How to be OverEmployed in Tech with your OWN BUSINESS

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We're gonna end it. Let's see where we at.

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Episode 126.

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Yeah. Let me get myself together, not try to be too childish, right?

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Yo, gotta get the energy all the way up. Welcome back to the textual Talk podcast. I'm your host HD. It's episode 126, and we got a lovely guest for you guys today. This guest was actually my first pilot guest on the textual talk. Well, at the time was called let's talk tech three years ago, almost four years ago, you might have seen her on Instagram, posting her reels, trying to show you how to be a beast. That tech contracting and really get the bag. But we have none other than Miss Justice Devon here with us today. And she came to rock out with us tonight.

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And also, look, before we get into the video, y'all need to subscribe to the Patreon. Because how I get y'all this good quality content is because y'all help me out. So, yeah, y'all wanna hear this stuff?

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Subscribe, donate whatever you can. I got you.

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But, justice, what's good? It's been a minute since they seen you on textual chatter. It has. It has. And I'm excited to be here in the physical. You know what I'm saying? Because at first, we was doing it virtual back in COVID. No. Funny. Now I just think about it. Everything was different then. Yeah, it was. My name was techno chatter at the time. But my lawyer was like, yo, if your company is a textual consultant, why just not have everything textual, right? It's all textual. I like it. I'm putting down the shirt. You should. Cause I'm here for it. But.

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So, guys, for y'all don't know, I'm gonna give you a little backstory of, like, how I had to. It took, like, first of all, she's still so busy now. Back then, I think I saw her content.

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I think. I don't know, like, y'all remember. Look, y'all, I was doing the don't rush challenge. No, that's how I started. Yeah, I started from the don't rest.

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I'm trying to really remember, how did I find you? I think I just was, like, looking like youtubers or tech or whatever. Remember it was a boom of people making content in 2020. Yeah, it was. So I saw you and I was okay. Did you got any contact information? I sent you an email and I think we finally, like, got on, what was it, a zoom or something? And that's when we scheduled it. And I think at that time I was out here, and then when we did it, I actually was in Bossier City for a little while because I had just moved back for a little while. My little girl was like, very little. She wasn't even. She wasn't even. Yeah, she turned one the next year, so I had moved back to be closer to her. Right. But I remember we struggle streaming. My camera was going out. I didn't have the dummy battery, and so it kept on running hot. And so I had. It was a lot of stuff to learn with the content. Yeah. And then I think you had to switch your camera at the time. I did, yeah.

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But, yeah, it was good. I think we came a long way. But for those who never watched that stream, you ain't really gotta watch it. I mean, please don't. It ain't the best, but it's just us learning stuff.

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But pretty much four years later, everybody's grown so much since then. You was like a baby then. I was.

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I looked like a baby, but I was handling big business at the same time.

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You was like, how old you was back then? I don't remember.

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I don't remember how old I am now. Okay.

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Anyways, can you introduce yourself to our watchers and our listeners? Yes, most definitely. So hello, everybody. My name is Justice Devon. I am a Uiux designer. I've been in the industry for like, a decade and I'm glad to be here. Okay, so also, the funny thing is, y'all, look, this is not my city. I'm not from Dallas.

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But y'all know she was in the area for like, some months and I didn't even know. Oh, yeah. I found out randomly, like, she was in Dallas, and I was like, when did you move out here? I didn't tell anybody. I just literally packed up and I left. I didn't tell nobody except for my best friend. They knew I was coming, but that was it. Yeah, we'll dive into that deeper, I guess, a little later, but. So you're originally from where? Albany, Georgia.

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So that is by Tallahassee, Florida. So shout out to 229. And then I moved to Atlanta in like, 2015 to ten engineering school.

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So. Okay, so since you said you grew up in Albany, you said it's close to Tallahassee. What's your favorite t pain song? Of course. Buy you a drink. Duh. That was the bop back then. Like, we liked that song. We played that more than any song he ever had. I think it is the bop. But you know what's a, you know what's a bop? Bop. What?

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Bartender. Bartender is a bop. When bartender come on, people get active. Yeah. Bartender is a rob. You're right. But you gotta think about it. I was like in middle school ish. So the. I didn't know what a bartender was. Yeah, I was in, I think I was in, I might be in 8th grade when I'm in love with a stripper. Drop. No, but yeah, I was a freshman when buy your joint came out. Oh, really?

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I'm like, hold on. What are you talking about? 150 a shot. One for you, two for me or whatever he's talking about. Yeah, yeah, Louie, one whatever he was talking about. Like, I was like, I don't even know what he talking about.

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But it sound good, right? That is crazy. That's insane.

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That was the good days right there. But so first of all, what made you. I guess so you said you moved to Atlanta. So when you moved to Atlanta, is that where you went to college at? I did, yeah. And I know it's kind of like social engineering, but like what school did you go to? Okay, so I started out at Darton State.

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That was like a trade school. Then I transferred to Southern Poly University. That was in Marietta. It was an engineering school.

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It was known for like software engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, all that good stuff. Then they had a merge where you are merged with Kennesaw. So Kennesaw bought southern poly. So I was stuck in the merge and I had to take extra classes because of the merge. But I graduated from Kennesaw State because they bought southern Poly. So I graduated from Kennesaw State. Yeah. Yeah. I think I had some clients that went to Kennesaw State.

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Really? Yeah. It's good for business. It's a great business school. Yeah. I want to say one of my first clients, shout out to Sierra. I believe she went to Kennesaw State. I hope I'm not wrong. Yeah, that's a good school. It's been a while, but. So when you went into college, did you know you want to do uiux?

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No. Yeah, I figured that. I did not. Cause funny enough, me and my friend Eric were just talking about how asking a 1718 year old to go to school and say what they want to do for the rest of their life is a tough decision. It is. Yeah. And most people change their majors at least once while they in school, I. Changed mine, like, twice.

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Okay, so what was the first major? The first major was information and technology. And I did that at the trade school. And then when I pretty much left the trade school and I became, well, I came to southern Poly. They gave us options. So I took computer engineering, not knowing it was hardware. So I'm over here soldering.

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I'm doing electrical stuff, everything electrical. All my classes are electrical. And I'm like, I don't like this. This is not for me. Oh, so you know a little something. Oh, yeah, I know. I know. Cause, see, the cool thing about Southern Poly was we was also able to do academics and also still do hands on work. So we didn't just have to wait our two years. We could actually still do our work and also still have our academics. So I was still, like, soldering and learning about, like, you know, machines and putting circuit boards together, and I was like, this is not for me. This is not what I wanted. So I went to my advisor at the time, and I asked her, I said, hey, what is something I can do that makes me a lot of money, but I don't have to do anything hard work. I think I want to switch to software. She said, you can do either computer science or you can do software engineering. I'm like, what is that? So I went home, did my research, and I literally looked and I saw software engineers making the most money. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to get a degree in software engineering. So I actually switched my major, and I had to switch all my classes. And I was taking all the classes for software engineering, like Java, C sharp, c gaming classes, learning unity, and stuff like that. So I did that. I was like, man, this is a lot. I don't know if I like this either. So literally, my senior year, y'all kid, you not. My senior year, I had a professor.

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She was a russian professor, and she was teaching Uiux.

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I would literally go to the class, not even learn anything. I would just go and chill because I'm like, I don't care what this is. I don't want to know what this is. So she failed me, so she made me stay back. She was like, look, I'm about to give you an alpha incomplete. I'm gonna let you make this up during the summer if you want to, but you need to actually learn this stuff, because I feel like you have the potential.

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You are a woman in Texas, not that many of us at this school. So she's a black woman? No, she was russian. You could be a black Russian. Shut up. They got white Russians. But she's a white Russian. She was a white russian lady and she's now the dean. I think she's. Now I know she was before or whatever. You stepped on my daiquiri joke, too. I know. I peeped it. I peeped it. But you're funny.

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We're not talking about that. But yeah, no, she was a white russian lady, and she basically told me I have a lot of potential. She said she sees the value in me. So, yeah, she held me back and she made me do the whole class over the summer. And then over the summer, I had to learn everything about Uiux. And I was like, whoa, I kind of like this. I think I'm interested. I think I want to do this for real. So I asked her, I said, well, what career can I do in this? And she was telling me my options. And so she was like, well, basically you're about to graduate because it's your last semester. Well, the upcoming semester was my last semester.

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So she was like, if I were you, I'll just take a boot camp. So after I graduated, got my degree in software engineering, I took a bootcamp. And I took a boot camp at general assembly for UI Ux. And that's how I got started. Okay, so you really got skill skills? Oh, yeah, I got skill skills. I just hide them, but I have them. So let's. Let's revisit some stuff about college. Cause you kinda. You went through that pretty fast. Yeah.

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Being a black woman in a technical curriculum. Before I say film, say curriculum, were you like, the only one in all your classes? It was a couple. It was like three of us. Okay. Yeah. Cause me and a girl who I used to pay to do my homework, she was there.

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Shout out to Sierra. I miss you, Buki. But, yeah, she was there in another girl. So we all graduated at the same time. Cause we was all already, like, aligning all the same classes. So it was three of us, three black girls.

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Okay, but so were you aligned? I know you said one of them did your homework. How was it like with the guys?

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Like, you know how they do. Like, if you meet somebody on campus. Oh, what's your major? I'm so, you know how to code and this. And. No, it wasn't like that. Okay. The guys was mad cool. Like, even some of the guys from college, I still talk to them to this day. Some of them even taking my boot camp right now. Okay. But, yeah, we're cool. Everybody was really nice. The professors was nice. I didn't have any issues.

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Only time I had an issue with one professor because he kept telling me, you bringing too much pink in my classroom. And so me bringing too much pink in a classroom, I was like, I'm a girly girl. Like, what you expect?

