How to Design Event Experiences and Build Community With Raquel Karina

In this episode of LMSCast, Chris Badgett interviews Raquel Karina, the founder of Wonderland Curious and the creator of PressConf, a new WordPress conference aimed at businesses that seeks to replace PressNomics. She shared how to build a community.

She talks about how stepping outside the official WordCamp structure enabled her to move more quickly, bypass bureaucratic obstacles, and foster an environment centered on genuine connections, learning, and business transactions. Raquel shares her experiences of the emotional highs and lows involved in launching the event against a backdrop of tension and division within the WordPress community. She underscores her commitment to ensuring that PressConf is a safe, inviting space for founders, product creators, and service providers.

This episode tells a compelling tale of leadership and community-building, while also highlighting the importance of remaining faithful to one’s values in the process of creating something new and necessary in the WordPress world.

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Episode Transcript

Chris Badgett: You’ve come to the right place if you’re looking to create, launch, and scale a high value online training program. I’m your guide, Chris Badget. I’m the co-founder of lifter LMS, the most powerful learning management system for WordPress. State of the end, I’ve got something special for you. Enjoy the show.

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of LMS Cast. I’m joined by a special guest. Her name is Raquel, who I’ve known for a decade. We first met in Mexico. Raquel just put on an awesome event for the WordPress community, the business community. Called Press Conf, and I wanted to interview Raquel about, her journey with that ideas around creating events and building community, which she’s exceptional at.

But first, welcome to the show, Raquel. 

Raquel Karina: Thank you Chris. Really happy to be here. 

Chris Badgett: I. I have to say I I made a faux pa at your event. We were going out to dinner and I looked around and I said, Hey, everybody here has been on the podcast. It’s wild. And you’re like, I haven’t been on the podcast yet.

I’m like, oh my God, I’ve known you for so long. I feel like we’ve done it. I’m like, I can’t believe we haven’t done it yet. So here we are 

Raquel Karina: making an honest man outta you now. 

Chris Badgett: Thank you. Thank you. I. So your business is called Wonderland. Curious. Yes. You can look for that on LinkedIn, social media.

You’ve got a website coming [email protected]. But first dive in and let’s start it today. What was the event that you just ran and why’d you do it? 

Raquel Karina: Oh man. Okay. Buckle up. I the event is press comp. We’ve been seeing the spiritual successor of Pressonomics, so a conference specifically for the business of WordPress.

Those who drive the WordPress economy. Essentially. You make money on WordPress, you’re invited. If you want to make money on WordPress, you were invited. But yeah, [00:02:00] we. There’s a some origin, big time origin story. But to keep it not too long, I have just really found a niche of what I’m really good at, and that’s bringing people together.

I. In real life humans, and I’ve loved volunteering and putting on events, not even for WordPress, but even my kids’ schools and other community events in the startup space in the valley in Phoenix, where I live, or even in the design space. And when there was such a need in for a business of WordPress conference to come back, I really just.

Decided. I’m like, if anyone could do it, I can do it. And I had a lot of people encouraging me and saying, yes, Raquel, we believe in you. And just took a step and another step, and. We could go into all sorts of specifics if you want, if you have any other specific questions. But it happened last week and it blew my mind every step [00:03:00] of the way and seeing everyone there, it was just so incredible and so needed for our community at this time.

Chris Badgett: Absolutely. And I do have more questions, but I just wanna say at a high level, one of the frameworks I use for, helping education entrepreneurs and those that build the tech to support those industries is a challenge they have for wearing five hats at the same time. And that’s the expert, the entrepreneur, the teacher, the technologist, and the community builder.

And I think the community builder hat is the least understood with the most lacking of skills and experience out there. It’s like truly a, a unique gift to build community online in person. Just for your industry before the sale as part of the product. It can be a lot of different things, but first question about press comp is how long did it time elapsed from?

I’m gonna do this to the 140 50 people [00:04:00] or however many that showed up at the event. What was the timeframe from idea to launch for that? 

Raquel Karina: I guess technically. The moment it was happening. And there was no doubt in my mind a year. But again, and I’ve said the story, Chris, you were with me and Jason, several others, and we were hiking a mountain in Taipei.

