[00:00:00 ] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.

Jukebox as a podcast, which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case finding WooCommerce work through Codeable.

If you’d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast, player of choice. Or by going to WPTavern.com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. And you can copy and paste that URL into most podcast players.

If you have a topic that you’d like us to feature on the podcast, I’m very keen to hear from you and hopefully get you all your idea featured on the show. Head over to WPTavern.com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox, and use the form there.

So on the podcast today, we have Marcel Schmitz. Marcel is a freelancer at Codeable for pluginslab, a small agency based in Porto, Portugal, which by good coincidence is where WordCamp Europe took place this year.

He first got involved with WordPress back in 2011, taking advantage of the platform because it was easy to create clients’ websites, not having to create a complete CMS solution from scratch.

It’s been an unbreakable relationship since then. However, it’s been a journey of constant change. Mobile came along, and Marcel’s been connecting apps to WordPress since 2012. Building mobile apps that use AR and Gutenberg to connect with WooCommerce.

We talk on the podcast today about the opportunities Codeable has afforded him and how it fits in with his life. As you’ll hear, he’s pretty keen on the fact that it gives him a reliable stream of work without the need for him to go out and find it.

Codeable is a platform which connects developers with clients needing work. They find the clients and the developer does the work. But what’s really involved in this transaction? What kind of work is available on the platform? Who can join, and how can Codeable and the clients both be sure that the developers are qualified and able to carry out the projects that they take on?

Marcel certainly seems to have had a very positive experience with Codeable and explains the nuts and bolts of how you get started, what developers need to bring to the table and how Codeable mediates disputes which might arise.

Towards the end of the podcast, we talk about Marcel’s work using AR and WooCommerce. As well as a brief foray into how he sees headless WordPress, working with WooCommerce in the future. What are the benefits and what are some of the drawbacks?

Typically when we record the podcast, there’s not a lot of background noise, but that’s not always the case with these WordCamp Europe interviews. We were competing against crowds and the air conditioning. And whilst the podcasts are more than listable, I hope that you understand that the vagaries of the real world were at play.

If you’re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading over to WPTavern.com forward slash podcast, where you’ll find all the other episodes as well.

And so without further delay, I bring you Marcel Schmitz.

I am joined by Marcel Schmitz. Hello, Marcel.

[00:04:09 ] Marcel Schmitz: Hello. Thank you.

[00:04:10 ] Nathan Wrigley: It’s very nice to have you here. First of all, let’s get a few introductions out the way. Tell us a little bit about WordCamp Europe and why you are here.

[00:04:16 ] Marcel Schmitz: So, WordCamp Europe is very special to me because I’ve been living in Porto for 35 years. I was, born in Brazil I have German citizenship and yeah, my parents came here in 1988, so I’m here the whole time and I’m not gonna change this city for any other. I’m very much in love with the city. So obviously WordCamp Europe is very special for me, especially because I’m getting all my friends, WordPress friends, together in the city that I know very well, show them around. So yeah, it’s super special occasion.

[00:04:46 ] Nathan Wrigley: It’s just the nicest of spots isn’t it? Yeah. So really kind of unusual for you in that you basically can go home to your own bed in the evening,

[00:04:56 ] Marcel Schmitz: Right. That’s very unusual. That’s also at the same time, very practical, I guess I have the flexibility to just jump home very quickly, grab my things and just go with it. Nonetheless, for the last two days I’ve been at a hotel. It’s easier with the logistic at home, with my wife, my kid going to school because they’re still in school by this time of year. So for me not to interfere with their normal schedule, I’m just staying in a hotel.

[00:05:23 ] Nathan Wrigley: That’s really ingenious. Your reason for being here is what? As far as I know, you’re not got a speaking engagement. You’re here as a, as an attendee?

[00:05:31 ] Marcel Schmitz: Correct, yeah. That’s correct. This time, and every WordCamp Europe, we have also Codeable experts here. Which are people who I work with every day. And we have also people from Codeable staff here. So one of the main reasons to attend this is obviously to meet all these people. There are a lot of experts that we didn’t get to meet in person for a long time. It has been a couple of years. It’s one of the reasons is that obviously.

And the second reason I would say there’s a lot of good talks that I would like to keep up. There’s new things that came out. There’s also other people from other teams, from Automattic, from WooCommerce etcetera, that I would like very much to meet.

That’s basically it. It’s such a good opportunity to be in person with everyone, and to be together after all these years. It just makes it a wonderful time everyone being together.

[00:06:15 ] Nathan Wrigley: Can I just try to paint a picture of your work life? In that you, I’m guessing that your large amount of your income comes from Codeable.

[00:06:23 ] Marcel Schmitz: Yes, that’s right.

[00:06:24 ] Nathan Wrigley: So, not necessarily dwelling on the Codeable piece itself yet, but just tell us what is it that you do? How does your work flow towards you? Are you basically taking on work that Codeable put in your inbox, if you like, and you can accept and decline things? And have you found that way of living to be enjoyable or is it stressful? Do you have to generate a lot of your own work or does it just land in your lap?

[00:06:47 ] Marcel Schmitz: Right. So we have a very special place in our platform where everybody who’s an expert, who got access and who got admitted to the platform has a list of opportunities. And those are clients who come in. They register their projects. They have a project description. They ask for a specific area of expertise, and we just browse those projects. And we just get to choose whatever wanna work with. Basically what starts then is a conversation between us, the experts and the client.

So multiple experts can come in and also ask questions and present themselves. And yeah, after a couple of messages we exchange, we talked about the project, we scope it out. And that basically then the clients decides if you want to hire us or not. Basically, I look for the job that I want.

I read what the client needs to do. If it fits my area of expertise, I’m gonna interact with