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S1 E35: Hitting the "go live" button, I was shaking (Melody / @MelodyMDev)
Episode 35 • 11th January 2023 • WebJoy • Eddie Hinkle
00:00:00 00:19:19

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Melody joins the show to talk about her origin story, from working in the medical field on both humans and pets to jumping into learning development, in public, live, on Twitch!

We discuss what pushed her to make the switch, the difficult and enjoyable parts of her journey. We also discuss her anxiety for public speaking and how going live on Twitch has helped her overcome it.

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Transcripts

Eddie:

Welcome to episode 35 of the web joy podcast.

Eddie:

I'm your host Eddie.

Eddie:

And in this podcast, we interview guests about their origin story

Eddie:

and what makes them excited.

Eddie:

And joyful to be part of the tech community.

Eddie:

I hope you enjoy today's episode hitting the go live button.

Eddie:

I was shaking.

Eddie:

With melody.

Eddie:

During this episode, melody and I will talk about anxiety.

Eddie:

And her relief from anxiety.

Eddie:

I'd like to add a disclaimer that this is not medical advice, and there are

Eddie:

some types of anxieties that you should make sure that you are working with.

Eddie:

A trained professional.

Eddie:

And potentially take medications.

Eddie:

This is not advice.

Eddie:

We are just simply sharing Melody's experience.

Eddie:

Thank you for understanding.

Eddie:

Welcome to the next episode of Web Joy.

Eddie:

I'm excited to have Melody here with us today.

Eddie:

Melody, say hi to the

Melody:

listeners.

Melody:

Hi listeners,

Melody:

. Eddie: Well, melody is great

Melody:

Um, if you don't mind, I guess just kind of introduce yourself to everyone

Melody:

listening, kind of who you are, what you do, where you're kind of at on

Melody:

your journey, you know, just the

Melody:

basics.

Melody:

Hi, melody.

Melody:

Hello everyone.

Melody:

I currently right now am learning JavaScript and going into React,

Melody:

so I'm still, still fairly new on my learning journey.

Melody:

I initially wanted to get into tech.

Melody:

Because my husband is actually a software engineer.

Melody:

Awesome.

Melody:

Yeah, so that's pretty cool.

Melody:

He kind of has some insight for me, but I initially started in

Melody:

human and animal healthcare.

Melody:

I've done both veterinary assisting and I've worked as like an E K

Melody:

G tech and in a dental office.

Melody:

So I've done both.

Melody:

And while I really enjoyed it at the same time, it was pretty long hours.

Melody:

Sometimes I would go like, 13, 14 hour days.

Melody:

Wow.

Melody:

Yeah.

Melody:

And so it was really exhausting.

Melody:

And you know, once Covid happened, I feel like everyone kind of did like a rehaul

Melody:

of what they were doing with their life.

Melody:

And so while everything was on a halt, I was kind of like, okay,

Melody:

so what do I really wanna do?

Melody:

It gave me some time to think and I would see my husband just like, you know,

Melody:

having this great work-life balance, was able to still work from home.

Melody:

And so I was kind of looking at him.

Melody:

That looks pretty nice.

Melody:

I, I kinda wanna do that.

Melody:

So then he shows me what he does in a day, and I'm looking at the code

Melody:

and I'm like, that's gibberish.

Melody:

There's no way . I have no idea what he's writing.

Melody:

I'll never be able to do this.

Melody:

He was like, no, trust me.

Melody:

Give it a try.

Melody:

You can do it.

Melody:

So through his, his pushing me, I was like, okay, fine, I'll try it.

Melody:

And once I kind of did a couple little tutorials, I was like,

Melody:

obsessed, it's so much fun.

Melody:

And I was like, okay, yes, we're doing it.

Melody:

We're going there.

Melody:

We're doing it.

Melody:

So that's kind of how I took the leap to get started, pretty

Eddie:

much.

Eddie:

That's great.

Eddie:

So you kind of thought, Hey, you know, I'm working these long hours.

Eddie:

I don't have as much work life balance.

Eddie:

This seems interesting.

Eddie:

You got kind of cut your teeth on a couple of tutorials and says,

Eddie:

yeah, I, I'd like to do this.

Eddie:

How did you actually go about learning?

Eddie:

Like, what did you kind of, how did you decide what resources to do?

Eddie:

How did you decide?

Eddie:

Did you watch stuff online?

Eddie:

Did you read stuff online?

Eddie:

Have you done anything?

