Transcript ↓

In this podcast episode, host Michelle Frechette is interviewed by Macus Burnette to introduce “WP Trail Buddies,” Michelle’s initiative to help newcomers at large WordCamp events feel welcome and connected. The program pairs first-time attendees with experienced veterans for mentorship and support, easing anxiety and fostering community. Michelle shares her own WordCamp experiences, explains how the free, volunteer-driven project works, and discusses the broader importance of mentorship in the WordPress community. The conversation highlights the value of inclusion, friendship, and support, encouraging listeners to join and help make WordCamps more accessible for everyone.

Top Takeaways:

• WP Trail Buddies Is a Volunteer-Led Mentorship Program: Michelle Frechette created WP Trail Buddies as a free, volunteer-based initiative to pair WordCamp veterans with newcomers to help them feel more comfortable at large flagship events like WordCamp US. The program is powered by free tools like Google Forms and WordPress.com, and even includes GDPR-compliant data practices. Although unsponsored, some organizations like Newfold have volunteered to provide swag like stickers and pins.
• The Focus Is on Flagship and Large WordCamps—for Now: Due to Michelle managing the project solo, WP Trail Buddies is currently limited to larger WordCamps (typically 250+ attendees). While open to expanding to other events in the future—like WordCamp Canada—the priority is on keeping things manageable and scalable. She’s open to conversations with other camps that may want to adopt the model.
• WordCamps Are About Community and Belonging: Michelle emphasized how transformative WordCamps have been for her personally—from knowing no one at her first WordCamp Buffalo to attending nearly 100 events and mentoring others. She and Marcus both stressed that the true value of WordCamps lies in the friendships, mentorship, and support network built over time. Programs like Trail Buddies help foster this sense of inclusion from the start.

Mentioned In The Show:

• WP Trail Buddies
• WPIncludes.me
• The WP World

🐦 You can follow Post Status and our guests on Social Media:

• Marcus Burnette (Founder, The WP World)
• Michelle Frechette (Director of Community Relations, Post Status)
• Olivia Bisset (Intern, Post Status)

The Post Status podcast is geared toward WordPress professionals, with interviews, news, and deep analysis. 📝

Browse our archives, and don’t forget to subscribe via iTunes, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher, Simplecast, or RSS. 🎧

Transcript

Michelle Frechette 00:00:00  Forgot to live. So. We’re live.

Marcus Burnette 00:00:05  Well. Hey, everybody, welcome to another Post Status Happiness Hour. This is not the usual voice that you’re used to hearing the intro from, but no worries. Michelle is still here. She’s just taking a turn in the guest’s seat this week. How are you doing, Michelle?

Michelle Frechette 00:00:23  I’m doing well. Thank you. Thanks for hosting this week. I appreciate it.

Marcus Burnette 00:00:27  Absolutely, absolutely. So, how does how does it feel to be on that side of the. It’s exactly the same, right? You’re staring at a camera with a microphone. It’s really not that different, is it?

Michelle Frechette 00:00:38  It’s like half my day, every day is staring at a camera with a microphone on, whether it’s a meeting or a podcast or something else.

Marcus Burnette 00:00:46  Well, you’re in the hot seat this time. You’re right. You do. You do have a lot going on. You’ve been famously called the Busiest Woman in WordPress. And I’m not going to ask you how you find time to juggle everything. But how do you determine what to prioritize at any given time?

Michelle Frechette 00:01:04  I’m really bad at that, which is why I like I’m about. I have like, piles of papers next to me at all times that I shuffle through to pick my next great thing. I had to.  

Marcus Burnette 00:01:14  You just throw them up in the air, in whichever paper lands in front of you is the thing you work on.

Michelle Frechette 00:01:19  I ask the cat to pick one. No, but it’s funny because, every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. eastern, I have, just open office hours, and I usually have anywhere from 8 to 12 people that’ll join. And we just have open conversation. We talk about this, that or the other. And this morning we were talking about how you manage projects when you have a lot of things going on. And a lot of us, it seems, in WordPress are, you know, some level of ADD, ADHD, which makes it difficult to choose. And I was like, oh my God, I have this idea. All my projects. 

Marcus Burnette: Another idea.

