Welcome to The Live Free Podcast. I'm your host, Micala Quinn, and I am a mom on a mission to help you launch, grow, and scale a profitable freelance business from home. Join me each week for tangible business advice along with inspiring interviews all designed to help you mom strong, work smart, and live free.

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All right, mama, it's time. Grab your coffee, water, or wine because we are starting.

Hey, everyone. Happy Monday. I am so excited to bring back our student success story

series to the podcast. And today, you are going to get to meet Kerry. Kerry is a former middle school teacher of 10 years turned entrepreneur and creative business strategist. 

Kerry was able to resign from teaching by making her side gig freelancing powerful enough to become her main gig. And she's here today to share all about how and why she made this shift while taking care of a toddler and a newborn. 

So just a little bit more information about Kerry, she started this time last year and since April of last year, she's been able to meet her income or exceed her income goals working 25 hours a week around her two son schedules, which is so incredible to think about swapping a full time 50 plus hour a week, demanding career where you don't have the flexibility and freedom to be there for your family with one where you're only able to work 25 hours a week and be there

for your your family on your terms on your time freelancing is truly amazing. It is I fully believe the best options for moms to both make an income while being there for their families and if you have not yet gotten started freelancing I would love to invite you to join me inside the Live Free Academy. The same program Kerry went through and thousands of other women have gone through. I've been helping women get started now for over seven and a half years. What I teach works. There's a simple step -by -step system that you can implement to have the same results as Kerry and the other women I've worked with. Just go to go.micalaquinn.com/academy

to review the details, enroll, and get started today. If you have any questions, reach out to me. Hello @Micalaquinn .com or come connect on Instagram @Micala.quinn. Otherwise, let's dive in and hear Kerri's story.

Kerri, welcome to the Live Free podcast. Yay, thank you so much for having me. It's so exciting. I always listen, so I'm glad to be on it. Yeah, I'm so excited you're on, why don't we go to just start at the beginning? Who are you and how did you become a freelance? So like, how'd you get started?  

Sure, so I'm from Pennsylvania and I have been teaching for 10 years and I recently, somewhat recently had my two sons. So I have a three and a half year old and a one year old. And I'm one of those people who like grew up their entire life excited to be a mom and excited to be a teacher. So like, I don't know. Yeah, I feel like teachers in society are like these like heroes, whether they want to be or not, but it's like such a cool like path to be on. I feel like a lot of people give you a lot of credit. And I guess I just liked that even though like, you know, people weren't looking up to me because I made a ton of money but people were looking up to me 'cause I feel like what I was doing was important. So I was happy to like finally be doing that. 

And for 10 years, I really did love it. Things changed a little bit when I had my first son who's now three and a half because it was was also in the middle of COVID so it's like a different teaching world but I really feel like that's when things changed but he would have to go to day care or my mom and my stepmom luckily could watch him a little bit just to like save a little money from daycare so that was obviously very helpful and I was happy with who he was with I liked that he was with my mom and my stepmom I liked the babysitter daycare situation that we found. 

But after I would go, you know, do the teaching all day and come and I taught middle school. So like, I can't imagine people who did elementary school, but the level of energy that teaching requires is like intense. And you like it or else you wouldn't be doing it. But I felt like I had no energy coming back to him. Or like, to make dinner for myself or for my husband. I felt like the people I love most were like not getting the best of me. They weren't getting the worst of me by any means, but they were not getting the best of me. 

So I kind of just accepted it, but then when I had my second son a year ago, he was the epitome of second child, doesn't follow any routines, any plans that I have, can't rely on him to sleep through the night even still so like putting that responsibility and that difficultness on anybody else seemed very unfair when like he's my child and like I want to do this so that's kind of how the look for other ways to make money started because I just felt like he needed me like he's a baby and he needed me he didn't need somebody else he just needed me 

yeah And that, when you're, I don't know like what your situation was, but I felt that like they need me with my first, like she needs me or maybe it was more of like, I wanted to be there, like I wanted to be the one getting her out of bed, feeding her breakfast, teaching her her ABCs, playing and doing all these fun things, putting her down for not picking her, picking her up out of her crib like those warm snuggles from a baby straight after a nap time are like the best the best the best in the world and I wanted that and but but we couldn't just I couldn't just up and put my job and not have a source of income so that was such a hard place to be in of like this isn't working I want to be at home and then slapped in the face with the reality of like life's expensive girl you got to make money.

