This is one episode of our FOCUS Coworking Members Showcase Videos. In this series, we interview our members to learn more about them and their entrepreneurial journey.
Theresa Miller works full-time for a tech company that is based out of California, where she is a director of tech advocacy. On the side, she also runs her own business, a website called 24X7 IT Connection where she does tech marketing for an IT vendor. Theresa feels that it is super helpful to connect and network with others because there is always something to be learned. Being able to bounce ideas off of other business professionals raises opportunities, and chances to gain more knowledge in something you might not know a lot about, or something you are looking to learn more about. As far as being her own business owner, she really enjoys the flexibility in management, the control of hours she chooses to work, so she is not to burn herself out, and being her own boss.
The link to the blog post mentioned in the video is https://24x7itconnection.com/2019/11/20/the-entrepreneurs-guide-to-the-business-side-of-starting-an-llc/
Member Showcase Transcription
Theresas Blog Post: https://24x7itconnection.com/2019/11/20/the-entrepreneurs-guide-to-the-business-side-of-starting-an-llc/
Damon Schopen
All right. Hello, everybody. I am Damon Schopen with FOCUS Coworking. We’re a shared office space and community in Jefferson, Wisconsin helping entrepreneurs, freelancers, remote workers, and people interested in starting businesses get off the ground. This is another installment of our members showcase videos that we’ve been doing. And this is a way for you to get to know our members and our members to also share what they are doing. So today, we’re going to be talking with Theresa Miller, and she’s one of our members. So Theresa, I’ll let you introduce yourself to get started.
Theresa Miller
Hey, Damon, thanks so much for having me join you today. So in terms of what I have been doing so first and foremost, as you are aware, I used to have an office elsewhere. And having the ability to come, work at FOCUS has been super helpful. And I know we’ll dive into that deeper in a bit. But in terms of what I’m doing here, I work full time for a tech company that’s out of California. I’m a director of tech advocacy there. And I run my own business on the side. It’s a website called 24 by seven IT connection, where I do some tech marketing for typically the IT vendor. And but that being said, there’s a lot of really great information out there for anybody who is interested in technology as a whole out there. So I find that it’s a really great source for people. That’s the feedback I get. I’ve been doing that since 2013. That website’s been around. So it’s been a while.
Damon Schopen
Yeah, the wealth of knowledge is excellent. How did you get started with the 24X7 IT Connection? Where did that idea come from? What made you want to go into that?
Theresa Miller
Yeah, so it’s not a glamorous story, by any means. What I found is that while I was working full time, actually, at this point in my career, hands on tech, at a company locally in the Milwaukee area, I found that I was getting involved with what’s referred to as the IT community, where ultimately you’re just trying to share knowledge about the things that you run into, in the tech space, how to do’s, and my shoulder was getting tapped quite a bit to do blog posts for websites, or even do training content. I have several courses out there for a company called Pluralsight. And my shoulder just kept getting tapped. And I was like, You know what, I really need a tax umbrella. For this work, I’m doing. So again, it’s not a glamorous story. And so little did I know, right? This little, this little side, business, actually, at one point in my career became my full time employment. And so there was a point in my career where I really, really needed a strong change of pace. And what I was doing, actually was pretty burned out. A lot of the enterprises I was working in were 24/7 shops I’ve been doing on call for the better part of 15 years. And like literally you do get called at midnight, you get called on the weekends, you get called over the holidays. And so I decided I’m going to just go do my thing. And, and I took that on full time for the better part of almost a couple of years, got to work with some great companies. During that time, I even had a teaching contract at UW Whitewater. And after a while, I realized I did want to go back to enterprise. And so I’ve been back in the enterprise and I shifted 24/7 to be my side work again. I’ve been back in enterprise for probably about five or six years now. So in any case, it’s been a really great thing to have, because it’s served me well and in different parts of my career
Damon Schopen
Absolutely. I can totally get that working with the IT background to that, you know, sometimes the enterprise can be a little bit of a grind. And the nice thing about having your own business or your side business, right, you can kind of grow it as much as you want and you can shrink it back as much as you want. You can kind of ebb and flow with it as things in your life are changing as your career goals are changing. You know, that’s really one of the nice things as well. You’ve always kind of have this other opportunity there in your back pocket as well. If you ever want to scale it up? You know? So? And I’d imagine you made a lot of connections with that business that helped in your career as well, in general, right?
