Whatever impact you want to make on the world, let's do it! You're more ready than you think!
(And yes, the older you are, the better!)
This episode is a look at my entrepreneurial journey, for those of you who are curious! From math/art to cum laude graduate in architecture school, Beginning Hip Hop Dance for Adults, a soul-sucking first job in a toxic workplace as a graphic design and social media specialist, teaching group fitness classes, and becoming a tech VA (virtual assistant). It all came together, and it will for you, too.
Transcript
Hey everybody, welcome to the self employed nerd and my name is Rochelle and if you're just now joining me and this is your very first episode, just keep in mind that this is a little different than what I usually focus on, which is showing you the behind the scenes stuff, nerding out with you on different ways that being self employed is absolutely a game changer as far as taking more power power over your, your life and your decisions and all that stuff. So I can geek out about all that stuff and Leslie it seems, but I also thought that it might help you to hear a little bit about my backstory and what kind of journey I've been on and honestly it has been something obviously or else I wouldn't have so many stories to tell and I wouldn't be this excited about having other people join me on this weird adventure of being self employed.
So welcome to the podcast! If this is your first episode, today's episode is going to be just about me telling you all the different things I've done as someone who's self employed. Now you haven't heard the other episodes, if this is your first one. But basically I see self-employment as any, any route, any creative route that you decided to take to monetize your life to make some money, some income that is different from the typical, I got a degree in college and now I've found now I've found a job and I'm going to stay there for 30 years until I can retire and then start my life. So self-employment to me is about starting now and going ahead and going after those fun ideas and making them happen because this is the best time to do it. I really don't think that we need to wait, especially with the power of the Internet and the fact that we are seeing so many social movements and so many people want to make a difference and we're using the power of the Internet to do that.
And I don't know, you know, it's just, it's one of those things where like it's happening, there's opportunity and it, and you really can join in any time. So I hope that you feel encouraged and maybe you can see that, you know, it doesn't have to be perfect. You don't have to be one of those people who has been entrepreneurial since they were three years old and destined to be a business owner. Like you can literally just just focus on the things that you like, that you're passionate about and then learn a few things. Surround yourself with people who have been there already and it really doesn't have to be that much of a high pressure or a sort of a thing. You can have a business and you can make money according to your own terms and you don't have to be a sleazy, annoying person to do it.
And I hope that I can illustrate that for you a little bit with how my path personally has been really weird. It hasn't been predictable. It's really uncomfortable honestly, because I've always been a very high achieving kind of person. I was always the straight a student. As a kid. I've always really tried hard in school and tried to impress people and get high marks and do all of that stuff, which has helped me a little bit. But I've found, you know, in my adulthood, my, my ripe old age of 35 right now that there's more to life than grades and money and impressing people. So I hope that this helps you. Okay. So my personal experience with being self employed and trying different things out and having fun while I do it has, I'll give you a little like peek at what it, what it has amounted to.
So basically now that I have a business, I do work that I love, I get to go on. It's like, it's the opposite of the meeting, the dreaded meetings in your day job, you know those meetings where you have to have them and you're like, this didn't do anything and we just wasted everyone's time. And I'm saying exactly the same thing that we've been saying every single week. And I don't even know why we do this. So I have the luxury of being able to work with people. I admire people that I already follow on social media, like honestly, um, I get to do work that I'm really good at and that is easy and that is, that pays me more per hour than any day job that I've ever had. Um, I now get invitations to be on podcasts. I've talked about body positivity. I am going to be on a dance related podcast.
That's super cool. I've been invited to speak as an expert on email marketing even though I don't, I don't consider myself an expert, but I do use it and I do make money off of emails. So I guess that's, that's enough to warrant an invitation. But like I'm going to be speaking at a local chapter, rising tide society Tuesdays together here in Oakland, California about email marketing pretty soon. And you know, like in general in general, things are actually going well. Like if I'm cool with myself and I don't mean girl myself because we're all, you know, way harder on ourselves and we are and other people. But if I can admit it, I kind of know my stuff and it's actually really nice because it's, it's, this is after an entire lifetime of extreme like social anxiety, lots of shyness, lots of self doubt, lots of feeling like I can never amount to the the great things that my parents have done.
