Entrepreneurship | Many Hats Mommy

February 2, 2011
by Jenny Herman Leave a comment

>Wednesday’s Woman–Angela Ficorelli, Moving Beauty

>This week’s Wednesday’s Woman was recommended by my husband, Greg. She is a LinkedIn connection of his, and he thought she’d be a good fit. He was right! I think you will love her designs. Both of her Moving Beauty sites emanate calm and peace, they are so simply beautiful! So, if you’re stuck in snow, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy learning about Moving Beauty. And now, here is Angela in her own words…

Hello! My name is Angela Ficorelli. I am a mother, wife, and graphic

designer that lives in Warren, MI with my wonderful husband, cat, and
boston terrier. Since high school, I’ve always had a strong focus on
art. Graphic design was one of those careers where I could make art
and have a salary (and not have my parents freak out!). I went to the
OCC Orchard Ridge Campus to take a graphic design class there to see
if I liked it. The teacher there used to teach at College for Creative
Studies (CCS). I LOVED IT! It was a little more old school then, and
we painted compositions in gouache and really sharpened our design
skills and learned the difference between 25% gray and 30% gray. It
was hard, but I loved it.

From there, I went to CCS because they have the best program for
graphic design. It was the best decision! Their undergrad program is
very intense. It is almost like a graduate program, very heavily based
in design theory. A lot of classmates I started with dropped out or
left by the end of my 3 years there. I learned a ton there and made
great connections that would help me later in my career, and it felt
really good to graduate from there. When I left, I knew exactly what I
wanted in a career and felt confident about who I was as a designer.

It was then when I met my wonderful husband, Darin. It was very
difficult meeting the love of my life during graduation week, aka the
busiest week of my life! He was patient and waited for me, and about a
year or so later, we were engaged. Shortly after that, I spent 3 weeks
in the netherlands and Berlin to study design with some of the most
prestigious design studios in the world. It was an intense and great
learning experience. I was offered a job to stay and work in the
Netherlands, but chose to come back to come back to my family. At the
time, I had many doubts about my choice, but looking back at it now, I
would have done the exact same thing. I know I made the right choice.

I now have a simple 9 to 5 job in Ferndale as a graphic designer. My
day job doesn’t always allow me to make sentimental things for people,
and this is what I’m most passionate about. I really love projects
that center around celebrations in life, like wedding invitations,
gift wrapping, or party decorations. I found myself really enjoying
projects centering around this theme, so it inspired me to start
Moving Beauty. https://www.movingbeauty.squarespace.com/

Moving Beauty is a business that allows me to take on more satisfying
design projects. I also use it as a way to collaborate on projects
with friends. For instance, right now my friend Christine and I are
working with the owner of Pinwheel Bakery (in Ferndale, MI) to design
and stage their storefront windows. This is something new for Moving
Beauty, but its something I have always wanted to do. The windows will
be up this weekend, so be sure to stop by and visit sometime in
February.

I also opened an online store, https://www.movingbeauty.etsy.com/.
In this store, you can all kinds of handmade items that center around the theme
of different celebrations. I also do custom gift wrapping, and will be adding
more products up in the shop soon.

It’s not easy to be a new mom with a new business. It is humorous to
me that I decided to start a business right after I had my daughter,
who is now 7 months old. You think I would have my hands full already!

Sometimes I’m surprised at how everything gets done. In many ways, I
think having a daughter finally pushed me to start this business. I
have always wanted to do it, but I think having a child really makes
you think about your own life. I feel a need for me to have this
business because I want to be a great role model for my daughter. I
would hate to see her being raised by a woman who hates her job and to
never be satisfied with life. My mom really loves her job and that has
been an inspiration for me, so I guess I’m just trying to do the same
for my daughter.

It’s important for all moms to do something they are proud of. It can
only make you a better mom and a greater role model. I can’t really
speak of experience since my daughter is only 7 months and is just
starting to develop her personality, likes, dislikes, etc. But I know
that seeing my mom do what she loves and being great at her job really
inspired me to make the right choices so I could live a life I was
proud of. I only hope I can have the same kind of impact on my
daughter.

