Podcast appearances and mentions of marc benzakein

The WordPress news from the last week which commenced Monday 20th January 2025. Join us myself and Mark Westguard, Tim Nash, Marc Benzakein as we chat about the news from the previous 7 days.

Today I chat with Marc Benzakein, a tech industry veteran, as he shares insights on crisis management. Marc recounts a severe cyber security breach during his tenure at a previous company where a hacker demanded $40,000 within 72 hours. He emphasises the importance of honesty, transparency, and clear communication in crisis management. We also discuss the role of proactive security measures and professional handling of cyber threats in a post-9/11 world. The episode underscores the value of gaining customer trust and business sustainability through transparent crisis management. Join me for a sobering and insightful discussion that underscores the need for honesty, preparation, and resilience in the face of security crises. This episode is not just informative but a good listen for anyone looking to understand the intricacies of effective crisis management and customer relations.

This episode of The WP Minute+ podcast features host Matt Medeiros in conversation with guest Marc Benzakein.Marc is currently involved with two WordPress-related businesses – MainWP, a self-hosted WordPress site management plugin, and Site District, a managed WordPress hosting company.Matt opens the show recapping his previous interview with Marc on The Matt Report podcast, where they discussed Marc's former business ServerPress which has now shut down. Marc shares what he has been up to since closing ServerPress, including taking a 6 month sabbatical away from WordPress, before getting involved again working with smaller bootstrapped companies in the WordPress space.Topics Discussed:The high sponsorship costs for events like WordCamp make things difficult for small companies in the WordPress ecosystem. Marc and Matt debate whether the platform can sustain if sponsors pull out.They discuss the necessary move towards block editors and full site editing for WordPress to stay competitive, even though some developers dislike it. The focus needs to be ease of use over speed.Marc highlights the existential threat of keeping websites relevant when social platforms like Facebook offer quicker user engagement. All of WordPress needs to address this issue.The dominance of big tech platforms and algorithms threatens the open web, as most content is now filtered through them rather than accessed directly. Podcasting faces similar challenges.Key Takeaways:Opportunities for WordPress pros with strong personal brands to work with multiple niche companies rather than one big corporate roleNeed to make WordPress site building competitive with social platforms for ease of useAll of WordPress needs to band together to demonstrate the benefits of owning your data with a website ★ Support this podcast ★

In this episode of Post Status Draft podcast, Cory Miller interviews Marc Benzakein, a member of the MainWP team. Marc explains that MainWP was created to manage affiliate marketing sites and prioritize privacy and security. They discuss MainWP's unique pricing model, offering a free version and a premium pro pack for advanced features. The Cory and Marc talk about the various extensions and plugins offered by MainWP, as well as the importance of reporting for agencies. They also discuss the improvements made to WordPress over the years and the significance of MainWP's ten-year anniversary. Marc recommends joining the MainWP users Facebook group for interactive discussions.Top Takeaways:MainWP's Unique Approach: MainWP stands out by offering a unique approach to managing multiple WordPress sites. Unlike many other solutions, it's not a central dashboard in the sense of a SaaS service. Instead, it allows users to manage their WordPress sites from their own dashboard, emphasizing privacy and security.Pricing and Unlimited Sites: MainWP offers a simple pricing model, which is a significant benefit for agencies and businesses. It starts with a free version that's powerful enough for most users. When you need advanced features, you can purchase the Premium Pro Pack. The unlimited site management feature is a significant advantage for those with multiple sites, as you can manage as many sites as you need without incurring additional costs.Extensions and Reporting: MainWP provides a wide range of extensions that cover key functionalities such as WooCommerce, reporting, collaboration tools, and more. The ability to generate customizable reports is particularly valuable for agencies, as it helps in demonstrating the value of their services to clients.

Marc Benzakein shares a retrospective on running ServerPress for a decade in the WordPress space. We unpack the history on discovering the beloved software development tool and partnering with Steve Carnam, alongside Gregg Franklin. What makes this WordPress business so challenging from others? What held back some of the development and getting ahead of the market? The answer might surprise you! Important links Marc on Twitter ServerPress Marc's coaching website When it's time...it's time ServerPress is shutting down Support the show; Join our #linksquad membership ⚡️ Check out what InMotion hosting is up to with their new Managed WordPress product! ★ Support this podcast ★

Marc Benzakein shares a retrospective on running ServerPress for a decade in the WordPress space. We unpack the history on discovering the beloved software development tool and partnering with Steve Carnam, alongside Gregg Franklin. What makes this WordPress business so challenging from others? What held back some of the development and getting ahead of the market? The answer might surprise you! Important links Marc on TwitterServerPressMarc's coaching websiteWhen it's time...it's timeServerPress is shutting downSupport the show; Join our #linksquad membership⚡️ Check out what InMotion hosting is up to with their new Managed WordPress product!

