Projects

Lumberock

Signed this contract last week. Project kicks off next Tuesday.

State Election Board

Sent the proposal to Sherri and Hope before I left this morning. Loom video and actual proposal were emailed. I copied Joel Perkins on the email since he'll be the one holding the contract. I think they have a meeting next Tuesday to confirm this with their board. $20K website ($2K fee to Joel). This will be a fairly simple build. They have a design system that they have to use. They only need a few pages and about 4 CPTs. Getting those connected will be simple. I envision scope creep though.

Aires Tech

I designed a new product landing page before I left and submitted a Loom video of the design to Bobby G. It's not mobile-first and I got to get that into my head. He brought up a really cool website that he wants to mimc. Sounds like he wants to REALLY diverge from their current website style for this.

Consume Media

Got the website over to them for QA before I left. We do need to schedule training with them though. I want that to be in-person the next week or two. I feel like it'll go a lot better that way.

Primo and ASP

Got their homepage updated enough to send them a screnshot, but we are still waiting on content from them in order to really move forward.

ATS

We have a LOT of potential work in their retainer right now. There are three websites that need to be migrated into their multisite environment that need some serious thought put into them. I was texting Brandon Adams about the simple fact that these are DEFINITELY not like the other sites we've helped migrate in. These are three companies (that work together) that ATS purchased. Between the three sites, there are about 900 pieces of content that I have ZERO idea of what to do with. We need to get them to do content plans for sitemapping so we can start figuring out our migration strategy. Brandon will probably need to be involved because of his knowledge of ATS and SEO requirements.

Local Jungle

Gavin showed my Loom video of the "coupon manager" to the owner and he really liked what he saw. In fact, I got approval to use more hours than my original allotment to continue building it. I'm STOKED because I think this tool will really help them out in the long-run as their current devs just have ZERO idea what they are doing. I need to bucket about 3-4 hours of dedicated heads-down time to knock this out (once Gavin tells me the specific direction he wants to go).

$1,800/mo retainer. All my time (2 hours/week by default).

TAP

I have no idea what's going on with the .NET migration. Nothing bad, just I haven't been a part of the last couple meetings. ($3,000/mo retainer -- might drop to $1,500 in the summer. They don't see the need for as many hours, but our goal is to get eCommerce back up and running and help them with their marketing efforts on their site)

Aeon Laser

We kicked them off yesterday. Andrew has a lot of what he needs to get it done. $15K project over about 6-8 weeks. Andrew is gonna do most of the heavy lifting (Shopify setup, applying my Style Guide, and connecting in apps). Samson will handle the product imports and content. When this project is over, I told Steven (main POC) that we can help out with growth on a quarterly basis. Starting at $1,500/mo, but averaging between $4-5K/mo. He seemed very excited about this because he views this website build as Phase 1.

Pool Defence

I built out the start of a tool to do content import for 200 SEO pages. Studio Hawk is their SEO company, but building pages within the right style isn't their forte. I don't want this dude to pay a ton to migrate over all of his content. I did a quick test in an hour yesterday and I feel confident about the strategy that I came up with. This is only a $5K, quick turn project, but I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

Things from yesterday

Met up with Edward Addo

Chris DuBois introduced me to Edward when I asked him about needing a new senior developer. The conversation with Edward was fantastic. While he hasn't touched WP in a while, he has done a lot of stuff with HubSpot and seems to know what he's talking about. I'd love to give him a shot on Lumberock. He seems to understand code way better than Samson. I'm going to have to go into "teaching mode" and be fine with errors and QA. I am tired and I need the help.

Local Jungle Consulting

I'm excited about this. It's interesting -- I'm not as excited about the dev work for some other clients, but this one I am. I think because it's building something new. It has a short life span and that gets me excited. I get to be a freakin' Navy Seal -- drop in, do the job, and get out.

Built out a style guide tool

We had our kick off with Aeon, and I needed to show them a Style Guide to get their sign off on. Rather than doing it in Figma, I programmed a mini-app for it. Even had it build some basic building blocks to show things in context. It was easy, and adding in new clients into this will be cake walk. I want to take it for a spin with Lumberock next as they have a more complicated style guide setup. I do need to get their fonts from them because they are definitely all custom.

Other Stuff

Agency Leaders' Field Trip (XÜD)

I'm actually writing this on a plane to NYC. I am absolutely terrified of this event lol. I don't know what it is. It's just gonna be a hang out. No speakers, no requirements. Just sitting around and talking. I think because it's so open-ended with free time, that feels daunting to me. Are people actually going to want to talk to each other all day on Friday?! I'm not as worried about bowling on Thursday. That'll be easy (just like Top Golf was easy). I also think there is this mental block that this event is SO much more expense than anything I can do in Atlanta so there is a smidge of regret. But, that's OK. This is going to be a great learning experience no matter what.

