Welcome back to I'm a Software Engineer ~ What Next? The podcast for devs figuring out their next move. Hosted by James Wilson and Matt Sinclair, we talk honestly about what it takes to build a meaningful career in tech.
In this week's episode, we cover:
- Why most engineers struggle with presenting and how to fix it
- Stew's simple 5-step storytelling framework (hero, dragon, weapon, treasure, future)
- How to avoid jargon and make people actually listen
- Practical tips for presenting on Zoom without looking stiff or disconnected
- Why communication is becoming more valuable as AI gets better
- Plus a few great stories from Stew's coaching work with engineers and founders
Whether you're applying for your next engineering role or hiring your next dev, this one's got real talk, practical advice, and a few rants.
🎧 50 minutes. Zero fluff. Tune in now.
⏱️ Chapters
- 0:00 Intro: t-shirts, a box forest, and the insane UK house-selling process
- 0:41 Meet Stew Bewley: 20,000 people coached at Microsoft, Google and AWS
- 2:00 The magic telephone: someone will bring out the best in you, and breathe
- 3:04 From actor to coach: Mia, a Groupon course, and starting Amplify in 2011
- 6:50 Why engineers hate presenting: a story is 22 times more memorable
- 9:14 The wise mentor's five questions: hero, dragon, weapon, treasure, future
- 13:18 The hero's journey, and should you talk to your boss like a 16-year-old?
- 15:01 Your real competition is distraction: 90% of the brain wants a picture
- 16:53 Presenting on video: imagine a sheet of glass, and 55% is body language
- 19:34 Looking at the lens, and why everyone is still exhausted from Zoom
- 21:38 Clean background, deep joy, exaggerate like an actor, and be present
- 24:08 The book: 1500 Microsoft graduates, and rewriting The Storytelling Hero
- 27:06 Field Notes, the flywheel, and a year to write the shortest book
- 30:43 Ten ingredients, an inner critic called Tony, and the Elements of Style
- 32:03 What impact can communication have? A stammer gone after 20 minutes
- 34:02 Tim Sadler of Tessian: a $50 million pitch, and founders' hardest problem
- 36:54 Public speaking is the number one fear: how adrenaline stops you improving
- 38:25 A career hack: practice lacks jeopardy, so go for a pitch walk
- 40:29 Why communication matters more as AI gets better: bland ChatGPT drivel
- 43:50 AI is the average of Reddit: augment the human, like Ripley's mech suit
- 45:34 It's a confidence thing: 1,000 applicants, and humans are storytelling apes
- 47:11 Wrap-up: where to get the book, and a rowing machine flywheel
🔗 Links
🗒️ Show Notes
- Amplify (Stew's company)
- The Confident Communicator Toolkit
- The Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell)
- Albert Mehrabian's 7-38-35 Model
- Tessian (now Proofpoint)
🗣️ Guest
- Stewart Bewley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stewartjbewley/