Let’s take it back to when phone books were still a thing. Naming a business is the most crucial part because somehow, and in some way, it will dictate its success. If some of you grew up in the 90s and the early 2000s, you must have heard of phone books.
It is widely used as a directory of businesses, organizations, people, and any information needed to communicate over the phone. As with most lists, they are usually in alphabetical order. Then, there was Monica, a young girl who thought of the most brilliant idea.
She named her father’s pest control business, which will surely land in the phonebook directory’s topmost portion. Many of you don’t know this, but Monica was the brains behind the brand name “Abra Kadabra,” which we all know now as “Abra Kadabra Pest and Wildlife” or “Abra Kadabra Environmental Services.” The rest is history.
Abra Kadabra has been in the business for over 20 years and operates in different locations across Minnesota. Now, Abra Kadabra is owned by Monica’s high school sweetheart, her first love, Matthew Eickman.
Currently, Monica is somehow “The First Lady” of the business, as some of its creative ideas come from her. In 2023, Monica started her podcast, Momma-sota, which features educational and relatable content about all things parenting.
It offers an authentic, unfiltered look at parenting, embracing the mess, chaos, and beauty of motherhood. According to its page description on Spotify, it is a “judgment-free community for honest, relatable stories and advice on raising strong, independent children.”
Momma-Sota grew from a small lifestyle page into a home of refreshing, new content on motherhood and parenting. Currently, Momma-Sota has a solid line-up of podcast content and around 2,500 followers on its Facebook page, where it is most commonly active.
Born and raised in Minnesota, Monica Lois Sykora Eickman grew up in a humble home in Brooklyn Park. She’s the middle child of all three girls, who are all into sports. Monica finished a degree in Sports Exercise Science.
When attending school, Monica wanted to be an ophthalmologist and undergo Lasik eye surgery. However, she decided not to pursue this as she didn’t want to spend another four years studying.
As a college student, Monica was highly active in sports and physical activities, such as Basketball, Soccer, and Dancing. As mentioned before, Monica is married to Abra Kadabra’s CEO, Matthew Eickman, and they have three lovely children: Malakai James, Athalia Mae, and Jezebel Eileen.
She’s a full-time mom with colorful facets as a wife, mother, and woman. In this feature article, we will uncover the many layers of Monica’s personality, her involvement in Abra Kadabra, building her lifestyle brand, and some tips that can be helpful to current and future parents.
The Story Behind Momma-Sota
When Monica got pregnant with her first child, she had a serious talk with her husband, Matt, about deciding that she would no longer go back to work so she could fully immerse and focus on taking care of their first baby, Malakai.
Seven and a half years have passed since Monica was behind a desk, and two years ago, Monica and Matt began meeting and working with Todd Rucker weekly. In these meetings, Todd frequently asked Monica about what she’d been doing or what she’d been up to over the weekend. Monica found herself answering those questions involving her kids.
As she would describe, it’s her whole life. Every day, she’s with her kids. From that, Todd started to recommend and push Monica toward leveraging her experience as a parent for digital content. He finds Monica’s stories exciting and how she’s very passionate about her children.
At first, Monica was slightly reluctant as it was out of her comfort zone. But then, she went ahead and started a Facebook page and grew her followers over time. She’s used that page as her audience base and began creating the podcasts by herself and inviting some friends over as guests.
Now, many people are engaging with Momma-sota’s diverse content daily. Momma-sota has become Monica’s safe space and diary of her life as a mother of three wonderful children. She always wants the content to be authentic and highly relatable, which is evident in how its audiences respond to it.
In the future, Monica and her team plan to grow Momma-sota as a lifestyle magazine that still latches on to its current creative direction but in expanded forms of content executions such as written blogs, vlogs, and more. Momma-sota is certainly something to watch out for, as Monica holds a genius mind.
On Parenting and Womanhood
Women are colorful and diverse. In many eras, they have been portrayed in many ways. There are strong and confident women, creative and intelligent women, logical and strategic women, and many more.
