Author: BethD

Name: Shauna “WhiskeyChick” Castorena

Employment:
Freelance Writer

Primary website:
http://whiskeychick.rocks

Twitter handle: @WhiskeyChick

How were you first introduced to WordPress? I had been running an underground country music fan site using DNN in 2004 and wanted to build something more accessible to mainstream country music fans. WordPress had just come out, so we gave it a try and launched CountryMusicNewsBlog.com on the platform.

What do you like about it? After years of hacking drag & drop components that would go buggy all the time, and not having a real “magazine” aesthetic to work with, WordPress solved all of those problems. It was easy to use, even easier to customize, and best of all, worked as a real publishing platform and content management system as opposed to a static site builder.

What do you do with WP now? I have a total of 14 entertainment sites built on the WordPress platform that focus on different areas of the music business, but primarily in country and rock & roll. I also use WordPress to teach basic web development skills to friends and colleagues, as well as help bands stretch the platform to its fullest potential by building out their online hubs with it.

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? Being an open-source platform, the WordPress community has been a critical part of my success in publishing and marketing. I have participated in a few Wordcamps, and helped organize one in Phoenix, AZ (now known as TechPHX) several years ago, and have found the community to be open, accepting, and extremely helpful. Other WordPress users always seem excited and engaged in helping each other find new ways to make the platform do amazing things!

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! WordPress provided all the tools I needed to dive into internet publishing head first and without hesitation. I’ve enjoyed a successful career so far, and will continue to use WordPress to help that career grow.

What would you tell a brand new user? Don’t let a lack of knowledge keep you from getting started. Just go. Build. Break things. The community is here to help turn your ideas into action!

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Name: Eleasha Drew

Employment: Freelance Web
Designer

Twitter handle:
@eleashadesigns

Primary website:
www.eleashadrewdesigns.com

How were you first introduced to WordPress? Well, earlier this year, I just kept hearing people mentioning it more and more so I thought that whatever it was, it must be worth looking in to. It took a second to realize there was a WordPress.com and WordPress.org and what the differences were, but eventually I chose the WordPress.org route and started going to some of the MeetUps in Nashville and that helped me get connected with the community of users here.

What do you like about it? I like that there are endless possibilities of how to use WordPress and you can mold it to be anything you’ve ever wanted.

What do you do with WP now? Recently, I’ve used it to publish my personal website!

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? Not to be cheesy, but the WP Nashville MeetUps have helped me put a face to other people out there that use WordPress and it’s always nice to know that there are people in similar fields that want to support each other.

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! I think that it’s opened a lot of doors for me, creatively. It’s become a step in my creative process that I’ll most likely never change and just makes the general idea of launching a website a little less daunting. Through the WP Nashville group, I’ve been able to make new friends and professional connections in the web design field that I would not have made without deciding to start learning about WordPress.
What would you tell a brand new user? I know WordPress.org can seem like a huge undertaking at first, but it’s definitely worth learning! You will thank yourself later!
Anything else we should we know? Sometimes, I have dessert for breakfast to shake things up a bit.

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Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, we want to feature you and your story of how WordPress makes your work awesome. Submit your story here.

Name: John Housholder

Employment: Ah So LLC

Primary website:
www.ahsodesigns.com

Twitter handle: @jhous1

How were you first introduced to WordPress? I was building a website for a project called Project Go Pink which aimed to empower Republican women with tools to succeed. I had never heard of WordPress and needed a CMS. I went to WordCamp Birmingham in 2008 and the rest is history.

What do you like about it? WordPress is constantly evolving and improving. When you get stuck, you can always find someone willing to help if you take the time to look and ask for help.

What do you do with WP now? I run businesses that run on WordPress. From our website builder platform, Exodus, to Kurate.it, a tool to curate WordPress content for emails, to WP Faciliator for WordPress owners, to Ah So, if its in the WordPress ecosystem, I have my fingers in it.

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? I have loved getting to know local WP devs through the developer meetup at our office. I also attend conferences like Pressnomics and Cabo Press which have helped me become a better business owner.

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! I know have the privilege of owning a company thanks to WordPress.

What would you tell a brand new user?Don’t be afraid to break things. That’s how you learn.

