🌐 Justin's Blog

Lorena and I looked at a wedding venue today for our Austin wedding, and it looks like a good option.

This one is going to be on the smaller side, with just close (immediate) family. Even without COVID this would be smaller than the event in Mexico, but the pandemic is tightening our numbers a bit more, for sure.

The Winfield Inn is located about 30 miles south of downtown Austin. It's really accessible and the property is really pretty (though when we visited it was still showing some wear and tear from the snow storm a few weeks back). Still, it looks like a great backdrop for our micro-wedding.

We first became interested in this location because they offered micro-wedding packages (events for under 25 guests), and well, that's what we're interested in for this legal ceremony. It also makes it a bit easier to plan since the package comes with ceremony location, dinner, wine, cake, table setup and takedown. We just need to find a photographer, florist, a little music, and someone to administer the ceremony.

So while it's not yet set it stone, this venue is looking like it'll be the one.

#personal

Have you ever been tricked out of your money?

I know that I have.

When I was a teenager I fell victim to the internet marketing hype, handing over whatever money that I had so that I could learn “the secret”. The sales messages, the stories, the glitz… it was all so hypnotic.

I’m not embarrassed that I fell for these scams when I was a teen. In life you sometimes pay for an education, and these were valuable (priceless) lessons that I got to learn from an early age.

Today I view these stereotypical internet marketers differently. I don’t care about their products, I care about their methods!

The truth is that these people are actually very good at what they do. They are expert copywriters, relatable, unshakingly convincing, and just down-right great at B2C sales.

I decided to learn from The Dark Side.

It was like any other normal day. I was taking a break from my standard work tasks to do a little research.

Specifically, I like to keep tabs on what the current trends are in the online marketing space, especially the men and women selling “programs” and “secret methods”. I find it worth studying their ways because clearly they know how to sell. There is a method to the madness.

I can’t help but laugh a little because while I am convinced each of these programs thinks that they are original, they all just say the same exact thing. It’s the same stuff that I fell for back in the day. Yet truth be told they don’t really need to change anything because human nature will always be the same. Sure the “methods” they sell may change with the times, but the messaging is consistent.

Even though you may stay far away from the internet marketer types (like the ones who sell get-rich programs), I find that it’s worth looking into their sales process to see if you can learn anything. I did this some time ago and applied it to my own business.

The result? More revenue.

Tools change, but the strategy is still the same.

When I do my research into these get-rich program, I watch some videos of an internet marketer that I have known of for some time. The last time I did this, he had a new product – or at least a new marketing campaign. This was great because I could see him in action, particularly his funnel.

At the top of the funnel was a “live” webinar. You and I both know that this webinar was not live at all as he was using an automated webinar program instead.

That’s not the worst of it though…

• He shot his video in selfie-mode on his phone next to an expensive car and big house. This was part of his lead generation to get you to sign-up for the “live webinar”.
• He offered “free training” which is really just a sales pitch.
• He attempted to get anyone watching to agree at multiple points in their webinar or video. Phrases like “press 1 if you agree” or “have you ever experienced”. This is because psychologically if you start agreeing on small things you will agree to bigger asks later.
• He outlined a typical scenario of someone trying to make money online, then went on to say he was just like everyone else at one point but “cracked the code”.
• He presented random testimonials from the training which is void of any actual context, just someone saying they made money.
• He mentioned “hustle”.
• He showed his PayPal account, but “not to brag”.

The hype was real. But all that washed off of me, because behind those distractions I could see the real secret behind all the madness.

Before these folks can sell their products, they have to establish trust – and they are so. damn. good.

I am not kidding you, this guy put on a masterclass of establishing casual trust in a very little amount of time.

The main reason that his messaging worked was because he knew his audience, and he knew what motivated his potential customers. All he has to do is to show them how he can help them accomplish what it is they really want. Once he does that, the sale is made.

It was so impressive, I immediately copied him.

I’m not in the business of lying. But just like this guy, I am in the business of people and emotions.

