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What type of work do you do? Describe some aspects of your typical day!

My “day job” – I’m the Technology Specialist for a state-wide e-learning project. This means that I manage anything related to web and course design, technical support, desktop publishing, SEO, and marketing.

Additionally, as owner of ModernMami.com, I handle content development, blog management, marketing, SEO, and social media monitoring and promotion.

How long have you been doing it and what got you started?

I’ve been in the e-learning industry for three years and have been blogging for about the same time.

I got started with blogging soon after my daughter was born. I needed to connect with other mothers since at the time, many of my friends did not have children. I was also seeking ways for me to work from home and stumbled on blogging as an option.

What is the most important thing you like to keep in mind? What are your future plans or goals?

I always have my family in mind. They are my motivation to keep working so hard.

My future goals are to work from home as a consultant/freelancer and provide social media and content services for others.

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One of the things that makes Type-A-Mom Conference unique is the emphasis on small businesses, home-based start-ups and what Moms can do with time and creativity. These entrepreneurs will be highlighted for the world to see at the Boiron Mom Market, thanks to Boiron’s generous sponsorship! Here’s what they have to say:

Three of the Boiron Children's Products

Boiron, world leader in homeopathy with a 75-year history and 3,800 worldwide employees, introduces three new safe medicines to help parents: Children’s Oscillococcinum to nip flu-like symptoms in the bud, Children’s Coldcalm Pellets to relieve cold symptoms, and Children’s Chestal for all types of cough. All three work safely and naturally without causing side effects and they won’t interact with other medications. They are FDA-regulated,¹ and do not contain any of the ingredients recently called into question for children by the FDA. All three are sweet-tasting, too. More information can also be found at http://Children.BoironUSA.com.

1 U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sec. 400.400 Conditions Under Which Homeopathic Drugs May be Marketed (CPG7132.15).

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What type of work do you do? Describe some aspects of your typical day!

I’m a travel writer with two school-age daughters. When I’m home, a typical day involves getting my kids ready for their days, then working online. Once I get my daughters back from whatever their activity was (school, etc), I try to spend the rest of the day with them. Sometimes, of course, I take work trips. I do my best to talk to my daughters every day while I’m away, but the best situation is when I can take them with me!

How long have you been doing it and what got you started?

I became a travel writer in 2006, when my younger daughter was in preschool. I’ve found that working online is a great way to fulfill various aspects of my life; it gives me plenty of time to raise my kids, and satisfies my travel bug and desire to work part-time as well.

Did you have a mentor starting out?

I met Kelby Carr in 2006, and she has been, and continues to be, a terrific mentor.

What is the most important thing you like to keep in mind? What are your future plans or goals?

Something I keep in mind is perspective. That is, a deadline may sometimes stress me out, but it’s important for me to remember that I’ve been very, very lucky to have a wonderful, healthy family. There are worse things than staying up late finishing an article!

My future plans and goals are to continue to work with my cowriters Beth Blair and Kara Williams. Besides being friends, our styles mesh and it’s a very good thing.

Follow @MudslideMama on Twitter and read about her journeys at The Vacation Gals.

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Creative Memories is the perfect sponsor for our unique Type-A-Mom Photo Walk. Friday afternoon we’ll strap on our walking shoes, grab our cameras and click our way through the sites of Asheville thanks to Creative Memories.

Here’s what they have to say:

At Creative Memories, we understand that every kid is unique. This one’s a rock star. That one’s an explorer. And the one over there has the heart of a champion.

So we design papers, stickers and more for both traditional and digital scrapbooking that help you capture each child’s stories.

But we also understand that every mom is unique. So, while all moms want their kids to look at their lives and feel loved, different moms go about that in different ways. This one loves to stay up late and crop with friends. That one wants something beautiful, but doesn’t feel confident starting from scratch. And the one over there just wants to protect her photos and stories and move on!

StoryBook Creator Plus allows creative and personalized albums with the click of a button.

That’s why we develop flexible solutions like our StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 Software. StoryBook Creator Plus lets you create amazing digital pages from scratch, using our artwork, your photos and any fonts on your computer. Or, if you’d rather, you can select from our collection of predesigned pages and simply add your photos and stories.

