Dance Moves, Story Time and Freelancing – Interview with Jonathan Perez WPCP: 017

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and within about 10 minutes you feel like you’ve known them forever?

That’s how I felt just during the initial conversation I had with Jonathan Perez of SureFire Web Services  (before the interview even started). And he was a great sport about my joking about him not liking Big Bang Theory (you never know what you’re going to find on someone’s About page… he considers himself a nerd but doesn’t like Big Bang Theory OR Star Wars… and kudos to Jonathan for risking the nerd backlash and sharing that little tidbit!).

We even talked about his dance skills.

Jonathan was my first interviewee who had always intended to go into Web Design and that’s all he’s really done. He fell in love with Photoshop in high school and never turned back. Although initially he was going to be a graphic designer but realized early on that he needed to learn coding (kind of out of necessity when he was hired for a job that required him to have skills he didn’t have… nothing like learning on the job, right?)

Story Time

I loved this.

Within the first 20 minutes he breaks out with “O.K., Story time!” Jonathan shared his journey of naming his company, how many times he changed the name and what brought him back to Sure Fire Web Services (yep, he came up with the name out of necessity, changed it, then came back to it! You gotta love the honest learning lessons…).

Freelancing, Pricing and Working With Clients

For anyone who has been through these trials and tribulations, you’re going to LOVE this part of the show! I found myself laughing consistently through this part of the episode because I felt like he was telling my story! Jonathan shared the challenges and mistakes he made when he was starting with freelancing and working with clients. I think my favorite ‘learning curve’ in working with clients was when he mentioned getting too friendly with your client (this was TOTALLY me).

Next thing you know you’re doing a bunch of work for something that wasn’t included in the initial proposal and you’re not getting paid to do the additional work.

Been there, done that.

Hopefully you’ll either feel like you’re not alone with the challenges you’ve faced as a freelancers or can shorten your learning curve by taking some of the advice Jonathan gave (setting very firm boundaries with clients and sticking with them!).

Cool NEW Stuff from Sure Fire Web Services

BRAND NEW site!

I won’t be completely redundant and go on and on with how much I LOVE his new site (it looks fabulous!), but we have to talk about the new services that Jonathan and his team are providing now.

You get a little preview in the image at the top of the post about the services, but here’s a recap and some info. about what they’re offering:

White Label WordPress Services

Learning Center

Project-based Support

White Label WordPress Services: This is pretty much exactly what you think it is. Whether you need something done or you want client work to be finished up, you can send it over to SureFire Web Services and they’ll do the work for you.

Learning Center: Yep, just like the name says too. 😉 A premium learning center with WordPress tutorials by someone who is excellent at what he does.

Project Based Support: If you’re a freelancer or simply working on your own site, you can send over individual projects or tasks and have them do them or finish them for you. You can focus on what you’re good at and let them do what they do… really well!

Types and Views

Jonathan is a big fan and user of Types and Views and has agreed to teaching a class in the upcoming months! WOO HOO! If you’re interested make sure to leave a comment and let me know (and connect with Jonathan and let him know as well). He talks a bit about Types and Views in the show, who it’s good for and how it can help you. So, keep your eye out for that class to be announced in the next couple of months.

When I asked Jonathan who his audience was he let me know that he’s targeting designers and developers, but don’t let that scare you off. Even if you don’t consider yourself a designer or developer but you use WordPress for yourself or clients, this class will be a huge benefit.

Have a question for Jonathan?

Jonathan hasn’t opened up his membership / premium learning center yet, but he’d love your input in terms of what you would like to learn or what types of tutorials would be most helpful. Submit a question for Jonathan.

Links from this episode

SureFire Web Services

Follow Jonathan Perez on Twitter

Types and Views