
<p>When I first being what I guess would be called a &#8220;Developer Advocate&#8221; for Pantheon, they didn&#8217;t even have a community for developer relations. However I talked about Pantheon so much, and included Pantheon in steps in my dev talks / slides.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-twentytwentyone-border"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="525" src="https://arcctrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/pantheon-slide-1024x525.png" alt="Pantheon Slide - i was not an employee" class="wp-image-2898" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/pantheon-slide-1024x525.png 1024w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/pantheon-slide-300x154.png 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/pantheon-slide-768x394.png 768w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/pantheon-slide-1536x788.png 1536w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/pantheon-slide-1568x805.png 1568w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/pantheon-slide.png 1863w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>A slide from a talk I gave about Gutenberg before it was in WP core. I wasn&#8217;t a HERO yet, heroes weren&#8217;t a thing yet.</figcaption></figure>



<p>The disclaimer at the bottom of that slide was born because I was having actual encounters with people that would ask me things like &#8220;How long have you worked for Pantheon?&#8221; or &#8220;What is your role at Pantheon?&#8221; </p>



<h2>Humbling Compliment</h2>



<p>As soon as I started getting those kinds of questions, I started to talk to <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/tessak22" target="_blank">Tessa</a> (who was employed there at the time) and we turned it into a joke, I started adding notes in my slides and disclaimers for fun. I got a kick out of it, and still to this day laugh whenever I see an old slide on <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.tv" target="_blank">wordpress.tv</a> with it.</p>



<p>To be honest, I always took it as a compliment. As an aspiring developer advocate (wasn&#8217;t a thing in my mind yet), I loved the idea of people associating me with a product I found very cool. It also gave me a drive to become more knowledge with how to use it. To be honest, at the time I never thought I&#8217;d be good enough to work at Pantheon so it was truly humbling.</p>



<h2>Advocacy Done Right?</h2>



<p>Pantheon was not the only time this has happened. As I learned more about DevRel and wanting to do it more, I got it a few more times. Most recently with my love of <a href="https://arcctrl.com/2021/05/15/how-polywork-fits-into-my-developer-brand/" data-type="post" data-id="2796">PolyWork</a>, getting folks asking if I work for them or am involved with the project. I am not, I just find it cool.</p>



<p>I have to give credit to any company that would allow their dev relations to be put into this spot. While it may not be for everyone, I think it shows how confident and comfortable a developer advocate may feel about the product. I&#8217;d imagine any company would love to have a drove of enthusiastic employees going out and talking about how awesome their employer&#8217;s products are. </p>



<h2>A Fine Line to &#8220;Too Much&#8221;</h2>



<p>While I typically do enjoy this encounter, it still will make me think about how I am portraying myself. Similar to affiliate marketing, there is a fine line between trying to show credibility vs. sales pitch.</p>



<p>I never want to be sales-y, I always go out with the intent to be genuine with the stuff I find cool. </p>



<p>If I do go across the line I try to keep it as a joke (like the note in the slide) to amuse myself. If I do it unintentionally, I rethink how to not be &#8220;too much&#8221; in future interactions.</p>



<h2>How would you take it?</h2>



<p>My main point of posting this was to see how other developer advocates take this. Is it a sense of pride or something you&#8217;d rather not hear? </p>


medium

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Mistaken for Employee


<p>I wrote about my adventure into and through <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://hiroy.io/devrel/public-speaking-nervous-wreck-to-slightly-less-nervous-wreck" target="_blank">Public Speaking</a>. Public speaking was one of the greatest challenges I&#8217;ve put myself through, and it is still a battle every time.</p>



<p>However Developer Relations is still challenging in more ways than public speaking, and I&#8217;m sure will continue to challenge me in ways that I don&#8217;t even know yet.</p>



<h2>Public Speaking</h2>



<p>Public speaking is where it started. This was my first introduction into what we now call &#8220;Developer Relations&#8221; and was my biggest obstacle. But why? Public speaking is a single anxiety point that is a combines every other thing I feel anxiety and pressure about. </p>



