Birgit:
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the WordPress Way DEIB, where we dive deep into the heart and soul of WordPress. I’m your host Birgit, and today we have a special guest joining us: Laura Adamonis, a dynamic and passionate member of the WordPress community based on the East Coast of the USA.
Laura owns Add a Little Digital Services, where she provides website design services. Laura’s journey with WordPress began in 2022. Since then, she has made significant contributions, particularly with the Learn WordPress training team. She dedicates around 10 hours a week to creating tutorials, lesson plans, and workshops, helping users navigate and master WordPress.
Laura is also a team representative for the training team in 2024 and an active member of several WordPress meetup groups. In addition to her work with the training team, Laura is deeply involved in the global WordPress DEIB working group, advocating for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the WordPress community. She has also been a speaker at various WordPress events, including WordCamp Montclair. Please join me in welcoming Laura to the show. Laura, it’s a pleasure to meet you here.
Laura:
Thank you very much for inviting me. I appreciate it.
Birgit:
Can you share a little bit of your WordPress origin story and what exactly drew you to this community?
Laura:
As you pointed out, I’ve only been in WordPress for the last two years. It came about as I was in a job that I loved. I was working at the local science center and got paid to play with Legos. I was the robotics coordinator, which was a fancy title, but I loved that title. I helped kids with engineering and playing with Legos, building with Legos, and robotics using the Lego Mindstorm and Spike Prime materials.
We also supported five to six robotics teams and competed within the FIRST organization, which is a global robotics competition for kids from 5 to 18. It was awesome, but I had to work on the weekends. I wanted something more flexible to spend weekends with my family, so I said goodbye to them. I didn’t know where I was going to go. I was home, had my list of things to do around the house, and ended up scrolling through social media.
Believe it or not, social media brought me to a program called WP Rockstar from a company called Geek Pack and Julia Taylor. I signed up for that and spent six months going through the online tutorials. They have a great, women-focused community. I really took my education background, and when I learned something, I would share it with the community and help others who were struggling. It just built on that because I always feel that the biggest thing is being able to teach somebody something to better understand it.
I found a quote that I wanted to share: “I do, you watch; I do, you help; you do, I help; you do, I watch.” That is the basic principle of teaching, eventually having a student teach somebody else.
That brought me to going through the training and wanting more. It was a program for beginners, and I needed to know, okay, well what do I do with this? Then the block editor started coming out, so I wanted to learn about this because I was using the classic editor, the Genesis framework to code, and basic CSS and HTML. What about this new thing? I jumped into that and focused on the newer thing because people are going to need to know how to go from the classic editor to the block editor. I wanted to be on the forefront to help educate those people. I think that’s where we’re at right now within the WordPress community.
Birgit:
Wow, that is really impressive. Especially when I hear you talking about how you went into robotics and working with Lego and teaching young children. It’s very impressive to see. Also, how you pivoted into a completely different career path. When you’re talking about trying to be upfront on new technologies like the block editor, what inspired you to start your own website design service?
Laura:
That was a funny thing. Honestly, it was the next step on the checklist within the training. They’re like, this is how you start a business: pick out a name, go do this, do that. Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have done this and just looked for a regular website job, but I always had this name. I had a wreath-making business when I was first married, local craft fairs and stuff. I made wreaths for Christmas, and I came up with a name that kind of went with our last name, Addon, Add a Little. I always liked that. I really wanted to have my own business with that name on it, so that’s why I use Add a Little Digital Services.
I didn’t have any master plan, and I didn’t have anybody knocking at my door saying, “Oh, we want websites, we want websites.” It was just something to check off. When I start a project, I need to finish it and complete it to the best of my ability. It always irked me because one of the steps within the program was to make a thousand dollars. I was like, well, I don’t have any clients. It always bugged me that I couldn’t do that step. But I did everything else within the program.
I’m a Montessori trained teacher for six to nine-year-olds, and when I did my training, a lot of the people didn’t finish, but my goal was to finish and complete it because it was a whole summer of in-depth training, two weeks around the winter time, and then come back the following summer for another few weeks and do this big year-long project too. I did this huge notebook on holidays of the world. So that’s where my diversity passion comes into play. But yeah, honestly, it was just a thing to check off the list.
