counselor 2.0 w_danny thompson (@dthompsondev)

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There you go. Everybody, I'm extremely, extremely excited to have my dear friend Danny Thompson, D Thompson Dev on the show. Danny, what's going on, big dog? What's going on, y'all? I'm very happy to be here with my buddy Tay. We go way back now at this point. We've been talking nonstop and I'm just happy to be here to answer some questions. Hopefully help some people. Yeah, absolutely. Y'all add us, Kamen, as you know the drill, no lurkers on this Friday. None of them. You say hey, you tell us where you're tuning in from. The reason why we do this, like I say, time and time again, is this is a platform to network.

And here we go, Brandon Arvey, what's going on? Oscar, what is happening? Casey? Oh snap, it's Dano. Dano's in the house. Herbert, what's going on, man? Hey, again, Herbert, congratulations on graduating, man. Great video the other day, by the way. Heo, what's going on? LinkedIn user, I can't see you, but hello. but hello, Chris, Chris, key shore, what's going on? John, what's up? Danny, Elliot's in the house. Good morning, Tiffany. Good morning from Maryland. How many Dan Thompson's do you know? I only know two, and it was very confusing when Danny Thompson came on unicorn finders. I will tell you that much. Shawna, what's going on?

Good morning, good morning. Arvin, hi Danny, hi Taylor. Glad to see you both. Yes, listen, I'll tell you this. Danny is booked, And I met, that message, Dan, I said, Danny, like, how many hugs do I need to give you for you just to hang out with me for 30 minutes. And Danny goes, I got you. Two days later, Danny and I are live. So very, very excited for that. Brian, what's going on from Bama? Yes, it's a tag team, DT. I think that's a wrestling move. Jason, what's going on? Good morning. There we go, there we go. What's going on? Cathy, big time on fire with Danny.

Yes, it's gonna be great. Andrew, what's up? I'm dual what's up for us, what's going on. Hi Danny, coming from Twitter, I love it, I love it. Garrett, what's going on, good morning. Thanks for all your content Danny. Yeah, Danny's an absolute rock star. I model a lot of my stuff after Danny. Well, let's go ahead and get started because Danny's busy, I'm busy and we're all busy and we gotta get to work and we can't talk for six hours like we probably need to. So again, thank you all for tuning in, guidance counselor 2.0, this wonderful Friday morning. I'm so jacked up on 12 cups of coffee.

And I have a 12 cups of coffee individual, Danny Thompson on the show. So for those of you who, this show is new to you, guidance counselor 2.0, real quick overview where it came from. This came from COVID. Basically I talked to so many engineers who felt like they were on Island. They were scared. They didn't know where to turn to. And I was like, you know what? I want a platform to allow people to engage, to allow people to learn something in 15 minutes or so. And so that's what this is created for. So the reason why I tell people to comment to let me know your tune in from.

So that way everybody commented and slide into everybody else's DM. And so y'all can network again. This is this is what it's all about yesterday. I found out that three individuals were all kind of, we all had similar interests because of this platform, right? So again, comment, let me know your tune in from real quick. I want to give a special shout out to my sponsor, made South meals, made South meals. So if you struggle with eating healthy, like I do sometimes, especially during the week there at Basin Nashville. And if you're crazy busy during the week, this is a great opportunity for you to eat good, eat healthy.

So check out my buddy Alex Blue, madeSouthmeals.com. It's only Nashville specific right now, but I'm going to make him expand global because of the interest that he's had. So and then Brandon Arvey, Brandon 78, who does all my content, appreciate you a ton. Check him out. If you want to get into content creation on a lower budget, that is what I'm going to where he kind of plays. So check out Brandon Arvey in Brandon 78 and shout out to my crew, Alex Poular, Bianca Hals, Noah Allen and Justin Cade on Instagram. All right, y'all, let's go ahead and dive in. Danny, enough with me running my dang mouth again.

Sorry about all that intro. Talk to me, tell the people who you are, what you do, and I also want to hear your story. I think your story is fascinating, so take it away, Big Dog. Yeah, so we'll go just a quick overview, because I really want to spend a lot of time on the meat of this discussion today, in my opinion. But for me, for over 10 years of my life, I worked in gas stations, frying chicken, ringing up customers. And at 30 years old, I said, something's got to change, and I just don't know what it is. But I got to make a change at this point in my life.

