377 - Lessons from a Web Designers' First Year in Business with Megan Fletcher

Do you remember your first year in business as a web designer? Are you there now?

One thing is common for all of us in the first year…it’s a rollercoaster of highs and lows, ups and downs, incredible days and perhaps dreadful days. But if you can survive that first year, chances are you’re going to make it.

I’m so excited to bring onto the podcast Megan Fletcher who just crossed her first year official year in business and at the same time, had her biggest revenue month to date pulling in over 8k!

She’s now got her sights set on a 6-figure business and has an incredible foundation to get there in year 2.

In this chat, she shares all her lessons learned (both good and bad) from the first year of her business and most importantly, how she weathered a couple storms and got through the tough times.

As a member of my community Web Designer Pro, I have to say these success stories are some of my favorites because I often see all the challenges, hardships and coach members when they’re in the thick of it…but I know there’s always a brighter future right ahead if they just stick with it!! And that’s exactly what Megan has done.

Enjoy!

Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/377

Chapters

• 0:00 Marketing During Busy Periods
• 2:06 Introduction to Megan's Journey
• 5:27 Transition from Software Engineering to Web Design
• 13:43 Starting the Business and Early Client Acquisition
• 20:09 The Inevitable Dry Spell
• 30:12 Breaking Through the Slump
• 38:12 Scaling and Evolving Services
• 1:09:34 Looking Forward: Future Business Vision
• 1:22:03 Episode Wrap-Up

Transcript

Megan Fletcher: 0:00

I'm noticing again like I'm getting to the point where I really need to tighten things down and like I need to focus on making sure, cause it kind of was after my really big um up that like I went down, and so I need to make sure this time that I'm up that I'm still looking at marketing Like I think I've lagged two weeks. My goal was, like every single week, to do something that I could check off as a marketing box, and I think I've lagged for like two weeks, and so it's like I need to remember that first lesson so I don't repeat it again. Welcome to the Web Design Business Podcast with your host, josh Hall, helping you build a web design business that gives you freedom and a lifestyle you love.

Josh Hall: 0:44

Oh, my web designer friend, I'm so glad to have you here in this one. I'm pumped about this one because the last couple of podcast episodes have been with guests who are a little more established in their journeys. A couple episodes back, kristen was five years into her journey, most recent episode with Jacob. He's somebody who has been in the design world for over almost two decades, but you can still learn so much from folks who are early in the journey. And my guest in this one, megan Fletcher, is a web designer who just crossed her first full year in business and has learned so many lessons.

Josh Hall: 1:20

We all know the first year of business in particular is full of highs and lows, ups and downs, amazing days, dreadful days and everything in between. But Megan has come through it and has so much to share in this conversation about what she did to push through her first year. And now, more recently just, she had her biggest revenue month to date at over $8,000 in one month, which means, if she gets closer and closer to that being an average, she is now on track for this next phase at a six figure web design business, now heading into her second year in business. So we're going to talk about all that more in this one. You can check out Megan's website at meganfletchercom. We'll get into this, but there is another domain that you might be able to reach her out as well. Some fun stuff ahead and the show notes for this one are going to be at joshhallco slash 377 for all the links we mentioned. But again, first year in business, biggest month to date a lot to learn from, whether you are brand new in your web design business or if you're still early on, or maybe you're established and want to know what Megan did to get clients because you can do the same. All that and more is covered, so let's have some fun.

Josh Hall: 2:31

Here's Megan. So, megan, so good to have you here Officially. Just over a year right, like a year plus of the business. Now I figured we kind of dive into all the lessons, learns, the ups and downs, the highs and lows, what I? I have to ask you this because you're you're kind of becoming. You became a web designer and then you became you know you're becoming a business owner. Now, yeah, what, uh? Has the range of emotions been like expected or unexpected?

Megan Fletcher: 3:11

So it took like a lot of convincing to finally take the leap. You know, I've I've listened to some of your podcasts before where you talk about just like that personality where you're trying to like make a business right. And, like so many things that I've done in life, I've always like tried, but how could I sell this? Like, how could I make money off this thing? So I feel like that that mindset has always been there, but I've just never nurtured it. I've always just assumed, like go to college, get my degree and get the job and all of that. And so it has been like a whirlwind to to kind of dive into owning everything on your own and like being responsible for, for all the different the facets of communicating with the clients and doing the backend and doing the administration, like everything has just been such a learning curve. But I'm, oh man, like to feeling like you're failing imposter syndrome, to like the highs of like closing out deals and just feeling like a stud, like just everything.

Josh Hall: 4:17

Yeah, like literally every mix of emotion was in there. It is funny, it's so and it's so cool to to see what you've done in this first year, because we just had a coaching call on pro and we were joking about this but you went from like I was so pumped up about your recent update because I just knew I could tell with you if you just stuck with it and had some persistence. Between that you know a couple of slow periods and drive client pipeline periods I was like you've got it, you just got, just got to keep on going. And then one of your recent updates is you know, best month to date, a plus year in the business. Now you're swamped. Now you're actually like what do?

Megan Fletcher: 4:53

I do with all this work it can change and happen so fast.

Megan Fletcher: 4:58

I know you've always been like the, the like motivation, like behind everything. I remember when I first signed up for pro and I was like if I could just make a thousand dollars a month, I think we could survive. And you're like easy, and I'm like okay, okay, what, Okay? So, and then just like getting to the end of the year and like through the hard times and you're just always like it's going to, like it'll pick back up, like take this slow moment to kind of work on different pieces that like you won't be able to when you're really busy and and you you know it's just it's hard to like see it when you're in it.

Megan Fletcher: 5:32

But then, like now, like hitting that one year mark just a couple of weeks ago, and like having some some maintenance contracts renewing, and like you're just like oh shoot, it really does just like snowball and like get, get easier, as, as you get like a reputation with people you know, people I don't know are handing out my information, like the referrals, I'm like who who'd you hear about me from? And they're like Rebecca, and I'm like I don't know Rebecca, but awesome, you know. And so it's just been really cool to like watch it grow. And I don't know, rebecca, but awesome, you know, and so it's just been really cool to like watch it grow. And, um, I don't know. You just like you put your head down and you keep working and you're following, like your best practices that you're giving us, and then you're choosing not to listen at times. You know and and you know learning the hard way, but I think it's all part of the process.

Josh Hall: 6:24

I'm grinning from ear to ear just because I feel like you're a different person now from a year ago. In a lot of ways it's interesting because you've been really active and pro. You've been really engaged with our weekly coaching calls and our hot seats and yeah, we work through a lot of this stuff in the beginning, but I really do see a confidence and stability in you. That is not always the case, even after a year. I mean, you've had some awesome wins and you're coming off your best month. I mean, as you just mentioned, your goal was a thousand a month and you just had an 8k plus month. Now we're looking at you're on track for a six figure business. So, um, it is really cool to see like I know we're going to get into what has led you through this year, but to see where you are right now, megan, I just want to publicly say like it's freaking awesome. I'm so pumped for you.

Megan Fletcher: 7:14

It is really cool to like I don't know you. Just you look at people who start businesses and you're you're just always like I don't know if that's me, like I don't know if I'm strong enough to to do the hard times and say the hard things. So that's, that's been part of like the things that I've had to learn is, you know, kind of setting boundaries with people, but just like realizing that I can has been pretty awesome.

Josh Hall: 7:37

So let's back up real quick. What were you up to right before you got into web design and decided to take it seriously? What was your career trajectory in your life looking like?

Megan Fletcher: 7:48

Yeah, so I have a degree in computer science and engineering and so I worked at General Electric as a software engineer right out of college. But then I got married and moved to like a small or like agricultural town and so finding software engineering jobs was pretty difficult, especially with like the tech stack. I knew I didn't really know the newest stuff, so it just it became really difficult. That was like my first wake up call. Like I thought with a degree in software engineering you'd just be set for life. But there's definitely like even avenues there where people just want to see like certain languages and stuff. So I ended up in IT and I was not even doing engineering in IT, I was just doing like business stuff and so I was pretty miserable. And then I convinced my boss to send me to a UX conference and that was kind of like my first taste at designing, because in college, a little back there, I wanted to do like 3D modeling was kind of what I wanted to do with software engineering. I wanted to get into game design and stuff and I never did.

Megan Fletcher: 8:56

But I always loved art and math and that was like always something like when I wrote my scholarships for college.

Megan Fletcher: 9:02

Like it was always like trying to play up on like I use my right and left brain cause I love math and I'm good at art and like things like that Um, and I just kind of lost that and then eventually, through this like miserable job, got to go to this offer off awesome conference and um, kind of re explore the idea of like using my, my like logical abilities and my art stuff together and, and so that's kind of where I started doing that I found a mentor who worked at a junior college in town, kind of gave me some stuff to look into for web design and building out again.

