Meet Margo Game Brandenburg | Postpartum Wellness Advocate & Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Margo Game Brandenburg and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Margo, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
A career pivot felt right. I recently had my firstborn, and now change didn’t seem so scary, it felt necessary. I was ready to take a chance on an idea and bring it to life.

What should our readers know about your business?
Motherhood ignited my passion for postpartum health, wellness, and advocacy. In 2017, I lost my first baby at the end of the first trimester. I was the happiest I’d ever been up until that point. It reaffirmed my calling to become a mother. I was lost and angry for a bit and finding my way. Then, I became pregnant again. When I gave birth to my first daughter in 2018, it was transformative. I felt like a new person, yet more like myself than ever before. While it was such a new and confusing time, I found myself. I was tremendously fascinated and inspired by this whole experience of becoming a mother, or what’s better defined as matrescence – the physical, emotional, hormonal, mental, and social transition of becoming a mother. I want every mother to have a positive and supportive postpartum experience, where they can heal properly and eventually thrive as this new being. I felt the urge to help, encourage, and empower women during this time. If it weren’t for a friend sharing her postpartum experience and giving me essential recovery supplies, I would’ve been completely unprepared. Inspired by all of this, I wanted to create new mom care packages, so others would also feel prepared and empowered for postpartum and beyond.

At the start of 2019, I quit my corporate engineering job to stay-at-home with my daughter and started my business called True Mamas, creating new mom care packages and giving back to mothers and babies in the community. My mission is to support new moms (mind, body, and spirit) by curating essential postpartum supplies and resources to help them navigate the fourth trimester and new motherhood. This has evolved into creating care packages for other difficult and transformative moments (pregnancy loss and periods).

It hasn’t been easy! The first year wasn’t what I thought or hoped it would be. I was a little lost after launching. I didn’t really know what to do next or how to run a business. I still don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m just figuring it out as I go. With a family move, and my confidence shaken, I wasn’t working the business too much. I reflected on what I wanted to do next and what made sense for me and my family. At the beginning of 2020, almost a year in, I regained excitement and focus to give it another go, with the help from a friend who was also starting her own business on Etsy. It was everything to have her support and shared goal. I implemented a few improvements and additions to the boxes. I’m so glad I “restarted” when I did. My orders started picking up in April 2020, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I’ve continued to grow and evolve my offerings, but for the past two years The Custom Postpartum Box has remained my bestseller (and for some of this time an Etsy Bestseller). I pay close attention to every detail of each care package I send. Each product is thoughtfully curated and placed in the box. I box each one, ready for shipment and gift giving. In each postpartum box, I include postpartum resources to find community, support, education, and expert help for the recovery journey. These boxes are a thoughtful and easy way to help new/postpartum mothers feel loved and supported. In one place, you can purchase postpartum essentials, goodies, and resources for her recovery, with the convenience of shipping it directly to her (or location of the baby shower).

On the website you can find the care packages, expansive resource library for the postpartum and the motherhood journey, a free postpartum guide for download, and my blog where I share my thoughts and stories on postpartum.

Since the launch of my business I’ve partnered with and donated (care packages, monetary, or in-kind donations) to the following organizations making an impact on the life of mothers and their babies: Mother House (Boulder, CO), New Beginnings – a Home for Mothers (Milwaukee, WI), Milwaukee Diaper Mission (Milwaukee, WI), A Little Something A Lot of Love (Milwaukee, WI), Black Mamas Matter Alliance, and CARE Org – Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m new here, so I’m still exploring and getting to know the area myself, but if my best friend came to visit, below would be the itinerary for a Southern Arizona Adventure.

Day 1: Douglas
-Walk the trails around Airport Park
-Get coffee and brunch at Mana Breakfast and bring it to Veterans Memorial Park for a picnic.
-Spend the afternoon at the 8th St. City pool.

Day 2: Bisbee
-Spend the day in Bisbee (20-30 minutes away.)
-Mine tour
-Walk around
-Grab lunch or dinner or both, because there are some amazing restaurants there.

Day 3: Day trip I
-Take a desert drive to Chiricahua Desert Museum (just passed the state line into New Mexico)
-In the afternoon we’d tour the Gadsden Hotel in Douglas and have lunch/dinner.

Day 4: Day trip II
-Visit and explore the old Western town of Tombstone.

Day 5: Day trip III
-Visit Sonoita for some wine tasting.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have to recognize my husband for my success. Although this was my idea, funds, and hard work that went into this, it was his encouragement and support from the very beginning that gave me the confidence to start. If it weren’t for him and his entrepreneurial, risk-taking nature, I may have never started this business. I remember our very first conversation when I shared my idea, I was nervous, and thought he’d be more skeptical and push back, but he saw the potential, understood the vision, and told me to go for it. Why not try it out and see if it goes anywhere. Since the very beginning he’s always been supportive of me to continue this passion and business of mine. Thanks to his support and career, I’ve been able to grow this dream.

And my sister! She was also a key to my launch and still is an avid supporter. She jumped right in and helped me get it going! She helped me with product and market research, communication material for the business, and coming up with the name. I cannot thank her enough for her dedication and belief in this business and me!

I also have to give credit to Amy Jo Martin and her Why Not Now podcast. This opened my mind to entrepreneurial life and finding success in a different way than how most of us were traditionally taught. It was my first step in changing my mindset, habits, and belief that I could do something different in my life and career. I could do it my own way. Why not me and why not now?

Website: truemamas.com

Instagram: instagram.com/true.mamas

Facebook: facebook.com/2truemamas

Image Credits
Emily Berger / In His Image Photography LLC