Have you ever been curious about coding, or maybe the word overwhelmed seems to fit better in there? Today we are chatting with Julia Taylor, CEO of GeekPack, about the power and empowerment she found through teaching herself how to code, and why she chose to help over 2500+ women do the same. Episode 115 of the Moments with an MEO podcast is all about empowering yourself through a geek skill and feeling empowered to do whatever your heart calls for you.
In this episode, Julia and I discuss:
Want to be part of the experience with GeekPack?
Website
Link to join her coding challenge (This is an affiliate link - thank you for supporting us!)
Connect with Britt:
Website
Instagram @new_altitudes
Check out MilSO Box here: www.milsobox.com
Have you ever been curious about coding, or maybe the word overwhelmed seems to fit better in there? Today we are chatting with Julia Taylor, CEO of GeekPack, about the power and empowerment she found through teaching herself how to code, and why she chose to help over 2500+ women do the same. Episode 115 of the Moments with an MEO podcast is all about empowering yourself through a geek skill and feeling empowered to do whatever your heart calls for you.
In this episode, Julia and I discuss:
Want to be part of the experience with GeekPack?
Website
Link to join her coding challenge (This is an affiliate link - thank you for supporting us!)
Connect with Britt:
Website
Instagram @new_altitudes
Check out MilSO Box here: www.milsobox.com
Julia Taylor 0:00
I didn't leave until I learned for way too long. And that's what I tell my students all the time is like, they always ask me how long how long did it take you to learn to then start offering it as a service and making money and I was like, what, two years like way too long. My students do it in like a month. So I did a lot of things incorrectly. I learned a lot of lessons along the way. And I try to tell anyone who will listen, learning and learning and learning and learning there's always more to learn. So I am a big fan of like, learn do implement market yourself.
Britt 0:43
Well, welcome to another episode of moments within Mio. Today I have Julia, who is the CEO and founder of geek pack. Now some people look at the sky and sea stars and other sea constellations. Some people look at lines of code and see a website but Julia saw a path to empower women and building their dreams. How cool is that? As a former military wife, a self taught web developer and lover of location independence, Julia has taught over 2500 women to say yes to any wordpress request. But not only that, yes to themselves and yes to creating life on their own terms, which is what we're all about here at the NW AM. Mastering WordPress has not only been the biggest driver for Julia's career progression, but it has also enabled her to follow her dreams of a truly location independent lifestyle, which I think most military wives need a little bit of, from a military wife moving every two years with zero career progression. She has since been able to work from home working from her RV. What Yep, she's a full time rver for over a year and a half. And now works from anywhere. Julia is incredibly fortunate to run her business from the comfort of her sofa, or wherever in the world, she might be all because she said yes to herself and her dreams and learned a marketable and in demand tech skill. How cool, empowering women and seeing others succeed is the biggest motivator for her. And so she created a program to teach others the skills that allowed her to take back control of her life and start living on her own terms. So Julia Taylor, I am so beyond excited to welcome you to the moments in the Mao podcast. How are you? Oh, thank
Julia Taylor 2:36
you so much. I'm excellent. It's a real honor and privilege to be here. So thank you.
Britt 2:40
I am so excited because I think that, and I was kind of alluding to this before we hit record, but I feel like code is so unknown, like what is code. And when I think of code, I either think of like giant black screens with white ones and zeros, or I think of like, you know, some tech nerd hiding in their basement. And so I'm really excited to get the full scoop not only on what code is, but how it's completely changed your life. So let's start I'm gonna let you introduce yourself. And just give us a little bit of background on who Julia Taylor is.
