Fireside with Voxgig for Professional Speakers: Recent Episodes
Richard Rodger: Voxgig CEO, founder and professional speaker
In each episode of Fireside with Voxgig, presenters Richard Rodger and Orla Shanaghy interview people in the public speaking community. Each episode reveals secrets of the craft, provides new perspectives, serves as a platform for fascinating personal stories, and gleans practical tips and advice that you can implement straight away in your own public speaking.
Technical writing is an essential element of countless products and services. So why is appreciation of it on the decline? Our guest, Chris Ward (or Chris Chinchilla as you may know him), is a talented writer. Not just of technical content, but also of fiction and music! He’s here to kick our writing brains into gear with a simple piece of advice: just start. Richard agrees that he needs to hear this as much as our listeners and that it’s one of the biggest hurdles for people who want to write - sitting down and actually doing it.
A lot of people in DevRel either write, or think about getting into writing. So how do you move from the group of people who want to, to the group of people who do? And why would you want to do it in the first place? There are many reasons. Whether you joined a team for your code and now you’re expected to write an eloquent newsletter on the uses of that code, or you’d like to write a book on your specialist subject to promote your expertise in it. Technical writing is a skill with endless applications. Writing a book for example, can be a fun challenge, as well as an asset you refer back to for years to come. Notice how we didn’t put “to make eye-watering profits” on that list. Yeah. That’s the first lesson in writing books, and Chris tells us all about it. The respect (and money) given to technical writers isn’t what it once was. And yet the services they provide are more relevant than ever.
There’s also the small factor that when you finally publish your book, you’re going to be talking about the contents of it for months and possibly years to come. So you’d better make sure the subject matter is one that you won’t easily get sick of (Chris may be speaking from experience on this one). Chris is also a musician, and he speaks about the connections between music and coding, how pattern recognition makes these two a lot more similar than you might think. And Richard makes Chris’s day by bringing up OctaMED, a long-forgotten Amiga music programme that they both lost hours to back in the day. How far they’ve come!
Reach out to Chris here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrischinchilla/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com
Joe Pettersson joins the podcast, to talk all things devrel at banked.com. Banked is a global payments network, and if you’ve ever tried to order anything online, you’ll know that the payments systems used by various websites are far from perfect. Banked is on a mission to fix that. They want to get users through payments systems as smoothly as possible. As Joe puts it, the payments industry is big, but old-fashioned. So the question for him and the team at Banked became “how would we build Visa, or Mastercard if we started in 2023?”
Alongside all of this, Joe and his team have also made waves in the devrel space, and we were excited to hear about their innovative new system for measuring developer relations. At banked.com, their sales process is developer-enabled. Now you might remember our discussion about developer-first marketing with Anna Redbond on the podcast a few weeks ago. So what is the difference between developer-first and developer enabled? It comes down to whether you’re selling directly to developers, or trying to avoid the developers “nope”-ing your product when it’s put before them.
Joe explains that a huge part of banked.com’s success has been down to their focus on the developer experience. From his perspective, payment systems are already complex enough without needing to pass that complexity onto developers. For Richard, this represents a huge leap in efficiency from the days when he spent hours trying to integrate a credit card payment provider with a website, and had to personally calculate the encryption hash. PTSD, anyone?
Joe tells us that accounting for the developer experience while designing your product can be directly translated into increased revenue. Developers won’t always be choosing the products they use, but they are often given the power to say no. But how exactly do you measure the benefit of time and money invested into devrel? Joe and his team have a system that involves finding out what percentage of your prospect’s developers have heard of your project. It sounds simple, but we think this system is a gem that will soon be spreading to other companies. Listen to Joe explain HOW they implement this system.
Danielle Krage is back on the podcast to give us some more invaluable speaker advice. We first had Danielle on Fireside two years ago, so we’re eager to hear her thoughts on what’s changed for speakers in the last two years, and what could be coming up next. She tells us all about her company, The Remote Speaker Coach, and her journey to founding it. While working on education projects, Danielle kept running into the same problem; she was meeting people with great ideas and amazing knowledge about their subjects, but when they got up onstage to speak - they froze. Sound familiar?
As someone who trained in theatre, Danielle knew she had the skills to help these speakers tighten up their talks, and bring the audience in with their presentation, rather than alienating them - an extra challenge when speaking remotely. It’s not just taking out an “um” here and an “ah” there, instead Danielle has a clear and systematic approach to maximising your talk to its full potential. As it turns out, a lot of this comes down to structure. After all, even though you're not performing a piece of fiction, you are still telling a story. And a story needs a beginning, middle and end. This is where Danielle starts when she works with a speaker. But there are many pitfalls beyond this.
Richard explores a particular problem that he has with slides - he pre-empts what they're going to say, making them miss their mark when he clicks onto them. Danielle drills down into the minefield that slides can present and tells us what to ask ourselves when putting them together.
Are the slides adding to what I‘m saying, or just repeating it? Is each slide earning its place in the presentation? What’s my plan B if things go wrong?
As she puts it, a lot of what Danielle helps people to do is cut, cut, cut. She’s worked with speakers that have decided their talk should last for sixty minutes. Danielle says, why? What are you trying to say, and is there a way you can say it in forty-five minutes instead? It’s not simply about cutting time. It’s about streamlining, about keeping that momentum going and only including the most important information necessary to get your message across.
All this said, speaking is a highly individual craft, something Danielle emphasises. It’s important to listen to advice, but equally to assess your own weaknesses and strengths. What’s going to make you feel your best before speaking? Are you someone who benefits from keeping focused on yourself, or do you feed off the energy of a crowd? Knowing what works for you is a key piece of information in putting together speeches, and building a routine for when you get up onstage. If you can’t get round to hiring Danielle as your personal speaking coach, you can at least get a sample of her wisdom in this episode.
Reach out to Danielle through Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellekrage/
Did we get Salma onto Fireside just so Richard could learn how to begin his Twitch streaming career? It's possible! Salma Alam-Naylor is a live streamer, software engineer and developer educator. She streams on Twitch under the moniker “whitep4nth3r” - and she dives into the backstory around this name in the episode (we think it’s great, for the record).
Salma gets into it about live streaming, content creation and personality. Over the years, she has carefully built her viewership into a vibrant, supportive community that has her, and each others’ backs. As we learn, her journey began during the first covid lockdown, although unlike whipped coffee and homemade sourdough, her lockdown pastime actually outlasted the pandemic. As someone with backgrounds in coding, performance and teaching, live streaming her coding seemed like the perfect intersection of her talents, and we couldn’t agree more. Although coding isn’t all she does on her stream. Cross-stitching and playing music have also made appearances and yes, her coder heavy audience still shows up for these lives too. This can be understood when Salma goes into what makes people engage with content online. And what’s been obvious to her is that if people connect with someone online, it doesn’t matter what the content is. The audience will follow.
Salma tells us about the positives and negatives of Twitch, about the harassment she’s received, but also the incredible support of a community. There also turns out to be more similarities than just the code between streaming and working on a developer team.
From a metrics perspective, viewer and subscriber counts can be a tough taskmaster, and it can be a challenge not to judge yourself off of this very stark measure of “success”. Salma’s solution comes from Maya Angelou herself - people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. That metric is hard to quantify, but it’s probably also the best one out there.
This is Salma's valuable advice on Developer Relations and Community building using Twitch and live streaming. Not to be missed. Reach out to Salma via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitep4nth3r/
Today, Richard speaks to Maria Ashby, developer advocate at Kubeshop. She talks all things Kubernetes, community building, and how developer monoculture is a thing of the past.
Back in the days of an early version of Voxgig, Richard and the team got a crash course in Kubernetes which left more questions than answers. If Maria's work with Kubeshop had been around then, that might not have been the case. Kubeshop is a Kubernetes accelerator, which applies the power of Community and collaboration to open source projects focused on Kubernetes tooling.
A major benefit of Kubeshop? Speed. In a world where the first to market is essentially the "winner", speed is essential. The way we used to do this was to simply onboard more people. More people means more code, right? However, the work from Kubeshop, and other accelerators means that even the smallest teams of developers can now complete mammoth sections of work in a fraction of the time.
Another element of this is community. The way of holing yourself up in a dark room by yourself for 3 days is out and the way of sending out an email is in: "Can anyone help me figure out "x"? I'm really struggling with it?"
Maria touts the benefits of asking for help and support instead of trying to power through it alone. It makes sense, as before getting into DevRel, she was teaching Python to kids. A tough crowd as Richard notes, but an excellent training ground for the work she's gone on to excel in.
The conversation also covers events and speaking, another notch to Maria's belt. She speaks about the power of connection online vs in-person, and how if you want people to come to your event, you have to offer them something on the day itself - something they can learn, that they can get excited about. She hits on a note we come back to often on Fireside; progress is not linear. You can have a thousand viewers one day and five the next - but if those five people are there because they care about your work, that is totally invaluable.
