Talking to Leigh Hines, it is hard not to be swept up by her enthusiasm. She is bubbly, intelligent, easy to talk to, and full of great ideas. By the end of our conversation, she had me convinced I should do a podcast.
Leigh has a sharp wit and a marketer’s mind that any company would beat down doors to have. And yet, Leigh works for herself and her family only. Leigh decided years ago to leave behind her powerful career in television journalism and then large-scale marketing to stay home with her children.
Given her hunger for changing the world around her with her talents, does this bother her? No. Nothing inside Leigh regrets the choice.
”I looked at daycares, and I just didn’t want to do it,” Leigh remembers. So even though she loved her job at the time, she quit.
But Leigh’s story isn’t about choosing family over career, or the power of being a stay-at-home mom. Leigh’s life transcends that well-worn battle. Her life is proof that we are all the product of choices we make and, in the end, making harder choices can lead us to find our happiest place, even if it doesn’t seem clear right away.
Today, Leigh lives outside of Raleigh, NC, with her two children. Her oldest son just started middle school and, in Leigh’s passionate opinion, being able to stay home has become even more important.
”My kids need me now more than ever,” Leigh says. “The middle school years are full of tough things and my son needs me more than ever right now.”
But Leigh’s decision to stay home with her children years ago didn’t mean that all of the time she had put into her career was for naught. Instead, she chose to exercise her skills to market herself.
”I made sacrifices to be a stay-at-home mom. But I needed an outlet. I realized what I wanted to do, realized what I enjoyed. Just because you are home with your kids doesn’t mean that’s all you do.”
And so, after watching the movie Julie & Julia, Leigh found herself as part of the wave swept up by blogging. She started her blog, Hines Sight, seven years ago.
“I didn’t know a thing!” she remembers. “I did it all backwards. That movie gave me the guts to do it. I didn’t know which direction I wanted to go in, but it was such a great creative outlet for me.”
Even when the blogging universe became inundated, Leigh didn’t stop. She knew what differentiated her and she also knew what it brought to her heart. And her marketing talents served her well as her blog grew quickly. But, just as quickly, she became, in her words, “obsessed.”
“I became so focused on blogging, I didn’t do anything else,” Leigh admits. “I have realized what’s important now: to shape little people to be successful adults.”
In what was somewhat a step back and an acknowledgment that the online world had changed, she started to branch out to other interests. She wrote for Skimbaco, sold both Beautycounter and Young Living, freelanced for the local newspaper as well as other places, founded an instantly popular Facebook and Instagram campaign that swept up feeds called #outaboutnc, and eventually worked with one of her closest friends to found a website that married all of her interests, Living Young and Healthy.
Yet then again, Leigh found herself reevaluating her heart. What was working for her? What did she love most? What excited her? And where did her family need her?
“I want to focus on where I’m at. I had my last baby at 40. I have a unique perspective.”
On top of all of this, of course, was the financial struggle of investing time and resources into projects,
“I sell myself short because I don’t have the financial gain. We get caught up in the game of measuring success by money; we are valued on making a profit:”
This, in turn, made Leigh wrestle with the value she places on her outside pursuits. Recognizing that her husband’s job can sustain food, housing and healthcare for them, the pressure isn’t on to make money to survive. But it is there to prove legitimacy. It is still something Leigh wonders today, but she has also decided it won’t stop her.
After one year as PTA president (a job in and of itself), Leigh feels today that it is time to make different choices. It is time to scale back and get back to what is real to her. And that’s back to her own blog and her #outaboutnc project.
Truthfully, though, the current state of blogging intimidates Leigh, as it does many other talented writers and reporters. But Leigh always comes back to her desire to be true to her audience.
“Life isn’t all champagne and croissants on the bed in a hotel room!” she laughs when thinking about social media today. “But I don’t play games. I keep it real.”
So for today, her family, her love of her state, and Hines Sight Blog alone will benefit from Leigh’s passion. At least, until it is time to choose again.
Leigh would never tell another woman what to do; she would never advocate one career or family move over another. If anything, she understands what it means to choose what is right for you and evaluate each day where you are, and where you want to go.
”As parents, we’re all in different stages. I have certainly made my own path.”
The story here, the reminder for all parents, is to be true to ourselves and not to be afraid to change.