Motherhood is one of the most rewarding and stressful balancing acts. It requires pouring your heart out to a little human being while waking up every morning to make sure they have everything they need.
In this series, we highlight a few of those women who are in the middle of their greatest balancing act; pouring their hearts into their children while pouring their heart into creating a legacy for their families.
Danielle Mendoza is a wife, mom, podcast host, international bestselling author, and business development consultant. Inside her Confident Concept Expert Book Accelerator, she’s helping brilliant and busy women scale their businesses by creating a high-level strategy for bringing their dream projects out of their heads and into the world.
After facing curable but stubborn skin cancer, Danielle realized her calling was to make sure women have a chance to help real people by sharing their gifts & talents before leaving this earth. Her dedication has paid off: in 2022 she was nominated for Best Business Consultant in the Babecrafted Awards.
When she’s not bringing big ideas to life, you can find Danielle hanging with her two kids & cats, doing yoga or pilates, traveling with her husband, or trying a new restaurant with friends.
What is It like to run a successful brand while running your home as a Boss Mom?
It is definitely a challenge to run a home while running a business, but I have found that doing both has helped me feel more fulfilled than when I was doing one or the other. Taking care of my family is as much of a higher calling as helping others share their stories to impact lives! I used to believe the lie that the best moms sacrifice everything for their kids, but what I realized as I started my business is that kids need the loving care of a fulfilled, well-rounded mom. And they’re learning to step up as part of the solution to the challenges we face as a busy family, like prepping meals and keeping things tidy. I believe this is preparing them to be contributing members of society, something every mother hopes for!
Sure there are times of overwhelm and exhaustion, but that’s just part of the human experience. Moving through those times by taking care of myself and prioritizing rest and connection as a family allows me to model self-care as a crucial part of the achievement.
What has been your biggest challenge in balancing both career and motherhood?
Honestly, the hardest part was learning to set and respect my own boundaries early on. I had spent over 10 years as a stay-at-home mom, and learning to uphold the boundaries I needed, without feeling guilty, took time. I gave myself time to experiment with different things, adjusting the boundaries to suit what my family and my business needed during different seasons of growth, and that’s led to a great balance where everyone feels heard and taken care of.
Learning to communicate as a family was a big part of that growth, but I know we’re all better off for it.
Behind every great woman is a group of other great women pushing her into greatness, who is your circle made up of?
I love connecting with other amazing women, and I make it a priority to do so in the different areas of my life. I have a business bestie who helps me brainstorm, challenges me in the right ways, and keeps me accountable for my plans. I also have a church bestie who helps me continue to keep God at the center of everything I do—a true “iron sharpens iron” kind of friend. And I keep connected with women across all spectrums of success in the business world by participating in several different networking groups.
I firmly believe we need to surround ourselves with women further along than us who we can look up to as mentors, as well as with women on the earlier path to success who we can help along.
What advice do you have for new moms wanting to jump-start their own entrepreneurship journey?
Let go of guilt and fear! The two things that hold us back most are guilt, whether it’s over spending time away from our kids or spending money to invest in our businesses; and fear, which includes fear of failure as well as fear of success. Being willing and able to recognize and move through those two emotions will keep you progressing faster than you would otherwise.
I also strongly recommend finding and investing in a business strategist or program designed for the early entrepreneur. $10k might seem like a lot at the beginning, but if they can save you years of trial and error and help you unlock the potential for six figures a year, the ROI is a no-brainer. Do your due diligence, look at the typical results for people inside the program, and weigh the potential against the risk.
As entrepreneurs we have to be willing to take financial risks, so be ready for that challenge. Early on it’s often a case of “the chicken or the egg”, and we have to be willing to dance in that financial space at every stage of business growth and expansion.
And, of course, I highly recommend they grab a copy of my best seller, Manifest Success: How to transform your big idea into a business you love! This book was written with women new to business in mind, it’s the conversation I want to have with all new entrepreneurs. There’s a lot of noise in the business world, and we have to be willing to shut out that noise, define success on our terms, and boldly pursue what we want. I also talk about three basic principles of business that are often overlooked but are crucial to becoming a better decision-maker in business.
What does being a Pretty Woman Who Hustles mean to you?
To me, it means honoring the journey of personal growth that happens alongside business growth. True beauty comes from openness and authentic vulnerability, and the real hustle is in allowing ourselves to be stretched and reformed by the experiences of life. I have found that the two experiences of life that grow us the most are motherhood and entrepreneurship! They both force us to face all aspects of our own fears, doubts, and limiting beliefs, and they both offer rewards unlike anything else if we’re willing to put in the work.
Social Media Handles –
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-mendoza-3059788a
IG: @confident.concept
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/danielle.dietlinmendoza
Website –