Megan Fletcher: 9:40

So I built my HTML site and just landed the job at the college for being their front end web designer and that was really fun for a while but kind of got capped out like at a certain point, cause there's I mean it's one school there's only you know you could go redo pages and things like that, but you're never like redesigning. And so my brother-in-law started a business in Alabama and he was like hey, like can you build me a website? And so I I just did the research, I landed on Elementor and WordPress and built him a website and I was like that was awesome viable business instead of like sewing baby clothes, which I had done before, which like it's fun but like you can't make a ton of money on them, you know, but like actually a real business making websites is is feasible.

Megan Fletcher: 10:34

So that was like the first little.

Josh Hall: 10:37

And when was that? When you did that website for your was your brother-in-law. Is that right?

Megan Fletcher: 10:41

Yeah, that was back in 2021, I think Okay, so you had a few years of designing sites and everything and like learning web design and join the industry a little bit.

Megan Fletcher: 10:58

Yeah. And then my husband was kind of like believed in me but nervous. And so he's like, can you kind of do some work with it part time to figure out like, can this be like a real thing? And so I spent probably six months seriously before um jumping into full time just spreading the word. And my husband actually was like my number one marketing person, like he he got me a lot of my first clients and then we just figured, okay, let's do it. And so it was time and we ripped the bandaid off and I dived in.

Josh Hall: 11:34

Is his name Josh too, is that right? No, is your husband's name Josh? Who am I thinking it's Brian, brian, sorry, tamara's husband's name is Josh, though. You're the couple pros who have husbands names Josh.

Megan Fletcher: 11:47

I know she was like said that earlier and I was like wait, that's right, yeah, yeah.

Josh Hall: 11:50

Cause I just say listen, you know, gotta have some quality advice if it's coming from a Josh.

Megan Fletcher: 11:54

So Ryan's good too, ryan's good advice.

Josh Hall: 11:56

Though that makes sense. So when, when did making it a like I'm going to go for it to when you joined pro, just so I can have some context of kind of where you were at?

Megan Fletcher: 12:06

I was probably in the midst of like we started. It was like kind of the start. I found you at the start of like hey, like come up with a business plan, like write things out and like like actually look at the numbers and look at like the feasibility. And so I started looking for podcasts and I didn't know what else to Google. So I just literally Googled web design podcasts and like, yeah, here we are. So and I just listened and it was only like it was in December because my sister was having a baby, and so I took a four hour drive when she called and said, like you know, her water broke and I took four hours, downloaded some podcasts and yours was one of them. And and then, like during that drive, like I was like this is awesome, like I need to look at what his, his business thing is, and I think it was like new year's day or something that I decided to sign up for it.

Josh Hall: 12:57

So Heck yeah. So you had. You know you're at that place where you had design, had some fun with it and, most importantly, you enjoyed design. You got your tool stack. What other types of jobs had you done in between that? Was it just occasional work with family, friends and from your husband and stuff like that?

Megan Fletcher: 13:16

Yeah, it was probably just referrals from my husband it was my family member and then, um, it was actually, yeah, like a cup, two companies from my husband's um, just his network. And then one of them was like from a Christmas party that we had gone to and you know, it was in the midst of like thinking about taking it live, and and so I like my business had been established, probably like September of of that prior year, um, and so during that that business, a Christmas dinner for one of his um clients I was just like, yeah, I do website design and like we need that, and so like they were one of my ones, that like I was signing on, just as I was like putting in my notice to to leave my job. So like just all that little storm.

Josh Hall: 14:06

Did the? Did the fun of designing websites change at all for you when you like, made it serious as a business or did you have to catch that?

Megan Fletcher: 14:18

I think it's. It's still like my favorite part, I know, you know, when the family goes to bed, like if I've got a design to work on, like I can stay up working on it and it doesn't feel like I'm working at night, Like that's still the part that I enjoy the most. It's probably just like the content gathering content from people. That is probably the least favorite part now.

Josh Hall: 14:39

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. I only ask because I do find when somebody commits to it and then there's pressure behind it and financial any anything, when you, when you attach money to it, it generally I found you have to be pretty proactive with, like making sure you still have fun and enjoy it. Otherwise the stress of making it a business can take over pretty easily.

Megan Fletcher: 15:00

I would say there is probably a piece of that, but it comes when, when we have to go through iterations of design, when I I would say most of the time it's like the first thing, they're done, they're good, we move on. But it's if I have to like go through iterations and I feel like I can't grasp, like a client, and I can't just like hit it out of the park like the first try. That's kind of when my like dread comes in and I start feeling like, oh, I just can't, I can't do this, I'm not good enough to do this, so like things like that.

Josh Hall: 15:30

So time to pass that on to the VA then, or the junior designer once you get past the first stage.

Josh Hall: 15:35

Uh, I think. By the way, I think psychologically, I think that's the reason, because at first it's like the balls in your court you can just design the way you wanted to, based off of the requirements and stuff, and then if the client loves it, awesome win, win, win. But if the client doesn't love it or wants a bunch of changes or iterations, then it's like you're kind of taking their lead and it feels different than when, like you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, but hey growing pain, so yeah you had, like you know, you had your design shop, and this is important too.

Josh Hall: 16:07

I wanted to make sure we got some context on this, because one year officially in business doesn't mean that you just started building sites.

Megan Fletcher: 16:15

Never seen it before. Yeah.

Josh Hall: 16:17

Yeah. So you already had the craft. I mean you already, cause I could tell right out of the gate. I was like, okay, this is not like a. I mean, when you came into pro and I saw your website, you know V1, I was like, okay, this is not a two month designer Like. You've obviously had some design experience, you had some UX experience, but as far as the business goes itself, here's what's really interesting, and that is like officially getting clients and officially marketing. So what did you do? I mean, I know some of this because we've been coaching together for a while, but what did you do initially to get like, as you made, you know, took this seriously what was like the first couple months of getting clients for you, apart from just the occasional family referrals?

Megan Fletcher: 16:58

My husband was a big part of it, just with his network and stuff sharing it and then, but also just sharing that you know I taught you talked about it in in pro um, sharing it on Facebook in your business course, um, so I had gone through the business course as I was going through all this and trying to follow some of the steps and tips that you gave, and so just launching the business, creating all the social medias and sharing it to friends and family, like putting it on my professional one and then sharing the professional post on my personal one, and just a lot of traction from there and just getting the word out that way and just a lot of people excited and supportive of it.

Megan Fletcher: 17:42

Tons of my, my friends and family shared it. So it reached like a good chunk of the area and, um, that was that was like a huge boost at the beginning was just getting that information out there. And then, um, your shirt was when I landed um, one of like, my big client, my best client. Honestly, like I still want to make him something for just how awesome he was like um, some polo Cause, I did his logo too and and I flew to Hawaii and like took photos for his website and, like it was just, it was amazing, right.

Josh Hall: 18:17

How did I not know about that?

Megan Fletcher: 18:19

It was so cool, like he's my vet and he runs a conference and for veterinarians and I took my dog and wearing your shirt, like total mess, like you know, hair in a bun. No man, I was just like, yeah, I can take him on walks more Cause I run my own business. He's like web design, like yeah, I might need to talk to you and then just like one of my best clients ever so and I got to go to Hawaii for the first time something you never get in, like a nine to five.

Josh Hall: 18:47

I'm going to put that on the pro swag. So, for anyone who doesn't know, in Web Designer Pro we have a bunch of swag. We have t-shirts, long sleeves and all kinds of stuff and yeah, I mean I got a lead from wearing mine. I mean, you wear a shirt that says Web Designer Pro. People are going to see that and I'm going to put maybe you'll end up in hawaii like megan. So that's a great sales deal, but that's freaking awesome. I mean, there are just so many ways to get clients.

Megan Fletcher: 19:10

I'm like I was so ecstatic when it actually worked for you too I know I try and think about it every time I go to like a doctor's office because I'm like I know they've got the funds to like get a website so I'm gonna wear my shirt today.

Josh Hall: 19:21

There, there you go. Yeah, yeah, wear a Web Design Approach shirt at the golf courses or anywhere that's got money.

Megan Fletcher: 19:27

You need some polos if we got to take it to the golf course though.

Josh Hall: 19:31

Do not wear Approach shirt at the fair. That is not where you want to get your ideal, I don't know. Yeah Well, that's really cool, but tell me this, megan, am I remembering this correctly, in that it's like a roller coaster, where it like goes up and then it either goes down or plateaus for a while. I do remember a bit of a dry spell after the initial excitement period.

