We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Hudnall recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?
One of my most recent crazy stories is going viral on Instagram for being an advocate for BREASTFEEDING IN PUBLIC. So hear me out! I just recently had my second child Jacob Zion a year ago and I am currently still breastfeeding him. Since having my daughter Jayla Rose eight years ago, I have always been an advocate for breastfeeding mothers, especially for our MELANATED mothers. Since having both of my children, I’ve always created content to bring awareness to breastfeeding. I wanted other mothers like myself to understand the importance of breastfeeding, not only for their babies, but also for themselves when it comes to overall health benefits, etc.
Fast forward to one sunny afternoon in September 2023, my children and I went to the mall. I needed to go back to school shopping for my daughter. We ended up going into the Vans store to look for her some school shoes. As we were trying on the school shoes and yes I had to get myself a pair too; my son was tugging and pulling on my shirt. If you know me by now, ” I will breastfeeding anywhere and I don’t care.” So I whip out my boob because my son wanted his milk on demand and he was not taking “NO” for an answer. I had no blanket, even if I did, I don’t cover up because my son despise being covered. Mind you I have been posting consistently in the previous month in August for BREASTFEEDING AWARENESS MONTH. I shared content from my personal journey to the basic health benefits for mom and baby. So I felt in my spirit as I was sitting in the middle of a not really crowded Van store and pulled my phone out to record myself as he was breastfeeding. Now in the video I may have been looking like a little hot mess and may even seem like I was “bothered,” or had an “attitude when in all reality I was at peace and I simply wanted more footage to add to my breastfeeding content. Yes, people may have been looking at me, but no one said a word. The employees and customers were minding their business and we were getting service as if my whole right boob wasn’t popped out for my son to feed.
As a multifaceted, comic and thespian at heart person; I reviewed the footage and took a laugh at it and said to myself ” yea MOMZ “R” FUNNY2″. I than posted the video the next day and Instagram ate it up. No matter what you do in life, it will come with positive and negative remarks. Never in a million years I thought this video of me breastfeeding my son in public, which is absolutely not my first rodeo, would have given me 4.5 million views, 75.2k likes, 5,374 comments, and 35.9k shares. I went from a little over 2,300k followers to currently 15.272k followers organically within just a two week span. I was astonished, and the first thing I said to myself out loud was “where was all this energy for breastfeeding awareness month?” lol.
After going viral over one of the many things I am absolutely passionate about, which is to simply bring awareness to the importance of breastfeeding for all mothers around the world. Whether one chooses to breastfeed in public or behind close doors. I firmly believe its mother and baby choice on how they wish to feed. My whole mission is to educate mothers with my experience of breastfeeding the most two brilliant children on this planet I know. No, I’m not just being bias because they are my children, as an educator for over 20 years I have lost count of the children I worked with/impacted in my community. With all honesty I can take a wild guess on which child was breastfeed and who wasn’t just by observation alone. I’m not going to get too deep into that because that’s a whole different conversation, but what I can say is children who are breastfed have a higher chance of being more clever and healthier than children who are not.
Overall I am still trying to wrap my emotions up on the feeling of finally being heard from people across the world. Yes, I may have had some people judge me for what I did and I whole heartly do not care. I don’t even want to repeat the despicable comments that were made because I don’t have time to pay the haters no mind, especially if they don’t know me from Adam. Now I can admit, I clap back just a little bit, but other than that, I focused on all the positivity that came my way from comments to DM’s. I even had some folks tussling in the comment section coming into my defense. With that being said, I am happy I decided to post that content that day. It has inspired me to create new merchandise to empower mother’s, so they can be encouraged to breastfeed with no shame in their game. To add I am currently working on an e-book for new mothers to guide them on breastfeeding etc.
In closing since going viral ,my following continues to grow by the day, the views are still going up on the viral video, I gained more traffic and organic sales on my website. My dm is flooded more than ever, Instagram has finally invited me to have SUBSCRIBERS! I can officially call myself a PAID CONTENT CREATOR & INFLUENCER. Now that I am going to get paid for creating content, it will encourage me to stay consistent more than I ever have before. Of course my main goal is to be a profitable 6 figure plus company. Ultimately I whole heartedly want my business to be a house hold name with serval endeavors under the umbrella of MOMZ “R” FUNNY2 name it self. I won’t say too much right now, but I have this strong feeling, I will be known for ALL my talents of being my absolute self. I hope that every reader that come across this article find this to be encouraging. This is your sign to JUST DO IT! We all should know where that slogan is from, by the way Nike is one of my favorite brands! So with that being said, if you don’t remember a single word from reading this, I want you to know you can achieve anything your heart desires because it’s in your heart for a reason. Now go be impactful because the world needs you!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hello beautiful people, my name is Jessica A. Hudnall. MOMZ “R” FUNNY2 is a brand for the family/culture, that unites ,uplift, and spread joy across the globe in the hopes to inspire people to be unapologetically their true selves using my humor, clothing line, podcast, content, and books as a vessel.
