WPMRR WordPress Podcast

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Matt Medeiros' conversation. They talk about how running a family-owned agency honed his entrepreneurial and sales skills, constantly giving value to potential customers, and learning effective sales talk.      Matt is a content creator and the Director of Podcaster Success at Castos. He hosts the podcast, Matt Report, where he talks to a wide range of digital business owners and web consultants. People in the product, marketing, and the agency space are the primary guests. Episode Resources: Matt Medeiros on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook Pagely Visit the WPMRR Community What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:02 Welcome to the pod, Matt! 01:52 How did you start your podcast? 03:46 Transition from entrepreneurship to joining Pagely 07:26 Running a family-owned agency 12:35 Selling perspective from an experienced sales person 15:57 Conveying the value that you're adding for the client 24:21 You learn to speak with people regardless of their position 26:12 This giant clip with several overlays 29:35 Find Matt online

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Shane Barker's conversation. They talk about why real-time engagement matters more than fake following, how influencers shouldn't rely on just one platform, and staying visible online through relevant and relatable content.     Shane is a top digital marketing consultant, keynote speaker, and influencer. He has helped businesses accelerate their growth with customized digital marketing consultation and services. Having won many accolades, he has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities. Episode Resources: Shane Barker's Website, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram Visit the WPMRR Community What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 00:50 Welcome to the pod, Shane! 02:11 Teaching a course in UCLA 04:46 How would you define an influencer? 07:20 Fake followers versus real engagement      15:21 Drive social media traffic to your website 20:03 When your social media account gets shut down 22:21 Think where your audience is at 29:14 Presenting yourself on social media without bragging 36:55 The pressure of having a lot of visibility online 43:11 Find Shane online

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Brian Richards' conversation. They discuss the ins and outs of virtual conferences, the challenges of making people show up on event day, and finding success in organizing paid virtual events.    Brian is the creator of WPSessions.com, where he provides training to businesses and developers working with WordPress. He also organizes WordSesh and WooSesh, two entirely virtual conferences for WordPress and WooCommerce professionals. Before getting into training and event organizing, Brian spent his days as a web development contractor and consultant. Episode Resources: WPSessions  Brian is on Twitter Visit the WPMRR Community What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:16 Welcome to the pod, Brian! 05:17 The ups and downs of organizing virtual events 12:22 Getting people to show up is the challenge 22:32 Become the go-to resource person/company 32:18 Success in paid virtual conferences 38:42 Find Brian online      

Travis Pastrana crashes in on his motorbike and does a triple backflip into our foam pit! He's here today to talk on mobile apps for WordPress and more. In this episode we talk about AppPress, the advantages and technical skills needed to work with headless WordPress, and the next generation of web hosting. Tune in to know the best stunts for your WordPress! Episode Resources: Static Fuse Website  GatsbyJS Website  The Product Business Podcast AppPresser Website Scott Bolinger Twitter

The legendary Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi stops in today to share his ideas on directing and guiding his mentees.  Today on WPMRR, we discuss the reputation of the endeavor of sales, being a supportive and successful manager, and how Kinsta is diversifying their marketing and sales strategies. Tune in for tips on having your sales and marketing work in tandem. Episode Resources: Contact Nathan via email Follow Nathan on Twitter Check out Nathan's blog  Send us your questions to yo@wpmrr.com

Hermione comes through the Floo Network and enlightens us on the path of the empowering female-led project Women in WP.  We speak on the history of Sumy Designs, the conception on Women in WP podcast that follows, plus WordCamp experiences and hype! Don't miss out and get hit with a Stupefy! Episode Resource List: Women in WP Podcast Women in WP YouTube Women in WP Facebook Women in WP Instagram Women in WP Twitter Amy Masson Twitter Sumy Designs Website Sumy Designs Facebook Sumy Designs LinkedIn

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Shane's chat about image optimization. They cover the technical side of image optimization, how the app is designed to compress images across multiple platforms and websites, and the projects currently in development.    Shane Bishop is a WordPress plugin developer and website performance nut. He's the lead and only developer of the EWWW Image Optimizer, a plugin that was launched on WordPress.org back in 2012.   Episode Resources: EWWW Image Optimizer is on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 00:41 Welcome to the pod, Shane! 03:17 Getting close to million active installations 08:25 How image optimization works 12:49 Pricing structure that favors users 15:49 API offloading the compression 21:28 Products are designed to work across multiple sites 22:12 Rebranding of the exact DN system 26:59 Going back through all previous photos and images  29:05 Future plans for the company 32:13 Find Shane online

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe, Justin, and Brent's conversation about building websites and applications. The beaver Builder team is big on developing products that will largely benefit their community, talent acquisition from the same circle, and what's keeping them forward and continuously building products around new ideas.    Beaver Builder is the WordPress page builder you can trust with your business. It's a drag-and-drop page builder that lets you easily create drag-and-drop page layouts, all from a front-end view of your site and without touching a line of code. It's fast and flexible and offers lots of design options to all levels of WordPress users. Episode Resources: Assistant Pro Beaver Builder on Twitter Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:17 Welcome to the pod, Justin and Brent! 04:31 How Beaver Builder came to be 09:35 Coming across a funnel problem 14:39 Recruiting talents from the community 16:16 Building a community within a community 18:25 A page builder, a traditional WordPress theme, and Beaver Themer 21:40 Staying true to your north star and what you're trying to achieve 27:11 The Assistant Pro 38:16 Building apps around “how can you help people?” 41:32 Find Beaver Builder online        

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Sam's conversation about joining WordPress. They discuss Sam's stories during his firefighter days, how he stumbled upon WordPress and coding, and his approach on how he successfully managed his time to build his own business.   Sam Smith is a retired Firefighter/Paramedic, an Orlando WordCamp Organizer, and a Web Developer.  Episode Resources: Sam Smith is on Twitter, Instagram, and WordPress.org Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:18 Welcome to the pod, Sam!   03:16 From a firefighter paramedic to a WordPress developer 05:50 Stories of injuries while at work 09:17 Taking little bits per day to successfully launch a business 17:24 Build on relationships and have real friends in the industry 24:59 What's it like to organize a WordCamp? 28:23 Getting a jump on blog impressions 30:19 The Martian 33:59 Find Sam online

