Can you imagine building a thriving career in tech, overcoming societal stigmas, and then going ahead to establish a non-profit to help others do the same? That's exactly what our guest today, Rick Wolter, has done, and he joins us to share his inspiring journey.
Rick shares how he went from being basically tech illiterate to landing a job in tech and helping others with similar backgrounds of being formerly incarcerated to do the same.
Underdog Devs, is a non-profit dedicated to helping individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially those with a history of incarceration, kickstart their careers in software development.
Interested in giving back? Visit https://www.underdogdevs.org/ to make a charitable donation or contact Rick if you have equipment you'd like to donate or have time to be a mentee.
https://twitter.com/RwoltX
https://twitter.com/UnderdogDevs
Register for the End Of Year Tax Strategies workshops here
Can you imagine building a thriving career in tech, overcoming societal stigmas, and then going ahead to establish a non-profit to help others do the same? That's exactly what our guest today, Rick Wolter, has done, and he joins us to share his inspiring journey.
Rick shares how he went from being basically tech illiterate to landing a job in tech and helping others with similar backgrounds of being formerly incarcerated to do the same.
Underdog Devs, is a non-profit dedicated to helping individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially those with a history of incarceration, kickstart their careers in software development.
Interested in giving back? Visit https://www.underdogdevs.org/ to make a charitable donation or contact Rick if you have equipment you'd like to donate or have time to be a mentee.
https://twitter.com/RwoltX
https://twitter.com/UnderdogDevs
Register for the End Of Year Tax Strategies workshops here
I had never used a smartphone. At that time when I got out I had got a little little taste of programming, but it was in a very stale. You know, it wasn't like I had never used a smartphone, I was like technologically illiterate.
Speaker 2:This is Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp, where I help tech professionals in their 20s and 30s balance a great life today without sacrificing their future possibilities. I'm your host. Lucas Casaris, certified Financial Planner and Founder of Level Up Financial Planning, where I help educate, coach and build strategies with my clients to help them take their financial competence to the next level. Orlando Gomez and you can catch him in Season 3, episode 4 on how he Broke and Attack by Bridgina Jingle.
Speaker 3:Hello, before I start this episode off. I just have a quick announcement. I haven't done this in a few years and I'm actually launching a registration for an end of your tax planning workshop series to help you control and reduce your taxes prior to the end of the year. This will be three workshops starting in November, and we'll be tackling understanding your taxes, learn about retirement accounts and the secret backdoor ROS that a lot of my tech clients are able to use. Sometimes they can do mega backdoor ROS inside your 401k. Also, if you had been pluristocked, we'll cover tech strategies on how to sell and what the impacts of receiving those are, especially if you're not familiar with them. These will be super helpful as you navigate your career. And finally, we will be tackling charitable contribution strategies, which is super relevant. I'm going to have a handful of nonprofit guests on from the Collab Lab, underdog Devs, tech by Choice and the Kapoor Center. So I'm excited for all of those interviews and kind of all the insights you'll see behind the scenes as far as what it takes to be a part of an nonprofit, how you can help out and contribute, and you'll be surprised. It's not all just about money. You can give back in other ways and so I hope you enjoy these next few episodes and, if you're interested in signing up, definitely register before prices go up. Right now it's $30 for all three workshops and all the proceeds go to nonprofits, so not trying to make money on this, but it's a cool opportunity for me to educate folks and make sure that you're more informed as far as how taxes work, because I know that sometimes it's like a mystery as far as how taxes come out when you file your taxes, and so I'll actually walk you through all that. The link will be in the show notes. You can find out more information and reserve your spot before prices increase on October 6. Hope you can join us.
Speaker 3:Hello, thank you for joining me and techie personal finance bootcamp. I'm excited. I have a good friend of the show on today. His name is Rick Walter. Rick is a software developer who specializes in mobile application development for Apple platforms. He's formerly incarcerated and passionate about helping those from disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly the formerly incarcerated, become software developers. He also is part of underdog devs, a nonprofit dedicated to helping those from disadvantaged backgrounds get hired as developers.