Julia Taylor 3:20
Yeah, well, thanks again. What an intro. I'm, like, overwhelmed here, just just, you know, hearing all that. Like you said, I'm Julia Taylor, I run a business called Geek pack. And I get to teach women to code, I guess, to answer kind of the question about what is coding? It's so funny, because so many people ask that. So if you're wondering, anyone else out there listening, that is wondering, you're not alone in wondering, like, it's, it's more common that people don't know what it is. And Hollywood makes it out to be like this super fancy thing like dark rooms, and, you know, in your basement with Cheetos on your face in the middle of the night. Like, that's kind of how they portray it, or the ones and zeros and I used to work for the US intelligence community. So like, people think, oh, it's like the CIA and like, what happens there? And can it be that cool it can be and encoding is very cool. But it's so much simpler than what Hollywood makes it out to be. And what I what I always tell people is like, think about a website like we are right now we are using stream yard to record this. And that is a website. It's a platform, it's an application. And that has built with with code with with letters, letters and numbers kind of put together. And actually, if you look at it in its simplest sense with just a basic website, if you just take a minute and kind of look at it, you can figure out what they're doing with the code. Like it's not just ones and zeros, like that's where you have coding languages, to take ones and zeros and to take, you know, human speak and put it together. So it makes a whole lot more sense than than it is and I am a big believer that Anyone can learn to code I teach women and men, you know, in there, from seven to 77. Literally, we have women in their 70s in our program learning to code. So it's just one of those things. If you've got a an eye for detail, if you like problem solving, and troubleshooting, and you're willing to not give up and figure something out, you'd be an excellent coder.
Britt 5:22
That is wonderful. And you are a former military spouse, and you really built your business around the military spouse lifestyle, which is kind of why you're here today. Do you want to just touch upon? First of all, what's your love story? And how did you meet your spouse? But then how did this kind of develop and what was military life like for you before you learned to code?
Julia Taylor 5:44
Sure. Okay, so I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go back to 2008. I, as I mentioned, I used to work for the US intelligence community. In 2008, I was deployed to Afghanistan was my first deployment. And I actually met my husband there, we always joke, it was lust at first sight, I would love to say, immediately, it was this attraction. And we dated in Afghanistan, like as much as you can. And then we did long distance for a long time, and deployed a number of times thereafter. But the thing about my husband who is has since retired from the military, he's actually British. So of course, you know, the accent was, you know, hands down, that was one of the roles and one of the triggers that helped with the lust. The accent, I was done. So, unfortunately, you know, he's amazing. And I love him. We just celebrated 10 years, a married so. So the fact that he's, he's British, as long distance, what like, that was terrible. I had an amazing job with the government, I loved what I was doing. I was traveling all over the world, I got to do some really, really awesome stuff. So professionally, I was just like flying. Personally, it was pretty sucky, because I was flying back and forth to the UK or he was deployed or I was deployed. And it it was really hard to find time together. And we kind of thought to ourselves, right, he was much further along in his career than I was. And he had two kids in the UK, my stepkids now who my stepdaughter runs my business now. So I was never going to say to him, you know, leave and come to the US. So I made the decision to leave a job with the government and move to the UK, and became a military wife, which I'm immensely proud of. However, my career progression, took a nosedive. And that was really the hardest part. I personally, everything was great. But professionally, I would, I would go from like one crummy nine to five to the next, depending on where we moved. And we moved every two years. And it was it was just really kind of crappy, because I, I desperately wanted a location independent career, because we were, as you're well aware, we were location dependent on his job. And anywhere that they said we had to go, we went and, you know, we did that so many times. And it just got to the point where I was, like, you know, this is, there's got to be something else. But I didn't know what that something else was. Considering my background, I wasn't very big on social media. So I didn't really know about doing like business on social media, I didn't know that was a thing. And I have zero entrepreneurial bone in my body. So I never, it never occurred to me to try and start my own business. That was That wasn't that wasn't something that kind of came natural. To me, I hear so many entrepreneurs that talk about how, you know, when they were three, they sold their first whatever, or