Episode 478: Seriously Bud With Bud Kraus

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Show Summary

Rob Cairns talks to Bud Kraus about his podcast Seriously Bud.

Show Highlights:

1. What is Seriously Bud About?

2. What stories does the podcast tell?

3. What types of guests come on the show?

Show Notes

Hey everybody, Rob Cairns here and today I’m here with my good friend Mr. Bud Kraus. How are you, Bud?

Hello Rob, how are you?

Bh, I’m doing good. It’s a full Thursday in Toronto at the time of this recording, it’s sunny out and I think fall weather we’ve been in like summer weather all week, and I think we’ve finally hit the cold weather. So there you go. How are you doing today?

Good. You know, we have a beautiful fall weather today. It’s a little on the warm side that the leaves are, let’s just say I think they’re peak here in Northern New Jersey. It’s really beautiful.

It always it always is and they’re start and they’re starting to change. We’ve got red trees out on our out around the corner and it’s actually a nice time of year. I was saying that some of their day, I think I need to take a a run down the Niagara on the Lake Niagara Falls just because the least down there just in your respect.

Yeah.

Himself. So today we’re going to talk about your podcast. Seriously, bud. Really interesting. I need to put a disclaimer. I’ve been I guessed on that podcast and was one of the early guests. Before we do, I like to roll nicely and introduce let’s talk a little bit about you and what what to do. I’ll do the WordPress space.

You. You know, I have become so consumed by this stuff that I regrettably am starting to forget what life is like outside of the word press space. But I will answer that question. So I I do play guitar. I do play keyboard. I do ride my bike. I do go. To the gym. I do like to go out to restaurants. I do like to travel up to a point and the most important thing is to play with my grand boys. I have one that’s almost four and one that’s a year and a half. And I’m going to see them tomorrow. And they’re just the most fun you could imagine. So and. I do.

And, Tad, you’re a you’re a staunch Mets fan, if I recall.

I certainly am. It started in 1962 when they started. I couldn’t understand how A-Team could lose 120 games and even before I ever moved to New York, I was a huge New York Mets fan. So yeah, I am.

And and if there’s any consolation, I think, you know, I grew up. I started as an Expo friend because I grew up in Montreal and everybody’s favorite Krono Expo. Unfortunately, God bless his soul. Gary Carter, who passed away due to cancer on his World Series with the Mets, actually.

Yeah. So La Grande, orange, rusty stab is not your favorite. Echo.

No, no, it’s Gary Carter.

OK, OK, there you go.

But the what we’re gonna. Just played for the Mets, too, and was a beer.

Yes you do.

And well loved. Him, and really should.

And here’s who. Yes.

Yeah, he was a one-of-a-kind. No, my guy was my guy. Was Gary as a kid growing up. So. And you know, you can. You can see what basketball team I like. If you’re watching this podcast, but they didn’t ship any good in their opener last night. They were.

Yeah.

Uh.

Ohh, so now you tell me this is going to be like on YouTube or something.

Of course.

I didn’t even get dressed.

You know. That’s your problem, that’s your problem.

I’m definitely wearing the wrong clothing, but OK, we’ll let that go.

Yes, you will. So what’s something with the podcast? And it’s kind of a fun show. I would say. It’s on my podcast player has been for a long time.

Thank you.

What gave you the idea? Or better still, let’s start with what’s the premises of the podcast for people?

No.

The premise of the show is to give people a platform to talk about their lives in a way that we don’t already know them in the WordPress community. So my aim is to provide people with an unexpected or to let the listener have an unexpected conversation with somebody in the WordPress community. And it’s just. Been. A lot of fun to do. It’s really been a joy and it came out of work Camp USA last year, 2023 when I left and I said, you know, it would be really great if I could spend more time with who. Ever. And in that very same instant came the idea of doing a podcast where I just talked to people about their lives, who they are, where they were born, what they were like when they were kids, their education, their parents, their siblings, their spouses, whatever their interests. Everything I could think about. But outside of, you know, this plug-in they created or this theme or this company they started, yes, all that stuff does get in there, but I try to hold that down to a minimum because really what I’m going for is stories. Your story, human stories. Because come on, there’s that’s the most interesting part of people. If you ask me.

Yeah, I agree with you. There’s, I listen to another podcast called The Text Blog or Podcast by a Guy. My name is Jason Howell. Jason’s been in the tech space for a long time. He was that weird, and now he’s on his own. And he does something very similar stuff for you does a monthly. Where it talks to people in the tech space and gets all the back stories, and it’s just so interesting. And I draw the parallel between the two because. Learning about the people and what they like, why they didn’t like, why they got into it, what they got out of where their careers went, how it happened, and to me, that’s really interesting because we’ve all got a bit of a journey, don’t we?

