The Mami Collective

You can have support raising your kids and still feel completely alone when it comes to your own goals. Who knows about the career move you’re considering, the business idea you keep sitting on, or the thing you’d love to try?

In this solo episode, Paulina introduces the second village: the relationships that support a mother’s growth, identity, and ambitions. That support might already exist in your circle, but people need to know what you want before they can help.

We get into:

• Figuring out what you want for yourself when you’re used to handling what everyone else needs.
• Making specific asks, from an introduction to an hour to finish an application.
• Turning a good conversation into a relationship with actual follow-through.
• Supporting each other without becoming everyone’s unpaid assistant.

Plus, an honest conversation about finding support when time, money, and childcare are already stretched.

Being called “the strong one” feels different when you’re barely holding it together.

This week, Paulina sits down with mom of two and real estate professional Angel Zaper for an honest conversation about faith, motherhood, and starting over. Angel opens up about facing a brain tumor, navigating single motherhood, raising her autistic daughter, and the relationship with God that helps her move through uncertainty.

We get into:

• Knowing when to keep working at something, and when to let it go.
• Why showing up for a struggling mom means more than telling her she’s strong.
• Building a career that makes room for your family.
• Making space for your own needs when so many people depend on you.

For the mom carrying a lot while still wanting more for herself, this conversation makes room for all of it: the fear, the ambition, the faith, and the need for support.

Connect with Angel on Instagram: @angelzaper_

You have the ideas and the ambition. But having people you can turn to for advice, introductions, and support can change how you move forward. This week, Paulina Roe sits down with Stephanie Jill Cartin, co-founder of Entreprenista and Socialfly, to talk about building those relationships while navigating business and motherhood.

Stephanie shares how she and her business partner left their corporate jobs, grew an agency, and built a community for women entrepreneurs. She offers practical ways to start expanding your own circle—even when your calendar already feels full.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Making time for meaningful connections, starting with 30 minutes a week.
• Building relationships that lead to referrals, opportunities, and friendships.
• Asking for support before you reach your breaking point.
• Creating a business that supports the life you want.
• What keeps a business partnership working through different seasons.
• Getting comfortable charging for your work when your instinct is to give everything away.

Stephanie also opens up about infertility, IVF, losing one of her twin daughters during pregnancy, and the moms who helped her feel supported through an incredibly uncertain time. We talk honestly about returning to work after becoming a mother and what she hopes her daughter learns from watching her build.

An honest conversation about ambition, motherhood, and learning to let people show up for you.

Follow Stephanie here: https://www.instagram.com/stephjillcartin/

Follow Entrepenista here: https://www.instagram.com/entreprenistas/

The kids still need naps. Your inbox is still full. And that trip you keep saying you’ll take “next year”? Let’s talk about how to make it happen.

Paulina sits down with Melissa of Vacation With Melissa to explore how to plan travel around your actual life: your budget, your babies, and your need for a damn break.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Choosing the right trip for your family: What to consider about your kids’ ages, activities, childcare, and the experience you want.
• Making your budget work: Exploring shorter getaways and split stays instead of giving up on the trip altogether.
• Taking the stress out of planning: Deciding on meals and activities ahead of time without scheduling every minute.
• Considering an all-inclusive: How it can simplify meals and give everyone in the family options.
• Going without the whole group: Exploring solo travel and organized group trips when everyone else’s schedules don’t line up.
• Building a business with legacy in mind: How Melissa grew her travel agency into a family business and why boundaries matter.

Plus, Paulina opens up about her mom’s illness and why “we’ll go next year” has taken on a different meaning. A personal reminder to make room for experiences with the people you love.

This week on The Mami Collective Podcast, I’m sitting down with Leslee Cohen—a lawyer, founder of All Rise Legal Counsel and mom of two who was told that getting to the top meant playing golf, joining a country club and spending more nights away from her kids. So she built her own firm instead.

We talk about:

• What to do when becoming a mom changes the career you thought you wanted
• Why you don’t have to reach the top while your kids are little to have an incredible career
• How Leslee built a firm around flexibility after someone gave her that same chance
• Why asking a “dumb question” might be the smartest thing you do in a room
• What business owners need to know before giving away equity or signing a contract
• How to build a network by being useful to people, even when you think you have nothing to offer
• What to say when you walk into an event alone and feel completely out of place

If you’ve ever wondered whether slowing down means falling behind, or walked into a room and felt like everyone else knew what they were doing, this episode is for you. You’re allowed to ask the question, make the introduction and build a career that actually fits your life.

