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

Michaela, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Newsymom was founded in 2016 with an ambitious goal to change the world. We believe that we can make lasting, resilient changes through parents and mentors across our communities. What job is more impactful than raising the next generation of leaders?

But, even the most ambitious goals require the smallest of details. We decided to embark on our journey by starting with education, information, and connection. By keeping our mothers informed about resources and services in their communities; ensuring they are aware of activities and networking opportunities, and reminding them as often as needed that they are not alone; we truly can change the world one mom at a time.

We prioritize objective and factual news information from agencies and organizations local to the communities we serve. This information is updated regularly to ensure our mothers are connected. We also prioritize topics and updates that are directly related to parenting and children. Additionally, we work with non profits and service-based organizations to bring more awareness to the ways they enrich their communities and serve mothers and their families. We host strategic awareness campaigns to help them reach mothers in a way that resonates with them so they can retain the information and most importantly, recall it when needed.

We also believe that information and education is just part of what must be done. We must also create strong communities where relationships can be built and nurtured. This is why we prioritize meeting mothers where they are. We host a variety of events and activities, we sponsor programs such as the Birthday Buddy Program with Job and Family Services to provide birthday gifts to children celebrating monthly in foster care, and we partner with Kent State University to offer an annual scholarship for a mother continuing her education.

The story behind our mission, we are moms serving moms. We get it. This is one of the, if not THE, biggest job in the world. If we approach motherhood in the same fashion as we approach being a doctor, a scientist, etc. we can create something truly magical. If we seek out resources and ongoing education, we consult with our peers, and we always look to improve, the possibilities of incredible generations to come are endless.

Michaela, 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?

My career started when I was just 19-years-old and I landed a job in news media at a small radio station in my community. I have always loved writing and felt communication and words could be so incredibly powerful. I worked in news media for several years before exiting radio for a while where I started to dabble with marketing and advertising.

From there, I returned to news media around the same time I founded Newsymom. I founded Newsymom in 2016 while on maternity leave with my first child. My career then took a surprising turn as I began a role as a consultant for small businesses looking to share their mission and grow their awareness.

In 2017, I embarked on another unexpected turn with a local law enforcement agency where I became the Director of Community Engagement. Of all my accomplishments, outside of my children always being number one, I remain most proud of Newsymom.

Newsymom did not exist before I had an idea. And it didn’t really blossom until my team started growing through others who had ideas. It has truly been built with blood, sweat, and tears. We are moms and we know what moms are going through. We understand you because we are you. We know how important it is to be heard, because we too have felt silenced. When I look back at what we have accomplished over the last several years with this organization I am speechless. And that says quite a lot when I’m a writer.

I want people to understand however, that we are not a mommy blog. We are a credible news source that remains objective when reporting and remains passionate about connecting our communities with resources and other people who care.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a love of writing. I remember truly recognizing that passion when I was losing my father to cancer. I was just 13 years old when he was first diagnosed and I can remember feeling so confused and overwhelmed that I didn’t know which way was up. I had to get all of my thoughts and feelings out, no matter how jumbled they were at the time, and so I turned to a piece of paper and a pen. I just starting writing.

Over the course of the next few years and many hospital visits later, we learned the end was near. Again, I turned to writing, but by this time things were a bit more organized and intentional. I was able to find healing in word not only for myself, but for others around me who were also grieving. I knew, that whatever my career path, I needed to write. Eventually, that lead me to working as a journalist at 19 in the radio market.

Fast forward about seven years down the road and I became a mother for the first time. Again, I found myself full of unexplainable emotions and for the first time in a long while I began writing again, for me. I’d been a journalist for several years at this point, but I while on maternity leave I began writing just to write…just to feel. That’s when Newsymom found me. I set out from that point to establish a resource for mothers in my community. Not only for news and information specific to parents and children, but for moms. I wanted to capture all the messy, the unexplained, the chaos of motherhood while ensuring a safe place and a village for any mom who needed one.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The journey to establish Newsymom and reach this big dream I dreamed up hasn’t been easy. For the first two years, we didn’t make a penny. When the idea came to a crossroads to continue just being an idea or to truly become a business…an organization…I struggled again. I have never wanted Newsymom to become another mommy blog. I have vowed to protect our objectivity in news, our authenticity in our editorials, and to never exploit the loyalty of our readers. Signing up to be an affiliate and push sales for products I’d never by, for example, just wasn’t going to cut it for us.

However, throughout my years as a local news journalist, I had connected with so many nonprofits and service-based organizations across the community. Real places that care about real people. And then it all clicked. We would offer our resources, our articles, etc. for free to our readers while working with these organizations to bring even more awareness to their services that actually enrich the lives of our readers. A “full circle” moment you might say.

Throughout the last 6 1/2 years, I have been tested. Newsymom has continued to grow and prosper and we continue to see our family, professionally speaking, get larger. But, we’ve brought on new members that simply did not share our same vision or passion. We’ve learned some lessons the hard way throughout the journey. Starting a business from scratch also isn’t easy when your personal family is growing. I welcomed my second daughter in 2021, my husband and I were married in August of this year and we are entering phase two of a massive home renovation. All while I still work full time in marketing for a law enforcement agency.

While Newsymom has continued to grow year over year and our village is getting bigger and bigger and stronger and stronger everyday, we have not yet reached the point of hiring our staff, including myself, full time. The security to walk away from my other position is just not there. I also love what I do both in my secure position and my dreamer position with Newsymom. There has been a lot to juggle, and at times it is hard, but I do believe this clearly illustrates my resilience and my passion for everything I do professionally. It’s inspired by my children every day and that motivates me to continue.

Contact Info:

• Website: Newsymom.com
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