Mia, what does writing the blog mean to you and why did you become an entrepreneur in the first place?
It’s a space to communicate my thoughts about diversity in children’s books, education, social justice causes, as well as a virtual scrapbook of my family and what they are up to.
What is your business about? How did you come across your idea?
My oldest child, now 21, had a rough first grade with a teacher who battled an ongoing illness. She fell behind the other kids in her grade.
I worked to catch her up on my own and shared the resources that I found with the other parents. My blog was born from this experience – it was harder than you’d think.
Since you are also a mom… How do you balance your personal and professional life?
My husband is awesome and shares the housekeeping and child-rearing stuff with me.
Now that two of my kids are out of the nest, it’s also much less busy driving kids around.
I also am finding limiting my own personal screen time helps me balance life (and helps with my mental health)!
Have you made any adjustments to your personal and professional life to juggle these two roles?
I try to let how I am feeling dictate my productivity goals for that day.
That said, I am a huge list maker and also keep a journal to track notes from meetings, goals, research for books and stock trading, and anything else I’m interested in.
What is the greatest obstacle you have faced in achieving the success you desire? How do you overcome it?
I fight a lot for causes that might not have a lot of seemingly active participants such as #MeToo and racism in the children’s book publishing industry.
I have learned to see opposition and haters as a metric by which I can judge if the issues resonate. More hate = important issue.
What are the things that help you stay organized throughout the day and get time for everyone and everything? Is there a special time planner, or workspace design, or technique that you use?
Tell us your time management secrets!
The best advice comes from David Murdoch when I was in business school.
He was a real estate magnate who also owned Dole Pineapple. He said to make your To-Do list but prioritize it by order of importance NOT by preference.
That was the secret to his success because he said that most people never get to the important, harder, less desirable tasks. That makes all the difference.
I try to follow his advice when setting my daily goals.
Any recommendations to Moms who dream about being entrepreneurs, but just can’t get started?
Don’t do something for the money. Pick what you are truly interested in; something that you naturally think about (or want to think about) 24/7 because a successful start-up requires that kind of obsessiveness, especially in the beginning.
Also, most opportunities are not that obvious to the outsider. You need to be in the thick of it to understand the market and if your idea is feasible.
Have you enjoyed this interview? You can follow The Pragmatic Mom Instagram or check out Mia’s blog. See you there! 👋
