Episode 100
# Episode 100
Welcome to episode 100 of the Nerd Journey Podcast @NerdJourney! We’re John White ( @vJourneyman) and Nick Korte ( @NetworkNerd_), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we discuss making it to 100 episodes.
Original Recording Date: 12-06-2020
Topics – Episode 100 Nerd Journey Podcast #VMware
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# 1:11 - Reflecting on The Beginning
John pitched Nick on the idea to start a podcast right before he began working for VMware (November / December 2017).
The original thesis was following Nick through the transition from IT Operations to a Technical Pre-Sales role at a vendor.
Thinking back, this was probably just a couple of podcast topics and not an entire podcast thesis.
John had been the co-host of the VMware Communities Roundtable Podcast for a while and had thought about ways to improve his VMware social footprint.
He had maintained a blog and frequented the Spiceworks community with some measure of success. #Spiceworks
Nick’s transition to VMware reminded John of his transition from IT Practitioner to Pre-Sales and made him think of those in IT who might need some guidance on where they could take their career.
In a roundabout way, this eventually helped form our mantra to give people the career advice we wish we had been given earlier in our careers.
Some of our first topics were going to be
SE tools
Tech opinions and news (VMware and other industry news)
If you’re thinking about expanding your sphere of influence, starting a podcast is a great way to do it!
Being part of this podcast has allowed John and Nick to meet and learn from people they otherwise likely would not have. Doing this together has also strengthened their friendship.
John started attending a podcasting meetup and heard about the concept of pod fade.
# 10:50 - Fun with Statistics
Without knowing the stats before we recorded the show, can John guess the top 10 episodes by download?
John’s Guesses
Something from the Management Series / Leadership
Charlie Nichol
Brad Pinkston
Brad Tompkins
Paul Green
Specific Guests
Mike Burkhart
Josh Fidel
Cody de Arkland
Yadin Porter de Leon
Al Rasheed
Top 10 by the Numbers
10 (191 downloads) - Episode 85: Impostor Syndrome, Anxiety, and Effective Listening with Cody de Arkland Episode 85 Impostor Syndrome Cody de Arkland
8 (192 downloads) - Episode 69: Effective Remote Work Practices Episode 69 Remote Work
8 (192 downloads) - Episode 42: Ethan Banks and the Journey to Career Self-Awareness Episode 42 Ethan Banks
7 (194 downloads) - Episode 63: Managing Online Communities and Career Path Pt. 2 with Nic Tolstoshev Episode 63 Online Communities Nic Tolstoshev
6 (201 downloads) - Episode 65: Your Position Has Been Eliminated with Mike Burkhart Part 2 Episode 65 Mike Burkhart #Fired
5 (210 downloads) - Episode 45: Nerd Journey 045: Career Conversations With Your Manager Episode 45 Career Conversations
4 (216 downloads) - Episode 67: Three-Month Check-In as a Google Cloud Customer Engineer with John White, Part 2 Episode 67 John White
3 (220 downloads) - Episode 64: Your Position Has Been Eliminated with Mike Burkhart Episode 64 Mike Burkhart
2 (225 downloads) - Episode 68: When Life Disrupts Your Work-Life Balance Episode 68 Work-Life Balance
1 (272 downloads) - Episode 66: Three-Month Check-In as a Google Cloud Customer Engineer with John White, Part 1 Episode 66 Google Cloud Customer Engineer X Year Check-In
Earliest episode in the top 15 (coming in at # 12) was Episode 1: Nerd Journey 001: Career Advancement and Nick’s First Week at VMware Episode 1 Nick Korte X Year Check-In
The only episode number that had part A and part B (Episode 18 - each part with guest Joseph Griffiths). Episode 18A Episode 18B Joseph Griffiths
Before this episode, we had released 111 episodes with 16,470 downloads total and an average of 148 downloads per episode.
