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You may hear the terms "niche" and "positioning" tossed around a lot, often interchangeably. What do these really mean, and what's the difference? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: CSuite Content just shared a guide to enterprise reputation management. Enov8 has a new checklist for DLP. InfluxData recently updated a node red dashboard tutorial for 2026. Unusual VC has an interesting explainer of how startups can pivot. Careflow started publishing to their blow recently, including a post about longitudinal health records (and why they don't work). Tricentis, provider of software testing tools, updated their offering around data integrity testing.

Maybe you're currently employed or between jobs. But it occurs to you that you want to go off on your own and start consulting (as opposed to freelancing with labor services). How do you do that? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: CSuite Content has a practical guide to executive bios for business leaders. Enov8 shared a clear explainer on Oracle ERP data masking. InfluxData put together a getting-started guide to in-memory databases. Unusual VC explored how AI is changing software development. Careflow is a referral management platform for healthcare organizations. Tricentis explains AI Quality Assurance for modern testing teams.

Plenty of employees entertain the idea of going freelance. But one of the biggest barriers to entry is the perceived risk of doing so. Is there a way to jump to freelancing with minimal risk? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: CSuite Content published a practical guide to Gen-Z slang for business leaders. Enov8 shared a clear explainer on SAP data masking. InfluxData put together a getting-started guide to MQTT. Unusual Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on technical founders. Careflow is a referral management platform for healthcare organizations. Tricentis offers Oracle App Testing for teams running Oracle E-Business Suite.

In this installment, a question submitter wonders whether it would be better to earn promotions into leadership before leaving the salaried world, or whether to leave as an individual contributor. Which is the right path? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: CSuite Content published a practical guide on how often executives should post on social media, including benchmarks and strategy tips for staying visible without becoming noise. Enov8 shared a clear explainer on test data in auditing, breaking down what it is, why it matters, and how teams should think about it from a compliance and risk perspective. InfluxData put together a solid glossary entry on data lakes, covering what they are, how they work, and when they make sense compared to other data architectures.

Occasionally, you might find yourself with a whale client, or at least a profitable one, that treats you poorly and shows no trust in you. How should you handle this? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8 published a helpful guide to data masking tools (and they also define data masking, if you're interested). Our friends over at CSuite Content published an interesting guide to becoming a thought leader. And finally, Tricentis put out a round-up of AI testing tools.

Occasionally, you might find yourself with a whale client, or at least a profitable one, that treats you poorly and shows no trust in you. How should you handle this? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8 has a helpful guide to test data management. The DataOpsZone community site has a handy explainer about the concept of referential integrity. This guide to ephemeral environments from Test Environment Management.

Sometimes a client is looking for labor and expects you to bundle in the strategic piece. For instance, they expect architecture to come along with a software development project. How to handle this? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8 recently published a take on application portfolio management best practices, for you enterprise fans. Spin has a round-up of the top SSPM vendors, if you're in the market. I just recently learned that Industry 4 is a thing, and what it is, thanks to Influx's glossary. If you're looking for help with Ansible tags, Netbox Labs has an introductory guide to the subject.

Depending on fate to bring you business can lead to gaps between projects. How do you setup some kind of sales funnel and get leads into it to avoid these gaps? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8's guide to data masking. This comparison of Logstash and Fluentd from Sawmills. Tricentis's (Testim's) AI-powered Salesforce Testing (also in German, French, and Japanese). A definition of SSPM from Spin.AI.

You're collaborating with your client on a time-sensitive deadline and you get sick. How should you handle that? Whose problem is it, ultimately? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8's list of enterprise architecture tools to be aware of in 2025. This introduction to the subject of log parsing from Sawmills. Tricentis's legacy tool replacement solutions (also in German and French). A guide from Testim on unit testing in React Native.

You've got a full-time job but want to go indie, and you line up your first contract. How do you think about how much runway you need to create between current savings and that first contract, for when it expires? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: A post from Sawmills, which introduces log parsing, explains its importance for transforming unstructured logs into actionable data and outlines best practices for efficient and scalable implementation. Learn how Tricentis Data Integrity helps ensure end-to-end data accuracy and reliability across complex enterprise systems through automated testing and validation. (The Data Integrity page is also available to read in German, French, and Japanese).

