re gonna be sustainable. that’s basically essentially what I learned all boils down. I, I really couldn’t put a quote behind that until I heard Tim say that in episode two of this podcast, which was that consistency beats intensity. Mm. Thank you, Tim. And thank you for whoever coined that quote, probably Abraham Lincoln.

2) Your Vibe Attracts Your Tribe

[00:17:09] Josh: Number two here. Another quote that I heard from my, uh, one of my top mentors in the, on online entrepreneurial world I heard this from Pat Flynn who was a course creator, an OG podcaster, an online entrepreneur and a tester of, of all sorts of business. Uh, you likely know him if you’ve listened to podcasts or been online for a while, but if you haven’t, you can go to episode 100 of this podcast to, to, to hear from pat, but he told me in that episode, your vibe attracts your tribe.

[00:17:39] Josh: And that’s another quote that has stuck with me ever since pat said it. And then as I look back at my tutorials, as I look back at all the content I’ve produced, it is so true that what you put out and the way you position yourself and the way you come across online, you will get the type of people that you attract.

[00:18:00] Josh: Um, When it says, like your vibe attracts your tribe, that can be your personality. It can be the type of person you are your interests, for sure. But what I’ve found is that it can also be your customers. Like it also filters right down to marketing and sales, because how you come across will bring to you the people that you attract.

[00:18:22] Josh: So for example, when I first did a, uh, like a Craigslist ad. Well, I, when I started my business, I was like, I’m just gonna throw some stuff at the wall and see what works. I did Craigslist ads, and I put on that ad cheap web design. Now can you guess what type of clients I go ahead. Go ahead. Take a minute.

[00:18:46] Josh: Think about, yep. Think about it. You probably got it immediately. I got cheap clients. They were terrible clients for the most part. And I realized very early on, I had to catch myself that if I put cheap. On my services page, I’m going to attract cheap people. And same thing. I, then I called it affordable still though affordable was basically a fancier word for cheap.

[00:19:11] Josh: So I was still getting not great clients. It wasn’t until I positioned myself through my experience and knowing more about web design and getting results for clients. Although I had never been through any formal courses that would’ve, you know, fast tracked my journey tenfold, but I essentially learned that if I come across professional, I don’t even mention affordable or cheap or anything.

[00:19:31] Josh: Like, even if it’s true, I don’t need to mention it, but I just put my pricing. This is what it is. I came across much more professional, much more premium. And that’s when my business really started to turn around. So your vibe attracts your tribe. This is really, really important when it comes to sales and then your pricing too.

[00:19:49] Josh: Like how you position yourself in the market. If your prices are really low, it’s okay to start there to build some confidence and learn your craft. But very quickly you need to up your prices because you are positioning yourself too low. I’ve even found that with some of my courses, quite honestly, I, I heads up.

[00:20:08] Josh: I’m just gonna be completely transparent with you. The pricing for all of my courses and programs is gonna change pretty drastically moving forward. So. If you’re listening to this episode, when it comes out, if there’s any courses you’re interested in, I would jump on it right now because I’m, I’m just giving you a heads up.

[00:20:24] Josh: Things are gonna change with my offers because I realize as I’ve looked, looked into this, I’m helping people. A lot of my students are building. Multi six figure web design businesses. So the knowledge and all of my systems and everything that, that I’ve learned in my experience, and I’ve been able to bring together is literally worth hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars potentially.

[00:20:46] Josh: So I. I’ve had to even apply that to my pricing and my programs and my courses now and moving forward. And it’s something I wanna recommend that you do as well, because you may think that charging $2,000 for a website is astronomical and ridiculous, but that is nothing to compare to the results that you can get clients, especially as you learn your craft more.

[00:21:06] Josh: And it, the value is there. It really is about how you position. And this can also, the vibe attracts your tribe. This can get into messaging and content and like literally how you put yourself out there. So it really is a, is a, it is a thought and a quote that encompasses a lot of different things, but I think it’s really important to, to remember your vibe attracts your tribe.

[00:21:29] Josh: How you put yourself out there, how you come across, will filter into every aspect of your business from pricing from first impressions to your sequences, to your entire onboarding and offboarding se uh, experience like client experience. All those things are gonna help you attract the right people for your business.

