Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Kadence Beat podcast. We are in episode 41. It is Katie Boykin here. I'm the marketing manager for Kadence and it's just me, I'm solo. Hannah is off in Argentina doing her digital Nomad thing and Ben is heads down in development this week. So it's just me, but I'm actually not alone. I have a very special guest, Lauren Dierski, here with me from Restored 316 and she has incredible child themes. She is probably one of the most well known child theme creator and maybe all of WordPress that I know of. So help me welcome Lauren to the podcast. Welcome Lauren.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Thanks Katie. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Absolutely. I am so excited to have this conversation because you have been in the WordPress child theme space for quite some time now. So I'd love to just hear how you got started and what your background is and we'll just go from there.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. So at the end of this month, actually we'll be celebrating 17 years in business. So I've been here for a little minute, but originally I just started just really needing to provide money for my family. That's really like the heart and soul of where this all began. I used the last $10 in my bank account to purchase the restore316designs domain and I just like put one foot in front of the other and just started designing. I'm completely self taught so I didn't go to school or anything like that. It's all been like YouTube and Google related to get to where I am. But I started with Blogger doing custom blogger blogs. And then as I had my second child, I realized I really needed to transition into something more residual where I wasn't working like one on one with clients so much and taking all of my time. So I started designing themes at that time for Genesis and then built up a community with that. And then over the years I just saw that my customers really had a need for customization. They really just wanted to never touch code ever and be able to change fonts and colors and just have that creative freedom. Even though that starting with a base, they're starting with a theme, they still wanted that creative freedom. So I went on the hunt for a solution for that and tried all kinds of stuff and eventually found Kadence. Loved it. And I reached out in the Kadence Facebook community and was like, is there any way of like creating a child theme for this framework and all that? And ended up striking up a conversation with someone who I believe worked for Kadence at the time. And In a matter of a week, Ben put together the child theme builder and the rest is history. Yeah.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Amazing. So how long ago was it that you really transitioned from other child themes to Cadence To Cadence?
[00:02:46] Speaker B: I believe we started in the beginning or like middle 2020, if I remember correctly. Our very first theme was Elizabeth. And after that I just like redid all of our Genesis themes on Cadence, which was such a breeze. It was amazing. And then have just been building ever since and have grown into more products actually since then. Because with Genesis we just had themes and now we have block collections and Canva templates and other things.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Okay, yeah. So tell us a little bit about everything that you do offer in addition to child themes, because that's what you're famous for, right?
[00:03:21] Speaker B: But yeah, the child themes is like our bread and butter, right? Like, yeah, but we have block collections. We have several block collections, like theme block collections that are just, you know, the sections and pages from themes. We have add ons that are like conversion call outs that are blocks that you can put inside of your blog post. We have blog post builders, just all kinds of different, like add on blocks that you can add into an existing theme. We have Canva templates and then we have lunch and learns and courses. So our lunch and learns are like bite sized tutorials or courses or workshops. Workshops is probably the best way to describe it. Where you can learn a new skill within an hour or two, like on a lunch break. And then we also have two courses. One is all around email marketing and the other is all around creating and selling digital products.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: That's awesome. And then what about custom projects? Are you doing any custom projects?
[00:04:20] Speaker B: I do do custom projects. I'm pretty picky about taking them because I'm pretty packed in my schedule, but I do take them and I do like VIP days occasionally or a one week website if it's a project that fits into my schedule.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Nice. So you would say like the majority of your shop sales are coming from this DIY more passive approach. I mean, obviously running a business is not passive in any stretch of the.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: Imagination, but we can get it.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah. More passive than custom projects, right?
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. Yes. So themes are definitely like our number one for sure.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Okay, that's incredible. So your aha moment about when you could sell Cadence child themes was just born out of a frustration with lack of flexibility and customizations from previous providers. Genesis in particular in your case. And then as soon as Ben gave you access, that was it. Like there was no reason to go back. And now you exclusively design with Kadence now exclusively.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Yep, yep. We do have some customers still on Genesis, but we always try to encourage them to, like, trust me, like, you're. You're going to love Cadence. You're going to love the ability to customize things and all that. We really try to get them moved over, but. But yeah, exclusively.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Kadence, at this point, what would you say were the biggest factors of making that switch? Obviously, the challenges we just discussed, but anything else, like ease of use with. With Cadence or what are the other reasons why Cadence was the one instead of others?
