 Okay, looks like we're live you guys, you know the deal. We're gonna give it a few minutes Get all set up over here Let's see. Let's let's get the chat out. Let's get the chat out. All right. All right. Just getting set up right now If you're here, let me know inside the chat. Let me know inside the chat. Okay. I'm checking on my phone I see some of it David and of course Dave. What is going on? Happy New Year's man The fact happy New Year's everyone. I'm so excited to kick off this year with the first one We got to get this going right off the way I want to get a quick start to launching our live streams as well as some new content But yeah, this is the first one of the year. Let's get this thing cracking. All right plurat. I hope I say that right Plurat, I think I got it right. Happy New Year's. Happy New Year's. How are you all doing? All right The Rosa what is up man? What is going on a mirror from Australia Hellstack? Awesome. This is so cool. I'm so glad to see you all. I hope everybody had a really good holiday a really good New Year's I hope you all had like a chance to take a break. Enjoy the family friends You know put the clients on hold for a little bit that way you can enjoy You know this time of the year also get a good time for Reflection thinking back getting set up or prepared getting that energy and focus for going into this new year's Hope you all had a really really good one so Let's start this off. I want to ask you all the question Is anybody here planning something big for? 2024 are you doing something different this year as far as your web business? We're looking at the web business right now. Is anybody got something in the works that they want to do differently or add on This year for your web business. So let us know inside the chat. We'll love to see what everybody's Focuses and ideas and goals and things like that are that way too. We all can get a bit motivated off of each other To the Rosa night already two clients It's only been like two three days of the new year and already starting off with two clients man, if you keep this up at this rate, you'll have like Like 320 it was by the end of the year. No, man, it's awesome dude. That's awesome That's a big win man. Really big win and what a way to start off You know, there's no better way to kick things off, you know Than to start off with even a small win, you know, the big wins are really good But even a small win because those boost confidence and we want to get that esteem and confidence And get that drive going from the very very beginning. All right Nice one. LaRosa. All right SEO definitely Shameless plug. It's all good. It's all good. So I do have a few predictions. So I've been, you know, like truth is All right, I've been floored for the last two weeks. I caught COVID Seriously, seriously bad. I didn't even tell anybody. I just have been in bed. Just Florida I've been able to put together like a few hours a day I've been really having to manage my time these last couple of weeks, you know, because I do, you know Have these things that I want to do But yeah, I was I was out with COVID and this gave me a lot of time to like, you know I'm going through the whole thinking reflection process of everything and also looking at our industry, you know I'm looking at not just like us web designers aside aside. We're pressed I'm looking, you know, as far as like developers inside other industries I'm looking at brand strategists at copywriters at SEO specialist marketers our industry our creative industry That's online trying to see, you know, where are things going because the crazy thing is we step back and you think about like Like where were we at three years ago? You know, four years ago. It wasn't so long We're all on like, you know theme forest Buying the same things and using WP bakery, you know and think about how quickly things have Evolved in that time and they're just getting quicker and they're going to get quicker And so, you know, I really want to look at the direction. I want to make sure to stay Moving forward the last thing I want to be is an old dinosaur that is grumpy and bitter because Nobody's doing it the way I'm doing it and I'm stuck in the old way. I've seen it I've seen it. I'm sure you all have seen it. Just go into a Facebook community You will see old, you know, we can get jaded, you know, it's just it happens when we get complacent and stuck in our Ways and in our industry, we can't afford that. I really really believe that Thanks, LaRosa. I am man. I am it's a it was a rough one. It was crazy It really was it was worse than the first one that I got, you know It's a slow progression to get back, but and that's the reason why we're doing this right now, man I really want to do this Because I want to build some momentum as well. I want to do with all of you. Okay Let's say I want to catch up on the chats Nicholas. What's going on man? It's so good to see you always Alright Nicholas, I would really love to hear your predictions for elementary this year because I got one I got one, but I would love to hear yours and keep this in mind. All right I'm gonna share with you some of my predictions if Ten percent of my predictions come true. I'll be as you know Forward thinking as Nostradamus, so they're just predictions take it as that, you know, just thoughts, you know but still it's good for us to Good for us to Put those together, you know and to think about that and Dave. Hey, man I'm actually that's one of my big ones Dave, you know G sap. I really believe that that's actually one of my big ones We're going to get into that but you hit that I really feel that things are evolving fast And they're going to continue and now it's going to be our turn to be taking things to another level All right, let me catch up here. I want to make sure like we got the chat up today Nice the Rosa one thing I know about you you have a really strong focus you have You know your niche very defined, you know, if anybody wants to know about, you know Having a niche and being really focused inside a very specific market LaRosa is a great person to To pick his brain to learn from them. I'm always You know, I try niching down myself, but it didn't work For me, but I also realized why it didn't work for me is because I didn't do it right So when I see some people that do do it right they niche down they get a very specific market a very specific offering When they do it right they really really excel I mean, it's it's a way to get really successful the Rosa you have always done a good job at that man I'm always been impressed by it All right, Amira. So you bring up a really good point, you know a lot of let me see All right complete a change the approach due to so many changes for small businesses in modern times Yeah, it is a bit overwhelming right now. It is, you know If we're especially looking at small businesses right now and building websites for small businesses, you know We have right now inflation that is just going crazy. A lot of people are being tighter with their money We have no idea, you know, what's gonna happen next with the economy. Is it gonna hold together? Are we gonna like go into a state where people are even holding on even more? So, you know small businesses It's like if we rely on small businesses that could be a scary place to be at That's the reason why okay, you know what? I'm gonna let me just catch up on this and I want to just jump right into it Herman happy New Year's man. Happy New Year's Somnia, please Somnia, okay. I'm trying to get names right. Please create a tutorial on landing pages for digital products and selling courses Oh, man. Thank you for sure for sure. I do want to do a whole lot more design So I do have plans for this year. I'm gonna share all of them with you, you know, uh, I Got some plans coming up on that but it's in line with that Awesome. I love hearing this Nicholas happy New