Meet Veronica Bélanger | Mompreneur & Networking Specialist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Veronica Bélanger and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Veronica, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
Before I had kids, I had an easier time compartmentalizing home and work. For the most part, work stayed at work and home stayed at home. After I had my first child, I started to struggle with that concept. When I was at work, I had mixed emotions of pride in being a working Mom with guilt that I wasn’t home with my daughter for every laugh, roll and fall. When I started my first business, she was 6 months old and I felt more connected with her because when she needed me, I was there. I added my second child into the mix mid-2020, then I really struggled trying to balance all the things! I couldn’t keep working and be around when needed. If one kiddo didn’t need me, the other did and when I got a tiny moment for work, I felt like I was ignoring my kids. Over time I’ve learned that the key is in the art of being present. Working from home with two kids under 5 doesn’t afford me the option of just closing my office door and being in work mode. When I practice being present, I’ve actually found myself more productive in many areas of my life. I’m not sure there is such thing as balance, there’s just life and what we choose to focus on.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The Mompreneur Network is a professional networking referral group for the Mom. Our mission is to help moms manage living a fulfilling life as caretaker and financial provider to her family while not losing herself in the process.

When I started this business I felt like I didn’t belong in the entrepreneurial world. Nothing seemed to speak to me about how to make it all work. The modern business world was established when women were expected to stay home raising kids, it was not created for women and certainly not for moms.

From the second I got pregnant with my first child, things started happening that were almost shocking to me! My job at the time did everything to get me to quit once I announced I was pregnant until I fainted at the office. Of course, as soon as legally possible after returning to work from leave, I lost my job. I was the vice-president of a networking group I was in but when I returned after my leave I was told that the person stepping in for me would be taking my place because “I have a lot on my plate as a new Mom.” I thought it was a bit presumptuous to be telling me what I could handle but I was a new Mom and starting a new business so I let it go. I was a social media consultant and I did well with it! When the pandemic hit, I had my second child during quarantine and I had a hard time getting new clients. People were uncomfortable that I would have to attend to the kids in the middle of meetings in any way, nursing below camera view or have them playing in the background. After all, a toddler is fantastic at timing a temper tantrum smack in the middle of when you really need them not to or waking up early from a nap because you really need that extra 30 minutes to finish a call! Then, again, the networking group I was in started looking for my high position “replacement” in the group. I didn’t let it slide this time and spoke up. Add to it all, in this post-pandemic world, finding someone to watch the kids on a very part time basis became impossible and unreliable.

Beyond that, listening to entrepreneuria podcasts and reading entrepreneur books even seemed to exclude me! The questions like “what gets you out of bed” where hilarious to me! “A screaming child is what gets me out of bed…several times a night” so that whole idea of a good nights sleep to set you up for success was almost an insulting joke. The concept that you have to work 60-80hrs a week to get a business up and successful always made me turn the podcast off or put the book down. From my perspective, they clearly didn’t have kids and if they did, they weren’t taking care of them or they are adult kids. Then the comments from peers of “oh well you have young kids so have patience and when they go to school it will get easier” was hard to swallow as well.

It felt like the world was making it clear where they felt my place in this world was but what about where I wanted my place in this world to be? Why is it considered unprofessional for a woman to have children and raise them while grooming a business? Why can’t I bring my kids to a meeting because my babysitter cancelled on me in the last second? I talked to a lot of other mom friends and it seemed like I wasn’t alone in these feelings.

Finally, I launched The Mompreneur Network to give myself and other Mom’s a place in the entrepreneurial world. It is a structured membership focused on recreating what “professional” and “successful” looks like for each member on their terms. We have the consistency and accountability to help push the member forward with the understanding that family is #1 in all of our lives and, especially for those of us with younger kids, sometimes that means a bit of unpredictability. Since childcare is the number one reason us Moms miss out on so many networking opportunities, we invite the kids to our meetings and to some of our events, providing inexpensive childcare or the option for kiddos to hang with Mom.

The success our members have seen in our first year as an operating group is incredible and empowering. We’ve made over $20,000 through referrals between members, almost tripled our membership base, 4 members started a business after joining, 4 members have restructured their businesses to provide more profitable products/services and we’ve started a second chapter in Denver. Most importantly, we’ve created a community and culture that understands and supports one another not just professionally but personally as well.

We are disrupting and redefining the outdated idea of business to include the family, after all our future is in our children’s hands. Why not include them and model what it looks like to be a leader, a professional, successful and positively impact the world?

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Colorado has a natural beauty that I love to flaunt when we have guests in town. Here in Colorado Springs, we always take our guests to Garden of the Gods, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and, weather permitting, Pikes Peak.

After a day of hiking and exploring, Red Gravy in downtown Colorado Springs or Cerberus just outside downtown Colorado Springs are our favorite restaurants to bring people. We also love showing off the many breweries Colorado has all over the state so those make several appearances in guests itineraries when they visit.

When we adventure with guests up to Denver, we love going to a Rockies game and grabbing a bite to eat downtown. For the kiddos, we always stop at Denver’s Children’s Museum and the Denver Aquarium.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Courtney DeMatteo, Crystal Clarity Life Coaching, is a large reason I started The Mompreneur Network. She helped me in so many areas of my life, all that helped me to start my business of passion, The Mompreneur Network. Along with Courtney’s guidance, books from Brené Brown and Jen Sincero helped me immensely.

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