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I'm gonna bring pink. So that's the only issue I had for him besides cool. He definitely won a Kanye fan. So what made you want to take a bootcamp? And then, okay, let me actually do two things. What make you, what is ui ux? And then what made you want to do a bootcamp and get into UIux?

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Okay, cool. So Uiux, we're going to start with UX first. Cause it's always good to start with first user experience. UX is pretty much the experience where you're pretty much, you're working with your users, you're working with the people who work with an application or a product, and you're understanding their journey, their process, why they're doing what they doing, why they have these many clicks, or why they're confused on a certain path of their journey of a user experience. UI is the visual, it's the aesthetics. It is the components. It's the user interface that you see today on your phone, your iPad, your computers, anything that you're dealing with. It has a button, some screens, and some visuals and some colors. That's UI. Okay, cool. So. Cause, you know, when you think about it, I would say Uiux is pretty niched. It's not something you hear, like, think about how many people you ever interact with, say, oh, I do. Uiux. It's rare.

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I hardly see people still to this day that do it right. I think if I'm trying to see memory, certainly correct. I think even when you told me that, I really didn't know too much of it. Well, I think I have a younger cousin who's into all that type of stuff. From the UI UX standpoint, he's super smart. Yeah. And then outside of that, I think only other person I saw on YouTube was Anton Daniels. He. I think he used to do Uiux at the bank. I think I was telling you about that. I said you should go on his show.

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Oh, really? Yeah. You did? Yeah, you did. She ready to come to Detroit and get on the show? Oh, he's in Detroit. I've never been there before. Yeah, that's bad. I want to go to Detroit too, though.

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We can go together. Motor City? Yes. Explore business wise, for sure. I'm down with that. I wanna go see Motown.

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That wouldn't be too bad. I wouldn't mind going to a Lions or a piston game. I don't know nothing about no sports. I don't even know who that is. The Pistons are the basketball team. The Lions is the football team. You know what, now I think about it, I think I had a, I dated a guy that told me he played for the Lions, but I mean. We could play for the love of justice at the end. Oh, no, that's a horrible thing. You don't want to do that. So after you finish the boot camp. Correct. What happens then? What happens next?

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So I took the boot camp of general assembly. Keep in mind, I had already graduated and got my degree in software engineering. So I graduated May of 2018. I took the boot camp, literally the end of May. As soon as I graduated, I took the boot camp. I was there for like three months. So I did a part time cohort at General assembly. Cause I was like, I don't need to do it full time. I already took the elective class. I don't need all that. I just need a part time so I can get started. After I graduated from general Assembly, I did not get a job. So they have recruiters there. They like, work at, like, Home Depot and all that good stuff. But I didn't ever get an opportunity.

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So I was like, you know what, I'm gonna create my own opportunity. So what I did was I started building my own websites and, like, projects and case studies, so that way I can get notice in the industry.

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So I pretty much created a fake scenario. So like, for example, like a Nike or. Sorry, but yeah, like Nike. And like, anything that's done with e commerce, I did a Govtech project and then I did something with, like, finance. So I had three different case studies on my portfolio, so that way I can view it and show other people. So my portfolio ended up getting picked up by a Govtech company.

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They was a startup and they literally loved my resume. And it was very pink when I tell you I had everything pink on their resume, but they love the creativity of it. So that's how I got my first job. And my first job was a guv tape job. Are you like a Cameron fan?

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Cameron what? Oh. Cause it's pink. You got a lot of jokes, but I do like Cam'ron, actually. I love the pink Range Rover he had and the pink fur coat. So I guess I think we missing some stuff now. I remember there was some person that doubted your earning potential. Yes, I did skip over that. Okay. Yeah.

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So as I was going through my interview process, this guy who was interviewing me after the second round, he basically told me. Cause he wanted to hire me, but he told me he felt like the position I wouldn't be qualified for. So I'm like, well, how much is it? He goes to tell me it's like 50k. But he told me I'm not worth forty five k at the time. I said, I have a whole software engineering degree. So how are you gonna tell me I'm not worth that? And my advisor basically told me I could start on making like 70k, so it doesn't make sense to me. So, yeah, he tried to belittle me. And then he called me back like a year later, and I'm like, no, the price went up. So it's not the same yesterday price, is not today's price. Hey, that's funny, because oftentimes in these interviews, these podcast episodes, I've had stuff, especially with black women, a recruiter always hating or trying to tell them they should be glad they got offered the money, or this is what you're gonna get. And I really think it's because that recruiter probably wasn't making no money. Exactly. And that's only what happens.

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Yeah, like, when recruiter is. See, here's the thing with recruiters. They either going to be happy for you or they just doing it for the paycheck. So at that time, I realized the recruiter I was dealing with was just there for the paycheck.

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He wasn't very content with what he was doing. He wasn't happy with life.

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That's how I take it, how he was acting. And then I have recruiters who don't make a lot of money and still do it, you know, for the love, for helping people. Cause there's plenty of recruiters I know that don't make that much. And they still get a lot of people, a lot of gigs and, like, jobs. So it just depends on what kind of recruiter you're working with, honestly. No, I agree. You can tell the ones that want to help, the ones that's kind of bsing you. And I tell people this, too.

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And companies, if you ever watch this, your process sometimes can make or break what type of good candidates you may get to apply to your company. I love to tell people about companies I've had great experiences with. I was like, they whole recruiting team, they dope. The interview's dope. Everybody's cool. I like the interview. They not trying to grill me. They want to see who I am, as a person, they gonna ask me stuff relevant to the role. Mm hmm. But if it's trash, I'm having to call you five, seven times to track you down. You're not responding to emails, all this other stuff. If you're not prioritizing me, I'm not gonna prioritize you. I don't even track down recruiters. Right? I don't even do a follow up. Cause I feel like if you already know my worth and you know I'm valued, why would I do a follow up? Recruiters that really want you, they will blow your phone down. Yeah. They will call you every day and do a check in with you every day. I've never had it where I blow a recruiter down and be like, oh, well, did I get it? Have you heard it?

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Update? No. Cause I know my worth in the industry, and I know what I bring to the table, and I'm like, okay, cool. It's either it's meant to be or it's not. And I keep it pushing all that. Hey, I'm about to call and send you a follow up email. For what? Yeah, I think so. My case is not. My stuff is sometimes if I got multiple processes going on and I preference one over the other, I'm just trying to see, yo, what's going on. Like, I. That's understandable. Yeah. Cause I had a situ. I told you about that. I'm not gonna say it on here, but I had a situation when I was like, yo, y'all is number one. I ain't really heard nothing back from y'all, but I really preference y'all over these people. But this is what I got going on, and I use that as leverage. Cause if you really like me, it's like, you know how it is. A dude, you know, you like. Especially if they stuck between candidates, then it's a little tricky, then. Okay, then I understand. Okay, cool. Let's call and do the check in. Let's see what's going on. If you stuck between two candidates. Yeah, I get that. Or they already knew who they was gonna hire anyway. They just been wasting your time. You know what's so crazy? I had something happen like that recently, and I was the person. They knew they was gonna hire me. They literally put me through, what, four to five rounds, just because of protocol. And they was like, well, we already knew from day one we were gonna hire you. We just had to go through everybody else just because I'm like, so y'all basically just wasted my whole month. But see, at least they went through the proclamation. Everybody else. I had situations where they already pretty much hired somebody and they still putting you through. It's like, I need to get paid for the time I wasted for you. No, and that's a fact. I agree. Cause let's be clear. There's been times. I have not always got every interview. So there's been times I'm like, okay, cool. We just did five, six rounds. What are we doing? Right? Did I get it or did I not get it? But I don't know. I just feel like, especially when they stuck like that, it's a hard decision. Cause you got two good candidates there. And then on top of that, recruiters are, like, kind of stressing. Cause they're like, okay, well, my candidate's good and my candidate is good. So they're trying to also upsell you. So I don't know. It's a little tricky. It is tricky.

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Then sometimes it's like, as the candidate, you're like, all right, this thing went that hard. I don't know what they gauging exactly. Yeah, I've been through that, too. So I think I seen one email one time, like, yo, hey, the interview one that hard. Like, hey, could you tell me. I ain't pressed, but could you tell me, like, what is they fixating on? Because I had an interview with a former company. Yeah. And when we was interviewing, I'm telling them about stuff they can go verify that I did when I was there. Right. So I'm like, okay, is they trying to get when they friends in or what's going on? Because I'm like, anything I just said to you, you can go verify.

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Yeah. With the. With the actual client that I was talking about.

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Right. So that's why I was like, okay, it is what it is. Y'all weren't really paying enough anyway, but I really liked y'all a lot, and I want to come back and do something there. So that was kind of like, my. My thoughts about that, but. So you get your first gov. Tech job, and I want to say that's where you were working when we met in 2020. Yeah, yeah. I was just leaving there. He was going to, like, the Christmas parties and all that. I left the company. Well, I didn't leave. They fired me. Honestly, they fired me in, like, the first day of black history month. Hold on. So how you get. First of all, let's talk about. Before we get into that, let's talk about, like, your first. I guess we could say, like, your first big girl job. Let's talk about that. How was your first job in Ui ux?

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It was great. I had a time. My first job, I was so blessed, y'all.

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I had a sign on bonus for ten k. I was. My salary at the time was 75k. So basically my first job, I was making like eighty five k. I was like, oh, this is lit.

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I got the money. I can do this, I can do that. They fly me out to DC, they fly me here, they find me there. He was already spoiled.

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I was already spoiled. So them just flying me out even made it better. They bought me a fresh MacBook. So I'm the only person come to have a MacBook.

