381 - WDP CON 2025 Recap, Expense Breakdown & More

A full recap and look-back with takeaways, lessons learned (and a breakdown of expenses) of the amazing weekend that was…Web Designer Pro’s first in person event conference WDP CON 2025!!

Go to the full post with pictures, video embeds and more here:

https://webdesignerpro.com/wdpcon2025

Watch the highlight reel here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKg3eMUEA_E

Episode Transcript

Josh (00:00):
Hello, my friend, welcome into a very special and I mean
this with full sincerity, extraspecial episode of the Web
Design Business Podcast, becausein this one I'm going to give
you a full recap and breakdownof our recent, first ever Web
Designer Pro Con event.
So we're just a few weeks outfrom having our first ever

(00:24):
in-person event for my community, web Designer Pro.
We had over 40 members from allover the United States and a
few members from Canada join us.
It was absolutely incredible.
Even a few weeks later, I'mstill buzzing from it.
So many members are stillbuzzing from it, in fact.
Before we get into this, I wantto just share with you a few

(00:46):
thoughts from members who werethere.
I have like hours oftestimonials from this event,
but I've just pulled under acouple of minutes.
I just want to share with yousome highlights and some
thoughts from members who werethere, and then we'll dive right
in.

Victoria (00:58):
And we're all web designers, we're all in this
space and we finally havesomeone like you're in a room
full of people who actuallyunderstand what you're going
through.
Just to see that some of thethings that maybe I'm dealing
with in my business it made mefeel I don't feel like I'm alone
in it.
Getting to meet every singleperson and like know their
stories and know theirpersonalities and just learn and

(01:21):
grow from each other has beenphenomenal.

A-T (01:24):
It's great meeting all the other participants here in
person.
I talk to them all the time.
Online I see them in the chatrooms and just being able to
actually meet them in personactually strengthen those bonds
and those relationships.
I think we created somefriendships that are going to
last a lifetime.

Leigh Ann (01:39):
The presentations were killer, each one.
I learned so much.
It's so neat because, eventhough there's so many different
people at so many differentlevels and so many different
presentations, all of us learnedfrom all of the presentations,
no matter where we were at atour business.

Jebb (01:56):
I was just impressed by how warm and welcoming everybody
was, not just to me but witheach other, and how willing to
share they were.
It was such a great event.
It does not seem like year one.
It seems like this has beensomething that you've been doing
every year.

Marc (02:16):
People I actually DM with on the regular were there, which
is just nuts, and so I feellike we're able to build those
relationships.
And it's not just an onlinecommunity anymore, dude, we're
not just an online community forweb developers, we're an
in-person community too, whichis just awesome.

Alexia (02:29):
Yeah, it was transformative.
That's a great word fortransformative.
The whole experience wastransformative and I hope to
carry some of thattransformative energy into my
business the rest of the yearand up until 2026 when we're at
the second WDPCon.
Definitely I will be throwingelbows to be on that list for

(02:51):
next year.
So thank you so much for doingit for us.

Josh (02:55):
So again just a glimpse, just a few audio clips from the
feedback from our first everWDPCon 2025.
So much to go over here.
What we're going to do in thisone is I'm going to share with
you a little bit about the eventitself and leading up to it and
what the event included, andthen I will share with you a

(03:18):
breakdown of expenses and, justfrom the business side, of what
I learned about hosting an eventand some of the things that
were expected and some of thethings that were not expected
with hosting an in-person event.
So going to be kind of a bit ofa two-part situation here in
recap, and also a breakdown ofeverything just in case you're

(03:39):
curious about hosting your ownevent one day, maybe on a
smaller scale or bigger scale,for clients or a community of
your own.
So WDPCon 2025, we have beentalking about hosting an
in-person event for years now.
Now, with Web Designer Pro forthose of you who are not a
member yet we do meetups.
We'll have like locationspecific meetups all over the

(04:01):
world.
We've had meetups tons here inColumbus Ohio, where I'm based
out of, and a few other pros are.
We've had meetups all over theworld.
We've had meetups tons here inColumbus, ohio, where I'm based
out of and a few other pros are.
We've had meetups all over theUnited States.
We've had meetups in Canada.
We've had meetups in Brazil, inLondon, we've had meetups
everywhere all over the world.
But this was our first officialconference and for years I've
been wanting to bring ustogether, but I delayed on doing

(04:25):
it for a couple of reasons.
One I knew it was going to be ashit ton of work and that is
putting it lightly, especiallythe first event.
Number two was I wasn't surequite how to go about it and I
just wasn't kind of in the place.
Bandwidth-wise and, honestly,financially.
I knew it was going to be quitea commitment and I wanted to

(04:46):
make sure I didn't um, for lackof a better term lose my ass on
it.
I wanted to make sure I wasn'tworried about being profitable,
but I just wanted to at leastbreak even and and you know,
quite frankly, hoping tocompensate myself for some of
the time, cause I knew it wasgoing to be a lot of work.
So, uh, luckily, web DesignerPro Con our first ever event was
profitable and it was againfreaking awesome.

(05:09):
So what made it awesome?
I want to say a special shoutout to every single member who
came in person to this event.
I mean it was incredible and Iknow there's some FOMO.
A lot of Web Designer Promembers are going to be
listening to this.
I know a lot of you, forwhatever reason, couldn't make
it.
Some of you had familyemergencies.

(05:29):
Some of you were going to theKentucky Derby.
I personally would rather havego to the Web Designer Pro Con,
but hey, I get it.
So, all that to say, I don'twant to create too much FOMO
here, but we've got to talkabout it because it was that
good.
Everyone who came was justincredible.
I mean, there was from the veryget go, there was just this

(05:50):
like.
I think it was like a.
It sounds weird, but there waslike a spirit, there was like an
energy of like just positivevibes.
I mean, can you imagine walkinginto a group of 40 plus people
and everyone has the biggestsmile on their face, everyone is
welcoming.
There's no clicks, there's noweirdness, everyone not all

(06:13):
members do each other well, butit's like, oh shoot, I have seen
her post or I've seen him post,or we had a conversation a few
months ago, or I saw them on thepodcast.
It was that kind of vibe and,as you heard from some of those
testimonials there, there wassuch an immediate, unifying
nature of being and this just isa testament to not only Web
Designer Pro this amazingcommunity that we have but also

(06:36):
of being in either an onlinecommunity or, like Mark said in
that testimonial clip, areal-world community, an
in-person community where thereis just a like-mindedness.
I mean, guys, I can't recommendenough that if you are not in a
community of other webdesigners, I hope it's Web
Designer Pro.
I hope you join us online andin person now.

(06:57):
But get into a community, donot do this alone.
Because it was so life-giving Imean, you can probably hear it
in my voice I am absolutelystill fired up.
I cannot wait for the next oneand I'm extra excited for the
mini meetups that we're going tohave eventually and other pros
are meeting up.
We got a meetup happening soonin Texas, so get in community.

(07:22):
I just want to say that becauseit is incredible.
Now, if you're curious aboutwhat the event entailed, here it
is.
Here's what I planned out forthe event, and then I want to
share a few things about theplanning process and leading up
to it.
I have no idea how long this isgoing to go.
By the way, I'm not evenlooking at bullet points or
anything, so I just want toshare what's on my mind.
So buckle on in and let's havesome fun and hope.

