Mommy Mundo: A Mom’s Purposeful Journey
Janice Crisostomo-Villanueva recounts the story of how Mommy Mundo came to be
It’s not surprising that wanting to do good for others can result in receiving a multitude of blessings in return. Janice Crisostomo-Villanueva, started her first business in 1999, motivated by her need for more choices of maternity clothes as well as an innate desire to help other moms through Mommy Mundo.
Humble Beginnings
“I started out with Mommy Matters where I sourced maternity clothes from other countries and sold them from my cousin’s house. I felt sorry for moms like me who couldn’t find clothes that fit properly during the different stages of pregnancy and motherhood.” From Mommy Matters, Janice added a Fit at Home Service, which offered house visits so pregnant moms could try on the clothes in their own homes.
After opening Mommy Matters, she realized that very few moms were breastfeeding. To raise awareness on the matter, Janice partnered with Joanna Duarte of The Big & Small Co., Pia Cayetano of Maxi Bear, and Tessa Geronimo of Mommy Academy for their first event called Moms in the New Millenium. “We used flyering, radio and print ads, and attracted a hundred moms to attend our breastfeeding and parenting seminars.”
Expo Mom
Ten years later, she launched the first Expo Mom in 2008 at the Rockwell Tent. Starting with only 60 corporate vendors and just 10 booths in a “Mompreneur Corner,” featuring mom-owned businesses.
In 2009, she coined the name Mommy Mundo as her official brand. In the years following, 80% of the vendors were all mompreneurs. “Since the very beginning, we always treated mompreneurs as our partners. It was never just a matter of us selling them a booth. We actually encouraged them to use us as their platform to grow their businesses because this would mean success for us all.” Regular meetings called Mom Connect became the avenue for moms to bring the community together to network and promote each other’s stores and events.
“Our core advocacies that we call the four pillars of the business: Healthy Pregnancy, Breastfeeding, Active Parenting, and Mompreneurship. We focus on those four because we recognize that moms go through different stages and our events try to address their needs.”
Launching Mommy Mundo
Mommy Mundo has a board of experts who are mostly moms as well who give talks and share other relevant information. “In our Mommy Mundo team, about 90% of us are moms because only we know what it means to be overwhelmed by all the roles we play.”
A network called “Momfluence” was also formed that is made up of influencers who share information purposefully.
Moms who’ve benefitted from the Mommy Mundo events constantly affirm Janice through their feedback. This drives her to address more of their needs. Slowly, she is growing the Mommy Mundo family organically by partnering with moms in key cities nationwide. Moreover, she is launching Mommy Mundo Singapore, while including more countries eventually.
“My hashtag is #passionandpurpose because passion is good but if you put purpose into it, it really gives your life meaning.”
To learn more, visit the Mommy Mundo website.
