406 - Client Retention Q&A + my Black Friday Deals

I’m sharing the replay of my recent Live Q&A session where we dug into all things client retention, communication, and keeping your web design business running smoothly… even when outages hit or the unexpected happens.

You’ll hear me break down some of the same strategies I taught at the recent Circle Summit — including how to set boundaries, create repeatable touchpoints, and turn one-time clients into long-term fans.

And since we’re heading into Black Friday, I also walk through this year’s Web Designer Pro® deals, including some really solid bonuses to help you level up going into 2025.

We cover:

• personal welcome videos that set the tone
• launch packs that turn go-live into referrals
• 30-day post-launch buffers to reduce scope creep
• monthly reports to stay top-of-mind
• A/B/C client segmentation for holiday outreach
• the “website is never finished” mindset
• SOS plans for Squarespace and Webflow clients
• calm scripts for handling outages + tough conversations
• shifting from designer → strategist
• what’s new with Divi 5
• security basics and support plans
• Black Friday offers worth sharing

👉 2025 Black Friday Deal – 25% OFF Annual Plans on Pro!

Courses Tier:
Usually $499/yr → now $374/yr

Personalized website strategy audit (10–15 min Loom video)

https://member.webdesignerpro.com/checkout/course-access?coupon_code=BF2025

Community Tier:
Usually $999/yr → now $749/yr

Website strategy audit plus a 30-min 1:1 with me

https://member.webdesignerpro.com/checkout/community-access?coupon_code=BF2025

Offer good through Cyber Monday, Dec 1 at 11:59pm ET
Valid for Courses + Community tiers
Audits + 1:1s delivered December–January

Watch the replay here on YouTube!

Chapters

• 0:00 Live Q&A Kickoff And Focus
• 3:00 Black Friday Offers And Community Perks
• 6:30 Chat Setup And Participation Tips
• 8:20 Defining Client Retention Priorities
• 10:25 The Personal Welcome Video Play
• 14:40 Holiday Letters And Client Segmentation
• 19:45 “Website Is Never Finished” Mindset
• 24:30 Become Their Web Designer For Life
• 30:10 Handling Outages And Blame
• 35:30 Reentering Web Design After A Break
• 41:00 Launch Gifts And Annual Touchpoints
• 46:15 AI Builders Vs Real Web Strategy
• 54:20 Sales Boosts And Black Friday Tactics
• 58:40 Post‑Launch Automation And Follow‑Ups
• 1:03:30 Maintenance Without WordPress: SOS Plans

