239 – Becoming a Professional Overseas Web Designer with Richard Pruzek

[00:00:00] Josh: hey friends, welcome into episode 239, an absolute treat of an episode for you, especially those of you who may be web designers who are overseas, or if you are in a place in the world where your ideal clients are just not right in your neck of the woods Now is.

[00:00:21] Josh: the like the most amazing time to be online no matter where you are in the world. My guest in this podcast episode, Richard Pruzek, is a shining example of that. Richard is actually one of, literally one of my very first web design students, and I have seen him over about a five year journey now, build his web design business, all while being a web designer from the, well, it was the Czech Republic, now it’s dub cze.

[00:00:49] Josh: which I found out in this episode. Uh, but Richard has done an incredible job of being online, being a white label web designer with a focus primarily in divvy, although he’s using other builders now too. But more importantly, he’s done this completely online. He has literally built his web design business to full-time income status, and he’s done it by being in groups and being helpful and just kind of chipping at it one step at a time.

[00:01:14] Josh: In this episode, we uncover exactly how he did it so you can do the same. Again, I think this is gonna be really helpful for those of you who are overseas, and I wanna just bring up a quote that you’ll hear in a little bit that Richard says, but it just, it hit me in the best of ways, and that was, he said, I feel like I’m living the American dream even though I’ve never stepped foot in America.

[00:01:35] Josh: That my friends, is the true power of web design nowadays. Because again, no matter where you are in the world, if you have internet and have a computer, you can build the lifestyle that you wanna live all with web design as the tool that gets you. So to get you there. So let’s get me outta the way. Here’s Richard.

[00:01:50] Josh: Let’s hear exactly how he’s built his business completely online as an overseas web designer. Oh, I’m so excited for you to meet Richard, yourself. Here we go.

[00:02:03] Josh: Richard, welcome to the podcast. It has been. So I wanna just start off by saying it’s been so cool to see your journey progress, man, in the the last few years, like I’ve seen Yuko from kind of learning web design, getting your feet wet, to now you’re like a full-blown online entrepreneur or web designer.

[00:02:20] Josh: So thanks so much for taking some time to chat, man.

[00:02:23] Richard: Hey Josh. Thank you very much for having me. And you know that you’ve been, Actually witnessing my journey from the beginning, I could say. So it’s definitely a dream came true that I’m now on your podcast. And once again, thank you very much.

[00:02:36] Josh: Well, like I said, I, I’ve seen you progress as a website designer, and then you became really like a, a business owner in a lot of ways, and you got a couple different brands I’m sure we’re we’ll talk about. And then I saw like the web printer in you, like the entrepreneur, web design guy that just kinda sparked. And then, uh, I mean, you’ve had an incredible journey overseas as well.

[00:02:58] Josh: Like I, I really, I’m just excited to learn from you about what you’ve experienced because you have a much different path than I did being in Ohio and having a lot of local businesses. Like, would you say that you’ve built your business entirely online or have you ever done anything in person or anything like,

[00:03:15] Richard: Yeah, as I started building websites, it was, uh, originally V D d I started to approach the local businesses in the Czech Republic and potentially also in Austria, Germany. But the problem was that, especially in the Czech Republic, the budget is very often limited and the people’s mindset is just different.

[00:03:34] Richard: They are, people are not so much business oriented and the mindset is, I’m going to invest my time, spend my time, and save the money, rather than hiring someone else who will actually save. Money and save my time at the end. But it’s not how people think there. Of course there are exceptions, but we also have competition.

[00:03:53] Richard: So they are all of these agencies, as you have in the us. We have them in the Cze Republic too, and they are very strong. So I did some projects for the local businesses, but it wasn’t, you know, anything significant in terms of how much you can make. But I, it was definitely the beginning of my journey because you touched the whole business.

[00:04:11] Richard: You touched the, the web design itself. You touched the industry. So that was definitely very important in the beginning. But the real change started with. Uh, the Facebook group, the d web designers, which was the really the key point to, I would say, entering the international spaces. And, uh, from there I start, you know, I got my first international client from Ireland.

[00:04:37] Richard: It’s a pretty well known person in the DB community. And then I was also able to, uh, approach some other, other clients, some other agencies from Canada, from the United States and possibly also from Germany. And since then it’s only been growing and growing and

[00:04:55] Josh: so, yeah. You mentioned the d web designers Facebook group. Uh, you think you were a, a early member of, I remember. I mean, I started that in 2016. But I do remember you being like one of the first people to be like super helpful all the time. It seemed like, and that’s how I got to know you, was I just saw you answer questions in a real humble way. It wasn’t like you were like, hire me please.

[00:05:17] Josh: It was like what I teach everyone when you wanna build your web design business online is just join a group and be really helpful cuz you will get business that way. Like do, was that intentional for you, Richard, or do you feel like it’s just your nature to just be in those groups and helpful or was it more strategic for you?

[00:05:34] Josh: Um,

[00:05:35] Richard: in order, you know, honestly it was more about strategy because there is a big difference between the check. Groups that I know, uh, you know, Facebook groups around WordPress or web design and the one that you created and possibly the other ones in the international space, which is, uh, mostly fooled by US people.

[00:05:53] Richard: I have the impression, I don’t know the exact statistics, but I have the impression that at that time, majority of those people were from the United States. The vibes are rare and I think still are completely different. There is so much more positivity in the, uh, in, you know, in your group and in the other international groups than we have in the check groups.

[00:06:12] Richard: And I quickly learned that you should be much more positive. You should really, if you have some feelings, if you have some emotions, you should try to swallow them and you should really try to help the other people. And if someone is rude to you, just ignore it or, you know, don’t really, um, use any bad words or anything like that.

[00:06:34] Richard: This is one of the things that I learned quickly in the beginning, and I think it helped me because. If you see, if, if, if you are someone in the group and you see another post from a different person and then you see Richard, you know, being aggressive, maybe he had a bad day or anything like that. But it’s not really professional.

[00:06:53] Richard: And what I really wanna be is staying professional all of the time. Of course no one is professional a hundred percent of the time, but you know, we try our best. I try our best. And I think one of the key points is just swallowing my emotions, not really letting my emotions, uh,

[00:07:10] Josh: to show. Well, the cool thing about that too is like with a forum or a group, you have ti like you don’t have to respond when you’re in a bad mood or you’re having a bad, bad day. You could always get back to it the next day. Or like, you don’t need, like when you’re not live interacting, you have time to, to process a comment or to help when you can.

[00:07:28] Josh: So it’s a good lesson, man. I mean you, what’s fascinates me about you Richard, is so you’re in the Czech Republic. , you’ve talked already about the cultural differences, the mindset differences, but I’m curious, like did you, is it in your nature to g get away from some of the negativity, whether it’s culturally, like, again, you talked about business owners doing it themselves rather than investing and, and getting time back and be more profitable.

[00:07:55] Josh: Like, I, I guess my question would be how are you different? Like, have you, have you gone online and got inputs from, from different people that have helped you become who you are? Or do you feel like you’re always kind of an outcast in, in your own culture? Uh, cuz you seem different than, it sounds like a, a lot of others around you might be.

[00:08:15] Richard: Well, honestly, if I take a look at Josh Hall, which is a brand now, I think that the brand is full of positivity. So one of the inspiration that I took was definitely Josh Hall was you, because I think most of the time you are positive or maybe all of the time because I don’t really remember you being negative or you know, writing something negative.

[00:08:33] Richard: Maybe once I saw comments on your own website where you had the tutorial and that was a person, which was quite rude, but still you replied in a way that, hey man, this is a little bit rude, but here is a solution. So you just told him, Hey man, you are a little bit rude, but I still help you. I’m still going to help you.

[00:08:51] Richard: And that’s something that inspired me a lot. So I would say you were a bit big part of that because I saw your business growing as well. Um, you know, you going to the, you know, courses business or the courses industry and everything. And I think huge part of that is that because you are, you are positive, you know, and I don’t think it’s only about business, I think it’s in life as well.

[00:09:13] Richard: Um, There was a guy in our school in high school, which I am not a hundred percent sure how to say the words in English, but it’s basically every school has a guy who takes care of all the physical things, uh, you know, the windows and chairs and so on.