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Like when I tell you I love that company, and I still do to this day. I love them, y'all. So my first Ui Ux job was cool. I had freedom to do whatever I want. They let me control the UX design process even though I was so new and I was a junior. But, you know, luckily I got a mentor that taught me everything else that I needed to know about Ux so I wouldn't just be bs ing it through. So I had guidance, and the guidance helped me provide for the company. And then with that, I created a nice portal that they still use to this day. So I liked it.

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That's good. So what was the, I would say, downfall. But why they fire you? Let me tell you why.

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So we had got a reorg going on in the company. We got a new VP. The VP that hired me loved me. He was still there to this day. I went on vacation. I think I went to like, Cancun or something. And he's like, check your emails. I'm like, check my email. I mean, Cancun, do he not know I'm on PTO? So I called my manager. I'm like, hey, the new guy is telling me to check my emails while I'm on PTO. Even the CEO knew I was on PTO because we was like a startup kind of company. So everybody knew everybody in the company, and I was the only us designer in the company. So everybody knew I was on PTO. But him, he didn't know that. So I'm like, okay, cool. So I'm like, well, I'm on PTO. I could check in when I get back in the office next Tuesday and we can go from there. He's like, no, I want you to check in now. I'm like, check it now. I don't have a computer on me. So I go tell my manager. I'm like, can you please let him know I'm on vacation, I don't have a computer. Can you let him know? My manager's like, cool, I'll talk to him. So my manager talked to him. Okay, cool. I guess that's my first write up from the VP. So the second one was we had everybody in our had to get certified in agile at that time.

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So we was all getting ready to get our agile certifications, all that good stuff.

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I missed one day of class, and that was because I had like a doctor appointment and he tripped about it. So he, apparently, it's my second write up, right? So he's like, oh, you missed the agile class. And that's money we're spending out of the company. Keep in mind, I made a 90 on my certificate. So I'm like, you're tripping. I still got certified agile.

00:23:28.443 --> 00:24:20.463
What are you tripping about? And it was safe, by the way, safe practitioner. So after that, then now we got PI planning coming up, program increments, by the way, with PI planning, I presented my stuff and I did great. All the stuff I needed to do for updates, my plans, my vision, my roadmap, all that. I think the next day happened. I missed a day. Something happened where I don't remember what happened, where I missed one day. Keep in mind I only take off of work like that. So the fact that I probably missed two days, he tripped after that. Next thing I know, the following month, Monday morning, I get a email from HR saying, quick call once I seen our new to us. I said, I know they ain't finna fire me. I know they ain't gonna fire me. So HR got on the call, she's like, hey, justice, I'm like, I know you lying. I ain't let her talk. I just said, I know you lying. She's like, yeah, yeah. I don't know what's going on with you, and, you know, defeat pee, but he wants you gone.

00:24:21.223 --> 00:24:43.839
And I'm like, why am I going? What did I do for you to even try to wanna fire me? So I said, well, what's the reason? They couldn't even explain it. So I was about to file an EEOC on them, but I got so tired and I was interviewing so much, I didn't have time to go through the process. I literally got a new job, like within three months after that, I think. You still should have got your money. You left money on the table. I did, but at the time, I didn't feel like arguing and fighting because the new opportunity was so much better. I wasn't even tripping. I overseas figured that point.

00:24:44.031 --> 00:24:49.894
I feel that. And I think he just had an in for you. He wanted to probably bring somebody in. He wanted to work there, and that's what he did.

00:24:49.933 --> 00:25:02.486
He brought a uxer from his pre rick company or previous company, and she's still there to this day. But, you know, everybody I work with, they're gone, so they're not even there anymore. Yeah, and he probably just wanted to run his own shit. Yeah, he did a reorgan. They'll find anything. And that's the thing too.

00:25:02.509 --> 00:25:23.329
It's kind of like, that's like your first job. So I don't know how you, by whatever strike did you figure out, you know what? I'm finna just start looking for work because to me, getting the write ups is kind of like being put on a pip even though you went on a pipe. That's how I felt. I felt like I was on pill, but I didn't start looking for work until honestly, like, I took a month vacation for one because I was still getting paid even though I was fired. So I still got paid for the whole month of February.

00:25:23.442 --> 00:25:52.973
So I was just chilling, trying to get my life in order, enjoying, relaxing, and then my mom go to tell me I should start starting my own business. So I'm like, hmm, okay, start my own business and tech. How I'm gonna do that? So she was like, you need to start your own agency. How am I gonna do that? She was like, you need to become a contractor. Okay, how am I do that? So she's like, figure it out. Do research. So I go do my research. I learned my contracting, and at that point, I applied for, like, a whole bunch of contracting gigs. And then I finally landed one in, like, April. Okay.

00:25:54.114 --> 00:26:05.653
That you're saying it. And most of these times, most black people are either, like, first gen corporate, first gen college. Yeah.

00:26:06.653 --> 00:26:14.221
Don't wanna assume, but I presume that your mom either went to school or had experience in the corporate world.

00:26:14.357 --> 00:28:48.736
My mom is smart. She's a go getter, she's a hustler. And my mom was literally about to go to law school. And I say that because it's like, a lot of times, people's parents can't show em how to navigate. Like, that's true. My parents blue collar, okay? They don't know nothing about corporate. They came up in they boomers, pretty much. My dad about to be 60. My mom is what, about to make 56, right? Yeah, she about to make 56 so they came over time where, like you said, a company long time, they reward you. All the stuff I tell her all the time. It's different. Ain't even no money on the table. For real. I believe it. Especially all these layoffs and. Oh, layoffs. People don't want to match 401 ks. You ain't got no pensions by the time we retire. Social. Hey, I ain't gonna lie. Yeah, this really just made me hot. If Social Security is done by the time I'm ready to retire, I need all my money back. Wait, what? You think that gonna happen? Of course. Why? It's been rumblings about, like, Social Security gonna run out? No, think about it. Cause when you really think about the people at the top, when we getting money, taking our check for Social Security, we probably paying for the people that didn't make a lot of money, right? Cause some people. You already paid enough for Social Security. Yeah. Have you ever, matter of fact, at splunk her lane and who was it? Kajan and everybody else that's kind of like they logged into the Social Security portal. Have you looked at the Social Security portal? No, I don't even go there. Whenever you get a chance, like, make your Social Security account and then just see what you, like, contributed to Social Security, you probably. For real. I could do that? Yeah. I don't even want to know. Cause they be getting me good with the money stuff, so. I know, but you should, like, look at, like, dang, you probably, like, I might get mad. Probably have already contributed, like, everything you need to, like, send to them. So now you welcome the wave of. So when you do this contract, are you. First of all, we already know now, when it comes to tech, like, I don't know. I think it was like a switch. Like, remember in 2020 was like, okay, cool, everybody, we're getting into tech. We're trying to make some money. Of course, maybe you make six figures. That was kind of the goal. Then it switched into this. I'm gonna get into tech. I'm gonna job stack. I'm gonna work all these jobs, and I'm gonna tell everybody about it. Yeah, it used to be like, you was doing stuff on the low. It was private. Right. So when you did this first contract job, was it c two c or you were 1099? Oh, w two. Okay, w two. Let me tell y'all, my first contract job, I was w two, and I quit in two months. That was working you to the bone. No, I ain't like the lady. I ain't like the manager, and I'm one of those. I'm one of those people. I ain't gotta work for real. I'm just doing this because I want to. I was one of.

00:28:48.759 --> 00:28:52.488
I was a Tasha Campbell, y'all. If y'all know Tasha Campbell by her husband off.

00:28:52.536 --> 00:29:40.743
Everybody hate Chris. I was one of those. If you gonna say it, you gotta say it right? What? You know what she say? No, I'm not. Cause I don't wanna mess it up. She says, I don't need this. My man got two jobs. He got two jobs. That's what she say. Yeah, but, yeah, I was one of those. And I was like, I don't have to do this. And so basically, I quit the job in two months, and I got another one within, like, a week. So after that, I was, okay, cool. I got one contract. I'll start working at a bank. I was like, this is lit. They paying me good. Then I get another offer. I'm like, you know what? I might take that one. Cause that was a part time offer. I said I could do this part time. It's in California. I could do this after hours, no problem. I took that part time. Then I got another offer, and I was like, oh, so y'all trying to offer me all this money? So I had three at one time. It was hard, but I made it work. But I was like, I can't do this long term. Okay. Can't do it long time.

00:29:40.903 --> 00:29:44.284
Now, was you doing this the ethical way or the unethical way?

00:29:44.784 --> 00:29:59.632
So, okay, one was a w two. One was a 1099 freelancer. And then the other one was a w two. So I had two w two s and then a 1099. That ain't too bad. That ain't too bad. I just started doing c two c until, like, 2021.

00:29:59.768 --> 00:30:06.996
Okay. I mean, it's cool. I mean, I've seen recently more companies are open. You know what's funny? They don't really. Some company.

00:30:07.059 --> 00:30:10.875
Well, on LinkedIn, they'll post a job and they'll say, no.

00:30:10.900 --> 00:30:18.299
CDC. Yeah. But a lot of times when them recruits rehs you, they'll be like, w two? And you be like, hey, y'all open to CDC? Yeah, we are.

00:30:18.372 --> 00:31:07.442
Well, here's the thing. LinkedIn is not known for the c two c business. You gotta go to, like, dice. Right, right. No, I agree. I'm just saying, in general, from my experience of, like, when they reach out to me and I'm asking like, hey, y'all down? Yeah, we down. Yeah. I'm like, okay, cool. Cause when you think about it. It's better on them. Like, yeah, 1099 me, I'm good. Yeah, I love a good 1099. I like w two too, though. Don't get it twisted. I love a good w two. I mean, a good w two. A good one, though. You gotta get a good one. You can't get no bad one. You gotta get a good one. So how was that working in, and I guess, like, we kinda got into, like, your spiel, like making money and different things like that. Yeah, but how was it working in finance? The multiple jobs? No, just literally, I'm just really focused on first part when you said banking. So, like, how was that? Because I've been in finance, so I know how it is.

