Chuck Returns To Talk Success As a Developer, Conference Development, and More:
Chuck aka Charles Max Wood returns. He is the host of several podcasts including JavaScript Jabber and Ruby Rogues all available at Devchat.tv. He’s the author of “The MaxCoders Guide to Finding Your Dream Developer Job.” He started podcasting in 2008. The podcasts he produces reach more than 80,000 developers every week. Chuck lives in Utah with his wife and 5 children.
Today’s Top 3 Takeaways:
- Keep learning and keep practicing.
- Build your network beyond your local community.
- Executive aka Virtual Assistants, Growing your team.
Today’s Guest & Resource Links:
Timestamped Show Notes:
00:30 - Introduction
04:30 - So at Devchat.tv, we had podcasts, and it was just a podcast network as the focus. So what we were doing is we were releasing shows in a number of different areas. JavaScript is something that I think a lot of people have heard about if you've been on the web. We had shows on Ruby, React is JavaScript for the web. So we have shows about all kinds of stuff like that. I'm looking, at this point, pulling together a couple of shows and putting out products now and that's where the rebrand came in. So some of the new shows are going to be on game development and then the products are going to center around Front-End Web Development, game development, machine learning, security, stuff like that. Those, those are the the areas where, like it or not, I mean, that's where things are growing. So effectively, the rebrand came into play when I went through a period in 2019, where the not so nice people on Twitter decided they wanted my business to crash and burn.
10:00 - Ultimately that was the other thing, a lot of the questions I get are, how do I advance? How do I move out? How do I move ahead? My answer is mostly you got to do stuff that people aren't doing. So that's consistent learning, consistent practice, consistent growth, meeting other people. It is building your network beyond your local community, making contributions to the community, putting content out there, if you're doing those kinds of things, that's where the growth is. So that's where my focus has been now is, I'm gonna give you content to level up your technical skills. That's kind of obvious to most people in the development space, and to people who think about the development space for about half a minute.
20:00 - Initially, I hired my executive assistant or virtual assistant, she's in Philippines, by the way, which is a great source for that. I would just hand her tasks that needed to be done. She at this point succeeded, so we've hired somebody else to help her. If there's something she can't figure out how to do, or she knows that I already know how to do, then I'll record a video and I'll send it over. But probably half of the stuff she does, at this point is stuff that she has determined will get us toward our goals. So she just takes the lead on a lot of that. At this point, what we're doing now is we're getting clear on our strategic plan. We are documenting, so now she's building checklists, this is how we do this.
25:50 - The other piece of this is, is that I'm intending to do that, I already named the areas I was focused in, but I'm intending to do courses on a premium basis for those. So they're not just courses so much as they're, hey, here's your weekly training! It's 10 minute videos, you get two of them a week. So if you want to stay up on the technology area, that's what we're doing. Then the same thing with a lot of the career and soft skills education too.
30:45 - Final Words Shown Below…
Our Final Words of the Show:
What I found is that mostly, it's just that consistent effort, right? There's something to be said, for planning ahead. So where do I want to end up? What are some of the intermediate steps? Maybe look a year out or three months out, what are kind of the time horizons that I like to plan for? So what do I deliver every day? For 90 days, to be well on track for that.
Then the other thing we talked a little bit about, just getting cancelled on Twitter and stuff like that. The other thing is, is that you really do have to figure out who you are and where you want to end up. Because at the end of the day, I was coasting at that point. I mean, I had a $300,000 business, but I was coasting. I was going to the conferences and sure, I'd find new sponsors. I'd show up, I was having fun, but I wasn't reaching the potential that I wanted, that I knew I could reach, but I was comfortable. So it's a blessing when you have a hardship that forces you to rethink things. Just be really clear about where you want to end up. Where are you going? What is this about? Then that consistent effort will start getting you to where you're most focused.
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