Looking Back, Looking In

Since we just celebrated the Feast of the Assumption last August 15, it's a perfect time to share with you my most recent return to my beloved alma mater, Assumption High School. I was invited by the school's Center for Social Involvement and was given the opportunity to speak to the young ladies in their senior year of high school. The center is spearheading the girls' Social Entrepreneurship program called P.E.A.C.E. and through this, students will be tasked to set up their own small social enterprise. To provide them some guidance as well as motivation, the teachers planned out a line up talks featuring entrepreneurs in different industries. Some were from Assumption too such as Krie Lopez of Messy Bessy Cleaners, one of the most inspiring social entrepreneurs I know and past speaker of our 1st Mompreneur Summit in 2013. Others were Joey Concepcion of GoNegosyo and Bea Crisostomo of Ritual.I was happy to be part of this event! Going back and giving back to AC is my kind of soulfood, and the chance to talk about my experience as an entrepreneur, and share my Mommy Mundo journey is always an opportunity I cherish. Of course while I made sure to tell the teens that it should be a LONG time before they themselves become mompreneurs, I hoped that some of the learnings I shared would be useful and inspire them as well.Here are some of the things I shared that day about my mompreneur journey:1) Find your inspiration within.My source of inspiration for my business is my passion for motherhood. While all businesses are borne out of a dose of inspiration, a stroke of genius, a spark of creativity or strong motivation, for me, it was my becoming a mom that became the spark for my entrepreneurial spirit. Discovering my own unmet needs and wants as a mom prodded me to create products and services to fill the void. Seeing how other moms needed the same things I needed, pushed me to provide service.That's how Mommy Mundo started and just like how I drew inspiration from motherhood for my business, you can use your own lives, passions and circumstances, as foundation for a business. Needs, wants, frustrations are commonly sources of unique business ideas. The key here is to tune in, and use actual tools to record the ideas, be observant with full intent to discover the needs and voids and use this awareness to come up with great ideas.Finding inspiration from within is finding your passion and I believe that PASSION SELLS. Any effort fuelled by passion (and driven by a strong purpose) will be successful no matter what. It will be difficult for people and potential stakeholders to say no to you when there is passion in your eyes. (More on my own testimonial on this in number 3 below.)2) Be driven by purpose.My main motivation for my businesses is to be of service to my fellow moms. This is my purpose, and everything we do at Mommy Mundo revolves around this mission to be of help to moms and moms-to-be.As smart entrepreneurs, we of course still need to make sure the business is profitable in order for it to be sustainable, but from my experience, it is possible to balance achieving sustainability while being totally driven by your deeper purpose.My journey has always been about being driven by PASSION and PURPOSE, and I believe that being passion+purpose-driven is a reflection of making good use of heart+mind and talent+skill and is one of the keys to having a happy and fulfilling life.3) Hard work and faith will bring you to where you are meant to be.I grew up in an entrepreneurial family but I never thought I would ever have the grit or resources to have my own business. Who would've thought that my becoming a mom would give me the inspiration to create, and determination to get my ideas off the ground?I conceptualized my first publication, Mommy Pages, back in 2001 with just an idea of creating a comprehensive mom directory. I had the content and wanted to make distribution free of charge so that it could reach as many moms as possible. So I went to potential advertisers with just a hand-bound, hand-calligraphed prototype in my hands, and somehow convinced brands to support my publication. It was sheer passion that made this business a reality and it was amazing, but what followed is another story on serendipity.While marketing my publication, I met one brand manager who insisted I organize his mall events inspite of my non-experience in this field. I kept telling him that I do not do events but for whatever reason he believed I could, and with the promise of ad placements in Mommy Pages, I unknowingly had an entirely new business venture fall into my lap. From that mall tour came more and more events projects and today, my husband and I run our full fledged communications company servicing major brands' events requirements while growing the Mommy Mundo community at the same time.I have other similar situations in my life and because of these happy accidents, I've always believed I am where I am meant to be. Every opportunity, every person I've met, every success, as well as every challenge, was meant for me and meant for my growth. I do not see anything as coincidence. I feel blessed and grateful to be doing what I'm doing, and I claim it 100% as my own. As St. Therese said "Trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be."If you have goals you are determined to reach, just be ready to work hard for them and remember that throughout your journey, everything happens for a reason. Your job is to make the most of what is given and never forget your purpose, or your reason for existence, and everything will fall into place.4) "To whom much is given, much is expected."This was always repeated to me even while I was younger, and I think it is important to remember that we are all blessed with our own rations of either talent, skill, or even monetary resources that when used properly, can touch lives, create change and make a difference in the world.Probably like all the girls I spoke to that day, I grew up in relative comfort. Studying in Assumption meant we had been blessed with a life wherein we would not have to worry about (at the very least) our basic needs. Most resources are readily available to us, opportunities are within our reach, and now coupled with technology, we can in fact spark a movement even with just a click of a mouse. How we use our gifts and blessings is entirely up to us.--Meeting these young ladies who sit where I used to sit, literally and figuratively, makes me realize how far I have come. Going back to AC, just like during our Velada last year, is always an experience of "looking back" but I realize it also becomes a time of "looking in". Along with the flood of memories come a flow of realizations, self-discovery and some validation that I am on the right track. The day also stirred some excitement in me seeing these girls in the beginning stages of self-discovery and knowing, hoping that someday they will use their talents and resources to make their own contributions to the world, beginning with their own small enterprise at P.E.A.C.E.I count studying at the Assumption to be a big blessing in my life, I know that the strong sense of purpose I practice in my personal life as well as my businesses is because of my Assumption education. I know that someday, the young ladies I met that day will also realize the blessing of growing up in our signature red plaid skirts.Thank you so much for this opportunity, (in photo below) Academic assistant in AC High School, Rina Ledesma Villalon (my friend and sister of our friends and Mercato partners Rj and Vanessa Ledesma), Cherry Claveria and Girlie Florendo of the Assumption Office of Social Involvement.