Alicia

7 Wellness Tips to Practice Across the Whole Fam, Devices Included

Moms’ wellness directly impacts their relationships with their partners, children, and other family members. When moms feel healthy and fulfilled, they are more likely to engage positively with their loved ones and nurture solid and supportive relationships. Modeling wellness and encouraging kids to lead a healthy lifestyle also sets them up for success. 

Your approach to their sports and activities can help set them up for a long-term love of being active. How you use your devices can influence how they will use them. Incorporating new habits as perimenopause and menopause hit can ensure you feel energetic and balanced throughout the process. Healthy habits across the whole family can also contribute to a lower risk of chronic diseases and a higher quality of life in later years.  

Here are a few I’ve learned to practice across the whole family and ensure you create an active-for-life model that keeps everyone feeling great.

1. Expose kids to as many sports activities as possible

One country that is doing this well is Norway. The country found its way onto everyone’s radar at the Winter Olympics in Pyongyang, South Korea, where a nation of just 5.3 million won 39 medals. This could be attributed to kids being exposed to sports at a young age, which allows them to learn skills like teamwork, collaboration, and goal setting.  

According to ProjectPlay.org, “The Ministry guides public funding for sport, administering 64% of gaming proceeds from Norway's national lottery and sports betting mechanism, Norsk Tipping, to the sports ecosystem.” This allows for roughly $400 million annually for new projects.

2. Don’t have more sports hours per week than your kids’ age to prevent burnout

According to John O’Sullivan, founder of the Changing the Game Project, when asked about Norway’s success on the MomShine podcast, said, “A key takeaway could be as follows: as many kids as possible, as long as possible, in the best environment possible.” But it’s important not to overwhelm kids in the process. He taught me that a simple model ensures that the number of hours your kids spend on sports each week doesn’t exceed their age in years. So if your kid is 8, there shouldn’t be more than 8 hours of sports per week. This helps prevent burnout and overuse injuries. 

3. Understand what sports skills they should be learning at each developmental stage

Be aware of the sports skills appropriate for your child’s developmental stage. John O’Sullivan told me a great reference point is Canada’s LTAD model, which aims to create active kids for life. Human Kinetics explains that this seven-stage model is built on the following ten factors:

• Physical literacy
• Specialization
• Age
• Trainability
• Intellectual, emotional, and moral development
• Excellence takes time
• Periodization
• Competition
• System alignment and integration
• Continuous improvement

It explains, "Those using the LTAD model in their programming should use these factors to teach parents, coaches, administrators, and participants about the model's benefits.” As O’Sullivan taught me, so much goes into the game, and highlighting kids' growth and learning is far more important than winning, which should be only focused on as kids get to elite levels later in high school and beyond.

4. Maintain moderate enthusiasm for sports stars

If your child excels in sports, maintain a balanced level of excitement. Excessive pressure and expectations can be detrimental, especially before adolescence. One fascinating study looked at the percentage of elite-level junior performers who were still elite-level performers at the senior level across various sports1. The results were analyzed from 110 prospective studies with 38,000 elite junior athletes to determine how many achieved success similar to that of seniors. 

The biggest category is in Olympic sports like track and field, cycling, and swimming. The results showed that the most successful juniors don’t always become successful senior athletes—only 7% do. The article advocates focusing on training to maximize intermediate performance to sustain long-term improvement in young athletes.

5. Adopt a food-is-mood approach

Emphasize the connection between diet and emotional well-being. Encourage healthy eating habits that support both physical and mental health. I recently learned that a key American Cancer Society report found that people born in 1990 have double the risk of colon cancer and quadruple the risk of rectal cancer compared to people born around 1950. Inflammatory diets increase that risk by 32%.

I also learned from Dr. Kumi Nagamoto Combs at the University of North Dakota about what they’re finding about the link between foods and behavioral disorders. The results show that even if you don’t show typical signs of allergic reactions, they can still appear in behavioral disorders. It’s so important to try different foods and diets and teach kids how what you eat impacts mood, behavior, and overall health.

6. Plan for perimenopause and menopause symptoms

Prepare for the symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause. Educate yourself and your family to manage this transition better. Through seminars and sitting down with Jill Baker, Family Nurse Practitioner and Wellness Coach, and Donna Klassen, CEO and Co-Founder of Let’s Talk Menopause, I learned eight simple steps to help. They include:

• Eat more protein (a simple model is .6/lb of body weight)—if you are 130 lbs, this is 78 g of protein/day
• Focus on muscle-building workouts instead of cardio and plyometrics to improve muscle composition
• Get 7-8 hours of quality sleep
• Fast 12-18 hours per day *this could be 7 pm to 7 am to help brain cognition
• Incorporate supplements like Collagen, D, and Calcium to support bone health

As women age and estrogen depletes, taking good care of your health moves from luxury to non-negotiable. I learned that estrogen is a natural lubricant in the body. This MomShine article on my interview with Donna Klassen goes into these areas in more detail, answering top questions. Ensure you keep things moving in the boy by incorporating some of these steps to help.

7. Set the example for device usage

Set an example for responsible device usage. Demonstrate balanced habits to help your family manage screen time effectively. Consider putting a family-friendly tech contract in place, but also hold yourself accountable by putting your phone down and showing kids they are more critical. An Aro box can help track when you are off your phone and incentivize quality time across the family. Keep the dialogue open, implement set breaks from screens like 5-7 pm daily, and put them away on weekends. Setting a good example can significantly impact how kids use devices.

Integrating these tips into your family’s routine can promote overall wellness and healthy habits. To learn more, see my 20 quick tips to shine.

by Alicia

Perimenopause vs Menopause: Important Info for Women Over Thirty

Perimenopause and menopause can cause a variety of issues and symptoms for women over thirty. I experienced changes in how I felt daily and monthly that I wanted to get in front of. From super dry skin to not feeling like myself mentally to debilitating headaches to unexplained insomnia — I got sick of my doctor brushing off how this was impacting my everyday life. And I didn’t want to treat it with things I wasn’t comfortable taking regularly.

Instead, I took a seminar, Inner Peace Wellness, led by Jill Baker, Family Nurse Practitioner, and Polly Ely, MFT. You can also see another post on these beautiful learnings here. Along with this great seminar that taught me so much, I sat down with the CEO of the organization Let’s Talk Menopause, Donna Klassen, to answer all of my burning questions about perimenopause and menopause symptoms to ensure I was on the right track to better health through all of it. 

1) What are the most common symptoms of menopause?

Menopause can cause depression, anxiousness, irregular heartbeat, dizziness, sleeplessness, hot flashes, day sweats, night sweats, chills, irritability, weight gain, hair loss, and more. All of these symptoms, according to the National Institute of Health, are normal and just a part of sexual maturation called menopause. It is not a disease or condition, even though people experience many symptoms without treatment. Not only are we usually told to minimize our suffering with these typical symptoms, but the duration we are required to feel crappy with this full-body takeover, according to the National Institute of Aging, can take up to 14 years.

2) What’s the average age of menopause, and how can women feel more supported through this transition?

The average age of menopause sufferers is 45 to 55, give or take a few years for perimenopausal symptoms, which is several years before that. There is an excellent quote by Tricia Posner, a British nonfiction writer and author of This Is Not Your Mother's Menopause, where she writes, “Our mothers were largely silent about what happened to them as they pass through this midlife change. But a new generation of women has already started to break the wall of silence.” 

Donna Klassen and Samara Daley are two of those women who founded the national nonprofit called Let's Talk Menopause. These women have interviewed Oprah and many other prominent people who have been more vocal on this topic, and their website hosts a plethora of staggering stats that can help women feel less alone on the journey.  For instance, 27 million, representing 20% of the workforce, are in some phase of menopause transition. So, harnessing facts on average menopause age windows and finding the proper support can help.

The organization started in 2021, but the idea came to Donna, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, in 2019 after her own experience with menopause. She went through surgical menopause after having breast cancer and found the healthcare around menopause and the education to be lacking. “I'm a therapist and a social worker, and I've worked most recently in the last 10-15 years around reproductive mental health, helping with struggles during postpartum, the perinatal period, and postpartum. So, I have experience with mental health around these hormonal shifts. And one of the things about menopause is that it often causes a lot of mental health symptoms,” she says. Getting support, understanding the average age to be on the lookout for changes, and knowing where to go for support can help.

3) What can you look out for regarding the signs and symptoms of perimenopause? 

According to Donna, “There are three windows of vulnerability for women. The first is puberty and periods, the second is the perinatal period (pregnancy and postpartum), and the third is perimenopause. But a lot of people don't know that they are in perimenopause versus others since everyone’s experience is different, and we don’t have any visibility into when menopause will hit.” The key symptoms of irritability that happen during the perimenopause phase can be hard to distinguish and diagnose. 

The more significant transition that does get the most focus, and we know for certain, is menopause because when you're in this phase, you’re always in it, and there is a distinct marker of no period for over a year to determine it. However, symptoms of perimenopause can start four to 10 years before your final period. And what's confusing is you don't know when that final period will be. 

4) Why are perimenopause and menopause symptoms so hard to treat?

Unfortunately, hormone treatments have gotten a bad reputation. There was an extensive study that happened in 2002 that has been looked at again and reevaluated, as it overstated the risk of breast cancer. At that time, about 50% of women were taking hormone therapy, and after that study, it dropped to just 5%, and now it's just barely above 5%. “Part of it is not knowing that options are limited because women have generally been understudied, under-researched, and not enough money has been dedicated to studying menopause. The risks have been overstated versus acknowledging that they are generally safe,” says Donna. 

The North American Menopause Society made its recommendations in 2022 and encouraged people to do a risk-benefit analysis with their medical provider. “But the main problem is, is that after that study happened, menopause was taken out of the curriculum in medical school,” says Donna. Today’s doctors, including GYNs, don't have a lot of education about menopause. Eighty percent of OB-GYNs said they felt unprepared coming out of school to talk to a woman about menopause. If the doctors and the providers aren't informed, how are the patients supposed to know what's happening? The overarching issue is that women are not educated, and doctors are not educated about basic facts and what happens during this time.

5) How do perimenopausal symptoms differ amongst ethnic groups?

“There was an extensive research study called SWAN, and it shows that black women and Latina women have more prolonged menopause symptoms, and their hot flashes start earlier and last longer,” says Donna. The same study shows that hot flashes not only affect sleep—they can affect your heart. New research is coming out that it's not just being hot.

6) What other new research have you heard or seen about menopause?

“Systemic estrogen alone (for women without a uterus) studies show that it reduces your risk of breast cancer. Estrogen plus progesterone studies show a small increase in the risk of breast cancer,” says Donna. We've been taught to fear getting breast cancer with hormone therapy and instead not looking at the whole picture. But another way to look at this time is instead of a window of vulnerability, it's also a window of opportunity. It’s a time to focus on good health relating to your bones, heart, and brain, which all get impacted when estrogen is lower since it lubricates every body part.

7) What other things get impacted when we enter menopause?

Many people don't know about the Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM), which is a new term. It’s essentially referring to the vaginal atrophy that happens during this process due to the lack of lubrication. It encompasses a vast constellation of symptoms, like vaginal and urinary issues, including vaginal dryness. “Estrogen is a lubricant, so when you become dry, intercourse can be painful, there are increased urinary urges and leaking, and also increased UTIs, which can be deadly,” says Donna. This is because the urinary wall becomes thinner, and the lining is thinner and shortens. So therefore, there's no barrier between the anal wall and the vaginal wall, which increases the risk of UTIs. 

8) What treatments can help with vaginal dryness when estrogen decreases in menopause? 

One treatment is local vaginal estrogen. Some don’t directly contain estrogen called Interosa but instead include DHEA, which converts to estrogen in the body. It is another route to take and discuss with your doctor if you experience painful sex with dryness. There is also a hyaluronic acid called Revaree which can be used in between intercourse to hydrate and moisturize vaginal tissues naturally. “But be mindful and cautious as always when selecting products since supplements in the US are not as regulated,” says Donna. The FDA recently approved a safe medication for hot flashes called Veozah (fezolinetant).

9) Are there any other tests or symptoms to watch out for that can help manage menopause?

Unfortunately, right now, the guidelines say to wait to get your first DEXA scan, which is a scan to measure how much bone mass you have until you are 65. A menopause-informed provider can help. You can go to menopause.org, which links you to the North American Menopause Society, now called the Menopause Society. They have a list of certified providers, and these are providers who have more training in menopause in particular.

10)  What else can we do to support more research on menopause?

There is a bill in the works with Yvette Clark, a Brooklyn congresswoman. It has yet to be introduced, so it's just a bill. However, a coalition of doctors and other advocates is working hard to get this passed. “It will give more money for research and redo that study from 2002 to do a more comprehensive study on hormone therapy. There has been a lot of talk, and in the last couple of years, menopause has sort of come out of the shadows, but we still have a lot of work to do,” says Donna. The goal is to ensure that women's health gets studied more and that there's the money to do so.

You can go to letstalkmenopause.org/advocacy and sign up for monthly updates. You can also listen to our full episode 104: Getting In Front of Menopause Symptoms—New Help for 30’s+, which details the above in greater detail. And if you want to read more advice, check out our article on 4 Mom Survival Tips That Help During Menopause.

by Alicia

From Wanting to Quit to Winning 3 Communicator Awards as a First-Time Podcast Host

I started my week at a real low. My husband and I had been frustrated with each other for weeks. I wasn’t generally happy with his tone and demeanor, and he wasn’t pleased with my constant complaints of needing help. Sound familiar?

Working Mom Life Not Always Working Out

I was at total capacity, billing 20 hours a week (more like 30 once you add in everything it takes to juggle multiple clients) while also trying to keep this small passion project called MomShine afloat. I started my Monday morning crying at a beach, which tends to be my sanctuary when I struggle. We had just thrown our final blows at each other over text and email, and he won this round.

I ran through the lack of acknowledgment from my partner, knowing wholeheartedly that I was burning the wick at every end to try and create a profitable content consultancy and media business. A media business that was gaining some traction but was still in its infancy, and I was tired of caring for it.

I sat at that beach, immediately booked a sitter to take my husband to dinner, and told him I quit. I was going to stop the business after two months of multiple clients, pulling off three kids' birthdays and helping shuttle to six different sports activities each week as a bonafide Uber driver after 3 p.m. I told him I was done with MomShine. I wasn’t shining anymore, and it wasn’t worth my sanity or marriage.

The Hard Truth of Being a Small Business Mom

We went to bed, and though he started to understand my real passion for it, I couldn’t do it all without it generating some revenue. His business provided for our family, so he couldn’t take on more at home either—a position many women find themselves in. I’d been picking, choosing, and trying to run a lean company, but I’m not sure I had the 5-10 years many of my peers took to lead it to profitability. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 20% of small businesses fail within their first year. The failure rate increases to 30% by the end of the second year, 50% by the fifth year, and 70% by the tenth year. I’m always one to want to play the odds. I’d like to at least get through 5 years of trying for a 50/50 shot at it, but hey—at least I knew I wasn’t alone. Running a business is hard work.

Momshine Wins 3 Communicator Awards

I went to bed, ready to take a break from it all. Then I woke up to learn I was honored with 17 Communicator Awards in Excellence and Distinction for our first 4 episodes ever produced. We received five honors in Excellence for Health and Fitness, my show hosting as a complete first-timer, and an additional 12 Honors in Distinction for writing, storytelling, sound design, & more. I was ecstatic!

The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and reviewed by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA), an invitation-only group of top-tier professionals from acclaimed media, communications, advertising, creative and marketing firms. AIVA members include executives from organizations like Amazon, Big Spaceship, Chelsea Pictures, Conde Nast, Critical Mass, Disney, ESPN, GE Digital, IBM, The Nation of Artists, Nextdoor, Spotify, Time Inc., the Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones, and Wired. A group of very impressive peers recognized me with some of the highest honors they give and for hosting as a complete first-timer.

Pushing Through the Struggle as a Small Business Mom

As a creative thinker, I’m always looking to talk through issues and simplify them, capture my learnings, reflect on them, and then rinse and repeat the next time around. My podcasting outlet helped me work through a variety of conundrums I was having, from how to handle my perimenopause journey to picking the right sports mix for my kids to how to help them cope with social media when we enter that phase next. These award validations reminded me of the ebbs and flows in life. We struggle, collect necessary data, and then push through. You never know what could be on the other side if you don’t.

Transferring My Communicator Award to Better Communication at Home

I further explained to my husband that if I said no to my passions and goals, I might live in regret, and that’s not healthy for anyone. We can plan together better in the future, continue to talk it out, line up support, and put a timeline and budget for what we’re willing to both lean into to make a platform that I am proud of at the end of the day. 

In those moments of struggle, you determine if something matters enough to keep going. I was gaining intel to do a job I wanted to excel at (being a shiny mom) and realizing that being a leader in our home means leaning into those communities and making the space to do what I love without regret, without influence, and with solid communication at home to make that all happen. A muscle I had gotten used to ignoring over time—articulating my wants and needs in life, but I needed to improve.

I couldn’t be more grateful for these awards and recognition at an opportune time to reflect on this journey. In the meantime, your positive feedback also gives me something to lean on when the going gets rough. I’m humbled, grateful, and proud to be a mom and a communicator of all these struggles with all of you alongside me.

by Alicia

New Norms to Help Modern Moms on Mother’s Day

Nearly a quarter of American mothers now identify as stay-at-home parents—a sharp rise from 15% in 2022—and 2023 marked the year I became one of them. My youngest (born in 2021) kept getting sick due to low immunity caused by an isolating pandemic and a lack of childcare options. It was a tough decision, but I opted for the “break” from helping startups cross the acquisition finish line as a content leader. 

I took it as an opportunity to learn about other industries and dive into all the parenting areas where, quite frankly, I was winging it while helping build those great companies. I recorded what I learned, created blogs and playbooks to lean on, and produced 12 episodes in 6 months for the MomShine show and website. 

My biggest takeaway in less than a year? All roads lead back to “moms leading by example,” and there are many areas in which we could focus to feel better. There was so much I wanted to tackle when I first started on this journey. Kids' sports were driving me crazy, pre-menopausal symptoms were taking me down, and everything surrounding social media felt headed in a terrifyingly worse direction. 

Over the past six months, I have learned a lot and started thinking—what if there were some new norms to lean on? What if just a few things were more accessible to help make us and, more importantly, our kids feel better? I’d love more awareness to help working moms stay at their best and raise the next generation of superstars. So here goes…

New Norms for Modern Mothers to Live By

New Norm for Modern Moms #1: Kids would have more access to organized sports to improve their game

Did you know physically active children are 15% more likely to attend college and that student-athletes earn up to 40% higher test scores? These are just some of the many benefits of regular physical activity for children as they grow up.

That's why I was surprised that in the U.S., only 50.7% of youth ages 6-17 say they “participated on a sports team” or “took sports lessons after school or on weekends.” Compared to countries like Norway, where 93% of children grow up playing organized sports, that feels low. They also achieved more medals in the Winter Olympics than any other country.

As I learned from youth sports pioneer and founder of Changing the Game Project, John O’Sullivan, the reason for this difference is that many countries around the world (especially in Europe) fund youth sports. Individual families pay a small fee, and the government supports the clubs by providing different youth sports programs.

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case here in the U.S. Still, instead of paying expensive club fees at young ages, the key takeaway from this model is letting kids experience as many sports as possible and holding off on higher-level sports events (i.e., championships) until later, so it’s more about sports sampling and development and less about winning. 

Instead, we could support more locally funded teams. We could put the fun back into the game, opening it up to all levels and bars of talent to succeed. We could also get more moms out there coaching as much as possible. Listen to the full episode to see how that’s also been decreasing over time.

New Norm for Modern Moms #2: Social media would be a safe space instead of an unregulated nightmare

Beating a dead horse here, I know. However, according to Pew Research, 15% of teens say they've experienced someone other than a parent constantly asking them where they are, what they’re doing, or who they’re with when online and using their cell phone. Another 10% say they have been physically threatened, and 7% of teens say they have had explicit images of them shared without their consent. Even more shocking is that until 2024, there weren’t any federal or state laws to protect teens from receiving this type of media. Meanwhile, a vibrant tech world made $11B from them alone in 2022.

That’s starting to change in California, thanks to Larissa May, founder of online learning platform #HalftheStory, and her work with Governor Gavin Newsom on getting California Assembly Bill 1394 passed and into effect earlier this year. This bill will get tech companies to put more defense mechanisms around sex trafficking and very harmful content deemed as sexual abuse on the internet, which is a low stake. “It’s just an example of how far we are behind in protecting young people in the digital world,” says Larissa. 

What could we do better to manage social media? I'm excited to learn that Florida is currently testing such measures by prohibiting them until they are a certain age. Parents can teach kids about the money-making platform they are engaging with and put a proactive, family-friendly tech contract in place. I am also a happy ambassador of products that support digital well-being, like an Aro box. Unfortunately, much of the onus for protection will continue to be on us to create avenues for open discussion and set the example of engaging on these platforms for years to come.

New Norm for Modern Moms #3: Menopause support would be readily available

Although 168 million women are living with menopause in the US (and 1 billion worldwide), we don’t know much about it. As Let’s Talk Menopause co-founder Donna Klassen called out in a recent episode of the Momshine podcast, menopause is misunderstood by women going through it and medical professionals alike due to some alarming statistics.

• ​​75% of women who seek medical care regarding symptoms of menopause are left untreated.
• 80% of OBGYN residents admit to being ill-prepared to discuss menopause.

At least 27M, representing 20% of the workforce, are in some menopause transition phase. Symptoms can be severe and include depression, anxiousness, irregular heartbeat, dizziness, sleeplessness, hot flashes, day sweats, night sweats, chills, irritability, weight gain, hair loss, and more. Every woman experiences it differently, but most OBGYNs don’t have much education about menopause, which makes treating it difficult.

As for hormone replacement therapy, the North American Menopause Society made its recommendations in 2022 and encouraged people to do a risk-benefit analysis with their medical provider. “But the main problem is that after that study happened, menopause was taken out of the curriculum in medical school,” says Donna. 

We could do better by making menopause education and research more mainstream. Sign this bill to do your part. According to this Time article, experts believe a meaningful shift will only occur once the core issues change: How research is conducted and disseminated, how doctors are trained, and how seriously practitioners take women’s pain. With the million-plus people in the U.S. who reach menopause every year, we need it.

New Norm for Modern Moms #4: Maternal mortality would decrease with access to solid postpartum support 

An astonishing 800 women died in 2020 due to maternal causes in the U.S., while in 2021, over 1,200 women died of pregnancy-related issues. According to The Washington Department of Health, 80% of pregnancy-related deaths were preventable. 

Over half of those deaths occur between 7 days and one year after pregnancy (the fourth trimester.) According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. has the highest rate of maternal mortality among wealthy nations. In a BabyCenter survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. moms, 44% of white mothers said they received the support they needed when leaving the hospital as new mothers. However, compare that to 38% of Hispanic mothers, 32% of Black mothers, and only 22% of Asian American and Pacific Islander mothers.

Other countries have different approaches to supporting mothers post-birth. In South Korea, it’s customary for mothers to stay in postpartum centers up to 14 days after birth. In Latin America and China, there are postpartum periods during which others handle chores, help the mom rest and bond with the baby. In Europe, it’s common for midwives to visit new moms at home to provide similar care and lactation assistance.

We could do better by providing better postpartum support. Reasonable paid family leave, doula and midwife support, and more contact with new moms would help. The PBS docu-series on The Risk of Giving Birth shows some hospitals just simply checking up on moms more frequently in the days and months after giving birth can make a huge difference.

All I Want for Mother’s Day is Some Awareness for the Modern Mom

I have researched and learned many things about kids' mental well-being related to mom. Just role-modeling a healthy lifestyle can help improve kids' outlook in the long run. But don't get me wrong—it's the hardest job at times, especially when juggling work and other responsibilities. However, the data shows that happy moms are more likely than happy dads to produce teenage children with fewer high levels of mental health problems. This is true for both boys and girls. 

There’s a significant weight on moms to be shining examples, but being aware of where to focus and invest your time gives you the power to change, put the measures in place to help yourself, support other moms around you, and allow you and your kids to shine, too.

Most importantly, take care of yourself and enjoy Mother’s Day!

by Alicia

Inspirational Mom Story: How Nikki Lindgren Launched a 7-Digit Business as a Busy Mom to Three

As a working mom, compromise isn’t just a skill to be honed – it’s a way of life. Balancing being present for our kids with professional growth is a constant need. But just because it isn’t easy doesn’t mean it has to come at a high personal cost.

Mompreneurs like Nikki Lindgren, Founder & Managing Partner of Pennock, are showing us the way. Here’s how this mom of three went from being a business leader in corporate America to thriving as a business mom with her seven-digit digital marketing agency.

Nikki Lindgren’s Beginning as a Mompreneur

Lindgren started her career in e-commerce, first at Pottery Barn and then at World Market, where she founded the e-commerce team. Its successful launch ignited a fire in her for digital, which she deepened through mastery of paid and search channels via agency partnerships.