(07:47):
If you weren't there in person,I know you can't relive it, but
I hope this gets you pumped forjoining the community and join
us for the next one.
So the event consisted ofofficially two days On Friday,
may 2nd, we had like officiallyon the itinerary was a group,
social and in Columbus, ohio.
If you've never been here, youdon't know the city.

(08:08):
Columbus is great and a fewclips I did not include in that,
just quick little snippet inthe beginning, were how so many
members said Columbus wasawesome, like it exceeded their
expectations.
So many members said it wasclean and modern and really easy
to get around and walk around,and it's true.
Like all cities, there's badsections and places I wouldn't

(08:28):
recommend walking around andluckily, being that I live in
Columbus, I know where the goodspots are.
And really cool thing aboutColumbus in particular is
there's a few sections calledthe Short North, the Arena
District, and they're allwalking distance of each other
and that's where all of ourevents happened.
I'm saying that because I triedto make sure we had a

(08:51):
centralized location to whereall of our activities whether it
be mini meetups and lunches andbrunches, or the official group
, socials and dinners or theactual workshop day itself I
wanted it to all be walkingdistance so somebody could get a
hotel or an Airbnb and walk or,at the very least, do a quick
Uber anywhere.
So that was the goal inplanning it.

(09:11):
So on Friday, may 2nd, theofficial itinerary was to have a
group social at the ColumbusClippers baseball game.
We have a minor league team Ourminor league team is actually
the farm team for the Clevelandwell now Guardians.
So the the stadium isincredible.
It's like it's it's pro level.
It's smaller but it's pro levelin the amenities and just a

(09:31):
great spot.
We were able to rent out anentire suite that holds up to, I
think, 48 people.
I'll talk about costs here in alittle bit and expenses, but,
uh, I rented that out for us andwe were able to lock that in to
be able to house our first everofficial web designer pro
social.
And if you've been following meon social media, I'm active

(09:52):
right now on Facebook andInstagram.
You've probably seen some ofthe pictures because I've posted
a lot about the event and we'llcontinue to post about the
event, so definitely follow meover there.
You can go to joshhallco slashFacebook or joshhallco slash
Instagram to see some of thisand we will have some pictures
at the show notes for this one,which are going to be found at
joshhallco slash 381.

(10:13):
But the other two big items onthe official event itinerary
were Saturday May 3rd, we had anall day workshop.
This workshop consisted of fivespeakers including myself, and
then each one of them werefollowed up by Q&A sessions.

(10:35):
We also had a lunch provided atthe workshop at the AC Hotel in
downtown Columbus, which had abeautiful room on the top floor
with windows on each side, andthat room I think can hold up to
50 to 75 people altogether ormore depending on the seating.
But that was the big.

(10:56):
The workshop was kind of thebig big draw apart from it was
really kind of two parts.
The big draw, I think, was justgetting us in person together
and just building that sense ofcommunity and meeting people and
making friends and makingconnections and networking and
learning.
But the other part of this wasthe actual event itself the
workshop and then the lastofficial item on the itinerary
was a group dinner.

(11:16):
So after the workshop I leftabout an hour and a half of time
to where we all walked down thestreet and met at a Italian
restaurant called Buca di Peppo.
I think.
They're in most all majorcities.
Those of you who know it knowthat you can fit a lot of people
in there.
It's one of the only placesthat can house that many people.

(11:37):
So when I thought aboutplanning this, I'm like where
the heck can we go with like 40people?
Well, buca di Peppo camethrough us in flying colors.
They were absolutely awesome.
So that was our group dinner,but we did a lot of events
around this.
So and by events I mean meetups.
So let me just give you abreakdown of the actually before
I kind of dive into the entireweekend and share some thoughts

(11:59):
and insights from that.
I do want to say, in theplanning for this, I was really
intentional about including allof that, because I thought about
just doing one day and havingpeople show up that morning.
But then I was like, man, itwould be nice to offer like a
group hang.
And, quite honestly, one thingI I'm glad we did a social event
before the workshop day, mainlybecause, with a big event where

(12:23):
there's a lot of people gettingto meet each other for the
first time, I think there'snothing worse than going
somewhere and having like 20minutes to mingle and then you
just immediately sit down andstart learning.
I really, really enjoyed andthose of you who are there you
tell me if you enjoyed this.
I personally enjoyed having thenight beforehand to just hang

(12:43):
and just have time to meeteverybody and expand on stuff
you want to talk about beforeactually getting down to work
the next day, because Saturdaywas an intensive day in the way
of the presentations were likemind blowing, transformative,
like you heard, I mean.
So it was just like I wouldn'twant to throw people right into

(13:04):
that.
So I'm really glad we did asocial the day before.
I'm definitely going to keepthat going.
So in the planning for this, Iwanted to make sure we had an
opportunity to do that and I hadthought about doing a dinner on
Friday night, but I realized,like you know, I wanted to do
something more social, because adinner just feels a little bit
more formal.
Now, there were plenty.
There was obviously foodoptions and stuff at the
baseball game.

(13:24):
But, uh, man, the suite wasjust the way to go.
I mean, honestly, for 2026, I'mjust going to run this thing
back.
I want to do the exact samething.
It's funny because so manymembers said, can we just do
this Like well, for sure nextyear, but can we do this like
once a month?
And I was like gosh, that'd beawesome.
So, yeah, I really enjoyedstarting out with that.
For those reasons and in theplanning for this, I wanted to

(13:47):
have a mix of like fun andsocial and intentional, but also
, you know, I want members tocome here and leave with like a
business something, a businesstakeaway.
And when I thought about whatcould be something that would be
a nice frame for the actualworkshop, for the actual event,
and I thought, what if we didsomething like just a boost?
I love that term boost, I wroteabout it in a recent newsletter

(14:10):
and that works really good onSEO plans and maintenance plans
and services.
Why wouldn't it work for anevent?
So I called it a revenue boostand with having the idea of a
topical theme like a revenueboost, that allowed me to when I
reached out to speakers andpotential folks who would want
to present here.

(14:30):
It allowed us to have somethingto build off of.
There was a foundation.
That way, I didn't have oneperson talking about an
unrelated topic that didn'treally segue into the next one
one.
There was all a common themewhich was what can we talk about
in 30 to 35 minutes, leavingtime for live Q and a?
Which web designer pro members?
We could have had a 10 hourjust Q and a session without

(14:53):
active.
Everyone was.
We had I had to be like okay,guys, we got to move on to the
next one to keep on time, uh,which is just a testament to web
designer pro members.
But, uh, I wanted to have atopical theme that we could
build on, and I just love thatidea of revenue boost.
I think we set the bar so highfor round one.
I have no idea what we're goingto do in 26, but we got time.
So those were some of mythoughts.

