Josh checking in (on vacay this week)

Josh here checking in as this week, I'm at the beach with my wife and kiddos. We'll resume interviews next week, but in this one, I'm covering:

• a quick ProCon 2026 highlight tease and why IRL community hits different 
• why in-person networking is surging again and how it builds trust fast 
• the difference between networking groups and referral groups 
• building referral partners adjacent to web design services 
• ProCon 2026 workshop replays now live inside Web Designer Pro 
• headline strategy wins that turn into real client work 
• wealth building and retirement planning for business owners 
• why SEO fundamentals still work and how story-based content boosts results 
• moving from ManageWP to WP Umbrella and what prompted it 
• the rise of buying and selling web design businesses and what to watch for 
• next week’s interview on hiring and team building with Eric Dingler 
• the Web Designer Pro Mastermind and the six pillars: revenue, profit, team, time, offers, leadership 

Links mentioned:

Join Web Designer Pro®

My new SiteGround video

My Scale Your Way free masterclass

WP Umbrella (code JOSHHALLWPU for one month free)

Connect with me on Instagram or LinkedIn

Transcript

Vacation Week Check-In

Josh Hall 0:00

Hello, my friend. It's Josh here popping in with a check-in episode this week for the podcast. And that is because I, at the time of releasing this, am currently at the beach with my family. So not doing a typical interview this week that will resume next week. But I did want to check in with you here and share some thoughts and share some stuff about where things are at right now and what to expect, not only with the podcast here, but with Web Designer Pro and some other stuff that's going on in my ecosystem here over the next couple months. So some stuff to share with you here, and I promise you'll get plenty of value because I want to share some ideas about some things that I'm seeing working really well for web designers that I'm coaching right now inside of Web Designer Pro. So all that is ahead. Another reason for kicking out this check-in episode is my plan was to release a full like Web Designer Pro Con recap post and episode based off of our Pro Con event that we had six weeks ago now. Crazy. But I was uh the uh the highlight video and some of the test no testimonial videos were delayed in getting to me. So I did not have time to get that together this week. So that will be coming in mid-June at the very latest. I've already got it started. So those of you that were at ProCon 2026, I will have all the recap stuff up soon. And for those of you who are curious about it or wonder what a Web Designer Pro in-person event is like, you will soon get the full experience virtually because it will be up here soon. And I will, of course, let you know here on the podcast. But I do want to share with you real quick just the audio from the highlight video. I teased this on social media last week, but I want to share it with you here. This is just the audio. This is just an audio only episode, but I am going to share it with you here, and then I'll come back and then share some other stuff with you. So here is just a glimpse at some of the takeaways from members from

ProCon Voices And Quick Takeaways

Josh Hall 1:50

ProCon 2026.

SPEAKER_04 1:53

So I came from Canada. I wanted to meet all these amazing people in person, and these are like some of my best friends on the internet, and it has just been like a joy to be here.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

I've been able to interact with Jason Gracia as an expert in, you know, productizing and offering, which is something that I'm trying to do.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

ProCon is just an integral part of my business. There's nothing like being with people in learning together as you grow in skill and build a business that you can be proud of.

SPEAKER_05 2:21

There's so many people with various skills that I don't have that I'm really enjoying learning from them and learning that they have. You get filled up, but then also you're buzzing.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Being a surpreneur can be something that's very lonely, and being here, I get to not only meet people who do what I do and love doing it as well, but I get the opportunity to learn from them. I came here from Atlanta, Georgia. Eight hours a car. Well worth it.

SPEAKER_06 2:48

I was able to 10x my revenue in the last six months of 2025, and so I can only imagine what this ProCon will do for my business this year.

