I took BARBARA
Consultant, Web Developer,
Social Media Manager e Canva Expert.
Consulting, web development, social media and Canva Expert. Today we have the pleasure of hosting Barbara Tulissi at Easy Travel Hosting. Could you tell us your story, and the many paths you took before creating the work you do today?
I never know how to answer this type of question because I should start from when I was eight years old and my sister and I made beaded jewelry. That was my first real contact with creativity.
But without starting from the big bang, I would say that I became passionate about the digital world in 2016 when I was in Barcelona for my first master's degree in mathematics. I have always liked numbers but I felt that I needed to add my creative side to create something that I would like to do in the future.
So after completing my master's degree I returned to Italy with the idea of creating a start-up in the rhythmic gymnastics sportswear sector, the sport I practiced throughout my adolescence and which literally stole my heart.
Unfortunately, the idea failed due to web development taking too long.
In the meantime, however, I had started studying ways in which to promote my idea on the web, I bought some courses, I trained and as I delved into digital issues, I understood that this would be my path.
In the following years I worked with some web agencies in my city, Udine, then I opened the VAT number and started working as a social media manager and web developer as a freelancer working with several foreign clients and big brands such as Generali Italia and Fujitsu Italia.
At the end of 2020 I then thought about creating something of my own again and I launched into the creation of my first digital product, the 100+ Funnel Templates, one hundred templates Canva which help social media managers and entrepreneurs launch their brand on social media thanks to customizable and semi-ready graphics.
This project was advertised in March 2021 and now, at the beginning of 2022, I can say that it was a success. Alongside this I started the Personal Brand Italia Facebook community (link:https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalmarketerspb) which currently has over 800 members. In September 2021 they then started contacting me from different courses and universities to teach the tool I love: Canva.
Qualche mese fa ho iniziato a tenere una serie di workshop formativi a tema Canva anche sulla piattaforma di Learnn (link:https://learnn.com?via=bt95444).
It hasn't always been easy, I have to admit it but now I wouldn't change what I do for the world.
Among your studies there are linguistic ones and your life is that of a digital nomad. How useful is it, in your opinion, to leave Italy in order to expand your vision?
We could actually say that my passion for languages is what gave me the desire to travel. I have always traveled a lot since I was a teenager but in the last two years I have definitely made traveling my lifestyle.
Consider that in February 2020 I had purchased an experience in Bali with other Spanish and Portuguese digital nomads. Too bad I had to cancel the trip due to the pandemic. However, as soon as I could, I left Italy and, in October 2020, I moved to the Canary Islands and in less than six months I had already lived in Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Lanzarote.
A few months later I heard about a village for digital nomads in Madeira, Portugal, a project by a boy to create community among people like me who have a passion for travel and their work. I spent a month in Madeira and the following month I went to Fuerteventura, a Canary island that I missed. Now I have recently returned from a month spent on the island of Sal, in Cape Verde, followed by 5 days in Lisbon.
To answer the question, I wouldn't have met a lot of interesting people, I probably wouldn't even have had the idea of launching my own product and I certainly would have felt the tiredness and heaviness of a situation like the current one in Italy.
I would make the choice to travel again while working a thousand times, when I decided to do it among other things I wanted it to be my decision, not to travel because "the company sent me" and not to collaborate with companies that "if you travel then we can't trust" (and trust me, I've had that happen!). I chose to do it for myself because as a person I need to work to live and not the other way around, I need to be able to go out and find the sun, take a dip in the pool during my lunch break and go out at the weekend and always see new places.
I call this life.
The moment you felt that the turning point was possible was when you started teaching Canva, today a very used tool by all bloggers. Would you tell us about it?
Canva is a very useful tool for various professional figures, from bloggers, to advertisers, to graphic designers and to all those who want to launch their own brand.
I discovered Canva in 2016, at the time of my master's degree it was already used a lot in Spain and when I arrived in Italy I continued to use it as I needed to produce graphics for my clients' social media and for websites.
