As we approach the end of the year, it’s the perfect time to slow down, reflect, and consider what’s working for you. I’ve always been a fan of taking time for personal retrospectives: those moments when you stop, think, and get deliberate about what you’ve been
Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Øredev conference in Sweden, where I gave a talk called Refactor Yourself! If you weren’t able to attend, you can catch the full talk here: In this talk, I explored how we can refactor our own behaviours, just like
People are often surprised to learn that I used to consider myself an introvert. I speak at conferences, interact with many people, and am rarely the quietest person in the room. I don’t fit the usual image of an introvert. For me, introversion and extraversion are all about energy:
Hello again. It's been a while. I didn't mean to not blog for 2 months, but it's been a busy and challenging few months. I always knew October would be extra busy cause of the amount I was travelling for conferences and having to
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
Monthly Roundup
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
Monthly Roundup
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
Let’s talk about boosting your confidence right before you need to give a talk! Picture this: you’re waiting for your talk to start - maybe you’re backstage, listening to the previous speaker, or maybe you’re behind your desk waiting for that important meeting. Wherever you are,
The Art of Story Design
Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Melinda. Melinda was a very shy girl and if there was one thing she thoroughly disliked it was telling stories to other people. Now Melinda’s school though had this activity every Monday morning, where all the kids would sit
Talk Ideas
So, you've sat down to come up with a new talk idea, you're looking at your screen/paper, you've got your list of prompts in front of you and yet... your mind is still blank. Why can't you come up with any
I used to be addicted to hackathons. For me, they were always about more than just the code; they were also about teamwork, collaboration and communication. I learned so much from attending them, that I would take every opportunity I could to go to them. At this point, I'
Imagine you're planning a vacation and you need to book a hotel. You have two options. The first one has no website, no reviews, and no pictures of the rooms – just a name and a phone number. The second option: a well-designed website with clear descriptions of rooms,
Monthly Roundup
Happy Bonus February Day! February went by so quickly. I know it's the shortest month of the year, but even then it felt like it just swept by. Because of that, I suspect that this will be a shorter blog post this month. Thank you to everyone who
It’s my 40th birthday this week. I’m so much more nervous about turning 40 than I was turning 30. Part of it is cause the past few months have been full of changes for me: starting my own business, trying to get it off the ground and adapting
Beyond The Spotlight
Welcome to the latest blog post in the Beyond The Spotlight series. In each post, I interview conference speakers about their talk process, preparation and delivery, showing what happens behind the scenes of great conference talks. In today’s Beyond The Spotlight, I’m chatting to Charity Majors. You may
The Art of Slide Design
This post is part of The Art of Slide Design series. In each post, we look at a design principle to understand how to create more compelling slides. This week we'll look at making important information stand out. Follow along and subscribe to my newsletter to get regular
Monthly Roundup
This is a bit of a sidestep from my usual blog posts here. But I've been asked a few times how it's been setting up my own business, so I thought I'd start sharing a monthly post with some reflections on what I'
Is 2024 your year to get over certain fears? The first step is setting the intention. Tell yourself: this is the year you are going to do it! This is the year you are going to do *something* to get over that fear. It doesn’t have to be as
Talks To Inspire You
In this new recurring blog post series, I'll share awesome talks from great speakers. Some talks will be older, some more recent, but hopefully they'll all inspire you and show different ways of giving talks. It all means nothing in the end What do you do