Anything else we should we know? I like to dress up like Kix Brooks and sing karaoke with my friend Jake who dresses up as Ronnie Dunn. We call ourselves Drooks and Brunn and you can find us on random Friday nights at Santa’s Pub.

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Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, we want to feature you and your story of how WordPress makes your work awesome. Submit your story here.

Name: Claire Sweet

Employment: Junior Web Designer

Primary website: http://mydesignsaresweet.com

Twitter handle:
@clurebure

How were you first introduced to WordPress? I was first introduced to WordPress in college when I had to build my portfolio website.

What do you like about it? What I like about WordPress is the freedom to customize the design. As a designer that’s very important to me.

What do you do with WP now? I continue to use WP to maintain my personal portfolio site. I also regularly use WP in my full time position as a web designer.

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Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, we want to feature you and your story of how WordPress makes your work awesome. Submit your story here.

Employment: Director, Customer Experience Operations at WP Engine

Your primary website: wpengine.com/blog

Twitter handle:
@dustinmeza

How were you first introduced to WordPress? I first started using WordPress when I started for WP Engine over 3 years ago. Before that I hadn’t used it so I was definitely playing catch up to the rest of the experts at WP Engine. Thankfully it’s a great CMS and I found it easy to pick up the basics, and fun to deep dive on certain areas of knowledge!

What do you like about it? I love that it’s free, the great equalizer, being free allows WordPress to go against every other CMS and say, let’s just look at features, which one is better? Because of that, the barrier to entry for someone wanting to play around with it or an Enterprise company is the same, not a lot of products out there can say that!

What do you do with WP now? I work for WP Engine, the world’s largest Managed WordPress Platform. We use it internally for all sorts of cool things, but specifically my team owns the WordPress Upgrade Process for WP Engine, meaning we are in charge of ensuring all 45,000+ customers are kept up to date and secure!

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? Being new to Nashville the local community has already been great, being a part of the WordCamp organizing team has exposed me to more parts of the community, more opportunities to give back, and more great people! Outside of my local community I’ve spoke at 10 different WordCamp’s and met so many community members, this has allowed me to hear feedback from real WordPress users and make changes at WP Engine to give them the best WordPress experience possible.

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! Definitely, like I stated before, I didn’t know WordPress before I started at WP Engine, now that I’ve learned more, I’ve been able to travel all around the country speaking at WordCamps and sharing my expertise with the community.

What would you tell a brand new user? Keeping your plugins, themes, and WordPress core up to date is the single most important thing you can do to keeping your site secure. Also, when you’re ready to build a site that is critical to you, make sure you host it with a Managed host, the peace of mind they offer goes a long way to giving you valuable time back to focus on what you do best!

Anything else we should we know? I love sports, quickly falling in love with how much Middle Tennessee loves their sports!

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Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, we want to feature you and your story of how WordPress makes your work awesome. Submit your story here.

Name: Brandi Leath

Employment: Project Manager

Primary website: www.brandileath.com

Twitter handle: @brandimykle

How were you first introduced to WordPress? In school at Nossi College of Art, while building a custom theme for a real world client.

What do you like about it? I like that you can build a website from scratch by creating your own theme, or that you can use themes that other developers have made and still make it your own. I like that clients can take ownership of small things in the design process by giving them a Content Management System they can use that is similar to MS Word.

What do you do with WP now? I build websites and help other people manage their current sites. 🙂

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? I am super pumped about this. The WP community in Nashville is absolutely amazing. Nashville’s “Southern Hospitality” flows through it and everyone is willing to help everyone else. I love our town!

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! It has helped project me into my career doing web design.

What would you tell a brand new user? Research the themes you purchase before purchasing them. Make sure they have a good website for their own company, a good support community, and video tutorials, etc. It makes all the difference in the world if you pick a theme that doesn’t work for you and their support is crap.

Anything else we should we know? I was an accountant for 10 years before deciding to go into graphic design. I LOVE being an artist, and UX/UI is my passion. The human interaction with technology fascinates me and I want to make that experience as seamless as possible. Oh yea, I’m a Nashville native, apparently that is a pretty rare thing these days.

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Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, we want to feature you and your story of how WordPress makes your work awesome. Submit your story here.