I know and you know it's like when you say like they need you as much or you
need them as much as like they need us it is true because even my older one he's
like three and a half and he's a boy very different from girl world I would assume
but when I would see pictures of him at daycare because they would like update on the app or whatever pictures I would then text my husband and be like Did you not brush his hair today? And it doesn't it didn't matter like my son was living this life regardless But I was like wait we all brush our hair in the morning like why? and now my husband and I like laugh about that but now that I'm able to Get him ready for the day because he goes to preschool now, which is like a story, but like I feel like he looks like an acceptable, well, respectable toddler to society. Right. And like he always was a respectable toddler, but like, there's just a difference when the mom's going to get a kid ready versus the dad. And we laugh about it now. But that was just another thing that was like, I need to do that.

Yes. But when you're a teacher, you have to be at school so early to get your
classroom ready and be ready for other kids and what I'm kind of realizing now that my kids are older and in school they need you need a there's so many more
opportunities and like needs for parents not just moms but parents to be up and at the school like I I always thought like oh my kids need me when they're little
that doesn't go away. And some of these things that I'm personally able to do now, like I try to go every Monday to do kindergarten lunch duty, help open little
snacks and their milks. And I wouldn't have been able to do that if I was a
teacher still with my own class. I would be, I mean, I didn't teach kindergartners,
I taught high schoolers, but I'd be teaching English and wouldn't be able to Make
that a weekly volunteer position for myself, right? Especially for things like,
you know It comes up kind of out of nowhere. I'm not really like muffins with mom or something I had to be at school at 7 30 in the morning There's no way that that's gonna work out and then not even that like school is so strict It's not
like you can be like, hey, can I just come in like 30 minutes late today? Like,
you know, You actually have to take a whole half day, even though you need it. And then you're like, well, then I have to make a half a day's worth of subplans. And the whole thing was so chaotic that you're like, I'll just send my mom. So grandma, we'll go to muffins with mom. And then it just kind of breaks your heart. 

Yeah, yeah. So you were looking for kind of when your second was born,
your second's a girl? - Boy, two boys. - Oh, - Two boys, two boys. - I asked over
here. - Oh my gosh, yeah. You were looking for different options. What all did you look into or was kind of freelancing the only thing and you're like, this is it, I'm doing it? 

No, so basically what I was ultimately looking for, and this is the truth, I was scrolling through like what I call Instagram university for ways to get my baby to sleep. And in doing that, I saw my cousin who we live very far. She's in Florida. I'm in Pennsylvania. So we don't like connect often. But she also just had a newborn and she had a sleeping baby on her lap in her Instagram story and her computer up doing work. And like in total desperation, I was like, what are you get to have both right now, because I'm just trying to get a baby to sleep number one, but number two, be here all the time. And she actually told me about you. 

So her name is Madison Downs, I have to give her a little shout. She's like,well past at this point. I think she started in 2020. And it was not, I didn'tthink that, I thought I'd have to do a lot more, like searching and vetting or whatever. But because like, I obviously know her and it's working for her. I was like, let's just do this. And I literally thought about it for three days, which is not a lot. Not a lot of time. If I'm going to do this, I need to just do it. And I just, after three days of thinking, because I did have the thought that I think a lot of girls have like, do I really need the program? I can probably do this on my own. And then as soon as I started looking, I was like, actually no, because it's not that big of investment, when you really do the math, you're, as long as you get one client, you're making the money back pretty quickly. So I was like, this is just, this is worth it to have it all laid out on like a silver platter, as opposed to trying to piece it together, which can be done. But like, I didn't have the patience in me to piece it together. So I just clicked go on your program. And there it was. 

And there it was. And how old was baby number two atthis time? I started in November and he was born in September so he was two months old. Two months old. And what was your maternity leave like?

