Are you looking for a better understanding of you, your husband, and your kids? Today we are interviewing Haleh Gianni, a certified human behavior specialist and Life & Business coach. Haleh focuses on helping singles make conscious decisions about their personal and love lives, couples to enhance their relationships, and businesses to create cohesive and collaborative team environments. Today, we will be talking about addressing the daily challenges in motherhood while maintaining our energy, managing multiple perceptions and differences, and learning the importance of downtime when we are operating out of our weaknesses.

What's In This Episode:

• Her career background and how her career pivoted after becoming a mom
• What a life & business coach does and why people come to her
• Haleh's ability to customize her coaching for each of her clients
• How Haleh helps her clients address the day-to-day challenges and maintain their energy level
• The dynamic of multiple perceptions in one household
• Identifying differences and managing them in a healthy manner
• The importance of understanding ourselves on an objective level
• Learning when you are operating out of your weakness
• How vital downtime and knowing what brings you energy is to your bandwidth
• Knowing how to open our communication doorways especially with our children

We recently had the opportunity to meet Maria Alcoke, the host of The Engine Mom Podcast. Since we loved the conversation so much we wanted to replay the episode for all of you today! We talked with Maria all about our vision for Generation.Mom and the community that we're creating!

What's In This Episode:

• A little background on Lara & Jenn and their families
• What currently fuels both Lara & Jenn
• How Generation.Mom got started
• How Lara & Jenn's experiences have shaped their vision for Generation.Mom
• The importance of community in motherhood
• The biggest takeaways from building this community for moms
• The impact of authentic vulnerability in a community
• What Jenn & Lara have learned from other moms
• Maria's rearview wrap up questions for Jenn & Lara

Are you seeking clarity in your role as mom? Today we are talking about the importance of defining self and establishing individuality in parenthood. We will be talking with licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, Lorna Hecht who will be sharing her considerable knowledge about how the importance of defining self as a parent leads to healthier parent/child and parent/parent relationships!

What's In This Episode:

• Lorna's career before kids & how is transitioned after having kids
• What a licensed marriage & family therapist does & why couples reach out to her for guidance
• How does understanding the family as a system assist in the overall functioning of an individual
• The importance of reinvesting in self-care
• How anxiety will become symptomatic in the most vulnerable person in the family system
• The way the emotional health of the mother impacts the family
• The tension between the drive for individuality and the allegiance to the group
• Working out conflict within the family system
• The impact of birth order on personality development
• How self-care is different for different people
• The most important tip Lorna has for moms

Do you find yourself in a season life that just seems still? Today, we are talking about waiting times, not waiting in line at the store, but times when you are waiting on the next big thing to happen whether that be a vacation, a baby, a promotion, or a relationship. We'll talk about how those times can be frustrating & share some ways that you can embrace the waiting period.

What's In This Episode:

• How Jenn & Lara deal with times of waiting
• A reflective exercise that helps deal with times of waiting
• The different times of waiting that we experience & the feelings that we might experience in these seasons
• How you deal with frustrations when you feel like you feel like you should be further ahead or in a different season than you are
• How all of life is really a long waiting period
• The importance of enjoying the moment and not just moving on to the next thing
• What happens when you're in a long period of waiting on something and it isn't coming
• Lessons you can learn in your waiting periods
• What Jenn & Lara are currently waiting on

Have you or has someone you know experienced pregnancy loss? One of the most common experiences women have in their journeys to motherhood is pregnancy loss and although it's uncomfortable to talk about, we feel it's really important. Today, we are sharing the story of a fellow Generation.Mom, Kelsey Murphy of the Whiskey & Work podcast about her personal & recent miscarriage story. Kelsey is so brave to open up about her experience, and we are grateful she is doing so to help all women (including herself) and families of loss.

What's In This Episode:

• Kelsey's career background prior to becoming a mom
• When she knew it was time to grow her family from 3 to 4
• What the beginning of her pregnancy with her second baby looked like
• The story of her loss
• Her immediate reaction to learning the news of losing her pregnancy
• How she decided to proceed after having some time to process and research
• The painful process when her body recognized she was no longer pregnant
• Where Kelsey is at now after going through this experience
• Her experience sharing her story publicly
• What Kelsey and her husband told her daughter about the baby

Do you dream of being more than "mom"? Today, we are talking about making motherhood work while pursuing multiple passions with special guest, Maria Alcoke. Maria is the host of one of our favorite Mom Podcasts "The Mom Engine" and in this episode we are talking with her all about identifying and pursuing passions while being a mom. She shares about how she balances everything, how she is gearing up for baby number two, and her advice on how to get past distractions in order to pursue your dreams.

