I’ve Made a Decision to Start Blogging About My Business Ventures

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Hi all, Adam here.

This entry will serve as the first of many with a more personal focus on this site. It will contain content surrounding my business building efforts as we continue to grow.

My overall business focus at this time is WP Pro Business and the path it needs to take to meet my goals. Another project front and center right now is FooBox and nurturing the partnership there to insure success for all and to continue to lay the foundation for the said goals above.

Brian Krogsgard Inspired Me…

I read two articles today by Brian Krogsgard. They certainly weren’t the first blog posts I’ve read of his, but these two kinda brought this into line for me. I’ve been so busy juggling all the recent changes in my life…going full-time with the business, my wife giving birth to our first baby boy (proud father), and all the other important things that I want to spend time with (I love you honey;).

Brian talks about making his WordPress theme here:
http://krogsgard.com/

Brian’s advice about attending WordCamps here: (something you should be doing if you’re reading this)
http://wpcandy.com/thinks/making-the-most-out-of-wordcamp

After reading Brian’s posts, it was the honest and direct writing that inspired me most.  I relate that intimately with how I make decisions about the business and have been struggling with having few people to discuss business plans with one-on-one. I am now trying to do that more with a couple team members, but I wanted to put it out here in the hope that other like me in the WordPress and business community could chime in every now and then with their feedback, advice, or advice requests to ask how I am doing something in particular.

I’m happy to share what’s working and what isn’t.

What Are My Goals?

Glad you asked.

Two main goals:

  1. To organize my thoughts somewhere “verbally”.
  2. To assist other entrepreneurial types in the WordPress world (or any digital product or online business) by showing them some real, pure, content. No marketing angles here.

Here’s some more goals in no real order. They’re in order in my head (mostly) but some things are dependent on others and sometimes that changes from day to day. If you work on the web with a remote team or your own clients. you know exactly what I mean. Not inherently bad, just the nature of the beast.

Some more goals:

  • Continue building partnerships
  • Offer more money to current paid team members. Start paying our currently unpaid team members
  • Refine the WP Pro Business business paths and bring in more team members as we can for each part of the business
  • Offer more of a management role to current teams members. This will likely come hand-in-hand with the ability to increase pay of course;) I need to “let go” of things people are good at. Hard to do when you’ve been doing everything alone for so long even when people working with you are the bees-knees.
  • and probably some more I’m sure…

What’s Next?

Well, since FooBox is the most exciting thing to happen since Microsoft moved to WordPress, probably it. If you haven’t been following along, FooBox is a WordPress plugin release that I have been working on for at least a couple of months with Brad Vincent of Themergency fame. Brad has some very popular plugins being utilized by WordPress users…a lot of them.

Our skills have complimented each other very well so far with this project and I expect that will continue. I have a vision and so does he. The lucky thing is that our visions pretty match regarding WordPress and the spirit thereof in regard to building a sustainable business model.

You will be seeing a lot from us in the coming months, and Foobox is the beginning.

If you would be so kind, please feel free to leave a comment below to let me know you’re reading.

Filed Under: Business Blog

FooPlugins Launch Experience

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In my last post I talked about the process of setting up a legal business. That business is FooPlugins.com and has been launched. I wanted to write today to share how the launch went and what to expect next from us.

FooPlugins.com - WordPress and jQuery Plugins

FooPlugins.com – WordPress and jQuery Plugins

I’ve said it before, but I want to reiterate. Without you and my amazing business partner, I would not have been able to learn, build, and launch this WordPress plugin business. One step has led to another in the past few years and I’m living proof that taking action (rather than waiting to create the perfect plan) is a critical step in creating your own success.

Now, I’m not saying I haven’t had failures along the way. Far from it. I’ve stumbled with my products, I’ve missed some critical customer service issues, I’ve gotten depressed with the time it has taken to move forward. Failure is perhaps not the right word to use.

Every time I think I’ve “failed”, it was actually an important step in learning about building my business. I’ve been fortunate enough to turn those into positives and because of that, I give myself the will to keep moving forward.

You can do the same, and I hope you are.

Anyway, enough of my motivational speech…I’m no Tony Robbins;)

The Launch

I’d like to talk about FooPlugins.com for a moment and give you an idea of how we launched and where we’re at after 10 days of being “live”.

You may be familiar with the normal Internet Marketing launch process. You get a series of emails letting you know something awesome is launching soon. This builds awareness sure, but mostly it’s to build anticipation for both potential customers and affiliates.