And it was at that point where I started learning how to code. And everything transformed after that, right? I got on free code camp.org, started making creation, started making code and I went to my very first meetup, right? And I remember going to that meetup. At that time in my life, I literally said, okay, like I know HTML, CSS, like I made a very simple application that you enter the URL of an image and it returns an image with like some coloring on top. It was like Instagram's worst nightmare, like a bad, that filter application, but that's what I created, right? And I went to this meetup thinking, I know everything that needs to be known about tech, I thought the world began and ended that JavaScript.

And I quickly realized I was wrong as hell, right? I walk into that meetup and I quickly realized that I don't know anything. I didn't know any, they were saying like foreign languages to me, they were talking about Java C sharp SQL. I didn't know none of it. And because I knew nothing that of what they were talking about, I couldn't participate in the conversations. And it was at that moment that I realized that I will never be excluded again. So I went home and started learning. I started studying. I started learning more and started learning about JavaScript. I went to that next meetup saying, hey do you know about ESX functions?

Do you know how to do this? And then I went to that next meetup and I started setting my mind when I started learning about SQL. Onto that next me, like, you know what the SQL Table is? Do you know how to do SQL query? I went home and started learning more started on my Java, and I went to the next me. Like, you know my Spring Lamb , you guys have this and now I've made sure I've never been excluded again. And they literally took me into this group and I'm surrounded by these amazing people that just want to help out as many people as they can and learning how to code.

It's an amazing community. And it was at that moment that I asked the one question that everybody asked when they go to an event or a meetup. How do I get that first job in tech? And I heard the exact same answer over and over again, like a broken record. Oh man, that first job, whoa, that's the hardest job. But if you get that first job, every job after that will become easier. For someone like me, that is the worst answer you could ever tell me. Because not only did you demotivate and demoralize me and made me question what I've been learning for the last six months, you've given me zero action items.

I have no way to get from A to B from X to Y. You've given me nothing. And it was at that moment that I realized I have to figure this out. And I realized then also all the other beginners that were at this meetup were asking the same question, getting the same answer. So, I realized something. I found LinkedIn. And I'm still working at this gas station and I realized I want to get a job in tech. I want to help other people get jobs in tech. But I have no way for them to have a reason or purpose to have a conversation with.

And so I said also, how can I showcase developers at a meetup in a way that it's more enticing for a hiring manager to even care? And so what I started doing was I was taking all these pictures at these meetups and of like projects people were making and group work together and the pair programming sessions and I was sharing it on LinkedIn. And over time, people started paying attention. Now I started with zero views, zero followers, zero, zero, zero. Like nobody paid attention. But as I kept posting, slowly I'd get a few here, get a couple of views here. And then one thing that I realized is, well, at least I was telling myself, nobody wants to talk to the chicken guy, right?

Like how am I gonna get these hiring managers to even pay attention to me? Because I don't have a degree. I don't come from a five-star background or I don't come from a privileged upbringing. How will they ever have a reason to pay attention to me? And I was like eating myself alive like all this imposter syndrome to even talk to me. And this is when I realized something. How many opportunities in life have I lost? Because I didn't say, I'm interested. I think I could do that. How many times was I even passed up in promotions? Because I didn't tell my boss like, oh, I could do that.

How many times has someone below me gone to a position above me? because I didn't say that I was interested, I was capable and I had the abilities. So one thing I realized in that moment, these hiring managers will never know I exist. The chances of them walking in my gas station, these are Fortune 500 company people, right? The chances of them walking in my gas station, seeing me wearing apron and having chicken batter on my hands was zero, right? They will never walk in here. So the only way that they will know I exist is if I talk with them, if I message them, if I create that genuine connection.

And so what I ended up doing was I started DMing them and I started messaging them. Nine times out of 10 on LinkedIn, you could see who posted the job ads. And if you can't see, you can research that company and find the hiring managers. And I would literally say, hey, I see that you posted this job ad. Here are three reasons why you and I need have a conversation A, B, and C. I'd give them a list and I say, I look forward to talk with you. If they don't like it, they moved on. I'm in the same position I was in before, right?

