The Builders

In this episode I’m joined by Atiba De Souza.  Atiba has been around a long time on the web!  He started building websites in the mid-90s.  And in fact, they did something really, really innovative for that time.  They built website search engines!  BEFORE GOOGLE!  That story alone is so fascinating. We’re taken through the evolution of the web in this one..  In the 2000s he started working for an agency with government contracts and building search engines for them (including the EPA!!).  When that phase was behind him and after some soul searching he started doing work for the private sector again. In this phase (2003-07) he realized Google and Merchants on the web had a problem.  He figured out what it was, the solution and helped both solve those problems.  He saw new problems just a few years ago.. and explains why he’s hyper-focused on video creation and marketing! Really, really great conversation.  Especially if you find yourself wondering how to get your content in front of your target audience.. or trying to figure out why you aren’t getting the results you expect in search.  You’ll gain some insight into how to solve for that.. and some great tips around how you can gain the courage to create video for the web!  Enjoy!

In this episode, I’m joined by Christina Hooper.  Today she helps those that have fallen out of love with the business.. helping entrepreneurs take things to the next level via consulting and speaking at events.  While she’ll tell you her entrepreneurial story isn’t anything special, I’ll beg to differ.  While it’s not flashy, it’s certainly inspiring none the less.  We all arrive at our destinations, where we are today, on varying paths.. and within that there are lessons and common threads that others will connect with or find inspirational. But the best part of this chat was that she weaved in her thoughts and ideas around how to tell a good story as a guest on podcast!   What do you do when you story isn’t “Things are going ok, but then.. your world falls apart.. you lived out of a car, homeless.. and some amazing things happened to turned everything around”?  When you’re done listening to this episode, you know what to do. At various points of her story we dive into relevant topics that contain great lessons.  From the power of strategic partnerships, the evolution of hiring.. to what you need to do to prepare to sell your agency or business.  So much gold in this hour.  Don’t miss this one!

In this episode I virtually sat down with Genesis Amaris Kemp.  She’s a Visionary Life Coach, Motivational Speaker, Author and Podcaster.  We began the conversation as we often do by listening to her story, her journey, in her own words.  As she puts it, we discussed the lows and highs.. we talk about the lows too because that is what contributed to her development personally and professionally. She spent 15 years in corporate America.  Starting out in real estate, working for a cancer center to building a career in the oil and gas industry, she shares how that all developed.  There are many positive aspects of that and inspiration to extract.  It’s inspiring how she approached life with a positive attitude, how she overcame ‘situations’ and how she used networking as a powerful advantage. But there were also negative aspects.  Working in the industry where she was a ‘Chocolate Drop in Corporate America’ ( her words, not mine - she has a book with the same name ), was tough.  Micro aggressions, feeling inadequate, being held in positions longer than she was supposed to, suspect of people’s (or businesses) intentions .. were just some of the things she experienced just because of how she looked on the outside. Through all that, she’s come out the other end to speak to that, to share that story.. to be a voice and have the conversation around diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging.  I really enjoyed this conversation.. she’s an amazing human being.  If nothing else, it’ll make you think deeper about this topic and help answer the question.. how can we do better?

Our guest today is Inbal Claudio.  We listen to her story from working in the service industry, starting a real estate brokerage, starting her own candle company to pivoting to a tech startup  We all hear the stories of non-techie founders who try to start a tech company or build an app with no experience.  She was the same, but she found her way through this gauntlet!  A lot of lessons shared. This is where her support systems come in.   Her Father being in tech was able to be a sounding board for her.  Her husband was very supportive.  She was able to find, through some trial and error, a great developer to help her build, maintain and manage the project.  We discuss the pitfalls trying to find good developers and things to look out for; there are a lot of people that aren’t entirely truthful in that space. Besides those challenges, we also talk about how she balances everything as a Mom and wife to someone in the military.  There’s a lot of nuggets of inspiration and insights in this episode for busy mom’s wanting to become an entrepreneur or those looking to build something in tech starting from a disadvantage.  Enjoy the listen!

