[00:00:00] Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host Scott DeLuzio and now let’s get on with the show.

[00:00:21] Scott DeLuzio: Hey, everybody welcome back to the Drive On Podcast. Today my guest is Talisha Lewallen. Talisha is the CEO of WP Connects whose mission it is to help military personnel find their next career. And their focus is on the WordPress industry, which for the listeners who are unfamiliar with WordPress and what that is.

[00:00:49] Scott DeLuzio: And we’re gonna get into that a little bit later. in, the episode, but just real quick, it’s a website management software. That’s used by nearly half of the websites on the internet today. So there’s a huge [00:01:00] opportunity out there for careers within the WordPress industry. And WP Connects is helping to bridge that gap between military veterans and the WordPress space.

[00:01:09] Scott DeLuzio: So without further ado, welcome to the show Taisha. I’m really glad to have you on

[00:01:13] Talisha Lewallen: thank you for having me.

[00:01:14] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. So, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

[00:01:19] Talisha Lewallen: All right. I started my WordPress career back, whenever COVID started. I feel like everybody else did too.

[00:01:26] Talisha Lewallen: You know, you’re stuck at home and you’re like, what am I gonna do? I’m gonna make a company. So I own a cattle farm and we started wholeselling our beef, you know, with beef shortages and stuff. That actually led my way into being the director of operations for Post Status, which is a great community for WordPress users.

[00:01:45] Talisha Lewallen: And while I was in Post Status in that operations role, we started realizing that the community had a really big need of needing, trained employees. There’s a lot of hiring. That we just decided to fill the need [00:02:00] for, and as luck would have it, we kinda ran into Hector of a solutions and he and I, and Cory Miller, the owner of Post Status got to talking and we decided to create WP connect.

[00:02:12] Talisha Lewallen: So we’re just connecting military personnel that are separating from the military to WordPress jobs. So it’s kinda how you fell into WordPress and WP.

[00:02:24] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and that’s a great it’s a great thing that you’re doing too, because. You know, I’ve talked to so many veterans through this podcast and other places, and as they’re transitioning out of the military, sometimes they’re like, I just don’t know what I want to do next.

[00:02:37] Scott DeLuzio: You know, they, maybe they enjoyed the job that they had in the military. Maybe they didn’t they’re looking for something new and they want a fresh start, but they don’t necessarily know what to do. And they don’t know how. Follow those steps that they need to take in order to get to where they want to be.

[00:02:54] Scott DeLuzio: And so something like this is really great because I gotta imagine someone [00:03:00] who’s six months out, a year out from getting out of the military, their first thought. Is not popping in their head. Like, ge...