Community Love
I got my second PAID speaking gig with another company for this month. Exciting to get two speaking gigs this month and so grateful to have this community that I rave about all the time for other women to join Shine Bootcamp. 🎉❤️🎉
Jessalin Lam (she/her) ✨
I just finished the Winter 2021 cohort and got an email today telling me that I get to speak at Content Marketing World this fall! Thanks to everyone who made it possible and for the amazing bootcamp that helped me get there! <3
Brianne Dromey (she/her)
Thought I’d share that my Shine talk from October 2020 is now a TEDx talk! Same title, slides, and limited tweaks to the script 😊. Excited to see more Shine talks out in the world ❤️
Tiffany Yu combines personal experiences with heartfelt metaphors to display the problems with performative positivity and highlight the importance of mental health.
This week module about self-doubt encouraged me to submit my talk to the Ad World Conference 2021.
“Confidence comes with exposure”, so I was like “ok, let’s give it a try”. And to my great surprise, I’ve received an email this morning that I got selected!!! OMG, I almost dropped my fresh coffee on the floor! 🤪
First thought: “This must be a mistake. Let me read that email again,”
Second thought “They’re probably looking for anybody at this point, even unqualified people. I am a fraud.”
So as you can see, I still have some work to do on navigating my negative thinking, but those first baby steps feel so good! I wouldn’t have done it without Shine and all the support/encouragement I’ve received from this community. Thank you! 🤗
PS: Now we have our talk title, description, and bios ready, submitting a talk is so easy! Go, go, go!
If you're thinking about applying for
@shinebootcamp (or don't know what it is), let me encourage you to JUST. DO. IT. Enough with the imposter syndrome or the "better people will apply" or the "I'm not an expert, so what will I talk about?" Just apply.
Carolyn Lyden (she/her)
@CarolynLyden
Hey, y'all. Fri is the deadline for fall
@shinebootcamp applications. If you're interested in leveling up your public speaking, please apply. If you have any questions, please PM me. I'd love to help another woman have the same great experience I did.
Carolyn Lyden (she/her)
@CarolynLyden
Thank you for the incredible experience to know what it's like to join a sisterhood of speakers! #shinebootcamp
Ellie Wu, CCXP
@EllieWu_
It’s been an incredible morning at #ShineBootcamp — watching amazing women present, presenting myself, giving and receiving feedback (and getting insight from the incredible @kristaseiden 🙌). Feeling grateful.
Natasha Wahid
@natwahid
One day left for you to apply for
@shinebootcamp. I can't say ENOUGH about how this speaker accelerator impacted me. I'm so grateful for the experience. If you've been on the fence and need a push...my DM's are open!
Niki Mosier
@nikers85
Ahh less than one month before I start @shinebootcamp
! This has me thinking. For those of you who speak at conferences & other events, what are the best things you gain from these experiences? What makes it worth the effort? Would love to hear your thoughts
Abby Reimer
@abbyreimermpls
The friendships and connections are the BEST. But I also learn so much from the other speakers - not just from their talks but from meaningful conversations at pre and post activities. The high i get from giving people actionable take aways that they can implement too!
Susan M. Staupe
@SusanStaupe
+1 to everything that’s already been said. From Shine, I learned so many tips on how to structure your argument/comms that I still go back to in my day-to-day. Plus you get to meet great people and it’s fun 😄
Taylor Kim
@kwtaylork
Couldn’t agree more about
@shinebootcamp. My talk and reason for participating were to build my confidence and myself, not for professional contexts (though helpful there too! The community is SO helpful.
Ninfa 🌹
@erinlaninfa
This program is a great way to get peer feedback on your speaking abilities and will help you with pacing, presentation and more. Highly recommend!
Christine Johnson ☀️
@CJ_250marketing
Hi Steph, I highly recommend Shine Bootcamp & happy to speak with you about my experience. Shine is good whether you want to speak professionally or simply present with more authority & confidence. Your cohort, coach, & Shine alumnae are extremely supportive & a wealth of info.
Nerissa Marbury
@OneEpiphany
There’s no high like the speakers high! #shinebootcamp managed to create an unreal speaker experience — even virtually
Taylor Kim
@kwtaylork
Gettin’ the speaking gig
What holds us back from shining bright? I spent the weekend working on my personal story @shinebootcamp and at the final hour I tore it up, started over, and did a talk focused on imposter syndrome and self sabotage. There were 18 women enrolled in the program, from all over the world - from marketers to CEO’s that run million dollar companies and every single one of us had this in common. We all struggle from the same BULLSHIT. Not enough, no one cares, stay small , hide in the back ... ugh. WHY? Your story matters. My story matters. You will inspire someone JUST by speaking up and sharing. Shine bright like a diamond baby 💎 #shinebootcamp thanks for a life changing weekend
@mandybalak
Stop over-thinking it and just do it. And I did it. What an exhilarating experience. Thank you @madeline.schwarz You are the BEST!!!