Speaker 3:Hello, thank you for joining techie personal finance bootcamp. I'm super excited to have my friend, rick, on today. Rick is a software developer who specializes in mobile application development for Apple platforms. He's formerly incarcerated and he's passionate about helping those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Particularly the formerly incarcerated becomes software developers. He also is part of underdog devs, a nonprofit dedicated to helping those from disadvantaged backgrounds get hired as developers. Hey, rick, thanks for coming on the show today. Hey, thanks for having me. So I kind of gave you a little intro. We know a little bit about you. Right now. I want you to go back kind of 10 years from now, so 10 years into the past. What was kind of your situation? What was going on? What were you thinking at that time?
Speaker 1:Let's see 10 years 2013, I was incarcerated, I was getting out, and the end of 2016, I was preparing. That was kind of a short time for me, 13 to 16. Consider, and I you know I had a 21 year sentence where I only did 18 years of the 21. So that really wasn't that long right? Like I felt like I was. You call it a short timer, right I'm like.
Speaker 1:I got no time left, to only have three years left. Yeah, so I was preparing to get out, thinking about what I'm going to do when I get out, how I'm going to make a living, and I was doing that with my wife at the time, amanda, and we were basically. That was I was excited, thinking about getting a life when I get out and starting. I've been locked up since I was 18. So it was yeah, it was. You know, it was going to be a culture shock and I was excited about things that I had missed and getting to do all the things that you had dreamed. You know, when you're in there, you like, as you can imagine, like you're just you can't wait for those days, right, like you're like make sure all the things you're going to do, and and so, like it was coming to. At that point in time, I felt like I was damn near free, like I felt like I was like about to step out at that mark so this is like a three year mark.
Speaker 3:Holy smokes. And so what is like software engineering and tech, kind of even on the radar, where you're already kind of doing that, some of that career exploration three years from from being removed there?
Speaker 1:That was about the time actually probably was right around that time I was just reading articles, I don't remember, which is probably in the economist or in, like let me think what else I read. Wall Street Journal is probably something I read, but I remember reading about the demand for software engineering and the salaries and somewhere that it seemed to be a skill that wasn't all. A degree wasn't always required. Yeah, and so it. Yeah, I piqued my interest and I had Amanda sent me more and more information on it and I'd have her look stuff up online. Like I'd get on the phone and just be like, okay, go to this website because I'd be reading from other things, and then we go to that website. Yeah, print it, send it, and then I'd look down everything. And then the next time I call I'd same thing. I'm like, hey, go to this website, this other thing.
Speaker 1:So eventually we got to the point where I was like, okay, I like this thing, you know. And she sent a couple books and I'm like I think I could do this limit and I didn't have a skill that you know, that came in when I was a kid, so I wanted, I was like, I'll do this, I'll throw myself into this and then we, we, I had a thumb drive stuck in through a guy. There's a guy that he's passed away now, kyle McQuillan. Never forget him. Awesome man, and Kyle was just like he knows. If you're doing, you're trying to like better yourself.
Speaker 3:If you're about that.
Speaker 1:He was about supporting you, like he didn't give a damn, he didn't care about rules as long as it was, and so my wife got it to him and he helped me get it in. We put it on some old, we got Python, python interpreter stuck in and some YouTube videos and there was already some other videos on there. I think we already had Khan Academy in there Like a non. It wasn't attached to the internet, it was like standalone type version, just some videos.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because resources are extremely limited, right? So anyone don't have that background, my brother. This is how I started to kind of accustom to Walt, like some stuff. There's more stuff that maybe people realize that you guys have access to, but still limited in a lot of ways, and so that's crazy getting that snuck in. And yeah, what would have happened if they were to cut, like would it be major? They just would have just started it, it would have been the end of it basically.
Speaker 1:I mean, if he got caught he could have got a felony. He probably would have got a charge. Yeah, he was like taking a big risk. Yeah, yeah, he was taking a big risk. It was looking back. I'm like I'm surprised. I was like it's kind of selfish to even ask someone to do that.
Speaker 3:But like.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I was in the moment and I was like hey, this is going to be awesome and you don't get caught. Often you don't plan to get caught, so I just you know this was a foolproof plan. I did this all thumb drive right and he brings in lots of stuff that he's allowed to bring in.
