Bonus - 2025 highlights & what's ahead for 2026

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Transcript

Bonus Kickoff And Newsletter Focus

Josh Hall 0:00

Hello, my friend. Just wanted to pop in here real quick to say Happy New Year. This is a bonus episode. I just wanted to share a few important things with you as we kick off 2026. And I got to get this out of the way. If I sound a little different, it's because while we had an amazing Christmas break and such a fun time with the kiddos, we also had a lot of Christmas celebrations with little cousins and kids around. So unsurprisingly, we picked up a nice head cold, which has spread through the entire family to kick off the new year. So I'm at the tail end of it now, thank goodness, because if there is, there's not a great time to get sick, but honestly, the week after Christmas is probably the best time to do it because we're not in full work mode yet. So I'm hoping to be better by next week. All right. Um, a few things I wanted to go over here and share with you for this little bonus episode as we kick off the new year. Um, I want to share a few, so the three main things I want to share with you. And this is based off of the newsletter that I just kicked out today, which you may wonder um, why did you send out a newsletter on Fridays? They usually come on Sundays. Well, that's the first thing we're gonna talk about. I've got three things for you. I'm gonna talk about a few changes to the newsletter, um, and then some highlights from 2025 I'd love to share with you. And then I'm gonna give you a little heads up on what I'm working on and what to expect from me in Q1 here in 2026. So let's start off with just a couple changes to my newsletter. If you didn't know, I have a weekly newsletter that if you're not signed up for, I highly recommend that you do because it is called the Web Design Business Newsletter. So if you love the podcast, you're gonna love my newsletter. Um, first off, I do send when a new episode drops, we send an email out to you as soon as it goes live. And I also send an additional newsletter entry out that is usually some sort of strategy or tip or something that's working well for members and pro or something that's on my mind that I want to share with you. That has gone out for the past two years on Sundays, but I'm moving it to Fridays, and there's a few reasons for that. Some of it's probably pretty obvious, but I found my I liked the idea of Sundays initially because I thought it would be a cool way to kind of prime up and get ready for the week and kind of recap on what was published the week before. But what I've found myself doing is I just can't help myself but check my email on Sunday mornings to make sure it goes out and to see if there's any replies. And I want to do a better job here, especially this year in 2026, with really like being off the grid on weekends, aside from occasional work on maybe a Saturday or something that I need to do. So, in an effort to do that, is kind of one of my goals for this year to be, you know, really have better separation through the weekends. I am gonna move my newsletter to Fridays. So it'll be kind of a cool way to end the week and recap the week and then give you a heads up on what to expect for the week ahead, along with a tip or strategy I have for you. So that's the change that's gonna happen moving forward. I will generally send these at noon Eastern on Friday. So my UK friends, um, hopefully you can enjoy reading the next issues um while you're at the pub on a Friday night. So that's what's new as far as the newsletter, but it'll still be a weekly cadence. I did change the newsletter from it was formerly called Web Biz Weekly to just the Web Design Business newsletter. And there were two main reasons for that. I forget when I did it. It was like Q3 of this last year in 25. But the main reason I did that is because while I generally always stick to a weekly cadence, there are some times where like through holidays or a really busy season, uh, or in the case of 2025, which we'll get into, uh we had a lot going on with my daughter and surgeries and recovery. There were times where I just didn't get to do an issue out every week. So I wanted to remove the neediness of a weekly issue. Now I'm still gonna primarily do weekly issues through 26, but um, if for any reason I don't have or I can't send something every week, I didn't want to put that unneeded pressure on myself with a free newsletter. I'm already doing at least one podcast a week for free and additional content. So uh that is why I've I've changed the name. And the second part of that is I wanted to better tie in my newsletter and my writing with this podcast. This podcast is the number one driver for my community web designer pro. Almost every new member who joins says, I listen to the podcast, I listen to the podcast. So my goal, just if you want a little behind the scenes on this, my strategy for this year in particular is I want to do a better job at getting you as a listener of this podcast onto my email list, which is now the Web Design Business Newsletter, and into Pro as soon as you can because I want to help you grow your business as fast as possible. And the way to do that is to join Pro because that's where the action is, and that's where all the strategies that are working today in web design are going down. So I don't want like a lot of people have have transparently told me they listened to the podcast for a year or two and then finally jumped into pro. And I'm like, what is what am I doing