Thomas Griffin

thomas-griffin

with Thomas Griffin

Soliloquy Slider and Optin Monster

In this episode of the WP Elevation podcast Thomas Griffin, the man behind Soliloquy Slider and Optin Monster shares with us how important networking is, whether you are a consultant selling website services or a WordPress product company. The success of his WordPress plugins has largely been due to the fact that some of his earliest customers were well-connected influencers like Jared Atchison, Bill Erickson and Syed Balkhi. It was his network that also got him consulting work in the early days for companies such as Wendy’s and HBO.

Watch the Video


Win Prizes

Thomas is giving away a Pro version of the Optin Monster plugin valued at $199. Just leave a comment under the video and tell us the number one feature you would like to see included in the next version of Optin Monster.

Show Notes

Some of the highlights of this episode include:

  • Why building a network is crucial to your business
  • Get out of the building and attend WordPress events
  • The tools Thomas uses to manage his remote team
  • Why everybody should read Getting Things Done by David Allen
  • Hire people who are a good fit your business and then teach them the skills
  • Build products that add value to your customers and then you can charge higher prices

Elevation Round Answers

Here are Thomas’s answers to the questions in our Elevation round. Watch the interview to get the full scoop.

  1. Time management
  2. Network and referrals
  3. Be Apple not Walmart (this is genius)
  4. Give the solution they want, not what you think they need
  5. Salesforce.com
  6. Communication
  7. Do good work and ask (for what?)
  8. Find a platform and own it (seriously this entire episode is worth it just for this one nugget)

Reach Out

You can reach out and thank Thomas on @jthomasgriffin

Suggested Guest

Thomas suggested I interview Jared Atchison a WordPress developer who’s top of his game with consulting and freelancing strategies and Pippin Williamson from Pippin’s Plugins . Jared and Pippin, keep your eyes on your inbox!

Competition Hint

Hint: to enter the competition, leave a comment below and tell us the number one feature you would like to see included in the next version of Optin Monster.

 

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Troy Dean

I am the Founder of Agency Mavericks. The reason I get out of bed every day is because I love helping people to grow their web design or digital marketing businesses. I do this through coaching, creating courses, speaking, consulting and heading up our awesome community.

Join the discussion!

14 Responses

  1. Hi, it would be great to have a Dashboard for multiple sites. One place to to control all the Optin Monster for of all your sites.

    An alternative could be to team up with Dennis from http://mainwp.com/ to develop a MainWP plugin to get all the Optin Montser statistics and control feature in the MainWP Dashboard.

    For Troy: It would be awesome if you could interview Dennis from MainWP. See http://mainwp.com/about/

  2. Hi, it would be great to have a Dashboard for multiple sites. One place to to control all the Optin Monster for of all your sites.

    An alternative could be to team up with Dennis from http://mainwp.com/ to develop a MainWP plugin to get all the Optin Montser statistics and control feature in the MainWP Dashboard.

    For Troy: It would be awesome if you could interview Dennis from MainWP. See http://mainwp.com/about/

  3. Great interview, Troy and Thomas. I saw Thomas speak at WordCamp Chicago 2012 and recently became a Soliloquy customer.

    Would love to see integration with some of the direct-to-fan platforms used by bands (Topspin, Nimbit, FanBridge) that have mailing list functionality.

    I teach music marketing classes at Berklee Online. I also do consulting work with musical artists (bands, as well as solo artists). In all cases, artists are constantly looking to grow their email list. OptinMonster is going to be a plugin I recommend to students and artist clients who have WordPress sites.

  4. Great interview, Troy and Thomas. I saw Thomas speak at WordCamp Chicago 2012 and recently became a Soliloquy customer.

    Would love to see integration with some of the direct-to-fan platforms used by bands (Topspin, Nimbit, FanBridge) that have mailing list functionality.

    I teach music marketing classes at Berklee Online. I also do consulting work with musical artists (bands, as well as solo artists). In all cases, artists are constantly looking to grow their email list. OptinMonster is going to be a plugin I recommend to students and artist clients who have WordPress sites.

  5. Great interview as always. One of my favorite interviews from the WPElevation podcast to date.

    I haven’t used Optin Monster yet but plan on purchasing a license soon.
    I love Bart’s suggestion… a dashboard to review data from multiple sites would be awesome.

  6. Great interview as always. One of my favorite interviews from the WPElevation podcast to date.

    I haven’t used Optin Monster yet but plan on purchasing a license soon.
    I love Bart’s suggestion… a dashboard to review data from multiple sites would be awesome.

  7. Troy Dean says:

    Hi Blake – make sure you check out our video walk-through of how you can use OptinMonster to add more revenue to your business – wpelevation.com/optinmonster

  8. Troy Dean says:

    Hi Blake – make sure you check out our video walk-through of how you can use OptinMonster to add more revenue to your business – wpelevation.com/optinmonster

  9. Great interview. One of my favorites and I’ve heard a few. I’ve just had a client asking me to install OptinMonster for him. I would love the Pro version rather than the Plus or Basic that I will buy otherwise.

    Number one feature I would like to see (difficult as I haven’t used it yet) but I would try to move into LeadPages territory and supply a button which opens an optin box in a lightbox (unless you do that already) or move into the landing/squeeze page territory and start offering x number of templates with the different versions.

    Anyway, just wanted to say great episode and I’m enjoying the podcasts and the mailouts 🙂

  10. Great interview. One of my favorites and I’ve heard a few. I’ve just had a client asking me to install OptinMonster for him. I would love the Pro version rather than the Plus or Basic that I will buy otherwise.

    Number one feature I would like to see (difficult as I haven’t used it yet) but I would try to move into LeadPages territory and supply a button which opens an optin box in a lightbox (unless you do that already) or move into the landing/squeeze page territory and start offering x number of templates with the different versions.

    Anyway, just wanted to say great episode and I’m enjoying the podcasts and the mailouts 🙂

  11. Gin McInneny says:

    Congratulations Blake! Thomas has awarded you the prize of the ProVersion Optin Monster Plugin!
    We’ll be in touch shortly to organise the details.

  12. Gin McInneny says:

    Congratulations Blake! Thomas has awarded you the prize of the ProVersion Optin Monster Plugin!
    We’ll be in touch shortly to organise the details.

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