What Are You Waiting For?

I caught up with a friend over pizza last week. She's smart, ambitious, works in data, and she asked me a question I hear often: "What else should I be doing?" Not what job she should take, not what salary she should push for. What else should she be doing.

I told her to put herself out there. Write something down and post it. Submit a session to her local user group. Say yes to the thing she'd been thinking about but hadn't done yet.

She pushed back. Didn't feel ready. Didn't think she had enough to say.

Here's the thing: she'd already written stuff. Articles, sitting in a folder somewhere, unposted. So we did two concrete things. I blocked time in both our calendars to sit down and go through them together, and I offered to do a joint talk with her so she's not walking onto a stage alone the first time.

That's it. Nothing elaborate. Just someone with a bit more experience saying "I'll help you do it" rather than "you should do it."

I've had that conversation more times than I can count. Smart people, solid experience, completely invisible outside their immediate team. And what's usually holding them back isn't knowledge -- it's that nobody has made the first step feel concrete and doable.

So if you've got someone like that in your orbit, don't just tell them they're ready. Ask to see what they've already written. Offer to share a stage with them. Block the time. The nudge is less about encouragement and more about making it real.

We're a community that's good at sharing knowledge. You probably remember who gave you your first push. Time to return the favor.

Laura Copeland

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