Cory Miller from Post Status on Community and State of the Word

Robbie Adair: Hello and welcome to Do the Woo. We’re here, Robert Jacobi, and myself, Robbie Adair, and we’re going to talk to Cory Miller about State of the Word.

Robert Jacobi: State of the Word, and hopefully, maybe some Post Status stuff and how everyone’s having a great time. We’re actually in person in the same room. That’s crazy.

Robbie Adair: We’re in Bob’s room.

Cory Miller: We basically went to the front desk, found out how to get into his room. And so we hijacked to Do the Woo podcast, right?

Robbie Adair: That’s right.

Cory Miller: We got him tied up in the closet.

Robbie Adair: With the headphones on to make sure it’s all balanced.

Robert Jacobi: That’s right. Awesome. Boy, I think everyone’s just really excited to be here. What are you really looking forward to hear Matt say?

Cory Miller: I always find something compelling when I talk to Matt or listen to Matt. He’s an incredibly smart, articulate person. He’s got grand views and vision and values for WordPress that he’s protected over the years. I’ve known him since 2008. I’ve met him at Word Camp DFW. And I don’t know, you can always tell what’s on his heart and his mind by these state of the words. And so it’s going to be really good, one, because as a species we’ve been sequestered. And it’s nice to meet you Robbie in person, give you a hug. Robert, I’ve seen three times. This is my third time seeing him this year. And then same with Bob. When we finally let him out of the closet we’ll bear hug him and stuff. But I think the number one thing is being together with some really amazing people. And then number two is see what Matt’s on his mind. I’m sure it’s going to be heavy emphasis on Gutenberg, which I love.

Robbie Adair: Yeah, I’m thinking so as well. And by the way, Cory, I just want to give you kudos too for you and your team. They’ve put together dinners and lunches and it’s just been great. And it’s just so nice to see people in person, like you said. I mean, it feels like it’s been so long. And so it’s really been fascinating. I’ve got to meet some people in person that I’ve talked to for a while now and just never met them in person. So it’s really interesting. I enjoy that. So what else do you have planned around this event too?

Cory Miller: Well, we’ve got a Twitter spaces going on tonight, and then we’re going to ask Matt some questions after his address. But really, it’s just all about connecting with people. Robbie, you and I got to meet about, I think a month ago on Zoom and now to sit down and put the elbow time in of, “All right. Tell me more.” Same with Robert. And then all the people here, which we got a little group of Post Status members here, which I love and just talk shop. My heart is all about bringing people together. I get my greatest joy when I go, “Okay.” Hypothetical, “Robert’s looking for someone at whatever company to talk to.” I love bringing people together. And my heart is always for the entrepreneur, the people like us, Robbie that put our- we risk a lot to put things out there into the world that may or may not actually make money on it. And then also just my dearest friends are in WordPress and in the Post Status community. So entrepreneurs always find a big place in my heart, but in connecting with amazing people at WordPress has. I think that’s really cool. So I’ve just enjoyed reconnecting, seeing some new faces, meeting some new people and just seeing what’s on everybody’s mind and heart.

Robbie Adair: Yeah. And I know they had to do a limited seating at this event, but I thought it was pretty cool. I forgot how many different Meetup parties they said that are going on around the world to watch this together. So there’s more people getting together just in smaller groups. I love that that’s coming together.

Cory Miller: That’s WordPress.

Robbie Adair: It is.

Cory Miller: I mean, WordPress is redefining what community is to me. It’s this stuff. We gather around because of this thing called WordPress, this software, but it’s really the people that WordPress attracts. You two being some amazing examples of that. That’s why when I left I-Teams and was sure and figure out my next stretch, I said, “I never want to say publicly I’m not in WordPress anymore.” I just said for a funny little joke for a long time, I was a WordPress blogger now. But now I’ve got the end back around into WordPress in all my friends with Post Status and we have some special people in this WordPress community.

