About Us
J. Smith Web Agency
I’m Joshua Smith, the founder of J.Smith Web Agency. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Business and a minor in Psychology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. You might be thinking, “Bachelor’s in Agriculture Business and a minor in Psychology? Why is he doing web design?” Well, to be honest, I never expected to land in the web industry either. My journey into this field began without me even realizing it. Right after graduation, I needed to make a hard decision: I had received a job offer in sales from one of the biggest wine companies in the US or an unpaid internship at a surf camp in Costa Rica where I would get the chance to be mentored by the owner. I chose Costa Rica! I chose it not only because of the amazing surf, beautiful weather but because I felt I could learn more about running a successful business from the my new mentor.
A little bit about my mentor, he runs a successful surf camp, as well as several hotels and restaurants. His story is super interesting and I recommend you check it out (link). I worked for my mentor for a little under a year. Some of the big takeaways that I got from spending time with such an intelligent person were that you need to be passionate, you need to always be learning, and you need to be absolutely driven for your goals. He told me countless stories of roadblocks and struggles where he had to adapt, improve, and push harder than he ever had, in order to get where he is today. His ability to go out, learn about aspects of business, then implement and execute those aspects in his own business was inspiring.
I took that inspiration and began building a website platform called the Tamarindo Vacation Guide, where I promote local restaurants, tours, and tourist attractions. I learned everything online (mostly YouTube) about graphic design, SEO, Google Advertisement, and analytics. The Tamarindo Vacation Guide made me realize that businesses need a strong online presence and that my guide was helping with that need. As I contemplated more, I realized that I could improve businesses even more if I applied the skills I had learned into building well-designed and equipped websites for them. Hence the start of J.Smith Web Agency