A little intro to mommytipsbycole

Welcome to my blog and my first official entry! My name is Nicole, also known as “mommytipsbycole” to my awesome You Tube subscribers. I’m a wife and stay-at-home-mom of 3 beautiful children, Emelyn (4), Maliya (2) and Dylan (1). I also have a 14 year old step-daughter, Brianna, who has been a huge part of my life since she was 9 months old. They, along with my husband Bryan, are my world and inspire me to be a better person every day.

It was during my 3rd pregnancy in the summer of 2010, where I first entered the You Tube world, in search of videos on “maternity style.” Due to a lack of intriguing videos on this topic, I somehow stumbled onto beauty guru videos on makeup, hair, fashion and everything in between…instantly I was hooked! Video after video, I learned to experiment with my makeup and hair and slowly came out of my pregnancy slump. I developed a different sense of self-confidence about my pregnant body that I did not have during my 1st 2 pregnancies.

If you have been pregnant before or are currently pregnant, I’m sure you can relate to feelings of insecurities with your growing body and not to mention the uncontrollable hormones, which lead me to multiple and unexplainable crying spells. Somehow,  every time I would watch a You Tube tutorial and experiment with a new look, it always lifted my spirits and overall attitude. Honestly it was the easiest 3rd trimester I’ve experienced of all 3 pregnancies.

At the time, I was unaware of the large You Tube community of mothers, mothers-to-be and women who were TTC (trying to conceive). Watching many of the beauty gurus, which most were younger than me, I wished I had the confidence to go on camera and put myself out there like them. Once my son was born in October of 2010, I was overwhelmingly busy with a newborn and 2 toddlers (3 under 3), but made time to catch up with my You Tube subscriptions when I could. Gradually through the next few months, I couldn’t help but think of ways that I could help other women in the way that the beauty gurus helped me.

Suddenly I realized my niche, mommy tips! I already had many friends and family who would reach out to me regularly about pregnancy, infant, toddler and motherhood advice…so why not help others? But…my fear held me back. “What would people think? How would I look? What would I talk about? How will I make time? Where do I begin? Would people even watch me?”

It wasn’t until I had a conversation with my very good friend of many years, Nenita (Learn with Minette). She gave me the push I desperately needed. She mentioned how she developed a passion for makeup recently and learned so much from You Tube beauty gurus as well. Somehow the conversation led up to my “silly idea” about making my own channel on mommy tips. Her husband, Eljay (Crowd Theories), overheard our conversation and co-signed the idea and encouraged it as well. Nenita, being a teacher gave me my first “homework assignment” to gather topic ideas and brainstorm a channel name.

From that moment, I was determined to follow through and realized that I truly wanted to help other moms out there. So in May 2011, my channel was officially up and running. I was still uncomfortable with talking to myself in front of the camera and was unsure of what to talk about still. So I started with a Tag video, “what’s in my purse” and a few OOTD (outfit of the day) videos to get my feet wet. Eventually I got into the groove of it and was overjoyed by the responses I was receiving. This became my complete motivation, or should I say “they”, my subscribers did!

I am in no way claiming to be an expert about any topic I discuss in my videos, I’m merely trying to share my experiences thus far. Every mom, baby, toddler and child are different of course but if I can help just one person with some of my tips and ideas, then my goal is met. I was also pleasantly surprised to get such loving support from my friends and family as well. To receive emails and comments from people I know personally as well, telling me how my videos were helping them, was very touching.

This has become a passion of mine and I can genuinely say that this experience so far, as changed me in so many ways…for the better. I’ve learned so much about myself and have gotten to meet so many wonderful people along the way, even if just through “You Tube Land.” The journey continues, and every day I am blessed with the subscribers I have and the new ones that join me. I hope this blog serves as an additional outlet to reach other mothers like myself, and to share our thoughts, feelings, finds, tips and more!  I hope you will stick around for the ride…