For today´s Motivational Monday, we have an interview with Marcie Macari of Bloomin’ Belly Soaps, which produces some of the greatest soaps I´ve ever seen, in the shape of a pregnant mom. Marcie has had a few challenges on her journey to become a successful wahm, but she´s definitely made it! Click on the photo to see more beautiful soaps.

1. What is your business?

Bloomin’ Belly Soaps, which is a company that makes Body-positive products for expectant women and those who serve them.

2. How did you get started?

Bloomin’ Belly Soaps was born from a book I’ve written about the intangible aspects of Birth called:”She Births: A Modern Woman’s Guidebook for an Ancient Rite of Passage”. In working with expectant women, I was saddened by how many women were unhappy about their changing bodies. It was disheartening to me that at one of the more powerful times in a woman’s life, so few of the women who came to me for emotional/spiritual support saw themselves as strong and beautiful. I started contemplating why this was-the obvious place to start was with our medical system’s assumption that expectant women are weak, ill and in need of rescuing…but I also saw so much discrepency in the media. On one hand, they show these “plastic makes perfect” women with cleavage, nipples proudly protruding through see-through tops, and call them beautiful and admirable…and then we see expectant women portayed as “S-curves”, with no nipples, and no sexuality. It send a message that confuses women. I wanted to create a product that would be proudly pro-woman, and honest about the changes in a woman’s body without being apologetic for something that should be celebrated and embraced!

I know this sounds cliche’, but I actually had a dream one night about these pregnant soaps-they had very round bellies, breasts with nipples and I was smitten! I tried to find a mold maker who would make me a food-safe mold of this form, but every single one I spoke with was squeamish about this, because the pregnant lady had to have large, pregnant nipples! I found it annoying that the same companies could comfortably sell “mini penis” molds, designed for making lollipops….but would not make this beautiful, natural pregnant form….

So I did what I needed to do and made the mold myself, and the rest is Herstory.:)

3. What mistakes did you make when you were starting out? What did you learn from them?

I made 2 big mistakes when I first started this business:

1) I let my creativity get the better of practicality when deciding on packaging. My first couple orders were actually packaged in clay pots, came with seeds you could actually plant, and were wrapped in cellophane! They arrived all broken, the cellophane wasn’t recyclable and really, it was just a big mess. My idea was to play on the “bloomin’” word, and what I needed to do was pay more attention to my core values, and less on making the product gimicky. My product is great as it is-it doesn’t need any “hype”! One of my core values is that the environment is really important to me, so whenever possible I use re-usable packaging, and recycled items.

2) I started by targeting a much too broad audience. I was targeting large corporations of mainstream Maternity wear, but the rejections were so harshly delivered (they were highly offended by the product) that I had to take a look at why this was happening, and readjust who I was willing to share my product with. Basically, I needed to define my target audience. I also got rid of the “I’m just starting out, please buy my product” poverty mentality, and started really loving my product and enjoying what I was doing, and then communicating that in the way I spoke with people and shared my information-and once I made that attitude/perpective adjustment, things just started taking off!

4. How long have you been working from home? (was this your first business or have you had others where you worked from home?)

Oh no, I’ve worked from home for let’s see…going on 7 years or so. My background is in writing so I’ve done a lot of website copy, marketing copy, ebooks and the like….

5. What are your tricks for balancing work, kids and household chores?

Oh man. I’ve written an article that is everywhere online. It’s called:”Cheerios, Greenstuff and Work at home Pitfalls”. It is NOT easy to work from home. Sure some of the benefits are attractive, but it is a tough life-choice, and requires deep commitment to your decision. I don’t always get it right-I often have laundry that needs to get done, or website additions that are waiting to be processed. I have to remind myself that this is just part of the journey-”IT” will never all be done at the end of every day. And that doesn’t make me any less of a Mother or a Business woman. It does mean I have to let go sometimes, and know that I am not now, nor have I ever been Super Woman….

6. How many children do you have? How old are they?

(Does our German Shepherd Count?) lol I have 3 (human) children, A daughter who is 11, a Son who is 6, and another son who is 2. We are a blended family, so my daughter doesn’t live with us full-time.

7. When do you usually work?

I tried to set a schedule, but with a nursing/co-sleeping toddler it’s just not possible to stick to it, and it was becoming another thing I believed I was coming up short about…so I got rid of it for now. Once my toddler decides to be more scheduled, I will be too. For now, I work whenever I can, and try to use whatever type of time I have (Ie: Quiet nap time is for Business calls, loud running around time is for housework, and playing with wooden beads time is perfect for filling orders!) for the best purpose….though I don’t always succeed…doesn’t my toddler know that MY timeline is the one he’s supposed to follow? LOL

8. What is the best part of being a mompreneur? And the worst?

Best: It fulfills me in ways I can’t explain. I feel through my book and my product that I am making a mark on the world in a way that will be deeply significant to my daughter and her grand daughters….

Worst: It can be very lonely and exhausting. Sometimes I just wish I had a girlfriend that would actually enjoy coming over to have tea and package soaps with me! And my husband, while trying to be supportive just can’t wrap his mind around helping his wife make SOAP! lol…

9. What are your plans for the future of your business?

I can currently be found in Australia, Portugal, the US, Canada and I think Brazil….But I can’t seem to find a way to get my products to Europe, so that’s a goal for me for this coming year. I also have always had a specific vision for packaging for my product, and want to get to the point where I can financially afford this, hopefully before the end of 2008!

There’s also some talk about a storefront, but we’ll see…;)

10. What advice would you give new work at home moms?

Find a NICHE, Make sure you LOVE what you’re doing, be HONEST always, and follow your INSTINCTS. Women are equipped with such an excellent ability to “just know”, but we often are told that it’s foolish to do business that way. Well, that’s because those are male-brained rules…they do things differently than we do! I’ll tell you-I’ve done a lot of reading, studying and gaining head knowledge…but nearly all of my successful big business decisions have been made with my heart and my “gut”.

11. Want to give us a preview of your upcoming product line?

Well…in the next week or two I’ll be adding all natural handwhipped, fairtrade Body Butters, (The Grapefruit Ginger Body Butter smells so good you’ll want to eat it!) and Vegan Sugar Scrubs in scents that match our Mamas in Bloom, as well as Something for Baby, a new Birthbead design, and even a few new scents of Mamas in Bloom! I just tested a new scent, which is Niaouli and Lime, with Walnut Husk Exfoliant and everyone went “ga-ga”, so that’s a definate addition.:)

We’re also running a contest this month that if you buy a Mama in Bloom and take a picture of someone opening it, and then send it to us, you could win over $50 worth of our new product….just FYI;)

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