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In this episode, we have an insightful conversation with Tim Corey, a seasoned developer turned YouTube content creator with 25+ years of experience. Tim shares how he ventured from a software development consultant to an IT Director. He then started creating free training resources for easy software development learning through YouTube and paid courses. He dives deeper into finding the work-life balance, handling consulting while managing a day job, and dealing with job loss. Additionally, he unveils his experience in teaching C# for college students, leading to his YouTube journey. He also talks about his hiring process, emphasizing hiring the weaknesses and finding your unique business value. Lastly, Tim shares wisdom on perseverance in the face of challenges and where to find his free content for software development learning.
Tim's Website: https://www.iamtimcorey.com/
Tim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamtimcorey
Tim on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/IAmTimCorey
Tim's Website: https://www.iamtimcorey.com/
Tim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamtimcorey
Tim on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/IAmTimCorey
Creators & Guests
Host
What is Multithreaded Income Podcast?
In the "Multithreaded Income Podcast," host Kevin Griffin navigates the nuanced landscape of generating multiple income streams as a technologist. Aimed at professionals who wish to diversify their revenue while maintaining a focus on technology, this podcast dives deep into unconventional strategies, untapped opportunities, and actionable advice.
Kevin Griffin: Welcome
back to the show, everyone.
This week I am joined
by my friend, Tim Corey.
Tim, how are you doing today?
Tim Corey: I'm doing well.
It's a little cold here in Texas.
You know, it's almost 60.
So it's, it's a little rough
right now, but I'm okay.
Kevin Griffin: Well, you get yourself
warmed up by the barbecue pit, right?
That's how you stay warm.
Well, Tim, I'm really happy
to have you here today.
And for some weird reason, if someone
out there has never heard of you, can you
give us kind of the spiel of who Tim Corey
is and what you're currently working on?
Tim Corey: Sure.
Um, I am Tim Corey and you can find
me everywhere under I am Tim Corey.
Um, I'm on YouTube is
primarily is where I'm at.
Um, I've been a developer
for 25 plus years or so.
And what I really found out
was I learned the hard way.
Okay.
And so my goal is to help
people learn the easy way.
And so that's why I create free
training resources for people to learn
software development the easy way.
I also have some paid courses too, but
primarily my goal is just help people.
Kevin Griffin: I know you do
a lot of different things.
What's kind of the breakup of
your, your income right now?
Tim Corey: So right now, my training
courses primarily on C sharp are
the thing that pay the bills.
Um, and that's one of the things that
I have really told my audience is, Hey,
you know, I will do paid courses and
then that will fund more free content.
And so that's where most of my income
comes from is, is from paid courses.
Kevin Griffin: And do you still do
consulting and such on the side as well?
Tim Corey: I do not.
I've actually started contracting with a
friend of mine to kind of take that off of
my plate because I just don't have time.
I've got, I focus everything
on, on training resources.
Kevin Griffin: That is
really good to hear.
Well, let's go back a little bit
cause you haven't always been the.
YouTube course guy.
You, I think at one
moment you had a real job.
At least that's what you told me.
Tim Corey: I've had a few real jobs.
Yes,
Kevin Griffin: So let's talk about
the real job for a little bit, because
I believe while you were doing the
real job, you also started doing some
consulting and freelancing on the side.
Uh, talk a little bit about, you
know, why the need to do all this
extra work on top of your day job.
Tim Corey: I was broke.
That's, you know, step one.
Um, and that, that really is the thing.
I mean, I started off as just a
software development consultant.
I worked for a company that was a
consulting company, um, really more of
a contractor company, the consulting
company, but we did kind of both and.
Yeah.
You know, I started off there, but then
I moved to another job where I was an I.
T.
director and didn't pay real
great, but I really enjoyed the
experience and enjoy the job.
But I decided I really needed to
have something outside of my day
job that helps supplement my income,
but at the same time, also kind
of scratch the itch that I had.
I'm a software developer
and I was doing an I.
T.
director's position, which isn't
really heavy in a software development.
Um, so this allowed me to kind of.
Keep active, because if you step
away from software development
for six months, a year, two years,
you know, you're really behind.
And so I got to experience, you know,
the new stuff and try new things out
and experiment with different languages
and things like that as a consultant.
So it kind of kept my skills fresh,
which helped me move then away from
that job into more software development,
but also supplement my income.
And it kind of gave me that
cushion to do other things as well.
Kevin Griffin: Did you find the side work
was starting to build up more and more?
And eventually you said, I don't need
the day job anymore and got rid of it.
Tim Corey: So no, I never
let it get that far.
Um, so I always try to keep it as just a
side job and I, one of the things that was
a big for me was that work life balance.
And so I really tried hard, you know,
when I was heavily into consulting while
working on a day job, I had 2 young kids.
And I really didn't want to be like
the never at home dad, you know,
that you might see once in a while.