Year's happy New Year's Jackson. What is going on Jackson? Happy New Year's so good to see you here, man Right. Let me see Nicholas, yes, it will we're gonna have this this live is going to stay up because we got some stuff in here that I feel is really Going to help out anybody, you know coming along You know trying to get an idea of you know, what to look for inside this year Truth is I haven't been so good at predicting ahead of time and that's because of my my life's background my life's background has always been in the moment I really couldn't picture too far in the future and that was because I just couldn't picture my own life in the future But that has changed as change these last several years. I've learned, you know First thing I learned is I'm gonna be around for a while. God willing, you know, like, you know things I do have a future, you know So that change and that's a personal thing for me, you know But by doing that and by building a business and going through years and years Learning how to build a business and just like putting everything I have into it. I study people I study people that have been doing this for a long time and that are doing really good and One thing I see that a lot of them have in common is they're able to predict or at least see trends and on, you know and see them and also being able to react to them early Instead of like reacting to something that already happened I should even say reacting. Reacting is more of an action to something that has just happened. It's more of you know, a process of preparing and Moving the way that you see trends ago. So I've been getting better at it where in the past I was not good. I feel now though I am at a far better place and right now I do see things happening inside of our industry, especially what a I come in All right, cool. I just I had to keep going back to the chats I want to make sure you don't miss anything, but let's go ahead and jump into it So I do have a few predictions that I want to start off with and One of them is what LaRosa mentioned offering a new service So I do feel that and I'm also going back to where somebody mentioned You know the challenges of small businesses right now working with small businesses, you know Small businesses are going to be struggling most likely With you know recessions Economy with you know, we don't know where things are really going to go inflation is insane And people are really tied with the money. I do find that people are more tight with their money And if you get a small business, they're going to probably clench onto it a bit more. I Find that it is more You know lucrative running a business when we are working with clients not clients with just big budgets But clients that are in it for the long run You know, it's it's a bit of a different don't I don't look at it like a client anymore It's like, oh, do you have 20,000 for a website, you know, are you a big client that could pay 20 30 for a website? I'm looking at more like how is this year going to look like with this client? You know, like maybe the website will only be like, you know, five six seven eight K But what else could we do? So first we already got maintenance plans. That's already Dowed in and I think that's a really easy upsell like I really feel 90% of clients should be jumping on maintenance plans If we're doing them right, but then there are other things our clients need so our clients they need branding They need social media, you know, they need SEO. They need marketing. They need these other things So if we are, you know, if we're just sticking to just building unlike first off I and this is a bit conflicting because I Do feel that, you know, it's best to niche down in a way But I also think that we got to look at our own business How are we going to grow? How are we going to flourish? And if we could add at least one Thing else if we could add something that's going to be lucrative to us It's going to help us through these times and we're going to be able to grow So I do see that as a prediction that those of us are going to flourish are going to be the ones who do expand and Start to add on the new service, especially if that service is lucrative, especially if they could build it on now I have a goal this year. I first last couple years. I started Going in on on SEO last year. I just went all in and This year my goal is I just want to get five more clients already got one So now I just need four more to go on my plan I will probably look at doing more except that I spent a lot of my time on YouTube creating content And this really is my number one priority So I want to keep that minimal, but if we look at it I think about it five clients in one year on the SEO plan and let's say the bare minimum bare minimum Which is like a thousand dollars a month like that is very very low That's like the low end right there and like the higher end is like two two and a half thousand a month But let's say on the low end that five after expenses and overhead We're looking at a very significant, you know profit for the year. So Let me see anybody following along. I don't want to just ramble on right now Anybody here offering a new service? Thinking about offering a new service. I know Larosa Mentioning is thinking about offering SEO anybody else here. All right. It's a bit hot in my room. I'm gonna have to turn the fan on Hope it doesn't get too loud It's Thailand even in the winter in Thailand. It gets a bit warm over here Alright, so prediction number one will need to add more services You know to keep up and to make sure that we're staying ahead and building our business in that our business is growing now I would not advise anybody to go from just building websites to trying to offer everything underneath the You know the digital marketing son, you know, I wouldn't try to do everything at once I'm a my philosophy has always been master one thing at a time Get really good at it that way you could do it, right? You could add value and then once you get really good at it move on to the next and keep stacking those and That is how I grew. That's how I got to where I'm at I was lucky to have a mentor at the very beginning teach me that it for some reason That stuck with me master one thing at a time once you get good that brings something else in you know That's when you take on the next skill by doing that. You're gonna start to add, you know, high value to what you do So let's see here All right, Amira says Been asked for copywriting more than ever and you know the crazy thing is you would think like with chat GPT that Oh my god, copywriting is dead thing is it isn't it isn't it's not going to be not until chat GPT becomes a human But for right now like we still need good copy I just hired a copywriter, you know, just just yesterday because I you know see the value in it So that's a really good one Amira like, you know, I feel that that is one of those ones And we have the tools now where we don't have to be expert writers But if we're building websites for clients and we've been doing it for some time. We're studying it We know how layouts are we know how users interact with sites. We know what good UX is We know what bad UI is. We know how users behave on the website. We have this advantage that makes us You know as the ones that could put copy together more Strategically, you know, I have a whole lot more value and then we got the tools to help us with the words So that's awesome. That that's a good one to add And I think about it too, like how many times our clients, you know, like, you know, I always oh my god My chat is doing the app is doing something weird. Alright, you know, one of the biggest problems that I remember I had my first few years was trying to get content from clients trying to get images from clients That used to be one of my biggest problems until I just started writing it and then charging for