This week Ali and JoDee are joined by Joanna Guldin-Noll, the writer behind one of the largest military lifestyle blogs, Jo, My Gosh! Together, they will discuss some of the struggles of teaching as a military spouse, what Joanna’s transition from the classroom into content creation looked like, and if she’s ever considered going back to the classroom.
Connect with Joanna:
Website: https://jomygosh.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jomygosh1/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoMyGosh/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/jomygosh1/
You can learn more about PILLAR: The Digital Retreat for Deployment here: https://pillardeploymentretreat.com/
Connect with Ali and JoDee:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teachershift
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teachershift
Teacher Shift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/teacher-shift
Ali’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisimon/
JoDee’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodeescissors/
Website
https://www.teachershiftpodcast.com/
Episode Transcriptions
https://www.teachershiftpodcast.com/blog
This week Ali and JoDee are joined by Joanna Guldin-Noll, the writer behind one of the largest military lifestyle blogs, Jo, My Gosh! Together, they will discuss some of the struggles of teaching as a military spouse, what Joanna’s transition from the classroom into content creation looked like, and if she’s ever considered going back to the classroom.
Connect with Joanna:
Website: https://jomygosh.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jomygosh1/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoMyGosh/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/jomygosh1/
You can learn more about PILLAR: The Digital Retreat for Deployment here: https://pillardeploymentretreat.com/
Connect with Ali and JoDee:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teachershift
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teachershift
Teacher Shift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/teacher-shift
Ali’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisimon/
JoDee’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodeescissors/
Website
https://www.teachershiftpodcast.com/
Episode Transcriptions
https://www.teachershiftpodcast.com/blog
Ali 0:06
Teachers are natural innovators, entertainers and problem solvers. They dream of growing old into the profession, teaching their kids kids. But sometimes career goals shift, and that makes opportunities outside of the classroom seem intangible questioning who am I if I'm not a teacher? I'm your host, Ali Simon.
JoDee 0:29
And I'm your co host, JoDee Scissors.
Ali 0:32
And this is Teacher Shift.
JoDee 0:43
Sometimes we make temporary shifts but need longer term plans. What we know is that our teacher brain skills can help us persevere and pursue the path we want. So today, we talk with a guest that carved a new career after leaving the classroom.
Ali 1:00
Joanna Guldin-Noll is a writer behind one of the largest military spouse lifestyle blogs, Jo, My Gosh! Her writing has been featured in regional, national and international digital and print publications. She is currently the social media manager at Military.com and cohost of Pillar Deployment Retreat. Joanna lives in central Pennsylvania, with her Navy veteran husband John and her puppy Albus. Welcome to the show today, Joanna.
Joanna 1:29
Thanks for having me. It's so nice to be here.
Ali 1:32
We're so glad to have you on the podcast. And you and I are both former teachers who left the profession when we were married to our service members, albeit for different reasons. I know that military life definitely played a factor into my decision leaving and I believe it did with yours as well. So I'm excited to start us off today to talk a little bit about teaching as a career for military spouses, the good, the bad, the ugly, and how this may have led to a career transition for you. So do you want to tell us a little bit about your experience,
Joanna 2:07
I was a teacher straight out of college, I had a little bit of a non traditional path to it. So I went to college thinking that I was going to be a secondary English Ed teacher. And when I got about into my sophomore year, I realized that I exhausted all the course requirements for the English secondary English Ed major, as far as subject matter. And I felt that I was still not equipped to be able to be a subject matter expert. And I've loved the English classes. So I decided I change just to be an English major. And then my senior year, I was like, I still really want to be a teacher. So I ended up actually going the route of Teach for America, which is a whole different podcast for another day. But I ended up teaching in Baltimore city at the same school for five years. And I loved it. I originally plan just to stay for two. I got a master's of education in teaching from Johns Hopkins while I was there, and I just I love my students, I love my school, I love my colleagues. I taught the best subjects, like I taught American Lit, which I just, I can't even say how much I loved it. I had a lot of autonomy on how I presented materials. So I got to do a lot of really creative things. We got to do some drama. I pioneered our AP Literature and Language program at the school. And so I got to do a lot of really fun, creative, really engaging things there too. And during that time in Baltimore, I ended up falling in love with a sailor. And it was actually somebody I known from college. So just I have terrible timing, right. But we ended up falling in love. And we decided to get married. So at the end of my fifth year of teaching, I left to go get married and be where John was, which was a state away in Virginia. And at that time, there wasn't as much teaching certification reciprocity as there is now. And because of John's career and the timeline for the things that he had to do, it really didn't make sense for me to pursue a certification in Virginia and go through all of the hoops and everything, because we didn't know how long we we're going to be there. And I really wanted to have roots in a school to be able to teach. I really did not want to, you know, be somewhere for six months and then have to make a military move to the other side of the coutnry
JoDee 4:53
When you went into teaching. Did you go into it with the intention of like this is going to be a long term career. I mean, you said you were in it for five years, right?
