October 13, 2025 • 21 mins
Do you find that you no longer fit in with many of your friends when you become an entrepreneur?
If so, you’re not alone.
In this episode, I’m sharing my take on this common “friendshift” for web design entrepreneurs and it’s based off a recent newsletter from Web Designer Pro member Alexia (of visualvibedesign.com) who shared a very open and honest take on this topic.
So in this solo episode, it’s narrative as I’ll read you Alexia’s newsletter and follow up with my take as well on things like:
- Why old friendships shift when priorities change
- Belonging in the awkward middle between old circles and new peers
- The value of small, curated communities over giant groups
- Practical steps to find “web besties” and collaborators
- Identity growth, ROI on social time, and protecting focus
And 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/400
Loving the Web Design Business podcast? You'll really love the Web Design Business Newsletter!
It's completely free! Sign up today to get:
✅ Josh’s Web Design Biz Revenue Calculator (instant access)
✅ The top 5 newsletters (over the next 5 days)
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Josh (00:00):
Hello, my friend.
It's so good to have you here.
This is a different episode forthe podcast for many reasons,
but um it's gonna be a littlemore narrative and it's a solo
episode here.
So I just want to share somethoughts with you about a recent
newsletter from one of my WebDesigner Pro community members.
This newsletter you're about tohear is from Alexia Lynn, who
(00:22):
was just on the show recentlybecause we repurposed one of our
coaching calls.
She is a coaching tier memberin Web Designer Pro.
And she's also my newlyappointed graphic designer.
So she has come on on retainerwith me to do a lot of
incredible design work for WebDesigner Pro and Josh Hall.co.
But she recently just started anewsletter called Creative
(00:43):
Confessions.
And she has released a coupleissues so far, and her latest
one just prompted so many goodideas and talking points about
specifically friendship andentrepreneurship and how old
friendships often change becausewhen you become an
(01:03):
entrepreneur, it makes your oldfriendships sometimes very
challenging.
So I want to share somethoughts on this idea.
And what I'm gonna do is I'mactually gonna read you her
entire newsletter.
And yes, I will, of course,include in the show links or the
show notes uh the link to hernewsletter so you can sign up
and check it out.
It's completely free.
(01:24):
And I will actually uhrepurpose this newsletter that
you're about to hear on the shownotes for this episode, which
can be found at joshhall.coslash 400.
So episode 400.
And yeah, I just wanted to givemy own insight on this.
But first I want you to hearfrom Alexia because she has some
incredible thoughts to share.
So the newsletter was titledMama said don't meet strangers
(01:48):
from the internet.
I did anyway.
So here we go from Alexia.
For the first couple weeks offirst grade, little six-year-old
me used to run across theplayground and hug my friends at
recess like I hadn't seen themin years.
My kid brain didn't quite getthat summer break was temporary.
I legit thought kindergartenwas the end of the road.
(02:10):
Like, well, I guess I'll neversee y'all again.
Thanks for the crowns, it'sbeen real.
In high school, Friday nightsmeant hanging out in the Walmart
parking lot or driving an hourto a sketchy house party.
Peak small town Missouri vibes.
Add in a little troublemaking,and you've got bonds that lie
that last 10 plus years.
All that to say, I've alwaysbeen the type of person to take
(02:32):
friendships seriously.
Heck, I'm still one of the oneswho ho or I'm still the one who
hosts our annual Friendsgivingparty for my friend group, and
it's been going strong as wecome up on our seventh year.
But ain't that the thing aboutlife?
It always changes.
What they don't tell you isthat everyone takes a different
life path.
(02:52):
And when you get into yourmid-20s, things can change
because of it.
Building my business meant thatfriendships shifted in
unexpected ways.
Translation, I became thefriend who couldn't shut up
about websites and SEO whilehanging out at the bar.
My old friends didn't quoteunquote get it anymore.
(03:13):
When I started diving deep intomy business, I couldn't be the
person who drove an hour everyweekend to hang out anymore.
Even when I did make it, mybrain was buzzing with client
projects, strategy ideas, andlate night thoughts of how to
get to that next level.
They didn't get it.
And honestly, how could they?
Once they clocked out, theirbrains could switch off.
(03:34):
But for me, my business wasn'tsomething I could just leave at
the office.
It was my baby, my future, myeverything.
That put me in a weird spot.
Too ambitious for old, my oldcircle, but not established
enough to fully click with thebusiness owners I admired.
Belonging felt complicated.
(03:54):
I started connecting with morelike-minded people and business
owners online who had the samegoals, ambitions, and who just
got it.
So when the opportunity came toactually meet some of these
wonderful people in real life, Ijumped at it.
Meeting a bunch of strangersfrom the internet.
