My Yes Moment: How I Found My Passion and You Can Too!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #WellYes2018 #CollectiveBias  

How I Found My Passion

Happy New Year!  As we enter into the New Year I thought it was the perfect time to share my story about how I found my passion and how you can too.  Two and a half years ago I started this blog.  And I did not tell a soul, if you are a bloggers or want to be one, I do not recommend keeping it quiet.  My first post was Successful Relationships have a Rock and a Kite – Which are you?  I was inspired by the vows at a friends wedding and thought it would be interested to share.  To my surprise people read it.   Which was crazy because these were people I did not know. After this post I was hooked, but still too nervous to share it with my friends and family.

For the first year I really had no idea what I was doing.  I focused on creating content that would add value to other moms with young children.  My husband was proud,  B and I were doing fun crafts, the house was super clean and we always had yummy food in the house.  The only problem was that about a year in I had still not made any money and I was spending a lot of time and money.  We agreed that we needed to give the blog a timeline to start making money.  The deadline we set was the end of the year 2017.

Two and a half years later, now I could write an entire post on how to make money blogging.  For this one I will focus on sponsored work.  I have been so fortunate to work with the most amazing brands like Campbell's Well Yes! soups.  I get to create recipes, DIY, share party tips, basically do everything I put on my ultimate wishlist for a career.  You can see the full story below and tips to help you find your passion as well.

Campbell's Well Yes! Soups 

Some days I just pinch myself that I get paid to do this. I get to work with brands I love like Campbell’s Soup and also get introduced to products like their Well Yes!® soups.  They are made with nutritious ingredients, like chicken meat with no antibiotics, sweet potatoes, kale, and quinoa.

All Well Yes!® soups are crafted with care, they do not contain artificial flavors or colors.  Their soups are made with non-gmo ingredients. They live up to their tagline “A Soup in the Right Direction®”  It was hard for me to pick a favorite soup, they are all delicious. Now is a great time to stock up, print your coupons here.

 

The brand is all about the value of positivity & joyfulness.  These values directly align with mine and the values I set out for this blog.  Their brand promise: Well Yes helps women say yes to deliciously crafted food, with real nutritious ingredients, so she has what she needs to say yes in the rest of her life. ·  So say yes to the good stuff so you have what you need to say yes in the rest of your life.  What are you doing to say Yes to this Year?

Want some cash to help you get to your Yes Moment? Don’t forget to enter the #WellYes2018 Sweepstakes in the widget below for a chance to win up to a $500 Visa gift card! It's as easy as clicking, logging in, and sharing your Moment of Yes story! If you win, think of all the ways you can use the prizing to achieve your Moment of Yes!

Before My Yes Moment

Before B was born climbing the corporate ladder was my main focus in life.  During our wedding planning process I worked full time and was in an executive MBA program on the weekends.  So my hubby to be knew what he was getting himself into.  While I was pregnant I worked 90-100 hours a week for a marketing firm.  My co-workers and I would joke that I would give birth in my office and then go right back to work.

And then a month before my due date I unexpectedly went into labor.  I will never forget that night.  I told Kurt that it was just a trial run and there was no way that I was actually in labor.  When we got admitted to the hospital I was shocked to find I was in labor and already dilated.  They tried to prepare us that at 36 weeks there was a chance that B could have medical issues.   I tried to tell myself that everything would be OK, but when it was time to push a flood of doctors and nurses rushed our room.  Two pushes and she was out.

At first everything seemed fine.  They placed her on my chest.  I thought we were safe.  I was wrong.  She did not make any noise.  Moment later everyone left the room including B and I was left alone to imagine the worst.  In that moment everything changed.   For the next 13 days we stayed at the hospital while B was in the NICU.  We were only able to see her every 3 hours.  When I first saw her she had so many tubes on her and we could not hold her for days.

When we finally got released from the hospital I wanted to hold her 24/7.  Kurt would come home from work and I would be exactly where he left me on the couch snuggling with B.  He would ask what did you do today, my answer was always you are looking at it.  I was able to extend my leave since it was the holidays.  When I went back to work I was able to work from home a couple of days a week, which saved me.  But then I started to get into my old ways, some days I would not see B when she was awake.  I knew things needed to change.

Before My Yes Moment: How I Found my Passion

I originally started looking for career opportunities that would have flexibility.  For a year I looked and looked.  While I was looking I also did some soul searching.  My dad had always told us that if you love what you do, you will never have to work a day in your life.  If you are in a similar place the best question to ask yourself is:

"If money was not an object what would you do with your time?"

I came up with a list that included: spending time with my family, baking, traveling, doing DIY projects, hosting parties.

At first I thought being an event planner for kids' parties would be my dream job.  I did a couple of parties for friends and quickly realized I was making less than minimum wage for the number of hours I spent.  So I went to the expert, my wedding planner.  She offered for me to work with her to learn the business.  Today I still work with her for wedding weekends.  But, I learned that being an event planner for kid's birthday parties meant that I would be missing out on almost every weekend with my family.

During that year I started reading all sorts of blogs.  At first the posts were practical mom things like removing markers from carpet, fun DIY crafts and progressed into reading blogger income reports.  It did not hit me at once, but article after article I started to realize blogging could be the perfect fit for me.  Happy Family Blog has given me a creative outlet, flexibility, improved my marketing skills, taught he photography skills and pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I am so grateful that not only I said yes, but that my husband was on board as well.

Need more inspiration for your Yes Moment? Click here.  

#WellYes2018 #Sweepstakes (1/15 to 2/16)