it Or just writing in filler, you know, because after we do it for a while, you know We could just start writing it like I really feel that that is a problem that you know after we get some experience We shouldn't have but back to like adding the new services as well. So My thing is doing something funky, I wish I could show you guys a screen share like your chat is going Maybe chat GPT her moves like nah, dude Let me do something funky here. All right Alexis, what's up, man? All the way from Chili's man. That's so dope Trying to go down. But yeah my my my chats are all messed up, okay All right, Dave has been working on accessibility accessibility is hot right now think about offering that as an additional service You know, you get a project. It's like, okay, we could build a five page website 10 page 20 page Whatever it is starting price would be this but we could also add in, you know Fully accessible where we do all the extras and make sure that you are fully optimized for accessibility You don't have to rely on any of those super expensive plugins that really just mess up your site You know, that is a great skill to have and it's a high value point You know as we're working on these new skills, all we're doing is adding more value to what we do The thing is we have to keep doing this stuff. We have to keep learning more in order to add more value That's how we grow inside this business. That's how we earn more but by Strategically also choosing what we are going to learn and offer our clients. It could make a significant difference on what we earn Yep. Hey, LaRosa. I am 100% with you So LaRosa says that, you know, one of the biggest things these learners AI will never replace us because they can't replace the human touch AI is for us creatives to use as our tools and this is where our industry is shifting And look at truth is, look at I've been using Reloom I don't know if you guys seen Reloom yet, but with Reloom I'm able to create like a very high fidelity Wireframe, sitemap, user flow all within about 30 minutes I could complete it. That used to take me a full one to two days to do and I charge clients for it But now I'm able to do the same thing but here here is Why Reloom alone can't replace us is because after years of building websites for clients studying heat maps Conversion rate optimizations all that stuff I know the flow of a website could go very quickly and I could see if the flow was good or not So I already spent all those years and I'm sure you have as well to learning the structure of a website We know the flow and how users are going to interact now. We could use a tool like Reloom Which is basically going to just create you that high fidelity mock-up within you know within seconds or minutes But realistically it's the thought process and the strategy in our experience and using that tool Saving like a whole day or two of work. So yes, man. I'm totally with you on it Alright, so Samya asked according to okay, what skills an individual some master To make more profits for the clients That's a really good question. That's a really really good one one thing every client needs is marketing Every business needs marketing a business cannot thrive without marketing Now marketing is a huge umbrella So you can look at a couple different areas of your marketing and it all depends on your client type as well You know, so we have you know, like I decided to go in on SEO Because that form of marketing is needed for every single website Also, I was tired of seeing our clients go to other agencies Those other agencies are charging them more for SEO than we were for websites And they weren't giving them any love, you know, sometimes, you know, they got some results Sometimes they got taken advantage of and got nothing and it just got really painful You know, like seeing our clients go somewhere else And the thing is that I didn't want that to happen anymore. I didn't, you know, like I put in all that work with a client We build that relationship We work on the website put in, you know, all that love and care Thought strategy and everything in order for their website to thrive And then they go off to a marketing company and they're pretty much Reaping all the rewards because when they're working with that marketing company, they are, you know, probably paying One, two, three, five Plus thousand dollars a month. So that is a kind of, you know, like you asked You know, make more profits for clients marketing is going to make profits for clients But by you doing the right one, you're going to make a lot more for yourself You know, so it's got to be that win-win Any other questions now? I know I I kind of went off on that and you guys gonna have to excuse me I'm still getting over the vid like I'm still Still feeling it, but I didn't want that to stop this. I want to hit 2024 rolling full speed. All right Before I go to my next predict prediction, I do want to give a plug. I should do that I'm not good at plugging myself, but I've done something that I've been planning to do all year and I launched the scl course for WordPress I launched it just two days ago and uh, actually yesterday was the official pre-sell and I have to be honest guys. I was really surprised how Well received. I mean, I knew it was going to do well Like I knew this is something needed for us web creators. I needed it Like I took so many free courses. I took the free ones on youtube the free ones on, you know, sem rush on, you know, uh Neil all of them like I took paid courses as well But still I was getting stuck. I still was overwhelmed. It was still complex So when it came time, you know on boarded my first client for SEO it was scary and I I You know, I actually try like I had opportunities to onboard more and I backed out of them because I just didn't feel Confident or ready yet. The thing is I found I need to have systems. I need to have processes I gotta have step by steps. I gotta have this something that is going to make the whole process Like realistic You know in a way that I know that I could execute this like I could do this if I just do a b and c I am completing this. I'm executing it and I'm giving the clients the value I'm delivering See that was my worry. I didn't want to just take money from clients and not deliver that scares a heck out of me You know, I I don't want to be that guy That that would I will lose so much sleep over it But then I developed the step by steps the systems and all that and so This whole last year. I've been packaging. I've been putting it together. I've been Structures, how can I do this? You know, how can I teach this And give this at others could use and not go through what I went through when I try taking courses So with that gotta plug it out there But I just want to also give a chance because right now we got the presale There's only a hundred that we're doing on the presale only a hundred seats I have to limit it because you know, I really dropped the price down And in the first day like half of them are already gone. So real quick, I'm gonna do a shameless plug Hope you guys don't mind or unfollow. Just gotta keep it real. Uh-oh Don't want to see the back in there, but this is it right here. I'll share the link So it's the SEO for WordPress course now the whole goal for this is having step by step systems And there are three different Objectives there are three different results that this is aimed for So the first one right here, this is for anybody who is at the earlier stages of building WordPress websites now if you are like me then probably Your first several several websites have no SEO best practices done And here's the thing when you don't know those best practices on SEO We could actually cause a whole lot of harm to the websites now Hopefully when you're new like I was in your building websites for clients You're building them for smaller businesses that you know, they're not