Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Career Switch: She shares how she pivoted into tech in 2021 with no degree, went from $40K to six figures within 90 days.

Transcript

Career Switch: She shares how she pivoted into tech in 2021 with no degree, went from $40K to six figures within 90 days. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: I'm Rashon McDonald, a host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: stories and start planning your own. Now, you don't want
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: to miss an episode, so please take a moment right
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: It's free.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: You can follow me on iHeartRadio, app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your podcast. New Money Making
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: on alert because my guests provide tips on how you
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: get this podcast started. My guess is a senior quality
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: assurance engineer, educator and founder of road to QA. Road
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: to QA, which is a trademark by the Way, is
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: a self paced career development platform design to have adults
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: pivot into tech to Quality Assurance which is QA and
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Software Test BIEN for beginners and working professionals. The program
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: combining step by step learning, community accountability, and practical experience
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: to prepare participants for long term career growth. And AI
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: driven companies in this economy. Please work in with the
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: money Making Conversations Master Class. Jennifer Goddess. Hey doing, Jennifer.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: I'm doing all right, are you.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: So, Jennifer?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about you. Now, give me some background on you.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Well, let's see, I don't have a college degree still
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: to this day. Uh huh. I am my mom of
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: a seventeen year old and a twenty three year old.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: I accidentally made my career pivot in twenty twenty one.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Not accidentally, you know. I had a few title loans
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: on my car and some pawns, you know, to keep
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: rent paid. And I knew I needed to do something different,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: and I actually came against you know. I learned about
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: quality assurance from someone online and I started studying it.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Within ninety days after having COVID and being sick and
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: having a title loan on my car, I landed my
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: first yes INTEL within ninety days. Okay, and I went
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: from forty thousand dollars to eighty thousand dollars and eighty
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars to one hundred and sixty to one hundred
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: and sixty to upwards. Of Me and my husband have
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: a household of four hundred k remote because then he
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: got into quality assurance and from there I helped my brother,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: my cousin, my sister law, my best friend, all land
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: QA roles in that year and then I accidentally launched
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: my company. Does not help over two hundred people land
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: their first yes intact And so all for me just
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: saying yes to myself and saying I'm worth more and
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: I can get paid more even in the career.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Ooky, this is money making conversations all right.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Now, with that being said, why are you.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: On this show?
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: I want to show because we're you know, you're hearing
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: a lot of people talk about AI and layoffs and
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: you know you don't know which way to go, right.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: I want to inspire people to not be afraid of it,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: but to work alongside of it and to find opportunities
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: even in a career. Even though you you know, may
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: see the layoffs, companies still have to decide how they're
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: going to MP limit AI inside of their company. They
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: and then even with the implementation, what jobs and how
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: what the responsibilities actually shift, they're still human oversight and
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: human and the loop activities that need to be done.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: So how can you take who you've been up until
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: this point, add new skills and become the person that
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: still works alongside AI.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Now let's talk about what you said earlier. You are
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: a senior quality assurance engineer. What is that, Jennifer?
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: So essentially I get paid the test software. So those
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: apps on your phone, they all got to be tested, right,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: even test Look they have quality assurance engineers, right, And
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: I like to say, the difference in your paycheck is
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: your skill set or the difference in your skillst skill
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: on sick or the difference in your skill set is
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: your paycheck. Right, So the more skills you have, the
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: more you can also get paid.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: Now because you mentioned this path, that's an upward path.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Of income that you got. What got you in that direction?
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: What made you? Because let's put this way tech. I
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: always tell people you get paid with people value you
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: to be I always have believe that, and so that's
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: what you just spoke about it. As you gain more value,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: people paid you more. I always tell people, if they're
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: afraid to lose you, they'll pay you to keep you. Okay,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: in this situation quality insurance, which we hear a lot,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: that's a position that you are getting paid as a
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: full time employee.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: And yes, I've even had contract roles too, but I
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: am currently in a new full time direct higher one
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: as a lead.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, and so you're testing cars, you can, I'm just
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: telling you can test software. They're quality insurance people testing food,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: testing wood.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: And beams and all that.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: But you've chosen to technical lane of quality insurance and
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: benefiting because of that.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: How did you make that choice?
