Momtrepreneur

Hello again! Thank you for tuning in for another one of my ramblings 😁

Clearly, becoming a mother was one of the major events in my life that pushed me toward starting my business, so I wanted to delve into my experience as a mother in business - the ways I had to adapt and overcome in both my professional and personal life, going from stay at home mom, to single mom, to getting my life and business back on track!

In all honesty, I was always terrified of being pregnant. I was never the kid to babysit for extra money or offer to watch friends' babies. In fact, I was slightly terrified of babies and small children! I found out I was pregnant in June of 2019 only a few weeks after starting what I thought was going to be an amazing long-term career as the main customer service representative for a manufacturing company in Coeur d'Alene. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but my instincts kicked in and I knew I couldn't continue working 45 hours a week leaving my newborn at the mercy of a stranger (no shade toward working moms, you guys are rockstars, I just have trust issues and felt as though that would be a last resort option if I could possibly avoid it).

Alas, I ended up truly enjoying being pregnant! I might catch some snarky remarks when I say I never had morning sickness; of course I felt drained in the beginning and uncomfortable near the end with a few weird weeks in the middle before finding out I was borderline anemic, but that quickly resolved after starting a high dose of iron. Altogether, pregnancy made me feel empowered, sexy, and beautiful all around.

Towards the end of my pregnancy, the doctor told me that the baby (we didn't know what we were having until birth) was breech and were hesitant to try turning him around because it appeared that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, possibly twice. I needed to have extra ultrasounds and monitoring to make sure this wasn't a threat to the baby. The extent of appointments I needed to attend made it difficult to navigate around my work schedule, so I ended up staying home and preparing during the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy. It was by this time that his father and I decided I would be a stay at home mom so I could breastfeed and avoid childcare.

Now I'm not going to go into the gruesome details, but my need for a C-section and my breastfeeding journey did have a great impact on my story. It was my plan from the beginning to have an all-natural delivery and breastfeed for at least a year. Due to the complications mentioned above, I ended up scheduling a C-section and praying up until the surgery started that he would turn around on his own in time. We had no such luck. I am incredibly grateful that we were able to bring Braven into the world safely, but I was admittedly very upset that it didn't happen how I had wanted it to. The stigma around C-sections got to me, and I felt like a failure even though I knew the reason was beyond anyone's control. If that wasn't enough, I immediately attempted breastfeeding only to find that it was incredibly painful for me. Sometimes this is perfectly normal and women's bodies need to adjust to the pressure from nursing. I seeked support from other moms who had gone through this, and the ones who fought through it assured me that it would start getting better after a couple weeks. In that moment, I didn't believe them, but I already felt as though I had failed to give birth so it was important for me that I endure whatever I could to breastfeed. Sure enough, after a couple weeks and a nasty case of mastitis, nursing became one of my favorite parts of motherhood and I continued to breastfeed until he naturally weaned himself at a year and a half.

So how does this tie into my business? Excellent question.

As we already know, I already had a passion for baking and dreamed of opening my own bakery for years. It wasn't until Braven was almost a year old that I discovered the cottage food laws which allow bakers like me to sell baked goods from home. At this point, I had been missing work and feeling the pressures of being a stay at home mom, so I just started baking - simple as that (kind of; I didn't start making any kind of a return on my baking until early 2022, but I did enjoy it and was at least breaking even).

Unfortunately, this is the only photo I have that shows how I would bake (or cook dinner in this case) with Braven strapped to me and often nursing while I worked:

As I have mentioned in my first blog post, the year 2022 was quite interesting indeed. By this time, we were done breastfeeding and Braven was becoming more independent. At the beginning of the year, I started gearing up for Valentine's Day and my first vendor event at the Silverlake Mall, as well as Braven's second birthday immediately after. Right before Valentine's Day, however, Braven came down with a virus. I was very lucky that my mom had decided to come into town to help with my first event, because with her help, I miraculously pulled it off anyways.

I felt so guilty being there knowing my little boy was home sick, but I couldn't let all the work I put into this event go to waste. I also didn't realize how bad it was about to get.

A month later, I participated in the St. Patrick's Day vendor event at the mall. Braven developed some long-term complications from the virus a month before, but even the doctors didn't know it was as bad as it turned out to be. He ended up having a seizure the night before the weekend-long event was supposed to start. Thankfully my mama instincts were spot on when I insisted that we take him to the ER that night because the seizure started the moment we pulled into the parking lot. After knowing he would be okay, I reached out to a couple of friends who were able to help me at the event by watching my booth for the first day since we were in the ER until the early morning.

I felt as though I was being torn in two. As a mother, nothing is more important than the health and safety of my child; but by this time, I felt like my business was kind of like my second child. We've all heard the comparisons about businesses being like a baby, especially when built from nothing. In my heart and mind, I had invested too much into my business to let an illness stop me!

Braven ended up dealing with residual symptoms for a total of 4 months. We were at the doctor and seeing specialists just about every other week, along with a total of 4 trips to the ER. We had to adhere to a special diet, which was especially tough since he couldn't eat anything I baked! I tried to experiment with recipes, but to no avail. All the time, my business was increasing - I was suddenly getting a lot more orders, and officially started getting orders from complete strangers who just found me on Google!

I'm honestly not quite sure how I survived through this since Braven still needed some extra attention, but one day, his symptoms just stopped. We slowly started going back to eating regular food, and he was perfectly fine. Perfect timing, too - for the rest of the summer and beginning of fall, my business remained busier than ever!

In October of 2022, I heard about and applied for The Blox, a reality competition show for entrepreneurs. For those of you who are still wanting more details on that, don't worry, a Blox blog post is coming soon! But anyways, when I applied for The Blox, I didn't tell ANYONE. Not a single soul. Not my best friend, not my mom, not even Braven's dad. I really didn't think I would get the official invite. But the night of October 29th, I became a single mom (no details on that one, sorry to all you drama fiends!) and just 3 days later I had my final interview on the phone. Not even a week after the final interview, I got the official invitation to go. This was when I finally told my best friend, my mom, and Braven's dad.

Due to the circumstances surrounding what ended my relationship, my mom strongly advised me not to go. How could I afford it, who will watch Braven for a week while I'm gone, etc? Needless to say, I did not listen. I pulled it off.. and told my mom that she would be flying to Idaho to watch Braven while I was gone! I still didn't even know where Braven and I were going to be living or how I would be able to afford to survive, but something told me I just had to go to The Blox.

By December, with the help of my mom, I got my own apartment. By January, I started 2 new part-time jobs. The Blox was in February, and I was supposed to go represent my business which I had hardly worked on for the last 3 months. But of course, that didn't stop me! My bosses at both of my jobs were very supportive of my goals and my business, and my mom stayed in my apartment with Braven so I could go and focus on the week without any worries.

And here, I will intentionally leave out any other details about The Blox so hopefully you will all come back when I post my detailed experience and tune in to the show when Season 8 goes live 😉

After my experience at The Blox, I knew I couldn't go back to my life as it was. I still ached to continue my business. You could say, I had a craving! I needed to bake, and so I did. Braven started his "terrible two's" early, and in turn ended his "threenager" phase early - thank goodness! Between juggling multiple jobs, including changing jobs a couple months later, I worked relentlessly to keep my business at the forefront of my goals. Not even 5 months after The Blox, with the support of some amazing people in my life, I was able to quit my part-time jobs and focus primarily on my business, as well as taking on projects for another wonderful Bloxer I met with a company called VoidRabbit Apparel.

These items are available at www.voidrabbit.com

As I am writing this blog post, Braven has just started pre-school and I am filling my books with more baking orders and VoidRabbit projects. The last year has been very interesting to say the least, but I am very proud of myself for seeing it through and continuing to work my business to the best of my abilities. I hope when Braven is old enough to understand the struggles we have faced and overcome, it will inspire and motivate him towards a path of hard work and success!