Transcript ↓

In this episode of the Post Status Happiness Hour, Michelle Frechette and June Lui introduce Speed Network Online, a new virtual networking initiative for the WordPress community and beyond. They discuss the origins of the idea, event logistics, and the benefits of relaxed, pressure-free networking. The hosts explain how the event will operate, including registration, costs, and future dates, emphasizing the importance of building genuine connections and fostering collaboration in a supportive environment.

Top Takeaways:

• Speed Network Online Was Born from a Real Networking Challenge: The idea originated during a casual conversation where June expressed her struggles expanding her network at large events like WordCamps. Michelle immediately acted on the concept, purchasing a domain and jumpstarting the project. This quick collaboration shows the power of shared vision and execution between community members.
• The Format Focuses on Accessibility and Practicality: Speed Network Online is designed to be a virtual, low-pressure alternative to traditional networking events. It uses Zoom breakout rooms for one-on-one chats and provides participants with a spreadsheet of contact info afterward, eliminating the need for frantic note-taking. The event is purposefully inclusive, affordable at $20, and structured to reduce anxiety and improve accessibility.
• The Platform Encourages Relationship-Building, Not Just Pitching: Unlike speed dating or surface-level interactions, the goal is not to “close deals” or just market yourself but to build a lasting network of complementary professionals. The event supports deeper connections that may evolve into partnerships, project collaborations, or referrals over time.
• Speed Network Online Is Community-Driven and Evolving: June built the website from scratch, and they’ve begun promoting the project through a new Twitter (X) account: @SpeedNetOnline. They also encourage participants to create WP World profiles to make it easier to stay connected post-event. Michelle emphasizes that these types of grassroots initiatives are powered by genuine collaboration and shared community goals.

Mentioned In The Show:

• Backpocket Ace
• WP Accessibility day
• Speed Network Online
• The WP World
• Zoom
• Mark Westguard 
• WS Form
• Nathan Tyler
• N Squared
• Meet Michelle.online

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

• June Liu (Marketing Consultant, backpocket ACE)
• Michelle Frechette (Director of Community Relations, Post Status)
• Olivia Bisset (Audiovisual Editor, 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 00:00:25  I don’t know about you, June. That music was okay, but I don’t think you could really dance to it.

June Lui 00:00:29  Oh, we can try. But it would be a, What is that, a lyrical, lyrical composition.

Michelle Frechette 00:00:38  Haha. Trying something new today on the Post Status Happiness. If you’re joining us now, thank you for joining us. This is the Post Status Happiness Hour Live. And, we put it on YouTube and then we package it up later. We put it on our website. So it is a podcast lives forever as evergreen content, whether it expires or not. Anyway, it’s good to have everybody joining us today. And today my guest is actually one. Last week my guest was Marcus Burnett because he partnered with me on something this week my guest is June Lui who also partnered with me on something. So if you say that the Post Status Happiness Hour is entirely self-serving, only occasionally self-serving people, and today is actually one of those days as well. June, welcome to the show.

June Lui 00:01:22  Thank you Michelle. Nice to be here.

Michelle Frechette 00:01:25  Nice. Nice to have you here. I was going to say nice to be here, too, because it’s the end of the day. I’m a little silly. But. Yes. It’s so good to have you here. Before we launch into everything that we’re doing together, why don’t you tell our audience a little about a little bit about who you are and what you do with the work in the WordPress community?

June Lui 00:01:43  Okay. For those who don’t know me, I am June. I, I am building Backpocket Ace and I’m providing some marketing consulting. And as an accessibility advocate. I’m trying to work behind the scenes with you. To help you build a client journey that is more friendly to the user.

Michelle Frechette 00:02:08  Absolutely. And you and I, have we met doing something that was neither one of our own projects, but we met on WP Accessibility day. I was the lead marketing. This year you’re the lead marketing. I’m only a name only because you are, like, just running with it in such amazing, your organizational skills far like you are the master. I can only learn from you, but I’m so grateful to work together with you on things. So, that’s how we met. And today we’re going to talk about Speed Network. And we have somebody already. Hi, Blake. It’s nice to have you here. Thanks for joining us. We, Whoops. I clicked the wrong thing. Now, you know that I have live comments turned on. If you have questions at any point during our show, please post them in the chat. We will absolutely address those. But today we’re going to talk about Speed Network Online. if you’re watching this after tomorrow. So after June 26th, you will not be able to join us for our first one, because it is tomorrow, but we are going to do them on a monthly basis. June, why don’t you give us a little bit about the background of how did Speed Network Online even come to be?