And the conversation came up and. You know there somebody referring to Cloud Fest as the new Pronos lit a fire in me. I was like legitimately offended and not at Robert. Robert. Robert Windish is the one who said it. I’ve shouted out his name so many times. It wasn’t that I was mad at him at it at all.

It was just like, this is what we’ve resorted to. ’cause we don’t have prost stomachs anymore and. And then that was the first huge catalyst. And then shortly after I got on a mastermind, community mastermind call with other WordPresses, and the conversation came up around having a. Word Camp that was business centric.

And I know from being a long time, decade long plus word camp organizer that Word Camp serve a purpose. And the purpose they serve is wonderful and needed, and they don’t need to be all for all. And I just knew, I was like, no, this burden isn’t for Word camps to carry. I’m gonna do it. And I immediately hung up and reached out to Josh and Sally.

Immediately and that was, gosh, yeah, it was either late March or April of last year, 2024. And then having, figuring out with them going forward, will it be press stomachs, will it not? Because GoDaddy owns the trademark. And then my baby, I have adult children. My baby graduated from high school and letting the kind of summer simmer.

For me and get my act together. Doing, having conversations, playing the sort of beginning game of knowing this conference is coming and working on pr. Having lots of conversations with key people in the industry. And then came last August, I had my first meeting, started building a small team.

And really between August and November before we started selling tickets. It still wasn’t a terrible amount of time other than like setting up a quick site. But really the momentum really started in November once we started selling tickets. So yeah, here we 

Chris Badgett: are. So in summary, like what the event was, it was at a hotel in Tempeh, Arizona.

Really nice hotel. Great pool and hot tub and it had a nice courtyard in the center. It had a con, I guess you would call it a conference room. You had two days of talks. All the talks were great. You had parties on the front end and on the back end, and then an extra bonus day if people wanted it to do organized golfing or activities. I’m sure there’s more than I mentioned, but. What was easier than you thought? And what was harder than you thought? Because from my perspective, I’m like this thing felt like it had just, this wasn’t your first rodeo. And I didn’t, there was no big mistake or mix up.

Everything was fine. Everything just worked. But what was harder than you thought and easier than you thought? 

Raquel Karina: Everything was easier, but I thought it, I knew it was gonna be easier. Especially from somebody who’s run a lot of volunteer based events. When it’s volunteer based you’re volunteering for another entity. And here’s all sorts of red tape and steps that you need to take.

And I knew from the beginning I just knew that it was gonna be easier and it’s hard to say what I, what was easier that I didn’t expect it to be easier because I expected all of it to be easier other than maybe. When it really was easier, I was like, oh, okay. I was right. Because there’s that little bit of is it though, is it gonna be easier?

I just remember signing the contract for the venue, which Tempe Mission Palms. I just could, I was like, that was easy. I was literally like, just toured the space, gave them a pretty small down payment, and that was it. We’re off to the races as opposed to, I’ve done so much of that for Word camps. It’s reaching out to Word Camp, reaching out to the venue, having everybody talk to each other.

It’s seven steps before you get that contract signed and this time around. It was just, yeah, and like you don’t have to deal with things like business insurance because the hotel carries a business insurance for an event like that. So it just. It was just, that part was really amazing.

The team was so easy. So maybe that I guess I never put too much effort into it. But the team built itself when I started having conversations with others like Brian Richards. Matt Madero several from my work Camp Phoenix team were like, I’m in. And I didn’t even get to ask. I was like, oh, okay.

Yeah. Thank you. And it was like really, that part was just so easy. Carol, standby. I always joke I didn’t give her a choice. I was like, okay, so you’re helping me. And that was that. And then we continued and then. Dave Ryan was like, I was like, ’cause he’s had a lot of health issues and I was like, do you have time because I really need you.

And he was like, yeah. So the team was really easy and just and they were small, but high performers. I’m a big fan of the lean team, a lean organizing team because then you just get so much done and the, it’s less, I guess cooks the kitchen. And you basically have hired like the top chef for what they do and then things that were harder than expected.

I think I honestly ex I dealing with the drama that hit WordPress made it harder. Yeah. Because my, this event predated the drama and we announced Monday. September, or right before Word Camp US happened, and Friday at the keynote is when everything blew up and then blew up and more, and just bigger and bigger explosions.

And so that was not expected and that did make it harder but different, right? Like looking back I’m so grateful because it really changed the dynamic and the trajectory in a good way, and I was so convinced that. This is an opportunity for press comp to be a breath of fresh air that our community needs so badly right now.

