How to Be an Engineer Influencer
Start of Year Sale: 50% off - $75 $150
Let me teach you a new path to entrepreneurship - by becoming an "engineer influencer" first.
An engineer influencer is an engineer who builds an audience on social media and uses that to kickstart their future startup or business.
Examples include:
- Rahul Pandey - ex-Meta engineer, who leveraged his 60k followers on YouTube to launch Taro, a career-mentoring app that got into YCombinator
- Gergely Orosz - ex-Uber engineering manager, who used his Twitter following to grow his paid newsletter "The Pragmatic Engineer" to 140k readers in 18 months
- Daniel Vassallo - ex-Amazon engineer, who grew his following to 130k followers on Twitter and now teaches a highly successful cohort based class called "Portfolio of Small Bets"
Each of these engineer influencers focused on building their social media following first.
This helped them build credibility, expand their network, and guarantee them a distribution channel for their future product.
Let me help you build your following like them and set the foundation for your entrepreneurial success!
There are more ways to make money as an engineer than just W-2 jobs.
I'm Michael, an ex-Netflix engineering lead turned engineering consultant and EECS alum @ UC Berkeley.
When I quit my job at Netflix, I thought that the only way to make money was either through another W-2 job or from building a VC-scale startup.
But soon after, I discovered a network of engineers who aimed for a middle ground between these two extremes. These engineer influencers all realized that it was easier to succeed as an entrepreneur if you build an audience first.
When I started my entrepreneurial journey in February 2022, I had 0 followers, 0 income streams, and 0 assets. But after focusing on building my social media presence for 6 months, I:
- Grew my audience from ~0 followers to 11k on Medium, 10k on LinkedIn, 2.5k on Twitter and my Substack newsletter with ZERO prior social media experience
- Went viral 4x on LinkedIn, Medium, and Facebook
- Published articles in Business Insider and Yahoo Finance
- Was invited by multiple CEO's to give paid speaking engagements (recording here)
- Cracked the LinkedIn algorithm - I managed to get a post about engineering to reach over 1.2 million impressions, with over 4k likes
- Cracked the Medium algorithm - I have never gotten under 1k claps on any article, I have a 100% curation rate on Medium, and I only wrote 6 articles.
- Regularly network with other CEO's, and large Youtubers, Twitter, and LinkedIn personalities.
I've gone viral 4x on 3 different platforms in 6 months.
The CEO of Apex Fintech read one of my articles and invited me to give a paid talk in front of his 200-person engineering org. July 2022.
Growth from my Substack newsletter
Follower count growth from the last 6 months
I now focus on engineering consulting for early-stage startups. But I wouldn't have any business if it weren't for my efforts to grow on social media first:
Engineering Consulting Deals:
High-ticket consulting deals I closed because of my social media presence.
Speaking Engagement Requests:
Multiple speaking engagement requests I received after publishing online.
Now I'm certain that audience building is a critical first step in succeeding as an entrepreneur. Let me show you how to build yours.
Every engineer can be an influencer. Yes, that means YOU!
By the end of this course, you will have a firm understanding of:
- how to grow your follower base
- what topics you should write about
- how to find and dominate your niche
- how to network online
- how to never run out of content
- which social media platforms to focus on
- why no one is too boring to be an influencer
- monetization strategies as a creator
Even if your interests aren't in engineering, there's a way to build a following around you.
Let me show you how.
What You'll Get
You get a 3 hour course in mp4 format and the full slide-deck in my course presentation.
This course is focused on how YOU can become an engineer influencer. We will go over 10+ examples of other engineer influencers and how to apply their strategies to grow and monetize your own brand.
Content
Introduction
- Intro - 0:00
- What is an Engineer Influencer? - 0:12
- Income Risk Spectrum - 0:58
- How Rahul Pandey Got Into YCombinator - 1:57
- Mayuko Inoue's Multiple Income Streams - 5:59
- Why I Quit Netflix - 8:57
- My Entrepreneurship Journey - 11:40
- Course Outline - 17:52
Chapter 1: Channel Selection
- Channel Selection Overview - 19:05
- Strategy #1: Catering to Your Strengths - 19:46
- Your Communication Style - 20:11
- Using Compliments - 21:47
- Content-Channel Fit - 22:23
- Strategy #2: Social Media is a Sales Funnel - 25:59
- Top-Funnel Channels - 31:17
- LinkedIn/Twitter - 38:35
- Mid-Funnel Channels - 44:14
- Bottom-Funnel Channels - 46:55
- Funnel Strategy Overview - 47:40
- Strategy #3: Community-First Approach - 52:53
Chapter 2: Content Strategy
- Content Strategy Overview - 59:48
- Section #1: Topic Selection - 1:10:55
- Story-Telling - 1:01:28
- Advice + Passion - 1:08:23
- Reusing Old Content - 1:11:27
- Build in Public - 1:13:27
- Engineering Topics - 1:14:48
- Section #2: Content Creation Process - 1:21:25
- Importance of Process - 1:22:14
- My Writing Process - 1:22:55
- Process Focal Points - 1:25:17
- How to Get Started - 1:25:49
- Tips on Writing - 1:29:49
- Headline/Preview Testing - 1:36:20
- Editing - 1:43:56
- Section #3: Posting Frequency - 1:55:15
- Section #4: Dealing with Limiting Beliefs - 2:07:12
- What if I'm Too Boring? (hint: you're not) - 2:07:41
- What if I'm Not in FANG? - 2:11:00
- What if I don't have authority? - 2:13:10
- Section #5: What if Nothing Works? - 2:15:05
Chapter 3: Smart Audience Interaction
- Theory of 1,000 True Fans - 2:27:40
- Act like a Church Leader - 2:29:04
- Networking w/ Larger Influencers - 2:35:35
Chapter 4: Monetization Strategies
- Monetization Strategy Overview - 2:40:09
- Coaching - 2:44:05
- Consulting - 2:48:25
- Digital Products - 2:54:43
- Cohort Based Classes - 3:01:38
- How to De-Risk Quitting - 3:08:08
- My Final Inspirational Message To You - 3:12:13
FAQs
Is this course for me?
If you're a 1) W-2 employee in tech and 2) interested in diversifying your income streams, then yes!
What if I'm not an engineer?
That's OK! You can apply the principles I teach to any field. I also discuss a number of designers, PM's, and engineering-adjacent folks as examples as well.
How is this course specific to engineers?
First, I strive to use other engineers as examples wherever I can in this course.
Second, this course addresses entrepreneurial mistakes that engineers are most likely to make. This includes:
- focusing too much on product building rather than channel building
- feeling intimidated about self-promotion
- not knowing how to make sales
- thinking they don't have authority to speak on engineering
- always aiming for a VC-scale unicorn
Can I see a preview of the course?
Yes! Here are 3 clips from the course:
Do you have a refund policy?
Yes! If you're not 100% satisfied, message me within 30 days of the course launch or purchase (whichever is later), and you'll get a full refund.