The HAP Mama’s Journey

Origin Story

Hey Mama’s,

Welcome and thanks for taking time to read The HAP Mama’s Journey.

Since this is the first post, I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself and tell you a little about who I am, how I started this journey and WHY.

First let me share a little back story:
I was a new first-time mom, my maternity leave was over, and I was then faced with the hard reality that I had to return to work and leave my 7 week old baby in someone else’s care.

My husband had covered bills, and groceries, and necessary baby expenses all during my maternity leave, but his salary alone couldn’t sustain us ongoing, so once the government disability money had ran out I had to bring money in.

Our son wasn’t progressing along the growth chart, by 2 month old he was STILL at his BIRTH WEIGHT! The doctors and pediatricians were highly concerned, and strongly recommended I NOT return to work because even with the best pumping strategy: breast milk supply still decreases when baby and mother are not together.

I was heartbroken to leave my small baby for so many hours each day. My third day back to work I was away from him for 13hours and it killed me to get updates from my mom about how much he cried and suffered and needed me.

All I wanted, more than anything, was to find a way to earn money without having to leave him.

I started to get involved with one MLM company after another in a desperate attempt to become an overnight sales person success. I went from supplements, to green cleaning products, to natural energy drinks, to skincare, and essential oils… I was using any extra income I could budget to buy the company’s products to post on Instagram to show people how much I “loved” the products, to try to get them interested. The more money I spent on these products the more hours I had to work at my job to cover the costs, which meant even more time away from my son. I was gambling my paychecks away on these MLM opportunities and losing.

It was hours of work and tons of money and stress, and lots of “Upline”/ “Downline” lectures and pressure from people I thought were my friends, and:

I never got one check: ever!

I was crying on the way to every shift, not able to focus at work, not connecting and serving my clients fully which meant I was getting less clients: and therefore less money!

I started taking on long distance Independent Contractor jobs because they paid more, but meant I was spending more time away from baby commuting over 2 hours to shifts, and 1/2 my paychecks were now going to gas expenses.

I was in a vicious cycle of pain and spending money I didn’t have in a desperate attempt to create a different lifestyle for myself so I could spend time with my new baby.

Everyday I was stressed and sad and miserable (in what I thought was going to be the most magical and happy time of my life: my child’s first year).

Everyday I got further away from my lifestyle and financial goals and couldn’t figure out how to make a shift. I was so confused and upset; I felt guilty that I had brought a child into the world when I wasn’t financially equipped to be able to spend the amount of time I wanted with him.

I felt like a failure.

I felt alone.

That financial stress, coupled with commuting, hormones, sleep deprivation, breastfeeding, and being a first time parent was more than I could handle and causing major problems in my relationship with my husband.

I was broke (my bank account literally had $1.00 or less most days) and racking up credit card debt each week to pay my bills.

For 19.5 months I was commuting 2+hours back and forth between my mom’s house and my mother-in-laws house 3–4 times a week, trying to get one of them to watch my baby so I could pick up extra shifts.

My husband and I were constantly at odds, not sleeping under the same roof, and arguing every time we were together.

My baby was spending well over the recommended limit in the carseat and being raised by his grandmother. He wasn’t growing and began experiencing extreme night terrors every night where he’d wake up screaming bloody murder 5–10 times a night!!

I was at rock bottom!

Then, as if by chance, something amazing happened… I was offered a job to teach Parent-Child classes at an upscale private school in a different town.

We moved: I started not only teaching at the school, but also working in my son’s preschool and being a nanny to create a full time work week. I let go of my old career, in which I had spent the last 12 years developing prestige and credibility, cold turkey, and entered the field of early childhood education.

Even though I actually had TWO college degrees in child development, it was something I had only dabbled in with side jobs here and there for over 8 years, and never pursued with any seriousness.

So, now I was able to be with my son AND work! It was a significant pay cut, but working more hours didn’t bother me because we were together, and I finally felt like I was the one raising him.

My job at the school expanded and they asked me to take on even more parent-child classes, so I decided to pursue additional formal education; specifically for the 0–3 age range that I was working with, so that I could begin to grow my forever career in this field.

I enrolled in masters courses, certification programs, and trainings and began reading and studying in all my free time (usually while my son was napping…).

I got several more opportunities to lead and run other parent-child classes, programs and workshops from other schools and organizations. I was establishing myself as a well known local professional and expert.

But then… COVID happened!

And the entire new life I had spent the last several months redefining and creating for myself and my son; vanished within two weeks. No more parent-child classes, no more daycare together, no more nanny work in my home, no more opportunities, no more income!!

I had so much momentum building towards this dream and it all ended abruptly.

I was frozen.

I knew I had to find a way to keep this work alive. I had come so far and now had so much education, certifications under my belt, first hand experience from my work in the classrooms, and content I had created for the families in my classes. I had finally found my life’s purpose and how I was meant serve the world; and I refused to let it die and experience another failed effort.

I realized at that point, that my only hope was to bring my work with the families online.

The tech was a big learning curve for me; boring and frustrating; but I knew it was my one and only chance to continue pursuing this work by serving now not just the families in my home community; but nationwide.

As I worked though yet more programs and courses to learn how to launch my online business a reoccurring theme that came up was finding “MY WHY”. Business coaches and gurus always want you to dig deep and find your authentic WHY for creating a business…

Through these intense trainings and mastermind groups I realized a WHY I had always known in my heart, but never brought to the surface:

It wasn’t just to share parenting education and child development content…

It wasn’t just so I could stay home with my own son…

It was that I wanted to help other new moms avoid the pain associated with having to leave their child for financial reasons when they don’t want to!

So I created The HAP Method, which is not only about Parent-Child education: but a system to support a community of mothers to thrive and grow in their parenting without financial stress.

This business has allowed me to continue to share the work I love with families on a much larger scale than I could have ever imagined, set my own schedule, and most importantly: spend more time with family.

I could now use my experience, and my story, to help other new moms who may be in a similar situation as I was.

And in the end I was able to provide a means of financial control not only for myself, but for mama’s all over the country.

When all is said and done I was able to finally create the life I always dreamed of and knew was possible, but never knew how to get there.

This means I can now spend everyday doing what I love more time with my family, and live the life of my dreams.

And that’s why I’m so excited to offer you a way to join me in this mission to give mamas a system for financial freedom and growth, without having to spend time away from their baby (if they don’t want to!).