Startup Parent

#204 — Marisa Renee Lee is the author of Grief is Love: Living with Loss, a book that guides readers through the pain of loss and offers a unique perspective on what healing truly means. A former appointee in the Obama White House, Marisa has served in various leadership roles, including Deputy Director of Private Sector Engagement and Senior Advisor on the Domestic Policy Council. She is also the...

#202 — I'm a believer in ideas. I want more ideas, more insights, and more wisdom in the world. That's why my book philosophy is to buy as many of the ones that spark my intrigue as possible. Sometimes I buy them to donate them to a library. Other times I pretend I'm a book fairy, and I buy copies of books and drop them off at coffee shops to spark conversation and discovery. I buy them as gifts f...

#201 — Why are so many mothers screaming? Jessica Grose is no stranger to the struggles of American motherhood. Mothers today are expected to be perfect across all areas of life: the sole childcare providers to their kids, devoted wives and housekeepers, goddesses of the domestic realm, and of course, completely ambitious and driven employees. Jessica Grose is an opinion writer and journalist for...

#200 — Women have fought for equality in the workplace for a long time. From equal rights to equal pay, equality in the public sphere is a vocal conversation. But what about our not-so-public lives? What about equal partnership in our lives at home? For many women, there is nothing as maddening as coming home and realizing that there is the second shift and an incredible amount of work that dispro...

#199 — When we get pregnant, everybody talks about the baby. But what about the mother? Becoming a mother—even thinking about becoming one—involves complex feelings and emotions. But the “Bliss Myth” idea says that we should feel one note about becoming a parent, and that note is happiness and joy. If we don’t feel joy, and we don’t love motherhood, then are you a bad mom? No! It’s totally normal...

#198 — Lily Nichols is a Registered Dietician and Nutritionist, a Certified Diabetes Educator, and the author of two best-selling books on pregnancy nutrition. Her first bestseller, Real Food for Gestational Diabetes, has helped tens of thousands of women manage the condition, and went on to influence nutrition policies internationally. Lily’s next book, Real Food for Pregnancy, became #1 in the P...

#197 — Never drink coffee! Don’t have sushi! And cats are dangerous! Getting pregnant means entering into a world of advice and fear about all the things that could potentially go wrong. But what does the data say? Are these “pregnancy rules” based on truth or myth? When economist Emily Oster got pregnant, she also got curious about the advice she was getting. Some recommendations were based on he...

#196 — What do you really know about your menstrual cycle—and where did that information come from? Young girls and women are often taught about menstrual cycles in relationship to two things: periods and pregnancy. That is, don't get pregnant! And also, periods are gross.  This is such limited and almost useless information that doesn't support overall health and wellbeing. Plus, pills are often...

#195 — The Wise Women's Council is back this October 2022 and now accepting enrollments for our Fall Cohort. This is our first-ever winter cohort! Applications close October 12, 2022 this year. Apply at startupparent.com/wwc. Over the past five years, we’ve built a leadership incubator for women navigating both business and parenting. What started as a small group circle has blossomed into an incr...

#186 — The Wise Women's Council is back and accepting enrollments for our Class of 2022. We only open once per year for enrollment, so whether you've been a longtime listener or a brand-new listener, check out our leadership incubator and community for executive, entrepreneurial moms navigating both life and business at the same time.  Applications close March 1, 2022 this year. Apply at startuppa...

#185 — Vanessa Van Edwards learned right away that being an expert in behavioral science did not translate into innate parenting know-how. An author, speaker, and lead investigator with Science of People, Vanessa first appeared on Episode #96 of Startup Parent. She returned for Episode #104, in which she busted some myths about the first weeks of parenthood. Now, she’s opening up about the first y...

#184 — Growing up, James Breakwell never had to think about what jobs he wasn’t allowed to pursue. That changed when he had kids. As the father of four girls — one of whom recently said she wants to be a construction worker, and another who asked if she could be the Pope — he’s had to put himself in the shoes of the females surrounding him at home. As an author and internet personality behind the...