I flew for the first time,terrifying, to stay in an Airbnb
(04:18):
with women I'd technically onlyknown from the internet.
Risky?
A hundred percent.
But the second I got there,everything just clicked.
Honestly, I could write anentire newsletter about how
transformational WDP 2025 was orWDP Con 2025 was.
But for this one, I'll stick tomy group of girls.
(04:38):
We stayed up until 1 a.m.
geeking out over websites likea bunch of teenagers out of
sleepover.
But instead of prank callingboys, we were comparing lead
magnets.
We swapped advice on how togrow our business and laughed
too hard over snacks and drinks.
And for the first time in along time, I felt understood as
a business owner.
Like I could be fully mewithout toning anything down.
(05:00):
These weren't just conferencefriends.
They become my they became myweb besties.
And months later, we're stillhopping on video calls, sharing
wins, and cheering each otheron.
Shout out to Tamara at SereneStudio, Sandra at Cerrus Media,
and Megan at Megan FletcherDesign.
This was honestly one of thebest and most unexpected wins of
(05:22):
the entire WDP Con experience.
In closing, friendships shiftas you grow.
Some fade, some stay.
And some show up exactly whenyou need them most.
What I've learned is this youdon't have to choose between
being the old version ofyourself or the new one.
You can just have you just haveto find the people who fit the
(05:44):
season you're in now.
The ones who get why your brainnever really turns off and who
love you for it anyway.
And sometimes they're waitingfor you in a random Airbnb in
Ohio or writing this newsletterto you on a Sunday morning after
staying up late working on herbusiness.
XOXO, Alexia.
So enter Josh now.
First off, such a goodnewsletter.
(06:06):
Like Alexia, I mean, I thinkthis was her second issue.
Absolutely killing it already.
Again, I'll have that linkedover at joshhall.co slash 400.
Her newsletter is calledCreative Confessions.
Her website isvisualvibedesign.com.
If I can add a little bit of myinsight on this, it's funny
because I was just thinkingabout this recently.
(06:27):
I had released an episode withone of my best friends from high
school, Chris Webb, just a fewepisodes back on episode 397.
And what Alexia alluded tothere about some friendships
fade, some stay, and some showup when you need them most.
That could not be more true asan entrepreneur.
(06:48):
And as a web designer, whetheryou know it or not, you are an
entrepreneur.
Even if you think you're just afreelancer, just wanting to get
by, getting some clients, youwelcome.
You are you have entered yourfirst step into the deep end of
entrepreneurship.
So I mentioned Chris Webb justbecause he's actually a friend
of mine, a rare friend of minefrom those years, who is still
(07:10):
kind of active in my life.
And there's a lot of reasonsfor that.
I think Chris and I aresomebody like Alexia mentions
here, who uh while we havesomewhat different paths, he's a
corporate web designer, westill have a lot of similar
interests.
And we're kind of going, we maybe going, you know, not the
exact same path, but we're stillgoing in the same direction.
(07:31):
And again, very, very timelyissue from Alexia.
And I think this is probablyneeds to be talked about more
because I'm sure I'm not theonly one who, as an
entrepreneur, now I've beengraduated from high school for
20 years.
That's why I look back and I'mlike, I really don't hang out
with anyone from high school.
And I'm not saying this isright or wrong.
This is just me, but there werethere just weren't many people
(07:54):
who were either entrepreneurialor uh since we're talking about
Alexia's brand visual vibe, theyjust didn't match my vibe.
Their vibe wasn't what I wantedto take with me long term,
which means you get to a pointwhere you do need to seek new
friendships.
And this can be really hard.
And I think Alexia hit a very,very interesting challenge and
pain point there, which is youfind yourself just not
(08:18):
identifying with your old friendgroup.
And it may be because they're,it's not that you're better than
them, or it's not that we aredifferent than them in ways that
they could never get to.
It just means that as anentrepreneur, we're fired up.
And we we may like to party,but yeah, on like you know, a
Thursday night, we can't stayout till 1 a.m.
(08:39):
when we have a meeting at 9a.m.
the next day.
Like we just get to a point,and this may depending on where
you are in your life, the stageof your life, or your age, but I
I remember vividly beingliterally in that moment.
I remember being at a bardowntown in Columbus with my old
friend group from high school,and my business was really
getting serious and starting totake off.
And it was a Thursday night.
(09:00):
And I remember being out, itwas like 11, and I was like,
guys, I gotta, I should havefigured out the rides, I gotta
get going.
Uh, I got a meeting in themorning, and they were like,
Where are you going?
Like, hang out.
And they were just, they couldnot understand um not wanting to
hang out on a Thursday nightbecause yeah, they had some jobs
to go to, but a lot of theirjobs were things where they just
didn't quite frankly had tothink much.
(09:21):
They just showed up, clocked inand clocked out, and that was
it.