Typical FMLA so like regular birth you get six weeks but you have to use your sick
days and then luckily I did have like a good bit banked between both kids but then I wanted to take the 12 just to get more time with him, but nothing after the six is paid.

So did you, you got started. Did you go back to teaching? Were you doing teaching and trying to freelance at the same time or what? 

Basically what I was doing is trying to have my cake and eat it too for as long as possible. So I started in the program. I got my first client in December. So I started in November, got a client in December. And I was like, okay, I'm not making a lot of money, but I actually have a little bit of money as opposed to zero. So I'm going to extend it my school, like you could, if you're going to go past the 12 weeks, you agree, you're going to forfeit your like money wise, but you could go by marking period. So you could extend it up until the end of one full year, they'd hold your spot. So I just kept extending it as long as I possibly could. So I never had to teach in freelance at the same time, but I kind of had a whole year to figure it all out. 

Yeah, okay, awesome. So you enrolled November like literally a year ago. - Yeah. - Two kids, a toddler, a newborn, only from teaching. You told, we spoiler alert landed your first client in December. How how long did it take you to kind of like go through the course and then like start connecting with potential clients? Walk us through kind of like that initial month or so. 

I went through the course in as fast as I possibly could. I think it took me a week. I would watch it during feedings or nap or,
you know, have it in one ear and do something with the other. So I went through
it in about a week. I pretty much jumped into cold pitching like immediately.

So I made like, at this point, I wasn't in any of your challenges and I didn't
realize that the challenge was similar to what I already had in mind, but I made
like a list of places I wanted to cold pitch and just started banging them out. And in the meantime, I would apply to whatever comes up on OTO if I felt like it was even loosely related to something I could do. Just like firing off cold pitches. And then ultimately that first client was just a project from the OTO job board, which that project took like about a month, but she was so sweet and she ended up giving me a test, like a glowing testimonial.I still talk to her here and there. She kind of does some referring, nothing that turns out into much, but I like having the connection with her.

So yeah. - What was your first project with her?

 So random, it was actually, I guess it was like a personal project on her end. She like had a Poshmark site. Do you know what that is? - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Okay, so I I'm oddly a Poshmark ambassador, which is just embarrassing at one point in my life. I was trying to sell all my stuff and ended up getting all these like things or whatever. So I was like, listen, I can do this for, I made the title of my email, I'm a Poshmark ambassador. So like to her, that meant something. - Yeah, yeah. - I don't even think our discovery call was a discovery call. I think it was onboarding when I look back at that, like Because that was such a point blank thing that connected to her like she knew what an ambassador was if she was already on the site.  

So I did the project I posted her she would send me pictures of clothes I would write up the descriptions categorize them the whole thing and then once it was over I asked her like I don't know if it's in your budget But I have like whatever 90 ,000 followers at the time on posh have it in your budget, I would share your closet once a week if you want to all 90 ,000 of my people and she didn't end up going for that but I think she liked like the knowledge I had about it so it was like a personal project but it was very similar to like writing item descriptions on teachers pay teachers yeah but I mean and still make like selling your clothes that's still making money yeah more personal but 

So how did you find her? 

She was on your OTO job where she had a couple jobs posted. That one was the only like personal job I think she was able to help with. The rest were helped with, I think I wanna say like, teachers pay teachers stuff. She was also a science teacher. But I don't know what she ever ended up doing with that one.  

Yeah, cool. So we ended that first project in December and then what happened after that? So then in January I joined the challenge and I did get one client again from the OTO job board and that was my first like retainer so I lowered my what I wanted to get paid a little bit just because I acknowledged that like I just needed
something and get like a boost of confidence and whatever. So I worked with her for a good bit. I learned a lot of good things and a lot of things that I want to do differently for like upcoming clients. So she was like my stability. 

And then I didn't get any clients in February or March, but what I did in those months was, and I like to, I tell people this all the time, I built up my own social medias to I'm like stalkable, so to speak, so that if I were to reach out to someone cold pitch or through a posting, and they searched me like they should be searching, like if you're gonna pay someone to do work for you, wanna see what type of work they're doing, I made my Facebook, which is my main social media, very stalkable and relevant and consistent. So I made sure to post once or twice a week things that I could do, that also revealed a little bit about me as like a human and a person, like a real connection, but then also like ways I could help them. It was like a three -fold strategy. So in the off time of not having like finding more clients, I built myself up.

