I am Basilis Kanonidis, The Founder of creativeG born and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece. Been working all of my life as a builder, building things either for me or for my customers.
I started with Web Design & Development and slowly moved to marketing and Product. I am now building Products & Businesses with, of course, WordPress as a base.
Basilis Kanonidis of creativeG
The Journey Began
I started back when Dreamweaver was for “cool kids” Templates, with a master one that we could edit stuff and so on. But when you are working online, you need to adapt and switch your mindset. For that reason, I shifted more to a CMS, like WordPress.
I started with WordPress when it was called B2. Then it was forked and WordPress was created. We have moved through a lot of different phases but I think WordPress is reaching now a “gold sphere“.
It is more stable, and more mature to start a different journey. Automattic is acquiring and investing in hosting / staging companies, showing that they want to create something that eventually will be a platform like Shopify and Wix.
While I have worked with hosting companies I strongly believe that hosting will soon be a commodity and hosting companies need to focus more on digital platforms.
I am working with InstaWP to do something like that, I am happy that I am now on their team and have been part of their growth and scaling. You really need to follow us if you are in the WordPress space. We are going to build some excellent stuff.
The Need for creativeG
creativeG Logo
Truth be told, creativeG was born as an agency but now it is more Me and the team. Why do I say ME first? Well, now we are more into the actual product, building products that customers love and that are not just WordPress sites.
We are helping our customers to develop their business—products & Strategies. Process flows, automatons, everything we can do to make a Product success story. WordPress is still the backbone of all of those processes.
Myself with my Brilliant Team
I am building something really beautiful here, but the more we grow, the more this becomes a game of one. That unfortunately is because a Product / Growth agency i.e. more of a consultation role, doesn’t require a lot of people.
The team though, has a VA, 1 more Product Marketing Manager, 5 developers, and 1 front-end designer/developer.
Basilis Workaholic
Advice for Business Owners
If you start an agency now, I believe that you need to be ultra-focused. Things like AI should be your top priority to learn and make your own. If you are willing to get into general things like Plugin & Theme business etc, I would tell you no.
Focus on building more tools that operate as a SAAS Business (SAAS, PAAS, WAAS, IAAS, etc.) and do not spend time on models that have a lot of support and can’t scale that much. It is better to be an entrepreneur that is focusing on a product that can scale, than a WordPress theme.
If you are good to design, focus on how you can make that a product or even a service as a product. Do not focus on designing a theme that eventually will have a really short amount of users.
Stay in Touch
WordPress & Beyond
What I do right now is that I treat WordPress as a scalable business and focus more to see what is next for WordPress. What WordPress community will need, what WordPress as an entity will need, and so on.
My Love for the WordPress Community
You know what, it is a love & hate relationship. You love all that crowd, the spirit, etc, but you reach a point where you hate when there is all that conflict that is been created by people who want to first promote their selves and then the actual community.
But, WordPress is only growing because of that beautiful community, the partnerships that are getting formed, and how things move forward with the joy you receive.
How I Keep Myself Updated
I read – read – read! I have a personal target of 20 things – minimum – per day. There are newsletters, blogs, etc, but nowadays, I have my own way of organizing my emails and understanding what I have to absorb, and learn, what to distribute to others, and so on.
Every business owner and founder needs to remember that WordPress is not JUST about WordPress. You can’t just read WordPress news.
You need to read about business, entrepreneurship, digital marketing, psychology, AI, and all the trending topics that will allow your mind to scale, be open to new activities, and help you understand how you build.
I Have a Life Other Than the Work
Well, do we? At least we try, right? I like to take some walks, enjoy the day with friends, have a coffee, or be around some good company. Days are hard, so we need to make sure that we do from our side what we can, to make them lighter.
Basilis Enjoying With Friends
There are some breaks like Christmas, Easter, and so on, but I don’t usually do anything extreme. I also do not love to travel. I know, sounds strange, but I don’t believe that traveling is freedom. You still need to go through thousands of stuff which eventually leads to more problems than success.
I have a small mini pinscher, Paris, who I love like a child. We are together for 10 years now and I really hope we will manage to be for more than that.
I Reward Myself by
With shopping! Oh man, I love shopping! I have just last month rebuild also my second room to a closet as I started having limits to the amount of things that I can own and I REALLY love it! My favorite room in the house.
Every month I try to also do some small donations to a different cause, so I can give back. I believe that when you give back – more things will come to you.
