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11 Tips for New Digital Nomads

One thing I love about being a professional writer is that I get to do my job from anywhere. I don’t need a massive desk or a richly appointed office. (Although I do surround myself with books in my home office.) I’m a digital nomad.

My mobile office is a Filson briefcase I won about nine years ago where I carry all my essentials. As long as I have wifi and maybe access to an electrical outlet, I can work. As long as I have that, I can work anytime, anywhere.

I’ve been working as a digital nomad for 16 years, even when I had my an office. First in Indianapolis, Indiana and now in Orlando, Florida. I’ve visited hundreds of coffee shops, both corporate and independent, and I’ve made some of them my regular stops. Some of them I couldn’t leave quickly enough.

And while I haven’t achieved a #vanlife level of nomadicity (nomadic-ness?), I still consider myself a digital nomad who can do my job with a 13″ MacBook Pro and a Moleskine notebook.

Here is a list of things I have learned about being a digital nomad and making your city your office.

1. Keep your gear powered up

You would think I wouldn’t have to say this, but I went to a coffee shop with someone who shall remain nameless (but it was my son), and his laptop battery was at 6%. Luckily, we found a plug, and he was able to charge up. When you get home each night, plug everything in for the next day. Monitor your computer’s battery health. I use Coconut Battery to check every month.

Take advantage of free power whenever you can. If you find a coffee shop or restaurant that has plugs near your seat, use the power. Your next stop may see you running on battery for a few hours. Otherwise, plug in as soon as you get home and run any backups on your day’s work.

It also doesn’t hurt to carry an extra power bank. I like the Anker 20,000mAh chargers (affiliate link), but whatever you get, make sure it’s fast-charging. I also like the cordless banks. (There are some with built-in charging cords, but I worry what will happen if the cord breaks.)

2. Have a roster of regular stops

I have several favorite coffee shops, fast food restaurants, and even a pizza place (shout out to Lazy Moon UCF!) where I do my work. I know which tables have plugs nearby, and I plan my work sessions on their traffic patterns and busy-ness. (For example, weekends at Lazy Moon between lunch and dinner are ideal because the place is nearly empty, especially when the University of Central Florida is on break.)

Become a regular if you can, and get to know the staff. Be friendly and chat whenever you buy something. This way, you’ll stand out, and they’ll look out for you as they get to know you better. (Be sure to buy something every 90 minutes to two hours. Don’t just buy a small coffee and camp for eight hours.)

And don’t forget to tip!

3. Participate in the loyalty programs

If you go to the same places over and over, download their loyalty app. You may only get a small discount, like $5 off after 10 purchases, but a little something is better than a big nothing.

Supporting the loyalty program puts money back in your pocket through bonuses and special offers. It may not seem like much, but those freebies are a nice little treat when you’re trying to stretch your dollars. If you don’t like the freebies, then give them to someone else.

4. Shop local as much as possible

You’re a local entrepreneur, so support local businesses whenever you can. If you can go to an indie coffee shop or restaurant whenever you’re out, that’s great. The more you support local businesses, the more they’re going to be around.

5. Meet at indie coffee shops

Once you have your regular shops that you like to visit and you’re getting to know the staff, make sure you have your meetings at those places. Invite as many people as you can to those shops so they see you bringing in new people.

That not only shows your loyalty to the shop, you’re promoting them on your behalf. You’re helping their customer base grow so they can continue to grow and thrive themselves. I have one favorite coffee and donut place in Orlando that sponsors my local 1 Million Cups chapter. As I’ve gotten to know them, and they continue to provide their fresh-made donuts to us every week, I hold most of my networking meetings there. It’s a nice way to say thank you for their generosity.

6. But you can’t beat cheap

Still, if you’re watching your money, you can’t beat a $2 Coke at McDonald’s. You can sit for a couple of hours and work on just a single drink. I don’t recommend doing this every day since it’s not that good for you.

But if you only need a temporary office for a couple of hours, the Golden Arches has you covered, and they’re all over the place. It’s a great place to stop if you need to send a quick email while you’re on a road trip. Just be aware that many McDonalds don’t have electrical outlets, which is why you need to keep your equipment charged.

7. So join Panera’s Sip Club

First, I hate the word “sip” almost as much as I hate “moist.”

BUT I like saving money. And with the Panera Sip Club, I can go to a different Panera every two hours and get coffee, tea, or soft drinks. Or I can sit in one location and get free refills while I’m there.

I sometimes stop in, grab a table, and drink some coffee while I enjoy the free wifi. In fact, I know a guy whose neighborhood Panera is his office, and he’s literally there six or seven hours per day. (I’m not kidding.)

