Hi everyone, my name is Patrick akhil and if you're interested
in data analytics, startups in Big Data, today's episode is for
you. Joining me today is Alex
freyberg. Also known as Alex, the analyst
on YouTube, he quit his full-time job to go consultancy
and content, creation full-time. And he gives us a little sneak
peek into the startup. That is building fun little
tidbit. He actually had his own granola
company in college. That's really cool.
I'll put all his links to socials in the description
below, check him out. And with that being said, enjoy
the episode. You know, I always have consider
myself like a dad first like or a husband first because as
important as my work is like as serious as I take it.
I tried to put them first and so most of the time like I cater my
work schedule around like my family stuff.
Yeah, so you know, I think that it's a healthy balance and I do
work a lot but because I'm work at home.
Like I work remote, I can work whenever I want to wherever I
want to be able to really do. I do it my way.
Yeah yeah I can imagine I first and foremost really like that
about you but I'm assuming that decision kind of weighed heavily
on you as well. When you decided to kind of go
off on your own and go content creation, full-time in what
you're doing now was that kind of a?
I was I mean it was definitely on your mind but did you
consider the risk involved with that as well?
Yeah, and it's something that even about a year over a year
ago because I've only been doing I quit my job in descend to
December, you know, it's March, right?
So like it's only been three months or like three and a half
months. But I had been thinking about it
for the past year like as things started to grow.
I had this kind of side business and the background of like
Consulting and working with tech companies and startups and it
was going really well. And I was like, you know, this
might be something I want to do later on full-time.
Yeah. And so, So as it started to get
more serious, like it's getting bigger contracts and I was
getting more work. I was like, you know, if I, if I
did this it could work out really well but then I lose a
lot of things. The stability of a full-time job
and just like the security of, you know, for all those benefits
that you get with working at a phone company.
Now a full-time job. And so that was the biggest
thing for me is like I just wanted to make really certain
that I had everything set up. So now that I'm here, I'm Beside
like, happy with where I'm at. I'm really really happy that I
did it because it's gone exceptionally well, and just
things have continued to grow even now.
And so, I think I'm positive, I made the right decision.
But yes, it was very nerve-wracking like I was very
nervous about it. I over tend to overthink things
a little bit sometimes and so I went inside my wife calls, it
analysis, paralysis, like I overanalyze, I run all the
numbers, I had multiple, you know, documents like setup.
For all the different things like cost.
It was just everything, everything I was could imagine.
I was like focused on it and so, but now I'm here and I'm over it
now. You know, I'm really happy that
I did it. Yeah.
For people that are considering going on off to their own
Venture, I guess, or starting something of their own.
Do you think your concerns were like two, were they too much too
many concerns Looking Back Now, like, where they valid?
Or did you make them kind of hyperbolic I guess?
Well, that's a good question. I think, I think that II may
have over worried a little bit. I think the biggest thing for me
was that, you know, things change in this kind of world of
like creating content and Contracting even can go and ebb
and flow. And I was just worried.
I was like, what if like the work dries up?
Yeah, I had no money. But, you know, I at that, by
that point I had a pretty steady flow pretty steady customer
base. So I think, I think, you know,
if, if that person who's like, thinking about doing that
already has like a pretty good customer base and we're like
client base in is in his consistently, doing it on the
side. If you switch over full-time and
can dedicate all your time to those clients, you know, they
would be even more happy with that.
And so, you know, for me, I think I over thought it quite a
bit. I just think I like that your
wife's that, like, you overanalyze, or even to the
point where it was analysis, paralysis also because on
YouTube, You're known as Alex. The analyst, can you Walk me
through kind of how that how that name came to be in the
first place. Sure.
You know what? I was, I actually had a YouTube
channel before my current YouTube channel, it was the Berg
Source. It's like my last name is
probably different sources, but it was, it was around watches.
Like, I started, I started a channel based around reviewing
watches because I love watches nice.
And that was like my first Venture into YouTube and like,
it was super small. I never got more than like 100
subscribers but I love die. I was like, I really like this,
but I didn't make a lot of money at the time.
I was like, I can't afford to keep buying new watches.
I can't afford to keep like doing this.
Yeah. And then, I was like, you know,
what else could I make? And, and when I really got to
like, thinking about it, because I was, like, I really enjoy
making the content. I was like, what can I do?
That could actually make an impact, like, actually do.
