Genesis Shapers Update: May 2021

David Vogelpohl: Hello everyone and welcome to the genesis Community live cast this is our genesis shapers recap episode for may .

David Vogelpohl: And we’re going to be covering the shapers meeting studio press of big changes, you probably saw the announcements by now around big changes coming to studio press.

David Vogelpohl: So, right after that announcement, we had a meeting with the shapers meeting or and we’re really looking forward to recapping that with you here today.

David Vogelpohl: For those who don’t know me, my name is David vogel pole i’ve been a proud member of the genesis Community for over eight years and I love helping the genesis Community get better, together with my friends from the shapers.

David Vogelpohl: joining me for today’s episode i’d like to join back to the shapers recap video series carrie deals of carry those.com hey carrie.

Carrie Dils: howdy thanks for having me.

David Vogelpohl: glad to have you back Can I make the joke about you being lucky to get a job and curios calm in every episode.

Carrie Dils: Please do.

David Vogelpohl: Please do Okay, it does not ever get old I just I love, a good dad joke, do you know where I get my dad jokes from carrie.

David Vogelpohl: know the database, so there it’s chock full of dad jokes check it out.

Carrie Dils: check it out.

David Vogelpohl: yeah exactly and then also joining us for this episode, you may have heard of this gentleman as well, like to welcome the Co creator of Genesis Mr Nathan rice.

Nathan Rice: Nathan welcome like how.

David Vogelpohl: Are you.

Nathan Rice: Thank Thank you i’m great i’m very good Thank you.

David Vogelpohl: Good good good how’s the weather you’re you’re in North Carolina right if i’m getting that right at.

Nathan Rice: That at the moment I am I live in South Carolina but i’m in North Carolina right now yeah.

David Vogelpohl: really like I got the state wrong where you live, but you.

David Vogelpohl: Know be in the state I got robbed.

Nathan Rice: My wife’s family’s from here and we’re we’re visiting at the moment yeah so.

David Vogelpohl: What I have a little mistake.

Nathan Rice: I know yeah.

David Vogelpohl: Nice well if this is your first shapers recap episode kind of let y’all know how it works, basically, what we’re going to do is we’re going to go through the questions we asked the shapers during the meeting.

David Vogelpohl: And we’re going to talk about some of their responses and observations and kind of go through, one by one, so the very first question we asked in every meeting Nathan, do you know what the very first question is, we asked in every meeting.

David Vogelpohl: I don’t can we get a show of a moto G for people who are able to make it today.

David Vogelpohl: Oh yeah yeah.

Nathan Rice: Let me.

David Vogelpohl: let’s see who we got up here, we got Mike hamburger of biz budding Brian Smith on the genesis product and engineering team.

David Vogelpohl: Why by dolla have awesome press Ryan can stretch of the product and engineering team Nick croft of Genesis explained book and many other claims to fame rem because to free us travis Smith good to see him there.

David Vogelpohl: Brian Gardner you all may have heard of Brian Gardner the original founders studio press us they’re joining us john brown nine seeds so Johnson of the engineering team carry deals carry you put a boat emerging here, why did you put a boat.

Carrie Dils: A i’ve just i’m out here in sunny California and I just kind of wanted to drop a sailboat in.

Carrie Dils: Or, as something that I might.

Carrie Dils: have seen that day.

David Vogelpohl: Right you sail.

Carrie Dils: I went to the first time this past weekend and I nearly rock the boat So the answer is no, I cannot sell.

David Vogelpohl: Okay, but you did kind of sale you just almost wrecked we did it our mind don’t you wreck scooters to.

Carrie Dils: I I wreck everything.

Carrie Dils: I am a breaker of.

David Vogelpohl: Did you break anything, please say.

Carrie Dils: Please, no.

David Vogelpohl: Not this bro.

Nathan Rice: or not this time as.

David Vogelpohl: Well, that sounds like a whole other episode john Brown and and nita both settling on the dancing Panda interesting choice by the two of them.

David Vogelpohl: new edition, here we have Cameron furman Cameron, I apologize if I get your last name wrong cameron’s on the genesis product and engineering team she’s a new addition she joined to get insights from the shapers.

David Vogelpohl: As she thinks about the future products within the genesis sweet again we mentioned the y room could they don’t they double emoji it’s like there’s.

