Interview with Dr. Christiana Stephen — Founder of 50 Amazing Moms
How do you build a community with over 1M of followers while dealing with post-natal depression, trolls, and unsupportive friends?
I interviewed Dr. Christina Stephen to find out (Listen to Mental Wealth For Entrepreneurs Podcast Episode #2).
Dr. Christiana Stephen (Ph.D). Christiana is a lifestyle influencer, blogger, researcher, lecturer, author and founder of the fastest-growing Women Wellness Online Community — 50 Amazing Moms spanning across six continents. Christiana is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Member of Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Certified International Make-up Artist, and a wife and mother of four lovely children. She has a BSc in Public Relations and Advertising, MSc in International Marketing Management, MSc in Brand Management, and a Doctorate degree in Luxury Fashion Branding and Black African Women Identity Creation.
Changing Lives of Moms Around the World
Christiana is educating millions of mothers through her community by creating awareness on the wellness wheel: emotional and intellectual wellness; physical wellness; spiritual wellness; social wellness; fitness; healthy eating and dieting; healthy lifestyle, which includes understanding the essence of a work-life balance, finances, and mental health awareness. While at spreading her message, Christiana adds a touch of beauty, fashion and style trends to show that as mothers, we can achieve a fun and fulfilled life.
Mental Wealth For Entrepreneurs Podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Show Notes
Katerina: Christiana, how are you? Could you tell me how you started your 50AmazingMoms.com business.
Christiana: The thing is, I started it for myself at first. So, I after I had my four children, I went into depression. I had postnatal depression, and I was just looking for something that will make me better if you get what I mean. Because I tried doing so many things. I learned makeup and learned photography. I learned a lot of things, but I still was… I was still depressed. I wasn’t happy about anything. I wasn’t happy that I had children… I wasn’t happy about my body. And so, um, one day, I decided okay I was going …Katerina, we have to pause, someone is at the door, please pause.
Katerina: [Laughs] Okay, let’s continue our interview. It’s a joy to have four little kids running around and knocking on the doors. So, Christiana, Why being an influencer? What motivated you to start your social influencer career?
Christiana: I didn’t start up to be an influencer. To be honest, I actually started off to just inspire people, help people lose weight, and that’s it. That was… what it was…So, on top of my head, I did not think about being an influencer at all. But the more I worked with these women, the more I worked with mothers, the more I realised that they saw me as an influencing figure.
Katerina: Yeah.
Christiana: So, sometimes, people would send me messages. “Oh, you’ve inspired me a lot, or you’re my mentor… oh, I love you”. You know, things like that. And then, when I realised that my life is inspiring people and influencing people, I decided to be more conscious of the things that I do. Because now it’s no longer about me. So, that’s how the whole lifestyle influencer came; it wasn’t me. It was the people that were calling me an influencer, and that’s how it started.
Katerina: Yeah, yeah, because your Facebook has how many fans? More than 1 million fans, I mean, this is amazing. And your website? A couple of million fans, I mean, it just.. how long did it take you to actually grow this audience to be such a huge audience?
Christiana: Okay, actually started in 2016
Katerina: Okay, yes, so not long. Yeah, yeah.
Christiana: So, that was, I set it in July 2016. And so, in July we should be four years.
Katerina: Yeah. Great. And, when you just started, what was the most difficult time you had starting out? Was it, being out there, or showing your face, or doing videos? What was the most difficult thing for you when you’re just started 50AmazingMoms?
Christiana: The most difficult part was creating content. Because at the point when I started with 50AmazingMoms, I was doing my Ph.D. And I had four little babies to look after. So, it was like creating content was the major work because, you know, how it is Dr. Katerina with Ph.Ds? A lot of research and combining because… and, and then I had like a part-time teaching job as well. It looked like I had so much to do at that point, so it was creating content that was my huge difficulty.
Katerina: Yeah, yeah [laughs] Christiana, you’re like a superwoman, but, if you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Christiana: Okay, it would be like to change the lives of every mother.
Katerina: Yeah. Yeah, that would be what I’ll do. But you are changing lives; you are changing lives. It’s amazing. The comments on Facebook is like “yes, Doc,” you know they just, they think you are superwoman. Yeah. But when you just started your journey, have you ever had moments of doubt when you thought… well maybe I should just quit?
Christiana: Yes, times like that usually come, you know. But not now and I haven’t had that, you know. When I first started, it was really challenging because I started out, reaching out to people that I knew. You know, I went up to my friends, long term friends, family friends and all that. To tell them, this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to start a page for mothers, and these were mothers as well. They didn’t buy into my dreams or my visions. Yeah, so that was very discouraging because I’m like, oh, this is family, these are my friends. They didn’t even follow me on Facebook. I invited them to like my Facebook; they didn’t. They were not proud of anything I was doing.
Katerina: Right.
Christiana: And that was really, really discouraging. Imagine starting a brand, and your family is not even supportive of what you’re doing, they wouldn’t understand it. And so, one thing that kept me going was that this is my dream; this is my vision. I’m still going to go ahead, whether or not someone supports me.
Katerina: Yeah.
Christiana: Yeah, so I just went ahead anyway, I had nothing to lose, I was just a full-time student working part-time. I was just creating content and just putting it out there. Yeah, so I didn’t care how people looked at it, but that was the most discouraging thing on this journey.
Katerina: Because, you see, you sometimes listen to some entrepreneurs, and they have these amazing stories about supportive parents and supportive friends. What do you do if you don’t have supportive parents or supportive friends?
Christiana: My mom didn’t understand this. When I first showed her, she was like, “Oh, Okay.” You know when okay is like it’s okay, yeah. Well, you know that deep down inside is not really Okay. And then I had friends that I contacted via email, friends that I actually called. They were like, “Oh, do you want to do that? Why do you want to show yourself, share, you know?” So, it was really discouraging. The only person that was supporting, to an extent, was my husband. But even he didn’t understand where I was going, you know. Yeah. But the rest didn’t really understand it.
Katerina: Yeah. So, if you think about it, the challenging time you had starting out. What was the most difficult challenge you had to overcome when you just start it [50AmazongMoms]?
Christiana: The most difficult was having to expect people to like what I do; having to expect people to support me. That was the difficult part of it. Because it just feels…, it feels somehow when you put up your stuff on Facebook, and you feel like the first set of people that should be part of you don’t engage with it, should be people that know you, people who you’ve had contact with, and then they just look and walk past.
Read the full interview Here.
Originally published at Katerina.Thomas.com
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About the Author:
I help entrepreneurs to build their emotional and business resilience. Throughout my professional life, I helped hundreds of entrepreneurs to launch their businesses following their passion.
