Growth, Hackathons, and Gratitude Lessons From an Eventful 2025  ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Year-In-Review Overload** - Zach Stepek and Carl Alexander joked about long year-in-review drafts and intense schedules during 2025 conference seasons. - Both described busy travel and event attendance as a defining theme of their year. Transcript: Carl Alexander Thanks we've had some things happening, right? Zach Stepek Yeah. Yeah, that's an understatement. I started writing my year in review, and I think it's going to be 15,000 words, basically. Wow. I'm at 2,500, I'm, I literally am in April. Uh, okay. Carl Alexander So that's intense. That is it. Zach Stepek Yeah. It's been, it's been a year. It's definitely been a year for sure. Um, yeah, like the fall was very busy for me until just now. I did Work Camp Canada. We were both at CloudFest in Miami. We've had some business stuff happen too that we can get into. Yeah, so it's been quite the year for sure. Carl Alexander Yeah, about you it has been it's been a really interesting year uh ([Time 0:00:29](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5ff5bc47-e24b-4e86-a739-62ab5a845c45)) - **Networking Fast-Tracks Industry Understanding** - Carl described joining BigScoots and meeting industry peers immediately at events like PressConf and CloudFest Miami. - He emphasized that in-person networking sped up his understanding of that side of the industry. Transcript: Zach Stepek I did Work Camp Canada. We were both at CloudFest in Miami. We've had some business stuff happen too that we can get into. Yeah, so it's been quite the year for sure. Carl Alexander Yeah, about you it has been it's been a really interesting year uh i mean i think most of our listeners know that i started at big scoots at the end of april and um my first week i was at uh press Zach Stepek Conf yeah oh yeah i remember you telling me about that so yeah you had the best anecdote i forget who i forget who at big scoots was like uh but it's like oh wait you like you you you know everyone Carl Alexander Was like yeah yeah yeah i just i sat down and everybody in the industry comes by and says hi right and that's not an experience they were used to again i think it was tim and uh yeah it was both That said it so yeah uh but yeah it's i met james for the first time in miami yeah he's a great guy he is a great guy i i really enjoy working with james ([Time 0:01:07](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a5c43aff-1356-4d95-aaaa-bab2418251be)) - **CloudFest And Europa Park Stories** - Both hosts recounted CloudFest experiences and plans to attend Roost for the hackathon and Europa Park visits. - They compared Miami and European CloudFest formats and amusement-park side trips as memorable highlights. Transcript: Zach Stepek I'm hoping to be there as well as well for sure at least for the hackathon we'll talk about the hackathon in a second but uh yeah at least for the hackathon there i i hope to be there at the Very least uh but yeah it's definitely it's definitely a fun experience the the cloud fest in europe, I haven't been yet. Carl Alexander So I'm looking forward to exploring Europa Park and just enjoying. Get sick on the roller coasters, you know, do Voltron. Luckily, I don't drink. So I don't have the problem of the drinking and roller coastering, which I hear is something that happens. It's intense. Like, I'm not super motion sick. Zach Stepek Like, I don't really get motion sickness that much anymore, but it took me like a couple hours to recover from Voltron, for sure. Wow. Carl Alexander Well, I have to see if I am allowed to ride by that time. Zach Stepek Yeah, I mean, they don't even eat. Like, it's not even about drinking. Like, don't even eat before you go. Like, save yourself a potential disaster and wait until after. You've gone to figure out if your stomach can handle it. Fair. It was definitely cool. ([Time 0:03:02](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6a8c852b-8d8b-4331-a048-79d6c1f4d646)) - **Plan Recovery After Multi-Day Hackathons** - Expect hackathons to be draining and plan recovery time, especially when they precede multi-day conferences. - Choose participation levels consciously to avoid burnout during week-long event stretches. Transcript: Zach Stepek Miami, it's just one day. Yeah. So not only is it one project, but it's just one day. And in the one in Germany, it's three days. And yes, there was, I think, eight teams. So you kind of show up, and then the team leads will kind of pitch you on what they're trying to do. And then you get to select what you're gonna work on um so it was uh it was a lot of fun like um in both cases i enjoyed the boat i will say to you as a warning that a three-day hackathon before Carl Alexander A three-day of cloud fest is massively draining um oh i'm sure i'm sure i mean the one day was draining yeah and i can imagine three is at least three times as draining if not oh you