In today’s age, women’s empowerment has been the strongest. There are a lot of initiatives, laws, and organizations that protect and prioritize women’s rights. Only a woman can bear children. That alone is an excruciating process – from carrying a child in your womb for nine long months to long days and sleepless nights of breastfeeding and nurturing them.
As Monica mentioned, the United States culture and perception of motherhood and women shifted. Monica specified that most people perceive a stay-at-home mother as someone with lots of time since they do not work a 9-5 job.
These opinions mean well, and Monica sees this in a positive light. Sometimes, people assume that stay-at-home moms have lots of time to sit around the house, can maintain a sparkling clean home, and have ample time to do hair and nails.
This comes from a presumption that women like Monica, the CEO’s wife, pay someone to look after their children, but that is not the case.
I have seen how Monica and Matt are all hands on deck when providing their three children with the proper care and attention. With the creation of Momma-sota, Monica was able to debunk all these myths about stay-at-home moms, and she’s shown and demonstrated what it looks like to be a woman like her. Monica emphasized how much she’s dedicated most of her life to her wonderful children. And with Momma-sota, she can share it with the rest of the world.
“Coming up with those ideas and those additional things I go through my day, and with my kids, on the days something happens, and I’m like – that would have been good content, or that would have been an awesome piece. That’s exactly what it is, and I’m still trying to find that balance between not trying to stage my life and becoming 100% authentic as much as possible.”
Monica shared one of her favorite life quotes: “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything all at once.” She also told young parents how to manage their time and organize their chores more realistically.
“I can do the dishes, mow the lawn, sweep the floor, take my kids to the park, and cook meals. I know how to do all of those things, and I can accomplish all of those things, but that doesn’t mean I can do all of those things. All in a week are all in a day. So, just figuring out when you can’t complete tasks when you need to ask for help or delegate to somebody else.”
A Walk Through Monica’s Day
Parents, especially new ones, seek ways to make life easier. One way to do this is to reach out to people, find a community to relate to, or browse the internet. In this part, Monica shares her day-to-day life as the wife of Abra Kadabra’s CEO, the face behind Momma-sota, and a mother of three children.
The kids get up by themselves at around 6-6:30 AM each day and get dressed. (Very disciplined, like their parents).
They eat a big, typical breakfast, including bacon, sausage, eggs, and pancakes every morning. Malik (the eldest son) has a backpack packed with his snacks, and Monica drops the kids off at school.
On Mondays, Monica grocery shops after dropping off the kids at school. On Tuesdays, Monica goes to a forest group, and Wednesdays and Thursdays are more relaxed for Monica to mentally prepare for recording a podcast for Momma-sota.
These days, Monica finds time to do different activities for the girls while waiting for Malakai to be picked up from practice. These activities include going to a library, playing with neighbors, going to a pool when it’s warm out, taking lunchtime naps, and having snack time.
Finding the Right Interests For Kids
Having kids is the best gift ever. But having a gifted child is a different story. Some parents see their children with special talents and interests they want to hone while they’re young, and when they get older, they get to choose who they want to be based on their passions and desires.
“At 10 years old, kids are expected to be pretty competitive. And if they’re trying soccer for the first time, it’s at least here in America unless they’re naturally gifted. You don’t try a sport at 10, and you enjoy it and become part of a team,” Monica said.
This is one classic example of starting the kids young—not to the point of putting pressure on them to try things but to give them a chance to pick a hobby outside of school. Once they’re younger, they can be more moldable, and as Monica suggests, 10 years old can be a little too late to suggest that a kid try new hobbies. She recommends trying it for a sport, art, or a hobby when your kids are 6 to 7.
Monica has found sports to be a natural tendency to choose for Malakai, as she is into it and has experience with it herself. It was rewarding because she’d seen Malakai excel in that area.
Monica ensures that her kids are involved in different activities so they have something to look forward to each time they finish classes or during semestral breaks.
When signing up for activities, she adds the names of the three kids together, finishes a season of that activity, and assesses whether they want to continue.
