Regan Khadgi is an IT Engineering graduate who has been successfully contributing in the IT sector with his expertise in WordPress. He is currently working at AccessPress Themes as a lead WordPress Plugin Developer. He’s also been teaching IT skills to hundreds of younger IT enthusiasts. He was one of the speakers in WordCamp Biratnagar 2018 and talked on the topic “Making Living through WordPress”.
In the interview we took, Mr. Regan Khadgi told us about himself, his journey in WordPress, and more.
An Exclusive Interview with Regan Khadgi
Tell us a little about yourself?
I am currently working as a Lead WordPress Plugin developer in Access Keys. I love to code, listen to music, play guitar, and workout in the gym.
Can you tell us about your city and the WordPress community there?
I live in Kathmandu and luckily among all cities of Nepal, WordPress is quite blooming in Kathmandu because the internet and other facilities are quite good here and we often get to participate in different community activities as well.
How and when did you start your journey with WordPress?
I started WordPress in 2012 and hadn’t need to look back from then. I started WordPress with the Ecommerce site development as my first WordPress project using WP Ecommerce Plugin which was quite challenging for me.
Any challenges you faced during your initial phase in WordPress? If so, how did you overcome them?
Since I was from the custom PHP programming background and was hired for doing projects in CI and MVC framework, so it was a bit challenging for me to develop the site in the WordPress at first. But as soon as I got comfortable with customizing themes and plugins, it was real fun.
Were you excited about your talk in WordCamp Biratnagar? What was your talk about?
I was really excited to talk in WordCamp Biratnagar because I was talking in a new city, in front of new people from the community and yes it was my first ever visit Biratnagar. My talk was about various methods of income generation from WordPress.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your talk?
I really felt that my presentation was quite audience-engaging as per the interaction. No matter how we take WordPress, ultimately one and the only goal is to earn money and make living through it. So, my presentation should provide some vision on choosing WordPress as their career platform.
What do you think about the WordPress community in Nepal?
As being the part of WordPress community from a long time, I really feel we are really growing strong day by day and we are helping each other to learn and earn from WordPress.
Talking about WordCamps, what fascinates you the most about WordCamps?
Networking and interaction with WordPressers from the whole community is the fun part for me in the WordCamps.
How do you think WordCamp Biratnagar 2018 is different from any other WordCamps you’ve been to?
It was different for me because the nature of the audience was different than previous WordCamps I have spoken to. Most of the audiences were students and yet they were listening with much interest.
How have you been contributing to the WordPress community?
I am contributing to the community by participating in many WordCamps as a Speaker, Volunteer, and Organizer. And also I develop free plugins and give free support in the questions asked in the support forum of WordPress whenever I get time. And yes I really enjoy doing all of these as it benefits everyone in the community.
What advice would you give to new WordPress users who’re only joining the WordPress community?
The only suggestion I would like to give is “Let’s trust WordPress”.
What do you think about the female participation in WordPress?
I really think the number of female participation in WordPress is quite overwhelming despite being the technical field. And what could be the best example than my own team? I lead a plugin team with seven members, out of which, 3 of them are female.
What is your go-to source for anything and everything WordPress?
My go-to-source is none other than Google and WordPress codex itself.
Besides WordPressing, what do you do for fun?
Besides WordPress, I love playing guitar which has been my long time passion. And lately, I am also being passionate about body building and fitness. So, I manage some time for gym and workout daily despite busy schedule.
And lastly, Gutenberg Editor was released with WordPress 5.0 as the default editor. Do you have any thoughts to share?
The beauty of WordPress has been somehow overshadowed by the Page Builders lately and as since the Gutenberg editor is now a part of the core, it shall bring the revolution in the content creation for end-users with easy to use drag-and-drop interface for creating a great website.
If you have any questions to ask, please drop your comments below. And if you want to know more about Regan Khadgi, you can follow him on his Facebook or you can also find him on Linkedin.