Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Denise Ives. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Denise, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea?
Taking an idea and into action now a days is fairly easy due to the advancement in technology. From the moment the thought presented itself I decided to make a cup of coffee, sit at my desk and search google to see how many others were celebrating women on a global scale.
I spent hours reading the search results and diverse links on women groups, meet ups and businesses. It was important that I create a new lane for an all-inclusive platform to elevate women without them having to meet a certain criterion such as the traditional titles of stay at home mom, single mother, graduate of Yale and mother of 4 children, auntie, grandma, teacher, and doctor. My focus was to find one positive space for all women be connected, seen, and heard regardless of a biological definition, their location or any personal defining characteristics.
I kept thinking “obviously there has to be so many places like this”. Mothers are the most powerful human force with equivalent qualities to the almighty Mother Earth. The Me Too movement was in full swing and women had endured so much discrimination, while faced with challenges, and overcome immeasurable experiences in life.
While there are global companies like companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Goodwill, Amazon, and joyful places like Disney, I asked myself why wasn’t there an equivalent World Super Moms social media app, thrift store, online store, hotel or theme park. After several hours at my desk, with no luck finding the aforementioned, my very next step was to start building the global operations from scratch.
The next step was to check to see if the .com name World Super Moms was available. It was and I registered the website domain name with Network Solutions, a domain name register like GoDaddy. The next step was to use the free and user-friendly website template WordPress. I began creating written content and sent a logo idea to a graphic artist on Fiverr. I downloaded several amazing photographs of women and mothers from the royalty free website Unsplash. I had a video editor from Fiverr create a power-point presentation with audio and text overlay to communicate the mission of the organization. I added several links to the website to allow volunteers to join us and donations to be accepted. When I was stuck on the plug and play website functions, I joined the WordPress support team for $99 per month which had no minimum contract. The tech support line was available 7 days a week during long hours. They were so pleasant to work with and stepped me through every action and function in the program effortlessly. Their computer mirroring software program allowed them to see my computer screen and direct me in how to upload and arrange content, create columns, video boxes, and bring the website to life. They even help create my email sign up form and addressed page link navigation issues. In twenty-six days and with patience, hundreds of hours, start-up money that I funded, and dedicated passion www.worldsupermoms.com was introduced to the world in June 2019.
During this time, I knew that I needed to secure the 501c3 status which takes a lot of paperwork preparation that I knew nothing about. I also needed to fund it. Through research I learned that it takes approximately eight months to process through the state and IRS. To turnkey and streamline its complexity I located a 501c3 Funding group in California named GVNG.
GNVG is committed to empowering good citizens with great ideas. They are equally focused on inclusion across race, gender, age, religion, and identity. They are a registered charitable nonprofit organization with a lot of tools that allow someone to independently do the same under their Tax Registration structure. Within 24 hours of contacting the management and processing the application we were assigned the 501(c)3 nonprofit status and World Super Moms was established.
Denise, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.
The common thread that runs through all humanity is World Super Moms!
The mission of World Super Moms is to champion generations of women and mothers who have come before us, are present in our daily lives, and will be our future.
World Super Moms showcases and celebrates inspirational, victorious, and extraordinary women and mothers from around the globe across numerous social media channels.
Through collaboration, partnerships, and donations we will spearhead initiatives to raise grant funding for World Super Moms to:
– Pursue Educational Goals
– Launch Businesses
– Contribute to the Betterment Of Their Community
Collectively we collaborate with women and men around the globe to support:
– Women’s Rights
– Women’s Mental Health
We presently collaborate with World Super Mom contributors from Serbia, Germany, Nigeria, the United States, Canada, Sri Lanka, India, South Africa, and Indonesia to name a few.
These contributors combined with our many volunteers are the bedrock of our family united.
We are giving back because World Super Moms create positive change daily, locally, and around the world.
“We are all World Super Moms every minute of every day.” –– World Super Moms
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Master of chaos or pivoting is the new name for a business owner. Any moment of everyday as a business owner will unexpectedly need to redirect their attention to another task. It is challenging and can cause us to stress or teach us how to pivot, juggle and reprioritize the work. We all have our share of unexpected life events with family or even pets to tend to. We even have those days when the AC or stove stop working. This is when we must laugh, smile, and breathe through those moments. Be grateful for every moment. No matter good or bad just stay on your path. Taking care of your personal health and home life is optimal and will help in pushing through to extend yourself to business goals. Don’t get down on yourself if there is a delay or have not met your timeline of expectations. Focus on your joy and well-being first and everyone and everything will effortlessly fall into place. Enjoy the ride, fail forward and never give up. The words that I hear in my head each day are those of Lisa Nichols “Yes Yes” and Hillary Clinton “build it and they will come.”
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
This is a great question. We were a newly founded organization and with no established foundation in the community. So, I decided to refurbished furniture pieces that people in the neighborhood threw away and sell those items at a below market price through Facebook during the first year. I used my own time and money and purchase the materials to do this. When I met a buyer I gave them the non-profit business card, invited them to collaborate with us, and told them that every dime was being used towards building the nonprofit. People started to follow our social media channels and even donated items to me.
In 2020 and 2021 I worked an average of 20-30 hours a week overtime at my full-time job to fund the project forward. When you believe in something so passionately the generating of the money will find its way into your life. The last two events that World Super Moms participated in were the Women’s March in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the 50th Annual Boca Raton Holiday Street Parade. A handful of donations for these events came by way of extraordinary men who work in my career field. A major sponsor and donation gifted to us was from Emerald Towing Heavy Hauling, a South Florida tow company with over 50 years of excellent service to the community, a fleet of over 40 trucks, a combined 400 national and local business clients, and 12 area law enforcement contracts.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.worldsupermoms.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/worldsupermoms
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/worldsupermoms
- Twitter: twitter.com/WorldSuperMoms
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnlfbinwPlAu81S7mj3gxpA
- Other: Youtube search World Super Moms Pinterest www.pinterest.com/WorldSuperMoms Tubmlr www.tumblr.com/blog/view/worldsupermoms Facebook Spanish Chanel https://www.facebook.com/supermamasdelmundo Tiktok WorldSupermoms Tiktok Spanish Channel Supermamasdelmundo Instagram Spanish Channel Supermamasdelmundo Audible & iTunes https://www.audible.com/pd/A-Little-Girls-World-Super-Mom-Audiobook/B09YLQWRTB https://www.audible.com/pd/A-Little-Boys-World-Super-Mom-Audiobook/B09ZJB1YR7 Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Little-Girls-World-Super-Mom/dp/1951028686 https://www.amazon.com/Little-Boys-World-Super-Mom/dp/1649533012
Image Credits
Shanna Johnson of Ink To Real Productions- A Voyage MIA Magazine Feature !!! http://voyagemia.com/interview/meet-shanna-johnson-ink-real-productions-fort-lauderdale/