the power of community w/ will johnson

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Hello, hello. Thanks for listening to Guidance Counselor 2.0. Listen, I want to give you a quick rundown of what this podcast is and what you're about to get into as you listen to these episodes. We had Guidance Counselors in middle school. We had Guidance Counselors in high school, but we didn't really have Guidance Counselors in college and now as professionals, we don't really have anybody to turn to to ask a quick question to learn something about the job search or to navigate your career. So that is what I want this podcast to be for you. I want it to be a tool for you to navigate the job search and your career.

So that being said, I hope you enjoy this episode. And if you need to reach me, Taylor at vaco.com is how to get in touch with me old fashioned email social media at tdss and t d e s s e y n. And finally, please rate and review this in the app store because I want this to be discoverable for others so they can navigate their careers. Hope you enjoy the episode. I will give the people what they want. Who are you? What do you do? Cool man. First one say thank you for the kind words man. I feel like You know, you just never know the impact you have on people.

So I appreciate you You know saying that and you've done a lot for me far as you know thinking about content and you know Having guests and like when I do things so So glad to hear that we've mutually inspired each other. Yes, 100%. 100%. But as for me currently, I am a developer advocate at Off-Zero. Basically, Off-Zero handles your login and login for your website. Keeps it secure. And I make content around different topics like web security and how to use Off-Zero with different frameworks or even like different API companies. So it's an educator role and I try to find problems that people are having and try to find ways that I can help either answer that question or help them get over that hump from the problem that they're having.

I love that. And also Will is now a conference speaker. Yeah, at that another bullet point. Yeah, I gave my first talk every at Miami. It was such a great vibe that it didn't feel as intimidating. I feel like if it normally sounds like, hey, I'll give them my first conference talk. They really had it the vibe set to where you wouldn't feel super, super nervous. It was, it was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. You crushed it and you crushed. Thanks. So I, so I want to dive in, man. And there's a lot of ways we can go with this today. I think, you know, talk about community, talk about that.

We're going to give a few people some shout outs. Trey, it's great to see you. Andrew, Michael, Justin, y'all are not lurking this morning. And I appreciate it a ton. I'm a there you go l lcio. I love it. I love it lcio. I love that so much. I appreciate that man So well, let's let's talk about how you got into tech right because because I think I think that's I mean listen That everyone struggles with it. I get it you You know egghead you're a developer advocate right or kind of a dev rel kind of it was a community engineer was the name of the title, but I don't know for a type word.

Talk about how you got an attack and then maybe talk about or talk about your first tech job and then maybe talk about because you weren't necessarily a developer or were you doing developer stuff because it was kind of a different title. You weren't necessarily like a junior developer from the get go. Correct. So, there you go. Sorry. Get the Miami out, man. Yeah, I know. that got to be what it is. So yeah, so I guess the start from the, I'm not very beginning to send my beginning. Basically, I was doing like factory work. I worked at factories for years and like call centers a lot before that.

I was married, had a bunch of kids. I think I had like four kids, I have six now, but I had like four kids. Thanks. It's kind of when I was, you know, trying to think of what I can do better. Like one of the, it was a lot of things that like led up to that moment where I was like, I got to make a change because this isn't working. Right. But one of the things was we wasn't in like the best neighborhood and so with the best schools wasn't available, not even the mediocre schools was available. Sure. And I was looking around to try and rent, just to do something temporarily to move.

And a lot of the people who were renting out the landlords or whatever you wanna call them, they said the required tally was like 60,000 a year, and I was making like 44. And it felt bad. I'm like, dang, I can't even save my family and get them at this bad situation because I don't make enough money. It was like really, I don't know, it was like really hurtful because I felt like they were all trusting me to take care of them and I felt like I wasn't able to do it. So I was like, okay, I gotta do something better. I gotta do something more.

I tried to hold a bunch of stuff. I started a YouTube channel. Me and my wife, we were trying to sell t-shirts on Shopify. Me and her started to clean in business together. A bunch of other things. And eventually through trying all of that, I came across this website where everyone said they were buying web development courses. So I was like, what is web development? I like Google the salaries, seeing how much you pay. I remember telling my wife, I was like, babe, I think that this is like the thing that's when they like get us to another level. And she was like, I believe you.

