The Director of Customer Success at StellarWP, Amanda Gorman, talks about collaboration, connection, and what customer success means to her.
Amanda Gorman was born and raised in Rochester, New York, where she still lives, raising her three-year-old son and fifteen-year-old nephew with her husband. She loves to spend as much time outdoors as possible, preferably visiting a body of water. “I love to slow down, read, move my body and play with my son,” she says.
Entrepreneurship was a big part of Gorman’s childhood. “My parents are ambitious, hardworking people with big dreams. They have created a beautiful life since quite desperate times when they raised my brother and me,” she says. When she was a child, her parents owned three businesses at once: a restaurant, a bar, and a golf course. “I learned a lot of customer service skills back then, which got me on the path to where I am now,” she says.
She has now worked in technology for just over five years. “My first job was at my mom’s law firm as an assistant, basically doing filing and odd jobs,” she says. “I eventually made my way up the ladder there during my teens and early twenties to land a part-time position as a paralegal managing hundreds of house closings every week.”
While at the law firm, Gorman was learning WordPress and how to build websites. “I had a deep desire to enter the world of technology, specifically the world of WordPress, as my mentor and friend, Michelle Frechette, taught me the ways of using WordPress when I was trying to use Adobe Muse to create my first website for my parents’ restaurant ,” she says.
Then, after years of planning to start her own agency, an opportunity arose when Michelle asked her to apply to be a Customer Success Manager for GiveWP. “Five years later, Michelle stepped up from her as Director of Customer Success to do what she loves at Liquid Web, and I took over as Director!”
Now, Gorman is Director of Customer Success at StellarWP. “My role is to be a champion for our clients, her voice,” she says. “Listening and communicating are crucial to my daily work, specifically listening to our customers for what they say and don’t say, and then communicating their needs, wants and pain points to all teams. My role is deeply collaborative, as my value is only as good as the impact we can create together, across teams.”
His favorite thing about having a job at a tech company is the creativity. “I am surrounded by so many incredibly talented people whose creativity and ingenuity amaze me every day,” she says. But the highlight of her career so far is taking over as Director of the Customer Success department at StellarWP. “Taking the lead felt really good to me. It was the next step in my journey and the next natural step. Everything felt perfectly aligned. All I had to do was jump.”
Michelle Frechette was instrumental in helping Gorman assume that leadership position. “Without Michelle’s guidance and support, she wouldn’t be here,” he says. “She opened the door and encouraged me every step of the way. She knew I had what it takes to make moves and make things happen, but her guidance and support along the way was the grace she needed to make it all possible.”
What motivates Gorman the most is simple: connection. “Feeling connected to others and all of life’s interaction motivates me,” he says. “When I feel like I’m in ‘the flow’ or doing my part, that motivates me to keep going, persevering and pursuing.”
Gorman says she’s seeing increased representation of women in technology leadership and hopes that will continue to become the norm. “I would encourage young creatives to consider how their creative energy can be used in many ways. I never saw myself as an artist, although I always and still have a deep appreciation for the arts. But now I understand what I do to be very artistic. I flow, collaborate, listen and experiment, then come up with something new,” she says.
It also encourages young women interested in pursuing a career in technology to remember that there are people who want to see them succeed. “The WordPress community, in particular, is very supportive and full of resources,” she says. “The most important thing is to work on your own resistance and perseverance. Know that if you want to make something happen, all you need is the will to do it. The rest will come if you ask for help and keep going no matter what.”