Data Moved Me in 2019
2019 was my first full year blogging! Although if you've been following you've probably noticed that I've reduced the frequency of my writing. There is no end to the amount of stuff I could be doing, but let's take a look at what I actually did this year!I gave workshops this year on assessing where you are in the journey towards becoming data driven, and I gave talks on my favorite subject: effectively communicating machine learning results to non-technical stakeholders. Some of the places I spoke where:
My youngest is 2 years old, so although I love speaking, I did try to keep speaking to a minimum in 2019. I will be speaking at Predictive Analytics World - Business, so I'll be there in June 2020 in Vegas. Hope to see you there, maybe we can hit the blackjack tables.Other amazing things that happened in 2019.
I left corporate in January 2019! I'm now doing consulting/training and I've learned a ton this year by taking the leap.
I became an instructor for UC Berkeley Ext. This has been incredibly fun and rewarding.
I became a community partner for ODSC.
I'm interviewed in a book, that's pretty cool. My longtime friend Jacqueline Nolis included me in the book she co-authored with Emily Robinson titled "Build a Career in Data Science" . Check the book out if you're looking to build a career in data science, Jacqueline and Emily have created an amazing resource.
Kate Strachnyi and I are really close to finishing writing "Mothers of Data Science" . The book is currently with the editor and we hope to publish it in the first half of 2020.
One of my long-term goals/dreams was to be able to create a schedule for myself where I would be available when my kids got off the school bus. My daughter Susie started kindergarten this year and I've been able to get her on and off the bus. Only time will tell if I'll continue this way for future school years. It's honestly been a challenge with the number of half-days and days off, it's possible I might revisit this "dream" going forward. But with everything in life, it's hard to know what truly makes you happy until you take the leap and try. I had posted on LinkedIn that I had achieved this goal, and it became an article in Working Moms.
All in all, 2019 was a year where I blogged a little less, was on social media a little less compared to 2018. But I tried new things, took on new exciting contracts, realized I took on too much, and course corrected. It's been an incredible journey with a ton of growth this year. I've also worked on a lot of back end stuff in my business, setting up a CRM, hiring an assistant. Lots of things behind the scenes that have been fun and nerdy in their own right.
I launched t-shirts on my site, then something went wrong with the integration with the fulfiller and then took the shirts off of my site. I still wear my shirts almost everyday, and I'm still pretty proud of this Bayesian butt pun.
Thank you for reading my short "year in review". I promised myself I would not miss the opportunity to write the yearly "Dear Diary", but at the same time I'm still learning from my mistake of taking on too many deliverables at once. 2020 will be an opportunity to practice better boundaries and not bite off more than I can chew. I look forward to being a part of your 2020 as well :)