I was like, okay. I really like coding Arie like
data analytics. And so, I didn't actually create
Alex to analyst first. Like, I actually saved or create
an account. It was Like that it was only
pythons I was going to focus only on python stuff.
Yeah. Creating projects and
applications and because I love Python and I called it like I
think it was the the Python Master something, something like
that and then I was like, you know, that's really neat like
that. It's really I think it's too
focused because I was like, if I brought and it's what I do for a
living, which is data analytics, I could do data analytics and
that could also do python stuff. Yeah.
So I could do both and so I was like, okay let me brought it up.
And then I did. What I always do is I made a
spreadsheet of all these different names and I was just
like, let's just keep it simple like what am I doing?
It's like and then I came up with Alex analyst and it really
stuck and I think I think it was a good name it.
I don't know. There could be a better one out
there. I don't know if it's so catchy
and I love that. You said I do what I always did.
I made a spreadsheet that's hilarious.
That's really cool. I love the name.
That's basically, how did you I was going to tell some a
different story. Actually, when I, when I got my
first job when I was 16, got my first paycheck and the first
thing I got was a watch because I was like, I'm a proper adult
now a proper adult needs a watch to go with that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you mentioned you have a background
in data analytics and when I came out of University that was
kind of one of my options when I was looking at jobs that were
out there in the market. But for me, the there's not
really a fine line that says, okay, this is the difference
between for example, what? You would do as a data analyst
or a business analyst or even you have analytics analysts
like, what would you say the biggest difference in those
rules? Or even a few of those are when
you're looking at the job market?
Yeah, that's the question. I get asked all the time because
everybody's experience is different.
Even my experience is different, I can give kind of like doing a
little bit. I'll give you kind of a general
overview but even my experience from company to company.
I've worked with several and I've now I've consulted with a
lot of companies and what their definition is Of data analytics
or business, analytics are all these other things is very, it's
just depends on the company. Write in general, typically I
say data analytics is you know where you're working more
heavily on the coding, you're working more heavily on the
visualizations and you're analyzing data, right?
That's what I did and else does but then business analyst is
working more heavily with the clients.
Okay? So, you know, typically, when I
say should People ask, should I become a business analyst or
data analyst I say well do you have more experience as a data
analyst and do you enjoy more of the coding aspect or do you have
less experience? Maybe just a little bit of
sequel. Knowledge and Excel knowledge.
But you know you really like working with clients and helping
them figure out their problems that's usually where I start
like I'm like, okay go down the data analyst route or the
business analyst route but you know again the even at my
company where I used to work which was a Fortune 500 company,
you know, their definition was a little bit different, the
business analyst Kind of internal working with
stakeholders. They were expected to coaches as
much. Yeah.
And so, you know, it's just again, I think every company is
different. That's that's the tough part
about tech in general, is that a data scientist and Silicon
Valley, could be a glorified data analyst, or as a business
analyst here could be a data analyst at another company.
It's very like, company sent record it just based off, how
they Define their roles. Yeah, that's a great
perspective. Of context-dependent and also
company probably. And so on is because if you're
working on a small scale startup startup I guess the role that
you're going to do is going to be so multifaceted because they
don't have they can't leverage the amount of money they have in
different roles and Specialties in there.
So your role is going to be more multifaceted, more of a generous
generalist role and then kind of an umbrella term could be either
data analyst or business analyst in a bigger company.
For sure, they can have those special Will they use them?
Then you can have different skills in there as well from
Junior media to senior and what have you I guess interested.
That's actually been exactly my experience because when I
started out, my first job, I was a data analyst.
But I was at a really small company like less than 50
people. Yeah.
And it was kind of like this startup mentality and I did
everything. Like I was the business side, I
was the internal side. I did a lot of coding and a lot
of visualization. I did everything.
Yeah. Then when I got to the See that.
I just quit from, which was a very large company, every role
had exactly. Here's what you do.
Like, I was on the data collection team and then there's
like other teams. So then there's like, you know,
the data science team, the data visualization team.
And so, I had like, my Lane of heavily coding heavily working,
at databases ETL, kind of stuff. And I didn't work at all with
the visualizations. At least I never built them.
I just kind of like made my recommendations.
Yeah, interesting. Would you advise kind of a
similar? Pathway like starting out in a
more multifaceted way and then finding your speciality or more.