Megan Fletcher: 19:51

Yeah, it was. I was actually, after the big um, the big client, I think I got just kind of settled and happy with the workload I had. I had a couple websites going and I just stopped marketing. I stopped trying to do it because it makes me very uncomfortable. I don't like asking people or pitching to people, it's just it's really difficult for me. It feels like I'm burdening them. So that was a really hard lesson that I just stopped completely. I was comfortable with the workload I had and I was just working on websites and doing nothing else to further the business side of it. I even stopped maintaining the tasks I was working on. It was just getting up and working on the website I knew I had to work on and not really thinking about all of the little different pieces and things like that. And so that was what led into, I think, like three months where I just felt like I hadn't got any new clients.

Megan Fletcher: 20:52

Um, and I was just it was. It was frustrating Cause it's like I feel like you had said you know what I need to do. My husband was even like you need to work on marketing and it's just I didn't want to and so I was kind of stubborn about it, um, but just you know, I had to slowly put those pieces back into place and I feel like it just takes time. Uh, and I think I didn't have that lag from the beginning because I had been working and doing the marketing and so I just it always started off with with clients on board and so I never like that, the the dry part of starting it was never there because I was still working and like getting a paycheck, so I didn't notice it when, like, I first got the wheel spinning and then and then I let it dry up and then I had to like restart it, which which just took time.

Josh Hall: 21:42

I think that's really common, though, especially for folks. When you start a business, there is excitement and there's a buzz, and people can feel that too. And yeah, I mean you didn't come out of the gate and it's like a big salesy mode, but just the word got out that you were doing this. But as soon as you get a workload built up and as soon as you start to go into hibernation mode which is not uncommon for most web designers, because we like to do our work and we like to have fun and do the stuff.

Josh Hall: 22:08

Yeah, a lot of introverts. So it is very common to get to that point where suddenly you're just doing the work, but then, as we talked about and I think now you're on the other side of things now to where, like, we're encouraging other pros and web designer pro to be like don't turn the sales engine off, like you can't turn your marketing off completely because it does catch up to you pretty quick until you get to the point where, honestly, you're at now, to where you have a network that's built, growing and expanding, and then referrals start to come in and you can do less like outbound marketing and just more, like you know, circling back around with your current network right and and just more.

Megan Fletcher: 22:46

like you know, circling back around with your current network, right and and just the I don't know serving everyone. Well, I feel like trying to go above and beyond, like this first year with with everyone that I have, and just like really making sure that they love me and everything that I'm doing, um has been huge. That this now, at like the year mark, people are handing out my number that I don't even know. Um, like you mentioned.

Josh Hall: 23:10

You're like who the hell is Rebecca? I don't know how awesome.

Megan Fletcher: 23:15

Right. So, uh, just it's. It is cool to, but it's just, it's so hard when you can't see that you're doing something. And something is happening, like now I'm seeing it from what I was doing last year, but like last year I wasn't really seeing it doing anything and it just takes time. So just like to be patient, like would be a piece of advice I would give. Just like keep doing it and just like keep working through.

Megan Fletcher: 23:41

Even if Tamara and I had a really awesome conversation, who she's just one of the people I've connected with really well from pro, which is another great part of pro is just finding someone doing what you're doing that like you can have, like celebrate the good times with and celebrate the hard times with and like get advice from and stuff.

Megan Fletcher: 24:00

But we kind of have this like I don't know goal that if we can't do the little things well, like how are we ever going to get to the bigger thing? So it's like when we're down, like and don't have much going on, making sure to get up and like do our laundry. I know it sounds silly and simple, but like do our laundry, do the dishes, like just do the little things. You know, whatever little business things there are. Just like trying to explore and do that, but just making sure don't like let the depression or the defeat like get ahold of you. Like just keep walking through the little things and that's how you're going to get back to more of the big things, cause you know, when you get down in the dumps you're like, oh, I just, I can't anymore, and so you just like stop doing everything and so just getting up and like moving just one little piece at a time, that is such sage advice.

Josh Hall: 24:49

It's. There's a lot of benefit with momentum and things that you can control, like you can't control always if a client is going to move forward, but you can do all you can. But you can control, like you just mentioned, megan, your habits, the mundane stuff of working on the business, running your numbers, doing the marketing that you usually do. Anything I feel like that you could do on a consistent basis, week to week. For me I've talked a lot about it. It's just I showed up to my networking group every Friday 7.30am. Rain or shine, good weeks, bad weeks.

Josh Hall: 25:24

I mean I remember when we found out our daughter was was going to be a special needs kiddo. I mean I just like I wanted to just stop everything for a little while to process that, but we just just kept on going like that. Really, any little bit of momentum, that's consistent. I couldn't agree more. It really is key because it doesn't take too long sometimes, for you do get a win and then the wins can start to compound too, which is, I know, what you eventually got to. I don't know how long your dry spell was, but, um, I'm trying to remember because I remember we had a coaching call and we talked about other marketing avenues. Did you ever do anything in other cities or other towns or anything? I?

Megan Fletcher: 26:03

did a a little bit but, um, I I never nothing ever came from, not Okay. So I went one time to the nearest chamber is like 30 minutes away, so I started attending. Like I paid to be a member and they have like the worst emailing system and they never email me when a meeting's coming up and so every time I remember to go look like I just missed it. So I've been like one time, um, but they did post my business on their socials and so I probably got some visibility there. Um, but I have a small group in town that, uh, I go to and it's really small businesses that for for the price of web designs, that fully custom that we do. They're not really my ideal clients, um, cause they're. They're really small, just um little shops, you know.

Megan Fletcher: 26:53

So I, but I still keep going and just to have like the relationship and the camaraderie with other business owners in my town, um, and so I don't know if Rebecca maybe came to one of those meetings. That one maybe that's where Rebecca came from. I really don't know, uh, cause like random people come in and out of that. So it could have been something like that. But just, even though it doesn't feel really fruitful. I still try and make it an effort to like go. It's not like BNI, where you're kind of promised a reward, you know cause. That's the whole point of BNI is like working really hard to to get referrals and give referrals. Um, it's more of just like a camaraderie thing that we have in town.

Josh Hall: 27:37

So how long you know we don't like exact days or anything, but how long because you had a big buzz when you started your business, had some visibility, did marketing in a way that worked for you with just getting your name out there. You know a lot of family friends your husband was a big part of that Landed an awesome client freaking, get to go to Hawaii, but then that dry spell happens because of all the reasons we mentioned. How long was it before Like, how long did you have to endure that very painful dip before you had a win?

Megan Fletcher: 28:07

I think it was the full third quarter, three months um, before, yeah, before I landed it.

Megan Fletcher: 28:14

And then it was the fourth quarter that things started to pick back up and it was partly maybe because of the client that I went to Hawaii with because I handed my business card out to the other vet practices there, so I got two clients from him essentially going to Hawaii and meeting those other other clients of mine.

Megan Fletcher: 28:33

Now, um, but yeah, it was really small stuff. I finished, um, looking back when I did the the year and recap for you, and I went through each month and saw, put the numbers together of what happened, there was really only one month where all I made was the one maintenance plan, that's on monthly of mine, but the rest still had maybe a project closing where I did have some kind of income, but it just felt like yuck, like nothing was happening even though like there was still work happening and closing. So that was kind of a cool perspective because, like, for three months I felt like a failure and but like, looking back at the end of the year, it's like there was still stuff happening there and like it was just like a bad mindset to like letting myself think that I was just not doing a good job.

Josh Hall: 29:27

I was just not doing a good job, I think to your uh, your like compass of success, whatever that means, gets skewed when you're on a high and things are clicking.

Josh Hall: 29:32

And I found this with pro, because you know I have good days and good weeks and bad days and bad weeks with renewals or subscriptions or signups, and I found that when I have a lot of signups in the period of a week or two, I'm like it is on, things are clicking, the pro iron is hot right now, but then the next couple of weeks if just for whatever reason, there's less signups or it seems like that happens, there's less signups and a few people may leave or something, and it's just like I still go through those waves too, to where it's like it just messes. I think success sometimes messes with your metric or your compass of like. Maybe that's not normal. Maybe the first couple months of your business was not the normal trajectory. That would be hard to keep up with, quite frankly. So it was actually probably above what would be a little more normal. So, being that you went below what was normal, I probably felt even more so like Right Like.

Josh Hall: 30:25

What happened?

Megan Fletcher: 30:26

Yeah, exactly.

Josh Hall: 30:30

What was the wind? What was a wind? Did you land like a big project heading into Q3? Do you remember last year? Do you remember like? Do you remember feeling like, oh all right, I feel better. Was there something that happened?