I realized that this person knew his audience thoroughly, and I too needed to do the same so that I could craft the messaging just right. I’ve done this exercise a few times now in my entrepreneurial career – I created highly (overly?) detailed User Models.

In this process, I created the persona of the individuals who would be looking into my products. I gave them a name, background story, and described their personality. I found that the more detail that can provided into a User Model, the more pointed and relevant I could make my messaging.

This is important, because the next step after establishing a user model is to walk through a Buyer Journey in their shoes, addressing each phase in a way that will resonate with this fictitious person.

At each one of these stages, you need to think from the perspective of your User Model archetype.

What are they feeling?

Logic helps to a point, but purchases are emotional. You need to understand the ultimate desires of the people looking into your products, and craft the messaging accordingly to address those emotions. This is exactly what the “Get-Rich-Quick” guru does, and does well.

You may be thinking that this seems… hard. Well, yes, it does take a little work upfront. It’s not hard as much as it is time-consuming because it takes a lot of thought and creativity.

For me, it took a few weeks because I had created a handful of different User Models. From experience, I would say that you should try to come up with at least three, and up to five.

Once you have these vetted out, then you need to make sure that you are creating content with the User Models in mind, on every single section of every single page on your website. Your value proposition for each model should be apparent.

I’ve done this a number of times now, most recently (and in the most detail) with the last LearnDash refresh. Every section of every page is designed with the User Model in mind.

And just like the “Make Money Online” Internet Marketer I admired, the site does a great job establishing credibility and connection, while simultaneously answering the relevant questions for these individuals along the Buyer Journey.

For example, based on one of my User Models, there was a part of the customer journey that I wanted to address. It had to do with getting started with WordPress and LearnDash.

Out of that particular requirement came the “Getting Started in 4 Easy Steps” section of the homepage, where we reinforced how the software was powerful, but not difficult to start using.

This has helped the company in a variety of ways, least of which being that there are no longer as many pre-sales questions around the topic of getting started with WordPress and LearnDash. It also lets people know that they too are capable of using LearnDash, even if they don’t that they are tech-savvy.

It’s so good that it didn’t take long for one of my competitors to copy it!

So let’s boil this down.

It’s pretty easy to overthink this, so let me wrap-up by summarizing this entire selling approach in a succinct way.

Nailing down your User Models lets you proactively address the questions that will arrive along the Buyer Journey. As you answer these questions, you need to:

• Establish credibility
• Outline benefits (end-state) that customers care about
• Proactively answer their questions, which further validates that they are in the right place so that they feel good about making the purchase

Said another way…

Simply explain what’s in it for your customer if they choose you.

In order to do that, you need to know your customer’s story. If they arrive to your site, and they feel like they “belong” (i.e. you are speaking to them directly) then you’ve accomplished the hardest part. You gained their trust and the sale is yours.

This is literally how every successful “Make Money Online” internet market has ever operated, and you too can use it to skyrocket profitability.

#entrepreneurship

Let me tell you what this post is not…

• It’s not a lecture.
• It’s not demonizing alcohol.
• It’s not shaming those who enjoy drinking.

This post is far more selfish than that. It’s about me.

It’s rather cliché, but there is a saying that I am often reminded of in daily life when I feel like things aren’t going my way:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again but expecting different results.

This quote has always resonated with me, and over the years has had a way of creeping into my mind at various points in life.

For example, back when I played soccer in college, I ended up losing my starting position my Sophomore year. I was devastated. I felt cheated by my coach. I blamed everyone but myself, and I made up my mind to quit after the season.

But instead of giving up, I changed my mindset. I decided that I would play for different reasons. I would play for fun, not accolades – for the joy of being with friends on the field doing something that we all loved doing.

Long story short, I got my starting spot back before the first game of the next season and never lost it again my entire career. The accolades also came about, but those were just icing on the cake at that point. I was enjoying playing again, and these new results wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t change my behavior.

In business, I find that sometimes I am reminded of this same quote. Usually when something isn’t going right, or I want to make something better. It forces me to think outside the box.

