In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews data engineer Joe Hill. Hill shares a personal story about discovering his two autistic sons in 2009, which led him to design a free iPad app to help them speak; the app reached 100,000 downloads across 50 countries but ultimately became free, teaching him that passion outweighs profit. The experience propelled him from sales into technology and sparked his advocacy for the learn‑to‑code movement. Hill highlights the rapid growth and severe talent shortage in data engineering, advising newcomers to learn math, SQL, or front‑end skills via free resources like FreeCodeCamp, noting that dedication can yield a well‑paying job within a few years. He offers two pieces of business advice—always tip, even when unnecessary, and be kind and genuine—to build goodwill and support at work. Reflecting on his younger self, he advises against pursuing a theology degree, recommends extensive reading, developing a personal narrative, and traveling to gain perspective. On happiness, Hill emphasizes creating lasting work that outlives the creator, citing figures like Steve Jobs and Ada Lovelace. His favorite book, Walter Isaacson’s The Innovators, reinforced the importance of history and collaborative teams over lone‑wolf founders. His favorite quote, from Robert F. Kennedy, speaks of small acts creating ripples of hope that can topple oppression. Finally, Hill directs listeners to his Twitter handle @VintageJoeHill for further engagement. The episode is sponsored by Authors Unite and recorded with Anchor.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Joe Hill with us. He is a data engineer in a financial institution and a proponent of the learn-to-code movement and has a background in sales and app creation. So welcome to the show, Joe.
Thanks for having me.
Of course, thanks for joining us, and we will dive in and The first question I have for you, Joe, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
I have— in 2009, I discovered that my two sons both had autism. And so at the time, I was a salesperson who had different clients and played things like speech therapy and stuff like that. And both were nonverbal. Both my sons weren't speaking. I designed and started to create an app on the iPad to help them learn how to speak. I went around and pitched it to anyone who would listen and eventually got it built and it got downloaded about 100,000 times in about 50 different countries. I think it wasn't a huge success because I had to make it free eventually. People just weren't buying it, but I learned a lot from it. I think that just because you do something great doesn't always mean that it's going to be greatness. So I think a valuable underlying message is if you're passionate about something, do it. Don't do it for the money. You might get money out of it, but do it for the experience. Do it to help others. And that's actually— that decision for me to make that app got me out of the doldrums of being just a regular sales guy into a whole new world of technology, of how— learning how to code, of helping others learn how to code. So it really enriched my life. That one failure sparked a lot of good things. And so I think that you just need to persevere whether you fail or not.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Um, I think the most valuable piece of information is that it's growing and that there's a severe lack of talent. If people are looking for a new career, they just need to learn something like math or SQL and they can be a database engineer, or they can learn if they're artistic and they want to draw and they want to create really nice things for people to interact with on the internet, they can become front-end engineers. And there's a plethora of ways to learn that. FreeCodeCamp is one of them, freecodecamp.com. It teaches you all sorts of things of how to learn how to code. It's hard. It's not easy, but it's really worth the effort, and within about a year, maybe two, maybe three, you can have a really well-paying job and have a life that is actually pretty good with a free education if you're willing to work hard enough at it.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
I think I have two pieces of advice. One is always, always tip, even when you don't need to. And the second is to be kind and genuine. I think that I've learned a lot in my life from making a lot of mistakes and having a lot of failures. But if you're kind and genuine with your coworkers, you're gonna get a lot of leeway, you're gonna get a lot of help, and you're gonna get a lot of people willing to go to bat for you in situations you didn't even know was happening because you are a kind and genuine person. I think that goes a long way.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
One is don't get a theology degree. I did that, it was worthless. I spent a lot of time in retail jobs, let me tell you, in my 20s. The second would be read a lot and develop a personality. Just read a lot of history, learn from a lot of other people, realize that you're not alone in this world. Develop a personality, go and travel if you can, take road trips, drive 6 hours and north, south, west, east, whatever. You'll learn a lot about yourself in that time because you're sitting there thinking, and that provides a good way to develop personality and get people to like you. Because you have interesting stories to tell. And so I think that would be a good piece of advice to my younger self.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
I think learning to create by doing. I think we all want to have a piece of ourselves survive after we leave this world. We're out of control of what people think of us other than our own actions. And so I think if you create and do things and create a lasting impression, I think that that lives on more so than even some actions or failures and mistakes that you made. I think people like Steve Jobs or even more fallible people like Ava Lovelace, you know, they have great legacies even though they weren't exactly perfect human beings. So I think that's, yeah, great stuff.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I think the best one is The Innovators by Walter Isaacson. I think I've read that book about 9 times in the last 5 years. I think the most valuable thing is it's a history of the digital age. So it starts with, you know, the beginning of computers and works its way on and things that have been created. But I think the thing I learned from that was everyone has a history and that history can, shape you in a way that can lead you to do great things in business. And if you're paired up with another person who also has a history and you maybe are opposites, maybe you're exactly the same, but you can, I think teams are what really make really great businesses, not just the lone wolf founder. So I think it's really important to have someone who can strengthen you and your weaknesses and you can strengthen their weaknesses and great things can happen. Can happen.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
I think my favorite quote's from Robert F. Kennedy, and it's, each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. He was just starting to get into his prime, I think. And I think that always sticks with me because he wasn't always the man who would stand up for an ideal, or he was deeply political because of his brother. And I think when he started to stand up for things that he believed in, that he was willing to speak and speak truthfully to things, I think that he took a lot of flak, but in the end, he ended up being a great man because of it, even though he was cut down in his prime. And I think the same could be said for anybody. Just stand up for what you believe in, be passionate, be educated, be knowledgeable, and good things can happen.
So yes, man, thank you so much for coming on, Dan. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
Um, if they, you know, if they don't mind salty language, you know, on Twitter, uh, there'd be, um, @VintageJoeHill. Uh, that's probably the best place to find me. Um, and I'm always posting on there, and I do blogs on occasion. But yeah, I'm always happy to talk with people or get followers or whatever.
Awesome, man. Thanks again for coming on. We appreciate it.
Thanks, Tyler. The podcast you just heard was recorded with Anchor. If you want to make your own, download the Android or iOS app completely free from anchor.fm/podcast.
