In Episode 8 of the Skillabration Podcast, Nikki interviews Amy Ratnow, a stay at home mom turned business owner. She founded ALR Connections in 2017. Her business focuses on connecting stay at home moms with business owners to recruit them for part-time and full-time roles. She noticed the gap between moms and businesses who need their talent, and decided to fill that gap with ALR Connections. 

Highlights From The Episode

• Overcoming the internal conflict of being a stay at home mom and working
• How and why she started ALR Connections
• The power of networking
• How to help the youth prepare for the job market
• The skills needed today to stand out in the job market
• The top 3 skills that have served her in business

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (0:1.359)

Welcome back to the Skillabration podcast, everyone. Today I have Amy Ratnau, and Amy has always enjoyed the spirit of competition and being a team player. As a child, she was the only girl on an all-boys hockey team from age 6 to 12. And then as a college student, she left Indiana University to play soccer in La Crosse at Lake Forest College where she ultimately graduated.

With her flair for creativity and a drive to succeed, Amy started a corporate gift company and that blossomed into meeting and event planning. She met several women at various stages in their careers, looking for employment and realized she needed to help bridge the gap. Amy knew it was time to open her own company where she could build on her relationships with her client partners and support women joining the workforce.

Amy (1:20.118)

Yes. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (1:22.627)

Yes, I'm so excited to have you. I always like to let people know how I know people that come on the podcast. Amy and I met at a networking event about a year ago actually, and that was called Epwing, but that Epwing is no longer around. I had happened to ask Amy, like, where else do you network? She's like, oh, I have another group. When Amy said that I was like, okay, yeah. I didn't realize it was her group.

Amy (1:46.446)

I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

Amy (1:50.995)

I'm sorry.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (1:51.011)

But her group has like three or four, how many different? Okay, so there's four different, what do you call them? Like groups, there are four different groups in different parts of the North Shore outside of the city of Chicago. And I'm in one of those groups, it's an amazing group. So I hope we get to dig into a little bit about how you started that. Tell us a little bit of background just of the origin story of ALR and more about you.

Amy (1:54.830)

Four, yeah, four.

Amy (1:59.918)

ropes.

Amy (2:19.146)

Yeah, well, thank you for having me, Nikki. And Nikki is somebody who I was sitting next to at a networking meeting, and I thought she was so adorable. And I just wanted to have her be part of our group. So I'm so glad that you're part of the networking group. And how it became to be is I'm originally from South Bend, Indiana, a small town. And where I'm from, it felt like everybody knew everybody. And so moving here to Chicago, I didn't really know everybody. And when I started my business, I really

bridge the gap between my younger self and my adult self. And so I created these networking groups. And just to go back a little bit, I was also told to stay home and work and be a stay-at-home mom, but I always wanted to work. So I was in the struggle in my own mind versus like how I was raised and then what I really wanted to do. So I wanted to try to find an opportunity where I can work.

and be with my kids. So it was the nine to three timeframe. So that's where the idea came from, is that once my youngest was going into kindergarten, I had all this free time. So I really wanted to use my brain while the kids were at school. So before COVID happened, I started knocking on doors to small businesses and saying, you know, I have a lot of women that I know, even me specifically, I wanna work nine to three. I would be an administrative assistant. I'll do a really good job. I have a really great background. And I started realizing that

using the people who I knew, who I had a relationship was the greatest way for me to get into the door. Because I had taken some time away, no one wanted to give me that opportunity. So I started putting two and two together and I realized, hey, there's a business out here where there are women who wanna go back to work for either reasons of them taking time off to raise their children, for raising an elderly person.

for going through a life change, like someone had passed away, or there was a divorce, or someone died, or just someone had like a, just a change of heart, yeah. So ALR Connections is really a company that was birthed out of a need for me, wanting to go back to work for on a part-time basis.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (4:24.783)

Can you tell us a little bit about how did you find the first person that you recruited and what was the business that was willing to work with you? Because I can't imagine coming in, starting from scratch, a recruiting business from scratch. Can you give us a little insight on that?

Amy (4:39.510)

Right. Yeah, so this was the craziest thing is there was a company who was a recruiting company in the city that I really admired and wanted to work for myself. I wanted to be an administrative assistant and they wouldn't hire me because I had no experience. And I'm like, oh, how am I gonna get experience if you won't hire me to get experience? So I kind of felt like that was me. I went through the pain and the struggle of like knowing that I could get the job done but no one would hire me.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (4:49.506)

Okay.

