Episode 13 – From Personal Assistant to Code Entrepreneur: Laura’s Journey with Code Flight

Leon Hitchens (00:00):

Oh, welcome to the Boost. My name’s Leon. I’m here with Laura, founder of Code Flight and also part of her personal brand, which is Suitcase Coder. Today we’re going to be talking about her journey coding and learning how to run a startup here at Geekdom. All right. Really appreciate having you here today. I am super excited. We’ve done a few mentoring sessions here and there, and I see you around Geekdom all the time. But I don’t think we’ve ever talked about your origin story or kind of the hero of it. The main character is how did you learn to code? How did you get started in coding and made your journey this way?

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (00:44):

Yeah, so first of all, thank you for having me. I’m super excited. I love talking about my coding journey, what’s led me to where I am now, but it started way back in 2018 when I was working as a personal assistant and I absolutely hated my job, hated everything that I was doing. I felt my brain kind of just going to mush. I would sit there and just stare at my computer with nothing to do. So I wanted to do a career switch. I didn’t know

 a leg, which we’ll get into that. And just something that would interest me, that would allow me to kind of use my brain on the day to day. So I started doing research. I look into graphic design, I looked into a bunch of different things and I kept coming across these coding bootcamps, which at the time they were brand new. A few people had heard of them. I didn’t even know what coding was at the time, but I went to this free, Hey, learn HTML in an hour workshop. And in there they said, Hey, you don’t need to know math to get into this. And I said, sold.

Leon Hitchens (02:00):

I love that because that was a lot of my fear when I heard about coding was it’s going to be math based. And I hear a lot of that from folks even today is the math of it or the logic, and I’m like, it’s not math-based logic, yes, but no math these days.

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (02:19):

And that was a game changer for me because I had the same fear of like, well, if I have to do math every day, that’s not something I want to sign up for. But it’s a lot less math, a lot more problem solving, which I love. Legos, Sudoku, any of those kinds of puzzles I really enjoy. So that kind of started me on the path and I tried saving up money. I’m telling you the whole story here. So I saved up money to join Ako Bootcamp. At the time, the one that I was looking into was about 10 K, which was still a lot. I guess long story short, I ended up emptying my savings account at the time I was living in Dallas. I dropped everything, broke my lease, moved back in with my parents to be able to go to this coding bootcamp because in my mind I figured I’ll complete it in four months, I’ll be done. I’ll move back to Dallas, get a great job. It’s been years since that happened. I never moved back to Dallas.

(03:18):

The learning journey took a lot longer. The finding a job journey was difficult, as many may know who are going through that process. But yeah, so it all started because to answer your question, it all started because I didn’t like my job and I was looking for something different. And there was this promise of you can get a six figure job and it’s easy to learn in six months and it’s available to anybody and you don’t need to know math or have any prior skills to pick up the skill. And parts of that were true. But I really dove into that promise and I learned a lot along the way,

Leon Hitchens (03:55):

A little harder in the journey. And I think that’s a lot of things. a lot of people, it’s sold as a little bit easier, even starting a business or doing a startup, it’s like they romanticize it and it is very fun, but in the end when you look back you’re like, whoa, that’s a journey. Now you were doing an executive assistant, right? Yes. How did you know that was the right time? I know your brain was turning to mush, but how did you make that jump? Because saving 10 grand and then moving back with your parents, I don’t think I could have, my ego couldn’t have survived some of those parts, and I really applaud you for that. Obviously made some success here.

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (04:37):

Thank you. Yeah, it was a tough choice for sure, but I’m sure many listeners have faced or are facing this now when you’re just sitting at a job and you, or Sunday afternoon comes around the Sunday scaries hit and you just don’t want to go to work the next day. And it truly was a matter of me sitting down and figuring out, well, what is it that I want out of my life? I was at a point where I was starting to look for other jobs, but I figured if I go look for a similar job at a different company, I might be stuck in the same thing. And so instead I took a look at what kind of life do I want to leave and I live and I know that I always wanted to travel. My number one thing is I want to travel the world, see as much of it as possible, but I never guess fully grasp the fact that, hey, if I want to travel and be flexible with my time and have the money to be able to travel, I need to do something now that’s going to support that later.

(05:35):

And so again, with that promise of, Hey, coding bootcamps can get you this six figure salary, it really aligned with what kind of life I wanted to live later and that was traveling. So

Leon Hitchens (05:48):

What I would call digital nomadism, like that kind of category, right?

