Screaming in the Cloud - Brand Relationships and Content Creation with Jon Myer

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

About JonA husband, father of 3 wonderful kids who turned Podcaster during the pandemic. If you told me in early 2020 I would be making content or doing a podcast, I probably would have said "Nah, I couldn't see myself making YouTube videos". In fact, I told my kids, no way am I going to make videos for YouTube. Well, a year later I'm over 100 uploads and my subscriber count is growing.Links Referenced:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-myer/Twitter: https://twitter.com/_JonMyerjonmyer.com: https://jonmyer.com

Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud, with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at the Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud. This episode is sponsored in part by Honeycomb. When production is running slow, it's hard to know where problems originate.

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That's snark.cloud slash c-h-r-o-n-o-s-p-h-e-r-e. Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. Every once in a while, I get to talk to a guest who has the same problem that I do. No, not that they're a loud, obnoxious jerk, but rather that describing what they do succinctly is something of a challenge. It's not really an elevator pitch anymore if you have to sabotage the elevator before you start giving it. I'm joined by John Meyer. John, thank you for joining me. What the hell do you do? Corey, thanks for that awesome introduction. What do I do? I get to talk into a microphone, and sometimes I get to stare at myself on camera, whether it makes recording or not.

And either I talk to myself or I talk to awesome people like you. And I get to interview and tell other people's stories on my show. I pull out the interesting parts, and we have a lot of freaking fun doing it. I suddenly feel like I've tumbled down the rabbit hole and I'm in the wrong side of the conversation. Are we both trying to stand in the same part of the universe? My goodness. Is this your podcast or mine? Maybe I should do an introduction right now to introduce you onto it, and we'll see how this works. The dueling podcast banjo. I like the approach quite a bit. So you have done a lot of very interesting things. For example,

once upon a time you worked at AWS, but you have to go digging to figure that out because everything I'm seeing about you in your professional bio and the rest is forward-looking as opposed to former company A, former company B. And this one time I was an early investor in company C, which means that's right. One of the most interesting things about me is that I wrote a check once upon a time, which is never something I ever want to say about myself ever. You're very forward-looking and I strive to do the same. How did you wind up coming at it from that position? When I first left AWS, it's been a year ago, so I served my time. And I actually used to have X Amazonian on it and listed on it. But as I continuously look at it, I used to have a podcast called the AWS Blogger. And I was

all about AWS and everything, and there's nothing wrong with them. And what I would care... Oh, there's plenty wrong with them, but please continue. We won't go there. But anyway, you know, kind of talking about it and thinking about it, ex-Amazonian, yeah, that's great. You put it on your resume, you put it on your stuff, and it allows you that foot in the door. But I want to look at and separate myself from AWS in that I am my own independent voice.

Yes, I work for them. Great company. I've learned so much from them, worked with some awesome people there. But my voice in the community has become very engaging and trustworthy. I don't want to say I'm no longer an Amazonian. I still have some of the guidelines, some of the stuff that's instilled in me, but I'm independent. And I want that to speak for itself when I come into a room. It's easy as hell, by the way, for me to sit here and cast stones at folks who, oh, you talk about this big company you worked for, even though you don't work there

anymore. Yeah, I really haven't worked anywhere that most people would recognize unless they're, you know, professionally sad all the time. So I don't have that luxury. I had to wind up telling a story that was forward-looking just because I didn't really have much of a better option. You have that option and decided to go in a direction where it presents, honestly, as your viewpoint is that your best days are yet to come. And I want to be clear that for folks who are constantly challenged in our space to justify their existence there, usually because they don't look like our wildly overrepresented selves, John, they need that credibility. And

when they say that it's necessary for them, I am not smirching that. I'm speaking from my own incredibly privileged position that you share. That is where I'm coming from on this. So I don't want people to hear this as shaming folks who are not themselves wildly overrepresented. I'm not talking about you fine folks, I assure you. You can have ex-Amazonian on your resume and be very proud of it. You can remove it and still be very proud of the company. There's nothing wrong with either approach. There are some conversations that I'll be in and I'll be on with AWS folks and I'll say, I completely understand where you're coming from. I'm an ex-Amazonian. And they're like, oh, you get us. You get the process. You get the everything. I just want to look forward that I will be that voice in the

community and that I have an understanding of what AWS is and will continuously be. And I have so much that I'm working towards that I'm very proud of where I've come from, but I do want to look forward. One of these days, I really feel like I should hang out with some Amazonians or ex-Amazonians who don't know who I am, which is easier to find than you think, and pretend that I used to work there and wonder how long I can keep the ruse going. Just because I've been told a few times that I am suspiciously Amazonian for someone who's never worked there. You have a lot of insights on the AWS processes and understanding. I think you could probably keep it going for quite a while.

