we back w/clark sell

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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. And 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 tdsntdesuyn. 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. We might as well dive into it today. That's interesting. This is very interesting because I didn't know it needed to be recovered. Yeah. What do you think? I think there is a gigantic amount of opportunity. People can't fill roles and I think there are.

I don't think we know how to connect one another. I think there's some pricing issues going on. I think there are some expectation issues going on. But lack of work, I don't know that that's the case by these drugs. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I tell you this, I mean, listen, you're not going to see in the news positives when it comes to hiring, right? Everything's doom and gloom because that's what clicks and that's what does all that. And so I'll tell you this, Ivan, the market is still good. I'm here to tell you it is still good. I don't. I've been doing this 25.

Jesus, 25 years. You're old. I am old and I don't I can't say that there was ever a time where there was something That you you couldn't go get I mean we have a shortage of people coming in the tech. Yeah, I mean, yeah It's still it this the the problem with people coming to tech has not changed. There's still a deficit. Oh, yeah It's just unfortunately big tech has just taken up the headlines I think it has and I think a lot of people I think a lot of people associate tech is with you know Facebook Amazon Microsoft Apple yeah Google and they forget that that is such a small small segment of everything that is going on yeah and we often forget that like that this is a global play like I worked for a of Bulgarian company.

And it was some of the best years I've ever had in my professional career. So while we get the United States people get outsourced or get have to compete with the global market, it goes the other way too. So it's an interesting question. Yeah, for sure. Melinda comes in, any recommendations for virtual tech conferences? Well, there's a virtual platform called that that us. I mean, there's this thing. Well, we'll talk talk talk about that talk about that. You know, you said something interesting when we started actually before we get in this question, because it's the new year and you didn't give me a chance to like you just went right into the the whole list of shit here.

I want to give you a little gratitude. I want I want to just say thank you to you on behalf of everybody who shows up and those who haven't even come yet and and mama. because you are an authentic person trying to do the right thing. And I think you, like I at times, battle a perception of who we are where what we're doing is not being authentic. And you are very much, and we've had plenty of conversations off air. And so just, you know, nice job on you being you and doing the right thing. So I appreciate that. So virtual tech conferences, no screw this.

If you all agree with me in the comments, go say it, right? So New Year, tell Tyler he's kicking ass. Virtual tech conferences, I think there's a lot of burnout right now. I think a lot of people got burned, organizers in particular. I know that we don't really have a conference like that us is meant to be a support facility. You said you want to be a place where people can network, right? And I want to be a place where people can get authentic support, right? Be able to get on a screen, screen share, talk about shit that needs context because a lot of our job context matters.

It's cool. Yeah, that's the way the resolve a promise. But now we need to ask the hard questions. And so that thought us as is that and we're gonna you're gonna see some hopefully big changes coming. But I don't know I would say unless you're in a place where you physically can't get to something, man, I'd be looking for some local folks, local meetups. I'd look to get out in person. I'd look to go to a conference. I mean, I will tell you this. I mean, I don't want to speak across the board, but most conferences, I think, have gone away with the virtual I know Magnolia JS with Kayla, she did a great job of it's a single track.

Everybody's in the same room. It's a little easy for her to broadcast live. And that was good. But, you know, one thing I've seen that Melina is most conferences are going away. It's so hard. It's so hard. Listen, it's hard enough running a in person conference, let alone the virtual streaming side of it too. Yes. And like for us, my always, my thing is engagement. Like it doesn't really matter how many people are really there. No, it matters to some folks, but, um, but being engaged, um, I think, um, man, I think that there's just, I think there are things you can do in person.

And there are things you can do online in too many times. People are trying to make it the same thing and it's not and we just have to stop so Said momentum didn't even try to do anything virtually right When we did stuff virtually we were doing open spaces and then everybody was confused Who's they're like I just want to recording and I want to do this and I'm like that it's no that it's no value like right Go go to YouTube and go get your own recording like what? This is the thing that adds value right how do we have the conversation? So yeah, I mean again, I mean Malina I'll tell you this you know if you're having a promise-finding virtual thing I would just start a virtual thing like this and start just inviting people to chat with you and literally it doesn't have to be a thing All this is a stream yard.

I know I have a mic and Clark has a mic. I started with no mic and headphones like I'm dreaming. Listen people in tech and I'll tell you this if you're looking Yeah, I hear you too. I know it really want to go in person's difficult with two kids under three I, right? That's why we're at a family conference. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, that, yeah. And that, that conference, I do have to say, you know, Melina, I look into it maybe with, you know, July, you know, for, for that conference up in Wisconsin, but Clark does a really, really good job of making it a family inclusive event, which is incredibly important.