So, starting with that specialty in mind and building up
fundamentals before you go, multifaceted, I guess.
Yeah, I think it like it, like a perfect world.
If you could choose, I think, and often times you don't get
the choice, right? Like, you just, you get what you
get sometimes. And you go with what you get.
If I could choose, like, if I had the choice, I would go more
generalist. I think are more like small
company type mentality where you can do everything.
Yeah, because I learned that I really like the coding side of
things. I really liked working in SQL.
I really liked working with python, I like visualizations
but not as much as I do like the ETL automation side of things.
So I got to experience the whole range of things that I could do,
and then I was like, I really like this.
And then in my next job I got to only do that, which I loved.
So if possible, I think generalist is better.
Although some people don't have the option, right.
They just get offered a job and sometimes they just have to take
that experience. Yeah, yeah it's interesting
because that has a lot of similarity with my own Journey
as And how I got to this role in the first place, I started in a
role. Very consciously being like,
okay, this is a role where I get to touch on a lot of aspects
because I have no clue what I want to do.
No clue what I want to specialize in, but this is a
huge playing field for me in a phone, a play left.
If I want to play, right? I can do it basically and that's
where it started off and through that, through a lot of learning
what I like and even more. So learning what I don't like to
do. I found what I love to do and
that's what I'm doing right now in kind of a software
engineering position. So I Think I would have a line
on that, but it's really hard to put that in practice in to aim
for that. I guess you have to be kind of
Lucky to some degree as well or create your own luck to some
degree as well. Exactly.
And and that again, I was really lucky.
I just that path happened for me, but it was kind of by
accident like I never dipped. It definitely did not choose it
like it just was. Yeah, yeah interesting.
I mean you touched on this in the call we did before this
recording that you have a big passion for Education, right?
And with everyone that has that passion, I always think it's
interesting to know where that comes from.
Where would you say that? Comes from, Yeah, I have a lot
of teachers in my family. My dad right now is a Headmaster
of a school so like he's been a teacher for 30 years and then he
was my teacher when I was in high school.
So like, you know, my family is a bunch of teachers and so I've
always liked teaching I even, you know, when I was growing up
I was a tutor for a lot of different things.
Like I was a tutor for the TOEFL, which is like the
entrance exam for, you know, students outside of the United
States at least the one eye. The people, I were teaching from
China. So, it's teaching people how to
do that. Then I was, I always tutored in,
like, algebra and stuff like that in college.
And so, I always really enjoyed tutoring.
I also did guitar lessons for a while, so like I would teach
people guitar. And so I've always enjoyed like
working with people mentoring them, that kind of thing.
And even in my job, like before I started YouTube, I would
Mentor people and, you know, take in like Junior data analyst
and kind of teach them everything.
I just always really, really enjoyed that so, you know, I
think it runs in my family and I kind of grew up with that.
But then I also like throughout my life and career and education
I've been doing it as well. Yeah.
Interesting. And in in finding YouTube you
have kind of this one too many in the way that you educate
people have you since like do you still do those one-on-one
sessions in mentoring or coaching?
I did it up until one month ago, like I look just stopped a month
ago. So I've been doing mentoring for
over two years in data analytics, like through my
YouTube Channel, people will come to me and do that and I'm
like, yeah, I do. I have a program.
Yeah, and I had like a wait list of, like, eventually like, it
was over 500 people and I eventually had to stop the wait
list, cause like, I will never get those people, they will
never get into the end of that list.
And so then, as I started my full-time business, I was, I
really just Wanted to focus on my business growing my business
making sure the successful like taking care of my family is
priority number one so yeah you know having a revenue stream
where I could pay my bills and him and do that stuff.
You know took more precedence but I've always enjoyed it.
I only plan on stopping for a short while like I'm hoping next
year, the beginning of like 20 24, I can start it up.
Again once I have everything established and like you know
things are going. Well yeah.
Yeah. When you find yourself in a
position where You have so many things that you love doing, you
have to pick and choose like, which ones you actually can do.
I think that's a good position to be in.
But for me, I always struggle with deciding then.
Like, do you find yourself in that way as well?
Where there's like, so many things that you enjoy doing,
it's kind of a struggle to say no to some things in that way.
Yeah, and I think I hit a big, like a peach, I don't call like
anxiety, but a peak, like I had so many things at one time.
