Speakers

Meet the Speaker: Vasken Hauri

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Vasken Hauri

Vasken Hauri has been working with WordPress since 2006. Since then, he has engineered WordPress to create everything from order fulfillment and tracking applications to APIs that withstand several hundred thousand hits per day. He’s the VP of Strategic Engineering at 10up, a leading agency specializing in strategy, design, and engineering.

Vasken has a solid background on the implementation side of things, and it shows in his strategic approach to management of new initiatives, diverse teams, and company growth. He is an active member of the WordPress community as a speaker, thought leader, plugin builder, and core contributor.

At Prestige Conference Minneapolis, he’ll be presenting on the topic of scaling your business. Get to know him through our interview below, or catch up with him on simpleCanvas.

What is your role at 10up?

Working with our various engineering Directors and Executive team, I help 10up deliver well-built, quality websites on a timely basis. A large portion of my time is focused on how we effectively scale our team, while maintaining efficiency, consistency, and a work environment that promotes work-life balance and employee empowerment.

You’ve worked in the technology field for over a decade. Where did your aptitude for online technology first start emerging?

I first published a listing of cheat codes for various games in basic HTML back in 1997. In terms of traffic and engagement on my personal sites, it’s all been downhill from there :-)

Why engineering and not something else?

I love the chance to help others create and build things that have value to our clients and give our team pride in their accomplishments. Working with the open web has given me the unique opportunity to work in a community where knowledge sharing and proliferation are the celebrated norm. The work we do also affords us the ability to meet and work with people all over the world with few of the traditional time and space barriers that have historically limited such possibilities.

Once you figured out where you wanted your career to go, how did you start making things happen?

I never really *decided* to make web development or team management my career. At a young age, I knew I wanted to work with computers and/or technology in general. I was always more curious and autodidactic when it came to broadening my understanding of technology than anything else, so turning that into a career was mostly just a natural progression.

What were some of the biggest roadblocks you encountered on your path to success?

Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, home computing and the web was a new and often misunderstood subject. While my family has always been incredibly supportive whenever possible, their lack of understanding of new technologies made it difficult for them to see the value of what I was doing on the computer, and more often than not, everything from writing code to playing The Sims was grouped under the umbrella of “wasting time on the computer.”

I know many of my colleagues have dealt with similar situations, and so pushing for more recognition of the value of web technology and the associated jobs it offers (especially at the elementary and secondary education levels where change is often slow and difficult) is a key to ensuring a strong pipeline of talent from generations to come.

How did you connect with mentors that supported your technology interests?

Barbara Mindell, who ran the Academic Computing Center at Haverford where I gained much of my initial experience with client services in a technology context, played a key role in my professional development. Barbara was a constant advocate of listening and understanding a problem before making a decision, and of maintaining consistent, clear, and fair policies for her team. These values have come to anchor my approach to team management.

It also didn’t hurt that, as a former lawyer, her occasional quips about how much calmer and easier to deal with our Helpdesk clients were than judges, juries, and lawyers really put things into perspective.

You’ll be speaking about growth and scalability at Prestige. Can you share a little preview about what you’ll be covering?

We live in an age and work in a field where ‘scaling’ often comes with the click of a button. Bandwidth, RAM, cloud infrastructure, even things like Mechanical Turk enable us to scale rapidly on demand. That’s not really the case when it comes to people, though, and so scaling your team can prove to be a singular challenge.

We’ll discuss some proven ways to scale your team while maintaining a consistent corporate culture, from verbal communication techniques that build understanding, to writing policies that enhance, rather than restrict, productive output.

Any industry predictions for 2016?

We’re going to see a huge expansion in the use-cases for WordPress, thanks in large part to the JSON API. WordPress will be used more and more as a true CMS, with the display side propagating beyond templates as the stored content begins to be consumed by other platforms and systems within complex enterprise infrastructures.

What’s coming up next for you?

I’ll be continuing to work with the engineering team at 10up, streamlining our existing practices and planning to anticipate the next round of industry changes that are more or less inevitable.

Of course, 10up is hiring, and will likely continue to do so until we transition into our sinister, top-secret “Phase 2.” Speaking of which, if you have experience affixing high-powered lasers onto sharks, we might have a long-term job opening for you.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

“Decisive” - Chip and Dan Heath
“The Secrets of Pirate Management” - Peter Leeson
“On War” - Carl von Clausewitz

Just for fun - what’s your favorite junk food?

Currywurst and fries.

What part of Prestige Conference are you looking forward to most?

The conversations. Everyone at the event is knowledgeable, passionate, and opinionated about the WordPress ecosystem and economy, and it shows in the excellent quality of the discussion that occurs throughout the event.

Meet the Speaker: Lisa Sabin-Wilson

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Lisa Sabin-Wilson is Chief Operating Officer and partner at WebDevStudios, a leading WordPress agency who’s motto is “Build Big or Go Home”. She is a very active member of the WordPress community, as a contributor, frequent speaker, and published author.

In addition to being an expert on all things WordPress, Lisa has a unique background that we felt would be perfect for Prestige Conference Minneapolis. She didn’t go to school for tech. In fact, her first college major was Vocal Performance, with a minor in Music Education. After changing directions to pursue a career in nursing, she spent a decade working as a Registered Nurse.

It wasn’t until she embarked on ANOTHER career change that got her on the path to Internet Technology. Now she’s one of the most successful and sought-after people in the industry. At Prestige, she’ll be sharing her career change story, and for those who are considering a similar jump, how to push past basic success into the realm of profitability.

For those that haven’t met you yet, please share a little about what you do for a living.

I work with a large team of talented developers and designers to build amazing, custom web sites and apps in WordPress for clients.

What first got you interested in WordPress?

I started using WordPress in 2003 and was enamored with the ability to run a web site and publish without needing to be overly technical (at the time).

You’ll be speaking at Prestige about making a big career change. Without giving away any spoilers, can you share a little about how you started pivoting from one career to the next?

My natural curiosity led me towards internet technology, it wasn’t planned - it just happened. At the time, I worked a full time(+) job in nursing. I used my off time to self-teach myself things like PHP, CSS, HTML, JS and WordPress core, as much as possible.

What was one of the biggest challenges during the initial transition phase?

For a year, I worked two jobs. I was a Registered Nurse by day, and I was a web designer by night. I wouldn’t have kept that up any longer than that if I wasn’t convinced that I could make a living at web design someday.

You do more than just make a living at it these days. You’ve written several books about WordPress and speak frequently on Internet Technology topics across the country. How does an expert like yourself continue learning?

I read my books. 😉

Just kidding - - I consume as much material as I can online and I rely on my team of extremely talented developers and designers, they constantly bring new ideas and techniques to the table.

Speaking of books, what are you reading right now?

Emotional Intelligence 2.0

Back to this massive career change - How has your career as a web designer & business owner been influenced by people you met during your nursing days?

My biggest influence and mentor is a close friend who is a physician and has taught me much about interpersonal relations, human dynamics and (believe it or not) the art of negotiation.

Any industry predictions for 2016?

Continued growth and adoption of WordPress as the content management system and web application framework of choice, not only for developers, but for large enterprise organizations - we are already seeing that with the likes of Microsoft moving key web properties to WordPress.

What’s coming up next for you?

In the short term, personally - I’m working on my annual vegetable garden, that takes up the majority of my off-work time in the spring/summer months.

Professionally, I have the 7th Edition of WordPress For Dummies coming out this fall, followed shortly by the 3rd Edition of WordPress Web Design For Dummies in the winter. At WebDevStudios, I continue to work with my talented team on amazing projects.

You’ve spoken at Prestige Conference before (different topic). What are you looking forward to most for this upcoming event?

The people, always!

Meet the Speaker: Jason Cohen

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Jason Cohen is the successful founder of several startups, including ITWatchDogs, Smart Bear, and his current company, WP Engine, a growing 200+ employee enterprise based out of Austin, TX. Within their first year of business, he led the WP Engine team to over $1 million in sales, which is no small feat for a startup.

