Heather's ambitions as a young person

Heather VanCura: I definitely always saw myself as succeeding and I was a very driven person. You could say that I've been successful in my career, so I think I would be pleased.

One of the things that I always wanted was a global role and responsibility with impact. Some people would see that as intimidating or something they wouldn't want, but I always saw it as something that I aspired to. I wanted a global perspective and I definitely have that in my role. Travel was appealing to me from a young age too.

I'm a keen observer, but I never saw myself as a public speaker until this role. That's a hurdle I had to overcome. I had something to share, so I needed to get over being uncomfortable to share that information.

Geertjan Wielenga: Are you saying that, even if you don't see yourself doing public speaking, you can grow into becoming a speaker?

Heather VanCura: Yes! While communication is key, now there's social media, blogs, and written articles to create as well. You could even do audio interviews and podcasts, where you're not presenting in front of an audience in person. Having said that, you probably would need to get over that hurdle of public speaking eventually because it's a great skill to have. I'm happy that I embraced that as part of my job.

Geertjan Wielenga: Can you talk a bit more about overcoming the anxiety of public speaking?

Heather VanCura: It's a little bit intimidating the first time you give a talk at a conference. I think my first talk was at JavaOne, which was a big conference; at that time, there were approximately 15,000 people coming to it.

I took courses and shifted my thinking to realizing that I had information that people needed to know. Over time, I've continued to practice and take courses. I've even worked with a communications coach.

Geertjan Wielenga: What are the key takeaways that you carry with you from those courses?

Heather VanCura: The first takeaway is that mental shift I talked about in terms of seeing yourself as educating others. Secondly, you should try to condense your presentation into the main points that you want to convey and organize them in that way so it makes sense and people understand it. You should use visuals instead of a lot of text on slides, which is difficult when you have something to explain like the JCP, which has many details surrounding it.

Another important point is modifying the presentation based on the audience and the type of conference. I always tweak my presentation for the audience and I try to get some interaction in to engage people. Even asking a couple of questions at the beginning, with a show of hands, can help you to gauge where the audience is in terms of their knowledge.

Geertjan Wielenga: The way you describe what you do is very varied. Do you enjoy that?