And so I really focused hard on being
there for my kids, being there for my
wife, being present, which meant I was
doing a lot of, you know, late hours,
night work and that kind of thing.
So I didn't go too far in the,
you know, take every job I could.
I tried to, you know, limit
to, Hey, what jobs can I do?
In the, in the off hours in the
time when I have available to me.
So I didn't really let that build
up until, um, until I lost my job.
And then I spent a year doing
just software consultancy,
which, you know, having all that.
Kind of previous build up experience
and working with people and
building contacts really helped
with that that year on my own.
Kevin Griffin: So you could say your
consulting was insurance against losing
your job, which obviously happened
and you didn't have to worry about
going off and getting that next job.
Tim Corey: It definitely was.
It was, yeah, it provided it's kind
of really good insurance because, you
know, you think about insurance like
house insurance did pay for it, you
know, and there's that bill and this
case, the insurance actually paid me.
So having that.
That second stream of income was
really, really helpful to, um, provided
the bills, you know, extra bills.
And, you know, the water pump goes out.
No problem.
I've got a, a cash of
money to take care of that.
And, you know, car breaks down.
Same thing.
But then when, when I lose my job,
well, I can just step right into
doing more of it and and be okay.
And that was one of the most liberating
feelings was not feeling panic.
When I didn't have a job
Kevin Griffin: I think I
was going to touch on that.
You, I've lost my job before.
I remember my first.
It's a different levels of grief, right?
First, I was just like denial.
Like, I'm in just as my job.
I can't believe this is happening.
And then you have what acceptance and,
uh, I didn't know what to do with myself
last time I lost my job and I imagine
it's so freeing to just now go, Oh, well,
I have more time to do this other stuff
now, and you're just not worried about it.
Tim Corey: Yeah.
I mean, there's always going to be
that back of your mind worry a little
bit, but it was, it was excellent.
I mean, I was, I actually, the right
before I lost my job or actually right
after I lost my job, I was scheduled to
fly out to Spain to go to a conference.
And so I remember being in the
airport, just making phone calls,
be like, okay, you know, Hey, I'm
gonna go full time with consultancy.
Ramp up the jobs, you know, I started
calling contacts and when I came
back from Spain, I had a whole bunch
of, of new work to, to start on.
So it was, yeah, there's, there's always
that what's going to happen to unknown.
But at the same time, it was, it was
not nearly as scary as it really could
have been because I had that insurance.
Kevin Griffin: That's fantastic.
How long did you just do the consulting?
Did you, uh, go off to
try to find another job?
What's what happened next?
Tim Corey: So I used it as kind
of that, that fallback buffer.
Let's see what happens.
Um, and I, I really loved
consultant consulting and,
you know, helping people out.
And, and so I felt like, Hey,
I could, you know, maybe just
do this on my own forever.
But the more I spent time doing it,
the more I realized there was this,
for me, it didn't work real well.
Um, for me, I didn't like the, the
constant push and pull the, you know,
you're the salesperson, you're the,
the marketing person, you're the,
um, the accountant and all the rest.
And so I really loved software
development and helping people.
And those two things what I want to do.
And now I did do those things,
but in smaller quantities and
I was expecting or wanting.
So, um, that was part of it.
But then the other part of it
was I was spending an awful lot
of time again, try to build this
business up and and do everything.
And that took a lot of
time away from my family.
And so I ended up making a choice just
a year into it saying, you know what?
This is This is not the way I
want to be full time independent.
So I picked a job that was working
from home remote 40 hours a week.
Actually, my, uh, my boss, I love
my boss, uh, my former boss, but
he said, we insist on 40 hours.
No more.
And so that's that job.
I'm like, yep, that's the job I want.
I'm gonna go ahead and,
and take that because it's
basically a 40 hour consultancy.
At that point where I get to work from
home, I get to set me on hours if I
wanted to, um, great, great opportunity.
But I got to choose and
didn't have to panic.
So I spent time and said, okay,
you know, I looked at some jobs
and kind of laughed and was like,
no, I am not taking that job.
There was one job that I interviewed for
where they said, you know, for a number
of hours, we work pretty hard around here.
Well, that's, that's a
big red flag right there.
Um, number, number of days off per year.
Well, after a year, you get a week.
And I'm like, no, that's
that's not work life balance.
That's just insane.
So I was able to kind of leverage that on
my own consultancy to say, you know what?
I can keep doing this thing if I want to,
as long as I want to and so I could turn
down jobs that would be otherwise good
paying jobs, but not the best opportunity
in order to find the job that I wanted.
And I went back into you.
Working full time from there and
then, you know, from there is when
I started doing YouTube full time.
And that was a whole nother story.
Kevin Griffin: I believe I mentioned that
you started teaching somewhere in between.
How did that fall in?
Tim Corey: So when I was, you
know, I've always done side work
and I was working for a company.