Nathan Rice: there’s a number here twice.

David Vogelpohl: We had others joining as well, we got Jonathan jeter Nina carter’s books like that so on to the first topical question.

David Vogelpohl: We asked, would you.

David Vogelpohl: Would you like these, an authenticated links to download % verified copies of the most recent version of the genesis framework and sample theme, to help your workflows so for context.

David Vogelpohl: We announced the essentially the genesis framework and sample would be made three free and then you would be able to download them easily from the studio press website and.

David Vogelpohl: Also, perhaps work it into your workflows are these links and so a lot of the shapers or theme providers are others that are creating tools for the genesis ecosystem, so this can be particularly helpful for them did anyone say no Nathan, I think they all said yeah I.

Nathan Rice: don’t think anybody said no, but there’s a couple of mentions of.

Nathan Rice: Of preferring and open repo I would prefer that to.

Nathan Rice: it’s just really hard.

David Vogelpohl: To we break this down like what.

David Vogelpohl: For the sharks that aren’t familiar, so we have like a link where you could download the genesis framework or sample theme and get like an.

David Vogelpohl: A verified copy most recent version of it, so that was what the question was about the you said well yeah like everyone thought that was a good idea, but then they had also requested that the genesis framework repo be made public.

David Vogelpohl: So what is like the drawback of doing that, just like what would what would What would it mean if it were public cuz like people can access the software, but like it kind of comes with a cost of making repo itself public.

Nathan Rice: yeah and in open source.

Nathan Rice: You it’s Nice, it would be nice to have the repo via open, because then people could request features, they could contribute code, without having to go through the validation process and being added manually to the to the repository, which is the process that we do now.

Nathan Rice: The drawback is the is the fact that people tend to use open repos like that, as a means of getting support studio press.

Nathan Rice: As an own entity of wp engine provides support, but they do it through official channels and it is a it is part of our revenue model is that we, you know, in order to provide support, which costs us money.

Nathan Rice: We do require some sort of subscription or some sort of payment in order to receive support a lot of people, they want to go through the repo to get support.

Nathan Rice: And it a lot of times what that just ends up being is a lot of dead threads and because we can’t we can’t possibly monitor the Repo for every support request that happen to come through so.

Nathan Rice: In order to avoid that eventuality, and there may be ways of mitigating that in the future that we haven’t thought of yet, but for now we’re not quite ready yet to make that.

Nathan Rice: Decision open the repo up.

David Vogelpohl: If somebody’s watching this, though, and they’re like a super genesis nerd and they’ve got like good ideas, perhaps, and like experience in building software like if they wanted a different dissipate like and.

David Vogelpohl: The contributor channel and slack would that be a good place for people to hang out or like what if they asked me originally thought they might want to contribute like what’s the path, at least for consideration.

Nathan Rice: yeah, generally speaking, we tend to not turn anyone down if you want to get in there, we do ask, we do have a couple of things that we kind of ask of you, but they’re not requirements.

Nathan Rice: But yeah all you need to do is make a request and the contributor channel within the genesis is it I guess it’s the genesis wp slack channel.

Nathan Rice: yeah is it a place to request access.

David Vogelpohl: yeah absolutely it’s genesis community has a link to register for the slack channel or account should I say, trying to get all my slack lingo right here.

David Vogelpohl: yeah So if you haven’t gotten in there check it out thanks for letting folks know about that path, and the considerations behind making the repo public anything that was awesome.

David Vogelpohl: next question, what are the positive changes you’re expecting you’re seeing in your business related to the studio press big changes announcement so framework free.

David Vogelpohl: sample free you know free genesis block program custom blocks pro or pro plus customers all that stuff that was in the blog post, a few weeks ago.

David Vogelpohl: carrie you have a genesis based business what’s your answer to this question like what positive changes would you expect from those you engage with in your business.

Carrie Dils: yeah well I my sentiment kind of echoed what what other theme sellers were saying, and that it it just.

Carrie Dils: eases the friction of you got to go to studio press to buy this framework, and then you come to my site and by the theme, and if you want genesis support you go if you want to it just simplifies and streamlines the whole process.

Carrie Dils: And it’s a.

Carrie Dils: BONUS because as think creators our customers don’t have the extra expense of the framework so very cool.

