Mastermind.fm

Welcome to Episode 31 of Mastermind.fm! This week our resident masterminds Jean Galea and James Laws will tackle onboarding. We usually think about onboarding as bringing a new team member into the fold or something similar. Jean and James expand on the term and take a dive into onboarding as the gateway to getting folks engaged for the first time with your product, service, content, or whatever it is you're up to. It's a really interesting take, so don't miss out! As always, shownotes are below but don't miss the full conversation! Updates James talks WordCamp Nashville Jean talks LoopConf in Fort Lauderdale & WordCamp Orlando Onboarding James was inspired by observations at WordCamp Nashville. Seeing users meet a product for the first time, use it, feel it, experience it for themselves, he realized they're much more motivated to give something new a try. That's the essence of onboarding- not just getting a new team member oriented or as pertains to a product, but a broader sense of the term that invol

Welcome to Episode 30 of Mastermind.fm! Jean is with us as always, and we welcome James back this week after a 2 episode break. Today Jean and James will tackle some updates on what is happening in the WordPress community, a bit of business related talk, and what James has been up to for the last couple weeks. Join us now for this week's Mastermind.fm! Talking Business If you've been with us for the last couple weeks, you've noticed that James hasn't been. He's been off monitoring the launch of the newest iteration of Ninja Forms, Ninja Forms THREE. It was a massive overhaul, a complete rewriting of the codebase, and required his hands-on attention during the launch period. Welcome back, James! On Jean's end of things, he's just released a major update to the EDD Bookings extension, adding compatibility to Easy Digital Downloads' own Front End Submissions extension. Both Jean and James give their take on the Apple Conference. Listen in to hear what they think! WordPress News GoDaddy Acquisition of ManageWP

Today's guests are Marcel and Eugeniu from TeslaThemes. The latter might be their first successful WordPress project and the most famous one so far, but they have also launched two other projects in the WordPress space: Greedeals and WPMatic. The whole team behind these projects works in one office. They are based in Chisinau, Moldova, and strive to have a family atmosphere based on an open communication policy where everybody's contribution is welcome. In our discussion we discuss various topics such as: Scaling by starting complementary businesses The advantages of having everyone in one office Attending WordCamps Audience and revenue stats The myth of the "overnight success" Challenges for affiliates promoting Envato marketplace products Traffic sources (they don't host any themes on WordPress.com) As an addendum to the podcast itself, here's the answer to a question I didn't have time to ask. I was curious about how they came up with the names of their businesses, so here's Eugeniu's ans

In this episode, I interview my good friend Mitchell Callahan who is involved in WordPress through his agency Saucal. Mitchell introduced me the practical side of Bitcoin last year. “You never change something by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” - Buckminster Fuller “In a mad world, only the mad are sane.”  ― Akira Kurosawa Until I met Mitchell I only knew about Bitcoin in general terms. He persuaded me to set up a Bitcoin wallet and use it for an international funds transfer. I was very impressed and wrote about the experience on my blog. From there onwards I have kept close tabs on Bitcoin and have been reading up on things gradually to widen my knowledge on this very interesting subject and all the fields it affects (banking, governance, money, cryptography, states etc.). I highly encourage you to check out our recommended resources below as well as listening to the episode till the very end of course (we also have a great gi

Welcome to Episode 27 of Mastermind.fm! Today masterminds Jean Galea and James Laws interview Zack Katz, author of the WordPress plugin GravityView! Hang out with us for a bit and have a listen! This was a super fun and interesting interview and Zack has lots of great advice. He's experimented with several marketing and advertising strategies and we can all learn from his experiences to take some smart shortcuts in choosing the best promotional methods for our plugins. Zack also talks about his favourite WordPress conferences. We both met Zack at Pressnomics earlier this year and this interview is a follow-up based on the great discussions we had there. Questions we asked Zack How did you get into WordPress and full-time development? How do you select projects to monetize? You build Gravity related plugins, but Gravity Forms doesn't have an "official" community development model around Gravity products. How does that work out with the Gravity team? How was the transition as your work began to be no

