Artisan Themes is not only a theme shop, but also a community of great people doing inspiring stuff. We want to bring our theme’s users to the front page to show how they do what they do. And learn from them too.
We interviewed Dave Mes, an amazing Artisan from our community that helps people bring the best out of their online business ideas to create freedom.
Say hi to Dave 🙂
Hey Dave! Tell us a bit about yourself: where are you from, how is the city you live in, what do you do for a living, what do you do in your spare time?
My name is David Meszaros. I use the name Dave Mes in my brand because I think it is shorter and easier to remark. Originally, I come from Hungary, but I live in Hamburg, Germany. I work as a database administrator full time, but I always wanted to work on creative, remarkable things and that’s the reason I started to build my website and my online business.
My goal is to help people bring the best out of their online business ideas and find their desired freedom. In my spare time, I love to develop myself, read books about psychology and useful articles.
Work doesn’t have to be the only one in my life. I love to do sport, go out with friends, and traveling, which is my biggest passion. This year I have visited 16 countries so far, and I am on it to see more and more of our beautiful world.
What do you love about your work?
The first thing I love in my work, as I mentioned above, is being creative. I’ve never wanted to live without creating something that matters and symbolizes my name and effort. Seeing my website and articles getting better every day makes me happy. It expresses me. My site is the place where I can be who I’m, and nobody tells me what should I do, or how I should do it. Freedom.
The second thing is that I’m a typical problem-solving guy and when I work on my ideas challenges come endlessly to me. Without challenges life would be boring and that wouldn’t be fit for me.
And third, I love seeing people’s development. My favorite movies are those where I can see how a newbie becomes a wealthy person, like Steve Carell in Crazy, stupid love. I believe that every one can achieve everything if they find the appropriate way to success.
Those are the most important reasons that moved me to build my biz and I want to help people to enjoy their life and use their talents for success.
What’s special about the way you work?
Honestly, I think there is nothing special in how I work. I get up every morning and go to sleep every evening like all regular people in the world. I’m just determined and don’t let doubt discourage me.
I never think about what would happen if I fail. It can only happen if I give up. If I imagine something, like a design or a new functionality on my site, I work as hard as I need to realize my plans. I never give up. But again, I wouldn’t say this behavior is unusual.
Why did you need a website and why did you choose one of our themes for it?
I need a website to express myself and show people how possible it is for them to build their brand, establish their presence and realize the business of their dreams. A site of my own is a place where I can provide knowledge and connect with my audience.
Of course, my site is also a playground for me. It’s a place that belongs only to me, and I have the freedom to change it as many times as I want. If I come up with a new thing, I can turn it into this site, and the result, the design, the functionality make me satisfied at the end of the process.
davemes.com – Homepage
Earlier on I tried out many different themes but I’ve never got what I wanted. I’m not a web developer. Neither a designer. Working with basic themes needs more HTML, CSS or even PHP knowledge but honestly, I’m not a fan of coding.
Artisan Themes was the first provider that gave me the bright design, the smooth usability and the unlimited freedom to change my website without any professional web development knowledge. I love the way it works.
And the support is unbelievable. I’ve never experienced such a service. It feels like if I would have a private developer with me all the time. These are the main reasons that convinced me to keep working with the Indigo theme.
Can you tell us about the process of building your website with the theme?
Working with the modules was a terrific experience. It’s like a drag and drop process. Fortunately, Artisan Themes has a plenty of modules I could use, and every time I had a new idea I’ve always got the module that fitted.
The process has ever started with my ideas, or where I’ve seen a nice element on other bloggers’ sites. Then, checking the examples on the Artisan Themes, I looked for options about how I could implement that new idea into my site.
And fortunately, I’ve always found the way.
After I got a module, I started to customize it, set the colors of my brand, add some CSS modifications and build into a page. I’m sure I saved myself plenty of time using modules on my site and I wouldn’t have the website I love without them.
davemes.com – Inside Pages
Which was the most challenging part about building your site?
Huh. I think there were few days I wanted to throw my laptop out of the window because I couldn’t do something that I wanted.
The biggest challenge for me was working on the CSS. I don’t have a lot of experience with coding. For instance, if I wanted to put an image in a specific place or change the size of an element was difficult for me. Gladly, using Google and with your support I’ve always got the solution for these small challenges.
How did Indigo facilitate the process? Is there anything that particularly surprised you?
The best thing is that I can create and try as many modules as I want. I can build different layouts and in a few minutes change the whole design if I want. I don’t have to build them again and again if I want to see two different options.
I’ve been working with WordPress for a while so there’s not a lot of things that can surprise me. But then Mai showed me how I could use modules inside another module with the Columns module and I was fascinated. That was the moment I said: What else do I need?
What can you recommend to someone starting a website? Any tools or tricks you wouldn’t want to miss?
The most critical step is to find the best theme and it isn’t easy because you can see millions of options on the web.
I would surely recommend choosing a theme from Artisan Themes because of the modern design, the modules and the extraordinary support. For me it was the best decision.
Before you go with a specific provider it’s important to be sure the theme has all the functionality that your new website needs. A wrong theme can make the work horribly hard. That’s why the planning is essential. Of course, the requirements are changing all the time but having a clear vision can help a lot. Checking other websites can help too to see what opportunities are available.
Tools? Maybe CSS Hero can be useful if somebody is not familiar with CSS coding and need to make specific changes. It can help a lot to change the style of the elements dynamically.
How can people get in touch with you?
People can get in touch with me by visiting my website at davemes.com.
I’m also available on Facebook and Twitter, and people can subscribe to my weekly newsletter as well.
I’m always happy to connect with creative people and ready to go out to just drink coffee or discuss online marketing, social media, business or simply about life.
Dave is really a super cool guy to talk to. If you haven’t met him yet I urge you to drop everything you’re doing and say ‘hi’ to him. You’ll find links to his social profiles here.