David Vogelpohl: yeah I love how Mike hamburger put it here way less confusion all around.

David Vogelpohl: And you know mike’s there with biz bedding and their theme shop and so.

David Vogelpohl: You know you kind of hit on this is that these genesis framework theme shops are selling their themes and then they tell their customers if they don’t already have the genesis framework they gotta go buy it.

David Vogelpohl: And, like some of the customer support feedback is like you’re trying to rip me off, this is a bait and switch things like this.

David Vogelpohl: And it was just like extremely negative outcomes for folks I don’t think it was making anybody happy, so you know really glad to be able to bring that change here Nathan, how many times have you been asked to make genesis framework for you over the years.

Nathan Rice: Not only asked, but you know i’ve asked if you know if it was possible, I definitely want to echo what Mike said, though, to some degree, because there’s.

Nathan Rice: When it comes to the choice between a user or if you’re a third party theme developer, do you want someone to buy the theme, through your site, or do you want to buy it or do you want them to buy it through studio press.

Nathan Rice: In order to avoid that confusion you almost want them to go through studio press, because that way they get both things delivered at once now.

Nathan Rice: With them running their own sort of user portals and purchase pages and things like that, being able to include the third party themes makes I mean i’m sorry being being able to include genesis framework with their third party themes makes that the more.

Nathan Rice: I guess attractive option for these third party theme sellers.

Nathan Rice: And it just so happens it’s it’s the only option at this point we’re pointing everyone to those sites and it will get to in a second but we’re pointing everyone to those sites.

Nathan Rice: Where they can purchase and have that relationship those theme developers directly, which is just better all around.

David Vogelpohl: yeah and you’re kind of talking about the kind of one of the other major areas of changes that should be released around or on June , which is the fact that third party themes in the studio press marketplace so not only will they not have to.

David Vogelpohl: require their customers to go by framework from Sue press but their listing on studio press will link directly to their theme store.

David Vogelpohl: You know, so they can benefit from the full purchase amount for that and help to support their business.

David Vogelpohl: The customer has a more complete and less confusing experience and gets to success faster, which I think is the whole point of all this, I think my favorite comment there from this whole thread of there’s a lot of positivity all around.

David Vogelpohl: Brian Gardner the year just to kind of ECHO that sentiment that you shared Nathan, like there’s this desire even prior to the acquisition.

David Vogelpohl: But him just kind of restating i’ve always loved the idea of giving genesis away, you know and really saying that he was glad to see that it finally happened so.

David Vogelpohl: glad to have that there lots of heart in genesis logo emoji on that one from Gardner so that means a lot to me.

David Vogelpohl: Alright next question, what are the negative changes you’re expecting to see in your business related to these announcement so like we want to understand, like the good stuff, but we also want to understand, maybe, like the not so good stuff.

David Vogelpohl: I think the first question is, you need a nita right from the get go, you know i’ve had the i’ve had people ask how long the framework will exist now that it’s free, I think, for me, as I, as I think about that question, I think, like in general, of course, software.

David Vogelpohl: Ultimately, if you look like way out in the future, of course, always has an end of life, I think, as I think about the framework, though.

David Vogelpohl: You know, it is critical to a ton of websites it’s critical to a lot of theme businesses it’s critical to our themes, including the ones will continue offering after June .

David Vogelpohl: And I would say that I don’t think anyone involved here Nathan or anyone myself or anyone else would would put customers in a position where.

David Vogelpohl: Their sites are significantly at risk, and so we have no plans to you know wind down the framework that’s you know forever statements are forever statements and they’re impossible to make but there’s no plan to wind down the framework, and I mean Nathan, can you verify that.

Nathan Rice: I can absolutely.

Nathan Rice: Does the framework will be available and maintained for as long as the framework is relevant and is useful to people.

Nathan Rice: In so long as we have, I mean good night we have so we saw hundreds and hundreds of thousands of sites that that we know of that are still actively running genesis framework.

Nathan Rice: Some version or another, and so, for us to think that we could we could even entertain the idea of abandoning the genesis framework is is like it would be an insult to the Community, it really would be in On top of that, I believe that the framework.

Nathan Rice: We want to, we want to make sure that we’re not doing things that are I guess.