General cost:

• Bowling $3,000 (split, so I only owe $1,500 ... and I got a sponsor for my side, so it's dropped to $1,000)
• Hotel (3 nights at $400/night; but, I have a buddy staying with me for two nights, so he'll cover $400 in total)
• Train rides: $50
• Food: 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 2 dinners (call it $300)
• Ubers: $150
• What else am I missing...?

Interviewing a content import person

The Lumberock website will require 50 pages of content import. We can't do that with our current team. Samson isn't creative. Dawn is too expensive. Andrew can do it, but it's not worth his time (even if he can use AI to assist with it). I'm interviewing someone David Feldman and the Wiser sisters have both used and both loved working with. Given the Wisers' worked with her, I assume she is a decent cost. I'm hoping this will unlock some of my time because I did a LOT of this work for Consume and Primo.

I am tired

I feel like I have a lot bouncing around in my brain. However, I feel really good about where things are. I need to sit down with finances in April and really look to see how sustainable a lot of this is. Even though our cashflow has been a bit funky this year, we should still be on target for a profitable year this year.

Gamifying the project management process

I have no idea how to make the process of building a website feel more tangible. People don't feel like they have anything for their website until the final third of the process (full website QA). It's also hard to get content from clients when designs aren't done (... but it's also hard to get it from them ahead of time when they don't have a design to base it off of). It's a "chicken or the egg" kinda moment.

How do we make each part feel tangible and important? The website build process is long and cumbersome, and requires a number of people. How do we keep people bought in on the whole process?

This is a major reason why I think my job won't go away entirely anytime soon. Yes, people can build sites with AI. But, everyone that I know who has built a full, multi-page, multi-function marketing site with AI have not enjoyed the process. What I hear sounds very similar to the early days of Wix/Squarespace. There are some founders who are game to just "grind it out" and get it done. But, that didn't stop my business from thriving.

However, with that said, my role will change. I just don't know how yet. I think that's another reason I like the Local Jungle consulting contract. I'm seeing how Gavin (a non-web person) is managing an entire website process, and it NEEDS actual developers to build out a good process. What he's gotten from devs who are not as skilled has sucked. It's caused his process to be long and riddled with QA. He's now coming around to see the need for more automation, and he wouldn't have got their querying AI by himself.

I also realize that just* being a consultant isn't enough either. I wouldn't have been able to get this consulting gig without the decades of experience I have -- I also wouldn't have gotten this extension to build without my knowledge. Is the timing of my life track actually perfect? I've been in the business long enough to know what I'm building, but early enough to where I can pivot alongside AI into something more valuable?

Content Day at AI Marketing Pulse (May 7th)

We are getting the ball rolling well for this Content Day. Aby Varma is putting us up on stage. Oh shoot... I need to email out my Content Day people their videos. And, I need to reach back out to him about the AEX website. I'm not as gung-ho on that project though.

I am excited about this Content Day because I will NOT have to tap my network about it. It's all coming from Aby's network and the people attending this event (about 150-200 attendees).

Same thing with Javier Santana. He came to my last Content Day, loved the concept, and wanted to bring it to his "Futures Of..." group. When I talked to him last time, the group has become a bit stale. He wants to use this as a way to get things kick started again. He has about 40-50 people on his list -- lots of really high-ranking marketing folks. While we may not "pack out the day" with shoots for him, the quality of the people will be high.

Next co-hosted events

Leo Falkenstein said they'd co-host an event. But before I dive into that, here are my rules:

• My events need a co-host. I don't want to pull all the weight
• The goal is that I bring 5-6 people and my co-host brings 5-6 people
• When we invite our respective people, we invite them with something like this: "We're hosting a social event for marketers. We know that the goal of these is to meet new people and to make the event small enough to where you feel like you CAN meet most of the people there. So, I'm inviting you as one of my six invites. My co-host is doing the same. To ensure we are all meeting new people, I'd love for you to bring one friend with you. If everyone does this, it's almost a guarantee that there will be 5-10 people at the event that you don't know. Wanna join?"

So, the next step is to follow up with Leo and figure out something fun to do that involves people talking and some type of activity. It doesn't/shouldn't be expensive. When I did Top golf, not many people actually swung clubs. However, without Top Golf as the backdrop, I don't think I would have gotten as many people coming (aka. I don't think a mixer at a bar works well for this).

I need to find places that have activities but aren't super-expensive. I'd like to keep the total cost around $1,500 (in total) for each event if possible.

