During my recent great therapy session, my therapist and I were discussing road blocks that I have in my work-at-home mom career. (Hmm… road blocks… another analogy.) What is stopping me from moving forward? Well… I’m not an “expert” on anything. “Be the expert“ and “You don’t necessarily have to be the expert, you just have to appear to be one” are comments that I’ve heard over and over again in the WAHM community. (Just to be clear, I’m not entirely sure this is what was said, only what I heard.) I can’t work that way. I think that’s lying and being phoney! Whether I heard it right, or not, whether it’s being phoney, or not, doesn’t even matter. What matters is that somewhere in my mind, I believed it. I believed that I had to be an expert or I couldn’t get anywhere with my work.

However, just as soon as I said that out loud, a new thought popped into my mind.  Chicken Soup for the Soul!  Ah ha!  I don’t HAVE to be an expert!  I don’t HAVE to know everything! Who says I can’t use other people’s information and opinions (with permission, of course) to pull that together? Seriously… Chicken Soup for the Soul wasn’t written by one person. It is a compilation of other stories presented by two people (Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen).  I can do that!  I can use my vision and my knowledge of the subject and fill in the blanks with information others already know.  DUH!  Seems like a no-brainer NOW!  (Those road blocks can be rough.)

Now there are messages out there everywhere confirming this thought and I can retrain my tricky little mind into believing a new reality.   On Twitter this morning, @AWHWorg said “Don’t wait until you are ‘expert’ enough! Find other experts & great resources. Be the talent scout. Ask Q’s for your customers. Get set GO!“  And I didn’t previously follow her on Twitter.  Someone else retweeted her comment for me to find.  And then I found this article: You Don’t Need to Be an Expert to Be Successful (different subject, same bullet points). 

The universe is talking to me. 

P.S. The “work” I was referring to in this blog is for my Home Fitness for Women website, in case you want to visit.

Here is my WAHM version:

1. Have dinner ready. Do your best to have a warm meal on the table for your family at a reasonable hour. If your schedule allowed time for a fresh home-cooked dinner, great! Your husband will certainly appreciate the fact that he “lets” you stay home to take care of everyone. When you just don’t have time to cook, grab from one of the frozen double-batched meals you made over the weekend for this type of dilema. And if worse comes to worst, call out for pizza!

2. Prepare yourself. Grab a wine glass and fill ‘er up! It’s been a long day and you need to relax and take a break before the evening shift starts.

3. Clear away the clutter. Close the laptop or shut off the PC. Stack and remove the papers from the kitchen table or counter top. (You need someplace to eat that warm meal.) Pick up some of the toys that are sprawled all over the floor. Make it look like you didn’t just spend the entire day sitting in front of the computer monitor.

4. Prepare the children. At least know where they are and what their homework is.

5. Minimize all noise. Heck with that! Turn on the radio or CD. The music will help you keep moving while clearing away the clutter.

6. Some don’ts: Don’t turn on the TV. Don’t sit on the couch. You’ve worked too hard for it to look like you sat on the couch eating Bon-Bons all day.

7. Make him comfortable. Meet him at the door with a hug and a kiss. Appreciate him for dealing with the 50+ hour work week and for his long commute. Then have his children hug him while you make a break for it and leave him with the kids.

8. Listen to him. When he finally breaks free from the kids, before you start informing him of the chores you’ve done and what the children got into, let him tell you about his day. Even though you have no interest in hearing about the corporate blabber, pretend you care. It will make him feel important.

9. Make the evening his. Let him go do his thing. After all, you have to get back to work and finish the things you couldn’t get done with your preschooler wrapped around your leg.

10. The Goal: Try to make it appear that you have it all under control and that you being at home is the best thing for everybody. It is, isn’t it?

11. My One Addition: Make sure to spend some time with your children and husband instead of just working all the time. Don’t forget your “why”.

It’s the dream of many working moms or moms who are faced with the need to go back to work and leave their little ones behind. If you’ve wondered what it takes to be a Full Time WAHM (work at home mom), this post includes a resource to help you in that very direction.

Let’s be clear, running an online business from your home takes careful planning, discipline and energy. When you work outside the home, it’s easy to separate work and family life. When you bring the two together, chaos can erupt and there can be a big learning curve to getting it right.

But you can beat that learning curve!

One way to do it is to learn from other moms who have been there, done that. Luckily Just Add Sweat’s “Full Time WAHM Success Blueprint” brings you the success stories of 22 moms all earning a full time income from home.

You’ll learn exactly how they make money, the top 3 techniques they use to grow their business, their biggest mistakes (so you can avoid them!) and what finally brought them to a full time income.

Learn about these 22 amazing ladies and get your copy at:
http://www.justaddsweat.com/fulltimewahm/

Not only will their stories inspire you, but they’ll give you the practical advice you need to become a Full Time WAHM.

To your success,
K.C.