I just joined the Sip Club last week — it costs $15/month or $99/year if you pay annually — and I often go to the Panera near my house. I’ve already spotted several regulars who park at their same tables all day, every day, so it’s a viable remote location.

I know it’s not a local shop, but honestly, the redacted Club pays for itself in five visits. (And if you sign up via the app, you can get the first two months free.)

8. Get a VPN

Public wifi is wildly unsecure. You need to protect yourself, and a VPN is the best way to do it. Several years ago, I bought a lifetime subscription to VPN Unlimited for $69.99. It’s normally $199, but you can get it for $69.99 right now (non-affiliate link).

Note: One thing I have noticed about McDonald’s wifi is that whenever I visit a web page, the page refuses to load the first time, so I have to reload it a couple times. This has happened at several McDonald’s, so I think it’s a McDonald’s thing, not my computer. (Especially since a Speedtest.net test shows that their wifi is plenty fast.)

One day, I saw that when my VPN was on, the pages loaded normally. This makes me think McDonald’s is monitoring everyone’s web traffic to make sure we’re not up to anything sinister or bad, but it causes issues on our web browsers. I can use my VPN to not only protect my personal data but to improve their wifi performance.

9. Work on your local machine, store it in the cloud

The problem with being a digital nomad is that we’re dependent on wifi. When I first joined the Sip Club, I couldn’t get online in any of the stores. I was able to fix it eventually, but it was enough to almost make me quit the club.

Luckily, I was still able to work because I can access all my articles on my laptop before I upload them to clients. Even this article is being written in Apple Pages before I upload it to my blog.

While a lot of people like working on Google Docs or Microsoft 365, that’s difficult if you don’t have wifi. Yes, you can connect to your phone as a wifi hotspot, but it’s slower than dial-up.

On the other hand, by storing everything in the cloud, you can access it if you ever need to use a different computer. On my laptop, I back up all my in-progress documents on iCloud and back everything up to an external hard drive.

Then, I can access files using my iPhone’s Files app and work on them with a Bluetooth keyboard. Or if I know I won’t have my computer, I’ll save a version to Google Docs and use my iPad and Bluetooth keyboard on the road.

10. Learn how to use Google Drive offline

If you prefer Google Drive, there is a way to use it offline. I can’t tell you how because it’s been years since I tried it. (Find out how to do it here.) When you get back online, everything syncs up between your local files and your Google Drive.

It’s a convenient system if you’re focused on keeping costs down, but I’ve been using Apple’s word processor since it was called MacWrite in the 1980s, and I’ve used every version in between. I have no plans on switching now.

But if you’re an offline Google Drive user, let me hear from you in the comments below. What do you like about it? What makes you stick with it?

11. Set up “office hours” with fellow nomads

The one thing I don’t like about being a digital nomad is the loneliness. Sometimes, I miss working in an office because I miss being around people. (Not enough to go back, of course. A bad day working for myself is better than a great day working for someone else.)

Set up a working meeting with other nomads and work together at the same table for a few hours. You won’t get a lot of work done, but you’ll be able to socialize, get to know a few other people, trade ideas and resources, and it can help you find future collaborators to work with.

Take turns visiting each other’s favorite places and sample new restaurants and coffee shops. You never know when you might find a new regular spot for your journeys.

Being a digital nomad is actually a fun way to work. I get to visit different parts of the city and meet new people. I even created a map of all the indie coffee shops around Central Florida so I can decide where I’m going to spend a good part of my day.

Not to mention, if I ever go on a business trip or vacation, I can pack my briefcase and work from any hotel, restaurant, or coffee shop, no matter where I am. And if I ever just wanted to do a quick bit of work, as long as I have a Bluetooth keyboard and my phone, I’m all set.

Do you have any digital nomad tricks of the trade? Share them in the comments.

Photo credit: Erik Deckers

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13 Things to Do or Not to Do When Connecting With Me for the First Time

There used to be a certain etiquette to asking people to connect on LinkedIn. Salespeople trying to sell. Marketers trying to market. Writers who want to get advice from other writers. You asked permission before you did anything. You made connections with people and developed relationships.

But not anymore. Now, everything is just so blatantly commercial and everyone is asking for something without ever offering anything in return.

Social media has made us lazy, AI is making it even worse. And I’m done with it. If you want to connect with me, follow these 13 steps.