June Lui 00:03:15  Speed network. Well, it was a casual conversation that you and I had, and it was really you listening to me complaining.  About how I wasn’t able to expand my network in a more organic way. And, I was finding WordCamps to be a little large of an audience, and it was hard for me to manage. And, you know, I’m a small minion in a little, in a big pond, so people are not going to really remember me either. and when I follow up, it’s kind of like it feels more like a cold call, when I follow up. So after talking to you about it, well, while talking to you about it. You know, your fingers did, flew across the keyboard, and the next thing I knew. You have purchased the domain name.

Michelle Frechette 00:04:13  And you were like, what did I get myself into?

June Lui 00:04:16  No, I, nope, not yet, because I was just whiplashed into, oh, here’s a login, go create a site. And I was just like, oh, oh, we’re doing this. We’re really doing this. It’s really happening. So yeah. So I kind of took a breather and I said, okay, well, what is it that I wanted to build? You know, I’ve talked to you about it. And I was like, okay, well, what is it that is needed? And I worked it out in my head. And it’s been a long conversation, internal head conversation. But it was time to get that out of me. And so in a couple of days, you know, I worked it out. I did the outline, I showed you the outline. And, it was the idea of creating a platform where people can sign up and join us online. It’s 100% virtual. And it’s supposed to be the idea that is to be quick introduction. And, using Zoom Breakout Room as a 1 to 1 was the perfect merge of all these ideas coming together. So that’s how it created. I mean, yeah, yeah.

Michelle Frechette 00:05:35  What I remember too, from that initial conversation is you saying to me, I go to Meetups, like, like in-person meetups, and I’m not really sure how to parlay that into networking. I just use the word parlay, and I don’t even know if I used it correctly, but, we’re going to go with it. To, to use that for networking because number one, it tends to be the same people, the same core group of people every time you have a local meetup, right? So if, you know, if Susie Smith doesn’t already know who you are and what you do, that’s on you or her, but also a lot of us at Meetups are doing the same thing, like we’re all freelancing or we’re all or people that are, you know, are into core and things like that. What Speed Networking really is for is so that we can connect in those areas where we really need somebody to complement, complement the work that we do not tell us how great it is, but actually fill in those gaps. So, for example, I have a client now that, the contract is sitting in his hands, who’s an author and educator, and course creator, and he has created all these wonderful things that he doesn’t know how to take them from the information he’s created to market them and actually build his empire. And so I, he wanted me to work with him. And I thought, I don’t have the bandwidth to do this by myself, but June Lui could really knock the heck out of this. And so I brought you in to partner with me on that, because you and I have had that those enough working together. And I know what you do to be able to say, hey, June, let’s split the money on this and let’s split the work and make it a little bit easier, easier to get all the work done. And so filling in those kinds of blanks, helping each other find people who can fill in those gaps where we need help. And a lot of the times, if you’re a developer maybe, marketing is something that you need a little bit of help with. Or if you are a marketer, you might need somebody to do some work with a form or with something on your website that’s more of a developer related. And so it’s one of those things where we can help marry those people together in a very platonic way and help you kind of get on the road.

June Lui 00:07:44  Sure. And with each session, you know, with each session you’re not sure who you’re going to, who you’ll eventually meet. And it’s it’s not, we’re not trying to create the perfect merge of all these situations and, and blossom it out into something, You know? But it’s, you don’t know who you meet. And you, it may be a person that you meet this time that you need somewhere down the line. And that’s that’s what we’re we’re hoping that people will find the connections and keep those in mind. And afterwards, it’s after the event. It’s up to each individual to continue those conversations, you know. 

