Introducing me… the marketing mom

Well, as unadvised as it may be, I must start this by saying I had once decided I ‘never want to do marketing again!’ “What is she thinking”… you might say… as you realize I’m launching what I expect to be a successful marketing company. I also had never really thought ahead in life to becoming a mom. And here I sit today, as the marketing mom…. blending my business career with my full time job as mom, doing my very best to succeed at both! I am a complex person at times, but perhaps the backstory explains how I got here.

I was all about my marketing career for a very busy decade, until I met my husband and got married on the cusp of 30. Around the same time I realized I was b.o.r.e.d. of corporate marketing, seriously burnt out, and on the verge of a meltdown if something didn’t change in my work life. A couple short years later, I gladly embraced the world of diapers, sippy cups and never ending trails of toys and pink clothes. While I’ve continued to work with marketing for the past 5 years, in some of the most valuable career-building roles I’ve had, this is what reads between the lines on my resume from 2002 to 2008:

• pregnant
• start wedding photography business ‘on the side’
• maternity leave, continue photography as a hobby/EI legal supplemental income
• laid off before returning to maternity leave , thank goodness for the photography!
• dabble in contract marketing work
• (insert resume item here – good career job)
• pregnant
• leave good job because 2 year old and pregnancy and full time job is too exhausting
• (insert resume item here – really good, work from home, contract job here)
• maternity leave, quit photography even though I loved it and had very happy clients because the weekend work didn’t gel with my family life goals
• (return to good contract job on part-time hours)
• (join MLM company… Usborne books… to save my sanity and justify buying great books for my kids)
• pregnant
• quit good contract job, keep selling books, slowly start to ‘get’ the brilliant MLM business model and meet simply amazing women who are truly trying to do it ALL for themselves and their families
• no maternity leave, since I was contracting, quit before the baby came and had no intention of returning to work anyway
• begin conceptualizing a new business model based on the impossibilities, and possibilities, of being in business while being a stay at home mom

That was what was happening while I was building my “formal” resume. Those 6 years were a journey in which I was determined to find a new career path, and leave the marketing behind. A life coach after a layoff around 1999 had once promised that change didn’t have to happen over night, and in all likelihood would take 5-10 years to discover a true career passion. This let me off the hook, allowed me to take my time, and not feel anything I ‘tried’ would be a mistake. The first step was deciding to start the journey in the first place.

The call to motherhood was that first step, with a lovely year of maternity leave to begin the bridge in my thinking from overstressed workaholic to overtired, disfunctional, quasi-career mom of three! I have my ups and downs like all parents, mood swings that could win contests, and my imperfections stare me in the face. But knowing what I know, and inspired by my vision for the future for myself and my family, I am in my soul, happy with the path I’m taking in my life.

So, here I sit, busy mom of three girls under 6 years old. I have established a strong foothold in the multi-level marketing world and have MUCH to share from the successes of these types of businesses. And I have embraced the brilliant big business career I’ve left behind (which I always valued, even when I was escaping) which was in a nutshell creating marketing magic on shoestring budgets as the one woman marketing show (and yes, it did involve song and dance) for very small companies who by and large turned into big success stories. I’ve decided to bring my unique skills and experience to women in business who NEED help with their own businesses. And with much understanding of what it takes to be a mom balancing a WHOLE life, a whole lot of realism and humility, and a practical approach that is both fun and effective, I am ready to launch mpowered marketing… marketing for women (like many of you) in very small businesses. I am 7 years past the first step…. the decision to change my life! I can’t wait to continue the journey.