Between Meetings and Motherhood

Between Meetings & Motherhood
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Parenting
  • Weekly

Between Meetings & Motherhood is a podcast about modern working motherhood: how it changes us, challenges us, and forces us to question the systems we’ve been told are normal. Hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and Editor-in-Chief of Mothered Magazine, the show blends powerful conversations with working mothers, founders, and leaders alongside honest solo episodes about matrescence, ambition, feminism, burnout, identity, work culture, and the invisible load women carry every day. This is a podcast for women rethinking work, power, leadership, and motherhood in real time. likeamotherf.substack.com

  1. 2d ago

    Too Cringe to Post? Watch This Before You Quit

    Mom Founders: if you’re ready for real business growth with a community of other mom founders around the world, join the Mothered Founders Club. Waitlist is open, doors open mid-November to waitlist members first! Join us https://www.motheredmedia.com/founders-club Imagine speaking to a room of 200 people. You’d talk about it for months, post the photos, and put it on your speaker reel. So why does 200 views on a video feel like failure? In this solo episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks breaks down why mom founders feel so cringe about posting online, and how one reframe can get you to hit publish. Cringe is fear of what strangers think of you, and those strangers aren’t paying your bills. Alexa shares what her first LinkedIn and Instagram posts felt like, why confidence comes after action instead of before it, and why you’ve already done something far more exposing than posting a carousel: you grew and birthed a baby. In this episode: * The 200 people in a room reframe: why 200 views is a packed event, not a flop * The math: five posts a week at 200 views a day is 10,000 new people seeing your business * Why cringe is really fear, and how to find where it shows up in your body * Why a stranger’s opinion shouldn’t decide how you show up in your business * The corporate-to-entrepreneur mindset shift: you can’t care about everyone’s opinion anymore * Why confidence comes from doing, and the “but did you die?” test for posting * Why it took months of daily posting before LinkedIn and Instagram took off * Why most businesses quit around month two, and what 40 weeks of showing up looks like * Your homework: post the cringy thing today, tag Alexa, and she’ll reshare it Posting is easier when someone’s cheering you on. That’s what the Mothered Founders Club is for: a global membership for mom founders who want real business growth together, with collaborations, referrals, partnerships, and other moms who get it. 280+ mom founders are already on the waitlist, and the link is in the description. Join the waitlist, doors open mid-November! Members get exclusive priority access and discounted pricing. 🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine, a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time. #MomFounder #MomEntrepreneur #PersonalBranding #SocialMediaTips #ContentCreation #Visibility #MotheredFoundersClub #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMedia #WomenInBusiness #LinkedInTips #InstagramTips #DoingBigShit Get full access to Like a Motherf*cker at likeamotherf.substack.com/subscribe

    Too Cringe to Post? Watch This Before You Quit

  2. Oct 29

    Stop Planning the Nursery, Plan Your Postpartum

    Most pregnant women spend months on the registry, the nursery, and the baby shower, then hit the fourth trimester with no plan for themselves. Nina Spears has spent 15 years changing that. She’s a baby planner, birth and postpartum doula, massage therapist, and author of The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy, and she thinks you should start preparing for postpartum before the third trimester even begins. In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Nina for a funny, honest conversation about how to prepare for postpartum, build your village, and share the mental load with your partner from the day you see that positive pregnancy test. In this episode: * Why you should treat your third trimester as postpartum prep, and what to do in the second trimester to get ahead of it * How to write a postpartum plan: the pelvic floor therapist, lactation consultant, and mental health therapist to research before you need them * What to put on your baby registry instead of another bouncy seat: meal delivery, house cleaning, a postpartum doula, a night nanny * How to build your village while you’re still pregnant, and what to do if you can’t afford to outsource * Postpartum depression, anxiety, rage, OCD, PTSD, and psychosis: what the perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) are and why none of it makes you a bad mom * Why Nina treats a birth plan like a flowchart instead of a wish list * Nina’s experience with placenta encapsulation and why some of her clients swear by it * Nina’s planned home birth: three hours of pushing, a baby coming out crooked, and the EMTs arriving just as he was born * The fetal ejection reflex: why her second birth was completely different * The invisible load starts at the positive pregnancy test, not when the baby arrives, and how partners can carry their share from week one * Why people spend more time on the wedding than the marriage, and more time on the nursery than on parenthood * Nina’s big goal: a full education and community platform that becomes a “nest” for moms from pregnancy through postpartum Nina’s book The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy is a week-by-week guide with partner tips, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and Walmart. 📲 Find Nina: baby-chick.com (2,800+ free articles, her book, birth and postpartum courses, and baby planning services) | @thebabychick on Instagram 🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine, a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time. Join the waitlist for our upcoming Mothered Founders Club, for ambitious mom founders globally who want to build businesses together. #PostpartumPlan #PostpartumPreparation #PregnancyTips #BabyPlanner #Doula #PostpartumDoula #PostpartumSupport #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMedia #PositivePregnancy #BirthPrep #MentalLoad #PostpartumDepression #NewMom Get full access to Like a Motherf*cker at likeamotherf.substack.com/subscribe