And a neutral space where automatic could come, WP Engine can come and everyone else can come and have a safe space for everybody and that was harder. I loved it. I honestly feel honored. I felt like out of all the things that Raquel loves and I’m a big firm believer in, in second chances and grace and forgiveness and not cannibalizing each other.

And so it was just the perfect opportunity for an event by Raquel to happen in a time where we wanna cannibalize each other and we wanna unfor we, yeah, not forgive each other. So that was harder, but it was a good harder, I. 

Chris Badgett: It sounds like we’re already here with the why, like what is your why and both in your person that kind of goes into this project and also what made it quote easy?

’cause you’re in alignment, so what is that? 

Raquel Karina: Yeah. I haven’t done that full Simon Sinek where you have like the sentence like structured and then you could just stay it. But I know with everything that it’s in me that it’s to cultivate. Human connection. Everywhere I go, wherever my feet are, is an opportunity to cultivate human connection.

And I, it just all comes down to that whether that’s a smile to a stranger on the street, whether that’s a conference that you plan for, an industry that you love, and to do it in person. And especially in such a time as we are in, with AI and everything, virtual and even you and I can have this, virtually, and I’m so forever grateful and I’m, I embrace it and I look forward to using it as a tool.

We will always forever as creatures on this earth need each other. And so it just made so much sense, and especially with the outcry, with word word camps, almost not existing in North America. And we post pandemic and then now people are recognizing how we’re creatures meant for each other.

We’re not meant to be insular and separated. We’re meant to interact with each other. Physically in person. So for me it was simple bringing this event. But, and it’s not just that when I, whenever I travel, if I just happen to be, are you still in Maine? 

Chris Badgett: I am in Maine. 

Raquel Karina: So if I happen to go there, you better believe I’m gonna hit you up and harass you and be like, Chris, let’s have coffee.

’cause I’m near you. And 

Chris Badgett: I tell, I appreciate that. I’ve gone to Arizona on other trips and you see a picture of a cactus or something and you’re like, Hey, let me know if you want to hang out or do anything. Like it’s, I always felt like warmly welcomed whenever I’m around you. 

Raquel Karina: Yeah. That’s awesome because I definitely have that’s my thing is if you come to Arizona or Phoenix, like you better hit me up.

’cause I wanna say hi because that is just, we need it more than ever in this world. And even as we become more and more online I don’t wanna ever stop helping cultivate human connection. 

Chris Badgett: How do you think about the online versus in-person? Community building, like especially in, WordPress or online business, there’s a lot of online community stuff and social media going on.

How are they same? How are they different? How do you think about building community online versus in person? Or is it really just the same thing, different show. Or different venue? Oh, 

Raquel Karina: I think it’s a hundred percent different. Or I guess maybe not a hundred percent, but it is extremely different.

But they’re both, I guess they’re not equal in value, but they’re very valuable and so I’m very pro social media. I do think I have a little bit of a different perspective as I am not one to doom scroll, and I don’t say that as a brag. I. It’s not fair if that’s not my vice, but I am an 80% producer, 20% consumer. So I like to produce content. I like to do a lot of IG stories. If anyone follows me on Instagram I’m a big yeah. Producer and I try not to scroll. And if I do, I wanna see who am I’m connected to, right? So social media for that sense is beautiful. I love it.

And we’re. It was like, MySpace. And I really loved that and I was so careful about curating those top six photos. And then remember when it went to nine, you could do three more. It was like a big deal. And and I do love that and I love that you and I can meet virtually right now.

I love that we could use a virtual component to connect in real time. I do think that’s important, and I would rather have that today than what it was 30 plus years ago. Where we didn’t have this or we, yeah, maybe we could talk on the phone, but it’s not even remotely the same that we could see each other and we could see each other pretty well, at the end of the day though, it’s, we’ll never replace in-person connection. It is a supplement. Absolutely, and I’m very, and I don’t think I need to describe what the definition of a supplement is versus the actual thing, but when it, you and I, having this conversation right now in real time is beautiful and lovely, but if we were in person, our energies, our vibe would be felt in exchanged there because there’s a, an energy exchange that happens with people, and that’s what happens at an in-person event.