Yeah, that I had to like really sit step back and like,
re-evaluate my priorities gum and then hit about like probably
a year ago. They don't have my job as doing,
full time I had my YouTube stuff.
I was doing consulting on the side.
I was doing mentorship, I'm building like lessons and all
these things and then I have my family and so like I have at I
had None of my plate and I had to really step back and be like,
okay, what can I let go? What do I need to start saying?
No to more and I had to do that. And so now over the past year
I've gotten really good at it. I'm like, okay I know what I can
do and what I can't do, I know what fits well in my schedule
and so I think I kind of have it all down to somewhat of a
science now. But I think that, you know, as
new opportunities arise I kind of do a re-evaluate like
priority levels and what I want to focus my time and energy on.
Yeah, interesting. When we, when we zoom into that
like what made you realize that the things you were doing?
Like it wasn't wasn't a sustainable thing to keep doing
all of those things are to keep all of that on your plate.
Like was it an event that happened?
Was it like a family that had a conversation with you?
What, trigger thought now, it definitely wasn't like anything
bad. It was like, because again, I've
always prioritize my family first, like I've never I've
never liked focused on work too much.
I've never focused on like YouTube too much.
Much, I think I've had, I've had a really good like I've always
prioritized that but it got to a point where I had it again.
It's like a good thing. Like I had so many companies
reaching out to like consult with them and to do webinars and
all these different things where I was like, I want to do all of
them. Yeah, but I like if I'm looking
at my calendar, I'm looking at it.
Honestly, I can't fit everything in and spend time with my
family, like I would need to, like, get rid of my family to,
like, do all this other stuff. Except I was, I'm just not going
to do that, right? And so, you know, that that
really was it. It was just kind of a slow boil
until it got bigger and bigger. And then I was like, I need to
take things down a notch just so that I can.
Oh hey Rosie. Just so that I could that's my
dog she's in here because she was, she has paid the other day,
so she needed need some attention.
But, yeah, I mean, that's, that's really all it was, it was
just so much stuff kind of slowly boiling up that I had I
just kind of had to take a step back and prioritize.
Yeah, I think ambitious people, and people that love doing a lot
of things, I think, at some point they'll have that and I've
had it through, people talking to me and saying, like, hey, we
haven't hung out in a while like what's up where I was like yeah,
I've been working in evenings and stuff like that or even
where I just I RIT I wrote down at the beginning of the year.
This was last year what I wanted to do for that year and then I
was doing all those things and something new would pop up and I
really had to evaluate if I would let go of the things I was
doing. Or actually say no to that and
it's hard to decide where someone comes to you with
something enthusiastically and you really want to do that
except you just really don't have the space for it.
Like it's a sad thing. It's a good thing but then
saying no is something you have to do.
Otherwise you're gonna you're gonna burn out I feel like yeah
exactly, yeah. Can you walk me through the
company that you're building? Not just on content creation
side, but more. So the company that you're
starting up together with the I don't know the part of Working
with. I don't know if you want to name
the name but that thing sure. Yeah.
Yes. I have to I have one like
umbrella company is what I call that so like it's the company
that is called Alex analytics. Yeah and under that umbrella I
have two separate entities below it.
Sorry Rosie wants to join the call.
So the first company is Alex analytics where I mostly focus
on Consulting. That's where I do a lot.
Of working with companies and, you know, if they want my
services for a lot, like I just do a ton of different things, so
it's sometimes I'm going in and actually implementing a new like
business strategy and helping them with their analytics team,
sometimes. I'm, you know, they want to help
me market their product, or, you know, review their product.
So it varies very widely. But that's, that's right now.
That's kind of my main business. Yeah.
Now, right on the, on the other entity and under that I was as
well as like my YouTube Stuff. The other entity right now is
something that I'm building and I've been building it for the
past year. It's really close to being done.
I have all the content completed, we're finalizing the
website probably in the next, like two months but that's
mostly focused on like helping people become data analyst but
more. I don't know to say
professionally because like my YouTube stuff is is professional
but like you know, it's with the building courses and I don't
know how much I want to talk about it because I don't want to
like I haven't made any announcements yet but it's going
to be really a fantastic platform to help people become
data analyst and I think it's going to be a major kind of
competitor to a lot of companies out there.
And I'm hoping that because of how good my audience is that,
you know, I can, I can really like, have a good hold on the
market and and people will trust that I'm, you know, I have their
best interests at heart. Yeah.