Amy (5:7.810)

And then I started realizing as I got older, as I started working in various jobs in my younger age, I started realizing that all the people that I met along the way were all my friends and they all like me and they know me and they respect me. So I'm gonna use them as people that can help me in what I'm trying to accomplish. So I picked up the phone and called a lot. So my husband is also in a business where he deals with a lot of business owners. So I would call them on the phone and say, I know you know my husband.

I had this great group of women who are all moms. I started talking to the moms and figuring out who were the women in my network. And I started bridging the gap. So I had to kind of use my brain to think, who do I know that like me, that trusts me, that know me, that would understand that I have a good matchmaking ability. And so that's kind of what happened. I was utilizing what this company was doing in the city, but making it my own. So I was watching what they were doing, but doing...

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (6:19.427)

Ho ho ho!

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (6:23.327)

Okay.

Amy (6:32.614)

as much as recruiting was cool, it wasn't for me. So I took all the things that I learned from him, the business side, how to recruit. I took everything, worked for him for a couple months, and then went back to doing what I was doing, which was focusing on women and small businesses, because he was really working on high level executive assistants and corporations. So I was kind of doing something a little bit different.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (6:56.747)

Yeah, so a couple things that I'd like to add, just comments based on what you shared. Going back to what you said about why you started your business, noticing this problem and creating a solution for it, that's why a lot of entrepreneurs start their businesses, their problem solvers. A lot of times entrepreneurs are experiencing something and that's their kind of like their spark that ignites them starting that business.

Amy (7:23.822)

Mm-hmm. What?

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (7:26.719)

So, you know, for me, I always loved teaching and I loved online teaching. And you know, I wanted to continue working with kids and I always wanted to have the skill building idea. And so that's where this podcast came into fruition. And then the other thing that you had mentioned was putting your own spin on it. So you can look at what's in the market and then create those, like you said, bridge those gaps.

Amy (7:41.410)

Right.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (7:54.883)

There's women out here that they have the skills, they have the abilities, but then they're getting overlooked maybe because of lack of experience. So it's great what you're doing. Yeah.

Amy (8:4.138)

Right. And so I'm losing my connections to help bridge those gaps and the relationships I've built, it's relationship building and creating a niche that is specific to who the marketplace is.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (8:11.368)

Mm-hmm.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (8:16.203)

I love it. I absolutely love it. Do you have any... Well first, let me ask you this. What are your top three networking tips? Because you're a power networker.

Amy (8:29.314)

Yeah, so what happened was when I started my business, I started realizing that I was alone on my own. And how was I going to get the word out? Because recruiters typically go behind a desk, and they just fish for people. And I realized that I don't like the way I feel when someone fishes to me. So that's not how I would want to be approached. And how would I want to be approached? And how would it look? So I took myself as the consumer, and I realized how I would want the information to be. So I realized that creating

a network of people, of women who all are also owning their own businesses and who also like and trust and know me, it's a good way to get your name out there. So I created my niche, which was women. And so I networked with women who were business owners because that was the niche in which I was creating my job and what I was looking for. So to me, the best way to get your word out is to tell people who you are and what you do and build those relationships. And I think that...

To me, that's what networking is all about, is people liking you, knowing you, and trusting you to want to give you business. So.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (9:34.927)

Absolutely, yes, building those relationships.

Amy (9:38.262)

Yeah, so then when I, so like, so when I added the two, when I came back from the Larco group and I brought on the two new girls to work with me, one girl in Deerfield, I said, okay, now you start a networking group. I want you to build a team around you, build a bunch of women too, so that you have your group. The same thing with the girl in Evanston. I want her to curate women that were very similar and like-minded, but also very different so they can learn from each other and grow from each other. And

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (10:2.563)

Yes.

Amy (10:4.962)

help one another, you know, because everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. And a lot of times when you're a sole proprietor and you're an entrepreneur, you need different ideas to brainstorm and help. You can't just be all on your own. So it's just a nice way to get that feedback.

Absolutely. I remember, I think in our last meeting, you had us go around and talk about what we had success with in the past month or so. It was great to hear that because you could get an idea just from that, just from that two-minute anecdote of what you've been successful with. Or just having those one-on-one conversations with people in the group too. You learn so much.

Right.

Mm-hmm. Right.