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: So essentially, I'm testing programs, software is and applications technology.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: So you say that testing, what do you mean on making.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Sure that it does what it's supposed to do. So
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: when this person comes up with the ID and says,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: let's just say Wendy's right, Wendy's came up with the
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: concept that they want a new POS machine so that
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: people can ride up and place their order. They even
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: have AI doing that too. I tested that too, But
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: when you actually they ride up and they take their order,
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: someone still had to test and make sure that when
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: the order is placed that information gets to the person,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: you know, receiving the order.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I love this.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: I loved it because this is what we're wiring brutally
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: on the show. Because see, people always worried about technology
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: taking jobs. You're saying that Rishond, I am here to
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: let people know, use technology to give.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: You a job exact.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Just talk now, Jennifer, this money making conversation.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: You know what we deal with that little that little
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: stairstap and you got your cousin involved, your family involved,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: and family and family involved. Now all y'all sitting around
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: the back barbecue, eating good, eating good because of QA.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: You know what. That's actually very honest. Yes, I don't
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: even know if he was that close before then.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: And I like that because see, the thing about it
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: is that, you know, we as black people are people
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: of color, are always at the end of the line
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: looking over somebody's shoulder, complaining, complaining.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: You're not complaining. You are a duer? Why are you
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: a duer?
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Jennifer, Well, I think it all started because for me,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: I grew up with my dad. He used to drive
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: the bus. So he retired. And I was just telling
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: you recently in Chicago on CTA, right, he drove the bus.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: He retired. My mother she just she just retired at
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: sixty from working from the government for thirty eight years. Now.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know if I just stay my age out loud,
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: but I'm forty one. I hadn't been in a job
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: long enough anywhere to have that type of pension to
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: walk away with. I have to build my own retirement,
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: and in order for me to do that, I had
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: to make more money, because forty thousand dollars was not
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: going to do it for me. So the reason why
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: I am here is because I realized that my journey
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: was going to be different. My journey was already different.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: I had my son when I was in my senior
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: year of high school. I don't have any college degrees,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: so I have a grandmother who has PhDs and all that,
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: and so it's like almost it's almost like I had
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: to find a way to show that I'm worthy too,
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: you know. And so now I've been able to even
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: though I have family that has degrees and have had success,
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: I've been able to be the one to now show
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: them something different. Because of my career, I got to
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: go live in Mexico and Cabo for three years. My daughter,
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: at the age of thirteen, went to a school in
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: Mexico as a young black you know, young lady. Now
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: let me tell you she didn't she didn't use my
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: money the write way. I'm I pay for it, she said,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: a little bit. But I'm just gonna tell you she didn't.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: When your mind is young, right, maybe she wasn't young enough.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Because now we're back in Atlanta, and oh my goodness,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: so I planning to go back to retire there. But
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: she missed it. But it wasn't It wasn't an easy experience,
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: but it was an experience. Is how many, you know,
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: young ladies or children, black children can actually say that
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: they experienced that what was in.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: Your head that made you, that pointed you in that direction.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: It's like going back to when I was talking about
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: my father. I saw him do different things. He drove
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: the bus and retired, but he also washed windows. We
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: used to be on the bus or we'll go wash
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: windows and we'll have squeegees and stuff and selling the
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: water office. My dad washed the windows and they used
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: to They thought we was homeless. And I was looking
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: at them like little do you know my dad got
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: an eighty thousand, ninety thousand dollars CETA job, you know,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: like we okay, right, And so I tried to give
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: them money back. But he showed me that even though
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: he had his career, he still did his own things
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: on the side.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Part time job.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: Tipping us, we get free dunkin Donuts and like we
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: even used to for war work, dout that till I
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: think that's telling my age Woolsworth and everything. We used
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: to you know, wash windows for dunkin Donuts and famous footwear,
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: all of those. And so again my dad helped me.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: He was.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: We weren't doing. I told him, he was out there
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: with him.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I will tell you this.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: You know, when when you see black people doing something
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: that's not normal, okay, that's what you're not normal. Window
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: washing for as a profession is not normal, So people
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: stereotype you as people who probably wasn't being hired, out
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: there just doing a hustle. And so people perceived you guys,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: you and your father's hustlers, and they felt they felt sympathy,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: and he gave it to you because I always like
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: black people being in positions a seeking opportunities that aren't normal,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: and that because you were doing something that wasn't normal,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: people compromise your success story.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: Correct, Yeah, yeah, it was. I don't I don't know
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: how to really answer this, but it was hard. It's
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: like I also had to I had to believe in myself, right,
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: But then I'm also helping other people who I actually
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: fell up until the point had more success than me,
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: you know. And so for me, I you know, it
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: kind of the tables kind of turned. Like I said,
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: I got to do things that my mother retired at sixty,
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: never really traveled. I got to live in another country
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: on my own dime because of the work that I
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: did before the age of forty. And so for me,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: you know, there was a lot of you know, situations
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: where you also find who's really there for you in
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: those seasons, you know, when you're down, when you're up.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: A lot comes out of that journey, you know, of change.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: I got to ask, living away three years, what type
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: of work were you doing?
