Topher and Cate DeRosia Talk HeroPress and the State of the Word

Bob: Hey, it’s BobWP. I’m still in New York, day two. I’m getting ready for the train, before I head outI had to have two of my favorite people in the world come into my room in the hotel, which is very odd. But Hey, it’s nice. It’s cozy. It works. There’s enough room in here. Topher and Cate from HeroPress. This is awesome. We had a great time at state of the word and man, I just thought, they got to come in and just talk. So I’m going to let them kind of have a conversation and I might chime in a bit, but they’re here. So, Topher, Cate. Wow, we’re here.

Topher: Thanks for having us.

Cate: Yeah. Thanks Bob. I mean, it’s always great to get a chance to talk to you. And we certainly have talked and talked and talked the last three days, all of the days leading up to the trip. I mean, it’s been phenomenal. It’s really nice to be back in person with people and seeing, face to face.

Bob: Yeah.

Cate: It’s just a different kind of… Conversations are so important to the health of WordPress. And we’ve seen a lot of them over the internet, in the last two years when we haven’t been able to be together. But being able to get together then and talk about it more in depth is, and in a more relaxed environment, where we can interrupt each other and talk over each other. It’s just so very valuable to the whole community’s health.

Topher: Yeah. It’s hard to put into words, the feelings of being back with the gang, the crew, seeing friends that we haven’t seen in so long, hearing voices, being in a room with a lot of people. That’s weird.

Cate: Yeah.

Topher: Yeah. It’s exciting to be doing this kind of thing again.

Bob: Yeah. It was a little surreal when I first walked in, it was like, I wanted to go up and poke everybody. Are you real? So, I want you to talk about, say the word, but tell people, I’m sure there are, two or three people in the world somewhere that don’t know what HeroPress is. So give a synopsis of that.

Cate: Yeah. So HeroPress is a… HeroPress began seven years ago as an opportunity to provide visibility to kind of the outskirts of the community, and has moved into inspirational essays about how people have used WordPress to change their life situation. Because you don’t have to worry about transferring jobs, when you want to make a change, you can just take your job with you as you make a change. From that, over the last year and a half or so, we’ve grown it into the HeroPress network, which is a variety of different sites, largely to create bridges between the different WordPress communities that are out there, and the different resources and the different skill sets. So that they’re easier to access. They’re easier to find, in the process we’ve found things that we didn’t even know existed. When we started WP podcasts, we knew of nine, maybe WordPress and how many are there now at Topher?

Topher: More than 70.

Cate: Right. And that’s more than nine. And we would’ve no idea to even Google for them. I mean, they’re all out there, but we’re working to bring it together so that, busy veteran users have an opportunity to get to, quick access to things. But also new users have the opportunity to find things without necessarily knowing what they need to be looking for. And so the network, the larger network has a news instance. And then a lot of it is just, this compiling of information to make, get searchable.

Topher: Yeah. And we have a bigger vision even than what’s out there right now. We’re looking forward to making training videos, tutorials, community sites, all kinds of stuff. And Cate was mentioning things we’ve learned. One of the things that excites me about the WP podcast project is the stats that we’re going to be able to get. How often do podcasts episodes come out? Who’s doing it? From where? Something that really surprised me is the Spanish language community is by far the most active WordPress podcasts.

Bob: Interesting.

Topher: There’s between three and seven episodes per day being published right now. And I would say three quarters of them are Spanish language.

Bob: Wow.

Topher: I had no idea. I didn’t know there were any Spanish language or podcasts, and there they are.

Bob: Wow.

Cate: And I mean, it’s just so hard to find things, if you don’t have the time. If you’re busy running a business, if you’re busy growing your skill set, or you’re new to the community, you don’t have the time to look into these things. And we’ve seen how valuable it’s been to our life, the things that HeroPress has brought into it, the opportunity to meet these different people. And we wanted to share that with the larger community. I mean, it’s kind of funny to think that in a way, while we’ve benefited from it, everything we’ve created around the HeroPress network, everything we’ve built in the last year is kind of irrelevant to us as individuals. We love growing our relationships, but we were already getting a benefit from this, building the network was about sharing that with the rest of the community.

