Welcome to Episode 27 of the WP Elevation Podcast. Our featured guest this week is Jessica Barnard from thepixelista.com. Jessica designs Genesis child themes and sells them as premium themes, but she builds a customer profile before she actually designs the theme. In this interview, you will learn how to carve out your niche, how to get rid of the fear of missing out and get specific about the customers you want.
This week's prize is the Genesis Theme Framework and a Premium Pixelista Theme valued at $104. To enter the competition tell us the #1 design element you'd like to see in a Genesis Child Theme.
Congratulations Liz Barber! Jessica has awarded you the competition prize! Keep Elevating!
This weeks highlights include:
You can reach out and thank Jessica on Twitter.
Jessica suggested I interview Chris Ford of creativityincluded.com. Chris, keep your eyes on your inbox.
Hint: to enter the competition, leave a comment below and tell us the #1 design element you’d like to see in a Genesis Child Theme.
38 Responses
Great Interview! Loved listening to Jessica!
Great Interview! Loved listening to Jessica!
Thanks for stopping by Liz. Any specifics you liked about Jessica’s interview?
Awesome interview, Jessica! Thanks for the encouragement to call myself a “developer.” More often than not, I fall into the trap of thinking that since I “only” know HTML, CSS, and basic PHP then I’m a not really a developer.
And, I totally love your comment that “trying to design for yourself is like trying to tickle yourself.” haha! I recently contracted a hand lettering artist to work with me on a new logo based on the same line of thinking.
Okay, so the #1 design element I’m waiting to see in a commercial Genesis theme is masonry. I have had numerous requests for that style of homepage, and would love a good base theme to start from!
I’ve been brainstorming today and they already encompass so much! I know I’ve been working with clients who would like a theme like AgencyPro, but have the “our work” widget able to display images from pages rather than a stream of posts.
I’ve been brainstorming today and they already encompass so much! I know I’ve been working with clients who would like a theme like AgencyPro, but have the “our work” widget able to display images from pages rather than a stream of posts.
loved what she had to say about pricing services, knowing what your services are worth and the power of testimonials.
Great interview Troy and Jessica. Lots of great tips and re-enforcing what works for entrepreneurs. I love the idea of creating a customer profile when developing your child themes. Rock on!!!
Great interview Troy and Jessica. Lots of great tips and re-enforcing what works for entrepreneurs. I love the idea of creating a customer profile when developing your child themes. Rock on!!!
This was a really nice interview. Jessica, you have some great business advice. I loved that you create personas for your themes. (And I loved working with Crave for a client; your code is great! Yes, you’re a developer too!)
Troy, you always have great business techniques.
For features, maybe something feminine, but business, with products or services on home page.
This was a really nice interview. Jessica, you have some great business advice. I loved that you create personas for your themes. (And I loved working with Crave for a client; your code is great! Yes, you’re a developer too!)
Troy, you always have great business techniques.
For features, maybe something feminine, but business, with products or services on home page.
I’d love it if you sent me a link to the client site you created using the Crave theme. 🙂 I would definitely like to create a feminine business theme – thanks for your thoughts!
I’d love it if you sent me a link to the client site you created using the Crave theme. 🙂 I would definitely like to create a feminine business theme – thanks for your thoughts!
That’s a great thought – there are a lot of Genesis child themes with portfolios that pull featured images from pages, and I’ve had some of my clients request the ability to use posts instead of pages too. It makes a lot of sense!
Thanks, Katie! And I agree – we do need a Genesis theme with a killer masonry homepage. I know Brian Gardner was working it at one point. Hopefully we’ll hear something about it soon! 🙂
Thanks, Tamika!
That means a lot coming from you, Liz. Thanks for watching!
Great Interview – I’ve been a Pixelista fan since you setup as a theme shop and am blown away by the creativity. It’s nice to know where the inspiration comes from – ie – what your clients need.
I would love a few more intuitive things built into Genesis themes: Logo & favicon upload to start with.
Also, working with the Genesis themes, I often have to create a new homepage for the blog sites. I’d love sites that have A gorgeous home page, and then a grid placed blog page.
Love your work!
Great Interview – I’ve been a Pixelista fan since you setup as a theme shop and am blown away by the creativity. It’s nice to know where the inspiration comes from – ie – what your clients need.
I would love a few more intuitive things built into Genesis themes: Logo & favicon upload to start with.
Also, working with the Genesis themes, I often have to create a new homepage for the blog sites. I’d love sites that have A gorgeous home page, and then a grid placed blog page.
