Podcast appearances and mentions of Chris Lema

In this episode, Chris dives into the psychology of motivation and how understanding what drives people can transform the way agencies close deals, lead teams, and shape company culture. He explains how the M Code Assessment helps businesses tailor their sales approach to match different motivation types and why traditional hiring practices often overlook high-potential talent.

In the LMSCast episode, Chris Lema discusses the idea of motivation and explains that it is not an external factor that varies but rather an inherent component of an individual’s wiring. In the WordPress and technology communities, Chris Lema is well-known for his leadership, business strategy, and motivating ideas. He is the CEO of Motivation […] The post Discover the Hidden Forces That Drive Your Best Work With Chris Lema and MotivationCode appeared first on LMScast.

In this episode, Michelle Frechette and Corey Maass delve into their experiences with product marketing for a WordPress plugin focused on open graph images. They highlight the significance of customer feedback, better onboarding processes, and innovative marketing strategies inspired by Spotify's year-end wrap-up feature. The discussion is peppered with personal anecdotes and humor, creating a light-hearted yet informative atmosphere. They explore ideas like using AI for targeted landing pages, conducting visitor interviews, and improving their website design to better reflect their brand. The episode concludes with a sense of camaraderie and optimism for their ongoing projects.Top Takeaways:Focus on the Problem and Solution: Corey emphasized the importance of clearly defining the problem OMGIMG solves. This includes addressing specific pain points, like the "image roulette" problem, where inconsistent images affect branding and engagement. Focusing on the problem in copy helps ensure users immediately see OMGIMG's relevance to their needs.Strategic Use of AI as a Creative Partner: Corey is using AI as a tool for creating, organizing, and refining content. This iterative approach—from generating headlines to drafting entire plugins—allows him to quickly put ideas on paper, then tweak them. Michelle also mentioned wanting to lean more on AI, which could further help streamline content creation and brainstorming.Customer-Specific Landing Pages: Corey mentioned creating landing pages targeted at specific customer types, like bloggers, to highlight relevant features and value propositions. This strategy makes it easier for users to see exactly how OMGIMG fits their needs and helps make the messaging more personalized and effective.Interactive Feedback with Visitor Interviews: The idea of using visitor interviews and live feedback sessions with WordPress community members (like Cameron and Marcus) was discussed as a way to gather insights on the product in real-time. This feedback could be essential for fine-tuning both the product and its messaging.Mentioned In The Show:Mark WestguardThis Week In WordPressNathan WrigleyIPA WPJustin WelschSaturday Solopreneur Otter AI Alan FullerFullworks PluginsSet AppBeaver builderClaude AIChris LemaCameron Jones

Do you use assessments in your coaching practice? Explore how these tailored tools and the insights they give can drive breakthroughs and create even stronger connections with your coaching clients. Chris Lema, CEO of Motivations AI, product strategist, public speaker, coach, and six-time startup founder, has a tailored approach to coaching that helps people achieve breakthrough results. As a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Peter Larson, now VP of Assessment Science at Motivations AI, saw the importance and value in using assessment tools, and eventually shifted his career to focus on the research and development of assessment tools.

“Contrary to Apple's belief that bravery is taking a headphone port away. My belief of bravery, my definition is the ability to leave something that is safe and step into something that is unknown.” - Chris LemaWatch this episode on YouTubeChris Lema:Chris's Website: chrislema.comChris on Twitter: @chrislemaBrian Casel:Brian's company, ZipMessageBrian on Twitter: @casjamThanks to ZipMessageZipMessage (today's sponsor) is the video messaging tool that replaces live calls with asynchronous conversations.  Use it free or tune into the episode for an exclusive coupon for Open Threads listeners.Quotes from this episode:Quote 01:Chris Lema: The single most important thing that you need to learn how to do is to make money. You have to figure out, you know if you have nothing if you know how to make money. Craft an e-book, build an online course, create a membership site, seller reports, provide some coaching, and do some consulting, if you know how to make money, then you're never locked into the situation that you're in.Chris Lema: And and you know, contrary to Apple's belief that bravery is taking a headphone port away. My belief in bravery. Right. My definition is the ability to leave something that is safe and step into something that is unknown.Quote 02:Brian Casel: I think it's so interesting like your transitions that I want to talk about your recent one in 2022 but even just going back to those early days you were you were CTO at some other sort like non WordPress, some other software and you actively started blogging and becoming well-known in the WordPress space and it was almost like building the bridge for you to go cross over into the WordPress space.Chris Lema: Yeah, it's.Brian Casel: Like, like 2008 or 09?Chris Lema: It's a desire. Yeah. It's a desire to continually create opportunities. Right. So years and years ago, a long, long time ago, I wrote a patent and the patent I wrote was with one of the top five decision scientists on the planet, Dr. Ralph Keeney, and Ralph was the chair of Decision Science at Duke, which is the Decision Science School.He had been a professor of Decision Science at USC, another well-known school. This guy is the God of Decisions, and he's written several books on decision value-based frameworks and all the stuff in his point. Right, which I internalized and learned was most people are really, really bad at decision-making. And the reason they're bad at decision-making is that they let other people put them in decision moments.Quote 03:Brian Casel: Yeah. I mean, I could see how like when you're at a point where you're feeling kind of burnt out, you've been doing this thing for multiple years and, you know, and it's like a new, totally fresh problems that an opportunity just kind of lands on your lap.Chris Lema: And it's and here's, here's the crazy thing. In the last three in the last three months, I'm involved in buying a company which I've done 40 times already. I'm involved in investing in a company which I've done 30 times already. I'm involved in starting a new startup, which I've done seven times already. And I'm launching a product which I've done probably a hundred plus times already.Right. I literally don't have to prep to walk into any meeting. I walk into the meeting and I'm like, I have a framework for that. I have a strategy for that. I've done that before. Here are the questions I would ask these lawyers how to use this is how we do it. I would do this tranche and then do this flip and then do this convertible note and then do the benefit of having done a whole lot of work for a lot of years is that you know, if you get the opportunity to work in a job where you're like, I've never worked harder, but I've also never it's never been easier because it's leveraging all the things that I've done before.Brian Casel: A lot of business fundamentals just don't really change no matter which space you're in. And you can apply what happened on that deal over here, right? Yeah. Very cool.

