Oh, you’ve never heard of a WordPress Evangelist? I have and they are awesome. Not because they give you cool swag like sweaters, pint glasses or even Mini Drones that include their companies logo on them. They are awesome because they’re not here to sell you on their product. They are awesome because they’re here to answer questions that you may have about their products and allow you to put a face along with a once face-less brand. A WordPress Evangelist is simply an individual that travels around and speaks about WordPress on behalf of their company. That company usually has something to do with WordPress. They are usually a hosting company or a major player in the WordPress Community.
Who’s A WordPress Evangelist?
My first WordPress Evangelist goes by the name of Suzette Franck. She was and always will be the Media Temple WordPress Evangelist. When I first met Suzette, I think at WordCamp Las Vegas, she was super friendly and ready to show me some awesome points on why Media Temple should be considered when hosting my next website. She wasn’t trying to give me a percentage off if I choose her host. She simply showed me some advantages her host had over the others. Outside of the WordCamp event, Suzette is just this awesome individual who can hang out and talk about girly things as well as code with the big names. That’s one of the reasons I love Suzette!
The second WordPress Evangelist I met was Austin Gunter. Former WordPress Evangelist of WPEngine. This guy really took the WordPress Evangelist position and made it more about support in the WordPress Community. Of course, if you had a WPEngine question, he would help you anyway possible. If you had a WordPress Question in general and you were not on WPEngine, he still would help you. It was just an opportunity for him to show that his Brand is able to help you through any situation and use that situation as his proof that one should move to his hosting company. This was a huge game changer and I’m proud to have met him.
I got to be a WordPress Evangelist for GoDaddy
The actual awesome and amazing WordPress Evangelist for GoDaddy goes by the name of Mendel Kurland. He wears many hats and most of them are cowboy hats with a leather band on them. Yeah, it’s a classy thing to do. I first met Mendel at Prestige Conf in Las Vegas. He handed me a Mini Drone and I went on my many ways. Later that night, we were at an after party and someone mentioned that their host did this awesome thing. Mendel jumps in and mentions that GoDaddy does that too. Bam, knowledge dropped. The GoDaddy WordPress Evangelist strikes again.
Ever since then I wanted / want to do what he does. Travel around and speak on behalf of WordPress for a company. I’d be amazing. How do I know? I already do this for my own products at many WordCamp’s. I just don’t have the budget, Yet. Yesterday at LoopConf.io, I sat at the GoDaddy sponsor / conference table and talked to people about the swag they were giving away and the products that GoDaddy offers. Why? Because Medel was helping developers with some awesome things and people needed answers dangit!
Let’s be clear. He didn’t need my help. I volunteered and made myself an honorary GoDaddy WordPress Evangelist for the next few hours. I was changing the table layout and design. I took paper pamphlets and set them up in place of phones that should go in the sweet cell phone holders GoDaddy is giving out. I asked people if they use GoDaddy and how they felt about it. Things went well.
What I thought a WordPress Evangelist Did
Things went well at LoopConf because people there were ultimately happy with their GoDaddy Experiences. That’s surprising because I’m part of a group on FaceBook that is dedicated to WordPress development. In this group, when ever GoDaddy is mentioned you can feel people lift their fingers off the keyboard and make a fist to punch the keyboard. I’m not surprised that this goes on because these people bashing a host haven’t used said hosting company since some updates have been released or changes were made. So all they have knowledge of is this old system. Hate to break it to you, but it’s been 3 years since you’ve used GoDaddy and things have changed. Hosting has changed and the way websites work in general have changed. So go out there and give them a try. If you have a question, ask someone for help. Maybe you go to a WordCamp near you and ask the WordPress Evangelist yourself? Maybe I’ll be there and I’ll appoint myself as another GoDaddy WordPress Evangelist and I’ll solve your problem. Who knows.
Just stop talking trash before you try an old dogs new tricks.
Pingback: Nerdy Friends make everything better. Here's why.