 But you were working with one client at this time.

Yeah. Right, retainer client.

What were you doing for that retainer client?

This is what I learned that I need to be a little bit more clear. I was doing a little bit of everything, which ended up driving me nuts. It was cool because I learned a whole bunch of stuff, how to do a whole bunch of stuff, but I could never just like, "Okay, it's Monday, I got to check her emails today." It was always a different it was like so in the end now that I look back it was totally scope creeping but I didn't know what that was at the time and I was like I this is I found myself not wanting to do the work and that's when I learned that if other I don't want to just do what other people don't want to do because I don't want to do it either yeah I want to do something that's a little bit more creative I guess uh -huh learned a lot from her, we ended up cutting the contract, which I wanted, but I did not cut it. I stuck it out until I had more. Like I didn't just go from one to the other. 

Yeah, yeah. So then what happened in the spring? - Okay, a lot. I ended up having to put it like in a nutshell for you. Throughout the course of a year, I've worked with 11 different clients, some were project -based, some were retainer, and over that time I learned the types of communication that's going to work for me. I learned what I want to do for people, and I learned how to like make a contract work in my favor because your template was like the perfect starting point, but then as soon as people would hold me to certain parts of it, I'd be like, "Ugh." I - I want to change that. - I should have looked at that closer. So I like bent it a little bit. I never had 11 clients at the same time, that would be enough. I think the most I did have at one time was five and maybe a project, but now I'm steadily at four and I work between 20 and 25 hours a week. So like perfect part -time hours, exactly what I, what I wanted. And like what week my husband and I determined like, I can handle.  

Yeah. And so what did you find that you love doing? What are you doing for clients now?

I basically like meet Pete. So I also renamed myself. I went from virtual assistant to I made up the title. I'm now a creative business strategist because I feel like what I It was so much more than virtual assistant. So I'll of course manage their emails like twice a week, like I'll log in twice a week to do that. But then in the background, I'm writing a monthly blog post for them. I'm creating a quarterly newsletter, which I like love piecing together newsletters. I love writing it, putting in pictures and like writing these stuff. I am making Facebook posts, Instagram posts, signing my one client up for podcasts for her to push her product out there. And those are the things I really like doing. 

Plus, some of these people, some of my clients didn't have them before. So like, okay, once we got your email handled, how do you feel about me writing a newsletter for you? You don't have one, but you have a gigantic email list. Like, why are we not using it? So it's almost like I would pitch them an idea of something that I wanted to do that I did not have to learn how to do. And of course they'd be like, yeah, let's do it.

That's awesome. And so you have four different clients that you kind of do that
type of work for now. What types of clients are you working with? And these kind of four that are on your kind of roster right now, how did you connect with them? Were they cold pitch?

No, ironically, two of them were from OTO job board, and two of them are from personal network, but not like my personal network, like my friend knew somebody. I didn't know the somebody. 

Yeah. Referral, maybe. Yeah. But yeah, and what I think is really cool is that Originally for, I'll just talk about one client 'cause it's the easiest to understand
example. He hired me for 30 hours a month. I was like doing the math like you always, like I always listen to your podcasts and you're doing the math and bringing it down and dividing in the whole thing. I would have had to end up working like some ridiculous hours a month at an hourly rate that I wasn't gonna meet or exceed my teaching salary with. So basically what I ended up doing is saying, like, I'm going to do all this for you. Plus, what about a quarterly newsletter, a monthly blog post and three Facebook posts a week? And that bundle we could call it deliverable will be $900 a month. 

And he didn't have a blog post, a newsletter or consistent Facebook posts. So he
was like, yeah, let's do it. So on my end. I don't I don't even think he still knows this. So we'll see. But when I actually put like clock my hours for him, I am not working anywhere close to 20 or 30 hours a month. I would say I work 10 to 12 hours a month for him, which if you do the math and break it down hourly is close to like $75 an hour. Yeah. But you can't just be like, Hey, I know you just hired me two months ago at $30 an hour, but I'm going to bump it up to 75. Like, yeah, you can't do that. But when I switched from hourly to deliverable, that's how it went. 