Topher: Yeah. Sometimes I feel like everybody in the world knows about HeroPress, and there’s other times I feel like nobody knows about HeroPress. Last night at the state of the word, four or five people came up to me and said, “What is this thing that Matt talked about? What are you doing?”

Cate: I mean, if you look at the numbers of that, I mean, it’s a 50 person event. That’s a 10th of the people there, who are all I would assume committed community members, had no idea that this community project had been going on for seven years. Because unless you have a reason to look for, these things, you don’t know they exist.

Topher: Yeah.

Bob: Yeah, and that’s the toughest. I mean, even with the podcast, there’s a gazillion people. Well yeah, that’s an exaggeration. But using WooCommerce, there’s a lot of people building with it. So yeah, to get the word out and, I think there’s a lot of potential coming down the pike, and I think you, what you’ve done at HeroPress, I mean, you’ve kind of taken it and it’s basically kind of exploded. So I think… And we’re all trying to, between all of us that are doing these more or less community based projects and even if it’s initially mine with the builders and stuff. We’re finding interesting ways to help each other and try to get that word out. And so… Yeah, so speaking of that heropress.com and they are looking for support, and I would suggest you, go and check it out. I’m supporting them. And if I’m supporting them, then everybody that’s listening should support them. And that’s just the rule that’s been put in place right now. So…

Cate: Well, when we looked at it, it’s kind of a weird way to support a project, but we didn’t want to create a membership site and gate it away from the community. Cause the people who needed the most are the people who can afford it, the least. And what were looking for is from the community at large, to support it at $10 a month on a recurring level. I mean, if you are willing to give up a couple of cups of coffee, a couple of beers a month to help grow the base of the community to help create these bridges, it only… It seems frivolous, it’s hard to understand the value of community until you start thinking about the fact that if there isn’t a healthy, thriving community, you don’t have people who are buying your product. The years of work that you’ve put into building your business, growing your store, that’s a lot of work.

Cate: You don’t want to just flush that because you, spend all your time growing your business and not growing the community. If you’re growing a business, it’s hard to grow a community. So that’s where Topher and I stepped in to take over kind of that role. I guess we’re gardeners now, as it were or shepherds, according to mats. We’re tending the commons in WordPress.

Bob: Yeah.

Cate: So that you don’t have to, but that takes time and it takes money and we’re not independently wealthy. We’ve largely been the single income family and we’ve all given a little and we’re just looking for everybody else to help out a little bit in exchange, providing some free marketing and, free visibility opportunities throughout the community.

Bob: Right. Yeah. Well, and for those of you that haven’t watched the video, the State of the Word, do listen to it because, Matt yeah, he talked about my train trip, which yeah. I boggled his mind, but he did give a shout out to HeroPress, which I thought was really cool.

Topher: Yeah. That is cool. And this is the second state of the word that, that’s happened.

Bob: Yeah. So we’re determined to get you impressed. Yeah. Before you know it, you’ll be the…

Cate: Oh yeah.

Bob: The HeroPress.

Topher: I’ll be giving state of the word next year.

Bob: Yeah.

Topher: That is untrue. Topher will not be in a suit. He’s currently wearing shorts and sandals. There will be no suits. So…

Bob: Maybe that won’t be a requirement. Okay, so cool. So let’s move to state the word. What I want is just your thoughts, impressions, what you… Just talk about how you feel, because you’re really the first ones I’ve talked to after the state of the word. What were your reflections on it now?