You will have to get that orange lanyard, though, when you go to like... I got one once when I was at a New York summit a couple years ago. My affiliation then, before I'd started the Duckbill Group, was Last Week in AWS. And apparently someone saw that and thought that I was the director of take this job and shove it, but I'll serve out my notice until Friday. So cool. Employee lanyard it was. And I thought, this is going to be awesome because I'll be able to walk around and I'll

get the inside track if people think I work there. And they treated me like crap until I put the customer lanyard back on. Oh, it's better to be a customer at an AWS event than it is to be an employee. I learned that one the fun way. There is one day that I hope to get the press or analyst lanyard. I think it would be an accomplishment for me, but you get to experience that firsthand. And I hate to switch the tables because I know it's your podcast recording, not mine, but... Having the press analyst lanyard is interesting because a lot of people are not allowed to speak

to you unless they've gone through training, which, okay, great. I will say that it is a lot nicer walking the expo floor because most of the people working the booths know that that means that person is press, generally. They're not quite as familiar with analysts, but they know that regardless that they're not going to sell you a damn thing. So they basically give you a little bit of breathing room, which is awesome, especially in these pandemic times. But the challenge I have with it is that very often I want to talk to folks who are AWS employees

who may not have gone through press training. And I've never gotten anyone in trouble or taken advantage of things that I hear in those conversations and write about them. Everything I write about is what I've experienced in public or as a customer, not based upon privileged inside information. I have so many NDAs at this point, I can't keep track. So I just make sure everything I talk about is publicly cited already. Corey, I got to flip the script real quick. I got to give you a shout out because

everybody sees you on Twitter and sees like, oh my God, he's saying this negative, that negative towards AWS. You and I had, I don't know, it was a 30, 45 minute at the San Francisco summit. And I think every summit we try to connect for a little bit, but that was really the premise that kicked off a lot of our conversations when you joined my podcast. No, this is not my podcast. This is Corey's, but anyway. Just you remember that. But, you know, kind of going off it, you have so much insight, so much value, and you kind of really understand the entire processes and all the behind the scenes and

everything that's going on that I was like, Corey, I got to get your voice out there and show the other side of you that you're not there trying to get people in trouble. You never poke fun of an AWS employee. I heard there was some guy named Larry that you're not there trying to get people in trouble. You never poke fun of an AWS employee. I heard there was some guy named Larry that you do, but we won't jump into that. One of the things that I think happened is, first and foremost, there is an algorithmic bias towards outrage. When I say nice things about AWS or other providers, which I do periodically, they get basically no engagement. When I say something things about AWS or other providers, which I do periodically, they get basically no engagement. When I say something ridiculous, inflammatory, and insulting about a company, oh, it goes

around the internet three times. One of the things that I'm slowly waking up to is that when I went into my COVID hibernation, my audience was a quarter the size it is now. People don't have the context of knowing what I've been up to for the last five or six years. All they see is a handful of tweets. And yeah, of course, you wind up taking some of my more aggravated moment tweets and put a few of those on a board. And yeah, I start to look a fair bit like a jerk if you're not aware of what's going on inside Trackwise. That's not anyone else's fault except my own. And I guess

understanding and managing that perception does become something of a challenge. I mean, it's weird. Amazon is a company that famously prides itself on being misunderstood for long periods of time. I guess I never thought that that would apply to me. Well, it does. Maybe that's why most people think you're Amazonian. You know, honestly, I've got to say, there are a lot of worse things people can and do call me. Amazon has a lot to recommend it in different ways. What I find interesting now is that you've gone from large companies to sort of large companies.

