Last week I attended Pass Summit 2016 in Seattle. It was my third time attending the Summit, having attended every year since I learned about its existence.
I am an introvert. These types of events are hard for me. I usually spend much of my time alone, just trying to absorb as much as possible from the sessions that I attend. I find it easier to get on a stage and dance in front of a crowd than to introduce myself to people. It’s odd, I know, but being on stage gives me a chance to hide behind a character or to express emotion through movement. Not through awkward conversations where I’ll surely stick my foot in my mouth.
Since I’ve been attending Pass events with ever increasing regularity, I’ve come to know some people in the Pass community. I’ve attended two SQL Saturdays, and three Summits. I joined Twitter and became a part of the active Twitter community that exists through the #SQLFamily hash tag. Through time, I’ve come to learn the most recognized names in the community and who to take sessions from.
This Summit was a unique experience for me, for a few major reasons. The week before I traveled to Seattle, my new boss sat me down for a 5-month performance review. In that review, he told me that I’m “doing great technically” but…I’m “not doing so well talking with the customers”. I could’ve cut him off at the first part, because that’s really the only part that matters to me. I already know I’m not great with people. Let me clarify that a little more- I can be really good with people, at times. I am not good with people who are overly needy, who like to come up with excuses for why they aren’t doing a better job, or who play politics to try and get ahead. I’m good with people who work hard, are smart, and preferably are a combination of those two things. If your incompetence puts what I perceive to be undue pressure on my life, in time, I will crack. I will become sarcastic and unpleasant. I am not the most patient person in the world, and honestly, I do not aspire to be. I mitigate my anxiety every way that I know how, and sometimes sarcasm works. I hate to admit it, but it works. It causes people to take a step back away from me, and sometimes that is exactly what I need.
As a result of this rather unpleasant conversation, I decided I would take some “professional development” sessions. I usually avoid those like the plague, and spend all of my time learning new technical skills or improving existing ones.
The first one was Fundamentals of Tech Team Leadership, by Kevin Kline. In Kevin’s session, I learned that my ONLY persuasion technique will not work on certain types of people. It’s the only one I use because it’s the only one that works on me, and the only one that I respect. That technique would be rational appeal. I see the others as forms of manipulation, and I try to avoid them. Most people are not like me though, so this is where I go wrong. It is not logical to try and convince someone logically if they don’t value logic. Ironically, I wasn’t being logical in my approach. There’s a blinding flash of the obvious!
The second one was 500-Level Guide to Career Internals by Brent Ozar. I was intimidated by the title, and initially didn’t want to attend. By the time Friday rolled around, I decided I was too mentally exhausted to try and wrap my brain around something complex, so I decided I would take it easy and people watch Brent and his team in this session. I am so glad that I did!
Brent managed to connect some dots in my brain that have been previously disconnected. Those two dots are consulting and presenting.
I have my own freelance consulting business, and it usually gets me an extra $10k-$20k per year in before-tax income. I want to grow that business. I’ve even thought about eventually getting away from the traditional full time job and just being a consultant, but getting enough customers to get me there is daunting.
I also want to become a Pass presenter. My education was in Mathematics Education, and I enjoy teaching other people and public speaking. Up to this point, the only thing holding me back from presenting was the intimidation I feel being surrounded by a bunch of incredibly bright people who are at the top of their technical fields. What would I present on? Sure I know some stuff, and some of it pretty well. How can I be interesting AND useful, at the same time in the same presentation? What value would doing this add to my life and my career? I’ve got a full time job, a family, and hobbies that I feel passionately about. Yes, I love teaching, but I also love my family and being in shape.
Along comes Brent, who helped me to understand that these two things are interrelated. Presenting and blogging can help increase my client base for my freelance business. Again, another blinding flash of the obvious! I was so hung up on not wanting to be a teacher that I missed the bigger picture. I thought that I’d only want to be a presenter if I wanted to run a consulting business based around teaching other people. I really missed the boat on that one! Yes, I see it now! It can help me land clients. This is marketing, in the digital age. Of course.
So what now? I plan to stay at the day job, blog more, and hopefully present. I’d love to enter the Speaker Idol competition at Summit, and win the chance to teach an entire session at a later Summit. I’ve come to the conclusion that whatever I do, I must continue to surround myself by these people. I am learning very much from them, things I didn’t even imagine that I wanted to learn, and I’m excited!