Vonna Matthews has always been in love with writing.
Starting off her career in branding and image consulting, she began her first business while in her early 20s, and then in 2016, she founded For Her Media; her company that publishes magazines geared toward mompreneurs and young entrepreneurs, as well as helping companies with branding and marketing inquiries. Her career reflects the life she currently lives; a wife and mother with young children who also wants to pursue dreams and goals while being the best she can be. Throughout all of her big career milestones, she still kept her love of writing close.
“I’ve always loved writing,” she began. “I like to say I’ve been writing since I was a kid. I love to read. I would go to the library and get 20 or 30 books at a time and read them in one week.” Matthews always wrote well since elementary school, and her love for writing grew on into her older years as well. After college, all of her corporate jobs required her to write, so she was never short on sharpening her writing skills. Her pursuit of growing her writing skills stemmed from her love of writing. “I don’t know if I thought I was good at it, but I used to write poetry and to me the poetry was really good, but as for writing articles or anything, I didn’t think I was a good writer until people told me.” She wrote because she enjoyed it, and from then people started enjoying her work. She didn’t know that lots of other people were also enjoying her posts on her blog she ran at the time, and friends and family shared that they looked forward to her posts. “I don’t even think I thought it was that great, I just enjoyed it.”
Matthews’ magazine, CEOMOM is important to her because she is a mother and knows how hard it is to be one. “One of the reasons the magazine is so important to me is because you do so much as a mom and just as a mom alone,” she began. She knows that being a mother is physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally taxing, having a seven and nine year old at home. “It requires a lot to be a mother. And one of the things that is easy for moms to do is to lose themselves in motherhood. And so what we do is celebrate the woman to say ‘yes we are mothers and we absolutely love it, but that’s not all that we are. It’s not the only calling we have.'” Matthews knows that when mothers pursue their dreams and goals in life, they can become better mothers. Now that women aren’t just staying home strictly being mothers, they are becoming entrepreneurs, directors, and highly skilled employees not just outside of their home but also from their own homes.
For CEOKID, her magazine geared toward kids who are entrepreneurs, she knows that kids are the key to our future. “The kids we interview are incredible kids,” she commented. “They are really smart, innovative, unapologetic, have a great imagination, and they pursue their dreams and goals without all the hesitation that you get when you become an adult.” CEOKID proves that you don’t have to be older and an adult to live your dreams. She wants kids to know that it’s ok to want to go outside and play, and also not be afraid to dream and challenge themselves. Because she knows that in a kid’s ability to dream, comes great creativity that someday makes an effective entrepreneur.
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“One thing I want people to know about me is that I love God.” she shared. “That’s a reflection in everything that I do in my business.” Matthews also cares about the empowerment of women, and desires to see a different world for them. “We are approachable and welcoming and we’re supportive of women.”
Through the many obstacles Matthews encountered when founding her businesses, rejection and being told no was something she is continuing to learn to get through. “That’s one of the biggest challenges; just having to pick yourself back up and keep moving and believing in what you’re doing,” she shared. Since Matthews has many different roles she plays in her life, she has to develop a thick skin against rejection and hearing no if she wants her business to grow to its fullest potential. When it comes to how she tackles the obstacle of time management between the many things she does everyday, she likes to take everyday as it comes. “We all have to figure out what time management skills work for us and what schedules work for us.” What works for Matthews, is waking up a lot earlier than her children; she uses this time to rest and plan her days better. “I think another important thing is to put together a realistic list of things to do, because we usually have this long list of things to do.” Celebrating the accomplishments that Matthews completed that day are a regular habit in her life. Another thing that keeps her grounded is one of her favorite quotes: it’s just not that serious. “I often have to tell myself not to make the challenge or obstacle bigger than what it is. Eventually, it’s going to be alright.”
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