This Week with Taylor & Gordon

Bank Holiday Weekend setting up Home Assistant Automations Lights on and off in office Playing Apple TV will dim the lights and turn them back up on pause Wordcamp Europe 2025 – Basel, Switzerland – https://europe.wordcamp.org/2025/ Talks, workshops, networking, looking around Basal and the Alps Might pre-record an episode next week at Wordcamp Looking forward ... Read more

Home Assistant – Home Automation Discussion on Home Assistant and its relevance for Taylor's flat Purchasing and setting up the Home Assistant Yellow Details about the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 Experience with the component issue and customer service from Pi Hut – http://thepihut.com Cost analysis of setting up the Home Assistant system Hardware and ... Read more

Trix – Children's Entertainer Convention Meeting and networking with other professionals I was in Stoke on Trent from Sunday through to Wednesday Seeing people you only see once a year – stopping and chatting Lectures, Talks and Shops Chatting is what I find the most useful and interesting – Brainstorming 4 hour drive each way ... Read more

Gordon performed in a VE Day performance at The Magic Circle this week Wordsearch Game Creation Generate a wordsearch that is customised with certain words like a birthday childs name AI Code Creation using an app called Cursor – http://cursor.com WordPress Local, creates a local install of WordPress so you can built quickly without needing ... Read more

Frustrating Things… Very annoying especially when you have no control Waiting for a new battery pack for devices like my phone Found it cheaper elsewhere after the order so cancelled the order and re-ordered Lost in the post TWICE Royal Mail appears to have been the culprit by losing or not tracking the packages correctly ... Read more

5 year anniversary for This Week With News: The chatbot on the website will now show you which episode content is in. Expense Tracking – looking to move out and getting finances sorted Subscriptions that get forgotten Figuring out existing subscriptions and new subscriptions / monthly expenses that are coming soon Annual payments, like TV ... Read more

Special Guests: Marc P Summers & Leo Summers Travel with family Tracking flights with Jet Lovers app Training Leo to find his way around an airport Maths – using numbers for anything you want Fibonacci as a middle name No limit to Maths Problem solving is the fun part The Hedgehog Principal – https://worldofwork.io/2019/07/the-hedgehog-concept/ Anything ... Read more

EPISODE 200 Special Guests – Marc P Summers and Caroline Ainslie Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for a second time at the age of 64 in January 2026 Looking for more people to join Caroline's team Using your skills to achieve success 20th anniversary of Bubbly Maths Oldest person to climb Kilimanjaro was 89 Success mentality – ... Read more

Special Episode leading up to our 200th episode next week We have guests, Marc P Summers, Automated Marketing Agency and Caroline Ainslie, Bubbly Maths AI in Business – The Portrait Agency – looking for high value customers using AI to check an estimate of their home address house value Then checks with AI to see ... Read more

Embracing the Unusual Magic Show and Magic Workshop Surprise Birthday Party – he was blindfolded Working with another entertainer Also a party in a marquee in a scouting field 1.5 hours straight with no break Used my EcoFlow power for sound and electrics – Use link for 10% off – https://www.ecoflow.com/uk/referral-rewards?inviteCode=ALLJXEKDBP If you think you ... Read more

Next Steps when hitting a brick wall Stepping away to think about things Or breaking down the problem into smaller chunks Projects taking longer than they should because you have to think and decide on the way forward Making notes about processes that you don't do very often Keeping in contact with customers Difficult when ... Read more

UI Design – Building a booking system Adding in travel time as a buffer Making it easy for customers to see what is available Making it into a plugin to make it easy to maintain Having the power to say No… Not capacity at the moment, so I have to say no Kyle Van Deusen ... Read more

Trouble waking up with an alarm… Habit of turning the alarm off with your voice without realising Alarmy App – challenges to solve before the alarm will turn off Scan a barcode, take 20 steps, submit a photo, memorise the pattern of dots etc. Another alert a few minutes later – making sure you are ... Read more

Deepseek has been causing waves – https://www.deepseek.com/ Self Assessment Tax Submission Digital Tax – talked about for many years, not implemented yet Pro's and Con's to the new system Making sure you get your accounts in early You need time to save for the payment, so submitting it early is in your best interest Submitting ... Read more

Splitting up projects into manageable tasks – quite time consuming to do Action Hub – a web app designed to do this automatically Paste specs and notes and return in JSON format the various tasks which are then added to Motion via the API Ability to set time and bulk edit as required before exporting ... Read more

Busy week with Pantomime. Robin Hood – https://www.sdclub.org.uk Filming the pantomime Two cameras – fixed wide shot and a close up Technical issues on the first night of recording Two groups of children on alternate nights so the footage was very important Master and then second video with other groups performances Setting it up and ... Read more