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Mario's conversation on the enterprise space. They discuss how a paid service should always focus on delivering prime and premium experience per user visit, pros and cons of different invoicing methods, different channels to hunt for potential clients, and the power of inbound sales.     Mario Peshev is a global SME Business Advisor who's been named "The next Tony Robbins" and "The best tactical strategist out there aside from Neil Patel." His technical consultancy DevriX grew past 50 people and ranked as a top 20 WordPress agency worldwide.   Episode Resources: DevriX Mario Peshev is on Twitter and LinkedIn Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 04:06 How DevriX started 07:39 Focused on enterprise and high-scale projects 10:07 Ensuring a huge website serves prime and premium experience per visits 14:09 The money-making KPI 17:12 A team of research and development team 22:42 Distributing resources to keep customers happy 26:26 Figure out how to contribute to the bottom line of a specific system 29:12 Client invoicing methods 31:30 Management and project roles within the company 34:31 Inbound sales reel in most of the clients 40:08 Strategic partnerships can be tricky 42:11 Spaces and channels where you can find more customers 44:48 Find Mario online 

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Joost's conversation around SEO and WordPress. They discuss the story behind Yoast, getting involved in the WordPress community, leveraging SEO for content and marketing, and pushing WordPress into tremendous growth. Joost is the founder of Yoast, where he's currently the Chief Product Officer. He founded the company in 2010, after working in several different companies as a digital marketing consultant. The Yoast SEO plugin, which started as a hobby, became the main product.   Episode Resources: Joost de Valk is on Twitter Yoast Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 00:56 Where Yoast got its name 03:48 It all started with SEO consulting 06:54 Growth over the last 7 years 09:50 Redesigning WordPress.org 11:14 The community is the strongest aspect of WordPress 16:34 WordPress' market share in the web 22:44 WordPress.com vs WordPress.org 28:24 How smaller companies can push WordPress forward 32:28 Find Joost online 

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and David's conversation around content marketing strategy. They discuss the ins and outs of content marketing, the strategies that work, how to leverage SEO for organic ranking, and the challenges businesses face in terms of growth.   David Ly Khim is the head of growth at People.ai and co-founder of Omniscient Digital, a premium content marketing agency. Previously, he was at HubSpot for 6 years serving as a growth product manager and a growth marketer before that.     Episode Resources: David Ly Khim is on Twitter and LinkedIn Omniscient Digital People.ai HubSpot Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 00:59 Welcome to the pod, David! 01:31 HubSpot users are WordPress users 05:18 Content marketing through SEO 07:22 Tips on how to drive traffic through SEO 11:30 The foundation element of keyword research 13:40 Start a targeted content marketing strategy with your targeted keywords 17:33 What is historical optimization? 23:11 Testing assumptions vs assuming that your assumptions are correct 29:26 Managers set the right mood and work attitude 32:02 What's keeping David busy? 34:19 The scripts in your mind that hold you back 38:51 With money, some challenges get bigger 41:12 Focusing on monthly recurring revenue 44:03 Find David online

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Vito Peleg's conversation. They talk about managing websites through care plans, business scaling largely based on customer feedback, future plans and products in development, and Vito's journey in the WordPress space.   Vito Peleg is the Founder and CEO of Atarim, the first and only client-facing web agency management platform designed to speed up your work, client collaboration and team management. The team tackles the 84% of the project delivery time that is not the actual build of the website.    Episode Resources: Vito Peleg is on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook Atarim (formerly WP Feedback), visit their Facebook Group Vito's band – Chase the Ace Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:47 Welcome to the pod, Vito! 05:26 From being a musician to a founder 08:33 Emails open great opportunities to gather content 13:05 Scaling a business should be based on the client's point of view 20:31 The plugin will stay on premium 23:21 Features are based mainly on user feedback 31:12 As an agency, you create products every day 32:47 Future plans and products 38:30 The team behind the company 42:35 Find Vito online!

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Shaina Weisinger's conversation. They talk about how repurposing audio and video content can help brands reach more audiences without having to spend so much on creating content, and how resharing helps maximize the potential of every social content. Shaina Weisinger is the Founder and CEO of Repurpose House, which turns long-form content into optimized videos and images for high engagement social media strategies. She has a background in video production for digital marketing and is on a mission to show content creators the untapped potential and repurposing power of the content that they already have. Episode Resources: Find Repurpose House on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram Shaina Weisinger is on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn The Content Coalition Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:04 Welcome to the pod, Shaina! 03:27 Shifting from general digital marketing to repurposing content 10:39 Why videos work a lot for any show 12:34 The power of resharing to put your brand in front of the audience 16:45 Organic content hits audiences the most 19:41 Record a 1-minute selfie video daily for practice 22:43 Tools to use in repurposing content 29:38 Intro into being an entrepreneur 35:26 The value of offering a recurring service   36:57 The Content Coalition podcast

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe and Christie's conversation about switching from project-based work to subscription-based model. They also discussed how WordPress developers doing freelance work can focus on creating prototypes of productized services, how engaging in competitor research can help identify flaws in your own products, and the best way to test out what product to build during your free time. Episode Resources: Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:55 Transition to project-based work to subscription model 06:28 From building a $5,000 website to a $20,000 website 12:34 Prototypes of productized services 14:20 The best way to get into products is to do project-based work 18:03 Engage in competitor research, identify customer needs 23:57 Aim for enough people buying the product in any given hour  26:35 Moving from project-based to subscription-based  31:17 When you don't need full service assistance 34:23 What's the smallest thing that you can do to figure out if your idea is good?

