[00:00:00] Christine: Hi friends. Welcome back to the milspouse mastermind show. You are in for another treat today. I’m sitting down with Julia Taylor, a former British military spouse, self-taught web-developer and online business owner. She founded Geek Pack and is passionate about empowering women everywhere to create better lives for themselves by teaching them how to code and subsequently manage their own businesses in the digital realm.

If you have wanted to make money from home, but you find yourself not knowing how to do that, or you think, you know, I want that time freedom, that flexibility, but I don’t think I’m cut out to start my own business, then you need to listen to this episode.

[00:00:48] Julia shares so many valuable nuggets of wisdom about her journey from military spouse in search of job flexibility, to an online business owner and CEO, who says she does not have an entrepreneurial bone in her body. I know you are going to get so much value out of this episode.

[00:01:11] I can’t wait for you to hear it. So let’s dive into the show.

Well, Julia, welcome to the milspouse mastermind show. I am so excited to have you here to introduce you to our audience. So would you say hello and tell us a little bit about yourself.

[00:02:16] Julia: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here. Uh, gosh. Okay. So like you said, Julia, I, um, I currently live in Durango, Colorado, which we absolutely love. Um, my husband and I, my husband is retired military. He’s actually British military. Um, but he’s since retired. So I did the military spouse thing for a while and loved it, immensely proud of it.

[00:02:39] And now I run my own business, which I actually I started because I was a military wife and I found myself with like no career progression and coding fell into my lap and I started a business. And now here I am teaching other women how to code. So I’m so excited to share more with you.

[00:02:59] Christine: Yes. I’m so excited to get into your story. So you talked about being a military spouse and really trying to find a job, something that you could take with you when you moved. Talk to me about what that experience was like and some of the struggles you faced.

[00:03:16] Julia: Yeah, sure. So I think the, the real struggle was, uh, I had a career before I met my husband and I worked, we actually met in Afghanistan.

[00:03:27] So I used to work for the intelligence community. And in 2008, I was deployed out there. Um, my first deployment and we met, we fell in love and he of course is British. So the long distance, when we were back home was terrible. I was in DC and he was all over and then I would deploy. And so it was really hard for a good couple of years doing long distance.

[00:03:48] And we finally said, right, you know, This is it. So I left my job and I moved to the UK. He was much further along in his career and he’s got two kids. I’ve got two amazing step-kids. And, um, so I, I left my job with the government and the move to the, to the UK got married and I found myself, you know, we were moving all the time and this was all way pre COVID.

[00:04:09] So I didn’t like remote work. Wasn’t a thing. It wasn’t really all that common. So I, and I don’t have a tech degree or anything. Have a degree in Russian, which might be helpful now, but not, not so much then. So I, um, found myself moving from one really blog nine to five to the next. And it was really kind of a bummer because I I’d been used to a pretty good career progression with the job that I had with the government.

[00:04:38] So it was, it was, it was one of those like, oh, I wish I could find a location. Independent job. Because we were so location dependent on his work. So, so, and then one day coding fell into my lap and it’s all kind of, um, unicorns and rainbows from there. Not really, but you know, I did, I learned how to code and built a business and everything from there.

[00:05:02] Christine: I think that so many people can relate to your situation, especially when you experience what it’s like to have a fulfilling career. And then you have to step away from that, um, for whatever reason, and to just be in a nine to five that you do not like that is not filling your cup at all. Um, and that where you don’t really feel like.

[00:05:24] You’re making progress towards something that really matters. So talk to me about how you found coding. How did it just fall into your lap? What are the steps and how did that come?

[00:05:35] Julia: Yeah, sure. It literally did. I was in one of the nine to fives and out of nowhere, my boss walks in and he asks me, or he tells me to add a certain functionality to the website of the business that I was working for.

[00:05:50] And I’ve to this day, I have no idea why he asked me, but he did. I remember looking wide-eyed at my colleague and he said, don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. He said, let’s Google it. I thought, okay. I know how to Google. So I Google what he was asking for. And sure enough, I found this line of code, which, you know, I’d never looked.