But when you're anentrepreneur, you realize that
number one, it's very, very hardto turn it off.
I don't think it's actuallypossible to completely turn it
off.
But number two, like it justit's the priority.
It's priorities that change.
And I think Alexia reallyalluded to that, where you get
(09:43):
to a point, maybe you're therenow, where you're like, oh my
gosh, my I don't want to do whatI've been doing for a long
time.
It's not that I don't enjoy it,it's not that I wouldn't like
to do it ever.
It's just my priorities havechanged.
And I think that's the hardthing for a lot of people who
are not business owners tounderstand.
Their work is not your work.
(10:03):
Your work is completelydifferent because your work is
not just what you're doing forclients.
Your work is growing yourbusiness.
And hopefully you're planningon or going to get to the point
where you can work on yourbusiness 50-50 with the amount
of work that you're doing foryour clients.
It really is ideal to be ableto work on your business, i.e.,
(10:24):
your website, tweaking yourprocesses, refining your
systems, marketing yourbusiness, taking time to hang
out in Web Designer Pro orwhatever web design community
you're a part of, makingfriendships, going to events,
working on you, working on yourbusiness.
That's the goal, 50-50 atleast.
But there really is that pointwhere you realize you're just
(10:45):
you're not the same person youwere before.
And the reality is that's thestatement.
You are not the same personthat you were before.
And your quote unquote friends,they are friends, but they kind
of have a choice.
They can either go with you ifthey choose to to be somebody
who might be a part of yourlife, or in my case, I've let so
(11:09):
many friendships go because andit's it's weird to put this in
like business terms because Iwant to make all life about
business, but um, I have thoughtabout this recently where I've
had some opportunities to meetup with old friends, and I'm
just I'm sitting here, I'm like,uh, what's the ROI on this
(11:30):
hangout?
You know, like if I drive for20 minutes and meet them, we
spend a couple hours together,drive back, that's three hours.
That's gonna, if I do that on aweekday, if I do it on the
weekend, I'm gonna miss familytime.
I do it on a weekday, I'm gonnamiss some work time or an
appointment or something.
What's that gonna you know looklike with our schedule?
This this sounds ridiculous,but those of you who end up
(11:50):
having a family in particular,you'll you learn, you're
probably some of you are therenow, where it's like a a
one-hour lunch ends up being ahuge deal because there's so
many factors and so manyvariables, and it's gonna take
you away from your flow of yourwork.
Like it becomes a half-daydeal, at least at minimum.
So you really start to measureyour ROI on this.
And I guess I'm I'm saying thatto say Alexia is not alone.
(12:15):
I'm there too.
And I'm also, I just want tosay, I think it's okay.
You you don't need to belifelong friends with people who
are not going in the samedirection as you, and that is
fine.
And I'm not saying that's foreverybody because there's a lot
of people who make friends inelementary school or middle
(12:36):
school or high school, andthey're friends forever, and
that's awesome.
And I and I like I said, Chris,who was just on the podcast,
he's in that bucket for me.
He's somebody who I knew at ayoung age, and um, you know, we
we don't hang out as much aswe'd like to, but he also has
four kiddos.
I've got three, so you know, acouple times a year, that's
that's that's about what we'rewe're able to do.
But it all that to say, likeit, it's okay if you feel like
(13:00):
you're alone and you're in thisweird middle spot where your old
friendships are just not whereyou want to stay, but then you
need to make some new friends.
And then it's hard because youwant to be friends with high
performers and people who aregoing where you want to go, but
then you may not have the levelof investment to join a 10K
mastermind or uh, you know, atop-tier community that's
(13:20):
thousands and thousands ofdollars yet, unless you get a
grant or join Web Designer Proand land a $5,000 website in a
couple of weeks.
Whatever the case may be, youmay want to get to this point
where you're you're ready tomove out of your old table of
friends and move into a newtable.
And there's a lot of differentways you can find friends.
If you're in a local area, Iwould definitely encourage doing
(13:43):
some stuff in person justbecause it's so good for just
our well-being and mental healthto get in person, to go to
meetings.
And you can do that in you canlook at meetup.com to look at
web design groups in your area.
Some of those meet virtually aswell.
But this is the softest layupever to saying that is one of
the main reasons I created mycommunity Web Designer Pro.
(14:06):
Alexia's newsletter here islike one of the main reasons I
had a vision of bringing peopletogether who were just awesome
and who are at specifically thisplace where you are just not
fitting in with your old friendgroup and you need new friends.
You want community, but youalso, let's be honest, maybe a
(14:28):
10,000 person Facebook groupjust isn't your idea of
friendship, nor do I blame you.
Nothing wrong with big Facebookgroups.
I ran Debbie Web Designers foryears.
