Podcast Summary
From a young age, Wes Bos was building websites and showcasing his love for gaming: Wes Bos, an early internet adopter, started building websites in fifth grade, fueled by his passion for gaming and curiosity about web development.
The passion for computers and creating websites started at a young age for Wes Bos. Growing up with a father in IT and being an early adopter of the internet, Wes was building websites by the time he was in fifth grade. His first website, created in anticipation of the release of PlayStation 2, showcased his love for the gaming system and even offered assistance to visitors to help fix a horizontal scroll issue. From there, Wes became intrigued by the idea of building websites from scratch and learned HTML, iframes, and created a website at westboss.tk. He also spent time on a money tracking website, CDN Money, which fueled his curiosity and determination to continue learning and exploring the possibilities of the web. Throughout his journey, Wes's passion and dedication to computers and web development have remained a constant, leading him to where he is today.
From MySpace profiles to web development: Starting with graphic design on social media, the speaker learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, igniting a passion for web development through creating websites for bands and businesses.
The speaker's interest in web development began with creating customized profiles on early social media platforms like MySpace, where they could showcase their graphic design skills. They started by building websites for bands, then moved on to designing profiles for their parents' businesses as MySpace's popularity waned. This experience taught them the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and sparked a lifelong passion for web development. The speaker also shared an amusing anecdote about a hacker who added JavaScript code to MySpace that automatically added friends, leading to the FBI's involvement and the eventual demise of the platform. Overall, the speaker's journey illustrates how the intersection of design and technology can lead to exciting and unexpected opportunities in the world of web development.
From Graphic Design to Web Development: A Journey of Transition and Growth: A background in graphic design and IT led to a Business Technology Management degree, freelancing, and a co-op position in web development, ultimately transitioning from graphic design to web development.
The speaker's background in both graphic design and IT led her to pursue a Business Technology Management degree, where she learned valuable skills for managing tech in large corporations. During her university years, she also began freelancing in web development and gained experience working at various companies, including an investment bank and ExxonMobil. Despite earning a high salary at ExxonMobil, she disliked the culture and found herself learning WordPress in her free time. Eventually, she landed a co-op position at a video agency, where she built websites for them and honed her web development skills. Throughout her journey, she transitioned from graphic design to web development and gained practical experience in both fields.
From Student to Successful Freelancer: Determination, entrepreneurial spirit, and recognizing potential can lead to starting a successful freelance business even before graduation. Utilize resources like co-op programs and government grants to get started, and use tools like FreshBooks for financial management.
The speaker's determination and entrepreneurial spirit led him to turn his web development skills into a successful freelance business while still in school. He recognized his potential and value in the industry, even before completing his degree, and took the risk to co-op for himself. With the support of his co-op coordinator and a government grant, he purchased a laptop and went full blast into freelancing. Despite the distractions of school, he was able to balance his studies with his business, eventually dropping out to focus fully on his clients and projects. FreshBooks, a cloud accounting software, played a crucial role in managing his finances and keeping track of his business growth from the early stages.
Identifying opportunities and taking action: Identifying a problem and creating a solution can lead to unexpected success. Be open to learning and growth, and don't be afraid to scale your project with guidance from others.
Identifying a problem and creating a solution can lead to unexpected success. The speaker shared his experience of creating a simple script to consolidate daily deal websites during his college days, which eventually brought him significant affiliate income. However, it was his friend's guidance that helped him scale the project and explore its potential beyond one city. Although the daily deal industry eventually declined, the speaker learned valuable skills and gained valuable experience. This story highlights the importance of identifying opportunities, taking action, and being open to learning and growth.
From unexpected experience to successful business: Passion and perseverance can lead to unexpected opportunities and personal growth, which can eventually lead to a successful business.
Passion and perseverance can lead to unexpected opportunities and the creation of a successful business. The speaker shares his experience of building a project that blew up but didn't yield financial gains, yet he learned a lot and had a great experience. He then got involved in the community, met industry heroes, and started creating screencasts and blog posts. He was invited to lead a WordPress workshop for women learning to code and discovered his knack for teaching in a relatable way. This realization led him to start his training tutorial empire. The journey of teaching without knowing how to teach initially was a challenge, but it became a huge benefit and the foundation of his successful business.
From teaching workshops to creating educational resources: Understanding students' learning styles and needs can lead to successful educational programs and opportunities to write tech books, despite challenges in the publishing industry.
Teaching and creating educational resources can be a rewarding experience, both for the instructor and the learners. The founder of Ladies Learning Code started by teaching workshops out of a lack of direction, but found success when she focused on understanding her students' learning styles and needs. This led to the creation of HackerU, an early form of a coding boot camp. Through her experiences teaching, she honed her skills in explaining complex topics effectively. Later, her popular Sublime Text blog posts led to opportunities to write a tech book, but she discovered the publishing industry had its drawbacks, including low pay and long wait times for royalties. Despite these challenges, the instructor's dedication to teaching and helping others learn proved to be a valuable and fulfilling experience.
