Being a mom and an entrepreneur at the same time sure comes with a lot of struggles, and at times, self-doubt. But when you’re putting in the hard work of investing in yourself and building your business with faith, everything is possible!
We recently had a guest on our podcast, Elizabeth Oschwald, where we discussed her journey through motherhood, Kingdom Life and entrepreneurship.
Motherhood
Summer of 2018 was the beginning of her journey into entrepreneurship. To back up just a little bit before that, she had been married to her husband, Dave, for a couple of years. Prior to that, she had a season of single motherhood where she went through marriage and a divorce.
Elizabeth was a single mom with two little girls and just always knew she was called to be home with her kids and was kind of just willing to do whatever it took to stay home. She waitressed, had a home daycare, did medical transcription and everything imaginable. They didn't have Uber back then or Instacart or anything like that but she says she probably would have done those too. She also thought about driving a school bus. Elizabeth was set on finding a way to make money from home. She felt called to homeschool her girls and not put them in daycare and really, that was her goal.
Then she met the amazing David Oswaldo and they got married. He was so sweet. He says to her, “you have worked so hard for the last several years. I want you just to have a season of just being a stay at home mom. That's always been your dream. You've never really been able to just enjoy time at home, you've always been hustling” and it just was like, oh my goodness, I've arrived. It's like the Cinderella fairy tale.
Elizabeth and her girls moved in with Dave and his four children. They had this beautiful blended family out on a farm. She thought it was everything she had ever wanted. It was, but what she didn't anticipate was still living paycheck to paycheck. Even with Dave having a really good job, with six kids, they were struggling financially. That’s when the demand got just a little heavier to where either he was going to have to pick up another job, even though he was already working full time, or she was going to have to figure out a way, once again, to make money from home or put the kids in school and go get an actual job.
Elizabeth was kind of in turmoil over what she was going to do. She wanted to help, but she also didn't want to leave her kids.
Elizabeth started working as a Virtual Assistant for Priority VA doing anything she could. Elizabeth connected with The Bottom Line® through Priority VA when I was in search of an executive assistant. We realized that we shared the same values and had both joined the same community.
Kingdom Life
In the summer of 2018, Elizabeth learned about kingdom entrepreneurship from an ad she saw on Facebook. This ad stirred her spirit. It talked about the tug of war between someone who is called to ministry to work for Jesus and someone who wants to create an abundant life for their family. It spoke about how entrepreneurship was the best path to creating an abundant life and how it’s possible to blend your calling to ministry and your calling to entrepreneurship.
Elizabeth’s life's work is being a mom, yet she also knows that building a business doesn't have to be to the detriment of her family. In fact, it only made her family stronger, being able to fulfill a purpose beyond just them. Elizabeth is the founder of The Joyful Mama, where she leads a community of moms. She also serves with MIG Living, a wonderful health and wellness company that creates an opportunity for single moms or stay-at-home moms to generate income.
The Journey Into MIG & Entrepreneurship
At a 100X conference with her mentor, Pedro, he brought out a speaker named Jamie Cross. One of the things that Jamie shared from the stage that really imprinted on Elizabeth’s heart was her talks about the Proverbs 31 woman. And how she surrounded herself with helpers. The only reason she could do all the things she was doing like international trade, building a business and creating a legacy with her family was because she had help in her home.
Elizabeth remembers thinking, is that actually allowed, like, can you be the Proverbs 31 women and have help? She thought she had to do it all. She was so filled with hope but at that point in her journey, she was trying all these things on her own. She was having a little bit of a breakthrough, but nothing was sustainable on her own. She wasn't making enough to hire help yet, but that gave her permission to make that a goal.
A couple of months after hearing Jamie speak on stage, Elizabeth was invited to partner with her.
Jamie had started out at farmer's markets, building a skincare company. Jamie built a business off of an idea from God. An idea that He had given her. She was just faithful with it from the tiny beginning of pouring bars of soap in her garage, going into farmer's markets and then went into e-commerce. Within a matter of six weeks, was making six figures and then went to millions very shortly thereafter.
Elizabeth started to learn more about the network marketing business model and how it truly creates limitless opportunity for anyone at any stage in their entrepreneurship. It creates an opportunity for a business in a box for the single mom or for the stay-at-home mom who just wants to create some income.
It was then that Elizabeth joined Jamie and MIG. They started building a team in total faith.
On launch day all the people that had said yes for 10 months, joined. They had the opportunity to actually put their stake in the ground and that day was a day that changed their family's life financially, forever.
If you want to hear more about Elizabeth’s journey as a mom and entrepreneur, check out Episode 092: Kingdom Life, Business, and Motherhood with Elizabeth Oschwald