7 Things Not to Do When Connecting With Me for the First Time

  1. Don’t misspell my name. I’ve been alive for five decades, and I’ve been hammered with the wrong spelling for all five. You will not endear yourself to me, and this almost guarantees I won’t respond.
  2. Don’t ask me for a meeting to discuss your product. Is this really the first thing you ask your prospects? I don’t even know you. Do you ask people you just met for a date? Did you propose to your spouse on the first date? Why is your first ever email to me an invitation to hear about a product I don’t even know if I want? Nurture the relationships before you try to close anything.
  3. Don’t ask me to pick my brain for free. I believe in helping people and sharing knowledge, but meeting with you takes time. I won’t charge you my hourly rate, but at least offer to buy lunch. Having said that, I would LOVE to meet with you and teach you, so please ask. But I’m getting a cheeseburger. With bacon.
  4. Don’t ask for strategies or campaigns. That falls under consulting, and that gets my hourly rate. ($150/hour, 2 hour minimum.) But if we’re friends, I might let things slip and accidentally give you some advice. Over lunch.
  5. Don’t ask me to read over your stuff right off the bat. I will be happy to later. Later. My TBR pile is so big, it has filled three bookcases. I read 72 books per year, and I have way more than 72 books. When I feel emotionally invested in our relationship, I will be EAGER to read your stuff. If you just ask me first thing, it’s going to the bottom of the third bookcase.
  6. Don’t not read my bio. I’m a professional writer and a content marketer. I get paid to write books and do content marketing campaigns. You’d be amazed at the number of people who offer to write a book for me or want to sell me their generative AI services. That’s like selling self-driving cars to chauffeurs.
  7. Use an AI bot to connect with me. There are Chrome plugins that will send the same formulaic emails. I can spot those. I will absolutely refuse to connect with you at all if that’s what you’re doing. You literally have the easiest job in the world: You sit at a computer and move your fingers. Don’t get lazier at that.

6 Things to Do When Connecting With Me for the First Time

  1. Do some basic research beyond my LinkedIn profile. I’ve written several books and numerous articles. Want to catch my attention? Show me that you read them. Better yet, send me a photo of you holding one of my books. You immediately go to the front of the line on everything.
  2. Have a conversation with me. Leave comments on my blog or on my LinkedIn posts. Several comments, not just one-and-done. Show me that you’re paying attention and get on my radar. I’ll notice it and think, “Hmm, that person might be worth talking to.”
  3. Share something about yourself. I like building relationships. I don’t buy from businesses, I buy from people I like. If your very first communication with me is a pitch, I will not be interested. But when friends ask me to help, I may not buy, but I’ll make introductions and referrals.
  4. Add value to our relationship. The thing you sell does not add value, YOU do. Share an article you wrote. Recommend a book or a restaurant. Post a link to a band or a song you think I’d like. Tell me a story about something cool or funny you did.
  5. Read my blogs (like my work blog or my humor blog) A lot of writing and content marketing advice you want help with is probably on my work blog. It’s not that I don’t want to give you the advice, but rather, I wrote the articles because I kept answering the same questions. Read them, and then we’ll talk. Over lunch.
  6. Ask real questions that you would ask someone if you met in person. Again, I believe in relationships. Start a relationship with me. If you were at a networking event, you wouldn’t ask someone you just met for a sales meeting as the very first question, right? You’d make small talk and get to know that person. Make small talk! Ask questions. Not the pre-programmed AI-generated questions you asked the LinkedIn bots to ask. Try to find out things about me, and base those questions on the research you did.

Marketing is hard — well, not that hard. You could be an ironmonger — and it’s being done poorly by people who are looking for shortcuts to avoid the hard work. AI is only making it worse.

Stop looking for shortcuts, stop relying on AI, and start making connections. If you want to connect with me, do it with an eye toward developing a relationship, not booking a sales call with me on your very first communication with me. That’s never going to happen.

Photo credit: Jrouse5 (Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons 4.0)
Photo credit: The Carol M. Highsmith collection, Library of Congress

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Why You Need to Write Your Memoir

A story.

In 1943, when my grandmother, Margarita, was 34, she was living in Bandung, Indonesia with her husband, 12-year-old daughter, and newborn son. At the time, Indonesia was a Dutch colony, but the Indonesian government agreed to let the Japanese army use their islands as a base if they would get rid of the colonizers. So the Japanese rounded up all the Dutch women and put them into internment camps; they put all the Dutch men into work camps.

Margarita’s husband, Wilhelmus, was placed into one of the men’s camps where they were put to work building infrastructure for the Japanese. Do you know the movie, “The Bridge On The River Kwai“? According to family history, Wilhelmus was one of the prisoners forced to build that.

My grandmother, Margarita Blankevoort Binning. I wish I could have written her memoir.
One night, Japanese soldiers showed up to take my grandmother into the women’s camp. In a panic, she grabbed a set of coffee spoons, two left shoes, and a bassinet holding her 3-week-old son.

There were 108,000 Dutch women and children put into internment camps on Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Timor. My grandmother was one of them; fortunately, her newborn son — my father — was not.