When you’re finished, you can print premium-quality StoryBook Photo Books at our online photo center and have them delivered directly to your door. Print one for yourself or 100 to share!

StoryBook Creator Plus and other products like our slide-in PicFolio® Albums are all about capturing your life, your story, your way. But the most flexible thing we have to offer is the advice and support of your Creative Memories Consultant. It’s a relationship that will help you see the possibilities, choose what works for you and then make it happen.

Call your Consultant today or find one at http://creativememories.com and start finding out more. You may even find a career of your own!

Creative Memories is based in St. Cloud, Minn. Find us online at http://creativememories.com, via our Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/creativememoriesofficalpage, or call us at (800) 468-9335.

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What type of work do you do? Describe some aspects of your typical day!

Any WAHM will tell you they are gifted with a special set of challenges. Juggling the writing assignments and blog development with the needs of three kids isn’t as simply cut and dry as choosing which one needs me most. If I’m dedicating time with my kids, I’m often feeling the weight of the work that needs to be done. When I throw down to get some projects completed, I struggle with the guilt of not spending enough time with my kids. It’s the classic emotional push/pull of the working mommy quandary….with 24 hour access to the fridge.

How long have you been doing it and what got you started?

I worked outside the home until my youngest daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Quitting my job so that I could take care of her full time in 2006, I turned to writing as a way of expressing so much of what was going on in our lives. I took our blog public in the summer of 2008 and have been shocked, and gratified, to see the blog community embrace me as a mom and a writer. Since going public in the past year, I have taken on writing jobs with Deep South Moms, 5 Minutes for Special Needs and Blog Nosh Magazine.

Did you have a mentor starting out?

What words of wisdom and encouragement did they have for you?

I don’t know that I had a mentor per se, because I was blogging before I even knew blogging was a word.

But when I decided in 2008 to take my blog public and tiptoe into the community and social networking aspect of it, I came into contact with some amazing people who were welcoming and encouraging.

Megan from Velveteen Mind was one of the first bloggers I worked up the nerve to email. She never failed to say what I needed to hear, offered her assistance and made me realize that no matter how “big a deal on the internet” you may think someone is, don’t be intimidated, don’t be afraid to ask your questions and throw out the first handshake of friendship.

What is the most important thing you like to keep in mind? What are your future plans or goals?

Traffic is important if you want to make money in this blogging gig, but as soon as the drive for readers starts taking the joy I feel when writing, I will stop. I try to remember that I write for myself, for my love of words and the incredible freedom I feel when I’ve expressed what I want to say HOW I wanted to say it, the gift given to me when a person comments saying “You touched me”.

If the money follows, WONDERFUL! But I think that for me to write the kind of blog I desire to have, I have to focus on connecting with my readers and building community more than filling ad space and worrying about monthly hits.

Future plans, I HAZ ‘em!

I am retiring the blog I’ve written for three years and just launched a new personal blog, Free Anissa. I have also had the incredible experience of organizing a dynamic group of women in the preparation of a new group blog that I think has the potential to do wonderful things, Aiming Low.

My goals? To write, to enjoy the people who make up this blog community and embrace the miracle of getting to take your hobby and turn it into a career.

Follow Anissa on Twitter for a good time. I mean, inspirational tweets.

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What type of work do you do? Describe some aspects of your typical day!

Answer: I’m a stay-at-home/work-at-home mom. I write my blog, of course, plus I write for the Philly Moms Blog, and I just finished working for Savvy Source (for Philadelphia) and a blogging project with 23andMe. I also write web content for commercial sites, ranging from educational to car insurance to industrial real estate. I use SEO (search engine optimization) techniques in my writing, and I’m very good at it. I get to work with great people too.

My daughter is home most of the day, although she does go to “playschool” three mornings a week now that she’s old enough to demand full scale entertainment for most of her day. My husband also works from home, so we’re a pretty tight knit family.

How long have you been doing it and what got you started?

Answer: I’ve been in Marketing and Public Relations since 1996, and there has always been a writing element to my work, and I’ve always been a creative writer. I was working at a wonderful job full-time that only required part-time effort (this is how I managed to start blogging) when I gave birth to my daughter. I went back to this job when she was eight week old, and it nearly killed me. My spark for the work was gone, because all my creative energies were going to my daughter.

