Land of Mom
By Anabel Marquez
If you visit Landofmom.com, you’ll find beautiful images and stories about moms who have gone the extra mile to create a life of fulfillment that expands beyond motherhood as a part of a series called #MomBossMonday. It’s a pleasantly curated website with matching social media channels and options to shop trendy fashion pieces that complement millennial women. It’s also the platform that opened a world of possibilities for El Abad.
“The concept of Land of Mom is that this land is made for moms like you and me. That means every mom has her own lane. There is enough air for everyone to breathe in,” says Abad who is married and has two sons Ryan, 3 and Leo, 1.
Abad, a former marketing manager with an MBA had been busy climbing the ranks in what she felt was her dream job. She worked in the entertainment industry creating content for a film studio. Things looked good for Abad’s future and she had no plans of slowing down. Then in 2015, she delivered her son Ryan.
“My plan all along was to go back to work after maternity leave,” says Abad. “I naively thought that having a baby would just fall into the life that I had.”
But as she held and breastfed her newborn son, Abad’s mindset started shifting.
“I was in a place where…it wasn’t so positive, mainly because of not being able to achieve personal and professional growth alongside motherhood,” says Abad.
She was faced with deciding between going back to an environment that was often negative and not entirely supportive, even before having a baby, or walking away from it to pursue a new path that would allow her to more freely experience motherhood. She suddenly couldn’t imagine herself returning to her career.
“I love this human more than I’ve loved anything in my life,” Abad recalls thinking to herself. “You can imagine the struggle I felt in making this decision. Torn between the ideal that I had spent decades working toward… and the love I was holding in my arms.”
But Abad made her decision. First, she quit her job. Then, she created an Instagram account, followed by a blog, where she documented her feelings.
Before she knew it, followers started pouring giving way for her to build a tribe… the Happy Mom Tribe.
“I launched a website but in my mind I always said, ‘I have to create a community… I have to create a support system of women that can rely on each other, that can support each other to grow to new heights. I have to create what I sought out and didn’t find when I first became a mom.”
The Happy Mom Conference
Sitting in an ample event venue at the top floor of a commercial building in Downtown LA’s fashion district, Abad is planning and strategizing. She takes phone calls and checks in with her event manager who is there handling various tasks. She welcomes a photographer and eloquently shares her enthusiasm while looking around the bright lit room. Abad is organizing a conference for fellow moms, her very first annual Happy Mom Conference.
The Happy Mom Conference will take place Sunday, May 6, 2018. It’s an activation that will feature workshops, a pop up shop, wellness talks and motivational sessions for millennial moms. Abad came up with the idea based on her personal experience and the response she got from the community she created online and hashtagged, the #HappyMomTribe.
“I started to notice a lot of moms were starting small businesses after having babies—leaving their corporate roles to do their own thing, whether it was opening up an Etsy shop or pursuing photography or finding little passions that also allowed them to have flexibility to raise their children,” she says.
The Happy Mom Conference is intended to speak to those moms and offer them the tools they need to find themselves, follow their entrepreneurial ambitions and balance motherhood, as they hear from successful mompreneurs who have done it well.
Abad has confirmed participation from a variety of speakers, from wellness instructors and health experts to branding consultants and women who found business success after having kids. Speakers include Lilit Caradanian of Elcie Cosmetics, Sarah Boyd of Simply, and Lauren Gores Ireland of Summer Fridays.
“It takes a lot of self-care time to be able to think about what excites you,” says Abad. “I am a true mompreneur and I realized there were a lot of women that were going through what I was going through.”
Tips from #BossMom El Abad
Soul Search!
- Make room for alone time.
- Find a retreat where you go away without the kids.
- Figure out what you love to do.
Allow time for your passion
- After soul searching, invest and allow time for that passion to grow.
Make a plan
- Create a plan of support to work on your passion.
- Find people that will help watch the kids so you can work.
El Abad will be at The Happy Mom Conference to share more about her journey.
Visit the Happy Mom Conference Website
Buy your ticket here.
Mommy In Los Angeles® Magazine had the pleasure of meeting with El Abad in DTLA’s Fashion District. We enjoyed talking to her about the importance of discovering a sense of purpose even when the responsibility of raising kids may seem like the only thing a mom has time for. We commend her on leading the way for other Millenial moms to feel supported and empowered. Every Mom Has A Story.