The Mike McAlister Interview

Published by Rob Hope in Interviews, on 9 May 2024

Meet Mike McAlister – a designer, software engineer and course creator from the Midwest, USA.

I have featured several of Mike’s One Page websites in the past so it was sweet to have a chat with him.

Watch below or on YouTube, or listen on Spotify, Apple or Google.

For nearly two decades, Mike has been crafting quality WordPress products, achieving significant success when WP Engine acquired his Array Themes and Atomic Blocks. Following this success and leveraging his shipping experience, he created the Liftoff course to help creators bring their products to market.

Today, we delve into his new Ollie WordPress block theme, how he plans to monetize it, AI shortcuts and his preference for the long road, his passion for space photography, and what the first order of business would be if he took over at WordPress.

YouTube-linked topics:

• AI vs Human Touch (00:00)
• Milwaukee (02:54)
• Intermission: No Context (05:04)
• Aliens Exist (WP UX) (07:02)
• Sponsor: Webflow (07:25)
• Ollie Block Theme (08:29)
• Salvage WordPress (14:34)
• Aging UI in video tutorials (19:01)
• Ollie Pro (21:53)
• Future of WP block editors (feat. Noel Tock) (27:49)
• Me or We (feat. Patrick Posner) (31:18)
• Step away and get paid (32:27)
• Intermission: Overrated, Underrated (35:38)
• Liftoff Creator Course (36:53)
• Promo: Yo.FM (39:05)
• Course Distribution (39:50)
• Space Photography (53:10)
• No Shortcuts (56:55)
• Where to follow Mike (01:01:18)
• Outro (Art is Hard) (01:02:06)