My presentation at WordFest Live 2021 on the Global stage in the Asia region on Friday, January 22, 2021. How I started my business out of one of the strangest times in our lives.
WordCamp India 2021 - How I Started My Business During a PandemicShanta Nathwani
My presentation at WordCamp India 2021 as a lightning talk on Sunday, February 14, 2021. How I started my business out of one of the strangest times in our lives.
With all the new changes to WordPress with the block editor, many people are confused.
I’m going to show you how to create your home, about and contact pages in 30 minutes using the WordPress Block editor.
How to Organize Your Content Through Navigation and WayfindingShanta Nathwani
Posts vs. Pages & Categories vs. Tags. There is so much confusion about what types of things should be put on a page and what should be in a post. Static vs. Dynamic content is the best way to tackle this. When creating a website, you can edit a menu to include not only pages, but also categories that can create a more complete experience.
WordCamp India 2021 - How I Started My Business During a PandemicShanta Nathwani
My presentation at WordCamp India 2021 as a lightning talk on Sunday, February 14, 2021. How I started my business out of one of the strangest times in our lives.
With all the new changes to WordPress with the block editor, many people are confused.
I’m going to show you how to create your home, about and contact pages in 30 minutes using the WordPress Block editor.
How to Organize Your Content Through Navigation and WayfindingShanta Nathwani
Posts vs. Pages & Categories vs. Tags. There is so much confusion about what types of things should be put on a page and what should be in a post. Static vs. Dynamic content is the best way to tackle this. When creating a website, you can edit a menu to include not only pages, but also categories that can create a more complete experience.
MasterPress Mystery Theatre - WordCamp Santa Clarita Virtual 2021Shanta Nathwani
There are certain rules that you follow if you don’t want to end up dead. One of them is to never attend the town fete. That’s only if you life in a small town in England. But when it comes to solving the mystery of your website’s problems, it’s like solving a murder! In this session, we’ll go through some of the forensics and psychology of the website’s behaviour how important witness statements can be in bringing the criminal to justice!
Designing with Gutenberg - Las Lajas WordPress Meetup 2020Shanta Nathwani
A designers perspective on working with Gutenberg.
Why would I want to use Gutenberg?
Why should my clients care if I use Gutenberg?
Should I recommend Gutenberg to other designers?
Video can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Q9AY31J84E132uudz8P1OxEp0I_3mdq/view?usp=sharing
Organizing Your Content - WordPress Hamilton March 2020Shanta Nathwani
Many people overlook the organization of their content and present it to their visitors reflected in their navigation. What does the visitor do once they've made it to your website and want to read more? If they can't find what their looking for, they'll leave.
Navigation and Wayfinding On Your Website - WordCamp Ottawa 2019Shanta Nathwani
Posts vs. Pages & Categories vs. Tags. There is so much confusion about what types of things should be put on a page and what should be in a post. Static vs. Dynamic content is the best way to tackle this. When creating a website, you can edit a menu to include not only pages, but also categories that can create a more complete experience.
This Workshop guides you through the process to giving your visitors a better way to access your website other than through the word "Blog"
WordCamp Hamilton - CPT's vs Gutenberg TemplatesShanta Nathwani
In our last episode, dear campers, we learned about Custom Post Types (CPT’s) and Advanced Custom Fields (ACF’s) and why we need them. We had everything clear, right? Enter Gutenberg…
Until Gutenberg, we had to copy over content from one old post to the new. The other option is to use CPT’s and ACF’s. What’s the difference? When should you use one or the other… or BOTH?
In this session, we’ll take a quick review of CPT’s and ACF’s, then compare them to Gutenberg Blocks and Templates, and discuss when you should use each and why.
This presentation is meant to give the very basics of building a website on WordPress with Gutenberg and JetPack. We are going to build these pages: About, Contact, Blog. Then showing you how to set a static page as the home page, as well as organizing your menu.
An Affordable REST - Coder Camp Hamilton 2019Shanta Nathwani
This presentation talks about the need for municipalities to take more of an interest in presenting their constituents with information, especially around affordable housing. How much work and money can be saved if they invest a little time in disseminating information on a website, rather than hoarding it? I was able to produce this project in 5 days as a student. What's their excuse?
