HOW NEW YORK RIDER DENISE ALBERT FINDS JOY

Every Monday, instructor Emily Burkhardt sets out to interview members of the FLY community–from instructors, to staff members, to riders. What does Flywheel mean to them? And how do they find joy in their day-to-day? This week, meet New York rider, Denise Albert.

By: EMILY BURKHARDT

Hey FlyFAM!

This week’s Monday Motivation is very special to me. Denise Albert is a rider that always stays on the brighter side of life, no matter what is going on around her. She is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met, and I am extremely lucky to know her.

Here is what Denise had to say….

 

Do Your Kids Share a Room?

Living in Manhattan, most of us live in smaller spaces. You learn to adapt and make it work for the love of New York.

When you have children, you find yourself getting extra creative with your living conditions. This is also the time where you find yourself questioning New York City living. We made the decision not to move out of the city years ago, so it was time to build a wall; a wall of peace.

I have seen closets become nurseries, living rooms transitioned into bedrooms and even hallways turned into playrooms. This is Manhattan living. But for someone like me who grew up in the suburbs and not in an apartment, I have my moments where I feel completely “space frustrated.”

I have 3 children in NYC, and when you don’t have a basement or a backyard, you crave any corner you can get your hands on. You long for your own space, even if it is just enough room for your own bed and that is exactly what we created, a new space for each of our daughters who shared a room. I have a friend who is really into DIY projects so I asked for her opinion on the idea. She told me that it was a great idea and that I could find the building supplies needed, on a website like https://tradefixdirect.com/. To be honest, I thought it was going to be one of those ideas that sounded great but never actually materialized. I was so wrong!

This did not happen overnight. I contemplated for a long time over this. To build a wall or not to, that was the question. My husband thought I was building two prison cells. Our two daughters have shared a room for years. It’s a nice sized room, but they both really needed their own space: a space to study, a space to be creative and a space for peace and quiet.

I was connected with Annette Jaffe Interiors who does really big design projects. I feared she would not want to bother with something so small. We met at my apartment and in one second, she knew just how to create the space. She has vision and perspective and showed me how to take one room and turn it into two. We were able to create two bedrooms using a pressurized wall. It is basically a temporary wall that can be put up and taken down, which also made me feel more comfortable knowing that it wasn’t permanent.

The next step was to purge. I don’t have one organizational gene in my body. Lauire Palau from Simply B Organized was my next call. She holds your hand and preaches the “ESP”method, which is empty, sort and purge. This was extremely helpful for the preparation of the new bedrooms.

In one day, we had a wall built, two new bedrooms, a fresh coat of paint, new floors and smart and affordable furniture from IKEA. My girls got to be involved too by selecting their new furniture and accent pieces. I really wanted them to get something like these framed movie posters Australia, but then I realized it was their room, so their choice. Either way, being able to pick their furniture gave them a sense of pride by allowing them to be creative while moving out of their “babyish” bedroom. We were also thinking about putting some chairs in the room, maybe on the side. We wanted to find out if the tolix chairs comfortable as they were the right size for the room. I know that I need to make the rooms as cosy as they can be, and decorate them in a way that they will enjoy spending time in there! I recently had my own bedroom renovated, and purchase some new accessories like lights and a new luxury rug (from Bazaar Velvet) so I might go down a similar route and get them a children’s rug, a lamp, some pictures on the wall! What do you think? …

Sometimes, you need someone to hold your hand. Sometimes you need someone to help push you to make a decision. Not everyone has a Feng shui mind set, or an organizational make up, I certainly don’t.

Hopefully many more creative ideas, peaceful studying and memories will happen for my daughters in their new rooms. They now have room to think and a room for some peace, even if we built a wall between them. At least this is the type of wall that won’t create any extra tension in their world.

Meet Coralee! She’s our #WCW

Meet Coralee! She’s our #WCW (Woman Crush Wednesday), she’s not only got incredible advice for mom entrepreneurs but a product that is helpful for every mom.
Don’t make “help” a four-letter word. Ask for help. Accept offers of help. Every amazing mom needs her support system.

Coralee Dixon was consumed with guilt over not preserving her kids memories and milestones. She couldn’t find the time like most of us. She was posting photos and captions on social media ( like most of us) that had the dates and milestones, but that was all. She was upset that she wasn’t making a baby book like the one her mom made for her when she was little. She pondered over this and looked for solutions to help capture her own baby’s memories. She couldn’t find anything that could work or that seemed helpful. Then she had her “Big Idea” and here is how she did it. Please meet Coralee and Shortcake Inc. our Mom of the Week!

Why did you start your business?
I started Shortcake because I wanted to help modern families preserve and share their memories in a way that was both beautiful and easy. The inspiration came when, a little before my daughter’s first birthday, I started feeling guilty because I hadn’t been writing down her milestones and special moments in the baby book I bought for her. Both my mom and my mother-in-law had kept lovely baby books for my husband and I, so I felt awful that I hadn’t done the same. Then I thought about how I had shared most of my daughter’s most important moments with family and friends on social media, which included written descriptions, captured the date, and received some fun comments that I liked looking back on. “Somebody must have a business that will help me turn that into a nice album, right?” I couldn’t find what I was looking for, so I decided to create it myself.