00:31:07.617 --> 00:31:21.577
My best checks are from finance companies. My least favorite checks are from Govtech's, but that because I had to learn how to maneuver and actually position myself properly in Govtex. Once you learn how to position yourself properly and how to set up your status, then it's like, it's different. And then you had to negotiate.

00:31:21.705 --> 00:31:24.574
If you learn how to negotiate, you can get whatever you want. Sky's the limit.

00:31:24.693 --> 00:31:55.135
So in the beginning, I was still making good money at that time. I was bringing in like, I think 50 to 60 an hour at that time. And it was like, in 2021. Yeah. You know, the price went up after that. We know it did. That definitely was the good for back then. Oh, yeah. During the pandemic. We like to call that pandemic pro season, baby. The money was great. It was definitely a fun time. And I think that's what kind of hurt a lot of people. They, a lot of them waited too late, and now they're trying to get in. It's a different job market. Different.

00:31:55.200 --> 00:32:01.804
It's not the same. 2020 to 2022. And if you could have maintained and got better, it was good.

00:32:02.463 --> 00:32:17.084
So let's do a little bit more educating real quick. Right? Okay. You did the bootcamp for Ui Ux. Yes. If somebody wants to do Uiux, what do you recommend?

00:32:17.584 --> 00:32:21.304
If they have a degree or no. Degree, we'll do two options.

00:32:21.384 --> 00:32:24.683
If they don't have a degree, what you recommend. So they don't have a degree.

00:32:25.263 --> 00:32:32.167
Here's the thing, the filling ux is not really. They don't care about degrees, for real. Unless you in fintech, then they care. And Govtech don't really care.

00:32:32.215 --> 00:32:55.471
Edtech don't really care. You can go to a boot camp as long as you got some case study that's really good. You know how to talk that. Talking on interviews, you're fine. If you have a degree, that's a plus. It don't change really anything. Salary or, you know, price range rise. So if you have a degree, that's just an extra bonus. They just know you. Kind of diverse? Little bit. So, like, with me, I have a software engineering degree, so I can handle, you know, some back end stuff.

00:32:55.567 --> 00:33:15.769
Front end. And also, I'm really good at development handoffs. I know how to communicate with my developers. So not only that, I know how to manage uxers and developers because I have that experience. So it really just depends on the person. But a lot of people, I always tell them, I recommend a lot of bootcamps and a lot of certs. Go get you some certs. Go get you one or two good bootcamps, and then go get certified in the UX.

00:33:15.922 --> 00:33:53.614
I think it's called human centered design certification. I can't remember directly, but it's basically a CUA. If you don't have it, agree. I recommend you go get a CuA. If you have a company that can pay for, I advise you to have them pay for it. Cause, like, $5,000. But if you don't spend the $5,000 out of your pocket, and I swear it's gonna boost you up ten times more. Okay. Now, if the person has a degree, what they should do? I still recommend the CUA. I'm not gonna lie. I took it twice and I failed it twice, and I had a company pay for it, and I was like, after that, I'm not going back. So I was like, you know what? My degree is enough. I don't wanna go get a master's. I don't wanna go get a PhD. I'm gonna stick it out with the degree, keep it pushing, just upskill my case studies, and I'm done with it.

00:33:54.473 --> 00:34:22.592
What is the CUA? What does it teach you? Basically, it just teach you the fundamentals of human centered design, a little bit of psychology, and then also user centered design. So you focus on the users, you're focused on human communication behaviors, and then you're also understanding the pros of Uiux, and then you're also understanding the deep dives and pain points and all the good stuff about Uiux. I think it lasts for, like, a month. I don't know. They keep changing it, but I think it lasts for, like, a month. And you gotta go take an exam.

00:34:22.728 --> 00:34:46.143
The exam is the hard one, so if you don't actually take that class, it's gonna be harder for you to pass that exam if you don't take the class. Got it. And out of curiosity, is there some stuff like for example, you know, I've been doing YouTube for like four years, so there is a psychology behind colors, thumbnails, what people want to click on that type of stuff. Yeah. Okay. That's what I figured.

00:34:47.563 --> 00:35:26.934
Not too proud. That's what I figured. Well, you know, you gotta deduce a lot of things, but you have to make sure and validate what you think is true. That's true. So now also, what would be a good starting salary for a person getting into UI UX in 2024? I was about to say which year. That's why I made it current. I'm not gonna lie. My mentees and my students starting for people who already been in the industry just doing transferable skills, they're making like 120 starting now. If you don't have transferable skills and you're trying to break into industry, good. Ninety K to one hundred k admin.

00:35:27.873 --> 00:35:31.454
Okay. Now, outside of the certifications, right.

00:35:32.713 --> 00:35:40.146
Are there any type of softwares, tools I know you already brought up like a, like a framework in agile? Yeah.

00:35:40.329 --> 00:35:54.498
What type of things do they need to know outside of the certifications and stuff to be able to do a job? Yeah, sure. So what you need to know is Figma. That's the number one design platform right now because sketch is about to disappear. Invision's gonna disappear. Don't even learn it. Don't waste your time.

00:35:54.626 --> 00:36:23.458
Figma is an all in one platform where you can pretty much design, prototype, do user story, user research, also have a development mode where you can like work with your developers. They can get the code from there and shout out to Figma, because I'm a Figma affiliate and you know, I gotta rep my brands, but Figma is one. Then you need to learn Miro. Miro is good if you want to do like group stuff, focus group stuff, user maps, journey mapping, affinity mapping, all the user research side of things.

00:36:23.505 --> 00:36:30.762
That's great for that. The next thing you want to get into is also a little bit of canva, just in case.

00:36:30.858 --> 00:37:03.264
You're like a one in all designer. You got to create presentations, PowerPoints and all that good stuff. Another tool you need to know is mobbin. Mobbing is good for doing your competitive research, your market research, to see what your competitors are doing. What can you do differently? What can you do better? User testing is good for. If you're doing accessibility testing or user testing, you're also trying to set up surveys to figure out what type of design will look better. So basically a b testing, that's good for that.

00:37:04.043 --> 00:38:23.994
Another platform I like to use is the optimal workshop. They're good for tree testing. So if you're trying to do something with some diagrams and stuff, use tree testing is good for card sorting, and it's good for overall focus groups that are virtual. So, like remote work, I use that a lot in my user research stuff, and I'm trying to think of any other tools I'm missing, but as of now, those are the main ones. Now, listen, I'm, I'm canva down. You know what I'm saying? Like boosting it wipe me down. I'm canva down. I'm doing all the thumbnails of canva. But are all those other tools accessible without, like, a huge payoff for them to use? Like, in my industry, there are certain tools that you can't get access to unless you work for a company. Yeah, you got all those for free. You can do, you can use those a freelancer, y'all. So you don't even have to. Like, you can buy the enterprise if you want to, but Figma is free. You, you get one project for free, optimal workshop. You gotta pay for it all, then you gotta pay for that. And then what was the other ones? I said, I can't remember off the road, you know, I got mobbin's free. Until you need more access to things than you gotta pay for. Everything will have an up price, but a lot of the stuff right now is free. Okay, and how do you keep track of all the projects or things that you're working on? I save them to my desktop, like as my favorites, and then also put it in my notion. Ooh, I love notion.

00:38:24.034 --> 00:38:44.190
Okay, so notion is a platform that I use also to keep track of all my projects, everything I'm working on. You can do a combine board of all your tools. I'm gonna bring up that. I love notion, and it's good for people who have, like, ADHD. It keep us organized, y'all. So definitely use notion. You know what's funny? Notion overcomplicated to me. I'm gonna be honest. You gotta understand how to use it. Once you learn how to use it, it's so easy. I kid you.

00:38:44.222 --> 00:38:54.237
I tried to. I was like, you know, I'm a good one note guy. No, I don't like that one note for me. Notion, y'all use notion. I mean, everybody swear by notion, but give me a good confluence.

00:38:54.405 --> 00:39:30.224
Jira, one note. Now, people in freelancing are not gonna be buying no Jira just because they can use trello. I hate that apple. Not a fan. I'm sorry. It's a no for me. Trello, if you watching, I love you. I don't like you. We need a sponsor. Yeah, sponsor him, not me. Speaking of sponsors, I do want to let everybody know, you know what I'm saying? I am in cybersecurity. So if you're looking for a course that's going to be affordable and show you some foundational cybersecurity things, look into level careers. That course is taught by Josh Maticor. He is the goat. Check him out, his YouTube channel. I've did one of his projects before.

00:39:30.523 --> 00:39:56.106
You learn a lot. My clients, they use the course. We put the projects on the resumes. We get interviews, we get jobs. So if you're interested in that, check the link in description, use the code textual ten to get 10% off your level careers. Cyber security course, purchase, purchase. I messed it up. I tried to do one take, but now back to the show. Yeah, back to the show. You start making all this money.

00:39:56.300 --> 00:40:03.594
So at this time, with the one w two, the part time, and the other one, how much bread we talking? You was doing a month.

00:40:04.293 --> 00:40:51.085
Oh, a month? In 2021, I was doing at least about 15 at that time. Okay. Yeah, 15. Close to 20. Okay. You was moving some weight. Yeah, I was moving weight. That was a long crowd out from where you started. Right. And it always just reminds me of. I tell people sometimes, like, how if you kind of just focus, but how quick stuff can change for you in the industry. Yeah. But at least by the time you start doing this, you was already a master. Kind of what you do. No, I wasn't me. Honestly, I feel like I was still learning. Like, I wouldn't say I was a master, but I was good. But I could have been great. Okay. At least you was better than novice. Yeah. Like, think about if you would try to do this when you was doing the govtech. It wouldn't work. I would have never did it. Thank you.

