OK this blog post is a little different to my typical educational blog post, which I know you absolutely love 😅. But I want to take this moment to tell you more about the person behind ‘Clever Quokka’.  That’s right… yours truly.  Let me take you back to where I started from, where I am now and the biggest lessons to date. 

You might be wondering why I’m telling you my life story.  I wanted to share my back story and how being a lawyer helped me run my web design/development business.  Yes, I know these are 2 very unrelated careers but some skills do transfer over.  

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Let’s start at the beginning of my career.

I’ve worked in the legal field for the majority of my life, where I experienced nearly every role imaginable. During my legal qualification, I worked as an admin clerk, assistant, and paralegal before becoming a fully qualified lawyer in 2009. I was fortunate to work with incredible law firms, from small boutique practices to global giants like Baker & McKenzie, who supported my professional journey.

A few years into my career, I realized law wasn't my long-term calling. The constant pressure, endless hours and relentless project demands were wearing me down. I just knew I needed something different.

Then life threw me a curveball… My mother passed away after a five-year battle with stage 4 ovarian cancer. This loss became a turning point realizing life is too short to be working this hard.

So, I left Baker & McKenzie and took a three-month break. My initial plan was to visit Japan, but due to a twist of fate (aka, the Fukushima disaster) I didn’t end up going.  Don't worry, I eventually made it to Japan and fell in love with the country. In fact, I'm writing this from Tokyo!

After my break, I transitioned to in-house legal roles. I worked in compliance and corporate governance, but then ended up back in the legal field when my company got acquired. My final legal role was as senior legal and risk counsel.

Little did I know, my greatest professional transformation was just beginning.

Chapter 2: Wanting a Change

Throughout all this, I wanted more!  One thing I absolutely love is TRAVEL.  I’ve always loved travelling since I was a child.  

Now, you know people who fall for those annoying Instagram ads. Yes, I’m one of them.  I saw an ad for Remote Year which is a program for remote workers / digital nomads.  You travel with the same group of people for 1 year to 12 countries (a different country each month).  

At the beginning of 2018, I started looking at alternate careers that would allow me to work remotely.  I stumbled on the coding/software development world and did a 6 week intensive course.  Then I did nothing with it for 6 months. 

Then another loss… My cat passed away at the age of 18 (human) years.  I know this sounds a bit morbid, but my cat’s passing was one of the last things keeping me in Australia.  I thought that this was the universe pushing me to pursue my dream of travelling the world.  So I did the most logical thing… I just went for it!  No remote job or any plan to be honest.  But at least I knew I would be getting out of the legal field. 

In mid-2018, I told my company that I joined the Remote Year program.  In my mind, I was 100% sure they would say ‘no’ and fire me for making this choice without consulting them.  Funny turn of events, my company was like: “Sure, go ahead and do the program.  One year is not that long and you can be our first remote-first employee.  

First of all, I was like: “Crap… I am still stuck in law”.  But the other part of me was very appreciative that they had faith in me that this whole ‘remote thing’ could possibly work out.  

So by Sept 2018, I sold 99% of all my belongings and ended up with my entire life possessions in a very large suitcase.  

Chapter 3: The Plot Twist (Goodbye Law and Hello Web Design/Development)

At the end of September 2018, I start my Remote Year journey.  BEST… DECISION… EVER!

I met a group of awesome people, who eventually became like family members to me.  They saw how much I was working and noticed that I wasn’t particularly happy with my career.  They encouraged me to take the leap and quit my job.  So I did. I literally thought to myself: “F**k it! Let’s quit and figure out what to do next”.

Funny enough, I got offered a job as a junior developer from someone in my Remote Year group starting her own digital website agency.  Big shout out to Whitney from Whitney Bateson Digital Strategy (WBDS) for taking a chance on me.  I got to work with a great team and learned so much. It sparked my love for building websites and eventually led me starting my company Clever Quokka in 2021 where I did both web design and development. 