Megan Fletcher: 30:42

At that, like right at the start of Q I think even the start of q4 was starting to not do much. But then I got to go to hawaii and, like you know, feel that little buzz of just like excitement, um, and we we got to go on a trip, um, to iceland, me and my husband. So I think also just getting that break to like get away and just see something, really. Yeah, I think two vets from the conference got a hold of me and I did an audit because there was like a raffle at the conference and he gave me like a booth. So I did a free website audit and there were some winners. I sent out those emails and then to anyone who was in attendance, he gave me his email list and I sent out like a 50 off of a website audit which I made up because I didn't actually have one before then.

Josh Hall: 31:39

So yeah, I have an audit. Yeah I got a service for you how much did you quote unquote charge for your audit? At that point it just make up, like was like yeah, it was like 250 and so like, to do a half off.

Megan Fletcher: 31:50

One was, like you know, 125 or something, but you know I got a couple bites on that, so it's just like little things. And then, uh, one of the the little wins was from the newsletter. You said to kick off a newsletter, which I still don't do monthly. Uh, I'm not a newsletter reader and so it's really hard for me to send out a newsletter because sometimes, like when people email me too much, I'm really tempted to hit unsubscribe.

Josh Hall: 32:17

Quarterly, just like a quarterly pop, like something a little less.

Megan Fletcher: 32:20

Yeah, yeah, I think that's. I need to do that because I did get a small win from one of my my past clients from a newsletter. I just I voluntold everyone on my past clients that they were now on my newsletter and it was just about. I don't even remember what my first one was about, but, um, and then he just asked for like a small graphic design job for like a flyer, and so it was just kind of something easy that helped during that dry spell and just kind of reminded me that I think you get.

Megan Fletcher: 32:47

You know you have your wall of wins. I need to build mine now that I've kind of got some good wins and some good client stories to like look at. Because I think during that like low point, you also think like maybe I'm just not good at this and you let like that get to your head. And then when that guy came back and like asked for me to do more work for him, I was like, oh, okay, like I didn't do a bad job, like they do, they did appreciate what I did. Like I am, I do have a talent.

Josh Hall: 33:15

I'm so glad you mentioned that. Yeah, the wall of wins. I mean I can't recommend enough that everybody, even on a literal, small scale, like if you have three testimonials, print those out or get them, get them somewhere in vision, whether it's on a wall or on your desk. I mean, a lot of pros, we did that challenge last year about creating one. There was all different types of them and yeah, I, I mean I'm looking at it right now. You're on there. You're on there, megan, on my wall of wins. You may be on there twice, I've got a couple repeats on there just because you're a testimonial machine, but it's so, so, so helpful in those times I really can't stress enough to everyone that you know, just even if you just look at your testimonials on your website because it's so easy to go to those dark places when things are just not clicking and not going well.

Josh Hall: 34:01

I mean, I know you've heard me talk about this, but like and we're going to be meeting in person here soon at our web design pro conference I can't wait for that, especially for people who maybe are in that drive spell because, like you just alluded, alluded to, you get re-energized when you literally change your state and like go somewhere and when you meet colleagues or friends or especially clients like when I got to meet web designer pro members sandy and alexis and lauren and everybody they were telling me these stories in april and man austin that I was hearing these stories that I never knew about and that just like totally reinvigorated me.

Josh Hall: 34:35

I was like okay, it's fine, what I'm doing works. I just need to market better, I just need to tell more people about it and be a little more thoughtful. So yeah, any you know, the next time you do experience a dip. In any regard, I don't think it'll be near as bad as what you went through, because your network is already to a certain place, but it will help. So I'm real excited to see what yours looks like here.

Megan Fletcher: 34:57

It is funny how our mind can just like so quickly turn negative. I like I landed like the biggest month ever and then the next month I have two clients that are somewhat challenging me and like and I get another new. Like I got another new client with these other two that are challenging me and I knock his out of the park like instantly. But like these other two, the ones that are sticking in my head, I'd be like I just don't know if I could do that Like I'm just not good at it. It's just so, even after like a huge win like I can still go back to like being like I don't know.

Josh Hall: 35:28

Yeah, I feel like the universe has a way to humble you. When you get a little bit of success, it's like biggest month ever.

Megan Fletcher: 35:38

By the way, here's a client out of their boundaries.

Josh Hall: 35:40

Yeah, not uncommon either. Did you listen to, actually, this week is the podcast that we're recording? This that Steve shared about how he lost over 6,000 of MRR in one week.

Megan Fletcher: 35:52

Yeah, I haven't listened to it yet.

Josh Hall: 35:53

So it's really, it's very it's basically what you just said. He had like a mix of like landing some of his best clients also losing over six thousand a month in MRR, and it's just. You're just like the emotions, the absolute rollercoaster of emotions. As a business owner, I will say it does tend to level out. I found, as you build your base and you become more and more confident, I mean, as I said in the beginning, like you're like a different person Now. Just think about Megan in 26. You're going to be like version 3.0.

Megan Fletcher: 36:22

It's going to be nuts, you know like there is a sense of like Castle and the mansion in the sky. I don't know, hey, whatever floats your boat, you know more.

Josh Hall: 36:31

Iceland in Iceland a castle in Iceland.

Josh Hall: 36:34

Really, but it really does. It seems like. It seems like the highs and lows are less drastic at a certain point, unless there's like a massive pivot or change in your business or something like that. But the average like challenges of client stuff I mean those just tend to improve as you dial in your systems and and you're even more, getting more and more confident with, like your boundaries and your communication. It seems like so, um, yeah, I don't foresee, you know, like the exact, uh, dry spell you went through happening again, which is good news, but yeah, yeah, it's, it is just.

Megan Fletcher: 37:07

it grows just organically If you continue to just work, work at each little piece and work on it. I feel like now I'm noticing again like I'm getting to the point where I really need to tighten things down and like I need to focus on making sure, cause it kind of was after my really big um up that like I went down and so I need to make sure this time that I'm up, that I'm still looking at marketing, like I think I've lagged two weeks. My goal was, like every single week to do something that I could check off as like a marketing box and and I think I've lagged for like two weeks, and so it's like I need to remember that first lesson so I don't repeat it again and like keep on doing all the pieces.

Josh Hall: 37:50

No, that's wonderful. What did you do? So I mean, it seems like during that dry spell you were still like you mentioned. At some point you got out of bed, literally probably, and like just carried on, did the consistent stuff. You had some work, you had some maintenance plan stuff going on when the turnaround started to happen in Q4 of 24, did you do anything different? Or was it just a matter of all the work you had done at that point just compounded? And it's not uncommon either for the beginning of the fall to be a really active month for web designers, because businesses are often it's a big time for web designers especially businesses want to get their budgets cleared out by the end of the year. So, yeah, what, what was? In short, what was that? Like the beginning of the rebound?

Megan Fletcher: 38:39

like yeah, what the heck happened, megan? What happened? I wish I knew. Um, I think it was just continuing to network and like just, I think everyone you've always mentioned like everyone kind of has that one client they've had. That's like really almost like a mentor of a client and just like, is really awesome.

Megan Fletcher: 38:55

And so I think that, being my um, my vets, the Hawaii client, uh, and getting networking there and getting some more exposure, and then another client who had done a website before and they have a few businesses and I'd kind of messaged throughout the year as being like hey, like I've got space if you're ready to take on another one of these sites, and they just kind of never got back to me. And so you know that, adding to like oh, maybe they didn't like what I did, and at the end of the year they're like we just love our website. You know we're ready to do the next one, so it's just it's timing for some people and you take that as like a they don't say like we're just not ready to me, where I'm not ready right now means like we don't like you instead of like they're really just not ready yet you know yeah, because not clients aren't always on our timetables that we may have room and capacity and want to land a few more jobs.

Josh Hall: 39:48

But, yeah, clients may be like, yeah, we'd like to do that, but not right now. So, but the seeds you and this is the most important thing, I think, like the theme of this is the amount of seeds that you were planting during that whole year, from the outset of it, with the buzz that you had starting the business, making connections, and even just the things you were doing, all those little touches a newsletter here or there, the reach outs, occasional social media stuff, the personal reach outs with current and past clients I mean all those things they do really compound. And here we are now. You're slammed. So it works, it does work, it just takes time sometimes.

Megan Fletcher: 40:25

Yeah, yeah, and I have a plan right now too, because I had a friend of mine who got me a client from Nevada, where I grew up, and and they I'm having a total brain fart.

Josh Hall: 40:40

So their client in Nevada, where you grew up.

Megan Fletcher: 40:43

Yeah.

Josh Hall: 40:43

Did they? Did you reach out to them or how did that?

Megan Fletcher: 40:46

Oh, my friend. His message was hey, are you still doing the web stuff? On the side? I'm, like I've been doing it for a year now, full time man Like, and I talked to you like at least once a month, not like about more, like about video games and things, nothing like to. We don't get into personal stuff all that often, but it was just kind of reminded me, like when I hit my year, like I need to do another post and share it on my personals to remind, like friends and family that like, hey, I'm still doing this Cause I know you had, I think, mentioned. Sometimes we kind of keep an eye on it and make sure, like is this going to be a real thing, like are they actually going to keep doing it? And so now that, like I have a successful year, like I want to reiterate it to to my, my network again.

