From Graphic Tees To Parenting For Modern Moms, Meet Baby Chick
Hi nina and brian!
I love the story of how Baby Chick came to be! It morphed from people casually turning to you for pregnancy questions into the business it is today. Tell us more about that!
Nina: Thank you! We launched Baby Chick on Mother’s Day, May 10th, 2015. We turned 5 this year!
I first started working with expecting and new moms in January 2011. I started as a baby planner, then a birth doula, postpartum doula, childbirth educator, newborn educator, infant massage instructor, licensed massage therapist and more. I’ve now personally helped over 500 women, have assisted at over 260 births and counting. Originally I had a doula agency and my team and I were helping hundreds of women all over the Houston, TX area. In 2014, my husband, Brian, mentioned that together we should start a company named after my acquired nickname “The Baby Chick.” We originally launched as an e-commerce website selling graphic tees with a small blog where I shared my tips and experiences as a birth and postpartum professional. It wasn’t until 2017 when we pivoted our company, removing our e-commerce side of the business, and focused solely on content. Now we are a resource for everything pregnancy to parenthood.
What is the mission behind Baby Chick?
Nina: Our mission is to educate, inspire and uplift mothers.
When I first met with you and Brian it was clear you had a solid understanding of SEO and social media. Was this self-taught?
Brian: Self taught through 5 years of experience, trial and error, analyzing our data, and studying and learning from the best.
Nina: This is definitely all Brian. I handle the content creation and he is the business guy behind the scenes.
When it comes to your roles within the company, how to they differ?
Brian: Nina is the face of the brand and works on the content side of things. I handle all business operations, business/brand development, website development, social media strategy, SEO, help the sales team and manage the team alongside Nina.
Nina: Yes, the content comes from my knowledge and experience. I lead our team to create a well-rounded content calendar, and I work with our partners, our content team, our editor and our sales team. I help with social media and ensure that our site and social pages offer the information and encouragement that mothers need and are looking for.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_m4qVTg_hx/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading https://www.instagram.com/p/CAs8fnUnrYN/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading https://www.instagram.com/p/CA0q9fGH8iX/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
Facebook is your number one traffic driver. So many publishers have seen a decrease in traffic from FB, what has been your strategy to remain connecting with that audience?
Brian: With Facebook, we try to strategically keep a good mix of content that drives reach, engagement, education, entertainment and a good overall experience for our audience. Our content is mostly evergreen so it’s easy for us to continuously re-share older articles that drive traffic. We also have a large and engaging Facebook group.
What’s your favorite book?
Brian: I don’t get to read often, but a book I’ve read that stands out is “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert T. Kiyosaki. This book gets a lot of hate but it really changed my view on how to earn a living.
Nina: That’s a tough one! Anything by Brené Brown or Janet Lansbury.
Where is your favorite place to travel?
Brian: Maui
Nina: The Hawaiian Islands. We got married in Maui!
What’s your favorite quote?
Brian: “The dream is free but the hustle is sold separately.”
Nina: “If you don’t ask you don’t get.” – Gary Hirshberg. This applies to anything in life. Mothers need to speak up for themselves or find an advocate to get the things they really need and really want.
What has been the best part of partnering with SHE Media?
Brian: Being a small business with a small team, you can only do so much at one time. It’s been nice feeling like we have additional team members who are knowledgeable about this area of our business and who care.
What do you focus on most when it comes to creating content?
Nina: I focus on these questions: “Is the information helpful? Does it provide value?” I want women to come to our site feeling better or more knowledgeable than when they first logged on.
What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received?
Brian: From a Gary Vaynerchuk video. He talked about operating a business with a long term strategy by building a brand rather than focusing on sales over brand. This is what inspired me to close up our e-commerce t-shirt side of the business and focus on building the Baby Chick brand and a great resource for moms. We nearly tripled our revenue the following year.
Nina: To never give up. Most businesses close because they were afraid of failure. Learn from your mistakes, surround yourself with smarter people than you, surround yourself with people who believe in you and your mission, and never give up.
Baby Chick is a fairly young site to have seen such success, any tips for bloggers just starting out?
Brian: Build a brand. Publish content. Find your audience and make them aware of you. Be consistent on social media, don’t give up, observe people/businesses doing a great job at what you want to do, and treat it like a real business. By the way, if you’re more of the creative type and not great with the business side of things, consider getting a business partner who is. I think that’s been a big part of our success. Best Selling Author. Two things; “best selling” and “author.” You can write the best book in the world, but if you can’t sell it then you don’t have much.
Nina: I agree wholeheartedly with what Brian said. I also believe that you have to be obsessed with your mission and your work. It has to be a huge passion of yours so you never forget why you started doing what you are doing in the first place. You will encounter road blocks and bumpy roads along the way—it’s inevitable—and its easy to just give up when the going gets tough. But when you have a real mission that you are passionate about, you remember why you have to keep going.
Share with us any goals you have for 2020.
Brian: We’re planning to bring on an investor/partner this year. We’ve spent the last 5 years building our brand on a tiny budget, and now we want to bring on an investor and cash infusion so we can operate at a much higher capacity and take the business to the next level.
What are some content or social tools you can’t live without?
Brian: Later, Tailwind and Slack.
How many times do you post content each week?
Brian: Currently we publish 5-6 new articles a week.
What is the most rewarding part of running Baby Chick?
Brian: Having worked in the corporate world for nearly 14 years prior to starting Baby Chick, for me it’s fulfilling operating my own business and being able to fix the things that I saw companies doing wrong.
Nina: Having women reach out to us saying that they are so grateful that they found our site or social media because it gave them the encouragement, information and/or comedic relief they needed. Mothers are birthing and molding the leaders of tomorrow. They are a major part of the foundation of a family. When you build a strong mother, you build a stronger future.
Follow Baby Chick on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and their incredible podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts.
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