We're in a trust recession. 

Anything in real life and in person (networking events, meetups, workshops, etc) have become a web designer's edge.

In this special solo episode, I share how important this is in 2026 with getting clients and building relationships that last for years, especially in the age of AI, social influencers, and scattered online overwhelm.

Links mentioned:

• See the latest posts from our PRO CON 2026 this past weekend on my Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook
• Sign up for my free newsletter
• Join my community Web Designer Pro®

Over the last several months, I’ve seen more and more chatter in my community Web Designer Pro about WP Umbrella – a new platform making quite the dent in the WordPress site manager space.

Personally, I wondered how there was even room for a new tool for managing WordPress sites (updates, optimizations, backups, reporting, etc) when it’s already a crowded market with tools like Manage WP, Main WP, Infinite WP, and many hosts that offer automatic backups, updates, reporting, etc.

But it just goes to show…when you have a new, fresh, innovative tool that’s customer-focused and is designed with best, modern UX practices, it can absolutely start to make waves in the market.

That’s been the story of WP Umbrella so far and in this exclusive interview, I got to sit down with their CEO and co-founder Aurelio Volle.

We covered a lot in our time together, including:

• The opportunity that he saw which led him to start a WordPress website management tool in an already competitive landscape
• How they made it past the first phase of growth where most SASS companies die
• Why UX design and customer focus are more important than EVER before
• Auerlio’s personal philosophy for vision and goal setting
• How to run a successful online business of any size in today’s market

And a whole lot more.

It’s not every day you get to sit down with the CEO of a major SASS product in the WordPress space so it was so cool to see and hear how thinks about vision, goals, customer service and product-market fit in today’s competitive web design space!

P.S. Big thanks to WP Umbrella for being a sponsor of our upcoming Web Designer PRO CON 2026 event! I took notice when members of my community started talking about the tool and their experience with the team/support behind Umbrella and I can tell you, they are the real deal! Great team and a SOLID product that I’m excited to keep a close eye on moving forward.

Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned, along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/425

🔗 View the newsletter with all links

Sponsored by:

SiteGround's new AI Studio

Other links mentioned:

Mark Syzmanski's free AI Crash Course video

AI SEO for Web Designers - ep 401 with Michelle Bourbonniere

Morning routines, air-tight calendar blocks, calls at 5pm, hustle and grind culture…all very doable. Unless you have kids..

That is, if you want to be a fully present parent > a hustling entrepreneur.

We’re getting into that in this conversation with my good friend Kady Sandel who’s been on the podcast before and even did a training inside my Web Designer Pro community talking about niching, pricing and agency building, but in this chat, we’re diving into what’s going on via the other side of the keyboard…the family side.

With two young children of her own, and with three under 7 on my side, the way we run our businesses looks different than it did even a few years ago.

Our challenge? Being fully present parents while also balancing being a driven entrepreneur. And good news, we’ve both found a sweet spot in work-life balance.

We’re sharing what’s working for us and what DOESN’T work for us, which led me to the topic of this chat…who the heck do parent-entrepreneurs follow?

Like, seriously?

I want to know where the entrepreneur thought-leaders/influencers are who have at least three children and, in my case, ones who are specifically parents of special needs as well.

If you know if any, drop them in the comment section below.

Otherwise, I’ll continue turning a blind eye to hustle culture, morning routines and things that absolutely don’t work in our season of life and enjoying working 20-30hrs per week and not missing these years with young kids.

Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned, along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/424

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Thanks to our sponsor WP Umbrella

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This is a first – and a very special guest for the podcast because it’s an interview with one of my best web design clients!

Gary Sigrist, founder and CEO of Safeguard Risk Solutions hired me back in 2012 to do branding, graphic and web design for his new company. What he didn’t know at that time was that I was very green and new to the industry.

Fast forward to 2026, his company is STILL a client of my agency In Transit Studios and he remains one of our best clients to date.

We did into:

• What business owners are looking for in a creative/design/marketing partner
• How good communication and responsiveness made them feel like my only clients and build immediate trust
• What his thoughts were when I told him I was selling the agency and brining in a new CEO
• What my agency continues to do to keep his trust and business going after 14 years
• His reaction to when I let him know my hourly rate was doubling
• And much more

It was so great to reconnect with Gary and to take a little trip down memory lane but more importantly, it was awesome to hear so many of these great lessons in business from HIS perspective as a client.

Hope it helps you in your web design business as well so you can find your next “Gary, A client!”

Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned, along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/423

If you want inside access to ALL my top leads and conversion strategies, now through the end of March, you can get 50% OFF your first month in the Web Designer Pro Courses Tier, which will give you access to my business course + my entire suite of courses!

Click here to get your first month for only $25 →

- Coupon code is automatic
- Offer valid until March 31st at 11:59pm EST
- After 30 days, the courses tier is $49/mo
- No pressure, cancel anytime

View this episode's newsletter entry along with the last 3 months of newsletters here:

https://joshhall.co/web-design-business-newsletter-archive/

Imagine getting handed a project of sifting, sorting and organizing over 10,000 emails 😮

As a web design business owner, that probably sounds like a nightmare. But there are people in the world who actually enjoy this type of work. And for creatives, they are a DREAM to partner up with and hire.

This is the story of how Jess Lindgren began working with online-entrepreneur legend Pat Flynn.

He was drowning in over 10,000 emails, and needed, not only ongoing virtual assistance support, but someone to organize and address his backlog of inbound email and communication.

After Jess knocked that project out of the park (we dig in to exactly how she did that), she immediately became Pat’s full-time virtual assistant.

Over the years, she’s become a full-blown executive assistant to Pat Flynn; handling all his inbound communication, call scheduling, travel, organization strategy, event assisting him in person at live events for both SPI and his fast-growing passion project Deep Pocket Monster.

In this interview, we get to hear from her side as an organization-loving and biz-supporting virtual/executive assistant.

We dig into:

• The difference between a VA and an EA
• How to find and hire a virtual assistant
• What tasks to hire out first
• How to retain your assistant ongoing
• How to give up control and empower a VA to free your time and mental bandwidth as a creative or owner

And oh so much more.

Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned, along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/422

Links mentioned:

• See the visual/written version of this
• Subscribe to The Web Design Business Newsletter
• Get your free ticket to the Simply Profitable Designer Summit (March 16-20)
• See my "perfect fit" section design live here

This episode (& newsletter) is presented by 17hats

A special interview here for a few reasons:

1. This one is in-person so it has a completely different feel, dynamic and I have to admit, I LOVED it. Definitely inspiring me to do more in-person interviews with local colleagues.
2. My guest (Web Designer Pro member Andy Milligan) just took his agency to 200k+ in revenue in 2025 from 30k in 2024. So massive growth, however, it came at a cost. We dig into the stressful side of quick success. 
3. Andy asked awesome questions and we got into some topics I’ve never discussed publicly. Hats off to him for becoming such a great, thoughtful interviewer and host!

Lastly, I should note that I was coming off of a wicked sickness when we recorded so I was not even close 100% but alas, with 3 littles under 7 at home, it’s the usual story during winter 🙂

Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned, along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/421

For all links mentioned, head to my new Divi 5 blog post here