New Season – Season 6 started last week New colour – Yellow, for this season. All graphics for the podcasts, vidcasts and website have been updated with the new colour Manage Your Focus – creating tasks that need to be done Getting work, writing a project list, create the tasks and then do them Context ... Read more

Happy New Year New Season, New Colour Formula 1 Exhibition and Guys and Dolls Oura Ring – https://ouraring.com/ Track heart rate, Activity, Sleep and more Tracking while watch is charging API available for personal website content 75 Day Challenge update New Years Resolutions !! Finish personal projects that have been started More reading this year ... Read more

Our seasonal video to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas Visit the website: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk Drayson Design Website – https://www.draysondesign.com The Creative Tinker Website – https://www.thecreativetinker.com Facebook: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk/facebook Youtube: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk/youtube * Full transcript will be available on the website. We may receive a referral fee from any of our links which help towards the costs involved ... Read more

This Week With – Season 5, going on Season 6 Reflection on last 5 years Why we started This Week With Keeping a record of what has happened Transcription and languages If you get anything from our episodes, let us know New Highlight Colour – leave a comment with your suggestions Thank you to Taylor ... Read more

Subscriptions Meal Prep to eat healthier Sent to you once a week on a Sunday Using subscriptions to save you time or do a job you don't enjoy Car cleaned once a month Audit subscriptions every now and then – check you still need or want them December is quieter this year than it was ... Read more

Winter has definately arrived Christmas Cards – branded for The Creative Tinker – sending them to clients Keep the company in the minds of the clients Quite expensive to do – but a nice thing to do Cost of postage is huge at the moment Sending them through a service to make it easier to ... Read more

Back again after a week off Final Cut Pro update v11 Accounting – a necessary evil HMRC bringing everyone in line to the tax year Digital tax due soon – submitting tax every three months? It is really difficult and not clear – I had two, two hour calls to HMRC to find out where ... Read more

FACE The Podcast – for Family and Children's Entertainers Round Table works really well Asked the question “What is the best thing about conventions” Chatting with like minded people was the biggest answer Talking to other business owners, who are not your competition is very beneficial Bounce ideas off them, get inspiration, how to deal ... Read more

Big week for Apple Announcements Three in total – first was iMac with M4 chip – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaB7nCdId0Y Next was Mac mini M4 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtFm9n3NVzE Then last there was the new MacBook Pro with M4 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0cmfY7qdmY New minimum memory of 16GB on all these new machine iOS 18.1 and Mac OS 15.1 (along with other ... Read more

75 Day Challenge Slightly modified to suit Taylor If you miss an activity or a day then you start over Physical and Mental Discipline Not about getting fit, but more about making yourself better We will come back to this and see how Taylor did Setting yourself a challenge will always improve you Use things ... Read more

Busy week as always – drama teaching, migrating sites to xcloud.host, clearing emails UPS using difficult to get to shops as a hub if you are not in Trying something new… Mango Tango – something new Food for the dog – cutting the food into quarters from factory Getting feedback on whether your customers like ... Read more

Making Notes to remember what was spoken about Write out action points Legal reasons Make sure they make sense when going back in a few months time Making notes when you think of them Expanding on the notes while you remember the details Using Apple Watch Voice Memo for this Record call and transcribe with ... Read more

iPhone 16 Pro arrived safely Protecting Your Investment Buying a bag for Ecoflow River 2 Pro to prevent damage Looking after equipment to prolong their usefulness 2 year old iPhone was pretty much spotless Padded camera bags Not lending cables to people Putting things in pouches when travelling Good quality bags – they are not ... Read more

Gordon went on holiday WordPress drama AI Moving forward Appsumo – https://www.appsumo.com Pismo – https://pismo.ai/ Similar but different to Apple Intelligence which is built into the Apple product OS's Pismo – Desktop app to select text in any application and perform AI functions with it For example, translate, improve writing, fix spelling and grammar issues, ... Read more

iPhone 16 and Apple Intelligence information, new watches and AirPods Exploring Your Industry Showing starter sites to other professional We all live in our own bubble, not knowing much about what's outside of it Other people using different tools and plugins that we don't know about This is what makes the industry exciting and interesting ... Read more

Audacity update – https://www.audacityteam.org/ Word of Mouth advertising Best form of advertising for Gordon People like to recommend you if you do a good job 40th birthday party – led to a children's summer school show 3 days later, booked on the morning of the show Website Design recommendations People trust their friends Recommendation between ... Read more

Comparing Products Missing a feature that Taylor wanted in his email client Ranking Mail apps with pro's and con's Action, Waiting and Read Folders, to get down to inbox zero Using Actionscripts Mailbutler as an add-on Canary or Spark are the alternatives Snooze emails to hide them Apple iPhone event is September 9th Mac OS ... Read more