I built that group up.
It's 25,000 plus people now.
I'm I don't I'm not terriblyactive in that group anymore.
I did sell it a few years ago,but all that to say, there's a
very different mindset with likeforums and public groups versus
(14:52):
a true private community whereyou can build friendships like
Alexia has done with Megan,Tamara, Sandra, and so many
others in Web Designer Pro.
Um, when Alexia was on thepodcast recently talking about
what what episode number wasthat?
Because Ben, who is anotheramazing member of Web Designer
Pro, was also on this one.
(15:13):
It was 395.
Uh, Alexia and Ben came on theepisode on 395 and we talked
together.
I shared one of our coachingcalls.
But even Ben was saying WebDesigner Pro has become so much
more than just a community, it'sactually like co-workers for
him.
And that's another littleunanticipated perk of Web
Designer Pro is we do we haveweekly hangouts and people are
(15:37):
connecting with each other, andthere's these like little micro
interactions that I don't evensee.
I mean, quite honestly, Iprobably see a fraction of
what's going on at Web DesignerPro because people are meeting
up and having calls with eachother and going to coffee
together and becoming truefriends and helping us all carry
each other through thisever-changing digital world.
(15:58):
So um, I think it's moreimportant than ever.
And if you are where Alexia waslast year, where she just
needed to get out of where shewas in her either friend group
or circles online and into aplace that's welcoming and into
a place where you're pretty muchguaranteed to make some
(16:18):
friendships because everyone isfreaking awesome, then Web
Designer Pro.
I really encourage you, myfriend, to jump in.
The community level is whereyou should definitely go because
that will give you access toAlexia and Sandra and Tamara and
Megan and so many other amazingWeb Designer Pro members.
But that's where I would go.
Introduce yourself and tell usa little bit about where you are
(16:41):
in the world, literally, whatyou're up to, and you will make
some friends.
And yeah, I just wanted toshare this because what I'm
seeing in Web Designer Pro, Iprobably need to do a better job
at marketing this.
It's just hard, it's hard tomarket, it really is hard to
market community because likewhen Alexia joined Pro, I
couldn't have said, you aregonna hit it off with Tamara,
(17:05):
Sandra, and Megan.
You guys, you four are gonnastay in an Airbnb together and
be best friends.
I didn't know.
You know, those those kind ofthings aren't something that can
be foreseen or and they're verytough to market, but those are
happening on a micro level allover in Web Designer Pro.
So I just really want toencourage you.
If you've been on the fence anduh, you know, yes, you want to
(17:26):
grow your business, you want tomake a lot of money, you want to
be able to build a successfulbusiness and do all that, huge.
Obviously, that's the you knowthe main thing that we're doing
in pro.
But also, if you want somefriends, it is the best place
for a web designer to findfriends because it's a small
group, it's small by design.
We have 215 total members inbetween the community and
(17:49):
coaching tier.
So uh coaching members just getmore access to me and weekly
coaching calls, but even as acommunity member, you'll get
access to everything else.
And it's just incredible, guys.
I mean, I just don't know whatto say other than these people
are freaking awesome.
And you just heard in the lastepisode, Sam, who took his
business to 250K in three years.
(18:10):
There is something about beingaround high performers, and I
can't wait to hear Alexia's uhrecap on WDP Con 2025 because
she had sent a video testimonialin or a um a response when I
because I messaged everyone whocame to the event and just
personally thanked them andwanted to hear their thoughts.
(18:32):
And she I remember her sayingit was a transformative event,
which is what she alluded tohere.
And I want transformation foryou too.
I want revenue, I want profit,I want a life of freedom,
absolutely, but really truly thething behind all that is
transformation, and that iswhat's going on in Web Designer
Pro.
It is truly transformationalfor so many web designers, and I
(18:55):
hope that's you too.
So if you've been on the fence,jump on in, go to
webdesignerpro.com.
Links in show notes for thisone, including Alexia's website
and her newsletter where you cansign up and get access to
these, will be over atjoshhall.co slash 400.
This is episode 400.
Uh, but yeah, friends, I hopeyou enjoyed this.
I just wanted to take some timeto share my thoughts on this
(19:18):
incredible subject.
I know I'm not alone.
Alexia's not alone.
And if you're feeling alone,now you know you're not alone.
And you will definitely not bealone when you join Web Designer
Pro and we can build ourbusinesses together.
And as they say, I'll leavewith a quote: rising tide lifts
all boats.
So if you want to jump on thattide, come on in, friends.
(19:39):
Webdesignerpro.com.
I hope to see you there.
And cheers uh to whateverfriendships are gonna be in your
near future here, whether it'sWeb Designer Pro or elsewhere.
I truly hope this helps giveyou some give you some inspo,
some friendship inspo, a littleweb designer therapy session on
me, my friend.
