🌐 Justin's Blog

I have never been to Dallas, but that's about to change!

This weekend I'll be heading to Dallas to visit Lorena's cousin to celebrate the birthday of their son.

This also marks the first time that I'll be meeting Lorena's extended family. During COVID this has not been possible. We've been able to get together with our parents and siblings, but that's about it. Around the holidays I was able to meet some of them on Zoom, but I think we all can agree that Zoom can be a little impersonal.

Lorena's extended family is HUGE (especially compared to mine). I really look forward to meeting all of them over the coming years. In some ways it feels like I am being “initiated” into the family, and I like it! 😄

#personal

My paintbrush is different, but I still create art.

For years, I never considered myself an artist, at least not in the traditional sense.

I don't have a paintbrush. I don't know how to draw. I don't produce original works of music or sculpt anything with my hands.

The world would agree that I am by no means a traditional artist.

But if art is considered the expression of creativity... well, that changes things.

Creativity fuels my ideas, and for over a decade these ideas have been put onto a canvas. Tech tools, processes, and communication bring these ideas to life. Every day I am creatively positioning, researching, marketing, increasing revenues, and forming new connections.

And thanks to the internet, my art is experienced on a global scale.

I am an artist.

#personal

I have learned a lot by being an entrepreneur – especially how to compete.

For me, being an entrepreneur means you are continually looking out for opportunities and advantages. If you have an online business, then it’s pretty well-known that the barriers to entry are practically non-existent.

Given the competitive nature of starting & growing a successful company, I really struggle to see the benefit for publicly sharing sales data – especially if you’re not required to as you would if your company was publicly traded.

This is something that has become part of a growing trend in today’s entrepreneurial landscape. It’s very much part of the ethos of the “building in public” movement.

And look, I am not trying to say that transparency posts aren’t inspirational, educational, and fun – because they are! Seeing how other people overcame challenges in their business can be incredibly helpful to others. I have friends who write some fantastic transparency reports, and I thoroughly enjoy them.

I just think it’s okay to ask some questions about this practice. I know that I have over the years.

Are sales numbers actually relevant?

Transparency reports are quite common in the WordPress industry. Some plugin and theme developers will share their revenues with a commentary of what they found worked (and didn’t work) with business decisions made over the course of the year.

These articles are actually very insightful, especially if you’re in a similar space. But are revenue figures actually needed to emphasize key lessons learned?

Personally, I don’t think the key takeaways lose validity if exact figures aren’t included. I think saying something like: “we implemented this new policy and our revenues increased by X percent” is just as credible and helpful.

The only business reasons I can think of for sharing actual numbers are:

• To generate visibility from people who are curious about your sales. Impressive figures help validate your product (note that “impressive” is completely subjective so that may backfire). Revenue posts can go viral, increasing visibility.
• To establish credibility in certain verticals.
• To build trust from those who are either currently a customer or might become one. Transparency reports can translate to increased trust.

I suppose an outlying explanation for companies sharing their sales data is that they just don’t care if people know. That’s a legitimate reason too and perhaps makes this entire commentary a moot point.

You risk a lot by sharing too much.

This isn’t paranoia. This is business.

Whether you subscribe to it or not, business is one massive competition. In a competitive environment, every advantage helps (no matter how small).

Sales data aside, why reveal your entire playbook?

You are practically inviting strangers into your home by letting others know what works, what doesn’t work, and how much you make from what works. One of the strangers is likely to have very deep pockets, and they’ll be able to move quickly on this information.

Think it’s a long-shot?

Well, I have personally taken advantage of a company’s transparency to nullify their entire value proposition.

That company is now out of business.

Their transparency is not the main reason why they no longer exist, but it certainly didn’t help them.

Just remember that the ones who are being quiet aren’t doing so because they don’t have something to share. Instead, they are simply observing, collecting data, and making business moves accordingly.

Transparency reports may serve a great purpose for boostrappers.

I will concede that transparency reports seem to do best for bootstrappers, in particular as a form of self-motivation and accountability.

When we put something “out there”, it suddenly becomes real. It leaves our head and goes out into the world. Other people know about it and we feel an obligation to hold ourselves accountable now.

This is actually really great for budding, bootstrap entrepreneurs. The scariest part is “taking the plunge” from idea to implementation. It may sound silly, but so many people never make it to this stage. At most, they tinker with setting up a website and then stop after a month or so.