She was taken to a way station camp, a clearinghouse, where she would be sorted and sent to a different camp in the area.

Internees were held in more than 350 camps across the Far East. In the internment camps conditions were severe. Food and clothing were generally in short supply and facilities were basic. Conditions varied according to the location of the camps. Those on mainland China fared relatively well, but conditions in the Netherlands East Indies were among the worst and casualties from disease and malnutrition were high.

— A Short History Of Civilian Internment Camps In The Far East

She had been there for two days when she stopped producing the milk her son needed, which meant he had nothing to eat. She told me once, “He never cried. He just opened his mouth to try to nurse, but there was nothing for him.”

So Margarita went to the camp commander and said, “You need to send my son away. There’s nothing for him to eat.”

“Where do you want me to send him?” the commander asked.

“I don’t care,” said Margarita. “He’ll die if he stays here. Please send him away and save his life. At least if he’s not here, he can survive.” She decided she would rather give up her son so he could live than to keep him with her until he died.

That night, more soldiers showed up at the house where her daughter was staying and said, “Come with us.” No explanation, no details. Just, “come with us.”

Her daughter, who was also named Margarita, had a German father, so she had not been taken into the camp with her mother. Instead, she was living with a German woman. And since Japan and Germany were allies, the Japanese soldiers left German citizens alone.

The soldiers escorted young Margarita to the camp, where she was taken to a fence where my grandmother met her. They didn’t speak, neither of them said a word. She just handed her 3-week-old baby over the fence to her daughter and then turned and walked away, still never saying a word. She spent the night shattered and sobbing, refusing to forgive herself for what she had done, frantic about what would become of her son.

Two years later, when the camps were liberated, she was reunited with her two children and her husband, and they left Indonesia and returned to the Netherlands. She later moved to the United States, and my father was 9 years old when he moved to the U.S.

My grandmother, Margarita Blankevoort, at age 36.
My grandmother told me that story, and several others, as I was growing up.

Stories about how thieves blew sleeping powder under the door of their house and then stole all of their furniture in the night. Stories about how Indonesian militia massacred a convoy of Dutch women and children on their way to a Dutch harbor. How she and her children were supposed to be in that convoy, but couldn’t make it, so they went a day later.

She told me stories about growing up in Chile, her life in The Netherlands, her life in Indonesia, and her time in the United States as a young mother.

She’s gone now, passed away at 101, so I can’t ask her questions or learn more of her stories. It’s something I wish I could have spent more time doing, learning stories I could pass on to my kids and grandkids. They never met her, and now they’ll never know her stories.

I can tell them the stories that I know. I could even write them down, but they would be vague generalities and broad sweeps culled from memories of half-heard tales, not rich details.

We have forgotten our great-grandparents. Our great-grandchildren will forget us.

What are your stories? What are the cool, dramatic, exciting, or emotional things that happened to you in your past? What are the life lessons you want to pass on to your kids and grandkids? Would you like your great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren to know who you are?

We have forgotten the fourth generation before us. Many of us — nearly all of us — have never met our great-grandparents. I’ll bet you don’t even know their names.

And our great-grandchildren will never know us. They won’t know our names, what we did, what lessons we taught our own kids. Any stories they hear about us will be mostly forgotten, half-heard, and lacking the rich detail of the original storyteller.

This is why writing your memoir is critical to preserving your life story and leaving a legacy for the people who come after you.

A memoir is more than just your autobiography. More than “This is my life and what happened to me.”

A memoir is your story of “these are the lessons I learned in my life.”

You can pass your memoir on to your family and friends so they know what you stood for and what you accomplished in your life. They’ll know your history, both good and bad, and they’ll remember you for generations to come.

I’m now working on a book about how to write your own memoir, so if you’re interested in hearing more about it, leave a comment or email me, and I’ll let you know when it’s finished.

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How to Give a 6-Minute Presentation at 1 Million Cups

As an entrepreneur, you’ll often be asked to give a pitch about your company and your offering. Of course, there’s the 30-second elevator pitch, the 2-minute pitch, and so on, but you’ll have to pitch your company no matter what you do.

At 1 Million Cups (I lead the Orlando chapter), you have six minutes to give a presentation, followed by 20 minutes of questions, constructive advice, and feedback, about both your company and your presentation.

I’ve seen countless entrepreneurs give what is likely their first presentation, and they blow it. They try to cram as much information into their slides as they can, they fill us up with statistics and stories, and they tell us as much as they can about the problem, its scope, and the heartbreak of whatever it is they’re fixing. They also include their own journey, their history, how they learned about the problem, and how they decided to fix it.