[00:09:29] Josh: Like we call it a janitor, probably.

[00:09:31] Richard: Yeah. Yeah. And he always used to stay, uh, at the front door and he said hello, good morning to every single person who came to the school and it was like 400, 500 people.

[00:09:42] Richard: And I used to not smile, not really smile in the morning because I had to get up early and so on. And he gave me one of the best advices. He said, if you smile to other people, they will smile to you, smile to you. And also judge, if you have the decision to spend time with someone who is positive, who always tell some jokes and who is really positive, or with someone who is negative and complains about things all the time, what would you choose?

[00:10:07] Richard: I think I personally would choose the positive person and I try to be that person. That doesn’t mean that in my private li my life, I’m always positive, but then I have some ways how to release that negative emotions, sports, and some other.

[00:10:21] Josh: Wow. What a gem of a thought, Richard. A couple things there. First off, thank you for your, your comment on my brand and, and, uh, you were early on seeing me show up online.

[00:10:32] Josh: I completely forgot about some things, like the comment kind of stuff, but that is a good lesson to remind everyone that people read your freaking comments, whether it’s on the blog post or on Facebook, like people are watching how you react. I had to catch myself early on because I, I’ve never had too many haters or anything, but I have had a lot of rude people, which happens in all industries, but particularly like web design space that happens sometimes.

[00:10:55] Josh: And I used to bite back pretty quick, but I had to stop myself once I became an authority, cuz I started remembering that like you and others are looking at how I’m responding and there’s a way to do that tactfully. And quite frankly, the issue usually isn’t, it’s, the issue is usually on the person. Like it’s usually something they’re going through or they’re being kind of an idiot and.

[00:11:15] Josh: You don’t need to be an idiot too. Like you can, you can let them say what they want, they’re gonna embarrass themself and you can just actually be helpful and turn it around. Or sometimes I’ve found people learning English can come across wrong, but it’s just because they don’t know the exact words to say.

[00:11:28] Josh: And I’ve seen your English come such a long way, man, in the past few years. So a couple great points right there as far as dealing internationally too, like with different cultures, with different language barriers and stuff. And to your point man, the janitor, that is such a good point about smiling and when it comes to clients and working with people.

[00:11:48] Josh: I wanna say this cuz you brought this up. It’s a great point. Be the one to smile first. Like don’t head into a meeting or a call with somebody and hope that they set the mood or the tone. You should be the one if you smile and you’re like, Hey, it’s so good to see you. I’m so excited to, to talk about this project.

[00:12:05] Josh: And it’d be an incredible opportunity to work with you. That is way different than going in there like frowny face. Being a little negative or like, or, or, or you know, any other type of, of mood. Like if you smile and yes, you don’t wanna be fake, but you can still put on a smile. A anybody can smile even, you know, depending on what your mood is like, it goes such a long way.

[00:12:27] Josh: So, I’m so glad you said that. It reminded me, we had a janitor when I started high school. His name was Cecil. I haven’t thought about him since high school. And he gave elbows to everyone that came in. He’d hold his, hold his elbow out, he had like no teeth. And he was like, Hey buddy, come on in, come on in

[00:12:42] Josh: And he like, everyone was his friend and everyone loved Cecil. So, Tip of the day. I’m so glad you brought that up. Cecil or uh, Richard. Be Cecil. Give, give a smile, give an elbow and just welcome her. I love that thought, man. I’m so glad you mentioned that.

[00:12:56] Richard: Yeah. Yeah. And I would say another thing which I think appeared in your Tuesday quick tips was don’t burn britches and I can’t think of, uh, an example right now, but I’m definitely sure it already happened to me, where maybe the client. Writes you an email, which is not that polite or not that friendly. But first of all, it’s a question of English as you said. It’s a question of understanding the language, which for someone who is not English native speaker might be hard.

[00:13:25] Richard: And then also within the English speaking areas, there might be differences. I assume in the United States you use a little bit different English than people from Australia or Britain or you know, whatever. Yeah. And then another thing is that you don’t really see that person when you see that person physically.

[00:13:41] Richard: You can see from the eyes, you can see from, you know, the smile from, from the posture and everything. If that person is really angry, uh, or impolite to you. Or maybe it’s just having a bed there. So I would say that you always have time in the future to react in a negative way, but I would always say use it as the really last thing and consider not using it at all because, What is the

[00:14:06] Josh: poem isn’t That’s right.

[00:14:07] Josh: That’s what I was gonna say. It’s like, uh, the, the decision I came to more recently, anytime I do see a comment that I wanna respond to or something nasty that I’d love to respond to, I just don’t, because number one, I know how much energy it’s gonna take for, even if it’s a small comment, it takes some energy and some life out of you getting negative.

[00:14:24] Josh: And the reality is, this is something I think we all go through as people online and on social media. It’s like you are going to encounter plenty of negativity. It’s our job to like put the blinders on and not respond to it. It’s one thing if you need to defend yourself, but more all cases than not, it’s probably just something you don’t even need to acknowledge or respond to, or just be you and just try to put a positive spin on it.

[00:14:50] Josh: Like I’ve had clients that have said some things and then I just didn’t respond negative in a way. And then they came back and they were fine and they, some, in some cases they apologized. Uh, I’ll never forget. I, and this comes back to, to my mind all the time because I see this logo designed around Columbus.

[00:15:09] Josh: I designed a logo years ago for, uh, a mechanical company called Ohio Mechanical. And the first version of the logo I sent over this guy came back and said, are you kidding me, Josh? This? Like, I could have done this myself. It looks like clip art. And I think he said like, we, we had expected way more than this.

[00:15:26] Josh: And it really took me off guard. And I, I started a, like, negative email and I reacted to it and was kind of blasting him for not giving me the direction and putting the, the blame on him. But I think I was just for father enough in, in my career where I was like, this is not gonna go well. Like, there’s no way for this to end.

[00:15:44] Josh: Well, rather than me just, you know, either canceling the project or giving him a refund. So I slept on it and I said, you know, maybe it’s just an issue of the expectations and everything. And then I tried to become a bit more positive and then he came back and it was like a whole different person. He was like, yeah, you’re totally right.

[00:16:02] Josh: Here are some examples and let’s go with that. The next round of revisions, he said he loved it and we were done. And that experience taught me that, that one negative opportunity I just had to stop myself from, from going there. So, it’s a great reminder, man, because I think we all experience this as service providers.

[00:16:20] Josh: You are going to get people who don’t know how to like, communicate well and, and they’re gonna, they’re gonna piss you off. So it’s a great reminder. Yeah. Be control of our emotions and, uh, and take the high road, I

[00:16:32] Richard: guess. Yeah. I’m not exactly sure who said it, uh, but I heard that every poor decision that you make is when your emotions are stronger than your mind.

[00:16:44] Richard: And I kind of identify with that idea because even in personal life, I, it might be even more relevant in personal life. It is actually true. And I think if people, if people see that you are angry and that’s much more relevant in, you know, personal life because they see your face and all the posture and everything, you actually show me a weakness.

[00:17:05] Richard: Um, of course positive emotions is something different If you win or if there’s, why not let it, you know, out of your body, out of your mind. Um, but the negative ones, I think that people who have some. Certain problems with themselves, uh, are usually the ones who get angry easily. And I used to be the same person honestly, but I’m just learning my way to staying calmly because I think staying calm is healthy, first of all.

[00:17:32] Richard: And it also, you know, pushes you forward. And then I would also, um, you know, add another more thought that I was just thinking as you were speaking, you absolutely agree with, you know, trying to stay positive and so on at the same time, if there is something you don’t really like, what I prefer to do is say that in a polite way so that there is a mutual respect.

[00:17:54] Richard: The respect that the client’s client has for you and the respect that I have for the client because he’s the one paying for the job at the same time, I’m the one providing some service. So I think that has to be mutually respect. And I’m really fortunate that currently all of my clients, which I have a longrun relationship with, are on that level that we respect each other and

[00:18:14] Josh: it’s really great.

[00:18:15] Josh: Well, and I think that goes back to the way you present yourself and come across like the, the quote, your vibe attracts your tribe. You have so perfectly like executed this because the way you come across Richard, is professional and easygoing and easy to talk to and super helpful. And you’re getting clients who respond to that.