Josh Hall 3:00

So

Why In-Person Is Back

Josh Hall 3:01

there you go. Again, just a little teaser, and again, the full recap episode and post will be going live here uh in less than a couple weeks once I'm back from vacation and ready to rock and roll. But gosh, Procon was just so, so, so, so good. I mean, anyone who is in a community or has a community knows the value now, I think, of IRL in real life. But even as a web designer, I'm finding a lot of web designers I'm coaching right now are much more interested in networking because whether it's like the dust is settling from years after COVID, I mean, it's crazy. Like, doesn't it? I saw a meme the other day, it was like uh COVID was like three years ago, and it's just like a long stare, and it's like, no, it was six years ago. I was like, oh, technically seven, because a lot of stuff started in 19. So it's weird to think about that, but I do feel like overall, and this goes for web designers and clients as well. I think we're on a rebound back into the in-person world stronger than ever. It's one reason I I made sure that we started our in-person conference annually back last year in 2025, and this was our second round. Absolutely incredible. But I'm seeing it in all different industries: networking events, business events, conferences, concerts. Like concerts are are bigger than ever. My favorite band, Mashuga, um, who some of you may know. If you do, please reach out. Let's talk some Masuga. But uh, heavy, heavy band, and their shows were much smaller in the 90s and thousands when they would be technically probably at the peak of their popularity. But today in 2026, these guys are older, but they're playing massive shows. And I think that is a testament to just in-person things absolutely rocking and rolling. So, all that to say, I would seriously consider getting in person for you and your web design business by way of networking groups and referral groups. Remember, those are very two very different things. A referral group is a group that you're paying to be there to give and get referrals. Network networking groups are more like networking events that you can go to in your local area. But I really just I cannot recommend enough that you get in person. Everybody who's killing it in Web Designer Pro right now often has a common denominator, and that is some form of in-person networking. So just wanted to put that bug in your ear. If you have not yet done that, it's the best way to build trust and build relationships, build referral partners, which is another thing that's working really well right now for web designers, is to have referral partners who are adjacent to their services. So you might do web design, but you may not do ongoing SEO. And if you were to partner with an SEO person or a digital marketing agency or videographer, photographer, business coaches can be really good ones, consultants, great referral partners. If you are the web designer of a trusted network, huge, huge, huge huge. Actually, um, one of our mastermind members, we just launched a mastermind, which is like our high-level coaching and web designer pro, Kristen, with Crash Design Co. If you want to go check her out, Crash Design Co. It's Crash Design.co, love.co's by the way. Uh, but like one of her superpowers, apart from just being awesome and being awesome, an awesome web designer and having a niche of speaker websites, is her referral network. She has become the web designers or the the web designer for a growing network of speakers. And it's just referral after referral after referral. So I've seen that play out time and time again. So, anyway, all that to say, in person, it's where it's at. I'm still buzzing from our Web Designer ProCon 2026 event. Already can't wait for the next one. Uh, I miss everybody. Uh, those of you listening who are there, I miss you guys. I feel like, you know, can we do this like once a quarter? You guys down for that? Let me know.

