Taking The Plunge
If you asked me how many talks I’ve attended in person and the amount I have watched online, I wouldn’t even know where to begin counting. Meetup events, design conferences, web development conferences, TED Talks, expo events, book club discussions, etc. It would mount to the hundreds, easily.
But then you wonder, how about public speaking? How many talks have I given in the course of my life thus far? Well, I gave two major talks in college and one after college when my school asked me to speak with design students about career path choices. Overall in my professional career, that would be zip, zilch, nada, zero, until the the week of May 20th. This was a major milestone achievement and I want to cover some highlights.
:: Cough cough, tap tap tap:: Is this mic on? Okay, let’s begin.
Contribute and Speak Up
First off, I want to begin by explaining where my talk originated from, what sparked my interest in the topic, and the motivation that pushed me forward to speaking publicly. It took a lot of guts to pull myself together. Being willing to openly share my journey and thought process.
On August 2023 I wrote a blog article about volunteering web development skills for nonprofits. Provide maintenance assistance for organizations with WordPress websites. Whether it is a simple CSS or JavaScript refactoring, copy changes, cropping an image, plugin updates, UX/UI redesigns, etc. It was something I felt I needed to do. I didn’t feel experienced enough to contribute to open-source technologies, but I had years of experience working and maintaining websites, especially with WordPress.
In September of 2023, I attended my very first WordPress WordCamp in Rochester, NY. It was at this event that I met a ton of wonderful folks from the WordPress community. I checked out the talks that were available and had some very nice hallway chats with the attendees. I was bitten by the WordPress community bug. Mind you, I have used WordPress for well over a decade, but I was too shy to get in touch with the community till that day.
After experiencing the values of meeting and connecting with community members, I got involved with my local Boston WordPress Meetup group and became a group organizer. I also later helped the Marlborough WordPress Meetup group get sponsored by GoDaddy. This was my next phase in contributing to the community by running organizations to help foster WordPress growth.
For the better portion of January to April, I kept thinking about the next thing I could do for the community. Speaking publicly was the next big thing that I’ve yet to tackle. What can I talk about? Will I be judged for the rudimentary knowledge I provide? Who will even listen? I set these negative thoughts aside.
The Talk
Sure there are veterans of WordPress out in the field, but there are also newcomers and non-tech folks who attend WordPress Meetups and WordCamps. They come to network, ask for help, and learn about the open-source technology. Let’s give a talk to those uninitiated and showcase my short little journey into the nonprofit WordPress development world!
At first, creating slides was a daunting task. How much should I talk about? How long should I stick with a topic? What important information should I highlight that is just enough for people to take within 30-40 minutes? From experience, I can tell you that there will always be too much to say and not enough time to say it all!
First, I provide the audience with a bit about who I am and then a short intro about the talk to set the stage for the presentation. Next, highlight 3-4 key milestone goals that I’m trying to achieve based on the topic.
After that, add 3-4 key struggles or challenges I had to face. This builds empathy from the audience. Share with them my pain. Let them know that they too will face these troubles but they are not alone. I have faced it and there is help out there.
The next thing to cover is 3-4 solutions. How were the problems solved? What tools of the trade did I use? What were the options to debug the code? Where did I go for help? How did I handle the communication with the client(s)?
The last thing I highlighted were the lessons learned, experiences, and takeaways that I can apply to future projects, or tips and tricks I can provide to the audience if they ever get into a jam. In the end, I made sure to add a list of tools and software that helped me with various projects.
Speaking Locations
I gave my first talk at the Boston WordPress Meetup group on May 20th. This was held at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The attendance was small but it was sizable enough for me. Also, my wife and son came out to watch me speak!
Sure there were some fumbles, but hey, it was my first talk and I’m only human.
Once the talk was over, I knew I had peeled off a major band-aid. What mistakes I had made were quickly remedied because the next day I had to give the same talk again.
My second talk took place on May 21st at the New England Innovation Academy. This was about 45-60 minutes outside of Boston and was held by another local WordPress Meetup group from Marlborough Massachusetts. The turnout was just as equal in attendance to the Boston event.
If that wasn’t enough as a trial-by-fire exercise, I decided heck why not, let’s do another talk! My third talk took place on June 3rd. This time it was held virtually by the Rochester WordPress Users Meetup group from New York. Although this talk was virtual, it was still nerve-wracking due to possible technical issues. Fortunately, the ship sailed safely to the harbor.
You can actually watch my talk online. Michelle Frechette who is the host of the Meetup group, posted the recording on YouTube!
What’s Next
They say, “third time the charm” and they ain’t wrong. It was a new life experience for me. Getting past the initial hurdles and achieving a life goal like this is monumental. There are things I need to improve on for sure, but this means I will need to produce more talks. And I intend to do just that!
Speaking of which, at the time of this post’s publication, I am scheduled to make another virtual appearance for the Philadelphia WordPress Meetup Group on June 20th.
Come and watch my talk and let’s connect!