Nathan Rice: To to backward looking, but at the same time we also understand that we have this community of users who use the framework and.

Nathan Rice: We we don’t want to we don’t want to do anything that would make them feel like they are being abandoned in any sort of way, so the intention is to continue to maintain the framework and to make it.

Nathan Rice: If if there are ways in which you believe that it could be more useful to you going forward, please let us know those things are is obviously on blocks because that’s the future but.

Nathan Rice: It is there is there a way we can integrate blocks into the framework better you know Are there things that we can do that can continue to make the framework relevant to you.

David Vogelpohl: I think you’re hitting on some themes here, I would say, like out of all these announcements, you know we announced it to partners kind of first and they can be prepared and things like that.

David Vogelpohl: And then announced it to the broader community and i’ve heard feedback from all around them like I would say, overall, has been incredibly positive.

David Vogelpohl: I would say the one part, though, where people start asking a lot of questions is like what about the future like what’s going to happen next.

David Vogelpohl: And like if I think about like what you just talked about this notion of like.

David Vogelpohl: You know forward looking and backward looking I think and we’re going to be publishing content around this and coming weeks, but.

David Vogelpohl: knows you think about the future of wordpress, we know that full site editing in wordpress core is coming, and hopefully in here.

David Vogelpohl: And, but this is the very first iteration and I know that Nathan, you and the rest of the engineering team and the product team are working hard towards making sure that when that happens.

David Vogelpohl: The genesis Community doesn’t look around and say what are we supposed to do and so like answering those questions are critical.

David Vogelpohl: Now, as you think about themes today, at least for me anyways and we think about this notion of what will eventually maybe be known as classic gaming and I air quote that, because this is how everything is built today.

David Vogelpohl: Over essentials That said, well with all this changing with the blocks and everything I just feel like I should like move away from genesis framework and you something else about themes because, like I need something more stable.

David Vogelpohl: And my reply back was well, if you look at the framework itself it’s actually incredibly stable.

David Vogelpohl: Oh fact it’s kind of very stable mode is on purpose.

David Vogelpohl: While the team focuses on making sure the genesis community has an answer to what are we going to do for ffc and I think the other part of that.

David Vogelpohl: Being rooted in the free tools genesis blocks custom blocks and block theme which again will be talking about in in specificity later.

David Vogelpohl: These again or forward leaning products forward leaning projects and that’s not to trash talk the classic way of feeling that the framework.

David Vogelpohl: uses and every other theme framework thing on earth wordpress right now, it is all classic Fini.

David Vogelpohl: For me, that that forward leaning posture Nathan is you know I think it’s hard to understand, I think, like if you weren’t doing that it’d be like oh everything’s stable I love it right.

David Vogelpohl: Like nothing’s changing, but of course the underlying current of wordpress is changing, so I think.

David Vogelpohl: Like To me, this was the biggest negative sentiment, I heard, which was well wait a minute I haven’t heard about block theme in a while what’s going on with that.

David Vogelpohl: How is this blocks and collections things supposed to work together, well, I guess, I gotta go use another type of plastic teaming framework, instead of Genesis framework because you’re doing block stuff now is like no that’s that’s not really how it works so.

Nathan Rice: No, not at all, and I would add to that devi that there’s this the things that we’re doing inside genesis blocks and genesis blocks pro are.

Nathan Rice: We have to stop thinking of Genesis as the framework it’s.

Nathan Rice: it’s more of a suite of tools and of which the framework is a part of that and the child themes to skin them, but then also you’ve got blocks and within genesis blocks you’ve got collections which.

Nathan Rice: are meant to be used in classic things there’s no such thing as an FSA theme right now right it’s like there is nothing but so use your genesis framework use like a child theme, whether it’s third party your first part of your custom it doesn’t matter.

Nathan Rice: And then use genesis block to drop those collections in and and get yourself a website built in way less time than you think you then it took you in the past.

David Vogelpohl: Have you seen the blog posts that rob stenson did on the studio press blog i’m creating a custom collection from Scott.

Nathan Rice: I did yeah.

David Vogelpohl: That is wicked cool for those watching if you haven’t had a chance to check that out go over to studio press dot blog if you’re building custom genesis child themes.

David Vogelpohl: you’re going to love building custom collections, it is super I can’t believe how good a job rob did on that did you read the rob article carry have you made a collection yet.