Eddie:

In person or in online groups or whatever, what has that journey looked

Melody:

like for you?

Melody:

So initially I started off doing just a couple quick little, like free

Melody:

code camp and code academy, you know, stuff like that just to kind of get

Melody:

my feet wet because I was debating on doing a bootcamp, but I was like,

Melody:

Do I wanna spend all the money?

Melody:

Do I really wanna do that?

Melody:

And so, as I was kind of debating and figuring out if I was gonna

Melody:

take that leap or not, I stumbled across, um, learn with Leon on Twitch

Melody:

and the hundred devs community.

Melody:

And pretty much he was doing an online coding bootcamp for full.

Melody:

Web development for free.

Melody:

He was teaching everything online on Twitch for free , and I was like, oh,

Melody:

okay, well let me, let me try this.

Melody:

So I kind of watched his Twitch and he was like in the middle of one of his classes,

Melody:

so I didn't really know what was going on.

Melody:

I was like, I don't know what's happening.

Melody:

But he has an amazing teaching style.

Melody:

He's super charismatic.

Melody:

So it made me interested to wanna actually start from the beginning and learn more.

Melody:

So that's kind of what propelled me into going into hundred devs

Melody:

was kind of like my real start.

Melody:

And then from there I just picked up on some different tutorials and you know,

Melody:

she codes I am currently doing as well.

Melody:

It's kind of like when you're self-taught, you kind of.

Melody:

Pick through all sorts of different resources and like mash 'em

Melody:

together to create your own learning journey, which is like amazing.

Melody:

It's like the plus and the downside, right?

Melody:

Because if you go to a bootcamp, I feel like it's more structured out.

Melody:

Or if you're like self-taught, you're just grabbing any resource.

Melody:

Like, oh, this seems interesting.

Melody:

Oh, this is interesting.

Melody:

So yeah.

Melody:

But initially he was kind of like the anchor and the

Melody:

focal point for me starting.

Eddie:

Yeah, I think, like you said, being self-taught is interesting.

Eddie:

I think there's so many more resources, nowaday.

Eddie:

It's easier to get into tech, but at the same time, yeah,

Eddie:

there's so many resources, like I think it can be intimidating.

Eddie:

Mm-hmm.

Eddie:

, I went to college for a little while and dropped out, but I learned

Eddie:

programming before I went to college and continued learning after.

Eddie:

So I'm pretty much self-taught even though I have like had

Eddie:

some computer science courses.

Eddie:

And, but like back when I was learning, it's literally like, okay, you're

Eddie:

either reading documentation, you know, some random tutorials, or you're

Eddie:

getting a computer book , right?

Eddie:

There were, you know, there were not all of these great YouTube videos or online

Eddie:

cohorts of people getting together.

Eddie:

There was definitely a lot less options, but it was also like, if you can't

Eddie:

learn in these couple of ways, then you.

Eddie:

You can't learn it.

Eddie:

So it's encouraging to see like all the different options, but it's

Eddie:

also helpful, I feel like, to hear what options people have gone with.

Eddie:

Because when someone's starting out, it's just like they don't

Eddie:

know what to choose, you know?

Eddie:

So I love mm-hmm.

Eddie:

, I love what you did, right?

Eddie:

You kind of tipped your toes in the water, right?

Eddie:

You.

Eddie:

Said, oh, I'm gonna try some tutorials and I'm gonna kind of

Eddie:

check things out and that's good.

Eddie:

So now I'm gonna learn a little bit of basics with free code Camp Code Academy.

Eddie:

And then you're like, all right, I'm willing to like kind of

Eddie:

get into a community, right?

Eddie:

And follow a hundred devs and all of that stuff.

Eddie:

So that, I love that kind of, Slow immersion into it and

Eddie:

you kind of validated that you wanted to proceed rather than

Eddie:

just jumping right into the deep

Melody:

end.

Melody:

Right.

Melody:

Which I am known to do , so this was definitely, I was

Melody:

like, okay, let me not do that.

Melody:

Let me actually take my time instead of, you know, just immediately

Melody:

signing up for a bootcamp that they are expensive and they're great.

Melody:

You know, I've seen many people have a amazing career after doing

Melody:

a bootcamp, but I was just like, okay, . Can I do this on my own first?

Melody:

Do I even like this?

Melody:

Let's, let's figure that out first before I proceed.

Melody:

So yeah,

Melody:

. Eddie: Nice.

Melody:

That's awesome.

Melody:

One of the things that we do in this podcast is we talk

Melody:

about what brings you joy.