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Well, gosh, just from a development standpoint, not having to code every little thing was amazing. I mean, I went from having to like, start with a blank CSS style sheet and writing everything to never having to do that. Everything's done in the customizer. Now, at this point in my journey with Kadence, I do do a little bit of custom code stuff, but it's nothing like it used to be. So the ease of development is incredible. And then the time that that saves me to be able to create more things and put out more products and things like that, it's pretty incredible. And I mean, from from day one, we didn't have block collections. That's kind of been a newer thing, like as that Kadence cloud stuff came out. But even with those things providing us an avenue to have additional products with ease, you know, and allowing our customers to have multiple options instead of just, you know, a whole new theme every single time.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. And it's awesome that Cadence I know, compared to some other page builder plugins and things like that, has performance in mind. At least that has been my experience that whenever I was trying to think about other tools to use, it was like there were all these other options, but none of them were as performant either. So that's. I know what I. Yeah, no, that's a huge.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: A huge thing for me. I did not mention that. But a huge thing for us, in addition to the customization ability for the customer, because our main client client base as bloggers and they always have speed and performance at top of mind, you know, so that was a huge factor in making the decision to choose Kadence in the beginning.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, so from your customer's perspective, what are some common mistakes that you see people making when choosing or setting up a theme for their website?
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Oh, goodness. I feel like this is such a loaded question.
Okay, well, first let me say I have a blog post about this because we do see very common mistakes that with just people new To Kadence not understanding the difference in, like, maybe layout structures or the way to adjust colors or the way to adjust fonts and things like that. And so I have a blog post on that. I guess we can link to that in the. In the notes. But I would just say, like, from my perspective, is customizing the theme so much that it has lost all of its integrity, if that makes sense. Like, I think, you know, there's a. There's a place to start with a theme. Right. It comes beautiful. And we want, as a theme creator, we want you to be able to customize it and make it your own. But I also believe that not everyone has the gift of design. I say that as nice as possible.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: I agree.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: So when you go in and you change all. All of the fonts and, like, all the spacing and just everything about the integrity of the theme from the beginning, I think that can get a little, like, muddy, you know?
So I would say that that's a common mistake. We see. I actually just had a customer a couple weeks ago where I had to, like, go hit the reset button and just be like, okay, let's give you a clean slate to start with. And then. And then had to show her, like, okay, here's where. Here's the areas that you can go in and customize and really make it your own, but still keep the integrity of the theme design, you know? But. Yeah, and then there's just little things, like, you know, making sure you use the customizer and not changing, like, literally entering hex color codes on, like, all of your fonts and stuff on a post, you know, thing. It's just little things like that that are just in that blog post as well.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah, that'd be great resource to check out. We'll be sure to link that in the show notes as well.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: I think it's really interesting that you said that. Not everybody has the eye for design. I think it can be taught, but I don't think it's a natural ability. The same way sometimes if you go sit in art class and you draw a stick figure and you're like, wow, I thought this was gonna look a little bit different.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. We are. We're, like, all blessed with unique gifts. Right. Like, some people get technology, some people do not. Like, some people get design, and some just don't. And that's okay. It's not that we have to, like, fit into this mold and be all the things, you know?
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So one question that I have for you, since Cadence doesn't technically Require a child theme. What would be your reasons why someone, like a blogger in particular would want to use a child theme? Because this really goes hand in hand with the conversation about, okay, you're not great at design, so maybe that's one of the reasons why you would want a child theme.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Yeah, well, definitely that answer pretty much answers the question. Yeah, I mean, cadence is great, like out of the box, right? But it's like very, very bare bones. It's just super basic and all of that. So if you don't have the gift of design or you don't have the time to go in and figure it all out, right. That's, that's where child themes come in.
Where you can instantly, like literally instantly. I mean, it takes five minutes to go in and install a theme and begin working on things. And also child themes, it doesn't just come with all of those fonts and colors, you know, it comes with all of the pages and structure of everything. Like all of that stuff is done for you. So some of that stuff you don't just get in just the bare bones cadence.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Okay, that's really helpful. How does then your design process work? So if you're going to sit down and work on a brand new child theme, and maybe there's some tips in here that as you're sharing your process, someone, even if they don't necessarily buy a theme, or they're a young freelancer or developer similar to you, maybe they can kind of take some inspiration from your process.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah, so at this point in my journey, I take feedback from my customers just because we have that base. And so we get that feedback of like, well, you need to do this kind of theme or this kind of theme. I know recently we got one. Can you do, can you do something a little more moody? I'm like, okay, you know, so like, I really try to take that feedback from our customers and then create something based on that. But generally like, I'll go into it with like, okay, I'm creating a theme for, let's say an author. I will study a bunch of authors websites, Christian authors, crime authors, romance authors, and just get an idea of like, what are the main core things that they need in their site? Like how are they displaying their books for sale? Are they linking directly to Amazon? Like really studying and getting the behind the scenes of how they're organizing their website. This is a terrible example because I gotta say, authors have the worst website. They really do. They're so bad, most of them.