know an Zach Stepek Exponentially uh larger amount of draining before yeah exactly and then you kind of i they're they're modifying the format a bit too so it's gonna they're they're kind of adding an extra Day now so it's you're it's you're gonna be there for like essentially seven days um because the before this year the hackathon like kind of flowed into the wordpress day um and now they're Just making it three days then the WordPress day, then the three days for the actual CloudFest itself. So it's a thing, you know, like it was I was definitely not prepared for that when I when I went for like how demanding it would be for like the whole week to do all that. Carl Alexander Well, I'm definitely interested in participating again um you ([Time 0:08:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e82ad3c1-5d67-4552-97a9-2c98b72f3218)) - **Human Negotiation Trumps Paperwork Alone** - Carl described negotiating an exclusive partnership and how transparency and shared constraints built trust with a small team. - He found human, honest negotiations more effective than purely legal maneuvers when both sides were self-funded. Transcript: Zach Stepek So that was really exciting for me. Um, but yeah, leading up to that was very demanding, um, for me to like business negotiations and stuff are not something I have a wide, uh, yeah, I don't really have any, I was green. I was green as I was very green. I was going to swear it out, but I was basically yeah i was very green i was very green so i had to basically get up to speed like very quick on like a lot of things um so it was it was very demanding Cognitively as well to to do these negotiations even if they're awesome humans and things like that it's anything that involves like legal documents it just gets it gets difficult No matter what you do yeah i mean legal documents are not there for are there for in case something happens right you know if everything's going great you don't really care about the legal Documents as if something starts going sideways that that you want them but you you gotta just you know cover your bases yep and and just make sure we're all on the same page and just figuring Ourselves out and learning about each other. Um, I loved doing it with them because they're very human and it just felt very human, um, to have these talks. ([Time 0:14:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/28fd5ca8-3d71-4cfa-be7d-2265d7b1a4e4)) - **AI Accelerates Tooling Turnover** - Both hosts noted AI's rapid integration into tools and the web, accelerating development workflows and shifting competitive advantage. - They observed fast-moving AI adoption means yesterday's tooling can become obsolete within months. Transcript: Carl Alexander But I went back and I watched and the interesting things that are happening with AI of course were a large focus of the event um you know talking about mcp inside wordpress and how uh the Ai team shipped many of their goals uh into core wordpress in significantly less time than they thought that it would take uh which was a pretty cool thing to hear and you know just seeing Where that is all moving and giving our platform that we build with such a uh leg up on the competition by introducing all of these ways that uh it can now communicate with these large language Models right I hate the term AI. It's not really artificial intelligence, right? But that's the marketing gimmicky way to say it. And so that's why they get away with it. Zach Stepek I mean, you're talking to the person that has to explain that serverless has servers. Carl Alexander Yeah. Zach Stepek I don't think you can get more than this. No, you think you could you can't like you know i'm very aware of of marketing terms uh yeah like i i lean into it a lot um and you just have to go with you know you once that's out there it takes A life of its own and just have to accept it, even though like if you're like me and you're very autistic around basically language and naming things properly. It's just it's always kind of obnoxious. But to be fair, it's catchy and it it's yes, you know. Carl Alexander Yeah. I mean, that's why we call it all ai even though it isn't right yeah because it's stuck and it's what people want people want this artificial intelligent assistant that can do whatever They want it to do right this is the the direction society is moving and yeah yeah so it's, it's really interesting. Like earlier today I was, I was listening to Matt Medeiros and Brian chords talking about AI and Claude code and all of the things that they've been doing with Woo commerce and, and AI With Woo commercemerce and just really interesting stuff. And it's just, it's, it's a complete landmark shift in the way that we do business, right? I mean, it moves really fast. Zach Stepek You know, one of the reasons my year in review is obviously going to be 15,000 is 15,000 words is I'm probably going to talk about my... I'm pretty ahead of the curve. To