Melody:

And so I was just kind of curious what brings you joy

Melody:

that you'd like to talk about?

Melody:

I'd

Melody:

say definitely, um, you know, kind of where we left off,

Melody:

I was doing a hundred devs and.

Melody:

When I initially started, I kind of wanted to really push

Melody:

myself out of my comfort zone.

Melody:

Um, I have pretty, well, I've had pretty severe, like anxiety, especially like

Melody:

social anxiety, and so talking to people.

Melody:

Even just like on Zoom settings or anything was always

Melody:

really, really hard for me.

Melody:

Very nerve wracking.

Melody:

And so I was like, okay, since I'm already completely restarting my career,

Melody:

let's take it another step and just go ahead and learn everything in public.

Melody:

Which sounded absolutely insane, but I was like, you know what?

Melody:

We're doing this.

Melody:

Like if I had the nerve to be able to completely change my career at this

Melody:

point, I might as well go all the way and try to tackle my anxiety as well.

Melody:

Cause why not at this point?

Melody:

So that was kind of like the catalyst.

Melody:

For me starting to stream my learning journey on Twitch and kind of post

Melody:

about tech on Twitter as well.

Melody:

I was like, I'm gonna put myself completely out there in a way I would

Melody:

never normally do, and that's been something that has brought me joy.

Melody:

Just incredibly, because the community has always been so, so supportive.

Melody:

I was in shock, like completely in shock.

Melody:

You know, I thought they're gonna, these people are gonna watch me stumble

Melody:

around, not know what the heck I'm doing, and they're gonna laugh at me

Melody:

and they're gonna make fun of me because I'm gonna look stupid on the internet.

Melody:

And I would say probably, 8% of the time it's positivity.

Melody:

It's like, yeah, you can do it.

Melody:

Or gentle guiding like, okay, yeah, you tried this solution.

Melody:

What about something like this?

Melody:

Like small hints to kind of push me in the right direction.

Melody:

And so that's, that's been huge because I feel like if I didn't have such a strong

Melody:

support system and community on Twitch and on Twitter, I don't know that I could

Melody:

still be doing it because it is hard.

Melody:

Learning coding is hard.

Melody:

People it is difficult.

Melody:

And if you're doing it, bravo to you, because I mean, seriously, you have to.

Melody:

Patience, perseverance, trying and failing, and being okay with failing,

Melody:

starting completely over, and those are things that I feel like the

Melody:

average person would go insane.

Melody:

So like having the community, when I felt down or felt like, I can't do this.

Melody:

I'm not smart enough for this, I should just quit.

Melody:

Having that validation from people being like, no, it's okay.

Melody:

We all feel like this is what truly has pushed me to continue on in the

Eddie:

learning.

Eddie:

I really love that because I think one of the downfalls is when tech really

Eddie:

got started, people all kind of came from the same general background, right?

Eddie:

And mm-hmm.

Eddie:

, very nerdy, mostly male, mostly whites, , you know?

Eddie:

Yes.

Eddie:

And there was.

Eddie:

This thing where it was like everyone kind of just assumed everyone

Eddie:

else knew what they were doing.

Eddie:

And so even when you didn't, that was imposter syndrome, right?

Eddie:

That was just something like in you mm-hmm.

Eddie:

. And like you would just kind of push it away.

Eddie:

You would just kind of ignore it.

Eddie:

And I think one of the great things, right, like oftentimes people

Eddie:

talk about the need for diversity in tech and everything, right?

Eddie:

And sometimes people think it's just a social.

Eddie:

Aspect or like grandstanding or things like that.

Eddie:

But like some of the things that I think people miss is by changing who

Eddie:

is actually part of the tech community.

Eddie:

The culture of tech I feel like has begun to change as I've.

Eddie:

Watched it from the inside where you didn't have as much

Eddie:

support 15 years ago, right?

Eddie:

You didn't have people being willing to be transparent, and that comes from having

Eddie:

people of different backgrounds, right?

Eddie:

Where regardless of what's their culture like, what gender

Eddie:

do they identify with, right?

Eddie:

All of these things allow them to communicate in different ways, and

Eddie:

as soon as it feels like, This is not such a homogenous group where I

Eddie:

think everyone has it all together.

Eddie:

Everyone feels like they can start to let their guard down.

Eddie:

And like some of the things that I've posted like on Twitter, where

Eddie:

it's like, oh, being transparent.