Reach out to Maria here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-ashby/
Have you ever wondered what marketing people think of developers? As it turns out, it’s very positive, at least according to Anna Redbond, founder of flagsmith.com. Anna joins us to talk about the world of marketing in a technical space. As someone who works with words, how does she market towards people who work with numbers? Anna and flagsmith find ways to bridge the divide with their work helping companies eliminate risk and increase efficiency in their development process.
The first thing to say about flagship is that there’s a reason they’re in the business of marketing. Just have a look at their website. Jargon-free, easy to follow, and clear about what they offer. This is Anna's magic recipe when it comes to developer-first marketing.
So what’s the secret? Speak to people in the language that they themselves use. This may seem obvious, but it’s a key factor in how Anna delivers marketing to coders as someone who’s not from a technical background. She speaks about how she draws inspiration from the very conversations she has with developers about what they do day-to-day. The reason for this? It’s a simple truth that no-one wants a stack of flashy adverts dropped in their inbox - spam folders were invented for a reason!
So Flagship avoids speaking down to developers, instead it simply gets on their level. It’s a thin line to walk. Avoid jargon, but don’t simplify your language to the point of vagueness. Be specific, but keep things accessible to someone just glancing at your materials. If you’ve ever seen an advert or a piece of marketing that made you physically cringe, you’ll know that it’s a challenging task.
Lastly, Richard broaches that awkward preconceived notion held by many of us; if a product is good, I’ll hear about it! Why does it even need marketing? Well Anna has the perfect response to that idea - she thinks it’s healthy, and it keeps a fire lit under her to remember that developers don’t want to be fed marketing.
At the end of the day, Anna believes marketing is all about reaching out and talking to another human being. We were certainly glad she spoke to us.
The first thing to know about Zach Peterson is that he’s a hardware guy. Richard is not. Can this divide be bridged by a friendly Fireside chat? Well as turns out, bridging the divide between these two industries is pretty essential for the tech world at large. It may seem obvious, but you can’t really have one without the other - until they learn how to install Twitter in our brains that is, and thankfully that seems to be a long way off yet.
So what’s the solution? DevRel, of course. This is something that Zach highlights so well for us in this episode. Meetups, conferences and social media have changed the game for developers in all fields, creating opportunities and connections that wouldn't have resulted otherwise.
Zach speaks about his start in the electronics industry, and the work he saw between the people creating software and the people creating the physical devices they exist in. From there, he moved into consultancy, where his work now focuses on making sure that software and hardware developers are working with materials and code of high quality and compatibility.
He speaks about the pipeline from an idea to a manufactured product. According to Zach, when it comes to vendors, it’s in their interest to work with developers who want to innovate - as they have the chance to integrate their products into pieces of hardware that may prove to be exactly what the market is looking for.
Lastly, he talks about content - Twitch, Youtube and even Webinars. Whichever avenue you choose to prioritise is perhaps not so important as consistency. Building a following that likes what you do, and being reliable in uploading the kinds of things they want to see from you matters more than the specific medium you deliver it through. It’s all about connecting in this episode, whether that be with developers, customers, or your wider audience. Make sure to tune in! Reach out to Zachariah Peterson https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachariah-peterson/
This time we welcome Jonathan Reimer to the podcast. Jonathan and I dive straight into his company 'crowd.dev', where they are working hard at building an open source developer data platform that they hope will help customers get a clear picture of how developers engage with their brand, their tools, and the developer community in general.
Continuing on theme from Emily Omier's episode last week, we discuss the magic word "profitability". With over five thousand open source products on the market, not everyone can bank on being the next Red Hat - so how can the rest of us do it? Few people would know better than Jonathan and the team at crowd.dev, as not only do they specialise in finding revenue opportunities for open source companies, they’re an open source company themselves.
Like many of us, Jonathan stumbled into the world of developer relations, meetups and open source products somewhat by accident. With a background in economics that became a career in sales and marketing, Jonathan realised that developers had a huge influence over the products their companies ended up purchasing. If he wanted those developers onside, the product had to be open source - from there, he co-founded crowd.dev and the rest is history.
He also informs me about a system called ‘accounts-based marketing’ that crowd.dev has had a lot of success with. How do you prove that your services are either making or saving money for a business? Accounts-based marketing is a new way for companies like crowd.dev to get proper attribution from customers, and display the value they add to the companies they work for.
For anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of life as an open source company, this one's for you.
From the pitfalls of rote memorisation to microphone technique - news anchor, presenter and anxiety coach Trish Lynch talks us through some common sense ‘dos and don'ts’ of speaking in front of an audience. The rest of us can take heart in Trish’s reassurance that even she experiences stage fright, and that (clearly) it can be overcome.
There are a number of valuable tidbits here. Trish’s wealth of experience translates to a deep understanding of the psychology behind audiences. Are we saying you should purposely add mistakes to your speeches to make you seem more “relatable”? Not exactly - but it turns out that it might not be such a crazy idea.
When listening to Trish, what comes to mind is the power of saying yes, and what can result from taking the opportunities that come across your path- you never know where they might lead! For Trish, it led from being an attendant at conferences to being the one speaking on stage, and getting a part on a TV pilot because it was raining and no one else showed up to the audition.
Post-covid the challenges for speakers are slightly different, and from Trish we can learn how to give our audiences the best experience possible, and how virtual speaking can still connect with people oceans apart from each other.
Tune in for an in-depth chat about how companies can improve their revenue through fully understanding their open source project and software. Emily speaks truthful sense. This is a tough message for the overly optimistic among you. As Richard so rightly points out – knowing the right thing to do vs doing it are two different things!
Emily outlines the many, many ways a company can leverage open source in their offerings and is beautifully frank about source available vs open source… So where does DevRel come in to this? Well – unless a company has clearly identified its positioning, then how can DevRel communicate the benefits your project, service or product deliver?
You need the template – visit Emily’s website (link below) – to clearly define your company’s positioning.
Now with clear positioning, the first thing you should do is raise your prices…what? Crazy! But no. It’s a real and possible strategy.
Emily shares her background with us, and issues a warning about choosing journalism as a career…a good way to get comfortable with not having any money. Do not ask Emily to write a Kubernetes 101. She’s had quite enough of that, thank you very much. But the repeated requests did wake her up to the opportunity to help companies to take their messaging and positioning seriously.
Reach out to Emily Omier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyomier/ Enter your name and email to download the template here: https://www.emilyomier.com/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com
Richard talks to Natalie Gray, Head of Marketing and Partnerships at Codurance. Natalie is a former colleague and an expert community builder, previously with Voxgig and now with software consultancy Codurance. In Codurance, Natalie and her colleagues are inherently linked to the Software Craftsmanship manifesto– a mindset to software engineering. Can your software scale with your business? Natalie explains that the Software Craftsmanship mission is to raise the bar in the software industry through professionalism and technical excellence. Ingrained in this mindset is the desire to always be and do better—to continuously push the limits in pursuit of excellence. The genesis of Codurance is in the Software Craftsmanship community founded by Sandro Mancuso and Mashooq Badar. With a community of over 6,000 developers in London alone, this is a living manifesto in a thriving community. With regard to community success, Natalie is a firm believer in the need for integrity in your community purpose. A lot of people want to focus on quality and are proud of what they do, so a space for them to share and come together without a commercial reason allows new tech ideas to be born. An important aspect of preventing things to feel commercially driven is in your approach to content – are you producing resources and content people need and want rather than just selling stuff? DevRel measuring gets touched on again, specifically on community, how do you know its sustainable? Natalie’s advice is to talk to your community. Ask them, is this what you want? And watch out for the core groups, the committed returning members, their enthusiasm is the thing to measure, not the size of the attendance.
All in all, this is a focused discussion on creating and supporting communities to ensure and recognise success and impacts. Reach out to Natalie Gray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliejgray/ Codurance: https://www.codurance.com/services Software Craftsmanship: https://sc-london.com/ Find out more about Sandro Mancuso and Mashooq Badar here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandromancuso/ https://www.codurance.com/publications/author/mashooq-badar
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com
Continuing our commitment to bring you voices rom across the DevRel ecosystem, this week Richard is joined by Louise Ogilvy, recruitment specialist for all things developer related. Louise defines roles clearly, helping companies and start-ups creating developer tooling to get from idea to market. She recruits for the entire product cycle: Product, build and go-to-market. What has Louise noticed in the last few years in software development? Well, pressure on developers and awareness of developer burnout is one trend, including burnout of DevRel professionals. Dedicated VCs and investors for DevTools and start-ups building tooling for developers is another positive.
And Louise provides very clear expression of the confusion and challenges in getting DevRel accepted as a valuable function. Add in a difficulty of performing in an organisation that doesn’t fully understand and appreciate the value of DevRel professionals. So the setting of expectations around the role is becoming more important and through that, career progression. Marketing awareness functions are not easy to measure, so while it might be nice to say we’re not worried about measuring the impact of DevRel on the business, what about the personal contribution or performance of individuals that might wish to know how they are being perceived and supported?
