Episode 168: A Very Special Thank You to Paul Lacey

---

Show Summary

In the past 2 weeks my good friend Paul Lacey stepped back from many things he was doing in the WordPress Space. This is a very personal episode where I say thank you to Paul for what he has done for our community and what he means to me.

---

Show Notes

 

 

00:00

Hey, everybody, Rob here again. In today’s podcast, I want to start away in on my friend Paul Lacey’s decision to step away from the back end of the WordPress space. And I want to start it by reading a tweet that Paul put out 13 minutes before the time of this recording, and it reads, I’ve upset and triggered many people this last week. What I would say is, Paul, you cause many people to stop and think your post, your podcast on WP minute was bang on the money. And frankly, you’re well loved in this community. And you’re always welcome back. Over the years, you’ve done nothing, but cause people to think and ponder their decisions and their reasons for doing things. That’s because that’s who you are. And I think one of the big problems I say a lot in the WordPress space is we always sell the solution. It’s WordPress. Frank, frankly, I’m a strong believer. And I know this won’t go over really well in the community, because I love the community, that WordPress is into solution for everything we need as business owners and people in the web space to stop selling the solution, but sell the results. And if you don’t believe me, please go read Simon Senek. Start with Why. And Simon has an amazing YouTube talk. And you can go find it, Google it. And please, please, please read that YouTube talk. Because you’ll understand why starting with fly is so important. And that’s about selling the solution. And we need to we need to stop. And we need to stop it big time. So Paul, you made a decision to step away from the backend of WordPress. And frankly, I don’t blame you. I support you 100%, I will always support you as a colleague and as a friend. But I started this podcast off saying your cause thought. And one of the podcasts I’ve done that I’m most proud of is a podcast that you and I did, where we talked about all these acquisitions. And at the time of this record, the acquisition train is still going in full force. And what we did was we turned it into a dust Gushin about how the WordPress community matters. And I’m so proud and so glad that you and I had that conversation together. Because it was amazing. And it’s one of my favourite podcasts that I’ve done since I started podcasting. And I might almost 170 episodes if you can believe that. So that was one. And then the other one was at the Page Builder Summit, you and Nathan Wrigley sat down with Brian Gardner and Nick Diego. And what you guys talked about was the future of WordPress. And this actually spurred another podcast where Brian said on Twitter, I’d like to continue the conversation. And I said to Brian, I’d love to continue. And Brian and I had an amazing conversation. And that’s all because of a conversation you were in. And for that I say thank you. Because that’s one of the things you’ve done over the years is created, thought provoking conversations. And that matters to this community. And there are some people that truly shy away from the hard conversations. You’re not one of those people. And you deserve a lot of credit for that. Paul, I want to keep this short and sweet. But I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for what you’ve done for the community. Thank you for being you. And thank you for what you will do in the future. I think you’ve opened up a lot of eyes in the last couple of weeks and caused a lot of discussions. And those matter. I’ve been in the middle of some some with John Locke some with Chris Lima.

 

05:01

and some with many other WordPress people on Twitter. And frankly, that’s the best place for these conversations. That’s where the hard ones are happening. And for that, and creating that podcast he did on WP Minute. He deserves so much credit. I’m actually glad you’re taking care of yourself and your needs. One of the things in this pandemic that’s mattered more than anything. And I’ve learned this having been separated, which is headed for divorce, and everything else I’ve been through, and some switches in my agency and some contracts switches and other things is the number one priority is yourself. And for that, Paul, you deserve so much credit. Thank you. That’s about it really. And I, I just wanted to publicly say thank you again, and how much your loved and appreciated. And most importantly, thanks for being an amazing friend. Rob Cairns Stunning Digital Marketing, just chatting a little bit about Paul’s decision to step away from the WordPress back end or cooler talk or whatever you want to call it, and sharing with you some thoughts. And just wanted to say thank you. Bye for now.

---