Topher: I personally am most excited about some of the things that are long term, particularly the multilingual stuff, which he didn’t even put a date on. He’s like it’s out there somewhere. I’m encouraged that there is vision that far out. I have occasionally been concerned that we are hyper focused on the here and now building Gutenberg and all that stuff. And I was encouraged to see that there is vision beyond Gutenberg, that there’s more to WordPress than the current shiny. And that was exciting. I’m a stats guy. I love seeing all the numbers of, how we’ve grown and all that. He showed that economics chart with the pink bar that was like shooting for the moon.

Bob: Yeah.

Topher: Like, oh, wow.Yeah. So that, that’s my first impression.

Cate: Yeah. I’m excited about the creative side. And I think because that’s my side is the marketing community engagement side. And I think that, that’s something that the WooCommerce community should be excited about too, because the more access an individual store owner has, to quality art and graphics and the creative elements, the more your store will stand out. The more opportunities you have, to create a unique experience for your own community. And the more we’re getting creative individuals in to help balance the code side of things. I think the more everybody wins, the community just continues to grow, but on new and creative levels, which just provides more opportunity.

Topher: Yeah. Another thing I was really excited about is the, the photos thing, they open, the open verse photos.

Bob: Yeah.

Topher: Because that was one of the things that we talked about buildings, part of the HeroPress network.

Bob: Oh really?

Topher: And it’s on the list. We just never got started, never got down that road and now we don’t have to.

Cate: Which is great, because there’s a reason we didn’t start there. We’re really happy to have Automattic take over that one.

Bob: Yeah. Somebody else.

Topher: I like taking photos and I’ve been looking for the right place to put mine and this is it. And so I’m really excited about that.

Bob: Yeah.

Cate: Well, and it shows such a great, that great line where community and economy fit together. So if you’ve got ways for creatives, photographers, digital artists, to be able to give back to the community, like participate in the community, then you’re also bringing people in who want websites, who do not want to design them, who want stores, but don’t want to build them. I know I’m one of them, even if I can, I just don’t want to. So, by creating places in the community for other types of professionals, you also create new clients and new customers.

Cate: And then if you start building a community around your store and your product, you build not only a very loyal customer base, but you build a customer base that allows you to use them for beta testing, that shares their ideas for product advancement, without you having to pay for them or go out and find them. I mean, and the more engaged and involved you allow them to be, generally and I’ve seen this consistently through different work I’ve done in the, for the last two years, the really successful businesses come because they engage their customer base.

Bob: Yeah. Cool. So kind of to wrap it up. I mean, you are in a unique position because you’re dealing with. I mean, like I said, I deal with specifically WooCommerce builders, but you’re dealing with these people are entering the space and all over the world. And like you said, there’s resources can be tight for people. And it is just a crazy world we’re in right now. Each of you get to give your piece of advice to the person that wants to be entering the WordPress space.

Topher: Oh boy.

Bob: That’s it. I threw that on you, but that’s… Hey, that’s me. So…

Topher: Number one is engage the community because, I’m not going to be able to tell you what’s right for you as you’re coming in. I don’t know where you are. I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you know. But people at your local meet up are going to be a lot more like you and be able to lead you, and maybe your local slack. It doesn’t have to be in person. There are slacks in every language for WordPress. They’re all over the place and find one that fits you, that you like, meet people, just everybody you run into in the community, stick your hand out, say hi, what do you do? And your path will come to you.

Cate: Yeah. I have yet to regret a relationship that I’ve made, even if I haven’t liked the other person on the other side, I learned that I didn’t like the other person on the other side and didn’t want to work with them. But more often than not, I just find so many fascinating people doing so many creative things, things I never would’ve thought of. But with that, you’re not going to like everybody you meet.

Cate: You’re not going to love everything about being in a community. Be willing to kind of like trial and error. Find… Look around, find your community. If you don’t fit well in your, our local community, try some of the virtual communities. The pandemic is terrible, but some good things have come out of it. And there’s a lot more access to the wider WordPress community virtually than I think we realize, we’ve all been so busy, with what the pandemic’s thrown at us, that there are some really amazing opportunities that have opened up. And so, if you don’t find your community right away, just keep looking. It’s out there. Sometimes it’s just a little harder than others.