    Stop Planning the Nursery, Plan Your Postpartum

  3. Oct 20

    How Mom Founders Do Big, Scary, Audacious Things

    When was the last time someone asked you what you want to build — not how you juggle it all, not how you manage it while raising kids, but what you actually want to build? In this solo episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks gets into it: what doing big shit actually means, why your goal isn’t big enough if it doesn’t scare you, and why the biggest things are never done alone. In this episode: * What “doing big shit” actually means — and why revenue and hustle have nothing to do with it * The test: if saying your goal out loud doesn’t give you a pit in your stomach, it’s not big enough * Why moms are constantly given permission to be ambitious — but only a little bit — and why that’s holding us back * How Alexa went from maternity leave coaching to building a global media company to shift the cultural narrative around motherhood * Why working backwards from a scary goal is the only real business strategy * Why the biggest goals are never achieved alone — and why competition is the wrong frame entirely * The Mothered Founders Club: a global community for mom founders to do big shit together — collaborations, referrals, workshops, quarterly goal sprints, and rooms full of women who actually get it * How to join the waitlist today as a founding member (link in description) Your homework: write down your big shit goal — the real one, the scary one — and send it to Alexa on Instagram or LinkedIn. Or comment it below. Founding member waitlist is open now at https://www.motheredmedia.com/founders-club 🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time. #MomFounder #MomEntrepreneur #BigGoals #MotheredFoundersClub #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMedia #MotheredMagazine #WomenInBusiness #MomBoss #FemaleFounder #MomCommunity #AmbitionAndMotherhood #StartupLife #DoingBigShit Get full access to Like a Motherf*cker at likeamotherf.substack.com/subscribe

    How Mom Founders Do Big, Scary, Audacious Things

  4. Oct 12

    She Built a Postpartum App Days After Giving Birth

    She started developing the app just days after giving birth to her third child. Not because she had it all figured out — but because she’d spent years as a massage therapist, prenatal and postpartum doula, and lactation counselor watching new mothers fall through the cracks, and she knew exactly what they needed. So she built it. In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Brooke Orloff, co-founder of Mone Wellness — a comprehensive postpartum platform that brings together evidence-informed education, symptom logging for mom and baby, community forums, and a directory of 200+ vetted women’s health providers, all in one place. In this episode: * What Mone Wellness actually does: articles, videos, logging, community forums, and a provider directory all in one app * Why postpartum education needs to start prenatally — and how Moan is built around that * Her second birth: prodromal labor for weeks, a traumatic delivery, and what it took to process and heal before her third * How her third birth — calm, efficient, and smooth — changed everything, including her recovery * Still breastfeeding her 16-month-old and why she can’t quite bring herself to wean * The identity shift that hit hardest after her second baby — and the fragmentation she didn’t see coming * Starting Mone just days postpartum and why she calls it her fourth baby * Why she went from massage therapy to doula work to lactation counseling — and how each step led to the next * The big goal: Mone as the recommended postpartum resource integrated across OB offices, birth centers, midwifery practices, and doula networks nationwide * Why every birthing person deserves a doula — and what happens when partners are properly prepared for birth Brooke is also featured in the October issue of Mothered Magazine — read the full interview at motheredmagazine.com. 📲 Find Mone Wellness: monewellness.com | Available on Apple & Android | @moanwellness on social | Brooke Flynn Orloff on LinkedIn 🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time. #PostpartumSupport #PostpartumRecovery #Doula #LactationSupport #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMagazine #MotheredMedia #NewMomSupport #MomsHealth #PostpartumApp #MomFounder #BirthSupport #Breastfeeding #MaternalHealth Get full access to Like a Motherf*cker at likeamotherf.substack.com/subscribe

