One of the cool things about my job is I get to meet some really inspiring Moms. Supporting other women in their dreams while they tackle the day to day is definitely on my priority list. Without further ado, another Mommy spotlight with Chae Marsh. I’ve been photographing her family for 7 years now and I can’t wait to share with you what she’s doing ….
1. How did you come up with Ring Along and what exactly is your product?
My love and hate relationship started way before motherhood when I was traveling extensively for work but when the kids came along, I literally felt like I was drowning in diapers, butt creams, etc on top of MY daily essentials. I tried all the so called organizers and at the end always came back to separately storage pouches. Then one day digging through my tote bag to find a certain pouch, I came up with an idea to keep all the pouches together, displayed on top making them easily accessible. Each Ring Along pouch has small spring rings on the corners that can be click onto a larger spring host ring. Each pouch can be retrieved from the host ring my simple one finger push on the corner ring then click back after use. The host ring is also spring hinged so it can be clipped around the bag strap to display the pouches neatly on top for easy access to your daily items. My favorite part about Ring Along is the additional spring ring on the other corner of the pouch can be used to clip on bags straps to carry it separately as a crossbody, waist bag or wristlet depending on the strap used. This features allows you to take only what you need leaving what you don’t behind.
2. Tell us about your Kickstarter Campaign and what that is about…
Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform where a creator raises fund on the front end by offering pre-sale for their product to help with their initial production cost. The products are offered at a discounted prices. The supporters can also support the project and the creator in way of a donation. See Chae’s Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ringalong/ring-along-utility-patented-bag-organizer
3. How do you balance being a Mom while focusing on your dream of Ring Along?
I’m learning, as much as I wish for that magic wand, there’s no such thing as balancing work and home life. It’s a constant work in progress. Just when I think I have it balanced, something happens and it throws everything off balance. So I think the key is to celebrate when something is done well, and be kind to yourself with grace when it’s not.
4. What inspires and motivates you to keep going?
My family inspires me to keep going. Im a first generation Korean American and my parents brought my brothers and I to the US with just handful of change in their pockets. None of us knew how to speak English. But through their hard work and grit, they lived their American Dream! And it is my wish to lead by example to my own kids as my parents did to my bothers and I that you truly can achieve anything through hard work and grit.
5. Do you have any advice for mom inventors?
The answers are in two folds:
- There are two types of patents for inventions; Utility and Design. It’s important to earn the difference between the two, one of the differences you’ll find is that a Design patent isn’t as protected as the Utility patent.
- My advice is, expect hardship.. expect those internal dialogues that gives you doubt and awful feeling in your stomach. Then sit back and reflect who’s voices they really are. Because if there’s one thing I learn through this process, it’s that the negative thoughts about who I am and what I can’t achieve are not of my own, but words of others imposed on me from their own insecurities by trying to boost themselves by putting me down.
6. Anything else we should know about you, your product. or your lifestyle?
I’ve had a full adventurous life thus far!! I was an Atlanta Falcons Cheerleader, worked for a professional wrestling company and traveled all over the country and the world, and competed in national level fitness competition. Looking back one theme is consistent, I took risks! I am a firm believer unless we step outside of my comfort zone, we will not know our fullest potential!
I hope you are inspired as I am on Chae’s Journey. You can read more about her journey with Ring Along here on her blog and Instagram.
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