The Momnificent™ Blog

13 Skills Learned in the Profession of Motherhood

Is motherhood really a profession?  Well, if you look at a list of professions, you probably won't find it on the list, but I'm not sure why.  If you think about it, many of the same skills you need on the job are necessary in the profession of motherhood.  What we get paid $30,000 to $100,000 a year at work, we are paid nothing at home.  But really, what's more important?  Building a company or raising the next generation?

Take a look at these valuable skills you are learning, and thank your family for the wonderful and free education you are receiving.  :0)

1.  Being a Leader:  Leadership is the ability to inspire yourself and other people to take positive action in life.  Homework, chores and grooming our bodies are all positive actions we motivate our children to take.

2.  Creating a Vision for the Future:  What is the mission for your family?  What impact will your family have on the world at large?  These are good questions to consider for your organization.

3.  Managing a Team of People:  It's rarely easy getting everyone on the same page.  Balancing the needs of mom, dad, children, caregivers, friends, family, coaches, music instructors and teachers requires effective management skills.

4.  Motivating People to Take Action:  I feel like I do this in all my waking hours.  I mean, really, how many of us love to do housework, or better yet, have husbands that love to chip in and clean house?

5.  Problem Solving:  Ever have any problems in your family?  :0)  Moms are always in problem solving mode.  How are we going to whip up dinner when grocery shopping is long overdue? 

6.  Making Important Decisions:  There are not many things more important than making the "best" choices for our children.  Who should help take care of our children?  What kind of role models do we want to be for our children?

7.  Counseling:  Sometimes we have to put our conseling hat on and wipe away some crocodile tears.  Other times we have to listen without judgment to what is going on in our child's world.  Always, we have to offer love and compassion.

8.  Conflict Resolution:  Can we say "sibling disputes"?  This is one of the most important skills we can teach our children.  How best to practice than with our own marital conflicts?

9.  Good Customer Service:  Do you have any demanding customers in your family?  How about some picky customers?  Most family customers want food when they are hungry, and attention when they are bored.

10.  Organizing and Prioritizing Multiple Responsibilities:  Moms wear multiple hats...counselors, professional organizers, chefs, wives, doctors, chauffers, housekeepers, dish washers, body washers, teachers, role models, friends, volunteers and yes, even employees.

11.  Making Efficient Use of Time:  How can we eat, take a bath and get ready for bed in 30 minutes or less?  How do we fit all of our competing priorities in the span of 24 hours?  Time management is a skill moms practice constantly.

12.  Develop Efficient Systems:  Anything that makes family life run smoother probably has an efficient system behind it.  And guess who created it?  Did you say Mom?

13.  Working with Financial Constraints:  Organizations are not the only groups operating on a budget.  So are families, and often times much tighter ones.  It takes creativity to meet the financial needs of a growing family.

So, what do you think?  Should motherhood be declared a "real" profession?

Tell Me Who's Your Friend...I'll Tell You Who You Are

Your personal and business success hinges on the people with whom you share your time.  With the right support you'll be energised, encouraged and empowered...your business will thrive.  Without it...your business will barely survive.  

To be successful, you must surround yourself with successful people, and that includes friends and family.  So as you gear up for the festive season, it's important to consider how much influence your best friend, partner, sister, mother or personal trainer has on the success of your business.  

It's recognised that we are the average of the five people with whom we spend the most time.  

I'll explain this further by way of 3 phenomena.

The Magnet Effect

We are magnets drawing together like-minded people.  And the people you attract have a huge effect on the beliefs and ideas that you have about yourself.

When you are confident about your success, vision and life purpose, you attract those people who radiate similar beliefs.  These people then become a powerful force that will propel you forward.  

Conversely, if you spend time with negative victims who gossip about others...this paints a picture of who You are.

Ask yourself, who am I drawing into my life?  They could be people you know or people you hire, your coach, your mentor, your strategist, your outsource professionals.  Am I moving towards the people who are where I want to be?
    
