one year later. building something out of nothing. | building the brand ep. 23

Good morning, Patrick. Morning, Taylor. We're back. We're in Dallas. Pumped. It's raining. Supposed to be going golfing with the Ben. pile here soon, so we're gonna head out that way. Hopefully we can get a few holes in. Let's go try to have a good morning, Patrick. I need some nasal spray, can't really breathe that well. I need some coffee, my mouth's dry, kind of gotta go to the bathroom. So good morning. Good morning. All right, so I have to say this, I have to say this. Your boy, it's fall season, so I have to get my Trenta cold brew, 30-ounce cold brew, light ice. With pumpkin cold foam. You know, people hate on Starbucks. It's, it's not bad. It's not bad. It's really not bad. I like it. This is great. I feel good. I feel a little better now. Let's, let's go get my 55-pound hockey bag of Torque Swag. So because of Guadalajara, when we were there, um, it bruised my shoulder. It was so heavy. So I went out and got I got a rolling hockey bag, which typically is frowned upon in an ice hockey world, but we're not an ice hockey world. So I can roll all the Torque swag. All the references, yeah. There you go. This is like oversized. Just getting ready for golf in the parking lot because Patrick's bagel took forever. So it's becoming a little bit of a trend, right? So I go to cities and now I start golfing. Did this at Laravel. Golfed with my buddy who's in sales at a tech company. And then now having a chance to golf with my dear friend Benjamin Pyle. So Ben and I got introduced years ago. He was on my show a few times. Hey. And then we're gonna go golf together. He's an amazing golfer, which we're obviously gonna highlight. But I've had this idea. So he was a CTO for many years. Now he's consulting, doing his own thing. And I've had this idea about like interviewing people on a golf course for a long time, especially around people's careers and whatnot. So we're gonna pilot this out, see how we do, see how you do, Patrick. And it's gonna be a great time. Can't wait. The rain cleared up. It's gonna be an absolute vibe. That works. Yeah, good shot. Not bad. Good start. Run out of them. Good shot. Yeah, I mean, changing up traditional methods weren't working before, and I think like as leadership is getting younger, traditional methods work even less. Well, it's really interesting. I, I got hit up Yesterday by an internal director of talent. Okay. He basically wants to build a torque for his company. Uh-huh. Yeah. For their company. He was like, we need to do more LATAM. Yeah. And I was like, all right, well, you need a platform. You need to get involved. And it's crazy. All the stuff I take for granted, like all the stuff that comes natural to me, everyone's like, well, what do we do? Well, you're in tech. You're tech people don't think like that. I know. What are you hosting this week? So we got a Torque dinner tonight. Okay. Invite only. Yep. You had to be in our Discord to know about it. Okay. So we have 18 people. Wow. That's solid. Yeah. People think they need another marketing hire. It's not. It's a community person. As a developer, I want somebody that looks like me, talks like me, thinks like me, but instead is more interested in connecting people like me. That's it. Right. Everybody just wants to be connected. Everyone's tired of it. It's become we've done this. Exactly. And the technology has forced it. Yeah, yeah. But like, imagine, like, if I didn't do this today, like, I'm I'm super connected, but it's intentional. Like, I'd rather be out here playing golf. Well, that's what I'm saying. And what people don't realize is doing this is more relationship building than sending an email. But if you can be more than, we will help you find a job and connect you with good people, to, we're going to help you find a job, connect you with good people, and oh, by the way, in the meantime, we're going to be a platform for you to get experience in that in which you're interested in, as well as getting feedback in it. Dude, that's huge. That's huge. Yeah, it's very huge. Game changer. I'm acting as Patrick. Just a little celeb shot here. That's going in the water. I knew that was going in the water. But it's right. Right in the center. Golf was great. Driver was great. Like, hit the driver, love that driver. It was probably $900. Short game was not great, neither was putting, but hey, that's the game of golf. So we're headed to— we're gonna go set up now for the event tomorrow. So we're already getting set up. We're already checking in the hotel room. I think I'm gonna try to take a nap. I'm tired. Tired this morning kicked my butt. So, but great day so far. Great conversation with Ben. Ben, thank you for having us, man. It means a lot. Sorry, we're full. We're full. Hi, buddy. Missed you. I missed you. Where'd you say our table was gonna be? Hey! There they are. Thank God. Thank God. Oh yeah, the placement's great too. This is the first look on the vlog, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They kind of look like they want to glow in the dark, but they're not gonna because nobody thinks it's that cool. Yeah. That's pretty slick. Yeah, like you, brother. There's no camera. There's no camera. There's always a camera. This is not— there's always a camera. Oh, look! What's up? Tired. Feel greasy. Sweating playing golf. It's hot. Humid. The table set up. Table set up though. That's cool. I think I'm gonna have to close my eyes if I'm gonna make it through tonight. Big dinner at 6. Big dinner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Super pumped to