Bringing WordPress Certification to the Community

Bob: I am joined today by Robbie Adair, my wonderful co-host. Hey, Robbie. How you doing?

Robbie: I’m doing well, Bob. How about yourself?

Bob: I’m doing good. And I’m excited, not only because Robbie has her fingers into this particular new adventure, but because we also have two very fantastic guests.

Robbie: Well, and Bob, I will say, I’m excited for this episode. Twofold, I mean, I am involved, you’re right. I’m on the advisory board, so I’m very excited about that. And I know we’ve got good things to talk about in this episode. But, also, one of the main reasons, when I first spoke with them about this was that my father was also a vet. And the VA was a very good system for them. And so I have a dual-purpose behind this is what I’m going to say. So I’m very excited. So introduce our guest, Bob.

Bob: Cool. Okay. First, we have Talisha and Sophia. I’m just going to go ahead and start with Talisha, and tell us what you do and who you are.

Talisha: All right. Well, I am Talisha Lewallen. I am the founder and CEO of WPConnects, which just helps train military veterans in WordPress. And then I’m also the founder and president of the Board of CertifyWP Foundation. And I am in Oklahoma, the lovely windy state down here.

Sophia: I am Sophia DeRosia. I am the marketing and sales coordinator for WPConnects, also working on CertifyWP. And I am currently in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Bob: All righty. Well, I’m going to let Robbie give an intro a little bit into CertifyWP and then we can have Sophia and Talisha kind of tell us a backstory of this.

The backstory of CertifyWP

Robbie: Sure. I found out about this, before I was on the advisory board, I was actually talking to Cory Miller and he was like, “Oh, we’re going to miss Talisha.” I was like, “Wait, wait, where’s Talisha going? What’s she doing?” And then he started telling me about how she was working with the VA, which really, really gained my interest. Like I said, my father was a vet, and so anything that I can kind of give back sometimes I like to try. And so I was like, “Well, just tell Talisha, if she has anything that we can help out with, let us know.”

Then I got a message from Talisha. Talisha was like, “Robbie, could you be on the advisory board?” I was like, “Absolutely. I would love to do that.” And it has been amazing. Our board meetings are very good. We have a great board put together and very knowledgeable. And so it has bee a very enjoyable board presence, I will say. What I actually don’t think I ever got, and I’m hoping we can get out of Talisha, is what did start this? What inspired you to start working with the VA and start a business, and then start the certification program? So Talisha, tell us how did you get into this?

Talisha’s journey to WPConnects and beyond

Talisha: Well, that’s a series of events. I wouldn’t say unfortunate events, but definitely a series of just whimsical things that had happened. So I work with an amazing company called Era Solutions, and happily enough, they are housed right next door to Lindsay Miller’s office. And Cory just happened to be talking to Hector one day, and they were talking about how he trains military veterans in a lot of different avenues. And Cory was like, “Well, let me tell you about WordPress.” So it really started under Post Status that I started working with Hector and his team. Then it was just one of those conversations between Cory and I and it was a, “Hey, this might be a really good thing for you to do.” Because I was spending a lot of time trying to just get this running under Post Status.

So we decided to bring it under WPConnects and I still work very closely with Hector. He’s a great mentor. And so we just started training military veterans, inactive duty personnel in WordPress. And we do this through a few different avenues of Credentialing Assistance, and the SkillBridge program, and now an apprenticeship program that we’re getting together and putting together. But the Credentialing Assistance program is where CertifyWP came out. And we are currently using a credential that, it’s really good, but it’s just lacking in a lot of areas that we need it to have in WordPress.

And so as soon as I started working with Hector, I was like, “We need a credential for WordPress.” And so I started putting some feelers out and some people are like, “Eh, I don’t know if you want to do that. It’s kind of had some negative connotation here and there.” And other people were like, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

And so it’s just been one of those fun adventures of starting out from trying to help military personnel come into the WordPress space and giving them their next career path, and really taking all of their just soft skills and turning them into tech skills from various different career paths they’ve came from the military. And wanting them to come over and join the WordPress base and have those next careers and starting it out. And so this credential is the foundation for what we are doing over at WPConnects. So hopefully that kind of roundabout gave you the backstory.

