The most important lesson I learnt from web design that I apply to my talks? Understanding white space. Here's why it matters: In web design, white space isn’t just empty space for the sake of it. It’s the breathing room between elements: it’s the margins
Who do you design for? And what do you want them to achieve? I've ask myself those questions all the time, throughout the various stages and roles of my career. And for anything that I’m intentionally building. As an engineer: Who am I designing this feature for?
When I first started with conference speaking, I wasn't really sure which places I should apply to. There were the conferences that I had attended myself already and that I knew I liked, but I also saw so many others pop up on Twitter and LinkedIn. I was
Goodbye August. Hello September. Goodbye Summer. Hello Autumn. Despite not having gone to school for over 15 years now (university still counts as school in my eyes), September always feels like the start of the new “year” to me. Summer is over, the weather is turning colder, and it’s
You’ve been asked to present your recent work at the latest company all-hands meeting. “Ugh, do I have to?” might be your initial response. The reasons behind your response could come from various reasons. Maybe it’s cause you don’t feel comfortable giving presentations. Maybe you think as
It's the first week of August here in London, and despite the cloudy skies, it is annoyingly warm. It always feels like most of London just goes on a summer break in July and August. It's not that people are not working at all and taking
What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me on stage? I got asked this question last month in a Q&A I did for new speakers with Aspiring Women Speakers. And it gave me flashbacks to when I was just getting into speaking and was so
I find it surprising that the end of the month always seems to sneak up on me, even though I shouldn't be surprised. It's hard to believe that we're already halfway through the year and that I've been freelancing for 6 months
Figuring out what energises you can be such an eye-opener! Last month, I had an amazing but extremely busy week with 4 events: the LeadDev London speaker mixer, then 2 days at the LeadDev London conference, followed by a fourth day of LeadingEng London. Now I used to consider myself
One of the questions I get asked most at conferences? “Where did you get that bag?” It's not what you'd expect, right? It happened to me again at LeadDevLondon and LeadingEng last week. For the past 6 years, I’ve been addicted to the wonderful bag
It was 11pm when I got the phone call. “We’ve had a speaker dropout for tomorrow. I know it’s last minute, but would you be up for giving your talk?” It was the evening before LeadDev London in 2019, and I was being asked if I wanted to
And just like that, it's June! It's only 3 weeks since I did the last monthly roundup post, and that time has gone by quickly. I'd love to know which parts of this post you find most intriguing, or if there's anything
One of the pieces of advice that I got told so many times over the years is that if I wanted to get over my speaking anxiety, I just needed to do more talks. That the more you do it, the easier it gets and that you just need to
I know, I know, we're almost halfway through May, and I'm only now posting my April roundup. We've had another bank holiday weekend here in the UK, plus I was at a conference for most of last week (CTO Craft Con) and again that&
Dealing with grief is hard. It’s complicated. And sad. Last Friday, I lost my cat Casey to cancer. He’d been battling it for 2.5 years, and despite him being so fierce and brave, the cancer caught up with him. I wasn’t sure whether to post something
With the long bank holiday the past weekend and me taking some much-needed holiday, it‘s a slightly late roundup post this month. We’re almost a week into April, but I didn't want to skip doing the March edition of these monthly roundup posts. They’ve been