How to Start With Public Speaking as an Engineer or Engineering Leader
Step-by-step guide on how to start your public speaking journey!
Intro
I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the TechLead conference in London. I‘ve talked about the two most impactful things I am seeing happening to Engineering Leadership due to the effect of AI:
1. Managing unrealistic AI expectations from company leaders has become the norm
2. Roles getting closer together
You can also watch the recording below:
Attending the conference reminded me how great events are for engineers and engineering leaders. It’s a great way to learn something new and meet with fellow like-minded people.
Especially in current times, where there are a lot of unrealistic expectations regarding AI, it’s really important that you talk with other people in the industry and exchange insights + what works and what doesn’t.
That’s how you can manage expectations much better, and know and understand which tools may be good to use or which may not.
In today’s article, I’ll share my thoughts on how to start with public speaking as an engineer and engineering leader. And I highly recommend that you do, if you haven’t already!
This is an article for paid subscribers, and here is the full index:
- Why Should You Start With Public Speaking?
- This is Holding Most Engineers and Engineering Leaders back from Public Speaking
🔒 Step-By-Step Guide to Start With Public Speaking
🔒 1. Start Looking for Opportunities to Share Knowledge Across Your Organization
🔒 2. Present at a Local Meetup
🔒 3. Start Applying to Present at a Conference
🔒 My Tip for Applying to Conferences
🔒 Keep Your Expectations Low
🔒 Public Speaking is a High-Leverage Thing You Can Do
🔒 Last words
Let’s get started!
Why Should You Start With Public Speaking?
Giving talks at events, conferences, doing podcasts, and doing webinars have really been one of the most rewarding things for me.
It feels great when you get to share knowledge, and people learn something new that helps them to become a better engineer or engineering leader.
But not just that, you get to learn new things as well, because when you are preparing to give a talk, you are cementing your knowledge on that topic.
It’s very similar to writing online, just the experience is in real-time, and you can also talk with everyone after.
So, this is the first reason WHY you should start with public speaking:
You help others, and at the same time, you cement your knowledge on that specific topic.
The second reason is building credibility. As you publicly share what you know and help others, you automatically position yourself as an expert in that particular field.
And people look at you differently if you are perceived as an expert in a certain field. As I already mentioned in this article, the better your credibility is, the more opportunities you are going to have.
And the goal is not just job optionality, it’s career optionality → building credibility is going to give you exactly that. The more credible you are, the more options you’ll have:
The company you wish to work for
Your desired role
Faster promotions
Starting your own business, etc.
Building credibility trickles down to everything else. It’s the foundation, so you are set up for success.
And the third reason is that you improve your overall communication skills.
Pramoda Vyasarao is a great example of that. He completely transformed from a shy engineer who couldn’t speak clearly to a skilled communicator and Engineering Leader at Meta and Oracle.
That was all because of public speaking. That’s how powerful it is. Read Pramoda’s full story here:
Now that we know how important public speaking is, let’s get to the actual steps to take to get started.
This is Holding Most Engineers and Engineering Leaders back from Public Speaking
Before we had on to the first step, there’s one really important thing that I know is holding a lot of engineers or engineering leaders back from public speaking.
A lot of engineers or engineering leaders believe that you need to be a really great speaker with amazing communication skills in order to do public speaking.
Well, that is far from the truth. I don’t consider myself even close to that.
The truth is that it’s all about sharing knowledge and being helpful in our industry. That is the most important.
As long as you focus on that and share value within your talk, you are going to do great. No need to be the most amazing communicator.
Now that we have broken the limiting beliefs, let’s get to the first step.