⛺️ WordFest Live - The Festival of WordPress Catch Up Now
The festival of WordPress
March 4th 2022
Brought to you by

How To Use Admin Day to Manage Your Freelancer Stress

Session overview

Speaker:
What to expect:

Freelancing is stressful enough. Being forced to do it from home can make matters worse. You might feel scattered, overwhelmed, and just plain stressed. Dedicating a single day of the month to managing that stress in an organized fashion can help you not only keep your head above water, but get you swimming! In this talk, Allie will break down what Admin Day is, why it’s helpful, and how you can build your own customized Admin Day that will set you up for less stress and more success.

Edit Transcript

Allie Nimmons – How To Use Admin Day to Manage Your Freelancer Stress

Nexcess: [00:00:00] Oh, great. My website crashed again. I give up, don’t give up on your dreams, Jordan, who are you? It’s me. You from the future. Your professional website is not out of reach. You just need Nexcess. With Nexcess managed hosting, you get lightening fast load times built-in performance monitoring and updates, and always awesome support. 24 7 365. For all your projects. Whoa. Yeah.

Weglot: Discover Weglot the [00:01:00] simple translation solution for your website. All you have to do is add Weglot to your website, select the languages that you need, and that’s it. Your website is now available in multiple languages.[00:02:00]

Yoast: Do you know, the Yoast SEO, plugin, they’re red, orange, and green feedback bullets that help you optimize your posts for the web. It runs on millions of websites. We try to make SEO understandable and accessible to everyone.

Bluehost: Who says building an online store has to be hard with Bluehost website builder it’s more than just easy. It’s tell us your thing in smart AI. We’ll take it from there. Easy it’s WooCommerce friendly. So you can add one of these or swap this for that easy. It’s set up shop in minutes with unlimited products. Easy. Whether you sell boots, books or bowls, it’s create an online store with Bluehost, easy build beyond boundaries with Bluehost.

Misty Combs: Welcome back [00:03:00] next we welcome Allie Nimmons as presented for how to use

Misty Combs: admin day to manage.

Cathy Tibbles: Allie Nimmons is a WordPress contributor video producer writer, active community member. WordPress became a primary professional focus for her in 2014. When she taught herself website, design and development through the software, she has spoken at WordCamps in Miami, Kent Lawson.

Cathy Tibbles: Austin or Lando Boston, New York city and Phoenix. She has also spoken at WordCamp US, WordSesh EMA ,WP campus, Laravel PHP and Fern tech conference. The under, uh, she is currently a content freelancer, LinkedIn learning course instructor and co-founder of the Underrepresented In Tech database alleys, mildly obsessed with making lists, growing plants and knitting. And she lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and cat. We are so grateful to have you.[00:04:00]

Allie Nimmons: Hello everyone. Hello? Hello. Thank you so much for having me. Uh, my, my, my camera’s here and I have two screens, so I apologize if I’m not making beautiful eye contact with you, but I’m so happy to be here with you today. Uh, talking about how I use admin day to manage my stress as a freelancer. Uh, and hopefully there’s some things that you can take away from this presentation.

Allie Nimmons: So I had a beautiful introduction just now, but just a little bit more about me. I’ve been freelancing for about six years now. Um, I’ve started a couple of businesses and I’ve worked at a couple of businesses, but I think my primary heart is in freelancing business, owning entrepreneurial. Stuff. Um, and I do struggle like a lot of us do, especially these days with depression and anxiety.

Allie Nimmons: And so I’ve been really cognizant about how I can work smarter, not harder in order to deal with those things.[00:05:00]

Allie Nimmons: So this presentation is for you. If you are a freelancer, a contractor, or a business owner, anywhere you fall on that spectrum, um, this information should be helpful for you.

Allie Nimmons: If you feel any of these things. This presentation will be helpful for you. If you’re feeling that you have just way too much to do as you run your business. If you’re feeling as though you lack organization, or you lack the discipline that you need to get things done, if you feel like things just keep falling through the cracks and you can’t get everything done that you want, if you’re new to freelancing and you’re kind of finding your stride right now, or if you feel like you don’t have a reliable routine, these are things that.

