hey what's up Huntington here from niche
site project in this interview I talked
to Alex who is an Italian moved from
Rome to Vancouver and super interesting
story Alex is a web developer developer
a coder in general but he didn't start
there and it's interesting to hear his
story just in general we talked about
why Alex started his YouTube channel and
how it's helped him develop and it's
pretty crazy his channel has really
taken off and he's doing very well on
YouTube so super cool to just understand
that portion of his story as well so
let's just get over to the interview
right now hey what's up
it's Doug Huntington here from niche
site project I'm here with my friend
Alex how are you today good how are you
men doing well doing well I'm fighting
off a cold a little bit you know there's
something going around these parts so
I'm trying to get a lot of rest and
drink tea and stuff so oh yes that's a
good it's a good move and you have snow
there right as well yeah it's a there's
it's been really melty and kind of weird
but yeah there's like a foot of snow on
the ground and we're supposed to get
more and it's gonna be very cold for
Christmas it'll be a white Christmas for
sure here so beautiful best time of the
year
indeed so for people that don't know you
on the channel on my channel of course a
lot of people may not know who you are
can you just give us a quick intro like
who are you and what do you do
Italian guy that moved to Canada four
years ago to be like to do development I
was doing a development like a developer
also in Italy but no many opportunities
not much things to do there so I moved
to Canada Vancouver and I started a
YouTube channel three years ago talking
about tutorials about development and
design and currently were working
full-time in a start-up and I do weekly
tutorials about mostly WordPress but I'm
trying to branch out in you other things
gotcha and with your full-time day job
can you tell us a little bit about that
as well sure absolutely so I'm the lead
developer and a product manager at a
startup called
ritual music it's a super small startup
that was founded less than a year ago
where for people just really really tiny
we make ecommerce to sell royalty-free
or regional music like really high
quality for advertisers so our main
clients are Honda PayPal all this kind
of like big companies that they need
really good music for day spots for like
TV and radio spots and we're building
the cool aspect and the development
aspect is that we're building new
artificial intelligence to analyze your
video and suggest songs that match your
video in terms of emotions in terms of
like pays and stuff like that so really
challenging and interesting pretty cool
wow that yeah that sounds pretty
interesting so we'll come back to that
in a second but I was checking out your
YouTube channel some and I was you know
looking at the tutorials which are super
high quality there's so many of them and
you mentioned this this is like a quote
from your about page so you got HTML CSS
JavaScript PHP WordPress a bunch of
other stuff and how to bake a potato so
what's up with the potato
what are you guess the potato is the
essence of development baking a potato
it's so easy to do it but so hard to
actually do it right
so if you know how to bake a perfect
potato you can pretty much build
anything so nice how to bake a potato
actually I should do it but I thought
maybe there was one in there so that's
cool all right I had to get context
around that yeah that's pretty
interesting so now in your channel you
also you cover a lot and you know again
in my research before we talked I see
that you have like an art background an
actual design and stuff versus like
you're really deep an IT or developer so
like how did that happen I started when
actually when I was 16 I wanted to be an
architect because my dad was an engineer
so I was really good at drawing I wanted
to be like do architecture and why
I was studying architecture I needed to
learn AutoCAD and ArchiCAD like all the
outer desk and then 3d studio max all
those like design software's and I got
really hooked up in like computer stuff
like I was really impressed by these
softwares like oh my god this is magic
and that so I kept studying design I
transition a little bit I dropped out of
university architecture a transition to
web design and digital painting all
these design related but I was always
fascinated by these software's how these
software's work and how they can do the
stuff they do and it was a sort of like
a choice related to money mostly because
in Italy a designer it's basically well
you're gonna struggle your own life it's
really hard to make a living although as
it's just a simple designer we are not
really at the same level of technology
of the rest of the world where it kind
of like behind is it's a really old
country so we have like really old
traditions and it's hard to do stuff
with new technologies so I decided to
study by myself programming and after 2
3 years I was like 20 I decided to go
actually to university to study
programming for 3 years so I studied at
the European Institute of Design and
vr-12 technologies and I got really
really hooked up on PHP it was like
