I first discovered Michael's content a couple of years ago when I was learning everything I could about Kubernetes and this past year at the Microsoft Build 2022 conference we were both on a panel discussion about the new Azure Container Apps product.

Michael is the principal for his company Michael Levan Training and Consulting. He's a leader in Kubernetes and Containerization Training, consulting and content creation. For content he writes blogs, creates videos and now has a podcast on the Packet Pushers network

In this episode we talk about his background, how and why he prefers to not be an full time employee, his philosophy on how he's gotten career to where it is, some important thoughts on what it really takes and what is important - we even get into extrinsic vs. intrinsic happiness and end the episode with some final advice for you want-to-be content creators out there.

• Background
• • Infrastructure
  • Development
  • DevOps
  • Platform Engineer
  • Full time for a while
  • Independent now
• Reasons why he's not a full time employee
• Experience with doing stuff on the side while still a full-timer
• How he has grown his different content streams to where they are today
• • "Be so good they can't ignore you" - Steve Martin
  • Have to put in the hours and the work
• Writing, podcast and then video as a preference for content
• Thoughts on role models and mentors
• • Internal drive most important
  • "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" - Stephen Covey
• Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic happiness and being human
• In person, hybrid and virtual events
• • Networking vs. learning
• Final advice on content creation for want-to-be content creators

Website:

https://michaellevan.net/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TheNJDevOpsGuy

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellevan/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/clouddevengineering

Podcast:

https://packetpushers.net/author/michael-levan/

I first met Gavin about 7 years ago when he was a Technical Evangelist for Microsoft in the Cambridge Massachusetts area. At that point in time, he was heavily involved in the tech community around Boston and often was presenting at user groups and Code Camps. He worked for Microsoft for around 8 years before recently leaving to be a lead software engineer at Stately.

The reason I asked him to be on the podcast is because he is also working as an independent consultant on a side project these days.

In our discussion, we get into topics like how his experience as an independent is going (in this first year of having a side project). What type of business entity he chose and why, he also introduces group legal plans (something I hadn't heard of) for how he has gotten some legal advice. We talk about invoicing and billing, then we move on to work life balance and his challenges. We finish up with advice for others out there thinking of starting with a side project while still a full-time employee and some recommendations.

This was a fun interview to do and really cool to hear him echo many of the same experiences I myself have had.

Episode Outline

• Background
• • Is still a full-time employee
  • Working as an independent on the side
  • In his first year as an independent
• How it started for him and his experience
• Business entity type and why
• • Single person LLC
  • Used Legal Zoom
• Group legal plan
• Agreement that keeps renewing with client
• His take on invoicing
• • Reason for hourly billing vs. project billing
• Accountant or not?
• • Taxes get complicated
• Work-life balance
• • Work hours not what he are thought they would be originally
• How he found client #1
• • Network-based source
• Advice for starting as an Independent
• How did he pick his company name
• Recommendations
• • Novo - https://www.novo.co/
  • Legal Zoom - https://www.legalzoom.com/
• More detail about his side project

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinbauman/
Twitter:  @gavmanbauman

This is another My Experience podcast.

Today I talk about a rule I follow and refer to as the 2 + 1 rule. I describe the scenario of how I learned the hard way - that it is important to diversify your income streams, how this rule works and the lifecycle of the primary and secondary projects. Then I mention some ideas and types of work I've used for secondary project income. Then at the end I provide a recent addition to this rule - again something I've learned the hard way.

• Why it's important to diversify your income
  • How I discovered this the hard way
    • Hit $0 income per week for several weeks/months before finding new work
• What it is and how it works
  • Goal is to not hit $0 income for a week (unless you are on vacation)
  • Start with #1
  • Add as many #2 projects as you can (get at least 2)
• Life cycle of projects
  • #1 either goes away or turns to #2
  • #2 usually can increase some when no #1 is around
    • Or turn into a #1
  • #2 also go away so have to keep adding them
• Ideas for you in finding good #2 sources of income
  • Create a product
    • SaaS product on your own
  • Content Creation (also helps build your expertise in general)
    • Find ways to get paid for (or do for free for marketing)
      • Blogs
      • Articles
      • Whitepapers
      • Training
      • Video courses
      • Podcast
    • Small projects
      • Work for other independents
        • Find by networking with existing network (always need to be keeping up with and expanding)
        • Possibly begin a relationship via social network
      • Maintenance work (plan ahead like Avonelle does or ask previous clients) - keep good standing with clients
        • Technology upgrades
        • Tweaks or small feature additions to past projects
• (new addition to this rule) Stay on top of it
  • How I discovered this the hard way
    • Did not hit $0 per week, but put up with half normal income for months
      • Waiting on being onboarded as a vendor too long (didn't end up working out)
      • Income was paying the bill and I forgot the urgency I should have had to jump on finding #1 again
  • If #1 goes away and you move to using #2 projects more do not wait long before looking for another #1

In this episode, I interview my friend Avonelle Lovhaug.