Transcript

Josh Hall: 0:00

Hello and welcome in, my friends, into the November 2025 QA session. I will be live for a full hour up until 3 p.m. Eastern to answer any questions you guys have. I figured today we could focus on client retention. For those of you who were there yesterday or maybe knew about it, yesterday I spoke at Circle's Future of Online Community Summit. And my talk was specifically about member transformation and retention. This is largely what I've uh learned about as a web designer for a long time and then uh as a community builder, which both of the strategies translate. So everything I do in Web Designer Pro to retain members are the exact same strategies that you can apply to your web design business. So it was such a good session and so many good questions. But my my QA session was only like 15 minutes, which, if you guys know me at all, um, we're just scratching the surface there. So I wanted to dedicate a full hour to this. So I will answer other questions you have as well, but I figured the focus could be on client retention. So welcome in. I didn't promote this QA too well. It kind of snuck up on us with everything going on uh with my family right now, uh, with my daughter recovering from a recent surgery. So life is still a bit crazy, but uh, I expect a smaller QA session, but a vibrant one. So speaking of that, jump in the chat, say hey, and if you're new here, well, I'd say what, everybody, if you'd like to jump in the chat, let us know where you are joining from. And then if this is your first time here, welcome in. The uh the YouTube waters are warm here on the live sessions for QA. So there is no wrong question, there is no bad question. I will be happy to answer anything that's on your mind. And again, we'll lead off with some retention strategies and go from there. But jump in the chat. I'd love to know who's joining us live. And then I posted this in the description because I've been asked about this the last week a lot here. Uh, I am doing a Black Friday offer for Web Designer Pro this year. It is 25% off the annual plans for the courses and community tier. Below in the description, all the details are there, including the links. So all you have to do is if you're interested in getting all my courses, you can get 25% off the annual plan. Or if you would like to join the pro community and you'd like to have lock in a year access to all the community features, which includes all of my courses, all of our upcoming calls, our group challenges, our guest trainings, and a chance to be able to get a ticket for our upcoming pro con event for 2026. I would join the community tier. So all the details for that are below. So jump down there and jump on in. If you have been I and Web Designer Pro, if you've been on the fence, now's an amazing time because you can lock in access for 25% off for an entire year. All right, guys, post your questions and let me know where you're joining us from. Good to see everybody here again. Jump in the chat. I run the um the chat here through eCamm, and I know there's usually a delay. So this is what you should do right here. If you have a question, post it in the chat. And if you would put a cue in front of it. Um, as the chat gets busier and busier, it's just kind of hard for me to keep up with it. So that just tells me that it's a question, and I will do my best to get to all of those in the next hour. So again, I think there's a delay here. Um, so I'll wait to hear from you guys on number one, where you're based out of, where you're joining us from, and number two, a question. So let's talk about client retention here for a minute, because as I mentioned, my presentation at the Circle Summit yesterday was all about retention. And I tell you what, let's do this. What do you guys think my number one favorite client retention strategy is? Post it in the chat. Now, some of you who have been through my business course or if you've been a member of Web Designer Pro, you might know this already. But let me know what you guys think. What do you think is my favorite um retention strategies for clients? Post in the chat and let me know what you think it is. No wrong answer, no bad answer, but I want to hear from you. I want to hear where your guys' heads are at with uh with client retention. So jump in the chat and let me know. I'll give it a minute here to hear from you, and then we'll go from there. And again, if you just joined us, welcome in. I didn't promote this Q ⁇ A session well, so we'll probably have a uh a smaller group today. But that is all good with me. Is everyone multitasking or is the chat not working? Because I'm not seeing anything come through yet. I guess I should probably make sure everything is working correctly. Do you does somebody want to jump in the chat and let me know that uh everything is going through alright? Because usually the chat is hopping pretty quick. While those are coming in, if curious, I'll tell you. I'll just tell you why that's all coming in. My number one strategy is ah, there's Stacy. Good to see Stacy here. Stacy says building relationships. Yes, that's a big one. Definitely with clients, because with web design clients, unless your business has a scale, the deeper you can go into relationships. And the more you give a feeling of clients viewing you as like their web designer, the better the retention strategy is. But I'll share my number one retention strategy, and it actually starts with the first impression, and that is a personal welcome video. Now, I've been doing personal welcome videos from members of Web Designer Pro for over five years. Every new member that joins in the coaching or community tiers to where I have DM access with them, I send a personal welcome video. And it has been a game changer. Like a lot of members who have been in the community for five years have said they still think about that first personal video. Because ask yourself this like, when's the last time you joined a course or a community or anything online? And the leader, the like the founder or the the head honcho sent you an actual personal video? Probably never, if any. Like if it if it was the case, it's probably very, very rare. So, whatever you can do to differentiate yourself from that first impression, that plants the seeds for the retention ongoing. Like, I can't stress how important first impressions are. And if you think about that from just a human perspective, just about relationships, when you meet somebody, whether it's your wife, your spouse, your partner, whatever, or if it's a close friend, you could probably remember your first interactions with them. Like, first impressions are huge for a reason. So that translates to the business world as well. So I really want to encourage you guys to focus on and think about first impressions. My favorite tip is a personalized welcome video. I use Loom and I do them that they're usually one to two minutes. And it's just like, you know, Stacy, I would say, like, hey Stacy, welcome into Pro. So excited to have you here. I might check out your website and say, I love what you're up to here. I got some ideas, but I want to hear from you on what your goals are. And then any questions or challenges you have, I can give you some insight to get you going. And those that little hit, like once a week, depending on how many clients you're getting, you should be able to manage that, goes such a long way with retention. So that's a big one. And to your point, Stacy, that starts the relationship building. So if you guys just joined us, welcome in. Um, does anyone want to okay? Let's do this. Since we're focusing on client retention right now, uh, let me ask you what is your favorite retention strategy? I I mentioned mine, which is the personal welcome video. And as a web designer, by the way, there's a few different uh parts of the journey on which when you can do this. I would actually recommend doing it right after they pay or as soon as you can after they actually pay, because you're probably going to have an automated onboarding sequence, or at least you should. And you can have some resources there, but I would follow up with just a quick personal hey, welcome in client. I'm so excited to work with you. I just wanted to pop in to say I'm really excited to get going. Other details are being sent as we get going here, but I just wanted to say I'm really fired up to help you and your website and your business, and I'm excited to be your partner here with your online presence. If you do that, just like I do with people who join Web Presenter Pro, you build the foundation of your retention strategy. So that's how I would do it. So let me hear from you