“Selling any kind of knowledge or expertise is completely different than selling a shoe. When you sell a shoe, use a physical object, you're talking about the attributes of the object, is it the right size, the right color? Does it have the right fit, and you're judging the shoe. And even if you don't like this one shoe by Nike, you don't hate Nike, you just don't like this shoe, right? So it is abstracted already. When you sell knowledge and expertise, it feels very, very close to who you are right? And when someone rejects you,  it can feel like they're rejecting you, not your offering.” - Chris LemaWatch this episode on YouTubeChris Lema:Chris's Website: chrislema.comChris on Twitter: @chrislemaBrian Casel:Brian's company, ZipMessageBrian on Twitter: @casjamThanks to ZipMessageZipMessage (today's sponsor) is the video messaging tool that replaces live calls with asynchronous conversations.  Use it free or tune into the episode for an exclusive coupon for Open Threads listeners.Quotes from this episode:Quote 01:Chris Lema:Any kind of knowledge or expertise is completely different than selling a shoe when you sell a shoe. You sell a physical object. You're talking about the attributes of the object the right size the right color, and does it have the right fit? And you're judging the shoe. And even if you don't like this one shoe by Nike, you don't hate Nike.You just don't like this shoe, right? So it is abstracted already. When you sell knowledge and expertise it feels very, very close to who you are, right? And when someone rejects you, it can feel like they're rejecting you, not your offering. And that can be painful. It's also difficult to know how you sell, right?How do you close the deal when it's abstract and there's nothing to show? Like you don't have the physical shoe. Right. And my answer to that is forever, right? Has been you needed to use a story or narrative? You need to be able to tell, you know, rapid versions of case studies. Here's what here's where they were and here's what happened at the end you need to be able to tell prediction stories.Here's what you're about to experience, whatever, because that makes you feel like a magician. But the most important part of that is you're not going to close those deals on email. You're not going to close those deals on the phone. You're going to need to get on video because people are buying someone they can trust. They're buying someone that they feel good working with if it's like their movie product is the communication, is the relationship, right?Yep. And they may there be 100 coaches and the bottom line is they got to be comfortable with you, right? They got to feel like I would like you on my team. I want you on my team.Quote 02:Chris Lema: Product strategy isn't just let's go build stuff. It's about what you say yes to and what you say no to. More often than not, saying no is what's really critical because saying no allows you the freedom to have the time to go say yes to something valuable. And then and then you go, Okay, let's go from here. What I will tell you as a coach is right now all of my frameworks. So files are Dropbox links, right? And you can imagine if you're a coach wanting to be able to load up, which makes Zipmessage stickier. If I say, oh, I've loaded all my frameworks in here so that I can share a ZM link, but that also means, oh gosh, I don't want to leave that message because it has all my stuff already preset.Brian: Yeah, right. Chris Lema: And so things that make it stickier, having that file archive that allows me to share in my frameworks easily becomes interesting.Quote 03:Chris Lema: Different clients function differently. Some will come and say, I want to grow in this way or I want to drive this specific change and then we'll go, okay, so let's break out how we do that. And I will tell you, okay, you need to do A before being B, before C and C before D. And so that's what we're going to cover over the three months.Others will come in saying, listen, I've talked to these other people. They say that you're the most indispensable part of their team. I want you on my team. What things can you cover? I rattle off 20 things we can cover. They go, Are these three feel important right now? So we go into those three for a period of time, and then they're like, Hey, let's talk about this other one now, and then let's talk about this other one.And we just keep moving, right? But it's because what I promised them upfront is that they're not going to go through a coaching program. So I am not against other people. There are other people that have very specific models. Right. And that model maybe I have a coaching program at 16 weeks and each week we're going to talk about something.

We're interacting in new ways. Sometimes it's just with our voice on social audio. Other times it involves audio complimented by our Avatar and digital assets in the Metaverse. In both circumstances, we only have a few seconds or minutes to attract attention and keep the conversation moving forward. Communicate correctly, and the experience for the other person will feel like a fine dining adventure at their favorite restaurant with the meal ending with delicious ice cream, chocolate sauce, and a bright fresh red cherry on top. Go about things the wrong way, and for everyone involved, it'll feel like you just dumped your cheeseburger and fries into your lap while parked outside Mcdonald's in a noisy and dirty parking lot. To help make everyone's communication dining experience one to remember, I'm honored to introduce you to my good friend, Chris Lema. In addition to being a man of many hats–  seriously, this man sports more hats in more good ways than anyone I've ever met; he's also a communication expert, Chief Product Officer, product strategist, public speaker, and blogger. Chris is a WordPress and WooCommerce evangelist and the creator of CaboPress, an event that takes place in beautiful Cabo each year. After watching Chris on stage at CEX earlier this year, it reminded me to share him with you.  Enjoy! Mitch _____ Connect with Chris Lema here https://chrislema.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrchrislema/

Chris Lema tells Carey about rookie mistakes leaders make with social media including how you shouldn't quit before you start seeing results. Get more on this conversation by going to http://theartofleadershipdaily.com/. Looking for resources to lead, run and grow your church? Join The Art of Leadership Academy today at http://theartofleadershipacademy.com/.

Chris Lema knows a lot about a lot. But did you know he was doing no-code well before it became the movement it is today? In this bit, he tells us a little about how to successfully build a web app without code.Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/012Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe  This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet ★ Support this podcast ★

Chris Lema knows a lot about a lot. But did you know he was doing no-code well before it became the movement it is today? In this bit, he tells us a little about how to successfully build a web app without code. Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/012 Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet

Chris Lema knows a lot about a lot. But did you know he was doing no-code well before it became the movement it is today? In this bit, he tells us a little about how to successfully build a web app without code. Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/012 Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet

Chris Lema knows a lot about a lot. But did you know he was doing no-code well before it became the movement it is today? In this bit, he tells us a little about how to successfully build a web app without code.Listen to the entire episode at https://howibuilt.it/012Be sure to subscribe at https://howibuilt.it/subscribe  This clip is brought to you by WP Wallet Get your FREE copy of my Automations Library ★ Support this podcast ★

“It's so nice to have a peer who's doing similar kinds of work in their own brands and just being able to collaborate and work at that level... that is kind of rare.”— Zach TirrellDavid sits down with Zach Tirrell to talk about his new role as product manager (replacing Chris Lema) at StellarWP. Zach manages The Events Calendar and LearnDash plugins but also several other products that are under the StellarWP umbrella.Why This Matters: You'll learn how StellarWP manages a number of popular WordPress products. Zach shares his thoughts about about Gutenberg, software licenses, and recent news about the WordPress market share.Every week Post Status Excerpt will bring you important news and insights from guests working in the WordPress space.

It is chapter seven of our first season, the Practical guide to building an online marketplace. The guide was originally published in Marketplace Academy and it is written by Christóbal Gracia and Juho Makkonen.Article available at: Your marketplace MVP – How to build a Minimum Viable Platform, Christóbal GraciaSources and further reading:  3 reasons you shouldn't outsource your startup, and what to do instead, Joel Gascoigne  The Manual-First Startup, Vinicus Vacanti  The Concierge Minimum Viable Product Maximizes Customer Learning, Bob Cavezza  How to Create a Payment Page on Your Website, Danielle Keister  33 Bess Quotes From #RISEUP15, Cairo Scene  Email-First Startups, Ryan Hoover  Building an Online Marketplace Has Never Been Easier in 2021, Chris Lema  11 marketplace metrics you should be tracking to measure your success, Marketplace Academy  Minimum Viable Product: a guide, Eric Ries  Spotify: the unproject culture, Henrik Kniberg  Idea to Paying Customers in 7 Weeks: How We Did It, Joel Gascoigne  The Happy Startup School How to Build a Minimum Loveable Product 7 Unlikely Recommendations for Startups & Entrepreneurs The Marketplace Academy Podcast is hosted and narrated by Katri Antikainen.You can learn more about building a marketplace at www.sharetribe.com/academy/.Looking to build a marketplace of your own? Visit www.sharetribe.com!

As consultants, we often think about having a single core offer - usually a high ticket offering. But it's not always a good fit for a lot of our potential clients, and there are some clients who are willing to pay more to get more. So how should we approach creating a product or services ladder? In this episode, Chris Lema and Alastair McDermott discuss how to think about product ladders, including the three key offers you can include in your ladder. They also discuss how content marketing is about telling a story, how to use frameworks to tell that story, and how Chris got it wrong about mattresses!  “Different people need different products, even when they're all saying "I need a hotel" or "I need a car". As service practitioners, who have high ticket offers, we act like everybody is the same. Do you have a "more for more" offer for people who want more? Do you have a "less for less" offer? You deliver less, they pay less.” -- Chris Lema “All content marketing is about helping someone progress from A to B. But in order to get them over the hump of inactivity, to willing to do something, you have to tell them a story.” -- Chris Lema

Chris Lema shares insights for those builders who are considering starting online classes to help sell products or educate clients.

Chris Lema shares insights for those builders who are considering starting online classes to help sell products or educate clients.

