Talking Field CTOs and Sabbaticals with Nick Howell – Episode 135

John Mark Troyer – The Geek Whisperers

Is the Field CTO the evolved final form of the Evangelist? And just how does an off-the-grid sabbatical change your perspective? We ask these questions and more as we talk with Nick Howell, who reflects back on his previous adventures as a technical marketing engineer and new journeys as a podcaster, blogger, and voice over performer.

Some of what we talked about:

• The Tech Marketing Engineers have a tech knob and a marketing knob
  • You tend to turn the marketing knob up and get less hands on
• Evangelist vs Technical marketing engineer
• John said Guy Kawasaki was the first Technology Evangelist — this is not true, although the term was coined at Apple.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_evangelist
• Reprise: When Not to be an Evangelist with Vaughn Stewart – Episode 113
• Social media outreach as formal role vs something you do on the side
• The old days – the rise of the blogger corps
• Org charts – Marketing vs Sales
  • You’re sales if you have a quota
  • You’re marketing if you don’t have a quota
• Instead of a title of evangelist, we invented the Field CTO.
• The Field CTO is a tech blogger that can bring executive cred to the meeting
  • On the road, closing deals, spreading the visionDifferences between: internally facing CTO vs externally facing CTO vs CTO inside the sales force
• Buying centers: Technical decision maker vs business decision maker
• Spread of a function across the org as it become more mature:
  • webmaster was a job, now lots of team do web things
  • social media
  • “devops engineering team” will eventually become everybody’s job
  • Evangelism and social/online/community presence now permeates across the org – and in the field it can be called Field CTO
• Reprise: The CTO in the field with Mike Letchin – Episode 89
• Do you have to be social/blogging to be a good TME?
• Reprise: We Need to Speak Differently – Technical Marketing with Tyler Hannon – Episode 94
• Differences between earlier tech communities and more recent tech communities
• Open source – utilizing new platforms
• Multiple platforms and the rise of Slack
• Nick: Twitter is too flooded with corporate crap
• Matt: Twitter is still the social fabric that connects us
• Nick’s new direction: voiceover work and the Orbital Jigsaw podcast network
• Taking a sabbatical
• Reprise: Staying Technical and Customer Facing with Leah School – Episode 133
• Nick’s sabbatical post had a huge response
• We all have to be on alert – can we relax and take a break
• Nick’s tips if you suddenly don’t have a job:
  • Take some time off – a few months at least (if you can afford it)
  • Give yourself permission that it’s ok
  • Take breaks a couple of times a year (if you can afford it)
• Amy’s maternity leave tip: make sure there’s something you put down that you don’t pick up again
• Matt: take time off. Your job is not that important. Matt recommends tacos in another country.
• Company holiday shut downs are really nice
• What would you never do again? Never go against your gut
• Datacenterdude.com
• OrbitalJigsaw.com
• Twitter: @datacenterdude