Building Better Developers

Detailed Notes

The past few years have included us creating content channels across a number of outlets. That has led to a request to provide a presentation on how to go about such tasks. The goal is to focus on the content portion more than just list technical tools and platforms. We talk about approaches to producing content and considerations if you want to start down any of these paths.

Creating Content Channels - Many Options, Similar Approach One thing that was apparent in creating this presentation was how similar many of the channels are. That gives us some overarching steps to take and then refinements based on your channel. All of this combines to give you a thoughtful approach to creating content channels. Likewise, it provides some checklist material to help you get started.

Transcript Text

[Music]
so what have we learned
for any of these channels
it's really it does come back down to
creating content
and
there aren't
shortcuts to these really you need to
think through them you need to take your
time you need to plan the the rewards
are worthwhile i'd i have done
all of these and i have to say that it
is at least for myself it has been very
um
pleasurable it's been very rewarding to
go through these there is a sense of
accomplishment i get
completing an episode or completing a
you know a series or something like that
or publishing content
so
it is there's a value to it and it's it
is amazing how many people have
seen that i've done this you know
professionally that have said oh wow
that's impressive and it may not feel as
impressive to me but it is to them and
so
you know
more power to me i guess
um
and particularly as you're earlier in
your career i think this is a great way
to prove yourself or if you're early
into a
an area of expertise
this is a way to prove your your bona
fides
but take your time and
don't jump into it blindly but
go in saying okay i'm going to put some
effort into this and this is how
i'm going to do so
with that thing these challenges there
are challenges and concerns specific to
each of these
channels it is very different writing
versus
podcasting versus
you know recording yourself on a screen
or or putting yourself on you know
behind a camera in front of a camera
um so
yeah it's worth doing a little research
on those figure out what
you're going to be more most suitable to
and most comfortable in
if you look at this you're like this is
just working there's not i don't see
this being fun at all
then don't
or more importantly if you get you know
if you get started on it and you realize
i thought i was going to like this i
don't
don't be afraid to bail out don't be
afraid to say no
yeah there's there's something to be
said for you to you know sort of work
your way through it
but
that's if you're getting over a hump and
you're going from a point where i don't
like this to oh i you know i know i'm
going to like this if i stick with it
that's different from i don't think i'm
ever going to like it if you get the
point or i don't think i'm ever going to
like it
i would say don't do it it's too much
work and it will
it will come through on the presentation
the content will
people will be will be able to sense
that you just don't want to do that and
so they're not going to follow it
they're not going to want to
people like don't generally people don't
like to see other people suffer
and finally be
be ready to toot your own horn don't be
afraid to go out there and say hey i put
this thing out there hey here's
something that you might find
interesting or you may learn from
because that's
part of the promotion in building a
community
all right questions and comments
that makes me want to get back into this
again
like more than i have been able to
lately
it's funny that
i have that that kind of stuff has that
effect on me a lot as well
i just started listening to
[Music]
the four-hour chef
um i've had the book for i don't know
the audiobook for probably a couple
years now and finally she's like you
know what i'm going to start listening
to it and listening to tim ferriss going
through that and it's
the chef is more about
uh particularly the point i'm at i'm a
few chapters in and it's really it's
more about just learning stuff quickly
and things like that but just
listening to that and just you know it's
again it's like sometimes you hear about
this you're like that sounds like fun i
really want to i want to try it out
and it doesn't hurt to
i think that's why it doesn't hurt at
all to go back and you know periodically
re-listen to like the four-hour work
week or crush it or
all of those other books that you know
we've talked about over the years that
are
about
that kind of work or the was the passive
income
uh
i forget
that one but the smart passive
income
or smart passive investor or whatever or
that one spi smart passive income i
think is what it is um
anyways those kinds of
motivational type tools of like hey
here's some here's some things people
have done and you're like wow that would
be cool to get into it and honestly
that's why i have
i have had multiple times that i was
