WP Hacker Cast

WP HackerCast – Episode 11 – Alain Schlesser – Improving WordPress

WP HackerCast – Episode 11 – Alain Schlesser – Improving WordPress

00:00 / 01:20:51

This week I’m talking to a very special guest, Alain Schlesser. Alain the first European guest on the podcast and I’ve been itching to chat to him since I started this.

Since becoming a WordPress Consultant, Alain has made his mark on the WordPress project. He has been involved in contributing to WordPress core and is currently the maintainer for WP-CLI, the command line interface for WordPress. He has spoken at a variety of WordCamps, including WordCamp Europe and WordCamp US.

Alain is a fascinating chap to talk to and we delved into all variety of topics from his first year as a freelance consultant, the advantages of being actively involved in a community and how he’s working to improve the core of WordPress. I especially enjoyed discussing the differences between US and European based developers.

Show notes:

WP HackerCast – Episode 10 – Hugh Lashbrooke – The WordPress Community

WP HackerCast – Episode 10 – Hugh Lashbrooke – The WordPress Community

00:00 / 01:16:37

This week’s podcast is a little late and a lot unedited. Unfortunately last week I was dealing with some things which affected my ability to properly review, edit and prepare the podcast. Rather than post it days late, I’ve posted it here in it’s more or less unedited format, so I hope you enjoy it.

This week I’m chatting to Hugh Lashbrooke, and Automattic employee and full time sponsored member of the WordPress Community team. While Hugh comes from a strong developer background, his love of the community and working with people made him choose a different career path, one which ultimately lead to us crossing paths and me switching to WordPress, for which I am eternally grateful. I always enjoy chatting to Hugh about community relevant topics and I hope you enjoy my interview with him.

There are currently no show notes, but I hope to update them soon.

WP HackerCast – Episode 9 – Simon Dowdles – Managing Multiple Things

WP HackerCast – Episode 9 – Simon Dowdles – Managing Multiple Things

00:00 / 01:16:05

Hi there and welcome to episode 9 of the WP Hacker Cast. Today I’m joined by Simon Dowdles, a fellow WordPress developer who I have known for about a year now as we work together on Seriously Simple Podcasting and Castos. Simon has a wealth of work, development, WordPress, Joomla, all kinds of experience, having worked for various agencies in and around Cape Town as well as his own freelance and side projects. I had a great chat with Simon and we spoke about everything, from development to how to manage your time better, to just little tips and tricks that freelancers can use and learn to make their businesses run smoother. I hope you enjoy my chat today with Simon Dowdles.

Show Notes:

Deluxe Coffeeworks

Wings Coffee Roasters

Freelance Cape Town

Digging into WordPress

WP HackerCast – Episode 8 – Deborah Butler – Code Saloon

WP HackerCast – Episode 8 – Deborah Butler – Code Saloon

00:00 / 01:25:20

Happy New year and welcome to the first WP Hacker Cast of 2018. Hopefully you enjoyed Episode 7, even though it was just my rambling voice. Fear not though, as we are back to the regular format.

Before I introduce my next guest I’d like to take this opportunity to perform the obligatory request for feedback. If you like this, or any of the other WP Hacker Casts, please take a minute to either leave a rating or review on iTunes, comment on this podcast itself, or use the feedback form on the website to send my your comments.

Without any further ado, let’s get onto this week’s episode. For the last recording of 2017 I was joined by Deborah Butler, a front end developer who specializes in WordPress. We dig deep into various topics, ranging from how Deborah went from sales to development to teaching, up to and including her thoughts on being a gay woman in the tech space.

I hope you enjoy this episode.

Show Notes:

Friends of Design

Cape Town Front-end Developers

WP Hacker Cast – Episode 7 – 2017 Review & 2018 Goals

WP Hacker Cast – Episode 7 – 2017 Review & 2018 Goals

00:00 / 00:18:02

This week is a much shorter podcast, as I review my resolutions for 2017 and look ahead for the new year.

I also talk about a subject quite close to my heart, that of customer service.

Sorry for the podcast length, but things will be back to normal in 2018.

Happy Holidays.

Show notes:

My 2017 Resolutions

WP Hacker Cast Feedback form

WP HackerCast – Episode 6 – Craig Hewitt – Productised services

WP HackerCast – Episode 6 – Craig Hewitt – Productised services

00:00 / 01:07:25

If you like this podcast, please consider supporting my Patreon.

Welcome to episode 6 of the WP Hacker Cast. My guest today is Craig Hewitt. Craig is the founder of Podcast Motor, a Podcast Editing And Production service, the owner of the Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin for WordPress and the founder of the Castos Podcast hosting platform. He is also the co host of the Rogue Startups podcast, where he and his co host discuss the ups and downs of being single founders.

While Craig does not come from a technical background, in his own words, he learns enough to be dangerous. I’ve had the privilege to work with Craig since the end of 2016 when he acquired the Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin. During that time we’ve worked hard to improve the plugin as well as build and launched the Castos service and I’d like to think we’ve both learned a lot from each other.