Love your work!
I agree – Crave is an amazing theme.
What I would like to see in the Genesis theme frame work? Well what to think of a CSS Less preprocessor. Wold make working with CSS so awesome. Using variables to control setting and more awesome stuff Less can do. 🙂
What I would like to see in the Genesis theme frame work? Well what to think of a CSS Less preprocessor. Wold make working with CSS so awesome. Using variables to control setting and more awesome stuff Less can do. 🙂
A custom CSS portal that sits outside of the Child Theme updates much like the My Custom CSS plugin provides. It is such a nice feature and speeds up customization.
A custom CSS portal that sits outside of the Child Theme updates much like the My Custom CSS plugin provides. It is such a nice feature and speeds up customization.
Here is the tutorial to add masonry… http://sridharkatakam.com/using-masonry-genesis-pinterest-like-layout/
Such a great podcast! Very inspiring, esp when I’ve been feeling like “why am I doing this!?!!”. I’ve booked marked it to watch again, when I’m needing a pep talk! Thank you so much!
As for a no. 1 design feature in Genesis, it would have to be having the simple things like the Custom Footer, Menus and Sidebars being part of the actual theme, rather than extra plugins. These are so simple, you’d expect them to be part of the whole package and not to add onto the number of plugins required, which I always try and keep down.
🙂
Such a great podcast! Very inspiring, esp when I’ve been feeling like “why am I doing this!?!!”. I’ve booked marked it to watch again, when I’m needing a pep talk! Thank you so much!
As for a no. 1 design feature in Genesis, it would have to be having the simple things like the Custom Footer, Menus and Sidebars being part of the actual theme, rather than extra plugins. These are so simple, you’d expect them to be part of the whole package and not to add onto the number of plugins required, which I always try and keep down.
🙂
Thank you so much for your thoughts, Lyndsay!
Learning who the type of clients I want to work with are, and shedding my fear of saying “no” to inquiries that weren’t a good fit for me (especially if I had that gut feeling that they would be a pain in my side) made ALL the difference in my career. Good clients breed good clients!
I agree that having features baked right into a theme can make things easier. However, it’s considered best practice to use plugins for those types of things whenever possible, so people don’t lose their work if they decide to switch themes.
One thing to keep in mind is that the code to achieve some those functionalities you mentioned is exactly the same whether introduced via a theme or plugin. For example, moving the code for a custom footer into a theme would not make your site load any faster than if you were to install the plugin.
It’s all about the quality of your plugins; not the quantity. I’ve seen sites with 20 well-coded plugins run better than sites with a site with just a couple crappy ones.
Also, not everyone needs every feature. Plugins give you the freedom to add what you want, and ditch what you don’t. That way you aren’t saddled with a bunch of theme bloat.
Sorry to write a novel – Hope that helps! 🙂
Thanks, Cath! I agree – right now there is definitely *not* an intuitive solution for uploading a logo in Genesis child themes. Especially one that is responsive and retina-ready. I’ve got a new theme in the works, and that’s something I’m hoping to address.
Don’t tell anyone, but I’m also planning a grid-based blog page template in this new theme. There are tons of themes that have grid loops on the homepage, but none that I know of that have them on the blog page. It’s about time! 😉
That would be very cool. I confess I haven’t dabbled much in preprocessors. From what I know it would pose some interesting challenges, and I’d be interested to see if it can be done!
Interesting idea, Nick! I think most people prefer to edit their child themes directly, which is the whole point of a child theme, right? 🙂 I generally don’t add in a feature directly to the theme unless I think it’s something 80% of customers would use, but the plugin works great for those who want it. Maybe it would be a good fit in something like Prose, which is a “design your own theme” type of deal.
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for your reply, that’s great advice, I am still learning everyday!! I’d love to use Genesis themes, it’s just not happened yet apart from using one for my own site a while ago.
Great show! Jessica was a great guest to have! Keep up the good work! I’d love to see a jQuery slide out menu in a Genesis Child Theme! Again, well done show!
Great show! Jessica was a great guest to have! Keep up the good work! I’d love to see a jQuery slide out menu in a Genesis Child Theme! Again, well done show!
Jessica found this a tough decision and so randomly chose the winner via randomizer.org. The prize has been awarded to Liz Barber. Well done Liz. Jessica will be in touch with you shortly to organise your Premium Pixelista Theme !
Congratulations Liz on being the lucky winner as chosen by Jessica. She’ll be in touch shortly.
awesome! Thanks so much!