Robbie: Yes, and I think it’s awesome. I mean, one of the things that’s always talked about at any WordCamps from just a small one to the large WordCamps is how do we bring more people into the community? That’s always one of the questions. And personally, being that I’m very so associated with training, I always think that training, certification, credentialing, these are ways that get people interested and get new people into community. So I’m really excited about that.

So tell us, because you’re right, there were some people that were like, “Ooh, you shouldn’t touch that,” but you did, thank goodness. I’m very happy. And the first test is now complete. I don’t know if it’s active, but it is complete to be reviewed.

Talisha: Yes. It is not active for people to take yet. So the process that we go through is the advisory board, it started out with what do we want people to know? So, again, I think it’s very important to point out we are trying to build a community built and maintained credential, so it’s not just one or two people in a back room being like, “This is what needs to know.” There is a whole board that is making these decisions on what is needed to go into it.

So our very first credential we are building is the WordPress maintenance and design credential, I believe is the name of it. Don’t quote me on it, I can’t remember if we’ve gotten a fully approved yet. But with each credential we’re building, there are three levels to get that main credential. So level one of the front end credential is complete. The training that we have designed to go with it and the exam questions are complete. So we’re just waiting on the advisory board to really get in there, dig and review, and make sure that it’s the questions that we want people to know and the information.

So while we are waiting on that, we have already started on level two. And level three has been sent to the advisory board for them to start putting in the information that they want people to know so we can build the exam and the education that goes along with it. We’re in the process, hopefully, within the next, I’d say month, we should be ready to start rolling out some of the levels for that front end. And then we will start on the back end developer credential.

Bob: Sophia, you come from a WordPress family?

Sophia: Yes.

Robbie: A WordPress family, Bob? A famous WordPress family, let’s get this right. Kate and Topher are known.

Talisha: We have a WordPress royalty at WPConnects.

Robbie: That’s right, we do. We do.

Sophia: As I’m sitting here with my shaved head and my headphones on, I just feel like I look just like my dad. And I don’t know how I feel about looking like a 50-year-old man.

Sophia’s journey, the future of WordPress

Bob: I haven’t seen the confusion yet or experienced it, but we’ll see how this goes here. How did you get into this? What’s your little bit of backstory of wanting to step into this with Talisha?

Sophia: So both of my parents are incredibly good communicators and community members, and my mom was an English major and my dad loved books. So all growing up, my sister and I were very proficient in talking to people and creating things, and really just the basics of communicating. I think I was 12 when I went to my first WordCamp. And so growing up I kind of just learned how to talk to adults. So from a very young age, it was just very easy to have very clean, professional communication.

So then as I got older, I was 19 when I got my first job. And because I had been in a community of success really of a lot of people starting things for themselves and being able to start a good career, from the age of 12, I saw how to do that and knew how to be successful and have a good career. I was 20 when I started working at a bookstore, and I was about 20, 21 when I wanted to really focus on building my life and starting a career.

And so I started stepping into WordPress, because I had it as a background and I knew a lot of people, and so I knew I could write and I knew I could talk to people. And I started kind of dipping my toes into the various different things that I could do. So, actually, as soon as I started talking to Talisha, I had established a virtual assistant business. It never became anything, but I was like, “This is what I’m going to do. I’m so excited. It’s all set.” And then Michelle Frechette was like, “Hey, are you looking for a job?” And I was like, “Quite possibly.”

So she sent me a link to Post Status and said, “Hey, I know you don’t have all of the qualifications for this job,” which was the marketing and sales coordinator, which I’ve never done anything marketing in sales, but I know how to write and I know how to talk to people. So she’s like, “I know you don’t have all the qualifications for this, but I really think you should apply for it.” And then I had an interview and I got a job proposal that same day, and it was just a start.