So I haven't discussed how much you want to talk about it.
So just cut me off when you feel like I don't want to discuss
this part, but you mentioned, you're not building it yourself.
Which to me is a very interesting Dynamic, right?
Because you have programming knowledge.
You know what, being in the field is like, I mean, you're
still Consulting in a way. Now, yet you now are on the
customer side. So someone else is building this
thing. And for me, looking at or if I
were to put myself in that position, if things are not
going as how I would build it, or how I would, Envision it and
I can see a lot of friction in there.
Like, how's that process been so far?
Yeah. That's, that's been an extremely
eye-opening part, because normally, I'm the, I'm the
person who builds things. I'm the person who helps people.
Yeah. But it's been really eye-opening
because, you know, I get to take a step back and let them do what
they're great at. So, I'm working with a web web
development team and they're phenomenal.
And what they've been doing is helping me, like, build out this
website. Now typically, if you're a
startup, which this is kind of like, Like in my mind this is
like I'm creating a start-up. Yeah.
When you're creating a start-up you want you want to be in
control of everything. You want to build it exactly how
you want but it's not my specialty like I'm not a web
developer. Yeah so these web developers are
like building something. That's really complex and a lot
of these startups you know they'll build it based off of an
already existing platform like they'll integrate a lot of
different platforms into one website to build something.
It makes it really easy, really cost effective.
But what I'm building is it's a little bit more complex than
what you typically can, like, get out the box and anything.
And so it's very technical like super technical and so, you
know, when I'm working with them, they've told me that I
like and I don't know. I'm not trying like Pat myself
on the back or anything but they're like you're one of the
best, you're one of the best clients to work with because you
know, all the background stuff. So when we get on a call and I'm
like, oh Okay, you know they're like this isn't working.
I'm like okay, let's actually look at it and I'll see if I can
help figure it out because they don't understand the data.
A lot of this has to do with databases on the back end and
integrating that into the front end and how that all interacts.
And so, you know, will dig into it.
I can actually offer like advice and my thoughts and, you know,
they really like that. I think the other good thing is
that I've worked so much with this stuff that I know that
things don't go perfectly. So like, I think I'm a pretty
ideal client because when things don't go well, They get
something is pushed back, two weeks.
I'm like, I don't worry about it.
I like I get it. I know how that works.
I know how it goes and they're always.
Like, thank you so much for being understanding and I'm
like, yeah, that is what it is, but it's been, it's been
fantastic. Because they are definitely the
experts and they've given me a lot of ideas that I didn't even
have when I first conceptualize the website or like this this
like, you know, start out. And so, you know, it's
definitely been a really good relationship and they've been
really fantastic to work with Yeah, I can imagine.
So I mean, from a customer intimacy, point of view, that's
what you want, right? From a client perspective.
And from a perspective, that's delivering in that way, that
kind of equal level of relationship and conversation.
Then that is a win-win on both fronts, right?
Because this is a, this is a man sometimes my English escapes me
but it's a collaborative thing, right?
You're doing this together and it doesn't really make sense.
If one of the sides wins and the other one loses because then
both sides lose. So the best sense.
Yeah. Best case in this way would be a
win-win. So I love that you're doing this
collaboratively and together like does it feel like you're
part of that team, then as well? Or do you still feel like kind
of the the customer? See, I guess.
Yeah, I definitely feel more of like I'm on the team.
You know, I'm working with a lot of web developers software
engineers and again, it's I like I'm a I love to build things
like I've always loved to build different websites and
applications and in different stuff at least since I got into
like Tech. Yeah, I just love building
projects. And so this to me is just like,
one, big, big, big project and so, and encapsulate.
It's a ton of different really, technical difficult, projects
and Technologies and you're putting into 12.
Like I'm learning a ton. I think I'm learning a lot more
than they are because they some of these things.
They aren't like they haven't built out before.
And so as they're learning, You know, I'm learning with them.
And so I feel like I'm paying for my for like an education and
software and web development and so like my knowledge of like
different tech stocks has grown exponentially, especially unlike
the software engineer database side and just like integrating
applications do into a website. I mean, I a year ago I didn't
know as much like a thief as much as I know now, and so I
it's been really, really fun, just to learn everything.
Because like, I just love, I love building.
It's super, super fun. Yeah, that's really cool.
I can see a lot in how you would enjoy that process, basically.