Yeah, for sure. Then I started doing that with everybody. Starting hourly is the easiest and it works in your favor in the beginning, but there comes a point where it no longer serves you best and especially if you're getting out of like hourly admin work and moving into more of these creative packages based on deliverable. That's when it makes sense to shift it. Right.

Then it was almost like, because you're getting better and quicker, it's like a
punishment now you need, give me more work. I like, I wanted that to be a reward. So he's like my favorite client. And I, I work for him such a small, like small amount of my time, but give him so much for his business. Like I feel like I have a huge footprint in his business right now. 

That's incredible. And what does he do? He's a home renovations, like general contractor. Yeah, that's awesome. And what are your other clients? Like what kind of industries? 

One is brick and mortar in like the home world, like buying, selling home world, but brick and mortar. Another one is a web designer. And the third one is naturopathic physician.

Okay. Wow. So arrange. Yeah. There's like, when you talk about ideal client, I almost think of like, I don't think of it as ideal client, I think of it as ideal, like service provider, almost like, who's going to want what I offer, like, who's whom I going to be ideal for. So I don't know that all my clientshave anything in common, other than the fact that they trust me to like build the next level of their business. 

Yeah, that's awesome. So with moving to packages based on deliverables, have you been able to kind of meet your former teacher salary or exceed it?  

Yeah, so I have exceeded it at this point. It's hard to say, like I've only been doing it for a year. And the first month, like in December of whatever, that I only made like $250. So like that, like, I don't feel like that counts. Yeah, year. So like, basically, since then, it just kept doubling with like, what I've learned how to better how to better price myself how to give people what they want and what they need. And now I make more than what I was making teaching. And I mean, in Pennsylvania, teachers are paid decently compared to other places. 

We are not paid well in Kansas, at least Catholic schools. No. Well, yeah, that's a different story. But we were paid better. I feel lucky to be in the location because teachers are not bottom of the barrel, but it's still lower than the average business person.

Wow, so and you've been able to exceed that working 20, 25 hours a week. - Which I am totally fine with. Like I want to contribute because I feel like, like I'm a pillar of this family too, like me and my husband. So like I take pride in the fact that like I'm helping also. Yeah, yeah. But you also have so much more time back in your week, that is so valuable, like invaluable. 

I know, so we got to take my older son out of full blown daycare, which was costing us an arm and a leg for people in Pennsylvania. He was going two days a week, 'cause luckily my mom and stepmom were helping. Two days a week was close to $900 for one month. - For one month? So for one month like so God forbid I needed five. That was insane. So now We took him out of that and put him in like a pre a true preschool. So it's half day So I can take him and get him in the middle of the day We go to the parks. We go to story time. I take him to the zoo. Yeah, and like If my younger one decides he's not gonna nap what she typically besides. Then that's okay. 

So what what does your day to day kind of look like with how you fit work in?
Um, so my days where I work the most are Tuesdays and Fridays because my  mom stilllikes to spend time with the boys. She used to watch them for a little bit. Anyway, so So now we kind of like tag team them and watch them together on Tuesdays and Fridays. So those are like my big work days where I do most of it. And then otherwise it's like I do it during nap time or during quiet time. The boys are getting really good at parallel playing and kind of playing together.

So once I notice that that happens, I like quietly step back without being noticed
and take out my computer and get as much time in it as I can do while like
watching them, which is cute. - And Giddy, like if they were in school, if you were teaching full -time, you wouldn't get to, they wouldn't get to be together and have that brother bond. - I know, and the younger one is crazy.

Like, I think anybody with more than one kid can vouch for this but like I get to
see him like he's walking so much quicker because he follows my other son around like I get to see that. He doesn't even play with baby toys because he learns how to play with like trains and you know like pretend play because he's with the older one so I feel like I don't know I feel like he's he's really living his best life out of all that. 