addictive and I never stopped saying so
now every time since the first job I had
this huge skill of yeah I can pretty
much cover the entire workflow from
design to development to deployment and
because of that a lot of people assumed
like oh so you can also manage a server
and I was like nope but I can learn it
so yeah I started pretty much doing
everything and now I'm a full stock /
full digital designer and so that
happens kind of like naturally
throughout the past 12 years Oh
something gotcha
and I guess yeah it's pretty hard to
like plan that out in the beginning and
like make it all work but I see the path
where you know art layers on top with
the design and of course
that gives you a leg up over like normal
developers of which like I used to do a
little bit of development a bit computer
engineering background so I did some
development but no eye for design so
everything looked you know terrible yeah
no exactly and it's that's why like I
started then more natural things to do
was starting as a front-end developer
because I had a really good eye for
design so I was pretty much the only one
in my really old team in Italy Italian
company I was working for that I was
able to actually recreate exactly what
the designer was doing on a web page all
the other developers were kind of
struggling because like oh there's two
pixels of difference between these two
columns it's not a big deal but for me
it was like no I understand the design
understand those two pixels why are so
important so everything has to be
perfect and that gave me like I don't
know like a boost in possibilities and
doing things for sure and so you it
sounded like there weren't as many
opportunities in Italy so you decided to
move can you tell me how you came to
that decision and then like how was that
transition pretty I mean that's pretty
far oh yeah that was like kind of like
the craziest thing that I've ever did in
my entire life I was 27 years old when I
got pretty much fed up of everything it
was happening in Italy there's a really
like weird situation in Italy Europe
it's kind of like crumbling and Italy
it's struggling with jobs and there's a
lot of corruption in the government and
especially I come from Rome that it's um
it's a particular city because Rome is
the biggest city in Italy and you see
that because we have no idea as Italians
what to do with it we don't know how to
manage it so it's all messy it's
polluted it's just a gigantic chaos it's
beautiful for a tourist but living there
it's a nightmare it's just like
impossible to make things work and so
being Italian with the passport you can
go pretty much everywhere in Europe
without a visa without a working visa I
can literally like just take a train go
there and live in another country
forever
but I was getting close to 30 I never
actually lived abroad since that day my
English was terrible like I didn't speak
any other language than Italian not even
good Italian and so we my girlfriend we
said okay this is one time opportunity
let's try let's pick a country the
further as possible we can go like
really really on the other side of the
world and let's give it a shot like we
can always go back here we can always
relocate in Stockholm Amsterdam on
London we don't have issues with
Passport but if you want to go to Canada
you have like until you're 35 and then
after terrify you cannot apply anymore
for a working visa to to access Canada
and the choice was between Canada New
Zealand and Australia but it is New
Zealand and Australia in terms of
immigration laws are way more strict
than Canada so we picked Canada because
we love like the Western world and we
were always like fascinated by the
United States by the United States also
in terms of visa and working visas are
really complicated so okay let's try
Canada and it says it's a country that
is basically empty so there are a lot of
job opportunities but because there are
not enough people and that's it we
decided to let's give it a shot we pick
Vancouver because it was the warmest
city in Canada the weather that's it
that's why very cool amazing in how many
years have you been there for years on
September 4th of this year was the 4th
year anniversary and next year I will
apply me and my girlfriend we're still
together we will apply together for the
citizenship so we're gonna have double
citizenship Italian Canadian awesome
that's super cool and like what are the
qualifications to apply for citizenship
do you have to be there a certain amount
of time and all that yes you have to be
a permanent resident for at least 3
years you have to collect a specific
amount of days that collect a like all
together are almost three years so when
we arrived we had working holiday visa
that was valid only for six months but
through my employer
he did a sponsor ization for me to stay
said to the government hey I couldn't
find a developer a Canadian developer
suitable for my business so I need to
keep this guy in this country we got an
extended working visa for two years with
that extended working visa we were able
to apply for permanent residency we got
approved it was pretty good because like
also before coming to Canada we check
all the immigration programs and as a