And then what I was wondering is your building towards a point
where you're going to go live, right?
Like with every MVP you're building with every startup.
At some point, you're going to put something live and doesn't
have to be digital can be physical, but as soon as your
live-in, the product is out there, that's when gears going
to shift and you have to go into this Progressive mode of
incrementally, adding more value Value in improving in that way.
Like have you already are you consciously thinking about what
that wave working then is going to be with you?
Like are you going to focus on something else in the way that
you're doing it? My Hope Is that this becomes my
main source of income. Hmm.
My Hope Is that this becomes like something that that I can
focus all my efforts on eventually but when I first
launched I have I have my like you said, my MVP.
I have it already completed. Like it's at least the content,
the content is already there. I already have my next A year
and a half's worth of content lined up.
I just have to build it but like I already know exactly what I'm
doing each month once I launch. But in terms of like, I guess in
terms of, you know, incrementally changing it, I
think it'll kind of ebb and flow because I will be I will be the
only person creating content for this website.
I don't have I'm not I guess I added again.
I'm not trying to like I don't but it's safest I'm not trying
to give away too much about everything that's in it but I
don't I'm not hiring anybody to create any of the content.
I'm not hiring anybody on, as Striders or anything.
Like I'm doing everything, 100%, all my own because I just
really, really, really value my audience and I know my audience
doesn't want content from someone else you like how I do
things, what the things that I do.
So I feel like it'd be a disservice but because of that
it's it's a ton of work on my plate like but I'm willing to
put in the extra effort because I know my audience will
appreciate it and value it more than if I just hired on a bunch
of People and just put it slapped it together.
It was like, here you go. So yeah, it's going to be a lot.
And another part of it is like the this I hope it's gonna get a
ton of traction right away. So like, you know, we're having
to order. I'm already talking with the web
team about like putting in safeguards for, you know, the
website crashing and things like that because I know that it's
very much a possibility. And so there's like a lot of
extra things that you may not have to do with like your
typical startup because I just I already have an or a very large
built-in audience that I know will or will want to go to it
because I know my audience very well.
Interesting. I mean, you don't want to lose
that sense of authenticity, right?
I think, right previously, in 10 years before even 20 years, you
would buy into a company and you would love the product, but you
buy it because of that product and I feel like there's a shift
and people are no longer buying into a product, but they care
about the perp, the people behind it, that care about what
it stands for what it does, the sense of authenticity and the
relationship with someone way more than just the thing,
they're buying like they're binding to an ecosystem of Of
like personal sense in there as well and especially with
YouTube. There's now a sense of community
as well. And a sense of collaboration and
discussions which is way more open than your typical product
would be in the first place. So I like that you emphasize
that that is going to be a focus in there and it's not going to
be someone else. It's going to be you doing that
thing. That needs to be done.
That's pretty cool. Yeah and that is I would say
that's like one of my top priorities or top concerns when
I do anything. So like you know, on a Day to
day basis, probably per month. I'm reached out to buy like, 20
different companies. Usually, like every other day,
I'm getting something. Hey, could you sponsor this
product? We want to you to make a
LinkedIn post. You want you to make a video.
I say no to 99% of those because I'm like, yeah, you could pay me
a lot of money but I know my audience.
So incredibly well, like I know what they want.
I know what they like, other like, the majority of them, like
uttered on a larger scale as a whole, I know exactly what they
want with their They're looking for what they're trying to do
because I was in their shoes and so for me to like then go and
like promote this boot camp for ten thousand dollars and they're
like, we'll give you 20% so I make in two thousand dollars per
sale. I can make a hundred thousand,
two hundred thousand dollars on that.
If I started promoting it, I know I could like make a ton of
money, but I would lose a lot of the confidence of my audience
and that is like my top priority.
And so, when I'm building these things, when I'm making these
content taking these contracts, a lot of it, I have to put it
through the filter of How would my audience perceive that if I
were to do that and I'll give you an example.
I just, I took a contract. I built an entire python course
for a company, I'm not going to say what company.
Sure. But part of the agreement was
that I was going to them, promote it on LinkedIn, which I
was happy to do because I built it, I'm really proud of it was
an amazing course and when we first talked to this company
they were going to. They were like yes we're you
know, were focused on helping people who Who are like
disadvantaged and all these things, which I'm like totally
for. I'm like, yes, that's I totally
believe in what you guys are doing, this is fantastic.
