Dear clients:

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry for breaking every single “good business” rule when it comes to you guys, my clients, the one necessity that any business has to have.  I’ve not responded to emails, tweets, or phone calls; I’ve not gotten projects to you in a timely manner; I’ve stalled and done everything I can to “buy time”, or just missed the deadlines all together.  My blog, save a few posts here and there, has gone largely unpopulated with new content because I’ve been so busy and stressed out.  I’ve betrayed trust, burnt bridges, and ruined relationships with people whom I cared about dearly, all because of a few bad decisions on my part.

I’ve paid for those mistakes.  I’ve refunded project fees and lost clients.  I’ve had to endure embarrassing ”break up calls” with clients, “dear john” breakup letters, and even tweets from clients wondering what’s going on, where I am, and when stuff will get finished.

I want to let you guys in on a few dirty secrets of mine… I know that I’ve caused a lot of problems for people, but I want to get these off my chest.

• I’m no good at time management.
• I absolutely am horrible about answering emails and tweets.
• I let small projects consume my life while large projects go untouched, simply because I get consumed in the tiny details.
• I’m sometimes lazy, choosing not to work and do leisure activities.
• I got comfortable with how things were, and got stagnant.

People skills notwithstanding, without fantastic people in my life (like Holly) to help me with the business side, I would have gone out a long time ago.  It’s because of her that I even remember to send out invoices, estimates, and follow up with clients.  But she’s been busy with the kids, who need her much more than I do, so I slacked off on some important areas in my bsuiness.  And I paid the price – I lost projects, I lost clients, and I lost friends.

WordPress was never the issue.  It’s still an unyielding passion for me.  I love taking a tool a fantastic as WordPress and doing things out of the ordinary, and even downright magical sometimes.  I love stepping into the designer role and making beautiful artwork that people all over the world have a chance to see.  And I love stepping into the developer role and making that art as functional as it can be – stepping beyond the boundaries of a typical  blog and into something so much more.   I never want to give up that passion.  The fact that I am able to spend the hours a week I do fashioning themes for people is a gift that I took for granted.  I lost sight of what was important – the fact that I’m getting to do something I love for a living.  I let the problems of the world get in my way, and I let it consume me to a point of lethargic behavior, even to the point of downright apathy.

The point is, I let myself get comfortable.  I stopped trying so hard, and because of it I got complacent, which is the worst thing you can do as a business owner.

So, if you’re a(n ex) client of mine, and you’ve been frustrated with me because of missed deadlines or lack of communication: I’m sorry.  If you got crappy service or work from me and I didn’t help you fix it: I’m sorry.  And especially if you’re a friend of mine, whether I met you online or in real life, that I’ve done wrong to because of how I became: I’m very sorry.  I want to repair those bridges, and this is (what I feel like is, anyway) the first step for me.

I welcome any suggestions that you guys have as to how you deal with these things, but I’ve started looking into other solutions (more effective use of BaseCamp and other time management SaaS products, scheduling out my day more efficiently, and rewarding myself for completing projects [I like incentives, what I can I say?).

I’ve made mistakes, but I’m picking myself up, starting at this point, and doing the only thing that I know how to do: move forward.  Studionashvegas, as of this point, is reborn.  I’m sitting down with Holly and a few other people in the next coming week to talk strategy and what comes next, but whatever it is, know that the studionashvegas you knew is gone, and what’s coming will be so much more.

Thanks for reading such a long post.  And once again, I’m very sorry.  All I can say otherwise is that I’m moving onward and upward, and things can only get better from here.

Sincerely,
Mitch Canter

I will start this by saying that I am the MOST unorganized person I know.  I don’t know what it is, but the idea of organization just drives me up a wall.  I am the “organized chaos” or “piles of files” kind of guy, you know?  It served me well… up until I started taking on more clients.  Now, I’m realizing that organization is going to make or break my business.

