Today we welcome to the show Dustin Hartzler from Your Website Engineer.com
Dustin is a WordPress expert, podcaster and highly sought after speaker. He has been on stage at major conferences such as FinCon, NMX, and will soon be a featured speaker at the Podcast Movement conference in Aug.
Dustin’s podcast, Your Website Engineer, is one of the longest running and highly ranked podcasts in iTunes.
Each week Dustin provides his listeners with an entertaining and informative look at creating a high-quality website for your business or personal WordPress blog.
So, If you are looking to create a great looking WordPress website, tweak your existing site for optimal speed, or just take your website to the next level
Your website engineer.com is all about giving you the solutions, advice, and tutorials you need to succeed.
Dustin, Welcome to the show.
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Recommended book(s) for the show
Since I believe that reading is a necessary part of becoming a BRAND New You, I ask all of my guests what non-fiction book are you either reading now or just recently finished.
Dustin is currently reading a book written by Rory Vaden called:
Take the Stairs (Affiliate link)
Summary from Amazon – How do successful people achieve results? In short, they do it the old-fashioned way, with focus and self-discipline. Popular speaker and strategist Rory Vaden presents a simple program for “taking the stairs”—that is, resisting the temptations of “quick fixes,” eliminating distractions, and transcending personal setbacks in order to reach your goals.
Whatever your vision of success is, this proven program will help you get there—one stair at a time.
GETTING STARTED
Keep learning. Keep exploring. These are the keys to finding work you absolutely love and they define Dustin and his career to date.
Like many of us, Dustin went to college to pursue the expected path to getting his first JOB. And while the first job was enjoyable he felt there was something missing.
Rather than sit and wonder, Dustin decided to act, to learn and explore and He taught himself how to build websites using online courses and eBooks.
Want to learn to code? Check out Treehouse, code academy, or attend a weekend coding boot camp at places like the Iron Yard or Eleven Fifty.
Not into coding?. There are numerous other training sites online today not completely geared towards coding such as Creative Live, Linda.com or Udemy.
At coursera.org, you can take some of the most popular college courses from leading universities such as Stanford, John’s Hopkins and Princeton.
Our options for learning and exploring are endless and it seems the only real limits we have are the limits we impose on ourselves.
Rather than watch TV, Dustin decided to spend his spare time learning both what he enjoys personally and what he likes doing professionally.
In this way, His journey very much follows my 3-step personal branding blueprint formula of Perceive, Believe, and Achieve.
MINDSET – PERCEIVE
Like all of us, Dustin had to perceive it was possible to do something other than what he went to school to do. He had to overcome his limiting beliefs as we discussed with Kathryn and Julian in show 31.
Turns out overcoming our limiting beliefs is critical to developing the mindset needed to perceive different possibilities for ourselves and our careers.
It’s a big step and sadly many of us tend to skip over and ignore it because we want instant gratification instead.
Dustin however, used this step to explore what he really enjoyed, to understand his strengths, to determine what resonated with him.
Perception took him to the first website he built for free all the way to the first dollars he earned building a website for a university student.
All the while his mindset was changing and he was gaining confidence. Confidence in himself and his abilities.
Like taking the red pill, Dustin was beginning to believe.
YOUR WEBSITE ENGINEER – BELIEVE
It was at this point when Dustin’s brand and mindset evolved from seeing himself as an electrical engineer to believing he could become a website engineer.
This belief pushed him to launch Hartzler Digital media and ultimately create Your Website Engineer. Both the website and the podcast.
It’s this same belief and confidence in himself that helped Dustin achieve his dream job as a happiness engineer at Automattic, the makers of WordPress.
AUTOMATTIC – ACHIEVE
I’m often asked for examples of people who exemplify their brand. Dustin is someone I quickly point to.
If you ever get the chance to meet him or hear him speak, you’ll notice how he excited he gets to talk about WordPress or help you resolve a website problem.
On his podcast, you can feel his excitement and energy. Listening to him you can tell he’s as excited now after 240 shows as he was all the back at show one.
All this happened because he took the time to learn and explore, to perceive and believe, and he now gets to live his brand out each and every day. To me, there is no greater achievement.
SUMMARY
Here are the best ways to get in touch with Dustin.
Website: Your Website Engineer
Twitter: @dustinhartzler
Dustin leaves us with these final thoughts.
“Keep learning. Keep exploring and find something that you absolutely love”.