This interview took a slightly different path than usual as we discussed all manner of topics, from his experiences adapting to living a new life in France with his family, some of the history behind the purchase of Seriously Simple Podcasting and some of the lessons we’ve both learned supporting the free plugin and launching the premium hosting add on.

I hope you enjoy my chat with Craig Hewitt.

Show Notes:

Podcast Motor

Seriously Simple Podcasting

Craig Hewitt on Twitter

WP HackerCast – Episode 5 – Gareth Allison – Creatives

WP HackerCast – Episode 5 – Gareth Allison – Creatives

00:00 / 01:15:28

Today I am joined by another Automattician based in Cape Town, Gareth Allison. Gareth works for the WooCommerce team as a marketing/designer/strategist (that’s his official title) and has a history of front end development, starting with static HTML pages and moving up to building websites with WordPress. He was hired at WooThemes some time later and finally joined Automattic as part of the WooCommerce acquisition.

Gareth is also one half of local Cape Town comedy duo Derick Watts and the Sunday Blues, who have MC’d WordCamp Cape Town since 2011. He also plays bass for local indie rock band, Veladraco.

We chatted about Gareth’s interesting journey to WordPress, the history of Derick Watts, how he manages his time between all the different projects in his life and his thoughts on how creative people are drawn to WordPress. This is the first time a podcast went over the 1 hour mark and, even though we had a few sounds issues, I felt like I could chat to Gareth for hours. So please enjoy my chat with Gareth Allison.

Show Notes:

Derick Watts & The Sunday Blues

Derick Watts on Twitter

WP HackerCast – Episode 4 – Dwain Maralack – From freelancing to Automattic.

WP HackerCast – Episode 4 – Dwain Maralack – From freelancing to Automattic.

00:00 / 01:11:59

Welcome to episode 4 of the WP Hacker Cast. Today I’m joined by WooCommerce Code Wrangler and WordCamp Speaker Dwain Maralack. Dwain is a fascinating chap to talk to and he has a wide range of both WordPress and development experience, both as a freelancer and an employee. He currently lives in Ceres, which is about 2 hours outside of Cape Town, with his wife and 8 month old son.

Dwain and I sat down and talked about his WordPress story, from studying a National Diploma in IT, transitioning to building websites for churches and small nonprofits, applying as a support ninja for WooThemes and his eventual move into a position as Code Wrangler at Automattic. We also got to talk about some non WordPressy things, like his thoughts on MLM’s, freelancing and computer science.

Show notes:

Cape Peninsula University of Technology

React todo app

The Go Programming Language

Structure and interpretation of Computer Programs (LISP)

Proofs and Concepts

The Impostors Handbook

Confessions of an Advertising Man

@dwainm

dwain.blog

WP HackerCast – Episode 3 – Anchen le Roux & Page builders

WP HackerCast – Episode 3 – Anchen le Roux & Page builders

00:00 / 00:53:02

In this episode I’m talking to Anchen le Roux. Anchen is the owner of Simply Digital Design, a web design and digital marketing studio based in Pretoria. Before she got into WordPress development Anchen used to be a .Net developer so she has some pretty serious development chops. She is organiser of the Pretoria WordPress meetup, one of the organisers of WordCamp Johannesburg and a speaker at both WordCamp Johannesburg and WordCamp Cape Town.

Anchen was originally nervous to talk on the podcast, because lately her day to day work doesn’t really involve much coding, but what I soon found is that, like any good developer, Anchen has a pre made child theme that sets up her theme framework as a blank canvas, for her to build her next client project on. We spoke about her journey to WordPress from .Net, her love of travel, how joining a WordPress mastermind group changed her business and had quite a frank discussion about WordPress Page Builders.

I also learned that it is 100% possible to become a self taught digital marketing expert, something that I didn’t realise was possible.

Show Notes:

The Content Creation Strategy Guide

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Simply Digital Design

WP HackerCast – Episode 2 – Justin Sainton & Gutenberg

WP HackerCast – Episode 2 – Justin Sainton & Gutenberg

00:00 / 00:58:13

Let’s get it from better to awesome!

This month’s episode is dedicated to one of the hottest topics in the WordPress space right now, the new Gutenberg editing experience, and I couldn’t think of a better person to talk about this with than Justin Sainton.

Justin is one of my favourite people in the WordPress space. He’s one of the four international people I met at WordCamp Cape Town who helped shape my decision to get more involved with WordPress. Justin has been running his own agency Zao since leaving High School and has a wealth of development and WordPress knowledge. He is also one of the most positive people I know.

Justin and I chatted about his WordPress story, but a large chunk of the conversation was centred around Gutenberg. It was really great to talk to someone who is so positive about the future of Gutenberg and WordPress.

Show Notes:

The Gutenberg that could have been

Justin’s thoughts on Gutenberg

Local by Flywheel