<p>When I say (or read) &#8220;Public Speaking&#8221; my brain first pictures talking in front of a lot of people. However within a split second I&#8217;m reminded of all the events that occur before I step on stage. Almost as if (stealing from Inception) my mind always puts me in the middle of the story. </p>



<p>Getting up on stage is only part of an anxiety fueled weekend, I&#8217;ve already traveled (and all that anxiety), I&#8217;ve put together a talk I may not be confident about, I&#8217;ve put together slides that I think look horrific, and I&#8217;ve gone through at least 1 day of intense social contact. Just like that, the thought of &#8220;Public Speaking&#8221; is a lot more of a challenge.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-pullquote"><blockquote><p>Getting up on stage is only part of an anxiety fueled weekend</p></blockquote></figure>



<h2>Social Anxiety</h2>



<p>Social anxiety is something I have always had a problem with. Some are surprised by this because I find myself trying to be the center of attention to compensate. This stems from my &#8220;walk it off, be the best&#8221; upbringing. Anytime I find myself wanting to crawl up into a ball I hear my parents saying &#8220;it&#8217;ll be OK&#8221; disregarding all of my feelings.</p>



<p>Before I got into developer relations, I was a silo&#8217;d island of code. I did everything by myself, I learned by myself, I challenged myself. I was content because no part of my non-professional life was challenged. Social anxiety came only when I started a new job, a new coworker showed up, or I attempted to put myself out there with online dating. My friends at work that would go to bars / clubs, and while I loved the idea of being with my friends, the anxiety of being at a club or crowded bar could bring tears to my eyes. Honestly, I went a few times, and came to the conclusion that was a challenge I did not want to overcome. I&#8217;d rather be home coding than in a loud environment where no personal connections can be made, or I need &#8220;liquid courage&#8221; to get over it.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-pullquote"><blockquote><p>I hear my parents saying &#8220;It&#8217;ll be OK&#8221; disregarding all of my feelings</p></blockquote></figure>



<h2>Imposter Syndrome</h2>



<p>What changed not wanting to go to clubs to speaking at WordCamps internationally? Confidence in myself.</p>



<p>While I do enjoy being with friends, the thought of dancing while other people watch, and drinking too much was not something I enjoyed (on the inside) at all. </p>



<p>When I went to my first meetup, like most, there was a Q&amp;A / discussion, and I found myself able to answer and engage. <strong>WITH STRANGERS</strong>! I know, I know, it was <em>insane</em>. I knew what I was talking about, and felt weird that I was educating people. People asking questions about WordPress, and I was able to answer with confidence. Not just that, I had good answers for the questions. </p>



<p>The confidence quickly subsided as I made my way around giving the same talk. I&#8217;d like to think I was &#8220;ahead of the curve&#8221;, speaking about headless WordPress websites in 2014, I got a lot of &#8220;but why&#8221; blank stares. By the time I was ending that talk and starting with others, headless was catching on, and Matt had said the infamous &#8220;Learn JavaScript, Deeply&#8221;. I no longer felt like an expert in a group of a few, but an expert in a rapidly growing collection. What was worse, new experts knew more and had better answers.</p>



<h3>Not Just Speaking</h3>



<p>I&#8217;ve been mentioning personal interactions up till now. Being at an event, or speaking in front of an audience. However there are many other times my Imposter Syndrome was and still is challenged.</p>



<p>Writing blog posts for example, I may not care as much about the ones I write here, although they are more &#8220;me&#8221;, as I write elsewhere like on <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pantheon.io/guest-author/roy-sivan" target="_blank">Pantheon</a>, it takes a lot out of me to not constantly think &#8220;why do they want me to write this, what if someone who knows more than I do reads it and calls me out for the phony I am&#8221;</p>



<p>At times, that fear is even worse when writing as a guest. Larger potential reach increases all the &#8220;what if&#8221; scenarios, including hurting their brand reputation.</p>