Since a young child I have always been into fashion, acting, writing, helping others and making money. Yes, at the early age of 9 years old I was known to be the “candy girl” in my grade school throughout high school. I used to flip the paper food stamps into collateral. I sold chips, juice, chocolate, and sour belts candy ( I had Kool-aid and non Kool-aid ones too so if you know you know lol). Shout out to my father Eugene Hudnall for installing me with my hustle spirit till this day. I always knew I wanted to OWN something, I may not have known back then what it would be, I just knew eventually I would grow up and be my own BOSS.
Moving on, I founded my business back in September 2016, but in 2017 at the beginning of the year is when I made my business public to the world and started making sales around my community. Back in June 2014 is when, I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. I was not prepare to have a baby especially finding out two weeks before my college graduation, but after a solo trip out the country and some time with God; I decided to take full responsibility for my actions, I knew I had to do more than just be a teacher by day and a stripper by night. Yes, those were my plans before I knew I was going to be a mother, but God ok! Further more my daughter inspired me to start MOMZ “R” FUNNY2. I was laying in bed one day, as I was looking down at my belly while rubbing it. I was talking out loud to God and to Jayla. As I was holding my belly I said, “I have to leave an empire behind for my child.” I then closed my eyes as I was praying, I saw the word MOMZ “R” FUNNY2. I was a bit shocked trying to figure out why God gave me that name and exactly what am destine to do with it?
It then dawned on me I should start a baby clothing line, but then I thought deeper about how I would love to see more families in matching outfits. Specifically families of color, since that was a lack back then from what I witness in my own community. My goal was to bring all families closer together (no matter their culture background) while wearing my brand. So I said to myself ” family clothing line it is”. I wanted to make sure I had something for women, men, and children. I had all these ideas running throughout my mind. So I got my laptop and notebook out and the rest was history. I ended up having four start up statement t-shirts for mothers ” These Breast Are For My Babies,” fathers “I Rock When My Baby Goes To Sleep” and for babies “#BreastmilkWasted” & “Blessed Baby.” The tees were pretty much self explanatory. I was so thrilled to bring my visions into reality. Fast forward I had many opportunities come my way, from small business clothing stores carrying my merchandise at the time to vending opportunities. To learn more details about my beginning stages you can check my previous articles in VoyageLA and ShoutOut LA. I will leave you with my new found representation to the meaning behind MRF2. People often ask me, what does my brand name represents. “MOMZ” symbolizes the mother of many hats.I thought a Z instead of an S seemed a bit cooler. “R” stands for Rose. During my solo trip I mention above, God gave me a vision of a little girl running in a field of ROSES. So my daughter middle name is Rose and I know it was meant to be, because I saw a glimpse of my daughter before I even knew the sex of my baby. “FUNNY” represents my humors personality. I naturally tend to make people laugh within 30 seconds of meeting them. “2” previously symbolize my daughter birthday 02/02, but now that I have my baby boy Jacob. I have a new found meaning which is my two children. I got my pair, what more can I ask for?
Currently I am still operating my business with my e-commerce store, I have several collections with in my business. From my accessories, which is know as the “Jayla Rose Collection” to now carry home goods as well, etc. During the pandemic I started my podcast MOMZ “R” FUNNY2. I’ve always had a desire be an actress and talk show host.I love entertaining, communicating, and helping others. So since we’re all pretty much stuck in the house at that time, I thought to myself let me see what I need to do to get my podcast started. So back in 2020 I aired my first episode with my daughter Jayla. I have about 18 episodes. I’ve had a wide range of people I interviewed, from local celebrities such as writers, music artist, actors, journalist and business owners like myself. I was stunned to reach people from across the globe based off reading my analytics, but after a year of launching my podcast I have been on hiatus for about two years due to personal reason (tune into my podcast to find out more details). Soon I will be back with my second season so make sure you’re following me on all my social media platform and stay tuned.
Lastly I am most proud of becoming an offical published author. Best selling according to amazon via e-book. Back in 2021 God put on my heart to speak out about my childhood. I knew I had to heal my inner child. I went deep to free myself from the pain and burden others have caused me. I let it all go in my one chapter I had with the opportunity of being apart of a co-collaboration book called “Breaking My Silence.” To give you a sort summary,I was one out of ten authors. I titled my chapter “Beauty In Pain” because I don’t look like what I’ve been through. Growing up I’ve heard how beautiful I was for the most part, I used to blame myself for all the bad things that happen to me based on how I looked. For, example being well develop at an early age. If you are following me then I guess you can take a wild guess on some impacting/tragic moments I had as a young child. To gain more details, I highly suggest you purchase my book on my website.