(15:13):
And then I wanted to have agroup dinner to end everything
off, because, again, a dinner isdifferent from a social in the
way of like you're just, it's adifferent vibe.
You're, you're seated withpeople depending on how big the
tables are.
You're going to kind of have adeeper connection and longer
conversations with the folks youhappen to sit with.
So, uh, really glad that workedout because I think some
members who really got to knoweach other and kind of connect

(15:35):
with each other, you could seethose little micro uh
relationships form, which arereally cool.
But again, the extra cool thingwas that nobody was excluded.
There is not like there were noclicks, and that's one thing I
love about our community isthere's just no clicks in Web
Designer Pro.
It's not like the high schoolcafeteria where you got the cool
kids and the nerds and theskaters and the dancers,

(15:58):
whatever, like we're just allmostly nerds and skaters.
So it's actually really cool.
Like, um, it just is a great,great open group.
So there was none of that thatwe had to worry about.
That was just freakingincredible.
So in the planning of all this,those are all things that were
considered and I do want to givea shout out to a couple of
people who assisted in theplanning my friend, shannon

(16:18):
Madden, who is also local inColumbus Ohio, a fellow web
design business coach.
She has hosted events on adifferent scale and level for
her community.
She does more of retreats forher like high level members in
her community, but because she'sdone events and has some
experience that even in herprevious corporate world I I
invited her to sit down on theinitial strategy session with

(16:40):
planning this and, of course,she has so much to talk about,
especially when it comes topricing, that I invited her to
be a speaker and she killed it.
She blew some minds talkingabout price anchoring.
By the way, yes, thepresentations are going to be
live inside of web designer pro.
At the time of recording this.
I'm still waiting on gettingthe official replays, but once

(17:02):
we get those, I'll make sureeveryone knows.
You'll hear about it on thepodcast, you'll hear about it on
my email and you'll see it onthe socials.
We will be posting those.
So she was a part of theplanning process and I got to
give a huge special shout out toAustin, who was a member of Web
Designer Pro.
He was in the second wave ofmembers in pro, so he's been in

(17:23):
there, I think, since 2021.
Knows the community really well, has such great insight, is a
little more quiet in the group,but, my gosh, was he
instrumental in being a part ofthis live event.
Especially, austin is alsolocal in Columbus, ohio, and he
was just such a great right-handman through this entire process

(17:46):
.
Austin did so much for theevent.
From that initial strategysession and planning session.
He had some really good ideasand, as a member, I loved
hearing his insight on, like youknow, what would you want?
What are you looking for in anevent as a member, how do you
want to go about this?
What would be cool for you?
And we all kind of came up withthat structure.
I mentioned of social workshopdinner as the main events.

(18:10):
We did plenty around it whichwe'll get to, but yeah, he was
huge.
Austin also did so much withjust helping me find resources
online.
We looked at different venues,we talked about different group
activities, dinner ideas andAustin really got a lot of the
ball rolling on some of theboots on the ground work on that
.
Austin also helped me withcreating lanyards, and day of

(18:32):
was a huge help because he wasdoing a lot.
I mean, I really I would havebeen running like a chicken with
my head cut off if it wasn'tfor Austin.
So I just want to take a fewminutes to shout out Austin.
I know he's probably beat redright now as somebody who
doesn't want to be in thespotlight.
But Austin, you've got a heck ofa skillset dude, um, with event
assistance, uh, executive eventassistance, um, but he did so

(18:56):
much day of.
I mean, he was there for he wasthere before I was there in the
morning getting stuff set up,helping direct people.
We had kind of planned out thelayout together and he knew all
that and he also ran sound forthe event.
I didn't want there to just beawkward silence between
presentations and stuff, so weput a playlist together and
Austin handled all the audiothat day.

(19:17):
He helped set up sponsorequipment and oodles of things.
So huge, huge help If you aredoing an event, if you don't
have, like an event coordinator,I would really recommend
especially if you're hostinglike emceeing, like I was doing,
I would really really recommendhaving an assistant of some
kind.
And Austin just came through.

(19:37):
I felt like I was giving himway too much work.
I was like dude, please tell meif this is like way too much.
He's like no, happy to.
He loved it.
So, yeah, huge, huge help,something I've definitely am
going to continue to do.
So, austin, I hope you're downfor round two.
Uh, so that was in the planningof it.
Now, as I mentioned, those werethe main itinerary items, but we
did a whole lot of hang in anda lot of little mini meetups and

(20:00):
socials around the event.
So we had a lot of membersactually come in on that
Thursday.
We had some members who came ina little earlier or they were
flying in.
Uh, there were a handful ofmembers who came in that
afternoon and evening.
So with the members I oh Ishould say too, if you're
wondering, like, how did youguys organize communication and
how did you keep track ofeverything, especially with

(20:21):
these other meetups?
Circle is not only the platformthat I run Web Designer Pro on,
but it was our hub for allcommunication, for all attendees
, and it's actually where I soldthe tickets for Web Designer
Pro Con, the event two members.
So, circle, you can create anevent, you can create an event
and you can sell tickets inRSVPs through Circle.

(20:44):
I didn't need to use adifferent platform.
Circle was freaking awesome.
So a huge shout out to Circlefor making it possible for us to
do this literally under oneroof in-house.
I was able to create the event,create the tickets.
We'll get to price again alittle bit, but we sold tickets
for 150.
I kept it very reasonable justto make it a no-brainer for as

(21:06):
many members to come for thisfirst one within our headcount.
We did have a headcount of 40on this one, but it was all in
Circle and we had an attendeegroup chat thread.
So with Circle, what's kind ofcool is you can create a private
chat thread and it's almostlike Slack inside of Circle and
then you can say if someone doesthis which in my case the

(21:27):
workflow was if someone RSVPs tothis event, they get added to
the group chat.
That's how we managed all groupcommunication.
So if you're curious, nittygritty, that's kind of how we
did that, and that chat is stilla buzz right now.
I mean it is.
It's my gosh, the stuff that'sgoing on in that chat is still
incredible.
So that's how we did that.

(21:47):
That's how we kept track ofmembers who were coming in early
.
Uh, and what we did is I metwith I want to give a shout out
to Megan, who was actuallyrecently on the podcast, megan
Fletcher.
She was the first member toarrive in Columbus, all the way
from California.
So she took a red red eyeovernight, got there pretty
early on Thursday, met up withher and Austin first we kicked

(22:08):
the party off and then we allwalked over and met up with a
handful of other members at arestaurant in the short North,
which is again in walkingdistance from the AC hotel,
where we would eventually havethe workshop, and a little
further distance from theClipper stadium.
So all in walking distance,thanks to awesome Columbus.

(22:29):
So we met with a handful it wasjust about I think there were
seven or eight of us at dinnerand then we walked over to what
was a very loud bar that my wifeand I like to frequent.
I say bar it's more like casuallunch in the day, but it turns
into a bit of a college barlater on.
Now that was a Thursday nightand this is a lesson learned,

(22:53):
which is I did not know when Ibooked the dates that it was
Ohio State's graduation weekend,so that meant not only were
hotel rates more expensive, andthere was always there's always
something going on in Columbus,but that was particularly, uh,
really busy.
But what we learned also wasthat there were so many dang

(23:14):
college kids at that bar thatnight, but it's one of the bars
that has enough space to get agroup of like eight, nine, 10 of
us together.
So we just walked right overthere.
We ended up just happened togetting like a really good
standing spot with um, like atthe front of the restaurant.
So I was like, all right, we'regoing to make this work.
I probably, in hindsight, wouldhave gone to a bit of a quieter
bar, um, mainly because I justabout blew my voice out in the

(23:37):
first night and I did a lot oftalking over the next few days,
a lot of talking, which is whatI had anticipated, what I had
planned for, what I absolutelylove to do.
But next year I am going to beprobably a little more
intentional about making sure wedon't get into like loud uh bar

(23:58):
areas, especially leading up tothe event, because I mean, my
voice was nearly shot for theevent itself.
Luckily it pulled through, butI mean, after the event, not
only did I get sick, but myvoice, I mean I sounded like
Kermit the Frog, josh, it wasrough.
So we'll be a little moreintentional.
And I say that because it'skind of a heads up with hosting

(24:20):
an event, especially if you'regoing to be speaking.
I would be really intentionalabout protecting your voice
because I mean, I talked nearlyfour days straight and it was
incredible and awesome and Idon't regret a minute of it.
But man, I definitely um, uh,my voice was not quite ready for
that.
So, uh, learned that on thefirst night.
But gosh darn, was it anabsolute blast getting to meet

(24:43):
with some members before thetech, you know, technically even
happened.
So that Friday, uh, what we didwas, similarly, before the
baseball game, I wanted to meetup with as many members as I
could.
Now, some members were stayingwith each other.
There were kind of pockets ofmembers doing separate things.
But in that group chat I justsaid, hey, we're going to be
back at Pine house.