paying that much money and you know They're not that high risk. But once you start getting Good clients with you know serious businesses if we take on their websites and we build them And if we don't do things right as far as SEO well, we could cause harm And if we do know all the best practices how to do it right and how to set them upright That is a huge value proposition as well So that's what this one does and it's also for anybody who's building their own website anybody who just You know has their own business, but likes to build their own website for themselves You know, then we got the next step right here And this is for when we actually want to get competitive when we want to take on the client Or if we're going to do it for ourselves Where we want to be able to rank keywords and we want to build backlinks So we want to build our local SEO and we want to have you know, the right tools and all that So this is all step by step and then the final one This is for the freelancers and agency owners This is for when you're ready to start offering SEO to clients right here This right here, I feel is like the biggest jam because you get this I said, all you need is like five clients on your plan Your plan should be anywhere between 1,000 and 2,500 a month starting off and if you have five clients That's like 62 over 100k a year like this is and when you start doing the numbers It's pretty crazy. So this is where yeah, this is my focus right here This is going to be my baby for a while. So right now, uh, we got about 50 seats left. Uh So yeah, I'll go ahead and put a link in that's it for the shameless plug Let me go back over here drop the link Hide this from the stream Uh-oh, are we still alive? I can't Okay. Oh, okay I thought there was a bug in here. It's just the ui Okay, I'm not sure if that link went there. You can go to my website though The lightbox academy site and look for the seo course right there. If you got questions, go ahead and drop it in here All right, let me catch up The rosa. Yeah, still I know man I know honestly like look look at the keeper reel I was considering selling this at about five six seven hundred and I might like I Probably might like we're gonna start it off at 300 when you know, it's fully live in february right now It's just a presale and that's why I'm only doing 100 But yeah, it's probably gonna go up there. It's because of the stuff that's coming with it everything that's coming with it Uh, but I first want to you know, uh, get it rolling and make sure Uh, there's a spelling mistake Where's the spelling mistake at I okay, it was too small right there to read out of put up on the screen to read Lightbox in the container meet your teacher agents Okay, cool. Thank you. Thank you. I'll go ahead and fix that up Awesome. Well, actually I got a copywriter right now helping me out with this You know, I decided to hire a copywriter, uh to help clean it up Clean it up Look, here's the thing whenever I build my own websites Try to design for myself. Can you guys relate? It's the hardest thing to do Like I I go through that La Rosa city is ready to spend two to three times more Ah, it's all good. It's all good, man It's not it's not even about that man for me. It's going to be all about the results I just want to see it work for sure Check the comment section in circle. I have a comment here Okay, who is this who is rounded hexagon? You must be one of our pro members because you you uh Because yeah, you saw our posts inside our pro academy Let's connect send me send me a dm. Sign me up for short. This is how we couldn't this is how we do it Everybody I worked with I connected with this way. All right I don't go through up work or fiber or something like that I don't want to I would much rather Network and connect with people here. So uh Just like team members lightbox people in lightbox, uh, you know, we met through our communities You know, we didn't meet through, you know Fiber or up work or anything. So yeah, hit me up. Anybody could hit me up. It is all good I'm happy to connect with everyone All right, just making sure Okay, okay. All right. All right. All right Antonio, thank you man. Thank you. I'll feel I feel okay. I'll be all right All right, Catherine very good question. Okay. I'm catching up on all the comments This is a really really good question. Wow Do I feel that the web design industry has gone and stagnant? Absolutely. I feel that it really has for wordpress. I feel that in wordpress We have gone and stagnant and complacent inside a certain space and I'm going to follow this up with a mirror because a mirror Has asked has, you know mentioned something. She's considering moving away from a mentor You know, because it's spending so much time in wordpress And moving to web flow So hold on. I gotta take I gotta take a sip of my tea because this is actually kind of like segue and into uh, one of my next Predictions, I absolutely feel that we got stagnant. I think I got stagnant. I'm actually getting bored I don't know. Can anybody else also feel like they're getting bored, you know, like My focus for a while was making everything clean. I'm a minimalist and I like clean layout I love things to be consistent. I love them to be just You know, the the geometry of it to just be, you know Perfect and that's what I've always taught and that really is like flat design, you know Flat design being able just to have the blocks and everything clean, you know, like That has You know been the main focus inside the web design industry, especially when it comes to uh, when it comes to wordpress and Don't get me wrong flat design. I think is really important for anybody new starting off like in the first couple of years Like I feel that a web designer or a web creator should master Flat design You know first before starting to move on because when you master that you're going to master Design web design, you know, you got to master the fundamentals of it. You got to know your typography And typography is one of the more complex areas of web design You have to understand that you got to be able to see it. You got to understand layouts and and grids And there's so much to it. But once you got those fundamentals down It's time to move on to the next step and that is my prediction That's another one of my predictions is that I really feel that now web creators Those of us who have some season and behind us some experience Are going to start taking things to the next level And we've been seeing that inside like web flow and now inside framework Framer if you look at those websites, they're big. They're, you know dark. They're, you know shiny They got a lot of things happening. There's a lot of extra stuff going on And I don't know about you But when I saw like web flow websites a couple of years ago I felt like that was just way out of my skill level. I feel like Like whoever coded that probably, you know, like that's crazy crazy coding Like I'm not that great at JavaScript. Like that's not my strong suit I'm great at design on ui and then scss But like doing that kind of javascript and creating those interactive sites and I think a lot of people shoot down sites on awards because they feel they're not accessible or realistic But I also feel that you know part of that Is that these are way out of so many people's skill levels as well That's changing though because we have newer tools that allow us To start down that path to start building, you know sites that are just beyond Our flat basic layouts, you know where we can start creating these Where we can start creating these interactive sites and really quick I want to share a couple of things. I want to show I want to show you where my time is being spent right now Because I do have plans myself now one of them has been in spline. I've been learning spline lately. I've been Taking courses on the plane with it I've been wrapping my head