You were at Spot for a hot minute. Then you were doing the n-ops thing. But one thing that you've been focusing on a fair bit has been getting your own voice and brand out there. And we talked about this a bit at the summit when we encountered each other, which is part of what sparked this conversation. You're approaching what you're doing next in a way that I don't ever do myself. I will not do it justice, but what are you working on? All right. So, Corey, when we talked at the New York Summit,

things were actually moving pretty good. And some of the things that I am doing, and I've actually had a couple of really nice engagements kind of kick off, is that I'm creating highly engageable, trustworthy content for the community. Now, folks, you're asking, like, what is that? What is that really about? You do podcasts. Just think about some of the videos that you're seeing on customer sites right now. How are they doing? How are the views? How's the engagement? Podcasts. Just think about some of the videos that you're seeing on customer sites right now. How are they doing? How are the views? How's the engagement? Can you actually track those back to like even a sales engagement and utilizing those videos? Well, as John Meyer, and yes, this is highly scalable because guess what? I am talks with other folks to join the crew and to create these from a brand awareness portion, right? So think about it. You have customers that you want to get engaged with. You have products, you have demos, you have reviews

that you want to do, but you can't get them turned around in a quick amount of time. We take the time to actually dive into your product and pull out the value prop of the exact product, a demo, maybe a review, right? We do sponsors as well. I have a number of them that I can talk about. So Veeam on AWS, Diabolical Coffee. There's a couple other I cannot release just yet, but don't worry, they will be hitting out there on social pretty soon. But we take that and we make it an engaging kind of two to three minute videos. And we say, listen, here's the value of it. We're going to turn this around. We're going to make this pop. And putting this stuff, right, so we'll take the podcast and I'll put it onto my YouTube channel. You will get all my syndication. You'll get all my viewers. You'll

get all my views. You'll get my outreach. Now, the kicker with that is I don't just pick any brand. I pick a trusted brand to work with because obviously I don't want to tarnish mine or your brand. And we create these podcasts and we create these videos and we turn them around in days, not weeks, not months. And we focus on those who really need to actually present the value of their product in the environment. It sounds like you're sort of the compliment to the way that I tend to approach these things. I'll periodically do analyst engagements where I'll kick the tires on a product in the space that's usually tied to a sponsorship scenario, but not always, where,

oh, great, you want me to explain your product to people? Great, could I actually kick the tires on it so I understand it first? Otherwise, I'm just parroting what may as well be nonsense. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. Very often, small companies, especially early stage, do a relatively poor job of explaining the value of their product because everyone who works there knows the product intimately and they're too close to the problem.

If you're going to explain what this does in a context where you have to work there and with that level of intensity on the problem space, you're really only pitching to the already converted as opposed to folks who have the expensive problem that gets in the way of them doing their actual job. And having those analyst-style engagements is great. They periodically then ask me, hey, you want to build a bunch of custom content for us? And the answer is no, because I'm bad at deadlines in that context. And finding intelligent and fun and creative ways to tell stories takes up a tremendous amount of time and is something that I find just gets repetitive in a bunch of ways.

So I like doing the typical sponsorships that most people listening to this are used to. This episode is sponsored by our friends at ChexMix. And that's fine because I know how to handle that and I add that down to a set of steady workflows. Every time I've done custom content, I find it's way more work than I anticipated. And honestly, I get myself in trouble with it. Well, when you come across it, you send them our way, because guess what? We are actually taking those and we're diving deep with them. And yes, I used an Amazon term, but if you take their product, yeah, I love the reaction I got from you. But we dive into the product. And you said it exactly. Those people who are there at the facility,

they understand it. They can say, yeah, it does this. Well, that's not going to have somebody engaged. That's not going to get somebody excited. Let me give you an example. Yesterday, I had a call with an awesome company that I want to use their product. And I was like, listen, I want to know about your product a little bit more. We demo I want to use their product. And I was like, listen, I want to know about your product a little bit more. We demoed it for my current company. And I was like, but how do you work for people like me, podcasters who do a lot of the work themselves or social media experts? You know, how do I get my content out there?

How does that work? What's your pricing? And they're like, you know, we thought about getting it and see if there was a need in that space. And you're validating that there's a need. I actually turned it around and I pitched them. I was like, listen, I'd love for you guys to be a sponsor on my show. I'd love for you to let me do this.

