Mastermind.fm

Earlier this month both James and Jean attended Pressnomics 2016 in Tempe, Arizona. We had a blast and took the opportunity to conduct a series of short interviews with attendees, asking them about their biggest takeaways from the event.

Here’s who we interviewed:

In this special episode we discuss our tips and tricks on how to get the most benefit out of your next conference.

We’re getting ready for Pressnomics and in preparation we’re dusting off our tried and true techniques for making stronger and more effective connections, where  and how to spend your time, and even something to do even before you start your travels.

Join us as we talk about where we’re at right now with our businesses. James talks about the new release of Ninja Forms (version 3) which includes a whole new interface. Jean talks about his new plugin EDD Bookings as well as some developments on WP Mayor. Later in the episode we talk about how we started with our businesses and what challenges we encountered in the early days.

This is a good episode if you want to understand what we do in our businesses and how we got here.

We start off this episode talking about our routines and workflows and end up mostly talking about the importance in leading a balanced life. A healthy lifestyle and regular exercise has helped both of us stay more focused and more generally happy and satisfied.

Jean talks about keeping up with routines while traveling while James talks about his struggles with changing routines and his plans to get back into running and regular training.

Finally we offer some tips about establishing healthy routines and breaking bad habits.

Making the transition from employee to business owner is neither easy nor fast in most cases. There are many things to learn but it’s a very rewarding journey.

In this episode we share some insights on how we made the transition from employees to freelancers to eventually team leaders. We share our struggles and also talk about the fact that being a business owner is not for everyone.

We touch on how to learn the skills needed to start and run a business and where to get assistance from. Finally we end with some thoughts on managing yourself, which can be one of the hardest things to do for those used to received instructions from above and being constantly monitored.

Nowadays a business cannot function properly without a good suite of support software. In this episode James and Jean share their software setup and the organizational tools that they use on a daily basis with the rest of their team.

We talk about internal communication tools like Slack, code and issue management software like Bitbucket and JIRA, customer facing applications like HelpScout and more.

The WordPress community has earned itself a very good reputation. There is a strong sense of ethical business, as well as a distinct openness and willingness to share. James and Jean talk about the importance of working within such a community when building a business.

We then talk about the different types of peer interaction, going through the list of conferences, meetups, online communities (Facebook and Slack) and how you can seek and join such groups.

We mention a few of our favorite conferences and also talk about our experience with masterminds, and share some tips on how to join or create a mastermind a group.

Finally we also spare a thought for those living in areas with little or no conference/meetup activity, and the alternatives that exist.

Time for some introductions; James and Jean introduce themselves, their businesses and talk about why they decided to start a new podcast.

We talk about the differences between our businesses (remote vs office-based) and also talk about what masterminds really are and why they are important to anyone in business (and not only).

Finally we talk about why we felt that there is a need for a new podcast in the WordPress space and who our target audience will be, setting the stage for the next episodes.