If you've built an audience on a platform other than your own website, how do you go about turning that following into a marketing funnel for something you're offering? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: This post from BlinkOps explains Identity and Access Management (IAM) automation. A Testim blog post that provides an overview of six JavaScript editors. A Sawmills post that gives an overview of Logstash filters, explaining their role in parsing. An Enov8 blog post that explains how a Release Train Engineer (RTE) facilitates Agile Release Trains (ARTs) within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). An overview of Tricentis Testim, an AI-powered test automation platform designed to streamline the testing of custom web, mobile, and Salesforce applications (sites also available to read in German, French, and Japanese).

It will sometimes come up that a prospect or client asks you to implement something that's either too vague to work or a flat-out bad idea. What should you do in this situation? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: This round-up of application portfolio management tools from our friends at Enov8. Regression testing for Workday, from our friends at Tricentis (also in German and Japanese).

If you're a programmer (or, generally, a labor-based freelancer), is it a good idea to sell strategic advice as a kind of "up-sell" to your normal offering? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: An Introductory Guide to Application Portfolio Management A beginner's guide to volume testing

I do a lot of theory in this series, but here's something practical. How would I recommend someone price an hour-long training session to teach social media tactics to a salesforce? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Sprint Scheduling: A Guide to Your Agile Calendar Not only do our friends at Tricentis offer Tosca, a powerful end-to-end testing tool, they also have sites available in these languages: French Japanese and German!

Sometimes, a client may ask you to sign a non-compete agreement as a prerequisite for engaging with them. Should you do it? How should you handle this situation in general? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: How regression testing is performed An Introductory Guide to Application Portfolio Management What is Security Automation? Benefits, Types & Best Practices What Is Software Testing? All the Basics You Need to Know

The default with freelancing is to charge by the hour and do generalist work. You might have, however, heard of value pricing and heard the idea that you should establish a niche. How should you go about doing that? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Test Suites and Their Test Cases: The Hierarchy Explained Challenges in mobile testing and how to solve them What is A/B Deployment (aka A/B Testing) What is Data Lineage? An Explanation and Example

As you grow your business successfully, you'll have more demand for your work and, thus, more leads. Does that naturally mean you can raise your rates? The answer is more complex than you might think. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: UI test automation: What it is and how to get started Testim, a fast and flexible authoring of AI-powered end-to-end tests—built for scale Enterprise Intelligence – Migrating & Managing the Cloud Database Virtualization Tools

If you establish a practice and start to earn a good bit of business, sooner or later you'll have to contend with the decision of whether or not to bring on subcontractors to help you. Should you do it? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Get Started With Salesforce QA and Testing: A Tutorial

I resisted talking about ChatGPT as long as humanly possible, but I did wind up getting a question in the backlog about it. So, will ChatGPT replace freelance programming? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: How to Do Test Data Management in Agile: 8 Best Practices Android testing: An easy introduction with examples

If you go into business for yourself, what should you call yourself? Freelancer? Self-employed? Something else? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Enov8: The IT & Test Environments Management Company

If you're thinking of hanging out your shingle or have just done so, you might wonder whether to use bookkeeping software and, if so, what to use. I have a surprisingly specific and opinionated answer for this one. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the month: TEM Metrics - Test Environment Management (DOT) Com

When you go off on your own, at least in the US, you might be in for a rude tax awakening. In this video, I talk about what self-employment tax is, and what you can do about it. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the Month: An in-depth look at spike testing with examples Follow our podcast at Iheart! Automate web and mobile testing with AI Metrics vs. Logs: When to Use Each in Your Telemetry Stack DORA Metrics Dashboard: How to Build One, With Examples

You're a freelancer and doing regular work with your clients. If you bill by the hour or, more generally, for time and materials, which meetings should you bill the clients for? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the Month: What are the different types of release management? Follow our podcast at Buzzsprout Follow our podcast at Listennotes

Freelancers, especially newbie freelancers, can find themselves caught in situations where their only, large, 40-hour-per week client starts to treat them more like an employee than a freelancer. What should you do? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the month: End-to-end testing for enterprise business processes Check out our new State of the Business newsletter

I've been asked this more than once, but eventually got around to doing a video about it. Rumor has it that California is "business-unfriendly," and, if you live there, you should start a business in another state. What's my take on that? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Salesforce Test Automation: What Every Engineer Should Know Key Components of a CI/CD Pipeline

It's a situation that a lot of techies can relate to. Someone comes along and offers you a stake in their business, instead of money, if you build their vision for them. What should a freelancer do in this situation? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Oracle testing 8 CI/CD Best Practices for Your DevOps Journey

We've all heard the phrase "hake it 'til you make it." A reader asked me if this is a good mantra to live by. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Data: What Is DevSecOps? Key Components of a CI/CD Pipeline

Wire Transfer? Check? Cash? If you're just starting out as a freelancer, what's the best way to get paid? View this podcast as a video on YouTube.