So important. Yeah, it's very important. I mean, when you take the time to get to know someone, it's not just about who they know, it's about who they know, who they know, who they know. And so it's not just one dimension. You have to look at things in a bigger way. It's not just about the one-on-one. It's about all of it together. And especially when you like things and comment and share, you're creating a larger network too, as well.

Yes.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (11:6.528)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's a domino effect, absolutely. Do you have any interesting networking stories that stand out?

You know, I have just realized how small the world is. So that can be a really amazing thing or that can be a really bad thing. So you do have to understand that, you know, in every step, like last night, for example, I went to a women's networking event and I'm sitting down and talking to a friend of mine who I met through a friend, through a friend, through a friend. I mean, just the connections alone, how I met her, were crazy, but I'm sitting talking to her and she comes up and says,

do you know who I am? And they went to camp together when they were kids. They haven't seen each other since they were 13 years old. And that's the kind of things that happen. Today I was someplace and these two kids go to college and they're in the same fraternity together. The world just becomes very small. And so that's what's really neat is that when everyone can see who everyone is connected to, it helps with doing business with one another. You know, it really does. And with finding a job.

Wow.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (12:8.665)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

you can look through LinkedIn and see who's connected to who and see if you can reach out to that person and have coffee with that person, network with them. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and talk about the importance of introductions too. Can you talk a little about that?

Yeah, I think, you know, sometimes with networking, you think it's just, it's about who that person knows. So people understanding who you are and what you do, so then they can now introduce you to somebody that they think can help you. So I love, love making introductions to people where I think that they can be connected to each other. So I may not be, I mean, my husband's a financial advisor, so I won't always be able to.

you know, help financial advisors. But if I see that their personality can match someone else's personality, I can make an introduction where they can do business together. And so it's, you know, not in my hands anymore. And I just think it's a really great way to connect your network with other people's networks.

Mm-hmm.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (13:9.675)

Yeah, I mean, you introduced me to one of the ladies in our group, her mother-in-law, and she now is taking French lessons with my French teacher. So...

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And it's funny because I introduced her so she can learn about online training, how to do it as a school. And then she now wants to learn the language. So it was for one reason, and it became another reason. And that's what I'm trying to say. And that's why I like to create a community. I don't want to just have a transactional business. I try to create a community of business where we're constantly communicating information like on our website, for example, we do blogging. And why do we do blogging?

It's so that we can create this community of information and things for people to come back and listen and hear. So, you know, you may not need the information today, but you may need it tomorrow or next month or next year. You may not need a resume today, but you may need a resume next year. And so you can come back to my community and know, oh, there's information on resumes where I can find it. So I think it's always important that when you are looking.

at a company or looking for your job to find where that community is and where that support is, wherever it is, just look for that because if that's important to you, it should be something that you look for.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

So let's talk a little bit about the youth. What do you think the youth need to do to prepare for interviews today?

Yeah, I think learning how to be an advocate for yourself is really, really important. Standing out, making yourself be different than everybody else. You really have to know that everyone else is competing for the same job. And so why are you going to be chosen over somebody else? So I think it's important to be an advocate, like I said. Brush up on your professional skills. So make sure that you look professional.

you have the right appearance of how you're supposed to look, speak professionally, make sure your resume is clean and classy and one page. There's not too much information, but there's enough that it's as if AI is reading it. That's important. But then also warm enough that you want it to feel like someone is also writing it. And what else is important? I would just...

Those are probably the most important things, yeah. Okay.

Let's dig into some of those. So you said how to advocate for yourself. Can you expand on what you mean by that?

Yeah, I think it's always important to ask for what you want. So, I mean, obviously not till the very end, but if you want that job, you should ask for the job. You know, you should be able to speak face to face with this person, ask for the interview, ask for the job, ask the questions, say what you want, don't be afraid. And also use LinkedIn and social media to advocate for yourself as well. So for example, if you see that...

Someone is connected to somebody that you would like to speak to because they work at a company that you're interested in. Advocate for yourself. Reach out to that person. Hey, so and so. I see that you work with so and so. I would love an introduction to that person. Would you make an introduction for me? Be an advocate for yourself. Sell yourself. I'm really good at this, and that. I had an internship here, and this is why I think I'd be good. I would love it if you could help me.

sell yourself, why should they pick you? Why are you great? So I think it's really great to always put yourself in front of the people that you wanna work for. And like, what do you have to lose? Nothing. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. And build, like you've talked about earlier, building those relationships because even if you're in an industry where you don't think you necessarily need to network, you probably do. Because even as an educator, when I was in the public school system, I would say most of the people were getting jobs because they knew somebody at the school. So...

