Hey, friend.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a busy mom, trying to balance all of your responsibilities with some grace and a cool head, but feeling like you’re dropping at least one ball all the time. Guess what? That’s me, too. And that’s okay.

I’m a 30-something mom of two young boys, a wife to my high school sweetheart, a lawyer, and the manager of four people at work. In case you are living under a rock, that’s a lot of responsibility. And it’s exhausting. BUT… I love all of it. Here’s my story of being a working mom and pursuing professional success even in the midst of young motherhood.

When it was time for me to have kids, I knew I wanted to go back to work. But I’ll be honest, I was scared of what motherhood would do to my professional goals. I was nervous about the setbacks I might have. I went back to work after my first maternity leave, and was really struggling to balance everything. When I was at work, I wanted to be at home. When I was at home, I wanted to be at work. At the time, my husband and I were running our own law firm, and I felt stretched really, really thin.

Around the time our oldest son was a year old, I left our law practice and started working in higher education. I knew this was a career I wanted to pursue and do really well in, but I was nervous about my ability to do that as a young mom. Could I balance all of those responsibilities? Would people assume I couldn’t do it without giving me a chance?

Two years into this new career, our second son was born. I came back from that maternity leave refreshed and reenergized. In four years now at my “new” career, I’ve had three title changes and now have an assistant dean position. I oversee four people and have made big changes to a very important department. It has been far from perfect, and has been especially messy when we’re dealing with sick days, travel, evening events, early morning events, and more, but I am a better mom because I’m pursuing my own professional development and because I’m spending time and energy trying to be a better leader at work on a daily basis. I still often feel like I’m not doing anything well, but I know I’m doing everything the best I can, and that is what is most important.

In 2017, I started feeling a nudge to do something for working moms who might be feeling like they “can’t” pursue their own professional goals because of motherhood. I look around my colleagues in my profession, and I just don’t see many young 30-something moms. That leaves me wondering, where are the young working moms with big career goals? I know they’re out there somewhere… what’s stopping them from pursuing their dreams?

So I started looking harder, and I started seeing those moms and started paying attention to their stories. And I felt so inspired. I realized these moms’ stories needed to be shared with other young moms. After much prayer, I realized a podcast might be a great way for me to facilitate the sharing of these moms’ stories. I’m calling the podcast Influential Motherhood, because I want young moms to feel inspired to be a positive influence on their world – whether that is their profession or their community – not in spite of, but BECAUSE of motherhood. I think moms have a unique, wonderful skill set that makes them incredible leaders.

Thank you for following along and I hope you feel inspired by the stories you’ll hear. I’d love to hear from you… please drop me an email anytime at Melissa@InfluentialMotherhood.com.