00:00 Matt: Welcome to Podcast Awesome.

00:11 Matt: In this series of nerd show and tell episodes, we chat with members of the Font Awesome

00:15 Matt: team, take a deep dive into some of their recent work, and share the nerdy interests

00:20 Matt: that enrich their lives.

00:25 Matt: I'm your host Matt Johnson, and today we're talking with Trevor Chase, the real human

00:37 Matt: behind Font Awesome technical support.

00:40 Matt: Trevor lets us in on the most common tech support questions he gets, why he made a career

00:45 Matt: change from middle school principal to tech, and a little bit about his coffee roasting

00:50 Matt: obsession.

00:54 Matt: So Trevor, if I'm not mistaken, you were not always a tech support person.

01:00 Matt: You actually had another professional life years ago.

01:03 Matt: Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you made your way to Font Awesome?

01:07 Trevor: Yeah, yeah.

01:09 Trevor: Definitely was not part of any computer background.

01:12 Trevor: That was kind of my brother's thing.

01:13 Trevor: So no, I started out a bachelor's degree in business administration.

01:17 Trevor: I was working at a bank at the time I was going to college.

01:21 Trevor: Didn't really know what I wanted to do right out the gate.

01:25 Trevor: So I got my business degree and started doing some loans with the bank.

01:30 Trevor: My wife was actually in education.

01:32 Trevor: She taught business.

01:33 Trevor: And so we kind of talked about that and I decided to change my route to that.

01:38 Trevor: So I went and actually got hired without a teaching degree yet, but I got my master's

01:44 Trevor: degree in teaching and taught high school business for a few years and coached.

01:50 Trevor: And then I got my specialist in educational leadership, so superintendency and building

01:56 Trevor: level administration.

01:57 Trevor: So I became a assistant principal for a junior high in the town that I grew up in and did

02:02 Trevor: that for eight years.

02:03 Trevor: So I was in education for a total of 13 years.

02:08 Matt: And so yeah.

02:09 Matt: And the world of education is no joke.

02:11 Matt: My extended family are all, we're all public school music teachers and man, you got to

02:18 Matt: have a love for it.

02:20 Matt: So inevitably like you, you made a pivot and you, you made a change.

02:24 Matt: What was challenging about that kind of role?

02:28 Trevor: Yeah.

02:29 Trevor: So, uh, as an assistant principal, in particular where I was, I handled, you know, the majority

02:34 Trevor: of the discipline and attendance issue.

02:37 Trevor: And so our issues, you know, it just got to be several years down the line of just dealing

02:43 Trevor: with a lot of negativity in the building.

02:46 Trevor: You know, that's just kind of the role I played, you know, is a lot of the negative of the

02:50 Trevor: building would come to me and that just kind of weighs on you.

02:54 Trevor: And I got kind of done doing that.

02:57 Trevor: I quickly realized I didn't want to be the building principal anytime soon.

03:02 Trevor: And you know, it could be stressful.

03:05 Trevor: That job and assistant principal could be, both of them are stressful jobs.

03:09SPEAKER_01: And so I just decided, you know, that's not the path I wanted to continue going down.

03:16 Matt: Yeah.

03:17 Matt: I mean, I imagine myself as a junior hire and, uh, thank God bless those, those principals

03:25 Matt: and administrators that had to deal with punks like me.

03:27 Matt: I mean, my goodness.

03:29 Matt: It's an interesting age.

03:30 Matt: It takes, it takes special people to teach and lead in that, uh, that age group.

03:36 Trevor: I mean, they can be fun, but yeah, they can, they can be challenging as well.

03:45 Matt: And so your brother is Travis and he obviously is, you know, a tech nerd and is working with

04:04 Matt: Dave on Font Awesome.

04:06 Matt: And yeah, how did that go?

04:08 Matt: Like, so you, you felt like you needed a change.

04:11 Matt: Did it occur to you at all that maybe you'd get into the world of tech or how did that

04:15 Matt: come about?

04:16 Trevor: No, it was actually kind of funny.

04:18 Trevor: I didn't hardly ever take time off because in that position, I mean, it just, it just

04:24 Trevor: piles on you, you know, so it was, it was actually worse being gone than, than, you

04:28 Trevor: know, being there.

04:29 Trevor: So, but I actually decided, you know, I'm gonna take the day off.

04:32 Trevor: I had been doing some research and kind of talking to some people I knew.