But, but just studying just the inner workings of just all the things that they need and then I start building directly in on demo site. I don't framework, I don't use Figma, I don't use, I use Photoshop and Illustrator like for custom design work. But I don't start there. When I'm creating a theme, I literally just go straight to a fresh install and just start designing. And it takes me a couple of weeks to like get to a point where I'm like, okay, like I finally have nailed the fonts and colors and like the style that I'm going for. And then it's all the refinement of, you know, all the little details of, you know, the author boxes and the search results and the, you know, the mobile, you know, the last minute things that come with the indesign.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I also would have to agree with you that research phase is super important. So in the research phase, when you're like saying, okay, I want to go look for all these author websites as an example, are you seeing like what do, what trends or what pages do all of these top popular authors have? And then that's how you decide the pages that are going to be designed for that specific theme?
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. Seeing all the pages they have and then also thinking through from like a marketing perspective, like, okay, if I'm an author and I'm going to write a book and launch it, like what are the pages that I'm going to need? So I'm probably going to need a book launch page. I'm probably going to need a thank you page if I'm offering some like a chapter. Right. Or something for my book. So I'm making sure that all of those pages are included in the theme because they're probably going to need them. And then I would also think about like, well, if they're an author, maybe they have a podcast. A lot of, especially nowadays it's been, that's a huge thing. A lot of authors start with a podcast to get their name out there. So I would probably create some sort of podcast page as well. So I always try to make our themes like as robust as possible and for many use cases because I mean, as you know, like a theme can be used for just about anything. But I like to build them out specifically with like copy and images and spaces for a specific need. So it's easier, right, to like install and just get going quickly.
But yeah, so that kind of lends some insight into that research phase.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: That's amazing. I think everybody, especially if you're either starting your own diy project. You need to go through that step for sure. Go see and do research in your industry, even outside of your industry. I have also found to be somewhat helpful of like, okay, if I am in the SaaS space, for instance, but I'm going to go look at in WordPress, I'm going to go look at SaaS in a completely other industry as I'm like thinking about the Kadence website and how we can improve. Because not everyone in your industry is doing a great job. As you just mentioned, the authors that you're trying to compare to aren't necessarily the best examples. So sometimes you might have to look outside of another industry to draw.
Okay, so tell us about selling digital products. Overall. I know that you found great success, uh, but sometimes it is a little bit tricky. So let's talk about some marketing strategies to sell the amazing project products that you have in your digital shop. Um, are you using social media? Are you using Pinterest? Like, what are. How are you getting all of this amazing traffic?
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so we don't really use social media, if I'm honest. Um, I don't love social media as a whole. Um, I feel like it's a ton time. Raw times suck. And it's so easy to like, open Facebook and get lost, as we all know. Right? But our main, like, avenues of marketing are we have a Facebook community. We do have that. That's really the only reason I'm on Facebook. But it's even in that, like, it's so easy for me to open Facebook, intend to go directly to our group and get lost in la la land. So we do have that. And then we also have our email list, which is a huge, huge marketing tool for us. And then in the last six months to a year, we're like testing the waters with ads. And I'm still kind of learning that. But those are really the only, like, marketing avenues that we use.
We've tried Instagram and our Facebook page, but it just. I've hired a VA to, you know, put content up. I've done all of those things and we just never got traction there. And I've just found that building a community around our product, like with our Facebook group that we're very active in, we have over 6,000 members in there and we're in there every single day. I just feel like that has been the most beneficial thing for our company.
And that's really like, I know we create themes and we create all these beautiful things, but at the heart and soul of Restore316 it's community and customer service. That's really like where it's at and that's really how we built our business.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: That's awesome. And then what about affiliate partners? Referrals, word of mouth, things like that?
[00:17:30] Speaker B: We definitely have affiliates as well. That's another stream. I always forget about that. I don't know why.
I mean, we're a small team. It's literally just me, Lonnie, and then we have Jill who does copywriting stuff for us. So it's, I mean it's just us three. That's it. So I'm like the product creator, the creative and Lonnie's the customer service like connoisseur.
