October 28, 2020 — This talk examines five elements of headless WordPress in-depth to help you evaluate if this is the right choice for your project.

October 29, 2019 — Successful consultants will always recommend the right tool for the job. This is how you elevate yourself from a vendor to a trusted partner. If we stay huddled within our own community, without paying attention to what is going on outside the WordPress community, we’ll be out of touch with customers and prospects. Knowing your preference (WordPress) is different than understanding all your options. Understanding the difference is critical to staying competitive in today’s industry.

Steve Zenghut discusses the current landscape and the process a prospect goes through when evaluating a WordPress proposal, including a brief look at some of the competitors for content management, eCommerce and SaaS platforms.

February 26, 2018 — Zeek Interactive has been a successful agency since 1995. Steve will share his stories and tips for managing client expectations, strategies for proper communication and thoughts on how to motivate a team. This session applies to everyone from freelancers to agencies.

Presentation Slides »

May 14, 2017 — In this business track session, Steve will share insights from more than twenty years running Zeek. His core message? No matter how big your “tribe” is, your success will require one more item: You need to learn to sell to strangers.

March 16, 2017 — Keynote presentation for WordCamp Nashville 2016

Presentation Slides »

April 28, 2016 — Steve’s been running Zeek for years. So it only makes sense that we’d hear how he’s done it. And hear the challenges he’s faced as he’s shifted the business from Flash banner ad games to WordPress sites and mobile applications. If you want to hear about the hustle, there’s no one better to hear it from than Steve.

April 19, 2016 — Managing expectations is the key to maintaining a healthy relationship with clients. Almost all conflict between clients and vendors can be attributed to misaligned expectations.

During this session, Steve will share his best tips gathered through real-world experience over 20 years in the digital industry. You will learn how to prevent problems before they happen, how to properly communicate expectations, how to assess and anticipate client needs, how to diffuse difficult situations and more.

Having positive client relationships leads to better productivity, which leads to more profit. And who doesn’t want that?

Presentation Slides »

February 21, 2016 — Trust is important in any relationship and absolutely critical in a work-for-hire one. Trust takes a long time to earn and can be broken in a split second. Steve will examine this and discuss techniques for building trust, maintaining trust and what to do when trust is lost.

October 9, 2015 — Maintaining any business for 20 years is difficult. But keeping a tech business running strong for 20 years is a big challenge. Zeek Interactive just turned 20 and Steve will discuss how to stay ahead of the game in an ever-changing tech environment.

July 3, 2014 — If you’re frustrated with low revenue, you can raise your rates. If you’re not earning enough to support your plugin business, you can raise the price. But when? How? At what cost? And how do you know if you’re doing it right? In this session, I share with you some stories that will help you price better.