This presentation was given to the WordPress Hamilton Community in the hopes of diversifying the speaker submissions for WordCamp Hamilton and beyond. We had a small but mighty group and with the help of the Diversity Training at WordPress, we were able to encourage a few more speakers.
This case study was presented at Full Stack Toronto Conference 2017 showing the case for my project, An Affordable REST, which helps people find subsidized housing in Toronto. This was a full stack project, using React and Node.js
WCTO 2017 - Everything I Need To Know About Life I Learned at Code SchoolShanta Nathwani
This is a presentation that I gave at WordCamp TOronto in September, 2017 about my experience at Code School. I went to BrainStation in Toronto and graduated in June 2017. These are things that you need to know before you enroll in a code school, regardless of which school you attend.
DevTO - Everything I Need to Know About Life I Learned at Code SchoolShanta Nathwani
This is a presentation that I gave at DevTO in September, 2017 about my experience at Code School. I went to BrainStation in Toronto and graduated in June 2017. These are things that you need to know before you enroll in a code school, regardless of which school you attend.
WP Durham - The Word-Camp Scenario Survival GuideShanta Nathwani
All the things you need to know about attending your first WordCamp. This was prepared for the WordPress Durham group in preparation for WordCamp Toronto 2017
Content Architecture - WordPress Rochester Meetup - November 2016Shanta Nathwani
Posts vs. Pages & Categories vs. Tags. There is so much confusion about what types of things should be put on a page and what should be in a post. Static vs. Dynamic content is the best way to tackle this. When creating a website, you can edit a menu to include not only pages, but also category archives that can create a more complete experience.
This is a talk about my experience of importing open data into WordPress for use with FacetWP. This is a paid plugin and very useful for doing a different type of information architecture.
This presentation was prepared for the inaugural WPCampus in Sarasota Florida on July 16, 2016. It was designed to show not only out of the box solutions, such as WordPress and BuddyPress/bbPress, but also what we have designed ourselves
This is the presentation given at WordCamp Hamilton 2016. This is a follow up to my WordPress 101 talk given last year and goes more into detail about hosting, hiring a professional and general practices about selecting themes and plugins.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
MasterPress Mystery Theatre - WordCamp Santa Clarita Virtual 2021Shanta Nathwani
There are certain rules that you follow if you don’t want to end up dead. One of them is to never attend the town fete. That’s only if you life in a small town in England. But when it comes to solving the mystery of your website’s problems, it’s like solving a murder! In this session, we’ll go through some of the forensics and psychology of the website’s behaviour how important witness statements can be in bringing the criminal to justice!
Designing with Gutenberg - Las Lajas WordPress Meetup 2020Shanta Nathwani
A designers perspective on working with Gutenberg.
Why would I want to use Gutenberg?
Why should my clients care if I use Gutenberg?
Should I recommend Gutenberg to other designers?
Video can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Q9AY31J84E132uudz8P1OxEp0I_3mdq/view?usp=sharing
Organizing Your Content - WordPress Hamilton March 2020Shanta Nathwani
Many people overlook the organization of their content and present it to their visitors reflected in their navigation. What does the visitor do once they've made it to your website and want to read more? If they can't find what their looking for, they'll leave.
Navigation and Wayfinding On Your Website - WordCamp Ottawa 2019Shanta Nathwani
Posts vs. Pages & Categories vs. Tags. There is so much confusion about what types of things should be put on a page and what should be in a post. Static vs. Dynamic content is the best way to tackle this. When creating a website, you can edit a menu to include not only pages, but also categories that can create a more complete experience.
This Workshop guides you through the process to giving your visitors a better way to access your website other than through the word "Blog"
WordCamp Hamilton - CPT's vs Gutenberg TemplatesShanta Nathwani
In our last episode, dear campers, we learned about Custom Post Types (CPT’s) and Advanced Custom Fields (ACF’s) and why we need them. We had everything clear, right? Enter Gutenberg…
Until Gutenberg, we had to copy over content from one old post to the new. The other option is to use CPT’s and ACF’s. What’s the difference? When should you use one or the other… or BOTH?
In this session, we’ll take a quick review of CPT’s and ACF’s, then compare them to Gutenberg Blocks and Templates, and discuss when you should use each and why.