And so where I do draw a line for me personally is my online community, cultivating community building will be on social, will be in connection, will be casual, will be personal, will be real. And on LinkedIn. Sure, we’ll be business centric, but when it comes to an event. I have no desire to do a virtual event.

Yeah. 

Chris Badgett: So 

Raquel Karina: if anyone wants to hire Brian Richards, he’s amazing at that. He’s also really good in-person events as well, but I have no desire and that I know my lane. And where I really see the biggest need in our world is for in-person events, and especially for more of the intimate event that we had last week, as opposed to, for instance, cloud Fest, which is a really big production or Word camp, US, Europe, Asia, thousands of people, it you obviously can still and I love them. I love them. I’m an extrovert. I love and I love the energy I get. But having that smaller, one 50 to 200 person event is what I’m just really loving right now.

Building that up. 

Chris Badgett: Awesome. I think one of the reasons community building is misunderstood or just not as explored is because we have our own individual hangups. It could be shyness imposter syndrome, fear of being on stage just. All kinds of anxiety and stuff. And I think in the tech community or in the online business community, there’s a lot of life that happens behind the computer and people get comfortable there.

What do you recommend to somebody or, and maybe tell us about your own journey on how to get past all that and get out there in real life and build community from a inner game or personal development perspective? 

Raquel Karina: A couple of things. Again, not exactly fair. A lot of the stories that were shared about me rich Tabor Brian Cords at all others is I’m seeing a pattern of the, like the movie up.

Did you see up? I did. And the whole beginning before the montage opening montage where Ellie just basically forces, what was his name? Carl Fredrickson, was that his name? To be friends and so I’m getting a, a sense that’s sort of me, that I’m like, I come and I’m like, you and I are friends, and that’s how it goes.

And. It’s not gonna stop. Same thing like how I remember I met you and Thomas at Cabo Press and it, we were in that, that, I forget what they’re called, but like that small group together, that lunch group. And I immediately was just like these are my friends now. And they’re, that’s just is what it is.

And so I think one leaning into the Raquel’s ’cause they’re, we’re here and actors. What’d you say? 

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The people? Connectors? 

Raquel Karina: Yes. So the ones who are like very friendly and very pull you in, let them pull you in and just in that sense, I would say be a little brave and just go for it.

The other I. And again that, there’s always gonna be one or two or three, in any given community. And I think for our audience there’s definitely, we’re a tech audience, so there’s gonna be less, of that, my personality types and more of the introverted. But I do see is a lot of I guess careful.

Timidness into getting out there. And a lot of us are really amazing on the keyboard, and like we got our avatars and there’s so many people like I know, and then I see them in person. I’m like, who are you? And then I find out, oh, actually they’re because I know they’re avatar.

And so there’s, and I’m trying to think of like different things to say that we haven’t already heard about. Be brave. But if you could take your like online reputation. Hopefully you’ve cultivated that well, and you’re not a meanie, you’re not a bully. But if you could take that online reputation and just know that people are eager to meet you in person, then yeah, start there.

Start with that. Start with oh, I see. I’ll see, and I’m already gonna forget his first name, but his handle is jazz sequence everywhere, and.

Chris Badgett: I’m not sure. 

Raquel Karina: Okay and he works for Pantheon. I think it’s Chris. And again, if you’re in tech, just say Chris or Matt or Mike, and sorry Chris, but Yeah.

And and and he’s so known it’s not everywhere. So then when and he even said, I think he made the comment at press comp that he hopes someone can pull him out off of the being a wallflower. Because obviously online he’s very open, but in, in person, maybe he just felt a little bit shy and totally using a case study, and he doesn’t even know this, but like he seemed to be very involved and very active throughout the entire conference.

So don’t be afraid to latch onto someone who’s maybe giving you a little nudges and pushes to get out there. And also use the reputation that you’ve built up. And allow that to be like a stepping stool for you to get out there. And then the other thing is just open up your mouth and give it a shot.

And our community is really kind for the most part. So I would say just do it. 

Chris Badgett: It’s really welcoming. I can’t remember the exact analogy or where I heard it, but like some it’s like when you see small groups talking. In some communities, it’s like a bagel. You can’t break in. Yeah.

Or you should be like a croissant and there’s always like room for somebody to join. Doesn’t matter like how far you are and how long you’ve been in the industry or whatever. I. I’ve always appreciated that about this community. 

