Not taking the easy road.

Not taking the easy road.

This week, we had the opportunity to interview Heidi Bartolotta, the founder of Moms Making Six Figures. Heidi is a fantastic mentor and friend, but most importantly, she is a wonderful mother to her beautiful daughters! Heidi has been very successful as an entrepreneur, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy road for her. Read on to learn more about her journey!

Why did you start Moms Making Six Figures?

If I’m being honest, my initial motivation was completely selfish; I just wanted to create a corporate level income without the pressure, time commitment and rigid structure of a corporate work environment.  What I found, however, was that my purpose evolved very quickly into a desire to help other women achieve the financial success that I was achieving. I have a deep passion to assist women in figuring out the unique challenges each one of us faces as we strive to create businesses that impact the futures of our respective families in powerful, long-lasting ways.  Every time I see photos of one our “Moms” with her child at a mid-morning school event or early afternoon sporting event, knowing that that photo wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t worked together building her business to “get her home,” I feel an amazing sense of pride and accomplishment!  To help women bridge a financial gap at home or help them be more present in the lives of their loved ones, that is for me, why I continue to push in and enjoy this business.

What was it like to make that leap from corporate life to be an entrepreneur?

It was definitely a struggle at first, and I had doubts as to whether I could really be successful.  Questions like “do I have what it takes,” “can I persevere,” “will people I know think I’m crazy,” “what if I fail;” they all popped into my head on almost a daily basis.  One bad interaction with someone could erase the confidence I had been feeling earlier in the day when several other people had seen the opportunity the way I saw (and still see) it.  Focusing on the positive and pushing out the negative was a skill that took a good bit of time to develop, and it was something that in the beginning had to be a very conscious, intentional, daily practice.  The importance of good time management and organization also increased dramatically in importance.  Just because I could now attend every school or extracurricular activity of my girls didn’t mean I should if I was going to build my business into what I needed it to be.  The difference was that when I worked instead of attending a soccer practice, it was my choice and I did it for the long-term well-being of my family; not because my time belonged to a company.

What are the three most important habits in your life that you can attribute to your success?

In no particular order:

Time management.  This is a discipline that has been critical in building my business.  When I look at it, my calendar “doesn’t lie;” meaning that if I haven’t done the work I know it takes to build my business, it’s right there in black and white (yes, I still like paper, though I’m transitioning to full digital!).  As I mentioned above, we women have so many things in our lives outside of our careers pulling at us from all directions for chunks of our precious time.  Being honest with myself and scheduling my work hours and following through on what I committed to do for my business (sometimes even in the face of missing something I would much rather do or see) is vitally important.  There is just a huge difference between knowing what I need to do and doing what I need to do, and time management is what holds me accountable to myself.

Long-term vision and Grit.  These two are so intertwined with each other that I will talk about them together.  Focusing on my long-term goals has helped me tremendously with regard to not getting knocked off course by short-term setbacks and outright failures.  My success in this business was not a slow, steady climb.  Even when I did everything I was supposed to be doing, following all the training I’d received, putting in the work, developing systems for my team and focusing on the positive, the journey was very akin to a roller-coaster.  In those moments when I would look around and think, “what am I doing wrong, why isn’t this working the way it’s supposed to,” it was my long-term vision that kept me in the game.  The ability to look beyond the obstacle right in front of me and see the financial life I want for me and my family in the distance, reminding myself that this is worth it, has proven invaluable.  And the practical side of the equation; the will to win, to not quit, to not let distractions and short-term desires get in the way of accomplishing my long-term goal, that’s what I mean when I say “grit.”  It’s perseverance, will, “stick-to-it-iveness,” and determination all rolled into one.  Combined with long-term vision, there is very little one can’t accomplish.  Now don’t think I always do what I should and don’t get discouraged from time-to-time, because I absolutely do; but these two traits have helped me consistently stay the course and do what I need to do, which has resulted in a great deal of success.

What has been the greatest reward for you since embarking on this journey?

The financial rewards are great, but they aren’t the greatest.  Building a team of women committed to themselves and each other, helping other women achieve their goals and knowing that the more I do that, the more I help my own business, what a blessing!  Knowing that if I make sure the focus of what I do each day is on helping others is the very thing I need to do to achieve my own success is incredible; no stepping on others to climb some corporate ladder, no glass ceiling, no total sacrifice of all I hold dear to achieve financial success and security.  What a paradigm shift this has been for me, and I am just so grateful that I took that first step to build this business.