The Kadence Beat

Getting started with WordPress shouldn’t feel like a maze of decisions. In this episode, Hannah, Katy, and Ben talk about how StellarSites aims to bring the simplicity of SaaS platforms to the power of WordPress, removing the typical barriers like hosting setup, plugin overload, and performance headaches.

We explore what makes StellarSites different, how it’s built with beginners and freelancers in mind, and why a fully integrated experience (with tools like Kadence, Solid Security, and even AI-assisted setup) can finally make WordPress feel easy.

In Episode 41 of The Kadence Beat we sit down with Lauren from Restored316 to talk about her journey into web design and entrepreneurship. She shares how she turned her passion for design into a thriving business, her approach to crafting beautiful and functional themes, and tips for those looking to do the same. Whether you're a designer, an entrepreneur, or just love a good success story, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration!

In this episode, Ben, Katy, and Hannah dive into the latest business and marketing trends to help you stay ahead in 2025. They share insights on outdated business practices to leave behind, underrated marketing strategies, and the growing role of AI in productivity and content creation.

Plus, get an exclusive look at the Kadence 2025 roadmap, including updates on global styles, full site editing, Shop Kit, and WooCommerce. Whether you're an entrepreneur, marketer, or business owner, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you grow your business and continue to create powerful and effective websites.

In this episode, the Kadence team reflects on 2024's highlights, including major product launches, personal milestones, and exciting updates. Plus, a look ahead at what’s coming in 2025!

In episode 38 of the Kadence Beat podcast, Katy and Ben chat with Drew Griswold, Director of Outbound Marketing for Stellar WP. Drew shares his journey from running a retail business to mastering digital ads. He discusses key tips for online advertising, setting effective goals, and choosing the right platforms like Facebook and Google. Drew also offers practical advice for small businesses looking to start and optimize their ad campaigns while emphasizing the importance of data and testing. If you're running a small business, you definitely want to tune in!

In this episode of the Kadence Beat, we sit down with Katy Boykin, the latest and greatest addition to the Kadence team. As our newly appointed marketing director at KadenceWP, Katy shares her journey of discovering her passion and from it, building a successful business. Additionally, we delve into the exciting developments on the horizon at Kadence, including the introduction of a dynamic Tooltip feature and enhancements to our Advanced Headers and Navigation.

We got the band back together for a special episode of The Kadence Beat, and it felt like we didn't even miss a beat! In this episode, learn about everything coming on the Kadence roadmap, including improvements to Kadence AI, Kadence White Label, Advanced Navigation and Headers, and Kadence AI Pages. Kathy Zant joins us to discuss what she's been up to at Motivation Code. We talk a bit about various personality tests and how advances in AI uncover what fulfills you in your own stories.

New tools for WordPress, like Kadence, are making it increasingly easy for anyone to build more effective websites without ever touching a line of code. And yet, it's still critical to make strategic design decisions towards a goal of engaging your audience rather than driving them away. It's easy to take an effective strategy and apply it in ways that don't work well. We look at a few examples that don't work while also providing some key examples that work spectacularly. When do you use a slider? How can you best use animation? What about popups? This is an episode about key strategies that help your website make meaningful impacts in building your brand online. And, of course, we also take a look at new features in Kadence, the Kadence Marketplace, the upcoming Kadence Amplify event, and more.

After checking out WordCamp US, Ben, Hannah and Kathy share some of their impressions on both the future of WordPress and Kadence, as well as what the legacy of Kadence might be. Ben shares his observations on the progression of full site editing (FSE) and the things he thinks need to happen before FSE becomes widely adopted. Ben also shares what's dropping in Kadence updates this week. Kathy shares her thoughts about WordPress.com's plans to offer 100-year domains and website hosting and puts Ben on the spot: what do you think the legacy of Kadence will be?

In this episode of The Kadence Beat, Liberty Fleming of The Freelance Market joins Ben and Hannah to talk about marketing, the challenges and benefits of freelancing, and why saying yes to the work that sings to your soul can lead to some of the best experiences. Liberty shares her perspective on "the living room theory" and how you can use it to create a connecting experience for your audience.

The Kadence Team is in the midst of summer glory, and we're also getting Kadence Blocks 3.1 Beta ready for testing. Listen in to learn what new features are coming to Kadence Blocks as well as a new licensing system and Kadence AI. We also talk about the benefits of working on a remote team that is as close knit as the Kadence team and the benefits of working with people from around the world. Adventures with Hannah continues, but maybe a little more laid back now that the dog days of summer are upon us.

Join us on Adventures with Hannah, Ben's Productivity Experiments, and Kathy's newsletter writing cohort class. Kathy shares a haunting conversation with a Lyft driver that has her thinking about how WordPress could be more effective in a sea of numerous ways to get a website online. This leads to a conversation about how important it is to just get started building your dream and building audience without being distracted by which tools you're using.

In this episode, Ben gives an update on the upcoming features in both Kadence Blocks Pro and Kadence Blocks 3.1, and an overview of the teams working on new blocks as well as Kadence AI. As well, the team looks at the purpose of landing pages, elements that make a landing page effective, as well as things that make landing pages miss their target.

It is impossible to be anywhere in tech news and not hear about artificial intelligence and how ChatGPT has changed the world as we know it. In this episode, Shane Pearlman from Modern Tribe joins Kadence Founder Ben Ritner and Kadence Marketing lead Kathy Zant for a discussion about AI and the emerging world of AI in WordPress development. Modern Tribe has been leading an initiative with Kadence to bring website development to an entirely new level where custom sites are built rapidly based on modern WordPress development standards and the power of OpenAI.

In this episode, Ben, Hannah, and Kathy talk about what's new with WordPress 6.2 and the future of full site editing and new changes in the Kadence Design Library before diving deeper into strategies for effective content creation. Where can WordPress site owners find ideas for great content that connects with their audience, ranks well in search engine result pages, and helps their business grow? We've got some ideas and strategies that might help you make better decisions when developing your site's content.

Through serendipity, we stumbled upon a podcast with one of our community members, Shelley Marmor, who runs some very successful travel blogs and teaches others to do the same. Shelley switched her blog's theme to Kadence and began finding greater success online. Through both affiliate marketing and a successful advertising network, Shelley's business focuses solely on building effective sites with Kadence. In this episode, we talk about how Shelley got started blogging, how the switch to Kadence helped her find greater success, and Shelley explains some foundational blogging advice as well as how anyone can start building a business online.

When we're just starting a project, we often have to provide our own motivation to keep moving when challenges arise. In this episode, Ben, Hannah, and Kathy talk about how they work through challenges, set goals, and achieve more through mindset, surrounding themselves with supportive people, and keeping their "why" in mind through difficult times and setbacks. Ben also gives us some timetables for the release of Kadence Blocks 3.0, and some advice on updating any major WordPress software release. Hannah is in Mexico for this recording, providing its own challenges.

Humans are social creatures and we rely on the advice of trusted influences in our life to make purchasing decisions more than we often realize. In this episode, we check in with Ben on updates on Kadence development, and we review examples of trust based marketing with some ideas on how small WooCommerce store owners and even WordPress agencies and freelancers can leverage trust-based marketing to grow their businesses.

In episode 23 to kick of 2023 of the Kadence Beat, we take a look at how exemplary customer support affects our perception of a brand, whether it is an airline, fast food, or clothing company. We talk about Kadence's philosophy on customer support and how it began from an empathetic perspective when founder Ben Ritner started the company. Everyone at Kadence does support, and we talk about how customer interaction informs both our devs and our marketing team to be more effective in meeting market needs.