Mutha Life

Sara Tan is the Global Beauty Director for Refinery29 and Co-Host of the Glossangeles Podcast. Her life, like so many parents, is one of stark contrasts. One day she's hanging out with Hailey Beiber at a Rhode popup, or talking shop and parenthood with Rihanna, fully glammed up, and the next she's knee deep in breakfast and lunch prep while wrangling kiddos after her husband leaves for work and before reinforcements arrive. Professionally, Sara has known since she was a kid what she wanted in a career and has chipped away at building the thing she envisioned for herself. Personally, she's building her family with her husband with intention and surrounded by their wider family. It's basically a career and parenting love bomb conversation that somehow manages to be real about the hard shit. In particular, I really loved what Sara said about how she thinks about makeup and kids (and yes we talk about the Drunk Elephant Sephora kids), and I hope you do too!

Show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

Alright alright alright. Today we hang out with an OG Austin native who has somehow married the old Austin (hippy whimsy a la Dazed and Confused) with the new Austin (creative hub for a new crop of national businesses and entrepeneurs). Because that's kind of who she is - taking the best of the old and bringing it to the new, while staying steadfast to a set of deeply ingrained core values from her own childhood. Ana Louisa Longley, the founder of Peace Creative, an Austin-based creative agency working with some of your most favorite brands, is a mom of two who, respectfully, will not be crammed into one tidy little box, so don't try it. When I first met Ana, my freshman year suite-mate, she didn't even realize she was a creative soul. Now she can't imagine her life without the things that allow her to express herself in her truest form. And maybe being a mother has helped her focus on what's most important.

Show notes with alll the links: muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

In this week's episode we overcame some technical difficulties to bring you the wonderful story of Alma Vicencio. Alma is a first generation American finding her own way, following her instincts and pursuing a career in fashion, moving from fashion designer to in-house stylist, to being her own boss with her personal styling business, Alma Styles. The program running in the background of the machine that is Alma Vicencio is competition. From basketball, track and hurdles as a kid to distance running later in life, Alma has found a new peace and sense of belonging in the Muay Thai fighting community, first as competitor and now through coaching. Alma is very comfortable confronting what is hard and finding a way forward, because as it turns out, forward is the only direction we can really ever go.

Show notes with alll the links and photos (and find out what I baked for our guest): muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life @almasaurus @almasaurus_Styles

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

Chris Mann, accomplished singer and comedian, got extremely real in the closet. We cover how Wichita is low key the perfect place to grow up if you want to be a professional singer one day. How we aren't sure what the Drake-Kendrick beef is actually about. How, it turns out, midlife crises make a lot of sense if you look at all that is foisted upon people in their 40s and 50s - aging and ailing parents, raising kids (and how some kids need more and you just can't plan for that up front), and often reaching critical junctures in our professional lives that require more from us RIGHT when our families need us most. As with so many episodes recently, this one touches on the tricky position creative parents find themselves in - how do you carve out the space for yourself when your career isn't a traditional 9-5? How do you find the space to be creative when you could be pulled out of the zone at a drop of a hat? Overall, this is a story of resilience. Of reinvention. Of having the confidence and self belief to know that you've got a good thing going and it's worth sticking with it.

Show notes with alll the links and photos (and find out what I baked for our guest): muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life @officialchrismann

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

This week we get to hang out with DIY and style expert, founder and mutha, Orly Shani. The way this woman is so fiercely independent AND ALSO deeply rooted in her family is something worth listening to. Her whole life credo seems to be: take stuff that's there and make it your own. Look at what's in front of you and find the opportunity - even if what's in front of you is a DUI at a young age, figure out how to turn that low point into a learning experience that will be foundational to the rest of your life and career.

Show notes with alll the links (and find out what I baked for our guest): muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life @orlyshani

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

This week we get to hang in the closet with Vanessa Dew, co-founder of Health-Ade kombucha. There are so many reasons to love this conversation. Chief among them is how self aware Vanessa is. This is a woman who has danced the delicate tango between her own family's expectations of her growing up as a first-born daughter of immigrants (she's 1.5 generation American, according to her), and the dogged pursuit of what will lead to a happy meaningful life. Building and selling the company she co-founded with her two best friends, coupled with her parenting journey, brings up so many themes we are all familiar with in a whole new way. Re-defining our own sense of self and definition of success post kids.

Show notes with alll the links (and find out what I baked for our guest): muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life @vanessadew_

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

This week we are hanging with Gabi Richmond in the closet. The story of the experiential marketing guru starts with epic house parties as a teenager in LA and takes us through to the New York suburban life, raising two kids while pursuing a career she's passionate about. As you'll hear, Gabi is the product of her family in so many ways (and a departure in so many others). This episode covers so much - including post-partum depression in men, thoughts on feeding kids and bringing them into YOUR life, and reflections on the types of bosses that can make a real difference to someone's life and career trajectory while navigating parenting.

Show notes with alll the links (and find out what I baked for our guest): muthalife.substack.com

Instagram: @mutha.life @gabriellerich

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

This week's episode features food scene legend Zach Brooks. The blogger, podcaster and General Manager of Smorgasburg LA is also a father of three kids. This chat covers the long and winding road of a creative soul balancing his career aspirations with his family's needs. We cover a wild amount of ground - from feeding kids to dividing labor in a house where people have varying degrees of flexibility in their work, to how we all navigate the compromise and balance that is required to be a parent...and also a fully self actualized human.

Show notes with alll the links (and find out what I baked for our guest): muthalife.substack.com

If you want to support a rad business with a great product, check out Silverback Supply Co's GoJo pack. Discount code: MUTHA for 20% off and free shipping and handling.

Instagram: @mutha.life @SilverbackSupplyCo @midtownlunchla

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

When you were a kid, who did you go to for advice on things that were sensitive? That required you to be vulnerable? Where you required a real education on bodies and relationships? Certainly not your parents, YOUR CAMP COUNSELOR. So, in keeping with that tradition, this week I sit down with my summer camp counselor from when I was a young teen. These days she's a GURU on being a stay at home parent and someone I really look up to for wisdom on the big important things that matter when it comes to raising kids. We cover a lot in this episode, from making the decision to be a stay at home parent, to the practicalities and logistics of it, to the various challenges and tension points that naturally come up raising older kids.

Show notes with alll the links (and find out what I baked for our guest): muthalife.substack.com

If you want to support a rad business with a great product, check out Silverback Supply Co's GoJo pack. Discount code: MUTHA for 20% off and free shipping and handling.

Instagram: @mutha.life @SilverbackSupplyCo

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa

This good vibes, high energy, hang with Sabrina Soto is exactly what you need. Sabrina has been host and designer on a number of HGTV shows like The High Low Project, Design Star, Real Estate Intervention and Get it Sold. She was a cast member of TLC's Trading Spaces, a judge on the ABC series, The Great Christmas Light Fight! and so much more. These days you can hang out with Sabrina on her bi-weekly podcast, Designing Life with Sabrina Soto and soon, you can hang with her on Hulu - the Sabrina Soto Show - which launches March 15th.

We cover it all - going from divorced parents and homelessness to a long-running career as an interior design TV star and a single mom. We talk the nuts and bolts of manifestation, raising a daughter in a co-parenting dynamic, and so much more.

Show notes with alll the links (and find out what I baked for our guest): muthalife.substack.com

If you want to support a rad business with a great product, check out Silverback Supply Co's GoJo pack. Discount code: MUTHA for 20% off and free shipping and handling.

Instagram: @mutha.life @sabrina_soto @SilverbackSupplyCo

Produced by: Mutha Life

Music by: Ronen Landa