4: Remaining A Student of the Game

Keegan 0:32
What’s going on everybody? Welcome to episode number four of the Side Hustle to Full Time Web Designer podcast. In this episode, we’re talking about remaining a student of the game. And there’s so many people who lose touch with the streets with the dirt with the practicality of their business. And it’s really important to stay true to the game to stay focused and to continue to practice. And so we’re going to talk today about a few ways that you can do that and a few examples and so people who can really help you if you’re in the web design space.

Keegan 1:08
So first and foremost, you got to find community, right? If you’re running this this thing alone, it’s gonna be a tough, lonely journey. So you’ve got to find community beauty is that traditionally I’ve built all of my sites and built my business around the Divi theme. And the Divi theme as far as WordPress goes, has got the absolute best community. There’s some amazing people out there Gino Ketose, David Blackman and Tim Strifeler, the entire Divi web designer group, Josh Hall, and the list is growing. I’m in a mastermind group that is loaded with amazing people. You know, Christian, Michelle, Richard, and the list continues to go on. But first, you know, you really got to find that community and you’ve got to fit into that community.

Keegan 1:57
The other piece is to really track down and do your research on industry leaders and try to connect with them. I did that early on, you know, with guys like Tim and David and Gino. Those are the big names in the Divi space. And I went out and bought their products. I did the tutorials for Gino, I took the courses that David and Tim were building. I learned from them and modeled my business around some of their best practices. And it’s paid dividends because it’s, I consider those guys friends. And definitely mentors. They have taught me so much and helped me save so much time. And so that’s really you know, the next piece in here after you found your community and you’ve really tracked down the leaders in that space is to invest in courses. You want to continually invest in your education. That’s going to help you learn what’s new learn best practices, and you know some of the courses that have helped me really become what I consider to be a Divi expert is the Divi business experts course from David Blackman and Tim Strifeler you can find that at WP gears and we’ll link that in the show notes.

Keegan 3:06
The Josh Hall web design business course and other ones, you can find that at Josh Hall, co phenomenal, phenomenal course, very practical very step by step. And currently I’m actually going through Wes McDowell’s profitable website launch pad. And it is unbelievable. I mean, this was taken me hand you know, hand in hand through this process, and it’s really, really an incredible course. And it’s just another notch in the belt, another little bit of knowledge. And it’s going to continue to make me even stronger as a business and as an entrepreneur. And then the next part is once you once you know the people in your in your space, is to go out a level, you know, you’ve got your little inner circle is to scale out that inner circle and find leaders in an adjacent industry.

Keegan 3:55
I mentioned a second ago, the profitable website Launchpad, Wes McDowell is is a marketing guy. He’s a he’s in the conversion design and he is all about digital marketing. But he’s not what I would consider a website designer. He doesn’t do that for a living he did in the past. But he’s currently in an adjacent industry that that works that complements what we do. And his you can find all of the details at West McDowell comm again, all these links will be in the show notes. But that’s one person that is focusing on marketing and conversion design. You know, someone else who’s heavily involved in web design space is Michelle Bourbonierre. I think that’s how you say Michelle’s last name. Michelle is an absolute animal when it comes to SEO. Michelle knows exactly what she’s talking about with SEO and she is extremely good and she knows Devi, which makes it even easier. No and she’s the perfect person to be in this group. And there’s many resources in many places. You can find Michelle but Edited by Michelle.com, will link it up below as well go and find her and tell her that we sent you. And she will do amazing things in your business.

Keegan 5:10
You know, and above all else, we always talked today about the finding community tracking down and doing your research on the industry leaders talking about investing in courses. So your knowledge continues, and finding leaders in those complimentary or adjacent industries. But above all else, you’ve just got to keep working, you’ve got to stay in tuned to the to the work to the platforms, they’re constantly changing and technical change constantly. That’s just one thing, that’s for sure, is that it’s going to grow, it’s going to change and it’s going to evolve. So you’ve just got to keep working. And if you keep working, and you don’t give up, you’re going to come out stronger on the other end. You’re going to win and you’re going to be the person who is known as the expert in your industry, and you’re going to be ultimately the person that people go to when they need your service.

Keegan 5:55
If there’s one thing I do know is that you’ve got to constantly stay a student of the game. And that’s what this podcast is doing for me. Hopefully it’s going to do that for you is to keep that motivation going stay in the in the work, keep deep into the process. And we’ll continue to go down this road together. So thanks for sticking with me. Thanks for being here for another episode. We’ll come back at you next week with another episode of the side hustle to full time web designer podcast. Have an awesome week. Thanks for listening to the side hustle to full time web designer podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a five star review on Apple podcasts. Also visit Keegan linear comm to stay in touch