And so I actually feel good about it most days. And so I'm hoping that maybe you'll hear my story and my path that I took and you'll understand that it doesn't have to be some glorious movie, movie worthy Instagram worthy process for you. It really can just be you doing your own thing fee, seeing things being done by other people, trying it out yourself. And then I think that I would really emphasize the part about accepting support and being okay with things going well. Because once you get into studying mindset, which you can't really avoid, I will tell you right now, like I didn't want to do any of this mushy, mushy mindset stuff, but it's, it's unavoidable because ultimately you are going to have to speak to yourself in loving ways and you're going to have to be your own encourager and you're going to have to be your own coach and your own cheerleader along the way because you, you can support yourself with tons of supportive people who inspire you and want you to succeed, but ultimately you are going to be by yourself.
It's you inside your own body and you're going to have to talk to you, talk yourself up sometimes. So working on the mindset stuff is really important. Maybe don't, don't call it mindset, just call it being nice to yourself, being glad that things are happening, being interested in struggles and what, what you know, your decisions mean why you make the decisions that you do make and that kind of thing. Okay. So if you're not a very philosophical person, like I'm, I'm not really, I'm pretty medium on that scale. I'm not super deep person, but if you're not a really, really philosophical person, then I recommend just being open to the idea that you're deeper than you think and that you deserve to be supported. You deserve to be listened to and have all these crazy ideas of yours actually come true and you deserve to get applauded for it, basically.
Like you, you really can do this. So anyway, um, my journey is the typical like Asian-American, I'm, I'm Filipino American, so my parents are from the Philippines. They immigrated here and then they started a family and I was, like I said, the very smart kid. Um, my, my favorite subjects in elementary and middle school and high school, well I guess not really high school cause in high school everyone's always taking the same, the same classes. But like my favorite, my answer to the question, you know how like when you're a kid and adults ask you what's your favorite subject in school? Because now that I'm adult and adult, you realize that you don't, sometimes you just don't know what to ask a kid. So my favorite subjects were always math and art. And people always gave me a funny look by that because they're like, Huh, math and art.
And it was true. Like I was always all artistic, very creative. Um, you know, my family's not super artsy. It's not like we had an art studio at home or anything, but I grew up around craft supplies. My mom is a really creative, she basically could do anything and I inherited that from her. And then with math, I really liked it because I was, I enjoyed the process of following directions and then getting the right answer and then hopefully getting the right answer faster when you're being tested on it. And, um, yeah, I just, I enjoyed getting it right and that, that would follow me around more than I thought throughout my life, but that those are my, my subjects. But I was also really torn because I remember I'm in sixth grade and I know that this is gonna kinda sound like I'm telling you my entire life story, but it's, it's relevance, right?
You have certain moments in your childhood where things just affected you and you still remember it decades later. So I remember in sixth grade, um, we had a substitute teacher one day and we were a really bad class and, uh, the teacher just lost control over us and gave up. I remember that so vividly because I was like, oh, she just decided to stop teaching and we're just going wild. Okay. Um, I wasn't very wild as a person, but I, I also didn't like, you know, take control of the situation either. But, um, I remember the next day my teacher spent almost all day with us, like lecturing us on, on priorities and respect and she asked us to write down on a piece of paper what we want to be when we grow up. And I remember that that moment really, really bothered me because I was like, I don't know what I want to be.
And then I, I wrote down artist and then she was asking, she had us write down all these different things, like, what do you want to be? Why do you want to be it? How long do you think it's gonna take to do that? How much school do you have? Bank you have to do it and how much do you think you're going to make with that? And so as you know, little did I know this was like a life coaching kind of session with six sixth graders and um, but obviously it had an effect on me, right? I'm talking about it now. Um, and I remember writing down artist and then being really, gosh, I was just tortured and I was like, I, I can't believe this. And I am really frustrated because being an artist isn't a real career and it's not going to make any money and people are gonna make fun of me.