I was a software developer and I
was doing some consulting on the
side, but an opportunity came up
where they said, Hey, we need an
adjunct professor to teach nights.
For C sharp, I'm like, sure,
I'll do that once a week.
So I, I jumped in and started
teaching C sharp to college
students for 5 years or so.
Um, twice, twice a year and loved it.
I absolutely loved being the classroom.
I loved.
You know, seeing the light come on, I had
students who came to me who were, um, you
know, multiple time failures in this class
from previous professors and we're able
to, you know, grant, you know, graduate
the class with high marks because it was
the ability to, to see where they were
and help them develop and spend that time.
And I had the time, so I was able
to, um, you know, see a lot of
really fun things come out of that.
And that's where I
really, really realized.
This is what I like, you know,
I, I enjoy helping people.
I enjoy teaching.
I enjoy this part of software development.
And so, you know, even when I was
consulting, I'm like, I'm only doing
a little part of what I really love.
I want to get back to the bigger
part of what I really love.
So,
Kevin Griffin: Did the teaching
become before the YouTube or
did you start YouTube before
and start teaching afterwards?
Tim Corey: so the, the
teaching led to the YouTube.
So what happened was I was teaching
once a week on Wednesday nights,
usually, um, for three hours.
So 16 times a semester, you would come
to my class, get three hours of a fire
hose of C sharp development, and then
leave for a week and forget everything
and then come back and try to remember
everything to go on to the next week.
And that's not really a
great way to learn C sharp.
So what I started doing was
creating these horrible, awful,
please don't look for them.
Um, I'm embarrassed they're even anywhere
near the internet still, um, videos
where I said, okay, you know, this is for
CIS 163 101 what we learned this week.
And I would just cover the
topics we learned that week and
kind of give them a refresher.
They can go back to and, you
know, hear what I said before and
see what I did on the board or,
you know, on the on the video.
And so that kind of gave my students a
refresher, which was, you know, I'd get.
Five, 10 hits a week, which I was not
expecting to build an audience here.
I was just trying to help my students.
And then I started getting 50
hits and a hundred hits and
500 hits and a thousand hits.
And I'm like, I don't have a thousand
students and either I have some students
who are really being diligent about going
back and watching it over and over again.
Um, try to learn by osmosis, you know,
like, you know, loop, um, or maybe
I'm helping other people and that's
when the comments started rolling in.
Hey, this was helpful.
Can you help me in this?
And so I just started creating videos
to help people in a more broad sense.
And that's where YouTube started.
I never had a, a purpose for
other than to help people.
I never even monetization was like
this way out there thought I never
even thought I could monetize.
Um, and so that first hundred
dollar check from YouTube came,
it was a, it was a big deal.
Kevin Griffin: So would you
say nowadays YouTube is core
to your, your income profile?
Tim Corey: Um, in one way, yes.
Another way.
Absolutely not.
Um, so in, in the way that
that's where people find me.
And that's where people, um,
learn how I teach and what I teach
and want more of what I teach.
Absolutely.
Um, and that's what drives them
to, to my website and to my
courses and, and getting more.
Um, I don't really have marketing.
I don't really do marketing.
I'm more of just, Hey, I'm here
and if you want this, it's there.
But, um, as far as YouTube actually
making me money, um, I actually
had this conversation with someone
who, uh, was pretty sure that I
did a video just for the clicks.
And, which I don't do.
Um, I, I am vehemently opposed to
clickbait, to the point where I probably
kill my own YouTube numbers just because
I don't wanna be clickbait or close to it.
But, um, but you know, the thought
was, well, you're just trying to
make that sweet, sweet YouTube.
Ad revenue, um, which my, so I
have almost 600 videos on YouTube
and I had consistently in the
millions of views per month or per
quarter, I think it's per month now.
I don't remember.
I don't watch the numbers, but
with all of that, my YouTube
income is about 28, 000 a year.
is not, I mean, I'm, I'm
not saying it's a bad thing.
I mean, 20 grand is 28 grand.
It's a, it's a lot of money, but
it's also not exactly, you know,
balling out getting rich money.
Um, so it's definitely not
my primary income stream.
And if I try to make it my primary income
stream, I'm not going to do real well.
Kevin Griffin: It's like a
mid level Toyota car payment.
Tim Corey: Pretty much.
Kevin Griffin: you're not getting
the Ferrari or Lamborghini.
You're, you're getting the
Tim Corey: you're definitely
not paying for rent.
So
Kevin Griffin: And so it's not
insubstantial, but it's also taking
you a long time of producing content
to even get up to that level.
Tim Corey: that's definitely a snowball.
Yes.
Kevin Griffin: so I want to talk
a little bit more about YouTube.
Just you've been doing it, I think,
before the term YouTuber was a thing.
You said you've been on YouTube
for close to 10 years now, right?
So for,
Tim Corey: anniversary about
six months ago, I think.