As a young person at WordPress, I’ve worked really hard to find a career, or start things. And especially I feel like in the last five or so years, like community and, I guess, being anything other than a developer or a designer has started to grow. And I feel like that’s something my mom has put a lot of work into, actually. So there weren’t a lot of jobs out there for people that either aren’t a developer or aren’t a designer. So I really wanted something that I could jump into and learn about, but also that fit my personality well. So that’s where working with Talisha came in. She had an idea and needed somebody to be able to do things, and I liked that idea and could do the things. So that’s kind of where we got started.

Bob: We are experiencing the future of WordPress right now, right here. That is it. This is so cool. All right, wonderful.

Robbie: And so, Sophia, I’m assuming that part of what you are working on is doing social media outreach as well?

Sophia: Yeah.

Robbie: Because I know this program is geared towards military, and so are you finding new ways to groups or things like that that you can market to on social media?

Sophia: Yeah, so I decided to start small, especially since I’ve only been here for about a month. So what I started with was looking at what we had, compiling some ideas, cleaning some things up, and then in the last maybe two weeks or so, I’ve actually started to put those processes in place. I’m working towards creating a community for either veterans in WordPress or people who are coming into WordPress and leaving the military. So first is building that community on Twitter and then also creating separate sources of content that people who need resources or are looking for help could find on Google.

And very basic things, like starting a new career or how to start a website, things like that, that are very simple but in a safe place that also involve a lot of people. Like I’m starting to do some interviews with current military vets in WordPress, and just creating stables of people in that they can see and talk to, and also some content and simple things to help as they join the community.

The process to get into the program

Robbie: Cool. Awesome. And Talisha, tell us how if someone is in the military and wants to do the training and then do the certification, what is their process? How do they get into this program?

Talisha: So with WPConnects for somebody to join our programs, it could start out while you’re active duty, you can take our certification or Credentialing Assistance programs. The military has ways to pay for that training. So you, especially if you’re in the Army and Air Force I know, have these training programs, so it’s fully funded for you. This does not come out of your pocket. It’s a great asset for you to start getting training for your next career. So all you have to do is reach out to us. And I have some amazing people, Daniel Wilson or Corey, not Cory Miller, Corey Dorris works with us and they can help you get signed up for the program and help you get that funding.

If you are separating from the military and you’re like, “Oh, my gosh, I just got my ETS date. What am I going to do?” Hit us up on the website again and we have our SkillBridge program and the apprenticeship program that we’re building that will, hopefully, become a nationally accredited apprenticeship program. So we’re looking for other states to move into, be able to get that nationally accreditation.

But that’s really how you start. And I know we keep having confusion a little bit between WPConnects and CertifyWP, because I’ve heard some community talk about this certification and credential we are building is just for the military and it’s not. It is for the whole community. It started with needing the help for our military veterans in WPConnects for the company that I mainly started. And now we have the credential we are building, but the credential is for the whole community. And then we talk about the DOD getting approval and everybody’s like, “why is the Department a Defense in this? What is going on?”

And we need the DOD approval, so these military active duty and veterans, separated military personnel, can get the funding. It has to be DOD approved for that funding to be available to them. So that’s where that’s coming in. And it’s also a good way to set here and give the credential more backing. There are certain policies and procedures that have to be in place, almost like an accreditation, but it’s another body saying that, “Yes, this is a need in the community and here are the requirements set forth.” So it just keeps it very unbiased. It keeps it very straightforward, and across the board for everybody.

Robbie: That’s awesome. So CertifyWP is going to be broader than just military.

Talisha: Yes.

Deciding what should be in the certification

Robbie: I think that’s amazing. Because, as you said before, there’s people on both sides of that fence of certification for WordPress, but it has been a topic of discussion for years. I mean, ever since I’ve been involved in WordPress, people have talked to me about, “Oh, they want to do certification. Will you get involved?” Things like that. So I’m glad that there will be something there that the whole community can use as well.And when we started with the advisory board and before the first test was even built, one of the things that was discussed was how do we keep this just core? Because as we know, WordPress is all about the plugins, but how do you pick what plugins to certify? You really can’t, you’ve got to certify on core. And so when you guys were starting to build the questions for that, Talisha, how did the question builders actually make the determination of what should and should not be tested on?

