How I'm Becoming the Best Version of Myself: Career

If I were writing this during the first 18 years of my life, I would have been going on about how the future best version of me is going to be a marine biologist or zoologist that works with sea animals. I was obsessed. My room was decorated top to bottom in marine things and everything you could possible imagine with dolphins on it. After high school graduation, my plans shifted. I was going to have to pay for my own college through loans, grants, etc. so I needed to enroll in a program I could begin at community college. I decided I was going to become a nurse. I loved helping people, science and math had always been my strong suits, and the medical field would make for a stable and secure career.

With that career path in mind, I got certifications in medical coding, billing and insurance as well as medical office administration from my local community college so that I could get a job in a medical office or hospital while I was taking my prerequisites and in nursing school. I landed my first grown up job with those certifications at a medical office handling referrals and prior authorizations. It wasn't glamorous, but it was a 9 to 5 and allowed me to start becoming familiar with a medical setting. After a while, I began to form bonds with our regular patients. Our patient base was mainly older so they came in frequently. Soon after that, I realized that with that territory came patients I had formed relationships with passing away often. My heart broke every time. It didn't take long for me to decide that I couldn't continue to work there or even become a nurse because I wasn't capable of not getting attached to patients.

Not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, but knowing I didn't want to go back into food service or retail, I started applying for office and receptionist jobs. I ended up landing a job as a receptionist at a dental office. I didn't know it at the time, but this was the start of my career. I learned all the basics of dental administration. I stayed there for three years taking it all in. After that, I moved on to another dental office that was part of a large group. Two months after being hired, I was promoted..and then promoted again, and then again. Before I knew it I was the insurance coordinator at one of the locations. At the time, I wanted that position because it had a better schedule, but I ended up falling in love with that role and all that came with it. It was my passion. After a couple of years doing that, I wanted to try my hand at a leadership role and ended up becoming office manager at another location. I loved it but I would still find ways to get involved with the company's dental insurance processes, training, etc. After a couple of years, I was approached by the CFO and asked if I wanted to return to my passion. He wanted me to come to the corporate office and build a centralized revenue cycle team from the ground up. Of course I jumped at the opportunity. I got to build my team, decide what duties would remain in the offices and what would be centralized, create all of the processes, hire and train my team and then run it. Within a year my team more than doubled the company's collections. I knew this was my calling. I began doing some side jobs within my field for the extra experience and money and I loved it. I loved the autonomy and everything else about it and knew that this is what I wanted my next step to be. I wanted to start my own dental revenue cycle management company.

Fast forward to March of 2020 when COVID hit. First I was put on furlough and then in April I was laid off. This was a blessing in disguise. It forced me to take the leap and start my own company just as I had dreamed. It's been a roller coaster ride full of lessons but I wouldn't change a thing.

You might be thinking that it sounds like I'm already in my dream career so what more is there to do? There's definitely more. I want to grow my company to earn at least $350k in revenue in 2021 while also gradually stepping back to just focus on the higher level company things rather than also filling a role within the team. I'm hoping that by the end of 2021, I'm able to run my company in a hands off way and make pretty much passive income from it. Once I do that, I'll have more free time to pursue my other passion without worrying about money.

My other passion is health and fitness. Although I haven't always applied it to my life, as an adult I have constantly pursued education and knowledge when it comes to health and fitness. It fascinates me. So with that and my love for helping people, I've decided I want to become a certified personal trainer and eventually start my own business training women. I love that fitness can make women feel strong, empowered and confident and I love the idea of breaking the stigma around women lifting weights.

Taking all of that into consideration, I've set some goals for the future best version of me in her career.

1. Grow my business to earn at least $350k in revenue in 2021.

2. Hire enough team members to step back and focus on high level company things.

3. Hire someone to manage the business.

4. Become a certified personal trainer.

5. Create social media for myself as a personal trainer and build my presence.

6. Start a personal training business.

Whew! These are some big, audacious goals but guess what?! I believe in me. I know I can do it.

What career goals do you have for yourself?