Every now and again, I get to interview a student who completely reframes what’s possible when it comes to building an online business. (You can check out more inspiring digital agency success stories here). Josh is exactly that kind of student. He’s a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) mine site supervisor working 16-hour days on a remote site in Western Australia. To get to work, he drives from the Gold Coast to Brisbane, flies five and a half hours across the country, then takes another two-hour flight up to the mine site. It might just be the longest commute in Australia.
And yet, in the gaps between those brutal hours, Josh has quietly built his digital agency, Hidden Valley Digital, which is now pulling in around $20,000 a month. Twelve months ago when I last interviewed him on the podcast, he was sitting at $5,000 a month. That’s a 400% increase in a single year – all while holding down one of the most demanding jobs imaginable.
But here’s the kicker, and the bit that genuinely surprised me when we caught up recently: Josh has no intention of quitting his day job. He loves what he does, he’s on a great wicket, and he’s decided to run both businesses simultaneously. Watch our full conversation below to hear exactly how he’s pulling it off.
From “Get Me Out of Mining” to “Why Would I Quit?”
When Josh first joined our Digital Investors Program, his goal was simple – get out of mining. He’d been doing FIFO for 13 years, much of it on a two-weeks-on, one-week-off roster. He wanted more time with the family, less commuting, and a way to supplement his income so he could come home for good.
Fast forward two years, and the picture has completely changed. Josh has moved onto a two-on, two-off roster, his agency is humming along producing five-figure months, and he’s got a team running the day-to-day work. Suddenly, the calculus shifted.
“We all want to start a side hustle so we can quit our day jobs… I thought to myself, I’m on a pretty good wicket. I still enjoy what I do. So why not have both?” – Josh
This is one of the most powerful lessons I want every aspiring digital entrepreneur to take from Josh’s story: when you start an online business the right way, you give yourself options. You don’t have to burn the boats. You don’t have to make some dramatic leap. You build the asset, build the skills, and then choose your own adventure.
Why a Digital Agency Is the Perfect Side Hustle
If you’re reading this and thinking, “I could never build a business – I work too many hours,” I want you to sit with Josh’s reality for a moment. He works 16-hour days on a mine site. His commute is essentially trans-continental. And he’s still managed to start a digital agency from home that’s now an income-producing asset worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Why does a digital agency work so well as a side hustle?
- Low startup costs – you don’t need inventory, premises, or huge upfront capital.
- Location-independent – Josh services clients in Perth, on the Gold Coast, and at remote mine sites, all from his laptop.
- Highly leverageable – once you’ve built the skills and systems, a small team can run most of the delivery.
- Recurring revenue – SEO and website maintenance produce predictable monthly cash flow.
- It’s a real asset – once you hit around $30K a month, you’re sitting on something worth roughly a million dollars at standard agency multiples.
If you want to learn the exact skill set Josh used to go from $5K to $20K a month, this is the program he’s been part of: The Digital Investors Program. It’s where we teach everything from buying and renovating websites through to building a profitable digital agency on the side – even if you’ve never touched a website before.
How Josh Runs a $20K/Month Agency While Working FIFO
Let’s get into the practical mechanics, because this is what I think will help most of you. Here’s how Josh actually runs the business while he’s on the mine site.
1. He Built a Small, Efficient Team
Josh’s current team is incredibly lean: two techies and one VA. That’s it. And the most beautiful part? He’s documented his processes so thoroughly that one of his techies can now train the other.
“Everything I’ve wanted to show them is all documented. Now it makes it a lot easier for me to hand that information off to somebody else for them to learn.” – Josh
His techies handle the web builds and ongoing site work. His VA handles client emails, content additions, meta work, and admin. Josh remains the face of the business, manages client relationships, and now spends an increasing amount of his time on strategy and automation.
2. He Started Small and Built Up Trust Gradually
One of the biggest mistakes new agency owners make is trying to outsource too much, too fast. Josh’s approach is textbook:
- Give the techie one or two small tasks first.
- Use a shared drive so information flows both ways.
- Once they’ve handled that well, give them slightly more.
- Document every process as you go.
- Eventually, let trusted team members train new hires.
3. He Uses Simple Communication Tools (Not Fancy Project Management)
This made me smile. While the rest of the world is debating Asana vs Monday vs ClickUp, Josh runs his whole operation on WhatsApp and Google Meet.
“I know people use project management tools, but I find just using WhatsApp is very quick, very simple. It’s so simple. So simple. And that really works for us as a team.” – Josh
The lesson here is huge – don’t overcomplicate it. Pick tools that get out of the way and let you focus on the work that actually matters.
4. He Schedules Regular Check-Ins
Every Tuesday during his “on” rotation, Josh has a structured catch-up with his team. He already knows what they’ve been working on, but the call is there to identify pain points, unblock bottlenecks, and teach new processes. Bonus: WA is in the same time zone as his team, so the FIFO schedule actually works in his favour.
The Real Secret to Finding Clients: Have More Conversations
One of the questions I get asked constantly is: “How do I get clients?” Josh’s answer is so simple it almost sounds like a cop-out – but it’s the honest truth that drives every successful agency I’ve ever seen.
“If you want more business, you’ve got to talk to more people. That’s all it is. It’s talking.” – Josh
Here’s where Josh’s clients are actually coming from:
- BNI (Business Network International) – he joined a chapter on the Gold Coast and picked up his first local clients there.
- Referrals – those BNI clients started referring others once they saw results. Classic snowball effect.