Talisha: So that started with I made a Google doc and sent it out to the whole advisory board, and was like, “What information does somebody need to know at this basic level? We’re starting out very basic. What does somebody need to know?” And off of that, the training information popped out. And then after we had the training information, the exam questions popped out. And so it’s all based off of what the advisory board, initially, stated somebody needed to know in this basic level. And so I think it’s also really important to point out just the difference in certification and credentialing, because that’s where a little bit of confusion gets to. At CertifyWP Foundation now, we are a nonprofit about to get our 501(3)(c), so we’re in that process. But, yes, we are now, in the state of Oklahoma, at least till we get the 501(3)(c), we are a nonprofit now, so our foundation. But we are building the credential.

So with a certification, you could take a course and you get this piece of paper and it says, “Yay, I took the training.” Generally there’s not an exam that goes with it. And even if it is, you took it and 10 years later you could still hold up your piece of paper and say, “I’ve been certified.” But you haven’t had to retake the test, you haven’t had to update your training. And we all know in, not even just WordPress, but a lot of IT fields there is constant change. What you knew 10 years ago, I mean, the internet is still a baby, we’re still sitting here growing. So it’s going to change. So with a credential, you do have to re-certify every three years, and that’s what the advisory board came up with. Five years is just too long in WordPress to go without having to re-update your knowledge. And then one or two years, why take it? So three years is definitely there.

And we have a plan for if a major change in WordPress comes out, what are we going to do? And so we have that plan in place. Have we heard if there’s a major change coming out? No, it’s better to be proactive than reactive and be like, “Ah, crap, what are we going to do?” So we have this plan in place for that change. But really just the credential, it’s just like a teacher or if you are a mechanic, you have to go through and keep your knowledge built up. So it’s not an I took this and if you’re like me, I forgot about it. You have to keep the knowledge up. And so there’s just reoccurring professional development that happens, and really gives us a baseline knowledge.

I had a great conversation with a gentleman last night and he was sharing his concerns about credentialing or certifications, and I very much appreciated it. And we would love to meet anybody that has any type of questions, but I was able to answer his with, “Is this just a test somebody’s taking? Why just take it?” Yay, they could take a test type of a situation. And I said, “With our basic level, yeah, it’s probably going to be like question, answers, but as they grow, the plan is that there’s a practical exam there too. So it’s not just, ‘Yay, I could take a test.’ It’s proving the knowledge that they can do it.”

Especially in our backend, the developer, we want them to be able to show that they can master the skills that they were taught. I’m not a test taker, so I always go back to that. If somebody would give me a practical exam, I could pass it. You want me to sit down and read 30 questions and answer them, that’s probably not going to happen. I’m probably not going to pass it. I’m just not a test taker. So we want people to be able to prove that they have mastered that knowledge, especially on those expert levels, those top three tiers. We want them to be able to have that. So I don’t know exactly how we’re doing that yet. That is in the works, but I am very much pushing forward that practical exam. So it’s not just a, “Yay, you took a test, but you can’t do it,” type of situation.

Bob: And I think it’s interesting the question you had, Robbie, about the core, because I also get asked sometimes, “Why isn’t this Woo specific?” Some of the guests we have on the podcast, yeah, they’re not specifically about Woo or maybe they have a small touchpoint with it, but instead we’re talking more about core. And in effect, this particular podcast, we’re talking about it exactly as far as learning it. And all I say is, hey, all these things are built on top of WordPress. You got to start somewhere. I mean, I’m not going to be starting a certified Woo type thing. And I’m sure Talisha doesn’t have that on her horizon as well

Talisha: No.

Bob: No. But it’s all those other little elements. But I do love that you are doing the basics and that’s what people really need.

Talisha: I would definitely agree.

Thanks to our Pod Friends

Talisha shares why certification is important to the community

Bob: Why do you feel this is so important? Because this is coming from the heart. This isn’t like, “Okay, we’re just doing this because there’s a need for it, blah, blah, blah.” This is, why are you doing it? Why do you think that this needs to exist?