Welcome to Episode 26 of Mastermind.fm! This week our masterminds Jean Galea and James Laws tackle hosting! Hosting can be a nightmare of trial and error to find what works for you in the often weird world of WordPress hosting. Jean and James have been through the wringer on this one, and have come out on the other side ok. Come listen in to the decades of hosting experiences that they've racked up between the two of them and make your own hosting decisions better! As always, show notes are below. Types of Hosting Basic hosting Managed hosting Managed WordPress hosting What's the difference? Typically, basic hosting simply gives you a place to run your website from, and leaves everything else to you. Managed hosting takes the responsibility of maintenance, security, updates, etc on their shoulders.  Managed WordPress does all of that too, but they specialize in WordPress hosting management. Some Tips to Keep in Mind Research your host! Make sure they are actually the people running the hosting sof

Welcome to Episode 25 of Mastermind.fm! Join our hosts Jean Galea and James Laws today as they jam about podcasting- a topic they're pretty familiar with! Check out their unique take! Whether you're thinking about getting into it yourself or already have and are just looking for some unique ideas, you'll find them right here. Pull up a chair (or put on your running shoes, whatever works for you!) and give Episode 25 a listen! Podcasting Style/Theme Ideas Solo, two-person, three-person shows? Interviews Question-Answer Leadership oriented Business oriented WordPress oriented Gaming History Investment Mastermind Production Cycle Meet once a week to talk shop Audio recorded separately Ad spots for sponsors recorded separately Separate audio tracks are put together & finished by Jean's wife Benefits of Having a Podcast Getting in touch with people on a deeper level (Jean) Great way to build personal brand (James) Allows users to get to know the people behind the business (Jea

Welcome to Episode 24 of mastermind.fm! This week our resident masterminds Jean Galea and James Laws look at the software that they use at work every day for productivity and development. They also mention Slack once or twice. There's a lot of neat tools here, so be sure to check it out! Show notes are below as always, but catch the full audio podcast right here so that you don't miss a thing! Software for Development Slack: Jean and James both use Slack in their development workflow. It's also a mainstay of general communication as well. Check out the audio for a breakdown of how Slack channels are set up for Jean and James' teams! Github: for storing code (James) Source Tree: for interacting with Git (James) Atlassian Suit: Jean's team uses a lot of Atlassian software, some of which are listed below. Bitbucket: for storing code (Jean) Jira: managing development issues (Jean) Confluence: company notice board and on-boarding (Jean) KinHR: team management and on-boarding (James) PHP Storm a

Welcome to Episode 23 of Mastermind.fm! We're doing something a little different today as Jean and James interview Pippin Williamson, author of Easy Digital Downloads, Affiliate WP, and Restrict Content Pro. He's a man that's made the WordPress space a little more awesome for all of us, and a sharp mind to listen to for advice. You can find the questions we're hitting him with from both ourselves and Mastermind listeners below, but tune it to the full episode to hear what he has to say! Mastermind Questions for Pippin 1) How did you get into PHP programming and then into WordPress? 2) What was the first product that you actually sold as you moved away from freelance work? What inspired you to make the product and make the move away from freelance? 3) How much did you sell your first product for? Where did you market it? Did it sell well in the beginning? 4) When did it hit you that "Hey, I can make a living doing this!"? How long did it take you to decide that this was going to be a full time pursuit? 5)

Welcome to Episode 22 of Mastermind.fm! Today our masterminds Jean and James will be talking about starting your plugin business from scratch. In the last 2 episodes we talked about getting your new product off the ground and gaining traction. We’re going to back up a little here and look at the pre-launch phase. What’s involved? What do you need to plan and prepare for? How do you break into the WordPress space and carve out a niche of your own? Listen in! As always, show notes are below but catch it all in the audio! Community Jean and James open up talking about the close-knit, unique nature of the WordPress community. The sense of community is strong in WordPress and coming in with an attitude that projects humility and an open mindedness to learn the terrain means a lot for your success within the community. Engage with members, get involved, and be respectful to be successful. It’s an industry with a value system, which is something fairly unique in larger industry settings. Learn the community and b

