Some work hard and some work smart. The best are those who can create a balance between working hard and working smart.
Christina “Chris” Perryman is one such WordPress developer. Since 2007, she is running a web design and development agency focusing the WordPress custom solutions. Chris recently diversified into the field of digital media. She still focuses on WordPress projects, but, now they are with more extensible and exciting solutions. In this interview, she talked about her sudden change of career paths that led her to become a WordPress developer.
Apart from her website development projects, Chris also loves to help the community. She is an admin of Advanced WordPress group on Facebook and help the people with their WordPress related issues.
Cloudways: A real estate girl chooses website development. How did that start? You have been working with WordPress since 2007. It is not wrong to say that you are using it from its initial stages. What was the reason to choose WordPress?
Chris Perryman: In Illinois, you can get your real estate license early if you complete college level real estate classes. So, during high school I got a job as an office manager at a local real estate firm. It didn’t take long for me to be tasked with all of the marketing since I was the only “young” one in the office who really knew how to use a computer.
I played around with programs like Illustrator and InDesign in order to get our print and online marketing pieces composed. I had a real knack for it and used what I learned to move into a marketing position at a bigger agency.
Fast forward four years, and I was married and moved to California – so much for the Illinois Real Estate License, they don’t transfer state to state. So I got a job assisting an agent in Encinitas and helped her getting the print marketing really cleaned up. She loved my work and so did a lot of the other agents. Before long, I decided to setup a website to advertise my print design business. I googled around and found some tutorials and wrote my first website from scratch using XHTML and CSS. Boom! I was hooked.
Soon, I started offering web design and development as one of my services; setting up unique property websites for higher-end real estate clients. Referrals started coming in and I began to work on sites that were not real estate related. I eventually dropped off the print work all together.
The only issue I was facing was not being able to give my clients access to their content. All of my sites were hand-coded—and static. A friend of mine suggested using WordPress, he had heard some people were starting to use it as a CMS. At the time, I was using it as a blog and had “skinned” it to match my site, but using it as a CMS was almost “theory” back then. I ended up finding some articles on the possibility and ran with it.
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Cloudways: It is hard for a woman to run a successful business with a family. Did you find difficulties?
Chris Perryman: Family has been a huge support system. I wouldn’t have been here today if it weren’t for my husband’s support and encouragement. Also, my mom’s great advice to “throw away everything” related to my education in real estate and finance to go after a career based around what I truly loved. I tend to play it safe, but they always push me to take more risks.
I think it’s challenging for a woman in the tech industry, in general. But I’ve never focused on that or the statistics that say we are the minorities, we make less money, etc. I’m by no means what you would call a “feminist”, but I’m most certainly what I like to call an “equalist”. Ultimately, I want to be treated the same as the male developer next to me—not special—just the same.
I know I don’t have any limitations other than the ones I put on myself. I don’t care if people want to put me into a category because I’m a woman—or because I rock bond hair, HA! I don’t need to get loud or upset; I just let my work, my ethics and my professionalism speak for themselves.
Cloudways: First you ran Revelation Concept and now you have Mind-Blowing Things which is one of the best digital creative agencies of San Diego. What was the story behind this success? How many people are working with you?
Chris Perryman: “One of the best digital creative agencies of San Diego”? Who have you been talking to?! Haha! Revelation Concept really exploded after the first few years. Referrals just poured in and it was very exciting. I found myself turning down a lot of work because I couldn’t keep up with the demand. I thought about how I could remedy this, but I never wanted to be anyone’s boss or have an office space etc. I’d worked for years in similar environments and I knew it just wasn’t my thing.
After being in the web industry for a while, I noticed there were a lot of cool business setups that were outside of the norm. I’d thought about setting up an agency with a non-conventional business structure, but it wasn’t until my husband and I really started talking about growing our family that I got serious about making some changes.
I decided to launch “Mind-Blowing Things” (or MBT) under Revelation Concept Inc. MBT is a cooperative agency of awesome designers and developers. Currently, I have about 10 people doing anything from sales to print design, basic WordPress development to highly customized WordPress solutions and more. They are individuals whom I know, personally, and they have the motivation and talent to be completely self sufficient. I don’t have to micromanage anyone and it’s really great.
Cloudways: The community is the lifeblood of WordPress. Do you think this awesome community is one of the reasons for the success behind WordPress?
Chris Perryman: 100%! I don’t think any of the other popular platforms come anywhere near competing with WordPress on that level. There are so many resources out there for WordPress and they are all community-driven: the forums, innumerable blogs, tutorials, WordPress StackExchange, the Codex, etc. But then there is the physical community that is taking over the globe with things like WordCamp events and local Meetups.
I don’t know what it is about the WordPress “crowd”, but everyone is so friendly! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had someone help me troubleshoot, give business advice, literally code up a solution for me—for nothing! They do it just out of the kindness of their little WordPress hearts. It defies everything you know about business and the tech industry where most people are locking down code and keeping secrets. WordPress developers are sharing EVERYTHING.
Cloudways: You are the admin of the largest Facebook community Advance WordPress. Do you think this group is serving the best to the community?