Josh Hall: 41:27

Ah, yes, oh my gosh, that's such a great point, yeah, like well, first of all, being in a business, being in your own business or, you know, building your own business for a year, is a huge milestone. Most people don't even make it that far, so that is something to celebrate and shout off the California mountaintop for sure, get it out there and you're totally.

Josh Hall: 41:49

Yeah, you're totally right. I mean, it makes sense. I understand If I was going to invest several thousand dollars, maybe tens of thousands of dollars, and have somebody be my partner in crime for the web stuff, I would want to make sure they're going to be around or at the very least, that they have a network behind them like Web Designer Pro, or a plan of action if they do stop it, so they don't just ghost and disappear, which is all too common for web designers. And yeah, it makes total sense that, like somebody's gonna be, like yeah, I'm interested, but let me see if you actually stick with. I mean, how many times I'm sure you've experienced this too where, like friends from high school, they're in some new like mlm program and they're selling?

Megan Fletcher: 42:30

can we get?

Josh Hall: 42:31

coffee, yeah, can we get. Oh, you want me to join your scheme? Yeah, and then the next year they're on a different one. It's like, I mean, I do think that's important because a lot of people are seeing that and they may not make the distinction between us as a web business owner and somebody like that who just gets involved in MLM kind of set business setup. So yeah, for all those reasons and more Oh's, it's celebration time. But for you, megan, like you don't need to market and say like hire me, you can just say first year in business, you know we built this many sites. These are some of the sites we did.

Megan Fletcher: 43:07

Um, yeah, I mean that's, that's like fun marketing I was joking with my mom because I my brain said it was in April was going to be my one year, and I went back like searched like my posts in pro, trying to figure out like when the heck like I'm sure I said something when I did and it was, uh, it was this month, march, march 8th, that it was like the one year. And it was like two days before March 8th that I went in Google like found that and I was like I had like all these ideas that I wanted to do. I was like well, it's two days away now and my mom's like just still post it late and be like yeah I'm so busy I missed it, yeah there we go.

Josh Hall: 43:40

That's wonderful marketing. I was too busy. I missed my first year. Yeah, I hope I see that I'm gonna, because I think I follow your facebook. Uh, are you? Where are you active on the socials? Is it facebook for you? Linkedin insta? Are you a tiktok gal? Are you on all these video games streaming services?

Megan Fletcher: 43:58

that would be. It would be an interesting way to market it, huh, but facebook and instagram, mostly because I think it's just easy, like two birds with one stone. When I make one thing for the other, it's just it's on both. Um, I've my gosh LinkedIn occasionally, like I try and um write something cool for LinkedIn, and so those three are the ones I focus on. My tag was too long for Twitter so I didn't even bother, like I was like if I can't get it, I'm not going to do it.

Josh Hall: 44:27

Yeah, now definitely not the time to spend time on X anyway, and it's definitely it's kind of more from what I. I'm not terribly active on it, but a lot of people I know who used it for business purposes are, I mean, it's very political now, so it seems like no matter where you are. Yeah, I think you're fine. You have plenty enough with Facebook, instagram and some LinkedIn, for sure.

Megan Fletcher: 44:48

And I just I know some people have success with social media, so I'm just trying I'm like that's going to be a marketing try One just to understand it, because clients ask a lot about social media and I have right now no intention of doing that myself because, honestly, it's like draining for me, it's not something that brings me any kind of joy. And so just to understand it, so I could give any kind of tips to clients, just because I feel like it's all a part of web presence and so just being able to arm myself with more knowledge to help clients is just gives me more value. But I'm just trying to like learn how to do it in a minimal way. That's not like we have a day of recording videos for a whole month, like I don't know a whole month like I don't know.

Josh Hall: 45:40

Yeah, not alone there. Uh, what you just mentioned the the areas of things that give you joy or drain you like. What are the areas that do give you joy and and they're looking back at this first year what are, like, the parts of projects and the part of being a web business owner that give you joy?

Megan Fletcher: 45:55

I love the discovery sessions and like getting to sit down with a business owner and just talk about their business and the things that they're needing and maybe struggling with. And I think, as web designers, if you're really willing to kind of put in the work during like those hard seasons, I don't know how we can fail, because we literally sit down with other business owners and we hear about like successes and issues that they're everyone's having and they're all same in just different industries, and so we get like exposure to watch people go through them and overcome them and being able to apply that Like when I meet with someone else, I'm like, well, have you thought about doing this? And and just being able to like we're like a sponge for like all sorts of businesses and like we hold, like we're like the AI for business. Ask me a question. I'll tell you yeah, Use a newsletter. That sounds good for you, Even though I don't really do newsletters.

Megan Fletcher: 47:02

Nicely done. Yeah, use a newsletter. That sounds good for you, even though I don't really do newsletters. Nicely done your branding and copy. I know I gotta get with michelle, I can't do copy it's. That's another area that drains me and sel they. They just don't connect in my brain. But getting to sit down and talk about business with someone and then designing and even building is is really fun for me, I can see you like strategy design, public code development, the building aspects of things.

Josh Hall: 47:25

And then what about the? Do you find joy in the results? Do you find joy with when things are live and then, most importantly, seeing results, of clients having results.

Megan Fletcher: 47:36

I?

Josh Hall: 47:38

I probably don't, by the way, because a lot of people okay, cause a lot of people just want to get things started and they're like that's all I want to do and that's that's what I'll probably sit and stare at like a finished website for like way too long and I just like scroll through and like click around all the pages so many times.

Megan Fletcher: 47:55

I do a lot of home renovation projects too, and it's like the same. I will literally sit in a doorway and just like stare at it. It's like a project that's finished. So it's the same thing with the website.

Josh Hall: 48:05

Hey, that's great, though, Cause a lot of web designers get it done. They're like I'm never looking at that again, I'm done. That's true. That's true. Yeah, it does depend on what kind of project it is. I feel that same way when I mow my lawn. I'm like I'm that aspiring lawn weenie who's looking at the lines and I'm just like wow, that was good.

Megan Fletcher: 48:23

Next time I'll do zigzags.

Josh Hall: 48:25

Yep always, I did buy lawnweeniecom. I can't believe I did. I got that domain last year. I can't believe it was available, just in case I'm going to hold on to it, cause I don't know.

Megan Fletcher: 48:35

I don't know what's going to happen. Is that like a Midwest term or something? Cause I've never heard it before? Are you not familiar with that? Is that a?

Josh Hall: 48:41

Midwest thing Lawnweeniecom or Lawnweenie yeah.

Megan Fletcher: 48:48

That's what we are. We west coast is. I don't know, I'll have to ask some other other what's the west coast turn on, dad?

Josh Hall: 48:56

I think it's just like yeah I think it's just like dads hold on. Let me ask chad gpt real quick. Let's see is. Is the term lawn weenie national? I can't believe. I just assumed that everyone knew what lawn. No wonder that domain was available.

Megan Fletcher: 49:15

It's probably just popular around here hey, local seo, you'll, you'll score big, you know there we go.

Josh Hall: 49:23

Sam will help me out with really taking lawn weenie to the local seo. So, outside of its literary reference, lawn weenie does not appear to be commonly used in american vernacular tsk tsk. It will now after this show. Lawn Weenie does not appear to be commonly used in American vernacular Tsk tsk. It will now after this show. Therefore, lawn Weenie is not nationally recognized. Its usage is largely confined to I guess there's a book series that talks about it. This is pish posh. We're going to make it. We're going to make it happen Anywho, derailed us. But that idea of like examining your work and, and I think most importantly, celebrating it, like, have you celebrated either projects or just your year as a whole? Have you done anything to, apart from just reflecting like you did last year, looking at last year, do you celebrate or are you just a worker and just like to get you know, get going?

Megan Fletcher: 50:12

I think it'd be fun to celebrate it and like do you think I bought myself stuff Like the business stuff, like a really nice new camera and, you know, from earnings different, you know, hitting different budget goals and stuff. So I've celebrated in that way but actually like going on like a fancy dinner or something like a six, not really. I would love to celebrate some of my favorite clients from last year by I don't know, getting them some kind of like swag or like shirt made with like an embroidery of I don't know just theirs, or like something with our stuff together. I haven't figured it out yet, but I would really love to just thank some of those people that put their trust in me in that first year. Um, cause it, it got me here, you know.

Josh Hall: 50:58

I love that idea. Oh my gosh, yeah, as your coach, I mean, get going on that as soon as you can. That sounds wonderful. And then you can really do that around the same time as a you know, an official posts on all your socials and a newsletter about celebrating the first year. Um, yeah, I mean even like the first year thing. It's up to you whether you'd want to talk to clients about that.