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

Síguenos en: Hoy traemos un episodio especial de Perspectiva WP donde analizamos, junto con Juan Hernando que ya nos acompañó en el último episodio, las últimas adquisiciones en el ecosistema WordPress. Últimas adquisiciones en la esfera WordPress StellarWP (LiquidWeb) adquiere LearnDash Justin Ferriman proceso de 11 meses - Chris Lema pasa a ser General Manager Así queda la cartera de productos de StellarWP: iThemesThe Events CalendarRestrict Content ProKadence WPGiveWPWP Business Review.IconicWP Awesome Motive adquiere todos los plugins de Sandhills Development Pippin Willianson se retira pero el resto del equipo (27 personas) pasan a formar parte de Awesome Motive (Syed Balkhi): Easy Digital Downloads AffiliateWPSugar CalendarWP Simple PayPayouts Service Así queda la cartera de productos de Awesome Motive: WPBeginnerOptinMonsterWPFormsMonsterInsightsAIOSEOWP Mail SMTPSeedProdRafflePressSmash BalloonPushEngageSearchWP… y más. Unos 17 millones de webs utilizan plugins de Awesome Motive. Un equipo de + de 200 personas localizados en 36 países distintos Motivos de Pippin Comenta que el destino de cualquier negocio será alguno de estos: Un día pasará a otra persona, quizás por herencia familiarDecaerá lenta o rápidamente y en algún momento se cerrará por completoSe venderá a un nuevo propietario por una u otra razón La salud de su padre le hizo reflexionar Se tomó 3 meses de sabático para reflexionar  Dar el salto al siguiente nivel es muy complicado Además había perdido la pasión por crear software para WordPress Una vez decidió que quería vender buscó alguien capaz de asegurar el futuro de sus productos, trabajadores y clientes Conoce a Syed Balkhi desde hace años y confía en que puede asegurarlo Sandhills Development se dedicará principalmente a la preservación de espacios naturales. Pippin dedicará su tiempo a eso y a Sandhills Brewing. Punto en común con Elliot Condon, 10 años y a otra cosa mariposa. Episodio de PerspectivaWP dedicado a Pippin Williamson y Sandhills Development. Episodio de PerspectivaWP dedicado a Elliot Condon y Advanced Custom Fields. Episodio de PerspectivaWP dedicado a iThemes/ Liquid Web Otras grandes adquisiciones recientes WooCommerce adquiere SomewhereWarmACF adquirido por Delicious BrainsYoast adquirido por Newfold Digital Movimientos de talento Brian Gardner vuelve a WP Engine Rich Tabor cambia Go Daddy por Extendify. Todas las adquisiciones de WordPress recogidas en Post Status. Debate Trasvase de datosHay hueco para pequeños negocio en WordPress Is There a Future for Small WordPress Businesses? - WP Mayor (Si quisieras vender un producto/plugin: https://flipwp.co/ de Iain Poulson y Alex Denning + 6 preguntas que hacerte antes de vender tu negocio de WP en el blog de StellarWP) Gracias a: Este episodio está patrocinado por StudioPress, los creadores de Genesis Framework, el entorno de trabajo de temas más popular de WordPress. Ya está disponible Genesis Pro para todo el mundo, 360$ anuales que dan acceso a: Genesis FrameworkChild themes de Genesis de StudioPress1 año de hosting en WP EnginePlugin Genesis Pro (Diseños y secciones, restricción de bloques por usuarios…) y Genesis Custom Blocks Pro.

Hoy traemos un episodio especial de Perspectiva WP donde analizamos, junto con Juan Hernando que ya nos acompañó en el último episodio, las últimas adquisiciones en el ecosistema WordPress. Últimas adquisiciones en la esfera WordPress StellarWP (LiquidWeb) adquiere LearnDash Justin Ferriman proceso de 11 meses – Chris Lema pasa a ser General Manager Así queda […]

"Remember to put people before software and community before code."In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, David and Cory recover from an overwhelming week of acquisition news in the WordPress space. Four well-known WordPress companies announced acquisitions almost back-to-back. Next, Cory notes Michelle Frechette's article on Post Status about the challenging and difficult choices some employees of newly acquired companies may have to make.Also covered in this episode: David shares what has (and hasn't) changed in the WordPress space in terms of business and opportunities. Then he considers the possible ways developers can look at acquisitions as a whole.Browse past episodes from all our podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe to them on your favorite players. Post Status' Draft, Comments, and Excerpt podcasts are on Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, iTunes, Castro, YouTube, Stitcher, Player.fm, Pocket Casts, and Simplecast. (RSS)

It's the WP Minute! This is Kathy Zant and I'm filling in for Matt. This episode is brought to you by Easy Support Videos. Support your WordPress users by embedding videos and screencasts right inside the WordPress admin. Learn more at EasySupportVideos.com! You know the drill, everything I mention here will be linked up in the newsletter and the blog post. Check out thewpminute.com for the links. News time! If you thought the WordPress acquisition train was safely tucked away at the station, think again, it's full-steam ahead! Breaking news announced earlier this morning, AwesomeMotive has acquired one of the — if not the most — highly regarded brands in WordPress: SandHills Development, widely known for Easy Digital Downloads. Pippin Williamson penned an excellent summary of the events sharing what led him to the decision. Every business owner knows (or will eventually learn) that there are three possible fates for their business:1. It will one day be passed on to someone else, perhaps through family inheritance2. It will slowly or rapidly decline and at some point be shut down entirely3. It will be sold to a new owner for one reason or another. If you're a business owner, his post is absolutely worth the time. Liquid Web announces another top-tier brand is being added to their stack, one of the most popular LMS plugins for WordPress: LearnDash. LearnDash will join the Liquid Web Family under the StellarWP brand, which is the umbrella for our premium WordPress software solutions and includes well-known and respected WordPress leaders such as iThemes, The Events Calendar, GiveWP, Restrict Content Pro, Iconic, and Kadence WP.” You can learn more about how the acquisition went down in our interview with Justin Ferriman and Chris Lema. Highlights include: How long the process tookWhat you should do if you want to get acquiredSpeculation on WooCommerce and the ecommerce space Speaking of WooCommerce, they've announced the acquisition of extension maker SomewhereWarm who currently has seven products available in the marketplace. “This is a huge opportunity for us to help shape the future of WooCommerce, having a clearer view of the path ahead, more resources than ever before, and the support of like-minded people.” DeliciousBrains did a stealth acquisition of the ACF Blocks plugin, picking it up from the folks at Extendify. Extendify acquired EditorsKit earlier this year and the Redux framework last year. The fantasy league of WordPress We're thinking about starting a fantasy league of WordPress business & All-Star communi

Liquid Web is acquiring again, this time in the popular WordPress LMS plugin space. Justin Ferriman, Founder of LearnDash, penned the acquisition statement on the company blog. I invited him on to share what the process looked like from an owner’s perspective and how it impacts his day-to-day responsibilities. https://twitter.com/chrislema/status/1440154950227546124?s=20 Chris Lema also makes a shift through this acquisition, becoming the General Manager of Learn Dash under the Liquid Web umbrella. He’ll share what that role means to the product, along with some outlook on how Liquid Web approaches platform solutions. We’ll spend some time talking about e-commerce and WooCommerce opportunities for the WordPress industry. matt | Issue # | Tuesday, 21 Sep 2021 | Reading time: 2 mins | Read online Listen to the episode Join the The WP Minute membership + Discord server!

Chris Lema talks about the latest WordPress acquisition: LearnDash is joining Liquid Web. Will it become the leading LMS turnkey solution?Post Status CEO Cory Miller chats with Chris Lema, Vice President of Products at Liquid Web, about Liquid Web's acquisition of LearnDash. LearnDash will join Liquid Web's StellarWP brand, and Chris will step in as the General Manager of LearnDash.It's been a boom time in recent years for edutech companies. As the online learning leader in the WordPress space with their Learning Management System (LMS) plugin for WordPress — which comes with a whole ecosystem of addons and integrations — it's no surprise LearnDash would be attractive as a platform for a hosting company to acquire. Get an inside look at the latest big deal in WordPress acquisitions with Chris Lema."Everyone knows LearnDash as the leader of online learning in the WordPress ecosystem. We are excited to welcome them to the Liquid Web family as we continue to build our strength in the digital commerce ecosystem. LearnDash takes us deeper into the digital commerce space by offering online educators the best tools to create online courses, quizzes, and dynamic content with built-in marketing and ecommerce features. We believe in their brand, and we know that with our backing, they will continue to deliver the online solutions educators need."  — Chris Lema

Web design in general and WordPress development have become very crowded markets. If you want to know how to rise above the noise and attract bigger clients without lowering your prices, Chis Lema has some incredibly insightful strategies to share as we discuss The Art of Being Different. Chris Lema doesn't really need an introduction because most …

Chris Lema is a mentor, sure, but he's more than that. He's a cheerleader for each of us in WordPress offering advice and more through his blog, talks, and Twitter - all while being the VP of Product at Nexcess/Liquid Web.

