That woman tech started out as ad-hoc tech support to friends and family.

Going Back in Time…

I’d always been interested in tech and from my previous incarnation as an Associate Dean Learning and Teaching where I shared the role. The role itself was overseeing the new TELLS team (Technology Enhanced Learning and Learning support) which supported the school within the university to move from the old acetates and PowerPoint presentations on memory sticks or the shared c drive to transferring everything to moodle- an online educational learning platform.

This involved more creativity of pdfs and handouts to videos and audios and more interactive engagement in the learning process. This is also where my home informal hobby/passion really began to flourish. Now not only was I playing with gadgets but also learning to build e-portfolios on google sites and learning how to create basic websites alongside how to get all these tools on to the online platform.

A New Direction

Following redundancy a few years later the tech learning slowed but never quite went away. Soon I was learning how to build websites on google sites and then Wix and was incredibly chuffed when in 2012 I had my first business and even got the confidence to begin building my website to help get my holistic therapy services out to the masses!

Then after a surprising diagnosis of a chronic illness not long after I’d started my business, I had to pivot and I began a more spiritual and holistic quest so the technology took a back seat. But it was always there, and slowly and surely gained more importance as I began engaging more with social media and technology; learning about having my own domain name as well as and creating an email list were things that I really needed to develop in order to grow and scale my business. 

In 2016, I met someone online who also shared the same passion for tech and who was a few steps ahead of me in putting their business together in the online space. My learning gained huge momentum; how to create e-books, set up email sequences, create podcasts, create videos, memberships sites, SEO,  as well as the tools and gadgets I needed. I can remember how excited I got when my green screen arrived! Better than a pair of designer shoes!

So I immersed myself in tech and how it could help me get my own online holistic therapies and spiritual courses out to everyone in a systemised and sustained way.  My online colleague and I began a business together to encourage people in the mind, body, spirit community to start embracing technology so that they could take their business online as well as face to face. 

Business Bombed!

Sadly what we made up for in tech skills and knowledge we were quite sorely lacking in business expertise!  Having come from an academic institution background I was really not understanding this ‘fill your pipeline’ marketing stuff, or how to nurture and engage clients- I fell under the spell of ‘build it and they will come’- a rookie error that did significantly impact my finances and not for the better!

So the business died and in its place, I returned to what I knew how to do- read colour, offer holistic therapies and tarot readings, anxiety life coaching, and mental health/stress management support. These were the areas I was qualified in, felt pretty safe in and it brought some money in. 

However, I was still in a feast and famine model and over the time doing this business I began to realise that I no longer had the passion to support someone’s anxiety and stress. And I was gravitating more and more to the tech and learning more on WordPress websites, analytics, and all the geeky stuff which was bringing me more fun and excitement than stress coaching.

So my website build became more elaborate. I added more complexity as I mastered things and how they linked and connected and I began to enjoy the tech side of getting my online courses up and running and connected to calendars and payment systems and began the slow process of learning how to sequence and create the funnels. 

In parallel, a few friends asked me to build them websites and I slowly developed competence and confidence as I was able to build to their requirements and actually get paid for this service and the ongoing support I could offer. 

Pandemic Pivot

Then came the pandemic. 

It pretty much knocked most of my holistic business out in one fell swoop. I was lucky that I had some semblance of work as I was able to utilise my online presence and see clients for some of the energy work I did via online tools. I spent pandemic time revamping my website and building a few more websites,  and I began looking forward to working out problems on the fly with my tech and website stuff. 

So fast forward to March 2021 when the one really big thing happened that moved me to pivot into tech as a more permanent fixture and this really made my confidence soar and well as unleashing some anger and frustration.

Along the journey I’d picked up loads of experience on what not to do when it comes to building websites, connecting apps and software, trialing opt-ins, and increasing people engagement (traffic) through social media.  

