Why do we ask women if they work? Domestic work is work—”do you work?” is such a weird question to be asking moms. Here’s why it’s a strange question, and what we aren’t admitting when we say it.
WORK SMARTER.
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Creating Outrage As A Marketing Strategy
Over the last week, the internet has popped up loads of articles about influencers behaving badly—in one case, the queen of relatability and toxic positivity shared casual, demeaning remarks about her hired help, then offered a non-apology that involved throwing her own team under the bus, then deleted the bad posts, and—wait for it, I’m sure within the next few days, tears will be next. There will be tears, and a public apology (a “real” one), and a vow to do better. It strikes me that this is strategic, because we’ve seen this playbook before. It’s a marketing strategy, and you’re being played.
I Miss Work So Much Right Now
I miss my work. I really do. I get energy from building and strategizing and just generally moving forward, and on the days when I don’t feel satisfied with how much I accomplish, I struggle to stay positive.
Redefining Startup Success: Shutting Down A Lucrative Startup — Episode #121 With Allie Siarto
Allie Siarto built a company that was extremely successful, by all of our current measures of success. She even had an offer in hand to buy the company—and then she hesitated. She decided to walk away, and rebuild her business and life from scratch. Here’s why.
Ambitious Entrepreneurship + Parenthood: When Two Moms Co-Found a Startup — Episode #117 With Sonia Chang
To be a working parent is to constantly feel like you’re missing out on one piece of your life: your work or your family. Or is it? Playfully co-founder Sonia Chang created a company with another mother and intentionally changed their workdays away from the normal 9-5 to be present with her children throughout the week while simultaneously pursuing a highly ambitious business plan for their startup.
Both Co-Founders Pregnant? How Pregnancy Can Move Business Forward — Episode #109 With Elena Rue and Catherine Orr
The two co-founders of StoryMine Media were already parents and they’d done the pregnancy thing before. But then they found out they were both pregnant at the same time. Listen in to this joint conversation as we talk about what to do if both co-founders are pregnant and how this can affect your business planning, strategy, and plays.
Finding Yourself, And Your New Career, After Kids
We know that motherhood will change us, but it’s not always in the way that we expect. Editorial director Liz Kocan shares several women who took pregnancy and motherhood as an opportunity to shake up or switch out of their industries—and why that’s not always a bad thing.
How Motherhood Makes You Better at Work: Episode #101 with Amy Henderson
Parenting changes you, but not in the ways you might expect. Amy Henderson, founder of Tendlab, talks about how motherhood can make you better at your job.
The Science of Personality and Why It Matters for Your Business — Episode #096 With Vanessa Van Edwards
Vanessa Van Edwards is a journalist turned researcher who got curious about what makes people tick, and she believes that when it comes to business, personality is not a nice-to-know, it’s a need-to-know.
Not Your Typical Schedule: Lean In to Business Freedom — Episode #093 With Emylee Williams
Today, Emylee Williams joins me to explain how her schedule evolved over time, her three day work week, and the value of taking time for herself.
Doing Less in Business — Episode #082 With Co-Host Cary Fortin (The Friendship Series)
In planning for my second pregnancy, I thought about designing a business in Startup Pregnant that would serve my life: I got strategic about doing less.
Loving Yourself, Mental Health, Starting a Business — Episode #078 With Mason Aid
Learning to love yourself is a process, and for Mason Aid, it began when they came out as gender queer. Mason joins me to share their parenting journey.
Why to Join a Mastermind (and How to Start Your Own) — Episode #060
There is a lot of cultural pressure to figure it all out on your own, but you don’t have to. You can build communities of people around you and support each other in the decision-making process. Listen in to hear the benefits of joining (or starting!) your own mastermind group.
Starting a Company While Pregnant: Product, Tech, and Iterating Forward — Episode #057 With Michele Hansen
When Michele Hansen and her husband started planning for the birth of their daughter, they quickly realized that the high cost of daycare—a whopping $24K per year—was going to require an additional income stream.
Startups, Sane Hours and the Beauty of Choice — Episode #055 With Laura Roeder
People will tell you that the early days of your startup will require 80-hour work weeks, that you won’t see your friends and family. But here’s the thing: You always have a choice. Learn how Laura Roeder of Meet Edgar created work that fit her life, not the other way around.
Revolutionizing Parental Leave with a Workplace Advocate — Episode #033 With Tracy Candido and Karina Mangu-Ward
Even the best parental leave policies can feel complicated. But what if companies provided an advocate for you during your time away from work?
Work is Broken | Core Value #6
The current version of work—the idea that we work in offices, that we work from 9 to 5, that we’re continuously productive throughout the day, at equal measures—there is overwhelming evidence that this isn’t true. Research shows that we aren’t effective in an 8-hour workday. Work is especially broken for women. And when we layer in parenting, and we try to make all of it fit together, within the paradigm that currently exists, well, what we see is that across the board, it doesn’t fully work.
10 Brilliant Women Entrepreneurs on Parenting, Perspective, and Life
You’re the trailblazer we need. The way work looks is broken. It’s not going to change by someone else. It’s going to change through us, building the future we imagine, fighting against what’s not working, and taking as stand. If you can parent, you can entrepreneur. Motherhood transforms you. These, and many more, are the words of wisdom from our first ten interviews for Startup Parent.
The Future of Work (and Feminism) Is Flexible — Episode #002 With Annie Dean
Thirty percent of talented women drop out of the workforce, not because they want to, but because the way work looks is outdated, flawed, and fails women and families on a regular basis. And a full 70% of those women would still be working if they had access to better (or any) workplace flexibility. What would it do for our economy and businesses if we weren’t losing so ambitious, committed employees so rapidly? The corporate world is stuck in a structural model that is a relic of the post-Industrial era. Today’s guest on the show is an entrepreneur building a simple, yet revolutionary answer that makes the world fit women—rather than trying to make women fit into the world.
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