In this episode, we speak with Marc Benzakein Operations Manager of ServerPress about them recently sunsetting their product WPSiteSync. You can read about their decision here WPSiteSync and on WP Tavern. Panel Jason Tucker – jasontucker.blog Steve Zehngut – zeek.com Sé Reed – sereedmedia.com Jason Cosper – jasoncosper.com Marc Benzakein – serverpress.com Are You Looking For Brand Awareness? You could be a show sponsor. Let people know you're still in business and supporting your products. Supporting podcasts is a great way to repurpose your in-person conference budget. We have been sponsored by big brands such as Kinsta and Cloudways. Why not get your audience in front of the thousands of people who download this show every week? Yes, WPwatercooler has thousands of downloads every week. We're not just a YouTube Show. http://wpwatercooler.com/sponsor

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!

The more control you have over your business’s systems, the more juice you get out of the orange...or however the expression goes. The number of employees you have doesn’t equal how great your company is, sometimes extra employees are just band-aids for improperly designed systems. In today’s episode, Mark tells us why this is and how he would do things differently if he had to do it all over again.

Marketing your WordPress product or business can be tricky during the holidays. What's too much and what's too little. In this episode, Marc Benzakein from Server Press, LLC will join us to talk about how he got it just right. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we welcome the one and only Marc Benzakein. Marc is a partner at ServerPress, the team that is behind DesktopServer and WP SiteSync. Life Updates Kyle: Went to the local county fair. Adam: WC BHAM was awesome. School starts in 18 days. Heading to WC Asheville in a week. Marc: Just got back…

This week I interview Marc Benzakein [powerpress]

This week I interview Marc Benzakein [powerpress]