(25:03):
Uh, that same restaurant and amuch different vibe, cause
usually it's not nearly thatcrowded or busy on weeknights
but it's even more chill duringthe day.
So we met there for lunch.
Quite a few members came.
That's where we got to meet Jebfrom 17 Hats.
Oh my gosh.
By the way, how did I notmention this already?
Huge shout out to our sponsors.
We'll talk expenses hereshortly, but our sponsors made

(25:26):
this event happen for us.
17 hats was our gold sponsorsite ground, who I've been
hosting with for a decade.
Um, they were a sponsor andthen term again was that they
were actually at the event aswell, and 17 hats a part of the.
The deal was if, for those whotook a sponsorship spot, you're
welcome to send somebody in 17hats, which is the CRM that I've

(25:47):
used for proposals Just talkedabout a recent proposal video
that I put out and, yes, you seewhat I do in 17 Hats they sent
a magnificent human with a hellof a beard in the name of Jeb
and great guy, I mean.
He just fit right in with usfrom the first five minutes and
had a really good time.
It was awesome having him there.

(26:08):
They had a booth and, uh, he metus early on Friday.
Us, I mean.
So I don't.
I could obviously take threehours talking about every member
, but one thing I will say thatwas extra cool too about this
was we have a member in the deafcommunity, harold, who's
outside of Pennsylvania, droveon over and we met he.
He was actually there on Fridayas well and it was really cool

(26:30):
to interact with him in anin-person situation.
I've never I don't think I'veever interacted with a deaf
person and I think it was reallyeye-opening and fascinating for
all of us to interact with himand be able to communicate like
that, because only one other promember that I'm aware of signs,

(26:50):
and that's my amazing VA, jen,who was also there, so she was
able to sign with him.
But the way we communicated withhim were just through texts,
like audio to phone.
And I looked over and I saw Jebdoing this.
I saw so many other members.
Harold would write somethingout on his phone and then show
it to us and we would respondback, either text back or write
on a piece of paper or just talkinto our phone and then be able

(27:14):
to communicate with him.
So it was incredible, it wasreally, really cool.
And Harold, I got so many goodhugs, but Harold wins the award
for biggest bear hug.
I mean, he came in and jettedover to me and gave me the
biggest bear hug.
I think he was reallyappreciative, appreciative to to
be able to be there and usmaking that event ASL.

(27:37):
Um, we did have ASL speakers.
We actually hired two signers,which we'll talk about with the
expenses here for the workshop,for the event.
So he was actually able toparticipate in the live
presentations and when we hadthat covered for him, big reason
for that is because of oursponsors.
So, um, it was really cool tomake this event an ASL

(27:59):
accessible event and even thoughit was just for one member, I
have no regrets in in investingin ASL services.
And when it came down to that,I was like whew, I found out how
much it was going to be to hirebecause you have to hire two
ASL interpreters for a full day.
I was like, oh snap, the CFOside of me is like that's a
pretty big expense that we'regoing to take a chunk out of the

(28:20):
profit here.
But then I thought about howengaged Harold is in pro and how
excited he was to come, and Iknew he was going to come.
I knew it wasn't going to besomebody who I didn't know well
and like may or may not show up.
I knew no, harold's the realdeal.
He's coming, um, and I have noregrets on that at all.
It was such an honor to be ableto provide that for him and it
just it filled my heart.

(28:41):
Honestly, being able to do thatand to see him in person being
a part of this was incredibleand learning to communicate that
way.
And, quite frankly, you know alot of you know I have a
daughter with special needs andI thought about what if she
wanted to do something thatwasn't able for her?
You know, like what if therewasn't some sort of
accessibility thing that sheneeded and it made her not be

(29:02):
able to go?
So I really thought all aboutall that and then it became an
easy decision and, um, the CFOside of me was like oh yeah,
this is a heart first business,this is a heart first community,
absolutely.
Let's invest in that.
So, so great to have HaroldAnywho.
Uh, we had a lot.
We had a great lunch with a tonof members who came on Friday.
We all walked down.
One of my favorite spots inColumbus is the R bar.

(29:32):
Um, apparently in um.
Where is Mark out of sight inIndiana?
Um, apparently outside of NotreDame area in the fighting Irish
land.
Apparently our bar is somethingvery different than the R bar
in Columbus.
So the R bar is not the R ratedbar in Columbus, it is a hockey
bar.
So we went over to my favoriteColumbus Blue Jackets hockey bar
for a little while during theday, met with some other members

(29:53):
and my gosh again, I could sayeveryone's name, you know take
forever, but just to say we hada really great group there and
then we all walked down to theColumbus Clippers game on Friday
night, had an absolute blast.
The only downfall and the onlycloud over the weekend was a
literal cloud and that was itrained a lot.

(30:13):
Now, springtime in Columbus ishit or miss.
We have absolutely gorgeous andbeautiful days and then we have
downpours, probably just likemost areas with spring, but
unfortunately we did have a lotof rain.
Now, luckily, on that Friday ittimed out to where it didn't
rain until later, primarily sowe were able to walk around
Columbus okay, despite wind andeverything.

(30:35):
Yeah, my hair got messed up,but it worked.
It worked out all right.
But we all went to the game andit was absolutely incredible.
Like I mentioned, we had a suitethat can hold up to 50 people
altogether, I think, and it wasjust really really cool, really
really great spot.
And again, you can see picturesin the recap post for this,
details below and then, ofcourse, on my social media.

(30:56):
But what happened was we gotrained out, so the game it
started raining about halfwaythrough.
It actually ended up being adouble header.
So we were going to have anextended time in that suite.
We were actually going to gettwo games in that suite, but it
rained and it rained harder andharder and harder.
Luckily we were in a suitewhich meant we were covered and,
quite frankly, we're all thereto be with each other.

(31:18):
It was really just backgroundnoise.
I mean, I love watchingbaseball games, but I don't
think too many people were, youknow, fiercely into the game.
It was about being with eachother.
So it worked out just fine.
We still got four hours thereand then the first Web Designer
Pro Con after.
Well, we had the after hoursevent before, where I nearly
lost my voice, but we had thereal after hours event, because

(31:41):
next to the baseball stadium isa little dive bar called Betty's
.
They're kind of rude, they'renot super friendly, but the
beers are cheap, the atmosphereis crusty and there's carpet and
it is freaking awesome.
So those of us who wanted tokeep on hanging I didn't want to
be out too late.
My wife had joined us too andwe talked.