Allie Nimmons: We all struggle with no matter how long we’ve been doing, whatever it is that we’re doing, these are things that everyone feels and everyone encounters. Uh, but there are ways to set yourself up for success and to minimize the effects of these feelings, [00:06:00] uh, as a result of those, um, feelings, you might additionally feel overwhelmed, discouraged, lost, depressed, or anxious, and identify these things because I think it’s important to.

Allie Nimmons: Naming these things and acknowledge that we are feeling them and kind of sit with them for a moment and say, okay, you are in the passenger seat of my car and I’m going to be driving. Right. My depression sits right here with me. It’s with me all throughout the day, but I’m the one driving my car on the one, deciding where we’re going to.

Allie Nimmons: So you to be thinking to yourself, well, what the heck is admin day? What does that mean? What does that have to do with mental health in any way? Any way, shape or form admin day is the one month, the one day a month, rather that you set everything else aside and you treat yourself like your most important customer or client, your most valued client, the [00:07:00] person that you have to focus on the most for this one.

Allie Nimmons: It gives you a chance to prioritize yourself. So really admin day is a day where you complete a series of tasks and those tasks can include, uh, getting caught up with your bookkeeping or your taxes, um, reviewing your website and making any updates, additions, maintenance, uh, tasks, anything like that, to make sure that your website is as good as it can.

Allie Nimmons: Uh, any social media planning or content creation that you want to do. So scheduling out content or writing a blog post or working on a video, any number of things like that? Uh, cleaning, that’s actually kind of my favorite part on admin day, I will clean my whole desk area. I would clean my computers.

Allie Nimmons: I’ll clean out my inbox, my email inbox. I’ll get rid of old files and to my trash and just kind of make sure that I could start this month with a clean. This might be a good time to sit down and do [00:08:00] research on something that you’ve been wanting to learn or take a class, take a workshops and things like that.

Allie Nimmons: Um, accountability, we, I feel like a lot of people like the idea of how having accountability calls with other people who run businesses, uh, and we don’t always have time for that. So this is a good day to set an hour aside and chat with another business. Or any reporting or analytics that you want to do looking back at the previous month, seeing how things perform, seeing how things went.

Allie Nimmons: So these are just examples. This is just a starter list, depending on the kind of company that you’ve run, the services you provide, the products you create, this, this list can definitely change and flex depending on you. Uh, this could also just be a day off, right? This could also just be a day where you treat yourself to a really fancy, expensive cup of coffee, where you go spend some time outside.

Allie Nimmons: This is a picture of me on a hike. I took a couple of months ago, whatever you [00:09:00] feel like you don’t normally have time for anything that you feel could kind of give you a nice reset, uh, where you can be kind of quiet and undisturbed. Admin day is a really good time. So the number one problem I hear when I talk to people about it’s like, well, I don’t have time.

Allie Nimmons: I don’t have time. I have client work to do I have this. I have that. I have a busy schedule. I have all of these things to do. How can I take a whole day off every month to just focus on these other things? The solution is yes, you do. Um, I promise you have time. You can make. For yourself, right? You are the most important person you have to put on your own mask before you can put on other people’s masks that has a different connotation.

Allie Nimmons: Now doesn’t it. But, uh, you have to help yourself before you can help others. Uh, we waste a lot of time throughout the month with the negative effects of not doing a lot of these things. [00:10:00] Uh, so if you can take a day for admin day, you can earn back some of that time that you might ordinarily do. Um, and also you always have time to seed your mental health.

Allie Nimmons: I think that’s kind of what big orange heart, uh, is all about, right. Is taking that time for yourself and making sure that you’re okay. This is a really good, structured way to do that. So some tips to make sure that your admin day can go smoothly and that you can really commit to it, a block that day off, fully on your calendar so that if you have a Calendly or anything like that, people can book time with you for that day without you noticing.

Allie Nimmons: I just happened to me once or twice if I forget to block a day off. Uh, but yeah, block that whole thing off and make sure that nobody can book. Communicate with other people in your life, friends, family, colleagues, employees, whatever that this is your day to really focus on what you have to do. Uh, and it has value beyond just keeping up with your business.

Allie Nimmons: It [00:11:00] has value for your mental health. Be consistent. So for example, I really like to do admin day, the first of every month, whatever day of the week that happens to fall on. If you decide I’m going to do every day or I’m going to do the last Friday of the month, um, whatever you decide to do, just stick with that.