document that. I mean, I think it's gonna be special. I have a lot— I'll have a lot more thoughts when I am more awake, but yeah, definitely, definitely excited for that for sure. First off, we got some naps. I feel a little better. Tonight's special. So Commit Your Code, it to me kind of signals like when we started to gain a little bit momentum. So I was hired in August. Commit Your Code was in October of last year. And so it's, it's special to me because it was kind of the really kind of the first time, you know, me and Jason were in public. With Torque. You know, I presented last year, and so it's really cool. Fast forward a year, we're throwing a dinner tonight, private dinner, for anybody who's just in the Discord or— and our ambassadors. Um, we packed it out, 18 people. Um, it's just really special, really, really special. So can't wait to capture some conversations tonight, get some testimonials, uh, and just really— it just— we're building something, right? You know, last year No one knew who we were. This year, we're throwing a private dinner with 18 people. So just super special. In advance, thank you for everybody who has come out. I'm sure we'll do this video again after the event, but looking forward to a special night. Got the new shirts for tonight. Yeah. I want to do more limited drops like this stuff, so we're going to continue to do more of these type of things. I'm tired. I'm so tired. There he is. There he is. An impact. I don't want to kiss his butt too much, but Taylor, I met him years ago online, and I run my own agency. I don't like to make 500 million sales calls. He was the first one that really taught me that content was the way to go, that by like really sharing knowledge and getting out there, that's how you attract people that could best be used for you. And really now what he's kind of translated into like hiring out of this whole community versus the application game, which has long been dead. Um, yeah, it's just a good scene overall. First off, uh, this is really special, and the reason for that is because this time last year, Jason and I just pretty much got started at Torque with Brianna. We really, I mean, we didn't have a booth. We just like showed up, right? There were t-shirts though. There were t-shirts. Yeah, yeah, there were t-shirts. Yeah, that's not the point of the story. But the fact of the matter is, is it's really cool a year later to put up this event on Guild and have 18 people pack it out for people who are invested in this community. So like, we're trying to do something that no company in the staffing world Which is a massive industry, Will can attest to it, has ever done. And it starts with everybody here, because if it— if we don't have champions like you all here, this doesn't work like this. It just does not work. And so literally, for you all, thank you so much for being here. It means like— it means if I did not— if I wasn't running off 4 and a half hours of sleep, I'd probably be crying right now. Right. But I don't know where I'm at right now. So again, thank you so much. Dinner's on Torque. Eat, drink, have fun. We also have shirts for you all. They're over here. One per person, please. They are basically what we're doing moving forward is that only the people in our communities are going to get the shirts. So we're not really going to pass out to the general public. It's just a way to love on you all and say thank you so much for being involved. So again, thank you all so much. We love y'all. We appreciate it. Thank you. So getting involved with Taylor and Torc completely changed, I guess, my online social community because it opened me up to one. I feel like the Torc community helps you in multiple ways, not just, you know, finding the job but preparing as well. Meeting all these amazing people, everyone's super welcoming. I just came in, joined, jumped into conversations as pretty much a newcomer, and everyone just instantly like family. It was Fantastic. And then having the fun stuff along, like our little happy hours and book club and stuff like that. So it's not all just about the work, but it is kind of all-inclusive of everything. First time meeting all of these people in person, and it has been outstanding. Like, we have been friends forever even though we've never met. So it's just been a tremendously fun time. Honestly, like, seeing what the tort community does for people is so great. Like, I've never seen so much, like, support, so much connection. And as, like, for me personally, that's where I thrive. And just seeing other people thrive in that environment as well, it makes me feel— I feel so much joy, like, actually getting to be a part of something like that. And I'm still working my way to the career, but Torque is just— it's been so helpful with everybody. Everyone's just amazing. So I kind of had this idea. I wrote this in my email newsletter, and I want to say it here. The gear, I want to represent a signal to people who are kind and who want to help people and who genuinely care about people. Everybody at the dinner tonight and as a part of our community genuinely wants to help people and care about people. And so even like the server tonight was like, man, like you, you all were just awesome. Like I want to build this thing to where it's so big that like if you wear the gear anywhere, it is a signal to others that you care about people, that you want to help people. And tonight was, is, is the start of it. So So thank you everybody who showed up. I appreciate it. I'm tired. I'm losing my voice. We'll see y'all tomorrow for day 2, or really day 1 of Commit