In today’s episode Jean is joined by Daniel Dios, an entrepreneur in the sports field, specifically the fastest growing sport in the world: padel. Jean has been taking padel seriously during the past year, and this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about this sport if you haven’t yet heard about it. Beginning with a short introduction on when padel was founded, Daniel proceeds to outline the growth and spread of the sport from its beginnings in Mexico up to its incredible popularity nowad...
Oct 25, 2017•1 hr 17 min
James Laws welcomes Dustin Stout as his co-host for the episode, kicking things off by measuring the size of their respective Twitter followings. Dustin won, and so he should, given that he is a social marketing consultant who now sells a successful social media product, Social Warfare. If we could combine James and Dustin, at a genetic level, into one man, he would be called Justin. Justin Lout. As a young adult, Dustin left small-town Pennsylvania and headed for the bright lights of Hollywood ...
Oct 17, 2017•56 min
In this episode, Mark takes over hosting duties from James and Jean to interview Ben Pines, the co-founder of the Elementor page builder plugin for WordPress; a plugin that is growing in popularity every week. Elementor has grown substantially in just over a year and currently has over 200,000 active installs and an 5-star average rating according to the WordPress.org stats. Given its sudden rise in popularity and the large community that is forming around it, Mark took the time to speak with Be...
Oct 10, 2017•34 min
Well, this episode was a real monster, containing plenty of chewy insights and nutritious facts on the realities of running a WordPress marketplace with add-ons by third-party developers. James returns and explains the sad reason for his mysterious two month hiatus, putting Donnacha’s gripes about relationship squabbles and man-flu into rather stark relief. James has a plan to get back into shape, because no-one who knows Jean is allowed to be out of shape. Donnacha agrees that having a friend l...
Oct 03, 2017•1 hr 17 min
Mark Zahra of RebelCode and Donnacha MacGloinn of RedPen take a break from battling the forces of darkness and discuss the best steps to take if you want to make a living as a coder in the WordPress world. The hidden benefits of managing a plugin project, including the level of seniority at which it is acceptable to shout and call the developers “code monkeys”. The advantages and disadvantages of selling plugins through a marketplace. Tectonic shifts in the world of WordPress marketplaces. How a...
Sep 21, 2017•47 min
Jean Galea and Donnacha MacGloinn, standing in for James Laws this week, go deep into the fascinating story of Akshat Choudhary, founder and CEO of blogvault.net, a WordPress backup service and the most successful WordPress-related business in Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India. Among the topics covered in this free-wheeling, wide-ranging discussion: How Akshat started off in WordPress, what he did before and his future plans. How, as a lone founder with no previous experience of WordPress, ...
Sep 07, 2017•57 min
In this episode we have Nirav Mehta on board as a guest. We talk about his experience in Indian startups as well as business analytics and how he runs things over at Putler.com. Furthermore we find out what are the 4 most important metrics for a WordPress plugin/theme development business, how to apply a data-driven approach to life and how to deal with cultural differences in practice. Shownotes Putler.com
Aug 29, 2017•51 min
In the first part of our discussion with Andrew Farrugia, we discussed nutrition and emphasised the fact that being healthy and fit depends very much on what you eat. However, that's only part of the equation. You also need to be active and train. Training is divided into cardiovascular training (for example running or swimming) and resistance training (bodyweight exercies, weights). In this episode we tackle many typical questions that tend to arise when one starts training. Here are a few topi...
Aug 21, 2017•41 min
In this episode, Donnacha MacGloinn and Mark Zahra take over as guest hosts. Donnacha has been involved with WordPress since the early days while working on various projects, while Mark is the Project Manager for WP Mayor as well as the WP RSS Aggregator and EDD Bookings WordPress plugins. This week we delved into a current hot-topic in the WordPress community, the Gutenberg editor and what it means for WordPress. We look at what Gutenberg is, where it’s going, and what brought it about. The dis...
Aug 16, 2017•51 min
In today's episode we are joined by Andrew Farrugia from Mirror Friendly. Andrew is a former sprinter, and he is now a fitness athlete and personal trainer. He has helped countless people get back into shape, and has also helped other athletes who want to compete in their sport. Apart from being a fitness fanatic, Andrew has a demanding job as the CFO of a busy marina in Malta. We discuss work-life balance as we can all learn from Andrew on this topic. After a hard day's work as CFO, Andrew alwa...
