Growing up, one of my favorite Disney movies was their adaption of The Jungle Book, and perhaps my favorite scene was King Louie's production number "I Wanna Be Like You." I think what really makes this song work is that we all have a desire to be like someone else, perhaps a role model or someone who is living a life you'd like to have. I've been living my life as an IT Pro for quite a while now and I must have crossed a threshold because I often am asked, "What can I do to become like you?" So I thought I'd share some thoughts on the subject.
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First, let me state out right that what I do isn't an easy way to make a living. I work for myself, from home and certainly put in more work hours than I would at a "normal" IT job. While working several projects at the same time, I am also developing future work plus dealing with all of the paperwork like invoicing, bookkeeping and taxes. Perhaps most importantly, I am able to do what I do because my family supports me and my wife has a good job with benefits. If you are the sole provider for your family, you might want to reconsider a life like mine unless you have substantial savings or lottery winnings.
Still with me? Ultimately I think if you want to pursue a career like mine it all comes down to reputation. I can only do what I do because I have spent years establishing a trusted name, reputation or brand. Whatever you want to call it. I did this by blogging, getting speaking engagements at conferences, finding opportunities to write online, contributing to forums. Anything that would demonstrate I was competent and trustworthy. Actually, it is more than that. You need to demonstrate to your community, that you are at the forefront based on quantity and quality of your contributions. That is the secret I think to becoming a Microsoft MVP, which I'm also frequently asked. Being an MVP definitely helps with your credibility and reputation, but it is a bit of a chicken/egg proposition. All I can tell you is that you have to put in the time demonstrating to your community and Microsoft that you are a valuable asset and a leader.
Today, social media is a much bigger presence than it was when I first started. You should be contributing valuable content on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google Plus and more. This takes active work on your part and it will take time.
You also need to find avenues for more substantial efforts through writing, training, or presenting. There are many user groups looking for speakers. You can even start locally. Find places where you can contribute written material. It probably won't pay much but it gets your name out there. Submit session proposals to conferences. Not comfortable speaking in front of people? Then create video clips and build a following. At the very least, blog and blog frequently. One important point about content: quality counts. It may seem obvious, but don't post or create something that is a re-hash of a help document or something without explanation. The whole point about reputation is that you need to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about. So don't post a blog entry with a 1 line PowerShell command. Explain it. How did you arrive at? What are the alternatives? Why is this a good solution? In some ways, this is like good customer service - you have to exceed expectations.
All of this takes time, probably even a few years. And even then, don't expect to take 1 month vacation in the Caribbean every year and have a 6 figure salary. I'm not saying you can't set that as a goal, but know that will take a great deal of time and work to reach that level. Personally, the journey has been just as rewarding as where I am now. I've met some terrific people along the way like Don Jones and Mark Minasi as well as IT Pros who have attended my conference sessions and training classes. I like what I do now and appreciate the flexibility of being able to work almost anywhere. But I had to pay my dues and you will too, but hopefully you now have a better idea of how much that will cost.
If you are starting down this path, I'd love to hear your story, your plan or any words of advice you have for others.
Great article. Thanks for all you’re doing for the community.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and support my efforts.
You are amazing Jeff! Thanks for the great article 🙂
I’m just a small-time Powershell “expert”. However, I’m not new to using the Internet to sell your knowledge. I once, believe it or not, built a blog about selling used books on the Internet. It was a part-time business venture for me at first and I decided that my knowledge was worth something. I started a blog just teaching people what I learned the hard way. I made money by writing and selling eBooks, blog sponsors, affiliate commission by selling related products, Google Adsense and a few other channels. It was making some decent monthly income. I wasn’t the best online bookseller in the world. I’d been doing it for a few years and just decided to start up a blog one day. It eventually caught on through my Internet marketing efforts and I was seeing 500-700 people/day on it in a very small niche.
It’s all about knowing more than the masses and sharing your knowledge in your particular niche. For the Powershell space, I’m just now learning a few different ways to make money doing this. Creating training courses for sites like Pluralsight, CBTNuggets, Udemy, etc is a great start. You can also do very similar things I did for my book-selling blog.
You’re right, Jeff. You’re knowledgeable about Powershell and just got your name out there and have been doing it for a long time. You’ve got books, eBooks, courses, articles and all kind of other things with your name on them and people look to you as the “expert”. The same goes for Don Jones, Jason Helmick, Richard Siddaway, etc, etc. It’s just all about sharing, sharing, sharing..at first for free. Once you’ve established your personal brand then, at that point, you might be able to start making some decent $$$ off of your ventures.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. You bring up a great point that it takes many parts to make this work. You have to be willing to do a lot of different things and be willing to invest your time. There is an apocryphal story about Picasso. Someone asked him to sketch something on a napkin. Picasso obliged with a quick sketch and said, “That will be $10,000.” The fan was flabbergasted, “But it only took you a few seconds to do that.”, to which Picasso supposedly replied, “Yes, but it took me a lifetime to be able to do so.”
Thanks for sharing your story, Jeff. The position you are there now lures everyone and this blog post shows what you need to get there.
Great Article! Thanks for sharing, Jeff! You are one of my favorite PowerShell gurus. You motivated me to create my own blog and this was probably one of the best decisions I ever took.
Sharing my scripts, my experiences, problems solved, writing about new PowerShell features really allowed me to become a better scripter and eventually a Microsoft MVP.
I recently started a new job that involves a lot of PowerShell scripting. The recruiters told me that my blog, tools, scripts and contributions made to the community gave my profile a solid value from the start.
Thanks again Jeff and keep inspiring people!
Thank you very much for those kind words.
I loved your article!
I am not ITpro yet but i’m studying to become one! My teacher said that ITpro must learn PowerShell or go find another job. I didn’t understand why until I saw MVA powershell 3 jump start that convinced me to learn PowerShell. I got book “Learn Windows PowerShell 3 in a Month of Lunches” and it had your blog link so here I am now. 🙂
After reading your article I’m thinking maybe I should start my own blog too and share my discoveries as I learn PowerShell and other ITpro related stuff.
Thanks for the advice. You are an inspiration!
Thank you very much for taking the time to comment. Let me know when you start blogging. Good luck.