Good Stuff from Rene: Volume 8 – My 20 Minutes of Fame

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I’ll be posting once per month on WordPress-related topics. I haven’t found my niche yet, but the first post is about my talk at WordCamp Pittsburgh and a contribution I made to the WordPress documentation.

Yes! I spoke at WordCamp! Proof.

What a day. As I’ve said before, normally WordCamp begins with a keynote speaker. I’ve attended three keynote talks now at two WordCamps, and they have all focused more on people than on WordPress itself.

The keynote speaker at WordCamp Pittsburgh was Kevin Hoffman. Kevin works for WordImpress and is part of the GiveWP team. (Give is a plugin you can use to accept donations on your website.)

His talk was titled, “A Pot-Stirrer Amongst Chefs.”

In the first part, he told us a story about Wilt Chamberlain. For those of you who don’t know, Wilt set a record by scoring 100 points (himself!) in a win over the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962.

Apparently, Wilt wasn’t very good at throwing from the free-throw line, though. In that game (and that season I think), he did really well because he threw underhanded. However, he couldn’t continue because he felt stupid.

Totally crazy. One of the greatest basketball players of all time didn’t do something that was guaranteed to make him better because he was worried about what other people thought of him?

(See, what does this have to do with WordPress?)

Then, Kevin transitioned to his own experiences. He’d been a freelancer and using WordPress for about seven years, but he was stuck. He didn’t have any social support, didn’t write any blog posts, didn’t contribute to WordPress or the community.

He was good, but he wasn’t getting better. He wasn’t doing the things that he needed to do to take it to the next level.

After seven years, he finally wrote and published that first post.

He contributed to a project. 

He attended and spoke at WordCamps.

He started working with a team.

He got better and continues to do so.

And by speaking about his experiences, he inspires other people to do the same. I wrote MY first post and made my first contribution.

I was really trying to hold back the tears during his talk (and another one about imposter syndrome). 

It’s like… the humanity and interconnectedness that I crave is wound up with one of the things I’m good at (tech) and maybe, just maybe, I’ve found a place in the world.

I even went up to Kevin after the talk and asked him if I could give him a hug. Hugging a stranger. Me. True story.

My first post + contribution. Thanks for the inspiration @kevinwhoffman! https://t.co/IQXibS60IV #wcpgh — Rene Morozowich (@ReneMorozowich) September 12, 2017

I attended another talk on imposter syndrome. The speaker was Benjamin Bradley, and he showed a slide where there were two points – point A and point B. Between them was a straight line.

He said, “This is what we think other peoples’ processes look like.”

Then he had another picture, also with point A and point B. But between them was a crazy, spaghetti line.

“Does your process from getting from A to B look like this? If you got from A to B, you are a WordPress rockstar.” –@benjaminbradley #WCPGH pic.twitter.com/6JWIknlKqd — Ben Meredith (@benUNC) September 9, 2017

Yes, my process does look like that, thank you. (How did he know I thought that?!)

His point was that if we’re getting from point A to point B, we’re a rockstar. It doesn’t matter if it’s not pretty. It’s done.

Then came my talk. (Nervous!!!)

I started off, was moving along and getting into the groove. Then about 15 slides in (of like 60 some slides), the timekeeper told me I had 10 minutes left. 

I’m sorry, what?

I couldn’t even see how it was possible – surely it hadn’t been THAT long.

So I speed up the presentation and fit everything in, then she tells me I have 15 minutes of Q&A.

UGH.

I totally could have used that time for more presenting – I didn’t need 15 minutes of Q&A.

(The time period was 45 minutes total. 30 minutes of presenting and 15 minutes of Q&A. I thought 10 minutes left was of the 45 minutes total, NOT of the 30 minute “presenting” time.)

Moral of the story – keep your own time.

But afterwards, I really beat myself up about it. The rest of the day and into the next. How stupid must I have sounded! How unprofessional.

Then something hit me – what if this happened to a friend?

I would absolutely have told my friend that no one gave it a second thought. No one was thinking about it now and not to worry – people make mistakes.

Also, what exactly was I focusing on? 

There are tons of quotes related to this idea:

• “What consumes your mind controls your life.”
• “What you focus on expands.”
• “What we think, we become.”

It’s the Law of Attraction. Maybe you think that’s a lot of mumbo jumbo, but what if it’s not? I’m a little superstitious, so I don’t want to chance it.

In one month and one day, I’m headed on a solo journey to Costa Rica for a two-week language immersion program. Stay tuned for the next newsletter with all the juicy details, like, “Why? Why are you doing that, Rene?”

As always, thanks for reading! I’m so happy you’re here.

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