I’m Returning to the World of Full Time Self-Employment

Six years ago when I got a job at The University of Scranton, it was a little bittersweet. For 2 years following my Masters Degree, I was self-employed. The thing that lead me to look for a new job was that I was working out of my parents’ house, and honestly, time was running out on staying on their insurance plan. Leaving that world was sad, but I was excited at the notion of working with a team. After 3 years at the university, I felt I was ready to do something different and more challenging.

I got hired at Crowd Favorite and was ecstatic to work with an amazingly talented team. I’ve learned more than I could ever imagine in the past 3 years there. I not only became a better programmer and a leader, but I learned valuable lessons that would have helped me freelance. I learned client relations from Karim, Jason, Chris, and the Project Managers. Jeff Zinn and then Brian Richards became incredible mentors to me. I went from being a nervous developer with intense imposter syndrome to a seasoned developer (still with some imposter syndrome).

It’s Time for a Change

I started to reevaluate a lot of things when my daughter was born. Agency work is no joke – it’s fun and challenging and hard and frustrating. Sometimes it requires long hours. For all of those experiences, I’m grateful because they shaped me. One of the “fun after the fact” experiences was working with the team until 3am, knocking out as much as we could in prep for handoff to the client that next day. It felt like we were in a war room together, working as a unit, doing deeply appreciated work. If I’m being honest, from time to time that’s necessary; and I enjoy doing that, from time to time.

But my businesses are also doing well. Throughout this whole process, I continued doing side work. It’s never a dedication thing – the full time job comes first. But I do like to scratch my own itch. Lately, the itch has become more. Agency work, side work, and family all require a lot of time; I’m spread pretty thin. And when I have to choose between my family and my side work, family wins. But I still have that darn itch.

I’m Leaving Crowd Favorite

After 3 years gainfully employed by an agency that has helped me grow leaps and bounds, I’m ready to be out on my own again. I’m going to focus fully on developing great courses for WP in One Month and making How I Built It the best podcast it can be. I love teaching, and these projects let me focus on that.

This is going to be a new challenge for me; It’s my first foray into products full time – I don’t plan on taking any client work, so long as I can help it. Like I said, I’m ready for a change, and the biggest aspect of that is I want to get away from trading time for money as my primary source of income. I will still partner with companies for training and course development, but that’s for an entirely different post.

I Start June 19th

My last day at Crowd Favorite is June 15th, then I’ll take the long weekend to spend time with the family, refresh, and hit the ground running on Monday. It will be bittersweet for sure. I’m going to miss working with and learning from some really smart people on an everyday basis. But I’m really excited to focus on something I’m so passionate about full time.