Michelle Frechette: Haha! Yeah. So you know like when? When you get. When you enter a raffle at WordCamp or something else. They go to that one page that has like the wheel of names that they’ve entered everybody’s names. I said, I’m going to put all my projects on there, and I’m going to just like click the button, and it’s just going to let it pick for me, like the higher priority ones. Right? And then it’ll be like, hooray! WP Trail Buddies won. You get to work on that today. Maybe it’ll be like, you know, because like there’s confetti and balloons and all that kind of stuff. So maybe it’ll be like it’s exciting that won. You know, I don’t know, I try to gamify myself all the time and it just doesn’t work.

Marcus Burnette 00:02:37  Yeah. Get you all pumped up for that for that project. Well, you you already said the name of it, but that’s what we’re here to talk to it. Talk today. Talk to you about today. Wow. That’s a lot of words to mumble. WP Trail Buddies. That’s what we’re talking about. Yeah, as if you didn’t have a million things going on already. This is a fantastic idea. And you decided to run with it as well. what is the WP Trail Buddies and what inspired you to start this project?

Michelle Frechette 00:03:08  So I got to thinking about all those times when somebody new comes to a WordCamp, and when you come to a local WordCamp, especially one of the smaller ones, like, you know, WordCamp Rochester has never been very big. I think 140 is the biggest we’ve ever been, even at 140 people, you can feel a little out of place if you don’t know people there, or if you only know people from online. Uou’ve seen them, you might, you think, you they don’t know you. You know them. When you go to a flagship event, which can have anywhere from 1000 to close to 3000 people. It can feel exponentially challenging, especially if you are an introverted person. And I’m not an introverted person, but I remember my first WordCamp US. I knew like three people, and I only really knew them because I’d been to a couple of WordCamps prior to that, literally two WordCamps prior to that. And I didn’t want to be the person that’s like, hi, can I tag along with you all day? Even though I’m sure they would have said yes, but I kind of just did my own thing all day and talked to people here and there, but I felt a little out of place. My background wasn’t in IT. My background wasn’t in web at all. I had been working in higher education for over 20 years at that point. And so for me, as an extrovert, it was challenging. And so I started to think about, you know, we talk about the Pac-Man principle. And when you’re in a group of people, you should leave space for people to join into that group and talk. And then when that person joins you, open the circle up a little bit wider.  But even leaving space open doesn’t necessarily feel inviting to somebody who’s visiting a WordCamp or attending a WordCamp for the first time. So what if I could help by pairing people up the week before. So let’s say, you know Marcus and Michelle, it’s our first time ever going to WordCamp. Or my first time ever going to WordCamp. You’re a veteran. You’ve been there many times before, and somebody pairs me up with you. So the week before you email me, you’re like, hey, I’m looking forward to seeing you at WordCamp. Let’s meet up at the registration table. I’ll help you get your badge. We’ll sit together for the opening remarks, and then maybe we’ll meet back again for lunch. But here’s my number, my WhatsApp, my whatever. Reach out to me anytime during that day that you have questions. And that now you feel like you’ve got somebody that you are allowed to tag along with, who signed up and said, I want you to tag along with me. Now, am I asking that people stay stuck together side by side all day long? Of course not. But knowing that you’ve had the opportunity to, you know, maybe FaceTime somebody or Zoom with them in advance, or at the very least, having emailed or texted them beforehand. Feels like you have somebody there who signed up to be that big brother, big sister to you for your first time through such a big event. And so I thought, why not make it simple? I’m going to pull it up online here. You may be the host, but I’m still the one with all the controls.

Marcus Burnette 00:06:12  Yeah, I didn’t know if you had the screen sharing going. I was going to ask you to kind of walk through it and kind of show us how it works. And then. Where you can order the zip ties that you tie your hands to each other and you get.

Michelle Frechette 00:06:27  That’s the surprise. So you can see I’m actually, I’m using WordPress.com, so I’m just using a free account to create this, what I spin up.

Marcus Burnette 00:06:37  So I’ll mention it at the end again. Right. But it’s WP Trail buddies.WordPress.com.

Michelle Frechette 00:06:42  Yes. And so I had ChatGPT make me a nice little picture. 

Marcus Burnette: Yes. 

Michelle Frechette: And then there’s information here for veteran WordCampers and new or newer WordCampers. So let’s say you’ve been to a WordCamp, but it had 70 people, and now you’re going to a WordCamp with 1500 people. You are so welcome to join as a new or newer WordCamper if you’d like.