Yes.

Amy (17:4.386)

What it is. Yeah. And that's the thing is a lot of the times things are very fluid. And so if someone already knows somebody and they know what their qualifications are and know what they're looking for, they can just put you right in. So if someone knows that you're out there looking for a job and this is what you're good at and this is what you bring to the table, you're gonna be the top priority in someone's head. So why not be putting yourself out there? It's really important.

Yeah.

Yes.

Let's talk a little bit about professionalism too, because I think this could be an area that the youth could learn from a lot. So...

Oh my God, it's a make or break. It's a make or break. Right now we are seeing such a sadness in the younger generation, in their follow-up, in the ghosting, in the way that they are becoming professionals, and a lot of the times, employers are getting frustrated because what really makes someone stand out over someone else is the follow-up, is the communication, is the transparency, is the loyalty. So loyalty...

in transparency to me are the number two thing that we're seeing that this generation is lacking. It's just staying at a position for a long time and going through the tough times. I mean, like marriage, like jobs, anything in life, there's always gonna be a tough period. And so you have to stick through it, you know, and resilience is important. We have a really resilient generation, but they have to stick through things for sure.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. When you're talking about loyalty, so are you saying people are leaving sooner than maybe they should be because of maybe... Okay, yeah.

Yes, the grass is greener on the other side or maybe they're not happy where they are or it's not living up to their expectations and things change, things evolve, companies change, things evolve. On one aspect I say go with your intuition and your gut. On the other aspect, talk to your, communicate, advocate. If you've already advocated for yourself, if you've communicated your frustrations and how you feel and you feel you've done everything you possibly can, then I feel like it's fine.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (19:1.155)

Mm-hmm.

But if you're not advocating for yourself and you're just giving up, we gotta be tougher than that, yeah.

right.

bright.

Yeah, exactly. When you talk about professionalism with communication, do you have any examples of like good versus bad or, you know? Okay.

Proofreading, proofreading, proofreading. I think that we rely so much on texting and AI and not really being thoughtful and mindful when we communicate. And especially when you're looking for a job and asking for help, that is when you have to really be mindful of your communication skills. So it's really important to, again, proofread, to check your work.

Sure.

Mm-hmm.

to just make sure you come across. I mean, that's your communication. That's all you have at that moment in time. So you wanna make sure your T's are crossed, your I's are dot, you know, that you really are coming across professional in your communication.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (20:9.411)

Yeah, and that's something, I mean, nowadays I'll see middle school kids, because that's a lot of the community that I work with, the age group that I work with, and there are no capital I's. There's no periods, capital first word in the sentence. So that's definitely something that I always encourage as a teacher. But in terms of some of the people that I've worked with that are contracted for me from the younger generation.

Yeah. Right.

Yeah.

younger millennials or like Gen, what's the next one? Gen Z. So they might be like Gen Z or younger millennials. And I'm an older millennial. I'm like the old, one of the oldest. So I'm on the cusp. And so I have an older sister who's Gen X and I have a lot of influence from that generation.

Yeah.

Hehe

night.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (21:1.295)

because I know that millennials have a little bit of a bad reputation, but I do consider myself hardworking and professional. When I see now with some of the people that I've contracted that are younger with the professionalism, just to expand on that, just in the communication with customer service, how you represent yourself that way too, because you may be representing a brand or you may be representing a company.

Amy (21:5.841)

Thank you.

And if you're coming off like lackadaisical or just kind of nonchalant, that's another example of professionalism or lack thereof. So knowing how to communicate and show that you care about what you're doing. And I would say this too, like no matter what you're being paid, you still want to show up as your best because that could be your next step up. When somebody sees how hard you're working.

Right.

and you're like, okay, maybe you're getting a minimum wage or whatever you're earning, and you're representing yourself as a top of the line contractor, employee, whatever you may be, that is going to speak volumes. So.

You never know who you just, that is the most important thing. And I can't stress that enough because it's just, it's all you have. And then when you have, you need referrals. So you have to get a referral from somebody, a recommendation. And usually that recommendation comes from your previous work experience. So even if it doesn't end well, you still have to have good communication skills in order to end it in a peaceful way so that they can refer you to another job because

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Even if you aren't the right fit for the job, you can still see the person's true character. And a good boss can say, you know what, this wasn't the right fit for them, but they're a really hard worker, or they try their best, or they showed up with this type of character. So that's the most important thing at the end of the day. Yeah.

