The Career Flipper Podcast

From nursing to woodworking, meet Jake Conneen

Episode Summary

From nursing to woodworking, meet Jake Conneen from El Paso, Texas.

Episode Notes

How do you know when it's time to make a big career change, even if you're not sure what’s next?

In this episode, I’m excited to reconnect with Jake Conneen, who I know from high school in the little Southern California town we grew up in, Norco. Now based in El Paso, Texas, Jake shares his wild ride of career flips—from construction to journalism, restaurant management, the military, nursing, and now running his own woodworking biz, Doby’s Craft House, named after his dog. Jake’s all about taking smart risks and following what truly makes you happy, even if it means flipping careers more than once. He opens up about how the stress shifts when you start working for yourself, and why self-care and time management are a game-changer. And to keep it real about how we juggle all the things, you may also hear his daughter, Rosemary, in the background during the episode! He’s leading by example for her, showing the importance of chasing passions and making her own choices.

If you’ve been thinking about a career flip but aren’t sure how to take the leap, Jake’s story will definitely inspire you!

Episode Takeaways

Connect with Jake

https://www.dobbyscrafthouse.com/

Instgram: https://www.instagram.com/dobbyscrafthouse/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dobbyscrafthouse

Episode Transcription

Jenny Dempsey (00:00.182)

You can't have growth without stepping outside of your own comfort zone. And that's important, is you have to know that, hey, it's time to kind of step out and do something else. Because if you're not happy, then what's going to be worse for you in your life probably is to just continue doing the same thing over and over again. You got to find a little bit of comfort and discomfort, if that makes sense.

 

A weekly podcast featuring career change stories from people all around the world, from all kinds of industries. We talk about how they go from point A to point B and all the twists and turns in between. If you've been thinking about changing careers, consider this your permission slip. I'm your host, Jenny Dempsey, a career flipper myself. After many, many years working in customer service and experience leadership in the startup tech world, I got laid off and I stumbled into furniture flipping.

 

taking pieces of furniture headed for the trash and giving them a second chance at life. If you're into that sort of thing, you can check out my furniture makeovers over on Instagram and TikTok under the handle, San Diego furniture flipper. And I started this podcast because I felt, well, let's get real. I felt really weird and alone about switching from tech to furniture restoration. I mean, who does that? But as I've been flipping my own career, I'm realizing that I'm not alone.

 

There are so many other people changing their careers and hearing their stories has been really inspiring to me and also really comforting. And it's a reminder that it's never too late to make a change. So I figured if these stories are helping me feel a little less alone and a little less weird, maybe they could help someone else too. So that's why I created the podcast to share these amazing career flipping stories with you and offer support.

 

for you or anyone else thinking about changing their careers is right in the middle of changing their careers or maybe have already made a career flip or two or five in their path. In this episode, I am so excited to introduce you to my friend and also reconnect with him. His name is Jake Conning and I know him from high school back in the day in the little town we grew up in in Norco in Southern California.

 

Jenny Dempsey (02:23.928)

There are horse trails instead of sidewalks. You get the picture. He's now based in El Paso, Texas, and Jake shares his wild ride of career flips from construction to journalism to restaurant management, going into the military, nursing, and now running his own woodworking business, Dobie's Craft House, named after his dog. Jake's really all about taking smart risks and following what truly makes you happy.

 

even if it means a lot of change. And he opens up about how stress shifts when you start working for yourself and why self-care and time management are really important. And to keep it even more real about how we all are juggling all the things, you may also hear his baby daughter, Rosemary, in the background during the episode. He's leading by example for her, really showing the importance of chasing passions and making choices that make you happy.