they had, you know, the lemonade stand or they had, you know, 20 businesses by the time they were 20 out all, none of that I you know, high school college job, like, that's just what I did. And so it never occurred to me that I should start my own business. I was in one of my nine to five. So kind of transitioning into where coding came from, no tech experience. I didn't have a degree, I have a degree in Russian of all things which are going to be useful now. But, you know, wasn't so useful back then. So I hadn't, I did not have tech education. I didn't have a fancy degree. I don't have any certificates. I don't have any of those things. And I was in one of my nine to five and to this day. I don't know why this happened. But my boss walks in. And he says to me, that He wants our website to have some extra functionality. He wanted like a drop down collapsible FAQ. Okay, and this is in probably mid 20 2015, about 2015. This was and I didn't know about WordPress. I didn't know how to code I you know, I didn't know any of that. So I kind of sat there wide eyed, like, what do I do? He's just told me to do this thing that I don't know how to do and I ended up googling it, which you do. So I googled what he's asked for. And sure enough, the results that came up was was code And I didn't really know what I was supposed to do with it. And I kind of figured my way around, and I copied this bit of code and put it into the back end of the website, saved it, refresh the page. And it worked. And it worked. That was literally like, the most magical moment in my life besides marrying my husband, I should say. And he was a
it was this, like, oh, my gosh, I just Googled something, and was able to do it. And it was like, you know, I know that that tech and coding and all that is like, like, marketable. And you know, all it's in demand. And I thought, if I've just done that, in 30 seconds, if I put my effort into learning it, what could that turn into, and I started thinking, this could be the ticket, this could be my answer to remote work. So again, never once did I think I'm gonna have I'm gonna learn how to code and start my own business knows I'm going to learn how to code to work in a work for a company remotely, that was always my goal. Well, I learned for like a year and a half, because I impostor syndrome, I mean, that's a real thing. I still struggle with it. And I learned and learned and learned and I finally started, like applying for jobs and applying and applying and applying and applying and applying nothing, because I didn't have 20 years experience, because I didn't have a super fancy Tech degree. And I didn't have all those things. And it was really discouraging. It was actually a friend of mine who retired from the military, starting his own business that said to me, build my website. And I did, and he loved it. He said, This is what you shouldn't, you should start your own business, building websites for for small businesses. So that's what you should do. And that's what I did. And here I am today.
Britt 11:42
Wow, talking about almost like a leap of faith, but a leap into education into that faith of like, I'm just gonna learn this, and I'm going to take my time to learn it. As someone in the entrepreneurial space, you go one of two ways, either you just jump off, and you're like, you know what, I'm just gonna go for this, and you just do it. Or you really take your time, and you really try to perfect, what you know, and learn more and more and more, and probably even more than you probably needed to in the first place in order to take that step. What was it like for you going from that nine to five standard role to remote work, especially with that huge shift from not doing code to doing code?
Julia Taylor 12:28
Oh, it was terrifying. And, you know, it's interesting you what you said about Disney leaping or learning for too long. And I feel like I did both. But I didn't leap until I learned for way too long. And that's what I tell my students all the time is like, they always ask me how long? How long did it take you to learn to then start offering it as a service and making money and I was like, like, two years, like, way too long. My students do it in like a month. So I did a lot of things incorrectly, I learned a lot of lessons along the way. And I tried to tell anyone who will listen, learning and learning and learning and learning, there's always more to learn. So I am a big fan of like, learn do implement market yourself, you know, learn implement, market, learn, implement market, and constantly doing that if if you decide to go down the route of freelance and starting your own business, which I'm a big, big fan of, especially when it comes to tech stuff. Because you know, yeah, if you want to get into tech and you want a real job, then it might take you years and years and years, and lots and lots of money and a degree and all that. But you can learn tech, and offered as a service because most people get frustrated with tech and need need help with tech. And so I'm a big fan of freelancing. Yeah,
Britt 13:48
so you touched upon this a little bit earlier. But I just want to get to like the nitty gritty of what the heck is code? Like if it's not the ones and zeros? And it's, you know, every website has it, but like, what is code? Exactly?