Every Friday at around 8:30 am PST we host the WP-Tonic Round-table Show where we discuss the latest WordPress and the general web news of the week. You can also watch the show LIVE on our WP-Tonic's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/wptonic/ Special Guest Panelist Chris Lema https://chrislema.com/ StreamYard Panel Link: https://streamyard.com/butb5ep8p6 This Week Show's Sponsors Castos: https://castos.com/ LaunchFlows: https://launchflows.com

In a groundbreaking acquisition, IBM acquired Red Hat, a company that open-sources all of its products, for $34 billion in 2019. This changed the paradigm of open-source acquisitions, after all, this meant that IBM saw value in a purchase of software that could have been in the open to work with for this major technology player's highly qualified engineers. This begs the question: what is a company buying when they acquire a company that has a business model surrounding creating and maintaining open-source software? In this episode, we answer this question from two perspectives — what it is like to be acquired from Zach Tirrell, and what requirements the company sought from Chris Lema, who was involved in the acquisition of Zach's product. We discuss the determinants that will make an open-source software attractive for buyers, and we also discuss the human and emotional experience of selling an open-source software company. 

Its the WP Minute! This episode is brought to you by Search WP. Improve WordPress search by visiting SearchWP.com You know the drill, everything I mention here will be linked up in the newsletter and the blog post. Checkout thewpminute.com for the links. Sshh…no major acquisitions this week. WordPress 5.8 is slated for release on July 20. In just over a month, many users will get their first experience of the template-editing mode. This can be exciting for users allowing them to create custom templates without ever leaving the post-editing screen. New powerful blocks like the Theme blocks and Query blocks will be introduced. Beta 3 of 5.8 is available today for testing. If you're looking for an alternative to Google Maps, Sarah Gooding from WordPress Tavern breaks down some of the recent happenings with the MapLibre Project. Citing she even opened a ticket for Jetpack to consider using it in a future release.  Chris Lema shares his thoughts from the lens of Nexcess/LiquidWeb and other hosting companies on the future success of WordPress. It seems Nexcess might have their own Membership website experience coming for WordPress hosting soon. WPEngine's Summit 2021 dubbed “The Digital Breakthrough Conference” launches tomorrow June 24th.  From the Grabbag The WPWeekly hit the 50 issue milestone, congrats Davinder. Joe Casabona shows you how to submit to the WordPress Block Pattern Directory without code.WebDevStudios is now a VIP Gold Partner with proven excellence implementing WordPress at scale.Gravity Forms celebrate the Gravity Forms Certified Developer Program (Look for more of this from major plugin vendors in the future).I enjoyed this conversation with WPBuffs founder Joe Howard and Nathan Hirsh on his podcast about starting FreeUp.net a home for hiring WordPress freelancers.  If you're a creator in the WordPress or web tech space, I talked about how you can get a job leveraging your existing content over on the latest episode of the Matt Report. That’s it for today’s episode, if you enjoyed please share it on your social media, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Don’t forget to share share share this episode with others and jump on the mailing list at thewpminute.com That's it for today's episode, if you enjoyed please share it on your social media, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Don't forget to share share share this episode with others and jum

$635.5 billion by the end of 2021?In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, Cory Miller and David Bisset briefly touch on two more acquisitions this week — one involving Extendify and another by Automattic. Cory and David review some highlights from WP Engine's recent report on the WordPress economy. WP Engine estimates the WordPress market generated more than half a trillion dollars (USD) in 2020. They expect the market to grow to $635.5 billion by the end of 2021.Also covered in this episode: A discussion of people who gave up on Gutenberg in its early phases release and how they might be convinced to give it another shot now. This topic came up thanks to an article written by Chris Lema and the conversation it provoked in Post Status Slack.Every week Post Status Excerpt will brief you on important WordPress news — in about 15 minutes or less! Learn what's new in WordPress in a flash. ⚡Browse our archives, and don't forget to subscribe via iTunes, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, Simplecast, or RSS.

A major update coming to WordPress 5.8. Beta release 2 is available for testing now. This release expands WordPress' site building capabilities, along with improvements to features users have enjoyed since the launch of the block editor. The release will also include WebP support which 95% of the web browers worldwide use. Check out the WordCamp Europe 2021 Gutenberg demo narrated by Beatriz Fialho. WordPress Taverns’ Sarah Gooding recaps a discussion with Matt Mullenweg and Matias Ventura “The Block Editor Gets Ready to Become a Site Builder” A quote from Matt: For me, 2020 was the year that really felt like people started to see the vision of Gutenberg from four or five years ago, when it was very abstract and they saw it as kind of like the old WYSIWYG editor with some extra lines on it or something,” Mullenweg said. “The first 17 or 18 years of WordPress democratized people putting text into a box. Now we're democratizing design, allowing people to control the boxes.” This has been another huge project for the WordPress contributors and developers. Josepha Hayden Chomphosy is very transparent on the WP Briefing podcast about how difficult it is to run a large open source project and offers suggestions on how to get a big group of people to come to consensus. Eric Karkovick Editor, Writer & WordPress Expert at Speckyboy covers what WordPress acquisitions says about the future and states that the WordPress ecosystem is maturing and consolidating. “Frankly, it's becoming a lot harder for solo entrepreneurs or small development shops to manage a popular plugin. Supporting a large userbase while also focusing on the future could become overwhelming.Thus, it's not surprising to see that some of these products are being sold off to larger firms. We saw something similar happen with internet providers back in the early 2000s. The more mature the market, the harder it became for a small company to carry out its mission. Pretty soon, they were just about all bought up by corporate interests”. Alex Denning along with Iain Poulson tweeted last week that they have created FlipWP and For $300/year the duo will help connect WordPress product companies for sale, with would-be buyers. If all this talk about acquisitions every day has your brain tangled up, Chris Lema posted a straight forward Twitter thread to bring some clarity to this fast-paced space. There are a lot of discussions about companies (and hosts) acquiring folks in the #WordPress space. Now, new marketplaces are getting created to help you sell your company. All of this is great. But not all buyers are the same, and it's not always about the $$$.

In a surprise tweet overnight (at least here in the US timezone), somewhere in Australia Elliot Condon announced the acquisition of his iconic WordPress plugin, Advanced Custom Fields by the Delicious Brains software company. WordPress News: ⁦@dliciousbrains⁩ acquires ⁦@wp_acf⁩ | 10 Years of ACF – A truly wonderful time https://t.co/ytgpkcQ0l8— The WP Minute (@TheWPMinute) June 2, 2021 Delicious Brains of course famous for WP DB Migrate Pro and DIY WordPress hosting, SpinupWP. I have reached out to both Brad Touesnard, founder of DB and Elliot for comment, I hope to have those replies back to publish a blog post soon. Rob Howard, CEO of Howard Development & Consulting announced the acquisition of the Understrap theme framework, ironically in a Medium post. Reportedly a $50,000 investment. It's the first time I've heard of Understrap: “The UnderStrap package allows you to quickly and easily build search engine optimized websites with WordPress.” “I anticipate one of our first steps will be the addition of a Bootstrap 5 version (which has already been started as an offshoot project), since that's been one of the most important roadmap items for a while now.” Not to be outdone on acquisitions, Chris Lema tweets that LiquidWeb has acquired Iconic, makers of a suite of WooCommerce plugins. Ok, this one is one of the ones I've been waiting for. I'm so thrilled to welcome @iconicwp to the @liquidweb / @stellarwp family.https://t.co/04Lmjw9oe8— Chris Lema (@chrislema) June 2, 2021 “With Liquid Web backing us up, we'll have more fuel to add to our fire. Our existing team is sticking around and so is our customer-focused ethos. “ WordPress tur