Listen to Richard and Louise discuss the complexities of DevRel’s acceptance in organisations. Real food for thought.
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com
This week’s podcast-as-a-resource is focused on your technical content strategy. Richard talks to Adam DuVander, Principal Consultant at EveryDeveloper. Are you developer first or developer enabled in the way you sell software.
Discovery is Adam’s bread and butter. He helps companies understand how to be discovered in the first place – so what are developers or developer advocates trying to solve in the first place and then how Adam’s clients can describe how they can help.
So why can’t people do this themselves? This is the classic over-expectation – a developer will write about features, not benefits. And marketing without a technical competence will need a translation layer – that’s Adam and EveryDeveloper.
Forget asking for phone numbers or long forms to submit. Adam will bring you through how to market to developers, and the currency he has identified is knowledge. Yes, Code is important, but the experience that’s gone in to creating that code and the decisions and choices made to create that code is very interesting. How about use cases? Bring them on!
Another interesting approach is tell developers how to solve their problems without you, but also if they wish, you’ve built a tool to do it for them. The example of this in action is Edith Harbaugh’s Launch Darkly.
Then they have a detailed chat on developer first or developer focused – reaching developers directly, digging in to their problems and connects to this audience. Not scattershot, targeted help for specific problems. The developer enabled approach comes in to play when the buyer is other than the developer, but the developer is the user of the technical tool, and therefore must act as a champion for your solution. So they have to be armed with the language and explanation they require to get this discovered tool or service. Can all the stakeholders agree to move forward? Use cases, documentation and sample apps etc. can make all the difference here.
The developer first or developer enabled model for Adam’s clients has been a game changer for their marketing strategies. Reach out to Adam DuVander https://www.linkedin.com/in/duvander/ Developer Marketing Does Not Exist: an Authentic Guide (everydeveloper.com) Get the books: https://everydeveloper.com/developer-marketing/book/ Great blog post here on how marketing and developers can collaborate https://everydeveloper.com/how-marketers-collaborate-with-dev-rel/ An example of how to tell developers how to solve problems without you! https://launchdarkly.com/
Recently, guests have mentioned the public speaking side of the DevRel role, especially as in person conferences are back! So we've dipped back in to our archive to bring you this VERY helpful episode from March 2019. Here, Richard speaks to Oisín Lunny, professional public speaker, master of ceremonies (MC), radio presenter and journalist. He has hosted and moderated events and given keynote presentations at over 200 conferences worldwide, including TEDx, MWC and SXSW. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and is music editor for ‘The Phoenix’ magazine. In this episode, Oisín talks to Richard about how his early PR career led him to public speaking and his ‘aha moment’, when he realized that speaking with authenticity and passion can make even a seemingly insignificant speech great. He also explains why stepping outside your comfort zone can be a brilliant way to learn; being put on the spot can sometimes lead to great creativity. Learn more about Oisín https://oisinlunny.com/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com
We celebrate our 100th episode welcoming back Andrew Grill to talk about Digital Curiosity. Are you allocating enough time to think about what’s happening, trends and the future? Andrew’s new book, coming out later this year, is titled Digital Curiosity. Yes we are at the top of the hype cycle on AI (Generative AI in particular) it is hype that is prompting and causing government action. This is now mainstream.
And Andrew has a brilliant, brief and aha! take on Apple’s Vision Pro. For SciFi fans, there are even attempts to seek answers for the future from great authors!
Andrew doesn’t shy away from the risks and the needs for regulation, but does caution against hysteria. We are responsible, “we have a role” in where this goes.
This is both reassuring and thought provoking, and as usual with Andrew, he motivates us to get off the sidelines and engage with technology and digital opportunities for our own work, innovation and strategies. Leaders need to dedicate time to being digitally curious. There are costs to leaving this up to everyone else.
Enjoy this episode and whet your appetite for playing with and discovering new digital and technological opportunities for your business!
Reach out to Andrew Grill https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewgrill/ Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com
This episode is almost a case study in how askui.com engages with their developer audience. Johannes Dienst is the Developer Advocate and Apoorva Tiwari is the Community Manager with askui. How to get a developer to install and run the askui tool? And they’ve run a remote, online, hackathon overall several days…. There’s a revelation and an innovation here that is worth learning from.
Reach out to Johannes Dienst here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannesdienst/ Reach out to Apoorva Tiwari here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apoorvatiw/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com
You won't need coffee after this! Plug in to Richard & Tejas's chat and soak up the energy.
Richard and Tejas cover fresh ground in today's episode. Watch out for the discussion of DevRel vs DevSell. Tejas talks us through the difference. And he gives wonderful insights in to an often under valued need – how to pace yourself at conferences. To be able to do this is crucial for physical and mental health.
Reach out to Tejas here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejasq/
Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups: https://voxgig.substack.com/ Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com
In this repeat from 2019, Orla speaks to Matthew Revell, founder of Hoopy, and DevRelCon, an important event on the DevRel calendar. This year, DevRelCon is in Prague from Dec 6th, but this interview, carried out before the pandemic, gives wonderful insight in to Matthew's own interest and pedigree in events, but also the genesis of DevRelCon. Listen to Matthew's perfect description of developer relations too!
In this episode we are in a detailed conversation with Eoin Boylan the CTO of Evervault, a company that does encryption as a service. This is a Developers Relations how-to guide! We discuss the challenges of getting developers to use some pretty complex APIs. Eoin speaks to the effectiveness of private Slack channels per client. As a use of Evervault systems in the service of one of our own clients, I see the value of this approach! We also discuss their really excellent documentation flow documentation and the importance of this documentation flow to Developer Relations. The first part of the conversation is a brief explainer of Evervault encryption service. Then Eoin walks us through how they discovered, tracked and optimised their product through a specific developer onboarding step originally. This shoulder-to-shoulder onboarding has evolved in to private engineer-to-engineer Slack channels.
For Richard, Matteo Collina was an amazing colleague he had the pleasure of working with, and in this podcast, they get to talk about what they've been up to since. Matteo is well known from his Fastify project (https://www.fastify.io/) one of the fastest webservers written in Node.js. Matteo has just launched a start-up - Platformatic (https://platformatic.dev) and in this podcast he'll discuss how his experiences led him to not only form the company, but to structure it and grow his community in very specific ways. Richard and Matteo also have a detailed discussion of different ways companies treat developer relations, DevRel, with wonderfully frank opinions on how best to enable DevRel flourish in an organisation - without creating jealousy. A fascinating and honest chat from experienced leaders in DevRel.
You can read the transcript of this podcast by visiting https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Asim Aslam is a CEO who codes. His company M30.com offers a universal suite of microservices, offering a full business logic layer for building applications; the purpose of microservices! This conversation openly and honestly discusses the challenges and experiences of maintaining open source projects but also of commercialising a start-up.
Welcome to the Voxgig Podcast. We talk to people in the developer community about developer relations, public speaking and community events. For more details, visit voxgig.com/podcast. All right, let's get started.
Today my guest is Joe Drumgoole. Joe is a senior dev rel person at MongoDB. I first came across Joe when I saw him pitch a startup at one of the very early Web Summit conferences and I thought to myself, I gotta get to know this guy. He was impressive then and he's pretty impressive now. We talk about the development of developer relations, how critical it has been to the success of MongoDB – which, by the way, is really cool these; I use it myself.
We talk about developing skill of speaking at conferences, and how it is a skill and something that you can learn. And we talk about the importance of identifying the economic reason for why someone uses your software and how important that is in developer relations. Take it away, Joe.
You can find the transcript of this podcast and any links mentioned on our podcast page at Voxgig.com/podcast. Subscribe for weekly editions, where we talk to the people who make the developer community work. For even more, read our newsletter. You can subscribe at Voxgig.com/newsletter, or follow our Twitter @voxgig. Thanks for listening. Catch you next time.
In this episode Richard speaks to Caelen King, Angel, advisor to start-ups and founder. They discuss advice for non-technical founders and domain experts seeking to build their MVP. Listen for two important learnings.
Richard chats with Ovidiu Matan a creator of technology events and conferences. Ovidiu sources speakers and content through his successful Today Software Magazine. Based in Romania, Ovidiu explained to Richard in February 2022 about the impacts of the pandemic on his business, the changes he was forced to make and which of these changes proved to be lasting pivots. about the changes he's made to his conference business and the successful move to online events, and indeed his new hybrid model. Ovidiu outlined his upcoming schedule of events, including IT Days in November this year in Romania.
Willie Nicol is a life coach with an unusual background – he was a police officer in the Scottish police force for thirty-one years. In a Fireside Chat with Richard that crackled with dynamism, he shared his no-nonsense approach to life coaching. As a member of the National Speakers Association, he helps people overcome public speaking nerves and turn fear into fun. He chats to Richard about turning public speaking fear into fun, and about how watching yourself on video gives you the edge when you're preparing your speeches. He also reveals his ambition to give a TED talk in the future.