@alejandraporta @shine @mrst42 @orderlyqueueofone @sarahwnewman @shinebootcamp. You ladies ROCK. Found my voice ,met new friends , grew my network... and look - you made me put on these jeans (yoga pants was it for 6months+)
Thank You!!! #womenwinning
A few years ago, my baby girl was faced with the complexities of the broken paradigm that society has created around skin color and something she said broke my heart and rattled me to my core. Since then, I’ve been making sure she sees her aesthetic represented in her world and have been working on doing my part to create a more diverse & inclusive world so that she always knows that she is beautiful and that she belongs. As a birthday gift to myself, I attempted to conquer a BIG fear - public speaking - while simultaneously advocating for diversity & inclusion with my lovebug in mind. I was lucky to stumble on this INCREDIBLE public speaking bootcamp for women in tech @shinebootcamp, and join an impressive & motivating group of like-minded badass women in Canada. So much love, support & connection - and, Madison got a standing O from the ladies. A mother’s love has no bounds.
So grateful for this safe space, our phenomenal coaches, these incredible women (& a few men), and the magic we all created this weekend. And yes, I had a victorious lay at the end because I survived public speaking. #shinebootcamp ✨
I appreciate you taking the time to read my personal learning takeaways from Shine Bootcamp. And I wanted to share that I discovered Shine Bootcamp through Ariba Jahan who shared her experience on IG when she participated last year. When co-founder, Stef Grieser shared that she was going full-time with it on Tech Ladies FB group, it intrigued me to research more about this opportunity. It is definitely one you do NOT want to miss out on and feel free to reach out to me directly if you have questions or want to hear more about my experience from Shine Bootcamp.
I will leave you with this lovely virtual applause Shine Bootcamp created to celebrate our achievements when we completed the program in October.
Shine was one of the most impactful professional (and personal) experiences I've ever had. I have wanted to get up on stage and share my expertise for a long time, but have always found reasons to hold myself back. At Shine, I was surrounded by an incredible group of allies in a super safe, motivating space. And holding myself back just didn't make any sense. It was a space where I couldn't help but excel. Once you get up on stage, once you feel those supportive vibes, once you stumble, laugh, power through...you realize that you've belonged there all along. I couldn't recommend Shine more for any woman with something to share.
After Shine, Natasha secured a keynote at CXL Live.
Natasha Wahid, Sr Content Strategist at Fullstory
This weekend I went to speaker school at @shinebootcamp. It was ✨ extraordinary ✨... and I emerged Sunday night with a whole new set of tools, a tighter (less boring!) talk and a newfound appreciation for all the work great speakers put into their presentations. They are accepting applications for their east coast cohort this fall. I highly recommend it if you are looking to up your speaker skills along with 17 other incredibly inspiring women. It’s a weekend I’ll never forget. #shinebootcamp
Attending Shine Bootcamp was one of the best decisions I could have ever made, both for my career and for my confidence. It's a weekend-long event, but the support extends well beyond the weekend. Shine gave me resources, support, and a network of incredible women. Since Shine Bootcamp, I've been able to speak at several events. I recently spoke at You Got This Conference, and I'll be facilitating a workshop at the Outcomes Conference and speaking at a Chick Tech Conference in Chicago.
Such a life-changing experience! I stepped out of my comfort zone, overcame fear, beasted my presentation and joined my friend as a proud alumna of #shinebootcamp all in one weekend!After Shine, Zakiya spoke on the Organizing Ideas podcast about (Web) Archives and Black Culture
Two years ago, I was asked to give a presentation about my HubSpot article on emotional marketing. It was by far the most exhilarating and nerve-wracking experience of my professional life.
I don’t necessarily hate public speaking. However, leading up to the event, I felt the full responsibility of not only delivering a good presentation but also teaching the audience valuable, actionable information — and that was very intimidating.
I wanted to do a good job, and I wanted to be a good teacher.
“I wanted to let you know that I genuinely felt that you, Amy and Ale go above and beyond to deliver a memorable, life-changing program for Shine attendees - and that you do it successfully. I'm a very proud alumna, and reflecting on it months later, I'm more and more convinced of how valuable it is.
