Alex had a 56-hour labor, a planned home birth that ended in a hospital transfer, and a son born with an infection in his lungs who was immediately rushed to the NICU. She was at home pumping around the clock, receiving contradictory information from lactation consultants, and ready to quit breastfeeding entirely — until one lactation consultant drove 90 minutes to her house and changed everything. Her husband Ian, a tech builder with zero background in women’s health, watched all of this and thought: I can fix this.

That’s how Milkwise was born.

In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Alex and Ian — the August cover feature of Mothered Magazine and the first husband and wife co-founder duo on the podcast — building MilkWise (milkwise.care), a comprehensive perinatal care platform that connects new moms with lactation consultants, doulas, pelvic floor specialists, postpartum mental health support, and more — all in one place, insurance handled.

In this episode:

* A 56-hour labor, a NICU baby, and the breastfeeding struggle that sparked a company

* Why 60% of breastfeeding moms quit in the first few weeks — and what’s actually behind that number

* Ian’s honest confession: “I thought you were being dramatic. Just stick him on there.” And how he changed

* How the industrialization of pregnancy eroded the village that used to surround every new mother

* What Milkwise actually does: one platform, longitudinal care, insurance managed, from lactation to postpartum mental health

* Why they shelved the company for a year after their son was born — and why that was the right call

* Building as a married couple: swim lanes, trust, and why Ian stepped into the CEO role while Alex runs marketing and family

* Alex on leaving Silicon Valley Bank to be more present at home — and the fear of being less valued without a title

* Why Ian’s decade as a single dad made him the only husband who truly understood the value of what Alex was doing at home

* The big vision: make the perinatal journey so supported, so loving, and so comprehensive that women want to get pregnant just to go through it

* Long term: a global digital avatar delivering the best of perinatal wisdom to women in every corner of the world for a dollar a month

Alex and Ian are the cover feature of the August issue of Mothered Magazine — read the full interview at motheredmagazine.com.

📲 Find MilkWise: milkwise.care and on Instagram @milkwisecare

🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time.

#Breastfeeding #LactationSupport #PostpartumSupport #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMagazine #MotheredMedia #NICUMom #MomFounder #MilkWise #PerinatalCare #PostpartumDepression #MomEntrepreneur #HusbandAndWife #FemTech

Sophie Epton found out at 18 weeks pregnant that her son had a rare heart condition. He had open heart surgery at nine days old and spent 41 days in NICU. And then at 10 months postpartum, when life finally slowed down — the postpartum depression hit like a ton of bricks. For 18 months she held it together on the outside while falling apart at night. And when she finally came out the other side, she looked around and realised there was nothing built for women like her. So she built it herself.

In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Sophie, founder of Elstori — a postpartum support app taking women from pregnancy through year five and beyond, because postpartum isn’t six weeks. It’s for life.

In this episode:

* The NICU experience nobody prepares you for — and how tunnel vision kept her going through the impossible

* What postpartum depression actually looks like when you seem fine on the outside and are falling apart at night

* Why everything that exists for postpartum women is either too clinical or too cutesy — and what she built instead

* What Elstori actually does: prep before birth, week-by-week guidance after, a 24/7 emotional support chat, and a matched village of 4-6 moms in the same season as you

* Why finding a therapist during postpartum depression is like dating — and why Elstori solves that before the crisis hits

* Why doctors aren’t trained to support mothers after birth — and why that means someone else has to step up

* Building with a postpartum advisory board of doulas, midwives, and mental health specialists

* Her big goal: to be the name every woman hears when she walks into a hospital and knows exactly where to go to feel held

Sophie is also featured in the August issue of Mothered Magazine — read the full interview at motheredmagazine.com.

📲 Find Elstori: elstori.com | @elstori on Instagram & TikTok | 7-day free trial available

🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time.

#PostpartumDepression #PostpartumSupport #MaternalMentalHealth #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMagazine #MotheredMedia #NICUMom #MomFounder #PostpartumRecovery #NewMomSupport #MomEntrepreneur #FemaleFounder #Elstori #MomMentalHealth

Booking kids’ camps, classes, and after-school activities is a nightmare. You’re deep in Google results, creating accounts just to find out there’s no availability, calling numbers that go nowhere. Meanwhile DoorDash exists. Molly Morse noticed that gap, called her co-founder Amy Kiska, and Recess was born — a marketplace that lets parents find and book kids’ activities in one place, in real time, no phone calls required.

