Marc Gratch is the budget and lead wrangler for this year’s WordCamp DFW.
I fell into development.
In 2010 I and two others had been running a brand management company for three years. We had lofty goals of planning and executing integrated marketing campaigns; selling websites was an easy way to find clients. At this point in my life I knew nothing about code, even though a majority of our business was based on building .NET websites.
After some internal turmoil; our company found itself missing a partner, some clients (and expected revenue), equipment and mostly our pride and sense of stability. Frankly, we weren’t prepared. Suddenly we had to manage the remaining .NET projects that we had no clue how to handle. Uncertain how to proceed, our SEO guy introduced us to WordPress.
With about 30 plugins, a poorly made custom theme, some glue, scotch tape and a lot of luck, we became a WordPress shop.
Skip ahead to 2013; I was now working independently building custom themes & plugins for small businesses. Essentially everything I knew about coding the WordPress community taught me. The problem was, I never actively chose this path for myself. I enjoyed coding, but unlike my first business, this wasn’t planned. In fact, I was generally unhappy. I was working too much and getting paid too little, if at all sometimes. Something had to give. In 2014, I fired all my clients.
My wife and I were expecting our first child and I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with myself. I knew I wanted to write code and I knew I loved working with WordPress, but I felt certain I was done with client work. First and foremost, I spent my time letting my distractions lead me wherever seemed most intriguing. I read everything I could, about WordPress, coding, physics, Spain…? I truly allowed my mind to wander. I would find myself uselessly refreshing my newsreader for new articles during the day so I turned my attention to podcasts and WordPress.tv, which quickly brought my attention to WordCamps.
In the summer of 2014 we decided to have our last child-free vacation; we were headed to NYC. Where I would also go to my first WordCamp.
I can only describe my first WordCamp experience as transformational. I was hooked. The first person I met was THE ONE AND ONLY Andrew Nacin – I caught him unaware getting his morning coffee, poor guy didn’t see the fandom coming. He was very gracious, and though he may have been trying to get rid of me, he introduced me to some other amazing folks, that I had been following for years. When I returned to Fort Worth I was on a WordPress high, I wanted to share as much as I could about WordPress and the community. I got home and applied to speak at WordCamp DFW, where I spoke for the first time about WordPress.
At my very first WordCamp (WCNYC2014) I learned so much that this blog post simply could not do it justice. But the most important lesson I walked away with was: The WordPress community is (mostly) virtual and volunteer based. The best way to succeed is to get involved, get noticed, and don’t suck. This stuck with me. I now speak, volunteer, and (occasionally) sponsor WordCamps all over the country as well as help organize WordCamp DFW and the Fort Worth WordPress User Group meetup.
In the time since WCNYC2014 I get to consult, teach, build products and work on some very interesting yet challenging projects. All the while getting to travel, network and discover great WordPress friends –which are more aptly described as great friends. And by discovering the WordPress community and amazing people who have helped me grow my business acumen, refine my focus, strengthen my connections and become a better developer than I had thought possible.
Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event, speak at the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!