The Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern hosts Elliott Richmond to discuss his two decades with WordPress, his content creation work, and an unexpected pizza business built on WordPress tooling.
Background
Elliott has been developing with WordPress since its b2 days—over 20 years. Self-taught, he moved from building early web projects for bands and agencies into freelance development, working with CMSs such as Joomla and Drupal before committing to WordPress. He’s contributed to the community in various ways, including a 2013 advent calendar of developer code snippets, and today combines development, teaching, and entrepreneurial work.
Pizza business and plugin
During COVID lockdowns, Elliott and his wife launched a local pizza delivery service. What began as a temporary community effort grew into a thriving weekend business that now employs staff and is offered as a replicated business model to licensees. WordPress is central to the operation: the stack uses WordPress, WooCommerce, Jetpack, and custom plugins to manage ordering, time slots, delivery radius checks by postcode, and more.
From that practical experience Elliott built a plugin—Pizza Pilot—that provides configurable features for local food operations: slot-based ordering, time-based availability, postcode/radius delivery restrictions, and optional pro features bundled for licensees. The plugin supports a variety of local food or retail models that need restricted delivery zones and scheduled fulfillment.
Work with wordpress.com / Automattic
Elliott was approached by Automattic contacts who had seen his videos and content. That led to a collaboration to create videos about wordpress.com features and workflows through 2026. The arrangement gives him early access to features and flexible briefs to produce educational content for his audience. He’s free to publish on his own YouTube channel while aligning some content to what wordpress.com wants to highlight. The relationship is pragmatic: Automattic provides support and early access, while Elliott creates approachable, practical videos that help users understand new tools and workflows.
Content approach and goals
Elliott focuses on educational content—explaining features, how to use them, and how to implement them in real workflows. He wants to simplify complex technical topics such as templating, template parts, and developer tools into accessible lessons. He plans both long-form videos and short-form spin-offs to reach varied audiences, and sees a role for content creators to fill documentation and learning gaps during a period of rapid change in WordPress (including major releases and AI integration).
Feedback from the community—especially YouTube comments—is an important loop for refining topics and improving explanations. Elliott views critique, even negative feedback, as useful data to inform future content and iteration.
Content process and production
Elliott’s creative process start with a brain dump using voice-to-text in Notes, then AI-assisted polishing to shape a script. He scripts loosely—using prompts or flashcard-style notes—so he can remain natural on camera while following a clear structure. He records with an iPhone and uses simple lighting (humorously describing DIY diffusers) and modest studio gear from his music production background. For editing and motion graphics he uses DaVinci Resolve (paid but notes the free version is very capable). He enjoys editing, motion graphics, and crafting analogies that help viewers grasp unfamiliar concepts.
He balances technical demos—screen recordings, code, or Studio app workflows—with visual aids and animations to demystify topics. He’s interested in showing developer-focused tools too, such as Xdebug availability in certain local dev environments.
Attitude toward sponsored/partnered content
Elliott emphasizes that the collaboration with Automattic is not restrictive. He receives briefs about target audiences and themes, but has broad creative freedom. He’s happy to produce material that aligns with wordpress.com products because he already uses them daily. He values authenticity and community feedback over promotional spin.
WordPress as a glue for diverse businesses
A recurring theme is WordPress’s adaptability. Elliott points out examples—like a local gardener running invoicing through WordPress—and stresses the platform’s ability to glue systems together for unexpected ventures. His pizza business is an illustration: WordPress and WooCommerce enabled payments, delivery orchestration, product configuration, and customer workflows without building a full custom platform from scratch.
Where to find Elliott
Elliott publishes WordPress-focused videos on his channel elliottrichmondwp and maintains a blog at elliottrichmond.co.uk (double L, double T). He plans content through at least the end of 2026 under his agreement and continues to develop his pizza plugin and business model in parallel.
The episode highlights how deep technical knowledge, community engagement, and a do-it-yourself approach can spawn new directions—whether making tutorials to demystify evolving WordPress features or turning WordPress skills into a real-world food business.