My Actual Outlook Calendar

I’ve gotten BaseCamp to keep up with my projects, and it’s served me well, but I’m in need of something more.  Rather than toil through Google and find random people’s thoughts on their “10 best ways to get organized” I thought I’d poll the audience and see what YOU use to stay on track.  Any and all ideas are considered, so don’t be afraid to speak up.

And thanks in advance for all of the great ideas!

I love helping people out with WordPress.  Sure, I don’t use the official channels like the forums or stack exchange, but I love helping out people on Twitter.  I do lurk on the aforementioned services, though, and unfortunately have noticed that there’s a recurring trend that pops up from time to time that really bothers me.

A new community member, or someone looking for a question to be answered will post the question to the email list.  No more than a few minutes later one of a few responses will filter in:

1. A link to the google search term relating to the right keywords
2. A link to “let me google that for you” with the search term highlighted
3. Some egotistical remark about how they should search elsewhere first for it
4. A response that the question is best asked elsewhere (another forum, or somewhere similar)

I have to bite my tongue to keep from speaking out of term, but we’re now at an age in the digital cycle where telling people to “Google it” isn’t working anymore.  If people are asking questions about WordPress, and found their way to one of those places, chances are they’re smart enough to realize they could have Googled it.  The number one misconception is that these people are looking for information.

It could be further from the truth.

These people don’t want information – they want wisdom.

My friend Jeff Brown posted this on his twitter stream, and it really got me thinking:

It’s totally true.  Kids as young as pre-K can Google something with the proper training, so why would a grown adult come to seek the advice of an expert if they could look it up themselves?  They want a real life person’s take on it.  Searches can be manipulated and gamed; a person’s opinion has more reason to be trusted if they have shown reason to be trusted in the past.

So, in short, don’t be a prick or a jerk if someone’s coming onto your turf with a few questions.  It’s a great opportunity to show just how knowledgeable and wise you are on the subject.  From personal experience, one answered question could even turn into a future client or even more – you just never know.

OK – so I’ve tallied up the results from Tuesday and came up with some really interesting results.  So, I’m going to do something a little fun.  Here are your favorite plugins as determined by the comments, my favorite plugins, and the top 5 plugins from the WordPress repository; let’s see how they match up (plugins aren’t in any order – just the top 5).

Voter’s Choice

1. NextGEN Gallery
2. Akismet
3. WordPress DB Backup
4. All In One SEO Pack
5. Google XML Sitemaps

Mitch’s Favorites

1. All In One SEO Pack
2. Kieran O’Shea’s Calendar
3. W3 Total Cache
4. Widget Logic
5. WP-Cufón

Top 5 WordPress Plugins from the Repository

FYI, these are the top 5 listed plugins from the “popular” tab under the installer.

1. Akismet
2. All In One SEO Pack
3. NextGEN Gallery
4. Contact Form 7
5. Fast Secure Contact Form

WordPress released their press release about WordPress 3.0.4.  As soon as it did, I saw the WordPress hashtag on twitter light up – people complaining about having yet another security update.  I hate to get on a soapbox about this, but seriously – you’re going to complain about people working to make your site as secure as it could be?  There are people working around the clock sometimes to make sure that your site doesn’t get hacked, and most of the files that are affected by this are files that plugins won’t touch, so there’s little to no chance (unless they  mention it specifically) that there are plugins that won’t work with an update.

It takes two clicks to update and secure WordPress – that’s 20-30 seconds out of your day to put up a wall against hackers diving into your site and messing things up.  And if they did get in, I vantage to say that most of these same people would be complaining about how insecure WordPress is.

Besides, look at Drupal or Joomla – how many security patches have THEY put out, and they’re more like Swiss cheese sometimes than a CMS.  Not that they’re bad – they just don’t have the core following of people making sure things are smooth and safe.