Your Code. Yeah. What? Yeah, yeah, go, go. We're here. Day 1. Commit Your Code. It's a lot of people. A lot of people. A lot of people. A lot of people. Dude, that's a lot of coffee sitting right there. Oh yeah. 60 ounces. You know, I think one of the coolest things this morning already is, is people come up to us and they're like, oh yeah, I see Jason in Tech Commuter. Oh, I see you in Guidance Counselor 2.0. Like, again, one of the things I've said time and time again is like having a social show like we have at Tech Commuter and Guidance Counselor 2.0 is like such a great way to build brand awareness. What's really cool too is I would say 70% of the people that came by the booth has at least heard of Torque, which again, we're talking about building this thing from the ground up like a year ago. Nobody knew who Torque was, so it's really special. Uh, feedback was great on the swag. We got our luggage tags, got some keychains. It's gonna be a great, great day. And the vibes are immaculate. Did you say that yet? All right, I don't know what half these words mean in here. Observability solution combining continuous profiling with traditional telemetry signals. Bro, you gotta talk to people like they're on the 7th grade level. I don't know what that means. No recruiter is going to know what that means. So I like the bullet point. Tell me what it is. How would you describe this to your mom? Start with your summary, go to skills, and go right into experience, which that would be for you, your projects, right? Um, but the way you wrote your resume, I gotta give you props. I didn't think— I don't think that looked like it was Yeah, I never would have known. So shout out to you, that's huge. Appreciate it. That's huge. Yeah, yeah. So here's the deal. Most recruiters, they don't look at your entire resume. They look at the top. So if I'm a recruiter, like honestly, the only thing that gives it away is junior dev ops engineer. Like you could take away— if you took away junior, I would literally think you're like a senior cloud engineer based off your resume. Now there could be different thoughts Yeah. You could be called for senior, you're not senior, so kind of interesting thing. Day 1 Kick Code. So I mean, shout out to Danny. We just had a conversation with Danny. I thought, I thought, I thought it went great. I think, um, man, shout out to him. It's been busy. Like, we are— I'm tired. No, it was great. I think the coolest thing— I don't know if we got this already on camera, but I'm gonna say it again just in case— I think what's really cool is I would say Of all the people who came up to the booth today, I would say at least 50% of people knew who Torc was. Yeah. Which I think is tremendous. Out of that 50%, it came down to Guidance Counselor 2.0 and Tech Commute. So shout out to us for, you know, doing that. But yeah, good job. But the fact of the matter is, is that again, this time last year we were just starting our journey. A year later, at least 50% of the people said they knew who we were is absolutely tremendous. So great first day. I'm gonna go lay down. Yeah, sounds great. Gonna eat some kind of meat and then fall asleep. Yep, and then do it again for day two. Yep. Good morning. How you feeling? Your hair looks magical. Thanks. How you feeling? You good? Good. Ready? Excited? Yeah. Last day, man. We're almost there. Like Danny said, my name is Aaron Francis. This is my second year here. I'm excited to be here again. All right, day 2. We're here today to spread the good word of Torque.dev, doing some resume reviews hopefully this afternoon. Already done one or two this morning, and just looking for a great day here in Dallas. Oh, this is so embarrassing. In the computer needs my face on it. What's been really cool today is I've had a few people come up and be like, hey, I've heard about your booth. And I think at the end of the day, I think you're Your booth should provide value. And I think like the resume reviews, I think our person— I mean, I think our personalities, but like I think the resume reviews, like I don't think you need a bunch of stuff to a booth. I think you should add value. And I think the fact that people have come up, multiple people have said, I heard about your booth, I was told to stop by, it's massive. I think it also reflects on like our community, like talking about it. Yeah, we actually have our community here talking Yeah, so it's— people have asked for shirts. Anyone told them? Show up to our events. I'm judging you based off of if I did not know Dennis. This, this is awful. This is legitimately content-wise some of the worst resume I've seen, but I also know you and you're really good at your job, so I'm looking subjectively This is 2.5. Objectively 2.5. So you listen to Guidance Counselor 2.0? Yes. That's crazy. So it's Sharon and my mom, that's it. Commit Your Code, like the energy of the community, like this is like, like you said earlier, it's like Twitter in real life. Yeah. Like all your friends. Yep. It's not really, it doesn't feel like a tech conference. I mean, even though we're working. Yeah. I mean, it's just like hanging out, engaging, and so many people knew what we were. It's really— it was really cool. Yeah, it's awesome. I think the resume reviews really landed well too. So yeah, good idea. Yeah, I mean, resume reviews, uh, I think shout out to Jason for having that idea. I think like it's the ultimate value add. Ultimate value add. So, um, our Uber's pinging. Your car's here. Commit your code. Thank you, Danny. Thank you. We appreciate you. We love y'all. Peace. See you in Raleigh. Bye, guys.