developer it's like a high level like
high-skilled job that it's lacking in
Canada so I had also a sort of like
highway of entrance like a red carpet
because like it's easier for required
skilled so yeah we were able to apply
for a permanent residency and now it's
been almost three years they were
collecting days like so next year in
August should be actually three years
Wow we can do an exam and hopefully pass
it very cool yeah and I guess the big
thing is like they want to make sure
you're not there mooching or whatever so
you have a job you're good to go
you're interested upstanding like
resident so exactly you pay taxes yeah
pay taxes you have a job you're in you
get to stay so yeah in the u.s. I don't
know what the deal is cuz it's like why
not have skilled people that want to be
there and work actually a friend of mine
he was running into issues just his
company wouldn't sponsor him anymore
he's like an electrical engineer he went
to school here in Montana and yeah it's
just what like I don't understand yeah I
don't I don't know Canada is like way
more liberal in that terms the idea
except pretty much everyone it doesn't
matter your background as far as your
like a serious worker you pay your taxes
and you do what you have to you respect
the law you can stay and pretty much
it's really easy to stay in that term
but yeah in the u.s. like that was the
United States was kind of like our first
choice because it's the land of
opportunity it was like okay and we
really love New York Los Angeles all the
cities in on like the west and east
coast are great but also there was the
issue of the healthcare because when we
arrived in Canada we didn't have a job
like zero we arrived without no
and would have been the same coming in
the US and for a specific amount of time
we were unemployed so we had to deal
with our own things without having a job
and in Canada you pay only in British
Columbia the region where Vancouver is
you pay 40 50 bucks a month and you have
health coverage it's like a national and
it's great so yeah I was like yes we
could go to the US and make way more
money because my job is required a but
if I am unemployed for a specific amount
of time I'm I'm screwed
and I'm weak like I'm Italian I have
like the immune system good for this
temperature so I get sick pretty easily
so the insurance is good yeah yeah
interesting okay so let's move on to
development stuff so this is like what's
you're an expert in and I'd be dumb if I
didn't ask you questions about that so
were let's say people are just getting
started with like development and coding
just in general they really don't have
much of a background and just to make it
like something that you can actually
answer let's say they have interest in
you know web development maybe they're
interested in like blogging and
affiliate marketing so what sort of
advice would you give them if they just
want to you know dip their toe in the
water yeah so if they they're more
interested in blogging and they want to
start getting the gist of it without
having the the issue of learning an
entire new platform and an entire new
coding language there are a lot of
websites that they give you a sort of
like jump start like Squarespace a weeks
or I don't remember others but there are
a lot of them basically this portal they
allow you to build a website without
knowing too much about coding and you
can also use these website that you
build as a blogging platform to start
like having your online presence and put
like your links and affiliate programs
and use that website to use it like for
whatever you have to do the good thing
about those website is that you don't
have to manage a server you don't have
to learn or install an entire CMS you
have to deal with compiling source files
optimized I mean like all these kind of
stuff that will come later but at least
you have good interface for you to build
your website just from a design point of
view and then you can access the source
code if you want to tweak something and
start understanding a little bit how it
works how it interacts and after that
when you get acquainted with that you
can move on and pick a platform because
CMS and start actually learning proper
coding but if you start from scratch
like with zero knowledge it's super
overwhelming so you should start really
from really basic and simple things you
don't don't pick like oh I'm gonna learn
WordPress even if I have zero knowledge
I'm gonna learn laravel no you're gonna
spend two years and just like I don't
know anything after two years okay so
and that's a good thing that you just
mentioned so let's say someone does you
know make the commitment to WordPress
there's like what is it like 30% of the
Internet is running on WordPress like
yeah and they're gonna take the plunge
right so would you say two years is a
good time frame for someone to become
acquainted with you know I guess
intermediate to advanced like WordPress
development it's yeah that's a tough
question it's really subjective and it's
also related to how much time you can
spend on it because of course yeah the
more time you spend that the quicker you
learn but we were pressed actually