Have a look at Willie's vlog about overcoming fear of public speaking on the Techno Dinosaur YouTube channel.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Mike Acker is a man on a mission to teach the world to speak without fear. He's written a bestselling book, Speak With No Fear, and coaches people all around the world to break down the fear barrier around public speaking. He reveals that public speaking isn't just about skill – it's about mental preparation. And it's about knowing who you are as a speaker. He also reveals a brilliant technique for overcoming the fear factor when you're asked to give a talk at short notice – or no notice at all.
If you want to find out how Mike can help you speak without fear, check out his website.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Christina Aldan is definitely a woman who follows her own path. She struggled with computers at college, but she's now a digital advertising consultant with Arana Software. And one of her first professional talks was a TEDx talk. In her dynamic, positive podcast chat with Richard, she talks about how she misses her speaker tribe. But she's keen to embrace the opportunities that virtual platforms give – like the chance to chat with your audience for an hour after a talk because no-one's shooing you out of the conference room.
Want to get up close and personal with Christina Aldan. We've teamed up with Christina to offer you a masterclass series called Better UX with EQ. It's all about how to bring emotional intelligence to the creation of brilliant software. These won't be your ordinary webinars – they'll be live and interactive, and Christina's looking forward to some great conversations with you. Book your spot now.
Thanks to Simplecast for making it possible for us to bring you brilliant speakers like Christina Aldan.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Jock Busuttil is a product manager who believes that if there was more common sense in the world, there would be no need for product managers! This blend of honesty and humour was a feature of his Fireside Chat with Richard. Jock gives an insight into the world of a product manager and shares how he turned his product management experience into a successful speaking career. He also tells Richard how he set up his home studio following the COVID lockdown, with a couple of lights, a camera – and an old television!
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Find out more about Jock Busuttil at The Product People
Courtney Stanley has a background as an event planner and she specializes in the technology and marketing behind successful events. She’s now also known as a keynote speaker and MC. In her Fireside Chat with Richard, she talks about taking a strategic approach to speaking and event management and about the future shape of digital events. She encourages event organizers to leave the comfort zone of Zoom, and explore platforms that allow them to offer people an authentic live and interactive experience online.
Many thanks to Simplecast, whose sponsorship of our podcast keeps the show on the road.
Courtney Stanley is all over social media, here's where you'll find her:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/courtneyonstage/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/courtneyonstage/
TW: https://twitter.com/courtneyonstage
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneystanley/
Website: https://www.courtney-stanley.com/
OUTSPOKEN Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/micdropmoment/
Dan Ram has worn so many hats in his career that he could stock a department store, but he’s best known as a professional speaker and MC. He shows wannabe speakers how to dominate the world of the screen, and his specialty as an MC – secret handshakes with speakers. He believes any speaker can create great content that has a real impact, as long as you work at it.
Simplecast helps us bring you brilliant speakers with their brilliant sponsorship – thanks, guys.
Have a look at Dan Ram’s website, a hub for all his activities. https://www.iamdanram.com/
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Jay Allen, who has a military background and also ran a health and safety business, became a professional public speaker overnight when he was asked to step into the breach at a charity event. In a Fireside Chat that crackled with dynamism and energy, he talks about how great speaking is about more than the words you say and why a good speech is like a business plan.
Thanks so much to Simplecast for sponsoring our podcast – we couldn’t do it without you.
Have a look at Jay Allen’s website, where you’ll find out about all his great services. https://jayallen.uk/
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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In a Fireside Chat that packed a punch, Rachael Robertson shares her experience of leading a team of ‘crazy people’ in the Antarctic, where she learned that being respected is more important than being liked for leaders – respect trumps harmony. She also speaks about how the COVID situation inspired her to launch a new product, speaking to audiences from the comfort of her own professional home studio.
Rachael is also an author and she’s going on a virtual book tour for her latest leadership book, Respect Trumps Harmony. You’ll find out more about Rachael’s book here.
Thanks so much to Simplecast, who help us to bring the wisdom of speakers like Rachael to your ears.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Stephan Murtagh is best known as the Exhibition Guy, the guy who shows exhibitors how to make trade exhibitions work for them. In a full-throttle Fireside Chat with Richard, he tells Richard that audiences are more interested in relevant content than in famous speakers. He also stressed the importance of following your leads – if you do, you’ll be in the top 20% of successful exhibitors.
Follow The Exhibition Guy on LinkedIn:
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Paul is Chief Operating Officer of Conjura, an innovative start-up that helps other companies harness the power of their data. He’s also a veteran of the speaking circuit and credits elocution lessons for his success as a speaker. In their friendly Fireside Chat, Paul looked to the future of the events industry. He and Richard explored the role virtual reality will play and the best ways to recreate the magic of real-world events in a virtual space.
Check out Paul’s innovative start-up, Conjura.
Many thanks to Simplecast, whose sponsorship helps us harness the power of the podcast.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
David Gonzalez is a dynamo, a DevOps engineer, lecturer and public speaker who’s not afraid to take risks during his talks. His attitude is, if it hurts, do it more, and he encourages wannabe speakers to just go and do it – and if it hurts, do it more. He also talks about the challenges of speaking in your second language, and how he pulls off live coding demos on stage.
Thanks to Simplecast for helping us to bring you dynamic speakers like David for your listening pleasure.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
On this week’s Fireside Chat, Richard chats to Derbhile Graham, author, public speaker and content creator for Voxgig. She’s also a celebrant and has the joy of officiating ceremonies for every stage of life. Derbhile shared her experiences as a member of the public speaking organisation Toastmasters and highly recommends it as a stepping stone for wannabe speakers. She also reveals the secret to public speaking success – being visually impaired. It’s a lot easier to handle nerves when you can’t see the audience looking at you.
Thanks so much to Simplecast for sponsoring our podcast – we’re delighted to have them on board.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Jono Bacon is a heavy metal guitarist who once played in the place where Iron Maiden played their first gig. He’s also a public speaker, a consultant and the author of books about building communities. His mission is to help companies create successful communities. In this Fireside Chat with Richard, which crackled with dynamism and cool vibes, Jono talked about the value of building a brilliant community around yourself as a speaker – it’s not egotistical at all. He also outlined how to package your message in a way that audiences can understand.
Find out more about Jono Bacon on his website and on Wikipedia. You can also find out more about his books on Goodreads.
We’re delighted to get support from Simplecast for our podcast – thanks, guys.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Melanie Parish is a Canadian coach, a public speaker and the author of The Experimental Leader. In her Fireside Chat with Richard, they had a highly stimulating discussion about how to be an innovative leader during a crisis, which she sees as the Olympics for leaders. She encourages leaders to break down the barriers to innovation in their companies, so they’ll thrive in the long term.
Thanks so much to Simplecast for sponsoring this podcast – your help keeps the show on the road.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Freddy Freundlich is a colourful character. He trained as a nurse and was ordained as a rabbi, but he is first and foremost a salesman. He’s the author of two books, Born on the Right Side of the Tracks and The One-Call Close. And he’s a straight talker, as you’ll hear for yourself when you listen to his Fireside Chat with Richard.
His advice to wannabe speakers and salespeople is simple. Great public speaking and sales are all about great conversation. Find one person in your audience and deliver your talk to them. That’s how you make a connection with your audience. Freddy also shows you how to add sizzle to your steak – in other words, it’s not enough just to have a quality product. You’ve got be able to tell people about it too.
You’ll find out more about Freddy on his Rabbi Freddy website. Or you can just email freddy@rabbifreddy.com and he’ll be delighted to answer your questions.
We’d like to thank Simplecast who help us to bring you brilliant thinkers like Freddy Freundlich.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Danielle Krage is the power behind The Remote Speaker Coach, a company which nurtures new speaking talent. Her warmth and empathy shone through in her Fireside Chat with Richard, as she encouraged wannabe speakers to take the fear out of public speaking by breaking down their talks into bitesize parts. She’s also passionate about diversity and calls on conference organisers to make room for new and exciting voices in their conference lineups.
You’ll find out more about Danielle on her Remote Speaker Coach website and on LinkedIn.
Big thanks to Simplecast for their support of our podcast.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on
Fireside with Voxgig
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For this podcast, we’re delighted to welcome back actor and performance coach Bonnie Williams. This time, she’s talking about how to make killer pitches to investors. In a highly insightful Fireside chat, she reveals that great pitching is not like Dragon’s Den. It’s all about pitching to the right people. Bonnie and Richard also chatted about virtual conferencing and how to make a connection with the audience when they’re not in the room with you.
You can check Bonnie out here
And here.
Thanks to Simplecast for sponsoring our podcast – we’re so happy to have you working with us.