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (05:53):

Absolutely. So that’s along that time is when I started my personal brand Suitcase Coder, which was my journey from Coding Bootcamp to becoming a digital nomad. Very much

Leon Hitchens (06:06):

Love connection. Now I’ve seen it, watched a couple videos, looked through it, and I was like, suitcase Coder. I was like, okay. But now I love the origin story, the full arc of it, and it makes me love the name so much more. Yay,

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (06:21):

Thanks. I am not going to lie. I’m really proud of that name. I really like Suitcase Coder. It’s true. It’s my motivator for getting into coding and it’s what motivated me as I was learning it. Even now with what I’m doing, it’s to reach that goal of I want to travel the world one day, whether that’s by little spurts here and there, but I knew that coding was an avenue for me to be able to get there. With it being fully a digital career, there’s a lot more chances for it to be a flexible career, both in time and also a lucrative career. There was money to,

Leon Hitchens (07:04):

Yeah, there’s still money to be made.

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (07:06):

There’s definitely still money to be made.

Leon Hitchens (07:09):

Okay. I want to talk a little bit about the code flight. So you’ve given me the background here, but I want to know what is Code Flight and what got you started down that path?

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (07:22):

Yes. So Code Flight really stemmed in the last year and a half or so, and I attribute a lot of it to Geekdom. I attended a startup bootcamp some point last year, and it’s a weekend long program where they teach you essentially how to start a business and they ask you all the right questions to start building that foundational steps. And when I tell you I walked into that startup bootcamp with an idea, I had suitcase code already going for a couple years. I had a podcast, TikTok, all that fun stuff that I was doing because I enjoyed it. And then I said, Hey, I can really actually help people learn to code in a way that’s different than what already exists. And at this point, I had been a student at a coding bootcamp after spending months trying to learn on my own. I had taught at a few several coding bootcamps, so I really knew the ins and outs of what it took to learn to code in today’s world with coding bootcamps through universities, very familiar with the ups and downs of learning to code and taking all of those experiences.

(08:31):

I built Code Flight. And to tell you a little bit about what Code Flight is, it’s a personalized learn to code platform. And what’s unique about it is that every user that gets started on it takes a discovery quiz to help them identify what their unique coding path is. So one of the questions that I see a lot in people who are interested in learning to code is that there’s so many languages out there and there’s so many different paths that you can take, but many people like me had no idea where to get started. So Code Flight helps ’em with that first step in identifying what the best path for them is based on their goals, and then it curates a personalized curriculum based on that quiz.

Leon Hitchens (09:19):

Very interesting. I am liking the path because I get asked that quite often from anybody that’s younger that’s like, what coding language should I learn? And a lot of times now I tell them, Hey, maybe go try Swift. That might be the easiest path. But then people come to me and they’re like, what about PHP? What about React? What about this framework? What about Node? And there’s a lot. So that questionnaire, is it kind of based on personality types? Is it maybe different types of problem solving? What are some of the questions I’m interested there?

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (09:53):

Yeah, so my kind of mindset with that is if you know any bit of coding, you know that once you learn one language similar to spoken languages, it’s way easier to jump into others. So my idea is to let’s get you on a starting path so that you don’t have to waste time trying to figure out where to go. Our discovery quiz helps our users identify which path based on what kind of goals they want to reach. So whether it is you want to find a job and if you want to find a job, what city do you want to find that job in? Because depending on where you want to live or work, the most popular languages are going to change. What we use in San Antonio is a lot of Java and kind of old school languages versus New York is very new and modern languages.

Leon Hitchens (10:41):

Never thought about it like that, but that is fairly true. The types of companies are going to do that, where in an Arkansas, it’s Walmart you can kind of tailor. It’s really interesting to think that way. I don’t any else. I don’t think anybody else has actually talked about it in that fashion.

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (11:04):

Yeah, I think what’s overlooked a lot is if you want to get a job, figure out what kind of jobs you want and then work backwards from there. And so I figured what’s the best way to do that? And it’s kind of incorporated into that quiz by asking those kinds of questions. Another thing we do take into account is what kinds of problems do you like to solve already if you even like to solve problems? So a lot of the questions are how do you experience websites today? So when you go to a website and it’s really slow or the functionality is just clunking, you’re like, oh, this is so frustrating. Of course it frustrates us all, but some people really focus on those aspects and some people don’t really care about how clunky it is, but if it looks yucky or if it looks outdated, they’re not even going use it.

