Podcasts about wp elevation

This week's WordPress news - Covering The Week Commencing 8th February 2021

WordPress product pricing is too cheap. Elementor, the most popular page builder for WordPress these days, has announced a price hike which will come into effect on March 9, 2021. Comments are as you expected: Are you freaking kidding me? You guys are hugely successful which means you already make a pleasant amount of cash monthly/yearly but still, this is not enough, you need to charge (A LOT!) more money from your loyal customers!? Are you that greedy?Angry customer 1 I loved Elementor PRO, but $999 instead of $199 is a complete dealbreaker!Angry customer 2 Crazy! Your products are very good, but your operation is very bad. Angry customer 3 Elementor is no longer competing with “WordPress,” they're going after the biggest bully in the room, Webflow. Elementor vs Webflow Elementor vs Gutenberg is a zero-sum game. Listen to my recent episode with Matt Mullenweg to get his opinion on Jetpack vs. the world for more clarity. Why compete against an ecosystem that harvests low-price offerings and a general feeling of: I can do this for free? Elementor would be smart to take on Webflow. #nocode is a massive movement right now. Coding tools that put the power back into the hands of — well — people like me. Savvy enough to know how web technology comes together, but not smart enough to actually learn how to code. If you're looking for a product that makes coding a site easy to sell to clients + does the hosting + gives you a billing portal to earn your cut, Webflow is hard to beat. Note: I didn't say it's cheapest way to do all of this, that's the rub. If I'm Elementor, that's the market I go after. Gutenberg + Jetpack are going to dominate the free/low-cost offering in a year's time. Gutenberg + Full-site Editing inside of free WordPress, is a mass market play into laying the monetization ground work for Jetpack. Elementor is smart for keeping the beta tag on their cloud offering, too. They're going to build this plane while it's in flight. More on that later. Elementor Pricing vs Webflow pricing Elementor old/current pricing: Elementor new/current pricing: Webflow site plan pricing: Webflow account plan pricing: Webflow team plan pricing: Webflow ecommerce pricing: Holy shit, right? Lets jump on the big Elementor elephant in the room first: $999 for 1,000 sites At the current price of $199/year Elementor is an absolute STEAL. So when people do back of the napkin math, a 5x increase seems cray, “How could you charge that?!” they shout. Proper messaging and optics aside as it looks like they fumbled that ball, it's not as bad when the dust settles somewhere near Webflow's corner of the web. The $999/year for 1,000 websites seems like chicken feed when you peel back the curtain of Webflow's free account. Webflow Teams feature pricing Allow me to present one pricing model out of this jumble of pricing grids above. I'd say anyone buying into $999/year for Elementor is probably a boutique agency, comprised of: Agency owner Project manager 1 Designer 2 Developers Customer support rep At least, this was how my agency was configured when I lead it day-to-day. Team plans are charged at $42/per user per month, arguably one of this biggest benefits to using Webflow is to centralize your agencies work all into one platform. The owner can oversee all employees + customers, PM's can manage all projects, and the rest of the team does the actual work on the websites. The fee to use Webflow Teams, if billed monthly using my boutique agency count is: $252/mo or $3,024 for the year. $2,520 if you decide to pay for the year up front for a team of 6. Skip the Teams feature entirely you say?! Well, aside from losing all of the centralized management, there's a sub-feature in there that I know a lot of agencies want: white labeling. Pony up if you want to hide Webflow branding from clients. Webflow Site hosting pricing Limitations around WordPress websites is something that I have a hard time wrapping my head around. Depending on which industry you hail from, the following will either hurt your brain or you'll feel right at home. Each plan is going to come with a certain set of restrictions that you're not used to dealing with in the WordPress world, for example on the Business plan, you have a maximum of: 100 Static pages 1,000 Form submissions 3 Content Editors This + other plan limitations cost $20/mo per website if paid monthly. You heard that right, that's per customer website. Remember, $252/mo is for your Webflow Team account, not the web hosting. We'll use 35 client sites under management in our agency example, which I think illustrates a healty boutique agency. That's an additional $700/mo in hosting paid to Webflow alone. We're at $952/mo to use Webflow for our agency of 6 with 35 clients under management. Webflow e-commerce pricing What's that? A client wants to sell something on their website? Now the rubber meets the road! Let's talk limitations again: Webflow e-commerce standard $42/mo 500 items Branded emails 2% transaction (so an additional $1,000/year cost) 3 Staff accounts $50k annual sales Webflow e-commerce plus $84/mo 1,000 items Unbranded emails 0% transaction 10 Staff accounts $200k annual sales Can you guess which plan Webflow wants you to choose? Of course you're going to opt for $84/mo just to have the luxury of Webflow not stamping customer receipts with their logo, plus not charging $1,000/yr in transaction fee. Imagine if WooCommerce shipped with a hard-coded cap to how much a customers store earns or a limit on user accounts? This sounds like a rant, but it's a lesson. What Webflow does right, that Elementor is learning Webflow is saying, if you do up to $200k a year in e-commerce business, we'll take $1,008 of that to host your e-commerce site. Want more? Pay more — but to be fair, you get more also, at least on paper. The part a lot of us get wrong in the WordPress world is we don't align value with expectations. We say, “Do a million dollars of revenue for free!” not aligning the expectations a million-dollar company has. Which brings us to support. The cost of support It was in the new pricing of Elementor's Studio & Agency plan that cemented my assumption on their charge towards Webflow. (That, and the fact they both have Expert's corners: Elementor vs Webflow) Studio plan $499/year + VIP support up to 5 members Agency plan $999/year + VIP support up to 10 members Digest that for a moment. Your entire agency can open up a ticket with Elementor, to request support. Do you allow 10 people in your customer's company to file a support ticket with you? If you charge for it, awesome, if you don't you're crazy. I'd venture a guess (he says sarcastically) that support is a high-cost for Elementor, given their promise + target customer type. The literally give a website building tool away for free, so that anyone can charge any sum of money as a service. It's an unhealthy imbalance that the WP builder crowd has seemed to forgotten or willfully ignored. As if WordPress being opensource and “free,” so should any other product including support in this space. Webflow isn't ashamed at charging for support and simultaneously doesn't paint the clearest picture for someone who might be paying even $1,000/mo as an agency. They have a customer support policy (https://university.webflow.com/customer-support-policy) that gives you the standard 48hour response, while reserving dedicated support for Enterprise clients which you need a custom quote for. I'd Imagine that to be around the $5k/mo ball park after you talk to a sales person. The white glove support premium is what you ask your client to pay, why shouldn't Elementor do the same? The battle of the platforms: Elementor vs Webflow vs Jetpack We didn't finish the calculations in the previous section…keep those 35 clients in mind. At Pagely, you can buy a dedicated server for $499/mo that serves 35 individual WordPress apps. You get AWS infrastructure and a dedicated top-tier support team — lets say on par or better than Webflow. Break down Elementor's $999 plan to a monthly fee, and you're at $582/mo for hosting + Elementor. You don't need a contact form plugin or a pop-up plugin, because Elementor provides that for you. And guess what? They'll provide more in the future. That's where they are headed, that's why their cloud solution still has the beta tag on it. It's not going to happen now, but in a years time — maybe even two — they will have more 3rd party plugin features built into Elementor, maybe even e-commerce. Just. Like. Jetpack. Jetpack will win in the free to cheap builder space. For

This is one of those warm and fuzzy episodes! It's all about Wendie and her journey with WordPress. There's no product here, no tutorial, just a good, old fashioned chat about WordPress with a thoroughly lovely person! Wendie and I have been chatting on and off for years. It all started back in the day that both of us were going through the WP Elevation program and we decided to be accountability partners. We chatted from time to time during that and drifted in and our of conversations online for many years. We met in person at WordCamp London in 2018 as well as WordCamp Europe in 2019. She's been working in the WordPress space for years and has a really interesting story to tell. So have a listen to the podcast to find out more...

