Today aisite Team is pleased to bring you the cream of the knowledge and experience of WordPress experts again. This time the conversation is going to be held with Troy Dean. Being an entrepreneur, podcaster, this witty man is also a co-founder of Video and User Manuals as well as WP Elevation. Get ready to absorb his views, thoughts and pieces of advice more below.
Almost two years have passed since our last conversation. Hope you’re doing well! In our previous interview, we’ve learned about how you’ve started with WP Elevation and Video and User Manuals. Can you tell us please about news and updates of these services?
WP Elevation is now over 5 years old and has helped over 3000 WordPress consultants improve their business processes, grow their revenue and become more profitable. Video User Manuals is still the market leader in WordPress Video Tutorials for WordPress developers to give to their clients and includes videos for several plugins, page builders and is Gutenberg ready.
Troy, what are the trending WordPress projects for now to your mind?
Did I mention Gutenberg? This is by far and away the biggest innovation in WordPress since the custom post type and while a lot of developers doing client work are scared of the implications, I think it’s a great opportunity to add more value to clients and provide a better solution.
How does your typical workday look like? Is there something special you do to stay productive during the day?
My typical day includes creating a lot of content including podcasts, training videos, live streams, blog posts and coaching calls. I also spend a bit of time working with our team members in 1-on-1 meetings to make sure they have everything they need to do their jobs. I workout twice a week to help me stay productive. Here’s a video explaining why:
What new features would you like to see in upcoming versions of WordPress?
I’d love to be able to organise pages and media into folders. I know there are plugins that do this already but I’d love to see it in core.
What are your perspectives on the future of WordPress in your opinion? Do you think that the WordPress market will keep on growing?
Yes I think the WordPress eco-system will continue to grow. The strength of WordPress is the plugin architecture and the community of passionate users and developers. As long as that community continues to thrive, then WordPress will stay in a good place.
Can you please highlight the most useful plugins for WordPress beginners? And which are your favourite?
Elementor, Yoast SEO, Duplicate Post, WP Popup Maker, Video User Manuals, Google Analytics Dashboard for WP.
If you were interviewing a WordPress developer for a job, what question would you ask first and why?
Great question. One question I like to ask is “custom function vs developing our own plugin?” I like plugins because they are reusable on future projects and potentially good lead generators or revenue streams, so I like to gauge how they think from a business point of view.
Have you attended any WordCamp? How are these meetups beneficial for the WordPress Community?
Yes I have. I’ve attended several WordCamps in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Chicago, New York, Boston, WordCamp US in Philadelphia, WordCamp Europe in Leiden (Netherlands), Atlanta and Miami. WordCamps are a fantastic opportunity to connect with like minded people, network and even find a potential future business partner (or life partner). The thing I have learnt over the years is that everyone feels a little awkward at WordCamps so my advice is just to walk up to someone, say hi and ask them how they use WordPress.
Finally, have we missed anything? Here’s your chance to fill in the blanks and add something you want people to know about you!
We recently took our entire team to Thailand for a team retreat and it was a total game changer for our culture and our business. We have 5 staff in the Philippines and 7 in Australia so it was great for all of us to meet in real life for the first time. We all feel like we are part of one big family now and we genuinely enjoy each others company.
We want to say great thanks to Troy and wish him all the best of joy and inspiration!
If you’d like to test out WordPress or any other CMS option, we’ve got a free trial migration for you to offer, so you could foresee the way it will be working once converted!
