“I was going to get smart, and I was going to change the world. I was audacious enough to believe it, too. Fortunately it takes that kind of audacity to accomplish anything significant.”
― Jamie Sedgwick, The Tinkerer’s Daughter
It’s officially been five years since we launched chambanamoms.com. We set out with a mission that looking back, was fairly audacious. We probably didn’t even realize just how audacious it was. And you know what? If we did, it probably never would have happened.
In honor of the past five years, I’d like to share five of the most important lessons we’ve learned as we grew and nurtured this website that became much bigger than we ever imagined it would be.
1. Rome wasn’t built in a Day
This is probably my favorite cliche of all time. It was told to me over and over again by my grandmother, of blessed memory. When we launched the website on Nov. 17, 2009, we were somehow wise enough to know that we had to let it fly. We couldn’t wait till it was “perfect” because that day would never come. That day has still never arrived. I’m never satisfied that we have everything down and am constantly thinking of improvements and updates.
2. Never underestimate the importance of listening
When you’re in the media and expected to be the one with the information, it’s hard to take a step back and just … listen. But it’s been our pleasure to listen to your feedback time and time again. Whether it’s on the street, via social media or through more formal surveys, or just in an email to our contact page, you’ve been generous with your opinions — and we’re all the better for it. (We can always do better, so don’t be shy. Contact us!)
3. Connect. Stay Connected. Connect Others
Connecting people on and off the site — whether its helping people make friends, find resources, or advance their professional careers — was always at the heart of our mission. But we never realized how important it would be and how it could impact some of the people around us. Connection remains integral to our core mission and values.
4. Be present
To us, being present means being an active and visible member of the community. We went out of our way to avoid being just another nameless and faceless website, something that lacked definition or guidance. We stated our place and our roots.
5. Give freely
“Every little good thing that you do … will come back to you, someday.” That’s been our philosophy since the beginning and it’s paid dividends in a wide variety of ways. We are proud to partner with a diverse number of local non-profit organizations to help them help our community, whether it’s through fundraising, awareness or event promotion.
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There are so many of you out there to thank. Our advertisers and supporters. Our writers. Our community partners. Our media friends. Our colleagues nationwide from whom we draw ideas and strength every single day. Our amazing staff, past and present.
To our friends who put up with endless asks to write, help, promote, and share.
To our families, we can’t say enough, and yet you’re probably tired of hearing about it. There’s no way we could quantify all of the unending support and love — not to mention understanding — you’ve generously provided through this journey.
But there’s one group of people who have sustained us, motivated us, and enriched us.
That’s all of you.
We raise our (proverbial) glasses to all of our fantastic readers: thank you for five magical years.
Laura Weisskopf Bleill is the Mom-in-Chief of chambanamoms.com. You can reach her at laura@chambanamoms.com or on Twitter at @chambanalaura or @chambanamoms. She did not cry once in the making of this post, shockingly. Wanna celebrate with us? Come to our birthday party!