Matt Perez | Being Able to Explain What You’re Doing

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
solidworks, design, csw, content, people, surface, software, matt, extrude, point, engineer, inventor, cad, companies, learn, challenge, podcast, piece, resellers, edits
SPEAKERS
Matt Perez, Presenter, Aaron Moncur, Rafael Testai

Presenter 00:00
Hi, everyone. We’ve set up this being an engineer podcast as an industry knowledge repository, if you will, we hope it’ll be a tool where engineers can learn about and connect with other companies, technologies, people, resources and opportunities. So make some connections and enjoy the show.

Matt Perez 00:18
Being able to explain what you’re doing. And that’s that’s the big difference between most of the people that I find.

Rafael Testai 00:40
Hello, everyone, welcome to the being an engineer podcast. We have a very special guest today, Matt Perez. Matt has been training users for the past 12 years, and has worked professionally in CAD and Cam solutions for over 20 years. Through his company CAD education. He provides top level content creation services to software companies, helping train the next generation of designers, inventors and creators. His company provides CAD and Cam digital training. He spends his time and energy creating educational content to help designers engineers and machinist connect the dots between their practical knowledge and their digital design tools of their choice. Matt, welcome to the podcast.

Matt Perez 01:26
Thanks for having me, Rafael,

Rafael Testai 01:27
of course. So tell me what got you into creating content to train machinist engineers and inventors? How? Walk me through the timeline of your career?

Matt Perez 01:40
Yeah, well, I think like probably a lot of people, I started as Tinker like a hobbyist, you know, just wanting to do projects for myself. And you know, through education, I learned AutoCAD and I learned mechanical desktop and inventor and Unigraphics quite a while ago at this point. And in my professional career, I started with hand fabrication, so machining, welding, composites, things like that, and then eventually got into designing those things digitally. So I went from, from doing it by hand, then to do it, doing it digitally, which kind of gave me a little bit of an advantage because I knew how things went together before I started designing them. So I always felt like through traditional education that there were pieces missing, right, so if you go through a formal education for, let’s say, engineering, the focus is on practical knowledge for engineering. And the CAD design side is typically an elective, you, you apply it through, you know, design projects, but for the most part, it’s, it’s a very minor portion of that career path. So there, there tends to be a lot of hands on learning. And, you know, learning in the software, so I was lucky enough to sort of do the reverse, and I learned all the hand, you know, the hand application stuff first, and then I went to, you know, doing it digitally. And I just found that there are always challenges associated with it for me, I never really could follow along the standard, you know, step by step. So I always had to sort of go and figure things out. And one of the biggest challenges I had was or that I wanted to solve was modeling cars. That was like my big the big thing, the big reason I wanted to do a lot of 3d design. So once I sort of had my aha moment and figured it out, I really didn’t find very many references around like, there wasn’t a lot of content out there for teaching people how to design car bodies using things like SolidWorks. So I initially just did a PDF tutorial on how to do it the process that that worked for me that I figured out, and that was the start of it all was just putting that out there.

Rafael Testai 04:01
And where can people buy or have access to this PDF tutorial?

Matt Perez 04:07
Well, I mean, so that that happened, like 12 years ago, at this point, it was just online on the SolidWorks forums, which have changed over the years. It was on solid SMAC website for a while and you know, kind of exists in a few places, but I don’t, I don’t really just have it publicly because it was, you know, at this point, it was SolidWorks 2009 or 2010. So it’s fairly out of date. So I don’t I don’t host it or put it anywhere. But that was sort of, you know, the initial inception of the idea,

Rafael Testai 04:42
I think is very nice of you to figure out a way to do something notice that nobody else is seems like they were teaching it or there’s no content for it online. And you went ahead and created that. It’s like you’re making the world a better place with a little contribution. So thank you for that. The next thing is If we want to do that, in today’s world, we’re in 2022, what resource would you recommend for us to learn surfacing? And rather, the more affordable, the better, quicker and affordable, which will be the resource that you would point us to?