Julia Taylor 14:02
It's a language, basically. So and there's, there's a lot of different Gosh, this is talking about a can of worms. And it really depends on who you ask. I literally just before getting on this call, I had a message with my mindset coach, because, you know, this is something I have a mindset coach, and it's really, really important. And because someone made a really, really nasty comment on one of my tech talks, and I got in touch with my mindset coach, I was like, right, how do I respond to this nasty guy who said something, you know, ridiculous. But, you know, in a professional way, I don't want to start a pissing match with him. But you know, I want to I want to say no, you're wrong sort of thing. So So I have a lot of people on social media, all the accounts that I have, saying, Well, what is code and and no, it's not that and that's not real code and real code is programming and engineering and software. You know, you've got so many opinions. So really what it comes down to a few think about a foreign language. So let's take Spanish, for example, like learning a foreign language, everything looks different, the words look a little bit different you the way that kind of the words go in a sentence is kind of mixed around and what we would do in English, and it's the exact same way, like any coding language. Now, with with computer coding, you have multiple languages, just like we do with our foreign languages. And, and they all operate a little bit differently. They all kind of mixed together sometimes. But it's really just, if you can understand half of it, you can kind of piece together what it all means and how it all fits together. But it's at the end of the day, it's just a foreign language, but you're speaking to a computer. So rather than computers do speak in ones and zeros, but humans do not. So we've created a coding languages that kind of bridge that gap. And it really is, it's just, you know, the backend of any website. Like for example, I'm looking at what we're at the screen now. And there's, there's a blue button in the top right hand corner that says Sign Up Free. That blue button is just a little bit of code that effectively says, Put this button in the top right corner, and it says have a blue background. And it says have white text. And it says when you hover over it, the color changes just slightly, it's a little bit darker. So that's the code is you human telling computer to do those things. That's all it is,
Britt 16:32
you know, that just made a lot more sense than anything I've ever heard in my life around coding. So I appreciate that. I took three years of Spanish and two years of Latin, in high school. And so like moving out here to Arizona military life. Moving out here to Arizona, I went from a primarily French location where I was born and raised in Vermont, to a primarily Spanish location. And even though I had three years of Spanish under my belt, I don't know all the words, and it's been forever, you know, but I can hear someone speaking in Spanish and pick up on the key words that I do know, and put it together enough to communicate, or to at least understand. And so the way that you just described that with the computer, it made perfect sense. And I love it. Absolutely. So what are different applications? Because you said it was a whole can of worms, but like, Where does coding go? Like what would be like if I'm like, Okay, I'm going to learn how to code, like, what kinds of things can be coded besides a website? Oh,
Julia Taylor 17:39
gosh, applications. So this, what we're using right now is called stream yard, they have a website, but it's kind of a, like an application, like a platform at the end of the day. Facebook, yes, it's a website because we go to facebook.com. However, if you think back to like, when Facebook just got started, and all the different features that they've added in the fact that you don't have to hit refresh for your newsfeed to refresh you don't have to know all the all the likes, and the emojis like all those added bits of functionality. All of that is code. Like you said, websites, you know, software. So if when you go to the dentist, and they have their their computer there with like the X ray pictures and, and all that stuff like happening there, or when you call up the dentist or you go on the dentist website to book an appointment. And then you get text messages, reminding you about it. All of that is code banking, like all the online banking, all of that is all pretty much everything that we do in our current society is built on code in some form or fashion because we use so much technology now. Wow. So
Britt 18:51
I almost look at it like you can build anything. It's like an empty canvas anytime you go to code is what's coming to mind. For me, that is so cool. So how would coding be a sustainable option for military spouses in particular, no matter where you are in the world, what makes sense for us?
Julia Taylor 19:12
Yeah, and this is the thing that I get so excited and passionate about because I was in that position and I kind of found something that worked for me. And I I know that coding is not for everyone I know that however I'm also a very big believer that it is for more people then we'll give it a chance. So that like my mission is in life is to say to as many people just give it a try. Just give it a try. Because if you have that magical moment like I did, then it could open up so many doors for you so many opportunities. And I have people ask me all the time, well you know, okay, so I learned the skills and then what do you know do do I get a job do I you know, what are the what are the options, and I will only speak to My own experience, and I did not find a quote unquote real job, I did not find an I did not become an employee with my coding skills, I ended up going down the freelance route and building my own business. And now I have, you know, I'm the CEO, and I've got a whole team that does stuff for me, which is amazing. And that's what I am a big fan of, because you, you are the master of your own destiny, you are your own boss, you can work from anywhere, you can work whenever you want. Time Zones don't matter, which I know is a really important thing for military spouses moving all the time. And when you do move, like I know what it's like to PCs, it is a pain, all the moving and all the boxes and all the planning, and a lot of that comes down to the spouse, because the military members is probably working. And so you know, you need that time to do all those things, moving your kids around schools. And that all takes time. So if you have your own business, and you know that you need a window, like a month of time to do all these things, then you don't schedule any work in that month, and you kind of you front load it and then you have stuff that comes up in the back end to make sure you're covered, you have things in place that for recurring revenue that happens in the background, maybe you have an assistant or a virtual assistant who is doing things for you. So your business is still running in the background while you are doing all the things that need to be done with moving all the time. So it's it's so sustainable. And that's why I'm so passionate about it for military spouses, because I know what it's like to be in that position. And it the thing about code, like there's so many work from home opportunities, and there's some really, really great ones. And there's really, really scammy ones. And the reason that I focus on on code so much is because you know what we just talked about, about how everything that we do in our lives now is built on code. It's in demand, it's marketable, it is a genuine like skill that you can put on a resume, knowing how to code knowing how to build websites, knowing how to use I'm a big fan of WordPress, it's the most popular content management system in the world. And it's only growing lots and lots of people use it. So knowing how to use it really well. And knowing how to code puts you like in the the creme de la creme of kind of being techy in the online business space. So yeah, totally sustainable.