00:40:51.110 --> 00:42:09.804
Yeah, I would have never did that. And that's what I'm getting at, because a lot of people try to get in here, any type of job. Oh, and get you another remote job. And I was like, you need to learn what? The first job first. Oh, let's talk about it. Cause I don't like that. And I tell my students fast, don't you over here, try to do this job hopping thing, and you just started in the industry. I feel like people who just started in the industry trying to job hop. You gonna luck up, but it's not gonna be long term. You gonna get caught eventually. So it's like, for me, I felt like I was already, like two years in, I already knew what I was doing. I was kind of good at my craft. I was still building my skills, but at the same time, I was already familiar with the basics. As long as you got the basics, you're good. But these people are not even understanding the basics, and they're just hopping. So not only that, you're in jeopardy. You're in jeopardy for being blacklisted. You're in jeopardy of being, having your contract or your salary or your whatever role terminated early. You're in the jeopardy of pretty much having a horrible reputation in the industry. And not only that, people not going to work with you at all, because once you get blacklisted, everybody in the tech industry talk. I don't know if y'all know this, but everybody know everybody. And people know people. I got a tech community that I deal with in Atlanta. They know people in Cali, and they know people in Texas. So everybody is networking and knowing everybody in the circle. There is a thing called blacklisting in the tech industry.

00:42:09.884 --> 00:42:19.693
People think it's not real, is real. I've literally gotten a call from somebody to ask me, hey, is this person legit? Do they verify? And I'm like, no, they're not. Do not hire them. So it's a thing.

00:42:20.833 --> 00:43:09.650
That's fact. And if we wanna make it even smaller, let's get into, like, the black community that's in the tech space. Oh, baby, let's talk. And it gets even smaller. And people know each other. And I'm always telling people, you wanna make a good impression on people. You wanna do good work, so people will recommend you to workplaces. And a lot of people are not doing that. They're not coming in prepared. They're being lazy. They're entitled. Very entitled, you know, I mean, granted, you are younger than me, but I feel like you don't feel like you're just entitled to stuff. Cause you put the work in. But a lot of the. I'm not an overhead, but a lot of the people, I don't know, I be feeling like, so old. Why? Cause I graduated undergrad in 2013. Dang. I graduated high school in 2013. Yeah, so I was 21 at the time. Dang.

00:43:09.802 --> 00:43:12.753
I didn't know you were at old. You ain't that far apart. You was 18.

00:43:12.833 --> 00:43:19.538
I was 21. Stop. Yeah, you're right. Exactly. It ain't that much far apart. I went to school that was on the quarter system.

00:43:19.585 --> 00:43:47.788
Cause I knew I wanted to graduate fast. Oh, that's smart. Y'all wanna know a cool fact about me? What's a cool fact? I failed every math class that I had in college. I felt I had to always take it twice. Was it because it was hard or you just weren't interested? I wasn't interested in school. I was booed. I had a man. I found my college sweetheart. I was not stunned. No school. But here's the thing. The professors I had at the time were all trash. So I always had a better professor the second time. I don't know what it was, but every time.

00:43:47.835 --> 00:43:50.635
The second time, I had a way better professor, and I passed with an a.

00:43:50.659 --> 00:44:03.771
Every time. Were you using rate, my professor? You know what? I started using that my junior year. See, I started using, I think, my sophomore year. I didn't know about it till my junior year. And I was like, where has this been all my life, man? Listen, I took some professors.

00:44:03.907 --> 00:44:14.320
I had a professor. He taught just like. I don't know. Do you remember the old commercial? It was the clear eye commercial, where, like, that dude would talk about the clear eye, like, eyeball the red lines. I know you're talking about.

00:44:14.351 --> 00:44:17.639
He was talking just like that. I was like, bro, I would sleep every class.

00:44:17.751 --> 00:44:21.295
Really. See, I don't even be on my phone back.

00:44:21.360 --> 00:44:36.253
Well, back. Well, I had the first Motorola joy. Back then, but, ooh, fancy. Yeah, I had the little slider keyboard. I thought I was doing something. Listen, I'm actually planning to give me probably, like, a Samsung pretty soon. No, don't you switch over. No, that's gonna be my business line.

00:44:36.673 --> 00:44:43.554
Like, they both lines on here sometimes. Like, people be getting on my nerves. I'm not gonna lie. I like that Samsung flip phone that open up like an iPad.

00:44:43.594 --> 00:45:38.952
That thing go hard and they take good photos. Yeah, they about to. I mean, just to get a little techie. They're about to do it to where the bubbles may still be green, but you'll be able to get, like, read receipts and stuff from, like, Android phones. We don't care about that. Yes, y'all do. We do not care. Cause you know you care. We care about blue. We don't care about no green. You know you care when they seen your video and it's jumbled up, so now it ain't gonna be jumbled up no more and look like it was shot on bad quality. I guess look at you girls be, you know, it's funny, y'all be shaming a guy with an Android phone. Yeah, don't talk to me on Android phone. The funny thing is, the phone be costing more than the iPhone. Okay? We still don't like, we like to see blue, we like to see emoji. We don't wanna see that jumbled up, man. That boy's just like, listen, he said, I'm finna give me a phone where she can't see. I read her text, I turn my wreaths off. I don't like my wreaths on. I'm petty. Cause I forget to text back. I got 500 unread messages right now. Let me just let you know, a person that don't read their messages or turn their reaper seats off, let you know they a player.

00:45:39.047 --> 00:45:42.791
I'm not, I'm a lover. I'm never a player. Definitely not a lover girl.

00:45:42.887 --> 00:45:46.704
I'm definitely a lover girl. Shout out to you, bae, whoever you are.

00:45:46.824 --> 00:46:27.773
Exactly. She's not a lover girl. Oh, my God, stop. You gotta cry. Exactly. So now that we cover some stuff about getting the UI ux, the money you was making, what was that next step? You know how it's like, you and your career, you making this money, this money. It's like, then you hit this, like, big jump, and now it's like, hey, I'm here. My big jump. My big jump was in at the end of 2021. I had finally finished my part time contract. That was a 1099. And then I was still working my w two gig. And then I had got a better opportunity. My big jump was when I started working at PayPal.

00:46:28.273 --> 00:46:53.634
That's when I got my big jump. And I was like, oh, Paypal, paying, paying. Then I was like, oh, we got state farm, too. Oh, we got this other bank company too. Keep in mind, though, non compete wise, they were not in the same industry. They wasn't the same line of work at the time. So I was cleared to go. I could work these roles legally. Yeah, that's thing. We can public the publicly traded companies. Yeah, paypal.

00:46:54.134 --> 00:47:13.869
I had autos, and I'll bring in thirty k a month at that point. I'll bring 30. Came on. So I was like, okay. And it was consistent for like a whole year, some change. So after that, then after that, I started like, going through like a little mini depression. And then I let all of them go. Why you went through, man, PayPal stressed me out. They was pissing me off. No offense. So I still love the company. I love y'all.

00:47:13.981 --> 00:49:29.800
But it was a culture. I wasn't a culture fit for them because I had a lot of ideas, and they always turn my stuff down. So I'm like, you know what? Do y'all not want to grow or not? And then they never want to listen to me. They treat me like I was just some rookie, and I'm like, I've been in an industry for a minute. What are you talking about? And then on top of that, I had this other girl who I was going back and forth with who was higher up than me, but I'm helping her create and set up sprints and design sprints. I'm like, I'm not even in your role, and I'm doing your job for you. So it was stuff like, that was kind of irritating me, and I was like, I'm over it. So I quit that job, and I quit my w two job. I had quit all my contracts at that time, and I took, like, a month off, and I regroup and I rebranded, and then that's when I was like, you know what? I'm tired of doing all this labor. I want the money to work for me. And so that's when I got into, like, really? Like, c to c. For real? For real. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do Cdc contracting. I'm just gonna start hiring people, and then I'm gonna have the money flow. But I still wanted to do work myself, so that way, I just stayed on, like, one contract, like a w two or my own c two c, and then I'll work that one. And then I got other people working on other jobs for me, and they giving me updates. They doing. They check ins, money flowing, and we good. Okay. Now, for the people that's watching this. Cause I had a question about that too. How does that work for you? And is it just as long as they don't mess nothing up or what? Like, how does that. So, at first, let me tell you what I was doing at first. At first, I was hiring people, and they wouldn't really be like, I wouldn't say they weren't qualified, but they was, like, entry level. But then some of the work start getting complex. So that's when I start asking the client like, hey, are you guys okay if I add on another member who is, like, also a uxer? They're like, yeah, sure, that's fine, but we got to, you know, you got to send the invoice, and then you got to add them to your payroll, and then we have to pay on net 45 instead of net 30. So. Okay, cool. That's fine. I don't mind a net 45. So keep in mind with stuff like that, if something happened and then the company don't pay your check on time, you got to pay those contractor out of pocket. So at that time, I was only, like, one or two contractors, and I had added them to the payroll. So my clients was aware and of. We added them, you know, to all the meetings and everything. Like, if I wasn't there or if they needed me there, I'll show up. But more than likely, the contractor who I hired would handle that. So that was a good thing about it. But, you know, some people, they do it.

00:49:29.831 --> 00:50:02.637
They do it wrong. They're hiring people. And. Because that's what I found out. Not when, say, recently, but, like, a year ago, people would do c to c. They're hiring these people, and then they will show up to the meetings and then give that person a laptop. You're doing it wrong. Yeah, and that's. You don't supposed to do that. That's the reason why I asked you that, because I didn't want them to feel like you was a person telling them you was doing the work, but then it was somebody else doing the work, and it was like, hold on. Yeah, I did that one time, and I learned my lesson from it, and I said, I'm never doing it again. Yeah, yeah. I can't do this. It's too much. So every time I do something that's c two c wild, I let them know, like, hey, I got an extra contractor. Can we just add them to payroll?

