Hello Tech Pros - Motivation, Soft Skills & Business Advice

In this episode we host a practice interview with Brian, one of the beta members of the Career Design Patterns Academy. Brian is a .NET developer with 8 years experience who wants to get a new job and increase his salary. Joe Zack (of Coding Blocks podcast) and I interview Brian as if we were hiring a new team member to our fictional software company. Download the interview feedback audio and tips checklist at careerdesignpatterns.com/interview.

What software developers say and what they mean are sometimes two different things. Or to put it another way, what software developers say and what you hear are two different things. In this episode we discuss common statements from software developers and parse them for clues into their true intention.

Learn how to improve the communication between developers and non-developers, go to hellotechpros.com/manage.

George Mocharko helps create authentic, crafted, strategic messaging for small businesses, start-ups, and non-profits. He also specializes in digital and print publications management, with professional-quality newsletter & magazine design and production, including marketing collateral creation.

George has a Master's degree in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University's School of Policy, Government and International Affairs and a Bachelor's degree in Communication from Mason. He studied Digital Marketing at Georgetown and Front-End Web Development at General Assembly. He is a member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Society for Technical Communication, Graphic Artists Guild, and Project Management Institute®.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/ux-of-technical-documentation-george-mocharko/

• People don't read the whole doc, they need an executive summary.
• Focus on the UX of technical documentation. Remember that they are consumed by people, not technology.
• Start thinking about doc from inception and include a tech writer role.
• Make sure the documentation is accessible when anyone picks it up.
• A documentation specialist's job is to capture, aggregate, sort and redistribute knowledge.
• Professionals think 9-5, M-F. It's not time management, its energy management. Cater to energy and communication styles.

Matt Miller spent the first 9 years of his career as an Air Force pilot, before entering the private sector to work in both the medical device and advertising industries. While a top performer in the corporate world, his long term desire was to be his own boss. A good friend one day mentioned the gum ball machines he and his young daughters owned, and that conversation began a 10 year business quest that has brought Matt's company, School Spirit Vending, to the cutting edge of both the vending and school fundraising industries. Today, School Spirit Vending's franchising program provides a proven and profitable business system for busy professionals and their families looking to develop secondary income streams with a limited time commitment.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/matt-miller-entrepreneurship/

• Why flashy and glamorous isn't always profitable.
• Why you shouldn't tie your career or your business to the training or jobs you had years ago.
• How Matt built a profitable business one vending machine at a time while deliver pizzas.
• Why you should start thinking about "bricks of income" and how to start stacking them.
• The franchise business that helps schools raise money without sending kids door to door or bringing in volunteers.

• HTP-27: From Bubblegum Machines to Mobile Apps — Leon Fowler on Entrepreneurship
• Live Your Dreams: Top 10 Reasons to Get into the Vending Machine Business
• Start Your First Business - free email and audio course

James Hopkins is a Co-founder of the Atlas App Store, an early stage Google Play alternative. He studied economics at CU Boulder, and worked at two startups - a health tablet company, and energy retrofit company - before deciding to start his own venture.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/james-hopkins/

• App Search engines can't find products via their underlying functions.
• Only apps with the largest budget get top results, but what you can do about that.
• Why it's easy to develop apps, but not to get exposure.
• Why you should be focusing on developing localized apps.
• The basics of app store submission forms.
• Non-SEO tactics for app adoption.

• HTP-216: How to Overcome to Cycle of Meh — Patrick Vlaskovits
• Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Kamil Rudnicki is a programmer, entrepreneur, founder of Timecamp, and student. He is fascinated with the usable psychology of self-improvement, business, philosophy, meditation, good and meaningful life, decision making and what future will bring. Kamil is an Introvert (INTJ). Minimalist.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/kamil-rudnicki/

• Why introverts find social situations exhausting.
• How to find the right mentor by looking 2 steps ahead instead of 100.
• Why "just in time learning" is highly effective and efficient.
• How to build a personal knowledge base and use it to maximize your continuing education.
• How to save time on reading time management articles by practicing time management.
• The biggest time-sink apps that are destroying your productivity.

David Fradin was a classically trained product manager at Hewlett-Packard during the 50 years that HP grew 20% a year.

Apple recruited him to bring the first hard disk drive on a personal computer to market. He soon rose in Apple's management ranks to the same level as Steve Jobs by heading the Apple /// product line and providing the profits which helped fund the development of the Macintosh.

Since 1969 he has worked on over 75 products and services, at 25 small, medium and large organizations and eleven startups covering hardware, software, services, internet, SaaS, mobile, advertising, online training, video and for non-profit public policy associations and political campaigns.

He has taught what is in this book to thousands of senior managers, product managers, and product marketing managers worldwide at small, medium and large companies.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/david-fradin-product-design/

• How tech leaders can combine value and vision to develop culture in their startup.
• Why SPICEs are the key to success.
  • Strategy
  • Process
  • Information
  • Customer
  • Employees
• Why hackathons and venture capitalism may be counter to the results you are trying to achieve (fire, ready, aim).
• Why the salesperson's responsibility is to understand what the customer wants to do then match them to product or service that meets that need.
• Don't define yourself by the solution, but by the problems.
• How to observe users like a scientist.

Conrado Lamas is a journalist who's been working with startups and digital marketing for almost 5 years now. He explains how writers could and should transit to digital marketing, and how everything is learnable. Conrado works at Carts Guru, after successfully releasing Mailtrack and transforming it into a leader of its success.

• How to understand people's behaviours using empathy.
• A brief history on traditional journalism and why today is so different.
• The trending "fake news" and what it means to professional journalism.
• Why Google rewards good journalism with better search rankings.
• What you can do to engage in contemporary journalism.

Amar Vyas is a husband, Co-founder of Kamakshi Media, and sometimes a writer. A self-described nomad, Amar has lived in fifteen cities over the past twenty years, including two years spent at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and the Indian Institute of Management, (A) Ahmedabad for his MBA. In his spare time, Amar likes exploring offbeat places, learning Gujarati from his wife, and spending time with his dog, Buddy. Amar and his family lives in Bangalore, India.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/amar-vyas-product/

• Why entrepreneurs need to be as smart as possible with their seed funding.
• The 3 questions Amar asked when starting his media business.
• Why WhatsApp may be the biggest missing piece to your marketing and content distribution channels.
• The magic "Tardis" podcast boxes that may soon be all over India.
• How bots will transform the delivery of audio content.

Nina Meiers loves the leverage and flexibility technology provides and decided to embark on a farming journey growing healthy, delicious foods without chemicals. Nina is an offline farmer and online entrepreneur who juggles feeding the chooks and alpacas with building websites and ecommerce for a range of companies, locally and nationally. Nina loves the grounded lifestyle of being a farmer combined with the location-independence that online business provides.

• How you can work remotely as a freelancer.
• Why DotNetNuke content management system is underrated.
• The unique customer service tactics that Nina used to grow her client list.
• When to bill your clients even when they aren't being cooperative.
• How to be more productive by unplugging from technology.