In today's episode, we get to listen again to Joe's chat with Chris Lema, Liquid Web's Vice President of Products and General Manager at LearnDash. He is a well-known blogger and public speaker, and leads the product teams to develop and launch Managed WordPress and Managed WooCommerce product lines.   Chris enthusiastically talks about the concept behind BeachPress and CaboPress, and what can potentially happen in these meetings. He also tackled the growth of e-commerce, how WooCommerce as an open platform creates more opportunities for a lot of businesses, and providing customers hassle-free access to plugin updates on their sites.   Episode Resources: Chris Lema is on Twitter and YouTube Leaders Blog Liquid Web Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:48 What is BeachPress? 05:06 Be in a conversation with people in your circle 07:21 The CaboPress 12:31 Bringing SaaS people to CaboPress 14:47 SaaS platforms that do e-commerce 19:49 Looking at period over period growth 22:45 Partnership with Glue 27:01 The building blocks of a great storytelling 33:16 Fun stuff and new pricing at Liquid Web 35:18 Having e-commerce played out on open platforms 38:33 The ability to update plugins automatically 39:55 Find Chris online

In today's episode, Joe talks to Hristo Pandjarov, Manager of WordPress Initiatives at SiteGround - a web hosting company founded in 2004 that provides hosting for about 2,000,000 domains worldwide. Some of the services offered include shared hosting, cloud hosting, enterprise solutions, and domain registration.    Hristo shares what the roles and responsibilities he had and currently have since joining SiteGround, the advantage of building internal plugins versus acquiring existing ones, why site performance impacts the growth of hosting sites, and how consistency in quality has fueled the company through the years.    Episode Resources: SiteGround is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube   Hristo is on Twitter and LinkedIn Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 04:06 Welcome to the pod, Hristo! 05:43 What's a WordPress initiatives manager? 09:11 Different positions since joining Site Ground 14:02 Your passion will take you places 17:41 Focus is on site performance 23:32 Building plugins internally than acquiring external products 30:01 Many who built WordPress products weren't actually business minded people 39:44 Partnership with West Ham United 44:18 The most important value is quality consistency 45:46 Find SiteGround and Hristo online

In today's episode, Joe talks to Lucas Prigge, the Head of Sales at Kinsta - a hosting platform by developers, for developers. Kinsta has combined the fastest network and platform in the world (Google Cloud), and paired it with the best engineering team and the most experienced WordPress developers in the industry. The MyKinsta dashboard was built from the ground up specifically for WordPress, making site management a breeze.    Lucas shares his insight on sales such as the extensive training the sales team has to undergo, the meticulous sales process for new customers, finding the right CRM tool to manage clients and collect data, and the commission scheme that helps ensure that clients only get the best support.    Episode Resources: OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Kinsta is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube Check Lucas on LinkedIn and YouTube  Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 05:54 Welcome to the pod, Lucas! 07:23 Background settings and program good for video recording 11:03 Kinsta helps people find the right hosting plan 14:19 Challenges of managing a multi language team 19:27 The key factor in selling and communicating 23:51 Sales process for new customers 30:06 Do businesses need to stick to making sales calls? 35:45 Every sales person undergoes extensive training 46:33 Single source of truth of your customer data 49:49 HubSpot is the lead CRM tool 53:54 The way you use a technology is what matters the most 59:33 Find Lucas online

It's finally here! The WPMRR Virtual Summit 2021 is about to start! Joe shares today's schedule and some exciting news to look forward to. Big shout out to all our sponsors this year. Some of our legacy sponsors include: GoDaddy Pro, WP Remote, GreenGeeks, Weglot, and Cloudways. Hop into the WPMRR Community and join our speakers as they discuss relevant and valuable topics.   Episode Resources: Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 04:56 Our legacy sponsors 07:48 Our growth sponsors 08:11 Our community partners

In today's episode, Joe talks to Miriam Schwab, the co-Founder and CEO of Strattic - an all-in-one static site generation and hosting platform that instantly optimizes WordPress by converting it to a static architecture. Content managers and marketers can continue to manage content in WordPress as usual, while developers get to bask in the glory (and enjoy the peace of mind) of a fully headless website.     Miriam shares her agency's vision to provide a link between the WordPress functionality and the speed performance of static sites, what it was like to build a company while raising 7 children, and why they continue to offer a 30-day free trial to new customers.   Episode Resources: Strattic is on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter Miriam Schwab is on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 07:01 Welcome to the pod, Miriam 08:36 What is Strattic? 13:55 Site performance is important in converting visits to clients 15:29 It started from discovering static site generators  23:54 Managing an agency while raising children 28:30 Work at a pace that works for you, take baby steps 29:45 Funding is focused on product improvement and building additional functionality 33:54 Clients providing their customers high quality hosting company 38:30 Why offer a 30-day Free Trial? 44:46 Headless WordPress is no longer foreign but it's not too common yet 47:55 The religious limitations of being a Jewish woman 50:54 Being a female founder becomes a challenge when it comes to fundraising 54:59 Find Miriam online

In today's episode, we bring back Joe's chat with the Founder and Director of Design TLC, Tara Claeys. As a seasoned website designer and developer with a marketing background going back over 25 years, she provides custom website and graphic design services, with a focus on creating effective, customized, user-friendly communication platforms for small schools, camps, and nonprofits.     Tara talks about the steady growth of her company, how she isn't aiming for a 7-figure business anytime soon, keeping a happy outlook while working in several different projects, and choosing how to present yourself in social media.   Episode Resources: Design TLC Tara is on Twitter, LinkedIn Tara Claeys' Website Hallway Chats Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 00:19 Welcome to the pod, Tara! 06:17 Joining PressNomics and other events 11:37 Rebuffing the Design TLC website 17:00 Bringing happiness in what you do 22:19 You don't have to have a 7 figure business to be successful 27:19 Be physically responsible with managing your business funds 33:51 You only see people's best moments on social media 37:05 People in the WordPress community are generally open 37:39 Find Tara online

In today's episode, Joe talks to Gary Gaspar, the co-founder and CEO of Marker.io - a platform that encourages a simple way to report bugs on live websites and collect client feedback along the way. This 6-member team with over 2M feedback reported and 1,500 plus customers, continue to make it easier for people to report live website issues in real time.    Gary shares how he met his two co-founders at a totally unexpected place, shutting down the agency to focus on growing the business, the integrations they planned as they expand, and focusing more on conversion than website traffic.    Episode Resources: Gary is on LinkedIn, Twitter Marker.io New MRR Merch, discount code: AUGUST31 Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 06:35 Welcome to the pod, Gary! 07:25 Instead of a live chat, Marker.io utilizes capture screenshot with annotations 12:34 Why there are 3 co-founders 20:25 Shutting down the agency and going full-time  23:33 The value of owning your company despite having a low paycheck 26:57 It took a while to find the right product-market fit, future plans 30:18 Marker.io was built with integrations in mind 34:35 Original business structure attracted non-targeted customers 37:37 Build relationships with folks to reach more people in the community 41:58 It's useless to do all the marketing channels 47:01 SEO and integration marketing works 49:24 Finding the right person to join the team 53:16 Giving the team a lot of creative freedom

