1.
500-Level Guide to
Career Internals
Brent Ozar, Brent Ozar Unlimited

2.
Brent Ozar
Consultant, Brent Ozar Unlimited
I make SQL Server faster and more reliable.
I created sp_Blitz® and the SQL Server First
Responder Kit, and I loves sharing knowledge at
BrentOzar.com. I hold a bunch of certifications and
awards including the rare Microsoft Certified Master.
You don’t care about any of that though.
/brentozar @brento brentozar

3.
Abstract
This is not yet another career session that tells you to be friendly and
network. Forget that - this is about using your IT skills to reinvent the
way you get paid. Brent will explain how he went from DBA to MVP to
MCM to business founder.
Brent will show you simple techniques to build a blog, a brand, and a
business without that pesky personal networking stuff. He will explain
why you have to give everything away for free, and why you cannot rely
on the old methods to make money anymore.
It will not be easy - and that is why this session is level 500. This session
is about radical methods that achieve radical results.

4.
I am not selling
anything.
(”So, uh, why are you doing this?”)
4

5.
This is for you.
No questions are off limits.
Questions:
BrentOzar.com/go/ask
5

6.
This presentation is for 2004 Brent.

7.
2000: started a blog, wrote about anything and everything
2005: slowly focused more on SQL Server
2006: started writing white papers, recording webcasts
2008: stumbled into a job as an evangelist
2009: learned a ton from a marketing department
2010: got enough side work that I started consulting
2011: started consulting & training company with friends
I did this the long, hard way.
7

8.
Blog posts started showing up in Google
My face showed up in weekly webcasts
Early adopter of Twitter
Presented anywhere that would have me
Zero to getting unsolicited job offers: ten years.
Over time, more people knew me.
8

9.
Phase 1: Do this for jobs you’re applying for.
Before people interview you, they’re going to Google you.
You’re in control of what they find.
Phase 2: Do this to get jobs you didn’t know existed.
Build up an online presence and people will start sending
you short-term and long-term work out of nowhere.
There’s 2 reasons to do this.
9

10.
Why We Gotta Do It:
• What success means to me
• Why salespeople get it, and I don’t
Building the Project Plan:
• Learning what you get paid for
• Defining what you’re good at now
• Designing your 1-year sharing plan
Phase 1: Starting a Presence Phase 2: Spreading the Word
Marketing:
• Knowing what makes you, you
• Inbound vs outbound marketing
• Why you have to give it all away
Agenda
10

11.
Career success
And why I couldn’t figure out
how to get it
11

12.
What career success means to me
Doing challenging work I love
Being surrounded by people I admire
Working for a company that I respect
A fair trade between hours I put in, and the reward
The ability to make that tradeoff choice myself
(Success doesn't have to be working for yourself, or being a consultant, or
working four hours per week. It CAN be those, but it doesn't have to be.)

13.
What career failure means to me
Doing boring work I hate
Being surrounded by people I don’t look up to
Working for a company that I’m ashamed of
An unfair relationship between my hours and my pay
Inability to take time off when I want to
(This isn’t just full time jobs:
I know consultants & business owners who feel like they’re failing, too.)

14.
Success: not having to job hunt at all. People bringing fun
opportunities that are a perfect next step for me.
Failure: submitting resumes into a huge pile of strangers,
fighting for a crappy job I don’t even really want.
What job hunting success means to me

15.
We fail because we suck at networking.

16.
Q: In order to meet new people, I:
1. Read stuff online, getting to know the authors
2. Talk with others in forums, Twitter, Facebook
3. Go to in-person events and hoping others
introduce themselves to me
4. Go to in-person events and breaking the ice by
introducing myself to other folks

17.
Q: My personal network is:
1. Ethernet or WiFi
2. A few folks that I've worked with in the past
3. Dozens of people I've met online (but not IRL)
in the database community
4. Hundreds of people that I stay in touch with
and meet up with regularly to keep growing

18.
Q: To get ready for my next job, I:
1. Uh, wait, is this about the office supplies I stole?
2. Tune into webcasts every few months that cover
topics I'm already working with
3. Every month, I learn about new things outside of
my comfort zone
4. As I learn and grow each month, keep my resume
and LinkedIn up to date with what I'm doing

19.
Q: For my career growth, I set aside:
1. None
2. 1-4 hours per week
3. 1 day per week
4. 2 days per week

20.
Q: I give back to the community by:
1. I don't.
2. Being a good attendee by filling out feedback
forms and leaving constructive blog post
comments
3. By doing things online like blogging
4. By doing things in person like volunteering,
presenting, and organizing a user group

21.
Now add up your points.

22.
5-7 points:
First, think about who's
responsible for your career.