04:36 Trevor: And I, so I was actually going to go back into the banking industry just because that's

04:39 Trevor: something I knew and something I, I knew I could get back into.

04:44 Trevor: If nothing else, it would be a decent transition period for me.

04:47 Trevor: And so I took the day, or I think I maybe just took a half day and I went over to Travis's

04:51 Trevor: house and said, hey, I want to talk to you about, you know, what I'm doing.

04:55 Trevor: I valued his, his opinion.

04:57 Trevor: He had been in the business world, you know, and I hadn't been in that world for quite

05:00 Trevor: some time, you know, 13 years.

05:02 Trevor: So I told him I'm going to leave education.

05:06 Trevor: At the time I had two job offers, two different institutions, baking institutions.

05:10 Trevor: And so what do you think?

05:12 Trevor: What do you think I should do?

05:13 Trevor: And, and he said, well, if you really are going to leave education, why don't you come

05:17 Trevor: work for us?

05:17 Trevor: And I just kind of laughed.

05:19 Trevor: I just kind of laughed because I'm like, you know, I have never been into computers growing

05:24 Trevor: up. He was always into gaming and, and the computer world.

05:28 Trevor: And that just, it just never was me.

05:30 Trevor: You know, I just never, never something I thought I'd get into.

05:33 Trevor: And so I said, well, you know, that's, that's funny.

05:37 Trevor: But, you know, right.

05:39 Trevor: He's like, well, let me show you what the stuff that we need and what you would be doing.

05:44 Trevor: And he showed me and he said, you know, if that seems interesting and you're willing

05:47 Trevor: to learn, then, you know, it's something we really need right now.

05:51 Trevor: And so I decided, hey, you know, this is different.

05:56 Trevor: You know, it's different. It's new.

05:57 Trevor: It's something I definitely would never get bored in this position because there's always

06:02 Trevor: something to learn.

06:03 Trevor: And so I was like, OK, let's let's do it.

06:05 Trevor: So he and Dave talked about it and decided to bring me on board.

06:10 Trevor: And that was almost, well, about four and a half years ago.

06:13 Trevor: So, yeah, it's been good.

06:16 Trevor: It's been really good.

06:19 Matt: What are the most common support questions you tend to get on a day to day basis?

06:24 Trevor: You know, a lot of a lot of it has to do with our licensing, just people wanting to make

06:31 Trevor: sure that they are using either our free or pro version correctly.

06:36 Trevor: So we get a lot of licensing questions.

06:38 Trevor: We of course get some more technical questions as far as, hey, this trying to use this

06:43 Trevor: icon, it's not working. You know, what's going on?

06:46 Trevor: So we can get in there, you know, another website and debug that for them.

06:51 Trevor: And so we have a lot of those questions of just licensing or how to use in different

06:56 Trevor: environments. It's been good because I had zero technical background at all.

07:00 Trevor: So I've had to learn on my own and read a lot and try to get into that side as much

07:06 Trevor: as I can with the limited experience I had before.

07:09 Trevor: So it's every day you're learning something new, which is great.

07:24 Matt: So we really value ongoing development and learning at Font Awesome, which is a real

07:30 Matt: core aspect of our culture, which is awesome.

07:34 Matt: So, you know, you coming into this role and needing to learn, that's a great fit, you

07:40 Matt: know, to have space to do that.

07:42 Matt: What what do you work on and do you take kind of like calculated approach to how you

07:46 Trevor: learn or? Yeah, I'm very much a hands on learner.

07:50 Trevor: So I've got to actually be watching a video on how to how to do something or reading a

07:55 Trevor: book on how to do something.

07:56 Trevor: I very much need examples and get in there and actually start doing.

08:01 Trevor: And that's how I learned the best.

08:05 Trevor: You know, some people can just read it and they've got it.

08:08 Trevor: That's not necessarily me. I've got I've got to be doing it and doing it for a few times

08:12 Trevor: before it really sinks in.

08:14 Trevor: So but yeah, this environment, you know, Travis and Dave have always been ones who have

08:19 Trevor: never said they've never said no to anything I've asked as far as, hey, can I try this

08:25 Trevor: out? Can I get this book to learn this?

08:27 Trevor: I mean, they're they're always for continuing education.

08:31 Trevor: And so any time I've done like an online class or purchased, you know, reading materials

08:37 Trevor: or whatever, it's always been very easy to do so.