(11:53):

And so based on your existing experience with the world, our world is very digital. So we kind of take both of those things into account in that discovery quiz to help identify if you’re learning to code which path is right for you, front end or back end. And yes, there’s other paths to take. I’m excited for a future because there’s so many things that we can continue to build on with Code Flight, but for now it kind of focuses on let’s get you started on the front end path or let’s get you started on the backend path based on those answers

Leon Hitchens (12:26):

Really like that. And I like the idea of, it’s kind of like game theory where if you’re playing a video game and you can think about it, same thing is I don’t think I could ever work in a healthcare space. Those websites are just atrocious to me. But I know people that that’s their whole career is where they’re just developing very nascent parts of a healthcare website and they get no recognition, but they love it because a very particular type of problem. So I applaud you on that because I’ve never seen or heard another program quite take that approach to where let’s figure out what you want and what the outcome is and not just, Hey, let’s get you into the programs. So code flight, so you take the quiz, you kind of get the path. What made you make it self-guided versus a coding bootcamp where it’s very classroom style, very traditional,

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (13:24):

Having it self-guided truly makes it available for anybody’s schedule regardless of what time zone you’re in, really. Another thing that I saw is in working at many coding bootcamps, I realized that the turnover rate for instructors, for mentors, for tutors is so high. And the quality over time as coding bootcamps became more and more popular, the quality of the instructors having been an instructor myself dropped. And I think a lot of the reasons for that is because if you have these really cool skills of a software developer, you can either teach it or go get a job in it, practice it, and make a higher salary. And so the turnover rate was high, and a lot of times as an instructor you didn’t quite have the time to pick up the new skills quick enough to teach it to the new students coming in. So that was one thing.

(14:23):

Another thing is the cost of behind the scenes of the business. The cost of finding qualified instructors and qualified mentors is so high that I wanted to make sure that we provide the students with their own career guidance and curriculum. The most important reason as to why I’ve decided to make Code Flight self-guided is because some of the most successful students I saw both learning alongside me and students that I taught were those that took it into their own hands and were genuinely curious about coding. So in a way, code Flight is going to kind of weed out those who are truly interested in code flight learning to code because they’re going to be curious to go onto the next step. They’re going to be the ones diving in and going through the courses and be really excited about it. And if anybody listening knows anything about coding, it’s a career where you never stop learning. And so by making it self-guided, I kind of want to encourage that to bring in people who are truly

Leon Hitchens (15:35):

That type of behavior where they can do it. I love when a developer says, Hey, I’ve got a side project. I built this really cool tool that plugs into something like there’s a few folks that they have a problem and they’re going to code it out because they’re like, I know I can solve it. And I think those types of folks are going to thrive in the coding industry and the engineer industry because you’re right, you see a framework if it goes and frame of mind for me is PHP. If it goes from one version to the next version, brackets might change. There’s little nuances, new features get rolled out. And if you’re not learning that very quickly in four years, you’re looking at code and you’re like, whoa, I don’t know what this is. I love the self-guided. I think that’s really nice because you can do it at any time. You can kind of push yourself. You’ve got an ability to upscale or learn the skills as you’re going. You’ve also got an amazing quiz system. What are the future plans for it? Do you’ve got some really cool roadmap ideas?

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (16:48):

Yes, I definitely do. I’m really excited to gamify it as much as possible. So I would love Code Flight to be as engaging as Duolingo for learning a code, making our users want to come back to it and continue learning. Yes, coding is fun and those users that enjoy it will naturally come back to it, but how can we make it even more engaging and just gamifying it? I think gamifying, gamifying, it is a lot of

Leon Hitchens (17:20):

Fun. I do love du lingo and I do love apps that give me kind of those endorphin hits of like, oh yes, I finished it, I got a cool little sticker. Or even if you complete it, you get a little emblem or something that you can share. I love doing those sets of things. So I’m in agreeance there now for anybody learning. What advice would you give somebody as we wrap up? What would you tell maybe the young as you were starting this journey?