Speaker 1:Yeah because he was over some programs. So we brought that in. Then I put it on the computers. They were in the stroke treatment center. They had old computers that weren't really used for much, so we put it on the computers and I started learning to program, to code and so you don't have.
Speaker 3:You didn't have like the Google right. So when you ran into stuff like how, how did you kind of get past some of those walls that traditional people had run into? And then they'd go and Google, they'd ask someone, they'd YouTube it. You don't.
Speaker 1:I'm going to be honest with you, like you just don't have any significant. I didn't have any significant advance like in my learning in there, like it was just an introduction, it's all it. It's all it basically did was give me an exposure and maybe like wet my appetite, maybe think that, like I can do this, I was there, you really. I mean, I thought I was. It wasn't until I got out and I recognized what you're talking about. Yeah, you Google constantly, constantly looking civil. And it wasn't until then that I realized like, huh, I really didn't make any advancements in there like that real advancements.
Speaker 1:You know I wasn't like I wasn't like a further along, really it was just exposure and that was fine. And I think that's a big deal, you know, because if I didn't have that I probably wouldn't have had the interest when I got out and the termination to like throw myself into it. But I mean I was writing little mini programs like they were. Just you know scripts like Python, stuff that you know. You know the stuff you learn the everyone learns when they learn to code.
Speaker 1:You know doing loop and do this and print this and whatever. So I was doing all that, which was cool, and it definitely did make me want to do it more and gave me the confidence Okay, this is it. This isn't some arcane, this is it? Only for wizards. This is for like a regular person that just pays attention. You just put some time into it, you can learn it too, yeah.
Speaker 3:And so what was that transition? Then you had the intro, the snooking contraband, so you could start getting some exposure and learning that like whoa, yeah, like I can do some magic myself and yeah, you play pretty strong, until you kind of came out the real world Like, okay, that was like lighting a match or something. And there's a lot more that can be done and a lot more you have to figure out. What was that next up? You, you're out. You actually got free reign now. Now you do have access to Google, you have access to YouTube and things like that. What was that kind of next step?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when I got out, I realized, obviously you have to work, right Like, not not shocking, right Like. I realized, okay, damn, I'm gonna have to work to get by. I moved in with Amanda, my wife, and she was just graduating law school and was preparing for the bar exam. So full of the money we, yeah. So we had a lot of stress and not a lot of money.
Speaker 1:We had a lot of money at that time and so what I did is I worked part-timeless in friends doing like sound set up. I worked some doing like some seawalls, building prokina seawalls. I did that when I was young so I did that a little bit. But what I did to like set myself up so that I could spend time studying was I enrolled in the local community college and they have like a associates in science for programming or whatever.
Speaker 1:Nice and you know it's not going to impress anyone, but it did allow me to sign up for, like, the Pell Grant and allow me to sign up for like a lot of different financial support, a lot of loans too, Like I was taking all the back loans and but at least and I would take, like lots, you know, the full loads or you get the most amount of the loans that were available, and what that did was just allow me to study and not have to work full, you know, 40, 50 hours to get by.
Speaker 1:It allowed us to like we still weren't doing it. You know we still were going in debt. Obviously I was taking loans, but but it did allow me to focus and so I was doing that in class, learning programming there, and then in my spare time I was doing it all the time, but I would. I would read stuff to three in the morning, like staring at the screen, falling asleep. Yeah, it was like I was excited because I always said had all this, this access to information, that I never had access to Up until, you know, when I was a teenager? When I was a teenager, I was wasn't on that right, like I was on something different.
Speaker 3:Even like what was the internet back then? Like trying to remember like a lot of the stuff is like probably just already rolling out like around them where it was like really robust, like like it is today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was nothing. It was nothing. Yeah, like nobody was, like it wasn't a big deal. And so for me, when I got out and get which a year was in it, it was empowering. I was like, damn, this is, this is really cool, this is fun, and like the access to any information I want was empowering, yeah it was awesome.
Speaker 3:And so Community College you went to a bootcamp, right? Yes, Ultimately. So what was it?
