I was recently asked to make a list of all of my skills. When my list was complete, I almost fell over as I realized the size and diversity of it. I say this not to brag on myself but to brag on all those who have granted me opportunities throughout my life to establish and develop so many skills.
I have always loved helping people. I feel fulfilled when I see others succeed because of me working in the background. Throughout my life, things that I have done have always followed that track.
When I was growing up, my mother worked in administrative assisting roles and I always loved helping her do mailings, type, and enter data into spreadsheets. My grandfather had his own business and hated “all the technology” so whenever he needed data entered, letters typed, or really anything computer related, he asked my mom, sister, or me to help him. When I was a teenager my mother worked in Marketing at Delta Faucet Company and I was honored to do 2 internships there and learn from some amazing professionals.
However, through high school, I felt a pull to counseling so I pursued my education in Human Services, then Marriage & Family Therapy. After walking that road, due to my son being born and other changes in my life, I left that field and returned to what I knew, and was good at, administrative work.
At that point, I really wanted something I could do and be able to be at home to homeschool my son (and eventually my daughter who I was pregnant with at the time). I was blessed to find a virtual assistant position that was titled Rockstar Administrative Assistant. I walked into this role just wanting to help this small business owner with administrative tasks that he didn’t have time for, but over time I was given more and more responsibility and eventually became VP of Operations. That is just a fancy catch all name that means I did a bit of everything for the company.
Last year, I was approached by my mother who said she was going to be retiring early but wasn’t ready to be “done” and would I be interested in going into business with her. It took less than 1/100th of a second for me to say yes and the rest is history.
Then I decided to go back to school. I remembered, from working in my grandfather’s tax business, I have always enjoyed accounting and so last year I decided to do something about it. This summer I will receive my Professional Certificate in Bookkeeping and a year after that receive my degree in Accounting.
At first glance, all of these skills seem to be all over the place, right? Well, that’s me. I love learning, I love challenges and I know I can do anything I set my mind to. So going back to what I said about loving to help others, I am excited to work with other businesses to help them succeed, one task at a time in any way I can.