But yeah, Melina, I'm really glad you stream on Twitch. Again, I mean, I think, I think you can do a ton of damage. I mean good damage virtually like this like like you can meet I like this is this is You can verify by the way. Yeah, yeah, good damage. This is this is year three of guidance counselor 2.0 So like for me, yeah, you started the pandemic too. I did. We're hitting that same kind of reflection point of that that us right? That's when we hit delete and redid everything and there's a lot of like But if we've done wrong, where do we go?

Especially this year, it's kind of like, what does, and I'm sure you're having the same questions, like what does it mean? What is the wording now? What is in this world that we live in? Where's our value add? Yeah, absolutely. But Molina, I appreciate you asking questions. And obviously, Naranda and Brett, thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it. Yeah, $10 a lot of Mike doesn't have to be. Does not have to be overly fancy. So Clark, what else is on your brain, man? We got we got 17 minutes. 17, you're on a tight ship. I know I do. I got. Can't even get in a conversation with 17 minutes.

I'm going to double back on the conversation that we're having. And I just want to. I want to encourage people that, you know, online, your online life and your in-person life, they're they're not equal. I would encourage people to build deep relationships, not that having a thousand people follow you doesn't feel good at times and getting the likes and all that, but I think you could do a hell of a lot more with some deeper relationships. And we're at this inflection point right now where not everybody's stepping out. And so I'm seeing like you and I are gonna be at that conference in a couple weeks and we're gonna have a reduced audience, not because I wanted to be because that's the fact of life, but that reduced audience, the people that are there will have a stronger bond, then we could have had if there were 1500 people there and that is going to pay dividends for years to come.

not for any other reason than there was an opportunity to make a lasting deep connection where you're in person and things just are different. So whether it's your local user group, this is the other thing that kills me. Local user groups are dying, conferences like me are dying because cost has gone one way, People aren't, the companies aren't paying for training, whatever it is, but the community aspect of it is like almost over corrected so far online, right? And got fragmented. So you think we're two online, heavy? No, I think we've gone to where it's like, we can do everything online when you can't. It's like everything can be react.

No, it can't. You got our jQuery in there every once in a while. Well, and so here's the other piece of that, right? Like I I've been having troubles with the Macedon thing. And then somebody was like, it's the HOA of social media. And I was like, oh, right. This is the problem that I've I've been having with online is instead of us having and I'm not saying Twitter or whatever is the best place. They're all dumb surfires. But what's happening is we're getting little echo chambers all over the place. And that's like the anti-community because now it gets harder to be found and to be in a conversation.

And somebody tell me, yeah, you can do it this way. And that's what, yeah. But at scale, when you step back, I don't know, man, I'm scared. Like, I'm scared when I see things closing up. And I'm scared when I see things splitting and I don't. Yeah, it'll hurt itself at some point, but I don't know. Fuck somebody's got to be like a voice or reason and say, look, y'all, we got to come together and be one. Yeah. No, I agree with that. I think and then Emily, you are definitely not badgering the stream. I, I, I, I love when people comment. That's the whole point of this.

Um, you know, for me, you know, I do agree. I think, you know, in full transparency, like I have found myself getting anxiety leaving the house. Right? I mean, you know, I mean, yeah, yeah, I mean, I listen, you know, if we're, if we're being totally honest here, you know, what you said about your online life, your in person life, like people probably think I'm the most type a, be like, sunshiny guy, but to be honest with you, like I'm not like this. I am a lot of times mopey. You can ask my wife that, you know, but I'm really good and short burst. And I would, and that's why I really try to be authentic as possible and talk about what I'm dealing with burnout and talk about when I'm dealing with just general anxiety.

But to be honest, I'm a high anxiety guy, you know, in counseling, both marriage counseling and personal counseling, you know, I deal with a lot of, you know, control issues and, you know, that's just a lot of what I deal with. And so again, I mean, for me, I think, you know, but what I've noticed is when I can get out in the tech community, you know, when I can get to a render, when I can get to that conference and I can get to a momentum, whatever, it makes me feel whole. I mean, it really does. To be able to take the online world that you and I have been able to build over the last two years, It just, it definitely helps a ton.