Speaker 1:I was doing that at the same time, actually, because the bootcamp was free. Yeah, you kept your brutal though.
Speaker 3:So yeah, you were. You're sticking coursework like traditional coursework at Community College full schedule there and then a bootcamp on top of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, the Community College stuff wasn't very rigorous, like it wasn't that hard. I did transfer, after I got my AS, into a computer science program, a state university computer science program, and which actually had some rigorous coursework. That got hard. And that's when, like In fact, I was one of my teachers who also was my friend of mine from Orlando, one of the first people I met, ben Golke. You might know him from Twitter. Ben was like you got to drop something.
Speaker 3:This is crazy.
Speaker 1:You're like trying to work a little bit and you're also doing a CS program and you're doing like a full-time boot camp. So I stopped the CS, continued with the boot camp, started working for the boot camp as like a team, tl, whatever. It's basically where you lead a small group, you teach the material, you don't teach it. They have instructors, full-time instructors but then they hire students that were a little more advanced further in the program to guide the rest of them and be there for them to help and that kind of thing. So I got started getting paid for that. Once I did that it was smooth sailing, because now you're getting paid to learn. So that was the goal. So once I did that, we were good. I didn't go back to finish the CS program. I almost completed it. I still think about finishing at some point.
Speaker 1:But, I finished it and I just skipped on with the boot camp.
Speaker 3:Yeah, at this point, right, how many years of experience do you have now as a software developer, being paid, If I?
Speaker 1:count that, like in my resume. I count that which probably shouldn't, because I wasn't like building software for a company. I was just teaching, I do have my resume. Anything that I was paid for I put on my resume. I even put like I was a programming tutor at the college and it was unpaid. But I even put that on early on because I had nothing else to put on there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not a career coach or anything like that, but early on, if there's nothing else, and even now, if there's enough room on it, sure throw it at the last thing.
Speaker 3:just a show like you have within even just what you have, because you have to show something right. You can't submit a blank like, oh I haven't done nothing, applied nothing, give me a job for software engineering and paid me a lot of money for it. So I definitely think super, super normal to put those things, because it's more than what other people are doing too, that are at that same stage more or less. You definitely want to get credit for that.
Speaker 1:But to answer your question, yeah that was about four and a half years if I count that. Otherwise it was in 2020, january of 2020, basically like right around the time I started working as a software engineer. I was hired, so now we're going on 2023 or whatever, but that was actually being paid as a software engineer, whereas before that was the tutor role at the boot camp.
Speaker 3:I was like nice one, yeah, even just kind of. I'm sure it's going to haunt you probably no matter what we say or talk about, but at this point you've shown you can do the job. You have the nails and tools, the degree like really that's a certification behind me. I don't even know where my degree is. It's in one of these things behind me but like I've never looked at it, no one's ever asked me for it, Like ever said, yeah, once you show and you have the actual work experience of those, things matter way less. What was it like navigating so finish the boot camp, getting paid to kind of finish that too, that is super sweet. But what was it like finding a job after that with having a background?
Speaker 1:It didn't come up as much as I thought, mainly because, I mean, it did come up when people knew me, but it didn't come up as much as I thought because it happened so long ago that it doesn't come back in my background checks. So like you could look me up on Florida Department of Corrections. Yeah, I've looked my name up, but you can look up any in Florida and so you can see released inmates.
Speaker 1:Look me up, see my charges and you can see whatever. But it wasn't the same kind of problem Now. When I the first time I did get I, it was a discussion. They even discussed it with the rest of the people that worked there. Yeah, because it was on site company. They basically asked everyone like, hey, are you okay with him being here? Everybody was fine. Yeah, they're like, yeah, I was lucky, I was very lucky, though it wasn't like anything I did. It was my friend. One of my friend I grew up with, his wife worked there, and so she basically vouched for me.
Speaker 1:Let's get him an interview. You know, and like my husband doing growing up, he has a set of circumstances that, when explained, will make you kind of be a little more, a little less judgmental of like the charge. I mean it still was bad, right, like I still make some terrible choices, but it's it's. It's different when you hear it in context.