Michelle Frechette 00:08:30  Exactly. different than speed dating, where you are hoping to find the one right out of all of these people that could be your lifelong companion or even just, like, take to a wedding next week. This is actually to help you build your whole network of people that you can tag in on projects and things like that. What I love about it too, is because it’s online and not in person.  It’s really spans the globe, and we do have people. Gosh bless them. We have people in Asia who are getting up in the middle of the night. I know to be part of this. And I think that’s awesome because, it’s it just speaks to the power of our community. First of all, that people want to meet more people. and this is a great way to do that. So ideally, half of the people will hold a zoom room. The other half will cycle through those zoom rooms. So you won’t meet everybody every time, which means, hey, come back for more next month. Which will be at a different time. I think we’re doing them different days, different times to try to accommodate different schedules. We’re never doing one at 3 a.m. our time, though. I’m so sorry to tell you, we like our sleep, too. But it should give you the opportunity to meet people and meet different people every time. And one of the things that we are promising too is that when you have this five minute meeting and you’re doing your elevator pitch and they’re doing their elevator pitch, and you’re learning a little bit about what each other does, you don’t have to be writing down their contact information. You don’t have to take a picture of anything. You don’t have to do any of that. Because at the end of every event, the people who signed up for that specific event, we will share the spreadsheet of attendees with you so you’ll have the contact information. You can write down information about how you might want to work with that person in the future, and not have to worry about gathering those details. And did I spell their, their email address right? Those kinds of things. So.

June Lui 00:10:20  Exactly, exactly.

Michelle Frechette 00:10:22  Jud, is it free to attend? I suppose I don’t know the answer.

June Lui 00:10:27  No no no, no. I do know the answer. Well, I, I think that, it’s good that we’re asking people to pay $20. It kind of gives them an incentive to make sure that they show up. and it also covers our costs for hosting and for Zoom. So it’s kind of, it’s just that bare minimum. And I hope that, $20 is equivalent to a cup of coffee and think of it as, you know, if you’re meeting a couple of people for a coffee chat that is certainly equates to that. So hopefully you see.

Michelle Frechette 00:11:07  A coffee or a croissant or something, right? So for sure.

June Lui 00:11:09  Exactly. For today’s place, it might only be one meeting. 

Michelle Frechette 00:11:13  That’s so true. This is true. Why don’t you go ahead and share your screen? You I will. I will say that I thought my superpower was connecting people. And maybe that is one of my lesser powers. My new superpower is partnering with people who just run with it. And I didn’t have to do a gosh darn thing except add software. So this site, and it’s beautiful as it is, is all your creation. And I want to thank you for everything that you’ve done with it. But why don’t you go ahead and walk people through, what it looks like, what we’re doing and how they can register.

June Lui 00:11:44  I would say that this site is more on the simplistic side. I have seen Marcus’s work, and, this is what, nowhere near that. And that’s why I was earlier first.

Michelle Frechette 00:11:57  Different audience, different needs. I know. He was like, oh man, he thought he was competing with us for some reason. But yeah.

June Lui 00:12:02  No, I, I’m not a competitive person. So I’m glad that he felt the need to compete. But

Michelle Frechette 00:12:13  Exactly.

June Lui 00:12:14  Yeah. So it’s very simple. a lot of the information is on here. If you go through it, read through it. And, here’s the biggest piece of detail that you need. The first event for this this time is June 26th. That’s tomorrow, at the recording time, at it’ll be, UTC 5 p.m. to about 630, depending on the total number of people. It will be a completely online, virtual online, a cost of $20. This will build, do wonderful things toward your network. And, oh, I should say, spaces are limited. I should update that I haven’t done, I haven’t had a chance to do that. But you need, for we ask that you make sure to block off the time and have a reliable internet connection and a quiet place to focus. You know, it’s it’s a it’s a moment in time. So you want to capture and create and get the most out of that moment in time.

Michelle Frechette 00:13:25  Make your own coffee or pick it up in advance. Do not go to a coffee shop and try to attend this event. It will be very distracting.

June Lui 00:13:32  Yeah, you will be distracted. And the participants, the other participants would be too. So okay, now, before the event, I suggest that you set up your space, you know, make sure that there’s no clutter around you and that you can focus. You know, the chat round the will work through one on one. You know, you I also follow up with the PDF after you sign up. So all this information is also listed out in another fashion. So if you don’t capture it from the website, you will get it from the PDF. Okay. The one thing I wanted to highlight, another one of Marcus’s side project is the the WP World. And I encourage you guys to, those participating to create a profile on that website.

June Lui 00:14:25  It is so much easier for people to find you, if they have that profile on, I can go to LinkedIn and type your name in and connect with you. But then I have to also go to Facebook and see if you’re there, if I can’t find you on LinkedIn. But if you have a profile on the WP World, all of those distinctions can be listed out. And, it’s very easy to sign up and it’s free. So another shout out to Marcus for creating something that the community needs.

Michelle Frechette 00:14:58  Absolutely. And there there are there are more than one Michelle Frechette’s in the world. So if you were going to search for me on LinkedIn, you’d find multiple people with my name. So having but there’s only one of me on the WP World. So I think that’s a great that’s a great idea.

