Category Archives: spotlight

Speaker Spotlight: Marianne Worthington

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 Marianne WorthingtonWe welcome Marianne to WordCamp Kansas City to share tips on building your team. She has a lot of experience and she was kind enough to share with us a little more about her history here!

Q: How did you get started in your current field?
A: I spent 10 years building teams in corporate America. In 2012 I decided to leave it all behind and go out on my own…helping business owners build really great teams. For the past year and a half I have been helping businesses grow their business, and profit, by building high performing teams.

Q: Describe your ‘ah ha’ moment about WordPress?
A: My “ah ha” moment with WordPress was I needed Jim Grant to keep me up and running!!

Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Do more customer development calls. From the get go business owners need to be on the phone asking about pain points and verifying the product that you offer actually matters and solves a problem.

Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.
A: When you build your team you build your business. From day one you need to have laser focus on what your vision is and ruthlessly recruit people that buy into that vision. During the session we will focus on how you can make sure that you are building a fantastic tribe that will help you build your business.

Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?
A:People who are looking to build their business and want to learn how to build a powerhouse team.

Speaker Spotlight: Mary Baum

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Mary BaumWe’re happy to introduce Mary Baum to our WordCamp Kansas City attendees. She got her start in print media and marketing, so we asked her to give a little more insight into how she got where she is.

Q: How did you get started in your current field?
A: I’m trained as a print designer and worked as a combination art director and copywriter in advertising, in the 80s. In the 90s I worked with Maritz – still all in print, but growing my chops in digital design and production.I started doing sites in 1998, but did them in GoLive (wrong!) until 2007. That was when the Adobe Creative Suite switched to Dreamweaver, and I took that as a sign it was time to learn real html/CSS.

I was 47, and the first site I wrote that way was frontenactennis.com (Shocker!)

Once I had static sites down, I recognized I needed to offer more functionality – and flirted with Business Catalyst for a couple of years. Meanwhile, I was aware that I needed to start being able to design WP sites. I started my first few in summer 2010 (the year I turned 50, btw.) After a few CSS struggles and the realization I needed to learn php, I was done with Business Catalyst and committed to WP exclusively. 

In 2012, the last site I converted to WP was frontenactennis.com.

Q: Describe your ‘ah ha’ moment about WordPress?
A: There have been several:

  • The first was opening a second Genesis child theme and seeing its CSS was organized exactly as the first I’d opened was.
  • Another was answering a tweet with a joke that was a made-up php function about Keurigs.
  • Still others have happened every time I realize I just might have the hang of this hooks thing.
  • And then there have been all the times I’ve thought, “I’m a themer.”

Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Skip BC. Learn php already.

Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.
A: Designing for conversion: The design decisions we make absolutely affect conversion. They tell a person this site is for them, or no, it’s not, with a million elements that combine to make one impression. But it’s copy that will seal the deal – especially such seemingly trivial copy as UI copy – the words on links, buttons and more.

Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?
A:Designing for conversion: intermediate designer, beginning developer, marketing junkie.
Mobile-first: intermediate designer, intermediate developer, advanced analytics junkie.

This post is part of a multi-day series featuring speakers from WordCamp Kansas City 2015. Subscribe to have them delivered to your mailbox, or feel free to check back every day!

Speaker Spotlight: Brian Bookwalter

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Brian BookwalterA long time supporter of WordPress Kansas City, Brian will be joining us to talk about bit about page builders. We know you’ve got questions, so we learned a little more about him below!

Q: How did you get started in your current field?
A: I worked as a print graphic designer as my first job in Manhattan, Kansas for an educational publishing company. Those seven years went very quickly and then I attended Graduate School at Kansas State. There, I started digging into code a little to learn more about the web. I set up my first WordPress site in 2005 (or so) and fell in love with it. Since then, I’ve been designing sites, some web-development, and using and reviewing premium products related to WordPress.

Q: Describe your ‘ah ha’ moment about WordPress?
A: My ah ha moment would have to be the first time I changed my theme but kept the database intact. After doing that, I just had a little resorting with the menu and post types order and the entire site was changed in a few hours.