2. Where do you see your business in 5 years?
Today Shortcake is a custom album and photo book design service for modern families. We turn your social content and family photos into premium keepsake albums. In 5 years, I see us expanding our market beyond moms and dads to grandparents, weddings, pets, vacations, and school events. We may consider implementing some tech and intelligent automation into our process to help our designers work more quickly while maintaining our hallmark personal touch and unrivaled customization options. And we will continue expanding our services beyond albums to new areas, such as greeting cards and invitations (where we’ve already begun experimenting). This business has taught me so many new things, and it’s a continuous learning process.

So much of the tech-based stuff that I didn’t know about; I just learnt what is a DDoS attack because we had to look at the cybersecurity aspects of our service since we make use of a lot of tools that could be vulnerable to attacks. Customer information and transaction security is a key point to consider for any business, as anyone can tell you. Anyway, I’m sure there’s a lot of growth on the horizon and much more to do. Of course, in order to do all of that, we need to be growing our business and increasing our sales. This can be difficult, but most businesses these days seem to find success on social media, particularly Instagram. Perhaps we should look into improving our Instagram marketing strategy by incorporating hashtags onto our posts. This could increase visibility, especially if we used https://taskant.com to help us find the best hashtags for our business.

3. If there was one tip you could give a working mom what would it be?
Don’t make “help” a four-letter word. Ask for help. Accept offers of help. Every amazing mom needs her support system.

4. If you could do one thing over as a mom what would it be?
Potty training. Not because I enjoyed it – exactly the opposite. I felt so helpless the first time – I had no idea what I was doing and felt like a complete failure. Now that I’ve been through it once I realize how foolish it was to put so much pressure on myself. I feel bad because I made the experience more stressful for everyone than it needed to be. It also would have helped if I had not been pregnant with our second at the time (wine would have been really helpful – I’ve realized a laid-back attitude is a must!).

5. Whats your Mom Motto?
Do the best you can and give lots of hugs.

Enter to win our Giveaway for your own beautiful album. Click Here to enter, one lucky subscriber to our Newsletter will win!

How Good Can Come from Humiliating TSA Experience…

By Denise Albert

I never imagined how my horrific and humiliating experience with the TSA could turn into something so positive. I’m honored to be included in the TSA’s piece on Sprinklr.com. I’ve never been more proud to show my kids how good things can come from bad.

Meet the Team Transforming the Reputation of the TSA

At 440 federalized airports across the United States, 44,000 TSA security officers will screen 2 million passengers. They will do that again tomorrow. That’s 730 million passenger screenings annually, and all it takes is one missed needle in the haystack for the consequences to be catastrophic. To read the full story visit Sprinklr.com

When Women and Moms Support Each Other it Looks Like This…

We can all learn from each other. When women and moms support each other,incredible things happen. Meet Amber….

When Amber Michels created Your Milk Shoppe, which supports and empowers moms through maternity services. They offer services such as errand running, childproofing, meal delivery and in home consultations. We wish we knew about a service like this when we were new moms. You can feel so isolated and alone and to know other mothers are there for you like Amber and Kimmie from Your Milk Shoppe…well they just had to be on our Women Crush Wednesday.

Why did you start your business?

When I was a new mom I struggled so much during the first few months. I thought that I was so prepared because I read all of the books, took every parenting class under the sky, and bought the best baby gear. But, all of the sudden my world was turned upside when my daughter was born. As a new mom I could not believe the love I felt for her, it was amazing. Unfortunately, I struggled with extreme post-partum anxiety and it hindered my ability to fully enjoy being a mom. I heard many mums in similar situations getting family support or trying anti-anxiety CBD remedies from places like Pure Hemp Farms, though my problem wasn’t exactly that I didn’t have support. It was like nobody really understood my struggle; it was so isolating. I began to take steps to get help, I made a point to journal about all of my struggles, and before I knew it a business plan was writing itself (I just didn’t know it at the time). It was solely based on supporting and empowering moms through services, research and education. Initially, I had voiced my opinions through my personal social media accounts and I was recommended to use services to help grow my following to gain more attention on my posts – you can read review here. At this point I wasn’t particularly business-minded in terms of growing my own company, I just wanted fellow women to know what I was experiencing. I then went on to become a certified Maternity Consultant and learned the ins and outs of an industry I didn’t even know existed. I toyed around with different business names and concepts, but kept coming back to the same thing: I wanted to be the “milk” for other new moms… because moms need milk, too. From there, my business, Your Milk Shoppe, was born. It’s worth noting here that when creating a name for your company, it can be a good idea to seek advice from a us trademark lawyer, as later down the line you don’t want to be battling someone who has copied it to use for their own purposes.

Where do you see your business in 5 years?