Avonelle has been a software developer for almost 30 years and has been an independent consultant for two decades. She works with tech-savvy small businesses that want professional custom software solutions for a fixed price. Many of the applications she has created are web-based and built using Microsoft technologies, though she also has experience creating mobile and Windows-based tools.

In our discussion, we get into several topics that she has experience with such as long-term clients, her methodology for using fixed pricing on projects, monthly support contracts, and invoicing. We end with a discussion of some different tools we both use on a day-to-day basis.

This was a fun interview to do and I really could talk with her all day on these things, but we ended right around 40 minutes.

Episode outline:

• Background
• Long term clients
• • Ideal would be adding a new customer every year
  • Usually work with 2 - 5 clients a year
• How she found who her ideal client and ideal project is
• • Clients who want their business need solved and are not concerned about the implementation
  • Smaller clients and projects
  • Often only developer
• Her methodology for using fixed price on projects
• • Invoicing
  • • New client - money up front
    • Payments for deliverables/milestones
  • Usually leave a period of ~60 days after project allows for bug fixes, etc.
• Monthly support contracts
• • Support, bug fixes
  • Sometimes emergency, sometimes not
  • • Priority support vs. non priority
  • Allows for clients to budget for support
  • Allows for 1/4 - 1/3 time available for support
• Invoicing in general
• • Quicken home and business
  • • Uses the estimate functionality
    • Print to pdf and email invoices
• Discussion on different tools we use
• • OneNote
  • • Notes
    • Documentation
    • Searching
    • Screen shots
  • Snagit
  • • Screen shot utility
  • Azure DevOps
  • • Issue and bug tracking
    • Connect code to issues
    • Releases
  • RedGate SQL Change Automation
  • MSDN Universal/Visual Studio Enterprise subscription
  • JetBrains subscription
  • Beyond Compare
  • .NET Reflector
  • Slack
  • GitKraken
  • YouTube Professional
  • Pluralsite
• Her reason for being an independent

In this episode, I interview David Tucker to discuss his career and content creation.

• Started freelancing
• Digital agency in multiple roles
  • Software engineer
  • Leader
  • R&D
  • Sales Engineer
  • Created various types of content
• Back to being an independent
  • CTO consultant
  • Started creating content (again)
  • Content creation started to pay off
• Step back into how he started creating content originally
  • Blogging
  • Video series
• Networking worked for him
  • Meet people at conferences
  • Keeping up with people he knew from work
  • Follow-up with people he met at conferences where there was some commonality
• More on when he left the agency and started his own consultancy
  • Enjoyed the work but earnings being tied to working on an hourly basis was a factor to move to content creation
• Jason goes off on some long rambling question about how to predict income with content creation
• Content creation
  • Income is a lagging indicator
  • Skills can be learned and get better off
  • Production process should improve over time
  • Like anything some people will be better, but if you are intention about it you can get better
  • Get the production process to be as efficient as you can
• Other options for diversifying income
  • Micro SaaS application
  • Digital product of some kind
  • Sponsorship on Open Source, etc.
• YouTube content
  • Building an audience will take awhile
  • Marketing skills important
  • Social media important
  • You have to bring all the eyeballs to your channel yourself
• Working with a company that already has the eyeballs you want to reach makes it easier
  • David looked at Pluralsight and A Cloud Guru to aim at cloud related material
• Balance of income streams
  • Some consultant
  • Content creation
  • Other work like marketing, speaking and paid presentations
• Lessons learned/advice
  • Technology field makes it easier to try out content creation and/or diversify your income streams
  • Try it out, what do you have to lose?
  • Start off with per item basis and before moving into royalty type material
• Final piece of advice
  • Spend time preparing for live material to be efficient for the audience
• How to follow David social
  • https://www.davidtucker.net
  • Twiter: @_DavidTucker_
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidtuckernet/

In this episode, I interview Sarah Dutkiewicz also known as "Sadukie" to discuss professional independents need, such as accountants, lawyers and financial advisors.