It has made me challenge assumptions about what is (and is not) working in regard to the product, inbound marketing, support service, internal processes, and more. It has forced the evolution of the entire business.

The result being year-over-year growth in revenue and market presence. But beyond just fiduciary results, challenging my traditional patterns has helped me meet (and befriend) so many amazing folks in my industry.

What does this have to do with alcohol?

I have always been pro-alcohol.

When I was young, it was how I partied with friends into the early hours of the morning. As I entered the corporate world, it was how I rubbed elbows with the higher-ups. As an entrepreneur, cracking open that drink was the signal that my day was over and that it was time to relax. It was also quite useful for networking events.

There is also excitement in trying something new. Each region of the country (heck, the world) has their own line-up of drinks. I thought of drinking as a way to experience the culture of a region, and I always liked the way it seemingly brought people together.

And yes, I enjoyed catching a buzz.

People have been drinking since forever. For years, I considered it a part of what makes us human.

The problem for me was that there have been times when drinking has made me feel not-so-human.

If you drink, then I know you’ve been there as well. That feeling the next morning where you wake up and question why the hell you had to have that last drink. In some cases, you feel sick, and you always end up living the next 24–48 hours in a fog. Not sharp. Not the way you should be.

I hated that feeling.

Sure, the physical side effects of it sucked. That goes without saying. But I also realized that the only time I didn’t like myself was when alcohol was involved. Period. For me, a hard reality to come to terms with, but a necessary one.

I had started to really despise the way alcohol impacted my mental health. Not just after a hard night of drinking, but in my day-to-day life.

For example, over the years I have continued to be active multiple times per week (lifting, running, boxing, soccer, etc.) but had been really mentally struggling with the lack of physical change.

There is no secret to working out. I’ve known how to do it my entire life. But I’ve come to see (and finally accept) that you can’t outwork a shitty diet. Something that is painfully apparent as I get older.

I would have a few good days of eating healthier and exercising, but then find myself having drinks multiple times during the week. What’s more, the food that I ate when I was drinking was pretty terrible. Poor food choices and drinking go hand-in-hand (at least for me).

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again but expecting different results.

Which brings me back to this quote.

In my 20s I don’t think I would be ready for such an honest assessment. I didn’t want to hear it. I “knew it all” already. But I know myself better now than ever before. I also have accumulated enough life experience to know that new outcomes cannot come without real change.

I wanted different results, so I couldn’t do the same things again-and-again.

Could I really stop drinking?

Yes.

I know because I made this decision back in October 2019. Since then, I have had a glass of wine a handful of times during celebrations and toasts – but beyond that I’ve just completely cut it out of my life.

Do I miss it? Surprisingly, no.

Since I decided to stop drinking, I have found that the narrative that surrounds alcohol is completely false.

• It didn’t negatively impact my social life (quite the opposite actually, as it was after quitting that I met my fiancé).
• I can still enjoy myself at bars and parties.
• I am still able to network effectively for my business.
• Holidays are just as enjoyable.
• I’m still able to unwind after a tough day, even without a drink.
• I’ve made more money.

I now enjoy the benefit of waking up each morning with a clear head. I don’t have to worry about saying something embarrassing or hurtful because my inhibitions were lowered. I’m more creative.

The byproduct of losing weight and being in my best physical shape since college doesn’t hurt either. 🙂

But most of all: I’m proud of myself. There are few greater feelings than that. It gives me tremendous confidence, and this confidence permeates into everything I do in both my personal and profession life.

How I did it.

I’d be lying if I said that I did this just by waking up one morning. I knew for a few years that I wanted to stop drinking, but I didn’t think that I could. I was afraid of losing all the things I mentioned above.

So I did what any normal person does: I turned to both Amazon and Google for help. After reading tons of reviews for countless books, I ended up listening to this audio book, and then reading this book. They weren’t 100% applicable in the messaging, but what resource is? The point is that those worked for me.

I also journaled daily, putting to paper all my thoughts about it. My fears, what I was looking forward to post-drinking, and my thoughts on what I was learning.

