- 12 hours ago
This episode of Shop ESSENCE live featured the small Black-owned business, LitMOM.
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00:00hello and welcome to shop essence live this is episode 14 of shop essence live and i'm so so so
00:08so proud to keep this show going i'm very excited about today's business woman i'm always excited
00:15as you can see it's all about moms this is lit mom creator ross sandifer what's up ross
00:22hey how are you hey i'm good how are you i'm amazing so just to let you guys know ross and i go
00:32way way back and i've been a follower of the lit mom movement for quite some time i'm a lit mom
00:39officially um and i'm so so excited to have her on i literally like she posted something a few weeks
00:46ago of some new products and i'm like you got to come on shop essence live and she went to the
00:51email like everybody else and applied and here we are ross how you doing girl i'm good i'm good i'm
00:58so excited i'm happy to be here thank you for having me thank you for this opportunity absolutely so why
01:05don't you let everyone know like what is lit mom and how did you get the idea how did you get it started
01:11yeah sure okay so um so lit mom was born out of a very personal experience um i'm a mom of two i have
01:20a son and a daughter so my son was born in 2016 and you know in hindsight motherhood for me i'd say
01:28was good what's going well no issues you know um john my son is john john um he about two three months
01:36when it's time for me to go back to work you know he was sleeping through the night and we had like a
01:42whole schedule we had a whole routine so i had motherhood like it was it was cute i had it in the can
01:48motherhood was real cute fast forward a year later in 2017 when my daughter came and baby girl shook
01:55shook the game like she changed the whole dynamic changed and um and so what happened was you know
02:04at that time my husband and i were um we were living in a different state from uh my mom and um who was
02:14you know our core support and i just want to say real quick i think my mom is watching today is her
02:21birthday oh happy birthday mom the og lit mom um i love it and you guys missed it right before we went
02:30live ross is on the phone with her mom like helping her sign up for facebook just to watch this yes yes yes
02:38i love it she definitely did okay so back to the story sorry so yeah so um i didn't you know i didn't
02:44have my course so we didn't have our you know core support group my husband working and everything in
02:49his his work schedule um what basically i was a a mom um a stay-at-home mom with two babies under two
02:57years old right and so i'm sure moms out there can attest like one is two you know multiple yeah and
03:08so um basically you know the kids were fine the kids were thriving they were happy you know eating
03:14healthy getting adequate sleep but mama bear hmm yeah mama bear mama bear wasn't and so i remember the day
03:25like yesterday i was in the kitchen and i was like having a little meltdown and um you know i was
03:32questioning my my resilience basically yeah and god he literally sent me a a sign literally and it read
03:42live in the moment and it like clicked it was like i read it as live in the mom and oh i love it yeah
03:51and from there like the rest is history you know um so lit mom it started off as something i was
03:59thinking oh maybe i'll do like a little personal blog and share you know my my motherhood journey
04:03and my experiences but then you know i always see god first that's that's number one in everything that
04:09i do and you know you told me no that's not the direction that i want you to go in and then um
04:13and yeah it just turned and developed into to this which is a lifestyle brand products and um a
04:19community and a safe space for for mothers and women's and it's all about uplifting um mothers and
04:26celebrating motherhood and um so i i actually officially launched in october of 2018 um but a month just
04:34before my scheduled uh launch date i had the awesome opportunity to debut my product line at essence street
04:45style festival i remember seeing you there look she got the sign still i still have this sign and so like
04:53this moment is like yeah there i am festival that was my setup on my table uh modeling the lip mom shirt
05:06um so yeah it was really really awesome that was an awesome experience um it was so great to see you
05:13know so many uh of us right uh one room and just being there it was it was awesome so yeah i'm sorry i
05:25want to anchor everybody to what this timeline is because i remember seeing you post something like
05:30oh i want to start a movement then i feel like i turned around a few months later and you at street style
05:35um yes so it's just like this woman is absolutely incredible you have to follow her because her story
05:44is just so amazing of having this moment and we all have all been there there might be somebody in
05:50that moment right now when you're just at the end of your rope and you turned it into something so
05:55impactful so powerful she has events as well which i the first one and was like welling up the whole
06:03time as a mom so we'll get to that a little bit later but just so incredible um so i want to get
06:11people to the products this is a shopping show and she has some amazing incredible products that are
06:16available at shop essence so let's run through them what do you have for us first okay first um let's
06:23start with the mugs right every well most moms probably start their day off with a cup of coffee