Raquel Karina: Yeah, very much. We, I think there’s a big push for that too, of we know that, and any sort of trainings we’ve been a part of in this community, it’s very openly discussed to have your circle open.

I. Or if you see someone, oh. A quick story. Where Canada, last July during lunch we were, it was a group of us comfortable, knew each other, friends, and we’re all sitting at a table. And then next to us was somebody who we didn’t know by herself, sitting at a table. And James Guru got up and he is let’s go talk to our new friend over here.

Nice. And just started talking with her and getting to know her and. It’s like doing being that way and that’s the type of community that we have. We have like people like that who are making us all feel welcome, 

Chris Badgett: shift gears into content. I was really impressed with all of the talks. They were fantastic.

And I think you all did a it wasn’t like a call for speakers and suggest your topic. You guys like literally designed what you wanted and co-created it with people. Tell us about that decision and that process. 

Raquel Karina: Yeah, honestly, there wasn’t a lot of thought into it and I commend my team. ’cause sometimes I just wonder if I’ve, if I’m driving them crazy ’cause I just get these ideas and I just go with it and I’m just like, this is what we’re doing.

Come on everybody. ’cause I, we really didn’t really discuss it other than let’s just start inviting all of our speakers. And as we started inviting them, it became clear that it was gonna be invite only and I’m not a fan of that phrase ’cause it sounds so pretentious. It wasn’t about that. It was very strategic, especially with, at that point, knowing where we were with  WordPress and what was going on with the community and.

The lawsuit and all of that, and knowing the direction we wanted press comp to go in, it just made sense that we wanted to invite certain speakers. And with that meant we wanted speakers from automatic speakers, from WP Engine, speakers from the community itself. And then we told each of our speakers may inspire us, challenge us, or make us cry.

Though that was the only command and the speakers we chose, we already knew they came with it. We already knew that they’re powerhouses and a lot of them I cracked myself up. I’m just putting everybody on blast right now. But like Rich Tabor, he’s so polished and so amazing and I question if he is actually ai ’cause he’s just amazing.

Can you get raw with us? I wanna see raw rich. Raw rich. It sounds funny. And even then I was really touched because he said some things on stage that he just doesn’t ever talk about. I’ve never seen him talk about his children. It’s not that he doesn’t love his children, but this was the platform for it.

Or to share stories about what happens in his home and. Yeah, that, that’s what I wanted. I wanted on stage to, for me to experience what I experienced at previous word sorry, omics, where I was like touched or I was like offended. I wanted even a little bit of that, or because those things, if you handle them well, if you’re open, then oh my God, amazing things can happen.

Amazing. And so that was the intention. We hand selected our speakers. Not all of them came through and even some, like poor Oliver Sils got like sick right. Literally days before and couldn’t come. But yeah, we hand selected and we told them, make us cry. Inspire us or challenge us. And that was the reason.

Chris Badgett: Yeah. Job well done on that. Let’s pivot into tech real quick. ’cause I think if somebody’s thinking about designing an event, they might get a little down the rabbit hole of oh my gosh, I gotta figure out lights and cameras and projectors and the pointer thing that makes the slides go and stuff like that.

Legit you said earlier that oh, you just put a deposit on the hotel and it came with its own insurance. Does did the hotel have all the audio video stuff or did you have to figure that out? 

Raquel Karina: Yeah. So those were the first steps. And thankfully having organized several other events you just know what to do.

So yes, the hotel does have their own av but that meant multiple meetings, figuring out, what they’re gonna do on stage and how much, ’cause that has its own budget and, proposals. And that was the other thing too from that standpoint is, this is not a word camp.

God bless word camps, but it’s not. So we want lighting, we want curtains, we want, all of the bells and whistles on that stage, and. Then same thing. It’s funny you say that because that is something that you think about is they’re called confidence monitors, the ones that allow the speakers to see what the audience sees and Yeah.

And the clicker and all of those are itemized on lines, on, on the proposal. And that does come with experience, but also if someone’s first getting into it, any AV company you go with, they’re gonna know and they’re gonna, they’re gonna tell you everything that you would. Need to know and they’ll work with you and what you need.

Was that the full question about Oh I would say too, there’s things as simple as like signage, and that takes design because you gotta design the signs. And I would say give you a little insider, pro tip, go with a local printer. Okay? Whatever you do, go with a local printer because.