Mm-hmm.

Oh yeah. I mean I, you know. You know. The sort of wonderful thing about doing this and that’s the way I look at it is that I talked to people from around the world and they have such interesting stories about, you know, I grew up in Ukraine. I grew up in Lithuania. I grew up. But it isn’t just all the same story over and over again. Yes, there are similarities, of course. But the difference is the. Journeys are. No, you know everybody has an amazing story. It’s just my job is to try to get is my job is to get it out of you. And because I’m just interested in people’s stories.

And I don’t think there’s anybody else doing anything similar in the WordPress space. There’s, you know, there’s a lot of interview shows, there’s a lot of shows about current events lately. There’s a lot of shows about drama. If you want to go, though, I don’t right now. So there’s a lot of things going on, but I don’t think anybody does go behind the scenes. OK. Anymore. And I think that makes your show a little bit unique. To be honest.

Well, that was the whole idea. I mean, let’s just start with the point of view that, you know, doing a podcast to me is still a bit of a surprise because I will tell Bob Dunn all the time, you know, Bob WP, I’d say like, that’s the last thing I will ever do. As a podcast, well.

Yeah, right.

The reason is is that I had no reason to do 1 until the moment. Game when I had every reason to do 1 and that was just so weird. You know, it wasn’t something I was. Planning. You know, I I am a very big believer in life. Happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. Of course, I didn’t think of that. And that’s sometimes what happens, you know, that’s what happened.

Yep.

So would I. So would I and those who don’t know Bob is the one who does the do the Loop podcast and a good friend. The book Bud and. I so. One of the reasons they introduced us. Yeah. Good. We and we and that and I know very similar people in this space. We’ve both been in this space for a long time. So we’re lucky that way podcasts like this brings community together too, because when you start to understand people and just strengthens the community, it doesn’t hurt it. What do you think?

Right, yeah. Well, I, you know, I think it’s a byproduct of what I’m doing. I mean I, you know, if I. You know, if I can contribute to that, great, you know. But that’s out of my control. Excuse me. I. You know, in many ways, as I do this, I really think that I was just meant to do this. I was made to. Do this I. Mean. I was always interested in radio and still am from a little kid, and I sort of think of this as my own little radio station where I’m the only person on it, and it’s just the way I I am made. Is that I was really sort of made to do this and rob, I have to tell you. Thing that I really like about this as much as anything is the editing process. I think is the most creative part of the whole thing where you get to shape the conversation, not so much, you know, rearrange the order in which the conversation took place, but to clean it up, to get rid of the cross, talk to. Make it more enjoyable, more listenable, and you know, I find that to be a really interesting thing to do and interesting, I think, to me anyway, is that it’s really when I get to hear what the person is saying. Thing you know, you think like, well, aren’t you listening when you’re interviewing somebody? Yes. And here’s the but you’re you’re always thinking about. What’s the next question going to be? What what is the person who’s talking now? What are they saying? That I will lead me to the next question. Where is my little hook for the next question? So you’re thinking about that as much as as much as anything, and you might be missing a few things that the person is saying. So I have found that the more I do this, the more critical I am of how I interview you. You sort of go into this thinking, well, I could just ask, you know, I’ll be good and well, you know, maybe but.

Yeah.

You know, like anything else, you become more of a perfectionist as you go through the process, especially if it’s something that you really enjoy. You just want to get. Better at it.

I often you know, it’s funny. We talk about that and we talked about how it shaped. So you had said to me before we went there and I’ll. Hear this and I hope you don’t mind. Do you have a list of questions? I say no, I don’t. Because the way the style I go on is I I I’ll often give a lead if it’s a WordPress guess, I’ll often ask the WordPress origin story. That’s pretty standard. And then depending on where the conversation goes, what the guests shape the interview. And that is what I like is what you do. I like a conversation. I don’t want a scripted political interview that shows up on the radio that.

Yeah, right.

Right.

Me too.

Right.

The candidate said give me the 10 questions ahead of time.

No, no, no, that’s not a conversation too. You don’t talk to people that way, and the show is all about conversation. So you, you just, you know, and it’s OK. At least for my show, to jump around, that is, I don’t start. When you were two years old and end up where you are today, I absolutely do jump around just like you when you’re talking to somebody that’s sort of the way I. A structure of the whole thing, if it has any structure which is, I guess, debatable. Whatever.