Talisha: I think that the need or where I see the need comes from, I’ve had a couple conversations with like WordPressVIP or Justin last night, and I had these conversations whenever I worked at Post status with companies as well. And you’re asking them what do they need? And they say, “I need WordPress developers,” or, “I need a WordPress this or that.” That’s like, “Awesome. There’s so many people out in the community.” And the answer you get is, “But their resume just says, ‘I’m a WordPress developer, or I can develop a website or I can…’” But there’s no tangible baseline. How do you know that?

And I’ll use WordPress VIP the companies that they work with are those mega companies. So I’m raising my hands above my head being like, they’re way up here. And it’s not that they are better than, and I don’t mean it that way, but they are mega companies that have different needs than what I would say some of the other WordPress companies need.

And so when they’re hiring their developers, they’re looking for certain high level skills. And when they’re getting resumes, it just says, WordPress developer. And so they have been, I don’t want to say crying out, that sounds like dramatic, but they’ve been asking for a credential, because they need to know that people they hire are not going to crash their server, or are not going to let somebody write on the Facebook homepage, whatever else, whatever the need may be. They just have to know what does that mean when somebody puts that on their resume. And that comes from a lot of WordPress companies, not just these mega corps and all this other stuff.

But what does it really mean for a person like me to say, “I am a WordPress developer”? What skills are attached to that conversation? And so having that on there doesn’t mean that they can complete the task that people are having. So there’s this need in the community to have a baseline of education. What does this really look like? And can this person meet my needs?

Hiring is very expensive. Turnover rate in companies is exceptionally expensive. And I also like to point out on the other end, as a contractor or as somebody that’s trying to obtain contracts in the WordPress space, saying that you’re a WordPress developer, it’s hard to get those contracts, because the company that you’re interviewing for doesn’t know if you have the skillset set that they need. And so it’s kind of a twofold baseline of education that’s needed to help not only hiring professionals, but also these contractors being able to say that, “Yes, I am able to master X, Y, Z skill.” And so that’s where I find the need and where this credential can be beneficial.

The next generation of WordPress builders, certification is critical

Bob: And Sophia, I’m going to kind of rephrase this a little bit with you, is you are at the point where you started learning WordPress. I mean, like I said, it was around the household, it was being talked about all the time. So from your perspective, your generation, why is this important to be able to have a program like this?

Sophia: My generation is dealing with the aftermath of a lot of things, and it’s incredibly hard to succeed. I feel like in some ways we are better off than previous generations, but it’s always different, not better. And so trying to find a good job or a job that you like or a job that pays enough or find, trying to find a place to live is incredibly hard. Largely, I would say, my success in WordPress is because I know people, and that it’s all because of my parents. I am good at what I do and I’ve built a community, but I would not have started if I hadn’t been born into it.

The importance of a credential comes from being able to just start something. When I wanted to get involved in WordPress, the things that I am good at are not common yet, and they’re not necessarily tangible. You can create a personality in a writing portfolio, but that can take years to develop. And I have about eight to 10 years of experience of WordPress. It just isn’t tangible, but I could show you my experience.

So the importance comes in being able to just know how to get in. It just opens the doors for anybody that needs help. Or I had a really hard time with mental health all throughout high school and in my early 20s, which is now, which a lot of people do. And especially dealing with all the aftermath of everything that’s happened in the last five years or so, it constantly compounds on itself. And trying to find a job where I had to get up and leave the house. Or I had back issues from the first job that I got at 19, and that made it really hard to have any physical job.

And so being able to work in WordPress and stay home and fulfill my needs, increases my quality of life starting at the age of 20. I’m so thankful for that and that’s something that I want to provide to everybody else who also needs that.

How certification plays with other online learning resources

Bob: Is so cool. Paving the way, again, for the next generation in WordPress. Now, Robbie, from your perspective of having a site and a business like OSTraining, how the certification play into this? And really what do you see the importance of having that versus, I don’t want to say, just doing online courses? But it seems like it’s the perfect mix.

