Why I Started SESTIVA

There’s no one real reason why I started my own company. More like a confluence of feelings that were best addressed by the idea of SESTIVA.

Since as long as I can remember, I’ve always been project- and task-oriented. A problem solver. Someone who can take a large undertaking and breaking it into smaller undertakings. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

That coupled with my 17 year old prowess of having zero clue what I wanted to do with my life in a professional sense but encouraged to continue my education at a four-year university. I found myself eventually graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in Organizational Leadership in Management.

I graduated and entered the working world. I had always seen myself working on a computer. I enjoyed it even as a kid. Anyone remember “Mario Teaches Typing”? I may be the only person that played that for fun. Dunno.

I became a manager, putting my structured education to use. I realized that I was actually pretty good at it. And not in the way that I just think I was. But in the way that I’ve been told more times than I can count from people whom I’ve supervised that I’m the best manager they’ve EVER had. Awww shucks.

But the reality of building a life got in the way; I met my partner at work. So I was shuffled around in a professional sense. And as aggravated and frustrated as that made me, I wouldn’t take it back for the world. Because, outside of getting married and building our family and lives together, I was granted very quick and deep access into different types of management: people, projects, and operations. Which allowed me to move into the corporate world and fly under the radar as an Executive Assistant for senior leadership in the corporate environment.

I learned so much more. I was able to add some real world experience to that formal education, relatively risk free. As I’ve told some people over the years, “I was able to be in the room where it happens, without being responsible for any of the decisions that needed to be made.” And I learned so much more through osmosis. That it became clear that I was at a crossroads. I called it “my midlife crisis without the crisis.”

I needed more. I wanted to do more. I have skills that aren’t being fully utilized. I felt underutilized. In 2020, the few months pre-pandemic, I signed up for a class to start thinking about using my knowledge, skills, and experience to start a Virtual Assistance company. And then SESTIVA was born. Two years from today, actually. Huh. That’s weird (and quite the unexpected realization while writing this).

The pandemic placed an enormous spotlight on the inequities of the world. The haves and have nots and the vast Grand Canyon sized crevasse between the two. I wanted to be part of the change I wanted to see. I took a leap and created SESTIVA and put everything I had and wanted to see into one basket. It’s risky. But I had to at least try.

So it’s part of SESTIVA’s mission to support members of historically excluded communities through their businesses, organizations, and non-profits. I have knowledge. I have experience. I have access. I have support. It became time to do something with it.

Time is a finite resource. And I want to use it wisely.