<h2>Tools &amp; Support</h2>



<p>I found every challenge I face, I am more likely to succeed with support. Support can take many forms, including support from peers or tools to set you up for success.</p>



<p>I mentioned that at my first WordCamp talk, I started by being honest about my nerves, and the community supported me, making me shed some of those nerves. I&#8217;ve had many interactions like this within the WordPress community. Other communities as well, but not nearly as quickly or as fiercely as the WordPress community.</p>



<p>Find your circle. Silo life is lonely, depressing, and doesn&#8217;t help. You want to lift an area of your life? No matter what, it becomes easier with help. Help from those who have been there, even in the form of listening. I don&#8217;t mean to discredit the extreme benefit of solo or alone time once in a while. While facing a challenge, it has been so much easier for me to not be going at it solo.</p>



<p>For tools, find what others are using to help them along their journey. As another example, I tested a few different tools for my slide deck. Each one in hopes to bring up my confidence level while speaking. I stuck with the basic <strong>Keynote</strong> because it works well with presenting on multiple screens, and leaving my speakers notes open. It is easy to use, and now I don&#8217;t have to think about it.</p>



<h2>Improved Mental Health; Improved Life</h2>



<p>Ultimately I found with the right mix of tools and support, DevRel  helped me in so many ways it was and still is almost therapy to me, in the worst possible way. My therapist agrees.</p>



<h3>Coming Out of My Shell</h3>



<p>Doing developer relations related activities, and all the activities around it has allowed me to come out of my shell and be someone confident in themselves. </p>



<h3>Confidence</h3>



<p>Before I would stay at home, or go out with the few friends I had made at work. I did not &#8220;put myself out there&#8221; in any possible way, because I did not like who I was and didn&#8217;t feel like I could offer the world anything of value.</p>



<p>It wasn&#8217;t until I started talking about what little knowledge I had, did I realize there was some value; there to SOMEONE. That gave me confidence. Teaching and sharing (what I feel is minimal) knowledge has brought me confidence to keep on doing that. Finding those that want to learn what I know, and sharing that with them.</p>



<h3>Quality of Life</h3>



<p>What happens when you improve parts of your life? Other parts tend to follow. I&#8217;ll talk more about my journey (or an updated version) at some point, but DevRel has been a huge part of that. If not the catalyst which allowed me to thrive as a developer / engineer.</p>


DevRel, a challenge to my Mental Health


<p>Public Speaking.</p>



<p>These 2 words put together can either cause your hair to straighten, and palms sweat OR you shrug it off with confidence. I have yet to meet someone who is indifferent to public speaking, love it or hate it.</p>



<p>This is my story of going from someone who could not muster the courage to talk to anyone, to being confident enough in my skills and myself to stand up in front of a large group to speak. </p>



<p>Before you get the wrong impression of me, I still get nervous every time, I still usually keep myself in denial till the very last minute, and sometimes it shows.</p>



<h2>The First Time is the Hardest</h2>



<p>The first time I spoke to a group (outside of school) of larger than 10 was WordCamp LAX 2014. <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/alexjvasquez" target="_blank">Alex Vasquez</a> with great hair of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://digisavvy.com/" target="_blank">DigiSavvy</a> convinced me to apply to this WordCamp he was organizing and that my content could be seen of value. He had already convinced me to go to a meetup or two and discuss development there, so how could the hair steer me wrong? </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://la.wordcamp.org/2014/session/wordpress-as-an-application-framework/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="510" src="https://arcctrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-1024x510.png" alt="WordCamp LAX 2014 screenshot of my talk" class="wp-image-2845" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-1024x510.png 1024w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-300x150.png 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-768x383.png 768w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-1536x766.png 1536w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM-1568x782.png 1568w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.34.02-PM.png 1573w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a><figcaption>The site is <a href="https://la.wordcamp.org/2014/session/wordpress-as-an-application-framework/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">still live</a>, there is my talk.</figcaption></figure></div>



