Kevin Griffin: Welcome
back to the show, everyone.
I am joined by my good
friend and guest, James Q.
Quick.
James, how are you doing today?
James Q. Quick: Doing really good.
Excited to be here.
Excited to catch up for the first time.
And we haven't seen each other in
a couple of years, so this is fun.
Kevin Griffin: Yeah.
Time's amazing that way.
It was like, Oh, it was just last
month, but last month was three years
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
Kevin Griffin: I'm so
glad to have you here.
And we just actually spent 20 minutes
talking before even hitting record.
Uh, but I wanted to start a
conversation about branding.
I know we have so much other content
to go into, but I want to talk
about branding because I love your
brand, James Q quick, and I wanted
to talk about why the Q why is that
important from a branding perspective?
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
So I like, we'll probably talk a
little bit about brand and then
we'll get into a bunch of things.
Understand that all the things we talk
about later are directly impacted by like.
Being intentional of having a brand
that's consistent, all these things.
So, uh, my name is James Quinton quick.
I don't know if you knew that
my middle name was Q Quinton.
And, um, anyway, when I was starting to
kind of pay more attention to my social
media accounts and stuff and kind of
consolidate things to one name or brand,
I was looking at James quick and I found
out that there was a football player
who played at Louisville in the U S and
then went to the NFL, anybody that's a
professional athlete, like usually has.
Pretty good traction on SEO.
So if you searched at least at
the time, you would find that
person and you wouldn't find me.
And so I decided to, um, embrace my
middle initial, which is very unique.
Also, like most people don't
have a Q in their name.
No one has two of them in their name.
So that's kind of unique.
So anyway, by embracing the middle
initial and going by James Q quick,
um, it is unique across every social
media platform I've ever signed up for.
It's my website.
It's a consistent thing.
If you search for James, you quick.
And this is the reason we
talked about this was you asked
which way to be introduced.
And I said like, please include the
middle Q because that makes it more
unique for me and SEO friendly.
So if people are searching for me,
They should be able to find me directly
and not the, um, the football player.
Kevin Griffin: There is a singer
of a popular band from the
nineties, better than Ezra.
And the lead singer of
that band is Kevin Griffin.
And there is also a Buddhist
teacher and speaker.
It's called Kevin Griffin, and
he he's the guy who owns Kevin
Griffin dot com, and he has not
James Q. Quick: how you pay
attention to those things.
Yeah.
Kevin Griffin: it's pick a pick a brand
that you can go with, and I really
appreciate that, because actually on
my website, I use Kevin W Griffin.
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
Kevin Griffin: Or for my name is for
the same reasons, just so it stands
out a little bit, but I haven't gone
as deeply into it as, as you have.
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
Kevin Griffin: All right, let's
talk about other subjects.
I think that's a really good discussion
to have though, is if you're going
to put yourself out there, make
sure you're putting yourself out
as someone that people can find.
I actually think you're the
only one, but you're right.
If someone's typing in the Google, Google
doesn't know that I want James quick, the
James Q. Quick: The me.
Kevin Griffin: yeah, the content
creator, the javascript guy, the speaker.
They don't know if I want you or
if I want the football player.
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
It works out so well for
the consistency across.
Platforms as well.
And that's one thing I would
recommend for people is fine.
Find something that is meaningful to you,
like a handle and something that's unique,
because then you can keep those things
consistent across ideally every platform.
Kevin Griffin: yeah, well,
let's start at the beginning.
Let's go way back to a younger James Q.
Quick and tell us your origin story
about how you got started in tech.
James Q. Quick: I guess then I
would have been just James quick.
Um, So I, I started, I went to
school of engineering in college,
got into the school of engineering.
I don't really, I don't know why I
like, I think I applied specifically
for the school of engineering.
I don't remember making
that decision, but I did.
And I got in and they said,
uh, great, you're here.
What do you want to study?
And I had no idea.
I like it.
I.
I didn't, I didn't want to
do like chemistry and bio.
So I didn't want to do like
biomed or something like that.
I wasn't particularly interested
in physics and I really just, I saw
computer science and I was like, that,
that sounds as interesting or more
in comparison to the other options
that I had in the engineering school.
And that's where I started, like
basically on a whim, I had no
programming experience, never done
anything with computer science.
People had done it at my
high school, but I hadn't.
So I just, I had nothing like
background and I started and
obviously really enjoyed it.
I think one of the biggest things I ever
did was build something outside of class.
I just wanted to build an Android app
and had a book and got bored and I was
like, I'll just Google stuff to build
this Harry Potter trivia app that I did.
And anyway.
I found excitement kind of building
that and then, uh, come senior year
had interviews, uh, with Microsoft.
They were recruiting on campus and
I got turned down twice, which I'm
not surprised at all that I did.
And I tell this a lot, like I didn't
graduate as a very good programmer
because I treated school like school.
I didn't actually like care and
I didn't really internalize and I
didn't really learn to be honest.