[00:18:34] Josh: And I, I think because you are like a deeper relationship kind of person with your clientele, I know a lot of them have been with you for years. But it’s because of everything we’ve talked about so far, like you’ve shown up and you’ve, you’ve helped. And it sounds like, honestly, going back to my point earlier, like you’ve had to look online for different inspiration because it may not be right around you.

[00:18:57] Josh: Like, as a follow up to my question earlier did you intentionally find, like me or others who you felt like you could, uh, emulate or model after a little bit? Or did that just kind of happen by accident? Like, did you get in a web design and then just suddenly find that, oh, that’s actually a lot of really cool people in this industry, or did you go online thinking I need to surround myself with different people than what’s around me?

[00:19:21] Richard: Honestly, initially it was more an accident because I was probably searching for something, something related to dv and at that time you already had a lot of tutorials and I come, came across your website and I saw the DV web designer group in the footer of the website. So I joined the group and from there it just started.

[00:19:41] Richard: I think that the group honestly was the changing thing, changing point in my career because I saw the whole different mentality as we talked about, and I saw the potential to also show my work, maybe to offer some, you know, as you say, free help or some freebies, just present myself, not in a way that, Hey, I’m Richard and I’m offering some services you can pay for, but more in a way, Hey, I’m Richard and this is my work, you know, I’m able to do this and that.

[00:20:11] Richard: and if you are interested, you could, you could reach out. But that’s not something I wrote. That’s something that the people eventually did. So it actually, the calculation was correct, I would say.

[00:20:21] Josh: Yeah. That’s, that’s amazing. Wow. Gosh, that’s so cool just to hear. I mean, there, there was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that went into building that group, so to hear that from your end, that’s really cool.

[00:20:30] Josh: I’ve never heard that before, that you joined a group and then you look at the culture and it’s like, wow, I could, this is a mate, like, it’s inspirational because you’re seeing people po who are responding positively and are helpful and I guess yeah, if you’re not in that situation, it’s like, I, I, I, I would put it, I’m trying to think of a, another way to, uh, to imagine that like here in the States, it’d be like growing up in a bad family and then you, you’re in a place where like, wow, not everyone.

[00:21:00] Josh: in my type of situation, and you realize like, what’s possible and you don’t need to stay in, in your own comfort zone or your own, like barriers and your limitations. So, um, I didn’t think we’d go here in this conversation at all, but I love this man because this, this is really important with like growing your business, particularly online when it can be lonely.

[00:21:17] Josh: And if you don’t have the people and the support system around you that is gonna be empowering and uplifting, then you gotta go to it and you gotta kind of, whether it’s join a free or premium community, whatever it is, you need to like, be intentional about that. Have you, um, like how have you dealt with this in your personal life?

[00:21:37] Josh: Do you, do you have people around you, in your family or friends who are of a similar mindset? Or has, has the online world been probably like the most important for you as far as staying positive, seeing opportunities, getting past, like mindset barriers? Yeah. What what about that? Um,

[00:21:55] Richard: yeah, I was thinking about it and honestly, From the Czech Republic, you know, from the people that I attended the school with and my friends and so on, there is actually a really low amount of people who do any type of business, especially online business.

[00:22:10] Richard: But at the same time, the internet and all the technology allowed me to connect with people from Germany, for instance, which I already made a couple holidays with. There is a great guy, Oliver, who is now with me in in Spain here, uh, doing holiday, like working vacation. We are working and doing the holiday together.

[00:22:27] Richard: So the networking is amazing online, but physically in my surroundings, I have to say that that’s, it’s, it’s rare to find anyone who really wants to start a business. I have a friend Andre in the capital of Slovakia Slava, who is also active online, but you know, these are really exceptions.

[00:22:47] Josh: Yeah. And I was just looking at, we’ll, we’ll get into this I’m sure, but you, you have a business you started called 10 degrees@tendegrees.co and is Oliver the one there who does s e O.

[00:22:59] Josh: Uh,

[00:22:59] Richard: it’s, it’s one of the free guys on the homepage. Okay. On the, on the hero section. Yeah. Uh, I would need to open the website now to, to check if that’s the left one. On the right. One Is the right one, the one ? Yeah. Like there is one who is now, uh, with me on vacation and the other one is the other one from Slovakia. Gotcha. Who I talked about as well. So

[00:23:19] Josh: all of them in one picture. So you built this network online of now you are like, you’re, you’re again embracing like an entrepreneurial role as far as like you’ve developed this incredible network of, of fellow designers, most of whom I think pretty much everyone is, is not in Western countries. Is that right? Like, or, or do you, are you partnering right now with people in Australia, the uk or the. Uh,

[00:23:44] Richard: Oliver for ex for example, the guy that I spend the holiday with is from Germany. So I consider Germany as a western country, actually. Okay. Even though it’s the eastern part. So it wasn’t, you know, necessarily the, the West, but I still consider Germany as a whole, the western part.

[00:23:58] Richard: Um, but I have really great clients from the us. US is now, majority of my business is, I would say like over 80%. I have some great, uh, clients in Canada as well, and now also from the Netherlands. And in the past there was someone from Ireland. Uh, but I haven’t, unfortunately I haven’t met anyone yet from the US even though we are really like almost friends with, uh, some guys from Virginia. We are planning to meet maybe in Portugal. Whoever,

[00:24:27] Josh: whatever. Uh, but yeah. Well I told you whenever you visit the states man, come to Ohio and we’ll share a, uh, a Czech pilsner together. Uh, I I know that’s, that’s one of your favorites. And, uh, we don’t have too many here in Columbus. You did send me, I know it was funny cuz you like researched in Columbus where I could get a, a legitimate like Chet Pilsner ear, so, Absolutely, absolutely.

[00:24:52] Josh: Be I still yet a pleasure. I still, I’ve still yet to do that, so I promise, by golly, I’m gonna get there and, and, uh, cheers you virtually. But it is a good point, like building your network online, you could kind of like, you can build your network online by region or by country or by different cultures. I, I kind of like that because you get to learn so much more, not only about different cultures, but the way people work differently, uh, if you do end up getting clients internationally and stuff.

[00:25:19] Josh: So for somebody like you, I’m kind of curious, when you got your first clients, you have your personal brand, richard prosec.com, um, is that still, like, did, did you ever have a different brand or have you always done stuff under your personal brand when you started your.

[00:25:36] Richard: The personal brand has worked the best for me. Even the 10 degrees business, as you mentioned, actually does not work as well as the personal brand. So I think I am going to stick with the personal brand for now because, especially for wide label business, um, it is something that makes more sense probably for the companies, for the agencies because rather than hiring a white label agency, they want to bring a new team member, especially some of the agencies I have a wrong relationship with.

[00:26:04] Richard: Um, they’re really looking to hire a new team member, you know, rather than I would say, outsourcing to another company.

[00:26:12] Josh: Yeah, that’s a good point. I, I would imagine as a, as an agency, if you’re looking to do that, even if you had people working with you, there is a lot of, there’s probably a lot of, um, interest in having like, Person in involved that way because if you do get like another agency under an agency, the question might be, well, who the heck am I gonna talk to?

[00:26:34] Josh: Do they have turnover? Like we don’t want to talk with one person and another person come in. So it makes sense that a personal brand from a white label perspective would work really well. I’m kind of curious cuz you started doing a, a lot, a lot of white label stuff, but were you taking clients on yourself as well in the early days, Richard? Did you balance both, like taking your own clients, doing maintenance and care and doing white label? How did that look in the early days?

[00:26:58] Richard: Yeah, so when I started in the states or let’s say internationally, but it was, especially in the States, it was all about white label because since my, let’s say marketing channel was the Facebook group, uh, or Facebook groups, it was mostly the agency owners or the business owners who were already there, but those people were already somehow connected with the TV builder.

[00:27:21] Richard: That means it was pretty hard to get some companies, some local companies who would, you know, look for a completely new website bill and who would hire me, especially if I’m someone overseas, because I think that for some people it still matters. On the other hand, American people are so great. They don’t care that much about you having an accent or you being located overseas.