I had the chance to sit down with Devon Walker and Matt Cromwell of GiveWP to talk about their sale to Liquid Web. GiveWP has been the dominant WordPress donation plugin over the last few years. This move makes sense for Liquid Web as they continue to round out a complete managed WordPress solution for their customers. Liquid Web acquisitions have been on a steady increase lately, with their most recent large acquisition of the Events Calendar plugin. I hope you enjoy today's episode with Devon and Matt. Transcript Liquidweb acquires GiveWP [00:00:00] Matt Medeiros: [00:00:00] We were just chatting before we hit record. Devon, you were mentioning that things were getting wrapped up started to get almost wrapped up last week. [00:00:06] I'm sure this has been a process. When did this start? What does the timeline look like for some kind of acquisition this size?  [00:00:15]Devin Walker: [00:00:15] We've known Chris Lema for a while now. I've known him probably 10 years almost.  Around November of last year, I received an email from him that said, Hey, would you be interested in talking about how potentially we could work together, more liquid web? And what does this look like? And throughout the rest of 2020, we kind of went back and forth , “Hey, what does this look like?” [00:00:36] What it, what does it potentially mean for you? What does it mean for us? And then come the new year we landed on. Okay. Potential acquisition could be in the cards. And then a lot more negotiation around that into the LOI phase. And eventually we settled on something that made sense for the both of us  our company and liquid web, but our entire team. [00:00:59] And [00:01:00] then once we went through that, we got into more of the due diligence process, which was a very interesting and. A good learning process for everybody involved and then eventually closed on April 30th of last month.  [00:01:12]Matt Medeiros: [00:01:12] Same brand new parent company, more resources to the customers. [00:01:17] As people listen to this today, not much is going to change. Matt, Devin turns to you and says, “Hey, we're thinking about getting acquired by liquid web from a CEO's perspective, where do you start going to dot the I's cross? [00:01:27] The T's? What was that whole process like as somebody who kind of sees every oversees, everything?” [00:01:32]Matt Cromwell: [00:01:32] Don't mess with my tools. I got stuff going here. The biggest thing Devin and I always have been on the lookout for is more resources. The ability to, to inject more energy into the stuff that we're doing. [00:01:43]One of the most important resources we have all the time as our team. So that was definitely my very first thing is do they want the whole team? And the immediate question answer to that was, yeah. They understand. And they see that the team makes the product.  [00:01:57]Most folks, I think listening here know what it's [00:02:00] like to, to run their companies on their own and bootstrapping all their resources as best as they can. And it, stretches everybody thin, but we're always trying to look for the best way to support our people. [00:02:11] And I do feel like this is a win-win across the board for all of our team members. [00:02:16] Matt Medeiros: [00:02:16] Devin when you first start to have these conversations with Chris and you say, Hey, it's great to add more resources, but man, this is my baby. I mean, you and I, you were a guest co-host of the Matt Report for a little while years ago, when you started giving WP, we've obviously met up at word camps and certain sort of senior journey highlighted your journey. [00:02:35]How do you start putting up the mental guardrails to say. Okay. This is, this is for the greater good of everyone. [00:02:41] I'm sort of giving this up. This, this passion, this dream, how do you do that?  [00:02:47] Devin Walker: [00:02:47] Yeah. Well, one, one major thing was they want the leadership to come along with the product. And so. Matt and myself, Matt C CommonWell here, and me are not going anywhere. We are still fully in charge [00:03:00] of the destiny of our product, and of course we'll have lots of good advice and good, good mentoring that now we don't have to pay for  [00:03:08] Matt Medeiros: [00:03:08] using Chris's clarity line. [00:03:10] Devin Walker: [00:03:10] That was, that was painful to pay that bill every month. But no, we, we Yeah, you're right. Like my ownership and mats ownership. We, we no longer have that any more, but we have great incentives in place to meet certain goals that they've set and we've sat and and a lot more resources to do that. [00:03:28] So, while w it was sad to see kind of my ownership go away in the product. It was, at least gratifying to know. We're we still have. The ability to pull the levers that we've always  [00:03:39] Matt Cromwell: [00:03:39] had. Yeah. It's a really good question though, because I feel like folks who build things that grow and scale and get larger. [00:03:50] At some point you do start to recognize that this actually is. Larger than me. And one thing that, I already mentioned, one thing we're super proud of is our [00:04:00] team. We start to recognize that our team really is the people that have built this over time. And, and no product that has this much success is, is, is just on the back of one person anymore. [00:04:11] So, But the ability to just say, okay, I'll just do this different with our business. We don't have that ability anymore, but give in itself really gets to continue and and go strong and probably stronger than we could have done it on her own. So, yeah.  [00:04:26]Matt Medeiros: [00:04:26] We've the three of us have chatted personally about the business and some of the clients you've had, I won't say the names here, but I'm sure they're on your website and you can feel free to say some of your notable clients, active WP, but you have some. [00:04:37] Really notable clients, some really big brands use your product and something like this, like you said, this is, this is bigger than us. There's no longer can we just play with some of these not plays, not also, not a great word to use, but we can't just focus on, on, maybe even doing things the WordPress way anymore. [00:04:55] Maybe we have to broaden our horizons, open up the different technologies and in [00:05:00] a place like liquid web is going to have. Some real broad reaching technologies. Cause they don't just do WordPress. They do all kinds of things. So, yeah. You start to really sit back and look at this and say, yeah, if we're going to turn this into a air quotes, serious business, we need some serious support, whether that's other minds of the brains pumping into this machine or dollars, right. [00:05:21] To help support and grow this infrastructure. No real question there, but just sort of phrasing that. I don't know if you have any  [00:05:28] Matt Cromwell: [00:05:28] thoughts around that. I mean, for sure, like in many ways A struggle that a lot of WordPress folks, WordPress products have is that we are, we get inserted into a giant stack that you don't have control over. [00:05:41] And anybody who's been watching liquid web for a while knows that they're really attack. They're really tackling, managed, hosting in a serious way. And honestly, that's something that. That we are really excited to keep talking about and see if there's a way that we can make sure that there's a kind of managed nonprofit stack that we could be talking about. [00:05:59]Th [00:06:00] that give isn't just one of the plugins, but it's basically the engine behind the whole entire stack, and it's a lot more predictable. It's a lot more manageable that would ease the pain of a lot of. Folks, a lot of our customers that we've had over the years. And that is the kind of thing that's really hard to accomplish just on your own. [00:06:18] That liquid web really is primed to already do. .  [00:06:21]Matt Medeiros: [00:06:21] Everything sounds great. So far but Devin, from a product builders perspective, what have been the big challenges for you over the last couple of years to even entertain something like this and say, you know what? [00:06:32] Yeah, I do want to have that, that conversation as something in the market, something in the WordPress market. Anything in, in technology or, or donations at large that are, that make this a challenging space, if any,  [00:06:45]Devin Walker: [00:06:45] One of the challenges that we've been trying to overcome is providing a solution for those folks outside of the WordPress space and trying to learn about SAS and, and what our market fit is there. [00:06:59] And really bringing a [00:07:00] solution that doesn't compete with, give it up a, but compliments it. And and we think we know what the answer is now with the help of liquid web. Now we really feel strongly that we could provide a real good solution in that space. It's going to be something that we're not used to, but having people on our side that have done it before and done it successfully will definitely help us. [00:07:20]Get over there the Hill on that one, I'd say that was probably one of the main challenges, but also, growing and scaling the development team and recruiting and all these things yet at the point where we hit around 25 total team members Matt, Matt was going crazy playing the HR game. [00:07:39] And we had to do everything under the sun as partners to keep things rolling. And it's really hard at that point to continue growing when you're bootstrapped.  [00:07:47]Matt Medeiros: [00:07:47] As soon as you add somebody else, it's scaling that. Very difficult to find out why. I think a lot of people just overlook because they don't know, they don't know, like they just get over the hump of I finally optimize my Google ads. I've just got [00:08:00] a marketing machine running and now I have to manage people and figure out pods and stuff like that. [00:08:05] Pods, like in, from a human resources perspective, very challenging. Speaking of the team, how did you present it to the team and what was their reaction?  [00:08:13] Devin Walker: [00:08:13] Yeah. So I'll answer the first part. Matt, you can kind of jump in after. So we, we thought a lot about this because we have a lot of team members. [00:08:21] We don't want to rub them the wrong way. If we told them at the very last minute, some companies you show up. One morning and they said, Hey, we've been acquired, sign your new employment paper right now. It's, they don't give you any chance. But we have a couple of key leaders on our team. [00:08:34] Our head of support had a customer success, lead developer. We pulled them in and told them weeks in advance and made sure they were in the know plan accordingly with the team members. And then we let the team know the same week, a couple of days before the entire team, explain our reasoning there. [00:08:51] And. Yeah, I think it went over really well.  [00:08:53] Matt Cromwell: [00:08:53] Yeah, for sure. I mean, anybody who's employed and either as an employee or as a [00:09:00] contractor at their employment is, is important to them. And learning that essentially. Well, I mean, literally what happens for the folks who don't know is that you, you let all of these people go and they get hired by the other company. [00:09:13] And that is a jarring experience, no matter who you are. And so being able to talk to that and be really upfront about it, that LiquidWeb has guaranteed that every single one of you are coming on board, whether you're an employee or a contractor or not, that was really important to us. But it's still something that they have to wrestle with. [00:09:29] So it was really. Good and fortunate that we were able to basically give the news on a Friday essentially. And give them time to, to, to, to at least think about it just a little bit. I think they appreciated that some of them didn't realize that like when Devin said that. That it literally could, like some folks really do give you like an hour to make sure decisions. [00:09:48]And we're giving them a whole weekend. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it, it, it does make a big difference. So, I mean, the contractor experience is different than the employee experience. Everyone had their own [00:10:00] concerns, but the best thing was essentially that, that I really. Worked hard to bring the HR team from like web into the picture and for them to get to know them and to really work with them directly. [00:10:12]Misty in particular was just awesome, really helping out a ton. Once they saw the effort that we were all going to, to really. Kind of help them in the transition. It really, really ease things up quite a lot. So, by and large, I think 92, 93% of everybody was, was basically like, yeah, I'll sign that. [00:10:30] No problem. There's others that had questions and concerns. But we were really happy in the end that we got them all addressed and all onboarded.   [00:10:37]Matt Medeiros: [00:10:37] Who do you turn to in these moments? I know Chris is such a, a mentor for a lot of WordPress companies. [00:10:44] Your mentor is essentially buying you, which mentor  did you turn to to say we're making the right decision here.  [00:10:48]Devin Walker: [00:10:48] So we have a long-term mentor that has been with us for many years, that we we consulted with quite a bit on this, but also our, our attorney for a long time as well helped us start the [00:11:00] business years and years ago, then using a member since, and those two have really helped quite a bit, get the deal done, evaluate the deal, figure out if it was a good thing, work  [00:11:09] Matt Cromwell: [00:11:09] through it. [00:11:09] [00:11:09] Matt Medeiros: [00:11:09] I heard some folks in some other podcasts say that their attorneys have felt like they've become their best friends. I'm like, yeah. Well, if I was paying my best friends, tens of thousands of dollars, maybe pick up the phone every time I call too. [00:11:19]Final question here, payments or, or the donations In WordPress, where do you think it's going? As there's so much competition, I feel, and I'll throw out everyone's favorite,  jet pack, woo commerce automatic owned entities, I feel like there's always just a new payment thing coming out, whether it's for donations or for simple, I'm throwing my air quotes against simple. [00:11:39] E-commerce where do you think this is all going in terms of making it easier for the customer? Are we just going to see. Easier integrations into PayPal. Stripe is, is web. We're going to launch their own sort of one click checkout thing. Like this world is so crazy moving so fast. Where do you see this all going for the [00:12:00] end user? [00:12:00]Devin Walker: [00:12:00] With the pandemic hitting last year, it's never been more important to be online, whether you're doing e-commerce fundraising membership sites. E-learning what have you. So people are going to build around that and simplify it and try to get more of that market. So you're going to see major players like automatic, bring more of that into whether it's Jetpack or a new product or acquire stuff. [00:12:21] You're going to see large families of brands like liquid web. Continue to invest into products like us so we can continue innovating and growing our already substantial market share. But then I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of the new products coming out and I'm trying to capture some more of that. [00:12:37] So, Stripe and PayPal lead the way Stripe being, every developer's favorite. And then I would see a lot more popularity with that. A lot more solutions come out for that.  [00:12:47]Matt Cromwell: [00:12:47] In general, like a lot of folks, we really are imagining that there we're going to have a one button solution for, for payments in general. [00:12:53] I don't know if they always think about what it takes to make that happen and what it takes is sharing a lot of private data in order [00:13:00] for that to happen. And so at the same time that we want things to be a one button thing. Everybody also has a lot of privacy concerns right now, too. So how do you have your cake and eat it too? [00:13:09] Well, just making a really streamlined, simple form because. If you enter in the information yourself, then you know, that it's that it's information that you provided and not just gleaned from your phone or gleaned from your account or anything like that, like that. So being able to continue to do the best forms possible is really right now in the immediate, I think still the most optimal path that, that everybody's going to still continue to need. [00:13:33]The day when we all just can show our phone and just be like, here, I'll give you money. Is the day when honestly there's sources that have all of our private information about everything we're doing. So, it's a mixed bag. It's a careful balance trying to try to have our cake and eat it too in that  [00:13:47] Matt Medeiros: [00:13:47] scenario. [00:13:48]At least try to take some of that cake back from Apple, Google. Facebook and all these other places that have our information in our payment sources, Devin Walker, Matt Cromwell… Well, give wp.com. We can still go to give [00:14:00] wp.com. Right.  [00:14:03] Matt Cromwell: [00:14:03] Please do  [00:14:04] Matt Medeiros: [00:14:04] forwarding to liquid web signup page gentlemen, thanks for taking the time to hang out. [00:14:09] Tell us all about your wonderful news being acquired by liquid web. Congratulations. It's been a long time coming to see the success of you guys and your team. Is, is quite phenomenal. And I'm happy for you guys anywhere else that folks can go to say, thanks.  [00:14:23]Devin Walker: [00:14:23] Well, we have a town hall coming up on Tuesday, May 18th. [00:14:26] At what time again, Matt 11:00 AM Pacific time. So if you want to join us, ask us any questions. It'll be a great format. Come on over.  [00:14:35]Matt Medeiros: [00:14:35] Thanks for listening to everybody. The WP minute.com. Sign up for the newsletter and the podcast. See in the next episode.  ★ Support this podcast ★

