We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Annie O’Malley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Annie, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Our mission is to help moms feel supported through every stage of motherhood. We do this through writing relatable content, providing relevant resources, and creating space for moms to connect both online and in person.

When I first became a mom, I felt more alone than I have ever felt in my life. I looked and felt different, I faced new challenges and I had a personally unmatched set of responsibilities to uphold. I desperately needed to connect with other people at the same stage of motherhood to normalize what I was experiencing – both positive and negative. I needed to know what products might help me or my baby thrive, or at least make life easier. I needed to know where I could take a baby to pass the time. I needed to know that I wasn’t the first person to struggle with parenthood.

So I found a local new mom group and jumped in head first. I aged out of that group years ago, but I share a bond with the moms from that group that will last a life time, and some of those women are my very best friends to this day.

My experience joining a new mom group was life saving for me in a way I could not have anticipated. My hope is that through Central Mass Mom, we can help to provide the space for moms (new and not-so-new) to find what they need through friendships, resources and relatable content.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I purchased Central Mass Mom in 2021 after having been a writer for the blog for 18 months. I found writing about motherhood to be such a therapeutic outlet for me, and I made so many great friendships and connections through my participation. We currently have over 20 writers who write about the challenges and wins of motherhood. We hope our content helps to bridge the gap for moms thinking they are alone in their feelings or challenges. We also provide information on local activities and kid/mom oriented businesses in the area. In 2022, we launched our first Mom’s Night Out series and it was incredible to see that so many moms were looking for connection. We are unique from other ‘mom blogs’ because we are focused on being hyperlocal, which allows us to provide resources specific to our area, as well as hold events for our audience to attend. The events are really the icing on the cake for me. I love being able to provide space for moms to meet and connect and it is so rewarding to watch those budding friendships.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

I bought Central Mass Mom, the business I currently run. I bought it because I saw what it was providing to our community and I also saw the potential in how much greater it could be. When the previous owner announced she was ready to sell, I started a list of all the questions I had for her about running the business, operationally, revenue streams, challenges she had faced – anything I could think of. I knew her prior to the purchase, so if I hadn’t known her, my line of questioning would likely have been different. We discussed and agreed on a valuation and then had a lawyer draw up a purchase and sale agreement. We had several meetings to transition all of the information, log ins, etc… that the previous owner had in her possession, and we included in the agreement that she would be available for questions for 30 days following the sale date, should anything come up.

How did you build your audience on social media?

When I purchased Central Mass Mom, we had ~700 Instagram followers, ~900 Facebook followers and that was pretty much it. No email list, no Pinterest, no TikTok. The Twitter handle existed, but hadn’t ever been used. Our Facebook is now just under 4,600 and Instagram is over 3,600. For Facebook, the biggest thing has been running general ads for our page in our target demographic. At first, I would just run $5 per day for a week each month because that was all I could afford, but as I started earning more, I started investing more, and now our follower count is large enough that we get a few new followers every week even without ads. I also try to focus on sharing relatable funny content that moms have a high likelihood of re-sharing, that always helps. Instagram has been a bit trickier, as I haven’t found the paid advertising to be as fruitful. On Instagram, I try to engage with people in my target audience and also businesses in our area that might have similar followers to my ideal audience. I have made lots of relationships with local businesses who will routinely share my content, and vice versa, which I think has been where the bulk of my followers have come from.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.centralmassmom.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/centralmassmom
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/centralmassmom

Image Credits
Annie O’Malley’s headshot was taken by Julia Krupp Photography