And about a year and a half of I was doing, you know, tutorials, videos, blogs, going to meetups, posting what I was doing on Twitter, constantly for us, like what I was learning, the book size reading, the courses I was taking, stuff I learned from meetups. I even when people did like workshops here I will volunteer to teach at the workshop I Don't know. I was like doing a lot Just to kind of like be visible because I knew that with a factory background wasn't anybody really going to hire me Sure. So then I then I got the tension of a kid The the founder of a kid me and him like chatted over zoom One time then like so we kept our relationship going like five months later.

He offered me a job So I was doing like rail stuff for them like Ruby on rails right For a little bit, but then kind of my role towards center more towards Doing things for the community of eggs as well as like hosting events and Twitter spaces and Twitter chats and webinars like I did a whole bunch of stuff And then everyone was like yo you should get into developer relations. There's like you pretty much already are a developer advocate And then yes, so I Knew a lot of people worked that off zero. They seem to really love the company Then I applied there and went through there and it would process and it's been about six seven months now And I've I've been there.

I love that so I definitely I definitely want to back up and again I mean that that mean that story is awesome, right? It's like Julie says that hustle resonates with me a hundred percent That's so you mentioned something about starting to document on Twitter, right? So you weren't in tech right you were selling t-shirts you were clean in service factory What made you start posting on Twitter? So that is a really good question Did you just like close your eyes and spun a wheel and You're just like okay Well, no The current like honestly, I don't know why I went to Twitter specifically But before us what got me in that mindset of posting on social media is that Like years ago like you know 10 12 I've been married for 12 years so like 14 years ago, right?

I used to have a dance group and Back then people it was like before the job of wakies and like stuff before like people just dancing was a thing It was like always background people so it was like hard for us to get performances because people would be like Y'all just dance. It was like weird to people like y'all don't want to be background answers. Y'all just want to perform by yourselves So I I ended up Finding ways to get attention of like people who were doing the events like who were bringing like acts here and stuff like that through Facebook so I would like post a video on Facebook and I would like tag every promoter in Kansas City that I knew or I would just hit them up I wouldn't say anything about me I'd be like hey I see you got I'm trying to think of an artist I see you got 112 coming right and most people probably don't know who that is because they had a song in a really long time but I'll be like hey I I said, you got one 12 coming.

How can I help you promote that event? That's what I would ask. I wouldn't say, hey, can we open up for one 12? I wouldn't say, hey, I have a group. I'd say, hey, let me help you promote one 12, right? Or whatever that is gonna be. So we would meet, I would pick up some flyers or whatever. And I would kind of like build a relationship that way. And then they would see that I'm doing other stuff. Like, oh, and then they would hit me up and be like, Hey, well, I'm bringing this XYZ group is y'all want to open up for them and I was like, yeah sure Christina Christina is the one 12.

Okay, Christina. I'm glad somebody's with me So, so yeah, so then how okay, so and again, this is fascinating right? I love this so much So you so you so you got into it Facebook days probably yeah, oh g Facebook like really you can still poke people Yeah, you still poke people. That was a weird thing. I'll get it. And so all that being said, so when it came to the job search, what made you like, were you like, Oh, I'm going to do what I did years ago, and I'm going to apply it to the job search? Yeah, exactly. But I still don't know why I picked Twitter specifically.

Me neither. Like, fascinating. That you had that. Now, did you say that? I'm like, hey, I don't know. But yeah, anyway, yeah, still got those beef and beef and steak case of deans from Miami going. But anyway, but yeah, I started to kind of like do the same thing. I wanted to document my journey to like, I wanted to prove to people that I was serious, that I was learning that I was progressing because I knew that because like if I would go to a meetup and I would say, hey, I'm learning HTML and CSS, right? Like who hasn't said that? No one takes you's cheers, but six months later, you know, I meet at the meetup, they follow me on Twitter, and then six months later, they seen all the stuff I do in that six months, the next time they see me at the meetup, they'd be like, wow, you've really, you know, improved or progressing and things like that.

And here's the deal, right? With me, oh, and by the way, it will if you get to a point where you got to run and get some water, go get some water and I can like run my mouth. So if ever gets that, just feel free to like exit off stage real quick and I'll keep running my mouth. But yeah, but my thing, because like allergies too is a real thing down here in the national right now. And I think that's the thing that I want to bring out to people who are watching this this morning. Right is that I'm not asking you to do more work.