In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Molly and Amy, co-founders of Recess (hello-recess.com — currently in Texas and on a mission to be with every family in America within five years.

In this episode:

* How Recess works: real-time inventory, direct booking, and a national school calendar that surfaces gaps in your childcare before they sneak up on you

* Why working parents average 10 days of PTO against 90+ school-free weekdays a year — and why the math is brutal

* Gap day camps: the feature they built for those random Mondays and Tuesdays off that nobody plans for

* Amy started building Recess at six months pregnant — and they went out to fundraise 10 days after she gave birth

* What it’s actually like to raise VC money as a pregnant founder, and why revealing a pregnancy can tank your chances

* How they picked investors who are also parents living the same problem they’re solving

* What “let it burn” means as early stage startup advice — and why they think about it every single day

* Work-life integration: why they work all the time and parent all the time — and why that works for them

* Their big shit goal: every family in America within five years — not if, when

Molly and Amy are also featured in the August issue of Mothered Magazine — read the full interview at motheredmagazine.com.

📲 Find Recess: hello-recess.com | @hellorecess on Instagram

🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time.

#MomFounder #FemaleFounder #StartupLife #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMagazine #MotheredMedia #VCFunding #WorkingMoms #KidsCamps #MomEntrepreneur #WomenInBusiness #Recess #AfterSchool #SummerCamp

She had a high-flying career in international higher education, a son diagnosed with a rare lung disease at her 20-week scan, 18 months out of the office navigating pregnancy, PTSD, major pediatric surgery, and a return to work so unsupportive it gave her a full-blown motherhood penalty — being undermined, managed by the person who covered her mat leave, and asked to fly to Pittsburgh three days postpartum while breastfeeding. She said no. And everything shifted from there.

In episode two of Doing Big Shit, host Alexa Starks sits down with Alex Morgan — co-host of the Mambition Podcast, consultant, coach, and the woman who took voluntary redundancy, said goodbye to corporate, and is now building something entirely on her own terms.

Alex’s big shit goal: in-person retreats for mothers. Nature, spa, nourishing food, real community, and space for women who never get to put themselves first to finally do exactly that.

In this episode:

* The motherhood penalty in real time — what it actually looks like when the system turns on you after mat leave

* Having a son diagnosed with a rare lung disease at 20 weeks — and what that 18-month journey built in her

* Why “having it all” is a complete myth — and what 100 interviews with women taught her about the juggle

* How she’s building the Mambition community before monetizing it — and why she’s doing it that way deliberately

* The big shit goal: intimate retreats for mothers in the UK — yoga, meditation, real rest, real connection

* The anatomy of building a retreat from scratch: venue, program design, pricing, and that first small intimate group

* The salesy bit — why pitching yourself feels icky and what it actually takes to get comfortable with it

* Paying the cringe tax: why you just have to do it badly first

* What it means to say your price with a full stop at the end and not rush to discount it

* Why surviving everything she’s been through makes asking for what she’s worth the easiest thing she’s ever done

Find Alex: Mambition Podcast | LinkedIn: Alex Morgan | Substack: Shy Bairns Get Nowt

🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time.

#DoingBigShit #MotherhoodPenalty #MomEntrepreneur #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMagazine #MotheredMedia #WorkingMoms #MomFounder #MomRetreats #WomenInBusiness #PostpartumLife #MomCommunity #FemaleFounder

Welcome to Doing Big Shit — a brand new series inside Between Meetings & Motherhood where host Alexa Starks sits down with founders, builders, and visionaries who are doing exactly that. First up: Synne Linden, a Norwegian-born, Australia-raised, 13-year entrepreneur and founder of Tidal — a matchmaking agency launching on International Equal Pay Day, September 18th, with one mission: more money in the hands of women.

Synne has been running her own show since before most people had figured out what they wanted to do with their lives. She developed her own Empathy First Sales Methodology, built a global women’s sales community, and then decided that wasn’t big enough. So she built Tidal — a category-defining business that matches business owners with vetted, certified women experts so that every transaction shifts the global wealth scales one deal at a time.

This episode is about what doing big shit actually looks like from the inside — the strategy, the fear, the burnout, the goalpost moving, and why none of it is as glamorous as the boss babes on your feed want you to think.