So our affiliates, I hate to say that they kind of get like pushed on the back burner, but I have plans this year to like change that strategy a little bit. But we have a lot of affiliates that are, they write a review post or their friends come to their site and they're like, okay, I need a site like yours or they click the link in the footer and it's got an affiliate link. Those sorts of things we get business from as well.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Great. And then what about organic SEO? I know SEO is a wild game right now, so you're just not even focused on any of that.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: So I know that we serve bloggers and a blogger listening to this might be like, but I, I just have a different belief on SEO and that is I never focus on it. Literally, I've never ever focused on it since day one.
But I'm not a blogger. I'm not a blogger who's like, you know, searching for ad revenue and that kind of thing. But for us, I've just never, never focused on it at all.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: That should be somewhat empowering for a number of especially like young freelancers who are trying to start a design business for the first time. Especially on the backs of Kadence. The tools are so EAS easy to use. I also am self taught, have created child themes and sold child themes too, so. And I don't know how to code. I'll be first to admit that. So even if you don't have the, the coding knowledge, still possible to build a business. And you don't have to feel like you're on a hamster wheel creating a ton of content now. You have to have good products, amazing customer service and like that community backing I think that you were just talking about in order to do that. Like I don't want any freelancer to hear me say, oh, I can just throw something up and traffic will come. Because that's also not true.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's still hard, it's still a race, you know, to like, be seen. Right. And I'll say this. So I asked somebody years ago, I was like, who's further along in business? I just said, okay, you're familiar with me, you're familiar with my company. Like, what is one piece of advice that you can give me? And he said, be the loudest one in the room. That's like always that. That doesn't involve SEO, that doesn't involve, like, anything like that. You just said, be the last one in the room. And I feel like we are. That when we are, we show up in our community and we provide that amazing customer service. Like, that speaks louder to anyone who is in this space. Like, as from a customer perspective, who has experience purchasing from maybe another company or is just getting started, and they know they're going to need that hand holding that speaks louder than anything, you know?
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's really good advice, too.
So your website is beautifully designed. What advice would you give to someone who wants to create a website that actually converts visitors into customers? So this kind of can apply to people who are going to buy a theme from you and also people who want to build a business as well.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: The simplest answer, I would just start with a theme. I mean, but from a customer perspective, like, if you're just needing a website and you want to get started, definitely start with a theme. That's the easiest way to do it because you've got that framework to start with. Right. If you are a designer looking to get started in this, honestly, I would say set up a couple demo sites and break it and fix it. Break it and fix it. I mean, that's just how every designer and developer starts. Right. It's just that trial and error of learning all the ins and outs of Kadence in this case.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that's really good. Okay, so how do you balance running a shop, creating new products and serving your customers without burning out? That's another really hot topic, I feel like for 2025.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. That's such a good question. And I just feel like there's no just like one size fits all answer for this. You know, I think for me, on the weekends I'm off, I don't, I don't work. I mean, on Sunday evening, like, I'll sit down and just kind of like look at what's ahead for the week. You know, I'll spend like an hour or something doing that. But I really, really try and just be off on the weekends to provide that brain break that I need from work.
And then also, I mean, I have to always remind myself that I started this business because I wanted to be home with my kids and provide an income for my family.
So when there are things that arise with my kids or a kid is sick or anything like that, like, I have to remind myself that, like, I did this because I can be home with them or I can stop and go pick them up from school or whatever the case may be. Right. And instead of being hard on myself, like, well, my to do list is a mile long, you know, that that can wait. My kid can't, you know, so it's just reminding myself of those things and then also having help. And this is something I'm learning. I know I said our team is small, but this year I've got some goals of, like, bringing in people to help fill some of these roles that I feel like I'm drowning in. Right. And that's the affiliates is one thing. I mentioned that. And just some of the administrative things that I just feel like I get bogged down with that I probably hand off to somebody else. So just being able to pass that off to somebody else would be super helpful. So. Yeah, so those are the first things that come to mind on how I balance things.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Yeah, that's really good. I feel like every working parent, man or woman, you know, just every working parent needs to be reminded of that. I also learned that lesson recently. I was struggling with a business problem, and then I had talked to one of my best friends, and she was like, it's just business. It's just business. Like, yeah, the business should support your life and it shouldn't completely run your life ragged and make you hate your life, you know?
