This week I have the honor of introducing you to Andrea Helander, an entrepreneur at heart. She is the founder of Andrea Helander Designs, Inc., a full-service luxury interior design company specializing in new construction. Andrea also owned and operated Mrs. French, a boutique pick-up and delivery laundry service, a high end women’s designer apparel direct sales business, is a trained yoga instructor and most recently owns a skin care business with a billion dollar international brand.
Andrea is passionate about outdoor adventure, travel, running and spinning. She is always pursuing expansion, joy and enjoys sharing with others how to live a beautiful life through her Bathroom Banter and one-on-one coaching.
In this episode, Andrea reveals her journey from being an overworked single mom and business woman to finding gratitude, self-awareness and her greatness.
Andrea shares lessons she’s learned about the importance of being grateful, practicing regular self-care and focusing on the simple things in life that we easily overlook while living our busy lives.
I felt refreshed after hearing Andrea’s story and I’m sure that you will appreciate her insight, especially as a young mom. There are some things that we can only learn through experience. In those special instances where you have an opportunity to learn from someone else’s experience, you gain wisdom.
Where You Can Connect with Andrea:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrea.matthewshelander?fref=search
Website: www.ahelander.myrandf.com
Andrea’s Parting Words of Wisdom:
“Life is about growing into yourself and growing into yourself again. Take time to listen. It’s those things that make you most uncomfortable that lead you to your greatness.”
I hope you enjoyed this episode and were able to take something valuable and apply it in your life. As moms, we are always trying to get it right. Andrea is living proof that it’s ok to accept that we won’t always do it right, but as long as we are learning, growing and grateful, everything that we go through is worth it.
If you have any comments or thoughts, please feel free to share below or you can email me at Erica@momswithdreams.com.
Until next week, remember to reclaim your dreams, do what you love and make a difference.
Much Love,
Erica
This week I introduce you to Maura Kolkmeyer, the CEO of Sitterly Students. Maura is a strategy consultant turned bootstrapping entrepreneur with a knack for connecting people and building communities. After graduating early from Seton Hall University, Maura started Sitterly Students to help hard working families find local college student babysitters for part-time care.
Fascinated with the power of strong relationships that build successful futures, Maura helps organizations, students and young professionals build their futures through brand consulting, strategic planning/communications, facilitation and web development.
In this episode, Maura shares her motivation behind her company and what drove her to take the leap into entrepreneurship. Her passion for helping families shines through as she shares her story and her favorite testimonial from one of her families.
I love Maura’s humility as she explains that she “didn’t really create anything” – she just “put a structure around an existing need”. Her company, Sitterly Students, provides an amazing service for working parents while helping college students gain work experience and earn extra money.
In addition to child care services during regular working hours, Sitterly Students offers non-traditional services such as late-night and weekend sitters as well as transportation to get children to and from their scheduled activities.
Maura is planning to launch her mobile platform that will give busy parents easier access to the information they need to find the right sitters for their children.
During our talk, Maura graciously extended a gift of 50% off a new membership with Sitterly Students. You can take advantage of this offer by visiting http://sitterly.co/dreams. Use code: DREAMS
To connect with Maura online, visit:
Website: http://www.sitterly.co
Twitter: @maurakolkmeyer, @sitterlystudent
Instagram: @maurakolkmeyer, @sitterlystudents
Email: Maura@sitterlystudents.com
Facebook: @Sitterlystudents
Maura’s Parting Words of Wisdom for Hard-Working Parents
“Thank you for all the work that you do because I think a lot of it goes unseen and unthanked.”
I hope you enjoyed this episode with Maura Kolkmeyer and I hope you were inspired to start something new. Have you discovered a solution to a need in your community? If so, I challenge you to be creative and take action to help out. You never know – you could end up starting an amazing business, too.
By the way, I’d love to have you join me in the celebration of my 100th podcast episode! I am so grateful that we’ve made it this far and I want to show my appreciation by celebrating with you.
If you love this show, I would love to hear from you. I’m asking my podcast listeners, guests and supporters to share their comments and I will include them in this celebratory episode. If you’d like to be a part of this monumental moment, send me an email at Erica@momswithdreams.com. I’m excited and look forward to celebrating with you.