Roger Edwards is a high-impact public speaker on all things marketing. He’s also a blogger, a vlogger, a podcaster and a fitness instructor. He’s a man who’s full of energy, and he knows how to fill his audiences with energy too. During his Fireside Chat with Richard, Roger revealed his secret for grabbing and holding an audience’s attention – he gets them to shout, ‘The cat sat on the mat.’ In other words, keep it simple.
Big thanks to the brilliant Simplecast, for helping us keep our podcast show on the road.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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In this Fireside with Voxgig podcast, Richard talks to Andrew Davis, owner of a fantastic bow-tie, who has gone from working with the Muppets to building and selling his own marketing agency fuelled by the power of speaking. Being a keynote speaker is now his main job, and in this podcast, he shares his secret weapon when selling products – giving speeches.
You’ll find out more about Andrew Davis at AKA Drew Davis.
We want to give a big shout-out and thank you to Simplecast, who have kindly come on board as our first-ever sponsor.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Sandy Dunlop is a global branding expert who draws on the world of myth to tell compelling stories about the brands he represents. In an intellectually stimulating Fireside Chat with Richard, Sandy inspires listeners to trust in storytelling as a tool for getting your message across. He encourages aspiring speakers to distinguish between what he calls the ‘blue rhetoric’ of facts and the ‘red rhetoric’ of storytelling. Sandy’s ultimate message is that it is feelings that win audiences over, not facts.
Take a look at Sandy Dunlop’s branding consultancy to find out more about his storytelling genius.
We’re delighted to work with Simplecast to bring you Fireside with Voxgig podcasts that stimulate your brain and inspire you to become a brilliant speaker.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on
Fireside with Voxgig
, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
We’re always interested here at Voxgig in how people get into public speaking in their careers. Lesley Tully started off studying Film. She tells us how this training gave her an understanding of visuals, which turned out to be a great asset in her subsequent career and in the role she is now in: an expert on Design Thinking.
Orla and Lesley get into the subject of evangelizing for your own job; in other words, how to convince sometimes sceptical colleagues - who may be in the organization a lot longer than you - that your role and your expertise can enhance their work and output. This takes persistence, belief in what you’re doing, and a good dose of authenticity. If you’re authentically passionate about what you do, people eventually will be won over by what you have to say.
Using a great mortgage analogy based on her days as Head of Design Thinking in Bank of Ireland, Lesley reveals how putting the human being at the center of everything is the key to good business. This applies across all industries and sectors, including the world of tech startups.
Learn more about Lesley here.
We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.
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Allan Kelly is a conference organiser, speaker, author and a coder who’s on a mission to help other coders get in touch with the world around them. His Fireside Chat with Richard had a wonderfully warming feel, just like his Agile on the Beach conference in Cornwall. He began by revealing that he actually apologised for giving a new talk at a conference, He believes strongly that repurposing conference talks helps you reach new audiences and reach existing audiences in new ways. He also revealed how he spread rumours of Russian cargo ships landing on a Cornwall beach to attract people to Agile on the Beach
If you’d like to find out more about Allan Kelly and his agile approach to technology and to life, check him out at Agile on the Beach.
We’re delighted to partner with Simplecast for our Fireside with Voxgig Podcast, which helps us bring you the most brilliant people in the events and conference field.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Onyi Anyado is a global leadership speaker from Hackney in East London, and he’s on a mission to achieve distinction, for himself and for wannabe public speakers. He’s written two books and delivered a powerful TEDx Talk called From Detention to Distinction. His Fireside Chat with Richard crackled with dynamism and passion. He revealed that he feels divinely inspired to help people find their own distinctive voice as speakers. He talks about how he developed his own distinct message as a speaker. He also tells us why he stopped going to his barber, and how he turned that to his advantage.
You’ll find out more about Onyi’s quest to achieve distinction at Onyi Anyado Media House.
We’re delighted to receive sponsorship from Simplecast. They’re the fuel that keeps our Fireside Podcast crackling.
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John Collins is Director of Content with Intercom, the customer messaging platform. He’s a man who knows how to spread a message effectively, having worked as a tech journalist for more than 20 years. He’s now responsible for producing the award-winning content at Intercom, including the blog, the podcasts, the books and the social media communications.
In our Fireside Chat, John talks about how Intercom has introduced a silent podcast disco to keep conferences fresh for audiences. He also shares a great analogy that Intercom came up with to help people learn to speak – that brilliant public speaking starts with a cupcake. When you’re learning to bake, you don’t plunge into making a wedding cake. You start with a cupcake and you perfect your skills. Similarly, in public speaking, when you start small, you achieve great things.
Find out more about Intercom’s cupcake-centric philosophy of developing skills, products and services here.
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We’re proud to bring you this edition of Fireside with Voxgig, sponsored by the brilliant Simplecast.
View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Should innovators kick over the table or just rearrange the things on it? Does it even make sense to regard the question in black and white? TEDx speaker Máirín Murray joined Orla on this episode to share her passion for technical products that produce a positive social impact.
Máirín is a tech innovator and ethics evangelist. Previously, she was Senior Digital Content Producer at the BBC. She is a co-founder of Tech for Good. This Ireland-based community of more than 1,750 people showcases projects and technologies that are solving everyday problems and having positive impact on people, communities and the planet.
Tech for Good Dublin was a 2018 finalist in the Innovation for Change category of the Irish Red Cross Humanitarian Awards.
Learn more about Máirín here and Tech for Good here.
We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Alex is a record-breaking adventurer, keynote speaker, published author, brand ambassador and charity fundraiser from Cheshire, England. He is dedicated to inspiring others to achieve their own ‘Everest’ in life.
Alex is not your typical Everest speaker. After single-handedly raising over £35,000 in corporate sponsorship whilst still at school, his first attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Everest in 2014 was abandoned following a tragic avalanche that took sixteen lives. Aged just 19, he returned to Everest a year later and survived an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall, triggered by the Nepal earthquake, which trapped his team on the mountain for two days.
He is no stranger to adversity, having overcome epilepsy, bullying and a stammer in his early life. These experiences have re-defined his view of success and failure to develop a humbling realisation that success lies not just in reaching the top but our journey to get there. Alex understands first-hand how our circle of control is sometimes no bigger than two metres below our feet, and that so-called ‘failure’ is just another opportunity to win.
Learn more about Alex here.
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Richard is an international conference speaker, serial entrepreneur, published author and CEO of Voxgig. He also writes a weekly column, ‘Startup Diary’, for the Irish Independent newspaper.
He tells Orla how he never envisaged himself as a public speaker in the earlier part of his career. He found, though, that he “always ended up on stage, one way or another”! As he found himself being asked more and more to give talks, he developed his love for “the story” - the narrative arc that captures and holds the audience’s attention, which he feels serves him well to this day.
Richard lets us in on some things he’s learned the hard way in his speaking career, and what to do when you’re asked an awkward question! He also has some tricks he’s learned over the years for balancing work as a start-up CEO and life as a parent.
Learn more about Richard here.
We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
April Dunford is a positioning consultant. In plain English, that means she tells companies where their brand belongs in the market and what customers they should target. Her knowledge comes from 25 years of experience running tech startups and working for global tech giants. She is the author of a brilliant book on positioning called Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Positioning So Your Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It.
In her podcast chat with Richard, April tells Richard how she uses cake to help people understand the power of positioning. She also reveals how taking on a ton of conference speaking engagements helped her sell a ton of books and win new clients for her business.
Learn more about April Dunford here.
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We’re proud to partner with Simplecast to bring you our Fireside with Voxgig podcast.
View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Mick tells Orla how he fell into public speaking as a career. He has made a virtue out of the underdog story; according to him, he has failed at everything he ever tried, and the keynote speech he now travels the world delivering is the culmination of that. Having finally achieved his dream of representing his country, he and his team came last in the World Sudoku Championships.
But he has made quite a success of his failure: a documentary was made about his team’s trip to the World Sudoku Championships in India, he has written a book about his experiences, and he’s still capturing audiences everywhere with his self-effacing, brutally honest talk. And he’s honest in real life, too; he tells us exactly how he did it, and makes it sound easy!
Learn more about Mick here.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Petra Kindler is a spoken word artist, a comedian, a literary translator, playwright, and freelance creative director. She’s a German who has been living in Ireland for over thirty years and she specialises in pointing out the ridiculous in everyday life.
Petra tells Orla how she went from being a high-level creative director at German advertising agencies to the pretty unique position of being a German-Irish comedian (among her many other activities). She also speaks about how she deals with the cliché of Germans being humourless!
We get a glimpse into Petra’s family background, which takes in some of the major political and historic events in twentieth-century Europe. She tells us how she made it through school as a creative person with her sense of humour and self-worth intact. Fascinatingly, she reveals how some of her most recent work has enabled her to connect with young artists in Ghana and bring their work to European stages.
Learn more about Petra here.
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We usually feature top public speakers on Fireside with Voxgig, but in this episode, we decided to speak with a top public speaking coach. Peter Hopwood describes himself as a pitch and presentations coach, and he supports public speaking professionals at every stage in their speaking career.
