Ozzy Rodriguez in The House and Getting Real WPCP: 037

I had the good pleasure of meeting Ozzy Rodriguez in person at WordCamp San Francisco 2013. We had connected on Twitter prior to meeting in person and I thought he was just a great guy, then when I met him in person it was confirmed. :-) Like many of the other web developers, Ozzy's journey into WordPress wasn't anything he saw coming. His background is technical and the evolution into creating websites kind of happened by accident. He started doing it for fun, then for friends and pretty soon he had website clients, AND... he's totally self taught. Love it. I asked Ozzy if he went to school or took any classes in programming or design and his answer: "I learn by doing"   Which I love because when you see some of Ozzy's work (which is brilliant) it shows you that if you WANT to get really, really good at something you can. Because our businesses are so different (mine is still evolving... what can I say. Eventually I'll figure out what I want to do when I grow up) it was fascinating to discuss blogging, marketing, list building and social media. The night before our interview I had hosted a webinar where I talked about list building and the importance of growing your audience (always providing VALUE of course) and Ozzy had attended. We continued the discussion about blogging, marketing and growing your list. And then I asked Ozzy why he doesn't have an About page on his site (yep, you have to listen to the interview to get his answer). This was also the first time an interviewee turned the tables on me and asked me a question (which of course, I didn't mind). One of the things I loved most about my interview with Ozzy was that he shared his own doubts about things (like blogging) as well as the fact that he doesn't really market his business (because he provides such a great product that his work speaks for itself and he gets tons of referrals). Challenges and Obstacles This is always one of my favorite questions (probably because it reminds me I'm that I'm not alone in my struggles) I ask every interviewee. Ozzy said something that most people don't address, and that is that it's great to have big dreams about your business but you also need to keep it real. Pay attention to the day to day, stick with it and be prepared to FAIL... a lot. We also talked about starting a WordPress Business.  What to do.  What NOT to do.  And more than that... WHO to be. Ozzy gives some suggestions on what he thinks are some good opportunities for building a WordPress business and shared that he has a theme coming out and possibly some plugins (I'll keep you posted on the release, they're not out yet but will be available on WP Bacon).  Links from this episode OzzyRodriguez.com WPBacon.com