I came back completely changed, and a horrible candidate for a corporate job - having a year of freedom to do what I wanted, when I wanted, changed me forever. I’d gotten a taste of freedom, and I wasn’t looking back. Quickly making a traditional office even LESS appealing was the joyous news that I was pregnant.
Now I was expecting and looking for a career change. Many things interested me, travel, fashion, non-profit work, and writing - especially writing. My husband and I were living in an affordable area of Brooklyn, our expenses were minimal, and I still had plenty of savings. I had the luxury to continue taking risks.
I went to NYC’s New School, and took a journalism course. Most of the kids in the class were taking the course for credit. I took it for fun. I didn’t care that I was 10+ years older than all the other students. I was ready to learn. With a little encouragement from my professor, I submitted some pitches to local Brooklyn papers to cover events. I scored a job on my first try, and earned a whopping $50 freelance fee.
Even if the paycheck stunk, I was hooked.Getting paid to write rocked.
Soon, I was looking for more outlets that wanted to pay me to write. I wanted to work in my fashion background, but all my pitches to glossy magazines were repeatedly turned down. Were my ideas bad? I didn’t think so. I just kept looking for outlets that wanted to hear my voice.
Slowly I built a respectable freelance business working for about a dozen different editors and magazine. As I gained experience, my confidence grew. Writing for other people turned out to be incredibly low-paying and frustrating. There were so many things I wanted to research and write about that I couldn’t find a proper home for, and couldn’t “sell” to an editor.
I wanted to write about stylish nurseries that suited my Ralph Lauren tastes, but fit my Brooklyn Food Co-Op budget. I wanted to wear my old $1,000 Manolo Blahniks from my Madison Avenue days with $25 cargo pants purchased from the Target across the street.
In 2007, I was seeing all these blogspot URLs pop up. Women were using blogs to write deeply personal parenting essays. Why couldn’t I use a blog to write about what I wanted to read - about living a stylish and fabulous life with less time, energy, and money! It’s possible to have it all - you just need to know where to look.
I’ve always been generous with my resources. If I found a great new restaurant, salon, or boutique, my instinct wouldn’t be to hoard the resource; I wanted to share. My blog would be the ultimate sharing hub for my girlfriends.
As I was slowly finding my voice and audience on my Momtrends blog on Blogspot, I was also contributing a ton of articles to a large site called Babble.com. I pushed hundreds of strollers to road test the best rides. Often, the strollers I loved and the gear I blessed as the “best” was quite expensive. My Babble articles got some wrath in the comment feed. “Who can afford a $250 diaper bag!”, or “Who in her right mind needs a $1,000 stroller?” Increasingly, Momtrends became a spot where I found kindred spirits. Women who thought a $1,000 Bugaboo stroller didn’t seem so crazy if it was your main means of transportation, and you lived in the city.
When I had my first daughter, I didn’t own a car. My “wheels” were the NYC subway, Brooklyn buses, and my stroller. For me, it was pretty easy to justify spending $500 on a stroller (no, I never got the Bugaboo, but it was a great ride!). On Momtrends, no one pushed back on pricing. Our community was equally concerned about aesthetics and price.
Great entrepreneurs give themselves permission to fail. In 2009, I quit 75 percent of my freelance jobs and decided to dedicate myself to Momtrends. I wanted to see if I could grow it into a viable business. I didn’t want my husband to fund any of it. I wanted the company to succeed or fail on my terms. That meant keeping things lean and benefiting from the budding boom of blogging.
The good news about my business was there was zero overhead. I worked from home around the girls’ naps and sleep schedules.
In the first two years, traffic was growing slowly, but steadily. When we added Twitter to the equation in 2009, we saw a huge boost in traffic.
Many bloggers wear all the hats of their brand. They are Editor, Sales Manager, Event Director, and Office Manager. Even back in 2009, I was thinking bigger than that. I wanted a team; I couldn’t pay much, but I could romance my vision.
Team Member One was found at a church toddler playgroup. Brooke and I met while our kids were gnawing on blocks. I’m not quite sure how I convinced her to team up with me on an unproven brand, but my passion must have been a selling point. We agreed that she would sell advertising from Momtrends on a commission structure. The more she sold, the more she made. We still have that arrangement today. Brooke has grown her representation into the company Power Moms Media, and she sells millions of dollars in marketing and research packages a year. All because someone asked her, “What if we try this?”
The first year we generated $7,500 in sales (mostly small banner ads). It was a start. I decided that I wanted to do some marketing to NYC moms. That’s where Team Member Two comes in.
I convinced a dear friend and consummate hostess, Sherri, to help me get into the event business. I thought it would be a great way to connect with readers and market the brand. Plus, every time you gather women in real life (offline), you’re bound to get more information than anticipated.
Our first event just about cleared $5 - barely enough for a Starbucks trip. My scrappy Event Manager was a genius at getting free space, but we were ALL OVER THE PLACE with messaging. We had some personal shopping, some snacks, and some toy testing. It was tremendously fun and unfocused.
Thankfully, adding Sherri to the mix meant adding a critic and voice of reason. With each event, we were finding our “voice.” Our events got prettier and prettier. We decided to focus on hosting online influencers and to leave other companies’ hosted events for the general NYC population.
After each event, the three of us - Editorial, Marketing and Events - would go to dinner to hash out what worked and what didn’t. I was blessed to work with two friends who had a knack for self-improvement. None of us took criticism personally. We all wanted to grow, learn, get better, and produce a better product… and make more money.
Opportunities started pouring in. By 2010, I couldn’t handle the workload. I added an Editor. This was the first employee who was not directly producing revenue. She was fielding pitches and helping me cover all the NYC events. As a professional trend spotter, I lived in the best city in the world. Every new product launch came through NYC. From 2009-2011, I attended every launch, product review, showcase, and press preview I could. I passed out cards and networked like mad. And it worked. Our tiny little brand was gaining readership and credibility. We let other blogs chase deals, coupons, and parenting trends. Momtrends focused on style-based editorial. We found our niche and we set out to do it better and better every year.
2012-2015 saw rapid growth. I carefully added team members when the workload got out of hand. I was always extremely careful to hire only when the workload got to be overwhelming. I never wanted to “overhire” and have to be in the position of firing someone because our numbers didn’t look good.
Solving problems was the key. Moms needed us. They needed to know what to wear, where to go on vacation, which stroller to buy, and how to mix a great cocktail (because date night is often a Friday night in). And we were there to help. Not as a know-it-all, but as a friend in-the-know. The girlfriend with the enviable contact list; the BFF who will give you an honest opinion when you are swimsuit shopping; and the bestie who is there to tell you there’s no such thing as a perfect mom. We’re relentlessly positive, we strive to be pretty,