My transition from the bumpy road of corporate employment to the smooth ride of working virtually!
My name is Kimberley, and I am DemGen’s Expert of the Month for May.
I think I should start with the confession that I have never written a blog post before, so I’m going to thank you in advance for your perseverance in making it to the bottom of Kimberley’s Blog Post # 1!
When I was asked to write a few posts for our site, I was given free reign and told to just talk about anything that seems relevant to me about any aspect of my life. I took on the challenge knowing it would be easy-peasy. Hey, everyone else is doing it, and I’ve read my share, that’s as good a blogging background as any, right? Wrong. Once I geared up with fingers resting on the keyboard, I sat there, stumped. Not stumped that I had nothing to share, but stumped on what I could possibly say that was profound and interesting – that other people would actually want to know about me. I felt that if this was my 15 minutes of fame…. I needed to make it count!
I never did come up with the answer to that, but this blogging experience did allow me to go back through my significant number of years as an employed person and reminisce about all of the different places I’ve worked, and all of the good, great, (and some of them bad & ugly) memories along the way. Overall, as good as some of those memories may be….I realized that none of them even remotely compare to the amazing life I lead now.
I knew I wanted to share with you how working virtually has changed my life, as well as why I love working under the DemGen umbrella so much, and everything else awesome about DemGen that I can manage to squeeze into my May 2012 “Expert of the Month” stint. (Gosh, I might need June as well – just kidding.)
So, I need to take you back a little bit, but before we go there, I want to fast-forward to 2012 to at least give you the “quick & dirty” of where I am now, and what I do.
1) I am a licensed (and part-time practicing) Broker in Real Estate, and
2) I work as an independent contractor for DemGen, offering Executive Support (virtually) to the DemGen Executive Team.
I support a few of the DemGen clients as required, and I am also the Project Manager for DemGen’s new niche-market, specializing in providing Assistance to the Real Estate Industry (Agents and Brokers).
The world of Real Estate is essentially, in my opinion, an entrepreneurial world as well. My career with DemGen is a perfect blend of my more recent experience and background, and as I take you back to my earlier work experience, everything has come together in a perfect way. Let me tell you, 10+ years ago, I would never have dared to dream my life would be where it is today.
My working life has taken the same initial path that many of you have taken, but a few years ago it took a major right turn and I have never looked back. That right turn was choosing a path that I controlled, that I became the leader, the visionary and the beneficiary of.
The beautiful part, not only did I benefit, but so did those I love most, my children and family. This path of entrepreneurship opened doors in a very deep and profound way, and I truly can say that I started to see the world very differently. I really was starting to stop and smell the flowers. Not that I didn’t see those flowers before, and “meant” to smell them…. but I didn’t have time so I added it to tomorrow’s “to do” list. The problem was that I did this every day.
So, I’ve decided to just start writing about my own journey, and hope that something, even the smallest tiniest thing might resonate with you. Maybe you’ll just laugh at something I’ve said, or smile because you can identify with something from my life, maybe you’re already on the fence of making a change and reading this can give you the strength to know it’s possible. Anything and everything is possible, as long as you believe it deep within yourself. No one else has to agree, as long as you “feel” it.
Now that I am rambling along well now, I will give you a bit of my background:
I probably got my first job at 15 years old, and for the most part have worked ever since. I will be 47 this year… (boy, those two keys were so hard to press down right now), so that means I’ve been working in some way or another for almost 32 years. And, yes, I include motherhood as my sole job for 20 of them, with my second job running alongside for the same 20.
I have worked in many industries, some in retail in my younger years, but mainly in office environments. I really lucked into a job at a major Canadian Brewing Company, and I stayed there for 12 years moving my way up through the administrative ranks to Executive Assistant to the President (and Executive Team). (Keep in mind I was also a single mother during this time).
I truly loved that job, when I got there. But over those last several years there, my commute from Barrie to Etobicoke was getting longer, and longer. And it was costing more. My children were growing up and I needed to be home sooner, for more events, sports and commitments. Everything I used to be able to balance easily was becoming more difficult, and not because of anything I changed.
Most of the changes were coming from external sources like increased traffic, the weather, higher gas prices and life seemed to become more complicated for some reason. As much as technology was entering my life apparently to simplify it, for awhile there it seemed just the opposite. Having 100 choices instead of 10 was great, but trying to understand all 100 of them alone was starting to become overwhelming. Bring in call-waiting, gaming systems, satellite, 100’s of channels, internet… and on and on. Somehow it seemed your usual productive hours a day were getting shorter and shorter.