Allie Nimmons: And there’ll be a lot. Uh, I really like to try to get out of my normal space. So maybe I just work in a different place in my home. Um, he used to like to go out to a coffee shop or a library or something, but see if you can get out of your normal space just to shake things up a little bit, um, especially, you know, working from home these days can feel very monotonous and that can really.

Allie Nimmons: Also keep a handy list of tasks throughout the month. So maybe a sticky note on your computer or a note on your desktop or a Google doc, somewhere that you can throughout the month say, oh, that’s something that I’d really like to tackle on admin day. Let me write that down. So I don’t forget that way.

Allie Nimmons: [00:12:00] Admin day, you come to your computer and you see, I have this beautiful list of things that I’ve curated throughout the previous month that I can now work on. So I feel like there are both short and long-term benefits to blocking out and planning and completing an admin day. Um, these are the things that I feel the short-term benefits are that you kind of regain control a little bit.

Allie Nimmons: You can, like I said, have that hard reset and feel the rest of the month. Like you have a plan that you are in control of things. All those good feelings, right? You have a positive start to your month. You’re in a good Headspace. You’re in a good place mentally. And as you go into that next week or next day, you feel good about yourself, right?

Allie Nimmons: You accomplish something, it’s a confidence booster, right? I feel kind of like a boss on admin day, right? I’m I’m getting everything done. I’m getting everything taken care of and looking at how much [00:13:00] money I made. I’m looking at, you know, my reports, my analytics, the things that I’ve accomplished. It makes me feel good about.

Allie Nimmons: What it is you’ve accomplished in the past month. And what did you hope to accomplish in the next month? It also gives you a little bit of perspective, right? If you have trouble kind of seeing the forest for the trees admin day can give you a really good overview of what it is you’re doing. So you’re not getting lost in the details as much, which can cause us a lot of anxiety.

Allie Nimmons: And like I said before, you have usually a little bit more time in the next month. You might not be scrambling for things as much. Um, you might not be stressing over, well, I have to get a blog post out this. I don’t have time, but I really want to do it. It’s already done. You don’t have to think about it.

Allie Nimmons: The long-term benefits. Um, and again, these are the things that I’ve experienced in. I felt your experience may vary, [00:14:00] obviously. Um, but it’s allowed me to build a lot of trust in myself, especially if I’m able to be consistent with it. I don’t, I think I only missed one admin day last year in 2021. Uh, and that felt really, really good.

Allie Nimmons: Um, developing those strong habits, right? It’s great. At the end of the year, to be able to look back and say, I did my reporting every single month, and now I have a whole year’s worth of data. I’m just getting into those habits. Definitely pays off in the long run again, saving time, right? Save so much time throughout the year.

Allie Nimmons: Uh, especially for things like bookkeeping. When you go to sit down to do your taxes quarterly, yearly, however you do it. Um, you don’t have to scramble around and collect things. You have everything in one. It strengthens your business, right? If you’re able to get that content out, that you’ve been meaning to write and get your stuff organized, it’s going to help strengthen the business in little ways here and there.

Allie Nimmons: The more organized you can be and the more mentally fit you feel, [00:15:00] uh, and just logistically sets you up for success, getting all your ducks in a row is never a bad thing.

Allie Nimmons: So. Admin day for me was only a couple of days ago, as I said, I usually do it the first of the month. So Tuesday was my admin day. Uh, and just an example of this is what I did. I, uh, did a lot of bookkeeping. I cleaned everything up. Right. My favorite part, I scrubbed down my desk. I just conducted everything.

Allie Nimmons: Um, I moved in, I canceled a bunch of subscriptions because I accidentally put a bunch of business stuff on my PayPal account. And I was like, oh no, that needs to be in my business, blah, blah, blah. And I didn’t have time in the month to go back and fix it. So I was able to do that. Uh, it is tax season. So I was working on my taxes and that was a very stressful and not fun.

Allie Nimmons: Um, but what I did do that was really fun as I sat right over there behind the camera, where I have a nice little, uh, seating area, and I read a bunch of articles and blog [00:16:00] posts that I’d been wanting to read throughout the month, that I didn’t have time to, uh, with a nice cup of tea. And it was really, really relaxing.

