I kept trying to think up something witty with Foo Plugins that I could tie into the song "Kung Foo Fighting"... to start this post, but fortunately for you I was stumped! So we'll just jump into the good stuff... my interview with Adam.

I knew when I started the podcast that Adam W. Warner of Foo Plugins was someone I definitely wanted to interview. Adam and I connected a few years ago when he was running WP ProBusiness and still working full time at his job (he's now working from home under contract with his former employer and is going all in with Foo Plugins). We've stayed in touch on & off over the last couple of  years so I was really excited when I saw the first plugin he launched, FooBox, last summer.

One of my favorite aspects to the interviews I'm doing is hearing the individual stories of how people arrived at where they are today. Adam has had an interesting and not-so-direct path to his current position as one of the founders of Foo Plugins. From studying advertising in college (then becoming disenchanted with being told to manipulate people) to a blue collar job... Adam's journey to Foo Plugins will encourage and inspire anyone interested in building a business about or with WordPress.

Oh.

And he talks about his stint with a little company named "Amazon".

What was SO cool about his time with Amazon is that he really took advantage of the opportunity to learn as much as he could, and not just about programming. He payed attention to how they made decisions (they measure everything) and how they managed the business (the departments he worked in).

Throughout his journey he also got married, moved back to Florida and had his first son (of course I have to share a little bit of the personal stuff ).

Enter Foo Plugins

As Adam mentions in the podcast he's been working with WordPress for a LONG time. One of the best things in sticking with something as long as Adam has is that he knows what his strengths are and what he should delegate. Because of this he made a conscious choice to look for a programmer who could do the programmer side of the plugins and he could do the marketing and community building that he's been doing since getting involved with WordPress (smart guy, right?).

Adam shares how he connected with his programming partner, Brad Vincent of Themergency, how they formed a company while he's in the U.S. and Brad is living in South Africa and why they decided to grow the business in phases.

Which brings me to the exciting phase that is Phase 2!

Phase 2 of course is the recently launched WordPress Plugin Marketplace Vendor Program. (I did the interview a couple weeks before the publish date, so at the time of the interview the Plugin Marketplace was still hush hush). I'm not going to try to do this justice by explaining it here, you're much better off reading the post directly over at Foo Plugins.

I really enjoyed getting this opportunity to talk to Adam, hear his story and get the inside scoop on Foo Plugins. Make sure you head on over to the site, subscribe for updates and tell them I sent you! ;-) I'm sure we're going to continue seeing some amazing things coming out of Foo Plugins (and you know I love me some plugins!).

Special offer for YOU!

Adam and Brad have very generously offered a discount to my listeners and readers... WOO HOO! You can get 20% off of FooBox or Social Wiggle Pro by using the code WPCHICK20 at checkout!

Thanks guys! ;-)

Links from this episode (the plugins are all on Foo Plugins)

Foo Plugins

Adam W. Warner

Brad Vincent