All right, I hope to see you inpro.
By the way, when you join WebDesigner Pro, I will uh this
(20:01):
it's an automation, but I willautomatically DM you and you'll
have a chance to get a littlecoaching boost from me.
You can tell me about whereyour business is, any initial
challenges, and I'll give you alittle five to ten minute video
coaching boost sharing uh whatI'd recommend you do next.
All right, my friends, have agreat, great week, and I'll see
y'all in the next episode.
Hello, my friend.
It's so good to have you here.
This is a different episode forthe podcast for many reasons,
but um it's gonna be a littlemore narrative and it's a solo
episode here.
So I just want to share somethoughts with you about a recent
newsletter from one of my WebDesigner Pro community members.
This newsletter you're about tohear is from Alexia Lynn, who
(00:22):
was just on the show recentlybecause we repurposed one of our
coaching calls.
She is a coaching tier memberin Web Designer Pro.
And she's also my newlyappointed graphic designer.
So she has come on on retainerwith me to do a lot of
incredible design work for WebDesigner Pro and Josh Hall.co.
But she recently just started anewsletter called Creative
(00:43):
Confessions.
And she has released a coupleissues so far, and her latest
one just prompted so many goodideas and talking points about
specifically friendship andentrepreneurship and how old
friendships often change becausewhen you become an
(01:03):
entrepreneur, it makes your oldfriendships sometimes very
challenging.
So I want to share somethoughts on this idea.
And what I'm gonna do is I'mactually gonna read you her
entire newsletter.
And yes, I will, of course,include in the show links or the
show notes uh the link to hernewsletter so you can sign up
and check it out.
It's completely free.
(01:24):
And I will actually uhrepurpose this newsletter that
you're about to hear on the shownotes for this episode, which
can be found at joshhall.coslash 400.
So episode 400.
And yeah, I just wanted to givemy own insight on this.
But first I want you to hearfrom Alexia because she has some
incredible thoughts to share.
So the newsletter was titledMama said don't meet strangers
(01:48):
from the internet.
I did anyway.
So here we go from Alexia.
For the first couple weeks offirst grade, little six-year-old
me used to run across theplayground and hug my friends at
recess like I hadn't seen themin years.
My kid brain didn't quite getthat summer break was temporary.
I legit thought kindergartenwas the end of the road.
(02:10):
Like, well, I guess I'll neversee y'all again.
Thanks for the crowns, it'sbeen real.
In high school, Friday nightsmeant hanging out in the Walmart
parking lot or driving an hourto a sketchy house party.
Peak small town Missouri vibes.
Add in a little troublemaking,and you've got bonds that lie
that last 10 plus years.
All that to say, I've alwaysbeen the type of person to take
(02:32):
friendships seriously.
Heck, I'm still one of the oneswho ho or I'm still the one who
hosts our annual Friendsgivingparty for my friend group, and
it's been going strong as wecome up on our seventh year.
But ain't that the thing aboutlife?
It always changes.
What they don't tell you isthat everyone takes a different
life path.
(02:52):
And when you get into yourmid-20s, things can change
because of it.
Building my business meant thatfriendships shifted in
unexpected ways.
Translation, I became thefriend who couldn't shut up
about websites and SEO whilehanging out at the bar.
My old friends didn't quoteunquote get it anymore.
(03:13):
When I started diving deep intomy business, I couldn't be the
person who drove an hour everyweekend to hang out anymore.
Even when I did make it, mybrain was buzzing with client
projects, strategy ideas, andlate night thoughts of how to
get to that next level.
They didn't get it.
And honestly, how could they?
Once they clocked out, theirbrains could switch off.
(03:34):
But for me, my business wasn'tsomething I could just leave at
the office.
It was my baby, my future, myeverything.
That put me in a weird spot.
Too ambitious for old, my oldcircle, but not established
enough to fully click with thebusiness owners I admired.
Belonging felt complicated.
(03:54):
I started connecting with morelike-minded people and business
owners online who had the samegoals, ambitions, and who just
got it.
So when the opportunity came toactually meet some of these
wonderful people in real life, Ijumped at it.
Meeting a bunch of strangersfrom the internet.
I flew for the first time,terrifying, to stay in an Airbnb
(04:18):
with women I'd technically onlyknown from the internet.
Risky?
A hundred percent.
But the second I got there,everything just clicked.
Honestly, I could write anentire newsletter about how
transformational WDP 2025 was orWDP Con 2025 was.
But for this one, I'll stick tomy group of girls.
(04:38):
We stayed up until 1 a.m.
geeking out over websites likea bunch of teenagers out of
sleepover.
But instead of prank callingboys, we were comparing lead
magnets.