Speaker 3:I guess most things are right, but especially with my situation, there's, there's black and white, but nothing really ever is truly black and red, some version of gray hairs. I didn't get into that much trouble, but there's still even things like well, yeah, things could have went the wrong way with me just being not doing smart stuff and and that could put me in a situation that's actually happened to my brother where, yep, not the smartest way of doing stuff If they would have avoided that, even with all the other stupid stuff that has been done, like a lot of us are a small, small step away from accidentally doing something or doing something that we wish to take back. And, yeah, there's there's rules and laws and once you cross those things and that becomes a situation. But, yeah, a lot, of, a lot of great area and I'm sure a lot of people listen here like yep, never got in trouble but easily couldn't for something right At some point it would have been something minimal, but yours obviously was a bigger deal.
Speaker 3:I spent a lot of time, but that also means that the fact that you put it into work to make this huge, huge leap into our career shows a lot of growth, and so I'm sure that went into it too right. So it's not only the circumstances of that situation, but what have you done since? How have you changed? And between 18 and and how old you are now like, we're so different.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so different, so different. So yeah, that's crazy, it didn't come up until then, but then you had to kind of that in and that helps having a network right. Just having having people that will vouch for you, whether whether you have a background or not like that's what leads the most people getting jobs these days, especially with with the job market being a lot tighter. Tell me a little bit about the nonprofit that you're a part of, and this could be like a little sales thing. I actually asked you to record something. We could do that right now. So, yeah, give me, give me a little bit of information about underdog devs. Underdog.
Speaker 1:Devs is a non-profit that can help them from incarcerated or from lower socioeconomic background to become a software engineer. We make sure that money goes directly to expand access to people who maybe wouldn't get access. Once you're part of Underdog Devs, then you have the ability to sign up for Project Underdog. That's where you get your bills paid for four months, surround you with mentors, you get pair programming all week and we try to get you to a point where you're not having to work. You can focus on studying. If you want to support us, we have lots of different ways volunteering through hardware, old computers or financially. We have a website, underdogdevsorg. You can reach out through there.
Speaker 1:Underdog Devs is a non-profit that I've been a part of. I started it and I think right around when I got my job in 2020, maybe before that, maybe the end of 19, I don't remember when I started it. When I got hired, I made a post about it and a lot of people reached out wanting to know how I got hired, and they've been felons. I told them I would help them. We all got on just basically a text group chat. I would give advice, we would talk, we would have meetings. It was just a group of about five people. One of them actually ended up still in Underdog Devs actually, two of them are. We would hang out the fellow was. It was like I didn't think I had any secret sauce to get anyone hired, but I would give them my opinions and here's what worked for me, or whatever.
Speaker 1:I'm more opinionated now that I've been around and seen how people get hired and I've actually done it. But at the time I was like, yeah, I can try to help. What I think will work. From there I realized the big deal is who you know. Like you mentioned, it's your network, it's directing. Relationship is hugely important. Obviously, you have to have the skill.
Speaker 3:If you have no skill.
Speaker 1:there are people going to know, but once you get to a base level skill, it's who you know to get the interview. People know who they want on teams. They already have guys in mind or girls in mind and they just know whatever. You got to build relationships at least. How do you build relationships? That's where they came into. It was basically get around people, interact with people. I don't care where these software engineers are, Get around them, talk to them, hang out with them, go to meetups, go to whatever. What I realized was with my group of people that I was talking to was they didn't have contacts like that.
Speaker 3:Just like I did when I got out.
Speaker 1:I didn't know when I first got out. I eventually found out that my friend's wife worked at a place that actually hired software engineers, but before that I had no idea. I didn't know anybody. I had literally just had to build my network on Twitter, which is what I did With them. I was like, well, I already have a network, why don't we just use them? We go out and message people just to see if they would help. I'm like, hey, I got to go meet people, would you like to help? And so many people were like yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm basically asking all the people who know way more than me, who are way more connected than me, basically people that can help them more than I can help. It blew up. We had a meeting at Big Nerd Ranch. Big Nerd Ranch is a digital consultancy. We built apps and websites for people and different contracts and stuff. Actually, I ended up working for them later.