I also have a few other opportunities for co-hosted events that don't follow my normal pattern:

• Jaci Lund wants to do a workshop with me (she does branding and I do web -- people leave with a messaging guide and a homepage wireframe). This would be in-person in Atlanta somewhere.
• Chris DuBois wants to co-host a webinar with me very similar to Jaci's structure. We also need to come up with an offer for this webinar.
• Lee Densmer (from the 10x Solo Community), wants to have me on her podcast. I need to reach back out to her about this.

Also, the Functional Loft (where I did Content Day #2 with Kiera in March) was super-cheap to rent out and the owners were really nice. I want to do more stuff here. The space is kinda small, so that has to be taken into account. I don't know if it would work well for Jaci and mine's workshop, but it may if we only have 10-15 people. It would feel very cozy.

Magic

It's magic that you can hop into an elongated metal tube, sleep for a while, and wake up in an entirely different state. Super-glad we can fly planes to places.

The Goals

Intangible goal

Fun. Everything comes back to this. I don't know how we want to dedicate metrics to this, but the goal is to tie everything back to fun.

• Websites: How do we make the process more fun? How do we work with people who view their website not as a monolith (or sacred cow), but as one that can be messed with? Something that is malleable. Something to experiment with. I started off the year with some experiments on my own site. I want to get back to doing that, but haven't had the time (cobbler's shoes, eh?)
• Events: I want to host more social events this year. Top Golf with Sophie was step one. The NYC trip is step 2. I want to get a co-host and host a social event every other month. Shouldn't be hard and doesn't have to be expensive. I already got 40 people on my mailing list in Atlanta looking for stuff like this.
• Education: How can I make education fun? How can I do more webinars to expand my reach? Can I make this a regular part of my rhythm?

My outbound motions are basically going to be increasing the surface area of my visibility. Be on podcasts. Do webinars. Run events. Get people in rooms together.

Financial

Annual revenue

• $350K is the minimum
• $450K should yield good profit
• $500K+ should make it the most profitable year I've had in a long, long time

Client concentration

I really want to come up with an offer that is in the realm of $500/mo, doesn't take up a ton of my time, but is NOT maintenance work. Mickey Mellen does that. I want to be strategic. Even if that means giving up some of my time (an hour or so a month). Having that accountability session is huge. I work with Chris DuBois because I get time with him to move the needle. I just don't know what that is relative to website stuff. I like the idea of tying in the events that I do with this, but I also want to keep my events "open for all" the people I have on my list.

Win Atlanta

I reached out to Paul Carpenter about the NYC Agency Leaders' Field Trip a while ago to see if knew anyone in NYC that he could intro me to. He loved the concept of what I was doing in New York, but didn't know anyone up there. His next words were:

"Man, I commend you for doing this. I'm just trying to win Atlanta right now."

Dang.

I don't feel the New York trip is a waste of time at all, Paul's words are true for me, too. I haven't won Atlanta. I do very little work inside the 404 (... or 770 or 678). I know a number of people here, but most of my work is in other states. I need to be focusing on Atlanta. I need to win Atlanta.

Andy Milligan actually mentioned an idea that he had to me. He's starting up a small agency mastermind in Columbus, OH. He has a small group of 4-6 agency owners that get together monthly and hash out what they are working on and what they want to dive deep in. I wonder if this is something I could tack into my list of things for Atlanta. I've talked to a few people who would be interested in something like this (Chantelle Catania and her business partner have expressed interest).

Paul Carpenter is also a "super-connector" and someone I should tap into for connections for my events. Someone also brought up Elliott Brown (former 19York person; had lunch with him spring 2025 and we walked the Beltline a bit together). He also knows a ton of people and is very socially active. Should invite him to some of my marketing events.

Podcast Queue

• The Style Guide tool as a design-to-dev bridge: Built a mini app that generates style guides and basic building blocks in context — no Figma required. Showed it to Aeon on their kickoff and it landed. The potential: if these blocks export directly into ACF, it "drastically decreases the time it takes to get to development." The risk: "this could get us stuck in a design rut where most of our stuff looks almost exactly the same."
• The "Navy SEAL" consulting model: Drop in, do the job, get out. Local Jungle's consulting contract is exciting because it's building something new with a short lifespan. Compare that to long client builds where energy fades. Why does starting feel so much better than maintaining?
• Pre-event terror and why open-ended time feels daunting: On a plane to NYC, terrified of an event with no speakers, no agenda — just talking. "Are people actually going to want to talk to each other all day on Friday?!" The mental block that unstructured events are harder than structured ones, even though TopGolf (also unstructured) worked perfectly.
• Keeping up with agency partners when you suck at CRM: Grace Nelson, potential pipeline of impact report sites. The problem: "I have the ability to drastically grow my network right now, but I don't know how to keep track of people." Tried building an AI mini-app for it. Still doesn't know if he'll use any CRM.