To keep in touch with Moving Beauty, you can subscribe to the RSS feed
at https://www.movingbeauty.squarespace.com/ or visit the shop at
https://www.movingbeauty.etsy.com/

Or you can like Moving Beauty on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Moving-Beauty/127244420665194

If you would like to contact me for freelance work or have questions
for me, you can email movingbeauty AT gmail DOT com

January 28, 2011
by Jenny Herman Leave a comment

Wednesday’s Woman–Emily Lopez, Lemonaid 4 Autism

I know, it’s technically Friday. However, my next available Wednesday’s Woman spot is in March, and I couldn’t wait until March to introduce you to this little lady. I met Emily a couple of days ago on Twitter. A Twitter friend tweeted about her.

As an autism mom, I sometimes click on retweets to see what other autism moms are passing along. I am so glad I did! Those of you with children may want to share Emily’s story with them to show that yes, they can make a difference! What I also notice is that Emily’s mom encouraged her to help others instead of keeping things with the family (you’ll understand when you read). Autism is expensive for all, but her mom still prompted her to think about others. And now, here’s Emily in her own words…

My name is Emily. I am 10 years old and I love school. I love to skateboard, play with my friends, and plan events for student council. When I grow up I want to be a Lawyer for special need families. I love to sell my Lemonade!

Lemonaid 4 Autism is an idea I had when I was 5. I wanted to hold a lemonade stand and my mom said I should give the money to charity. I saw how hard things were for my brother and my family. So I figured I would do it for Autism. We give 100% to charities I love. I get to pick out places , dates, and who we are raising the money for. Sometimes the charities come to us and we help them make their own Lemonade and donate a Hand build stand. We do not get paid but when you help it is Great!

I have learned how to take a stand with Lemonaid 4 Autism. No matter your age Taking a stand is simple and can help so many in your community. You do not have to do stands as much as I do. But if you do one it can make a difference. First get a location. Second you can email us [email protected] and we will announce your stand to people in the area. Pick a foundation you love. We always go with ones who have touched us hollyrod.org , askate.org , and Surfers Healing. Get everyone involved!

Making posters and more. After you are done we can put your stand up on our site and make a tribute to it. Plus in the month of March we will be holding a give away. If you friend us, retweet us, or Face book fan us, you can win a Autism awareness keychain by designer Megan Renee!

OR Facebook Fan us https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lemonade-4-Autism/275722458305

January 26, 2011
by Jenny Herman 2 Comments

Wednesday’s Woman–Niki McNeil, In the Hands of a Child

A couple of weeks ago, as my faithful readers know, I won a lap book from In the Hands of a Child. I have been doing a diary-type review of what I won, a preschool/early elementary lap book on zebras. Each time I write, I send the link to today’s Wednesday’s Woman, and she always has a sweet, gracious comment in return. Dr. H LOVES working on his lap book, and I see many lap books in his future! And now, here is Niki in her own words.

My wonderful husband and I live in Michigan’s Great Southwest just miles from the Lake where I was born and raised. We have 3 amazing kids. Bryce is the oldest at nearly 15 and still enjoys legos, nerf guns, and volunteering at the local nature center. Olivia is my girly girl at 11 and often called a mini me. She enjoys anything crafty and creative. Farrah is my youngest and always wants to be seen and heard! She’s 9 and has already performed in 5 large scale musicals; she inspires me often to step out of my comfort zone.

Previous to being a stay at home mom and then a homeschooling mom I taught preschool where my love of hands on teaching was born. At that time Bryce was a wee one and attended class with me. I found that if I could put it in their hands and show them very tangibly what I was teaching them they learned it and better yet remembered it weeks later. From then on I was on the search for fun and exciting ways to teach and learn. Unfortunately there was not a ton of stuff out there in the late 90s, most of what I came up with became my own creations that were inspired by something I saw elsewhere.

When my husband and I decided to home school I naturally carried this style of learning home with us. The older the kids got the harder it was to find products to help the love of learning continue, which is how we began lapbooking. Our first year of home schooling was a difficult one as while trying to make it fun I also tried to do school at home. This did not work for Bryce or me! Once I threw in the towel with the textbooks and started learning the way we had been all along magic happened. My suggestion to anyone is have fun with what you are teaching, learn alongside your children, and listen to them. Together this is the perfect environment for loving learning!