Yeah yeah and and so cool for you to get to witness and see that. At least I loved that with my first two. - Yeah. - Like, and now like my two young guests right now, Caroline and Charlie are together constantly. They are like best friends forever. - Yeah. - And also sometimes mortal enemies, but then real quick back to best friends forever and have the just the cutest, sweetest sweetest brother -sister bond  

I know and then you get to like sit there and watch it like yeah some people that I know without kids are like don't you get bored like watching them play no I will never get bored of watching them learn something new like my younger son is doing all the sign language things and I'm just like I taught you that not your daycare person not my mom not my stepmom I taught you that because you were with me yeah whereas my older son like he obviously knew all the sign language things too, but I didn't teach him that.

Yeah, yeah. And so, I don't know. I think when you, at least for me, because with McLaren, her being in daycare and then with all the other kids, then being at home with me, I just appreciate it so much. - I know. It's just like, couldn't you just like watch it and like that's your nightly entertainment. - That is my favorite thing to do, have a cup of coffee, not necessarily, maybe if it's night, glass of wine and just watch them play. - I know. I'm not in there like playing and pretend play, that's, I'm not that type of like set up and say like you guys go play. And I'm gonna hang back and watch and that's my favorite thing to do. - Yeah, it's really sweet. I feel like I'm catching so many moments that like I always knew existed and I saw them nights and weekends before, but like now I see them all day. - Yeah. - It's cute, it's very fun and like hard feeling.


Yeah, so what advice do you have for some of those moms that are in that stage
Of thinking this is what they want to do and wanting to do this but like actually
actually pursuing it and like actually starting did you ever struggle with any of
the like what if this doesn't work out thoughts or fears or how yeah um I did have to like overcome like imposter syndrome like a bunch of other people but when you actually like break it down so I have like a very makeshift website on Canva they made for free and I wrote down like my skills in like an about me section and I listed I think it's 10 of them that I learned through teaching and how they translate into like freelance Virtual assistant creative business strategist role. So for example, it's just like If you're a teacher, think about what you do all day every day. Like I taught middle school. I was teaching 130, 40, 130 or 40 kids a day.

Clearly I am able to engage different types of audiences. So that works in social
media land with engagement. I was making two to three slide shows a day 'cause I had two to three different contents every year. So, like, if I can make, like, nice slideshows, I can make nice product, like, what's it called? Like cover. Visuals. Yeah, like nice visuals for, like, Etsy or teachers pay teachers or social media. You know, sometimes I had to write kids up in middle school world. That's like, they're trying to figure themselves out. So I could also be very factual and like good at note taking, good at basically like transcribing what just happened. So like all those things, while I didn't have experience in the business world whatsoever, I had 10 years of experience doing all the stuff that I would have been doing in the business world, but that's not the path I chose in college when you had to pick.

Yeah, yeah, and but you, I mean, you made that decision so quick to just go from like, okay, I want to do this to I'm doing it Because I am like the type of person and I I'm not an affirmations person whatsoever But I do have like my core like values or pillars that I feel like I am a person and one of them is like I'm gonna do something because I said I was going to do it And Because I want my word to like mean something and carry weight and I don't wake up every morning and say that in the mirror That's just not my style But like I know that if I say something I for my own like peace of mind like I'm gonna do it because that's who I am You know, I yeah, yeah like when so when I said like I'm just gonna try this and I'm gonna give it All the time that my extended maternity leaves will do. Like, I'm just gonna do it for that time. And if it works, great. If it doesn't work, I know that I did what I could. Yeah. And I won't have to sit there and wonder like, what if it would have worked out? What if I would have tried? Right. I know. And it's like the classic example of like, well, what if I had started sooner?

Like, luckily, I don't have that feeling because I made the decision really quickly.
But I do feel like at least just just try it, like if you want to do it, you'll find a way to do it like just stick to your own word for yourself. Yeah, and worst case scenario, you could try it, land a client, at least make your money back and realize, oh, I hate this. Yeah, you could do it on the side, like, I know a lot of teachers who have to work during the summer as like a bartender or something. or something, maybe you could actually enjoy your summer if you just wanna do two to three hours of work for one client on the weekend. Like an hour a month package, you'll get $250, $350 extra a month. 

