Sarah Parmenter, a web and UI designer.

I was so thrilled to be asked to become a UK partner for Authentic Jobs UK, along with friends Elliot Jay Stocks and Jon Hicks (who, as a side note, were the first ever people I did a conference with back in 2008).

I’ve been a long standing fan of Authentic Jobs, the calibre of the jobs on site has always been high – the site itself has always looked sharp and slick, which is no wonder with the super talented Cameron Moll at the helm, so when Cameron asked me to become part of the Authentic Jobs UK network, I knew it would be a site I would be more than happy to have on here and You Know Who.

When I was starting out back in January 2003, as many of you are aware, I got my first jobs through eBay (I know, weird huh!) it provided a great source of starter work for me, however, I then quickly moved onto various job boards in the UK which created a pool of great clients and kept You Know Who going from strength to strength over the years. Job boards, like Authentic Jobs, are fantastic for a number of reasons, but the main benefit I found was the consistency of knowing when you’re coming to the end of a project, you could tout for new business, and have a damn good chance of winning it, from the freelance job postings. I dedicated 1 hour per day to scouring the available freelance jobs, writing introduction emails and ensuring my portfolio was bang up to date. Nowadays there’s all sorts of whizz bangs available to help you achieve this, and TextExpander would help with this process immeasurably, if you’ve not read it Elliot has a great post on how to use TextExpander.

So the new UK version of Authentic Jobs, it’s beautiful, it has great versions for smart phones and tablet devices, and it’s ultra slick looking. The guys at Neutron Creations have been working hard on the functionality of the site and it’s definitely paid off, little details sprinkled to just make for a much nicer browsing experience. Another thing that struck me was the typography choices, the smaller font used on the site is really clean and clear – I’ve been told it’s using Kievit, a wonderful change to the same fonts that seem to be bounding around the interwebs at the moment.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the UK Authentic Jobs grow as big as its US counterpart. If you’ve got a job that you want to advertise I believe they are dropping the listing price for a short time and I can’t think of a better place to get the right calibre of people.

Those of you who know me know I have a penchant for anything made of wood. My trusty IKEA desk (only purchased just over 2 years ago) has now seen better days, cups of hot coffee have bubbled the surface and all sorts of strange marks and scratches now reside. I can’t complain though, it only cost about £30 and is over 200cm long, so it’s done me well.

Whilst browsing for new furniture for our house, I came across this picture:

I fell in love with the simplicity of having a desk like this, one that would stand the test of time and only look better with age. After hunting high and low from my office chair, I came up with absolutely nothing similar, so I asked my trusty twitter followers. As usual, they came through! Jay Greasley pointed me toward “Scumble Goosie” a wonderful bespoke furniture shop. I’ve just ordered a custom made desk, about 3/4 of the size I currently have and another 10cm deep, to try and help me distance myself further from my iMac.

I plumped for the unpainted version, just because the painted white version made it around another £200 more expensive, now the days are brightening up, I figured I’d give painting it a go myself in the garden and try my hand at “distressing” paintwork.

So, just thought I would share as I frequently get asked about my desk in my office Flickr set.

Last year, during a family meal one Sunday, I got an email ping up on my phone. I remember doing a bit of a double take seeing “Jeffrey Zeldman” as the author and “AEA 2011″ as the subject. For some reason, any other explanation other than that him and Eric were going to ask me to speak, sprang to mind.

When they asked if I was interested in maybe speaking in 2011 – it didn’t take me long to decide however, AEA is kind of a big deal, right? Amongst the conference speakers it’s the one that I’ve heard people ‘throw up’ at before presenting. I didn’t want to do it before I was ready however I also didn’t want to pass up the amazing opportunity, these things don’t always come round again, and I firmly believe that when someone puts their confidence in you, for whatever reason, you should step up to the mark and grasp it with both hands, however scary it seems.

So that leaves me sitting here, in the speakers room at AEA 2011 in Seattle, listening to the fantastic Jeremy Keith over the speakers and hearing the comforting sound of Macbook keyboards tapping.

