6 Learning Takeaways from Shine Bootcamp

This summer, I took a chance on myself to apply for a 6-week speaker accelerator for women called Shine Bootcamp to invest in my professional development. This post will share my learning takeaways from this incredible program I participated in this September that I’d love for others to benefit from.

2021 Applications open on December 1, 2020

Feel free to watch my application video to see why I need to improve and take my presentation skills to the next level. There is always room for improvement as we grow and learn every day. This was the perfect opportunity to set me up for success with the resources and supportive community that will last for a lifetime. In my 2020 cohort, our Shine Bootcamp experience included:

• Executive 1:1 & Group Coaching
• Community via Accountability Partner and Slack Group
• On-Demand Courses with Virtual Office Hours
• Deck Design Review with Ale Porta, co-creator, Shine Bootcamp
• Speaker Swag (sponsored by Unbounce)
• Headshot or Speaker Video Reel
• Recording of Your Talk (thanks to Charlene Kate Events)
• Visual Illustration of Your Talk (designed by Jules)
• Virtual Speaker Showcase
• Virtual Conference for Each of Our Talks with 100% of registration fees donated to ‍Race Forward, a non-profit advocating for racial justice

1.) The Power of a Supportive & Diverse Community

When I virtually met the 64 women selected this year via Slack, I was blown away with the amount of diversity in the group by age, race, location, industry, etc. Especially as a woman of color, I tend to be the only one in the room and this was not the case for the women they selected to participate. Representation matters and this is a kind of program I’ve never seen before that bridges the gap in creating opportunities for more female speakers to share their perspectives to the world.

You can see for yourself with the below photo collage I created of the brilliant, diverse women in the 2020 Cohort for Shine Bootcamp. ❤

This community is supportive to cheer for each other, share resources, and truly want the best for you even when they’ve just met you. Some examples are:

• Seeing Your Potential: I was pleasantly surprised when a 2020 participant I met for the first time, Tiffany Yu, CEO & Founder of Diversability said to me “I’d pay to hear you speak”. I admire all her speaking engagements and she is remarkable.
• Being Your Cheerleaders: They showed up for my live virtual talk and Nerissa Marbury created Daily Recaps for each of the 64 talks on October 6–9 (Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4)
• Offering Practice Runs: We set up ad-hoc practice runs to rehearse our talks and give each other open feedback
• Creating a DEI Group: There were many diversity, equity and inclusion advocates and we created a group to share our own experiences together
• Celebrating Wins: In our slack group, Shine Bootcamp created a channel for us to celebrate wins and these women are killing it speaking at conferences, securing gigs left and right, creating impressive speaker pages, and it’s an incredible inspiration to see them all thrive

During our cohort, we had networking opportunities like using Snack, a video chat roulette and Donut in Slack to create more space in building meaningful connections. This community has helped me see my own potential that I did not really see yet and I am beyond grateful as I continue to nurture relationships with them. These are lifelong friendships that I absolutely want to keep nurturing and following these phenomenal women and their journeys.

“Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together.” -Jacqueline Woodson

2.) Coaching is Transformational

I have always had mentors since college and never had a coach throughout my entire career. This was the first time I have ever had an executive and communication coach! I was so lucky to be paired with Sylvia Lui, a Chinese Canadian voice coach based in London and seeing a Chinese coach blew my mind to see Asian representation thanks to Shine Bootcamp Alum, Agnes Tseng recruiting her to be a Shine Bootcamp Coach. I did not know what to expect from a coach and the experience with Sylvia was transformational with 2x 1:1 sessions and 3x group coaching. She pushed me outside of my comfort zone in a nurturing way that it is even hard to describe in words. She often asked, “How do you feel?” and the response from me was, “I don’t know. Uncomfortable, but I know there will be growth from this.” It was an interesting experience to be asked how do you feel during the time you’re uncomfortable. Most of the time when I grow in my life, I cope with self-talk and not shine a light on myself to reflect or check-in during the actual moment.

In my first 1:1 session with her, she was able to help me craft an outline for my 10-minute talk simply by asking me the right open-ended questions to get to the outcome we needed to be. Below is a photo of our 1st group coaching session with Syvlie and my team featuring Olivia Tait, Marijana Miric, and Meghan Lazier. She recently launched SLVC Online Academy, a learning community for your voice that I highly recommend for people to benefit from her magic.

“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their growth.” -John Whitmore

3.) Investing in Yourself is Worth It

Since my employer (as most during this global pandemic) has paused professional development budgets, I decided to pay out of pocket for this $950 speaker accelerator investment. These kinds of opportunities help bring me to the next level and I rather not wait on someone to invest in me. It’s important to do something each day that your future self will thank you for. It’s only been about two months since I have enrolled into this program and I am still beaming with joy and empowerment from Shine Bootcamp, which speaks volume for the positive impact it had made on me. It was exactly what I needed to keep myself motivated during these challenging times we are living in. I loved that they included virtual on-demand courses and office hours to teach us knowledge and skills to be a better presenter/speaker.

“The best investment you will ever make is in yourself.” -Warren Buffet

4.) Being Recognized for Engagement

Have you heard of the saying, “Your work will speak for itself.” As a woman of color and my past bad workplace experiences of what I’ve been through, this has not been the case. This makes me appreciate people even more when they show recognition for the work you do or even acknowledge or thank you for all that you do. I practice an attitude of gratitude throughout my life and I am grateful when others see me and tell me in words and actions.

For Shine Bootcamp, they gave us a beautiful box full of goodies and swag mailed to our home address and I was so excited to see they gifted me with an additional prize, a spotlight presentation remote to recognize my engagement in the community. It’s the little things that can go a long way and the amount of love with details the organizers of Shine Bootcamp put into this program is priceless. See the box below with a powerful, empowering message inside the box encouraging us to foster our speaking abilities and use our voice.

“Surround yourself with people who deserve your magic.” -Cleo Wade

5.) You’re Capable of More Than You Think

As with many things in life, you get what you put into it and it is also all in perspective. I dedicated evenings, weekends and free time to get the work done for this speaker accelerator. When I presented on October 7th, I took PTO to ensure I created space to enjoy the whole day. And I felt SO relieved after my talk was finally over with a wave of proud accomplishment to see what I am capable of. This is beginning my chapter to open the door for more speaking opportunities and sharing my voice to the world. I’m ready! ❤

It was A LOT of work to create a polished, engaging, inspiring 10-minute talk and I picked a topic I have never talked about in a structured talk, “Enrich Your Life: The Power of a Lifelong Learner Mindset.” You can watch my full talk below and I encourage you to tag me on twitter @joyofjessalin with your learning takeaways after you watch the talk.

“Dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourselves in a way that others may not simply because they’ve never seen it before.” -Kamala Harris

6.) My Speaker Toolkit is in the Making!

This experience continued to push me outside of my comfort zone in so many levels. It sets me up for success with having my speaker toolkit in the making:

• My 1st Speaker Reel: thanks to Shine Bootcamp!
• Talk Topic & Description: definitely want to continue empowering people to learn
• Pitching Myself: understand conference proposals and having confidence now to pitch like a pro
• Speaker Bios: relevant bio options that is tweetable, short, and medium
• Speaker Page: working on creating my website with a speaker page

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” -Oprah Winfrey

Thank You

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.

Cheers to Opportunity! ❤