[00:27:46] Richard: With the clients, not the white label, not not doing the job as a white label guy, but more like the the real agency. It’s getting more and more right now because I’m being recommended by some awesome people from the TV community who I was lucky enough to work with and they’re now sending the clients my way.

[00:28:04] Richard: For example, on Monday I’m gonna have another call with a potential client of mine, so that’s really getting better and better. Uh, but it’s still, majority of the work is whitelabel and in the beginning it was almost everything whitelabel except for a few local clients, which I manage, uh, in a long run. I have long run relationship with, but

[00:28:25] Josh: White Label was really good.

[00:28:26] Josh: Have you got clients, not white label, like your clients internationally? Have you got any clients stateside, uk, Germany, wherever that are, like you’re their web designer that you met online or is it mainly all white label?

[00:28:40] Richard: This is slowly developing, but for now I would say 95% is white label and the companies are coming slowly, uh, but they are mostly coming because I’m recommended by the people who trust me and I’m really thankful for that.

[00:28:54] Richard: Uh, but you know, since it is based on trust, it’s a long process and I am totally understand that They first need to be absolutely sure that I’m a reliable person before they send leads to my way, because they’re also risking their own brand. So I think,

[00:29:11] Josh: I think that’s, yeah, that’s a good point. I know we’ve had some, some talk in the web design club about you like taking the next level with building your clientele.

[00:29:20] Josh: That way you’re not solely reliant on another agency for white label work. So it’s kind of an exciting new chapter for you, I would imagine to, because you’re far, you’re far enough along now, Richard, that you have got the notoriety and authority to build your clientele and do more ongoing retainers and care.

[00:29:35] Josh: So I, I’m really excited about that for you and I, and I think that’s a part of when you launched 10 Degrees was that like you, uh, had a little more control and like, having direct clients and not being, or not, not, um, finding a middle man essentially. Cuz when you’re a white labeler, there’s always a middleman between you and the client generally.

[00:29:54] Josh: So that’s a really cool path though, man. Like your, your story so far and your journey has so. Like shown how you can be an overseas designer and you can build your business online. You can change your mindset pricing mindset too. We’ve talked about that. Like you, you can set your pricing to Western standards if you want.

[00:30:16] Josh: You don’t need to stay in the price pricing mindset of your physical location because you’re online. I know it’s something that I tried to kind of coach you on too. I was like, dude, you’re way more valuable than this. Raise your rates. So I love that man. I think you’re off to a, a a great, not start to your journey, but like you’re off, you’re off to a new chapter.

[00:30:35] Josh: It seems like, and I love what you said so far about being trustworthy and, and working with clients and, and different countries. Cuz I think you’re right. Americans in particular were, from what I gather and what I know, we’re fine with hiring people overseas. Even if people can’t speak English great.

[00:30:52] Josh: Like on a camera, like I just hired some VA help with actually one of my web design students who was like, 80 or 85% va, but she does a little bit of web design. Um, Chris, she’s from the Philippines, and she said she’s not comfortable to be on camera, but she types in great English. If I were just texting her and emailing her, I’d assume she lived in Pennsylvania or something, you know, like she, she speaks great English that way.

[00:31:16] Josh: So there’s a lot of barriers that I feel like have been diminished or they’re, they’re, you know, the online world has, has helped with all that. So it’s really, it’s really cool. I, I feel like it’s an exciting time for designers overseas. Would you agree? Like, do you feel like now is more exciting than even five years ago when, when we got connected and you started.

[00:31:37] Richard: Honestly, absolutely. I think there’s been more opportunity now than ever before. Not only talking about web design, but talking in general. Pretty much everyone who nowadays has a connection to internet and some basic computer can become a millionaire. And doesn’t really matter if you are from a poor fertil world country or if you are from the US or any country in the world.

[00:31:57] Richard: That’s the amazing part. That’s something that is so emotional for me because I can say that I’ve been living the American dream without ever being in America, which is funny, but it’s the trace. Yeah, because I use Facebook, which is an American company for the initial contact with the first clients. I use dv, which is produced in America, you know, and my first clients were from America in Canada.

[00:32:21] Richard: So, and, and, and if I can live it, uh, based on the U in the European Union, then also any other person can do it who is based in third world countries. And I think it’s really motivational life for me personally, to think about it like that is really motivational.

[00:32:38] Josh: What a thought man you are living the American dream and you’ve never stepped foot in America. That is beautiful, Richard. That’s, gosh, that’s awesome, man. And it is, this is, you’re, you have just laid out why I’m so excited about web design in general is like there are no barriers anymore as long as you have internet and as long as you are willing to grow and learn.

[00:32:57] Josh: And f in your case, it sounds like it started with mindset and then it, and then it spilled over to actual work and, and just there’s a reason your career has taken off to this point and you’re able to support yourself because, Of all the things we talked about with mindset and being helpful and, um, and finding.

[00:33:14] Josh: I feel like finding your superpower too, like when you got into business, did you have initially any desire to start your own business and be a business owner and become an entrepreneur? Or were you just like hopeful to make money doing websites? What did that look like as far as your mindset of what the goal was in the beginning?

[00:33:32] Richard: Well, I al always wanted to start a business. It was always my dream to become a businessman, you know, to be rich. I’m sorry to say it like that. I know that money is not the most important asset, um, but it is important and it can bring you to some other things, to some other values.

[00:33:47] Richard: It you can buy time, let’s say with money and so on. So I always wanted to be a businessman. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, writer. Remember, uh, selling fruit on the slip uh, as I was 15 years old and I tried a couple of other things. I tried affiliate and this stuff, but I can tell you that I found my passion in web design.

[00:34:06] Richard: And the funny thing about it is that in the high schools, and I attended two high schools, uh, in total, I was always the worst person in art. And the teacher would, you know, confirm that I was always the worst one. Always getting the, the worst notes and everything. But then somehow I’m making money from web designer, which is a lot about the visual, you know, being visually talented, maybe even though I don’t really think I’m talented for drawing something on the paper.

[00:34:33] Richard: If you give me a pencil, that will be terrible. Uh, but maybe it’s an interesting topic as well, because I don’t really think that web design is art that much. I think it’s much more of an analytic thing of something that sh you know, should bring the business to a certain goal. You know, most, most of the times it should make money.

[00:34:51] Richard: If that’s a ngo, it should, you know, do some other things. But there is a certain goal and we as web designers, together with other professionals, SEO experts and PPC experts and so on, our job is to maximize profit or whatever other goal of the website we have. And so I don’t think it’s that much about the art. On the other hand, of course you have to have some, some eye for design,

[00:35:15] Josh: right? Uh, but yeah, that what a great point, man. This is a blast because you are an incredible designer. In fact, when I refer you, you’re kind of on my referral network because you’ve always been so trustworthy and dependable and you’ve done great work.

[00:35:27] Josh: Like everyone who I referred you to is like, dude, Richard was awesome. Um, one of the first things I say is he’s an incredible designer. Like he’s an awesome designer. So how ironic that in our class you were like the worst student, but I would consider you an online artist. Now that’s so, that’s great.

[00:35:45] Josh: Like, I think, I don’t know if I told you, if you heard me talk about getting a d and typing when I was in high school, I almost failed typing cuz I was so bad at computer stuff. I was te I just, it d I was daunting for me wasn’t natural to me. I’m not a techie like that. I’m not a computer guy, quote unquote.

[00:36:05] Josh: and I literally like barely pass typing. I type all day now every day and coach, and I don’t even think about it. And I am probably my, my best medium is, is articulating my thoughts through typing. So another example like you and I are a good example is that maybe the traditional academic world we did not flourish in, by golly, online entrepreneurship count us in.

[00:36:28] Josh: And I love that thought, man, that it is about a results in business growth over just artistic expression, which you’re right, you gotta design nice, you have to have something that’s pleasing. But if art trumps the, the business growth and results of a website and function, I guess that’s it. If art Trump’s function try to say that, right you’re outta balance. Like it, people are not gonna pay for something that just looks pretty and nice, but isn’t converting and isn’t helping them grow their business.

[00:36:56] Josh: How long did it take you to realize that? Do you feel like you caught. that pretty early on, or do you feel like there was a moment in your career so far that you realized results in business growth is the point of the website not just to look pretty?