Robbie: Absolutely. Even past a past corporate life, I was director of operations and training for New Horizons, which is a very large computer trainings worldwide. And we had a certification lab. So in other words, people came in there, they would take courses and then they would come and they would take the exams in a proctored environment in the lab. Open source, one of the hard things I feel like for open source is this piece of it. So if you’re Microsoft, let’s say, there are certifications. I mean you control with code base, they know what it is. And so they can say, “Hey, someone wants to become an exchange guru to go into a corporate job, there are certifications there. You want to be a Microsoft developer, there’s certification for that too.” So you could take the classes, study for it, and you could take the certification exam.

Now, as Talisha pointed out, just because you could take an exam doesn’t really mean that you are the guru. I mean, somebody who doesn’t have a certification could know a lot more than you, but certification does show you were willing to go through the process of studying that material, of getting that certification. And that means you have a base knowledge there, if nothing else, that you can build upon. And so certifications are very important. And it is harder for open source to get these certifications in place than say a Microsoft or an Adobe.

I mean, all of the big guys have got certifications that you can get certified in their products. But open source, one, I mean I always like to refer to open source as a little bit of the Wild West. But that’s what we love about open source at the same time, is it’s a little bit of the Wild West. But even that, we eventually have got to put some little gunslinger training in place and certify people on that. I mean, so that we do know, yes, they can do that.

And so I am always 100% behind certification. And it’s good for us for building training, because now we know this is kind of a baseline that people will be tested on. It helps us make sure that we’ve got everything in our training. So that they can study for and be prepared for those type of exams. So we are all about it. We love it. And like I said, this is truly a way that you bring more people into the community is you give them a path.

I mean, open source is a big wild world. And so how does someone just go, “I’m going to go become a web developer”? There’s so many routes you can go, right? So if you give them a path and you say, “Here, I’m going to take you down this path and I’m going to show you all the way down this path, how to do this,” it makes it much more comfortable and easy for them to come into that community.

The need for community letters of endorsement

Bob: Cool. Well, now we know, as I said before, that Talisha and Sophia aren’t sitting there in their little office working across from each other. I mean this is official, they’re a nonprofit, they have an advisory board, things are landing in place. And then as you explained, which I’m glad you did, about the DOD and why you need those letter of endorsements. So this is your opportunity now, because this is what’s important is for you to get those letters in place for you can start moving ahead, to tell people a little bit more about these letter of endorsements and what you’re looking for. And I’m sure everybody should just drop everything after they listen this and take care of stuff. So tell us a little bit more about that.

Talisha: The letter of endorsement, it’s on the CertifyWP website and we could drop the link, if we need to, so there’s two different ways you can actually endorse the credential. One, the lovely Michelle Frechette has set up a way that you just fill in the blank and you sign it, and it populates your endorsement letter. Or if you want to make a more personalized endorsement letter, you can write your own copy and upload it. And of course signature and all that fun stuff.

So the purpose behind it is to show, one, the DOD, but just even the community that there is a need in our community for this credential. So Robbie gave a lot of examples for why the credential can be very useful for the community and why it’s needed. And the endorsement letters aren’t exactly endorsing this credential specifically, it’s just saying that there is a need in our community and if somebody had a credential, I would be more than likely to hire them or work with them.

So that is really the purpose behind the credential and why we’re pushing out these endorsement letters, before the credential is actually created. Because it’s not endorsing this specific credential, it’s endorsing the need for the credential in the community. And that’s what we really want people to know.

And again, if they have any questions or concerns, definitely come and talk to us. I’m sure Robbie would be open as well to answer questions. I would. We also have a board of directors for the foundation. So there’s a lot of ways to do that. But definitely if you see the need, definitely, run and jump, go fill out our endorsement letter as soon as you hear this. We’d love to just see all of them start flooding in so we can move forward with the DOD. And there are other ways to get it approved and accredited as well. But this is just the easiest and simplest way to have the community just state that there is a need.

Robbie: How many letters are you looking for Talisha?

