Teaching WordPress
Hi, I’m Toby. I have been helping people make better use of their web technology for close to 2 decades. My tool of choice is WordPress, however I’m very curious about a variety of technologies and humans.
I sometimes feel like my approach is a little unconventional, perhaps owing to my non-traditional professional journey to this point (ABC Network News Desk Manager, Northwest Herald high school sports reporter, Field Manager for 2 winning campaigns for State Representative Jack Franks), and little league umpire. Or perhaps my weirdness owes to my unconventional upbringing. My first job was milking goats at 25-cents per goat in Richmond, IL! (Fwiw, I also raised 2 rabbits that won best-of-breed at the McHenry County Fair.)
I have a natural curiosity for humans and founded our local MSPWP WordPress user group. You can find 6 of my free & open source WordPress plugins on WordPress.org, 2 score code things on Github, and 2 awesome musical performances on Spotify. I now live in Minneapolis.
I’ve never owned a new car nor new bike, but I do buy fancy, comfy Hoka shoes, which help with my chronic foot pain.
See more specifics about me below:
Authored By Toby:
- Everything You Need to Know About Building Your Small Business Website (Book)
- Beginner WordPress By Email Course
Communities
- Minneapolis – St. Paul WordPress User Group (co-founder)
- Small Business Breakthrough Meetup (founder)
- Book Club with Toby & Chris! For Small Businesses (co-founder)
Public Speeches & Conversations & Keynotes
- Hawktalk Podcast, Sept. 2018
- Finely Tuned Consultant Podcast, April 2015 [video]
- Prestige Conference, April 2015 “WordPress Moneyball”
- WordCamp MSP 2018, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Your Freelance Business”
- WordCamp MSP 2016
- WordCamp MSP 2015, “Be Awesome at Something”
- WordCamp MSP 2014
- “WordCamp Minneapolis Is Back On Track”, Tech.mn write-up
- WordCamp MSP 2010 Interview, Tech.mn
- WordUp Minneapolis 2010
- WordUp Minneapolis 2011
- WordCamp MSP 2012
- MIMA Summit 2012, WordPress Geekout Featured Speaker
- MIMA Summit 2011, WordPress Basics Featured Speaker
- MinneWebCon 2011, Tech.mn write-up
- MinneWebCon 2016
- Startup Weekend, 3rd-place Finisher, Tech.mn write-up
- “Know This Nerd?” Feature, Tech.mn
- MinneBar 3: “WordPress as a Content Management System”, Featured Presenter
- MinneBar 4: “Intro to BuddyPress”, Featured Presenter
- MinneBar 6: “WordPress Geek-Out”, Featured Presenter
- MinneBar 8: “Building Awesome Online Communities with WordPress”, Featured Presenter
- MinneBar 8: “Fiery Inferno!!! A web freelancer roundtable”, Workshop Leader
- MinneBar 9: “The Bet: Why we feel your project is worth talking about and why its costing us”, Featured Presenter
- MinneBar 9: “Fiery Inferno A web consultant roundtable”, Workshop Leader
- MinneBar 10: “Fiery Inferno: Outsourcing Web Projects Edition!”, Featured Presenter
- MinneBar 13: “Stay Artsy Minnesota!”, Featured Presenter