Learn About All the Shows on the Do the Woo Podcast Channel

Hey, Bob, WP here, and welcome to our continued launch of Do the Woo 4.0. Yesterday, we talked about our official launch and gave you an overview. There was quite a bit more to cover, but one of the things I promised to do is talk about our shows, what’s behind them, and the great hosts we have serving them out. Also, I mentioned that it was obvious with the various topics and focuses on certain shows that they needed to be broken out. To top that off, we brought with the launch the ability to subscribe to the shows you want to listen to—whether as few as you want, as many as you want, or the entire channel feed.

More important than the names of the shows and what they bring are our hosts. Way back when I started Do the Woo, after fewer than a handful of guests, Brad Williams joined as a co-host. Later on, we added a few more, and it just kept growing. I see a lot of talent and passion out there in our ecosystem, and often the shows were created around the hosts. Luckily for me, they were just a perfect fit.

There is no logic that I could ever put down on paper that would guide you or anyone else through this process if you were trying to choose the number of hosts I have. Sometimes it’s a gut feeling; maybe it’s about the person themselves, the show, or a relationship I’ve had with them already as a colleague or a friend. Whatever the case, it has always worked out. Some hosts have come and gone, and they reside in our hall of fame and know they’re always welcome to come back. I’ve worked hard to bring a diverse group of voices, personalities, and backgrounds. Let’s just say not everyone wants to be a podcast host. I’ve asked a lot of people, and I’ve gotten more no’s than yes’s, obviously. Hey, I get it. It’s just not everyone’s thing. So, I keep working at this, but I also have the benefit of bringing in a lot of diversity through guests and guest hosts who do one-off episodes.

But I really want to get on track here. Let’s get into the shows—all 12 of them. Each one was started because I saw the importance of the content that surfaced. The best way to do this is to give you a look at each one of these shows.

First, we have All Things WordPress and WooCommerce. Obviously, it sounds like a catchall bucket, and initially, it was and kind of still is because I took all the past shows and rebranded them to have a consistent new look. This was one of those shows that just didn’t quite fit into the others. I could pop it in there, which still holds true in the cases of guests and guest hosts who do one-off shows. But as you can tell now, it has transitioned into three specialty areas that really needed to be part of the Do the Woo channel.

So first, we have Emerging Tech with Dave from Automattic. Dave is very avid and lives and breathes all things emerging in the tech industry, especially things like AI, crypto, and blockchain. Of course, there’s a lot more. We have had some other hosts on this show, but Dave is kind of carrying it right now. It’s really about taking these emerging technologies and looking at those topics and how they are becoming part of, or will be a part of, the WordPress and Woo ecosystem. So, if you want to stay on the very cliché-sounding cutting edge of things to come, that’s what Dave will be doing.

Then we have Anne and Taeke, who just recently started a series with a focus on accessibility. This was something I wanted to get in on a more regular basis because it is an important topic that needs to be talked about. I was thrilled when Anne offered to be a host. Now, the funny side of this story is Taeke was supposed to be her first guest on the show, and as we were chatting before we started recording, I saw a connection between them. Now maybe this is a warning: you never know what’s going to happen when I’m around. The next thing I know, I’m inviting Taeke to be a regular host with Anne. By the time we started recording, well, he was a co-host. So you can see how these things kind of happen here.

Last but not least, under All Things WordPress and WooCommerce, Sophia and Allison have just started a series called The Next Gen. These two are perfect examples of the next generation of WordPressers, and they’re going to be bringing on other younger guests to figure this whole thing out on how we get WordPress ready for the next generation. Well, I’m really not, but there’s not much pressure on them. Seriously, this is something that has seen a lot of discussion around it, and I know we are going to learn a lot, not just from these two, but from the guests they bring in. This is something we really need to pay attention to, and I’m thrilled to have them doing this show.

Okay, now I just explained one show. Maybe I should go through these a little quicker because I know your time is limited. Next, we have Community Voices: WordPress Around the World. This evolved because every time I get a guest or host on where English is their second language, which is a lot of guests we have on here, I’m constantly amazed by how well they do. But you know, you still see there’s times when you’re just missing a little bit of their enthusiasm, their story, their passion, and the process. So, I started thinking, well, what could we do and put in place to invite regional WordPress communities to come in and talk about their local WordPress community? Most importantly, they would be talking about their community to their community, making sure they understand what they’re saying. This podcast was born.

The first one we invited was the Serbian community. Then we had one put together by the Spanish community, which was ironic because it was ad hoc at WordCamp US. Then we enjoyed the Dutch WordPress community, followed by my new home country of Portugal. It’s going to be really interesting to see how this evolves, and I’m sure it might evolve into more than just talks about the community. We’ll see. It has started out a little bit slow, but I’m anxious to get this one up to speed. I know we’re all anxious to see those communities come on and talk to their own community.

