Laura Wellington is the Founder and CEO of THREAD MB, www.threadmb.com. A successful media-technology entrepreneur, award-winning children’s television creator, author of The Four-Star Diet, Laura is also a widow and mom to five wonderful children. Read our interview with the lovely Laura below…
What motivated and inspired you to start your own business?
What motivated/inspired me to launch THREAD MB, my most recent entrepreneurial endeavor, was my desire to prove out a theory, the theory being: How overlooked and undervalued social media mom influencers were in the media-entertainment marketplace. What kept me going was how passionate I became about changing this once the theory proved itself out.
Tell us about your business.
THREAD MB combines interviews from leading social media mom influencers with interviews from leading celebrities, bridging the gap to better the world together. The commonality between both these groups of interviewees is the “good” each is doing in the world, including the social causes and cause-based organizations each supports.
List awards/certifications/accomplishments.
Dove Award, Forbes Enterprise Award, Telly Awards (4), and countless others.
Where is your business based?
Connecticut, USA.
What were the first few steps you took to get your business up and running?
The first step was building the website. The next step was spending the time to establish relationships within the social media mom influencer community as well as with celebrities and public relations firms. I then needed to find high-caliber writers. Once all of this came together, we were off to the races.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness of your business and getting new customers?
We use a variety of social media and marketing platforms – Linkedin and Facebook being our most dominant platforms. We also grow, naturally, because those we interview promote their interviews either themselves or through their public relations’ teams.
What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Keeping up with demand and our fast-paced growth. We have more requests for interviews than we can possibly fit in our present-day schedule based upon our current strategy.
How did you overcome these challenges?
In certain cases, we reconfigure our calendar to meet particularly interesting and exciting interviewee requests. Otherwise, we keep a secondary list of potential interviewees. We will, eventually, get to everyone. I just ask for patience while we do.
How do you keep motivated through difficult times?
When you lose your husband to cancer and have to raise children by yourself, professional challenges rarely get to me. This is cake.
How do you distinguish yourself from your competitors?
It is easy because THREAD MB doesn’t have any competitors.
What is the best advice you have received recently?
Be bold.
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
Life is to short not “to go for it.”
What is your favorite business tool or resource?
Linkedin.
What social media outlets do you use? List them below.
Twitter @TheFourStarDiet
Facebook www.facebook.com/TheFourStarDiet/?fref=ts
Website www.threadmb.com
Email contact@threadmb.com
What is a good article or book you have read recently?
“Good Good Father” by Chris Tomlin and Pat Barrett. I received it to share with my son. As children’s books go, this one is priceless. I have been spending a great deal of time writing my second book, which I just completed yesterday. With the additional demands of writing a book, I have had very little time to read much beyond work-related articles/books.
What are you currently learning about for your business or looking for help with?
Dealing with time constraints.
What are your goals for the next few months and how are you striving to achieve them?
I’d like to partner with more media organizations as well as nonprofits to help them grow their awareness though THREAD MB and our vast reach into the social media mom influencer community. I’d like to help social media mom influencers increase the awareness around their lives, work, and social media endeavors. I’d like to help expand ‘good’ in the world and help heal it.