Birgit:
That is really impressive. When you mentioned Montessori, my eldest daughter is also very interested in Montessori and teaching my grandson in a holistic way and challenging him to explore. So it’s very interesting.
Laura, you and I, we met for the first time at WordCamp US, specifically at the WordPress Community Summit. You were also one of the invited members to the WordPress Community Summit. Do you mind sharing what your first impressions of the community summit were? What was drawing you to that and what were your key insights?
Laura:
It was my first WordCamp and it was local, so it was only about a five-hour drive for me. I love DC. That’s where I did my Montessori training outside of DC. I loved the area and I had seen that there was this community summit that you had to apply for. I thought, okay, and they were looking for new contributors. They wanted to have a good mix of people who have been in the community, but they wanted new voices.
I had been with the training team for a couple of months, helping them organize our handbook. A lot of the things in the handbook that I was going through, the steps weren’t making sense to me. So, being able to look at something and bring that Montessori approach to breaking it down into steps and providing feedback to make things better, I applied. I was accepted, I was so honored to go there, and I didn’t know what to expect. I just went with an open mind. I’m a listener, I kind of soak things in, and I wasn’t thinking to do anything then.
But I was amazed by all the people and that so many were from other countries. It was amazing. I had followed people through Twitter, watched different podcasts and workshops, so I knew people. I had started connecting and networking, which is awesome in this community.
When I went to the presentations, I had my list of interests: training, diversity, accessibility. I had been following Amber Hines and Alex Stein’s work. I signed up for your meeting discussion. I wasn’t sure what to expect and how people were going to share. It said that we were going to have open and honest communication, and I didn’t realize how honest people were going to be, which was awesome.
In that hour or two, I felt every emotion in the world, which was good and bad. But I’m glad that people shared because the struggles people have aren’t always external. Most of them are, but there are also the internal ones that people struggle with. It’s those ones that we don’t perceive first off and kind of neglect. My key takeaways were the honesty that people shared, and I felt the most as a community focused on the same mission within that group of people.
Birgit:
When I was facilitating this session about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, I wasn’t expecting that big of an outcome. Also, as you said, the openness and that people were really sharing honestly, and they were really vulnerable, sharing their personal insights and feelings in a safe space. That is what I try to accomplish. I’m really glad it worked out that I opened a safe space with my facilitating for this session.
I can also echo that at the community summit, there was a really diverse group of people from all around the globe. We got insights from different parts of the world. As a person, you have only a limited amount of experience, so it’s really good to see different perspectives. As you mentioned, also listen to others and their experiences.
Coming back to the WordPress training team, would you mind sharing and describing the role you’ve taken over this year and what a day looks like for you as a contributor to the training team?
Laura:
Yes, I was asked to help be a team rep. There are three of us. The other two people are on their last year. We usually try and do two years so that they overlap because there’s a lot of stuff that goes on even behind the scenes administratively.
As a team rep, I facilitate and guide to help the training team stay informed and move forward on our goals and projects. We are kind of in charge of the blog
posts, and we help out with WordPress TV and the materials that we use for recording and captions and transcripts. We want to be able to have materials in many different languages. We even have a subgroup of translators that will take our tutorials and put them into different languages. We’re excited when we find somebody who speaks a language we don ’t have and is willing to work with us to provide that.
As a team rep, we attend contributor days at WordCamps to help run the meeting and the different activities to try and get new people to contribute. My other job that I’m passionate about is content creation. I create video tutorials or lessons, and we’re working towards learning pathways for users, designers, and developers.
We’ve gone through and created pathways of where to start as a user with WordPress, how to start with, and we’re doing a beginner, intermediate, and advanced, breaking it into different groups so that a beginner can start with a set of five or ten videos to get them started. We’ve been updating content that’s out of date to facilitate that so that things are easier to find.