That trick allows the kids to try different activities and determine what they want to do.
Parenting and Discipline Styles
Many parents have their parenting styles and ways of disciplining their children. These mostly depend on culture, family background, number of children, and other factors.
“We try to model the same behavior that we want to see from our children,” Monica said.
She said that as parents, they like to continue trying to control their emotions by talking through things and behaviors.
They use timeouts, breaks, and many other methods. One example is sending the kids to their room or any way to have them, as parents, decompress and think through the conversation they want to have with the kids rather than exploding on them.
“We work on many natural consequences to giving them choice and autonomy in a space where it’s still not compromising their safety.”
However, according to Monica, whenever something goes wrong or someone breaks a toy or other object because they are using it, she recommends stopping using that toy and giving an explicit reason as to why they need to take care of things better.
That is followed by an explanation and comforting them whenever the kids are upset about it.
Monica said that Matthew and herself are in a place where they are becoming more precise in setting expectations and boundaries. Additionally, they take the time to teach the kids lessons on finances and life responsibilities without making it a burden on them because it’s their job as parents to provide, but as a way to help them understand that they’re blessed to have a life they currently have.
Monica shared a more vulnerable side of this story by narrating some instances where the kids would ask questions like, “Why does Dad always work?” And she said, “I’m able to stay home because Dad works so hard, so we can have the house that we have, and we have the cars that we have, and we have food on our table because Dad’s working.”
She also shared one instance in which Malachi said, “Mom, wouldn’t it be great if everything in the world only cost one penny?”
She answers: “What Mom is wearing right now are three rings, two pairs of earrings, a pair of pants, and a pair of socks, so I have 12 articles of clothing, which means Mom costs 12 cents.”
“Daddy can do 12 jobs in a day, so Daddy has to work for one day for Mommy just to wear one outfit. How many days does that have to work for Mom to wear her outfit? Dad to wear his outfit? All three of you to wear your outfits. Not to mention, we’re driving in the car, we have gas in the car, there’s a bag in the car, and what’s in the bag.”
Monica created this logical explanation in three minutes to help Malakai understand that what they have surrounding them requires time and energy to earn.
She finished that explanation by saying: “Daddy would have to work half a year. If he only got paid one cent for every job he did, we would buy everything for one cent.”
It’s genius how Monica put things into perspective and found creative ways to explain complicated questions to her kids. Our team also got that chance to ask about the future.
For example, who among the three kids gets to inherit Abra Kadabra? It was just a fun question to lighten the conversation. Monica answered in the most specific, narrative way of another core memory she had with her kids, where each Malakai, Athalia, and Jezebel would choose among the current three locations Abra Kadabra has.
It’s a perfect fit for them at the moment.
Even if these kids still don’t fully grasp what an inheritance means, at least they care and are fully aware of what their parents do.
Matt is set to go to Colorado for a conference that week of our interview, which means the rest of the family will tag along. In their set-up, they’ll go together to Colorado for family time for the conference. When Matt needs to focus on his conference, Monica and the kids will leave and return to Minnesota alone.
And that makes up a perfect balance.
In Conclusion
If there is one thing that sums up Monica, she is quite a Kaleidoscope. She’s filled with color because she’s creative, and geometric shapes define her logical mind. What she does with her kids is something to look after, and many parents can learn something from her. The creation of Momma-sota opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Right now, it serves as a library of content for new mothers and parents, but who knows? Maybe in the future, it’ll grow into something as big as Abra Kadabra.
This article is the fourth part of our employee spotlight series, where we get candid with Abra Kadabra’s personalities and uncover their stories. Stay tuned for more.
We want to thank Monica Eickman for giving us the chance to uncover her stories candidly and personally. Follow Momma-sota on Facebook and listen to its podcasts on Spotify.
If you have any pest and wildlife-related concerns, call us at 763 – 363 – 4375 or schedule an appointment.
We appreciate your support for Abra Kadabra Environmental Services. We won Gold Minnesota’s Best under the Pest Control Category.
