Mastermind.fm

This week Mastermind.fm is joined by content marketer and founder of JustReachOut - PR That Converts, Dmitry Dragilev. He's here to talk in-depth about things that are sure to revamp your SEO game plan, get you headed in the right direction, and maximize your SEO potential! Topics Include: Getting to the top of Google search results On advanced SEO strategies. Becoming a SEO "hacker". PR Outreach & Content What is Influencer Marketing? What to look for to rank higher. Finding holes in content. Addressing topical depth. Capitalizing on engagement. Featured on the Show: Criminally Prolific  JustReachOut PR That Converts  On Page SEO: Anatomy Link Building Case Study SEMrush.com 

We have a first this week on Mastermind.fm, with a full four cornered discussion. James and Jean are joined by Per Esbensen and Tomaž Zaman, cofounders of Codeable. Topics Include: How Per and Tomaž met. Conceptualizing Codeable. How Codeable developed. Addressing startup challenges. Per on Elance and why he felt Tomaž was underselling himself. Why paying your employees what they are worth is win-win. Explaining the process of signing up and/or working from Codeable. The ins and outs of the entire Codeable ecosystem. How and why outsourcing is bleeding. Codeable's solution and strategy to fight that. "Success is not determined by the projects you take on, but rather the projects you turn down." "Quality comes at a price." "Treat your business as a boutique." Combating clients poaching experts & experts poaching clients. Coedable's plans moving forward. Featured on the Show: Codeable

This episode Jean interviews Brian Jackson, director of inbound marketing at Kinsta His methods of digital income are vast, a blogger of food & finance, Brian has worked with WordPress plugins, as a super seller on Flippa, and even as an eBay power seller. Topics Include: Brian's Journey How eBay introduced Brian to internet commerce. CDs and DVDs were his gateway. From there he jumped into web-hosting & building computers. “When you do things online, you quickly find out where your time is best spent.” - Brian How learning to outsource proved troublesome. After selling the web-hosting company, Flippa was his gateway to flipping websites to make a living. Followed by the creation of The IT Bros. blog, which was also sold through Flippa. “The only way to learn on the internet, is by making mistakes.” - Brian How Brian is always blogging, and hasn’t stopped. On Brian’s cooperative business partnership with his brother. Their philosophies and strategies. Outsourcing conte

Guest hosting this episode is Dave Rodenbaugh. Owner of Business Directory Plugin, AWPCP, and Recapture.io. Dave has been a developer for 20 years, and has been working in the Wordpress ecosystem since 2009. He also cohosts the Rogue Startups Podcast with Craig Hewitt, the man behind Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin and Podcaster Motor. Topics Include: James & Dave talk the how, when, and why of podcasting. Rogue Startups Podcast anticipates their 1 year anniversary. What makes a good podcast stand out against competition. Why would you start/maintain multiple podcasts? Weighing verbal communication vs written. Why Dave believes podcasting has made him a “better business person.” James and his mischief bringing. Dave’s acquisition of Recaptured.io Moving outside of WordPress. Brief talk on Magento. Comparing and contrasting running a WordPress business and running a SAAS (Software as a Service). What lead Dave to the SAAS model. How the search and acquisition process ha

In this digital age, whether you thrive in the product or service space, recognition is half the battle. To that end, you want and need search engine optimization to be on your side. Jean and James are joined by Danny Donchev for professional advice, myths, tips, tricks, and proven strategies that are bound to help you fight and befriend the necessary evil that is SEO. So be sure and join Mastermind.fm for this great episode, and absolutely have your notepads at the ready! Topics Include: A briefing on Danny's experience and over 10 years working with SEO. An aside on why to avoid Udemy. The importance of choosing your keywords carefully. How to raise in the rankings. How readable does your URL need to be? Competing for unique titles. Why descriptions are, and can be your saving grace. All about slugs. Observing the power of star ratings and click-through rate. Will your post to be a featured snippet? Creating better content. Convincing Google that your site is the best search resu

