I had the honor and pleasure of being part of a brand new docuseries about entrepreneurship called TRUEFUTURE.

And the icing on the cake was Flagstaff (and so many amazing local entrepreneurs) were profiled in Season 1! We even had a docuseries premiere at The Orpheum Theater in downtown Flagstaff.

I'm super grateful for Dan Kasprzyk of Poba Medical for encouraging the production team led by Joe Mullings to include my story in their series. It was truly a wonderful experience! 

Above is the episode I was featured in. 

Below are a few photos from the premiere...

Look for TRUEFUTURE on Truefuture.tv as well as your TV in the near future. 

P.S. Our daughter Grace played the cocktail hour, too! We are so proud of that girl of ours. You can find more about her music here:  gracenoelle.com. 

I'm honored and grateful to have had the chance to present a Ted Talk in Sedona last weekend. 

The full video will be available in the next couple of months but I wanted to share the beginning of a very emotional "talk" I gave last Saturday. I'm beyond grateful for my family and friends who have supported me through some of the darkest times in my life. 

​Here I am speaking on the TEDx Sedona stage about narcissistic/emotional/verbal abuse I endured from 2014-2017 and the tools I used to help rebuild my life and heal deep wounds that kept me locked in the cycle of abuse. Hopefully, the video will be uploaded to TED within two months! Super grateful for the opportunity to tell my story in hopes it will help others know they aren’t alone. We have a silent epidemic on our hands.

Here's a sneak peak of the beginning of the talk...

It's hard to believe it's been 11 years since Shark Tank aired my pitch. I can say without a doubt that A LOT has happened since my time in the tank.

I wrote about the initial "after the tank" back in 2011 and then again in 2014. And I speak about it as I travel the country talking about my entrepreneurial journey and lessons I've learned about trusting my own intuition and never giving up. I'm forever grateful for my time in the Tank so I thought I'd give you the nutshell version of "where are they now—Mod Mom Furniture.”

If you're an entrepreneur, I have a sneaking suspicion you'll relate to my timeline below.... (Read more below by clicking READ MORE.)

I have the best partners on the planet!  And they just relaunched The Gracie Toy Box today!  Click the photo above to purchase, or check out the blog post about the relaunch....

​https://littlecolorado.com/blogs/news/re-launching-mod-moms-gracie-toy-box-and-adding-a-new-meaning-to-heirloom-quality-toddler-furniture 

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​Happy Easter! Happy Passover! And Happy April Fools' Day!

I'm sitting here eating a pink peep, drinking a little coffee before the rest of the house wakes up, and it dawned on me: it's April 1st.

Somehow, this day has become a "day" for me in my life.

On April 1, 2011, Shark Tank aired my segment for the first time. What a night! We had so much fun watching the show with our friends. I was one part nervous (to see how they would edit my time in the Tank) and a million parts excited beyond belief. And I have to say, I was proud of myself for going for it. I've always known I could do "hard things" but that was the first time in my adult life that I really put my neck on the line and pushed through the fear I felt. I'm glad I did! Little did I know, I 'd learn to do harder things down the road and that was just a warm-up.

On April 1, 2014, I landed in North Carolina, excited to represent Stanley Furniture as their Young America spokesperson and finally sign the licensing deal I'd been working on for eight months. The moment I was able to turn my phone on, was a moment I will never forget. So many text messages were lighting up my phone. Apparently, while I was in the air, Stanley released the news that they were shutting down their youth division. I'd lost my job (as the main breadwinner of our family, at the time) and my licensing deal and traveled the hard road—doing hard things—for the next three years. So much growth, healing, and love came out of a mountain of pain and trauma. For that, I will always be grateful.

Today, April 1, 2018, I am beyond happy to be writing this from a new home with my beautiful family sleeping down the hall. I have the best licensing and manufacturing partner in the US. I am blessed with a wonderful family, amazing friends, and the gift of seeing all of the puzzle pieces of my life coming together.

The April Fools' joke has not been on me, even though it felt like that in 2014. I cherish this day as a day that put me on the path to a bigger purpose in life. One that I couldn't see at the time. One that I wasn't ready for, at the time.
One that I'm ready for, now.

No joke, this is just about the best day ever, in my book. It's a day honoring transformation and healing across many years, and a day when I get to eat copious amounts of potato salad with those I love. It doesn't get much better than that.

Happy Easter, Happy Spring, and Happy April Fool's Day, my friends!

I was just cruisin' down memory lane and came across this old blog post from 2009.  It made me grin from ear to ear. 