The great thing about progress transparency (using Twitter to give updates for example) is the ability to receive encouragement from peers. Entrepreneurship is a lonely road, and it’s motivating to have people cheering you on, especially during the early days.

Here is how I would use transparency reports that included revenue data.

If it’s not clear already, I wouldn’t go down the road of transparency reports personally. But if I were to use transparency reports, then I would set a goal and make it time bound.

In other words, I would encourage people to follow me as I tried to reach “X” dollars by “Y” time. I like this approach for two reasons:

1. Once I hit the dollar value, I’m not obligated to keep sharing.

2. It holds me accountable to reaching that goal in a specified amount of time.

As I mentioned, transparency reports are a good way to get interest in your project (and encouragement) early on in the journey. You may even get some publicity that you otherwise wouldn’t have received otherwise.

But at a certain point it won’t make sense for you to keep sharing this data. If your goal (challenge) is met, then you can stop sharing without any worries. Your audience who valued your transparency won’t see you as a fraud. You can do a new challenge instead.

The time component is probably my favorite part though. This puts your feet to the fire as an entrepreneur. Just like sharing your idea in public makes you accountable, sharing your timing is that extra level of motivation.

So should you use transparency reports in your business?

Can sharing too much info hurt your business? Yes.

Can sharing too much info help your business? Yes.

I recognize that the whole transparency approach depends largely on your personality. In the end, you have to do what you’re comfortable doing in your business.

Don’t feel obligated to share info just because you see other successful people do it. Just because you like reading transparency reports doesn’t mean that you too have to partake.

If after you read this you still feel justified in your transparency report, then that’s great! I am not trying to say everyone should stop transparency reports or that they are inherently bad. Just understand that there are both costs and benefits to them.

#entrepreneurship

Visiting family hasn't been easy for anyone in the past year or so due to COVID. So, when family visits do come about, we really value them.

This recent trip we have taken to Michigan and Connecticut has a different feel to it than the same trips we made at the end of last year. We are now vaccinated, so the worry of traveling isn’t there (at least not on the same level). We could also do a bit more than before because of being vaccinated, but overall it was much of the same.

I think 2021 will be a year of unraveling and “testing the waters” globally. It won’t be life as before quite yet, probably not for a couple more years assuming all goes to plan with global vaccination efforts.

Lorena and I plan to make family trips the priority this year, followed by a few personal travel destinations. Places like MI, CT, CA, Mexico, and Germany. I am beyond excited to add these trips into our routine.

#personal

Hey Justin,

it's April Justin.

You're reading this again (hopefully), and it's October now. Wow, a LOT of great things have happened!

I want to remind you to take a moment, look back, and think about all that you have done so far this year.

Better yet: think about all that you have to look forward to!

Keep going, and continue to laugh along the way – as you always do.

#personal

It took some time, but it finally happened. Lorena and I have received the vaccine. What a year has been, amiright?

Remember the beginning of COVID? Back when it was this mysterious illness from overseas? Back when we could actually count the number of people total that had it in the U.S.?

Over the past year Lorena and I were both fortunate that no one in our family died from the illness. Her uncle got it, and my grandma did in her nursing home. Both of them got through it. In fact, my grandma didn't even show any symptoms.

There was so much we didn't know, but over time it became evident that the danger was very real.

I rememember chuckling when Lorena insisted that I wear gloves when in public. Yet not too long after that I was wearing both gloves and a mask whenever going outside. It was the new normal.

Truth be told, we have gotten used to living during the pandemic. We have a routine. But we also were being vigilant about how we could get the vaccine. At a certain point survival instincts couldn't be ignored anymore.

We are now vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. I personally feel the same as before. I plan on still being cautious (wearing masks... the gloves have long been a thing of the past).

It will be interesting to see the world slowly unravel from all of this. As far as I can tell, COVID vaccines will probably be a regular thing for the foreseeable future. But not all bad has come from this on a personal level. Something I plan on reflecting on in the near future.

For now, Lorena and I rest a little easier knowing that we have made it through the toughest part.

#personal

The answer may surprise you.

If you are creating a WordPress plugin today, then you probably have just assumed that you should have a free version. I mean, it makes sense. You can potentially get a ton of exposure right away from the WordPress Repo.

But what if you don’t?

What if you experience the fate of so many others where you put your heart and soul into your free plugin, create a “pro” version, and adoption rates are low? What is your Plan B?

