Lolita Carrico: A Successful Mother and Entrepreneur
Lolita Carrico
Lolita Carrico wakes up at 5:30 a.m. sharp, exercises for 20 minutes, showers, wakes up her kids, and makes breakfast for them. While they have their favorite cereal, Carrico prepares their lunch packs and drops her eldest son Jaden (7) at school. She then heads back to her house, dries her hair, and drops her second kid Jack (4) at preschool. Carrico will then get to her office or twice a week she will work from home. Her working day will end at around 5:30 p.m. but her motherhood duties, that never really finish, will continue throughout the afternoon, evening, and slide through into the night. She will then get dinner ready or dine out, play a board game with her kids or read a book to them before tucking them in bed. She will later linger for another hour working, shooting emails before going to sleep.
It is just another day in this multitasker’s life.
When Carrico, a full time employee at a public relations marketing company, became a mother in 2001 she wanted to be there for her son and witness his upbringing up close, at first hand and not deliver motherhood chores to salaried nannies. But the 80 hours a week her job consumed her would not allow it. Carrico needed a break, a change. She needed balance.
“Nothing spoke to me as a working woman transitioning to motherhood,” she says.
Instead of trading her career for her family, Carrico defined herself as a “modern mom”. She took the risk of leaving a secure stable job, a job that kept her financially safe but handicapped her time spending with her new born son. She needed to do something that would provide for her and her family, give her more free time to be able to stay at home to raise her kid, as well as not cage her under the mother role stereotype but be able to fulfill and exploit herself as a woman too. She created ModernMom.com soon after Jaden was born. Three years later, Jack came along.
“It was truly born out of necessity,” she said. “I was looking for resources that spoke to me, a career-oriented woman, trying to figure out how to balance motherhood with work, friends, and everything else.”
ModernMom.com is an online magazine for the woman behind the mom. It features a variety of different portals offering articles that range from health, to pregnancy, parenting, dating advice, fashion, everything to suit a woman. It is a leading online publication and destination site exclusively for the female gender. With practical advice, time-saving tips, and mom must-haves, Carrico teaches women how to have it all, without losing it all. When asked how long did it take to ModernMom.com to actually take-off and become a reliable source of income she said, “It’s been a bumpy road, I’d say about 3 years.” Today the company, run by a mighty team of less than 10 people, “10 amazing people” as Carrico says, enjoys its eighth anniversary.
Carrico is a faithful believer that balance is the true key to happiness in life. A spiritual woman who believes in karma, probably from her Hindu ancestry, has never been afraid of taking the leap and going after her dream. The Connecticut native who couldn’t cope with the northeast cold moved to Southern California and fell in love with the spot, to the degree that she has convinced many of her closest friends to do the same. Carrico is currently residing in Los Angeles still struggling in a daily basis to reach and keep that balance. Carrico worries a lot about supporting her children on a single income, worries that become first an obsession in her career and field of work, an obsession for success, to later conclude in guilt. “It’s a vicious cycle,” she says. “Sometimes I feel I am working too much and therefore not spending enough quality time with my boys, so guilt starts to eat me. But I’m figuring out how to balance it all.”
Carrico’s love life is also a matter in need of balance. “There is another area I need to work on balancing,” she said. “I do date here and there, but I just don’t have the time right now.” In a man, honesty, kindness, integrity, and independence rank as her priorities. A strong-willed woman, who has persevered through lots of storminess in her life, she does not get intimidated by much. And though she describes one of her major flaws as holding grudges she is trying hard to let them go.
Carrico got her name Lolita, commonly used in pop culture to describe a sexually precocious young girl, from Lolita, the 1955 novel by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov, which was her parents’ favorite. The 36-year-old entrepreneur that loves sushi and cannot do laundry tries to organize at least two trips a year with her family. Although she doesn’t have a definitive political affiliation, she skews more to the liberal side with a fairly conservative view in certain topics and issues. In her spare time, Carrico usually relaxes with her friends or her boys, or tosses around reading marketing or business books in her latest acquisition and favorite news gadget: a Kindle.
Among her role models, Oprah, Virgin records mogul Richard Branson, and Tina Fey are the ones she admires the most. She is a pro-choice woman who considers herself a feminist if being one means equality of genders and women’s rights. “But, I also believe in choosing what’s best for you and your family,” she said. “If a mom can stay home with her kids and that’s what she wants, fantastic. If a mom wants to or needs to work, that’s also great. I hate the idea of the “mommy wars” that pits stay-at-home moms vs. moms who work outside of the home.”
For the future Carrico is looking forward to expanding her ModernMom.com lifestyle brand, as well as helping companies connect with moms in relevant and meaningful ways. And although she thinks she will not have any more kids, she never say never.
Post by Carlos Wall
| Carlos was born in Venezuela, spent most of his life in Argentina, and is a resident of the United States since 2003. He graduated with a bachelor in journalism and a minor in film at Georgia State University. Currently he splits time in Atlanta as a chef and writer for ToTheCenter.com and MomsWhoBlog.com. He's also currently pursuing a master degree in political science. |