We swapped advice on how togrow our business and laughed
too hard over snacks and drinks.
And for the first time in along time, I felt understood as
a business owner.
Like I could be fully mewithout toning anything down.
(05:00):
These weren't just conferencefriends.
They become my they became myweb besties.
And months later, we're stillhopping on video calls, sharing
wins, and cheering each otheron.
Shout out to Tamara at SereneStudio, Sandra at Cerrus Media,
and Megan at Megan FletcherDesign.
This was honestly one of thebest and most unexpected wins of
(05:22):
the entire WDP Con experience.
In closing, friendships shiftas you grow.
Some fade, some stay.
And some show up exactly whenyou need them most.
What I've learned is this youdon't have to choose between
being the old version ofyourself or the new one.
You can just have you just haveto find the people who fit the
(05:44):
season you're in now.
The ones who get why your brainnever really turns off and who
love you for it anyway.
And sometimes they're waitingfor you in a random Airbnb in
Ohio or writing this newsletterto you on a Sunday morning after
staying up late working on herbusiness.
XOXO, Alexia.
So enter Josh now.
First off, such a goodnewsletter.
(06:06):
Like Alexia, I mean, I thinkthis was her second issue.
Absolutely killing it already.
Again, I'll have that linkedover at joshhall.co slash 400.
Her newsletter is calledCreative Confessions.
Her website isvisualvibedesign.com.
If I can add a little bit of myinsight on this, it's funny
because I was just thinkingabout this recently.
(06:27):
I had released an episode withone of my best friends from high
school, Chris Webb, just a fewepisodes back on episode 397.
And what Alexia alluded tothere about some friendships
fade, some stay, and some showup when you need them most.
That could not be more true asan entrepreneur.
(06:48):
And as a web designer, whetheryou know it or not, you are an
entrepreneur.
Even if you think you're just afreelancer, just wanting to get
by, getting some clients, youwelcome.
You are you have entered yourfirst step into the deep end of
entrepreneurship.
So I mentioned Chris Webb justbecause he's actually a friend
of mine, a rare friend of minefrom those years, who is still
(07:10):
kind of active in my life.
And there's a lot of reasonsfor that.
I think Chris and I aresomebody like Alexia mentions
here, who uh while we havesomewhat different paths, he's a
corporate web designer, westill have a lot of similar
interests.
And we're kind of going, we maybe going, you know, not the
exact same path, but we're stillgoing in the same direction.
(07:31):
And again, very, very timelyissue from Alexia.
And I think this is probablyneeds to be talked about more
because I'm sure I'm not theonly one who, as an
entrepreneur, now I've beengraduated from high school for
20 years.
That's why I look back and I'mlike, I really don't hang out
with anyone from high school.
And I'm not saying this isright or wrong.
This is just me, but there werethere just weren't many people
(07:54):
who were either entrepreneurialor uh since we're talking about
Alexia's brand visual vibe, theyjust didn't match my vibe.
Their vibe wasn't what I wantedto take with me long term,
which means you get to a pointwhere you do need to seek new
friendships.
And this can be really hard.
And I think Alexia hit a very,very interesting challenge and
pain point there, which is youfind yourself just not
(08:18):
identifying with your old friendgroup.
And it may be because they're,it's not that you're better than
them, or it's not that we aredifferent than them in ways that
they could never get to.
It just means that as anentrepreneur, we're fired up.
And we we may like to party,but yeah, on like you know, a
Thursday night, we can't stayout till 1 a.m.
(08:39):
when we have a meeting at 9a.m.
the next day.
Like we just get to a point,and this may depending on where
you are in your life, the stageof your life, or your age, but I
I remember vividly beingliterally in that moment.
I remember being at a bardowntown in Columbus with my old
friend group from high school,and my business was really
getting serious and starting totake off.
And it was a Thursday night.
(09:00):
And I remember being out, itwas like 11, and I was like,
guys, I gotta, I should havefigured out the rides, I gotta
get going.
Uh, I got a meeting in themorning, and they were like,
Where are you going?
Like, hang out.
And they were just, they couldnot understand um not wanting to
hang out on a Thursday nightbecause yeah, they had some jobs
to go to, but a lot of theirjobs were things where they just
didn't quite frankly had tothink much.
(09:21):
They just showed up, clocked inand clocked out, and that was
it.
But when you're anentrepreneur, you realize that
number one, it's very, very hardto turn it off.
I don't think it's actuallypossible to completely turn it
off.
But number two, like it justit's the priority.
It's priorities that change.
And I think Alexia reallyalluded to that, where you get
(09:43):
to a point, maybe you're therenow, where you're like, oh my
gosh, my I don't want to do whatI've been doing for a long
time.
It's not that I don't enjoy it,it's not that I wouldn't like
to do it ever.