Matt Perez 05:17
Right? Well, I mean, it’s, you know, I think over over time, the way people learn has certainly evolved, people’s attention spans have certainly evolved as well, or D evolved, I should say, you know, so a lot of a lot of people look to digest content in different ways. You know, so there are a lot of videos on YouTube, for example, where you can get like a crash course, you know, learn something in 10 minutes, I take the approach of, of doing the long method. So, you know, I don’t really support SolidWorks right now, I mainly focus on fusion 360. But in the past, I’ve done a lot of SolidWorks content on different elearning sites, things like Pluralsight, and O’Reilly Media Coursera, you know, there are just tons and tons of references. And it really just comes down to the user, you know, how they learn what style you know, they’re looking for, and you know, how they’re looking to digest that content. So, you know, so for example, if you go to somewhere like Coursera, or Udemy, it’s structured like a traditional course that you would find at a university, right. So you have content that’s sort of drip fed to you over a couple of weeks, their assessments, their challenges that you go through. And that’s, you know, that works. For some people, some people want to dedicate an hour here, an hour there. And then other places you can like, you can go on YouTube, and just find hours and hours of content. So it kind of just depends on how you are looking to digest the content. Now, specifically, when we’re talking about SolidWorks. You know, if that’s your main audience, then SolidWorks itself has its own elearning content, right, they have the user section where you can take courses and look at free lessons and the built in tutorials, and so on.

Rafael Testai 07:13
The thing that I found this, with a lot of SolidWorks tutorials, they’re about tips and tricks, and how to utilize the tools. But I haven’t seen a lot of tutorials that show you had to actually design something for manufacturability, or design it for how SolidWorks is using the real world, which means you show it to the customer, and they have feedback that we have a design review, and you have to make modifications to the design, when it would be great if somebody will come up with a class, and they will almost simulate that interaction with a customer and then show us okay, this is what you do when the customer tells you to edit this, you go back to your SolidWorks. And now walk us through the editing process. I don’t know why anyone hasn’t done that.

Matt Perez 07:56
Right. Right. Yeah. And so, you know, when we speak about that professionally, for many years, I did custom training for companies. So you know, so for example, there was a company that came to me or the company I was consulting through, and they wanted to learn API, they wanted to make their own add ins for SolidWorks, to perform tasks that they did, you know, all the time, but there weren’t really very good resources out there that were pointed to what they were looking to do, right. So I came in, and I developed a course with, you know, 20 or 30 videos that taught them the basics and worked towards their end goal. And in their case, their end goal was to again make their own programs to sort of automate repetitive tasks. And that’s very true in the industry where you come across. A lot of users who use the product over and over again, like they use it on a daily basis, but they’re kind of missing some of the benefits of whatever software they’re using, whether it’s SolidWorks, or not, in the case of SolidWorks, it’s specifically things like design tables, and automating designs and configurations through using VBA. And Excel, for example. So you can automate a lot. You can also use things like Dr works. So Dr. Works, has a couple of different versions of their software where you can develop an entire customer interaction portal on your website, and it’ll configure the designs, create the engineering drawings, even email them to manufacturing and so on. So all these little things. They’re very end user specific. So it is really hard to nail down a workflow that kind of works for everybody. And you have to piece it together. Unfortunately, you know, a lot of people end up having to piece it together based on their requirements.

Rafael Testai 09:51
This is somewhat of a philosophical question, but this seems like there are very competent engineers or companies that need to receive In this training on how to do the API, etc, different things on the software, what is it about you that you are able to figure out how to do this? But other very competent engineers were not able to figure out how to do it? What do you think is the thing that distinguishes you?