ProCon Replays Now Inside Pro

Josh Hall 6:55

Uh, speaking of that, Web Designer Pro members, first of all, if you're not a member of my community, now is a great time to join. I will be getting back to you when you join next week when I'm back from the beach. But now is an amazing time to join because there is some fire happening in Web Designer Pro right now. We got some very, very cool things ahead, um, including some challenges and some new stuff that I'll mention here. But I mentioned that because all of the live workshop trainings that we did at ProCon 2026 are now live inside of Web Designer Pro. So, members, you should have been notified about this, but in case you missed it, you can go to the guest training library and you will find all of the ProCon trainings, including Michelle Bourbonier, who was just on the podcast last week. She did a presentation on headlines and how to do a headline boost and how to basically run every headline you or where you're working on through her little um, it's kind of like a rating system. And actually, one of our members, shout out to Mark, did this for a client, and the client loved it so much, like literally right after ProCon that he ended up getting a van wrap based out of that new headline. And probably is gonna lead to a lot more work for Mark with that one client. So that is a presentation you'll get access to when you join Web Designer Pro. Go to Web DesignerPro.com to jump on in today, my friend. And Julie Demopoulos, my financial advisor, spoke, shared some strategies about wealth building and retirement. It is a do not miss if you are interested in building wealth or preparing for retirement one day. Even if you're a young whippersnapper like me, uh, but one day you, you know, want to be able to have a either exit or retirement plan, even though I don't really ever personally like I can't imagine not doing some sort of work because I love it. But Julie made a good point to me one time in that it's bet it's good to build your business to be able to have flexibility for any reason if you want to. If you want to scale back a little bit or if you want to take some some time to do extended trips or whatever that looks like. So that is an incredible presentation. Those of you who are there, uh, always a good time to re-listen to some of those because I picked up so many things from re-listening to those. Uh, also, our sponsors who were there are Jeb with 17 hats, Hans with Termageddon, and Sam with Local SEO Academy, who is also one of our awesome members of Web Designer Pro, was a sponsor this year for his Local SEO Academy. They did a session together that is on the replay now, and it was so good. Uh, a great time hearing from sponsors has never been had until ProCon 2026. Can't thank those guys enough. It was an absolute blast. Uh, by the way, I'll link below to my social media if you want to check out that teaser video. That will be public once I have the full recap post ready. Jason Gracia, Shad and Shannon Mattern, two of my close colleagues, came up for a round two live panel for ProCon 2026 and uh just kind of go off of their presentations last year about productizing and sales and pricing. And then my wife was a special guest presentation. Well, not a presentation, but a special uh QA session that we did together. I lied to everybody and said that I would be doing a live coaching session, but in actuality, my wife joined us and it was so much fun. So, really, really good time. Those replays are up inside of Web Designer Pro right now, exclusive to pro members right now. We may make one or two of those public eventually, but for right now, gotta be in Web Design Pro to get access to those. So go check them out. Speaking

SEO Basics Still Win

Josh Hall 10:25

of some of our other sponsors, shout out to SiteGround and WP Umbrella. Um, I just released a video for SiteGround that I'll link to below that is already making waves on the internets. And it made me feel good, quite honestly, because I've always I've kind of wondered, and one reason I've I've taken a very slow time to revamp my SEO course, which I'm doing this summer, by the way, for sure. So, pro members, get ready. SEO course, new version coming out soon. But the reason I've delayed on that is I just wanted to make sure nothing else was changing in a big way before I would do that whole course and have to change stuff. But what I'm finding is everything in SEO land that worked 10 years ago works like a dream today, even more so, especially if it's good human content. And the reason I mentioned that with SiteGround is because I launched this SiteGround video, which is a story-based approach as to why I've used SiteGround since 2015, and it's already killing it. Uh, like you so if you search, do do me a favor, search SiteGround or SiteGround hosting, and you should see my video pop up. It's 10 reasons why I've trusted SiteGround since 2015. And it's a pretty short video, only nine minutes, but it I really tried, and and this is a tip for you as you think about creating content moving forward. I really tried to add a human approach to this rather than just saying, like, here are my top favorite features, which can work too. But I started with some stories about my hosting experiences, which included being hacked while I was on my honeymoon, thank you, Bluehost, and then moving to a smaller host that got sold and then went downhill super fast. Thank you, Arvix. And then I finally found Siteground and have not turned back and not looked back at all because I freaking love Siteground. Um, so I did that video. That video was a part of their sponsorship package for ProCon 2026. And yeah, it's cool to see that my YouTube SEO and AEO game is stronger than ever. And the really good news is I did literally like nothing to optimize that for SEO. And of course, certain optimization strategies will work better than others depending on the content, especially if it's more like answer-based, if you want to target LLMs. But I mean, you can test me on this if you search web design business coaching or how to build a web design business. I'm seeing a lot of folks being recommended to me from Chat GPT and Claude and other LLMs, and I have not done anything specifically to target AI. It's just good content, good SEO, authority building online, consistency, persistence, and making sure you're super clear about your offers right now. So all that to say, that's gonna be a big part of the new version of my SEO course, which is basically just revamping what's there, uh, which is why I haven't taken that course down. It is 100% still applicable and still valid. So for those of you who are in pro, either on the courses tier or in the community or on coaching, don't worry. That course is still 100% good to go through because I'm literally living proof of everything I teach in that course, which is the foundations, the basics. And it still works today. So that's wonderful. Another