We didn’t really do that, not in the standard Internet Marketing way at least. Sure, we had a splash page with an email opt-in allowing people to get on the notification list, but we didn’t try to drum up affiliates to help us with our launch. It just wasn’t the business model we were after. We do have an affiliate program and will be announcing more details more widely soon.

As you probably know (at least I feel like I say it a lot), I am a huge proponent of WordPress and of getting involved with the large community around it to share advice and knowledge. Because I’m so engrained in the community we decided to launch our business and brand at a WordCamp.

WordCamp Miami - FooPlugins

WordCamp Miami – FooPlugins

If you’re not familiar with WordCamps, I would highly suggest you find one near you and attend or volunteer. Not only are they great for gaining knowledge, but also for networking with other users of all types…developers, designers, bloggers, social media managers, and the list goes on.

These are the people we wanted to know about FooPlugins.com first. A very targeted market. Everyone at a WordCamp has at least heard of WordPress, and most already utilize it and know what plugins are. Most WordCampers are also very social…and this was our focus…for a few reasons.

Successes

We guessed that anyone getting a t-shirt, sticker, or otherwise learning of FooPlugins.com would be likely to share our links. And that happened. A lot. So I consider that a success.

FooPlugins Visitor Increase

FooPlugins Visitor Increase

In addition to the social numbers, we are seeing a steady stream of visits to our site. That’s a good thing. However, the number of conversions (or downloads of both free and paid plugins) is lacking when compared to our number of visitors.

Failures Improvements to Make

We think we have a pretty good idea of why those conversions mentioned above are lacking, and we have been working hard to prioritize our todo list in order to improve quickly. Here’s a short list:

  • Number of plugins and variety – We launched with eight plugins. Four WordPress and four jQuery. Of those eight, only four are paid plugins. My gut tells me we could have made a bigger splash with a larger and more varied product offering. It’s not that we don’t have additional plugins already in development. We do. Over a dozen of them at last count. The reason they weren’t included in the launch was because we weren’t confident in releasing them without being properly tested.
  • Offsite plugin purchases – Two of our plugins are on CodeCanyon and one is on it’s own domain. As you might imagine, this is confusing for visitors and although there have been several downloads of these, we received immediate support tickets asking why. These plugins existed offsite before FooPlugins was even an idea, and merging these fully into FooPlugins is our top priority. It’s a slippery slope as we also have to account for existing affiliates and customer accounts to make sure the migration is as seamless as possible for our users.

Of course there is a lot more to gaining traction other than the two points above. We’ve started the marketing and community outreach machine and if we do things right, you’ll be hearing a lot more about FooPlugins very soon.

What’s Next?

We have a lot of moving parts all needing to happen at the same time and the two tasks above are the highest priorities right now. However, we do have some other very exciting things planned for the FooPlugins marketplace. I can’t share too much at the moment (or just did I?) but we aim to be first to come to market with something really cool in the WordPress and jQuery plugin community. Right now, these are code named “Phase 2″ and “Phase 3″. How original eh? :)

Do You Like What We’re Doing?

If you think what we’re doing with FooPlugins is cool, we’d love it if you could help us spread the word about our existence. Simply choose your favorite social network and share the FooPlugins.com link, or feel free to contact us through our site to learn more about what we have planned.

Filed Under: Business Blog, WordPress Tagged With:

Creating the Legalities of a WordPress Business

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In the process of setting up a legal entity for our upcoming business launch, I reached out to several people seeking advice on how best to create our business structure. I’m really grateful for the willingness of everyone to share their knowledge and experience.

This will be the first in a series of posts. Here’s a few things I’ve learned so far…

The K.I.S.S. Method

With all the opinions I was getting from existing business owners, financial managers, tax attorneys, etc., I started to get dragged into the rabbit hole of too much research and no action. After all, we do have a rather aggressive launch date.

Keep It Simple Stupid

Keep It Simple Stupid

Don’t Make It Harder Than It Is

I was hoping that I could just find a simple list, in order, of the steps I needed to take. As you might imagine, this is a difficult thing to do when you start adding in all the specifics of our business needs, state and local laws, taxes (as they relate to digital goods) and the fact that my partner and I reside in different countries.

That said, there are a few steps I’d like to share here in the hope that it will help someone providing WordPress-centric products or services get their business set up and save them some time.

Decide on Your Business Structure

The first thing to do is decide on your business formation structure. There are several choices including Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, Corporations, S Corporations, and a Limited Liability Company (LLC). See the IRS.gov page which describes the differences between these business types.

We decided to create an LLC and here is the step-by-step list I found that helped us.