Britt 22:32
I love that. And you know, I'll be the first to admit, and I know listeners listening. I know at least one of you feels this too. In November, I purchased a year of my WordPress. And I start I looked at it, I typed in my business name, I added my domain. And it sat there since November. Now we're recruiting March 1, because it's overwhelming to me and putting it in this way, the way that you're describing it makes it seem easier, makes it seem less impossible. And what this really brought out for me is women in STEM, and I didn't put this on the docket at all. But I think it's really important, I just want to touch upon it here because I know I can't be the only one thinking about this. STEM fields, which is science, tech, engineering and math, STEM fields are exponentially growing. And yet, more and more women aren't stepping up to the plate. And so I'm sure I could find some statistics on this somewhere. But I sense this almost hesitation from a lot of women to join STEM fields for various reasons. One of them being a lack of female representation. Another being a lack of childcare options, STEM fields tend to be the kind that you kind of work extra, or at least that's the you know, the the stigma around that. So I'd love to know, like if anybody's going Yeah, but that's like that's for boys. I would love to know just kind of like stem in general or even coding specific. What would you offer? or what have you offered to your over 2000 clients now who've worked with you, as far as like stem and women and being involved and changing the narrative?
Julia Taylor 24:24
Oh, I love this conversation. And it's so funny because what what literally just happened on tick tock and I have only been on tick tock like, I think six weeks and it's it's amazing. I love it. Because I get to do exactly what you just said, I get to talk about empowering women in tech. And that like every video that's what I get to talk about and and then I get you know, a grumpy old man who says oh, you know, women can't learn and grandmas can't learn to code. That's literally what he said. Oh, oh my gosh, it does it gets can Vegas be so riled up? Because I'm so passionate about exactly that get getting more women in STEM. And it's, it's so much so much comes down to confidence and like wondering if they're enough, you know are can they because they're female? Can they because they're older, can they because they, you know childcare stuff, can they because they don't have a degree in it, can they because they don't have enough money to pay for a very expensive bootcamp. Like there's so many barriers to entry that I crushed and crushed and crushed and crushed. Like, that's all I do on tick tock is is is knocked down those barriers. And it's, you know, a great response. But I, you know, I get plenty of people who are nasty, but whatever. But it constantly I hear, do I have to be good at math? Am I too old? Those are easily the two most common kind of barriers to entry that I hear, which no, you do not have to be good at math. And no, you're not too old. We have women in their 70s. So you know, I'll crush those. Now. We do that all the time. So I do I get really excited and passionate about being able to talk about this, because that's that's the entire mission of geek PAC is just that. And like I said, so much comes down to confidence. And another really, really big thing that I don't think people most people recognize it. First is the importance of community. Asking questions is terrifying. Asking tech questions is even more terrifying. And asking tech questions when you you know, are afraid that you're going to be made fun of you want to crawl into a hole and die. And I had so many, you know, when I was learning? Why did it take me almost two years to figure out the path I wanted to take? Because I asked a couple questions early on, I was made fun of I was told, if you don't know the answer to that you shouldn't be calling yourself bla bla bla. You know, it's so discouraging. And people can be really, really mean in the tech community. So what I what I did, like my big, big mission was it was to empower women to learn tech, in a supportive and safe community. And that is, so that is like at the heart of everything that we do. It's literally in our name, Geek pack tech together, like that's exactly what we do. Being people are not allowed period I did alive yesterday, were right. This week, we're doing a free live coding challenge. So we start at the very, very beginning. And we go through, you know, 30 minutes each day and just kind of teach people the very basics to see if they have a taste for it. And if they like it, and if they want to learn more. We did that yesterday. And and at the very beginning, I went live in my community. And I said, right, this is a safe place. This is a supportive place, we encourage you here. There's no such thing as a silly question, please ask whatever questions you have. And I said on the flip side, if you are mean, you will be kicked out like period, it is just not allowed. And it's created such an amazing environment. For primarily women, we do have plenty of really, really awesome guys in the community. But those awesome guys know our parameters, and they are just as supportive. So there's people who will see me being supportive and encouraging on social media, and that I will repel them. And that is fine. Like there's a place for you somewhere else, but it's not in my community. So we've combined all those things, you know, learning tech, trying to crush the barriers, and building up the confidence and doing it all in a very safe, supportive community.
