Danny's Finding KC | #GreatIdeas Series

Danny Schumann is probably one of the busiest people that I know. But somehow he manages to be a fantastic dad, a good friend, lead the social insights team at VML KC and put his hobbies into practice through FindingKansasCity.com And why? Because he wants to. 

He took over FindingKansasCity.com about a year ago from a former co-worker who had started the site to review and profile shops, restaurants, bars and other culturally relevant things in Kansas City. He took on the site because he had a great vision about where it could go - but also frankly to keep practicing the skills he had taught himself over the past few years. And his love for Kansas City and discovering all the great things about it helps :) 

How it began. 

In college, he had the opportunity to purchase Adobe Creative Suite and take a class to learn the basics for design.  

"[From my optional design class in college] I learned a base, but 90% of what I learned happened by practicing and looking up small tactics one step at a time." 

At his first job, he bought a book, How to Build a Website, to learn how to code [Ironic, isn't it?] And chapter by chapter, trial by trial was able to learn how to code. 

From there he just kept practicing. And then he got the opportunity to take on FindingKansasCity.com. 


FindingKansasCity.com

Danny says the site had a great base and following, but he had plans to make it bigger. During the Kansas City Royals playoff run, the nation was hungry for Kansas City news and everyone rallied around the city. 

In that timeframe, FindingKansasCity.com: 

• Was featured in a Huffpost article 
• Profiled and partnered with local retailers to promote KC gear and link back to the site
• And activated its social media presence on Facebook and re-invigorated activation on Twitter  

And in the past few months, Danny's managed to find the time to rebrand and re-work the look and feel of the site, resurface and create new content, increase the search traffic to the site and being tweeted by local media. 

What's ahead? 

"[What I've done with FindingKansasCity.com] is not the finish line, but it's my next set of challenges to see what I can do and force myself to keep practicing." 

FindingKansasCity.com has incredible opportunity with the growth and revitalization of the city. So I know that whether it be this project or another, Danny will be successful and make his friends and especially his son, proud.