[00:21:49] Josh: but it starts with you. If you are offering cheap prices and your systems are a mess and you can’t deliver on a, a good product for your clients, you’re not gonna get great clients. So you gotta do some work on yourself and on your business before you’re gonna get those really good clients. So that is my tip. that is my main area of, uh, focus. When it comes to this idea of your vibe attracts your tribe. It’s not just, surfacey like people who look like Josh, play drums. Like Jurassic park and star wars are gonna follow you. No, it’s, it’s much deeper than that.

3) Perfection is the Enemy of Progress

[00:22:22] Josh: Number three here. Oh, Ooh. This, you need to hear this. You need to hear this because I need to hear this daily and oh, I should probably tell you what it is, right. It’s perfection. And it is the idea that perfection is the enemy of progress. I know it’s been quoted and said a lot of different ways, but to me, as I look at that, what I’ve noticed as a course creator, especially, but also just being in web design and an online entrepreneur I’ve meeting.

[00:22:53] Josh: So I I’ve met so many other people who are online business owners who don’t even get started because they’ve blocked themselves with trying to achieve perfect. It is my friend, the enemy of progress. This applies in so many areas across your, your business. But I will tell you when you wanna launch something, it is very natural to overthink it.

[00:23:20] Josh: I’m sure you can think right now of something you’re doing right now. And you’re like, ah, yes, guilty. I’m over. I’m overthinking this. I’m like I’m awake at I’m like going in 10 different directions. It could go. I ju I can’t even move forward because I’m paralyzed. What is it? Analysis paralysis. There’s like so many different ways you could go.

[00:23:38] Josh: There’s no rule book on it. You’re just, you’re looking for perfection and you’re just stuck. It’s perfection trying to achieve perfection is going to keep you right where you are. It’s the enemy of progress. So what I’ve learned as my business has progressed, and as I’ve built. Is that usually once you get to about 80% on something launch it, you’re good to go.

[00:24:00] Josh: And I had that rule for websites by the way, too. Once I, when I was working with clients, I would tell them there’s things we could do for sure, but let’s not let that stop a launch. Let’s get this project out. Get the website live. We’ll tweak. And we’ll make some changes over the next few months and into the next half year or even year.

[00:24:22] Josh: But right now this is phase one and phase one’s gotta go. We gotta get it out there. Let’s start making money. Let’s move. We’ll adjust it moving forward to tweak it. And I’m telling you right now, friends, I have seen so many business owners either succeed or fail off of this Princip. They get it to where it’s 80 to 90% in my mind it’s quote, unquote, damn good. And you go, you launch and

[00:24:45] Josh: yes, it’s not perfect. Yes. There may be a couple spelling errors. You wanna do it in excellence? I’m not saying you don’t wanna do something in excellence, but don’t let those little nitpicky things of perfection hold you back from launching. Whatever it is you are sitting on right now. So this is a challenge. This point number three is a lesson learned for me. And it is a challenge for you.

[00:25:05] Josh: It’s also a challenge for me too, because again, after I remind myself daily of this, this podcast episode is a perfect example. I recorded the intro a couple different times because I I felt like it was just at like 50%, but then once I started this, I don’t usually rerecord my podcast and I very rarely edit them. But sometimes I do the intros a couple different times until I feel like, all right, we’re hitting 80%. Let’s go. Now I’m not gonna stop this at all moving forward. And it’s because I’ve learned perfection is the enemy.

[00:25:35] Josh: Now on that note, if I tried to create perfect podcast episodes that had zero filler words and add no fluff, I tried to keep the fluff out as much as possible. I would be recording podcast 24 7 in all of my work days in order for me to create six to eight episodes a month, I have to get ’em as good as they can be.

[00:25:56] Josh: Damn good enough and then go. I’ve applied this to every aspect of my business, same goes with course creations and launches and everything that I do. And I want you to think about it as well. Now, important caveat, important side note. I do not want you to create halfass work and I don’t want you to not feel good and confident about what you offer, but there is a fine line between like, ah, it could be better to, I need it to be perfect.