Steps to Creating an LLC (in Florida)

The list below can be found on Nolo.com here. This list is also specific to the State of Florida. To view the steps for other states, have a look at How to Form an LLC.

1. Choose a Name for Your LLC

Under Florida law, an LLC name must contain the words “Limited Company” or “Limited Liability Company,” or the abbreviations “L.C.” or “L.L.C.” The word “Limited” can be shortened to “Ltd.” and “Company” may be abbreviated as “Co.”

Your LLC’s name must be recognizably different from the names of other business entities already on file with the Florida Division of Corporations. Names may be checked for availability by searching the Division of Corporations business name database. You may not reserve a name before organizing your LLC.

2.  File Articles of Organization

A Florida LLC is created by filing Articles of Organization with the Florida Division of Corporations.

The articles must include: the LLC’s name and address; the name, address, and signature of the LLC’s registered agent; the names and addresses of the LLC’s managers; the effective date of the LLC (if other than date of filing).

The filing fee is $125. The articles may be filed online or by mail.

3. Appoint a Registered Agent

Every Florida LLC must have an agent for service of process in the state. This is an individual or business entity that agrees to accept legal papers on the LLC’s behalf if it is sued. A registered agent may be either an individual resident or business entity that is authorized to do business in Florida. The registered agent must have a physical street address in Florida.

4. Prepare an Operating Agreement

An LLC operating agreement is not required in Florida, but is highly advisable. For help creating an LLC operating agreement, see Form Your Own Limited Liability Company, by Anthony Mancuso (Nolo) or use Nolo’s Online LLC. If an operating agreement is created, it need not be filed with the Articles of Organization.

5. Publication Requirements

None.

6. Comply With Other Tax and Regulatory Requirements

Additional tax and regulatory requirements may apply to your LLC. These may include:

EIN: If your LLC has more than one member, it must obtain its own IRS Employer Identification Number (EIN),  even if it has no employees. If you form a one-member LLC, you must obtain an EIN for it only if you elect to have it taxed as a corporation instead of a sole proprietorship (disregarded entity). You may obtain an EIN by completing an online application on the IRS website. There is no filing fee.

Business Licenses: Depending on its type of business and where it is located, your LLC may need to obtain other local and state business licenses.

7. File Annual Reports

All Florida LLCs must file an Annual Report yearly to maintain “active” status. The first report is due in the year following formation. The report must be filed online at www.sunbiz.org between January 1st and May 1st. The fee for the annual report is $138.75. After May 1st, a $400 late fee is added to the annual report filing fee. “Annual Report Reminder Notices” are sent to the LLC’s email address you provide when you submit this document for filing.

8. Foreign LLCs Doing Business in Florida

All LLCs organized outside of Florida must register with the Florida Secretary of State to do business in Florida. Foreign LLCs must appoint a registered agent for service of process physically located in Florida. To register, file an Application By Foreign Limited Liability Company For Authorization To Transact Business In Florida with the Florida Department of State Division of Corporations. The completed application must be accompanied by a Certificate of Existence from the foreign LLC’s home state, dated no more than 90 days prior to the filing of the certificate.

The filing fee is $125.

Before filing, make sure the LLC’s name is available in Florida by checking the Florida Division of Corporations business name database. If the name is not available, the foreign LLC must adopt an alternate name for use in Florida and submit a signed copy of the consent or resolution of its managers or managing members adopting the alternate name.

What’s Next?

There are several other steps involved in creating and launching our business, and I’ll be writing about those in the coming weeks. If you’d like to stay tuned, please use the email subscription form on the upper right of this page.

Filed Under: Business Blog, WordPress

Oh yeah, and the P is capitalized.

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The title of this post was the last sentence included on the WordCamp San Diego speaker submission page. It struck a cord with me and here’s why.

wordpress-logo-capital-p-arrow

What It Means (if you don’t know)

WordPress is spelled with a capital “P”. It’s not Wordpress, or wordpress, or Word Press. It’s WordPress. I assume that sentence was included on the speakers page as a way of saying “If you intend to speak at this WordCamp, you better know the software you’re talking about.”

Filtering the Posers

Perhaps I’m aging myself a bit, but in my day (did I just say that?), if someone is trying to show their knowledge of something and gets the basics wrong, they would be labeled as a “poser”. Yes, I was an 80′s skate punk;)

If I see anyone misspelling WordPress, my first thoughts are:

  • It was a typo
  • Perhaps it’s a cultural and language issue
  • They really don’t know much about the software

Mostly though, I tend to immediately dismiss that person or content until I investigate further (you know, to make a proper judgement).