00:50:02.646 --> 00:50:24.590
And they were like, yeah, can we just add them? Payroll? Yeah. That's the smartest part. Like, the worst thing they could tell you is no. Yeah. Like, what's wrong with her? No. And then if you want to just, you know. But here's the thing a lot of people don't know about in the industry. You can also do white labeling in tech companies. So with white labeling, that's where you say, for example, you're a contractor, and you're your freelancer. You're a 1099 contractor. This client has hired you to do a job. Right.

00:50:24.742 --> 00:50:30.914
But the person who they hired is kind of booked up. They busy. They don't have enough space to actually do the work, but they want to keep the contract.

00:50:31.213 --> 00:50:49.884
They will pretty much hire you. It's like drop shipping, basically. They will hire you to do the work. Y'all split the pay, or they will give you a whole separate rate, and then you do the work, but the company still know you're doing the work, but they know you're doing the work under that company and not as, like, the employee.

00:50:50.384 --> 00:51:35.003
Okay. Yeah. It's kind of tricky, as you think about it, but a lot of people in the industry are doing this, especially designers. They're doing the white labeling route instead of trying to, like, you know, do it the illegal way and get in trouble and all that good stuff. So you've been doing this for going on, what, two years now? I've been on long. Two years. You said the end of 2021. Dang, that's two years. What were you, where you were in 2024? Yeah. That's three, ain't it? Nah, that's two. If we get to the end of 2021, and then we start 2022. Dang it. Feel like it been forever, y'all. I'm sorry. Yeah, time is moving like that. Yeah. Two years in. Yeah. So now what's going on with justice? Now, I know if you guys follow her on Instagram, you know, she's posting her reels. She's trying to show you guys how to get in your own bag.

00:51:35.583 --> 00:51:46.248
Let's talk about your company that you started. Because I'm pretty sure at first she was like, I'm just me. But now let me establish this entity and let me actually hire people through this way.

00:51:46.295 --> 00:51:49.164
So it's not really on me. It's on the company.

00:51:49.943 --> 00:51:53.496
Are you talking about the CDC or you talking about techno ownership academy? Both.

00:51:53.559 --> 00:52:18.793
Like, so. And I don't want you to voice too many secrets. If you say you can't talk about it, then talk about it. But when you hire these people, when you're doing, like, if you're adding them, asking them to add on CDC people. Okay, CC, are they coming through techpreneur stuff, or are they. No, that's separate. Okay, so let's talk about it. I have three businesses, you guys. As of now, I have three. I'm gonna have more over the summer. Just saying.

00:52:19.454 --> 00:52:29.793
The first one I started was my baby. I'm not gonna disclose my business name cause it's private company. But that was my first baby, and I started that one in 2021, in February, that's when I got laid off.

00:52:30.443 --> 00:52:37.771
That was my first company where I got into contracting, trying to understand as a 1099 person. Then I transitioned over to CDC.

00:52:37.947 --> 00:52:52.452
Then I had some clients that would make me start my second business. I had some clients who were my CDC clients. They wanted to do a non compete where you can't work with other clients. That's in the finance industry. We want you alter ourselves. So I thought, you know what? Okay, that's cool. Fine. Keep that company.

00:52:52.628 --> 00:53:03.896
I'm gonna start another one. So I started another CDC business where it's a full design agency and also deal with marketing. That one is his own thing. That one strictly deal with marketing. Ui, ux, mobile, apps, website.

00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:52.023
And that one is for, like, governments. So then after that, I moved to Dallas, and I'm like, you know what? I want to do something different. So I moved to Dallas, and I got this house, and then I was like, you know, I'm sitting in this house every day. I ain't doing. I ain't going outside. Me, nobody. What is my next business venture? So everybody kept blowing me up on instagram. Hey, teach me this, teach me that. Teach me this, teach me that. I'm like, I don't have time. But you know what? I could do it in a group. So I talked to one of my good friends, shout out Kayla. But I talked to my friend Kayla, and she was telling me, like, look, you know, you should try to, you know, get into teaching people mentoring and stuff like that. So I'm like, you know what? That's a great idea. And then that's how I started techprintership academy. Okay. Yeah. And that's how I figured you was doing these contracts and stuff. Cause I seen you on campus. That was the funny thing, too, I think. I was just chilling on YouTube, and I was like, they don't like justice.

00:53:52.963 --> 00:54:44.222
And I seen y'all on there, and I was like, let me tune in. Because, like, to be honest, I don't watch a lot of content creators content all the way through. Okay. Unless it's, like, people I really rock with, like, tapion bourde. Yeah. And other people. Right. Because they're making some different content. If it's like, podcast out, I may tune in for a little bit. Oh, yeah. Also shout out to lease. I watch lease stuff all the time. I'll tune in a little bit and then write a good comment and, like, you know what I'm saying? Algorithm type of stuff. But I try not to watch everything. Cause, you know, I'm not trying to steal anything they do. I got my own style, my own flavor. That's understandable. But I seen y'all, okay? I seen the title. I think the title got me. I said, look at her. Oh, yeah. What was it? Laid off to 40k. It was like, forty k a month or something. Yeah. I was doing a killing baby. I was like, this can't be the same young lady from three years ago. It was. And so I went on there, I said, okay, cool.

00:54:44.398 --> 00:55:06.693
But so how was his, how has this business venture been going for you? Technership academy. Mm hmm. Ain't gonna lie, it shocked me, y'all. The business only, what, three months and a half years old, and I already don't produce numbers. I wasn't even expecting. I was like, oh, I might be become a CEO ed tech professional at this point. Cause I'm like, this is good. People are actually listening. They're learning.

00:55:06.733 --> 00:55:17.503
They're getting jobs. They're getting. I have students that have been laid off for six months, twelve months, and they got a job paying over way more than they was asking. So it's like, my job is to be a blessing to others.

00:55:17.583 --> 00:55:24.088
I'm a blessing. And I want to bless everybody, and then I want to be the blesser. I like that at church. Shout out Tony Evans.

00:55:24.215 --> 00:55:53.539
But. Bless her. But bless her. Yeah, with the her. Hello. But, yeah, no, that was my goal. I wanted to teach people, and I didn't want to keep doing one on ones and consultations. So I was like, let me just put everybody in the group, and y'all could pay for it. You know, this is the monthly thing. Y'all more than welcome to schedule appointments, schedule consultations. You need help with a website. I got you. You need help trying to negotiate your salaries? I got you. You need help with interviewing skills and how to actually become better and beat your competitors. I got you.

00:55:53.692 --> 00:56:27.981
So it's like everything I did, everything I learned, I wanted to give to them because I didn't have nobody to teach me. I learned from trial and error, from the industry, from getting jobs, losing jobs, to having issues with my coworkers and figure out how can I be a great culture fit from actually not learning my work and how much I'm valued in the industry to actually learning how much I'm worth and actually can pop my s when I'm out here doing my interviews. You know what I'm saying? So basically, that pretty much just showed me. Okay, cool. Everything I learned, I want to show everybody else. I want to teach people how to get into this industry. For one, nobody talks about tech contracting.

00:56:28.088 --> 00:57:01.668
They're scared to talk about in the industry. Even when I started Techprintership academy, my recruiters were like, you sure you want to do this? Like, you want to get this started right now? Like, you trying to expand this and let people know about this. I'm like, yeah, because what do I got to lose? It's enough money for everybody to go around, for one, everybody have different ventures they want to try and do. What is wrong with them knowing about the industry and how to better themselves. As a contractor, I was literally talking to a girl today, and she was telling me her life story, and I was like, do you want to do this part time or full time? She's like, I didn't know that was an option. It is. You can do contracting full time or part time. You don't have to always do it full time. It's a thing. Yeah.

00:57:01.835 --> 00:57:05.172
That's wonderful. Because, like you said, that's a niche.

00:57:05.268 --> 00:57:28.153
Everybody's not into that. Like you. Like, for me, like me and my other culture friends, we all sometimes, like, these calls are so repetitive. These people ask me these same old questions. So that's what, like I said, I got my ebook, and I'm working on my course, and I've been doing the group coaching stuff, and to where we're just talking through slack, or I've already got videos made for them.

00:57:28.193 --> 00:58:00.865
Cause there's stuff I know they need to know. Right, exactly. Like, even today, I was listening to a client's interview. I always have my clients try to record the interviews they remember. I'm like, yes, we worked on this. Cause. Think about how hard it is to pivot, then trying to figure out what they gonna ask you in the interview. I don't even do that. I got to the point where before I even get on the interview, I asked the recruiter, can you send me a list of questions that are most commonly asked in these interviews so that I can know? And then I like to look at their LinkedIn before I go visit, who I go talk to, do research, see what we got in common. What can we talk about?

00:58:00.889 --> 00:58:03.521
We got some friends in common. That's literally how I get most of my roles.

00:58:03.577 --> 00:58:44.155
But also, too, I get a lot of my contracting stuff because of referrals. I'm out. I'm going to events. I'm networking. I'm talking to people. I'm golfing. I'm playing a sport. I'm playing no golf. You'll be surprised. I actually started golfing with my ex. Like, not currently ex, but, you know, years ago, he was a golfer, so that was his thing. You be playing golf at out here? I only play when I go with a man. Oh, really? You know, they got the, um. I like to drive the caddy. I ain't gonna be messing with you right now. I'm gonna be messy about you now. But, you know, they. They got the PGA headquarters in Frisco. Oh, really? I need to go over there? Yep. They got a lot of stuff like, they're building. Right. I like Frisco. You put me on for. I love Frisco. I tried to. That's what I do.