Preston and Luis are back for the second episode of season three alongside new SAFC midfielder Cam Lindley who is in his first year with the club. Cam talks about his career to date, his ambition this season and what he likes to do off the field. Also in this episode, find out what three things Cam would take with him on an island, and whether or not he prefers living with teammates Chris Lema or Marcus Epps.

The year of 2020 has been challenging and at the same time, provided a chance for some opportunities for growth in the eCommerce space. We asked Chris Lema to come back to the show and reflect on the year so far, with both perspective and insights.

The year of 2020 has been challenging and at the same time, provided a chance for some opportunities for growth in the eCommerce space. We asked Chris Lema to come back to the show and reflect on the year so far, with both perspective and insights.

Chris has 20 years of consistent senior-level software management success, he been a key member of corporate management, software development, and product teams. He has been driven by challenge and motivated by the opportunity to add value. He managed development teams filled with people smarter than me, and yet motivated and managed them to deliver consistent and high quality work, in corporate and startup contexts. I'm a seasoned executive with proven expertise in eCommerce, SaaS, and membership/subscription systems, having developed strategies and frameworks for remote & virtual teams, and New Product Development. I've had the wonderful opportunity, over the last decade, to also be a coach and advisor to many of the commercial endeavors in the WordPress ecosystem. https://chrislema.com/

Chris has 20 years of consistent senior-level software management success, he been a key member of corporate management, software development, and product teams. He has been driven by challenge and motivated by the opportunity to add value. He managed development teams filled with people smarter than me, and yet motivated and managed them to deliver consistent and high quality work, in corporate and startup contexts. I'm a seasoned executive with proven expertise in eCommerce, SaaS, and membership/subscription systems, having developed strategies and frameworks for remote & virtual teams, and New Product Development. I've had the wonderful opportunity, over the last decade, to also be a coach and advisor to many of the commercial endeavors in the WordPress ecosystem. https://chrislema.com/

7 Powerful Ways to Connect, Engage and Tell Better Stories on Live Video with host Mitch Jackson and special guest, Chris Lema! More podcast episodes at http://MitchJacksonPodcast.com Connect with Chris at https://ChrisLema.com 

I'll bet you dollars to donuts you've never tried any of these 7 approaches during your live video. Once you hear what Chris has to say, you'll never do things the same way. Give this a listen. It's that good! This was an outstanding interview that Chris gave and I'm honored to share it with you.

Welcome to the very first episode of Experimental. Here's a confession: I didn't want to do another podcast I thought I was already done with podcasting. I've already done a number of podcasts for the last few years with varying success and they got boring. But then, a bunch of things started happening. I'll share the reasons why I'm starting another podcast, and unpack what are you going to expect from this show. Enjoy Snow notes [01:56] Mentors are telling me that I'm crazy by quitting podcasting When I'm paying people by giving me advice, then I'll take it Shoutout to Chris Lema by pushing me [03:15] I'm missing the podcasting format Podcasting is the perfect format for deeply exploring ideas It's the closest format to the radio, which I love and grew up with I miss being able to connect with my 'heroes' and build a relationship with people like Gary Vee, Michael Hyatt, Jeff Goins. [06:10] I heard all of you A lot of people in my e-mail list and Twitter followers are asking when the next episode is coming. Podcasting is the medium that you and I connected regularly Many of my best clients referenced the podcast in some other shape or form [08:10] This podcast will be about "Tiny Hinges, Big Doors" It's an amazing concept from Perry Marshall where a door is big but what moves the door are the little hinges. We're going to unpack the tiny hinges that we can focus on to swing big "doors" on your business You'll hear successful methods from guests that you can experiment on your own business Finding what works to help you take quantum leaps to your preferred future Finding what works to help you find the highest and best use of your time Resources Mentioned Chris Lema CaboPress Perry Marshall Subscribe To The Podcast Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcast Overcast Pocket Casts Stitcher

Customers don't want to be sold to. However, they do want to hear from business owners who can offer solutions to their problems. So how can you craft your marketing and sales messages in a way that resonates with your prospective clients and gets them to take action? Through storytelling! I'm joined by Chris Lema, leader, speaker, and Vice President of Products and Innovation at Liquid Web. Chris is a master storyteller with a story for every scenario. He shares a few of his powerful storytelling techniques in this episode.   Contact Information: Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrislema www.chrislema.com  Chris's Leadership Blog A huge thank you goes to our show sponsor: Abby Connect, the live receptionist service loved by small businesses.  Get your 2-week free trial and $95 off your first month at http://abbyconnect.com/genwhy Thanks for Listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend who could benefit from listening to this particular episode. I appreciate it! If you haven't already, please don't forget to subscribe to the GYL Podcast in Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, or Spotify. That way, every time I prepare a new episode for you, it'll automatically show up in your phone.

Unless you've done some serious soul searching, you're probably not thinking of why you need to learn to say “no” in business. But saying “no” strategically is one the most important skills you can learn. Chris Lema, a leader in online business + building high performance teams, is my guest on this episode of 10X Profits […] 010: Learn to Say “No” to Receive a Better YES! with Chris Lema is a post by Jeni B. at Biz Mavens.

Can you believe it's been nearly three years since I last talked to Chris Lema? Just like last week's guest, Brad Williams, many years have gone by since we last checked-in and there's a lot to talk about. Chris is well-known in the WordPress space for providing tremendous insight for us product and service owners. He recently exited his CTO role at Crowd Favorite and is taking to the internet to tackle new opportunities as a “freelancer.” There's a wealth of knowledge in this episode and I really hope you enjoy it! Interview with Chris Lema The reality of running a business It's going to require a lot of work. If you've been following along with my story (and this podcast) for the last few years, you'll know that success in this industry doesn't come easy. As much as the alluring internet marketing expert pushing Facebook ads might be trying to tell us otherwise. It takes more than just putting in the work too — it's the emotional toll of running a business, that many of us aren't ready for: Bad clients Hiring Cash flow Losing out on jobs Missing good opportunities I know I dig on “experts” a lot, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt, even though they make for good fodder. That said, one thing an expert can't prepare you for, is the emotional side of the points I mentioned above. In my opinion, while you might be open to learning “how to run a business”, no one can prepare you for the feeling of it. You're only going to sharpen that by going through the paces. It's not that I'm trying to scare you away from running a business, and owning your success, quite the opposite. Yes, there's a lot of responsibility for owning something, but you get the creative control. Don't want to work today? No problem. Want to launch a new twist on your marketing message? It's yours. Pricing advice for WordPress product owners The answer to our pricing woes are right in front of us. Chris is very passionate on the idea that if our customer makes money with his or her website — they should pay you for the value our product provides. I'm in, 100%.  The challenge is: traditional WordPress plugin installation and activation. There would have to be some form of SaaS (Software as a Service) baked into our products to manage non-paying customers. Maybe your website doesn't make money right now, but in the future it does. If owners can identify that and trigger an upgrade path remotely, everyone benefits. Customer receives more features and support, while the product becomes sustainable. The call to action for us owners: let's make clear(er) distinctions to our customers. Bonus Advice: Take care of your customers Something I'm guilty of: Keeping up with your customers. Chris brings up a great point of keeping clear and consistent lines of communication going with our customers. Not just when we need them to re-up their license, but a consistent delivery of value. Simply put yourself in your own customer shoes: Day 1: You purchase a premium plugin. Day 2: You receive a thank you e-mail and some links to documentation. Day 349: You receive a warning that your license is about to expire. Whoops! What happened during the last 347 days?! Who are you again? A constant stream of connection to the customer and providing value will (should) increase your renewal rates. Something to think about. Links Chris Lema ChrisLema.com BeyondGood.com Zeek interactive OptinMonster NinjaForms Crowd Favorite ★ Support this podcast ★

Chris Lema knows plenty about creating successful digital products. He’s been doing it himself, and coaching others on the underlying process, for years. In this episode of The Digital Entrepreneur, we get some insight from Chris on the importance of starting your product development with the problem. Chris joins us on this episode via an... Listen to episode