Robert Jacobi: I think, obviously that’s the state of the word. But I think that is the biggest news and the fact that people are actually getting together again. And this is sort of, I guess, the first official North American get together of WordPress folk. I know there was a word camp in Seville last weekend that was in person. But outside of that, we really spent, easily, a year and a half not being able to see each other and communicate like we used to and having those 3D expressions from your face. And you’re like, “Oh yeah, Cory’s actually really interested in what I’m saying,” or “Robbie’s really bored again,” those kinds of things. I mean, Robbie kicked off with, “What do you think Matt will talk about?” I think he’s going to try to drive home a new vision for the future, given what we’ve all experienced last year and a half. What do you guys think of that?

Cory Miller: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Robbie Adair: Yeah. I think so. If you talk at all these days, you have to address the pandemic and how it affected things or changed things or is driving things forward in certain ways. I think he will address that and maybe he will also give some- I don’t know, I can’t imagine what he would say about it or how it would affect things. But I think it does. I mean, just because like you said, WordPress, it is more than just software. It’s also community. And I think he normally really relays that in his state of the words as well. It’s not just about that. It is also, he always addresses the community as well, I feel. And there will be something about that and how it has morphed things.

Cory Miller: And I was telling Michelle who works with Seller WP, but also on our Post Status team. And it’s WordPress, we are lead leaders. We can be leaders. And we are leaders to the bigger world around us. Because I think about the topics that are vital for us to advance as a species have started in my life, at least, in the WordPress community. It’s like last year, Matt and others on the team, Josef and whoever leads the Word Camp initiative decided no more in person. That’s that’s a bold move. Where people in my state I have to sadly say were on the opposite end of the spectrum. The conversation around inclusion in WordPress, that’s true leadership to me led by Allie led by Michelle, led by others in the community saying, “Hold on a minute, we are going to be the example for the rest of our species on the planet.” And I just admire that about WordPress. We take on these issues and we show, I think, again, back to community, what that is. And we lead by example in so many ways. I think the world is watching.

Robert Jacobi: That’s a great point because one of the requirements to be able to attend this event is you have to be vaccinated, which not everyone’s willing to put their foot down and say, “This is how we’re going to be able to do this in baby steps.”

Cory Miller: That’s a leadership position. I love that about WordPress. There are so many things where you think sometimes- I’ll just say it. I think we came down and somebody said, “Oh, there’s a bunch of stuff going on Twitter.” And I was like, “There it is drama press.” I didn’t sign up for drama press. I signed up for WordPress. I signed up for this community that the three of us sitting here want the best for each other. And we can model that virtually through the WordPress project for the people in our neighborhoods where we live.

Robbie Adair: Yeah. And we’ve also got the Word Camp Europe, that’s going to be in person this year.

Cory Miller: Making plans to go back to this beloved country called Portugal. I have so many friends there. I love it. We’re making plans. I’m excited for it. Are you all going?

Robbie Adair: Hopefully.

Robert Jacobi: I will be there, come heck or high water. But I’m banging on the doors. And everyone’s right now anticipating it and it’s a go. So that’s really exciting. And I’m curious if Matt will then also maybe address WordCamp US, hopefully. I know there are stuff going on. But it would be interesting to see if he actually definitively says one way or the other.

Cory Miller: So I’m going to turn the questions back on my interviewers here. So do you think you’ll talk about Woo Commerce, that seeing this is Do the Woo?

Robert Jacobi: This is part of the woo train clan.

Cory Miller: I love that by the way, epic hashtag

Robert Jacobi: I really hope so. It is the future of where things are going. It’s very easy to spin up a blog. Cory can easily be a WordPress blogger again. But it’s a lot more work and thought and effort to be a successful e-commerce shop. So I think that really should be addressed.

Robbie Adair: I think he has to address it after the year and a half we’ve had where e-commerce has exploded because of COVID. I mean, you kind of, can’t not talk about it, right? I mean, it, it became a huge part of their ecosystem there. So-

Cory Miller: Well, so many people said maybe YouTube, so it’s all running together in my head. But that the darling, the spotlight for WordPress right now is Woo Commerce because of its growth in the open web. And I love that. Woo Commerce is a great project. We run it on process.com. But I love any way we can take the shingle out further, spread the awesome thing that is WordPress through anything that happens within WordPress like Woo Commerce, for instance. So good point on that too.