Well, I keep every, I don't get out as much as I'd like cause I'm so involved with that conference, but I would tell you I end up going into every one of these burnt out, asking why I do this. What's the point in life? What's my impact on society? And then I go and, you know, I'm shitting a brick right now about what's in front of us. And, but I know I'll leave and I'll feel like you said, whole is a good way to put it. Yeah. Hopefully it's enough fuel to, you know, go for the next whatever duration of time before I get back in that slump again.

But yeah. I understand. So, so I do want to talk kind of changing, changing gears a little bit just because of your background. And again, anytime I talk to somebody who's kind of worked nine to five and kind of gone on their own as an entrepreneur. I wanted to see, I want to see your advice for people. You know, if people are thinking about going out on their own this year to start something, what's your biggest piece of advice there for them? Well, my biggest piece of advice is don't solicit advice. My biggest piece of thing there would be solicit other people's experiences and ask how they've done certain situations and gather as much evidence, if you will, to compose your own story.

We do live in a world or at least in an industry where like a computer and a microphone and all that, right, we can make an app or podcast, right, your startup cost is negligible. But patience is hard. You know, anybody who, God, it's taken me seven years to even want to call myself an entrepreneur. And anytime I say that, it shivers up my spine. And I think you'll see a lot of sexy and you'll see a lot of lies online. You'll see the highlight reel. You won't see the countless hours or the panic attacks or the loss of money or the capital that's gone into something.

They're the journey of like, how do you, how do you do all of this stuff? Because it is a business, right? There's, well, I mean, as things grow, right? It becomes a business. You have taxes, you need all the bullshit that goes along with it. So, and, you know, these things things they glorified, and I would say, look, entrepreneurship isn't for everybody either. And that's okay. Like I need awesome individuals who can stand out and be a thing, right, without them necessarily wanting to worry about P&Ls and all the paychecks and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, fail fast. If it's something you want to really do, ask people, get their, get their opinions, get their, um, Well, and to be, and to be honest with you, I just feel like you can actually, you know, talking about the highlight reel, talking about social media.

I feel like you can really cut through the noise. If you're like, Hey, listen, like I made a huge mistake. Yeah. Like I messed up and kids, because that, because, you know, I think, you know, going back to content and social media, the tick, Tocification of everything that's happened right like Instagram Again kind of the the shift Instagram originally was like pictures and it's pretty and everybody wanted their There are you know grid to look like an art gallery and then tiktok came along and actually the algorithm AKA the users they actually liked the out of the phone feel like hey I'm gonna open up my phone.

I'm gonna talk to you and I feel like now Now there is still the highlight real. I mean, again, like, you know, if you, I'm very well aware, if you look at my stuff, it's like he's traveling everywhere. He's getting promotions. He, everything's great. But I mean, listen, I mean, I've made tons of mistakes and I've probably dealt with more imposters and German anxiety last two years of my life. And people just, people just don't see that. People just don't see that. Right. Right. That shit's hard. Yeah. And, and at least the mental health issues, at least the weight gain. I mean, at least the weight gain for me.

And I ran three years ago, I ran every day for 366 days of the year. Are you serious? Every day I put on a strapped on a pair of shoes and I went running. It was terrible. At least there was at least a mile. There was one day where I had to run a half mile because my foot swelled up like nobody's business. And I was like, I'm not breaking no guy out there. No one out there and hobbled my ass half mile. But last week I ran 50 some odd miles with the last day I ran half marathon. I'm not a runner. Okay. Since that time, right?

Business got hard, right? The pandemic came. Paychecks got to be made. All, all of the things kind of came. And I went from my pretty sexy 215 to now I'm freaking 280. And I've, well, I also broke my shoulder snowboarding and There's a whole bunch of other things that kind of happened in there too. But like, there's been a whole bunch of factors in life and business doesn't give a shit, right? They don't care. I mean, they expect like conference business, right? Did the bug matter? Nope. Came right in and just bitch slapped everybody and said, this is what we're going to do. Is the community, right?

I can sit here as a business owner and say, is the community supporting local user groups and conferences in this by helping get the word out and this and that? That scale, not really. There are some, but those are kind of the things you have to deal with when you say, okay, well, I'm gonna take on a business, that means you get to take on the highlight reel and you get to take on the janitorial shit stuff that sits there too. And it's not for everybody. Yeah, yeah. And it's only time, like you mentioned, like I used to work for the big dogs, right? And now I work for myself and maybe in five years, something else changes, I don't know.

