Meet Tamsin

Tell us about yourself

I did an English Language and Literature degree and, with no job plans, decided to go travelling afterwards. I  taught English to Guatemalan children in Belize to help them access the education system, I also used to teach children to read. I then travelled across South America and worked in a bookshop on my return. Being surrounded by books, it struck me: do what you love - so I switched my attention to publishing.  

I didn't know what International Sales was when I applied for my role but luckily absolutely loved it. It turns out I was selling English language books into foreign markets. I worked my way up at  Penguin and then Penguin Random House in the International Sales dept. I travelled a huge amount and managed sales territories in Europe, South America, Scandinavia and Asia. I  really loved my job until I had the two children and found myself trying to juggle childcare and travelling which just didn't really work.

I found myself at home, and felt like a bit of a fish out of water, not being myself, really wanting to work but confused about what I should do.

How did you find out about Digital Gum?

I was having a big old moan about what I wanted to do next, to family, friends and anyone who would listen - one of them happened to know Antonia, one of the Digital Gum contributors who said why don't you give it a go? So I looked it up and I still had no idea about what I really wanted to do because I had really loved the job I had before. I couldn't really see how it could translate into a job from home. 

How did you feel day one? 

I took the decision to come and was excited, I felt like I found myself again. On the first day when you went through everything that we were going to cover, I immediately felt, “yes, this is the right thing to do”. I felt a relief, my journey had started, it was real and I felt I wasn’t going to be stuck anymore.

Who did you meet on the course, what did you learn?

I met lots of lovely, like minded people and that was a revelation: other people were in the same boat and felt equally woolly and lost. Some people were on the course for different reasons but many for the same reasons - confidence building. The first person that I spoke to was Rebecca and now consider her a good friend.

Were you one of the students who did their homework straight away or the night before? 

I always had good intentions to get home and start my homework because I always left feeling inspired and excited but the reality was I’d pick the children up and life got in the way of managing that. The homework was important but wasn’t at all onerous. Being someone who probably works best with a deadline - my assignments were always finished the night before or even the morning of...

  What was your favourite module?

The biggest thing for me overall was the confidence building but the module I loved the most was Canva. It's brilliant, I like to be creative and be able to express myself but I’d never really done that through images before. I also loved the talks that Antonia Taylor PR and Rachel Bradley gave, they were really inspiring - I still refer back to the notes I made during their sessions.

How did you feel about the pitch back to the charity?

When I first heard we had to do it, I was a bit panicked because I hadn’t stood up and spoken in front of strangers for so long. Working with the team however made me really passionate about pitching our ideas back to the charity. I began to really look forward to doing the pitch because as a team we believed in the ideas we were going to present. On the actual day, standing in front of the charity, I have to admit my hands were shaking like a leaf. It's been so gratifying since then to watch our ideas being put into place. They’ve put so many of them into practise which is amazing, the messages and ideas that we came up with were obviously useful and that's a real confidence boost. To think we had useful things to say to them and the charity took them and acted on them. 

What are you up to now? employed, job hunting or have set up a business? 

I realised I wasn’t someone who is creative in terms of setting up a business but I would be really good at bringing my corporate experience to small business. Often they are focused on their thing, their product etc and not necessarily focussed on the wider customer sales experience which is essentially what drives those sales. I’ve been working with some smaller businesses to make their customers' experiences better and their sales process easier. I’ve worked on some projects around customer retention,  making it easier for customers to come back again or for clients to follow up with customers. I also really enjoy looking at customer journeys and have done some social media projects too. I’ve been really lucky that all of my customers have come from word of mouth. 

How has lock-down been for you? 

Home schooling was an absolute joy! I had to do the work in the evening or weekends which was an interesting juggle. Also, I had the virus right at the beginning and have been dealing with the after effects of long covid and on-going fatigue which has been a bit of a slog. 

Lockdown has made me realise just how much I enjoy working. I couldn’t wait to get back to the office and just sit and work - it has been a real pleasure. At the moment it's a bit manic, life is unsettled for all and there is a lot to squeeze in but I'm still doing what I wanted to do, so I can’t complain.

Is there anything that someone could do to help you right now? 

I'm always open to conversation about new things. I'm interested to hear from anyone who needs help, particularly with sales or communications. In a few years time, I might be looking for something different, more permanent that I can get my teeth into a bit more but right now I’m really happy.