guys. Jump in the chat. Let me know your favorite client retention strategy. And if you don't know any, then this is a great QA session to be on, because that's what we're going to talk about today. And of course, I will be down to answer any other questions you have as well. But let me know, jump in the chat. It's a little quiet here today, so you might be multitasking. Come back to me if you are. Jump in the chat house, have some fun today. Generally, the live QAs tend to pick up some steam. And again, I didn't promote this one very well. Just with everything going on, this one snuck up on us. So I will answer any questions you guys have. So, what is your favorite retention strategy? Or if you don't have one yet, what do you uh think is one you should focus on? Jump on in the chat and let me know. And then as you guys have questions, jump in the chat and then put a cue in front of your question and I will bring that up live and answer. So if you just joined us, Stacy had mentioned that building relationships uh was what she guessed is my number one retention strategy. And yes, the start of building a relationship is a personalized video. And while you guys have some thoughts coming in, I'll give you a few ideas to prompt you. But I want to know what is your number one retention strategy? There are a few. The personal video, personal welcome video is a big one. Another one is actually, well, trying to think of a fun kind of priority. As far as a retention strategy, probably my second favorite would be a letter that is handwritten or hand-typed if you have chicken scratch like I do. And it is a Christmas letter. I for years wrote letters to my top clients. Um, I recommend segmenting your clients into three categories: A's, B's, and C's. So A clients are like they're the awesome ones that you do not want to lose them. B clients are good clients, but um, you know, they may not be like the, you know, your top clients. And then C's are clients where it's nice that they're around, but if they were to leave, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. So I recommend sending letters to your A and B clients. And if you want to do something special for your A clients, like a gift or a personal video or whatever that would look like, go for it. And now that we're getting close under the holidays, this is a perfect time to think about that as you move forward. I talk about this in both my business course and my maintenance plan course, but send a letter or a personal gift to your best clients before Christmas. Those will plant some seeds in the new year as well. Hey Melissa, she says, teaching clients at their website is never full finished. Uh conversion and optimization, uh, but this is a bit of uh this is a bit hit or miss. Yeah, that can't, so I guess that would be more of a it is a retention strategy in the way of a almost like an upsell. Um so absolutely that's a retention strategy. Because as we know, as web designers, a website is never done. So absolutely, the fact that a website is never done means that it is a it's a built-in retention strategy. Now the key is I talked about this in uh my circle presentation, and actually let me pull up the slide, and then I have a slide I just want to share with you on this real quick because I think it's really important. This is huge for the um community world, but this is also equally important for web designers, and it is this right here. Hopefully you guys can see. I don't know if you can see this here. Oh, is it not showing? It may not be showing the uh the right window here. Hold on a sec. Oh, that's weird. Well, I'll tell you what, I'll just tell you. It is to give the feeling to your clients that you are their web designer. So, what I've learned in building Web Designer Pro is one of the best retention strategies is to get members to a place where they feel like Web Designer Pro is their community. And I see it. When members turn a corner to start saying my community, Web Designer Pro, they feel ownership and they feel like they're in it for the long haul. And for your clients, you're absolutely right. Melissa and saying that a website is never finished, so there's already a built-in metric there of retention. But your job and all of our jobs as web designers is to make sure that we are our clients' web designer for as long as possible. You know what I mean? Because technically, yes, there's retention because the website is never finished, but it doesn't mean that they'll stay with you. So I love that you're into CRO. That's uh conversion rate optimization for those who don't know. So heck yeah, Melissa, keep going with that. And any anything you can do to continue to make the experience so good that clients say, Why would I leave Melissa? Like she's the best, she's punctual, she communicates so well, she does great work, um, she cares about us. You're gold. There's oh, I just let the cat out the bag. There's all the retention strategies right there. Care, competence, communication, all those things are key. Hey, Andre, good to see you. Thank you so much, Andre. Yeah, my daughter recently had a major surgery just a month ago, but she's doing absolutely incredible. Those of you who follow me on social media or Web Center Pro members, you saw that. Uh, but she's doing awesome, so really appreciate that. Andre said, would have been here at the start, but YouTube did not alert me. Oh, dang. Yeah, I don't for anyone who doesn't know, you can click the uh alert icon and it should remind you unless there was uh an issue of some sort. And Andre is from Italy, Norway. Awesome. First time live. Well, welcome in, Andre. Hey, if you have any questions about client retention, let me know. Drop them in the chat, and I will get to those. Melissa says, I send a client's a launch package, uh, sweets and handmade gift in the post. That's awesome. So, one thing I'd recommend doing, Melissa, depending on how many clients you have, is do it again in around Christmas. Because if you do a launch package, that's great. And, you know, if you're launching a site between now and Christmas, don't worry about an additional one. But if you launched a site three years ago, that Steam probably has worn off a little bit. And with doing CRO services, you're probably top of mind in some capacity. But I would follow up and make sure there's an annual like hit of that awesome touch point to keep that relationship going. So might be time to do that. I wouldn't do so it wouldn't be a launch package, it would be a I mean, it would be a retention package, basically, what we would call it. Um what we what you could call it is more of a like thank you. It's it's just a thank you. It's a and again, I I actually wrote letters on this. I actually sent like I typed out letters that were really heartfelt and personalized to each client. And I only did those to my top clients, so I was generally sending anywhere between 30 and 40, um, which took some time and I actually mailed them out and signed them and everything, but um, you know, it was manageable. But for you, if you want to do something similar, or if you want to go with the sweets and handmade gift, I mean, you know, if it's for your best clients, I would go that route. You could do letters for B clients, you could do letters plus a gift for like A clients. That's probably what I recommend. Good stuff, guys. Well, welcome in. If you just joined us for this QA session, we are talking client retention strategies. So jump in the chat and let me know any questions you have about retention. And I guess I should probably say if if you don't if you haven't thought about retention, it's understandable, especially if you're early on in your journey, because typically you're just in hustle mode. You're just trying to get clients and trying to get referrals. So retention is like the last thing in your mind because you generally need cash flow and you need projects. Um, we have a commercial here in Ohio called Um I Need or What is it, 877 Cash Now? You need cash, you need it now. So you're kind of in that mode. And then eventually you realize shoot, I don't want to just get a new client and have them disappear. I want to keep them coming back. And in web design, there's a lot of ways to do a myriad of recurring revenue: website maintenance plans, website support and care plans if you're not using WordPress or WordPress, growth plans, SEO packages. You could do any sort of ongoing strategy, um, which could involve getting into like email marketing if you're doing email marketing or content creation or any sort of digital marketing around that. A lot of web designer pros are actually looking at doing almost semi-coaching