WordPress it's a really good starting
point because it's been around for more
than 10 years so you have so many
resources and so many good tutorials
other than mine of course
yeah yours are great yeah so yeah we'll
link up to those absolutely this is best
but there are so many resources that it
seemed possible for a newly developer to
not understand WordPress in a really
short amount of time so you could really
find a good free class on level up Tots
or there's like code Academy they offer
some free courses that you don't have to
pay it's just like amazing and you can
hammer yourself for three months and in
three months you can literally build a
wordpress website from scratch and in
less than a year you can be
come on expert of wordpress if you of
course work every day code every day and
just like emerge yourself in this
environment but yes it's WordPress has a
really kind of like flat learning curve
because it's everything it's available
for you and it's written in a really
like simple programming language that
everyone can understand it it's pretty
good yeah it's pretty like I didn't I
didn't have any experience with
WordPress when I first like started my
first website but yeah I figured out a
lot made a lot of mistakes you know
every now and then you accidentally you
know you get the white screen of death
and all that good but then you learn not
to do that and backups like it's always
good to have a backup
exactly exactly the good thing about
WordPress is that a lot of like it's a
good and bad because experienced
developers don't like WordPress because
it's written in procedural code
procedural is like just like function
after function after function so you
have a specific portion of code wrapped
around a function and you use the
function whenever you want instead all
the new coding like framework and new
CMS are written in object-oriented
programming code that it's way more
advanced and it gives you more
flexibility more stability are way
better in terms of performance but
object-oriented programming is
complicated for a new developer because
it's a completely new concept that it's
hard to grasp if you don't have
experience so WordPress it's easy
because it's procedural so everyone can
learn it but experienced developers they
hate it because they say it's procedural
it's garbage but that's why we're press
is so so popular and famous because it's
easy to learn actually it's really like
easy written like flat written and easy
programming that everyone could learn if
you if you're not an expert so got it
got it just correct me if I'm wrong but
like some object-oriented languages
would be like Java C++ other stuff like
that right yes exactly also PHP which is
like WordPress is written in PHP it's an
object-oriented programming language but
you can literally build entire
applications in procedural PHP and
that's the love-hate thing that
ESP is like you can really write really
shitty and bad code in PHP and we will
work it will run and will work and
espera it's not optimized it's not
maintainable but it works so well and
that's how we end up with probably some
pretty crappy WordPress plugins out
there that are just slow and buggy and
stuff like that exactly and just as a
reference point like I've never created
a plug-in but like if you had like some
basic piece of functionality that let's
say you wanted to actually this is a
problem that I have if I wanted to
insert like a search bar like in my menu
or something I've seen plug-ins for that
like how long would it take you if you
just like wanted to write write a
plug-in to put a search bar in a menu 25
seconds
because now because I'm good and I'm a
genius aside because WordPress has a
built-in method to get the search bar
and you can write a plug-in there are
like pre-built template that you can
download and you have all the like
architecture or the plug-in folder and
you just create one function to inject
that built-in search part of WordPress
inside whatever menu you want to
generate I can do that super quickly
because I've been working with WordPress
for many years so I know what functions
are necessary to call all the stuff that
already exists one thing in like funny
about WordPress there are so many
plugins that do so many things there are
kind of useless because WordPress does
those things already built in but no one
knows how to top them or like how to
call them properly to make it work so
it's easier to build a plug-in and make
something custom while it's that
WordPress already has that thing that
right and you know what I was gonna say
I was aware of that so if you have some
like functionality in a plug-in you
could hire a developer that knows how to
like not hard code it but place that
into like the core files I don't know if
I'm using the right terms but yeah how
did the plug-in pull the code out of the
plug-in exactly okay and you had
overhead yeah and there's an example
like it a couple of months ago one a
student a student of mine from the
YouTube channel asked me to you
developing this project for a company
and they have so many different futures
that she ended up building the website
we'd like 35 different plugins it was
kind of insane and the website was super