Matt Perez 10:17
Um, you know, I think for me, I funny enough, before I began making tutorials, I never watched any I didn’t like, go to how to videos I didn’t, you know, I didn’t go through training in a normal sense. I kind of, you know, went through like the help the Help menu, and I learned, I tried to learn how things worked. And I think that’s, that’s the difference is learning how things work. Because if you go through just a standard tutorial that teaches you how to make, you know, so for example, in SolidWorks, in the help file, that like the design assistant, you do, or you used to do an old phone case for like plastic part design, they would walk you through that. But there are a lot of design decisions along the way that don’t get explained. Like you don’t know why you’re doing something, you just kind of know how you’re doing it. And and I think for me, I really needed to know why I was doing something. And I think that’s why I’ve been able to be successful with it. Because now when a when I get a problem, I can say oh, well, you know, there are three or four different ways I can solve that problem. And there are reasons why you do one over the other. So so when you’re talking about surfacing, for example, since that’s the topic that you’re on, why you would do a lofted surface over a sweep over a boundary fill over a patch. And, and sort of the implications behind all of that. So when you’re learning to build a complex design, out of surfaces, the surface quality is is directly dependent on your sketches, the sketches that you put in how you define splines. And then the tool that you decide to use whether or not you’re extruding a surface, or you’re lofting a surface, there are there are different qualities to those surfaces downstream. And unless you kind of explore on your own and understand the differences between each of those, then you don’t really have all the information to make the right decisions when you start designing. Because you’re just kind of guessing, you know, you know that? Well, I used an extrude in this case, or I used a, you know, a ruled surface in this case, I don’t know why I did it, but I did it and it worked. So that’s what I’m going to use.

Rafael Testai 12:40
That’s a good point you bring up How did you learn the why?

Matt Perez 12:45
For me, it was figuring it out. And a lot of it is doing it wrong, intentionally doing it wrong sometimes, but other times, kind of working yourself into a corner, and then figuring out how to get out of it. So it’s kind of the approach that I’ve taken recently. So, you know, again, I mentioned I mainly focus on fusion 360 Right now, I think it’s, it’s a great tool, it has a lot of functionality and commercially available, it’s extremely, extremely good, it’s a good tool for the value. And I think what I’ve tried to do is I’ve tried to slow down the process, and explain the different paths along the way. So in order to do that, you have to find them, you have to figure them out for yourself. An example of that is with surfacing in Fusion 360 You kind of have to know the quality of the surface that you’re getting out of those tools very similar to SolidWorks. And then you have to kind of make the decision well do I extrude a surface? Do I sweep it? Do I lost it? All all those different design decisions you need to explore and play with and figure out well, why is one surface better than the other? And you know, on and to be perfectly honest, when you get down to manufacturing parts. A lot of these design decisions are more aesthetic than anything. And so when you’re talking about consumer parts, you know, if you’re looking at like an Apple phone or or anything that Apple makes, for example, they are extremely cautious about the curvature and the surface quality across edges. You know, that is like their design ethos from the beginning was very smooth, very rounded designs. And it’s harder to do than you might think it’s not just extrude something and put a fill it on it. It’s it takes a lot of work to get the courage or continuity out of those things. So kind of like the like the series that you do where you reverse engineer parts. Well take Take something that you have, for example, a light or a phone or some consumer product. And instead of just reverse engineering it, hold it up to the light, shine a light on it, rotate it around, see what the reflection does as it goes across those surfaces, and then try to replicate that. So you know, get to the point where you’re making a render of it, or, or you’re, you know, rotating it around with a point light. And, and just trying to figure out how that the surface continuity affects things.

Rafael Testai 15:30
Let’s see, was switching gears now. Tell me a little bit more about your website. Can you cater.com What do you offer? What is it about?