 

So if you've been thinking about a career flip and aren't sure how to take the leap or leaps, plural, Jake Starry will definitely inspire you. Hey, Jake. Hi, Jenny. Career flipper. Thank you for having me. Thank you. It's been like, what, over 20 years or so, I think, since we've actually talked to each other. Yes, over 20 years and following the power of social media to stay connected, right? We know each other from high school, which is

 

Wild to me. That's a long time ago. Yeah. Yeah, I think we met in like a keyboarding class or something like that, like some kind of computer class. Yeah. And look what our technical skills have taken us today. That's right. is right. That's right. Late 90s computer classes. All right. my gosh. Well, it's so great to reconnect with you and to talk. And it was

 

super cool when you started to share your career stories. I was like, wait a second, this is wild. I need to know more. And the work that you do, which everyone will hear more about in a little bit, but the work that you do is amazing. I have candles in my house. I see the woodwork that you do. I see how you're out and about and you're sharing these things that you create. And to get to this point, it's gonna be really cool to hear the whole story. actually tell everyone a little bit more about you, where you're at.

 

Jenny Dempsey (04:47.566)

and just high level what we do before we get into everything Yeah, well, so I i'm currently residing in el paso, texas because that's where we have to be for for a little while So actually like el paso reminds me a lot of southern california where we grew up but the weather is pretty much the same and same with like the food every every all the food's the same So it's kind of good. but currently i'm working as a small

 

I do woodworking anywhere from small crafts to large scale furniture pieces, tables and things like that. try to, I'm going to want to in the future try to scale to those larger items just because there's a higher profit margin with them. And they, and you don't have to do as many. We're doing small objects. You have to do a lot of them in order to make any kind of profit. So, but yeah, so I'm currently in.

 

in woodworking and being a full time dad, I watched my little three month old girl throughout the week during the day. So I've had to adjust my schedule where usually I'm working Monday through Friday, you know, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Now I'm working, you know, when my wife gets home after dinner. So usually around like 7 p.m. till like midnight. and that and that just, know, so you only get a little bit of sleep. But it's the sacrifice that I'm

 

willing to make because I think it's awesome that I get the opportunity to raise my little girl. But yeah, so do it just to dive into then from all my career flips, because I have several of them. Let's dive in. Just go for it, Jake. Take it from here. right. So in college, I was always told like, you need to go to college in order to get a job. Right. And so for me, like

 

I was like, okay, well, I have to go to college, right? But I never really had like an idea of what kind of job I wanted to do. In high school, I worked for my dad for a few summers doing construction. And I did a lot of like building, you know, framing, cleaning up job sites and things like that. And my dad the whole time was like, this is your college prep class. This is what you got. This is going to make you want to go to college, right? So that even drove me even more to wanting to do college. So in college, I studied philosophy and creative writing.

 

Jenny Dempsey (07:05.754)

not many philosophy companies out there hiring. I did dabble in journalism while I was in college. I wrote for the school paper and I had aspirations in order to do more print journalism after that. However, print journalism, right after I graduated in 2008, sorry, I graduated in 2009. you know, the whole recession hit, the newspapers were closing down left and right. And, so there wasn't really a lot of opportunity like the.

 

there used to be for print. So I was working at the time when I graduated college for restaurants. So I was working at a restaurant as a server, did serving, bartending. I was a cook at one point, hostess, busser, dishwasher. I did everything there. And so just because I needed hours, right? And so when I was working as a server and I was like, okay, well, maybe I could do this. Maybe I could do a restaurant manager gig.

 

And that will be my career, you know, because I already have a lot of experience in it. I'll just have to, you know, go through the through all the the rungs of the ladder in order to climb it up. That's kind of what would have went after because I was applying for all these jobs for like a management position at Target, management position at some warehouse and things like that. It was a recession. There was not not too many jobs available. So I stayed with working for this restaurant. don't want to name them, but they do sell lobster.

 

And so they're kind of, they're kind of going BK right now, which is sad to see because they were a great company to work for back when I worked for them. They gave us paid time off and all this stuff. I worked for them, doing hourly management for a couple shifts. And then I got a call from someone that I knew that went to the same college I went to and also worked at the same restaurant too. He's like, Hey, hey, Jake, I'm up here in Bakersfield. I have this good opportunity to, for you to become a manager if you want to come up.

