September 5, 2024 • 11 mins
Unlock the secrets to mastering communication as a STEM professional by tuning into our conversation with Neil Thompson, the founder of Teach the Geek. Neil's journey from product development engineer to communication coach offers valuable insights that could transform your career. Discover how Neil turned early presentation struggles and a failed Facebook webinar into a thriving online course that helps technical professionals captivate non-technical audiences. Learn why effective communication is crucial for career advancement and how storytelling can play a pivotal role in leadership, especially within nonprofit organizations.
We'll also delve into the motivations driving Neil and others to enhance communication skills in STEM fields. Hear about the influence of strict upbringings on career paths and inspiring the next generation, particularly marginalized groups, to consider STEM careers. Plus, get practical advice on spotting bots on LinkedIn and a special shout-out to Luis Martinez and Christiana Russell of We the Plug for their impactful contributions. For those interested in apprenticeship opportunities, Neil shares invaluable experiences and tips on skill-first training. This episode is packed with actionable insights and inspiration for anyone looking to elevate their presentation skills.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I don't think I did a very good job of putting things
in a way that people couldactually understand, Having all
this technical expertise, and Inoticed that a lot of the other
engineers they weren't all thatmuch better at it than I was.
So basically my why is to helppeople like me just get better
at giving presentations, Becauseoftentimes the people who are
great at communicating are theones who get the opportunities.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey everyone, this is Mike Roberts, creator of the
Apprenticeship Playbook, andyou're tuned in to the Skills
First podcast.
In today's world, skills First,hiring is revolutionizing the
job market and on this show Isit down with trailblazers who
are rethinking hiring practicesand embracing experiential
learning, as well as the peopleimpacted.
(00:45):
Follow along as we dive intotips, innovative ideas and
proven strategies to help younavigate and thrive in the
evolving landscape of modernapprenticeships.
Can you tell us what your nameis and what is it that you do?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
My name is Neil Thompson and I am the founder of
Teach the Geek.
I work with technicalprofessionals so they can
present more effectively,especially in front of
non-technical audiences.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Nice.
So tell me where do you live?
I live in San Diego, Nice.
We got a lot of San Diego folks, but I always want to make sure
that the audience knows.
Sometimes we deal with folksthat are not in Southern
California.
Tell me, what were you doingbefore you started this
phenomenal organization that youhave?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I worked for several years as a product development
engineer in the medical deviceindustry, more specifically,
spinal implants.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yes, and we've had lots of conversations Very
interesting we don't have timein the Snackballs podcast to go
deep on this but veryinteresting work that you've
shared with me about the bonesand grafting and all that kind
of really cool stuff, Amazingstuff.
Tell me what was one of thebiggest challenges in your
journey to become a founder ofan organization that supports
people in STEM?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
It was knowing the right things to do.
I made a whole lot of mistakesearly on, and I took advice from
people that I probablyshouldn't have taken advice from
.
I developed an online course andI called it Teach the Geek to
Speak, and it was geared towardspeople like myself, people in
the STEM fields, and when Ifirst put it out, I didn't
really have much of a plan as tohow to promote and to sell it,
(02:18):
and so I hired a sales andmarketing consultant to help me
develop the plan, but everythingshe suggested I do didn't work,
one of which was having awebinar on Facebook, and I had
misgivings about it from thebeginning, but because I didn't
have that experience, I trustedher judgment.
I wasn't even on Facebook, andyet I'm going to be doing a
(02:39):
webinar on Facebook, so I didthis webinar on Facebook.
To this day, I have no clue whowas there that actually
listened to that webinar.
What I do know is by the end ofit, when I was talking about
the offer of Teach the Geek tospeak, everybody had logged off.
No one bought anything, so itwas all a waste of time, and I
paid that person some prettygood money.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, yeah, I bet there's no shortage of people
that are trying to promotethemselves as marketers and
sales people of the product.
So, yeah, I feel you it's rough.
Tell me what is your?
Why, like, why do you do thework that you're doing right now
?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Because I see I saw the benefit of getting better at
giving presentations.
That really was the motivationfor starting Teach the Geek.
When I worked as an engineer,at my second job I had to give
presentations in front of seniormanagement on a monthly basis
and those first fewpresentations were absolutely
horrendous.