Britt 28:39
I love that community is my jam. That is my favorite thing ever. So soon as you started talking, I was like, Julia, we just became best friends. I love this idea of support through a difficult thing and an uncomfortable thing. As much as I don't want it to be I recognize that learning to code as a woman can be uncomfortable, especially when you feel embarrassed if you have a question or you don't get it. I remember in nursing school, I did nursing school for three years. And then I broke my dad's heart and I totally changed my major restarted college did the whole thing. But in nursing school, I would get students asking me to raise my hand and ask a question because I was always extroverted. I was also super curious like I am now. And so I didn't have a problem, asking questions. But I recognize that a lot of people especially women do. So that's huge. And I love that you offer that community and support along with this and making it not so difficult at the same time. So can you talk to us about what geek pack is why you created it. You've dove into that a little bit but just give us the full spiel on Geek pack what it is and Why we should be part of it?
Julia Taylor 30:01
Oh, amazing. So yeah, I have kind of tucked around geek pack. It really is exactly what it sounds it we are a we are a pack. We are a community of like minded geeks and we support each other. We you know, we have a very clear mission of empowering women in tech. And our three kind of pillars are code community confidence. And that's kind of what we live by. Our vision for for Deepak is reach and impact because, like I said, just six weeks being on Tik Tok, and seeing the, the huge response of women going, Oh, I, you know, I want to learn that, but I'm 48 Can I learn that, or I want to learn that, but I was told I wasn't good at math when I was a kid. So can I learn that like, hearing all that all the time? It's that we just want to kind of say, yes, you can you can learn this, give it a go. And, you know, we are here to answer any questions and to, you know, lift you up, when you have a bad day and celebrate you and you have a good one. That's really what the business model is, we have, you know, a number of different programs and courses, I have a YouTube channel, lots of, you know, free stuff all over the place to because you know, when you're wanting to learn something new, and I, I am completely self taught, I learned everything on Google and YouTube, every free resource I could find I was out there kind of doing it. And there's so many amazing free resources out there to learn all this stuff, and have that opportunity to to kind of take it to the next level. So but yeah, we're just there to kind of to offer as much value as we can to to have the community and optional, you know, courses and you know, take the next step and do it with us. And that sort of those sorts of opportunities as well.
Britt 31:48
I love that. Okay, I want to touch up on something that I think resonates really well with our newer entrepreneurs. Before we dive into the last and final three questions that I ask every guest, and this comes from, you know, you were saying that there's tons of free resources, there's tons of free stuff out there, you learned completely on your own. And yet, you still stand proudly as a leader in women in tech and through geek pack. And so for those that are saying, Yeah, well, like tech is growing. Sure. But it's oversaturated. Or, you know, oh, like, oh, man, maybe my business is, you know, just like all these other businesses and that aren't my field is oversaturated. What do you have in response to that?
