Have I ever shared with you why it’s called The Free Mama? I used to have this belief that in order to be a good mom, I had to be home all the time. Like a quit your job, full-time, president-of-the-PTA, stay-at-home-mom. But when I had my first daughter back in 2012, that wasn’t a financial possibility for us. So, after an unpaid maternity leave, I went back to the office with mascara stains on my face from dropping my baby off with someone else. On that very first day back, I realized something super important: I love to work. For a while, I made peace with the fact that I wouldn’t stay home. Then, after I had my second kiddo just 2 years later, I had another AH-HA: I love to work, AND my job is preventing me from showing up as the mom I wanted to be. I started a quest to find a way to make money from home. For nearly a year, I tried everything under the sun (or at least on Google) to start making an income on my own. This included network marketing (don’t even get me started on this), blogging, surveys, secret shopping, you-name-it-I-tried-it. And then I found this thing called “freelancing” and everything changed. Provide services for busy business owners? Set my own hours and rates? All I needed was a computer and internet? Check, check and check. I decided to give it a try despite my fears about what people would think of me and the fact that I had absolutely no idea what I was actually doing. Still, I knew freelancing was what would get me out of my 9-5. I was going to make it a real thing. I was going to be a big kid, go all in, and open my very own LLC. But first – a name. I sat there on GoDaddy.com. Well, I’m a mom. And I’m freelancing. Okay, let’s try “Freelancing Mom”. Not available. Okay. “THE Freelancing Mom.” Not available. This was going to be harder than I thought. Feeling a ping of doubt, I started thinking about why I even wanted to do this in the first place. After all of my failures, why was I still in pursuit of a way to stay home and work? Why was I convinced it was still possible for me? Why did I want it so badly that I refused to give up? The truth is, I wanted more control. Control over how much money I made, where I worked, when I worked, and when I didn’t have to. All of the things I didn’t have control over at the time. I wanted to feel FREE to live my life, be with my kids, make a difference, all of it. Free Mom? No, that’s not right. No no no. Free Mama! GoDaddy price: $5,000 My heart sank. I simultaneously knew it must have been good, and also felt crushed because I simply did not have that kind of money. Before closing my laptop, for the kick of it, I put “the” in front of Free. THE Free Mama. $12! And thus, The Free Mama was born. I wish I could tell you that it was more than me just wanting to save thousands of dollars by adding “the”, but sometimes that’s just how it is. What’s funny to me now is that I still remember my mentor at the time warning me that it wasn’t a very professional name. He told me it didn’t reflect the social media services I was providing as a freelancer at the time. He was totally right. But, I know now that The Free Mama wasn’t really ever about me, though. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was setting out to learn how to do something so that I could eventually share it with the world. When I think about my first few decisions as the OG Free Mama, I remember all of the risks I took to not feel chained to a desk, all of the mistakes, and embarrassing and hard moments. I also think about all of the many, mini wins that added up to completely transform my life. I earn more than I ever thought was possible for me. I wrote a book. I traveled around the country in an RV. Twice. Being free doesn’t mean I don’t still work hard, because I do. It means I get to choose what my life looks like, and I’m finally able to show up as the mom I always wanted to be. The most beautiful part about “Free Mama” is that it means something a little different to each person in our community. We have moms who homeschool. We have moms who live off the land. We have moms who are running their businesses like an empire and put their kids in childcare. We have dads, fur-parents, and grandparents. There’s no wrong way to be free as long as you’re doing it true to you. What does being a FREE Mama mean to you? Hit reply and tell me, because I really want to know. Stay tuned, because next week I am going to tell you about how I almost lost it all, and how I got back on track. |
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