The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect is a scientific phenomena coined by Edward Lorenz. The concept explains that a butterfly, flapping its wings in South America can affect the weather in Central Park. The actual definition is:

"A small variation of an initial condition may produce a large

variation, in the longer term of a system."

While you cannot change another's behaviour, you can change yours.

So when you do something small, for example, when you decide that you're too busy to listen to time wasting jokes and you ask everybody to, "Please stop sending them to me."  You're taking charge of your life.  You're telling the world that your time is important.  And you're asking others to respect your time.  You are making a small, but powerful decision that changes your life. 

And with those changes unsupportive people and things are organically culled.

The Mozart Effect

The Mozart Effect is a phenomena described by French researcher Alfred Tomatis which states that listening to certain types of music; in particular, Mozart, brings about healing and developmental properties.

The transformational powers of music affect your health, education and well-being. Subliminally your life is affected by the music you listen to AND the people you listen to.  You need to ask...is this the music I want to hear?  Is it supporting my well-being and transforming my life?

The people that you draw into your life, the small actions you take and the music that you listen to have a HUGE affect on your physical and mental well-being as well as the well-being of your business.

So I ask...with whom will you choose to share your time this Festive Season?
 
Internationally acclaimed, Success Coach, Mumpreneur, Speaker and Writer Tania Usher is dedicated to creating freedom for Entrepreneurs globally through the power of Building Brilliant Businesses^(TM). To learn how to create an extraordinary life now, register for her free weekly articles at www.TaniaUsherInternational.com

Being a Mom Entrepreneur Brings out the Best and Worst

I just got back from sunny Las Vegas - attending Ali Brown's SHINE event.  Wow!    It was a roller coaster of experiences and emotions, all designed to help women entrepreneurs grow their businesses.  I laughed.  I cried.  I was inspired.  I was discouraged.  I was confused.  I had amazing clarity.  I had confidence.  I shrunk back and failed to make myself visible.  I met some wonderful women that had amazing positive energy.  I even met a few whose energy I wasn't attracted to.  Being a mom entrepreneur can bring up all our stuff - wonderful and yucky!

Being a mom does much the same thing.  Motherhood happens to bring out the best and worst in us.  It challenges us to rise up and face the challenges in front of us.  Sometimes we want to meet life head on, and other times we don't.  We all experience the same roller coaster of emotions that I went through this weekend, simply because we're human, and mostly because this is life.

I had an amazing opportunity to hear some beautiful and courageous women speak this weekend.

• Ali Brown - Multi-millionaire dollar woman business owner
• Barbara Corcoran - Brooklyn babe from ABC's Shark Tank
• Marlee Matlin - Deaf Academy Award Winning Actress from Children of a Lesser God
• Julie Clark - founder of the Baby Einstein Company
• Anne McKevitt - Billion dollar business owner

And you know what?  As successful as they all are, they are no different than us.  They struggle, feel fear, overcome obstacles and face life everyday with challenges and opportunities.  They were down to earth, willing to share their gifts, and inspire women to step up and be who they are capable of being.

What about you?  How will you use your gifts and life challenges to step into your own personal power?

Here are some pictures from the SHINE event!

Just two wonderful women I met

My new friends and mom coaches from Canada, Australia, and United Kingdom.

Marlee Matlin - mother of 4 children!

Me with my book and 2010 SHINE business plan.

Ali Brown - amazing woman and business coach

The Momtrepreneur Maven Gets Down to Business

A long time ago, I responded to a media inquiry to promote my business.  That is when I first learned about Jill Salzman from The Momtrepreneur Maven.  If you are thinking about starting a business, or currently running a business, you definitely want to check out her website. 

Jill Salzman is The Momtrepreneur Maven. Jill started her career as an entrepreneur at the wise old age of 5 when she became CFO (Chief Five-Year Old) of her first lemonade stand. Since then, Jill has started up several of her own companies to much success and praise of buyers, clients and investors alike. After starting up several media companies, including the creation of two magazines and music media company Paperwork Media, Jill launched her biggest professional achievement to date: giving birth to a baby girl. Two months after her daughter was born, Jill started up the successful baby-based business, The Bumble Brand. The Bumble Brand’s success spawned several more successful baby-related ventures.