About a month after starting this process, I found that I didn’t have the desire to drink anymore.

How did I make more money?

Yes, not drinking alcohol means you save on personal expenses. Your groceries will cost less. Your dinners out will cost less. That’s nice, no complaints there. You’ll be surprised on how those savings add up.

But alcohol steals something far more valuable: time.

When you’re hungover, you lose time trying to feel better. You sleep more and you’re lazy. Even if you’re not hungover, you’re taking time away from creative thinking.

When I stopped drinking, I got time back. I invested that time into my business and holy crap did it pay off (to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars). If the physical changes weren’t motivation enough, the money certainly was an added bonus.

• I used my new time to aggressively hire top-tier talent for the company.
• I added conversion systems in the pre-sales funnel.
• I more closely monitored and maximized paid advertising efforts, which is now making $10 for every $1 spent.
• I helped refine internal operations for better efficiency.
• I led the brand refresh efforts, putting my vision into the new design, messaging, and market approach of the company.

In short, I did a lot — and all with a clear head. Yes, at the end of some days I would be completely worn out. But, I would always wake up fresh and ready to go the next day.

Not drinking was very profitable for my life, and therefore my business.

Why I am sharing this story.

To tell the truth, I debated even writing about this. I generally prefer keeping my personal life personal.

But during this journey, I have benefited from others sharing their own personal stories about no longer drinking. How it improved their life and how they realized all the narratives around quitting are false. They gave me the confidence that I too could quit drinking, just like they did!

So, I decided to publish this post in the off-chance that someone out there reading this finds it helpful, motivating, or encouraging.

Whether you consider yourself a problem drinker or not, know that life does not change for the worse if you decide to pass on alcohol.

Quite the opposite, actually, it gets a lot better.

#health

Not everyone is prepared for the realities of entrepreneurship compared to working an office job.

To be quite honest there are times that I miss some of the perks associated with working at a large corporation. But, if you’re called to entrepreneurship then those perks won’t cut it in the long-run.

The day I put in my notice to my employer was the greatest day of my professional career. It was a mix of excitement, hope, and a little bit of healthy fear. I wouldn’t ever go back to that life now even knowing the sacrifices that have to be made.

Thinking about giving entrepreneurship a shot? Go for it! Here are 10 things you can expect when you do make that leap…

• Family won’t support you. When you tell your immediate family of your decision to go out on your own then there is a good chance that they will voice their concerns rather than encouragement. Just know that in most cases this comes from a place of love. Not everyone has an entrepreneur mindset. But there is good news because…
• Family will eventually support you. Over time they will be quite proud of you. So don’t be discouraged at the onset and stick to your decision to go out on your own!
• Vacations don’t really exist. Gone are the days where you can take off work and completely disconnect. Sure, you can find some days to get away every now and again (sometimes for even a week), but you’ll be glued to your computer each day.
• You learn more than you want to know about healthcare. The great thing about working at a big company is that healthcare is so cheap and presented in easy to understand plans. I remember having a little bit of “sticker shock” the day I had to shop for my own healthcare plan.
• You will feel like an impostor. At many points along your journey you will fall victim to “impostor syndrome”. This is just self-doubt and we all deal with it. When you fell this way just recognize what it is and keep moving forward.
• No more water-cooler talk. I went from traveling the country consulting with a bunch of very intelligent people to working at a home office, alone. The silence was deafening at first. You can get over this by attending conferences and other local events.
• Weekends are now weekdays. Initially you will work Saturday and Sunday. You just will. Over time though you will get a better idea of how to detach. However, if your business gets customers 24/7 then expect emails and messages sent your way any day (and time) of the week.
• There is no such thing as taking a day off. You will eventually give yourself a Friday off from work. Sounds great, but the universe will say otherwise. Honestly, whenever I attempt to take a day off I coincidentally receive a barrage of direct messages on social media.
• Your work is often thankless. When you work for a company and you have a good boss, he or she will give you feedback on the work that you do. As an entrepreneur you have to learn to be content without this kind of external recognition. If you are someone who needs validation from others, then you will find this difficult about entrepreneurship.
• You’ll never be happier. It’s true. The trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship can be stressful at times but it is worth it to be working everyday on your passion. As an entrepreneur you will never be more content than when you are working on own business. Time just seems to melt away as work never really feels like “work”. 🙂

#entrepreneurship

If you are selling a WordPress product then you have some very good options available to you for e-commerce.