Yes.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (23:0.587)

Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about resumes. So when you're looking at a resume and you're like, yes to this one, what makes you say yes?

I think very clear, concise, and to the point. Not too fancy and all this, I mean, actually when I was working for the agency, we had to recreate every single resume and make it uniform. So it didn't matter what anyone did. It was like, we had to recreate it and make it very formalized. So it would just have the basic information. So that's why it doesn't really matter how fancy it is. It's really more about the meat and potatoes of the resume, which is.

Sure.

what you've done, what you can do. And really the most important thing is they wanna see how you can do the job that they're looking for you to do. So whatever it is that they're asking you to do, if you've done any of those things, rewrite them in your resume. So if they say, organized to-do list, write, and you've done organized to-do list, write organized to-do list. So make sure you have it matching as if a computer is reading it. Yeah.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (24:8.175)

Okay. Yeah, because why do you say as if a computer is reading it?

Because some companies, I would say nine out of 10 companies, especially if it's a large company, will have an AI computer generated where they will, it will go through a system first with keyword search to see what actually are matching, and then they'll have the people go through it. So you have to feel, you have to think as if a computer is scanning it first before a real person is reading it. We don't do that.

There you go.

And the companies that we work for don't, but if they're using like an indeed or something like that, they may pay extra to have it go through a keyword search.

I don't know if you have this for the businesses that you're working with, but for me, sometimes a teacher might have an extra language, but it's not on the job post. For me, if they put that on their resume, that's going to stand out a lot against the others if they're trilingual versus bilingual. Make sure too that you're adding that extra skill because how are we supposed to know if you don't put it on there?

Amy (25:8.810)

Yeah, I do think that it doesn't hurt to put skills, the more skills, the better. Obviously, you don't want to ever sell yourself short, especially if it can pertain to that job. So anything that you've ever done in your life that can pertain to what they're looking for in the specific job, which can make you more robust is important. Again, they don't want to read excess information that has nothing to do with the job that means nothing to them. It's more about what is good for the job. It makes you, yeah.

Yeah. Do you think there are kind of overlapping keywords that those computerized systems look for or no?

They're usually the same words that they are using in the job description. It's like the keyword search, like they want to see that, oh, it's literally the same, you know? And so you just kind of have to read what the, what the job description is asking for. You kind of have to like mirror.

Okay. Okay, okay, okay. Got it. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, and that goes back to editing your resume for each job you apply for. Yes.

Amy (26:2.990)

Oh, yeah, being mindful. And the same thing, like I would look to see, I would go to LinkedIn. Who works for that company? Do I know anybody there? Does anybody that I know who works for that company know anybody else that I know? Can I send that person an email? Hi, I'm applying for this job. This is the job. And maybe send a reminder. I'm really good at this. Remember, I used to do this, and that. My skill sets are this. I'd love if you could put a good word in for me. That's about being an advocate for yourself, is using your connections, using

Mm-hmm.

you have to sell yourself. I mean, at the end of the day, you're selling you. And why is somebody gonna pick you over somebody else?

Yeah, I would talk about following up as a great aspect of that because for me, I'm going through, I'm always looking for new teachers to contract, so I'm always going through resumes as well. And I get very few teachers who follow up. Maybe I forgot, I am busy, so maybe I just didn't get a chance to look over it. Yeah, exactly. And then...

Bye.

Yeah, do you want the job or not? Right, yeah, yeah. You learn a lot about somebody through their behaviors and how they apply for a job. And so why not give it everything that you want? And if you don't want it, then don't do it. Don't waste your time or other people's time if you don't want it, yeah, yeah.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (27:6.339)

Oh yes. Yes.

Exactly. I have a few questions at the end of my application. When people put a lot of effort into that, it's not that I'm expecting them to write like two paragraphs or something. But if they give me a solid answer, like a mini paragraph, that's going to stand out versus somebody who writes one or two sentences and they're not really, there's no depth. Yeah, like if there's no depth to your answer, why should I?

life.

engaging.

respond, you know, why should I put my effort into that if you're not putting effort into the application? So, you do.

Right.

Mm-hmm. You have to sell yourself. If you're not gonna sell yourself, no one's gonna sell you, you know, for you, so.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. What do you think that the younger generation, whether it's high school students or college students, what can they do to stand out in the job market?

I think internships are really big. I think anytime you can try an industry or try to work in a work environment is the best way to know what you like and know what you've tried and just to show that you have the experience. So yeah, internships for sure. And YouTube, I mean, there's, you can learn so much from YouTube. And you, I mean, you, I think getting your QuickBooks certification, you can learn on your own. I mean, they're already computer savvy, so they have a step above everyone else, but as long as they,

show their loyalty, I think they're gonna do great.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And volunteer experience can always help too.

Yes, absolutely.

What are the top three skills that have served you in your career?

Oh geez, I definitely think communication skills are so wildly important. Um, being able to communicate verbally, being able to communicate written is huge, um, especially nowadays, even though technology has become so much easier, it's become so much more important that we communicate through written communication and networking, just being able to talk.

and to be able to feel confident in who you are and what you're doing and in yourself is so important. I think, what else do we say so far? Confidence.

So you said communication, networking, anything else?

communication. Let's see what else is important. Looking the part, you know, I mean, you have to like be professional, you know, getting yourself a nice jacket, a nice pair of pants, you know, even if you have one same suit that you wear for everything, it's okay, wear that suit and it's better to always be overdressed and to be underdressed. Even for Zoom, I think it's always nice when someone, I mean, I interview people all the time. I think

Yeah. Yes.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (30:0.268)

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Amy (30:8.394)

It's really important to just look your best. And also, like, go put yourself out there. I think, you know, I have a lot of people who, I may not have a job opportunity for them right now, but I may have a job opportunity for them next month or next year. And you never know, so the more open that you are, the more opportunities that you're gonna allow to come in, as opposed to being closed off. And so it also allows you to meet different people that you may not have met, learn about industries that you may not have.

Mm-hmm.

been open to. There's so much out there if you just allow yourself to be open.

Yes, I agree. Be bold and unafraid, you guys. Yes. It is. You're going to find other people or people that are in the room who are also nervous or whatever. Everybody has a little sense of insecurity in some way or shape or form. You're in the same boat. Don't worry. Just put yourself out there.

Yeah, yeah, you have to be, you know, it's doggy dog world.

Oh yeah.

Amy (31:3.022)

For sure. Yeah.

Amy (31:8.686)

When everyone has been where you've been, I mean, we, you know, I, that's why I created this job, is because of the problem solving, because we know what it's like to feel the pain. And that's why you're doing the tutoring, because you know what it felt like to want to learn the language and not know the language, you know, and we all have been there so we can empathize with what, you know, what's going on.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. What advice would you give to your younger self?

Um, gosh, you know, I feel like every step has gotten me to where I am today. So I don't regret any part of all. I did try a lot of different jobs and I feel like without all of those jobs, I wouldn't have learned what I needed as a human being in order to feel really good. And I, and I don't know, I have younger kids now, one was going off to college and

I don't know if you need to have it all figured out. I think you just need to live in the moment and be open and try new things and just believe in whatever it is that you're doing. You know, like I believe in what I'm doing. So to me, it doesn't feel like work. It feels like I have a mission that I'm very proud about and I love. And so for me, I'm very fortunate that I have been able to do something that I feel really good about every day. And I think if you feel really good about what you're doing then it doesn't become work and.

This is where you spend the majority of your day, your energy and your time. So you might as well do it in a place where you love, you know, it feels right, it feels good, because it is the majority of your time where you're spending it, if you think about it, you know? Yeah. So be mindful, like really think about what you want. Don't do what other people want you to do. Do what you want to do, you know? Really think about that. It's important, it's a important decision. Really, it is.

Yeah. Yep.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (33:4.243)

Yeah, yeah. Well, that kind of reminds me of what you said earlier about you had a little internal conflict about being a stay at home mom versus getting a job. Let's talk a little bit about that if you don't mind. How did you make that transition when you were thinking about that?