Throughout this busy and exciting time, Jill couldn’t help but notice that many fellow Moms had brilliant business ideas of their own–they just lacked the time and the help necessary to implement those ideas. With Jill’s honed business skills, she resolved to reach out and begin helping other Mommies realize their full entrepreneurial potential.

That is exactly what Jill did for me.  She interviewed me for her most recent crib sheet, where she features mom entrepreneurs wanting to spread the word about their business.

Check out the Momnificent! interview and learn some things about me that you probably didn't know.

Get Ready to SHINE with Me!

I am so excited!  I have exactly 50 days until I am going to SHINE to spend an extraordinary 3 days with Ali Brown!  Who is Ali Brown, you ask?  Ali is amazing - her company recently ranked no. 263 in the 2009 Inc. 500 awards for fastest growing private companies in the nation.  Besides her saavy business expertise, Ali has amazing energy, and her upcoming SHINE event is going to be one transformational experience!

Are you a mom entrepreneur looking to give your business a boost?  Are you thinking about starting your own business?  Would you like to come with me to experience an amazing event!?

SHINE is the first and only kind of its kind uniting purpose, passion and self-discovery along with a strategic plan to help you build a successful and secure business model that can generate income for years to come.

SHINE is designed for both experienced entrepreneurs and new business owners alike, and mom entrepreneurs will especially love Ali because she knows the women entrepreneur well - she is one!

SHINE doesn't just deliver a buffet of ideas or speakers to choose from.  You leave with a SHINE business plan - YOUR own custom plan - that will reengineer your business for your greatest potential and success.

At SHINE, you'll gain solid insight and concrete steps to transform the way you think, the way you work, the income you generate and how you'll impact the world...forever!

Yesterday, I looked at who the guest speakers will be.  Wow!  The event is amazing and worth it just to be taught by Ali Brown, but she also has some amazing guest speakers lined up.

Day 1: Barbara Corcoran from ABC's Primetime Show "Shark Tank"

Day 2:  Julie Clark - founder of The Baby Einstein Company

Day 3:  Marlee Matlin - Academy Award Winning Actress and Activist

If you could take just 3 days out of your busy schedule to attend one educational and transformational event, this would be the one to go to!  I already have my plane ticket and can't wait to get there!  I would love for you to come SHINE with me!

Finding Time for Your WAHM Business

Are you a WAHM that struggles to find time to develop your business?  There are so many demands pulling on us.  The house needs to be cleaned.  The kids need to be taken care of.  We need to nurture our marriage and we need to take care of ourselves.  When does that leave time for your business?

The one thing I have learned is that if we wait for some free time to develop our business, that time never comes.  The other demands will always come first.  Time for your business has to be created.  You have to be proactive about how you are going to meet the demands of your business.

One of the most helpful tips I have found to work is to create a weekly work schedule.  At the beginning of each week, look at your family calendar and decide on a daily basis what hours are available for work.  Pick 2-3 (or more if you can) hours a day where you can go in your office and commit to handling business tasks.  Post these hours in clear view so that the whole family knows what time you will be working.

If your children are small and need attention, you will have to line up childcare arrangements for them.  Enlist the help of your husband, babysitters, other family members or childcare workers.  Arrange for coverage in advance so you are guaranteed this time to work.

Have a plan when you go to work.  What do you need to accomplish for the week?  Set your weekly goals and work those tasks into your day.  Stick to your goals and do not get sidetracked by other distractions.  These distractions would include Internet surfing, personal emailing, working on things that are not on your list, and of course, family needs.  The time you have set aside is for you to maintain and develop your business.

I have found this approach works far better than trying to sneak in 20 minutes here and there.  When you are done with your scheduled work hours, you are done for the day.  You can put aside your business needs and tend to the other needs in your family.  You can rest easier and know you have given some quality time to your business.  You are free to be totally present for your children.  You can relax and have fun because you know your business is under control.