23.
14-20 points:
You don't need this session.

24.
The rest of you need this session.
I certainly did.

25.
2004 Brent’s job hunt

26.
I make SQL Server go faster.

27.
I measure stuff for a living.

28.
but I didn’t measure my career.

29.
big irrelevant data

30.
salesperson’s metric #1: rainfall

31.
Salespeople are coin-operated.
They take a percentage of incoming revenue.
To do that, they have to understand:
• What customers need
• What they’re willing to pay for it
• How to get the customers to let go of the money
• How to get their company to actually do the work

32.
Salesperson’s metric #2:
how many people know me?

33.
How salespeople work that metric
Go to in-person networking events
Cold call strangers
Send out fliers
Go to places where their customers might be
Gradually build up their Rolodex over time

34.
Old-school networking sucks
It requires being in a certain place at a certain time, and
you don't have that free time (salespeople do)
It's not Web Scale: unless you get an auditorium, it's only a
few people at a time, and it can't go viral
We don't have people skills

35.
Mission #1: figure out what I get paid for
Mission #2: figure out how to get known for doing that
Thinking like a less-slimy salesperson
35

36.
Why some roles
make more money
Let’s play a game.
36

37.
1. Free: Google it, read blog posts, Stack answers
2. Pay $50, and spend days reading a book
3. Pay $200, and spend hours watching a video
4. Pay $3,000, and go to a class or conference at some
point in the future
5. Pay $10,000 and hire someone who’s done it
Options to relieve a pain

38.
Pain:
you’re building a new SQL Server,
and you want to know best practices
for configuring TempDB.

39.
1. Free: Google it, read blog posts, Stack answers
2. Pay $50, and spend days reading a book
3. Pay $200, and spend hours watching a video
4. Pay $3,000, and go to a class or conference at some
point in the future
5. Pay $10,000 and hire someone who’s done it
Learn TempDB best practices

40.
Pain:
your application does a lot of work in
TempDB, and it’s slow, and users are
complaining.

41.
1. Free: Google it, read blog posts, Stack answers
2. Pay $50, and spend days reading a book
3. Pay $200, and spend hours watching a video
4. Pay $3,000, and go to a class or conference at some
point in the future
5. Pay $10,000 and hire someone who’s done it
Fixing slow TempDB & queries

42.
Pain:
your app is still slow even after the
team has read a lot and tried a lot of
things, and the slowness is keeping
your business from selling products.

43.
1. Free: Google it, read blog posts, Stack answers
2. Pay $50, and spend days reading a book
3. Pay $200, and spend hours watching a video
4. Pay $3,000, and go to a class or conference at some
point in the future
5. Pay $10,000 and hire someone who’s done it
Escalating the TempDB problem

44.
Pain:
you want to offload report queries to a
read-only server, and you want to
figure out what SQL feature to use.

45.
1. Free: Google it, read blog posts, Stack answers
2. Pay $50, and spend days reading a book
3. Pay $200, and spend hours watching a video
4. Pay $3,000, and go to a class or conference at some
point in the future
5. Pay $10,000 and hire someone who’s done it
Picking scale-out read features

46.
Pain:
replication to the report server keeps
breaking, and reports show old data.

47.
1. Free: Google it, read blog posts, Stack answers
2. Pay $50, and spend days reading a book
3. Pay $200, and spend hours watching a video
4. Pay $3,000, and go to a class or conference at some
point in the future
5. Pay $10,000 and hire someone who’s done it
Fixing replication & reports

48.
Pain:
replication keeps breaking, and when
you re-initialize it, the primary server
falls over, and takes your web site down
with it.