Um, something I like to So a lot of
people, because I don't know, it wasn't
wasted time, but I just could have
gotten a lot more and I got turned
out for Microsoft twice and they
came back and said, what do you think
about a technical evangelist position?
And I said, that sounds ridiculous.
I don't know what that
is, but Microsoft sure.
Like I'll, I'm definitely interested
in, in figuring out about that.
And a lot of what the interview was, was
about kind of my excitement for stuff.
So I had found the.
Working on that app was me going above
and beyond outside of the classroom, like
actually just building stuff and then
talking about the stuff that I built and
what I didn't realize would become a big
part of my career was the teaching aspect.
So as an evangelist or an
advocate, now you hear more often.
you're, you're teaching in some capacity.
And I didn't realize this at the
time until later that I really
have fallen in love with teaching.
So basically kind of the rest of the
conversation will come from a place
of, I do content, I do speaking, I do
all these things because I've found
that I really love to teach people.
Kevin Griffin: That's amazing.
now I didn't know you were at Microsoft.
Um, as long as I've known you, I
don't think I've known that when
I met you, you were at off zero.
And so I'm not sure how much of a
gap in years and in career that was,
but I met you at a conference or
two and you had started getting into
the YouTube game as far as I was
aware, let's talk about now one day.
I guess you have to decide.
I'm going to put stuff on on YouTube.
Let's talk about how you made that
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
It actually started
with Microsoft as well.
And the very first use case was just
solving a problem that I had, which was
I would run this workshop in a classroom
and I would give like an introductory,
like, here's some things you could
do is with a game making tool called
construct two, which is super cool
because it's drag and drop for games.
It's so much more exciting
to work with and teaching.
Java for people that have
never programmed before.
Like it's, it's such a better option to
get interest in computer science, I think.
And so I loved it, but I would do like an
hour long, like, here's some things you
could do now go build some stuff yourself.
And they would ask me the same
questions over and over again.
And I'd be in a classroom of 20 or
30 kids and have like a teacher who
didn't really know what was going on.
Not that that's their fault.
They were just like
trying to help help out.
And, um, anyway, so I recorded like
a 16 video series of like, here's how
you do these things with construct two.
And I put it up on YouTube.
I didn't think about it was, it was
literally just a logistical thing.
I had no plan for brand.
I had no scared or no
fear of like comments.
There was no, there was no thought
into it other than I'm going to solve
this particular use case where I'm
going to show up to a classroom.
I'm going to say, here's
some things you could do.
When you have a question, go watch
these videos and don't ask me like,
not in a rude way, but like, here's
a resource where you can go and
get contact so that I can scale.
My ability to teach, right?
Like if everyone's asking
the same question and I have
it documented, here you go.
You can go find that and take
your time and rewind and slow
it down or whatever you need.
So that was, that was the first
thing I ended up doing after that.
Some other video content on
Microsoft channel nine, where I
did some interviews with the team.
I don't remember honestly
how or why that started.
I just remember I kind of had.
A mini show at one point, it was
doing a series and I was doing
interviews with other people.
And that was super cool.
And you mentioned like
the potential time gap.
So from Microsoft, I left and
my wife and I came back to
Memphis, which is where I'm from.
I worked for FedEx as a developer,
software engineer, and an
architect for three years.
And while I was there, I was
trying to get back into speaking,
which we haven't talked about yet.
And I was doing some YouTube stuff
and I realized I miss doing that.
Like I miss the, the advocacy,
the content, the teaching,
I missed all of that.
And that's when I
transitioned back to all zero.
Cause I wanted someone to pay
for me to do all of those things.
And around that time, I started
taking YouTube seriously.
Like I started looking at it as an
option of something you can build.
I'm currently in a discord for years.
The YouTube, the programming,
YouTubers discord.
And if you are in the programming
ecosystem and you know, like programming
YouTubers, like channels, they're
probably in a discord and it's
super cool because everybody is like
super transparent and open helpful.
It's really amazing.
So I just started to see it as like, I
could actually do something with that.
And that's been over the
course of four or five years.
It's just continued to grow and
enabled me to do a lot more,
which I'm sure we'll talk about.
Kevin Griffin: So we have
covered content doing YouTube.
You had gone back into speaking and
we're going to talk a little bit more
about speaking here in a couple of
minutes, but I know there was an eventual
point in your career where you said, I
don't want to do the, The job anymore.
I want to go all in on content.
Let's talk a little bit
about what was that?
What was that spark that said?
This is a good idea that I should do this.
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
Um, I don't, I don't know if you
actually know this part, but the,
the take is a little bit different
than I decided I kind of did anyway.
So I was actually let go from the company.
I was at planet scale.
So I showed up for work one day,
got an invite on my calendar to
meet with the CEO, small company.
So that wasn't super odd.
Send a message.
I was like, Hey, anything I should
prepare showed up and HR was like,
we'll wait until the CEO gets here.
And he was like, this is your last day.
Immediately sign out of everything.
I was done leading up to that point.
I had already been, I had already
kind of planned that most likely
I was going to try to do content
full time after planet scale.
So.