[00:23:36] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. And it's so easy, especially, like, when you work from home. It's so easy to let it. Right.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: Like, yeah.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: One thing I found is when I first started, I had, like, a little armoire in the corner of the living room, and, like, that's where I work. And it was so easy to, like, commingle everything. Now I have a dedicated office space. So, like, I shut the doors, I'm in here working. When I leave this office in the evening, like, it's. It's done. You know, I leave it. I leave it here in the office. So I don't. That might not apply to everybody because it's, you know, not everyone can have a dedicated office, but in any way where you can provide boundaries or Separation between your life and your business, especially if you're working at home, would be, would be awesome.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's really, really good advice. I think everyone needs that one. Okay, so how, if someone is thinking about launching a digital product shop, what advice would you give to, to them?
Since you're self taught too, right? If someone is self taught and wants to kind of follow in your footsteps, what's some advice you would give to them?
[00:24:41] Speaker B: Well, just start. First of all, I think it's so easy for people to talk themselves out of it before they ever start. I see that a lot.
So I would just say just start. And if I know a lot of people question like, well, what do I create? You know, where do I list it? Do I do Etsy? Do I do Woocommerce? Like they start asking all of those questions and like literally just start, just start designing it and start listing it even if it has to be on Etsy at the moment. You know, if you're unsure about how to do any of these things and you wanted a resource, we do have a course on this. It's called the Digital Shop Sprint Academy and it teaches everything about how to design all these digital products and then how to sell them. I take them all through that entire process.
But yeah, I just start. And I always think about this question that you just asked me in terms of like, what would I tell my daughter or one of my kids like if they came to me or like I want to start a digital product business, I want to do what you're doing. You know, I'd be like, okay, go open Canva and just start, you know, and download it and list it on Etsy. Like literally that's what I would tell them.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: Like create your first product. Like think about who you want to serve and just, just create it and then figure it out whether that's your own website or Etsy.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: Just start. Yeah, I mean the marketing stuff can come, you know, after you get a few products up. But and I would also say email marketing is like super big. Obviously I'm, you know, if we're, we're mainly on Facebook, Facebook group and email list. Our email list is like the backbone of our company. And I would say if you are starting a new business of any kind, whether it's digital products or not, that you've got to start with that email list as well. So even just, I don't know, like if you're just starting, you could have a basic website or even just run a small ad and get to get leads and then push people to those products that you're listing on. Where. Wherever they're being listed. Um, but yeah, the marketing can come, like, after you get some products up, because I think that's the part where people are like, they. They freeze. They don't know what to create. They think they're a bad designer. But you just have to start. You'll never. You'll never know what success you can create. Create until you do it, you know?
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think a lot of people start to compare their chapter one with your chapter 17 in business. You know, someone getting started, and they're looking to you. It's like you have year, like two. Almost two decades worth of experience. So the lessons that you've learned from experience are not going to be the same starting point for someone getting started. So, like, you. I mean, that's how you did it, right? You just. $10 in your bank account, you bought a domain you started, and that's just put one.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I just started. But there were. I'll admit, there were times that I wanted to, like, throw my hands up and give up, you know, I mean, I think every entrepreneur feels that way, especially in the beginning. Because you're like, I'm doing all this hard work and I'm not getting any traction. But if you don't stick with it, you'll never know, like, if it could become successful, you know? And I know for me, this is going to sound super ancient, but, like, when I first started, this was before Facebook, so I was in, like, all of the mommy forums, and, like, I would find bloggers and be like, hey, can I design your blog for free and still learning. I just. I just want to have a little link in your footer. Yeah, that's literally how I started.
And then I started charging $25 and $50 and $75 and just slowly started building up to, you know, where I was actually getting paid for my work. But it took. It took about a year, like, after I started to start getting consistent income, you know?
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Yeah. I think a lot of people think, oh, I'm gonna start this business, and overnight it's going to just produce something for you. I feel like for bloggers, too, that's the case. It's like, I want to start this blog. I have all these ideas to share, and I want to monetize it, and I'm gonna go follow someone who posted an income report, and they're making millions of dollars a month or whatever. They're like, oh, I can do it too. And then you get in the grind. And you're like, oh, this is harder than I thought it was.
Well, this has been an incredible conversation. I do have few rapid fire questions for you to wrap up this conversation. So three in particular. First, what's one book, podcast or resource that has been a game changer for you as an entrepreneur?