In this episode we are joined by Laura Raynak.  She shares her long journey through corporate America and how she landed where she is today as a successful business owner.  This journey includes many challenges and a path of discovery.  It includes moments she had to stick up for herself, fight and make difficult moves to continue to move forward with her career.  It’s a story of learning the lessons and resilience. While she started out her journey getting a degree in Bio-chemistry & Molecular Biology, Laura’s passion is recruiting.   We dig into why she’s loves recruiting and why she chose that path.  We follow her story as she finds her way through various jobs .. always learning.  Always growing.  She talks about those that helped her, inspired her.. and how by chance it finally all came together. There are many stories of Entrepreneurs.. of struggles and messy journeys.  It’s rarely a straight line.  But Laura’s story is inspiring.. she worked hard and is now proudly running her own business and doing what she loves.  We round off the episode talking about her thoughts and advice around building diverse teams.  Good stuff.. enjoy!

In this solo episode, I talk about the launch of my new WordPress product, Unified Email Capture.. that was happening the day after this recording!   And did launch by the way.  :-) This plugin is the first of a series of plugins we are launching that will eventually form what we call a ‘toolkit’. This toolkit is first and foremost going to be used in-house for our own sites and client projects; to build custom websites.  But while we’re at it, we’re making each component available to the public as a premium plugin. I talk about what got us here, the process and how our business as a whole benefits.   Why ‘this’ plugin?  How does it benefit our business and our future as an agency?  Buckle up.. this is a true to form episode from the trenches.  Enjoy!

In today’s episode, Bridget returns to share her business’s story with us.  We start by laying the groundwork..  and maybe getting a little distracted talking about social media (totally my fault, haha).  Then we’re taken on an intriguing journey .. how it started through what things look like today. Why did she leave her job?  What she doesn’t like about working for others..  The challenges of leaving a job and go out on your own.  What unique skillsets did she gain over the decades to help guide her to what she is doing today.  How did her peers play a role.  And how important was that!  (hint: very) The last 15 minutes or so we started talking on a topic we hope to continue someday.. we talked a bit about pricing and how to price yourself.  And why you shouldn’t price yourself too low!  But what if you need the work and need to take what you can get?  Bridget has you covered.. You..  well, tune in to find out!  Enjoy!

One of the goals of The Builders is to share stories to inspire the listener and learn from; real life stories from the trenches.  Being that pricing is such a critical component of so many businesses and agencies, this is a topic that we should visit from time to time. Building off of Episode 4, I share my personal pricing strategies and how it's evolved over the years.  What’s happened in the past year and a half since that episode?   How big of a role does recurring income play now in my business and why I think it's something everyone should consider. I round it off with a discussion about why ‘Hourly Billing’ is not always bad AND what my plans/goals are for the future.  Big goals..  balanced by a no stress approach.  Enjoy!

Today I’m joined by Ben Gabler.  Ben is the Founder & CEO of Rocket.net (a web hosting company).  As we do with all our guests, the first episode is always about the person and their journey.  So we dive into his backstory and how he fell in love with his craft. His family always operated businesses so it was natural for him to gravitate to building a business.  Uniquely, it was delivering pizzas where he really learned about the fundamentals of business.  From there he fell in love with tech through the lens of being able to communicate with anyone on the planet using the Internet. As years go by he found his way to HostGator, did some startups, ended at GoDaddy..  until we eventually land on where he is today and building his hosting business.  We finally talk about differentiation and what he thinks sets them apart in the marketplace.  And so much more.. enjoy!

Danielle’s back for a 3rd episode! In this one, we check in to see how her web development business is going and to talk WordPress shop. Of course, that’s how we started. Both of us are pretty passionate about WordPress so it’s natural for us to go there. 🙂 We talked about the current state of WordPress, blocks and full-site editing (FSE themes). I was happy to hear she is ready to build her first FSE theme! We also talked about how WordPress has changed, the eco-system, the different ways to build and how it’s gotten better. Danielle is happy we are leaving the stage of ‘what has changed’ to the ‘what are they adding’ stage of WordPress' evolution. After that we caught up on how her web development business is going. She talks about her new business name, why she calls the business a ‘studio’ and what new things she’s been offering for services. It was a lot fun catching up.. an interesting conversation. Especially for those that love WordPress. Enjoy!