About

Hi!
Thanks for stopping by the site. My name is Kim Doyal and I’m ‘The WordPress Chick’. Obviously, the primary focus of this site is WordPress. The idea for this site came about after I had another ‘Chick’ site developed (poor site has been ignored for a while now….but that’s another story)using WordPress and I completely fell in love with how easy it was to use WordPress.

Months before I even began working on this site I grabbed the domain name and sent it over to E.Webscapes to get the design done (they did my first site as well….GREAT people, great process!). The design has totally evolved since the original site was done – thanks in part to StudioPress! I started working on customizing themes for clients and fell in love with StudioPress themes. At that point I switched this site to the ‘Church’ theme (I kept the header with a couple changes) and I’m now using the ‘Magazine’ theme.

Work

Before getting into theme customization and online marketing I spent most of my adult working life in retail management (ugh!). Don’t get me wrong….I met some great people and worked for some great (and some horrible) companies…but most people know that retail management is the LAST type of job/career that allows you any type of life! (weekends, holidays, nights, etc.).

Now I get to do WordPress theme customization (the next step is custom themes… J ), online marketing, product development, webinars, teleseminars, etc. from home and I LOVE IT!!! I haven’t completely replaced my annual income (have had some months where I’ve earned more)- but I’m pretty close and expect to surpass it in 2010.

I’m completely self-taught (although the learning process continues DAILY) with what I’m doing now (utilizing different teachers over the last couple of years, ebooks, friends, books, other sites, etc.) and am excited to see the direction my business goes in this year.

Personal

Like many people I always felt like there was something else I was ‘supposed’ to do (it wasn’t retail management)…I just hadn’t found it yet – trust me, I tried! I opened my own retail store, did consulting (retail recruiting), real estate, insurance, different mlm companies….I’m sure I’m forgetting something…but you get the idea. It was when my life was turned upside down that I knew there had to be a better way to live. I was widowed in May of 2003……one of those things you think will NEVER happen to you. My kids were pretty little at the time (2 and 6). While my job was a blessing at the time, it didn’t take too long for it to feel like it was NOT where I was supposed to be!  Even with the support of my amazing family and friends I knew being away from my kids for 50+ hrs. a week wasn’t any way to live.

Fast forward to 2010……

I take my kids to & from school (although honestly it’s not my favorite part of the day), get to workout out in the morning, work from my home office, get to meet people from AROUND the world (don’t know what I’d do without skype) and simply have a much better quality of life. I can’t say that it’s always been easy or IS easy…..but it’s certainly BETTER than any job I’ve ever had! Or will have for that matter!

Goals

I debated over adding this part in….but I guess it will make me re-evaluate and update as the year continues!
While I want to expand and grow the portion of my business that customizes themes and helps clients, my biggest goal this year is to create passive income and sell my own products. I’ve realized that I absolutely LOVE teaching people how to use WordPress and enjoy creating the tutorials – now it’s time to ‘step it up’ a notch!

I also attended a few live events last year…and it was one of the BEST things I did! I met some great people I now consider friends and am looking forward to getting some more events on the calendar for this year!

Lastly…
And this is s carry over from my old ‘About’ page….is my favorite quote by Henry David Thoreau:

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you have imagined”.

All the best,
Kim