around this because spline this is crazy crazy powerful Like, you know, you could create a 3d interactive item And it's not as complicated as you think now it does take Some investment into learning into studying and to like getting it down But that's just web development. That's web design. That's why we have to keep learning But check this out. You could add something to your like this to your website You could completely embed it You know, there's a lot that you could do with it and not only can we make something like this You know, like just anime, but we can make this move We can make this track like we can really have a whole lot of control On how this interacts as the user Interacts with the web and then another one is going to be gsap. And by the way, their new website is crazy crazy though But like now we got this as well You know, this is look at I mean this just gives us an example Of what we could do. How could we make things stand out? I mean look at how they just make the content stand out on their own right here with these interactions and these animations Now, I know side scrolling. I've always avoided it because it isn't the best for ui But at the same time, I really feel that You know to go back to answer the question. I feel that we got stagnant by resisting Adding this when it comes to the right situation There are a lot of right situations where even for a clean minimalistic layout We could do something minimalistic Adding this that just gives it some more flair that really makes us stand out Plus for me, like I need to do I need to do something. That's not boring I need to start having fun. So that's why I'm getting into spline. I'm studying this. I'm taking classes on this right now And I plan on using this inside projects in the future Thing is I want to start creating websites in wordpress that are on the level of webflow you know and Okay, this doesn't really show too much, but webflow and framer right now, you know, they've been crushing it Uh, and I feel like it's because the people using it aren't scared You know to go Out that boundary of just like a flat Clean layout, you know to do more, you know, check out this side right here I bookmark one right here. This side is super dope right here Now whether you're into dark mode or not like this could easily be light mode But look how this, you know, just how it all interacts right here You know, so like that's where I got the idea for one of my last videos like, you know being able to use this type of Uh thing right here, but like each one of these, you know are like fun interactions that could be done Like this is something I could probably do inside spline right here And look at this to me This is where I want to be at I want to start having fun doing some crazy stuff like this some fun stuff All right, so that is my other prediction. Let me go ahead and exit out of the screen share and get some tea Somya good place to connect is uh hit me up on uh, instagram right now. It's a good place, uh You know facebook or just send me a message at the lightboxacademy.com website. That's a good place to connect with me Yeah, the rosa says you need to choose those core four to five funds Yeah, you need a stack for sure. It really helps out to have a stack Uh for the funds. All right another good question. Somya ask, you know, how to make your first client trust your skill If it's your first client It's going to take time. It's going to take time Now if you've had a lot of clients and you've been doing this for a while That's different. You know, so if it's your first client This is for anybody new. All right for anybody new getting their first clients You have to look at your first year. Maybe even two As just learning and gaining experience has to be about that You might have to get a second job to be able to pay the bills and pay the rent I lived off of noodles for my first two years. No my first year my second year things got a lot better Excuse me But you know that first year and your first clients you got to get some experience uh You know, I heard I heard uh one of the definitions on what makes an expert Is somebody who knows how to ask the right questions You know, so the more that you are building these skills not just your skills and building websites, but your skills In managing clients and talking to clients and all those soft skills that comes with it You're going to be able to start to ask the right questions. This is the reason why I'm so big on creatives Having phone calls with clients having zoom calls, but never do anything by email And even if you're brand new and you're terrified It's more important than to get on that because you got to start getting that experience and practice it Because what's going to happen is you're first For a very long time. You're going to be asking just like Questions like, you know, ridiculous questions. You're not going to know what to ask But you just keep asking them and then the next client comes along You start to ask better questions and then the next client comes along and then before you know it All of a sudden you get new leads that come in you can already start seeing things You know how to probe, you know, how to ask the right questions And when you can start to ask the client the right questions They see it and they know they're talking to an expert So that is what I feel is how you get a client to trust you All right, anybody's still here I never know if somebody is here. I can never really tell. All right, but I do got one last, uh Do I have I have something written over here? I do got one More prediction. All right, and this one is going to be a little Might be a bit controversial It shouldn't be and please don't take this as any way of being negative or you know Throwing shade on Elementor, but my prediction is I feel Elementor is Going to become the wicks of wordpress. All right I was like debating should I even talk about this and look at the thing This is not a bad thing. It's actually a smart move on their part Elementors came they come a long ways, you know as far as what they do You know like they made huge improvements to their builder in the last year Into like just two years ago to today What is on there like legit? I could build Elementor websites without any additional plugins now You know versus three four years ago when I started with Elementor You needed to have add-ons or how to do a lot of custom coding now a little bit of custom coding for those special effects but You know for as far as You know being able to build a site. You don't need add-ons anymore. Like they're just not needed. The thing is You know Elementor has become a big company You know, they're a big company and I see this this happens with big companies big companies got shareholders They got other priorities and it makes more sense to Elementor You know to I feel market towards a specific uh specific demographic That isn't really necessarily us Freelancers and agencies anymore. I just don't feel that we have been Like I don't feel the freelancer agency or anybody who builds websites for clients has been the top priority You know, it's been the do-it-yourselfers. It's been the brand new web creators And that's okay Like that's all right, but things are evolving inside WordPress right now where we have other tools like bricks, which has just Crazy matured and we're seeing a lot of people You know going inside that direction and for a good reason we have, you know Just Gutenberg in general. I mean it's gained a lot of traction, you know with the add-ons like You know generate blocks and stuff like that that have made that a good choice uh You know we have breakdance as well So I feel like the competition There's competition out there, but the other competition they're focusing on freelancers developers And because of that I see a lot of shift this year, you know for us elementary users I don't know