Name: Jill

City: Plano

Marital Status: married

Mom to: Samantha (“Sami”), 15-month old girl

Occupation: Attorney. However, I have started my own business, Sweet Cheeks. I specialize in monogrammed diaper covers, onesies, bibs, burp cloths, etc. for babies and small toddlers. I also carry other speciality items from vendors I personally love, like Swankie Blankie and Elegant Baby.

What is sitting on your bedside table right now?

A lamp, a decorative plate with writing pens and paper on it. A glass of water and coaster (of course!). I think even a wrapper from one of Sami’s snacks. I have a pile of sam’s books on the floor that won’t fit on the nightstand because we read each night in my bed before she goes to bed.

What is the last thing you told your children that your own mother told you when you were a kid?

I love you.

What was the last meal you cooked from scratch and when?

Does breastmilk count? BECAUSE I DON’T COOK.

What was the best piece of parenting advice you got? Who gave it to you?

My mom gave me the advice. You have to put babies on a schedule! My daughter is wonderful at bedtime and sleeps well. She is a very happy girl and I’m happy to think that I contribute to that happiness in many ways!!

What are three products that you could not live without?

Blackberry (soon to change to my new i-phone!), a car, toothbrush and toothpaste!

If you could put one product on the market that doesn’t exist today, what would it be?

I am soooo sick of traffic. I think I would invent a space travel option on my NEW i-phone (a machine would be too large to haul with me everywhere and I’m already pretty attached to my blackberry). You could simply enter a location and you would be “beamed” over there. (I guess I’m showing my age using the word “beamed”!!!) Then I wouldn’t care about the price of gas!

Has your definition of success changed since you became a Mom? If so, how?

Absolutely! I can’t really describe it. I think you have to experience it to truly know what I am talking about. The best way to describe it is “a change in focus”. I focus on my daughter’s successes! If she says a new word, if she’s happy, if she learns a new skill….those are now my success stories.

But before that, for those interested in MomsOutLoud.com, or who may be following my mompreneurship-journey, I thought I’d add a few comments on why I’m starting MomsOutLoud.com now, while I’m (well, really Leanne) is figuring out all the intricacies.

During my last two years at PepsiCo, I was the President of our Women’s Network. I loved it. I was a brand new mom myself, taking on the responsibility just after coming back from maternity leave with my first son. Getting the chance to create an agenda and develop programs that benefited women and parents in our organization was exciting to me. Getting to meet more experienced Moms, and those who were going through the new-mom journey (or just about to start the journey) alongside me, was an incredible benefit to me and my state of mind as a hormonal, sleep-deprived, mommy neophyte.

But the part that really got me jazzed was connecting other women with each other. I had the privilege of meeting a lot of women across the company that shared their stories of working, parenting, and “woman-ing” with me. I felt good about being able to introduce women to each other, to help them find common ground with another woman they could connect with and share experiences and advice. I loved watching friendships form and see energy spark when two people worked to solve a problem where before there had been only one.

These “moments of joy” (as a dear friend of mine would call them) were so powerful to me that I began to think about ways I could create a professional life that would allow me to experience them more often. That’s when the idea of MomsOutLoud.com formed:
“Creating a web forum that would allow time-starved Moms find information they want, when they want it and allow them to connect with other Moms to develop relationships for themselves and their families.”

All the MomsOutLoud Moms are dedicated to this vision, and we hope you as Beta-Moms are, too. We are thankful to you for helping us create this forum for Moms in our community!

There is an old parable I’ve heard many times about the importance of perspective. It describes how three stonecutters, doing the same exact task, viewed their job completely differently and how their perspective made a huge difference in their personal happiness and motivation. It goes something like this….

One day in the 14th century, a man asked three stonecutters to describe their job.

• The first stonecutter replied with great bitterness, “I am cutting this stone into blocks.

• The second stonecutter replied with no emotion, “I am building an arch.

• The third stonecutter replied with great pride, “I am building a cathedral.”

Entrepreneurship, I have found from even my short experience, is not for stone cutters. I compare many of the tasks I am doing myself now to what I did as a corporate Vice President and laugh. Order my own office supplies? Track my own expenses? Make my own copies? If I took a lot of the work I do daily on a literal basis, I could get bogged down and lose the meaning of the work. These tasks are necessary, and when you’re a 1 person show with limited budget, you do them – all of them.

But that’s not what I’m really doing. I am creating something. Something big. Something I believe Moms need. Something I believe Moms want. They may not even know they want it (though every Mom I’ve talked to about MomsOutLoud.com has gotten “it” immediately), but once they have it, they won’t be able to live without it. That’s what I believe.

I am now trying to staff a small team to help me build Moms Out Loud. For the most part, I am finding people who believe the vision, who believe what we are building is going to be huge and will create a tighter community of Moms in North Texas than existed before – or could exist without something like MomsOutLoud.com.

And these are the people Moms Out Loud needs. The people who will jump in and do whatever task is needed to build the cathedral. The people who will look at a pile of papers that need to be consolidated into a media kit, or a contact log that needs to be managed, and tackle it – all while keeping the perspective of the bigger picture of what we’re building. Here’s to my cathedral builders who’ve signed up so far: Leanne, Donna, Jennifer, Monica, Adonia, Heather, Stephanie, and Missy.

But you know what else Moms Out Loud needs – and in fact, won’t succeed without? Our beta-Moms. Moms who believe that they have something important to share with other Moms: their experience. Moms who want to make the path through motherhood easier for other Moms by sharing their lessons. Moms who want to meet each other because they know this journey is a lot more fun when you’ve got some good friends beside you who can entertain you with a funny story, listen when you need to vent, or maybe even watch your kids when you need a night out with your husband.

So, to all you beta-Moms out there – remember, we’re building a cathedral! There might be some tedious block-cutting along the way (writing your xth review for your kids’ last birthday party place, trying to remember your favorite goodnight book for your pre-schooler), but in the end, we will have something beautiful that will help others. I hope you share the vision!