it all started 10 years go today...

My fateful meeting with Nathan, at the time, the content manager of Elegant Themes. I shared what I was up to with Divi and building my little web studio to 100k/yr.

He asked me if I'd like to contribute to the Elegant Themes blog.

That cemented my passion for teaching what I was building and was the beginning of joshhall.co, this podcast and Web Designer Pro® 🙏

Links mentioned:

All my ET blog posts are still alive and kick'n at: elegantthemes.com/blog/author/josh-hall

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Transcript

Facebook Memory Sparks A Story

Josh Hall 0:00

Hey friends, it's Josh here, just popping in with you to share something very, very cool that I was reminded of today, which you know, Facebook for all its inefficiencies and frustrations and cumbersomeness and clutteriness, god dang are the memories awesome. The memories are what keeps so many of us in in Facebook groups on Facebook because today I was reminded that July 1st, 2016, literally a decade ago, today, I invited Nathan B. Weller out for coffee. Nathan was the content manager for Elegant Themes at the time, which was and is still to this day one of the largest blogs in and around WordPress and web design content. And back in those days, for those who may remember, along with me, uh, you would be in like a Facebook group. And then depending on your privacy notification settings, it would say where you posted from. And it just happened to say Nathan posted this in this Divi group outside of uh Columbus, which is where I'm based out of. And I was like, holy crap, the blog, like the content manager for Elegant Themes lives in Columbus. Crazy. So I literally just messaged him on Facebook and I said, Hey Nathan, my name is Josh. I'm uh in Columbus as well. I'm a Divi guy. I've been using Divi for several years now, and it's like the only theme I use for my little web design business, which is actually like doing really well, and we're on the cusp of cracking six figures this year. This was again a decade ago, 10 years ago, 2016.

Meeting Nathan Weller For Coffee

Josh Hall 1:43

And he reached back out and said he'd love to meet up. So I took him out for coffee, one line coffee in the short north. If you're ever in Columbus, Ohio, by the way, still kicking today. And we just talked shop. Um, we went to lunch first, and then I remember just, you know, I had no expectations. There was no, like, I wasn't trying to get an in. I mean, I was just, I don't know. It just goes back to just connecting and just building a network. I had literally no expectations or hidden agenda or motive. I just wanted to meet somebody from Elegant Themes and just let them know I love Divi. And we just talked. And after that, there was a podcast at the time that he hosted called Divi Nation, where he featured community members that were using Divi in WordPress. And he invited me on to the Divi Nation podcast. And then we got to know each other better. And then subsequently, after that, was the big moment because he invited me, once he got to know me and my business a little more, to be a blog contributor for the Elegant Themes blog, which again is and was and still to this day one of the biggest in WordPress. So I was like, uh freaking heck yeah. Absolutely freaking lutely, I will do that. And those are still live today, by the way. I will post the link below in the description here for you if you want to go see those, uh, all those blogs that are still live. Many of those are still relevant today. In fact, a lot of those blog posts I kind of repackaged and and changed up some of that and use a lot of the info that I you know dished out on those blogs, and then they became uh the backbone of some of my courses. But yeah, I got a chance to write for the Ellingant Themes blog. And that did one of two things. Well, that did two things for me. Number one, it gave me immediate, like instant credibility and authority in the space of Divi and WordPress. And number two, it really

Writing For Elegant Themes Changes Everything

Josh Hall 3:40

cemented my passion for sharing and educating on what I've learned in my journey at that time with building a six-figure business. So it all kind of happened at once once I started um, you know, blogging for elegant themes and just sharing what I was doing, which I was still right in the middle of my agency. I mean, it was still four years later. It would take four years until I finally went full-time online educating. So, you know, just for timelines, for anyone who uh is curious about like how, you know, fast, um, this sounds so weird, but you know, one of the last episodes the last episode I just shared about things I've learned and making a million dollars with community, one of the lessons I shared was not to rush your way to success. And this just kind of proves that, you know, we met in 2016, and it was four years from then that I went full-time online education with joshhall.co and my YouTube channel, and I mentioned my podcast. Um, but I didn't rush it. Like I took my time and continuing to build my agency, and it was really cool to be able to share literally what I was learning like in real time on the Elegant Themes blog, which again was just huge. And I I remember my first blog post, which let's see, what was my very first Elegant Themes blog post? Again, I will put this below for you to check this out. But my first blog post was how to create all they updated the dates on all these. It was in 2016 that this came out, but um, it was how to create a gallery with the gallery module, like different ways you can do with like different gallery layouts you could do. And I remember that dropped on the week my family and I went on vacation, and I remember my phone was getting lit up with notifications about people commenting on that blog post. Like, I don't know how many people comment on blog posts nowadays, but this one has 49 comments. And then I had a bunch of other articles released after that. So, you know, I just remember like that was it was the yeah, the impetus, it was the the the very event that like started this whole train for me of being interested in educating

