Topic: Immaterial Woo – eCommerce Without Products
Zach is the CEO of Mindsize, an eCommerce -focused agency that builds and maintains stores for mid-market and larger eCommerce store owners. He’s been in the digital space for the last two decades as a designer, developer, and instructor. When he isn’t sitting in front of a screen, he’s behind a camera capturing images of musicians or pretending to be a musician himself.
How did you get involved in WordPress?
I had been watching the WordPress project for a number of years before I started using it professionally. It was the first release of WooCommerce that really got me to take a more serious look, since I had need for an eCommerce store for the business I was running at the time. With a background in object-oriented languages, it took me a bit to get used to PHP and the WordPress Way, but I dove in and haven’t come up for air since.
What do you do with WordPress?
I’m the CEO of Mindsize, an eCommerce consulting firm that helps run some of the most demanding WooCommerce sites in the world. We handle challenges in speed, scale and custom development that are only generally seen by mid-market and larger stores. Since somebody has to run the business side of Mindsize, I’ve been more focused on sales and marketing recently, but still like to experiment with coding projects on the forefront of where I see the eCommerce industry moving.
What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?
I love the WordPress community. It’s one of the most inviting communities I’ve ever been a part of, and I’ve met some of the best people I’ve ever met through participation in community events like WordCamps and local meetups. They’ve been instrumental to my personal and professional growth over the past six years. I encourage everyone I meet to plug in to their local communities.
Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?
I’ve been teaching and speaking in the tech space for over a decade, so I try to find any opportunity I can to share what I’ve been thinking about and working on with others. I find that the knowledge I share becomes more engrained in my head, as well. I’m also fortunate to know quite a few people in the WordPress community in Texas, so this gives me an excuse to come hang out with them and meet new people. Lastly, who doesn’t want to leave the cold of Illinois in early November?
Why did you decide to speak on your topic?
The primary use that people think about when they see WooCommerce is selling physical products that you need to ship to the buyer. But there’s so much more that Woo can do! I designed this new talk, which I’m giving for the first time at WordCamp DFW, to share all of the other ways, ways that don’t rely on physical products, that you can use Woo to power a business, from membership sites to booking rooms in your bed and breakfast.
What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?
My hope is that people who have been hesitant to take a step into the eCommerce realm because there’s a lot involved in sourcing, warehousing, packing and shipping physical products are given some new ideas for how they can leverage WooCommerce to build new or augment existing businesses.
Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 10-11. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!