Blog

  • WordCamp Montclair 2025: Big Conversations

    WordCamp Montclair might have been one of the smaller events on the WordPress calendar this year, but it packed a lot of value into a single day in New Jersey.

    I flew solo for this one, setting up a simple table with Kinsta swag and a QR code giveaway for a pair of AirPods Pro. (Congrats to the winner!) While the setup was low-key, the conversations were anything but. From thoughtful discussions on AI in WordPress to tactical partner chats, this community proved once again how resilient and generous it is with ideas and experience.

    One of the best parts? Running into Austin from Anchor, a current Kinsta customer. He shared how happy he is with Kinsta’s quick turnaround on product requests, especially API improvements.

    There were some strong talks throughout the day, including one on building successful partnerships from WPVIP’s Jodie Fiorenza.

    Unfortunately, this was the final year for WordCamp Montclair, at least for now. The organizing team is stepping back after years of incredible work. There’s chatter about WordCamp NYC returning in 2026, and I hope it happens. This region has a lot of WordPress energy, and it deserves a space to gather.

    If you were there and we didn’t get a chance to connect, drop me a note. If you weren’t there, let’s catch up at a future WordCamp or one of our upcoming events. Kinsta will be there–swag and all.

    Let’s keep building together.

  • Your Infrastructure Should Be Open: A Quick Talk with Valkey’s Madelyn Olson

    At the Open Source Summit in Denver, I grabbed a few minutes with Madelyn Olson, one of the maintainers behind Valkey, a project that’s been making waves in the infrastructure world.

    Madelyn had just finished delivering a keynote titled “Your Core Infrastructure Should Be Vendor Neutral and Open Source,” and the theme carried right into our conversation.

    Valkey is a community-driven fork of Redis, launched after Redis Labs changed its license. Unlike Redis, Valkey remains under the BSD 3-Clause License, fully open source and governed by the Linux Foundation.

    The message is simple but significant: your core infrastructure shouldn’t be at the mercy of vendor decisions.

    Madelyn emphasized that Valkey is built as a drop-in replacement for Redis. For engineering teams who already rely on Redis’ speed and simplicity, switching to Valkey doesn’t require rewriting your apps–it just gives you back confidence in the license and long-term governance model.

    We didn’t dwell on licensing drama. Instead, we talked about momentum. Valkey has a growing group of contributors, active discussions about its future, and a roadmap shaped by the people who use and maintain it, not just a single company.

    When I asked Madelyn what stood out most at the summit, she mentioned how energizing it was to see so many new contributors from adjacent communities. The project isn’t just preserving Redis, it’s evolving in the open.

    If you’re a CTO or architect re-evaluating the tools your stack depends on, especially for caching or real-time workloads, Valkey deserves a closer look. It’s stable, familiar, and driven by principles that matter, like vendor neutrality and open governance.

    And if your team is already exploring Valkey, or grappling with Redis license concerns, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Drop a comment and let’s compare notes.

  • Building Transparency into Compliance — A Quick Chat with Sarah from Openlane

    I recently had the chance to sit down with Sarah, Head of Engineering at Openlane, for a quick three-minute chat during the Open Source Summit.

    In just a few minutes, we covered a surprising amount–how Openlane is shaking up the world of compliance certification (SOC 2, ISO 27001), why flexibility and cost transparency matter in that space, and how Sarah’s background in building developer tools led to a platform that’s far more than just another checkbox engine.

    She spoke candidly about the company’s approach:

    • Lowering costs through smarter automation
    • Making vendor relationships less rigid and more transparent

    Sarah also shared some of her excitement from the Open Source Summit itself. Between sessions and hallway conversations, it’s clear Openlane is plugged into a growing ecosystem of companies working on real, systemic problems. Their focus on compliance isn’t just red tape–it’s infrastructure for a safer, more trustworthy internet.