At the time of recording, there's a good bit of uncertainty about the economy. Against that backdrop, as a freelancer, should you approach your work differently? View this podcast as a video on YouTube.

One of the questions that came up in my reader/viewer backlog was specific to me and my background. What is/was my worst experience with a client? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Using Pytest Fixtures: A Step-by-Step Guide With Examples

There are all kinds of people billing themselves as (non-athletic) "coaches" out there. As someone looking to go freelance, is becoming a coach a good line of work to get into, specifically in the B2B/professional world? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Learn Regression testing

It's common (at least in the US) for employees to furnish "references," which are essentially friends or colleagues who vouch for them as character witnesses. As a freelancer, should you also do this? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Test Environments: Why You Need Them and How to Set It Up

When you're an employee, you probably only really think about taxes once per year. But what about as a freelancer? Well... it's a little more complicated than that. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Get Started With Salesforce QA and Testing: A Tutorial

In this video I field a question about how much per day or per week a freelancer should work. That's not really an easy question to answer because, in a sense, it's not the right question. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Testim Salesforce Testing

If you're a salaried employee, freelancing or starting a business can seem like a major risk. But just how risky is it, actually? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Test Automation from Tricentis

Once you start taking sales and discovery calls, sooner or later you might have the impulse to start charging people for your time during this process. Should you do that? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Serverless Computing for Dummies

A lot of the questions I field about freelancing and business come from people that are programmers. But what about data science? Can that be as viable a trade for freelancing as programming is? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: The basics of secret management

Many freelancers, especially new ones, will want to earn long-term clients. How do you go about doing that, and is it actually valuable to do? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Cypress vs. Selenium: What’s the Better Testing Framework?

One of the most important (and stress-inducing) times in the career of a freelancer/business-owner is when you increase your rates or prices. Is it normal to feel guilty when doing so? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Tricentis SAP Testing

If you're going off on your own as a freelancer, do you need to have a bookkeeper? If so, when should you hire one? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Data: What Is DevSecOps?

This is an interesting one. How would should you respond to someone telling you "freelancing isn't a real job?" View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: What is a staging environment?

This one is kind of a specific question. What happens when you're a freelancer and ask a client to sign a contract, but they supply their own instead for you to sign? View this podcast as a video on YouTube Links of the week: Get Started With Salesforce QA and Testing: A Tutorial 8 CI/CD Best Practices for Your DevOps Journey What Is A Social Media Ghostwriter? An Executive’s Guide

Once you go off on your own and freelance, likely for the first time in your career, you won't have a boss. What's that like? View this podcast as a video on YouTube Links of the week: Proxyrack.com Key Components of a CI/CD Pipeline

One thing that freelancers commonly deal with, and that a lot of people ask me about is how to become a "true consultant" or an advisor, rather than just a laborer where the client gives you a checklist of things to go. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Test Environments: Why You Need Them and How to Set It Up Key Components of a CI/CD Pipeline

Part of any freelancer's practice is going to be doing sales conversations, and any good sales conversation for custom work will involve a discovery process. What should that look like? What questions should you ask the prospect? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the Week: Learn Regression testing Get started with Kafka and Docker in 20 minutes 8 CI/CD Best Practices for Your DevOps Journey

You've done some development work for a client, and as far as you're concerned, the work is over. But they come back later, demanding that you do additional work to fix a bug. How do you handle that? Join us to learn more. If you like this podcast and are interested in more business and freelance advice, you're welcome to join our free community. You can sign up and check it out here. This podcast is courtesy of Hit Subscribe, a content agency whose authors are all techies: https://www.hitsubscribe.com/ Link of the week: Testim Salesforce Testing

You've just hung out your shingle and are about to start freelancing. Congratulations! Now how do you get that first client? Join us to learn more. Link of the week: Proxyrack Residential Proxies

As a freelancer, you'll find that your income tends to be a lot more variable and less dependent than salaried work. How do you deal with that situation, both in terms of financial planning and making things more predictable? Join us to learn more. View as a video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm5K4YiTf8o Link of the week: Serverless Computing for Dummies

When you have your own practice or business, lead generation is obviously critical. But how should you go about it and, specifically, is LinkedIn a good channel for lead generation? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on Youtube. Links of the Week: The basics of secret management Learn: AI in Software Testing