Speaker 3:But at this time. That's why it means a bell for me, I think, because I either saw when you guys were meeting up there at one point way back when, or, yeah, I just saw that you used to work there.
Speaker 1:Well, that's when they we had a big meeting and a ton of them. I had messaged them and they were like yeah, we'd love to help you with start this thing. And somebody there mentioned they're like why don't you start a Slack and start a group out of it so that everyone can communicate? So we did that, we started the.
Speaker 1:Slack and in the Slack then we were like, hey, why don't we come up with a name and actually turn it into an organization? And it kind of sprung from that. People like Dan Morse, Ben Golke, Jessica McKellar, they kind of turned it into something bigger and, yeah, it kind of just blew up from there. We did really early, we did a Not a conference, I wouldn't call it a conference, but it was lots of talks by self-engineers, particularly in the Apple space, Apple ecosystem, using the Swift programming language, and we asked people that were like and some of them are in other spaces, people like Natterdabbit or even someone like Chris Latina, for example. He came and he had a talk. He literally created Swift. We had all these awesome people.
Speaker 1:I was just randomly messaging and thinking they're not going to respond to nobody, but they did, like a lot of them are just cool people and they just want to come up. So it kind of helped us. It buoyed and got us a little more exposure than it would have. That and on top of that with Jessica Jessica mission of hers already Jessica McKellar and she took it on as her baby and she added some legitimacy to it early on.
Speaker 3:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, I think a lot of the success is due to that, due to her coming on and due to people saying yes early on for those talks, because it was a whole month of we call it a spring into Swift. It was a whole month of like April or something, whatever it was, and so that attracted a lot of people and we got a lot of exposure. It kind of blew up from there.
Speaker 3:That's awesome ones. It just speaks exactly to what we've been mentioning in the last few minutes here, like network, community relationship. Yeah, you said, connect to people that are going to help them actually more in your way, Because at that point you're like months into it, even only a couple of years into it. But yeah, all these kind of big hitters and the reason why people are happy to help is because you weren't saying help me like help myself. You're like I want to help people. I don't know how I'm not going to be able to help in the same way, and so it's because you weren't asking for something for yourself and it made it really easy to be like man.
Speaker 3:This guy's sacrificing his time and energy to help other people when he's not even like, he's still like trying to figure out his own stuff and get established in his career. So I'm sure that just inspired a lot of people to be like whether or not it was used specifically, but or just kind of like your story that they just like man, let's, let's get this ball rolling here. Woods has been the kind of biggest benefit that you've seen. Being a part of underdog debt is like what. You didn't start it to help yourself, but it what's been the biggest impact to you.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's been hugely impactful In a way that never suspected. I never in a million years would have thought that the thing was going to help me with, like give me just some amazing contacts, you know. Like it's given me some amazing, allowing me to meet people I wouldn't have met, allowing me to be like obviously everyone likes helping people, you know, changing people's lives or you know, if you can be a part of that, most people like that, you know. So like that, obviously, without you know that's. I guess what I'm saying is like that's obvious, that that part was has been rewarding, but even more than that was like personally it's been super helpful because there's been a couple of events where we're relied on with the community and things like getting a job, for example.
Speaker 1:I mean like I've got lots of friends that have like they'll refer me. You know, if I ask they're gonna refer me anywhere. You know, like whether it be Facebook or wherever, I probably should put in some time to get on lead code so they can get a job. I should make the jump at some point because I have the ability to get these referrals, because you know friends I've met there and so I wouldn't have met all these people? Had we not, all you know, come together to try to build this thing? And then although this isn't mad and I didn't do it on purpose when my wife was diagnosed with cancer, we were having to stay in hotels constantly.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was rough. It was like financially was really rough on us At that point. She quit working. She wasn't able, you know, which was fine. I didn't want her to have to work. It was stressful, you know, she was working for a firm that was very stressful, so she walked away from that.