Worst case scenario, they say no. Best case scenario, they say yes. Or at the very least, you have the opportunity to now show them how valuable you really are. One conversation can change the trajectory of your career. So opening that door to be everything. I take the words out of my mouth, Danny. One conversation, that's all it is. That's all it is. Sorry, keep going. No, no, no. So I honestly just started messaging them. And for a lot of them at that time, I had no experience. I didn't have a background. I didn't have the things that they needed. And it was a big deterrent for them.

But what's funny is in the beginning, they're like, who the hell is this Danny guy? And I'm like, I knew Danny from the beginning. I love Danny. I know Danny. But what's funny is it only started happening when I started reaching out, because here's the one key thing. One hiring manager knows another hiring manager. A lot of times they got to lunch together, they talk together, they're in chats together, and Slack channels together, and then Discord channels together, they talk. And if you tick off at least one box somewhere, when they have a conversation with somebody else, they may say, oh, you know, I'm looking for a Python guy.

Like, oh, I just talked to a chair this morning, and chair said that he's great at Python. Maybe I should connect you to them, because you opened your mouth and said you were interested, someone recognized that, and they came back and recommended you to somebody else. But not only that, the biggest difference when it comes to using LinkedIn, for example, is the fact that I no longer gate-kicked or held back by the ATS software. ATS is the automatic tracking software. If you do not formulate your resumes to match a job ad in a certain way, nine times out of 10, If you're not matching enough key metrics, no human sees it.

And so now, like I can work hard to make sure that I make this look the way that I wanted to look, but guess what? If it doesn't look that way, no one's seeing it. So let's say they look for 34 key metrics and you only match 24. Let's say their threshold on the percentage is 80%. You're not matching that. So now a human being doesn't even see all the effort they even put in there. I'm not telling you to not apply the jobs. You absolutely should. What I'm saying is if you're spending eight hours applying to jobs, maybe spend seven and spend that last hour creating a network that will produce opportunities for you.

And I think the one biggest thing that people really screw up when it comes to networking, LinkedIn and using tools like this, when they need a job, that's when they think about it. And then they neglect their profile for two years. And then they're like, Oh, I just got fired or I just quit. Well, when you're trying to read jumpstart that network, they forgot you existed after two years. So you're already, it's gonna take you about eight weeks to even get that momentum back. So now you're two months behind the curve of anyone else that was just maintaining their profile. How do you maintain your profile?

Make a post once in a while. Keep an open conversation going with some people that you are interested in potentially working for or working for down the road. But the other thing that I think a lot of people don't realize about networking, you don't always have to go to somebody saying, Hey, what can you do for me? A lot of times a connector is someone people remember. And there's been many times where I've helped a hiring manager find a candidate that has a better fit than I. And what happens is they remember that. And down the road when they have another role come up, they say, oh Danny, I've got something that matches you.

Or oh Danny, I think you could probably help me out with this, you help them out. Guess what, they never forget you. And the person you helped land that job? Never forgets you. Connectors are a great way to network. It doesn't always have to be you going up to somebody saying, what can you do for me? Can you give me this job? Can you give me this money? Can you give me this opportunity? I think more time is than not. The best relationships are mutually beneficial. They're genuine connections, because if it's a genuine connection, it lasts for a long time. Like me and Taylor literally met and LinkedIn.

Oh, yeah. I was about to interrupt you. I was about to interrupt you. And there's a you have just been speaking. I've just been sitting here just grinning because like Danny and I come from like the same type of background, right? And I wanna kind of break down a few things, but what Danny was about to say that I knew where he was heading, I was a complete stranger to Danny. Danny did not know me from Adam. And Danny said something on LinkedIn, he goes, Hey, who wants to do a link? I think you were like, who wants to do a LinkedIn series with me?

And I slid into your DMs. We did a LinkedIn series. You've been on unicorn finders. You're on guidance counselor 2.0 now. Like you and I, I would consider you a dear friend now. And so like that's how it works real quick. So I want to kind of start breaking down a few things because there's been some amazing comments to come through. And I want to talk about this issue. I'm seeing this a lot in the job search right now and I want to ask you this question. I have so many devs who are like, hey, like I got to get my portfolio set up. You know, I got it like, it's like Kia said, like I got to do some studying.