Carrie Dils: I have read it and i’m in the process of creating a collection and if I could just put a bug in for wp engine summit coming up in June, I might be talking about that topic.

David Vogelpohl: Oh, you are Oh, my goodness i’m totally not cross promoting events here yeah.

David Vogelpohl: check it out there on Google I wish i’d like memorized URL like to read out here, but yeah check it out there, we are doing registrations and then you’re giving a talk and it’s going to cover creating a collection.

Carrie Dils: Well it’s a minute talk so it’s it’s going to be in.

David Vogelpohl: line by line of the code then right.

Carrie Dils: Yes, exactly live DEMO all you know no but i’ll be referring folks over to rob’s article to for a more in depth look.

David Vogelpohl: yeah that that has me so excited, it also has me excited about like the economy possibilities or monetization possibilities in providers is like.

David Vogelpohl: I had somebody asked me like Could I just sell a collection i’m like well yeah you could actually or you could have a theme with multiple collections.

David Vogelpohl: there’s all kinds of possibilities there, and so I think like spelling out like and, of course, again, keep in mind ffc is changing right we don’t really know where everything is going to land, but I think like.

David Vogelpohl: Providing a window into that forward leaning posture what that means.

David Vogelpohl: But to your point Nathan, like you, don’t have to wait for fs ED us blocks are these collections you to build your own collection, this is this works right now.

David Vogelpohl: So you know in that and blocks itself and creating your own custom collection that’s free % free on wordpress.org so you know no upsell on had or any just like right there ready to go.

David Vogelpohl: And I think having those capabilities available now is kind of a nice middle ground between like doing nothing and like leaning all into the future it’s like this very agile type progression into ffc which I think is great, but I know it can be.

David Vogelpohl: Confusing sometimes as you think about those those forward leaning postures yeah all right um next question that’s it David, I want to make sure we get through all of these, so the next question was what did we not change that you wish, we would change.

David Vogelpohl: And there’s quite a few answers here.

Carrie Dils: No, no, I pointed out and as someone who’s representing the Spanish genesis community that the pro subscription price is still a little bit on the.

David Vogelpohl: right side.

David Vogelpohl: yeah I don’t remember if his audience is because, like genesis pros obviously built for someone building lots of websites right it’s $ a year.

David Vogelpohl: It includes the themes we make it includes all the collections in genesis blocks pro and the advanced features in genesis custom blocks.

David Vogelpohl: Pro but you know, like if i’m building a website i’m not going to be at every year right, and so, as I think about the answer to no wise question or just observation is.

David Vogelpohl: You know I think even that price though sometimes maybe for certain freelancers and agencies can still be a little rough.

David Vogelpohl: I think, as I think about it like a tool kit it’s a time machine right, you have a collection of things that help you build faster.

David Vogelpohl: And if you’re using it and getting value out of it in that way, well then that price isn’t so pricey but if you’re an individual if you’re buying one off theme for one off site, then no that’s not a good value.

David Vogelpohl: And in that case, for me it would either be again as we think about that junaid state using like the free sample theme that you customize or just buy from a third party theme provider one of these genesis themes.

David Vogelpohl: And they do an amazing job and they’re able to get really deep on niches and things like that, but I do think you know nobody’s point is relevant like even you know the price point even isn’t for everyone, even at the freelancer an agency side so.

Carrie Dils: On the whole, though not too many.

Carrie Dils: But there weren’t too many responses to this one, which made me think well.

David Vogelpohl: yeah.

Carrie Dils: they’re pretty good.

David Vogelpohl: We a lot of those things are the changes we made framework free solving the you know what I call the eight key funnel problem where you had to buy a theme one place in the framework on studio press.

David Vogelpohl: every single one of those were things that came up the very first week after the acquisition I did a listening tour, and of course i’d been in the genesis Community for a while, but like.

David Vogelpohl: working at wp engine and then going through that, and you know john brown I think Kerry we spoke, right after that.

David Vogelpohl: Just as many people as I could talk to, and what you saw on that blog post, where the main bullet points from that very first week of feedback says glad to see folks not mentioning other things we missed but i’m sure like nothing’s perfect.

David Vogelpohl: alright.

