Go to Interesting WordCamps and Meet Many Nice People

Ivica Delic

Today we are going to list the interview of Ivica Delic. He is the Co-founder and CEO of freelancer tools. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics and has worked in the banking industry for 21 years, 14 of which he spent as a Project Manager and Card Centre Director, managing 60+ staff.

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Introduce yourself and your life before WordPress

Ans: My name is Ivica Delic, the Co-founder, and CEO of Freelancers Tools, #1 Hand Curated Software Portal for beginners & professionals with 4.000+ manually collected high-quality applications. I was born and live in the city of Split, Croatia (EU).

I have a Master’s degree in Economics and have been working in the banking industry for 21 years, where I have been Project Manager and Card Centre Director for 14 years, managing 60+ employees.

Over the years I have acquired advanced management and Project Management business skills as well as various IT skills, as I have always been interested in IT (since 1995. I started building websites and online businesses). I have also gained experience in Quality Management (SixSigma).

Q. How did you get to know about WordPress? Share if there is an interesting story

Ans: In 2011. one of my acquaintances asked me to create a Facebook business page for his family business. He was so happy with the business results that he asked me to build them a website as well.

As I didn’t know how to code a website from the scratch, just a little of HTML, I wanted to find some tools for non-coding visual website building, as I wanted to find some easy and free (or at least affordable CMS). I couldn’t make up my mind what exactly to chose I asked my hosting, and they suggested WordPress CMS.I tried it and we are still in love. 🙂

Q. What’s the most interesting project you have done to date in WordPress? What were your responsibilities?

Ans: The biggest and most interesting (and also most challenging) project was (and is) the CSSC Lab (https://cssclab.eu/). I have the role of a project manager and quality assurance manager there.

Q. Have you ever been to any WordPress meetups or WordCamps? Share your thoughts on WordPress Community.

Ans: Yes, I have been to a few WP meetups, here in my hometown, with my wife. It was a very pleasant experience, we enjoyed it very much – we learned some new things and met some nice people. I even had a talk about how to speed up WordPress websites.

Q. How does your workstation look like? Can you send us a picture?

Ans: It is a mess, really, better I don’t do it. 😉

Q. What interesting feature do you think you would like to see in WordPress and is currently missing?

Ans: The most frustrating thing about WordPress is the update process: it’s very common for something on your site to not work when you update something or install something new.

This is so frustrating because you have to be very careful with all these (numerous and frequent!) updates. That’s why I would like to see a much more robust (and secure) update system for WordPress.

Q. Out of the current plugins and themes which one do you like the most and why?

Ans: I prefer and use Astra Theme Pro/Neve Pro + Elementor Pro as they fit the best in our process, they have great templates, and they can be very good optimized for speed.

I prefer and use Astra Theme Pro/Neve Pro + Elementor Pro as they fit our process best, have great templates and can be optimized for speed very well.

Q. Any awesome technology you want to share other than WordPress?

Ans: I have been using many English language tools over the time, for spelling/grammar checking: Whitesmoke, Grammarly (yes, I tried it, too, but don’t use it anymore), ProWritingAid (I still have their LTD but don’t use it anymore), Linguix LTD (I use it daily mainly in Facebook groups/for commenting -smaller texts)… However, recently I started to use InstaText AI (Artificial Intelligence: https://instatext.io/fb-groups- special-discount). It’s English language tool (“Grammarly on steroids”) for more serious texts I write (Blog posts mostly and Announcements), and I am amazed what it can do (I wrote about it in the groups already) – much more than those tools I have been using in the past: https://instatext.io/how-instatext-differs-from- grammar-checkers/

Q. Do you like/love what you currently do in WordPress?

Ans: Yes, very much.

Q. Where do you find yourself after 5 years

Ans: I am very optimistic about the future of WordPress in the next 5 years and beyond. WordPress’ market share is growing steadily, and more and more amateurs and established businesses are choosing WordPress to power their websites.

Very importantly, WordPress is already simplifying its use. My strategic goal is to convert active income into passive income as much as possible, through our FreelancersTools platform.

This way we will be able to help more people and we could travel more, go to interesting WordCamps and meet many nice people we know online in person.

The plan is to expand FreelancersTools internationally to become the one stop shop for all recommendations on tools & documents for freelancers, startups and small/medium businesses.

Q. Share something about your life other than work

Ans: It is very difficult to make “peace” between work and private life. However, in my free time, I like to spend time with my family and friends.

Lately, however, I have been really enjoying long-running. I started running to lose some weight (I have lost almost 30 kg so far), but then I enjoyed it so much that I recently ran my first half-marathon (under 2 hours).

Now I am preparing for the next two and after that I’ll run the full marathon. I also like HIIT training, swimming, hiking in nature/mountaineering, traveling around my country/Croatia, reading, etc. “You will never be truly satisfied with your work until you are satisfied with your life.”

Q. To whom you give credit for your success?

Ans: My wife most of all, with her support (and that of my son and my team & colleagues) I would not make it.

Q. Can you give us some reference for whom we should conduct an interview next and why?

Ans: Not sure, sorry

Q. How do you reward yourself?

Ans: I like to “reward” myself with a drink/dinner with my friends, watch movies with my wife and son. I also like to go “hunting” for myself and my team and buy some useful software tools when they are offered in LifeTime Deals (LTD = one-time software payment for life).

Q. Any suggestion for WordPress beginners?

Ans:
1. Pick a WordPress area that you want to work in, that you have a passion for, and that you simply enjoy – otherwise you might give up pretty quickly
2. Build a good and reliable WordPress team, because you can not do everything on your own – at least not everything with the highest quality.
3. You need to start WordPress business at some point, no matter how much you think the timing is not perfect enough.