give an idea, in March, I was the only one using Claude to do stuff. There was AI projects, but I was actively... In my team, I was the only one actively working with AI to generate code. Same thing in Miami. Everybody was using it, but I was using it in a way that like each time I've been at these things, I've had follow-up calls, consulting calls or whatnot to like just coach a bit where I'm At with things or where I see things. Like I've had a couple of those during the years, but look, Cloud Code didn't exist 12 months ago. That's right. Like, I think it came out this year. Carl Alexander Yeah, Anthropic hadn't entered that space yet. It was still... Zach Stepek No, like when I was at the hackathon, I was just using it straight into, like I had like this tool repo mix. I would package the code, give it it, have it work on it, copy it. ([Time 0:18:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/87e618c6-87b4-4b86-b605-d7f19315a3ce)) - **Pick A Stack And Stick For Awhile** - Don't chase every new tool; pick a comfortable stack and stay with it long enough to be effective. - Focus on consistent progress instead of perpetual tool hopping to avoid FOMO burnout. Transcript: Zach Stepek Development i always tell people you can you don't have to do too much FOMO about that. In some ways, it feels a bit like JavaScript. There's a lot of creative destruction going on. Stuff that you were doing six months ago isn't necessarily relevant six months later. So what we're doing today probably won't be relevant necessarily in six months. So I always say find a place you're comfortable and you can camp there for a while and and just do it that way for a while and you'll be okay i ([Time 0:22:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/28a6a623-a262-418f-92ab-6cb3d9799de7)) - **TALL Stack As A Practical Default** - The hosts highlighted the 'TALL' stack (Tailwind, Alpine, Livewire, Laravel) plus Filament as an efficient modern stack for many apps. - They positioned it as a practical alternative to heavier front-end frameworks for typical business apps. Transcript: Carl Alexander Actually responded to uh joey kudish put a tweet out the other day about how he's uh building on laravel with livewire for pretty much everything right now. Yeah. And I said, yeah, my perfect stack for most like line of business apps right now is Laravel with Livewire and Filament. Tall stack. Yeah. Tall stack. Zach Stepek Tailwind, Alpine, Livewire, Laravel. Tall stack, baby. Tall stack plus Filament. Carl Alexander I really like Filament. Zach Stepek It provides a solid foundational base and yeah i've i use it for one client basically the filament um lemir stuff is all bespoke like i but it's it's such an old app anyways like a lot of That stuff didn't exist and if i did i'd probably just buy uh calib's like flux like the components basically yeah ([Time 0:24:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6b5b9fd0-c65f-42c3-8b1b-59e7c5b789e6)) - **Sustainable Fitness Over Quick Fixes** - For sustained weight loss and mobility, prioritize protein, hydration, and lower-impact endurance training. - Reduce bad decisions and aim for steady habits rather than extreme short-term fixes. Transcript: Carl Alexander I know we were just talking about our collective nutritional supplements that we are taking. Zach Stepek Yeah, tell us about your journey. That's mine's very long. So it's like, tell me about yours. Carl Alexander Well, I made a decision that I needed to turn things around a bit. Things had gotten a bit out of hand during COVID. And with some of the back issues that I had had and still have, things were getting hard. So it was getting more difficult to move. I had, you know, things were, they were just, they had reached a point where I needed to make a change and so i did and so far in the last four months i've lost 50 pounds and uh we're just gonna See how far we can push this until i there's barely any of me remaining um that's the goal yeah so that's the goal well i love that for you man it's like great it's been great and you know we Were talking about protein goals before we started recording the show yeah and uh we were talking about how my nutritionist gave me an absolutely insane daily protein goal of 280 grams Zach Stepek Of protein oh yeah that's a lot i have to do i try for 160 180 yeah and and that is a for most, that's a lot for most people. Yeah. You know, like. Carl Alexander And I don't hit 280 most days, you know, but I get as close as I can. And I hover around 220, 240 every day. And, you know, just trying to, trying to reduce the bad decisions. I'm drinking a lot water a lot more hydration yeah that's ([Time 0:27:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/656d5d32-72b3-4458-900d-b13aa188925e)) - **Back Rehab Success With The Back Mechanic** - Zach shared his back injury experience, recommending Stuart McGill's The Back Mechanic for diagnosis and recovery techniques. - He