    Give the interview a watch below. It’s short, sharp, and packed with insight:

    If you’re following the compliance, or infrastructure-as-a-service space, Openlane’s worth keeping an eye on.

  • The $8.8 Trillion Wake-Up Call: Notes from Open Source Summit NA 2025

    I landed in Denver just after 7am, headed straight to the Convention Center, and found a seat up front for the opening keynote of the Linux Foundation’s Open Source Summit North America. By 9:00, I was wide awake, not from coffee, but from the staggering figure shared on stage:

    $8.8 trillion.

    That’s the estimated economic value of open source software, according to a new report commissioned by the Linux Foundation and presented by Harvard Business School’s Frank Nagle. And even that’s a conservative estimate, based only on the top 1% of open source projects. The long tail, smaller libraries, side projects, and tools that quietly power our digital lives, wasn’t even included.

    So: open source is massive. But the people maintaining it? Not so much.

    The FAIR Project: Redefining WordPress Governance

    A standout session followed from Joost de Valk and Karim Marucchi. Together, they introduced the FAIR Package Manager, a new initiative aimed at modernizing plugin and theme distribution in WordPress.

    What struck me wasn’t just the technical ambition, but the clear diagnosis of a larger issue: growing distrust in centralized governance models and a lack of cross-pollination between the WordPress and broader open source worlds. Joost and Karim weren’t subtle, they brought up last year’s banning of a major web host from the .org Slack and the abrupt plugin removal saga as signs of deeper governance fractures.

    Their call to action? Build a more democratic, Linux-Foundation-style structure: technical steering committees, elected co-chairs, working groups, and a roadmap ratified (but not dictated) by a technical advisory council. A governing board would focus on unblocking barriers and fundraising.

    It was an open challenge to the status quo, and it got applause from a non WordPress crowd.

    Open Source Is Aging Out

    Later, Abigail Kubunok-Maez from GitHub delivered a talk titled “Who Will Maintain the Future?” She raised a sobering point: many OSS maintainers are burned out or aging out, and we’re failing to bring the next generation in fast enough. This may not be news to people inside of open source projects but it needs to be repeated and shown to corporate leadership as much as possible.

    Drawing on her work with GitHub’s Maintainer Program and Mozilla Open Leaders, she outlined how to engage Gen Z contributors: mobile-first design, async video content, and spaces to connect like Discord, not just GitHub Issues. Her talk reminded me that developer experience isn’t just about tools; it’s about creating community to work comfortably in the open.

    And if we want long-term sustainability, compensation matters. Volunteerism alone won’t cut it. We need onramps, mentorship, and real incentives. Recently I talked with Stephane Graber of the Incus project about his work with a class at the University of Texas. Many of the students who participate in contributing to the Incus project go onto work at major tech companies like Nvidia and the FAANGS.

    Devs need to treat their GitHub as their working resume.

    Who’s Watching the Licenses?

    Another powerful discussion came from a panel featuring Stormy Peters, Nithya Ruff, Rao Lakkakula, and others. They focused on OSPOs (Open Source Program Offices) as critical infrastructure for any serious tech company.

    Their key points:

    • If you’re using OSS, you’d better understand your license obligations.
    • Violating them is reputationally dangerous–and the community will notice.
    • SBOMs (Software Bills of Materials) are becoming essential, especially in AI-era complexity.

    It was clear: if you’re consuming open source at scale, you need compliance, coordination, and contribution in one place. And that place is often the OSPO.

    The ROI of Giving Back

    Frank Nagle‘s keynote drilled home the numbers:

    • 97% of companies now use open source.
    • Only 64% give back.
    • Organizations that contribute to open source projects enjoy a 2x productivity boost over free riders.
    • Countries with strong OSS participation see more startups, more VC investment, and better exits.

    And yet, in many companies, contributing is still seen as a cost center or passion project, not a strategic lever. That needs to change.