In this episode:

* What “doing big shit” actually means — and why big goals have to be a little scary to count

* Why Synne says pretty much anything is possible — it’s just more or less work

* The difference between big picture thinking and actually executing: breaking 237 to-do tasks into momentum

* How Tidal works: empathy-first matchmaking that puts women experts in front of the right clients

* Why teaching women to sell wasn’t big enough — and what she built instead

* The problem with boss babes, overnight success stories, and hustle culture pyramid schemes

* Energy maths: why spreading yourself across 10 focus areas means building momentum in none of them

* Being hospitalized with burnout — and why “don’t burn out” became a non-negotiable SMART goal

* The goalpost-moving trap that high achievers fall into — and how to actually celebrate what you’ve built

* RTT: the rapid transformation therapy session that removed her imposter syndrome block in one sitting

* Why women say “I was so lucky” when they should be saying “I’m really good at this”

Tidal launches September 18th on International Equal Pay Day. Follow the journey and become a Tidal Ambassador on LinkedIn: Synne Linden.

Follow Synne on Instagram

Join the Tidal Waitlist

🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time.

#DoingBigShit #WomenInBusiness #MomEntrepreneur #FemaleFounder #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMagazine #MotheredMedia #EqualPay #WomenWealth #StartupLife #MomPodcast #Entrepreneurship #SalesStrategy #WomenEmpowerment #Tidal

What if the secret to raising confident, emotionally resilient kids isn’t doing more — it’s doing less? In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Sarah Lucas, childhood education expert with over 25 years in the classroom, author of Atomic Parenting, and the woman parents have been begging to write a book for decades.

Sarah breaks down why modern parenting culture is making us worse at parenting — and what to do instead. No jargon, no guilt, no unrealistic standards. Just real, actionable advice from someone who has seen it all from both sides of the classroom door.

In this episode:

* Why your parenting instinct is your most powerful tool — and how social media is making you distrust it

* The case for lowering the bar: why “good enough” parenting is actually great parenting

* Reflection over perfection — why repairing mistakes matters more than never making them

* Potty training, fussy eaters, night terrors, sibling rivalry, sleep issues — what actually works

* Screen time and social media: what Sarah wishes she’d done differently with her own teens

* Why overscheduled kids show up to school on Monday more wired than rested

* The dangerous myth of “enjoy every minute” — and why it’s okay to admit some parts of parenting are hard

* From toddlers to teenagers: how emotional co-regulation skills translate at every age

* Why children need boredom, slowness, and free play more than another activity

* What’s next: a TED-style parenting and education platform launching in Malaga this November

Sarah’s book Atomic Parenting is available now at atomicparenting.net and on Amazon. She is also featured in the July issue of Mothered Magazine — read the full interview at motheredmagazine.com.

📲 Find Sarah: atomicparenting.net | @atomic_parenting on Instagram

🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — and is a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time.

She had the career most people dream about — McKinsey consultant, Alibaba leadership program, expat life in Shanghai, all the external markers of success. Then she had a baby. And six months later, she was standing in a forest telling her husband she wanted to quit everything.

In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Babette Lockefeer, leadership facilitator and matrescence coach, and founder Matermorphosis, a group coaching program helping ambitious mothers navigate the identity shift of motherhood and come out the other side more themselves than ever before.

In this episode:

* What matrescence actually is — and why knowing the word is just the beginning

* The three phases of the matrescence arc: the shock, the long foggy middle, and what’s waiting on the other side

* Why so many high-achieving women feel like they’re failing on all fronts after becoming a mom — and why it’s not their fault

* The invisible motherhood script: why it’s designed to be impossible and why trying harder only makes it worse

* What happens when you try to go back to your old self — and why it creates resentment

* The difference between old ambition and new ambition — and why the second kind feels so much better

* How Babette is raising three boys to see caretaking as something both parents do

* Why matrescence is not something to survive — it’s the most powerful growth opportunity of your life

* How to start navigating it: the arc of matrescence and the map she uses with every client

* What a care-centric world actually looks like — and how supported mothers are the ones who go build it

Babette’s next international cohort starts in September. Download her free map of matrescence here: https://www.matermorphosis.org/matrescence

Babette is also featured in the July issue of Mothered Magazine — read the full interview at motheredmagazine.com.

📲 Find Babette: LinkedIn — Babette Lockefeer and on Instagram

Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder and CEO of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time.

She had four kids back to back. She’s a maternal mental health therapist, a keynote speaker, a global clinical researcher, and she’s doing it all while raising a seven-year-old, a five-year-old, a two-year-old, and a six-month-old. In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Tiffany Williamson, M.Ed., LCMHCA, founder of Transformative Destiny — the woman who became the therapist she needed when she was a new mom herself.