[00:06:10] Code before I’d never done anything with it. I wasn’t super techie, you know, I could send emails and do all the basic stuff. And, um, so we found this line of code and I took it and I paste it into the backend of our website and I saved it. And I went back to the, to the actual website and I hit refresh and sure enough, it worked.

[00:06:29] And it was in that moment where I, I had this huge. Aha moment of, if I just figured something out with coding, with something techie, something kind of in demand and a marketable tech skill, I figured that out. With Google. And I thought, what if I could like really put time and effort into learning it? And I enjoyed it as well.

[00:06:50] That was helpful. I got a real kick out of it. And I thought if I could learn more, could that become something to where I could get a remote job and this whole time never once did I think I was going to start a business? I don’t have an entrepreneurial bone in my body at all. I got. I listened to other podcasts and I hear these big entrepreneurs and they’re like, yeah, I had 20 businesses by the time I was five.

[00:07:13] It is, I had nothing like that at all for me. So I, um, I tried for years, a good couple of years to get a quote unquote real job, um, at a, at a remote company. And. Consider me, cause I didn’t have 20 years experience and I didn’t have a big fancy degree. Uh, so it was actually a friend of mine who was retiring from the military starting zone.

[00:07:38] And he said, um, build my website. I was like, no, I can’t do that. You know, that’s not a real thing. He said, no, really build my website. So I did and he loved it and he said, that’s what you should do. You should build websites using all your coding skills and everything else that you learned for small businesses because they need help and you can fill that gap. And that’s how I got started.

[00:08:01] Christine: Well, I love that you shared that piece of your story because I think it is one of those things. Like if somebody is listening to this and they’re saying I’m not the type of person that is entrepreneurial, I, I’m not, I’m not wanting to build my own business. I just, you know, want the job, the normal life.

[00:08:20] I just want something that I can take with me when I go. And so it’s not just one type of person that can do this. It’s, you know, we can come from all different backgrounds and we can have all different sets of skills. But really it’s just learning to open our minds to what’s possible and think outside the box.

[00:08:42] So I hope that encourages somebody who’s like, okay, but this is not me to say, maybe I could just try something different than what I’ve always thought I should do or what naturally comes to me. Uh, so, let’s talk about what were some of the big challenges you faced in first of all learning to code.

[00:09:05] How did you go about doing that? And then how did you go about starting to grow that?

[00:09:11] Julia: Sure. So the easily, the biggest struggle, um, I had learning to code was that I was doing it all by myself. Uh, I didn’t have a community. And I think the, like at the time, I didn’t know that I needed a community. I didn’t know that communities existed.

[00:09:29] That would be helpful for this sort of thing. And I eventually found several kinds of forums and other, um, um, Facebook groups online. And a number of times I was really made fun of, um, I was told, oh, if you don’t know the answer to that, you shouldn’t be doing X, Y, and Z. And people can be really, really mean, especially when it comes to the tech community.

[00:09:51] And I don’t know why, you know, is it people don’t want. Yeah, they want to feel better about themselves. I have no idea. And I, at this point I don’t really care. Like, you know, mean people you’re not allowed in, in my communities now. So, um, one of the, and I think that’s why it took me so long to, to kind of find my way because I didn’t have other people to talk to.

[00:10:13] I didn’t know. Other people had online businesses. I like none of that. I didn’t know any of that existed. And it was only once I found communities of other people who had online businesses who were kind and supportive and encouraging. And that’s when my business really took off. And up until that point, it was probably a good couple of years where it was just like discouragement after discouragement.

[00:10:36] I just kept pushing through and I wanted to give up a lot of times because you know, learning to code, I tell people all the time, it’s not. It’s not as hard as Hollywood makes it out to be. It’s not as hard as everyone wants you to think it is. It’s completely doable. Can it get difficult? Absolutely. But you know what?

[00:10:54] Doesn’t, when you kind of learn more and you get better at it, but at the very beginning, just getting started, it is, it is not hard, but you do come up against, you know, things that don’t work and, uh, you know, you might be missing a semi-colon or, or some, uh, something in your code and everything doesn’t work and you just need a fresh pair of eyes.