I gotta like build stuff before I interview. And for me, I'm like, hey, how about you just like get your resume, get your LinkedIn, and then just start interviewing and volunteer some of your time that you're gonna spend building up portfolio and go and help a nonprofit or church or something to help stand up, maybe a project, because in my experience, the individuals who actually are working for a company and who can, even if it's super part time, they have a better chance at getting more eyes on their profile than somebody who's taking a bunch of Udemy courses and like, like, you know, parl site stuff.

So I want to ask your thoughts on getting started, right? I've got my, you know, I've been laid off now. What, what do you think you should do? So for me, I have my four steps to lending a job intact. Okay. Very first step, LinkedIn profile. Here's, here's why LinkedIn. So LinkedIn has 675 million monthly active users, of which 90 million are hiring managers, recruiters, and decision makers for businesses. You need to stand out where they hang out. If they were at a bar, I would tell you to go to that bar. Well, guess what? They're not at a bar, they're on LinkedIn. That's where you need to be, right?

And I think the thing is, people think of LinkedIn as all the recruiters are there, they just spam. Yeah, some recruiters will be the first one to tell you. There's some shit recruiters out there. There's a lot of tutors out there, 100%. But when you find, you just need a couple handful of really quality people that could transform the entire trajectory of that job search. But the other thing is, you need to actively be looking for the people that you wanna be connecting with. You don't necessarily need to think like, oh, you know, for example, like they need to find me. The other thing is like, depending on how strong your profile is, I've literally seen people that have fixed their profile that have followed the LinkedIn series that Taylor and I put out, right?

They follow those episodes and they've literally landed jobs. Like right now we've helped over 600 people land their very first jobs in tech with that LinkedIn series. It's been shared all over. It works. Like it's a tool that works if you use it right. Second step, you got to have portfolio items or projects, right? And so you can make projects by making something yourself or volunteering to help out. I'm a huge advocate for volunteering and here's why. Number one, volunteer experience never expires. So I could volunteer someone five years ago and still talk about it today, right? That experience will never expire or lose its value.

Volunteering is fantastic. I'm a huge advocate for it. Even if it's not even for web dev stuff, just volunteering in general. Volunteering is one of the few things that you could do in your life where it's a win, win, win. It's a win because you're like gaining experience that is applicable on a resume, LinkedIn profile, et cetera. It's a win because the people that volunteer aren't people, for example, if you volunteer homeless shelter homeless people aren't the ones volunteering people with jobs and actual careers are Voluntary to help out because they want to help their community So now you're also networking with those great individuals That's a win and the third win is you're doing something valuable that helps empower and impact your local community What else in the world is a win win win and is just all positive vibes volunteer Someone just said Andrew Miller volunteer to animal shelter volunteer to homeless shelter volunteer at a women's domestic violence center, volunteer somewhere because it's helping somebody.

So you can create a portfolio item or a project for them. You can create a project for something else, but make sure when you're creating these projects, this is where you prove your command of the language, your abilities, and this is where you also showcase that you know what you're talking about. For example, a chef would have to cook like a good dish to showcase that they're a great chef, right? Same concept here. This is the way you cook and it's with code. You need those portfolio items. Number three is a portfolio site. Now it doesn't have to be technical, like your portfolio site doesn't have to be like super code heavy, but it does need to be appealing to the eye and aesthetic.

And here's why. 99.9% of hiring managers have never written a line of code a day in their life. They don't know anything about tech. They're given a job description. They're looking for those positions in those languages. They don't know the difference between Angular and React. I don't know the difference between node and C sharp. They just know that this is what a hiring man, decision maker for the role is looking for, and they're trying to bring those candidates, right? But if it looks good on a subliminal level, they're like, oh, he probably knows what he's doing. She probably knows what they're doing. They now share that, and that's where it goes to the hiring manager that looks at your portfolio items.

Number four is the resume. It's the last, because while it's still kind of important, you need to have something to hand over in an interview. At the end of the day, you need to have a good resume that you're formulating for each job posting. And I think one big problem that people do is they make one resume and mass-apply. And while I understand on your level, like, oh, that makes sense because it's a resume, you need to be adding in the key requirements or job things that the people are looking for because if you don't, it's not passing ATS. Now, to kind of go back to what Taylor was saying about the whole like volunteering or projects, I think projects matter.