Maybe within six months of when I got let
go, or maybe in another year or something.
But I've been thinking about that
and I've been making money on the
side too, from sponsored content
and a little bit from courses.
Although, um, you know, I have grown a lot
and got a lot better, I think since then.
But, um, I had proven myself up
until that point that I had the
ability to generate revenue.
Um, the other most important part for me
is my wife who works at All C R O now.
I don't know if you knew that.
Kevin Griffin: I didn't know that either.
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
So it's, it's a super fun overlap
where she does events and sponsorships.
I work with companies and I
go and speak at conferences.
We have, it's so amazing for us to have,
like be in the same ecosystem together,
but, um, she has healthcare, like she
has a really good salary from all zero.
Like her, her journey is amazing
where she tripled her salary when
she got into tech, limited vacation
benefits, all the things, right?
Like it's everything you could dream of.
And so I had that to lean on
most importantly, the healthcare.
And I took a day, I posted on Twitter.
I was like, I just got let go.
I don't know what's next for me.
If you have roles like in Deverell
or like whatever, let me know.
And just like flooded my DMS, which is
so cool because I think my brand, I had
earned my reputation in the community
where people knew I was worth reaching
out to for open positions because
of the work that I had done and the.
The trust that I built in the community.
So that was super cool.
But I was at this kind of crossroads at
that point of saying like, I could go look
for another job, or maybe this is that
opportunity that I've been looking for.
And honestly, I like even six months
down the road, I don't know that I
would have left to do it on my own.
Like this was kind of the jumpstart
in a reverse way where it kind
of forced me into like, this
could actually be that chance.
And so I looked at like.
How much runway did I have money wise?
How much upcoming content did
I have that would make money?
And then thinking about if I was
doing this full time, how much
money, how much more could I do?
How much more money could I make?
How much more content
content could I produce?
And it was, it was like less than a day.
Um, and I decided like.
That's what I want to do.
And Monday morning, so I got let go on
Thursday, my wife and I went out to a
nice dinner that night, like oddly enough.
Um, and then Monday I sat down and I
was a full time content creator and
it was, it wasn't this huge transition
because these were all things I
had already been doing on the side.
I'd already been creating content.
I'd already been working with sponsors.
I've already been active on social media.
I've already been speaking at
conferences, like all of these
things I've already been doing.
Now I just get a hundred percent
control over what I'm doing.
To be able to choose
where I spend my time.
And I had a lot of flexibility
in the past as well.
I really enjoyed it, but this is just
different because I can look back every
day and I can say, like, I, everything
that I've made happen in my career on
my own has been because of me, right?
Like there's a hundred percent
ownership over all that stuff.
So.
Anyway, that was, that was the
moment that was in July of 22.
So we're now a little over a year.
It has been going really well
this year over the full year.
I will replace the salary that I had at my
previous job and more, um, in a year span.
And I think I couldn't be more excited and
proud to, to not only say that I went full
time, but also like have been successful
with money in in that regard as well.
Kevin Griffin: that's great news.
How do you go from, so you had a
job, you got laid off, you find
yourself Monday morning here.
Having decided I'm a full
time content creator.
Is that freeing or is
that incredibly stressful?
Because now you have.
All the time that you wish you had when
you were probably full time working.
James Q. Quick: It up until recently,
and I'll tell you a little personal
story in a second up until recently, it
has been much more on the freeing side.
And the reason is, again,
my wife makes good money.
I had buffer coming into this.
I knew I could make at least decent money.
So money was never a stressor.
I was always like so far ahead where my
runway was plenty to where I didn't have
to force myself to kind of put a lot of
pressure myself on any given time span.
Personal note, we just moved.
We have not sold our old house,
although hopefully we're very close.
And what we ended up doing was doing
this thing called a bridge loan,
which I would never recommend anyone
doing where you take a loan out on
the equity of your original house.
To pay for your new house, assuming that
you're going to pay your house or you're
going to sell your old house soon, that
did not happen the way we expected, which
meant basically for a couple of months
now, we've been carrying the equivalent
of like three mortgages at this point,
this is like the most stressful thing
I've ever been through in my entire life.
Again, it kind of personal story.
The reason I bring that up is now I
have more pressure right this second
in the last couple of months to
get money because I don't have the
consistency of a paycheck coming in.
So even if I know things are
coming, it's, it's a little
more urgent for it to come in.
Hopefully all that stuff
is wrapped up soon.
That's the decision we
will never make again.
And I don't think For any
foreseeable reason, we will
ever be in that position again.
And so I think that pressure will be
taken off, but right now there's a
little bit because you're, you're the
owner of it and you have to, you have
to go in and do the thing yourself.
Like you have to make sure you get paid
and that, um, I don't know when it's
under a little bit of a time crunch
as a little bit of pressure to it.
Kevin Griffin: And in addition to that,
when you went full time, did you give
yourself some sort of goal or timeline?
Like if I'm not at a certain
point in six months or 12 months,
I'm going to give this up.
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
I don't, I don't remember specifically
what they were, but I definitely did.
