How I Launched an Online Business During Covid-19 While Pregnant
No big deal right?
Photo: Courtesy of Liz McVoy
While safely huddled under a thick cozy blanket in my home office, smackdab in the middle of the stay-at-home orders, I hit the figurative launch button on my online video and marketing business. Oh, and I was 37 weeks pregnant with baby number two.
Yep, due in a matter of weeks and launching a business in the middle of a pandemic. No big deal right?
Some backstory: A few years ago while on a walk with my hubby, I started to dream about what life might look like if I could work less, be more present with my family and yet somehow have a greater impact. At the time, I was taking on intermittent video and web design projects with a small number of corporate clients, but I’d hoped 2020 would be my year to grow my side hustle into a full-time job. And then COVID hit.
I’d love to say that I had this brilliant business plan from the get-go, but in reality, I just listened and responded to the needs I was seeing. Businesses were moving online as fast as they could and people were relying on video and social media now more than ever, but something seemed to be missing. I saw a gap. I saw incredible women business owners trying to scale to that next milestone and coming up short. I knew that adding video and storytelling to their marketing strategy was the answer.
That’s when I realized I could leverage my 10+ years of experience working as a video producer, designer, and storyteller to help other women build premium brands through video, branding, and marketing. It was the perfect opportunity to combine my passions and skills.
Long story (that should be told over a bottle of wine) short, I launched an online course to teach entrepreneurs how to create great video content for their business in April, I had my son in May, and then I began coaching other women in July.
Talk about a whirlwind of a few months.
Thinking back, what began as a desire to have more freedom and flexibility quickly morphed into something else, something much bigger and more meaningful. Not only do I get to support my family but I have the joy of coaching other powerful, kind, amazing female entrepreneurs on their video, branding, and marketing. And I’m not just coaching these women on visibility strategies or the how-to aspects of video, but we’re tackling what it means to lead with authenticity and a posterity of service. I’ve watched my clients go from overwhelmed and insecure to boldly showing up as the leaders that they are and making positive waves along the way.
I used to discount myself thinking that my background and skills were too broad to ever lead to a successful corporate career. I loved video editing, storytelling, and design but I never identified as that super creative person who could come up with groundbreaking ideas. Rather, every personality and career test pointed me to relationship-driven work like teaching, managing and basically being the person to build everyone else up.
But now those “soft skills” are the heart of my business. I took my technical knowledge and industry experience and created a business that helps other women thrive and I wouldn't change it for the world.
If you are a mom or mom-to-be looking for another way to support your family or get unstuck from a dead-end 9-5, here is my advice to you.
1. Start before you’re ready.
Take the risk. It’s amazing how many reasons and excuses you’ll come up with if you’re waiting for the perfect time or opportunity. Becoming an entrepreneur is scary and it is not for the faint of heart. But you just have to start. Every success story has a starting point, don’t compare your day 5 to someone else’s year 5.
2. Connect with a community.
When I had my daughter, people said it takes a village. They were right and the same thing can be said of entrepreneurship. Find your core people, support them with all you’ve got, and lean on them too. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, celebrate the wins, and journey through life together. You’ll get farther together than on your own. Leave competitiveness and ego at the door.
3. Have faith and focus.
There will be hard days. There will be days when you are like, “Holy smokes, I can’t do this.” There will be days when you cry to anyone who will listen that you made a mistake. You have to have faith and focus on what you can control. There’s so much power in hope. Entrepreneurship is a lot of work. It’s both super hard and super rewarding. Stay focused on those needle-moving tasks and trust the rest to work out how it should.
But beyond any of the advice above you have to believe in yourself. You have to remember, you are worthy of the big, amazing, beautiful life you’ve been dreaming of. Dream big and dream often.
About the author: Liz McVoy founded her creative marketing agency to help entrepreneurs and brands have greater visibility and impact in their field. Her mission is to help entrepreneurs build premium brands through video, branding, and marketing so they can position themselves as the authority, tell stories that convert, and scale their income to gain financial freedom. Liz is a west-coast native living in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her husband and two kids. For more tips, training, inspiration, and resources, sign up for her newsletter on www.lizmcvoy.com and follow her on Instagram @lizmcvoycreative.