Theresa Miller
Absolutely. I think both have really supported each other. So a lot of the clients that I work with on 24X7, actually are companies that, you know, I have contacts with, that I’ve met over the years. And, you know, that can actually be super helpful in my full time job as well. It’s about growing that network of people that not only can, you know, maybe it’s, they help you with your next career move. But I think building a network can actually become a form of, you know, resources that you can even, you know, tap tap somebody’s shoulder, an example of that this morning, I, I was asked something of a colleague, where they’re like, Have you ever heard of this, when it comes to this, this particular technology type, and I was like, I’m looking at it, I’m going not familiar to me. So I actually just texted a couple other people I know that work at other companies in tech and said, Hey, this could be a really stupid question. But I’ve never seen this before. Is this like real? And they’re like, No, it’s, it’s not. It’s just marketing fluff. Nobody uses it. I’m like, okay, that’s why, why I don’t know about it. So you just validated what I’m saying. And so I was able to pass that along. So for sure, the connections are really nice. For anybody listening today. I mean, regardless of where you’re where you are, in your career, I actually had a college professor tell me this. Years ago, when I, when I got my undergraduate, he’s like, make sure you do build that web of people that, you know, if you leave an employer, for example, make sure you stay in touch, go grab lunch, or grab a phone call once in a while, because that network of people that you build will be invaluable to you long term. So I’ve always done that. And, you know, I think it’s a good way to, to just live your life in general, but, you know, help support your career long term.
Damon Schopen
Absolutely. You know, over time you have all of these resources, who you can reach out to and be like, Hey, have you ever heard of this? Or have you ever run into that, and vice versa, you know, people will come to you. And you can offer your knowledge and expertise, because you can’t be the expert on everything, no matter what your field is. Right. So it’s nice to have that group of people you can rely on? Yeah, absolutely.
Theresa Miller
You’re right. That’s such a good point. I think that people assume that like, so I’ve had a tech crew here for well over 20 years, you’ve been in, you know, your space, probably just as long with your website, right. I mean, the development you do.
Damon Schopen
Yeah, it’s getting close to that 20 year mark, which is hard to believe. But yeah,
Theresa Miller
I know. But like, people assume you know everything about everything. Right. Right. And the reality is that, as long as you’ve been doing something forever, there’s always something to learn.
Damon Schopen
Yeah, I know, I get this error on my Windows computer? Well, I haven’t used Windows in probably 5-10 years. I don’t know. Sorry. I don’t deal with it every day, you know, but I can usually either recommend them to someone to get the help they need or Google it. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, you know, I have the connections and like to refer people so yeah. Yeah, How did you get into IT?. What is your you know, your kind of your goals? And that’s two questions, really, but tell us about that.
Theresa Miller
Alright, so once upon a time ago, when I was doing my undergraduate, I started studying accounting. Okay, sure. And I got two years into school and then you start taking your focus courses. So I took two accounting classes, and I said, Oh, no, wrong degree. And so I had a couple of friends who were in the tech space. One was, they were both just a year ahead. So fortunately, they had exposure. And both of them like were just ranting and raving about the tech programs. And I was in this was at UW Whitewater. And so I started looking at the programming side of things and I took a look at the business side of tech which is more of the backend infrastructure stuff? And I took classes in both and I was like programming? Oh, no, we’ll leave that to Damon. And, but the infrastructure stuff made sense to me. So I ended up graduating, probably is what you know, one of the first few batches of people that came out of that school with the business side of tech degree. Sure. And, and it just always made sense to me, right. So when you’re, when you’re choosing a career, pick what makes you know, clicks, right? Have fun doing it, pick, pick what clicks. And so I’ve just, I’ve stayed with it ever since. But now, in my current role, I’m hands on tech, but I get to play in the marketing space and the customer space more. I get to talk about strategy. As it relates to how I get my hands on the tech, and I don’t have a full environment, supporting like a 20,000, you know, seat environment like I once did, yeah, I get to talk about the fun stuff and put together stories and share, share that stuff. So I guess I share all that one. Well, because you asked question, but to, you know, again, if people are thinking about careers and where they want to go, I do think that a tech career can change, and it can serve you well, long term, even if you’re not doing what you did. earlier in your career, there’s just a lot of possibility.
Damon Schopen
Absolutely, you know, and there’s all these different areas within it kind of to your point, right? So you can kind of explore those. And if you don’t like one and one really appeals to you, you know, you just kind of go into what fits you know, I started in computer science and going physics, calculus, advanced calculus, I’m like, Yeah, this is just not me. You know, like, yeah, that’s not where I’m headed. And so I switched to the business school as well did the management information systems, and that was just perfect. For me. It was the right balance and the right mix and you know, served me well. So yeah. Good that you can try different things in college. And don’t worry about switching majors. And yeah, you know, those couple of years. What’s the difference?
Theresa Miller
Yeah. Yeah. So the second part of your question was, I think, like, what’s the dream? Yeah, like, what’s, what’s the goal, I think was kind of what you asked in terms of career. I don’t know. I’m just going to keep trying things. You know, and as long as they’re fun, I’m going to keep doing them. By way of actual tech career, but I do suspect there’s a point where retirement should be, should be on the table. You know, retire from tech, be able to just go do something else? Sure. Go be a bartender, go teach yoga. I don’t know. Right. Right. Right. At the end of the day, what do you do while you’re having fun? And then hopefully at some point, you can put it all to bed and find something a little less stressful to do.
Damon Schopen
For sure. For sure. Right? Yeah, absolutely. How about some mistakes along the way that you wish you could have changed some good lessons learned or advice you give to others in that area?