Most often I see people sell with either WooCommerce and build their own licensing mechanism, or Easy Digital Downloads (and use their software licensing add-on).

Absolutely nothing wrong with these two options. They get the job done and people have built their entire businesses on them.

Sales of LearnDash don’t use either solution, but instead a 3rd party hosted (off-WordPress) solution instead.

What LearnDash came from.

For a long time sales took place with Digital Product Delivery (DPD). When I first started LearnDash I was working a full-time consulting career so DPD was a good option for quick, no hassle set-up.

I didn’t have a need for licenses back then so it didn’t matter that this wasn’t a feature.

Well, it didn’t matter until it did eventually matter.

I had my devs build a unique licensing mechanism for DPD. It has become quite elaborate over time but the two main things that it did for us:

1. Created licenses with various domain permissions

2. Created an account for the customer on the support site

And as is common place the customer loses access to support & updates when the license expired without renewing.

I really liked DPD. In fact, I still like it. Their team is small but the support is always very friendly and responsive.

Their development on the other hand lagged behind many of the other platforms out there. They do about one or two major updates a year, but in all of the years with that platform these updates never really benefited the LearnDash use-case. Frustratingly, not a single update was for accepting subscription payments.

Selecting the new platform.

I knew a subscription platform was needed, but preferred a non-WordPress option (perhaps a post for another time). So I began researching some of the popular platforms built specifically for subscriptions. This brought me to Recurly, Chargify, ChargeBee, FastSpring, Paddle, and Zoho Subscriptions.

The better part of 2017 was spent going over all these platforms, and Chargify was a front-runner mainly because the popular form building plugin Gravity Forms transitioned to it for their own billing. But something bothered me about these platforms. Mainly is that they are quite expensive for doing something that is rather simple.

By way of example, Paddle charges 5% +.50 cents per sale. When you consider that PayPal and Stripe start at 2.9% +.30 cents per transaction it makes it hard to justify cutting into the per-sale profit just to add subscriptions. At least it was hard for me to justify, so that eliminated Paddle (and FastSpring for similar reasons).

Chargify, ChargeBee, and Recurly were intriguing options. All three platforms are well-known for their service. However, when you consider what I was currently paying for selling digital products and compared it to the pricing of these companies then you can understand my hesitation.

The company paid a whopping (wait for it)… $16/mo for DPD.

No transaction fees added to PayPal or Stripe. Just a flat $16. Predictable and (in my mind) under-priced. I would have paid more as it was quite reliable.

Knowing this, let’s consider Recurly.

Immediately it would cost multiple-hundreds of dollars per month more. Not a big deal. That’s the cost of doing business and using tech that aligns with business objectives. What kept us from pulling the trigger with Recurly (and the other platforms for that matter) was their expectation of getting a percentage of monthly revenue on top of the hundreds of monthly dollars.

Oh, and $0.10 fee per transaction, which literally makes me laugh… For real? Need that extra ten cents to get by, eh?

Truth told I could get over feeling trolled by the $0.10 per transaction, but I could not get over coughing up a percentage of monthly revenue “just because”. The subscription billing industry is really configured like private health insurance it seems. You pay for the right to pay more and you start to wonder what exactly it is you get in the first place.

Landing on Zoho Subscriptions.

I’ll admit. I initially wasn’t sure about Zoho Subscriptions.

I actually came across them in January 2017 but sort of wrote them off. They seemed like a third-tier option and I was early in my research. However, after months of digging I ultimately came back to them because of their cost structure.