<h3>A Nervous Wreck</h3>



<p>To say butterflies in my stomach would be an understatement to what my stomach was doing. I was a ball of nerves wanting to both cry and run out of the WordCamp to never be seen again. Hindsight, maybe I should have?</p>



<p>I don&#8217;t remember who gave me what advice, but in the weeks and even minutes leading up to my first talk, I asked for any piece of advice I could give about speaking in front of a group. Here are the ones I remember, and used:</p>



<ul><li>When you start to feel losing control, focus on your feet touching the floor, it will literally ground you</li><li>Try to get a good read of the room as you are talking, if you find yourself fixating on certain people, look at the back wall just above everyone&#8217;s head</li><li>Don&#8217;t worry, you&#8217;ll do great</li></ul>



<p>I don&#8217;t remember what else was said, but I do remember I added 1 more thing, and honestly the reception made it for me</p>



<p>As I stood up there, first time, I told the whole audience (last session of a Saturday, kinda packed) that it was my first time speaking, and I was beyond nervous. The WordPress community, being the WordPress community it was, gave me the biggest cheer and applause, and I hadn&#8217;t even said what the name of my talk was yet. It immediately resonated into my core, and while I did have to use the mentioned advice, it was way easier and a lot of the nerves vanished.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-pullquote"><blockquote><p>The WordPress community, being the WordPress community it was, gave me the biggest cheer and applause</p><cite>Brutal honesty has its perks</cite></blockquote></figure>



<p>To this day, I am a ball of nerves up till the moment I start talking. It all goes away, part of me knows its because its too late and nothing I can do about it, but part of me always ALWAYS thinks back to that first time and how receptive that were there to hear me talk, were.</p>



<p>Last thing I&#8217;ll say about that first time. It was the most prepared I was for a WordCamp talk, ever. Don&#8217;t be as stupid as me, prepare, it&#8217;ll help. The more prepared the more the knowledge of your talk you&#8217;ll have so it doesn&#8217;t become a thing. Nothing sucks more than not knowing what the next slide is or what you were going to say.</p>



<h2>Want to Improve Your Delivery? Focus on Delivery</h2>



<p>After that first talk and the feedback, I knew I had some interesting content to share. People were receptive, and individuals in the audience that knew what I was talking about asked me many questions.</p>



<p><em>Fun Fact: My future first bosses at Disney were in that audience, and it played a role in me starting my Disney career. I still blame Alex.</em></p>



<p>The one thing I did not do well was delivery. As I scanned the audience I saw a lot of blank stares. I learned later that this also comes from dense material, which most developer talks are. I knew I did not like that, I needed more engagement.</p>



<h3>Give the same talk with iteration</h3>



<p>Over the next year or so I gave the same talk around the US and Canada, each time improving the slides. This allowed me to focus on delivery and increasing engagement. Tweaking the content slightly, but overall giving the same talk to new audiences. I imagine this iteration is similar to stand up comedians methodologies. Start with something, see if it works. If it does, make it better while improving how it engages with the audience.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-pullquote"><blockquote><p>Make it better while improving how it engages with the audience</p></blockquote></figure>



<p>Me being me, I also added in fun bits to my talks, I knew if I was going to give deeper talks that required focused, the best way to break it up is laughter.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-wordpress-tv wp-block-embed-wordpress-tv wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe title="VideoPress Video Player" aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='500' height='281' src='https://video.wordpress.com/embed/4JglXgBY?hd=1&amp;cover=1' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen allow='clipboard-write'></iframe><script src='https://v0.wordpress.com/js/next/videopress-iframe.js?m=1658470809'></script>
</div><figcaption>#WordCatMTL 2016</figcaption></figure>



<p>By WordCamp Montreal 2016 I and some fellow presenters included things like #WordCatMTL or KittyCount. We injected cats into our slides and the one with with the most would win the respect of cats around the world.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="501" src="https://arcctrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.56.44-PM-1024x501.png" alt="WordCamp Montreal 2017 WordCat slide" class="wp-image-2846" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.56.44-PM-1024x501.png 1024w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.56.44-PM-300x147.png 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.56.44-PM-768x376.png 768w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-19-at-11.56.44-PM.png 1331w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>From WordCamp Montreal 2017</figcaption></figure>