 

And I was like, So I went up there, did the job interview with the owner of the business. The place is called, probably shouldn't name them either. They're still in operation, but the family that owns it is awesome. So I went up there, did the interview, went back home. It was like a three hour drive from where I lived at the time. And then, so after I did the interview, I got a call and the call was like, hey, like this is how much salary we're offering, which was nothing.

 

Jenny Dempsey (09:29.462)

And I was like, you know what? I'll take it because it's experience. I'll just grind it out for a while. So I was working for them for about two years and I worked like six days a week, 10 hour shifts. And it was just grueling and only have one day off a week. mean, like then you just kind of catch up on household chores, right? Your job life balance. It really isn't there. And I'm going to tie that in in a bit. So I sat down with the owners like I've been working for two years. Is there any way I could have a an increase in pay because I've already shown you what what I can do. He was like, no, at this time, your position is where it's at. I'm like, OK.

 

totally respect that. So I went to Buffalo Wild Wings and I started working for them. I'll name them. They're the last company that I worked for. I had a great experience with them. I climbed the ladder with them as well. And I was in Bakersfield at the time still, because they had just opened up their first store up there, right? It was a big to do for Bakersfield. I was up there and I was managing, was a kitchen manager, bar manager, all this stuff. And the GM was just trying to put his thumb down on me to try to get me to quit.

 

And so it was bad leadership. I was, but I really loved the company because I've met other managers that manage other stores and was just manager was awesome. So I talked to the disc manager. I was like, Hey, like I'm from Southern California, like more South. Is there any way that, know, you guys just bought a bunch of stores down there. Can I, can I go down there and work in one of those stores? And he goes, can you be there next week? I'm like, yeah, no problem.

 

So I pack up shop and I moved back down to Riverside area. I was working in Chino Hills. I worked in Brea. I worked at Apple Valley store. I worked at Mira Loma store. So I worked at several stores, climbed the ladder to be a general manager. I was like on the next list to get my own store. and that was all within like two, a little over two years. And so at the time I was not happy.

 

Right? My work-life balance was a lot better than what it was prior, but still like, still work 10 hour shifts and I wasn't being fulfilled in my job, but I didn't know that yet. I was like, okay, so why am I upset? Right? Am I upset because of where I live? So I moved to the beach. I moved to Newport beach. And I loved, like, I was like a two, three minute walk from the sand.

 

Jenny Dempsey (11:50.03)

So was awesome. was kayaking all the time, stand up paddleboard. so I lived there for about a year and I realized it's not where I live. It is my job. I'm not being fulfilled. So I ended up getting them to switch me from Brea, which is where I was working at the time, to back to Mira Loma. And so when I went to there, I was realizing that like, this is not really what I want, blah, blah, blah.

 

And that's when I started talking to my managers above me like, hey, I'm not really too happy. there any way that like, you know, I can get in for a position to be like a GM. But I was still not happy after I got that position. So I made a choice. There was a New Year's Eve that I had with some friends. And I remember going out to Pomona and some old high school friends actually. And, Norco High.

 

Cougars represent. And so I went out there and I talked to them for a while. One of them was working for SpaceX and he had been previously in the Air Force. And I was like, the military. I've always wanted to join the military, but I was always told like, if you do, you're not successful. Right. So I was like, you know what? I think I want to join the military. My grandfather was a Marine. My other grandfather was in the Air Force. My sister and my brother-in-law were in the Army.

 

So I went to the Air Force because I always heard like, want to do the Air Force. Like that's going to be, they, call it the chair force because it's, it's a joking name. We all call it because all they do really is sit in a chair. Right. mean, let's be honest. There's actually like really high tech people that work like, like the JTAC people that jump out of the planes. They're, they're, they're awesome. So when I went to them, they're like, you're too old. Cause I was 27 at this time and I was like, shoot, I'm too old. Okay. So, I guess like 26 is their cutoff.

