Neil Millard

Neil Millard Positive, encouraging and patient with a dry sense of humor. Always learning. Interests include DevOps, financial management, IT and helicopters

Anyone else's AWS bill triple overnight with zero explanation available?I get called in for this a lot. Not to fix it - ...
26/08/2026

Anyone else's AWS bill triple overnight with zero explanation available?

I get called in for this a lot. Not to fix it - that part's usually straightforward once someone qualified looks at it. I get called in to answer the actual question underneath: how did nobody notice this happening?

Nine times out of ten, the honest answer is - nobody was watching, because nobody on the team was hired to watch. Small teams are built to ship. Infrastructure decisions get made in passing, by whoever's closest to the problem that week, and they quietly compound until finance flags the invoice.

That's not the team being careless. It's a gap nobody budgeted for. Small companies don't know what they don't know about infrastructure - and that gap doesn't send you a warning before it shows up on the bill.

Has this happened on your watch? What was the moment you realised?

Do you really want one employer to be your only source of income?Because that's actually the riskiest thing most of us d...
25/06/2026

Do you really want one employer to be your only source of income?

Because that's actually the riskiest thing most of us do - and we've just normalised it.

I'm not saying quit your job. I'm saying: in the world we're in right now, having something of your own on the side isn't a nice-to-have. It's becoming a sensible hedge.

The talk I'm doing on 8th July at the Blakehay - The Psychology of the Side Hustle - is for people who've had that thought but haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet.

We'll cover why the idea keeps nagging at you, what's actually stopping you (spoiler: it's not what you think), and how to use AI to reduce the friction of getting started.

Then after a break at the bar, I'll walk through three real paths for building income outside your day job - whether you're a technical person, an experienced professional, or someone who's been quietly solving the same problem for twenty years and could probably charge for it.

Wednesday 8th July. 7:30pm. The Blakehay, Weston-super-Mare. Tickets £12.

👉 https://www.blakehay.org.uk/event-details/the-psychology-of-the-side-hustle

Here's a question I keep getting asked: "Should I be worried about AI replacing my job?"Honestly, probably less than you...
23/06/2026

Here's a question I keep getting asked: "Should I be worried about AI replacing my job?"

Honestly, probably less than you think - but that doesn't mean nothing is changing.

What AI is doing is lowering the barrier to building something of your own. Things that used to require a team, a budget, or months of learning can now be prototyped in an afternoon. The gap between "I've got an idea" and "I know what to do next" has never been smaller.

That's what I'm talking about at the Blakehay in Weston-super-Mare on Wednesday 8th July - The Psychology of the Side Hustle: How AI Is Changing Work, Money and Independence.

The evening is split into two halves. First, the psychology - why people want to build something of their own and what actually gets in the way. Then the practical - three paths worth considering:

The Confident Contractor - stepping out with your existing expertise into consulting or service work
The App Creator - building a digital product or SaaS idea
The Scale Coach - turning deep experience into a premium coaching or facilitation practice
25+ years in technology and two books later, I've seen most of the ways this can go well - and plenty of the ways it doesn't. This talk is the version I wish someone had given me.

Tickets: £12 | 8th July, 7:30pm | The Blakehay, Weston-super-Mare

👉 https://www.blakehay.org.uk/event-details/the-psychology-of-the-side-hustle

Most people with a side hustle idea don't fail because the idea is bad.They fail before they even start - because of wha...
18/06/2026

Most people with a side hustle idea don't fail because the idea is bad.

They fail before they even start - because of what's going on in their head.

There's a moment where the brain fires up and suddenly you think: "I could actually do something here." And then, almost immediately, something else kicks in and you talk yourself out of it. Too busy. Too risky. Not the right time.

That's not a strategy problem. That's a psychology problem.

On Wednesday 8th July at 7:30pm, I'm doing a talk at the Blakehay in Weston-super-Mare called The Psychology of the Side Hustle - and the first half is entirely about that moment. Why the idea sparks, what shuts it down, and how AI can actually help break that cycle rather than just add to the noise.

After the break, we get into the practical bit - three different routes for building something of your own, depending on who you are and what you've already got.

No hustle nonsense. No "quit your job tomorrow" energy. Just an evening for people wondering what their next move could look like.

Tickets are £12. I'll also have copies of my books on the night.

👉 https://www.blakehay.org.uk/event-details/the-psychology-of-the-side-hustle

Not all promotions are progress.One day you’re doing the work you enjoy.The next, you’re in meetings, leading politics, ...
10/02/2026

Not all promotions are progress.

One day you’re doing the work you enjoy.
The next, you’re in meetings, leading politics, managing chaos - and the fire that made you good at your craft starts to go out.

Being promoted away from your strengths isn’t growth - It’s drift.

👉 Curious whether contracting could pull you back to the work you’re brilliant at?
Take the quiz: https://f.mtr.cool/momqcrkvex

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