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: I was doing?
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: You?
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: So this is where I accidentally grew my company.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: So I in another country.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: In another country, So this is now obviously you go,
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna be very transparent. We know that companies are
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: you know, a little time and stric through now with
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: you you know, going remote. So even like today, the
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: company I'm with today, I can travel there, but they
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: you know, I would have to tell them that I'm leaving.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: I couldn't stay there and live there. But when I
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: first got into QA. I had a role that allowed
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: me to actually move that was okay with my location,
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: but I had to physically have a laptop with me
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: at all times. And so we just decided we're going
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: to go, me and my husband and my daughter. We
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: packed up, you know, thirteen military bags and luggage and
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: we got on Delta and me and my husband visit there.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: We had never been to Cabo. We went there for
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: a week and by the end of the week we
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: came back with a lease for an apartment. We said
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: we was leaving in th days. He was actually a
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: QA engineer too. So what happened is that I actually
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: he was actually working a customer service And so what
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: had happened was I walked past him one day and
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: he saw me working my QA rod. But then I
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: had landed a second row. So I'm working two of
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: them because at that time they were contracts. So I'm
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: working two it both and so you're telling me, so
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: you're saying, I'm making like ninety one and ninety on another.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: And so I walked past him. He on a customer
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: service call for insurance, and I said, you can't even
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: get up and go to the bathroom. Oh he was
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: mad at me and up with transparent. He was making
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: about forty thousand dollars too, right, because we both came
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: from that. He was working at home, so it's great
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: you're at home, right, but you know, and then he said,
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: you know what, enough is enough. She's not that smart.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I am that smart, you know so, But
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: essentially he was he looked at me as inspiration and said,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: if she can do this, I can do it too.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: So within thirty days he started watching me, learning from me,
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: and then he ended up landing a fifty five dollars
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: an hour, so he's surprised. He actually went over me, okay,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: and his first QA role was over six figures higher
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: than one of both of my offers individually, and he
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: landed his role and he became a QA engineer. So
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: once he became a QA engineer, by the end of
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty one, our household was producing about four hundred
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: k remote uh and we decided to just up and
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: leave and leave the country.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: money making conversations. Basket class.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Now, I need for you to do me a favor
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: right now to follow or subscribe to money Making Conversation.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: It's free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: me that favor, follow or subscribe money Making Conversations. Welcome
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: back to Money Making Conversation Masterclass hosted by me Rashaun McDonald.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Money Making Conversation Masterclass continues online at Moneymaking Conversations dot
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: com and follow money Making Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, X
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: and Instagram.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: How did that lead to your business?
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: So we on the beach and I'm just sitting there
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: shooting my real somebody said, you know, shoot Instagram stories.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: So I just started shooting stories talking about QA. Now,
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: actually I was doing this before I left, So I
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: actually my business has started building before I left. So basically,
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: behind the scenes, I was shooting IG stories and I
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: was talking about a day in the life. I was
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: saying what I did as a QA engineer. I was
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: talking about how I went from customers nerves and technical
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: support to being a QA engineer. And I was talking
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: about your transferable skills and how you're already a software tester.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: That's kind of my thing. I say, you're already a
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: software tester you just don't know it yet. So what
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: I mean by that is those little mote with those
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: apps on your phone, you're using them every day, right,
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: So if you're using them, you are a you were
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: essentially becoming a subject matter expert. Right, So every time
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: you use it, you are operating as the user. And
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: so if I'm on the other end testing it as
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: a QA engineer, now I have to also be the
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: subject matter expert because for my job, I have to
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: know what it's supposed to do, so you, as the user,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: can use it correctly and it can actually and it
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: can be used as it's supposed to as it's actually
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: supposed to. So I was shooting ig stories and I
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: launched this ebook and I said, I'm putting out a
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: e book. I'm gonna show you you know how to
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: be a software tester too. And I didn't make the product.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: I just said I'm outlining it. Thirty people bought it
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: for ninety seven dollars. I was like, oh crap, I
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: gotta I gotta make this. I gotta make it, so
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: invade it. And it was an e book. And so
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: this was October twenty twenty one. I had already worked
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: several QA rows, my brother and my cousin, all of
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: them was in QA rows. So I took our testimonials
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: and I said, let me show you how I can
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: do it. So I was just shooting behind the scenes,
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: and I'll say what I did is a software test
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: and what tasks were. I made this product and by
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: October thirty people bought. I made my first ten K. Right. So, now,
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: prior to that, I was working in customer support and
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: technical support, and I actually used to do Facebook as management.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: I actually used to work here Cartoire click funnels, building funnels,
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: and so I worked behind six figure and seven figure
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: brands already, and I actually stopped that. And that's what
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: actually got me all the way to this point because