And I remember looking at like
talking to my wife, my wife
was really nervous about this.
I think at the time I did it, I was in
a much better position than when we had
originally talked about the possibility
of someday, which is a year before.
So we were already in
a better off position.
And I talked to her about like six
months, like give it to the end
of the year and see what it is.
I don't remember what the numbers were.
I don't remember what specifics
were, but as a couple of months
in, I was like, This is legit.
Like I'm like, I'm doing this.
It's working out really well.
And I can kind of see like
building up more runway going into.
And I was like, even if I don't make
like almost any money for December
and January, like that's plenty to
get through to February and start
making money then type of thing.
Um, so yes, there was, there
was a gauge at that point.
I don't remember exactly what it was.
It was about six months
in and pretty early on.
I could tell that.
I was going to be fine with
whatever that metric was.
And I was going to do this
basically as, as long as I could
for the foreseeable future.
Kevin Griffin: That's excellent.
And content is not all you do now.
If I understand right, you're consulting
and we'll talk about speaking more,
but how much of your, I would say
week is consulting versus content.
James Q. Quick: Yeah, I don't, I'm, I'm a
terrible hours person, which is probably
not good when you do consulting because
they want to know how much you're working.
Um, what, what my goal is in
general is to, to help even
out where my income comes from.
So up until recently, the vast
majority of my income has come
from sponsored videos and sponsored
videos comes with challenges.
I can talk about this in a minute, the
kind of the different approach I'm taking
to that, which I'm much more excited
about than what I did kind of the year
leading up to the last couple of months.
But I want to get a little away from
that of being dependent upon other brands
to create one off videos in particular.
Um, so that's been the
majority of the income.
I wanted to get away from that
a little bit and diversify.
And so I've taken up a couple of,
uh, smaller consulting things.
One is on YouTube consulting
specifically for a company, a brand
that I'm already really excited
about and connected to another is
for basically like Hours, monthly
hours for feedback, like testing out.
Cause I've got lots of experience in
like using new products and creating
documentation and creating videos
and understanding what it's like
for someone to onboard to something.
So that, um, that is something
that I'm, I'm working on as well.
And then the thing, this is still
more on the sponsored side, but my
different approach to that now is trying
to do a build in public initiative
where I get a couple of brands to
sponsor my time, basically over the
course of three to six months to build
something and use their products.
And then use that core content, that
building, the learning from building
to create content along the way.
So not all of it, or most of it
won't be focused specifically on
their products, some of it would,
but it'll just be like, here's things
I learned as I was building stuff.
And I think that's really valuable.
And I think it will give me a
lot more focus and a lot more
prioritization because that's going
to be the number one priority.
And every, or most things that I do
around that, whether it's speaking
or to YouTube videos or YouTube
shorts or Twitter posts or whatever.
Should kind of come from that
core, build a public thing.
Kevin Griffin: Yeah.
I love building public.
I think it's a more, it's
a more natural approach.
I think people really respond well to it.
Uh, cause.
We're not going to name names, but there
are some fake people out there and they
have fake looking content and it's, it's
easy to be genuine as a, as a creator.
James Q. Quick: I will say it's,
it, it is easy to be genuine.
It's also developer audiences
are very quick to judge.
And even if I think that I'm like,
I'm approaching something from
a genuine standpoint, you still.
People being very hesitant
about anything sponsored.
And I think some of it's not fair.
Like I think some people are just
a little ridiculous about it, but
also people are just skeptical.
And so the building public thing is these
are companies and products that I will
use over the course of several months.
So I can have a deeper conversation.
I can have more use cases because if I
do a one off video, I prepare a small
demo for that video, and that's all
I do with that product most likely.
And that's not the most
beneficial for me or the brand.
Because the brand is going to get more
out of working with me if it's something
I continue to use, because I'm going
to continue to talk about that thing.
And people are going to continue
to see me use that thing.
So anyway, for all those points, like I,
I am really excited about what I've kind
of turned the sponsor, the majority of the
sponsorship stuff that I have into that.
And I think that's going to
be a lot of fun to work on.
Kevin Griffin: Now, in addition to
the content, the consulting, I know
you, uh, have a podcast as well.
Do you want to talk a
little bit about that?
Is that income producing thing or is it
just a thing you do for branding purposes?
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
Uh, mostly brand and networking.
Uh, so it's the compressed FM podcast, a
weekly podcast about web development and
design with my co hosts, two of them now.
Amy Dutton and Brad Guierpi, who I
thoroughly enjoy just hanging out with.
And from a networking perspective, we
just reach out to people and say, Hey,
come tell us about the thing that you do.
Cause you're awesome.
Right.
And that gives us an excuse
to meet anyone and everyone.
I'm sure, you know what that's like
to reach out for guests on yours.
Kevin Griffin: That's why you're on the
James Q. Quick: yeah, I know.
So it's like a hack for
networking, honestly.
Um, so that's really good.
We have had sponsors off and on.
We have not been, um, I think,
I think if we spent more time.