I'm finally starting to get it. The newbie mindset (or clarity mindset). Your training should "lean" towards the newbies and making a sense of the mess, with some how-to thrown in. If you don't have a blog, YouTube channel, an affiliate program, and lots of free content or search results where people can find you, then that's yet one more tool that your competitors have at their disposal, that you don't. Useful content: weekly podcast, weekly video, weekly blog post. Ideas: roundup your favorite links, post an embed reactor (a YouTube video and your opinion underneath it), become a "data scientist" and share your results Think beyond just a blog: guest posts, podcast, book, viral videos Mild keyword stuffing: use phrases people are searching Marketer of the week: Steve Celeste from InternetPursuit.com (Steve Celeste wasn't actually his real name, and his blog is long gone, but you can check out an archive on the Wayback Machine.) Steve Celeste's blog and marketing training gave me the idea of creating a "build it to sell it" site. We used that model on DailySeminar.com. I didn't want to commit to a chore of having to crank out membership content on a regular basis, so we listed it for sale even as we were launching it. I also made sure things like the Clickbank account, membership software, etc. were all things that could be detached. The site only had 53 members paying $47/month, but we had 55 "weeks" of content (20 minute Monday training, 20 minute Tuesday training, 20 minute Wednesday interview, Thursday bonus report, and Friday question day) created in advance. That part took about 40 hours of total "work" -- mostly recording training. We launched it on December 15th of (year removed but it was over 8 years ago). By February 27th of the following year, we had a buyer for $32,000 for everything. $32,000 from 40 hours? That's not a bad payday. How do you decide what info to give away or charge for? The answer: Use the "William Shatner" model (he has 228 acting credits on IMDB, appeared as himself in 357 more appearances, 9 CDs on Amazon, and 70 books on Amazon). Keep putting stuff out there. Reasons People Buy From You They love you: they buy everything you put out (top 1%) They want it (fad or trend): You got in front of a wave, i.e. everyone's talking about membership sites or one click funnels so you're teaching that They need it: you're solving a real problem (people will always need to know about affiliate programs, copywriting, etc.) Fear, convenience, entertainment What path brings people to you? Our favorite Platinum studnet (Dr. Charles) came from a Jeff Mills guest webinar we presented, then he attended our live event in Salt Lake City and joined our Platinum there. Another Platinum client came from a one-time $997 mastermind session we both attended in Las Vegas. Yet another Platinum student of ours came from a speaking gig where I presented an pitched a $997 offer in San Diego. Blogging and podcasting the "random-ness" (mindset etc) has put me on a path for the big ideas for books and courses. Here's where I stay in inspired and get a "feel" for what's popular and what people want to hear (without becoming a copycat or a me-too): Facebook: Unfollow the negative nelly, political complainers or time vampires on Facebook and instead follow: BusinessInsider, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc Magazine, Fast Company. Inspiring blogs: Copyblogger, Neil Patel, Ray Edwards, Chris Lema 2nd tier blog: Shoemoney, Digital Marketer, John Chow, Buffer, WPTavern It's also been helpful seeing bloggers like Tim Ferriss from the Four Hour Workweek write long-form blog posts in an era where people are trying to tell you that attention spans are down. John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire consistently publishes 5 podcast interviews per week (now well over 1100+) which I find super cool. IMNewsWatch is yet another example of sites that put out tons and tons of helpful free content that lead to things to...

Every now and again you come across an individual who is just knocking it out of the park with awesome stuff. Recently for me, it's Chris Lema an author, speaker, coach, VP and WordPress blogger. If you don't already subscribe to his blog or follow him on Twitter — you should make a point to do so. Chris joins us today to talk about becoming great at our craft and offers actionable advice for those of us looking to stop trading dollars for hours. Even if you're a long time follower of Mr. Lema, he never ceases to amaze us. Carry on to the show! Interview with Chris Lema of ChrisLema.com Watch on YouTube Listen to the audio version Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners Episode 41: Become a great WordPress freelancer with Chris Lema Play Episode Pause Episode Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / Subscribe Share RSS Feed Share Link Embed Download file | Play in new window Start talking business and stop talking technology How do we deal with the $500 client? You know, the mechanic that just wants to get his coupons online. No social media, no inbound marketing and certainly not publishing a YouTube series. Just get the coupons online. If we're stuck talking about all this technology and marketing lingo then the chances are we're not talking about their business. The value of getting these coupons online and driving real customers into the mechanic's shop. Let's break down that conversation: “Hey can you get me a site with coupons that my customer's can download?” “Sure can!” you respond. Upselling from the $500 What's the value of this to the client? If 50 coupons were downloaded a month, what's the overall gross? Let's say 50 x 24.95 for an oil change? So we're already roughly $1,200 in gross sales. So Mr. Customer are you willing to invest $500 to make $1,200? Sure that's easy. But what if that's 50 coupons a month for 12 months? Now we're talking nearly $15k in yearly revenue. Now their initial budget of $500 is something like a 3% investment with that kind of annual intake. Well sure that sounds great for the business owner — but what about you? Sweeten the pot. Mr Customer, I think we can generate you $15k a year with these coupons but it's going to take at least a 10% investment to make that kind of money. Now the wheels are turning. But what about supporting and scaling this, how can we add even more value? Mr Customer, if we add lead capturing to these coupons we can do some direct marketing and sell packages like maintenance and other higher price tag items. If we landed ten $1,000 maintenance jobs per year through this list, that's another $10k in potential revenue. Now we're at $25k in potential income — do you think this is all possible on a $500 budget? You see where I'm going with this. Sell on value, not the technology. It also dosen't have to be monetarily based — the value could be your process, your knowledge or support. Capitalize on the value proposition of your engagement. What Chris taught me Chris and I are alike. We both talk about the business end of WordPress and we're both trying to leave an impact on the community and this world. I'm sure I have a lot more to learn from Chris, but the first lesson he's taught me is the importance of connecting others. It's always been on the back of my mind with Matt Report — to find people doing awesome things with WordPress and expose them to an audience that otherwise might not have found them anywhere else. In my recent trip to WordCamp Chicago (a great time by the way) I was able to meet Chris in person. He was constantly making sure I met other folks he knew I should be meeting. I know these relationships are going to beneficial moving forward for everyone and I appreciate all that Chris has done for me and the community this far. Expect great things to come! Like this show? How about subscribing the the newsletter or leaving me a review on iTunes! ★ Support this podcast ★

The thought that's been floating around the #DramaPress twittersphere — Does the business track belong at WordCamp? Chris Lema and Jake Goldman join me on a live Google hangout to chat about this topic and more. I'm not going to waste any time here, so let's dive right in! I've made the YouTube video available here along with an MP3 download. This is also available on iTunes. Does business belong at WordCamp Watch on YouTube Listen to the audio version Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners Episode 35: Does the business track belong at WordCamp? Play Episode Pause Episode Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / Subscribe Share RSS Feed Share Link Embed Download file | Play in new window Little c vs big C I'm just going to make way for your comments… After reading this post on WP Daily, I asked Jake and Chris to join me in a roundtable talk about the business side of things. In the end, I don't think we're very far apart. What do you think?   ★ Support this podcast ★

Learn what Adam Pickering did to grow his WordPress theme shop and build his brand. Adam is co-founder of Mint Themes and designer of the Astoundify crowd funding theme. We have a great discussion about how he built his companies, leveraged SEO to drive traffic, and how to price products. If you find yourself sitting in a similar seat — don't miss this! Interview with Adam Pickering of Mint Themes and Astoundify Watch on YouTube Listen to the audio version Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners Episode 31: Growing your WordPress theme shop w/ Adam Pickering Play Episode Pause Episode Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / Subscribe Share RSS Feed Share Link Embed Download file | Play in new window How to drive more traffic to your theme site You're going to learn a lot in this episode, so I hope you have a pen and paper ready! Adam discussed that targeting niche theme markets was the stepping stone for Mint Themes. When he launched his first theme SoundStage, he actually had experience with being in a band. He knew what folks looking to launch a music site wanted. He was able to create great blog articles and keywords around the niche. What do we call this? Content marketing! He slowly started building out other niche sites for WordPress themes — including Church based themes. Eventually to wrangle all the marketing under one roof, he needed to build a brand. Thus, Mint Themes was born. This is a great journey to listen to if you are wrestling with your marketing efforts. Learn from Adam and put it to use in your own WordPress business. What do you think about Adam's adventure? You're not charging enough for your theme Oddly enough, my good friend Chris Lema just posted this today. Adam also felt like we were in a race to the bottom. Mint Theme's pricing is on the higher side of the average and he justifies it. Adam's point is to let customers know, you're a real person or team with real expenses — this is a real business. Take pride in the product your offering and the price will reflect that. Your thoughts on pricing WordPress products?   ★ Support this podcast ★