[00:26:24] Josh: And that fine line is about 10 to 20. And once you get that 80 ish percent and you feel like it’s pretty dang good. I think this would work. Yes, there’s work to do, but I feel good about this. Go go right now. So think now you can pause this episode if you want. Wherever you are. If you’re driving, if you’re mowing the grass, doing the dishes, doing the laundry, whatever, maybe you need to just stop this and think about what am I sitting on?

[00:26:50] Josh: Like, what project am I sitting on that I’ve been just dragging my feet, cuz I’m trying to make it perfect. Maybe it’s a new service that you’re thinking about offering. Maybe you’re building your business right now and you’ve got a landing page, but you’re just not completely there, but you’re so closed. You know, you could have had it up by now, launch it, get it to 80% and. Perfection is the enemy of progress.

[00:27:14] Josh: Now you can continue to make it better and better and better, but it’s gonna evolve over time. That’s again, phase one. I love phases because it’s like, like when I launched Josh hall.co, that was, that was 100% phase one. I didn’t even have any, I didn’t have any products. Did you know that I had zero pro I had no way of making money. When I started Josh hall do co it was 100% a passion project. All I had was tutorials, uh, some interviews that I had done. And then I was building my email list. That’s all I started out with.

[00:27:45] Josh: Now, going back if I had thought about, okay, do I wanna do courses? Do I wanna do programs? Do I wanna do a membership? Do I wanna do products? I would’ve been an analysis paralysis. It, it would’ve been terrible. I’m honestly so glad. Excuse me that I started Josh hall.co in the beginning with very little time. I had a lot of constraints because I was neck deep, knee deep, I guess you could say neck deep, too.

[00:28:09] Josh: Right? I don’t know. I was chest deep in building my web design business. So I was like, I got about 10 hours to do this this week. So what can I do in 10 hours at that point? All I could do is build my site, create an email list, build tutorials and a few other resources around that. That was it. I didn’t have time to overthink it. And I think that actually really did me some good.

[00:28:28] Josh: So I hope that’s a note of encouragement to you too. For those of you who are building something on the side, or you’re building your web design business as a side hustle, sometimes the best thing you can do is to have constraints and limited time, because it’s gonna force you to only do the most important high impact things. And that’s what you’ll get to avoid perfection, which again, One last time. Perfection is the enemy of progress. I’m sure it’s been said more eloquently, but that’s how I like to say it.

4) Write Future Plans in Pencil

[00:28:59] Josh: All right number four. As we get ready to wrap this up here, this is something that I’ve realized more recently and it’s not talked about too much because I think there’s so many different ways to go about this, but what I’ve learned, and this is no fancy quote, this is just a statement of what I’ve learned, and that is that goals and plans should be written in pencil.

[00:29:22] Josh: Reason being is because in the corporate world, most people are trained in a typical business. Whatever that business is that you make an annual goal, usually monetary, they don’t factor in your life balance or what, you know, your freedom wants to the freedom doesn’t even exist in corporate world right? You get what? A couple weeks off, a couple weeks off during the year. And that’s it.

[00:29:43] Josh: That’s your goals and plans in the corporate world are typically in pin and they are annual goals. And then you’ll have like three year goals and then five year goals. See some people even go as far as like 10 year goals. And I should say we got an episode coming up here soon with a, uh, financial advisor and business builder. There’s a lot of value in creating goals and plans. Particularly on the personal side, it might be different than your business plans, because you may have personal goals that will never change.

[00:30:12] Josh: You might have a certain amount of money that you wanna make to be able to retire and personal goals, but guess what your business goals can change very quickly. And in the couple years, since we went through the COVID stuff, we should all realize that within a very short amount of time, World economic situation can change drastically. So you have to be comfortable with pivoting. And that’s why I feel, and I’ve learned this in so many different ways. The goals and plans should be written in pencil case and point.

[00:30:48] Josh: Can you imagine if I had started Josh hall.co and set out a three year goal? In pin that could not be deviated from that said, I’m going to build plugins and divvy child themes. Had I done that I would not have gotten into courses and I would likely have never even started this podcast, which was two years after I, I started josh.co.

[00:31:10] Josh: But because I had my goals just penciled in, I thought maybe I’ll do plugins and child themes and layouts, and I’ll still, this isn’t a full-time thing. I’ll just do it alongside my agency. And then I realized there is a huge need for people to build their dream web design business. And not many people are helping them.

