Thanks for finding my Mojo!

As I write this I can’t believe we are nearly at the end of July. Where has the year gone?

Well, in all honesty, my year has disappeared in a blur…of throw-ups, middle-of-the-night feeds with only one eye open and definitely a bit of drool (was it from me or her?), and a LOT of tweets! At least 473 and that’s only since May.

I welcomed two brand new awesome things into my life this year. My daughter, and second child, in early January and my Digital Mums training course in mid-February, when the first newbie was still only 6 weeks old. Someone asked if I thought I’d miss out on my baby? Would I find enough time to fit in a newborn and a social media marketing training course which would take up pretty much the first half of the year? Talk about a challenge!

And the truth is, I’ve enjoyed (almost) every bit of this challenge.

To do list…1) Have baby 2) Change career 3) Make it work!

I saw an article in The Huffington Post about a course for mums which really promoted flexible working and thought this could be for me. I loved the being ‘me’ that work provided for a few hours, the sense of achievement, and I’ve always loved learning, but was I ready for a new challenge? To prove that I could still do something great without going back to uni? I really felt like I’d hit a bit of a career rut so thought ‘Why not?’

Could I ‘get’ this?

From the off I felt completely out of my comfort zone. I didn’t have a background in marketing, PR, writing, or many of the other skills that my cohort peers seemed to have in abundance. Where was my place amidst all these talented ladies? Turns out, my background in vet nursing was a plus for my live Programme Partner.

This is the thing with the Digital Mums Live Learning course. Not only do you complete lessons and assignments on a weekly basis, you get teamed up with an actual live client to work on their social platforms. That first post…literally many minutes spent writing, rewriting and rewriting again. It was so scary when the realisation hit that I would be the social voice for this company and I hadn’t even graduated. The Fear raised its ugly head on a weekly basis, when reading through the tasks I needed to accomplish I would say “I’m never going to get through this”, but, sure enough, week after week, I realised I’d managed everything that was thrown at me.

As easy as A,B,C… analytics, breastfeeding & Canva?

My biggest personal learning challenge was created content week, as I would describe myself as one of the more analytical types. There was a lot of information to take in and lots to fit into one week. But creating content with a baba at my boob took mum multi-tasking to new levels! It was at this point that I realised “If I can master this, then I can master anything”.

I can’t begin to explain everything I’ve learned. I’ve gone from an-hour-a-tweet to literally tweeting something last week that, when I went back over my Past Scheduled list on Hootsuite, doubted I’d even written it in the first place because it sounded so professional. How can you even forget what you’ve written? Answer — because it’s become second nature at this point.

So was it hard work? Damn right it was. It has taken grit and determination at times, but I’ve had a great support network, including my family and my fabulous peer group (and now friends for life after this emotional journey), which was essential. Was it worth it all? Definitely!

And to the person who asked if I’d miss out on my baby — I’ve got a new career of flexible working to look forward to, meaning I can be with her when she needs me, and not being in the office when the office needs me. I think that’s an investment in my whole family’s future.