Let me do some demos. Let's get together. And I pitched them this idea that I could be a spokesperson for their product because I actually believed in it that much just from two calls, 30 minutes. And I said, this is going to be great for people like me out there and getting the voice, getting the volume out there, how to use it. I said, I can show some quick integration setups.

You don't have to have the full blown product that you sell out to businesses. Us as individuals or small groupings, we're only going to use certain features because one, it's going to be overwhelming. And two, it's going to be costly. So give us these features in a nice package and let's do this. And they're like, let's set something up. I think we got to do this. How do you avoid the problem where if you do a few pieces of content around a particular brand, you start to become indelibly linked to that brand. And I found that in my early days when I was doing a lot of advisory work

and almost dev rel for hire as part of the sponsorship story thing that I was doing. And I found that that did not really benefit the larger thing I was trying to build, which is part of the reason that I got out of it. Because it makes sense for the first one, yeah, it's a slam dunk. And the second one, sure,

but sooner or later it feels like, wow, I have five different sponsors in various ways that want me to be building stories and talking about their stuff as I travel the world. And now I feel like I'm not able to do any of them a decent service while also confusing the living hell out of the audience. Who is it you work for again anyway? It was the brand confusion, for lack of a better term. Okay, so you have two again anyway. It was the brand confusion, for lack of a better term. Okay, so you have two questions there. One of them is, how do you do this without being associated

with the brand? I don't actually see a problem with that. Think of race car, NASCAR drivers are walking around with all their stuff on their jackets, you know, sponsored by this person, this group, that group. Yeah, it's kind of overwhelming at times. But what's wrong with being tied to a couple of brands? As long as the brands are trustworthy like yourself, or you believe in those, right? So there's nothing wrong with that. Second is the scalability that you're talking about, where you're traveling all over the

world and doing this and that. And that's where I'm looking for other leaders and trustworthy community members that are doing this type of thing to join a highly visible team, right? So now you have a multitude and a diverse group of individuals who can get the same message out that's ultimately tied to, and I'm actually going to call it out here, I have it already as Meyer Media, right? So it's all going to be under the John Meyer podcast. Everything's going to be grouped in together under Meyer Media. And then we're going to have a group of highly engaging individuals that enjoy doing this for a living, but also trust what they're talking about.

If you can find a realistic way to scale that, that sounds like it's going to have some potential significant downstream consequences, just as far as building almost a, I guess, a DevRel workshop, for lack of a better term. And I mean that in the sense of an Andy Warhol workshop style approach, not just a training course. But you wind up with people in your orbit who become associated, affiliated with a variety of different brands. I mean, last time I did the numbers, I had something like 110 sponsors over the last five years. If I become deeply linked to those brands, no one knows what the hell I've do because every company in the space more or less has at some level done a sponsorship with me at some point.

I guess I'll cross that one. It happens or keep that in the top of mind as it moves forward. I mean, it's a good point of view, but I think if we keep our individualism, that's what's going to separate us view, but I think if we keep our individualism, that's what's going to separate us as associated. So think of advertisement. You have a, you know, actor, actress that actually gets on there and they're associated with a certain brand. Did they do it forever?

I am looking at long-term relationships because that will help me understand the product in depth and I'll be able to jump in there and provide them value in a expedited version. So think about it like they value in a expedited version. So think about it like they launch in a new version of their product or they're talking about something different. And they're like, John, we need to get this out ASAP. I've had this long term relationship with them that I'm able to actually turn it around rather quickly, but create highly engaging out of it. I guess to really kind of signify that the question that you're asking is,

I'm not worried about it yet. What stage or scale of company do you find is, I guess, the sweet spot for what you're trying to build out? I like the small to medium. And looking at the small to medium. Define your terms, because to my mind, I'm still stuck in this ancient paradigm that I was in as an employee, where a big company is anything that has more than 200 people, which is basically everyone these days. So think about startups. Startups, they're usually relatively 100 or less, medium 200 or less. The reason I like that type of is because we're able to move fast.

