Today we’d like to introduce you to Naomi Cardenas.
Hi Naomi, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My story is really a story about finding a part of myself that I didn’t realize I was missing.
Before becoming a mom, I was very career-focused. I was working my way through project management roles at a startup and moving from position to position pretty quickly. I was used to being busy, having a lot on my plate, and constantly working toward the next thing. I think I’ve always been someone who thrives when life is full.
Then I became a mom, and obviously, my priorities shifted. My son became the center of my world, and I loved stepping into that role. But becoming a mom also changed the way I thought about my time and my identity. I was still working full-time, but as my career eventually shifted into a position with more work-life balance, I suddenly had something I hadn’t really had before: a little bit of extra time.
Of course, the majority of that time belongs to my son. There are still plenty of days spent reading the same 30 kid books over and over again. But I realized I could carve out a small piece of that time for something that was just for me.
That’s when I started creating content consistently.
I never really set out to become a content creator, and honestly, I never thought it was something I would be particularly good at. I initially saw it as a creative outlet—a place where I could play around with photography, video, editing, storytelling, and just share pieces of my life. The more I did it, the more I realized how much I genuinely enjoyed the creative process.
Around the same time, I was also getting back into running. Before running, I had been consistently strength training four to five days a week, so fitness was already an important part of my life. Running became a new challenge for me, and eventually I decided to train for my first half marathon.
What I didn’t expect was how much running would become part of my identity and my content. It has given me something to work toward that is completely my own, while also allowing me to involve my family in the process. My husband and I often run together on our long-run days, with our son in the jogging stroller, so even something as personal as half-marathon training has become a family experience for us.
Today, my content is really a reflection of the life I’m already living. I share motherhood, marriage, running, wellness, travel, beauty, and all of the imperfect everyday moments in between. I’m still a full-time working mom, I’m still figuring things out, and I’m definitely not living a perfectly balanced life. But I’ve found that I don’t need to have everything perfectly balanced to make room for the things that matter to me.
That’s probably the biggest thing this journey has taught me so far: becoming a mom didn’t mean I had to stop being my own person. I can be a wife, a mother, a professional, and someone with goals and interests of her own.
What started as a small creative outlet has grown into something I’m genuinely proud of. I’m still very much at the beginning of this journey, but I’m excited to see where it takes me. More than anything, I hope the things I share encourage other women—especially moms—to carve out a little space for themselves, even if it’s just a tiny sliver between work, bedtime, and reading Goodnight Little Blue Truck for the 400th time.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definitely not—and I think that’s probably one of the most relatable parts of my story. My challenges haven’t necessarily been one big obstacle; they’ve mostly been trying to fit another meaningful thing into a life that was already very full.
I’m a full-time working mom, so there’s the constant mental load of work, motherhood, marriage, household responsibilities, appointments, errands, and all of the little things that somehow have to get done every day. Then I’ve added running, half-marathon training, and content creation on top of that. There are only so many hours in a day, and I’ve had to become much more intentional about how I use them.
Time management has probably been one of my biggest challenges. A lot of my workouts happen early in the morning because I know that if I wait until later in the day, there’s a very good chance something will come up. There have definitely been plenty of 4 AM mornings where I’m tired and would much rather stay in bed, but I’ve learned that sometimes showing up for yourself means doing it before everyone else even wakes up.
I’ve also had to learn that I can’t do everything perfectly. There are days when the house isn’t picked up, my workout doesn’t go exactly as planned, I don’t get the content filmed that I wanted to, or I simply don’t have the energy to do anything beyond taking care of my family. Learning to give myself some grace has been just as important as learning how to manage my time.
And then there are the very glamorous struggles of being a content creator—like constantly running out of iPhone storage because apparently I need 47 versions of the same five-second running clip.
I think the biggest lesson has been realizing that building something for myself doesn’t require me to have a perfectly organized life first. I’m learning to work with the life I actually have, rather than waiting for everything to become easier or more convenient.