[00:37:10] Richard: Um, I think it was a kind of like a slow process. Uh, also if you take a look at some of the biggest and most profitable websites in the world, let’s take a look at Amazon. I’m not saying Amazon is looking bad at the same time. They’re, you know, it’s, it’s not designed. It’s not the best design in the world.

[00:37:28] Richard: Like, you know, if you take a look at some of the websites, maybe Instagram, where people share their designs, you would find thousands of better ideas. But there is a reason why Amazon is using what they use. I’m pretty sure that’s such a big company’s a huge analytical thing. They’re analyzing everything.

[00:37:45] Richard: They’re analyzing all the behavior on the website, so they know very well what they do. And even though it may not look the best, it is optimized for conversion. And at the end of the day, this is what matters. I’m also not saying that we should not, uh, follow any ethic. Uh, we should definitely follow Epic.

[00:38:03] Richard: So we should not, like, you know, there might be some things like the counters, you know, uh, who repeat themselves, like we have the last 30 minutes and then repeat it. It repeats itself and so on. But it has something to do with the value of the business. Um, but eventually, yeah, I think the goal is to conversion and this is what matters.

[00:38:22] Richard: Yeah,

[00:38:23] Josh: that’s, well, that’s well

[00:38:24] Richard: said. Uh, I’m, yeah, sorry for, to interrupt you. I just, uh, one other thing came to my idea, it also depends on the audience because for example, if you ca take a look at the car industry, you would see pretty different cars in the us, in China and in Europe. Whereas we in Europe have smaller cars.

[00:38:41] Richard: With small engines. You have, you know, these big trucks in America, in China, they also have, you know, uh, they prefer showing off that they have the big car. That’s why the European, you know, car produces now with just the design to China. And the same will be with websites because if the person likes different cars, the person will also like different, you know, websites almost likely because they have different style, I would say. So that also is something that,

[00:39:07] Josh: that’s a really great point. I would imagine culturally if you’re overseas, it would probably be a part of the learning curve is to figure out how, like if you’re working with American clients, how American think, like how Americans think about their brand and their customer type versus folks from the UK or, or Australia or, or whatever.

[00:39:26] Josh: Like, you’re right, there is a difference often culturally between expectations of customers and like what a design might look like and what even the function may look like. I mean, either way, I think you’re right, conversion is, is. That’s the most important thing for websites, but how to get to that conversion is probably where it might change culturally, depending on the type of customers for the site.

[00:39:47] Josh: So, yeah, that’s, that’s interesting, man. I, I actually experienced this, so we moved last year, but previous to that, we had a family that moved next to us that I th I think they were a Cambodian and they had a few different, like their, so the guy’s mother and father lived in the neighborhood as well, and then his sister did too.

[00:40:05] Josh: So they had a few different, like family members in the neighborhood. And when they moved next to us, I noticed that they always kept their garage door open and he had a white car. . And then I also noticed, because I saw him like ride his bike to his, his parents’ house and his sister’s house, they also always had their garage doors open.

[00:40:25] Josh: Like always, unless it was like 11 o’clock at night or something like that. And they all had white cars as well. Everyone in that family had a white vehicle. So I was like, that can’t be a coincidence. So I looked it up and sure enough, in certain Asian cultures, white cars are like a sign of of privilege and like success.

[00:40:43] Josh: So I felt, I thought it was fascinating cuz I didn’t like that’s not something, at least like color-wise, I don’t know of Americans view a certain color of a car like that. It may be styles of car, but that’s just another point to where like if they were to start a business and they wanted to hit a certain customer, then that kind of thing may be implicated in that they, they may want more like white color or you know, like different type of styles that are based off of cultural preferences.

[00:41:08] Josh: So, I don’t know, I just wanted to throw that in there cuz I, I, you know, I. I never would’ve thought about that until I noticed like, wow, that’s, that’s no coincidence. And sure enough, it’s something culturally, so,

[00:41:18] Richard: yeah, absolutely. And then you also have different industries. For example, I’m now working on a website for a car dealership with the American Classics from the sixties and seventies, and I was told that the potential customers are mostly older people, so of course you want to adjust the website for older elderly audience.

[00:41:37] Richard: So you want the phone size to be bigger, you want the buttons to be bigger. You want the website to be as easy to navigate as possible because you have older people on this, on the other side of the screen. So there’s also something that you should consider, you know? Um,

[00:41:52] Josh: that’s a great point, man. What, uh, going back to like finding your your, your superpower, your areas of specialty, like I consider your, your design tops, ironically, to be one of the biggest assets for you. But what about you, Richard, from your point of view, what do you think your biggest strengths are?

[00:42:10] Josh: Because I hope this is helpful for other people who are finding their strengths, uh, because a lot of people are doing a lot of different things, which is where we all start, but at some point you gotta start to specialize in some way. What, what are your biggest. Yeah, I think

[00:42:23] Richard: that I am able to design a website which is liked by many people. Uh, on the other hand, of course, there is always space to improve, so I just, you know, don’t wanna put myself into position that I am also more great or anything. Uh, I think there is, there is room for improvement, but at the same time, there is also the other side, I would call it the business side of the things, which is the reliability as you mentioned.

[00:42:47] Richard: And, you know, being able to deliver the work when there is a deadline. Communication, I think that my clients appreciate it. I’m pretty com you know, I’m pretty. Fast in responses because I am on Slack with some of my clients. As I said, I’m more like a part of the team and I’m able to communicate maybe in late PM hours in a century European time zone when I’m in the Czech Republic and my clients are in the Eastern, uh, you know, the e s T Times Zone.

[00:43:19] Richard: which obviously is something that not everybody would be willing to do because you have like 10:00 PM and you have a call, you have a kickoff call with the potential client, but you still do that because you want to be reliable. Um, so I would say the technical part of the thing. Designing good websites would be one part, but then for the long run relationships, which are essential for me because I want the client to come back all over again.

[00:43:44] Richard: Um, it’s also about the reliability. It’s also about trying to provide a good service, not only good websites, but also all around, you know, because we work on revisions all the time with the clients. I sometimes, in case, uh, of one of my clients from Virginia, I directly communicate with the company via the Slack channel. So of course they want the person to represent the company very well. Uh, so I would say these two things combined.

[00:44:11] Josh: Well, I would agree with that. Based off of what I know about you and from, from folks I’ve referred to, you have said, yeah, like your communication is spot on. And even when, when we email each other, You’re pretty quick.

[00:44:23] Josh: Like I, I try to get back 24 hours to everybody, ideally, and I you seem to have have held that as well, which is very impressive, particularly in seasons where I’m sure you had a lot of different clients. And you’re right, the, the beauty about nowadays with different time zones is like if you’re working as a white label partner with a, like a agency from California, for example, you’re not gonna overlap during the same business hours.

[00:44:48] Josh: However, I’ve, I learned this when I worked with Jonathan when he was my lead designer for in transit. At the end of the day when I would give him like some stuff to do and put my thoughts down, he was working on that overnight. And then in the morning it was like everything was done and it was like a new day.

[00:45:03] Josh: I was like, wow, my agency got a ton of stuff done while I was sleeping. This is really cool. So there’s actually a lot of benefit to not being in the same time zone. Yeah, it gets tricky sometimes depending on, on overlap of like calls, but if you can limit those and keep messages to Slack or base camp or whatever, there’s a lot of benefit to to working overseas.

[00:45:23] Josh: And I think people are a little more accustomed to that now too, compared to like maybe 10 years ago. So, yeah, no, I, I think there’s a lot of room for that. And actually I was kinda wondering from your perspective, Richard, what are the best technologies for global communication? Like you and I have talked through Facebook Messenger quite a bit, slack, are there project management tools are there other avenues that you’re finding, you’re communicating a lot on? Like what are, I guess for the question would be what are the top platforms you’re using to communicate globally now?

[00:45:54] Richard: Yeah, I really love Slack, um, which we use with couple of companies right now. I initially was invited by my client, uh, to use Slack with them, and they, you know, have each channel, like they have one channel for each.

[00:46:09] Richard: Customer for each client. And then I added to these channels. And then we also have some internal channel. So for communication, I think Slack is the best. What I’ve tried so far. I also tried base cam, which I quite of like, but in com, you know, comparing to Slack, I think Slack is a little bit better in my eyes.