As you get bigger, you're stuck in processes and go through, and you have to go through so many steps. If you want speed and you want scalability, you got to pay attention to some of the stuff that you're doing and the processes that are slowing it down. Granted, we'll evaluate the enterprise companies, but the individuals who know the value of doing this will ultimately seek me and say,

hey, listen, we need this because we're just kicking this off and we need highly visible content and we want to engage with our current community and we don't know how. This episode is sponsored in parts by our friend EnterpriseDB. EnterpriseDB has been powering enterprise applications

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including Oracle, to the cloud. To learn more, try Big Animal for free. Go to biganimal.com slash snark and tell them Corey sent you. I think that there's a fair bit of challenge somewhere in there. I'm not quite sure how to find it. That you're going to, I think, find folks that are both too small and too big that are going to think that they're ready for this. I feel like this doesn't, for example, have a whole lot of value until a company has found product market fit, unless what you're proposing to do helps get them to that point. Conversely, at some point, you have some of the

behemoth companies out there. It's, well, we can't hire DevRel people fast enough. We've hired 500 of them. Cool. Can you come do some independent work for us? At which point, it's great. Good luck standing out from the crowd in any meaningful way at that point. Well, even a high enterprise that's hired X number of dev rels, the way you stand out is your personality and everything that you built behind your personal brand and your valued brand and what you're trying to do and the voice that you're trying to achieve out there. So think about it. And this is very difficult for me to kind of boost and say, hey, listen, when I if I were to go to a DevRel of like, say, 50 people, I will stand out. I might be one of the top five or I might be two of the top five.

It doesn't matter. But for me, why and what I do, the value that I am actually driving across is what will stand out. The engaging conversations. Every interview, every podcast that I do, at the end, everybody's like, oh my God, you're like really good at it. You kind of keep us engaging. You know when to ask a question. You jump in there and you dive even deeper. I literally have five bullet points on any conversation. And these are just like two or three sentences maybe. And they're not exact questions. They're just topics that we need to talk about. Just like we did going into this conversation, there is nothing that's scripted. Everything that's coming

across, the questions that you're pulling out, you're pulling out from me giving an answer to one of your questions, and then you're diving deep on it. I think that that's probably a fair approach. I mean, it's certainly going to lead to a better narrative than the organic storytelling that tends to arise internally. I mean, there's no better view to see a lot of these things than working on bills. One of my favorite aspects of what I do is I get to see the lies that clients tell to themselves, where it's like they believe these things, but it no longer matches the reality. Like developer environments being far too expensive as a proportion of the rest of their environment. It's minuscule just because production has scaled since you last

really thought about it. Or the idea that a certain service is incredibly expensive. Well, sure, the way that it was originally configured and priced, it was, and that has changed. Once people learn something, they tend to stop keeping current on that thing because now they know it. And that's a bit of a tricky thing. That's why we keep doing podcasts. You keep doing interviews. You keep talking with folks is because if you look at when you and I actually started doing these podcasts and AKA like webinars, and I hate to say webinars because that's always negative and, you know, because they're not as highly engaging, but taking that story and that narrative and creating a conversation out of it and click and record. There are so many times that when I go to a summit or an event, I will

tell people, they're like, so what am I supposed to do for your podcast? And we were talking for like 10 minutes. I said, you know, I would have clicked recording. We would have 10 minutes of conversation. And they're like, what? I was like, that's exactly what it is. My podcast is all about the person that I'm interviewing, what they're doing, what they're trying to like, what? I was like, that's exactly what it is. My podcast is all about the person that I'm interviewing, what they're doing, what they're trying to achieve, what's their message that they're trying to get across. Same thing, Corey, when you kick this off, you ask me a bunch of questions

and then that's the way we took it. And that's where this conversation went because it's, I mean, yeah, I'm spinning around and making it about you sometimes because obviously it's fun to do that. And that's normally I'm on the other side. No, it's always fun to wind up talking to people who have their own shows,

just because it's fun watching the narrative flow back and forth. It's kind of a blast. It's almost like commentators, though. You think about it at a sporting event, there's two in a booth. Do a team up at some point, yeah. In fact, you're like doing the, what is it?

