Have you ever watched your child do something so awe-inspiring that it leaves you breathless? For me, it was seeing my son confidently stand before a room of 50 strangers at his first-ever clothing release party, delivering his first live speech. As he spoke from the heart, I felt a surge of pride so intense that words couldn’t capture it. In that moment, I realized resilience isn’t just taught—it’s witnessed. Being an excellent Momager is one thing, but seeing him step into his own spotlight was everything.
My son sat on the couch, looked straight across the room at me, and said, “I want to be an entrepreneur.”He was 15, and I had never seen him so calm, confident, and ready to make things happen. A statement like that may not sound like a situation that requires resilience, but as any other Momager or Dadager can tell you, it very much does.
My son, Ocean, was serious, which meant we had a lot of work to do. He had watched me be an entrepreneur his whole life. Still, he didn’t know what it really took to create a successful business: all the behind-the-scenes work, the person you need to become, the growth, the energy, the stretch, the sacrifices, and the funding to make it all happen.
I was so proud, and as a mom, it’s incredible when you see happiness in your children’s eyes. His creative abilities did not surprise me as I had seen them since he was very young, so the announcement of creating a Streetwear, Art, and Fashion company didn’t surprise me either.
We often hear from many people how cool they think it is that Ocean opened his doors to entrepreneurship at such a young age, and I, one hundred percent agree.
But …
This is where the elixir of happiness and resilience starts.
Luckily for me, I am a strategy coach for entrepreneurs and have built several companies. Yet coaching a young adult—and that young adult is YOUR child—is very different.
I knew what Ocean was in for IF he was serious. Sometimes, I laugh and say I wish I were naïve about making a successful business. It might’ve been easier in a different kind of way. It’s like you now have a brand-new start-up company as well as your child. For the most part, it’s probably all over your living room or house (at least ours was), and, as his passion was fashion and art, it meant converting my condo into a warehouse, office, and storage room. We even took down our dining room table and converted our dining area into a showroom!
Running a business with a family member from a completely different genre can be tough. It required me to learn how a whole other demographic lives, thinks, and talks.
The resilience it takes to be a mom and a manager of a new company that belongs to your child is a dance that can be hard to navigate.
It is not easy to teach all the elements of a business, such as patience, research, and helping your child learn new skills like communication so they can do podcasts, TV shows, interviews, and things they never thought of. For the most part, they just want to do what makes them happy, and for Ocean, that was drawing, creating, sewing, and designing.
I was one of the lucky ones. His drive to do what he loved overrode the challenges of learning the things he didn’t want to do or know how to do.
It wasn’t and isn’t always all smooth. Ocean announced to me at age 15 that he wanted a company. I was a single mom Entrepreneur. I couldn’t stop working, so I had to help him get through the cracks of our lives. That meant even more late nights and early mornings. I was squeezing his business in everywhere I could. I had to keep working to keep paying for our life and my business, and, as a mom, it was a tough go.
It created a whole new different type of guilt. I wanted to be able to offer more time and resources, but we had to do what we could and when we could. Most of that was based on my finances and time resources. Luckily for me, Ocean’s determined mindset made that easier, and he stayed committed no matter how long it took.
There were many times I needed to be resilient, a voice of reason/experience, and extra time and energy to explain why, how, and if to ensure we did everything we could to secure his business’s sustainability.
The dance between Mom and sometimes having to have tough conversations takes work. It can be scary, never wanting to jeopardize the personal relationship I have spent so many years keeping healthy and intact.
It takes a lot of work to make a business succeed. Many times, it’s been a stretch, as businesses can be, but it would literally break my heart to have anything come between us, even a successful business.
When I first became a Momager five years ago, I don’t think there was even a name for it, but as this incredible world has opened up to young entrepreneurs, it’s becoming more well known. Even as a Coach, I now have many clients who come to me to help them navigate this new Momager / Dadager role they have with their children.
One of the biggest challenges is how resilient we think we are as parents. I fell into this category for sure. I was so excited and grateful to be able to help Ocean build his life and business that I forgot about myself. I was trying to balance my life, my team, my projects, Ocean’s start-up, my family needs, and take care of my friend relationships. To top it off, this company he was ready to start came at the same time I was building the biggest business project I had ever done in my life. So, to be honest, self-care was something I probably put aside more times than I should have.
The mother STRETCH of it’s okay, and I got it, no worries, I’ll do that, etc., could easily creep up on me if I wasn’t careful.
Advice:
I have two things I would like to share:
One – if you have a young entrepreneur in your life, no matter how much we may think we know more because we’ve been on the planet longer, sometimes they “are right.”
Two – Don’t do this alone. Get help with this new form of communication. You will need to learn how to have a successful business relationship while maintaining the most important relationship, which is the love between you and your son or daughter. That is the most important relationship to nurture, no matter how much success you want your business to experience.
Being a Momager has been a privilege. I have seen my son grow into the person he wants to become and see his creativity have an outlet. I feel it’s an honour to know that we have the kind of relationship and trust that allows the idea of working together to become a reality.
If I could offer you one piece of advice when faced with a situation requiring resilience, it would be to seek extra support.
Are you ready to share your story of RESILIENCE? You can do that HERE.