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Amy Masson on WordPress, “I Stay Because of the WordPress Community”

Updated on March 9, 2021

4 Min Read
amy masson

Amy Masson is the podcaster of Women in WP, a podcast exclusive to women working in the WordPress industry. She is also the owner of Sumy Designs, a digital agency where she helps individuals and SMBs in boosting their digital presence. In this interview, Amy tells us when she got started with WordPress and how is her journey going now. Let read on!

Mansoor: Amy, it’s been a great pleasure to have you for this interview with us. Could you please tell us about yourself? How long have you been working in the WordPress industry? How is your professional journey going on?

Amy: I started my career as a computer technology teacher for middle school grades six through eight. I quit when my first child was born to focus on raising my family, but people kept asking me to make them websites, which turned into a business. March 2021 will be our fifteenth anniversary. Every year has been better than the last.

Mansoor: You and Susan are running Sumy Designs where you help individuals and SMBs, so they can make a strong digital presence of their businesses. What are the key factors that you consider to make it possible for them?

Amy: The two things I always ask when we start a project is 1) who is your target audience and 2) what is the goal for your website. If we can identify those two things, we can usually make a strategic plan for creating a website that converts. Often people who want websites don’t know those answers, and not considering those things can lead to a disappointing result.

Mansoor: As the front-end developer at Sumy Designs, you definitely have worked on some of the best projects of your career. Could you please tell us about a few about them? Did you face any challenges while working on them?

Amy: I’m frequently challenged with new projects, and that’s one of my favorite aspects of this job. Having a problem that needs a specific solution is exactly in my wheelhouse. For one site, I had a client who needed a way to sell spots in a virtual conference but needed a very specific kind of receipt for his attendees since most of them were professors.

Most educational institutions have specific needs for their reimbursements and the “out of the box” ticket that came with the event plugin wasn’t enough. Working with the client, I was able to develop a custom receipt that would be sent from their email address to the client after they purchased a spot that generated all the information they needed, pulling data from both the event software and Stripe.

Mansoor: When COVID-19 hit the world, all businesses started working remotely. This might be the possible case with you as well. How did you manage your projects and deal with your clients? Would you like to tell us about your experience?

Amy: My business has always been remote, and I’ve never had an office outside my home, so nothing changed about how I’d been running my business. The main difference was that the rest of the family, who were normally off at work and school, were also home with me. That changed the dynamic of working from home somewhat for me but didn’t affect how I worked with clients or my projects.

Mansoor: You have been vocal about women who are working in the WordPress industry. You are also one of the co-hosts of Women in WP along with Angela Bowman and Tracy Apps. How did you get the idea for this podcast?

Amy: The idea occurred to me as I was getting ready to go to WordCamp US in Nashville. I was loading my phone up with podcasts for the drive, and noticed a distinct lack of women on these shows, and started to wonder if people would be interested in an all-woman podcast focused on Women in the WordPress community.

Mansoor: I have been following your podcast since 2019 and seen a lot of great women (I would call Women in WP actually!) appeared as guests. Would you like to share some of the best talks or encounters that really impressed you?

Amy: Every chat we have with Women in WP are fantastic and I’ve learned something new with each one. I particularly like learning from women in other parts of the world, learning about how they manage projects, work with clients, and engage in the WordPress community.

Mansoor: Most people are moving towards WordPress either to make their websites or starting their professional careers in the WordPress industry. Would you like to give them some advice that can be useful for them?

Amy: Get it good and get it done. Perfection doesn’t exist. The reason WordPress is great is because of the ability to edit, change, and grow it as your business grows. I’ve seen folks get stuck trying to achieve perfection and end up losing out on business because of it. There is no “set it and forget it.” Working toward making it better all the time is the best possible advice I can give.

Mansoor: The ecosystem and the community of WordPress are growing on a daily basis. What makes you think will keep WordPress on top of the competition? What are the features of WordPress that you like the most?

Amy: The reason I started using WordPress, in the beginning, was because it was easy for clients to log in and make changes on their own, but I stay because of the WordPress community. Being able to turn to other users and developers to ask for help, learn new things, and get feedback has been invaluable for me.

Mansoor: I have got to know that you are an avid reader and also like to attend marathons. These are really great activities when you want to refresh your mind. Could you please tell us about your favorite books and the places you like to hang out?

Amy: I love everything by David Sedaris, he’s one of my favorite authors and is always fun to read. As far as places to hang out, I haven’t done much of that since COVID. My backyard has been a great place to spend time when the weather is nice. Hoping things improve and we can start traveling again.

Mansoor: Thank you once again for this interview, Amy! Could you please share an image of your workstation for our readers?

Amy:

amy masson workstation

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Mansoor Ahmed Khan

Been in content marketing since 2014, and I still get a kick out of creating stories that resonate with the target audience and drive results. At Cloudways by DigitalOcean (a leading cloud hosting company, btw!), I lead a dream team of content creators. Together, we brainstorm, write, and churn out awesome content across all the channels: blogs, social media, emails, you name it! You can reach out to me at [email protected].

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