Today is National Business Women’s Day. So what better day to share my career story? 🥳
So, how did I become this accidental trailblazer? 🌠
Great question! I’d love to tell you because I didn’t set out to do anything other than taking care of my family.
Before starting my own business I was a Director of Marketing for a really large company in the Midwest and that company back then had been on a wage freeze for several years because of the economic recession, so I was in my entry-level salary 6 years into my career. 💸
During that time, I had two kids, I got married, and not to mention I did a really good job for the company and brought new programs to the company that otherwise wasn’t going to happen. 👶💍
But when I was pregnant with my second child, I backed out taxes and daycare costs to figure out what my plan was going to be. With that math (after taxes and full-time daycare), I would bring home $0. 😔
I specifically remember this bright pink post-it note that I was doing the math on and realized there had to be a better way. 🤔
I started freelancing. I took on a couple of clients here and there and just worked during nap times and for a while that worked out really great I actually got to bring home some money, and it also gave me a lot of flexibility.
Then I started getting enough clients that I could bring on a couple of team members here and there. 👐
A business Mentor told me that in order for me to get big clients I was going to have to get an office and I was going to have at least a two-hour commute each way every day and I just wasn’t into that.
So, I have been remote since day one. I find that helps me attract really great talent. A lot of us are parents and need to be off by 3:00 to pick up our kids. 🚸
I didn’t know I was going to be busting through all these rules and all these expectations, but it really amounted to what can I do, what do I have to offer, and what can I get. 😮
I did want to work, but I didn’t want the extra things that come with it – extra gas money, the extra daycare costs, the extra commute, etc. 🙅♀️
I always go back to committing to what I know and what I value, and that is what I am sticking to. 😺
It seems to be working out pretty well too. 🤗
Let me know how have you paved the way in your own career on my recent LinkedIn post. ❤️