Anyway, the new version is out – go update and make yourself safe against the cyberterrorists of the world.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter lately, you may have noticed that I’ve nearly completely ditched Windows all together.  I wanted to see if (without missing a beat work-wise) I could switch my laptop over to Linux, and virtualize any pieces of the puzzle that I can’t do natively in Linux.

After nearly a full week, I can safely say that I haven’t looked back.

The process was really simple:

1. I backed up all of my files to a hard disk
2. I downloaded, burnt, and rebooted into the Ubuntu 10.04 Live CD.
3. I replaced the main partition of my laptop with Ubuntu and booted up for the first time.
4. I installed Virtualbox and installed a copy of Windows 7, just for a few select programs.

Honestly, it was cake after that – everything has worked out perfectly, and the content-consuming part of my live has gotten so much easier.  I use Windows 7 for 3 2 program (sets): Adobe CS4, Live Writer, and iTunes (turns out Rhythmbox is not only capable of syncing to the iPhone, but it’s faster).

So, yeah – everything works, it’s super fast, and I won’t look back.  Once I figure out how to install Adobe Suite and LiveWriter (or an appropriate equivalent) then I’ll stop using Windows altogether.

I do have one complaint: Linux blogs are all ugly, minus a select few – come on guys, Linux does not have to be ugly – look at Ubuntu, after all!

No, don’t worry, this isn’t one of those esoteric posts to be shared by those who have lived through an event such as 9/11 or whatnot.  This is more like a literal posed question to people who I think deserve to give us an answer. ~Mitch

During and after the flood that hit Nashville in 2010, I stayed glued to WKRN (and the WKRN twitter account) to see what was going on with friends and constituents who were trapped or lost stuff in the flood.

Our local news stations (WKRN, WSMV, and NewsChannel5) did a bang up job keeping everyone informed, up to date, and out of harms way as best as possible.  I mean, when flood waters get into a 500-year flood plain (where floods MIGHT happen once every 500 years) then there’s really only so much planning can do.  But they were vigilant, their news anchors showing signs of fatigue as the night went on.

The twitter stream was on in full force too.  Citizen journalists and news team twitter accounts relayed and received information at supersonic speed.  @tndotcom, @nashvillest, @wkrn and their network of followers spread the news of what was going on to their followers (sometimes) faster than the news stations were.

So… local news stations? A+.  Local Twitter account users? A+.

National Media… White House… Where were you?

It’s 2:15pm CST on May 3rd.  We have only a little coverage on FoxNews and (for most of the morning) neither CNN nor anyone else really was having much to say about it.  Sure, right now there’s concern of the giant gulf oil spill.  I’ll give em that one. But when a bomb almost explodes in New York, a whole day ago, you report on it and go on to something that has a little more meaning.  We had record level flooding, people getting forced out of their homes, and even buildings being swept down major interstates.

Where were you?

We sent a request into the Federal government on Saturday, knowing full well we’d need it after all of the heavy downpours (and we will need help with the rebuilding efforts).

Where were you?

We’ve been watching as friends and family are displaced, sent to shelters, or even lost their lives and livelihoods as the Cumberland river swept over Nashville to levels no one has seen in nearly 80 years.

And what did we get?  2nd billing under a “Happy Birthday Singing Dog” and no word from the Commander-in-Chief.

Where were you?

I guess it’s been enough time to where I can change my question up a bit:

Where are you?

Is it because we’re a red state?  Is it because we aren’t a New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, or other major city?  Is it because we fly under the scandal radar (for the most part) and keep quiet as our citizens prosper and our startups continually do great things?

I do want to go back on a statement I keep hearing: Traditional media is dead – social media is where things are going.  I want to change it a bit:

National media is dead.  Local media, and social media, are the blend of information services we need to survive, and as long as there are television sets we will still rely on our local news teams.

Why? For the same reasons mom-and-pop businesses thrive when chain stores suffer: community.  No one knows our community like we do, and no one knows what we need to hear like the people in it.  Our local news anchors are the community – they live here, they work here, and they have stake in what goes on because its happening to them too.  Some dude sitting at a news desk 1000 miles away – He hasn’t got a clue.

