Episode #40: Motherhood + Ambition
In this episode, Kelly Callahan-Poe chats with Sara Madera, a career coach for working moms, about motherhood and ambition. They discuss the impact of kids on your career, tips for how to create success across work, life, and family, and why Sara has so many clients from the marketing/agency world.
Motherhood + Ambition Episode Recap
In Episode 40, we explore the intersection of motherhood and ambition with our special guest, Sara Madera, a career coach for working moms. During the pandemic, the “schession” emerged, with many women leaving their jobs to prioritize parenting. However, the post-pandemic era has seen a rise in women’s entrepreneurship and a small increase in female leadership. Companies now offer more flexibility to support working moms, and younger women are proactively planning their careers while embracing motherhood. The landscape is changing, empowering working moms to pursue their ambitions and create a more inclusive future. Sara emphasized the importance of identifying core values and passion to find fulfilling careers.
As Sara Madera, an esteemed career coach for working moms, highlighted, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to success. Each individual’s version of success is unique, making it crucial for women to identify their priorities and values. The corporate ladder is evolving into a jungle gym, offering various paths for women to pursue fulfilling careers while maintaining their roles as mothers. Sara’s flagship program, “Unleash Your Passion,” focuses on helping working moms find careers that ignite their excitement and align with their values. This pursuit of fulfillment ensures that moms feel successful both at work and at home, fostering a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Sara also offers a “Welcome Back” program, supporting moms returning from maternity leave for their partners’ jobs, providing valuable insights on maintaining and advancing their careers in new locations.
One of the essential starting points in Sara’s coaching is helping working moms identify their core values. This exercise aids decision-making and intentional behavior, allowing them to embody the values that matter most in both professional and personal settings. Whether walking into a meeting or stepping into family time, aligning actions with values helps navigate transitions and embrace balance.
In a post-pandemic world, working moms are finding new avenues to achieve success without compromising their roles as mothers. The empowerment of working moms is on the rise, driven by intentional career planning, unwavering determination, and expert guidance from professionals like Sara Madera. As we celebrate these positive shifts, we can look forward to an inclusive future where women can thrive both in their careers and as dedicated mothers.
Balance is a crucial aspect of motherhood and parenting, especially for working moms. Achieving equity and balance at home is a topic that career coach Sara Madera has been deeply passionate about this year. While considering whether to focus on working moms or working parents in general, Sara found that women are still doing more at home than men. To address this, Sara developed a program called “Homework Towards,” which focuses on values, visioning, and conducting an audit of household tasks. By aligning individual and family values, couples can better understand each other’s priorities and work towards shared goals. The audit allows partners to appreciate each other’s contributions and find ways to divide household tasks based on strengths, abilities, time availability, and values.
The pursuit of balance and ambition is a constant challenge for working moms. In 2012, an article by Anne Marie Slaughter, titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” sparked debates on the topic. Even after 13 years, the landscape for working moms has not dramatically shifted, with women still facing hurdles in career advancement. However, there are signs of progress, particularly after the pandemic, as companies began to recognize the need for better support for working parents. This shift is encouraging, but there’s still much work to be done, especially at home, to achieve true equity. Sara suggests that open communication and shared values are essential for couples to find balance at home. Through her “Homework Towards” program, she helps moms navigate household responsibilities and work towards mutually beneficial solutions.
One industry that struggles to support working moms is the agency world. Many women find agency culture challenging to manage after having kids. This has led to the creation of Sara’s “HomeWork Program,” empowering women to start their own agencies that cater to their needs. Sara offers valuable tips for working moms, such as letting go of outdated models and embracing their own values and priorities. By leading by example, working moms inspire their children to pursue fulfilling lives and strive for a higher baseline of achievement.
While there’s no magic solution to balancing it all, investing time and effort in self-discovery and communication can lead to a more fulfilling and empowered life for working moms and their families. Together, we can build a future where working moms thrive both at home and in their careers.
Episode Transcript:
Kelly
Welcome to the Two Marketing Moms Podcast. This is Episode 40 called Motherhood and Ambition with special guest, Sara Madera. After leading organizations and departments across the globe, Sara became a career coach for working moms after realizing the favorite part of every job was helping her teams realize their goals. A naturally good listener and a mother of two Sarah enjoys helping working women thrive at home and at work while still finding time for themselves. Welcome, Sara.
