The MomForce Podcast Hosted by Chatbooks

Small rituals carry us through hard seasons — from creating weekly Monday visits while in the postpartum days to a couch-and-snacks Dancing with the Stars watch with the whole family. This episode is about attention as devotion: slowing down, really noticing, and asking what you actually want versus what you're marketed to want.

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Sarah is in the final stretch of wedding planning, and she's not too proud to admit it: there was a breakdown, a small bridezilla moment, and a reality check from her sister that she probably needed. This week, Sarah and Julie get real about control — why life's biggest transitions (weddings, new babies, a teenager getting his driver's license) seem to bring out our worst with the people we love most, and what it actually takes to let go.

Also on the table: whether "it doesn't matter" is a healthy reframe or just dismissive, the great Oreo group-chat scandal, a bride's perfectly timed words — "the last two weeks were terrible, but today I've had so much peace" — and the two-word therapy mantra behind this episode's title.

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Fresh off a 90s throwback dance party at East High School (yes, the High School Musical one), the ladies of the MomForce look back on a night when nearly a thousand women showed up in costume to forget their worries and dance. From there, the conversation turns to why nights like that matter. Life doesn't stop being hard, and the key to joy might be learning to be okay when things aren't. They talk about the escapes that get them through, including mahjong, quilting, music and a good cry at the movies. They also discuss Dolly Parton's belief in the power of imagination, and why sometimes the best thing to do is call a friend, put on your acid-wash jeans and join the limbo line. Get started on your Chatbooks today!

Episode description: In this episode, Annie, a Manhattan-based Chatbooks marketer of five and a half years, joins the conversation and tells how she was pushed into a new role in acquisition against her wishes. As the resident hot girl at Chatbooks, she defends the idea that you can be both a personality hire and a major player. The group talks about letting people underestimate you, beating the plan by 30% in candy bar costumes, and why a little overwhelm might be the best thing for your kids and your team. Also, Julie shares how she turned a Classic Book into a camp keepsake for her daughter and friends, complete with a junk journaling party to bedazzle every page (the Chatbooks office now takes "bedazzle breaks" instead of smoke breaks). Don't miss this inspiring episode about seeing potential in people before they see it in themselves.

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In this episode, the ladies of the MomForce Podcast share their thoughts on what this age of the information overload has done to their brains, and especially to how they view themselves. From something as inoccuous as fashion and not finding your own personal style to childrearing and sifting through the millions of voices who tell you the "right way", there is something a little scary and unsettling about not knowing a real source of truth. Sarah explains that she sometimes feels silly because there is so much information out there, but she isn't sure what her real intuition tells her. Julie and Vanessa both prescribe turning the phone off, finding out what truly matters, and flexing the skill that is listening to your own brain.

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In this episode, Vanessa is facing her first fall with zero kids in school after 7 children — and the relief is real (even if it came with some end-of-summer office vibes). Julie and Sarah talk about how scary it can feel to admit that your 20's are often hard but we like to pretend that they're easy. And Sarah shares the biggest news of the season: she's engaged! Julie and Sarah reflect on wishing they could've relaxed into their 20s more, knowing now that things work out, and talk about the right way (and wrong way) to reassure someone in a hard season: validate first, and save the "it'll be okay" for people who've earned the trust to say it. Don't miss this heartfelt episode about the life phases that shape us.

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In this week's episode, Julie shares about how she and her eldest daughter have a shared skill of shopping together and being quite procifient at it. The conversation touches on how shopping is an actual skill that not everyone has. Julie and Sarah discuss how often skills like this are looked at as frivolous because they are something typically women are better at, but we're not taking into consideration that shopping is a balancing act and important skill that the whole family benefits from. Additionally, shopping is an amazing bonding experience for women where they can hype each other up, pass along their style preferences, and enjoy time together.

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In this episode, Sarah and Vanessa discuss a little about their Pilates class earlier that morning that leads them all into a discussion about the lessons you learn when you "sit in the shake." In Pilates, the muscles get built in that uncomfortable moment when your experiencing muscle failure and your body starts to shake. Julie expresses how when we were young, we weren't able to get immediate answers to anything, and how her kids are experiencing the exact opposite. The conversation turns into what happens long-term when we avoid discomfort instead of sitting in it. Get your Chatbooks started now!

This week, Vanessa, Julie, and Sarah dig into a discussion that's been brewing since a fan comment recently called Chatbooks "the perfect Type-A solution for a Type-B mom." That line kicks off a real conversation about where each of them actually falls on the Type A/Type B spectrum. Julie shares about how her hyper-organized momhood was really a stress response to survival mode (and what it's looked like to let that go), while also owning her Type-B proclivities to completely color drench her office and paint without any tape or ladders. Vanessa shares that her approach to motherhood has mostly been somewhat Type B, but that things have evolved throughout different stages of her life. Sarah shares that she lands somewhere in the middle as a self-declared "Type A minus."

They also discuss why lately there has been a sort of pride in being Type B while the Type A personality gets a lot of the hate for being bossy. They discuss why we should celebrate both people who get things done and people who bring the good times. The real takeaway: the label matters less than the self-awareness. Know your tendencies, build a few guardrails around them, give yourself and everyone else some grace, and stop using either type as an excuse for bad behavior.

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In this episode, Vanessa shares what it was like changing a tire in Disneyland Pluto costume. Julie's asks Vanessa if she is more hirable because she's had experience dressing up as Chuck E. Cheese at her day job as a teenager. And Sarah tells all about how she was hired by a catering service to serve food at a private concert and instead snuck into the concert (spoiler alert: it was an Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani private show--totally worth it). Don't miss this hilarious episode about the work lore that built us.

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