Announcing Freelance Workshop Lineup

Jason Mazier is the President of Mazier Media, a marketing agency based in Fort Lauderdale. Jason was born and raised in New York City. In his 17-year career, Jason worked on multi-channel marketing campaigns for such clients as Boyce Technologies, LLERO Magazine, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, LiveNation, Holy Cross Hospital, Huntington National Bank, and JPMorgan Chase Bank. Jason is also the founder and host of devLatino – Digital Empowerment Voyage, a podcast highlighting Latinos in technology and the digital space. Follow him on Twitter at @jasonmazier

Talk: “Tools of the Trade (for Freelancer/Small Business Owner)”: In this talk, you will learn about desktop/web apps, mobile apps, and other hacks that will make you run your business professionally and efficiently, while not breaking the bank.

A graduate of Millersville University, Jodie brings 15 years of sales and marketing experience to WebDevStudios. Entrepreneurs in the real estate, music, technology and education industries have recognized her marketing expertise and ability to restructure and systemize businesses. A self-proclaimed foodie and music aficionado, she now lends her creativity to create unique web strategies and solutions for clients.

Talk: “Talking to Clients About Scope and Specs (Using Wapuu)”: You may have seen the amazing stuffed Wapuus at WordCamp US in Philadelphia. Although the final version was adorable, it took months of working with the factory and many prototypes to get to the perfect final product! This talk will tell the story of how Wapuu can teach you to see scoping through a client’s perspective and more importantly, refine your scoping process for future clients.

Tara Claeys, of Design TLC and Nice Work, LLC, provides custom website and graphic design services, with a focus on creating effective, clean and personalized communication platforms for small to medium businesses. Tara has a marketing background, combined with several years working with WordPress, helping her find solutions for complex marketing communication and website functionality challenges.

Talk: “From the Front Lines: Finding and Closing the Right Clients”: This talk is for anyone who is out there trying to find and win new business. Applying these steps and principles to your business can help you grow if you’re ready to get out there and make the change. Every company’s biggest challenge is finding and closing sales.

This joint talk will dive into and provide guidance on this common struggle for big companies, small companies and freelancers alike. Strategies and tactics are constantly changing, but making it about your prospect (and not completely about you and your business) can go a long way in a world of standardized sales emails and boilerplate proposals.

Louise is an eternal web development geek and social media junkie. She’s a native of Metro Detroit and an alumnae of the University of Michigan. She learned about the human side of computer science while earning a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science and has fined tuned her web developer skills over the course of a 20+ year career building, breaking, and fixing sites for a multitude of startups.

Talk: “Pricing Your Services: Are You Selling Yourself Short?”: When one freelancer prices themselves incorrectly, it makes your fellow service providers look dishonest and it sets up unrealistic expectations for customers. In short, poor pricing strategies hurt everyone! Remove yourself from the clearance rack and come learn how to develop a competitive and profitable pricing strategy. (Bring your calculators!)

Pascal Depuhl is a visual content creator at Photography by Depuhl, a Miami-based production company. He’s been capturing still images for over 25 years and even though he got into video only 5 years ago, you’ll find his award-winning and mind changing videos on National Geographic, Netflix, the BBC and many of his clients’ websites. It’s common to find him in the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of South America and it’s just as common to walk away from one of his short documentary style films with your mind blown.

Talk: “How To Be A More Productive Freelancer”: This talk would focus on how to use online services, like SalesForce, Evernote, Google and others and combine them with apps like Scannable, Expensify, ect.; automating tasks via IFTTT or Zapier so you can automatically create digital assets, input expense and contact data and track events and tasks to make a small business a productivity take off.

Allie is a self-taught freelance web designer and internet marketer. After attending WCMIA in 2015 and being blown away, she vowed that one day she would be a speaker at a WordCamp conference. She designs and builds sites using WordPress and focuses on SEO rich sites for small businesses and brands who may not be able to afford a custom site from an agency.

Talk: “How to Train Clients to Use Their WordPress Site”: In this presentation specially designed for freelance web designers and developers, you’ll learn how and why to educate your clients on using and updating their WordPress site after launch. You’ll walk away knowing how a focus in education throughout the whole process can benefit both you and your client, as well as how to actually go about training the client on a one-on-one basis.

Melanie Adcock has been designing websites for more than fifteen years and has been using WordPress exclusively for the past six years. Her current clients include several small businesses, continuing care retirement communities, churches, and faith-based ministries. Melanie also mentors and consults with other WordPress enthusiasts. Twitter: @mgacreative

Talk: “Upping Your Freelance Game”: Are you a freelancer? Or thinking of taking the plunge? I want to share with you the processes I now use to win clients and the process of taking a client from a lead to project delivery. We will touch on incoming leads, client meetings, onboarding, delivery, and more.

Shelly Peacock is the founder of the Spinbird Group, a WordPress Consulting and Design Group. She has a “full-stack” professional background of over 15 years which includes sales, marketing, and social media training. An active member of the WordPress community, she has traveled and spoken at WordCamps both nationally and internationally. Her favorite things? Hole-in-the-wall eateries that rock and creating artwork … with blowtorches and with code.

Talk: “The NO Badger Zone: How to Get New Business Without The Hard Sell”: If the thought of marketing and selling to new clients terrifies you and makes you just want to lock yourself in a closet.. this talk is for you. As techies, we are about 75% introverts, some more than others. You will learn 6 keys to closing without “Badgering”, and clever ways to “beef up” your bottom line.