Yeah, once I built the course, they priced it up quite higher
because they like the product, they sell my audience and
they're like, well it's price it up quite a bit more and I did
not like that. And I told them and so I had a I
went, I really battled them and fought them on getting the price
down because I was like, this is not okay what you're doing, but
in the end I had to do what I had to do.
And I, you know, It really, like it was painful for me to promote
that product even though I was really proud of the product, I
didn't like the price because I know what my audience is looking
for. So it perception, really is
everything at sometimes and and you have to take into the
especially at where I'm at. I have to take these things into
account because it could ruin. I mean, just overnight, you
could, you could just promote one bad product, make one bad
recommendation, that's like a scam or something and then, you
know, you have a huge not to your reputation and that It is
really everything in this industry and so I take it very,
very, very seriously. Yeah, I can imagine.
So I mean, as small as the podcast, this people are
reaching out for a position as a guest or a sponsorship thing and
I have no clue where to start like that business side of
content creation and I haven't even started with it.
I haven't even considered it so I have no clue what it takes to
gain experience in that other than experiencing the things
that you mentioned right saying yes to what feels good saying.
No to what doesn't Good. And then experiencing, what kind
of red flags are in there, or what could go wrong in such a
process. But it seems it seems very
difficult because there's nothing out.
There you are your own brand which means it hasn't been.
There's no one trailblazing except you basically so yeah, I
think that's very difficult sponsorships and the more
business aspect of content creation.
Do you have any other examples where you would say?
Okay, I found such a great fit and this was a real win-win as
well. Yeah, I would say most of the
ones that I do are really good fits.
So, like I partner per day. A lot with udemy, I partner a
lot with Coursera now. These were the two platforms.
I primarily How I Learned data analytics, I first started out,
I took a lot of courses on Coursera, took a lot, of course,
on udemy. So like, when they reached out
to me wanting to sponsor, I was like, this is fantastic, is
exactly. I was looking for and they have
been the best sponsors of the channel by far.
I've had a lot of other sponsors but those Have been perfect for
this because I know my audience is looking for good really solid
courses on data analytics at a good price.
Yeah. And both of them offer their own
variation in version of it. And so those two have been to me
like and I've been with both of them for like two years.
So like I plan on, you know, continuing to be partners and
have them as my sponsors for many years to come because it's
been such a good relationship, not just with like my manager.
Like they call it like an account manager.
Now, Just with my account manager but also with like just
the, the company in the type of product that they have, I like
their product and so, it's been really great.
Yeah, I can imagine I'm a udemy's.
I got a question like, how did you learn a lot of stuff and I
really couldn't figure out the word udemy, basically, because I
was like, there's this platform and you probably know it and I
sometimes never finish the courses.
Yeah, that's the one so C1 level.
That's the one. It's the one I've used myself
the most because for me, YouTube was always first and That made
the most sense, right? And next to just Google
searching, whatever you need to do when it came to tutorials
YouTube was free. So I could always figure out
where the quality is because I can see that behind the scenes.
What's going on? Do I like it or not?
Yeah and then the next level for that for me was always stuff
that is a little bit more affordable because you're not
going to go from free to like a 10K course.
Full shebang, because you're not going to trust the exactly you
want. That smaller step and that's
where I found you to me and I was like, okay, this is a bit
more tailor-made, a bit more, maybe more.
Reason may be a bit more established I guess for a
fordable price point and especially if they hit you with
the deals you're like yeah I'll buy that and probably do it.
No, no, no time soon but still, so yeah, I recognize that as
well. When it comes to kind of a final
thought I have is for me companies.
Maybe I shouldn't generalize but there is a issue with collecting
a lot of data in the first place where companies need data to do
analytics. But if there's no data you can't
do. As much.
So then the notion is okay. We need a lot of data will store
and save everything and then you have this landscape of data
where people are trying to find like these golden nuggets.
We're building your value based on the data that you have all of
a sudden you're going to focus on that.
But if you collect garbage, you're not going to find any
golden nuggets because what you collected is garbage as well,
like I'm struggling in figuring out what the right way is to
collect data, what you would focus on. on and even how you
don't collect as much data, because some companies now are
not also collecting everything to the point where they have big
data problems when it comes to companies starting out with
collecting data for them to then analyze on, what would you
advise to start off with usually, Yeah, that's a super
that's a super tough question. I've worked with a lot of
different companies and every company collects in some ways,
similar data like a lot of like demographic for.