(32:01):
We're like, okay, I promisewe're not going to be out too
late Cause I got to get up inthe morning and we've got the
event still.
But we walked over there and agroup of us had an after hours
hang at Betty's and it was somuch fun.
It was just absolutely awesome.
And the really cool thing I dowant to say, because a lot of
members were there and I madesure everyone knew, and this is
something that I've learned withhosting this event for event

(32:23):
you know if you're going to doan event, I would say if you're
going to be doing after hoursactivities or anything in bars,
I made it really clear there iszero pressure to drink.
If somebody is is sober orrecovering or doesn't want to be
in in that that is absolutelyfine, no offense whatsoever,
totally understand.
And I wanted to make sureeveryone knew.

(32:44):
Even if you come with us, wecause we had a ton of members
hang out till late nights withus who didn't drink at all.
There was no pressure.
So I made that clear from theget-go and I'm really glad I did
, because we were able to haveso much fun with people, whether
they were drinking or not.
And what was really cool aboutWeb Designer Pro members is no
one got wild.
Like it was a perfect amount ofgood fun, hangs loosening up a

(33:06):
little bit.
But no, there was no, you know,nobody got too wild or anything
.
So just wanted to make surethose of you who are pro members
who thought like oh my God,where's Josh?
What is this janky ass bar thatwe're walking into?
It's pouring rain, calledBetty's?
Um, just know, it was all good,it nothing.
Nothing gets too wild.
So it was so great that was thefirst night and again about

(33:29):
blew out my voice again, uh,before the actual day of in the
event.
So that's kind of how we didthat.
I'll share a little bit aboutthe event here and a few other
things and then we will talkexpenses to wrap this up.
Uh, anything else I want tocover on that one?
I don't think so, but all tosay, it was raining and it was
pretty.
Some of the weather was prettymiserable, but by golly it was
sunshine around our groupbecause we had just so much fun

(33:51):
together.
So the day of um gosh, the dayof the workshop, was so freaking
good.
The event was incredible.
The AC hotel was awesome,although one.
There's a couple of things todo with the event that I want to
talk about.
That were unexpected thingswhich I learned happens with
events.
One was and this all happenedpretty quickly One I had hired a

(34:16):
photographer, slashvideographer, and two weeks out
we were about to meet in person.
He's a local guy, a friend ofmine, and we were going to meet
the next day to go over all thespecifics and he texted me and
said hey, josh, I'm not gonna begoing to meet the next day to
go over all the specifics and hetexted me and said hey, josh,
I'm not gonna be able to meettomorrow.
I just found out today that Ihave cancer.
He got a cancer diagnosis and Iwas like, oh my gosh, like dude

(34:38):
.
I was like, don't worry, like Islept on it, cause he was like
we can meet next week.
I'm totally planning on doingit and everything.
It looks like it's somethingthat's going to be able to be
removed with surgery, andwaiting to hear back on that the
next day, I was like, dude,don't worry about it.
I had already.
I had talked to a coupledifferent videographers and I
checked with the other one thatI talked to and I just said like

(34:59):
, hey, is there any chance youguys would still be available to
do the event?
I said, my, my, my otherphotographer that I'd signed on
with may not be able to do it.
So I just had a plan B.
I would recommend having a planB on all, like every event
thing.
You can have a plan B, whetherit's a social, whether it's a
venue.
Well, a venue is kind ofscrewed for a plan B, but

(35:19):
videographer, all that stuff,speakers.
So luckily they were saying,yes, we could still do it.
We've got a guy who could do it.
So I told the firstvideographer I was like dude,
don't worry about it.
I had already paid him almosttwo grand.
But I was like listen, I waslike let's.
I was like you, get throughthis, I don't want our event to
be anything on you.
And I didn't know when he wouldneed to have surgery, like what
if it was?
You know before what thatlooked like, with even just

(35:41):
turnaround time.
Like I was like dude, I don'twant you to have to edit while
you're in the hospital orsomething.
Like I said you just take careof you and let's use that
investment.
Let's roll it into some updatedheadshots and maybe some video
stuff that I'll do this year.
So, uh, he was totally coolwith that and luckily the other
videographers came through.
Amazing, they sent a guy out,ronnie, who was a total pro.

(36:02):
I'll be posting more and moreof the recap video and all the
stuff that he captured their dayof, including photos and videos
.
So that was the first curveball.
The second curveball was one ofour speakers, michelle
Bourbonier, founding member ofPro, my personal SEO guru.
She's been on the podcast manytimes.
Member of pro, my personal SEOguru.

(36:23):
She's been on the podcast manytimes.
She had a family emergency andshe had a close family member
who was in the hospital and wasgoing to be in the hospital for
a while and needed her attention.
And it was under two weeks out,uh, right, about that same time
.
So part of me was like oh God,what's happening?
What's happening Two weeks offin the event?
I'm getting these like curveballs here, uh.
But again, it's just somethingI've learned when you're doing
an event.
So I told her I was likeabsolutely, absolutely, no

(36:45):
worries at all.
Worst case, we just will haveone last speaker and we'll have
more time for networking or Q&Aor extended lunch or something.
So I said, don't worry at all,you take care of you.
Michelle, in our thoughts, inour prayers, we missed you
terribly, but we're alreadyexcited for next year and
Michelle will definitely have aspeaking spot for next year.
Fingers crossed that all thehealth stuff is good for all

(37:05):
family members.
So I wanted to have her takecare of her during that little
couple of weeks there.
So it was no problem.
I was just going to leave itopen.
But one of our pro members, sam,who is an absolute rock star
he's actually a partner in WebDesigner Pro because he has his
own local SEO Academy.
He's one of our shining goldstar members of pro.
He said hey, man, I heard aboutMichelle.

(37:27):
He's like I would be happy toshare a little bit about what
I've done recently with buildingmy MRR with local SEO.
And I was like dude, heck, yes,heck, yes, because Sam is a
rockstar member who grew hisbusiness to six figures in the
first year and is now on track,as we learned on that
presentation.
He's got his sights set onthink 400 K this year.

(37:48):
So, yeah, I was like yeah,we're going to talk revenue
boost.
Uh, let's learn from you, sam.
So apps are freaking lutely.
He stepped in and created apresentation within a week and
his presentation was absolutelyamazing, as were they all.
So a couple of curve balls there.
The last curve ball thathappened was day of when I was
literally walking into the hotelFirst thing in the morning.