The Capital P Function

This issue came up three years ago, with function included in WordPress 3.0 in 2010 and actually caused a bit of a stir in the community. Why? You can read more about the hubbub on Justin Tadlock’s article here.

I had to include the Remove Wordpress to WordPress filter plugin in order to even write this post properly.

Purity of the WordPress Community

Again, I took the inclusion of that sentence on the speaker submission as a message to would-be WordCamp speakers that you better know the software, and be there to help the attendees and not to (just) promote your product or business.

What do you think? Are there situations where where the improper capitalization of WordPress is warranted?

Filed Under: Business Blog, WordPress

The Startup Business Juggling Act

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Starting a business is hard. Rule #1. Keep a firm grip on your balls.

How to Start a Business

Starting a Business is a Juggling Act

Rules I Follow to Achieve Success

I’ve been thinking of our latest startup project a lot. 24 hours a day really. I never stop thinking of all the little details that will help us to achieve the success we envision. In light of a few posts I’ve read recently from others in the WordPress business space, specifically a recent post by Brian Casel from Restaurant Engine, it was time for me to take a quick break and reevaluate where we’re currently at.

Especially with a launch date looming.

I decided today was a good time to step back from the details of our business and look at what we’re doing from a different perspective. A high level overview as I used to say in my corporate world days.

I came up with a short list of what I feel (at this time) are the most important things for me to be doing in order to meet our goals.

Prioritize In Advance

We have a collective “to do” list for the business. It exists in several places. Google docs, Trello boards, email threads, and even in support ticket private notes between our team members. These lists grow almost daily with new ideas of what we could do, or what would be a really great feature to add.

Prioritizing these various ideas into well-defined tasks is going to be critical to meeting our target launch date, and in the bigger picture, for making sure that additional products, features, and promotions are done right. For our business and marketing plans, but more importantly, our end users.

Make Hard Decisions – Daily

Speaking of  to do lists, you should also have a NOT to do list. See what Chris Lema has to say about this. Making hard decisions often includes leaving things behind that would be great additions to your business, but often they aren’t critical to your launch or your immediate business goals.

Document Your Unintended Brainstorms

The reason our to do lists grow so rapidly is because our team is constantly brainstorming. Whether an idea gets sparked in a meeting, the shower, over a beer or even while sleeping (and this happens a lot), always document it. You need to keep a record of these ideas…somewhere, anywhere.

I often use the audio recorder app on my phone to document an idea until I can throw it to the other team members for feedback or further expansion. Or in some cases, it gets axed all together. Some of our best ideas have been sparked through unrelated discussions, browsing the WP world online, or even from family members who aren’t technical at all.

You never know where the next great product or business idea will be sparked, so be prepared to keep a record of it.

Take Breaks from Thinking About your Business

Does all that seem a bit OCD? Perhaps. That’s why it’s so important to take a mental break…and do it on a regular basis.

As I said above, my subconscious is often in high gear working on a solution for something. Let’s just say that winding down to get a good rest is difficult for me, but logically I know it’s very important to get a good rest otherwise I’ll inevitably burn out at some point. And that’s happened more times than I care to admit.

Always being “on” is bad for your health and ultimately bad for your business. Pick a day or two, and plan to turn off your digital life. Go to the beach, for a hike, for a walk, for a bike ride, or whatever else it is you’ve been neglecting.

Treat your mind and your body right, and your business success will follow.

Visualize and Realize

Speaking of mind and body, here’s where I get a bit ethereal. I’m a firm believer in Visualization and the power of positive thinking.

S: (n) visual image, visualization, visualisation (a mental image that is similar to a visual perception)

This isn’t anything new, and in my opinion makes perfect sense. Think good things, and good things will come into your life. Period. Have you ever known an eternally negative person to achieve any level of success? Not me.

What are your business building techniques?

Filed Under: Business Blog, WordPress

WordPress Transparency and Conspiracy Theories

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I’m the type of guy that tries not to jump to conclusions or to prejudge people or situations. However sometimes I get it wrong.

I Stand Corrected

I Stand Corrected

Question everything

In my previous post I explained how I became suspicious of an e-mail from Meetup.com in regards to WordPress groups and creating an official Chapter. I had several reasons for my suspicions which I outlined in my previous post.

It wasn’t just the minimal formatting and lack of branding in this e-mail message that made me think something was awry. It was also because I had been riled up by an article and subsequent comment thread regarding WordPress’s stance on who exactly is allowed to speak at WordCamps.

It’s a great discussion for those interested in the GPL license and how that relates to actions taken by those in the WordPress community.