going to stop like the podcast part and
i usually it doesn't last very long
before my ah
i actually enjoy doing it so i want to
get back into it
other questions and comments
yes
yeah what what is uh hot is it being
consistent like do you plan everything
out like uh let me say you have to talk
for
uh i mean your topic's out like
i mean being consistent is it
how hard is that going to be for you in
i think it depends on your personality
um for myself and
it depends on your personality and
actually i think it what your normal
life is like
if you have a very
um
like a better term rigid
sort of schedule that you follow where
you know you
monday through friday you get up at a
certain time you do certain things you
go to work certain time get home at a
certain time
you have a very
static
kind of schedule i think it's going to
be a lot easier
if you're somebody that
stuff comes up on a regular basis and it
changes things around
then it's much more difficult
for myself that
the
consistency
has been is by far the hardest
thing
because there are so cause i i do my
stuff on a weekly basis like each week
there are certain things like i have to
get
x number of episodes
done you know produced and in the can
and and ready to be
you know ready for the publishing
and that typically means that i have to
from start to scratch do x number of
episodes of whatever you know between
the
the video stuff and the podcast when the
podcast is live and things like that and
then i have to work in other stuff and
sometimes you know some weeks
monday or tuesday of the week i've
already i'm pretty much already you know
done with the work i need to do that
week sometimes it's sunday afternoon and
i'm like crap i've got it or something
it's sunday evening i have got to get
this stuff done because that's sort of
my cutoff it's like monday morning is
when a week starts and sunday night is
when it ends so if i haven't gotten it
done by sunday night i'm really going to
be stressed out so
doing that
um
a little bit that's probably the hardest
part
but over time it does get better because
yeah you have those there have been the
times where i've just pushed off and
suddenly it's sunday night and i've got
three hours before i want to go to bed
and i've got three hours probably that
i'm going to be spending on
uh recording and editing and doing stuff
and
it's so painful that like the next
summer i'm gonna find a way to get
started sooner
um and then knowing that too there's
times where it's like hey i've got you
know i got done on tuesday so i'm gonna
start into the next week i'm gonna get
ahead a little bit
um
and it's just
i think everybody's different but as you
get into it you learn how you work and
what
motivates you
and
you know hopefully you'll get
to me this goes back to the professional
development side as you get better at
being able to do that
um
this
the stuff that i've done now which is
crazy it seems to me now that it's been
years since i did the first podcast and
a few years before that when we did our
first blog and although the content
produced has changed over the years
i have very much gotten better at being
able to manage my time and schedule
things and
estimate things and do a lot of stuff
that
that would have a value to my job no
matter what i'm doing whether i'm
managing people whether i'm writing code
whether i'm
uh designing systems whatever
there's a lot of life skills i guess
that have come out of these and which is
which does go back to a lot of times why
i recommend
at least try try out creating a site and
doing a blog and you've seen some of
this i mean you've you've written blog
articles and you know how hard it can be
to say all right i'm going to write
a blog article once a month for the next
three months and being able to get that
done you know it's like there's work
involved and so
doing that on a regular basis
getting that that cadence of i'm
churning something out once a month once
a week whatever it is
i think really does help build you into
a better
uh i think not only a better
professional but i think even a better
person that you can just be more
reliable and comfortable
because you'll get it as you get those
things done you will be more
uh confident in your own abilities
great question though
thanks man no problem another thing i
wanted to ask was like
do you have like for instance if you
have a target audience do you have to
put into their attention span like you
don't want it to become like let me say
too long or too short or you know
like the average like okay maybe i can
capture my audience in 30 minutes or one
hour or whatever
yeah i think that that very much and i
really that's a great question because i
really didn't touch on that
um your
yeah the timing is
important part of your you know your
theme and your approach
i think it helps a lot
to be consistent in roughly the time
amount that you can do whether it's five
minutes or 15 minutes or an hour
um
[Music]
for for written stuff like a blog
is it
300 words is it a thousand words is it 2
000 words you know
those kinds of things
do matter
because people will check particularly
audio and video people may check out