06:29or some tea this is the cute little mug and i don't know about everybody else but i love a cute
06:36mug like it's something it just makes the that tea and that coffee just tastes better i don't know
06:44so um so yeah this is the classic mug um which you have right that's a classic mug it's just basically
06:50our classic um blip mom logo design and then this one um features our newest uh this was like a
06:59rebrand for for lip mom um and i just wanted to make mention i want to shout out the artist behind
07:06this my girl coco michelle um it's so cute i wanted to um i wanted to create something that you know every
07:14woman and every mom um or mom that or woman that wasn't a mom yet so every woman i wanted to be able to
07:22relate to this basically and so um we have the the boss mom uh hold on here we go we have the boss mom
07:31right here we've got the sporty mom we've got the mom you know with uh two under two mom
07:41right that's me um we have the who i rep who's representing the god mom so this mom is like your
07:49bonus mom your step mom your angel moms um the women that aren't moms yet you know these are your
07:56mother figures that's the god mom we call her um then we have the new mom right here okay this is
08:03throwing me off a little bit and then finally the mom to be so again i wanted to create something
08:10where you know all women can kind of like feel like they were a part of split mom and can connect
08:17and relate to let mom so um yeah she she did that artwork and she totally captured it for me
08:23um so yeah so those are the mugs after you have your tea you know maybe you know you want to jot down
08:31your to do right or maybe you know as moms we have dreams and aspirations too right and that's another
08:38thing that let mom focuses on moms don't forget you are a woman first okay this is so great it's very
08:46important um and i'm doing all my lists i'm so glad that you sent this to me because i'm so into um
08:53dreaming but then also manifesting you speak it but then you write it down you put your to-do list
08:59here but also like your bucket list your dreams exactly your ideas exactly and you're right write
09:07the vision write the vision make it plain can i tell you that essence was on my vision board oh my gosh
09:14here we are crazy this was like two years ago two years ago a vision board two years ago so it's
09:21really crazy okay i love that um all right and then we have um we have our shirts right so you're wearing
09:30um the classic lit mom shirt and our brand colors are two purple um and then we have like the greek
09:39versions so i am a zeta so you will see that i have on the royal blue and white with the dove
09:47well okay this thing is like throwing me yeah i know yeah so with the dove so this these are my um
09:54i call them the finer uh finer mom tees um and then i also have um tees for the aka moms
10:04which is the pink and green with the ivy league and then i have um we call that the pretty mom tee
10:14and then the diva mom tee for those devastating divas of delta sigma theta so this is the crimson
10:20and cream with the elephant and i see you oh yes hey um so so yeah so those are those are our tees
10:33and then um so this is a very special day because today i i launched a new t-shirt that i came out
10:41so let me let me go back real quick so um in june i took a little break um i quarantined a little bit
10:51from social media right i social distanced from social media for a minute i think it was just a lot
10:56going on you know hovid with the you know the death of george floyd and then brianna taylor it was
11:03just so much like it was just so much and um i knew that you know i wanted lit mom to do something
11:10right i didn't know what and i didn't want to just do anything so again like i said i speak to god a lot
11:16and um basically this is what he gave me this is what he spoke to me
11:20and it says the first breath took mine away no one has the right to take away your last mom
11:32and it is a mother holding her baby's hand for the first time and if you look closely you'll see the
11:40names oh yeah um so yeah so these are actually um on the on the shop now um and and the proceeds
11:53will be going towards the foundations of of the disease so wow well that is incredible you guys are
12:02seeing all these amazing products um gifted for yourself or you can gift it for a mom that
12:10be in your life um we know we love the greek one so you guys represent your next outing all mom
12:18that last shirt yeah i mean people all over just like what can i do what can i do how can i contribute
12:26and you're actually giving some you know something very tangible it's a beautiful tribute a beautiful
12:32and just knowing that that's where your dollars are going or to the families of the slain um you know
12:39people incredible so so amazing so i just want to talk a little bit about the community
12:48because i got i had the pleasure of going to a lit mom event yeah tell you like even just walking in
12:56you seeing all these amazing black mothers all from different careers just having like the network
13:02and we're so like tunnel vision laser like job kids husband family right and then just to have a night
13:09where you're networking with other moms and getting their experiences some like with kids in college
13:15all grown like newborns um and you had like amazing icebreaker games and just like we all went around
13:23it was there were moments where i was just like really choking up and i was like this you know when
13:30we get back to normal yeah yeah together and i do see it growing they're like people holding their own