When my daughter started Kindergarten in August, I had planned on taking a week off for personal reflection and rejuvenation.   I was going to recharge my batteries and jump into my website work and household management with gusto.  That didn’t happen.

I found myself with all this “free” time on my hands and just kindof went crazy.  I slept late, a lot.  I wasted time browsing around the internet, a lot.  I went out, a lot.  All of a sudden being home completely alone didn’t seem like such a wonderful idea.  I felt isolated.  So, when friends said “let’s go”, I went. 

Once I finally had time to figure out what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it, I couldn’t do it.  I have been so busy taking care of everyone else for so long that I didn’t know who I was any more let alone what I wanted to do now that I was grown up.  Having my children at home was a really good excuse to hold me back, but my excuse was pretty much gone.

Best laid plans?  WHAT plans?  I hadn’t really made any plans.  I was floundering.  I was (am) depressed.

Looking back at the past few months I realize that I have accomplished nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  (Okay, I may be being a little too hard on myself here.)  Instead of picking up business and getting my house in order, it’s worse than it has ever been.  I was suffering.  My family was suffering.  Our finances were suffering.  I even considered going out and getting a job!  GASP!

What frustrates me the most is that I know better.  The whole concept between this blog and my website is about how to balance so THIS doesn’t happen.  But I guess there is my reality check.  It does happen.  It happens to the best of us.

So, what am I going to do about it?  I am going to continue to see the therapist that I began seeing a few months ago and I’m going to start following my own advice.  I’m going to go back to the basics.  I am going to re-read my 5 part email series on How to Achieve Life Balance.  (Look for the purple subscription box and join me!)  I am going back to scheduling work hours, setting daily goals, and holding myself accountable.

Again, I invite you to join me.  Accountability works so much better when you share it with others.

I have been networking with Nicole Dean online for years now. I have watched her grow from a struggling work-at-home-mom to a professional business woman. She never ceases to amaze me with her caring personality and knowledge.  So when Nicole posted What are Successful WAHMs Doing that you Aren’t?, I paid attention and finally decided that I needed some coaching from this woman.

One hour into my coaching with Nicole Dean and I am PUMPED and feeling optimistic about the future of my work-at-home career.  I already have a better understanding on things like finding a profitable niche market, why I need aweber email services, how to draw and keep website traffic, and what to do with all my not-so-successful endeavors so far.  Most of all, I know she will hold me accountable and make me stay focused.

You may be wondering why networking with and watching Nicole grow her business didn’t help me learn all these things before.  Yeah, well, me too.  Her answer to me was “because you weren’t ready”.  Now, I’m ready!!

There is a bookshelf and filing cabinet behind my chair and a small child’s table and chairs to the left of my desk under the window.  (The idea behind the child’s table was to keep my children occupied and with me while I work, but it never quite worked out that way.)

What is your home office like?

Buy office furniture, electronics and more at:

When the children received their diplomas, the teacher read quotes from the children on their future.  My daughter’s went like this:

“When I grow up I want to be a mom, just like my mommy.  I am going to live at home with my mom and dad.  I am going to have two kids.  I am going to make $2.”

What I heard out of that, loud and clear, is that I have done a good job as a mom so far, that my daughter looks up to me, and that there is nowhere else in the world I should have been for the past five years.  (Even if I only made $2!)

This is really the beginning of the end of my “stay at home mom” years.  Even though I don’t intend on working outside the home once Kindergarten starts, I won’t be staying home with my baby any more. 

But….

I am so proud!  She looked so grown up already.  She was happy and smiling and oh so sweet. 

Everything is as it should be. 

I recently had a conversation with an acquaintance about finances.  Things have been really tough here in the financial department since I became a stay-at-home-mom five years ago.  Business has been okay, but let’s face it, working at home with preschoolers doesn’t always accomplish what we hope it would.  And now that my daughter will be entering Kindergarten in a few months, the topic of me going “back to work” has been a hot one and I only expect it to get worse. 

This acquaintance of mine told me that I should start looking for a full-time job now to prepare myself for the fall.  While she thinks it’s great that I’ve stayed home with my children up until now, with our financial situation, I need to get back out into the real world.  “It’s time to put on your grown-up panties!”, she said.  (Did I mention that she is single with no kids?)

Well, I’ve just gotta say “POOEY!” on that thought.  Financial difficulty or not, home is exactly where I needed to be up until now and it is exactly where I am going to stay!  I left my career to be available to my children when they needed me and they still need me, even if they are in school.  

I expect that with both of my children in school full-time, I will be able to give my home business the attention it deserves and start working our way out of debt.  Actually, I’m pretty darn positive about that.  So is my husband – thank goodness.

Call me lazy, selfish, unrealistic, whatever.  I know what is best for my family.  I am proud of the choices I’ve made.  So, everyone who hasn’t lived in my shoes (er, panties in this case), can just leave me alone!