Dear Shopify

Hi, I'm Loralee Hutton (as you may have already noticed) and here's a short (ish) video that might give you a better look into my personality.

In the video I promised to tell you a little bit more. And what I'm about to say next is not something I would have admitted to 2 years ago. I've been dedicated to entrepreneurship for almost 2 decades (wow, that must make me sound really old).

But the idea of working with a Shopify Squad is really exciting to me.

Serving entrepreneurs or solopreners has become my life passion / life work. I'm a little embarrassed to admit I've dropped almost all of my hobbies (except camping, searching for natural hot springs, and recently, playing with my new kitten) because I love working in the entrepreneur space so much. My big love is finding tools and gadgets that can make their life easier, without costing a fortune (free is even better). Most of what I've created online ties directly into the "free or low cost tools" topic.

... and here's a cat video to keep break up the text a bit...

(quick video of Tino - he's 6 months old & we took him camping last week - he was terrified most of the time, but felt safe in the hammock. You'll see a quick look of Harrison Lake and the mountains in the background)

But in late 2015, while actively involved in a Facebook support community for a brand new SaaS tool, I noticed the company was really struggling with their customer support. I offered to help out (part time, from home) and they loved the idea. I started working almost immediately, and it quickly turned into 35-45 hour weeks, creating knowledge base articles, finding creative solutions for their user base, creating video tutorials and being part of the team.

I was the only remote employee. The only one who didn't live in New York. And after about 6 months it started to create some problems. I'd miss out on important decision making, or my time difference kept them from having impromptu meetings in the morning (because it was only 6 a.m. here) and other little things that crop up with remote work.

And because the company was growing so fast, they were also hiring 5+ people per month to the team. They became hyper focused on the resolution time, and I was still focusing on customer ratings (mine was in the mid 90's and the rest of the team rarely hit 80). We had different goals & I stopped feeling like a good fit.

So we agreed to part ways. 

But it didn't take time to realize I missed being part of a team, so I tried working with a couple of WordPress developers who were in a similar situation (I would approach them when I noticed their customers complaining that tickets weren't being responded to). But it wasn't the same sense of teamwork. They were both partnerships (1 person doing the marketing, and another developing - with very little room in their budget for a support person) and I went back to working full time in my business... and even finished writing a new book a couple of weeks ago.

And, I've  kept my eye open for similar role, but with a company that already has an established history with remote teams  - like shopify.

(also from our campsite on Harrison Lake last weekend)

I know you didn't ask for this, but when I've been hiring staff I've always been interested in people's strengths and weaknesses. So, I thought I'd share a few of mine.

• I'm a helper. I love, love to help people solve problems (sometimes this is a positive thing, sometimes it brings me close to burnout, because I have a hard time setting clear boundaries - that's where being part of a team really helps. I'm not the only one helping)
• I'm humble - often too much so. I rarely brag about my achievements. I'm not sure if it's a Canadian thing (my American friends think it might be)
• I get migraines. It doesn't have to impact remote work too much, but it isn't great when they creep in just before live calls. For example, the meds I took this morning helped a migraine shift to the background today, so I could create this store (including the short video).
• My hubby works from home too (this is a new thing). He's recently semi retired to pursue his art (he paints with acrylics). I don't have kids, but sometimes he gets a bit loud when his projects don't go the way he likes (I'm usually not on phone calls, but I might need to work on creating a bit more of a quiet environment)
• I have dyslexia. I've left this page unedited (sometimes I would ask a friend to proof read) so that you can get a sense of how I write, with a migraine & dyslexia mix. Hopefully it's not a complete mess :)
• People tell me I'm really nice, and that I help them feel calm. I'm not sure how that works exactly. But I've heard it so many times that I believe it must have some truth in it. I suspect it's tied in with empathy.
• I grew up with typewriters, where you needed to hit the spacebar twice to create a bit of space between the period and the new sentence.  Like that. (and I know it looks really strange to people who weren't taught to type with their teacher literally using a ruler like a metronome)
• None of this has anything to do with Doug the Turtle, unfortunately. But I did learn some really cool things about a 185 year old tortoise in St Helena and some turtles in Saskatchewan who might be close to 70 years old.

Feel free to cyberstalk me, look through the resume/cv on this page, check out some of the testimonials on my site, etc.

Really looking forward to hearing back from you, either way.

Warmly,

Loralee

I've included the following on this trial site:

• the Supply theme (light) with just a few customizations (color, font, added an html content block -- no css changes)
• added 15 products in 3 collections
• created a drop down menus for "shop items"
• installed the following apps
• Digital Downloads - to deliver pdf & other digital content
• MailerLite - one of the email service providers I use (when you leave this page you might see the exit intent popup
• Product Reviews - because it seems like a great app :)
• Tawk.to - because they're a great free live chat tool 
• Recorded a "short" video with screencast-o-matic.com (pro) and uploaded it as an unlisted video (should be fine to view by anyone with the link- but not listed on my public profile)
• Created a simple logo with logomkr.com