At that time, “static” websites were all I knew, where your content was hard coded into each page… and changing a website design required starting over. WordPress changed the game.

Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Don’t be too overwhelmed by the immense selection of plug-ins and themes available, both paid and free. Start simple with the basics instead of jumping into really complex backend UI products. Most websites are designed to do two things: get data and display data. Knowing what problem you are solving with a website will help you design everything around that premise. And of course, making it look good is easier than ever with really great theme options. I could keep going and going about the topic of “I wish I knew then what I know now”!

Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.
A: We will review, compare, and contrast several different page builders and compare them with popular theme builders to help all attendees decide for themselves which option best suits their design needs.

Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?
A: Intermediate designer/ developers looking for ways to improve their front-end content development workflow.

This post is part of a multi-day series featuring speakers from WordCamp Kansas City 2015. Subscribe to have them delivered to your mailbox, or feel free to check back every day!

Speaker Spotlight: Kim Beasley

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Kim BeasleyOur own Kim Beasley will be joining the Kansas City WordCamp speaker list for the first time. She’ll be brining some knowledge for beginning to intermediate site creators, so we wanted to know a little more about her!

Q: How did you get started in your current field?
A: I’ve been developing websites since 1996 when I started developing intranet sites. Around 2003, I started developing and customizing WordPress websites for corporate and entrepreneurial clients. Around 2010, I started consulting with a company as a technical consultant who coached new entrepreneurs to create a WordPress website and monetize it in a 5-day workshop. In 2011, I started speaking about WordPress via webinars, stage and interviews.

Q: Describe your ‘ah ha’ moment about WordPress?
A: My ah ha moment came when one of my peers introduced WordPress to me in 2003. I had been developing websites from scratch using Dreamweaver. Once I was introduced to it, I saw the power behind WordPress and realized that developing website was much easier and smoother using WordPress.

Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: For newbies, I would say that learning the basics of HTML/CSS was something that helped me be able to customize on the fly.

Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.
A: Developing WordPress websites using Google App Engine is a great way to create in the cloud and have better control of your cloud environment. You will learn the basics of setting up the website and how to prepare for it. Also will share specific plugins that would be great to include with your installation.

Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?
A: This workshop is good for different levels of developers: beginners, intermediate, content providers and many more.

This post is part of a multi-day series featuring speakers from WordCamp Kansas City 2015. Subscribe to have them delivered to your mailbox, or feel free to check back every day!

Speaker Spotlight: Andy Brudtkuhl

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Andy BrudtkuhlAndy is a web developer from Des Moines, Iowa who came to WordPress after a lot of other work. He gave us a little insight into his work so that you could get to know him better!

Q: How did you get started in your current field?
A: I started my career as a Software Engineer building web applications in ASP.Net for a few startups and then as an independent contractor for enterprises doing backend and front end development. I dabbled in WordPress for about 8 years before doing it full time as a freelancer and now as an employee managing dozens of sites.

Q: Describe your ‘ah ha’ moment about WordPress?
A: When I discovered plugins can do anything.

Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Plugins are where it’s at.

Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.
A: Learn how to use tools and processes to improve your workflow to become a better and more efficient WordPress developer.

Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?
A: Beginning developers.

This post is part of a multi-day series featuring speakers from WordCamp Kansas City 2015. Subscribe to have them delivered to your mailbox, or feel free to check back every day!

Speaker Spotlight: Frankie Jarrett

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Frankie JarrettFrankie is a regular WordCamp speaker in both his native Kansas City and elsewhere. He’s a lifelong learner and excellent educator. Read on to learn more!

Q: How did you get started in your current field?
A: I started building static websites for clients in 2002 under the guise of “web designer” based on a handful of self-taught Photoshop, HTML and CSS stills. Eventually I was introduced to WordPress in 2007, started working with jQuery and PHP, and in 2009 my career had evolved into “web developer”. Since then I’ve owned my own theme shop, helped build high-end WordPress websites for WordPress.com VIP and released a lot of WordPress plugins.

Q: Describe your ‘ah ha’ moment about WordPress?
A: In 2010 when 3.0 introduced custom post types and multisite as part of core I made the decision to work exclusively with WordPress full time.

Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Keep it simple. Ship code faster. Iterate on feedback. Only be a perfectionist when it matters.

Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.
A: WordPress is a product people love. In this session we will examine how to build WordPress plugins that people will love too – it’s not just about best practices for our code, it’s about giving users incredible experiences they won’t forget.

Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?
A: Developers of any skill level. Especially those who want to start creating WordPress plugins or already do.

This post is part of a multi-day series featuring speakers from WordCamp Kansas City 2015. Subscribe to have them delivered to your mailbox, or feel free to check back every day!

Speaker Spotlight: Brent Schultz

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Brent SchultzBrent is a full-time developer at 10up and a Kansas City local. We’re happy to welcome this perennial favorite back to WordCampKC 2015!

Q: How did you get started in your current field?
A: A hobby blog led to freelance which led to more freelance which led to agency work and here I am today as a full stack WP dev, though primarily a backend dev.

Q: Describe your ‘ah ha’ moment about WordPress?
A: There have been several along the way but the biggest one I encountered was simply looking at the entire WP Query object on any given page which helped me understand a bit more about the inner workings of WordPress and really made it make a lot more sense.

Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Read the Codex. Don’t just check it out as you do some good searches for the things you’re trying to accomplish. Read it, understand it, tinker with it.

Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.
A: Timber is a framework that isn’t actually much of a framework but it brings a fresh take to the concept. The reason Timber is important with WordPress and it’s future is it brings a Twig templating engine to clean up markup files to make the presentation layer a bit more friendly for front-end developers not familiar with PHP or WordPress.

Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?
A: Developers and Designers.

This post is part of a multi-day series featuring speakers from WordCamp Kansas City 2015. Subscribe to have them delivered to your mailbox, or feel free to check back every day!

Speaker Spotlight: Chris Koerner

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Chris KoernerChris is a WordPress community contributor from St Louis who has a way of discussing complex WordPress solutions in a simple way. He’ll be talking about the importance of updating your site, so we asked him a little about how got where he is.

Q: How did you get started in your current field?
A: I started working with WordPress back in the early 1.x days. I had a terrible flash+HTML site I built and was looking for something that made it easier to update. WordPress fit the bill and it’s been a pretty good relationship ever since.

Q: Describe your ‘ah ha’ moment about WordPress?
A: Custom Post Types and Custom Fields. A lightbulb went off when I realized the customization and organization of information would be limitless.

Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Relax. The WordPress community is filled with super knowledgeable and experienced people who could put something amazing together in a weekend. That sounds intimidating at first. Over time I realized those same people are some of the most caring and giving folks I’ve ever met. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and put your stuff out there.

Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.
A: Updates good. Not updating, bad. I’ll help you.

Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?
A: Anyone using WordPress that has a notification in the Dashboard letting them know of an update.

This post is part of a multi-day series featuring speakers from WordCamp Kansas City 2015. Subscribe to have them delivered to your mailbox, or feel free to check back every day!

Speaker Spotlight: Heather Physioc

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Heather PhysiocHeather is a long-time SEO professional and well rounded digital marketer. She works at one of the largest marketing firms in Kansas City, but will be talking to us about the entrepreneurs she’s helped over the years. We caught up with her to get a bit more information about her history and her presentation.

Q: How did you get started in your current field?
A: Truthfully, my career in digital marketing started when I was 13 years old and created my first Geocities website, ha! It ultimately evolved into an online magazine called Heavy Frequency, which covered bands, musicians, and the music community in the Kansas City area.

I got my degree in Strategic Communications (Advertising) from the University of Missouri Journalism School. From there, I went on to work at agencies of all sizes (PlattForm, Fleishman Hillard, VML), specializing in search engine optimization and content marketing, among other digital marketing disciplines.

I was an SEO freelancer for several years, as well. As my clients’ interest and needs evolved, and they needed even more help to grow their small businesses, it ultimately led to the creation of Tentacle Inbound.

Now, I lead the SEO practice at VML and Red Fuse serving some of the world’s largest brands, and then on a smaller local scale, I own and operate Tentacle Inbound to serve small businesses.

