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 mis...
Jul 12, 2016•33 min
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...
Jul 05, 2016•32 min
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 feedb...
Jun 24, 2016•34 min
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 Appl...
Jun 17, 2016•40 min
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 E...
Jun 10, 2016•40 min
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 sup...
Jun 02, 2016•34 min
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 busine...
May 27, 2016•30 min
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 hav...
May 20, 2016•44 min
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 ...
May 12, 2016•41 min
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 Wor...
May 05, 2016•54 min
Today we unpack a business model that perhaps has the most potential for your business, the SaaS business model. The SaaS, or Software as a Service, is full of all kinds of advantages and perhaps a few challenges, but you can't deny it's earning potential if done right. Join us as we discuss all of this in our final installment of Business Models for WordPress products. SaaS Business Model In the SaaS business model, the processing side of rendering the service is handled by you on your own serv...
Apr 28, 2016•34 min
Welcome to Episode 10 of Mastermind.fm! This week our intrepid masterminds Jean and James continue the series on business models for WordPress that began in Episode 8. This is part 3 of 4, so look for them to wrap this one up next week. Episode 8 began this series with talk of free and premium business models. Episode 9 continued the conversation looking at the freemium model and productized services. This week we focus on a larger variety of models including monetizing through support alone, th...
Apr 21, 2016•31 min
Welcome to Episode 9 of Mastermind.fm! Last week Jean and James began a multi-part series discussing different WordPress business models. Episode 8 tackled free and premium business models, and this week we continue with a discussion of licensing strategies, the freemium model, productized service model, and membership model. Recurrent vs. Lifetime License Models The topic of conversation turns first to recurrent versus lifetime license models. Recurrent licenses typically require annual renewal...
Apr 14, 2016•34 min
Welcome to Episode 8 of Mastermind.fm! This week James and Jean begin tackling different business models in WordPress. Right out of the gates, our resident masterminds are quick to point out an important distinction in the way we think about WordPress product models in general: the difference between a development model and a business model. Let’s unpack that a little bit before we jump into the heart of the conversation. The development model refers to the concept of a core product with core fu...
Apr 06, 2016•31 min
In this episode we share a few updates on what we're working on and what's going on in our businesses. We mention the following: Jean attending A Day of REST in London James talks about the upcoming Ninja Forms v3 Jean talks about his booking plugin add-on for Easy Digital Downloads The WP RSS Aggregator website is currently being redone using Array Themes. WP Mayor is now powered by WooCommerce. Featured On The Show: WP Ninjas WP Mayor WP RSS Aggregator Day of Rest Conference Rest API Calypso i...
Mar 29, 2016•32 min
Earlier this month both James and Jean attended Pressnomics 2016 in Tempe, Arizona. We had a blast and took the opportunity to conduct a series of short interviews with attendees, asking them about their biggest takeaways from the event. Here's who we interviewed: Andy Wilkerson Ben Arellano Brad Touesnard Brian Hogg Dave Rodenbaugh Jackie D'Elia John Turner Kyle Brown Liam Talbot Matt Cromwell Robbie McCullough Syed Balkhi Vova Feldman
Mar 17, 2016•25 min
In this special episode we discuss our tips and tricks on how to get the most benefit out of your next conference. We're getting ready for Pressnomics and in preparation we're dusting off our tried and true techniques for making stronger and more effective connections, where and how to spend your time, and even something to do even before you start your travels. Featured On The Show: WP Mayor WP Ninjas Ninja Forms 3 PressNomics SmartPassiveIncome Easy Digital Downloads Astoundify JeanGalea.com J...
Feb 26, 2016•31 min
Join us as we talk about where we're at right now with our businesses. James talks about the new release of Ninja Forms (version 3) which includes a whole new interface. Jean talks about his new plugin EDD Bookings as well as some developments on WP Mayor. Later in the episode we talk about how we started with our businesses and what challenges we encountered in the early days. This is a good episode if you want to understand what we do in our businesses and how we got here. Featured on the show...
Feb 21, 2016•34 min
We start off this episode talking about our routines and workflows and end up mostly talking about the importance in leading a balanced life. A healthy lifestyle and regular exercise has helped both of us stay more focused and more generally happy and satisfied. Jean talks about keeping up with routines while traveling while James talks about his struggles with changing routines and his plans to get back into running and regular training. Finally we offer some tips about establishing healthy rou...
Feb 03, 2016•28 min
Making the transition from employee to business owner is neither easy nor fast in most cases. There are many things to learn but it's a very rewarding journey. In this episode we share some insights on how we made the transition from employees to freelancers to eventually team leaders. We share our struggles and also talk about the fact that being a business owner is not for everyone. We touch on how to learn the skills needed to start and run a business and where to get assistance from. Finally...
Jan 27, 2016•27 min
Nowadays a business cannot function properly without a good suite of support software. In this episode James and Jean share their software setup and the organizational tools that they use on a daily basis with the rest of their team. We talk about internal communication tools like Slack, code and issue management software like Bitbucket and JIRA, customer facing applications like HelpScout and more. Featured On The Show: Slack Slack Slash Commands for EDD (Source: WP Ninjas) Hipchat WP Ninjas Ea...
Jan 20, 2016•37 min
The WordPress community has earned itself a very good reputation. There is a strong sense of ethical business, as well as a distinct openness and willingness to share. James and Jean talk about the importance of working within such a community when building a business. We then talk about the different types of peer interaction, going through the list of conferences, meetups, online communities (Facebook and Slack) and how you can seek and join such groups. We mention a few of our favorite confer...
Jan 13, 2016•30 min
Time for some introductions; James and Jean introduce themselves, their businesses and talk about why they decided to start a new podcast. We talk about the differences between our businesses (remote vs office-based) and also talk about what masterminds really are and why they are important to anyone in business (and not only). Finally we talk about why we felt that there is a need for a new podcast in the WordPress space and who our target audience will be, setting the stage for the next episod...
Jan 06, 2016•27 min