Credibility And The Long Game

Josh Hall 6:00

online and sharing what I was doing and what I was learning. But I have a lesson for you. This isn't just about this this one memory for me. It's because the the bigger lesson here that I learned from is that yes, I probably would have got into online education and coaching for web designers via another path. Probably would have taken a lot longer, probably would have looked a lot different. But the big lesson I want to share with you is that there was an opportunity that I jumped on. And it was a big opportunity in the way of like, holy crap, this is you know, somebody who could be an incredible person in my network. Again, with no expectation when I met him and took him out for coffee. But my recommendation and my my tip for you here is if you spot a potentially big opportunity, don't sleep on it. Make the call, send the email, reach out, invite the person out, follow up if you reach out and they haven't heard from them yet. Go with no expectations, like I shared here, but just to you know, share what you've learned and what you're doing, depending on the case, of course. And I think most importantly is to have a mission to help others because no matter what your business is, whether you're building websites or you're doing branding or you're doing strategy or you're doing marketing or you're building community in some way, or you're a part of your local area, if you have an overarching mission of being helpful and being useful to people, that will make all these type of potential opportunities much more grounded and easier to go after, even if you're introverted or if you're nervous. I mean, I do remember being nervous when I took him out just because like, holy crap, this is you know, like I literally like watch his YouTube videos and watch his shows. And here I am about, you know, I remember like getting ready, like I saw him walking down the street. I'm like, holy shit, it's crazy seeing him in real life. And here he is sitting with me. Like, you know, he'd probably blush if he heard me talking about him like a rock star, but to me, he was kind of a rock star. It was like, this is like the guy who's like writing all the content that I'm, you know, consuming. But I say that to say, like, because I had a real mission in helping my clients, and because I had at that point started doing some mentorship for a local high school at that time, and I really kind of caught the I there was a seed that was planted for education and teaching. But this, I'm telling you guys, this was like this was it. This was the event. This was the very beginning of Josh Hall.co and all my tutorials in my YouTube channel, the web design business podcast that you're listening to right now. And it was

The Rule: Don’t Sleep On Chances

Josh Hall 8:45

technically the beginning of Web Designer Pro, my coaching community, because Web Designer Pro would not be there today if I had not built the Web Design Business Podcast and built my YouTube channel and did tutorials and did courses that were previously on joshhall.co and previous to joshhall.co was writing for the elegant themes blog. And it showed me that I didn't think much of myself or my little you know six-figure agency when I was kind of embarrassed that I wasn't bigger and in a in a downtown building with overhead and stuff. I felt like who, you know, who am I? I'm just a little web design solopreneur with with some collaborators who help out every once in a while. But Nathan told me live, he's like, dude, a lot of people would like to build a six-figure business. And I was like, oh well, I think you're right. Then sure, I'll share my processes and my pricing and my model and stuff. And here we are, guys, 10 years later, on the day. So freaking cool. So below, I'm going to share the link that has all my elegant themes blogs if you're curious. If you want to take a trip down memory lane with me, maybe you can do some judging and see if my writing has improved since then. Um, still very proud of all those articles, by the way. I'm kind of looking through and like, yeah, you know, for for literally just getting into blogging, that's you know, hey, not too shabby. You gotta start somewhere. Uh so yeah, it's just really cool. I just wanted to pop on and share that with you. It was just a really cool again. Facebook mostly sucks, but dang are the memories great. And yeah, 10 years ago to the day, I remember this like it was yesterday. We were at one line coffee in the short north in Columbus, if you're ever in Columbus, still rocking and rolling today. And it was such a fateful day. It was a fateful meeting. It was really, again, I I think I probably would have got into education and coaching via another path. But I mean, this was just this is what catapulted me into the education limelight in some ways, because when I started my YouTube channel and eventually Josh Hall.co a year later, I kind of had a built-in audience with the the elegant themes folks. And I could you know proudly say, like, I'm Josh, I'm a writer for Elegant Themes, um, which was a huge help. So

Build Authority With Content And SEO

Josh Hall 11:00

another side tip before you launch like a personal brand or endeavor, if there is an opportunity to get some like professional credibility by writing for somebody or producing content for a tool that you use or something like that, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. It's also very good SEO because you'll get incredible backlinks. So to all my SEOers out there, uh, you can get some really good backlinks when you are a contributor for other brands. Um, just a little tip. SEO tip by the way, make sure you sign up for the SEO sales call boot camp that's coming up with our rock star web designer pro member Sam Sarzden, who is uh going to be hosting next week the SEO sales call bootcamp. Use my link below for that, joshhall.co slash lsa to jump into that. This is I did not plan this out. This is just timely while it's on my mind. Um, but yeah, so cool. That link will be below as well. And I did post all of this in my email and all my social media channels. So if you're on Instagram, um go follow me. Instagram at Josh Hall Co. I did post this on there, so you'll see that. Give it a like, give it a mention, give me a comment if you would. It's also, of course, on Facebook and on LinkedIn. That's where I am most active. So hit me on there and on my YouTube as well. So it went everywhere. Uh, just because this was really cool when I

Bootcamp Links And Farewell

Josh Hall 12:20

just wanted to share some lessons about not sleeping on that big opportunity that was truly the beginning of everything that I'm doing here for you. I don't know if the Web Design Business Podcast would be here for you or look the same if I hadn't had that opportunity. He was also one of my first guests on the podcast. So cool. All right, friends. I'm a little bit in like memory lane here. So just wanted to pop in with you to share that. I hope you have a great rest of the week. Happy 250th to my fellow Americans, to my fellow United States. Hope you guys have a safe time. For those who are not in the U.S., enjoy your work and we'll see you on Monday.