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's just, you know, and also to kind of going back, circling back to our initial conversation about conferences and virtual and in-person, I'll tell you this, there is probably more of a need right now, at least in my two cents than ever, for people to have the chance to go get super involved in their local market and really cut through the noise. There is more of a need right now for people to just come together and help one another. This, everything has gotten so hypersensitive that everybody's afraid to say something or help or do this for fear of all this other stuff going on.

And for some people, and it may not seem like it, It's crippling and it's crippling because, okay, you and I, we have a mic, we're talking and we're being loud, but there's the opposite spectrum of people like us who don't even know how to engage because they're already scared of the things that have happened. And now they're just like, well, shit, if I step in, my fear of judgment, my fear of this, what if I'm wrong? That's a terrible place to be. And we as a community of people, If you want this industry to be something else, you need to start opening up the arms and hugging a little bit more, and inviting people versus like, like how many times have you seen a developer shit all over somebody else who's like, why did you do it that way?

Why does it doesn't work? What about this? And it's like, how is that helpful? Well, I've always said, I said, I think tech Twitter for a community that wants to promote diversity, inclusion of thought individuals are probably the most judgmental community that I've seen on Twitter. Yep. I mean, it is unbelievable. And, and, and, and, and I think, you know, what I've realized early on in my career is people just need a cheerleader. That's it. People just need a cheerleader. And that's, and that's, and that's what I try to be to people. Like I can't help everybody, but I can say, Hey, you got this.

It's gonna be okay. You know how many every week there's a week, boy, we're getting deep brother. Every week I get somebody who sends me a scathing ass email telling me about how I shouldn't be in Texas and that you know every week. Whether it's you're killing people because of COVID or the trans community is unsafe or whatever. Right? And I'm like, you need to separate our politics in the country versus the people that live there, right? And it doesn't matter what state it is, there are issues, right? And there are people like you in those states. And believe it or not, when you land in one of these states, there's not people with machine guns, like shooting you, there's not bodies all over.

So like how you just got to like start supporting one another. Like I did. That's all you're trying to do. You're in a call for free. Like get rid of the fucking politics and just see that you have a gift that you can take these little numbers and the keyboard and you can do shit at scale with computers somewhere. We don't even have them in our houses anymore, right? So use that fucking gift and make one another better. Yeah. 100%. on a pedestal brother man, I am amped up. I love it. Oh, I not have you amped up. We need to amp you back down any final thoughts and final thoughts, anything else you want to say as you wrap it up here.

I'm gonna take I'm gonna take Becky's comment, throw that thing up in the window. I don't think I have. So here's what I would say. You're always a new developer. I've been doing is 25 years, new framework after new framework after new framework after new this after changes of this after hindsight being by the way we can't say hindsight's 2020 anymore because that was a really bad year. Hindsight's 1999. It's good. Imposter syndrome comes and goes like it depends on where you are at the given point in time and judgment is what I've come to find out while you hang on it. You got to find people who will support you because the judgment's never going to stop either.

And so not easy to hear, but like go find your tribe. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I mean, Becky, you know, for those of you who listen to this in the future, Becky said, you know, I felt that on the fear of judgment while still a new developer, this struggle with imposter syndrome on top of that doesn't help. I mean, Becky, again, I mean, for me being, again, totally vulnerable and transparent I mean, I probably dealt with impostor syndrome that most ever had last years in my career because there's been just so much growth And I'll tell you this looking back on it now kind of coming out of the last two years reason why there's so much impostor syndrome is because there's so much growth Well, and I'm sitting here right there right now scared to death as the what impact I'm making on our On our community and whether or not that conference is the right thing for the people that are out there, right?

right? Yeah. Absolutely. And you may think that it's all these things, but man, I'm over here shitting my pants. So there you go. Keep it real. Keep it real. I love it. Well, guys, guys and gals, I appreciate y'all hanging out with Clark and I today. Clark, I appreciate your friendship, man. Again, if you are, again, if you want to go to that conference, hit up Clark. Um, we again, he has a discount. Um, so go check that out. Conference Chiqueres is open for Wisconsin. Yeah, we'll get it. Just open up the Wisconsin one. So if you're interested in speaking, submit there. But y'all have a great one.

And we will see all tomorrow. Tamara Brandon, bear on from flight control. Um, and he is, we're going to talk about actually how to write job descriptions and how to, um, have a good interviewing process. So it sounds like more than a 17 minute conversation. Yeah, ours actually went 31 minutes. Oh, okay, I feel I'm happy that. All right, y'all have a good one. Y'all have a good one. Take it easy. See y'all. 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 finished 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 Dustin on all social media handles. And I hope you have a fantastic day.