David Vogelpohl: So the last question here, I feel like we’ve kind of talked through already you know kind of in prior section sessions, but sections is the three of us here have chatted through it, but it says.

David Vogelpohl: The future of third party ffc genesis child themes were kind of loosely based on genesis blocks and custom collections were planning comms and shaper meetings in the future around this and we asked them like what do you want us to talk about in those columns and discussions.

David Vogelpohl: And I think like, if you look at the feedback from like Nick and john let’s start with Nick I think like generally.

David Vogelpohl: I thought the answers were really more centered around like will be clear with what you mean about ffc and what you mean about how these tools work together and.

David Vogelpohl: Should I not use framework anymore, because these things are going to exist that conversation we kind of had earlier.

David Vogelpohl: around you know, again, everything is a classic thing now so there’s nothing to switch to it’s not dealing with the same situation and if they’re not forward leaning these other frameworks that might be something to think about as well.

David Vogelpohl: Anything you would add based on that Nathan, what you saw there and the responses.

Nathan Rice: yeah I mean there’s.

Nathan Rice: So when it, so I am nix nix some you know.

Nathan Rice: I see Nick some follow up here we have john brown talking about the marketplace and you know what what themes are you know.

David Vogelpohl: I guess like a sort of thing.

David Vogelpohl: yeah that’s a separate chunk.

Nathan Rice: Oh, is it.

David Vogelpohl: versus that well now i’m just saying, like, for me, as I think about these.

David Vogelpohl: guys is like john’s represents like.

David Vogelpohl: marketplace considerations and then Nick is kind of more focused on the FTC side.

Nathan Rice: yeah yeah.

Nathan Rice: I understand people’s right now there’s confusion and it’s understandable like, in other words what i’m saying is like I don’t feel like there’s any way for us to really alleviate.

Nathan Rice: Some of the confusion that’s out there because it’s just it’s kind of a confusing time if you’re building if you’re building sites for clients or for yourself or for whoever.

Nathan Rice: And you’re trying to figure out Okay, do I continue to invest my time into the into the genesis Community the genesis tools and stuff like that.

Nathan Rice: It can seem frustrating and a little bit confusing on the surface, but I would say that to sort of harking back to what we were saying before is that.

Nathan Rice: genesis continues its development it’s just not happening exclusively within the framework so follow along that way.

Nathan Rice: We will continue to you know communicate and build those tools and try to Community I mean, obviously we can always do better, but.

Nathan Rice: To try to communicate the value of those tools really lean into the free stuff.

Nathan Rice: I know I know people have been talking the last question about you know it’s a little too expensive to go pro understandable, meaning the free stuff we’re going to be leaning into the free stuff to you know, trying to get more collections into the free plugin.

Nathan Rice: More features into the free plugin really try to build that out, but the I don’t think that.

Nathan Rice: The confusion is not going to go away, but at the same time don’t don’t feel like the confusion should keep you from doing things you’ve always done.

Nathan Rice: genesis is going to be here for you, for as long as you know, I can maintain my energy levels in our team certainly has a full commitment to continue to make genesis better for everyone who uses it.

David Vogelpohl: yeah I think that’s probably been one of the more exciting things watching evolve, under your leadership post acquisition, in particular, was the fact that it’s not just you.

David Vogelpohl: Right, I know you’re probably times in genesis his password was just you kind of in a way, maybe you and a couple other folks and I think like your your leadership at building a team around the genesis suite of products and.

David Vogelpohl: You know, having the energy to do, be the forward leaning but also having the resist the the.

David Vogelpohl: What is the what is the word I use it all the time, the redundancy and people and the fact that things aren’t just tied to one person like these are key benefits that I think are really around you know not just your efforts, but just your entire teams.

Nathan Rice: yeah and we.

Nathan Rice: were in heavy experimentation mode right now I mean that’s what that’s the kind of the world we live in.

Nathan Rice: But we’re doing the experimenting we’re trying to do the the tinkering and the you know the hypothesis testing and stuff like that, behind the scenes.

Nathan Rice: So that we can answer questions for the genesis community that that maybe one day, you would have to ask yourself.

Nathan Rice: But hopefully we would be able to have asked those questions come up with a solution and provided it to you to save the time so that we’re not all doing the same.