Jason’s areas of expertise include technical design, customer acquisition, sales, funding, and metrics & finance. He writes about marketing and small business on his personal blog A Smart Bear and is frequently sought after for his business advice. We’re very excited to welcome him to Prestige Conference Minneapolis to discuss mistakes companies make in their A/B testing, how data can unwittingly lie to you, and what specific changes you can make to avoid these errors.

Please share what you do for a living.

I’m the founder and current CTO of WP Engine, in which I oversee Product, Engineering, and Infrastructure, and help set the strategy and execution for our 300-person organization. Prior, I founded or co-founded three other bootstrapped companies, two of which were sold and are still going strong today (ITWatchDogs, Smart Bear). I helped found Capital Factory, Austin’s version of TechStars, and continue to love helping startups succeed.

You’ve got quite a track record of founding (and selling) profitable companies and you’re also a book author. Tell us a little bit about how you got started as an entrepreneur.

It’s always been in my DNA to chart my own path when it came to career. Early on I was driven mostly by ego and the selfish insistence that I knew better than everyone else about most things. Today it’s the positive impact I can have on the lives of our employees and our customers. Both are results that entrepreneurship can provide.

Why this and not something else?

As Peter Thiel says, a company (or life) is not an experiment that can be run more than once. Had I made other choices or had my companies had different outcomes, the same question could be asked but it’s unclear that the answer would be different.

Founding companies is quite a bit different than the traditional “career path”. Can you speak to some of those differences?

I’ve never planned a career like that — setting goals, deciding where it should go, and then planning how to achieve that. Perhaps that’s a failing, because without planning it’s unclear where you’ll end up. But in my case, I made things happen by just doing them, and seeing where that led. Surely luck has played a part in those things turning out to be good enough to withstand challenges.

What’s one lesson you learned the hard way about letting go of a company you built from the ground up?

Founders tie their personal identity to their companies. Not just their financial success, not just their reputation, but actually themselves. A common result of selling is to realize you don’t actually know what you like to do, or what you think about anything outside of the sphere of expertise that related to your startup. This isn’t healthy, not just because of some potential exit, but because along the way you don’t have perspective, and probably will have a hard time being happy and healthy during the long years between inception and termination, especially if the termination is not in success.

What relationships (ie mentors) have contributed towards your success? How did you form those connections?

My mentors have been people I’ve worked for or with. Neither one would think of themselves as “a mentor,” but that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn everything from them; sometimes mentorship is what you take out rather than what someone else puts in. Nowadays there are systems and organizations for getting mentorship, and so long as that’s not just a passing relationship, that’s a great new way to get that result as well.

Any industry predictions for 2016?

There will be more tools and categories for digital marketers to have to deal with, not fewer. There will be more wearables and other modes of reaching customers, not fewer. Mobile will not just be caught up with desktop but dominate its usage especially as non-Western countries accelerate their online presence.

WordPress will increasingly become the content hub in a complex ecosystem of marketing activities as opposed to the website where just a few other things are connected to. Consumers will expect more interactivity and personalization, not one-size-fits-all experiences. The marketing and web site universe will be more noisy and complex. In short, it’s going to get harder for marketers, and therefore for those building websites for them!

What’s coming up next for you?

With a growing team, our output is accelerating. We have everything from new infrastructure offerings to new features supporting advanced development workflows to tools for marketers to better manage their sites and keep up with the cacophony of “digital marketing” stuff that’s swirling around us.

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Minneapolis

Connecting with people who are building real businesses and creating success for their customers and clients. It’s always energizing to be in a roomful of folks who are living the dream and helping others do the same.

Meet the Speaker: Shane Pearlman

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Shane Pearlman is a man of many hats, in the best way possible. Besides his role as partner at Modern Tribe, he’s also a freelance evangelist (he’s the founder of Freelance Camp, a worldwide network of events), a real estate investor, a frequent speaker, and a supporter of projects that contribute to the greater social good.

In all of his endeavors, Shane finds ways to incorporate his six keys to happiness and balance – family, friends, fun, finance, fitness and faith.

This sounds a whole lot like someone you want to get to know, doesn’t it? That’s why we invited Shane to present at Prestige Conference Minneapolis, where he’ll be speaking about how to land bigger clients.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I’m a partner at Modern Tribe Inc and personally lead indie teams in UX/UI, web, mobile & product design and development. In addition to launching successful projects for fortune 500 companies, government institutions and well funded startups, I’ve led internal product efforts that have ended in a successful acquisition (Surfline iPhone App) and a multi-million dollar revenue stream (The Events Calendar).

Other things that describe me: Entrepreneur, Freelance Evangelist, Project Manager, Speaker, Blogger, Surfer, Kid Wrangler, Goat Herder, Real Estate Investor, Teacher, Intrepid Traveler & Voracious Reader.

Tell us a little about which came first for you - deciding how you wanted to work vs knowing how you wanted to live.

Ha. You know what is really going to mess with your mind? When you realize, there is no spoon. There is only life.

Why this career and not something else?

It provides me the right ingredients to carve out a meaningful life. The time and location flexibility to interweave work with play and family. I work with my best friends (and that is a great thing). I make enough money to live in the bay area without an overwhelming sense of financial doom. And is the nexus for an ongoing series of adventures that keep me engaged and excited. I could say a whole lot more, but would rather do that over a nice bourbon. =)

Once you figured out where you wanted to go, how did you start making things happen?

I grabbed onto people’s coat tails and actively sought mentorship.

I clocked my time methodically and voraciously consumed the data to make strategic decisions.

I made a daily plan on 3 things that I could do TODAY that would move my business in the right direction. It allowed me to keep the important in motion despite the pull of the urgent.

Who have been your most valuable mentors? How did you connect with them?

My dad. He has helped me with landing customers, leads, and guided me through so many challenges.

Quinn was the first freelancer I met who opened my eyes to the possibility and gave me my first client. I met him at a coffee shop.

Tom ran huge teams in an MLM and really taught me sales. Want to learn the basic of business? Few environments exist with the training platforms and human challenges offered by Amway.

The WordPress community. While I can’t call out anyone in particular, the relationships and conversation with people like Jake, Karim, Alex, Pippin, Jason, Chris and so many other WP agency owners have been extremely valuable.

What were some of the biggest roadblocks you encountered on your path to success?

Paying $20,000 out of pocket to SAP to build their solution. You haven’t internalized the meaning of over budget until you burned through your labor budget, overhead, then profit and start paying hard cash for the final push based upon principal. It caused Peter and I to sign up for the UC Berkeley school of project management. #neveragain

Loosing $67,000 in revenue to a poorly through out internal process from which birthed “The Clock Blocker”. =)

What is one early lesson you learned about working with a fully distributed workforce?

Be artfully intrusive. Relationships don’t grow without thoughtful investment, and that is what you need to cultivate a sustainable team.

My favorite litmus test: Do you know each person on your team (who you work with directly) well enough to buy them a super personal and awesome Hanukkah present?

What’s coming up next for you?

Service-wise the pipeline has a higher ed bent at the moment and we continue to grow (JOIN US).

Products-wise, in the short term, we are focused on some long due maintenance and addressing frequent requests from our user community. Beyond that things get more exciting: community powered tickets, a free ticketing plugin, flexible event recurrence, improved internationalization, recurring tickets, and maybe even special support for bands.

Within MT, we have a number of epics. A lot of people call them goals, but you can fail at a goal. An epic is a journey. We are working to extract the partners from pivotal execution roles in day to day service projects. We are building models for long-term sustainable teams. We are scaling (elements of) the products business.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

I typically have a few books that I wander between on my phone (thank you amazon kindle app) depending on whether I want to think, be inspired or escape. I easily read anywhere between 3 - 8 books a month.

Currently in Progress:
* Fool on the Hill
* Scaling up
* Let My People Go Surfing
* The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Just for fun. What’s your favorite junk food?

As of yesterday? Ripe summer figs with pan crisped prosciutto.

But typically - fresh made salsa and hot chips.

What are you looking forward to most for Prestige Conference Mpls?

This is a many pronged trip.
* Hang out with some tech buddies.
* We have a manager meetup which I have been working towards with enormous anticipation.
* I get to see my buddy (business partner) Reid’s new place and meet the newest addition to his family.
* I’m kind of excited to go running with our pm Carly who is coming out and see if I can just keep up with her. I’m training more and she had to take a break. I might have a chance.
* I have an offer on the table to buy two apartment building near the university and am excited to walk the neighborhoods and get to know another part of Minneapolis.

