Startup Parent

#017 — Core Value #5: Plans are important. And things rarely go according to plan. A wise doula told me that in preparing for birth, she encourages women to consider the range of birth experiences and possibilities. In this way, designating “preferences” instead of a “plan,” we would be able to plan for something that was, effectively, unplannable. Babies are the ultimate plan-changers! Inviting a...

#016 — Core Value #4: Life is not all hard labor, and it’s not an all-out hustle sprint. In pregnancy, there are distinct phases and changes, with deep periods of fatigue, moments of sickness, periods of high energy and excitement, and everything in between. When the days come when you’re set to deliver, the periods of labor and delivery represent an intense period of work for the mother birthing...

#015 — [10x10] Core Value #3. In today’s episode, we unpack Core Value: #3: Work-life balance is a myth. There is fit and there is tension. The strive towards some sort of perfect work/life balance is a myth and a fruitless exercise. Life is always changing, and our goals—many of them—are often in tension with each other. That tension often creates interesting results; for example, many women have...

#014 — [10x10] Core Value #2. In this special mini-series, we’re looking at the 10 Core Values of the Startup Pregnant Philosophy. These are the values that underscore everything we do, how we do it, and even how we design our interviews! In today’s episode, we unpack Core Value: #2: There is deep power in community and collaboration. By and large, we aren’t meant to go it alone. The myth of and b...

#013 — Core Value #1. In this special mini-series, we’re looking at the 10 Core Values of the Startup Pregnant Philosophy. These are the values that underscore everything we do, how we do it, and even how we design our interviews! Over the next ten days, we’ll be releasing short 10-minute episodes looking at each of the core values of our philosophy. In today’s episode, we unpack the first Core Va...

#012 — We want the best for our kids. We can’t bear to listen to them cry, we don’t want to see them hurt—not even for a second.  But is it really best to swoop in and save the day every time our kiddos face a challenging situation? Or are we missing an opportunity to teach them patience as well as the related skills of coping with frustration and delayed gratification? Are we missing an opportuni...

#011 — How often do you stop and really tune into your body, taking time to recognize what you are feeling and how it is impacting you physically?  What if we allowed ourselves radical honesty without judgement? What if we gave ourselves the space to tell the truth about what we are feeling—without having to do something about it right this minute? What if we took advantage of this feminine tool a...

#010 — Motherhood transforms you. There is no ‘bouncing back’ to your previous life. Being a mom requires that you ‘transform forward,’ creating a new, better version of yourself. And the feminine qualities essential to motherhood—loving, caring, nurturing, listening—also happen to be the qualities that the world is most yearning for in business, politics and the social sphere.  Stephanie Jhala en...

#009 — Having children invites chaos into your life. So if your work focuses on minimalism and simplicity, how do you align those themes with the bedlam of being a parent? For Erin Boyle, she says she seeks out the simple moments: The time spent reading stories to your kiddos at bedtime. The moments when your child is calmly eating cantaloupe. The five minutes in the morning you spend sitting on t...

#008 — “My greatest satisfaction has not come—ever—from doing more. It’s come from being really present doing the things that matter the most.” It’s hard to argue with Kate Northrup’s contention that the eight-hour workday doesn’t work from a productivity standpoint. Study after study shows that only three (or so) of those eight hours are productive ones, and I think we can all get on board with t...

#007 — Rebuilding war-torn Columbia. How do you work your way back after experiencing the severe trauma of a great loss? What if that trauma was wrapped up in living through an armed conflict, either as a victim or aggressor? And what if a culture of violence was the only life you’d ever known? Today we talk to Natalia Quiñones of Dunna: Creative Alternatives for Peace. The people of Colombia have...

#006 — Tamsen Webster, the Executive Producer of the oldest and one of the largest locally organized TED talk events in the world, describes herself as "pattern-driven." But pregnancy changed everything. Today, we talk about her journey into parenting, and how her ideas for pregnancy (and even marriage) were very different than reality. She dove into her first pregnancy with a plan: she would have...

#005 — Why do we only show outgoing, extroverted, and confident business people as the model for success? In a world where most successful entrepreneurs and business owners are afraid to show any weakness, Morra Aarons-Mele is a breath of fresh air. The author of  Hiding in the Bathroom: An Introvert’s Roadmap to Getting Out There (When You’d Rather Stay Home), Morra admits that we’re all just fak...

#004 — Most new moms head back to work about 12 weeks after giving birth. The problem is that this is often several months before women are physically and emotionally ready. Scientific data and anecdotal evidence point to the six-month mark as the time when moms start to feel adept again (and for some women, it takes longer). The United States is one of the worst countries in the world (bottom thr...

#003 — "If you can parent, you can be an entrepreneur: because you don’t know anything about what you’re doing, and you’re doing the most important job in the world." Nicole Walters is a mother of three kids and the CEO of Monetize Thyself, a consulting firm that specializes in income makeovers. I met Nicole at a conference for bloggers, and her energy and enthusiasm made us fast friends. Her unco...

#002 — Thirty percent of talented women drop out of the workforce, not because they want to, but because the way work looks is outdated, flawed, and fails women and families on a regular basis. And a full 70% of those women would still be working if they had access to better (or any) workplace flexibility. What would it do for our economy and businesses if we weren’t losing so ambitious, committed...

#001 — Four reasons why we decided to start a podcast, and why we need new stories of work, parenting, pregnancy, and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship and parenting are filled with deep, difficult, and joyful lessons about what it means to be a person and make work in the world. “We are just trying to figure it out one day at a time—one sleep-deprived, coffee-fueled, bleary-eyed day at a time.”...