Solspace Business And Marketing Podcast

Kenny Meyers (kennymeyers.com) is a good friend of mine. He’s someone who thinks very clear, salient and opinionated thoughts about software development, the internet, working, companies, being human and such things. On this podcast he and I speak about his work at Adobe, Facebook and his opinions on the state of the ExpressionEngine community as well as what it means to be a happy developer.

Kyle Cotter of Cotter Interactive and I talk about business in this podcast. Since he’s so new to the business of owning a web design and development firm I ask him how he’s getting started, how he’s growing his client list, how he’s getting new business, where’s he’s getting help, and more. You will be surprised at how together and self-possesed this gentleman is. And I think, like me, you will learn a thing or two.

Three days ago Craft launched. In about 3 weeks we’ll be headed to Peers Conference in Chicago to talk about it, Laravel, Statamic, ExpressionEngine and all things web dev. In this podcast we discuss the Peers Conference which is geared toward web pros who may be expanding their toolkit as well as their professional lives. Jessica D’Amico, the organizer behind Peers, talks in more depth about her vision for the event. Brandon Kelly talks at length with us about why Craft was built and what some of the governing principles will be for it as it emerges. Lastly we talk…

Give something away for free, but do it tactically. Give something away for free in order to give potential clients an easier entry point into a trusting relationship with you and your company. This was one of the lessons that Jae Barclay of ejaeDesign learned once his company launched Create-ee, a training resource for ExpressionEngine. Potential students can take a one hour introductory EE class and sign up for paid classes later or even become clients of the design and development side of the house. We all know that a free sample is a lead generator, but free samples can…

In the second in a series of conversations with leaders in the ExpressionEngine community I talk with Erik Reagan of Focus Lab, LLC of Savannah Georgia. Erik has been a prominent member of the community for several years now and has distinguished himself through insightful presentations at various conferences. As an EE expert and gifted business manager, Erik speaks with clarity on questions of structure, ethics, priorities and focus. In this talk we discuss the importance of how the sales process serves to shape a company. And as such, how important it is that the sales process be carefully crafted,…

On a recent EE Help Chat we started talking about how different companies go about managing and filling their sales pipelines. We talked about promoting, networking, advertising, developing leads and so on. I finally felt comfortable saying out loud that I didn't think I knew much about going out and getting brand new business, in other words, making rain. I found during the chat that other people felt the same way. I thought the topic deserved more time and attention and I thought it would be fun to do some informal interviews with people in the ExpressionEngine community. The first…