Allie Nimmons: So my previous admin day was actually a little bit stressful because of the taxes, but now I feel so much better. It’s out of the way and off my plate. So I want to hear from you, if you do something like admin day, I’ve heard people do like smaller admin days every week. Like it’d be Friday. Um, yes or no.

Allie Nimmons: Is this something that you would be interested in starting or is this something that you’ve already done? Not for you. Uh, you can find me on Twitter at Ellie underscored humans, and I’d really, really love to hear from you and hear what you do on admin day. That could maybe inspired me as well. Um, so yeah, if we have any questions, I’d be super happy to answer.

Cathy Tibbles: Hi. Thank you so much, Allie.

Allie Nimmons: Hi, thank you. Thank you. It was a pleasure.

Cathy Tibbles: Yeah, that was live right. Or was that a recorded?

Allie Nimmons: [00:17:00] That was live.

Cathy Tibbles: How are you feeling?

Allie Nimmons: Good. I feel like I talked really, really fast, which is a bad habit of mine. I’m sorry. I was really excited

Cathy Tibbles: and it was great. I’m curious how you came up with the idea or did you come up with the idea of Admin Day?

Allie Nimmons: I don’t remember. I honestly don’t remember. I think it might, it might’ve been something that I heard somebody else like write a blog post or talk about it a long time ago, but I’ve been doing it for many years. And so it’s now just kind of like a habit. I don’t really remember where I learned, but I’ve evolved it.

Allie Nimmons: Right. Like figured out new things to do over time and stuff like that. I have a little running list, but, um, yeah, I don’t really remember where I first heard about it.

Cathy Tibbles: Do you know? A person would do if they weren’t a freelancer, would you still think an admin day? Like I’m just thinking self care day.

Allie Nimmons: I mean, mental health days and self-care days are remarkably important. Like [00:18:00] whether you feel like you need it or not, like, I feel like a lot of us will say like, oh, I don’t something happened or maybe I don’t feel great today. And I’m going to, I’m going to take a mental day for myself. Um, I’d love to normalize. Taking a day, once a month, even when you don’t need it. Right.

Allie Nimmons: Like preventative care rather than reactive care. Um, so yeah, like I don’t see anything wrong with that at all. I think that would be great. And especially if you feel like you have tasks that you’d like to get caught up on, um, even if it’s just catching up on a TV show or something like that, like if you could say, all right, I’m going to make a little to-do list for myself so that I can cause one of the things I really love about admin day is that feeling at the end of the day, it’s like I checked everything off my list.

Allie Nimmons: Um, I completed everything and that, that always gives me a nice little kind of confidence boost of, like I said, I was going to do something and I did it. And that feels real.

Cathy Tibbles: I could also see that working for people. Like I find to do lists to be a lot of [00:19:00] pressure. So I kind of organize it as in like kind of a things I want to accomplish in a week, but I could still see that working really well because there’ll be the day when I don’t have it to do.

Allie Nimmons: Yeah, for sure. If that’s, if that’s what you need, like, I love the fact that it’s, it’s a flexible concept, right? To say, I’m going to take this day. To-do list every other day of the year. Today is the one day I’m not going to make it to do list, right. If that’s what you need for yourself. And that’s, so that’s very valuable and, uh, introspective to be able to identify what you need and go ahead and do that.

Cathy Tibbles: I just think it’s such a great idea. Have you heard of time-blocking?

Allie Nimmons: I do time blocking. I started doing time blocking this year, um, more than I used to. Um, and yeah, I find it very. calming. Cause I don’t ever have to think about what do I need to be doing what I need to be working on. Like I always have, I can just look at [00:20:00] my calendar and it tells me what to do and when I go do it.

Cathy Tibbles: If I don’t have it time blocked, I’m just like putting out fires all day. It’s just like, I just let the email dictate my day instead of what I should be doing. And I find it, the talk reminded me of something. Um, like I divide my company tasks into a bunch of stuff. And the one that always gets ignored for me is research and development.

Cathy Tibbles: Like with the manufacturing has to get done. In our freelance world, it’s, you know, getting the code or the site done or out to the client. Yeah. The customer service, the marketing, it’s kind of like your content, your videos, like they have to get done, but actually the time to read those articles, like you were saying, Get better at your craft.

Cathy Tibbles: You have to prioritize that stuff.

