WordPress Evangelist, Crowd Favorite CTO and Chief Strategist, Chris Lema wants you to “Pick his brain”
Here’s the thing about Chris — we know, we know, this is the most overdone opening of an interview that there is, but just go with us — (modestly saying) Chris Lema is for fact a trusted advisor to many WordPress companies. Daily Blogger, Public Speaker, Product Strategist, WordPress Evangelist, Crowd Favorite
CTO and Chief Strategist. When he was a kid, he used to imagine himself standing on a stage in front of a huge crowd telling stories. Who didn’t, right? …And who actually have done it with success? Want some coaching? Today for you this chance is given. Read this top WordPress guy interviewed in 2 minutes
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The first thing the visitors of your website come across is the quote: “Chris Lema doesn’t sell you on himself. He sells you on yourself” – Mika (@ipstenu). What idea stands behind these words?
It means my focus on the site is to help my readers succeed in their efforts.
Books are the biggest source of knowledge we can get our hands on. Where do you get inspiration and ideas for such great works as “Leading High Performing Teams”, “Managing Virtual Teams” and “First Time Manager”?
These books are really focused on leadership. They come from my twenty years managing high performers and the advanced research I did on high performers (my master’s degree focused on it).I give people a lot of advice on pricing. It’s something I’ve been helping people with for years. So I finally decided to write most of the stories in a single introductory book.
Mostly, people are asking your advice. Talking about WordPress, what were the most working hints you’ve got from others? And what could you suggest, of course?
The best advice I got from a friend was to check out optinmonster.com – it’s been fantastic. The second piece I got was from the same friend, who told me that I needed to look into affiliate relationships. Both tips came from the same person – Syed Balkhi.My advice is to check out WordPress. It’s relatively easy, lets you own your own content, and there are great references to help you get started (like WP101.com and WPbeginner.com).
How many years have you been blogging and what made you start? Why did you choose WordPress as a CMS to set on?
I started blogging daily almost four years ago. I started because, as a public speaker, I moved to a new town and didn’t have a lot of avenues to speak, so writing let me get my stories out. I chose WordPress because I already knew it. It was pretty easy to use and to hack, because it was smaller and simpler then. I didn’t really have a lot of challenges using it.
Have you ever faced the problem of website migration? If so, was it a manual convert or an automated one?
Sure, many of our clients (at Crowd Favorite, where I’m the CTO) have need to migrate their content and we help them. It can get complex when you have to deal with tens of thousands of pages, or even a few thousand, with new permalink paths. We use, at Crowd Favorite, a combination of both automation and manual efforts to make sure we’re 100% accurate every time.
Chris, we’ve came up to the last question. Tell us more about the way you combine work and leisure and how that helps to create the perfect lifestyle for you.
I take several weeks of vacation every year. Additionally, I create space and time for my family every single day, so I remember what I am doing this all for.You’re awesome, Chris. Thanks. 🙂
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