[00:46:27] Richard: And then click up for project management is also great because it offers you so much of customization. Um, even though sometimes I prefer not to overcomplicate things, that means I’m also okay with email communication because, for example, if from Canada, uh, we communicate via email and it’s been great.

[00:46:49] Richard: And I’m really thankful for that because we don’t overcomplicate things, you know, we don’t create boards and everything. When I mentioned base cam, there is a book called Rework, which was Ra uh, written by the guys who created Base Cam. They share exactly this message. Don’t overcomplicate things. Let’s try to keep everything as simple as possible, which I also try to use in my emails rather than, you know, writing long progress, trying to be quick, but also very simple.

[00:47:14] Josh: Um, that’s a great point. Yeah. Like the guys from Base Camp I, that book Rework, I recommend it for anyone because it, it really is a, it’s a great read. It’s visual too, but they even say it like, They’ve been accused basecamp has been accused of being like overly simple as far as the look and style, but Basecamp is the one project management system that seems to outlast them all. Like a lot of them come and go.

[00:47:38] Josh: Even Trello, I feel like is dipping down in popularity. Click up seems to kind of have taken over from, from my, my experience at least. But I still use base camp and I tried a sauna. Sauna was pretty cool, but I, I just like base camp more. It was, yeah, there’s not maybe as many functions, at least the plan that I have, but it was, it was everything that I needed and it’s simple. So I think it’s a good lesson too, just in your messages and everything, try to just keep things concise and simple.

[00:48:06] Josh: Do you feel like overseas designers struggle with that at all, depending on language barriers and everything? Or do you feel like it’s easier in some way just to get quick points across as you’re learning languages and. Uh, you know, like in this case, learning English and, and working more in English. Do you feel like it’s easier to stay short and concise, or do you feel like that’s harder?

[00:48:28] Richard: Um, well, absolutely. It always helps when the client is short, is sim is, you know, expressing his words in a simple way, and those project management tools definitely help in that. Even though maybe I fi I can find it struggling, I, I can find it tricky sometimes when I have to use couple of project management tools for different clients.

[00:48:48] Richard: And then within the project management tools, you can have different approaches. So for example, We can have two agencies that use Slack, but each of the agency will have a different strategy. Um, that’s even more with the project management tool. Select the click up because it’s, you can highly personalize that.

[00:49:04] Richard: So that might be tricky in the beginning. On the other hand, you know, it’s pretty easy to learn. I think those, those softwares where, Invented or designed with the ease in mind so that they can, you know, serve as many people as possible. So I think those, honestly, I worked in a hotel before when I still studied at university and we had a software for, you know, managing the hotel.

[00:49:29] Richard: That thing was so much harder. It was, you know, so much conservative. Yeah, it wasn’t online at all. And it also costs a lot of money. So, comparing to this, I would say click up and base game and all these tools are so good

[00:49:42] Josh: that Ann, it, it, it does put a lot of emphasis and or impetus on the. The people you’re working with. It’s a, it’s a great reminder, I think, for white label agencies who are hiring people overseas to just be thrift, be concise, be simple with your words, just to make it as easy as possible for, for other folks to understand. That’s a great reminder for me as I’m getting ready to, to put some stuff together for, for um, uh, Chris who, who’s helping me out with some like design VA kind of stuff.

[00:50:11] Josh: Being in the Philippines, it’s a good reminder for me to keep it simple. She made great, she may type amazing English, but it doesn’t mean I should overcomplicate things. I gotta keep it simple because like a lot of entrepreneurs, myself and a lot of others, we tend to overcomplicate things. So give a reminder of, uh, simplicity, cuz simplicity always wins when it comes to getting a project out the door.

[00:50:31] Richard: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, I met in the past year, I was lucky enough to meet some of the new people, uh, from, especially from Germany. We did some, you know, holidays together. And I can tell you that some of them earn a lot of money, are really successful at a really young age. You know, I met people, I met people who are 20 years old and making 20,000 a month.

[00:50:54] Richard: And I can tell you that these people don’t really think complicated in a way, what could happen if, because maybe they are making a lot of profit, but they also have a lot of, let’s say, obligations, you know, I don’t wanna say that, but obligations and a lot of things. But if you have all of these things in your mind and you are afraid of them, you will never start.

[00:51:16] Richard: And these people. Maybe thought about them, but don’t that much. Not that seriously. They started and now they are very, very successful. And I’m pretty sure that with this mindset, they will be even more successful in the future. Which doesn’t mean not being responsible, which doesn’t mean not understanding the risk, but I think there should be healthy ratio between being too much afraid and between, you know, not having any limits. So not being extreme on one on the other side.

[00:51:48] Josh: Wise thoughts, man, wise thoughts? Richard? Uh, do you feel like you’ve applied all this to your life as well as you, I mean, it sounds like you have like an entrepreneurial spirit in you from the get-go. Do you have anyone in your family who’s entrepreneurial or, or is this unique to you?

[00:52:08] Richard: Uh, I can say that both my parents are actually entrepreneurs, but they’re small entrepreneurs. So my father is, A translator and my mom is a doctor, so they are entrepreneurs, but not really entrepreneurs hiring people or having companies or investing or anything like that. But my grandfather, uh, used to be a miller.

[00:52:28] Richard: We had a mill in the family, but then unfortunately because of the political situation, uh, the community came and took over everything. I discovered the books, the accounting books from the mill and from, I think 1940 or 1946 or something like that, shortly after the Second World War. And I saw the revenues, and I can tell you that these were big revenues.

[00:52:50] Richard: Something like, you know, $2 million or something like that. So I was like, wow, we actually have the entrepreneur, uh, history in our FA family, which is, which is very interesting to discover. No one talks about it unfortunately because it’s been so long and the tradition didn’t continue, unfortunately because of political reasons, but Yeah.

[00:53:07] Josh: But in a different way. It has, I feel like from, from my perspective, hopefully it’s, yeah, like you’re, I mean, you’re living, you’re living the, again, the American dream online, like that’s, that’s pretty dang cool. It’s different than running a mill, I’m sure, but I imagine a lot of the general practices of doing the work, meeting deadlines, meeting people, communication first, like all those things translate to what you’re doing right now. So that’s pretty cool, man. I love that story. Yeah, I think

[00:53:37] Richard: that naturally I am probably hungry, you know, in sports I used to be when I was a kid because there wasn’t any business. So you can’t com kind of like compete in business. You can compete in sports, you can compete at school. I was, you know, pretty good at school I would say.

[00:53:53] Richard: Which now I understand it probably wasn’t good for much, um, because the grades are, you know, no one asked for the grades. I have never met a client, uh, who would ask me for a grade, but it’s another story. I mean, the art classes, there was something different, but all of the other things were pretty good.

[00:54:11] Richard: You’re speaking

[00:54:12] Josh: my language business. Yeah, yeah. You’re totally, you’re totally right. Yeah. That doesn’t translate necessarily. And for like overseas designers, What I’ve seen and what I would find from your perspective is that you gotta figure out a way to stand out. Because if you join Upwork, there’s gonna be hundreds of thousands of people who could probably do what you do.

[00:54:37] Josh: So the question would be, what’s different for me than everyone else? Like, how do you not come across as a commodity, basically? For you, Richard, it seemed like being intentional and being helpful in these Facebook groups and communicating really well, it seems like that’s what separated you from everyone else who might be in a similar situation. Is there anything else I’m missing? Do you feel like there’s something else that made you stand out from the crowd?

[00:55:03] Richard: It’s, you know, pretty hard to talk about it myself because I don’t know a hundred percent what the clients think, but I, there is maybe one other thing that comes to my mind. I realized at school that I am more of a creator type, rather than the guy who would read books.

[00:55:22] Richard: You know, I think you have these two types of personalities. Someone prefers creating something, being creative, doing something, being in the flow, and someone prefers reading books, which is totally fine because we also meet those people. And we did presentations like PowerPoint presentations in history classes with a great teacher of mine.