49.
1. Free: Google it, read blog posts, Stack answers
2. Pay $50, and spend days reading a book
3. Pay $200, and spend hours watching a video
4. Pay $3,000, and go to a class or conference at some
point in the future
5. Pay $10,000 and hire someone who’s done it
No really, fix the replication problem

50.
There’s a pattern here.

51.
Mild or no
business pain
Severe
business pain
Not urgent
Very urgent
What do people pay for?
51

52.
Mild or no
business pain
Severe
business pain
Not urgent Let’s talk about this.
Very urgent
What do people pay for?
52

53.
“I’m curious and I just wondered something.”
“I want to know best practices for ___.”
“Fragmentation is high, and I want help fixing it.”
Note that there’s no business risk or urgency.
Not urgent, mild business pain

54.
Build blog posts, YouTube videos, or other self-help
resources that people can consume on their schedule
Expect a lot of “just curious” questions
Don’t expect any direct revenue
Great for building your brand over time:
• SQLAuthority.com, Books Online
• Vendor webcasts
Solving non-urgent, mild pains

55.
Mild or no
business pain
Severe
business pain
Not urgent
Very urgent Let’s talk about this.
What do people pay for?
55

56.
“My restore to dev is taking forever. Why?”
“A long-running query is rolling back. What do I do?”
“I’m building a new server for next week. How should I
configure TempDB?”
The urgency is coming from the SQL Server person,
but not necessarily from the business users.
Urgent, but mild business pain

57.
In your spare time: watch #SQLhelp on Twitter,
StackOverflow.com, DBA.StackExchange.com.
For a living: get a database support job at Microsoft, an app
vendor, or a large company.
Expect to work with under-trained people who never seem
to get better (but it’s just that they’re rotating.)
Solving urgent (but mild) pains

58.
Mild or no
business pain
Severe
business pain
Not urgent Let’s talk about this.
Very urgent
What do people pay for?
58

59.
“Our reports are taking forever to run, and they’re slowing
down production. We should build a data warehouse.”
“The SAN is really slow, and we need to figure out how to
make it go faster, but we don’t want to make changes to
this dangerous system.”
The business wants to improve something,
but they’re afraid, and they know it’s a big project.
Non-urgent, but painful

60.
Woohoo, finally some money!

61.
Long, paid engagements that involve:
• Budgets (often large)
• Approvals with committees
• Long projects (months or years)
• Full time staff positions, consultants, contractors
• Vendors for hardware, software, services
• Long sales cycles (months or years)
Solving non-urgent, painful issues

62.
Experienced architects and communicators
• Neil DeGrasse Tyson
• Alton Brown
• Adam Savage
Multiple hands-on doers: lower rates, and typically done
through a big consulting/contracting company
Who companies hire for this

63.
“I need to build a data warehouse. What do I do?”
The person asking this:
• Doesn’t have any budgetary approval
• Is likely getting you to do their job
• Will never stop asking questions
• Won’t pay you a single dime
These issues pop up online too.

64.
Mild or no
business pain
Severe
business pain
Not urgent
Very urgent Let’s talk about this.
What do people pay for?
64

65.
“Our SQL Server falls over every time we run a sale, and
these outages are costing us millions of dollars.”
“The database is corrupt, and business has stopped.”
The business wants to improve something,
and money is no object, and sales cycles are short.
Urgent, severe business pain

66.
Large businesses call other large businesses
Small businesses call other small businesses
Individuals call on individuals
Company size dictates pain relief
66

67.
Giant companies aren’t calling you and me.

68.
Large companies usually do one of these:
Keep a full time team of experts on staff to put out fires as
they occur, or
Have a relationship with a large consulting company with a
large full time team of experts, or
Call hardware/software vendors for support.
How large companies relieve it

69.
Don’t have these urgent, severe pains very often
Can’t keep a full time team of experts busy
Aren’t large enough to get urgent turnaround with a large
consulting company
May not enjoy calling vendors for support
Small to midsize companies

70.
Solutions here are less about advice,
more about hiring an expert to do the work right now.
The budgets here are actually less than non-urgent, but
severe pains – the work involved is shorter/faster.
The sales cycles are very short: hours or days.
The more urgent and severe the pain,
the faster the sales cycle.
Solving these pains for small businesses

71.
“My server is down. What do I do?”
Again, the person asking this:
• Doesn’t have any budgetary approval
• Is likely getting you to do their job
• Will never stop asking questions
• Often asks it in entirely the wrong place
• Won’t pay you any money
When a real mission-critical server is down,
the business doesn’t post it on a forum.
These issues pop up online too.

