apply_cookies() is a 30-minute one-on-one meeting with me about topics where I have some experience and might be able to help. At first, I wanted to define them as “mentoring,” but that seems too pretentious. It implies too many things and expectations I’m not sure I want to set. So, I shall think of them as chats—discussions or consultations, at best.
It’s free. It’s private. I won’t ever share that we spoke unless you want me to. There are only eight slots available each month, and I reserve the right to accept or decline requests depending on the fit.
Topics
I’ve prepared a list of themes where I believe I can offer useful insight. But if you have something else in mind, there’s also a “Something else” option—for the curious and the brave.
Why?
Open-source knowledge and experience
I believe in open source—not just in code, but in knowledge and experience. Everything I learned in my first decade of coding came from documentation, blog posts, tutorials—resources freely shared by others. Open-sourced knowledge. I truly believe that knowledge has value only if it can outlive the source. Only when it’s shared.
When I started with public speaking, I decided not to be yet another female developer speaker whose code you never see. I made it my task not only to show you my code but to write it in front of you. That choice meant leaving out a lot of other topics I care about. This initiative is a way to bring some of those back in.
Community matters
Over the years, I have had the privilege and pleasure of meeting many wonderful people from WordPress and the broader PHP community. Conferences are not always the best environment for specific kinds of conversations, especially longer, focused ones. I want to create room for those conversations with whoever is interested in having them with me. Nothing can replace in-person interaction, but one-on-one online meetings are close enough.
I’ve been part of the WordPress community long enough to know that projects don’t survive without people, and communities don’t exist without projects. I want to do whatever I can to preserve the community for whichever project we decide to gather around.