WORK WORK WORK WORK

What I've been up to

Hello!

If you read my last newsletter you may know that I've pivoted into a career in software development and a year after writing my first line of code I’m building my first full stack website…and being paid for it!

What's been really exciting learning how to take the creativity I tapped working with brands and consumer-facing companies and add it to a completely new toolset. The interesting thing about coding is how quickly things build on each other — so when you learn a new thing, the level of complexity of the next project is way higher than the previous one.

Still, like every journey, I needed to take a first step somewhere — and this newsletter is about first steps. When I first started it, I had never done any kind of public writing, and to be honest, my previous jobs didn't entail much writing at all. I wasn't comfortable with it and I certainly wasn't comfortable putting myself out there.

The process I took to figure out what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it completely shifted my professional trajectory. Through this newsletter, I found work opportunities and professional connections, learning a ton from super successful founders and creators. Moreover, it taught me that doing what I'm doing in public, even when I don't feel like the world's top expert in something, has significant benefits.

That's why I started a new podcast about the technical recruiting process. Suddenly, it felt natural to think: "At some point, I'm going to go through this process, so I should connect with others and do so in a public way that might connect me to even more ways to learn."

I never thought I’d be comfortable hosting a podcast (I can barely listen to my own voice on a voice note), but I’ve learned the rewards of making content and participating in thought leadership are too high to pass up. And I get to help other people learn alongside me, too.

It's a question that a lot of people ask me — how I started to put myself out there and how I got comfortable with it. Well, my husband (who has been writing in public since 2004) and I thought a lot about that and we decided to build a way to help others do that. 

I'd like to introduce you to Visible Work.

Visible Work is a 10-week guided course that includes 1:1 consultation with Charlie on your narrative and positioning — as well as help with structuring a professional story arc so that you're not stuck coming up with new things to talk about all the time. Attendees follow a consistent, main idea they've planned out beforehand with the help of an accountability partner they work with in the class. 

Charlie and I have been ideating this project for the last few years (through a pandemic, pregnancy, a new baby, and a renovation). I was the first test client writing For The Love. Where Charlie's expertise comes from doing this for nearly 20 years, it was my job to keep the student in mind —someone who might have been hesitant to share ideas publicly and not sure what narrative to tell.

Also, I built our website from scratch as my first real project :) Sure, I know you can use Squarespace or Wix to build a site, but I wanted to take the first things I learned in coding — simple HTML and CSS (with a sprinkling of JavaScript) — and produce something functional that would actually get used. I already have a long list of website v2 ideas but I’m told this is very common for software developers (and I know it’s true of creatives).

So check out the site and if you're curious about the program, sign up for an info session. There are only two spots left in the first cohort starting in September!

And please do let me know what you're up to and if there's any way that I can help —especially if me helping means that you're in the market for a junior software engineer.