72.
Mild or no
business pain
Severe
business pain
Not urgent
Build free online resources,
build up your reputation
Payment: reputation
Be an FTE for a large
consulting company
on large projects
Payment: money
Very urgent
Work a help desk or
answer Stack questions
Payment: small money or
reputation
Be an FTE at a large company,
or a consultant focusing on a
specific pain point
Payment: money
Understand where money is.
72

73.
Mild or no
business pain
Severe
business pain
Not urgent
Build free online resources,
build up your reputation
Payment: reputation
Be an FTE for a large
consulting company
on large projects
Payment: money
Very urgent
Work a help desk or
answer Stack questions
Payment: small money or
reputation
Be an FTE at a large company,
or a consultant focusing on a
specific pain point
Payment: money
Understand where money is.
73
The long route:
you can blog about these to
gradually work your way up to
fame, and then start bringing
in money.
This is blogging for
jobs you’re applying for.

74.
Pick popular topics
Write one post per week for several years
Work on your SEO
Gradually build up an audience of thousands
This is the route I took.
It’s the long, slow way.
Long route details
74

75.
Mild or no
business pain
Severe
business pain
Not urgent
Build free online resources,
build up your reputation
Payment: reputation
Be an FTE for a large
consulting company
on large projects
Payment: money
Very urgent
Work a help desk or
answer Stack questions
Payment: small money or
reputation
Be an FTE at a large company,
or a consultant focusing on a
specific pain point
Payment: money
Understand where money is.
75
Shorter route:
blog about these to work
your way directly into a job
or consulting business.
This is blogging for
jobs being given to you.

76.
Design the thing you want to hold in your hand in 1 year:
e-book, presentation, pre-con class
Write a plan to build that thing
Work the plan, getting feedback from your peers,
but sticking with the plan
Shorter route details
76

77.
Mild or no
business pain
Severe
business pain
Not urgent
Build free online resources,
build up your reputation
Payment: reputation
Be an FTE for a large
consulting company
on large projects
Payment: money
Very urgent
Work a help desk or
answer Stack questions
Payment: small money or
reputation
Be an FTE at a large company,
or a consultant focusing on a
specific pain point
Payment: money
Where will you aim for this year?
77

78.
Building your
sharing plan
Start by understanding what
you can build
78

79.
Inbound marketing
means building stuff.

80.
Building stuff takes time.

81.
Define common learning/marketing tasks
• How they benefit your skills
• How they help your marketing
• How long they take to build
Define how much time you’ll dedicate per year
Build a learning/marketing plan for next year
Let’s cover:

82.
Writing: blog posts, white papers, books
Presentations at user groups, SQLSaturdays, PASS
Videos: podcasts, YouTube, webcasts, video classes
Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Networking: community volunteering, UG organizing
Common learning/marketing tasks

83.
They force you to learn.
They help as many people as possible
with as little time as possible on your part.
They act as inbound marketing,
gradually building up your brand.
They have a stairstep approach to building a larger product
that can pay you later.
The best tasks do 4 things.

84.
Write the 2017 pre-con abstract you want to give.
Write a blog post about each bullet point.
Build several of the blog posts into a 45-minute
presentation.
Give the presentations individually at local user groups,
SQLSaturdays, and vendor webcasts.
Assemble them into a 6-hour pre-con.
Example: stairstep to a pre-con

85.
Writing: blog posts, white papers, books
Presentations at user groups, SQLSaturdays, PASS
Videos: podcasts, YouTube, webcasts, video classes
Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Networking: community volunteering, UG organizing
Notice how some of these escalate?

86.
Google SEO (assuming the writing is public)
Does double duty: can grow into presentations
Gaining new audience members over time
Can even get direct payments as the material grows
Writing: marketing benefits

87.
Blog post: 1-8 hours
White paper: 1-2 days per page, 10-30 pages typical
Book: 1-2 days per page, 200-400 pages typical
Writing: time requirements

88.
Picking a topic
Writing the first draft
Following up on comments/questions
White paper & book: coordinating with your publisher
And on the higher end:
• Demos and screenshots
• Peer review
• Grammatical review
These estimates include:

89.
If you own what you write,
you can combine multiple small pieces
to build one bigger, differently-marketed piece.
If you write blog posts first, you can build an e-book,
and either distribute it yourself or sell it.
If you write a book first for a conventional publisher, you
may not be able to reuse that material yourself.
You have to own your work.

90.
The times and places when you have ideas are different
than the times and places when you write.
Store your ideas somewhere:
• RememberTheMilk.com
• Note tools like EverNote or OneNote
• Github
Ideas strike constantly.

91.
Set aside a window on your calendar for writing.
(Mine: Saturdays & Sundays, 6AM-10AM.)
Open up your idea list.
Grab one, and just start writing.
The first one will probably suck, and that’s okay.
Just keep typing.
Then, writing time is easier.

92.
Never click publish.
Only click Schedule.

93.
Remember that first post that sucked?
You may end up ripping it out of the schedule queue, but
leaving it in your idea list.
Build up a rhythm with your readers:
• BrentOzar.com – Tues, Weds, Thurs
• Ozar.me – Tuesday mornings
No blog post goes live until you have 3 in the queue.
Your work should be timeless anyway, right?
(News journalism is different – but it’s throwaway work.)
Scheduling blog posts

94.
You have a limited amount of time, so:
• Write evergreen content.
• Build up towards something larger.
• Write a table of contents for an e-book or a one-day
training class.
• If a post topic doesn’t fit into your e-book or class, and it
doesn’t convey your brand, think twice.
Build up. Avoid throwaway work.

95.
“How” posts give detailed instructions and checklists.
• They’re great for SEO – people are looking for specific instructions
on how to do complex stuff.
• However, people don’t want to read “how” posts unless they’re
solving a specific problem.
“Why” posts talk about concepts.
• Regular readers love you for these.
• But few people search for these kinds of posts.
Why vs how: you need both.

96.
On writing days,
don’t write until you run dry.
Stop short.
Leave yourself a cool place to start on
your next writing day.

97.
Blog post: 1-8 hours
White paper: 1-2 days per page, 10-30 pages typical
Book: 1-2 days per page, 200-400 pages typical
Writing time requirements

98.
Writing: blog posts, white papers, books
Presentations at user groups, SQLSaturdays, PASS
Videos: podcasts, YouTube, webcasts, video classes
Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Networking: community volunteering, UG organizing
Next let’s cover presenting.

99.
Builds your brand in front of customers:
your audience is your future customer base.
Can get direct payment in the form of conference fees, pre-
con classes, and training class ticket sales, but only after a
few years.
Marketing benefits of presenting

100.
Your audience is your future customer base,
but that future is almost never tomorrow or next week.
It’s not for everybody.
With every session, your work disappears into thin air.
Drawbacks of presenting

101.
5-10 minute lightning talk: 1-2 hours
1-hour user group session: 8-16 hours
6-hour pre-con: 48-96 hours
One-week class: 6-12 weeks
Don’t build 6-hour or one-week classes from scratch.
Time requirements

102.
1. Write the 2017 pre-con abstract you want to give.
2. Write a blog post about each bullet point.
3. Build several of the blog posts into a 45-minute
presentation.
4. Give the presentations individually at local user groups,
SQLSaturdays, and vendor webcasts.
5. Assemble them into a 6-hour pre-con.
Stairstep to a pre-con

103.
Writing: blog posts, white papers, books
Presentations at user groups, SQLSaturdays, PASS
Videos: podcasts, YouTube, webcasts, video classes
I put these in order for a reason.

104.
Writing: blog posts, white papers, books
Presentations at user groups, SQLSaturdays, PASS
Videos: podcasts, YouTube, webcasts, video classes
Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Networking: community volunteering, UG organizing
Next let’s cover videos.

105.
Can leverage the posts and presentations you’ve built
Builds a cult of personality that writing can’t:
people feel like they know you already
Marketing benefits of videos

106.
Google SEO is harder
Videos are harder to scan and digest fast
People may not stick around for the whole thing
Good production quality is time-consuming
Harder to reuse video content into a paid product (without
taking the free videos down first)
Drawbacks of videos (vs writing)

107.
Podcast or YouTube video: 5x the runtime
(10 minute podcast = 50 minutes of work)
Webcast: 2-4x the runtime
(1 hour webcast = 2-4 hours of work)
Video class: 10x-20x the runtime
These estimates do not include content authoring.
Time requirements

108.
Set up and maintain your audio/video gear
Record/deliver the material
Polish it up in post-production (fix goofs, add titles)
Webcast and classes: coordinate w/revenue collectors
And on the higher end: pitching to revenue collectors, peer
review, updating material
Why so long? You have to:

109.
Getting started with webcasts
Gear Model Price
Webcam Logitech C930e USB – autofocus lens, wide
field of view
$110
Microphone Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB Studio Package –
microphone, preamp, headphones
$250
Mic stand Neewer Microphone Boom Scissor Arm $15
Mic shock
mount
Olymstore Metal Shock Mount $15
Total $390

110.
YouTube videos:
• Build your reputation over time
• Easy to embed in your own blog
Live webcasts:
• More fun with audience interaction (if you get it)
• Harder to record with good quality
• If you can’t get good recordings, this is throwaway work, so it’d
better pay off.
The end result

111.
Periscope: live videos from your phone
Twitch, Google Hangouts: people watch you do stuff
Vendor webcasts:
• Get paid to deliver inbound marketing content
• Vendor manages the infrastructure, recordings
• You don’t get the leads, so include your brand and links to your
work
If you’re doing throwaway work:

112.
Pluralsight:
• Members pay monthly fee
• You get paid based on viewed hours, contract
• Can also get an up-front production fee
• You don’t get info about your customers
• Screencasts only, no personal branding
• Tough abstract review process, competition
Udemy, Kajabi Next: you set the topic and the content, and
collect a percentage of each sale.
Self-hosted: you control everything.
Video training class hosting

113.
Podcast or YouTube video: 5x the runtime
(10 minute podcast = 50 minutes of work)
Webcast: 2-4x the runtime
(1 hour webcast = 2-4 hours of work)
Video class: 10x-20x the runtime
Outsourcing: Odesk, Elance
These estimates do not include content authoring.
Time requirements

114.
Writing: blog posts, white papers, books
Presentations at user groups, SQLSaturdays, PASS
Videos: podcasts, YouTube, webcasts, video classes
Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Networking: community volunteering, UG organizing
Recap of your inbound tools

115.
Define common learning/marketing tasks
• How they benefit your skills
• How they help your marketing
• How long they take to build
Define how much time you’ll dedicate per year
Build a learning/marketing plan for 2016
Now let’s cover the last two.

116.
Block out time for work, family, hobbies. What’s left?
Be realistic about your work week.
Sun Mon Tues Weds Thurs Fri Sat
6-8AM
8-10
10-Noon
Noon-2
2-4PM
4-6
6-8
8-10
10-Midnt

117.
Writing: Blog post: takes average of 4 hours
Presenting: 1-hour user group session: 12 hours
Video/webcast: 1-hour runtime: 4 hours
(after writing the presentation)
Other tasks to block out time for:
learning, researching topics, playing with blog themes
Task time requirements

118.
My personal building hours: Sat & Sun, 6AM-10AM
That’s 8 hours per week, which means I either do:
• 2 blog posts, or
• 1 blog post, and work on my blog plumbing
(SEO, Google Analytics, themes), or
• A presentation like this one (which I did on a couple of weekends)
• Learning/research
At the end of a year, I (hopefully) have 52 blog posts that I
can bundle together into a class or an e-book.
This becomes your sharing plan.

119.
120

120.
It means your work has to:
• Be evergreen (timeless)
• Roll into a snowball
• Be perfict
• Serve as many purposes as possible
Your time is the hardest part.
121

121.
Marketing
I promise this isn’t
as sleazy as it sounds
122

122.
First, know yourself.
No, do not take your clothes off.
123

123.
I’ll show you a brand.
Write down 3 words.

124.
Your brand
is what you mean to people.
129

125.
Your product and what it does
Your customer
Quality: top tier or everyday
Cost: luxury item or bargain
Accessibility and friendliness
Your place in the market
relative to others
Brand words can describe…

126.
Companies take this seriously.

127.
Know yourself,
and what makes you unique.

128.
2010:
Technical,
approachable, and
likeable.

129.
2016:
pain-relieving,
experienced, and
provocative.

130.
What you do, who you do it for, quality, cost, accessibility,
availability, your place in the market, where you live, your
hobbies, family, pets …
driven, results oriented, motivated, genuine, trustworthy, goto, trusted advisor,
reliable, confident, honest, connected, people, technology, omniscient, customer
obsession, leading, honesty, integrity, loyalty, skill, deep, clear, communicator,
reliable, thorough, caring, reliable, pragmatic, friendly, data, automation,
guidance, data mining, automation, community, approachable, problem-solving,
teacher, leader, authentic, realistic, well-connected, experienced, trustworthy,
leadership, honest, integrity, creativity, informed, special operations, productive,
honorable, dependable, connected, knowledgeable, helpful, teacher, passionate,
energetic, excited, results oriented, British, dataveloper, bridge, funformative
Pick 3-10 words to describe you.

131.
Easier to stand out in a crowd
Less people compete with you
Your message is easier to hear
Unique, specific brands are strong.

