This question has been on my mind since I left my job. I think there is part of my long term goal that I can't achieve without running my own thing, but what does that mean? ## How we got here I went to ChatGPT and asked what I could look at as a self-employed career given my background. Of course consulting was the top answer. I put in some more details to make sure I felt aligned with the advice and then had it write out a 1 pager. You can find that page [[Consulting |here]]. I sat on that page for a few weeks before posting it to LinkedIn. Now that I have it out there I'm trying to figure out how to do more, what would help me get my first contract, and who my target audience is. ## Why so late? Trying to build another business is kinda scary for me. I was super scary and not super out about it when I had the mobile business. Now I'm trying to "prove myself" without giving the good stuff away for free. Also the biggest difference here is that people don't really know me for devops. I talk about it but I wouldn't say that you would know me for it if you met me before the world opened back up. Lastly, I don't actually enjoy the paper work side of business. I don't mind talking to people and such but I like just building/fixing. I just want to do that forever ya know? ## How are you going to change that? I figured I'd revamp some platforms I'm on to get away from the mobile stuff. I also spent a lot of time researching certs that gave me some extra validation. CKA was just the start. I think once I have CKS it just gets easier. I also have an idea for a "learning" repo that I'd like to try out. I'm not 100% sure it will help but it is worth a try. Long term I would like to just drop scripts or yamls for others to use to better their team/program/whatever (kinda like this blog). Maybe I'll also add some quick notes/docs into the repo as well. I guess to end you want to know what to do about my dislike of paperwork? I really have no clue. I'm going to focus on trying to build my standing in the community by giving talks, writing more, and "collecting" certs/skills. That's really the best way for me to do the people side of the business. Everything else we will handle later.