And it's not really impressive because being an artist is just lazy. It's the lazy way out where I expect my family to take care of me basically, so that I can just be creative on my own. And that idea, it's so silly to hear it now, but I remember thinking that. So anyway, favorite subjects, math and art. I ended up going into, um, I went to college for eight years because I couldn't pick a major. And not because I wasn't like I wasn't going full time. I think I went to school full time every single semester or quarter except for one for a full eight years, but two years of studying to be a math teacher because they tell you to pick a major and pick a career. And I was like, well I like math and I guess I can teach math. And so deep learning, math, all the high levels, you know, you learn like trigonometry, calculus and in high school.
And then beyond that is multiple levels of advanced advanced levels of math beyond calculus. And so I did that for two years, went to another community college because I did that at a community college and went to another college a and started taking architecture classes because I figured, okay, well I'm technical and I'm creative so I'm going to go for this. And I, I did it. I went to two years of a community college where I worked part time and then studied while study. I mean, it was a community college, so I was taking like the lower lower division architecture, design drawings, software, Photoshop kind of classes. And that was really fun. Um, I, I ended up going out of state up to Oregon and getting a degree in architecture Grad, graduated at the top of my class. I think it was like top, top 10% or something like that.
There's some fancy, I think it's, I don't even know how it's pronounced. [inaudible] is that how you pronounce it? It's on my Filipino family pronounces it, but I, I didn't even know. I didn't know until I was in my cap and gown at the end when my family was texting me from the audience saying, we can't believe that you're coming out in. I was like, what does that mean? So anyway, I did really well. Um, unfortunately realize during architecture school that I don't want to be an architect. Uh, it was a little too detached from the work that I really wanted to do because I noticed that other people were very much into like the art, the art, see creative ways that you could, you know, model and design living spaces. And I was sitting here going, this doesn't matter like people are in poverty and this would be too expensive and poor people can afford this stuff anyway, and who has the land for it?
And you know, like how am I going to take this home to my suburban, suburban hometown and convince them that they need to tear down all of the track homes and install green roofs and not use our air conditioners. Because apparently architects are responsible for all of the greenhouse gas emissions and all of global warming. So it was one of those things where I was having like a little bit of a quarter life crisis because I was studying the stuff that wasn't really applicable and meanwhile the planet was hurting. So that was my, that was my experience. I mean I did really well and it was really fun. But I think that it's, I really value that experience now because I know that I'm living in another state and just being put into a different culture because Eugene, Oregon is very different from bay area California by the way.
Um, but it was interesting for me and it helps me to understand more about myself as an adult. I didn't realize this at the time, but I do now and I appreciate, you know, these decisions that I made as a young adults and it's just been really interesting since then. What I do tell people is that my very favorite classes during architecture school where the hip hop dance classes and uh, I, I finally broke through my shyness as just a person and I embraced the fact that I really, I'm good at dancing and I wanted to learn hip hop dance and I would make up my own dances. And it turned out that the hip hop dance or like just the dance program at the University of Oregon was like a really good one at the time. And I made friends there and we did group projects together and it was a lot of fun.
And so by the time, I think this was like one year before I graduated, I decided I want to teach classes in my hometown. I think that I'm good enough at dancing that I can probably teach, teach other people how to dance. And I was convinced because I was convinced that pretty much anyone I talked to, I think I still believe this, but I was convinced that anyone, everyone, every single person wishes on some level that they could hip hop dance. And I was like, well I believe everyone can, you know, I believe that I can break it down and I can teach people and I can show them what a really fun activity this is. And you can listen, go ahead and listen to that ghetto music that you like on the radio that you can't play in front of your kids and you can go ahead and dance and you can learn choreography.
