That's Total Mom Sense

When you’re a first time mom, it can be extremely isolating, daunting, and overwhelming. There are times when you feel so alone because you don’t have the ability to socialize, connect, and network with women and friends like you once did. Evolutionarily speaking, we all need a village.

And for me, that’s HeyMama. I live and work from my home in NJ and as you know I have twins and a baby under 3. I am juggling a ton going from digital marketing clients to podcast recordings to family life and found it so challenging to meet new people and prospect since I’m not going to weekly night time events anymore. I was introduced to HeyMama shortly after I had my third by my friend Michelle Ranavat, founder Ranavat Botanics, who lives in CA and then my friend Patrice Poltzer who is also in New York whom I know through BNI (I’m the president of the Activate 58 Chapter in NY) told me about the same week so I applied and was accepted and it’s been just the community I was seeking to be a part of both online and offline.

• WEBSITE: HeyMama.co

• 00:52 - Introduction
• 03:20 - Backgrounds
• 05:00 - Creating an opportunity
• 07:46 - Pregnancy and maternity leave
• 13:00 - Family friends
• 19:00 - Membership model
• 23:00 - Helping women out
• 30:00 - 'Global domination'
• 31:00 - Online community and offline community (events)
• 46:00 - Examples of great leaders
• 49:00 - Work should be something you love instead of something you have to do
• 49:30 - 'Mom Sense' moments
• 56:00 - Quote of the day
• 1:00:00: Mom Haul

• WOOSHBEAUTY: WooshBeauty.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2019, women earn .79 cents for every dollar a man makes. Though we can attribute the gender pay gap to several factors including occupational segregation, bias against working mothers, and circumstances like racial bias, disability, and access to education, there’s no denying numbers and that we still have a lot of work to do to create an even playing field.

On today’s episode, I am thrilled to have a woman and mother who has been an advocate for closing the gender gap throughout her career.

Reshma Saujani is the Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, the international nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in tech and change the image of what a computer programmer looks like and does. It has reached 185,000 girls in all 50 states, Canada, and the UK. In 2019, Girls Who Code was awarded Most Innovative Non-Profit by Fast Company.

Reshma is the author of the international bestseller Brave, Not Perfect and has a podcast with the same name and the New York Times bestseller Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World. Reshma’s TED talk, “Teach girls, bravery not perfection,” has more than four million views and has sparked a worldwide conversation about how we’re raising our girls.

She began her career as an attorney and activist. In 2010, she surged onto the political scene as the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress. During the race, she visited local schools and saw the gender gap in computing classes firsthand, which led her to start Girls Who Code.

She is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Yale Law. Her work on behalf of young women has earned her broad recognition on lists including: Fortune World’s Greatest Leaders; Fortune 40 Under 40; WSJ Magazine Innovator of the Year; Forbes Most Powerful Women Changing the World; and Fast Company 100 Most Creative People, among others.

She lives in New York City with her husband, Nihal, their son, Shaan, and bulldog, Stanley.

Meet My Guest:

Show Notes:

Mom Haul:

• RENT THE RUNWAY: The Premier Designer Rental Destination

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey there Mamas! Happy New Year! I hope you all got a chance to unplug and disconnect and enjoy the simpler things in life over the holidays. My 3 kids were home from Christmas Eve through New Year’s and my husband and I really optimized on our spent as a family. I planned out one major activity per day to occupy my 2 year old twins and 1 year old, because we know if you tire them out before noon, they actually NAP, which means, we may be able to sneak in snooze. That is always the goal, right? We went to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City where they enjoyed a new Dino Train exhibit, built towers out of large foam blocks, saw bees in a beehive, and met a real reindeer. We explored different parks in our neighborhood and the three of them cannot of swings and slides and even named a clubhouse the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We baked a ton - cookies and cupcakes. The kids really enjoyed getting their hands dirty, cracking eggs and whisking flour. We built a gingerbread house. And the biggest achievement was our second bootcamp for potty training which was a success, honing in on their morning routine, and table manners. I will do podcast episodes on all of these because I think there is enough interest for these topics. For now, I want to talk about the cliched new year’s resolutions and how goal-setting can be made easy with a toolkit. I’m going to give you 3 things to implement into your life which are simple and you can stick to throughout the year. I’m doing this right along with you!