Right? I'm not asking you to go out and do more things and document the new things, I'm asking you to just talk about what you're learning right now, right? And that's what I've bought to me with my job search or with my with my with my career is that I do a lot for people, right? I'm not saying that to Bragg. I'm just saying like recruiters do a lot. The recruiting industry does a lot for people, but we don't document anything. And so people just don't know what we do. I mean, we don't. And then I started to get into content creation two years ago during COVID and everyone's like, you're doing so much stuff and it's like not really like this is literally what I've been doing for the last 10 years I'm just exercising it now.

So I love what you said about if you're on the job search or not even job search if you're just learning to essentially have a place to document everything you're learning. I think it's huge. Yeah yeah it's it's huge and it helps build trust like people would come to me out of time like nothing what that does because you know There's thousands of eyes on social media. It gets your name in places that you're not oh And that's very very important, you know a lot of people be like hey, you know, I was at my Company thing and somebody Brought you up, you know, I'm like what you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly So and then yeah Christina comes in Twitter has been great especially with certain hashtags 100 days of code Cody newbie black tech Twitter women code.

Absolutely. I think, you know, a lot of people ask like Twitter etiquette. I went overload hashtags with Twitter etiquette, but I would follow and research some hashtags that have a crazy big community. And then kind of lean into that from time to time. So Christina, great point there. So all right, so what I want to recap for the people. All right, factory worker slash entrepreneur. All that stuff. Yeah. Made the conscious effort to start documenting what you were learning on Twitter. What type of meetup like talk about the meetups and getting involved in meetups. What were your thought process there? Well, um, kind of like I said earlier, I knew that on my own that wasn't anyone going to beat down my door with my resume.

I remember even one recruiter, he was like, I sent him a resume, he was like, doesn't look like a tech resume, this looks like a factory resume, right? Which is true, wasn't the best thing I wanted to hear, but it was true. So I kind of knew that whether I read it somewhere or was this instinctually that, I knew that in order for me to get past those gatekeepers, I've been talking all night. This episode is brought to you by allergies. They need to be like a Zertak commercial. I need some halls or something. I know. But anyway, I knew that I needed like people to help me get past those gatekeepers.

Yes. I knew that me putting in a resume really wasn't going to help. So I went to meet us just in order to meet people and learn about the industry, learn what I should be learning, what companies are willing to hire juniors and things like that. And just to see where I can help out, that's why I end up doing this thing called Coder Dojo is where they teach kids how to code on the weekends. So I got involved with that. So I just tried to find out as much as I can about the industry here locally, even though I never had a tech job in Kansas City, but it was still helpful to learn the landscape and I end up getting a lot of help from a lot of those people too like a lot of them were like mentors with me One of them invited me to their job so I can learn about get and get hub because that's really confused the mess out of me And just like all I've learned so much even One person worked for a fairly big company and they were We're looking for like someone to do like freelance type, they didn't want to hire someone.

They just wanted someone to like temporarily do like HTML and CSS design for a new product they were coming out with. And he was like, yeah, he was like, and it was funny because you know, back then I wasn't making that much money. And he was like, he was like, yeah, it pays like $30 an hour. He's like, but I wouldn't negotiate. See if I can get you more. And I'm like, What? That is great. But sure. Well, and I think it's so big and I want to highlight something you said and I talk about this a lot, right? Because we are in a global economy now or remote economy, whatever word you want to say, remote first global virtual, whatever.

Yeah. I still think it's important to stay tied to your community. Yeah. And I'm saying that to myself too, right? Like one thing I'm trying to do is I'm trying to bring more guidance counselor 2.0 meetups locally, be on the lookout, people from Nashville. It's coming, I promise. And really lean into the local community because I think you need to keep meeting people nationally, but you need to build relationships where you live. Maybe at the end of the day. And because the thing is, is that it's like you said, you were given a lot of opportunities, even locally from people, but you probably wouldn't have had if you just like tried to connect with everybody nationally, right?