Matt Perez 15:41
Well, I mean, so the main thing I do right now is I produce content for software manufacturers. The the main one that I focus on right now is Autodesk and again, specifically fusion 360, but also inventor to a lesser extent. And I really found throughout my years of experience that doing content for resellers of software was great, but oftentimes, it was only available to those resellers customers. And then from there going to elearning sites was great, but a lot of elearning sites have a very big focus on things like computer programming, or Microsoft Office products. And it’s all comes down to publicizing the content that’s available. So if you want the biggest reach for the content you produce, then getting it on the website of the of the actual software company is the best bet. So I go directly to the software companies and I create content for them. One of the benefits of doing this for Autodesk is that all of the content on their website is free. So any any course content that gets created, and I cover, you know, surfacing and solid modeling, but also computer aided manufacturing, simulation, generative design, they basically any topic, the software we’ll cover, there’s a course for it. And again, it’s it’s all free through them. And then in addition to that, I’ve also been, you know, I created a YouTube channel called learn everything about design. And where that differs from the content that I create for software companies really comes down to more of the that the missing piece that how and that why. So when we do courses, when you follow along courses, there’s generally an end goal, there’s a project. But when I do content for YouTube, I can spend 40 minutes talking about an extrude. Now, maybe only five people want to hear that. But the information is still there. And people can understand what happens if we change a fill it to a chord, A chord length as opposed to a constant radius, what happens if we change it to curvature continuous instead of tangent, and understanding those different design decisions along the way, when you create a course for a company, they don’t want a 40 minute video on affiliate. But when you’re talking about the design process for people that really want to understand it and learn the differences, a place like YouTube is a great resource because the video can just live there. And if somebody wants to find it, they can get to it and if somebody doesn’t want to watch it, they don’t have to as part of a course right.

Rafael Testai 18:26
Understood. I think this is a good time in the podcast to do it. Take a quick break and mentioned to our listeners that that being an engineer podcast is brought to you by pipeline design and engineering pipeline partners with medical and other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at Team pipeline.us and one comment here value listeners we need your help getting to 100 podcast reviews, you have a chance to win a $50 amazon gift card. If you leave us a review on Apple podcast, simply email us screenshots of your five star review to podcast at teen pipeline.us. And the email will be in the show notes. We will announce the five lucky winners at the end of the first quarter in 2022. So here we are with my guest Matt Perez. Matt, if I recall correctly. You’re the first CSW P or CSW E is alright.

Matt Perez 19:33
Oh, well. Yeah. So back in, I’d say 2009 SolidWorks changed the the testing platform from being on site in person to being virtual. And back then I was I was one of the very first I guess public users. That was CSW e certified and what I mean by that is most of the resellers, the applications engineers that worked Different resellers, a lot of those are required to get certified. And I think I was one of the first that was just sort of the general public.

Rafael Testai 20:07
Okay, I’m thinking about naming the title of the episode, the first CSW E. What are your thoughts about that? Well, it’s

Matt Perez 20:16
not strictly true, right. Because there was there was experts before that certification. So CSW II was the thing and it actually before it was a much more difficult exam, it was six hours proctored in person. And, and you still had to be a CSW up beforehand and all that, but the structure kind of changed. So I yeah, I don’t know that that’s strictly true. I wouldn’t want to I wouldn’t want to clickbait it.

Rafael Testai 20:42
No, I want to keep things accurate. Okay. Well, you were one of the first series though us from what you mentioned.

Matt Perez 20:49
Yeah. So yeah. So that first year, when I, I transitioned from working in inventor to working in SolidWorks. I really went I went into it, I leaned into it and got all my certifications. And well, I skipped the CSW a but I did the CSW P and I did all of the advanced exams that they had at the time. And that happened to be the year SolidWorks. world they were focusing on certifications. And so I was I was the guest at SolidWorks world for the general session to talk about my my website at that time and the CSW EA and that whole process.

Rafael Testai 21:26
I think if this is off limits, I totally understand that. For our listener, this is almost an unfair question, because I didn’t let Matt know was going to ask him this. So we can skip the question if you’d like no problem. But I wonder about the world of business. So when you approach these companies, very big software companies very corporate, it’s hard to get a response sometimes when one is offering a service to them. How do you get people to respond to you when you offer them the services that you that you provide?

