We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laticia Brice a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Laticia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
I use my signature ‘Done With You’ design plan to empower business owners to DIY the tech in their business. My signature style is a mixture of growth mindset, empowerment, tech support and training, accountability, community and support designed to help you focus, skip the stress and overwhelm and make real progress towards your business goals.
Laticia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
One thing about me, I don’t stay long in situations that don’t bring me joy. Since childhood I have been a problem-solver and go-getter. I may complain for a bit but you better believe that after a while, I will devise an exit plan. This mentality has led me to make some pretty monumental life changes and core memories.
One area of my life where I am not afraid to take a leap has always been in the way I choose to support myself. My career needs to fuel my passion, bring me joy and it also needs to fund the achievement of my goals and visions. Otherwise, what am I working for?
After high school I really wanted to go to college to study computers but that didn’t work out. So I started working as a Legal Secretary instead. After seven years, I was advancing in the legal field, had become a wife and had a baby on the way. It was at this point that I realized that this career was not going to support my growing family beyond the basic necessities. It certainly wasn’t bringing me joy. There was no passion there and no room for any real growth. So I took an early maternity leave, immigrated from The Bahamas to the US and attended a technical college two months after my son was born.
This was a challenging period in my life but I had found my passion and I excelled. I had very limited resources, but got help from my family and several scholarships from local organizations. After graduating, I entered the tech field and spent the next 2 decades gaining the expertise that I use now when helping my clients to succeed.
My problem-solving capabilities and critical thinking was just what I needed to solve any tech issues that crossed my workbench and gain respect in this male dominated field. My tough-love approach and readiness to share information endeared me to my colleagues and made me the go to person to onboard new staff, train interns, teach processes and offer remote assistance.
One thing I learned during this time is that while I wanted to climb the corporate ladder, I also wanted to make sure that ladder was leaning on the right building. When I realized that my career aspirations no longer aligned with what I wanted for my future, I devised an exit plan. I wanted a career that would give me time autonomy, location independence, the ability to choose who I work with and of course, financial freedom. I had never seen a job like that so I had to create it.
Currently, I am running a Tech Consultancy. My clients are Entrepreneurs, Small Businesses, Government agencies and non-profit Organizations. I am a guest Co-Host on the Your Purpose and Business TV Show on WCTX Connecticut where I also have a weekly Tech Tips segment. When I work with clients, I solve all manner of tech problems. I help them to automate their business processes and bring their business online by means of their websites and digital marketing so they could attract their ideal clients and increase their visibility and revenue.
My offerings are:
Remote Tech Support,
Website work, and
Tech and Accountability Coaching.
I have one on one and group coaching. My group coaching is done within the Digital Growth HUB (DGHUB). DGHUB is a Business Growth membership, where clients have access to a portal of helpful tech tutorials and business tools designed to help them get clear on their brand, create their brand visuals and marketing material, create their own website, automate their sales funnel and develop a sales and marketing plan. They also benefit from monthly one on one strategy sessions and weekly group calls with me to keep them focused and on track.
My mission is that everyone who works with me can skip the stress and overwhelm and make real progress towards achieving their business goals.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
Yes. I went from a side hustle to a full time business.
At the beginning of my tech career, I started a side hustle to supplement my income. I would do computer repairs and simple networking for clients. Then I also started teaching people how to do the same.
Midway through my tech career, I dropped those side hustles to focus more on my career, but took on the occasional client work outside of office hours.
Near the end of my tech career, I wanted more freedom to devote to community service and travel and to work in a toxic-free work environment. So I decided to start an online business. I initially created an online course to teach people how to become a high earning computer technician. Then the entrepreneur in me saw the need to do what I am currently doing: Helping entrepreneurs to DIY their tech and feel empowered to do the things they never thought they could do.
As I invested in personal and professional development, I was networking with like minded individuals and business mentors. Now I have access to multiple networks and groups of ambitious entrepreneurs all over the world. We learn from and support each other, collaborate and do business together. And of course some of them are my clients.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
It was during the pandemic when the whole world went on lock down. I worked for a government agency and my job was to ensure all the tech was working so that the employees could get their work done and maintain connection to our vast and disjointed network. (This network actually spans over quite a number of islands.) Because of this, I had to become pretty proficient at assisting staff and resolving tech issues remotely.
Because of the nature of my work, we were considered essential workers so I was privileged to work straight through the pandemic, unlike so many other unfortunate people. At one point there was no choice but to do everything remotely. As you can imagine, I felt like all my training and experience up to that point was meant just for this difficult time.
So there I was, working from home and offering support to other staff members who were now also forced to work from home. The pivot in my business came when I started to offer remote tech support to fellow entrepreneurs since they were all on lockdown as well. My first paid client for that offer was all the way in Australia, then the next was in the UK and the list grew and now I have found my niche.
It always brings me joy to help others so you can imagine just how elated I felt to be helping people that wanted to make a better life for themselves and their family. I switched my focus and pivoted my business offerings to help struggling and overwhelmed entrepreneurs with the tech issues in their business.
I did this on evenings and weekends until I was able to finally have my quit day. The journey to this point has not been easy but it is well worth it. I especially feel this when I get words of gratitude from my clients telling me about how I have impacted their life and business and changed their mindset and I see their growth and new accomplishments.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.laticiabrice.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laticiabriceconsulting/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaticiaBriceConsulting/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/laticia-brice-consulting/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bricelaticia
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@laticiabriceconsulting
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@laticiabriceconsulting