The other thing I wanted to touch on too was you mentioned your lover Reagan. I think that’s really important and you and I have that similarity. Yeah, I know if I’ve ever shared this with you, but growing up, I was an AM radio guy. I listen, I I was sick in a bedroom in Montreal in a suburb Of Montreal.

MHM. Me too. Yeah.

With an old. Flip Style clock radio at night and I play spin the.

No.

By that I meant what US station because we were close enough to the US border, but I find for sports or art or anything else. And I think those of us like you and I, and I think of my friend Ross Brand, who was a radio guy, he worked in radio. Those of us who have that love for radio, podcasting is really easy. Listen to, listen to or to do, because it’s just this transition, by the way. Still listen to the radio every morning, not on the conventional radio.

Otherwise, yeah, yeah.

On an election and I can say that word in this House, because that’s not my wake word behind me. Every morning it’s over the Internet for an hour. So there you go.

Well, I have to tell you that I still am a radio guy. I will be till the end. I think I want to be buried with a transistor radio attached to my ear, which I listen to all night long. And in fact, I just came. Like from Santa Fe. Now wherever I travel, I take my transistor radio and I want to listen to stations at night. Of course, because you get better reception and I’m listening to Nebraska and I’m listening to Kansas and I’m listening. Hey, how cool is? I mean, you know, and I literally will stay up or wake up during the night. You know, and sort of fall asleep to the radio, it drifts in and out of my consciousness, and I do spin the dial around a little bit at night just to hear different stations. It’s really cool. I think it’s. Sort of a. You know, before the Internet, to me there was radio and once the Internet came around, I thought of that as sort of another way of radio with pictures. I don’t.

Know.

Yep, Yep.

Yeah, I’m just a radio guy. That’s all I gotta say.

And and and. It’s funny too, because at one time I even had, I was in the short wave as a kid growing up as well, and I and I, I actually.

Yeah.

Always dying medium because the Internet you can go with no local radio stations. I know we. I know we’ve been in Canada. CBC Radio, our national radio broadcaster pulled out a short life last year, the year before, because there’s no point anymore. I mean, times have changed, right?

Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Let’s go on to guess you’ve had. How many shows have you done now? I.

OK.

Can go over 30.

I yeah, I am about what you think I know.

Awesome.

This is why, yeah, it’s in the 30s. Yeah, I’m dropping a new I drop a new episode every Friday, but I was because I was out of town last week. I didn’t drop an episode. There’s been since I launched in March. I’ve only missed 2 Fridays, so I try everything I can do to drop. Every Friday, 8:00 my time.

So I’m gonna ask you the question you’ve dropped over 30 and if you had three guests that. You haven’t got on your show yet and are hard to obtain. Who would they be? Do you know?

Well, I don’t think anybody’s hard to obtain. I mean, I haven’t. One or two people have sort of been reluctant or didn’t want to do it. One person in particular said no, that, you know this person was not comfortable. But. You know who do I want? I want you know, the interesting thing is I want people with the with good stories who are willing to come on and talk about good stories, their story. So I don’t go by like, how well known they are. Sure, it helps if you’re, but it helps if you’re like, well known, but not necessarily. And I’ll tell you why. A lot of people know the stories of well known people in the WordPress community, so they may not be as inclined to listen to the podcast. As compared to people who are, if you will, more obscure or not as well known, those episodes seem to be the ones that more people listen to. Isn’t that interesting?

Yeah, and and what I would say is the well known people. People like me, people like you. I’ve been on.

No, Rob, nobody knows who the hell I am. Come on.

But but but people you know, I I’ve been on a number of other shows and and.

Right. They know you right.

And that’s the reality of it. So sometimes I think where we get on and podcasting is we don’t go to. I like to elevate people or people not known in this space, but a lot of people don’t do that because they think that will draw ratings and I don’t think it always draws numbers, to be honest with you.

Oh, I give. No, I. I I won’t turn down anybody really. Because who am I to turn them down? I mean, especially the ones that I don’t know. In fact, the shows I think that are the best ones are with people that I don’t know because I’m going in there not knowing their story. And it it. That’s not to say that the ones that I do know, you know, they’re bad shows. It’s just that it just I I seem to be a little more curious about like who they are because I don’t know them and that the show is my chance to get to know them. So you know it’s kind of it’s just it’s just so interesting that.

Yeah.

You know that I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t really care if they’re well known or not. It’s just not, you know, a thing to me.

Yep. Who was your first guest?

Marcus Burnett.

Oh, Oh yeah. My, my, my dear friend Mr. Burnett, over over. I GoDaddy of all places, but he. He’s uh, yeah. He would have been a good conversation.