wrong that's you know making you wait two years? Let's do it now. Let's go, let's do this together. And 2026 is an incredible year for that. So all those reasons and more made me prompt the changes here to the newsletter to be sending out on Fridays instead of Sundays. Generally noon Eastern. Um, so expect that to uh to hear from me to end the week. Now, second part here, I want to share some reflections from 2025, and then we'll dive into what I'm working on in Q1 so you can get ready and know what to expect. But 2025, what a year! What a year. I am active right now on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook as far as my social media presence. And I just posted some visual highlights. So um follow me over on any of those channels. It's at Josh Hall Co. on all three of those LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. Um, so if you want to see the visuals of this, do that. But I'll share some highlights that uh are very notable from 2025. And the biggest one being that it was our best year to date and most profitable year to date at$411,070. Um, huge jump. And I actually share a graph in those visuals and in the newsletter that I just kicked out today, because this is included in the newsletter, uh, my first Friday newsletter of 2026. And I share my growth chart because I know we're just talking in audio right now, but it is pretty fascinating to see that I took two steps back between 2022 and 2023, like a significant drop in revenue, but I took two huge leaps forward through 2024 and 2025. And a lot of that is because I transitioned and pivoted from a course first model to a membership model with Web Designer Pro, but I've also doubled down on that and I've also done a lot more with sponsorships and affiliate revenue. That has also become a big second revenue stream for me. So all those things combined, uh, when you check out the growth chart, whether you're on my email list or check out my social media as it's on there, um, it is pretty freaking awesome. And I just wanted to share that because it's not out of vainess, but I want to say thank you because a lot of you have been with me from the beginning or maybe the past few years, and I was very open and public over the past couple of years about how 23 in particular was a very hard year, very, very hard year. And it was unexpected, and I was not expecting a drop in revenue like that, even despite pivoting to membership first. But it's awesome to be on the other side of this and just to say I followed my gut back then, and even though on paper it was really precarious for a couple years, it was the right decision. So for you, maybe you're there now, or maybe you'll get to a point where you need to make a decision that may actually take you a step back, but it may be the right thing to do in the long term for you. And of course, this is just revenue. This isn't talking about the amount of time I've got back and the amount of stability I've got in recurring revenue now. So um, business is not always up and to the right, it really does, and every business goes through that. I've I've found that more and more that this was the first time through 22 and 23 that I had a dip in revenue significantly over the past those two years. But I stuck to my guns. I knew what felt right, I knew what I needed to do for me and my family and my time and to build the recurring revenue. And I'm here on the other side to tell you it worked, and I hope it works for you as well when you need to do a pivot of some sort. So, yeah, best year to date, guys. Thank you so much. Huge thank you to everyone who's joined my community web designer pro because I literally can't tell you it was our best year to date without that being the case. But even if you're not a paying member of my community yet, just by being a follower, just by being on my email list, just by listening to the podcast, you are contributing to helping so many web designers across the world and helping my family as well. Um, I can't be here for you for free if I am not making enough money to keep it going. So thank you. Uh, especially for pro members. Thank you guys. Um, I hosted our first in-person conference in 2025. It is now called ProCon. It was called WDP Con back last year, uh, and it went so good. There is a link to that. If you go to WebdesignerPro.com slash recap, uh you can check out the all the ins and outs of that event. And we've already sold 35 out of 50 tickets for the 2026 event. So this is exclusive to Web Designer Pro members. If you are listening to this and you have not yet nabbed up your ticket, my friends, pro members, head up to the top. There's a link that now says Pro Con 2026. Get over there, get your ticket. ASAP is possible because they are going to sell out likely by the end of January, because I'm going to do a final push here. So grab your ticket if you are on the fence of coming. And if you're not yet a pro member and want to come and meet in person and be a part of this incredible experience, it's a good time to jump into Web Designer Pro and you can get your ticket. I was able to be fully present with my daughter Bria, my special needs kiddo, on what was a very, very busy year this year. We had two major surgeries. Early part of the year, she had a G2 placement, which required a couple day hospital stay. And um, for anyone who is familiar with G tubes or any sort of uh digestive type of surgeries, it's a lot of recovery and getting used to a huge life change. So that went well. That one went great. She did have a breakthrough seizure a few months