Switching From ManageWP To Umbrella

Josh Hall 13:50

note to one of our sponsors, WP Umbrella, uh the reason I I wanted to note about this is because early teaser access announcement time, I've officially moved from managed WP to WP Umbrella. WP Umbrella has been taking over my community for a while now, and they have been a dream team to work with. Uh, they've been a spot, they were a sponsor for ProCon this year as well. And yeah, the UI, the UX, it's best in class. They are innovating like crazy. And I really like that. And it's really important to me as I look forward to the future. I haven't personally had an issue with managed WP. It's been fine, but I've been using it for like a decade. And the problem at this point is it's just that. It's just it's been fine. Now, they did have a breach last year that had me worried. We actually had some members of Web Designer Pro have issues with their sites after the security breach they had. So that had me worried. And the other thing that has me worried is they just they haven't innovated anything. And if you didn't know, ManageWP did get sold to GoDaddy years ago. And again, there hasn't been any problems, but what I've found is a lot of SaaS companies that get sold tend to just kind of die off in complacency or being just too comfortable. And I think that's what's happening with Manage. I don't who knows who's behind their team, who knows who's running the show? Is it just kind of coasting at this point? I don't know. And even though it's not much of an issue aside from the security breach right now, I'm a little worried about that in the future. When I'm looking ahead five to 10 years, I'm managing WordPress websites. I want to make sure I'm I'm trusted with the tools that I use and that I'm recommending. So I am now officially both WebdesignerPro.com and JoshHall.co is now officially managed over a WP umbrella. I will also be releasing a video uh in June about that experience as well. So I'm getting used to Umbrella a little more, and then I will be posting a video. So keep an eye out for that.

Buying And Selling Web Design Businesses

Josh Hall 15:56

Uh and the last couple things I wanted to mention here is we've had a lot of conversations, and this is just a total check-in episode with you. I don't have any notes on this. I just want to kind of share some thoughts since I am currently at the beach this week, and then we'll resume like normal next week. But interesting, there have been so many discussions I've had about both buying a web design business and selling a web design business. And some of this is by way of like a lot of pro members that I'm coaching have been in pro since we launched in 2020. And some of them are in like their mid to late 60s now. Uh, we've had members who are in their late 50s or 60s join pro, and now they're at a point where they're either interested in exiting in some way or selling to focus on retirement. And I think this is happening across the board for a lot of different reasons, but there are folks who are getting to the point where they just want to kind of go to a different gear in life and they've got businesses. Or maybe some folks are pivoting or they're focusing on marketing and and moving web design clients off, whatever it is. There's more and more conversations about selling web design businesses, and equally the amount of conversations about acquiring businesses. Jay Kramer with Artillery Media was on recently on the podcast, and he mentioned publicly that they are now buying Divi web design businesses. Hans with Termageddon at ProCon during our sponsor panel actually mentioned that a great way to get clients is to buy clients by purchasing a web design business. And this can look very different depending on those purchase and um selling agreements, as far as whether it is a one-time sell that's like a you know flat fee that you would pay somebody to get clients versus more of like an exit for the owner, which is more common for most web design businesses. So we're gonna have some content coming out about this. I'm going to be creating a playbook that will live inside a pro for both selling a web design business and for acquiring a web design business. And I'm gonna learn a lot from Hans and Jake because we are scheduled to record a podcast here in a couple weeks about just that acquiring a web design business and what those specifics look like. So that will be on the podcast here soon as well. So very, very excited about that. Again, two avenues there selling and buying. Um, great way to get clients, and there's a lot of opportunity there. It looks very different depending on your access to capital, your setup, and whether you could handle, you know, getting like a swarm of clients from somebody else, whether they would, you know, whether it'd be a drug out exit. There's a lot of different ways to go about that. I'm learning a lot on this front. Of course, I have experience selling in transit back in 2020, but our setup that um Eric, my CEO, and I worked out is not ideal for everyone. So it really depends on all the variables that that are in that situation on both parties. So lots to come on that, which is kind of cool because this is kind of new ground we're breaking. And I think we're gonna really lead the way as far as like web design specifically, like freelance style businesses being sold that aren't like big mil, you know, multi-million dollar marketing ad agencies or something like that. So hope you're pumped about that. Speaking