AEA is certainly special, I was told it was but wasn’t quite prepared for just how special. First of all, the team behind AEA are amazing, Toby Malina who has organised everything to do with getting me here, has just been fabulous – even down to the email we all received before we got here with clear directions on how to get to the hotel, the conference, and the after parties. There’s never been anything left to chance, and as a girl, coming from the UK on my own – I drew no end of comfort from this.

Jeffrey and Eric have been beyond generous with providing us with a beautiful hotel to rest our weary heads and kept us full to the brim with lovely food and drink. They really take care of their speakers and in return, we obviously want to give the absolute best back.

The attendees? They were right, they are smart. Very very smart people but, for some reason, when I put the word “smart” and “conference attendee” in the same sentence, my head concocts a very serious, quiet attendee. I was unprepared for how warm, welcoming and open to humour the audience would be, it was a welcome surprise and continued throughout the day, attendees are always happy to engage, 30 seconds in a hallway, a whole lunch time, whatever you can give them – they welcome what you have to say with open arms.

The other speakers, Jeffrey and Eric have all been great fun to hang out, I’ve laughed until my sides hurt and enjoyed wonderful company with them all. To have that with people who you only met a few days ago, is testament to how friendly and wonderful our community is.

So, I’m unfortunately heading home later today, I’ve been a bit ‘under the weather’ so I’m taking an earlier flight and getting myself back to a UK doctor.

Thank you AEA for having me, it’s been a real pleasure and a complete honour.

Have a ‘lovely jubbly’ time at the after party y’all!

NB. A big thank you to Petra Gregorová for showing me around Seattle and bringing me medication in my hour of need.

Notes from my presentation:
Luke Wroblewski ~ http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1287

I’ve been asked a lot of questions recently about speaking at conferences, mainly at the recent New Adventures in Web Design conference. I ran into a lot of curious people at the after-party who either wanted to get into speaking or were just curious about how things worked behind the scenes, so I thought it might be useful to note down my personal process and some insights into the Conference world.

Starting point

A page of scribbles from my notebook for New Adventures Conference – yes, I’ve spelt some stuff wrong.

A talk always starts in the same way for me, notes. Hundreds of scribbles, pictures and ideas that eventually form the basis of the talk. I generally have an idea in my head, or have to adhere to perhaps a theme the conference organiser has in mind, generally I’m asked to speak about iPhone related stuff, as that is what I specialise in, but I was, and always have been, first and foremost a designer, so in the case of New Adventures, we were encouraged to think about new twists and brand new topics to expand the mind and pull away from our comfort zones a little.

I had my topic in my head from late November, I started reading books, lots of books, over Christmas – in relation to what I was looking to speak about. Little paragraphs jump out, I circle them and look to explore them further, find quotes and always ensure they back up the message I’m trying to relay. I normally make sure I have at least 10 different ideas and sections to explore and then pick those that I feel are the strongest. I’m also slightly different (from what I understand other speakers do) in that I type out my entire talk first, almost like a script, I then annotate sections where I feel a slide would be appropriate or something might need explaining a little better and read and re-read this until I start to form definite sections.

In the book “Confessions of a Public Speaker” it is apparently a conference “no-no” to start your talk with a large section about yourself, what you have achieved and what your pets name is, a brief intro is fine. I have a bit of a problem talking about myself anyway so I’ve always adhered to this as much as possible. The reason Scott suggests shortening your introduction is that it dilutes your message, stalls the start of your talk and if anyone is that interested, they’ll always ‘look you up’. However, I know plenty of people who start this way, there certainly is no golden rule – just my personal preference to always leap straight in, where possible.

As an estimate, but perhaps I’m slow, my talks generally take me 2 weeks to create, design slides for and rehearse. For New Adventures, I allowed time for this over the Christmas period and did chunks throughout December prior to that.

Practice

You need to practice your talk. After talking with a lot of the speakers at New Adventures, I was surprised to hear that not many rehearse in the traditional sense of the word, actually walking around talking to themselves.