credited nerve flossing and targeted endurance work for meaningful improvement after a car accident and flare-ups. Transcript: Zach Stepek I had maybe a slip disc, I'll never know. But this book, oh, it's flipped, but it's called The Back Mechanic. It's by Stuart McGill. Oh, it's perfect on this side. We can see it just fine. Okay, cool. Great. Back Mechanic, absolute gem. Guy is basically the world leader and basically the back stuff i've been rehabbing my back because i basically was in a car accident in uh february then i did a move to i only realized that Doing my year in review i did a move in the snow two, three weeks later. And later I like had my first old person injury, you know, when you sneeze and then like, and then like your back blocks. So it was just like, and then that happened two, three more times. So yeah. And it's been really helpful for me because I was really bummed out. Because my weightlifting journey, my health journey is very different. Next year is going to be 20 years that I go to the gym. That's awesome. Like almost every five days a week almost. You know, I think I started at three. So like fall next year is going to be 20 years. So it's very impressive. But it was a real bummer because I, you know, like I do a lot of back exercise. My back is very strong, but it's just life happens. You know, life happens and things happen. Well, I was a passenger in that car accident. It was I was in that. But it was a pile up. We got rear ended at 43 miles an hour, basically, um, in a pileup. So it was just like, and I was the best one out of that. Um, but you know, you, who knows if that was a cause I'll never, I'll never, it doesn't matter either way. Right. Like the reality is just something happened and I have to be more careful about how I do my exercises and stuff like that. And I had multiple, I've made it worse during the year because I was thinking I'm like still young and stuff. I'm 42. And I thought everything was fine. And, you know, but if you have back issues and stuff like that, this is the book to get because it will help you diagnose stuff. It's very hard to know the back is very complicated it is um extremely complicated it's very hard like i saw physio uh i want to say it in french physio but i was like i saw a physio basically And at first he's doing all these tests and nothing's hurting and i'm like maybe i'm just crazy and then eventually it just hits the right thing and then like complete pain basically So it's just like so it's very hard and then it's hard to know what to do what to like how to like strain like what what you should remove like what is now a bad thing to do with your back uh that You should avoid and things like that so yeah great book it's gonna be my book list for the in my year in review but basically since you brought up back stuff i thought i would talk about It because it is fantastic and worth every penny um to because it's very like i love one of the reasons i got into fitness is because I love biomechanics. I'm an engineer and I love the biomechanics. And he will explain to you the biomechanics of how this works. Like, obviously, he's not explaining it like you're a PhD person. He explains this for everyday people. But that's perfect because, like, you can understand and he has self-assessment things you can do and all that great stuff so that you can kind of pinpoint, you know, obviously me, it Involved the sciatica, but it was not like the same way most people have issues with the sciatica. So it was just like, nobody kind of had good answers for me. And it was just like, he offered, like he had one exercise in there that ended up being magical. It's called nerve flossing and it's just like it's a way you move your legs you just basically move the sciatica without stretching it and fantastic stuff but that was in the book basically So highly recommend it if you have back issues um to just take a look try to do the self-assessment. There's called the McGill Big Tree, which is like basically the exercise like that he recommends, like curl up, side planks, and then the, oh my God, I want to say bird dog, basically Bird dog, which is like you like stretch forward and like the whole thing. ([Time 0:29:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b7e09ec7-41ce-4691-8ee5-4cbbbba544d3)) - **Modify Lifts To Protect The Spine** - Avoid heavy spinal compression movements when rehabbing back injuries and prefer seated or supported variations. - Use lower weights with higher endurance reps and give your body time to heal before testing heavier lifts. Transcript: Carl Alexander Have to check it out because i have two bulging discs and an impinged nerve in my lower back so yeah that's a lot but it is losing weight is gonna help it losing weight's gonna help a lot because Zach Stepek It's all about endurance yep i feel way more mobile than i was than anything else so like a lot of people think oh i need to like do a million like really