MORE ON THE BLOG
Wait, What?! How This Founder Is Applying the Tinder Model to Motherhood
Motherhood used to be about wiping, not swiping.
We're not going to mince words. The solo dolo doldrums of new motherhood is real. Too real. We'd say it's almost harder to find your #momsquad than to master breastfeeding (which, power to all breastfeeding mamas and your boobs; it's no walk in the park).
This thinking is exactly what drove Michelle Kennedy, the former deputy CEO of European dating app Badoo, to develop Peanut, a social app aimed at platonically connecting mothers who feel isolated, alone, and often cut off from friends and their old lives. It's a pain point for many women (which means, there's a solve). "When you're up for a 2am feed and your friends are just leaving the club, those feelings can compound and you wonder 'What does Michelle the mommy look like? Do I have to change?'” the founder shares. The answer the mom and business woman arrived at was no. You certainly don't have to change. But that doesn't mean you have to feel alone.
Taking what she learned from the dating app space, Michelle applied to the same thinking to motherhood. As a generation armed with a fleet of apps at our disposal, from transportation to shopping, to dating and streaming music, Michelle, who was the first of her friends to give birth in 2013, decided that moms "should be able to have that too." And it didn't have to be through a patronizing or unsexy product. "I really learned a lot from working in the dating industry," she says. Including, a unique understanding of how, why, and when people use social apps. It's why the app includes a poll feature and a scheduling feature, making it easier for moms to meet up-- which is highly encouraged.
The founder says Peanut is not meant as substitution for grabbing coffee with a mom friend in person, but rather, the point is "break down the barriers to make it easier to have the conversation." For Michelle that means any conversation. "Yes, sometimes it is not all roses when you become a mommy and that is OK. It's safe to say that. It won’t make you a bad mom and no one is going to judge you. And sometimes you drop plates and you feel like the worst mom in the world or employee, or partner. Whatever it is we can keep having those conversations and it is all OK."
Peanut is the barrier to entry for many moms who are too anxious to approach strangers in the park. When she became a new mom, Michelle says, "I could never approach those groups of women who looked like they really have it together and like they were all so close. I couldn't put myself out there in case I got turned down. I used to mentally exhaust myself, as I judged them thinking about them judging me."
She recalls a bad experience in a Starbucks when her own son was tiny. She saw a woman who looked like she had it together and so Michelle gathered her courage and asked if they might want to get together. "She then said to me, 'You know what I’m so busy at the moment I don’t want to take your number incase I never get back to you.' I was so traumatized by this. So I thought is there a way to erase all of this and make it easy?"
"Sometimes you drop plates and you feel like the worst mom in the world...it is all OK."
Tweet this.
It's also why Peanut uses the double opt-in model favored by dating apps. "You have to think about a woman and the position she's in and how rejection would feel-- especially if it's her and her child. It's one thing for you to reject me for a date, but if you reject me and my baby, that's a whole different ballgame." Michelle insists that the way Peanut works protects "your dignity and your pride. You can put yourself out there first and swipe right. The other mom will never know unless they swipe right on you too."
Though meeting a mom through an app might initially feel impersonal, it's the way we operate. And in this case, Michelle insists that a picture is worth a thousand words. "If you see another woman's profile, it is never about her picture. You are looking for the clue in her picture. Like is she wearing hiking boots, is that part of who she is, or is she eating food, where is she eating, what is she eating? You are always looking for those social cues, that look and acknowledgment that says 'let's play next to each and play together.'"
She also insists that, "Anything we do on our phones has to be an extension of what we are doing in our every day lives, otherwise we aren’t going to use it." And using it women are. After all, we all get by with a little help from our tech.
Follow Peanut on IG here. Photo credit: Peanut
Feel like sharing your struggles as a new mom? Comment below. We got you.