Being organized and intentionally
working with sponsors, it could
be more of a revenue generator,
but time is hard to come by.
And it's like one of many things that.
Um, our intern who does the editing
and a few other things, which is
really nice to just kind of show up
on a Friday record and then be hands
off because we have somebody that
can take care of the rest of it.
Um, anyway, so yeah, brand
and networking and cool thing.
Uh, tying back to speaking are that the
podcast at two or three conferences now.
Which is really cool just
because it's different than your
regular talk at a conference.
And I think it's good for us brand wise.
So that's been a lot of fun too.
Kevin Griffin: Let's talk a little
bit about time because you mentioned
there's so much more you could do if
you have the time, but between all
the things you have going on, I know
you have a young family and a newborn.
I want to say newborn, but probably
at this point, at least six years old.
How do you manage?
The time for everything that produces
the income that helps support the family
and still making time for the family.
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
Um, so we, our daughter is four and
a half months, not six years yet,
Kevin Griffin: Okay.
James Q. Quick: sure she'll
be there pretty soon.
Kevin Griffin: Close.
James Q. Quick: Um, I,
for me, the good thing is.
Work life balance has always
been my number one priority.
And I remember starting my career at
Microsoft and not that people were
super off on the work life balance.
It was just different than
mine because a lot of people
that were younger didn't have.
Someone to go home to, and this
is not like a shot at them.
This is just a situation that
we were in where my wife and
I do everything together.
Like we're super cliche, like
literally everything I talked
about, she works at all zero.
We talk about work stuff all the
time because we both love it.
We now have similar friends and in the
tech ecosystem, I'm sure you'll get to
meet her at some point at a conference.
Like we play soccer together.
We like all these things
we've always done together.
So for me.
We started my career
five o'clock came around.
I'm like, I don't, I don't
want to be doing work stuff.
I want to be at home for all the
other things that I could be doing.
Not that I didn't enjoy work, but
because I have so many things in my
life that I enjoy and I want to do.
And so that's always been a priority
for me, which I think makes.
Making time for family easy, easier for
me than maybe a lot of people who were
not used to prioritizing that time anyway.
So another, another big helpful
thing is my wife has had a six months
maternity leave shout out to all zero
for having amazing maternity leave.
And that's super unique and special.
And so she gets paid the
whole time she can be home.
And we've also started to have a
nanny in the house three days a week.
And the beautiful thing about
that is it gets time for my wife.
Like she's taken a lot of responsibility
to take care of Jamie this entire
time while I'm working, but we
get to keep, so it frees up my
wife, but we also get to keep.
Jamie at home, which means at
any point, like when we get done
recording, I can go down and hold
her for a few minutes or whatever.
So we're never that far
removed from her at any point.
And I think that's really beautiful.
That has just makes me so happy.
So all of us are together the
vast majority of the time.
Um, I will say I haven't, I probably
haven't worked a 40 hour week,
especially since she's been born.
That's for a few different reasons,
meaning I've worked less than 40 hours.
Um, but that's also A good thing to
like some days I feel like I don't
get as much done as I would like
to, but I, I definitely am not upset
about not working 40 hour a week.
So anyway, it's been, it's been
a transition like anything else.
It's been a ton of fun.
Um, but I think having already
had good boundaries in place has
made it a lot easier for both of
us to get everything out of the
time that we've had that we want.
Kevin Griffin: I'll show you
a little bit of your future.
I've worked from home for
13 years, 12, 13 years.
And my, my kids are 12 11
and seven and they've been
homeschooled their entire lives.
So it's, there has not been a day where.
I haven't been able to just go
inside, take breaks and talk to
my kids for a couple of minutes.
So even if it's just say, hi,
what are you working on today?
And I don't regret that at all.
I love every moment I've had with my kids.
So having that opportunity, I'm just
telling you, that's going to pay dividends
for years and years and years to come.
And I think anyone who works in
an office and doesn't have that
opportunity, or they're going to
say the thing that they regret.
Regret usually is not being able
to spend more time with the kids.
So good on you and good
on your wife as well.
So, um.
Let's pivot a little to what
I really want to talk about.
Cause I didn't think I wanted
to talk about it until we were
discussing before the call.
And this is stuff that you wish to
spend more time on that you're not
necessarily spending time on now.
And I'll go ahead and let you
chime in on, on what that would be.
James Q. Quick: I kind of mentioned
diversifying income and, and one of the
things, by the way that I've learned is
my YouTube stats have been a little down.
So the amount of money that
I make on YouTube ads is down
from where it was a year ago.
So you can't.
You can't just depend on, like, if
you make it to a certain level with
YouTube, you're going to make that
amount of money the rest of your life.
Like, that's not how it works.
So you start looking at
like, how do you diversify?
And I mentioned like sponsored content
courses, just content in general.
That's one big category.
Consulting is another that
I want to continue to grow.
And then also paid speaking opportunities.
I've had very little of actual
paid speaking opportunities.
I think we talked about this before.
Most of what I've had is people
pay for you to go somewhere.