Well, you know, The funny thing is, can I tell you real quick? Sure. It was not I, you know, I interviewed a whole bunch of people before I ever released an episode, and Marcus was the first person I actually did interview, and it just turned out, hey, why don’t I do this one first? And the funny story is my wife and I were driving in the car. The episode had just dropped and I said, let’s, I want you to listen to this. And I thought for sure. Her. She’s going to say, oh, this is terrible. I don’t like this and turn this off like after, like, 30 seconds. And she actually started listening it. And she looked at me and she says, you know, this is pretty good. And she listened to the whole. Thing and now. She’s, I would say like a regular listener with me. And and I just think it’s amazing.

11 more one more, one more number, one more.

Sure.

Number for you to add to your total because your wife. So there you go. Yeah.

I don’t know if she’s a subscriber, but it’s. OK. Yeah, I do, yeah.

You need to you need to fix that one now. Yeah, you do. You do? Yeah. So, yeah. Marcus would be a good guest. And you’ve had, like, I was just looking at the list again real quickly. You’ve had a a number of people you’ve had Vito pay like who? We both don’t quite like you’ve had Tammy on. You’ve had Mr. Westgaard on. Who’s a dear friend of mine.

That Vegas, you know I’ve had. Yeah, just a lot of Bob’s been on, you know, but there’s you know what’s so strange, you know, is that, you know, when I knew when I started this, I said if you have any problems getting people to go on the show, just stop because that should be the easiest thing. And it is the easiest thing. And as it turns out, I’ve got about 3. Years supply of people. So getting people to come on, you know, that’s not a hard thing to do. People want to talk about themselves, you know.

Why? Why should. Yeah, once you get past the 10th episode, getting interviewed, guesses.

Yeah, it’s easy.

Even for me it’s easy. All you gotta do is for a call. All you gotta do is put out a call on Twitter and say I’m looking for guest here, here and here.

Yeah, I’m sure.

Anybody interested and I’ll get DM’s lit up like. The Christmas trees.

Yeah. Now the thing though with my show is that you only get one shot. OK, that’s it. Because that’s, you know, you only have one shot in to tell your story, there’s going to be two or three of you or it doesn’t work that way. And like I said, I’ve got, like, three years supply of people. Why would I do a repeat? You know, now I may repackage and do some things. Along the way, I don’t know about that yet. But we’ll see. Hey, can I talk about something? I have an announcement to make about the podcast. Seriously, bud, by the way, there is a website, calledseriouslybud.com, where you can go there and you can subscribe to my newsletter. I wish you would, because that way you’ll get updated as to like, who’s on the show, who’s coming on the show, stuff like that.

Sure. Yes.

Past episodes, all that kind of stuff. But the big news is I have a sponsor and my very first sponsor is Omnisend, a company that specializes in e-mail marketing and SMS messaging. And I’ve actually started to use their service because I don’t want to just be a passive recipient of my sponsor. I want to know what their service is so that I could help promote it. I think that’s my obligation to them that they just don’t send me a check. Well, whatever, we’ll transfer money to my bank and I just stick them into the podcast and that’s the end. No, I really think that I should be actively. In supporting my sponsors, that’s what I’m going to be doing and I hope and so of course they’ll be on the website. They’ll be in the newsletter. They’ll be in the podcast. But other sponsors are coming. Now, I want to just say one other thing, too, about sponsors. When I started this thing, that was the last thing on my mind. And I would say, like, I actually did say this. Many times I don’t care if I get sponsors because I love doing this. If somebody wants to sponsor if it comes into some, OK, fine. I’m not going to say. No, but it’s not the reason why I do this. I do this because I love to do this. That’s why. I’m doing it.

I I I. I get that I actively, if anybody’s listening to this show, no, I don’t have an active sponsor except for my own agency. I actually my own digital concierge, as I call it. Now I do. I do not want at this point response. I don’t do it for that reason.

Yeah. MHM.

I did. The reason I haven’t taken 1 is that allows me to say what I want, how I want, what I want and ohh well.

Right.

I’m not.

Yeah. And I and I have to say, I do wonder if that’s going to change things a little bit now that I will have sponsors because that’s coming. I hope not. I don’t think it will. But I also now do feel a responsibility to that, to omniscient and to other sponsors that are coming. I will absolutely feel that. I wouldn’t say pressure, but responsibility to them to do the very best I can do for the show and for them. So yeah, it it does change things absolutely.

So let me ask you a question. Did you, if you don’t mind sharing, if you can’t, I understand. If you go after them or did they? Come to you.

Ohh I do mine. No no, I don’t mind you telling. So this is a great story. Do you know the story, or are you just laying this question out? OK, alright. So here’s the that’s a great story. So I was at work camp US this year, which would be September 2024 and I walked out of the Convention Center. I see these two ladies and black leather jackets.