You're in for a treat this week! Bring a notepad and get ready to jot down some great advice, as James and Jean are joined by Jason Cohen of WP Engine. Get ready for a guest host who will leave you greedy for more and more of his awesome "knowledge bombs". Topics Include: Jason's 20 years of startups. The Story of WP Engine Why Entrepreneurship "Start with what you want and optimize for that." "The best form of advice is to help someone think for themselves..." - Jason The commonality between having children and running a business. Picking your battles. Choosing which problems to solve in what order. What statistics say about startups. "You have to ask yourself, do you want a cofounder?" - Jason Answer what feels right to you. Jason's experience as a stay-at-home dad. Growing your community. Importance of point-of-view, purpose, & where the market is going. Prepare for your ideas to be wrong. "Strong opinions weakly held." On changing your own role within yo

Putting a bow on this past year, Jean and James come together to discuss the good, bad, great, and ugly of 2016, from both a business and podcast perspective. Topics Include: What Mastermind.FM has done for James and Jean on a personal level. James's "obsessive" revamp of his recording office, now turned full studio. Jean "Hurricane Fighter" Galea on his U.S. trip. The joy of podcasting. The dynamic of personalization. Staying on schedule consistently. The struggle for engagement. Surprising analytics. Upcoming plans for the podcast. Plug for James's "Adventures in Businessing" podcast. Lessons learned from 2016, as business owners. Personal growth. Jean's newfound interest in bitcoin. James's experience in launching a product. Goals Met Thanks to the sponsors. Aims for 2017, keyword: Focus

Karim Marucchi (of Crowd Favorite) joins Jean to guest host, as they touch on a myriad of topics, from exits, to mergers, acquisitions, and much more. Karim exudes charisma; being a service focused individual, he provides a unique perspective away from the usual product focused interviews Mastermind.FM has had in the past. Topics Include: How Karim's upbringing, heritage, and travels played a role in shaping his business philosophies. His history with architecture and studies in Rome. How a curious phone call, while working for an ISP,  lead Karim into helping build a website for Nissan. Selling METNET to USWeb. How USWeb turned Karim's life upside-down. Website Production vs Strategy Bridging the gap between American, European, and Asian culture. How Karim's architecture roots fortified his need to build things that last. His small business experience. "If you are going to fail, fail fast." - Karim Testing the waters of agency work. Services: Cultural vs Institutional Culti

Jean and James dialogue about styles of entrepreneurship as they skim their year end review. Topics Include: Analysis of Malta's digital community. Jean's goals for the New Year and his love of the sport, Padel. Lifestyle Business vs "Business-Business" Defining Priorities & Pursuits Building a Team Becoming a hands-off owner for the benefit of the team. Growing the individual. The continued exploration into the key differences of a local & remote team. Conclusion: Established Team Culture. "Be willing to take the bullet and always pass the praise." - James How WordPress has "opened the door" to entrepreneurial diversity. Acknowledging the average developer turnover. Experiment, take risks, seize opportunities. What is success for You? How defining your own success does a wonderful job of laying your path before you. Should age affect perception of success? Regret is natural, but don't let it consume you. How status and anxiety are tied, and why you shoul

With Jean absent this Episode, James has Chris Wallace on to guest host. (Nope, not THAT Chris Wallace.) This is the Chris of Lift UX, Faithmade, ChurchThemes, Remote Jobs, etc...who is just as good, if not better than THAT  Chris Wallace. (No offense to the Fox News anchor.) Topics Include: James inquires about Andy Wilkerson's recent acquisition of UpThemes and Chris's branding. Chris talks faith, in correlation to his businesses. Chris talks about working with AMC and developing their second screen experiences. Pioneering a new way to watch and interact with TV. What's next in line for Chris and team. James talks plans for his own team at WP Ninjas come 2017. Working with a small team Team Culture Personal Challenges "I'm not building a business. I'm building a team, and THEY'RE building a business." - James Chris on functioning as a remote team. James on having local office oriented team. What is culture? "What you allow, what you disallow, what you celebrate, what you