[00:55:39] Richard: And I remember that whenever I had the opportunity to have a presentation to prepare the presentation and then pitch it for like 15 minutes, I always did it. And when I prepared the presentation, the PowerPoint, I was so much in the flow, like the time passed so quickly. That is may this, this may be something that quick that later on translated into web design because that is not so much different, let’s say in quotation between, uh, PowerPoint and websites.

[00:56:07] Richard: And I, and. It was always appreciated. Like these presentations were always appreciated because I probably can speak, of course in English, you have the barrier because first of all, I’m not a native speaker, and secondly, I am. I know that in America, people are forced to speak since the, you know, primary school or elementary school or anything like that.

[00:56:31] Richard: So the level is different. But my point is that when I make the videos, for example, online, maybe there is something like I have a flow in the language, or I am someone who can explain those things. Those videos are liked. Um, so there is definitely more likes than dislikes. So maybe that will be also something that contributed to that. But we will need to ask the clients.

[00:56:53] Josh: Yeah. Well, getting on video in that case, even as your language, your, your English has gotten better and better. Most people aren’t doing that. So that immediately I would think would separate you from a lot of others is because you, you are building trust by getting on video, even if you’re not speaking the language perfectly.

[00:57:08] Josh: Which is fine, that that adds so much trust and, and authority to, to hiring somebody. Because like if I were an agency thinking about hiring you, Richard, and I saw some videos where you were on camera or even just screen sharing and you were talking, I would feel like I got to know you so much better than just emailing you.

[00:57:28] Josh: So I, I think it’s a really valuable lesson. I would encourage everyone to do it even if, even if you feel like your English isn’t great, if you’re an overseas designer, put, put what you can do out there and, and it’ll go a long way, I think a lot further than people probably give it credit for, which is great.

[00:57:44] Josh: Like, I think that’s how I feel like I got to know you better early on is not only did I see your helpfulness, but you had put some videos out and I was like, oh. Richard. Yeah, Richard’s really cool. Like I get a sense of him, I get a feel for his personality and his drive that doesn’t come ac across just, uh, in written text. I don’t know. Your intent was to, to talk about how much video has helped you, but it definitely in my mind has helped you.

[00:58:10] Richard: Yeah, I definitely agree with the idea that video is so important nowadays. If you take a look at reels and YouTube shorts and all of these things that are trending right now, it’s all about video.

[00:58:20] Richard: And you know, people don’t read anymore. People don’t concentrate on texts that much anymore, but they are more visual because of the technology and whatever other things. And I think it’s a great opportunity for anyone out there to just start creating video content because I think first of all, you show your face. So that’s a big plus, as you say, when you

[00:58:42] Josh: hire someone. I, I, I don’t know if I a hundred percent agree with that, just because I think there’s actually a resurgence in blogging and like SEO and long form stuff. But I do agree that it could be balanced with video or at least you could take a long post that you did that is kind of built for SEO and really shows your stuff.

[00:59:01] Josh: But maybe take parts of it and add videos just to make it more appealing and maybe to get people to people through. I do think there’s kind of a, a way to marry the two between like long text, blog posts, books, things like that and, and the quick videos. Cuz there, there’s ki I feel like there has to be a healthy medium.

[00:59:19] Josh: Cuz the opposite of that is if for people who just do quick video surfacey stuff, then the question will be, well, does Richard really know his stuff or is he just doing like, good quick little videos? So, uh, that’s an interesting kind of thought experiment with how to marry both of both of those aspects.

[00:59:37] Richard: Yeah. Yeah. Under, yeah, absolutely. I more meant like the trend of video generally, not necessarily creating short web design videos or tutorials, um, but I think at the end of the day, it’s about the pos, it’s about the, the skill to solve someone else’s problem. Usually when someone searches for tutorial, they have a problem with their website and they won’t help.

[01:00:03] Richard: You know, they want, they want to find a solution, and if they find a solution in you, and you probably know it because you are a, you know, huge, uh, tutorial creator for dv. You definitely get the points. You gain the points because you solve, you solved someone else’s problem and they remember you. So

[01:00:21] Josh: that, yeah, that’s, that’s a great point. Like when you got into doing YouTube videos and tutorials, is that, was that your approach? Did you just, did you, did you do like an analytical approach and look at other channels and other topics?

[01:00:34] Josh: Or did you just create content based off of what you. New were challenges. Are we getting questions on like, yeah. What, how did you figure out what content create when you, when you got, uh, doing video?

[01:00:45] Richard: It was mostly inspired by my own struggles in the past where I was searching for something I couldn’t find and I found a solution. So I wanted to share the solution because I was thinking if I had a problem with someone from the industry, then the chance that anyone else will have the problem is very big.

[01:01:01] Richard: And at the same time, I really try not to copy the others because especially in the DV community, there is already like so much resources and I try to be a little bit unique because, for instance, you, you Josh or Nelson from PA Creative, there’s so many videos that are really helpful and I just want to bring something new in the game.

[01:01:19] Richard: And it is also with, with the freebies for example, I also created a few freebies, which I think is also a great thing, how to, uh, get traction, how to be attracted, uh, by the agency owners in the DV groups. To share a freebie, uh, which is valuable. And there’s another thing which, which I love about the group, is that everyone is so positive.

[01:01:41] Richard: I mean, I am afraid, I don’t wanna be too negative about Czechia. Uh, but I think that if I share something like that in the Czech Republic, um, there would be a lot of reactions talking about the technical, you know, technical thing of the things. For example, this is not responsive enough or here two pixels should be edited or anything like that. This is not what happens in the Amer or international community there. And definitely worth sharing some freebies

[01:02:08] Josh: for sure. Yeah. That’s interesting. And you calling it Czechia, is that more recent or has it always been called, is that kinda like a slang term for Czech?

[01:02:17] Richard: I think they turned it recently a few years ago. I think Czech Republic is, sounds still sounds better, but I was like, let’s be shorter.

[01:02:24] Josh: Let’s lose this award. I literally just looked it up and it’s checky on the map now, so. Oh yeah. That’s interesting. I don’t

[01:02:32] Richard: even know myself.

[01:02:34] Josh: That’s interesting that, yeah. That’s fascinating. I don’t, I just, you said that and I was like, I’ve never heard it called that, and I just looked it up and I was like, oh my gosh. Yeah, it’s like a, it’s official, it’s Czechia now.

[01:02:47] Richard: Yeah. I used to be Czechoslovakia. I think many people, uh, especially the older generation still thinks Czechoslovakia.

[01:02:54] Josh: Yeah, so Czechoslovak or Czechoslovak then Czech Republic now Czechia. 10 years, it’ll be called the Big C. I don’t know. Who knows? who knows yeah. That’s cool, man. Well, Richard, dude, this has been really cool. I mean, like I said in the beginning, it’s, it’s been incredible seeing your journey, going from just little web design guide, joining groups, sharing what you know, trying to be helpful to growing an incredible white label business. You’re one of the best examples of being a white label designer to then starting get clients on your own.

[01:03:28] Josh: I know that’s one of your big, big next chapters is like growing your own client base. Um, you created this service 10 degrees.co, which is that more or less like a team? Am I understanding that that’s kind of a team of colleagues that you’ve assembled to help with, uh, with the white label stuff? Is that essentially what that’s about? Or are you taking clients on under 10 degrees? The idea

[01:03:53] Richard: is that, We wouldn’t only like to provide a web design service, but I would like to have other great people, great professionals from, you know, different related industries such as SEO, optimization and ppc and, and, uh, you know, other things, social media management to bring them on board and to offer all of these services to companies because as we talked before, if you have a great website, which is looking nice, but you have no traffic, then it’s actually worth almost zero.

[01:04:25] Richard: Because you want the traffic in, and the traffic is produced by ranking high in, in the, in the, in the search engines or on social media, or you can pay the promotion. .But me as a web, as as a web designer, I am not an expert in those fields, unfortunately. Gotcha. And I wanna be, you know, I wanna make sure to offer everything, uh, the whole solution to the

[01:04:50] Josh: clients. That’s genius, man. I love that you’ve really taken the, the initiative over the past couple years to grow that network like that, to surround yourself with really good people who can, who can do this stuff, either that you don’t know or you don’t want to do.