And I think the biggest thing with the project is, what are the capabilities of you speaking about that in an interview? So for example, if you make like an Instagram clone, that's not doing nothing for nobody. Cause if you tell that to a high manager, they know Instagram is, there's no clarifying questions. But if you were to say something along the lines of, you know, I made an application that geocordinates distances and finds the shortest distance to somewhere. That's something that they're gonna be asking you about. That's something they're gonna say, can you dig into the algorithm from me? Can you show me the code?

and you talk about this. That's what makes you stand out in an interview. Yeah, and Alicia, can you, or Gany, can you expand Alicia's comment? Cause personally I think some people out there think products are huge in scope. They're like, oh man, you're taking on a project. What? Like in my experience, like, there's a lot of nonprofits and churches out there with really terrible website functions and whatnot. Like, or there's a nonprofit that needs a, I don't know, stripe integration feature, right? So can you expound out, I mean, really it can be relatively small? Yeah, so you can contribute to part of a project and that's great because you can showcase how you work great on a team and you work well with others.

But I also think, especially if you have no job in tech, like if you have no experience, no background at all, you need to have a couple complete projects on your own that showcase that you can create something from beginning to end, and that you have the abilities to know what that project covers, and it gives you something to talk about again, in that interview. Like, that's the key point of the projects, giving you something to talk about in an interview, because the biggest point of an interview, in my opinion, as an interviewee, is to go in there, showcase what you're capable of, but to control the narrative of what the interviewer walks away with, and to control the way the questions go.

So for example, prime example here, let's say you're in an interview and someone says, Hey, do you know react or do you know Angular? I'll use English since this is an example I use quite often. Do you know Angular? You could say, yeah, I know Angular, which is kind of a boring answer, right? And it just moves on. Or you could say, actually, yeah, I know Angular because I created an application using Angular on the front end Java on the back end SQL, where I separated and located city data names, city names, and I created the database separating them between rural and urban and use Angular on the front end to go ahead and display that information.

Now, I've not given them that one, not two, but three strong points, one strong yet, and the project that I want to talk about. So instead of them going down the path of their predetermined set of questions, now they're like, oh, how did you get the city names? Did you feed them in or where were you getting that information? Well, how were you actually separating that between rural and urban? What was the metric for that? Were you looking at populations? Were you where you look in a density, where you're looking at distance, like give me some more information there. I'm now control where they are.

And I'm keeping them where I'm strong, as opposed to them saying, well, do you know React? No, I don't know React, but I know Angular. Okay, do you know C-Shop? I don't know C-Shop, but I know Java. If they get enough nodes, they're like, you know what? This person doesn't meet where we are. But if I leave them with a taste of this person, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, this strong, strong, and now they're making all their notes to remember me, I've given them a reason to never forget my name. And that is a big, big, big, in my opinion, incentive to making sure you have a good, solid project you can talk about.

So, and then Laura says, clones aren't useful anymore. I thought they were good for showing large projects with functionality. So in my opinion, it's a great project in my opinion to build and learn concepts with. I personally do not think it is a great project to try and showcase in an interview. Depending on the clone, like an Instagram clone, that here's the problem with social media clones. They already know what these social media do. So they don't ask clarifying questions to find out the functionality, the strengths, the weaknesses, they don't ask that. They just say, okay, cool, I know what Twitter does, and they move on.

But if you're doing something different, like even for example, if I say I made a Slack clone, or I made a Google Docs clone, that could be interesting. But for me, I think the biggest thing with clams is the learning process and the reinforcement of the concepts that you're trying to learn and the reinforcement of that knowledge that you're putting in. I don't necessarily think those are great projects to talk about in the interview, just my opinion. For sure. And again, these are all just our opinions. What is great about the job search is everyone, it's like armpits, everyone has them and they all stink, same thing.

You can go ask a hundred other people about the job search and they're gonna tell you something different than Danny and I, but I will tell you this, Danny has a discord group with how many members? It's over 5700 now. It's almost 5700. In my career, I've met over 4000 engineers, so we're coming at a place. Danny and I's conversation today is coming at a place of meeting around 10,000 engineers at this point in our careers. If not, let's be honest, probably more. So again, that's the framework of where we're coming from. So Danny, and again, you and I could talk for about nine hours and maybe we need to do like a telephone or something and just talk for nine hours.

