Purpose Driven Moms

About a year ago, I woke up at three o'clock in the morning with "Purpose Driven Moms" in my head. I jumped out of bed and ran to the computer to see if there was a domain name available. I was shocked to see that it was available, given the fact that it seems EVERY mom related .com is already taken! I bought it and went back to bed.

Over the last year, I've been trying to understand what "Purpose Driven Moms" looks like. Here's what I do know and what threw me out of the bed in the first place:

Women have a certain identity and then they become moms.  Becoming a mom is an amazing gift that comes with so much responsibility. Many of us want to be the BEST mom that we can be for our children. It's so easy for us to become consumed in living out the BEST mom role, that often times we slowly lose ourselves and our identity beyond our role as mom.

My belief is that while many may feel that their purpose in life IS to be a mom, we all have a divine purpose beyond that role. Being a mother may very well be the most important role a woman ever has, but she is also born with so many gifts that shouldn't go untapped!

One day, those precious little ones grow up, move out and start living their own lives. Many moms then take a step back and say "now what?" They've poured themselves so much into motherhood that they don't know who they are, what they enjoy, what they're good at and what they should fill their time with. Many know this phase in life as "empty nest syndrome!"

It's so easy to get stuck on auto pilot and just move through life filling time. I believe that we're all born with a purpose and it's our responsibility to seek all of it and pursue it. You've heard it before, but in your final days, how will you reflect on what you've done with your life? Did you live it to the fullest? Did you accomplish what you felt you were here to accomplish?

Purpose Driven Moms is about awakening women to take a look within and get to know themselves; identify their interests, their gifts, their dreams and desires. It's about supporting and empowering women to take action and implement change; shed what's not working and absorbing time and energy, then dedicating time to what's fulfilling and energizing by serving their purpose.

Purpose Driven Moms is about creating better balance in life. It's all about being intentional about what makes up one's life.

A Purpose Driven Mom is happy, healthy, thriving and offering the very best of what she has to offer her family.

That's a snippet, but I'm STILL trying to determine how I'm supposed to be spreading this message and impacting the lives of MANY moms! I'm open to feedback and ideas!

In Good Company - Suzanne Evans

Are you in good company?

I've been on ah-ha moment overload all weekend! I went to see Suzanne Evans live on the Help More People Tour in St. Louis. I have to say, she completely blew me away! WAY beyond my expectations (and I thought she would totally rock, but WOW)!

I'm sure I'll be discussing a lot of ah-ha moments moving forward, but one of the things I realized is how important it is to surround yourself with like minded people. And not just like minded people, but people of greatness; people that have achieved and accomplished thing things in life you're bound and determined to achieve.



(I have to say, I started this post on November 1st when I returned home from St. Louis and obviously, I was interrupted! Five month olds can do that pretty easily!)

Back to the point. I've been meeting some really incredible people lately; people that inspire me, challenge me, motivate me, and maybe a few that somewhat intimidate me. All of those things are good! I want to be more, do more.

Now that it has been a few weeks after seeing Suzanne, I have a little different perspective on my experience there. Honestly, it was bitter-sweet. I was excited to mingle among high achievers, doers; people that make a huge impact in the lives of others. I was inspired and encouraged to see their transformations in their business make-overs.

I'm realizing I should side-step here. Suzanne Evans works with "helpingpreneurs" (entrepreneurs that are in the business of helping others) to effectively market and monetize their passions. She's extremely gifted with what she does!

Anyway, back to what I was saying. I'm watching all of this transformation in the room throughout the day. I'm seeing people cry because the light bulb finally went off and they know exactly what they need to do moving forward in their business. It was exciting!

Toward the end of the day, I started to have a little bit of a meltdown. How embarrassing. I was quietly tearing up in the front row as I watched the last business make-over. It hit me - I'm living at about five percent of my potential...if that. Holy crap! What am I doing? I've been allowing fear to hold me back for some time now. I've been making excuse after excuse to not take action. I started to feel angry, frustrated. Before long, I was just plain PISSED!

I saw people with established businesses; people that have already taken that leap of faith and put themselves out there. I've seen their websites. I receive the newsletters of some of them. It was pretty amazing to see this other side; to see their stumbling blocks, their fears and hang ups. It was nice to see that I'm not the only one with fears, insecurities, excuses holding me back. Although everyone was at different stages in their journey of entrepreneurship, we could all relate to the emotions that come with putting ourselves out there.