Business Focus – finding out what you enjoy doing Taking off Graphic Design as a service which Taylor didn't enjoy doing Adding services means you could possibly become a business that doesn't specialise Downside is if your niche goes away or has a problem you can have no business Look at different scenarios to make ... Read more

AI Updates ChatGPT and Midjourney were the kings Claude, Gemini and Flex and up and coming and over-taking ChatGPT Chatbase.co chatbot on the website Moved over to Claude Check it out by clicking on the chatbot on the bottom right of the website Search will find content, but won't summarise like AI will Getting ideas ... Read more

Out of sync issue with last weeks episode Powerpack – portable battery My lead acid battery not working correctly Previously bought from Halfords, who no longer stock these devices Replacing the battery was an option, but they are also no longer made Working out the requirements – take your devices and see what wattage they ... Read more

Strange week for weather New version of WPExtended.io released Making space for 60 bags of salt Finding things that I knew I had but didn't know where they were Selling Photography – set up a website using WooCommerce Bulk import using a csv file (which ChatGPT helped create) Set up a deal, so that for ... Read more

Qualatex Balloons are no more Parent company have gone bust No more twisting balloons which will affect entertainers and balloon decorators Buying in bulk while they are still available Rubber and latex do deteriorate over time Looking for a new manufacturer Thicker latex, can I blow them up by mouth? A part of my live ... Read more

Strange weather this week WP Extended – wpextended.io Taylor is now part of the team behind the plugin, along with Dan Barrett and Sumit Singh Lots of modules – duplicating posts, re-order posts, SMTP, blocking admin user names, admin customiser and so on Free and pro versions available Watch Kyle and Jonathan go through the ... Read more

Long weekend taking photos Tech Rehearsal, then portrait photos, next group and so on Then I took photos during the show Then everything started all over for the next show. 3 shows on the Saturday and 2 on the Sunday Then a week of editing over 2000 photos – cropping and colour balancing Workflow for ... Read more

New workplace – feels like more is getting done, but food bills have gone up! Daily Standup – tell others what you did yesterday and what you plan to do today Finding a friend if you are self-employed Making a tick list between the two of you and tick them off as the day goes ... Read more

Splitting up your environments Work, exercise and relaxing places Difficult to get things done when the location isn't conducive Co-Working office nearby – trialing for 6 months Gym, Office and then relaxing at home Look after your best customers 80/20 rule 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers Deal with requests from ... Read more

No episode last week as we were away Wordcamp Europe 2024 A conference for WordPress users, developers, etc. This year was in Turin, Italy Contributors day – around 700 people working on making WordPress better Themes, new pattern, and accessibility checking, design inspiration First day, opening remarks, open source talk, workshops Replays available (see if ... Read more

Setting Yourself Up For Success Going to the gym means it's going to be a good day Routine will be affected when away Taking gym stuff and using a local gym when away Wordcamp 2024 – Turin, Italy Meeting people I know for the first time Keynote at the end of the event possibly Exhibition ... Read more

Outside help for your own business Personal projects designs (Thank you Jake) No budget put aside, or time to do certain things Objective viewpoint – plus it will get done as it's customer work for the outside help Investment in your business Collaboration works really well Talking through magic acts and web design with outside ... Read more

Children's Entertainer's Convention in Stoke on Trent Alarms that didn't go off, phone and Alexa Lost confidence – re-evaluate the process Phones with no battery charge will also not go off… Check to make sure your systems are working Check backups, make sure they are working Fail to plan, or plan to fail Alton Towers ... Read more

Hi to Luke from Japan Chat GPT-4o has been released – https://openai.com/index/hello-gpt-4o/ Responds to video and photos as well as audio chat It will chat to you in a very realistic and nateral way Lots of video examples on the link – like AI talking to AI Interacting with the world around it 4o is ... Read more

New version of GenerateBlocks – Classes system added New Starter Site build needed Creating default pages, and setting up default styles Much easier to build new websites once this is complete Great to prevent “missing” things like a 404 page Get professionals to do the job Time consuming when creating but will save time in ... Read more

Facebook end groups API access This allowed us to post our videos automatically on our Facebook Group using Restream – and now we need a workaround. We now have to create a Facebook event, which gives us a streaming key which we can then use in Restream It does allow us to embed our live ... Read more

Visit to Budapest – the end of 12 Months of Coffee The Starbucks mug collection is still growing Future Planning – creating a new starter site Generate Blocks now has classes The starter site needs to be flexible for different types of websites and tech stacks Lots of work to create – but it's a ... Read more

Time Management Set Daily Goals / Todo lists Work expands to fit the time available Set your own deadlines  so tasks don't drag on Use your time wisely Do the things that are important first Make sure to have down time Prioritise your tasks Decide what you are doing tomorrow, this evening Give jobs to ... Read more