Sallie Goetsch (rhymes with ‘sketch’) has been online since 1985. She hand-coded her first HTML website in 1994. Since discovering WordPress in 2005, she hasn’t looked back. Sallie’s consultancy, WP Fangirl, places a strong emphasis on content strategy and building profitable websites that are a pleasure to use. Sallie has been organizer of the East Bay WordPress Meetup in Oakland, California, since 2009, and has presented there on topics ranging from podcasting to learning management systems to e-commerce to event management. She has also taught WordPress classes for Mediabistro, acted as Technical Reviewer for O’Reilly’s WordPress: The Missing Manual, and produced training videos for Peachpit Press. Sallie is a regular panelist on the WP-Tonic Roundtable and loves speaking at WordCamps.
We’re thrilled to have Sallie onboard as a speaker at WordCamp Sacramento 2018 asked a few questions to help you get to know more about her. Check out our mini interview with Sallie below:
What is the topic of your WordCamp talk?
Building A Compelling Portfolio With Gutenberg
Why do you think this is important?
I think we all know that WordPress is good for building portfolios with pretty pictures in them. But a portfolio that’s going to help you convince people to hire you needs more than pretty pictures. And then there are people like me who start by over-engineering their portfolios and including tons of information that doesn’t matter to clients.
It’s important for us as WordPress professionals, and for our clients who need to show sample projects, to understand what we really need to include in a portfolio.
Gutenberg revolutionizes a lot of things about creating content in WordPress, and one thing it gives you is the ability to create a template for portfolio entries that matches your (client’s) needs, without having to install page-building plugins.
What’s your WordPress origin story?
I actually found b2 in 2005 when I first heard about blogging, because my hosting company at the time had it available for 1-click install. It was a bit too confusing for me, but a few months later I started to hear podcasters talking about WordPress, and I checked it out. I began using it a little, then a little more, building first blogs and then websites. After I joined the local WordPress meetup in 2009, WordPress ate my life. It wasn’t just that the software evolved to a point where it made it much easier to build great websites. It was the community that pulled me in, supported me, educated me, and made me passionate about it.
How has WordPress impacted your world?
I could write a 5,000-word essay on that, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t what people want to read. I started building websites in the “”uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow”” days. It was WordPress that really introduced me to the concept of content management, and the things that it made possible even in 2005 were mind-blowing.
One of the things I always loved best, though, was the fact that my clients would no longer have to call me every time they needed to change a comma. WordPress is empowering not just to me as someone who builds websites (I would not then have called myself a developer and sometimes wonder whether I should now), but to the people I’m building websites for.
Beyond that, WordPress introduced me to open source, which I’m sure I’d heard something about but never thought of, and there seems to be a connection between the way people share code and invite participation and the overall warmth and welcome of the WP community, the willingness of people to help and to educate and to support one another.
I’m a service-oriented person anyway, so being a part of something where everyone wants to give back is comfortable, natural, and right. I give back mainly by being a meetup organizer, and by helping out anywhere I can. Don’t know whether I’ll ever make a core commit, but there are many ways to contribute, and everyone can contribute in some way.
I think those are the things that led me gradually away from my multiple business personalities and into all WordPress all the time mode. I have other marketable skills, but WP is where the community is, and the mutual excitement, and the collegial support.
You can connect with Sallie further at:
@salliegoetsch | LinkedIn | GitHub
Get Your Ticket ASAP!
WordCamp Sacramento 2018 sold out in 2015, 2016, and 2017, and we do expect it to sell out again. Be sure to get your WordCamp Tickets asap to secure you spot at this awesome event! Tickets are only $40 (thanks to our generous sponsors) and include:
- Two full days of Beginner Tracks, walking new users through how to use WordPress.
- Two mixed tracks of sessions on Saturday.
- Two mixed tracks of sessions on Sunday.
- A Happiness Bar — our version of a help desk, open throughout the event so you can get help with your site and get your questions answered.
- An opportunity to network with and meet sponsors, speakers, and other WordPress community members, including business owners, designers, developers, agency owners, bloggers, copywriters, freelancers, site owners, and more.
- Refreshing drinks throughout the entire event.
- A WordCamp Sacramento 2018 t-shirt.
- A catered lunch on Saturday.
- A networking reception Saturday immediately following the event.
- Snacks on Sunday.