This is one of those warm and fuzzy episodes! It's all about Wendie and her journey with WordPress. There's no product here, no tutorial, just a good, old fashioned chat about WordPress with a thoroughly lovely person! Wendie and I have been chatting on and off for years. It all started back in the day that both of us were going through the WP Elevation program and we decided to be accountability partners. We chatted from time to time during that and drifted in and our of conversations online for many years. We met in person at WordCamp London in 2018 as well as WordCamp Europe in 2019. She's been working in the WordPress space for years and has a really interesting story to tell. So have a listen to the podcast to find out more...

This is one of those warm and fuzzy episodes! It's all about Wendie and her journey with WordPress. There's no product here, no tutorial, just a good, old fashioned chat about WordPress with a thoroughly lovely person! Wendie and I have been chatting on and off for years. It all started back in the day that both of us were going through the WP Elevation program and we decided to be accountability partners. We chatted from time to time during that and drifted in and our of conversations online for many years. We met in person at WordCamp London in 2018 as well as WordCamp Europe in 2019. She's been working in the WordPress space for years and has a really interesting story to tell. So have a listen to the podcast to find out more...

Simon Kelly wants to help you have your big “A-HA!” moment. And he knows how it feels to simultaneously buzz with excitement and tangle with self-doubt when the A-HA! hits and you’re moved to create something new. Already the owner of the successful digital agency Renegade Empire and top coach with Troy Dean’s WP Elevation, Simon’s in the throes of launching his own personal brand, building a new stage to impact more lives, and connecting with people on a personal level. I know Simon through my involvement with WP Elevation, and I’m sure he’ll inspire you as much as he’s inspired me as a business coach. In fact, I guarantee the conversation we have about slaying the dragons of self-doubt will inspire you to take massive action and make a bigger splash in YOUR world. Connect with Simon Kelly https://www.instagram.com/simonlkelly/ https://simonkelly.me/

#13: Troy Dean, founder of WP Elevation and Mavericks Club, peels back the curtain to reveal the exact content strategy his team uses to generate multiple 7-figures a year in revenue for his business.In this episode, Troy shares so many valuable takeaways that you can use right now to take your content strategy to the next level.Show notes and transcript at contentheroes.com/13

In the final episode for 2019, Troy looks over the past year and celebrates milestones both within and outside the walls of the podcast studio. But that’s not all. He recaps the top 10 episodes of the WP Elevation podcast along with all the really cool resources and insights that came out of them. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/242

If you’ve never heard the term “neuroplasticity” before, this episode of the WP Elevation podcast will change that. Psychotherapist and coach Annie Wright join Troy to explain how negative self-talk and beliefs can affect every aspect of our lives, including our businesses. She breaks down the concept of neuroplasticity and how it can be used to condition ourselves to have a more positive mindset and overcome impostor syndrome in the process. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/240

Mario Peshev, the founder and CEO of WordPress development agency DevriX, sheds some light on how he’s handled hiring a team, from the early days of the agency to today. With a team of about 50 people working for the agency, Mario has also had to focus on creating processes and systems to ensure that everyone and everything runs as efficiently as possible. Tune into this episode of the WP Elevation podcast to get a major dose of hiring and team management inspiration. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/237

Kim Barrett is the founder of Your Social Voice, a social media lead generation agency and a best-selling author and speaker. But that’s not really what he came to the WP Elevation podcast to talk about. Instead, he and Troy touch upon his entrepreneurial beginnings as well as how he’s found lasting business success working in the Facebook advertising space. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit http://wpelevation.com/236

Biography:Dave Foy is a course creator and online educator for non-coders who want to learn how to build faster and more profitably with WordPress and Elementor.As a former primary school teacher, Dave started out teaching 5-11 year olds in the U.K. so he knows a thing or two about breaking down tough-to-grasp concepts in ways that literally anyone can understand.20 years ago, he built his very first website. Then in 2003 he left teaching, turned pro, and spent 15+ years hand-coding websites in-house and latterly for the micro agency he started with a friend.Dave’s the creator of three online courses, The Perfect Starter Site, No Stress WordPress, and No Fear Funnels, all designed to help non-coder designers build their businesses faster and more profitably with Elementor.He’s also co-created High Ticket Sales Funnels with his good mate, Troy Dean from WP Elevation. Main talking points include:Teaching people how to build websites in Wordpress more quickly and more profitably. Seeing the potential that non-coders could just build their ideas with page builders in Wordpress, Dave started teaching people how Wordpress works! Why NSWP v2.0The new tech – Gutenberg, Elementor 2.0The potential of doing something with WordPress is greater than it has ever beenCovers the questions that you don’t even know how to google! Bonuses include:The Perfect Starter SiteDNS & Domains10 minute CSS Crash CourseGlobal StylingLifetime accessFacebook GroupThe importance of cementing real relationships with meaning in real life.Register for the masterclass / Get the course! The Masterclass29th October 201930 to 40 minutes of teachingCompletely FreeNo Stress WordPress will be offered during the masterclassThe 5 blockers people hit when they try to use Wordpress for their businessA free enrolment (at random, by refund) to someone who purchases off the back of the masterclassRegister for the masterclass / Get the course! Shout OutsSimon Sinek: Start With Why Dan Malby: WP&UP Join our Facebook Group! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As Pagely moves into a new era with serverless application hosting, CEO and co-founder Joshua Strebel takes a trip down memory lane in this episode of the WP Elevation podcast. He and Troy talk about managed hosting, chasing the top of the stack, using revenge as fuel as well as Joshua’s predictions for the future of WordPress. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/235

If you’ve been on the fence about WP Elevation, there’s no better way to get off it than by hearing a first-hand account of what it’s like. In this episode of the WP Elevation podcast, Noah Britton talks about his business before and after WP Elevation, and how better processes and a change in mindset helped him cut his client list in half while tripling his revenue. This is his success story. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/234

In this episode of the WP Elevation podcast, Troy is joined by Christie Chirinos, the product manager of managed WooCommerce hosting at Liquid Web. There’s more to this episode than just talk of managed hosting though. Tune in if you want to learn more about what product managers do as well as to learn how Christie uses the Eisenhower time management matrix to decide which fires to put out each day. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/232

Have you ever thought about how much more productive you’d be or how much money you could make if only you kept your hands off of your phone or your mind from wondering what’s happening on Facebook? In this episode of the WP Elevation podcast, Nir Eyal talks about the research he’s done on the psychology of habit-forming products, what he’s learned about overcoming distractions and the books he’s written to capture both of these ideas. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/231

Serial entrepreneur and full-stack product designer/developer Brian Casel visited the WP Elevation podcast to talk about the value of selling productised services. And although his background is in design, Brian has created a wide variety of products, including a website-as-a-service, a done-for-you content marketing program and an online course. All of which he discusses on this jam-packed episode of the podcast. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit http://wpelevation.com/230