I did not know it was possibleto sweat that profusely from
one's body while awake.
(03:38):
But there I was doing exactlythat and the problem with it
ultimately was I don't think Idid a very good job at putting
things in a way that peoplecould actually understand,
having all this technicalexpertise, and I noticed that a
lot of the other engineers theyweren't all that much better at
it than I was.
So basically, my why is to helppeople like me just get better
(04:00):
at giving presentations, becauseoftentimes the people who are
great at communicating are theones who get the opportunities.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, I feel you, and that storytelling seems to
resonate more and more as I getdeeper into my experience
running a nonprofit.
That I know one of ourshortcomings or at least my
shortcoming is I am just notthat storyteller yet and it's
hard for us to really get thatmessage and public awareness
about the work that we're doingwhen you don't have the CEO, the
founder, able to clearlyarticulate that, that story.
(04:29):
Get that messaging.
I feel you.
It is definitely a need forsuper technical people to be
able to really break it down andmake it appealing for people to
pay attention, stay focusedright and get the gist of things
.
How has STEM made an impact onyou?
How about professionally aswell as personally?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Professionally.
It got me to doing what I'mdoing, although I will say that
my interest in STEM there reallywasn't one initially.
I became an engineer because myfather said I should.
It wasn't because I thought tobe an engineer when I was coming
out of high school.
I really didn't know much aboutit and I grew up in a pretty
strict home and I just did whatI was told.
(05:08):
It's ironic that I became anengineer when, because when you
often when you think ofengineers, you think of problem
solvers.
But before you have a problemor before you solve anything,
you have to know what theproblem is.
But I never really askedanything about problems, so I
never really anything to solve.
So the fact that I ended upbeing an engineer of all things
is actually rather ironic, butthe it.
(05:29):
I don't regret it, though.
It worked out really well andI've enjoyed my time working in
medical devices, so it'sdefinitely not something that I
regret.
And then, personally, it'sreally what the children's book
is.
Really, when I think aboutpersonally, I think about my
children's book, and it's thatit's called.
Ask uncle neil, why is my haircurly?
It's about my nephew asking mewhy his hair is the way it is,
(05:52):
and I use science to answer thequestion.
And the motivation for writingthat book was rather personal.
I want to see more kids become,or stay curious.
I think kids initially or justinherently are curious.
But sometimes you might be likeme, a kid who had parents who
just said do as I say.
But unfortunately that doesn'thelp in developing the
(06:13):
innovators of tomorrow, becauseyou can't grow up in this strict
environment where you just doas you're told and then you
become an adult and then aretold to innovate.
You have no experience in doingit because the curiosity was
never fostered.
So that's the main reason Iwrote the book.
It's for children up to ageseight years old.
And then also I want those kidsto know that there are no
(06:34):
careers that are off limits tothem especially black children't
do.
But I want them to have theconfidence from a young age to
know that even though there arethose naysayers, they can ignore
(06:55):
them and go for what they want.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, absolutely, and a lot of the way you grew up.
I had a very similar upbringingin terms of very strict my
parents instilled upon me earlyon that I was a huge
disappointment to them because Iwas not good at school and
because I didn't show the effortin the things that they thought
were really important at thetime and that took me a little
(07:18):
while to heal all those woundsand get to the point where today
I can think, like you do, alittle bit more clearly about
how do we pay it forward to thenext generation and make sure
they feel inspired to do, youknow, careers that make them
feel like they're adding valueand they belong, and a sense of
science can be an interestingfield and can be one that they
(07:39):
can be in awe and inspired byand stay in that mentality of
like constant innovation andideas and trying things and
experimenting and like thatcould be a successful thing and
it shouldn't be just like shovedaway and pushed down because we
all grew up and we're tend totake less risks as we get older.
I'm curious what's the last?
(07:59):
You're a curious person.
What's the last new thing thatyou learned?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
last new thing that I learned, let's see.
Oh, I learned that to keep botsor to at least, if you're on
linkedin and you want to bealerted as to whether it's a bot
that's that is contacting youthrough a message, you put
something before your name, sonow I have a dot before my name,
so if I ever get a message thatsays dot neil, I know it's from
(08:25):
a bot yeah, I've seen a fewpeople use that strategy and I
think smarter bots are gonnalearn to look for a letter and
try and trim that thing off.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
But I think it's gonna work for a little while.
