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

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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

I think there’s a misunderstanding of the term “solopreneuer” in that, when you think about that term, you probably think about being “alone.” At least I did.

Until this conversation.

I had a light bulb moment in this chat with Maggie Patterson, author of the book “Staying Solo” with this very idea that you can be a solopreneur while not being an alonepreneur.

Some of the happiest, most balanced and most profitable entrepreneurs and web biz owners I know are somewhere in the middle of alone and owner.

That’s the sweet spot we’re diving into in this one.

Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned, along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/420

Watch the video version of this episode.

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