Marcus Burnette 00:07:03  Yeah, I was going to ask you actually, how do you how would you define, you know, where that line is from veteran to newer? Or do you leave it up to the person to feel whether they feel like a veteran or a.

Speaker 3 00:07:14  Yeah.

Marcus Burnette 00:07:15  Newer camper?

Michelle Frechette 00:07:16  If you feel like you could help somebody, you’re the veteran. If you feel like you might need somebody, you’re the newer, newer camper, so it’s really up to you. I’m not going to police, how many camps have you been to that kind of thing? But you can see, like for veteran WordCamper, it says if you’ve been to a lot of WordPress events, you might remember your first 1 or 2, or you didn’t know many people. And at one point in the day thought to yourself, what am I doing here? Because imposter syndrome is real, and it can feel very isolating. But if you’ve been a veteran WordCamper, why not spend a little extra time at that next event, welcoming somebody and helping them feel welcome to attend. On the other side, it says if you’ve never been to a WordPress event or only to a smaller regional event, then stepping into your first flagship event can feel a bit overwhelming. From the sheer size of the event and the number of attendees. So why not find someone before the event to help you guide through your first time with confidence? A trail buddy, if you will. And that’s where this comes in. So, trail buddies, the whole idea is to help those newer WordCamp event attendees feel like they’re walking into their first flagship event already knowing somebody that they can count on, not just randomly, but somebody they’ve been paired up with a week and at least a week in advance so that they know they’ve got somebody they can talk to.

Michelle Frechette 00:08:30  So they will pair you up like the Big Brother, Big Sister type program. Whether it’s your first WordCamp or your 100th, you know somebody who’s already been there before you walk in the door. So week prior to the WordCamp, I’m going to pair people up, help them, you know, send an email to both of them, introducing one another. And then we’re going to. I did ask on the form. I’m going to show you the form in a minute. Asking interests so that I’m making sure that there’s a little bit of overlap in their interests. So there’s something to talk about when you get together. Not that that’s always required, because WordPress is enough to, to have in common, but sometimes it’s a little bit easier if you know that you’re both, let’s say, want to go to marketing talk. So you’re both devs and you want to go to dev talks, things like that. So you have to be registered for the event. So, or at least know that you’re going to right? So you can’t sign up for this and not be attending the event, because that’s really not fair to people who are also signing up and suddenly are left in the lurch. 

Marcus Burnette: Yep. 

Michelle Frechette: And, you’ll see in the form in a minute that you can be a new or veteran attendee. Once you received your pairing, I ask that you do contact one another. I’ll send you out an email introducing you both, but please be in touch with one another prior to that first morning. Make plans to meet at the registration and say hello, and then at least eat lunch together one of the days, and then touch base throughout the first day. Just to make sure that there’s any questions answered, and optionally attend a few talks together. Wander through the the sponsor hall together. Introduce your new friend to others that you may know. Help them grow their network and feel really comfortable. At the least you’ll make a network connection, and maybe you’ll make a new friend. So this.

Marcus Burnette 00:10:08 That’s really awesome.  Before you get to the form. I love that you kind of laid out the groundwork for the expectations for the Trail Buddies as well. And not just like, hey, paired you up, exchanged phone numbers or WhatsApp numbers or whatever, and then work it out from there. You kind of provided some guidelines for what the, what the event might look like, what the day might, especially the first day. I mean, that’s probably the most intimidating, right? You get that first day under your belt as a new camper, kind of take a little bit of a breath and say, you know, I kind of get what’s going on here and you can make it through the other through the other days, a little bit easier, having met a few people and that kind of thing. But I love that you laid out some of those guidelines and some of that groundwork so that folks aren’t just left on their own.

Michelle Frechette 00:10:52  Yeah. You know, make it a little bit easier.

Marcus Burnette 00:10:54  Yeah, I know you’re going to get to the form and probably share some of this anyways, but you said about a week out you’re going to do the pairing of mentors with newer campers. How do you determine who like, is it first come first serve? Who’s filling out the form? Or is there more to getting together that you think are going to be a better match for each other?

