We were lucky to catch up with Olivia Ward recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Olivia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

In November 2019, I had a lightning bolt moment when I watched my father-in-law pass away before he had the chance to retire – illuminating that a long life isn’t promised to anyone. Leading into that moment, I yearned to forge my own path after dedicating my career to working for brands and agencies.

My goal was to launch my tourism-focused consultancy in April 2020. And then COVID became part of our vocabulary. Even after the world began to shut down and tourism clients started to cancel, I was still grateful to be working for myself and starting my own thing.

Five years into the future, thoroughly enjoying my career journey, the moment I’d been praying for happened – I was pregnant. My husband and I had been trying for years, but I’d been spending all my energy on trying. I didn’t think about maternity leave, childcare, or how it would impact my bandwidth.

As I began to meet other moms, I became frustrated with my business, longing for a regular job with paid maternity leave, team members who could cover my tasks, and a boss who understood the struggles of childcare.

And then I remembered – I am my own boss.

Going into my leave, I researched how other mompreneurs navigated their businesses. From those learnings, I created a maternity leave plan that was tailor-made for my clients and me. I set expectations early, budgeted to cover my business’s expenses and delayed revenue, and made a re-entry plan.

Now, on the other side of maternity leave, my heart is grateful. For the twelve weeks of learning how to become a mom without the added pressures of “checking in with my boss,” for the amazing clients who understood, and for the flexibility I have to create an at-home eco-system that lets me be a mother and a tourism marketing consultant.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello there, my name is Olivia Ward, and I’m a tourism marketing consultant and founder of OnWard Digital Media. I help tourism organizations connect with their visitors through digital marketing channels. My specialities are developing actionable social media strategies and launching engaging advertising campaigns.

As a lover of travel with over a decade of marketing experience, I decided to pivot my career from working at agencies supporting multiple industries to launch my consultancy focused on supporting the tourism industry. Although April 2020 was a scary time business-wise, it was also the perfect time. Tourism organizations needed my support more than ever to ride the waves of change post-COVID.

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains is the adorable town of Black Mountain, NC, which I call home. When I’m not exploring hiking trails in Western NC, I’m trying something new every Tuesday or planning my next great adventure.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Going into my maternity leave, I had no idea what the other side would look like. How much could I accomplish as a sleep-deprived mom? Would the pregnancy brain fog lift? Would I even want to return to work?

After chatting with other mothers and budgeting for childcare, I determined the (current) best flow for me and my business. This included shifting from full-time, Monday through Friday, to a part-time schedule and adding a day rate project option to my business model.

As I’ve started my new role as a mother, I’m amazed at what the journey of motherhood has taught me and how I’m bringing those soft skills into my job. I’m starting projects NOW instead of waiting for inspiration to hit. I’m more proactive about identifying ways to make my job easier (e.g., creating repeating tasks in my project management system) instead of slogging through a broken system.

My priorities also feel more aligned – as a recovering people pleaser, I’ve struggled with setting and sticking to project boundaries. When your true boss is a 3-month-old who needs to eat every 3 hours, you’re much more realistic about time constraints.

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

Committing to showing up to my desk each workday, being consistent, and continuing to network have all helped establish my reputation in the tourism industry.

As a consultant or agency, it’s easy to fall into the trap of “we provided all the services to everyone.” When I first started my consultancy, I wanted to focus 100% on supporting the tourism industry. But thanks to COVID-19 shutting down the tourism economy, I said yes to all the projects that appeared in my inbox in 2020.

While we waited for tourism to return, I researched ways to engage with the tourism industry at the state level in Colorado, where I lived at the time. When the opportunity arose, I applied to become a mentor for the Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) to support destinations through grant programs. Now in my fifth year, as a mentor for the CTO, I’m amazed at the number of opportunities that one application has opened up to me.

Show up to your desk every workday. Especially when your business goals feel impossible. Even the smallest amount of progress will give you the motivation to continue again tomorrow.

When you show up, you also build trust with yourself and clients. No matter how creative your ideas or how engaging you are, if you don’t deliver what you promise, no one is going to want to work with you long term. Consistently responding to emails and meeting deadlines all help reinforce that clients can trust you.

All of us carry expectations (you’re even holding on to some while reading this!). I’ve found that it works best for all parties to align on clear and realistic expectations from the very beginning. For me, that looks like getting the client’s sign-off on the scope of work and a project work plan with deliverables due dates. Once a project has kicked off, it’s my job as the consultant to be transparent about any changes to deadlines and keep the project on task.

From past jobs to current clients, almost all of the opportunities I’ve worked on have come from meeting someone who then introduced me to someone else, who, years later, needed my help. Show up to the industry conference, even when you feel intimidated. Say yes to the coffee introduction meetings. Attend that networking event that sounds interesting, even if it’s not related to your industry. And never, ever stop meeting people – your network is the pulse of your career.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://owdigitalmedia.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tuesdayswitho/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oliviajuneward/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliviajward/
• Twitter: https://x.com/tuesdayswitho
• Other: https://trysomethingnewtuesday.com/

Image Credits

Anna Caruso Photography