 

Meet the Speaker: Nancy Lyons

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Nancy Lyons is one of the top entrepreneurial minds in Minneapolis. She’s a leader and a technologist, with a healthy balance of strategic thinking, thoughtful actions, and community involvement. She is the CEO and co-founder of Clockwork, a top Minneapolis technology firm, the co-author of Interactive Project Management: Pixels, People, and Process, and co-founder of Geek Girls Guide, an online outlet where she shares perspectives on the Interactive industry and demystifies technology for non-technical audiences.

Nancy’s philosophy on life and technology is one that will resonate with anyone in the industry, whether you’re a freelancer just starting out or an established agency owner: “Think strategically, act thoughtfully, be a good human.”

We’re excited to welcome Nancy to Prestige Conference Minneapolis 2015, where she will be speaking about Technology’s Dirty Little Secret. Get to know her before the event through our brief interview below.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I am the co-founder and CEO of Clockwork - a Minneapolis based technology firm specializing in web and mobile application strategy/design/development for business. We solve business problems with people-first technology.

Why this career and not something else?

When I started there were more nerds than nerd herders. There was room for me.

Once you figured out where you wanted your career to go, how did you start making things happen?

Hard work. Solid relationships. Keeping promises. Being honest. Laughing a lot. Not taking no for an answer. Not letting other people’s fear become mine.

What were some of the biggest roadblocks you encountered in your career?

When I started digital wasn’t really a thing — it was not taken all that seriously. Getting people to think about it seriously as an extension of business and as having impact on the bottom line was tough. Now — we are digital first and in all things. It’s a very different climate now.

In addition to technology topics, you also speak frequently on diversity topics. What progress have you seen within the industry in the past few years?

The biggest progress has been around a willingness to acknowledge gender and racial disparity in the first place. And a real desire to address it. I think it’s a brave thing for an entire industry to admit failings and to work, collaboratively, to turn that around. To explore where and how to be more inclusive and welcoming and helpful. And to acknowledge that the work is better when we open it up to a broader contribution of talent and perspectives.

Over the years, who have been your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

Industry professionals. Women in my CEO roundtable group. My business partners. My colleagues. I am fortunate to be surrounded by teachers and mentors and I never take that for granted.

What’s coming up next for you?

Clockwork is a constantly evolving cultural gem full of wildly talented humans. We’ve got some great new clients in the works.

I might be working on another book.

Any industry predictions for 2016?

Yes. So many. :)

Hopefully you’ll elaborate more at Prestige. Speaking of, what’s something you’re looking forward to about the conference?

Friendly nerd faces. Great conversation. Learning new things. Meeting new geniuses.

What books are you reading right now?

Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Just for fun - what’s your favorite junk food?

CUPCAKES!

Meet the Speaker: Jennifer Bourn of Bourn Creative

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I’m going to take some liberties and go a little fangirl over Jennifer Bourn of Bourn Creative. If you’ve ever heard her speak before, you’ll be nodding along with this. And if you haven’t, you definitely don’t want to miss her workshop at Prestige Minneapolis this August.

Jennifer Bourn is the award-winning founder, designer, and creative director of Bourn Creative, an innovative agency specializing in strategy, design, and development. She’s coached thousands of entrepreneurs on how to build better businesses, she’s a thought-leader in the industry, and to top it off, she’s also a genuinely nice person.

In May, she presented a free Branding hangout for Prestige that energized participants into action working on their own brands. (In case you missed it, you can check out our Branding hangout recap, including a video of her presentation.) At Prestige Conference Minneapolis, Jennifer will dive even deeper into the topic of branding, providing a hands-on workshop for our attendees to work through the process in-depth under her expert guidance.

Always a good sport, Jennifer sat down with us to answer a few questions so you can get to know her better before the event.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living

As a 17-year design veteran, I am the lead designer and digital strategist for Bourn Creative, a full service design studio in Sacramento, California that I co-own with my husband. I specialize in brand design and development, WordPress theme design, and a wide variety of graphic design services.

Why this career and not something else?

Never holding any other type of job, I have always been a designer. For a few years, I pursued a degree in electrical engineering, and constantly found myself dreaming and lusting for something more creative.

My thoughts continually drifted to the joy and freedom in expression and exploration I experienced when designing my high school yearbook (we were the first school to go digital with Photoshop & Pagemaker). I kept thinking, “If only I could do that for a living.” I was then introduced to design as a career, changed my major to graphic design, and never looked back.

Once you figured out where you wanted your career to go, how did you start making things happen?

I’ve always been driven. I am the messy creative scatterbrain wrapped in the type-A overachiever. When I changed my major, I sought out internships and completed 5 in my industry by the time I graduated. I also worked at a small advertising agency as a designer throughout college. A recruiter hired me into my first post-college job, then a client hired me to work for them directly.

When kids came into the mix, I quit agency life to found Bourn Creative and I called every person I knew to ask for work, referrals, and introductions. I also did quite a bit of networking.

What were some of the biggest roadblocks you encountered on your path to success?

The biggest roadblock have been resource availability and timing. Often the resources needed aren’t available exactly when you need them — this may be subcontractors, our own time, and capacity, funds (we’re a cash-only endeavor).

You and your husband co-own Bourn Creative. Can you share a bit what it’s like to put your strengths together in a business capacity?

As a designer married to a developer, the main benefit is obvious, but it goes deeper than that.

Like all good partnerships, we have different skills sets that compliment each others’ strengths and support each others’ weaknesses, and together we are stronger than we would be apart.

Married at 20 and 21, we built and experienced our entire adult lives together. We approach our personal life and running our household the same way we approach and run our business. We know what each other is thinking, how we’ll react to situations, and how best to communicate. We know when to push forward, when to fall back, and how to best support and elevate each other.

You’re very well-known in the WordPress community for your design and branding expertise. How do you view the relationship between design & branding?

A brand is everything others think about a business, product, service, or program. It’s their perceptions, feelings, and experiences. Your brand is your reputation in the market, what you’re known for.

Design is the visual application of the brand. It is a medium used to create or shift perception, to expand mindshare, to produce and cultivate feelings, to construct experiences, and initiate actions. Design gives a brand a visual reference to attach to memories and emotions and to help others recognize you, remember you, and refer you to others.

To design with purpose, you first must understand your brand, otherwise you’re just making pretty art. My workshop at Prestige Conference this August will focus on helping attendees gain brand clarity to they can take immediate, purposeful action to improve their perception, elevate their design, and build a solid reputation in the market.

Throughout your career and building your brand & reputation, who have been your most valuable mentors? How did you connect with them?

I have been lucky enough to have several mentors over the years. First, the director of the design program at Sacramento State, Gwen Amos, who was not only instrumental in my growth as a designer, but an amazing professor and friend.

Second, my first employer Jeanne Mabry who owned an advertising agency and has supported and loved me in every aspect of my life. She not only taught me an enormous amount about business and allowed me to dip my feet into every aspect of design and project management, but as a mother of three, showed me that I could achieve success on my own terms and create a great family life.

Today we are lucky to have amazing friends in the industry we can lean on for direction and guidance and value the impact they have had on our growth immensely.

What’s coming up next for you?

No big announcements for Bourn Creative coming up. We just keep our heads down and work constantly to improve our craft and serve our clients to the best of our abilities.

On the side, I am working on a personal project, where I’ll be sharing my insights on life, work, and being a working parent, my recipes, and our family adventures.

Any industry predictions for 2016?

I think we’ll see much less silo-ing of skillsets. I think we’ll see deeper integrations between strategy, design, and engineering. Instead of being viewed/approached as separate parts of the process, they will meld into each other, creating better, stronger end products.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

It’s summer, so I’m mainly reading trashy romance novels and murder mysteries by the pool. With that said, I’m working in “Everybody Writes” by Ann Handley, “How the World Sees You” by Sally Hogshead, and “Creativity, Inc.” by Ed Catmull.