This presentation is meant to give the very basics of building a website on WordPress with Gutenberg and JetPack. We are going to build these pages: About, Contact, Blog. Then showing you how to set a static page as the home page, as well as organizing your menu.
An Affordable REST - Coder Camp Hamilton 2019Shanta Nathwani
This presentation talks about the need for municipalities to take more of an interest in presenting their constituents with information, especially around affordable housing. How much work and money can be saved if they invest a little time in disseminating information on a website, rather than hoarding it? I was able to produce this project in 5 days as a student. What's their excuse?
This presentation was given to the WordPress Hamilton Community in the hopes of diversifying the speaker submissions for WordCamp Hamilton and beyond. We had a small but mighty group and with the help of the Diversity Training at WordPress, we were able to encourage a few more speakers.
This case study was presented at Full Stack Toronto Conference 2017 showing the case for my project, An Affordable REST, which helps people find subsidized housing in Toronto. This was a full stack project, using React and Node.js
WCTO 2017 - Everything I Need To Know About Life I Learned at Code SchoolShanta Nathwani
This is a presentation that I gave at WordCamp TOronto in September, 2017 about my experience at Code School. I went to BrainStation in Toronto and graduated in June 2017. These are things that you need to know before you enroll in a code school, regardless of which school you attend.
DevTO - Everything I Need to Know About Life I Learned at Code SchoolShanta Nathwani
This is a presentation that I gave at DevTO in September, 2017 about my experience at Code School. I went to BrainStation in Toronto and graduated in June 2017. These are things that you need to know before you enroll in a code school, regardless of which school you attend.
WP Durham - The Word-Camp Scenario Survival GuideShanta Nathwani
All the things you need to know about attending your first WordCamp. This was prepared for the WordPress Durham group in preparation for WordCamp Toronto 2017
Content Architecture - WordPress Rochester Meetup - November 2016Shanta Nathwani
Posts vs. Pages & Categories vs. Tags. There is so much confusion about what types of things should be put on a page and what should be in a post. Static vs. Dynamic content is the best way to tackle this. When creating a website, you can edit a menu to include not only pages, but also category archives that can create a more complete experience.
This is a talk about my experience of importing open data into WordPress for use with FacetWP. This is a paid plugin and very useful for doing a different type of information architecture.
This presentation was prepared for the inaugural WPCampus in Sarasota Florida on July 16, 2016. It was designed to show not only out of the box solutions, such as WordPress and BuddyPress/bbPress, but also what we have designed ourselves
This is the presentation given at WordCamp Hamilton 2016. This is a follow up to my WordPress 101 talk given last year and goes more into detail about hosting, hiring a professional and general practices about selecting themes and plugins.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
2. Shanta R. Nathwani
• President & CEO, Namara Technologies Inc.
• Former Professor of Web Development and Design at Sheridan College
• Co-Organizer at WordPress Hamilton Meetup
• Given more than 40 WordCamp talks, mostly beginner and Content
Strategy
Twitter: @ShantaDotCa and @NamaraTech
Website: https://shanta.ca
namara.com 2
23. My Tools
• Monster Contracts*
• WP Project Management
Roadmap
• Jira/Confluence
• Adobe Acrobat/Sign
• Slack
• James Burchill*
namara.com 23
Any affiliate links are marked with an asterisk
24. Tools I’m looking into
• Content Snare*
• Better Proposals
• Still need a decent note
taking app. Looked into
OneNote, Evernote and
Notion.
• CRM’s
namara.com 24
25. Additional Resources
1. WordPress Canada Slack
Team: https://wpslack.ca
2. WordPress.tv: Where
WordCamp talks live and
more.
3. WordPress.org: Themes,
Plugins, and more!
namara.com 25
Most of the photos you will see today were taken at various WordCamp sessions throughout my tours. Hope you enjoy them.
About Me
History
Lessons Learned
Resources/Tools
Last week I launched my own company, Namara Technologies Inc. I was a bridesmaid at my friend’s wedding in Mexico last year. So I love this shot
I was a professor at Sheridan College where I taught Web Development and Design using WordPress.