Sara
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.
Kelly
Happy to have you. Let’s dive right in. Working moms is such a strong niche. How did you decide to become a coach for working moms?
Sara
Yeah, I have been an executive coach for a few years just sort of helping and coaching people a little on the side of my daytime communications job. But it was really during the pandemic, that it hit me, you know, in terms of like working moms who are already so busy had these really full plates, were then asked to become teachers, and nurses and researchers and all the things overnights. And, of course, at some point, they decided, oh, my gosh, I can’t do all of this. And they started leaving their jobs, you know, the shecession, because they said I can’t quit my job as a parent. So, something has to give, it will be my, you know, be my paying job. And as I saw this happening, I was like, wow, not only was I going through it myself with my two little kids, that really too young for Zoom class to make any difference. That I was like, hey, I have the tools that can help. And let me you know, let me talk to my people. And these are definitely my people, as you know, other working moms.
Kelly
So, I had not heard the term Shecession before. What does that mean?
Sara
So, you know, we have heard of the great resignation. But if you look at the numbers in terms of who was leaving, it was so many of the people who were leaving were women. And I don’t know her name. I’m so sorry. But there was a researcher who coined the phrase, shecession because it was mostly women who were leaving their jobs. And it was in such a significant number that eventually companies did set up and start taking notice that oh, my goodness, what are we doing? And we know what how can we actually support this population?
Kelly
So, speaking about speaking post pandemic, in a post pandemic world, what sort of trends are you seeing in the workplace for moms, I mean, for myself, my kids are teenagers, my oldest just graduated from high school and is going to college and my youngest is going to be a sophomore in high school. So, I am going to completely different world than you are with much younger children. So, my worldview is different. So, tell me, what are you seeing out there?
Sara
It’s so interesting, it feels like in the last few years, we’ve made such a dramatic change, I won’t, you know, and even progress really, that in 2021, and 2022, even a lot of high level women are your CEOs, prime ministers were leaving their positions, they were like, I need more balance, I need you know, I need to be able to commit more, and I can’t, I can’t be stretched this way, I want to do different things. And at the same time, women’s entrepreneurship was increasing, and 2022, women made up 47% of us entrepreneurs, starting new businesses as compared to 29%, before the pandemic, so there was really the story, you know, I think becoming clear that with the current workplace, workplace was not working for women. And so, they were going outside of that they were leaving in order to create their own thing that they were like, I can create a structure that works better for me, than what is currently available. And I am starting to see that start to shift a little bit kind of going into 2022 and ended 2023. It’s not big, but still, there are more female CEOs now than there were. So, in 2023, it’s up to 10%, up from 8%. not huge, but still this progress, and that we are starting to see reports, really, honestly, super recently, maybe in the last couple of weeks, even that women are starting to return to companies now. Because companies have become more aware of the needs that these women have that these employees have and are willing to be more flexible. They are like we need women in the workforce, what can we do to bring them back, which is really interesting. And you know, again, this trend, it’s just the beginning of it. So, we are just starting to see this change. But it is interesting to see and interesting to note. And interesting for me as well that younger women are as well are starting to approach me and come to me. And because they are already thinking about in their 20s before they are married before they are having kids say how do I set up my career and my life so that I can be successful still, you know, have my ambition and you know, maintain my career while still being the mom I want to be so I think that’s so interesting, too. And I’m just so fascinated by this next group that’s next generation and to see where they take these trends and where these things go.
Kelly
That was surprising to me when we talked about that earlier because I certainly I didn’t plan ahead in any way, shape, or form. So, I think it’s great that women are starting to think about it. You know, what is the best way? Do you have kids earlier? Do you wait and have kids later. And I think to a certain extent, kids come when they come, right, you can’t play everything. And so, it’s a matter of kind of setting yourself up for the most success so that you can not necessarily take a step out. But you know, at least keep your foot in the door in some way, shape, or form, while you are continuing to be a mom. And there’s many ways to do that. So, let’s talk a little bit about your career as your role as a career coach for working moms. So where do you start? How do you begin with working moms? What do you do first?
