A different kind of blog from me today.
How often do you stop and think about what you have, where you are and all the positive things that have happened over time? Do you stop to be thankful for the moment?
I try to add thankfulness into my day however I don’t always succeed.
Today however I went for a blood test. Thankfully I am healthy, and this is just a routine preventative measure.
I live in the most beautiful place in the land of my dreams – Israel – as you will know if you have been following me for a time. We live by the sea and on my way back from the lab, I had a view of the sea and these delightful models that are all along the promenade.
They made me smile and stop for a couple of minutes to really appreciate where I am.
Where am I?
When I say to appreciate where I am, I don’t mean just where I am physically. I mean where I am in my life in general, what I have achieved and what is to come.
What am I Grateful for?
Well, I started off by thinking about where I live, and moved on to thinking about being married to David the most wonderful man who really looks out for me and looks after me so well. Then it was a short hop and a skip to thinking about our three wonderful grown-up kids and their spouses along with the grandchildren we have and are yet to have (at the time of writing there are two expected relatively soon).
That’s life but what about business?
I then started to reflect on my business. I have had a long career as an IT Trainer and for 22 of those years I have been self-employed.
I started out at Happy Computers where I worked for four and a half wonderful years before setting out on my own.
I started freelancing under the name Shellfish Training – one person asked me on the phone if I trained Shellfish 🦐- no really! I was answering a survey for a bank no less!
After a couple of years, I decided to rebrand and expand by working with a team of freelance associate trainers and so The Training Surgery was born.
We worked with loads of wonderful clients over the years and had loads of fun both learning and teaching new versions of Microsoft Applications.
A few years in I went through a rebrand and added IT to the name so becoming The IT Training Surgery. Made it a little bit clearer what we do.
Again, we continued to work with many organisations including The Heritage Lottery Fund who were clients right up until 2017, Moet Hennessy where we delivered an international project across Europe, CBW a firm of Chartered Accountants and many more.
Tomorrow’s VA
Tomorrow’s VA was born as I knew we were moving to Israel – that is back to Israel for me as I lived here from the age of 10 to 21 and met my husband here and to Israel for David who realised that after 38 years it was time to live my dream (and his by now).
I sold The IT Training Surgery to one of my associate trainers, so it lives on and he is doing well.
Tomorrow’s VA is all online. I deliver training for groups into organisations or to individual one to one, all using Microsoft Teams or Zoom. Then there are my online courses. These have taken so much work and dedication to create, from outlining them to getting the right kit set up for recording and then the recording itself. But it does not stop there. Once recorded the transcripts are created and captions added to each of the tutorials. Not to mention the marketing….
When you run your own business you have to let people know what you do and how to join you.
I am so very thankful to be able to deliver the work I love from a place I love.
MSOffice Maestro
A number of people told me that they think of me as The MS Office Maestro and so that is how the brand was born. It had a logo, slogan and personality long before I used it to create the new learning site.
I decided to rerecord all my courses when Microsoft brought out new versions of the Microsoft 365 Applications in 2022.
This became MS Office Maestro as I believe everyone needs to master Microsoft Office Applications and how they all fit together.
Often, I am told after delivering a session how “I did not know about x and it is going to save me so much time!”
It gives me such a buzz when my learners master a concept and apply it to the way they work. Such fun!
The latest addition to my online life is a series of live Masterclasses. You can find them here more are being added to this list.
What am I most thankful for?
It would have to be meeting David – 41 years ago we married having met two years before that. It is safe to say that my life would not have been what it has without his love and support. We have weathered storms with family issues, and he has always been my rock.
I am also thankful for my ability to adapt, to work with new things, spot trends and develop myself and others so that we can all achieve our best and live our best lives.
So, there you have it. A bit of a departure from what I normally blog about.
What are you thankful for?
P.S Here are 4 ways you can work with me:
🏅Get Essential Office for The Savvy Assistant go to www.msofficemaestro.com
🏅Book me to deliver a Masterclass in house for your organisation
🏅Book me to deliver a session for your event
🏅Book a one-to-one training session with me