I spent about six months trying to find some freelance work, and trying to decide if we could really survive as a house of ALL freelancers, with no steady paycheck or health benefits. I blogged about the search, a husband of a friend needed a long-term contact writer, and a new career was born. I’ve now expanded my client base significantly in the two years I’ve been doing this and I fully believe that my writing will evolve as needs change so that I never have to work in an office again. I would like to live a life free of budget reports and staff meetings, if possible.

Did you have a mentor starting out?

What words of wisdom and encouragement did they have for you?

 Answer: What a great question. When I was first writing, my very first mentor was my seventh grade teacher who told me I was a great poet. I wrote poetry exclusively as my creative work until I began blogging in 2004. But in the middle there was the amazing Rachel Simon, author of “Riding the Bus with My Sister” and her newest book, “Building a Home With My Husband.” She was working for a book store chain as an events coordinator, and called me up to see if I was interested in doing the same thing at another store. She called me when I had only two months sober from drugs and alcohol, and she believed in me and recommended me for the job.

The job entailed merely scheduling events (I was familiar with that thanks to my long history of hosting poetry readings and concerts), but writing the copy for the calender TERRIFIED me. I was so raw back then, so scared to learn how to live without drugs and alcohol, and she never judged me, and went through my copy line-by-line and helped teach me how to write good marketing copy. I cannot emphasize enough how her gentle support and encouragement then made my life possible today. She never once wavered in her belief in me and my talent. It was miraculous.

Once I started blogging, I had a bunch of people that inspired me. Getupgrrl, who wrote Chez Miscarriage before she vanished (sadly), Julie of A Little Pregnant, and of course Heather Armstrong of Dooce. They showed me that writing about daily struggles could be sharp, funny, and honest. Then others joined us in our little infertility blogging circle; Julia of Uncommon Misconception, Karen of Naked Ovary, Tertia of So Close. They have all been my heroes, my compatriots, and my companions as we all struggled to build our families. While I am not as close to all of them now as I was in 2004 and 2005, I still have such gratitude and strong feelings for them all. I wouldn’t be the writer I am today without them.

What is the most important thing you like to keep in mind? What are your future plans or goals?

Answer: The most important thing for me is to be honest. I have made the decision to be ME, across the board. That means my professional contacts see me swear on twitter, read my super liberal political blog entries, and might read about my sex life or my PMS. I am not going to hide any part of myself from any other part of myself anymore. I’m too fucking old, and tired, and if I lose readers or clients from that, well, so be it.

My future plans? I have a book in me I want to write. Finding time to do it is challenging (I need to win the lottery so I don’t have to do other work first. Heh.). I would love it if my blog earned enough to allow me to stop doing commercial writing.

I also love public speaking, and I’m pretty good at it, so I am really looking forward to appearing at the Type-A Mom Conference and I hope I get to speak at other conferences as well in the future. I love the blogging and social media community; I have never been a member of such an exciting, diverse, energetic group of people. It makes every day worth getting up for.

Follow Cecily on Twitter, her personal blog, or check out her professional commercial writing website.

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Question: What type of work do you do? Describe some aspects of your typical day!

Answer: I’m a professional freelance writer and social media/political consultant. In addition to my online and print writing, I consult with companies trying to reach women bloggers. I am also available for media commentary, both print and online, regarding issues that impact women, especially during election years. I am also at work on a book about mothers who are politically active and who are involved in social activism, tentatively titled, Mothers of Intention (Bright Sky Press, pub. date Oct. 2010).

Question: How long have you been doing it and what got you started?

Answer: I have been a journalist and writer for over 20 years. In addition to my background as an attorney, I was a broadcast journalist in radio and TV. I have been a freelance writer for the last eight years ad have been active in many blogs, including my own, since 2006.

Question: Did you have a mentor starting out? What words of wisdom or encouragement did they have for you?

Answer: With regarding to writing online, I did not have a mentor — I just sort of struck out on my own! But as I have gotten to know people in the blogosphere, I have been inspired by many amazing women who kept telling me to just keep doing the kind of writing that I loved!

