Kent is 100% correct here.
I owe most of my (modest) success and career growth to presenting talks at local meetups —
@reactsydney and
@SydCSS.
From there, I submitted a conference talk (
@DotAllConf 18) and got accepted.
I became an "authority" in the utility-first CSS world.
For some of you, this will be the most career impactful five and a half minute video of your week. Stop what you're doing and watch.