Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikaela Walker.
Hi Mikaela, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Exploring and trying new things is something that I have always loved to do. When I had my daughter, I was looking forward to continuing that with her. Unfortunately, it was quite difficult to find fun child or family activities that I was interested in. Sometimes, I felt that researching fun kid-friendly activities was almost like a second job with the amount of time that I dedicated to it. All the information was in disparate locations and to be honest, there weren’t that many events where I was located. When I moved back to New York, I discovered a family website that not only collated the events into one place they also provided reviews of shows that they had seen and places that they had been. When I wanted to take daughter somewhere, I only had to go to their website to see what was going on for the weekend. When I made the decision to move to Orlando over four years ago, I wanted to bring a similar concept here. I knew that I was just one of many parents who were relocating to Orlando, and just like me others would be looking for fun things to do with their kids and their family. Thus, Orlando Parents, LLC was born.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There are two main parts to Orlando Parents. When I first started, it was just the online magazine, which shared information on activities in the area and reviews of places I have been to with my children. But with the pandemic, people rightfully were not going out anymore, so the information that I was providing was no longer useful. I had to pivot and start providing information on fun at home activities and online activities very quickly. Luckily, this was information that families were looking for so my website continued to grow. Being at home also led to the start of the second part of my business, Events by Orlando Parents. Since families couldn’t go out to events like they were used to, I decided to bring events to them virtually. I put on a series of fun at-home family events for kids last year and I am going to be expanding on the events this year.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Orlando Parents, LLC is a company devoted to local families. Our mission is to help families create lifelong memories together. We want parents and kids to spend time together inside or outside of the house. There are two parts to the company, Orlando Parents Family Fun Magazine and Events by Orlando Parents. The magazine serves as a repository of information on fun-family friendly activities. If parents are looking for an activity to do with their kids, we want to be the one place they need to look to find what they need. We also provide information about weekly events, both local and virtual, for families, as well as reviews of places and activities that parents might find interesting. The events company puts together fun family events that parents can attend with their children and have a great time as a family.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
My advice is to invest in yourself and your business. I have tried different networking groups in the past, but none have worked for me. Middle of last year, I joined a group called Womantrepreneur and decided to go with the paid membership. This gave me access to a group of like-minded women and training to help bring my business to the next level.
Contact Info:
- Email: mikaela@orlandoparentsmag.com
- Website: https://orlandoparentsmag.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/orlandoparents
- Facebook: facebook.com/orlandoparents
- Other: tiktok.com/@orlandofamilyfun