And, uh, this past last year, I
made a goal for myself of giving
my first keynote talk this year.
And at the, I'm about to give
a keynote at all things open,
um, which is semi close to you.
Um, Yeah, I, um, that will be either
my fourth or fifth keynote this year.
And so it's really amazing from that
perspective to have like a specific
goal to see that happen, not just once,
but like multiple times in a year.
And that's super exciting.
But I think there's also another level
of not just getting paid to go and
having a big audience to speak to,
but also getting paid as a speaker.
Then I've got a really good friend of
mine who does professional speaking.
And I mean, you get paid, not that this
is why you do it, but it's certainly
a nice benefit to it, like five, 10
grand to do a speaking engagement.
And these are things that you and
I have been doing for years, right?
Like we know how to speak.
That's what, that's what
we've done a lot of for years.
And so being able to translate
that into a portion of that income.
And then also I think
there's opportunities.
I think a lot of that would
come from like private speaking.
And I think the, the impact from
a teaching perspective is also
still really special for me.
I talked about like my love for
teaching and to, to show up somewhere,
whether it's a conference or a
closed event or whatever it is.
And to see people respond to
what you say, I think you can
probably relate to this as well.
It just means everything.
It makes it so much, so much worthwhile.
And so to, to combine something I
already love, I'm already doing,
I've already done it for a long time.
And then to bring that in, ideally
to where it's like, it's a, it's a
portion of the income that I make in
a year, I think would be really good.
So that's something that I'm, I'm working
towards, um, you know, the rest of
this year slash leading into next year.
Kevin Griffin: How do you make the jump
from being a, so there's probably a lot
of folks out there who've been speaking
for longer than you and me put together
and they are used to submitting to a call
for papers, waiting for the acceptances
and the rejections as they come.
How do you make the jump from that to
getting that first keynote slot and
then that fourth keynote slot and so on?
James Q. Quick: Um, I actually talked
to Jason Langsdorf about this and
I got similar feedback from him.
That I got from West boss.
When I talked to him years ago, I
talked to West boss when I was looking
to get back into content and very
few people knew who Wes boss was.
I just happened to watch a free video
on YouTube of his and, and kind of the
advice is not, not exactly fake it till
you make it, but like tell people what it
is you want to be and what you want to do.
And, um, my first keynote opportunity
came from that conference.
Clark is now one of my
really good friends.
Got to see him, um, in the summer
of 22 at that conference, Wisconsin.
And it was just sitting down and
talking and he'd reach out to me, like,
wanting to get to know each other and
told him like, I want to do a keynote.
And he said, why don't you keynote Austin?
Which was their second
conference of the year.
It's coming back up again, by
the way, January, February.
I'm super excited about it.
I'll be
Kevin Griffin: I'll be there.
James Q. Quick: People should go.
Kevin's going.
Awesome.
Kevin Griffin: My first that conference.
I know I haven't been able
to go to at that conference
James Q. Quick: Oh, that's so exciting.
And for clarification, people
listening, it's called that conference.
That's the name of it.
Cause it's very confusing.
I'm super excited to talk about
that more in a little bit.
Um, but I gave a keynote in, in Austin
and, and then at that point, when you
have one, you can call yourself a keynote
speaker and kind of advertise that.
And that's, I think that's part of
what I can still do a lot better of,
but just intentionally telling people
my brand includes being a speaker.
So I've had a tagline of developer
speaker, teacher for a long time.
I have a speaking page on my site.
I just added a writer, which is
new thing for me, but it's like
my requirements for speaking.
I got it from Cassidy Williams who like
has done a ton of speaking as well.
So I think part of the answer
was me just putting it out there.
Another short anecdote.
I spoke at all things open last year.
I felt like I gave a really good talk,
like one of the best of my career.
It wasn't a keynote.
And I looked at the people on the
keynote stage who are amazing.
There was a lot of people I looked
up to last year, but I look at
keynote speakers and I'm like, I
could, I could freaking do that.
Like, I know I could do
that and I could rock it.
And I, when the CFP is open for all things
open this year, it was like three, four or
five months ago or something, I messaged
them and I was like, Hey, like any
chance there's a keynote spot available.
And I didn't hear anything and
I didn't hear anything until.
Like a couple of weeks ago, and they
said like, Hey, if you're so interested,
we've got a keynote spot for you.
So it's not, I wasn't necessarily
the person that like was
number one on their list.
Right.
But it's still that keynote
opportunity for me, which is huge.
And I'm like over the moon excited
about, I can't wait for that.
So there's a few different things
like just putting it out there.
Um, is one, I think if you tell
people, that's what you do, if you tell
people, that's what you want to do.
If you're willing to make some
concessions about how, so I went to,
um, a conference in Toronto where I
told them like, this is my speaker fee.
They basically said, we don't have that.
I was like, I'll do this one
if I can tag it as a keynote.
So I can continue to add
those to my list type thing.
Um, the other thing that I think I
want to be like, not braggy about,
but transparent about is like my
brand specifically from a YouTube
perspective makes a world of difference.