slow and super buggy and sometimes was
working sometimes not so in literally
four weeks
I helped her rebuilding by private
tutoring rebuilding the entire website
with all the functionalities with zero
plugins we coded everything from scratch
and now she like she learned WordPress
deeply she doesn't use plugins anymore
she codes every every time if sometimes
she doesn't know what to do and there's
a plug-in that does that she just
downloads the plug-in checks the source
code and recreate that functionalities
inside the core functions of their theme
of our theme without relying on a plugin
so it's everything it's easy he knows
and you have way more power and you know
how to manage these things you avoid
issues and stuff like that so that's
really cool yeah that's very cool okay
well I have one more question for you
where we wrapped sorting to wrap it up
here so why did you start a YouTube
channel like you have a ton of
subscribers it's pretty amazing you have
a ton of videos you've been at it for
three years so what like why'd you start
it what keeps you motivated the short
answer is because my English was garbage
when I when I moved to Canada I thought
my English was good it was okay for
regular conversation not this type of
conversation
I wouldn't been able to have this type
of conversation like three years ago it
was been like just like terrible um but
my biggest struggle was during like
technical conversation so I'm I consider
myself a really good developer and
during meetings or doing technical
discoveries or while like talking with
clients I really I was struggling a lot
in trying to express what I was thinking
in Italians that I was like wanted to
suggest solutions wanted to suggest like
better approaches also like at the time
the developer that hire me and was like
my boss quote-unquote like
lead of the team he was suggesting a lot
of things that he from my opinion were
wrong and I didn't know how to tell it
like no we should do this because I
didn't have the language to explain
technically what I wanted to do so I
said okay so I have a youtube channel
that is dead like at like 18 subscribers
I opened the YouTube channel in 2010
never used it so it's like let's do this
let's record a video of me explaining
something that I really know well all of
that it's WordPress in my case but let's
try to explain it to myself like I never
use WordPress one day like once in my
life and let's do it in English so I
urge my self to relearn everything
they're really new but in a new language
and I uploaded it online just because I
wanted a place to actually being able to
play it on my phone while I was going to
work like really singing to all the
technical terms that I was reading off
of the documentation just to learn it
properly and it actually got like pretty
well received I earn like 100
subscribers in one day like out of the
blue I uploaded the video at night I
woke up in the morning I had like 100
subscribers like that one without even
publicizing or sharing like what yeah I
was impressive and people were asking
more more oh can you teach me these can
you teach me that so something that
started as is a thing for me in order
for me to learn what I need for work to
be better became something really useful
for a lot of non-english speaker like
the majority of my audience come from
India and China were like non-english
speakers speaking language but they
speak English for work and they need
these technical things so if you listen
to my first video you can hear like the
thick Italian accent and I say a lot of
word like wrong it took me like almost
six months to understand that a
wordpress theme is not a WordPress team
as like a lot of people made fun of me
in the comments but yeah it's okay they
helped me learn a lot
amazing obviously you have a good grasp
I think your grammar is probably better
than mine as a native English speaker
just because you know dumb American
right so I'll own that but yeah I mean
super impressive that's a fantastic
story and I mean I think it's great like
your channel is doing really well
people love the content there's so many
views and yes we'll definitely link it
below where else can people find you
when they want to learn more from you
Alex
so basically you can search my name or
my handle online handle is Alec had with
3d at the end so Alec added and I have
the same handle everywhere on Twitter on
Facebook I have a Facebook page a
Google+ page that I still use even if no
one's there but I like to share stuff
there so I'm really active online pretty
much everywhere I have also a forum at
forum Alec addcom and that's it just you
can find me pretty much everywhere I'm
I'm everywhere I'm just like you are
everywhere cool Alex really appreciate
it and we'll put all the links below
thanks again have a great day thank you
you two men bye bye alright thanks a lot
Alex thanks everyone for watching I'll
put all of Alex's links below really
appreciate your time really appreciate
the fact that you hung out with me for a
little while Alex and also put a link
below because I was on Alex's channel as
well so if you haven't seen that
interview please check it out thanks
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