man was that Is that is that uh anybody else feeling that way or anybody else have any other insight? So I wanted to ask nicholas. Now again, this is no shade at all an elementary. I still Rock my elementary mug. I got no beef at all We just evolved we grow everybody does and that's the best part about what we do I think if I were to use the same tool For 10 years, I wouldn't want to do this anymore. I would get so bored. I would get crazy bored I gotta keep changing and growing now It's really important not to just change just to change You know like when I started my business All right, when I started doing this and I was a brand new I was like I'm gonna build websites and that's gonna be my business when I was at that early day and made the decision I did this with a buddy and a buddy of mine out here in thailand He said the same thing. I'm gonna do this. I stuck with it. I learned html I learned css and I grinded away But three four months later he was off to do a drop shipping, you know, three four Five six months later. It was off on something else the market, you know, bouncing around just moving around Two years went by and my buddy was still bouncing around. I owned an agency. I had team members I had high level clients. I was making really good income like more, you know Like I was doing pretty well. So I really believe that You know that it's important not to just switch and just to keep switching for every new tool that comes out You gotta do it very strategically master one thing and then start to learn something else And right now, you know, if you've already mastered elements or you've already mastered this part of building websites Now you got some other options to start bringing in that you could add more value and you could do it A little bit more. All right. I know that was a lot and I really debated if I was going to bring it up But I think, you know, we got to keep it real Yeah, la Rosa, uh Yeah, la Rosa's talking about, you know already Ready to switch and it's all good. See here's the thing, you know, uh, elements are still good For what it does, you know, uh But if you were to add on something like bricks You know, you're just going to have a whole lot more value and right now what you could do Especially if you want like say those sites I was showing You know, like looking at using g sap looking at using spline looking at the interactions and stuff like that You know, definitely I feel like going to a more professional tool is going to be the way to go So I'm gonna ask how to map. What time is it about? Okay, it's been 50 minutes. All right That's why I'm starting to lose my voice I'm going to keep this video up guys. I'm gonna keep it up Uh Because I hope it helps out even though Even though I might be rambling a little bit on I'll do it. Hey just a heads up I do put my foot in my mouth and you know what I think going for I'm going to be bringing guests on I really feel like having guests here is going to help out because uh It's a bit weird just talking to yourself. I mean, I know you guys are here But it does feel weird just to keep it real All right, so somebody asked how to master a skill of asking questions And there's a simple answer every single client that you get have a call talk to them Ask the questions every time you get a call and I still do this to this day Doesn't even matter if it's a small call or a big one. I plan out my questions I plan out the structure, you know, so start off that way, you know, you get a new client You get a new lead You know, somebody reaches out. Hey, I want to get a website. Okay. Let's have a quick 20 30 minute call See if we're a good fit and then prepare, you know, think of the questions you want to ask And write them down, you know, make sure you come to that like ready So, you know, and then just keep doing it You keep doing it You're going to get better and better and better and then before you know it eventually you're going to get good And when you start getting good, you start building that confidence You start knowing more of how to ask, you know, I mean the only way to become an expert is to To do it, you got to keep doing it, you know, it takes time takes commitment. It takes dedication It takes walking through a whole lot of Uncomfortability, you know, if you're not comfortable talking and asking clients Questions and clients you got to walk through that and you got to overcome it All right, we got a couple other Thoughts that came in. All right Yeah, the rosa says if you jump into bricks get that before the price goes up in a week or two for sure for sure Bricks ltd is about to end but uh And i've been loving it. I've been super happy with it And amir says i'm running into issues with elements or daily, you know I had to stop using plugins like add-ons for Elementor for that reason I found that, you know, like in the early days like three four years ago Like that was actually the draw to it That was the thing I liked about it was that we had all these different add-ons We could do creative stuff and I could just pick these widgets and do something creative You know and now that's actually turned into like it's crutch, you know I feel like it's a thing holding Elementor back now. I do have a video coming up. I have something planned It's my Elementor wish list. All right. I got a wish list of things that I know and I feel Would make Elementor super super dope and take it right back up, you know, so I got that coming up I'll try to get that recorded and out as soon as possible But definitely a big part of it is yeah You know if they could get over that crutch, you know, like that legacy code and too busy supporting all these add-ons, you know, like I don't know like should they be supporting the add-ons or should the add-ons be You know doing their job and staying up to date You know, and I know the conflict, you know that they're in they make big changes to their core code You know and all these websites break, but It's Yeah, I mean that's a whole other discussion for sure But I feel like and look at they just got big, you know, and we whenever you see a business get too big You know I don't know. I guess it's just me too. I like to root for the little guys That's always been my personality my nature, you know, like I'd rather be with rune cloud Then go daddy, you know, I'd rather be what SEO press pro Then you know, I like the little guys that are creating awesome stuff Versus the big giants that you know that did something awesome But you know turned into a big company like apple. I gotta love hate relationship with apple All right, so rounded hexagon, who are you? I Know you're a pro member You can send me a message. Let me see. Did you send me a message? I just want to know who I'm talking to No, no message. All right. Okay. So full site editing is extremely boring and ideal for basic stuff I know man It's down to the blocks, you know, there's something that we mentioned earlier. I mean nothing against it You know, I think it all depends on Who you're building websites for and what kind of workflow that you like You know, but I think like yeah, if you want to start taking things to another level, you know Competing with like web flow web like style of websites where you do need something flexible more flexible there block builder Yeah, Rosa. Yeah, so biggest issue with the plugins and add-ons to require the creators to stay on top of the changes You know that that has always been the really big problem, you know, that that's what turned into the big one It was okay Several years ago, but now, you know, now there's that worry That if elements were say they clean up all that legacy code they switch things up big time inside the back end They really change it, you know, like a lot of sites out there are going to break like all those add-ons that are on sites They're just not going to be able to keep up with them. I mean, that's