June Lui 00:15:12  Right. So to register. It’s very simple. We just need your name, your email and any information that you like to give us, a company name or if you don’t have one, self, a link. And like I said, you can provide your WP World profile link with a couple of sentences about what you do, and then you just pay the 20 bucks and then that’s it. And it is easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Michelle Frechette 00:15:43  Shout out to Mark Westguard for providing a license for WS Form here as well. I just want to make sure that he gets some do on there because yeah, I absolutely love his form. So I don’t have in front of me. But if people are unable to attend this month. Especially if you’re watching this later. I know that you’ve got some dates. Do you want me to take it out? Let me take this off.

June Lui 00:16:06  I got. I got it.I yeah, I couldn’t figure out which button to push.

Michelle Frechette 00:16:11  If you could tell. Tell people. When are the ones for July and August, for example.

June Lui 00:16:16  For July. It is going to be on a Wednesday. I just want to make sure I got the right date. Yes.  It’s going to be Wednesday, July 23rd. So that would be the July date. And then for the August date, you wanted to know that now too?

Michelle Frechette:  Sure. 

June Lui: It will be Thursday, August 21st. Okay.

Michelle Frechette 00:16:38  So you’ll be able to we’ll put those up on the website after this week. We want, we kind of want to make sure that the first one is successful before we start selling tickets for the next events. We have a couple people who signed up and for, you know, life gets in the way, they are not able to attend this month. We actually have We could roll your registration forward to another event so that you aren’t, because it is a non-refundable $20, but we will allow you to use it for a future event with us as well, because we don’t want you to lose out on that. But we also don’t want to do a million refunds, so we have that. Fantastic. Anybody in the in the chat have questions about this? We’d love to answer them for you.

Michelle Frechette 00:17:18  This was one of those things where, you know, June’s right. She’s talking to me. And before you know what, I’m like, oh, I just bought a URL. Let’s do this thing, and I, I think I railroaded her into it, but,

June Lui 00:17:30  No

Michelle Frechette 00:17:31  BUt she really stepped up to the plate.

June Lui 00:17:34  No, you know what. I didn’t feel like I was railroaded, I really didn’t. I mean, I gave you an idea, and you, you know, I, it was an idea. And I’ve been talking to people, different people about it. And, you know, you took it and ran with it. And that’s kind of, was needed in order for this to, to come to fruition. So.

Michelle Frechette 00:17:55  Yeah, but if it wasn’t for networking, we wouldn’t have a networking event because that’s you and I have met through, through WP Accessibility Day and doing networking through there has allowed us and then, you know, my Wednesday and Wednesdays I just have some open office hours, which allowed us to get to know each other a little bit better as well. And so because of that, we were able to work together on a project that we might never have thought of each other to work on before if we hadn’t already started networking. So networking is a very powerful tool, and I just, I can’t recommend it enough. And I think one of the beautiful things about online isn’t just that you can attend from anywhere, but that you don’t have as much pressure on yourself to stand in a room full of other people. If you are an introverted person, it’s one on one. Yeah the Zoom room will start and I’ll have an introduction of how we’re going to do things, but then it’s going to be you moving one on one and just having a conversation through your computer with other people who are also signed up. So I think the pressure should be a lot lower. As far as, the burden of, the expectations of attending an event that are in-person events, especially for people who may, have a little more social anxiety. I’m not one of those people, but I know that they exist.  And so I think that events like this make it really easy for other people to participate with a lot less pressure.

June Lui 00:19:22  Exactly. And, you know, I mean, cost wise, too, I’m really hoping that people can see the value of just $20 in, opposed to, you know, having the airfare and the hotel cost. And, you know, I know that WordCamp is very economical, but the supporting fees, that goes along with it can be, you know, higher for some people to manage. So this is a good medium for people who, who is already to, you know, expand their network a bit more. And you know, I actually met Michelle in 2023 WordCamp US in DC and but that was just like a momentary, you know, two ships pass at night, you know.

Michelle Frechette 00:20:14  and I’m so tired. By the time I get home, I’m like, who did I even meet while I was there?

June Lui 00:20:19  Exactly, exactly. Yeah. But I mean, what was, what was I trying to say? I don’t remember.

Michelle Frechette 00:20:26  That we met each other all the way back in 2023. Yeah.

June Lui 00:20:29  Yes, yes. So anyway, so yeah, I mean, I, I do hope that people, you know, find, this is as an economical way to, to meet people. 