[00:31:29] Josh: This is what I feel led to do. I can’t do it with 10 hours a week. I need to do this full time. That’s when I made the risky move to go. Full-time Josh hall dot. Sell my agency and retain ownership, status of it and be a consultant basically for my old agency, but dedicate my full resources and my full focus to you and help you build your web design business.

[00:31:50] Josh: That was all because I did not write my goals and plans in pin. I scratch them out. I changed them. And that’s what I wanna recommend that you do as well, because you will likely pivot. especially for those of you, I guess it could be at all. It could be if you’re just starting, but even if you’re more established or even if you’re really advanced, sometimes even more so for those of you who have been doing your business for maybe 5, 6, 7, 8 years, plus you will likely get to a point and I’ve found this to be about a seven year.

[00:32:21] Josh: Where you wanna do something different. And for those of you who are there right now, heads up, because if you’re feeling those feelings, it’s not uncommon. In fact, most online entrepreneurs that I know get to a, there’s something about the number seven you get to. I love it for pricing, but I’ve also found once you do something for seven years, You’re usually at a point where you either wanna start teaching or pivoting it or changing some things or want to get out of it completely.

[00:32:49] Josh: It’s not uncommon, which is why your goals and your plans need to be basically ready to pivot. Now you can have an end goal in mind. but the tactile stuff and the plans and the packages and what you offer and how you do it, that is likely gonna change. It’s one reason I like to do goals often in, in quarters now.

[00:33:08] Josh: Um, I’ll look at like first off, I know what my family needs per year. So I do have an annual goal of like what I absolutely need to bring home, but then apart from. As long as I have the expenses covered for the business and can make some profit, then the other goals and stuff can, can change case. In point this year in 2022, I just looked at my goals that I had set for the year.

[00:33:29] Josh: And I’m so glad that I have applied this principle before that, because like probably 75% of my original goals, I’m not even concerned with right now. I have a completely new, clear vision on things moving forward, especially with this mastery program and book that I’m writing. Um, That was not even in the guards in the beginning of the year, so things can change.

[00:33:50] Josh: And the last point I wanna make on this before we dive into the final point here, point number five is I will never forget, uh, a friend of mine from high school, my wife and I had a little dinner with he and his wife. And I had just started my business and he’s a corporate guy and he asked me so nonchalantly, what’s your five year goal.

[00:34:10] Josh: And now that I, first of all, I didn’t have an answer. I was like, uh, like, yeah, I mean, he, he didn’t even own his own business. He just worked for a corporation and he probably heard that in a business book somewhere. He’s like, what’s your five year goal? I’m like, oh, I don’t know. I was like, honestly, I don’t even know what design’s gonna look like in five years.

[00:34:29] Josh: So it’s kind of hard to figure out a five year goal. I, I think I remember saying like, I might be able to figure out a three year goal, but that’s, uh, I don’t know. I just think that that mentality and that mindset is very dangerous. Particularly in this industry of web design, because things change so fast.

[00:34:46] Josh: If it’s an old, like, if it’s a traditional, I don’t know. If it’s automotive or something that is more of a traditional type of industry. I think it’s a lot easier to project goals and plans for like three, five, even 10 years out. But you can toss that all out the window when you’re doing web design, cuz you’re gonna pivot and things are gonna change quick. So goals and plans written in pencil, not pen that’s number four.

5) Maintain Momentum 

[00:35:11] Josh: And then finally let me end off with this last point. That again is something that I. I think it may be the most important thing, particularly as I look back on all the highs and lows and the ebbs and flows of this business, and I have had them, I mean, it’s been an incredible journey and I was fortunate to be able to take this, this business to six figures in, in the second year I was doing it,

[00:35:33] Josh: but I learned if I’m going to do this successfully and success for me means having enough to provide for my family and working no more than 30 to 35 hours a week on average, the key to move through all the highs and lows and to do this consistently without burning out is momentum. Now a lot of this goes back to all the things we just talked about.