Welcome to Episode 21 of Mastermind.fm! Today our masterminds Jean and James will continue last week’s discussion of product launches and gaining traction for your new product. Last week they covered getting a website together, building a mailing list and social media presence, and a handful of other great advice for making your product launch successful. What else will they talk about today? Come find out! As always, show notes are below but listen in for  the whole conversation so you don’t miss a thing! Engaging Your Users What are people saying about your product? There are a few good places you can test the pulse of your product from and use to draw more interest with your own feedback to users. WordPress.org Support Forums Reviews Social Media Facebook Twitter In the early days of any product, there are bound to be bugs and a shifting of focus/use cases from your original intent. Pay close attention your first customers, engage them, make fans and cheerleaders of them. Word of mouth

Welcome to Episode 20 of Mastermind.fm! In this episode, our resident masterminds Jean and James talk about product launches and what it takes to get traction for your new product. It’s a great listen for anyone thinking about launching a new product now or in the future, and it just might inspire the rest of us to get out there and build something! Hang out with us for a while and give it a listen! This will be a multi-part discussion, so be sure to tune in next week for a follow-up episode. As always, show notes are below but treat yourself to the whole show with the audio! Successfully launching a product Assumptions: Starting a premium product to launch from ground zero. What do we need to get off the ground and where do we start? Get a website/landing page live This doesn’t have to be a big elaborate affair. Just lay out the basic value proposition for your product if nothing else. What is it? What does it do? Why do you need this product? Have a basic landing page so that you can, if nothing else, han

Welcome to Episode 19 of Mastermind.fm! This week our resident masterminds Jean and James will be talking about Wordpress.org. Specifically, the challenges and benefits of listing your plugin on WordPress.org, and some alternatives to it. Sit back and listen with us for a while while they parse the pros and cons! Show notes are below, but tune in for the full conversation! Mastermind.fm is proudly sponsored by & Publishing Plugins on WordPress.org Benefits 1) Feedback You can get great feedback on your work from users. With both a support forum and a review section, you can hear what your target audience feels about your product, and get a sense of where else you can go with it- share with a greater community and see how it gets used! It’s great material for considering premium features and testing the market. 2) Motivation There’s nothing quite like watching your plugin grow. The first notification that your repo is available, committing the first release and seeing your plugin go live - it’s exhilarati

Welcome to episode 18 of Mastermind.fm! This week our resident masterminds Jean and James will continue last week’s discussion of office hardware & tech. Last week we talked about standing desks, ergonomic office chairs, and the monitors of choice around the WP Mayor and WP Ninja offices. This week we’ll explore more of what we use around the office. As always, the shownotes are below for your convenience, but tune in so that you don’t miss a thing! Keyboards Jean swears by his wireless Apple keyboard. It’s slim, lightweight, and you don’t have to fool with batteries on the newest model- you just charge it with a USB cable. It’s perfect for traveling and hauling around in general. It’s also rechargeable and holds its charge for a long time. James concurs here: the newest model Apple keyboard is his bread and butter. He does point out that there are a handful of different keyboards around his office, though. The WP Ninjas dev team prefers mechanical keyboards with lots of tactile feedback, for example. Mice

Welcome to Episode 17 of Mastermind.fm! Join masterminds Jean and James today as they discuss hardware- the technology we use to do what we do each day. Computer hardware is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think hardware, but today’s banter isn’t limited to that. Join us as we delve into standing desks, ergonomic chairs, office tech, and more! Stay on the lookout through this episode for a free Mastermind.fm giveaway you won’t want to miss! Standing Desks Next Desk Up Desk Evo Desk IKEA James swears by these and loves them for their ability to get you up and moving while you work. Jean concurs. Getting up and moving (dancing?) can be inspirational! Next Desk tends to be the top of the line ($2k+) while Up Desk better fits the budget range of $400-500. Apparently Jean has found one that can order food for you? Who knew. Jean recommends Ikea standing desks that run around $500. Ergonomic Office Chairs IKEA Jean likes IKEA here as well, and you can pick up a nice one for aroun