Robbie Adair: Yeah. And Woo Payments. I mean, that was a big release too. So I mean, I just really do think he will talk about it.

Robert Jacobi: And I wonder what’ll happen with woo.com. I mean, I’m still hypothesizing that similar to wordpress.com that there’s a huge opportunity for woo.com to be that sort of gateway drug into WordPress eCommerce.

Cory Miller: Yeah. What is the concept of woo.com to you? It’s a SaaS thing? What are your predictions?

Robert Jacobi: I don’t know if it’s a prediction. I know what I want to see happen. What I want to see happen is that there is a SAS that makes it so much easier to deploy specific aspects of e-commerce to your own WordPress site. So API connections, maybe a baby little Shopify thing for people just to get comfortable with how all that works, but then it becomes an extendable hub for doing a lot more cool things with Woo Commerce.

Robbie Adair: Well, it’ll be interesting to see if he mentions that now. I hadn’t even thought of that, but yeah, that’d be awesome.

Robert Jacobi: I’ve been slightly obsessed with it cause it’s such a great domain name.

Robbie Adair: It is a good domain name.

Cory Miller: It’s well done for sure.

Robbie Adair: Awesome. So there’s a networking event after the state of the word tonight.

Cory Miller: Yeah. So we just wanted, our friends at, I think it was GoDaddy and Stellar last night, just to say, “We have this opportunity to be together. Let’s enjoy it.” And what better way to do it than a fun little after party. So I think we’re going to do it here. Aren’t we? And just kind of, again, extend the conversations we haven’t been able to have like this in person. So I’m really excited about that. Excited to be at this event in New York city. Come on.

Robbie Adair: It has been really fast, though, I kind of feel like. I know you came earlier with your family, but for the rest of us, it’s kind of we’re in and we’re out. As a matter of fact, I was talking to Mark earlier today and he was like, “I feel like I haven’t left this hotel.” I was like, “Yeah, me neither.”

Cory Miller: That’s the cool thing about it, though. That’s our camp, right?

Robbie Adair: Right.

Robert Jacobi: Sorry. That’s a hotel camp. Well, it’s been a blur because Bob on his woo train stopped by Chicago Sunday. So Quotable had a dinner party then Cloud Waves had an after-party. And so we’ve been doing this for days now in a row.

Cory Miller: Bob’s going to be partied out.

Robbie Adair: I know. Bob’s going to start traveling around the whole country by train and just doing his podcast from his little car on the train from now on. And just stop in towns randomly and visit people.

Cory Miller: I love it. And then random meeting people. That’s incredible. I tell you just to say, take this one moment for a second is like there’s people that come and go in the WordPress ecosystem and that’s totally cool. That’s what WordPress is about. You come, contribute, when you’re done, you leave if you want to. But I’ll tell you since I’ve known Bob and it’s been a very long time is like the steady consistency of just showing up and talking about the thing he’s passionate about. So on his own podcast with him tied up in the closet since we’ve ransacked his room. We should totally ransack his room. I just want to say Bob is an amazing community member and a leader, and I really appreciate him and you all for what you’re doing to kind of beat the drum of the open web. And e-commerce through Woo Commerce and WordPress and all this stuff. So I want to give a shout out on his own podcast to Bob.

Robert Jacobi: To Bob. Woo hoo. Bobby in the closet.

Robbie Adair: Well, and Cory, thank you as well for all that you do and for being a very positive person in the community. We all love positive people in the community.

Cory Miller: We need more.

Robbie Adair: Yeah, absolutely. Well, positive people turn other people positive, is the way I look at.

Cory Miller: Absolutely.

Robbie Adair: Yeah. So thank you very much for all that you’re doing over at Post Status.

Cory Miller: Ditto, friends.

Robert Jacobi: Thank you.