Next, we have Inside Woo. In some past episodes, we were always talking with somebody directly from WooCommerce.com. They fit perfectly into this, and then we started thinking more about it. Well, let’s keep it there for those special shows. In fact, recently, CEO Paul from Woo and a few others joined in on a conversation with one of their customers, and that was really interesting to hear a CEO talk with one of their customers. These are the kind of conversations moving forward. Let’s just say this: there will always be somebody on Inside Woo from WooCommerce.com. They’ll either be a guest or maybe a guest host. It just gives you a deeper look into Woo, maybe a peek behind the curtains or just whipping them wide open one way or another. So for now, let’s just say you never know what you will hear or who you will hear from on Inside Woo.

Open Talk on Open Source. Robert and Courtney are doing this newer show twice a month that just recently started. Yes, they’re talking more about the other open-source projects out there, introducing them to you, and keeping you up to date on the bigger picture. The idea came to me through a few conversations—actually, quite a few—and it’s something I’d been thinking about myself. It just felt important. I think that WordPress people should be exposed to and understand things outside the WordPress bubble as far as all these open-source projects. I really believe this will help you if you listen to this in your business with your clients. Also, it will help you understand just how many open-source projects integrate with each other, how they integrate with WooCommerce, and how they integrate with WordPress as a whole. Robert and Courtney both have massive experience in the bigger open-source ecosystem, so they are perfect hosts for this show.

And there’s The WordPress Way. Boy, does that sound familiar, huh? I could say a lot about this and the title alone. To me personally, I now envision the WordPress way as something we are doing now and what we’re doing moving forward. In fact, I did another short podcast just talking about those three words. To me, the WordPress way is what WordPress is all about and what’s important to the community and the health of it. There will be a variety of topics under this one. Abha has been doing this for some time, and it easily fit into this show. She has a great history of talking with contributors around the world and sharing incredible stories. She loves doing this. You can tell by every show, and who knows where she’ll go with it.

Birgit, who is one of our newer hosts, drills in or really focuses on DEIB—diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. She leads a working group at Make WordPress and has a passion that comes through as she moves into this new series. So check that out. There are going to be a lot of interesting conversations on there.

Now, we really haven’t done this yet, but Courtney will also be doing some shows in this off and on. We just haven’t quite gotten our stuff together yet. She’s on top of everything WordPress core—I mean, Courtney knows stuff. Courtney’s in our open-source talk. Courtney just is WordPress, and now and then she’ll drop in and pull together other great conversations, probably a lot around Core, Make.WordPress, and all those things in between. So keep an eye out on that show. There’ll be some other stuff that falls into the way that, well, isn’t maybe one of these three hosts that fit so well because it is basically, to put it bluntly, the WordPress way.

And Agency Chat. We have two episodes that are very different from each other each month. The first one is hosted by Robbie and Robert, who will jump in with a founder, a team member, or other industry experts. They share what it takes to build and grow a successful agency business in the Woo space. There have already been so many good conversations on this one, and I know that everybody walks away having learned something, whether you are thinking of evolving into an agency or you’re currently an agency. Robert and Robbie both have tons of agency experience themselves and bring a lot to this show.

Then on the flip side of that, we invite two agency owners to guest host and have a conversation. They basically take over the show. Topics range from building a team to insightful strategies and even sometimes what’s in their stack. It goes in a lot of different directions, and the conversations are casual, but those casual conversations generally bring out some incredible tips, insights, and yes, stories as well.

Then we have Woo BizChat, three episodes a month hosted by Adam, Emma, Katie, and Marcus. These four bring a really diverse background and experience to these conversations. Sometimes they have them between themselves, and sometimes they have them with guests. As you can imagine by the title, it’s all about running and helping you build and grow your successful Woo business. The key here is even though it’s called Woo BizChat, it’s really broader than that.

From having listened to a lot of the shows, and I know from people who have given us feedback, any WordPress business will pick up something from this show. What a lot of this revolves around as far as guests is business owners themselves or other experts bringing in advice and tips. You can be assured you’ll discover nuggets of knowledge—not only new stuff that you will learn but also many experiences that you can relate to and may help you, or you may simply be able to empathize with it. So, quite a variety of topics coming in Woo BizChat for the future. We have a good backlog already, so check that out.

And then we move into Woo Product Chat with current hosts Tammy and Jonathan. These two are tops when it comes to businesses and products. They know their stuff. Jonathan has been on for quite some time, and the chats between themselves and others have a really unique way and talent of pulling out the best from their own internal thoughts and from product builders. Like our other shows, these product builders give you insights whether you’re a builder yourself, you’ve done it for a year, maybe you’ve done it for ten years, or you’re thinking of moving into products from services or adding products. A lot of the stories have been about transition, for sure. In fact, that’s a theme you hear a lot—a lot of agencies, builders, and freelancers that are doing sites move into the product side of stuff. It’s a constant theme through a lot of these different shows.

We have another host coming in for a second episode for Woo Product Chat real soon, and it’s going to be a good one. Okay, I’ll tell you who it is: James Kemp from Woo. I’m going to leave you with that and have you anticipating. More on that real soon.