after that that required a hospital stay. Um recently she had a spinal nerve surgery that was a big post-recovery period. We had an additional hospital stay after that as well. So it's been a very busy year on the hospital side. I told my daughter Bria for Christmas all I wanted was no hospital stays in 2026. So we'll see if she heard me on that one. But um, I was able with the recurring revenue we have and and the amount of time I was able to, because I've really worked truly less than like 30 hours a week on average this week. I actually talked to my wife and she confirmed that yeah, it's definitely less than 30. So um that's huge. I plan to actually work a little more in 2025 six. There we almost said 2025, but uh to be able to do that last year was incredible. So again, thanks to you for you know be helping me be in a situation to support Bria the way we did on top of also having two other kiddos, my daughter Annie, who is now six, and then my daughter Drexton, who just turned three. So we're in the thick of it, and uh special needs is basically like three kids in one with the amount of time it takes, maybe more than that, maybe more like five or ten kids in one. But uh, I was able to be there for her, and my wife was too, and it's a huge thanks to you and and this business we've created. So awesome. A few more highlights, and then I'll talk about what's ahead in 2026 here in Q1. Uh I did revamp WebdesignerPro.com. I got used to some of the new features with Divi5. I'll talk about Divi5 shortly. Um, so I got more familiar with Divi5 and then launched the new version of the website and added new pages and really took it to like the next foundational level as I start to build on that for 2026. So WebdesignerPro.com is where you should go to check that out and to join Pro. And then I have also on that site started to um go above and beyond from just testimonials to actual success stories and case studies. Sam Sarzden, who is a Rockstar Pro member and runs the local SEO Academy, uh, has the first one up there, and I'm gonna be adding more in Q1 as well. So you can check that out by going to WebRenterPro.com and you'll see reviews there. I had mentioned I started getting a little more into sponsorships and partnerships, and that has become my second largest revenue stream, and it's something I've really enjoyed, especially when it comes to these in-person events. I've already secured five sponsors for 2026, and um I'm really excited about being able to partner with brands and companies only with tools that I use, trust, and recommend. That's the biggie. So I am not somebody who is just taking random sponsorships just to take a small check. I am only going to put somebody in front of my audience if I either use the true the tool and trust it, or if my team and my agency uses it in Transit Studios, or if I know pro members are getting a lot of value from it and I would feel comfortable sharing it there. So those are the only three categories of a way a tool is going to enter my world in the way of sponsorships. Um, another huge win that I cannot go without talking about is a couple hires this year. One, uh my VA of over a year, Jen, uh, was expectedly going to move on from the VA position, which includes podcast distribution, setting up my weekly emails for the podcast, a few other things. And uh we had a seamless transition with Chris, who has been my tech VA for many years now. She's done a lot of the behind-the-scenes work on pro and a lot of other stuff for me. And uh, we did a literal seamless transition for her into my primary VA position. We didn't even get on a call. And it's a huge thanks to the SOPs that I've been creating over the years. So we like it was the I need to talk about it more because it was maybe the best hiring experience ever. Because she was already working with me in some capacity with my SOP, she was able to literally just go through my podcast SOP and get up and running and with sending some logins, we were good to go. And she's absolutely killing it. And um, it's all about SOPs. So if you are in a position where you're scaling and growing and you don't know how to create SOPs or need help with that, do yourself a favor and jump into my scaling course. Even if you start in the courses tier for Web Designer Pro, jump into my scaling course. I share everything on how to do hiring and SOPs and team building in my scaling course. So jump on it if you are scaling. And then we also hired Alexia, who's a rockstar pro member, who has such valuable well, how do I even say this? She has such a knack and um just such magic with branding and graphic design. And more so than that, design strategy. She's really a design strategist, as I found out. So she's come on officially on retainer with me to help me out with a lot of branding and graphic design. She's about to move forward with creating um a bunch of design assets for ProCon 2026, and you'll see a lot better design coming out of me here, um, mainly thanks to Alexia. So yeah, it was awesome having her. I tested a project out with her, unsurprisingly, she killed it, and then we moved into the retainer model. And she's also one of our top um engaged members of Web Designer Pro and has actually, I mean, had an absolutely killer 2025. She's gonna be on the podcast here soon in Q1 to share about how she's learned to grow her business so fast, especially through this past year. So look for her soon again on the Web Design Business Podcast. And a whole lot more happened, but those are the highlights that I wanted to share with