Kevin Griffin: Oh my gosh.
So you're, yeah, you've been in it for
a while and you've kind of been with
the platform as the platform has grown
and it's turned into this huge thing.
How often are you posting to YouTube now?
Tim Corey: Right now I do twice a week.
So on Mondays I have some sort of,
uh, developer focused video meaning
usually, um, code on the screen.
So that's, that's my, my
Monday training videos.
Thursdays I actually have a podcast video.
So it's a video, but it's as many as
me talking, um, it's talking head.
And that is focused on the kind of the
other half of software development.
People don't really focus on
as much, you know, software
development isn't just writing code.
There's the, the, all the
things that go around that.
Like, how do you work with a team?
How do you, uh, what are the
best practices you established?
How do you establish those?
How do you work with a rough boss?
How do you, what do you
put in your portfolio?
All those kind of questions that
don't really involve code on a screen.
Those are the questions I
answer my dev questions podcast.
So that's Twice a week, um, is typical.
I'll do more once in a while
when certain things pop up.
Um, I'll, I'm not a news station,
but every once in a while I'll talk
about something that came out in
developer news that is important.
Those types of things.
Kevin Griffin: Generally, how much time
are you spending building these videos?
So if you're doing two a week,
how many hours worth of time
goes into those two videos?
Tim Corey: It depends
on the week, but a lot.
Um, I probably spend 10 to 15
hours a week, um, just on my,
my free content for that week's.
YouTube videos.
Kevin Griffin: Do you try to
build any sort of backlog?
So you're not pushing yourself every
week to just get something out?
Or is it pretty timely that the
video that comes out on a Tuesday,
say was wrapped up Monday evening.
Tim Corey: I am a natural procrastinator.
Um, I'm bored as a procrastinator.
So I, I tend to be more timely
as in I'll be wrapping a
video up on Friday for Monday.
Um, Now, that's because the Monday
videos I fully produce, so I, I said
everything out by create the card.
Everything is all me for Thursday videos.
The dev question videos.
Actually, um, one of my employees
does all the production work for it.
There's more complicated stuff.
And so with that, I have
to have those in early.
Now, ideally, I'd be a month ahead.
It doesn't happen.
Um, so I tend to do it.
I tend to batch and try and do a lot.
And then I can focus on other things that
that I want to focus on, um, creating,
you know, uh, creating courses is one.
I try to do.
Uh, block everything off.
Like you won't hear me respond to email.
I'll be really bad about responding
to email for probably a week
because I'm just heads down doing
nothing but recording for a course.
Um, the same thing is true for the
larger, uh, blocks of YouTube content.
Uh, so for example, I'm working on
right now, we're working through a
couple different, like full courses
that I want to produce for YouTube.
So normally a course is a paid course.
It goes just on, I am Tim Corey.
com.
But I really like to.
Again, help people.
And I can't have everybody pay for stuff
and trying to figure out a way to make
everybody of like, I mean, available
to everybody for paid is just too hard.
So I do that.
I talked to sponsors and I say, Hey, would
you sponsor making this a free course?
And so make it a free course.
We'll make it a win,
win, win for everybody.
Um, and so I'm working on those right now.
So that's, yeah.
Another area was going to take
additional time, but it will give
me a little bit of a buffer later.
Um, so it was just kind
of a batch process.
Some days are great and some
weeks I'm at way ahead and some
weeks I'm just so far behind.
Kevin Griffin: I know the feeling I've,
I think right now recording this episode
with you, I'm a month ahead on podcasts,
but I know that the moment I forget
about that, I'm going to have nothing
because that month will just fly by
Tim Corey: Well, and that month
is December and December takes a
lot of extra stuff away from you,
Kevin Griffin: it sure does.
How do you get some of your topic ideas?
So I, so if you're doing one code video
and one kind of talking head video,
where are those ideas coming from?
Tim Corey: my audience.
Um, that's one of the things that,
you know, I've, I've read a lot of
business books and I've watched a lot
of, you know, Business podcasts and
business lectures and stuff like that.
And one of the things that people often
talk about is, you know, you had to figure
out what your audience wants you to figure
out what your audience really wants and,
and figure out who your real audience is.
And I've never had that problem
because my audience tells me.
Um, and one of the things that when
I started off on YouTube, one of my
kind of focuses was I'm gonna respond
to every single content comment.
So if you make a comment, I will respond,
um, even it's just, you know, thanks.
You're welcome.
I'm gonna try and respond to everything.
Now, I, I ended that streak about two
years ago where I'm like, I just don't
have time for every single one, especially
when people are asking in depth.
Like, okay, if this happens and
this happens, what about this?
And I'm like, I don't know.
Um, I have to research that.
I don't have time to research everything,
but I still spend an awful lot of time
talking to people, listening to people.
And so I've been able
to hear what they say.