Talisha: As many as we can get. They don’t give you a cert number, so it’s not like, “Ah, we need 500 or whatever else.” Hector and Mark, who I’ve contracted with to help us get it through the DOD pool system stated that they had a company that provided 200 community letters, which is a massive amount of letters. So we’re just trying to get as many as we can to just show that community support. So I don’t think that they could put a cap or a minimum number on community. It’s just as many as we can gather to show that we do need this and that the military or anybody would benefit from having a credential within the space.

Robbie: Well, the WordPress community is huge, so hopefully you’re going to get more than that in letters. But WordPress needs to have the most of anybody. See, that’s what needs happen.

Talisha: Yes, it does. Let’s be competitive. Go out and fill out the form. We can win.

Connecting and joining the CertifyWP and WPConnects community

Robbie: Yes. So Sophia, if somebody wants to join the community, where you’re talking to people out in the social media space, where should they go? Tumblr, Twitter, where Facebook, where should they be? Or could they be at any of those places?

Sophia: So far CertifyWP and WPConnects both have Twitter accounts. We do have a WPConnects LinkedIn. I didn’t start using LinkedIn until about two months ago, ever, so I’m still learning how to use it and the voice and the kind of content that people put on there. But I am very fluent in Twitter, so I am working on building those up and I’m trying to a 100% everything is like go, so make Twitter successful, and then create a Facebook account.

I like Facebook, because I want to get involved in a lot of groups. I feel like there are a lot of families that are going to use Facebook more than Twitter, military families, military wives or mothers or people that live the life and just want people to talk to. So that’s about where we are right now.

Robbie: Awesome. And for WordPress community, Talisha, if people want to get involved in other ways, I know you have a Slack environment and things like that. What should they do if someone is in the WordPress community and says, “I really want to be a part of this. I want to help out.” What would be their best step?

Talisha: Just reach out. Either I’m in the Post Status Slack channels. You can also just fill out that contact form on either website, and it’ll get directed to me. That’s what the meeting that I had last night was about was somebody saw WPConnects and they wanted to be involved. And so we talked about it and I shared with how they can be involved and help. And there are several different ways that people can be very helpful in this space. One, simplest, fill out the endorsement letter.

But two, if you really actively want to be involved and help these servicemen and women start their next career path or just see what is out there and what you can do, just contact me. I’d love to talk to you and just share what we’re doing and update you, because there’s constantly changing, constantly doing stuff.

Robbie: All right, cool. And last question for you here, Talisha, is there an ETA yet on when the certification will be available, the first one for people to take?

Talisha: I am very hopeful and it might be a little very hopeful, I mean, I am hoping that we can get it out by the end of January, which is in like 20 some days.

Robbie: Wow.

Talisha: So I don’t know if all three levels will be out at that point, but I’m hoping the basic level can get out. And we have some outreach programs that we are talking with that I’m hoping will be some guinea pigs, and see how they really enjoy that first level credentialing, while we’re building the second one. But definitely within the next two months, that first front end credential should be complete. And then we will start sending it out for the community to take, while we’re getting it approved through the DOD to start training our military veterans.

Robbie: That’s awesome. Going to be a good 2023 here, starting out with a bang.

Talisha: It is. We are pushing forward, a driving force, while we’re trying to do a lot of other stuff. So I’m very thankful for everybody that’s involved on the advisory board and the board of directors with CertifyWP, and helping me navigate these fun waters that were in of newness. I like to blaze my own trail. So here we are all on the trail.

Robbie: Awesome. Well, and Bob, thank you for joining me today and helping hosting on this one. I appreciate it. And you guys have a wonderful day, but let’s just let everybody know how best to find you.

Talisha: Certifywp.com is always a great way, or WPConnects with an S at the end, can’t leave off the S, but wpconnects.com is also the other website. And come join us and fill out the contact forms and I’ll get in touch with you.

Bob: All right. Well, thank you both, and thank you everyone for listening. And, yeah, throw off those headphones, turn off the computer, think about it, and go back and write that letter. All right. Thank you everyone.