Hi! Welcome to a different version of our interview sequence with WordPress experts. In this a single, you are going to satisfy Tess Coughlan. We’ll be conversing about WordPress, results, marketing and advertising, mission, and far more.
Just before hearing from Tess, make certain to go through our prior interview with Josh Pollock. If you want a lot more diversity and inspiration, really feel no cost to look through through our full collection of interviews with WordPress connoisseurs and web authorities.

I satisfied Tess at WordCamp Europe 2018 in Belgrade, when Themeisle was a media partner. Again then, she was portion of the General public Relations staff and served us do our occupation effortlessly.
She was the a single placing us in contact with all the speakers we required to interview reside through the meeting. She was also the particular person I was achieving out to right before the function anytime I desired help with my media lover duty. What an awesome experience that was!
When she’s not performing volunteer work for our WordPress group or talking at big WordCamps, Tess leads the advertising and marketing crew at Atomic Smash – a web-site effectiveness company in the Uk, focusing on WordPress and WooCommerce. Let’s uncover out additional from Tess herself:
Tess Coughlan Interview – “Narratives Run Via Your Business enterprise Each individual Working day. Never Be Concerned to Get Inventive With the Way You Share That With the World”
When and how did you start functioning with WordPress? Is there an interesting story listed here?
I started off out controlling information on a WordPress site again in 2013 and I was doing work together with WordPress developers and designers for a several decades right before discovering the world-wide community. At that point, I acquired involved with organising meetups and conferences, eventually starting to be 1 of 3 World-wide Potential customers for WordCamp Europe 2020. In excess of the decades I have been fortunate adequate to get the phase to produce some talks and workshops at meetups and WordCamps much too, which include talking at WordCamp US about co-organising and web hosting Europe’s first do_motion working day, an formal WordPress hackathon exactly where we designed new internet sites for charities in a single day.
Now I operate for web page overall performance agency, Atomic Smash, with a curious and devoted staff of WordPress and WooCommerce professionals. Most just lately, I was invited to converse at WooCommerce’s own business party in Vienna along with Piers Tincknell, the Controlling Director of Atomic Smash, the place we shared our insights with ~300 of their group who experienced gathered there from all more than the planet. It was an honour to be requested!
What is your preferred/have to-have WordPress plugin and why?
It’s bought to be an impression compression plugin, Shortpixel is a favorite with Atomic Smash! It will make a huge variation to web site pace. As very well as more quickly load times, it also instantly serves up the proper picture structure (jpg/webp/avif) based mostly on browser aid.
Describe the WordPress community in a single phrase.
What does “a fantastic working day at work” signify to you?
A very good day is generally one particular in which I’m emotion happy of the high-quality of do the job which is staying completed, either on a personal stage and on behalf of the staff here at Atomic Smash. It’s excess unique when we have factors of celebration, like a new consumer coming on board, some epic stats exhibiting how a client’s site is strengthening, or some seriously fantastic opinions that we want to share with the relaxation of the group. And any working day is produced much better by smiling or laughing at some thing a colleague stated or wrote on Slack.
How do you define “being successful”?
I imagine that, for me, achievement is linked to devotion. I’m going to truly feel pleased, fulfilled and proud of my achievements if I’m dedicated to a little something and see it through, whether or not that is in a expert environment or outside of do the job. Private definitions of good results will adjust over time — even working day-to-day. We’re fully commited to mastering and building iterative improvements at Atomic Smash, so we’re often striving to do and be better. Mirroring that philosophy, results isn’t a destination, but it’s influenced by every smaller action you consider.
What is the no. 1 matter a new business coming into the online space should really do?
Issues will alter and evolve in excess of time, so be completely ready to lean into that.
What kind of content material advertising and marketing has been the most successful for your organization so significantly?
I like sharing situation scientific tests and I think the movie case studies we have established are some of my favourites. We collaborate intently with our clientele and they do awesome perform, so it feels very good to shine a light-weight on them together with the attempts from our workforce. Right here are some online video situation reports with clients Spike Island, SS Fantastic Britain, and The Grand Charm.
What are some exciting approaches to collect persons all over your manufacturer and maintain them engaged?
Storytelling! Narratives run via your company every working day, pull a thread and see in which it usually takes you. Then really don’t be scared to get innovative with the way you share that with the environment.
What is driving you to continue to keep undertaking what you’re performing? What’s your own mission?
I sense energised by my get the job done when I know that I’m contributing positively to the communities or setting around me in some way. We’re B Corp-pending at Atomic Smash and I enjoy supporting clients who do crucial get the job done, like charities, B Corps, and organisations that renovate activities for the far better to carry on relocating the globe forward. And I will normally want to keep on telling stories in resourceful means. If that’s what I do for the rest of my lifestyle, I’ll be satisfied.
That sums up our Tess Coughlan job interview. If you loved it and want to discover a lot more, be sure to leave your comments in the section beneath. Also, if you have any tips for who we should speak to up coming, experience free to share your solutions with us!
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