why I took containers so long Containers was ready to go for like well over God almost what like it was in beta for two years or something Well over a year it was ready to go, but they had to wait You know because there's that worry of the add-ons, but then there's always also the worry Of the non developers building websites for elements or and look at I want to kind of go back to something So I did I did throw something out there. I did throw out there You know that that my prediction is mentors going to be in the direction as wicks and The reason why I see that and I feel that way is because of the major decisions made I feel that a lot of the core decisions the big ones like the new pricing that they made The elements who are cloud hosting and the way the hosting is done Everything down to the way the onboarding is done. It's all done to maximize profits, but also done You know to serve The new people to serve the non developers Somebody brand new that do it yourself first and those Are the ones in the market of wicks and score space It's not those of us who are seasoned wordpress developers and designers that have been doing this for a while Like we wouldn't jump into wicks, you know, if we really knew how how to do html css We understood things like we had our experience. We know how to crush it killing really good sites working with good clients You know and I'm and also just that decision of containers to take so long To push it out because of the worry that so many non developers would flip out you know I mean It's those decisions that are thinking about them first before those of us who are building websites for clients And look at not knocking element or in any way, you know, they got to do what they got to do is the business But here's the thing A business cannot have multiple demographics. Like either this is your turn. I mean I I'm why I shouldn't I should back I should back that a little about one The business should have one core focus of who their customer is now some of them might be You know fall in close to them. There's got to be that one focus It's just like if we take him on a client We want to know who is their primary customer And then we want to build and speak and do everything for that primary customer With elementor you got two primary customers You got those who do this as a business as a livelihood And you got those that are doing this as a hobby or just wanting to learn or doing it for themselves It's two different ones And when you make a decision you can't make one decision to start both You're going to make those core decisions and the core decisions have been To serve this one. I believe it at that. I'd love to hear hearing guys's thoughts. Keep in mind. It is late I'm still going through covet. I still probably got a fever. You can hear me. I could barely breathe as well You know, so take that please. Uh, just keep that in mind and like I said before, uh You know predictions. Yeah, okay Oh, okay Let me see. I gotta Okay, cool. Cool. I got you. I got you. It's okay Cool I was wondering who rounded hexagon is now. I know So I'm done. You got it. You got it. Hey, we're going to be doing this every single week And I'm going to start bringing people on as well. That way we can have more in-depth conversations get more perspective and keeping the you know, the Focus a little bit more Online when it's just me it's just going to be all over the place But it's also a good chance. You can ask me anything and sometimes we might just do some live stuff Hey, I do have an idea. Let me know if you guys would like to see this So I did purchase breakdance. I bought it. I haven't even like Added it on the site yet. I was planning on having a live stream Setting up breakdance for the first time live with you guys and then building bubble bubble.io All right, let me know if you guys would like to see that and we can set that up for next week's live stream We'll do a breakdance unboxing type of thing Something I've been wanting to I've been holding off on breakdance because I kind of I wanted to share that experience Starting off with you guys. I've heard a lot of good things about it. You know, and I'm pretty sure It is good, but I want to explore. There's some things I want to see inside of it All right, LaRosa says the little guys are far more agile Exactly. Yeah, you know how 50 decision makers to run things by especially You know decision makers who aren't experienced inside this area. So yeah I mean just look what thomas has done. Like it's crazy what he has done you know Andrew awesome and happy new year's Andrew And glad you're on board man. So glad you're on board awesome. Andrea. Hey, Andrea So good to see you All right, let's do it. I think this is a good segue. All right, everyone. Let's do it. All right So look, I want to crush it into childhoods and 24 with you guys. All right. That's the reason why we're starting off right away All right, we're not going to waste time or to sit around I really want to but I want this to be a good year for all of us You know, I really feel that with combined energy Like bringing the right energy from the people around us really makes a serious impact I want to do that with you guys. Like I'm also a real listener. I want to keep it real as well You know, there are challenges or there's ups and downs, you know, like That's just part of it But we want to get through it and this is a reason why I'm completely open. That's why I'm open about my past I'm open about what I'm going through personally I thought long and hard about it. I you know, at first I was going to You know, keep a zip on what I went through inside my life But I decided to open up because look at this is part of life We're going to go through it, but I really believe that, you know, that I really believe that Things could happen that we never thought could happen and I want to see that happen for us inside 2024 So let me know. All right. Let me know what you guys would like to see what helps out Here is what's coming. All right. Cool. Here's what's coming. I'm gonna leave you with this All right, you saw my predictions. Is somebody asked a very good question early early on do I feel that you know The web design space is getting basic, you know, yes I feel I've gotten basic and I want to change that. All right. I'm going to change that So what's going to come this year is I'm going to get a bit more advanced I want to start doing a bit more a bit more creative so Things like, you know, interactive design interactive Building and doing it all within WordPress like I'm staying inside WordPress But think of like these crazy web flow sites that you see I want to do that inside WordPress I also want to be focusing on clean code accessibility SEO the web design business I want to start focusing on these other areas that are a bit more Bit more where my passion is that versus, you know, more of like the simple tutorials So you might not see as many simple tutorials from me coming out But I will have like step-by-step tutorials, but I'll still break things down For example, if we look at that website that we just saw that whoop that had all those different things Like I would love to break down how to build each one of those in its own little segments and share that all with you So that's what I plan to do. I'm studying gsap right now. I want to master gsap. I want to master spline I want to be able to use those inside, you know, WordPress websites You're going to see a lot more bricks coming from me You'll see I still got my element or people out there. So, you know, like I'm still going to be there for you guys as well That is not going to change So I still this is my mug I drink from every morning. So it's kind of hard to like Give that up, you know, it served me very well. I build a really good agency with it Oh with that now, okay Let me just check this to see if there's any Questions