In today's episode, we're reeling in another throwback episode, Joe's interview with Leah Knobler of Help Scout - a support tool and customer service platform used by customer-centric organizations around the world, from small businesses to high-growth startups and nonprofits.

Leah gives us several actionable nuggets about hiring, scaling, managing, and growing a remote team, a detailed overview of Help Scout's recruitment process, and diversifying a team of skills and talent.

Episode Resources:

• Help Scout
• Leah Knobler is on Twitter and LinkedIn
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Send questions to [email protected] for the next Q&A pod
• Visit the WPMRR website

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:37 Welcome to the pod, Leah!
• 05:57 Help Desk Software is the main tool
• 07:17 Company growth from 24 people to 90 remote employees
• 12:38 Donut, Slack's teammate connection app
• 15:25 The evolution of Help Scout's recruitment process
• 23:07 From application screening to proposing an offer
• 25:31 Remote companies need to be transparent in all aspects
• 28:59 Excellent people need excellent pay
• 33:23 How to make sure you're hiring from a diverse set of background
• 43:04 What can small companies do to start recruiting diverse candidates
• 47:31 Find Leah online!

In today's episode, let's listen again to Joe's conversation with Nathan Hirsch, the co-founder of FreeUp - a solution platform to finding & hiring pre-vetted freelancers online, only allowing the top 1% into the network out of hundreds of freelancer applicants every week.

Nathan talks about how he co-founded a solution platform that caters to businesses in need of skilled freelancers to help business owners with website design and development, graphic design, sales and marketing, social media, and web content. He also shares how referrals reign in new clients, screening the best freelancers, and the challenges of remote work.

Episode Resources:

• FreeUp
• FreeUp is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter
• Outsourcing Masters Facebook Group
• Nathan Hirsch is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Send questions to [email protected] for the next Q&A pod
• Visit the WPMRR website

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:53 Welcome to the pod, Nathan!
• 02:11 Started with selling books
• 03:30 At 20 years old, Nathan started his e-commerce business
• 05:21 Recruitment through referrals brought in more clients
• 06:34 Freelancers aren't exclusive with Freeup
• 10:03 Is the Top 1% the basis for hiring freelancers?
• 14:00 Big mistakes from people who fail to hire the right freelancers
• 17:11 Client contracts can go as an Hourly or Fixed Price project
• 20:50 Finding a technical co-founder if you aren't a technical person
• 24:26 To be a good business partner you can never say, "I told you so."
• 27:24 FreeUp is a platform for remote work
• 30:17 How to find the best remote workers
• 33:00 Find Nathan online!

In today's episode, we bring back Joe's conversation with Jennifer Bourn, a designer for twenty years, an agency owner for thirteen years, and a blogger for ten years. She is founding partner at Bourn Creative, a full service design and development company that specializes in purpose-driven design and everything WordPress.

Jennifer talks about her 13-year journey founding and managing an agency that helps new businesses improve their website, drive traffic, and generate leads; and her plans to gradually shift to content services. Her agency also offers online courses and classes for new entrepreneurs.

Episode Resources:

• Jennifer Bourn's Website
• Profitable Project Plan
• Inspired Imperfection
• Jennifer is on Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress.org
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Send questions to [email protected] for the next Q&A pod
• Visit the WPMRR website

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:46 Welcome to the pod, Jennifer!
• 01:49 When you start a company, nobody gives you business training
• 05:21 Profitable Project Plan: Video courses for new entrepreneurs
• 07:31 Everybody taking the class at the same place with similar questions
• 11:10 Courses had started as side revenue stream
• 15:06 Focusing on monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
• 17:49 Next course: Lucrative Leads
• 19:42 The biggest challenges in finding leads
• 24:13 Gradually shifting to content services and copywriting
• 28:34 You have to advance your skills if you want to continue running an agency
• 36:51 Running an agency while raising kids
• 40:39 Find Jennifer online

In today's episode, Joe talks to Melanie Phung, Owner and Principal Consultant at Orange Spark Digital - a boutique consulting practice to help organizations achieve greater visibility and success online. Services offered include website strategy service, search engine optimization, content strategy, and web analytics.

