Hi, my name's Amanda Cummings. I am a mother of two. I live up here in Fairfield, Montana. It's a little rural community of farmers and ranchers. And I just wanted to share a little bit about my story of when I started transcript proofreading and how my business is going. I started the transcript proofreading course, oh, I think the beginning of 2018, I graduated December, 2019. COVID hit in March of 2020. And so I had to put my marketing and my business startup and stuff on hold because I had to teach my children from home for the rest of the school year. And then I just procrastinated until the fall of 2020. So October, 2020, I finally actually put out ads because I was nervous and scared and you know, it's just, it's scary to do all that stuff.

And so I did that. And then I got a couple inquiries. I heard back from one gal and she's actually -- I still am her full-time proofreader to this day. So I love her. She's sweet. And so I just had her for a little bit and then March, March-ish, it started to really pick up. And then 'cause I picked up jobs from the Huddle for backup proofreader, or there was some people who needed expedite work done and the regular proofreader couldn't fit it into their schedule.

So I picked up a couple of those and then I want to say, May, it got really, really crazy, but that could be -- so I had my children at home. I was trying to juggle work and just actually, since May on, it has been ridiculously crazy. I thought it would take me, you know, like a year or two to, I mean, I thought, "Oh, if I made like 400 bucks a month proofreading, I would, you know, that would be pretty cool.

Well, I've been generating over a thousand dollars a month easy, and it just keeps continuing to grow. I'm very glad that my children are going to school here shortly so that I can work some more because I do get the, "Mom, that's all you do is work," but I did not foresee getting so many clients and so much work this early in the game, you know?

I mean, what is it, a little bit over six months that I've been working. But it's pretty sweet. I'm not gonna lie. And it is a real, legit profession. When I first started it and I was telling my family about it, I think I got the eye roll of, like, freelance proofreader. Like, what is that? What kind of scam is that? Where are you going with that? You know? But um, to this day, I've proven them wrong. And I can thank Caitlin for that. So grateful that I jumped into this, this field. You know, it is just, it's opened a lot of doors for me, and there's nothing more self-satisfying than being your own boss and working for yourself.

I do need to learn how to turn clients down because I struggle telling them no. So I say yes, and then I kind of freak out a little bit, but yeah, so that is kind of my story. I can't even imagine where I'll be in another six months. Like I said, business is booming. There's tons of proofreaders out there; I think they have the similar story as me. And I want to thank you Caitlin, because it is an awesome, awesome profession to get into if you're a word nerd, and I just really appreciate it. And I'm so glad that I decided to take your course. So thank you.