Creating and selling your own content: Build an email list and following online, offer high-quality free content to attract sales of paid offerings, and strike a balance to avoid devaluing your paid content.
Creating and selling your own content, whether it's a book or a video series, can be a profitable endeavor if you build an email list and a following online. The speaker shared his experience of writing a Sublime Text book and creating a free command line power user course to drive traffic to it. He learned that people will find value in your content regardless of whether it's already been produced by someone else. He also discovered that he enjoyed creating videos more than writing books and that offering high-quality free content can lead to sales of other products. However, it's important to strike a balance and not give away too much for free to avoid devaluing your paid offerings. The speaker's success came from his persistence, adaptability, and understanding of marketing techniques.
From Angular to React: The Importance of Staying Curious and Adaptable: Staying curious and adaptable in tech leads to personal and professional growth. Creating content around new tech can help build an audience and launch successful courses. However, recognizing the need for foundational skills and creating resources for learners can also make a positive impact in the tech community.
Staying curious and adaptable in the ever-evolving world of technology can lead to personal and professional growth. The speaker shares his experience of transitioning from Angular to React, and how jumping on new tech and creating content around it helped him build an audience and launch successful courses. However, he also realized that many learners struggled with the fundamental concepts of JavaScript and needed more resources to build their skills. As a result, he created a 30-day challenge called JavaScript 30 to help learners build projects and improve their JavaScript skills. This anecdote illustrates the importance of continuous learning and sharing knowledge with others in the tech community.
Creating a 30-day JavaScript challenge leads to unexpected success: Identifying and addressing people's pain points, providing valuable resources, and a passion for helping others can lead to unexpected success and growth
Passion and helping others can lead to unexpected success. The speaker shares his experience of creating a 30-day JavaScript challenge, which attracted over 100,000 people and significantly grew his email list. He emphasizes the importance of identifying and addressing people's pain points and providing valuable resources to help them learn. The speaker's philosophy is to make knowledge accessible to everyone, whether through paid courses or free resources like podcasts. He also mentions that his entire career path has been shaped by trying to help others for free first, leading to opportunities and growth. Despite never having a traditional job, the speaker's entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to helping others have driven his success.
Learning Marketing as an Entrepreneur: Entrepreneurship and marketing are essential skills for building a successful business. Focus on creating high-quality, free content and let the audience come to you, but don't forget to learn how to sell and market your products.
Starting a business involves more than just creating a product or service. Entrepreneurship and marketing are essential skills that must be learned along the way. The speaker shares their experience of being an entrepreneur at heart from a young age, but they had to learn marketing as they went. They started by giving away free content and letting the quality speak for itself, but eventually realized they needed to learn how to sell and market their products. Marketing can be a difficult concept for developers, but the speaker suggests focusing on creating high-quality, free content and letting the audience come to you. They also shared a personal anecdote about being inspired by a blind iPhone user's ability to quickly understand spoken words and applying that mindset to their own life by speeding up audio content. This experience helped them realize that they could save time by consuming content faster, even if it initially sounded like chipmunks. Overall, the key takeaway is that entrepreneurship and marketing are crucial aspects of building a successful business, and it's never too late to learn these skills.
Speed up audio content for productivity: Use apps like Motor Read to listen to YouTube videos and podcasts faster for increased efficiency. The speaker hopes for YouTube's native functionality to allow for increased playback speed.
The speaker shares a productivity hack of listening to audio content faster to save time. He uses apps like Motor Read to speed up YouTube videos and listens to podcasts at increased speeds for editing efficiency. The speaker also mentions his frustration with not being able to speed up YouTube videos on his iPhone and expresses hope for YouTube's upcoming native functionality to increase playback speed. Additionally, the speaker shares that he has researched ways to speed up audio playback in editing software like Final Cut Pro but has not found a solution. The speaker's tip for listeners is to check out the Motor Read app for faster audio consumption.
Engage with Syntax.fm hosts on Twitter: Listeners are encouraged to share feedback and ideas on Twitter using the handles @westbos, @stolinski, and @syntaxfm, and can access the full podcast archive and subscribe on syntax.fm.
The hosts of the Syntax.fm podcast, Scott Tolinski and Wes Bos, encourage their listeners to engage with them on social media, specifically Twitter, with feedback and ideas for the show. Their Twitter handles are @westbos and @stolinski, and the podcast's own Twitter handle is @syntaxfm. They also invite listeners to check out their full archive of shows on syntax.fm, subscribe in their preferred podcast player, and leave a review if they enjoy the content. The podcast recently reached 2,000 followers on Twitter, and the hosts expressed their appreciation for the support. Overall, the hosts value audience engagement and encourage open communication.
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