Megan Fletcher: 51:21

Otherwise, if you don't, if you want to make people feel like you don't want them to know it's your first year in business, then I know that's what I was like, but I feel like everyone I did work with knew that I had just started, cause that was like my hesitation for a while. I was like, yeah, I want to say like thanks for trusting me with my in my first year, and they're like I'm sorry, what you know, but I'm pretty sure everyone knew, cause, like my vet knew it was a new thing for me and and my husband, pitching it to like a couple of those people that were really instrumental all knew that I was just starting out, cause they had like some of what of a personal relationship, you know, yeah, and also it's the first year of the business.

Josh Hall: 51:56

It's like it's well first of all, you don't say first year, you say anniversary, like the first anniversary it's the anniversary of your business. It doesn't mean that you didn't know what you were doing leading up to that. You know you have been designing for for quite a while, but that's a. That's a different frame. I think you could probably put on that to just make it like a fun anniversary and even just anniversary of full-time.

Megan Fletcher: 52:16

I thought maybe because I've been doing it on the side for a while and so maybe they won't be like, oh, she just worked on the side for a long time. That's true.

Josh Hall: 52:23

So tell me about branding too. You've branded. We had some fun in pro with this recently. You branded off of your name just meganfletchercom, but you had expressed to me interest in like should I make this a?

Megan Fletcher: 52:39

business name at some point. Where are you at with that? What's your thoughts about branding? I would love a business name. I just I don't know Megan Fletcher Design. I can't even put web designer underneath because it always says design in it, and so there's just. I feel like there's a lot of restrictions with what I picked. It got me my bank account really easily because it was just my name, but now it's just like trying to do fun stuff with it. It just feels like it's lacking. So I would love to rebrand and do something that's a little bit different. And I listened to that naming podcast you had like a while back, and I took the quiz with a couple of mine.

Josh Hall: 53:14

Not the newest idea, but with just shows how professional we are in pro, because we had a coaching call and we were thinking about, like you know, could you put your initials there? And then it became MF or design, which look is memorable. It is memorable. And what didn't we look it up? Isn't it available?

Megan Fletcher: 53:31

I think I bought it. It's not now because I bought it.

Josh Hall: 53:34

You bought it.

Megan Fletcher: 53:35

Just in case you never know.

Josh Hall: 53:37

You bought MF for designcom.

Megan Fletcher: 53:38

Only MF are around, you know? I mean, it's just too good.

Josh Hall: 53:43

Of course, the dad in me is like pumped about the amount of puns that we could throw at this thing, but you really bought it. You bought MF for I did.

Megan Fletcher: 53:50

But then I started thinking like, would a church then come in and work with me?

Josh Hall: 53:56

Oh, that's great, they can worry about that. It's too good. It's too good not to use, okay.

Megan Fletcher: 54:01

I don't know what you're talking about. It's just Megan Fletcher.

Josh Hall: 54:04

Yeah.

Megan Fletcher: 54:06

Your mind is in the gutter church.

Josh Hall: 54:07

What are you thinking? That is awesome, oh, that's great. Well, the cool thing is I mean, we've talked about this too it's not something that has to happen and you're at a place where you can have some freedom with that too. But I think it's more about what is not anticipated now, which is, in a few years. What if you do get to a place where you really want to scale, or you really want to not be at the forefront of the business, or you want to sell it, or you want to? I mean, all these scenarios can happen to, where it is nice to be able to break out of your name, to have your business under an entity where you're still the founder, you're the creative director, the head honcho, whatever.

Josh Hall: 54:48

But, um, you know whether we tackle that sooner or later, it is really no rust, but it is. It is easier to to tackle that versus um, you know things being really established. But the good news is I've talked about this too. Like most clients didn't know my business name, they just knew me as Josh the web designer. They're like what's his agent? Something studios, I don't know, um, so either way, it's like it's not that big of a deal, but there's pros and cons to having, like an official business name. So, yeah, I wonder for you.

Megan Fletcher: 55:19

I just don't know how searchable. Or even when I say design Megan Fletcher design, for I feel like maybe they're going to assume like interior design or something before, before they go, web design.

Josh Hall: 55:32

Yeah, I don't even think. I mean, you have meganfletchercom, so I don't even know if you necessarily need to have the business name, say design, because you could always Like you may With your interest being in, enjoy, being in strategy and design and development you made. Strategy could be a big part of it. So I don't, yeah, I wouldn't worry about, know, yeah, I really wouldn't just worry about too much, because design can cover a multitude of things. But you are definitely doing more than just design already.

Megan Fletcher: 56:01

So yeah, I'd love to to pivot into more of like just a creative, like strategy and just helping people with just the web presence as a whole and like just going forward, like to build a business around that and not just like the website person.

Megan Fletcher: 56:18

I think that would be really like the, the five-year dream of like just creating something that's more about building up, like a doing every, not every. I don't know, maybe if I scaled um, because I even now I do logo design and I'm noticing I love website design and I think that's because there's logic and there's reasons that you put things the way that you do. There's accessibility standards, there's always a reason. It's not just because I like it, and so when I do logo design, I find that draining for me because I can knock it out of the park and some of my clients are easy and we're good to're, good to go. But, like some people, like I struggle with and I think I just don't understand the way that you enjoy design and for me it's just like I don't want to. I want logic.

Josh Hall: 57:08

I was just going to. I wanted to take a deep dive into your services real quick, Cause I don't know, I don't remember, have you kicked off with branding and photography and logo? Uh, or those things were added as as they were needed. But yeah, I mean I would. Is that the case where they just kind of added because clients were requesting them?

Megan Fletcher: 57:26

more, because I would build like a design, a website, and then I would have to get iphone photos back that were terrible. That that's why photography came in, and I've always wanted to do it as a hobby for landscape and travel photography, and so it was a way to help my business, give me something fun, and just also benefit my clients by doing some web-focused photography for them. And same with branding If they have just terrible branding or something that's just super outdated, don't even have like an SVG of it, just being able to help them by like getting them a little bit.

Josh Hall: 58:05

I knew we were going to get into the coaching territory because I was looking at this and mainly because of what you just said. You just said like you don't love it I definitely need for a while. I still think it's really valuable for you because you're going to get the questions, unless you want to just hire it off completely or hire somebody under you to do it. But I would probably just reduce those to like a hidden service and only bring them up if somebody requests it.

Megan Fletcher: 58:29

That's true. I don't want someone to come to me just for logo.

Josh Hall: 58:33

Yeah, you don't want to be begging the logo designer and if somebody sees design and they see logo, they may think like maybe that's what you do mainly. But if that's like, no, that's not my bread and butter, I would make that clear. I would probably just make it so when they fill out your contact form or you talk with them, initially, you find out where they're at with their branding and if they're desperate need of it, I would just have it as an add on, like in your back pocket. Like, by the way, if we're into the website, you need a better logo and we need some photos. We can do that, but I probably would take it off your site.

Josh Hall: 59:02

I actually feel like for you, Megan, you're probably at the point where you could focus a little more on strategy as one of your main things. You've got a year under your belt as, like an official business owner. You've got a year under your belt as an official business owner. You've got several years of design experience in web as a whole.

Josh Hall: 59:19

I feel like you're at the place where initial digital strategy could almost be your other service and then, of course, that's linked in with a website project or you could sell a strategy session, potentially as paid discovery, basically where you do what you love to do. You can talk with a business owner, talk for an hour about their goals and obviously it's a paid service and then that's where you could link that in next to a website design. Or if somebody just wants to go right on a website, they get the strategy session as a part of it. Get the strategy session as a part of it. So something to think about, just based off of. I really just I feel like you don't need logo and branding right now as a main service at least, especially because you don't love it.

Megan Fletcher: 1:00:07

Yeah, that's true. And just I just recently spun up all this stuff in Moxie and so in that proposal that goes out there's like optional add-ons and so they're in there and so no one ever comes to me for just those things. So I think it would even declutter my services list to to take them, take them down. But I know some people with with those want to see your work. You know they want to make sure it's you're, you're okay at it before they like pay you to do it.

Josh Hall: 1:00:30

So I don't know, like some hidden, maybe just just hide the pages and if they ask for it, yeah, just hidden pages, yeah, but you can still have your logo page, still have your photography, but it's kind of cool because it's almost like we reserve this for our clients. This is not something the public gets. You got to be special to get our photography. So, yeah, I really would probably have that approach. I do agree, I think it would make more sense for the services, because you do website design, development, care and support. And then, yeah, I would have digital strategy, because digital strategy is a part of the website design, but also it's something you could sell ongoing.