The women I met there were inspiring, entrepreneurial and filled with insights. It was exciting to see them speak on stage and share their learnings. It’s clear to me how this grass-roots effort helps change the landscape of the conference scene.
On a personal note, I’ve shared my video with a bunch of people, which I didn’t expect to do. You know how it goes, it can be intimidating to put yourself out there. But I did. And even less expected, I’ve been thanked for sharing my video and experience. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. It gives me the motivation to continue public speaking.
I figure you might appreciate this bit of news too: I was asked to give a few remarks for The Partnership Inc at their class ceremony last night, which was attended by ~400 of Boston's most prestigious network for professionals of color.
Thank you for your wonderful contribution to our community.”
Kim Win, Senior Software Engineer at Seismic
I can’t believe how much I learned over such a short period of time - the training was both rigorous and supportive. I NEVER would have considered speaking publicly if it weren’t for shine, but now I’m excited and ready for it.”
After last year’s bootcamp, Lisa secured speaking slots at Interact Ohio, Digital Growth Unleashed, Call To Action Conference and INBOUND.
Lisa Pierson | Copywriting Consultant & Mom of two daughters.
As a Brown+ Bengali + immigrant woman of color, with a hearing disability, I’ve been bullied because of my identity and disability since I was a kid. It took a lot for me to apply to Shine. Never did I ever imagine speaking at one conference, let alone eleven. In one year. I'm so grateful that Shine came into my life. Thank you for teaching, empowering, and equipping us to hit stages and drop mics.
After Shine, Ariba spoke at speaking engagements at Confab, the IAC Conference, CES, the Big Design Event, the Radical Research Summit and NDC London.
In July 2020 I put my hand up to join an accelerated speaker boot camp called Shine. The program has been around for a few years as a 3-day workshop, however, this is the first time it was available online. It was an intensive six-week program designed to help prepare you to take the stage as a conference speaker (gulp).
Given Shine‘s track record, I knew the next six weeks would pack a punch. What I didn’t know was how much value and support I would receive. Below is a recap of what we covered and what I learned.
I felt powerful, authoritative, interesting, terrified, and shaky on the #shinebootcamp stage.But mainly I felt loved and supported. Like I could do anything. Like people need to hear my message.I have no idea what my future path will look like, but it’s going to include more speaking about the things I’m passionate about. It’s definitely going to include the amazing women in these photos.
@pattihaus
My @shinebootcamp talk was a success! Thank you to all who came out and watched. Couldn't have done it without my amazing speaker coach
@mariepoulin🌟
There are still many more amazing speakers this week - check them out! http://conference.shinebootcamp.com
Megan O'Shaughnessy
@megan_yvr
I legitimately have goosebumps from @helloalexoh sharing her story and encouraging connection. The passion. #shinebootcamp
Amalia Fowler
@amaliaefowler
Three talks into the #ShineBootcamp mini-conf, and I'm more in awe of people who put themselves out there to speak than ever. Also just really excited and grateful to be able to hear from some great new voices.
Marcus Kernohan
@mkernohan
After giving my #shinebootcamp talk and watching so many other incredible ones, this INFJ is gonna wrap up here in Spain. Seriously, people, these womxn have SUCH powerful messages to share. Amplify their voices, our world needs them. Buenas noches from Madrid 💕
Kay Fabella
@kayfab
“Your voice is powerful. Your voice has meaning.”
I’ve been part of @shinebootcamp, a speaker accelerator for women. Today was my last session with our speaker coach and it hit me that my talk is NEXT WEEK.
I went down memory lane and watched my application video (swipe ▶️ for a snippet of it) and a reminder of why I applied for Shine: I wanted to give a different kind of talk.
.
But what I gained out of this experience to be totally cliche was the journey. I walked into my first session with a list of talk ideas. I walked out of there feeling disoriented. And my speaker coach Jordan called me out for actively diminishing my own success. He was right. I’m still taking that one in.
My talk next week is about the other side of toxic positivity.
100% of your $10 ticket benefits @raceforward and gets you access to 60+ other speakers whose voices need to be heard. I can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been working on: https://conference.shinebootcamp.com/
Tiffany Yu
Spent the weekend in Vancouver working with incredible coaches alongside 14 fantastic women. Our coaches whipped us into shape to be ready to take the stage as keynote speakers.
Today we participated in a conference where each of us gave a 10 minute talk on stage in front of an audience.
It's been a grueling weekend, but I loved every minute of it. More photos and video to come!