132.
If you’re trying to be the same thing that everyone else is
trying to be:
• You have too many competitors
• You have too low-priced of competitors
• You have to spend a fortune to get your message out
“I compete with the Geek Quad, Microsoft support, huge
consulting companies like IBM, and everybody in between.”
Similar, general brands are weak.

133.
Pick the 3 words that stand out from
others, and mean the most to you.

134.
Use them in a sentence or two
Describe your service
Be comfortable saying this out loud
These words are your elevator pitch.
139

135.
Marketing: inbound
or outbound?
140

136.
Marketing
is simply getting the public to know
your 3 words.

137.
If you’re only doing marketing part time,
your brand name has to be your own name.
Sure, it’s fun to think of funny stuff like @SQLSuperhero.
But you don’t have enough marketing resources to own
that brand name outright.
If you have a common name, use your full name.
1. Picking a brand name

138.
Outbound marketing: fast, but expensive gamble:
• Design ad campaigns telling people about your brand, emphasizing
your brand words
• Buy a lot of ad space, and put your ads there
Inbound marketing: slow, but cheap and sure thing:
• Build valuable content that people want
• Build your brand image into that content
• People look for your content and learn your brand
2. Getting people to memorize it

139.
If you know a topic well,
you want inbound marketing.

140.
Writing: blog posts, white papers, books
Presentations at user groups, SQLSaturdays, PASS
Videos: podcasts, YouTube, webcasts, video classes
Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
The stuff you build has to convey your brand words.
Inbound marketing tools

141.
Stories about experiences
Code samples
Pictures and art
Topics
Put your brand in what you build

142.
Take a lesson from outbound marketing:
Outbound marketing
is not subtle.

143.
Inbound marketing can’t be subtle either.

144.
Build things people want to read or consume.
Inside the things, include your brand words or themes.
Don’t be afraid to repeat your brand words over and over
and over and over and over and over and over.
Doing inbound marketing

145.
Writing: blog posts, white papers, books
Presentations at user groups, SQLSaturdays, PASS
Videos: podcasts, YouTube, webcasts, video classes
Social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
They will pay you to build it,
and they don’t mind
if it has your brand words too.
Vendors want inbound material too.

146.
Giving it away
159

147.
160

148.
What’s your
product?

149.
When you’re trying to sell a book or a video, it’s obvious.
You charge for the product, but you give away your time.
When you’re trying to get a job, the product is you.
Give away your work online, but charge for your time.

150.
Examples of free stuff
The Martian by Andy Weir
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
Linux by Linus Torvalds
163

151.
Examples of free stuff
The Martian by Andy Weir
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
Linux by Linus Torvalds
Answers at StackOverflow.com, DBA.StackExchange.com
Training at SQLServerCentral.com, SQLPerformance.com
Scripts like Ola.Hallengren.com, sp_WhoIsActive
164

152.
The 500-Level Career Secrets
If it can be given away for free, someone will.
If you can give it away for free, then you should.
Giving knowledge, scripts, videos away for free will build
you an online reputation.
If you build a 12-month plan and stick to it, you can win.
165

153.
Resources
16
6

154.
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Blue Ocean Strategy by Mauborgne & Kim
ProBlogger by Garrett & Rowse
The Secrets of Consulting by Gerald Weinberg
50 Management Ideas by Russell-Walling
The Cluetrain Manifesto, Theses 1-40
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
Books I recommend, in order

155.
My bookmarks: pinboard.in/u:brento

156.
Tags to check out:
• Business
• Career
• Inspiration
• Management
• Startup
My bookmarks: pinboard.in/u:brento
169

157.
Steve Kamb – NerdFitness.com, Level Up Your Life
Mike Taber & Rob Walling – StartupsForTheRestOfUs.com,
FounderCafe.com
Brennan Dunn – DoubleYourFreelancing.com
People who’ve done it and shared
170

158.
Recap
17
1

159.
Why We Gotta Do It:
• What success means to me
• Why salespeople get it, and I don’t
Building the Project Plan:
• Learning what you get paid for
• Defining what you’re good at now
• Designing your 1-year sharing plan
Phase 1: Starting a Presence Phase 2: Spreading the Word
Marketing:
• Knowing what makes you, you
• Inbound vs outbound marketing
• Why you have to give it all away
Agenda
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160.
Thank You
Learn more from
Brent Ozar
help@brentozar.com or follow @BrentO