Michelle Frechette 00:11:17  Yeah. I’m not anticipating that a thousand people are going to sign up, because we know that a lot of people will be, fit in that veteran category already. Sure. So even if there’s like, let’s say, 20 people that sign up, and ten of them are newer and ten of them are veterans. That should be fairly easy for me to take a look at what they filled out on the form and match some of their interests. I also have a scroll down a little bit. I do have a place on the form that says, is there anything about you we should keep in mind when pairing you with another camper? For some people, for religious reasons or otherwise, they cannot be paired with somebody of the opposite sex. And I want to. So I put something in there that would allow people to say, you know, I’m this religion and I would need to be paired with another man or another woman. I really want to respect people’s needs and make sure that everybody is comfortable in the situation they are. So I’m so I have all of that in place. Let’s look at the form. You can see a little bit about how. So obviously email, their name. I did put WhatsApp number. If you, if they don’t have WhatsApp they could put a phone number. But WhatsApp is international, so it’s a lot easier for people to connect with one another. And it doesn’t eat into your cell phone plan when you’re traveling. Have you registered for the WordCamp on their site? So, for example, the next event is where WordCamp US, coming up in August. You need to be registered in order to participate at WordCamp and therefore to also participate in Trail Buddies. So let’s hopefully, everybody says yes there. And here’s where they are allowed to. This is where they’re asked whether they’re a new attendee or a newer attendee or veteran, so that I can make sure that I’m not putting two veterans together or to newer campers together. We want to make sure that we get those paired up together. And then I actually just pulled some information right off the websites for how flagships are registered. How do you describe yourself? Are you a developer, designer, or  blogger? And so I can make sure that I’m kind of putting people together who might have similar interests. I’m similarly what best describes the area that they work in. And then I put here to like, what are topics that you’re interested in, so that I could take a look and see if there’s any overlap there as well. And then, like, who’s somebody in the WordPress community you’d really like to meet if possible? Because like, I know if Marcus Burnette is signed up on here, Marcus knows a lot of those people. So maybe they want to meet somebody. Marcus knows I compare them with Marcus. Marcus could introduce them, that whole idea. And then again.

Marcus Burnette 00:13:48  I saw that one on there earlier. And I was curious because of your connections to the community, if you see some folks names on there as as newer attendees, newer campers are signing up. If you plan on reaching out to some of those folks and say, hey, this person noted that they would be interested in meeting you, would you? Would you like to be a mentor for, you know, are you going to be at that event? Obviously. And if you are, would you would you be interested in being a mentor?

Speaker 3 00:14:16  Yeah, I mean.

Marcus Burnette 00:14:16  For this person.

Michelle Frechette 00:14:18  Yeah. Or at least I’m saying, hey, this person’s their, their veteran and but they also want to meet you and just to be aware of that, that kind of thing. If I know the person, I don’t know everybody. I know people don’t believe me when I say that, but I really don’t know everybody.

Marcus Burnette 00:14:31  Not everybody. 

Michelle Frechette 00:14:33  And everybody doesn’t know me. I know, I know a lot of people. And then again, if there’s anything that we should keep in mind and pairing them with another camper. And then I do put the GDPR statement on there that we that we have permission to store their AI. So I did this all with free stuff. Right? So I’m using WordPress.com. You can see at the top when I’m logged in, it tells me there’s an upgrade required. I tried to apply some CSS classes that wouldn’t allow me to do without upgrading. You won’t see that when you when you look at it. I use ChatGPT for the photo, and I use Google Forms for the form. So nothing in here is costing me any money. And so that’s other than my time, of course, but I wanted to make sure that it was something that I wasn’t spending a lot of money on. I’m not asking people to sponsor. I will say, however, that even though I haven’t asked for specific sponsors for this, New Fold has stepped up and are making stickers for people who are participants. So there. It’s in the design process right now. Maybe some pins. I’m not sure. I’m still waiting to hear from, from Samar, but she was excited to. Yeah, to sponsor some swag so that there’s a little something extra for people who do want to participate in doing this. And so yeah, I’m really excited about it. I, I’m hoping we get so far I’ve got a lot of veterans signed up because the newbies don’t know about it yet, but I’ve been in contact with WordCamp lead organizers, and so they want to put it out on their blog as well. So it will be something that should pick up a little bit of steam in the next week or two. So hopefully we’ll get, you know, even 10 or 20 people who want to pair up with somebody and learn from them. I think it’s a, I think it’s a really great opportunity. I see Howard in the. Are we talking about being stranded? This isn’t voting people off the island, Howard.