Joanna 5:03
Yeah.
JoDee 5:04
And so what was kind of your intention going into the profession?
Joanna 5:09
Yeah, I think I was in it for the long haul. I've always loved teaching, teaching has always been something that was a viable career path for me. Not to mention that I was kind of brainwashed, because both my parents are teachers. And my grandmother was a teacher too. My parents, they taught at the same schools their entire career. They have such illustrious, an illustrious career for both of them with tons of students who have gone on to do wonderful things, and that they keep in touch with. And I love the idea of being able to be in a position to make kids lives better, and to be able to inspire them and to equip them with the skills that they needed to go out into the world and do really great things. So I really did think that I was going to be there. And quite frankly, I was really considering being in Baltimore for a very long time. But, you know, the Navy had different plans.
Ali 6:10
The Navy always has other plans. I think it's really interesting, Joanna, that because you had the examples of your parents, you kind of knew maybe what type of an educator you wanted to be, the impact that you'd want to make on your students and community. And realizing pretty early on that that would be a challenge with military life. Because you don't always get to decide where you stay where you go. And that makes teaching really hard. I can say that, as someone who's taught in four different states and tried to restart my career as a military spouse multiple times. I didn't come to that conclusion until really the last school that I was at, and it was heartbreaking to leave. And I just, I didn't think I could do it again, because I had worked so hard to build something at my school. And I had to say goodbye to the students again, and I didn't really feel like my work was done. So I think it's pretty amazing that you, you had that kind of foresight to know maybe that that wasn't going to be realistic knowing the situation because you you married someone in the Navy.
JoDee 7:15
I'm not a military spouse, but I did, I did move a lot. That's something that Ali and I have in common. And I had to get certifications in other states. And it was a little frustrating, moving and knowing that we were going to be there for a short time, because of the nature of my husband's job. Luckily, with experience as a teacher, the test did become pretty easy to take. Because you just kind of... it's just like ingrained in us. So that was never really like an issue. But like, you know, you have to pay for the test. You have to study for them. You have to carve out time on the weekend to go take them. And it was a little tough to have to move, restart, and get that renewal. Ao I can totally relate to the hesitation to even wanting to start over in that regard.
Joanna 8:04
I think to part of it was also my personality. I am much more of an introvert than an extrovert. And so for me, like going into a school, and like not knowing anybody and having to build all those relationships with colleagues and, you know, with with staff and faculty, and then with students and not knowing how all the family trees, you know work in the school and everything was so intimidating to me. Where I think if I was more extroverted, and I was just like I make friends everywhere I go, this is fine. I think that I would have been much braver, maybe, to do that.
JoDee 8:46
What I like about what you were saying before was just, you're really passionate about the subject matters that you taught. And you've managed to make a transition where you're writing, your own kind of like fulfilling this, this passion that I guess was kind of innately a part of who you were as a teacher. And this type of transition is very different from some of the transitions we've heard about, which are a little bit more traditional. It's like, I went to nonprofit or I went to Ed Tech. You went into this blogging space during a time that, you know, the internet is booming and content creation is out there everywhere. So like what was that like for you to translate your skills in that area to a non traditional type of role?
Joanna 9:33
It's a great question, because I think part of it, I kind of like slipped and fell into it. Now looking back, it feels like oh, wow, I really had this like pathway that I planned out. But at the time, I was actually blogging with Jo, My Gosh, the year that John was in Afghanistan. So when we were engaged, he was in Afghanistan for nearly an entire year. And I actually figured out the name during a an all day a teachers meeting.