If there’s a mess up, like you’re not dealing with shipping once, so you don’t have to pay for shipping, especially, you could just pick it all up when they’re local. But that’s huge and not a huge expense if you’re doing it locally. I’m a firm believer local is cheaper than getting it from someplace that’s shipped.

But there’s little things like that. And then obviously when you use a hotel. There’s a lot that you just have to use with the hotel, and most people know when you’re using a hotel where the costs come in is f and b food and beverage. Okay? So really you don’t even get charged to use the hotel. You promise hotel rooms and you buy a bunch of food.

That’s really where it comes in. So those parties was really where we strategized to pay. At the hotel and for the services really for allowing us to use their space. And that’s really we could go into a whole other podcast on running events and what that looks like, but those are just some little bit of the things you have to decide and deal with.

Chris Badgett: What about sponsors? How’d you get ’em? And I know you’re familiar with it from WordPress. ’cause WordPress events have always done sponsors, but. Particularly if somebody’s never done it before, how do, how should they think about finding sponsors and giving ’em booths and what makes the sponsor wanna do it and figuring out pricing and all that stuff.

Raquel Karina: Yeah, that’s it’s a big undertaking on nothing to be trifled with. That is one area that I know for me. I wanna do better just from a personal goal is like getting out in front of that quicker. And because it was the resurrection of Pressonomics, there definitely was a lot of social clout in the community for, and also with me.

And I’m very grateful that I’ve built the relationships that I have because people just knew like that they knew what this event was and they knew the value of it and, but it was not easy. I would say having a prospectus. I know even in post status, they were just talking about that and having a prospectus early on to talk about the value that a sponsor’s gonna gain from sponsoring your event.

And just go on the internet and find something and copy it or ask chap, GPT and chat GPT will blow your mind with some prospectus items. And even if you didn’t like, that was the hard part for me is I couldn’t use previous. Omics numbers, so I had to use like organic numbers. So it was more so projections and thankfully it more than delivered.

But the prospectus if this is something you think about in your future that you want start having relationships with these sponsors now and for no reason other than just to have the relationship with this person and I’m, oh my gosh, I cannot preach that more than I, I do right now. Building trusted relationships with people with no expectation.

With none. That is the biggest, best way to do this because you know that there’s trust when you know someone and I. You. And when you start to know someone, you have this trust and they decide to produce a product, then you’re like, oh, I know this person. I know their character.

I’m gonna buy their plugin or a service, like an agency or a service, like an event. People knew me, they knew my character. They knew my like portfolio of events that I’d put on. And if you do that now and you want to do an event in the future, then you’re gonna have that built in clout and people are gonna sponsor without even asking.

I’ve given a shout out to Roger a couple times from Kinta, but it was a no brainer. He literally, we had the quickest conversation in the world. He’s Hey, let’s talk press conference. I was like, okay. We got on the phone, he is okay, so we’re sponsoring and we’re gonna do notebooks and just send me the invoice.

It was just like that, like he didn’t even question. And Roger had never been to Omics. So having those trusted relationships is huge. And then, like I said though, like my personal challenge was I can’t just rely on people who know me and know omics. And we did have some new sponsors that, we’re also new to the community.

Yeah. So getting the prospectus out, really understanding what your value is. Really getting creative with your sponsor packages and how that can attract more. And understanding your target audience and allowing that to dictate how we’re to price point sponsors. That’s a big one too, because, depending on your type of event, is it similar to a word camp then that’s gonna help dictate your sponsor cost and levels.

Is it not? Is it like what a press comp was, where it’s the business side then? Yeah, that’s also gonna dictate because you need more cost is more. And then at the end of the day, of course. Everything costs money. So you need to make sure all the costs are covered because you can’t put on an event and lose money and be in the negative.

That’d be awful. Yep. Ho sponsors, 

Chris Badgett: you mentioned the power of building relationships before you need them or with no expectation and everything. Just curious if you had to guess, and I know you’re a natural and you just get out there, but like how many. Events or things at least related to this conference do you go to in a year, like once a month or even more frequent or It ebbs and flows.

Depends. If somebody’s trying to get out in their community, like it’s more than just one shot, one deal is you gotta keep going. And what do you think is a reasonable event count per year? 

