What Happened to Kadence? + My Business Framework

Well, first off..

Last week, when I commented about how the previous week’s issue on AI “writing” fell flat… it inspired a LOT of you to come out of the woodwork. And, I actually got a lot of very kind replies this last week saying how much they actually find the AI stuff valuable.

Interesting. I guess you guys don’t say anything to me unless I ask, huh? 😜

But, quite a few people replied just to tell me how much they enjoy receiving this newsletter every Monday. Which I appreciate.

And on the AI front…. no worries either way. This is not a newsletter about AI. It never will be. However, truth is, AI is one of the biggest technical advancements to how solopreneurs operate in quite some time. And the applications to how we do things are many – including in the world of WordPress. When you go to a WordPress event these days, the talk of the town is AI.

So, it is what it is. 🤷‍♂️

But, today we’re switching gears completely. Because today’s feature is about a business framework. 7 core functions. Your business – even your own life – has all 7 of them. Whether you know it or not. And, this framework is literally baked into how I am doing everything these days.

And then, we need to talk about what the heck happened to Kadence Theme last week. Because, it sure did create quite the rucous.

OK, let’s light this candle…

FEATURE ARTICLE

The Framework I’m Building My Entire Business Around Right Now

When somebody starts talking about “systems” and “structure”, eyes often glaze right over. 🤣 Which is a shame, because it is quite literally the key to whether you will succeed or not.

What if I told you that your little one-person business has the same core set of 7 functions that even the big Fortune 500 companies have?

It’s true. And it is a system. A framework.

Not in a boring, corporate org-chart kind of way. More like… what actually is a business? Like, if you stripped away all the noise and the tools and the to-do lists — what are the fundamental things that every business actually does?

Because here’s the thing. Most solopreneurs just sit down and… work. You do “stuff”. 😇 You open the laptop, you look at what’s on fire, and you deal with it. You work on whatever feels most pressing… or most interesting.

That’s not a discipline problem. It’s a structure problem. And specifically, it’s the absence of a framework. Most people have no framework for what their business actually looks like — so they just work on whatever feels right at the time.

So I want to share the one I’ve been building everything around lately. I wrote a full post about it on the Blog Marketing Academy site (link at the end), but here’s the version that matters for your week.

Every business has seven functions. All seven. All the time.

I want to start with Function 7, because it sits above all the others — and I know starting with #7 seems backwards, so bear with me. 😄

#7 — Executive. Strategy, vision, direction. The “why” and “where” of the whole thing. This function sets the direction and keeps everything else on the right path. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: so many solopreneurs forget they even have an Executive function. The idea of sitting down and coming up with an actual strategic plan? Most simply don’t. They just… work on whatever feels right.

Functions 1 through 6 form a cycle — like an assembly line:

#1 — Communications. Your front door. Incoming inquiries, opt-ins, your internal infrastructure.

#2 — Marketing. Converting interest into customers. Offers, sales pages, email sequences, follow-up.

#3 — Treasury. The money. In, out, margins, taxes, knowing your numbers, taking care of assets.

#4 — Production. Actually doing the work. Making the thing. Delivering the service.

#5 — Quality. Making sure what you delivered actually worked — and fixing it when it doesn’t. Support, retention, follow-up.

#6 — Public. Outbound visibility. Content, social, testimonials, referrals. The thing that closes the loop and brings new people in.

People enter your business through Communications (initial contact), get converted into a customer through Marketing, pay through Treasury, receive through Production, get taken care of through Quality — and then become a testimonial or referral in Public. Then rinse and repeat. The content and good works promoted through Function 6 feed people back into Function 1 again. Flywheel.

The reason I’m calling these “functions” is because every single one of them exists in your business — whether you’re paying attention to them or not.

Whether you’re a solopreneur with a site and an email list, or a company with 500 employees. The difference between a big company and a one-person operation isn’t the functions — it’s who fills them. In a big company, each function is a department with a team. In your business, you’re filling all seven boxes yourself.

In my business, when I’m writing a blog post or recording a YouTube video, that’s Function 6 (Public) — content going out to the general public with the intention of bringing new people in through Function 1. When I’m writing this newsletter, that’s Function 2 (Marketing), because I’m communicating to people who are already here. Later today, when I process new inquiries from Concierge clients and handle client tasks, that’s clearly Function 4 (Production).

Now, this isn’t about slapping labels on things you’re already doing. This isn’t a framework just for the sake of having one. The “aha” is to realize that every single one of these functions is already there — and then to look honestly at where your time actually goes to see if you’re doing each one intentionally.

