On the podcast today we have James Giroux and he's here to talk about a new project that he's set up called TeamWP. It's all about workplace culture, team dynamics and leadership in WordPress companies. We open up the conversation with a lengthy chat about the rich history that James has in the WordPress space. He's worked for lots of different companies in a multitude of different roles, some big, some small. He's had mixed experiences in these companies, feeling empowered and enabled in many roles, but also working in dysfunctional workplaces where he feels that his talents were not exploited to their fullest potential. Normally, the podcast guest's background would not be all that significant, but given the nature of the conversation today, it truly is. You see, the itch that James is trying to scratch with TeamWP is trying to figure out what a 'good' WordPress workplace looks like; what represents a 'good' company. Now James is not suggesting that he's got the answers to all these questions just yet. It's a work in progress, but TeamWP is on a mission to find out what all this means.
On the podcast today we have Fränk Klein, and he's here to discuss the important topic of making a career from using WordPress. Like any other career, in technology, there's really no replacement for knowledge. The more you know, the more likely you are to adapt to situations that arise. Some of those might be repetitive, but there's also the curve balls that life throws at you, and your knowledge can empower you when strange things happen. Fränk is all about acquiring new skills. Learning new things so that you can make yourself indispensable to the organisation that you work for. Fränk's premise is pretty simple… being better educated will give you a chance to earn more. We talk about how Fränk became a WordPress developer. What his framework is for moving through the software industry, what his current job market is like in the wider WordPress ecosystem. Essentially, the message from this podcast boils down to staying curious and keep learning as a priority.
This episode is about all the many, many, many jobs that you do each and every time you build a WordPress website for yourself or for a client. There really are so many! I'm not too sure that I do quite as much as David does, because, as you'll hear, he's does rather a lot. From setting hosting and email, from forms to security, this episode could have gone on for a long time. Maybe you treat each project individually, or have a template that you keep coming back to. Go listen to the podcast today and tell us what you think...
I've often thought about building my WordPress websites on the one day model, it's got so much going for it. I've heard stories of quite a few people who are managing this very effectively. However, it's always been something that I've associated with a single freelancer. I'd always assumed that the margins were pretty tight, and therefore most likely to work with one person. Well, Candy Phelps is on the podcast today to tell me (and you) otherwise! She's built a business creating websites in a day with a team, and, as you might have guessed, it's all about the process. If you get the process right from the start, you can make this work, as you'll have all your ducks in a row, so that there's no time wasted and every member of your team know what to do and when to do it. It's pretty interesting to see how this all hangs together. Go listen...
So, you're a WordPress website creator. You sell your websites to clients far and wide, or at least that's the hope. We all know though that the reality is that finding new clients can be hard and keeping them can be harder. The question in this episode of the podcast is, what's the best approach for attracting new clients. Should you go for anyone and everyone, or are you best targeting your efforts at a particular niche? Well, it's not that easy and there are pros and cons to both options. Today on the podcast, which by the way is episode 200 (yay!), we discuss which is best. Honestly, it throws up some unexpected results. In the end you'll have to decide for yourself, but perhaps listening to others debate this point might get you on the right track! Go listen...
There’s many types of businesses providing websites and marketing to many different client types. We have self-employed freelancers seeing it more as their vocation or as a side gig. Then we have large Agencies with teams of specialists, designers, UX experts, frontend and backend developers, project manager and a whole load more. Anyone who knows us we know we are really the former. Why the debate? Probably because there is a general wisdom that self employed people need to think of themselves as a business and that business are expected to grow. We are exploring whether this applies to those offering website services with WordPress. So, somewhat arbitrarily, David is going to argue from the point of view of growth, and I’m (Nathan) will argue that we can stay small. Check it out...
Join Nathan Wrigley as he discusses Jim Galiano’s new course with the man himself! Get the course here: 80323-wpbuilds.mystagingwebsite.com/link/jim/ “A Solopreneur’s Guide to Starting, Building and Marketing a Successful Digital Agency” This course is designed to teach you how to…
What to know how a growing WordPress website agency manages their projects? Well this is the podcast for you. Today we hear from James and Martin Coates from Impact Media. They tell us about the tools that they use to make their agency as efficient as possible. Wireframes to video creation, image manipulation to automated testing we learn it all. We also chat about their preferred plugins for particular tasks. It's a great chat and will give you some insights into processes that, no doubt are part of your business, but perhaps you'll see a new way or a new tool that you might be able to use. Go have a listen on the WP Builds WordPress podcast...