And I was like, I bet I could do it. And I did it. So the, the summer before the year that my senior year in college, this is like the final final year I went home and I offered to teach a free free workshop with my, um, cause you know how every city has their recreation department. So you have like city hall and then you have the recreation department and you have like the sewer district, you have all of those different like departments, governmental bodies. And so what I did was I approached the recreation department, I started teaching free workshops and they were called beginning hip hop dance for adults. And I remember I, I just loved it. I really, really did. And I would love to do it again. Um, it was just awesome. I remember bringing people together and I did this with multiple different, you know, different cities. So my city and then eventually during my breaks and during all the summer breaks, um, well not ma, I graduated the next year, but um, I host it there.
Let's see, they were multiple weeks but only once a week cause I knew it was for adults. Right. So I did like Saturday morning, I think Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening, I can't remember how many now. I think I taught a total of 10 workshops in different formats. So the first one was just a weekend, Saturday, Sunday. The next one was like two different weekends, um, to give people time to rehearse. And I've let the choreography scene again, there was another one that was three weeks, I think, once a week or twice a week. I can't remember now. But I tried it in different formats and it was a real, it was a lot of fun. And it was, it was nice because I got to teach and I got some of them I did charge for. And um, it was just a nice feeling, you know, to do something purely because I like it.
And because I think other people like it and kind of dabbling a little bit in advertising really, because at the time, keep in mind, this was when I had graduated from college and decided I didn't want to be an architect. And so I was like, okay, well now I need a job. And so what happened was that I got it job as a social media, but I think my official title was graphic design and social media specialist for a nonprofit actually pretty big, but it was a local local chapter of a well known nonprofit. And we were opening a community center. It was like we had gotten a grant and my little teeny city of like [inaudible] 89,000 people got chosen for the location. And so I got to join the that like the manager crew, that's, that's the word I'm looking for. I got to be like kind of a topic level manager.
I never actually had that title, but it was, I know that it was me and about like five other people. Um, starting this from scratch and just being responsible for opening this multimillion dollar facility in a small town and being able to serve the community. And so I got to take my, my graphic design skills, which I had gotten really good at, uh, in architecture school. Cause by the way, in architecture school, every single quarter you have to put together a presentation, put together the physical model, and then you have to, they're called reviews at the end. Final reviews or mid term reviews. And basically you have to defend yourself. They bring in a bunch of, uh, professional architects or designers or you know, some, some kind of professional. And then you have, I can't remember, is it two, two or three reviews that are like 20 minutes long.
And you basically have to present your idea to someone and then have them tear it apart and tell you what you did wrong and how this could never work and question all of your decisions. And it was, it was not great at the time. But I know now that that helped me so much. Oh my goodness. Like all of the experience that I have in final reviews and presenting my ideas and standing up for my designs and my intentions. It's like, Oh man, what a good, what a good life lesson. Right? Cause I can imagine that other people who didn't have that kind of rigorous education that I did, they don't have that experience. And now I'm like, well this is no different than college. When I got like the smackdown put on me every single quarter at the end where they were telling me my ideas don't, don't work.
It's, it's interesting looking back on it now. So anyway, the way that I got this job with the nonprofit was that I was like, you know what? I bet they need people. And I looked at their jobs and their career, you know like positions that they were hiring for and they did have a couple. So there was one that was a marketing director and then they had one that was like a promotional director. I couldn't tell the difference between the two of them, to be honest. And now that I know more about the organization, I don't think they knew the difference either. But I couldn't tell which one I wanted to apply to. And so I was like, you know what, I'm going to volunteer. And so I wrote to them and I said, I am, you know, I gave them the spiel about who I am and I'm, you know, at the time, as a young person, early twenties, I had graphic design background and so I asked them if they needed any help making materials and they did.