    The Quality Conversation (and the Quiet Room)

    One of the most candid sessions I joined was a meetup hosted by Lance Willett. With only a handful of us in the room, including Joost, Karim, Robert Jacobi, and a couple of Linux Foundation folks, we talked openly about the tension between open collaboration and software quality.

    How do we maintain high standards in ecosystems built on volunteer labor, across vast forks and repos? How do you scale code review, test coverage, and triage when the talent pool is distributed and overworked?

    There weren’t easy answers. But there was mutual respect and a real willingness to wrestle with the tradeoffs.

    Final Thoughts

    Day one left me inspired, and a little unsettled.

    We’re riding a $8.8 trillion wave powered by an aging, often invisible volunteer base. We need new governance models, better onboarding, deeper funding strategies, and clearer ways to measure impact. And we need to stop treating contribution as charity.

    It’s investment. It’s strategy. It’s survival.

    If you’re a tech leader and you haven’t started thinking seriously about how your organization contributes to the open source software it depends on, you’re late. The good news is that there are organizations like the Linux Foundation with vast resources and projects available to help.

  • Help Shape WordPress 6.8.2: How to Start Testing and Contributing

    🎥 Embedded Video:

    💬 Summary:

    In this episode of Kinsta Talks, Aaron Jorbin shares how anyone who uses WordPress can start contributing — by testing the bugs targeted for the upcoming 6.8.2 release. Learn how to use the beta testing plugin, how to write helpful bug reports, and why your voice matters even if you’re not a developer. We wrap up with a short bonus on submitting to WordCamp US.

    💡 Key Quotes:

    • “Now is not the time to fix your personal wishlist bug. Now is the time to fix the problems introduced in 6.8.”
    • “It’s impossible to test every plugin combination. That’s why we need the community.”
    • “There’s no wrong way to report a bug. There’s just incomplete or unkind ways.”
    • “A video can be worth thousands of words. If you can’t describe it, record it.”

    🔗 Resources:

    📌 Call to Action:

    Help test WordPress 6.8.2 and make the web better.

    👉 Learn more about contributing

  • People First, Profits Second: What I’ve Learned About Relationships and Sales

    For a good portion of my career, I treated business and personal relationships like two separate worlds.

    Work was work. Personal was personal.

    The reality is that those lines blur fast. Especially in sales. Especially when you’re working with people over long periods of time. Especially when money, pressure, and pride get involved.

    So let me lay it out simply:
    Sales is relationships.

    Selling With a Heartbeat

    In any sales process, you’re working with a real person, someone with a family, a career, a past, and a future. Sometimes you’ve known them in other roles. Sometimes you’ve never met. But if you want to earn their trust, it starts by showing up as a person, not just a pitch.

    Yes, I have goals.
    Yes, I represent a company.
    Yes, I want to close the deal.

    But if I lead with that, I lose the thing that matters most: connection.


    When the Deal Doesn’t Happen

    Here’s a hard truth: some deals aren’t meant to happen.

    Maybe the budget isn’t there.
    Maybe your solution isn’t the right fit.
    Maybe they just don’t want to move forward.

    That doesn’t mean the relationship failed.
    That doesn’t mean you lost.
    That doesn’t mean they’re not worth keeping in your world.

    One of the biggest mistakes I made early in my career was burning bridges if I couldn’t cross them immediately. It’s a short-sighted move. Because in business, as in life, people circle back.

    If you can maintain the relationship after the deal falls through, you’re doing it right.


    Emotional Triggers and Financial Stress

    Let’s talk about the pressure. The “I need this deal to pay my mortgage” kind of pressure. I’ve been there. When I was in that mode, I sold from fear. I made bad decisions. I acted selfishly. I damaged relationships that could’ve lasted.

    The irony is, the more desperate I was, the less people wanted to buy from me.

    Only when I got my personal finances under control, and stopped tying every lead to my survival, could I finally show up as a helpful partner, not a hungry salesperson.