Overall I have been trying to keep up with this multi-facet person that I am. I truly believe God didn’t bless me to be multi-talented for no reason. I have so many heart desires to pursue. I am currently achieving and want to achieve in my near future. I am a person who cannot fit into one box. I don’t set limits for myself because I feel as long as I am alive, I can do anything I put my mind too. I never really set a time limit on myself of when I should be “successful” because I believe for one I am already successful and two God’s divine timing. Whatever God’s plan for me will be done. I believe in myself. My children are my reason I can never give up. I’ve had many nay sayers from family to foes, but I never let anyone hold me back and deter me from my path. I know I am destine for greatness and the world will know the name MOMZ “R” FUNNY2 because God will have the GLORY at the end of the day.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
Oh its time to start! Start up products that is! Let me take y’all back for a second. Being a native in LA was like living in the candy store! I lived 10 minutes away from downtown. After shopping in the alley for many years, I had insight to where I could purchase my start-up products. When it comes to manufacturing my products for my business I was looking for quality, uniqueness with a fair price point. One sunny afternoon, I took a stroll downtown, I hit up main street, that block on both sides of the street is pretty much known to be the “t-shirt factory district.” After walking up and down the street to compare prices, I made my pick based off quality.After I purchase my t-shirts, I then decided to hit the outskirts because you will tend to find less saturated and unique products. On this particularly day I was looking for products I could make jewelry with. I ended up inside this store that had a bunch of patches. I took a look around until I came across these ROSES .There where two different rose designs, one design was larger and had a purple vine. The other rose was smaller and had a regular green vine. I took a gazed at them both and my eyeballs lighted up as if they were sparking from excitement. I then quickly thought to myself, these Rose patches will make some cute ear rings. So I got me a dozen to start off with. I then had to make my way to the jewelry store in order to get more products to put the earrings together. As I enter the store, I took my time to look around, I then came across these chains. That’s when I got the bright idea to use chains with the roses. I thought to myself, well I am breaking generational curses within my family and my children’s father family. I then said out loud ” The Chains as broken!” After purchasing what I needed, I went home with some t-shirts and accessories. I was so excited to bring my vision to life. Jayla Rose Collection was also part of my start up, I sold purses, glasses and earrings. I put the purple vine roses on some purses and fanny packs. After posting my finish products on my social media I sold out. I was thrilled! Mind you this was back in 2017, I did not have my website up until following months later, I was selling through my DM’s, out of my car and as a vendor at trade shows. So that time I didn’t know much about the online world, such as Print on demand and drop shipping like I do now.
Now that I had some manufactures locked in, it was time for me to find someone to screen print for me.I met someone who had his own custom print shop. It was black owned and I’m all about supporting black owned business. So every week as sales where coming in, I would go back and forth from downtown to Inglewood to fulfill my orders at Space Age Printing. Then when I got a few opportunities to have my brand in a few black own small business stores, I went to my spots in DTLA and ordered in bulk to fulfill my consignment orders. As more vending opportunities were presented, I decided to continue to order in bulk so I can stay ready and not have to get ready. I was doing good being outside, meeting new people in my community, gaining more organic customers. Then next thing you know the pandemic hit. The bulk order I just placed didn’t get a chance to see outside because everything got canceled. I felt so bad because I spent all this money on a big order and now I can’t go outside to sell my products to my community? I was hurt, but then I quickly realized it was time for me to take my e-commerce store serious. I’ve never really been a tech savvy person. I was just used to posting on social media about my whereabouts so people can have a chance to meet in person. I quickly learned that online was where it was at.
To make a long story sort, I learned a lot of lesson during the pandemic. From taking workshop classes so I can educate myself to be a better business woman. After creating my website, I learned about print on demand. Fast forward I no longer buy things in bulk unless I know its absolutely necessary. I felled in love with the e-commerce era, the print on demand is my favorite thing beside reaching more people online to make sales. I like the fact that I no longer need to carry a lot of inventory and since having my business online, I save time and money. I still ship certain items from home, for example my accessories. I may have been a late comer to the e-commerce world because no one I know personally has taught me anything about business. I’ve done all my research on my own. There is no straight road when you start from nothing. You evenly just learn as you go. I still have so much to learn as an entrepreneur, but most of all I am happy I never gave up on myself despite all my hiatuses, trails and tribulations.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In my mompreneur journey, I have been resilient due to my strong-willed mind frame and my upmost faith in God. My life has been a roller coaster. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon. I am the Rose That Grew From Concrete. I knew no matter what I faced in life, I had to find a way to keep moving forward. I overcame homelesses and abuse as a young child and even as a single mother of one child at the time. I took myself away from toxic people despite them being family and friends, I knew I had to isolate myself in order to have a peace of mind so I can focus on my present season of growth. Back in 2016 right before I decided to go all in with MOMZ “R” FUNNY2. There have been plenty of situations I face that made me feel like life was no longer worth living. For example I was homeless with my daughter for 6 months. Jayla and I stayed in a shlter and hotel during that season of our life. I was working as a teacher and lyft driver. I hustled my butt offf every single day in order to save up and have a place to call home. After going through that tough period in my life, it made me realize how resilient I am. I thought to myself if I fought and got throught this battle on my own with the help of God of course, then I can achieve and get through anything. Let’s face it no matter our social economic status, we will always face some type of diversity of challenges. It’s up to us as an individual to change our situation. Deep in my heart, I know what what I’ve been through is for a reason. I have no shame in speaking out about the obstacles I faced because my story can inspire people to help them become resilient throughout their life journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://momzrfunny2.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/momzrfunny2/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MomzRFunny2/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/momzrfunny2
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1mvbjZcMx8-48olKaLV46A