I am very grateful for the WordPress community. In addition to building open source software that powers so much of the web, the collection of people who build websites, applications, businesses and more with and around WordPress have meant so much to me and been such a big part of my life for years now.
My WordPress Adventures Up Until Now
My adventures in the WordPress community have ranged from teaching WordPress to high school students as vocational alternatives to working at McDonalds and Target to writing and implementing college curriculum that included WordPress.
I also ran a web agency for 10 years that relied mostly on WordPress.
For a number of years I worked as the WordPress teacher at Treehouse, empowering 80k students to build sites with WordPress and learn WordPress development.
And for the last several years I have focused on teaching JavaScript in the WordPress community and built a thriving business with thousands of students and an active community of learners on the cutting edge of WordPress development.
My Next Great Adventure in WordPress
I am now ready for my next great adventure in WordPress – building community and educational resources around static and headless WordPress.
I am excited to announce that I have taken on the role of Community Builder at Strattic – the up and coming static WordPress hosting company.
My new role has two primary objectives:
First, grow the static and headless WordPress community through educational resources. This includes resources for both users and developers.
Second, build up the Strattic brand to be a leading source of information and hosting for static and headless WordPress sites.
What Inspired the New Adventure
I have wanted to do something new for a little while now.
I have been creating online courses non-stop for 7 years now. That means that for the last 7 years there has always been one course I just finished and needed to market, one I was in the middle of completing, and one I needed to plan and market the pre-sale of. I am ready for a different educational challenge.
My personal take on life is that when you feel guided and inspired in an uplifting way to do something, do it.
Static and headless is definitely the next big thing in WordPress. I came close to taking jobs at Gatsby and Frontity. I love both of these companies and will continue to work with and promote both of them, but ultimately they didn’t feel like the right fit for me.
Strattic first invited me to join their team a while back, and it was a combination of their enthusiasm and shared vision (along with their solid business mindset) that won me over.
Strattic doesn’t just want me to rep their company. They truly believe in uplifting and educating the entire WordPress community about the various benefits and approaches to static and headless WordPress.
Anyone who knows me or has followed my work over the years knows I care about education and helping people. That’s my jam. And Strattic is going to allow me to continue with my mission.
The other great thing about this is that I will get back to education for WordPress Users. For the last several years I have gone further and further down the niche of just teaching developers (and teaching cutting edge JavaScript developers at that). I am excited to re-broaden my efforts to include helping many many more people.
What About JavaScript for WordPress?
The best part about this new adventure is it’s a win win win. It’s a win for me personally, it’s a win for Strattic, and it’s a win for JS for WP students.
As part of my arrangement with Strattic I will continue to teach my online Bootcamps at JavaScript for WordPress. This is great for me because I love teaching and have wanted to shift away from pre-recorded courses into more personal forms of education for the last year or two.
The other thing I have wanted to do for a while now, is use the JavaScript for WordPress platform I built to uplift new teachers in the community.
So, I will also be bringing on and coaching a new generation of educators to do courses on the site. Think a Frontend Masters or Lynda.com just for WordPress.
We already have two new teachers doing courses and more coming. This is super exciting to me personally, because I have a deep passion in my heart for teaching teachers, not just students.
I have known since I first started teaching professionally in 2005 that I would eventually help build and run a school. So this feels right for me and now feels like the time to do it.
I am excited to see how we as a WordPress Community continue to grow and flourish and innovate over the coming years and I look forward to seeing JS for WP play an even larger part in this than it has up until now.
Is There Anything Else Coming?
You bet! For those who know me, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that working with Strattic while continuing to build JS for WP is barely enough to fill my capacity and joy for doing things in life.
I will also continue to publish books (my third one will be announced soon), continue to teach Yoga, Breathing and Meditation at OfficeYoga.tv, and also share more with this community about my wholistic health and spiritual practices and projects since they are an even bigger part of my life than WordPress.
So much gratitude for all of you following and supporting my work. I send it right back to you. Let’s follow our passions in life and create something great with our time here!
Educator Zac Gordon 