JoDee 10:03
So you're saying you were in the classroom while you started the blog?
Joanna 10:06
Oh, yes.
JoDee 10:07
You didn't exit and start it. You started it like pre exit. Got it.
Joanna 10:12
It was the year before I before I left teaching. I started Jo My Gosh, purely because I did not know how to handle a deployment. Like my family, previous to John, who are getting married, my family didn't have anybody who really had served, like my my grandfather's did. But I mean, that was like 50 years before. And so I didn't know how to deal with the deployment. Baltimore is not a, like a military town. And I didn't really have any friends who had dealt with this before. So I went online to find support for how to, how to deal with your fiance being in a war zone. And the other way that I dealt with it was making really ornate care packages, like themed care packages with a whole bunch of like, definitely using my teacher skills on like making bulletin boards, like making these care packages. And some of my friends had asked for pictures of them. And I'd posted them on Facebook, and then someone's like, you should just put them on a website and then we can see them. And so I did really honestly just because of that, not with any idea that anybody else would want to see it. I joke but seriously, like my readership was my mom, like a readership of one for probably the first year. And then one morning, I literally woke up, maybe like, five months after John and I got married, and I had left the classroom. I woke up and Pinterest, nobody knew what Pinterest was at that point. And I looked at my analytics, and I had 40,000 people on Jo, My Gosh, reading it, because somebody somewhere had pinned some of my care packages. Definitely thought it was a joke. I definitely thought that I was not reading the analytics, right. But that gave me the confidence that like, oh, people are interested in this content. And then I kind of went backwards a little bit to learn how to be a content creator. And then doors kind of started opening from there. Like at first, I was doing sponsored posts for like, fruit baskets. I mean, I'm not joking, like, and John and I were happy because I was unemployed and like hey fruit. And then it progressed into an actual business.
JoDee 12:31
At what point did it become a revenue stream for you?
Joanna 12:35
I think like a, like a legitimate revenue stream for probably two years after I started Jo, My Gosh. It seemed to pick up pretty quickly and I was unemployed, and was doing a whole bunch of like, wacky side jobs. I was doing a little bit of freelance writing. I was an undercover shopper for a while, and just was kind of trying to cobble together enough money that we could pay student loans, honestly. And so I had a lot of time to really learn how to do all the things that you that comes with having a website and being a content creator.
JoDee 13:14
Did you ever go down the rabbit hole of figuring out who pinned it? And if it was a military spouse?
Joanna 13:19
I'm sure it was a military spouse because I don't think anybody else would be interested in pinning it. But no, I never found like that very first pin.
Ali 13:29
For a long time, I didn't know that Joanna was Jo, My Gosh, because I met her a few years ago. And she's pretty famous in the military spouse community. Like Jo, My Gosh is really well known. And your work has touched a lot of people in very positive ways. So it's kind of amazing that it came out of something very organic, that you were doing because you were going through something difficult. And you put together all these things you were doing in your life anyway and and started this blog, in some ways a brand. It's amazing how it's grown. I want to talk a little bit about you know, pre interview, what online or print resources did you maybe seek counsel from when you were thinking about leaving teaching or going into this new career transition? Pivot? I know Pinterest is something that helped you Was there anything else that you were using?
Joanna 14:26
Honestly, for me, leaving teaching was just a function of getting married. Because I knew what I wanted. I wanted to be where John was. I wanted to get married to him. I knew he couldn't be in Maryland. And I knew that I didn't want to teach until I knew we were settled somewhere for a long time. So I really didn't do a lot of like pre work to leave the classroom which was definitely to my detriment because we got got married in July. So I left at the end of the school year. And so it felt like I was just like, going on, you know, summer break. And at the time, my parents were not retired. And so they went on summer break. And it just felt like normal life like this is how we've been doing life for a very long time. My friends who are teachers went on summer break. And then everybody went back to work, except for me in August. And I had a huge crisis, like a huge crisis of self, of like career, like spiritual crisis. I legitimately sat in like our new apartment. John was like working like 15 hour days. So he was not around a whole lot, and like, just cried for hours, because I did not know what to do. So in hindsight, I wish I would have sought out resources. But at the time, I just, you know, I was like, I'm getting married, and this is gonna be great. And it was great, because I was married to John. It was not great, because I did not realize how ingrained it was in me that like a career was a very important part of myself. And also how much I tied myself worth to a paycheck. And that was really hard to.