Favorite junk food? (Even if you don’t eat it often)

Chocolate chip cookies, chocolate everything, chocolate… but no fruity chocolate :) I sneak to See’s Candies often :)

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Minneapolis

So far, I’m really excited for the sessions announced and the speakers. But having attended Prestige in the past, what I’m most looking forward to is the intimate setting, the direct access you get to the speakers, and the opportunities for meaningful conversations that will help take our businesses further.

Meet the Speaker: Dre Armeda

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Where do we start with an introduction for Dre Armeda?

  • He loves tacos.
  • He loves Harleys.
  • He loves his Jeep.
  • He makes a mean stank face.
  • He loves WordPress.
  • He’s an incredible businessman.

And that’s just scratching the surface.

Dre Armeda is Vice President of Operations at WebDevStudios, one of the top WordPress design and development firms in the industry. He’s also cohost of Dradcast, a weekly video podcast that primarily concentrates on the latest news around WordPress, upcoming WordPress events, and the wonderful community surrounding - you guessed it - WordPress.

He’s got some serious startup chops, too. Dre is the co-founder and former CEO of Sucuri, a well-known website security company. At Prestige Conference this August, he’ll be discussing his role with Sucuri and decisions that led to him ultimately pulling the ripcord to move on to new projects.

We asked Dre to answer a few questions so you can get to know him a bit before the conference.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I am part of the WebDevStudios team where I am helping shape and scale the business.

Why this career and not something else?

There is nothing more satisfying than taking a team and growing it!

I am also a web geek, so being able to do so in the world of web geekery is super awesome!

Once you figured out where you wanted your career to go, how did you start making things happen?

Blood, sweat, tears and a lot of luck! I have always wanted to positively impact a large audience. I have tried to stay involved with projects and companies that afford me the opportunity to do so.

What were some of the biggest roadblocks you encountered on your path to success?

Having a large family. Early on after the military, having a large family presented a lot of risk in terms of being able to easily pivot. With the strong support of my wife and family, I was able to take on a bit of that risk knowing they would be there every step of the way.

In addition to working for WebDevStudios, you also co-host Dradcast. What’s it like working with Brad in two different endeavors?

Before my involvement in WDS, there was already that relationship there with Brad, and the show. It was very comforting having that bond as we started moving towards me joining WDS.

Brad is one of my best friends in the world, and we knew that would need to be separated from our business together. We are aware of this, and being able to separate the friendship and our business together makes for pretty smooth dealings on both fronts.

Throughout your career, who have been your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

I learned a lot about myself and my ability to motivate a team while in the military. Senior Chief Henderson who was my Chief while stationed in Naples, Italy had a lot to do with that. He also helped me learn to look at the bigger picture. He taught me to take into account long-term impacts whether positive or negative. He taught me to make decisions by calculating the risks you will encounter now until you’ve reached your overall mission. Business strategy is something I now work with every day, and an area that has become a strong suit. I owe a lot of that foundation to Senior!

Have you learned any lessons through jiu jitsu that helped your business?

Another strategic thing in my life! BJJ is about dominating an opponent physically. Maximizing physical efficiency, dominance on your opponent with the least amount of energy expended. It’s the gentle art, meant for the little guy to maybe not beat a larger opponent, but also not lose against the larger opponent. It has taught me patience, forward thinking, and also to leave my ego at the door. BJJ doesn’t lie, you get on the mat, and you either win, or you learn, there is no faking Jiu Jitsu. In the short term, people can lie in business, they can fake it, but if they aren’t performing, or never really producing value, they will be exposed.

So the take away is to continue to work hard, even if you are trying to fake until you make it. Eventually, if you are working hard, you will learn, and you will provide value!

What’s coming up next for you?

My goal is to continue helping mold and scale WebDevStudios. We are a strong and smart team, and we have some of the greatest clients in the world. We’re working full time with WordPress and really pushing the envelope with WP.

I love to help scale business, I love working with smart people to get there, and we’re doing just that, so I guess you can say I love what I do :)

As a side effort, I have been toying with Jiu Jitsu clothing, print work like vinyl and t-shirt printing. It’s a fun side thing that I enjoy.

In terms of hobbies, I spend a ton of time on the mat, I want to be a Jiu Jitsu black belt one day.

I am also a dedicated coach and administrator for our city girls fastpitch softball league. Helping progress these young ladies towards higher education through softball is a passion of mine. I am working hard with the league and our city decision makers to try and get these girls dedicated resources by way of fields of their own within Menifee city limits.

Lastly, I have been building a rock crawler the last year. I enjoy my time in the mountains trying to break my Jeep!

Any industry predictions for 2016?

I think you will see more acquisitions and mergers. Funding of WordPress focused businesses won’t stay a rarity forever.

I think you will see a few more mashups indeed, and specifically, I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a couple to a few of the WordPress top agencies combining forces in some capacity.

It’s inevitable, and I think it shows the progression of a young industry.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking) By Christian Rudder

Favorite junk food? (Even if you don’t eat it often)

Not eating too much junk food right now, but I have a soft spot for peanut M&M’s :)

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Minneapolis

Of course the people, telling my story to anyone who will listen in hopes it will help them down the road.

Most importantly, I want to train with Kiko!

Meet the speaker: Chris Lema

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Chris Lema

Chris Lema is a public speaker, a daily blogger, and a product strategist well-versed in the world of WordPress. He’s spent twenty years working in B2B vertical markets leading engineers that develop software products. He’s also founded three startups of his own, selling his first company before the age of 30.

At Prestige Conference Las Vegas, we’ll be turning the tables a bit. Chris will still be up on stage with a microphone, but instead of giving a traditional presentation, he’ll be answering questions curated by none other than Jake Goldman of 10up.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I lead and manage software engineers, and have done that for twenty years. We work in the enterprise space, building solutions that leverage WordPress. Finally, I’m the CTO & Chief Strategist for a WordPress agency called Crowd Favorite.

Why this career and not something else?

I managed people (large groups of people) at one of the largest YMCAs in the country. Then I managed software people. The work was roughly the same. The pay was 5 times better. So I took the road more travelled.

Honestly, I love managing and leading teams of people to do things they didn’t think they could do. The fact that I get paid well to do it is still incredible to me.

When did you figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?

I read a book - in 1996 - that highlighted how difficult it was to hire people who could navigate between the business and technology worlds. I decided right then that that’s what I wanted to do.

Once you figured out what you wanted to do with your career, how did you start making things happen?

I was leading a team of web developers, so it wasn’t a big stretch for me to shift our work to progressively more business-oriented work with greater complexity. As I did so, in the context of a large enterprise, I began learning the things I didn’t know about the business side of things.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

I had one mentor at Berkeley Lab that really gave me room to run and room to try things. I can’t explain enough how important it is to let people have a safe place to test and fail as a way to learn. He kept me away from the cliffs, which meant I didn’t have to worry as I ran full steam into my learning.

What’s coming up next for you?

I’ve just recently stepped into a new role. So most of what’s next is me figuring out how to add value in that new role.

Any industry predictions for 2015?

Jake Goldman will publish more articles than in 2014. Just watch!

What book(s) are you reading right now?

Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives. It’s a great book.

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

Uptown Funk

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

I love hanging out with friends and meeting new people.

Meet the speaker: Jake Goldman

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Jake Goldman

Jake Goldman has been making websites since the mid-90s. In 2011, Jake put his past experience as a technology director to use in a new capacity - founding 10up, a full-service WordPress agency that specializes in engineering solutions for clients such as TechCrunch, NBC Universal, and Google.

Now in its 4th year, 10up has been recognized as one of the top agencies building on WordPress in the world. Jake has grown the company from a one-man startup to a distributed team of over 100 employees. He is a WordPress core contributor, an incredible business man, and a strategic mastermind. We are very excited to welcome Jake back as a returning speaker to Prestige Conference Las Vegas.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I’m the President and Founder of 10up, a full service digital agency that focuses on making content management simple and fun. I spend the plurality of my time on new and prospective accounts development, with a dose of just about everything else an owner needs to be attentive to: company policy, long term team development and strategy, product development. I also stay grounded with a sprinkling of project strategy and execution.

Why this career and not something else?

