Advocating For Your Passions As A Mom

1. Be Prepared To Ask For What You Want

When advocating for yourself, it's important to know what you want or at least a general idea of the direction you want to go in. I can give you an example, as a new mom who wanted to dive back into entrepreneurship, I asked my husband for time to start working and naturally hes like "OK how much time do you need?" And I'm like "I'm actually not sure, but I know that I want to work on content creation / social media" so we started off with like two hours and the time varied from 2 to 4 hours for me to genuinely feel like I was in a space to work, organized, create, etc. So even if you don't know exactly what you need it's important to start somewhere and eventually get into a rhythm.

This actually applies to just advocating for yourself in general but it can be easier to not speak up and balance what you need and you end up balancing everything and then you feel overwhelmed. OR you sit & create some boundaries, expectations, and needs that encourage a healthy balance. I've definitely been in the place of trying to do it all, and then ended up feeling everywhere, and blaming other people for my circumstances but reality, I was the only one responsible for not doing what I could to put myself in a better position with strong boundaries, and expectations for my life and after realizing that, things changed for the better.

I've definitely been in the place of trying to do it all, and then ended up feeling everywhere, and blaming other people for my circumstances

2. Believe In Yourself | You Can Really Do It

THIS! There is literally no reason, you can be whoever you want to be or do what you want to do if you truly want something enough. When I created BonaFideBabe, I had a vision for it to be a community then a boutique, then a social media marketing agency, and it's gone through all of those. With each season, God has provided the capital, the clients, the platforms, and whatever was needed to make it happen. All I did was do what I could, and God handled what I could not.

All I did was do what I could, and God handled what I could not.

When I say, all I did was what I could do means that I did the work that I could do , and that means even the smallest things like making minor adjustments to my website, or creating a graphic, and putting in the research of what I needed to be successful at what I wanted to do, and God worked behind-the-scenes to make things happen, put people in place, create a need for what I was providing, etc. I'll give you another example of this in real time... so for those who do not know, I am a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and in the midst of me, turning my business into a social media marketing agency, I took a flight to visit my best friends in another state, and it's so important to obey God, even with little things because I was packing and I found this AKA bag that I've never used before, but he said use it, so fast forward I'm boarding my plane and another sorority member approaches me and we realize we are on the same flight back, so I enjoyed the trip and start boarding the plane to go home and I see the same woman. Turns out she needed a social media manager for a project she was working on and do you know she and her co-host are still my clients today! Almost 2 years later as their producer and social media manager, so I went from no clients to a whole podcast, but not only that God had prepared me to be ready for on boarding clients with documents, contracts, pitches because I used those 2 to 4 hours a day to really lock in and trust he would use me, even though I could say I felt unqualified cause I've never done this for other people before, and on the other hand, God provided me with clients that were willing to work with me and be patient and even mentor me as a young entrepreneur and that's what I mean when I say he will put the right people in place.

3. Take Steps - Baby Steps Matter

This is what I was saying earlier about taking time to do at least one thing to move forward even if it seems small because everything really does add up and God is also working behind-the-scenes to make things align for you. I know we have goals that are big, but those big goals take smaller steps that are achievable & attainable, and you really just have to be intentional and write those things out and determine what you need to do step-by-step to get to that big goal so you don't feel defeated without even starting.

4. No Passion Is Wrong, Your Ideas & Passions Are Needed

God did not put your gifts, passions, or ideas on your heart to have them sit in your head and be idle. Your ideas matter and contribute to the world and his plan and his kingdom to inspire, encourage, and support other people and people really are waiting on you to start. So don't worry about the opinions from people that aren't doing what you do, and don't understand and all that extra stuff, you being you is enough.