    She Built a Postpartum App Days After Giving Birth

  5. Oct 12

    The Woman Fighting to Keep Families Together

    She dropped out of high school at 17, got her GED, and flew to South Africa with a group of strangers. While there, she was handed a three-day-old baby boy whose 14-year-old mother had given birth alone in the woods and fled. Everyone’s heart turned to the baby. Charlee’s went straight to the mom. That moment planted a seed that became Every Mother’s Advocate — a national nonprofit now operating in 17 cities across the US, working to prevent children from entering foster care by wrapping mothers in crisis with support, relationships, and resources before it’s too late. In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Charlee Tchividjian, founder and CEO of Every Mother’s Advocate (EMA) — the October cover of Mothered Magazine — for a conversation about motherhood, mission, burnout, and what it really means to fight for families the system has written off. In this episode: * The moment in South Africa that changed everything — and why Charlee’s heart went to the mom, not the baby * Why less than 10% of children enter foster care due to abuse — and what’s really driving family separation * How EMA works: trained volunteers, professional case managers, and a wraparound model that gets moms from crisis to stability * Starting a nonprofit from a college dorm room at 20 years old — with zero business background * Becoming licensed foster parents before having biological kids — and what watching birth moms fight the system did to Charlee’s mission * The hustle culture reckoning: working 80-hour weeks in the name of a noble cause — and why COVID forced her to slow down * What a 50/50 partnership with her husband actually looks like in practice * Why it might take her longer to get where she’s going — and why she’s made peace with that * From 17 cities to millions of moms: the open-source, app-based model she’s building to multiply EMA’s reach * The big dream: bringing EMA back to where it all started — South Africa Charlee is the October cover of Mothered Magazine — read the full exclusive interview at motheredmagazine.com. 📲 Find EMA: ema.org | @charleetchividjian on Instagram & LinkedIn 🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time. #FosterCare #MomNonprofit #FamilySeparation #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMagazine #MotheredMedia #MomsInCrisis #MomFounder #SocialImpact #EveryMothersAdvocate #WorkingMoms #MomEntrepreneur #MaternalSupport #NonprofitLeader Get full access to Like a Motherf*cker at likeamotherf.substack.com/subscribe

    The Woman Fighting to Keep Families Together

  6. Oct 12

    She Became the Mom She Wished She'd Had

    She didn’t go back to school for a master’s degree in clinical psychology because she had it all figured out. She went because she was in the thick of early motherhood, things were coming up from her own childhood she couldn’t ignore, and she wanted to break the cycle — for her daughters, and for herself. What she built on the other side is the Women’s Center for Healing, a mental health practice specifically designed for women, gender diverse individuals, and the underserved communities who keep falling through the cracks of a system not built for them. In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Cheryl Przezdziecki, founder and clinical director of the Women’s Center for Healing for one of the most honest, grounded conversations this podcast has had about childhood trauma, reparenting, co-regulation, and what it actually means to break generational cycles while raising daughters. In this episode: * Why motherhood — not a classroom — was what finally launched Cheryl’s mental health journey * What holistic, trauma-informed therapy actually looks like and why it starts by going back before you can move forward * Reparenting: what it is, why it matters, and how to become the inner parent your inner child always needed * The question that changes everything: what kind of parent did you wish you had? * Why your kids mirror your own inner child — and what to do when a certain age or phase suddenly triggers you * Co-regulation with toddlers: why letting them have the meltdown is sometimes the most powerful thing you can do * The mom timeout: going to your own room instead of putting your kid in one * Why children owe their parents nothing — not even a relationship — and what that reframe does for how you show up * Raising daughters to name patriarchy, challenge body image messaging, and never shrink to fit a system * What Cheryl learned about herself raising two daughters through every phase — and what she sees now that they’re in college * Why she built the Women’s Center for Healing: because the gaps in care were too big and the people falling through them too important to ignore * The best advice she gives her daughters right now: if you don’t fit the system, create one Cheryl is also featured in the October issue of Mothered Magazine — read the full interview at motheredmagazine.com. 📲 Find Cheryl: thewomenscenterforhealing.com | @thewomenscenterforhealing on Instagram 🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time. #MaternalMentalHealth #Reparenting #GenerationalTrauma #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMagazine #MotheredMedia #TraumaHealing #MomTherapist #RaisingDaughters #MomMentalHealth #WorkingMoms #MomFounder #BreakingCycles #WomensMentalHealth Get full access to Like a Motherf*cker at likeamotherf.substack.com/subscribe

