Jelynn Sophia Malone on Running a Business and Being a New Mama

Everyone meet Jelynn Sophia Malone who left her life in Los Angeles where she was working in the entertainment industry to move back to her hometown of San Diego to fulfill her dreams of becoming a business owner. Not only is she running a growing and successful business, Mostra Coffee, she is also a new mama to her adorable baby girl Max Ameliana! Can you say inspiring?! I just had to interview her to hear about her business and find out how she does everything because being a mom in itself is a full-time job… am I right, mamas?!

(Jelynn interviewing the Black Mamba while hosting for Nike)

Tell us about your career in the entertainment industry:

I spent 9 years in Hollywood working professionally as a TV/film actor and TV host. I started my entertainment career hosting the Imagen Award nominated variety show “The Drop” on the cable network SiTV, for 5 seasons. Then I continued hosting for networks such as the TV Guide Channel, VH1, AMC, Altitude TV, Disney/ABC’s Soapnet. My most recent hosting work was being Nike’s official host interviewing Kobe Bryant and Blake Griffin, to name a few, during the NBA All Star Weekend, as well as hosting the cooking competition show, Kitchen Cookoff for msn.com and Hillshire Farms. While maintaining a steady hosting career, I pursued my dreams as a TV and film actor. My TV work includes: NBC’s Las Vegas, Days of our Lives, ABC’s Samantha Who? and Caveman, the FOX sitcom, Brothers and Nickelodeon’s Ned’s Declassified. I also held lead roles in the feature films Bar Starz and Grizzly Park. In 2013, I played character Agnes Chu on ABC’s General Hospital, Mrs. Pople on Nickelodeon’s Sam & Cat and Manisilat in the award-winning series, The Record Keeper.

When did you start your business and what made you decide you wanted to start one?

I took a big leap towards my life long entrepreneurial dreams of owning my own business in 2013. I found my business partner in one of my oldest and dearest friends, Beverly Magtanong. With Beverly being a professional opera singer and me being an actress, we were able to fuse our years of training, discipline, innovation, creativity and performance in entertainment field with our passion for building community, business and giving back. Together we found that combining all of these components with our deep love and appreciation for specialty coffee, we could best utilize our strengths and find complete fulfillment in what is now known as, Mostra Coffee. Working within an industry where most of our coffee comes from underdeveloped countries around the world, it also allows gives us the opportunity to give back and participate in the responsible efforts to improve the lives of those in need, as well as encourage and inspire people to become more socially conscious. Naturally, we chose the name, “Mostra” as it means performance, show, exhibition in Italian. High quality, fair trade, direct trade and freshly roasted specialty coffee is what Mostra Coffee is committed to bringing to North County San Diego. In a community where chain restaurants dominate each and every strip mall, Mostra Coffee thrives on providing our customers and clients with high quality products, the very best in customer service, education, experience and of course, performance! “Because the best performances offer the best in life.”

Tell us about your business, Mostra Coffee:

It’s a specialty coffee roasting company. We opened in Carmel Mountain Ranch after realizing there was a lack of specialty coffee in the northern part of San Diego. We are primarily roasters with an emphasis on wholesale, then recently opened our doors to the public after people just kept randomly showing up to Mostra Coffeee everyday wanting a cup of coffee. People in the craft beer industry and fans of craft beer know of Mostra Coffee because of our numerous beer collaborations. We have provided freshly roasted coffee to the biggest craft breweries in the business such as Stone Brewing Co., Green Flash, Karl Strauss, AleSmith Brewing, just to name a few. 4 out of the 5 Mostra partners went to Rancho Bernardo High School down the street. We all left San Diego to pursue other careers and then came back to start families and felt inspired to enrich the community that enriched us in our youth.

How is it being a new mama?

Being a new mama is the greatest job in the world. I’ve always wanted children, but had been so career driven that when it came down to deciding if my husband and I were gonna start trying for kids, I was hesitant. Once realizing that I would have more regret waiting longer to have a family and possibly running into the situation where my grandparents might not be around down the road to experience it was something I couldn’t live with. Family is everything to me and my grandparents are like my parents too. Being a new mom has been challenging, yet my heart is bursting at the seams. My daughter Max is such a sweet baby. I am obsessed with watching her grow and learn something new each and every day. I am totally that mom who stares at her while she’s sleeping and smothers her with kisses and sniffs all day long. At first, not sleeping was the hardest thing in the world, but now it’s so normal that I have figured out how to function on broken sleep. I used to be the heaviest sleeper who couldn’t wake up for school, and here I am now sleeping with one eye open and ready to tend to this little angel baby.

How do you manage being a new mama and a business owner?

I am not quite sure how I manage being a mom and a business owner. Am I managing this? Haha… Lets see.. I don’t sleep. I stay up way later than I should because once Max is down for the night, she is down. So, that’s the only baby-free time I have. My husband, James doesn’t have a regular 9-5 job either, so thankfully he is around to help me as much as he can. He is so awesome. Quick story… Mostra was catering coffee for a big Audi event at a the Rancho Bernardo Inn for a week. I had to be there every morning by 5:45 am. I am breastfeeding and Max doesn’t always take a bottle unless it’s freshly pumped milk, so pumping milk was not an option. She was younger and still waking up every 2 hours to eat, so James and I had to lug Max to RB Inn every morning while he watched her in the car. I would work the Mostra Coffee bar and then run to the car to nurse when all the Audi executives would all go to do their media presentations. Then, run back in to work again, while James walked around RB Inn or napped with her in the car. My business partner had a baby the day after me and she had her husband (also my business partner) stay home and drive their baby back and forth to RB Inn for her to nurse. Haha… we kept thinking, if these people knew what we were having to do. Hustle mode. I have the greatest husband in the world.

Advice for moms who want to start a business:

Get help. There is no way I could do this without my husband, James, my two sisters, Gabbi and Christel who help me anytime they can and my Mom, who helps watch Max at Mostra Coffee while we are open on Saturdays. I am hoping to make enough money to pay my mom more than what she’s making now so I can have her help all the time. The hustle of owning a business can be pretty intense that they only way to get it all done without losing your mind, is to have people help you with the baby. I want Max around me all the time, so luckily she is being babysat wherever I am, but she’s getting bigger and bigger so I’m not sure how this will work once she’s mobile. Also, just take it one day at a time. Each day is a new adventure. Having a baby and a business is like having two infants at once. They both need your full attention, so try to make sure you get all your bases covered so things don’t slip through the cracks. Lastly, go for it! Don’t get discouraged! Yeah, it’s tiring to do both, but you’d be tired anyways.

Love it!! I’m definitely stocking up on Mostra Cold Brew once baby Landon gets here some time next month… I’ll be needing all that caffeine as a mom of 2 under 2! LOL. For more info, here is their website MostraCoffee.com! And make sure to follow their IG accounts… @official_mostracoffee & @jelynnsophia 🙂