Rainbow Babies
When we invite life into our lives, we also invite death.
Though stillbirth is fairly common (impacting about 1 in 100 pregnancies in the US) it is a painful topic of conversation. But Christine McAlister likes talking about Maeve, the daughter she lost, to keep her memory alive. In fact, Maeve inspired Christine’s business, Life with Passion.
So, how did Christine move forward after a pregnancy loss? How did she make the decision to try again? And how did she birth a thriving business in the midst of it all?
Today, Christine joins me to share her initial struggle with the decision to become a parent and the utter shock of experiencing a full-term stillbirth. I ask her about making the choice to try again, and she explains why she hid out for nine months while carrying her rainbow baby. Listen in as Christine explains how her pregnancy loss inspired the creation of her business—and learn her 7-step income replacement formula for aspiring entrepreneurs!
The Startup Pregnant Podcast Episode #090
Some quotes from the episode
- “I really disliked the nine-to-five structure. I really disliked the politics. I really disliked the income cap and knew that I was capable of a lot more.”
- “I was dealing with a lot of doubt and fear about what I was going to be like as a parent. I was terrified I wouldn’t like it, and I was scared of what it was going to do to my life and who I was.”
- “I just went inward in my shock and did what the nurses told me to do and used that extra pain pump like it was my pacifier.”
- “We went to Nashville for two weeks and just camped out and cried and laid around and hibernated and waited—and tried to figure out how we were going to tell people outside our inner circle and when and figuring all that out and starting to figure out how to start wrapping our heads around being the parents of a dead baby.”
- “When they put her in my arms, I looked at her, and I was like, ‘Oh, now I want to do this. Now I’m sure I want to do this. And if she was here for me to do this, I could, and it would be okay.’ So, she answered that question for me that I’d been wrestling with for years. I knew I wanted another baby at that point.”
- “When I got pregnant with Maeve, it was not on purpose. It was not the result of fertility treatments, and so that added to the conflict of it because it didn’t feel like something that I had chosen. I kind of like to be in control, and I wasn’t.”
- “I love talking about [the baby I lost] because I do get to keep her memory alive. And she was real, you know?”
- “It doesn’t matter if you say the right thing or the wrong thing. The fact that you’re being available for their grief … is the most important thing that you can do.”
- “When Maeve died, I was like, ‘Screw it. The worst thing that’s ever happened to me has already happened to me. I’m not scared of anything anymore.’”
- “The fastest way to replace your income and then start to scale your business … is to create premium-priced services and serve a small number of people really well.”
- “Visibility is about believing that from the time you start putting stuff out there, people are watching to see if you’re going to keep showing up.”
- “Being nice and being consistent and providing value and being a person works. [Sales is] about connection and truly creating relationships.”
- “[I’m] continuing to focus on finding ways to make this business something that feels like a complete joy every day.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT CHRISTINE MCALISTER
Christine McAlister is an entrepreneur, business coach, and best-selling author of The Income Replacement Formula: 7 Steps for Doing What You Love & Making 6 Figures from Anywhere. She is also the founder of Life with Passion where she serves as a high-level mentor for aspiring entrepreneurs, helping clients replace their income, quit their nine-to-fives, and build freedom-based businesses they love.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- The Income Replacement Formula: 7 Steps for Doing What You Love & Making 6 Figures from Anywhere by Christine McAlister
- Natalie Lucier
- Seth Godin’s Marketing Seminar
EPISODE SPONSOR & SPECIAL OFFER
Community makes all the difference. So, at Startup Pregnant, we have launched a mastermind program for women who are interested in going deeper around questions about parenting, motherhood, and business. To apply for the Spring 2019 session and receive my free email series, go to https://startupparent.com/mastermind.
All of our sponsor offers are available on our website for you to grab the perks and discounts offered to podcast listeners: https://startupparent.com/sponsors.