Julia Taylor 32:34
I hear that all the time that, you know, this is oversaturated, or that is oversaturated. And when it comes to anything kind of tech or coding websites, I don't know how many small businesses there are in the US, but it is an astonishing amount. And if you ask the average person who has a small business, do they enjoy tech? No, they're not going to is that? Are they? Are they proud of their website? Probably not. It's rare when you find someone who says, oh, yeah, you know, I'm super, super proud of my website, I can't wait to show it off. And so there will always be people who can offer the service that you offer, that that will always happen. So how do you set yourself apart? You know, people ask all the time, oh, you know, WordPress is so over oversaturated. And there's so many people that know WordPress. And the reason that I teach coding, and troubleshooting and problem solving and fixing malware, because WordPress sites get hacked all the time, is that's a very, very big way for my students to stand apart from anyone else who knows WordPress, because you can learn WordPress, you know, online for free, awesome, but when something goes wrong, because it will, because it's WordPress, WordPress is a free platform thing, it's always getting hacked, it gets hacked, because it's the most popular, like, there's all these like things that come in, but, and WordPress is only growing, it's the, you know, it's gonna be around for a long time. So knowing that platform really well also means that you can take your coding knowledge and your troubleshooting knowledge and you can apply it to other things that business owners might need, like automations, like, how do you how do you go to a local business owner and say, Tell me about all the things that you do in your day, and I'm going to tell you how we can automate most of those things. So they happen in the background, that is music to any business owners ears, and my students can learn that because once you learn how to code, you have this like this increase in confidence of okay, I just learned how to do this hard thing hard thing. I can do so many other like things that people ask for, to automate stuff. So all of a sudden, you're like a real hot commodity. Just because you know how to code and I honest to goodness example, my students do this faster than I do, but I did. What When I first started freelancing, I started out at $20 an hour, in less than six months, I was at $75 an hour, only because I knew how to code. And when people figured that out, they were like, oh, you know how to code? Can you do this? Can you do this? Can you do this? I was like, Yeah, I had to figure it out. But I figured it out, because I have the confidence to figure it out. So you know, it just opens so many doors.
Britt 35:24
I love that so much. Now, where can we connect with you? On tick tock on any other platform you're at? Where can we help shut down the hater comments, and really boost women in tech? And where can we sign up for Geek pack or learn more?
Julia Taylor 35:39
Sure, so the best place to go is geek pack.com. Everything that we do is there all the you know opportunities and free resources, YouTube channel, things like that. Now, come to think of it because my tick tock channel is so new, we don't have that on there. But we'll get it on there. But if you do want to, I'm the most active now on Tik Tok, because it's so fun and exciting. And you know what I get to do there. And it's Julia, the Geek on all social platforms on Julia, the geek. I love
Britt 36:05
that. I love that now, in season three of women's than EMEA, we're really leaning into the fact that as entrepreneurs, no matter how far along in our journey we are, we're constantly learning. And I think you've talked about ways that you've been learning your entire career, which I love. But what's one thing that you're learning right now,
Julia Taylor 36:25
right now I am learning how to be a CEO, which is, which is so scary, because I'm learning how to delegate, how to be the visionary, because I said, as I said, our vision for the business is reach and impact. Well, how do how does that happen? I need to figure that out as the CEO, and I need to trust that my team, that everything is running great in the background, which is really hard and uncomfortable, because I've always been the doer, like every single role in my business, I've done it, I've done the, you know, 16 hour days and all that, but what I have to avoid burnout, or else I can't keep, you know, leading my team and leading my community, that's what I'm really trying to focus on now is to, to step into that role and trust that my coo who like I said, she's my stepdaughter, will, you know, take all the she does all the marketing, and she does all the, you know, the operations and make sure that our students are happy. And we have a whole team that does that. But she's she's kind of overseeing that. So that's, that's what I'm learning how to do. And it's hard.
Britt 37:38
I feel like that's a constant battle. It's a constant battle, not just learning how to embrace your MBO or embrace being the CEO of your company. But also delegating, that is so hard, no matter where you are, and what stage you're in, there's always something that you're doing that you could probably delegate, but it's just a matter of like, Okay, do I have the strength and the courage to delegate this and trust that, yeah, maybe something will go wrong, and I can help fix it or someone can learn or maybe it wasn't a good fit. But delegating, and outsourcing can be a huge topic all on its own. So I'm excited for you. I'm excited for you to be learning all those things. My final question for you is how do you embrace being an M E. Oh, a military spouse, CEO?