Marcus Burnette 00:16:30  So Howard and I at WordCamp US last year made our way out to Multnomah Falls, which was absolutely gorgeous. And then it was very difficult for us to get an Uber back and so. 

Michelle Frecehtte: Oh no!

Marcus Burnette 00:16:45  Howard and another buddy and I got, let’s call it, stranded for a little while out at Multnomah Falls until we could finally because it’s, it’s a little bit of a hike out there. We, we managed to get we managed to convince an Uber driver to take us out there because when we got in the car, I don’t think he realized how far he was going to drive. We convinced him that we would make it worth his while to drive us out there. It was a little bit harder getting a ride back. And so, we were we were stuck for a little while, but it was..

Michelle Frechette 00:17:15  Yeah.

Marcus Burnette 00:17:16  There are worst places to get stuck. It was beautiful. So, Howard is wondering whether maybe having a trail buddy would have been helpful, but I think we were stuck with each other out there, so. We called trail buddy to get us to come pick us up. You, you mentioned specifically WordCamp US. This is targeted towards the flagship camps for the time being. Is that correct?

Michelle Frechette 00:17:43  It is. Yeah. Only because I’m the only person working on it right now. I haven’t pulled anybody in as a volunteer. I don’t like to ask people to volunteer for things without having some way to pay them. You are the exception. Marcus, you and I work on projects all the time, and I’ve even said to you, I can’t pay you. Do you want to do this or not kind of thing?

Marcus Burnette 00:18:05  We pay each other back in helping with each other’s projects.

Michelle Frechette 00:18:07  We really do. Yeah. So. But I didn’t want to impose on other people to get involved yet. Until, number one, it’s not a proven concept yet. I think it will be, but it isn’t yet. And, if I was going to open this up to every WordCamp, then that’s a lot more paperwork on my end that I would have to would have to do, even if I just collected the information and shared it with the lead organizers to, you know, to pair people up and notify them. It’s just, start slow. I want to start with the big projects and then, and then move forward from there. So I will say, if your WordCamp is, let’s say over 250 people, then let’s talk. But if your WordCamp is under 200-250 people, I think it’s probably doable just to kind of help people out in the room, it’s these big, these big events that make it really overwhelming. I think when people walk into them. But I’m open to discussions and I’m open to. So if your WordCamp wants to help, you know, wants to be able to use this, let’s talk. I’m not going to say no. I’m thinking the WordCamp Canada might be the next one that we add on top of that. So some of these bigger events. But we’ll see for sure. But at least at the at the current time I’m targeting the flagship events.

Marcus Burnette 00:19:24  Awesome. And you talked briefly about using lots of free tools and stuff. That is because this is also free, right? In not charging mentors or newcomers, this is or I mean, on the flip side of that, also mentors should know that they’re not getting paid, but they are. This is a way for, for people who have been in the community to give back to welcome in, you know, kind of the the next, the next generation, newer folks coming into the, into the community.

Michelle Frechette 00:19:54   But I probably should put that on the website. So thank you, I will add otherwise I’ve done as soon as you said that, I’m like, oh, I don’t think it says anywhere on there that it’s free and voluntary. So yes, I will make sure that I add that. Thank you. Yes, it is free and we’re not asking anybody to pay and we’re not asking anybody to we’re not promising to pay anybody either. This is one of those things where you’re volunteering to help one another out, and it’s just the WordPress way, really.

Marcus Burnette 00:20:20  Yeah, but I love that. And, you know, that’s such an inroad for a newcomer to the community. You know, I know a fair number of folks now, but a lot of that is thanks to you and you kind of taking me in at some point, as, you know, mentor into WordCamps and into the community and stuff. And so you can see how just making a few connections helps kind of grow everyone’s network.

Marcus Burnette 00:20:44  Then, you know, the next time you go to a WordCamp, you already know 10-15 people. You get to meet a few others. And then the third time you’re the man, you know, you’re the veteran you get to come in and bring, you know, someone who’s new to to WordCamp events into the fold and introduce them to a few people. So I think it’s a really great, you know, circle of giving back to the community. And every time you do that, you’re getting to meet a new person and someone who’s bringing a fresh set of eyes into the community, new experiences, new skill sets, and all of that stuff. And you kind of get to meet them on the ground floor as they would say, right? They don’t know anybody. And, you get a chance to meet them and hang out with them first and then introduce them to everyone else in the community. So, Really love that. I’m curious if you had any stories from any of your first WordCamps? And, I think you shared that you knew, like, three people the first time you went to WorkCamp US? Yeah. So, my how how nice it would have been to have someone to kind of show you around.