08:40 Trevor: And, you know, it's just kind of one of those things where obviously in the tech world,

08:44 Trevor: there's always something to learn.

08:46 Trevor: And so that's that's been the fun part.

08:47 Trevor: Like I've told my kids, it's kind of fun for them to see, too.

08:50 Trevor: Like I told them, I'll never be bored in this environment because, you know, if I am,

08:55 Trevor: it's my own fault because there's always something to learn.

08:57 Trevor: And there's always different platforms out there to to learn from, which is which is

09:02 Trevor: great, too. So whether you're just a reader or you're hands on, you know, it doesn't

09:06 Trevor: matter. There's there's lots of stuff out there.

09:09 Trevor: So it's been good for me to learn, you know, all the ins and outs of of, you know, just

09:15 Trevor: HTML, CSS and how our icons, how our stuff works within different environments.

09:22 Trevor: There's still there's still a ton for me to learn.

09:24 Trevor: But but but it's been fun.

09:27 Trevor: It's been fun to get to play around with that and gain gain more knowledge as I go.

09:32 Matt: Yeah. And you've recently moved into doing some more QA work, right?

09:39SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

09:39SPEAKER_01: It's been fun. Yeah.

09:41 Matt: What was it about that that?

09:44 Matt: Seemed interesting to you.

09:45 Trevor: I really like debugging.

09:47 Trevor: I really like finding, you know, issues that maybe our customers run into and trying to

09:52 Trevor: fix that. I've always kind of like that even in my previous job as assistant principal.

09:56 Trevor: I like putting out fires like the day to day of hey, something's come up.

10:00 Trevor: How are we going to fix this?

10:02 Trevor: So I've always enjoyed that. And so with the QA stuff, you know, I can get in there and

10:07 Trevor: play around and test out the stuff that our dev and design team that they work so hard on.

10:13 Trevor: And I can just go in there and from a customer perspective, just go through some test

10:18 Trevor: plans that they've written up and then also kind of tinker around and see what I can

10:23 Trevor: break or not break.

10:24 Trevor: And that to me is fun.

10:26 Trevor: It's nice because I can be a part of that side of the team and not just on the customer

10:32 Trevor: side. And so it's a good integration of both of those worlds.

10:37 Matt: So do you have any favorite Font Awesome icons?

10:53 Trevor: Yeah, definitely. So I really geek out on coffee and coffee roasting.

10:58 Trevor: And so pretty much all of our icons that deal with coffee, you know, coffee bean, coffee

11:03 Trevor: pot, you know, the mug and all that kind of stuff.

11:07SPEAKER_01: That's definitely right up my alley.

11:09 Matt: We've got all the caffeinated beverages covered for sure.

11:13 Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Tell me more about the coffee making part.

11:17 Trevor: Yeah. So it's something I've I've been doing for probably, I don't know, close to 12

11:23 Trevor: years or so. And actually started out just using an old school popcorn popper, one of

11:28 Trevor: those tower popcorn poppers, you know.

11:29 Trevor: And it's not the most efficient way of roasting, but it does give you a freshly roasted

11:36 Trevor: coffee. So I started out doing that many years ago and then kind of got talked to my

11:43 Trevor: dad and he kind of he's retired and he wanted something fun to do on the side.

11:47 Trevor: And so we kind of started a little side business, a little coffee roasting business, and

11:51 Trevor: he purchased a little sample roaster drum roaster.

11:55 Trevor: And so we both kind of learned on that, which was I mean, it was a lot of fun.

11:59 Matt: Yeah. What's the as you get deeper into that, like what's the process for figuring out

12:06 Matt: how to to create a great roast?

12:08 Trevor: Yeah. So, I mean, there's there's a ton to it.

12:11 Trevor: You know, when we bought the drum roaster, you know, it uses propane for the heating

12:17 Trevor: element and then you have airflow and you have the speed of the drum.

12:20 Trevor: And so all those things work together through timing to really roast the beans.

12:25 Trevor: There's some great videos online.

12:27 Trevor: I think we watched them on YouTube from Mill City Roasters.

12:31 Trevor: It's almost like taking a class, really.

12:33 Trevor: And they kind of walk you through the stages of the roast.

12:36 Trevor: And, you know, once you get the basics down from there, it's just kind of playing around

12:40 Trevor: with the different beans. You know, they're, you know, coming from different parts of

12:43 Trevor: the world and, you know, each at each different at each roasting level, you know,

12:48 Trevor: depending on the time and the heat you use and everything, it can produce a completely

12:52 Trevor: different cup of coffee.