Aug 01, 2017•43 min
In this episode, we get to know David Henzel from Managing Happiness. David Henzel is well known in the WordPress community for being one of the co-founders of MaxCDN. He has been published in Inc., Venture Beat, Huffington Post, Fast Company and countless other large publications. He’s currently working on both a course and a book, called Managing Happiness. What you might not know is that he recently made some important changes in his life. He moved out of the USA and has settled in Bodrum, Tu...
Jul 25, 2017•46 min
In this week's episode, James is accompanied by the Robby McCullough, one of the primary gentleman behind the awesome Beaver Builder. So, join Mastermind.FM as James and Robby discuss business, marketing, and product strategies. Experience abounds! Topics Included: Details about & the history of Beaver Builder. Why use Beaver Builder? The makeup of the team as they celebrate 3 successful years together. Organizational structures and management styles. Defining what warrants a full-time emplo...
Jul 19, 2017•1 hr 8 min
In this episode, I'm joined by blockchain expert/consultant Alex Preukschat to discuss what the near future holds in store for us. Blockchains promise to revolutionize our lives in a big way, simplifying many of our daily administrative chores and making things like wire transfers super cheap and fast. There are countless applications for blockchains, and they will probably change the internet as we know it. If you've never heard of blockchains, you'll probably have heard of Bitcoin or other cry...
Jul 11, 2017•1 hr 4 min
Jean recently attended WordCamp Europe and with the help of Donnacha McGloinn interviewed a few other attendees. For a full review of WordCamp Europe 2017 from Jean's viewpoint, you can check out his blog post on WP Mayor. In the meantime enjoy our interviews. Mentioned on the show: WordCamp Europe 2017 Carl Alexander's blog Tesla themes Admin Columns plugin Webdevstudios Yithemes
Jul 04, 2017•1 hr 9 min
This was one of my favorite episodes because it was like having a fun and sometimes awkward conversation with a trusted friend. Dr. Sherry Walling just happens to excel at that very things. We talk about the transitions in her own life and some of the several projects that she’s involved in, including one I’m pretty excited about, ZenTribes. Grab the nearest couch and relax. This is a journey worth taking. Topics Included: Getting to know Sherry and her entrepreneurial shift The high stress of e...
Jun 27, 2017•50 min
In this episode we dialogue with Rich Tabor of ThemeBeans. Rich’s audio was a little rough so we do apologize. On the call it didn’t sound that bad, but in production we discovered some issues. We’ve cleaned it up the best we could and hope you you don’t find it too distracting as the conversation was a lot of fun. Topics Included: A brief backstory of Rich Tabor Marketing / Leadership as an academic path The theme market Themes AND/OR Plugins The evolution of the theme business space Theme Club...
Jun 20, 2017•44 min
In this episode we welcome Primoz Ciglar from Proteus Themes. We were first introduced to Primoz when he embarked on an interesting experiment to make connection with other Entreprenuers at a not too distant Pressnomics WordPress business conference. Topics Included: Transitioning from developer to marketer Suplementing marketplace sales (Theme Forrest) with your own shop Managing multiple support and distribution channels Marketing Expirements Facebook Live The struggle of ROI A/B Testing Custo...
Jun 14, 2017•45 min
This week we have an unorthodox, and lengthy, content filled episode lined up for you, as the show was recorded hot in the middle of an actual ICO. In addition to Ransu (CEO of TokenMarket), WordPress veteran, Donnacha MacGloinn sits in as cohost with Jean. Topics Include: A brief on TokenMarket and Ransu's history with ICO. Regulated and non-regulated markets. Defining BitcoinETI Explaining ICO and Appcoin What is Mysterium? Understanding how ICO works from an investor's point-of-view. What are...
Jun 07, 2017•1 hr 28 min
This week Jean is joined by the CEO and founder of one of Europe's first property crowdfunding platforms: Property Moose. The company was founded in an attempt to democratize property investment, believed to be previously reserved only for those with access to large amounts of capital. Prior to Property Moose, Andrew worked as a solicitor at a top-tier U.S. Corporate Finance firm, as well as a leading Private Equity firm. Topics Include: Describing Property Moose and services. What is Property C...
May 31, 2017•40 min
This week, Jean and James are joined by Amir Helzer, founder of WPML, which is perhaps the best WordPress Multilingual plugin. Having met abroad in Israel, Jean decided the ongoing conversations with Amir were to good not to have him on to discuss the challenges and opportunities in managing large teams remotely, this and much more in episode 62 of Mastermind.FM. Topics Include: Amir's start and 10+ years experience in WordPress. The personal journey toward making WordPress Multilingual. A brief...
