The Builders

Today I’m joined by Joe Matz. Over the last 30 years Joe has run and owned a variety of businesses. From restaurants to schools. But what’s most interesting is he’s done that in 3 different countries! He spent years in Italy (twice), years in Brazil and back here in the United States. One of his big strengths is going into business knowing literally nothing.. not even the language. He had to learn these languages on the fly! He’s taken all his knowledge and experience and now coaches people to help them start over and find their ‘thing’ that sets they apart. He’s a master at guiding people and creating a roadmap to find what they are uniquely suited for, they can differentiate themselves with and want to do. There’s gold in this episode.. Enjoy!!

Matt is joined by.. I mean, Doland is joined by Matt Levenhagen! What? Doland had this great idea to do a Sadie Hawkins episode.. but instead of the girls asking the boys to the dance, Doland turns the tables and interviews Matt about his business. It was a lot of fun! So we talk about how I ended up doing what I do. Why did I decide to start an agency? We talk a LOT about ‘truth’ in business. How sacred it is and how it’s shaped how I approach just about everything now. We dive into a variety of stories from my past that influences me today. We end the episode with Doland posing the question, “What pisses you off?” And then talk a little bit about how I’m developing the team and how I look at that. Good stuff! Hope you can join us for a listen!

Matt’s trying something brand new in this episode. He’s always been a big fan of follow alongs himself.. following along while someone or a business does ‘something’. Today you’ll listen in as he shares highlights from a week at his agency. Real calendar items, real projects.. what his team is working on. Follow along as he shares the type of meetings he has - how many meetings does he have on a weekly basis? What is Matt working on personally.. what is one of his big focuses each week? How’s that plugin development going? What type of client projects are they working on? Within that he extracts lessons and gives you insights into what they are doing or why they are doing what they are doing. This includes how they manage and prioritize everything daily. Join us and experience the excitement.. Enjoy!

Today Matt talks about identifying the pain points on a website and solving them. Matt is the founder of a web design agency and their whole job is to help a client identify and solve these issues. After defining what pain points are in this context, he provides 7 examples for real world projects he’s been involved with. Sometimes a problem stems from how a site was coded or designed. Sometimes it’s related to how something specific functions on the site. Other times it could be an issue with a form not converting enough leads or a site constantly crashing or being hacked. Whatever the case, there’s always a solution or roadmap that can be created to improve the situation. Whether you are a business or an agency/freelancer, this is a valuable episode.. the insights and experience shared may help you avoid some of these issues or at least know what that roadmap could look like to move you into a better place. Enjoy!

In this solo episode Matt takes you through his design process.  Besides doing web development, website maintenance and custom coding work, they design websites!  And wouldn’t it be amazing to pull back the curtain a bit and see how they take a clients vision, how they work with a client and translate that to a design mockup?  Which in turn can be translated to code? It all starts with receiving the requirements, talking with the client, discovery and research.  You will see what influences his design decisions.  Matt highlights some of the key elements that he pays attention to when doing the actual design work.  He talks about the structure, layout, imagery, colors, brand and typography. This episode will give you great insights into what it’s like for the client and how a design process is implemented.. while maintaining flexibility.  It’s a great, broad overview of the process.  Enjoy!

Today I’m joined by Nathan S. Bryan, PhD.  Dr. Bryan is an international leader in molecular medicine and nitric oxide biochemistry. He has been involved in nitric oxide research for the past 18+ years and has made many seminal discoveries in the field. These discoveries and findings have transformed the development of safe and effective functional bioactive natural products in the treatment and prevention of human disease and may provide the basis for new preventive or therapeutic. Now, of course, this is a business podcast.  And we definitely get some unique insights into what it’s like to transition from being full-time in academia to starting a business and developing products (today he runs his businesses full-time).  What was that journey like?  What were some big lessons? It was a real pleasure learning more about him and his mission.  After talking with him I have no doubt he’s going to change the world with his discoveries and products!  Inspiring.. and important work.  Enjoy!

In this episode Matt updates the builders crew about his own business. Besides this podcast, his primary business is running a web design agency and is on a track to launch a new product later this year. A lot of what Matt does revolves around WordPress. He’s been building sites since ~2004 with WordPress and has specialized in WordPress development since 2012. While discussing the state of Unified Web Design, Unified Toolkit and The Builders, he could hear some of the questions out there. If you’re running a busy agency (or any successful business), how on earth do you fine the time and manage building something net new? Well, in true to ‘from the trenches’ fashion, he describes how he’s doing it uniquely. Agency First thinking.. setting clear objectives and goals, all hands on deck with his team and incrementally moving towards a single vision. For starters.. dive in to get a glimpse of how this happens in the real world. Enjoy!

Today I’m joined by Geoff Chan.  He is the found of a digital agency called StackFive.  It’s a great conversation about his journey to becoming a web developer.  We share our stories about how our Father’s influenced us along with others. “Getting in the reps”.  One of the key ways he gets better at something is to set a goal to do 'x' number of projects and then back filling that with other methods to learn how to do something. Geoff and I took a similar path to learning that included learning ‘by doing’ projects and learning from others.  I worked with people that helped me become a better developer; he did the same.  He learned by being part of teams and finding smart people.. and asking lots of questions.  Even dumb ones. We end with what he’s doing today.  He now runs a successful agency along with a partner and has built a 5 person team.  It’s an inspiring episode!  Especially for those that are building a career or business in tech.  Enjoy!

In this episode we are joined by Brian Bauer.  He is the founder of a CRO Agency called Bauer Entertainment Marketing.  We first talk talk about his journey from becoming a 3rd generation drummer in his household, his work on in radio, becoming a member of a touring band and landing in Nashville where he eventually takes all that experience in the entertainment industry and builds an agency to help others. One of my favorite parts of the conversation is how his team and agency responded to the pandemic.  How they maintained their momentum and grew over 300% since.  We talk about how he survived, what he did for his clients and we identified some key traits for those that kept their businesses open. From there we talk about story.. after our initial conversation I really wanted to highlight how he took his story and love for entertainment and baked that into his brand story.  Then we land on another thing he’s passionate about - conversions.  He shares some key insights into how a business can incrementally improve their conversion rates and how we can adapt to an environment where ads become more expensive and more difficult to target.  Good stuff!  Enjoy!

In this episode, Matt’s joined by Ilisa Millermoon.  Ilisa is an “Intuitive Energy Artist” working in Acrylic Ink and Gouache.  But through this conversation there’s so much more that she does.. the art is a means to an end – it is a ‘tool for healing’.   It’s interwoven into more services and the content she creates for her ‘tribe’. We talk about her journey to becoming an artist; from years working as a goldsmith, in management to making the leap and becoming a full-time self-employed artist.  What did that transition look like?  She shares some amazing advice and insights into becoming your authentic self and creating a business that attracts ‘your people’. I was really interested in how she wove 'story' into her artwork and how she sells her art.  We visit that and how she personally looks at marketing.  What does she focus on the most?  Does she use any of the traditional methods we come to think about when promoting our products and services online?  A lot of gold from the former goldsmith in this one.  Enjoy!