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (17:56):

There’s so much I could say that’s why I started a whole podcast talking about this, but if I were learning to code right now, if I were getting started all over again, I think one of the main things I would do is understanding why it is that you’re learning to code. If you’re learning it for the wrong reasons, maybe you’re just chasing money and you don’t actually enjoy coding, you’re going to have a miserable time and you’re just going to spiral into this imposter syndrome of, I dunno how to code. It’s too hard and it is just going to be miserable for you. So I would definitely start with why. What’s your motivator? Like I said earlier, for me it was traveling the world, right? Being flexible with my time and I enjoy problem solving. So I found something that allowed me to enjoy that process and helped me get me to my goal.

(18:55):

Another thing I would say is find a community. Finding a community and accountability in that process is huge. Whether it’s people who know how to code for when you get stuck on those technical questions, which little plug here, code flight, if you didn’t know, every module does have a tutor bot, an AI bot at every module to help you answer those technical questions as you’re learning to code in place of kind of a mentor. So you’re not completely, I don’t know what to do, who do I ask? You have that, but still it’s good to talk to people. So finding a community of people who are both technical in your skills, but also accountability of friends or family who may not know anything about coding, but know the journey that you’re on and that you can go vent to or just talk to about your journey because it’s going to be really helpful because learning to code isn’t the easiest thing in the world. It’s not necessarily the rocket science, but it can be very difficult at times. So finding a community, knowing your why, just keep consistent. Keep doing it week to week, month to month because just like any spoken language too, the second you stop using it, you lose it.

Leon Hitchens (20:10):

I like the comparison to language because I think a lot of folks don’t really think of it in that way, but if you’re learning Portuguese, for example, if you learn those love languages, you can go to Spanish, you can go to Portuguese, you can to jump to French. And the same thing with coding languages. They are a language and being able to jump to them, it’s not always the hardest. There’s obviously languages that revolve in the same love language, but that’s a good way to frame it. And I like that you’re making it more approachable for folks more anything because it is a big thing. And I know we’ve talked a little bit about misconceptions, but is there anything else as people go down this journey that they think of coding and then it’s just like, whoa, that was a little bit of an urban myth?

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (21:02):

Yeah. Just real quick on your note about languages. It’s funny, I actually graduated college with a degree in German, and so it was completely different. And so for me when I got into coding, I very much compared it to learning a foreign language. You just have to learn the vocabulary and then you learn the grammar and then you learn to put sentences together. Very similar to coding. And I see similarities with music as well. I’m not a musician, but a lot of musicians can kind of piece it together in that way. But to that point, I graduated with a degree in German, was on a completely different path. And at the time I was what, maybe 26, 27. And I thought I was so old to be changing careers, which is laughable now because I’m 33. And so I think one misconception that I hear a lot is am I too old to learn to code or am I too old to change careers? And my answer will always be no, because as long as you’re still living, why not go chase the thing that you want to do? So it’s kind of a big miscon conception that I hear a lot.

Leon Hitchens (22:07):

I like that. I have a friend, he was 40, he changed his career. He was doing engineering building buildings, and he goes, I don’t want to do this anymore. I went to coding. He is got a job. And those are very successful routes. It’s obviously hard and I think a lot of folks definitely downplay the language part, but German’s a hard language. That’s not an easy language and especially coming from an English or something like that, that’s hard. And I like the journey. I love what you’ve got going. We’ll put in the show notes, suitcase coder, we’ll put code flight. If there’s any other resources out there, we will gather from you and put those in those notes. So anybody out there that can start their coding journey and they can go to code flight, get that quiz going and actually figure out what they want to do and then find that path forward.

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (23:04):

Yeah, I actually have a summer promo going on right now where if they use the code summer 24, they can get 10% off the annual fee and code flight is pretty affordable. It’s less than a dollar a day if you want to learn on the annual plan. So if you want to get started, everybody gets a seven day trial. So if you want to just figure it out, see if it works for you. And yeah,

Leon Hitchens (23:25):

I like that get started. I appreciate it. I really loved having you on and I think the coding stuff is, especially for a lot of folks, building something at the very least, understanding what is the basis of their startup is going to be important because code quite literally runs the world. I know it’s a little cliche to say, but every company at some point has a website, they have some sort of application and having that all kind of pieced together, even if they don’t need it, I would encourage anybody to just go see what it is. And I think Code flight might be a good path for that. So I appreciate your time. For everybody listening, you can go subscribe to our YouTube. We’re on Apple podcasts. Leave us a review and follow, please. I really appreciate it, Lada, and I’ll see you around. Thank

Laura Ruiz-Roehrs (24:14):

You so much for having me. This was a blast. Cool.