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Bridget Willard
She mentioned that in construction she started her first career then worked for non-profits, franchise development, and tech. She is also popular for making wordpress marketing team, building Riggins construction, and GiveWP.
Bridget Willard is a marketer who brings her background in accounting to help small businesses. She began her career in construction, then worked in franchise development, nonprofits, and tech. She is especially known for the brand building of Riggins Construction, GiveWP, and the Make WordPress Marketing Team.
Bridget co-hosts The Smart Marketing Show with Jason Tucker — a podcast on the WPwatercooler network.
Besides attending and volunteering at WordCamps, Bridget also speaks at WordCamps. Teaching and empowering people is her why.
When she’s not writing about marketing, she is spending time with her friends, changing her hair, learning languages, or walking in nature.
Say hi to her on Twitter at @youtoocanbeguru and read her blog at bridgetwillard.com.
Q. How did you come into your current field? Share a bit of the background?
Ans: I was an office manager who decided we needed to do more to let people know we were still in business. I started a Twitter account, blogging, and a Facebook Page.
In 2011, I began teaching people what I was doing under the “You, Too Can Be A Guru” brand and in 2015 I built bridgetwillard.com. The rest is history as they say.
Q. What does your workstation look like?
Ans: I have a midcentury modern desk and chair in my second bedroom. My laptop stays in there and is shut down promptly at 5:00 PM daily (85% of the time).
Q. What’s the most interesting project you have done to date in WordPress?
Ans: I am very proud of building the Make WordPress Marketing Team. I did that part-time for two years.
Q. Have you ever been to any WordPress meetups or WordCamps? If yes did you learn anything useful?
Ans: I’ve been to more WordCamps and Meetups than I can count at this point. I’ve been going since 2013. I learned about people, what makes an engineer tick, how to build my site, and, more importantly, I met peers who became clients.
Q. What kind of tools/software do you currently use for your creations?
Ans: Besides WordPress for my website, I use hemingwayapp.com for grammar, Google Docs to compose my articles, and Canva.com for my featured images. Twitter is also my favorite social media platform.
Q. What interesting feature do you think you would like to see in WordPress and is currently missing?
Ans: I believe WordPress should be more simple, to be frank. This is an unpopular opinion. Because we are part of the open source movement, the pace of development is generally slower than proprietary software.
I accept that. Personally, I would like WordPress to support the Classic Editor plugin longer. I’m a bit nervous of how it will affect 239 blog posts (to date). Pages, I can deal with, because I have a designer and Beaver Builder Pro.
Since education is my business model, I am one of those people who isn’t a fan of Gutenberg. Maybe if I were more technical or could afford to hire a developer, I would convert (after making a backup).
As I’m typing this, I realize that I need to rat hole away some money to do that. The best and worst part of technology is that it evolves with or without you.
Q. Out of the current plugins and themes which one do you like the most and why?
Ans: This is a hard question because many of the plugins I like are also clients. I will say Beaver Builder is my favorite because it allows my designer to make modules for me that I can easily use and implement myself.
Q. Which WordPress hosting do you use and would you recommend for your clients and others?
Ans: I use Pressable because when they say it is $25 a month they actually bill $25 a month. I wish more hosts would bill monthly. It makes more sense for my business accounting.
Q. Do you like/love what you currently do in WordPress?
Ans: I love my career. I enjoy empowering people and helping my WordPress friends make their businesses sustainable.
Q. What would you like to do in the future in the current field or somewhere else?
Ans: Well, I’m 47. Though it isn’t old, I’ll probably work until I die. Who knows what the future is for social media and content marketing but maybe I’ll be able to retire and have a small gift shop somewhere.
Q. Can you give us some reference for whom we should conduct an interview next and why?
Ans: Warren Laine-Naida — Super smart. https://warrenlainenaida.net/ Decades of experience in marketing. Builds websites for a huge range of clients.
Sonl Sinha is a passionate writer as well as WordPress and WooCommerce rockstar who loves to share insights on various topics through his engaging blog posts. He runs a successful website design and digital marketing company. With 15+ years of experience in WordPress theme development, he strives to inform and inspire readers with his thought-provoking content. He helps thousands of small and medium businesses and startups create a unique online presence. Follow Sonl Sinha for your regular dose of knowledge and inspiration.
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