No, I I I I don’t. I’m waiting the question out my friend.

Sitting on uh, whatever they were sitting on the stone. Bench or something? And I walked by them and say, hey, guys, you know how you guys doing or whatever one thing and very quickly they said to me we want to sponsor your show and I said what you don’t even know my name. Ohh yes we do. I said OK and I can think of like this is ridiculous. And then they told me who they were, that they’re from Omnisend and I said. Well, you guys are serious and they said, yeah, we want to make a deal. So we proceeded to talk for, you know, 2-3 days on and off. And we did reach a a deal. And and then I started to realize and some other hosts and other company web, some web hosts and other people were starting to say to me we want to sponsor you. And so I mean that’s how it started. It almost started as a show because like I I didn’t go to work camp thinking like I better come home with a sponsor for my show. That was the last thing on my mind. So. I was very it was really thrilling and very exciting for that to happen. So thank you, Andy son.

Thanks and congratulations and and thanks Amnish and for looking after my friend, Mr. Cross.

Thanks.

Yeah, yeah.

He’s he’s going to buds. Buds a good night sometimes.

Yeah, yeah. You wouldn’t know.

Yes, I would.

Yeah.

I I know all Mr. Gross. I know all.

Well, we you know, you and I, let’s be fair, we have never met in person. I don’t know how long we’ve known each other. A couple of. Years now, I guess, but.

Couple of years. It’s just not worked out that way. Between this and my health, and it will happen, it will happen.

Yeah, yeah, yes. Yeah, it will.

Is there anything else you wanted to share about the show you’ve shared? Where to see it? Where’s where’s?

Well, it comes, yeah. You could let me just tell you real quick. You can subscribe to. Seriously, bud, wherever you get your podcast. So it’s on Apple, it’s on Spotify. It’s on this. Yeah, it’s on everything and it comes out every.

OK, cash.

Friday 8:00 Eastern Time and it usually lasts about 30 minutes or so. And again they, you know, the website seriouslybug.com has an easy way to access all the past episodes of the show. It’s very easy to listen to anybody’s story. Right from my website.

And and what I would tell you is go and subscribe if you haven’t listened this. Go. Over a couple of weeks or a couple months, listen to all the back episodes. There’s every store, every story is unique and these are these are not time constraint. People are telling their history and right time and listen to it. I know I subscribe to it on I’m a pocket Android user so I’m using pocket casts.

Yeah. Yeah.

Which is an automatic product that people don’t realize it or not realize it. They’re the ones who own it. It doesn’t. It doesn’t matter. It’s still. The best. Podcast player it’s still the best podcast player for Android. I also had that podcast player on my iPad. I do not use Apple Podcasts and podcast also has a web version. If you pay for it.

It’s very good.

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

You can access your podcasts on the web, so I actually very often listen on my computer, right? You know what? So, but but make a point of going and subscribing to buds podcast and supporting him if they want to get a hold of you about the house. The best way e-mail or.

Well, yeah, the best way is bud at joy of WP. It’s joyofwp.com, but at joyofwp.com that’s you know I in addition to the podcast, I actually, how do I say I work for a living, but the work I do, I just say real quickly is I create. I’m gonna create a WordPress. Creative If you will, that I create content for web hosts and other services in the form of articles and videos and stuff like that that deal with WordPress.

I’m gonna. I’m gonna tell you. His buddy is very good at it. I know you’ve done work for Insta WP at 100.

It’s the kinta. I’m just having a new thing coming out. And seeing Jason and Kingston’s coming out GoDaddy and hosting her and bug you on whatever for a lot of folks, yeah.

And by the way. And by the way, as we talked about this, WordPress 6.7 is coming down the pipe. So if you need to, if you need some content creator reach out to buddy.

Yeah. Yes. Good idea. I’m so busy. Rob. Don’t. Don’t bother me. That’s what I’m going to tell people. No, seriously, I I the just parrot just real quick, the. I I’m stunned at the market that is out there for people like me. They want me to write content and create videos and you think like, are you serious? I mean, seriously, bud? Yeah. Seriously. So I if I was a younger person, I’d be starting a a content. Agency I would because. There’s there’s so much work out there, it’s crazy.

Those times and getting good content takes effort and things like that.

Yeah. Yes, it does. Yeah, it takes time. It does.

Thanks. Thanks for coming on. Talking about the show and more importantly, thanks for your friendship. Even though you’re that’s fine and you have a wonderful day, my friend.

Thank. Thanks rob.