Theresa Miller
So boy, mistakes, things that I could have changed. Um, well, first of all, I think mistakes are learning opportunities for sure. So if you take that tone, then no mistake is really ever something you should be super upset about. Although maybe in the moment, it’s upsetting. You got to find the lesson and the learning opportunity. I think when starting a business, there’s a lot you can learn about little things and we actually talked about this on my blog posts or my website. I have a blog about starting an LLC. So I mean, I think again, I don’t know if it’s a full on mistake but you don’t know you don’t know what you don’t know so you think starting an LLC means going out to the government websites you know, getting a tax ID Articles of Organization setting up a bank account done, right. Yeah, but you’re missing things. You’re missing things like a great accountant or having contracts or a good contract attorney. Because in the end, you need to not only have an eye out for yourself, but you definitely, you know, those types of things help both parties as you’re working with other companies, right? So, you know, Damon, if you’re going to do business with someone and create a website for them or an app for them, you probably have a contract that protects both entities. So I think things like that are not so obvious when you have this big dream of starting your own business. And so I think taking the time to research things, and learn from others can be important.
Damon Schopen
Absolutely. Yep. Yep. You don’t know. What you don’t know in the beginning of starting a business or an LLC. And yeah, there’s always a few bumps along the way. But we’ll definitely share that link to that blog post on the webpage when we post this so great.
Theresa Miller
Awesome. Thank you.
Damon Schopen
Yeah, you bet. What’s your favorite thing about being a business owner?
Theresa Miller
So I think it goes back to some of what we talked about already, in that, you get flexibility into how you manage that business. So I’ve had the full ability to do it as a side, side thing, right. So having the full discretion and flexibility around when I do that work. So I mean, obviously, at this point it is nights or weekends, I can control how much work I take, so that I don’t burn myself out. And then having that flexibility, like I did years ago where I decided that was going to be my job. But again, being your own boss, and being able to control those hours was a big win for me, for sure. Especially coming out at that time, being on call for so many years. You know, and juggling a family on top of that. It just burned me out. So I think for people considering starting a business, I mean, those are some of the considerations. Now don’t get me wrong, you work. You do work hard.
Damon Schopen
Right. Right. Absolutely.
Theresa Miller
But you work hard. When, when and on your terms.
Damon Schopen
Yeah, absolutely. And if you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out with a business, what would that be?
Theresa Miller
Go check out my blog post.
Damon Schopen
Yeah, right, exactly. It’s got a lot of good information.
Theresa Miller
But also, if you can find a mentor, find another business owner, who could maybe be a good person to bounce questions off of that would be willing to bounce questions off of or, you know, answer questions for you. I think that would be super helpful. There are definitely networks out there. Some of them are more specialized. For example, there’s a program for women, female entrepreneurs, the WBENC. Now that’s a little different, because it is something like you have to prove that you have a business that you have a payroll that you know, legitimately have a female owned business, but like they have a built in support network, for example. Or like that networking, we talked about Damon if you can just get out to some meetups like FOCUS as a whole. Like there’s a lot of entrepreneurs and people here you have meetups often where you pull together people for, you know, maybe a glass of wine or think you have a game night coming up here. That might be tonight? Yeah. So things like that. Give you a good way to just be able to talk to others who can answer some of those questions. So that’s what I would suggest it goes back to that network and being able to learn from others.
Damon Schopen
And if you’re just starting out and looking to build that network, contact us at FOCUS Coworking, you don’t even have to be a member, we can connect you up with some people to try to help answer any questions and help you get started. We’d love to meet new entrepreneurs and new people starting out and always happy to help because we’ve all had a lot of help along the way to get where we’ve been. So it feels really good to be able to pay that back, you know and pay it forward. So yeah, yeah. And last question, what is your favorite thing about FOCUS Coworking?
Theresa Miller
Um, so for me, I really needed the dedicated office space at what I think is a reasonable price point.
Damon Schopen
We try to keep it reasonable, absolutely.
Theresa Miller
Yeah. So that’s probably what brought me here the most, but I’m going to throw a second, there’s not one favorite thing. So the second thing, like the kind of bonus card is, is that the networking, like it’s not like, I have to talk to anybody, but you pass people in the hall and you meet new people, and you share ideas. And, and that has been rewarding. And I think two ways, right? You feel like you might have helped someone, but sometimes they’re helping you, for sure. And it’s just through a simple conversation.
Damon Schopen
So absolutely. You know, and, like working remotely these days, you lose out on so much of that. Just Hey, how are you? How was your weekend? What are you doing? You know, just that day to day, you kind of get coworkers even though you don’t work with them, exactly. But so it’s kind of nice. make some new friends get to know some people and you don’t feel so isolated. So yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for your time. Theresa, we’ll share that link to your website and that article, specifically on our website, and it’s great having you at FOCUS Coworking and we’ll talk to you soon.
Theresa Miller
Yeah, thanks. Glad to be here.
Damon Schopen
Thanks. Bye.