If you attended WP Elevation’s live event in Santa Monica earlier this year, you’ll recognise Dana Malstaff as one of the guest speakers. She’s the CEO and founder of Boss Mom and a content strategist extraordinaire. In this episode of the podcast, she and Troy talk about the value of having a kickass content strategy and how to go about formulating one for your business. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit http://wpelevation.com/228

In Part 1 of his email marketing masterclass on the WP Elevation podcast, Paul Sokol talked about campaign planning and automation. In today’s episode, he dives into Part 2 and the subject of list hygiene. Follow along as Paul demonstrates various strategies for assessing the health of your list and using email to build better relationships with the people on it: To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/227

David Wood has not only coached hundreds of entrepreneurs, coaches and corporations, he’s gone through his own journey of professional and personal growth (which continues to this day). In this episode of the WP Elevation podcast, he and Troy discuss the scepticism some feel about coaching and talk about how powerful truth, daring and caring can be for those who are ready to make a change. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit http://wpelevation.com/226

WP Elevation alumnus Suraj Sodha tells the story of how he found great value (and profitability) in recurring revenue business models. But he didn’t stop at selling WordPress maintenance plans to clients. Suraj created WP Maintain, a WordPress maintenance company solely dedicated to providing top-notch after-care for website owners and other web designers. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/225

The first half of this episode of the WP Elevation podcast is chock-full of wisdom about resilience and resourcefulness. So, even if you’re not interested in getting in on the influencer marketing game, tune into the episode to learn how these two characteristics and mindsets have helped both Shane and Troy get to where they are today. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/221

This episode of the WP Elevation podcast is not like the typical episode you’ll find here. That’s because I'm joined by Paul Sokol, a former Infusionsoft campaign builder and current thought leader and marketing automation nerd. Rather than cover the usual “where have you been?” and “what do you do now?”, Paul walks us through a number of marketing automation and campaign planning scenarios. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/220

How much thought do you give to online privacy when building websites for clients? According to the team behind Termageddon, an auto-updating privacy policy generator, this needs to be something that agency owners take very seriously… and spend less time managing. Hear what they have to say about the matter on this episode of the WP Elevation podcast. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/219

When it comes to selling WordPress plugins and themes, are you making as much money as you possibly can? Vova Feldman talks about how Freemius helps developers maximise this opportunity on this episode of the WP Elevation podcast. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/218

Consider this episode of the WP Elevation podcast part “Meet an Elevator” and part “Ooh, look! A shiny new tool!”. You’re going to get an introduction to Vito Peleg, hear a bit about his journey from rocker to Elevator and learn all about his new WordPress plugin that’s set to revolutionise the way you collect client feedback. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/217

I know, I know… “Sales funnel” is a bit of a buzzword at the moment. But this episode of the WP Elevation podcast — featuring brilliant teacher Dave Foy — is going to change how you view sales funnels and how you use them in your business. More specifically, you’re going to learn how to use sales funnels to sell high-ticket products and level up your business. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/215

In this episode of the WP Elevation podcast, Matt Diggity tells Troy about his journey from electrical engineer to SEO. He also reveals a number of SEO tips he uses to get websites to the #1 position in Google SERPs (and hold them there). To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/212

In this episode of the WP Elevation podcast, Troy talks with Brian Jackson, the Chief Marketing Officer of Kinsta. Don’t expect this to be a typical chat about WordPress hosting though. This is an in-depth examination of how Kinsta has leveraged great support and content from Day 1 to grow its business and establish authority in a crowded space. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/210

Troy Dean joined me on the podcast for a fourth time to go behind the scenes to talk about how he's grown WP Elevation and launched his private mastermind, Mavericks Club. 

This episode of the WP Elevation podcast features Larry Kim, who recently sold his first company for a not-so-small sum of $150 million. As he’s now in the early stages of building a new company called MobileMonkey, there’s no better time to pick his brain about business growth. To read the full show notes for this episode, visit https://www.wpelevation.com/208

I spent the week in Santa Monica, California with Troy Dean and some of his team for his Mavericks Club event as well as the one-day event for WP Elevation

Do you find it hard to admit to those around you that you're not doing ok? Perhaps even admitting it to yourself if difficult. Today's guest has been there and come through the other side to tell you his story. Paul Lacey is the co-founder of The Dickiebirds Studio, which is an award-winning WordPress and UX/UI design and development agency in the UK. In this episode, Paul talks about his path to finding success and how getting involved with the WordPress community helped him get there. We hear about his latest project - building the Beaver Builder version of Katka by Elementor. And we also discuss the importance of taking care of your mental health whilst running your own business.Leveraging the WordPress Community Paul’s first experience with WordPress was way back in 2005. He recalls that he tried a few different programs before he landed on WordPress because of its usability and potential. However, he didn't properly utilise the community until around 2010. In the last two years, Paul has become even more active within the WordPress community. One of his posts was about how he created a website using GeneratePress. One man commented with what could be called constructive criticism. But that comment led to a creative friendship that blossomed after a WordCamp conference. The man behind the comment? Barna Buxbaum, creator of Katka by Elementor - the beginning of a beautiful friendship!The Beaver Builder Project Barna and Paul began talking, and Barna came up with the idea to build the Beaver Builder twin of Katka. They both loved the idea of the against-the-odds story of a Beaver Builder guy and an Elementor guy working together. Paul compares their relationship to the relationship between Rocky Balboa and the Russian, Ivan Drago in the movie Rocky IV. In the movie, Rocky and Ivan come from very different backgrounds and training styles, but the two end up being incredibly well matched. Rocky even gains the respect of the Russians. Rocky’s famous quote at the end speaks to the ability people have to come together. “If I can change, and you can change, then everybody can change!” There was always drama about which platform was the best builder. This collaboration allowed Paul and Barna to create something that would combine the two communities and improve the possibilities for both Beaver Builder and Elementor fans.Collaborating With Beaver Builder When Paul began seriously devoting time to the Beaver Builder project, he hired a developer named Adrian to work on the complex, responsive design.  One of Adrian's ideas was to use CSS variables to change the global colours. Paul thought this was a great idea and showed it to some friends in a private Mastermind group. These friends had contacts at Beaver Builder and told them about Paul's project. So to his surprise, when Paul reached out to the founders of Beaver Builder at WordCamp London, they already knew about his idea and wanted to hear more! The idea took off from there. It was from this experience that he realised something that he now gives as advice to people thinking about getting involved in the WordPress community. “Everyone’s always got something to offer… Whatever you put in you get back 10 times.” Beaver Builder eventually wanted to hire him to work for them. Paul turned down the offer and instead opted to work with them on a collaborative basis. Paul developed a Beaver Builder agency called Beaver Kit with it's own branding. Beaver Kit’s products are now going to be included as part of the core in the next release of Beaver Builder.  He tells us that hearing this news was an unbelievable moment for him.Initial Impressions of WP Elevation Paul recently started our Blueprint course and tells Troy that he did a great job with WP Elevation's free webinar that he joined. Paul says that after watching the webinar he was ready to sign up straight away. He had heard a lot of good feedback about WP Elevation within the WordPress community and had wanted to do it for some time, but he was going through a family crises and it wasn't the right time until now. Now that he has reformed Dickiebirds Studio and doubled the team to four people, he feels he has more responsibility for the business to succeed and ensure consistent work for everyone under his employ. Paul explains that he is excellent at completing tasks, but not great at coming up with the blueprint to accomplish those tasks. So the blueprint provided by WP Elevation really made it possible for him to push himself and focus on improving. Dickiebirds now has a unique value proposition—something Paul learned from WP Elevation. You get what you pay forMake Mental Health Your Priority Paul's family crises that he mentioned earlier were in regard to his eight-year-old daughter's serious anxiety. His wife had to shut down her successful events company because it became too much to deal with. His daughter is doing much better now, but coming out of it was difficult. In the midst of it, you deal with it, but when you come out the other end, you realise you’re still in the battle mindset, but there isn’t a battle anymore. On his 39th birthday in 2017, he was still struggling with his mental health. Paul was watching a WP Elevation video by Mike Killen on the topic of mental health. Right then and there he decided he’d had enough and went to the doctor to get some advice. Paul recognises he only feels comfortable talking about this now because it’s behind him. “When you’re suffering from it, it’s difficult to talk about it. It’s much easier to talk about it when it’s historical.” In his case, the doctor gave him some good advice and some medication that was able to help him through it. A year later, he is doing much better and because of this, so is his business. The message he wants to get out there is to just look after yourself. “Take care of yourself, don’t be ashamed to admit things, and just get yourself back on that right track.” Paul suggests doing outreach projects in the community to accomplish that. He also recommends WP&UP, a charity that works to provide mental health support within the WordPress community. If you're interested in watching the webinar which lead Paul to join us here at WP Elevation, click here.    Links The Dickiebirds Studio Paul's Twitter Paul's Youtube Channel GeneratePress Community WP Elevation: Flight Cadets Beaver Builder Group