In today's episode, Joe talks to Iain Poulson and Alex Denning of FlipWP, a private marketplace for buying and selling WordPress businesses. Buyers get vetted listings emailed directly to them, while sellers get access to quality buyers who understand their product and the opportunity they're offering.   Iain and Alex explain how FlipWP offers a unique experience for both buyers and sellers, providing reasonable valuation for any business while ensuring that all deals remain exclusive to both parties, no middlemen. They aim to connect anyone to the right people to land a successful deal at 1% success fee.     Episode Resources: Delicious Brains WP Trends Pressing Matters Ellipsis FlipWP Alex is on Twitter Iain is on Twitter Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit The 80/20 of Profits: Pricing and Margins in Subscriptions (Ben McAdam)   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:53 Welcome to the pod, Iain and Alex! 07:02 How did it start for FlipWP  10:29 What is FlipWP? 15:30 From a seller perspective, it's a combination of the maturity of the WordPress ecosystem 23:09  Finding a place where you can sell your business 26:42 Most FlipWP members are WordPress people 29:33 Utilizing leverage in the email lists and the newsletters after launch 35:59 Helping people with their business valuation 40:06 FlipWP tries to guide people to make sure what they are putting is reasonable 46:54 Some people are taking out competitors by buying similar business 48:42 FlipWP connects people, but buyers should their own research 51:41 The 1% success fee remains the same for now 54:17 Helping buyers get better access and sellers better prices

In today's episode, Joe talks to Lesley Sim of Newsletter Glue, a WordPress plugin designed to help businesses or anyone connect their email service to WordPress so they can publish newsletters the way they publish blog posts. The first step is to connect the email service, write the newsletter in the block editor, and then send it.    Lesley discusses how it becomes so much easier to send newsletters using the plugin, the current growth of the company, planning your schedule while taking care of your mental health, and how to not get sucked in any social media platform.    Episode Resources: Newsletter Glue's Website and Twitter Lesley is on Twitter Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 04:33 Welcome to the pod, Lesley! 06:14 Aiming to make WordPress the CMS for newsletters 10:34 The plug-in is completely reliant on what happens with Gutenberg 14:00 The difference between patterns and templates when dealing with Gutenberg 16:25 Early adapters to the Gutenberg ecosystem 18:20 Current ARR range for Newsletter Glue 23:13 Future plans and current improvements in the works 30:04 Stay sane and prioritize mental health 35:51 Managing your daily schedule and allocating your time effectively 42:08 Getting active on social media and getting sucked into it 47:14 Enjoy your time on the social platform you enjoy using 52:43 Find Lesley online

In today's episode, Joe talks to Copyflight's Todd Jones, a digital storyteller helping purpose-driven B2B entrepreneurs leverage storytelling to captivate their target market. His team helps businesses identify and develop their story, so that they can communicate more efficiently to their ideal client.     Todd talks about how his college football Top 10 blog evolved into learning WordPress, building sites using themes and widgets, the different web developing sites he came to know, learn, and practice, and what setting end goals mean for conversion copywriting.     Episode Resources: Todd Jones' Twitter, and Facebook Copyflight is on YouTube Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:56 Welcome to the pod, Todd! 06:38 The story of the Redneck Coffee Snob 09:43 It all started with a college football Top 10 blog 13:35 Selling ad spots from doing exclusive content writing 17:35 Moving to Wordpress from Blogspot 22:17 Learning different web developer sites while working in an agency 26:45 Venturing into conversion copywriting 29:11 How to start learning conversion copywriting? 32:36 Voice of customer research 39:37 Find someone smarter than you and learn from them 43:11 Have you heard of Barcamp? 44:40 A good About page equals credibility 48:45 Everybody does like storytelling, even tech people 50:16 Find Todd online

In today's episode, Joe talks to Rene Morozowich, a freelancer in the WordPress space who works with small and medium sized business and individual projects in building and managing service-based websites. She's a Business Intelligence (BI) and SQL developer, a programmer, and an instructor at a community college who teaches credit and non-credit classes.   Rene shares her freelancing journey, from building a website from scratch, overhauling and managing existing websites, to offering client marketing services and how not to overwhelm your leads with your marketing campaign.    Episode Resources: Rene Morozowich's website Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:21 Welcome to the pod, Rene! 04:26 The 24-hour WordFest 2021 06:19 Regrouping care plan for clients  09:08 No immediate plans to develop an agency 11:29 Freelancing started with one client 15:17 Having good clients but not a good fit long-term 21:14 An expensive learning curve 24:24 Creating proposals with varying packages depending on client needs 30:07 Stop paying to market cold leads 35:53 Don't overwhelm potential clients with your email campaign 40:15 Why people get hesitant in doing campaign automations 44:22 Creating campaign headlines needs practice and some testing 47:13 Best practices to trim down cold leads 51:54 When people sign up for something, they expect something 53:45 Find Rene online

In today's episode, we are going to hear Christie once again, back when she was still based in Hawaii. Joe and Christie discuss the perks and some of the downsides of working on a different time zone from the rest of your team, body clock adjustments to be able to function, and the importance of robust communication and the maximization of tools.   Episode Resources: Christie is on Twitter and LinkedIn Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:32 What's up with Joe? 07:02 What's up this week, Christie? 13:01 Working away from home 15:41 Working in a timezone unlike any other across the globe 21:12 What's a sleep nerd? 24:13 Working with your body when moving to a new place 27:41 Communicate, communicate, communicate! 34:09 Synchronous versus Asynchronous team work 38:09 Creating a work pattern based on your body clock 47:31 Talking to clients, taking online calls, meetings in pajamas

In today's episode, Joe talks to Maciek Palmowski, one of the co-creators of WP Owls, a weekly newsletter focused on the latest and top WordPress news. He also works as a WordPress ambassador for Buddy Works - a top-notch performance into one solution for teams that want to painlessly introduce CI/CD and accelerate the development lifecycle of their software.   Maciek explains how the Polish audience has a completely different social media preference compared to the global community, the surprising challenges of  raising his son while working at home, and the customization of the $7 per month web hosting they are using for WP Owls.    Episode Resources: Buddy WP Owls Maciek Palmowski is on Twitter and WPMRR Community WordFest Live, register Here Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:21 Welcome to the pod, Maciek 04:23 What is CI/CD? 07:16 How WP Owls came to be 11:36 WP Owls doesn't take an aggressive marketing approach 18:50 Outreach efforts and invite list 22:02 Analytics, growth, and iterations on the articles  26:32 Twitter is a very straightforward social media platform 36:20 WP Owls run an on a $7 per month custom web hosting 41:44 Raising a baby while in the WordPress space 47:04 Balancing work and raising a family 51:22 Find Maciek online