It’s definitely still a work in progress, but I think that’s what makes it meaningful. I’m not trying to create a picture of a woman who has figured everything out. I’m trying to show what it looks like to keep pursuing your goals while you’re also raising a family, working, and dealing with all the normal chaos that comes with being an adult.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Professionally, I work full-time in a role that I’m proud of, but I keep the details of my professional work fairly private. Because of the nature of some of the work I’ve done and confidentiality agreements I’ve signed, I’m not able to share specifics about my employer, projects, or responsibilities. What I can share is that my career has given me a strong foundation in organization, project management, problem-solving, and working with a lot of moving pieces at once—skills that have surprisingly translated well into content creation.
The other side of my work, and the part I’m excited to talk more about, is content creation. I started creating consistently only a few months ago, and it has become a creative outlet that I genuinely love. I create lifestyle content centered around the things that are actually important to me: motherhood, running, wellness, travel, beauty, family, and everyday life.
I think what sets my content apart is that I’m not trying to present a perfectly curated version of life. I’m a full-time working mom, I’m training for my first half marathon, I’m a wife, and I’m still figuring out how to fit everything into the same 24 hours that everyone else has. Sometimes that means a beautiful long run through the neighborhood, and sometimes it means a 4 AM workout because that’s the only time I had.
I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve built something that feels genuinely like me. I didn’t start creating content with a huge strategy or a goal of becoming an influencer. I started because I wanted a creative outlet, and I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve grown—not just in the content itself, but in my confidence and willingness to put myself out there.
I’m also proud of the community that’s beginning to form around it. When someone tells me that something I shared made them feel seen, motivated them to get moving, helped them feel less alone as a mom, or simply made them laugh, that’s what makes me want to keep doing it.
Ultimately, I think what sets me apart is that I’m not creating content around a life that I aspire to have someday. I’m creating around the life I’m actually living right now—the messy, busy, funny, rewarding version of it. And I think there’s something really valuable about showing women that you don’t have to wait until life is perfectly organized to start making room for yourself and the things you’re passionate about.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as a natural risk-taker. I’m actually pretty much the opposite—I like having a plan, I like knowing what I’m getting myself into, and I can definitely be a bit of a control freak. But I’ve learned that some of the most meaningful changes in my life have come from taking calculated risks and being willing to step into something unfamiliar.
Becoming a mom was probably the biggest life change I’ve ever experienced, and while I wouldn’t necessarily call motherhood a “risk,” it required me to let go of a lot of control and allow my life to change in ways I couldn’t fully predict. My career had been moving pretty quickly before I became a mom, and I had a very clear idea of what I thought my professional life would look like. Becoming a parent forced me to reevaluate what success and ambition meant to me.
More recently, I think one of my biggest personal risks has been putting myself out there as a content creator. It can feel surprisingly vulnerable to share pieces of your life publicly, especially when you’re not sure how people will respond. I had no guarantee that anyone would care about what I had to say or that I would even enjoy creating content long-term. I just knew that I wanted to try something creative for myself.
I think that’s how I approach risk now. I don’t believe in taking a risk just for the sake of saying I took one. I ask myself whether the potential reward—growth, fulfillment, an opportunity, or simply learning something new—is worth being uncomfortable for. If it is, I’m willing to take the chance.
I’ve also learned that sometimes the bigger risk is not doing something because you’re afraid it might not work. I could have decided that content creation was silly or that I wasn’t “the type of person” who could do it. Instead, I gave myself permission to be a beginner.
I think that’s probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned about risk: you don’t have to be fearless to take a chance. You just have to be willing to be uncomfortable long enough to find out what’s on the other side.
And honestly, I’m still learning this. Training for my first half marathon has reinforced the same lesson in a completely different way. Whether it’s running farther than I’ve ever run, putting myself online, or trying something creatively that I’ve never done before, I’m realizing that growth usually starts right outside the place where I feel completely comfortable.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naomiiidc
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@naomiiidc
