HeroPress: An Eighth Grader’s Dream Comes True

When I was in eighth grade, I wanted to be a commercial artist. It wasn’t common thinking at the time (and for some it still isn’t) for art or design to be considered a practical career path. The thinking was, within art there was fine art for the people who could really paint or draw, and commercial art for people whose skills were passable; neither of which would lead to a comfortable lifestyle.

I was just OK and never would be a fine painter, I was good enough at design for screen-printing and designing the posters and programs for the Jr. High fashion show or laying out the school newspaper. I liked it a lot, though I eventually pursued other career aspirations.

I start the story this way because later in life, WordPress gave me the opportunity to have the career I wanted when I was 14.

Today I run Made for You Media, a well-respected digital marketing agency specializing in WordPress for local businesses, but the path here took many turns and had many ups and downs.

How I Got Here

After attending college, the path I found myself on led me far from the world of art. I spent time working in a chemistry lab, in retail, then eventually to financial services. I spent almost twenty years working for the “Don’t leave home without it” credit card company, serving international markets in Asia and Latin America. During a stint in Canada, my wife grew tired of being away from family. With news that we would soon have a grandchild on the way, we started the process to move back home.

I knew that I wanted my own business. I planned to start a company to coach small business owners on how to build productive, high-functioning teams. Even though the dot.com bubble was long gone, I knew that even for a small, local company, I would need a good website.

While closing out my days working in Canada, I would get home from the office around 7:30 in the evening, get something to eat, then from 9PM to about 1 or 2 in the morning, work on building, or trying to learn how to build, a business website. I repeated this routine for weeks until I had something professional looking.

I hand-coded this first website in 2009 and it received lots of complements. However, as good as it looked on the outside, it seemed that things were always breaking under the hood. I had heard about “this WordPress thing” and started looking into it. I recreated my HTML site using the “theme that cannot be mentioned–but had great typography” and haven’t looked back.

Pivoting To WordPress

Ultimately, the coaching business I built that initial website for failed, but what I learned in building my first WordPress site enabled me to start building websites for other people. During the autumn of 2010, I built my first site for a paying client. It took me forever, but I got it launched. After building a few sites I needed to learn more than what I could on my own at the University of Google. I started attending WordCamps.

WordCamp Raleigh was the first WordCamp I attended, and it was a great experience. In WordPress, we often talk about “the WordPress community” and that’s what it was. The same people whose blog posts I read were there in person. Experts, people who in my mind were the stars of the WordPress galaxy, were there, talking, teaching, and sharing with regular people like me. We ate barbecue, joked, and laughed together just like at a family or school reunion. The sense of community and belonging was strong, and something I still cherish.

I got hooked on WordPress through Chris Jean‘s exuberant enthusiasm in talking about “the loop” and his new plugin. I bought the plugin even though at the time I didn’t understand what the loop was, I just knew from his excitement it had to be good. At another WordCamp Amy Hendrix talked about how important it was to contribute back to WordPress, and she sunk the hook deeper. Over time, I went from attending WordCamp, to folding up chairs at the end of the day, to filming other people’s presentations, to delivering my own. I’ve since had the opportunity to speak at several WordCamps including a couple of times at WCUS.

What We’ve Become

Over the years my company has built many websites using WordPress, mainly supporting local businesses in the US, but also internationally. We’ve been able to serve many non-profit organizations, allowing them to effectively and affordably serve their communities, leveraging the WordPress platform to attract volunteers and donations. I even had the opportunity to write my first book, Magical Websites for Coaches, an instructional text that showcases the power of WordPress.

I point this out because WordPress and the WordPress community enable someone who’s motivated to leverage their experience to start what can become a very profitable business at a very low cost. With the business lessons I’d learned over the years, a domain name and an affordable shared hosting plan (thanks Dreamhost) and a few business cards, I was able to launch my business. In the process, I’ve had the opportunity to make great friends and build lasting relationships, meet, and learn from some very smart and inspiring people, and after many years, have a successful career “doing commercial art” full-time at my own company.

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