So, hats off to everyone who got us through this mess – i forgot a lot of people, but you know who you are.  And for those of you outside of Nashville that don’t care: yes, we’re still here.  We’re drying out our socks and shoes (and boots) and getting ready to step up and continue to do our thing.

With you, or without you.

Because, the question still bears asking:

Where are you?

Today has been one heck of a whirlwind day.

I stopped by a sushi restaurant in Franklin today to eat lunch with holly when I realized that my inbox had blown up in the 10 minutes between my first meeting and lunch.  All of them were twitter followers, so I checked into Tweetie to see what was up.

Turns out, some people REALLY liked the #failcock design I made a few nights ago.

I am stoaked.  I’ve never had anything like this happen, and i’m literally here shaking with excitement.  I can’t believe a simple little diversion, a fun little art project, turned into this.

Thanks to everyone who has shared this.  It means a lot to me, and I’m glad that so many people have had so many positive things to say about it.

And make sure to watch the show tonight.  What’s happening to Conan O’Brien is unfair, unjust, and I think that whatever he does (*cough* web only show would be awesome *cough*) will be super successful.  Just, make sure that if you’re supporting him now you support him later – he deserves every bit.

So, there’s a new Chic-Fil-A opening up down the road from my house on Thursday morning.  The first 100 people there get a voucher/card/something worth free chick-fil-a for a year.  Now, I’m not one to pass up free food, so anyone who wants to can come down and camp with me.  I’ll have my laptop and some power cables (I hope) so we can have a good ole’ time. 

By the way, at around $5 a meal, every day, that’s about 2200 worth of food.  That means that Chic-Fil-A is giving away at max $22,000 worth of good – not bad for a story that people will tell over, and over, and over to their friends, right?

So, who’s with me?

Photo by Adria Richards

Holly is driving and I’m on the way back home from WordCampAtlanta (well, from staying in Montgomery with her family for a while) and I’m finally getting a chance to reflect and collect my thoughts and what I learned.  WCATL was a fantastic event, and with over 400 people there the number of people I met, saw, and interacted with is too many to put into one post (also, thanks again to everyone who dropped by my presentation – it was a good crowd and I’m glad to hear that you got something out of it!)

But, I’m the first to admit I learn something every time I head to a conference, and this time was no exception. Here are a few of the high points I learned from WordCampAtlanta:

1. WordPress 3.0 is going to be Killer!

Jane Wells (@JaneForShort) gave a fantastic presentation on the future of WordPress, and the future is looking awesome. From the WPMU + WP Merger to a new theme for 3.0, lots of exciting things are in the works.  Her slides are below:

2. The PHP and WordPress communities can learn a lot from each other.

@technosailor gave a fantastic presentation (re: lecture in a discussion-y way) on how the core communities of both the PHP world and the WordPress world could stand to play nicer to each other.  Personally, I think that the problem comes from WP people starting out in WordPress and learning PHP (top down) instead of learning PHP then jumping into WordPress (bottom up). 

3. People will do just about anything for a copy of “Crush It”.

‘Nuff said.

4. The more I talk about WordPress at a conference, the more I realize I know nothing about WordPress.

Getting to meet giants like John Saddington (@Human3rror), talking to Jane Wells, and hearing Mark Jaqueth (@markjaqueth) made me realize that not only do I still have a lot to learn, but by not helping to make WordPress better I am hurting the platform more than I am helping it.  I submitted my first patch to the TRAC, but that’s only a small step in making WordPress even better than it already is.

5. The Atlanta WordPress scene is hopping!

There are a lot of people in Atlanta who are passionate about WordPress, and the community there is fantastic (how could 400 people otherwise justify getting out in the ice and show to come to the SCAD to hear about WordPress, yes?).  I was glad to meet a lot of you, and I hope we can keep in touch.