Multithreaded Income Podcast

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.