In today's episode, Joe talks to Dan Maby of Big Orange Heart - a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes positive well-being and mental health within remote working communities. The Big Orange Heart Health Hubs are designed to provide holistic support for the individual.   Dan shares how Big Orange Heart came from the challenges he and his team faced while handling a digital marketing agency, and the organization's mission to help support the mental health of workers in a remote setting. They also discussed the upcoming WordFest Live, a virtual event to be streamed in six continents in a 24-hour period.   Episode Resources: Big Orange Heart Big Orange Heart Support Dan Maby Website WordFest Live, register Here Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:01 Welcome to the pod, Dan! 03:20 The funny story at the WordCamp US 2019  05:30 What's keeping Dan busy 06:55 Big Orange Heart born from the challenges of handling an agency 08:36 Things take different priorities at different times of your life 10:34 Mental health is a challenging topic to talk about 14:26 Supporting as many network as possible 16:55 Varying levels of support for different groups of people 22:31 Getting a core group for individuals to get support together 25:35 Encourage the community in Slack to help 28:37 WordFest Live 2021: The festival of WordPress 36:12 WordFest 2021 to deliver within six continents in a 24-hour period 39:33 A diverse organizing team in the background across seven time zones 43:32 WordFest was supposed to be an annual event 48:11 The virtual setting has opened many more interesting environment 53:40 Live Streaming in-person previous events were leading to the hybrid event style 54:38 Find Dan online

In today's episode, Joe talks to Artur Grabowski of Extendify - a team of passionate professionals with the goal of building a modern WordPress experience that just works. It has a templates library and other great WordPress products such as Editor Plus, Redux, Gutenberg Forms, ACF Blocks, MetaSlider, Block Slider, and GutenbergHub.com.   Artur shares the technical and business aspects of Extendify, how the beta stage is aimed at introducing customers to block-based editing, the mission to help SMB's on a limited budget, and extending Gutenberg exposure to potential users.   Episode Resources: Extendify Extendify on Twitter For questions, email Artur or Chris Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Visit the WPMRR Community The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:27 Welcome to the pod, Artur! 04:28 More on business operations but technical-leaning from day to day 09:29 Extendify is for SMBs with mission critical website's on a limited budget 14:53 Similar business solutions can lead to different outcomes based on execution 20:01 Gutenberg as a tool 24:49 The funding structure for Extendify 31:36 The mentality of growth at any cost 37:04 There's always a core WordPress experience in betas before paid version is launched 44:02 Figure out how users can see the value in your product 46:28 Find Artur online!

In today's episode, we're reeling in another throwback episode, Joe's interview with Leah Knobler of Help Scout - a support tool and customer service platform used by customer-centric organizations around the world, from small businesses to high-growth startups and nonprofits.   Leah gives us several actionable nuggets about hiring, scaling, managing, and growing a remote team, a detailed overview of Help Scout's recruitment process, and diversifying a team of skills and talent.   Episode Resources: Help Scout Leah Knobler is on Twitter and LinkedIn Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:37 Welcome to the pod, Leah! 05:57 Help Desk Software is the main tool 07:17 Company growth from 24 people to 90 remote employees 12:38 Donut, Slack's teammate connection app 15:25 The evolution of Help Scout's recruitment process 23:07 From application screening to proposing an offer 25:31 Remote companies need to be transparent in all aspects 28:59 Excellent people need excellent pay 33:23 How to make sure you're hiring from a diverse set of background 43:04 What can small companies do to start recruiting diverse candidates 47:31 Find Leah online!

In today's episode, let's listen again to Joe's conversation with Nathan Hirsch, the co-founder of FreeUp - a solution platform to finding & hiring pre-vetted freelancers online, only allowing the top 1% into the network out of hundreds of freelancer applicants every week.   Nathan talks about how he co-founded a solution platform that caters to businesses in need of skilled freelancers to help business owners with website design and development, graphic design, sales and marketing, social media, and web content. He also shares how referrals reign in new clients, screening the best freelancers, and the challenges of remote work.   Episode Resources: FreeUp  FreeUp is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter Outsourcing Masters Facebook Group Nathan Hirsch is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 00:53 Welcome to the pod, Nathan! 02:11 Started with selling books 03:30 At 20 years old, Nathan started his e-commerce business 05:21 Recruitment through referrals brought in more clients 06:34 Freelancers aren't exclusive with Freeup 10:03 Is the Top 1% the basis for hiring freelancers? 14:00 Big mistakes from people who fail to hire the right freelancers 17:11 Client contracts can go as an Hourly or Fixed Price project 20:50 Finding a technical co-founder if you aren't a technical person 24:26 To be a good business partner you can never say, “I told you so.”  27:24 FreeUp is a platform for remote work  30:17 How to find the best remote workers 33:00 Find Nathan online!

In today's episode, we bring back Joe's conversation with Jennifer Bourn, a designer for twenty years, an agency owner for thirteen years, and a blogger for ten years. She is founding partner at Bourn Creative, a full service design and development company that specializes in purpose-driven design and everything WordPress.   Jennifer talks about her 13-year journey founding and managing an agency that helps new businesses improve their website, drive traffic, and generate leads; and her plans to gradually shift to content services. Her agency also offers online courses and classes for new entrepreneurs.   Episode Resources: Jennifer Bourn's Website Profitable Project Plan Inspired Imperfection Jennifer is on Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress.org Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 00:46 Welcome to the pod, Jennifer! 01:49 When you start a company, nobody gives you business training 05:21 Profitable Project Plan: Video courses for new entrepreneurs 07:31 Everybody taking the class at the same place with similar questions 11:10 Courses had started as side revenue stream 15:06 Focusing on monthly recurring revenue (MRR) 17:49 Next course: Lucrative Leads 19:42 The biggest challenges in finding leads 24:13 Gradually shifting to content services and copywriting 28:34 You have to advance your skills if you want to continue running an agency 36:51 Running an agency while raising kids 40:39 Find Jennifer online