Growing! It wasn’t long after I started Your Milk Shoppe that I realized I couldn’t do this all on my own… nor did I want to! My sister-in-law was a huge believer and lover of Your Milk Shoppe from the very beginning, so when it came time to ask someone to join me, she was a given. We were both raising our little ones in big cities, away from family, and we knew this was something that was so desperately needed in both of our respective parts of the country. There truly is strength in numbers, and together we are Moms on a Mission. (Plus, I’m convinced every woman needs a workwife, and I’m so glad she’s mine!)

I launched Your Milk Shoppe in Greenville, SC, and Kimmie is in Chicago, IL. We are excited to share that we are currently expanding into other cities throughout the United States, starting this spring in Atlanta, GA! Aside from the Shoppe’s in Greenville, Chicago, and Atlanta, we also offer virtual one-on-one consulting services so we can help mamas, regardless of where they are located. We will also begin to host classes that will help moms (and dads and siblings, too!) prepare for baby and so much more! There is a lot on our docket right now, and I couldn’t more excited for this growth and the opportunity to support and uplift moms all over the country.

In 5 years I hope for Your Milk Shoppe to be a household name, a universal support system that will allow moms all over the country to access the necessary information they need in order to fully enjoy their parenting journey! I think that goal is achievable, especially if we work hard and try to raise awareness for the brand. One way of doing this is by upping our social media game. That’s one of the best ways to grow a business these days, so maybe we should focus on Instagram to try and build our brand. Another business owner was telling us that people can buy likes on their Instagram posts to help their accounts grow. They suggested that we learn more at https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/22/how-to-buy-instagram-likes-that-are-real-and-automatic/. Maybe that’s worth doing. We’ll probably look into that!

If there was one tip you could give a working mom what would it be?

When you are at work, be at work completely. Stop feeling guilty about not being home more. When you are at home, be at home completely. Stop feeling guilty about not working more. You owe yourself some peace of mind!

If you could do one thing over as a mom what would it be?

I would have asked for help more as a new mom instead of trying so hard to appear that I had it all together. No new mom has it together. Period. We’re all trying, but the struggle is SO real. And you know what? That’s OK! That’s all part of it. The more honest we are with ourselves and each other about this beautiful, stressful, funny, terrifying, one-of-a-kind time in life, the better off we’ll all be.

Whats your Mom Motto?

Community over Competition. Hands down. Whether it’s with other mamas or other business owners, one thing is true: there is nothing more powerful than women who genuinely and fiercely support and love one another.

For more on Your Milk Shoppe please visit them on Facebook, and Instagram.

Do You Eat Your Kids Leftovers?

Today our lives are busier than ever. Today more than ever we are rushing from work to the kids to making and shopping for meals. We are constantly taking care of our families. We are constantly juggling all day long, with no time to sit down and relax together. The home is now simply a place to wash and sleep, with no time to use it for quality family interaction.

The family mealtime in particular is something of the past. Despite the advice that we should Cook as a Family, many of us simply don’t have time. We are actually scheduling family time in our calendars now. We are eating on the go. We are eating our kid’s leftovers. We are eating standing up. Many new homes are built with no dining room, and there is simply no space for a dinner table or chairs in the kitchen because the room is often too small. This has led to the demise of the family dinner.

When we were approached by a new food company that offers parents the opportunity to cook a well-balanced meal in minutes; we were enticed. Personal Trainer Food gives you everything you need to put together a delicious, healthy dish that the whole family will enjoy, without having to spend hours slaving away in the kitchen. We asked several moms and dads across the country to try this new program. So many jumped on board and are thrilled with the results.

The food arrives at your doorstep, already pre-packaged and fresh. For us, it was about the food organization, not just the weight loss around this program. We of course researched the nutritional elements of this program and how good the food really is for us! By using websites such as Thenutritioninsider.com, we learnt all we needed to about the most recent nutrition tips and reviews before deciding this was right for us.

Although, it’s always nice to lose a bit of extra weight, especially when nothing else you’ve tried has made a difference. With that being said, many people have probably looked at supplements, that you can read more on at places like Favorece.net when you have nowhere else left to turn because they have been known to make a positive difference to your weight management.

But at the minute, many of us will probably benefit from this amazing food that is all ready for us when we want it. The only issue now is to find a space to eat together as a family. Many kids eat up in their rooms, leaving mom and dad on the sofa by themselves. Ideally, a table and chairs would suit much better, but many simply don’t have the space for it. Luckily, Furniture Shops Gateshead and similar furniture shops in your local area often have space-saving solutions for small homes, with folding tables and stackable chairs fitting perfectly into any small corner. With the time saved by your new meal program, it’ll be easier than ever before to lay the table and eat as a family, together.

If you want to learn more about Personal Trainer Food or work with The MOMS on programs like this, please don’t hesitate to reach out and use the contact form on our site.

When ordering Personal Trainer Food use promo code PTFMOMS125 that will take $125 off your purchase!

Disclosure: This post is in partnership with Personal Trainer Food, all opinions expressed are our own.