Kanika's Links:

Press:

• KANIKACHADDAGUPTA.COM: View Kanika's Press Page

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I often compare life to a pie and how many pieces of the pie are dedicated to our various priorities be it our family, relationships, our work life, our homes, and our self-care and personal goals and so on.

Samantha Ettus wrote her fifth book on exactly that: The Pie Life: A Guilt Free Recipe for Success and Satisfaction where she breaks down this metaphor to a granular level in such a compelling way. She is a bestselling American author, speaker, TV contributor and syndicated radio host, widely known as a work life balance expert and successful businesswoman,

Since earning her undergraduate and MBA degrees from Harvard, Sam is a renowned speaker and host of a nationally syndicated call-in radio show and best-selling author of several books: The Experts' Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do, The Experts' Guide to Life at Home, The Experts' Guide to Doing Things Faster, and The Experts' Guide to the Baby Years. She writes a popular weekly work/life newsletter and penned a Washington Post Op-Ed that landed in the top 10 Op-eds in 2017.

As a dedicated champion of women, Sam has devoted her career to advocating and supporting women in the pursuit of their dreams. Thousands of women from C-level leaders to administrative assistants to moms returning to the workforce have benefitted from Sam’s unique guidance. In Sam’s quest to help women achieve financial independence, she launched Park Place Payments.

We delve into all of this and more - listen in!

Meet My Guest:

Press:

• SAMANTHAETTUS.COM: Press Articles 

Show Notes:

Mom Haul:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CBD is all the rage -- there’s things we know, we don’t know, and a ton of misconceptions out there. This episode is all about CBD. And I have just the expert to break it down for us.

Dawn Fable is a working mother of 3 drowning in this thing she calls her "own beautiful disaster." She's struggled with generalized anxiety disorder for over 20 years and when she discovered CBD, it changed her life. As the founder of the Press Pause Project, a natural and quality CBD line for women by women, she's set out to create a true mission for other women to give themselves permission to press pause and stop the whispering and vulnerability around mental health.

Meet My Guest:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Curating your child’s birthday party can be daunting even for those who are Etsy lovers with Pinterest boards galore and themes mapped out a year in advance - there’s the venue, guest list, invitations, decor, props, goody bags, food, entertainment, and cake! I decided to bring two incredible women on my show, Catherine Hildner and Allison Carter, who can help you become the hostess with your mostest when planning your little one’s big day!

Allison Carter lives in the Seattle area with her high school sweetheart, Ryan, and two kids, Evie and Hudson, and has always loved a party! She loves bringing people together and creating memorable experiences for her loved ones. Allison believes that every occasion, big or small, deserves to be celebrated, and she helps families do just that. With her business, Allison Carter Celebrates, she creates digital party and holiday planning guides that help families celebrate all of life’s occasions and holidays. while saving time, stress and money. She takes the stress of planning off your plate so her clients can focus on all the fun parts of hosting a beautiful party. Her Memories in Moments podcast has served thousands of families around the world, helping them turn up the volume on life’s little moments to create beautiful, lasting memories. She recently debuted her first physical product, Memories in Moments: Unwrapped, a holiday themed subscription box helping families bring her popular holiday celebration guides to life! Allison and her business has been featured in Forbes, Better Homes and Gardens, Mingle Magazine, Motherly, and more.

Catherine Hildner is the creator, designer and heart and soul behind Kitty Meow Boutique (KMB). At Kitty Meow Boutique you can shop beautifully designed paper & party goodies based on your mood, witty or sweet. Whether you're looking for something witty and even a little rude, or prefer sweet sentiments, she's got you. Kitty Meow products, are FUN and fierce, and encourages women to take the bull by the horns in life.

You can snag these products on the KMB site or at an ever expanding list of retail shops throughout US & Canada. Catherine is also a wife, momma to two gorgeous little ladies, anchor-loving philanthropist, and self-proclaimed Customer Service Queen. She's dedicated to bringing a little personality to the party and sharing what she knows with other creatives.