Guest hosting this episode, we have none other than WordPress giant, Chris Lema! Blogger, consultant, motivational speaker, etc., Chris brings his experience and perspective to Mastermind.fm for your listening pleasure. No matter your business, you'd be hard pressed to walk away from a talk with Chris and not learn something of value. Topics Include: Chris's take on CaboPress. Motivations Intention Fruits of the Conference Takeaways Pricing Geographic Pricing Segmentation SAAS (Software as a Service) Chris teases an upcoming solution. Featured on the Show: CaboPress Chris's Professional Website

Our hosts are back after a busy time indeed. Jean attended Web Summit in Portugal, James went to Cabo for CaboPress! So, for your listening pleasure, the two of them sit down and jive about what they learned, big takeaways, and critiques of the conferences themselves. Topics Include: Thorough CaboPress Overview The unique approach to the session-less vacation conference. Very Exclusive, with around 50 attendees. Takeaways are applicable to any business. Discussions on: Branding Hiring Founder issues Running/Building a SAAS (Software as a Service) Acquisitions Pricing Brief Web Summit Overview Multi-conference approach 1 ticket = access to 21 conferences Over 50, 000 attendees! Forward looking, all inclusive conference. Featured something for virtually everyone, be it entrepreneur, big business, the tech savvy, analysts, etc. Featured on the Show: CaboPress Web Summit LifterLMS PressNomics Other Impressions on CaboPress: Robby McCullough Steph Wells David

You read that right, back to basics it is! James and Jean are back at it dialogue style, as you, the listener, are treated to pro-tips that are simple, often overlooked, and immensely beneficial. In this episode, Mastermind.FM asks and elaborates on, "What's your vision?" "What's the purpose of your company, and you as a business owner?" Topics Include: The difference between a vision and a mission. Defining both. What you should be doing to promote each. Finding values in the mission, or mission statement. Uniting your team by demonstrating your values. "It's good to be good." Live it. Helping others be successful Proving the best products, resources, and services available. How all of the above is ultimately cyclical. Tips on how to proceed in finding your mission and vision. Determine what's important. What do you want to accomplish? "Don't be boring." "Be a cheerleader." If you have a good team, you will be surrounded by good ideas. Correlating values and acc

This episode James and Jean are joined by Robert Abela, an EU based freelance IT consultant and WordPress Security Professional with WP White Security. Robert is a major player in advocacy for WordPress security, and owns the No. 1 WordPress Monitoring & Audit Trail Plugin. Additionally, aside from his own security blog, Robert is also a guest blogger on many web-security blogs and websites. Topics Include: Robert's journey with WordPress. It all started as a hobby. Robert developed on the side, but never considered himself a developer. At the same time he had a WordPress security consultancy business. He began working with a friend, but development was sporadic. After searching on a shoestring budget, Robert started working with a part-time dev. Started his premium add-on model. A multitude of competitor plugins were launched. His developer saw this as a sign of defeat and jumped ship. To make things worse, competitors knew popular people in the community and received a lot of coverag

James couldn't make it for this episode due to illness, but fear not, Jean is joined by online entrepreneur, engineer, and author, Marco Schwartz. With Marco at hand, they discuss stock, dividends, and profits from a business, as they answer tough questions, like, "Should you reinvest, buy other WordPress businesses, or diversify?" Topics Include: Marco's story, his travels, his studies, how he found success. How Marco maintains revenue with his books & video courses, which all started with self-publishing. Environment matters; using your destination to aid your business and productivity. Lifestyle Design, and how it fosters a simplistic & positive philosophy. Defining what you want out of life. Try biting off more than you can chew, when making a life plan, pushing yourself to work harder. Why you should invest money as an entrepreneur. The difference between investing on a shorter term, versus long term. Marco's style of investing: defining The Online Empire model. Explaining and si