You know, and, and here the repeating
patterns, but then I think it was
two years ago, I built a suggestion
site is actually one of the courses.
That's free on YouTube
that MongoDB sponsored.
And so we put a course on YouTube.
That was me building a suggestion site.
And then it's now live and that's
the site where you can go leave
suggestions for me for future content.
So suggestions.
I am Tim core.
com.
And if any other careers out there want
to steal from that, cool, you know, go
through the list, figure out what people
are asking for and build your own content.
Um, but no, there's a, a way to
leave your own suggestion there,
upvote other suggestions and.
You know, and I try to go through
that list a lot and say, okay, I'm
going to answer those, those things.
And you can't answer every, every question
or respond to every request for a video,
but I've got 700 different, um, entries
right now that I'm, I'm working through.
Kevin Griffin: how would you respond to
someone out there who says, you know,
I, I'm really interested in putting
content on YouTube, but the, the topics
that I think I know I can talk about
have already been done dozens of times
Tim Corey: I am not the best teacher.
I am not the first.
Teacher, I am not the, um, you
know, every little nook and cranny
teacher, there is no, like, I am
not the first or best of anything.
And yet I've done.
Okay.
You know, it, it really is a matter of.
Just lend your voice to it.
Um, figure out a way to
to scratch your own itch.
You know, when, when I started teaching
one of the things that really was a
driving force behind how I teach is I
remember when I was a junior developer.
Trying to learn, you know,
C sharp or trying to learn.
In that case, it was a VB five and six.
Um, I learned the hard way.
You know, I, I figured out all
these wrong ways of doing things.
And I even got some things to
work that were just horrible.
And, you know, looking back at
your code now, you're like, I wish
you'd never would have done that.
But
Kevin Griffin: yesterday.
Tim Corey: yeah, yesterday it's,
um, it's always the case, right?
But, but, you know, I,
I learned the hard way.
And I learned, you know, through
the frustration and the, the
wrong ways of doing things.
And I remember that frustration.
So that was a driving force behind it.
How I teach is I remember
that frustration.
I don't want that for you.
And so looking back at how I felt.
And where I was, how can I teach this
in a way that would be revelatory the
idea that, you know, it, it opens your
eyes and it really becomes practical.
Um, one of the things that's always
frustrated me is the, um, you
know, how to, how to draw a horse.
You know, you got the, the four
stick lines and the oval and
all of a sudden next photo is
like this photo realistic horse.
And you're like, I'm
missing a step somewhere.
And so I try to do that.
I try to fill in those gaps and be,
you know, thorough in my teaching.
And, and so I just found
that I'm solving my problem.
This is my problem.
This is what I struggled with.
So I just solved that problem
thinking that maybe there's
others out there like me.
And one of the things I found
is that I'm not a unique person.
I mean, maybe generally overall.
Sure.
But the way I feel others have felt too.
And so by solving my problem in
the way that worked well for me,
there was others like me that
also solve that problem for and.
I am not like everyone.
So there's other people out there
who learn differently, who want
different things or have different
perspectives on how learning should be.
And so if you just teach to your
voice to teach to what works for
me, you know, it may be a smaller
audience, maybe a bigger audience,
but you'll find there's an audience
of people who really resonate with.
With how you do things.
So just get out there and do it.
Kevin Griffin: when I got
started speaking, so we're
probably talking 2007 2008.
I did one of my first talks ever did was
on getting started with jQuery back when
we were doing jQuery for everything.
And I remember doing this
jQuery talk and I had.
Imposter syndrome out both ears.
I didn't feel, feel like I should have
been up there talking about it, but I
did this talk, it was introduction to
jQuery and I will never forget someone
came up afterwards and went, I have
sat through, I don't know how many
sessions on jQuery and you explained it
in a way that totally made sense to me.
I can go back and run with that now.
So it was like so many smarter people
than me have done that sort of content.
And this guy.
Couldn't understand it, but little
old me went up and did exactly what
you just said, talked about it from
my perspective, the issues I ran
into, how I overcame those issues.
You know, this guy was able to go,
I see what Kevin's talking about.
Okay.
I can move on from here.
So I got him over that.
What?
10 percent hump of just understanding
what you need to know to get started.
And then it's all up from there.
Tim Corey: Absolutely.
Yeah, that and that light bulb moment
is awesome as a, as a content creator.
Um, to be able to say I had an impact
on somebody else's life just by
sharing my experience was really cool.
Kevin Griffin: Pro tip to
anyone out there listening.
If there is a course that you love, if
there's a YouTube video, you've gotten
something out of, if there's a speaker at
a conference, you've gotten something out
of like, if you take five seconds to just.
Tell that person that you got something
from whatever material they did.
Uh, that person will have a
high for the next two weeks.
Uh, like if that is the
best feeling in the world.
Tim Corey: Absolutely.
And that's, that's one of the things that,
um, I'm really thankful for my audience.
