We’re stepping into 2026 with two things we care about a lot: a faster agency website and proof that sharing what we know can help other agency owners close real deals.

Over the last weekend, we quietly shipped a rebuilt version of the Manana No Mas site, and the speed jump was immediate. Then, right before New Year’s, we got a message that reminded us why we spend time publishing content and showing our work in public.

EtchWP transforms our agency website (with a soft launch first)

We didn’t throw a big announcement party when the new site went live. We treated it like a soft launch, because we wanted to watch things closely and make sure nothing broke. We’ve got too much running behind the curtain to rush it, and we’ve learned the hard way that testing beats hype.

We kept it low-key on purpose, no fanfare, just a measured rollout with time to verify forms, logins, and the customer path from first visit to purchase.

Why our WordPress setup can feel “heavy”

As WordPress sites go, ours isn’t a simple brochure site. It has a lot of moving parts, and that adds weight. Before the rebuild, we were staring at a PageSpeed score around 64, and it felt slow enough that we couldn’t ignore it.

Here’s what contributes to the load:

• LMS features running in the background
• CRM functionality tied into the business
• Years of blog content we wanted to keep for search traffic (we weren’t about to delete posts and lose momentum)

That last one mattered. We wanted the speed improvement without burning down the content that already performs.

From slow to swift: our PageSpeed jump with EtchWP

Why we switched from Bricks to EtchWP

We rebuilt the site using EtchWP. It’s been getting a lot of attention, and not all of it is polite. Some folks see it as a shift in how page building should work, with a stronger emphasis on systems and standards.

That framing clicks with us. EtchWP pushes a professional, intentional approach, and it also made us realize something fast: even after years of building sites, there’s still plenty to learn.

We’ve run an agency since 2008, and adopting a new builder still forces us to re-think habits, re-check assumptions, and rebuild muscle memory.

The results after the rebuild

Once we published the new version, we ran the numbers.

Metric	Before (Bricks)	After (EtchWP)
PageSpeed score	64	87

We didn’t remove the hard parts. The LMS stayed. The CRM stayed. The blog stayed. This wasn’t a “fresh install with one page and a stock theme” kind of test.

Could 87 be higher? Sure. We can already hear some people saying it should be in the 90s. They might be right. We didn’t take on a full database cleanout, deep performance tuning, or a major data purge. That wasn’t the mission.

What we were really trying to do (and why it mattered)

We didn’t start this rebuild as a pure speed project. Speed was the pain that forced the decision, but the goals were broader:

• Get hands-on with EtchWP and build real skill
• Gain experience we can use on client work
• Prove we use the same tools we talk about
• Move the site forward without turning it into a months-long overhaul

A website is never “done” for us. We’re always adjusting copy, building a new lead magnet, tightening a landing page, or revising offers. But this version is the fastest we’ve ever had for Manana No Mas, and it gives us a better foundation for everything we’ll publish next.

A new checkout plan: FluentCart plus more flexibility

Alongside the rebuild, we also made a commerce decision. We’re adding FluentCart and shifting how we handle checkout for digital products.

Instead of routing everything through the native LifterLMS payment gateway for digital products, we’re planning to run more through FluentCart. The reason is simple: we want more flexibility in how we sell and bundle offers, including hosting, courses, and memberships.

We also plan to keep cleaning up the back end as 2026 continues, because performance is rarely one change. It’s a series of small choices that add up.

The testimonial that made our day

Right before New Year’s, we got a message through Post Status from Mike Johnston. He’s reached out more than once, and every time, he’s been generous and thoughtful. He also listens to the work we do with Toby Cryns on the Agency Action Show (part of the WP Minute world).

We share a lot on that show because we want agency owners to skip avoidable mistakes. We talk through what worked, what didn’t, and what we’d do differently with the benefit of hindsight.

Mike’s note hit home because it’s exactly the kind of real-world outcome we hope for.

Mike Johnston’s message (the parts we can share)

He said he took some of our suggestions and borrowed heavily from the page on our site describing our Website as a Service offer.
He built a proposal for a client, sent it on Saturday, and it was accepted Sunday afternoon.

The client was a small church in Alabama. They already had trust from prior projects, and their leadership team reportedly spent about five minutes discussing the proposal before approving it.
He also mentioned he priced it slightly higher than our base offering and was gearing up for a February 1 start.

We replied simply, because sometimes the best response is short and sincere. But the impact wasn’t small.

The context: why we’re careful about “free advice”

On the Agency Action Show, we’ve talked openly about paid discovery and why agencies get burned when they hand out advice with no guardrails.