When I first came, I found something and then couldn’t find it again. Where’s this lesson plan, and how old is this? Wait, I’m trying to do this, but I don’t see the same buttons because it’s probably three releases old and doesn’t have the current release materials. The last two years have seen massive changes within WordPress.org. Things are moving so quickly that we can’t even make the videos fast enough before they’re outdated. The first one I did doesn’t look like the dashb oard of today.
That’s my work within the training team. It says only 10 hours a week, but I probably put in closer to 20. I’d love to find a company to sponsor me for more hours because this is what I enjoy. I love designing, but right now it’s hard to find clients. So I tend to spend more time within the training team, doing tutorials, editing stuff, and researching information to make sure that it’s current and accurate. The online workshops—I would love to do a workshop each week if I could, but right now I have to juggle everything to make sure that I can do everything.
Birgit:
Wow. Thank you for all the work you’ve already done in this short amount of time, especially in training. I feel it’s a big pillar within the Equitable Pathways and inclusion. Providing better materials or more adjusted learning paths for new contributors or new users to WordPress, and for someone who wants to build their livelihood on WordPress and learn more about how to develop with WordPress, it’s crucial to lower the barrier by providing training material.
I really appreciate the work you’re doing, and I’m looking forward to finding ways for companies to support contributors like you who are not working on the core software as developers but providing supportive content around it. Maybe our audience already knows about the Fight for the Future initiative, where companies can pledge to support individual contributors or pledge their employees’ hours to work on contributing to WordPress. We will put a link in the show description for anyone interested.
Speaking of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, as we explored, you and I met at the community summit, and you attended the session on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Briefly before WordCamp US, the DEIB working group was added to the WordPress Make Slack. You joined our group. Would you mind telling us what motivated you to join this group and about the intersection between the training and the contribution you are doing for the training and the DEIB working group?
Laura:
Sure. I wanted to work with you. You were the pillar of the talk, and I wanted to continue what we started in that discussion. I made a couple of friends within that discussion group too, and I’ve been able to meet up with them, which is really cool and supportive. One thing I learned from being in COVID and previous events in the news here in the US was that I need to be an ally. I need to use my voice to help others because it’s tough for them, and they’re worn out.
You can’t see me, but I am a white female with blonde hair and blue eyes. I didn’t realize that I got special treatment compared to others, and that’s not fair. I wanted to work within DEIB, hearing people’s comments and struggles within WordPress to make it better. Some of the current initiatives our group is working on include creating a survey for WordCamp Europe to get our community talking about things. I’d like to further push the handbook, creating an outline or some organization table of contents of what we need to add to or create the handbook. I love that we were on the call with Angela because she knows how the spider web works together and how we can intertwine without repeating the work of other teams.
Birgit:
Yes, exactly. For the audience, the DEIB working group hosts virtual office hours every second Friday via Zoom, and it’s a safe space. These Zoom calls aren’t recorded on purpose to provide a safe space for discussing community issues. If discussions spark, points get posted on our GitHub repository for transparency, but what is shared within the group stays within the group unless someone is open to sharing outside.
We work closely with the WordPress project leadership. The contributor handbook is also one of my biggest projects. Like you do with the training team, we need a contributor journey map, like a treasure map, to find the ways to get to where you want to be within the WordPress community. How do you feel your work has impacted the WordPress community, especially in training and DEIB? What advice would you give to someone new who wants to contribute, especially in these areas?
Laura:
In the short time I’ve been in the community, I have an amazing network. During my WordPress training, one of the facilitators was using the Genesis framework and the StudioPress theme. So Brian Gardner did a couple of workshops with us. I’m originally from Chicago, and he’s in Chicago. I reached out and said, “Hey, I’m a Chicago person, can we connect?” He was gracious enough to say, if you have any questions, just reach out. A lot of people would be hesitant to bother someone of his stature, but I did, and he created this Build Mode weekly meeting through WP Engine, which has become a family of people.
We bring in new people to discuss what’s working and what’s not. It’s cool. If I ever need help or don’t know something, I have that network, which is pretty amazing for someone who’s only been doing it for two years. I always tell people not to be afraid to ask a question or ask for help. I’ve been asked to be a guest on podcasts, and I’ve done Rob Cairns’ podcast from Stunning Digital Media. I was asked to appear on WordPress Hartford meetups, and I’m doing my first speaking at WordCamp Montclair this weekend. Slowly, I’m getting my name out there, and people are seeing that I know my stuff.