If you had asked me in high school, what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, I would have told you I don't know but I'm not going to work for my father. My father had 22 years of municipal service, working in real estate and buildings departments. In 1989, he decided to go into business for himself and leave the city. He registered his company by handing papers over to a search company to file the papers. You didn't do it online in those days. So, it was up to them when they registered it probably within a few days or a week. When he got the incorporation papers back for his very first company. It had been registered on my birthday in January of 1989. He is a big believer in thing happening on people’s birthday’s as a blessing, so it was fitting. When he finally left the city, and started his own business, he was 46 years old.
Taken in India in 1985.
After high school, I worked in a women's clothing store for about six months, before my father came to me and said, “Listen, my assistant, Kelly needs help, and I'd like you to come and work for me under her.” He was very clear about that. And while there was a certain amount of nepotism, let's be honest, he was going to make me work for it.
After a very lengthy conversation with one of my managers after I'd been late one day, I decided to hand in my notice. The whole while I was thinking, ‘Why am I putting up with this when my dad has offered me a position where I can grow?’ So, guess what? I went to work for my dad in his real estate development and consulting firm and I was there six years. While I was there, I did my business management certificate at Ryerson University in continuing education. One thing I had to do was further my education while I worked for him. I learned about Project Management, due diligence, contracts, consulting and more. One big thing he showed me was how the “old boys club worked”. I may never be one of them, but I learned to understand the mentality and how it operated. I’ve always been a bit of a tom boy, and typically have chosen male-dominated fields, so this was important for me to learn.
I realized six years in that I didn’t want to do real estate anymore, so I said, “Dad, I love you dearly, but I just don't want to do real estate for the rest of my life.” And so, he said, “Fine, what do you want to do?” I realized I wanted to go into computers and that was the start of my tech career. This is still the worst break up I’ve had to endure in my life.
Taken in India 2006
Since I left my father’s company 20 years ago, I’d gone on with my IT career and gone back to school, earning my Bachelor’s Degree in ITM. I worked as a Data Analyst at a hospital, worked on two political campaigns, a professor and a QA Manager. I’ve given more than 40 WordCamp talks and had built a good reputation for myself.
Fast-forward, and we're now in 2020. I’ve been laid off from my job about a month before the pandemic, so at least I have EI to support me going through to figure out my next move. I started looking for jobs and then the pandemic hit and hiring stopped. I’d been involved in WordPress and its community for about 10 years, so I felt that returning to it after a two-year hiatus might give me some inspiration (and some connections!)
I attended WordCamp San Antonio Texas. This was one of, if not the first, WordCamp that had been done online after the pandemic had caused shutdowns in this part of the world. I was listening to a bunch of people saying, “You can do this,” in a number of talks. Though they weren't directly talking to me, I felt like they were. One of the ways that they dealt with things like the hallway track were the sponsors had their zoom rooms where you could hop in and talk to people or ask questions of speakers and so on. So, I went into one of the rooms where some of the speakers have been. And yes, I'm going to name names.
One of them was run by Nexcess, which is a liquid Web subsidiary, I believe. And therein, I spoke with Kori Ashton, Jocelyn Mozak, Nathan Ingram and Chris Lema, most of whom had given a talk during this WordCamp and had begun to change my mind. Any of those of you who have ever heard of these guys know that they know their stuff. It was in there that I started posing these questions such as, “Can I really do this?”. And it was through them and some of the talks, I thought, “Maybe I can offer this or that.” And I finally decided that I was going to open my own business.
Let me be clear, throughout my entire career, I've always said, I never want to run my own company. I didn't want to have to deal with the marketing, or the accounting. I don't want to have to worry where my next paycheck is coming from. I just wanted to sit, do my work, do my thing and not have to worry about all of that stuff. I mention this because there might be many of you who are on the same boat. At one time I did think about opening my own dojo but thought better. I was afraid that I might not be able to follow through and if I failed, I’d be letting people down that might depend on me.
The Namara group of companies would have been 31 years old, but about a year ago, my father decided he's finally going to start retiring and he wound down the website for his company, which by the way was the first domain I ever registered. My father had always wanted me to take over the company, and there’s a perfectly good domain and company with some name recognition, so why not use that? Almost like a full circle.