May 24, 2017•58 min
This week Jean and James have a classic mastermind discussion about renewal rates and how one goes about writing more. From why everyone needs to implement automatic renewals, to the obstacles a writer faces, and mind over matter techniques to encourage you to write more. Expect a content rich episode, loaded with great takeaways! Topics Include: James's newest article. Automatically Renewing Subscriptions From business conference epiphany to reality. On renewal rates. The results; reaping the b...
May 18, 2017•54 min
Transparency and paying forward good advice; this episode takes on a new format, based on experience and hard learned lessons from both of our hosts, as they aim to help those new to the digital playing field. This week, Jean and James have Iszuddin Ismail, of RunCloud.io, on to talk about growth hacking for startups, and take on any questions from their guest along the way. Topics Include: Easily implemented blogging tips. Separating product or service updates from curated content. Experiment w...
May 09, 2017•50 min
This week we focus on money; what we do with the money we earn, reinvesting, peer to peer lending, etc. As Jean is proudly joined by Laurence Samuels, creator of Financial Thing: a blog site full of unbiased P2P lending reviews, DIY investing guides, and home to the new Investing Essentials Podcast. Topics Include: Introductions; how and why Laurence started Financial Thing. How cancer, in part, drove Laurence into the world of investing. The book that made investing just click. What is P2P Lend...
May 02, 2017•57 min
Topics Include: Agency Work Enterprise & Obstacles Multisite & SAAS SAAS Apps Converting Plugins to SAAS Apps. Contributing to core. WordPress precautions. Predictions Mentioned on the Show: How to Attract High Paying Clients for your WordPress Business Digital Growth 15 Obstacles That Enterprises Report in WordPress and Development Partners My Store Locator Plus DevRix - Software as a Service https://wordpress.tv/2016/11/11/mario-peshev-building-saas-with-wordpress/...
Apr 25, 2017•47 min
Welcoming back James, the hosts get back to square one and catch up on both work and personal life, while sharing recent Pressnomics and business takeaways. Topics Include: James shares his 5 Year Pressnomics veteran experience. Takeaways from this year's conference. The magic of the hallway track & after-party discussions. Switching things up: personal goal updates! Jean keys us in on his progress toward being a professional Padel player. James's fitness check in. A brief on diet and hobbie...
Apr 19, 2017•44 min
In this episode we cover building a side-business online, making the full-time leap to the Shopify App ecosystem, and how it's changed over the past 6 years. Topics Include: Starting in IT and account management. Learning to code and design. Choosing a language and path. Finding an outsourcing partner. Growing to a full-time business. The cost of living in Copenhagen. Multifaceted analysis of revenue numbers. One time fees versus renewals. The joys of a lifestyle business. The ins and outs of th...
Apr 11, 2017•1 hr 5 min
This week Jean is joined by Bryce Adams, founder of Metorik. They talk personal travels, a little WordPress history, and why SAS is the future. Topics Include: Bryce's Journey From Woothemes to Woocommerce. Automattic's Woo acquisition. Digital Nomadism and Bryce's favorite places. Much travel, little work. WordPress in Japan. Why the SAS model? The limitations of the plugin/product business model. "Will doing this help my customers succeed?" How Metorik came about. Weighing whether to stay with...
Apr 04, 2017•1 hr 18 min
This episode we are down one Jean, but James brings a Kevin Stover and Zach Skaggs into the mix, to talk hiring and why anyone would consider leaving a stable job for that of bootstrap offerings. Topics Include: WP Ninjas history in hiring. The perspective of one who would trade mega-company stability for startup culture. Lifestyle over pay rate. Letting growth influence your hiring. Hiring for attitude and aptitude. Do they get it, do they want it, do they have the capacity to do it? Good onboa...
Mar 29, 2017•43 min
This episode Mastermind.FM has a complete international developer panel, ranging from Canada, Spain, United States and Malta. There are some many good talking point 'deep dives', that show notes just won't do it justice. So, sit down as with this weeks crew as Mastermind.FM embodies its namesake. Topics Include: All things WordPress. Through the eyes of developers. Views on development and WordPress. Frustrations and Challenges Defining Standards Rewriting in core. Looking forward....
Mar 21, 2017•1 hr 17 min
This week, a Mastermind update, as Jean and James catch up on their personal businesses and side projects. In this laid back core episode, many laughs await. Our hosts lead in by jesting about Jean's pajamas, as James elaborates on potentially getting into the physical product space, with playing cards no less. Topics Include: Jean talks about his recent conference experiences. AI, chat bots, customer and company ramifications. Virtual Assistants Self-driving Cars Cryptocurrencies Crowd Funding ...
Mar 14, 2017•50 min