Megan Fletcher: 1:01:09

So how would you work Because I use my discovery session to sell and just get that trust with a client to get the project sold. So would you have a small one where you don't get into as much? Yeah, there's a big difference.

Josh Hall: 1:01:22

We just talked about this with Shannon on her training she did in pro about paid discovery, the big light bulb moment. I don't know if you've listened or watched the replay on that one yet, but the big light bulb moment for I think a lot of us was that there's a big difference between discovery and strategy and I think those lines get blurred often. But discovery really is just like hearing about the client where they're at. You can offer ideas and advice. But a strategy session is like I took your ideas. It would be kind of come after an initial. So if you sold a strategy session, there'd probably be either a 20 to 30 minute discovery call or a form and then the strategy session happens.

Josh Hall: 1:02:04

Because the strategy is a little more like okay, you're already doing this with your websites. We take where you're at, know your challenges, what you're looking to do, where your needs are for the site, and now we're going to create a plan. Now we're going to actually create like what's the strategy for the website? What's the main call to action? What's the user experience like? Where is your traffic coming from? Do we need lead generators? Are we selling a product? Do you just want contact form submissions? Do you just want to call? Like? That's where, like, the strategy comes into play.

Josh Hall: 1:02:33

So I think, all that in mind, yeah, your discovery call would be either before a paid strategy session or before the paid website consultation.

Josh Hall: 1:02:45

That is, the strategy is going to be a part of it, but it's basically you're just bringing the strategy part out as its own thing, which is just so valuable. Also, it is a perfect upsell for a website audit, because you could do a website audit and then if you do strategy sessions for, say, $1,000, because they're they could be pretty intense You're really putting your, your marketing expertise, your experience, your heart and soul and ideas. You're like your, your IP, you know it's like that's what people are getting and then that's what you can follow up with as an upsell, and then that leads to website design. So I just love strategy sessions. I just that's going to be like the new big thing I'm going to start to work in and my stuff in pro and my business course is really. I guess what I would do today. I would. Strategy sessions would be like the like the upsell, it would be the downsell, it would be that versatile thing that could go in and out of all of this stuff.

Megan Fletcher: 1:03:40

Yeah, I think that's great because the last discovery session that I just had like a week ago I think I spent 30 minutes just like giving him advice. It wasn't even related to like how we get your website going, because I was just having fun talking about it and sharing different things that I'd seen with him.

Josh Hall: 1:03:56

And even what you just said a little bit ago. You were talking about, like me, you were the AI. What did you say?

Megan Fletcher: 1:04:02

We're the AI of business how to run a business. I don't remember what I said.

Josh Hall: 1:04:05

We're the AI of online business Like you're talking about maybe a newsletter, or maybe you should do this, or if you're active on this, or even the conference thing, like you may suggest that clients consider doing an in-person conference and building their network, like those are all things that could be done in a strategy session, because the website is kind of the core of that. So, yeah, I feel like my challenge for you now is like I would yeah, I would drop from, publicly drop logo design and branding and photography, have those specialized specialty services for current clients but they need to be a paying client to get that or it needs to be planned out. And then, yeah, I think you're ready for strategy and you're more, much more confident. I don't know if I would have had advised you to do this A year ago, megan.

Josh Hall: 1:04:51

Yeah, I don't know what you should do, but version 1.0 Megan was not rated off for strategy, but version 2.0 is, so I think you're, I think you got the all clear to make that happen.

Megan Fletcher: 1:05:02

Yeah, it's been an awesome year. It's just so cool, like how many people do you actually know that go out and start a business and so just to even have done it is pretty awesome.

Josh Hall: 1:05:14

It's important to remember too. I'm glad you said that because, like in pro, we're all in this together and everyone is in different stages of their business. And you know there's a lot of like-minded nature with just being an entrepreneur and being a web designer. But the reality is when we're in there, we've all taken the leap or we're all working on the side to eventually take the leap. That's not the case in real life, I mean in your neighborhood or in your average family gatherings. Yeah, you said it. How many people have taken the risk to start their own business? Or, you know, some people may be business owners, but maybe it was handed off to them, or they joined a business, they rose up the ranks and then they became the ceo, but they didn't maybe start their business from nothing yeah, and I even talked with the group, with pro I, just the people in it have it's like a little, it's like a support group.

Megan Fletcher: 1:06:11

you know, even when you're overwhelmed with something and you send it out and like people respond and they're just whether it's like a technical issue, like a personal like I just struggling, and like it's just what a group and like what amazing people. I remember when you said that I'd be on the podcast, on the post, and one of the people was just I can't wait to hear Megan. I was like me, like what do I have to say? You know, so it's just I, just it's really cool to to like have all those people to like kind of cheerlead for you and like just support you. So many people have offered to like sit with like one-on-ones for like an hour and just like talk and like share their stuff, and it's just been everyone just really cares about everyone succeeding in there. So it's just such a special, special place.

Josh Hall: 1:06:55

Oh, that's so awesome, megan, and you just said something that reminded me, cause I wanted to ask you about this in DMs, when I invited you to talk about this first year and the highs and lows you've gone through and just having your best month ever. You, I think you mentioned I'm trying to remember you mentioned something like there was no magic to it. It was just like persistence and persistence.

Megan Fletcher: 1:07:14

And what did I say?

Josh Hall: 1:07:16

Going through it. Let me look real quick. But I was like that is the magic and it really is. I mean, a lot of people, people crumble, a lot of people don't make it through the dips. I am curious what we I guess we've kind of already talked about this, but what did get you through, like what helped you persevere through that?

Megan Fletcher: 1:07:41

I think pro is super foundational in all of it because it's the courses to teach you the things that I don't know what the heck.

Megan Fletcher: 1:07:50

I can get advice from my husband, who runs like big plants with lots of money, and like I can get direction from him, but it's not what I'm doing exactly and so I can't get advice. That's super specific to me. He doesn't own the business, so there's like, yes, he does a lot of the things, but there's not too many business owners in my life that I can consult with. So, just like the community support, the courses to walk through, the coaching from you and friendships within there, not just like the community but like real friendships that are made in there Um, obviously, family support outside of that and just believing in yourself a little bit but then hopefully having those support groups to to push you forward. When you stop believing in yourself is and just keep on, keep on trying those like that me and Tamara had said. Just like doing those little things and making sure to like get up and do those little things every single day, even when you feel like you're falling apart.

Josh Hall: 1:08:51

Yes, I just looked. You said lessons learned in perseverance.

Megan Fletcher: 1:08:54

You said I have a standard story.

Josh Hall: 1:08:55

Nothing magical, but I mean it really is. That's like. The reality is that and I think this is common in the athletic world I mean anyone who does something legit and awesome. They've gone through hardships, otherwise it's not a cool story Like no successful person's like. I just started my business, everything was just fine Great.

Josh Hall: 1:09:14

Every month was up and to the right, no big deal. And then you're like then it's boring, it doesn't feel real. Obviously, we know that's not the case, so it really is I. Obviously we know that's not the case, so it really is I just more and more, from a psychology standpoint, I'm fascinated more and more about people who stick with it, which is why I was so excited to talk to you and to see you on the other side of this.

Megan Fletcher: 1:09:35

It's cool to even just share it and talk about it, because it did feel kind of like a standard story of starting a business. You have some good stuff, you got some bad stuff and you just got to keep working through it all. And I mean, sometimes you see like the highlights of people who just like knock something out, like get 10K super fast, and you're just like Holy smokes, you know, and like to take like a whole year to like get to a month, that was really big and like actually gave me a glimmer of like okay, maybe six figures isn't like out of the question, um, and I it just it was really great to like finally get there after just like having a normal business year and and just continue to persevere, like when you, when you feel like you're struggling, um, but yeah, having the community support and just making sure to believe in yourself a little bit, just even a little bit tell me real quick what was your commitment level when you started?

Josh Hall: 1:10:31

this is another thing that I've seen with people who make it is. It's like, whether it's verbally, whether they're like shouting affirmations in the mirror or whether they're just like thinking like I am, this is, I'm doing this, it's going at. Did you have that or did you not have a commitment level?

Megan Fletcher: 1:10:49

I think I was cautious. I think I said I will do Cautious commitment, I think.

Megan Fletcher: 1:10:54

I even said it to you in the first email. I really want to try this and maybe learn some JavaScript and things on the side so I could go back and do software engineering for website design. Like if, if I can't make this work, like that was like my first like cautiously optimistic idea, like I will do this, but with like a fallback plan. Um, but then pretty early on I think, uh, ben or Mark joined just shortly after me and we're like just like on fire and like talking about how their goals and I was like well, shoot, like my goal is so like pathetic. Like I said $1,000 a month and like so, just it kind of shifted a little bit and be like I really and something you had said, um, I wish I could remember, but it was just oh, about like joining the group.