Um, but it's one of the things that
we've worked on is that, you know, I
don't personally, I don't really care.
You know, if you're going to be like
me and miserable, fine, whatever, I
don't know you, who cares, but that is
something that really affects others too.
And so being able to come out
there and say, this helped me
really helps build people up.
It really helps encourage them to do more
of, because, you know, if, if you're out
there looking for something and you're
finding resources, who created those.
Somebody invested the time, so give
them those kudos and a lot of people
will either be silent or will be
negative if they didn't like something,
you know, be just as positive, you
know, I encourage someone the other
day, you know, they were, I think
the comment was C sharp as trash.
I'm like, awesome.
Um, and my, you know, I first.
Response is snark, and I would
love just be snarky, but I say, you
know, there's, there's two different
ways of approaching the world.
One is to, to build something or
encourage something to be built.
And the other is to just be
miserable and tear things down.
Be the former, either former, um,
make the world a better place.
Don't make it a worse place.
And, and it really changes
lives because it changes.
You remember that one person because
one person said this made a difference.
And I have those people too, that
this encouraged me to keep going, or
this encouraged me to, to do more.
Kevin Griffin: So along the way doing
YouTube, you started doing courses.
What was your first course you ever made?
Tim Corey: My first course I
ever made was called C Sharp
Application from Start to Finish.
It's, I've now rebranded to
call it Tournament Tracker.
Um, but I was terrified to make it,
but at the time, I was Working full
time, and I was doing consulting on
the side, and I was trying to squeeze
in time to do YouTube videos, which
didn't happen very consistently or very
often because I just didn't have time.
And so my thought was, Hey, if I sold a
course and people actually wanted to buy
it and people are actually interested in
what I have to teach, then I could replace
some of my consulting income, which means
I wouldn't have to do as much consulting.
And if I didn't have to do as much
consulting, I can spend more time
creating YouTube content for free.
And so I pitched this to the audience and
like, Hey, this is what I'm going to do.
This is how I'm going to do it.
And by the same time I was, I was
terrified that no one would buy, you know,
it's the, I threw a party and no one came.
Um, I really thought that would happen.
And so I also didn't really love
the idea of making people pay for
something because my goal was not.
Make more money.
My goal was to help people.
And so I didn't want to just put something
out there and, and, you know, I've, I've
kind of changed my philosophy a little
bit on this, but I really didn't want
to just be like, Hey, there's this, this
hidden thing that only the elite can have.
So what I ended up doing was I ended up
giving away all the videos in the course
for free and I'm like, I was going to put
on YouTube, but if you want the source
code, if you want them all at once,
instead of dripped out on YouTube, if you
want them with a certificate completion,
and if I didn't do one bonus video.
I'm like, I'll do one bonus video
on, I think, emailing that I'll
put in there and the paid course.
So I gave everything away,
but then charged 67 for the
course and blew the doors off.
Like I, I did not expect anyone to buy.
And I had hundreds of people buying.
So I'm like, Oh, this, this works.
Um, and that was kind of the
start of me thinking about.
Creating content to replace first my
consulting income, and then eventually,
you know, I, I never thought this would
happen, but eventually my, my day job,
um, and then, you know, from there,
build a actual company out of it.
But, you know, even after I had that
paid course, I still had that imposter
syndrome of, well, I'm not good enough.
I can't create content is perfect.
So I spent, I think, two years.
Creating and throwing away what
is now my C sharp master course.
So I'm, I wanted to create
something from the ground up.
Like if you know nothing about C sharp to
start from zero and become a junior or mid
level C sharp developer skill level wise.
And it was never good enough.
It was never good enough.
So I spent two years creating and throwing
away content until finally I'm like, I
just have to put something out the door.
And I started putting stuff out the door
and saying, it's okay not to be perfect.
And once I started to allow myself to not
be perfect, um, I started creating more
content and now at the point where in
2019 I went full time with, you know, just
my core sales and then in 2020 I hired
my first employee and I'm now up to four
employees that work on creating content.
Well, I'm the one that creates
content right now, but the rest of
them support that content creation.
Kevin Griffin: Yeah.
Uh, so let's talk about the, what
type of support are they doing?
Tim Corey: So my first
hire, I hired my weaknesses.
And that's, that's been, you know,
one of the things that as a, as a
human in general, you have to know
what are my strengths and where my
weaknesses, and if you're honest about
that, you can do something about it.
And so one of my weaknesses is I cannot
design myself out of a paper bag.
Like I, I just can't.
Um, and so my brother in law.
Which I was not big on hiring
family, but my brother in law
is a really good designer.
And so he was doing my designs kind
of as his side job and I was paying
him to do some designs for me.
But when I needed more of that and
I'm like, Hey, would you help me?
You know, and so he came on
full time as my designer.
He's also my marketing person.
He's also my social media person.
He's, he wears a lot of hats.