Matt Perez 21:59
Well, you know, it’s it’s kind of organic. And what I mean by that is, is I don’t necessarily approach anybody, I have just created enough content publicly, that is out there. And the people that are looking are able to find it. You know, so here’s a good example, years ago, when I started, there was a SolidWorks user Matt Lombard in and he created these original SolidWorks Bibles. So surfacing. He was, you know, he was one of the original masters of that. And he, he was doing elearning content, and he sort of passed my name along. And at the time, I was doing content for resellers. So I went from doing it, you know, strictly for resellers to doing it for elearning companies, and that company got sold, and they grew bigger, and I kept doing content for them. And then it sort of leapfrog from there. And Pluralsight found me based on that content, and then it sort of leapfrog from there. And Autodesk found me based on my Pluralsight content. And, you know, just through different contacts, you know, I have contacts at different companies. And I just always, you know, always have a feeler out there, you know, just hey, if you need some content available, let me know, you know, that kind of thing. So I don’t actively pursue anybody in that, in that regard. Because I’m lucky enough to have enough work on my plate, that I keep myself and the couple people that work for me, busy, busy enough. So I don’t have to actively pursue anything. But But I mean, here’s kind of the thing, in order to, to teach something, in order to truly get the point across and be able to do it fluidly. You have to really immerse yourself in it. So when I was teaching SolidWorks, I was mainly using SolidWorks. You know, I learned everything I possibly could about the software, from driveworks, to different add ins to, you know, surfacing, simulation, everything. I then did some content for onshape and for inventor, and you know, for all these different programs, but in order to do it effectively, you really have to immerse yourself in it. You know, so for the past several years, I had really focused on Mastercam and I focused on Autodesk. And, you know, to that extent, I tried to keep myself immersed in Fusion 360 and immersed in the technology that’s changing, to make sure that I can explore that. But I still you know, I still maintain my level of knowledge with everything else that I’ve done, you know, I don’t want to become I don’t want to get to the point where I couldn’t pick up SolidWorks again, for example, or I couldn’t open on shape and make something so it’s a lot of work but But I do try to maintain a level of proficiency with with as many pieces of software as I can.

Rafael Testai 25:06
Let’s see, is there anything that I haven’t asked you that I should have asked you that you’d like to discuss? And for people to know in general?

Matt Perez 25:18
That’s a good question. It’s a very broad question.

Rafael Testai 25:20
It is broad. Yeah, you can take it wherever you want to.

Matt Perez 25:23
Yeah. You know, one, one trend that I’ve seen recently is, is that a lot of a lot of people want to learn things very quickly. And, you know, I kind of think one of one of the points that you made, I think, in your, your CSW P prep is, is that you really need to prepare, and you need to consume content. Now, for a lot of people that’s watching videos, right or following a tutorial or something. But personally, for me, I don’t think that there is really a replacement for applying it. So I don’t think that anybody can become truly proficient by just following along what somebody else is doing, I really think that you need to learn, you know, you learn from the information that’s available, and then try to apply it on your own. Because if you can’t, if you can’t apply it, then all you’re really doing is just regurgitating that, you know, the content that you followed. So you have to challenge yourself part of what you do, and kind of reverse engineering or, you know, taking objects that are around you, like a pen or, or whatever. That kind of stuff is important. And important in the sense that so for example, with the pen, you know, the pen example that you have, if you actually if anybody opens up a true like a clicker pen, the mechanism inside there is an amazing piece of design and engineering, you know, that it’s just, it’s, it’s in everything. So it’s just become kind of commonplace. But if you actually take a pen apart, and you look at how it’s designed, and try to replicate that mechanism, that is an excellent challenge to figure out not only how the mechanism works, but how you can model certain features like they have teeth along cylindrical faces. And it’s important because the teeth have to match up with other teeth on another cylindrical face. So you really have to think long and hard about how you’re creating geometry in order to get it to work. And those little challenges those little kind of those aha moments of figuring out how to do something are almost priceless.