I’m in the web publishing technology business because its the perfect intersection of a passion for mass communication (I wanted to be a journalist before a technologist) and modern technology. I also knew I wasn’t cut out for the infrastructure and data side of computing technology after I was miserable in a systems position I took for about 6-7 months.

I’m in the “owner and president” business because after 7 years helping other agencies grow as a senior leader, I decided it was time for me to forge my own path. I’m also very fond of economics and marketing/branding strategy.

When did you figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?

Who says I’m grown up or I’ve figured it out?

I knew since late in high school that I wanted to focus on the intersections of technology, mass communication, and business. I loved video production (both technical editing and shooting, as well as the storytelling), loved making websites since there was a web to make things on, generally have a strong geek streak, and am fairly competitive by nature (but mostly with myself).

I don’t think my path had a clear beginning. You could argue I fell in love with mass communication and publishing when I worked on my summer camp newspaper in my early teens. You could argue I feel in love with computing technology when my father brought home what can only loosely be described as a “portable computer” when I was about 5. You could argue my interest in websites and business was solidified during a summer job when I was 17. You could argue my path as a consultant began when I left a retail job to consult before I left high school, and continued throughout college. And you could point to my agency career path beginning with my mentors at my first full time jobs after school. It’s been always been a blurry continuum.

Once you figured out what you wanted to do with your career, how did you start making things happen?

There was never a “crystalizing moment” when I figured it out. I studied MIS in college, chased opportunities in web technologies, and always tried to create more value for my customers and employers that my job description required.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

I don’t think I could point to a “most valued” mentor. I could point to many inspirations.

The VP of Business Development, a guy named Steve Turner, at a government contractor I worked for really empowered me to stretch my wings in the sales and marketing space, helped me learn to write great proposals, and shared a lot of wisdom that I didn’t even fully appreciate at the time about agency/contractor business strategy. Some of my most ingrained philosophies about hiring came from him - he was the one who told me “if you’re not interviewing and hiring, you’re swirling the drain.”

One of my first consulting customers, when I was about 17, was a packaging machine manufacturer, and I worked directly with the co-owner Anne DeHertogh (the wife in the husband/wife team). She offered me unique opportunities to work across their business marketing needs: I created promotional videos, brochures, and of course, built them one of the first websites I was really proud of. She was incredibly supportive, graceful with her feedback, and really made me feel like this path was for me. (In hindsight, she also got an incredible deal. 😉 )

An old friend of mine, Jeff Wilhelm, always had strong entrepreneurial genes, and a business leadership savvy. He introduced me to many opportunities (including my earliest consulting gigs), and often inspired me with his work ethic and drive.

Rick Goldman (no relation), CFO of a huge insurance business (where he started around employee #3), worked with me on a few projects and really taught me to think about and appreciate the practical importance of financial metrics and tools. He taught me to *really* understand basics that I’d learned on paper, like the real cost of a first employee.

This list could go on for a long time. I’d point to most senior leaders at my past employers, brilliant people at 10up like our CEO, John Eckman (who’s ability to be graceful, firm, tough, and respectful all at once I try to model to this day), and many more.

What’s coming up next for you?

My main focus is taking 10up to a place where its as known and admired for great design (UX, creative, overall experience) as it is for industry leading engineering. I’ll decline to be more specific about how we get there. :-)

Any industry predictions for 2015?

The CMS marketplace will continue to get wider and flatter. That is to say, there are more customers than ever publishing online, many of whom have astonishing traffic numbers, but the “wealth” gap is closing: there are fewer and fewer companies and publishers who will be spending enormously (7+ figures) in the space as their margins and perception of CMS cost erodes.

I also think “selling code” (as in a downloadable module) will continue to be a diminishing business. It will still be *a* business, but will continue to be displaced by SaaS and PaaS solutions with “no installation required”, easier cross platform access (from phone to desktop with “central cloud storage”), and where the experience can be better controlled. That poses an interesting challenging for WordPress itself, too, and underscores the importance of a rich hosted platform ecosystem. I plan to really explore these themes at Prestige.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

Jason Derulo (I’m not sure if that counts as guilty?)

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

Asking some hard questions. I love that we’re adopting a more interview-focused format, with serious preparation going in, and am proud to help get this format off the ground - and excited to hear the answers. I think this format will bring out gems that you don’t get by asking someone to stand up and talk about themselves (either because of humility, embarrassment, or other factors).

Meet the speaker: Pippin Williamson

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Pippin Williamson

Pippin Williamson isn’t your typical WordPress product guy. He doesn’t just have a handful of awesome plugins that help people work better, faster, and smarter - he has over 100 in his portfolio. And while he’s widely known for creating Pippin’s Plugins, AffiliateWP, and Easy Digital Downloads, his reputation in the WordPress world has been cemented through his unwavering support for his products and the community as a whole.

“WordPress is my passion, and I am constantly striving to make myself better, and hopefully, help out a few people along the way.”

We’re excited to welcome Pippin to our speaker lineup for Prestige Conference Las Vegas, where he’ll be interviewed by Jake Goldman on the ins and outs of running a product-based business in the WordPress marketplace.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I build plugins for WordPress and am the founder of three large e-commerce based plugins, including Easy Digital Downloads, Restrict Content Pro, and AffiliateWP.

Why this career and not something else?

It was an accident. I had originally planned to go into indigenous language restoration in mesoamerica but stumbled into web development and quickly fell in love with it. I decided to follow what I loved.

When did you figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?

For me, it happened when I was in my second year at the University of Kansas, where I was studying Linguistics. I began doing some web development on the side to pay my rent and quick discovered that I really enjoyed it. It only took a few months before I was serious about turning it into a career so I continued building sites late at night and on the weekends. During the summer between my fourth and fifth year at the University of Kansas, I decided that I was going to try and do web development full time. I told myself that if I could successfully pay the bills for the summer, I’d stick with it. I’m still here :)

Once you figured out what you wanted to do with your career, how did you start making things happen?

Since I began working in web development during college, I first spent a lot of late nights and many, many weekends working on client projects and my early plugin projects. It was a balance between school work, client work, my own ambitions, and doing my best to convince my fiancé I wasn’t crazy. There were enormous amounts of coffee consumed during those two years, but in the end I believe it paid off.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

My father has always been an inspiration to me. He’s been developing software for computers since before I was born and has owned his own successful development business for most of those 27-30 years.

My grandfather was another of my inspirations that I credit a huge amount of my success to. Of all the people in my life, he was the person that taught me the awesome value of generosity and kindness. I’ve never met another person that was as generous as that man; if I could be half of what he was, I’d consider myself very, very successful.

What’s coming up next for you?

In terms of projects, my team and I are working on a series of improvements to existing products and will be focusing on those for the next several months. We’re always striving to make our systems easier and more reliable to use, so anything that moves us in that direction will be on our radar.

Any industry predictions for 2015?

I feel that the potential for WordPress plugins is really just now becoming apparent. We’ve seen some truly great plugins that extend WordPress far, far beyond its original design, but I don’t think we’re even close to seeing the limits. Especially with the (possible) introduction of the WP Rest API, there are some truly great possibilities that have yet to be realized. In 2015, I suspect we’ll see the beginnings of several of these types of plugins.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

Two at the moment:

“Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse” by John Mallet to further my knowledge and understanding of how malt impacts the finished beer product that many of us really love.

“Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen” by Garth Nix. This is purely for personal enjoyment as the Abhorsen series is one my favorite book series I’ve read.

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

James Blunt (not really a guilty pleasure).

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

Connecting with many of the people I speak to frequently online but rarely get an opportunity to see face to face.

Meet the speaker: Brad Williams

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Brad Williams

He’s a published book author, the founder of a prominent WordPress agency, and he’s been developing websites for over 20 years. He’s also the only “official” guru we know. (He won the SitePoint Forums ASP Guru of the Year Award 2005 - 2007).

Brad Williams is the co-founder of WebDevStudios.com and co-author of the books Professional WordPress and Professional WordPress Plugin Development. He’ll be joining us at Prestige Conference Las Vegas to discuss hiring employee #1 and the process of moving from self-employed to building a team.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I am the Co-founder and CEO of WebDevStudios.com, the Co-Author of Professional WordPress 1E-3E & Professional WordPress Plugin Development, and a Co-host on the DradCast WordPress podcast. I also Co-organize the Philly WordPress Meetup and WordCamp Philly.