Now for the story of how my company, In the Hands of a Child, started. Maybe my story will inspire you to try something new with your child, whether or not you are home schooling, and perhaps it will also inspire you to use your talents in an entrepreneurial way.

In the Hands of a Child began in 2002 when two home schooling moms found themselves constantly searching for the right graphics and information for their children to complete lapbooks and trying to answer the question, “What exactly is a lapbook?” Kimm Bellotto and Niki McNeil met through an online home school email list and after chatting, they soon discovered that they both loved lapbooks and were both looking for an easier way for home schooling moms to pull together the necessary items for a lapbook. Those chats soon turned into a business plan and the two of them quietly “set-up shop” on the web becoming the first company to sell ready-to-use lapbook kits. With Niki’s creative ideas and Kimm’s creative graphics abilities, the two moms published their first unit in November 2002, titled “Plants”.

At first the only people who even knew they existed, outside of their families, was a small circle of online friends from a home school support egroup. These moms began using the product and spreading the word to other home schooling moms and slowly, but steadily, the business began to grow to what is now an internationally recognized company in the home schooling community.

Niki and Katie met through a mutual scrapbooking hobby and when Niki mentioned that she and Kimm were looking for additional writers, the “inner author” inside Katie jumped at the chance! In 2005, she joined In the Hands of a Child as an author/researcher and then as a partner in the growing business. Today, the three of us share equal responsibilities, each bringing unique qualities and talents to the business with one goal in mind, to provide quality lapbooking materials for all educators, while serving the homeschooling moms looking for an easier way to put laughter and learning together in the hands of their children. We aim to help parents of all age and skill levels, ranging from Preschool to High School, with the use of just one product.

In the Hands of a Child has been greatly impacted by the home schooling community. The vast majority of customers who purchase materials from our company are home schoolers. In addition, the three of us have built a strong link of communication and mutual friendship with many of our customers through our on-line chats, on-line co-op groups, and yahoo email groups. We are more than grateful to be blessed with such wonderful customers and friends as the ones from the home school community that make up our large, international customer base. While we often hear what a wonderful addition our company has been to the home schooling community, we are forever indebted to them for our tremendous success as a company.

Before In the Hands of a Child made its debut, home schoolers had to do all of the preparation in order to pull together a lapbook. That task takes a lot of time and money spent on buying items and/or graphics that may not be used again. Many home schoolers do not have the time or the resources to complete this for every unit study in their curriculum. Knowing how much our own children learned and enjoyed learning in this style, we knew we could meet a need for home schoolers who want to put more of a hands-on spin to their schooling but are daunted by the task. We took the preparation time out of the parent/teacher job description and allowed parents to focus on the learning experience.

As the benefits of lapbooking become more well-known in the home school arena, our business continues to blossom with more and more home schooling parents looking for a simpler way to incorporate lapbooks into their daily learning experience. They come to us with relief because we are saving them from endless searches and confusing decisions about miniature books and graphic organizers, and we are giving them the opportunity to complete a project with their children that doesn’t require so much preparation that the joy fizzles out, for both mom and student. In addition to that, we offer custom made Lapbooking Project Packs that allow the customer the option to name the topic and grade level of the unit. We complete this within a 3-week time frame allowing customers to study a wide variety of topics of their choice, whether it is Disneyland before an upcoming vacation or The United States Navy before Uncle Greg deploys to serve our country. This is truly a one-of- a- kind service for our customers, and our custom orders have more then doubled since we began offering them.

Customers call, write, and email us on a daily basis with comments like, “This is my first year home schooling, and it has been overwhelmingly stressful trying to research all that is available and then determining what would work best for my daughter. She is a very hands on crafty kid and worksheets just bored her. A lot of the curriculum available for purchase just didn’t have enough hands on activities to satisfy her and she dreaded ‘school time’. I was so elated to find your site, bought all the preschool project packs that were available at the time… and got started right away. My daughter loved them so much she even asked to do ‘school’ on Saturday and Sunday. I was elated. Thank you for making these wonderful resources available to us.”