It's just my priorities havechanged.
And I think that's the hardthing for a lot of people who
are not business owners tounderstand.
Their work is not your work.
(10:03):
Your work is completelydifferent because your work is
not just what you're doing forclients.
Your work is growing yourbusiness.
And hopefully you're planningon or going to get to the point
where you can work on yourbusiness 50-50 with the amount
of work that you're doing foryour clients.
It really is ideal to be ableto work on your business, i.e.,
(10:24):
your website, tweaking yourprocesses, refining your
systems, marketing yourbusiness, taking time to hang
out in Web Designer Pro orwhatever web design community
you're a part of, makingfriendships, going to events,
working on you, working on yourbusiness.
That's the goal, 50-50 atleast.
But there really is that pointwhere you realize you're just
(10:45):
you're not the same person youwere before.
And the reality is that's thestatement.
You are not the same personthat you were before.
And your quote unquote friends,they are friends, but they kind
of have a choice.
They can either go with you ifthey choose to to be somebody
who might be a part of yourlife, or in my case, I've let so
(11:09):
many friendships go because andit's it's weird to put this in
like business terms because Iwant to make all life about
business, but um, I have thoughtabout this recently where I've
had some opportunities to meetup with old friends, and I'm
just I'm sitting here, I'm like,uh, what's the ROI on this
(11:30):
hangout?
You know, like if I drive for20 minutes and meet them, we
spend a couple hours together,drive back, that's three hours.
That's gonna, if I do that on aweekday, if I do it on the
weekend, I'm gonna miss familytime.
I do it on a weekday, I'm gonnamiss some work time or an
appointment or something.
What's that gonna you know looklike with our schedule?
This this sounds ridiculous,but those of you who end up
(11:50):
having a family in particular,you'll you learn, you're
probably some of you are therenow, where it's like a a
one-hour lunch ends up being ahuge deal because there's so
many factors and so manyvariables, and it's gonna take
you away from your flow of yourwork.
Like it becomes a half-daydeal, at least at minimum.
So you really start to measureyour ROI on this.
And I guess I'm I'm saying thatto say Alexia is not alone.
(12:15):
I'm there too.
And I'm also, I just want tosay, I think it's okay.
You you don't need to belifelong friends with people who
are not going in the samedirection as you, and that is
fine.
And I'm not saying that's foreverybody because there's a lot
of people who make friends inelementary school or middle
(12:36):
school or high school, andthey're friends forever, and
that's awesome.
And I and I like I said, Chris,who was just on the podcast,
he's in that bucket for me.
He's somebody who I knew at ayoung age, and um, you know, we
we don't hang out as much aswe'd like to, but he also has
four kiddos.
I've got three, so you know, acouple times a year, that's
that's that's about what we'rewe're able to do.
But it all that to say, likeit, it's okay if you feel like
(13:00):
you're alone and you're in thisweird middle spot where your old
friendships are just not whereyou want to stay, but then you
need to make some new friends.
And then it's hard because youwant to be friends with high
performers and people who aregoing where you want to go, but
then you may not have the levelof investment to join a 10K
mastermind or uh, you know, atop-tier community that's
(13:20):
thousands and thousands ofdollars yet, unless you get a
grant or join Web Designer Proand land a $5,000 website in a
couple of weeks.
Whatever the case may be, youmay want to get to this point
where you're you're ready tomove out of your old table of
friends and move into a newtable.
And there's a lot of differentways you can find friends.
If you're in a local area, Iwould definitely encourage doing
(13:43):
some stuff in person justbecause it's so good for just
our well-being and mental healthto get in person, to go to
meetings.
And you can do that in you canlook at meetup.com to look at
web design groups in your area.
Some of those meet virtually aswell.
But this is the softest layupever to saying that is one of
the main reasons I created mycommunity Web Designer Pro.
(14:06):
Alexia's newsletter here islike one of the main reasons I
had a vision of bringing peopletogether who were just awesome
and who are at specifically thisplace where you are just not
fitting in with your old friendgroup and you need new friends.
You want community, but youalso, let's be honest, maybe a
(14:28):
10,000 person Facebook groupjust isn't your idea of
friendship, nor do I blame you.
Nothing wrong with big Facebookgroups.
I ran Debbie Web Designers foryears.
I built that group up.
It's 25,000 plus people now.
I'm I don't I'm not terriblyactive in that group anymore.
I did sell it a few years ago,but all that to say, there's a
very different mindset with likeforums and public groups versus
(14:52):
a true private community whereyou can build friendships like
Alexia has done with Megan,Tamara, Sandra, and so many
others in Web Designer Pro.
Um, when Alexia was on thepodcast recently talking about
what what episode number wasthat?
Because Ben, who is anotheramazing member of Web Designer
Pro, was also on this one.