like get my app but you can actually Make it worse because then things get like imbalanced yep and and things like that so it's much more about endurance than it is about uh strength uh yeah no absolutely things like that Carl Alexander That's what i've been i've been doing when i when i work on on anything it's you know trying to take things lower weight do things yeah you know for a longer period of time at lower lower Rep basically but um just trying to not overdo it and make sure that I give myself time to heal. Zach Stepek Yeah, absolutely. It takes a long time. Very hard for me right now. Like I, I tried a little thing last week and I was like, oh no, no, I am not ready. You're not that yet. No, I can't do it. For me, the big thing I'm going to nerd out just a few seconds, but for me, it's like spinal compression, basically. Like, so like, I can't, I've had to stop deadlifting. But what I tried last week was like, military press, you know, when you like put you stand up and you push it, can't do that one, basically, still, I have to do it sitting. I can do them like sitting, because it doesn't compress this, you can like lean kind of against the bench and like, right, spine much more steady that way. But, you know, I tried a light amount and then I was like, oh, I'm fine. I'm fine. And then later in the workout, I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is not this is not ready yet. Maybe it'll never be. ([Time 0:34:26](https://share.snipd.com/snip/057ecb86-d027-45eb-94e4-1e77aa9393ab)) - **Boundaries Are A Gratitude Practice** - Both hosts stressed learning to set boundaries and choose toxicity levels in work and personal life as a crucial life skill. - Carl called saying no and protecting mental bandwidth an important gratitude point for 2025. Transcript: Zach Stepek So let's talk gratitude let's talk gratitude yeah definitely I mean that was a good start you know like you're you're on a health journey you're like getting better like that's a lot To be grateful for that like this is working out super well for you yeah and that you're seeing progress and hopefully like you're back starting to feel better it is Yeah. Carl Alexander And all of that. So. Yeah. I'm very grateful for that. I would say, uh, one of the other things that I'm, I'm very grateful for is, uh, the ability to choose what level of toxicity you want to allow in your life and having the boldness to be able To say no in environments that would introduce more toxicity is a life skill that a lot of people don't learn they are very hard boundaries are hard i i can relate to that i do i still am not The best at them uh but i'm getting better Well, we have this desire to, a lot of times, to make the people around us feel better. Yeah. And sometimes to our detriment, I think. I think you're very similar to me in that regard. Zach Stepek Could not have said it better. Yeah. Could not have said it better. Think you know i i i think we're both very empathetic people yep i think i've struggled a lot this year um protecting myself like i i think i'll talk a lot about it in the year in review, but Just like, just, I didn't necessarily cope with it the best way, but I coped with it. But it's just sometimes there's just so much signal coming your way. And it's like, it, it hurts, you know, you hurt for other people. And it's hard to like, realize that it's not your fault. Carl Alexander It's hard being an empath the way that the world is right now. Yeah, exactly. It's very difficult. And so, you know, and I'm not talking politics here. I'm just talking in general. I mean, we both gave her money i'm thinking tessa for example yeah um yeah i mean i i love tessa she's great and you know she's been on on our podcast before talking about yeah i worked with Zach Stepek Her this year yeah yeah she's she's like you know um like i did work with her this year so it was just it it that that's part of why i wanted to do gratitude for this this thing because i'm i Think you know i'm i'm i'm very grateful like you said that we have the ability i still have the ability to be able to control that stuff and put boundaries and, and control, um, what I can Let in to my life. Um, I, I'm part of, that's part of the reason that I'm so grateful for the partnership that, you know, I was able to get, you know, I don't know where it'll end up, but you know, I, I talked Last year, how grateful I was that I could still work on my own. For me, it's, it's been really important in my life. You know, it's going to be, I mean, I'm approaching 15 years on my own. And this year was the hardest one. You know, I think it's been hard for everyone. Carl Alexander It's been a rough one, yeah. Zach Stepek Yeah. So the fact that I've somehow survived another year, I'm immensely grateful to that I still have clients that enjoy working with me that can work with me. Some of them have stopped not because they didn't want to work with me but things happened and