Bob: Perfect. Alrighty. Well, I’m going to wrap up. I have a couple things I want to say, but before I do that, I want to again, remind people about a place on the web and have, where can be… Okay. You’ll have to tell the, mention the domain at least three or four more times while you do this. And then also, people want to just connect with you maybe on Twitter or wherever you hang out.

Topher: Yeah. heropress.com is been our main state for years now. We have also heropressnetwork.com, which is a place that aggregates the content from all of the HeroPress properties. And so you can see the latest essay, the latest podcast, the latest, all that stuff. And that’s where you can go to support HeroPress as well. If you want heropressnetwork.com. On Twitter, we’re at HeroPress and Facebook and everywhere. It’s HeroPress everywhere on the social stuff.

Bob: Yeah.

Cate: And then personally, you can connect with me. I’m on Twitter. I’m at, @mysweetcate with a C, because that’s how my name is spelled. And then…

Topher: Mine is @topher1kenobe with a number one in the middle.

Bob: Yeah.

Cate: Which has a really funny story from about 20 years ago. So if we get a chance to meet in person, we’re happy to tell you all about it.

Bob: See, that’s worth it right there.

Cate: Right. Exactly.

Bob: So, and there’s one more site. So all these people out there that build plugins and themes.

Cate: That’s true.

Bob: What can they… They come to me and they say, “Bob, we need some exposure and we don’t have all this money. I know you’re doing something cool there.”

Cate: Yeah. So you can go to Find It WP and it’s finditwp.com. And basically we’re allowing everybody to expose themselves on the internet. Like that is just, the whole point is to be able to go provide free visibility for yourself. You can… We’re using both SearchWP and FacetWP, to create a really refined search process. It’s growing, there’s about 200 entities there right now. Everything from personal blogs that offer training to enterprise hosting companies. And we’re allowing everybody to get filtered and searched for together.

Bob: Cool. All right. Well, I just have a couple things. Hang in there with me just a couple more minutes. I want to thank our sponsors. They’ve made this amazing. I’ve been able to have, do a lunch with a group of people we’re doing a second lunch today and yeah, just all the stuff that I’ve been able to do cloud ways, got to check out their WooCommerce hosting, poststatus.com. Go there and become a web business member, Godaddy Pro Hub, great place to manage all your sites and mind size. And that’s mindsize.com. They have a new maintenance program out for your Woo shop. So check that out, get somebody on top of that. And I just want to, I may have mentioned this on the podcast. I may have talked to somebody. I actually have no idea who I said this to, because it’s all a blur last couple days, but Topher mentioned visionary.

Bob: We’re going to be starting in January, after you haven’t seen one episode every month will be called WooVisions, really created there. But what basically is going to be is bringing in people from WordPress and WooCommerce who are very visionary. So I like what Topher said, we talked about what’s been done and what’s happening, but often we don’t think down the road. So we’re going to, we have some cool people lined up for that. And if all works well, Matt Mullenweg will be on in January or February. He’s already committed to one or two depending on the time. So that’s something to look forward to because he is truly a visionary. I mean, if he, he’s one of the guys that really gets it. So that’s it. And yeah, I’m going to make a… I’ve got one more thing from Topher. So let’s make it. Cate, you sign off, tell everybody words of wisdom.

Cate: You know, just meet people. It’s like every person that you meet is like a library book in your personal library where you have no idea what you’re going to learn. It’s going to be a crazy adventure. They might be completely wackadoo, but you’re at least going to have fun doing it. So get out there, shake hands, kiss babies, post pandemic, and then just meet people.

Bob: So yeah, words the wisdom from, Topher and Cate. Love it. All right. On the flip side, talk to you later.

Cate: Thanks Bob.