In today’s podcast roundup, we look at Mission statements at Kitchen Sink WP, the many lives of Rand Fishkin from WP-Tonic, and Philadelphia WordPress developer Ebonie Butler who appears on Hallway Chats.
Saddle up as we ride through the WordPress Podcast Roundup.
WordPress Podcast Roundup
Podcast E219 – Should you have a Mission Statement? – Kitchen Sink WP
I love the introduction to the podcast as it uses a redux of the old Six Million Dollar Man TV show.
Adam Silver is the host and he kicks off the show talking about WordCamps coming up as well as ones he had just visited.
He moves on to mission statements. From there he talks about what a mission statement is and how it differs from vision statements. He admits it is a marketing task and not very techy, but ultimately, he explains it is something that we need to have.
He explains that often mission statements aren’t good because they aren’t well thought out. A mission statement, according to Silver, answers three elements: Who we are, who we serve, and how we serve them.
According to Silver, “A good mission will set you apart from your competitors so you are not left to compete on price or discounts.”
A vision statement focuses on the tomorrow and what the company wants to become while the mission statement talks about today. Both are needed and work together.
A Vision statement gives the company direction, explains their hopes and dreams, answers what problems are being solved for the greater good, and answers who are we are inspiring to change.
Adam gives some examples including Trader Joe’s and TED.
This episode is powerful while only being packed into less than 12 minutes.
Have you created a mission or vision statement?
#287 WP-Tonic Show With Special Guest Rand Fishkin Former CEO of Moz
What’s up with Rand Fishkin these days? Well, the guys from WP-Tonic had him on recently to talk about what he has been up to the past couple of years.
Fishkin, the founder and former CEO of Moz, recapped his time at his former company including the final days.
Fishkin, along with Jonathan Denwood, and John Locke of Locke Down Designs, discussed multiple topics including startups, venture-backed companies versus shoestring companies, his new venture SparkToro, and Fishkin’s new book Lost and Founder.
According to Fishkin, the book covers his time at Moz, some of the lesson he learned along the way and some of the things he has done the past couple of years.
SparkToro, Fishkin’s new company, is going to help companies with Influencer Marketing. Fishkin sees Influencer Marketing as a modern-day link building.
I think very frankly, Influencer Marketing should be a little bit more like link building. I know that sounds weird. But modern link building is totally, it’s identifying right people who reach right audiences and right websites that can provide links and hopefully get you traffic and also help your Google rankings. And then, doing outreach to those folks that’s going to have an impact. That sounds a lot like what Influencer Marketing should be. Rand Fishkin
This was a fantastic discussion between Jonathan, Rand, and Jon.
Episode 46: Ebonie Butler – Hallway Chats
Shattering stereotypes. I always love hearing those stories and Hallway Chats captures that very well with their interview of Ebonie Butler. Butler is a WordPress developer that works for Philadelphia’s YIKES, Inc.
Butler has a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology from Drexel University. She tells the story of when a teacher’s assistant steered her away from a major in Computer Science while in college. Apparently, he didn’t think an African American woman was able to comprehend the material.
Fortunately, that experience kind of led me to change my majors because he kind of ended up– near the end of the session, he ended up basically telling me the major was not for me. Also, probably being one of the few black women in the major, you kind of– and he was a white male so he wasn’t really being too– looking back, he wasn’t actually teaching me or trying to teach me. He was making an assumption that there was no way I could understand what the mediocre effort he put into teaching me and I still not understanding, but he included that I was not good enough to be in that major. Ebonie Butler
This led her to the Information Technology degree and a job as a software testing engineer. This was not really what she wanted to do, so she took a leap of faith and started working with YIKES, Inc.
Additionally, Butler runs a blog about metal music and hosts a radio show on Sundays.
You can learn more of Ebonie’s story at the Hallway Chats podcast or at Heropress.
That’s a wrap
These were three very good podcast episodes. The hosts at Hallway Chats, Liam and Tara, do a great job of pulling the story out of their guests. Have you listened to any good WordPress podcasts lately?