(38:11):
I walk in and I meet my contactthere and she's like hey, are
you Josh?
I was like I am and she's likeI'm so sorry to let you know
this, but the bathrooms aren'tworking upstairs on the top
floor.
And I was like oh darn, likethat's unfortunate, not the end
of the world, but what it meantwas that members were just going
to have to use the elevator andgo down to the lobby and then

(38:33):
come back up.
So just a bit of a process.
Um, again another curve ball toexpect with events.
So I was like, okay, uh, noproblem, and she's like, we're
working on it, it should befixed this morning and luckily,
after our first intermission, Idid let everyone know hey, the
bathrooms aren't working.
Yes, tons of puns were goingaround because shit happens, and

(38:54):
luckily they got it fixed, Ithink in the first hour.
So we were good there.
But just another curve ballthat I guess I just learned.
Like next event, I'm going toexpect plenty of curves, curve
balls, and I feel like I handledall those things well and so
many people came through.
But, uh, yeah, luckily that wasjust one of the day of things.
I was like, man, that wouldreally be nice to have bathrooms
right there, because the toplevel of the uh event was like a

(39:17):
big bar area with a rooftop baron one side and then there's a
hallway that leads to theconference rooms.
There's a couple of differentsize conference rooms, so it
worked out fine, though itworked out totally fine.
Then what really worked outfine was our presentations.
Holy cow, the revenue boostworkshop was absolutely
incredible.
Again, the replays will beavailable inside of Web Designer

(39:40):
Pro.
So as long as you join at thecommunity level, you will.
The replays will be availableinside of Web Designer Pro.
So, as long as you join at thecommunity level, you will see
the replays and thepresentations from WDPCon 2025,
all framed around this idea of arevenue boost.
We started off with my friend,jay Klaus, who is the founder of
Creator Science.
Please do yourself a favor andgo listen to his podcast.
I'm a part of his membership,so, because we have a pretty

(40:07):
tight connection, I asked if hewould be interested in coming in
and specifically talking aboutemail and how to market with
email and with a newslettertoday.
So he kicked us off.
It was incredible lively Q&Asession.
And then the second presenterwas Sam.
Sam stepped in and talked abouthow he has built up his MRR,
which is monthly recurringrevenue, primarily with local
SEO, and Sam absolutely killedit.

(40:28):
And who knew Sam is such a goodin-person speaker Didn't know
that he was in Toastmasters fora few years either, but that
really pays off.
So get yourself in Toastmastersif you're going to be
presenting in groups.
I just think it's good anyway.
But Sam absolutely killed it.
And then we had Jeb from 17 Hatswho, again they were our gold

(40:49):
sponsor.
Jeb actually gave us a littlebit of a walkthrough of how to
increase your lead pipeline andhow to streamline some things
using 17 Hats.
Everything that members learnedlive there could also be done
in Moxie or other platforms aswell.
But it was interesting becausepeople were like, oh, I didn't
know 17 hats could do that.
I didn't think they could dothat.
I thought it was just forphotographers.

(41:10):
No, 17 hats is incredible.
I've been using it for a decadeand, um, they've been key for
me, so it was really cool.
I actually learned a lot more,too, about I'm like shoot, I am
vastly under utilizing 17 hatswith the amount it can do, so
that was really cool, did a Qand a session and then we had
lunch.
We had a killer barbecue lunchtogether and then the afternoon

(41:31):
happened.
We started off with ShannonMattern, who talked about
pricing and blew some freakingminds about how to anchor your
pricing and how to offer certainthings in different scopes for
different packages.
It was incredible.
That could have led to atwo-hour Q&A session, but I had
to cut everyone off and say wegot to move forward.

(41:52):
The next presentation was myfriend, jason Gracia, who has
made over $2 million buildingwebsites and if you're wondering
how has he done that, a lot ofit is through his sales call and
, more specifically, his clothes.
He has a proven clothes salescall script with PDFs that we
walked through together and whatwe actually did on this is

(42:14):
Jason came up with this idea.
Especially, it worked out soperfect for the afternoon,
because you get to that twoo'clock hour.
We've been going since 10 AMand inevitably you get a little
antsy.
And what was really cool aboutthat is I was actually a mock-up
lead, a mock-up client for him,and it wasn't Josh, it was Jim

(42:35):
shorts, and Jim shorts, asmembers found, has a big old
black mustache.
Yes, we got up there, we saidwe're going to do a mock-up
sales call and I had a mustachein my pocket and put that bad
boy on, got a pretty good laughand we were off and running with
some serious fun learning abouthow Jason's web design agency

(42:58):
could serve Jim in his personaltraining business.
So it was incredible.
More takeaways, more mindblowing this.
I mean to learn from somebodylike Jason who has literally
made $2 million in five or sixyears building websites.
How many people can like?
How many people get to learnfrom somebody like that in
person?
It was incredible.
Huge thanks to all the speakers.
It was absolutely incredible.

(43:19):
And, a side note, when thatmustache came in on Amazon, my
wife opened it up and she waslike, hey, um, what the hell is
this?
I was like hold on, let meexplain.
It's not for later, it's forthe event.
So good times.
And then we wrapped up the event.
It's funny Cause I thoughtabout doing a presentation.
I was like you know what?

(43:39):
We're going to have four meatypresentations.
I was like there's no need forme to dump a bunch of other info
later in the day.
I was like why don't I just doa live Q&A session?
And I'm so glad I did, becausewe went through every
presentation topic and did alive coaching session and gosh,
did I have fun with that?
It was so much fun.

(44:00):
Really really good.
I think it was a great way toend off the event and that was
it.
And then we had some time tohang out and then we did our
group dinner at the Italianrestaurant.
And then last thing I'll saybefore I talk about expenses, to
wrap this up, there was a barabove the Italian restaurant.
One reason I wanted to take usthere is because it's pretty big
and they have a huge outdoorpatio and it's kind of on the

(44:23):
edge of the nightlife scene, soit's not too crazy at all.
It's like right in front of thearena where the blue jackets
play.
And uh, we went up there and Ididn't know that they were about
to bring in karaoke and almostthought about leaving because I
wasn't sure what the scene wasgoing to be like.
But we had a couple of memberssay no, let's stay, let's hang
out, let's see what the karaokeis all about.
I also didn't know that we havetwo members of Web Designer Pro

(44:52):
who are bona fide king andqueen of karaoke.
Huge shout out to our ownVictoria Berry.
And he was a presenter.
He filled in last moment.
He was a hell of a live speakerand he turned about to be a
hell of a live karaoke.
Or Sam Sarston who, my gosh,victoria, comes in there,
beautiful voice, owned the room,does karaoke all the time.
Absolutely crushed it.

(45:12):
Sam goes up there, little whiteguy from Oregon.
I'm thinking he's going to dolike journey or a country song
and he busts out Look at me now.
Is it?
Is that Chris Brown?
I don't know too well, but it'slike the super fast buster
rhymes rap part and absolutelykills it, crushes it.
The whole place is like rolling, I mean.

(45:35):
And I mean like, like peoplejumping up, I mean Sam, like
owned it.
It was so, so, so good.
So next year, don't worryeverybody, I will make sure that
we do that again, becausekaraoke was way too much fun.
It really kicked off the lastnight of WDP after hours

(45:55):
activities.
We got to hang out there for awhile and, man, it was an
absolute blast.
It was just so good.
The rain held off a little bitlater on, so we were hanging
outside.
I'll post a picture on mysocial media it should be live
by the time you see this, but ofsome of those activities and
seeing the skyline behind us.
It was just great.
It was awesome, awesome.
And then a special shout out toDan, jeb and Robbie and my wife.
We were the ones who stayed outtill 1am on Saturday night

(46:20):
after all the fun.
I'm already losing my voicehere.
I should have brought a waterwith me, but we hung out late.
We were the late night crew andwhat do you do once it gets to
about 12, 30 or 1?
You go get something to eat.
And we had a little specialfive of us Uber trip down to
Buckeye Donuts in Columbus.
I was really hoping they weregoing to have breakfast