00:58:44.340 --> 00:58:51.635
But so what can. What else do people need to know about techprintureship Academy?

00:58:51.820 --> 00:59:59.603
Okay, so Techpreneurship Academy is not just a tech contracting agency or school here. You're learning to become an entrepreneur. You're learning how to start your own business, brand your business, protect your business, start your llcs. Because it's more than just starting an llc. You got to do trademark, copyright, sometimes even a patent. Hell, it just depends on what you need. So I teach my students how to set up their business, how to start their c two C business, or they want to be a freelancer. What are the proper steps to go to and how to market yourself and your brand. Become a great freelancer and get clienteles. I teach them how to network. I teach them how to interview properly. When it comes to interview skills, you may not be good. That's okay. I got a script word from word on how to talk to these recruiters and be the top competitor of these jobs. I have resume development, LinkedIn optimizations, career coaches coming in. I got guest speakers talking about finances, 401 ks, health plans, how to talk to your contractors and compensate your contractors, how to pay your staffing team if you have some, how to get contracts overseas, how to get contracts in the United States. Anything you need, I got it. When it comes to tech and tech contracting, entrepreneurship.

01:00:00.864 --> 01:00:25.867
Hey, that's the elevator pitch right now. Hello. Do you got any specials going on right now? I do right now. I actually got it for dollar 100 for the weekend. So right now I'm doing a beginner bootcamp for dollar 100 because people. People was telling me they need a discount or whatever, so, you know, I might get a little discount or whatever. So, yeah, I got $100 for the weekend, but it gonna end on Sunday, so that ain't gonna last long. And after that, the price is going up in August, so. Cause after they. Whenever this come out, it's gonna be at the Sunday anyway. Yeah, yeah. So the price is going out.

01:00:25.956 --> 01:00:28.619
I mean, not the price going out, but the price is going up in August.

01:00:28.652 --> 01:00:32.244
So what you see now is gonna increase like dollar, $200, 300 more.

01:00:32.403 --> 01:01:12.545
Yeah, I agree. Cause people always complain about the price, but they not think about the value. Then I think about the back end, all the things you're paying for legally. Yeah, it's expensive. The sites, all this other stuff you're paying for. The platform I use is like, $400 a month. Yeah. It ain't cheap. It's crazy. Yeah, trust me, I already know. It's always something to pay for everything. And that's the part that people don't tell you. Oh, start a business and do all this other stuff. Yeah. Like, literally, my bills don't even be that much. Like, my personal bills aren't even that much. My business bills are more expensive than my personal bills. And that's crazy. Right? So how can they follow you on Instagram for Techpreneurship academy?

01:01:12.650 --> 01:01:20.001
So our Instagram is tech preneurship on Instagram, and then our website is thetechpreneurship.com.

01:01:20.097 --> 01:01:22.934
Okay, that's cool. That's cool. You know what I'm saying? There are a lot of.

01:01:23.634 --> 01:01:38.014
There are a lot of. Well, at one time, guys. Yeah, I was gonna say no, at one time, guys, I actually was running, like, affiliate for a techpreneurship course at the time. But that course is not affiliated with Techpreneurship academy.

01:01:38.914 --> 01:02:04.882
I mean, no, no, I'm saying it's different. Oh. That course is actually called symposia now. I believe so. Yeah. I had to change my descriptions and call that, like, symposium. Now it's not techpreneurs anymore, but anything you see that says techpreneurs now is not related to this. Just want to let you know that it's what it is. And then keep in mind, too, if you're still a part of Techpreneurs club, you're fine, because we actually have a partnership with them.

01:02:04.978 --> 01:02:08.418
We have a brand partnership with symposia. So we do too.

01:02:08.545 --> 01:02:43.534
Oh, yay. We love symposia. Shout out. They just send me my channel report the other day. Oh, that is great. I've been slacking a little bit on them. Yeah. So, I mean, that's the good thing about it. Like, we come together, we help each other, and we actually grow together. So everything is not always a competition if you talk business, right. And you actually help each other and grow with each other, I mean, it ain't nothing but a conversation. So now. And this is, you know, the naysayers. Cause I like to answer people. I know what y'all be thinking. Okay, if somebody just say you capping about the people you helping, how would they go verify some of this information?

01:02:43.873 --> 01:03:16.860
LinkedIn, not your job. I'm talking about the people you're helping. Oh. So basically what I have is I have testimony videos, I have testimonies on the actually tech preneur page, and then also have it where we're going to come in, and you can actually talk to my students, and they can give you their perspective and their views on techpreneurship academy. So that way you can have a conversation, talk to them, see how they journey went. You can also learn their strategies. Everybody have a different route. So that's one way.

01:03:16.972 --> 01:03:23.184
Cool. So outside of those things. Okay.

01:03:26.423 --> 01:03:44.123
And I need to cover this, too, because I know they probably want to ask about this stuff, too, if they wanted to follow you on YouTube. Do you even remember what your YouTube name is? I actually relogged in the other day because I'm about to run it back up. What's your YouTube name on there? I changed it. I know that's what we're asking you. But I'm about to change the game, so I don't want to put that on yet.

01:03:45.864 --> 01:03:48.880
If y'all type her name in, y'all probably find her. Let me tell you this.

01:03:48.911 --> 01:04:10.572
If y'all see anything that's dealing with Techpreneur on YouTube, just this is me. Okay? So right now, it's Techpreneur studios, but I'm thinking about changing it again. I don't know yet. So just FYI, if you're looking for me on YouTube is Techpreneur Studios. Well, if they want to know outside of that. But I just want to know about you. Like, she used to have, like, a lot of vlogs and all this other stuff. It's all. It's on there. Okay, so is that part of that. Under Techner studios right now? Okay.

01:04:10.628 --> 01:05:06.175
Okay, cool. But also have my personal one for, like, home decor and stuff. And that's justice. Devon and that size actually get into, like, content creator. She also is an interior designer. There she goes. Can people still hire you for that in this area? You know what's so crazy? I get a lot of athletes trying to hire me, but I'm kind of retiring it right now. I only do it, like, if I'm in the mood to do it, I don't do it because I want to, you know? So it's like, I don't know. I just kind of fell out of love with it. Like, I get. I got so much going on right now, I don't have time to be decorating somebody's house. And then they complain about, you know, little things. So it's like, it's not for me right now. What if you made the company be for some interior designers to help them get some money? That's true, but it's not my passion right now. I ain't saying it's your passion. I just say it's another income that is. But I'm one of those people. If I'm not feeling it, I'm not gonna do it. So if it's like, if I'm telling you I don't wanna do it right now, I'm not gonna do it. And that don't change my mind at all. Like, one thing about it, when it comes to money, I got so many different ways to figure out how to get some money.

01:05:06.239 --> 01:05:18.543
But when it comes to interior design, if I don't like it, my quality's gonna be trash. You can tell you was raised around Atlanta. Actually, Albany. I said, raise the round. I was about to say 229. Stand up. Gotta represent.

01:05:19.923 --> 01:05:40.034
I love my city. I love Albany. Albany made me who I am. But Atlanta gave me that entrepreneur spirit. We know there's a bunch of spirits. Helped me activate the entrepreneur spirit. Cause I'm not gonna lie, when I moved to Dallas, half of the stuff I'm doing here, I would have never did in Atlanta. I would have never started techprintureship in Atlanta. Why? I'd be too busy outside turning up. You right. I wouldn't even focus. I wouldn't be focused in Atlanta.

01:05:40.153 --> 01:05:43.961
I became more focused in Dallas than ever. You know, it's funny, though.

01:05:44.018 --> 01:05:50.538
Cause, like, people are so, like Dallas, Houston. But I always tell people, like, if you're a black business professional, Dallas is the most.

01:05:50.585 --> 01:05:54.402
Oh, yeah. Dallas for sure is good for business. It's good for networking.

01:05:54.458 --> 01:06:24.568
It's good for everything. I met so many connections down here. Yeah, she was at mixer cloud. I did go to Mister Cloud. All right. So for the guys that's wondering, you know what I'm saying? If you're a lover girl, is the lover girl, is she taken by anybody? I'm not right now. I'm fully single. All right. If y'all see her out, or y'all can send your best dm pitch. Matter of fact, I'm gonna help y'all out. Oh, my gosh. If y'all scared to dm her, dm me. What you gonna say? I'd be scared. And I'm gonna let you know if it's gonna work or not. But why would I be scared? People be scared, man. Or what? I'm really not scared. Matter of fact, you know what?

01:06:24.576 --> 01:07:03.447
I get. I get. A lot of people tell me when they think I'm stuck up, and I'm not stuck up at all. They think cause of my instagram aesthetics that, oh, you're so stuck up. You're so bougie. But I'm like, it's just the aesthetics. I bought all this stuff, like, a long time ago. I haven't bought designers since my last go yard purse, and that was like a year ago. Look at her. She just. It just rolled off her tongue. Like, if you. If you make her laugh, you probably got a shot, fam. So I have some money. Cause I can't do no brokey. Matter of fact, I may be willing to coach you guys into that. That may be another part of my coaching business. Cause some of y'all need some confidence. And stuff to say, can y'all be fine? Y'all still got no confidence. And I be so sad. Cause I'm like, if you ain't got no confidence, how you supposed to lead the family? I can help you all out with that. It's nothing. I can show you how to do everything.

01:07:03.496 --> 01:07:05.456
You in the friend zone. I can show you how to get out of that.

01:07:05.559 --> 01:07:09.208
This is crazy. I can do all that. I'm a man of many times, and.

01:07:09.215 --> 01:07:12.472
I stay putting guys in the friend zone. Yeah, but it's ways to get out.

