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Check out this special episode where I share the why behind Real Happy Mom as well as lessons I have learned over the past two years.
The story behind Real Happy Mom
Around two years ago, I had another blog. It was a dental blog.
At the time, my thought process was I’m going to start my practice, and I want to be an authority on the internet.
So for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes, I was going to have this blog so that people would search for a dentist in the area, and my blog would pop up in the search. They would see that I was very knowledgeable and would want to come to my office.
But life happened. And I ended up not starting the practice, and I still had the dental blog.
After being burnt out from talking about teeth and oral health all day at work and then talking about oral health on the blog, I decided to let go of the dental blog.
There is so much more I wanted to talk about outside of teeth, but I was scared to change. While I had the dental blog, I got pitched by Tasha from Starengu to be a guest on her podcast.
I recorded the episode and had so much fun. Oh, my goodness. I was so excited when I got done. Once we finished recording, Tasha encouraged me to start my podcast.
The whole time she was talking and encouraging me, the negative side of me was thinking, “Girl, nobody wants to listen to me. Nobody wants to hear what I got to say. I don’t even know what I’m going to talk about.” But she lit a fire in me, and even though the negative thoughts would try to talk me out of starting a podcast, I still wanted to do it.
A few months later, I ended up retiring my dental blog and starting the Real Happy Mom blog after seeing mom bloggers but not many working mom bloggers.
I was posting new blog content, and it was cool. I enjoyed it.
But I still had the itch to start the podcast. So I gave the podcast to try, started interviewing some ladies that I found in the Boss Mom Facebook Group.
I was not consistent about putting out episodes every week. The ladies that I interviewed were very gracious to me because I didn’t know what I was doing. But I figured out things along the way.
I just knew that I wanted to help moms with practical tips and advice on the podcast.
I feel like for me, as a mom with young kids, no instruction manual comes with your baby when you bring home your baby from the hospital.
I remember coming home with my first son and sitting there like, “Oh my God, I have this baby. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Sure. I have friends, and I have my mom to help me, but I feel like every child is different. And there are things that only I could do or provide for my son.
Plus, I feel like there’s a lot of societal pressure to be a particular type of mom. And you’re not a good mom unless you do certain things.
And I didn’t like that. I have a problem with that.
Especially as a working mom that likes their job and likes to work, I felt a lot of pressure.
“Oh, you’re not good, mom, because you don’t spend enough time with your child.”
Or the questions on if I wanted to be a stay at home with my son so that I could have more time with him.
I also had some significant issues with the way things are portrayed about motherhood and how it “should” be.
So I decided on Real Happy Mom I would showcase different moms from different walks of life and various parts of the world to show you can be whoever mom you want to be.
You don’t have to be a particular type of mom, just as long as you’re true to yourself. Because at the end of the day, to indeed be happy, you have to be true to yourself.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”You don’t have to be a certain type of mom, just as long as you’re true to yourself.” quote=”You don’t have to be a certain type of mom, just as long as you’re true to yourself.” theme=”style1″]
What is a real happy mom?
Being a real happy mom is being authentic and being true to yourself.
You can’t be that cookie-cutter mom. Don’t try to be like the perfect mom next door.
It’s up to you to figure out what a good mom is and what that looks like for you.
Also, your life can’t revolve around your kids. It’s okay to do things and have friendships that don’t involve your kids.
Moms have to remember that they’re multifaceted. We’re not just a mom. You’re more than that.
You have a lot of different roles and a lot of different and unique parts that make you who you are. And you have to remember to honor those different parts of you because if not, you’ll end up losing yourself as I did.
When I had my first son, I remember I was trying to figure out this whole motherhood thing.
My life ended up being all about my son and about taking care of my house. When I went back to work after maternity leave, one of my colleagues came up to me and was talking. He was like, “So, what do you like to do for fun?” And I had no idea the answer to that question. He just looked at me like you don’t know what you like to do.
And that’s because all I knew was that I had to take care of this little bitty baby and take care of my husband. So like I completely lost who I was in that process. And it took me a little while to regain that identity back to figure out who I am and the answer to what I like to do for fun.
Remember to do those things that bring you joy outside of motherhood so that you can be a real happy mom.
Why I’m focusing on working moms
When Real Happy Mom first started, I tried to include all moms. And one thing I’ve learned during this process of having my blog and podcast is you can’t appease everyone. If you try to attract everyone, you’ll attract no one.
From experience, I know the struggles of a working mom. I feel like many of the blogs out there are for stay at home moms. No shade to stay at home moms, but what about the working moms? We have problems and challenges, so let’s talk about that.
Instead of trying to talk to all moms, I am focusing on working moms and the struggles of working moms.
More of the content on the Real Happy Mom blog and podcast will be geared towards the working mom.
Lessons I have learned over the two years with Real Happy Mom
I learned I am more of a people pleaser than I thought I was. I had to learn how to say no a lot more because as Real Happy Mom grew, the more opportunities came in.
And I feel like that’s the only natural with anything that you do is, the more that you grow, the more opportunities you get.
And it’s crazy to me because before I would say yes to everything and yes to everyone.
I’ve had to learn it’s okay to say no. And there are ways to say no without saying no, like, let me think about it.
Or, you know what, it’s really bad timing right now.
I’ve learned we have to say no because we can’t do everything.
The other big lesson that I’ve learned is a lot of times I feel like I’m in this phase of not knowing what to do next.
I always have this clarity issue. Like, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what my next step is.
But I’ve learned whenever you put one foot in front of the other, and you just start moving forward and start making progress, then that’s when the clarity comes.
So, for instance, when I was starting the podcast, I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know what my topics were or how to get my podcast on podcast platforms like Apple Podcast and Google Podcast. But the more that I kept doing it, the more I got clarity with it.
And I feel like as moms, a lot of times we want to have it all figured out and know step by step what to do.
But a lot of times we’re not going to know what to do. You’re just going to have to put one foot in front of the other.
And that I’ve truly learned that many times things in life aren’t going to make sense until you start moving forward. And as you make progress, then the clarity will come.
Whether you are just joining me on this journey or you have been here since the beginning, thank you. Thank you for your support, and I am looking forward to what is ahead.
Links mentioned in this episode
- Jessica at No Real Jewelry
- Post about counting to 10: How to Go From Annoyed, Irritated Mom to Calm Mom
- The Real Happy Mom Tribe
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Related blog posts
- How to Go From Annoyed, Irritated Mom to Calm Mom
- Getting to the Root of What is a Good Mom to You
- How to be an Empowered Mom
- 4 Tips for Rising Above Overhwlem for Busy Moms
Featured Mom Win
If you want to share your mommy win and be featured on the podcast, go to Instagram and follow me @realhappymom. Then go to the DMs and say, hey. Press and hold the microphone button on the lower right-hand side of the screen, then tell me your name, IG handle, tell us what you do and how you are winning. Anything big or small is welcome, we want to celebrate with you.
The Real Happy Mom Tribe
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[…] 2 Lessons Learned Over 2 Years with Real Happy Mom […]