Next Week Hiring Deep Dive

Josh Hall 19:19

about Eric, speaking of Eric, uh, he will be on the podcast next week. Eric, if you don't know, is just an absolute whiz on hiring and team building. In fact, at the time of releasing this, he is going to be filling in for me in Web Designer Pro this week for our weekly coaching call. And this call is going to be available to all Web Designer Pro members. And so if you're in Pro, make sure you go and RSVP because it's coming up tomorrow, Tuesday. And it is a great time to answer or to ask any questions to Eric about hiring and team building. He is a whiz at it. He's so, he's just a wealth of knowledge with how to do that and how to delegate and how to be the owner of your business if that's where you are in your business. And next week, our episode that's going to be coming out on the podcast is actually a deep dive into how Eric hired the Intransit Studios team one by one. We just we kind of go backwards and go through each team member and figure out where he found them, what the process looked like, how we hired them, how it's working today, how many team members we have that are full-time versus part-time. It was a great chat. I think you're gonna get so much out of it. Even if you're not even thinking about hiring right now, I definitely recommend you at least pique your interest and learn about what it takes to scale your way, because you you are gonna get to a point, mark my words, where you maybe like me, you either get overwhelmed and you don't have a choice but to scale, or you get to a point where you're like, I think I'm done doing like all the design and support and tech work, and I really want to focus on building the business. You may or may not be at that place right now. So it's really important to have a good foundation to scale up in the way that suits you. Speaking of, if you didn't know, I do have a free training about this. It's it's my masterclass on how to scale your way. Go to joshhall.co slash scale and watch that for free. And it may or may not have a little uh offer for you to jump into Web Designer Pro after you go through that. So there you go. Next week, my conversation with Eric on hiring and team building. And then why wouldn't you grab my free training? It's completely free, josh hall.co slash scale. All right, guys. Well, I think that's all I wanted to mention right now, unless there was anything else. I feel like there was something else that'll probably come to me right afterwards, which is why I need to write notes on these solo episodes. But again, I just wanted to check in with you.

Second-Half Focus And New Challenges

Josh Hall 21:43

It's a vacation week. I'm feeling good. I feel like the first half of this year on a personal note, I don't know how you're feeling about this, but on a on a personal transparent note, I feel like the first half of this year for me was a lot of like trying some new stuff, experimenting, and obviously leading up. Pro-con is a lot of work. We really went to the to the next level. Um, Austin and Alexia, who were kind of have have become the Pro Con team, um, did a lot of work on that. I've been doing a lot of experimenting and launching some new stuff. The back half of this year, I am gonna be head first focused on marketing Web Designer Pro better, selling more, and refining what is in place. So like aside from like the new SEO course and a couple other courses I have set to revamp, don't plan on doing like a bunch of new stuff. Um, and I think there's seasons for experimentation and stuff, but I'm definitely at a point where like, okay, I'm gonna like dial this in and make Pro stronger than ever because we have so many things that are working so well. I feel like I need to do a better job of bringing some more unity inside Web Designer Pro for all of our members in the way of like challenges and some live calls. And we're switching up our coaching calls a little bit, which has been pretty fun. We've been making them more topical. Uh so I know pro members have said they've really enjoyed that. So lots of cool stuff coming inside of Web Designer Pro here uh through the summer and into the fall for sure. We're gonna be doing a lot to help you build your web design business as quickly as possible. And for those of you to scale.