If you want to learn the secret to developing a lot of procedures fast, while leveraging a team, then make sure to check out this podcast.  Troy Dean with WP Elevation details how he organized and grew his business using a simple to follow strategy and easy to use templates.  One of the secrets he discovered while systemizing his business is that keeping it simple, so that your team wants to build your systems, is a critical foundation for successful implementation.

May the force be with you today because we have a very super special guest...Yoda!   We talk about how standard operating procedures are key to scaling a business quickly and efficiently, how journaling is keeping him focused on high-level goals, and why good sales shouldn’t come off as sales-y.

Do you ever wish you could move away from just taking orders from others about what they want from a WordPress site? Or maybe become known as a thought leader instead of just another developer? This week’s guest has a plan for building authority and finding your voice as a consultant. In this episode, I talk with Philip Morgan about his Coder to Consultant program and the importance of business development in finding clients that allow you to do more than fill WordPress development requests. Making the move from developer to consultant may seem daunting, but Philip lays out how you can do it, and why it’s important for the longevity of your career. The ‘Oh Crap’ Moment Philip began to notice a pattern over the course of his career. Every 5-7 years, the demand for certain development skills would decline as new skill sets entered the market and became in-demand from clients. He saw developers have what he describes as an “oh crap” moment when they realized that their skills were becoming obsolete and they would need to learn something new to remain competitive. But what if you don’t want to learn new technical skills every few years? That was the dilemma Philip saw developers face. They typically did this a few times before they began to grow tired of the pattern and couldn’t face the prospect of doing it again. With those experiences in mind, Philip decided to use what he knew to help create a path for developers away from technical work and into strategic consulting roles. No matter whether you are developing an ERP system or a website, your end product should help your clients meet the needs they stated and the ones they didn’t know they had. Making this next-level transformation requires more than just taking an order and plugging in the resulting code, but the change is easier than many developers might assume. Building a Track Record Philip says many people he works with are already doing consulting work for free when they give a client advice about their website based on past experience. This comes as second nature, both from years of working in the field and from the natural human instinct to help others. “Do it often enough”, Philip says, “and you’ll begin to develop a track record that you can turn into a point of view to help clients work through big-picture issues, rather than just doing what they tell you.” Becoming a consultant also requires a sense of empathy toward the person you are trying to help — and knowing when to walk away from clients who are not willing to be flexible or see things your way. It’s a tough decision to make, especially when you need the work, but learning how to say “No” is essential to developing the confidence needed to take on higher-level projects. Philip also acknowledges that the journey from developer to consultant is scary because we all have an inherent fear of criticism. However, this sense of fear can also be a great motivator because it pushes us to be our best and brings clarity to our thoughts and actions. This sense of expertise forms the foundation for transitioning from developer to consultant. But, the skills are no good unless you have someone who is willing to pay you for them. Philip says that this is where networking and client development come in. 3 Steps for Developing Expertise Around minute 21, Philip lays out a three-step plan for developing a point of view that can take you from developer to consultant: Start talking about yourself as someone who creates value for clients, drawing on past experiences as examples. Look for things that are upsetting to you because those are places where you can develop an opinion. If that opinion is meaningful to the outcome of the project, it can become a point of view. Get the point of view in front of people. It’s what he’s doing by coming on WP Elevation! In today’s media landscape, there is no shortage of outlets where you can make your voice heard as a thought leader. Focus on Business Development Once you are confident in your point of view, it’s time to find clients who will let you take on a strategic role in their projects. This means putting more time and energy into business development than you probably ever have at any other point in your career. “But wait,” you might be thinking to yourself, “didn’t I get into development work because I don’t like talking to people?” Many developers are more comfortable behind a computer screen than out in the public eye. Philip says that even the most introverted developers need to invest in finding and cultivating their own clients, rather than relying on referrals from agencies or other professionals, which he describes as “the crumbs of client work”. Simply put, if you are not finding your own clients, you are outsourcing your business development. However, this does not mean you need to jump up and attend every networking event you can find or start making the rounds on podcasts. Pick the business development activity that you are most comfortable with to start and see where it leads. It could be as simple as spending a few hours on LinkedIn or setting up a few one-on-one meetings. Like a lot of things in life, the more you do it, the easier and more comfortable it will become. Another important part of business development is asking clients for honest feedback about the work you did for them. What impact did you have? How can you improve for next time? You probably have one set of answers to these questions, but understanding your client’s perspective will help you become even better as you move forward on your consulting journey. Wrap-Up Philip runs his own consulting business and created an email course to help developers get paid for more than just their WordPress expertise. He emails updates and new insights to his list every week and takes pride in creating value for his clients. Follow his plan and you’ll be on the way toward a whole new career path, rather than waiting around for the next “oh crap” moment in the technical world to render your skills obsolete. Tune in to hear more about Philip’s approach and how you can make it work for you. Links The Coder to Consultant Email Course Philip Morgan Consulting The Consulting Pipeline Podcast

Selling digital products gives creative freelancers the chance to leverage themselves, gain some freedom, and escape the time-for-money trap. How do we find our niche and connect to our ideal clients? How can we use social media platforms as focus groups? What does it take for us to give more value to the world? On this episode, Troy Dean shares on how he flipped to a leveraged model, and how to make it happen in your business! There’s a direct correlation between the impact you’re having on people’s lives and the money you have in your bank account. -Troy Dean   Things We Learned From This Episode The epiphany Troy had about leverage (05:13 - 07:22) Many freelance creatives face extreme burnout and disillusionment from trading time from money. Selling digital products is a way to leverage our skills, earn revenue and create value while not always having to be on the computer. How to use social media platforms as focus groups (09:02 - 09:45)In the online space, we have free focus groups, which is so different from years ago where brands had to build and curate their own focus groups. Social media networks have curated free focus groups so we can learn about our ideal client, but people aren’t leveraging them enough. When we don’t leverage this wealth of online information enough, we risk creating things that won’t get any traction. The importance of sticking with something before we’ve seen results (16:20 - 16:54)People get scared and they don’t stick with what they are doing long enough to see success.  Sticking with it before you see any result is a huge challenge people face in online entrepreneurship, and people end up dabbling in different things. This actually makes success even harder to achieve. As a consultant or freelancer, not having a part of our business that is leveraged will set us up for exhaustion, frustration and even ultimately burning out of the business completely. Digital courses allow us to make money while we sleep, and create a more sustainable work routine and business. The impact and reach you can have from selling digital product is a thousand times bigger than trading time for money. As a freelancer, it’s hard to scale your impact if you’re just working one-to-one. Courses give us the chance to go from one-to-many, and even have a global impact.   Guest Bio- Troy is online marketing speaker, coach, consultant and podcaster. He helps creative entrepreneurs build online empires. His projects include WP Elevation, RockStar Empires, and BankFeeds. Go to https://www.wpelevation.com or https://troydean.com.au/ for more information. To join his Facebook group, search for Digital Mavericks.