Michelle Frechette 00:20:42  Yeah. For sure. so we got a few more minutes. I think we’ve said almost everything we could possibly think of to say about this. But if you have a question, if you want to know about attendee, if attending anything like that, please let us know. I think we are up to maybe 21 people attending for tomorrow. You have a better handle on that. I know I saw one more registration come in today. And of course, we do need an even number, so if we don’t have an even number, I will throw myself in the mix and also be somebody that people can talk to tomorrow. But I was going to be the puppet master and just run the rooms. But we would love to have people from all over attend this.  And it won’t be all developers, it won’t be all marketers, it won’t be all designers. It is a nice, smattering, if you will, of people across the ecosystem, which I think is also pretty cool.

June Lui 00:21:31  We don’t have a lot of social media accounts yet. But I did start a Twitter account, Speed Network Online. So if you guys want to follow us on Twitter for more up to date information or just to, you know, keep posted on what’s new. Go ahead and do that. It’s, Yeah, yeah.

Michelle Frechette 00:21:52  I’m pulling up the link right now Oh, so that I can put it in the chat.

June Lui 00:21:57  Yeah. If if you find me, which is my handle is mustbejune and you’ll see that’s what I post about.

Michelle Frechette 00:22:08  Exactly. So yeah. So you can go to x.com/SpeedNetOnline and you can follow the account there and be apprised of everything that’s going on. And I don’t, we don’t have a ton of followers yet. So it would be lovely if you wanted to be one of them. Pretty cool right. We would love that for sure. Let me find my tab again. There we are. So, anything else you want to add June for? You know. For the future.

June Lui 00:22:32  Well, I’ll just end with this. So if you’re running your own business, you know, you especially if you’re doing it solo. It’s very easy to feel isolated. So I encourage people to get out of their own comfort zone and, and join us. And, you know, we’re not scary people. You can see that. We’re not scary people.

Michelle Frechette 00:22:57  At least June’s not. I have my moments.

June Lui 00:23:00  Haha! You know. And, you know, if we’re not asking for people to be, you know, hustlers and, you know, push themselves and have a pitch or anything, just organically come as yourself and say what you need, and show what you what you do, and you never know what you’re going to, who you’re going to meet. And you know you’ll meet. You’ll definitely meet some thoughtful people and you’ll see what happens next.

Michelle Frechette 00:23:28  Absolutely, looking forward to it. So again, we put the banner up there that is SpeedNetworkOnline.com. I haven’t decided when we’re closing registration, but it’ll at least stay open through, let’s say 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. But then we have a little housekeeping to do before we can actually sign rooms and things like that. So if you’re thinking about it, tonight’s your deadline. Make sure you get in there. Register before first thing in the morning. And so we will set that as the precedent. Registration will be open until about 8 a.m. the day of every event, which gives you plenty of time to register. But register early because if this is successful and people are talking about it, July will fill up quickly. So lets you know if you really want to attend. Make sure that you have an opportunity to sign up for those things. Excellent. Well, June, thank you not only for showing up today and talking about this on this podcast and, you know, providing content for Post Status, but also for partnering with me on this event. More than that for actually taking it, running with it, building a beautiful website and saying, here it’s done. And I went, hey, it looks pretty good. Which was awesome. So I appreciate that. And and working with you on, on different projects has been awesome. So.

June Lui 00:24:38  Pleasure is mine.

Michelle Frechette 00:24:40  And mine. Next week I have Nathan Tyler coming in lots of fun things happening over at, their, their, company. They also one of their products is. Oh, I’ve just forgotten the name of it. Give me just a moment. The, who’s what is, he’s with N Squared and NSquared.io. and they also have lots of they have different plugins and things like that. So things are going to be happening. We’re going to talk with Nathan next week. if you have something happening in your life at your company and you would like to get it out in front of the Post Status  audience give, give me a shout. You can fill out the the contact form on PosStatus.com, or you can hit me up on my DMs and any of my various social media channels, or at Meet Michelle.online. I would love to give you an opportunity to have the floor and talk about the things that are happening that mean something to you. So, thank you, audience, for hanging in there with us, learning about what we’re doing. Thanks again, June, for spending some of your Wednesday afternoon with me. We hope to see you all at Speed Networking soon, and if not there than in any of the wonderful places that that, WordPress brings us. So thank you very much.

June Lui 00:25:50  Okay. Thank you. Michelle.