    The Long Game

    Some relationships take months. Others take years. If you play the long game, if you show up honestly, consistently, and with curiosity, things tend to unfold.

    Even when you’re not “selling,” you’re building trust. Trust turns into deals. Or referrals. Or friendships. And sometimes, all three.

    Here’s my current compass:

    • Be honest. Even if it costs you a deal.
    • Be curious. Even when there’s nothing immediate to gain.
    • Be kind. Even if they pick a competitor.
    • Be patient. You don’t need to win every time.

    My Mantra

    Whenever I’m feeling anxious or out of alignment in a business relationship, I come back to a simple mantra:

    I’m enough.
    I deserve to be in the room, flaws and all.

    I have much to contribute.
    My experience and ideas matter–and can help others.

    I have much to learn.
    Every person I meet knows something I don’t.

    That last part has saved me more times than I can count. Especially when I feel like I need to prove myself.


    Final Thought: Relationships Over Revenue

    Agency owners, freelancers, consultants, we all live in the balance between relationships and revenue.

    You’re going to mess up sometimes. You’ll take things personally. You’ll push too hard or ghost someone who didn’t “convert.” I’ve done it. We all have.

    But with time, and a little humility, you can build a career where your integrity is the value prop.

    Because in the end, we don’t do business with businesses.

    We do business with people.

    And if you take care of the relationship, the sales will follow.

  • The Hard Easy

    I call it The Hard Easy—but really, it’s just a shift in perspective.

    We all know those moments when a task feels heavier than it is. Dishes in the sink. A report we meant to write. A sales call we’ve avoided for days. They seem small, but they carry weight. Emotional weight. Decision weight. And the longer we let them sit, the heavier they get.

    That’s the Hard Easy in action:
    Do the hard thing now, and it becomes easy later. Wait for it to “become easier,” and it only gets harder.

    Take the dishes. Right after dinner, they’re quick work—rinse, done. But leave them overnight? The food crusts. The water turns cold. The next day you’re scrubbing, not rinsing. Add in one late meeting or an unexpected phone call, and suddenly it’s a bigger problem than it ever needed to be.

    In work, it’s no different. Sales calls, for example. You know most people won’t answer. You know most who do won’t be thrilled. But if you build the habit, if you stay consistent, you’ll find the people who need what you offer. The hard part is starting. The easy part comes later—when results start to snowball.

    Or take writing a report. Wait too long and your memory fades. Details blur. But if you capture it while it’s fresh, everything flows more easily. The hard part is sitting down. The easy part is realizing how much you remember when you act quickly.

    The Hard Easy isn’t about hustle. It’s about momentum. And mercy—for your future self.

    So if you’re staring down something that feels heavy today, just remember:
    You’re not failing.
    You’re just on the edge of a moment.
    And you have a choice.

    What’s one “hard” thing you can do right now… that your future self will thank you for?

    (If you’re new here, this idea came from my intro post—feel free to start there.)

  • My first contribution to WordPress

    I didn’t set out to contribute to WordPress. I was just curious about a new feature.

    In WordPress 6.6, a new auto-rollback feature was being tested—something designed to help users recover automatically when a plugin update breaks their site. I’d heard about it through the usual community chatter and decided to give it a try. I figured at the very least, I’d learn something new. What I didn’t expect was to become part of the release process.

    Following testing instructions from Andy Fragen and Colin Stewart, I installed a special plugin that was intentionally built to trigger a PHP error. The goal was to see how WordPress handled failure—and how the new rollback system would recover from it. The test went smoothly. WordPress detected the problem, rolled the plugin back to the previous version, and sent me an email.

    But that email? It left me a little uncertain. It worked—but it didn’t fully explain what had happened. Which plugin had failed? What was restored? Did the update go through at all?

    I shared my feedback with the team: make the notification email more descriptive. A few tweaks to language could make a big difference in user confidence, especially for people who aren’t developers. The idea was simple—don’t just tell users something happened, tell them what and why.