communities for their clients. Like Eric, the CEO of my agency in transit, um, he actually does a weekly now, it's basically a coaching call for clients. So he's really stepping into like more of a digital marketer role for clients. And I'm actually going to be speaking at one here as kind of a guest as the founder of the agency. So those are some things to consider when it comes to retention because it's a heck of a lot easier to make more money and to be more profitable when you don't have to sell to new people all the time. It's the classic rule in business that getting a new client is 10 times more expensive than just getting a current client to pay you for something else. And it's all about retention. So hope that gives you guys some prompts and some ideas. Jump in the chat, guys. I know we have a small group today. It was a uh an ill-promoted QA session, but that just means we've got time to answer questions without having to rush through them. So, questions on client retention. Any questions on client retention? If you guys have questions outside of that, I'm happy to answer those as well. But I will wait to hear from you. I want to make sure I get it all get to all of them here. Anyone just joined us? Welcome in. The focus today is on client retention. Um, I did post the details below. I have been asked a lot about this, but I am doing a Black Friday offer. The details are below. The offer is 25% off annual plans for my community web designer pro in the courses or community tier. So the pricing and the details are below. You can lock in that rate for a full year. So if you've been on the fence, now is an incredible time to join. And there's some bonuses too, because if you join the courses tier during Black Friday, I'm actually going to do a personalized website strategy audit for you. I will look over your stuff, get some questions from you, and I will send a 10 to 15 minute audio, uh video and audio Loom uh audit. And then for those who want to join the community, you will get a 30-minute one-on-one with me. So you will get a coaching session that I normally reserve for my coaching tier student uh members of Pro. And that is a bonus for the community if you'd like to lock in a year of that. All the details below. Hey Jennifer, good to see you. How would you deal with a client who tells you that you will be the downfall of their business when running into tech issues? Um, I guess it depends on what the tech issues were. If it's an e-commerce site, and I mean, the re so here's what I would say, Jennifer. I would tell them, um, do you feel the same way about Cloudflare? Because Cloudflare went down yesterday and how many millions of sites were down, Chat GPT was down, um what else? Canva was messed up for a while. Like there was a ton of websites down. So I would let them know. Look, if it is something that was a fault on your end, Jennifer, then I would own up to it absolutely. Like if there was a plug-in issue that you didn't get to, or you're not keeping things up to date, or if you broke the email because you didn't go through my DNS course yet and you don't understand pop versus IMAP and DNS records, then absolutely I would say that was that was on me. That was on me and my team. I take full ownership. But I would let them know tech issues are a part of being online. So for example, and I don't know this person, they don't sound uber smart. So what I would tell them, you have to simplify it for them if they're telling you this, but because you're probably dealing with a very simple person on this, just judged off of them saying you're the downfall of their business, they're either simple or emotional. So we need to tackle both. Here's what I would say I would tell them, like, do you drive a car? If you drive a car, you're gonna have issues, you're going to have issues. So the tire tires are gonna go bad, you're gonna need maintenance, and no one is a fault of that unless somebody runs into you or if you run into something. So it's kind of like that. If you have a website, if you're using tech, you're going to have issues. So I hope that helps, Jennifer. And this is all dependent on if this was actually an issue on your end, or if it's just, you know, if the hosting was down or if it was because of Cloudflare yesterday, there's nothing you can do about it. Um, so yeah, that's what I would say. And again, you'll handle it better. I'm not talking, I wouldn't tell the client like you're being a freaking idiot. But uh, you know, nine times out of ten, there may be a time where I say that, but um, you'll handle it right. But uh also you can fire them. If you don't need them, fire the hell out of them. Get rid of them. You don't need that. You have plenty enough going on, Jennifer. You don't need that in your life. So let me know if that helps. Steven, hey man, good to see Steven in the house. What would you suggest to someone who has left the business for a two year for two years um and is looking to get back into it? It's still very up to date on AI tools, etc. Well, the good news is, Steven, there's actually never a better time to get into web design because things are changing and moving so fast that it almost doesn't matter. Um, I mean, the reality is like I it's overwhelming in a sense of things are changing so fast, but it's also it just means that the the playing field is a little more leveled. Meaning there are Web Designer Pro members we've seen who are brand new, like less than a few months in business or even just a year or two, and they are like excelling, particularly in certain areas. Like they just they're diving headfirst into one thing and they learn it really well, and suddenly they're like an expert in it. Whereas we talked about this yesterday at the Circle Summit. When there are people who are in their business for years and decades, those of you who have been doing this for a long time, you I'm guessing you probably feel the same with me, which is like, God dang it, I don't feel like learning a new tool. Like, I'm just trying to keep up with my current tool stack. So um, it's actually totally fine, Steven. Like, there's really, I mean, you can get caught up on stuff pretty quick. I mean, this is one of the reasons we have my community web designer pro because we're all talking about tools and the latest on AI. So if you guys have been on the fence and you want to join my awesome world of web designers, the Black Friday offer is below for you. I'd really recommend locking and access to the community tier because it is a huge, huge discount instead of going month to month. Um, and that is a major part of what we do. Like we're helping each other stay up to date on stuff. So that's one thing I would recommend, Steven. Obviously, I hope to see it in Web Designer Pro, but at the very least, find a web design Facebook group. Even though it's not a community sense, it is a good place to keep tabs on tools. And I do that as well. I'm a part of a couple Facebook groups for WordPress. One is called the Admin Bar. It's one of the biggest groups for WordPress. I founded a group called Divi Web Designers that I'm still active in. I actually am more of a creeper there just because I just like to see what's going on on at scale with some of the tools, particularly Divi, because I use Divi and Divi5. So those are a few things I would do. Um, but yeah, Steven, don't don't let that scare you. I mean, the reality is in two years, the only new tools that I have personally added into the mix is Chat GPT. There's no other AI tools I'm personally using. Um, and I'm a simple tool guy, but that's literally the only one that I'm like actively using on the regular, aside from playing around. Um, so yeah, it's all good. You're totally fine, Stephen. I hope that gives you some encouragement. Um, don't let the dream die just because you stepped out for a couple years. I get it. Jennifer says, Thank you. There's a lot more, of course. I'll probably bring it up in the coaching community. Awesome, Jennifer. You say, Yeah, I figured, you know, there was there's certainly more to it, but um, but yeah, I mean, yeah, I the there's really when a client blames you for any sort of issues, the two I guess the two um pathways of that are like, oops, yeah, it was me. I, you know, I broke the email or I broke something or we didn't do an update, or it's out of our hands. And you know, we do what we can. We try our best, but is he gonna call the is that client gonna call the hosting company and say you've ruined my business because it went down? Maybe. I mean he could call Cloudflare if they wanted to. So yeah, yeah. Let me know, Jennifer. I want to hear more on that. Thank you for your advice, says