Michelle Frechette 00:21:50  My first ever WordCamp was WordCamp Buffalo in 2015. And I was so new to the whole experience that I could still go back and, and find the the post on Facebook that I made that said I was going to WordPress Camp because I didn’t even know what it was called. So I was like, I’m going to WordPress Camp. So, yeah. And and so I knew one person there, I that’s all I knew was that one person. And I felt bad for him because I didn’t want to just, like, cling on to this one person that I kind of knew, right? I didn’t even know him that well. He worked with my daughter’s boyfriend at the time, who’s her now husband. And I was just like, I know him. Hi Joseph. And so, yeah, I just kind of wandered in and out of places, grabbed my lunch and and started to grow my network. And that’s where I met people like, like Shanta. And I don’t know if she was at that one particularly. That’s where I met, like Sean Hooper from Canada. I met a lot of Canadians at that one, and who immediately were just super nice and took me under their wing. And you’re coming to WordCamp Toronto, aren’t you? And, you know, and then I was, I went to WordCamp Toronto a couple of months later, and I was like, okay, this is cool. This is an even bigger camp. Like, look at all these people. That’s where I got my first ever WordPress swag. And it was, it was it’s it got crushed years ago. It was, it was a plastic cup. It said GoDaddy on it, and I was like, it was a prized possession for a while because I had something that said GoDaddy on the side. Right?

Marcus Burnette 00:23:22  So yeah, something from a company that people have heard of.

Michelle Frechette 00:23:26  Like I’ve seen their commercials during the Superbowl, you know, kind of thing.  So it was exciting and it was a little overwhelming, too, right, to have all these people. And I jokingly say that like, Shanta blew me off at that. Like, we’re really good at friends now, but at the time and she’s we still laugh. She’s like, I promise not to blow you off again this time kind of thing, you know? So we, but we have a lot of fun, reminiscing about all of those times and how people said they could tell right away that I was from Rochester because of the way I say Rochester. So, like, I guess I have an accent I’m not aware of, but I mean.

Marcus Burnette 00:23:58  Just the one, just the one word accent, just the way Rochester.

Michelle Frechette 00:24:02  Are. I guess that’s like Ra-chester, but anyway. But it is. But it is fun. And then I went to my first WordCamp US, which was the first WordCamp US ever, and that was in Philadelphia. And I drove myself and I got myself a hotel and I put myself up in it and I walked to the venue and walked in that hall and saw the volume of people there and felt like, everybody’s going to know I’m not a tech person. Like, I’m just going to present myself and everybody’s going to know I’m not a tech person. I turned down one hall and I saw a woman wearing a hood that had Ewok ears on it. And then I thought to myself, well, if somebody could walk around here dressed as an Ewok, I think I’m okay. 

Marcus Burnette 00:24:56  Yeah. I think I’m gonna fit in.

Michelle Frechette 00:24:59  I’ll be okay. Right. And so I thought, because everything was a guy in a suit from the FBI who was giving a talk, and there was this woman in Ewok ears and everything in between. Right? And so I was like, okay, this is going to be okay. I’m going to be all right. And at lunch that day, this was actually the next year. At lunch the next year, I had started to know a few people, still didn’t know a ton of people. Right? But I admitted it a year and I’d met a few people, and I was sitting next to Terry Tudyk from Pittsburgh. And there was a whole bunch of people I hadn’t met at our table. And I looked up and this person’s walking towards our table with their tray of food. They point to the empty seat. Like, can I sit there? And I was like, yeah, sure. I lean over to Terry’s ear and I said, don’t react very big. But Matt Mullenwad is about to sit down next to you. Now, this was back in the days where he could still be part of the crowd. That’s almost impossible for the man nowadays. And so I had a conversation with Matt Mullenweg at my second WordCamp US, and I thought, okay, if I could get through that, I’m a pro now. I can I can talk to people anywhere.

Marcus Burnette 00:26:04  That officially makes you a veteran.