Sonia Thompson
I finally did my talks and I’m in tears! Thanks, @shinebootcamp
for giving me an outlet to tell my story. #shinebootcamp #MentalHealthMatters #MentalHealthAwareness #anxiety #nomoresilence
"I often hear people say, 'We parent the way we were parented'. But that doesn't have to be the case." -@WildSamFierce just so vulnerably showed us the importance of healing intergenerational trauma #shinebootcamp
Been watching all the @shinebootcamp
talks & still in AWE! Wow! Keisha Frazier had me doing deep breaths and trusting my heart at 11pm last night! 💘✨ #shinebootcamp
Jules!🌼
@heyjulesxo
What a week?!! #shinebootcamp is a wrap! So grateful to be in the company of such incredible, powerhouse women. Thank you
@alejandraporta, @smgrieser, & Amy for creating this beautiful space. Special shout-out to the best coach & team - Jordan, @ImTiffanyYu and @coachkeisha_!
Alex Oh
@helloalexoh
I’m going to take a nap to celebrate my first ever live talk 😭😭
Thanks so much to my wonderful coach @Kirsty_Hulse!! And thank you to #shinebootcamp organizers @alejandraporta and @smgrieser!! I’m officially a speaker and I’m coming for all types of speaking engagements 💪🏾🔥
ceora
@ceeoreo_
Hi, so a lot of you have probably noticed I've been doing more speaking in the past six months or so, and shine Bootcamp it's been such an integral part of that. I did the program last September and it's just really developed me as a speaker taught me a lot of the ins and outs of pitching conferences and how to structure talks in just so many knots and bolts and beyond that to give me this really incredible community of women so doing more speaking of something you want to do questions about shine feel free to shoot a DM they're not paying me or anything I just really, really love the program and I really, really admire what time so yeah
Taylor Morrison
I felt powerful, authoritative, interesting, terrified, and shaky on the #shinebootcamp stage.
But mainly I felt loved and supported. Like I could do anything. Like people need to hear my message.
I have no idea what my future path will look like, but it’s going to include more speaking about the things I’m passionate about. It’s definitely going to include the amazing women in these photos.
Patti Haus
Yeah, I just got back and it was fabulous. #shinebootcamp really knows how to prep people for speaking!
Mary Iannotti
@maryi
Thank you @taylorelysemorrison for the kind words in this video🙏💕.Taylor is one of our alumni. And since Shine, she’s spoken at several events, conferences and workshops!.Also, she recently launched a podcast where she gives actionable insights about topics like self care, resilience and confidence (to name a few). Head over to her Instagram and have a listen 👂
Diane Kulseth
@dianekulseth
There’s no high like the speakers high! #shinebootcamp managed to create an unreal speaker experience— even virtually 👏👏👏
Taylor Kim
@kwtaylork
This conference is on. @kayfab
just gave an incredible talk on intersectionality and breaking outside the box. So, so important in this era of DEI initiatives!
Karen Hopper
@nochillfilter
i’ve been really missing in-person connection lately. i am a mega extravert that wants to like be surrounded by and hugging people all day long & after one day of being part of the @shinebootcamp talks, i just feel so warm & fuzzy. really inspired by y’all 💘💘💘
Jules!🌼
@heyjulesxo
Just heard a powerful talk on reparations from @Yirssi. I learned so much, and am thankful that she reminded us that there is no statute of limitations on righting the wrong of slavery. So much positive progress being made on this front. Well done. #SHINEbootcamp
Sonia Thompson
@soniaethompson
This is the face I made when I recently found out I was selected to be a speaker at @sxsw 2020.
Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW has emerged as the premier international destination for creatives, speakers, artists, filmmakers, and more.
Listen, I’ve lived in Austin for over 20 years and never have I even attended SXSW. I didn’t think it was for someone like me. I always thought it was for the creatives and for those who were innovators and trailblazers in music or arts.
Nevertheless, I humbly submitted my application and was selected to present on the topic of why we need more women-centric businesses. 🤷🏾♀️ And SXSW said yes, I agree!
What do you think you are disqualified from doing?
Let me be an example of a regular someone who set an intention to speak a few months ago, decided to give my self permission to apply to anything that I wanted to — regardless of the outcome or the impossibility of the situation — and is seeing tangible results of that intention in action.
Look, people doing things in life are doing it because they are doing it. They do not have two heads (as Nigerians say), two brains, two persons. They just take the risk. I hope I encourage you to be one of those people.
But, I won’t lie. This is still the face I make when I realize that with God, all things are possible—even for someone like me.