Sara
So almost always we find I find that we really need to articulate what it is what’s important to them, and what is their version of success, because there can’t be a one size fits all, because what you know what success looks like to you. And what success looks like to me might be totally different. So, we have to really make sure that we’re clear about what that is. And, interestingly, I’m hearing more and more of this phrase, instead of, you know, the corporate ladder, that you know, our careers are more of a jungle gym, you know, and note that is no longer what people are looking to do is to do a one corporate ladder and straight, you know, it might look like many different things, which I think is so interesting. And I love that exploration. So, once we figure out what that is, we make a plan. And we make that happen. I will say I started off when I became a career coach for working moms, I thought that conversation would be about balance. You know, I feel like that’s so often the conversations I had, you know, with my friends and with colleagues about, you know, oh, my gosh, I have so much to do between like my workload and my home load and like, how can I manage all these tasks? I think it’s as my kids are now both school age, they’re six and eight, that has started to make a bit of a shift. And those conversations about balance are not as much about the tasks, but about that ambition, and like what I really want to do and how I’m going to spend my time, in contrast to the kind of mom I want to be. And so that is so interesting, this, you know, this sort of shifts, it’s still about balance, and some of the tools are still the same. But the conversations are a little bit different, which I think is really interesting. I would say my flagship program now is unleash your passion. And it’s really about finding that role, that career that lights you up, that makes you excited, and so that you can feel successful at work at home at life and with your family. Because you have something that excites you and that you love. I have two stories, if you don’t mind and women I work with on this. And one of them is Ashley. She came to me shortly after the birth of her first kid, and she had worked mostly in agencies, and then a startup. But she realized she wanted to be home for dinner every night and be able to shut her computer at you know, five o’clock, and then not be able to think about work, you know, says that she could be present with her family. And so, when she came to me, she was like, you know, like, I think that this means I’m gonna have to take a step back, you know, I think it just means I’m going to have to take whatever I can get. And I just, you know, it’s just going to be lower level, you know, and lower her expectations. But through our work together, she found out that actually being more specific, and really understanding what it was that she wanted, was actually going to help her land a job even faster and get something that she loved. And so, through our conversation, she decided, yes, I do still love marketing, I still love creative, I want to do this. And so, she decided that she wanted to find this kind of role in-house similar to a role that she had done previously. And actually, she found a job. She just landed earlier this year and a job that she absolutely loves. And we just spoke to her recently, and she had just hit her three-month time period at this new role. And she is making such a huge impact at this job and being so successful already. Because she knows what her strengths are. She knows where she can make an impact. She knows what she needs to do. And she is just like thriving and doing amazingly at this company. So, she’s amazing. I say that I will say that about everybody. I’m, of course, because each of them is amazing in so many ways. And the second one is Roxanne she works during the day as an educator. And her side hustle is a fitness business, specifically as a trainer for women. And she really wanted her side hustle to become her main focus and her main career. And so, we were talking about how to do that. And when we put her goals up against how many clients it would take to reach that goal. She realized, oh, that’s not really possible and I need to raise my prices right in order to achieve what she wanted. So, she steadily started increasing her prices and just in the fall, launch her website with new offerings. And in a year, she has more than doubled her side hustle income without working more hours. So really just having this shift in mindset really made a huge impact for her. And you know, we’re continuing to build that up every year as she you know works to make this her full time her full-time gig. So, she so amazing. And I’m really, I’m so proud of her. So those are the two main programs, I also have a welcome back program for those who are managing that transition of working motherhood. So maybe coming back after maternity leave, or maybe it’s a career break, if you took a few years off our kids, or maybe you had a COVID baby, and you haven’t actually gone to the office since you had a kid. And so, managing that is different that commute and that, you know, those hours away is different. So that is one of the programs, it’s actually a group program so that the women can work together and you know, really understand, and feed off each other and help each other out. And then one of those secrets about me, or I don’t know, not a well-kept secret, maybe is that I have lived all over my kids were born in Hong Kong, we lived in