Speak more

Happy New Year! It is customary to take stock of the year past, and as I looked back the most striking thing is how far I have come as a public speaker.

In 2012 I made my new year resolution to be a public speaker. Publishing my speaking topics on the blog post was a great way to bootstrap. It has been 3 years, and I have since given more than 30 talks in 9 countries.

Public speaking has been quite the career booster for me, but it was not easy to get started. To share what I have learned, I created the Technically Speaking newsletter with my friend Cate Huston:

http://tinyletter.com/techspeak

The newsletter goes out about once a week, with call for proposals, speaking tips, and inspirational videos. We went with a newsletter because it is great for time-sensitive information like call for proposals (rather than sitting on a webpage and looking stale), and the recurring nature gives you the gentle nudge to get your acts together to put in a proposal.

If you would like to speak more in 2015, please consider subscribing. And if you made a list of your speaking topics, please send us a link. Conference organizers are always looking for speakers, and the more visible your list, the more chance it will get matched to a relevant conference!