In May this year I created Dean Stokes Ltd - my new venture focused on doing whatever kind of work I was drawn to.
Firstly, I wrote a newsletter every week for 10 weeks, then struggled to keep it going. Partly because I was focused on other projects and partly because I got caught in a perfection trap (where none of my ideas felt worthy of your time) followed by a guilt trap (where it felt easier to stop than face the fact I'd broken my commitment to post every week) that ultimately stopped me from just posting something. Moving forward, I'm committing myself to at least one post a month. As I've done so far, I'll share a mix of things I've learned throughout my career, updates on how business is going, and more.
For 5 of those 7 months, I've been working on a Google project called AI Works. I managed the education strand of this research project, including everything from finalising the project scope to liaising with two academy trusts. I managed the end-to-end development and delivery of ~7 hours of training focused on helping the education sector's workforce utilise generative AI to save time. I couldn't have done this without a great team, so a special thanks to Ben Rouse who was a pivotal collaborator on all of the above, as well as Guto, Beth, Marika, and Lawrence, who all expertly facilitated workshops.
Separately, I developed content for a two day train-the-trainer workshop for Happy2Host, working with Google, to provide training to educators in Italy, which was then expertly tweaked and delivered by Italian super trainers Marcella, Filomena and Valentina.
Following that, I was pumped to put my new office setup to good use (there'll be a dedicated post on that soon) by delivering three live streamed Professional Trainer Workshops for Google for Education Champions globally. I thoroughly enjoyed developing and delivering these sessions, and seeing the community share their own tips with one another was powerful. Those workshops have been watched for a cumulative 400 hours!
Lawrence (CEO of Happy2Host) and I developed a new pilot approach to training Google for Education partners in the UK and Ireland. We’ve been coaching one another every week since May, so it was exciting to have the opportunity to directly tackle a project together. We audited days worth of existing content and redeveloped it into a bitesize format of 30 minute sessions with 'all killer, no filler,' ending with an in-person workshop to consolidate learning and put it into practice.
Another thing I've enjoyed doing this year is helping multiple people create engaging presentations and demos for conferences and overcome nerves associated with public speaking. Nothing seems to beat seeing someone deliver an amazing presentation you've helped them finesse from slide design to storytelling and everything in-between.
There are a bunch of other small but mighty miscellaneous pieces of work I've delivered this year, including helping my brother drive sales to his retail business specialising in LEGO, working on a local café's website and cooking up a new project with Lawrence and Ben (more on that very soon).
I'm closing out the year by wrapping up a few things, doing a lot of reflecting (as usual) and focusing on a little project for Bett, the world's largest edtech tradeshow, taking place in January.
Individuals trained: 1000+
Workshops and presentations delivered: 40+
Slides created: 500+
Rollercoasters ridden: 20
Writing this has been so helpful to consider what I’ve achieved after taking the leap to leave corporate life and do my own thing. It has also helped lift me out of writers block (I've simultaneously started drafting two more posts whilst writing this). Why don't you also give it a go?
I'm grateful to be taking this detour (and excited to see where it takes me), but it wouldn't be possible without the support of family, friends, and even strangers. Thank you for being there. It means more than you know.
If this was interesting, please consider hitting the like button. Until the next one, don't forget to have fun!
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