[00:35:55] Josh: Even back to point number one about consistency over intensity, but there’s this one key factor that I think particularly when you get to those low points that so many people get overtaken by, and it’s the idea of just stopping. Momentum, friends. It’s all about momentum. Momentum is where it at is where it’s.

[00:36:18] Josh: That will keep you going. Otherwise you will get to points in your journey where you will stop. You might physically be at a place where you’re burned out, which is hopefully why everything we’ve talked about to this point should help, but you’ll likely get to the point, for sure, especially for those of you early on, where you get a boost of energy and a lot of clients, and then suddenly there’s like a dip.

[00:36:39] Josh: There’s a drop. What you have to do once you get to this season. Is keep the momentum going and I’ll talk about what momentum means to me, but you have got to keep it going. You cannot just stop and stay stagnant and then go to the corner and cry and then quit your, you know, quit your business and give up because if you do, that’s it.

[00:37:01] Josh: And it’s going to happen. I don’t want you to feel ashamed. And even those of you who are past that initial dip, you’re gonna have like mini dips moving forward. I’m in a season right now where, because I’ve taken a lighter summer with, excuse me, other things going on in my family, I’ve had much lower numbers than usual, but I was expecting that.

[00:37:17] Josh: And what I’ve done is kept the momentum going mainly with this podcast. I haven’t done too many new things, but I’ve also been reworking my offer is moving forward. So it’s been a lot of mental. But it’s all momentum. And as I look back, there was a lot of points where in my web design business, I would have like low amount of clients coming in and I might have like a dry pipeline.

[00:37:40] Josh: But what I would do, the things that would help me with momentum was staying in my networking group. Like keeping on doing that every week, I would reach out to clients, ask referrals, just do more marketing things. And often I learned like if you have a, an, a free training, or if you have a meeting with a client that counts as momentum, So the really cool thing is when you get to those seasons in your business, where you do have a low amount of clients or the pipeline looks a little dry, you need a, you need a boost, you need a momentum, the way you build momentum.

[00:38:15] Josh: It, well, you could do a lot of different things, but I’ve found have something you’re looking forward to have something that is on the horizon. That means you can’t quit. Like, for example, let’s say every quarter you do some sort of training for your clients and potential leads. You do. Like it could be a webinar on zoom, just super simple.

[00:38:33] Josh: People can join. You can ask, you can answer questions, whatever, as long as you have that in the books, like. Maybe you’re really low on clients. You’re like, oh my gosh, I might need to close the doors, but I can’t. I’ve got a training I’m doing next month. That is the type of momentum I’m talking about. And momentum can look a very different, it could be content creation, it could be a new service.

[00:38:53] Josh: It could be reflecting on the wins in your testimonials and looking back at your business and thinking like, wow, I’m so busy in the day to day, I haven’t really sat back and reflected on this and look at like these amazing websites I’ve done that have helped businesses grow. Now they’re able to feed their families and all this kind of cool stuff you could do that.

[00:39:10] Josh: That’s a way to build momentum. Momentum will look very different depending on who you are as a business owner, what you do, what fires you up, what gives you energy? But all I can say is that I’ve learned in order to get through those highs and lows, you have got to keep momentum going subsequently when I just said highs and lows, even when you get through those high times, it can be really easy to feel like you’ve made it or to take your foot off the gas completely or to not be, uh, really conscious about your, your revenue and your money.

[00:39:43] Josh: If you keep momentum going, even through there, it helps ground. You I’ve found that as well. Like if you get to a point where you’re completely slammed, for example, and a lot of, a lot of my students do the booked out model where you’re booked out for several months. I personally don’t love that because you’re gonna have a lot of opportunities slipped through the door because people want their work done as soon as. There’s ways around that, but that’s gonna require a different episode.

[00:40:06] Josh: But even if you’re at that point, what happens, and this has happened to some students recently, I’m not gonna name names, but a lot of the students might be listening to this and you’ve got to a point where you’re booked out and then you just stop all of your marketing.

[00:40:19] Josh: You stop showing up on social media, you stop showing up and then ways that you normally would, and your momentum is completely focused on getting projects done, but not actually marketing your business. And then what happens after two or three months? You’re back to like zero projects and you’re getting worried and you’re like, oh no, you know, I was slammed a few months ago, but now I’ve got nothing.