Yeah. And so that's such an incredibly important piece of information that I want to highlight to everybody. So all right, so getting gotten involved in meetups, coder dojo, you know, documenting on Twitter, right? How did you find the egghead opportunity? Was it over Twitter? Yeah, it was through Twitter and it was the most unexpected thing ever. Which we made it even fun. The timing was perfect. I wish this was a movie. The scene would have been great. But basically, yeah. So a week, so this is the more important. I was applying that job. I got a few interviews. A lot of them get in turn down.

Then I came across a program called Launch Code. I was like, OK, maybe this self-taught thing isn't going. Maybe I need to do Launch Code. At the end of Launch Code, you do an apprenticeship. So I was like, that's a guarantee way for me to get in and show what I'm doing. So I decided to apply for Launch Code. I ended up getting accepted. But I think on Monday, it started at like 6.30. And I was getting off at like 7.30, I think. I was working in 12 hours just. So you were 12 hours. Yeah. Overnight. Yeah. And then rolling in. To code it. Yeah.

I was desperate. I was to you. So I had negotiated with some of my team mates to basically it was like three other people that worked the opposite shit. And they were like, we'll cover like two hours for it, if you cover two hours for us. So nothing would change, right? They would still get the work that they needed and everyone was cool with it. But the manager, the portal was like, no, I can't do that. I don't make the rules and all this type of stuff. But it's like, you literally do make the rules, but whatever. And so that was like last Monday, then when I was off over the weekend, I ended up getting a DM from the founder of A.K.

at Joel. And he was like, would you like to come work for us? Like of course, you know what I'm saying? So now it was like the greatest feeling ever to come back that next Monday and to be like, you know, I'm putting in my two weeks. And the look on his face was like, you know, I don't know. He's like, you know, I'm not like a mean person or anything like that. But it was like satisfying to see, because you know, they put me through a lot doing those years there. So to see his, his jaw dropped that I got something I wanted instead of something that, that he wanted he didn't get the flex's power was, it felt really good.

I love that. I love that. So, all right. So that happens. Talk about then kind of your movement from egg head to off zero. How did that happen? Was it a job posting? Was it a recruiter? Was it through Twitter? I mean, talk about that job. So the job was through with off zero was, so I think like January of that year, I was just kind of letting people know that I was potentially going to be looking for something else. So I said, hey, what should I learn and stuff like that? and people were like, oh, learn like react and maybe a little bit of know and stuff like that.

So I kind of like let people know that it was coming and then I have applied at a couple companies, cause I'm not gonna lie, all zero had a job out but I was intimidated by it, right? Like Sam, yeah, Sam Julian worked there, James Quick worked there, Tyler Clark, these are like, Thank you crew. Yeah, like a prolific content creators and very, very, very smart international speakers. I was like super intimidated. I was like, you know, that team? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know about that one. But I ended up getting, I ended up not getting a job at this other particular company. And I had made like all the way to the end and they decided to go with another candidate.

And I remember communicating that with James and he was like, well, all zero's about to have a roll up. I was, I could, you know, refer you. I was like, man, I don't know about all Z and K. James. But he was like, no, man. He was like, you got what it takes and everything like that. So it wasn't even like special favors. I put in the interview. I went through the whole interview process. And they just end up being impressed with what I was doing. But yeah, it came through like a I could have I feel like I could have applied regularly. But James having that relationship with James kind of gave me English and where did you make a room for those of the people who are watching where did you make a relationship with James quit through Twitter So let me ask you this and now that again you have the mic there's no wrong answers here.

Yeah, do you think? That people should spend an absurdly more amount of time Networking on Twitter LinkedIn whatever Then applying cold applying their resume Yeah, 1000. I know that seems like a stupid question, but no, because I know some people, you know, they say I've I've applied to 500 companies and stuff like that. But when you network and build relationships, you can take that 500 down to 10 and have a much higher success rate. Yes, 100%. And I feel like again, no one's talking about this, right? This is why I try to talk about all the time, I feel like nobody is sitting there or standing or whatever and talking specifically about how to navigate the job search.

I feel like we're all just sitting here just doing a bunch of group think the same thing, quick apply, quick apply, quick apply, easy apply, and people get so frustrated and burn out and then they wonder why what's happening. Yeah, yeah. And one thing that, because I hear a lot of people on YouTube comments mainly just talking about how, oh, this is a, you're scamming people or whatever. It's crazy how people always go to the negative. But you have to look at, when we're applying to these jobs, these are like billion dollar companies, they have all these processes and stuff like that. Hiring somebody is a risk.