Melanie shares how she manages her boutique SEO agency, getting clients setup to have better performing websites in SERPs, formulating objectives and tactics to grow leads and conversion, mastering a referral system that works, and things to look out for when redesigning a website.

Episode Resources:

• Guide: Critical SEO Mistakes to Avoid When Relaunching Your Site
• Orange Spark Digital
• Melanie Phung's Twitter
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Send questions to [email protected] for the next Q&A pod
• Visit the WPMRR website

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:04 Welcome to the pod, Melanie!
• 01:57 Strategy is defining objectives and tactics
• 03:31 Boutique agency: the flexibility to bring in virtual team depending on project needs
• 07:33 2021 SEO trends
• 10:35 People want quick fixes, but learning to prioritize is a must
• 13:09 Focus on fixing the things that could cost a lot to fix
• 15:23 Technical foundation fixes and building an SEO culture
• 19:35 Building a website from a technical standpoint to be more SEO friendly
• 23:01 It's about consulting and collaboration
• 25:05 Main resources to attract new clients
• 27:25 What's the best referral model?
• 32:13 Things to look out for when rebuilding or redesigning a website
• 36:55 Content length versus content performance

In today's episode, Joe talks to Kim Coleman, the co-founder of Paid Memberships Pro - the most complete WordPress membership plugin. She has her hand in all aspects of the development, management, and marketing for the product and the team. She oversees frontend development for the core open source plugin and over 75 Add Ons.

They discuss the value of MVP in growing a business, catering to customer needs, and building and testing new features through the community. They also touch on the importance of formulating the right content for branding, and membership pricing and discount schemes.

Episode Resources:

• Paid Memberships Pro
• Paid Memberships Pro WordPress.org
• Kim Coleman's Twitter
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Send questions to [email protected] for the next Q&A pod
• Visit the WPMRR website

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:46 Welcome to the pod, Kim!
• 04:12 What has changed over the years?
• 07:02 The biggest concerns are the desire for the developers to refactor some features
• 11:11 MVP on the site's current workload and paid memberships
• 13:55 Deciding between adding as a core part of the plugin or an add-on plugin
• 17:32 Limiting what the plugin is responsible for in WordPress
• 22:46 The struggle to get content from your customer when building a site
• 27:51 Allowing the community to test newly built products and features
• 30:07 Pricing: during product launch and how it evolved over the years
• 37:32 Turning experiments into blog content and knowledge share
• 40:43 People buy because of urgent technological issues they cannot solve on their own
• 42:31 Running a company and the family together with your partner
• 45:37 Homeschooling kids during the pandemic
• 49:13 Find Kim online!

In today's episode, Joe talks to Marc Benzakein, the Operations Manager at ServerPress LLC - a software services company that provides workflow tools for WordPress Developers and Designers. His experience ranges from network administration to software development to upper level management in both Internet Service Providers as well as Software and Services Development.

They discuss how capitalism opens opportunities for young startup founders, the financial pressure on Gen Z and how it deflates their passion for success, and the best work practices to avoid burnout.

Episode Resources:

• ServerPress LLC
• Marc Benzakein is on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
• WP Site Sync
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Send questions to [email protected] for the next Q&A pod
• Visit the WPMRR website

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:40 Welcome to the pod, Marc!
• 05:20 ServerPress LLC is celebrating its 7th year!
• 08:44 Starting the business small and serving the first few customers
• 13:22 Business owners should allow people to micromanage
• 18:57 Work smart not hard to avoid burnout
• 22:57 WordPress has a sense of community
• 25:21 Scalable way to grow the company and its community
• 26:50 Financial pressures suck the passion out from the younger generation
• 30:03 How capitalism favors startup founders
• 34:40 Find Marc online!

In today's episode, Joe talks to Chris Klosowski, the Director Of Technology at Sandhills Development, LLC. He joined Sandhills as a lead developer in 2015, and before that, he was a software developer at GoDaddy.com.

Chris shares his journey on leadership coaching and acquiring professional knowledge to help keep his team moving. Also, they talk about how business changes put pressure on a team of individuals with varying working habits.