Most WordPress entrepreneurs don’t realize that there is another way to approach the market, and that’s by creating a paid (premium) offering only. It’s more work, but the work that you do can pay off big just like if you had a free version that became popular on the Repo.

I should clarify that this post does not necessarily apply to plugin creators who have created an add-on to another plugin. That said, it could apply as I have seen folks have success with this approach.

LearnDash has never had a free version.

This comes as a surprise to some folks. LearnDash has never had a free version. The choice was out of necessity more than anything.

When I started LearnDash, I was working as an e-learning consultant. My days were full already, so I couldn’t spend my time supporting free users. I honestly never even considered having a free version.

Instead, the year prior I spent all of my time building up a search engine presence though blogging, and that paid off. But not just in a monetary sense. It allowed LearnDash to venture into “non-WordPress” markets more easily because the brand recognition wasn’t dependent on the WordPress Repo.

What I often see today is that folks will create their free version and really depend on it for getting traction. It’s not impossible by any means as there are plenty of popular plugins and themes that have started this way. But, it’s putting all your eggs into one basket. On top of it, it’s a basket that you have absolutely zero control over.

The rating system on the WordPress Repo sucks.

Before you jump all over this comment, let me say that I am not implying the volunteers who manage and monitor the reviews are doing a bad job. They are doing the absolute best that they can, and we owe them our thanks!

It’s not the people, it’s the process. I have never been a fan of it.

From both a business and consumer standpoint, the ratings on the WordPress Repo are getting close to the point of being completely useless.

That may seem harsh, and perhaps it is to some degree. But it’s the byproduct of the simple fact that the Repo ratings are so easily gamed.

Off the top of my head, I can think of at least five plugins that are gaming it for bogus five-star reviews. You know, the ones where the reviewer just opened the account and that same day left a four word, five-star rating.

It would be so easy to add some measures in place to help combat this. For example, just have a waiting period on an account before it can be used to make any kind of review.

Fake reviews aside, there is something else frustrating about the review system, and it’s a major reason why I have avoided it. In WordPress there is a subset of users who will use plugin reviews as a way to “blackmail” creators at the worst, and to “make a point” at best.

Some of my closest contacts in WordPress have great plugins on the Repo. I’m talking extremely robust pieces of software… for FREE!

They pour their entire energy into creating best-in-class functionality. Yet, every month they get 1-star reviews because someone has a misunderstanding about a setting, and they blow up on the reviews giving it one-star in the process.

There is another benefit to not being on the Repo beyond my opinion of the reviews.

My opinion of the Repo review system is just that, my opinion. Some people agree with me, while others understand that this exists but see the upside to it.

But there is a very real business reason why the Repo isn’t ideal for software creators. It reinforces a certain perception of the software: that its only use is in the WordPress ecosystem.

Since the very beginning, I positioned LearnDash to be a competitor against the other LMS options out there, outside the direct WordPress space. This meant I had to be where my competitors were located, and they weren’t located on the WordPress Repo.

I found that this switch in focus also helped drive the sales messaging and framing of the LearnDash value proposition. It gave a great degree of clarity to the User Models that I targeted in the last brand refresh.

Today, LearnDash competes with the biggest brands in the online course creation and LMS space – and that’s not accidentally. That was 100% intentional from the very beginning of the project.

Again: all about message focus.

This focus extended to support as well. With no free version, the support team could focus on helping only paying customers.

There is something very refreshing about this. The relationship is more clearly defined in that context. Customers (most anyhow) are far more committed.

I’ve seen some outlandish demands and expectations from people asking for support on the WordPress Repo. I honestly don’t understand what people expect… it’s free, of course there won’t be instant access or overly in-depth replies.

That said, you can get a ton of visibility on the Repo.

Today is a lot different from 2012.

When I started LearnDash from a blog in March 2012, getting rankings was a lot easier. Search engine optimization was a different beast. It’s a lot harder today. Not impossible, but harder.

So if I am 100% honest, if I were to launch a new piece of software today that relied upon WordPress, then I would consider the benefits of a free version and gaining visibility from the Repo.

But with a (very big) caveat: the upgraded versions would be SaaS.

This is going to become the next evolution in WordPress in my opinion. We see it to some degree today, but this will start to become the norm. Especially true as we see more and more investment into the open source project from the world’s biggest brands.

