Some mompreneurs view being a mom as a disadvantage to building a business and professional success. Pangs of inadequacy and imposter syndrome hit hard. You wonder, “Am I a real entrepreneur, or am I just a mom playing business?”
But what if that’s the wrong question? What if the real question is: What if motherhood is your greatest competitive advantage? Find out how you can equip yourself and leverage your mom skills.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
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Your single friends and married career women (no kids to wrangle) attend networking events, join business conferences and masterminds, bask in weekend retreats with big business builders, and work late, then go to the gym to blow off steam.
You’re lucky to get a few uninterrupted hours on the weekend to write a strategic plan, invoice clients, or develop your coaching program. You might stay up late, too, but you’re still up at the crack of dawn as a mom, yawning by 11 a.m., and thinking of your long to-do list left undone, wondering how you’re going to make your daughter’s soccer game at 4 p.m.
When you do carve out focused time, you feel guilty because you haven’t had enough quality time with your kids.
The Emotional Intelligence Advantage of Mompreneurs
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is consistently ranked as the single most important factor for leadership success and business performance.
It’s the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions to communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and diffuse conflict. While others pay thousands for weekend seminars to learn these skills in theory, you’ve been practicing them every day!
Your home is not just a home; it’s a high-stakes laboratory for advanced human dynamics. The skills you’ve honed don’t disappear when you open your laptop or meet with a client. They’re deeply embedded, ready to be leveraged.
The key is to stop seeing them as “mom skills” and start recognizing them for what they are: elite-level business competencies.
Related reading: "Emotional intelligence and Empathy in Leadership."
A Real Life Example of a Day in the Life of a Mompreneur
In the morning, as you get the kids ready for school, your five-year-old has a full-blown meltdown because his favorite superhero cape is in the wash. It’s a special dress-up day at school. He can’t articulate his frustration in words, so it comes out as a storm of tears and anger. You kneel, look him in the eye, and compassionately say, “You sound really frustrated and sad. It’s tough when you can’t have the ONE thing you want, isn’t it?”
He stops, his little body calms, and he vigorously nods. You haven’t just stopped a tantrum; you’ve validated his emotions. You’ve built trust. You’ve connected.
In an instant, you find a substitute that pleases your son and out the door you go!
Later that morning, you’re on a discovery call with a potential high-ticket client. As you listen to their challenges, you find yourself nodding. You’re not just hearing their words; you’re decoding the frustration underneath. You’re sensing the hesitation, the unspoken fear holding them back.
You gently ask a question that cuts through the noise, a question that makes them pause and say, “Wow! No one has ever asked me that before.”
You’re not just selling; you’re connecting. You’re building trust.
You close the deal without pressure, leaving the client feeling seen and understood.
The act of calming your child and the act of closing a client are powered by the exact same skill!
Amazing power!
For too long, mothers in the workplace have been passed over for promotions and led to believe that being a mom was a professional detour—a gap in their resume, a pause in their ambition.
It’s why many women are building their own businesses: for a flexible schedule, work-life balance, and financial security without having to prove anything to a boss. Raising children is NOT a professional detour; it’s part of the adventure and training ground!
The world of entrepreneurship often celebrates a relentless, “hustle-at-all-costs” mentality that seems fundamentally at odds with the demands of motherhood.
I get it! I’ve raised three children and built two successful businesses from scratch.
Think about it for a minute: Every time there’s a power struggle with your two-year-old because she wants a banana instead of cereal, or a conflict with your preteen over screen time, you have negotiated and sold your idea. As you juggle and manage a complex family schedule, there’s little difference in coordinating your schedule as the CEO of your own company.
What others postpone because the income producing activities are uncomfortable, you dive right in. You’re used to doing what’s needed to make everything work together.
Challenges and mom activities are not distractions from your work; they are the work!
What if motherhood is the most intensive, real-world MBA in emotional intelligence and business management you could ever receive?
5 Mom Skills That Secretly Make You a World-Class Entrepreneur
When I started Heartmanity nearly two decades ago, I wished I would have had a veteran mentor to help me excavate and apply the skills I already had. It felt like I was starting from scratch. I left the corporate world of senior management and launched a business without a business degree or entrepreneurial experience. Back then, there weren’t even business coaches.
Let’s get you started on the right foot.
Perhaps, you’ve been using a few without even realizing it. However, the stage of your business will determine how you apply each strength in your arsenal. Each season of your business is like children’s developmental stages; I can help you at every stage to discover your business brilliance.
Below are five of the most powerful EQ “superpowers” you’ve been cultivating as a mom.
The Superpower of Advanced Empathy and Active Listening
The Mom Skill: Deciphering a young toddler’s preverbal cues. You know the subtle difference between a cry for hunger, a cry for sleep, and a cry for comfort. You can read the slump in your teenager’s shoulders and know they had a tough day, even when they say, “I’m fine.” You are a master at hearing the unspoken need beneath the words.
The Business Application: This ability directly translates into an intuitive understanding of how to understand your market and your clients. While your competitors are focused on surface-level demographics, you can tap into the deeper emotional drivers of your ideal customer.
In a sales conversation, you don’t just hear a client’s objection; you hear the fear behind it. Is it a fear of financial risk? A fear of failure? A fear of being judged?
Your empathetic listening allows you to address the real barrier, not just a superficial one. This capacity is what builds the deep trust that turns prospects into loyal clients and raving fans.
The Superpower of Elite Crisis Management and Resilience
The Mom Skill: Simultaneously handling a sick child, a looming project deadline, a leaky faucet, and the awareness of an empty fridge and the immediate need for grocery shopping.