    That small suggestion became my first real contribution to WordPress core.

    It wasn’t a patch or a line of code, but it was part of the process. The developers had done an incredible job making the testing environment clear and easy to follow. It felt approachable. And that changed everything for me.

    Since then, I’ve given a few talks about this feature—how it works, why it matters, and how it makes WordPress safer for everyday users. As part of my role at Kinsta, I’ve been lucky to speak with developers and agency owners about tools like this and how we can all make the web more resilient.

    I used to think contributing to WordPress meant writing complex code. Now I see it’s really about showing up, being curious, and offering what you can—even if it’s just a better subject line in an email.

    So if you’ve ever thought about contributing but weren’t sure where to start, this is your nudge: try something. Test a feature. Ask a question. Suggest an improvement. You might be more helpful than you think.

  • The Rhythm of Balance

    A meditation on standing tall, eating well, pulling back, tuning in, and finding balance in life

    Balance Is a Moving Target

    I’ve been thinking a lot about balance lately.

    Not just the kind that keeps you from tipping over when you’re walking on a rocky trail or holding a yoga pose. But the kind that threads through your entire day—quietly adjusting itself from one moment to the next. Balance in your body, your plate, your head, your heart. In your work. In your relationships.

    Balance isn’t something you “find” and keep forever. It’s something you practice, lose, and return to—again and again.

    It’s a rhythm. Or maybe a song you’re constantly remixing. Adjusting the bass and treble until things sound just right. Some days you hit it. Other days, not even close. But tuning in? That’s the key.

    Warrior II and a Broken Finger

    Take yoga, for example.

    Warrior II looks simple, but once you’re in it—feet grounded, arms reaching in opposite directions—you realize it demands presence. You’re rooted and open at the same time.

    It’s a stance that reminds me I’m strong, I’m capable, and I’m ready for the day.

    Then there’s the less graceful side of balance—like when I flew over the handlebars of my mountain bike during a race and broke a finger. That moment was humbling. I finished the race, sure. But it cost me. Physically and emotionally.

    It taught me that I don’t need to race through life. I can push myself without pushing past myself.

    This Harvard Health article on yoga and balance explains how foundational poses like Warrior II build both strength and mental focus.

    Oatmeal in the Morning, Brownies at Night

    Balance shows up in the kitchen, too.

    Every morning starts with a bowl of oatmeal that’s become its own kind of meditation. Not just oats—flax, chia, hemp seeds, cranberries, dates, cacao, cinnamon, nutmeg, and blueberries. A whole rainbow in a bowl. It grounds me.

    And at night? A different ritual. My wife and I make ice cream sundaes with homemade brownies and chocolate syrup.

    It’s how we say: “We made it through today. Let’s celebrate that.”

    I don’t count calories. I count colors, satisfaction, and joy. Especially during work travel, I try to stay balanced—fruit in the bag, a drink mix for breakfast, moderation on the road.

    Emotional Centering and Curious Dogs

    I remember being a kid, standing in a schoolyard, getting mocked for what I was wearing. Back then I’d lash out—or withdraw. Now I try to laugh. Not dismissively, but compassionately.

    People project their own stuff. Unless my shirt’s actually unbuttoned (which—thank you), I let it go.

    Balance, emotionally, isn’t about always being calm. It’s about choosing the right energy for the moment.

    I use tools to stay centered:
    – 10 minutes of meditation each morning
    – Journaling each night
    – Morning dog walks to absorb their pure joy
    – Classical music at dinner to slow things down

    These little rituals help me stay aware of where I am—and where I need to be.

    Over-Giving, Pulling Back, and Showing Up

    In relationships, balance is one of the trickiest dances.

    I tend to over-give—especially at the beginning. Friends, partners, colleagues—I show up. And sometimes, the other person doesn’t.

    That realization stings.

    In romance, it’s heartbreak. At work, it’s a wake-up call. In both cases, it’s an invitation to reevaluate.