The two old gentlemen in the Sesame Street box up in the corner. I forget their names. Someone's going to yell at me for, yeah. In fact, we're doing the what is it? The two old gentlemen in the Sesame Street box up in the corner. Forget their names. Someone's going to yell at me for that one. Yeah, the idea of basically kibitzing back and forth. I feel like at some level we should do a team up and start doing a play-by-play of the re-invent keynotes.

Oh, you know what, Corey? Maybe we should talk about this offline. Having a huge event there, VIP receptions. Podcasting booth is set up at a villa that we have ready to go. We're going to be hosting social media influencers, live tweeting, happening for keynotes. No, you don't have to go to the keynotes. Personally, you can come to this room.

You can click record. We'll record a live session right there. Totally unscripted like everything else we do. All right. We'll have a VIP reception. Come in, chat, do introductions. So Corey, I'd love to have you come into that. And we can do a live one right there.

Unfortunately, I'm going to be spending most of reInvent this year dressed in my platypus costume. But you know how it works. Oh, man, you definitely got to go for that. Because, oh, I would love to put that on the show. I'm actually doing something not similar, but in true style that I've been going to the last couple of re-invents. I will be doing something unique and standing out. I'm looking forward to it. It's always fun seeing how people continue to successfully exceed what

they were able to do previously. That's the best part on some level, is just watching it continually iterate until you're at a point where it just becomes, well, frankly, either ridiculous or you flame out or it hits critical mass and suddenly you launch an entire TV network or something. Stay tuned.

Maybe I will. You know, it's always interesting to see how that entire thing plays out. Last question before we call it a show. Talk to me about your process for building content, if you don't mind. What is your process when you sit down and stare at, at least from my perspective, that most accursed of all enemies, a blank screen? All right, time to create some content, Jack Wagon. Better be funny. And by the way, you're on a deadline. That is the worst part of my job. All right, so the worst part of your job

is the best part of my job. I have to tell you, I actually don't, and I'm gonna have to knock on wood because I don't get content block. I don't sit at a screen when I'm doing it. I actually will go for a walk or I'll have my weirdest ideas at the weirdest time, like going at the gym. I might have a quick idea or something like that, and I'll

have a backlog of these ideas that I write down. The thing that I do is I come down, I open up a document, and I'll just drop this idea, and I'll write it out as almost as it seems like a script, and I'll never read it verbatim because I look at it and be like, I know what I'm going to say right now. An example, if you take a look at my intros that I do for my podcast, they are done after the recording because I recap what we do on a recording. So let's take this back. Corey, we'll talk about the one you and I just did. And you and I, we hopped on, we did a recording. Afterwards, I put together the intro. And what I'm going to say at the intro, I have no freaking clue until I actually get to it. And then all of a sudden, I think of something not at my desk, but away from my desk, what I'm going to say about you or the guest.

An example, there was a gentleman that I did. His name's called Matt Batterby, and he's from the UK, and he's a social media finalist. And he has this beard, and he's a social media finalist. And he has this beard and he always wears like this hat or something. And I saw somebody on Twitter make a comment about, you know, following in his footsteps or looking like him. So they spoofed him with a hat and everything, glasses. I actually bought a beard off of Amazon, put it on, glasses, hat, and I spoofed him for the intro. I had this idea like the day before. So thank goodness for Prime Delivery that I was able to get this beard ASAP,

put it on, one take. I only tried to do one take. I don't think I've ever recorded anymore. I have a couple of times, sometimes because the audio didn't capture, but that's neither here nor there. But yeah, I agree with you. I find that the back and forth with someone else

is way easier from a content perspective for me because when you and I start talking on this episode, for example, I had like three or four bullet points I wanted to cover and that's about it. The rest of it becomes this organic freewheeling conversation. And that just tends to work when it's just me free associating in front of a camera. It doesn't work super well. I need something that's a bit more structured in that sense. So apparently my answer is just never be alone ever. The content that I create, like how to tutorials, demos, reviews, I'll take a lot more time on them and I'll put them together in a flow and I'll record those in certain sections. I'll actually record the demo of walking through and clicking on everything and going through the process. And then I will actually

put that in my recording software and then I will record against it like a voiceover. But I don't record a script. I actually follow the flow that I did. And in order to do that, I understand the products. I'll dive deep on it. I'll figure out some of the things using keywords along the way to highlight the value of utilizing it. And I like to create these in like two to three minutes. So my entire process of creating content, podcast, you know what? We hop on, I give everybody the spiel, I click record and I say, welcome.