But I don't wanna be conscious of your time. So I wanna dig into kind of like the final topic here this morning. And that is, like what do you think holds people back from networking with others and what are just some easy ways to get started? Mm, I like this question. I think the biggest hindrance of someone not networking is just the sheer fact that they think they aren't valuable or important enough for someone to want to network with. So one big stoppage for a lot of people is they're like, oh, if I network with this person, they say no, like that's the whole world crashing, right?

Like that's embarrassing. I don't know if I can handle that. The thing is, and I think people need to realize this. I'm a very big believer in waking up early in the morning, right? And the reason why, like everyone knows me, I wake up at four o'clock in the morning. That's just my time. But I think the time of day doesn't necessarily matter as much as you prioritizing yourself in your day. And I think the reason people need to do that is we have so many priorities, our jobs, our careers, our families, but they never think about the other important things in their life like themselves.

Because you should make yourself a priority because you are important. That's my opinion on that. And I think the reason why a lot of people are afraid of networking is they don't think that they are valuable. They don't think that they are important. Here's the fact. You are learning an in-demand set of skills. You are learning the skills for a sector that has a huge demand for more developers. But not only that, you are making strides in a field where a lot of people don't make it. Only 2.7% of the world literally works. I mean, 2.7% of people in America work in tech. 2.7%, it's a very small fraction of the country.

And Danny and I are trying to meet all of them. Yeah, we are. But the thing is, if you understand how valuable we are, if you understand what you're bringing to the table, I think you'll start with, stop with that mindset of, you know what, I'm not great enough. Instead, you'll say, I actually bring value, I bring value to this conversation, I bring value to this team, so they definitely need to have a conversation with me because I'm valuable. And once you get that mindset, networking becomes nothing. It's, here's the thing. Let's say Taylor messaged me and I'm like, no, cool. There are seven billion people on this planet.

I just need one of them to fall in love with me and give me the opportunity in my dreams. I don't need 100, I don't need 1000, I don't need 10,000. I need one. So it doesn't, it's all a numbers game at that point of finding that one person that actually cares about you that likes you and likes what you bring to the table. The other thing with networking I'll say, it's so easy, But people take that easy task and build it up into something great. So networking doesn't have to be your bringing something profound or life changing to that individual. Do you know how often I've literally said to somebody, hey, do you like?

That's it. Conversation starts, especially if you go to a react meetup. It's pretty common sense that everyone is. All tech folks love to just run your mouths about tech stuff. Y'all love to talk because y'all don't talk. Y'all just didn't do it on computer all day. I mean, even now, it's more easier than ever. It's more easier than ever to network. Zachary Hodge though, right there. That dude, followed our LinkedIn course, followed all the networking, literally got a dream job off for just the other day. I've helped literally almost 600 people in the first jobs and tech at this point, right? Oh, actually it's over 600 now.

Over 600 people in just the last year alone, right? That Zachary is one of them, killing at Dell, right? Because network showed his value, talked to people, created the project, created the LinkedIn profile, really worked on it. These are all the keys. It's not rocket science. It's not hidden secrets. Like this is out there. My LinkedIn profile, for example, it does a lot of work for me. I don't have to go to a lot of people. Right now, if I look at my LinkedIn analytics, I think on average in the last 90 days, 49,000 people have looked at my profile, right? I've landed every week I've landed about 4,000 job searches.

I'm not applying. I'm not looking for a job. I love where I'm at. But that has been that way for a little over a year, not two years now, it's given me more opportunities than I can ever ask. Make sure you position yourself in a way that you're not having to actively work hard. But the fact is you're creating the stepping stones in the path for everything to fall suit. Yeah. And then Anna, it's so good to see you, by the way. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you're doing well. I think she says it's a great thing here. Also important is that you bring value before you even know how to code.

How many unique perspective we're asking you Any question on networking events could be keys that unlock someone else to understand their topic. Everyone has something to contribute. So I say this, every single conversation when it comes to networking and the job search, you need to have intentionality behind it. Like I have so many individuals that are, and we could, this is a whole other conversation about creepy DMs, right? The halo's, the haze, the, you know, the vague DMs, the vague messages. You have to approach every unique conversation as it's like your career depends on it. And I think if you approach every single conversation with energy, enthusiasm, intentionality, that could be the absolute unlock for the next step in your career.