it'll be like yeah they
they're great listening to you on a
podcast for 10 minutes on whatever the
topic is but if you stretch it out to 20
it's just too much or
too dry or whatever
particularly for educational stuff
that's why for the
uh the developer or youtube stuff we i
do my best
to generally try to keep it around you
know 15 to 20 minutes uh if it goes a
little short that's okay if it goes
longer i usually am apologizing that you
know i'm sorry it took 25 minutes to get
through this
because
because of the topics we're covering
um
it just
it seems like if you drag it out too
much it becomes too much to present and
for them to be able to absorb and that's
going to vary a lot by what you're
talking about you know if you're talking
about something lighthearted like movie
reviews sometimes people can sit people
could sit there for an hour unless you
talk about
do a review on a movie
but if you're talking about um
i don't know big data analysis
people may be clinically dead having to
listen to that for 60 minutes because
it's just
so
boring and dry
and some of that's your presentation is
how do you
make it exciting
but it's easier
also just
if it's for comprehension people just
have limits to what they can do if you
go beyond an hour you're really going to
be challenged to have people be able to
comprehend
your
your content but also you know they
could always go back and they could
review it but
for me it's easier to just like keep it
smaller snippets and say okay we're
gonna sit down for 15 minutes
and talk about this topic so that's
that's a great question because i i did
not really touch on timing but that is
another
critical
uh the amount of content that you do the
time or the length is very important
part of your your process
thank you
any other questions or comments
you know one
possible compendon to this one rob might
be
how to
not necessarily monetize but what
approaches you might want to take to
advertising or promoting
your blog or your whatever content you
do
because one thing you got to be careful
especially with some of these
sites and that that you can use
is if you just pick like an
advertisement site you don't know what
ads might pop up so they might not be
the correct content or the right flavor
for what content you're producing and
that could turn people off too
yeah and that's
in the world of canceling cancel culture
and stuff like that um
that is probably more critical than it
was even a couple years ago
because you could have something that
has some ad that shows up and suddenly
you're in the middle of a bunch of
controversial stuff that you don't want
anything any part of
um
so that would that's that's interesting
because that that could be it's that
definitely monetization
could be
easily a presentation in itself and it's
something
that's an interesting one for me because
it's something i don't know that i have
really
i don't know that i've solved that
problem yet for myself even um i am i'm
constantly torn with
um actually it's probably my problem is
more that i just like trying out all of
the monetization tools and platforms
more than i care about actually
monetizing stuff
um
if i ever find one that works then that
may change my my tune but you know to
date nothing has ever worked enough for
me that it's been like oh okay this is
definitely the way to go
but there are definitely things that you
need to consider that you do not want to
do because it could you know it could
effectively kill your whole thing i mean
there are
there are
producer content producers out there
that
had very
made a ton of money monetized the heck
out of stuff and either because of their
content or their uh their advertisers
stuff like that ended up in a lot of
trouble and and lost a lot of money out
of it so
you know you gotta you gotta think about
that kind of stuff that's that's good
good suggestion though
other questions and comments
so as always thank you so much for
spending some time listening to this and
and
just hanging out with us
uh appreciate your time if there's any
other questions or comments or anything
you can contact us in a myriad of ways
uh email info developer.com we've got a
contact us form out on developernoor.com
we have our youtube channel that's out
there if you go to youtube and search
developer d-e-v-e-l-p-r-e-n-e-u-r
[Music]
you will find it uh we have a vimeo
channel that's vimeo.com
we've got a facebook page uh we read we
had shut down for a while twitter stuff
we moved to a different one but we've
gone back and now we have a specific
at developer for developing her posts
and uh sort of changed that up a little
bit but it's
it's
very much for the most part focused on
uh one you'll see
our uh our youtube stuff blog articles
uh videos that show up on vimeo you'll
see links to those are posts but
also we're trying to do
uh a lot more of
some of these sort of like tech tip
sites
and the related kinds of articles to try
to just you know send a steady stream of
uh technical
little tidbits and that and articles to
to help you become a better developer
because
our goal is to make every developer
better
all right have a good day
you