Eugeniu Rotari of Via Typing presenting at 1 Million Cups Orlando.
They have a couple dozen slides — I once saw a presentation that had 30 slides — and they think six minutes is plenty of time to share their vision about how they’re going to solve this problem that’s plaguing millions.

Except they barely get through the first three slides when time runs out.

They failed. We didn’t learn about the company, their work, whether the problem can actually be fixed, or whether they’re the ones capable of doing it.

Ideally, when you have a six-minute presentation, you should have a slide deck with only six slides. Your slide deck should have very little text on it, and it should have stunning visuals. (Those are less important, but still helpful.)

What it should not have:

  • More than 5 bullet points.
  • More than 5 words in each point.
  • Organizational charts.
  • A doctoral dissertation’s worth of industry statistics.

How should your 1 Million Cups presentation should go

This is a Problem-Solution format that tells people, well, what the problem is, and how you can solve it.

Basically, your ideal slide deck should contain the following information.

  1. Opening splash screen
  2. The problem you want to solve
  3. The cost/size of the problem (the TAM, SAM, and SOM)
  4. The solution to the problem
  5. How YOU provide the solution
  6. Your contact info.

Don’t forget, your presentation should start with a story. Not necessarily a story about you, but about a client who benefitted from your work. Tell this while we’re looking at your second slide.

“ABC company had a problem: they were losing $50,000 per month on employee turnover and onboarding. We helped them identify a manager who was causing the high turnover and fed him to alligators. We also created a digital training and onboarding system that turned a three-month, paper-based onboarding process into a process that beamed important company information directly into a person’s brain. The company saved $600,000 per year, and they gave me a $25 Starbucks gift card.”

Or something like that.

For slide three, talk about how bad management and lengthy turnover cost American businesses eleventy-billion dollars per year. And in your chosen industry, it’s $2 billion. And in your home state, it costs your industry $500 million.

Slide four is about your alligator farm and data-brain transference beam.

Slide five is about how you patented the data-brain transference beam and now license it out to other HR consultants.

Slide six is how people can get ahold of you if they want to reduce their own onboarding costs, or are really tired of their brother-in-law.

Rather than squeezing every piece of information into your presentation that you can, leave that information for the actual Q&A portion of the presentation.

And if there was something you didn’t get to talk about don’t worry, there will be plenty of people with questions. But if it’s critical that you talk about it, then be sure to include it in your presentation. Cut something else out so you can get the most important information in there.

Another possible layout

Unlike the previous format, this is a Problem-Assistance presentation. Basically, you’re saying “I have a problem I need help with.”

Your format will look more like this.

  1. Opening screen
  2. The work you do
  3. How long have you done it/your education or experience
  4. The problem you are facing
  5. The things you have tried —OR — what kind of help you need
  6. Contact info

The information is the same, and maybe you’ll open with a similar story. But the focus of this presentation will be on your struggles with growth and expansion or finding new clients or dealing with pesky alligator inspectors or finding a good defense attorney.

The ideas are the same: You still only have six minutes, and you’ll get 20 minutes of questions and feedback. So don’t try to cram in everything, just include the basic facts and trust that people will ask you the questions that will allow you to share that information.

Be sure to practice your talk a few times, even if it’s just while you’re driving in your car. But as long as you’re telling your stories and sharing your information, the presentation will flow naturally, and it will come easily.

Finally, make sure you prepare your slide deck to show on someone else’s technology.

Good luck!

Photo credit: Erik Deckers

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Conduct Informational Interviews to Land Your Next Job

One of my favorite podcasts is Jeff Pearlman’s Two Writers Slinging Yang, a podcast about writing and journalism. Jeff also writes a Substack called The Yang Slinger.

Sorry I didn’t upgrade to the paid version, Jeff.

In it, he usually dives deep into a particular question or issue he’s wrestling with, getting input from his friends and former colleagues in the sportswriting biz.

This week, he wasn’t wrestling with an issue so much as he was looking for help from those same colleagues. (Read it here.) He asked:

This week’s substack topic is a doozie: a friend of mine, just 23 (former student of mine, actually) just got laid off. He called asking me for advice … and I’m honestly running out of answers. So I’m collecting advice for this week’s substack. What would YOU tell him?

Although Jeff didn’t ask for my advice, I’m going to give it, mostly because I like to hear myself talk. It’s the same advice I have given to aspiring entrepreneurs, college students, and job seekers for the last 14 years. I’ve written about it elsewhere in the past, but I think it’s time I plant this flag on my own blog.

Here goes:

The power of Informational Interviews

If you’re looking for a job, stop looking on the job boards. Frankly, the job boards suck. They are literally bad at what they do.

That’s because roughly 85% of jobs come through networking, although 50% of all job applications come through the job boards.

