Happy WebMistress Day! Today is a day that celebrates us women who are working as a web designer/developer, that up until the last decade or so, has grown into a fully equal industry.

What is WebMistress Day?

The official description from Nationaltoday.com says:

"National WebMistress Day is observed on August 26 every year as a way of celebrating the invisible heroes who make and develop your favorite websites. A webmistress is a woman, usually an engineer, who is responsible for designing, developing, marketing, or maintaining a website. In fact, a webmistress can be any woman who is involved in the smooth functioning of anything that we see on the internet. The day also encourages STEM education among women and inspires young students to venture into fields that no one has dared to. It’s a day to celebrate innovation, resilience, and gender equality."

This term was developed in the mid-90s and is a commonplace actionable job title in the industry.

I learned about this term from my GeekPack Group (Julia Taylor's WP Rockstar Program got me out of my comfort zone!) as part of the extensive WordPress training I took to be able to support my clients. Up until I took the course, I was self-learning and realizing how much I loved working in the backend, integrating pages/tools/automation so that there were fewer manual processes.

Where I started to where I am now...

When I first started out as a general VA, I knew I enjoyed supporting entrepreneurs looking to make a larger impact.

I had always been technically astute, working on coding and websites in high school (good ol' HTML days!) and learning more about graphic design and visual arts as a student.

Though I had started on a human resources career path, I kept taking any tech/web courses I could as my optional upgrades to improve my craft and keep that part of my brain excited.

When I decided to go out on my own, I started working with amazing Marketing companies that mentored me on digital marketing and how to fully utilize and evergreen your content—starting with an amazing website through social media and blogging content plans. I started working with course developers, thus giving me more exposure to different hosting platforms, and I started to realize where my abilities could make a larger impact.

Over the last few years, I have been taking skill upgrading courses (i.e. WP Rockstar and GeekPack Udemy Trainings, AI Trainings, and now working on my Go High-Level Admin Certification and GroupTrack Certifications) I feel proud to be in a STEM field of incredible creative women who are making their mark - one website / funnel / tech integration at a time.

What's Next as a WebMistress for me?

For me, I'm feeling called to complete my certifications and start helping not only my higher-earning clients develop their web/funnel strategies and integrate tech/automation into their businesses to free up more time to focus on their zones of genius, but I'm also working on things to help the solopreneur startup. Helping them get online and servicing clients with relatively low start-up through a membership and eventual mentoring program.

I can attribute my success directly to other geniuses in their fields to my own success, and I want to see other women find their way in their respective focuses so that we all can make more significant impacts - with more time freedom for what is important to us, all while being paid and recognized for our training and expertise.

As I approach my 40th birthday in the next few months, I feel like this next phase of my journey will be attributed to it.

So thank you to all who paved the way in this exciting industry - I cannot wait to join the ranks of you helping the next generation reach their goals and potential so that we can make this world a better place for us ALL.