 

Right. So I probably could have got a waiver, but they, the recruiters weren't willing to work with me on that. So I was like, okay, whatever. I went to the army and they're like, okay, what do want to do? I'm like, I have no idea. I just want to do something to how soon can you get me, get me out? know, they're like, they gave me a list of everything that was going to be shipping soon. And combat medic was one of them. I was like, I never really thought about being in the medical field, but I was like, and that sounds pretty cool.

 

Jenny Dempsey (14:11.616)

So I ended up going out to bootcamp, going out to AIT. was about six months in training the whole time. And I fell in love with the army. I went from being like the manager that had to fire and hire people, which I hated firing people, to being just the person that just did his job. And I loved it. My first duty station was Fort Drum, which I loved Fort Drum. Everyone told me I would hate it. It's upstate New York. It's about 30 minutes away from the Canadian border.

 

and it's about 30 minutes away from Lake Ontario. So it's like way, way upstate. And it would get lake effect snow. And if you don't know what lake effect snow is, it's just a lot of snow. And so like I've never lived in a snow before, so it was a great experience, a lot of outdoor opportunities. So my life, my job life, work balance, sorry, it's my little girl.

 

was getting a lot better. So I love being a medic. became a senior line medic, was in charge of a bunch of lot line medics on the line, meeting like medics embedded in infantry platoons. And then I got an opportunity to deploy. I was in a unit and like I realized that you do a lot of training. Yes. So I train medical all the time, but I don't get a lot of real world application of it. So I was like, what can I do in order to get like real world experience working in emergency medicine?

 

So I went to, there was a lot of volunteer fire departments and volunteer ambulance agencies around. So I went to the nearest Wanda base, what was called Evans Mills Volunteer Ambulance. They're still around. They've been around for like 30 plus, almost 40 years now. I went to them and was like, hey, like, can I volunteer? have EMT. I got my reciprocity through New York State. I started volunteering for them. And it was around their time of having leadership in elections.

 

And they were like, hey, you have experience with business management. Would you be interested in becoming the president and CEO? I was like, no, I'm working full time for the army. I really don't want to do that too. And so they're like, okay, well, maybe you can mentor the president. I was like, okay, I'll do that. So I got bamboozled because as soon as I got voted in as vice president, I became president because the vice president left.

 

Jenny Dempsey (16:31.66)

So anyways, so I became the vice president CEO of this vault. So not only was I getting real world experience in emergency medicine, doing calls, I was doing that still. It's also doing the books, doing the PNL spreadsheets and all this stuff like that too. They were actually pretty darn close to going BK. Like they didn't have a lot of money in the bank. So we switched, know, I did a lot of things in order to make that better. I switched the billing agencies, found a bank account that they didn't know about.

 

that was open for like 10 years prior and I was full of money. was like, hey, he actually has some money. he's trying, you know, it was just a bunch of things like people don't know the previous president. So when I don't want to talk ill about him, but I think they had some, management issues in the past. So I came in, straightened them up for about three years. And then I was going to go on deployment. So I went on deployment to Afghanistan. Generally I had a good experience. There's always bad stuff. And when I came back,

 

I was like, I'm going to reclass, which is like a career flip in the military. So I went from being a combat medic to being what's called a practical nurse. And that's essentially an LVN. And so I went to training for that down at in San Antonio and did about a few months of training there. And then I did the rest of my training in El Paso here at Fort Bliss. When I came here, I was like, man, El Paso, this is, this is hot. This is real hot.

 

And so I was like, can I get out of here as soon as possible? After I got done with training, they're like, hey, congratulations. You're going to stay here in El Paso at the hospital. And so I stayed in El Paso. And so while I was doing that, ended up moving because I was no longer a student anymore. I was back to being a regular soldier and I was an NCO, which is a non-commissioned officer. So I was in a leadership position. So I moved out of the barracks. I rented a room from a friend.

 

And during that time, like, lived like all the furniture and everything I ever owned prior to joining the military was already gone. My vehicles, everything were gone. So I had to buy a vehicle when I got in the army, but I had no furniture. So I was like, you know what? I used to build, I used to frame houses and I built like some side tables before. I could build my own dresser. I can build my own coffee table and everything I need.