Eddie:

Like I never would've done that 10 to 15 years ago because I would've

Eddie:

thought, oh, well that's only me.

Eddie:

And if I come out and say something like that, like everyone's gonna

Eddie:

look at me and criticize me.

Eddie:

And so I love to hear.

Eddie:

Where the tech community is today, and I believe that that really comes

Eddie:

from the diversity and growth that we've had over the last 10 to 15

Melody:

years.

Melody:

Yeah, definitely.

Melody:

And you know, obviously I can't speak on how it was since I, since I am fairly new,

Melody:

but like, I won't, I won't lie, like there has been times where I have gotten dms

Melody:

or I have gotten messages primarily from men who've said like, you can't do this.

Melody:

You're a woman, what are you doing?

Melody:

You know, trolling and whatnot, which is to be expected.

Melody:

You put yourself out there online, unfortunately, that's

Melody:

what comes with the territory.

Melody:

You're gonna get haters.

Melody:

Okay.

Melody:

Yeah.

Melody:

But I would say I, and I mean this wholeheartedly, the good

Melody:

has like outweighed the bad tenfold, like a hundred fold.

Melody:

It really.

Melody:

Drowns out a lot of, a lot of the noise when you have just so much support.

Melody:

Um, so yeah, it's really helped to kind of silence the negative

Melody:

voices that that come out

Eddie:

for sure.

Eddie:

Well, so how has this journey kind of been for right, like.

Eddie:

Anxiety and stuff you mentioned, you're like, all right, I'm gonna

Eddie:

kind of tackle the anxiety, right?

Eddie:

I'm gonna start streaming, I'm gonna, you know, post stuff on

Eddie:

Twitter, you know, how do you feel?

Eddie:

Do you feel still, you know, a lot of anxiety when you stream

Eddie:

or different things like that?

Eddie:

I guess, what is that like

Melody:

for you?

Melody:

It's gotten like a million times better, which is, it's so funny because I remember

Melody:

first hitting, you know, go live button.

Melody:

I was like shaking, sweating.

Melody:

I was so scared and I had like five viewers or something and I was like, there

Melody:

is five people watching me right now.

Melody:

Oh my God.

Melody:

Like freaking out.

Melody:

I was barely talking.

Melody:

I was stuttering kind of all over myself.

Melody:

And it's just funny, like now I feel like streaming is just kind of second nature.

Melody:

I'm just kind of like, whatever.

Melody:

I don't feel any anxiety at all.

Melody:

It's just a part of something that I do because I've just done it so

Melody:

many times at this point, and it's similar with like coffee chats, right?

Melody:

I was so scared to get on Zoom and talk to someone like face to face.

Melody:

But yeah, when I initially started doing that, I mean I would get

Melody:

so much anxiety point where I.

Melody:

Be like on the verge of no showing.

Melody:

Now I have never no showed.

Melody:

Okay, please don't do that to people.

Melody:

But I'm just saying that's how scared I would feel like my

Melody:

fight or flight would kick in.

Melody:

I'd be like, I need to run from this situation.

Melody:

And now I don't get any anxiety at all whatsoever talking to people.

Melody:

And that's.

Melody:

Huge for me cuz now I actually feel like I can get to know another person and be open

Melody:

to them and not be so in my head about, oh, are they judging what I'm saying?

Melody:

Or are they judging how I look or how I talk, or any of that.

Melody:

So yeah, it's, it sounds completely cheesy, but it's changed my

Melody:

life for the better a hundred.

Eddie:

That's great to hear.

Eddie:

You know, it's, it's interesting what kind of, how you can normalize things, right?

Eddie:

And it's really about, like the more you do something, the more

Eddie:

comfortable you get with it.

Eddie:

So that's awesome to hear how that's kind of Yeah.

Eddie:

Helped you kind of grow out of something that you kind of felt

Eddie:

like was a hindrance in your life.

Eddie:

You said, Hey, I'm gonna tackle this thing, and like you've, you've tackled

Eddie:

multiple things at the same time.

Eddie:

That's just awesome.

Melody:

Yeah.

Melody:

, which was insane.

Melody:

I was like, why am I doing this to myself?

Melody:

But we're gonna do.

Melody:

So I just wanna make sure to let people know that no matter how

Melody:

anxious you are, you really can do it.

Melody:

It's gonna be difficult, but the more you expose yourself

Melody:

to it, the easier it will get.

Melody:

I promise you it will.

Melody:

I'm not gonna say it's gonna be perfect and you're never gonna

Melody:

have anxiety again and you're cured cuz that's not how it works.