Retrospect has allowed me to see that I jumped to conclusions rather quickly.

WordPress Is Not an Evil Empire

The e-mail was sent to Meetup.com group organizers was an invite for them to become official Chapters under the WordPress brand. There are 2 immediate benefits to doing this:

  1. All Meetup.com group membership fees would be paid by the WordPress foundation.
  2. Group organizers would have access to resources to help them organize their WordPress meet up groups more efficiently. This of course, would only benefit group members by making sure each meeting was helpful.

In reality, I’m quite embarrassed to say that I didn’t trust the intention. This is an obvious move by the WordPress foundation to control the WordPress brand more closely. But that’s not a bad thing.

This is further explained by Andrew Nacin and Aaron Jorbin in the comments on that post. The mere fact that they took the time to offer a further explanation, and to correct my asumptions should be proof of the helpful nature of the WordPress community.

WordPress Wild West

Brand control is important. After giving it some thought, it’s now obvious to me why WordPress would want to bring all Meetup.com WordPress group organizers under one umbrella and set forth both resources and guidelines for each group.

If you’ve been in the WordPress world for even a short time, you know there is a lot of information out there by so-called WordPress “experts”. The problem is that there are those out there whose intentions are not pure and in the spirit of WordPress.

Unfortunately, there are people out there that may only have an agenda that furthers their own business or product, and the door is open for them to provide WordPress tools and/or resources and other information that may not present the facts about WordPress and the community as a whole.

This is a disservice to new users which many WordPress meet up groups are comprised of.

Group Organizer Accountability

By providing organizer resources and guidelines, the WordPress community becomes better. Better for developers. Better for power users. Better for individuals. Better for the publishing world as a whole.

Organizers who opt in to become an official WordPress Chapter now have a place to reach out for meeting ideas, meeting resources, and also to offer the opportunity to better connect WordPress users throughout the entire community.

Responsible WordPress Community Members

One of the main reasons for me writing this follow-up post was to correct my mistake in accusing anyone or any group of ill-intent.

It was also relieve me of the guilt I felt by providing wrong information to the WordPress community, and to new users. That’s not what I’m about.

I’ve been utilizing WordPress since 2004 and like many reading this, most of my livelihood is based around this software and the knowledge freely shared by my fellow members of the community.

I believe in the spirit of WordPress, and the community, and the Open Source and free software movement as a whole.

How do you feel about this?

Filed Under: Business Blog, WordPress

WordPress Email Phishing Scam: Meetup Organizer Takeover

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I had just settled in for the night and grabbed my phone to check my email one last time before enjoying some cheese popcorn. I received an email from a colleague. A forwarded email actually. An email coming from someone named caitlin at meetup.com.

It must be official and in regard to our local WordPress Meetup group, I thought. I better open this right away!

The Preface

Now please understand my state of mind. This email came in a day after I read this lengthy and ongoing discussion in the comment thread of an article by Jake Caputo about WordCamps, GPL, and other licensing issues, and perhaps an attempt to limit (or filter) what WordPress developers, power users, or other individuals are allowed to speak at WordCamp events.

The article above is an important discussion that needs to be had in the WordPress Community as a whole.

The Email Contents

It starts with this…

Hello WordPress Local Organizers!

As you know, WordPress is opening up a central account to help support WordPress chapters around the world…

WordPress Meetup Group Scam or Real

WordPress Meetup Group Scam or Real – Click Image to Enlarge and Share

Is It a Scam?

My gut reaction after reading the email was shock Then, after giving myself a minute to process what I was reading and the logic behind it, it just didn’t add up. This can’t be real…is it?

Further Investigation

After some initial Googling, I determined that if I couldn’t easily find a reference to this on the WordPress.org or the other sites I checked then it must be a scam. So I preceded to read the email message again. This time much closer attention to detail.

The Clues

First off, “caitlin”, if you are real please don’t be offended if I should know you, but I don’t.

Secondly, have a look at that url in the email message above. Shady? Perhaps. Unfamiliar to me? Yep.

And third, loading that url in my browser brought me somewhere just as mysterious. The Google Doc shown below. Meetup sends an email to a Google doc for collecting information supposedly needed by WordPress? C’mon dude.

(I did some brief browser security checks and lockdowns before loading the site first. You know. Just in case;)

WordPress Chapters at your Local Meetup?

WordPress Chapters at your Local Meetup? – Click Image to Enlarge and Share

Is This Where it Ends?

Did you receive this email also? I strongly caution you not to submit any info until you know the answer to this mysterious email notification outlined above.

