Matt Medeiros starts 2019 and the second part of Season 8 with his interview with Dan Maby. Dan is a self-described wearer of many hats and is the director of Blue 37, a digital agency based in London. He recently founded a new community called WP&UP that supports and promotes positive mental health within the WordPress community. Through Dan’s agency Blue 37, he helps WordPress users move forward with their business. In addition to ALL of that, Dan is the Lead Organizer of WordCamp London and four meetups across the UK.

Listen to the episodes

Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:42:15

What you will learn in this Episode:

WP&UP

Matt – Why WP&UP? What started the initiative for this organization?

Dan – Realized that there was a real need for WordPress users working in isolation. There can be a lot of issues working alone either as a Freelancer or an employee of a company. After working in the WordPress Community for 8 or 9 years, Dan decided to start a charity that could address some of these issues. He brought the non-profit charity, WP&UP to the WordPress Community to help with all types of mental health issues. The organization started with friends and trustees who wanted to help.

Matt – Discusses how difficult this is to set up for the WordPress community because many remote workers work in different countries and in different cultures. It would be great for the WordCamps to participate and announce this help at their conferences to raise awareness.

Dan – The charity was difficult to set up for a global community. Because of the physical locations of many remote workers, you often don’t know the struggle of the person who may be afraid of the stigma towards mental health in their country or culture. Social media does not really help entrepreneurs who work alone.

WP&UP operated unfunded for 12 months. The organization recently passed as a charity in...