China, we lived in Singapore, we lived in Mexico, now we live in a new part of the US, new to us. And so, we kind of building on that. That experience of keeping up my career and having different kinds of careers across both the US and across the globe, I created a Move to Success program. So, if you are moving across the US across the globe, and maybe you’re the trailing spouse, it’s you know, you’re not moving for your job, but you still want to have your career, we can talk about how to do that I have crazy amounts of experience doing this. So, I’m always happy to share, excuse me, but across those programs, always, always the first thing we start with is being clear about what’s important to you. Really identifying those values. And this is, so no matter which program is whether enlist the unleash the passion, welcome back to the success 80 of them that we really identify three to five keywords or phrases that articulate you. And we do this for a few areas. So, we start with your core values. And it’s kind of you know, they might go across all parts of your life. And then we do the same three to five words or phrases for your personal values, your professional values, your family values, maybe we might add on another one relationship, financial health, it’s one of those who are important to you. But the main ones, the core, personal professional, and family are really those main ones. And this becomes really helpful in terms of not only decision making. So, like for us the furthest this summer, it really helped us make a decision like do we want to stay at home this summer and do camps? Or do we want to try to make our five-week trip to Colorado work? And I saw, you know, well, one of our family values is adventure. So why don’t we make this work is this worth the time and effort because this is something that’s important to us. But I also think it’s really helpful in terms of being intentional. So, if you are about to walk into a meeting, or a Zoom meeting, at work, whatever that may look like you have those values, you might think, okay, I you know, I want to be you know, articulate, I want to be connected and I want to be was another good professional value I want to learn, right? So maybe it’s so you think about those three values before you walk into that room. So, it helps you sort of embody that, you know, that professional person that you want to be. But then when you go to walk into a room with your kids, maybe it’s about again, maybe about being connected, maybe it’s about fun, and maybe it’s about adventure, like in our family, right. And so, you think about those before you walk into a room. So those can also help in terms of making those transitions, right, because sometimes it’s hard to go from being a boss or an employee to being a mom to the back, you know, and just making those switches, sometimes thinking, and articulating those values before you step into that room or step into that moment can really help make those transitions. I am
Kelly
Absolutely going to do that exercise today. Because I think it’s a good one. And I’m excited to see where my circles lie, and hopefully, they’re in the right place. So, I’ll let you know.
Sara
Now let me know, let me know, I can even send you I have a document that can help. Please do. Yes, yes, do.
Kelly
So, let’s talk a little bit about balance. You know, balance is a huge part of what we talked about in this podcast. It’s a huge part of motherhood. It’s a huge part of parenting. How do working moms find equity at home equity and balance at home?
Sara
So, this has been such a big topic for me this year. I’ve just been thinking about it so much. I mean, obviously, you know, with working moms, we talked about this, but I will say that this year, I was thinking, you know, am I limiting myself, you know, are we not progressing the conversation by not including men in this conversation, you know, by not talking about working parents versus working moms. And so, you know, it was like, I was thinking for this host debate. You know, I would ask people what do you think about this. And it was so interesting. The answers I got back definitely fell out around two lines. So, most of the older women I said no stay with working moms because there’s still so much more to do. You know, there are women who still need, you know, all the support and help that we can get. And younger women were like, you know, whatever like they were much less committal about it. They didn’t feel the same need or pressure kind of behind it. I think that’s, you know, the older women had experienced. And so, in the end for much, much debate Oh, you know, I researched and I saw that, you know, really, women are still doing more at home, right that men have three and a half times more leisure than their wife, while women, women are spending two more hours on caregiving and two and a half more hours on housework per week. So, men have more leisure, women are doing my work, right? And I was like, okay, fair enough older women, we are not yet there. And so, I mean, this happened to us as well, when we moved back to the US about a year ago. And we were figuring out my husband and I were figuring out how do we manage these tasks? How do we, you know, how does, how does this? You know, how does this balance look for us in our household? And it was, it was challenging, it was really tough, you know, I read Fair Play, which is amazing by Eve Rodsky and I was like, what do you think about this? Should we try this? My husband was like, why not? Let’s, let’s try