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​5/19/09

​This one's a doosie, I promise! On Friday, Grace's kindergarten class is dressing up in the form of what they want to be when they grow up. Naturally, when she told me she wanted to dress like MOD MOM (LOVE THAT!!!), I asked what she thought she needed for her costume. Here's what she said in list form....

1. jeans
2. white t-shirt
3. tool belt
4. dirty fingernails
5. stain on hands and arms
6. fake toenails
7. hair in a bun with a pencil stuck through it
8. sawdust on the jeans

It's really too bad that Little G doesn't know me at all.  

P.S. I'll have photos on Friday of Little Mod Mom Furniture :)

​

Back in 2007, when I first started Mod Mom, I also started blogging.  I wrote about everything from dragging the kids to the lumberyard, to design features, to cutting bangs and regretting it. I'm going to be keeping the blog going on blogspot (it's like a life diary!), but I'll also post new blogs here on the website blog. 

In the meantime, here are some of my favorite blog posts from years gone past on blogspot.....
​
My Welcome post from 2007
My job according to Grace
My typical day
I get by with a little help from my friends
ABC Kid's Expo 2013

modmomfurniture.blogspot.com

​

​Kiersten Hathcock and her family moved to LA for her husband’s job. She had worked outside of the home in marketing for 10 years and was struggling with the idea of putting her kids in another daycare situation. She decided she would do whatever it took to stay home with her children. Kiersten tried being a shared nanny for others as well as doing some contract marketing on the side, but the work wasn’t steady enough. Kiersten also realized she was missing something very dear to her--a creative outlet.

Not long after, Kiersten started Mod Mom Furniture. Mod Mom would lead her to a Shark Tank win and many other adventures (and misadventures) along the way. Here is a bit of her story.

Why toy boxes?
Many houses in LA (where we lived) have modern, streamlined decor, and I started wondering where all of these families were putting their toys. It was not in plastic bins or toy boxes with cartoon characters plastered all over them. With that said, Shark Tank producers encouraged me to lead with the “we needed a toy box” story—and that was kind of true. We were always needing storage. When I looked online and saw there was only one mod toy box available, the light bulb went off in my head. I realized there was a market for modern-looking toy storage that would look good in any room of the house. The only obstacle was figuring out if I could build them.

What made you think you could build toy boxes?
I grew up in Ohio. My parents were both teachers. They told us—my sister and I—we could do whatever we wanted to do, that we had within us everything we needed to succeed.
We did not have a lot of money growing up because my parents were teachers. My dad was a weekend carpenter who made a lot of our furniture. I had no interest in it, but I think it made me less scared to try it out later in life. I thought, “My dad did this. I just might be able to do this.” So, I went online to figure out what I needed to do. I figured out what kind of table saw I needed and how I was going to put it together. I have a lot of do it yourself in me, and I credit my upbringing for that.

Tell me about the early days of trial and error.
Oh my gosh. They were horrible. I was such a novice. I was using the wrong nails in the beginning. I can’t believe the early ones I built are still together. With the first few toy boxes I sold I went back to the buyers a year later and gave them new ones for free. I truly felt badly for them.
When I was designing the Owyn Toy Box I would literally cut the top panel, draw the leaf designs with pencil until the point where I got the balance right, and then I would go in with the jigsaw and cut it. There were no paper or CAD drawings involved.

What was the timeframe between tinkering in the garage and your first toy box sale?
Too fast. I would say within the first three months.....................

READ  THE ENTIRE Q&A here.......
https://littlecolorado.com/blogs/news/interview-with-kiersten-hathcock-shark-tank-winner-marketer-turned-carpenter-entrepreneur-founder-of-mod-mom-furniture 

Q & A WITH KIERSTEN HATHCOCK: SHARK TANK WINNER, MARKETER TURNED CARPENTER, ENTREPRENEUR, AND FOUNDER OF MOD MOM FURNITURE
​March 14, 2018
https://littlecolorado.com/blogs/news/interview-with-kiersten-hathcock-shark-tank-winner-marketer-turned-carpenter-entrepreneur-founder-of-mod-mom-furniture 

LOUISAOHMYDESIGN - ITALY
January 20, 2018
"Meet Kiersten Parsons Hathcock"
louisamydesign.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/my-story-meet-kiersten-parsons-hathcock/

FURNITURE TODAY/KIDS TODAY
January 8, 2018
"Mod Mom Furniture Announces Licensing Partnership with Little Colorado"
www.kidstodayonline.com/article/549433-mod-mom-furniture-announces-licensing-partnership-little-colorado/

​DENVER BUSINESS JOURNAL
January 5, 2018
"Colorado furniture company inks deal to sell 'Shark Tank'-featured toy boxes"
www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2018/01/05/colorado-furniture-company-inks-deal-to-sell-shark.html
​