Um, he does a lot of strategic
planning with me as well.
So I hired him.
My first hire was March 1st
of 2020, which was pandemic.
Perfect.
So that was great timing, but, but then
I hired a community manager as Tom.
He does, um, all the interactions with
like people who have purchased courses
that need help or that, you know, you
need a receipt or invoice or, um, he
works with vendors and he works with,
you know, a lot of different people.
Plus he just interacts with
the community in general.
Um, and then in 2021, I
hired a, uh, very rookie.
Web developer.
Um, I needed web development done.
I can do it, but that's
not course development.
And so again, there was an area where
I'm like, I can take something off my
plate and give it to somebody else.
And so I kind of trained him up and
taught him how to do web development.
And so he does all of my website
work now, which is awesome.
So Daniel did a design for, and then
Noah does the actual work for it.
And then goodness, I forget
when was it September?
No, it's been before that.
I remember, but I hired a,
um, executive assistant to
start awfully my work as well.
So she's awesome.
She's a, um, a person that will
take something as run with it.
And so she, um, viciously rips
things away from me that I'm
like, well, I could do that.
She's like, no, you know, you can't take
it away from me, which is great because
that's what I need is, is someone to take
away the things that, um, others can do.
That I could do as well, um, because what
the real focus is, is, you know, get me
back into doing more and more software
development, teaching and training.
So that's where we're at right now.
And we're going to probably
grow again next year.
Kevin Griffin: Are these
all full time employees?
Tim Corey: All full time employees.
Kevin Griffin: I'm really
interested in hearing the
executive assistant because I've.
I've had a VA for years and actually
I'm right now on a low with my VA.
I need to give her more work to do.
Uh, but every person I know professionally
who is running a business of some
sort always, that's like the first
step into achieving real success is
getting that person that takes stuff
off your plate because it's, yeah,
I think you were touching on it.
It's so easy for us though.
Just want to have full
control over everything.
But, Having full control over everything
means nothing gets done, or at least
gets done in a manner that I would be
happy with and having those people to
just take the things from you and doing
a good job of it, or a better job than
I would do is the icing on the cake.
Tim Corey: It really is.
I think that, um, the thing that,
that I've worked hard at as a
business owner is doing the math.
And oftentimes people will get so caught
up in the penny and forget the dollar.
Um, and, and that's where, you
know, hiring somebody is expensive.
Um, and you know, a VA or a part
time VA or something like that can
really be helpful when, you know,
you want to do something that's.
You're not ready for a full time employee
yet, but it can help you get there.
But, um, but really thinking through the
idea of what is it that, you know, if
you want to talk to strictly business,
what is it that I do that no one
else can do that brings in the money.
And for me, that's teaching.
Now, you know, we're a
little bit different company.
We don't focus on dollars first.
We focus on helping people first.
But that means what can I
do to help people first?
And that is building content.
So really, that's the area I have to
focus on, which means I have to give away.
Everything else, if I can't, and that
means that I don't do things like,
well, I mean, a simple one book, my
trips, you know, why am I booking trips?
Well, because I know exactly what I want.
Okay.
Communicate that, communicate that
to somebody else and let them do it.
Let it go.
And it won't be perfect.
The first few times.
It won't be perfect, something
will be different or missed or not
the way exactly what you do it.
But you know what?
Having somebody else do it, build them
up, teach them how to do it right.
Have them go beyond what you could do.
And the same time you're spending
the time you need on the areas that
are most important to your business.
Kevin Griffin: That is probably
the best piece of advice in this
entire conversation, I think.
And we're going to make sure we, we do a
YouTube short or a clip of that because
I think more people need to hear that.
It's really difficult when you're
getting started, you don't have the
money to pay for it, but eventually
you'll get to the point where you
are losing money by not doing it.
Tim Corey: Absolutely.
Kevin Griffin: But Tim, we've been
going for a while and we covered a lot
of different things, but let's cover.
The last big item and that's failure.
And,
Tim Corey: Never done that.
Kevin Griffin: but we've all, yeah, we've
been talking nothing but successes, but
it hasn't been anything you've started
working on that you said, you know,
this isn't worth my time or energy.
It's not producing the fruits
that I needed to produce and
you just had to get rid of it.
Tim Corey: There is a laundry list, um,
of things that I have done like that.
And there is the, the things I
did unintentionally like that.
I remember there was a project I was
building that was back in the early 2000s.
I built an application that would
help you, um, capture and, like,
bring with you code snippets.
You know, so you have a thumb drive and
have this little application on it that
would have all your code snippets for
working on a server, all the PowerShell
scripts or whatever you needed to have.
Um, and I just didn't quite
wrap it up and finish it.
Now it's kind of accidental.
Like, I didn't ever get that last 20
percent done or it wasn't perfect.
And so I just didn't finish it.
And so it's an accidental thing like that.
But I think now for me, I look for that.