Then, my rollercoaster of very quick life changes began to happen. I became pregnant at 38 yrs old and (then – lol), got married. I worked up until my 3rd son was born, and then began a maternity leave. Along with the birth of my beautiful son, came a few more events out of my control and that began a fairly long journey of visits to all kinds of medical specialists, with many visits (including a few surgeries) to Sick Children’s Hospital, and “poof”, my lovely controlled life was no more. (By the way, I can’t say enough about Sick Children’s Hospital and the miracles they perform there), hands down one of my charities of choice.
The company I worked for had also made a decision to close the location I was employed at, so my choices were to move downtown to Head Office, or take a package. I took the package.
During my time off I decided to pursue my Real Estate License. Once I attained that, (and after the mandatory apprenticing period of 2 years), I also attained my Broker’s Licence as well. (I love to learn!) When I returned to the work force it was in this new industry, and my focus was mainly on residential sales. Somewhere along the line, I made another huge decision and decided to separate, dissolve my marriage and get back to being “me”. I made that transition fairly quickly and without much, if any, financial backing. I pretty much walked away, as freedom was worth every cent I did not fight over. I was determined to make it on my own, as I always had. I have done it before and I will do it again. Not the most graceful divorce in the history of mankind, but it could have been worse I’m sure.
I handled all the paperwork myself, filing at the local city hall, and eventually emerged a single, and much happier lady. Poor, of course, but with a sense of a new beginning. I instantly felt much more authentic. I had not planned, or had any vision in place whatsoever on how I was going to make it all work, but I took everything day-by-day, and step by step. And you know what? If you don’t look too far ahead, and just live in the moment, answers do come to you. I had the support of family, and some really special friends … and I scaled back my Real Estate quite a bit. It just wasn’t in the cards for me at that time to focus properly on clients, and I wasn’t willing to take the time required away from my kids with everything else going on in their lives. I started to think about ways I could use my talents, my experience and put them to use in a way that allowed me to spend time at home, or at least locally. I took every odd administrative job that I could, I helped people in the Real Estate Industry with casual admin, and I was lucky enough to land a few contractual deals from my previous company managing & planning some of their annual events, (which I managed for them while employed as well).
As time went on, I started to think about offering my services to “the world” virtually. I had the skills, and I was sure there must be a lot of people out there needing support, but not being able to afford a full-time person. And quite possibly, they might be working virtually as well, and not actually have a brick and mortar building to house staff in. My plan was to head to the internet and start researching. I put a few ads out and responses came in fairly quickly. I am not saying they were all “good” or “qualified” responses, (especially when you are asked how tall you are instead of how many wpm you can type… LOL). But, it was all good as I knew I was onto something. And, as fate, karma, luck, the universe – whatever people may refer to great connections happening for no apparent reason – I happened along DemGen.
I read through their website, looked at their team profiles and read everything I could. I knew this was the place for me. It was perfect! This was a company who was looking for me, and my unique talents. Well, they weren’t exactly looking for me, but I felt something strong enough to zip up a resume and send it in. The rest, as they say, is history. I have been happily associated with DemGen for a year and a half now. Not only to I make a living by doing what I am good at, but I have found a second family as well. Everyone within DemGen is similar in certain ways (the basic good parts we like to find in people, like: kindness, integrity, supportive, loving, genuine…. to name a few), and oh so different in others, like: unique talents, backgrounds & experiences. There are “experts” from such diverse fields (marketing, social media, administration, authors, lead generation, speakers, hospitality… and I am only scratching the surface), but I truly find it incredible to be part of such a dynamic and exciting team. I love rubbing elbows with these talented people. In fact, I am honoured.
So that is my walk to the path of working virtually. I’ve never claimed to be a writer, so no apologies are necessary should you wake up with this still on your screen and keyboard marks on your face.
I do have a few more blog posts coming up this month, since I am “May’s Expert”, and I promise it will be shorter and lighter fare going forward. I’m excited to dig up some of my favourite things (books, movies, quotes, deep thoughts, funny stuff) and I’m going to share them with you over the next couple of weeks. By the end of the month, you will certainly know me better and be privy to the secret fact I am a sappy marshmallow, who loves to laugh (at myself almost as much as at others) at my core. The deeper the message, the more likely it is that I have it saved somewhere around here…. so, I better get looking. Looking forward to my next post! (I’m really getting into this!).
I had one last REALLY IMPORTANT tidbit to share … my true-love, knight in shining armour stumbled into my life quite unexpectedtly, almost 4 years ago. I can truly say I now know what everyone talks and writes about. We secretly eloped almost 2 years ago, and life is so darn good. I love waking up each and every day, and sharing my life with this man. 🙂
Kimberley
© 2012 DemGen All Rights Reserved.