Together, we have published over 400 project packs, and we continue to release new ones on a weekly basis. In addition, we have added other products to our company including lapbooking supplies, sticker books, coloring books, and much more. The success of our business can be directly related to the support of the home schooling moms and children out there who use our products and continue to tell others about our company and the type of curriculum we have to offer. It is through their words, their testimonials and their efforts that we continue to grow.

Please visit our website at www.handsofachild.com. While you’re there, check out the “Freebie” tab and sign up for our newsletter! We’re having a big celebration this coming weekend to celebrate our 400th project pack. “Like” us on Facebook, and you can follow all the exciting news and prizes!

If you haven’t read Many Hats Mommy’s experience with lapbooking, you can get started here.

January 12, 2011
by Jenny Herman 2 Comments

>Wednesday’s Woman–Susan Scott, Learning Style Guru

>This week I am happy to introduce you to Susan Scott. I found her via Laurie Neumann’s resources attached to her book that I reviewed a while back. It looks like Susan has a lot to teach us, so let’s get started! Here’s Susan in her own words…

Hi! My name is Susan Scott. I was so honored when Jenny contacted me about being one of her Wednesday Women! I’m excited about the opportunity to share with all of you.

I am a homeschooling mom of two; we’ve been at it since 1996. In the 13 years prior to starting our home school, I worked in every conceivable type of educational setting: from public, to private, to faith-based schools. I also own www.SusanScottOnline.com where I encourage, educate and equip people to uncover their own and their children’s unique giftings.

I enjoyed teaching children, but I was discouraged to see so many happy, enthusiastic, bright and inquisitive kindergarten children turn into angry, frustrated, struggling students before they reached third grade. Any child whose learning style and dominate type of intelligence was not perfectly suited for sitting still, listening quietly, and filling in workbook pages all day was, and still is, immediately labeled as “impaired.” It broke my heart to see the spirit and potential of these students get crushed under the burden of feeling as if they were defective and inferior to their classmates.

When my first child was ready for school, I recognized she had a non-traditional learning style. It was her academic struggles that first led me to explore the area of cognitive development, including Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.

The idea of multiple intelligences has revolutionized both the way we homeschool and the way we parent our children. I believe absolutely that every person is born with a unique purpose on earth and has been given the raw potential to fulfill that purpose. For example, some children, my daughter included, are wired with an innate sense of how to relate to people, and they have an exceptional measure of compassion. Those same children do not tend to do well in traditional, logic and writing based, school settings. I was determined not to subject her to the typical classroom situation and the conflicts that were sure to follow. My husband and I were committed to keeping her free from man-made labels that would try to tell her what she was and was not capable of doing.

We started out on the adventure of homeschooling for the express purpose of helping our children gain the tools and confidence to become everything they were created to be. By seeking to understand our children’s dominate type of intelligence, their inborn giftings, and temperament we can find educational methods that meet their needs rather than trying to fit them into a one-size fits all education.

There would be more exceptional adults in the world if the unique gifts and type of intelligence of children were encouraged and built up during their school years instead of being disparaged or ignored.

So many children, with wonderful, unique ways of seeing and relating to the world, are growing up believing they are at best dumb, or at worst, learning disabled because they scored in the 25^th percentile on some standardized test. They turn out to be unmotivated adults with low self-esteem and little sense of their own value. The exceptional gifts they were born with lie dormant under the memory of poor test scores.

Whether we are a homeschooling family or not, by understanding our children’s unique gifts, understanding the theory of multiple intelligences, and looking at their temperament and learning style, we can help them develop those gifts. If we can bless our children with a perception of what is special about them, give them the freedom and tools to explore their interests and desires, we can help them become the adults they were created to be.

My first child has graduated from our homeschool and has gone on to college. She is now a state certified EMT, working toward her paramedic license. Classroom style learning is still difficult for her, but years of success in our homeschool and opportunities to pursue her interests outside the classroom gave her the confidence in herself to pursue higher education.

