Meet Katie Malone, Founder & CEO of Hey Katie Malone
Connect with Katie Online!
Katie, we are so grateful you decided to share your story with us. Let’s start with who you are both personally and professionally. Give us the 30-second elevator speech that you would give when asked to introduce yourself.
For the past few years, I’ve worked with businesses as a social media consultant and have offered mostly one-on-one retainer-based options. This year I’m excited to share that I’ve shifted my focus to working with mostly mom-owned businesses and now offer mentorships, coaching, and group programs to help established mom business owners with their marketing, and soon I’ll be launching programs to help ambitious moms, don’t know where to start, jump into entrepreneurship!
What does “As Strong as the Mother Next to Me” mean to you?
“What I have found to be true is that community is so crucial to navigating motherhood. We aren’t meant to do any of this alone, and this is especially true when it comes to raising children and motherhood. Therefore, it’s crucial that we both seek and create the community we need – and offer to hold space for other mothers around us.”
Tell us about yourself as a mother and business woman. I became a mother in 2017 when my son Carter came into the world a whole month early. To say I was unprepared would be a huge understatement! But what I quickly learned was that (as clche as it sounds) no book could have prepared me for the journey that is motherhood, yet I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. As a new mother AND a woman who both needed and wanted to work, I quickly discovered that a traditional job just wasn’t going to work for me and set out to be my own boss, and have spent the last three years figuring this whole thing out as I go 😉
How important is it to you to surround yourself with other moms both professionally and personally? It is so incredibly important, especially when raising a child far away from family (East Coast Transplant here), or in crazy times of physical isolation like this pandemic. Professionally, I feel like working moms are really good at sharing tools and resources so that we can all succeed together, and having mom friends in general is pretty much a non-negotiable to my happiness and sanity.
I was working at a digital marketing agency when I got pregnant with my son, and after watching several amazing women leave the company to start their own freelance businesses, I knew that was the path for me. Of course, I didn’t have the courage to leave the “stable” full time job right away and found myself back at the agency after maternity leave, only to dread dropping my baby off with a stranger every morning. After a few months I mustered up the courage and left the agency to become a social media consultant, and my business grew from there! I now currently just have a handful of social media management clients I serve, and I am also gearing up to launch a few group programs. My day-to-day? The fun part about being an entrepreneur is that every day looks different, but most days I drop my son off at preschool (which he absolutely loves) and head back home to get organized for the day. A typical day consist of creating content for myself or my clients, social media planning, social outreach, virtual coffee chats, and some movement and personal development time.
What challenges do you face as a mother and business person? My biggest struggle is finding enough time in the day to DO ALL THE THINGS (though I am getting much better at outsourcing and delegating). A close second would be the working mom guilt. Some days I feel so guilty about having to work at all ( especially on the days when we have a rough preschool dropoff), but after working for myself for three years, there’s no going back – and I find some relief from the guilt knowing that I’m setting an example for my son so that he grows up knowing entrepreneurship is a viable option.
What challenges do you face as a mother and business person? My biggest struggle is finding enough time in the day to DO ALL THE THINGS (though I am getting much better at outsourcing and delegating). A close second would be the working mom guilt. Some days I feel so guilty about having to work at all ( especially on the days when we have a rough preschool dropoff), but after working for myself for three years, there’s no going back – and I find some relief from the guilt knowing that I’m setting an example for my son so that he grows up knowing entrepreneurship is a viable option.
What piece of advice would you give another mom who is struggling with balance work/home life? or thinking about starting her own business? Don’t try to do ALL THE THINGS. Seriously. A mother’s helper or laundry service, though they might seem like a luxury, can really make the difference between totally burnt out, and the feeling of freedom that comes with having a couple extra hours in the week. Start by taking an honest look at where you spend your time each day (a time tracking tool can help) and figure out what would be the most beneficial task to take off your plate. One of the first things I learned to outsource was laundry, which saves me roughly 6 hours a month that I can spend with my family or working on my business. 100% money well spent.