In today's episode, Joe talks to Melanie Phung, Owner and Principal Consultant at Orange Spark Digital - a boutique consulting practice to help organizations achieve greater visibility and success online. Services offered include website strategy service, search engine optimization, content strategy, and web analytics.    Melanie shares how she manages her boutique SEO agency, getting clients setup to have better performing websites in SERPs, formulating objectives and tactics to grow leads and conversion, mastering a referral system that works, and things to look out for when redesigning a website.    Episode Resources: Orange Spark Digital Melanie Phung's Twitter Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:04 Welcome to the pod, Melanie! 01:57 Strategy is defining objectives and tactics 03:31 Boutique agency: the flexibility to bring in virtual team depending on project needs 07:33 2021 SEO trends 10:35 People want quick fixes, but learning to prioritize is a must 13:09 Focus on fixing the things that could cost a lot to fix 15:23 Technical foundation fixes and building an SEO culture 19:35 Building a website from a technical standpoint to be more SEO friendly 23:01 It's about consulting and collaboration 25:05 Main resources to attract new clients 27:25 What's the best referral model? 32:13 Things to look out for when rebuilding or redesigning a website 36:55 Content length versus content performance

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Kim Coleman, the co-founder of Paid Memberships Pro - the most complete WordPress membership plugin. She has her hand in all aspects of the development, management, and marketing for the product and the team. She oversees frontend development for the core open source plugin and over 75 Add Ons.     They discuss the value of MVP in growing a business, catering to customer needs, and building and testing new features through the community. They also touch on the importance of formulating the right content for branding, and membership pricing and discount schemes.    Episode Resources: Paid Memberships Pro Paid Memberships Pro WordPress.org Kim Coleman’s Twitter Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 00:46 Welcome to the pod, Kim! 04:12 What has changed over the years? 07:02 The biggest concerns are the desire for the developers to refactor some features 11:11 MVP on the site’s current workload and paid memberships 13:55 Deciding between adding as a core part of the plugin or an add-on plugin 17:32 Limiting what the plugin is responsible for in WordPress 22:46 The struggle to get content from your customer when building a site 27:51 Allowing the community to test newly built products and features 30:07 Pricing: during product launch and how it evolved over the years 37:32 Turning experiments into blog content and knowledge share 40:43 People buy because of urgent technological issues they cannot solve on their own 42:31 Running a company and the family together with your partner 45:37 Homeschooling kids during the pandemic 49:13 Find Kim online!

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Marc Benzakein, the Operations Manager at ServerPress LLC - a software services company that provides workflow tools for WordPress Developers and Designers. His experience ranges from network administration to software development to upper level management in both Internet Service Providers as well as Software and Services Development.     They discuss how capitalism opens opportunities for young startup founders, the financial pressure on Gen Z and how it deflates their passion for success, and the best work practices to avoid burnout.     Episode Resources: ServerPress LLC Marc Benzakein is on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook WP Site Sync Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:40 Welcome to the pod, Marc! 05:20 ServerPress LLC is celebrating its 7th year! 08:44 Starting the business small and serving the first few customers 13:22 Business owners should allow people to micromanage 18:57 Work smart not hard to avoid burnout 22:57 WordPress has a sense of community 25:21 Scalable way to grow the company and its community 26:50 Financial pressures suck the passion out from the younger generation   30:03 How capitalism favors startup founders 34:40 Find Marc online!

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Chris Klosowski, the Director Of Technology at Sandhills Development, LLC. He joined Sandhills as a lead developer in 2015, and before that, he was a software developer at GoDaddy.com.     Chris shares his journey on leadership coaching and acquiring professional knowledge to help keep his team moving. Also, they talk about how business changes put pressure on a team of individuals with varying working habits.   Episode Resources: Chris Klosowski on Twitter Sandhills Development, LLC Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:20 Welcome to the pod, Chris! 05:39 Technical management side of web developing 11:08 Benefits of working with a leadership coach 16:29 Tips to help yourself stay sane while the business is growing 20:07 Changes puts an emotional toll on any team 26:01 Uniting a team of individuals with different working habits  27:55 Getting business insights from books and podcasts 34:17 Future personal plans and ongoing projects at Sandhills 36:22 Find Chris online 

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Eithan Abramovich of Highly Analytics, a Medium-style tooltip made for content creators to help understanding maximize how your passive readers interact with your content. Eithan shares the ideas behind creating the plugin, features users can use in the free version, and offering premium in the future to help boost monthly recurring revenue.   Episode Resources: Highly Analytics Georgia Institute of Technology Eithan Abramovich on Twitter Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 03:09 Welcome to the pod, Eithan! 03:52 How Highly Analytics works 08:23 Building the plugin in a college dorm 11:47 Enrolling in a less taken class before it got popular 13:36 What’s the future for Highly Analytics? 14:59 Features included in the free version 20:48 Any new features coming out?  23:14 Building a premium plugin that people will pay for 27:29 Goals set by the Highly Analytics team 30:37 Plans to continuously grow MRR 32:05 Work plans after graduation 33:41 Find Eithan online!

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Pippin Williamson, the Managing Director at Sandhills Development, LLC - the home to several WP plugins such as AffiliateWP, Easy Digital Downloads, and WP Simple Pay. He's also the man behind Sandhills Brewing, a microbrewery that focuses on oak-aged and oak-fermented beers.    Pippin retells his day-to-day hustle in running two companies in entirely different industries, running his microbrewery and leading a team of web engineers. He also talks about success in affiliate marketing, implementing processes, and hiring skilled people that need less supervision.    Episode Resources: Sandhills Brewing Sandhills Development AffiliateWP  Payout Service Easy Digital Downloads WP Simple Pay Sugar Calendar Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:40 Welcome to the pod, Pippin! 03:17 Have you heard about Sandhills Brewing? 06:09 Why build a brewing company? 11:27 Time management while running two companies 18:14 Role change and working as a CEO 23:00 Delegating jobs and handing off tasks 27:32 The importance of implementing processes 31:20 Latest developments at Sandhills 34:07 Any new big features for affiliate marketers? 35:37 How does the Payouts Service work? 40:37 Ensuring that you’ll have a successful affiliate program 44:25 The billing structure has to make sense for the customers 47:50 Find Pippin online!