Yeah, for you, like when did you kind of make the decision to not go back to teaching and pursue like freelancing for the time being? So, I knew that I wasn't going to go back the following school year when I didn't return the one before. But I didn't have to put that in writing until 60 days before the start of the next school year. So, I honestly waited until the very last minute because our district will hold you for 60 days. So, if I would have said on like, you know, September 4th, I'm not coming back, they'll be like, great, you're working for us until October or whatever. So like, I basically put in my words that I'm not coming back in like June and then did not go back in September, but I knew before that that this was gonna work because of where I was with the clients and like the things I was doing for them, I just like, when you know, you know type of thing, they weren't gonna be able to just get rid of me I had like if they got rid of me now they don't have this this this and this like how are they going to get any more business in the work they'd they'd have to replace me why would they get rid of me so I kind of just like felt that and knew do you miss teaching um I miss like three things about it I miss my teacher friends which is silly because I only saw them 30 minutes day at lunch. So now I just text them. Um, I miss the funny stories that I would have like when I go out with my friends about students because those stories are ridiculous. Um, and I miss being seen as a teacher from like the public stands because it is like not everybody can do it.

And if you're a teacher, I do feel like you have like that special gift 'cause not
everybody has it and I miss being seen like that. - Yeah. That's it. I don't miss actually teaching. That was like training. - But do you love what you're doing now? - Yes, a hundred percent. I love what I'm doing for my clients 'cause I still get to be crafty and creative and like make things. I love going to the park. I love that my son gets to go to preschool and that I just went to a Halloween parade like last month. I love that I can actually make dinner and feel like I'm being a decent wife when my husband comes home. So like, I've never been so happy in my entire life. - Oh, I'm so happy for you. - I know, it's great. And it's not because teaching was awful. I loved teaching. It was just
so draining. I didn't even, my family just didn't even get to have me. 

Yeah, Yeah. This is like way better. Yeah. Do you think your like long -term plan is this freelancing? Will you go back to teaching at some point or have you even thought through that? Yeah, this is just like day by day. This is what's working for me now. If you would have asked me two years ago if I was going to quit teaching and be a freelancer, I would have been like, no. I would have been like, that is. So like, - What I say now could change, but I will not go back to teaching. I just cannot because I don't want to miss all the things with my kids. So as long as I can keep up clients, which I've gotten 11, so I know I can get more whenever, I'm not naive, I know the day will come where I'll need another one. But my plan right now is to, when my older son goes to kindergarten, maybe pick up a fifth client just for a little bit more of a safety net and maybe work like closer to the 25 to 30 hours a week deal. Maybe not 30, that's a little much, but like the upper end, just so I can feel a little safer, so to speak. If something happened, if something happened with one of the clients, like out of control and they had to cut ties, you still have enough of what you need. Yeah, but I'm not going to do that until he goes to kindergarten, so that's at least a year and a half away. 

Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Any words of wisdom to those out there? Yes. My words of wisdom are that you, it's your business, you make the rules. Like you, if you don't want to organize somebody's files, you don't need to do that. But don't lose that client because of it. Pitch something to them that you do want to do. And then you're still working with that person, but you're both winning. 

Yeah, awesome. Well, Kerry, thank you so much for coming on and sharing with us how you've built your business, why you got started and just the journey over the last year, that's pretty incredible to go from not knowing what freelancing was or not knowing how to get started really like a year ago to you've replaced your income you've exceeded your former income working 20 to 25 hours a week. I know and like for a long like first time in a long time I feel like I'm like proud of myself I was proud of myself as a teacher but not proud of myself as like a mom because I was giving what I had left but it wasn't much. But now I'm like very proud of myself in all realms. 

In all realms, that's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah, thank you. So thanks for having me. Yeah, you've done amazing things and I'm so thankful of you willing to share what you've been able to do and what your business and your life looks like now with other moms out there so they can Hopefully see that this is possible for them and they see that okay, I have that follow -through attitude I have that I've set some if I set my mind to something I will give it my all I will make it happen and that they that they can do this too. Yes, they absolutely can


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