And it just does like, there's
just that many more people.
Through YouTube who have seen my stuff
enough to think about me as someone
that would come out and, and speak.
So I don't want to overlook,
like, I could sit here all day and
say, like, I just tell people I
want to speak and then it works.
Like, it also has to do with, like,
having an audience in that regard
and people knowing that it's a thing
that I do, but also having seen.
And then a couple in some capacity
are me putting it out there of
this is what I would like to do.
Kevin Griffin: I used a similar
hack when I did my this years
and years ago when I did my first
talk out outside of the country.
I was all of a sudden an
international speaker and I've heard.
I've heard hacks before from folks to
say, if you've spoken at a Microsoft
office, you have spoken at Microsoft.
And so you use this way
to not necessarily lie.
You're just, you're bending
the truth a little though.
And
James Q. Quick: That's 1 thing
I've, I've learned is you have to
control your narrative, like you.
And I tell this a lot cause I teach or
I have taught like bootcamp students.
And 1 of the number 1 things
they lack is confidence, right?
So they, they walk into an interview and
they say, Oh, I just built this thing.
It's a simple thing.
And blah, blah, blah.
Like they downplay themselves,
which means the people.
Interviewing them are not going
to take them as seriously.
Right.
And there's a, there's a border.
There's a balance between like
cocky and confidence, but you
have to control that narrative.
And sometimes you can spin it a
little bit just to, just to have
that tag that you can include.
And I, my first international
talk, I immediately was like
international speaker, like everywhere.
Kevin Griffin: So James, is there
anything that hasn't worked any
failures, initiatives that just.
Seemed good, but didn't work out.
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
It may not be that dramatic,
but one thing I haven't done.
Since Jamie was born.
So it's been four and a half
months is I haven't done tick
tock and I really like tick tock.
Um, and had some success with tick tock
and was trying to take it more seriously.
I think one of the things that hurt me
was not a consistent style of video.
I think people really respond with
things that they know what to expect.
And so I don't even know what, like,
I don't have a great example right
off hand, but just consistency.
And I think I have so many things
I would like to do, including
getting, getting into like humor,
like developer humor and satire.
So it was part of what I did.
And some of it was just.
Here's how you do a
thing programming wise.
Anyway, like I, I had some success
with that and after kind of coming back
and working after Jamie was born and.
Looking at the amount of time that
I have and the impact that certain
things TikTok were having or not,
it's, I just haven't even touched
it and it's been kind of freeing.
I really liked it, but it is
overwhelming for me thinking about
all the things that I want to do.
All the time.
And I think most of us have this problem
of prioritization and accepting that we
can't do it all, which is really hard.
But that, that is one thing
that I just haven't done.
And, uh, basically five months now.
And I don't know that I have immediate
plans to, to pick that up, but it's
certainly something that I miss a
little bit and enjoy, just want to make
sure it kind of makes, makes sense.
Time wise.
Kevin Griffin: One thing that we just
completely glossed over, and this is my
failure as a host, is that you recently
just released a full course on Astro.
And, uh, as far as I know, this, this
is the first full video course you've
done, or is it, have there been others?
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
There's been other, it's funny
Clark from that conference posted
like a big congratulations to
James for his first course.
It's not, but that's okay.
But I think that's also a
testimony to like, I don't know.
You think not that this course has been
super big, but you see people that like.
Come on the radio and you're like,
Oh my God, they got famous overnight.
And the reality is like,
they've been doing this stuff
for years and no one knew.
Right.
So my first course was actually a VS
code course, which has made more money
than any other course I've ever done.
It was on Udemy and it was
just timed really well, I think
from a VS code perspective.
And it also got into their like
enterprise subscription model,
which gave it a huge boost.
So over the course of
several years, it's now.
Dying off, which is kind of sad, but
I was making like a grand a month
from that, not touching it at all.
And so I was very fortunate for
that to just get picked up and.
Um, anyway, so that was the
first, I did a couple of like
free mini courses on YouTube.
That was the first paid course.
I did another one in between that one and
this one, which is reacting serverless.
Um, actually that's not quite true.
I did.
What was it for?
I guess it was reacting.
Yeah.
Reacting serverless.
Sorry.
Um, that I published on Udemy and then
moved to Podia as my own, like I didn't
build it, but like as a course platform
instead of doing Podia, but I did both.
And that did like.
And so part of what I want to get
into going back to how do you make
money and, and also tying into
like the build in public thing.
If I spend six months building something,
whatever it is, and ideally I tie it
in with like sponsored time to do it,
the things I've learned during that
and what I'm able to build from a
demo perspective are very useful for
people, like amazingly useful, I think.
Um, so my goal is to kind of go through.
Six or eight months cycles of kind
of working on something, digging
deeper into stuff, and then turning
that into course content as well.
So I started, we talked about this on
the Astro front of migrating my personal
site from, uh, trying to go to next JS
and then choosing Astro and said, and
then looking at like, okay, here's.
Potential ideas for courses.