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Matt Mullenweg, one of the founding developers of WordPress and the Founder and CEO of Automattic - a distribution company committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion with the goal to democratize publishing and commerce.   Matt talks about the systematic approach of Automattic, WordPress, and the rest of the Automattic web brands, as well as scaling and hiring skilled engineers, and the upside and downside of content distribution on different social platforms.    Episode Resources: Check out Woocommerce and Jetpack  Matt’s Website Matt is also on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and WordPress.org  Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:51 Welcome to the pod, Matt! 03:09 How does Automattic work?   04:08 Get to know QuickForget - a tool designed to assist in sending sensitive information through email 07:17 WordPress VIP on upscaling and continuous business growth 09:32 Is there a cross collaboration between WordPress and Automattic? 11:48 Finding good engineers is still challenging 15:14 Four immutable aspects we can look for in new hires 17:30 What separates Automattic from WordPress 18:47 WordPress and Automattic remain a platform that enables 20:55 Should platforms take responsibility for all content published on their site? 26:04 Preventing negativity and the spread of misinformation and fake news 33:13 Trustworthy and reliable institutions are necessary in our society 34:50 The conflict between Wix and WordPress

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Courtney Engle Robertson, a WordPress teacher dedicated to helping businesses streamline their online marketing. She has been teaching basic through advanced software, hardware, and social media uses in plain English for third graders through grandparents, including businesses and bootcamp students since 2001.   Courtney reveals the unlimited passion behind the Learn WordPress community where volunteers contribute educational resources to share with professionals that are seeking to upscale their skills.   Episode Resources: Learn WordPress Contribute to Learn WordPress, visit Get Involved Check Code Differently  Here’s Courtney’s website Courtney is on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Github Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:09 Welcome to the pod, Courtney! 05:02 Teaching programming in educational institutions 10:22 Summer camp for high schoolers to learn WordPress 17:39 The challenges of teaching programming in schools 21:29 There’s no clear map for people who wants learn tier 2 tech support 23:23 Contributions at Learn are mostly from volunteers 26:13 Motivation behind WordPress learning voluntary contributions 30:12 Identifying needs and keeping the team together 32:19 Tapping in to the web dev area can be tricky 37:08 Taking subcontract developer job 39:26 Identify where you are lacking and what to learn next 42:04 What’s the best way to learn new skills? 45:54 Find Courtney online!

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Joe Casabona, a creator of online courses at Creator Courses and for LinkedIn Learning, and hosts a podcast called How I Built It. They share similar sentiments on parenting toddlers, mental health check while juggling work and parenting, and expanding a Circle community among other Wordpress related responsibilities.      Episode Resources: Visit buildsomething.club/wpmrr Check out Joe’s website Joe is on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:16 Welcome back to the pod, Joe! 02:37 On vaccination roll-out 06:20 Staying at home with 2 kids 11:18 Juggling between family life and work schedule 15:13 The challenges of parenthood 19:10 Adjusting to and managing time allocation 23:12 “Hire help before you need it.” - Joe Casabona 26:40 External feedback can sometimes help solve roadblocks 30:23 Growing the podcast and cultivating a Circle community 35:11 Live streaming on Circle? 39:58 Using a community to drive traffic and product sales 45:28 Giving people a reason to stay in your community   51:15 Where to find Joe online!

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Michelle Frechette of GiveWP, the perfect online fundraising platform to increase your online donations, manage donors, and gain insight on your effort — all from directly within your WordPress website.   Michelle enthusiastically retells her fundraising expertise at GiveWP. She shares her fool-proof strategies on getting recurring donations and sustaining a good relationship with fundraising donors.     Episode Resources: Visit GiveWP WP Coffee Talk podcast Tweet GiveWP Tweet WPCoffeeTalk Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:18 Welcome back to the pod, Michelle! 04:36 What’s unique about WP Coffee Talk podcast? 05:50 Having thoughtful guests and a few long pauses 09:07 What is a recurring donation? 11:16 Tips to keep recurring donations 16:03 Is a regular email reminder ideal to keep donations coming? 19:53 First donation and 30-second videos  22:22 Payment processes should stay on site to retain trust 26:22 On-site payment: one-time versus recurring 28:53 Different features for donors at GiveWP 32:16 Other payment options  35:06 GiveWP is not a full functioning CRM 37:26 Active assistance for customers  39:06 Is GiveWP headed to being a CRM? 41:16 Where to find Michelle online

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Corey Haines of Swipe Files, a community hub focused on content and courses to master marketing by taking the best ideas from other industries for your business growth and pushing the boundaries of what is called normal.   Corey narrates his experience in building and creating a community focused on content strategy, marketing best practices for marketers, and the idea behind founding Swipe Files.    Episode Resources: Check out Everything is Marketing podcast Visit Swipe Files Tweet Corey Here’s Corey’s website Get 50% discount with this code: WPMRR Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:28 Welcome back to the pod, Corey! 05:45 What is Swipe Files? 07:21 Marketing ads that pique customer interest 11:37 Switching to Webflow  14:23 How does Webflow work? 17:09 The community at Swipe Files 21:17 Bigger communities become less valuable 22:48 Managing the community, keeping the subscriptions 27:46 Strategies to attract people to join the community  31:50 Calendar plugin for easy access to sites and apps 33:48 Get to know Everything is Marketing podcast 38:21 The story behind the first episode 44:24 Marketing Rule of 7 46:30 Connect with Corey online!

In today’s episode, we revisit an old episode with David Vogelpohl of WP Engine - a platform for site building and management tools to drive more creative agility; cloud hosting and security solutions to enable enterprise performance; and optimization tools to give you ongoing intelligence.   Joe and David talk about exploring strategic partners, adding new components to keep existing clients while continuing to gain new clients to defeat churn, as well as information on acquiring new business and preserving the brand during the integration.     Episode Resources: WP Engine Facebook WP Engine Instagram WP Engine LinkedIn WP Engine Twitter David Vogelpohl Twitter Leave an iTunes review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:12 Welcome to the pod, David! 03:17 WordPress background and working at WP Engine 05:49 Issues often faced in a large scale business 09:35 The Negative Net Churn 11:11 On acquisition process and success 15:19 The advantages of an acquisition partnership 18:46 How to prepare a business before selling 23:41 What will an acquiring company look for in a business? 28:26 Getting to know WordPress Gutenberg   35:17 Other configurations made possible with Gutenberg 40:53 Find David online!