Chris Perryman: I better say yes! Haha. But yes, I think we are. I think there was a sweet spot somewhere between 500 and 1,000 members where we were getting really good questions and interaction. Most of these questions were relevant to the group’s mission of serving an “Advanced” crowd. But as we grew so did our challenges, it’s really, really difficult to keep 10,000+ people happy on a day-to-day basis. We have the regulars, who get upset that some topics are not “Advanced”, and the newbies who get offended when we have to remove their posts for irrelevance or breaking the group’s guidelines. All in all, I think we do a good job of keeping things balanced without stepping on too many toes.
I think our success in that group has to be largely credited to the admins. They really spend a lot of time vetting posts, vetting potential members, removing spam, and dealing with complaints and the occasional drama. We have a separate group where we, as admins, can discuss issues and vote on what action we should take. We also discuss how we can make things better and are constantly planning for the future of the group. They do a lot considering they are all volunteers.
Cloudways: WordCamp events are creating a great impact on the newbies and all WordPress users. What are your views about these events? Have you organized or volunteered any WordCamp?
Chris Perryman: I had heard about WordCamps and finally attended my first one in Downtown San Diego in 2011. It was the most life-changing event I’ve ever attended. I learned so much that my brain was on overload. I left that weekend more excited than I’d ever been about being in this industry. That one camp changed my whole development process and has been the foundation of everything I’ve done since then. Best part? It cost me $40.00!
I’ve since managed to attend local WordCamp (San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles) every year. I love them. I’m on the Organizing Committee for WCSD 2015 and could not be more excited about what we have planned for everyone.
As you mentioned, I’m an admin of the ever-growing Advanced WordPress Facebook group and a co-organizer of the Advanced WordPress San Diego Meetup. These types of groups are great for learning and networking outside of the camps.
I still can’t wrap my head around all the amazing people who volunteer their time and knowledge for nothing more than the warm fuzzies they get from helping others. Some of my best friends are people I’ve met at Camps and Meetups. I don’t know what I love more the WordPress platform or the WordPress people, but I’m pretty sure they are one and the same.
Cloudways: On the lighter side of life, human beings like us are full of life. You share your stuff a lot on social media which shows you are quite social in real time too. Do you have any interest in sports or food or traveling or anything else?
Chris Perryman: Ah, life. I’m social because I come from a big family and because my husband forces me to be. Kidding, but I do enjoy my quiet time and my most perfect weekends are spent trying new restaurants with my husband, Drew, and watching movies on my couch. I’m a huge foodie, I love eating and cooking too.
Drew and I love traveling together, just wish we had more time to do it! We try to get out on weekends to explore what’s in driving distance, California has all sorts of treasures waiting to be discovered. Drew usually tags along to WordCamp weekends and we make staycations out of that…it’s funny because he’s not into this stuff at all, but all the regular camp goers know who he is ha! We also have FINALLY joined a co-ed softball league this year after talking about it for nearly a decade. It’s been a blast!
I also enjoy anything ‘designy” – home decor, fashion etc. or anything related to the outdoors – hiking, camping, physical activity in general – I’m kind of a gym rat. Other than that it’s all about our dogs!
Cloudways: WordPress developers have a pack of plugins to install with every new WordPress installation. What plugins do you install most after installing WordPress?
Chris Perryman: Most people who know me know that I’m the “anti-plugin girl”. But, there are few that I have installed on nearly every site. First, and my most favorite by far, is Advanced Custom Fields. It’s so robust and you can’t beat the pricing. I had been doing a lot of that work by hand and this is just so much easier.
Second, I have my own plugin that I built to handle things like admin customizations, registering post types, and housing any other functions that are specific to the client. I also keep frequently used functions in there that I can turn on/off easily.
Some other frequently used plugins are Yoast SEO (for SEO obviously), Ultimate Coming Soon Page (for sites that are online but under development), and Post Types Order (for letting clients drag and drop posts and CPTs into any order they want). Another good one for development is Duplicate Posts. It lets you quickly duplicate a post, page, or CPT.
Cloudways: WordPress 4.0 has been recently launched. Which feature you like the most from this latest version of WordPress?
Chris Perryman: There are a lot of great things within this release. I like the Embed preview. I think that’s really intuitive for clients. I also like the new plugin layout. I’m constantly using the internet to look up plugins because I can’t remember their names, now I can clearly see which one I’m looking for.
Cloudways: Most of your friends are from WordPress community. How do you feel when you see the same faces in all the events? What are your views on making new connections and expanding your circle?
Chris Perryman: I always love meeting new people in the WordPress community. It’s true. I do know a lot of local people already and it’s definitely nice to have friends at events, but I love making new connections. It’s good for the community and it’s good for business!
I have found a lot of reliable people for my projects and most of the people working with Mind Blowing Things are connections from camps and meetups. I think it’s very important to keep pulling in the next generation (not in age, but in experience) of WordPress users and developers in order to keep the community strong. #WordPressFriendsForever
You can follow Chris Perryman (@RevConcept) on Twitter!
Waseem Abbas
Waseem Abbas was WordPress Community Manager at Cloudways. He loves to help people with their WordPress worries. He is a self-proclaimed "food explorer".