I want to do Astro and I did that.
And there's a lot that goes into it.
Uh, like I created a separate
domain, separate website.
I created a couple of blog posts on
that domain, which I didn't take super
seriously, but I created YouTube content
around the topic to point people to a
newsletter where they could sign up for
the waitlist, created the course, um, had
someone help me with the demo recorded 85
videos or whatever, um, hosted on podium.
And got to launch a little over a
month ago, and it's been super cool
to, to look at like putting an effort
over the course of several months
and then seeing people respond to it.
Like not just signing up, but also
getting good feedback and seeing
people progress through the course.
That's super, super fun.
And so I look at, um, full transparency.
The course has made about 15 K so far.
I don't expect it to make a whole lot
more, although maybe like different
ways we'll pick up some, but I had about
600 people on the wait list for that.
And I look at like.
The potential reach that I have
through YouTube and other platforms.
And I'm thinking to myself, like, if I,
if I take that as a baseline conversion
number, like there's no reason I'm
not, I wouldn't be capable of building
a course and having a wait list for
something of five, 6, 000 people, right?
Like tenfold that.
And then you look at like, if
I were to tenfold the revenue.
For stuff that I'm already
excited about that.
I'm already building.
I'm excited to teach all these things.
That's kind of a game changer from,
um, a content creator perspective.
And you look at people like West
boss, like you can go and run the
numbers cause they're on his website.
He makes millions from courses.
That's, I think that's every, every
course creator's dream is West boss.
And even far removed from that, like,
I think there's a lot of potential.
So I'm excited about the way it went.
I'm excited to continue to
refund the process of creating
and marketing a course.
Yes.
And then hopefully just
getting better and better.
Kevin Griffin: We, a group of friends
of mine and I always make a joke.
We're all content creators.
We, we talk about West boss and we
mean it in the most jealous, lovingly
way possible that Wes must wake up one
day and go, you know, I could really
use a new car and it's a course.
Now he goes by his new car on a new house
and I'm sure it's not like that at all.
Uh, I've actually, I've never met Weston,
uh, in person before, but I, I say from
a standpoint of, I'm extremely jealous
and I want to be in that position.
James Q. Quick: Well, you gotta,
you gotta also think too, there's,
there's nothing wrong with making
a ton of money from your content.
And I will always, I, I produce
enough free content, I think for
people to trust me that I'm not
doing it for the money, but I also
would like to make a lot of money.
There's nothing wrong with that.
And if you look at West boss and
the success that he's had, People
come back for more because they
get the value that was promised.
Like I have, I have, yeah, there's,
I have no problem investing money if
I see an ROI and that's what people
see and that's why people come back.
And so the more you kind of build that
reputation and it scales like West boss
has done, it's all built on being really
freaking good at what you're doing.
And there's nothing wrong with
charging a premium price for that
because it's valuable content.
And you just, you see the response
that people have where they come back.
And I just think about, I was talking
to my wife about this the other day.
If you think about the course topics
that he's covered react, no JS,
CSS, grid, JavaScript, and you think
about in any of those categories.
If I could recommend a couple
of resources, some resources to
someone, his, and any of those
categories is always going to be
on that list every single time.
And that's because of
the job that he's done.
Kevin Griffin: James, I have taken
up a lot of your time and I have at
least 50 more questions I want to
ask, but I'm not going to, what we're
going to do is we're going to have
you back in the future and we're going
to talk about some deeper topics.
James Q. Quick: please do.
Kevin Griffin: But before we wrap
up, is there anything that you'd
like to promote while you're here?
James Q. Quick: Yeah.
Uh, so the Astro course is
available at Astro course.
dev.
It is Astro three updated.
I didn't talk about the timing.
Like after I started recording, then
they launched Astro three and I made the
updates to, to ship with Astro three.
It's super fun.
It talks about the statically
generated content side of Astro and
also gets into the SSR side, adding
authentication and comments and
working with Zeta as a database.
And I think there's a bunch of
cool stuff and it just shows you
the power, I think, of Astro.
So check that out at astrocourse.
dev if you're interested.
Also, one thing is I'm trying
to, uh, do a better job of.
Promoting is my newsletter.
Uh, so James Q quick.
com slash newsletter, or just like, you
can see it at the bottom of the page.
If you scroll, um, typically I'm a couple
of weeks off, so I need to get back on
track, but typically I send weekly email.
I include some of my recent content.
I include something that's
top of mind personally, either
technically or just personal life.
I include a couple of references
to content from my discord, my
learn, build, teach discord.
And then a recent podcast.
So if you're interested in just kind of
following some of that content and seeing
what's top of mind for me on a weekly
basis, you can find that at jamesqquick.
com slash newsletter.
Kevin Griffin: Excellent.
And we'll make sure we put links to
all that stuff in their show notes.
James, I appreciate having you on the
show and we'll definitely have you
back sometime in the future to cover
a lot more topics because I wish that
an hour was enough time, but thank
you so much for hanging out with us.
James Q. Quick: Absolutely.
Thank you.