I like to define Canva as an all-in platform, in the sense that given its continuous updates it is increasingly becoming a design tool, intended not as art but as a creative process. Anyone with an idea, from the entrepreneur to the teacher, can put it into practice by having at their disposal an almost infinite library of ready-made models for the most disparate purposes, the possibility of sharing the project with a team of people and working on it in real time, of scheduling posts for one's social networks and much more.
A statistic from Canva says that on average a company uses 88 applications to try to be as efficient as possible in its work.
This is why Canva, with its integrations with various platforms (such as typeform, Google doc and Google sheet, etc.) wants to provide a single work space where the worker can find everything he is looking for without having to go crazy among 87 other applications, and the client can have control of the work done and make the necessary changes.
If I were you I would give Canva a try, registration is free 🙂 → https://partner.canva.com/MXX1eP
In a now arid working world, where one has to be grateful for having a precarious job at a thousand euros a month working six days a week, we see more and more frequently stories of young independent entrepreneurs who build their future on their own, and the majority of them are women. Would you like to give us your opinion on this phenomenon, and what would you say to a girl who can't find herself in the 9-5 working pattern?
I too have noticed this phenomenon and thinking about it I think that, even if we talk a lot about gender equality, we are still far away, at least in Italy.
I once had a client ask me if I had children because in her opinion, as a mother, you can't manage a business with children.
Of course I decided not to work on it together.
I recently joined SheTech, a community that supports women entrepreneurs and, once I sent the membership request, several sponsored people from other communities that support women and girls appeared on social media.
I think it's beautiful, especially because - unfortunately it's true - a woman has to work much harder to demonstrate that she's capable of doing something than a man, and often, in my experience, it's very easy to find other women who put a spoke in your wheels.
If I went back I would tell my 23 year old self to hold on because with consistency and perseverance you can achieve your dreams.
When I started this job and I started it smartworking already in 2016, my family didn't understand what I did, they always saw me at home, in front of the PC in my pajamas.
Then when I found a job in the first web agency they were so happy that I went to the office. But do you know how productive I was in the office? Out of eight working hours, maybe 4.
Coffee breaks, the boss who interrupts you for even the slightest paranoia, useless meetings with clients take up time, sometimes unjustified. Not to mention the time literally wasted in changing, putting on makeup and the money in petrol and pollution to get to the office.
I led this life for three months then I started my career as a freelancer and I explained better to my parents what I did.
Now even if they don't understand in detail what I do, they see me happy around the world and they know well that they don't give me the money I use to travel. Now my results speak for me.
I don't think I've gotten anywhere because life is a journey without a destination but I feel like a girl like many others who can perhaps recognize themselves in this story.
As you know, Easy Travel Hosting uses renewable and eco-sustainable energy to power its servers. Furthermore, a tree is planted for each new hosting, actively helping reforestation and the absorption of CO2. What do you think of this project and in general, do you think it is important to seek a more sustainable lifestyle?
I don't think it's important I think it's essential.
I believe that few marketers and remote workers know that the internet pollutes and this is why the Easy Travel Hosting project immediately struck me.
It is useless to order a drink without a straw at the bar if we then rely on servers who pollute like a chimney or not do waste separation or prefer the car to go to the tobacconist on the way home.
I am very sensitive to professional ethics, I always try to keep my word, to behave correctly even when relationships with customers become difficult and at the beginning of 2022 I was just wondering how I could contribute more to the green theme, it is one of my resolutions for the new year.
I have to be honest, when I chose smartworking as a working method, it wasn't just for convenience but because I believe that our planet is a gift like our life is. Continuing to undo it just because “the customer needs to see you in person” makes no sense.
It seems incredible but I have encountered this behavior in companies that more than others act as spokespersons for the well-being of the planet.
I think that if I can contribute to the sustainable development of technology, reducing pollution, I will, which is why I am testing the Easy Travel Hosting platform.
Easy Travel Hosting thanks Barbara very much for taking part in our interview for the column dedicated to Small Business for Women.
If you want more information, you can follow her on her website by clicking here.
And on social media too!
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