Melody:

Do I still get butterflies?

Melody:

Sometimes?

Melody:

Yes.

Melody:

Do I still get a little anxious Sometimes?

Melody:

Yes.

Melody:

But the amount that it's changed is astronomical and I

Melody:

promise it will for you too.

Melody:

You just have to put yourself out there and try.

Melody:

That's the hardest step.

Melody:

Once you get in the rhythm of doing it, it gets much.

Melody:

Yeah,

Eddie:

definitely.

Eddie:

I think whether it's anxiety or whether it's just things that you

Eddie:

should do, right, like habits.

Eddie:

Mm-hmm.

Eddie:

, they're always hardest at the beginning, and whether it's public speaking or

Eddie:

hopping on calls or learning something new like programming or like, I've been

Eddie:

trying to drink more water instead of just soda, and it's like by default, use a.

Eddie:

There.

Eddie:

Everyone keeps saying that.

Eddie:

What is going on with this straw stuff?

Melody:

Here's a straw.

Melody:

Listen

Eddie:

straw, it works.

Eddie:

I just ordered a Tumblr with a straw that should be here today.

Eddie:

That is also a smart Tumblr.

Eddie:

You will drink more water.

Eddie:

All right.

Eddie:

All right.

Eddie:

Hopefully that works.

Eddie:

But it's like you have to change the habit, right?

Eddie:

Like the habit is, oh, I'm scared, or, oh, that's too difficult, or, I just want to

Eddie:

drink the sugar water that tastes so good.

Eddie:

And it's like as we kind of get over that initial hump, things get easier.

Eddie:

Right?

Eddie:

It's always hardest at the beginning, I think, for anything we do.

Eddie:

Yeah, a hundred percent.

Eddie:

As we wrap up today at, we always talk about as a community, we love to

Eddie:

support each other and we just wanted to know is there anything you're involved

Eddie:

in or something you've worked on?

Eddie:

Probably heard of it a couple of times today, so it's probably not

Eddie:

gonna be a surprise to anyone.

Eddie:

But, uh, yeah.

Eddie:

Is there anything that you do routinely that you'd like to invite people to?

Melody:

Surprise.

Melody:

Surprise.

Melody:

It's gonna be my Twitch channel.

Melody:

Please come watch me on Twitch.

Melody:

Fumble about in some.

Melody:

At Melody Dev and yeah, be part of the community.

Melody:

We all laugh together.

Melody:

We all create code together, have fun, co-work.

Melody:

So yeah, it's, it's a very open community.

Melody:

No matter who you are.

Melody:

You are

Eddie:

welcome.

Eddie:

Well, yeah, so you all heard it.

Eddie:

Go check out.

Eddie:

Do you have, like, on your Twitch account, does it have like a schedule or are you

Eddie:

more just kind of random when you log

Melody:

on?

Melody:

I wing it to be honest.

Melody:

It's random.

Melody:

All right.

Melody:

You'll catch me there,

Melody:

. Eddie: There we go.

Melody:

So go follow Melody on the account.

Melody:

Turn on Notifi.

Melody:

So that your app tells you, Hey, melody just went live

Melody:

and uh, go join the community.

Melody:

Yeah.

Melody:

Thanks so much.

Melody:

You got my back with that one.

Melody:

. Eddie: Awesome.

Melody:

Well Melody, thank you for joining us today.

Melody:

It's been just a pleasure to hear a bit about your journey and what

Melody:

it's been like to get into tech and the community has been around you.

Melody:

Um, I just really appreciate the time.

Melody:

Yeah, thanks so much for having me

Eddie:

thank you for joining us for episode 35, hitting the go live button.

Eddie:

I was shaking.

Eddie:

With melody.

Eddie:

You can find out more about melody on her website.

Eddie:

Melody m.dev.

Eddie:

And you can find her on all across the interwebs.

Eddie:

You can find links to everything we talked about in this episode, as well

Eddie:

as a link to Melody's website and social media accounts in the show notes.

Eddie:

If you enjoyed this episode, help others discover it as well.

Eddie:

Why don't you give us a shadow on your favorite social media platform?

Eddie:

Maybe tag a friend or coworker that you think would enjoy this episode.

Eddie:

And don't forget to follow us wherever you hang out online.

Eddie:

Or you do, you can subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date.

Eddie:

Thank you for listening.

Eddie:

And I hope you have a great day.

Melody:

thank you everyone for listening.