Joshua Vandercar has been a MainWP customer for slightly over a year. He is the owner of Typewheel, a digital creative company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He lives with his wife and four kids. Previously he taught mathematics and has served in various outdoor and cross-cultural ministry organizations.
For the past six years, Vandercar has been digging into WordPress leading to the development of plugins and themes. He also contributed to WordPress core and spoke at WordCamp Minneapolis.
Vandercar agreed to answer a few questions for one of our Q&A articles.
Vandercar talks about the importance of his faith, the tools he uses to keep him on pace, his advice for other WordPress professionals, some of the things he likes to do for fun, and how he uses MainWP for his business.
Q&A with Joshua Vandercar
What kind of tools/apps do you use to keep yourself on pace?
I value my time and seek out tools that will keep me efficient. I recently shared my toolset, but would highlight here a few of these that keep me on pace and moving forward.
To speed up development of WordPress sites, I utilize GeneratePress as a templating engine and the Duplicate Post and Improved Save Button plugins for rapid structuring of content. For management of sites, I turn to MainWP.
On my Mac, the top tools I employ to enhance and boost my productivity include Todoist, 1Password, Newton Mail, Tyme, CloudMounter, Sequel Pro, Magnet, and Copy Clip 2.
What are your top three pieces of advice for other WordPress Professionals?
- Follow conventions.
- Dig in. Learn deeply.
- Reach out. Encourage freely.
What do you like to do for fun? What are your favorite hobbies?
We’ve just moved to Fort Wayne one year ago, so I am still finding my outlets in this new place. I enjoy wrestling and creating with my kids. I enjoy sport of most any kind (softball, disc golf, ultimate, spike ball, etc.). I enjoy reading, music-making, and would love to take up wood-working at some point.
What book or resource had the biggest impact on your career?
Far beyond any other book, the Bible has shaped and informed my life. I consider myself one who has, up to this point, had a patchwork career – something strangely stitched together in time. As I’ve transitioned from job to job and place to place over the past 20 years, the Christian truths have kept me grounded.
What was the best piece of advice you ever received in life and business?
“Nothing in life ever happens in a hurry.”
How does your team use MainWP?
Currently, I am my team.
- I use MainWP to update plugins, themes, and WordPress core.
- I use MainWP to ensure site I manage are being backed up regularly.
- I use MainWP to brand client sites and offer support.
- I use MainWP to stage sites for troubleshooting and development.
- I use MainWP to send my clients a regular overview of the things I am doing to keep their sites updated, optimized, and secure.
Additional Thoughts about business or MainWP?
I am not a salesman and, as I’ve launched my services via Typewheel, it has been very difficult to stomach the advice of needing to “sell yourself” or build “personal branding” to make a way forward.
As I wrestle with whether or not these are necessary strategies to realize a successful business in today’s culture, I will continue to pour myself into the services I provide and the clients I serve. If you are traveling the same trails I am – starting a business, transitioning towns, learning new skills toward relevancy with WordPress 5.0 – I want to encourage you to keep on.
Stepping out into new endeavors takes courage and wisdom. Plan well. Tread boldly. Run, rest, and lean on the community that is a tweet or a text away.
How to find Joshua Vandercar online:
Owner & Digital Creative @typewxyz • typewheel
Conclusion
MainWP is a valuable piece of Vandercar’s business and thousands of others across the globe with over 300K managed websites. Vandercar is able to use MainWP to ensure the security of his clients’ websites, send reports, offer support, and keep sites update all from one central dashboard.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Joshua. Joshua is a regular contributor in the MainWP Users Facebook Group. He can be seen offering suggestions and advice to other members.
