We had the good fortune of connecting with Elham Raker and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Elham, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
As a pediatrician and a mom, I realized and valued the importance of a mentor or a guide in parenting. Even as a pediatrician, bringing home and taking care of a new born baby was hard! Over the span of my career I have worked in many different settings; such as urgent care, emergency, office visits and in home visits. What I’ve realized is that my love for what I do stems from the connections I can make with families, the time spent answering questions, counseling and guiding. In most traditional settings our time was limited. It left parents looking for more, sometimes from family members, sometimes from google or Facebok groups. Which is how Ask Dr. Mom was born; a virtual platform consisting of telemedicine and parent coaching where parents can get reassurance and guidance from the comfort of their home through a trusted resource.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets me apart in my work is the combination of pediatrics and parent coaching. So I can answer a wide range of questions confidently. I’m most excited about helping other parents in the journey of parent coaching; providing parents deep rooted connections with their kids which is something I believe all parents strive to have. Starting a business is definitely never easy and for me personally I did not have that background in business so it involved asking a lot of questions, listening to a lot of podcasts, and lots of trial and error. I’m still learning and practicing as I go but as long as I don’t give up I cannot fail. What I want to share with others, especially mothers, is that your dreams are worth it, and to never give up on finding your dreams no matter how long it takes. I think we as mothers lose ourselves a little bit after having kids. We find it hard to define who we are outside of motherhood. I really hope to be an inspiration to other mothers to keep searching for their dream, their voice, their gift and share it with the world.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend was visiting we would spend most of our time just talking and catching up! Ideally with a cup of coffee walking on the beach for miles and miles. Other than that I’d love to go to a fun dinner and dancing (one of my favorite things to do) maybe go to salsa dancing. I also love live music and the Hollywood Bowl is one of my favorite venues. I’d love to do something cultural, like the Getty Museum, another great outdoor venue. I would definitely spend a day in Malibu starting with hike in the cliffs and then lunch at Malibu Farms. And our trip would have to include some pampering at a spa with masages and time to realx by the pool or hot tub!
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shoutout starts with a group of women I went to Israel with as a part of a Mom’s group for over 50 women; learning to be better versions of ourselves and take that back to our families. After that experience, I started my blog which was a very scary thing for me to do. It was putting my very personal and big feelings out into the world but it was also liberating. My next shout out goes to starting a network marketing business. It was in this company that I started to dream big and really acknowledge that I’m capable of great things. From both of these experiences I gained a large amount of personal development tools, friendships and encouragement.
Website: https://askdr-mom.com
Instagram: www.instagram,com/askdrmom_
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elham-raker-m-d-5a9b774/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/askdrmomandablog
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0oTGz5ZDt_cDnqi6q4IgVA
Image Credits
Moose Cohen