Q: Describe your ‘ah ha’ moment about WordPress?
A: My eyes were really opened to WordPress when my clients kept coming to me for digital marketing services, but found themselves trapped by their hard-coded website builds that they didn’t understand or have access to, or clunky CMSs that simply didn’t get the job done. We couldn’t do our best work for them because they simply didn’t have the tools.

My clients needed a powerful website solution that was simple out-of-the-box, but could be customized to a great degree for each of their unique business needs. We’ve got clients that have a variety of needs, including e-commerce needs, hospitality booking, lead generation, community building, and so much more. WordPress can successfully meet the needs of all these clients with one simple, incredible platform.

In addition to my clients benefiting from the many perks of WordPress, my own business has been able to be flexible and grow without having to completely start from scratch on the website every time we’ve had to pivot over the years. The website has changed and grown with us, but the foundation has always stayed the same – thanks to WordPress.

Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Stop, and take the time to make a (flexible) plan. Start by defining goals first, then determining the strategy, then outlining tactics – not the other way around.

This seemingly simple approach applies to so many things in the professional world, from starting our own businesses, to pitching new clients, to building websites, to digital marketing strategies, to facing a conflict in the office, and so much more.

It’s easy to want to just dive in at the tactical level, but taking a little time to step back and think more strategically makes a world of difference for efficiency, effectiveness, and your own sanity.

Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.
A: Many small business owners find themselves trapped with outdated websites they can’t use, in an intimidating environment completely outside their comfort zones. Instead of having a valuable tool to grow with them and their businesses, they end up feeling held hostage by their websites. In my talk, I will share true stories of real clients who escaped captivity with the help of WordPress, and paved the path to better digital marketing, even on bootstrapper budgets.

Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?
A: Entrepreneurs and digital marketers will find this talk especially useful and relevant, but really, anyone who is selling their own WordPress services can benefit from understanding clients’ website pain points, and how WordPress solves those problems for them.

This post is part of a multi-day series featuring speakers from WordCamp Kansas City 2015. Subscribe to have them delivered to your mailbox, or feel free to check back every day!

Speaker Spotlight: Kristin Falkner

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Kristin FalknerLike many of us, Kristin is a self-taught developer using WordPress. She was previously a WordCampKC organizer, so we are happy to welcome her back to our stage. Read on to learn more about her!

Q: How did you get started in your current field?
A: I started teaching myself web development when I was a teenager. I would find sites that I liked and look at the code and try to piece together what was making what happen on the page. It was just something I pursued on the side for a long time before it became my main focus about seven years ago. WordPress has been my primary focus the past five years.

Q: Describe your ‘ah ha’ moment about WordPress?
A: There is not a “one size fits all” approach to WordPress development that is going to work for everyone. I did regular web development before WordPress theming so I found building my own starter theme initially made it click a bit more for me than trying to decode some of the frameworks that felt heavily laced with their own hooks and seemed so much less familiar to the HTML/CSS that I already knew. So one approach to custom theming can make you go “ah ha!” while another can just make you go “ahhhhhh!” Seek out what starts to make it click for you and just build from there.

Q: If you could go back to when you were getting started and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: I think in the beginning I relied pretty heavily on the bad habit of copying and pasting solutions to whatever issue I was troubleshooting without always making an attempt to understand what the code was doing. I’m not saying it’s bad to research issues or use code already written that solves an issue. We’ve all thrown up a prayer to the Google gods as we’ve sought help on a frustrating issue. No one learns via copy and paste, though, so my advice to Beginner Me would be to always make a solid effort to understand the solution.

Q: Describe your talk in three sentences or less.
A: Custom fields are a key component to many custom themes. If you can utilize them effectively, you can be an unstoppable theming machine. Advanced Custom Fields is an incredibly powerful tool to help you do just that so let me introduce you to it, if you don’t already know its magic!

Q: Who should attend your talk (beginner developer, intermediate content provider, advanced designer, etc)?
A: Developers

This post is part of a multi-day series featuring speakers from WordCamp Kansas City 2015. Subscribe to have them delivered to your mailbox, or feel free to check back every day!