What's In This Episode:

• Maria's career before kids and how it transitioned once she became a mother
• The slow evolution of her career over time
• When she started The Engine Mom Podcast & why she started it
• What "Engine Mom" stands for
• How she manages and balances everything
• The importance of giving yourself grace when things don't go as scheduled
• How being a mom has added to her existing passions
• The impact her work and passions have had on her daughter
• Maria's tips for moms who have many passions
• How she is gearing up for baby number two
• Her recommendations for getting past the distractions to pursue what you are passionate about
• What advice Maria would give to a new mom

Does your marriage seem to go through just as many transitions as your baby did? Today, we're talking about your marriage after the kids arrive. Both you & your husband are navigating new roles and new dynamics as you get used to a third party in your marriage. Studies show that marital satisfaction declines overall after children, but why? Does it have to be that way? How can we work through that together to ensure that the decline is only temporary?

What's In This Episode:

• What it means to be a parent and how it impacts marriage
• The difference between marriage prior to children and after having a baby
• How we can start addressing the changes in our marriage
• The stressors that couples face once children are introduced
• How conflict changes within marriages after baby
• Being aware of what your partner needs and the five love languages
• The notion that as a parent you don't have time for intimacy
• Ways to carve out time for your marriage

When you sneeze, do you pee a little bit? Today, we are talking about the physical part of the postpartum period and how we can get our physical selves back to the strongest we can be. Dr. Dawn Andalon, creator of Level 4, joins us to discuss all things pelvic floor and postpartum. Dawn will share some of the common issues women have after having a baby, how to prepare themselves for success, and her beliefs on treating women in the postnatal period.

What's In This Episode:

• How Dawn handled the transition from career without kids to career with kids
• What a physical therapist that specializes in postnatal health does & how they help women
• Why their is a gap of knowledge when it comes to pelvic floor issues
• Dawn's belief system on treating women in the postpartum period
• The most common reasons women come to Level 4
• The issues Diastasis Recti can cause and how Dawn can help
• How can women prevent issues that may arise in the postnatal period
• The relationship between epidurals and the healing process
• What signs of birth trauma should women look for after the baby
• How we can talk to our doctors about getting a referral to a physical therapist
• What uterine prolapse is & how it can be treated
• Dawn's recovery strategies and exercises
• Her belief on how long you should give yourself before trying to jump back into everything
• How second pregnancies differ from first pregnancies and what you should watch for
• The length of time you should expect it to take to get back to your pre-baby self
• What women should be doing prior to pregnancy and during pregnancy to prepare themselves for success

Have you ever jumped on the comparison train and found it to be a pretty bumpy ride? Today, we're talking about comparing yourself to others, why it happens, and whether comparison is always a negative thing or if it can sometimes have a positive impact on you. We also share some strategies and tips for overcoming the comparison game.

What's In This Episode:

• When comparing yourself to others can be a positive thing
• The different ways that we compare ourselves to others
• How comparison can lead to stress within your marriage
• The danger of making assumptions about other people
• The ultimate in mom comparisons
• How our expectations and identity as moms are connected to comparison
• The external societal factors that facilitate in comparison
• Why do we focus on "the things that our lives aren't"
• Strategies that we can use to overcome insecurities and compare ourselves less
• An exercise to help eliminate the comparison game

Gayle Fulbright is the OG mompreneur who has been there, done that, and is building a business of her own. She is a business owner, influencer, mentor, educator, and a mom and has been for over 30 years! Today we talk to Gayle about her experiences of balancing a business and being a mom, why she loved being a working mom, the parallels between the business world and mom life, and her advice for moms who are wanting to start their own business. We also talk about the importance of community and support to your success as both a mom and a business owner.

What's In This Episode:

• The fact that you can't do it all & why that's ok
• Living in the present moment versus always looking to the future
• Developing the skill of time management as a young mom
• Her struggles with balancing a business and being a mom
• The times that she wanted to be a full-time mom and why she ultimately loves being a working mom
• The positives that came from her being a mompreneur for her business, for her family, and for herself
• Gayle's advice for moms who are wanting to start a business or who are in the midst of being a mom and a business owner
• How vital community and support is to your success
• The way society has changed over time and how it impacts working moms
• Creating time for yourself and time with your friends
• How her business impacted her children
• The transition of working in her business to working on her business
• The benefits of hiring a mom as an employee
• Why it is so important for her to give back