You have managed complex, multi-variable crises on minimal sleep with no resources. You have faced unexpected setbacks (like a stomach flu that wiped out your entire family the week of a major launch) and found a way to keep moving forward. Your ability to remain calm and find solutions under pressure is nothing short of extraordinary.
The Business Application: Entrepreneurship is a series of unexpected opportunities and unforeseen crises. A key supplier goes out of business. A marketing campaign fails. A key employee quits. While others panic, you are uniquely equipped to be the calm center of the storm. Your nervous system has been battle-tested.
This resilience means you don’t get derailed by setbacks. You see them not as failures, but just speed bumps, problems to be solved. You are adept at triage—assessing what is truly important and urgent versus what is merely busy work or a distraction from your purpose.
Your resiliency allows you to pivot quickly, conserve energy, and maintain momentum when others might be paralyzed by stress. Instead of collapsing under pressure, you instinctively scan for the next best move, adjust your plan on the fly, and keep the essentials moving forward. You know when to push, when to temporarily pause, and when “good enough for now” is better than never done.
Your agility is fueled by emotional regulation and relationship management that lets you think clearly when it matters most.
The Superpower of Master-Level Negotiation and Diplomacy
The Mom Skill: Brokering a peace treaty between two siblings who both blame the other for what happened takes perspective-taking. You have successfully negotiated with a toddler who has no concept of, nor has developed logic, reason, or fairness.
You have mastered the art of win-win, finding creative solutions that leave your family members feeling heard and respected. You can set a firm boundary with love and persuade a skeptical party to try something new (“Just one bite of broccoli!”).
The Business Application: Every aspect of business is a negotiation. You negotiate with clients on project scope, with vendors on pricing, with employees on responsibilities, and even with yourself on priorities. Your “mom skills” make you a formidable negotiator.
You instinctively know how to find common ground, how to frame a proposal in terms of the other person’s interests, and how to hold a firm line without creating animosity.
You understand that the best deals and resolutions are cultivated through your greatest resource: relationships—not brute force.
Whether you are navigating a complex joint venture partnership or motivating a client to pay their invoice on time and book out months in advance, your diplomatic prowess is a powerful asset that can save you money, reduce conflict, and build long-term, profitable relationships.
The Superpower of Multi-Threaded Prioritization
and Time Management
The Mom Skill: Getting three different children to three different activities—on time, with the correct equipment, and having eaten a reasonably healthy snack. You are not just a time manager; you are a logistics CEO. You run complex, interlocking schedules in your head, constantly re-prioritizing based on new information. You understand the art of the “good enough” solution and are immune to the kind of perfectionism that often paralyzes others.
The Business Application: Many entrepreneurs drown in a sea of competing priorities. They get stuck in “analysis paralysis” or waste time on low-impact tasks.
You, on the other hand, are a natural at ruthless prioritization. As a mom, you have to be!
You have an innate understanding of the 80/20 rule—knowing which 20% of tasks will yield 80% of the results—because your time is your most precious, nonrenewable resource.
This refined clarity allows you to be incredibly efficient. You know how to batch tasks, how to delegate effectively (even if it’s just to your partner or a babysitter), and how to focus intensely for short bursts of time. You don’t have the luxury of wasting a single hour. This discipline has required you to build a smarter, leaner, and more effective business from day one.
The Superpower of Vision-Casting and Intrinsic Motivation
The Mom Skill: Creating a vision for your family’s future. You think about the kind of adults you want to raise, the values you want to instill, and the environment you want to create. You then work backward, making daily decisions that align with that long-term vision. You are the keeper of the “why”—the emotional heart of your family unit. You motivate your children not just with rewards, but by connecting their actions to a larger sense of purpose and identity.
The Business Application: A business without a clear vision is just a collection of tasks, which makes it easy to get distracted. Contrarily, a business with a powerful “why” drives success and accelerates business growth. Your ability to see a vision and connect daily work to a deeper purpose is the hallmark of an exceptional leader.
This skill allows you to inspire a team, create a brand that resonates on an emotional level, and, most importantly, stay motivated yourself during the inevitable tough times.
When your sales are down, or you face a setback, you don’t just see a spreadsheet; you see the future you are building for your family. This intrinsic, purpose-driven motivation is far more powerful and sustainable than any purely financial goal. It is the fuel that will carry you through when others give up.
You Already Have What It Takes
You may not feel like you have mastered all the skills we’ve listed. However, it’s been my experience that mothers underestimate how much they have developed and underutilize their greatest strengths.
Possessing these skills is one thing; consciously and intentionally applying them effectively is another. Success—and what success means will be different for everyone—depends on leading oneself and being intentional in everything you do in business.
Making connections, implementing, and honing your skills are crucial to your business.
By owning these mom abilities, you can transform them from unconscious reactions into a reliable toolkit for leadership. Be the leader of your business and of your life! This EQ toolkit is the foundation of intentional leadership for mompreneurs—the practice of leading your business with the same purpose, empathy, and wisdom you bring to leading your family.
Closing Thoughts
Stop looking at the business world and wondering if you measure up. Don’t listen to that voice that tells you that you’re an imposter.
Start looking at your life and recognizing the powerful arsenal of skills you have already mastered. You are not starting from scratch. You are starting from a place of profound emotional intelligence and real-world leadership experience.
The next step is to learn how to leverage the incredible person you already are and maximize the your superpowers!
Ready to stop second-guessing and start leading with your innate strengths?
Check out our Heartmanity’s Mompreneur programs and learn how to unleash your superpowers today!