And so they sent me all of the information that they needed on their materials cause I knew that they needed to print stuff. Right. If you're opening a giant multimillion dollar facility, then you're probably going to be going places with flyers. Right? You probably gonna make you be making a website. And I was like, I bet I could probably do that for them. So I slipped my way in there. I offered to do the, the designs for free. And I did. And I worked really hard on those. By the way, I don't think I've ever worked on any graphic design harder than I did on those particular things because I was like, no, this is really needs to be good. This is going to get me a job. And it did. It was nice. It worked. Um, I ended up applying for one of the jobs and then eventually my title got switched over to graphic design and social media specialist, which by the way, I now know was like way too much for a starter job and you know, fresh out of college kid doing all of the graphic design and being responsible for all of the social media.
It was, it was insane. But I didn't know that at the time. And I don't think they did either. But those are two different things. People, two different things like don't expect one person to do all of the graphic design and all of the social media. But I knew now. Right. And that's, that's how we grow and that's how we get better with every life experience. I will, there's a reason I keeping it anonymous because you're probably like, why didn't she just saying what the nonprofit is? And that's because my experience there was not great. Um, I ended up leaving in tears. That was like, you know how everyone has that, that one particular professional experience that kind of tears you apart and makes you lose your belief in humanity. That one was mine. And I believe that the people that I've like reconnected with from that original crew, and by the way, almost all of us quit like soon.
Very, very quickly. We all did what we needed to do. We were inspired, we were really passionate. And then, uh, um, all of us quit. And so it's a, it's almost an entirely different crew of people running it now. But, um, for me it was, it was a really good learning experience and it was also one of those things where you're like, oh, you know, just because people say they are one thing doesn't mean that they are that thing. And so it really just comes down to how you treat people, how respectful you are, how professional you are. And I admit, you know, I was an immature young person back then in my own way and I did my best, but at the same time I kind of fell apart at the edges by the end. And I was like, I just don't give a shit about anybody anymore.
And, um, I ended up quitting. I ended up having, um, a review with my, my supervisor holding it together just enough to go home in tears and then my two week's notice the very next day. And I'm, I'm proud of myself for doing that. And I'm also proud that I didn't, I didn't make it a huge dramatic thing. Like sometimes you have, you want to make a huge difference by saying this is wrong, this is, you know, this kind of treatment should never happen with anyone. But at the same time, uh, sometimes you just kind of want to exit, you know, like you can only handle so much and, and take so much responsibility for the world and how other people are treating other people. That, that was mine. Like that was my thing. Rose like, I am so miserable. I'm not being, being treated well.
I don't agree with a lot of things that are happening behind the scenes. And it was kind of like my exit. And also, I guess it's my exit from that and also my entrance to the, like the kind of professional I would be from then on. Because here's the thing, I, I don't look back on that job fondly, but I do absolutely love what it did to me for the long run because at the time I remember, um, some of my ideas, cause I mean, like I wasn't really into social media, right? I've never really been like a a facebooker and I'm not really into like sharing all of my deepest, darkest secrets online. But at the time I was like, I s I need to learn how to do this stuff. And so I remember sitting at work and doing research on how to do social media.
Like, how do, how do you do this? How does it work? And, um, I was like proposing different ideas that I had found. And, um, like I said, not really getting a whole lot of support, but I did do it for myself. And so I was like, you know what, I'm not getting any support but I am going to sign up for this, this thing that I think is going to help me. And it was called, it was by you know one of many marketing gurus that you'll find out there and it was called an inner circle and it was $100 a month and I remember how gut wrenching that was because you know, fresh out of college in kind of a miserable day job and and then like wanting to to learn more but being like holy crap, $100 a month. Like I don't even spend that much on groceries and I have a cell phone to pay for and you know all of these other expenses but like $100 a month was huge for me and that's, that was such a huge part of my, just my development into what I do now because now I feel great.
I'm charging $100 per month for a real, the be real deal business academy because I know that it's doable, right? Everyone can find a $100 per month unless you just refuse to, and I remember how hate using the word empowering because I think that people use it too much, but I remember that it really did make me think differently about my life and my decisions and my, my money choices. And it was really cool because, uh, it was mine. So I paid $100 a month to be part of this digital program where there were like two calls for months. I wasn't getting any one-on-one advice or if I was then I was getting like very vague answers. But there was a lot of like videos and training and you know, that kind of thing. And so it was one of those things where I was learning on my own how to do social media at the same time as being in this job and then also quitting this job.