Speaker 1:But I was in, we were in financial problems and so my brother ran and go fund me, yeah, and I shared it and like there was, I want to say, $60,000, raised a lot of money, and like 90% of it were people from Twitter and underdog devs. It was wild. Like 90% they shared it on their Facebook, they shared it with my brother and my wife shared it and all kinds of other areas, and it was like nearly everyone was people, you know. You know, like it was just like wow, I didn't realize like what an awesome. I mean I knew it was awesome Network and I knew these. A lot of these people are awesome and they help a lot, but I didn't realize it was like that cool. You know, yeah, they raised a lot of money and I made a constantly say that too, she would look at, she'd read, she'd go another one of your people, cause she'd know if she didn't know him. It had to be one of my people yeah.
Speaker 1:So I would look, and usually it was someone I knew from Twitter or underdog devs.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. I just got goosebumps from him, from you, saying that it's super, super easy A reflection of you and what people think of you and Amanda. So, yeah, that's not like like like people were just doing it for for no reasons, like they, they know who you are, they know how important the situation was, everything you guys were going through, and obviously there was only so much people could do to help. And so if that was one way they can just try to make it a little bit more joyful for you guys to be able to never get the hotel stay and all of that, yeah, definitely, definitely feel for for you guys and everything going back 10 years. So we were talking about going back 10 years and what you were thinking. But if you had to go, like you now, you time travel on, you say, hey, hey, young Rick, younger Rick, still young, what kind of things would you kind of impart on a younger version of yourself?
Speaker 1:As far as like, like what to look forward to, or like because I'm not really sure off, I'm not sure what I would take back with me other than you know. You know it probably would be like, because what dominates my mind whenever anyone says anything like that is like relational stuff, because you know my wife passed. So, like stuff like that, like hey, spend time with her, yeah, success will come, success is going to happen. But use your time wisely, don't grind. You know, all day, every day and I did that, you know like she'd be in the bed sleeping and I'd be in there reading and studying and coding and like trying to try to get myself together because, like I had never used a smartphone at that time, when I got out, I had got a little little taste of programming, but it was in a very stale. You know, it wasn't like I had never used a smartphone, I was like technologically illiterate.
Speaker 1:So, for me to get to the point where I could build apps and get paid to build apps. It took a lot of a lot of grind and tenacity and but I would probably say something like, hey, ease up a little bit, you know, because I didn't know I was going to lose her, you know what I mean. So it would probably be something like that. But as far as like getting ahead, I think I just do the same thing you know, like do what you can to work, work, but also get to the point where you're getting paid to learn. I would do that same thing again build relationships. I like people. So like that came naturally for me. I'm better at that than I am programming.
Speaker 3:Which is a way better talent and skill to have for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, if you like, because I like people, so you know, going to meetups and stuff was good. I might focus a little more on a different subject matter now, but I'm sure everyone says this right, like when you see something blow up, you're like I just learned that, Like I would focus a little more on machine learning, maybe go a little further in schooling higher order maths and stuff and try to like so that I could have, because I just feel like that's the future. There's a lot of. I just think it's going to be interesting future and I would probably I'm kind of pigeonholed now into what I do Not a bad thing, right, like I love, love, how things turned out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what, when you get an edge, it means that you're at what you do in an LB or you find something for those roles specifically. But yeah, it's. It's hard to say, right, there's so many hot things that seems like every couple months I was like, well, is it really going to be like the next thing, or is that going to be where all, like all not all, but all the crypto space, all all of the entity stuff, those things have blown up and so people that poured everything into those probably not like at the time, right, they felt like, oh, this is the next big thing. They'll probably still be there in the room for someone who's not probably at the level that there were Now.
Speaker 3:It's AI Probably makes sense that this will actually be around a little bit longer, more sustainable, that people have been working on AI and trying to figure that out for so long. So, yeah, maybe, maybe that makes more sense. But it's hard in those moments to know what truly is going to be the next thing and, right, what? I don't do this too often, but, yeah, what? What do you kind of envision for for your future, like you see yourself pivoting at some point down the road five, 10 years into the future?
Speaker 1:I've actually been going through that lately, wondering, like you know, am I going to continue down the individual contributor as a programmer or with back to like my white pass it's?
Speaker 1:It made it kind of hard to concentrate lately over the last like four or five months and so four months, and so it's I've questioned whether or not, like do I want to do this Right, because it takes a lot of concentration.
