Kingpin: An interview with Joe Howard
Q1: What's your experience, and how did you first get involved with WordPress?
As with many others in the world of WordPress I discovered it following various jobs. I majored in mathematics and schooling in college, and I was able to teach high school math for a couple years with Washington, DC Public Schools.
When I decided to transition out of that profession I joined an early-stage SEO agency. I was appointed the Director of Operations. The title is incredible, when you're one of the initial employees in the company, it is just a matter of running around in a blaze of hair doing pretty much everything.
I also had the opportunity to gain knowledge about the digital world and how to create an online company, abilities that I use and sharpen until today.
Although my initial startup job was tough but it was well worth the blood, sweat and tears in order to develop the skills I needed to get to the point I am at today (and the direction I'm headed to in the near future).
Q2: What are the most important things that readers should be aware of regarding all the things that you're doing on WordPress in the present?
Probably just that I'm very involved in the WP community! I hire via PostStatus job boards as well as speak in WordPress Meetups (DC, Baltimore as well as Northern Virginia). I'll also be giving my first WordCamp talk at WordCamp Pittsburgh and WordCamp Baltimore. Boom!
Then, I've officially created WPMRR and The WPMRR WordPress podcast following the popularity that was WP Buffs. The first is a online course which teaches WordPress professionals how to implement sales and implement ongoing care plans for clients, and to increase the amount of money they earn each month. It's an entire podcast focusing on growing successful WordPress businesses as well as monthly recurring revenues without taking themselves too serious.
Question 3: What difficulties did you face in getting up to the level you're at professionally?
There are so many! Many people are impressed when they hear that WP Buffs is where it is just one year old. However, I have to tell people it was born out of seven years of making mistakes, and speeding up learning. It has been seven to ten failed projects that brought me here.
Honestly, the biggest challenge I've had in my life to get here wasn't related to WordPress in any way.
I'm going to keep it honest; quitting a 9-5 job, which was well-paying and well-paid to work on my startup on a full-time basis was quite a challenge to me. Once I made the decision, I knew it had been the right one However, once your lifestyle is comfortable you find it harder to break from that cycle.
I'm an ardent believer in the notion that time is my best currency. Therefore, every thing I learned I had to stop wasting my time. Additionally I was also a poor employee. So going on my own was what I needed to do.
Believing that I must be employed for a full-time job in order to be successful was just step one, but I think one of the most important steps that I've taken over the last few years.
It's important to take the time to really assess how you went wrong, and then figure out what you can control better next time in order to obtain the results you desire. My focus is on that and was always able to improve.
Q4: What has surprised you in the WordPress world?
In all honesty, how warm how welcoming the WordPress community is.
You could be a total beginner (like I was 7 years ago) but there have joined WordPress Meetups and WordCamp Happiness Bars and WordCamp Happiness Bars who will assist you.
No matter what enterprise I own and the type of business I run, having a presence in the WordPress area is something I'm proud of. There's an extremely vibrant community made up of real people who are unapologetically themselves. There's not many areas where you can put an extroverted marketer and an introverted programmer together and see them get along effortlessly; it's truly special.
In the same way I'm also amazed at the amount of people who concentrate on WordPress yet don't devote enough effort into learning to grow and expand a business. I think there's a lot of space in the community for people to create scalable profit from small businesses rather than putting in the 80 hours every week doing freelance work.
To me, this is the thing our community has to tackle. Making good business decisions and scaling what we're working on to something that we won't need to do 12 days a week, 24 hours days a week.
This is why I love seeing the likes of Troy Dean at WP Elevation working to help people build WordPress companies, generate real value for people and solve big problems.
Q5: What does the future look like for you in the WordPress world?
Onward and upward With WP Buffs!
We want to be the best technical support provider for any individual, business or other entity that has a WordPress website. We're still working on it however, we're already nearing 100 clients, which means it's safe to say that we've passed the proof-of-concept.
In the pursuit of expanding the scope of our White-label Partnership Program is an important goal for myself. Finding the right marketing agencies, design firms and freelancers from WP to work with for ongoing support is a major area of growth for us, and I continue to be amazed by the progress it has made in pushing us forward.
Like most entrepreneurs, I'm always thinking about the next projects or business I'd like to establish, both in the WordPress sector and out of it. However, I'm trying not to fall into shiny object syndrome so I can be focused to ensure that WordPress Buffs is a great value for our clients.
Q6: What do you consider when choosing an WordPress host?
One of the things I'm searching for in hosting is whether it's completely managed.
I can understand how cheap shared hosting may appeal to a few people. It's affordable and, if you're just running a personal blog that doesn't get much visitors, shared hosting is probably your best option.
In my opinion that time is the most valuable value. It's only 24 hours per day, and I have only limited bandwidth. To continue growing and grow WP Buffs' popularity and grow, I must focus all of my attention on finding the best people and attending conferences, speaking at WordCamps as well as solving major issues. Spending time figuring things out on the dashboards of hosting for our clients is not an issue I'd like to think about. That's why I collaborate with hosting companies to take care of this.
Naturally, you'll want the best hosting service that can keep your website quick, safe and up in the air. But in all honesty it's true that there's plenty of top quality hosting services available; if you select one of those chances are you'll be fairly well-equipped for the kind of things.
Q7: What activities do you do when you're not from your computer?
I reside in Mt. Pleasant and am tucked away in Rock Creek Park where I take my nature fix as well as walk my dog Marvin each day.
If I'm not working on WordPress, I'm probably hanging out with my wife, Sterling. We got married this month! We like to go to the mountains and camp out of Washington, DC. We also like to travel (Burning Man is coming up quick).
I'm also a member of a group named Sandbox. There have been global summits held in the jungles of Panama and an island off Croatia. It's my tribe!
In terms of reading, I'm a huge fan of SciFi. I'm likely to finish one or two books every month. And I probably go through about an hour of podcasts (Tim Ferriss, Joe Rogan, etc) on a daily basis. A lot of great stuff there!
Q8: Whom should be our next interviewee and why?
Brian Krogsgard! In the wake of attending Post Status: Publish in the past, I'm more impressed with his knowledge of WordPress as well as the online space. He also created a vibrant group of WordPress people out of air. It would be a great interview:)
Brian Jackson
Brian has a great love for WordPress is a frequent user of it for over a decade and is even the creator of a couple of premium plugins. Brian is a fan of movies, blogging and hikes. Follow Brian via Twitter.