[00:40:39] Josh: You have got to keep your momentum going when it comes to showing up and marketing. Well, what I mentioned in point number one, consistency beats intensity that will hopefully help with that because you can bulk and batch record some of your content and whatever you’re doing, or do things in, in bite size, bits, and quicker bits to get out there.

[00:40:57] Josh: But momentum friends, it’s all about momentum. And if I could offer one piece of advice when it comes to that, it would be to have something again, just to reiterate that you’re looking forward to that. You’re like, it’s a training you’re gonna do for your clients. It’s a networking meeting. It’s a couple strategy calls that you’ve got booked with clients.

[00:41:15] Josh: It is to have that on the horizon. So you can’t quit. Because I’ve got a call, I’ve got a call with like three clients next week, their free strategy sessions. I’m feeling really low this week. I’ve got no projects, but next week I’ve got three calls. These are likely gonna spur onto projects with them or colleagues.

[00:41:32] Josh: That’s what I’d look forward to. And I’m gonna kick ass when I get on these calls, momentum. That is the name of the game. So.

[00:41:39] Josh: There we go. Lot of things I’ve learned in the five years I’ve been doing this, but those are the five quick points that I wanted to share with you. Number one quick recap, then I wanna say a final message real quick. Number one, consistency beats intensity. Number two, your vibe attracts your tribe. Specially with pricing three perfection is the enemy of progress. Number four, make sure to write those goals and plans and pencil, and then five momentum. It is the key. So there we go.

[00:42:09] Josh: I hope you have enjoyed this episode. I wanna say personally, thank you for listening to this podcast. Uh, the five year anniversary of anything is really special. So keep an eye out. I’m gonna be doing some exciting things here over the next couple weeks to, to hopefully celebrate this five year anniversary, cuz I have to be completely honest with you. It can be a little lonely. I mean, I have an awesome VA Kam and, and Nathan, my editor, but I don’t have a full team.

[00:42:35] Josh: So like no one said, Hey, by the way, you hit five years. This year I had, it was Facebook memories that reminded me of this. So, um, I feel like sometimes I celebrate alone. That’s that’s what I’m trying to say. So I wanna say thank you. And I invite your notes of encouragement. Uh, I am somebody who thrives on, uh, what’s the term, um, words of, uh, words of affirmation.

[00:43:02] Josh: I really enjoy. Like that keeps me going. Often hear criticism and often hear issues and stuff, but I, what really keeps me going is results. And, you know, if, if this podcast, if my courses, if anything that I’ve done over the past five years have helped, has helped you. I’d love to know about it. You can actually email those email that to josh@joshhall.co send me a little note.

[00:43:28] Josh: Uh, if you would, it would mean a lot to me. I’m gonna keep track of some of those, uh, if you would, if you would really. Like to, to fire me up, leave it as a podcast review. Especially if, if you’re loving this podcast, you can go to Josh hall, doco slash podcast, review all one word to leave your review and just leave your notes of encouragement on how the show has helped you.

[00:43:49] Josh: That would be amazing. But I really do. I mean, it, I would love to hear, I would love to hear how the show, how the YouTube channel has, how the course is, how all the things I’ve, I’ve created over the past five years. I’d love to hear how they’ve helped you. Even if it’s just a small thing. I am open to that. I don’t want you to feel like you’re bugging me by sending me a note of encouragement.

[00:44:08] Josh: Somebody recently said, Hey, I don’t mean to bug you. I’m sure you hear this all the time, but I love the podcast and I’m like, keep it coming. I could never hear enough of. Um, so yeah, that would mean a lot to me. I wanna celebrate together. I wanna celebrate with you. I think five years is pretty freaking awesome. So, all right. On that note, I think I’m gonna go, I’m gonna, I’m gonna grab a beer after this. It’s three 30 my time right now. So I’m gonna end my day here on a celebratory note. I wanna say thank you. And, uh, my gosh, this is the first five.

[00:44:39] Josh: Just wait to see what’s gonna happen on the next five. I’ve got it all written out in pen. The hot, no, I don’t. They’re in pencil. All right, there we go. I’m gonna go grab a drink and celebrate five years. Thanks for listening. See you on the next one.