JoDee 16:14
I can relate to many of those feelings that you were having. How did your parents respond to not going back to the classroom since they were teachers? And this was kind of like the profession that you always knew, what was their reaction?
Joanna 16:28
My parents have always been super supportive. Like when I said, I wanted to teach in inner city Baltimore. I know that there were a lot of people, my colleagues and Teach For America where they had parents, like actively trying to dissuade them from going other places, or even being a teacher. My parents didn't say a word. They were just like, that's awesome. Like, how can we help? Even if they were, you know, worried, because like, I'm from a rural area, I've never lived in a city. I went to Penn State, which is just basically a big town, you know? So I'd never lived in a city or anything. They were super supportive. They were so supportive of my teaching career, like my dad came down before school started the one time and helped me set up my classroom and like, fix things in my classroom that had been broken for probably 25 years you know?
JoDee 17:15
Don't you love those helping hands? That's the best.
Joanna 17:18
Fantastic. And then the same thing, when I left the classroom. They never once, like never once asked me if I was making the wrong decision. They were very supportive. I think they were a little worried because they just didn't. You know, both of them have worked at the same school for their entire careers. And so career switching and moving around was just not anything they'd experience. But I think they had enough faith in like my scrappiness to be okay with it.
JoDee 17:55
That's great to have that support system. We, Ali and I just talked about how you have to have good people around you cheerleaders, people that really know you and believe in what you're capable of. And it sounds like they had a lot of confidence in you and in your abilities. And I also want to point out, like, Ali said that you're famous in the military community, which doesn't seem like those things go together. But they do. I think all personalities can be impactful, whether you're famous, or whatever it might be like introverts, extroverts, people that lie in between can find avenues for making an impact in education or outside of education. I mean, you have to have some sort of like personality and engagement traits if you're going to be a teacher, and they definitely translate to other places.
Ali 18:44
One other thing that you just said about like the scrappiness because I was thinking about your you know, your side hustles or your gigs that you were doing to make ends meet. I think that that is something that teachers are good at doing too. Like, we know that teacher pay is usually not enough to live off of so generally, you know. People are used to doing something on the side anyway. And so even if maybe you don't have a plan right away. You haven't been researching it. Teachers figure out a way to make ends meet and to pay for their quality of life, rent, mortgage, etc. When they're leaving, it may not be the perfect or ideal situation to begin with. But that scrappiness is something I think we're really good at of just getting out there and doing what we need to do, and generally leads to something else. I'm curious to know how you went from that kind of gig life and starting the blog. And how did you end up in your current role as social media manager of Military.com?
Joanna 19:41
So Jo, My Gosh kind of acted like a writing portfolio for me. And it is something that I'm really grateful to military life. Like at the beginning, I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm giving up everything, because the military keeps making John move and all this stuff, you know? But one thing I really wanted to do alongside teaching was to be a writer. To be a professional writer. And that happened for me, which was really, really exciting. Again, something I kind of fell into. But Jo, My Gosh acted like a portfolio really. I was contacted by brands at first to write sponsored content for them or to write content that would live on their sites. There were a bunch of phenomenal military spouse entrepreneurs who were older than me who had lived this life longer than I had, and who reached out to me to do work for them or for the brands that they had. And so kind of through that networking, I ended up working for... it's a website that's now defunct, but I ended up working as the editor of that website. And then I worked in the nonprofit military community for a little bit. And then just honestly, through networking, I ended up at Military.com as a social media manager. But the strain through all those jobs was that Jo, My Gosh was showing my skills and what I brought to the table. And that was kind of what pet propelling me from job to job.
JoDee 21:08
It also expanded your network, like you went from having this teacher network. And then you have this blog that really catapulted your brand and your like your skills. And so it sounds like through that avenue, you you were able to expand pretty greatly to a point where people were reaching out to you.
Joanna 21:27
Oh, absolutely, yeah, definitely. It helped me find community where I didn't really have one before. And especially because where John was sent to, we were in Fredericksburg, Virginia for a couple years. And we didn't live on base. So we had some friends, but we weren't kind of immersed in military culture. So I didn't really have a big group of people there. My group of people were online, and I could take them with me wherever I wanted to go.