Everyone knows DesktopServer. But it wasn't magic. In this episode, Jason and Bridget are joined by Marc Benzakein. He'll talk about how DesktopServer went from a development project to a common and popular workflow solution. Join in the live chat to ask questions.Interested in getting your product or service in front of our viewers and listeners? Check out how to sponsor an episode of one of our shows.Bridget Willard – https://www.linkedin.com/in/bridgetwillard/Jason Tucker – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasontucker/Marc Benzakein https://serverpress.com@marcbenzak | @serverpress Gregg Franklin – handles 90% of the customer service because he’s so good with peopleDavid JeschStephen Carnam Branding is something you have to do for yourself personally as well as the company you are with – Marc has been told he’s the face of ServerPress because he’s gone to so many WordCamps, but he also has his own “brand” You want to know who these people are, you want to know that they’re people of integrity and you want to know what their mission is Marc has known Gregg since 1989 – they both worked in the video department at Circuit City!   Gregg always made sure to be very knowledgeable about the products and he was very good with the customers, but he was also very competitive! If an agency’s specialty is WordPress, it makes sense to go to WordCamps – the first year Marc was involved with ServerPress, he did 26 WordCamps (2014), basically one every other weekend! Kept up a similar pace the next few years. Marc went to WordCamp San Diego before he even became involved with ServerPress and that’s when he first fell in love with the WordPress community. Phoenix was the first WordCamp that he spoke at. Other than Southern California, ServerPress’ footprint was very small at that time.  When he went to speak at Phoenix, he gave a talk/workshop that was 2 hours. There were about 100 people in the room and it went without a hitch! Marc had planned for almost every contingency, but nothing happened.  Phoenix was bigger than WordCamp Miami at the time so he knew he had to be on his game! They were a bootstrap company with not a lot of capital.  How do they get their name out there? Branding is more important than “marketing” at that level. “You get to control your marketing, but people control your brand. They get to decide what they think of you whether you like it or not.” What did they want people to think about ServerPress:We’re at every single WordCampWe’re an established company in the community They decided to provide lanyards with their name and logo on it and the WordCamp’s logo on the other side – but after about a year were asked to stop doing that – he knew when they did it the first time, they might eventually be told to stop! (reminiscent of what happened with Pantheon branding the hotel elevators at WCUS 2016)  Andrea Middleton (from the WordPress Community team) called him (and was SO nice), and politely encouraged them to stop, which they agreed. Jason: you should provide power strips in the rooms with your logo on them! People would LOVE you!Marc: better idea – take your sponsor table and just fill it with power strips. People would hang out there all day long! Bridget: almost all businesses in the WordPress spectrum are self-made, small businesses. But they are the ones that are sponsoring the local community, the meetups – they are making an investment in the people which keeps them in the WordPress ecosystem.   This is why one of Bridget & Jason’s main goals with this show is to give people actionable ideas to improve their marketing and learn how to reach their audience better The question you have to ask yourself is: What is our return on investment?  It’s not a concrete, easy number when you are involved in WordCamps. Money/profit is the scorecard that most people look to.  But for small businesses in the WordPress ecosystem, the people, the loyalty and community that you gain are the ROI. They will sell your product without you asking them to do it – you are providing something that is so valuable to them that they have to preach it from the mountaintops – you are giving them so much more value than they expected. Marc started programming on a mainframe computer at the age of 10, – he’s smart but he feels lucky that he gets to work with 2 of the smartest people he knows representing a great product! 2017 was a tough year for DesktopServer – Apple had more security updates than ever, Microsoft had more security updates than ever and they had to react to all of it. Also, PHP7 came and they had to react to that as well. It was a perfect storm – a year of being reactive rather than proactive. It was because of their branding and the loyalty that they built up among their customers, that people were willing to give them grace and work with them during that time. What can we do to make our customers feel like they are getting the value for what they are spending? They appreciate that they have such a loyal following and fanbase. Bridget: you can either make your influencers or find your influencers and ServerPress “made” their influencers. Marc has never had a partnership like this one.  They have a deep respect for each other. It might be fate … it just worked out! There needs to be some overlap between the roles, but not so much that everyone is stepping on each other’s toes.   Marc handles operations, business development, billing, marketing, etc.  Gregg handles customer service and people. Dave/Steve speak their own language and understand each other.  They make sure not to step on each other’s toes. They all have their jobs pretty well defined and nobody wants to take over anyone else’s! It’s all a matter of having a healthy amount of respect for each other and boundaries. Within the company, Marc has the nickname of “The Mayor”. There have been times that they’ve all talked about the direction that the company should go and it often came down, in the end, to “What does Marc think?”, but everything at ServerPress is really a consensus. Everyone has a say. They have disagreements, but they end up with a better end-product as a result. They don’t let their egos get in the way of building a better product and building a better company. What you see is what you get with them.  They are exactly who you see on a weekend at a WordCamp and during the week at ServerPress. People don’t care how big a company is, they want to have some sort of personal connection to the company. This is why they go to so many WordCamps – they want to have that same connection to their customers. If I treat people with respect and honesty, I can be the same person inside my company and outside, personally.Tip of the WeekMarcNew plugin for ServerPress that automatically backs up your databaseGoogle Photos – https://photos.google.com/ BridgetRevive Old Posts plugin – bring up older content from your blogs and recycle it – great for sharing evergreen posts, lots of custom settings Jasonhttps://agenda.com/ – Note-taking app that ties into your calendar – you can write notes about specific events that you are attending. Supports markdown.https://developer.apple.com/design/awards/https://overcast.fm/+K8lgFR3dk Rene Ritchie and Serenity Caldwell speak with the creators of Agenda — a WWDC 2018 Apple Design Award winning note taking app for Mac. They discuss Agenda as well as this year’s major announcements from a developer and end user perspective. —Show notes contributed by:Cheryl LaPrade – @yaycherylSherie LaPrade – @heysherieThe post WPblab EP103 – Bootstrap to Commonplace: Talking Branding & Grass Roots w/ Marc Benzakein appeared first on WPwatercooler. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Carrie Dils guest hosts this episode of ZenFounder and interviews Marc Benzakein of ServerPress, about his personal health transformation. They talk about the steps he took to making his health a priority. Office Hours Podcast Support ZenFounder Episode Transcript Sherry Walling: Hey guys. Today I bring you another interview guest hosted by my great friend, Carrie Dils. In this interview, Carrie’s going to talk with Marc from ServerPress about his pretty radical health transformation. He talks about the steps that he has taken over the last year to put his physical health and well being sort of front and center in his life. Last week we talked about sleep. This week we’re talking about physical wellness, exercise, nutrition, all those things. And these topics are super essential to the well being of a founder, of an entrepreneur. Not just so you look cute in a swimsuit but because our bodies and minds are deeply integrated. So, in order to work well, to feel good, to be the best version of yourself in your relationships, you actually need to have a pretty strong foundation of health within your body. In the ZenTribes group we begin with this topic. We begin with the building blocks of sanity. The basics of physical health that need to be in place in order for you to function at your best, both in your business and in your life. So, enjoy this conversation between Carrie and Marc and thanks again to Carrie for guest hosting for me this week. Be sure to check out her podcast Office Hours.FM it is super cool. Lots of great ideas and feedback going on there, especially for freelancers. And I will look forward to being back with you in a week or so. Carrie Dils: Hey Marc it is so good to be chatting with you today. How are you doing? Marc Benzakein: I’m doing really good. I’m enjoying sunny Southern California weather right now. Carrie Dils: Well I’m enjoying kind of dreary North Texas weather. So, yours sounds like the better spot to be. Marc Benzakein: Well it is until it gets to be 90 degrees and you start to fade away. Carrie Dils: Fair enough. For folks you haven’t had a chance to meet you, can you share a little bit about you and who you are and what you do? Marc Benzakein: Well my name is Marc Benzakein. I typically live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with my wife and nine children. Seven of whom we are working on adopting. I run a company called ServerPress LLC. where we make software for WordPress developers and designers. And I workout and diet and have learned a lot about myself mentally and physically in the last year or so. Carrie Dils: That’s exactly what I’m hoping to chat about is, sort of, your journey to health and fitness over the last, what would you say, year or two years. Marc Benzakein: Next week marks a year in [inaudible 00:03:21] so October 8 actually marks my one yer anniversary that I really started putting a lot of effort into it. Carrie Dils: Okay, so what was the impetus to get your rear in gear, if you will? Marc Benzakein: Well, last year in July I turned 49 and all of a sudden the 50 ye

