The next Do What You Love to Do Interview is the lovely Kelli Wise. Kelli and I (I cannot lie) are ‘online friends’, we first met on a course in 2011, connected via cat-stories, the rest is her-story.
I asked (read: pretty much made her) to come in because of her extreme (in some eyes) career history: from Engineer to Massage Therapist to Web Designer. I know they may not seem related, but Kelli is a really good example of how to transfer skills (even though they may be unrelated to some) from one field to another. Her work as a designer is to serve and help solo business owners, in particular massage therapists.
Here we go…
As you read ask yourself…what skills have you mastered and love using which can be transferred into another role, even in a completely different field.
1. What does doing what you love to do mean to you?
- It means having the alarm go off in the morning and not dreading my day.
- It means finishing up the day feeling like I’ve been useful and helpful to someone.
- It means not having to compromise my values.
- It means having the sort of work that keeps me interested intellectually and has room for me to continue learning and growing.
And it means being able to pay the bills off of the fruits of my labor.
For too many years, I couldn’t say that I loved what I did. I can now.
2. How are you living your life doing what you love to do?
I love geeking out and digging into web code, learning something new, trying something out and seeing if it works or if all hell breaks loose. Finally teasing out the logic behind how WordPress works seems to be my latest obsession.
I love figuring out what kinds of web content are engaging and useful so that I can teach that to my clients. I get to read a lot while I’m doing this research, which I love to do, and I get to meet (mostly virtually) some really amazing people who are doing similar/complementary things in their careers.
The other great thing I get to do is write and teach. I’m a life-long learner and working with adult learners has been a lot of fun. Blogging and teaching massage therapists and small business owners gives me an opportunity to see how other people approach a problem like running a business and balancing a life.
I get to learn something from them while I’m working with them. It helps feed my need to learn and gives me a peek into someone elses’ passion.
3. What has been your career journey to this point?
I started off with a degree in electrical engineering from a school in Chicago, Illinois. My concentration was on telecommunications modulation schemes – all math and loads of fun – and RF (radio frequency) design. Unfortunately, I graduated the year the government broke up Ma Bell, known as AT&T, so there weren’t any jobs in that area. I ended up working on test equipment in a factory that built equipment for AT&T, GTE, and others in a tiny town in Illinois. A dead end job in a dead end company in a horrible city and I spent the second year there looking for a different job.
I ended up as a power supply designer with a small firm in Florida. I had a good boss and worked with one of the smartest engineers I’ve ever met. 5 years later, I was working for a not-so-good boss and dreading my work days. I don’t think you’ve ever seen anyone happier at being part of a 15% reduction in workforce than me.
From Florida, I ended up in Texas designing power supplies for Tandy computers. I got the chance to travel to Taiwan and China and even lived in Hong Kong for 4 months. I discovered that I have a real talent for babysitting adults. I also discovered that, in the right environment, I really enjoy being a manager.
While I enjoyed working at Tandy, the pay wasn’t great and you could tell that Radio Shack was moving most of their product sourcing to Asia, so I jumped to AT&T in Dallas. Finally, I thought, I get to work for Ma Bell – that dream job from college. But it was obvious that career-wise, I was never going to go anywhere in AT&T unless I did a stint in New Jersey. Nope, not going to happen. So …
I got a call to take a job with Intel in Washington state (the other Washington) from a guy I worked with at Tandy. I loved working with young engineers and helping to guide them through their careers and working with experienced engineers to give them the space and resources they needed to do the research they wanted. The guys that worked for me were pretty happy and very very good at what they did. But the management style at the company was one that I disagree with vehemently. I will gladly be a victim of it, but I felt like I was being forced to be an asshole. After 9 years and 11 months, I left to be self employed.
Before I left, though, I had gotten so burned out that I knew I would need to make a change. I went to massage school at night, after long days of working. The program wasn’t cheap but I was rolling in Intel money at the time, so that wasn’t an issue. I spent over a year working full time, going to school 16 hours a week, massaging 4 hours a week, doing homework, special projects, and trying to keep up with laundry. So, by the time I left the corporate gig, I had my license and had been practicing for 6 months.
Fast forward, I’ve been designing websites for my group at Intel and myself since the early days. I discovered that I really enjoyed it. I also discovered a lot of my friends were getting ripped off by the ‘$29/month’ website companies like Intuit. I could create something better for them that would be more cost effective. It didn’t take long before more people started coming to me for help. After a change by an insurance provider I was credentialed with cost me over 35% of my business, I decided to spend more of my time helping massage therapists get their online marketing stuff together. I do some massage still, but it’s with a very select client list. I refer new business out to my friends.