Michelle Frechette 00:26:06  It officially does. That’s right for sure. But I remember how scary it was the first time. I don’t want to say scary, just how overwhelming a little bit, and how it just felt like maybe I didn’t quite fit in, the way that I wanted to fit in. And of course I feel fine now. I don’t have any problem fitting into WordCamps anymore, but I feel for the people who are still at that stage of their WordPress journey where I used to be. And you know, I want to make life a little bit easier for them. And so that’s that’s kind of where, you know, where WP Trail Buddies came in. James Lau, James is in the chat. James came to his first WordCamp was in WordCamp Rochester a few years back. And he talks about, you know, he blogged about it. He talked about how it was way more welcoming than he expected. I’d like to think that was because it was Rochester. It was, you know, and I remember what that was like. But I think of James, I think of James when I think about WP Trail Buddies. And if that’s something like this had existed and he’d been able to talk to somebody a week before, would he have felt even more welcoming? So, James, if you’re still listening, you can let us know if you think that would have been a good thing. But I want WP Trail Buddies to be something that just really helps people feel even that much more comfortable walking into their first big camp.

Marcus Burnette 00:27:20  Yeah, absolutely. Love that. I, I cheated a little bit because I pulled up the WP World, but do you know how many events you’ve been to at this point?

Michelle Frechette 00:27:31  I’m gonna get including the ones that are upcoming, or does it count everything?

Marcus Burnette 00:27:35  Anything in the past.

Michelle Frechette: 95? 

Marcus Burnette: Very close. 95 includes the ones that are coming up that you’ll be.

Michelle Frechette: Okay. 

Marcus Burnette: 90. Right around 90. That’s incredible.

Michelle Frechette 00:27:47  I’m not a newbie anymore.

Marcus Burnette 00:27:49  That’s for sure. No. If you. So I know you’re not putting a limit on how many WordCamps before you’re a veteran, but if you’ve got 90, you can’t sign up as a newbie.

Michelle Frechette 00:27:59  No, for sure. Yeah, I might have been to a few of them. Over the years. 

Marcus Burnette 00:28:06  My question for you, and maybe this is like a welcoming note for newbies, is, like you’ve been to so many WordCamps. What makes you keep coming back to them year after year?

Michelle Frechette 00:28:15  Yeah. So, I mean, I’ll say the same thing that other people say. It’s the community. Our community to me, has been one of the most welcoming groups of people I’ve ever been a part of, and I’ve been able I mean, I was somebody who, you know, was previously running a massage school and before that, working in colleges and universities and to to be able to say that I went from that to working in tech. Before my father died, he still didn’t believe that I worked in tech. He would say things like you? But that’s your girl, you know, that kind of thing. And I mean, not my finest moment that I had a father that would say those things, but, you know, and so to be able to say that I was able to go from somebody that, I mean, I, I joke and I say I’m this middle aged, overweight woman sitting in the middle of Western or the in Western New York with a cat like. And yet I go to the Philippines and people want to take a selfie with me. It’s surreal, right? It’s surreal to have come to where I am in the WordPress community, and I think a lot of that is because I’ve done a lot of projects like I do, to help other people. And I think that that’s been rewarded with some recognition, and I just love our community so much, that that’s why I do projects like this, and that’s why I keep going back to WordCamps. I know people say, you know, your work shouldn’t be friends and family, but for me, WordPress is. It is friends and family. You know, you and I have become really good friends. I’ve met your family. I have your phone number. I text you, and I like in, a in a bind. You know, and we’ve sent things to each other in times of grief and that kind of thing to help one another out. And that is more than just coworkers and colleagues. And so for me, WordPress has become friends and family outside of the friends and family that I already had. And I want that for other people.

Marcus Burnette 00:30:14  I, I agree with that 100%. I think, if nothing else, and you said that you’ve had a number of mentors sign up because, you know, they’re the people that know about the site so far. Right. We’ll we’ll try to get the word out to some more newbies. But for mentors who are kind of on the fence about whether or not, you know, I want to do this, you know, take someone under my wing or not. I think what you just shared there like the opportunity to bring new people into that. And, you know, add to that friends and family, I think is, is huge and such a great opportunity. So if you’re a mentor on the fence of like, should I sign up and be a mentor or not, you know, just think about the opportunity of bringing new folks into that fold. I think that that’s that’s so, so powerful. I know that there are I know that there are programs for some of this already. Do you have anything for, like, speakers that have spoken a bunch and pairing them with maybe first-time speakers at a WordCamp or anything like that, or are you just focusing on just the attendees?

