Wonderful Women Interview with SEO Specialist Nicola Tuxford

Nicola is a mother to two boys, Stephen and Jack, and works from home for digital marketing agency Exposure Ninja as an SEO Ninja. You can also read her blog Nic Tuxford. 

‘Nic’ is a huge advocate for women in the digital industry, believing that media-based and IT skills can enable women to create empowering careers that complement family life.

Read her inspiring interview here:

1. Describe a typical day for you

I’m a real early-bird, so my typical day will start at 5:45am — though sometimes I’ve been known to fire up the laptop as early as 4am! I’ll grab a quick shower and a cup of coffee, and get in an hour or two of work before the children get up for breakfast and the school run.

Once I’m home, it’s back to the laptop and time to get on with work. Working in digital marketing and SEO means that I can work entirely remotely, saving me much-needed time on commuting. A typical working day for me ranges from reviewing a new client’s website to determine what we need to do to improve both their search engine ranking — as well as how user-friendly the site is — to uploading new blog posts and optimising old ones.

No day is the same, as the world of SEO and digital marketing is forever changing! People assume that working remotely can be lonely, but at Exposure Ninja we use a fantastic communication tool called Slack. Throughout the day, I can communicate with my team, catch up with my manager or digital PR partner.

At 3 pm I pick up the boys. Working remotely means I’ve no need for child care, and keeping flexible hours is a great way to be the parent I want to be while still enjoying a fulfilling career. I get to help the boys with their homework, prepare a healthy dinner, and support their hobbies. I’m currently teaching my eldest son, Stephen, computer programming, and Jack takes a weekly street dance class. It’s fantastic to know that I’m able to enjoy this with them.

We eat as a family. My husband Andy is a wonderful cook, so he usually makes us dinner. Enjoying a family meal means we can talk together and find out about each other’s days. We get the boys into bed at 8pm. I usually check my work emails at this point and ensure nothing is outstanding. Andy will pull me away from my laptop if I get carried away! I wind down with a glass of wine and my guilty pleasure:

2. What do you feel are your biggest achievements?

In my personal life, my first big achievement is my marriage. My husband and I have faced adversity from the get-go! In the third month of our relationship, I moved across the world to study in Canada. We spent half a year in different time-zones, before the world had been introduced to social media. We relied on letters and phone calls to stay in touch. We got through it and are now happily married! He’s given me two wonderful sons and an amazing step-son, and he is my best friend.

I also struggled through a difficult pregnancy at the age of 24. I was given an 8% chance of having a baby at term. I beat the odds, and gave birth at 38 weeks to a 7lb baby who is now an eight-year old giant!

My biggest career achievement started while I was a stay-at-home mum. I’d given up a job in retail product management to take care of the boys. During nap times, nursery time, and bedtime, I taught myself everything I needed to know about digital marketing, and kept up with the world of offline marketing.

The world of marketing is ever-changing, so spending three years out of the workplace was a scary prospect for me. Keeping on top of new trends enabled me to step back into a career quickly, and eventually led to me getting a position at Exposure Ninja, and having the best of both worlds!

3. What’s in your handbag?

Every receipt I’ve ever been given. I’m terrible when it comes to throwing these away! My huge sunglasses for sunny days and driving; a red Cath Kidston purse that my brother gave to me for my 30th birthday; a Boots No7 Lipstick in Rose Pink; and my Amazon Fire phone — I traded in my iPhone for this back in January, and I love it! There’s also a wind up toy worm in there.

4. What are your ambitions in life?

I have five fundamental goals in life that I work towards every day:

Prosperity

Success

Contentment

Family

Health

These goals drive my ambitions. In essence, I’d like to be at the top of my career, with my mortgage paid off, my kids and husband achieving their own dreams, in great shape, and spend every waking moment happy. I’m not asking for much, am I?

5. What advice do you wish you’d known, now you have kids?

If you can simply set aside a few hours a day to utilise the incredible resources available to you online, you can teach yourself the skills you need to create the fabulous life you deserve.

6. Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

In five years’ time, I hope to have finished decorating the home we recently moved into! I plan to complete an MSc in Computer Science, so I hope to have this finished by then. I’d like to be able to help other young parents gain the skills they need to get a career that fits around their children, so the idea of setting up an educational charity or online course appeals to me. Finally, I’d like to see my family doing great things, whether that’s charity work, success in school, or even creating their first computer program. No dream is ever too big!

7. What advice would you give a budding SEO specialist?

You will never know everything, because SEO and digital marketing are constantly changing, so keep reading. I commit to reading at least one new article on SEO every day. Even if I’m tired, ill, or busy, I’ll take ten minutes to read something new. A good starting point is Tim Kitchen’s How To Get to the Top Of Google — it’s an excellent source of information for SEO and digital marketing.

Getting to grips with SEO and digital marketing is a fantastic way to increase your employability, whether you want to work for a business like Exposure Ninja or start up on your own. It’s the ideal career choice for parents, as you can work remotely and flexibly.

8. Finally, happiness is…

Knowing that every waking moment you’re living the life you want, being with the people you want, and creating the career you want!

Read Nic’s Blog.

Exposure Ninja help ambitious businesses make more money from the internet by building bespoke websites, providing quality SEO and PPC services, and through social media management.

Find Exposure Ninja on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

You can also follow Nic on her personal Instagram account as she shares her daily life as a remotely working mum.