This week we speak with Marc Benzakein and Gregg Franklin of ServerPress the makers of DesktopServer about why you should develop your WordPress powered website locally using DesktopServer.Show airs November 3 at 7:30pm PT / 10:30 ET / 2am UTC The post WPblab 051 – Why develop locally with WordPress? appeared first on WPwatercooler. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we speak with Marc Benzakein and Gregg Franklin of ServerPress the makers of DesktopServer about why you should develop your WordPress powered website locally using DesktopServer.Show airs November 3 at 7:30pm PT / 10:30 ET / 2am UTC See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of Post Status Draft, I talk to Pippin Williamson, and we discuss the renewed effort he and his team have made to rejuvenate Restrict Content Pro. Restrict Content Pro was initially sold without even a dedicated landing page, was successful on Code Canyon for a time, then he let it sputter as he and his team concentrated on Easy Digital Downloads and AffiliateWP. But Pippin knew that Restrict Content Pro still had more life in it, and he wanted to see it become the kind of product he knew it had the potential to be. So when John Parris -- at the time primarily working with Easy Digital Downloads -- said he was interested in helping make RCP a proper membership plugin, Pippin jumped on the opportunity. They have had a good bit of success early on in the attempt to rejuvenate this product: Our goal was to double or triple the monthly revenue within six months. In March, 2016, RCP brought in $7,700. Last month, July 2016, it brought in $11,400. August, 2016, is estimated to bring in a little over $12,000. We’re at the five month mark and have increased monthly revenue by about 1.5. That’s not double yet, but it’s getting close. Within another few months, I expect we’ve surpass $15,000 in monthly sales. Even with just an increase of 1.5, we’re still looking at more than $100,000 in annual revenue, and the monthly revenue is higher than it ever was in the past, so we’re succeeding. Our conversation picked up where the blog post left off. We talked about the pain points they encountered during this effort, some of the additional rewards they've had, and how he structures the business more generally to have the same team work on multiple products. If you are a business owner, or aspire to be one -- or if you are curious about managing multiple lines of business at once -- then I think you'll really enjoy this episode. And, if you're a Post Status Club member, Pippin and I recorded a bonus segment, where we discuss hosted WordPress eCommerce, and Pippin shares his opinions on the concept, and whether or not it's something they are considering for Restrict Content Pro and/or Easy Digital Downloads. Sponsor: Design Palette Pro makes customizing Genesis websites simple. The Design Palette Pro team has integrated with every Genesis child theme, and it’s the perfect place to send folks who need custom design, without a custom budget. Go to GenesisDesignPro.com for more information, and thanks to Design Palette Pro for being a Post Status partner. Original photo credit: Marc Benzakein at WCSD

This week I talk about HTML vs WordPress Upcoming Events WordCamp Croatia – Sept 5 – 6 WordCamp Pune – Sept 6 Segment 1: In the News The 2016 Theme will be out in WordPress 4.4 Buying Desktop Server? For the month of September 2015, I'm donating my commission back to Marc Benzakein's fundraiser + matching…

This week I talk about HTML vs WordPress Upcoming Events WordCamp Croatia – Sept 5 – 6 WordCamp Pune – Sept 6 Segment 1: In the News The 2016 Theme will be out in WordPress 4.4 Buying Desktop Server? For the month of September 2015, I’m donating my commission back to Marc Benzakein’s fundraiser + matching…