And I wanted to hear your thoughts on that, Danny. I believe that here's one thing that I know right now, Taylor. We will never get this conversation back. moment in time will exist in video format for us to review, but we can never get this moment back. Every single day is going to disappear no matter what. I just know that this life is incredibly short. And the thing that I know is a lot of people are very passive in what they do with their time. And they see all this time pass by. And then they're like, Whoa, why didn't I do something in this last year?

Why did I do something two years, why didn't I start learning code two years ago? Someone told me about it, I just never did the damn thing about it. Why didn't they tell me, why didn't I do that? Right. Stop allowing time and the days to dictate where you go in your life. It's awesome. Stop, stop, stop wasting your time, number one. But number two, stop waking up every day like it's a brand new accident. Be purposeful. When you wake up, you should be saying, you know what, I'm excited to do XYZ. This is my purpose. This is what I want to do. Because I guarantee you a life with purpose is sometimes more enjoyable than just sitting on the couch and letting all these years pass by and you're saying, why didn't I do more?

My biggest goal is to make sure that when I reach the end of my days, I don't regret the decisions that I've made. So whether I decide, and the other thing I'll say, don't have to do something. I'm going to relax. I don't want to think about work while I'm relaxing and I only have for lacks. Or if I'm at work, I don't want to think about relaxing because I'm only half working. If I'm going to relax, the world is dead to me. I'm not doing anything besides sit on my behind, on that couch, sit on my family, watching the movie, eating some potato chips and just relaxing.

Okay. If I'm working, no one is taking me away from that task. I'm I'm putting in work, I'm getting my results, and I'm getting my progress, that's it. I don't wanna be half distracted on either activity. And I think when you do that for the relaxation, you recover faster, you become more enthusiastic, and you'll get that energy. But when you work that way as well, you end up getting results that not only you're proud of everyone around you enjoys as well. Stop waking up like an accident and take charge of whatever decision it is that you wanna have. That's it. We're gonna end there. Danny, everyone, thank you so, so much.

Danny, you're the best. Very grateful, very humbled that you came on this morning. Everybody who's commented, Lord have mercy. Thank you so much. Y'all connect, like right now, if I were on the job search, or I was thinking about a job, I would go through the chat that has happened on this live show and connect with every single person. and I would line up a phone call or a Zoom call with every single person over the next three months because this is the unlock right here. What this community is right here, this is what it's all about, the commenting, the liking, the sharing. Like we all can help each other.

Everybody on the chat who has commented can help another person in some way, shape or form. So take advantage of that. Danny and I are always here for you all. We may not get back to you quickly. I know Danny for a fact is three X, the DMs that I have. I'm just trying to get on Danny's level. but y'all messaged us. Danny, any last words of wisdom, I know you just crushed it, but I just wanted to give you kind of one more moment in time to say something. So I think the one thing that I'll end this with is find me on Twitter, find me on LinkedIn and all the good stuff.

And remember one thing, right? Supporting another person's success will absolutely never ruin yours. So if you see a developer doing something great, share those wise words. Hey man, you're killing it, you're doing it. I guarantee you, one compliment doesn't change anything in your life, but it could change their whole world. So share a compliment, support someone, be part of a community. One thing that I always say, and I even released a video about this yesterday, one of the biggest things you could do as a developer to increase your skill level, join a community, find a meetup. Cause here's the hardest thing about coding. People don't share the same dream as you, but if you go to a meetup with other developers, if you talk with like-minded people, if you talk with Taylor on the regular, They're going to be like, oh man, I know what you made was hard.

I know that was incredible. You did it. You killed it. They're going to support you because they know where you've been through and they know what you're going to find the community. One thing that I recommend is the GDG program. Press GDG in your city name and I can almost guarantee you, you're going to find a community of developers that you can hang out with. Transparency, I work at Google. So obviously it's a Google product that we love supporting, but GDG is an amazing program. If it wasn't for GDGs, there's zero ways that I would be where I am today at Google. There's zero ways I'll be working to all the tech companies I've worked out in my past.

And there's zero ways I'll be having this conversation with Taylor right now. There you go. Y'all text me. Join my text. Danny's got a discord. I got a texting community. One text to your phone today. 615-235-5650. I basically share all of my secrets that I've learned over the 10 years to help you in the job search. Shoot me a text. Join my community. I would love that. Join Danny's discord community. And y'all have a great one. Danny, have a wonderful weekend. Everyone. I'll have a great weekend. And we'll talk soon.