Yeah, you know, their customer base and or clients or whatever
you want to call them, but the actual data that every company
collects has very different and even departments within
companies are very, very different again, I don't know if
I can make any recommendations on exactly what to collect, but
You know, I think that you have to know what's going to drive
your company forward. Think what's gonna what's going
to be the thing that you're going to be like if this were to
excel If This Were to go down if this were to go up that would
change how we would do our business.
Yeah, then you track that right? I think it's you have to figure
out like the business questions. First like, what's important in
the business before you start collecting data because you,
like you said, one of the biggest issues in this is
something that I've worked at a few startups with So like they
would have me come in and they're like hey we want you to
look at are our databases look at our data and see you know and
we want to walk you through like our strategy plan for growing
the company and that's like when I consult on it was awesome.
So I just went in and I took a look and I'm like you know, what
do you do with all this historical data?
Because you guys are storing like terabytes and terabytes of
like data back here. Like what is this used for?
What are you? And we're like, well we don't
have any use for it yet, but we might and I was like, well this
is like, you know, three years old and when We started the
company. Like have you ever used it like
no. I'm like okay let's look at your
storage costs. And then we looked and I'm like
you know, there you need to have like a retention plan in place.
Like, how long are you storing this data?
How long is actually relevant? Because his data becomes
irrelevant? After six months that you don't
need a sword after six months or if you do start in like a cold
wallet or something that is super cheap to start because you
guys are storing it, like this, hot wallet, like ready to use,
and it's costing a lot of money. And so, I think that there's
all, there's so many factors to that.
That it's really hard to. It's really hard to make any
single recommendation. But you know, I think I think
keeping a business focused or business mindset even with the
data that you're collecting is really important.
Yeah. I like the statement that you
made in looking at the variables that will shift and if they
shift you will do your business operations differently.
I think that is then an essence of the data you have to store
and I like that. You also confirmed kind of my
assumption because I'm not working the database necessarily
but it is Thing I've heard from colleagues and different signals
here and there that companies create their own big data
problem, just by virtue of storing everything and I don't
think that is a good way of approaching that.
That's a, that's a I think especially when they store it as
you say in a way that they can just query it real time, right?
But if you've never used it, you're never going to need it
real time, which doesn't make any sense with the way you're
storing it in that way. Yeah, exactly.
It's go ahead. It is just, it's a problem that
every company has Is like there's no company that has like
perfect data and so I think that the best thing you could do is
just take a step back, really prioritize the day like we
talked about with other things. Other than that we've talked
about it's just prioritizing right?
Like what's the most important things that you need to focus on
right now? And what things can wait and
like really making sure those those data pipelines and the
your data storage is all like a really good for those things and
then come behind and like what else would be Nice to have and
then kind of like getting to that after.
Yeah. Yeah for sure.
I've really enjoyed this conversation and how it went
from your joy and education, how you start your YouTube channel
in the little side business, you're creating I'm sorry, we
didn't get to touch on everything.
We would have wanted to or maybe the audience still interested in
things when things go live, let me know.
I'll put it in the description so people can check it out when
it is actually live. In other words, is there
anything you'd still like to share before we leave off?
You know, I do a lot of podcasts.
I do a lot of webinars and stuff normally at the end I like to
make like a small small little like snippet in there if you
don't mind. Okay.
Which is, which is just that, you know, if you're listening to
this and you're trying to break into Tech or if you're trying to
break into analytics or whatever, you're trying to break
into really, is that it does not matter your background, it does
not matter where you came from, does.
Not matter. If you've never made over 20,000
dollars in your life, you can do it and just to, like, never give
up and shoot for the stars and just keep going, whether you're
in, you know, a country way across the world or the United
States, or wherever anybody can do it, and it can be
life-changing. And so, you know, don't give up.
Give it your all. And like, really put your effort
into learning those skills and focusing on, and I think, I
think anybody can make it if they put in the time, the effort
and have the heart for it. That's beautiful men.
No. No guest has ever taken the
stage like that and sent out a message like that.
That was awesome. Cool.
We're going to round it off here everyone.
Thank you for listening. I'm going to put all Alex
socials in the description below.
Alex the analyst, Alex freyberg check him out, let him know you
came from our show. And with that being said, thank
you for listening. We'll see you on the next one.