Most solopreneurs I talk to are heavy in Production and light everywhere else. Marketing is inconsistent. Quality is reactive. Executive barely exists. And Treasury only gets looked at when something hurts.

My entire business is now organized around these 7 functions.

I call them Divisions in practice — not because I’m building an org chart or a hierarchy, but because it makes them feel like real, defined parts of the business that deserve actual attention.

My task list in Todoist has tasks assigned to these 7 Divisions — so I always know where my time goes. When I create processes, they’re divided into these 7 Divisions. I document everything in Obsidian now (with a lot of help from Claude) — and each Division has its own folder. Inside each one: the SOPs, reference material, active projects. And I have Claude set up so it knows these 7 Divisions and knows exactly where to look for things.

When I build an AI automation, I think of it as an “agent” wearing a specific role within one of my 7 Divisions — kind of like how an organization might assign team members to specific departments. Which means that as a solopreneur, I can consciously operate all 7 Divisions… and act as a conductor of the orchestra. AI lets me actually power all 7 Divisions at a scale I’d have a much harder time doing on my own.

The structure stays the same. Only the question of who — or what — fills each box changes.

So if your business feels stuck or scattered, don’t just work harder. Audit the seven functions. Ask which ones are actually running intentionally and which ones are just… happening to you. Then fix the weakest one. That one move tends to unlock the whole flywheel.

I wrote a full deep-dive on this over on the Blog Marketing Academy blog — the full cycle, what stats to track for each function, and how AI can extend your reach across all seven. If this sparked something: The 7 Functions Every Business Has (And Why Most Solopreneurs Neglect At Least One)

This framework is going to be showing up in a lot of what I do going forward — including how I help clients think about and grow their own businesses. Consider this your introduction. 😄

WordPress News & Updates

🔥 BIG STORY: WordPress 7.0 Drops Tomorrow (May 20) WordPress 7.0 releases tomorrow — the biggest core update since the block editor launched in 2018. Headline features include a native WP AI Client (lets plugins connect to OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini through one unified interface), a modernized React-based admin dashboard, new collaboration tools, and PHP-only block registration. Real-time co-editing was pulled from this release after architectural issues and will be re-evaluated for 7.1. WordPress 7.0 RC4 announcement

StellarWP Is Gone — Kadence, LearnDash, GiveWP Now Under Liquid Web Liquid Web dissolved the StellarWP brand entirely this week, consolidating its entire WordPress plugin portfolio into four core products: Kadence, LearnDash, The Events Calendar, and Give. Several standalone brands — SolidWP, IconicWP, Restrict Content Pro, MemberDash — were discontinued and absorbed into Kadence or LearnDash. All the familiar plugin websites now redirect to Liquid Web. The rollout has been rocky, with users reporting login issues, missing purchases, and license confusion. Existing customers are being grandfathered in, but if you’re a StellarWP customer, it’s worth logging into the new portal at software.liquidweb.com to confirm your licenses are intact. More thoughts on this below, specifically as regards my revised thoughts on Kadence. → Full breakdown at Search Engine Journal

FluentCRM 3.0 Is Live The biggest FluentCRM release ever dropped this week. Version 3.0 is a ground-up rebuild on Vue 3, bringing a completely redesigned dashboard, a Gutenberg-native email builder with device preview, SMS marketing (campaigns, automations, direct messaging), AI-assisted email writing, dark mode, global search across CRM records, and a new frontend portal. Since The WP Edge is sent via FluentCRM, this one hits close to home. 😄 → FluentCRM 3.0 Announcement.

SEOPress 9.8 — Rebuilt Site Audit + Command Palette SEOPress 9.8 landed with a fully rebuilt Site Audit (now a proper workflow, not just a list of issues), a new command palette (Cmd/Ctrl+K to jump to any setting), a brand-new React-based SEO metabox, and an “Agent Readiness” toggle to prepare your site for AI agents. Worth updating if you’re running SEOPress. → SEOPress 9.8 release notes

BuddyBoss 3.0 — Rebuilt Admin, With More Coming BuddyBoss called this their most significant update in years. Version 3.0 kicks off a three-release era: the first release (out now) is a complete rebuild of the admin experience — modular settings, a tile-based layout, faster page loads (it only loads modules you actually use), and a side-panel help system. The next two releases follow in late May (a next-gen BuddyBoss App) and June (ReadyLaunch). I still am not a fan of BuddyBoss because of how bloated it is. No word yet if v3 is going to do much about that. We’ll see. → BuddyBoss 3.0 announcement