That means 15% of all jobs are filled through job boards. If you batted .150 in baseball, you would have a very short career.

The rest of the jobs — the EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT — come from professional connections.

  • You meet someone at a conference.
  • A friend tells you about an opening at their company.
  • Your old boss or colleague calls you from their new company.
  • A friend of a friend of a friend introduces you to someone they know.
  • You had coffee or lunch with someone in the same profession.

It’s these last two that we’re going to focus on. You’re going to interview your way to your next job, and you’re going to do it by having coffee with someone and then with someone else, and then they’ll introduce you to someone else, and on and on.

I learned this from a friend who used this tactic in the 1980s after he moved to Indianapolis from New York. Within three months of informational interviews, he had three job offers and requests for 40 hours/week of freelance work.*

* This is notable because most freelancers usually only hope to work 20 hours a week; the other 20 hours are spent chasing up more work. So set your prices according to a 1,000 hour work year. (Your salary needs ÷ 1,000 = your hourly rate.)

And I’ve used it many times myself, as well as told other people about it. This advice has helped get people job interviews, internships, and brand-new jobs that they never heard about because they never showed up on any job boards.

That’s because 70% of all jobs are never published publicly.

Your job is not to apply for jobs.

Fourteen years ago, I spoke to a job seekers’ support group about informational interviews. Many of them had been searching for a job for many months without luck.

After my talk, one guy stood up and proudly declared, “My current job is to find my next job. I spend 8 hours a day applying on the job boards.” He even seemed a little smug about it.

I did that in 2005 and it was soul killing. After one week of spending four hours a day on the job boards, I was so damn depressed I could barely get out of bed. But the guy was undeterred. He wasn’t going to let the world get him down, he was going to apply and apply and apply.

A year later, I was asked to come back and give the same talk.

You’ll never guess who was still attending the weekly meetings.

When you lose your job, our temptation is to hit the job boards, like our parents, teachers, and guidance counselors all told us to do.

But it’s all bullshit. I mean, sure you can do the job application jitterbug, but the odds are stacked against you.

Our world has changed so much. We communicate differently, we connect differently, we consume media differently, we learn differently. So why the hell would we look jobs the way our parents and grandparents did?

If you’re going to take that path, you might as well apprentice yourself out to a blacksmith or cobbler.

Here’s how to do informational interviews

An old coffee shop in Central Florida that is no longer in existence.

(First, let me apologize for taking so long to get here. I did not mean to pull that same recipe website bullshit, writing a 4,000-word murder mystery before sharing their Memaw’s tomato sandwich recipe. I’m very sorry!)

So here’s how you do informational interviews.

Step 1: Reach out to someone in your industry, field, or company you want to work for.

Ask them to meet you for coffee or lunch because you want to learn more about their career and how they got there. A Zoom call or phone call will also work.

There is a very good chance these people will want to talk to you because they want to talk about themselves.

If you were to call them and ask about a possible job, I can almost guarantee they will not talk to you.

If you asked if you could do some freelance work for them, they probably won’t want to talk to you.

But if you say, “Can you talk about yourself for an hour and I’ll totally listen to everything you say?” they will scramble to meet you because everyone loves to talk about themselves.

Step 2: Ask them questions.

What did they major in? How did they get their first job? What do they like about it? What do they dislike?

Let them do all the talking. You can intersperse little comments like, “Oh, I hate that, too,” or “I did that once.” But this is not your time to do a lot of talking; this is not your interview, it’s theirs.

If they ask you questions, you can answer. But make sure they do most of the talking.

There’s an old adage that the more someone else talks, the smarter you look. So you want to come away from this looking like a genius.

Step 3: Mute your phone!

And put it in your pocket.

Don’t turn it off because you may need to share something with your interviewee. But don’t keep it out where it can be a distraction. And never, ever take a call.

Step 4: Take careful notes.

Get a notebook and a good pen and take as many notes as you can. Make this your interview notebook and fill it up with people’s great advice, ideas, and stories.

Even if you never look at your notebook again, this makes you look like you’re listening and that this is so important, you don’t want to forget it.

Now, you not only look like a genius, you look like a good listener.

Step 5: When it’s all over, ask these two critical questions.

This is the really important part, so pay attention!

When you’re nearly finished, ask them two questions:

  1. Do you know anyone else I should talk to?
  2. Great, can you introduce me to them?

Because you’ve been such a good listener and you seem really smart, they’re going to be happy to introduce you to other people. They’ll say, “Yes, you should talk to my friend, Danielle.”

And then you’re going to ask them to do an email introduction between you and Danielle. (Click here to see how to do a proper email introduction between two people.)

Do NOT let them say, “Just tell Danielle I told you to contact her.”