they couldn't anymore. So it's just all that stuff for me is I'm incredibly grateful. I'm incredibly grateful that Paul and Josh and showed up when they did. I probably would have had to find a job, to be honest with you. And, you know, that's still not out of the woods. But at least, you know, I'm grateful that I have another year that I can give it a shot, you know. And then we'll see where we are next year. ([Time 0:38:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/aeef2be2-7fae-4c2a-8404-a38dbd87621a)) - **Independence As A Core Value** - Both hosts value independent work and the chance to shape their own paths even as the industry matures and veterans retire. - They see podcasting and community work as part of their ongoing open-web journey into 2026. Transcript: Zach Stepek For me, it's, it's been really important in my life. You know, it's going to be, I mean, I'm approaching 15 years on my own. And this year was the hardest one. You know, I think it's been hard for everyone. Carl Alexander It's been a rough one, yeah. Zach Stepek Yeah. So the fact that I've somehow survived another year, I'm immensely grateful to that I still have clients that enjoy working with me that can work with me. Some of them have stopped not because they didn't want to work with me but things happened and they couldn't anymore. So it's just all that stuff for me is I'm incredibly grateful. I'm incredibly grateful that Paul and Josh and showed up when they did. I probably would have had to find a job, to be honest with you. And, you know, that's still not out of the woods. But at least, you know, I'm grateful that I have another year that I can give it a shot, you know. And then we'll see where we are next year. That's part of my my year in review starts basically i feel like i'm in the lords of the ring trilogy basically we're in i'm like two towers this year basically i can't i it's the first time Where i'm like i'm excited slash scared to write next year as one because like i don't know where it'll be you know like it's like i'm i want to i want to know how the story ends you know i want To know how this story ends well not ends but you know like this kind of yeah this chapter ends you know like this whole this whole trilogy ends of like you know um deciding to to be more into The open community like this podcast this change to this podcast is part of this journey uh yeah absolutely idea that i wanted us to be more open to everything going on in the open web and Not just wordpress per se even though this is still a lot of wordpress what's going on in the open web, I think is, is part of that journey. So that journey continues still. ([Time 0:42:14](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f3afcc91-0209-428e-b20b-4ed0fc03603c)) - **Mix Professional Growth With Creative Goals** - Set clear, measurable personal growth goals for the next year and focus on skill expansion beyond core work. - Pursue creative outlets like photography or writing to balance technical career demands. Transcript: Carl Alexander Our time here i just want to i want to leave us with uh with one thing and that is i want to ask you what one thing you're looking forward to most in the upcoming year. Oh my goodness. Zach Stepek I know. I think I've said it like a million times already. Like, I hope I can still be doing this. Yep. Next December. I hope I can be here and crawl boards behind me. And I don't have to say like, I work for X now. Right, I can just say like, you know, I'm still doing my stuff and I'm still, and I still have this amazing luck. Um, because I know that it's not all luck, but there is luck. Carl Alexander And I, I, I think I've been very lucky and i hope i continue to be lucky i hope that for you too man and i i really uh i think if i were to answer the same question um i'm looking forward to learning In 2026 i want to grow in areas that i haven't grown before And that's great. You know, I've, uh, I've had the, the great opportunity to work in a number of different areas and, uh, a number of different parts of the industry and really digging deep into this partnership World that I'm in now. And, uh, I want to get better at that, but I also want to get better at my other things I want to get better at concert photography I want to get better at expressing myself creatively whether That be writing or you know art or photography I think those things are you know both equally important goals for me over the next year so that's great man i hope that for you too thank you It's personal growth is really rewarding and with that being said i hope to be half the man i am sitting here today next year when we record our... Zach Stepek Physically speaking. Yes, exactly. Carl Alexander Physically speaking, I would like to be half the man I am today by the time we record our next year in review. That's great. I hope that for you too. ([Time 0:51:52](https://share.snipd.com/snip/abb81759-6ddc-48d8-911e-d55115e43e95))