My Journey to Tech
How in the world did I end up doing tech work?
You may be wondering this (and gosh, I had (and still have!) the same question myself.
I worked as a Speech Language Pathologist in healthcare for almost a decade. When my son was born I decided to stay home a little longer as we did not feel ready to put him in daycare. There was no set plan, but we figured I’d return to work at some point at least on a part time basis. And then – boom – Covid hit & everything changed. With unstable childcare options and the uncertainty of Covid impacts, my return to Speech Pathology & the healthcare world was on hold until further notice.
People had warned me that the longer I was away from work, the harder it would be to go back. They weren’t wrong, but they weren’t right either.
I was happy to be home witnessing all the milestones, nurturing my littles, and enjoying a slower pace of life. I remember the first time my daughter was sick and couldn’t go to preschool. The sense of relief - that I wasn’t letting anyone down by having to shorten or cancel therapy sessions, that I wasn’t scrambling to find someone to cover for me, that I didn’t have to stress about balancing with my husband whose schedule had been more impacted the last time - was amazing. I was right where I was supposed to be.
And that felt right for a long time. I had little to no desire to return to work- especially the stressful world of healthcare.
As my kids grew and immune systems improved, I started to miss the sense of community and opportunities to help others. The truth is though, we also grew to love the flexibility of being able to take care of our family needs and to travel when we wanted to (my husband can work remotely quite a bit). It was clear that if I was going to do something we did not want to lose that flexibility. I was ready to do something, but just did not know what that something was.
I started researching jobs to see if I could find something remote & flexible - the dream!
One day I happened to see a post in a Mom group where people were discussing remote, part-time jobs. I ended up chatting with a mama who had become a virtual assistant. [Hey Katie! If you’re reading this you were the catalyst of this!] She told me how awesome this had been for her to be able to contribute to her family and get her work done on her schedule. I felt like I was onto something with this so dug in more to research the possibilities.
I was really intrigued by the benefits of being a virtual assistant, but quickly realized I wanted to have an even greater impact on the businesses I was supporting. Ultimately, I ended up investing in a program that took me in an entirely different direction.
And the rest is history as they say…
I spent every free chance I had going through coursework learning the ins and outs of online marketing, building funnels, setting up backend systems, automating tasks and more. I was so determined to learn and make the investment in both time & money worth it. Somewhere along the way I realized that I actually really liked what I was doing - and even better - I was pretty darn good at it. From just “doing tech tasks” to truly understanding and being able to strategize and problem solve has transformed what I can offer (and really who I am!).
I get to support business owners so that they can do what they love to do.
I get to solve problems, be creative, and due to the everchanging tech world - constantly learn and grow.
I get to be there for my family and do the things I love when I want to and where I want to.
So, that’s how I ended up in the “tech world” and I am so grateful for it every day.