Because Danielle is not necessarily convinced that your new friend really did tell you to contact her. You could be lying. This could be a trick. Maybe you’re just dropping the friend’s name in the hopes that you can meet with her.

You want to avoid even the slightest appearance of that, which is why you need their introduction.

Step 6: You follow-up first.

Don’t wait for Danielle (or whomever) to contact you first. Once you get that email introduction, follow up with Danielle. Ask them the same questions — “I wanted to learn more about you and your career. Can we meet for coffee?” — and go through the same process: listening, note taking, two critical questions.

Your meeting with Danielle will lead to a meeting with Rosario, which will lead to one with Curt, which will lead to one with Javier, and so on and so on.

Maybe you’ll get lucky and one of them will make two introductions, and now you’ve doubled your productivity.

Along the way, something will happen. Someone will know someone with a job opening. Or they’ll be looking for someone who does what you do. Or they’ll put your résumé on the hiring manager’s desk.

Whatever it is, you will have networked your way into a new job without filling out a single application. You’ll have avoided the job boards, skipped the HR gantlet, or put up with the months of rejections that comes with slogging it out on the job boards and classified ads like our parents and grandparents.

GIVE informational interviews, too

One day, many years from now, you’re going to be sitting at your desk and your email is going to ping (or your intra-cranial implant is going to buzz — I don’t know what the future’s going to bring), some 23-year-old kid is going to ask you to sit down with them over a cup of coffee or Soylent Green or whatever the hell we’re drinking in 2038.

Take that interview. Sit down with that kid. Answer their questions and talk about yourself because this is your moment to shine and share all the cool shit you’ve been doing. They’re going to take notes and they’re not going to talk much, which means they must be really smart.

And when they ask you, you’re going to introduce them to two or three of your colleagues, because you kick ass. And you’re going to help this kid get started on their own career path.

Because someone did it for you and that’s how you ended up having your own awesome career.

Photo credit: Jeff Pearlman’s Substack
Photo credit: Erik Deckers (Hey, that’s me!)

By

Five Things to Do Before You Present On Someone Else’s Tech

A couple months ago, a friend was going to give a presentation at our local 1 Million Cups chapter here in Orlando. He sent me a PowerPoint version of a slide deck he had spent several hours on. He had built it in Apple Keynote, exported it to PowerPoint, and I uploaded it to Google Slides.

We run all of our slide decks off my Google Drive account on the computer in the meeting room, rather than trying to mess with thumb drives or using another person’s laptop. We only have one hour for our meeting and we can’t waste a few minutes swapping out laptops or trying to get the screen mirroring to function.

“We may have a few formatting issues,” I warned.

“It should be fine,” he said.

“It won’t be fine,” I said.

Luckily, we had time to run through the deck and we saw that there were, in fact, several formatting problems with the text. He spent the next few minutes fixing them as he cursed Apple, Google, and for good measure, Windows about the “utter shit show” that is converting files.

“What’s even causing this?” my friend ranted. “Why can’t I just upload a Keynote deck to Google Drive and have it work?”

“Because Google and Apple don’t play well together. They both refuse to try to accommodate the other and so you can’t open Apple products in Google Drive,” I said.

Many people have this problem, especially when they present at events and use the host’s tech instead of their own. I used to get rather annoyed when an organizer wouldn’t let me use my laptop. After all, I made the presentation on my software (Keynote), the fonts were in my system, and the videos were embedded in the deck. As long as I could use my laptop, everything was great.

Once I became an organizer, I got annoyed at the prima donnas who insisted on using their own gear.

(And yes, I recognize the conflict between those two ideas. I’m fine with it.)

But I realized why the organizers want you to use their tech. It’s either something provided by the conference hotel or center, and they know it will work. Or they just don’t have time to switch between everyone’s computers and then fart around with getting the monitors to work because you don’t have the right kind of adapter or the power cord is too short.

If you do a lot of public speaking, you will inevitably be asked to present on someone else’s technology and equipment. Don’t be a jerk about it or believe your presentation is so precious that it can only be done on your computer or the entire conference will fail and the hotel will fall into the ocean.

Of course, this isn’t ideal, but we can’t always get what we want, and is one of those times.

So here are five things to do when you present on someone else’s tech.

1. Keep the design simple

My friend, Dave Delaney, is an amazing speaker. (And he’s not the guy I mentioned above.)
When I design my slides, I like to use one large photo as the backdrop and then a short headline in bold. If necessary, I’ll use bullet points with 1 – 3 words per bullet item.

(This has nothing to do with presenting on someone else’s tech, I just think it’s important to mention because I still see so many people who don’t do this. PRACTICE GOOD DESIGN, PEOPLE!)

