WPblab EP87 – A Look Backward in Time

In this episode, Jason Tucker and Bridget Willard, along with you in the chat room, will reminisce on the show, the community, technology, and even their own careers. We’d love to have you join in.

Celebrating Two Years!!

Late September 2015 – Bridget was working as an office manager for a construction company.  Jason said there was a new video / chat platform called Blab.im and decided he wanted to give it a try and suggested Bridget join him!

Bridget said “I don’t know anything about WordPress” and Jason said “That’s why I want you to do the show!”

Started as a 90 minute show and has since been trimmed back to an hour

Blab.im allowed anyone to pop in as a random guest during the show and they had guests from countries all over

Was originally just a WordPress focused show, so any topic around WordPress was fair game, has since evolved to focus on WordPress marketing and social media

Just as Jason was starting to get tired of / annoyed with Blab.im … it went away! It was the perfect time to try a new platform – tried Firetalk and eventually landed on Google / YouTube

Jason has been using Google Hangouts for about 5 years, so decided to keep using the platform for WPBlab

Having a show whose content is totally dependant on people showing up and asking questions proved very challenging, so moving to have a set topic with guests just made sense

Originally almost felt like a virtual meetup, where the audience was heavily involved in the content of each show

Bridget will be appearing in the Women Who WordPress panel at WordCamp Seattle this weekend (as a freelancer). She will also appear at WordCamp Rochester and will be at WCUS for Contributor Day with the Marketing team.

Both Jason and Bridget have switched jobs since starting and Bridget is now freelancing.  Bridget has also now travelled to two different countries!

Started ‘Community Connections’ spin-off this year with Bridget Willard and Jen Miller – highlighting members of the WordPress community

Where do Jason & Bridget want to be in the next 2 years?

• Bridget hopes her life is personally and professionally drastically different! She also hopes she’s seen Iceland and learned how to do something WordPressy, like make a plugin!  She hopes she finally understands DNS
• Jason is looking forward to some big new projects at work

Where did you think you’d be now, 20 years ago? Are you there, did you surpass it, fail to meet it?

• Bridget – I’ve exceeded my college education, but I don’t believe in 10, 20-year plans – when you meet people and experience things, your goals/dreams keep changing! “The more you experience in your life, the more your dreams change!”
• Jason – knew he’d be married and have a couple kids and be doing the kind of nerdy stuff he does! He’s happy with where he’s ended up and enjoys doing the podcasts and keeping up with his friends without having to be in the same room

 

The coolest thing Bridget has learned is that she can do whatever she wants to do and succeed if she sets her mind to it, and her friends believe that she can

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Show notes contributed by:

Cheryl LaPrade – @YayCheryl

Sherie LaPrade – @HeySherie