Business Roundup Week Ending October 18

Responding to “The Recent Unpleasantness” in WordPress as an Agency Owner

• One of the best things I’ve done for my mental health since the pandemic is to disconnect from the daily barrage of political news. For me, the constant vitriol is just not good – I’m healthier when I don’t saturate myself in the drama.
• However, I have noticed over the last few weeks that I have broken my own rule when it comes to “the recent unpleasantness” in WordPress. I have spent more time on X in the last month than I have in the last year. And for me, this is just not good.
• I need to stay informed about the big picture of what’s happening, but I don’t need to get sucked into and saturated by the (often petty) back and forth.
• As I sat with these issues for a while several days ago, I settled on the following priorities that I have found helpful for me. Maybe they will be helpful for you, too.
• Avoid the Drama
  • I plan to check in on the issues a 2-3 times a week – that’s plenty. The additional noise only creates anxiety for me.
  • While I have opinions on what certain people and companies are doing, I plan to avoid wading into the muck of social media.
• Focus on Business
  • I plan to place my focus only on the items affected by the current situation that directly affect my business.
  • So far, thankfully, that’s not many. Unfortunately, I know that’s not the situation for many others.
  • I care deeply about WordPress, but most of the issues are out of my control. My business and my clients have to be my top priority.
• Prepare an Explanation
  • So far, none of my clients have asked me about the issues facing WordPress, but that may soon change.
  • I know several agency owners whose clients have asked, and heard about others who have lost business because of it.
  • Currently, I don’t plan to proactively communicate with my clients about the mess we’re seeing (there’s no need for that yet), but I will have a basic explanation ready for what’s going on if I am asked.

Growing from Solo to Agency: The Challenging Path and Whether to Take It

• The journey from soloprenuer to an agency is challenging, and it’s not the right path for everyone.
• So how do you decide what’s right for you? Ultimately it comes down to your own priorities and how you envision your business fitting into the rest of your life.
• If you’re trying to decide whether to grow or not, thankfully our community has a wealth of experienced people who have taken the journey and are generous with the wisdom they have gained in the process.
• Karena Kreger (OpenSky Agency in Florida) and Gina Deaton (ClockworkWP in Georgia) co-presented on this topic at WordCamp US, and it’s a must-watch. Scaling Your Agency: Lessons Learned the Hard Way.
• I invited Karina to dig deeper into the topic with me in a Solid Academy livestream recently as well.
• If you prefer to read rather than watch, Abby Wood recently published an excellent guide on The Admin Bar blog that answers the question: Is It Time to Hire Employees and Build a Team?
• As you consider the topic for yourself, lean into the WordPress community, including a helpful group of agency owners in our own Post Status Slack group’s #agency channel.

ChatGPT Rolls Out Canvas Interface – Have You Tried it for Coding? 🤯

• Open AI recently released “Canvas” a new interface that makes working with GPT-4o even more amazing.
• To access it, select the “GPT-4o with Canvas” as the model from the dropdown on the ChatGPT website.
• Canvas opens a new pane beside the chat thread, allowing you to collaborate on the output.
• If there’s a part of the output that you want to address, highlight it, and a chat bubble allows you to chat specifically about your selection. Updates appear in the canvas view.
• Creating code using Canvas is a huge improvement from the standard ChatGPT interface as you can point out exactly the part of the code that concerns you.
• You can also easily edit it the output yourself as you collaborate, add comments, and quickly fix issues. It really is so much nicer.
• Currently, Canvas is only available in the browser for paid users. It does not work in the ChatGPT Mac App.
• Have you tried Canvas yet? Read about it in their product release, or give it a try in your browser.

Worth a Look

• Firefox has a critical vulnerability rated 9.8 out of 10 that is being actively exploited. Make sure you’re up to date.
• OpenAI is stopping hackers using their platform who are trying to disrupt elections in the USA and around the world. AIToolReport.com says they have reduced the tracking/analyzing of problematic content from days to minutes!
• Zack Pyle has launched Snippet Nest, a nice collection of code snippets for WordPress, ACF, Beaver Builder, and more. Who doesn’t love a good snippet library?