A few places in Seattle where I would gladly pay double for my ice cream and why we should uplift our mompreneur friends

A few smug people in my life have told me recently about an influencer bashing article they read about some ice cream truck business that is fed up with people asking for free ice cream in exchange for “exposure” on social media. This business now has a sign posted saying that influencers have to pay double what other people pay.  And as someone who works in the social media sphere, I can only imagine the publicity and exposure that this ice cream truck has received from this stunt-it is so vogue to hate on influencers right now.

When I look at the actual landscape of who these “influencers” are, so many of them don’t deserve the kind of animosity and disdain this kind of story breeds.  Yes, there are a few influencers that stun all of us with their behavior, but so many more are hard-working, creative and innovative. So many are my friends and fellow mompreneurs and hearing about this ice cream truck story reminded me to keep looking for the good in posts, and not get caught up in my own frustrations with fake accounts, robot postings and people buying likes.  There is still so much good out there when we forget about the influence game and look at the roots of what social media is and why we love to share our stories out into the vastness of the world wide web.

“Influencer” or mompreneur?

The truth is the average “influencer” I know is usually some mom trying to have a voice in a world where women’s voices are so often silenced.  Maybe they’re even a stay at home mom who started out blogging as way to connect with the rest of the world in the lonely wee hours of the night while pumping breastmilk in a dazy haze when it felt too humiliating to call anyone on the phone to wake them up and tell them how clueless and zombyish they felt raising two teeny tiny babies.  As someone whose introduction to motherhood started with a too-close-to comfort near visit to the glowing light at the end of the tunnel and twins on breathing machines in the NICU for way too long, it was so comforting to have an online community of support for raising kids in a city where we had no family nearby.  We also needed reliable help to take care of the kids and as someone with a solid background in education and child development there was no candidate for our family better than me.  My husband and I made the decision early on that I would stay at home with our guys, and over time writing my blog became a way to connect with friends and family and gave me my own spot in the world. Even now I get tired of people telling me my story about how I am lucky to be a stay at home mom and how I am lucky to have twins-I want my own voice and my own story to be heard and I want to tell it myself. 

For these reasons, I don’t think it’s ever okay to use a bandwagon hate approach to any group, whether it be influencers or another group of people with ideas different than your own.  I am very fortunate to have a handful of people in my life who read all my posts, check up on my daily life and lift me up when something that I create and care about totally bombs and I still feel devastated when I feel like I mess up.  I can only imagine how it feels to get the courage to try and collaborate with someone and then have your hopes and dreams squashed publicly and in the most embarrassing way.

If someone asks for free ice cream, or an exchange of services for ice cream and you don’t want to partner with them, a proper response is a simple and private “no”.  Yes, it can get frustrating doing this on the daily, but this is part of running a business in our social media driven world.  On the flip side, as a consumer there are so many amazing places I never would have visited if I hadn’t seen them posted by some ‘influencer’ on social media and I didn’t even have to pay anything to any influencer for their help.

That said, there are a few places in Seattle that I would gladly pay double or even triple for ice cream because of the good they do for our community and ultimately the world. And I often go to these places because an influencer recommends them. Can we please have more ice cream shops like these ones:

Molly Moon Ice cream

I’ve loved this place since I first went to the one in Wallingford years and years ago and they give so much back to the Seattle community and I’m sure they’re asked for free ice cream all the time.  I have never met Molly Moon but she must be the loveliest because her ice cream is delightful and her company seems kind, beautiful and thoughtful about the world.  I also recently bought my kids’ birthday cake at the Queen Anne Molly Moon shop-they have a partnership with Icebox cakes (another woman owned business) and I don’t think I will ever have another ice cream cake as delicious as that one ever again.

Nutty Squirrel Seattle

I was so excited when this place opened up in our neighborhood and even though we eat ice cream there way too often, they give back so much to my kids’ school and to the community that it feels like we’re doing a good thing by eating ice cream too.  There are so many delicious flavors and the people who work there are always patient and friendly.  When I see their adorable cart at other events around the city, I can’t help but smile.

Frankie and Jo’s

Frankie and Jo’s makes plant-based ice cream in Seattle that we should make a habit of eating more often.  We all hear so much about how a plant-based diet is good for the world so any place that’s looking out for Mother Earth is definitely a friend of mine too.

Edaleen Dairy

Technically this ice cream is not anywhere even close to Seattle- the Edaleen Dairy is about two hours north near the Canadian border, but I’ve never paid over 2 dollars for a cone here and I would gladly pay more because it is delicious and it opens before breakfast.

(PS. this post is definitely not sponsored and my ideas here are my own.  I’m definitely a mompreneur and I’m so thankful for the people in my life who support my writing and ultimately my dreams.  Thank YOU for reading and supporting my dreams.

If you need a graphic of what supporting your mompreneur or ‘influencer’ friend looks like, I made one and have included it below.  Likes are free and I try to give out a ton of them daily because it feels good to acknowledge others’ stories and presence in the world.  I hope that if we give our friends and community and people in our lives more of them, we can all eat ice cream with a little less hate and ugliness dished on the side.)

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)