Phew, that was long. But I’m old!
4. How did you make doing what you love to do happen?
I got off the freaking hamster wheel and took a turn.
For too long, I’d done what was expected. I’ve been there financially for everyone in my family that needed it. I had the education and the job with the great company, but I never really liked power supplies. I was a good engineer, but I was never going to be great because they bored me to tears. So I made a decision that I was going to get off the hamster wheel and do what I wanted.
I did the massage as a side hustle for 6 months before leaving the corporate gig. Then, I did the website stuff as a side hustle to the massage for a year or so before really, publicly launching it. That allowed me some time to experiment with WordPress, figure out what the market needed, and get my ducks in a row.
I had also been reading blogs since long before leaving the corporate world, so starting a blog seemed like the right thing to do. My first blog post, long abandoned, was published in 2005. Blogging itself wasn’t that difficult. Learning to do it well takes a lot of practice and I’m still learning.
Summary: do it on the side, experiment, fail, learn, launch. Just don’t take too long to launch.
5. When did you know what it was?
I’ve always enjoyed html and when I really, really learned css, I knew I loved it. I spent a couple of weeks with the 960 grid system and, when I finally got the boxes to move around with some code, it was like being Harry Potter and finding out ‘yer a wizard’. Great fun.
6. Can you share the good, the bad and the ugly when you made the decision do what you love to do?
The good: I get to help my small biz friends get new clients from websites. It’s always a thrill to share in their excitement when that first client calls saying “I found you on the internet, loved your website and want to work with you.”
The bad: when making a big change in career/life direction, there is always a period of time when money is a bit tight. So, you don’t eat out, or go to the movies and you might eat more rice and beans, but you manage it somehow.
The ugly: It can get downright discouraging sometimes, trying to run your own business. Especially one that is as socially isolated as web design. So, you need to find some other online buddies and develop a network of people you can kvetch with, or turn to for stupid cat videos when you need a pick-me-up. It helps to know you’re not alone and if you can just power through the dip, you’ll make it happen.
7. What was easy? What was a surprise?
I don’t know that anything was particularly easy, but I’ve rediscovered how much I like writing and speaking. I also found how much I like teaching adults. It’s very rewarding to know that you are helping someone else live their dream.
8. What led you to this love specifically?
I’m a geek. I love to learn. I love to share what I know. The web design and blogging feed those loves.
9. What would be your top 5 pieces of advice, or suggestions, words of wisdom you would like to share?
- Always have a financial pad to see you through the lean times.
- If you can, start your dream as a side hustle for a couple of months so you can experiment and fail like mad.
- Don’t worry that you’re not the only person doing <insert your passion here>. There are 6 billion people on the planet and your competition can’t serve all of them.
- Find a buddy. One who will tell you the truth and not just what you want to hear.
- Get off the hamster wheel and take a turn. You deserve it.
10. What has been your biggest learning in the journey so far?
That running a business cannot be described, it has to be experienced. Nothing will really prepare you for it. But there is no greater feeling than knowing that you have the freedom to not be an asshole and you can live your own values.
11. What piece of wisdom did someone give you that would like to share?
“Always keep 6 months take home pay in the bank” An engineer named Wes told me that when I was 25. It has served me well.
12. What’s next for you on this path?
Some online and live classes to teach people how to create a website and how best to create the content for that website. I’m just trying to expand my teaching network beyond the local market. And learning. Always learning.
14. What was the biggest piece of learning you picked up and ran with?
“You know more than you think you do. You know more than your clients/readers do. You are an authority.” Quit waiting to ‘know more’ and publish something, already.
15. Pick a quote for life, and explain why it hits a home run for you?
The quote that has always stuck with me is “That which does not kill you makes you stronger.” Yes, it’s a cliche, but it’s true. Everything in your life has the possibility to add to your life. You might learn a new skill, you might meet a new friend, or you might make a change in your health habits.
Where to reach you?
I blog in several locations. My oldest, and busiest blog is for the massage therapy profession, Massage Therapy World. My web design site is Pint Sized Sites. If you want to see every blog post I publish it’s Kelli Wise dot Com. I’m very active on Facebook, and Twitter and I’m on LinkedIn but I don’t use it much for social networking; however, if you need a power supply engineer, I’m connected to loads of them there.
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