Nathan Rice: silly experiments over and over again individually that collectively as a community genesis we can kind of move forward into the future together.

David Vogelpohl: Totally love that well thanks for breaking trail Nathan, and I know you get some thorns along the way, but you know i’m glad to be able to you know work with you and I think you know a lot of folks really appreciate.

David Vogelpohl: The path you and others help blaze to set them up for success and it’s Okay, if you want to like lag back a little bit on the trail and take the.

David Vogelpohl: uncomfortable part and wait for the thorns to be cleared.

David Vogelpohl: But i’m glad that they all are up there, doing that for everybody, so really, really, thank you for that.

David Vogelpohl: To kind of get to john’s comment here in response to this one, and I think I was going to kind of dovetail this even into the next question we asked which was.

David Vogelpohl: You know, adding new themes, to the studio press marketplace will be easier to accomplish in the future, what types of themes you think we should have in the marketplace that we’re missing.

David Vogelpohl: Now john’s prior comment was around like well in the future in the studio press marketplace, what is the genesis theme.

David Vogelpohl: And so we kind of talked a little bit about the notion around well really what that means likely in an FC context is that they have genesis blocks and like a plugin that interacts with genesis blocks.

David Vogelpohl: But then, of course, on day one, not everyone’s going to be using ffc themes so you’re going to have this period over probably a couple of years.

David Vogelpohl: In just general wordpress themes again, this is not genesis stuff this is stuff we’re reacting to we’ll have kind of like this dual world.

David Vogelpohl: People using ffc based technology and people using classic Fini, and so I do personally think it’s incredibly important to adopt her to at least start experimenting early.

David Vogelpohl: and give it time to cook before you adopt until you’re comfortable.

David Vogelpohl: But I think, as I think of the marketplace, in general, and like well what’s the genesis theme in the future it’s it’s either something using the framework or something using likely blocks and a future state would you like high levels that sound about right.

Nathan Rice: that’s exactly I mean, these are at the moment, these are our flagship products we have supportive products like our custom blocks tool which helps you create your own custom blocks, but.

Nathan Rice: And you know, in general, when it comes to the ones that are going to be used by the most people it’s going to be framework at the moment and then blocks secondary to that.

Nathan Rice: But at some point, you may see that flip and it big but those are the ones that we’re probably going to see the most people using and, therefore, those are the ones that we’re going to invest in the most when it comes to our resources and future features.

David Vogelpohl: Nice, what have we got some diehard custom blocks fans out there Nathan, so, and so you know treat.

David Vogelpohl: love your children like i’m one of them I love custom.

David Vogelpohl: blocks, and I think that what I know yeah and.

Nathan Rice: I mean what they’ve done and what they continue to do with custom blocks is remarkable out how that’s in the things that they’re already thinking about doing the future i’m i’m a big fan big big fan very supportive of Ryan, and his endeavors they’re.

David Vogelpohl: awesome I love it yeah watching y’all work together is really, really fun stuff.

David Vogelpohl: I think you know, and I can’t remember exactly where nita Carter replied on this, but she’s mentioned this to be in multiple occasions, is like a lot of the themes in the studio press marketplace have a masculine style.

David Vogelpohl: And she she felt like having more feminine styled options would be helpful.

David Vogelpohl: carrie have you noticed that or do you not notice that are like that stand out to you in terms of design choice.

Carrie Dils: It doesn’t probably stand out as much to me as a nida nida also works.

Carrie Dils: primarily with feminine themes and providing support for like.

David Vogelpohl: bloggers and stuff.

David Vogelpohl: yeah yeah.

David Vogelpohl: I gotcha.

Carrie Dils: But in and i’ll kind of dovetail this into another conversation that came up there, but the way that themes are.

Carrie Dils: categorized currently is like there may be for you know it’s a business theme or it’s a you know, whatever theme there’s not that many categories to help people connect with.

Carrie Dils: The kind of themes that they’re looking for, and I think for based on my own experience as a team creator in the past.

Carrie Dils: Think about it with like real estate staging a site like or staging a home like you want it to smell good and the couch is already there and whatnot.

Carrie Dils: And it might not occur to someone to use a food blogger theme, for instance, as a personal blog or is a travel blog Oh, they could totally use it that way.

