Welcome…

My senior year of high school my journalism teacher, Harriet Maza (one of my favorites,) appointed me Editor-In-Chief of our award-winning newsmagazine, The Spectrum. Definitely a highlight of my high school career, I relished in the honor of. this role. I took it very seriously and delighted in every minute spent in that newsroom.

Each month we put together, printed and sold a fifty or so page glossy magazine. Using our Mac desktop computers and Pages to file our stories, we shared information and connected our school with everything they needed to know, The thrill of meeting the deadline followed by the rush of opening those boxes a few weeks later to unveil our product, had me hooked.

In high school, thought I would grow up to be a journalist.

But my career path had other plans for me.

While I always thought I would write for a magazine, I never imagined working on the publishing side. Yet, following college I moved to Chicago—-an ad town. There were no editorial magazine jobs in this city, but I was lucky enough to land an ad sales assistant position at one of the largest publishing houses in the world, Time Inc., for one of their flagship brands, Sports Illustrated.

This job launched a decade-long career in advertising sales. I went on to work at the Chicago Tribune, MTV Networks and Hearst Magazines—-all selling integrated marketing programs and activations for fortune 500 brands. While I wasn’t creating the content, my job helped to fund it.

Little did I know that one of the biggest changes in my life would send my career full circle.

A few weeks after I found out I was pregnant with my first daughter, I launched my first company, Bump Club and Beyond. Through grassroots and gorilla marketing tactics I organically grew our audience and following. A lot of this stemmed from me sharing information on our website and across various forms. of social media. It all started with hundreds of parents and parents-to-be in Chicago, grew to thousands in the top 25 markets across the country, and then millions across North America.

For ten years I shared my life as a parent, connected our audience with the best products and resources, and was often called upon by major press outlets AND television news stations to share my expertise. Without even realizing, I had achieved my dream of being a journalist.

While running my business at the same time, I ended up doing exactly what I was meant to do: creating and sharing content, knowledge and information with the masses. I told the truth, admitted when I was wrong, and in return gained the trust and following of millions through my company and brand. All of this, just by being me.

This past summer I realized that it was time to pass the torch at Bump Club and Beyond. I no longer am an expectant or new mom, and while I loved every minute sharing my expertise, it’s time to continue my journey, to grow and expand with my family and my experience.

As I move into this amazing new chapter of my life, I plan to continue to share my knowledge as a mom, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, and as an expert. You’ll be able to find my musings right here on the blog of my website, on the many television stations I regularly contribute to, my Instagram and LinkedIn accounts, and coming soon….my podcast.

Thank you for being here, for following me, and for trusting me to enrich your life through my own experiences. Here’s to what’s next…