You could say I love WordPress and might be slightly addicted! 😀

Why this career and not something else?

I have always been fascinated by computers and technology. My first computer was a Commodore 64, which is the first machine I learned to program on around the age of 10. Over the years I knew computers were the future for me, but I wasn’t entirely sure what area of computers I wanted to focus on. Then the internet was born and that question was very easy to answer. I wanted to build websites.

When did you figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?

I knew from an early age I wanted to work with computers and specifically the internet. When I first experienced the internet I knew I was home. I began coding websites early on when most of my friends had no idea what the internet was. I think I rolled out my first static HTML website on AOL 2.0 over at 2400bps modem.

Once you figured out you wanted to build websites for a living, how did you start making things happen?

When I knew building websites was it for me I sought out every single computer course I could take. In High School, I took every programming course available, which was one. I also took courses at local community colleges that were available. My Parents were extremely supportive and helped me not only find these courses, but get me there as well.

If it wasn’t about computers I wasn’t interested, which is why I wasn’t a great student. When deciding what to do after graduating High School I came to the conclusion that college was not for me. Instead, I decided to join the United States Marine Corps as, get this, a computer programmer. The Marine Corps sent me to extensive training for computer programming and I served 4-years in the Corps learning as much as I could. My military career really laid the groundwork for my career in computer programming.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

I think my most valuable mentors were the developers I worked with over the years that were better than me. They gave me the mentorship, training, and drive I needed to push myself to bigger and better things. The best way to push yourself to greatness is to work with people smarter than you.

That’s why I consider my team at WebDevStudios my mentors now. They are hands down the best WordPress developers and designers out there and inspire me on a daily basis.

What’s coming up next for you?

I am always striving to grow WebDevStudios to be the best WordPress agency on the planet. We started the company on a coffee table and have grown into an amazing agency with a portfolio that still boggles my mind.

We also love to push the envelope of WordPress and create websites and apps that blow people’s minds when they realize its WordPress. You can expect to see much more of this in the future!

Any industry predictions for 2015?

I strongly feel the WordPress REST API is a game changer. I expect to see completely new commercial markets emerge that interact with WordPress through this new API. We’re already seeing this is some spaces, including Reactor from AppPresser.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

I don’t generally read books, I just write them. 😉

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

Christmas music. I love Christmas music!

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

Networking with new and old friends alike. Also, warm weather!

Meet the Speaker: Andrew Norcross

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Andrew Norcross

Yes, he has a tattoo of WordPress. And yes, it’s best to make sure he’s had his coffee before talking to him. Don’t worry - we always have plenty of coffee at Prestige Conference.

Andrew Norcross is the founder and lead developer at Reaktiv Studios, a full-service WordPress development studio. Prior to figuring out how to make all things Internets, he had careers in the financial sector and in marketing.

Norcross has a natural ability break down problems and build amazing solutions with WordPress. He’s a very down-to-earth guy and a great asset to the WordPress community.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I am a founding partner and lead developer of Reaktiv Studios, a VIP designated WordPress development agency. We focus on custom plugins and complex builds, in addition to our flagship product Design Palette Pro for the Genesis framework.

Why this career and not something else?

Because this is so much fun :) In all seriousness, I had a previous career in finance and I was bored to death. There’s something about making a tangible thing (even if it’s digital) that can’t be beat. That, and it affords me the lifestyle and personality I want.

When did you figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?

Who said I ever grew up? I was a computer nerd from a young age, but after the age of 9 or so I didn’t do much because being a “nerd” meant getting beat up and having no friends. So I focused on sports and music and other stuff. I got back into it in my early 20’s while working for a large financial firm, writing calculator macros in Excel to handle corporate reorganizations and other stock accounting things. It just took off from there.

Once you figured out what you wanted to do with your career, how did you start making things happen?

I just jumped in. I quit my job in finance and gave myself a short runway to see if this “coding stuff” would take off. I busted my ass and worked really hard, and was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time in terms of the growth in the WP community.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

There have been a few. First off, my Dad was (and is) my biggest mentor. He’s a minister, but never let the label define who he was. He did his job well, but had a sense of justice and social welfare and never looked down on people with less than he did. He also was able to raise a family on a minister’s salary.

In the WP community, folks like Mark Jaquith and Andrew Nacin have been mentors (even if they don’t know it) with how they handle the community and the size & scope of the WP project, while always being approachable and willing to admit they’re wrong (not that they are very often).

Chris Lema has been a big mentor in the business space, with his seemingly endless amount of time and patience with folks like me who stumbled into the business side of WP and is always willing to share his knowledge and experience.

What’s coming up next for you?

Looking at some more commercial plugin releases in the next 6-12 months, along with improving Design Palette.

Any industry predictions for 2015?

More growth and some consolidation. I think smaller teams are going to look at larger companies and decide it’s worth joining up and getting some of the benefits of scale, while others will carve out a niche for themselves and prosper.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

None at the moment. Reading time is hard to come by, but I keep up on shorter reading from blogs and writers I trust.

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

I don’t feel guilty about any of the music I listen to :) I usually swing between the punk rock I grew up on, old outlaw country, newer alt country like Lucero, bands like Murder By Death, and some newer indie stuff like The National.

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

Seeing old friends and folks that aren’t yet friends, and spending some time away from the house. Not to mention the speaker lineup looks stellar.

Meet the Speaker: John Hawkins

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John Hawkins

If you’ve been to a WordCamp, chances are you’ve met John Hawkins before. This self-proclaimed WordCamp addict has attended, spoken, and sponsored more than 20 of them across the US. We’re willing to bet the number is much, much higher than that, but after so many, it’s easy to lose count.

John is the founder of 9seeds, a WordPress development team based on Las Vegas, NV. He runs the Las Vegas WordPress meetup group and is the lead organizer for WordCamp Las Vegas. Most recently, John launched the Hawk Talk Podcast where interviews guests on a variety of topics, including (of course) WordPress. He also blogs at VegasGeek.com.

To say John is a community leader is an understatement. We’re excited to have him involved with Prestige Conference as both a speaker and a sponsor for our Las Vegas event.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I’m a partner at 9seeds. I lead the biz dev team and focus on client communications. Occasionally, they let me write a line or two of code. Occasionally.

Why this career and not something else?

As an early adopter of WordPress, I was already in the community from the beginning. As I started building more and more sites for friends, family and a couple small businesses, I really fell in love with the process. Why not do something I love for a living?

When did you figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?

When I was 10 years old I bought my first computer with my own money. An Atari 400. I was hooked. I don’t know that I knew then what exactly I wanted to be, but I knew that it would be focused on building stuff with computers.

Once you figured out what you wanted to do with your career, how did you start making things happen?

I spent nights and weekends all through my teenage years writing all sorts of little programs on a Commodore 64. Remember Compute magazine? It used to have code for programs you could write and then run to play games. I’d stay up all night on a Friday to type in the code, play the game for a short time and then, because I had no way to save what I was doing, I’d turn the machine off and the game would be gone. It sounds kinda painful, but those were some of my favorite weekends ever.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

Wow, that’s a tough one. I’m like a sponge and I like to pick up tips and tricks from a lot of different people. Chris Brogan has always been somebody I’ve looked up to and have learned a ton from.

What’s coming up next for you?

At my company we’re looking at products as a way to grow our business. So I see a bit of a shift coming from us in 2015. Nothing drastic, we’re not stopping client work, but more likely building up a new team to have a different focus.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

I just finished reading a book called Embrace the Suck. It’s about a guy’s journey in to the world of CrossFit. While I’m driving, I’m currently listening to Book 3 of the Game of Thrones series (but I don’t drive a lot, so it’s going to take me forever to finish all 5 books). And I just started a book called “18 minutes: Find your focus, master distraction and get the right things done.”

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

Seriously, that Taylor Swift writes some catchy tunes. I’d be lying if I said they didn’t get stuck in my head lately.