Raquel Karina: It’s contingent on your availability. And budget. So pre pandemic, I, there was, I think felt like once a month, maybe once every other month.

So possibly eight times eight events. Most of those were word camps. But. Depending on the type event you’re having or you’re gonna have go to those events if you can and if you, even if cost is an issue, see if you could volunteer. For those and then you’re getting the insight scoop. And now it’s definitely my intention now as this is my business is events consulting, so I’m definitely gonna be intentional about going to other events as much as I can.

And now I have the time, which I’m very excited for. ’cause now that my kids are grown but it, I would say what do you wanna do? Do you want to plan an event? One, I’m gonna come back to this. Know your why, because if you’re wanting to plan an event because you’ve got dollar signs, especially in our industry right now with the shakeup, what that WordPress is going through.

I would say that’s a reason to not plan an event if it’s just you see a fiscal opportunity because these are big deals and people don’t wanna go to where they feel like they’re not getting value or they’re being sold. So have that knowledge now. Let’s say you want to create a word camp alternative, and I say this with an asterisk, I’m very pro word camps and feel that they’re so needed, but understanding that every community is different and that there are reasons that people can’t exactly have a word camp right now, then we’re gonna go with that.

And I already know that there’s some alternative word camps happening that are not word camps. Obviously if you’ve been to lots of word camps, that’s a really good. Indicator of what it should look like, what your sponsorship levels should look like, what venue you should use, where to price point your tickets.

Of course you get some leeway now and it can increase that because you are doing this on your own, so just consider all of that. Consider the type of event you want, why you want the event. And just start there, and then start. Oh, and your original question was like, how many events do you go to?

If it’s a work camp alternative, more than likely you’ve probably been to a lot. So there’s some options right there. Just take the, what you’ve learned. Go to some other small ones too if you have any local, like a IGA or just meetup.com meetups, things like that to get some ideas.

And if you wanna have a bigger event, then yeah, start going to Cloud Fest. And even the Figma, I forget what it’s called, the Figma Conference. It’s happening like next week or something like that. Adobe, those are some big ones. I just went to Canva. Canva create, they had a conference in LA like a few weeks ago, and I went and.

It was really very educational and a lot of what I know I don’t wanna do, it’s a different type of event. So the more you go to, the more you start to get ideas of this is what I want mine to look like, this is what I don’t want mine to look like. And all of that is data that you could then take back and come and implement.

So you, bottom line is you gotta go to some, if this is what you wanna do and see how much time and budget you have and go from there. 

Chris Badgett: So Raquel, tell us about Wonderland. Curious, your business, the event consulting. What is it, what do you offer, and then what’s your plan for the future? 

Raquel Karina: So I guess we’ll start shuffle that up.

I offer event consultancy, so if you want me to plan a conference or even just consult with a conference, you’re planning, I. For up, for contract there. And the whole reason I started it was a few things. I became an accidental entrepreneur and when I was still in my late twenties and had young babies and it was based out of the, this was 2010, so I was.

The economy had changed and I didn’t mean to, and I had no idea who I was. Zero idea. I did not know. All I knew was at that time I was a wife and a mom. And what I now know I didn’t know then is that those are titles that aren’t actually titles. That’s not who you are. That is a, that is a status that you could lose.

Technically you could lose those statuses. And in fact, I’m not a wife anymore. So throughout that time period of in my entrepreneurial space, which was when I met you, which is when I got into WordPress and I really started to discover who I am and what I’m good at, ’cause I literally did not know. I did not know.

I did not know. And then toward, before I basically was hit, gonna turn 40, my life got just thrown upside down, went through a divorce and exited the company and. Wanted to pursue. When it comes to my, my, me personally, what I knew I was good at, and that was events. So then I got hired with elegant themes to be their, at the time event coordinator, but then the pandemic hit and I quickly became the community manager essentially.

And through all that, I just really discovered my giftings was not virtual community building. Not that I wasn’t good at it. I definitely. I shocked myself because I don’t love building community virtually, but I’m still me everywhere I am. I don’t remember if that was pre-show or during the show that I refer to myself as like a walking wizzywig because I’m very mean no matter what.

And so I was really good at building community online, but I didn’t love it and I just craved the event space so much. And then I started to recognize I love traveling. I just love traveling. And as my kids got older, I was able to do more. And so just the stars aligned really. I always had this idea that I would start an event or a group travel company what Mendel was trying to do with Greek, Greek geek adventures, if you remember.

