 Hi everybody, this is Christian Buckley with another MVP Buzz Chat and I'm talking today with Kat. Hello. Hi, how are you doing? I'm doing well. And for folks that don't know who you are, who are you, where are you, what do you do? So, yeah, I'm Kat Breenan. I am a Microsoft solution specialist for a UK based Microsoft Gold partner. I recently got awarded Office Apps, Office 365 Access MVP. I'll include that in my title as well now. It's just so exciting. Thank you so much. But yeah, so I am based in Cardiff, but I'm from Edinburgh. So I always get picked up, especially from people in the UK. The accent doesn't really match where I live. That's because I am from Scotland, but I live in Wales. So I've travelled around a little bit, which is quite nice. In terms of what I do and the technology that I focus on, I love Microsoft Teams. That's my technology focus. Teams, Teams, now Viva. So obviously that is a big part of Teams as well. So speaking at lots of conferences, doing lots of blogs on Microsoft Viva, which is really, really exciting to have a new product to get your hands in and dig into, which is quite nice. And yeah, in terms of what I do, I get really involved in speaking at conferences, blogging. I'm on TikTok now. So if there's any TikTok fans out there. I know that there are a lot that are out on. You slowly see technology related, relevant TikToks. Not that there's, I mean, there's a lot of fun stuff that's just out there that's community building and personalities and that side of things. Are you doing anything work related for TikTok or is it more for fun? It's both. You can have fun when you're doing work stuff or technology focused stuff. So TikTok videos, check it out. It's collab with Kat. If you are interested in fun trends that are related to working in tech. I also do videos on tips and tricks on how to get into the tech community. When you're speaking at conferences, what should you do to prepare for your presentation? How to actually apply to speak at conferences? What's it like working in tech? What's the work life balance like? What's it like being a woman in tech? So it's a lot of that type of video. And the reason I started it was I love TikTok anyway, and I was always on it. And I thought, let's create my own space. And when I was first looking to get involved in the tech community, I didn't really know anybody in it. And I kind of reached out to some MVPs to ask questions about what you do and all of this stuff. But I found it so hard. I was like, where do you even start speaking at conferences? And how do you start presenting? And what do you post? And what do you search for? So I thought, let's create some videos to show people what I did. That's a lot of the purpose of where I started this series was to understand kind of the path to becoming an MVP. And for folks that watch any of them, you go watch a handful of these episodes and you start to see those patterns. So what would you say? First off, well, let me just back up one comment. So I'm about half Scottish. So my family, in fact, 16 generations come from Edinburgh. So in fact, on my mother's father's, my maternal grandfather's side, Richardson. And it was like 16 or 17 generations back all in Edinburgh. And the name was Rikerson and then changed it to Richardson. I don't know why. And then they didn't go anywhere for 15 generations until finally coming over to America. But anyway, I just want to throw that out there and I'll be over in that neck of the woods next summer. But my family is going to be renting a house over on the West Coast of Scotland for a month. And so I'm going to come, come see everybody over there. But anyway, no. So I'd love to know, like, what do you think, like, what was your path? I mean, did you set out at the beginning of the path that you're doing things that somebody approached and said, hey, you should become an MVP? Is it something that you strove for? Or kind of what was, what set you on the path to becoming an MVP? So it was a little bit of both. I knew about it. The company that I worked for, we have an MVP who's been in the program. He's more dynamics focused and been in the program for a long time. So it was, I was kind of thinking, okay, let's look at what that is because people said, you know, oh, he's an MVP. It's always something that people introduced him as. And I thought, oh, what's that? So I wanted to find out more about what it was. I kind of knew what it meant that, you know, you put time in and you learn more about technology and didn't really understand it too much. And it was my boss as well who kind of said, oh, look, you know, we want to invest in getting some MVPs in our workplace. So there's something that we want to do. And I said, oh, look, I was looking into MVP. Why don't we, you know, why don't I look to find out more about it? So that's kind of where the initial idea came from. It was wanting to find out more. And yeah, my boss kind of mentioned it in passing as well. And one thing that I think I am is career driven. I kind of wanted to improve my career. I want to go into more of a, you know, technology or technical role. I did a couple of years ago and then did eventually, which is quite nice. And the first thing that I did was I reached out to MVPs. So I searched for MVPs, just Google them. And then said the messages on LinkedIn and Twitter to say, look, can I have a call with you, please, just to see what it's all about. It'd be really, really appreciated. And I'm sure that most of them were just angrily shunned you for reaching out to them. Nobody said no. Well, that's, that's a thing. It's, it's, I mean, that's a scary first step. Like even if you don't know them, if you've not interacted them, I mean, we've all been locked down for two years. You know, now, but you know, these are some of the most, most approachable people out in the community. And so I'd say like no fear, just reach out to an MVP. Definitely. Everyone is so friendly and everybody's there to share as an MVP, your job really is share your knowledge. That's what it's all about. And so if somebody new is approaching saying, can I have some of your knowledge? You're