I think the less sophisticatedbots will be distracted by that.
Who's someone that you wouldlove that you either look up to
or you'd like to give a shoutout to?
Living or dead, let's do living.
I think that's more interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I want to give a shout out to Luis Martinez, the
founder of we the Plug I reallyand Christiana Russell, the COO
of we the Plug.
I really like what they'redoing here in the San Diego area
of really pushing theimportance of Black
entrepreneurs to embraceentrepreneurship, and they're
providing them with theresources to do so.
(09:14):
I attended one of their eventsmaybe a month or so ago it
couldn't have been that long ago.
It was a wonderful event.
They had a fireside chat that Ithought was rather interesting
and it was a great place tonetwork with other people and
just be around other like-mindedpeople who see the benefit of
embracing this innovationeconomy and becoming
entrepreneurs.
So kudos to them.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, shout out to Christiana and Luis.
I know them very well as welland would again agree that they
are some amazing humans.
And yeah, we the plug doingamazing stuff, all right.
Last and most importantquestion what's your favorite
snack?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
My favorite snack are donuts, and it's a problem
because I like them a lot butthey don't like me as much, so I
try to stay away from them.
But every now and then I'll hitup a Dunkin' Donuts and get a
maple bar and then a toastedcoconut donut.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Nice.
And man, you mentioned Dunkin'.
There's not a lot of Dunk ofDuncan here.
Are you originally from SanDiego or are you from somewhere
else?
I'm from somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, I learned about Duncan when I lived on the East
Coast in Austin, and therepretty much every other block
there's a Duncan.
I remember when I first startedworking I didn't have a car.
I actually had to save up forone.
I used to walk to work everyday and it was a couple of miles
each way and I passed at leastfour Dunkin's on the way to and
from work.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, so for those in Southern California we're just
starting to get that.
I grew up in the Boston areatoo, when I was, when I was a
kid, it is I think it's moreprevalent than Starbucks is out
here.
Sometimes in San Diego there'sa Starbucks.
In the crossing street there'sa Starbucks, but it's even more
prevalent on the East CoastDunkin's everywhere.
So I'm glad we have them herein San Diego now because the
(10:58):
coffee is like liquid crack.
Don't get me started on Dunkin'.
Anyways, thanks so much, neil.
Appreciate you coming on theprogram.
Thanks for having me, Mikeyou've been listening to skills
(11:24):
first, the apprenticeshipplaybook podcast.
By the way, if this is valuableto you, don't be lame.
Share the game.
This is how we know you love it.
If you're a thinking aboutchanging how you hire, please
share it so we know this type ofstuff is what you want.
I don't think I did a very good job of putting things
in a way that people couldactually understand, Having all
this technical expertise, and Inoticed that a lot of the other
engineers they weren't all thatmuch better at it than I was.
So basically my why is to helppeople like me just get better
at giving presentations, Becauseoftentimes the people who are
great at communicating are theones who get the opportunities.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey everyone, this is Mike Roberts, creator of the
Apprenticeship Playbook, andyou're tuned in to the Skills
First podcast.
In today's world, skills First,hiring is revolutionizing the
job market and on this show Isit down with trailblazers who
are rethinking hiring practicesand embracing experiential
learning, as well as the peopleimpacted.
(00:45):
Follow along as we dive intotips, innovative ideas and
proven strategies to help younavigate and thrive in the
evolving landscape of modernapprenticeships.
Can you tell us what your nameis and what is it that you do?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
My name is Neil Thompson and I am the founder of
Teach the Geek.
I work with technicalprofessionals so they can
present more effectively,especially in front of
non-technical audiences.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Nice.
So tell me where do you live?
I live in San Diego, Nice.
We got a lot of San Diego folks, but I always want to make sure
that the audience knows.
Sometimes we deal with folksthat are not in Southern
California.
Tell me, what were you doingbefore you started this
phenomenal organization that youhave?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I worked for several years as a product development
engineer in the medical deviceindustry, more specifically,
spinal implants.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yes, and we've had lots of conversations Very
interesting we don't have timein the Snackballs podcast to go
deep on this but veryinteresting work that you've
shared with me about the bonesand grafting and all that kind
of really cool stuff, Amazingstuff.
