Meet Teressa Gehrke

We were lucky to catch up with Teressa Gehrke recently and have shared our conversation below.

Teressa, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I’ve been afforded the opportunity, thanks to my parents, to have many chances to explore my creative side. When I was young, I did tap, dance, ballet, art, and painting classes. I’m also musical. I had piano, voice lessons, and even voiceover work. I keep my creativity alive by teaming up with colleagues who are creative. Their ideas are inspiring. I also think when people see that I love the arts and music then they are considerate of me. As an example, my uncle knows I love music and gave me a drum set. Now, I love to play the drums and am taking lessons, which has opened a whole new avenue for creativity. I’m able to bring all of my creativity to my business, PopCykol. I can incorporate my musical talents of singing and voiceovers to PopCykol.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
PopCykol is a cybersecurity awareness company designed for kids. We provide information about keeping kids safe on the internet. PopCykol stands for Protecting Our Precious Curious Kids Online. The idea is to keep the lessons about online safety simple for kids and families who aren’t familiar with cybersecurity. Our lessons are non-technical and technical in nature to continue to advance people’s understanding of cybersecurity.

Parents and grandparents can get involved by engaging in our different products and services. We have an online school called “PopCykool” that houses our online courses. We currently have one on Passwords. What is a password? Why do you need a password? How do you protect your password? Our Password course is easy to follow for kids and adults. We also offer family and business consultative services.

PopCykol is excited to announce a new addition to our services, Sweetz Café. Sweetz Café will be our exclusive portal for kids to explore all things cyber in a fun and interactive way. It will have fun games, puzzles and learning activities that tie in with online safety.

Adults will appreciate our PopCykol Tips, which is an informational guide to different topics such as phishing, cyberbullying, social media, and mental health, as well as more technical topics like VPN and keylogging.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three qualities that have influenced my journey to starting a new company are perseverance, creativity, and collaboration. Even when days are tough and deadlines are missed or people don’t show up for events, you don’t lose sight of the bigger picture and purpose. You have to persevere and not give up. I’m lucky that my team is small and everyone has a voice to bring their own creativity and inspiration to each new project. We all work well together. Right now, it’s the A Team. There’s a great collaboration flow when we are in the zone. Surround yourself with good people who get you and get rid of those things that hinder progress.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?
We are always looking for the right people or organizations to partner or collaborate with. Committed partners are the most important thing we are looking for. It can be a school or college, athletic team, PTA, police department, religious organization, community center, non-profit organization, or larger corporation that needs our unique perspective to bring security awareness to their audience. We have a tiered system for booking and pricing for speaking engagements. The best way to learn more is to visit our website: www.popcykol.com.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Gabriela Gjurekovec

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