The most successful solutions will SaaS-up their offerings, so they can have a little more control over the environment, and more insight into their users. In turn, their products will be better, both from a feature standpoint and support. The businesses will be more profitable and hold higher valuations than plugin and theme businesses today.

So if it were me, my intent would be to use the free version on the Repo to allow for a quicker path for obtaining users and getting real-time feedback. This in turn would help drive the development roadmap for the SaaS.

To make the free version a good sales tool, I would make sure that:

1. It has features that solve a major pain-piont or makes people money.

2. It has a full-time staff dedicated to replying to every support message.

3. It has an eloquent way to nudge people to the pro versions.

Since it will be a SaaS, a two-week free trial of upgraded features would be effortless to do and allow for additional customer nurturing campaigns during that time.

Imagine installing a free plugin and allowing folks to get a free trial of all the Pro features (on the SaaS) with a single click in the dashboard. They get used to the cool functionality and if they don’t pay — whoops — it’s gone. Not against GPL because this cool functionality is being delivered from the SaaS platform. The plugin is merely the conduit.

In order for this approach to work, the free version can’t be bare bones. It needs to provide actual value to people who decide that they don’t want to upgrade.

Right now, there are plugins on the Repo that attempt to do this but their free versions are so limited that it feels like a bait-and-switch. This has to be avoided to gain trust upfront from users.

I like this model a lot because a traditional SaaS is also more “sticky” so renewal rates will be a lot higher than in the traditional WordPress business model. More predictable long-term revenue allows businesses to deliver a positive experience in a more efficient manner for their users.

The WordPress Repo shouldn’t be avoided, but it most certainly shouldn’t be your only market strategy.

In the end, you should not avoid the WordPress Repo entirely. It’s a great marketing channel that can give you visibility quickly compared to the traditional marketing efforts.

And you know what? I have faith that the gripes I outlined earlier will eventually be addressed by the great folks who give their time to the WordPress project, making those complaints a moot point (which would be a great thing).

The key takeaway here is not that the WordPress Repo is bad. It’s that you really need to think bigger about how you market software on WordPress. Who exactly is it that can benefit from your product? And that answer should 100% not be “people using WordPress”.

Think bigger. 🙌

#WordPress

Something new and excited has happened the past couple weeks: Lorena and I are starting to make travel plans!

A couple of weeks ago, we got our first shot for the COVID vaccine. It's a weird feeling in many ways because while we are still living life as we always have for the past year, we can actually start to make plans for traveling.

To be fair, we did travel during the holidays last year to visit family. While the experience wasn't bad on the airplanes, it was a bit stressful at times. Well, that will no longer be the case. Of course, we still plan to do all the proper COVID things like wearing masks, sanitizing our seats and hands, and keeping our distance. But it will be from a place of confidence.

Initially our travel plans will be confined to the United States. But as soon as we can we'll be heading off to Mexico to visit her family. I have yet to go with her, and I can't wait!

#personal

I am old enough to know that I am still young. Time is not lost on me anymore. In fact, quite the opposite.

I have reached the age where I am not just coasting through the years of my life, but instead looking at both the years behind and ahead of me. And I clearly see how much more life there is to live!

I try to live with intent. I refuse to look back 30 years from now and wonder: “Where did that time go?“

No. I won't take this greatest gift for granted.

Time is all we have. We have so little, yet we live like it will always be there.

Time slips away when you're distracted. It sneaks out the door when you let life happen to you rather than making life happen.

This is my self-reminder to keep living with passion, intention, and direction... and to laugh along the way.

#personal

It's done! The wedding venue is booked, and we are working towards our May 31st, 2021 wedding date. 😃

The Winfield Inn (the original venue we wanted) dropped the ball. We tried to book them but they are so incredibly unresponsive that we just moved onto another one. I called on a Saturday to follow-up on an email I sent to the coordinator. She answered the phone and told me that they handle that stuff during weekdays, and that she would see it on Monday.

So yeah... they lost us as potential customers. Funny thing is, if she would have just been a little nicer then probably we would still be booking with them.

Doesn't matter though because I am actually more excited about the new venue, the South Congress Hotel!

The modern, urban design is really cool. So many great spots for pictures that include the city in the background. It also has indoor and outdoor spaces available for pre-ceremony, ceremony, cocktails, and reception.

Their micro-wedding packages are all-inclusive and cover items like flowers, food, cakes, set-up, takedown, sound, and more. Zero hassle.

Here's to May 31st!

#personal