My passion is to equip and encourage all parents to see the God given abilities in their children so more children can reach their full potential and live the exceptional life they were created to live. To that end I developed a website at https://www.homeschool.susanscott.org specifically to help parents with the resources and information for uncovering the type of intelligence, giftings and personality of their own children. There are plenty of free articles there to get you started on the path to understanding why and how your children are special. I would recommend you check out the article on multiple intelligences, found at this link: Multiple Intelligences

You can also find me on Facebook at Susan Scott Homeschool Learning Styles

December 29, 2010
by Jenny Herman 3 Comments

>Wednesday’s Woman–Christine Stevens, AdvoCare

There is an unspoken connection among moms of autistic children, as I imagine there is with any group of special needs moms. Another autism mom and I tried to get a group of spectrum moms together for a girls’ night at a restaurant, and Christine, today’s Wednesday’s Woman, was the only other one that showed up. Even though we had never met in person, we had met on Facebook. However, there is still the expected awkwardness of meeting someone for the first time. After our initial, “Are you Christine?” we sat down, introduced ourselves, and almost closed down the restaurant. As Christine likes to say, “It’s nice to be around someone who gets it.” And so, here is Christine in her own words….

I am a stay at home mom and have been nearly full time for the last 15 years. My husband and I have eight children, ages 16 years to 20 months of age (and no multiples!). I have been involved in many things over the years. I am US Army Veteran, a trained birth doula, and for the last 3-4 years I’ve tried to focus on making our family more ecofriendly to include cloth diapering, natural childbirth and a major focus on eating healthier overall.

My oldest son was diagnosed with Asperger’s (a high-functioning form of autism) approximately 5 years ago. At the time I understood very little about nutrition and its impact on both mental and physical health. It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my 7^th child and I suffered from a severe case of morning sickness that I was introduced to a really good whole foods supplement that helped my body to reprogram itself and actually start to crave healthy foods. Fast forward to 18 months or so ago when my youngest was about 5 months old. I set out to lose the weight from that pregnancy and the 7 before. I managed to lose about 40 pounds within the first 5 months through exercise and an OK diet before I hit what’s called a “plateau” in my weight loss. I struggled for several months trying everything, and I managed to lose about another 5 pounds and about half a pant size, but that was it.

To top it all off I felt awful. I was exhausted physically from trying to keep up with the demands of my full time job (mommy to 8!) and the workouts I was putting myself through to try and attain the weight and size I felt I wanted to be. Nearing the end of my rope (and truly considering what it would mean if I gave up my dream of having the body/health I wanted) my husband gave me a sample of a product called Spark made by a company called AdvoCare. This began a new journey for me down the road to not only reaching my goals, but my husband and I attaining our dreams.

AdvoCare is a 17 year-old health and wellness company based out of Dallas, Texas. The growth of this company at present is unsurpassed. Not only does AdvoCare make daily nutritional supplements for all ages & stages of life, but they also carry athletic performance products, weight/fat loss and a whole host of similar items to help people improve their life health-wise. This is where our journey began with AdvoCare.

After having tried that first Spark (a mental focus/energy drink that is actually good for your body!) I immediately felt better and realized that these products were very different from anything I’d ever tried before. I’ve been to the vitamin stores, surfed the workout websites for products, and trust me when I tell you there are hundreds of thousands of products out there geared towards the health and wellness movement. The many that I have tried often times did nothing but make me feel awful or offset the balance of my body. AdvoCare was set apart in my mind from most of what’s on the market today.

AdvoCare products are formulated to give your body the things it can’t possibly get from your food, regardless of how healthy an eater you are. Most people know that as of today fresh whole foods don’t contain the same nutrients they once did or even a few years ago. The biggest problem with this is you can eat completely healthy and you still need to supplement. Sadly, the majority of the products on the market, even many by reputable companies are laced with things that are counterproductive or even bad for your body and for weight loss and oftentimes don’t even contain the actual *good for you* ingredients they say they do.