this. And it did not work for us. As well as meeting and well-intentioned, as you know, as he wasn’t it, it really, it just didn’t, we were it was about meal planning. And I usually didn’t plan the cooking. And he wanted to take on meal planning that Yeah, it did not, it did not work. And we’ve crashed and burned. And so, I was like, okay, let’s go back to focusing on our strengths, you know, and like, what it is that we actually enjoy doing, and break this up in a different way. And so, I tried that out for ourselves, you know, we focus on strengths-based, and then I started testing out on clients, and that really became a new program for me called homework towards. So, to really talk about this, this, this topic about equity at home, because I talk to women all the time, who are like, oh, yes, my husband helps a lot, right, he helps a lot, or he does a lot more than my father ever did. And you know, which, again, that’s, that’s a much lower bar, right? It definitely, you know, it’s kind of just built up over time. And even for the ones for the clients I have who say they’re their husbands help a lot, even in terms of talking about it, yes, they might be doing some of the physical labor. But in terms of the social or the emotional, there are other pieces that they’re definitely, you know, they’re not the same level of support. So that is this new program sort of came out of all of that, and that learning and, you know, testing. And so, you know, in terms of if you want to do this at home, and you know, start these conversations, there’s sort of three, three tips in terms of how to start. And one is sort of the same as the individual programs in terms of values and visioning. Right. So of course, in a marriage, there are two individuals who come together, right? And so of course, let’s, let’s represent that, right? Of course, we each have our own set of values, but also what are the family values? Right? Where are we? Or do we come together for a shared vision, and that shared vision is what those shared values and then the vision will really help us talk about? What is it that we’re working towards? Right? And then what do we want it to be? And what would each person do with found time and like, you know, often hearing that the other, you know, one, or the other spouse can be like, oh, wow, I didn’t know that you wanted to paint? Or do you know? And then can become really supportive? Yes. Okay, I’m happy to take over doing the dishes, so that you can do that, you know, and there starts to become a much more, you know, understanding and appreciative place that they’re working from, from this shared idea. And then the next is that audit to do an audit. So, each person goes and writes a list of everything that they do, including that, you know, planning for oh, so often is the mom the mental load, right, in terms of what the jackets aren’t going to fit for winter, you know, like, let’s make sure we order them and we have them ahead of time. You know, all of those tasks down and even some of the things that I know are also invisible that men do I mean, not to say that men always want to do the finances, not the case. But even how you do the finances now is different, right? used to sit? Maybe you probably saw your dad sitting at the kitchen table and or your mom right now and writing out the checks, right? Yes, we don’t do that anymore. You might not know or see that somebody is doing that. And it might not be appreciated, right? And so often just doing this audit is eye-opening. And sometimes it’s you know, then it’s like, what do we need? And what does this tell us? And sometimes, you know, it is about that balance piece. But sometimes it’s about gratitude or appreciation, right? In terms of like, wow, I had no idea that you really did so much like thank you for what you do in our household and for our family. Right. And that can be such a huge piece. But we don’t we don’t end there. Because then it is about how to make that plan. You know how to consider how to divide up that labor. As I said, in our house, we talk about strengths. You know, we do it based on strengths and kind of what it is that we actually enjoy doing. But sometimes it’s about ability, right? Like sometimes I don’t know the lawn trash is really heavy and I care literally I cannot carry it all out. Right. So maybe it’s about ability. Maybe it’s about time maybe somebody works from home more than the other so they can take on more tasks. Or maybe it’s values-based, like, you know, I think it’s really important that my kids have music lessons, you know, my husband’s like, or whatever. So, you know, I take on that to, you know, make sure that we have a music teacher, and that kids get music lessons, or sometimes it’s a mixed approach. But, you know, having these different ideas or different ways of doing these, approaching these tasks, can make sure that they happen, right can make sure that they’re, you know, it’s not something that you’re like, oh, my gosh, I hate doing this, you know, what I mean that we actually find a way that you can find a way to approach it, whether it’s, you know, through this shared idea of values, or where there’s because something you enjoy doing, that will make it work for your family.
Kelly
My husband is the cook, he is the family shaft. And I have to tell you that that has taken a huge load off of me because I’m a horrendous cook. So, taking that job is quite helpful. And so, we are definitely playing to our strengths here at the powerhouse home.
Sara
Same, and my husband is also.