Of course, we cannot go without mentioning Woo DevChat. What would any Do the Woo be without a Woo DevChat? Seriously, Zach and Carl have been doing this show for some time, and if I could explain it to you in a nutshell, I would. But there is possibly no way. But seriously, this is where we get down and geeky by bringing in a guest or two. You never know where the conversation will go with this. I will say, if you are a developer, you’re going to like this one. And even if you’re not a Woo developer, you can learn a lot. Imagine sitting down with two other developers and talking shop for an hour. That’s what this show is.

As amazing as you may think, some developers are very much introverts, and when they get talking with each other, the tables turn. Nudging right up close to this launch, we have another pair of hosts who have come on for Woo DevChat. Marcel and Mike have joined as co-hosts for a second episode each month. To explain that better, I’m going to suggest that you listen to the latest Woo DevChat with all four of them where they geek out.

I’m talking about Zach, Carl, Marcel, and Mike. What’s great is they get into their geekiness during that show, but you also get to learn what Mike and Marcel will be bringing to the show as well. So please go and check that out. You can always find it under Woo DevChat on the site. If you’re subscribed, you’ll see it. It’s called “For a Good Time: 4 Developers, 4 Hosts.” Like I said, if you’re a dev, I promise you’ll love this one.

WordPress Event Talk is as straightforward as you can get. It’s all about events in our space—WordCamps, meetups, next-gen events, all that good stuff. Most have been conversations with various hosts, guests, and guest hosts. Some have actually been done at WordCamps, while others are collections of voices throughout the community talking about events. Recently, we added a regular host to this podcast. Devin, a full-time sponsored community team contributor at WordPress.org, is hosting at least one episode a month. Sometimes she’s done more, but she’ll be there one time a month.

The cool thing about Devin is she loves community, she loves events, and she loves innovation. She is on top of everything, and there’s no end to what we can expect from the shows that she will be hosting. So if you are really into WordPress events, you want to hear more about them, especially if you’re new to this space, this is a great one to listen to because you hear a lot about what drives this community—even some of the challenges, the wins, and everything in between from people who are putting these together. I would highly recommend checking this one out.

So I hope you’re still with me here. I’ve been talking for a while now. There’s only so much Bob you want to listen to, but I’m getting close here, so hang in there just a little bit more. We’re down to two more, and I’m going to keep these brief for obvious reasons.

During the launch, we started the newest and what I’m hoping, praying, is our last show to round us out at an even 12. That is Scaling Enterprise WordPress and OSS. If you don’t understand the acronym OSS, it’s Open Source Software. This one’s been in the works for some time. We’ve been planning it, and now we have this unique partnership with Scale Consortium, which you can learn about in this show I’m going to tell you about here real soon. We have three hosts: Brad, who is returning after a Do the Woo hiatus, with Karim and Tom. This show is going to be so cool.

It’s the future of WordPress Enterprise. It’s been part of it, but now we’re really talking about it. To get a good feel for this one, I think you should check out their intro show that also debuted during this launch week. Let’s just say you’re not only going to learn about enterprise if you’re interested in it, if you want to understand what it is, or if you’re thinking of how to take your agency to the enterprise level, but you’re also going to be exposed to the bigger picture of enterprise and open source, which is an incredible value that you may not always get within the bubble of WordPress. I couldn’t have asked for a better lineup for the hosts than these three. So do check that show out; it just happened a few days ago, and you can learn more about that.

And last but not least, WooBits. Anyway, WooBits—if you’ve been around, you’ve seen WooBits, you heard WooBits. If you haven’t been around, you don’t know what I’m talking about. In either case, it’s changing. I will tell you more about that. Plus, if you’re not aware of it, we do have a news channel as well, somewhere where we keep up on Do the Woo news, not news in general. I talked about how we don’t do that stuff. This is more about what’s happening here at Do the Woo. If you want to keep up on what changes we’re making, you can subscribe to that. Or, as I said, it will come with the full channel feed.

Well, let’s leave it at that. I’m getting tired; you’re probably getting tired of listening to me. But I just wanted to have the opportunity to tell you about these shows. Since we’ve done this, there are so many more things I could tell you. I could even tell you how I branded all these shows, which is another whole show in itself. But I really felt like I wanted to tell you everything that is here because sometimes you just don’t know.

I want to thank our sponsors once again: Airwallex, Avalara, Cloudways, GoDaddy, Hostinger, Omnisend, and Weglot. Please go to their sites and check them out. Depending on the show you listen to, you’ll hear more about them. We have links to them on our site. They are what make Do the Woo possible.

If you have a company or you know of a company that might be interested in sponsoring, we still have some spots left. Just go to dothewoo.io/sponsor and let’s chat. In the end, subscribe to your favorite show or shows, or all shows—your choice. As I said earlier, you can also consider supporting not only your favorite show but your favorite hosts. If you are interested in being a guest or a guest host on any of these shows, you can head over to dothewoo.io and find the link in the footer.

So again, I will close it out. Cheers. And feel free to ping me. You can find me just