Rafael Testai 27:41
Appreciate that, Matt. So when Matt for listeners when he’s referring about this, I’ve done a SolidWorks series about mental mechanism library. That’s what I call it. And thanks for the shout out mat, in which I basically grab any products, consumer products around this everyday products, I tear them apart, and I reverse engineer them on CAD SolidWorks. And I teach people the mechanisms. And the very first video there, which I will hyperlink in the show notes is a multicolor pen. You know, those those pens that have four colors, the blue, black, red and blue, you could just click on them, and they change the color of the pen. The mechanism is what word Matt was just describing now. And he is absolutely right. When I was doing this challenge of reverse engineering it, I come to points where I was quite frustrated. But I finally persevered and came out on the other end, a better designer. So what Matt’s saying is totally correct. Sometimes we have to go the long route, the hard way to become truly proficient. They say that right, Matt? Yeah,

Matt Perez 28:44
exactly, exactly. Challenge, challenge yourself. And learn from other people’s designs. Like you know, I had this, I mentioned this in a series I’m recording now about, you know, if you take a battery cover off of something, just look at it, like look at how it was designed the openings, the way that the little slides work and the latches and, and really look at it and understand how somebody had to come to those design decisions. And and try to put yourself in that place. And then challenge yourself just if you can model what you see and understand the reasoning behind it, then you’re preparing yourself for that next challenge.

Rafael Testai 29:26
Totally. Anything else? I felt like we went on a good conversation thread here. And I feel like I want to ask you that same question again. Is there maybe something else that you would like to discuss here with the listeners that we haven’t had a chance to?

Matt Perez 29:42
Ah, man, yeah, again, open ended question. Right. Those are the hardest one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I so you know, I already mentioned you can’t really take a shortcut. You have to just to kind of summarize, you can’t just follow along with some somebody else does, you have to do it for yourself. So make sure you Challenge Challenge yourself, whether it’s to design something that you see or to design something new, you have to challenge yourself to figure that out, whether it’s SolidWorks, whether it’s fusion 360, whether it’s whatever you’re doing. And one thing that I’ve, I have always sort of done in my life is push myself to learn something new. It doesn’t necessarily have to be CAD. So, you know, for example, right now, I am working on Python, you know, Python coding, and it’s not something I necessarily need instantaneously, but it’s something that has long term value. So whether it’s learning a new piece of software, you know, I also explore things like blender, which is a visual effects software. And, you know, while I might not need it right now, maybe I’ll need it in the future. So you never stop learning push yourself.

Rafael Testai 31:00
Beautiful. Well, Matt, how can people reach you?

Matt Perez 31:05
Well, anybody can email me support at CAD decatur.com. And, you know, as I mentioned, I do have a YouTube channel learn everything about design. It’s mainly focused on fusion 360, but I cover circuit board design, and blender and programming. So all sorts of topics come up there. And it’s, you know, it’s it’s meant to be a design resource, more than just a software resource.

Rafael Testai 31:30
Actually, a good question popped up in my head, which is the use of you mentioned, you have a team, how big is your team?

Matt Perez 31:38
So right now for for the work I do, it’s generally about four to five people. You know, in order to produce content, as quickly as I do, I have an editor on hand, I have somebody that generally helps with some content creation, like practice and challenge exercises and assessments. And also somebody that reviews documentation to make sure that the copy edit is fine that you know, no grammatical errors, and no just errors and documents in general. So typically keep it to about four or five people for a project.

Rafael Testai 32:16
What I find interesting is that a lot of people don’t take that leap. They do everything themselves when they provide a service, like consulting, like you mentioned. And you were able to assemble a team. So I think you’re distinguishing yourself from all the other contractors or consultants? Could you maybe shed some light on how to go about finding the right pieces? To assemble a team? Is there like a book that you write on this? Or how does one take that leap from being solo to having a team?

