Get to know amazing mompreneur and TAP MAMAs 2021 awardee, Likha Creations founder Camille Go.
To celebrate International Women’s Month, we bring you thAsianparent’s Marvelous Asian Moms where we feature 20 inspiring mothers who made a meaningful contribution to improving the lives of moms and other women alike.
What can you read in this article?
- The story of Likha Creations founder on how she got into publishing
- How Camille balances her role as a professional, entrepreneur, wife and mother
- Camille's inspiring view on motherhood and letting go of perfection
Motherhood is an adventure. We never know where it’s going to take us. Sometimes it brings us to different worlds we never knew existed, doing things we never thought we would do. Sometimes it brings us to familiar places and ignites our passion that we just need to share it with the world. The latter is how our TAP MAMAs awardee, Camille Go, found herself back in publishing.
Camille Go is the founder of Likha Creations, a publishing company that prints customized children’s storybooks written and designed by an all-Filipino team.
Camille and her Likha
Likha Creations aim to tell stories that capture that reader’s imagination and instill a mindset of empowerment, empathy, and open-mindedness to every child who reads it.
They customize each copy so that the readers are the main characters in the story. The kids enjoy seeing themselves in the illustrations and reading their names on the text.
Their storybooks are filled with colorful illustrations, vibrant and interesting characters on their pages that kids are sure to love reading over and over again. Best of all, it introduces Filipino culture to young audiences by making it part of an interactive adventure.
Not only do they want to introduce Pinoy culture to a larger audience (they ship internationally to over 10 countries), the Likha Creations founder also wants their company to become an avenue to showcase Filipino talent.
“The ultimate goal is to be able to start getting commissions around the world for local artists. I would also love to have at least one title to achieve success internationally.”
Camille had a long on-and-off relationship writing and publishing, beginning in high school when she worked on the school paper and yearbook. But she has always loved reading. She even sold children’s books when she lived in the US. When she moved back to Manila, her friend Darlyn Ty invited her to join the project of creating storybooks, which then led to Likha Creations.
The hats Camille wears and how she balances them
Being Likha Creations founder is one of the many hats Camille wears on a daily basis. The publishing company is one of Camille’s passion projects, along with HomePlayCrochet, a side hustle where she accepts customized crochet projects. During the day, she works as a project manager for an IT company.
Of course, she’s also a hands-on mom to her two girls, who she considers as her inspiration. “They inspire me to be an example of the life I am wishing for them,” Camille shares.
So how does a busy woman like Camille balance her role as a professional, an entrepreneur, wife and mother? She believes that these two things are key: clarity on priorities and discipline and planning.
She has accepted that she will never have the time to do everything she likes. Having a clear set of priorities allows Camille to figure out which things she should make time for and which ones to walk away from. “With clarity, I can walk away in full confidence that I am not sacrificing anything that is important to me,” she says.
With discipline and planning, Camille makes the most of her day by following a set schedule and not wasting time or effort trying to figure out what to do next.
She has also mastered the art of multitasking. “I also maximize my time by doubling up on tasks - like listening to audiobooks while cooking or folding laundry. Not only does it make chores go by faster, I (also) get to read!”
She shares that holding two conversations at the same time has become a superpower. “I have two chatty girls who are constantly vying to tell me something at the same time to credit for this ability. It has actually proven useful at work when I’m participating in a conference call but also responding to emails.”
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Letting go of perfection and enjoying the journey
“When you have a kid, everything changes. Your whole perspective on career, hobbies, habits, attitudes is all revisited and rewritten. It is humbling and empowering at the same time. Some days, you are just glad to make it to the end of the day with everyone still alive and the house is one piece. Then there are the other days when you burn the midnight oil for a side project because you want to make the world a better place for the next generation.” she says.
So despite being a planner and an organized person, motherhood has taught Camille to just enjoy the journey. “You have this vision of what you thought it would be like only to find reality is NOTHING like your vision. Learning to let go of this schedule I thought my baby should have, my standard of how clean the house ought to be, or where I should be in my career was the best thing that happened to me,” she adds.
When asked about her reaction to being recognized by TAP, here’s what Camille has to say: “I think all our stories are relevant and beautiful in their own right. If my story can provide a different perspective to support this view, I would love for others to know about it so they, too, can validate that they are doing A-OK just the way they are.”