    She Became the Mom She Wished She'd Had

  7. Oct 8

    Actually, Your Kid Is Fine and Here's Why That's Good Enough

    What if your kid being “fine” is actually… fine? In a culture obsessed with excellence, enrichment programs, and diagnosing anything that falls short of perfect, clinical neuropsychologist Dr. Katie Davis is making the case that we’ve lost the plot — and that our kids are paying the price for it. In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Dr. Katie Davis, author of the new book Actually You’re Fine — a book that challenges everything modern parents believe about their kids’ development, the overdiagnosis crisis, and why “fine” is exactly where we should want our children to be. In this episode: * Why fine is not a problem — and how we convinced ourselves it is * The pressure to be excellent: where it comes from, who benefits, and what it costs our kids * The Saturday math class dilemma — and the principal who asked “do you want a kid doing advanced math or a kid who’s happy?” * Why the US overdiagnosis crisis is driven by a desire for a quick fix — and why that fix almost never works * The difference between identifying a problem and pathologizing one * Why you don’t need a diagnosis to intervene — and the mental health primary care gap nobody is talking about * ADHD, learning disorders, and medication: what actually helps and what parents get wrong * How to tell if your kid is genuinely struggling or just being a kid * The natural consequences strategy for toddlers who bolt — and when to let it go * Why giving kids more responsibility than they’re ready for is one of the best things you can do * The message every American parent needs to hear about consuming resources that belong to the most vulnerable kids Actually You’re Fine by Dr. Katie Davis is available Oct. 13th at all major US, UK, Australian and New Zealand bookstores — and if you can, support your local independent bookstore. 📲 Find Dr. Katie Davis: reach out directly if you want a sanity check on your kid — she’s licensed across multiple US states through SidePact. https://www.drkatiedavis.com @readteensightshttps://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/dr-katie-davis/actually-youre-fine/9781668659892/ Dr. Katie Davis 🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine, discussing about ambition and motherhood. #Parenting #ChildDevelopment #Overdiagnosis #ADHD #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMedia #ParentingTips #KidMentalHealth #NeuropsychologyNeuropsychologist #ActuallyYoureFine #PositiveParenting #ToddlerMom #MomLife #ParentingAdvice Get full access to Like a Motherf*cker at likeamotherf.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Oct 2

    The Raw, Honest Motherhood Conversations We're Not Having

    Samantha Hays was drowning in early motherhood. Her daughter cried constantly, nobody was sleeping, the internet kept serving her five-dollar sleep hacks that didn’t work, and every time she scrolled Instagram she saw perfect moms with perfect babies and wondered what was wrong with her. Then one honest conversation with another mom changed everything. So she built a place where every mom could have that conversation. In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Samantha Hays, founder of Explicitly Motherhood (explicitlymotherhood.com) — an online community built around raw, honest, judgment-free storytelling from real mothers, designed to be a complete antidote to the highlight reel culture of modern motherhood. In this episode: * Why the internet fails new moms when they need help most — and what actually works instead * What postpartum really looked like for Samantha: hormone crashes, no sleep, constant crying, and feeling like she was failing her baby * How one honest conversation with another mom did more than any parenting hack ever could * The mental load of motherhood and why it leaves so many moms feeling completely alone * What Explicitly Motherhood actually is: a weekly question, a library of 50+ real mom stories, searchable by how you’re feeling * Why written story creates more honesty than photos and videos ever will * The social media reality check: why the prettiest posts go viral and the realest ones don’t * Sleep deprivation, postpartum anxiety, and the things nobody warns you about labor and delivery * Her big goal: to spark an online revolution where spaces are built for real connection, not division * First 50 moms get a complimentary lifetime membership — link below 📲 Find Explicitly Motherhood: explicitlymotherhood.com | Substack: Explicitly Motherhood | @explicitlymotherhood on Instagram 🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine — a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time. #PostpartumAnxiety #NewMomLife #MomCommunity #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMagazine #MotheredMedia #PostpartumDepression #RealMotherhood #MomMentalHealth #MentalLoad #NewMom #MomFounder #MomLife #HonestMotherhood Get full access to Like a Motherf*cker at likeamotherf.substack.com/subscribe

    The Raw, Honest Motherhood Conversations We're Not Having
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Between Meetings & Motherhood is a podcast about modern working motherhood: how it changes us, challenges us, and forces us to question the systems we’ve been told are normal. Hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and Editor-in-Chief of Mothered Magazine, the show blends powerful conversations with working mothers, founders, and leaders alongside honest solo episodes about matrescence, ambition, feminism, burnout, identity, work culture, and the invisible load women carry every day. This is a podcast for women rethinking work, power, leadership, and motherhood in real time. likeamotherf.substack.com

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