Speaker 1:Programming takes a lot of like focus. It's not overly complicated but it does take a lot of concentration. And so there are times where I'm like I really would like some low, like light mental work or easier, shallower stuff right now would be nice. And so it's made me consider like do I want to keep doing this you know what I mean when it takes like a mental, like that much in mental effort, or do I want to move into something different? And one thing that's come up they also kind of intersects with other other goals I have as a company like started company, a company that would benefit underdog devs and help pay for whether they rely on donations for like project underdog and for the stipends, rather than that that started company like a B Corp dedicated to a certain percentage that goes back to underdog devs. Yeah, and that way just run the company you know like.
Speaker 3:Run the company and from there try to fund underdog devs through that, that's exciting and so speaking of that is perfect way to kind of ramp up the episode. How can people support underdog devs? So they heard your story, they heard about underdog devs. If people are inspired to kind of contribute and give back, what ways can they do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we have a website, underdogdevsorg. You can reach out through there. We have PayPal or you can just wire us money. We have our bank information there, so you can do that. We also not just financially, but if you want to support us through like hardware or computers, you know, reach out to me. I'm trying to think of the best way. You can go to Twitter at rwlex or you can email rick at underdogdevsorg.
Speaker 1:So we're always looking for hardware and mentors. Of course, you know, if you're a software engineer, you want to help mentor and you want to guide and help somebody, help change somebody's life, reach out. And if you some of the neat, obviously they can reach out. Someone's formerly incarcerated or from lower socioeconomic background and who wants to become a software engineer, yeah, reach out really anyway, To me directly on Twitter or to the website underdogdevsorg. You can sign up to a mentor or mentee. So, yeah, lots of different ways volunteering hardware or, you know, financially you want to sponsor. And just to be clear, none of the money goes to any of us that run it. We don't take salaries. We don't take a dime.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you guys have a price for the mentees, which is is it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we make sure the money goes directly to make to expand access to people who maybe wouldn't get access and we're talking not everyone in there, but the people that once. Once you're part of underdog devs, then you have the ability to sign up for project underdog. That's where you get your bills paid for four months. Surround you with mentors, you get pair programming all week and we try to get you to a point where you're not having to work. You can focus on studying.
Speaker 1:All right, just like we talked about in the beginning get to the point where you, just where you can just study, you know like you can learn and practice. So yeah, none of the money goes to any of us. We don't take salaries, it all goes to the mentees stipends.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Well, that's amazing. I'm so thankful that we will find time to hand you on today. Anything else before we jump off and end today's episode, no, just want to thank you for being so cool and supportive.
Speaker 1:You've, like, you know, I've known you for a while on social, through Twitter, and followed you for a while and that's super awesome. Man, like appreciate everything you've done. I'm sure a ton of people don't know like you've donated, not for anyone else's interest, but you just just for us. Just, you know, not to not to try to like be known. You're doing it on the. You know you did it on the slide. I don't even know it, you know, and it was kind of cool. We really appreciate you, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, I appreciate everything you're doing. I come from a background of being a minority in a space where there's not many minorities or people that look like me, and so I can only imagine it has to be pretty similar, right, having a unique background like yours and and there's a lot of people that need you kind of as that beacon. And that's really what you were in those early days. Like you said, you weren't adding a ton of benefits as far as like given dropping gems left and right early on, but it was like you. You were a beacon of hope and that's all people need to kind of take those first couple of steps and moving that motion.
Speaker 3:And yeah, you, you've, you've experienced, you've lived the experience of life all during life, changing kind of opportunities, and so super glad that we were able to meet in the first place way back when, have a couple of opportunities that, have conversations in the meantime and then kind of summon it up today. This one's going to be the last time we talk, but up until this point it's it's really amazing to you to know you and to kind of see the impact that you're not only making for your family and kind of improving yourself, but the impact you're making on others. It's super inspiring.
Speaker 1:Thank you, man, I really appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for listening to Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp. You can find show notes by visiting and local up financial planningcom and finding the podcast page. You'll also be able to find strategy guides, videos and cheat sheets to help you take your financial confidence to the next level. If you feel this episode has added a ton of value for you, please rate and share this with friends and colleagues. I'll catch you next time on Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp.