Meet Heather Behrends of Made In A Pinch in Northwest Suburbs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Behrends.

Heather, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When my first child was born, I became a stay-at-home mom. It was a life long dream of mine. While I loved being home with my son, I found myself feeling lonely, isolated, and overwhelmed. I had spent tons of time around kids over the years, but I had no idea how to raise one!

Two more babies quickly followed, and before I knew it, I had three babies under four years old. Three kids in diapers at one time! It was pure survival for a while.

During that time, I would spend free time reading blogs from other moms. I would read posts that were helpful in so many ways… posts about ideas for activities… posts about how to not yell at my kids… recipes… and so much more.

Blog posts from moms who came before me were my lifeline. They made me feel like I wasn’t losing my mind – like I wasn’t alone and I could do this parenting thing. And most importantly, they gave me hope and eliminated that suffocating feeling of overwhelm that I felt.

Then, one day, I got an email from a blogger I was following who encouraged her readers to follow their entrepreneurial spirit and start a blog of their own. Before reading that email, I never once thought about writing a blog.

But after reading that email, I couldn’t let the idea go. I would think of post ideas All. The. Time.

I wanted to help other moms by sharing what I had learned about parenting the hard way. I wanted to show other moms that, while I don’t have everything all figured out,  parenting and family life doesn’t need to be overwhelming. They can enjoy being a mom and not live with that suffocating feeling of uncertainty and overwhelm that I had felt.

I like to think of myself as a tech geek, but the reality is that I’m not. It took me a while (a couple of years at least) to launch Made In A Pinch. My learning curve for blogging was huge but beautiful.

Now, I get to help other moms navigate family life and create the life they want through helpful tips and simple, family-friendly recipes. Small gems of knowledge or wisdom and small action steps are all it takes to go from chaos to calm. Believe me – I know!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
A smooth road? Ha! Not at all!

Do you know that saying “one step forward and two steps back”? That pretty much describes my blogging journey.

Every time I figure something out, say growing my email list, I realize just how much more I need to learn about nurturing my email list and building trust which leads to learning about marketing, social media, and so much more.

Another major struggle I have had has centered around comparing myself and my journey to other bloggers who look super successful. I can fall prey to feeling less than rather than being inspired by their stories.

Those are just a couple of examples from dozens of struggles that I have faced in my journey. I’m sure there will be more, even bigger, struggles as I continue moving forward. But I love blogging with a passion and know that I will push through them.

What else should our readers know?
Made In A Pinch is a family lifestyle blog where I help parents take the overwhelm out of parenting and family life through simple tips, action steps, and easy family-friendly recipes.

The inspiration for the name Made In A Pinch literally came from parenting, because I felt like I was getting everything done “in a pinch”, or in the nick of time.

I think moms have a tendency to over think and over complicate things sometimes because there are so many decisions and details that go into raising children.

I want to help simplify some of those decisions for parents by doing the legwork for them. It’s my goal to not only eliminate stress and anxiety but to also save parents time by being a reliable resource they can turn to when they have questions.

I am really proud of the positivity that Made In A Pinch puts out there. In a time where it can often feel like there is negativity or fear from so many angles and sources, Made In A Pinch strives to be a beacon of encouragement and support for parents.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
It’s funny because I was just thinking of this very thing in terms of writing a blog post about it.

If I were to start all over again, I would focus on not letting fear hold me back. I would voraciously learn as much as I could as quickly as I could and try new things (which can be terrifying for me). And I would ask for help – something also incredibly difficult for me to do. I seem to learn best by bumbling through and learning from my mistakes.

But I have learned that the blogging world is incredibly supportive. So if I were to do it all over again from the beginning, I would lean on that community much more than I did at first.

Pricing:

• Grab my ebook “Healthier in 30 Days” at https://madeinapinch.com/shop/
• You can also find help with meal planning, menus, kids activity packets, and making money in my shop.
• Use code “voyagedenver” to receive 20% off anything from my shop.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.madeinapinch.com
• Email: heather@madeinapinch.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeinapinch/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madeinapinch/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/made_in_a_pinch
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/made_in_a_pinch/

Getting in touch: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.