Steven. Awesome. Big into Divi and WordPress, they were my go-to when designing, use chat GPT every day for work. Awesome, Steven. So we're in the same camp, man. Now, the only change with Divi is in the past two years, Divi5 has been built and is now in beta. So I will say for fellow Divi users, Divi5 is good to use on live sites if they are a simple site. And by simple, I mean not a whole lot of other plugins or add-on uh you know widgets or features or functions. There are still a lot of compatibility issues with Divi5 and other tools. So uh, for example, WebdesignerPro.com is Divi5. Josh Hall.co is still using Divi4 because I'm running WooCommerce over there. I've got a lot of plugins, a bunch of different functionalities and features that have been in the works since 2017 when I launched it. So uh I am sticking with Divi4 until 5 is like super, super, super stable on that one. Yeah, but that that would be the only thing you've probably missed, Stephen, is just the Divi5 updates. But um uh I do plan to once Divi5 is a little further along, I plan to revamp my Divi course for Divi5. Jennifer said, I'd rather not hold responsibility for the success or failure of someone's business, regardless, totally. Uh, I also don't want to wind up in a lawsuit. I'm worried about this with this client. I guess, yeah, it depends on what happened, you know, like is there fault on your end, Jennifer? That would be the question. I know this could open up a can of worms, but um it is, yeah, you know, and I felt this as a web designer too, where it's like because a client is personal to you, and I'm talking to everybody here, it's also personal when things don't work out. Like I remember I had a client, it was he was like a new auctioneer, and he paid me 2,500 bucks for a website. It was like a one-page website, super easy to work with, great guy. And I think he closed up and he joined our maintenance plan. I think he closed up shop in under a year. And I couldn't help but feel like was it me? Was it the site? Did the site suck? I didn't think it sucked. I it was like a lot of other auctioneer websites I did, but I had to come to the realization that it doesn't matter how great your work is for a website if if you're not their business coach or they're not marketing. Like you can have the best, highest converting website in the world. But if your client isn't marketing and driving traffic, it's not going to do anything because there's no traffic. So I know that's why a lot of you are doing more traffic based services for with growth plans for clients. So that's an area of it too. It's like you can really only Worry about the lane that you're in in someone's business, it's their business. They can't cast blame on a website if it's again, unless it's like all their sales are coming from online and the site is just not working. But if it's back up, then even a day of sales lost or something, yeah, that might suck, but it happens when hosting goes out or when servers go down or when Cloudflare messes up. So um yeah. I imagine, Jennifer, it is not all your fault based off of what I'm hearing here. Well, good to see everybody here live on the YouTubes. Welcome on in. We are talking primarily about client retention, although I'm down to answer any questions you guys have. So jump in the chat. And if you would, as we start getting more chatter in the chat, if you put a cue in front of your question, that will let me know that it is, in fact, a question, and I will get to it just like Matt did. Hey Matt, good to see you. Uh, hell of a beard, Matt, from what I see in the picture. Do you think decent quality one-click AI websites will arrive? What happens to the role of the web designer when and if they do? Um, AI so far is okay, and I'm being generous by saying okay as like a starter template, but man, oh man, have I still not seen a tool that's like, wow, that was really good. Um, I think it's gonna be a long time for that, particularly because if you think about AI, and this is more as just a whole, and I'm talking all AI, chat GPT, perplexity, claw, all of it. Most of these systems are really a cheerleader. Like I'm sure you guys have used Chat GPT, and then you just if you ask it for coaching and advice, it just doesn't stop. It just will keep on random rambling and just keep on going and going and going. And you don't really, it's not a coach, it's not somebody who knows your situation really well and is going to tell you like this is not a good idea. It may give you some generalized pros and cons, but it acts as primarily like a cheerleader that just keeps on going and going. I foresee AI builders for websites being similar. I don't know if I think it will be okay as a starting point, but it's really all about the prompts and it's all about how well they know a customer and a client. And what that really gets down to is like how well a customer and client can get their message across to AI. I mean, quite frankly, one of the one of the like hardships of web designers is to get all that information just person to person. And we have strategies in pro in the business course to help you with client, you know, content collection and client communication. But depending on the personality type you're working with, that can be very tricky. So imagine sending, you know, think about one of your most difficult clients that they're just like, I just don't know what I want. Can you imagine them working with AI? I think, Mark, that is what we're gonna see a lot of when these AI builders start to come to market more and more and more broadly. I think it's gonna be a shit show, quite honestly. Um, and that's putting it lightly, excuse my French. So, what will happen to the role of web designers even when they do? I do think we have to acknowledge that AI is here and it's going to intrude actual website designs, particularly, I think, more low-end designs or productized designs. But I think the role of a web designer over the next five years in particular is going to become much more, I think it's going to move from being more of a developer and a designer to some extent to more of a web strategist. Meaning, I really encourage all web designers, everyone here live, everyone who hears this, this is something we talk about in Web Designer Pro, but start thinking about how the website that you build and you maintain and you help your clients grow with is part of the kind of like larger aspect of their business. Doesn't mean that you need to be a digital marketing agency, but I would start to think of yourself, Matt, as more of a web strategist. And that way, if there is an option for a one-click website, quote unquote, even if it's a starter point, you can still use it. And it's just a part of your workflow. It just makes it easier to spin up a site, to get the bare bones up, and then you go in with all the copy, with all the custom design, with all the back and forth with your clients, the UX, the user experience, the add-ons, like lead magnets, email marketing, if there's stores. I mean, all these things are you're as web designers, I don't think we understand how many tools we have to work together on a website. And that's where I think AI is not going to be able to touch us for a very long time because AI is going to need API keys for all these different tools. If it wants to put a WordPress site together with Divi and WooCommerce and five different plugins and a calendar and a custom PDF form for like package slips or whatever it is, and a forum of some sort, or all these different things. Like, how is a client going to tell AI to get into all these different platforms and link them together? It's the full picture of web design that is, I think, not being seen by folks who are worried about AI taking over. It's like technically, yes, it could take over like spinning up a website in a few minutes. Is it going to be pretty junk? Probably. Very simple? Probably. But it's all these other pieces. And then it's just strategy. Like we're not, we haven't even talked about SEO or conversor rate optimization or ongoing work. Like all these things, I think we're safe for a very long time, Mark. Or excuse me, Matt. But to your point, I do think it's important now than ever, especially when clients ask about this, to say, I'm not just a web designer. I'm truly a web strategist. Like I help you build your business online. The website is the hub. It's where all the marketing and traffic's going to go. So there's a lot to this. There's copy, there's messaging, there's design, there's SEO, there's accessibility, there's privacy. Are you kidding me? Like, do you think an AI is going to be able to go into Termageddon and get