AdvoCare has a team of 8 incredibly reputable physicians that help develop our products. We also use one of the top labs in the world called Informed Choice to test our products for banned substances. Because of this our products are top quality themselves…second to none out there. And even more interesting is because of this we have NON PAID celebrity and athletic endorsers that make no money, but only receive free products to endorse AdvoCare. One of them is MVP quarterback of the Saints, Drew Brees. To me that says something. When an athlete of that caliber says something is good and doesn’t get paid to say it? There must be something there.

From a financial point of view this company is also second to none. AdvoCare gives back immensely to its people. They base the sales portion of the company on principles that our world has all too soon forgotten, that hard work should mean something and should pay back long-term. There are many financial stories (many better than ours…so far ha!) out there, but ours is still in the making. What I can tell you is this, when my husband first promoted this business to me I told him no way, no how. I’ve sold make up/baskets/internet stuff before in the past and while all that stuff was nice stuff, direct sales is not all that much fun. What I didn’t know when I said that and now know is that AdvoCare pays their people 60 cents on the dollar and in 5 different ways.

Most direct sales companies usually pay somewhere between 25-30 cents on the dollar. That’s huge when you’re talking about building a business. As of right now, my husband Dean and I are on track to make 10K a month by next year at this time. Four months ago we got our first check of $27. This last month as we pinned in at the silver level, we are now hitting an average income of $1,000 a month. To be completely honest I don’t feel like we have done much except share this company with people we want to help either lose weight, feel better, or earn some extra income. It’s definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme. It requires some time and dedication, but overall the amount of “work” compared to a lot of other home sales jobs I have had has been what I would consider minimal.

Lastly I will say this…everyone out there struggles with one or two main issues in their life these days, health or finances. Advocare is a company that provides solutions based on where you want to go. For me I want a family that is healthy, and I want to be debt-free and financially sound long term. Also, I believe severe nutritional deficiencies have contributed to my son’s health/mental condition. I see the difference in the way my children behave and interact and learn when they are eating real whole foods, and I have seen the difference when they were taking the supplements through our business, and it motivates me even harder to want to help others achieve that knowledge and success as well. I’ve also learned the benefits of limiting sugar intake in children because sugar puts a damper on the immune system. Did you know that for 4 to 8 hours after you consume sugar your immune system response is lowered significantly? That’s one of the reasons I stopped long ago allowing my kids to partake in pop (or any other form of sugar) and indoor playscapes (restaurant unnamed) except for on very rare occasions. The reason being…you give your child a soda that is loaded with sugar, the immune system is suppressed, then you allow them to go up into tunnels that are infested with germs from all the other sniffling, sneezing kids that may or may not properly hand wash, and thus you have a sick kid on your hands.

I started long ago to really focus on my children’s illnesses and make every attempt to link them back to the origin to try and prevent such things as much as possible. Sickness is a sign of something wrong. The sad thing is most American parents that I know don’t associate that sort of thing together. For example, if your child suffers from headaches on a frequent basis, it very well could be a food allergy or aversion of some sort. My oldest son who has Asperger’s loves pizza with pepperoni; however, he gets a raging headache every time he eats pepperoni. Pepperoni while delicious is made with nitrates as a preservative (the same thing you find in sausages, hotdogs, ham, etc). Nitrates are not good for you and in some people such as my son and myself, if we choose to eat them we know we are risking a future headache. Does that make sense? It’s all about choices. Choices as parents, and never forgetting that we truly are what we eat.

Beginning a journey to healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle can never start too soon. If we don’t have our health, what do we have? In the last 4 months I have gone from a nice size 14 down to a size 8 (and I’m still shrinking!!). I’m 35 years old, have had EIGHT kids, and I’m smaller now than I was in high school as an athlete, and I’m also smaller than I was when I was in the military running 3 miles a day and marching 10. I love what this business has taught me and given me: energy to be a mom, skinny jeans, a fat wallet, and knowledge to help others and my own family. Who doesn’t want that?!

Our site

https://www.advocare.com/10082656/default.aspx

Drew Bree’s our non paid endorser:

https://www.advocare.com/10082656/Company/Spokesperson.aspx

A success story! Trish lost 292 lbs using AdvoCare

https://www.advocare.com/10082656/Products/Testimonials/ProductsTestimonials.aspx?id=421