<p>I think WordCamp 2016 was the last iteration of that talk, and it had evolved into a REST API justification (at the time a controversial topic)</p>



<h3>Find the Delivery that Matches You</h3>



<p>As mentioned, my delivery became inserting humor, jokes, memes, and other fun things into my talks. This broke up the more in depths part of my talk, and was true to me.</p>



<p>Find what you do best and find how to use that in your delivery. It can be humor, or it can be some piece of storytelling. Some presenters like to use personal stories to explain their point, which ultimately helps with the delivery of the content. I actually tried this way of delivery in 2019 (my last talk) about WordPress in the enterprise. This was the first time I did it, and I don&#8217;t think I did it well, but I&#8217;m going to keep on trying. </p>



<h2>Repeat</h2>



<p>Once you have a better understanding, if not a full understanding, of how you best deliver content, repeat.</p>



<p>Start with a new topic, go try it out somewhere like a meetup in a small setting and see what resonates. It doesn&#8217;t? switch it up. You can give the same talk multiple times, with some changes to the content, but bigger changes to how you deliver it.</p>



<h2>Don&#8217;t Expect Perfection</h2>



<p>No matter how many hours you put into your slides, or the research before you make your slides, or the research you put into thinking of a talk to submit, you&#8217;ll know its not perfect. The beauty, only you will know that.</p>



<p>In one of my earlier talks, I skipped whole sections of my content because my nerves. I was talking too fast and couldn&#8217;t get a hold of myself. It was so bad of the 40-50 min.  time slot, I used 20 for my talk. That left about half the time for Q&amp;A which typically only lasts 5-10 min. I was ready to let everyone out early, but questions starting popping up, and an actual conversation started. I think it was about Angular vs. React in use with WordPress REST. It was a good conversation that was tangentially related to my talk. People really appreciated the time to ask questions and have that conversation. </p>



<p>No one knew I skipped a bunch of content.</p>



<p>The only person that cared, was me.</p>



<h2>Closing Remarks</h2>



<p>At the end of the day, public speaking is not for everyone. If you told me in 2013 I&#8217;d love getting up there to talk to a group of 50+ people, I would have laughed. So don&#8217;t push yourself to do something you will never be comfortable doing, it isn&#8217;t worth it.</p>



<p>If you are finding that itch, and you want to speak and enjoy it, try to focus on 1 thing at a time.</p>



<p>When in doubt, Hero Pose.</p>



<p></p>


Public Speaking: Nervous Wreck to Slightly Less Nervous Wreck


<p>When I started hearing about <strong>#DevRel</strong> I was intrigued. The opportunity to be able to not be in sales, but also the opportunity to use cool tech and teach others how to use cool tech. This is up my ally 100%.</p>



<p>It was about this time I was being asked by my friend <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.devocate.com/" target="_blank">Tessa</a> if I&#8217;d like to join a group she was putting together for <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://hiroy.io/tools/why-i-still-love-pantheon" data-type="post" target="_blank">Pantheon</a>, called <a href="https://pantheon.io/blog/pantheon-heroes-community-leaders-open-source-contributions-and-lovers-pantheon">Heroes</a>. I was sold. I had no idea it was #DevRel, Tessa never once said DevRel to me, she just saw my passion for using Pantheon and how I showed my appreciation (through trolling, as I do).</p>



<p>Aside &#8211; Tessa is one of the best DevRels there is out there, for every product she has been a community lead at, she has shown professionalism and got me as excited about it as she was. But more on that in another post series.</p>



<h2>What is DevRel</h2>



<p>Developer Relations, Developer Advocacy, or one of the other many terms you may hear, is something I&#8217;m in no way qualified to define.</p>