So interviews is almost like a risk assessment, right? And if they hire the wrong person, they can get in trouble. They could lose their bonus. Now they're not going to Jamaica with their significant other now because they hired the wrong person, right? So there's a, even though it may seem like they're being too picky, there are things, you know, riding on it and just the reality of it. So you want to do things that's going to make you look less risky and having someone who's been working there for five years say, Hey, I trust this person is going to lower your risk level than someone who blindly uploaded their resume to Indeed or something like that.

I love that. I love that. So, well, as we wrap up here last two or three minutes, I want you to encourage some people. Let's talk real quick about speaking. All right. You know, you crushed your presentation this past weekend in Miami. You know, I'm sure it took a lot to get that together and to get over that hump. What's your suggestions to people about speaking about getting involved? I know it's kind of the same meeting people like it meetups and stuff, but why would you recommend people to put themselves out there and actually speak at these things? That's a great question. Probably the same reason I say from like Twitter and content creation, you become a magnet.

People come to you. If you speak at a meetup or a conference, you don't have to go up and introduce yourself or kind of figure out who who cannot talk to people will come to you to ask you more questions and things like that. And that's a great way to start off a relationship because it kind of talks about what I talked about earlier with the whole helping people promote the parties thing because you're helping them. You start off with your relationship in a helpful manner. And that's probably the greatest way to start off any relationship with you helping someone. Yeah, I also too, and I'm sure you can test this.

If you write a talk or you speak in public, you learn more about that topic than you ever thought you would. Yes, for sure. Like you definitely absorb it. And I will tell you this, if those of you who are watching this and you want to get involved speaking, hit up your meetups, right? Go to meetup.com. I think I tweeted this this morning, meetup.com. I didn't know about meetup.com until I was a recruiter. Go to meetup.com, search your area. And I will tell you this after running a meetup and being a part of other meetups, meetups always need speakers always. And here's the deal. You could be, this could be your first time and you could literally like shit the bed and people won't care.

They just don't. I mean, I hate to be honest with you, like Will could have gone up there and just fumbled over everything he didn't. But he could have and you know what, people would have just been glad that he was up there and people would have been like, people still would have like gotten behind them. I think that is one of the cool things about tech community. There's a lot of support, especially when it comes to conferences. And so you start to become a subject matter expert and you also get to meet a ton of new people. So just FYI there. Well, we're out of time, but last words of wisdom.

Do you have any words of wisdom to hiring managers, job seekers, anybody right now? Let me know if you have any nuggets, any nuggets at all. I mean, you know, I'd say just look for ways to help. I don't have like a good piffy quote, but in general, just look for ways to help. If you can go into your mindset with every person that you meet and every interaction with your have is, like how can I help this other person get what they want? you'll never have the issue finding a job ever again. I love that. That was great. That was fire. Cool. All right, y'all.

Well, thanks for tuning in. We'll stay on as we end it just so I can say bye to you. Thanks again for everybody hanging out. We have a lot of people this morning. I appreciate it. Go connect with Will. All y'all need to connect with each other. Again, this is a networking platform. Will Will and I are finally waking up. We're dancing now. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter. Thanks again for hanging out this morning again. One more time. Will's gonna be there. I'm gonna be there. Render ATL, check it out. It's going to be amazing. And y'all have a great Monday and we will see y'all tomorrow.

Oh, tomorrow. Fun little episode tomorrow. I have my financial advisor coming on and we're gonna talk about RSUs, stock options, vesting, and other financial terminology I have no idea about. So it's gonna be good. You won't wanna miss it. Y'all have a great one. I'll see you have tomorrow. Peace. Hey, you did it. You listened to an entire episode, and I am very grateful, because you know why? There's a lot of podcasts out there. There's a lot of episodes, and I myself rarely finish an entire episode, so I appreciate you so, so much for listening. Quick reminder, please rate and review this podcast in the App Store.

I want this to be discoverable to others, and the only way that happens is if you take the time right now and rate and review it. Please, like, right now. unless you're driving, then don't do it. So thank you again. If you need to reach out to me, Taylor at Vaco.com or at T-Dastin on all social media handles. And I hope you have a fantastic day.