During our thought-provoking Fireside Chat, he revealed that speakers can always learn something new, no matter how experienced they are. It’s tempting for speakers who have some experience to believe that they have nothing left to learn, but Peter helps them break through to the next level.
Peter Hopwood is also an MC, and he has helped speakers through some very sticky situations – the stuff of nightmares. He saw for himself that if speakers, can find a way out of that crisis and carry on, the audience will be right behind them. For Peter, the biggest lesson any speaker can learn is resilience.
Learn more about Peter Hopwood here.
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Orla chats to Bonnie Williams, a dialogue and performance coach for actors, public speakers and other professionals. Bonnie describes herself as a “Amsterdam-based American European”. She’s also an actor and a TEDx speaker coach, and was featured in Marie Claire magazine.
Bonnie has worked for many years helping business people apply the skills of acting to the corporate world. She tells us how engaging with intercultural differences is so important for people doing business outside their own country. However, she shies away from using terms “training” and “coaching”. What she focuses on with clients, she reveals, is “connecting speakers to their message”. Her overarching goal, she says, and the thing she loves doing most, is “helping people be the best they can be”.
Bonnie also delves into the subject of networking. She advises aspiring public speakers not to underestimate the power of “who you know”. A lot of her clients, she tells us, struggle with exposure; getting out there and meeting people is key at events like festivals, conferences, or just standing at the bar somewhere! She has a nice alternative take on the traditional “elevator pitch”; she calls it “cocktail pitching”, which is much more about a conversation. Bonnie gives us valuable insights into how speakers can make casual connections.
Learn more about Bonnie here.
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Russ Miles is a tech and microservices whizz who can define chaos engineering in ninety seconds. He is an international keynote speaker at tech conferences and he is CEO of ChaosIQ, which builds commercial and open source software for companies that are engaged in chaos engineering.
In a lively Fireside Chat with Richard, Russ revealed how he taps into the power of story to captivate his audience. He believes that we learn with our brains, and our brains love stories. When a speaker tells a story, your brain gives you the feeling that you are in that story. That’s why storytelling is so engaging for audiences.
Anyone who has heard Russ Miles speak will know that he likes to break out the guitar and sing his talks, to tunes by ACDC and other rock bands. He told Richard how he began playing his guitar as a way of calming his pre-talk nerves, and how he weaves his guitar playing seamlessly into his talks.
Learn more about Russ Miles.
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Deepa Mann-Kler is an artist, entrepreneur and public speaker. She’s also the creator of the very cool Neon Dogs installation that has lit up the night sky in London, Amsterdam, Derry/Londonderry, and various other parts of the world.
In her Fireside Chat, Deepa shared a reassuring message with aspiring speakers. Don’t worry about making a fancy presentation. Just strip back to the real story you want to tell, and you will captivate your audience. Deepa herself learned the hard lesson that being authentic is the best way to go.
Deepa and Richard also talked about overcoming nerves, a favourite topic in our Fireside Chats. Virtual reality is growing in popularity as a way to prepare for talks, because you can experience the venue before you even go there. But Deepa has a simpler cure for nerves – all you need to do is breathe.
Learn more about Deepa Mann-Kler here.
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In this episode, host Orla Shanaghy talks to Wojciech Kolodziejczak. Wojciech specializes in cross-cultural communication, networking, and negotiation skills for British, Polish, and other international businesses. He also lectures on cross-cultural networking skills for the Federation of Small Businesses, London Metropolitan University and other organizations.
Wojciech opens up to Orla about the challenges of not only transplanting oneself to a different culture, but successfully doing business there. Communicating across cultural and language barriers is about so much more than simply saying the same words in a different language. Businesses are often surprised to find that they struggle with cultural differences far more than language.
He also lets us in on stories from his own fascinating family background, and on how wheeling and dealing with people from different walks of life is in his blood.
Learn more about Wojciech here.
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Lauren Currie is an award-winning European designer who is a champion for diversity. She has received an OBE for her initiatives to achieve diversity through design. As a regular public speaker on the subject of design, she’s also passionate about bringing diversity to the speaker line-up at conferences.
In our podcast, she reveals how a bright red sofa has helped reduce the nerves of more than 500 wannabe speakers. It’s a simple concept – people who are nervous about public speaking can apply to sit on a red sofa during conferences. There’s no pressure on them to speak or perform – they just sit there. And it completely changes their attitude to public speaking.
Lauren shared her passion for bringing new voices to the conference stage – more women, more people with disabilities, and more people of colour. She dreams of a day when a conference speaker line-up reflects the diversity of the audience watching. And the red chair is just one way she’s making that happen.
Learn about Lauren Currie here
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Martin Brooks describes himself as an impacttologist, and he has spent decades studying the theory and implications of impact. He runs a training company that helps managers, media personalities and politicians discover the impact of great communication.
In a thought-provoking Fireside Chat, Martin and Richard explored whether great public speakers are born or made. Martin believes that your experiences of public speaking will shape how successful you are as a speaker. Martin and Richard also had great fun analyzing Mark Zuckerberg’s speaking style.
Martin was also full of insights about what to do when an audience throws a curve ball of a question. He warns that hope is not a strategy – but preparation is. You can anticipate the questions you might be asked in advance and have answered ready, so you won’t be thrown when that difficult question comes.
Learn more about Martin here.
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Emily Ross is an entrepreneur, public speaker, and founder of Inkvine Consulting, which helps tech and commercial companies to scale and grow. Emily has never been afraid to play with fire – she was a fire dancer and was regularly seen at event venues throughout Ireland, juggling balls of fire. As if that wasn’t enough, she’s also an advisory board member for South by Southwest this year.
Emily is also co-founder of a non-profit called Sportstech Ireland, which brings real meaning into her life. In an uplifting Fireside Chat with Richard, she advises aspiring public speakers to share their expertise with organisations that have meaning for them. Not only will they grow their network, but they’ll deliver talks that will bring real meaning to their audiences. She also reveals the secret of finding time to prepare speeches when she’s juggling so many balls in the air – she does it while she’s driving.
Learn more about Emily Ross here.
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In this podcast, Richard enjoyed a highly stimulating, thought provoking and honest chat with Andrew Vorster. Andrew is a thought leader and innovation catalyst, and a full-time professional public speaker. Andrew grew up on a farm in South Africa and immersed in African storytelling traditions from an early age. As a young child, he was gifted with the honorary title of storyteller by his local Zulu community.
Andrew tells aspiring speakers to have fun and ditch the script. That’s what he did, when he was crippled with nerves at the thought of speaking to huge audiences. His mentor gave him a valuable nugget of advice – the audience doesn’t know what you’re supposed to be saying. just relax and concentrate on saying the things you know need to be said. So, just relax and say what needs to be said.
Value was the central theme of this fireside chat – giving value to audiences and knowing your value as a speaker. To give value to your audience, you must first know who we are. Andrew gets to know his audience using avatars, and delivers takeaways that will add value for them. Andrew advises aspiring speakers to stay away from conferences that ask you to pay for the privilege of speaking at them.
Learn about Andrew Vorster here.
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Gina London has made communication the cornerstone of her career. She spent 20 years as a top TV correspondent with CNN and regularly reported live from the White House. Now she runs The Language of Leadership, a company which trains Fortune 500 CEOs and other business leaders to become brilliant communicators.
Gina told Richard how she borrows from the world of magic to grab the attention of her audience. She thinks of her audience at every stage of her talk preparations and shows you how to factor them into your own preparations. Gina also revealed her magic formula for preparing talks: strategy, structure and deliver.
Gina is a powerful and dynamic speaker, but she’s anxious to reassure wannabe speakers that they don’t have to be brilliant speakers from the get-go. You learn how to be a great speaker little by little, by paying attention to how we communicate with people every day. You can then bring the skills you learn during those small human interactions onto a bigger stage.
Learn about Gina London here.
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In this episode, host Orla Shanaghy chats to Anna Jordan, founder of ModwordsFest, Ireland’s first open mic festival for spoken word artists. Anna is also a freelance festival programmer, playwright, creative writing facilitator and publican.
Anna tells Orla how growing up as a budding writer in a small city prompted her to set up her own creative writing groups and direct her own plays. She describes how, over the course of her career so far, she has become a public speaker almost by default. Orla also gets Anna to tell us about how she became an evangelist for spoken word on the national level in Ireland, to the point where she founded and runs an entire festival every year for spoken word artists.
Anna and Orla also chat about growing up in an Irish pub, the role of the bar owner, and how the Irish pub, both at home and around the world, has become a mecca for the spoken word in all its forms.
Learn more about Anna here.
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In this episode, Richard speaks with Andrew Macadam. Andrew is currently the Managing Director for startups in Western Europe at Microsoft. He has also held a myriad of other roles, including being an Evangelist, which at Microsoft means you go out and get people excited about new technologies.