[00:11:10] So. For me, it was absolutely, um, not having a community. And that’s why I like my community Geek pack. My entire business right now is based around community, a supportive, encouraging, safe community, where people can ask questions without fear of being.

[00:11:31] Christine: Well, and I love how this has evolved over time. You know, you just started with the one thing, learning how to code and then learning how to start turning this into a business.

[00:11:41] And, and then really seeing that, Hey, there’s this piece of the puzzle that’s missing and that’s really that supportive community. So talk to me about the evolution from, okay. I’m working for small businesses, I’m building websites. And how did that evolve into what you have today with.

[00:11:57] Julia: Sure. Yeah. So I, I just, I w one of the communities that I’ve found, um, that was really, really helpful.

[00:12:05] I figured out how to find clients online. Like that was, and I mean, to be honest, there’s no magic. If there’s no silver bullet there, there’s a lot of different ways. And I kind of, I, I would speak to someone and I would get, get business from them. And maybe it was a local business owner or, um, I would, I would find someone in a Facebook group who was asking questions about WordPress because their site broke and I helped them.

[00:12:30] And then they asked me to work for them. At one point, it became all referrals, um, which is, you know, a wonderful place to be. And I got to the point where I had a good number of clients and, you know, recurring business and I built up a kind of mini agency. And around this time we, um, my husband retires from the military and he kind of is like, okay, well, what do I do now?

[00:12:55] And he had. You know, some big, fancy job opportunities. We kind of thought, oh, you know, it’d be a shame to just go into that. And after me starting my own business, I think he was excited about the opportunity to do that as well. And because my business was doing well. Um, and I could work from anywhere. We thought, why don’t we sell everything and live in an RV for a while?

[00:13:19] So we did. So we were in North Carolina at the time we sold everything. We got an RV sold our vehicles and everything. Moved into this RV. And we traveled all around the U S for about a year and a half, literally with the goal of looking for our forever home, which we found, um, after about a year and a half.

[00:13:39] And, um, while it was, while I was traveling, I started an Instagram account and people kept asking me, how are you able to travel full time? Like, how can you afford it? Are you independently wealthy? Are your parents paying for it? Those are always the assumptions. And I said, no, I have a business where I build websites for small businesses.

[00:13:57] They pay me and I make good money. And I do that from the road and people were saying, well, you know, can you teach us how to do that? So it was kind of organic how people started asking me to teach, because I have never taught anything formally in my life. And I thought, okay, well, I’ll, I’ll create something.

[00:14:15] I’ll create something for free, you know, like a five day. Beginner coding type of things. So I thought I’ll just give it a go. And, um, every single program that I’ve created, where I teach women, how to code and WordPress and build websites and start a business and, and all those things, the way that I’ve done it is how I wish I’d been taught because that’s the only thing I knew how to do.

[00:14:38] So I created this program and people really enjoyed it and they said, oh, well, you know, now we want to learn more. How do you do the business and the clients? And. Build it into a whole thing. And, and then I got to the point where the, the, the teaching side of the business was doing, it was much more fulfilling, but it was doing better than my agency side.

[00:14:56] And I slowly started to stop doing that. And now I get to teach women how to code that’s my day job. And I have, uh, an amazing team of six employees and, and, you know, I just get to dream big and, and then everything kind of runs in the background. So I’m incredibly fortunate to get to do.

[00:15:15] Christine: Well, I think there, there’s a couple of key points I want to take from that part of your story.

[00:15:21] And number one, we kind of get this idea that we want to find the thing and have our life played out, but it continues to evolve. And so, you know, what worked for you as a military spouse also helped you and your husband transitioned to the. Phase of your life and my husband and I always joke because we’re like we can’t get out of the military because we don’t know where we want to live, what we wanted to go after.

[00:15:47] Whereas, but you were able to take those skills and what you learned. Developing your own thing as a military spouse, and that helped you transition into that next phase and gave you the opportunity to explore and to experience things that most people never even have the opportunity to do. So I mean, that part right there is amazing.

[00:16:08] But then also the part of your story where you talked about. The next step. And in seeing the questions that people are asking you and, and trying something new and learning that that was even more fulfilling than what you were always already doing. And, and so much of finding purpose in our lives for this season.