Transcript Segments

0.43

[Music]

27.279

so what have we learned

29.679

for any of these channels

31.679

it's really it does come back down to

33.44

creating content

35.28

and

36.079

there aren't

37.36

shortcuts to these really you need to

39.92

think through them you need to take your

41.28

time you need to plan the the rewards

43.44

are worthwhile i'd i have done

45.92

all of these and i have to say that it

48.16

is at least for myself it has been very

50.879

51.76

pleasurable it's been very rewarding to

53.84

go through these there is a sense of

55.68

accomplishment i get

57.199

completing an episode or completing a

59.52

you know a series or something like that

62.079

or publishing content

64.4

65.519

it is there's a value to it and it's it

67.52

is amazing how many people have

69.68

seen that i've done this you know

71.28

professionally that have said oh wow

72.72

that's impressive and it may not feel as

75.04

impressive to me but it is to them and

76.72

77.759

you know

79.119

more power to me i guess

81.04

82.159

and particularly as you're earlier in

83.52

your career i think this is a great way

85.759

to prove yourself or if you're early

87.52

into a

89.6

an area of expertise

91.439

this is a way to prove your your bona

93.439

fides

95.04

but take your time and

97.119

don't jump into it blindly but

99.2

go in saying okay i'm going to put some

100.72

effort into this and this is how

102.64

i'm going to do so

105.2

with that thing these challenges there

106.96

are challenges and concerns specific to

108.96

each of these

110.799

channels it is very different writing

113.52

versus

114.799

podcasting versus

117.04

you know recording yourself on a screen

118.96

or or putting yourself on you know

120.56

behind a camera in front of a camera

122.88

um so

124.56

yeah it's worth doing a little research

126.159

on those figure out what

127.6

you're going to be more most suitable to

130.959

and most comfortable in

133.2

if you look at this you're like this is

134.64

just working there's not i don't see

136.56

this being fun at all

138.319

then don't

139.92

or more importantly if you get you know

142.08

if you get started on it and you realize

144.16

i thought i was going to like this i

145.52

don't

146.4

don't be afraid to bail out don't be

148.16

afraid to say no

150.319

yeah there's there's something to be

152.08

said for you to you know sort of work

154

your way through it

155.28

but

156.879

that's if you're getting over a hump and

158.4

you're going from a point where i don't

160.08

like this to oh i you know i know i'm

162

going to like this if i stick with it

163.76

that's different from i don't think i'm

165.04

ever going to like it if you get the

166.56

point or i don't think i'm ever going to

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like it

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i would say don't do it it's too much

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work and it will

172.4

it will come through on the presentation

174.72

the content will

176.319

people will be will be able to sense

178.239

that you just don't want to do that and

180.48

so they're not going to follow it

181.599

they're not going to want to

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people like don't generally people don't

185.2

like to see other people suffer

188

and finally be

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be ready to toot your own horn don't be

190.959

afraid to go out there and say hey i put

192.879

this thing out there hey here's

194.319

something that you might find

195.519

interesting or you may learn from

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because that's

198.879

part of the promotion in building a

201.12

community

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all right questions and comments

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that makes me want to get back into this

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again

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like more than i have been able to

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lately

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it's funny that

222

i have that that kind of stuff has that

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effect on me a lot as well

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i just started listening to

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[Music]

228.879

the four-hour chef

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um i've had the book for i don't know

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the audiobook for probably a couple

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years now and finally she's like you

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know what i'm going to start listening

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to it and listening to tim ferriss going

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through that and it's

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the chef is more about

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uh particularly the point i'm at i'm a

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few chapters in and it's really it's

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more about just learning stuff quickly

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and things like that but just

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listening to that and just you know it's

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again it's like sometimes you hear about

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this you're like that sounds like fun i

255.439

really want to i want to try it out

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and it doesn't hurt to

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i think that's why it doesn't hurt at

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all to go back and you know periodically

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re-listen to like the four-hour work

264.88

week or crush it or

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all of those other books that you know

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we've talked about over the years that

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are

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about

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that kind of work or the was the passive

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income

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i forget

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that one but the smart passive

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income

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or smart passive investor or whatever or

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that one spi smart passive income i

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think is what it is um

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anyways those kinds of

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motivational type tools of like hey

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here's some here's some things people

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have done and you're like wow that would

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be cool to get into it and honestly

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that's why i have

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i have had multiple times that i was

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going to stop like the podcast part and

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i usually it doesn't last very long

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before my ah

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i actually enjoy doing it so i want to

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get back into it

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