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: I was tired of watching everybody else brands grow and
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: I'm supporting them, and I'm letting I'm stuck at forty K,
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: you know, remote, but I'm stuck at forty K. So
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: that wasn't working for me no more. So needless to say, I,
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: you know, launched this product and people bought. So October
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: people bought. But you know, it's going into the holiday season,
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: so you know, I'm not thinking nobody's gonna tell me
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: to got it now now, mind you. I do believe
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: that what I do, what I said works. But January
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: comes around somebody says I got a job. Holy crap,
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: I'm thinking someone that didn't know me took just my
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: videos and my ebook and lanted a job. Well, by
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: January twenty twenty two, I started having people lanning jobs.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: By the end of January twenty twenty two, I had
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: forty five people in jobs off of that little ebook
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: and master classes. Then I kind of I started increasing
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: the pricing. By twenty twenty three, another fifty people, by
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, another fifty or so people. Twenty twenty
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: five we had almost about another Obviously the market was
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: a little crazy. This year. We had about another almost
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: forty people in twenty twenty five plan jobs. So that's
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: how now helped two hundred people get into tech.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Now, your company's called road.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: To Qa is up the website www dot road too
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: qa dot com.
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: When they go to road to Qa qqa, let me
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: get this right, road to qas jmark by the way, right,
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: what's the experience of the fees.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: Well, the experience is enrollment. So I would actually say
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: go to road to qa dot com forward slash free
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: and you can actually watch my free master class train
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: and so I'm going to actually show you how you're
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: already a software tester and you just don't know it yet.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: So everything that I've been.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Telling you what is, we'll talk to us. Well, how
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: are they already?
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: How I am?
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: I was trying McDonald a software tester and don't even know.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: It because you're sitting on these apps and you're playing
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: with them, you're logging into your laptop. Well, when you
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: open your laptop generally, I mean now sometimes we looking
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: at the book right, never never you're even exploring it. Well,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: as a software tester, I also explore the software to
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: make sure let's see if I find anything. So it's
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: almost like you're doing a task and don't even know it.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Your revenue in your road to QA.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: The whole point is we have two programs. We have
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: a ninety day jump start where I'm teaching you the
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: skills and knowledge and the expertise to become a QA engineer.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: And then in that you get mentorships. So I have
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: a team of eight. So that is a enough other
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: great accident. I did not, you know, know that I
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: was going to end up growing the company that had
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: to meet so many people. You know, I just thought
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: I was gonna be It's gonna be me and my
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: little ebook and making a little ten thousand dollars a month. Well,
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: I've been able to I don't know what I should
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: or sit and say, but I have been able to
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: see money come faster, accidentally but in a great accident.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: And also as a business owner learning how to do
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: money better. You know, when you're coming from forty K
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: and you jump upwards and you see money different and
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: faster and more, you have to learn that forty K
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: mindset got to go away because now you have to
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: manage money a whole nother way, because you know, Uncle
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Sam gonna come get you, you know so. But and
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: then on top of that, you have to be able
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: to understand how you're going to grow and scale, how
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: you know where and when do you you know, add
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: funds to add employees or increase you know, or the
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: hard decision of take taking positions away too. Even as
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: a business owner, I've had to make decisions where I've
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: had to say, we don't need that position on them anymore,
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: but we're going to retailer and here's what we make me.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: If you have that skill, we could put you here.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: But if not, this from a profitability standpoint, this is
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: what I need.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: So basically, okay, just speaking, Okay, A senior quality assurance
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: control engineer.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: Right, senior quality assurance engineer.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: A senior quality assurance engineer, not the word control.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because control is a whole nother different insurance engineer.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: That's what you do full time. Yes, okay, Then you
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: have another company that you started that is eight people
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: are working under that umbrella in some capacity to employee
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: TI nin and nine. You need those people or your
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: company cannot function.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: So I'll say yes and no. Because I have the
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: skill set. Technically I could run my company on my own.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: But even with the full.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: Time job, yeah I could because of how I have
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: a structure. So one of the biggest things is for
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: me is alignment. And even though this is the thing everything,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: every every business model isn't for everyone. So my company
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: focus is on it's solely like a one to many.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: I don't do it like a hard cohort because a
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: lot of people that I am actually attracting, they're in
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: full time jobs. You know, like when you're in full
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: time jobs, you're traveling. I'm sorry, you're you're commuting, you
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: have kids. It's hard to say I'm gonna be in
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: class at eight o'clock every day, you know. So my
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: program is kind of autonomous where they enrolled, they self enroll,
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: they go through the program at their own pace. But
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: we do have weekly calls that you come to so
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: you can go through the program at your own pace. Now, I,
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: because I have a skill set, I can run every
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: call and do everything in my company.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Are using AI to do anything?
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: So as of right now, not technically a yes, so
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: we're actually now developing agents to do several things. But
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: as of right now, there's things where I can use AI,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: where like we're building AI and we have some AI
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: to help with and resume and things of that nature
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: and help people as they're transferent, you know, finding their
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: transferable skills. But for my company as a whole, like
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: for me to actually teach someone to skill, No, I
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: don't have to have AI to do that. I can
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: do all this on my skills and experience. I've had
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: ten different QA roles. I know how to do the job.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Why isn't it bigger?
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: Wow? Why is it? Can I be honest? Yes, So
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: I was on my way to actually scale my company,
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: you know, and I have a family circumstance that brought
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: me back to Atlanta. Okay, So it's actually why I'm back.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: I've been back since last year because if you have,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't be back here. I'm be honest, I'm be
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: honest with everybody. I would not be in the US.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: I'd be sitting in Cowbo off the beach right now. So,
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: but life happens, and I like to always be an
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: example to be honest because a lot of times you'll
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: see people online like life is just so good. And
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: I don't believe that we should all be you know,
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: always tell our private stories and everything. You shouldn't share everything,
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: but you shared a lot on my show, you but
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: I do. But I had to come back because my
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: family is going through a circumstance that needed me back here.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Okay. And so why that has nothing to do with
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: my question.
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: That sounds like a valid excuse, But there's.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Nothing to do with you and jail and new.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Business because you have a phenomenal business model here.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: What what got Okay, So to answer your question, is
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: I took I basically took a break where I almost
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: decided not to keep my company because of the family
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: circumstances going on right now.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: You did not let that interfere with your great Well,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: I'm not, I'm not anymore.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: I started, I started moving back. I started, you know,
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: repumping the breaks. I started repumping the brakes about September.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you so.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: And it did help me when other people forty.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: One and you got this in your head. You know,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: you know this is this is special. You know, like
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: I said, I had a lot of interviews. You know,
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: sometimes I'll be doing interviews. I'll be going, Okay, I
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: heard this before, I heard this before, or I can
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: take there.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I've never heard this.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: And I'm impressed by you because you develop a model
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: that's been sitting out there that is a money maker,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: not only for you but people who buy into it.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: You should be sitting there saying two thousand people, not
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: two hundred people.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know if I can say it's
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: on camera, but I mean, my business have done almost
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: all My company has done almost three million dollars in
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: since twenty twenty one. By accident, they.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Should be doing nine million.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: I've received that, and I believe that I'm.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Just telling you. You know you can. You can sit
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: over here. You can be old Cabo and one hundred
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: people running for you. Okay, sending in Jamaica.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: Right, it don't matter, well, and I will be transparent
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: to say. We also pushed the brakes too because I
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: did bring in someone else to help with curriculum design.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: So even as you know, even though I have skilled,
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: even though I have certain skills, right, they're still skills
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: that maybe I don't have, So I had to bring
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: someone in so that they can teach that skill and
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: so we actually reach so like for instance, QA is
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: essentially me testing the software manually without a tool of
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: software automation, but now you have QA automation, which is
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: what we're seeing more in the market right with AI
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: and everything. So that's now a higher level of skill
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: set as a QA. So now we're taking all the
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: things that we do from a testing perspective, but now
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: we're using a tool like playwrights to actually automate testing.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: So now that does actually need someone that has programming
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: or coding experience. I needed someone to come in and
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: develop that actual side of the curriculum. So I brought
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: in someone that's been in for fourteen years who I
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: actually met on my QA road and now I been
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: good friends for four years, and he helped me develop
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: that track and we started actually beta testing that on
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: other students that's already landed roles with my company.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Jennifer, do you are an afrotech?
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: Do I go?
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: No, they've never invited you to speak? Can anybody invite
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: you to speak?
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: I mean, I've done a few podcasts, but so can
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: I be honest? My husband is the one pushing me
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: to do like more podcasts. I'm kind of like, uh,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: I like to just run my company in quiet. I
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: actually I see you amazing, Thank you, thank you.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: It's not even a question. I'm trying to figure how
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to invest in you. That's how much money you you
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: can make. You know, if you.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: Pitched your story to a VC, a venture capitalist, they.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Won't invest in you a lot of money because the
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: upside is incredible?
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: Can I can I be honest with you? So you
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: talk about VC right now? I will say I like
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: to keep a lot of my own without everybody in there.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: But I will say there is a when in the
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: first few years of my business, I told you I
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: launched a I'm playing like a ninety seven dollars book,
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: then we kept raising the price. It was two ninety seven,
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: three ninety seven, four ninety seven, five ninety seven. Were
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: now programs anywhere from seventeen ninety five to twenty nine
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: ninety nine, because now we have a track two thousand,
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: nine hundred ninety nine, because it started where it started
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: at ninety seven dollars, because.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: I almost though I almost kicked you off my show. Really,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: I almost kicked you off my show.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Way to go from ninety seven dollars to three thousand dollars?
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: What's how?
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: How many years? Fine? And people are still buying that?
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: Yes?
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: Okay, okay, So you asked me why you know? So
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: my husband fussed me, and I've had many people fussed
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: at me because of our price point actually stood where
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: it was too long, right. I had someone tell me
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: before the price program should have been like seven grand
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: and things of that nature. But my heart always sticks
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: with the person because I came from forty k So
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: as of growing business owner, you have the aspect where
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: because I had my different roles at the time because
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: at one point I was working like three qa rows.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: We're just gonna say that, not now, but at one point,
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: so so with that, I did what I don't want
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: to say charity, But it was to a point where
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: my company wasn't actually making money. It was almost like
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: it was just paying for itself because what was happening
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: was that I was growing the company and adding employees,
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: but the profits didn't make sense right because I didn't know.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: I had never been a business owner before. I just
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: saw people laying the job So I'm just on the cars,
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: I'm doing whatever, and I got my QA roles. I'm
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: making six figures already, I don't care. But then when
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: you start looking at the numbers, You're like, why am
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: I doing this? You know, I'm cross between I want
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: to help this type of person and realizing that this
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: person still got to believe in themselves and say, yes,
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: they gotta find you, They gotta find they gotta find
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: the way to say I'm going to invest in myself,
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: just like I had to do. And so for me,
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: I was cross between raising my prices. So for me,
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: I never wanted to be like a program of seven eight,
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: nine grant, but I do want to be a profitable company.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: So for me, that's why my business model is. It's
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: not a hard cohort it's self pacing, the autonomous program
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: where you go through it in one year and we're
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: there to support you along your journey. But for me,
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: it took me a while to raise my price. So
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: I'm just, you know, wanting to answer your question on
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: you know, why maybe haven't I gotten to some certain point,
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: And it's because maybe for the first three years I
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: sat in the space where I almost wasn't making money
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: because it was almost like I was. I was bringing
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: in money. So when I talk about how much I made,
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: that's revenue that on mean I kept all that obviously right.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: So now we're on track to build that vision because
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: now we have, like I said, automation, and then we
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: have AI. So now our tracks are expanding to something
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: that we didn't have, which is the foundations of QA testing, automation,
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: AI testing, and AI assistant tools. And now you're talking
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: about a program that is between seventeen ninety five twenty
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: nine nine nine, that can land you, that can help
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: you land a job anywhere from seventy upwards to one
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: hundred and eighty K.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Love it, Jennifer.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: I can keep talking to you, but I gotta let
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: you go, not because you're not delivering amazing information. Give
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: your episode out before we leave one more time.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's www. Dot road to qa dot com. But
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: go to www Dot road to qa dot com forward
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: slash free and watch my freemaster class training. I'll show
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: you exactly how you're already a software tester, you just
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: don't know it yet, and you have transferable skills that
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: you are sitting on and you can get your first
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: yes and tech facts.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Thank you for a couple on my shir Thank you,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to this episode. Now I need
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: for you to do me a favor right now to
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation. It's free and
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do me that favor,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: follow a subscribe Money Making Conversations.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Keep winning