I do. I feel stupid, sure, but it always highlights a weakness in my talk, and I would rather find this out infront of my dog than 650 attendees. Again though, it’s whatever works for you, other speakers, far more eloquent than me, don’t use this method, but I would encourage you to talk out loud if possible, at least once.

Only last week, whilst rehearsing, I realised that my habit when speaking, wasn’t the traditional “um” it was “and” – which in a way, is far worse. At least “um” is a pause, “and” means you actually have to follow up with something significant and meaningful. Knowing your weaknesses before you get up there, is a huge bonus.

Another weakness of mine is being thrown by technical problems. For those who saw me at New Adventures, you would have seen I’ve become quite good at thinking on my feet when this happens, I’m referring to the microphone problem (which was entirely my fault!). However, every single venue I spoke at last year, was different. You would think this wouldn’t throw you but it can take some getting used to.

Sometimes we have multiple monitors on the stage, one showing the slide the attendees are seeing, another with the timer and another showing the slide that is coming next. Sometimes you will find yourself in a traditional lecture-style hall, with the attendees high above you, and the screens out of view, other times, you’ll find yourself on a stage, looming over the attendees. I personally find the lecture hall style quite daunting, because you can literally see every fidget, tap of the laptop and person checking Twitter, there is nothing to cast your eyes over to concentrate on. The monitors can sometimes fail, your clicker to advance the slides can fail, or in the case of New Adventures, I forgot to bring it onstage altogether and it sat in the pocket of Dan Rubin the entire time – confining me to a talk, mostly behind the lectern.

Then comes the dreaded Keynote dual screen, the bain of every speakers talk. Dual screen in Keynote allows us to see presenter notes that we may have written whilst outputting only the slides to the attendees. Even the most experienced of speakers sometimes rely on these for “key facts”, especially in longer presentations. It should be just plug and go, the truth is, it rarely is and much fiddling ensues.

It’s said though, that you should be prepared for everything to fail – including your slides, and be able to speak with just your talk. It’s always something I keep in the back of my head when designing my slides, as frightening as it might be, Andy Clarke told me it was very nearly a possibility at An Event Apart once when some generators failed.

During your talk

Thanks to Toby Howarth for the picture

Many factors will try to affect you. The hardest talk time is known as the “snooze slot” right after lunch, when attendees are full of grub and finding it hard to concentrate. I’ve had this slot plenty of times and it’s never as bad as I think. To be honest though, you’ll go into a kind of auto-pilot mode when doing your talk, you won’t be too aware of much and if something does happen that snaps you out of your flow – take a deep breath and remember although a couple of seconds feels like a minute to you on stage, it’s better to recompose yourself, find your feet and then start speaking again.

After your talk

You’ll be relieved, even if you were looking forward to it. You’ll then be filled with dread, grab your phone and check the back channel of Twitter. This has become such ingrained behaviour with speakers that frequently the conference organiser will tell you, before you’ve left the stage, what the back channel is like to just give you a heads up. Both Ryan Carson and Colly have done this with me, but I’m not sure if this tends to be done because I’m more susceptible to people commenting inappropriately. The back channel, will never be unanimous, neither will the countless reviews from attendees that follow, sometimes weeks after, but the important thing is, you should be able to gauge some kind of feedback from this, learn and reiterate for next time. It’s always genuinely lovely and heartwarming to get people say they loved your talk, but listen to those that have constructive criticism too. You’ll also have to gauge what is constructive criticism and what is said nastily without context or back up of argument, take the latter with a large pinch of salt – they have their own, bigger issues to deal with first, it’s nothing to do with you.

You’ll have to grow a thick skin very fast, and coming from a very sensitive girl who is susceptible to crying at the smallest things, I’ve had to grow a double thick layer.