"Is your business taking all your evenings and weekends? Even with all that work are you just making ends meet because your clients are always trying to drive down your pricing?"... "Stop running a hobby START running a business.", Curtis McHale. That's right everyone, in this episode of Mastermind.fm, James and Jean interview professional consultant, Curtis McHale. Curtis is a man of many mottos, but one that undoubtedly personifies is, "Help people run the business they want, so they can live the life they want to live." Specializing in ecommerce and membership sites, the crew dives into what this gentleman knows best: The one-to-many business model. The importance of personal mission statements to achieve success. Measure your opportunities and business potential based off what you want for yourself. Just because you aren't online, doesn't mean you can't be productive. Software Curtis uses for running his consulting business. Addressing and weighing whether you are the right "fit" for your c

On this week's show, Jean is willfully "trapped" in Cleveland, Tennessee, after the hurricane evacuation in Florida rendered LoopConf cancelled. Since Jean's conference was cut short, the WP Ninjas crew shows Jean and his wife their Southern hospitality, and their lovably cheesy sense of humor. So be sure and join the whole team in this very special episode, as they "let their hair down", have some fun, and even bare their souls. Topics Include: WP Ninjas team introduction. James has Jean describe his perception of what the WP Ninjas "day-to-day" is like. Table tennis, LOTS of table tennis. Jean wonders how the office layout was determined or assigned. The benefits and challenges of working as a team in one large room. How the team combats distractions and/or interruptions. Plans for their setup as the team continues to grow. On considering a hybrid model of distributed and in-office team members. WordCamps and deciding who attends. Why attending and speaking at WordCamps is impo

Expressly laid out in absolute detail, this Episode is presented in QA format, as Jean inquires how James and his team took their existing product of Ninja Forms and released a complete rewrite successfully. As such, James gets quite candid about launching WP Ninjas' tremendously challenging work on Ninja Forms, with the release of their very own Ninja Forms 3.0. Covered are things like: the successes, stepping stones, marketing, feedback, the competition, and fear itself. Topics include: The epiphany that innovation is key. How rebranding & reimagining form building has led to WP Ninjas' sizeable achievement. Jean has James detail the time and monetary investment that went into 3.0 before release. The hefty and worthwhile expense of hiring a professional UI company. How to get in touch with people who provide such a service. How a mutual love of the classic comedian/actor/singer Danny Kaye sealed the deal on James' chosen UI company. The development & opportunity cost. Keeping existin

Guesting on Mastermind.fm this week: Andy Wilkerson Andy is the president of Parallelus, UpThemes, and creator of the Runway framework for WordPress. So, join Mastermind.fm as we walk through all that which has led to Andy's acquisition of UpThemes, and any trials, lessons, or ordeals along the way. Topics Include: Venting support frustrations via James' "patented" company communication technique that can help defuse a bad situation. Andy's history and experience with Theme Forest and Envato. Hot tips for inclusion of unique features to make your theme stand out and attract users to your product. Which may not be as difficult as your think! Andy’s personal account of the transition and acquisition of UpThemes. Insight into his mindset going into the process of leveraging value. The critical role of planning stages when moving forward. Deciding on a  plan of action to make the acquisition worth the investment. Also discussed is Andy's objective consideration in striving to harness p

Welcome to Episode 32 of Mastermind.fm! Today masterminds Jean Galea and James Laws will be talking digital nomadism with David Hehenberger. David is the mind behind Fatcat Apps, a WordPress company helping bloggers, marketers, and business owners gain traffic and conversions with Fatcat plugins. David and Jean both consider themselves to be digital nomads, while James prefers to keep his feet in one place for the most part. Listen up and we'll dive into what digital nomadism means , how David and Jean got started with the nomad lifestyle, resources for others that want to travel themselves, and more! Shownotes are below but as always, tune in to hear the full story and all the exotic places these guys have been, and meet the shark that bit the internet (no really, you need to listen to this one)! What is Digital Nomadism? David defines a digital nomad as any digital worker who doesn't have a home base or headquarters. The digital nomad travels from place to place, often living out of a suitcase, going where