When someone takes casual guidance, tries to implement it without skill or support, and it fails, the story they repeat isn’t always fair. It becomes they tell everybody it didn’t work, and suddenly the agency looks like the problem when the real issue was execution.

Paid discovery fixes a lot of that. It creates a structured process, clearer ownership, and shared responsibility. It also respects the fact that strategy without implementation is often just theory.

Why feedback like this keeps us publishing

People ask why we show up on multiple podcasts, why we keep recording, and why we keep teaching. Notes like Mike’s are the answer.

Likes and shares are fine, and we appreciate them. Direct feedback, and real outcomes, are different. They keep us going.

We also know we’re not alone in this “teach what we know” lane. We see others doing it too, including Toby Cryns, Matt Medieras, Mark Zamansky, and Kevin Geary. When somebody tells us they won a deal, raised their prices, or got clarity because of something we published, it’s hard to overstate how motivating that is.

WP Agency Academy: what we’re building for agency owners

We’re actively growing WP Agency Academy as a place where people can learn how to launch and grow a WordPress agency with less guesswork. Right now, the core offer is a 47-lesson course focused on successfully launching an agency.

We’re also running an in-person apprenticeship in Hutchinson, Kansas, using that same curriculum. That piece matters to us, because learning in the real world often requires more than watching videos. It requires repetition, feedback, and shipping work with support. See our key WordPress predictions here.

Where this goes next: “splintered” courses on the tools we use

The 47 lessons are the start, not the end.

We’re planning additional courses that break out specific tools we use at Manana No Mas, and show them through an agency lens. Not just how to install a plugin, but how to use it to build offers that make sense and support recurring income.

LifterLMS is a perfect example of what we mean.

LifterLMS is a full-featured WordPress LMS with a deep ecosystem. It supports core course and membership features, plus add-ons for payments, quizzes, assignments, and more. It also plays well with common WordPress components agencies run into all the time, like page builders (Elementor and Beaver Builder), community tools (bbPress and BuddyPress), and form plugins (WPForms, Ninja Forms, Formidable Forms, and Gravity Forms). On the commerce side, it connects to Stripe, PayPal, and WooCommerce, which matters when we’re building real businesses, not demo sites.

It also has practical building blocks agencies can deploy quickly, including blocks, shortcodes, and widgets, plus documentation around privacy and security.

That ecosystem is useful, but only if we can explain how it supports a business model. That’s the angle we want to teach:

• Why we choose a tool
• How we package it inside an offer
• How we support it without drowning in support tickets
• How it ties into margins and recurring revenue

We also want to create courses around Fluent tools, Creator LMS, WPFunnels, and other parts of the stack we use.

Paying it forward (and why we’re doing it now)

Kurt von Ahnen shared something personal that shapes this whole push: he’s 58, and he’s been working with WordPress since 2004 (right back to getting his original WordPress username). At this stage, chasing the next contract forever doesn’t feel like the only goal.

We want to help other agency owners get established, avoid the same stumbles we hit, and build something that lasts. That includes:

• Picking tools that fit the job
• Pricing and packaging for profit
• Extending margins through recurring income
• Managing client projects with less chaos
• Hiring help when it’s time

For anyone considering making their side hustle more official, this is a good moment to commit. The earlier we get serious, the faster we get clear.

Gearing up for a strong 2026 (after a mixed 2025)

We’re not pretending 2025 was all wins. It had ups and downs. Some big projects were exciting. Some big projects were exhausting. A few were the kind we were happy to finish and never repeat. Others grew into something better than expected.

One major change helped a lot: moving to Kansas. Not carrying California costs changed the pressure level, and it made it easier to see options again.

What’s next for our setup (and what stays the same)

We’re planning to update the office and studio. The goal is simple: move from “grandma’s office” vibes to something that feels more current.

But we’re not in a hurry to replace what already works. The tech setup is solid:

• Two 32-inch monitors
• Keyboard and mouse we like using every day
• Adjustable chair
• Ring light

We’re also still using the Remarkable 2 tablet, and we may move to the Remarkable Paper Pro in 2026, after we sell the current device.

Conclusion

We’re starting 2026 with a faster site, clearer offers, and more focus on teaching agency owners how to build something stable. EtchWP helped us move our own platform from “kind of slow” to “finally feels quick,” and we’re not done improving it.

The bigger win, though, is seeing other people get results from what we share. That kind of feedback turns publishing into something more than marketing, it turns it into momentum.

If you’re building an agency right now, what’s the one thing you could simplify this month so the rest of your work has room to grow?