[00:16:28] And for future seasons is about understanding what is fulfilling to us and, and taking. Into that. So I love that part of your story as well. So I know I have people listening to this podcast right now who are saying, okay, is this something that I could do? Is this possible for me? Could I build a PCS proof business? Um, talk to us about learning to code and what you teach.

[00:16:57] Julia: Sure. So yeah, we have a, we have a free five-day coding challenge. And when we run it live, occasionally we actually just ran a lot last week and we, we run it live regularly because people love it so much. And it’s, it’s a really good opportunity to, to just dip your toes in the water and, and kind of give yourself a chance and say, is this something that I enjoy because I promise you will know, after those five days, if you enjoy it or not, you’ll know after the first day.

[00:17:25] And we, we just ran it last week and I loved watching the comments and, and women saying how. They never thought that they could do it. They never thought that they would have the confidence. They thought it was going to be too hard. They thought they had to be good at math, which you don’t. Uh, and they, they had all these assumptions, which is fair.

[00:17:42] I had the same assumptions that, you know, Hollywood wants us to assume. It’s like the super fancy thing. It’s, it’s not, and it’s actually really fun and it’s very rewarding. You literally build something from nothing and you see it right there immediately. So if you like immediate gratification, visually, it’s perfect because you see it right there.

[00:18:03] And if you like troubleshooting, if you like problem solving, if you have a really good eye for detail, then you know, it’s, it’s gotta be worth a shot because you know, what are you going to lose? It’s free. And, you know, I’m a big fan of figuring out what you don’t like doing. So I kind of take that approach because when I was younger, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I never would have expected I’d be doing what I’m doing now, but I tried a lot of different things and I would go, Ooh, I don’t like that.

[00:18:30] Ooh. That’s not very much fun. So, you know, just trying things. And if you can weed out the stuff that you don’t enjoy. This is absolutely a PCS proof, um, job. I mean, I I’ve been doing it for years and I think the really cool thing about, um, getting into online business is that like, like websites and WordPress, which is what we focus on.

[00:18:52] Cause it’s the most popular, um, website building. Um, w is that you, you kind of get your foot in the door when it comes to online business, and then you realize that there’s so much more out there. Like you might’ve loved riding when you were a kid. So copywriting, you can, you can make such good money as a copywriter and, and you can do that from anywhere you could do.

[00:19:14] Um, digital marketing, you could run like paid advertising. You could learn how to do email marketing because that’s such a unimportant thing nowadays. So there’s, there’s so much more to. What you can offer if you have an online business and just getting started with something like coding, uh, with websites, it gets you in to then be able to see what all the other opportunities are.

[00:19:38] And, and then you’re, you’ve already got, you know, a lot more tech skills than most people. So, you know, it’s just one of those things where if there’s an inkling of you thinking, I want to give it a, go, give it a go for free. Try it out if you hate it. Awesome. At least you tried. If you love it. Awesome.

[00:19:55] Christine: Well, I think, you know, one of the things that a lot of us don’t do enough of is asking, is this something that I enjoy?

[00:20:03] Is that something that I hate? And really trying to use that as learning opportunities to say, okay, how do I move more towards the. That are lighting me up and to really do what you said and just try something and say, does this look like it would be a viable option for me? Is this something that I am interested in?

[00:20:24] So I love that you offer that free opportunity. Now let’s say somebody does your free challenge. And they’re like, okay. Yes. I want to invest in this. I want to learn more. What’s available?

[00:20:36] Julia: Sure. Oh, oh, there’s so many things that are available and yes, we do have a program it’s called WP rockstar. So it’s, it’s, it is primarily focused on building a business, offering websites as a service.

[00:20:50] That’s kind of what we do. And it’s not just the skills because of course we’re big on the tech skills, but we have the, the marketing and the finding clients and the systems and the. Setting up the business and like all the other stuff that goes into it and the community, the geek pack community, that that’s where that sits.

[00:21:06] Um, so yes, we do have that, but there’s so many other, um, online opportunities where you can invest in yourself. And, and I say that because. When I was learning, I did not invest in myself. I was terrified to spend any money on, on anything and I, everything I did, I learned for free, it was Google and YouTube, and it also took me two years to find clients.