    I’ve had to learn to step back. To let others meet me in the middle—or not at all. Sometimes the healthiest thing is space. A little distance to reset, recalibrate, and then reconnect.

    Work That Feeds Me

    Right now, I’m in a good place professionally.

    About 90% of what I do brings me joy—and I know how rare that is. I get to connect with people. Host meaningful conversations. Create. Grow.

    Joy at work is a gift—but like anything else, it needs support, alignment, and structure to stay balanced.

    I’ve got a manager who helps me stay grounded. They push me into the discomfort that leads to growth—like speaking more and owning my voice.

    Still, I’ve got room to grow. I want to get better at communicating what I’m doing and syncing up with others. I like working solo, but I know I’m stronger when I collaborate.

    Tuning In, Every Day

    Balance isn’t a finish line. It’s not something you achieve and lock in forever.

    It’s rhythm. Some days, a steady beat. Other days, a jazz solo that barely holds together.

    But I trust I can come back to it.
    Pause. Adjust. Tune in.

    Like fine-tuning a photo until the colors pop.
    Like shifting my weight in Warrior II.
    Like making a sundae—not for nutrition, but for joy.

    So here’s my question for you:

    Where do you feel off-balance right now? And what’s one small thing you can adjust—today—to bring it back into tune?

  • Spotlight on Kelsey Parks: Helping Startups Build Systems That Stick

    One of the best parts of doing interviews for Kinsta Talks is getting to sit down with people I already know—but haven’t yet had the chance to really dig in with. That was the case with Kelsey Parks, a local friend, fellow WordPress Meetup organizer here in Durango, and the co-founder of Psyche Digital.

    We recently sat down to talk about her journey into marketing, what she’s learned from years of working with startups, and how her agency helps founders build the kind of systems that don’t just survive—they scale.

    From Startups to Systems

    Kelsey’s path into agency life didn’t begin with marketing degrees or a traditional agency climb. It started with startups—and with chaos.

    “I got completely addicted to the unemployable startup founder,” she told me. “The oddballs in a warehouse, making cool things happen from thin air.”

    After stints in D.C. and China—where she helped Chinese companies position themselves for North American markets—Kelsey eventually returned to Southwest Colorado and teamed up with her childhood friend (and now business partner), Kate. The two had stayed connected since the third grade, and they launched Psyche Digital together to serve companies during one of the most intense phases of business: the early growth stage.

    Why Systems Matter

    Kelsey works with founders who are often at a critical juncture—what she calls the “we’re going to make it or we’re not going to be here in a year” phase. Rather than overwhelm them with trendy marketing tactics, Psyche Digital focuses on something more sustainable: building repeatable systems.

    One line really stuck with me:

    “Another thing that’s important to startup founders is knowing that the work we’re doing isn’t going to be lost when they bring in their own marketing team.”

    That mindset—treating systems as something founders can keep—feels like the kind of long-term thinking a lot of fast-moving businesses forget to prioritize.

    On AI and Interns

    We also talked about AI, of course.

    Kelsey doesn’t see AI as a threat. She sees it as a tool. Specifically:

    “I think of AI as part of my workforce—more like an intern in my workforce.”

    That framing resonated. Use AI to gather ideas, generate outlines, or even write drafts—but then let your experts take it from there. It’s not about replacing creativity. It’s about removing bottlenecks.

    Meet Her at the Meetup

    In addition to running an agency, Kelsey co-hosts the Durango WordPress Meetup with me. She’s been instrumental in building a welcoming space for folks working with WordPress across the Four Corners.

    If you’re a local and haven’t joined us yet—now’s a good time. We meet monthly, and our conversations are always lively (and occasionally spicy—like Kelsey’s favorite Sichuan food from her days in Chengdu).

    Watch the Full Interview

    You can watch the full interview on YouTube here:

    🎥 How Psyche Digital Helps Startups Build Systems That Stick