Question: What is the most important thing you like to keep in mind? What are your future plans or goals?

Answer: I try to keep in mind that the ultimate goal of my online writing is to encourage women, and mothers especially, to own their political power. Many moms say they aren’t “political,” but when you ask their opinions and question them about the causes they feel strongly about, they realize they are much more “political” than they thought. There is so much power to be tapped among women that I want to be a part of unleashing that.

As for the future, I have several online projects I am working on that will help move political women forward. I am working on developing my social media & political consulting business. I am also at work on two books — Mothers of Intention, which is scheduled to be published in the Fall of 2010 by Bright Sky Press. My daughter and I are also going to be writing a book about our journey next year to her birth country of China — the first time we have been back since my husband and I adopted her as a baby.

Read Joanne’s reviews, her political thoughts and connect with her via Twitter.

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Question: What type of work do you do? Describe some aspects of your typical day!

Answer: My full time job is a Network Applications Specialist at the University of Chicago. I spend my day administering our Microsoft Exchange Server, Share Point server, and dabbling in other IT stuff.

When not on my full-time job I run a photography business, Cain Creative Photography. I do weddings, family reunions, class reunions, portraits, and more! I also do web design, and create several photo gifts. I love to blog about technology and Mommyhood.

Question: How long have you been doing it and what got you started?

Answer: I’ve been at the University for almost 14 years. I actually started here as a secretary. It was supposed to be a 2 week temp position. 14 years later, I am still here! I always wanted to be in IT, so I got to know the guys and I would always hang out in the computer department and express interest. When a position came up that fit me, one of them called and said “Get your a$$ up here and apply for this job!” I absolutely love what I do. It’s a good match for me since I just love technology and gadgets.

Question: Did you have a mentor starting out? What words of wisdom or encouragement did they have for you?

Answer: I didn’t really have a mentor. There were a few people that helped me along the way. I think the best words of encouragement that I got were to work hard and when you set your mind to it, you can do anything.

Question: What is the most important thing you like to keep in mind? What are your future plans or goals?

Answer: I like to keep myself grounded by remembering that nothing is going to fall in my lap. It is the hard work and effort that pays off.

My future plans mostly involve being successful in my photography and web design business. I love helping people. I really love seeing people happy when I bring their designs to life, or when their eyes light up with what I have presented to them.

I try to remember to always complete my protect as if I was doing it for myself. Don’t sidestep one bit. It is word of mouth that gets more customers, but if your customers are not happy, they will not recommend you.

You can see more of Kris Cain at LittleTechGirl or follow her on Twitter.

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Question: What type of work do you do?  Describe some aspects of your typical day!

Answer: I’m a freelance journalist and photographer. I have two regular gigs: my weekly humorous parenting column for altweekly Mountain Xpress and a local business profile for Sunday’s Asheville Citizen-Times.

I don’t really have a typical day. On deadline days, I’m usually writing and making last minute phone calls and telling people to leave me alone. On non-deadline days, I’m researching and pitching stories and doing interviews and photo shoots. All days include kid wrangling.

Question: How long have you been doing it and what got you started?

Answer: I’ve been freelancing on the side for many years, though I started doing it as my primary work once my youngest kidling started full-day school four years ago. My start in the media world was as the editor and “Dear Annie” columnist for my fifth grade newspaper. I never looked back.

Question: Did you have a mentor starting out? What words of wisdom or encouragement did they have for you?

Answer: I had some great teachers in journalism school, including former AP reporter, Conrad Fink, who taught me how to write a compelling lede. I also was honored to be taught by brilliant writer Peter Taylor, who told me to write what I know after I made the mistake of trying to channel an elderly businessman for a short story.

Another great mentor was former boss, George Stranahan, who told me, “Never do anything for someone else that they can do for themself.” This turned out to be decent life and parenting advice.

Question: What is the most important thing you like to keep in mind? What are your future plans or goals?

Answer: It’s not about me, it’s about telling a great story. That’s all I want to do: keep finding intriguing, compelling, universal stories and telling them well. And I’d really like to syndicate my column.

You can find @EdgyMama online at the Edgy Mama blog or her weekly column.

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