Cat's Links:

Allison's Links: 

Show Notes:

Mom Haul:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Residing in New York, making her mark in Los Angeles, and hailing from a small town in Nebraska, Marylou Luther is a fashion industry legend. She had little exposure to fashion when she began her career at The Lincoln Journal and The Des Moines Register. Fast forward forty years and she became the Creative Director of Fashion Group International, Editor of the International Fashion Syndicate, CFDA Award winner, syndicated Clotheslines columnist and more. “Marylou’s bi-annual, ready-to-wear trend report for FGI — narrated in her signature authoritative, sophisticated voice, sets the seasonal tone with her much anticipated summaries. It’s no wonder her trend reports are followed by industry professionals in 28+ regions all over the world.”

Marylou and I have our own special story of how we crossed paths. We met in 2009 at Lakmé Fashion Week in Mumbai, India, and when we got to chatting, we discovered we both have ties to CNN (I was Chief Fashion Correspondent for the CNN affiliate in India; her son Walter has been an acclaimed video journalist for the bureau in New York for the past 30 years), have a penchant for Parisian cuisine, prefer our coffee with a spoonful of vanilla ice cream, and are members of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. Long lost sorority sisters (nearly sixty years apart) meeting for the first time in India? We think there’s only one word to describe it – “serendipity.” I am so thankful to have my 88-year-old gal pal, mentor, and soul sister in my life. Cheers to you, Marylou!

Meet My Guest:

• FGI: Clotheslines by Marylou Luther

Press: 

Show Notes:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hitha Palepu is an entrepreneur, investor, and writer. Her blog, Hitha On The Go, reached hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide and became known for its travel and productivity content. Her first book, How To Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip was published by Clarkson Potter in 2017. It has been released worldwide, translated into German and Italian, and is currently in its 3rd printing with 50,000 copies in circulation. Hitha and the book were featured by the New York Times, People, Travel+Leisure, and Elle. She is also the creator of #5SmartReads, a daily curation of the 5 must-read stories that reaches over 30,000 readers. Through here work and lifestyle content, she aims to provide simple solutions for women to live their best lives.

Meet My Guest:

Press:

• HOUSE OF HARPER: Mom Crush: Hitha Palepu, Founder of Hitha On The Go, Author, CEO, & More! 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Walt Disney once said,

“You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world…but it requires people to make the dream a reality.”

Many of us run our own businesses or are part of the entrepreneurial world and understand how important it is to us to have a trustworthy, dynamic, connected board of directors. My guest today believes that we could all use a board when it comes to our personal and mom life too.

Corey Spiegel is a married mom with two teenagers, born and raised in New Jersey and now living in California with her high school sweetheart for over 20 years. Her company, Light House is a fresh, new community of like-minded women who get together to share, advise, inspire and help each other navigate life in a judgement free zone. The connections are genuine, the conversations are real and the brainstorming vibrant. They feature a curated list of topics that resonate with today's modern woman and provide interactive classes. Sometimes a more objective audience works better than a dearest confidant.

Corey worked as a senior executive working in the entertainment industry for brands like Playboy, National Geographic, Warner Bros., Extra, Ellen, Rotten Tomatoes and TMZ to name a few, overseeing digital sales, product integrations, social media and brand partnerships. She learned a ton at these companies but after so many years in the trenches, it was time to start her own business in a space that combined her skillset with her passion points outside of advertising. This led her to create Light House.

Meet My Guest:

Press:

• CHANNEL 4 NBC: Corey Spiegel Helps You Find Your Lighthouse 

Show Notes:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Angela Engel is recognized nationally as an experienced senior sales professional who promotes and places brands strategically in the marketplace. Her resume highlights her work with some of the most recognized publishing, baby, home, and textile brands. These include Chronicle Books, Dwell Studio, Moleskine, and Cameron + Company. Angela’s success in selling to key national and international retailers such as Nordstrom, Amazon, Costco and Target, has made her a sought after expert in the industry. Her clients benefit from her dedication and passion, resulting in millions of dollars’ in revenue. Angela is an ardent cook, a lover of wine, and is passionate about exercise and raising her three young girls with her husband in Oakland, California.

Angela is the founder of the Collective Book Studio which is a full service partnership publisher. The studio works with content creators to produce and distribute high quality books in virtually every category. The team has collectively 30 years of combined experience working as authors, artists, and industry leaders to make dreams come alive on every page. They specialize in creating gorgeous, professionally designed, high quality books and their experience with national, mass market, and specialty retailers gets these books out into the world where they belong.

Meet My Guest:

Show Notes:

Mom Haul:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices