How I Became A Working Stay at Home Mom
When I graduated from school as a Holistic Nutritionist, I felt like the world was my oyster. I was 8 months pregnant with my first baby and I was fired up to start my own nutritional consulting business from home. I felt motivated and so full of nutritional knowledge that nothing could stop me. It turns out, one big thing could stop me. I realized that I had no idea how to actually start a business (which, as it turns out is pretty essential if you want to be successful).
I spent countless nights awake in bed, with my baby kicking me from the inside, Googling things like, “how to be an entrepreneur,” and “how to start a home business.” The responses that came back were incredibly overwhelming. I read several business blogs which used terminology I didn’t understand. That intimidated and discouraged me. The combination of dead-end Google searches and my raging end-of-pregnancy hormones, quickly made me feel like my goal of being a self-employed, stay-at-home Mom, was just a naive, unattainable dream.
I looked into several online business programs and crash courses, but the syllabus never seemed to be a good fit for me. I ended up signing up for an online course that was valuable and informative, but at the end of it, I still found myself yearning for more practical guidance to get started. With my absolute lack of business knowledge, I needed my hand to be held through this process. I was clueless. It didn’t help that I had a newborn baby by my side (rather on me, nursing all day long). Things were moving slowly and I was getting frustrated. I finally got my logo and website made, which was a huge step in the right direction, but I still wasn’t really making money.
I had been following one of my teachers from nutrition school, Joy McCarthy, on Instagram for years. She’s someone I have always admired. When I scrolled through Joy’s page, I’d think, “she knows what she’s doing.” When Joy announced that she was launching a business program for wellness entrepreneurs, it took me all of a millisecond to sign up. This is what I had been waiting for. This was what I needed.
The Joyous Health Business Program had so many appealing aspects to me. I was a stay-at-home Mom with my one-year-old daughter, and I was pregnant..again, so the 6-week long course was perfect for me. I wasn’t in a place to commit to anything longer. I absolutely loved that the modules were a series of short videos of Joy, her husband Walker, and their team at Joyous Health. I’m a visual learner, which made it a huge win for me to not have to read endless slides on my own. Each week, there was homework given that corresponded to the material covered in that module. What I liked was that the homework wasn’t testing how well you listened to the videos, instead, it was forcing me to answer practical questions, which ended up building the foundation of my business. The day after each module was released online, Joy and Walker would host a Facebook Live chat in the private Joyous Health Business Facebook group, where we could ask questions about the new material or homework from that week. It was so convenient. The program covered everything from branding to accounting, to social media platforms and so much more. The best part is that I now have lifetime access to the JHB course information to refer to anytime, and I’m a part of a very special community of supportive entrepreneurs in the Facebook group.
Within the first month of the JHB program, I got 3 new clients from implementing the skills I learned. I also gained hundreds of new followers on my Instagram page and learned how to utilize other social media platforms. Although I’m still in the early stages of my business, I finally feel like I have the tools and information I need to grow and thrive as a wellness entrepreneur. It’s not always easy to get work done when I’m home with two babies under two, but I’m making it work as best as I can. Some days that means working on a client protocol, in bed with my sleeping baby in one arm as I type with the other (see picture below). Success looks different for everyone and I’ve only just begun.