You’re not going to print this, right? 😉

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

Honestly, just the conference as a whole. I heard so much great stuff about the first Prestige event, I’m absolutely thrilled that they picked Vegas as the second location. I would have traveled to attend if it wasn’t in Vegas, but it’s sure nice to have it right here in my back yard!

Meet the speaker: Cory Miller

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Cory Miller

Cory Miller wasn’t always an entrepreneur. Before he founded iThemes, he worked as a newspaper journalist and also served as the Communications Director for Midwestern Seminary.

In 2008, he started iThemes, a fast-growing company that builds web design software and offers cutting-edge web design training for thousands of customers around the globe. He is the co-founder of The Div, Inc, a 501(c)3 nonprofit tech foundation aimed at inspiring and training the next generation of web developers through its kid’s program, Div Jr, as well as the co-author of WordPress All-in-One for Dummies.

Cory brings a huge breadth of knowledge of CMS systems and working in the digital space to Prestige Conference. Read on to get to know him a bit better before he joins us as a panelist for the discussion topic “Are WordPress products big business?” at our Las Vegas event.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I make people’s lives awesome by leading our 20-plus person team to build, maintain and support WordPress software that makes building and maintaining websites easier and better for our thousands of customers all over the world.

Mostly, I just am the CEO … Chief Entertainment Officer … at iThemes.

Why this career and not something else?

This is my 3rd career so far. I’ve done tours in journalism and also ministry.

Entrepreneurship was something I dreamed of as a kid, as I watched two entrepreneurial grandfathers run their vastly different businesses, and employing most of their family.

It’s the best job I’ve ever had. Extremely fulfilling and rewarding.

When did you figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a truck driver when I was a kid. So that didn’t pan out. :)

But I’m not sure I ever figured it out … what I have done is consistently sought to find jobs that play to my strengths and interests so that I can do work I enjoy, with people I like, for people I care about.

That’s really how I landed where I am today. And how I measure my success in my career.

P.S. — I’ve always enjoyed my work and have written extensively about my experiences here:

Once you figured out what you wanted to do with your career, how did you start making things happen?

In my experience, it seems so similar to surfing … and just super silly simple.

I put in the hard work and hustle to paddle out to where the waves come in …

And then I waited, watched, learned … but most importantly, I was ready and prepared for when my opportunity came in.

I’m still riding that wave.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

My grandfather, Leo, as an entrepreneur and family man — watching him as I grew up was inspiring and motivating and I seek to be like him in many ways.

My business coach and dear friend Michael Smith (http://imentorleaders.com/) — for helping take us to the next level, and teaching us how to care for people. Referred to me by good business friends.

My partners, Scott and Jay — for being amazing role models and friends. We met as business partners first (a mutual friend introduced us), then we became great friends. I respect and admire who they are first and foremost and how they do business as a guide for my own life.

My forum groups from the Oklahoma Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization — for reminding me that I’m not alone, and sharing their life and stories with me each month for the last four years that have had a profound impact on my happiness and success in life and business.

What’s coming up next for you?

Our customer focus this year is WProsper.

We want to help our customers do well, do better this year, specifically making money with WordPress and iThemes.

Product wise … some highlights are we’re going to …

  • Continue to make BackupBuddy the best all-in-one solution for backing up, restoring and moving WordPress sites.
  • Get iThemes Exchange, our WP ecommerce plugin, to critical mass by focusing on key features people need most and keeping it super simple and easy to sell online.
  • Continue to strengthen iThemes Security as one of the best utility tools to lockdown your WP websites.
  • Turn iThemes Sync into the premiere software for managing a fleet of WordPress sites and a key partner in growing your freelance business

Any industry predictions for 2015?

  • Hyper growth (and competition) in WordPress enterprise agencies (both for talent and clients)
  • A growing (and concerning) gap of highly talented, quality WP people (developers and designers) to fill the many position needed for the growth of WordPress companies (from Automattic to enterprise companies and to us)
  • The return of Jason Schuller (fingers crossed)

What book(s) are you reading right now?

The Automatic Customer by John Warrilow

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

I’ve admittedly got the most eclectic and embarrassing music tastes in the world … so … Eminem for starters. I often forget to put Private on my Spotify and get exposed to the lame music I secretly love.

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

Meeting new people and building relationships with old friends

Meet the Speaker: Brianna Norcross

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Brianna Norcross

Are you ready to analyze ALL THE THINGS? Get ready for a kick in the pants from Brianna Norcross, accounting expert and gummy bear addict extraordinaire. She’ll be joining us at Prestige Conference Las Vegas to address something every business owner needs to do (or be able to hire someone to do) - “Stop Sucking at Accounting.”

Bri owns Balance Virtual, a full-service bookkeeping and office assistance company. She’s a mastermind when it comes to creating a framework for businesses both large and small to get their books in order so they can focus on what they do best.

Read on to learn more about Brianna Norcross before meeting her in Las Vegas later this month (or virtually through our conference livestream).

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

Balance Virtual offers virtual accounting services so business owners can focus on their business.

Why this career and not something else?

Because being an EMT doesn’t pay well. But really- because I like the numbers game. It’s never black and white, although most people think it is. Good accounting is a puzzle.

When did you figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?

I was a single mom with two young kids, and I was in college. I needed a way to make money from home, with flexible hours. So I thought about what skills I could offer and shazam, bookkeeping turned out to be the one with the biggest marketable skill. I wish the story was sexier. I didn’t know I wanted to be an accountant. I am still not sure if I do want to remain an accountant forever- because I want to keep loving it and sometimes when you do something 40 hours a week, you stop loving it.

Once you figured out what you wanted to do with your career, how did you start making things happen?

1.) Did good work
2.) Got referrals from happy clients
3.) Profit

That’s it. That’s the basic recipe for any successful business. It’s no secret and my story was no different.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

My mom is a big one. I connected with her in the usual parent-child way: birth.

My mom raised a ton of kids while getting her masters and working super hard to advance her career. So she was someone I always thought of for inspiration when I was sick and tired of working.

What’s coming up next for you?

I don’t really have any big changes planned, but I am mentally roadmapping a QB training course for solopreneurs/small web dev agencies.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

Playing to Win- a business strategy book

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

Big fan of TSwift. Big fan.

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

THE VEGAS BUFFETS.

Meet the Speaker: John Eckman

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John Eckman

With 15+ years experience working in digital strategy, user experience design, and software engineering with professional services agencies, John Eckman brings a lot to the table for the Las Vegas edition of Prestige Conference.

The current CEO of 10up, one of the fastest-growing agencies in the WordPress ecosystem, will be speaking about the enterprise market and how CMS systems can be marketed beyond small- to medium-sized business clients. He has worked with clients ranging from small startups to Fortune 50 companies, and his session is one you won’t want to miss.

Read on to get to know John a little bit better before our event, and make sure to check out his blog Open Parenthesis where he writes regularly about free and open source software, internet strategy, and building compelling experiences for the web and mobile.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I help run 10up, a distributed digital agency delivering content-centric web experiences on the WordPress platform. I focus on operations, hr, culture, and process - scaling the firm - and work with selected clients on strategy.

Why this career and not something else?

Beats digging ditches. My first career was in academia - did a PhD and taught in an English department. But then the web came along, and it was just too revolutionary, world-changing, and cool to avoid.

The internet, and most specifically the web as a manifestation of the best the internet can do, is the most revolutionary innovation since movable type, and perhaps bigger than that.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Depending on how far back you go: Novelist, Literature Professor, Rock Star, Race Car Driver, Chemical Engineer, Teacher.

Once you figured out what you wanted to do with your career, how did you start making things happen?

Ran hard and fast at every opportunity. Front-end development, user experience, information architecture, project management, technical architecture, engineering, sales, management - every role I took I focused on what new thing I was learning.

Back in 2005/2006, I decided to focus in on open source, and specifically Drupal and WordPress. I started WordCamp Boston in 2010 - that started a number of snowballs rolling down hills.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

Ralph Folz and Tom Little, who were the cofounders of TVisions; Mavis Chin and Dave Gynn from Optaros, Jeff Cram from ISITE - all people I’ve worked with/for and kept in touch with.

Now, of course, that list includes Jake Goldman and the team at 10up.