going to say yes. I mean, if you don't, there's, you know, maybe you don't have time. That's fair enough. But, you know, that's your, that's why you're an MVP. So every one of them are so friendly. And they all had a, you know, there was three or four of them. I had a call with them. There was somebody that I spoke to at Microsoft as well, who helped. He knew a couple of MVPs. He introduced me to some people. So I kind of just asked around. And they gave me some really great advice on what it means to be an MVP. Don't just, it's something to strive for. And it's great for the career, but it becomes a part of your life. So if it's not something that you're interested in doing in your spare time, it's probably not the right thing for you. And I thought, well, that's fine because, you know, I don't have any kids. I got a little dog. So what do I do in my spare time? Oh, don't ignore the dog though. Come on. I know. Hello, hello, Brucey. This is my baby. But anyway, I go off track. So that was the, that was a good starting point. Find out more because we had an MVP court, but it was, you know, find out what's happening today. New MVPs, try and speak to people who've just gone through the process. Like one of them told me about session eyes, the website, if you, if you want to start, and I didn't know that existed. You used more and more by events. Yeah. Exactly. That's how I apply to all of my speaking events. And it's what got me started with speaking at conferences. I wouldn't have known that existed. Also, do you, do you have abstracts? So I know that there are events that use session eyes for those that don't know what it allows you to go as a speaker and build a profile. But events can use it, then they go through and do like a call formal call for speakers. And where if you're already using the platform, have your profile there, you can go in and say, well, take these five abstracts or two abstracts that I want to submit and submit them to that event. You can even use it for groups for, for events that are not using session eyes for their events. You can still have your profile there that you can point people to your abstracts. Yeah, definitely. So you can basically turn on what if you've got a list of abstracts or topics that you cover, which ones do you want to show on your profile or not, and sort of things. If you have old ones that are outdated, you can just turn them off and keep it up to date. That was the really a great starting point. What I would also say, it was nerve wracking. You know, people will say, what communities are you in? And I wasn't in any communities because I didn't know what they were. It was, it was all new. And so there were, you know, there was, oh, are you starting to do more of this? Are you, you know, getting involved in speaking at user groups? And I was, I was, I didn't know how to do that. How do I find a user group and how do I apply to speak at that? So I just started Googling things out of nowhere like teams, user groups and which did help. But what's probably helped more was I started a blog called collab with cat.com and it was sharing tips and tricks and Microsoft teams. This is something that I did anyway. And so I did tip, Friday tip videos for, you know, a little while on Office 365, just out of, you know, fun, post them on LinkedIn and things like that. So I changed that into a blog. And as soon as I started posting and sharing content, I got approached by people in the community. So they, you know, somebody actually approached me, Peter Rising, you might know who approached me and said, have you been nominated for MVP? Because you'd be a great candidate. People approached me to, you know, join a user group or present a certain event. And so that all started when I started putting content out there that was interesting to me. And so I thought, oh, this might be interesting to others. And that's when the floodgates opened. You know, something again, for people that are thinking about this and following a similar path is that so I'm on the board of our, my local user group. And sometimes we just struggle to find that we're that we generally have topics that we want covered. And then we go out looking for who can come and present on this thing that already set of users are really interested in hearing about. It would be, I mean, we do have people reach out occasionally and say, hey, I'd love to come and speak and we might look and say, well, we have this month and next month the topics but we don't have something set up for two months out. Could we book you for that in two months. And so that's again, people that are being proactive reaching out to the user groups. We'll we're happy to go and shape our topics around presenters with great subject matter that approach us is so much easier than trying to scatter and find somebody to speak for the for the event. Yeah, that's something that you should not be shy reach out to the user groups and say, hey, I present on this. You know, again, worst case they say look we're booked solid six months and there are user groups that are like that they're like we're booked so far in advance. We don't like to book them further out because the technology can change and we want to stay current on that. But that's the worst thing that'll happen is they'll say hey no not right now, but the likelier thing is they'll say hey we'll find a place to fit you in. I think as well in terms of finding those user groups. Where do you ask them. Twitter is a great place. So they've usually got a user group you usually got an account on Twitter. That post about the user group that you're doing you send them a message on Twitter, or even like using meetup so meetups are really good website for user groups and session eyes. Yeah, so that was what I struggled with. How do I find the user groups. So that's how I did it. I searched on Twitter meetup and session eyes are great websites to look at. Well you know that there's now now that you're an MVP. I mean that there's more opportunities that happen once you have that official status. For example, on Facebook and there's a number of huge communities like there are teams