Blogger Introductions

Hello fellow Mompreneurs!
First I’ll introduce myself — I’m Nancy Cleary, proud mom of Wyatt and MacKenzie, and founder of Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, Inc., the leading publisher for mom writers. We’ve been empowering women for over 11 years with a great publishing experience. I can offer advice on everything from self-publishing to traditional publishing (and which option is best for you!), book marketing, publicity, distribution, and author branding. If you’d like to send me your publishing questions, I’ll answer them here.

Next — I am so excited about the unveiling of the Espresso Book Machine today in New York at the BookExpo! This is an ATM for books…you walk up to the machine, type in the title of the book you want to purchase, and, in the time it takes to make an espresso, it prints, binds, and spits out the book.

The EBMs will be located in bookstores and libraries around the world, it may take a while, but it’s happening. This means books by moms like us can be distributed anywhere on earth, instantly…no shipping costs, no carbon footprint, no more huge expense, waste, and financial risk to put books (on consignment) in bookstores and fight with mega-publishers for shelf space.

If you ask me, it’s a better time than ever to publish! Here’s an interview I did with Mom Writer’s Lit Magazine which will tell you more about me, and about the new opportunities opening for moms in the publishing world.  

Cheers!

Nancy, Wyatt-MacKenzie

First and foremost, I should warn you all: I love, love, love to chat, but I will do my best to keep my posts short and sweet. I am the proud mama of two endearing and manipulative kiddos that I adore (10 & 14) and I am married to a very understanding and supportive husband. He has to be since I tend to be loaded with ideas!

Before I started down the entrepreneurial highway, I was an executive assistant for over ten years and then a stock broker for a few years.  It wasn’t until after the birth of our son, that I started researching work at home businesses. This led me to  Ellen and Pat’s Mompreneurs book which I read many years ago and actually still have and recently had autographed by our awesome leaders!

Having the flexibility of being home with my kids was extremely important so I’ve tried my hand at being a Creative Memories Consultant, a Heritage Makers Consultant, a sales rep for Robert Dawson then ventured into my own businesses: desktop publishing, stamped note cards which evolved into using my own photography and I sold these to upscale resorts throughout Arizona.

I even joined the ranks of mom inventors and have a prototype of my invention. Right now this project is on hold due to funding and limited time resources. I will tell you that one of our own, Nancy Cleary, created my product name! That’s one creative lady!

I’ve been a member of MompreneursOnline.com for a few years, but it’s only in the last year or so, with some encouragement from Leslie Haywood (Inventor Mom), that I finally stopped lurking and joined in. To me, MompreneursOnline.com is where I come home to relax and chat with all my good friends.

As for my title of Freebies Mom, well I love tracking down freebies and discounts. I’m the creator of Free Birthday Treats, a nationwide directory showcasing businesses offering birthday freebies and discounts for adults, kids and pets. In this economy, birthdays tend to be put in the “not necessary” pile and are overlooked. My mission is to make it known to millions that you can have a spectacular birthday by indulging in these offers just waiting to be claimed.

I’ll be sharing  numerous tips and resources that lead to freebies and sweet deals so be sure to check back to see what’s going on.

I’m honored to be blogging for MompreneursOnline.com and look forward to contributing to this fabulous forum.

Julie Northrop
FreeBirthdayTreats.com

Chat with me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/julieFBT
Become a FaceBook Fan
Connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/julienorthrop

Hi everyone!

I wanted to introduce myself as your PR Mom blogger. I’m Elena Verlee, a serial entrepreneur with three companies and 17 years of experience working in PR in North America, Europe and now Asia! I’ve had an international PR consultancy for over a decade working with start-ups as well as billion dollar technology companies. I also have a coaching company for entrepreneurs, and now a do-it-yourself PR company for small businesses.

A couple of years ago I sold my own mom (and pop)-preneur online business using only PR as a marketing tool and this made me realize how much small businesses can benefit from PR. It’s not just for the big boys!

Getting PR can bring publicity, credibility and clients to your business but moms think it’s either too expensive to hire a consultant (let alone an agency), too scary to do yourself, or just too confusing to be part of your marketing plan.

I’m here to show you it’s not the case! I’m looking forward to helping you jumpstart your PR and your business.

Elena Verlee
Serial entrepreneur with 2 kids, 3 businesses, living in 2 countries (and still sane)
www.PRinYourPajamas.com

So this being my first post, I will give you some background before I get down to the task at hand in future posts – writing. I spent 14 years in Entertainment, mostly doing marketing for major cable networks. It was not nearly as glamorous as it sounds, though I did spend many a night in a luxury hotel and ate many fine meals. But the hours were terrible, the pay more so, and frankly, I always wanted to write.

I’ve written some screenplays, one which even was an award-finalist, had some published articles and just always found that the written word came very easily to me. I am that person who writes letters of complaint and gets free repairs, plane tickets or new products. I always appreciated the power of words.

After the birth of my son, I was working 4 days in the office and one from home. This was wonderful until they changed my role from Copywriter to Marketing Manager. There went my creative outlet. Instead of crafting programming descriptions and content, I was trying to work as an advocate for the network. Bo-ring! Hated it. Took another job as a Marketing Director where I thought I would have more creative control. Yeah, not so fast. And they wanted me in the office 5 days. That lasted 7 months.
When that job did not work out, I knew it was now or never. I could try and go freelance as a writer and enjoy quality time with my son, or I could continue on the path to misery. You can see where the story leads. Over a year and a half later I am still freelancing and have never been happier. Not only do I get to pick the projects I work on, they are diverse and short-lived. If I don’t like the client or the content, I know there is an end in sight. Though, honestly, that rarely happens, because like I said, I get to choose who I work for.

Plus I also get to spend time on my other passion – Baby Fish Mouth. This is my infant and toddler t-shirt company that takes famous movie lines and puts a “baby” spin on them. A friend from college and I launched this in 2007. I love being able to create something that people like and coming up with the slogans and writing the content fuel my creative fire.

All this goes back to creativity. All of us have it, we just need to tap into it. And we have to be ready and at the right time in our lives to do it. I could never have gone freelance  before I had children. Giving birth and being a Mom has given me this sense of self and blistering confidence that allows me to speak with authority to my clients and charge the rates I do. If I can raise a child and get him to eat broccoli, I can certainly talk to the CEO of a company about his website content. Not even on the same level.

Plus my desire to be home fuels me in ways I never could have predicted. I also work about 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, but it is such a different type of work than being in an office. I make my own schedule. Work when I want and know what I need to do to get things done. Hmm, I think I am an adult. How did that happen?

Ok, so enough about me. Future posts will feature advice, stories, information and general BS about writing, working from home and that kind of stuff. You know what I mean. We’re buds already, I can tell. I promise to offer some value all the time and a lot of humor. Sometimes more of one and less of another.

So go find your passion, fuel your creativity and find your sense of worth. If you don’t, no one will do it for you.