Randy’s set up his own tech business with support from GetSetUp

Randy, 62, was born and raised in Sacramento, California. His career spanned 35 years in the telecommunications industry. Starting in a very junior position, he progressed through various roles to become an IT director. Randy’s role required managing projects, project management mentoring, developing lots of training, and self-improvement courses for the company’s staff.

Randy is happily married, and his wife currently supports seniors in downsizing or relocating to adult living accommodation. The couple has always been well connected with the older community, and it was a natural step to support them more, using Randy’s existing skill set once he retired.

“I started supporting seniors with tech, at their houses, senior centers, and older people’s homes. There was a big need to get set up and be more familiar with Zoom during the pandemic.”

Sometimes Randy’s asked to fix a broken printer, and sometimes it’s to explain how to use a new device. He says it’s all the same skills he takes with him - a friendly attitude, compassion, and understanding, as well as some technical know-how. They liked Randy being there, having a visitor’s company, and learning something new at their own pace. Randy knew how impactful this was and wanted to take it more seriously,  

“I was thinking about starting my own business in tech support for seniors, and that’s how I found GetSetUp, during the business planning/research stage. It was the best thing that could have happened for my job progression at the time. I felt it supported my mission.”

Not only has GetSetUp taught Randy skills to be an even better teacher, but Randy has also developed personally,

“I’ve always had to find ways to break down information and build on people’s soft skills. With GetSetUp, my confidence has improved, as I’ve been encouraged to look at learning from a different perspective.”

Finding GetSetUp has given Randy the confidence to get his business started. He’s taken tech classes and learned things he didn’t know before, and discovered lots of tips about how best to teach online.

“The Guides are all friendly facilitators, experts in their areas and somehow manage to contain the rambling. Keeping the classes on track is one of the hardest things for Guides (as I see it), but they lead the classes effortlessly and still allow everyone to feel heard.”

Randy has taken so many learnings from GetSetUp Guides and applied them when he teaches. He is endlessly grateful for all he’s learned already,

“The fact is sitting through the classes and seeing how the Guides present the info helps me. I’m gaining transferable skills I can use in my job. Putting my phone screen as a picture-in-picture is something I can do now. One of the tech Guides, Kevin Miller, does an excellent job presenting his content. He also encourages his learners to set goals and achieve them. It’s very inspirational. They encourage me to participate. If I know something, I’m welcome to share it. Vicky Soll knows her stuff on Zoom too. I’ve learned so much from her. I haven’t had a bad instructor yet.”

Randy has tried to learn from other online sources but hasn’t found anything as suitable to him as GetSetUp. Other courses were too detailed or too long. And often not live or interactive, so there’s no one to answer questions if something isn’t clear.

“If ever there was a point in modern life for people to come together, collaborate, learn something new and meet new people, it’s now. GetSetUp offers the perfect mixture of socialization and learning.”

He appreciates how generous GetSetUp is with their curriculum and the content they’re sharing.

‍“GetSetUp just seems to want what’s best for the learner. The website is accessible, and I like the scheduling. I can use any device to run it. I’ve tried to test it to the limit and have never been able to break it. Even the quality of the video and audio is always exceptional.

A lot of the content from class notes will help me create a newsletter with tech tips. It’s full of inspiration on how best to explain and display information to this audience. The seniors I support will be very grateful for that”

Randy was not expecting to step outside his comfort zone, but he was inspired by his fellow learners and how much self-development was going on,

“One class I’d never considered was a drawing class. However, I wanted a logo for my marketing and thought I could give the designing a go myself. It helped me design the beginnings of my new logo. That was really fun and helpful.”

Randy now has a GetSetUp routine and schedules his week around the classes he’s going to take,

“GetSetUp came along at a good time, and is now part of my weekly to-dos. I plan my week of classes on Sunday afternoons. I thoroughly enjoy it.”