FluentKit — New Unified UI Addon for Fluent Plugins WPManageNinja announced FluentKit, a new addon that provides a unified UI across all Fluent plugins on the same site. If you’re running multiple Fluent plugins, this is aimed at reducing the friction of jumping between interfaces. (Despite the name, it’s an addon plugin, not a separate product — which caused some naming confusion with the GravityKit folks this week.) → FluentKit announcement

Uncanny Automator Gets an AI Agent Uncanny Automator now ships with Uncanny Agent, an AI assistant that can answer questions and complete WordPress tasks on your behalf, working alongside your existing automations. → Uncanny Agent details

ConversionBridge v1.14 — Custom Scripts + Consent Gating ConversionBridge updated to v1.14 with the ability to add any vendor tracking script with full consent gating directly from the settings page. Handy if you’re managing third-party scripts and need clean GDPR-compliant loading. → ConversionBridge v1.14

FluentBooking 2.1.0 — CSV Export + No-Show CRM Triggers FluentBooking updated with CSV export for bookings, automated CRM triggers for no-shows, and PHP 8.4 compatibility. → FluentBooking 2.1.0

TECH FOCUS

Kadence Got Sucked Into Liquid Web

I have been a strong proponent and user of Kadence Theme, Kadence Blocks… and the entire Kadence suite of plugins. And I’m still a fan. However, I can no longer consider myself a proponent of Kadence. Things have changed. And here’s why…

See, Kadence was acquired by iThemes in April 2021. Right after iThemes itself was acquired by Liquid Web. Just a bit after Kadence was acquired, they picked up GiveWP and then relaunched under the StellarWP brand. Then, they bought Learndash. They also bought The Events Calendar.

So, this one hosting company was gobbling up premium WordPress tools. The goal on their part was to create a more full stack solution and attract people into their web hosting.

Then, in 2023, Liquid Web itself was acquired by a private equity firm called One Equity Partners. And with private equity often comes big shifts toward profitability, efficiency, and more monetization options. Which means… pricing changes and staff layoffs.

Where does this leave Kadence? The original team and the founder Ben Ritner are…. gone. The people who built the Kadence brand are gone.

And, just this last week, Liquid Web finally pulled the switcheroo. Kadence has been updated to their new licensing system. Everything is being centralized under the Liquid Web umbrella.

There was a lot of freakout over whether LW would honor previous license holders. Lots of bad communication and, frankly, the whole thing has been poorly managed. But, in the end, it certainly looks like they’re going to honor the deal. Licenses are showing up in people’s accounts. But, the whole affair left a really bad impression.

So, where does this leave us with Kadence? Is this a threat to the future of the platform?

Obviously, this matters to me a lot. I’ve been an advocate for Kadence. And I’ve built a lot of sites for clients on the back of Kadence. So, do we now have ourselves a problem?

Well, it could be. But, no way to know. Learndash is still going strong, despite the fact that the marketing for it has changed significantly. It is still bloated and I can’t say I’m a big fan, but frankly it was getting to be that way even before it was acquired.

The key here is whether Liquid Web keeps Kadence moving along the path that made it successful. It is truly one of the most powerful block systems and themes for WordPress. I hope it doesn’t change. And, of course, I hope they continue to develop for it and not just do base level maintenance. I also hope they’re not going to become aggressive about marketing Liquid Web hosting…. which I have no personal interest in.

In the WordPress groups, people are doing what social media people do…. which is freak out easily and post alarmist stuff. 🤣 But, this recent licensing snafu was just a rough transition. I’m sure it is a big task to transition an entire licensing system for a well-established plugin. And I know people hate change.

Here’s where I stand on this…

If I were shopping around right now for a theme platform, I would not pick Kadence today.

I still like the tool – a lot. But, judging it from the outside, it now looks like a corporate blob. The homepage looks like AI slop. It doesn’t have the personality it once had. And I would immediately dismiss it. That’s just the truth.

I wouldn’t even go with Astra/Spectra… because I think those guys are so focused on the “Sure” line of products that they have other goals that don’t line up. I could be wrong, but that’s my feeling.

If I were choosing again, I’d be looking at tools such as Ollie or GeneratePress.

And perhaps I’ll spend some time with both. So, I have options.

For my clients who are using Kadence… as of now, nothing changes. I don’t think there’s anything to be concerned about. But, I’m paying attention. And…

I’m going to actively explore other tools. Not because I’m going to start switching client sites to other tools and re-building. That’s be horrible. No… more so that I have other options. Because, if I wouldn’t promote Kadence, then building new client sites on Kadence, given the situation, seems like not the right move.

But, I’m still running Kadence. Happily so. And, as of now, no plans to change it.

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