Episodes

To view this as a video, head to our YouTube channel. Another podcast taking on ideas for services niche. In this installment, I look at the idea of creating automation systems to spare enterprise developers and/or quality assurance folks from toil. Join us to learn more. Link Picks Jim Collins' classic business framework for what separates truly great companies from merely good ones is explored in this breakdown of *Good to Great* by Unusual Ventures. Enterprise automation and RPA are two ...

To view this as a video, head to our YouTube channel. "Info products" are things like podcast courses or eBooks that anyone with an internet connection can create and sell pretty easily. Can you make a living selling these types of products to software engineers? Join us to learn more. Link Picks Managing low census periods in home health can be challenging for agencies, and this resource explores strategies to help maintain staff productivity and agency stability when patient volume drops. ...

This one hits close to home for me. A reader/viewer wondered if helping companies make strategic decisions about codebases is a good niche, and I can answer this because it was once kind of my niche. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Picks: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unusual VC shared advice on how do you work with design partners?, with a StackRox co-founder's take on setting expectations and getting honest fe...

As a freelancer and service provider, you'll likely offer value during your sales and onboarding process. But when should you stop? When should you charge for things to show your clients that your work is valuable? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Picks: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Careflow published a piece on patient referral leakage, covering what causes skilled nursing facilities to lose potential residents...

Long ago, when I was blogging more regularly about identifying niches, a reader asked me how I found mine. While I don't do a ton of exposition content, I thought this topic might be interesting for viewers. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Spin.AI published a breakdown of the best SSPM solutions for Google Workspace, worth a look alongside their Google Workspace backup and recovery offering. Unusual VC has a useful piece on accelerating your content flywheel. Work...

If you're offering services as a freelancer, does it make sense to unbundle strategy from labor? This episode digs into that question. This podcast is courtesy of Hit Subscribe. Prefer to watch the video version of this podcast? View this podcast as a video, here! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Links of the week: Careflow published a guide to patient referral leakage and how to reduce it. CSuite Content took a l...

If you have a single big client, engaging your services for an unspecified amount of time, it can be easy to fall into an employee-employer style relationship. How can you avoid that? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Picks: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CSuite Content published a guide to brand strategy consulting firms and how to choose the right partner. Enov8 shared a post explaining Duck Creek data masking and why it matters for insura...

For a while, I was getting a lot of questions about whether something would be a good niche for indies. In this video, I answer the question of whether improving code performance is a good niche. Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: CSuite Content published an introduction to personal PR and managing your personal brand. Enov8 has a new guide to GCP data masking. InfluxData added a glossary entry explaining overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)....

You may hear the terms "niche" and "positioning" tossed around a lot, often interchangeably. What do these really mean, and what's the difference? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: CSuite Content just shared a guide to enterprise reputation management. Enov8 has a new checklist for DLP. InfluxData recently updated a node red dashboard tutorial for 2026. Unusual VC has an interesting explainer of how startups can pivot. Careflow started publ...

Maybe you're currently employed or between jobs. But it occurs to you that you want to go off on your own and start consulting (as opposed to freelancing with labor services). How do you do that? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: CSuite Content has a practical guide to executive bios for business leaders. Enov8 shared a clear explainer on Oracle ERP data masking. InfluxData put together a getting-started guide to in-memory ...

Plenty of employees entertain the idea of going freelance. But one of the biggest barriers to entry is the perceived risk of doing so. Is there a way to jump to freelancing with minimal risk? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: CSuite Content published a practical guide to Gen-Z slang for business leaders. Enov8 shared a clear explainer on SAP data masking. InfluxData put together a getting-started guide to MQTT. Unusu...

In this installment, a question submitter wonders whether it would be better to earn promotions into leadership before leaving the salaried world, or whether to leave as an individual contributor. Which is the right path? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: CSuite Content published a practical guide on how often executives should post on social media, including benchmarks and strategy tips for staying visible without becoming noise. Enov8 shared...

Occasionally, you might find yourself with a whale client, or at least a profitable one, that treats you poorly and shows no trust in you. How should you handle this? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8 published a helpful guide to data masking tools (and they also define data masking, if you're interested). Our friends over at CSuite Content published an interesting guide to becoming a thought leader. And finally, Tricentis put out a rou...

Occasionally, you might find yourself with a whale client, or at least a profitable one, that treats you poorly and shows no trust in you. How should you handle this? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8 has a helpful guide to test data management. The DataOpsZone community site has a handy explainer about the concept of referential integrity. This guide to ephemeral environments from Test Environment Management.

Sometimes a client is looking for labor, and expect you to bundle in the strategic piece. For instance, they expect architecture to come along with a software development project. How to handle this? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8 recently published a take on application portfolio management best practices, for you enterprise fans. Spin has a round-up of the top SSPM vendors, if you're in the market. I just recently learned that Indu...

Depending on fate to bring you business can lead to gaps between projects. How do you setup some kind of sales funnel and get leads into it to avoid these gaps? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8's guide to data masking. This comparison of Logstash and Fluentd from Sawmills. Tricentis's (Testim's) AI-powered Salesforce Testing (also in German, French, and Japanese). A definition of SSPM from Spin.AI.

You're collaborating with your client on a time-sensitive deadline and you get sick. How should you handle that? Whose problem is it, ultimately? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8's list of enterprise architecture tools to be aware of in 2025. This introduction to the subject of log parsing from Sawmills. Tricentis's legacy tool replacement solutions (also in German and French). A guide from Testim on unit testing in React Native.

You've got a full-time job but want to go indie, and you line up your first contract. How do you think about how much runway you need to create between current savings and that first contract, for when it expires? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: A post from Sawmills, which introduces log parsing, explains its importance for transforming unstructured logs into actionable data and outlines best practices for efficient and scalable implementatio...

If you've built an audience on a platform other than your own website, how do you go about turning that following into a marketing funnel for something you're offering? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: This post from BlinkOps explains Identity and Access Management (IAM) automation . A Testim blog post that provides an overview of six JavaScript editors . A Sawmills post that gives an overview of Logstash filters , explaining their ro...

It will sometimes come up that a prospect or client asks you to implement something that's either too vague to work or a flat-out bad idea. What should you do in this situation? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: This round-up of application portfolio management tools from our friends at Enov8. Regression testing for Workday, from our friends at Tricentis (also in German and Japanese).

If you're a programmer (or, generally, a labor-based freelancer), is it a good idea to sell strategic advice as a kind of "up-sell" to your normal offering? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: An Introductory Guide to Application Portfolio Management A beginner's guide to volume testing

I do a lot of theory in this series, but here's something practical. How would I recommend someone price an hour-long training session to teach social media tactics to a salesforce? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Sprint Scheduling: A Guide to Your Agile Calendar Not only do our friends at Tricentis offer Tosca, a powerful end-to-end testing tool, they also have sites available in these languages: French Japanese and German!

Sometimes, a client may ask you to sign a non-compete agreement as a prerequisite for engaging with them. Should you do it? How should you handle this situation in general? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: How regression testing is performed An Introductory Guide to Application Portfolio Management What is Security Automation? Benefits, Types & Best Practices What Is Software Testing? All the Basics You Need to Know

The default with freelancing is to charge by the hour and do generalist work. You might have, however, heard of value pricing and heard the idea that you should establish a niche. How should you go about doing that? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Test Suites and Their Test Cases: The Hierarchy Explained Challenges in mobile testing and how to solve them What is A/B Deployment (aka A/B Testing) What is Data Lineage? An Explanation and Example