#183 — Creative dynamo Amber Anderson is the founder of Tote & Pears, a branding and marketing agency with a female focus. For her, becoming an entrepreneur was about more than the business. It was about creating possibilities for her family, establishing a set of core values for her family, and aligning her business values and family needs holistically. We first interviewed Amber on Episode #029...

#182 — How badly is this year, this pandemic, messing up our kids and us, as parents? Dr Courtney Bolton has a PhD in counseling clinical and school psychology, and she is a parenting coach focused on evidence-based strategies for the development of kids. She's a mom of four and she helps parents make contextual, intentional parenting decisions that work for them and their families. I asked her to...

#181 - Welcome back to co-host Cary Fortin! We're back for another friendship episode, where Sarah and Cary talk about business design, parenting stress, and dealing with the pandemic. In this episode, we take you behind the scenes of The Wise Women's Council and the Class of 2021, and the ways that we think about community design and creating strong containers for personal growth. If you haven't...

#180 — We are not the same as before. What we went through last year, and what we are still going through, is beyond comprehension and imagination. Many are still trying to survive, out of work, and picking up the pieces from last year. Many are grieving deeply and some of us don't have a clear roadmap for grief or recovery. It's been so long since I've been able to sit down and put together a rea...

#179 — When 2020 kicked off, we had big plans. One of those plans was growing Startup Pregnant and shifting our focus—and name—to cover what we were already focused on: parents. Today, I'm excited to tell you about the new name, and introduce you to Startup Parent. Here's the backstory of why we changed our name, what it took, and a sneak peek into what we're building next. Also, there are a lot o...

#178 — We are two weeks away from kicking off our fourth class of The Wise Women's Council, and we have an extraordinary group of people joining us for the year ahead. WWC is our year-long leadership incubator for women business leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators who are also navigating pregnancy, parenthood, and motherhood. We go deep together for the better part of a year and support women a...

#177 — Dr Shani Cooper is a Naval Veteran, Licensed Acupuncturist and Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, who began studying the human body in 2010. She is also the parent to Sage, an eight-month old who arrived in the world bright and early, two months before his estimated arrival window! Shani joined us last year in The Wise Women's Council when she was pregnant with her little one, who...

#176 — What's it like to run a team of 40 people, in a pandemic, with a 1-year-old, and get pregnant with your second kid? Jess Kamada, VP of Client Services at Bamboo, a top growth marketing firm based in Seattle, joined me for a special episode to talk about how she managed the pandemic and the last year. Jess joined us in the 2020 Wise Women's Council, and I asked her if she would be open to sh...

#175 — Welcome to 2021, a year that clearly isn't going to erase all of last year's frustrations, angers, or woes. This episode is an overview of some of the highlights from Startup Parent over 2020. Seven months without childcare is not easy, that's for sure, and while we didn't hit many of our goals, we had surprising revenue outcomes and we managed to hire more people than I'd planned on! In th...

#174 — The other day, I was reading an article on Time Magazine that I couldn't stop reading. Dr. Kyl Myers, an author, had written a long-form piece about gender, sex and parenting. Dr. Kyl Myers holds a PhD in sociology and studies and speaks about gender. They are an award-winning educator and a globally recognized advocate for gender creative parenting. Since 2016, Kyl has been speaking and wr...

#173 — Why is default motherhood so white in our cultural storytelling? In America, the word "mother" is nearly always describing white motherhood. That's what Nefertiti Austin, a single African American woman, discovered when she decided she wanted to adopt a Black baby boy out of the foster care system. Eager to finally join the motherhood ranks, Nefertiti was shocked when people started asking...

#172 — There's a coaching tool that I really love, that is an important concept to know and practice throughout your work and life. It's called "areas of control," and I'll share how to think about it in your life, relationships, and with regards to real-world events. From there, I want to give you one of my favorite practices—something to look forward to. Full show notes will be available at star...

#171 —  Lions + Tigers Panel Replay. School is back in session, and parents everywhere are fatigued, overwhelmed, and still in the lurch. Workplaces are less and less forgiving, and yet the problems created by the pandemic are still here. What's a working parent to do? Last week, Lions + Tigers, spearheaded by Brea Starmer, gathered a panel to talk about specific steps parents can take to strategi...