Good or evil, this is something all my fellow WordPress people should know about, especially if you’re a WordPress Meetup Group organizer.

I hope I get confirmation soon. The suspense is killing me.

UPDATE:

Andrew Nacin (WordPress Lead Developer) helped me out immediately after I posted this article on Twitter. He confirmed that this email is legitimate. Read more details about WordPress and Meetup groups designated as official Chapters of WordPress on this page.


If you find this article helpful to the community, please consider sharing a link by using the social sharing methods in our images above when clicked.
Filed Under: Business Blog, WordPress

Marketing to Yourself – Changing Your Mindset

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Below is an article I wrote in 2011 titled “Believing in Success is the Secret”. It originally appeared on rinf.com in their self-improvement section.

Take a Different View of Yourself

I’m reposting the article here both as a reminder to myself as I get close to announcing more details about FooPlugins.com, and also in the hope that my story will help others to achieve their business goals, especially those in the WordPress world.

What You Believe Will Happen is Usually What Happens

It took me years to understand that most of my failures were caused by one thing. Me.

Don’t get me wrong here, there were undoubtedly circumstances beyond my immediate control that affected my ability to succeed and attain my goals but you are more in control of guiding your paths than you realize.

It’s all in the mind. Or rather, the mindset.

I was raised in a blue collar working family. Life was good. As kids, we had what we needed. Clothes, toys, bicycles, and food on the table. We were taught verbally and by example that a strong work ethic and a hard day’s work equaled success and that doing this meant “The Company” would take care of you and your family.

I took this belief and attitude with me throughout high school and college and straight onto the factory floor. I became a dedicated worker and within a few years I was leading my department. I felt I had “arrived” and that I could finally settle into life and fall in line with the rest of America.

Eat, work, sleep, putter around the house on the weekend, and a two week vacation in July every year. This was my mindset and the limit of my goals. I’m not saying that this is a wrong way to live, it just wasn’t enough for me. I needed more but didn’t know how to achieve it.

My First Business

Even though I was making a comfortable wage and living a comfortable existence, there was a fire starting to burn inside me. I needed an outlet for my creative side and after working a few years in the factory, I slowly started to realize that I didn’t want to spend another 30 years in that same building. I needed more.

Because my background was in Art, and because I enjoyed it, I started selling hand-drawn portraits to my co-workers of their loved ones. After I sold the first few I remember thinking “this is going to be big” and that I was going to be able to retire early. That dream quickly came to an end when I realized I had exhausted my customer base (the 50 or so people I worked with).

Back to the Grind and Forced Out

I settled back into my belief that I was never going to succeed on my own. That old mindset. I had tried and failed, and that was it. Two ten minute breaks and one twenty minute lunch for the rest of my working life were all I had to look forward to.

Then September 11th, 2001 arrived. In the months afterword, the layoffs started. Most of the company’s projects at the time were governments contracts and because budgets were getting smaller so was our work load. I was terrified that my safe little world would soon come to an end. At the same time though, I was secretly hoping that I would be one of the first to lose their job.

The Choice That Changed My Life

I did lose my job…and it was one of the pivotal moments in life that forced me to decide what path I would take, and what mindset I would choose to adopt. Was I going to continue to let other people and circumstances control my choices? Or was I going to face my fears of the unknown with only persistence and the belief that there was something more in store for me?

I chose the latter. I gave my landlord notice that I would be leaving the state, as well as my family (who thought I was making a very bad choice) and loaded up my car with whatever would fit after leaving enough space for my trusting and loyal Chocolate Lab. We hit the open road to parts unknown. I had no real plan to speak of, and that was not like me at all.

I was taking a risk into the unknown for the first time in my life. I believed that I would succeed. I visualized myself as the owner a successful business and one in which I was truly happy. I let go of all my preconceived notions of what I “should” be doing or how life was “supposed” to be lived.

And then it happened. Little by little, inch by inch, by one positive belief to the next. True business success and happiness started to come to me. Or rather, I started to attract it by visualizing and believing it to be true.

I had changed my mindset and by doing so, I had changed my path and my future.

You can do exactly the same for yourself and your business…if that’s what you truly want to happen.

Filed Under: Business Blog Tagged With: , , ,

Attending the New Media Expo in Las Vegas

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This past week I attended the New Media Expo in Las Vegas, also known as NMX. I was there working the ManageWP.com booth and promoting their product and services.

If you’re not familiar with NMX, it used to be named “Blog World” and is an event focused on blogging, podcasting, and social media. I attended this same conference back in 2008 and at that time, it was a real eye opener for me. In fact, I remember seeing all kinds of people using Twitter to follow the event details and remember thinking “What the hell is this Twitter thing?”