And I took that skill set and I was like, you know what? I could probably do this on my own because the nice thing about surrounding yourself with people who are learning a specific skill set, you know I was in this group in the Facebook group learning all these things and then you find out that other people are making money doing random things that you never would have considered for yourself. And that ended up having an effect on me obviously. So over the next three years, I'm going to fast forward a little bit. I flip flopped from job to job. I think I have, I think I have like a phase of life where I had five different full time jobs and I quit all five of them within a span of five years. So I would get into a job, be wonderful at it, a do it better than the person that I was replacing and then get bored as heck and resentful and then quit and then go on to the next job.
And that all happened within a short span of years. I was job hopping, I was working with different construction companies cause I was like, well I don't want to be an architect. I guess I'll just use my skillset for the construction industry. And then I also was pushing myself a little bit like I think I was in denial about not wanting to be an architect for longer than I care to admit. And so that was, that was that, and while I was doing that, I ended up kind of dabbling in the MLM sector. So if you're not familiar with that, MLM stands for multilevel marketing and that is uh, basically it's mostly product based businesses. It's usually larger companies that produce a certain product, um, that you end up buying and getting obsessed with. And then it turns out that you can, you can sign up to be a rep for them.
And then if anybody buys through your link, you get, um, a commission. Right. And so I dabbled in it. I was in beach body, I did like young living oils, essential oils. I did Jan Berry Nail decals, clothing, Isabelle Jewelry. Never really made it very far in each of them because I didn't realize this at the time. But I, I care a lot about the product that I'm selling and usually it has to be a product that I, myself created or that I am completely enable, unable to, to create. And so that was, um, yeah, lots and lots of dabbling, which is interesting because it's not like, I mean those things are not free to get into, but I had to learn. Right. And so, uh, all this time I'm teaching my hip hop workshops. I'm also experimenting in MLM products. And then at the same time I ended up becoming a fitness instructor.
So the Nice thing about that nonprofit that I worked for in the community center was that it was part gym. It was actually a very confused facility. It's still open now, but I can, I consider it past tense because I don't know what's going on with them anymore. But it was a I, I became a fitness instructor because I was doing these hip hop workshops and like I'm, I'm a good dancer, but choreography takes a lot out of me. It's not like my, it's not my primary creative medium, if that makes sense. Like I can draw and I can, I can, yeah, I can draw and do, I can do graphic design very easily. But with choreography, I have to think pretty hard. My choreography is not bad. Actually I'll share some videos with you eventually, but I had to think about it a lot.
And after awhile, what did I say? I did like 10 of them, 10 different workshops. After a while you start to burn out. Especially since the way that I was doing it, I was by myself. You know, I wasn't really networking with other dancing professionals. I wasn't, I don't know, it didn't resonate with me because a lot of the, um, the dance troupes and the dance dance studios nearby, they had this way and this was at the time. So it's, it's different now of course. But at the time it was hard because I disagreed with how other people were choreographing things. Like you could really tell that for men, you know, for other the boys and the men in, in their dance programs that they would do these like really fierce dominant co, you know, confident kind of moves and they were really aggressive and they were like powerful and stuff.
And then immediately you could tell the difference when when the girls came in because then they'd bring in all the girls and it would be all like twerking, all twerking and all boobs and all butts and all, you know, like just very, very sexual, which is fine except that I didn't, I've never really resonated with the various sexual kind of dance movements. And so it was hard for me. And also it was hard because people, people always start with dance being like for kids, you know. So even if I was, I was teaching my workshops for adults, I often had adults going, oh, do you teach for kids? And I'm like, no, because they're like a million programs for kids to learn how to dance. This is for adults, you know, you went to college, you went to school, you want to learn something else, you want to do something for yourself.