This is a little bit of a departure for us today because we take a deep dive into the life of our guest - Rebecca Gill. Typically on the podcast we chat about plugins and themes and talk to developers about their ideas and their code. Not today, well not just that today! Today we listen to the story of how life has shaped Rebecca, and I can tell you that so much has happened to her that it's amazing that she's still able to get up in the morning. Many people faced with a poor start never recover from it, but others seem to be able to rise above it, they have a tenacity that enables them to keep going, to take charge of their own destiny and to flourish. Rebecca chose to flourish. Find out how...
We all have things in our lives that we want to quit, but we're limiting this conversation to your work as a WordPress professional and the moments in the day when you start to do things that you know that you shouldn't! Perhaps it's too much Facebook. You've set up email notifications to appear, and appear they do, with alarming regularity. Several time an hour you get pinged and go to read what you hope will be something of weight and importance. We're all guilty of it, as Mark Zuckerberg's accountant can testify. Or perhaps it's trying to keep up with the latest trends, or time wasting, or office hour or podcasting!
In this episode we get to chat to Sujay Pawar, somewhat of a rising star of the WordPress world. I think that it’s quite likely that you’ve heard of some of the products that his company (Brainstorm Force) have created over the years. Shall I just list them out for you, so that you can say, “Yes, I’ve heard of those,” at the end? The Astra Theme, Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder, Ultimate Addons for Elementor, Convert Pro, Schema Pro, WP Portfolio and actually there were a few more along the way too! There, I told you that you’d heard of them! Is that enough for you!? Listen to the episode to find out more.
Two for the price of one! That's what this episode feels like, because not only do I get to interview Clark Marshall from Blue Dog Digital, but I also get to interview our very own David Waumsley, AT THE SAME TIME! The reason that we have them both on the show is that both Clark and David have made some very important decisions about how they would like their lives to pan out. They decided to become 'Digital Nomads'. This, to me, evokes thoughts of great pioneers; people who are brave enough to reject the 9-to-5 lifestyles that most of us moan about, but put up with.
In this episode of the WP Builds podcast we chat to Pia Silva from badassyourbrand.com. She's a New Yorker with a whole load of energy and is a lady on a mission to "Bad Ass Your Brand". It's the title of her book as well as her philosophy to create a brand for your company. It's definitely not about just growing your agency; more staff, more contracts more... everything. It's about cutting things out of your business and making it very specifically the place that you want to work. It's about trying to do less work, to get paid more and have a little more time off.
In this episode of the podcast we talk to Brent Weaver from uGurus. He's an exceptionally thoughtful mentor for people who would like to see an upturn in their web design business. uGurus has been going for many years and has helped loads of agencies both big and small to increase their fees. I guess that there is no magic sauce for this kind of thing, but what you'll be gaining is the combined experience of people who have struggled through this problem before.
In this episode we talk a lot at the beginning about the fact that we're going to be making some changes to the podcast over the coming weeks. We also talk about what processes we follow when we work. In the light of all the tools that we have available to us these days, what we do / use to get a site from proposal to completion. Now, we're not saying that you should follow what we do, as we know that it's likely hopeless, but we're telling you anyway so that you can tear us down and make us feel inadequate!
So you’ve heard of Matt Medeiros before, you know that you have. He’s the guy that does The Matt Report, a podcast that delivers great content to business owners who are using WordPress. He’s all over the internet all the time, writing great articles and making useful videos teaching people how to use WordPress. He’s full of energy in a way that most of us could only dream of! Great episode from start to finish!
In this episode of the WP Builds we talk to the one and only Lee Jackson. If you’ve not heard of Lee before, then, frankly, it’s high time that you did! In fact, if you’ve not heard of Lee, I wonder if you should get your eyes or ears tested, because he’s making so much content it’s like he’s actually part of the internet itself! He makes a great podcast, runs a successful agency, makes lots of video content. I wonder if he sleeps?
Today we ask ourselves what skills do we need to offer a full web design service. That sounded like a great topic. It turns out it's a bit slippery this one.Is a webdesigner like a graphic designer for the web or someone who designs business solutions that are realised on the web?
