E154 – WordFest (July 23) & Mental Health for Remote Workers (Dan Maby, Big Orange Heart)

In today’s episode, Joe talks to Dan Maby of Big Orange Heart - a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes positive well-being and mental health within remote working communities. The Big Orange Heart Health Hubs are designed to provide holistic support for the individual.

Dan shares how Big Orange Heart came from the challenges he and his team faced while handling a digital marketing agency, and the organization’s mission to help support the mental health of workers in a remote setting. They also discussed the upcoming WordFest Live, a virtual event to be streamed in six continents in a 24-hour period.

Episode Resources:

• Big Orange Heart
• Big Orange Heart Support
• Dan Maby Website
• WordFest Live, register Here
• Leave an Apple podcast review or binge-watch past episodes
• Visit the WPMRR Community
• The 2021 WPMRR Virtual Summit

What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 03:01 Welcome to the pod, Dan!
• 03:20 The funny story at the WordCamp US 2019
• 05:30 What’s keeping Dan busy
• 06:55 Big Orange Heart born from the challenges of handling an agency
• 08:36 Things take different priorities at different times of your life
• 10:34 Mental health is a challenging topic to talk about
• 14:26 Supporting as many network as possible
• 16:55 Varying levels of support for different groups of people
• 22:31 Getting a core group for individuals to get support together
• 25:35 Encourage the community in Slack to help
• 28:37 WordFest Live 2021: The festival of WordPress
• 36:12 WordFest 2021 to deliver within six continents in a 24-hour period
• 39:33 A diverse organizing team in the background across seven time zones
• 43:32 WordFest was supposed to be an annual event
• 48:11 The virtual setting has opened many more interesting environment
• 53:40 Live Streaming in-person previous events were leading to the hybrid event style
• 54:38 Find Dan online