This last week has been quite a week for me. Treehouse, The online learning company where I have been teaching WordPress for the last 3+ years told me that they had decided to stop teaching WordPress and that I had been fired. That was Monday.

On Friday the same week, WordCamp US started. Between Monday and Thursday I knew I had to come up with some new idea of how to support myself and then get to WordCamp US to connect with the community about the idea and see if it would work.

My idea is simple, keep teaching WordPress. I have been teaching WordPress long before Treehouse and apparently I will be teaching WordPress long after Treehouse too 😉

What I really want to share in this post though is the love and support and sustaining energy I felt from attending WordCamp US, sharing my idea with people, and getting their feedback.

Everyone who I told about leaving Treehouse was shocked. Yet they were super supportive of me continuing to teach WordPress on my own. This brought such joy to my heart and upliftment to my efforts.

As I set out to focus full time on WordPress education on my own I feel as if I am sailing on the thoughts, accomplishments and support of the amazing people in the WordPress Community. For this I am very grateful.

I realize though that had an ordinary Joe Shmoe showed up at WordCamp US out of a job and looking to get support for a new venture they might walk away deflated and not like they have a lot of support.

The only reason my experience went the way it did, I believe, is because of how much I have participated in the community and tried to play a helpful role for people learning WordPress.

For the past several years I have been attending between 8-12 WordCamps per year and speaking about a range of the subjects. Through this I formed personal relationships and tried to support other people in the community.

It’s cliché, but true. Give in a good way to the WordPress community and it will support you.

My next venture in teaching WordPress is going to be my attempt to try to give back to the Community even more. I believe I have identified a needed niche in the world of WordPress Education and I am going to hustle for the next few months to meet it at a level few others would be capable of doing (in part because of my teaching experience and in part because I have no job to take up my time).

While I know that this project will give a lot back to the community, I am also going to be asking for support from the community in a pretty big way. The great thing though, is that I have faith. I have faith in life, faith in following your passion, and faith in the Sustaining Heart of the WordPress Community.

Thank you to all of you who make it so.

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Post Scriptum: I would specifically like to thank Rich Robinkoff for his talk at WordCamp US about keeping the spirit of #wpmom alive. His talk inspired me to write this post and share what I would have normally kept to myself.

PPS: This post has been edited.