Jumping back a little bit into history, if you recall, my father had had his first company opened in on my birthday. My dad's birthday is in April, and because of the pandemic, I haven’t been able to see him. I call up his very good lawyer friend, and I said, “Listen, I need to incorporate a company, but I need it to be done on this day.” And that's what I did. I opened up my very first company under the Namara name, which was his original company, on his birthday. Now, instead of building physical real estate spaces, we're building digital spaces. It turns out that I registered on his birthday, (on purpose) but oddly enough, what I realized later was that I am now the same age as my father was when he opened his first business. So now we have Namara Technologies, Inc.
Great. I have a company name, domain and an idea. But what do you do with it?
I thought, I'm just going to focus on building, whatever my business is going to become. I'm going to start from the beginning, I'm not going to make all the mistakes that everybody else makes.
Wrong! One of the first people about a week after I was laid off, that helped me get my first client was the guy who laid me off, and they are still my client today. And it's been a great working relationship. They have helped work with me through a lot of these challenges that I've had in learning about how the WordPress world works, how a company works, even though I knew a lot of this already. Interestingly enough, I’ve ended up with three clients in my lap, all from different places.
I got out some banquet paper that I had and started mind mapping. Nothing specifically traditional, but I did a big brain dump of all the things I thought I’d need. Everything from what tools I might need, who I know that might help me, what services I can offer as well as what I need to retain. I still haven’t implemented all of them, but this exercise helped clear my head and stop worrying about what I might forget later. It also helped me to prioritize what needed to get done sooner rather than later, and surface questions that I might need to ask, such as ”am I required to carry errors & omissions insurance?”
I at least looked at tools and templates because it helped me find a way through. Others have done this before, so why not learn from them? That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? With the way my head works, I needed things to keep me structured, give me reminders, plan my time, even if they were overkill. But at the end of the day, it’s what works for you. I spent a lot of time looking at different tools, even for the most basic things, and tried to narrow down the number of apps that I needed to touch, but still did just enough rather than too much. I wanted things that did at least 80% of what I wanted to do and then find something else to fill in the details.
One of the errors that I made initially was I started looking at all the tools I would need without actually understanding what I was going to be doing with them. You know, you need accounting software, you need perhaps a CRM, you know that you need the underlying infrastructure for your business, for digital infrastructure and so on. But until you know what it is that you're building, this is a waste of time. So, learn from my mistake here. The challenge, again, is that I had is that I already had a client that was on the go, and they wanted to start working on this. I had to hit the ground running.
Automate the process, but only after you've tested it manually.
For those of you out there that are hiring developers and designers, learn a little bit about the language that we use in our world, and we'll learn a bit more about yours. You will find all kinds of courses, free things, and what I’ve learned so far, is that the ones you pay for are the ones that you are committing to. If it’s free, you can put it off.
I did a technical audit for a client. The client then said, “Great, those are fantastic. Now we need you to fix this.” And I said, “Well, the problem that you have isn't just a matter of switching one for the other. You have to redesign the site.” When I said redesign and I'm realizing even after I got my third client, that the term ‘redesign’ really scares people. So, I started calling it after the third client a ‘rework’, because ultimately, they have the design work. And what I found was most of these clients, all three of them had ended up with designer type people to build their websites to design them, but they weren't functional in one way or another. And the biggest way in which they weren't functional was that they were slow. And they weren't performant. So for those of you out there who are designing these lovely websites with beautiful looking themes and everything else, if they aren't up to speed, Google will shut them right to the bottom of the page, or bottom of the search engine, because they're not performant enough, especially if they're not mobile.
To be fair, at this point, I have not yet found a niche, but that is an ideal thing to do. I'm taking the clients that are coming to me, and anybody will tell you, that if you got to keep the lights on, hey, just do the work. It's better than starving. To be fair, I’m not starving. I have good supports and great family, but you do what you have to do.
Reach out to your network and find the people that are going to be able to support you for good or bad. Know the bad ones and just get rid of them from your life. But they could always lead to something else and they will teach you a lesson. And that's what I had.
I give a bunch of talks, I help co-ordinate my local meetup, teach for Canada Learning Code and manage the WordPress Canada Slack team. This positions me to know what people are looking for, whether it be the products or services that I offer and keeps me top of mind when people are looking to hire someone to do their website. It also shows that you have a level of authority and knowledge in a given area.