And so this is what this workshop is for. And so, I don't know mixed feelings about the whole thing, but I, the short version of it is that I got tired of doing my own choreography. So I ended up getting certified as a fitness instructor and getting Dobbs in local gyms and teaching, um, pre choreographed, uh, pre choreographed dances and routines and stuff like that. And it was actually a really good phase of mine. I did that, um, five years, five years I think, which is a lot, you know, when you're teaching one or two classes per week for five years straight, it's quite a lot of teaching. And so, um, I taught different formats and yeah, that was like me kind of figuring out that I love the things that I love about the things I want to do, if that makes sense. So what I, what happened was I really enjoyed, and I learned this about myself, that I just really enjoyed teaching.
Uh, I loved being or in that group formats. So like in my hip hop dance workshops, I always told them that what I love about hip hop is that it looks different on everyone. There is no such thing as, you know, you're gonna you're going to learn this dance and you're gonna get it perfect because you know, me doing a move looks very different than you doing a move and neither of us is right. Right. There's no standard. There's no like there's no official way to do a two step, you know, or like, or to to do crump or anything like that. And so I really enjoyed the group programs and group teaching and having people and encourage each other because I had my ways of like allowing people to watch each other and perform for each other. And we always had some kind of, um, video at the end and at the time, like keep in mind, this is like early 20, 2010s, 20 2009 to 2012 ish.
And so the, the, the Internet hadn't blown up at the time. Okay. Like, it's not what it is now. And it was just getting started as far as like social media was concerned. Like my space was just dying out. And so there was a lot of fun because people weren't so self conscious. There weren't as many phones out during class and it was just people getting together, adults getting together and doing something fun. And, and along the way me realizing that I can provide something, I can be really excited about what I do and that people were interested. And there's also, there were lots of different ways for me to get get the word out. I was also learning social media on my own. Uh, ended up building out my, my Facebook page up to, I think I got up to like 8,000 likes at one point, but this was before the huge algorithm change in 2013.
And so like Facebook ads were very different back then and I did them right. You know, like I, I followed the best practices and I ended up getting a lot of, a lot of likes and engagement and then the algorithm hits. And then it turns out that the social, you know, social media now is very different than social media before, uh, 2012 I would say. You know, and it's changing every year and it, it certainly changes much more quickly now than it did back then because back then it was like all of social media at works like this. And then if you learn enough, then you've got, you got caught up. And nowadays if you, if you try to learn social media, then it's like every day is different. Every week is different and every month something new is coming out. So I'm very lucky that I got in somewhat early, right.
A little bit early in at least I've been around long enough to know that things come and go and to not take it personally and, and also to just learn more about how people like to learn and how people implement what they do learn. Right. So this was really fun for me and I ended up realizing through all of these different ventures, hip hop dance workshops and all of the, you know, Ella MLM things, I ended up offering tech tech, VA, uh, services because it was one of those things where I had to take a step back and be like, okay, so if I don't feel committed to any of these things that I've tried, then what do I, what am I naturally doing regularly? Like what comes naturally, what do I get finished, you know, with ease, with every single opportunity. And it turned out that Hey, I'm actually pretty good at doing like the, the staple staple tech kind of things.
And by that I mean I had no problem creating brand new website and making new banners and making new social media templates for myself. I had no problem coming up with a lead magnet and starting my email lists and email campaigns. I'm doing the nurture sequences and stuff. I was like, Oh yeah, I'll just write up a new one. I'll just make up a new lead magnet for this. Oh, I should just write another email sequence for that thing. And so I was like, oh wait, that is in itself is a technical skill that people are hiring for. And that's sort of how I got my business started that I have right now because I, I was like, I have all these connections with people who have their businesses and I have been in the trenches with them. I've tried to sell these things and I've tried doing all of doing all of the networking and the marketing and with some success, but the things that I was really good at where the, the technical things behind the scenes and that's how it started.