And I do the introduction, I cut that out later. We talk, I'll tell you what, I never edit anything throughout the entire length of it because whatever happens, happens and is natural and comes across. And then I slap on an ending and I try to make it as quick and as efficiently as possible because if I start doing cuts, people are going to be like, oh, there's a cut there. What did he cut out? Oh, there's this.

It's a full on free flow. And so if I mess up and flop or whatever it is, I poke fun at myself and we move on. Oh, I have my own favorite punching bag. And I honestly think about that for a second. If I didn't mock myself the way that I do, I would be insufferable. The entire idea of being that kind of a blowhard just doesn't work. From my perspective, I am always willing to ask the quote unquote dumb question. It just happens to turn out that I'm never the only person wondering about that thing. And by asking it out loud, suddenly I'm giving a whole bunch of other folks air cover to say, yeah, I don't know the answer to that either.

I have no problem whatsoever doing that. I don't have any technical credibility to worry about burning. When you start off asking and say, hey, dumb question or dumb question, you start being unsure of yourself. Start off and just ask the question. Never say it's a dumb question because I'll tell you what, like you said, there's probably 20 other people in that room that have the same question and they're afraid to ask it. You could be the one that just jumps up there and says it and then you're well respected for it. I have no problem asking questions. Honestly, the problem I've got is I wish people would ask more questions.

I think that it leads to such a better outcome, but people are always afraid to either admit ignorance or worse when they do ask questions just for the joy they get from hearing themselves talk. We've all been in conference talks where there's someone who's just asking the question because they love the sound of their own voice. I say they, but let's be serious. It's always a dude. That is very true. So if people want to learn more about what you're up to, where's the best place to go? All right. So the best place to go is to follow me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is my primary one, right? John Mayer can't miss me at all. Twitter, I am active on Twitter, not as well as Corey. I would love to get there one day, but my audience right now is LinkedIn. Else, you can go

to johnmayer.com. Yes, that's right, johnmayer.com, because why not? I found, and I have to talk about this just a little bit. And the reason that I changed it, I actually do own a domain, AWS Blogger, by the way, and I still have it, is that when I was AWS blogger, I didn't have to change it. Nobody required me to, but I changed it to like the Daily Tech Show. And that was pretty cool. But then I just wanted it associated with me. And I felt that going with John Mayer, it allowed me not having to change the name ever again because, let's face it, I'm not changing my name and I want to stick with it. So I don't have to do a whole transition. And when this thing takes off really huge, like it is doing right now, I don't have to change the name.

Yeah, I would have named it slightly differently had I known what was coming. But again, this far in 400 some odd episodes in last I checked, recorded, though I don't know what episode this will be when it airs, I really get the distinct impression that I am gonna learn as I go. And you know, you can't change that this far in anymore. I am actually rounding. So I'm not as far as you are with the episodes, but I'm happy to say that I did cross number 76. Actually 77, I recorded yesterday.

So it's pretty good. And 78 tomorrow. So I am very busy with all the episodes and I love it. I love everybody reaching out and enjoying the conversations that I have and just the naturalness and the organicness of the podcast. It really puts people at ease and comfortable to start sharing more and more of their stories and what they want to talk about. I really want to thank you for being so generous with your time and speak with me today. Thanks. It's always a pleasure to talk with you and I look forward to seeing what you wind up building next. Thanks, Corey. I really appreciate you having me on. This is very

entertaining, informative. I had a lot of fun just having a conversation with you. Thanks for having me on, man. Always a pleasure. John Meyer, podcaster extraordinaire and content producer slash creator. The best folks really have no idea what to refer to themselves, and I am no exception, so I made up my own job title. I am cloud economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice. Whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice. Whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, along with an angry, insulting comment telling me that I'm completely wrong and that you are a very interesting person. And then tell me what company you wrote a check

to once upon a time. If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need the Duck Bill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duck Bill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started. This has been a HumblePod production. Stay humble.