 

Jenny Dempsey (18:48.716)

So I started doing that as like my side hobby and I loved it. And it was during the middle of COVID. So it was great period of time. And so I was working the floor as a nurse and I was working 12 hour shifts, rotating, which was nice. But COVID man, that wore you out. It was a lot. after working for that, I was working on MedSurg floor.

 

which is like when you get admitted to the hospital, that's like the main floor you would go to if you were admitted for like having pneumonia or whatever, right? So we dealt a lot with the COVID patients that got admitted. I floated a few times to ICU and I really loved critical care, but they were like, the Army does this cool thing where if you're really, really good at your job and you achieve a certain rank, you no longer do your job. just do, you're a manager now. So I became a...

 

essentially upper management. I ran a floor for a while and then I got really burnt out. I went to my boss, it was two years of this, which is the longest anyone's really been in charge of a floor like that. They were like, okay, well, we hear that you're burnt out. Let's switch you to labor and delivery just so you have a change of scenery. I'm thinking like

 

I wanted to go in some office gig that I was just doing, like, you know, I could just decompress. Right. And so I went to labor and delivery and the prior management of that floor, the prior NCO didn't really, didn't really do much. She wasn't around. When I took it over, I had to do a lot of work. I had to do a lot of work that I hadn't previously done before, but I got,

 

Working with babies, your work-life balance is, you you're still working a lot, but it's such a great day. Every time you're around a baby and they're smiling, it's great day. I never thought as a dude, I'd be working on labor and delivery either. I never would have picked that for myself, but it was a lot of fun. It was a good experience. did that for about a year. And then I decided it's time to get out of the military. I had some bad experiences with management in there. If I didn't have these bad experiences, I would have probably stayed in for 20 years.

 

Jenny Dempsey (20:56.076)

I was already at eight years at that time. So I was like, you know what? It's time for me to get out. I can see the writing on the wall where the military is heading right now with their higher leadership. so I was like, you know what? It's just time, best for me to leave. So I got out and went through and the army's really cool. They, well, the military, they do this thing called transition assistance program. And you do like, there's three different courses you can do. You can do employment track, college track.

 

or entrepreneur track. I did all three. I just took all three classes because I didn't know. And I've already been in college. So was like, if I go back to college, it's probably going to be for like, I get my BSN and become full-fledged RN. That was the plan if I didn't meet my wife. She was working here in El Paso as well. that's why I...

 

We stayed. And so she was like, you know, you really aren't that happy with it. So maybe you do something else. I'm like, no, no, no, it's okay. I got out and I got a job as an LVN working for the same hospital. So I worked instead of working like L and D or like a med search floor work Monday through Friday, 7 30 to like four 30 in the afternoon. like eight, eight hour shift, I worked in a clinic. like just as someone coming to their regular doctor appointment, right?

 

So was awesome. Like I just checked people in, but then I started realizing there's no room for growth in this position. I'm always going to be this, pay's always going to be the same. I realized that this is like a dead end, you know? So, unless I go back to college, right? So my wife and I talked about it. She goes, you know what? You really love woodworking and working with your hands. Why don't you just really try to make that your career? So I ended up putting it in my two weeks and I'd already started my business.

 

through legal zoom at the time. we were, is awesome. If you want to start their own LLC, I suggest doing them to make it real, real cut and dry. started working, this was before Rosemary came along. So I started working just full-time doing that, you know, making cutting boards, doing craft fairs, just trying to market myself. I've done a few big pieces just by word of mouth, doing the craft fairs. Some people have come up to me and say, hey, can you do

 

Jenny Dempsey (23:17.218)

this for me? I'm like, yeah, of course I could do that for you. So it's really like the craft fairs, the farmers market. That's what I'm currently doing. So a lot of career flips. think the main thing that drove me to where I am right now as a small business owner is I can set my own trajectory now. I'm more in control of what happens in my day-to-day job, which is being a woodworker. What I really love about it is that you take some boards and you make a piece out of it. So you make something from nothing.