communities that have 10s of thousands of members and fast Facebook. But there is also a call for speakers group for MVPs. And so you can hear about events all over the world that you can also go and do so it it's one of those things where once you're in the know. You know that you can kind of get more plugged in and find other opportunities, which is another reason why if you're not an MVP to reach out and and befriend MVPs and. So I've had a number of that I've submitted people that have become MVPs. I have others that reach out and ask for formal mentoring around becoming an MVP. And, and I generally like mentoring and where that's where I, I know I'll give more time than just some advice one time. I'm a little more, you know, particular about who I pull and I have to know the person. Yeah, for one. And it can be a virtual know them I've known them online but we have regular interactions. But is that something that you're looking to do is to go now formally your mentor people. And I always thought I could never be a mentor. I don't know enough. It was that whole idea of shouldn't I have a mentor instead, but being involved. Yes, and yes, by the way. That's the great thing about the community is I'm a podcast host on cloud conversations and we always talk about this. And everybody says they feel the same way, even though I look at them and think oh my goodness you're like a great mentor this is you know but they feel the same that imposter syndrome of all you know. So the answer I guess is yes I would love to I'm looking to get involved in the stem ambassador program this year, which is going to be helping young people, particularly, you know, especially young women and young girls to get into technology encouraging them showing what it's like in my experience and I've kind of started talking about that a lot more on my TikTok videos and things like that to try and inspire some people to especially young women to look into a career in in tech or technology. So yeah, I'm looking to do that for the stem ambassador program but of course if there is anybody listening who just wants some help, please feel free to reach out because that's what I did and it definitely helped me so I'm want to pass it on pass it forward. Well, good to the question 42 is like so you mentioned like wanting to a couple years back like get move over into technology. What were you originally like do what was your degree in or what was your focus, prior to moving this direction. So my degree was documentary film and television. So, film and TV was my. Yeah, it was what I really liked is I like film I'm really into my movies, and I did that as a degree and then I did work for BBC crime watch roadshow for a little while, and it just wasn't for me, we'll say that. And I realized that film was really, I didn't have, there was no career option in it for me it was more of a hobby. And so then I started, I went to China for six months and taught English to four year olds. I worked for a charity so I had a complete non tech background I didn't even do it in school, and you know it was completely new. And I kind of fell into a graduate program, which put me in touch with my current company core about six years ago. And I joined as a customer success manager because I'd had customer service experience with similar thing. When I was in my customer success role I would do demonstrations of the products, so customers get value from it. And that was the bit I loved doing. And so I said to my boss, look, can I just do more of this stuff because I really like doing it. And he said yes, and was very supportive and said, okay, and there was workshops that came out. So we were delivering teams, you know, deep technical workshops how to deploy it and so on and I said I want to get into that. And so he did say, let's see how the first couple of workshops go with customers. I did the workshops, they turned out quite well. And then my role was changed from customer success manager to Microsoft solution specialist. Quite a few years ago now. And yeah, I have been doing that ever since and then getting more involved in compliance and now Viva and kind of expanding from there so totally non tech, I just asked for it because I really liked it. But that's a great, that's you kind of made like the point I was going to make is that, you know, what drives a lot of this for and not not becoming an MVP part of it but just move into this space is just a passion around the technology and having, you know, that direct involvement with customers and their stories and the pains that they're going through and understanding and then you having to go and figure out well what is the answer to that question that I keep hearing. And then once you have the answer sharing that out and solving this problem for so many other people, like that is a core to like the MVP pathway is finding what are those gaps those business gaps what are the outcomes that people expect. How can we better achieve that that outcome through the use of the technology, and then showcasing that demonstrating that helping people to match the nuances of their business and help them get more out of the technology that they're using. Yeah, it's look where I think most MVPs it's a consistent story of that that's what we are passionate about and it's exciting to see, you know, more people that kind of figure out that path than make their way over into the program. Well cat really appreciate you take the time to get to know you and learn about some of your stories so people want to find out more about you or get in touch with you what are the best ways to reach you. Probably LinkedIn and Twitter, so my Twitter handle is at greening cat. And LinkedIn is if you just search for cat greening I'll pop up as now an MVP in my title. And I do have my blog collab with cat.com my contact details are on there as well plus lots of tips and tricks on Microsoft teams. So just a little plug there if you want to check that out. She's on tiktok so and tiktok I'm trying to get everyone on tiktok that's my goal. Well thanks so much for taking the time to chat today. No worries it was a pleasure to be here.