(46:40):
sandwiches, but they do havedonuts 24 seven.
But what they also have are theeuros.
So if you find yourself inColumbus, go to Buckeye Donuts
for any of the food.
The euros are delicious, as wefound out.
The donuts are second to none.
So so much fun doing that.
And then my wife and I actuallystayed downtown at the AC hotel
that night because we knew wewere going to have a late night

(47:01):
and we were able to getchildcare overnight.
So she stayed with me.
It was so much fun.
And then we woke up and then wefound out a few members were
still in town.
So we had a little brunch witha few members, including my
amazing VA gen and a really,really great group of folks.
So that's how we ended off theweekend and had some incredible
conversations, so many members,my gosh throughout the entire

(47:25):
weekend, through all those hangsand that entire experience so
many good conversations, thatI'm still thinking back through
and going like, oh, I forgotabout that, I forgot about that.
Tears People were literallycrying about and getting
emotional about what thiscommunity has meant to them.
And then I think being inperson just elevates everything.
It elevates your focus, itelevates your emotion and I
think, because of all thosereasons, there was just such a

(47:46):
deep connection that was formedand it was incredible.
So that is a recap of WebDesigner Pro Con 2025.
And for all those reasons andmore, I'm so excited about 2026.
Let me just share a quickbreakdown of the expenses for
those curious about events, andI'll just be completely frank
about this.
Now, I knew, as I was thinkingabout the expenses, I figured we

(48:11):
were going to be doingsomething that's going to be at
least a $10,000 event, all saidand done, just with the event
space and then catering anddinners, if not way more.
So I wanted to make sure, firstoff and I honestly felt pretty
comfortable that we'll be ableto get some sponsorships.
I get reached out to by a lotof companies now.
I've got connections with a lotof the tools that I use and I

(48:33):
was like I'm pretty sure wecould get at least $10,000 to
$20,000 of sponsorships.
So that's exactly what we didand before I share expenses, I
will share with you that we had,thanks to 17 Hats, siteground
and Termageddon, we had $16,000of sponsorship revenue come in
to be able to bring this eventto life for all of our members.

(48:57):
So 17 Hats was our gold, andthen site ground our silver
sponsor, and then term again wasour bronze sponsor and all of a
sudden done, it was $16,000worth of sponsorships, which
allowed us to keep ticket pricesvery low, which is why
originally my originally we weregoing to do tickets for two 50.
And then, uh, what I did was Iset up 25 for early bird pricing

(49:22):
at one 50 and we sold 24tickets to pro members.
And I think like seven days andI was like Holy cow, I was not
expecting that.
So, uh, I just kept the ticketsthere.
I once I found out that we hadsome sponsors sign on, I was
like let's just keep the ticketsat that price for for this year
and just make sure it's a nobrainer for as many people to

(49:43):
come again under our 40, 40person headcount.
So that's what we did.
It was incredible.
So, um, we had $16,000 worth ofuh sponsorship money and then
we had over $4,000 worth ofticket sales at the one $50
range.
I think we had 32 or 33official ticket sales.

(50:04):
And then we had a handful offolks, uh who were we had to
keep at a 40 head count total,including sponsor people and uh
colleagues and, like, uh, thefolks who were presenting um,
the ticket was on on me for them, so uh, so there were a handful
of others that got us close tothe 40 count, but yeah, so we

(50:24):
had over $20,000 worth ofrevenue to be able to work with.
So, now I'm sure you're curious.
However long we've been going,you're probably like God dang it
, josh, tell me about how muchthis costs.
Here's how much it costs.
The event space at the AC Hotelwas $1,225 to rent out for the
day.
Now that was just the eventspace.
That wasn't including thecatering and everything else,

(50:46):
which is most of the expense.
The catering and all themiscellaneous stuff.
Day of was nearly $3,500.
It was $3,456.
So for the event space,catering and everything else,
we're looking at $4,600.
The line items on that, ifyou're curious, the

(51:07):
miscellaneous stuff was we did apretty premium lunch and we
made sure we had coffeeavailable in the morning.
We had Pepsi products, we hadsnacks and a few other things.
We had a whole little snack barthere and waters and everything
.
There's quite a bit.
There was over two grand.
Uh, we did usually with eventspaces.

(51:28):
What I'm learning is that allthe little things add up, which
again is why I'm so thankful wehad sponsorship revenue because,
like, we got five power strips,because we realized people are
going to have their laptops.
Austin actually had thisquestion.
He's like what are people goingto be able to plug those in?
And I was like, shoot, I didn'teven think about that.
Austin did a lot of stuff thatI didn't think about, including
like having name badges at thebaseball game, like my name is.

(51:52):
So I was like, oh genius,didn't think about that either.
But yeah, we did five of those20 bucks a piece.
Um, the tables, the sponsortables I wasn't sure of all the
sponsors were going to have acloth, so we did two black linen
cloths that were 15 bucks apiece because site grounds sent
swag but they weren't actuallythere.
Term again, they in 17 hatswere there.
Um, but because of that I wantto.

(52:14):
I wanted to make sure we hadtable cloths.
It looked decent.
So that was 130 altogetherbetween those.
Um, we did pay for the podium,which was a hundred bucks, and
then there's a service charge of620 and then tax, which was 250
.
So yeah, it was almost 3,500for catering and miscellaneous
stuff for the event.

(52:34):
The slugger suite for theClippers game was a thousand
dollars to rent out for theevening and then there that was
up to 24 people, so we did haveto purchase additional tickets.
So we purchased $300 and 15worth of additional tickets.
Now I'm not mad about this, butone thing I'm going to just be
extra harping on next year is,like, I need to know for sure if

(52:56):
you're going to be at the gameor not, because we bought all
these extra tickets based off ofthe head count and we did, I
think, have five or six peoplenot go to the game, which, again
, it's fine.
But and I know, with an eventthat, um, you're going to have
some overhead costs.
That's just, with a big groupof people, it's just going to
happen.
You're going to have a littlebit of waste as far as cost goes

(53:17):
.
So, um, I did send multiplereminders leading up to that.
Like, let me know if you're notcoming to the game, but I'm
just going to expect a fewpeople are not going to come for
for whatever reason, and someof it could be travel issues or
day of problems.
So, um, yeah, it just is goingto be what it is.
So, a little bit of wastedmoney on ticket overhead, but
that's all right.

(53:37):
We also, instead of doing adinner like a catered dinner and
that, we did, um, just cashClippers, cash that was $975
worth of.
So every member essentially got25 bucks for food, beverage,
whatever.
So, um, that was an expensethere, and then the day of, I
did provide water bottles foreverybody and we ran out of

(53:57):
those fast.
So we had a person therehelping us and I was like, can
we get another order of that?
So between the Clippers game,between the suite and all of the
tickets, extra tickets, cashand beverage, that was just over
$2,500 altogether.
The ASL services as I mentioned,we had ASL services, american

(54:18):
Sign Language.
That was $1,190.
Had ASL services, american SignLanguage.
That was $1,190.
What was interesting is theysaid in order for a full day,
you need to have two ASLinterpreters and I was at first
like, why do you need two?
Couldn't you just have oneperson do that for a whole event
?
Well, let me tell you afterseeing them in person everyone
at the event will tell you thisI can't believe they only needed

(54:43):
two people.
It was remarkable watching themwork.
So I was happy to pay that andagain, we had sponsorship money,
so it was covered and, becauseof the reasons I mentioned
earlier, having Harold therethere just meant so much to him
and so much to us as a communityto have that accessibility
option.
So I will absolutely factorthat into the budget for every
event moving forward.
It was awesome and they weregreat.

