{"id":1494,"date":"2017-10-13T12:22:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-13T17:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2017.dfw.wordcamp.org\/?p=1494"},"modified":"2017-10-13T12:22:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-13T17:22:20","slug":"wcdfw-speaker-spotlight-kevin-fontenot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wcdfw-speaker-spotlight-kevin-fontenot\/","title":{"rendered":"WCDFW Speaker Spotlight: Kevin Fontenot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Topic:\u00a0Chatbots: Why Your Business Must Adopt Conversation Based Marketing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kevin Fontenot is the Director of Marketing at TrainedUp.Church. He also likes to refer to himself as a professional interneter. In the past, he was worked on all kinds of WordPress projects including building (and selling) a marketplace built using EDD. Kevin is passionate about helping organizations reach people with marketing that is actually engaging. He lives in Carrollton, TX, with his wife Brooke and their two dogs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you get involved in WordPress?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My first experience with WP was building a site for an organization that I started. I had a tech background and had built static HTML &amp; CSS websites before, but wanted something that was much easier to maintain. I ended up liking the experience so much that I started building WP websites for friends which eventually lead to building websites for clients and creating (and failing) a DIY website builder platform for churches with WP multisite.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you do with WordPress?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a marketer who loves to get my hands dirty, I build a ton of pages using WP with both Divi and BeaverBuilder. In the past, I&#8217;ve built and sold a media marketplace website that I built using EDD and WP. I also run <a href=\"http:\/\/kevinfontenot.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">my personal website<\/a>\u00a0on WordPress as well as <a href=\"http:\/\/professionalinterneter.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a side hustle that I&#8217;ve started<\/a> on WP + Woo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My only experience with the WP community has been in the BeaverBuilders Facebook group and it has been great. I love that the WP community is helpful and always willing, for the most part, to go out of their way to help someone learn.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I love learning and with that, love to teach. There is a ton of bad and outdated marketing advice out there. I used to read all of it and got frustrated when it didn&#8217;t help to grow my business. Small businesses and freelancers have a unique advantage over large businesses in that they are closer to their customers. I want to help them leverage that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why did you decide to speak on chatbots?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Since taking on my role as Director of Marketing at TrainedUp earlier this year, we&#8217;ve seen huge growth thanks to conversational marketing. It&#8217;s the future of sales and marketing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t need to be a huge company to do marketing well. In fact, by implementing conversational marketing, you can grow your business while connecting with your customer in a way that will delight them and provide you with great feedback.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/2017.dfw.wordcamp.org\/tickets\/\">Tickets are now on sale<\/a>\u00a0for this year\u2019s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/2017.dfw.wordcamp.org\/call-for-sponsors\/\">sponsor the event<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/2017.dfw.wordcamp.org\/call-for-volunteers\/\">help run it<\/a>. We hope to see you there!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Topic:\u00a0Chatbots: Why Your Business Must Adopt Conversation Based Marketing Kevin Fontenot is the Director of Marketing at TrainedUp.Church. He also likes to refer to himself as a professional interneter. In the past, he was worked on all kinds of WordPress projects including building (and selling) a marketplace built using EDD. Kevin is passionate about helping &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wcdfw-speaker-spotlight-kevin-fontenot\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;WCDFW Speaker Spotlight: Kevin Fontenot&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8005857,"featured_media":1508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"WCDFW Speaker Spotlight: Kevin Fontenot","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1158652],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wordcamp-dfw-speakers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/kevin-fontenot-2.jpg?fit=2000%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pheMWK-o6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1363,"url":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wordcamp-dfw-speakers-round-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":1494,"position":0},"title":"WordCamp DFW Speakers: Round Two","author":"Jacob Martella","date":"September 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"With WordCamp DFW just 47 days away, the organizing team is ready to announce the next round of speakers for this year\u2019s event. The schedule for WordCamp DFW 2017 will be released in the near future. So, here is the next round of confirmed speakers for WordCamp DFW 2017: Kevin\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WordCamp DFW Announcements&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WordCamp DFW Announcements","link":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/category\/wordcamp-dfw-announcements\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Interior of symphony hall","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/symphony-hall.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/symphony-hall.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/symphony-hall.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/symphony-hall.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/symphony-hall.