The episode with the lowest number of downloads (92) was Bonus 2. Bonus Episode 2
Underrated Episodes
John’s list
Segments on burnout
Episode 68 on Work-Life Balance Episode 68 Work-Life Balance
Episode 90 - Inner Game of Stress Episode 90 The Inner Game of Stress
Episode 91 - Career Stress and the Health Mind Platter Episode 91 #Stress Mental Health
Episode 78 - Burnout and Recovery with Josh Fidel Episode 78 #Burnout Josh Fidel
Episodes 37 and 38 with John Hildebrand Episode 37 Episode 38 Jon Hildebrand
Career check-ins
Episode 1 - Nick’s First Week at VMware Episode 1 Nick Korte X Year Check-In
Episode 10 - Nick’s 7 month check-in Episode 10 Nick Korte X Year Check-In
Episodes 21 and 22 - Nick’s 1-year check-in at VMware Episode 21 Episode 22 Nick Korte X Year Check-In
Episodes 23 and 24 - John’s 3-year check-in at VMware Episode 23 Episode 24
Episodes 66 and 67 - John’s 3-month check-in at Google Cloud Episode 66 Episode 67
Episode 98 and 99 - John’s 1-year check-in at Google Cloud Episode 98 Episode 99
Kelly Schroeder - Episodes 58 and 59 Episode 58 Episode 59 Kelly Schroeder
Nick’s list
The Amy Hervey episodes (Episode 60 and 61) Episode 60 Episode 61
The Unexpected Career Opportunities series that began with Episode 53 and went through Episode 57 Episode 53 Episode 54 Episode 55 Episode 56 Episode 57
The Jimmy Tassin episodes - 34 and 35 Episode 34 Episode 35
John’s favorites are somewhat biased toward some of our most recent episodes because they are easier to remember. But every single conversation has been helpful to our careers.
The only guest to appear on 3 episodes was Josh Fidel.
# 27:30 - Lessons Learned from 100 Episodes
Set a dedicated time each week to do planning and recording.
We can sometimes put content together independently, but we often need to collaborate and finalize.
The launch comes back to John’s mind.
It took us a long time to launch…probably much longer than we wanted.
Many of our practice episodes were WAY too long and had to be chopped up into small pieces.
Some of our “segments” didn’t fit the topic we landed on for the podcast.
We learned that 90 minutes is way too long. We probably still skew a little on the long side (kissing an hour regularly and should probably be 30-45 minutes).
The barrier to launch became a mental block for John. He knew editing wouldn’t be too bad, but the technology platform selection turned into a rabbit hole.
None of that stuff really mattered to the podcast. We really needed to own the domain and the RSS feed.
John’s podcast meetup group talked through the editing process and different ideas on that. Some encouraged not editing at all.
John didn’t want editing to be a 40 hour per week job.
We still struggle with not using filler / weak words during our dialogues.
We wanted to sound more energetic and decided on less scripting for the show.
Most people starting a podcast ask about the technology platforms, microphones, etc.
We use some pretty inexpensive #ATR-2100 microphones that are good enough. Podcasting Equipment
We use Squadcast.fm for recording our shows and Audacity for editing after the fact.
Our issue has been more process than technology.
Will we ever run out of ideas? No way!
Do you have an idea for a guest whose point of view we need on the show? Please tell us.
# 42:05 - The Next 100 Episodes
It’s all about the stats…not! Are we being helpful to our listeners? That is the ultimate measure.
Nick really likes recruiting people to be on the show and listening to their stories, their perspectives, and their reasons for changes in career.
We need more diversity on the podcast (need more female guests - only 3 so far but more in the can).
We want to ensure we have enough quality episodes in the can to hit weekly releases. If you have an idea for an episode or a guest, please let us know!
John has noticed there are some podcasts in a similar / related genre that might be nice to revisit.
Follow up with Ramzi Marjaba
There are many people out there who don’t know they have a story to tell. If you’ve changed jobs a few times, you know something that can help the rest of us. Don’t be shy!
John’s favorite show formats…
He’s always interesting in learning other perspectives (speaking with guests about their journeys).
Discussing books with Nick and our different perspectives, even discussing articles
We have not done a career click bait article lately. Maybe it’s time to reboot that!
Nick’s all time favorite episode is Episode 9 where John goes into a #rant on how to dress for an interview. Episode 9
Nick wishes we had tracked episodes with #stingers. Check out the stinger tag search for the full list.