a privacy plan and fill the details and do that automatically and then do all the accessibility? There's all these things in there. Um, hosting, performance, you know. So let us all give credit where credit is due for us as web designers. So I hope that helps, Matt. A little of both, and he is very emotional. Okay, Godspeed, Jennifer. Um, yeah, I'd probably try to get the heck out of that one if you can. Hey, Mark, good to see you. I had a three-month trial membership, which I think is due to renew tomorrow. And am I able to take advantage of the Black Friday discount? Yes, you can, Mark. The details are below with the because I think you had there was a there was a three-month offer to like get a discount for three months for a special re-ran over in the summer. Uh, yes, you can. You can use your Black Friday discount. Um, I think you're on community tier, right, Mark? So you can click that link below and it should automatically give that to you. If you if it doesn't work, let me know, Mark. Um, because the code is just BF2025. So you can actually if the link, if you click the link below in the description and that doesn't work on your plan, Mark, just use code BF2025. And then when you change your billing cycle, use that coupon, and then it should automatically apply. And as always, if that if you run into any issues with that, let me know. Just email support at webdesignerpro.com and we will get you sorted, ASAP, and I will make sure you get the uh the Black Friday discount so you can lock in annual access. And on the community tier mark, we'll get a 30-minute one-on-one. So I'll send you a little website strategy based off of where you're at. I'd love to hear about some challenges or questions you have, and then uh we could do a one-on-one here over the next month or so to get you primed for 2026. That is a bonus for Black Friday, guys. So look in the description below for your uh deals on that, and you have a chance to get some coaching from me. Especially if we join the community tier, we can do a one-on-one. Great questions, guys. So pop in the chat, let me know any other questions you have. We're focusing a lot on retention today, but um as some other questions have uh come in, we can definitely talk about other stuff as well. Going back to Matt's question, though, this is definitely an understandable um not pain point, but like because AI is in every industry, we're not alone in this. But um yeah, I I do think we need to be vigilant to the fact that like coding is is getting easier in some ways. Um, not always the best. Like an expert developer is still an expert developer, but AI is making some of those type of things easier. So large larger picture and more of like the webmaster that has to do with email. I mean, we didn't even talk about email either. That's all, of course, is a part of uh a part of web design as well. Awesome, Mark. Uh Mark says, been a little stagnant. My daughter's getting married next month. Well, congrats to the daughter, Mark. So stagnant. That's what we'll talk about. If you'd like to lock in annual access, we could talk about getting unstagnant. Um I would say here is my question. I'll we'll start it here, Mark, and then hopefully we can follow up on a one-on-one on this if you go uh with the annual plan. But my challenge for you would be to honest, and this goes for everybody, if you feel like you're stuck or your leads have run dry and you feel like things are just not moving as fast as they were, there may be other factors for that, sure. But uh I want to challenge you with this question. Uh ask yourself honestly have I done all I can do? Have I truly like you know used all my energy towards getting this thing to move again and getting the numbers to go back up and to the right? If you can't honestly say that, then you just gotta keep pushing. You gotta double down on what works. You might need to raise your pricing depending on if there's an issue with profitability. Whatever worked before can work again. So do it again. If it's in-person networking, if you have a YouTube channel, if it's being a part of the chamber of commerce, whatever strategy that has worked for you in the past, do it again and do it more and do it longer. Keep in touch with your current clients too. Remember, you don't need to rely on new clients for new business. You can rely on old clients and current clients for upsells and for new services. So I would say for you, Mark, maybe it's time to send something to your clients and say, hey guys, we're heading into 2026. Maybe your rates are changing. You could lock in 2025 rates. Maybe you want to do some sort of Black Friday offer. And that was what we talked about in the last newsletter that I kicked out on Sunday. If you guys are not on my newsletter, go to joshhell.co slash newsletter and I'll send you the next one. Um, actually, let me send this to you real quick. I'll share this with everybody. Where did I bookmark this link? Hold on a second. Uh it is, if you guys want, I think it's in our newsletter archive. I just launched this, and by golly, I forget. I forget what the link is. Hold on a sec. Because we can bring up that newsletter with Black Friday deals, and I wanna I want to share with you guys my latest newsletter, so let me look real quick. Where the heck did I put that? New newsletter page, isn't that right? Sorry guys, let me find this for you real quick. How embarrassing when you don't know your own URLs, but once you get to my point and you've got so many URLs out there, man, is it hard to keep track of? Where did I put that? Might be under archive. Let's see. Sorry, you guys gotta watch me work here. Is it newsletter archive? Oh, there it is. What is my business newsletter archive? There it is. Alright, here we go. So I'm gonna put this in the chat for you guys. This is my newsletter archive, which you can get for free. Obviously, I'd really recommend signing up to my newsletter. You will get all my emails when they come out live. Uh, here is the newsletter archive. So what the archive has my latest 12 issues. So we just talked about this one, which is our Black Friday sale ideas. So for anyone who is looking for a boost, if you didn't happen to read my newsletter from last week, um, one is to do some sort of sale or discount, but I don't always recommend discounting your services as a whole. You could do what I'm doing right now with my offer, which is just to discount annual plans if you want to lock a client in to like a growth plan or one of your services or one of your products. I would really take this opportunity, especially in the age of AI, to think about one-on-ones. So I'm adding this into my Black Friday deals. Details below if you just joined us. But because we're in a world where it's so congested, so overwhelming, and there's so much AI talk going on, the more personalized you can get the better. So consider offering a one-on-one as a Black Friday offer. Like maybe somebody joins or buys something from you and they get a one-on-one as a bonus. Maybe it's it's maybe it's limited in capacity. And this could be a strategy session, it could be a console, or it could just be an open, like a good time to reconnect with clients. Those can be put as bonuses. You could sell one-on-ones as a discount, or you could put those as bonuses for something else. Again, like I'm doing annual discounts. And then we have some members of Pro who are actually raising their rates at 26. So they're actually during Black Friday and through Christmas, they're really encouraging their clients to jump on the projects now to lock in their rates. So there are some ideas to help uh with a cash boost for you guys. And the link is below to get all uh the latest dozen newsletter issues. Hey Russ, good to see you. Let me take a quick drink and then we'll get to some more questions because they're coming in hot and they are good. Russ, what does your follow-up look like for clients after a project is done? Do you automate this somehow or just set reminders? So both, Russ, this is actually really timely. We just talked about this on the podcast on episode, was it 403? I want to say. Definitely recommend going back to this one because we talk about this in detail. Yeah, 403, where we talk about automating project management because the offboarding is just as important as the project management and the onboarding. Um, and then in in Web Design Pro in my business course, I have a whole lesson on moving forward. So I'll give you the high level of what I recommend doing there. One is to actually, was it Melissa earlier or who does the launch pack? Um, definitely do a launch pack type of situation when a website goes live. Don't