Ali 21:57
Did you feel like when you made the decision to leave teaching, if you decided that that was actually not the best decision, or the best long term decision that you could go back to the classroom?
Joanna 22:08
Yeah, I mean John and I talked about that on numerous occasions. You know, talking about like, when he got out of the Navy, would I want to go back to teaching. If I wanted to, like, you know, pick up some other certifications or things like that. Like, even when I wasn't in the classroom, just to kind of stay in the game. And so it's never super far from my mind. But I really am happy with where I am and what I'm doing right now.
Ali 22:34
I can see that you have made such an impact in the work that you're doing now, much like I'm sure you did in the classroom. And I also, I feel like personally, I'm connecting with you on that. Like, for a long time, and JoDee, JoDee will attest to this, I kept thinking like, oh, maybe I'll go back. Oh, you know, I should do this thing so in case I want to go back to the classroom. But I feel like I'm at a good place to with, with where I am professionally. I think it takes time to really leave that identity. You know, that's going to be your career forever as a teacher. And maybe warm up to what your what your next shift will be.
JoDee 23:10
For someone that's in a similar situation as you or they're just considering leaving, shifting out of the profession or just making a smaller shift. What would you say to them in terms of some advice?
Joanna 23:25
I think teachers have a lot of skills that we don't normally think of as skills, because they're just things that you're doing almost rote throughout the day. You know, classroom management skills, scaffolding and like, teaching becomes almost just an automatic thing, because you learn what works. You learn children's brains, and how they function, how people learn. And so I think a lot of those skills can be translated really into any career. So I would say, you know, think about the things that you love to do during teaching, and see how you can translate them into a role or into a new career path that builds on what you already know. Rather than feeling like you're leaving, and you're coming to the table with nothing, which I think at the beginning is kind of how I felt. I was like teaching is in this... but like this career is in this box. And now I have to go figure out what my new box is going to be.
Ali 23:25
I think that happens a lot. We hear guests on our show. I've seen a lot of interviews recently with former teachers who feel like they don't know what they're going to do because society just sees them as a teacher and like, what can they bring. But they have all of these teacher brain skills, a lot of what you mentioned, and they translate so well into other professions. What I really take away from speaking with you today is that you didn't know, but you were setting yourself up for something outside of teaching by starting the blog in the last year of your teaching career. And so a tip that I would take away is that start while you're teaching. Exploring what you might want to do. Maybe it's writing. Maybe it's training. There's lots of different fields that you can kind of start doing while you're teaching. Something part time. Something you can do virtually. We see that the, you know, online world has offered us so many new career opportunities that did not exist 30 years ago. And so I think that idea of maybe starting small, testing out what you think you might like, or maybe you're just doing it, because it's helping you mentally. It sounds like you were going through a really difficult time with when your fiancee at the time was deployed, your now husband, for that year. And you recognize that you needed a healthy outlet to really be and be who you were, and have those maybe feelings and things you were dealing with. And I think as teachers like giving ourselves a healthy outlet where we can deal with something that's going on in our personal life. Little did you know, that was gonna set you up for what would ended up really being your future career. But that was a great move that you made. Not really intentionally. So I love that you were able to do that. And I'm excited for our listeners to be able to check out your website, Jo, My Gosh! And I want to let them know where else they can find you. You're on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook. And so we're gonna link in our show notes where you can find Jo, My Gosh. And also where you can learn more about PILLAR, which is a deployment retreat that I have been a speaker at for the last two years. So I just want to plug that if you want to hear more from Ali Simon joined the PILLAR Deployment retreat. So thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Joanna 24:26
Oh, thanks so much for having me.
Ali 25:38
Are you interested in suggesting a topic for Teacher Shift? Being a guest or recommending a guest? Please see the episodes page on our website to make a submission. And if you'd like to write for us, see our blog page. If you liked Teacher Shift, give us a five star rating and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Apple podcasts, Spotify and Amazon music. Today's episode was written and recorded by me, Ali Simon and my co host, JoDee Scissors. Executive produced by Teacher Shift. Produced and edited by Emily Porter. Original Music: Emoji by Tubebackr.