you. Thank you for being such a huge part of it. Finally, number three, here's what I'm gonna be working on in Q1. Number one, I've got some courses to revamp. I'm about midway through my SEO course. I've taken my time on that because of how many things are changing with SEO, with AI. It's just like every week there's something new, there's something different, there's a new term. So I know at this point I'm like, okay, I can't wait anymore. I got to get this thing revamped. I am going to create it in a way that I can add lessons to it more moving forward. Side note, if you are somebody who is and getting into courses, um, let me share a little pro tip strategy I'm implementing with is I'm going to be on camera less in courses. I'm it's going to be very slide heavy and screen share. Just because if I need to pop in and add a new lesson, I don't want to look different or have my background be different. Because that just throws off the continuity of a course experience. I know it's not the end of the world, but if you're OCD like me, if you see a video that looks way different than the previous one did, and then it goes back to the old version, it's like, oh, this is this feels weird. So I am going to be ruthless about making my courses easily um addable. Is that the right word? I want to make it easy to add a new lesson or make an addition or tweak a lesson without having to blow up and revamp the whole course. So that is what I'm going to be doing with my SEO course. Uh again, it's in the works. My plan is to go live with it by the end of January, um, barring any other changes. But um I'm really excited about that because it's one of the most popular courses and it's helped so many web designers with the foundational knowledge of SEO. And of course, we need to talk about AI SEO, so that's a lot of um the new part of it. So look for that later in January. I will keep you posted as always. And then as I mentioned, I'm getting more familiar with Divi5 with WebdesignerPro.com. I've been using it for a year. I used it well before it should have been live, but it was a simple site and I felt fine with that. Um, it is far enough along now. I mean, technically, Divi5 is live. Actually, Nick Roach posted in my old Facebook group, Divi Web Designers, that it is basically 99.9% done. They're just keeping the label beta on there until like all the little bugs and kinks have worked out. So I will be revamping my Divi course next, and I'll be replacing my Divi Beginner course. It'll be all about Divi5 that'll come after the SEO course. I am speaking at three summits in first quarter, designer boss summit, profitable web design, or profitable designer summit, and speaking of local SEO Academy with Sam Sarzden, he has a new SEO summit that's going to be happening later February. More details on that, but I will be working on some presentations for those. As I mentioned, we've got ProCon 2026 tickets selling. We've already sold 35 out of 50 with only two pushes on that. So it just shows me that community members of Pro are ready to go and ready to meet in person and how valuable the first event was. So I'll be putting the final touches on that. We'll be selling out tickets guaranteed by the end of January. And then I've got a lot of pro work to do. Um, I think it's time for members. You probably agree. It's time to do a little bit of cleanup. Um, I we need to consolidate some of the spaces and forums and make sure Pro is not as overwhelming for new members when they join. When you're in it for a while, you get to know where all the spaces are. But I've looked at it and I try to look at it with fresh eyes and realize, like, yeah, I need to make this easier to dive into. So um going to be do some cleaning up and consolidating. Um, I just reached out to all coaching tier members, all 125 of them today, to do my first year check-in. And if you're not a coaching tier member, the way that works is I DM you to get an update. And then we actually have a one-on-one DM coaching session. We can do Loom videos back and forth, and I give all coaching members a 2026 boost, which is what I'll be doing the first couple weeks here as well. Um, those are very time intensive, depending on how many come in. So um, between that and the SEO course, that's pretty much gonna take all my time up for January. But I love it, and it's gonna be awesome. So there we go. That's what to expect me for what that is with uh what to expect from me in Q1. Thank you guys so much for being a listener of this podcast. Again, if you're not on my newsletter, it's free. Go to joshhall.co slash. Newsletter to sign up. It is the Web Design Business newsletter. You'll also get a bunch of other cool stuff when you sign up. So jump in there. And I think that's all I wanted to say on this one. Happy New Year. Next week is going to be very exciting, fun, first full episode of the podcast because it is with my personal email and DNS website domain guru Amher, who's been on the podcast before. And uh we have a chat about what web design is like today versus when I got started in 2010. And also kind of a recap of my journey for those who are newer and don't know the ins and outs of how I became a web designer from being a cabinet maker and a drummer. So look for that next week. That'll be episode 412 on the Web Design Business Podcast. All right, my friends. I'll see you over on my newsletter and I hope to see you in Web Designer Pro. Go to Web Designer Pro.com to jump in and let's start the new year off together and build your business together, my friend. Cheers.