12:53 Trevor: And that's the fun. That's the fun of it.

12:55 Trevor: I mean, you can the same being you can get different flavors, you know, based on how

12:59 Trevor: long you've roasted or not.

13:01 Trevor: And and so really, for me, I love just.

13:06 Trevor: You know, trying out ordering different beans from different parts of the world and just,

13:11 Trevor: you know, just seeing what what I like the best, what tastes best for my palate and

13:16 Trevor: it's just something I really enjoy doing.

13:19 Matt: And you had a great story about.

13:21 Matt: I don't know if it was like the beginning of your coffee obsession, but it sort of

13:26 Matt: cemented it, maybe just cemented it more for you, but you had a story about being

13:31 Matt: overseas. Tell us a story about that.

13:33 Trevor: Yeah. So my wife and I, our youngest son is adopted from Ethiopia.

13:39 Trevor: And so during that process of the adoption, it's we had to travel twice for different

13:44 Trevor: stages of the adoption process.

13:46 Trevor: Both times when we're there, we would obviously go out and get the coffee.

13:50 Trevor: Obviously go out to eat and get to know the area and the culture more.

13:55 Trevor: And so they'll do coffee ceremonies at some of the restaurants for you.

13:59 Trevor: In fact, they did that at the orphanage for us as well.

14:02 Trevor: Ethiopia is known as the birthplace of coffee and so very partial to to that coffee.

14:08 Trevor: You can hear it.

14:09 Trevor: Check is by far my favorite.

14:10 Trevor: But in that coffee ceremony, they'll roast the coffee right in front of you.

14:15 Trevor: Wow. And it is just I mean, it's a fun.

14:18 Trevor: It's such a great experience.

14:20 Trevor: Now, the coffee is very strong that they roast it right there over some hot coals and

14:25 Trevor: they give you enough for like very, you know, like two shots of coffee.

14:31 Trevor: But it's fantastic.

14:32 Trevor: And that's just a you know, that to me just was like, what a what a cool thing to do

14:38 Trevor: with other people and to get them involved in from there.

14:42 Trevor: That's just like I want to roast coffee when I get back home.

14:44 Trevor: You know, it just progressed from there.

14:46 Trevor: That's something that I'll never forget.

14:49SPEAKER_01: Quite the experience my wife and I were able to be a part of.

14:53SPEAKER_01: Yeah. When people involve you in the process, every step of it.

14:58SPEAKER_01: And it's so tactile.

15:00SPEAKER_01: You know, you can smell it. You can see it.

15:03SPEAKER_01: You see the finished product and you put it in your mouth.

15:05SPEAKER_01: You know, there's just something about the whole experience.

15:08 Trevor: It's so great. Yeah, it's great.

15:10 Trevor: It's you know, the coffee ceremony involves, you know, the roasting the coffee and

15:14 Trevor: sharing it. And then and then they they make popcorn right there, too, with you.

15:18 Trevor: And it's all about sharing the experience with one another.

15:23 Trevor: And so popcorn is something that easily can be shared around a group of people.

15:27 Trevor: And of course, coffee as well.

15:28 Trevor: So it's very much a communal experience.

15:32 Trevor: And they'll do it in restaurants even here in the states, Ethiopian restaurants,

15:36 Trevor: which is which is pretty fun to do as well.

15:39 Matt: Yeah. Can you get a legit cup of Ethiopian coffee that that is in the

15:44 Matt: ballpark of what you tasted there?

15:46 Matt: Or is it just sort of its own thing altogether?

15:49 Trevor: My dad and I, whenever we would order, we would use an importer from the states

15:54 Trevor: and they would get the beans from different farms, you know, from the different countries.

15:58 Trevor: And we got one bag in particular.

16:00 Trevor: I remember getting it was one of the first Yergachev bags we got.

16:03 Trevor: I think it was like one hundred thirty pound bag.

16:06 Trevor: But it just I mean, it produced some of the best coffee I've ever had in my life.

16:09 Trevor: I mean, for me, I, you know, I got a very strong, like a blueberry

16:15 Trevor: flavor note out of it, you know, and it just it was killer.

16:18 Trevor: I mean, it was it was so good.

16:20 Trevor: And, you know, and that's the fun part about coffee, too, like depending on where it's grown,

16:24 Trevor: it takes on flavors of what it's grown by, you know.