<p>So let me introduce <a href="https://twitter.com/tanoaksam" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sam</a>, a newer developer who has gained my respect, and respect of many in the communities he associates.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What does a great developer advocate do? 🤔<br><br>🗣️ acts as the voice of the end user in internal discussions<br><br>📑 creates supplemental resources to educate users on the product &amp; optimize their experience<br><br>🤝 cultivates professional relationships on behalf of the company<br><br>What else?</p>&mdash; Sam Sycamore 🌲 (@tanoaksam) <a href="https://twitter.com/tanoaksam/status/1389345145712123905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 3, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption>This is what a developer advocate does.</figcaption></figure>



<p>Everything in Sam&#8217;s tweet (and more) is exactly right, and the stuff I love working towards and on. I am at heart a creative coder. My sweet spot is when I have the opportunity to look at requirements and kind of let loose on how its coded. Another part of me loves technology in all its forms, and talking about those technologies. It is why I love speaking at <a href="https://wordpress.tv/?s=roy+sivan">WordCamps</a> and learning what tech is being used, and how to build cool and fun stuff.</p>



<p>But back to Sam&#8217;s tweet. Before Tessa introduced me to Heroes, I was doing most of this already for Pantheon. I loved the product, talked about it, told people to go sign up without an affiliate link (shocker, I know), and talked about the projects I was working on using Pantheon. I even created Pantheon &#8220;Custom Upstreams&#8221; so people could easily take my work and start coding with it, on Pantheon.</p>



<p>I wrote <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pantheon.io/guest-author/roy-sivan" target="_blank">blog articles</a> about what I knew best, and tied that into Pantheon since their product offering supported the things I wanted to be working on so well. Enterprise sizes requests needed enterprise grade hosting, it was easy. It was also easy to share my passion for the product as someone who was using it passionately themselves.</p>



<p>So that is where I started DevRel. Good story, right?</p>



<h2>I Started in DevRel at Pantheon</h2>



<p>No, and my answer would have been yes, but today Sam (again) tweeted something that I never thought applied to me.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’ve had so many convos like this but comparing personal freelance brand vs. personal<br><br>Does that mean every freelancer that posts and markets themselves. Is also a dev advocate? 🤔 <br><br>have I been one this entire time? 🤔 🤔 <a href="https://t.co/GBnMtihJbQ">https://t.co/GBnMtihJbQ</a></p>&mdash; 🟣☮ Roy (@royboy789) <a href="https://twitter.com/royboy789/status/1394762784500498439?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 18, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption>Personal Freelance is DevRel</figcaption></figure>



<p>Literally, if I wrote this blog post 2 days ago, I would have a different answer.</p>



<h3>Freelancing is DevRel</h3>



<p>When I was doing strictly freelance, or actively taking on freelance consulting work, I&#8217;d go to WordCamps and let people know. I&#8217;d write <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://github.com/royboy789/" target="_blank">open source plugins</a> I&#8217;d think were cool or being used, and talk and write about them.</p>



<p>I was doing the 3 things Sam said a DevRel does, years before I had even heard the term. I was writing code, writing articles, and creating relationships for my business, for myself.</p>



<p>If you aren&#8217;t doing the 3 things outlined by Sam for your developer freelance business, you should be. You as a freelancer are your main, if not only advocate. Get out there and let people know you exist.</p>



<h2>Where I Go Next</h2>



<p>As the DevRel talent pool has gotten exponentially larger over the last year, it is hard to say. While I&#8217;d love to give up my full time &#8220;coding 9-5&#8221; type role, I am also passionate about that code, and those technologies I use.</p>



<p>However it is defintitely something I&#8217;m going to keep getting better at through advocating of my own. Advocating for tools, products, and services that I find the most useful for my daily life. </p>



<p>If you are reading this expecting advice for how to get into DevRel or how I made my big break, sorry. Go follow <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/tessak22" target="_blank">Tessa</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/tanoaksam" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sam</a>.</p>


Hi.

devrel

Mistaken for Employee

DevRel, a challenge to my Mental Health

Public Speaking: Nervous Wreck to Slightly Less Nervous Wreck

Where I Started My DevRel Journey