Now I’m pretty good when I’m stuck on how to go and find the answer whether that’s someones’ academic paper, a youtube video, a quick ‘how to’ online, or follow someone who’s really good at solving the problem I’m currently stuck with. When I occasionally get stuck and I can’t find a solution out there I will then ask someone in the know and do so having exhausted all apparent means first.

Sexism? In tech?

Now here’s where it could all sound terribly sexist and it isn’t meant to be, however unfortunately I’ve had far more experiences of the following that really was a bit of a frustration. I was fed up with the guys in the tech world being slightly condescending around my website building knowledge, and using unnecessary ‘tech talk’ leaving me feeling somehow inadequate when plain English would do.

Now not all tech guys are like this, and I’ve had plenty of help from tech guys who are respectful, non-condescending, and collaborative. But sadly I’ve experienced a lot of tech guys ‘mansplaining’ when I’m perfectly capable of understanding. Or they simply eyed me up and down and you could see they’d already judged me to be a total fluff-head and therefore wanted to explain so simply that even a 3-year-old would get bored.

So that really boiled my ‘P’ to the extent that I kind of got a bit annoyed and this really was the catalyst. So actually I can thank them now as it really gave me the confidence and sense of injustice to get on and jump in,

My second reason for jumping into tech was acknowledging that  I just get excited about learning how to build a website from scratch and all the components it required. I love growing my business and scaling up my website to meet my needs. 

As I was attending women’s networking events, I was meeting a lot of women who were either really tech-averse or not interested in the tech but did want it to support their business in a way that enabled them to be creative, show up for their clients and help their clients. And this really led me to think about how I could best serve start-up entrepreneurial women who knew that tech had a place in their business but were either too overwhelmed, afraid, or frustrated with tech.

And thirdly I wanted to feel confident and have the skills to create and problem-solve when things happened on my website and software rather than have to wait for someone to sort it for me and often being overcharged because the tech sounded mysterious and therefore must be complex and therefore must be expensive.

A Beautiful Birth!

So in March 2021 That Woman Tech was born and she has been very slowly but surely helping people with their tech. I chose That Woman Tech mainly because let’s be honest, how many of us remember the person’s name who you’ve booked to clean the carpets, or sort your garden out – you’re more likely to remember the name of the business until you are using them regularly. So it made sense that

“it’s, you know, erm, that woman, erm, you know, that woman tech!” 

That Woman Tech was born

Next was thinking about that woman tech’s identity and who she was and what she represented and how she presented herself. Well, this actually came as a blinding flash when playing my partners’ iPhone. He was showing me how to create memojis and so I created one for me that was close to my physical appearance – early 50’s, greying hair, curvaceous (well overweight and chubby-faced- but curvaceous sounds far nicer!) and smiley. 

And when she was created and I then discovered I could speak and her mouth would start talking, I became like a kid in a sweetshop and she became the face of That Woman Tech- my online alter ego, friendly, helpful, kind, and cheerful and showing that tech does not have to be boring, tiring, stressful, or difficult. It just needs a little calm, friendly smiley step-by-step approach (and yes we do have meetings together!)

That Woman Tech Launched

So that woman tech launched in March 2021 and offers 1-1 walkthrough with you tutorials on WordPress websites, social media strategies and helps anyone who is starting up their business and who needs a WordPress website or tech in order to grow or scale up.

The tutorials are an hour long and the content is discussed in advance of the session so that there is a goal to work towards and clear outcomes achieved. So since March, that woman tech has been working alongside business owners to teach them how to manage their own websites and know what to do to keep in tip-top condition as well as learn how to do the tech surrounding their business needs.

And last month that woman tech launched a concierge service which is pretty much a ‘pick and mix’ done for you service that you can choose what you want each month, saving you time so that you can focus on your zone of genius whilst I focus on mine.

That woman tech quarters has lots of exciting things planned for the future including tech talks and helping businesses not yet embracing the online space, or who are starting up, helping them to really look at their online presence and engagement and ease them into what can feel to be the chaotic and overwhelming online world. And that woman tech does it sept my step so that they can shine their lights to attract their clients.

To find out more book a free call as to how I can help you.