Allie Nimmons: Yeah. That’s, that’s one of my favorite parts of the day and that’s that’s, I feel like the number one thing that I tend to put off throughout the [00:21:00] month, um, is yeah, it’s like, okay. I, I use this one videos, like for my next admin day, I really want to take time to like learn a new video editing software because I’ve been using the same for a long time.

Allie Nimmons: It’s been getting on my nerves. I don’t have time usually to just say, I’m going to completely switch to this other thing and learn it on the fly. Right? Like that’s so stressful. So to say, okay, I’m going to take it after noon. I’m going to block it off. If somebody asks me to do something, I’m going to say no.

Allie Nimmons: Um, that is very empowering. Right? Cause it, I think that that’s another thing too about this whole thing is for that day, you, you can say no to everything. Somebody sends you a DM or an email. You don’t have to answer it. And I think that, um, That at least for me, gives me a lot of confidence as a business owner to say, like, I am prioritizing myself. I appreciate that you need something, but I will get to it tomorrow. Um,

Allie Nimmons: no.[00:22:00]

Cathy Tibbles: No, uh, you know, Amy Porterfield, um, years ago, I listened to her all the time and she had, I think she called it dragon hour, power hour. I’m not sure, but, but she’s prolific content creator, but there’s two or three hours in the morning. Her team didn’t even contact her. Like they protected her little bubble and that was her time to work like do not poke the bear between this time and this time, it just reminds me of that. Like the people who are really productive, you have to focus on what you want. To get the work for your mental health, right? Yeah.

Allie Nimmons: Especially if you’re in a period of, well, we should all be learning all the time, but if you’re in a period of like, all right, I I’m freelancing or I started this business, whatever the case may be and now I want to scale it. Right. I want to grow, I want to add a new service or I want to, you know, maybe hire somebody right. When, when you feel like, okay, I need to get to that next level. You have to [00:23:00] be able to prioritize, well, like, how am I going to do that? I need. Time away from my clients and my deliverables and all those things, and really get my ducks in a row and learn what I need to learn in order to scale to that, to that next level.

Allie Nimmons: Cause I feel like that’s, that’s such a big reason why people struggle with scaling or don’t scale is because they don’t have. The, the, the background foundational knowledge to, to do whatever comes with that next phase of their business. Um, and so it’s, it’s hard to get there if you don’t know what you have to do.

Allie Nimmons: Um, and yeah, when you have to pay bills and, uh, you know, meet whatever monetary goals that you have, it can feel really scary to say, like, I’m not going to put in billable hours to do. Right. Like, that’s super scary. If you have bills to pay, they say, I’m not going to make money today. I’m going to work on myself, but in the long run, [00:24:00] I think it does enable you to grow and scale it to make more money, you know? So, yeah, it has, it has all kinds of benefits

Cathy Tibbles: It does and, you know, it’s easy to say that we prioritize our mental health. It’s harder to do when you’re taking cash off the table, but that’s, short-sighted like in the long-term.

Allie Nimmons: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And so I, you know, if it’s a matter of, um, you know, I’m gonna reserve an afternoon to do all to do some of this kind of stuff, and then maybe work your way up to a whole day, right? Like, like you were saying, that woman just had a chunk of time in the morning that could work too. Right. It can be whatever you can manage to do at that time. But I think it’s always worthwhile to say, I’m going to put aside any amount of time for myself, and then you can grow that as you’re able to.

Cathy Tibbles: And you’ve been doing this for years. Yeah. Wow. That’s very cool.[00:25:00]

Cathy Tibbles: Two minutes. So I’m wondering if we can pick Misty’s brain and Liquid Web. Do you have like, can people take, I hope I’m not ousting something bad, but can I, can people take like a morning? Either do work-related R and D gonna learn more about something, but like not working on a project.

Misty Combs: We, we do have a lot of flexibility, even just, if you want to adjust your schedule to accommodate self care mental health time, um, we have a lot of support for that, but we also have, um, a lot of leaders who give a lot of flexibility and an independent scheduling to their staff all the time. So it is important that not that we don’t have that much and we don’t have things that need to get accomplished, but at the end of the day, [00:26:00] if I am completely burned out and I am completely exhausted, I’m not able to commit the things that I need to do anyway. So, so there’s definitely an encouragement take your PTO tip. Take the time that you need flex your schedule. Take care of yourself. Take care of your family.