Kelly
Great, that’s awesome. So, I’m going to kind of shift gears a little bit and talk a little bit about, you know, the home-working mom and ambition conversation, because, for me, it reached its peak in 2012, when my kids were ages four to seven. And when Anne Marie Slaughter wrote an article called “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”. And at the time, it caused a lot of chaos in the media and people were talking about it as making assumptions. Well, why can’t we have it all? And I think, ultimately, what she ended up saying is many years later, she said that she should have called it “Why Working Moms Need Better Choices to Make it to the Top”. And the net net of the conversation is that yet yes, women can have it all –depends on the job, depends on your income level, depends on your ability to pay for child care, depends on if you have a supportive active partner at home. And gee, wouldn’t it be great of school schedules actually matched work schedules, right? At the time she actually thought that having a woman in the White House may start to change perceptions, if we have women in the workplace. But it’s 13 years later, and that hasn’t happened. And as you mentioned, women still only make up 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs, we talked about 1% of ad agency owners are women, which is very low. Women make up 43% of US government positions, but just 28% are members of Congress. And so, has anything really changed since 13 years ago, in your mind?
Sara
The big picture? No, I think no, I do think in the short-term kind of this, the pandemic has changed so much about the way that we work and the way that companies are looking at employees and the support that they need. So, I do think that and you know, that came about though, because women left because of the recession, because they were willing to walk away. And that made companies sit up and take notice and you know, McKinsey and Deloitte and all of these big companies started doing research on women and started doing having these focus research studies on women and the impact of you know, what work is like for them and what they need. So, I am starting to see these small changes happening, you know, that there is an awareness of what women have to do in order to just get in the door, right, and just get to work. So, I think that that it is, you know, small, but it is coming together. And I think that this is why actually kind of where the HomeWork Program came from, is that because I was seeing that there was progress at work. Again, it’s not done or not finished, like there’s still to go. But it was not happening as successfully at home. Even with having these men who are amazing supporters, feminists who want you know, who want to help women move forward, right, even in that case, even at home, they weren’t doing it. And I think so much of it was because our so much of it is because women aren’t willing to walk away from their families and just say like, no, you do it, you know what I mean? They don’t want their kids to go through that they want their kids to have everything right. And so that is sort of where I was like, okay, we, again, we’re not done at work, but there is there there’s signs of progress, and it wasn’t feeling the same way at home. And so how do we move those conversations forward without having to walk away? I think it is interesting, you know about how to have those conversations because there are people who say we won’t move forward at work until we have home, you know, equity at home. I don’t know I don’t know if I agree with that. Because I do think we’ve made progress at work. How do we get home to sort of work to move forward, but for sure it needs to be in conjunction to move the culture forward. Right, and how can we continue to move forward in that way?
Kelly
So, the reason we actually met is you slipped into my comments on Instagram when I posted that stat that only 1% of women-owned ad agencies in the US. You have your own theories as to why that is based on your own client base. Can you talk to me about that?
Sara
Yes, I have women who are from, you know, across so many different industries, you know, when so many different backgrounds, so many different directions they want to go. But if I were to, to have see as many as I have, in any one group, it would definitely be those who come from agencies who come from that background of specifically, not necessarily some marketing, yes, but specifically, the ones who come from agencies are the one who is the ones who really struggle after they have kids. And they say, this is not the world that I want to go back to, you know, it is too difficult to have that work, manage that work-life balance with the agency culture in the agency style, you know, back to Ashley wanting to close her computer at 5 pm, and be done with work for the day and be able to focus on her family for the evening. You know, that is really hard. And with agency life. And I understand, you know, my background is in marketing communications, as well. So, I understand, and I can support them. And so, I’m finding from these women that they are wanting, not again, that they don’t love what they’re doing, but the lifestyle isn’t conducive. And so, they’re looking to go in different directions with that. And so maybe that they want to go in-house as Ashley did, maybe they want to be more purpose-driven, you know, with the companies or the brands that they work with, provide more impact, you know, again, kind of same purpose-driven, impact-driven, or they want to try something out, do something, do something new kind of skill. But for sure, there is something tough about that agency model, or at least as they had experienced it. And so that’s why I actually loved your stuff because I was thinking about back to those entrepreneurs and women who are starting their own business because there’s not seen what it is that they want out there. So, they’re creating their own structure. So, I was like, yes, let women create their own agencies that work for women, and so that they’re not having this brain drain, you know, and that they’re actually able to support an environment that were split worse for moms and women to actually succeed. How amazing would that be?