13:36lip mom events just so incredible why don't you talk a little bit about your vision for um the lit
13:42mom community as a whole yeah definitely um i think you know as as women particularly black women um i feel
13:51like you know we we carry a lot we um it's innate you know we're nurturers and a lot of times um you
13:59know we hold it and we internalize things and we just do what we have to do that's what we talk about
14:04how we were built and so i just felt that it was important that to to um to create a space where women
14:14or moms you know can can let go you know can relax and network and and and let their gear down for a
14:23minute and not really have to worry about oh my god i gotta cook dinner and oh my god i got this call
14:28this business call you know what i mean so um i just kind of wanted to create um a community and um
14:36with it you know mom come fellowship and just kind of like take it easy for a minute and just again feel
14:42celebrated i did another event um pre-covid of course um in november and it was moms came in and
14:49they had massages they kept the facial shots yeah they had um their facials done and they ate and they
14:59died and it was really really really really nice yes i love it um so i do we do have like a short video
15:08i want to play that so people can kind of see what the lit mom experience is i want to remind everybody
15:13though this is an amazing woman i'm putting in front of you right now so if you have any questions
15:18it could be about her products it could be about just her her business in general make sure you hit us
15:24up with those questions i will ask her that i'm here make sure you follow her and her business
15:29so um but we'll be back after this video with a positive word all right stand up
15:46so
15:52so
15:57so
15:59you can support her business
16:28follow her but you can also get her products on shop.essence.com
16:33make sure that you do that you can also text 290714 10% discount
16:39as you are shopping support the poor they're absolutely incredible amazing
16:44the artwork talk a little bit about you know even with everything that you do
16:49you try to build community with black women and women
16:53yes yes yes so exactly with everything that I do
16:58do whether it's you know the the events that my artwork yeah let's start with
17:04the artwork so all of my artwork from the this shirt the lip mom to the
17:10illustration that you see even to this they were all three women of color so I
17:16try to definitely support black women entrepreneurs when it comes to my events
17:21shout out to Mona Lisa events she hooks up the room the spaces makes them so
17:27beautiful and then oh I did not mention also you know I do a digital series we
17:35are interview moms and I think you guys may have some behind-the-scenes photos of
17:39that but again it's it's everyday moms they're sharing their stories right and
17:45being able to just share their narratives and expresses so so great I do see some
17:53all right almost like what is the name of the website please you can support her
17:58shop.essence.com but you also have the lit mom calm yes why don't you tell them
18:03where to follow you on social as well yep so my website is www.thelitmom.com and
18:10then my Instagram is at the.lit.mom somebody has there you go perfect and then
18:20Ebony Rose I know that we touched on it a little bit already but she said tell us
18:24more about your lit mom experience it looks so fun yes hey Ebony Rose thank you for
18:30your question yes so the live mom experience so right now I'm based out of
18:34New York so right now you know pre-COVID I should say I just launched out event
18:40series and again they were in New York moms came out they ate they drank they
18:47laughed and played games we shared stories we had little cute icebreakers I'm like I
18:53shared before at the moms given event you know we had makeup and the massage
18:58sessions so it's just really an opportunity for mothers to kind of get
19:02out of the house and not have to worry about anything to just be around other
19:06mothers amen to provide space for us so that means is you guys really need to
19:12follow the lit mom on IG so when we you know as the world is turning and things
19:18go back to normal you can be abreast of when the next lit mom event is I would
19:24definitely be there with Bellathon because it's so and such a great
19:28opportunity to meet other moms like that's really really great um okay now I
19:33see Rachel has a question this is gonna lead into our positive word yes I'm gonna
19:37read it right now this is exactly the positive word um okay so Rachel wants to
19:44know this is so uplifting and empowering thank you Rachel what advice do you have
19:48for new or soon to be mom oh okay Rachel yep okay well I think for for new for new
19:58moms um I think my man our manifesto is probably the best piece of advice they
20:04basically said that being a mom is without question the most challenging
20:07responsibility it is also the most reward rewarding honorable experience ever
20:12motherhood is a blessing from God and I embrace every part of it the good the bad the
20:18lovely I'm living in the moment I am a lit mom I think that pretty much sums it up
20:23like you know there's gonna be challenges there's gonna be things that you're gonna
20:27be like wait I didn't know this you know like mommy and grandma did not tell me
20:31this but did not did not share this with me but you got it you were you were made
20:36for for this moment um and and and you know motherhood is a blessing you know so and