Instead of paying hundreds of dollars a month, Zoho Subscriptions is just $60/mo. No additional transaction fees. And most important, no random requirement that a percentage of monthly revenue needs to be forked-over. A PayPal merchant account was needed to offer that payment option, so that brings the total to $89/mo. Still a far cry from the other options.

So for $89 each month I get pretty much everything a platform like Recurly offers without the major fiscal downsides. I spent the last couple months of last year re-building internal scripts to integrate with Zoho (which has a pretty solid API) and went live with it in 2018.

I would be lying if I said that Zoho Subscriptions was perfect. My biggest frustration is the support that they offer.

For some reason they don’t have a real ticketing system (despite selling a support desk solution…).

Instead, they have phone support but it’s not really that good for technical requests. If you call with technical issues, they raise an internal ticket. You don’t get a ticket number or anything. They just say that they will email you (eventually… and after you follow-up). This gets even more conveluted when you have multiple tickets with them. You don’t have a ticket number so you can’t reference it directly – so you end up having to describe the issue all over again when you call to check on a status.

Calling people for support takes me back to the Dell computer days. Seems antiquated to be honest and can be frustrating.

Another thing that I have noticed about Zoho Subscriptions is that there are so many dependencies that whenever you try to do any kind of “delete” action you are presented with an error message. Honestly, more than I have ever seen in any application… ever.

By way of example, my billing rep had to delete a customer record because they requested we remove all info we had because of GDPR. Okay, so delete the profile right?

Didn’t work.

First my rep had to remove all transactions. Okay, they went to that section and deleted the transactions. Then clicked delete on the profile.

Didn’t work.

Oh, my billing rep had refund credit notes associated with the account, so had to go back and remove those. Clicked delete on the profile.

Didn’t work.

I think you get the point. This kind of time wasting makes me livid. My billing rep had to go through and delete everything, and still it didn’t work. So, they had to call into Zoho support. Wasn’t solved on the phone of course, they had to raise an internal ticket. Turns out we stumbled across a bug in their system so they eventually worked it out so the info could be purged. Still, we would have needed to go through all those delete steps all the same.

After some initial growing pains, the team finally got Zoho Subscriptions working with the company’s internal systems. The interface isn’t going to win any awards, but now there are no problems accepting payment and managing subscriptions. And well, that was the main objective in the end.

So if you’re in the market for an off-WordPress subscription solution then I’d recommend taking a look at Zoho Subscriptions. You can create a development environment for free without the need to provide a credit card. This is a nice bonus as you can build everything out first before needing to invest into the system.

My Rating: 7/10

+Great API and docs

+Easy to set-up

+Best pricing on the market for subscription services

-Support is frustrating, at best

-Odd UX (quirky) for certain tasks

#WordPress

Eventually there comes a moment when you serve your business instead of the other way around.

In just one week I have attended two conferences, been booked as a guest on several podcasts, delivered pro-bono consulting to someone close in my network, hosted my own webinar to help a colleague with the visibility of a project, and delivered a training webinar on e-learning development.

Yes, much of this was quite enjoyable. But I didn’t do it for me. I did it for the business.

Oh, and of course between all of this I am doing day-to-day tasks required to run a business. You know, the stuff like talking with customers, holding team meetings, speaking with potential vendors, and brainstorming other ways to expand our products & brand.

As I look at my calendar at what is coming up I am left wondering: how did I get to this place?

Because I can assure you that things weren’t always like this. I wasn’t always this busy and booked-up with constant demands on my time.

In fact it used to be quite the opposite.

There was once a time when I didn’t have any employees, no one was calling to have me as a guest on any webinar, podcast, or publication. No conferences, meet-ups, or masterminds. My day literally involved answering some pre-sales and support tickets and then going for a run.

Simple.

But like any ambitious Entrepreneur, I wanted more. I worked tiressly and when that “more” was realized, it became obvious that my relationship with the business had forever changed.

Starting a business is like starting a relationship. Everything is exciting at first. You get that “butterfly” feeling in your stomach with the smallest wins, and your day is completely ruined with the smallest setbacks.

