Working Moms

This blog post is the fourth installment of a collaborative 5-part series entitled The Mother Within. Start at the beginning here. Perhaps you are career woman turned mother, and you are wondering how those women on TV make it seem like you really can have it all. I'm here to tell you that you too can have it all; you just can't have it all at once.  Let's pretend for a moment that you have unlimited resources and hire nannies for your children. You can hire assistants to handle all those classroom parties and responsibilities. You are making enough money to pay for all of it, but your time and availability are limited because you have to work. You have the finances to...

This blog post is the third installment of a collaborative 5-part series entitled The Mother Within. Start at the beginning here. I graduated college in California in 2008, just as the economy was beginning its downward slide. I loved the design degree I was earning and had numerous interviews throughout the state that would hopefully jump-start my career in the field. But one-by-one they called me back to cancel the interviews. As the economy crashed their workload disappeared almost overnight. No work meant there was no need for any new employees. A few months later I was on my way to living in Louisiana.   I got an internship and I was happy to have work. But I still needed another part-time job to...

This blog post is the second installment of a collaborative 5-part series entitled The Mother Within. Start at the beginning here. "Am I enough?"  "What's my purpose?" "Can I have it all?" Questions we may all ask ourselves at some point in our lives, no matter our situation. These arise when we doubt ourselves, compare ourselves to others, experience fear, feel like we're stuck in a rut, or just want to be better. This was the topic of a recent group discussion within RSMB, which included mothers from all walks of life, leading us to believe this is a very common thought process.   While it has been my choice to share my time between work and family, I have had moments where I ask myself...

This blog post is the first installment of a collaborative 5-part series entitled The Mother Within.  "What is my purpose?" I must ask myself this countless times a day. I know I must be good at something. Everyone has something they are good at, I’ve heard. I once listed out the things I felt I excelled out and came up with: Googling, reading, finding indie bands, dressing my kids, putting on makeup (on myself only), looking up various things on Google Earth and decorating my home. That’s it. SURELY there are real things that I have talent in. I just can’t for the life of me find what they are. I have always felt that I was meant for great things. Even as a small...

Between blogging and trying to grow two small businesses, I spend a significant amount of time on social media. As a function of that, I participate in a few online communities where participants discuss social media as it relates to business. In our discussions there, as well as in conversations in general, I have sometimes run into a recurring sentiment that I believe it is high time to challenge. That sentiment sounds something like this: “If I see someone advertising their business on social media, I just immediately delete them. I don’t want to be sold to on Instagram.” “I wish people wouldn’t talk politics on Facebook and we could get back to what Facebook was intended to do: connect family and friends." “I...