Today’s guest is Troy Dean. Troy is a podcaster, speaker, father, and the founder of WP Elevation. Through WP Elevation, Troy helps WordPress consultants build and scale their businesses.

I interview Troy Dean, the founder of WP Elevation, on how to position your web design agency to get more clients. To jump onto the next WP Elevation intake and get a bunch of free training, visit this page. 01:25 What WP Elevation do 02:00 Intro to Troy 05:30 Bursting the bubble 06:00 The most […]

This week we chat to the man who in the world of WordPress needs no introduction... Troy Dean. He's become an important figure in our community and is a great podcast guest who has a lot of great advice. Of course, you'll know about Troy from his very successful projects such as WP Elevation and Rock Star Empires. His courses have inspired many people (me included) to really take a long look at their WordPress businesses and think about how they could become more profitable. He's a great speaker, with that rare ability to speak at great length and be authoritative at the same time.

This week we chat to the man who in the world of WordPress needs no introduction... Troy Dean. He's become an important figure in our community and is a great podcast guest who has a lot of great advice. Of course, you'll know about Troy from his very successful projects such as WP Elevation and Rock Star Empires. His courses have inspired many people (me included) to really take a long look at their WordPress businesses and think about how they could become more profitable. He's a great speaker, with that rare ability to speak at great length and be authoritative at the same time.

In this episode, Matt Medeiros follows up with Troy Dean to discuss what he is doing with his business in 2018. They cover the online and education space. Matt and Troy talk about advanced education in the United States, online education, and online marketing. Troy is the founder of WPElevation and RockStar Empires. Listen to the episode Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners I asked Troy Dean if he was doing this for the money. The answer will shock you. Play Episode Pause Episode Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 00:56:38 Subscribe Share RSS Feed Share Link Embed Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:56:38 What you will learn from this Episode: WPElevation: Troy Dean started his business with a plugin called Video User Manuals. This plugin was created to save time training new WordPress users. (0:20) An email list was created from people who purchased the plugin. (0:25) Troy does not pitch to users that are not online because most people do not know what WordPress is.  He says that he has an online education and software company. (2:20) Online Education and Internet Marketing: Advanced education is becoming harder and harder to obtain. Online education is like a toddler with room to grow. (4:18) There are a lot of problems in the online education space. (4:29) Many online courses that are offered by a provider like Udemy have no quality control. (5:25) Many Internet Marketers have marketing funnels that collect the money for courses but do not have a way to see if the purchaser completed the course or program. (6:41) WPElevation has metrics that show if participants have completed their courses and continually offer support. (7:04) WPElevation has a 65% + completion rate and follows up with participants to make sure that they feel they got what they paid for. (8:46) Approaches to Internet Marketing: Some internet marketers are selling information about their content and not offering anything valuable. They are just selling courses up front to create revenue. (10:09) The constant launch is difficult to sustain. You need to continue to deliver value. (13:13) When Troy started with WPElevation five years ago, he gave things away (like a good business proposal) that brought value to freelancers and small business owners. (14:27) The pivot of the business happened when the community began to grow and Troy started scheduling on site 3-day seminars with face to face interaction. (16:05) There were many failures in the early Internet Marketing space. (16:31) Participants from the seminars have started to ask for the high-end Mastermind classes this year. (18:18) Focusing on Success: Troy has a list of people that support WPElevation with testimonials. (19:49) You cannot let limiting beliefs hold you back. Ignore anything that does not support your vision. (21:16) Know Your Why. Only buy stuff that helps you with your business. (22:32) Social Media can be very polarizing so if something comes through attacking you just ignore it. (24:04) 2700 people have been through the WPElevation program. (27:34) Sticking around and trying out different price points has lead to the most success. (29:13) There is not a fast track to success with acceptable margins just using memberships and videos. That is not easy. (31:05) Prices are going up as the value is increasing and opportunities are presenting themselves to a larger audience. (33:48) Staff and remote employees from the community are part of the daily business today.  So the “why” is now the business direction, not Troy Dean. (37:56) Strategic points for the business in 2018: YouTube videos are a strong focus to drive marketing channels. Silence is Golden is an entertaining way show people how to do stuff with WordPress that is published weekly.  (41:10) Every fortnight there is a highly produced how-to video. The latest videos were about how to produce things with the Elementor page builder. The next how-to videos will be produced with other strong products in the WordPress space. (43:04) Behind the scene videos which are raw and shot with a hand-held camera. (43:20) Currently looking at YouTube adds to drive traffic to your channels. (44:01) The next best thing to meeting in person is producing a video. (44:55) Video is hard and most people won't do it. (45:00) Video seems to be very successful with one unique personality recording. (47:10) YouTube is being used to show the authority of WPElevation in the WordPress space. (48:48) What is next for Troy Dean? Troy will continue with education and inspiration for small business where a person can be creative. (51:00) Travel more with family. (51:55) Troy has been asking the question what if exploring joy is just “it”? (52:00) Be a good father and dad. (53:18) Episode Resources: YouTube for Bosses – Sunny Lenoarduzzi WPElevation PluginTut Ripple training To Stay in Touch with Troy: Twitter WPElevation Facebook page YouTube Silence is Golden Facebook To stay connected with the Matt Report, head on over to mattreport.com/subscribe. If you like the show, please leave a 5 Star review over on the Matt Report on iTunes. Be sure to check out Matt's new offering at UserFeedbackVideos.com. It is like having a co-founder for $59.00.   ★ Support this podcast ★