Tell me what was one of thebiggest challenges in your
journey to become a founder ofan organization that supports
people in STEM?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
It was knowing the right things to do.
I made a whole lot of mistakesearly on, and I took advice from
people that I probablyshouldn't have taken advice from
.
I developed an online course andI called it Teach the Geek to
Speak, and it was geared towardspeople like myself, people in
the STEM fields, and when Ifirst put it out, I didn't
really have much of a plan as tohow to promote and to sell it,
(02:18):
and so I hired a sales andmarketing consultant to help me
develop the plan, but everythingshe suggested I do didn't work,
one of which was having awebinar on Facebook, and I had
misgivings about it from thebeginning, but because I didn't
have that experience, I trustedher judgment.
I wasn't even on Facebook, andyet I'm going to be doing a
(02:39):
webinar on Facebook, so I didthis webinar on Facebook.
To this day, I have no clue whowas there that actually
listened to that webinar.
What I do know is by the end ofit, when I was talking about
the offer of Teach the Geek tospeak, everybody had logged off.
No one bought anything, so itwas all a waste of time, and I
paid that person some prettygood money.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, yeah, I bet there's no shortage of people
that are trying to promotethemselves as marketers and
sales people of the product.
So, yeah, I feel you it's rough.
Tell me what is your?
Why, like, why do you do thework that you're doing right now
?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Because I see I saw the benefit of getting better at
giving presentations.
That really was the motivationfor starting Teach the Geek.
When I worked as an engineer,at my second job I had to give
presentations in front of seniormanagement on a monthly basis
and those first fewpresentations were absolutely
horrendous.
I did not know it was possibleto sweat that profusely from
one's body while awake.
(03:38):
But there I was doing exactlythat and the problem with it
ultimately was I don't think Idid a very good job at putting
things in a way that peoplecould actually understand,
having all this technicalexpertise, and I noticed that a
lot of the other engineers theyweren't all that much better at
it than I was.
So basically, my why is to helppeople like me just get better
(04:00):
at giving presentations, becauseoftentimes the people who are
great at communicating are theones who get the opportunities.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, I feel you, and that storytelling seems to
resonate more and more as I getdeeper into my experience
running a nonprofit.
That I know one of ourshortcomings or at least my
shortcoming is I am just notthat storyteller yet and it's
hard for us to really get thatmessage and public awareness
about the work that we're doingwhen you don't have the CEO, the
founder, able to clearlyarticulate that, that story.
(04:29):
Get that messaging.
I feel you.
It is definitely a need forsuper technical people to be
able to really break it down andmake it appealing for people to
pay attention, stay focusedright and get the gist of things
.
How has STEM made an impact onyou?
How about professionally aswell as personally?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Professionally.
It got me to doing what I'mdoing, although I will say that
my interest in STEM there reallywasn't one initially.
I became an engineer because myfather said I should.
It wasn't because I thought tobe an engineer when I was coming
out of high school.
I really didn't know much aboutit and I grew up in a pretty
strict home and I just did whatI was told.
(05:08):
It's ironic that I became anengineer when, because when you
often when you think ofengineers, you think of problem
solvers.
But before you have a problemor before you solve anything,
you have to know what theproblem is.
But I never really askedanything about problems, so I
never really anything to solve.
So the fact that I ended upbeing an engineer of all things
is actually rather ironic, butthe it.
(05:29):
I don't regret it, though.
It worked out really well andI've enjoyed my time working in
medical devices, so it'sdefinitely not something that I
regret.
And then, personally, it'sreally what the children's book
is.
Really, when I think aboutpersonally, I think about my
children's book, and it's thatit's called.
Ask uncle neil, why is my haircurly?
It's about my nephew asking mewhy his hair is the way it is,
(05:52):
and I use science to answer thequestion.
And the motivation for writingthat book was rather personal.
I want to see more kids become,or stay curious.
I think kids initially or justinherently are curious.
But sometimes you might be likeme, a kid who had parents who
just said do as I say.
But unfortunately that doesn'thelp in developing the
(06:13):
innovators of tomorrow, becauseyou can't grow up in this strict
environment where you just doas you're told and then you
become an adult and then aretold to innovate.
You have no experience in doingit because the curiosity was
never fostered.
So that's the main reason Iwrote the book.