Yeah, I mean, it was really hard. So what I first did was I created a business at home that I could work from home, thinking that was what I was gonna do. And then in 2009, there was a crash at the marketplace. And so all of, I used to have a gift basket business didn't corporate gifts. All of the companies had to get rid of that. So I had to repurpose and pivot and figure it out.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

And so I was trying to find a job, a nine to three job. And I was going into these companies and they just wouldn't open their minds to that nine to three. And so I would have to sell myself and advocate for myself and do that. And so that's what I was doing. I was trying to find those jobs. And so that's when the light bulb came up in my head. And I was like, wait, companies just need to understand that this is a thing. This is fine. There's all these women. So it became.

a mission of mine to talk to these companies about it. And then COVID happened, and then everybody realized that hybrid can work and remote can work. It really opened people's eyes to the whole hybrid COVID thing. So it kind of helped, I mean, COVID helps me a little bit in that, you know, I'm not gonna lie, you know. Right? And I used to interview all the time in person and now I can do, you know, I can interview online. So it's nice, but yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Same. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, same here because with online tutoring especially, online teaching was starting and a lot of what I did in the beginning was through other countries. I taught English as a second language to the Chinese. With any tutoring I did locally, I would go to people's houses or I would go to the library. Then when COVID hit, it was like, oh, we could do this on Zoom. Why not? I mean, I was pro doing that before, but I think a lot of...

Go.

No one else. Yeah.

Yeah, there's misconceptions, I think. And it also depends on your experience, your teaching, you know, your quality of teaching. But to me, if you're a quality teacher, you really know what you're doing. It doesn't matter if you're in person or online, you're going to, you're, you can teach the same. So, yeah, but, and that's not to say I don't appreciate in-person interaction at all because I absolutely do. And I know you do too. Yeah.

Right? Yeah. Right. Yeah. I know it's crazy. I know. It's wonderful. Yeah.

Of course. Oh, 100%. Yeah, oh my God, I'm all about in person, but it has, I have to see and feel and all that kind of stuff, so no, but it's been amazing, and so yeah, it's funny.

Yes. Yeah.

Before we end too, I'd love to hear a little bit about your leadership skills. Were you always this good of a leader? Because you're a great leader.

Oh, you're sweet. You know, I think I'm the youngest of two older brothers, you know, being playing on the hockey team with all those boys, like I had to be scrappy. So I think you are kind of born, you know, like with whatever, you know, your makeup of yourself of what, you know, you feel, gotta like just take charge. You know, so I think I always just kind of had to, I see that I have two boys and a girl too. So I have what I am. And I see that in my younger daughter, that she's just...

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (36:4.931)

Yeah!

always the captain and the leader. And I just think it's just the birth order, you know, of like the social dynamic. But yeah, so I don't know. I think I've.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's interesting that your parents, from what I gather, it sounds like your parents were more traditional, but yet you were on the boys hockey team. So how did that happen?

I know. You're right. It was a very conflicting childhood, you know, because it was like very much like very traditional, but yet like very, you know, like cross every boundary of like things you can do, you know, so it was like, so that's where the entrepreneurial spirit comes from, you know, but it was a small town where, yeah, and I, it was weird, because at the time, no girls were on the hockey team. And I had

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, okay.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (37:4.268)

Yes, yes.

My mom had sewed pink all the way down my pants and my shirt and everything. So it was definitely trying to make a mark for sure.

That is so cool though, and I've always loved hockey. And I'm not like a sports person per se, but if anybody ever asked me like, what sports do you like? I always loved hockey. I think that's so cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah.

Hockey was so cool. I doubt it was so cool. I know, I do too. Yeah, it was fun. Yeah. Yeah, it was really, really cool. But I mean, I'm trying to think what else I would... I think that at the end of the day, it's where you're not in that's alone. And so I think the young kids just have to be resourceful. And like, there's so much information that's out there and you need to just look for it and ask for help and reach out to people and network and use your network.

people. I mean, this is like, I always say, you know, all the friendships and the relationships and things that you did as a kid, now it's like coming up, coming back now, you know, you can call those neighbors and those friends and you know, all those relationships that you had. In the next

Yes, exactly. And don't be afraid to ask for advice from your elders. The youth doesn't want to do that, but yeah.

Yeah, right.

We know a lot. We do. We're smart. I promise we are. Yes, we don't know TikTok as much as you do, but we do know a lot. We do, but yeah.

Experience!

Exactly. Is there any closing thoughts, anything else you want to add before we end our episode here?

I think that, again, listen to your parents. They probably know more than you think that they do. But I think that, again, you can't underestimate your connections. It's so important to go out for coffee, see people face to face, you know, really go back old school and, you know, be different and sell yourself and just be unique and being an advocate. So, yeah.

Nikki Lubing - Skillabration (39:6.007)

Yes. Thank you so much, Amy.

Amy (39:8.002)

Thank you. Thank you so much. It was so nice to see you today and have this wonderful talk. So thank you. Best of luck.

Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. We'll see you guys in the next episode.