It's uncomfortable staying quiet

One of the biggest motivations for me with the MoTaverse is simply to make an excuse to meet, catch up, geek out and make friends.

I connected with Susanne Abdelrahman via the MoTaverse. Then along the way we connected via Slack. I followed her writing. Then we had a Leading With Quality conversation.

I had such a laugh, that I just had to invite her to Into the MoTaverse podcast to catch up again. In the busyness of life, sometimes it can be really hard to make the time.

And after that, I just had to invite her to MoTaCon. The icing on the cake will be meeting her IRL.

We talked about things! And the beauty really is that we are learning to speak up together. As women in tech. As MoThers of the MoTaverse. As people who think about care as a strategy.

I picked up on something Susanne said. It now feels uncomfortable to stay quiet. The more we step up. Speak up. Share. Connect. Then the more it feels natural to speak up. I stayed quiet behind the scenes for years, insisting on putting others in the limelight. I recognise now that after stepping outside of my comfort zone, things have flipped. I feel uncomfortable not speaking up. This doesn't mean I seek the limelight, I still feel awkward about that, but I almost have no issue saying, yes that should be me. Or yes, that should be them, how can I help them speak up?

And perhaps this is a community building learning moment, much of the work of building community is helping others realise that they can and should speak up, and this should be the status quo. There are too many quiet voices out there.

Personally, I'm here to change that. And I channel that through the MoTaverse.

Have a listen to the podcast. It's available in the MoTaverse, Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts.