Before Brian Johnson was building websites, he was an aspiring musician (and even made it pretty far on America’s Got Talent). That creative background still influences how he approaches his work today, with a focus on making websites that are simple, functional, and actually enjoyable to use.
Brian started PageCrafter back in 2011 and was betting on WordPress before a lot of “serious” agencies were sold on it. In his spotlight, he shares what he’s learned since then, including why moving from constantly putting out fires to proactively managing client sites has made life better for everyone involved.
What were you doing before you started your agency, and what from that past life still shows up in how you work?
For many years I was an aspiring musician and for a while it seemed like there was a good chance that’s what I’d end up doing for a living. I even made it relatively far on the show America’s Got Talent at one point.
I think that music taught me about the value of artistic beauty and what it does to the human spirit. I’ve always believed that technology should be used to make our lives better and to connect us in ways we couldn’t before, and have always pushed back on anything that gets in the way of that.
This shows up in our website designs themselves and also in the simplicity of our site architecture and plugin selection. I believe the design should make you feel good. It should be clean, easy to follow, and pleasant.
Likewise, I think that maintaining or changing a website should be as easy as possible and shouldn’t feel like you are fighting against a suboptimal system.
I don’t see music or other forms of art as a separate category from technology, just like I don’t see work as entirely separate from or fundamentally opposed to the rest of life.
The scope of what I can do to change the world may be inherently limited, but I like to think that through our websites, I can help make this little corner of the world a little nicer.
What got you into WordPress and how long have you been using it?
When I first started my company in 2011, most “serious” agencies were still custom-coding HTML websites from scratch. WordPress (and other CMS) was pretty widely-used but it was still viewed by many established agencies as largely a blogging platform.
It seemed like the future to me.
I loved the idea that you could just change the theme and dramatically change the look of your site, which was even more relevant back then because the web changed so fast that even a 2-year-old website often looked outdated. But I also saw the great opportunities with the rapidly-expanding plugin ecosystem and just the benefits of using a CMS.
By about 2013 we were working almost exclusively with WordPress and have continued to do so since then.
Things have obviously changed dramatically since then. Formatting content was quite difficult before front-end editors like Elementor or the block editor came about. Over time we’ve developed a list of plugins and themes we prefer and now everything feels pretty natural.
Tell us about your agency — who do you work with, and what kind of projects light you up?
I founded PageCrafter in 2011 and almost immediately started specializing in working with WordPress websites. We’ve always focused on working with small and medium-sized businesses and organizations, and over time I came to realize that I really enjoyed working with the same clients repeatedly and providing ongoing services well beyond the initial website design.
Especially in the early days, we used to have lots of new or existing clients coming to us with urgent issues on their website, whether it was hosting resource issues, hacks, plugin conflicts, etc., and eventually I realized the tremendous value of being proactive and providing ongoing services that actively combat these problems and prevent them from happening in the first place.
These days, most of our clients are on a maintenance plan with us that includes some combination of website hosting, ongoing security monitoring, caching, regular updates, troubleshooting, DNS hosting and management, SMTP, and more. I’ve found that things run a lot more smoothly, clients are much happier, and my job is actually much easier when we proactively manage all of these things.
We’re based out of the Minneapolis / Twin Cities area and love working with local businesses, though I actually do have clients all over the country.
What part of the website creation process is your favorite to work on and why?
I really like seeing a website actually come to life. A lot of the prep work can be exciting, but you don’t always get to see the actual results right away.
I always love seeing all of the inputs come together. When the images, content, and planning are all visible in a clean design that checks every box, it’s just a magical feeling.
In particular, I love working with clients that have something visual to show off on the site – home builders, artists, any company with cool events, etc. It’s just exciting to see a work of art come together like that.
What’s a hard lesson you learned running your business that’s changed the way you operate?
A lot of my early years were spent putting out fires. Problems would come up with client websites – like getting hacked, having checkout break because plugins weren’t updated, or things just generally break because of poor upkeep – and we’d fix them.
They weren’t paying for ongoing maintenance services, and I think I was afraid to tell them they should spend more money on additional services.
But at the end of the day, it still reflects badly on me if things are breaking because a client didn’t opt for a proactive service.
These days I am far more direct with clients and can better articulate why things should be done a certain way. I’ve realized I have a responsibility to the client to fully explain things in a way that makes it clear what they need.
And not only are my clients’ sites far more stable now, it’s also far easier for me to manage them because we aren’t putting out fires all the time. It’s genuinely a win-win.
What’s a book every agency owner should read?
The ONE Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan
What’s a WordPress plugin more people should know about?
Video Dashboard! Shameless self-promotion of the only plugin I have in the repo
What’s your favorite tool, accessory, or gadget on your desk?
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface – hard-wired connections, analog output, no bluetooth. It works instantly, every time, with no startup delay or latency. Just how tech should be.
What’s your favorite non-WordPress tool or software?
Adobe Lightroom – I do a lot of photography in my spare time and it’s fun to edit!