Kelly
That would absolutely be amazing. And I hope we make some good progress on that. So, what other tips do you have for working moms that you can provide based on your experience?
Sara
Okay, so I have to, and one of them is, you know, I think that we moms are so hard on ourselves so often. And I think it’s because we’re holding ourselves to impossible standards, right? Not only in terms of that, you know, work like you don’t have kids and mother like you don’t have a job either. Alone. But also, based on these models of what you know, we saw probably our moms do, right, whether our moms worked and got food on the table, so every night, or whether, you know, our moms didn’t work and still had dinner on the table every night. So often we are holding ourselves to that expectation. And life is different now. Right then it was for our moms right, not only do we have phones that kind of make our work somewhat 24/7. But also, the way we raise kids is different, you know, in terms of so much about the way we were raised was to be shaped. And the way that we raise kids now is to help them support them into who they’re going to be right. It’s, it’s a bit different. So, I think that’s a big piece of letting go of those models like they don’t, they don’t work for us, they’re not serving us. And instead create our own models, you know, living by our own values, and what works for us and for our family. That I think and let us all just collectively have a sigh of relief and start enjoying more of our lives and all of these things that we’ve we’ve built so that we could enjoy, let’s enjoy them right through letting go of those models. And then my second tip would be that I wish there were but there’s no magic pill or silver bullet that makes us all just magically easier, you know, that just like wake up tomorrow, and it’s all you know, it all just works perfectly If that were the case. But I do think that doing this kind of work and being really clear on our values and being really clear on what direction we’re going is really worth it, it is so worth it. Because we are showing our kids every day, what it means to be an adult and be a working mom, right? And we want them to know that they can create that life that they want. They can be happy, right? They can live in a house that’s equitable, they can you know, and have a job that they love that is not their whole lives that they you know, can really move the world forward. Right. And I think that’s the goal for so many of us, right is we want to leave the world better than we found it and by showing our kids and we can create a higher baseline for them that we can do that. And I and so just thinking about you know, oh, I don’t have time to do this kind of work. I don’t have time but think about what you’re showing your kids and I think you will find time to help them and help them see what it could be like.
Kelly
That makes me laugh because when I launched my podcast, one of my teenage sons came to me and said, you need to make your social media private because my friends are seeing your posts, and they’re liking them and following you. And I was like, well, that’s just the greatest compliment. And our fans on my podcast are 16- to 18-year-old boys that are my son’s friends, kids who follow what I do. And I think that’s funny that you know, if you’re, that that’s hitting a nerve, right, where they care enough to see that what their friend’s mom is, is actually doing or makes a lot of sense. So that makes me cool. So how can people find you? How can they contact you if they want to learn more about working with you?
Sara
My website is probably the best way and, on my website, you can also sign up for my newsletter, twice a month, not a huge time commitment, I promise. I know what it’s like to be a busy working mom.
Yeah, I love to hear from moms and hear what it is their challenges are and what it is that they’re facing, and you know, trying to make their lives better. Like, let’s enjoy this life.
Kelly
Wonderful, I’ll make sure that we put your contact information on our website as part of the opposite part of the episode recap and of course to tag you on social posts. I just want to promote two podcasts that I’ve done that also talk about working moms one of them called Power Moms. It’s a book written it’s by Joann Lublin How Executive Mothers Navigate Work and Life. Huge, huge recommendation. Joann is just fantastic. So please listen to that podcast at https://twomarketingmoms.com/episode-21-how-power-moms-navigate-work-life-with-special-guest-joann-lublin/. another one that’s just as great. It’s called Slay Like a Mother: How to Destroy What’s Holding You Back So You Can Live the Life You Want By Katherine Wintsch. Another highly recommended read and check out TwoMarketingMoms.com to learn more. Thank you so much for the conversation today. Sarah, I really appreciate it.
Sara
Thank you. Take care.
Contact Sara Madera:
Instagram: @plancreativey8
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