Until next week, reclaim your dream, do what you love and make a difference!
In this episode, you’ll join me for lesson 3 in my Live An Extraordinary Life Series, where I talk to you about why it’s important for you to follow your dreams and never give up. I explain the amazing thing that happens in your life when you pursue your dreams and how you can impact the lives of others simply by following your heart.
I often hear people say that they wish they would have done something that they really wanted to do like travel abroad, visit exotic islands, go back to school, start a business, tell their story, and the list goes on. But for some reason, they have told themselves that it’s too late to pursue their dreams at this stage in life.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
Too many people give up on their dreams prematurely and miss the blessing of living a purpose-driven life.
I don’t want you to give up, so I share 3 practical steps to keep you motivated and on track with living out your dreams.
I wholeheartedly believe that as long as you are still alive, it’s not too late to live out the dreams that were carefully planted in your heart. You were born to live your dream and to share your gifts with the world.
After you’ve listened to this episode, I would love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below or send an email to Erica@momswithdreams.com. I look forward to hearing from you and being back with you next week.
All My Best,
Erica
P.S. If you missed the first two lessons in this series, you can listen to lesson 1 here and lesson 2 here.
If you’ve ever found yourself doubting your personal value or feeling like you’re not worthy of something that you really want – like happiness, love, success or anything else - you are so not alone. As I discuss this with my guest, Kia Urso, you’ll hear that this is a common thing among women.
Kia Urso is the CEO of Speaker of Life, a motivational speaker, Founder of the Women in Business Pageant, and co-owner (with her husband) of K & J Construction. She’s a corporate trainer on leadership, effective communication and customer service. Kia is also a loving wife and mom.
In this episode, Kia shares how she “accidentally” got started as a motivational speaker and what she discovered after she embraced her calling. She offers tips for new speakers on getting over the fear of public speaking as well as tips to improve your speaking skills.
Kia illustrates the struggle women have with accepting their value and discounting their worth and she shares insight on how to rebuild low self-esteem.
Lastly, we talked about one of my favorite topics – how to transition from full-time employee to full-time entrepreneur. Listen and get Kia’s wise words on this.
Kia is excited about her first annual Women in Business Pageant happening in Clearwater, FL on July 7th-8th.
You can connect with Kia Urso and learn more about her pageant by visiting her website, www.womeninbusinesspageant.com. Also check out Kia’s Facebook page.
This episode will inspire you to embrace your value, self-worth and never discount yourself again.
If you have any questions, comments, or thoughts, I would love to hear from you. Post below or you can send me a private email at Erica@momswithdreams.com
We’re quickly approaching episode 100! This is a HUGE milestone for me and I plan on celebrating in a BIG way with you. If you’re not a subscriber, please do so over at http://ericagordonlive.com/podcast. You don’t want to miss any episodes as we get closer to this monumental event.
I look forward to being back with you next week for the next lesson in my Live an Extraordinary Life Series.
Peace and Blessings,
Erica
I had the pleasure of interviewing Stacie Walker, best known as an international bestselling author, award-winning podcast personality, business strategist and mentor. As a business strategist, Stacie helps new and seasoned entrepreneurs put themselves first so they can design a beautiful life doing what they love. She teaches her clients and students how to infuse the power of collaboration and social platforms to rapidly accelerate business growth.
In this episode, Stacie and I talk openly about how, at the height of her success as an entrepreneur (earning five figures each month), she had to completely walk away from her business. Stacie talks about the condition of her health and the changes she made in her business when she decided it was time to go back.
Stacie shares her experiences and strategies so you can avoid the painful process she went through to learn what she knows now. I love that Stacie has no reservations about sharing and genuinely wants you to learn from her mistakes.
You can learn more about Stacie Walker at http://staciewalker.com or connect with her on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/staciewalker
Instagram: https://instagram.com/staciewalker
Facebook: https://facebook.com/staciewalkermedia
You can join her Facebook group, Elite Society of Ambitious Moms: https://www.facebook.com/groups/virtualsolopreneur/