- Facebook – a Newman-based client (in remote WA, of all places) found him on Facebook. Turned out Josh had worked with their partner years ago as a fitter.
- Conversations on the mine site – yes, really. Josh has now signed up three mine site clients simply by chatting with people about what he does for them on R&R.
Think about that. Josh has built a nationally distributed digital agency – Perth, Gold Coast, remote mine sites – purely through conversations and a willingness to share what he does. As I said to him on the call, wherever Josh goes, the business follows.
How AI Has Done the Heavy Lifting
This is the part that I think will excite a lot of you. When I asked Josh how he managed to 4x his agency in 12 months while still working FIFO, his answer was immediate: AI and automation.
Josh has gone deep into Claude (like many of us, he’s moved on from ChatGPT) and is using it across nearly every part of the business.
Where Josh Uses AI in His Agency
- Proposals – generated and customised by Claude.
- Blog posts – Claude is trained on his clients’ brands and writes posts that match the existing site templates and colour schemes. He literally copies and pastes the output into the page builder.
- Keyword research – Josh has built a custom keyword research tool in Claude that produces keyword difficulty scores and user intent classifications (transactional, navigational, commercial). He cross-references it with paid tools like KeywordsEverywhere and Ahrefs, and the results are nearly identical.
- Claude Code – he’s experimenting with this as a “desktop buddy” that can access calendars, emails, and files.
“It’s already doing 80% of the legwork for me before I even have to go looking in keyword finder or Ahrefs.” – Josh
The key insight here is that Josh didn’t just type “write me a blog post” and call it done. He invested time learning how to prompt Claude properly and how to build out reusable artifacts and projects. That investment is now paying off every single day.
What’s Next: AI Automation and Chatbots
Here’s where Josh is heading – and where I think every agency owner needs to be paying attention. With the day-to-day delivery now systemised, Josh is spending his time building AI automation workflows for clients.
He’s working on:
- Chatbots that answer client calls so businesses stop losing leads to voicemail.
- An automated quote generator that sends pricing breakdowns to prospective customers.
- Workflow automations that integrate with existing client systems.
“How many times have you called somebody and it’s just gone straight to message bank? You don’t call them back because you’re like, I’m just going to find the next person. That business has just lost a customer.” – Josh
This is the next frontier. Businesses are starting to wake up to the fact that AI automation isn’t a gimmick – it’s a serious lead generation and customer service advantage. Agencies like Josh’s that can deliver these systems are going to be in massive demand over the next few years.
“I Don’t Have Time” – What Josh Says to That
I had to put this question to Josh because, frankly, if anyone has earned the right to answer it, it’s him. What does he say to people who claim they don’t have time to start an online business?
“I’ll ask them why. Stop and think about it. You’re saying that because you haven’t prioritised it. If this is something you want, you need to make time for it. You need to prioritise it. You can’t just expect to be handed this skill set without investing the time.” – Josh
This is the mindset that separates successful digital entrepreneurs from people who stay stuck. Josh works 16-hour days, hits the gym at 7:30pm, jumps on his laptop after that, and is currently doing a keto challenge with me on the side. He doesn’t make excuses – he makes time.
And his point about technology is brilliant: you have a laptop and a phone. You can work from an airport lounge, on a plane with WiFi, in your car waiting to pick up the kids. There is no genuine \”no time\” excuse anymore – only an unwillingness to prioritise.
Key Lessons From Josh’s Journey
Let me distil what I think are the most important takeaways from Josh’s story for anyone looking to start a digital agency as a side hustle:
- You don’t have to quit your job to build wealth. The “burn the boats” advice isn’t for everyone. Josh is building serious wealth running both income streams simultaneously.
- Start small with outsourcing. Don’t try to delegate everything on day one. Hand off one task, document it, then add more.
- Talk to more people. Always. The simplest growth strategy in business is still the most effective.
- Embrace AI now. Josh’s 4x income jump in 12 months was directly tied to how aggressively he adopted Claude and automation tools.
- Systemise as you grow. SOPs are what allow your team to deliver work the way you would deliver it.
- You’re building a real asset. A digital agency producing $20K–$30K a month isn’t just income – it’s a sellable business worth hundreds of thousands to over a million dollars.
- Mindset is everything. “I don’t have time” is almost never true. It’s a priority problem, not a time problem.
Your Turn: Could You Build What Josh Built?
Here’s what I want you to take away from Josh’s story. If a FIFO mine supervisor working 16-hour days on the other side of Australia can build a $20,000-a-month digital agency in two years – what’s actually stopping you?
The skills are learnable. The tools are cheaper and more powerful than ever (especially with AI). The client demand is enormous. And you don’t need to risk anything by quitting your job to get started – Josh is living proof of that.
If you want to learn the exact framework Josh used – how to find clients, build websites efficiently, leverage AI, hire and manage a small team, and scale up to five-figure months – this is the program he’s been part of from day one:
👉 Check out the Digital Investors Program here
You don’t need to be a tech genius. You don’t need to have hours of free time. You don’t even need to want to quit your job. You just need to make the decision, prioritise it, and start having conversations.
As Josh put it himself: \”If you want this, make time for it.\”
I’ll be checking back in with Josh in exactly 12 months on his next birthday to see what the agency looks like by then. My bet? He’ll have automation systems running for his bigger clients, his team will have grown slightly, and his monthly revenue will look very different again. Stay tuned.
And in the meantime – go have more conversations. That’s where every great digital agency starts.