[00:21:30] So I don’t recommend that because it’s, it’s very. Difficult to, to kind of go on your own, but you can. I did. And I wished that I had had something like this just to kind of speed up my process, but, um, there are free opportunities. There’s paid opportunities and, um, it really just depends on kind of where you are and what you, what you want and what you want to be able to offer as a service and things.

[00:21:59] Christine: I mean, I truly believe that you will never regret investing in yourself and in opportunities that help you grow as a person. Because even if you do not experience monetary success right away, those are valuable skills and you are constantly growing as a person. And, and the longer that I am here on this earth, the more that I start to see, like all these different pieces on how the whole fits together.

[00:22:25] So what you said right there was absolute gold and I would encourage anyone that’s listening. I know somebody is out there listening and they need to hear this right now, just invest in yourself, bet on yourself and see where something like this could take you because there are so many opportunities that are available out there.

[00:22:46] We’re not available even, you know, 10, 15 years ago, even in the last, you know, since COVID, we have so many more remote, digital, online work from home opportunities. So I love that so much. What would you say are some of the biggest lessons or takeaways that you’ve experienced in your own journey that you would love to share?

[00:23:11] Julia: Oh so many. Um, I have, um, I, I don’t like to use the word mistakes because I’ve learned lessons from every single thing that I’ve done, but I’ve done a lot of things, um, in ways that I wish I had done them differently, or, you know, if I were to do them again, next time I would do it differently. Um, one of them being, um, I like what you said there, where you said bet on yourself, because I think a lot of times people will say invest in yourself and that kind of feeds.

[00:23:37] Um, a little bit scary, but even betting on yourself, even when it comes down to, and this is something that I’ve just recently decided to change in, in my program is, is to really encourage people to bet on themselves and set up. Set their business up correctly, because if you just kind of go, well, I’m going to give it a go and I’m going to play and see if it works before I do that.

[00:24:03] And a lot of times those folks, because they haven’t bet on themselves and they’ve not said, right, I’m going to make this work. I’m going to set up my, my LLC, or I’m going to set up my sole proprietorship. I’m going to get the bank account. I’m going to set up the, you know, PayPal for business or Stripe or whatever.

[00:24:17] Like just those few steps that getting an EIN, just those few steps there. Don’t take you very long and depending on what state you’re in may or may not cost you very much, but that is just that extra step where you go, right. I’m betting on myself because this is going to work. So I’m going to do these things and I’m going to have stuff set up correctly from the beginning, because I am going to find clients.

[00:24:40] I am going to have a successful business. And that is something that I didn’t know. Uh, and I, I wished that I had, and I’m now I’m really emphasizing the importance of it to, to my students. Um, I think the other thing I would say is. Um, I am a recovering perfectionist. I think a lot of people are, and I am, yeah.

[00:25:03] I really struggled with, um, bringing on other team members because I always thought, oh, you know, like I can just do it quicker or I will just do it. Or, you know, I would see an issue here, see an issue there. And it took me so long to get comfortable with having other people doing. You know, all the things.

[00:25:21] For example, my social media, I used to think that I was the only one that could do my own social media, or I was the only one that could write my own emails. Well, surprise, surprise. I have other people that do it better than I do. And it frees me up to be able to do other things, to grow the business, to have more reach and impact.

[00:25:39] And I think because I was so stuck on my way and, and thinking it had to be perfect and it, my way was perfect that I, I, I slowed my growth because I didn’t kind of accept that someone else could do it. I’m good enough or better than I was. And I, that was just something that I, um, I wish I’d done the sooner.

[00:26:03] Christine: I mean, I think the number one challenge to starting any business stepping outside of your comfort zone is really that mindset component too, to really understand that you’re going to face, you know, all of that fear, all of that self-doubt, all of the obstacles that come in our way. And what do you do with that?

[00:26:24] Are you going to let. Holds you back or are you going to move forward despite all of those feelings, because we all face that. And the closer that you get to doing something to taking that leap of faith, to stepping outside of our comfort zone, the more those feelings pop up. And so just having that knowledge that you have to take.