20:43God is going to help you get through it and then um I hope I answered that okay
20:48and that's the good the bad and everything and I love how you mentioned like we when we
20:55get pregnant we read all the books and like I have two kids too so yeah you are not gonna
21:00go into it knowing everything and similar to you like I had a boy first and then my girl
21:06came second it's just night and day of the temperament like my son was super chill my daughter was like
21:11ah so yeah you will figure it out you know and you don't think that you're gonna know
21:19everything going into it so I think and then that's why lip mom too is so important you know
21:26having that community in that mom tribe you know people don't internalize it you know don't hold it in
21:33and share because you'll be so surprised that to know that you are not the only one even though
21:38you feel like you might be you know you will be surprised to know that okay you that happened to
21:43you too like you know um you will find the answer I love that all right so the questions are coming in
21:49hold on oh my goodness Kelly uh wants to know um do you intend on expanding your lip mom events to
21:55other places I do I do I do I was yes after COVID once we get out of this craziness you know and we
22:05want to get back to what normal whatever normal is going to be um yes I do intend on um touring with
22:12the lip mom experience definitely yes love it and I see Audrey she said I found my baby shot again
22:19we're hooking you guys up here wait what did she say what did she say she said I think
22:25it's a really great um okay so now we're gonna end the show this has been so so incredible so
22:38amazing amazing products you hear her story she is a go-getter um and an inspirational woman so I'd love
22:46to get from you we end the show on a positive word so this is not necessarily a word for a future
22:53business woman or anything like that it's for anybody that is watching that needs some kind of
23:00word to help them get through something whether they just received the last no that they can take
23:05or they got furloughed because of COVID anything like that they're at the end of their rope yeah what
23:11is a word that you can give to that keeps you motivated that keeps you going to pursuing whatever
23:16it is your dreams or anything like that well number one first and foremost you know keep God first and
23:23everything that you do you have to keep God first you have to seek him you have to pray that's that's
23:29number one that's a given um the other piece of advice is I would say to keep going you know um you're
23:35gonna have setbacks it's okay to pause you know take a break but don't stop you know keep keep going
23:42and um you know it's not gonna be easy you know life isn't easy and that's live in the moment
23:49right because just like you know I I use it for for for um to describe you know the journey of motherhood
23:59but just in in anything whether it's uh your personal life right your career journey like
24:05there's gonna be ebbs and flows it's gonna be ups it's gonna be downs it's gonna be twists it's gonna
24:08be turns you know but that's the path you have to take right because nothing worth having is gonna
24:14come easy so you just have to you know you just have to to ride ride the wave um and live in the
24:24moment the good the bad just keep going um and and also just stay in your lane I think um you know
24:33just stay in your lane keep the course um somebody said to me last night you know your your gift is
24:39gonna make room for you so yeah no that is absolutely amazing amazing your gift and I love to stay in your
24:50lane too because a lot of the times we'll be swerving and looking at oh well this person's doing
24:54this and this person's doing that maybe I should do that it's just like that part that part right
24:59there exactly my like mind your business just stay no not like negative way keep your mind on your
25:06business and and and what you're trying to do on your purpose right um because yeah again your gift
25:13is gonna it's inevitable like your gift especially if if it's something that God gave to you you know
25:19and he implanted in inside of you like it has it's it has to it has to flourish you know it has it has
25:28it has nowhere to go but like that you know it just this has been so incredible products are amazing
25:37go check them out shop.essence.com support can you hold up that shirt you have one more time the last one
25:43yes uh-huh yes and shout out to the designer jean if you're watching shout out to the designer
25:50incredible incredible she did an amazing amazing job here with this another woman of color yes
25:59support support yeah she didn't have names of slain victims of police brutality
26:06um and the proceeds for this particular show go to the family's foundation so this is really great
26:15great to support and a beautiful beautiful uh statement shirt thank you yes and to those mothers
26:21you know let mom we stand we stand with you too you know so this was this is our way of showing that
26:28we support and we're going to be with you until justice absolutely absolutely well ross this has
26:37been so incredible again make sure you follow her her events are lit they're so amazing um and the
26:46community that is built there is incredible so get you your lit mom products get them as a gift
26:51for the aunties as well it's so so incredible um and we'll be here again next thursday three o'clock
26:58with a new black business owner um here on shop essence live bye everybody
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