The Builders

In this episode we're joined by Mohammad Nafisi.  Him and I met a number of years ago while he was going to a school in my hometown of Beaver Dam at Wayland Academy .  He was a student from Iran and met my nephews who also attended this school.  For the breaks he would stay with them, my family, and that's where I first met him - I came home for the holidays and there he was! We ins...

In this episode we have Wilson Mattos joining us.  He co-founded Rapid Crush and serves as it's current CEO.  Wilson and I first met many years ago at a seminar I spoke at (in 2009).  We remained friends and have had a number of great business adventures together..  In this conversation we start by digging into his roots, where he's from (Brazil), how he came to America and his...

Today Vova Feldman, owner of the popular WordPress Platform, Freemius , joins me to talk about his journey and business.  We start out having him dig into his past and he talks about his family's migration from the Ukraine to Israel when he was 4 years old.  We learn how those experiences shaped him, how he discovered his love for building things, programming and business. From there we...

Quitting gets a bad rap.  Some people will tell you quitting is never a good thing.  But is that true?  The truth is there are different types of 'quitting'.  There's a spectrum.  And if you quit something it doesn't mean your overarching plans, goals or strategy has to change. In fact, sometimes quitting can be the strategy.  When we are testing something, we need to...

Join me for a discussion with Stephen Wilson Downey; our first guest from Ireland ! Stephen and I first met on LinkedIn.  We got on a call and talked about his product (an AI-based WordPress plugin) and what he was doing in the WordPress space. Of course, that lead to him being on this podcast episode. Stephen's got an interesting backstory.. we dig into his roots, his journey as a chef and h...

In this solo episode, I'm back at it telling stories from my past . This is the story of how I first learned the power of systems and processes as a literal insurance salesman and how that carried over to my stint as an PPC advertiser, affiliate marketer, creating my own system and processes called “ Campaign Blasting “.. to today running a web design agency and teams. This is without a doubt one...

Doland White is back with another great conversation around building teams. If you're run a business or agency for any length of time, you may find yourself in a position where you need to consider how you might grow or scale your team. But what does that mean? What is the difference betweening scaling and growing your agency or business? What is elasticity ad how does that play a role? He starts...

In this solo episode I dig into two topics that, when combined, form a powerful foundation for your marketing and getting more business.  The first topic is ' discovering your competitive advantage '.  Knowing what sets you apart can play a big role in how you attract business.  And sometimes, it's not something you know up front; sometimes it develops organically as you work with c...

If you're building an agency or business, this episode is for you. Besides revealing my 5-10 year vision for my agency , I delve into how my web design business has developed. Any time we release a service or product it can end up being something we didn't anticipate.. my agency has been the same way. But as I talk about in this episode, that doesn't mean we let go of our initial vision. You adapt...

I'm joined by Widmaer Telisma in this episode.  Wid, as we call him, currently runs a successful web marketing agency in Montreal (Canada).  Him and I have a very similar story these past 15 or so years; in fact, he had joined one of my memberships back in 2007.  That is where I first met him hanging out in my community and forum.   We both started our days online doing a wide...

In this solo episode I dig into telling stories to sell your personal brand, services and more.  Learn how I incorporate stories into my business..  how to connect stories from your past into a conversation that helps 'soft' sell.  Learn the types of stories you can tell and how to deliver them. Stories are things we tell verbally.. but we are also telling a story with the content w...

I get to be a nerd today and get excited about a WordPress plugin!  I've grown to love Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) over the past few years running my web design agency.  In the past I didn't want 'another plugin' and I created a lot of custom code that leveraged WordPress' core features (eg, metaboxes and the customizer). Today though, I reach for ACF more often than not.  In this...

I'm joined by Matthew Biggar in this episode.  Listen in as we discuss video, social media, building brand, audiences and more!  Are you interested in how you can leverage video in your business ?  Then this IS the episode for you.  That's his speciality! Matthew's been using video and teaching others how to use video for years!  He's had his own production company and in...

An episode about building a podcast on The Builders Podcast ...  need I say more?  As with all the content we talk about on this podcast, I'm talking from the trenches; talking to what I'm doing and have experience with.  The past 20 episodes has been a journey.  I've learned a number of lessons, have a pretty good feel for what we're doing now, the benefits.. and I'm ready to...

Join me for a discussion with Jenney Denney .  She's been doing digital marketing for over 15 years , runs an agency and has a lot experience and knowledge to share!  We get to know more about her, the journey and how she landed where she is today.  What influenced her, what guides her... We also talk about her experience with virtual teams.  She's lead large teams in virtual e...

Join me for a discussion with Shoumo Ganguly.  Shoumo is a business consultant and expert on the topic of business models .  With a long and storied career with many large corporations (from IBM, projects with Toyota and a long stint at PricewaterhouseCoopers) he's got a lot of experience and insights to bring to the table. As I do with all my guests in our first episode, we get to know...

This episode is for freelancers or agencies that would like to hear a perspective from someone that sets up and manages hosting for clients.  OR it's for businesses that would like to extract some thoughts around the importance of choosing a good web host and what the process is around moving to a new server and web host. Whether you're just launching a website or have an existing, growing bu...

In this episode I talk about how to infuse flexibility in your business in that you can handle spikes in your volume without hiring a huge team off the bat.  And why you may not want internal hiring to be your only solution to getting stuff done. What avenues are out there for your business to operate like a cloud computer or server platform where you can scale it up or down depending on the...

In this episode I'm having a conversation with 2 other web developers .  We start by diving into their backgrounds and journey.  Ryan's been a web developer for over 15 years .  Danielle's been at it for around 9 years .  Both, like myself, focus a lot on WordPress, but we talk about 'what else' we do or will be doing.  We all worked together as a team in a previous compan...

In this episode I talk about generating ideas and brainstorming.  This something I take very seriously in my own business.  It's a never ending process...  and often ideas simmer for long periods so I can develop them.  When they are ready, they may see the light. I touch on a recent idea that is just now seeing the light of day.  It's something that started to gel around...

This episode digs into the awesomeness of WooCommerce - a WordPress eCommerce plugin.  I have been using and developing with WooCommerce for years.  It's my go to solution if one of my clients needs to sell products on their website (digital or physical). We have an eCommerce WordPress theme at Hexater called, Furniture Shop .  Hexater.com itself is driven by a cart-less install of...

If you're an agency that needs to or is trying to hire good web developers or have some other reason you need to find good people to do work for you, this episode is for you. After building multiple teams over the years I've learned some lessons that helps me find good people relatively consistently (knock on wood). I've hired people to help me build niche sites, create content, design and develop...

This episode will take us on a journey into my past.  I reference a thread I participated in on the Warrior Forum back in 2003-04.  When I was active there. We're talking about just getting something launched and not getting caught up in making everything perfect before you take action.  Just launch it!  Too many spend weeks, months or even years because they don't feel confide...

This is a conversation with the one and only Doland White . Doland and I met while working at the same company a few years ago.. he was the CEO and I was just one of the web development grunts. ;)  ...but no, we built their WordPress business together and he taught me a lot as I helped build the themes and a team of designers and developers. He's been involved with technology in some shape or...

This is a new type of segment for the Builders Crew! I’ve chosen a specific type of page on a website (the Team Page) and we’re going to go through a project from start to finish. This will be great for anyone that has or is planning a team page .. whether that’s your business OR something you are building for someone else. I’m providing some background on the project as a whole and the relationsh...