Chapter 4: New Opportunities 

Over the years, you learn a lot of new skills to keep up with a very competitive market.  One of the skills was digital marketing as it generally helps if you do a bit of digital marketing with building websites. 

Fast forward to 2024, little did I know that a new opportunity would come my way.  Through a close community mastermind I got introduced to Dudley who eventually became my co-founder for LeverageFlo, a digital marketing agency specialising in marketing AI and automations.  

Chapter 5: Massive Burnout

Then in mid 2024, I hit my limit.  I had my web design/development business ‘Clever Quokka’ whilst still working for WBDS.  I also just started LeverageFlo AND built a productised service called “Solopreneur Boost” which was 1 day VIP days to build high converting websites for solopreneurs.  

With all this going on, let’s just say I burnt out very hard by mid-2024.  So I decided to cut down on my workload.  I left WBDS and retired the Solopreneur Boost program so I could focus on the 2 businesses that were working well for me and that I enjoyed.   I kept on with my Clever Quokka and LeverageFlo businesses.

The burnout was so bad I got a career/business coach to help me out.  This was the best investment I made in 2024.  Big shout out to my coach Kari Boatner.  Through her expertise, I finally feel great again and back on track with my business goals.  

Chapter 6: Where I Am Today

Fast forward to today, I’m still travelling the world as a digital nomad. The burnout lasted a good 2(ish) months, but I’m happy to say that I feel better than ever since completing my coaching sessions with Kari.  The biggest takeaway I had from the burnout is that I had to stop ‘keeping up with the Jones’ and focus on the type of work that I love.  I’m to the point where I need to pursue a career that is fulfilling and sustainable.  I love design and marketing.  That’s why I’ve decided to keep running my 2 businesses, Clever Quokka and LeverageFlo.  

Chapter 7:  Why Being A lawyer Help Me With My business

To recap, I was in the legal field for about 15 years (10 of which was a practising lawyer). It wasn’t until I was 33 years old to make a change in career to something completely different but to do something I absolutely love doing for work.  I’ve actually met a lot of people in their 40s (sometimes 50s) who have done something similar. 

With that said, I did mention that earlier that the experience in the legal field has helped me run my businesses.  These skills are all soft skills, namely: 

1. Being great at communication, both verbal and written: This is absolutely essential as a lawyer.  

2. Great organizational skills: This actually was from my roles in compliance, corporate governance and company secretary.  Let’s just say organising a board of directors really pushes your organizational skills to the limit.

3. Good Business Acumen: I forgot to mention that I specialized in corporate and commercial law.  So I got to learn a lot of business operations and lingo, especially by working in-house legal for a few big corporations.

4. Patience: Lawyers are arguably the most patient people I’ve met.  I guess you have to be when working on so many projects and with a range of people / personalities.  

I’ve met a lot of web designers, developers and digital marketers in the last few years.  They are either freelancers, solopreneurs or run their own agencies.  With all due respect, a lot of them lack the above skills which really puts them at a disadvantage.  I really hate tooting my own horn, but I had a lot of clients come to me (and stay with me) because of the above skill sets. 

I say this because even though I don’t practice law anymore, the skills I’ve attained during my 15 years in that field have really helped me continuously maintain and grow my business. And honestly, I think it would have been harder for me to start any business without this 15 years of knowledge/experience.  

Final Thoughts

So the moral of the story… it’s never too late to change careers to something that is more fulfilling for you.  You might think that all the experience that you spent in the career that you’re trying to escape has gone to waste.  But IT WILL NOT GO TO WASTE!  Everything you’ve done and learnt through all of your careers makes you into the person you are today. The failures and wins shape your lifestyle and ultimately will lead you to the place you want to end up.  

So if you’re miserable in your industry/field, I hope my experience has given you a bit of motivation to (at least) consider pursuing a different career that is more fulfilling to you.  

Life is too short.  You might as well be doing things you actually like doing!