Build your reputation.
To work remotely, you need a trusted
online reputation. Posts/talks also
prove that you can speak clearly and
confidently.
Slide 4
Slide 4 text
Contributing starts here.
Writing posts & talks is a ‘gateway
drug’ into open source communities,
which all contributors always call
“life-changing.”
Slide 5
Slide 5 text
Step One.
build the courage.
Slide 6
Slide 6 text
The real reason you’re
afraid to contribute.
It’s not your ‘lack of ideas.’ It’s
because you believe no one wants to
hear your ideas.
Slide 7
Slide 7 text
“Fear is the mind killer.”
At the end of the day, no one really
cares if you say something they don’t
want to hear about.
Slide 8
Slide 8 text
Inspiring one person is all
that matters.
Don’t let the possibility of not
inspiring others hold you back.
Slide 9
Slide 9 text
“
The fear of saying something stupid
has censored far more good ideas
than bad ones.
ALAIN DE BOTTON
Slide 10
Slide 10 text
Step Two.
decide what to write/talk about.
Slide 11
Slide 11 text
“I don’t have anything to talk
about” isn’t an excuse
Every day you come up with ideas,
you’re just not writing them down.
Slide 12
Slide 12 text
When in doubt,
ask yourself this question...
Slide 13
Slide 13 text
“
Will what I have to say add value to
the community?
Slide 14
Slide 14 text
Rants don’t add value.
Slide 15
Slide 15 text
Add Value
here are some value-adding approaches.
Slide 16
Slide 16 text
How-to
Most popular & flexible. Stay simple,
don’t try to how-to PHP from
scratch. Focus on one small thing.
Slide 17
Slide 17 text
Trick(s)
Similar to How-to, but more about
advice for very specific situations.
Slide 18
Slide 18 text
Experiment
Performance comparisons,
alternative ways of doing things, etc.
Slide 19
Slide 19 text
Introduction to ______.
Bigger than a how-to. Every intro to
anything that already exists can be
done better (and more up to date).
Slide 20
Slide 20 text
It’s time for change.
A community, framework or
industry needs to change to move
forward and you have the positive,
collaborative answer to get there.
Slide 21
Slide 21 text
One more thing...
try out your topics on forums/Twitter
Slide 22
Slide 22 text
Fail fast
Get feedback on the core of your idea
and either move forward or trash it.
Slide 23
Slide 23 text
Step Three.
outline your structure.
Slide 24
Slide 24 text
Context.
The Meat.
Your Turn.
Slide 25
Slide 25 text
Context
Give them enough context to
understand why you have something
worth hearing. No more, no less.
Slide 26
Slide 26 text
The Meat
The majority of the content. Break it
into sections and sub-sections so
people can more easily digest it.
Slide 27
Slide 27 text
The Meat
For posts: Give each section an
image to break up text more.
Slide 28
Slide 28 text
Your Turn
Invite the audience to contribute to
the conversation. For a project,
invite them to submit issues/PRs. For
a trick, invite them to add their
tricks.
Slide 29
Slide 29 text
Be unique
Google your topic first. See what you
can do differently than what’s
already been done.
Slide 30
Slide 30 text
Step Four.
publish your masterpiece.
Slide 31
Slide 31 text
Publish.
Start up a simple Tumblr. Then re-post
to Facebook, Twitter (@ people you
know for retweets), reddit,
LinkedIn (full post)
Slide 32
Slide 32 text
Do an English version
Native language is good for a local
community, but don’t forget about
publishing it to the world in English.
Slide 33
Slide 33 text
Review what you’ve done.
Re-read your post again. Wait a couple
days and read it again. You’ll notice
something every time you read it that
will help you improve.
Slide 34
Slide 34 text
Step Five
take your show on the road.
Slide 35
Slide 35 text
Apply to speak
Once you have a successful post, you
can link to it in a “Call for Papers” for
an event you want to speak at.
Slide 36
Slide 36 text
Build your slides.
Google Slides (free) is all you need.
Slide 37
Slide 37 text
Be simple.
...but not too simple. Keep it to 1
point per slide, but make sure the
slide makes sense when someone
sees it after your talk.
Slide 38
Slide 38 text
The Meat
Give each section its own slide to
introduce it and make it easy to
digest the whole talk.
Slide 39
Slide 39 text
This is a section.
helps make it easier to digest, right?
Slide 40
Slide 40 text
Design is important
But you don’t need much design skill.
Just focus on consistency - fonts,
colors, layout.
Slide 41
Slide 41 text
Design is important
Limit your slides to 3 fonts (1 serif) &
3 colors at most. Use Google Fonts
and ColourLovers for a color palette.
Slide 42
Slide 42 text
Design is important
Use Unsplash.com for great Creative
Commons photos.
Slide 43
Slide 43 text
Humor is good.
It’s OK to use memes or something
funny to explain your point. Just don’
t flood your slides with them.
Slide 44
Slide 44 text
Go easy with code
blocks.
If you show code examples, only
explain 1 small snippet per slide.
Slide 45
Slide 45 text
Give a refresher
For a how-to, include a few slides in
your “Context” section that quickly
gets newcomers up to speed and
refreshes intermediate devs.
Slide 46
Slide 46 text
Get inspired
Check out SpeakerDeck’s programming
section for (occasionally) beautiful,
entertaining talks.
Slide 47
Slide 47 text
Practice. A lot.
Present to yourself. And again. Tweak
it. Practice. Practice with a mirror.
Sick of it yet? Perfect, you’re ready.
Slide 48
Slide 48 text
Practice. A lot.
The beginning and end are the most
crucial, so nail those in your practice
above all.
Slide 49
Slide 49 text
Practice. A lot.
Track how long it takes to present each
slide. Makes it easier to cut slides out
to meet a time limit.
Slide 50
Slide 50 text
Network.
Don’t forget the after party where you
give your talk, it’s a great place to meet
people who will love to talk to you
more.
Slide 51
Slide 51 text
Review.
Have someone record your talk so you
can watch it back. It will be eye-
opening and help you improve.
Slide 52
Slide 52 text
Review.
Look for: avoiding eye contact, talking
too fast, never pausing, too many
“uhh” moments, etc.
Slide 53
Slide 53 text
Let’s do this.
three things you can do tomorrow.
Slide 54
Slide 54 text
1. Start tracking your ideas.
At the end of each week, save a
separate list of which ideas could turn
into 4-5 paragraphs or more.
Slide 55
Slide 55 text
2. Work through 1 topic.
Take that topic into a Google doc,
unleash 4-5 paragraphs and fail fast. If
after 4-5 paragraphs you don’t think it
will add value, trash it and move on.
Slide 56
Slide 56 text
Don’t overwhelm yourself.
Don’t try to handle too many topics at
one time. Focus on one at a time, trash
the ones that don’t work and move on.
Fail fast, period.
Slide 57
Slide 57 text
3. Get on Tumblr/Meetup
Get a simple Tumblr to publish to.
Get on Meetup.com and start finding a
local meetup group that you can set as
a goal to one day speak at.
Slide 58
Slide 58 text
And never forget...
Slide 59
Slide 59 text
Inspiring one person is all
that matters.
Be inspired. Create. Inspire the world.
Slide 60
Slide 60 text
For more: http://x-team.com/unleash
Contributors: Ryan Chartrand, Wojtek Zając