Blogging and Becoming a Boss Mama

Hello Boss Mamas!

As I sit and write this month’s blog I am in my kids playroom in my newly designated “office” spot. I’ve been working from home now for 8 months! It still doesn’t feel normal.

Ironically, I ventured into this social media influencing space right before the pandemic hit the U.S. hard and the shut downs began. It was always a goal of mine to become a blogger and have a creative outlet. I realize now many are trying to make something from the new boom of the internet since almost everything is now virtual.

Starting a passion project or side hustle has always been easier said than done even pre-kids and pre-covid.

What I’ve really appreciated about motherhood is that the desires that you have pre-motherhood that you don’t implement really feel like a necessity to make happen after you have your children. Atleast that is what it’s been like for me.

What I mean by that is, before you have kids you feel like you have endless time on your hands and you will get to things when you can. When you have kids all of a sudden the clock ticks faster. I also knew I needed to make room for more self care and not having a creative outlet felt less like an option. I craved the alone time. I craved time to connect with other adults and I craved time to do the things I thought I was going to get to pre-kids and never did. So here I am now a blogger and while it still seems funny to say, I am also a social media influencer or as I like to call it a Momfluencer.

Truly, I’ve always struggled with what my passion is. I thought I wasn’t exposed enough to other activities growing up to develop this naturally. I always read, wrote for an emotional outlet like journaling, listened to the radio or watched TV. I always really appreciated school as well. I was a natural in terms of dedicating time to study and do well. However, I don’t think I sucked in all the knowledge as a young girl or woman. I just knew I wanted to get a College degree so I was pretty focused on doing what I needed to do to get the grade, without trying to fill my bucket just to learn for fun.

I was a Communications Major in College and I was obsessed with radio personalities (Angie Martinez is one) so the first career path I had in mind was to be in broadcast journalism. I also am a natural writer. Writing an essay came easy to me so I thought if broadcast didn’t work out I could just go into traditional journalism and write for a paper. I was tuned into the entertainment industry back then, mainstream pop/hip-hop culture. I worked for a radio station and loved aspects of it, but the idea to work in radio after 2 years of experience, didn’t seem to “do it” for me any longer. After that point, I was working hard and held multiple jobs in hopes of increasing my salary over time with no career goal in mind per se. Well, I ended up in non-profit for the majority of my career so the increase in salary took long enough before I felt I was making a comfortable family sustaining wage.

I loved my career path, but it wasn’t what I initially thought it would be. It wasn’t until I started working professionally for over a decade that I could finally say I like doing these specific things as an adult: Reading, Writing and Marketing! My marketing obsession was definitely born out of my professional life. When you work in non-profit with limited resources you learn to get creative. I was always “selling” the programs I worked on. I had to recruit volunteers to perform service for FREE. I’ve had to create programs for donors. I’ve had to fundraise and come up with Marketing plans. I’ve been very successful at this. For work it could be stressful at times, but knowing everything I worked on actually benefited families in some way always kept me in a positive spirit. I never thought to take this love of Marketing personally and pursue it as a passion project or side hustle.

This is how this blog was born. I decided to brand myself. Who am I? I am a Latina woman, A mother of 2 boys and a professional. Being Latina for me, growing up, meant that I was usually the only Latina in my classrooms, in the office and among non-Latinx friends. I grew up during the time when the internet was booming and was probably the first of my friends to hit the social media scene with Facebook and Myspace. I LOVED developing my social media pages even though I have no professional skills in coding or graphic design (although I may continue to pursue this as well moving forward).

So if you’ve made it to this point in my blog post and am like OK what am I supposed to get from this as a mom, here is what I hope you take away:

1. It’s never too late to take yourself seriously
2. You can do something you love and be a loving mother
3. Just start! There is no perfect time to begin a new journey

We are all a work in progress no matter how successful or unsuccessful we are. In my new IGTV feature, Working Mom Wednesdays it is my goal to uncover the modern working mom. Yes, my working mom definition is one who is working a traditional 9-5, alongside the love work of motherhood. The feature will include moms like me who are also pursuing passion projects, making a transition into entrepreneurism and/or is committed to a side hustle. Ultimately though, every mom truly is a working mom because we all know that motherhood is the hardest job any of us hold!

Last Wednesday, I featured a good friend of mine. Her name is Erica Bernal and is a hard working Latina mother of two toddlers. She has recently founded her newest book club: LITina Book Club which is a virtual Instagram book club focused on reading Latinx stories from Latinx Authors. The format is so unique and she is making a name for herself in the “Bookstagram” world. I chose to feature her as we relate well to one another. We work full time jobs and mom hard 24/7. Which is more than enough to do in a 7 day week!

Working Mom Wednesday will be a Pop Up IGTV series. I plan to plug in working mothers and interview them on how they manage to do it all with limited time and resources. I hope this will help normalize what motherhood looks like for the working mom who beyond her traditional 9-5 is also making an impact in her community and within her home by pursuing her passion. I will engage many mothers who are Latina/x because I have a special place in my heart for my culture, but this is an inclusive series. I think we can all learn from one another regardless of our cultural backgrounds.

Next Wednesday, I plan to interview my cousin Diana Lee Santamaria. Diana is a teacher, an author of a bilingual children’s book series entitled, DLee’s World and a new mom of a one year old boy. She just published a new book, which me and my kids are excited to read so I plan to share that with all of my followers, because trust me it will be worth it!

The other really cool component to Working Mom Wednesdays is to come up with an inventory list of Mom Hacks that can help all moms. How is it that we all have only 24 hours in a day yet some moms appear to be more productive? Let’s figure this all out together!

Here are some of my fave mom hacks that came out of my interview with Erica Bernal:

1. Delegate
2. Read for pleasure and to get social
3. Take the risk- apply for the job while pregnant!
4. Use a planner – @planprayslay

As I close this new blog post, I would like to thank everyone who has followed me so far and say how grateful I am to my virtual mama village as we lead into the Thanksgiving Holiday. I find virtual villages to be as valuable as in person networks. I’ve gotten some of the BEST motherhood advice from mommy groups I have been a part of online. Let’s keep the momentum going. Join in on this fun with me @modernlatinamotherhood!

Keep grinding mamas!

Cheers,

Michelle