Welcome to Episode 16 of Mastermind.fm! This week our masterminds Jean and James delve into the topic of hiring and support. Look for this week’s conversation to revolve mostly around support, and then turn to hiring next week. You’ll find a brief overview below as always, but be sure to tune in for the full scoop! You won’t want to miss it! How Can We Offer Great Support for a WordPress Plugin or Business? James kicks things off by laying out his philosophy on support: instead of looking at support as the inevitable thing we have to do because we have a product, look at it as an opportunity to engage with your customers. The goal of support shouldn’t be to close a ticket or end one conversation so you can move on to another one, but to build trust and relationships. Jean addresses logistics. As a beginning business, how much of your small team’s time do you devote to support and development? You have to manage setting priorities and scaling as your company grows. What’s the factors to consider in managing

Welcome to Episode 15 of Mastermind.fm! Today our resident masterminds Jean and James tackle the topic of having a successful WordPress plugin: from zero to success. Join them today and take a tour through the major attributes that a plugin business needs to become successful, from a pair of entrepreneurs who know the drill firsthand. We’ll outline them below, but tune in for the full story! Nobody wants to use your plugin. They use it to solve a problem! Attributes of a successful plugin business: Solve a problem Ooze quality in the way your plugin is built and coded Timing Team Get the word out Reviews & Relationships Extensibility Point 1 and 2: Solve a problem, but make it as pleasurable of an experience for the user as you can. Nobody wakes up in the morning excited to build a form for their website, but they shouldn’t dread having to do it either! Style your plugin so that it is tasteful and comfortable within WordPress. It doesn’t have to be a WordPress UI clone though- sometimes you ha

Welcome to Episode 14 of the WordPress business podcast Mastermind.fm! Today Jean and James will be discussing total plugin rewrites. It’s an area they both have a degree of experience in, as both are either involved in or researching this strategy for their own plugins. Here’s a quick teaser of what they dig into on the topic. Tune in for more! Total Plugin Rewrites! Jean is currently discussing with his team whether they will be rewriting their plugin, WP RSS Aggregator. James and his team have been in the process of a complete rewrite of their plugin, Ninja Forms, for around a year now. The first thing to ask yourself before you begin: When should a rewrite be undertaken? Some things to consider: Can you still iterate on your current architecture? Is there new technology or new developments coming in that changes the landscape of your market? Recurring user problems Want to open the plugin to 3rd party developers (if not initially built to be extensible) Driving forces behind rewriting Ninja For

Welcome to Episode 13 of Mastermind.fm! In this week's podcast our resident masterminds Jean and James take questions from you about everything from heath and fitness to financial management. Listen in as they field a number of great audience questions and discuss them at length. Tune in now and you can check out the questions below! Jean & James Mastermind Q&A Questions ~Health & Fitness: What do you do to stay fit at a job where you sit all day? What do you eat? ~Business: How you can choose the right market for your product and target a special niche within that market? ~Pricing and Billing: How do you handle pricing and billing for work done? Do you recommend an ad hoc, upfront, or payment plan with milestones approach? Something unique? ~Business models: How did you make the jump from an agency to a product business? What were your expectations prior to the change and how did your experiences differ? What was your motivation for the shift? ~Financial Management: In Episode 4 you mentioned looking at

In this show we welcome Donnacha McGloinn, one of the most prolific commenters across WordPress blogs. He has contributed to many discussions along the years and also helped WordPress product owners refine their marketing and products. In this particular episode we delve into the GPL, a topic which always stirs a lot of controversy and opposing views whenever it is discussed. We not only define what the GPL stands for but also go into some practical issues surrounding it and what prospective WordPress product owners/developers should be aware of. For example, people like Pippin Williamson have taken advantage of the GPL to encourage 3rd party contributions and improvements by putting all premium addons of his plugin AffiliateWP up on GitHub. Others have probably been impacted in a negative way by the GPL, such as the e-commerce plugin Jigoshop, although that case can be debated either way. We also talk about our own plugins, Ninja Forms and WP RSS Aggregator, and our own experiences with people forking our p