Butterflies Take Flight - Moms mentor moms back into the workforce

By Brooke Perry
Photography by Ted Axelrod

Are you a “butterfly?” You are, says Bradi Nathan, if you’re a mother who is seeking to return to the workforce or simply striving to achieve work-life balance. A mother of two young boys, Nathan, originally from Harrington Park, is co-founder of MyWorkButterfly, a ground-breaking social-networking site she launched with new friend and co-founder Terry Starr, also a mother of two. Dubbed “Facebook for Moms,” the first online community built exclusively for moms is spreading its wings. The women were introduced by a mutual friend at a Border’s bookstore last August. Nathan was in the store researching an idea for an online community where women could network with one another; Starr, an HR, advertising and Internet-marketing executive, was in search of a French-English dictionary for a friend’s daughter. “Terry saw the book I was holding, called Internet Riches, and handed me her business card,” Nathan recalls.

As they chatted, they discovered they had sons the same age, in the same grade at the same school. The realization further fueled Nathan’s belief that mothers needed an online community in which to connect and empower one another.

“I devoured the pages of that book and called Terry in the morning to share an idea. I told her ‘I have an idea that I haven’t even told my husband. I haven’t even said it out loud.’ We met again the next day and the rest, as they say, is history,” Nathan says.

Both brought significant strengths to the table. Eight years ago, Nathan, a former advertising executive, launched For You Two, a mommy-and-me class where she met “lots of moms, many still on maternity leave, just trying to figure out what they wanted to do next,” she says.

Starr had spent nearly three decades working full time. Since having her children, she’s maintained a “do-it-all” philosophy that has seen her through with boundless energy and enthusiasm. Armed with business acumen and intuitive mothering instincts, they set out to build MyWorkButterfly.

“The timing could not have been better,” says Starr. “My agency, Success Communications, was already building social-networking sites for its clients. Bradi’s idea, combined with the agency’s expertise, was a perfect fit. I jumped right in.”

Incredibly, there are more than 100 million social-networking Internet sites.

“The world of social networking is so vast, it would be almost impossible to follow it fully,” says Starr. “But ours is truly a niche site. It’s been called ‘Facebook for Moms.’” Interestingly, though, MyWork Butterfly takes the Facebook formula many steps further. The main difference? Three hundred pages of content on topics ranging from health and nutrition to fashion, finance and fitness. There’s also editorial on parenting, volunteerism, travel and beauty, plus vast resources on everything from adult education to child and elder care. And, of course, as the site’s content revolves around mothers and work, there’s also a comprehensive job board, networked with more than 1,000 other career sites, listing upwards of 3,000 job opportunities on any given day.

Winged Victory
MyWorkButterfly quickly gained ground. Since its January 2009 launch, the site has signed up more than 1,500 members throughout the U.S. and Canada and as far away as England, Australia, Italy and India. Credit goes to the pair’s knack for courting celebrity moms to provide inspiration and content, cultivating corporate and association partnerships, and forging real friendships with its members.

“When a woman joins MyWorkButterfly, she receives a welcome email from one of us. It’s not auto-generated. It’s a personal message that encourages them to delve right into the site and, if they’ve told us a little bit about themselves, we even direct them to things on the site that we think will be of interest,” says Starr.

Among the site’s enthusiastic celebrity partners and contributors is Malaak Compton-Rock, a passionate philanthropist and wife of comedian Chris Rock. MyWorkButterfly debuted with an in-depth profile of the Angelrock Project, an online “e-village” promoting volunteerism, social responsibility and sustainable change. In coming months, Nathan and Starr will partner with other inspiring celeb moms, including maternity-wear designer Liz Lang, actress and children’s book author Josie Bissett, plus-size supermodel Emme and ESPN reporter and former WNBA player Rebecca Lobo.

Celebrities aren’t the only contributors. Starr and Nathan also tap women (including several Bergen-based moms) whose journeys through work and motherhood might motivate others. A mother of three children ages eight and younger, Helaine Kay of Upper Saddle River is one such mom. A former ad executive with Ogilvy, Kay parlayed her passion for cycling into a part-time job as a sought-after spin instructor.

“The site provides encouragement and a way to connect with other mothers who are also reentering the workforce,” says Kay.

Lisa Monfried, owner of Lemon, a line of children’s clothing, agrees. The Norwood native uses the site for job opportunities, networking and to post new designs of her popular, embellished T-shirts for other moms to see and shop. “I think MyWorkButterfly is an amazing opportunity for all women to have a sounding board,” she says.

Back to work
For mothers contemplating a return to the workforce, MyWorkButterfly is page-after-inspiring-page of empowering dialogue.

“If they’ve been out of the workforce for five years or fifteen years, women should not feel intimidated when it comes to returning to work,” says Starr. “We try to stress that moms bring a lot of skill sets to the table and corporate America knows it. Moms need to come in, get the job done and leave. Moms’ busy schedules actually make them more productive because they have a schedule to keep.”

But not all moms on MyWorkButterfly are immediately headed back to the office. Many are new mothers who’ve just left the workforce to have their first child and are simply seeking social interaction with other moms and tips on achieving balance.

“Before we launched, we surveyed more than 600 mothers, all at different stages in their lives, and then we designed MyWork Butterfly.com to fit the changing needs of all of them,” says Nathan. “The content is a direct result of our surveys and focus groups. For example, when we discovered that moms’ biggest obstacle to returning to work was guilt, we brought in a resident psychotherapist to help moms tackle it.”

“As working mothers, Terry and I can really relate to the pangs of guilt and the struggle to find the right balance,” she continues. “This site is all about delivering solid advice, support and solutions.”

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