16:27 Trevor: So that's where you get some of those cocoa or fruit flavors.

16:30 Trevor: And with it being a berry itself, that to me is another fun part about

16:35 Trevor: interesting part about the coffee process of roasting is

16:39 Trevor: trying to get those different flavor notes out of them.

16:42 Trevor: And again, that's part of, you know, how long you roast.

16:44 Trevor: And you can definitely get some some good coffee over here.

16:47 Matt: We have our now they're bi-annual meetups, the snuggles, as we call it.

17:10 Matt: It's our time to kind of reconnect in person

17:14 Matt: since we're a remote company and we're all working in different parts of the country.

17:18 Matt: What do you enjoy most about the the snuggle time?

17:23 Trevor: Yeah, it's for me now in particular, because we have my family didn't move.

17:29 Trevor: We live, you know, we're down in Tampa now.

17:31 Trevor: And so that's quite a ways away from the the job and office that I used to go to

17:36 Trevor: and see the guys. So for me, it's great just seeing everybody

17:40 Trevor: as many times a year as we can.

17:42 Trevor: I love it. The team building that we do, the conversations that we have,

17:46 Trevor: you know, everybody's you know, they come from different parts of the country.

17:50 Trevor: And, you know, I grew up in the same small town my whole life.

17:55 Trevor: It really has opened my eyes to the ways people live in different environments.

18:01 Trevor: And so for me, it's been great just getting to know the people where they're from

18:04 Trevor: and getting to know their background more.

18:07 Trevor: I've really enjoyed that throughout the years.

18:09 Trevor: And, you know, the first snuggle that I went to, there was only

18:14 Trevor: I think I was the fifth person hired, excuse me.

18:16 Trevor: So there were seven of us, including David Travis.

18:18 Trevor: So, you know, it's grown to now up to 17 and now 18 people.

18:23 Trevor: And it's evolved quite a bit over the over the years that I've been with one.

18:29 Trevor: Awesome. And, you know, I enjoyed every time.

18:32 Trevor: You know, you get to have different conversations with with the same people

18:36 Trevor: sometimes. And it's been it's been fun just getting to know everybody

18:40 Trevor: a little deeper and, you know, just kind of reconnect you because, you know,

18:44 Trevor: being remote, you know, sometimes you you can you kind of feel isolated at times,

18:48 Trevor: depending on what position you have.

18:51 Trevor: And so when you get to reconnect with people that, you know, it just makes it

18:55 Trevor: feel more like, you know, a small company that we are,

18:59SPEAKER_01: which is kind of a yeah, it's kind of a best of both worlds.

19:03 Matt: And it is true when you work remote.

19:05 Matt: There are downsides to it, to not working in office.

19:08 Matt: But, you know, the plus side is that we have a lot of freedom.

19:12 Matt: We kind of define how we do our work and we can get really focused on what we're doing.

19:18 Matt: We make sure that when we set out on a batch of work, it's very well defined

19:24 Matt: so that we kind of know what we have to get after.

19:27 Matt: When we get together, it really is focused on

19:31 Matt: reconnecting with folks again.

19:32 Matt: And we do a little bit of work.

19:34 Matt: You know, we do some planning and do some we actually get some work done.

19:37 Matt: But the focus being just being together and going and doing fun stuff,

19:43 Matt: seeing a movie, having fire pits, eating good food.

19:46 Trevor: It's just a great way to reconnect.

19:49 Trevor: Yeah, it's it's something I look forward to every time it comes around.

19:53 Trevor: You know, when Covid hit and, you know, we we put that on hold for,

19:57 Trevor: you know, a few snuggles there in a row, you know, that was kind of a bummer.

20:00 Trevor: You know, really, because I do like seeing everybody.

20:03 Trevor: I do like hanging out with them.

20:04 Trevor: I was glad when that when that started back up and when we could safely do that.

20:08 Matt: Yep. Yep. Me too.

20:10 Matt: Thanks for listening in to podcast awesome.

20:13 Matt: A special thank you to Trevor for coming on the show.

20:16 Matt: If you like what you've heard, please give us a rating and review

20:20 Matt: and share this episode with your nerd friends.

20:23 Matt: This episode was produced and edited by yours truly, Matt Johnson.

20:28 Matt: The Font Awesome theme song was composed by Ronnie Martin.

20:31 Matt: And audio mastering was done by Chris ends at Lemon Productions.