In 2010 I was beginning to take on client work creating WordPress web sites when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Ironically, at 43 years old I was more fit and healthy than I had ever been in my entire life. I had been running road marathons and trail ultra marathons for a few years…
Full text of the above video Hey, y’all! Thanks for inviting me to come share my story on HeroPress. I’m so excited to be able to talk a little bit to the HeroPress community. So, and I’m doing a video blog or vlog because this is what I do; I’m a YouTube person. I…
The early years I’ve always been an art kid. One of my first school memories is of drawing a clown and my art teacher being so enamored with it, she hung it up on her door for the whole year. The first time in my educational life I didn’t take an art class was my…
When I look back on the past five years I’ve been working with WordPress, I feel the real weight of the journey I’ve had to get where I am. Much of it has been filled with challenge of both of the difficult and welcome variety. I’m an optimist and problem-solver to the core, but I…
You ever have a moment where you blink your eyes and you wonder how you’ve gotten to where you are today? I’m having one of those moments right now as I sit here to share my story with you. It’s bizarre to think of how far I’ve come because I truly thought that I was…
My first website was built using Frontpage. Then I discovered Geocities, which at the time made it easy to break and fix code and have it instantly live for others to find on the world wide web. It was an optimal learning environment for me. I learned HTML and CSS by copying, pasting, and then…
There are times when I hear a story from the WordPress community and I think “That’s a HeroPress story”, whether it has been or ever will actually be posted on the site. Some stories are just so great that you think “Wow, that’s just really great”. This week’s essay is one of those stories, but…
I have always embraced an entrepreneurial spirit. As a kid in the 1970’s, I tagged along with my parents to craft shows on the weekends where they made and sold hand-stamped leather belts to earn extra income and I made macrame necklaces and sold those too. When I was 14 I told my dad I…
Did you know there are still several states in the US where employers can fire me for being gay? Legislation and protections have improved in the past several years, but there are still large gaps throughout the United States for queer and trans people. In addition, I hear horror stories of toxic workplaces that my…
The first time I ever made a WordPress site, I got 180,000 views in 2 days, 253 comments, and (give or take) 7 death threats. It was 2014 and I was working on an MBA at Florida State University during the peak of the Jameis Winston controversy, where a football quarterback was accused of rape…