Remuneration

Rarely will you be paid. If you go into speaking for the money, you’re going in for the wrong reasons (lather, rinse, repeat). Generally, your travel expenses will be paid, including your hotel and flights (if appropriate) – sometimes a speaker fee is offered but if you assume you will speak for free for a long time before this happens, you can be pleasantly surprised when it comes along. Again, if you are going into speaking for the money, you’ve not got anyone’s best interests at heart, least of all the community with which you are trying to inspire.

Perks

You’ll meet some awesome people within the industry, you’ll also get to see and experience places you would never have visited before. You’ll normally have a wonderful speakers dinner at a nice restaurant somewhere and get to enjoy the company of friends you rarely see. Speakers goodie bags are a new, but welcome addition. I received a massive bottle of Baileys and a box of my favourite sweets – Malteasers, at New Adventures as a thank you for speaking – just this personal touch can mean an awful lot. Carsonified do a similar thing and leave sweeties in your hotel room, and also include “resolve” headache remedy for the conclusive “morning after the after party” headache.

Obviously the main perk is inspiring and uniting the community, like I said before, you’ll never do this unanimously – that’s part of the challenge, but you’ll certainly be able to gauge whether you are improving or not. I feel like I have improved in the short time that I’ve been speaking (I started at WDC late 2008) by not getting too precious about my talks and learning from feedback. This is by far the most valuable lesson I have, and continue to learn.

I’m going to wrap up here as this has become a far longer post than I anticipated, but if you have any specific questions, I’m more than happy to answer them in the comments.

I’m sure everyone can remember a time in their life when they have sat awake worrying. As a freelancer, you will probably find yourself doing this a lot. I worry about whether I’ve done everything I should that day, whether I’ve responded to certain emails, and work deadlines that might be in front of me. Freelancing can certainly be a rewarding experience but along with these rewards comes the natural insomnia that can occur.

You’re probably going to think I’m completely crackers, but I’ve been combatting this insomnia pretty well for the last 5 years, due to a little mind trick I was taught. It actually allows your body and mind to shut down and allow you to sleep.

The not so crackers part is that it was actually taught to me by a friend who spent a small fortune on a psychiatrist to help her insomniac son sleep. There were various steps to the programme, one included memorising chess pieces and patterns, I never understood this and so bypassed that particular “remedy”.

The one that interested me is the one I’m about to share with you. Bear with me, it does sound insane and a bit hippy-ish but I’ve always found, it works.

You are to imagine yourself in a small circular room, high above the trees. In the middle of this circular room is a bed, whatever you imagine to be the most comfy bed in the world. You are to imagine the pillows, the duvet and the mattress, how they feel, how they are dressed and the colour of the sheets. Inside the bed is someone that you would normally draw comfort from, such as a girlfriend/boyfriend or wife/husband. If the person you would draw comfort from, wouldn’t necessarily share a bed with you, you are to imagine a chair in the corner of the room, with this person sitting reading a paper, and watching over you.

Around the room are 5 doors, each heavier and thicker than the last. In each door is a lock and a large key. You are to start at door number one, place your thoughts behind the door, shut it and lock the door, imagine the weight of the key and hear the “clunk” of the lock. Same method with doors, 2,3, and 4 – by the time you get to number five, you save this for ‘heavy stuff’, such as debt, health of a family member or anything else that is pretty serious and stopping you from sleeping. You repeat the method above, lock the door and walk towards your super comfy bed and get in.

Each time you want to think about any of the thoughts you locked away, you confront yourself with the image of the locked door, a door you can’t get past until morning, nothing is accessible once you have locked it away.

You’ll find you’ll get better at not accessing the thoughts and instead confronting yourself with the locked door image, it does take practise and you’ll get quicker at “locking” everything away the more you do it.

I almost go through the above process, out of habit now. The room I imagine is just as familiar to me as my actual bedroom. It helps me to compartmentalise my thoughts and tell my brain it’s “ok” to leave it until the morning. It also allows me to sleep better, quicker and be more creative the next day.

If you can get past feeling a bit daft, and the whole process being a little silly, you might just find sleep finds you a little easier.