before we move on All right All right, Bill hit I'm going to share your comment because I feel that your comment is going to resonate with a lot of people. I know a lot You're not alone I know you're not alone with this at all. In fact, I've been there where you're at, you know, and I know that feeling You know, Mohit shares that it feels bad. It feels depressed like Don't have any skills or have very less resources how to get it started again It's hard When we lose hope when we lose that drive when we lose when we lose That passion I've been on your side, but I've been on that side in a much more extreme way beyond just web design You know, I know what it's like to To sit down on a curve Not being able to see a way out And just giving up I know that feeling and I've been there where I was stuck for close to a decade of my life You know, I remember driving It was about a good 10 years ago and I remember I was back in the u.s. And It wasn't I was it was more than I forgot how long ago, but I remember You know seeing a young man I remember seeing him just like in front of a store like a cvs sitting on the curb And my first instinct was like dude, you have so much you could be doing man like Get up that was my first thought like come on, you know, like there's so much but After that second of that thought I remember when that was me and I remember when I was sitting down I can't think for I couldn't see out of it thing about hope is is powerful in two different ways You know, when you have hope and you believe it's a power that could drive you But when you have hopelessness That's another power I mean unless if you've experienced hopelessness nobody could understand without experiencing it And the best way I could describe it is it's not being able to see it better tomorrow in no way possible at all But that's the lie, you know, if we stay there That just becomes a lie now. I know I'm taking this to a more extreme level But the reason why I'm bringing this up My hit is to let you know you're not alone You know that There's a lot of people out there feeling stuck You know sitting on a sofa You know sleeping in in the weekday You know because there's no drive to move forward And You know, it's it's beyond just Finding, you know, like your passion and what you like to do But it's also some inner work as well because this whole thing Now we do with this like development as far as like being able to develop skills being able to develop a business It also takes personal development as well So I would suggest to put a focus on the personal development along with it You know, like look at you know getting to some books every single morning like check it out I'm going to show you right now. This is what I have to do Let me wait Let me close this. Let me show you My feed I'm trying to get out of this So like in my feed I always got stuff like this coming on You know, I got stuff like this right here the feature Coming on, you know, you can always tell where you're at by what the algorithm is showing you You know, I got stuff like this coming on, you know, this is me just going to my youtube feed These are the kind of things that I see every single morning, you know, I'm listening to podcasts I'm letting them play, you know while I'm getting ready I'm uh listening to stoic lessons I'm having to do because if I don't do that work, I could slip right back, you know, and that's what it takes it You know, it's beyond just learning the skills of building websites You got to first You know Where yeah, there's there's so much right here. I mean, this really hits me man. This really hits me in the heart right here I I say start first simple start simple and Look at, you know, the personal development what you're consuming and if you want hit me up, man Hit me up. I'll give you some suggestions like on what I do as far as my own personal spiritual practice You know, I'm not like some religious dude or anything, but I have to maintain my spirituality and stuff, you know, because uh You know, if I don't I could get dark sometimes, you know so with that, okay first Personal development work on that then the next part if you feel like you're stuck at doing what you do You got to figure out one thing Master it dude master that one thing just get really good at one thing I think this is where a lot of people get stuck because you're trying to do too much Get really good at one thing if it's going to be web design get really good at building mock-ups Be able to find the really dopest mock-ups you could find and replicate it Identically if it's going to be development master html and css be able to build a website with just html and css Master one thing at a time because if you master that one thing you have value You have value that makes you worth something And as you do that and you do that you're starting to build self esteem You start to build confidence and get really good at that when I was taught to master one thing at a time But my first mentor I was bouncing all over the place I had no idea where I wanted to go what I wanted to do I mean I was just all over I was in this this land of like, you know Just all these new things that I wanted to learn about You know the first time I met my mentor he laughed and said so you got to stop these I just choose one and I chose css I just chose the right then and there I decided and I stuck with it I grinded if there is one thing I did right in my career as a web creator Is I have followed this master ring one thing at a time Down to the T like I will get obsessed and I will go all in and I'll get really good at it and then I'll move on So I would say start there, but do The the personal development take time man. Love yourself man. That's really really important You have to learn how to love yourself and know yourself and get that self awareness Hit me up man. Hit me up. I'm very reachable for everybody out there So hit me up, especially if anybody if you know Struggling like that. It's all good You know, you're not alone. That's the main thing Mira been there I feel you we're we're here and that's the reason why we're doing this. This is the reason why I'm doing this You know why just I'm gonna leave this really quick. Just one last thing the reason why I started This whole journey right here was because covid hit, you know covid hit It went ahead everything locked down I saw the way everybody was reacting and I saw and I saw for what it was people are losing hope And the hopelessness became worldwide. It was crazy You know, it's a collective energy and a spreads energy spreads And that hopelessness hits and that's why I started the building businesses with elemental facebook group As a way to give hope to web creators to give hope to people who've never built a website before Who lost her job who's stuck in their house and not allowed to leave to give them something To move on and I needed that like I did that for others, but I also needed that Because if I just stayed there just building websites for clients I could go to that dark place as well, you know, I So like that's how this whole thing started. So we're here doing this together. All right So if anybody is feeling, you know, you know Snow you're not alone. Hit me up for sure Hey everyone, I'm so glad to be here with you all I think this is a good time to go ahead and end it but check it out next week We're going to do the break dance if you guys want to see it. Let me know. All right I kind of want to do it man. I'm excited about it You know, I've been wanting to geek out on it It's been my new toy that I haven't opened yet. I would love to open it with you guys So I might have that come next week, but we're going to do this We're going to hit the ground running expect a lot of big changes this year and Yeah, that's it. All right I'm going to have to say goodbye. Thank you all for being here and uh, see you guys again next week