That also means avoid all transitions and fancy graphics. They may not work properly if your deck is converted to another format, like Keynote to Powerpoint or vice versa, let alone Google Drive. (See #4.) Plus, transitions are the Comic Sans of presentations.

Remember, your slide deck is there as visual support, it’s NOT the purpose of your presentation. If we can read your slide deck without you, you have an article, not a presentation. But if you can give your presentation without your slide deck, then you’re a real speaker.

2. Use basic fonts.

Remember, Apple and Google do not play well together, so the fonts you use probably do not exist on Google Drive. That system doesn’t have all the fonts you do, whether you use Apple or Windows. That means Google will often change your fonts to its closest equivalents, but that’s what screws up your formatting. (Here’s a list of Google’s available fonts.)

You can paste your text into a slide, but that doesn’t mean it will look the same when you open it somewhere else.

Pick basic fonts like Gil Sans or *shudder* Arial. Don’t use cool fonts that you downloaded from a font site. They probably won’t upload.

3. Upload your slide deck to Google Drive.

There are three ways you can get your slide deck to your event organizer.

  1. You can email it to them.
  2. You can share it via Dropbox.
  3. You can upload it to Google Drive.*

*You can also use Slideshare, but I don’t want to type “Google Drive or Slideshare” over and over.

Just be aware that if you do the first two options, the organizer may upload your deck to their own Google Drive.

But — and this is critical — Google Drive will completely screw up your formatting. And you’ll learn this right in the middle of your presentation when your beautifully-designed slides look like hot garbage.

Instead of sending your slide deck to the organizer, upload it to your own Google Drive and then share the link via email. This lets you double-check all formatting and avoid any embarrassing formatting issues. You can be assured that everything looks great on the day of your presentation.

Plus, if all else fails, you can open the web browser on their computer, log into your Google account (it’s your Gmail password), and drive your presentation from there.

It’s a good idea to upload it even if you’re using your own tech just so you have a backup in case your computer breaks or gets stolen.

Note: If you use Apple Keynote, you will have to export your slide deck to a PowerPoint format before you upload it.

4. Do NOT put your deck on a flash drive

You’re not Johnny Mnemonic, so stop handing people a thumb drive with your presentation on it. It’s getting harder to use flash drives these days anyway, because a lot of newer computers don’t have a USB drive. Or they use a web-based presentation platform, not PowerPoint or Keynote. A lot of computers don’t have USB-A slots on their computers anymore, at least in the Apple world. My 2019 MacBook Pro only has two USB-C slots and nowhere to put in a flash drive.

A flash drive should be a backup method only, not your primary means of delivery. But if you insist on this, make sure you have an adapter that lets you plug your Flash drive into a USB-C slot. Remember, you are the person responsible for making sure your presentation will work on the host’s computer, not the host. So if you insist on using a flash drive, make sure that you have the necessary adapters for any situation.

5. If you insist on using your own tech, make sure you have these things

  • A USB clicker (affiliate link). These come with a little USB dongle that plugs into a computer and will work on Windows and Apple.
  • USB-rechargeable batteries (affiliate link). These are AAA and they fit the USB clicker listed above, but if your clicker takes AA, then get AA rechargeables. These things can plug into a USB slot on the computer and charge in an hour. You don’t want to get to a presentation and find your clicker isn’t working. Just carry a couple spares and the charging cable in your bag.
  • A USB-to-HDMI-and-VGA adapter (affiliate link). I carry my HDMI/VGA adapter because there are still a few places rocking the old VGA cables and won’t upgrade any time soon. You don’t want to get caught out.
  • If you have a newer Apple computer, get a 7-in-1 USB-C hub adapter (affiliate link). The one I listed here has ports for HDMI, USB-A, USB-C, micro SD, and standard SD cards.
  • A 10-foot power strip with USB slots (affiliate link). I have been in plenty of situations where the facility does not have an adequate power source, or they only have one single-plug extension cord and I have two devices. A power strip will alleviate that problem. And the 10-foot cord will cover most lengths, especially if you already have your computer power cord with you.

You don’t need to carry these things all the time, but you do want to put them in your bag or briefcase on the day you speak so you don’t get caught in a bind when you show up and find that your presentation room is not equipped with any technology made before 2010.

And remember to write your name on all these items so you can show that they’re yours and not the organizer’s.

When you present on someone else’s tech, it will take some additional preparation, but it’s a great way to ensure that you’re fully prepared. Just design the deck with basic fonts and photos, upload it to Google Drive, double-check the formatting, and then share the link with the organizer. Carry your own tech so you can handle any hiccups that happen on the day of your talk.

Photo credit: Dave Delaney (DaveDelaney.me, Used with permission)