YAY FOR MOMMY MONDAY! It's my day to feature mom-preneurs WHO ROCK!
This week I am featuring TWO mommies, yes TWO! Meet my good friends Lynn and Corey,
the fabulous mother and daughter team from Celebrate Green!
Celebrate Green is more than just an informative blog, its a book, website and well, a lifestyle! Lynn and Corey's goal is to help people "green up their celebrations." So these ladies show families "that learning to be green during holidays and celebrations can be easy, affordable and fun for the whole family." I am so excited to feature these ladies because not only are they supremely informative, and super innovative (have you checked out Green Halloween? Superb idea), they are the SWEETEST gals around!
Learn so much more about these rockin' mom-preneuers on an eco-mission by checking out my interview with them below!
1. Why did you start Celebrate Green? We couldn't help ourselves! No, seriously, the website came about as a result of our book, Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family. We had to cut 50 pages from the book before publication and we knew we had so many other ideas to inspire people to celebrate in more Earth-friendly ways than the book could hold. A website and blog were perfect for us because we could continually update as we learned and grew in our own experience and share ideas, tips and everything else, with anyone and everyone who might be interested. It also presented a way for us to interact with others in the green community, get their input, and share their ideas too.
2. What's the hardest part about running the site and a family? We each have our own unique challenges. For Corey, “balancing” life running Celebrate Green, Green Halloween and her private-practice, as well as being “Mommy” to two school-aged kids, means that every day can feel like life played on fast-forward (with the William Tell Overture as the theme music!). Lynn is better with the whole balance thing, but finds it more of a challenge to spend time with her grandkids, craft, volunteer, go camping, exercise, spend time with her husband and do all the other things she enjoys so much.
3. What do the kids like about your business? Corey’s kids are proud of having a Mommy and Grandma (“Abba”) that are working hard to make the world a better place. Growing up in a green-minded home means that they “get” why we do what we do, and they often come up with ideas of their own for crafts, activities, recipes, and more. Finley will say, “Hey mom! Look what I made out of this old sock. You should put it on Twitter!” Zoe likes to contribute ideas for videos and came up with the concept of ending each one with, “…. Now that’s celebrating green.” They also like getting to sample and try all of the new green kids products that come to us for review.
4. What's up Next for the dynamic duo? There continue to be so many possibilities for us. We're excited about the potential for developing apps, doing a lot more video and TV, writing more books, releasing Celebrate Green! in e-book format etc. However, the issue is (and always has been), how do we use our time to generate the best return. Although we can accomplish more in an hour than most people can in a day, even we have our limits. And honestly, during 2011, we exceeded them! So we're spending time in the early part of 2012 evaluating everything we're doing and might do, and will be making some important choices over the next six months. And when we do, you'll be the first to know!
5. Use two words to describe your business style? As a mother-daughter team, we’re a good “fit” because we have different business styles. Lynn is all about the “new” and has an innovative idea or solution about every 0.67 seconds. She comes from a corporate background, so she has vast business acumen, but she’s also been around long enough to hone her own way of doing things. Corey is both detailed oriented and takes a big-picture view. She has less business experience, but a lot of intuitive savvy. Her talents lie in strategy, leadership, partnerships and research. Corey tends to be all business, Lynn tends to be all fun. Together we make it work!
6. Whats the most important eco issue in your eyes? Boy, it’s hard to pick just one when there are so many. The rate at which we’re consuming the Earth’s resources? The toxins in our air and water? Climate change? All are equally important, and all interconnected. That’s why we do what we can to inspire change through simple, practical, affordable (and fun!) actions. That’s also why our primary audience is moms. Moms make 80% of the buying decisions, 80% of the family healthcare decisions and similar percentages of decisions about family traditions, travel, you name it. It’s moms who hold the power and possibility of change.
If you don't know these ladies yet, get to know them! Visit Celebrate Green and learn how to celebrate the eco-friendly way! If you can celebrate in a way that help's the earth, why not do it?