That was my tech VA business. I ended up reaching out to people and being like, Hey, actually I'm doing this now. And they were like, Whoa, do it for me. Please get this away from me because I hate it and I'm tech challenged. And um, things kind of took off from there. So nowadays I am a combination of things. So I have all of this experience plus my formal education experience plus, you know, and an entire lifetime of being the smart girl or trying to be the smart girl and also being and just being creative and technical all at the same time. Again, going back to my like I don't know what I want to be and when I grow up I just know I like math and art. Well turns out that no matter what you like, if you just embrace it, then things start to open up for you.
It's like legit. And so nowadays I'm, I don't know, I'm a big slash of everything. So I do business coaching. I went with the title of business architect for Awhile and you might actually see that title in a few places online still because I'm just, I'm not very good at cleaning up the internet as far as like my, my digital footprint goes. So I'm, I introduced myself under a different kinds of titles depending on who I'm talking to. But I do like coaching, project management, virtual assistant stuff. Again, helping people just get started. And I would say that at this point, my favorite thing about what I do, even though it's a multiple, it's multiple different things. Cause when you say you're a project manager and then people start knocking on your door, your digital door, then it means different things to different people. But what I always say is that, you know, whatever you need, I, I've kind of been through things and I have done it myself and I've been in the trenches and I still care enough to still be around here.
And so I care a lot about what you do. I care a lot with you that it gets done and I want you to get it done and finished and off your plate. Whether you do it with me or not, honestly. Because whenever I go on my discovery calls or someone asks me to tell them what I do, I go, you know, well, I am very passionate about people creating their own freedom and pursuing the thing that they have been told their entire life that they're not, they probably shouldn't do because it's dumb or it's stupid or it doesn't make money. Or So-and-so won't support them. I really think that you should do it because I feel like the world is just a whole lot better if we just pursue the things that light us up and if we support each other along the way because there are enough people and we're all different.
And I, I honestly think that we just fill in each other's cracks so beautifully when we allow that to happen. And so I always tell people when I'm on my calls, you know, let's talk about what you need. And I love giving advice and feedback and just helping people think through these things because I want you to do it, whether it's with me or not. Like you can hire me or you can hire someone else who costs less. It's fine, but I just want you to do it because your work is important and the longer you stay stuck in this whole like, I don't know how to make a lead magnet. I don't know how to put this together. I don't know how to, you know what I should focus on. The more that you stay stuck in this, the the longer you put off the actual change that you want to make in the world.
So if you want to teach workshops, if you want to be a speaker, if you want to influence people and make it so that your children are inspired by what you do, you know, instead of resentful of how what you do is taking away from your time with them, then let's do it right. And I'm very blessed to have the skill set that I have. I'm very blessed to have all of the experience that I've had and I didn't even go over all of it because who can tell their entire life story in one podcast episode. But I'm so, so thankful and I hope that you pursue that thing that you're passionate about and I hope you share the journey with me. So what's your story? I'd love to hear from you. Go to my website and send me an email and let me know what kind of journey you have been on because I bet some parts of this reminded you of what you've been through, right?
And especially like I had a friend tell me that she's really, she loves the, I never bring up her age because she's older than me. Right? And so I was like, I really don't think your age has anything to do with it. In fact, the longer you've been living, the better your stories are going to get and the more that you have to offer. And I speak, you know, honestly, because while you, you probably know this already, but my, my mom died when I was 13 and I really would love to have seen what she would've done with like the next half of her life. She died at 49 and I'm like, you know what, if you can, if I can make it to 49 and you can make affordable 49 let's like, let's just really embrace life where all of its opportunities, because that's why we're here, right? Let's stop holding ourselves back. Let's start making some change and a, if you're in, then get in contact with me. Okay? Reach out to me over@rochellesanchez.com you can send me an email from there. You can [inaudible] can
join my Facebook group. Whatever you want to do, but I want to hear from you, okay? I'm really passionate about what you do and I hope that you keep going. All right. That's it for now. That's next time. Bye.