I'm not foolish enough to think that the entirety of WordPress' growth is driven by our love for the software, but that we consultants are responsible for a sizeable portion of it. A portion that shouldn't be ignored and one that should be welcome to the discussion more often. Under-represented. Perhaps. You can listen to the audio version Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners The blue-collar WordPress worker and the 2,500+ websites built to grow the CMS Play Episode Pause Episode Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 00:14:17 Subscribe Share RSS Feed Share Link Embed Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:14:17 I know many of you are like me, we don't run 100+ person agencies, we don't have 1mil+ plugin downloads, and we haven't been contributing code to core for the last decade. However, what we do share in common is a life of servicing customers in the online business space. Servicing customers or our local community by way of building websites — helping organizations amplify their message. This act of service is deeply rooted in using our favorite tool, WordPress. Sure, we're talking less and less about the tech side of things lately, but we know that it delivers a massive advantage as a platform to our customers. An advantage that might not matter to them in the short-term, but in the long-term sustainability of their business. While many might join the ranks of offering WordPress services simply for the fact that it represents a big market to cash in on — and we all know that person — I believe many of us are in it for the right reasons: Promote the use of open source software. Give our customers a chance to own a sliver of their online presence and/or data. Provide a flexible & sustainable platform for future opportunity. Earn an honest living through service. It's at this point where I begin to disagree with a part of Matt Mullenweg's theory of WordPress' growth. Granted, he has a WAY better vantage point from atop a tower of data that I (we) don't have access to. I'm relying on my own gut instinct, naivety, and feedback from my audience to deliver this message — take it for what it's worth. Tweet from @photomatt Who is responsible for all of this WordPress? A business can't survive without strong sales & customer service, two competencies that are arguably the lifeblood of a company. Many of you reading this fill that exact gap for the open source WordPress project. I don't mean this as a slight to the thousands of wonderful people that build the software, document it, and support it in the forums, but that consultants (doing it right or wrong) are also fueling this locomotive too. There are no official sales or customer service channels at WordPress.org and us consultants bear the brunt of it — for better or worse — and that's where our job comes in. Just as you trust a core contributor to spot-check her code and ensure that we've sanitized all the things! Consultants are the boots on the ground, and as you'll see below in my feedback section, represent a disproportionate ratio of launching many more websites than an individual website owner. Mullenweg alludes to the end-user (what I'm calling the solo site owner) as the driving force behind growth. He might (probably does, can we have it please?) have more data than me, but on the flip side, it might be a vanity metric. If you count all the 1-click installs on GoDaddy or .com installs, perhaps, but how many of them were influenced or eventually turned to a professional to take over the reigns? Just back-of-the-napkin math, a consultant might launch 50-to-1 websites in a year versus an individual blogger or business owner launching their first and only website. What happens when that number compounds over 5 years? On paper, I'm responsible for 500+ WordPress sites in the wild not counting the hundreds of other people online and in my local community I've influenced over the years. I'm sure you're in a similar boat as an individual or team that is responsible for the growing adoption of WordPress. Thank you for that. Thank you to everyone else that makes this project possible. 1-to-many vs. 1-to-1 Again, maybe I'm just naive but out of the 500 websites I've helped build in some way, roughly 70% of the list counted on me to sell them on the software and support it. I was sales + customer service for the open source CMS. I was the face of their decision and the person they relied on to get it all working. You too, I'm sure. I could have offered Drupal, Expression Engine, or Squarespace and my customers would have bought it regardless. Many of my WordPress peers are making that same adjustment today. Sure, I would still have to support it regardless, but those applications and parent companies have an easier story to tell. The waters aren't muddied. You pay for a product, you know the expectations. Matt, if you're reading, do you know how hard it is to explain to someone new in this space what the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is? Add Jetpack, an Automattic company, to the mix and heads begin to explode. Especially when in-app ads cause uncertainty. When you compete with yourself Step outside of the WordPress bubble for a moment and imagine selling a product that competes with itself. Think of the confusion and apprehension a customer might feel when hearing that you have another paid alternative that's getting coined as an “easier all-in-one” alternative or “made by the team behind WordPress…dot com. I've actually been there before, selling Chevrolet's when customers would ask “What about GMCs?” Two of the EXACT same products, by the same company — different badges. We all know how that turned out, General Motors went bankrupt. Maybe not directly because of mixed-brand recognition, but certainly adding this line of confusion didn't help. They axed Pontiac and Oldsmobile because as a result — the least performant of the mix. Enter in: sales. That's where us consultants spend time selling. The story, the benefits, the future growth. Blue-collar WordPress workers need a seat at the table I consider myself a blue-collar digital worker. I'm pulling at the strands of “WordPress” as it begins to move away from me. Jetpack + .com + Gutenberg are reshaping the opportunity we once knew into something — else. A lot of what we do has already been commoditized in the last two years and it's only getting worse.  I'm a believer that once the market corrects, we will discover new inroads, but for now, we fight to find ways to earn. I don't know about you, but I'm rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands a lot dirtier navigating these uncharted seas. On one hand, everyone has a SaaS, a podcast, an info product, or an agency to service customers. On the other, Jetpack and .com set their sites directly on consultants & product creators to ramp up their own revenue efforts potentially squeezing us out of the middle-market. I'll let you formulate your own caricature of the upper-class vs. middle-class in this context. Don't lose sight of us When I first had Matt on the show, it was off of his remarks that Jetpack was responsible for a large portion of the growth of WordPress. A comment that was almost thrown out or lost in the shuffle. To that I say: What about the free/paid plugins? What about the free/paid themes? How have these helped boost the adoption of WordPress? See, even some many years ago, Matt knew where Jetpack was going as a monetization platform that we weren't aware of, yet. Now it's staring us down the barrel of its golden money gun. Jetpack was about to take on the feature set and revenue share of other plugins — big and small — in the market. And now, as I write this piece, I feel that the same squeeze play will begin with consultants. Not by taking away our livelihood, or that VIP will launch a services business, but that we're not being considered to shape the product as our clients use it. Why care? I am so very passionate about the guidance of WordPress because it represents free speech, the democratization of publishing, and the livelihood of so many hard-working people around the globe. see: heropress.com I respect the decisions being made from core & Auotmattic and expect the same in return that our collective voices are heard — regardless if we can contribute code or not. That not all of WordPress growth comes from a fancy feature or a new design language think tank, but from how real world people are using the software. I yearn for the ambitious days where WordPress wanted to be the operating system for the web and not settle as just a Wix competitor. I want to connect my refrigerator to a custom post type via the REST API — well — because I can. I celebrate everyone that contributes to WordPress' success from the smallest line of code to the sponsorship donations at WordCamps. You all have built something truly worthy of global recognition. If you've not yet contributed in your own way yet, I ask that you start however you see fit. A blog post, a YouTube video, or join over at make.wordpress.org. Either direction you take, it's important you make your voice and opinions heard.  Like Mullenweg said before me, I too believe that what got us here won't get us there — a better software for all. It's up to us to get involved While I feel that new mediums must be created for greater community feedback, we have some tools and places you can go to get involved. If you want to effect change, visit the following channels or conferences: Get involved here: https://make.wordpress.org/ The Make.WordPress Marketing group: https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/ The Make.WordPress Community https://make.wordpress.org/community/ WordCamp central https://central.wordcamp.org/ Learn more about starting your own meetup: https://make.wordpress.org/community/meetups/ Get more involved on Twitter! Join a WordPress professionals group like WP Elevation or Post Status Who's responsible for all the WordPress growth? The following list of quotes & feedback comes from a question I sent to my newsletter based on Scott Bollinger's post, Perspective on WordPress. Consider joining to stay connected. I'm incredibly proud of the feedback I received, not just because someone took the time to respond, but because of how diverse these answers are. I hope you all use this feedback from my valuable audience to understand how we all define the growth of WordPress. // I'm early on in my freelance career, but I do think we as WordPress Experts and consultants we are responsible for a large amount of WordPress's growth. It's one of the reasons I'm so passionate about holding on to my clients and always being on hand to support them to grow online, after the website is launched. No one wants to see abandoned WordPress sites sitting sad! — @deandevelops 5 WordPress websites // WordPress' growth as a platform is primarily the outcome of a large community of independent creators who want to publish multiple ideas without technical limitations – that's why WordPress is used and promoted by so many technophiles. — Brennan Bliss 40 – 60 WordPress websites // The WordPress Growth is facilitated through adoption. Adoption specifically by developers, integrators and service providers. It's also facilitated by time. At the time of WordPress' birth, there were few alternatives that did it as well as WordPress. That though was a double-edged sword, by identifying the need we established a new market. When I sit back and look, site builder platforms can be to WordPress, as WordPress was to Typepad and other solutions 10 years ago. They've gone one step further in the simplification process, and similar to WordPress, are building their network on adoption with developers and integrators. Interestingly enough, they don't require service providers. One of the very interesting things about WordPress was it's ability to build a new economy for developers / integrators. Very few other platforms were able to do the same. This new economy propelled the platform forward. Today however, new economies are being built on site builders – Shopify being the most prevalent. Five years ago, when talking to website owners WordPress would be common language, these days the conversation starts with website builders first, WordPress second or third. When asked why, the responses are almost always uniform – it's too much to deal with. So yes, there has been growth. That's undeniable. But there is also a slow down in it's adoption, and I'm not sure downloads numbers count as an accurate measurement to best represent adoption. I travel the world, speak to a great number of website owners and small business, and at an alarming rate I am seeing a shift in the conversation around the solutions they use. There was a time when I would spend time with the Joomla! community and I would ask them what they work on. Almost sheepishly they would always mutter, out of ear shot, they build WordPress sites on the side to keep the lights on. These days, much to my surprise, from WordPress dev's, I hear – I built and support [insert site build platform] on the side too. I find this to be a fascinating trend, and a strong indicator of what these platforms are contributing to the market. Our successes tomorrow won't be based on how amazing we were yesterday. Yesterday we fit a need, today that need is being satisfied by so many others. — Tony Perez a lot of WordPress websites // A big % of WordPress growth has been agencies/consultants pushing it. Clients want a site that's done and maintainable. They use whatever platform we say is best. — John Locke 65+ WordPress websites // I believe the growth in WordPress usage is because it is easy to learn, free to use, and the community support is amazing! — Jay Van Houtte 7 WordPress websites and counting. // I agree with Scotts wife it was super hard to figure out this platform. I build square and wix sites now and had to code my first ecommerce site back in 1998. Then I was off grid for about 7 years and came back to a whole new world. I spent endless hours working it and with chat help and I almost bailed. I only stay on for the social media aspect of it. I admin some facebook pages but am just me on my one wordpress site. — Gretchen Mauer No longer user WordPress // Open source FREE, plugin selection, popular Word camps and awesome developer community are the reason behind growth — Ronik Patel 120+ WordPress websites // WordPress is growing because of its enormous value to small businesses; it provides a great deal of autonomy and value to the end user. — Seth Shoultes 100+ WordPress websites 40,000 active plugin installs // WordPress' power is its flexibility. I can design whatever I want, and the client can easily update content. We both do what we do best. — Lisa Cerezo roughly ~150 WordPress websites // The growth of WP definitely comes from non-technical users. Developers are the foundation, but users are rockets! — Anh Tran 80 WordPress websites // WordPress has grown not because everyday users prefer it, but because the people *that they trust* prefer it. — Aaron Hockley 25+ WordPress websites // There are tons of free resources for learning more and a plugin to do just about anything, making it one of the most accessible yet flexible web building tools around. — Jackie Latham 50+ WordPress websites // I've probably influenced over 1000 people to become aware or use of WordPress – at least. From my perspective, one major factor for WordPress growth is the technical and creative industries advocating WordPress (agencies/designers/devs), and the community creating paid/free plugins pushing the limit of what WordPress can do and thus making it a perfect fit for so many needs. Extra comment: If the industry as a whole had seen a better CMS as an option in the past, WordPress would have faded to the background like all the others that didn't have a commercial industry sitting alongside it to drive it forward. Extra summary: It's grown through advocacy. — Paul Lacey 250+ WordPress websites // I would bet only a handful of my clients, in the history of my business, would have found WordPress on their own without me. The setup process for anything other than a basic blog is too much for average users in my experience. A lot of my clients are in an industry with high turnover and it's a constant struggle to onboard new employees on the inner workings of the WordPress admin. — Brian Link 15 WordPress websites // WP has grown because people view it as all free or they think they want/need more control. — Corey Maass 24+ WordPress websites // WP has grown quickly because of the helpful inclusive community, enthusiasm of builders and developers, ease-of-use, and the GPL. — Eric Amundson 500+ WordPress websites // I think WordPress grows in tune with the democratic back-bone of the internet. Sure we cane it for business, but ultimately wp represents the freedom to self-publish and the boundary-less opportunity of the net itself. — Woody Hayday 500+ WordPress websites // I attribute the growth of WordPress to the quality, simplicity, and extensibility of the product and the diverse and perpetually generous community supporting it. — Brian Dusablon 75+ WordPress websites // In the early days Matt had to differentiate and position WP as a non-technical platform during the days of strong Joomla and Drupal presence. Now with clear dominance in the CMS market and its size of not just users but of the support community, technical support community I might add, is the result of its learning curve. Because WP was never a WYSISWYG Squarespace experience. — Vadim Mialik 70+ WordPress websites // Besides all the great WordPress sites on the Web, there are also countless dead, half-finished or poor SEO link bait sites. — Lisa McMahon 200+ WordPress websites Thanks for reading and please consider joining the newsletter and subscribing to the podcast. ★ Support this podcast ★