And I I had this idea in the back of my head that I wanted to do that, but my kids still came first. And so I didn’t do any of that. And I really made the choice. And I know people try to say you’re making excuses. I was like, excuse or not, it’s my choice. I’m choosing my kids. I cannot start my own business yet.

And then when, like I said, my baby graduated, that’s when I knew Pres stomachs was happening. And then throughout that summer when I told you I was letting things simmer, it really became clear that it’s not exactly the most sustainable to start a group travel company that’s hard to make money.

On that you would have to have a lot of group travel and employees really. And but then when I understood that I could do on my own and implement, of course with contracted help our events and that was really what. Led me to really start the company is I knew what I wanted and that was to be an event consultant and do group travel.

And group travel will be more like just for funsies and a little micro way to, to do what I do well, which is cultivate human connection. But to do it EEG in Iceland like I did with Mendel, taco, Robbie, et al, and to have this little time of being able to travel and being able to help cultivate hu human connection.

But really the bulk of what I would do would be in events consulting. And so I put myself through a little branding process back in August because I knew I needed to LLC and through that card deck. I got down to these six key words that describes me. And what stood out to me was back to when I was a little girl and I could feel myself getting teary eyed right now of two words, like wonder and curiosity and why am I crying?

And so I, those ones, it just reminded me so much of when I was a little girl and that part of me is still me, and I’m such an, I always joke that I’m an overgrown child and if anyone’s ever hung out with me, I have way more energy than a 44-year-old woman should have. And I don’t look my age that ne doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with this, but like I’ve always had just thi curiosity and tenacity in wonder.

And who does that remind any of us of who’s, like my spirit. Fictional character, which is Alice from the Lewis Carroll books. And so I got into those words, wonder and Curiosity, and I remember one of the famous words from his book is Curiouser and Curiouser. And then, I was like, how do I like, marry that with a name?

And so then I was like talking with a good friend and we were going back and forth. And then I think it might’ve been HI think I was, what is, I think I said Wonderland curious. And he’s yes, that. And then, so that was a lot of detail, but basically how I got to the name and the why and so like my tagline is Curiouser events.

Curious or travel because when you hire me or when you go to any of my events like press comp, which is mine, or group travel, which I’m planning it, come with the spirit of wonder and curiosity because it’s gonna be a little different and you’re gonna wanna have that playful nature come out of you. And I just really loved it.

I loved all. The way that came together, I loved that I didn’t necessarily need to hire somebody to do branding, even though I definitely have a designer who’s. Done amazing work, but because I had already been through a lot of branding processes or just even in our space we get exposed to a lot that, and because I’ve done so much work on myself, so much therapeutic work, like I’m blowing my own mind, it’s like I don’t even know who I am.

And so I was just so grateful that with all the work that I’ve done and all the growth I’ve had, that I came up with this and had friends that affirmed it and I’m just so excited. I’m so excited to offer these services and events to the world because then they get to do it too because I feel like we need it more.

I feel like our world needs more curiosity and wonder today more than ever. Sorry, I got a little soapboxy right there. 

Chris Badgett: It’s good. That’s Raquel from Wonderland. Curious, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for putting on an exceptional event. I would encourage you out there listening or watching.

If you want event consulting or help putting it on, Raquel is a natural and obviously a person on purpose, like you found your thing and you’re going with it and it shows and it shines. So thank you for being an inspiration and keep up the amazing work. Check out [email protected] website coming soon.

It’s on LinkedIn and social media. Any final words or other ways to connect with you, Raquel? 

Raquel Karina: Yeah, I’m on all the socials pretty much at Raquel, Corina most places. I’m on every WordPress, slack instance at Raquel, just at Raquel. And I love connecting, even if anybody wants to have just like a virtual talk or if you have a TV in Phoenix, hit me up.

And that’s all. I think that’s all. I wanna end it. 

Chris Badgett: Thanks for coming on the show, Raquel. We really appreciate it.

And that’s a wrap for this episode of LMS Cast. Did you enjoy that episode? Tell your friends and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode. And I’ve got a gift for you [email protected] slash gift. Go to lifter lms.com/gift. Keep learning. Keep taking action, and I’ll see you. In the next episode.