If you’re exhausted, foggy, overwhelmed or simply don’t feel like yourself after becoming a mom, you’ve probably been told it’s “just motherhood.” But when is it a normal adjustment and when is your body asking for more support?

Paulina sits down with board-certified family medicine physician and new mom Dr. Monica Medrano to discuss:

• How to know when “mom exhaustion” may be something more
• Why women should trust themselves when something feels off
• The role hormones, vitamins and lab work can play in how you feel
• When resilience starts becoming self-neglect
• Why moms need to stop treating their health as optional
• How motherhood can change your ambition without diminishing it
• The importance of support at home and in the workplace
• What becoming a mother taught a doctor that medical school couldn’t

Because you know your body better than anyone and “something feels off” is reason enough to start asking questions.

What happens when the parenting expert loses her patience, too?

Paulina sits down with licensed professional counselor, registered play therapist, school counselor, and mom of two Amanda McDonnell for an honest conversation about raising emotionally healthy kids, without expecting ourselves to be perfect parents.

Amanda shares why repairing after we lose our temper matters more than never messing up, how to set boundaries while still allowing kids to feel their emotions, and what parents can do now to create the kind of relationship their children will turn to later. They also talk about mom guilt, the pressure to say the “right” thing, the realities facing today’s teenagers, and why our kids don’t need perfection-they need to feel safe, supported, and deeply loved.

This episode is a reminder that good moms lose their patience, question themselves, and get overstimulated, too. What matters most is what we do next.

What do you do when your next chapter arrives before you feel emotionally, financially, professionally (or personally) ready for it?

In this vulnerable solo episode, Paulina opens up about building one of the biggest things she’s ever created while navigating motherhood, her mom’s stage four cancer and an emotionally complicated season behind the scenes. She shares why readiness is overrated, how to move forward while life is still messy and the questions every ambitious mom should ask before building what’s next.

Because you don’t become her and then take the leap. You take the leap and that’s how you become her.

Plus, Paulina shares what inspired the theme of this year’s Mami Collective Summit, Mommin’ Ain’t Easy: The Next Chapter, happening October 1 in Chicago.

Get your tickets at themamicollective.com/events

You don’t need a massive following, a perfect website or thousands of dollars for a publicist to start getting your brand noticed.

In this episode, Paulina sits down with media strategist, former editor-in-chief and published author Suanny Garcia to break down how women and small-business owners can earn media coverage, build credibility and confidently position themselves as experts.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• How to figure out what you actually want to be known for
• What makes a strong, media-worthy story angle
• The biggest pitching mistakes small-business owners make
• Different ways to get featured—from expert quotes and contributed articles to TV appearances
• How to pitch yourself before your brand feels “perfect”
• How to share personal stories without sharing your entire life
• How to turn one media feature into long-term credibility and content

If you know you have something valuable to say but aren’t sure how to get people to pay attention, this episode will help you stop overthinking and start putting yourself out there.

Follow Suanny on Instagram: @suannybarales

Want to learn how to pitch yourself to the media? Sign up for Suanny’s Pitching Challenge using the link below, and use code PAULINA for 20% off: https://suanny-garcia.mykajabi.com/the-pitching-challenge?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

What if AI could give you something every mom desperately needs: more time?

In this episode, Paulina sits down with Martina Matthews, founder of Miss ChatGPT 101, to break down how busy moms can use AI to lighten their mental load, grow their businesses and create more breathing room in their lives without being tech experts or losing their personal voice.

After nearly 20 years in corporate leadership, Martina left to build a business of her own. She shares how AI made solopreneurship possible, the everyday ways she uses it at work and at home, and why learning to use these tools now could completely change how moms approach their careers, families and next chapters.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to use AI for emails, content, meal planning, homework and everyday tasks
• A simple formula for writing better prompts and getting more useful results
• How to save time with AI without sacrificing your creativity, judgment or authentic voice

Whether you’re building a business, growing your career or simply trying to manage the never-ending mental load of motherhood, this episode will show you how to make AI work for you.

Follow Martina here: https://www.instagram.com/call.her.martina/