“From World Market, I went to the agency that helped us with the launch,” said Lindgren. “I built out a team behind me that managed paid and SEO for 45 clients, including the New York Nicks, the Saints, Ben Sherman, etc. It was an exciting time! Then, I had my first kid, and the company merged with a subsidiary of LiveNation, so we decided to relocate for my husband’s work. KiwiCo (the STEM kit company for kids) was just a block away, so I joined their team. I had my second kid, moved to a tech company in the wearables space, and decided to set out independently.” 

Becoming a Mompreneur: Executing the Vision

After becoming pregnant with her third child, Lindgren was ready to put her expertise to work for herself. After years of successfully building out search and paid channels in-house, she had all the skills she needed to offer her services to beauty and lifestyle brands.

“My husband is a data person like me, so we created a forecast together and realized we could scale quickly. At first, it was just us, but soon enough, we built a team to put an account manager on every account. It wasn’t easy, as we had a lot to learn about hiring and building out the company culture along the way. But it’s now where I’m not on client calls and day-to-day work; I’m focused on strategy and growth. This is a big shift from the first two years!”

Today, Lindgren’s boutique agency has eight full-time employees and one open role. Pennock makes over six figures a year, and Lindgren can unplug on the weekends to be present with her kids (ages nine, eight, and six) — all while working 35/40 hours per week.

7 Questions on Making Life Work as a Business Mom

1. Tell me about your background and how you became a business mom.

Nikki: There are four primary skills that women need if they want to be business moms. First is maintaining motivation. Working in a business and running a home can feel daunting, so if you don’t have that inner drive, you won’t succeed. Some other skills I’ve honed and gotten good at that entrepreneurs need to understand are how to scale revenue, hire quality candidates for their business, and quickly navigate home responsibilities.

2. Did you ever want to quit?

Nikki: I never actively looked, but I did scan other options. For me, if I’m not loving my work in six months, I’m going to call it. For example, I recently joined a network with other agency owners, confirming this is what I want to do.

3. How did you build and maintain growth?

Nikki: Here are my main takeaways. Your balance needs to carry over a few months. You need to hustle hard running your own business and gaining accounts because it’s not something easily outsourced. Focus on building personal relationships; they’re a huge driver of growth. For example, 80% of our business is referrals. Last but not least, find clients you’re aligned with and who set realistic goals.

4. What are some cultural must-haves for running a good business?

Nikki: For us, it’s been essential to be de-centralized and support remote workers across the country, especially since many of our all-women staff are working moms. We offer competitive benefits, including healthcare, 401(k) plans with matching contributions, 20 paid holidays, and untracked time off. From there, it’s about tailoring your culture to meet your people’s needs. For example, we respect local time zones. Our people work their 9-5, and we also have days where we’re not glued to our desks. These little things are simple but impactful.

[Picture of the Pennock team]

5. Where’s an excellent place to start for moms new to marketing and beauty?

Nikki: My advice is to throw your ego aside to build experience at any level to acquire the skills. You must be okay with constantly learning and being a newbie at any age. Dive into paid versus organic versus email. Find the people in the space you want to be in and ask them to coffee. Offer your help. Start small and scale up. People are more open now to people who do not have the perfect background, and they’re hiring people new to the industry. It’s all about the relationships and showing up well to calls. Ops managers are so good at training. Last but not least, avoid clients that want gotcha moments. If they question your price too soon, they’re not right.

6. How do you approach work/life balance?

Nikki: Decide if it’s a fire drill or not. For the first few years, I would not unplug. Now, I work 35-40 hours/week. Some of my supports include leaning on after-school programs, having a flexible partner, and splitting home responsibilities. My husband helps with camp schedules and picks up slack in other areas. Having a house next to in-laws also makes a huge difference!

7. What advice would you give moms looking to take risks and start something new?

Nikki: As a service provider, you must pick a lane to build a business. Last year, we started to niche harder. Don’t be everything to everyone. It is much easier to be a leader in a smaller space. Be a big fish in a small pond—so many mom entrepreneurs cast too wide a net. Find what you like and stick with it.

Final Thoughts: Being a Business Mom Is Good For Everyone

Research shows being a working mom has many benefits for our children: Sons of working moms spend 50 minutes more per week caring for family members than their counterparts. At the same time, daughters of employed women are 1.21 times more likely to have a job themselves.

So, if you’ve got a great idea bubbling under the surface, give it space to bloom. Yes, do the groundwork of learning your skills inside and out, but don’t be afraid to fail. With the right mindset and preparation, your valuable knowledge can help your business thrive!

by Alicia