Cathy Tibbles: PCO, did you say PCO?

Misty Combs: PTO. So like your Paid Time Off.

Cathy Tibbles: Okay. Okay. That was HR speak.

Cathy Tibbles: That’s good. It’s nice to see the bigger companies, but we also do.

Misty Combs: We’ve also done a lot, the things that stress people. So when we, we became a more work from home organization, we tried to do things that help people be connected. We also tried to do things for all kinds of wellness. Um, we have. Zoom based yoga.

Misty Combs: We have had series of financial education. We have, uh, um, health and wellness, diet, diet, mental health, um, mindfulness, all kinds of activities that people can [00:27:00] participate in when they’re feeling stressed in whatever way, they’re feeling stress, trying to give them some resources.

Cathy Tibbles: Yeah, that is cool. Allie, can I switch topics just for a second? What is the Underrepresented In Tech database?

Allie Nimmons: Oh, I was hoping you’d ask me that. Um, Underrepresented In Tech is a database that, uh, myself and Michelle Frechette, we co-founded together. Um, because honestly we work at it. Tired of people coming to us and saying, um, you know, I’m looking to hire someone or I’m looking to, um, get people to apply, to speak at my event.

Allie Nimmons: And I want to make sure that it’s a group, a diverse group of folks. Do you know anybody? Can you recommend anybody? Can you ask people to apply blah, blah, blah. And we had a conversation about how great it is that people want that, but how it sucks up a lot of our time and our energy, um, to have to like, [00:28:00] Yeah.

Allie Nimmons: Yeah. Um, and we were like, wouldn’t it be great if we had like a, like a giant spreadsheet or something? Um, and they were like, oh, that’s kind of weird. Just add people to a spreadsheet without their permission. Oh, what if it was like a database where people could add themselves? Uh, and so we just kind of started running with that idea and we got a lot of support from the community around it.

Allie Nimmons: Um, Gravity forms and gravity view donated software for us to be able to build it. Our hosting was donated, uh, Yoast has donated, um, you know, premium SEO tools to us. Um, there’s a whole list of sponsors on our website, if you want to check that out. But yeah, it is a, it is a database where folks who. Fall into any of the underrepresented boxes within the tech industry.

Allie Nimmons: So people of color, people who identify as a women, people who might be older than the average person who works in tech, people who have some sort of disability who are neurodivergent, who are on the LGBTQIA [00:29:00] plus spectrum, they can add themselves to this database and say, Hey, yeah, look, I check this box. I am a marketer and a designer, and this, these are the kinds of opportunities I’m looking for.

Allie Nimmons: I’d love to join a podcast or speak at an event, and they add themselves to that database and event organizers, business owners, podcast hosts, uh, people from all over can come to that database, plug in what the it is that they’re looking for. So looking for a marketer to speak on my podcast, and they’re met with a list of people, um, that they can then contact, um, The only thing that the searcher does not see is how that person identifies as underrepresented.

Allie Nimmons: So for example, if you’re gay and you add yourself to the database, the search result is not going to say I’m gay, right. That information is private and Michelle, and I just use it as a qualifier to make sure that nobody is, is being lame and abusing it. Um, but [00:30:00] it, it has allowed us to. Empower people with the ability to prioritize diversity within our community, without tokenizing people.

Allie Nimmons: So you can go up to somebody and say, Hey, I found you through the database because I’m prioritizing diversity for this project, but I’m approaching you. And I’m asking you to apply for this thing because of that, because you’re an expert marketer and I’m impressed with what I saw, um, because we just, we have a, we have a problem right now with. People are having a hard time finding the right ways to prioritize diversity. And so they don’t do it, um, and need,

Cathy Tibbles: It’s hard for people to ask are you special in any way? Yeah, just somebody that looks different than me, who also happens to be X word.

Cathy Tibbles: It can be an awkward conversation to breach, especially with the person that you maybe have never met before. Um, and so we wanted to make it easier for. [00:31:00] Um, and yeah, so we, we built the database and it’s been, it’s been really successful. We have about 120 people in the database right now. Um, we don’t track how it’s used. So, um, we don’t have like data analytics about like what companies I’ve searched or what candidates have gotten context or anything like that.