01:07:12.568 --> 01:07:46.454
Hell, once they're there, they can't get out. Cause now look at you as a brother. So it's like, how can you get out? All right, listen, guys, if you still here right now, hit the, like button. When you got the friends on, just go talk to a friend. You trifling. It's gonna be one, two ways. You ain't gonna care. You gonna be mad? I'm definitely gonna be mad. Exactly. Thank you. That's how you get out. Especially if he cute, if he ugly, then I'm like, exactly. It's the number one trick in the book, and I always get him. You petty. Petty Labelle. I don't like that. What's a question that I didn't ask you that you would like to answer. A question that you. Okay.

01:07:49.813 --> 01:08:01.034
You didn't ask me about when it comes to working with other people like us in our industry.

01:08:01.974 --> 01:08:05.302
I didn't. Let's get into that. Cause right now is a heavy topic right now.

01:08:05.318 --> 01:08:27.453
What's going on in the shit? And I get a lot of girls reaching out to me about it. So let me ask you this. When you say working with us, do you mean you work with other women or just working with black people in general. Okay. How is that been for you? It's been. It's been good for me. It hasn't been good for me. Do you think they're jealous? I wouldn't say they're jealous, but it's more so they think I'm trying to take their roles, and I don't. Are these people older?

01:08:27.953 --> 01:08:31.666
Majority be older. But you know what's so crazy? I do good.

01:08:31.850 --> 01:08:46.479
Here's the thing. It's based off that person's personality and what their end goal is in the company, because I've had older black women that I learned a lot from, and I love them still to this day, like, a great mentor, and. And they were just like, look, I want to help you do this.

01:08:46.511 --> 01:08:53.262
I want to teach you how to do this. And then you have some that also are older than you, but they're like, look, I'm focused. I'm driven.

01:08:53.302 --> 01:08:56.871
I'm trying to get this management position, and I don't need you in my way.

01:08:57.046 --> 01:09:07.002
And. Cause honestly, like, literally, I didn't tell you, but I was about to get fired from my paypal gig because I was going back and forth with this lady so much who was a black lady. Sometimes you got no one to raise.

01:09:07.863 --> 01:09:18.179
Or you just gotta say, let's get on the call and figure out, like. Well, she was always harassing me. Like, look, you're lying. That didn't happen. This is what really happened. Can you be more truthful about what the scenario was?

01:09:18.211 --> 01:09:49.518
Because now you're making me look bad. I just got here. I just started working here. I really love what I do, but you're making me horrible person. And then, for example, if I did good, she would take my credit. But if I did bad, it was always on me, and I didn't like that. So I was like, now you're trying to bully me in my workplace. Now I really got. I got an issue with them, and we was from the same city at that. So not only were two black women in front of the same city, and you doing all this is crazy to me. So after that, that's why I was like, I don't want to work with nobody like her like that ever again. I forgot who I was talking to something like that. But they.

01:09:49.605 --> 01:10:10.949
Oh, I was talking to this black woman. She's the director in cyber security. And we were talking about this same thing, and she was saying how she was having a situation like that because the woman thought, like, she was trying to come in and, like, well, for one, they thought she was younger than what she was. So the older women was like, oh, who she thinks she is and all that type of stuff, but she kind of, like, put us out, like, you know, what's going on?

01:10:11.021 --> 01:10:33.818
And then they finally got to the. The bottom of it. It's kind of, like, a lot of similarities there. And she was like, okay, cool. So I think it's, like, a lot of that stuff. Like, yeah, a lot of. In most of the time, how somebody treats you is a lot of times is what's indicative of what's going on with them internally. And that's what I think it is, too. I think it was something that was personal. Cause my life was great. I was chilling. I was vow making money. And I'm just like, why? She's so mean.

01:10:33.865 --> 01:10:40.033
Like, she always coming to work angry, and I be in a good spirit, and she just killed my spirit. Maybe her man had another woman. She had one.

01:10:40.194 --> 01:11:29.113
That's why. Probably why. Listen, y'all seeing how important men is. I know TikTok. I had a man at a time, so life was good for me, and I wasn't tripping, but I was just like, yo, she needs something. TikTok then told y'all about how men. Irrelevant. But listen, y'all need a man who. Wait, TikTok said, what man? They say all type of stuff. It's like a movement to not need men. It's like a whole bunch of. I don't like that. See here, let's talk about this for a second. Mm hmm. Every woman, you need a man. I don't know why people keep thinking they don't need a man. You need a man for one. You can't do what men do. That's one, two. You can be in your alpha energy or whatever you want to call it, but at the same time, you still need to come back to reality. You are a feminine woman. Get into your feminine energy. If you don't have right now, you need to, because I know me, even me moving to Dallas, I'm like, every time I do something, I'm like, damn, I need a man. I can't do this. I can't do that. I need somebody to help me with this. This would be better if a man did this.

01:11:29.194 --> 01:13:06.163
Like, I don't know. I just don't like being single. And listen, let me also tell y'all something. When another man tells you to give what another man is telling you, the top man is not your type, out. Listen to that man. They help you. Listen, I'll just be telling her she gonna get it. I don't have a type. Okay, Ray shrimp, but you annoyed, bro. Anyway, this is. I want to end this with. I don't want to make it long, guys. I just wanted you to know. I always tell you the thing that you learn when you, a child or your parent or your dad or whoever told you if it looked too good to be true. Most of the time it is. If you can't back up some of the stuff that somebody's saying, and it just seemed like they making it up, it'll make sense. This past week, there's been a lot, it was a lot of controversy going on. People just pump faking about being in the industry three months and being a senior DevOps engineer making like 100,000 plus dollars. But you got to do the math. If we just even take away the three months, most of the time, if you are making 200,000 and it's probably base, a lot of times you're pretty skilled. Most of the times you probably got more than like. You probably got ten years plus in the game. Most. If it's not, you're very skilled and you're working at a company that pays well, it's like one or two things. If you're a person that's just in three months, that's a red flag. Because people are like, why would somebody want to pay you that much money? Or you say, okay, maybe they got two jobs making 100k. It's a lot of things that happens.

01:13:07.144 --> 01:13:18.524
So pay attention to things like that. Especially under the guise of telling you to get into a boot camp. And that's not saying boot camps aren't good, but that return on investment is crazy.

01:13:18.823 --> 01:13:43.094
That means one or two things. They got the bootcamp, got connections where people respect it, or they telling you to do something that's fugazi, that necessarily may not pan out for you all the time, and it could cause, cause you to backfire on it. So you gotta watch out for that stuff. Now, if you wanna do it, it's on you. And it's not like a hate thing, but I just wanna look out for my audience because maybe some of y'all saw that live and I ain't coming cause I was just watching.

01:13:43.474 --> 01:14:03.981
Just know your boy is not a hater. I'm always telling the truth. Tell the truth, set you free, Boki. I tell the truth all the time. I have nothing to hate on. I want everybody out here to win, but I want em to do it the right way. Because if you tell people, I hear you like pump faking and lying and finessing your LinkedIn and your resumes. You got people that's actually doing it the right way.

01:14:04.118 --> 01:14:21.953
They might feel away. They may go, oh, okay, I'm gonna report this person. Cause, hey, I'm putting in a lot of work and I ain't getting no hits. And this person lied. You know what? Let's humble you. And I wanna bring up if you did manage to get in by line, don't tell the world.

01:14:22.644 --> 01:14:33.412
Take that to the grave till you get the actual five years, y'all new people that's getting in. Everybody don't got to know what you're doing. Don't let the left hand know what the right hand doing. Just keep doing.

01:14:33.467 --> 01:14:50.250
You get out this influencer phase of just always want to tell everybody what you do. Money and all this kind of stuff you trying to make, I'm telling you, it don't really. Followers don't really amount to money. It's a lot of people that got a lot of followers, but it ain't amount of money. That little fame or dopamine you want to get.

01:14:50.442 --> 01:15:09.894
If you want to be a real inspiration, keep it down and tell people to do stuff the right way. I don't care what everybody else doing because, hey, you ain't got the complexion for the protection at the end of the day. And that's all I'm gonna say, you. Know, I got something I wanna say. I know I ain't gonna let you say it. What you wanna lead the audience with?

01:15:11.673 --> 01:15:26.554
Just be mindful. When you do certain things in the industry, think about others and not just yourself, because that could also backfire on people who are in the, you know, the hiring roles and, like, the management, because they can get in trouble for stuff like that.

01:15:27.333 --> 01:15:30.822
So always be truthful. Have integrity, you guys.

01:15:30.917 --> 01:15:37.394
Integrity is big in the industry. It's big. Just in general. Have some self care. Care about your reputation, care about your brand.

01:15:38.613 --> 01:16:07.844
Learn. Build. Upskill yourself. It's never too late to learn something and get into the tech industry. That's one. But make sure you are positioning yourself in areas that you are aligned with. Don't try to skip areas and be like, jump into something fast because it sounds good. Take your time, learn. Perfect your craft. Build, and then wait it out if you have to. Or if it's your season, it's your season. But when it's your time, it's your time.

01:16:08.184 --> 01:16:11.644
Don't rush anything. That's all I gotta say. I like that.

01:16:12.173 --> 01:16:26.405
You already told me they can find Techpreneurship academy. Where can they follow you? Brown skin J on Instagram, and it's brown skin j a I some people call me ja, some people call me jay. I don't care. I like them both. Just pick one.

01:16:26.510 --> 01:16:37.753
But brown skin j a I all. Right, and do you got Twitter, TikTok, anything? I don't do no twitter. I got TikTok, but it's the brown skin ji if you want to follow me on there.

01:16:37.934 --> 01:16:55.234
Okay. And you already know where y'all can follow me at, but it's been another episode of Textual Talk. Y'all do subscribe to the Patreon. Share this out. Reach out if you're ready. Go ahead and get your contracting on. Reach out to me if you need some coaching. And until next time, like I always say, let's stay textual and we out. Peace.