Oh how things have changed in just a few short years.

The Flight to Las Vegas

Flight to NMX

The flight included two interesting details:

  1. My seat neighbor was named “Meeka” and her serviceman trainer (who’s name I don’t recall). He and Meeka had been together a month and they were on their way to Vegas for another month of intensive training and bonding before heading to the Middle East. Meeka is a bomb sniffing canine, so needless to say, I felt pretty safe on the flight.
  2. When the captain pointed out that we were over the deepest part of the Grand Canyon, he also made note of the snow that could be seen in the higher elevations. Pretty cool to see.

Staying at the Rio All Suites Hotel

Rio Hotel and Casino

The hotel was nice although not on the strip. NMX was held at the convention center there. Getting to the strip was easy enough as they had a convenient shuttle that ran every half hour. Aside from that, you could also take a cab for a mere $10.

My biggest complaint with the Rio has to be their ventilation. In Vegas, people can smoke inside the hotels and casinos, but most of them have such good ventilation, it’s hardly noticiable. Not so with the Rio. Every day on my way to and from the convention center, I had to walk through the casino floor which was filled with smokers.

I used to be a smoker, so I’m not judging, I’m just saying…with the mix of the dry weather and the poor ventilation, let’s just say there were a few too many nosebleeds.

Setting up the Tradeshow Booth

NMX Booth Setup

Exhibit Hall Floor Before Setup

Click the image above and you’ll see a panorama of the convention center floor as the Exhibitors’ booth materials started to arrive. Expansive? Yes.

ManageWP reserved a 10ft space and I had checked the fabric backwall and vertical banner through the airline, and we had the table banner shipped to the hotel. This meant that we didn’t have to wait for our booth materials to arrive like most companies and subsequently it made our setup much easier than it might have been if we had a monstrosity of a booth (like Blackberry did;)

Exploring the Strip

nmx-exploring-vegas-strip

James Mowery Taking a Photo

My colleague, James Mowery (U.S. CEO for ManageWP) and I ventured to the strip after setting up our booth and strolled around taking in the atmosphere, people watching, and looking for an ATM that didn’t charge an arm and a leg in fees. We finally found one at Caesar’s Palace that only charged $6.

It was pretty easy to walk between different hotels using the walking bridges (as James is on above taking a photo). I was also pleased that we happened to time it right to see the fountains at the Bellagio.

Working the ManageWP.com Booth

Adam W. Warner - NMX 2013

Me in the Booth Before the Rush

James Mowery at the NMX Show

James Explaining the Benefits of ManageWP.com

Working the tradeshow was great. I really enjoy talking with people in person about a product and service I believe in and use myself. It’s also interesting to learn how people are utilizing WordPress in their own businesses, and also to advise on a few tips and tricks along the way.

The two days of being on the floor were long, and as always, I advise wearing comfortable shoes and staying hydrated;)

Celebrity Sighting (and Meeting)

NMX Chelsea and Dan Gheesling

Chelsea Gheesling, Adam W. Warner, and Dan Gheesling

I’m typically not a reality show fan, but I must admit that my guilty pleasure each year is Big Brother. In the above photo, I’m seen with Dan Gheesling and his wife Chelsea. Dan was on the show twice, and he’s also from Michigan (as I am originally).

I didn’t know he would be attending until I was looking over the NMX program, and when I learned that I was keeping an eye out for him (no pun intended, I have an artificial eye) to see if I could shake hands and say hello. Obviously that happened, and they were both very friendly and gracious. Both Dan and Chelsea are doing some interesting things here and here.

The Unconference Moments

NMX Unconference

James, Nicole, and Kristen

As with most conferences I attend, the real networking, brainstorming, and general good times happen during those moments before, in-between, or after the actual conference sessions and exhibit hall visits.

In other words, business deals and friendships are forged over breakfast, dinner, or at the hotel bar. I had the pleasure of a nice dinner and some great laughs with @JMowery, @CuteCultureChic, and @KristenWright_ on our last evening. Thanks for the good times:)

NMX Summary

As an exhibitor, my experience at NMX was pretty great. I really don’t have any complaints, except maybe the $3.25 mini bottles of water that the hotel was selling, but that’s no fault of the organizers. In fact, or organizer contacts were very helpful and made us feel like we were the most important exhibitors there every time we spoke with them.

I can’t speak to the sessions personally as I didn’t attend any. I did hear several people complaining that some of the content was too basic for them. This could have been due to their poor sessions choices of course, but what I suggested might be nice is do things in a WordCamp style, and that would be to have sessions broken into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced tracks to enable attendees to pick and choose a bit more easily.