Cathy Tibbles: It is, as soon as you find someone in the database, you can. You know, send them an email or however they have preferred to be contacted. Um, and then that is a conversation for, for those two people to have together. Um, we also started a podcast. Um, I don’t really even remember why we started the podcast, like what the particular impetus was for that.

Cathy Tibbles: But Michelle and I have a lot of conversations between the two of us about things that frustrated. Um, around DEI in this community in particular. And so on that podcast, [00:32:00] we talk about, um, all kinds of topics that affect underrepresented people. But also we try to provide information that’s useful for allies and people who want to help underrepresented people to get more opportunities and have those conversations in an easier way.

Cathy Tibbles: Um, So, yeah, so it’s a database with the podcast that she and I have started together. Um, yeah, it’s something that we’re, we’re really, really proud of.

Cathy Tibbles: Is there anybody, are you still open to people coming on? Like if somebody sees this and wants those opportunities, they can.

Allie Nimmons: Yes, absolutely. So, absolutely. Yes. You can go to the website https://underrepresentedintech.com. Um, we have no plans of ever like. Closing it as of right now, like it is open for anyone, any, anybody at any time in any place to, uh, to go to, so, oh yeah, you have it pulled up right there. So yeah, if you scroll up to the [00:33:00] top of the site there, um, there’s a section called on looking for opportunities and somebody can click submit profile and there’s a little form. They can add themselves to that within 24 hours, um, Michelle, or I will just let that person make sure it’s not spam or anything like that. Um, and add them to the database. And once they’re added, uh, they can come up in whatever searches applied to them and they also have an individual. Um, like page. So if you search and find a person, you can click on their name or their photo, and they have a designated page on the site that, you know, if they would like to share and move like a resume website or something, they have a page that has all of their qualifications and contact information on it.

Cathy Tibbles: So you’d recommend that we, that people who are applying to this database put something similar to their LinkedIn or whatever they’re comfortable with the public.

Allie Nimmons: Exactly. Exactly. So we ask you for a bio, we [00:34:00] ask you for whatever social media you’re comfortable sharing. If you have a website, uh, to add that, and we asked him, you know, what, what do you specialize in? What do you do? Are you, are you an SEO person? Are you a developer or do you work with e-commerce? We have plans in the next month to add more of those kinds of, um, skills to the site as well. Um, and then you get to choose what opportunity you’re looking for. Um, because there are lots of job boards out there and we didn’t really want this to be a job board. We wanted it to be a place where somebody is like, well, I have a job, but I’d like to expand my reach into the community. I want to speak at events. I want to be on podcasts. I want to participate in other ways so they can choose which opportunities they would like to be contacted.

Cathy Tibbles: That is really awesome. Good for you guys. Thank you for coming on and the talk, did you have any other last minute thoughts?

Allie Nimmons: Um, no. I just hope that everyone [00:35:00] enjoys the rest of the event. And, uh, please thank an emcee or an organizer or a volunteer because they work amazingly hard. Um, for no money, a lot of volunteers they’re doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and it’s extremely admirable.

Allie Nimmons: Uh, so yeah. Thanks. If you’re watching, please take a moment to thank somebody, um, because yeah, it’s, this is a beautiful event and a beautiful thing, and I’m, I’m just overwhelmed with emotion.

Cathy Tibbles: This is wonderful. Thank you, Allie. Thank

Allie Nimmons: you. Have a great rest today then.

Misty Combs: Thank you, Allie.

Misty Combs: So again, we’d like to take an opportunity to thank our sponsors, Bluehost, Cloudways, GoDaddy Pro, Nexcess, Yoast, and Weglot, please be sure to visit their tents and chat with them. You might even win a prize. Don’t forget to get your photo snapped in the photo booth, sponsored by Multicollab and Dreamhost and tweeted out with the [00:36:00] WordFest Live hashtag also thank you to our media sponsors and micro-sponsors. In the, in the community tent for the next hour is Cloudways. With our hourly giveaways. There’ll be a bit of a break in the schedule now, head over to the community tent and we’ll be back at the start of the hour off the Asian content. We would love it. If you’d sponsor, please consider donating via the button on the screen to go to the Big Orange Heart website. You all make our Big Orange Heart. Thank you.[00:37:00]

Share this session