I think we all realized that we now have each other to learn from, to gain support from and even business partnerships and alignments.

What I'm learning is that when you have a nudge to do something in your life; if you're truly passionate about something; take that leap of faith and go for it!

Make sure you're in good company. Find a way to minimize or eliminate the nay-sayers in your world. Attach yourself to people that build you up, encourage you, teach and mentor you. Align with people that have common interests, values, beliefs and motivations in life. It's amazing how quickly your life can change and you just begin to start finding ways to make it all happen!

Oh, What a Week!

What a week it has been! Last Sunday, we had to rush my lil guy, Brady to the ER because he was having difficulty breathing. Turns out, he has croup. Yuck! They gave him steroids, watched him for a couple hours and sent us home. I can't tell you how awful it feels to see your three and a half month old so sick and pathetic. We were expecting him to improve in a couple days; 24-48 hours they told us. Well, one week down and he still has the croupy cough. On top of that, he's teething, so his little gums are sore. He's drooling EVERYWHERE and biting on everything. We're averaging about two to three hours of sleep a night. Definitely, not enough sleep for momma. I'm actually planning to call the doctor in the morning to see if there's anything else we can do to help him get back on the road to health. This just doesn't seem right.

In the midst of the around the clock sick infant care, I knew I needed to figure out a way to make it to the very first Chicago Underground Social Media Society Networking BASH (Whew, that's a mouth full!). I had been planning to attend for a few weeks. I knew it would be an opportunity to meet some really wonderful entrepreneurs and social media gurus. Thankfully, my hubby, Chris was happy to be on daddy duty for the evening. Thank God he's so supportive of the things he knows are important to me!

I was honestly blown away! The turn out was spectacular; probably 120-150 people in attendance and there was plenty of time to network before and after the speaker. Bill Crosby was the presenter of the evening. He is the creator of the Twitter Traffic Machine (now off the market). He spoke about the "Seven Steps to Viral Product Development." Of course I took notes and brainstormed some ways I could apply this information to some of the projects I'm working on. Good stuff!

The best part for me though was that I was able to connect with some great people that I know will impact my future both personally and professionally. I'm so excited to think of how much I'm going to learn from these individuals.

I find it no accident that I met Mina Shah with Robbins Research International, Inc. (Tony Robbins) first! She happened to be in town for a training engagement (I'm pretty sure) and decided to come to the event last minute when she heard about it. The interesting part about this is that I've been praying to find a way to attend the Tony Robbins - Unleash the Power Within weekend at the end of October in Chicago. Two hurdles to overcome: Brady care and the cost of the ticket. I'm still not positive it is going to work out, but I felt that maybe it was my sign to work a little harder to MAKE IT HAPPEN. I've had this feeling that attending will transform my life and catapult in the right direction to live my purpose. I'm now refocused on figuring out a game plan.

I rarely win anything, especially when it comes to a raffle, but I suppose fate would have me "win a free one hour chat" with Gabe Strom. Gabe is a social media trainer and life coach of sorts. He is passionate about helping people become aligned with their purpose. We both share this interest, but it's so much easier to help others than it is yourself. Well, that's the way I feel anyway. For some reason, I struggle with "defining" myself and paving a clear path. I'm excited to see where my chat with Gabe takes me. I'm looking forward to gaining a little outside perspective and maybe refine my focus.

I finally met Brad Will or @BradleyWill. We've been chatting on Twitter and Facebook. I have enjoyed his blog and video content. He has been successful in the real estate business and is now focused on living authentically and helping young entrepreneurs find success. Love it!

Ray Smith of Infinite Horizons Design; we've been chatting on Twitter and Skype for a couple weeks now or masterminding some would say. I'm so grateful to him for helping me on my journey to overcome my fear of VIDEO!

One more. I met Amber Gallagher, a 26 year old single mom sharing many of the same passions that I do. Amber would like to help other single moms become successful entrepreneurs and thrive in all aspects of life. We've been masterminding a lot this weekend! Looking forward to aligning with one another to make things happen for many fabulous moms throughout Chicagoland!

I could probably go on forever. There really were so many wonderful and talented people in attendance. I went home with about 20 business cards and had even more individual conversations that evening. I can only imagine how this group is going to expand and impact lives. Very exciting!