One of my favourite ‘I slid into their DMs’ stories comes from Rob McElhenny and Ryan Reynolds recounting the beginning days of a friendship that has matured into a(n ad)venture with the North Welsh soccer team, Wrexham AFC. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go watch Welcome to Wrexham. It’s a wonderful story, and basically, a true Ted Lasso drama (seriously, watch that too). It’s also a really lovely parallel with my participation in the Future of Team podcast.
Let me be clear despite the above, I’m no sports fan, but gosh I love a story that at its heart is about a community of people gathered around a project, struggling for whatever reasons, and blown away by someone seeing their value and wanting to contribute, to ease the struggle, and take the team to ever increasing success. Given that by the end of their 3rd year together, Wrexham AFC have had 2 promotions up the league ladder shows that they’re kicking all their goals!!
Well, I have my own ‘I slid into their DMs story.’ It’s not about football though… so let me set the scene…
A year ago, long time WP community leader, James Giroux started an initiative called TeamWP that was spearheaded by a Team Experience Index, a survey of team culture and engagement. Around that he was posting engaging conversation starters and I got excited by the discussion. I could see and feel alignment with what I know and love about development and coaching great team players, so I slid into his DMs to show some appreciation.
The conversation went back and forth and James mentioned that he was planning a podcast and he wondered whether I’d like to be a guest on it. Of course I was keen, but I had the audacity to also say, “sure, as a guest… or co-host…” and James didn’t hesitate to entertain the idea, and very quickly, draft me to the team.
We started recording in November of 2023 and have been refining our approach, content, and our delivery as we’ve got more confident and assertive in our opinions, and more comfortable with each other.
I know I’m biased, but if you’re at all interested in creating environments where the people helping you grow your company can thrive, and where you can get resourced to build your ‘dream team’ then the Future of Team is an excellent place to start.
We have a whole bunch of episodes in the bank that we’ll be releasing one by one, the first one is up now and in it we talk about ‘The Why behind Team and Culture Investment’ it really sets the scene for all the episodes coming up.
We’re having an absolute ball recording these. As we go on we’ll be bringing you more awesome conversations, some of which include interviews with other team and culture enthusiasts and practitioners, we’d love to have you along for the ride.
TeamWP has evolved into Future of Team organisation [here], an exciting initiative focused on streamlining HR for Growth: Tailored Recruitment, Culture Building, and Leadership Tools for WordPress Businesses and you can read all about that evolution here. I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
Thanks James for saying yes and for making the whole process so much fun, I’m so looking forward to everyone hearing our conversations!
(If you’re a Wrexham or Ted Lasso fan, what’s your favourite part of the story?)
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