But you will get back up. Jinsei Nana ka’robi ya’oki - Life means falling down seven times and getting up eight.
This was taken at WordCamp Rochester in 2017. This is the Canadian contingent if you can believe it!
First rule of going it on your own: You don’t have to do it alone. There are others out there that will help, support and give you advice, even give you referrals.
My Tools: When I go through all of this, I will tell you if there is an affiliate code, but these are the tools that I've been either using or investigating as part of my process. I am still working through a lot of my manual processes at this point.
Monster Contracts: You’re going to need contracts. One of the things that I found extremely helpful, not just because it gave me a contract, but it gave me almost like a small snapshot of a process and explained why it was done the way it was done. For contracts, the master services agreement, as well as a web service contract is Monster Contracts. This is a product by Nathan Ingram, who’s after me today. It is written for the US, but I found that the language is well enough that you can use it in Canada, which is where I live.
WordPress Project Management Roadmaps:
Adobe: I also invested in the Adobe product, because of things like Adobe Acrobat and Sign. You can literally write your contract in Microsoft Word, put in Adobe Sign and then show the client where to sign. Adobe will actually send it off for you, automatically get people to sign it, send reminders and then send it back. It also tracks the document opens, signatures and sending.
Jira and Confluence: You may not necessarily need an entire project management, because you may not be working in a team. It may be overkill, but I like to be able to set all these little details, because I'll forget them later, or they're in a block of text that I just won't notice. I need to be able to filter things.
Slack
James Burchill: Some great time management resources and chatbots
One of the things I'm still on the lookout for is a good note-taking program, I got rid of Evernote because of several reasons. I started using OneNote. Because of its integration with the rest of my Microsoft products, I did look at Notion, but I found it really hard to use. I did invest in it for a couple of months, and then I hit a limit with the amount of stuff I could do. I tried to also narrow down the number of sources that I had. So, things like automating, I didn't want to have to go to something like Zapier here when I had a premium Microsoft thing that uses things like Power Automate. I’m learning whether or not that's a worthwhile endeavour, and I've got it for about a year so I'm going to see if that works.
The other thing that I haven't got yet but I need to really focus on is a good CRM and or marketing tool. One of the big ones I know is called keep Keap which I think was an Infusionsoft product, which deals with things like your sales funnel and things like that. Insightly, I think is another one. HubSpot, I’ve heard of a lot. I had a lot of problems working with that at my previous place of employment when they replaced our service desk with that product, I did not like HubSpot at all. Their documentation was terrible, and I didn't like the support. I try and stay away from HubSpot as much as possible and this is probably going to continue.
DragonTeach is a platform that I use to teach WordPress, rather than using local. You’ll have full cPanel access, which I think you’re going to learn about in the next module.
I highly encourage you to connect with others. There are help and event channels as well as ones for each region. The west has been pretty quiet!
5. Formerly known as Lynda.com. You can usually access this through your local library here in Canada. And remember, Morten is Canadian!
Let me be clear, throughout my entire career, I've always said, I never want to run my own company. I didn't want to have to deal with the marketing, or the accounting. I don't want to have to worry where my next paycheck is coming from. I just wanted to sit, do my work, do my thing and not have to worry about all of that stuff. I mention this because there might be many of you who are on the same boat. At one time I did think about opening my own dojo but thought better. I was afraid that I might not be able to follow through and if I failed, I’d be letting people down that might depend on me.
The Namara group of companies would have been 31 years old, but about a year ago, my father decided he's finally going to start retiring and he wound down the website for his company, which by the way was the first domain I ever registered. My father had always wanted me to take over the company, and there’s a perfectly good domain and company with some name recognition, so why not use that? Almost like a full circle.
Jumping back a little bit into history, if you recall, my father had had his first company opened in on my birthday. My dad's birthday is in April, and because of the pandemic, I haven’t been able to see him. I call up his very good lawyer friend, and I said, “Listen, I need to incorporate a company, but I need it to be done on this day.” And that's what I did. I opened up my very first company under the Namara name, which was his original company, on his birthday. Now, instead of building physical real estate spaces, we're building digital spaces. It turns out that I registered on his birthday, (on purpose) but oddly enough, what I realized later was that I am now the same age as my father was when he opened his first business. So now we have Namara Technologies, Inc.