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2396,"url":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wcdfw-speaker-spotlight-sara-graybill\/","url_meta":{"origin":1494,"position":1},"title":"WCDFW Speaker Spotlight: Sara Graybill","author":"Jacob Martella","date":"November 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Topic:\u00a0Creating A Digital Marketing Strategy That Works Sara is the owner of Graybill Creative, a web design and digital marketing agency. She has been helping business owners and non-profits with their digital marketing since 2009. She does that through website design and development, technical services, and online marketing consulting. Find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WordCamp DFW Speakers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WordCamp DFW Speakers","link":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/category\/wordcamp-dfw-speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/11\/sara-graybill.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/11\/sara-graybill.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/11\/sara-graybill.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/11\/sara-graybill.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/11\/sara-graybill.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1336,"url":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wcdfw-speaker-spotlight-brennen-bliss\/","url_meta":{"origin":1494,"position":2},"title":"WCDFW Speaker Spotlight: Brennen Bliss","author":"Jacob Martella","date":"September 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Topic:\u00a0Starting Your Digital Agency With WordPress Brennen is the CEO and founder of the North Texas digital marketing agency, PixelCutLabs. At 18 years old, he is a member of the American Marketing Association and an expert on the subject. His marketing agency provides services to local and multinational companies, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WordCamp DFW Speakers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WordCamp DFW Speakers","link":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/category\/wordcamp-dfw-speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/brennen-bliss.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/brennen-bliss.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/brennen-bliss.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/brennen-bliss.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/brennen-bliss.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1728,"url":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wcdfw-speaker-spotlight-amanda-giles\/","url_meta":{"origin":1494,"position":3},"title":"WCDFW Speaker Spotlight: Amanda Giles","author":"Jacob Martella","date":"October 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Topic:\u00a0The Way to Theme Enlightenment Amanda Giles is WordPress Evangelist and Enthusiast who loves converting people to WordPress. She\u2019s been developing websites since 1994 and has been building WordPress themes since 2009. She hails from New Hampshire where she founded the Seacoast NH WordPress meetup in 2011. She works as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WordCamp DFW Speakers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WordCamp DFW Speakers","link":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/category\/wordcamp-dfw-speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/amanda-giles.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/amanda-giles.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/amanda-giles.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/amanda-giles.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/amanda-giles.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1188,"url":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wordcamp-dfw-speakers-round-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":1494,"position":4},"title":"WordCamp DFW Speakers: Round One","author":"Jacob Martella","date":"September 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"With WordCamp DFW just 52 days away, the organizing committee is ready to announce the first round of speakers for this year\u2019s event. If you still want to speak at this year\u2019s WordCamp DFW, don\u2019t worry; there\u2019s still time. You can still fill out an application here. The deadline for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WordCamp DFW Announcements&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WordCamp DFW Announcements","link":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/category\/wordcamp-dfw-announcements\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Interior of symphony hall","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/symphony-hall.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/symphony-hall.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/symphony-hall.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/symphony-hall.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/symphony-hall.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1498,"url":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wcdfw-speaker-spotlight-alex-juchniewicz\/","url_meta":{"origin":1494,"position":5},"title":"WCDFW Speaker Spotlight: Alex Juchniewicz","author":"Jacob Martella","date":"October 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Topic:\u00a0How Losing My Son Gave Birth to So Many Blessings Originally from California, Alex now lives in Houston with his beautiful wife Marie and their cat Zeke. Having worked with WordPress since 2010, he got his real start by working as an Internet Marketer at a digital agency building WordPress\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;WordCamp DFW Speakers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"WordCamp DFW Speakers","link":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/category\/wordcamp-dfw-speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/alex-juchniewicz.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/alex-juchniewicz.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/alex-juchniewicz.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/alex-juchniewicz.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/alex-juchniewicz.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8005857"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1494"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1501,"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions\/1501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}