What’s coming up next for you?

Continuing to focus on 10up - improving our processes, investing in our culture - making sure we can continue to scale without sacrificing quality of delivery or employee experience.

Any industry predictions for 2015?

More focus on financial metrics - how can we demonstrate the real value of the investments we make in web products. This includes optimization (A/B and multivariate testing) but also wholesale redesigns and replatforms - how do we know we’re getting our money’s worth?

What book(s) are you reading right now?

Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous, by Gabriella Coleman.

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

Too many to count. I guess the most unavoidable is New Order’s “Blue Monday” - gets me dancing every time.

Name something you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

A quality, curated content experience with plenty of time for discussion - more of what we saw in Minneapolis last time.

Specifically, Pippin and Jake, John Hawkins & Kim Schaefer.

Going to the Pawn Shop from Pawn Stars.

Meet the speaker: Carl Hancock

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Carl Hancock

Carl Hancock knows a thing or two about the power of WordPress and how different plugins can extend the powerful CMS to accomplish just about anything. He’s the co-founder of Rocketgenius and creator of one of the most successful commercial plugins in the marketplace: Gravity Forms.

One of the great things about Carl is his ability to give and receive advice, even when it’s not the easiest thing to say or hear. He understands that there’s often a learning experience to take away from negative criticism; one that can help you identify issues to create solutions that can take your business to a whole new level.

Carl was part of our Expert Business Panel at the 2014 Prestige Conference in Minneapolis. We’re very excited to welcome him back as a speaker to Prestige Las Vegas, discussing the business background of his commercial plugin success.

In 3 sentences or less, please describe what you do for a living:

I get to build WordPress products for a living. How great is that?!

Why this career and not something else?

I’ve been working with computers since I was in Elementary School and began doing internet development when dial up was king so there has never really been “something else” as far as career goes.

When did you figure out what you wanted to be when you grew up?

I’ve always been involved in technology but I wanted to get involved in creating a startup when I got fed up with dealing with poorly made decisions by people running the companies I worked for before I co-founded Rocketgenius.

Once you figured out what you wanted to do with your career, how did you start making things happen?

I went all in from the beginning. I withdrew from college on the first day of classes and accepted a job with a startup halfway across the country when I was 18.

Who were your most valuable mentors and how did you connect with them?

From a startup perspective, the 37Signals blog and books that they published inspired me to quit my job and start my own company.

What’s coming up next for you?

Expanding the Gravity Forms ecosystem and taking it places that people within the WordPress community may not expect.

Any industry predictions for 2015?

The WordPress API will be huge.

What book(s) are you reading right now?

Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden and The Startup Playbook by David Kidder and Reid Hoffman.

Favorite “guilty pleasure” song or band that you can’t help but rock out to?

Rodrigo y Gabriela.

Name one thing you’re looking forward to for Prestige Conference Las Vegas:

The people.

Las Vegas Prestige Conference Schedule Posted

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schedule

With so many great speakers included in our Las Vegas Prestige Conference line up, we know you’re ready to see what sessions they’ll be presenting during the event.

You can find the full schedule on the Prestige homepage, but here are the highlights:

Friday Night - Business Experts Get Real

We’ll be kicking off Prestige Las Vegas with two opportunities to learn from highly successful WordPress business owners. First up is a Q&A between Jake Goldman of 10up and Chris Lema of Crowd Favorite discussing the journey from enterprise software to WordPress.

The next section of the evening is aptly titled “Honest Answers from Business Experts.” We’ve used this format before to create in-depth conversations between our business panelists, with plenty of opportunities for audience questions. Panelists include Cory Miller of iThemes, Ben Fox of Sidekick, and Andrew Norcross of Reaktiv Studios. Jake Goldman will hang on the mic from earlier in the evening and act as moderator for the panel.

Saturday - 6 Stellar Sessions

Prestige offers a single track of sessions so all attendees have the opportunity to hear every speaker we’ve flown in for the conference. Don’t worry - we build in time for audience Q&A, visits to the sponsor tables, and the ever-important hallway networking.

We’ll kick off Saturday’s full day of business talks with our local speakers - Las Vegas tech scene leaders John Hawkins of 9seeds and Kim Schaefer of Downtown Project. Rounding out the morning will be Pippin Williamson of Pippin’s Plugins and Jake Goldman of 10up sharing the values, challenges, and boundaries of serving the WordPress economy.

After a catered lunch provided by the venue, we’ll dive right into the afternoon sessions. Brad Williams of WebDevStudios will share advice on making your first hire, followed by Brianna Norcross presenting on accounting for small business. We’ll take a short break for snacks, then continue on with John Eckman of 10up discussing WordPress in the Enterprise. Our final session of the day will be with Carl Hancock of RocketGenius discussing growing a big “small company.”

We know that’s a lot of information packed into a day and a half conference. That’s why we’ve got more conference magic up our sleeves.

Saturday After Party

We’ve got a great after party planned for Prestige Conference. We know your head is going to be filled with ideas and new directions you can take your business. We’ve structured the after party as a time for everyone to relax, unwind, share their ideas, and network in a low-key environment. This is the perfect time to share ideas and connect with our speakers, sponsors, and other attendees.

Bonus: Post-Prestige Video Access

Our event has so many speakers and information packed into it, it’ll be impossible to remember it all. We’ve got your back - each ticket includes a special bonus: access to the recordings of all Saturday sessions for 6 months after the event.

If you haven’t already booked your ticket, what are you waiting for? Head on over to our Registration page to get started.

Image Credit: Steve, Planet of Success

Hear Lisa Sabin-Wilson Speak At Prestige

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Lisa Sabin-WilsonIf you haven’t heard Lisa Sabin-Wilson speak yet, you’re missing out.

For the past 10 years, Lisa has been working in the web design and development industry, focusing on WordPress design, development, and consulting. She is currently co-owner and partner of WebDev Studios, a company specializing in WordPress and related open source platforms. Their clients include Microsoft, the YMCA, MSNBC, and livefyre.

When we say that Lisa wrote the book on WordPress, we’re not kidding. She’s the author of WordPress for Dummies,, now in it’s 6th edition, as well as BuddyPress For Dummies, WordPress All In One For Dummies, and WordPress Web Design For Dummies.

Anyone that makes money from work involving WordPress will be able to benefit from hearing Lisa speak at Prestige Conference. Her session is titled “You Should Charge More” and right from the get-go, she’ll be diving into pricing considerations when bidding projects, common mistakes freelancers make when quoting clients, and advice for bumping up your current rates. Lisa will also be covering different pricing models, how to identify signs your rates are too low, and the difference between agency and freelance pricing structures.

Hear Lisa Sabin-Wilson speak at Prestige

Make sure you don’t miss out on hearing Lisa Sabin-Wilson present at Prestige Conference. Saturday Conference tickets include Lisa’s presentation and much more. Streaming tickets are also available for remote attendees.

Hear Matt Medeiros Speak at Prestige

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Matt MedeirosMatt Medeiros, host of the Matt Report and co-founder of Slocum Studio, will be opening our Saturday sessions with his talk “Traits of Success: From Car Sales to Software Sales”.

Matt is well-known in the business technology sector for his weekly podcast the Matt Report, a WordPress-focused business podcast for entrepreneurs, startups, and freelancers. Over the past two years, he’s interviewed hundreds of WordPress professionals about their stories, successes, and struggles within their businesses. He is also a frequent speaker at WordCamps and business events around the country.

Growing up, Matt learned the sales side of the world through his father’s car dealership. Those skills, along with a brief stint in retail sales, have continued to pay off in his other pursuits. His interest in technology led him to positions within the industry that eventually pushed him to found Slocum Studio in 2008, a full-service web marketing & development provider.

Through his countless interviews with successful entrepreneurs and hands-on experience running his own agency, Matt brings an enormous amount of knowledge with him to Prestige Conference.

Hear Matt Medeiros Speak At Prestige Conference

We’re excited to have Matt Medeiros as a speaker at Prestige. We’re confident in his ability to provide inspiration and actionable tips for success in your own business.

Saturday Conference tickets include Matt’s presentation and much more. Streaming tickets are also available for remote attendees.