Mastermind Learnings And Six Pillars

Josh Hall 23:12

And on that note, our mastermind, uh, if you didn't know, I just launched the new Web Designer Pro Mastermind, which is a very small group uh of pros who are at a certain level who want more personalized, intensive coaching with me and a very small, confidential, small group coaching experience. That has been incredible. We have five members in the mastermind. And I'm kind of glad we started small because we were even just talking uh a couple of weeks ago. We're like, I feel like if we when we open it back up, we almost need to do like a group two, because uh, once you get six people talking together, that's a good sized group. So the the mastermind is gonna evolve as well. Uh, but what's really cool is what I'm learning and what the mastermind members are learning together is gonna trickle down to all Web Designer Pro members and you as well, as a listener of this podcast. So what everyone's learning at a high level and running very established businesses uh to different degrees is gonna trickle down to everybody. So I'm very, very excited about that. And I'm really personally enjoying coaching on a deeper level. I had the bandwidth to be able to do that this year. Um, the need was there. I just talked about this recently. Uh, I did an episode on like about the mastermind starting and the reason why I felt like now was the time for a kind of a higher inner circle style approach of coaching. And I'm I'm really enjoying digging into this framework, this coaching framework that I've kind of refined already, which is kind of six pillars of high-level coaching. Those pillars are revenue, profit, team, time, offers, and leadership. Those are generally the areas that folks who are operating at a six and multi-six figure level with their businesses need help with. Some areas more than others, but generally each one of those areas needs some sort of help, but or you know, you want some guidance, or you really want to focus on some of those areas. And it's seasonal too. You know, when you get to an established business range, you may be at a point where like you're really focused on time. You are focused on your calendar and clearing that out as much as you can and really working on getting any bit of wasted minutes out of your schedule and your week to week. Cheers to that. You may be focused on leadership. That might be something where, you know, to Eric's episode coming out next week, you're focused on hiring, delegating, and team building. And then guess what? Leadership is what I'm going to recommend you focus on. And I've been helping some folks in that area. It may be offers. I think everybody at that level realizes what gets you here doesn't always get you there when it comes to offers, pricing, down sales, whether it's productization or whether it's highly custom, whether it's packages, whatever that looks like. So we're diving into that. And again, revenue, profit, all those things are coming into play with this high-level coaching. So I've been really enjoying it. And it's just been so cool to coach this small group at a higher level. So very, very excited about

How To Join And What’s Next

Josh Hall 26:08

that. Continuing on, that is closed right now. We did a small window opening, but that will around the the next mastermind opening will likely be in early fall this year, and we're gonna kind of evolve that together. So it's been really, really cool. But again, that's been trickling down to everybody uh with what we're learning to everybody in our standard coaching tier and Web Designer Pro and the community at large. So great stuff, guys. Good time to join Web Designer Pro. As always, go to Webpresenter Pro.com to jump in. I will likely not get back to you this week because I will be at the beach, although it's looking like we're gonna get a lot of rain. So I may have some downtime here or there. You might I might peek in. I'm totally fine to peek in, especially if we're we're bored sitting inside. But um expect when you join WebPR center pro a full uh personalized intro from me the week after. Um, but even if you join the community tier, guys, uh, you will get a coaching boost from me. I do a little DM coaching boost and I will answer any initial questions you have or any challenges you want to cover and get my insight from uh as you join Webpresenter Pro, just to give you a little boost there and to help you get the most out of Pro right from the get-go. So jump into Webpresenter Pro. Webpresenter Pro.com is where to go. All right, friends, that's a little look at what's going on right now, what's ahead. So many great things ahead here on the podcast. We've got some killer interviews lined up. I'm really excited to have a focus on selling and acquiring and all the stuff I mentioned. So I hope you're pumped as well. Go to my social medias, Instagram and LinkedIn is where I'm most active at Josh Hall Co. You can check out the highlight video that I posted about ProCon 2026. Full recap coming soon on that. And I will see you guys next week back on the podcast with an interview with Eric Dingler, CEO of my agency In Transit Studios. So look forward to that one on how we hired the Intrans, well, how he hired the In Transit Studios team. All right, friends, I will see you then. Have a great one.