Today we talk Gin McInneny, an Aussie who is well worth listening to. I'm sure that you'll have heard of some of the projects that she's working on. Gin is a central person in the running of WP Elevation, a community of WordPress professionals; making sure that their WordPress businesses are super effective.

Today we talk Gin McInneny, an Aussie who is well worth listening to. I'm sure that you'll have heard of some of the projects that she's working on. Gin is a central person in the running of WP Elevation, a community of WordPress professionals; making sure that their WordPress businesses are super effective.

In this episode, Matt Medeiros interviews Troy Dean, the founder of WP Elevation and RockStar Empires. They touch on teaching entrepreneurs how to productize their businesses. Matt and Troy discuss the differences of WPElevation and RockStar Empires and the challenges of balancing two businesses.  They wrap up the conversation with a discussion of where WordPress is headed. Listen to the episode Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners How to build an online community with Troy Dean Play Episode Pause Episode Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 00:47:23 Subscribe Share RSS Feed Share Link Embed Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:47:23 What you will learn from this Episode: Membership sites are hard to maintain. Troy is working this year to balance the work between WPElevation and RockStar Empires. WPElevation is an existing business with over 700 members and a proven business model. RockStar Empires is the long game business that concentrates on small business owners. Troy is not in any rush for instant success. The Internet is a game changer and provides connections with real people running a small business. The small business is an extension and manifestation of the owner. Small businesses will start up not completely understanding everything that is needed. You cannot take your eye off the ball too long when running a business and you need good people working for you. The meaning of life is not all about money. Don't be in such a rush. WPElevation WPElevation teaches business consulting and communication. Consultants graduating from the WPElevation course call themselves Digital Marketing Consultants. They are providing holistic solutions for their clients. WPElevation has a very clear curriculum and provides a journey with your clients through your business. Rockstar Empires growth and scaling the business: Rockstar Empires teaches you how to reposition yourself in your business to become the expert. The turnkey solution helps you market and produce your own products. About 400 members were actively successful after completing the Rockstar Empires program. Troy promoted people from the community that participated in the live events that he held. People were placed on retainers and across multiple time zones. It took the time to turn over the reins of the program and not control everything. Advantages of using video and podcasting: A great business strategy is to use video and podcasting to build your professional network. Podcasting can really help you compete in a local space. You can “own” a category by inventing it. Podcasting creates great positioning authority and allows you to package your expertise. Masterminds: Mastermind groups are only as good as the amount of time people are committed to putting into them. You need to find the right people that are willing to share and connect with the group. Live Mastermind events that you pay for should be events that share information and not be used sell something. You need to add value before you pitch something for a live event. If there is no “skin in the game” people may not participate and value the experience. Setting ground rules from the start with your Mastermind group can help with the participation of everyone. The Future of WordPress: WordPress will become less visible in terms of the technology stack. The open source spirit of WordPress will continue to grow. WordPress will continue to offshoot to support different verticles. The challenge of WordPress growth will be to keep a lot of people happy over a long period of time. WordPress will continue to evolve and become more powerful than what you can do with it now. The tribe of WordPress users continues to grow and it will continue to evolve. If you like the show, please leave a 5 Star review over on the Matt Report on iTunes. Episode Resources: Swipe.blog Dan Kennedy Man's Search for Meaning Chris and Amber Hines Rockstar Empires WPElevation Michael Gerber WP Think  tank Grytics.com To Stay in Touch with Troy: Twitter WPElevation Facebook page RockStar Empires Facebook page ★ Support this podcast ★

