A recent post by Melinda Seckington, The Myth of not Having Anything To Talk About really resonated with me. I’ve been doing talks about CSS for a few years now, and for a while before that I was an organiser of web conferences, so I’ve seen a fair few talks. I can definitely say that some of the best talks I’ve seen are not necessarily by the people with the most expertise in a given subject, but by people who share their story, their perspective — whether it’s on a particular technology, design problem, workflow, project case study, or something else entirely. Making it personal makes it relateable. As Melinda says:
There are 8 billion people on this planet, we all have our interests and topics that we resonate with, and your specific combination of your interests, your background and your experiences are unique to you. That means you have a unique perspective – only you can tell your stories.
(This advice can absolutely apply to blog posts too, by the way!)
Public speaking is not something that comes naturally to me. I’m glad I pushed myself to do it, as it’s opened so many doors, and I get a great sense of achievement from overcoming my internal barriers. But even though I’ve been public speaking for a while, I still get nervous, and I still get the feeling from time to time that no one will be interested in what I have to say. I’m going to bookmark this post to read whenever I feel that way.