just say, hey, your website's live. See you later. Make it exciting, make it an event, a celebration. Give them resources to share the website. It's also a way to get clients, by the way. So launch pack, and then you can give them more moving forward steps. One thing I recommend doing is if you have a support plan or a maintenance plan, you I would give them 30 days of buffer to do any updates for them on you when a site goes live. And then they start their maintenance plan after 30 days. And then you will be in their ears and in their eyes with a monthly report, ideally, every month. And then with an annual letter around Christmas time, and then ideally, hopefully you have a newsletter. If at the very least, do something quarterly, but ideally monthly, where you're just emailing clients, letting them know recent client wins and other successes, talking about what you have going on, talking about your products, if you want to add a personal element to it. All of those things, Russ, are going to help you uh with retention, with this idea of retention. And those are all touch points. So once it's done, launch pack, 30-day window of any additional copy updates or edits or issues with the site, maintenance plan, monthly reports, a newsletter of some kind, and then an annual gift. That's kind of the bare minimum. Sounds like a lot, but we're looking at a year of all that. So that's what I'd recommend doing. Melissa, what kind of maintenance plan would you give to someone who is not using WordPress and uh do not need to look after the hosting using Squarespace, Webflow, or Framer? So, what we have in Web Designer Pro is something called SOS Plans. This was actually a member of mine who uses Squarespace has this. So when you join Web Designer Pro in the community tier, you guys will get access to not only all my courses, but I have uh playbooks, which are basically like they don't really fit into a course. Uh they could, but they're kind of like a standalone thing. So it's actually the first playbook I created, which is are these SOS plans. So what these are, Melissa, uh it stands for strategy, optimization, and support. So number one, you can have an SOS plan. There's some examples here, like Eleanor has on her site. We'll look at that real quick. So this she's a Squarespace designer, web designer pro member Eleanor. She's freaking awesome. She has SOS plans that basically cover um a few things with what she's doing, like for ongoing. So website enhancements, support, and then hourly rate. And you can frame this in a different, a couple different ways, but um what we found that works really well for Squarespace, Webflow, and other users, I still like the SOS just because it gives a sense of like care and support. So you can pretty much, and you could do this between 99 bucks a month all the way to a few hundred bucks a month. Where this gets tricky is when this becomes a growth plan. So I wouldn't um I probably wouldn't do an SOS plan more than a few hundred bucks a month, but anywhere between 99 and 299 is a sweet spot. And yeah, you could add some sort of strategy. So maybe they get a call with you every quarter, or they get a line with you, they can ask questions at any point. Optimization. So even as a Squarespace or Webflow designer, you're still doing things that are not updating plugins. You're doing copy edits, you're doing alt text on images, SEO work, stuff to do with optimization, and then support. So this is where like maybe they get up to an hour of your time for support on your plans if they have a new staff member or an uh uh an issue or something like that. So that's what I recommend doing. And if you would like to hear, I do have a podcast on that. It is with Eleanor actually, so um, I'll drop this in the chat. But uh, this is actually the conversation with Eleanor on where we came up with this idea of SOS plans. So check that out if you'd like. All right, guys, we're a little we're already at 10 minutes out, so I'm gonna try to bust through some questions. So we'll do rapid fire. Hey, hey, Alexia, good to see it. In regards to client retention, any advice on when to go premium plus quality over quantity. So, yes, Alexia is a Web Center Pro member who is, as we found out shortly before this, because she's in the coaching tier. Alexia is slammed and she is at capacity. So, Alexia, I think we're gonna be doing a hot seat on this on our next coaching call if you're able to make it. But uh, the high level, I guess the teaser advice would be if you are at capacity, something has to change. The only way to get out of being completely up capacity is raise your rates and just take on less or restructure that offer. So it may be a little bit of both for you, Alexia. Um raising rates for sure. The other option is to scale out some of your to-do list. So you could keep your rates around the same and keep the same number of clients coming in, but just literally not do as much on your end. So that's uh that's an option as well. And I know we've talked about scaling over the past month or so. So I think your challenge for the rest of this year into 26 is going to be what can you get off your plate? So it's probably a mix of all that, honestly, Alexia, which is raising rates, focusing on like really the ideal A-fit clients, and then getting yourself out of as many of the ongoing tasks as you can, except for creative design, brand strategy, marketing strategy, the things that are more high-level. Um, but as I've said with you, Alexia, for a while, I don't think you're going to be doing websites much longer. I think you are really poised in position to be a more marketing and brand strategist. So more to come on that uh in Web Designer Pro in the coaching tier here. Hey Larry, good to see you. Community member of Web Designer Pro. Um building up a business where I live at the moment. Plan is to move to another part of the U.S. in the next couple years. Great question. Any suggestions on retention strategy? Well, the good news is web designers can be as remote as we want to be. Um the yes, there's a difference in that your local clients now are not going to be local. So, what I would do with them, Larry, is over the next couple years here, as you get local clients, number one, get them on a website support plan. So you're in their top of mind month to month via email, and you're just their guy. You're their web designer. The other thing I would do is make sure you have them on some sort of newsletter. Again, bare minimum, send something to all your clients every quarter, ideally monthly, just to stay top of mind. That way, even if and I would make sure they you have some sort of line with them of support, whether it's email or whether it's calls or like a strategy session. So make sure there's plenty of ways to be in touch with you, and it doesn't mean that you're you know disappearing. You might be disappearing in the physical world, but you are still very much there online for them at any point. So, and I would be really open about that and just say, like, we're actually going to be moving, but we've got you covered. These are all the you know, we may not be doing like a meeting in person or at a coffee shop, but I will be in your corner here for anything you need. That's what I'd recommend doing there. Jeremiah, how are you feeling about Divi5 beta? Still a little buggy, yeah, still a little buggy. Um, I'm very excited for Divi to be able to get the core done here to be able to focus on things like menu builder, um, better better modules and plugins within Divi, like pricing table. Um, they've done really good with presets and a lot of things you can do to be able to make Divi more at scale and more maintainable, but basically all the modules are still a version of what they were 10 years ago. So I'm very excited for the the foundation to be done, and then I can't wait to see them start to release better modules, basically. So um, as I mentioned before, for anyone who joined us late, if you're a fellow Divi user, I'm using Divi5 on Webdesigner Pro.com. Um, it is fine for sites that don't have a whole lot of other plugins or components, but I do not recommend using Divi5 yet if you have a complex site with a lot of different plugins. So yeah, Jeremiah, um good not great is what is my honest take. Um it's good, it's like it's much more stable. They've worked out a lot of bugs, but it ain't perfect yet, which is why it's still beta. So it's not live live. Awesome, Larry. Oh, you're a baller, Larry. Let me know and pro where you guys are moving here soon, man. Hey, hey, Drewski, good to see you late to the show. We'll do a couple final questions as we're coming up on the hour. So