 

Being able to see a finished piece, it's just really fulfilling. And I think this is where I want to try to stay as much as possible. But yeah, that's my story. That's a lot of flips. I hear pattern. Like a couple of things that stood out, when you were diving into these things, you weren't too sure what you were going to do. So the opportunities kind of presented themselves. And you were like, OK, I'll try this.

 

And with your experience in the restaurant and kind of being in a situation where there was a lot of help that was needed, you took the initiative to make things better. And I like how you use the example of like, know, a blank piece of wood. Like there's just, it's just a piece of wood until you do something with it. And you jumped into a lot of situations that maybe you didn't know exactly what to do and you made them better. You made them into something for your success.

 

happened because of you. There was things to clean up and with that adrenaline junkie fueling you, you you needed that. So it makes sense that you're in roles where there's no growth because you're like, I need to be doing more. I need to be making and that it just seems like a consistent theme throughout all of your flips, you know, and I'm curious because when you put in that two weeks, you know, after all the experience that you've had and everything that was kind of built up and your values of

 

work life and how you knew that you didn't want to be burnt out, but you did want the growth and you did want the opportunity. When you put in that two weeks, what was going through your mind? Like, were you feeling scared? Were you feeling that adrenaline excited? Because you didn't know what was happening. You are now doing it all on your own. The opportunity you created was you creating it. It wasn't someone calling you say, hey, we got a job at the restaurant or hey, we got, you this, like you carved that.

 

Jenny Dempsey (25:38.638)

So what was that like when you put in that two weeks and you didn't know what was ahead? So that wasn't the first time ever put in two weeks. So I kind of already made that jump a few times for this last time that I did it. But the first time I did it with relieving the lobster restaurant, I did it after working for them for six years. And I was like, is this a mistake? I was like, no, you're going to be actually doing something better. It's OK.

 

But the biggest scare factor was where I quit my job working for Buffalo Wild Wings and joined the Army. Because I put a two week buffer from when I stopped working for them for two weeks of me to get my life together so that way I can sell stuff, get things in storage and blah, blah, blah, blah, and ready to actually leave and go join the Army. So that was probably the scariest time because I was like, what if I...

 

What if I can't get in? What if I show up to MEPs and they're like, hey, you know what? You're a turd. You gotta go. You know? So that was probably the scariest for me. This last time working from the clinic to just starting my own business, I had already started it. So all that was already kind of behind me on it. But there was for months just this voice in the back of my head saying, you messed up. You...

 

you should probably go back. And when I left, they were like, you can come back anytime. Like, you if you want to come back, just email me and we'll make it work. So that's always nice to hear. It was definitely scary, but you can't have growth without stepping outside of your own comfort zone. And that's important is you have to know that, hey, it's time to kind of step out and do something else because if you're not happy, then

 

What's gonna be worse for you and your life probably is to just continue doing the same thing over and over again. You gotta find a little bit of comfort and discomfort. There was one thing that stood out when we were kind of messaging a while ago about the type of stress that you have when you change to do something that you wanna do. And so like the stress that you had from, know, everything in the past was what it was. Like that was that type of stress. And then now...

 

Jenny Dempsey (27:58.382)

the stress that you have is a stress that you actually feel fulfilled by. And I thought that was so interesting because when you said that, and that point was a very early on conversation. That might've been even close to about a year ago, but like the way that stress changes when you are following your own path, as opposed to, you know, working for maybe something that isn't fulfilling you. Can you talk a little bit about how that has changed and how

 

Yeah, like you're mentioning, you're working, you know, seven to midnight and you're not getting much sleep and, but yet you have this time with your kiddo and you know, you're able to do other things that really light you up and create. And so how has that kind of changed when it's like stress and burnout that's still there, but it feels a little different because you're doing the things that make you happy. That's a great question, Jenny. I've always heard that, you know, the worst day working

 

for yourself is still better than the best day working for someone else. It's that stress that drives you to get things done and to know that you are it. No one's coming to help. You are the boss. You know, you don't have to go like, hey, hey boss, like, is it okay if I do this? You are the boss, you know? And like you said, adjusting my schedule in order to be able to be at home with my daughter during the day is just something that it's an added perk of owning your own business.

