In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Joe Kashurba, founder of a leading online marketing and web design agency. Joe shares his entrepreneurial origin story—selling video tapes of his high‑school friends' band, pivoting to web design when demand emerged, and building a successful agency. He emphasizes the massive, untapped online marketing opportunities for traditional local businesses, urging them to leverage the internet more fully. Joe outlines his core business philosophy: a balance of commitment and course correction, arguing that both focus and flexibility are essential for momentum. He advises his younger self to have learned sales and marketing earlier, noting that delayed learning set him back years. When asked about happiness, he cites Tony Robbins’ idea that continual progress and forward movement foster fulfillment. He recommends Maxwell Maltz’s Psycho‑Cybernetics as a pivotal book, highlighting the importance of self‑image in achieving goals. His favorite quote, drawn from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, is “We who move the world,” reflecting his entrepreneurial identity. The episode concludes with Joe’s online locations: kasherbawebdesign.com for services and jokasherba.com for consulting and training for designers.
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Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Joe Kasherba with us. He owns an industry-leading online marketing and web design agency whose client list includes some of the largest manufacturing companies and home service providers in the United States. So welcome to the show, Joe.
Hey, thanks so much for having me.
Of course, man. Very grateful to, uh, to have you on the show. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Joe, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, I think it really is the story of me getting started in entrepreneurship. So the first thing I ever did entrepreneurial-wise was I had a group of friends who had a band in high school, and I took my video camera while their band was playing at this local restaurant and filmed them playing and sold videotapes to their parents. And it was my first entrepreneurial thing. But from that, I had this idea that I was going to do a video production business, learned how to build websites so I could build a website for that video production business I'm trying to start in high school. And what happened was nobody ever bought video production services, but people started coming out of the woodwork wanting web design services. And then I pivoted in that direction. And it turned into this whole web design and online marketing business that's been really successful. And I think the lesson there is that if you want to be an entrepreneur, you need to just get into the game, start trying some things, start a business, and see where it takes you and not try to figure it all out. Just get in the game.
I love that. And what's the most valuable piece of information that we should know that is within your expertise or industry?
I think the biggest thing is, you know, I work with a lot of local businesses and regional businesses, sort of traditional businesses, and the thing that I want those businesses to know is that there's a large amount of opportunity on the internet that's still untapped. You know, most traditional businesses still just aren't using the internet. You know, maybe they're playing around with some online marketing or they have a website, but they're not really using it to really make massive gains in their business and, you know, become a real part of their business. And so I just want them to know that there's a huge opportunity out there that hasn't even been close to tapped yet.
I couldn't agree more. And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
I think the, I always, the one model that has been really valuable to me that has been absolutely critical has been the model of commitment and course correction. So that, you know, everything in business and really in life, you need to have a combination of commitment and course correction. So you need to commit to some certain business or some sort of some industry or something, you have some amount of focus and commitment. And then you need to course correct within that and try different things. And if you have the course correction without any sort of commitment, then you'll just be taking random shots in the dark and never actually make any momentum. And if you're so committed that you never course correct, then you'll never, you'll never make the adjustments necessary to succeed. So in all areas of life, I think you need to always be looking for, I need to have something I'm committed to, but then within that, within that commitment, I need to be doing some course correction.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I think it would be the biggest— in terms of business, I would tell my younger self to start learning about sales and marketing sooner. I kept hearing from Robert Kiyosaki and lots of different people that you need to learn sales and marketing to be successful in business, and I resisted that for a long time. Probably set me back in business by about 10 years.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
What is the key to happiness? I think that— I think the best thing that I've ever heard on that would be Tony Robbins talks about sort of— it's just the idea of progress and growth, and that as long as you're moving forward and you're going in a direction, then, then that's probably the, the best way to make sure you're happy is that you actually have something you're working towards in the direction you're going.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Probably the best business book, the one I always recommend to people, is a book called Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. And it basically talks about the idea that we all have an identity or a self-image And you can't really achieve anything in the real world until you can see yourself doing it in your mind. And he talks about sort of intervening at the self-image and identity level and creating a new self-image. That's the person you want to be. And it's, it's, it's just an absolutely critical book for anybody that wants to achieve anything, because that, that self-image and identity piece is so, so important.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
It's my favorite quote. Let's see, that's a good question. My favorite quote.
And it can be like a mantra too, or like, doesn't have to be word for word.
Yeah, my favorite quote would be that there's, you know, I had a period of time where I was really into Ayn Rand and read Atlas Shrugged and some of her, some of her books. And one of the things one of the characters in there says is talking to another entrepreneur, another business person, and says it's, and says, it's we who move the world. And for some reason that that line, it's we who move the world, is always something that's really inspired me. And I always thought of myself as an entrepreneur that was actually having some sort of impact on the world, even if it was relatively small. It's we who move the world.
I love that, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you, man, before we let you go is where is the best place for people to find you online?
Absolutely. You can either go to, you know, on the web design and online marketing side, you can go to kasherbawebdesign.com. And if you're someone who's a web designer who's interested in growing a freelance business or an agency business, you can go to jokasherba.com and learn more about some of the consulting and training I offer for web designers and agency owners there.
Perfect, man. Thank you again for joining us. Really appreciate it.