As you get used to the entrepreneurial highs and lows you begin to take everything in stride. What used to matter doesn’t anymore. It is just more stable and there is comfort in that stability.

But like any long-term relationship, keeping the flame alive and well takes effort. If you get too comfortable then the business suffers. You have to find new and creative ways to stay motivated.

I think this is something any successful business goes through, and if you have dreams of entrepreneurship then this could very well be your reality… and you might not like it.

Your daily tasks will change, as will your role. As you bring on team members you will have to learn to give up control on things that you have always been responsible for. Trust me, this is hard. It’s something that I am still working on to this day as I learn and grow with the business.

I have now realized that at some point my business stopped working for me, and I instead have started working for my business. The business is bigger than any one person now. That’s actually a good thing, but it has been an adjustment.

This isn’t really talked about in entrepreneurship. Controlling your time is just a fantasy that entrepreneurial publications pitch. If you care about business growth then this will be short-lived. Enjoy the moment because soon everything will change. Not for the worse, but it will change.

#entrepreneurship

The secret to getting someone on the phone to discuss business.

This is a topic that isn’t written about enough, so I figured I’d write a quick post to perhaps help those of you out there who seek time with someone, but you’re not sure how to get it.

In two days, just as many people asked me to get on the phone to discuss questions they had related to their business.

Now, it’s not that I don’t want to help people where I can. If time allows, then I certainly will do some consulting, which is why I replied in kind to each message asking for more details. I also included a modest consultation rate, just to ensure that both parties were prepared to spend the time productively.

I never heard back.

Time and expertise are valuable to both parties.

I’m sure you have heard it before: If you don’t value your time then no one will.

Time is a very personal thing, as we only have so much of it. When it’s gone, it is gone forever.

When I am asked to “jump on the phone for 15 minutes” (sidebar: there’s no such thing as a 15-minute phone call), then it’s more than my time that is being requested. The individual(s) requesting the call want to benefit from my expertise. They want to tap into the many years it took for me to acquire the knowledge I have in the e-learning, online courses, and WordPress space.

There is nothing wrong with that. That’s the entire point of consulting. That’s also why consultants have rates.

For me, if someone that I don’t know comes out of the blue and asks for my time (and I happen to have availability) then I expect them to pay my hourly rate because I know that I will save them a significant amount of time and money over the life of their project.

How to ask for someone’s time.

Asking for a meeting is a bit of an art. Even if you offer to pay someone their rate, they may still say “no” because their schedule is full.

If you are calling because you need their consulting expertise for a project, but they don’t have availability, then try to schedule a short meeting initially (~20 minutes). The point of the call is to just give an overview of your situation, but not to actually get all your questions answered. This shows the individual that you are serious about them and their time.

Naturally, you are compensating them for this short discovery meeting. It’s also important to make it clear that you want to continue working with them, even if they can spare only 30 minutes a week. If they still can’t do it, then ask if they can recommend someone in their network that may be able to help.

If you are requesting a call in order to discuss a business opportunity with someone, then you have a much more difficult task at hand. You can try using the strategy above to get your foot-in-the-door, but getting that person to say “yes” will be a lot more difficult.

To increase the chances of a meeting, make the discussion all about how you can help them, and not the other way around.

A few key points:

• Avoid phrases like “mutual opportunity”. It’s a red flag, and you’ll get shut-down pretty quickly.
• Don’t be cryptic. Say exactly what the opportunity is.
• Be specific and concrete in the benefits you would offer in the deal.

For the last point a good example would be to say something like:

“I’d like to promote your product to 20,000 people, and we normally have a conversion rate of 2%”.

That is more likely to get their attention than a mystery inquiry where a call has to be scheduled in order to “learn more”.

Last but not least. Avoid the NDA crap for the first few meetings. If you need one, then get it signed after both parties agree to take talks a bit further.

One last thing to remember…

Remember that in business, as in life, you will face rejection. What you don’t want to do is take the rejection personally. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about the person’s time – their most personal (and valuable) possession.

