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Hello! My name is Carol and my passion is Empowermom. I've had an active internet life for more years than I admit to. I have an insatiable quest for knowledge on all things techno-geek along with many other interests. I've met dozens of interesting people from all backgrounds and have formed valued friendships and business partnerships with people around the world. But my biggest and best passion is web design!
In 1997 I decided to start sharing my adventures on the internet with other women and came up with the idea of Empowermom. I was already teaching, so I decided to broaden my horizons to the internet. That led to all kinds of exciting adventures, both professionally and personally.
By mere circumstance, my interest in computers led to a computer repair and maintenance business. One day, out of sheer exasperation with family, friends, co-workers, MY HUSBAND who dealt with customers with questions about computers... yadda, yadda, I arbitratily charged someone for my advice, thinking I wouldn't have to bother with it. I couldn't believe it when he was HAPPY to PAY ME! At the urging of others, I finally opened up shop. I truly didn't know what I was in for.
I found I was spending a great deal of time "fixing" computers that weren't broken. When Windows first came out, I spent 97% of my time reformatting. After a while, it felt like stealing when my customers could easily stick in a disc, push a button and do what I was doing. I even told them how I felt and how easy it was (repeatedly!!!), but they were too intimidated by the word "computer" to try themselves. I sort of understood because I feel the same way about car engines and learning to change the oil, so I gave up trying to convert my customers into empowered users. Unfortunately, I was failing my customers who really did have serious hardware issues.I love money as much anyone else, but I was the only "employee" in the joint and I just didn't have the time to do it all, not to mention I felt a moral issue about taking money unnecessarily. I was inundated with business from word-of-mouth advertising and people thought I was some kind of genious! LOL, what a thought! All I did was read manuals, I knew where the HELP BUTTON was and I wasn't afraid to take a computer apart and play with it, even if it did VOID THE WARRANTY. Long before the words "'Plug 'N Play" were coined, I was pluggin' and playin' away!
During those days, I was like a kid in a candy store, albeit one who felt guilty. I truly did try to tell many of my customers they didn't REALLY need me, but it fell on deaf ears. This was long before Al Gore was around to tell everyone how "cool" the internet was. I guess that's WHY they didn't believe me. It was then I decided to give online classes so they could learn to reformat and perform their own routine maintenace on their "babies." The theory was to educate them on how to use their online service (and online customer support) so they'd quit calling me at all hours of the night! If it was FREE, surely they'd at least TRY IT, right?!?!
Pretty soon hundreds who wanted to learn about the new found technology and actually USE IT found their way to my classes. I had to start giving MORE classes and my e-mail became a nightmare. I rounded up a few victims (a.k.a. volunteers) and together, we started MORE classes.
What started out as a hobby suddenly had me teaching and I had found my passion. Believe it or not, there were times I cursed "word-of-mouth" advertising and the first search engines because they were advertising when I didn't WANT advertising! I was spending more hours than I could manage although I truly loved what I was doing. I especially enjoyed the sharing of information since my cohorts and I were collevtively learning the internet from the ground up. Things were changing quickly and I was often tired, but this was an exciting time for me since I was totally HOOKED. Suddenly the words "geek" and "nerd" weren't so terrible. In fact, I liked them!
During that time, I lost valuable time with my family so I began posting class notes on the web. What started out as notes turned into articles so I gave up the online classes, which helped ease the burden of my busy schedule. When my husband received a transfer, I was forced to give up my "business." It wasn't easy to reroute services for several stores and a long list of private customers who depended on me. ALL of my close friends and family were customers so I had to agree to restart the online "meetings" as well as my site (for free of course, since I was "abandoning" them).
That's when the "official version" of Empowermom.com came about. I created the first version of Empowermom.com in 1997. Since then, I've branched out into many areas and have enjoyed living every minute of this exciting time in history.