[00:29:04] Speaker B: So I would have to say Rachel Hollis, book girl, wash your face. And I know it's not a book, like, meant for entrepreneurship in general, but years ago, I took a trip to Vegas by myself. I was single at the time, and I stayed at a place with a beautiful pool, and I sat by that pool for a week and read that book. I read the whole book front to back, and it just changed my life.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Okay, so rapid fire question number two. What is one tool that you depend on in your business every day? And you don't have to say cadence, by the way, that to run your business.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Okay, well, definitely cadence. That's definitely, like, first of mine. But second, I'm gonna say one password. Like, that's the first thing that comes to mind. Just being in this world, in this business. I've got so many logins, as I'm sure you do too. Yeah. And I literally don't know a single one. They're all my password. And it's wonderful. I have it on my phone and my iPad, so they're always with me. It's great.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: I use that tool. Also, we just installed it on my daughter's phone as well. She's almost 13 and. And she was like, this is a game changer.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it's amazing.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: It's.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: So my husband still, like, programs his passwords and his phone contacts, and I'm like, oh, you need. You need one password.
We haven't sat down and done it yet. Yeah.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Okay. And then the last question, which is probably the most exciting question. What's Next for restored 316 and what? Do you have any exciting projects that are coming up?
[00:30:35] Speaker B: Yeah, so let's see. We just launched a new theme called Success.
It's mainly for, like, coaches and service providers. We're really aiming this year to, like, you know, focus on some other genres of themes. I know we're like, we're very known for our blogger themes and all of that, and we've got a good selection of those at the moment. So I'm trying to, like, spread my wings a little bit and create some different types of themes. And then later this month, we turn 17, so we'll have our annually, our annual, excuse me, birthday sale. So Anyone who knows us, we only have two sales a year and that is Black Friday and our birthday sales. So they're, they're big deals for our company. So we've got that coming at the end of the month and then alongside that birthday sale, we'll be launching a new block collection called the Creator Cloud. And it will be sort of a membership model, but it will include the conversion call outs which we're kind of known for, which are the blocks that go inside of a blog post that help you add blocks that are conversion focused in between your written content and then blog post builders. And then it's also going to have some Pro builder blocks is what we're calling them, and that is going to focus on blocks that you can use with Kadence Pro. So like, how can you customize your archives and, you know, placing those blocks inside of an element? How can you create a mega menu or a pop out menu on the right or just little things like that. There's going to be tons of different blocks for that and then a lot of documentation and tutorials on how to do all of that as well.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: That's amazing. When is that going to release or launch or. You don't have to give me a date if you're not ready to share.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: That will launch with our birthday sale.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: Oh, cool.
[00:32:24] Speaker B: So that's coming like at the end of the month? I think it's the 24th and I have the date correct.
[00:32:28] Speaker A: That's amazing. I know. I have been a customer of yours in the past as well and I think you create such amazing products so it's going to be really exciting to see what you do. So one question, your current child themes, they all use the free blocks of Kadence, right? So this is like you customizing things with ProBlox is like a new concept for your brand.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: It is. So yeah. So a couple of our themes have pages available in them that use Pro features. If someone has Kadence Pro. But I feel like there's a missing need in the market right now on Kadence Pro stuff. I think a lot of our customers especially are using Kaden's Pro, but they're not utilizing it to its full extent because they don't know how, you know. So that's kind of where Creator Cloud is going to fill that void, right. Of like, well, you can create a custom 404 page, right. You know, it'll have custom 404 page options and I'll show them how to do it. Or you can put your sidebar in an element. It doesn't have to be using widgets like things like that will all be inside of Creator Cloud.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: Man, that's going to be really exciting. Yeah, I can't wait to see that come out. Well, thank you so much. I know we've covered a lot. There's, I'm sure so much more we could go into, but I'm really just so thankful to get to chat and to hear our community hear from you directly. I know that you've really made an impact on the Kadence community overall in a really big way. I think you were the pioneer for the child themes, as you mentioned. You were like, hey, Ben, can we do this? He spun it up and then everybody got to watch you flourish into this amazing child theme creator. So getting to have this conversation has been a joy for me. I know in particular, I've always looked up to you as well. So thank you for having this conversation. Anything else you want to share?
[00:34:14] Speaker B: No, I just want to say thank you, Katie. It's an honor to be in that position. I feel very humble to be in that position. But also, Cadence has made such an impact in my life and the life of our community, so I'm super grateful for that.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: Well, cool. Well, be sure to check out the resources in the show notes because there's going to be links to those. Those blog blog posts that you were talking about. Also links to your upcoming sale potentially. So check out our show notes and thanks again for being a part of the podcast. We'll catch you guys next time.