If the person you want to have a discussion with denies your request, then keep your head-up and move on. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your own time. 😉

#entrepreneurship

Just like “lifetime support & updates”, renewal discounts are becoming a thing of the past.

When LearnDash first started there were no renewal discounts because, well, there were no renewals.

It’s hard to believe but that was where the WordPress industry was at the time. You paid once for your products and you had lifetime support & updates.

Today you will be hard pressed to find any business running this kind of pyramid-scheme pricing.

Unless of course the business is a pyramid scheme.

Renewals are now common in the WordPress plugin & theme space, but for many years it was normal to provide a discount on the renewal purchase.

I will admit that I have never really questioned why this was the case. If I were to guess, I think that renewal discounts were implemented because the WordPress folks pioneering the renewal pricing structure weren’t sure how people would react to having to renew a license. So, they tried to “soften the blow” a bit by offering a discount.

But just as the WordPress industry needed to evolve away from “forever” pricing, it must also evolve to eliminate discounted renewals.

Discounting renewals unfairly devalues your offering.

When you really think about it, offering discounted renewals doesn’t make business sense.

What I realized is that the discount on our renewals was essentially devaluing our future work. That wasn’t fair to our team who worked so hard on creating and supporting the new functionality.

Now, one argument is that the support burden decreases in year two. I completely disagree with this sentiment for two reasons:

1. New features elicit new support inquiries, no matter when someone purchases.

2. There are people who will always ask for support whether it’s year one, two, or five.

I only speak from our experience but I suspect those of you with software products can attest to a similar trend. I think this trend is part of why WordPress oriented theme & plugin providers are shifting to standard annual renewals.

Full-priced renewals are necessary for WordPress products.

Today we see so many WordPress products shifting to the SaaS sector. I’ll admit that I too have been tempted.

Why?

Because support is far more difficult for WordPress plugins and themes than SaaS offerings.

The number of possible plugin and theme configurations coupled with hosting specifications means that troubleshooting can take a terribly long time for a support rep (and possibly developers should it require deeper investigation).

Just consider this (very common) scenario: you push out an update to your software. Person A updates and is super excited about the improvements. Person B updates and suddenly their theme’s CSS is no longer rendering properly on certain pages. They are mad.

Same update. Two different experiences. Two different reactions. This is common place for WordPress and a reminder of what life is like when you don’t control the technical environment.

To bypass this headache plugin and theme shops have decided that they want to control the environment by SaaS’ing their functionality. While this can be good for both the business and the consumer, it also takes away one of the most attractive things about WordPress in the first place: feature flexibility.

Plugins and themes need to remain non-hosted in order to preserve the core value proposition of WordPress. However, this means higher support costs to the business. The logical conclusion is that the renewals need to be full-priced to offset this burden.

This is a major reason why the discounted renewal program was retired.

Who is doing full-priced renewals?

Actually WordPress businesses of all sizes no longer offer renewal discounts. If anything LearnDash was late to the game…

Off the top of my head:

• GravityForms
• WooCommerce
• WPForms
• HeroThemes
• ThriveThemes
• WP SimplePay Pro
• AffiliateWP
• Restrict Content Pro
• MemberPress

And many, many more.

If you are a plugin or theme provider then have a look around yourself and you may be surprised to see how many companies have shifted their policy. You won’t be alone. Quite the opposite. You will actually have some very visible company (see WooCommerce).

The company experienced practically zero friction in this change. In our case the new policy doesn’t impact existing customers. We honor the contract they agreed to upon purchase as long as they remain with us. Should they end their business relationship, then their legacy pricing expires as well.

I can also put your mind at ease on one thing: removing renewal discounts has had zero negative impact on new customer acquisition.

Not so long from now I suspect that we will all look at renewal discounts in the same light as we look at lifetime support & updates, as an unsustainable policy that hurts both consumers and providers.

#WordPress #entrepreneurship

Last updated on September 8, 2021.

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