WordPress has allowed me to kickstart and foster my own career in the digital age and I'm betting it has for you too. That's the beauty of such a highly-adopted open source web publishing platform, there's always a layer of service or support that the market needs. Sure it's free, but we all know what that really means. Over the years, businesses and organizations have called upon the likes of freelancers and agencies to aide in extending WordPress to fit their unique requirements. But what if you're not a developer or a designer? Heck, what if you're not even a traditional consultant, how would you launch your own WordPress career? Today I'm joined by Bob Dunn who built a career off of training and educating around the WordPress ecosystem. I'm bullish on this space and if you're looking to dive into the deep-end — this is the episode for you! Options for the non-technical WordPress business owner Listen to the show Making a living in the WordPress space without having to ship a line of code sounds like the good life, doesn't it? There's a certain freedom when you're not constantly pressured to balance client expectations for the services you deliver. Bob and I cover some of the most popular ways for you to monetize your info-based WordPress business. This is a must-listen and one of my favorite episodes that I've recorded, enjoy! Affiliate sales An age-old way of making money in the WordPress space, linking to affiliate products. This is the lowest hanging fruit and something you could dip your toe into by simply recommending your favorite WordPress products. Paid reviews Something I'm currently offering, paid reviews. Bob has also started doing paid reviews, amongst other notable blogs in our space. Of course, I'd challenge you to find a unique voice and point of view if you pursue this route. Advertise/Sponsorship A traditional method which requires you to really jump on the consistent content publishing routine to drive loads of traffic and build an audience. Membership/Courses This is a very common route for today's online entrepreneur to pursue. It's something I've experimented with here on the Matt Report with some limited success. The most notable success in our space, would be Post Status and WP Elevation. Workshops The most intense of the bunch, workshops can be a lucrative venture, but require a lot of hands-on time. In today's episode, Bob shares his own experiences with running workshops and why he's decided to wind them down in 2016. What are you doing to monetize your business? I'd love to hear what steps you've taken to monetize your business. Especially since I recently published my first paid WordPress review. Is it a new members-only course or a more traditional hands-on training consultation? Share your experiences below. ★ Support this podcast ★

Our guest on this episode of the Business Marketing Show is Troy Dean from www.wpelevation.com & www.videousermanuals.com and his Recurring Revenue Roadmap Facebook Group. I first heard about Troy after purchasing Video User Manuals which is a fantastic Wordpress plugin that provides over 60 different training videos within the dashboard of your Wordpress website, the plugin […] The post Special Episode – Troy Dean – WP Elevation appeared first on The Business Marketing Show.

We're back with Season 2 Episode 2 documenting the launch of my latest product, Julep. This week I've invited returning guest, Troy Dean of WP Elevation, to talk about the fears of launching a product. We also get into providing some advice for growing your e-mail list for a product launch. Sit back, take a sip of your favorite summer cocktail and let's get into the show! Overcoming our fears If you're not embarrassed of your first product, you've launched too late. I love that line. So many of us are paralyzed while in pixel perfect mode, that we never ship our next thing. From blog posts to products, it's not easy to launch. I get it, it's human nature, we want to be accepted. I know as a founder, when asked what my 10 year plan is, it's to make things people love. When people don't love my stuff, it hurts. More often than not, this journey is going to come at the cost of some egg on our face. However, our best lessons and growth opportunities come from failure. Listen to Season 2 Episode 2: Overcoming product launch fears Like the show? Leave us a review — it takes 43 seconds!  Gathering your first 100 e-mail subscribers On the way to 100! I've already surpassed my short-term goal of 50 subscribers to the Julep e-mail list. I wasn't going for astronomical list growth. I'm sure there are some that laugh at 68 subs — but hey, no fear, right? How did I get the list to 68 Announced GetJulep.com on Carrie's podcast Announced it on my podcast Sent an e-mail to my Matt Report Newsletter list Wrote a blog post on GetJulep.com here. Tweeted about it (roughly 6 times) Posted the announcement article on ManageWP.org My next goal is 100. Seeing that I've hit a snag in the development of the plugin — can't move text 100% across the image — I'll have a bit of delay. I'm shooting for beta announcement in a week. By then, I hope, I'll be at 100 interested folks. When Troy and I chatted about growing an e-mail list, he mentioned creating a downloadable “style” guide of sorts. Some PDF or checklist of sorts to help bloggers create more engaging photos. Your typical “lead magnet” strategy. Here are some of the e-mail platforms we mentioned: Mailchimp.com GetDrip.com MyEmma.com Infusionsoft.com ActiveCampaign.com AgileCRM.com Should Julep go freemium or paid only? Have you seen what's available for free on the internet? – Troy Dean I'm still exploring the business model of Julep, but I'm certainly leaning towards the freemium model. I think the interesting thing, as it relates to add-ons, is the price point. I think add-ons in the e-commerce plugin space can be priced a lot higher than more of these “accessory” add-ons I have planned for Julep. As to say, a payment gateway is a “must-have” versus with Julep, a new font is a “nice-to-have.” Either way it's going to be fun to explore that! Learn more about Julep at GetJulep.com   ★ Support this podcast ★

Here's a special episode today hosted by my good friend Troy Dean. We chatted a while back about putting on a”host swap” of sorts. I interview a guest for his show, he interviews a guest for mine. I had a great time and he really knocked it out of the park on this episode. You can also head over to watch my interview with Jason Cohen on Troy's site. In today's episode we're hearing from one of my community fave's Japh Thomson of X-team. He shares his story about developing the WP-Stream plugin with folks like Frankie Jarrett. Sit back, relax, and get ready to listen to the Matt Report hosted by WPElevation! Interview with Japh Thomson Listening options Itunes:subscribe to MattReport Stitcher:subscribe to MattReport Let us know what you think! Want to see more host swapping going on? It was very insightful to see Troy going through the paces of my process and question list. I know I had a bit of a challenge running through his framework, but in the end, the interview still came out great. Go ahead and check it out here. Attn Pro Members: Get your Google+ Pro community invite ★ Support this podcast ★