get your guys' final questions in the chat, and I will get you as many as we can here. What security plugins would you never build a Divi site without? Um, what ironclad security SOPs do you recommend adopting before launch? So, security starts with hosting. So I use SiteGround and I love SiteGround, and I have the security plugin, the SiteGround security plugin. So that's my go-to. I that's all I use. I actually just use SiteGround and the SiteGround Security plugin. Um, you can go a level deeper with a firewall, which you can get through security or a plugin called WordFence. There's a few other ones as well. Um, and you can use Cloudflare for a level of security as well. But yeah, for me, it's just SiteGround and the uh the security plugin. That's it. And then you can do monitoring with that, and you can also do monitoring with your website manager if you're using like managed WP or main WP. You can do a lot there as well. But yeah, it's Site Ground and it's the SiteGround security plugin. That is that is literally all I do. I was gonna see. Yeah, that's really it. And the security plug, actually, real quick, if you guys want to see the security plugin for SiteGround, basically just links you into your SiteGround security area. So you can do more advanced security here. You can actually, I don't want to show you this because I have a private login that I used right here. So, like, for example, let's do one security tip for everybody. Most WordPress websites, well, all of them out of the box, have WP admin as the login. A security tip is to change that to prevent hackers. So if I do WebDnerPro.com slash wd bash admin, it goes to a 404 page, which I still need to create. All right, it's on my to-do list. I'll get it done here soon. Um, so how do you log into WebACenter Pro.com? You will never know because it's a security measure. Uh, unless you are on my team, you will not be logging into web designerpro.com. Now you'll you'll log into the membership when you join, but not the actual website. So there's a security tip. But yeah, I love the security optimizer plugin from Siteground. It's it's great. I do think you need to be a user of Siteground for the security plugin, but you don't need to be a user of Siteground for the optimizer plugin, which gets into performance. So let me know that helps. Uh and then as far as SOPs, yeah, that's a big one, which is um is the the login, solid hosting, updated plugins. For some sites, you may, depending on if there's traffic globally, you may want to consider a CDN slash firewall, which is basically in simple terms, is like a security net around a website. And again, you could do that through SiteGround, through WordFriend, WordFence, or for a long time for my clients, we use Security because we had an issue with hacked sites because I was on Bluehost. Sorry, Bluehost, but um it's basically Hack City over there. So that's what I recommend. All right, guys. Couple last questions here. Get final call for questions, and I'll get to them. I can go a few minutes over here. Uh Drewski wanted to know, still curious about what your experience was years ago when your site was hacked. Anything we can learn. Yeah, everything I just said is that's all it. It's I was on Bluehost. So it starts with quality hosting. It starts with those security principles, like I just mentioned, a different login screen that's not WP admin. It means keeping plugins and themes up to date uh as quickly as you can. Passwords are 101. Um, I'm guilty of not using the most secure passwords. I probably need to do better at that. It's funny because I'm just not like a security-minded person, so I have to work really hard at this. And then in some cases, it would be yeah, like a firewall or an extra level of protection. Also, um, your site should definitely be SSL secured. So get a security certificate. And we do talk about that in my DNS course. We talk a little bit about that in the video I did for Psychound. Where is that? Yeah, we talk a little bit about security. I'll post this in here, but it's mostly about performance. Um, but you will I'll put this in the chat, this video about uh what I did for Site or uh speeding up a website using SiteGround in particular. So that that should help as well. But yeah, those are the big ones there, Drusky. Um yeah, all those basic. Security measures. Let me know if that helps. All right, guys. I think that is it for today. Really enjoyed this session. I hope you guys did as well. Again, I've been asked about this, and yes. Last thing of note is that I am currently doing a Black Friday sale. You guys are the first to know. So the details are below. You can lock in. Annual access at 25% off to both my courses and my community tiers. Each one of those has a bonus. If you want to get all my courses, all my upcoming courses, and you'll get access to the audio course podcasts that come with that, and you'll get access to Web Designer HQ, which has all of my stuff, all of my downloads, templates, checklists, etc. It's in the courses tier. You'll also get a personalized website audit from me when you join. For the community tier, which is what I'd really recommend locking in access to, you'll get all the community features, 25% off your annual subscription to that. And you and I will do a 30-minute one-on-one. So I will coach you directly. So jump on in. The details are below. Those uh links you can literally just click and then you're good to go. And then again, this is what you'll get in the community: access to all of our spaces, all of our calls at the community tier level, all the courses. And then if you're wondering, like, man, there's a lot of content, where do I go? I have a roadmap for you based off of where you are in your journey. So when you join, you will get access to the roadmap. I'll guide you through what courses I recommend. And then again, uh, we have four courses right now as audio. So if you don't have time to go through them behind your screen right now, you can take them on the go with you. And then Web Designer HQ here house, everything. It's got my new revenue calculator. All of my SOPs are right here for you. And they're either the download or links to the lessons where they are in courses. All of my questionnaires, my contracts, all my templates, all of my sales scripts, and then all the links that I meant, the most important links that I mentioned to help you in your business right here. Downloads and uh some trainings from pro members that are really going to help you as well, depending on where you are at. So you will get all of that and more as a courses tier member or community tier member. And again, in the community, you'll get access to the entire community. So I hope you see you there, guys. Any questions, as always, let me know. Otherwise, super fun session. Thanks, Mark. Good to see you. Awesome. Again, congrats to the daughter. Go sell to some current clients, make that money, pay for that wedding. God bless you. Uh, thank you, Drewski. Thank you, Meliska. So, Melissa, thank you, Larry. Appreciate your time. Yeah, no problem, Larry. Keep me posted on where you guys are moving. Andre, great to see you. Trying to find the pains for the year. All right, awesome, Andre. Any questions, let me know. Otherwise, yeah. I mean, you can always go month to month, but um, this just gives an opportunity to lock in that annual discount. And like the core the community tier is 99 a month right now, so it's $1,200 a year. But if you lock in annual, you'll get it for $7, is it $749 with the 25% off? So I don't want to sound all like you know, sleazy salesy, but uh it's a hell of a deal. So jump now if you can. But yeah, I would really love to help you guys take advantage of that. And uh again, comes with some bonuses because we'll do some coaching. Hey, Alexia, great live, she says, good to see you. Jennifer says, great as always. Uh yes, Jennifer, if you're already in the community, absolutely. You can just upgrade to the annual uh at the community tier with the discount. So if you guys are or you're seeing this on replay, you're already in pro, um, you'll be notified. But make sure, yeah, you can change your plan to annual and then use the code BF2025, and that will give you your discount off of the year. Awesome. Thank you, Drewski. Hope your daughter's recovery is going smoothly. Yeah, she's doing awesome. So much further along than we were anticipating right now. So, yeah, we're really excited for her, and it's been great. So I really appreciate it. All right, guys. Everyone have an awesome rest of the week, and I will see you hopefully in Web Descenter Pro. Details below to snag your Black Friday discount. Bye, guys.