Meet Marisa Lonic | Founder & CEO, Mama Work It

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marisa Lonic and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marisa, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I wanted to create resources for working moms. I wanted them to feel seen, heard, connected. When I became a parent, I felt like there were plenty of books and websites dedicated to motherhood, but not necessarily working motherhood. I recently read that being a parent is the equivalent of 2.5 full time jobs. Add in a more traditionally viewed full-time job, and the math doesn’t add up. No one was talking about the pressure, guilt, and exhaustion often felt by working moms. It felt like it had to be a choice-either thrive at home and stay stuck in your position at work or grow at work and neglect your family at home. I was not here for it. I wanted to prove that succeeding in both worlds without burning out was possible. So, I started blogging initially, sharing real-life stories about working motherhood. I then honed in on time management strategies because it was the number one question I’d get, “How do you have time to….cook dinner, volunteer at preschool, write your blog?”. From there, I began using my background in learning and development and leadership to create courses. I wrote my first book and started coaching women who were feeling those feels I myself had once felt. I ran my business as a side hustle for three years before I left my corporate career and fully stepped into entrepreneurship.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My entrepreneurial journey started years ago, when I developed a brand of baby clothing. I didn’t have kids, knew nothing about the fashion industry other than I liked to shop, and basically decided creating cute baby clothes was a cute idea. I learned a ton from that business experience from the art of screen printing to website development to operational processes like tracking inventory. I also learned what happens when you don’t nurture your business fully and consistently-it falls apart.
After becoming a parent, the entrepreneurial bug came back again, but this time, it wasn’t tapping into an area I knew little to nothing about. I started sharing knowledge through blogs, books, and courses. I had been some form of an educator throughout my career, from leading fitness classes to teaching college students Italian to coaching my corporate team. Helping others lit me up, and as a newer parent myself, I wanted to specifically support this particular community because, man, did we need some help, any help, all the help we could get when we weren’t sleeping through the night and working around the clock either at work or at home.
I started my business, Mama Work It, and ran it as a side hustle for three years alongside a demanding corporate career. I stayed up late some nights. I woke up early on other days. I used my commute time to brainstorm social media content. I spent a number of federal holidays and days off from my day job drafting blog posts or editing video course content because my kids still had childcare and having a full eight hour day to work on my business was a luxury at the time.
Juggling both worlds worked well…until it didn’t. In 2020, things started to feel misaligned. I kept thinking maybe the pandemic had shaken my world, and that was causing me to feel like I couldn’t manage being both an employee and entrepreneur any longer. But, the truth was, saying I couldn’t do something only made me work harder. I needed to shift my perspective from one of “I can’t” to one of “I don’t want to” in order to work up the courage to dive fully into entrepreneurship.
After a year of an internal battle between me and me, I left the corporate world and went from full-time employee/part-time entrepreneur to full-time entrepreneur. Period. It was one of the scariest leaps of faith I’ve ever taken. I’d had a job since I was a babysitter at 12 years old. Not knowing whether or not I’d be making any real money the following month was terrifying. While my business had been established over those three years, I certainly hadn’t come close to matching my corporate income…yet.
I spent the next year doing all the things-literally. I played every role in my business from tech support to finance department to marketing director to sales team. I was basically the mom of the company, wearing all the hats and making it look easy. Side note, it wasn’t.
I experienced burn out. I recovered. I tried things that were uncomfortable and terrifying. I survived. And while I had no regrets, I did have days where I questioned what I was even doing-usually the days when a launch didn’t go well or I’d worked all day and not eaten anything except the crust of my kid’s sandwich.
The biggest takeaway throughout it all was to trust my intuition. When your intuition is telling you something over and over and over again (and in my case it often needs to because I can be stubborn), it’s important to pay attention. Get curious. Try that thing on. Or if you’re more of a risk taker, maybe even just go for it without taking a year to fight with yourself over the decision.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
So many! First off, my family. Their love and support has been key in my ability to thrive in business and life. Second, I could not have gotten to where I am without the support of mentors (both those who know me and those who don’t but I’ve named them mentors in my life), books, podcasts, and coaches. These individuals have been instrumental in my entrepreneurial growth journey.

Website: www.mamaworkit.com and www.marisalonic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letmamaworkit

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisalonic

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/letmamaworkit

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mamaworkit

Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mama-work-it-podcast/id1549805160

Image Credits
Melissa Ohms Photography