From Geography Teacher to… Social Media Manager?
How I plunged myself into $35,000 in student debt to become a teacher, to completely ditch it and start a business a couple years later.
As far as I was concerned, I was doing everything according to plan. I went to a community college, got my general education completed for a reasonable price, changed my major every other day, and eventually fell in love with geography.
I have never felt anything like the way I felt the first day of that physical geography class. I was taking it just to fulfill my GE requirements, and left that class truly changed forever. When the professor started her lecture, she went on about how she also changed her major a million times, because she just liked everything a little bit.
That was me. I liked everything a little bit.
In geography, you could do that. You could do everything, a little bit. You could study maps, but you could also study rainforests, and cultures, and even social media patterns across different regions.
I didn’t understand it at the time, but that lecture helped me understand myself more than any self help book ever could at that point. However, all my 19 year old brain could understand at that time was — since geography gave me this answer, then geography must BE the answer.
So I put my head down, transferred to university, and finished my Bachelor’s of Arts in Geography in hopes of fulfilling my assumed dream of becoming a geography teacher. Safe. Secure. According to plan.
My whole family was teachers. I had a pretty solid life, so why not? My parents never came home at night complaining about there job and I never felt like we were spread thin financially. So I was like sick, teaching it is.
So as I began getting my Master’s in Geography too, I landed my dream job in the Caribbean teaching, guess what… geography.
SCORE! DEGREE, CHECK. JOB, CHECK. COOL PLACE TO LIVE, CHECK.
So I packed up and I moved.
I started my first career job in an entirely different culture, and after the discomfort of all the change settled - I fell in love with teaching.
I loved so many aspects of my new career. It fulfilled me in so many different ways, while it completely drained me in others.
Everyone always talks about how little money teachers make, but rarely do you hear about the emotional toll that comes along with teaching too.
I would spend a lot of weekends in bed, exhausted - just trying to recharge my mental + social batteries for the following Monday.
I felt like I was constantly in catch up mode. My ultimate goal for any career of mine was to build something sustainable enough to build a family and not worry about money on the regular. It didn’t take long for me to realize that was not going to happen with teaching. I was exhausted constantly WITHOUT KIDS. Completely single, and TIRED, and… broke.
Almost all the money I was making I was putting back into my own classroom. I was so passionate about being a great teacher and wanted to give my students the best experience. Then I looked at my credit cards and I was leaning into some pretty real debt by doing that.
Not only was my money burning out, but I was too. I felt defeated, but March of 2020 gave me an out. It gave me a reason to move home and start something new. So I did. I became a geography teacher for college kids.
Worse. So much worse, and not to mention, I was back in grad school to just trying to make it all make sense. Plunging myself into more debt in order to “stay on track”.
None of the puzzle pieces were falling into place. The one thing that was keeping me entertained was me moonlighting as a food blogger through the pandemic.
I was essentially doing free UGC without even knowing it. Brands would reach out to me and send me their products and I would spend my time outside of geography creating content. I LOVED it.
However…
Not only was my money burning out, but I was too. I felt defeated, but March of 2020 gave me an out. It gave me a reason to move home and start something new. So I did. I became a geography teacher for college kids.
Worse. So much worse, and not to mention, I was back in grad school too just trying to make it all make sense.
None of the puzzle pieces were falling into place. The one thing that was keeping me entertained was me moonlighting as a food blogger through the pandemic. I was essentially doing free UGC without even knowing it. Brands would reach out to me and send me their products and I would spend my time outside of geography creating content.
I LOVED it.
You know what I didn’t love though? Making recipes. It is really hard to be a successful food blogger if you aren’t down for recipes.
SO I hit another roadblock. I needed to start making money or else things were going to get bad. So I started serving at this local brunch spot. It didn’t take long before I investigated their Instagram, and realized… what if I ran it and made it amazing?
LIFE CHANGING DAY, AGAIN.
I pitched myself to them and they became my first client. HOLY SH*T. How did I do it? How was I going to make this happen?
no one except that restaurant sees me for the next 2 months
lol
I put my head down and decided THIS is what I was meant to do, social media management. Why? Because I get to do a little bit of everything.
So I learned what felt like everything there was to know about building a business in social media. (now that 2021 information is all irrelevant, but you get what I mean)
From there, I built the business. I got the clients.
I felt in my element, for the first time.
It wasn’t geography that was the answer. It was finding a little bit of everything in THIS world that was the answer, for me.
Social media management is content creation, strategy building, copywriting, organization, marketing tactics, analytic reporting, and so much more.
I don’t need to be incredible at one thing anymore. I could be really good at a lot of little things and that makes me great.
Now, almost three years into business - there have been so many highs that come with some lows. However, I always come back to that day in geography class. You can do a little bit of everything. You can be successful doing a little bit of everything.
(social media management enters the chat)