Carrie Dils: So, whether it’s adding you know pointers to more feminine styled themes or whatnot I think.

David Vogelpohl: process tagging and stuff right yeah.

Carrie Dils: yeah I.

David Vogelpohl: say you know john post this filter screenshot from this to your press theme directory I like it makes me cry a little actually.

David Vogelpohl: Is is.

David Vogelpohl: But yeah I think I think these are excellent points, and you know, giving people that kind of path for navigate ability.

David Vogelpohl: And you know I liked how you were thinking about that in terms of maybe more intuitive ways to kind of filter and search there, so it is something we’re working on and so looking forward to, hopefully, bringing some improvements there.

Nathan Rice: I should also help, by the way to.

Nathan Rice: Reducing the overall number of themes that you have to sort of you know wade through.

Nathan Rice: that’s going to help people find the thing that they need to find to I mean having these old legacy things it’s just taking up space, and so this this really refined it down to the the best of the best.

Nathan Rice: yeah.

Nathan Rice: Who are used to.

David Vogelpohl: yeah particularly this block enabled ones, I mean that’s a really good point, you know as things evolve over time and wordpress evolves.

David Vogelpohl: Not everything is you know maintained or advanced in the same way, over time, it is natural for any theme ever and in a sense, particularly big big groups of them.

David Vogelpohl: But I remember you know curious funny you pointed out, like people will often like not choose a theme, because it says like lifestyle on it.

David Vogelpohl: And I remember in my agency days sending clients to studio press, I was like just pick anything and we’ll make it into your website and I was like but just completely ignore like the colors and like.

David Vogelpohl: Just look at the layout right like they could not get it get over like it says real estate, so I must use it for real estate or something like it just like blew their mind that.

David Vogelpohl: They should think about it, like in the context, primarily of layout and colored I guess content but it’s really interesting but i’m looking forward to those improvements on the filter side.

David Vogelpohl: So that looks like it from the responses anything else you want to add here Nathan on this one.

Nathan Rice: No, it was a great shapers meeting and in the lead up to this to the the different you know the meetings that we had up to this and, of course, all the internal meetings that we’ve had in the lead up to the decision to do all these things.

Nathan Rice: i’ve just been very impressed with the the positivity and the support that we’ve gotten along the way.

Nathan Rice: This is, you know as as Gardner mentioned and i’ll reiterate that this is this is definitely something that I think we even talked about this in that first Do you remember my first trip out to Austin that that big meeting and.

David Vogelpohl: Yes, oh yeah I was thinking about that the other day.

Nathan Rice: yeah the real secretive all you know under cloak and dagger and everything, so it.

David Vogelpohl: Was this pre.

David Vogelpohl: Pre acquisition.

David Vogelpohl: Okay, I gotcha I gotcha.

Nathan Rice: yeah even in that meeting, we were having conversations about you know, like people.

Nathan Rice: At wp engine we’re asking you know why haven’t you given this away for free yet and we’re like well, we want to, but you know for a small business is where genesis.

Nathan Rice: Individual sales of Genesis framework itself made up such a huge portion of our revenue that would hurt, but in a big organization like wp engine it definitely feels like it’s more doable and finally we’ve been able to do it, which is super exciting.

David Vogelpohl: yeah awesome well i’m so glad we were able to get there, and you know again thank you Nathan, for your leadership over these last few years, and after the acquisition of course prior.

David Vogelpohl: You know i’ve been a fan of yours before this, and so you know getting the opportunity to work with you here, in this case.

David Vogelpohl: And to do these things with you meet means a lot to me and said, and so just wanted a hat tip to you and your team for where you’re going to get us here and we still have junaid ahead of us.

Nathan Rice: Oh yeah.

David Vogelpohl: Oh yeah those find it kind of give you a quick catch up, so thank you Nathan.

Nathan Rice: Well, thanks.

David Vogelpohl: Thank you carrie for joining us today.

Carrie Dils: always a pleasure.

David Vogelpohl: cool if you’d like to check out more about what carries up to just a reminder, you can visit carrie deals.com thanks everyone for listening.

David Vogelpohl: Please stay tuned for future episodes of the genesis Community live cast again i’m your host David vogel Paul i’ve been a member of the genesis Community for over eight years and I love helping the genesis Community get better, together with my friends from the shapers.