[01:05:04] Josh: Cuz we can’t do it all. And I think this kind of speaks to what we talked about a little bit ago with like specializing and finding your superpower. Do that, and then network with other people who you can refer and bring on and partner up with. Like you, you’re really a shining example of how to do this online web design game, right?

[01:05:22] Josh: So yeah, man, hats off to what you created. What an incredible journey, dude. Like the next 10 years, I can’t wait to see what, what empire you’re gonna create, man. You’re gonna, you’re gonna blow away your, your grandpa, uh, his, his mill revenue with, uh, what, what you’re gonna do here in the next 10 years. I think.

[01:05:40] Richard: Yeah, that will be great. Now, thank you very much Josh, for everything. I know that you talk about a journey, but a, a lot of the journeys actually, uh, I would say your journey or something that you contributed to first, first of all with the group. The group was in, excuse me, the group was in the beginning and then the whole community that you created and you know, the courses that you created that I joined.

[01:06:03] Richard: I think that I was really one of the first people, one of the first, uh, guy who joined the maintenance course, which I think is great because I never thought about website maintaining before. Really Never did. And then I remember you did a presale and I remember I jumped in.

[01:06:20] Richard: Then you have the web design business course, which was also, you know, pretty beneficial even though I’m a white label web designer. But you can still take something from it. Yes. And apply. So thank you very much for it. And I also can’t wait to see what you’ll be in next, uh, you know,

[01:06:35] Josh: 10 years. Well, I appreciate that, man. Gosh, what, uh, yeah, what you, you’re totally right. Like the business course in particular can work for, for, for white label as well, and Yeah, you’re right. I’m actually, I’m gonna look back through real quick. You were, yeah, you were one of the first two, so July, wow. July 26th, 2018 is when you purchased the maintenance plan course.

[01:07:01] Josh: When I did a pre-order, I don’t even think I officially launched it until August. I, so yeah, you were the pre-order, you were like one of my first, yeah. Wow. You were one of my first students. Man, that is amazing. That’s too cool. I’m just looking at this right now. And,

[01:07:17] Richard: and here’s the thing, you know, I was thinking what made me purchase the course from this guy, and at that time I wasn’t making that much money, so it was part of an investment and I, you know, replied. To that question and then I try to apply the same strategy to me. I want to be in the next Josh, who someone else will buy something from whatever it is

[01:07:42] Josh: that . That’s so cool, man. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz even, yeah, at that point, especially, I don’t know how far along you were at that point, but, um, yeah, I mean, I think the presale was like a couple hundred bucks at that time, so Yeah.

[01:07:56] Josh: For you, in your situation, that’s a big investment, but I’m hoping that paid off pretty quickly for you. Absolutely. Yeah. I appreciate now you’re, you know, years down the road. Uh, ah, it’s so cool, man. I love this. This is, I’m kind of just geeking out by seeing your, your progress and I completely forgot that you were one of the first pre-orders.

[01:08:13] Josh: So yeah, man, that is really, really cool. It’s, look, it’s an honor for me. I, I know you’ve said that I’ve been made an impact on you, but you, it’s an honor for me to be in this position to, to help somebody like you. And the thing is, it’s, it, it is up to you. Like you can’t rely on someone else to, to make you successful.

[01:08:32] Josh: Anyone who is in any sort of position to share what they know or be in authority, like we can share what we know, but you gotta to do it. So again, hats off to you, Richard, cuz you’re doing it and, and you’ve done it up to this point. So last question I have for you. Um, for somebody who is an overseas designer, no matter where they are in the world that wants to be either a white label designer or wants to get clients who, they’re just like clients in their area are not good clients, what would you suggest?

[01:08:59] Josh: Would you suggest, again, going into a Facebook group or a forum and being helpful? Would you suggest trying like a site like Upwork or something like that or another strategy? What would you suggest they do to, to get started? I would

[01:09:12] Richard: suggest trying everything because for example, in my case, I haven’t really tried Upwork and that’s something that may work. Uh, even fiber may work even though you probably. The majority of the people on fiber are people who are not paid that handsomely. You still, you know, you can still grow the pricing and you can learn, um, in the beginning and maybe you can attract some, some of the clients there who will bring you into his or her team.

[01:09:37] Richard: Uh, but. For me personally, and I can only talk about my personal experience, it was really the social media that helped me a lot and trying to learn there, because it is not only that you help others, but the others will also help you in the beginning. And just trying to show your work, trying to improve your work, trying to be better and better every single day.

[01:09:58] Richard: And then try to show your work, but not in an aggressive way. More of, you know, here’s a freebie or would you like to give me a feedback on this, uh, website here. And I think that if you do it constantly, if you don’t really give up, because one of the great idea, by the way, which I like, was consistency bits, intensity.

[01:10:17] Richard: Um, because you know, it’s so easy to be in a flow for something and then in two days you forget about it. Uh, but this is a question of consistency because I, you know, going from zero to thousand dollars a month, It probably took me several years, not full-time. Uh, but that was, you know, but from that point to making thousand dollars a month, $2,000 a month, that took me several years. So, you also have to be patient, I

[01:10:45] Josh: think. Yeah. Uh, it’s a great quote to, to bring up in this context. Consistency beats intensity, especially when you’re building a business online. You’re, you’re, it’s, if you go too hard, too fast, you’re gonna burn out. Uh, and, and quite frankly, like for, for white label agencies hiring people, they wanna see somebody who shows up consistently.

[01:11:04] Josh: They don’t wanna see Richard, you know, posted three tutorials or, or like 20 tutorials in two months, but then hasn’t done anything since. Or, I mean, I guess I shouldn’t say that cuz that can be fine too, but consistency in whatever you’re doing is key. And then that’s one reason I wanted to have you on, because I’m like, you’re still crushing it.

[01:11:20] Josh: Like you’re still consistent and showing up and you’ve never, I mean, I’m sure everyone has highs and lows and ebbs and flows, but you’ve, you’ve stayed consistent, so, yeah. I love that, man. What are you excited about next? Before we wrap this up here, what are, uh, what’s the next thing you’re super excited about?

[01:11:37] Richard: I am super excited about finding the end clients and having more people on my maintenance plan. Um, that would be one thing. But besides web design business, I really think about what to do with all of the means, with what to do with all of the money. And I do have some dreams, uh, about, you know, investing to real estate and I even like star.

[01:11:59] Richard: But unfortunately there are some obstacles which are connected to local conditions here. You know, who is able to get a credit, who is not able to get a credit. Um, but I don’t wanna give up, you know? Uh, and I’m looking for different markets to invest outside of the Czech Republic. That’s another thing that I’m really looking forward to.

[01:12:18] Richard: I don’t think that I’m gonna make a big progress in the next year, but again, I think if I stay consistent in 10 years, uh, you know, there will be some results solely. I love that design. It’s my passion. Uh, but at the same time, I try to diversify. My activity as well because there is so much interest in things in this work. There is, you know, so much bad things, but at the same time so much great things and you decide which way to go. The bad way or the good way. I wanna go the good way. Yeah.

[01:12:47] Josh: I remember you asked me about like real estate advice and I was like, I need to join you because I don’t know, I need to ask somebody too. I, so it’s like kinda the next, it’s like any business owner or entrepreneur get to the point where it’s like all roads lead to real estate. Yeah, it’s like, oh gosh, I didn’t even want to enter that world. But I know at some point, uh, that’s kind of what’s ahead. So I’m gonna try to make that as fun as possible too.

[01:13:12] Josh: And kind of like you did go online to find people who you resonate with and who can teach us, so, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, it’s a good, it’s a, it’s a, a great mindset that though, to have like diversify all your stuff. Uh, especially in the case of like web design, it’s, there’s kind of diversification in web design with different avenues we could go, which is really cool.

[01:13:34] Josh: But there is the physical world of different industries too that are always out there, so, um, well yeah man, I’m super excited for you next step. Getting your own clients, building your re recurring income. We’ll have a separate chat off, uh, off camera about that to, to give you some tips on that, cuz I’m excited for you man. Uh, Richard, thanks for your time, dude. This was a blast. Thank you

[01:13:54] Richard: very much Josh. I appreciate that and have a great day.

[01:13:58] Josh: Awesome man. You too. Talk soon and I’m excited to share up Pilsner with you here when you come Stateside.