What it Means for my Business

As you may have read in my previous post, I am focusing on building my own business, and in-particular, my partnership with FooBox. There were many people at NMX using WordPress and a show like this is a great opportunity to get our product in front of agencies and individuals alike.

By this time next year, FooPlugins will be completely off the ground and our suite of WordPress plugins and services will surely deserve a booth at NMX 2014.

Filed Under: Business Blog

Jumping Off the Cliff

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In my last post here, I made an announcement that I had started working as the Enterprise Sales Manager for ManageWP.com. I’ve decided to move on from that position and focus my attention on continuing to build my own businesses and partnerships.

man jumping off cliff

Online Business Takes Guts

It’s Not You, It’s Me

To be clear, we’ve separated on good terms and I have the highest respect for the entire team at ManageWP.com and firmly believe in their products and services and will continue to work with them where warranted and be a vocal advocate of their tools. In fact, if you’re reading this and happen to be attending the New Media Expo in Las Vegas this weekend, be sure to stop by the ManageWP.com booth. I’ll be there and will be happy to tell you all about the service.

Why I Left (in a nutshell)

There were several factors that led to my resignation. The two most important were…

  1. I couldn’t dedicate the time needed. Our expectations were different.
  2. The voice in the back of me head kept saying “go in a different direction.”

As a reminder, before this experience, I had been focusing on my business and partnerships full time for a few months and our successes were starting to grow. When I decided to change my focus, my own business and my partnerships started to take a back seat, and that was not a good thing.

No Parachute

Now that I have re-focused my business development and marketing efforts on my two main projects, WP Pro Business and FooBox, I am feeling refreshed mentally and emotionally and a renewed sense of excitement and accomplishment. There is a lot of work to be done, no doubt.

I better get to it.

Filed Under: Business Blog

Announcement: I Am the Enterprise Sales Manager for ManageWP.com

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I’m happy to announce that I’ve joined the team at ManageWP.com as their Enterprise Sales Manager. I was holding off on writing this post until my position was official, but that happened almost a week ago. Time flies when you’re engaged in a hefty new task while still trying to clear your client workload;)

Adam W. Warner - Enterprise Sales Manager - ManageWP.com

Honored to be amongst such a great team of people.

What Does ManageWP Provide?

ManageWP - Manage all your WordPress sites from one DashboardIn short, ManageWP.com allows you to connect all of your separate WordPress installations into one unified Dashboard. This saves you time, money, and allows you to see what’s going on with all of your WordPress-powered sites in one location.

With ManageWP.com you can take full control of multiple WordPress sites from one Dashboard, including the following tasks:

  • Manage
  • Monitor
  • Optimize
  • Backup
  • Deploy
  • Publish
  • Secure

Have a look at the full feature list here.

Who’s Behind This Service?

Vladimir Prevolac is the founder and CEO and James Mowery is CEO ManageWP America. They have assembled a very talented team of people based in Serbia, the U.S., and in other countries around the world. Including myself;)

Vladimir Prevolac and James Mowery - ManageWP

Vladimir Prevolac and James Mowery – ManageWP

View the Entire ManageWP Team Here

Why I Joined the Team

If you’ve read any of my posts, or are subscribed to my email list, then you know my focus on customer service and providing a high value to the end user. Whether it’s to you reading this post, or to a paying user of one of my courses, plugins, or ebooks, a top customer experience is what matters most.

A close second is in direct regard to using WordPress and that any product or service built around the platform should adhere to “the spirit of Open Source” and the standards set by the WordPress community.

Vladimir and ManageWP do exactly those things. In short, ManageWP is a high quality solution that solves a real problem for users managing more than one WordPress website. Internet Marketers, Web Developers, Web Designers, I’m talking directly to you.

Not only that, but because of the entrepreneurial spirit surrounding Vladimir and the rest of the team, I still have the opportunity to continue with my own projects (as time allows of course).

It was really a no-brainer.

Contact me through the ManageWP site if you’d like to learn more about ManageWP and the available Enterprise and Rebranded versions.

Am I Still Building My Own Business?

Absolutely and the future is very exciting. I’ve got some very cool projects and information coming soon on this site, so please do subscribe if you’re interested in following along. If anything, taking this Enterprise Sales Manager position has forced me to cut away (or outsource) those daily tasks that were taking my time and focus away from my business goals. ManageWP fits directly into my longer term business plan too…more on that later.

Filed Under: Business Blog Tagged With: ,
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