It's for children up to ageseight years old.
And then also I want those kidsto know that there are no
(06:34):
careers that are off limits tothem especially black children't
do.
But I want them to have theconfidence from a young age to
know that even though there arethose naysayers, they can ignore
(06:55):
them and go for what they want.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, absolutely, and a lot of the way you grew up.
I had a very similar upbringingin terms of very strict my
parents instilled upon me earlyon that I was a huge
disappointment to them because Iwas not good at school and
because I didn't show the effortin the things that they thought
were really important at thetime and that took me a little
(07:18):
while to heal all those woundsand get to the point where today
I can think, like you do, alittle bit more clearly about
how do we pay it forward to thenext generation and make sure
they feel inspired to do, youknow, careers that make them
feel like they're adding valueand they belong, and a sense of
science can be an interestingfield and can be one that they
(07:39):
can be in awe and inspired byand stay in that mentality of
like constant innovation andideas and trying things and
experimenting and like thatcould be a successful thing and
it shouldn't be just like shovedaway and pushed down because we
all grew up and we're tend totake less risks as we get older.
I'm curious what's the last?
(07:59):
You're a curious person.
What's the last new thing thatyou learned?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
last new thing that I learned, let's see.
Oh, I learned that to keep botsor to at least, if you're on
linkedin and you want to bealerted as to whether it's a bot
that's that is contacting youthrough a message, you put
something before your name, sonow I have a dot before my name,
so if I ever get a message thatsays dot neil, I know it's from
(08:25):
a bot yeah, I've seen a fewpeople use that strategy and I
think smarter bots are gonnalearn to look for a letter and
try and trim that thing off.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
But I think it's gonna work for a little while.
I think the less sophisticatedbots will be distracted by that.
Who's someone that you wouldlove that you either look up to
or you'd like to give a shoutout to?
Living or dead, let's do living.
I think that's more interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I want to give a shout out to Luis Martinez, the
founder of we the Plug I reallyand Christiana Russell, the COO
of we the Plug.
I really like what they'redoing here in the San Diego area
of really pushing theimportance of Black
entrepreneurs to embraceentrepreneurship, and they're
providing them with theresources to do so.
(09:14):
I attended one of their eventsmaybe a month or so ago it
couldn't have been that long ago.
It was a wonderful event.
They had a fireside chat that Ithought was rather interesting
and it was a great place tonetwork with other people and
just be around other like-mindedpeople who see the benefit of
embracing this innovationeconomy and becoming
entrepreneurs.
So kudos to them.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, shout out to Christiana and Luis.
I know them very well as welland would again agree that they
are some amazing humans.
And yeah, we the plug doingamazing stuff, all right.
Last and most importantquestion what's your favorite
snack?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
My favorite snack are donuts, and it's a problem
because I like them a lot butthey don't like me as much, so I
try to stay away from them.
But every now and then I'll hitup a Dunkin' Donuts and get a
maple bar and then a toastedcoconut donut.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Nice.
And man, you mentioned Dunkin'.
There's not a lot of Dunk ofDuncan here.
Are you originally from SanDiego or are you from somewhere
else?
I'm from somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, I learned about Duncan when I lived on the East
Coast in Austin, and therepretty much every other block
there's a Duncan.
I remember when I first startedworking I didn't have a car.
I actually had to save up forone.
I used to walk to work everyday and it was a couple of miles
each way and I passed at leastfour Dunkin's on the way to and
from work.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, so for those in Southern California we're just
starting to get that.
I grew up in the Boston areatoo, when I was, when I was a
kid, it is I think it's moreprevalent than Starbucks is out
here.
Sometimes in San Diego there'sa Starbucks.
In the crossing street there'sa Starbucks, but it's even more
prevalent on the East CoastDunkin's everywhere.
So I'm glad we have them herein San Diego now because the
(10:58):
coffee is like liquid crack.
Don't get me started on Dunkin'.
Anyways, thanks so much, neil.
Appreciate you coming on theprogram.
Thanks for having me, Mikeyou've been listening to skills
(11:24):
first, the apprenticeshipplaybook podcast.
By the way, if this is valuableto you, don't be lame.
Share the game.
This is how we know you love it.
If you're a thinking aboutchanging how you hire, please
share it so we know this type ofstuff is what you want.
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