 

Yeah, things have to get done when she goes down for a nap. Like after we get done here, she's hopefully going to take a nap. And, and, and then I'll have to go back into the shop, put some finish on a project because it's about four days past due. So I I'm currently learning because you know, me, me, me being a full-time dad is somewhat of a new thing. I'm currently learning that time management is something that you have to have. So I have to, you know, do a half hour there, half hour here.

 

And then when my wife gets home, I have to make the sacrifice of staying up and doing a little bit extra work. But it's definitely fulfilling. resonates so much. feel like trying to juggle like, all right, how do I host a podcast? How do I flip furniture in the garage? How do I? And I still do a little bit of small scale, like customer experience consulting. So how do I juggle these three jobs essentially? But still remember to make time. I got to walk the dog. You know, I need to like eat my lunch. I need, you know.

 

Jenny Dempsey (30:20.622)

That is a great point. Like you have to do self care. If you don't do self care, whether you're a parent or not a parent, if you don't do self care, you're eventually going to wind yourself down. Right, right. Totally. Just as you mentioned, like the earlier days when you thought, you know, okay, I'm working all these hours. Maybe it's where I live and you move to a different place. And it was, I mean, beautiful place. But then you realize, well, this still isn't allowing me to have that.

 

self care that I needed, no matter where it is, it's not necessarily that there's more to it. And making those decisions to put yourself first, essentially, in order to care for everything else and everyone else that you need to care for. And I think that's just kind of a a big kind of golden thread through your story, Jake, is just like following what you care about, your values and making that time for it.

 

taking the calculated risks to make it happen, and now setting the example for your daughter that when she goes out into the world, she can pick and choose what she wants and know that she can follow what makes her happy in the calculated risks that she needs, but that that's okay to do. You don't have to just go and do one thing forever. And I think you're setting that example and that's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful thing. So, thank you.

 

Thank you so much for making the time, Rose. Thanks for letting your dad have the time here. I appreciate you. Jake, where can people find you? How can they connect with you? Where can they see your work? All the good things. Thanks for having me. It was definitely an honor. People can find me. I'm mainly active on Instagram. It's at Dobby'sCraftHouse.com. I do have a Facebook too. It's Dobby'sCraftHouse.

 

I'm sorry, the Facebook is, sorry, the Instagram is at Dobby's Craft House. I also have a website that is Dobby'sCraftHouse.com. And then the handle for my YouTube when I start launching videos is gonna be Dobby's Craft House. So pretty easy, it's across the board. You can Google it and find my website pretty easy.

 

Jenny Dempsey (32:37.59)

I did just take all the candles off, so I'm sorry, but they weren't doing so hot, but they do well at the markets, just not online. So. And, and I know we didn't get into this, but Dobby is your dog. And yes. And I think that's a special story in itself, but I know that people will follow and we'll be able to learn more about that. I'm so excited for all of your YouTube content. And I wanted to see that I will be following along. Jake, thank you so much. I appreciate you.

 

Thank you, Jenny.

 

And if you're thinking about switching into customer service or just want to level up your customer service skills with your own business, I've got my little online courses packed with tips from many, years of working in customer experience leadership. Over 14,000 students around the world have already taken them. So if you want to see corporate Jenny in her old element, head over to thecareerflipper.com slash courses to check them out and sign up. You know, what I love most about doing this podcast is the chance that

 

These stories might be the spark that someone needs to break free from feeling stuck, you know? And finally taking that first step toward their dreams. And that first step? Yeah, it's tough. No doubt. It's so worth it though. And whether it helps you grow or open doors to something you never imagined, it's a step that can change everything. So keep on your path, my friend. What's the best that could happen?