[00:26:45] Action. You have to take messy action. You have to say, Hey, I’m committed to this because there’s going to be days where you feel on top of the world and days where you’re like, I just want to give up and quit and shut it all down because I’m not having success growing a business, starting anything or learning any new skill that you don’t already have, or it doesn’t come naturally to you is going to have.

[00:27:10] It’s going to be a bumpy ride. It’s going to be a journey. And, um, I think that’s so valuable to, to really hone in on that mindset component and to really take those action steps of, you know, I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna, I’m going to commit to this even when I’m not, you know, having a great day every single day when I’m not getting the clients right away, when it’s a very slow process of moving towards where you want.

[00:27:37] Julia: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Mindset. And I, you know, I, as you’re talking there, I’m thinking to myself, oh yeah, that’s another one. Oh yeah. That’s another one. And I have, I have multiple mindset coaches. And when I first got started in the online business world, and I heard someone say that they were coaches like. Uh, not exercise coaches, but business marketing coaches, business coaches, mindset coaches.

[00:27:58] I thought to myself, this is complete hogwash. Like how do you, why do you need a coach? Can you get yourself through life without help? And sure enough, I now have. I don’t even, I don’t even know how many coaches I have, but I have a marketing business mindset and, and there’s no way, no way I would be where I am if I didn’t have that support and help, because you get in your own head and you tell yourself stories, and then you start to believe those stories, even though they’re not true, or even though they’ve never happened.

[00:28:31] And, and they really. Stop you from taking action. And I think imposter symbol syndrome was probably one of my biggest issues and still is, I mean, to be fair, like it, sorry to say this, but I don’t think imposter syndrome ever goes away. I think that it only just kind of morphs and changes as you grow. And as you get to different levels, you have different types of imposter syndrome.

[00:28:56] However, you can figure out ways to cope with it and to kind of go, oh, hang on. This is my imposter syndrome voice kind of creeping in that’s okay. There’s a place for that, but I’m going to ignore it and I’m going to push through and I’m going to carry on because when you have those moments, that’s when you have the, like your big breakthroughs and you find your first client, or you, you tell someone that you’re doing this new job and they say, oh, no way.

[00:29:20] I know someone who needs help with that. So at any level, You will feel that way, because as you said, you are taking a risk, you’re doing something outside of the norm. You’re, you’re stepping outside the box of a nine to five because you want something more. You want location independence, you want flexibility, freedom, whatever that is.

[00:29:40] So you will come up against things that most people don’t because you are already taking that rest or just know that you’re going to have good days and bad days. And one day you might have. Ups and downs all day long and that’s completely normal. And that kind of comes back to the community piece where just know that whatever you end up doing and learning, if you start your own business, Find a community of other people who are doing something similar, who will support you and care for you because, and understand what you’re going through.

[00:30:13] Cause if like for me, no one that I knew in my kind of sphere of friends or family had started their own business, especially a business that’s online and people thought it was a scam and my parents still don’t really know what I do. And you know, all those things that those things will happen. So if you can find other people that are in a similar position as you.

[00:30:35] It’s magic. It’s gold and it will make your life a whole lot easier.

[00:30:39] Christine: Amen. Amen. I’m just going to cheer you on right there, because I think it’s so, so important to surround yourself with people who are pursuing similar dreams and goals to you. Because when you are just around people who are doing something completely different, it’s easy to just say, well, I am I doing this and this is not easy.

[00:30:58] And I just, you know, I’m going to. Close up my laptop and just go hang out with everybody, you know, on the patio or go off and do the adventure that everybody else is doing because they’re not pursuing a big goal or dream. So thank you so much for saying that. I think it’s so, so valuable and something that we need to hear more of.

[00:31:18] So I know you’ve kind of talked about this some already, but what advice would you have for military spouses who are currently struggling? With their career path and they’re trying to figure out what their next step needs to be.

[00:31:32] Julia: Sure. Um, so I, if, if you’re struggling to figure that out and if, if you want to pursue doing something on your own, or even not even on your own, I mean, to be fair, you can get remote jobs.

