Biography

Eric Kuznacic is a lifelong technology junkie who began experimenting with computers more than 35 years ago when his parents purchased a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. He found some BASIC programs in a computing magazine and spent hours inputting and debugging the code to create very simple programs.

During high school he became enamored with the Internet via a Compuserv dial-up account. He chose to attend Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, largely because of its “Macintosh in Every Dorm Room” program.

During college he taught himself HTML and CSS, launching a personal GeoCities homepage in 1995 and never looking back. After graduation dabbled in freelance website design and IT consulting side projects.

Eric created Why the Fuss? Technical Solutions in 2013, after years of requests for assistance with websites and online branding efforts. The business provides WordPress-related services and training/education to small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and anyone else in need of technical assistance.

Since founding WTF?, Mr. Kuznacic has amassed a long list of private-, public- and nonprofit clients throughout southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and beyond. He believes strongly in the power and dynamism found within the global WordPress community and wholeheartedly supports its open-source mission.

My life, in bullet points

It’s like a TL;DR version of me!

Personal details

Career & professional life

  • My past jobs, in chronological order since graduating college, have been:
    • Street-team coordinator
    • Roadie/music marketer
    • Club doorman
    • Bartender
    • Front-end website designer
    • Bartender (again)
    • Newspaper reporter and photographer
    • Newspaper associate editor
    • Business services rep for a workforce-development organization
    • Entrepreneur and small-business owner
  • I taught myself HTML and CSS during college in the mid-1990s. It is one of the best things I have ever done for myself as it at first provided a hobby and now has blossomed into a career.
  • I have been a WordPress devotee since 2010 and believe it to be one of the most-important and influential tools developed during the Internet Age.
  • I run a one-man website design/development company: Why The Fuss? Technical Solutions, founded on June 1, 2013.

Sports loyalties

  • Drake University is my alma mater, and I do my best to support them from afar.
  • I am a loyal Wisconsin Badger and have spent the past several years following the football and men’s basketball teams.
  • I am a lifelong baseball fanatic, living and dying with the Milwaukee Brewers. Still waiting for that World Series title …
    • Although, I was able to sit behind home plate at Miller Park for Game 1 of the 2018 NLCS vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers. I’ll never forget the buzz in the building that night, especially after pitcher Brandon Woodruff took Kershaw deep in the bottom of the third inning!
  • Born-and-bred, tried-and-true, bleed-green-and-gold fan of the Green Bay Packers.
    • In the stands (and freezing cold!) for the “Al Harris Interception” playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks. This was the when Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck declared to the world (via the ref’s hot mic) after winning the coin toss, “We want the ball and we’re gonna score.” How’d that work out for ya, bud?

Moments of note from my past

  • In June 2012 I fell an estimated 40 to 50 feet down a cliff in La Jolla, CA and had to be airlifted out.
    • Broke my femur into three pieces, spider-fractured my right orbital bone, and was cut, scraped and bruised from head to toe.
    • But somehow I am here to tell the story. Read more about it.

My life-long love affair with music

  • I listen to music at every possible minute and involve music in my life in every possible way.
  • I worked in various positions in the music industry during college and in the years after. Among my various positions, I did everything from/to:
    • Work the door at a club.
    • Book and promote shows for local, regional, and national artists.
    • Lead local, regional, and national street teams for major-label recording artists.
    • Manage local and regional bands and artists.
    • Work as a label and artist liaison for a national street-marketing firm.
    • Receive a platinum record award from the RIAA for my work promoting an album.
  • All of this despite the fact that I don’t play any instrument and can’t sing on-key to save my life. Go figure.

Trivia and such

  • I can eat pizza and/or tacos every day for weeks on end and never once tire of them.
  • I am an ISTJ personality, which may help you better understand me.