Throughout Andrews diverse roles he has experienced a lot of public speaking. He discusses with Richard that terrible moment most public speakers encounter when their minds go completely blank and how strange it is to realize that the audience doesn’t notice because they interpret that pause as time to think. They discuss the adrenaline rush you experience right before speaking and how your body goes into a serious flight or fight mode. They also delve into what it’s like speaking with different accents and how you have to keep this in mind when performing to different audiences.
Learn more about Andrew here.
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In this episode Richard speaks with Neil O’Brien. Neil is the founder of the company Time to Fly and is currently one of Ireland’s most sought after professional conference speakers and life coaches. He focuses on the topics of mental fitness, mental health and wellbeing. He has many corporate clients and has coached elite and professional sports people in the past.
Neil tells Richard about how golf actually led him to his public speaking career and that his first public speaking gig was actually at a wedding! He discusses how he loves to make a game out of all of his speeches and how inserting humor into speeches is a definite must. Neil also explains how the arrival of the Celtic Tiger, also known as the Irish economy during the period of rapid economic growth that characterized the 1990s, encouraged him to branch out from his day job as a professional trainer and speaker at a bank and create his own business.
Learn more about Neil here.
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In this episode, Richard speaks with Kwame Nyanning. Kwame is the founder and CEO of Dangerous, a venture studio focused on developing financial products and services for millennials and generation Z.
Kwame tells Richard about his interesting start in public speaking, which involved him on stage doing hip hop! They discuss how incredible it feels when you actually succeed at a talk—and how, unfortunately, you can always bomb, even when you are well established in your speaking career. Kwame also explains that it is a lot harder to give a talk to people you know. Expectations are a lot higher, so if you don’t do well, it can affect you on a much deeper level.
Kwame describes how he likes to use a ‘storyteller’ approach to speeches. By telling a story, you can convey truths to the audience, which makes them engaged and interested in what you have to say. He also explains something that he learned while working for McKinsey in London: the Minto Pyramid principle of top-down communication.
Learn more about Kwame here.
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In this episode, Richard speaks with Mary Carty, co-founder of the ground-breaking Outbox Incubator and a professional keynote speaker. You will hear how Mary’s mother sparked her public speaking career by encouraging her to speak in church every Sunday, and how this fostered her self-confidence.
Mary gives interesting insights into how public speaking can come in handy when you are trying to present your vision to the people around you. She also shares the process that helps her improve her speeches: recording herself—even when it’s hard to hear.
She also discusses Outbox Incubator, which she set up to give entrepreneurial women a place to go to build their business ideas. She explains that it is important for these women to be surrounded by other women who are similar to them so that they can encourage each other and lift each other up.
Learn more about Mary here.
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Pat Dwyer is an award-winning improv comedian who is also a professional public speaker and facilitator. Earlier in his career, Pat moved to Chicago, where he worked and toured with the world-famous Second City Theater and iO Theater, among others. Now, in his speaking and facilitating roles, he works with organizations to show them how laughter and comedy can improve a company’s profit, culture and daily interactions.
In this episode, Pat talks to Richard about how, in improv comedy, you have to accept that you will ‘bomb’ a little bit every single time! He describes his impulse reaction of nervously talking way too much when panic sets in. He also describes his career journey from teaching English in Mauritania, West Africa while serving in the United States Peace Corp., to what launched his improv comedy career, and how all of this eventually led to his career right now facilitating public speaking programs that he designs personally.
Pat describes how he’s always wanted to help people and that this has heavily impacted the trajectory his career has followed. He also describes touring to different colleges during his improv comedy career, which taught him about the importance of connecting with the audience. He uses this in his current career as a professional keynote speaker.
Learn more about Pat here.
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Natalia Wiechowski is a certified digital marketing professional and a Forbes Coaches Council member. She also holds a PhD in philosophy and social science. At age 29, Natalia decided to drastically change her life and career by moving from her native Germany to Dubai and becoming a personal branding strategist. Natalia believes that personal branding can be the key to having a dream life and a career of purpose.
In this episode, Natalia talks to Richard about how she found her quirky speaking style (by breaking the rules during her first speech, which was met with extremely positive feedback). She discusses how much of a role Toastmasters—a non-profit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs—played in her development as a professional public speaker.
She delves into her worst public speaking experience, which involved an unbelievably small audience and ants! She also explains why she encourages everyone to do something that scares them every day, and how this applies to public speaking.
Learn more about Natalia here.
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Oisín Lunny is a professional public speaker, master of ceremonies (MC), radio presenter and journalist. He has hosted and moderated events and given keynote presentations at over 200 conferences worldwide, including TEDx, MWC and SXSW. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and is music editor for ‘The Phoenix’ magazine.
In this episode, Oisín talks to Richard about how his early PR career led him to public speaking and his ‘aha moment’, when he realized that speaking with authenticity and passion can make even a seemingly insignificant speech great. He also explains why stepping outside your comfort zone can be a brilliant way to learn; being put on the spot can sometimes lead to great creativity.
Being an MC has become a big part of Oisín’s public speaking career and life in general. Oisín shares with Richard his first MC experience—at a music festival—and the positive things he learned from the experience. He also shares his secret to remembering hundreds of people’s names: good old-fashioned printed notes!
Learn more about Oisín here.
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Danielle Brown MBE is a double Paralympic gold medallist and five-time World Champion in archery. She successfully transitioned from the United Kingdom disabled team onto the able-bodied team. Besides her sporting achievements, Danielle works to help others achieve their ambitions through her work as a professional public speaker, trainer and coach. She is writing a book titled Be Your Best Self.
In this episode, Danielle talks to Richard about how to deal with your mind going completely blank in the middle of a talk. She draws a connection between the adrenaline you experience in elite sports and in public speaking. Danielle and Richard also briefly discuss the isolation of archery and how it is actually very similar to public speaking.
She also gives very helpful advice on what to do when the person speaking before you is killing it: don’t let it intimidate you—use it as a learning opportunity! She also explains how practice is important but it is absolutely not the be-all and end-all of becoming a great speaker.
Learn more about Danielle here.
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Furkan Karayel is a software engineer, founder and CEO of Diversein.com, a global diversity and inclusion platform, and a professional tech speaker. Among the many accolades Furkan has received are the ‘Diversity and Inclusion Role Model in Business’ award by the International Diversity Leadership Awards, and the ‘Trailblazer’ award by the Women in Tech Dublin Awards.
In this episode, Furkan tells Richard how her interest in public speaking started as a child with her love of poetry in her home town in Turkey. Her first adult public speaking gig took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University. She discusses the disastrous conference she had to organize at the last minute in winter in New York city and the important lessons she learned from that.
Furkan describes the difficulty she faces in finding diverse speakers and why they should be an integral part of all conferences. She also gives five encouraging points for budding speakers who speak English as a second language.
Learn more about Furkan here.
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Kevlin Henney is a professional public speaker and the highly regarded author of 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know. He also runs his own software consultancy firm.
In this episode, Kevlin tells Richard how he started his career as a software developer and quickly made the transition into public speaking. He explains the struggles he went through trying to figure out his unique speaking style, which he did without any guidance. He also stresses how important it is to learn from every talk you give.
Kevlin describes the evolution of speaking to tech audiences, including how technological advances like PowerPoint have made public speaking much more accessible to the general public and have allowed individuals to have more on-the-spot creativity.
Learn more about Kevlin here.
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Jim Gordon–universally known as “Flash”– is the founder of Boxworks co-working space in Waterford, Ireland, where Voxgig has its headquarters. Flash is also proprietor of the award-winning Revolution, a gastro bar and events venue in downtown Waterford.
In this episode, Flash tells Richard what it was like to fall into the business sector after many years as a hard-working chef. He describes the difficulties he encountered navigating murky business waters after the global financial crisis of 2008. Flash emphasizes the importance of being able to multi-task when you are running a business; this helps you to keep up with the learning curve. He also believes passionately that you are never above any job at a place you run.
Flash is full of wisdom about public speaking. A trick of his is to pretend that whoever you are talking to is your best friend. This helps you feel more comfortable. He also advises that speakers must always make sure to know the ins and outs of what they are speaking about so that they are able to confidently answer questions.
Flash also gives fascinating insights into what life is like in Waterford, Ireland, home of Voxgig.
Learn more about Flash here.
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Florin Cardasim is a software architect, an Agile coach, a corporate trainer, and a community and corporate speaker. He is also founder of CodeCamp Romania, an initiative for young software developers in Romania and Moldova.
In this episode, Florin and Richard discuss Florin’s trial-and-error style of speaking. Using this style taught him the importance of understanding the audience, and that it is important to speak regularly so that you do not end up back at square one: afraid of speaking.
Florin discusses how small things—like the time of day at which you are speaking—can impact the reception of your speech. He also explains why he prefers speaking to smaller groups and tells us that it’s okay to have a preference like this. He also describes the excitement and stress of finalizing a series of 12 conferences for CodeCamp, and where this conference’s future is headed!