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Leonardo Losoviz, a freelance developer and writer, with an ongoing quest to integrate innovative paradigms such as Serverless PHP and GraphQL into existing PHP frameworks such as WordPress. He is a one-man team running GraphQL API plugin, offering the most powerful GarphQL experience into any WordPress site.   Leonardo fearlessly shares his expertise in coding and developing websites, the ongoing challenges of promoting a new plugin, and the opportunities of building-in-public approach for developers to reach more audiences.       Episode Resources: GraphQL API Tweet Leonardo Ask Leonardo a question Leave an iTunes review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:27 Welcome to the pod, Leonardo! 03:03 The freedom of building websites as a hobby 05:03 What is GraphQL API? 12:23 Security issues on open source API 16:24 Pulling SEO data on a decoupled site 20:42 The struggles of promoting a product 24:40 How do you rate success? 28:43 Coming soon: a behind-the-scene monthly newsletter on plugin development  30:45 The building-in-public strategy 33:32 Strategies to eventually compete in the plugin market 38:56 Find Leonardo online! 

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Brian Casel of ProcessKit - a process-driven project management tool for businesses, automating and streamlining recurring tasks, track progress, and scale company operations with over 1000+ tools using Zapier integration.   Brian shares his experiences as a freelancer and his early days in web designing; how ProcessKit came about, its audience target focus, the challenges of growing customer base, and winning audience through guest blog posting.        Episode Resources: Visit ProcessKit Tweet Brian Bootstrapped Web Podcast with Brian Casel and Jordan Gal Productize Podcast with Brain Casel  Leave an iTunes review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:38 Welcome to the pod, Brian! 07:15 Starting as a web designer before doing freelancing 09:21 From a front end web developer to creating ProcessKit 13:02 ProcessKit was developed to address company challenges 16:17 Familiarizing end-user experience to improve products 17:49 How’s business been like during the pandemic? 20:06 Onboarding new clients is one of the challenges 22:46 Client fit target for ProcessKit 25:44 Add-on services depend on the business needs 28:20 SaaS products need to prioritize their Zapier integration 29:37 Strategies to growing customer base 34:36 The value of guest blog posting 38:33 Learning marketing and growing audience traffic 39:33 Find Brian online!

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Lucas Morgan, a network engineer and author of RUNTCPIP.com - a blogging site that specializes in writing about tech, email marketing, and blogging with humor and informative style. She's also a technologist well-oriented on Azure Cloud, Cisco, Juniper, Remote Support, and Programming.   They discuss freelance end-user consultancy, genuine connections through networking, the movie animation industry, as well as technical blogging and social media presence.     Episode Resources: Visit Lucas' website - RUNTCPIP Send Lucas a Tweet Lucas is on LinkedIn Leave an iTunes review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:16 Welcome to the pod, Lucas Morgan! 03:07 The Cloud technology 05:10 Freedom working as an independent consultant 06:37 User testing for a streaming site 08:02 Pulling back from weekly blogging and social media 13:12 Working to make technical blogs more accessible 17:20 Connect to people online with sincerity 19:40 Why networking works  21:59 Warner Media’s marketing department 23:54 Animated movies mostly reflect our society 29:14 Full-time consulting for 2021? 29:51 Consultancy for larger companies while still helping small businesses 31:40 Find Lucas online!

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Maddy Osman, Founder and SEO Content Strategist at The Blogsmith. She creates content optimized for onsite SEO, handles keyword research, and picks feature blog images, among other SEO content writing strategies her agency offers.    They discuss SEO and content optimization, old school SEO strategies, competitor analysis, and winning clicks in search results.    Episode Resources: Tweet Maddy Visit The Blogsmith Check out Clearscope Leave an iTunes review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:36 Let’s welcome back, Maddy Osman! 03:06 How to start dominating content and SEO 09:19 Keywords and content optimization 13:28 Identifying the reading level of your target audience 17:51 The importance of word counts in SEO 21:30 SEO ranking and relevant search 27:22 The first experience someone has on your site 28:40 Video embedding is an engagement metric 31:03 Tips to content exposure and audience reach  33:30 How to win clicks in the search engine results 38:12 Target keywords still work when added in the meta description 41:00 Find Maddy online!

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Alex Harling of Dynamite Jobs. Alex handles Account Management and Operations, focused primarily on remote jobs hiring. Launched in October 2017, Dynamite Jobs is an efficient way to connect companies in the Dynamite Circle with remote job seekers to thousands of remote jobs posted each week.     The discussion is focused on remote hiring, the right way to post successful job listings, top hiring tips in a remote setting, ways to announce a job opening, and the latest updates at Dynamite Jobs.   Episode Resources Visit Dynamite Jobs  Email Alex at alex@dynamitejobs.com Dynamite Jobs Hiring Pro discount code: WPBUFFS Leave an iTunes review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:49 Welcome to the pod, Alex Harling! 03:38 How Alex started at Dynamite Jobs 04:52 Common ways to announce job openings 08:01 Top tips and changes in the hiring process  13:15 What makes a job posting successful? 21:54 Hard skills and culture fit lead to better hires 25:56 Typical clients at Dynamite Jobs 30:10 What is Dynamite Jobs Hiring Pro? 34:36 What will be the team’s focus this year? 42:12 Get discount to use Hiring Pro, use code: WPBUFFS

In today’s episode, Joe and Christie pick out the top episodes they hosted together for the past two years, why these episodes made it to their favorite list and the stories behind the guests. They also talk about their individual growth in podcasting and the benefits of being a host.    Sadly, this is also Christie’s last episode as co-host in the WPMRR podcast. Listen in to learn what will change and what to expect in the coming weeks!     Episode Resources Visit Christie’s website Tweet Christie Christie is on LinkedIn Leave an iTunes review or binge-watch past episodes Send questions to yo@wpmrr.com for the next Q&A pod Visit the WPMRR website   Favorite Podcast Episodes: Should Your Business Take Political Stances or Stay Silent? What an Automattic IPO in 2021 means for WordPress Professionals (Brian Krogsgard, Post Status) What it’s really like to be people of color in the WordPress community The future of funding in WordPress   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:49 What’s up, Joe? 04:09 Sad news: This is Christie’s last episode 07:53 The truth about why Christie is leaving 11:50 Don’t do a podcast if you aren’t passionate about it 14:03 Some of the best moments happened off-record 17:10 What’s it like recording a podcast for the past two years? 19:57 Podcast is just a conversation between 2 to 3 people 22:20 The benefits of being a podcast host 26:30 Pod episodes on our favorite list 37:15 Parting words from Christie Chirinos!