Episode Resources:

• Chris Klosowski on Twitter
• Sandhills Development, LLC
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Send questions to [email protected] for the next Q&A pod
• Visit the WPMRR website

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:20 Welcome to the pod, Chris!
• 05:39 Technical management side of web developing
• 11:08 Benefits of working with a leadership coach
• 16:29 Tips to help yourself stay sane while the business is growing
• 20:07 Changes puts an emotional toll on any team
• 26:01 Uniting a team of individuals with different working habits
• 27:55 Getting business insights from books and podcasts
• 34:17 Future personal plans and ongoing projects at Sandhills
• 36:22 Find Chris online

In today's episode, Joe talks to Eithan Abramovich of Highly Analytics, a Medium-style tooltip made for content creators to help understanding maximize how your passive readers interact with your content. Eithan shares the ideas behind creating the plugin, features users can use in the free version, and offering premium in the future to help boost monthly recurring revenue.

Episode Resources:

• Highly Analytics
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Eithan Abramovich on Twitter
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Send questions to [email protected] for the next Q&A pod
• Visit the WPMRR website

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 03:09 Welcome to the pod, Eithan!
• 03:52 How Highly Analytics works
• 08:23 Building the plugin in a college dorm
• 11:47 Enrolling in a less taken class before it got popular
• 13:36 What's the future for Highly Analytics?
• 14:59 Features included in the free version
• 20:48 Any new features coming out?
• 23:14 Building a premium plugin that people will pay for
• 27:29 Goals set by the Highly Analytics team
• 30:37 Plans to continuously grow MRR
• 32:05 Work plans after graduation
• 33:41 Find Eithan online!

In today's episode, Joe talks to Pippin Williamson, the Managing Director at Sandhills Development, LLC - the home to several WP plugins such as AffiliateWP, Easy Digital Downloads, and WP Simple Pay. He's also the man behind Sandhills Brewing, a microbrewery that focuses on oak-aged and oak-fermented beers.

Pippin retells his day-to-day hustle in running two companies in entirely different industries, running his microbrewery and leading a team of web engineers. He also talks about success in affiliate marketing, implementing processes, and hiring skilled people that need less supervision.

Episode Resources:

• Sandhills Brewing
• Sandhills Development
• AffiliateWP
• Payout Service
• Easy Digital Downloads
• WP Simple Pay
• Sugar Calendar
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Send questions to [email protected] for the next Q&A pod
• Visit the WPMRR website

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:40 Welcome to the pod, Pippin!
• 03:17 Have you heard about Sandhills Brewing?
• 06:09 Why build a brewing company?
• 11:27 Time management while running two companies
• 18:14 Role change and working as a CEO
• 23:00 Delegating jobs and handing off tasks
• 27:32 The importance of implementing processes
• 31:20 Latest developments at Sandhills
• 34:07 Any new big features for affiliate marketers?
• 35:37 How does the Payouts Service work?
• 40:37 Ensuring that you'll have a successful affiliate program
• 44:25 The billing structure has to make sense for the customers
• 47:50 Find Pippin online!

In today's episode, Joe talks to Matt Mullenweg, one of the founding developers of WordPress and the Founder and CEO of Automattic - a distribution company committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion with the goal to democratize publishing and commerce.

Matt talks about the systematic approach of Automattic, WordPress, and the rest of the Automattic web brands, as well as scaling and hiring skilled engineers, and the upside and downside of content distribution on different social platforms.

Episode Resources:

• Check out Woocommerce and Jetpack
• Matt's Website
• Matt is also on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and WordPress.org
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Send questions to [email protected] for the next Q&A pod
• Visit the WPMRR website

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:51 Welcome to the pod, Matt!
• 03:09 How does Automattic work?
• 04:08 Get to know QuickForget - a tool designed to assist in sending sensitive information through email
• 07:17 WordPress VIP on upscaling and continuous business growth
• 09:32 Is there a cross collaboration between WordPress and Automattic?
• 11:48 Finding good engineers is still challenging
• 15:14 Four immutable aspects we can look for in new hires
• 17:30 What separates Automattic from WordPress
• 18:47 WordPress and Automattic remain a platform that enables
• 20:55 Should platforms take responsibility for all content published on their site?
• 26:04 Preventing negativity and the spread of misinformation and fake news
• 33:13 Trustworthy and reliable institutions are necessary in our society
• 34:50 The conflict between Wix and WordPress