What are some of your favorite resources for business that have saved you time?? There are so many, but I definitely recommend time blocking your calendar. If you can, block out your tasks in a digital calendar like google calendar, that way you can easily move things around to fit openings in your schedule. Then schedule out your non-negotiables (aka time for YOU, time for family, workouts, etc.) first, and do it one week in advance. You’ll be happier when you know there’s time on your calendar for the things you value most. Plus, when your time is blocked-out, you tend to “lose” less time on mindless activities like scrolling social media or watching “just one more” episode of your favorite binge-worthy show. Another resource I would recommend is getting involved with a networking group. I am a member of the MOB Alliance, which is a national alliance of mom business owners. The Facebook group is 10K strong and literally full of the most amazing women. The group one of the most active Facebook groups I’ve ever belong to and it has saved me tons of time and money on market research, referrals, etc.
Tell us about a challenging time in your business and how you overcame it? The MOST challenging time in my business, besides when I first started consulting and had zero clients, was back in March of this year when I had a full client load, and suddenly my son’s preschool was closed with no other options for childcare. Then, come April, I lost about 70% of my income because clients had to shut down or reduce their marketing budgets. It was scary, frustrating and somedays, felt really hopeless. So how did I overcome this? I allowed my myself time to embrace the uncertainty and spend time in reflection of where I truly wanted my business to go, and decide what I wanted my life to look like. My boyfriend and I then mapped out a co-working, co-childcare schedule and we did the best we could to adapt to our new circumstances. It was messy, it was stressful, it was imperfect, but we grew through it together. With less time to do 1:1 client work I started to map out what a group course could look like and gave myself permission to pivot. And here we are in October and I’m excited to launch my first group program: Social Media Bootcamp for Mompreneurs (a 6-week program to help mom business owners build their own strategy for success on social).
How did you build your community of moms around you and how have they impacted your life personally and professionally? I have always naturally sought out other moms in similar stages of their motherhood journey, for example, lactation groups when my little guy was first born, and joined a coaching group with other mom business owners as I began to grow my business. I’ve also always enjoyed helping others find solutions and consider myself a connector, and find taking leadership roles to be very rewarding. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have made it to where I am today in my business today if it weren’t for my communities, and I can’t imagine how lonely it would feel on a personal level to not feel supported – yet another reason why it’s so important to me to continue creating programs and holding space so that I can continue to call women in, and help raise them up.
Would you like to offer anything to our readers? Social Media Bootcamp kicks off on Nov 10th and I’d like to extend special pricing for your readers ($350, regularly $497 for the 6 week program).
Anything else you would like us to know? Here are a few ways women can work with me:
- 1:1 Social Strategy Sessions: Send me a DM on Instagram @heykatiemalone
- Social Bootcamp 6 Week group Program (starts Nov 10): More info: http://bit.ly/
socialbootcampnov20 New Program for moms who want to take the leap and become their own boss launching soon: Text “BOSSMOM” to (833) 910-3244 to get on the waiting list
“As Strong as the Mother Next to Me” was built on the principle and belief that with the right community and sisterhood you can move mountains. Founder Niki Jones is a single mother and entrepreneur who understands that leaning on her circle doesn’t make her weak; it makes her unstoppable.
Research supports that by doing good or paying it forward, in ways big or small, not only feels good, but also does us good.
MOTHERHOOD IS HARD ENOUGH. San Diego Moms wants to provide an experience and community that is inclusive, uplifting and supportive to ALL moms. By empowering and lifting each other up, we become better women, partners, leaders, and friends.
At this time I would like to ask you to nominate two moms, and we will only share their first name in the article, but also WHY you are nominating them.
Angela Quisumbing
“A true friend, I’ve been inspired by Angela both as a mother and an entrepreneur for 3 years now. We’ve worked together on projects and continue to lift up one another up professionally. Angela works so hard for herself, her family and her clients and deserves to be celebrated!”
To nominate a Strong Mother next to you or submit your information to be featured, please click the link below for more information.
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