Learn more about Florin here.
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Dov Baron is a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, a professional public speaker, and author of the bestselling Fiercely Loyal: How High Performing Companies Develop and Retain Top Talent and One Red Thread: Discovering the Purpose Already Woven Into Your Life.
In this episode, Dov describes his first speaking experience, which was comical and moving, yet surprisingly successful. He also explains that although it is important to be practised and rehearsed as a speaker, it is dangerous to lean on this too much, as it can make you come off as wooden and unauthentic. He delves into the different philosophies and psychologies that he weaves into his speeches, and discusses why communication is such an essential part of speaking.
Dov also gives an extremely helpful tip on how to turn the inevitable fear that most of us experience before speaking into excitement that is completely backed by science!
Learn more about Dov here.
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Karina Ochis is a serial entrepreneur, an international professional speaker, and a life coach and trainer. On top of all this, Karina is author of the bestselling The Influence of Social Media on US Presidential Campaigns and co-author of Cracking the Code to Success. She has lived all over the world and currently resides in her home country of Romania.
In this episode, Karina takes Richard through the different steps involved in personal branding. She explains why elite personal branding is extremely important in order for all of us to truly succeed. She describes what it was like being on TEDx, where she presented her formula, ‘The Olympics of Life’, and what she gained from that experience.
Karina has conducted the majority of her speaking career in English. She delves into the difficulty of transitioning between English and her native Romanian. She also tells us how important it is for speakers to incorporate different cultural norms into their talks, based on different audiences.
Learn more about Karina here.
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Doug Thompson is a Texan who gets to travel all over the world with his job as Senior Technology Strategist with the Microsoft Education sales team. In other words, he gets to speak for work!
In this episode, Doug tells Richard why he finds it important to know your own personality in order to become truly comfortable with speaking in public. He goes into why he uses improvization in his talks, and describes his coaching methods for his sales team—which, interestingly, include having each team member tell him a story.
Doug also tells Richard about his experiences giving speeches in parts of the world where, on top of having to present a speech, he also worked with an interpreter.
Lastly, he discusses his fascinating career at Microsoft and the struggles he is now encountering while writing his first book in technical sales.
Learn more about Doug here.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Andreea Wade is the founder and CEO of opening.io. She is an event organizer and public speaker—an unusual combination—with many different passions. She has started several different businesses in a variety of sectors.
Andrea relates how she had a panic attack during her first public speaking experience. She tells us that she still experiences stage fright but it reminds her that she cares. She also discusses the variety of events she curates, and how being a public speaker and an event organizer can clash at times. She also gives advice on what conference speakers can do to help events run more smoothly and to make things easier overall for event organizers.
Andreea and Richard also delve into conference logistics, and how logistics can make or break a potentially great event. Andreea offers the advice that public speaking is a key skill for anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur, especially if you are taking an old idea and putting a new spin on it. When your message is important, she says, you will be asked to share it, so you must be able to present it in an engaging and relatable way.
Learn more about Andreea here.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
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Oscar Santolalla has been working in the tech sector for over 10 years. He is currently a sales engineer at Ubisecure. A Peruvian living in Helsinki, Finland, Oscar hosts his own public speaking podcast titled ‘Time to Shine’. He has also authored the book Create and Deliver a Killer Product Demo.
In this episode, Oscar explains how Toastmasters changed his life by allowing him to practice his public speaking in English and to experiment with different topics to engaged audiences that gave honest feedback.
He also discusses how his public speaking career was born when he became a lecturer in telecommunications and information security in Peru. He discusses with Richard the difference between being a lecturer and being a conference speaker, and how—surprisingly—lecturing can be substantially harder. He also imparts the advice that when presenting your speech, it is important to not hide behind too much content or too many slides; simple is always better.
Learn more about Oscar here.
To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.
View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
In this episode, Richard speaks to Tanya Butenko, founder of NodeGirls, an organization for women and other gender minorities in the tech world. Tanya is a native Ukrainian who now lives in Australia.
She delves into the story of one of her first presentations. The topic of that presentation was a personal one that made her extremely emotional. She discusses why this topic was a bad choice for her first experience, not least because she did not have the strength to control her emotions on stage.
Tanya also describes what it was like to begin coding later in life, and what her first experiences in coding were like, especially live coding presentations.
Lastly, she emphasizes the importance as a speaker of picking conferences that chime with your personal ethical values, and conferences where you are going to have fun.
Learn more about Tanya here.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Dylan Schiemann is a professional conference speaker and the founder of Dojo Toolkit. He is one of those lucky human beings who does not get nervous before talks! He attributes this confidence to his early speaking experiences, which he tells us about in this episode.
Dylan also explains what conference talks, sales discussions and venture capital pitches have in common, and tells us how his own impressive conference talks have helped the success of Dojo Toolkit. He discusses why a speaker's ability to read and adjust to different audiences is key to a successful talk, and why he personally likes to give either one of the first or one of the last talks at a conference.
He also touches on why community is so important to him, and how this led him to start his Javascript meetup, HalfStack, which he still runs today.
Learn more about Dylan here.
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View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Vicky Lee is a self-described ‘Pythonista’. She’s a software engineer and community organizer who began organizing events in order to bring people together and create a sense of community.
In this episode, Vicky describes how she fell into the diversity-driven sphere of tech, and tells us about her first venture into organizing meetups—which, perhaps surprisingly, stemmed from her forum for Irish-born Chinese people and the difficulties she encountered with her first tech event, Python Ireland.
Vicky also delves into why you should never ever put all of your eggs into one basket, discusses the importance of working well with business partners (even if they are your actual partner!), and why a great community is so crucial for a great event.
Learn more about Vicky here.
To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.
View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Why do introverts make great public speakers?
Karl Hyden, a mental toughness coach for the professional introvert and self-touted Texan from Western Ireland, explains why. He has mastered the art of overcoming the personality barriers that can keep us from the success he believes we all deserve.
You’ll learn about the four different types of introverts, the core differences between introverts and extroverts, and why many leaders are not necessarily extroverts. Karl also gives insight into how introverts can slowly build themselves up to doing something big, and describes the different exercises we can all do to increase our mental toughness.
Learn more about Karl here.
To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.
View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
For the past several years, Pauline Kwasniak has been diligently working to establish herself in the events organization industry. She has recently started a tough, fascinating trip into the event organizers’ public speaking sphere.
In this interview, Pauline tells Richard what lead her into event organizing and public speaking. She explains how living in a country that is not the country of her birth has affected her journey. Having an ‘accent’ isn’t as big a deal as people think, she says. The most important thing she’s learned is to slow down when delivering speeches.
Pauline also touches on the topics of how stressful it is being an event organizer, why it is important to maintain your cool, and to always remember that the things that are most important to you as an organizer are not necessarily important to others.
Learn more about Pauline here.
To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.
View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Every great speaker needs a great speech. In this episode, Richard speaks with Simon Gibson, high-profile speech writer and founder of World Speech Day. You will hear about how Simon transitioned from being a script writer to a speech writer, what exactly a speech writer does, the history of speaking, and how great speeches have the power to change the world.
Simon also provides some insights into the US political family, the Kennedys. What makes them such amazing speakers?
He also opens up about his immense fear of public speaking and gives us some back-story on the inception of World Speech Day (WSD), an annual event that celebrates speeches and speech-making through live speaking events across the world.
Learn more about World Speech Day and Simon here.
To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.
View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
Andrew Grill calls himself a ‘practical futurist’. He is a professional writer, blogger and conference speaker—which means he gets paid to talk. And he wants to help you do the same.
You’ll learn why the first 90 seconds of a talk are vital, how clichés kill your talk, and how to tell when you’ve hooked your audience. Andrew also gives us tips on how to survive when the tech lets you down (something many of us can identify with). He shares his insights on why Blackberry failed, why we need to broaden our understanding of quotas, and why digital diversity is the next big idea in tech.
Learn more about Andrew here.
To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.
View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.
In this episode, Richard sits down with Debbie Forster, CEO of the Tech Talent Charter. Debbie is an American who has lived in England for over 30 years. Her fascinating career is full of twists and turns, from being a head teacher to her current high-profile role. She tells Richard about her eventful journey, and explains how all her experiences have influenced her public speaking and have helped her create her career.
Debbie gives us her insights into why it’s important to always bring yourself into your performance, and how to deal with and learn from negative speaking experiences. She goes through an interesting history of diversity (or lack of it) in tech and explains why transparency around this issue is so important.
All of this ties in with the Tech Talent Charter, a UK-based initiative that drives organizations to commit a set of undertakings that aim to deliver greater diversity in the tech workforce (Voxgig has taken the pledge, as have many other tech companies).
Learn more about Debbie here.
To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxgig newsletter.
View all show notes, links, and more brilliant public speaking resources at voxgig.com.
If you like what you hear on Fireside with Voxgig, don’t be shy―tell everyone! Use #firesidewithvoxgig on your social media.