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Rachel Winchester is challenging us to think about WordPress as a canvas for art.

WordPress as a paint brush, not an NFT.

In this episode we uncover how she found WordPress and bringing those skills to her day job at DigitalCube. As a loyal Elementor builder, what does Rachel think about Gutenberg and FSE? Tune in to find out!

Find Rachel on Twitter https://twitter.com/VisualWebmaster

Rachel's Website https://www.visualwebmaster.com/

DigitalCube https://en.digitalcube.jp/

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✨ Thanks to InMotion for supporting the show. Check out my InMotion deal here: https://mattreport.com/inmotion

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The most common piece of advice I think WordPress freelancers receive first is to "find your niche."

Easier said than done. Niches are still hard to find. Crowded markets together with figuring out what you're best at providing to customers can be a challenge.

What if that niche involves web sustainability? That's not a crowded space -- right now.

You, a developer, literally saving the planet by coding efficient web applications and optimizing WordPress?! Sounds like a great opportunity to me!

That is just a slice of what Hannah Smith does for her clients at https://opcan.co.uk/. Learn about that and more in today's episode with Hanna Smith!

If you enjoyed this episode, consider supporting the show by buying us a virtual coffee or joining the membership.

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Today's guest, Ines van Dijk, is helping WordPress product owners get better at customer support.

With over a decade of experience in the WordPress customer support space with WooCommerce and Automattic, Ines knows what it takes to run a successful support team.

You can hire her team to help build you a complete plan for supporting users or download some ready-made templates for responding to customers.

If you enjoy today's episode please share it on social media and consider supporting the show by buying us a digital coffee.

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There's an entire industry built on selling you the Holy Grail of raising your rates.

Courses, memberships, ebooks, videos all assuring you that $10,000 projects are just a click away. Why wouldn't you believe them? They're on the gram throwing hundred dollar bills off a boat or speeding away in a Lambo.

To be fair, I haven't seen a Lambo video in some time, but the one that gets me the most now is holding up an iPhone in selfie mode with AirPods and a cleverly placed whiteboard in the background.

How about grit and persistence? Patience and confidence? How about going through the paces enough to uncover your self-worth and simply raising your rates.

That's exactly what Chima Mmeje of Zenithcopy did…plus a whole lot more.

I read her blog post, The Year I Learned Audacity and instantly DM'd her to ask if she'd be willing to share her story here.

Luckily for you and I -- she said yes.

If you enjoy today's episode please share it on social media and support the show by buying me a digital coffee for as little as $5 or whatever you think the show is worth at buymeacoffee.com/mattreport

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There's a new cohort of WordPress celebrity hitting the spotlight these days and I'm here for it.

When we look back in the Gutenberg history books we'll be able to show that blocks, patterns, and javascript not only rocked the code of the project, but the community as well.

Some immediately dropped out, other stayed, and new stars appeared. Born out of the ashes of WordPress old, rising like a Phoenix came our new celebrity (hero?): Aurooba Ahmed!

Okay, okay, I know I'm going really heavy with that one.

She doesn't consider herself a WordPress celebrity and prefers her collection of plugins and developer chops speak more than her Twitter space or podcast appearances. Today we'll learn how new stars handle their fame, build plugins, host + appear on podcasts, and balance a day job.

If you enjoy today's show please share it on social media and consider supporting us by buying a digital coffee at buymeacoffee.com/mattreport

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What does the word entrepreneur mean anymore? To you?

I think there’s that slightly jaded view of the TechCrunch Disrupt vision of days gone by. Building a unicorn. Changing the world. Buying that Porsche you always wanted. It’s about the endgame we so cleverly convince ourselves of.

However, some of the best business builders are doing it because they are naive. Wait. Naive? Hold that thought: not in a bad way, but in the way I am guilty of and maybe even you are too.

We set out not knowing that the roller coaster ride is going to tip us upside down, spin us in a 360, and do it at speeds in excess of 100mph. If we thought the ride was going to be anything but gentle…maybe we would have never bought that ticket.

Entrepreneurs are both lucky and crazy.

Joe Howard founded WP Buffs and grew it to a point where it just wasn’t for him anymore. He put a CEO in place, retains majority ownership, and he barely thinks about it.

He’s off building another product called Drifly and blogging at https://blog.driftly.app

This might have been my favorite interview ever. Let me know what you think by sharing on social media or buying me a digital coffee at buymeacoffee.com/mattreport

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From Expression Engine to WordPress, Rob Howard has built his WordPress agency as a flagship for larger agencies to source work to.

Unqualified customers are the biggest threat to the early days of building a business. Also known as bad product fit, when we're offering something to the wrong customer, the whole relationship is setting off on the wrong foot.

When you're offering your WordPress work to a customer that already gets it, in this case, other agencies, so much more can go right rather than wrong.

We'll explore building an agency, hiring, and we'll throw in purchasing MasterWP for good measure.

If you love the show please subscribe at mattreport.com/subscribe and consider buying me a virtual coffee or joining the membership at buymeacoffee.com/mattreport

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What's the side effect from WordPress changing so rapidly?

We're dragging blocks, inserting patterns, and visually building our themes these days. There's been great discussion spurred around themes, where Matt Mullenweg

What's the side effect from WordPress changing so rapidly?

We're dragging blocks, inserting patterns, and visually building our themes these days. There's been great discussion spurred around themes, where Matt Mullenweg wants 5,000 new themes in the directory while WP Minute Producers like Daniel Schutzsmith and Spencer Forman say we only need one.

Even if we split the difference and built 2,500 new themes…who's going to build it?

Not only is the code changing, but so are the people writing it all. This is the shift we're quietly seeing happen in the background. So what is a WordPress business owner to do? Find great WordPress developers or train up a willing engineer?

Mayank Gupta joins us today to talk about his strategy to growing a WordPress team for his day job over at PerforMedia.

He has strong opinions on educating and inspiring an individual -- possibly ignoring the typical WP rock star.

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When you hear the phrase high performance WordPress websites, what examples come to mind?

This is a phrase that I see a lot of companies using in their marketing, which includes Malcare, today’s guest and sponsor of this show.

Products and services targeting the type of buyer that might be managing a high traffic site like a Buzzfeed or a large WooCommerce store, like, well I can’t think of one right now. High traffic or highly functional equals high performance?

My vote goes to high value.

I know it’s not as appealing in the marketing world, but there are lots of website owners that value their site’s speed and security that aren’t pushing millions or even 10’s of thousands of page views a month.

And that’s what Akshat Choudhary and team are building at Malcare and Blogvault. The catch? Protecting valuable high performance WordPress websites so easily, you don’t even have to think about about it.

Enjoy the show today, please share it on social media, and if you want to support my efforts here consider buying me a virtual coffee or joining the membership.