This one is raw, real, and full of the things nobody puts in the books.

In this episode:

* What nobody warns you about when you become a mom — and why the books only tell half the story

* The identity shift of motherhood and what it really feels like to lose yourself and find a new, stronger version

* Postpartum depression vs. postpartum anxiety vs. postpartum rage — why we only talk about one of them

* How to prepare your village before the baby arrives — and what real support actually looks like

* Being “touched out” with multiple kids: what it means, why it happens, and how to ask for what you need

* Why high-achieving women struggle hardest to ask for help — and how to unlearn people-pleasing in motherhood

* The difference between postpartum after baby one versus baby four — and what confidence looks like on the other side

* Why giving 100% in every role every day is the fastest road to burnout

* What she hopes her kids see when they watch her build her career alongside motherhood

* The leadership skill motherhood built most: time management so efficient it’s almost supernatural

* What she wishes someone had told her: “It’s gonna be okay. You will find yourself again.”

Tiffany is also featured in the July issue of Mothered Magazine — read the full interview at motheredmagazine.com.

📲 Find Tiffany: tiffanywco.com | @transformativedestiny on Instagram | Tiffany Williamson on LinkedIn

She got angry. Really angry. And instead of swallowing it, she built a business out of it. In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Vanessa Rio — cover feature of the July issue of Mothered Magazine, founder of Mothering Minds, and the woman quietly solving one of the biggest gaps in maternal mental health care in the UK.

Vanessa went from journalist to maternal mental health entrepreneur after experiencing firsthand how completely unsupported new mothers are — and how long the NHS wait lists really are. She built Mothering Minds on no funding, part-time hours, and a team of passionate therapists who took pay cuts just to work with this client group. One year in: fully booked, revenue generating, and growing entirely on organic reach.

Oh, and she’s doing it all from a beach in Palawan, Philippines — with a four-year-old.

In this episode:

* Why the NHS mental health system leaves most new mothers completely without support

* What Mothering Minds does differently: no thresholds, no waitlists, self-referral from day one

* Why she loves it when moms reach out preventatively — before things get hard

* How she built the business on no funding, imperfect systems, and pure goodwill — and booked sessions almost immediately

* Growing a team of specialist perinatal therapists who took pay cuts to join because they believed in the mission

* Achieving organic growth with zero ads — because they were the only ones doing this

* What channeling rage into purpose actually looks like as a founder

* Uprooting her entire life and moving from the UK to the Philippines with a toddler — and why she’d do it again

* Her daughter’s first day of school, learning Tagalog, and what slowing down has given their family

* What’s next: training for adjacent professionals to better identify and support maternal mental health

Vanessa is the cover feature of the July issue of Mothered Magazine — read the full exclusive interview at motheredmagazine.com.

📲 Find Vanessa: motheringminds.uk | LinkedIn — Vanessa Rio

Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder and CEO of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time.

Nobody tells you the real truth about building a business while raising small children. Not the highlight reel version — the actual truth. In this solo episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks breaks down the 8 things she wishes someone had told her before she started building Mothered Media with two toddlers at home.

This isn't a motivational pep talk. It's the unfiltered, been-in-the-trenches version of what it actually takes.

In this episode:

• Why consistency and discipline in the early days matter more than any strategy or tool you'll find online
• How to stand out in a crowded market — and why doing what everyone else is doing is the fastest way to stay invisible
• The power of showing your mess: why vulnerability and openness build more trust than a polished brand ever will
• The truth about revenue — how long it actually takes, and how to survive the gap before it's consistent
• Why visibility across multiple platforms isn't optional, and how to build a presence strategy that gets your name out there
• The unsexy secret weapon every mom founder needs: networking, and how to do it when you have zero time
• Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable — why the research and learning phase never actually ends
• How to fail fast, adapt quickly, and pivot without losing momentum

If you're a mom in the early stages of building something — or stuck in the messy middle — this one is for you.

Connect & Learn More:

Alexa on IG

Alexa on LinkedIn

Mothered Media IG

Mothered Magazine IG

Interested in being featured in the next issue of Mothered Magazine? Learn more here https://www.motheredmagazine.com/be-featured/

#MomEntrepreneur #BuildingABusiness #MomFounder #WorkingMoms #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMagazine #ExecutiveMoms #MomBoss #FemaleFounder #StartupLife #BusinessTips #MomsInBusiness #Entrepreneurship #SoloEpisode