• Background story
• • Currently a technology consultant
  • Generalist
  • IT, Development and Data
  • More than 20 years experience
  • Everything from tech support, writing, creating courses, teaching, web development, api development, Powershell scripting, book author
  • Development, mentoring, developing mentoring programs
  • Has been full-time employee and independent depending on the scenario
• Accountant
• • CPA
  • Taxes
  • • Federal
    • State
    • City
  • Deductions
  • • Continuing Education
    • Travel
  • Checklist
  • Is local important?
  • • Local good for taxes especially
  • Advice on using Quickbooks
  • Works with financial advisor to keep things like retirement funding straight
• Lawyer
• • Can help with forming LLC, etc.
  • Master Agreement
  • Contract reviews
  • Filings
  • Someone you can have an in person relationship better than a website relationship
  • Price for professionals seems expensive but should think about it for the long run
• Financial Advisor/Planner
• • Help with organizing retirement planning
  • 401k -> rollover from W2
  • IRA
• Wrap up
• • Needs from accountant/financial advisor can mesh together as an Independent
  • If starting out, try to get the trio of professionals
  • • Think of costs for the long run
    • Use a contract
    • If don't have any referrals, look for local chamber of commerce and local bar association
    • • Those that work for small business come closer to independent's needs
  • Twitter: @sadukie https://twitter.com/sadukie
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sadukie/

In this episode, I discuss how I started out my self-employed journey 13 years ago (summer of 2009).

1. Spoke with friends of my who were independent consultants
2. Found Client #1
3. Left full time job in August 2009
4. Started working on a project for Client #1
   1. Tracked hours in Excel
   2. Notes about work in paper notebook (low tech)
5. Setup LLC
   1. Picking a name was hard
   2. Got my Employer Identification Number
6. Opened a Checking account for the Business (Multi-national bank)
   1. Moved following year, so was nice it wasn't a small local bank
7. Got a Credit Card for the Business
   1. One of my first purchases was Quicken Home & Business to invoice and keep finances organized
8. Got domain name and email for the business
   1. Company name was really too long for domain and email
9. Got an accountant
   1. Local accountant (found on CPA website)
10. Got a lawyer to review contracts
    1. Referral from a friend that has been an independent for years

Please fill out my No Availability Podcast Survey for Independents and Freelancers to help me understand who you are or email me at jason@noavailability.com.

In this episode, I cover some differences between being a full-time employee and a self-employeed professional.

1. Fulltime employee (FTE) career development
   1. Get good at what you do
      1. Often happens by "sharpening the saw" on your own time
   2. Often get more responsibility for what you are good at
      1. Don't always get to do new things if you are good at something
      2. Good = more responsibility
   3. Throw more time at projects when need to
      1. No need to "ask" in order to work more time on something
      2. Costs the company the same, since salary is set
2. Reasons to hire Independent Consultant
   1. Skills
      1. Seen as an expert or at least highly qualified on solutions a client needs
      2. More experience with newer technologies than FTE
   2. Convenience
      1. Use for short term, more flexible than hiring/firing employee
3. Managing expectations
   1. Independent Consultant, Contractor or Freelancer?
      1. Independent Consultant = expert, higher cost, shorter term engagement, tax purposes 1099, control your own schedule
         1. Hired to be the expert on a topic or solution the client needs
         2. Important to understand requirements before starting billable work
         3. Can't just throw more time at a difficult problem without eating that time yourself
      2. Contractor = highly qualified, staff augmentation, can cost higher for client (while not earning more as contractor), longer term engagement, tax purposes could be W2 for contract agency or 1099, work on client's schedule (or predetermined and agreed schedule)
         1. Often hired to add to augment an existing team
         2. Able to just start billable work once onboarded
         3. If difficult problems arise and communication is clear with the team, often can just put more time into them (like a FTE)
      3. Freelancer = non-employee, project or short term deliverables (though could be on a reoccurring basis), tax purposes 1099, work on your own schedule
         1. Often hired to deliver a specific deliverable
         2. Likely to bill for the deliverable, not the process of the work
         3. Like an Independent Consultant, you are expected to know what the short term deliverable requires before starting the work
         4. Like a mix of the Independent Consultant and Contractor, it depends on the difficult scenario, you may or may not be able to charge for it.