[00:31:48] That you can do working from anywhere. So I think the thing, and of course I’m partial considering what, you know, how I learned and what I did, but I’m such a big fan of, um, learning a tech skill because like tech is, is now it’s the future. It’s not going away. It is marketable. It’s in demand. You can literally put tech skills on your resume.

[00:32:10] So I I’m such whether it’s coding or something else, but if you learn something that is as tangible as possible, like tech, like coding, then that can take you so far. And anyone who you speak to will go, oh, you know, that’s, that’s really cool. Like, it just comes with this like air of. Bad-ass rate. I hope I’m allowed to swear.

[00:32:35] Sorry. As I’m saying, and I’m thinking to myself, don’t say that, don’t say that. Um, and it, it just, it builds your confidence as well. So that’s another thing. Learning something in the tech field, because it is marketable and in demand. And that feeds onto your confidence because when you learn something that so many people think is really hard, you feel awesome.

[00:33:02] And you’re like, oh my gosh, I just did this thing now. I feel awesome. I’m empowered. What else can I go on and learn? So that’s, there’s just something about. Learning something techie. And then having that confidence that comes with it, that opens up so many other opportunities. So, you know, whether it’s learning from me or learning from someone else, just if, if you, even, if you don’t think you’re techie, I get that all the time.

[00:33:28] Women who say I’m too old, I’m not techie. I’m not good at math. And I crush all those objections because we’ve got women in their sixties and seventies who, you know, weren’t very good at math either. And they are crushing it. Oh, yeah, that that’s, that’s fine.

[00:33:45] Christine: That is absolutely amazing. Well, you are doing an amazing job, empowering women and really opening the doors.

[00:33:51] I think, to an opportunity that so many women don’t think is for them or, or don’t feel like they are qualified to do so. Thank you for that. Um, for anybody that wants to connect with you, learn more about what you have to offer. Tell us.

[00:34:08] Julia: Yeah, the easiest place is to geek pack.com. That’s my website.

[00:34:12] Literally everything is there from the free coding challenge. If you want to check that out to everything else, we’ve got a YouTube channel. We’ve got a blog. I do not have a podcast, so maybe someday, but we’ve got everything else. So that’s the easiest place to find me.

[00:34:26] Christine: Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I know it’s going to be such a valuable resource for our listeners.

[00:34:34] Julia: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me on.

[00:34:37] Christine: And I hope you love that. One of the things I really want to highlight about Julia’s story is the importance of betting on yourself. It’s so easy as military spouses to put ourselves on the back burner to lose sight of who we are.

[00:34:53] And what we have to offer, and we think we need to be focused on contributing to the financial bottom line, but we don’t fully grasp how important it is to bet on ourselves and invest in who we are becoming. So whether it is. Taking time out to take Julia’s free coding bootcamp, whether it’s investing in a course like milspouse purpose playbook, to help you get clear on what your unique purpose is and how you can start crafting a life with purpose.

[00:35:28] I want you to take some time and find one thing that will help you. Get clarity on your journey that will help you move the needle that will help you discover what lights you up and who you are meant to be. I want you to choose one thing for you because it’s not just for you today. It’s for your future and your future.

[00:35:55] Find one thing to sign up for, do that thing today. Maybe it’s something big, like taking a class, going to therapy, hiring a coach. Maybe it’s just sitting down and writing an email and asking to meet with a mentor and ask them some questions. Maybe it’s just finding a sitter to watch your kids for a couple hours.

[00:36:17] So you can have some alone time, so you can have some time. To think it, it doesn’t have to be big. Maybe it’s just volunteering for an organization that you really care about. Do something for you, make a choice to do one thing to invest in yourself. Because here’s what I want you to know when we pursue the things that light us up.

[00:36:43] We trade frustration for fulfillment and isolation for a life of impact. And that’s the life I want for you. So what I want you to do is pick that one thing that you are going to do to invest in yourself in your future today, and then go over, jump inside our Facebook community, let us know what you’re going to do to invest in yourself.

[00:37:06] If you’re not already inside the group, just head over to milspouse, mastermind.com/community. And that will take you there. Or you can search for it on Facebook. I can’t wait to hear what that thing is that you are going to do to invest in yourself today. I hope you have an amazing week living filled, fueled and full of joy.