We caught up with the brilliant and insightful MELISSA VELAZQUEZ a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi MELISSA, thanks for joining us today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

Yes! I come from the work hard, play harder generation. I’ve been working since I was 14 years old. I didn’t get on a plane until I was 21. Travel became my passion. When I became a mother I began viewing the choices I made differently. When I had a decision to make, I began asking myself if I would be okay with my child making the decision I was leaning towards. If the answer was no, then I had to second guess why I was making it because she was watching me.

Vacationing remained a priority. My destinations changed a bit but I knew that it was really important to allow my child to see the flip side of work/home balance. My daughter sees me working really hard to build my business while working two jobs in order to maintain our lifestyle. If she never sees me take time to enjoy myself and relax then how will she learn to do so herself? If she never gets to experience different places and different people, how will she learn to appreciate diversity? Children learn what they live and vacations allow for so many life lessons.

I work with my clients to get past fears of traveling with small children. I attempt to help them find ways to fit travel into their budgets. Most of all, I want to remind them that life is what we make it, and even when we don’t think something is possible we can make it happen if we take a step back and plan it out. It might not happen today or tomorrow but we will make it happen. And for me, I need at least two vacations a year to avoid the burnout

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

I come from a conflict resolution and youth development background. That is my foundation and it helps me stand firm in my personal and professional life. Over the past two decades, I worked in several industries including marketing, childcare, event planning, recruitment, and coaching, to name a few. For the past seven years, I have added Blogger to the list of titles. In essence, it was a perfect transition because I used all my other positions’ skills to build a brand that reflects what I want to say to the world. As a blogger, I spend a lot of time sharing feedback on the products we use. In many ways, my blog is a pretty average mom/review blog. In fact, the name of it is JustaBXmom. That’s me, just a Bronx mom. The thing is though that there is nothing average about me. I’m a solo parent by choice. I took my time becoming a mom because I wanted to enter motherhood without worrying about missing anything. I became a solo parent because I knew I wanted to be a mom but I hadn’t found anyone to live my happily ever after with. I like to remind people that being a single parent doesn’t have to be stigmatized. We live in a world where the word family doesn’t have one look or definition. My hope is that when people visit the blog and see that I share many of the same thoughts, questions, and concerns as them that they will be kinder next time they come face to face with a single parent and let go of some of the judgment.
Remember when I said, I’m not average? Not only am I a solo mom but I’m also a homeschooling mom. The decision to homeschool has shifted the focus of the blog a lot in the past year. I’ve always been big on education but now I look for ways to connect the products we review to our homeschool experience.
It was during the transition to homeschooling that coaching became part of the JustaBXmom brand. I’ve always been big on creating community. That was another reason that I started the blog. Not only did I want to help people get past their judgments on single parenting but I wanted to build a community of parents both coupled and single that could rely on each other when parenting got hard.
I have hosted parent boot camps bringing together small numbers of parents that want to better connect with their children. The L.O.V.E. Bootcamp is a four-week program that gives parents the chance to connect with other parents as well as participate in challenges to strengthen their relationships with their children. I also have begun taking on private coaching clients that become part of my VIP (Very Important Parents) group. This group not only receives their coaching session but gets included on a mailing list that provides resources and opportunities throughout the month.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My blog was birthed on social media. I hadn’t wanted to blog but wanted to connect with parents, so I started an Instagram account and connected with different bloggers and parenting accounts there. Over time, I began building a community and my captions were getting longer and longer so I shifted to a blog and the rest is JustaBXmom history. It was a lot easier back then to find and connect with accounts. Today it is always about appeasing the algorithm and keeping up with the trends. When I began it was simply about taking a photo and sharing your thoughts. My advice to those starting out is to not forget your why. Everyone isn’t going to go viral or gain a million followers overnight. You will reach someone though. And that someone is the someone that you were meant to reach. Take your time. If you always hold onto your why then you won’t get lost. Treat your account that has 10 followers with the same respect and dedication as you would your account with 1 million followers. Be active and engage. If you don’t take the time to engage with others how will they know you are there? And be kind. When you put something on the internet it is there forever. What legacy do you want to leave as your digital footprint?

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I’m 100% me. I’m authentic and transparent. And I’m kind. My blog doesn’t have the biggest reach but I have had the opportunity to work with some really awesome brands and connect with some really fantastic people because I am simply myself. I don’t try and pretend to be anything I’m not. If I don’t know something, I ask questions. If I do know something, I share knowledge. My authenticity comes across in conversations, in my writing, and in my photos. I tell people all of the time, you won’t find a lot of perfect squares on my accounts. What you will find is honesty, compassion, and hopefully connection. It is the same with the coaching clients I work with. I will not tell them what they want to hear, I will tell them what they need to hear. People respect that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.justabxmom.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justabxmom/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/justabxmom
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/justabxmom