(55:06):
They were really, really goodpeople.
It was incredible watching them.
The biggest expenses are dinner,typically, or food.
So the group dinner that we hadat the restaurant was $2,963,
not too shabby for 40 people.
That included everything.
That included all their dinner,desserts and drinks.
So not too shabby.
Um, I did pay an additional$2,000 for the new videoographer

(55:30):
and photographer, so it wasjust under that for the first
one who, uh, is dealing with hiscancer stuff.
So again I was like no problem.
Once I found out we hadsponsorship, I was like we can
invest in somebody who'sdefinitely going to be able to
do this and not have to worryabout the personal stuff.
So luckily they came throughfor us and Ronnie, the
photographer, did an incrediblejob, really captured the spirit

(55:51):
and just did an awesome jobthere.
So that was $2,000.
And so we're at all thosethings venue catering, social
photography.
That's over $13,000.
That's most of the expenses.
And then there was a bunch ofsmall stuff.
We got lanyards for everybody,which were 191 to order.

(56:12):
We got tote bags for everybodyfor all the swag that was there.
That was 210.
Have to get pins.
You can't do an event withoutpins.
That makes it an official event.
Pins were 145 that werecustomized with WDP con logos.
I spent about 50 bucks inadditional like miscellaneous
cords and hookups to my computerto run the slides because they

(56:33):
were like it takes an HDMIconnection and I was like, cool.
And then, as with all events,it's like a wedding.
You're leading up to it andyou're like, oh my God, I got to
think about this and this andthis and this and this.
Then I was thinking, wait aminute, is it the male end of an
HCMI cord or a female end ofthe HCMI cord?
God, no.
So I just got both, got bothhookups and a few other things,

(56:53):
and I got a pointer.
I got a laser pointer for theslides.
So about 50 bucks ofmiscellaneous gear.
And then I'm going to put mywife and I stay in there as well
, which was a few hundred bucksbecause it was a business
expense.
It was a business travelexpense.
So, all told, everything we justcovered tallied up to $14,000

(57:14):
and $381 in some sense.
So uh, but again we had over20,000 in revenue, top line
revenue.
So we were able to profit over$5,000, which was great and I
spent a lot of time on this.
So I knew I just wanted tobreak even and I knew that I

(57:35):
just didn't want to lose money.
So luckily, with Web DesignerPro being so stable and having
some other really good revenuestreams going on right now, I
was able to basically have acostly couple months leading up
to this event, knowing becauseit's interesting miscellaneous
communication and then all thethe curve balls that were headed
there and then, like the ASL uhcompany was like we should have

(58:06):
two people, you'll get notifieda couple of days before, but
you should be fine.
I was like Whoa, we're not.
It's not like confirmed, Isigned a contract.
I need to know for sure.
Um, there's a lot of back andforth on stuff like that, the
sponsorship stuff.
There's a lot of my time thatwent involved in the
sponsorships because it wasn'tjust slapping a label on the
event the sponsorships what Iincluded were newsletter

(58:28):
placements and I'm doing somevideos for both 17 hats and site
ground on my YouTube channelthat were a part of that package
.
Jeb from 17 hats actually spokelive at the event and did a
live training for my communityweb designer pro about lead
generation and managing yourleads, which we've already done.
So those were all things thatwere wrapped up in the

(58:49):
sponsorship and I made sure thatI'd been promoting the heck out
of them on the podcast, hereand on social media, making sure
it's really clear we're able todo this incredible event
because of our sponsors.
So thank you again, guys.
17 hats, what a dream team towork with SiteGround.
What a great group of people.
And term again, hans and Donatawere there and they were an

(59:12):
absolute blast.
Many of you know Hans has beenon the podcast.
Hans got his start in sales bycreating what's called the shop
bong, which is a collegedrinking thing that he learned
to sell actually a genius way tolearn how to sale, to sell.
And, uh, he may or may not, butdefinitely brought a makeshift
version and a couple of us didit and it was awesome and Hans

(59:34):
was ah, it was so good to haveHans in and out of there.
Ah, just an incredible weekend.
So, whew, all right, there wego.
That was no breaks, by the way,we just went for this.
I got to get a drink of water.
I really hope you enjoyed thisone.
Friends.
Again, this was kind of a half arecap of the event and then a
little bit look at the, thebehind the scenes on some of

(59:54):
that stuff, trying to think ifthere's anything else I want to
mention, I'm sure there will be.
I'm sure after this I'll belike, ah, dang it.
I meant to mention that, butlet me just tell you we will
have some recap on this andwe'll have continued posts on my
social media and on thewebsites and stuff.
So we will have an officialrecap video that is going to be
available.
I will make sure that isincluded at the link for this

(01:00:17):
one, which you can find atjoshhallco slash 381.
That will be where the shownotes are.
If you have feedback on this orquestions, or if you were there
and want to leave a publiccomment, do so on joshhallco
slash eight or three, eight, one.
Um again, I'm currently at thetime of recording this, waiting
on the replays of thepresentations, but as soon as I

(01:00:38):
get those, those will beuploaded up to Web Designer Pro.
So all the replays will bethere.
All you need to do is be acommunity member to get those to
go to webdesignerprocom to jumpin.
I will be sharing a ton more.
I've got official testimonialsfrom the event that I will be
sharing on my YouTube channeland on social media, so go
connect with me.

(01:00:58):
Joshuco, slash Facebook orslash Instagram or slash YouTube
or all three to continue tokeep track on this, because I'm
going to be sharing tons moreabout the event.
And what a time.
Thank you to so many people.
Thank you to the event place.
Thank you to our sponsors, 17Hats, siteground and Termageddon

(01:01:18):
.
Thank you to Austin for beingan incredible right-hand man.
Thank you for all the speakersfor their time and their serious
effort in putting theirpresentations together Jay Klaus
, sam Sarsden, shannon Maddern,jason Gracia, uh, thanks to Jeff
from 17 hats for hanging withus and being a total pro and
dealing with a bunch of wild webdesigners.

(01:01:39):
Thank you to all the memberswho came out and made it what it
is.
It would not have been what itwas without such a great group
of people.
So we're going to roll it back,baby and, as Aaron said at the
very end of those testimonials,you're going to be busting
elbows to make sure she gets aticket for the next round.
So I will be releasing detailsand plans for 2026 as soon as we

(01:02:02):
can Probably fall.
This year is when we'll releaseearly tickets.
So if you're a Web Designer Promember, this is only for Web
Designer Pro members, so you'vegot to make sure you're in Pro
and you will be notified whentickets go on sale.
I'm trying to think if there'sanything else.
Otherwise, I'd love to hearfrom you.
Joshhallco slash 380.
Thank you for your time.
If you hung with me to the endon this one, I hope you enjoyed

(01:02:24):
this recap and I would love tohear your thoughts and, uh, what
was on our pro members.
I hope you're ready, cause nextyear we're going to roll it
back and we're going to see ifwe can top year one, and it's
going to be a tough one to top.
I have no, no doubt it will be,if not better, just as good how
about that?
But I think it'll be evenbetter.
So I got ideas.

(01:02:44):
I got ideas.
All right, guys, see ya.