Interview with Josh Leuze

Interview, Speakers

Josh Leuze – twitter dark blue jeans social media icons designed by icons.mysitemyway.com facebook dark blue jeans social media icons designed by icons.mysitemyway.com Google+ dark blue jeans social media icons designed by icons.mysitemyway.com

Josh will be presenting Building Your First Widget on Saturday in the Development track

Josh Leuze is a WordPress developer from Minnesota who loves making themes. He is the author of the popular Meteor Slides plugin.

When not building themes and plugins in his basement, Josh can be found doodling with his kids at the kitchen table, digging in the garden, or pedaling his bike around town.

Interview:

Why do you use WordPress?
Because of the great community that WordPress has, and the low barrier to entry. The best part about WordPress is that anyone can come in with any level of knowledge, learn as much or as little as they want to, and be able to publish their ideas to the world.

What would you say to convince someone to attend a WordCamp?
I would tell them that WordCamps are open to everyone and that they will get something out of it; whether their goal is to meet some cool new people, start a blog, be motivated to blog more, or build their first theme or plugin.

What is your favorite WordPress project you have worked on recently?
Most of the sites that I work on are nebulous, intangible things that only exist online or for a faraway brick and mortar locations that I’ll never really set foot in.

So it was fun to work on a site with 9seeds for Downtown Container Park, a crazy industrial sculpture / shopping center in Las Vegas, and then actually visit the location during WordCamp Vegas last year. It was surreal to walk though the park and feel the heat off the flame-throwing praying mantis, rather than just experiencing it as a slideshow on my screen!

Do you have any advice for someone looking to start or grow a WordPress based business?
Specialize. Figure out what your strengths are, what you like to do best, and focus on that. Seek out other people who can compliment your skills with their own specializations in other areas.

What is your favorite WordPress-related resource?
Whenever I want to learn how to do something new with WordPress, the first place I go is WordPress.tv. I love being able to take a mini-WordCamp lunch break and watch a good video from someone who knows what they’re talking about!

Tell us something awesome about yourself that is not WordPress related
I’m the webmaster for StarShipSofa, a Hugo award winning podcast that plays lots of awesome science fiction stories.