Michelle Frechette 00:31:17  NO, nut that’s a great idea. So maybe coming soon?

Marcus Burnette 00:31:22   Not trying to add more work, but I’m just curious.

Michelle Frechette 00:31:25  We can put that on the WP World?

Marcus Burnette 00:31:27  And I know for organizers there’s like mental organizing, like there’s already program in place for that. But I know I spoke at WordCamp Phoenix for the first time a couple of years ago, and I was a wreck the whole day.

Michelle Frechette 00:31:38  That was also your last time, right?

Marcus Burnette 00:31:39  It was. Yes. Well, yes. In person. I’ve spoken a couple of times virtually as well, but yeah. Yes, it was, but it wasn’t until I was in the green room ahead of time with a couple of people who had spoken before that were like putting me at ease, that I was able to kind of take a breath and stuff. So I don’t know if there was a little bit of that possible as well. For anybody who’s speaking for the first time, that’s super nervous, pairing them with somebody who’s spoken a few times that can kind.

Michelle Frechette 00:32:08  Maybe tier two, let’s get through this first camp, and then we’ll think about that. But yeah, I think that’s a good idea. Yeah, there’s there’s lots of opportunities for those kinds of things in the future. We also have mentoring possibilities right within WordPress itself. So there’s a mentorship program within WordPress on WordPress.org. And then there’s also WPIncludes.me for women mentoring women within WordPress as well. And I am it’s not fully announced yet. I don’t think it’s been all over the place. But I am the new program director for that as well. So I’m now working on getting people signed up to mentor women, signed up to mentor other women, in that program as well. So there are lots of opportunities for people to help each other, grow in WordPress for sure.

Marcus Burnette 00:32:57  James posted in the chat #WPMichelle100. You’re going to have to find something fun to do for your 100th camp.

SMichelle Frechette00:33:04  I know I have to figure it out right now. They aren’t all camps. They’re all, they’re all events, right?

Marcus Burnette 00:33:09  Yeah, I’ll schedule that to 95 at the moment, so we’ll see what the next five are after that. See where you end up for number 100.

Michelle Frechette 00:33:16  You never know. For sure. And then, James, did he he spoke here. He attended WordCamp Rochester in 2023. And then he came back to in 2024. And he spoke this year. So he’s been growing in WordPress as well. So that’s awesome James, thanks for doing that. Yeah. So again, I’ll put it right on the on the thing. It’s let’s see, I have a banner for it. It’s I forget when it’s me. I forgot to do these things. So for more information, go to WPTrailBuddies.WordPress.com. It is on a free WordPress website. Using all free stuff since it is not a sponsored kind of thing. And, we would love to have you join us as either a new attendee, newer attendee, or a veteran. We’d love to have you on there.

Marcus Burnette 00:34:02  Awesome. Well, I’m I’m, I’m officially going to WordCamp US, so I guess I’ll have to sign up. And I think I’ve. I think I’ve maxed out the number of camps I can go to and still be a newcomer. So I think I’ll have to sign up to be a veteran as well. 

Michelle Frechette 00:34:18  That’s the only reason I really asked you to interview me today, was so I can make sure.

Marcus Burnette 00:34:22  Just to get me signed up.

Michelle Frechette 00:34:24  Yeah, you can’t come interview me and then not sign up. That would just be wrong.

Marcus Burnette 00:34:27  That is true. Absolutely true. I’ll do that as soon as we’re done here.

Michelle Frechette 00:34:32  Sounds good. Thank you so much for interviewing me and joining me today. James. James. Marcus. Why did I say James? James in my brain?  Because James Lau because we were just talking to him. That’s right. But anyway, Marcus, thank you so much for for not making me just sit here and talk to the screen by myself and have a have a fun conversation and reminiscing with you. I appreciate it.

Marcus Burnette 00:34:52  Of course. Love this project. Love, WP Trail Buddies. Whether you’re a veteran or newcomer, sign up. And, Michelle and I will both see you at WordCamp US, right?

Michelle Frechette 00:35:01  Absolutely. I will be there. Looking forward to it.

Marcus Burnette 00:35:03  Awesome.

Michelle Frechette 00:35:04  Thanks, everybody. We’ll see you next time.

Marcus Burnette 00:35:07  Bye.