Matt Perez 32:48
Right? Yeah, I mean, I would be lying if I said that I just took a leap. And, and made it happen. I, you know, I had done it slowly, where I had done everything myself from recording and editing and sort of all the pieces of the puzzle. And I got to a point where that was a limitation. You know, I knew that there was more work available, and I couldn’t keep up with the demand. So that’s really the point when I said, Okay, why I need somebody to take on some of the tasks that take me a long time, like, I focused on the tasks that I was required to do the ones like, planning courses and recording videos. And then I said, Well, anybody, not anybody, but you know, somebody else could do editing of the videos, or somebody else could do creating some documents. And that allowed me to go from, you know, doing a five or six courses over a couple of months to, to being able to do one or two, in the process of a week. But the

Rafael Testai 33:53
thing is, this is very niche work. When someone edits your SolidWorks or your Autodesk video, or fusion 360. They need to know they need to be I assume, right? They need to be professional in the platform to know what parts to crop out of the video. Is that incorrect?

Matt Perez 34:09
Yeah, and in us over the years since I’ve done it long enough, I’ve gotten to the point where there are very few edits, thankfully, you know, so we have a process in place where I can visually or you know, I can I can call out mistake in the audio. And, you know, that sort of calls out where edits need to happen. But I am, I am lucky enough that the person that I hired to do editing is somebody that I actually trained in SolidWorks years ago, and by trade, he is a graphics designer, but also he’s the CSW P and you know I’ve worked with him long enough that I know the quality of his work, I know what he’s capable of and he’s efficient with it as well. So you know, we work really well together on these on these courses. Outside of that you I will say that for the past five years, I have tried to find another me another person to do what I do in terms of the course content. And I have not been able to do that. So it’s been, it’s been tough, because there are there are standards that I have. And I expect certain things. And it’s hard for people to do this sort of as a job, right? A lot of people that make content, do it sort of on the side, where I do it professionally as a job like that’s 100% My focus. So it is it is a difference. And it is a distinction between myself and other places that do this kind of work.

Rafael Testai 35:41
Well, well, this is a good opportunity. We have some listeners, a lot of them are SolidWorks professionals listening to this, what would be some of the things that you look for in replacement of you like you call it?

Matt Perez 35:52
Yeah, so the I mean, the big thing is, the person needs to be an expert. Alright. So when I say an expert, when you’re teaching something, and you don’t know what you’re teaching, it’s very clear. If so, you have to know what you’re teaching inside and out. That’s, that’s key. Now, I find a lot of people that are experts, I know a lot of people that know it inside and out. And the next piece of that puzzle is being able to explain what you’re doing. And that’s, that’s the big difference between most of the people that I find is, you know, to do a five minute video, I am able to do it in five minutes. But some people will not feel comfortable with it. And they’ll take 10 minutes or 20 minutes or an hour. And it takes a lot, it takes a long time to get comfortable with explaining what you’re doing, you know, whether you’re doing it after the video or not, but it just takes time. And I find that a lot of people don’t put in, don’t put in the effort or the work or just aren’t naturally comfortable at doing that. So those are the two things you need to be an expert in what you’re trying to teach. And you need to be comfortable explaining what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

Rafael Testai 37:09
And I imagine probably having a good sounding clear voice is another factor. Right?

Matt Perez 37:16
Yeah, I mean, you have to you have to be not only clear when you’re trying to explain something, but you have to be mindful of what you’re saying. Right? Yeah. I mean, you can’t just, you can’t just say, alright, we’re making a sketch because you know, we’re doing it or we’re extruding this to extrude it, we you know, if you’re trying to really teach somebody and convey it, then you have to be clear. Now, for myself, I was lucky enough to, again, start very small, I started making just some videos for resellers. And then I trained people, you know, virtually one on one or in small groups. And when you when you have that back and forth with people, it’s a little bit easier when you’re talking to somebody and you’re not just recording, you know, just recording audio, it’s a little bit easier. And that kind of helps you find that so spending a lot of time actually training people or teaching people does really help.

Rafael Testai 38:10
Amazing. Well, Matt, I really appreciate you being on the podcast. Thank you so much.

Matt Perez 38:16
Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Aaron Moncur 38:21
I’m Aaron Moncure, founder of pipeline design and engineering. If you liked what you heard today, please share the episode. To learn how your team can leverage our team’s expertise developing turnkey equipment, custom fixtures and automated machines and with product design, visit us at Team pipeline.us. Thanks for listening