Julia Taylor 38:29
Oh, gosh. And you know, as we said, the very beginning, my husband is retired. So we're, we're no longer technically kind of in the in the military space of moving all the time. But as I mentioned, just before, about, like really embracing the CEO role, that has been a journey in and of itself, you know, if there's anyone else who is is kind of trying to go into that, whether you're you're starting your own business, you already have your own business, and you're, you know, it's up and running, you want to grow, you want to scale, you want to you know, take it to the next level, whatever level you're in, the thing that has been the most important for me, has been making sure that the tasks that I do not have that me myself, I do not have to do, I pass on to someone else, which as we said, is really quite hard. And somebody that I just had a realization literally on Sunday, so two days ago was how important it is to protect myself, my energy, my time because as the as the entrepreneur, no matter how many people you have working for you whether it's just yourself or you have a number of people, if you don't protect yourself, then you will burn out and then that has negative consequences on you on your team on your family. You know, so many other things. So how can you put some things in place to protect your your energy and those sorts of things? And as we said at the very beginning, I And I'm I am an introvert, I get excited to talk about what I'm passionate about. But after this call, that will be you know, me for the evening. That being said, I am going live later. But you know, I try to plan my days to where I'm not doing too much being on camera, because that completely exhausts me. So that's just one thing that I do is I try not to do more than one or two things a day where I'm where I'm, you know, being the face of the business. But I also know that as the CEO, I am the face of the business. So if I want to have the division that we plan for, I need to be the face, but I have to protect myself as well. So any other entrepreneurs, just burnout is real, and it probably will happen. But how can you protect yourself to not get to that point, because that will only help you, your business, your your, your team, your family in the long run.
Britt 40:56
I love that, oh my gosh, that is huge. I'm almost the complete opposite and understanding that like I haven't doing work, but I've been also like watching TV and eating Easter chocolate early. And you know, I've been kind of messing around, because I knew that this call was going to give me so much energy and so much motivation that I was going to get work done after this. And so it's so unique, how everybody is different. And I love that recognition piece, that it's not the same for everyone that we're all felt different, and that that's okay. And we all fill our cups differently. And so just recognizing that and protecting that is huge. Wow.
Julia Taylor 41:39
Especially if you know a man I'm gonna carry on with this. That's okay. As an introvert, I watch other people and I kind of watch what they're doing. And I just assumed that I need to be doing those things to to be successful. Because those are the people that we're seeing. Well, that's not true you you can you can be successful your own way. And and you can show up your own way I live I keep talking about tick tock but I literally just did a video a tick tock video where I was said how that platform is perfect for introverts. Because Instagram stresses me out because of stories like I don't want to show my personal life to everyone, but I feel like I have to because that's what other business owners are doing. And, and they're saying it's successful, so I have to do it. But it's not working for me and I don't like it. You're like that turmoil that goes on in my head. And now on tick tock, I there's one thing, you do a video. And you you you post it whenever you want. And you pre record it ahead of time. And you get to talk about whatever you want. And and that's it like that's the only thing that you do on there. It's like a breath of fresh air that I feel like everything else is pulling you in a lot of different directions. And I've had just big realizations recently, that if I'm going to take my business where I want it to go, I have to protect my boundaries. And my team is better at protecting my own boundaries than I am. So how do I do that? But still show up for my audience? Because that's very important for growth. But how do I do it my way? So everything that you do, how can you do it your way that will keep your cup full. And if you empty your cup, fine, but make sure you fill it back up in whatever way is important to you.
Britt 43:24
I was recently having a conversation with someone. And he was saying, you know, I don't want to do video like I don't want to show up. I don't enjoy that. I'm not meant for reals or for tick tock. And so we got to chatting and I said well, have you looked at your website analytics? Like where is majority of your audience coming from? And he was like, actually, they're coming from LinkedIn. And I'm not even on LinkedIn really. And I was like, maybe you need to show up there. You know. So seeing something right, like reels and tick tock. So you're supposed to do reels, you're supposed to show up on stories you're supposed to post, you know, every day and all these things that are kind of crazy. But if you just sat back and looked at like you know exactly what you're saying protecting you setting your boundaries, understanding what your boundaries are, most importantly, but then just like protecting that, and then also looking at where's my audience, because they may not even be where you think they are, because everybody else is telling you, you know, you have to go viral on reels in order to grow your business. And that's just not true. So I love that. That is a beautiful way to end this. Oh my gosh, that's fantastic. Well, Juliette, thank you so much for taking the time and all of the introverted energy that you have to come with me today and discuss this because this is huge. And I think that this is seriously going to help so many people, not even just have the courage to do what they want maybe dabble in code, but also just to show up and be who they are and be okay with that. Hopefully, so thank you so much.
Julia Taylor 45:02
Absolutely. It was such a pleasure to get to come on here and chat and just be able to talk about what makes me really excited and yeah, I'm gonna go and walk my dog right after this to to fill my cup, you know, ready for the next thing but but yeah thank you is so much fun