I look for what things can I abandoned
and, you know, as a business, one of the
things that we have to think through is,
is not getting stuck in the sunk cost
fallacy, not getting stuck in the, well,
you've already spent six months on this.
We need to keep going.
No, throw that.
Throw that out because if it's
not working, it's not working.
And so one of the things that
we're pretty ruthless on is we meet
once a month as a team in person.
We're all remote right now, but we
meet once, once a month in person and
we go through what are you working on?
And, you know, where's the focus?
And we may look at what we're
doing, saying that's not working.
Throw it out.
And it's hard because, you know, as
a business owner, I can look at how
much I'm paying in salary and how much
time you spent on it and go, that's
50, 000 right there that I'm throwing
away, you know, but I could throw 50,
000 away or I could throw 80, away,
which do I rather do throw the 50 away.
So what we have to do is, is
make wise choices, but then.
You know, as far as moving forward, but
then look at what are the things that we
need to cut out that will make us better.
And so we have cut projects that.
That are good, but that take our time
away from completing other projects,
um, that, you know, we want to do.
There's, there's a, a project right
now that we have started working on
a couple of times, and it would be
one that would really help students.
And it's a project we will do, and it's
one that I think will revolutionize
even the training industry for
software development, but we've
had to cut it at least twice now.
Where I've said, yeah, that's great.
We don't have the time right now.
Yeah, that's great.
We don't have the energy to do that
and this other thing, and this other
thing is more important right now.
So it's, it's a good versus
great, a better versus best.
Um, we've had to make that choice a lot.
Kevin Griffin: I need
some great advice, Tim.
I think we're kind of getting
to the end of our time together.
If there was someone out there
and they were saying, I want to
be like Tim Corey when I grow up,
what, uh, any general advice for
that person and getting started?
Tim Corey: Um, well, I
mean, I had a superpower.
I had a great spouse.
That's, that was super helpful.
Um, but I think that, you know,
if you're looking to To get into
software development, you're looking
to get into training, looking
to get into starting a business.
I think that's the most important things.
Are first of all, to be focused on
what you're doing, go deep into it.
One of the things I see, let's call
them rookies do is they'll skip from
thing to thing and they'll start on
something, learn all the flashy, cool
stuff and then move on to the next
flashy, cool thing when things get hard.
And I always tell, you
know, C sharp developers.
You're just learning C sharp, then don't
learn java, don't learn java script, don't
learn, you know, stop it, learn C sharp.
Well, and even then don't
learn the UI, learn the code.
Um, in my C sharp master course, we spend
the first major section of the course
in nothing but console applications.
They're ugly, they're messy,
they're, they're simple, there's
nothing flashy or cool about them.
But what you do is you learn C sharp code
well, and you establish that foundation
and you go deeper and deeper into the
code itself because it's not when you
look at a person's resume, you don't look
for, you know, worked on a flashy thing.
Number one, number two,
number three, number four.
It's how deep did you go?
Like, can you actually fix real problems?
Can you build real applications?
This thing, or have you seen how
to do a hello world or a to do
app in eight different types?
So, you know, going deep into something,
committing to something and, and
getting through that, that hard time.
And that's kind of number two is if
you're banging your head against the
desk, you're probably in the right spot.
Um, it's, it's not the, the easy thing
that is what will help you succeed.
It's the pushing through the hard thing.
Is what will get you there and
when you are trying to just do
something, it becomes, it's super
easy, super easy, super easy.
You know, you feel like you're conquering
the world when you get to that spot where
it's like, I've bogged down and now I,
you know, it's so hard push through it
because when you push through it, first of
all, you're in a better, whatever it is,
better business owner, better developer,
better consultant and that happens.
You will have that real world skill
and experience that others won't
because they didn't push through and
that's what kind of separates people.
It's the filter.
Kevin Griffin: You work
through those hard problems.
They make such good stories when you're
sitting around the table or the bar,
whatever, with other developers and go,
man, let me tell you about this problem.
I've been working on and that camaraderie
just from working on hard problems and.
It's also nice where you're
talking through a hard problem with
somewhere, someone, and they go, let
me give you a little bit of advice.
Cause I think I've done
something similar to this and
it makes your whole life easier.
Tim, anything to promote?
Tim Corey: Uh, just go to YouTube and
find the free content that I have there.
Um, just go to youtube.
com slash.
I am Tim Corey.
Um, or just Google.
I am Tim Corey.
You'll find me.
Um, but I got a ton of free content
to help developers, you know, learn
software development, get better at
software development, specifically C
sharp and the things around it, you
know, get sequel and all the rest.
Um, yeah, try it out there.
Kevin Griffin: Fantastic.
All right.
With that, Tim, thank you so much
for hanging out with me today and
thank you to everyone for tuning
in and we'll see everyone next week
on the threaded income podcast.
Take care.
Tim Corey: Thanks.