Megan Fletcher: 1:11:43

Even just as much as you put into this is what you're going to get out of it. So I've always tried to remember, like you know, connecting with these people isn't going to happen without me posting and and so even like when I get busy and don't get in for a little while, like I try and like when I get like the time, like to get back in there and start like responding to different things and like talking to people and stuff. And so I think it's true for pro and it's true for the business, Like as much as you're going to put into it is what you're going to get back from it man sage advice here Wisdom, absolute wisdom.

Josh Hall: 1:12:17

So yeah, same with clients too. Right Like the more you contact them and follow up with them, the more.

Megan Fletcher: 1:12:21

That was a really hard lesson for me, because I was so nervous to bother my clients and learning that it's not. You said it in your courses. But I was still like I don't want to bug them and like, but now it's like it's really important at least once a week that I check in and say like here's where I am and like they know, or like hey, did you see this? Just making sure to like I'm not bothering them, they're just everyone is so busy that they might've seen it and like glazed by it and like it's still in the back of their brain and I just need to bring it back forward. But like, yeah, putting into the clients as much as you do too, I kind of figured for a little while. They're like they just give me the stuff, I'll do mine quietly over here and then I'll give it back to you, but you, really it's like a partnership with them.

Josh Hall: 1:13:01

Yeah Well, megan gosh, this has been awesome. I'm so happy Again. I can't reiterate enough. I'm so pumped for you, so awesome Again. I knew you could do it, you just had to stick with it. So to see you stick with it, that's where the magic was. So excited to meet you here soon in person. We're going to have our pro event and even more so. I mean, we're going to take all this to the next level as a group to really support each other in a whole different way. So, yeah, oh my gosh, it's so cool. I'm kind of curious. Last question Well, actually, before I ask you, a final question for those who want to check your site out, check your socials out, where should everyone go? Does MF4.com?

Megan Fletcher: 1:13:40

forward. I should, I should just forward it now. I'll get a lot of very traffic.

Josh Hall: 1:13:48

Where is all this traffic coming from.

Megan Fletcher: 1:13:51

So it's meganfletchercom Um the plain Jane Megan, nothing fancy in it. And then my socials are fletching creative, which is like my last name with ING instead.

Josh Hall: 1:14:04

Got it and we'll have all the all that linked in the show notes, but so real quick. I'm kind of curious. You're in a swamp season right now. We've been talking about scaling and you know what to do in this season, but what is your? Have you thought about vision at all over the next, like now that you've passed? The first year is often the hardest year in most cases, one of them typically. Have you thought about, like, what you want things to look like for the next year or two or three? Are you just focused on just getting out of the pile of projects and work you got going?

Megan Fletcher: 1:14:34

right now. I think from what I've learned last year is like you always have to kind of think about it, even if you feel overwhelmed. So I think, like yesterday in my mind, I was like I really need to tighten things up. So I think, like yesterday in my mind, I was like I really need to tighten things up. That's my goal right now, and like still still allegating time to do all the things, all the business ideas and the roadmapping, and making sure to get back on that, and then it's probably scaling a little bit, trying to offload some of the pieces that I don't enjoy doing. I think I'd love to get like a VA to help me with maybe some of the admin work and, you know, getting collecting information from clients or things like that that I think that the big fear in there that I need to decouple from is loss of profit by having to pay someone else to do work.

Josh Hall: 1:15:25

that's where I'm at yeah, well, that's wonderful, awesome, scale your way time. I also have a couple resources for vas for you that I'll send after this um, obviously in the scaling course. But I have a couple new ones as well. I had a call before this with another pro member who has a. It's a mom, it's like specific to moms that are vas who can't work or don't want to work a nine-to-five as moms, so they want to work in the evenings and occasionally like and that's perfect. So I'll send you that site um.

Josh Hall: 1:15:54

But the really cool thing, real quick on the profit thing, it's like and you're just hitting all the common struggles at every stage I was there, everyone's been there what you'll realize is like you will get back bandwidth, sanity, joy, love. Yes, you'll pay more, but you'll make a lot more because you'll have more time back. And then I think you'll find too, from the get-go you joined Pro, which told me you're serious about this as a business and you kind of share. You were able to share some of these burdens in a community, not saying that you were venting, but when you're in a community you see other problems and you don't feel alone. That's what I'm trying to say. But I think when you add somebody to your business, even in a contractor role, you really feel like the weight is lifted off your shoulders because everything's not on Megan. It's like now it's on us and it feels a little like, okay, it doesn't feel as guilty.

Megan Fletcher: 1:16:48

I think it's needed because our family is actually going through adoption, which I know I had mentioned a long time ago, um, when I started, and you know we're still in the midst of all like the unknown timetables and but we, we are matched with a child and you know we don't know stories, just everything takes forever, which is just exhausting. But when I have to go down in country and I don't know how long I'm going to be there for like having someone to like hold down the fort, a little bit is going to be so needed.

Josh Hall: 1:17:20

Good point. Did you happen to check out the recent podcast with sandy and alexis? I did okay that's just a really good example of like a scanny. I mean, it's so funny. I feel like I'm I'm talking to sandy from two years ago. It's literally the exact same, this thing, same thing to say, um, but yeah, you're right, like you do need to prepare for that, whether it's a anticipated family change or if someone's expecting or if there's an ill parent that you're taking care of.

Josh Hall: 1:17:47

Whatever these things are sometimes anticipated or unexpected completely and yeah, I can't recommend enough that you take that to heart, at least getting someone going now that starts to know your business. I think probably a junior designer would be really helpful too. Sometimes that could be the VA as well, or it may be a junior designer to help you do the strategy, the initial design. They carry on with the ongoing updates and fulfillment.

Megan Fletcher: 1:18:13

That's true. Subpage design is always my least favorite. I'm like I already did the best one.

Josh Hall: 1:18:18

I'm a homepage guy and then everything else, somebody else do it. Yep, totally agree. Yeah, so well, megan, I'm so pumped for you. Again, congrats, Awesome. First year, let's freaking go. Year two Uh, let's get through some of the scaling stuff, firm up those systems, a little bit of boundary work and communication work, and then, uh, I can't wait for round two. Let's, uh, let's have you back on, you know, megan, version 3.0 and see where things are at.

Megan Fletcher: 1:18:46

She's going to be wild. She's going to be crazy.

Josh Hall: 1:18:49

Your mic is great, though, by the way, you're already legit. You got the little mic was awesome, that's like a perfect.

Megan Fletcher: 1:18:56

It's for. I got it for all the social media stuff I was attempting so and it plugs into my camera. So I I just tried it. I was like I know it's for my phone and I know it's for my camera. I just got the little usb, the new, the new one usbc.

Josh Hall: 1:19:10

What is that? What is that mic?

Megan Fletcher: 1:19:12

it's the dgi mini and it comes with um. I got a little case got a little infomercial here. It comes with like another mic too, so you could have two people on mics and it's super reasonably priced and you don't have to like when I got the podcast mic, I didn't realize you had to have all the other stuff. So I thought I'm spending a hundred bucks on this mic for my husband, Like it was gonna be awesome, like, oh, you got to spend like a couple more hundred to make it work.

Josh Hall: 1:19:40

Oh, my gosh, I might get that for the event because Jason, we're going to do like a mock up, like a mock sales call, jason's going to like show his sales call process and I'm going gonna be my lead outfit for our event. But, yeah, like that could be perfect, having the two my okay, thank you, learn something today myself. I'm gonna check that out. All right, megan, well, I'm gonna let you go. We got stuff to do, but this has been awesome. Thank you so much for your time I know this is gonna help a lot of folks, so keep at it.

Megan Fletcher: 1:20:18

This is cool it was even a confidence boost for me, like I'm on the podcast.

Josh Hall: 1:20:23

You've made it. It's all downhill from here. This is the topic it's now. I'm speaking right here Pump for you, megan, keep at it. Thank you so much. So much goodness, so much gold, all wrapped up in less than one year of building her web design business. Megan, uh really is done an incredible job. I'm so proud to have her as a member of Web Designer Pro and oversee her, and to see what she's done. So, year number two, here we come, on track for a six figure business. Let's freaking go, as the kids say these days. So a big thanks to Megan for sharing everything she's learned here. Hope it helps you Again.

Josh Hall: 1:21:02

Her website is MeganFletcherchercom, or maybe mfrcom by the time this comes out. You just have to do that. It's so good, and you can find the show notes that we talked about. All the links and everything we talked about are going to be at the show notes page, which will be at joshhallco slash 377. Hope you enjoyed this one. Friends, leave us a comment, connect with Megan, and I can't wait to hear how this one helps you in your first year in business or just in your web design business in general. Good stuff, all right, guys. I will see you on the next episode.