(15:13):
It was 395.
Uh, Alexia and Ben came on theepisode on 395 and we talked
together.
I shared one of our coachingcalls.
But even Ben was saying WebDesigner Pro has become so much
more than just a community, it'sactually like co-workers for
him.
And that's another littleunanticipated perk of Web
Designer Pro is we do we haveweekly hangouts and people are
(15:37):
connecting with each other, andthere's these like little micro
interactions that I don't evensee.
I mean, quite honestly, Iprobably see a fraction of
what's going on at Web DesignerPro because people are meeting
up and having calls with eachother and going to coffee
together and becoming truefriends and helping us all carry
each other through thisever-changing digital world.
(15:58):
So um, I think it's moreimportant than ever.
And if you are where Alexia waslast year, where she just
needed to get out of where shewas in her either friend group
or circles online and into aplace that's welcoming and into
a place where you're pretty muchguaranteed to make some
(16:18):
friendships because everyone isfreaking awesome, then Web
Designer Pro.
I really encourage you, myfriend, to jump in.
The community level is whereyou should definitely go because
that will give you access toAlexia and Sandra and Tamara and
Megan and so many other amazingWeb Designer Pro members.
But that's where I would go.
Introduce yourself and tell usa little bit about where you are
(16:41):
in the world, literally, whatyou're up to, and you will make
some friends.
And yeah, I just wanted toshare this because what I'm
seeing in Web Designer Pro, Iprobably need to do a better job
at marketing this.
It's just hard, it's hard tomarket, it really is hard to
market community because likewhen Alexia joined Pro, I
couldn't have said, you aregonna hit it off with Tamara,
(17:05):
Sandra, and Megan.
You guys, you four are gonnastay in an Airbnb together and
be best friends.
I didn't know.
You know, those those kind ofthings aren't something that can
be foreseen or and they're verytough to market, but those are
happening on a micro level allover in Web Designer Pro.
So I just really want toencourage you.
If you've been on the fence anduh, you know, yes, you want to
(17:26):
grow your business, you want tomake a lot of money, you want to
be able to build a successfulbusiness and do all that, huge.
Obviously, that's the you knowthe main thing that we're doing
in pro.
But also, if you want somefriends, it is the best place
for a web designer to findfriends because it's a small
group, it's small by design.
We have 215 total members inbetween the community and
(17:49):
coaching tier.
So uh coaching members just getmore access to me and weekly
coaching calls, but even as acommunity member, you'll get
access to everything else.
And it's just incredible, guys.
I mean, I just don't know whatto say other than these people
are freaking awesome.
And you just heard in the lastepisode, Sam, who took his
business to 250K in three years.
(18:10):
There is something about beingaround high performers, and I
can't wait to hear Alexia's uhrecap on WDP Con 2025 because
she had sent a video testimonialin or a um a response when I
because I messaged everyone whocame to the event and just
personally thanked them andwanted to hear their thoughts.
(18:32):
And she I remember her sayingit was a transformative event,
which is what she alluded tohere.
And I want transformation foryou too.
I want revenue, I want profit,I want a life of freedom,
absolutely, but really truly thething behind all that is
transformation, and that iswhat's going on in Web Designer
Pro.
It is truly transformationalfor so many web designers, and I
(18:55):
hope that's you too.
So if you've been on the fence,jump on in, go to
webdesignerpro.com.
Links in show notes for thisone, including Alexia's website
and her newsletter where you cansign up and get access to
these, will be over atjoshhall.co slash 400.
This is episode 400.
Uh, but yeah, friends, I hopeyou enjoyed this.
I just wanted to take some timeto share my thoughts on this
(19:18):
incredible subject.
I know I'm not alone.
Alexia's not alone.
And if you're feeling alone,now you know you're not alone.
And you will definitely not bealone when you join Web Designer
Pro and we can build ourbusinesses together.
And as they say, I'll leavewith a quote: rising tide lifts
all boats.
So if you want to jump on thattide, come on in, friends.
(19:39):
Webdesignerpro.com.
I hope to see you there.
And cheers uh to whateverfriendships are gonna be in your
near future here, whether it'sWeb Designer Pro or elsewhere.
I truly hope this helps giveyou some give you some inspo,
some friendship inspo, a littleweb designer therapy session on
me, my friend.
All right, I hope to see you inpro.
By the way, when you join WebDesigner Pro, I will uh this
(20:01):
it's an automation, but I willautomatically DM you and you'll
have a chance to get a littlecoaching boost from me.
You can tell me about whereyour business is, any initial
challenges, and I'll give you alittle five to ten minute video
coaching boost sharing uh whatI'd recommend you do next.
All right, my friends, have agreat, great week, and I'll see
y'all in the next episode.
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