I’ve helped improve the training team’s handbook. It’s funny because they did a couple of updates and used screenshots of me asking questions or making statements. They’re like, “Is it okay if we use your walkthrough?” I said, sure. If it can help someone else, I’m happy to do it.
The advice I’d give to people is to reach out to me or anyone else within the WordPress community. Just DM them. If you see someone you follow and admire who is part of Core, WordPress TV, or accessibility, just message them. You might have to wait or redo it, but ask the question. Go to make.wordpress.org. The design has been updated to be more user-friendly and easier to find things. There’s even a test you can take to see which team you’d be best suited for. There are over 22 teams, so there’s a place for everyone. Ask your company if you can be part of the 5 for the Future program and contribute while at work. Just that 5% would be a big help. Reviewing one of my video lessons takes 10 minutes and would help a lot. We try to get two to three reviews on each video before posting them to ensure they’re understandable.
Birgit:
Yes, I think there’s a place and room for everyone. You don’t have to know how to code to contribute to the WordPress project. Reach out to someone you admire. Looking back to my first days contributing to WordPress, I had members in the German community who published frequently on their blog. I put them on a pedestal. When I went to my first WordCamp, I learned that these people were kind, open, and supportive. There’s no need to put someone on a pedestal. Just reach out and ask questions. Representation matters.
Someone reached out to me after one of my talks at WordCamp and shared that something I said inspired them to pivot into a new career. Even being in someone’s life for a brief moment can make a difference. You don’t know how your actions and words can impact someone else’s life. You can be a hero in someone else’s life without knowing it. That’s why I love that Bob offered me the opportunity to run this series on the Do the Woo podcast to get new voices and have these nice conversations about staying connected and loving the WordPress community. Overall, it is a very welcoming and inclusive community.
Laura:
Shout out to Courtney Robertson, who has sprinkled her magic fairy dust all over with her wisdom. She was one of the people who got me interested. In Montessori, there’s the premise of the Nautilus, which is a spiral of learning. You might come back around and relearn something, building upon it. I’ve reconnected with my students who are now in their thirties and taught when they were six through nine years old. Seeing how the things we did back then affected them now is amazing. One of my students, we did a study of South America, and he has traveled the world, speaks Spanish, and married someone from South America. Those little things come back around. We did a craft fair to raise money for the rainforest during that study,
and it influenced him.
Birgit:
Wow. Very impressive. Speaking of inspiring and studying different cultures and perspectives, when I officially started contributing to WordPress, I was translating WordPress into German. This opened a gate for me. I learned about the international community and joined the Polyglots group. I learned about the difficulties other translators have and different working cultures. Contributing to a global project, you meet people from Japan, Indonesia, India, Australia, Africa, South America, and all over the world. It’s very rewarding to learn about different cultures and broaden your horizon.
As we approach the end of our episode, how do you see yourself and the WordPress community in the next five or ten years? How do you see WordPress and the community evolving?
Laura:
I hope we stay supportive of each other. We need some younger people within the community. The training team has started pushing our lessons onto YouTube to get better exposure. We need to look at shorter shorts, narrowing down to two or three-minute quick tips for your website. Most people are on phones rather than fancy computers, so being able to design and create websites on mobile devices is important. I see us continuing to grow and be supportive. There was talk of taking a breather, which would be nice. Not doing so many releases in a short period would help us catch up. I hope that conversation continues. I wish everyone well for the future.
Birgit:
Thank you very much, Laura. It was a pleasure talking to you and listening to your advice and experiences. For the audience, thank you for tuning into the WordPress Way. We hope today’s conversation has sparked new ideas and inspired you to engage more deeply with the vibrant WordPress community. Remember, DEIB isn’t just about numbers. It’s about making real changes that foster a sense of belonging and respect for everyone.
Please keep the conversation going by sharing this episode and join us again next month as we explore more important DEIB topics and meet leaders driving this change. Don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep pushing the envelope and doing WordPress the right way.
