The Breadwinners Podcast

Alexis Contos
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They say you can't have it all — that mothers must choose between ambition and presence. But what if we're asking the wrong question? On The Breadwinners Podcast, Alexis Contos redefines what it means to be a Breadwinner in modern culture, moving it far beyond the paycheck. Through raw, honest conversations with women like Morgan Zanotti (CEO of Primal Kitchen), Nicole Trunfio (CEO of Bumpsuit), and Eve Rodsky (Author of Fair Play & Find Your Unicorn Space), we explore what it really takes to bring financial richness, emotional richness, and systemic change to our families. This isn't about balance, it's about integration. Not perfection, but wholeness. Whether you're already navigating motherhood and career, building your empire before kids arrive, or reimagining what family leadership looks like, these conversations will challenge everything you've been told about what's possible. The Breadwinners: Where ambitious mothers aren't just earning a living, they're pioneering a new era for themselves, and everyone who comes next. Learn more at thebreadwinners.co.

  1. 3d ago

    Saved Seats | Alison Fragale on Why You Do Care What People Think | The Breadwinners Podcast

    *This is a replayed episode from an earlier conversation* The formula for women's success isn't what you've been told. It's not your title, your salary, or your track record. It's your status — how much others respect and value you. And the way women build it is completely different from what most of us have been taught. Alison Fragale is an organizational psychologist, tenured professor, former McKinsey consultant, and the author of the national bestseller Likable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve. She has spent 20 years studying status, influence, and how women can build both — without compromising who they are. In this episode, Alexis Contos and Alison unpack the real science behind what makes women respected, valued, and powerful — at work, at home, and everywhere in between. What you'll learn in this episode: 🔬 Why status is a resource — just like money and health — and how to build and spend it strategically 💡 The "caring + capable" equation: the two signals that determine how others perceive you (and what most women get wrong) 🧠 How Alison went from feeling like a fraud at McKinsey to building a 20-year career on the one thing she was told wasn't serious: reading people 📊 Why "I don't care what people think" is a story we only tell ourselves when we're in pain — and what to say instead 🎭 The resting bitch face problem — and what it teaches us about non-verbal status signals 👩‍👧‍👦 Why the way you parent multiple kids is the exact same skill as influencing people at work (and why we feel proud of one but ashamed of the other) ✈️ What an American Airlines Concierge Key reveals about status symbols vs. actual status 🏗️ How to build status before you need it — and why career transitions feel so disorienting 💬 The fastest way to build status in a room full of strangers 🤝 Why women wait too long to negotiate — and what to do about it Whether you're navigating corporate life, building something new, or figuring out how to show up differently in 2026, this conversation will change how you walk into your next room. 📚 Books mentioned: Likable Badass by Alison Fragale Quit by Annie Duke Deep Work by Cal Newport Talk by Alison Wood Brooks 🥂 Join The Breadwinners community: → ⁠Subscribe to our Substack⁠ → ⁠Follow on Instagram⁠ → Rate & review wherever you listen to our pod — it helps more women find our show 🔗 Connect with Alison Fragale: → Alison's Instagram → www.alisonfragale.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  2. Oct 13

    I Peed on the Tennis Court! | Dr. Sara Reardon on the Pelvic Floor Care Every Woman Deserves | The Breadwinners Podcast

    Leaking when you sneeze, jump rope or lunge for a ball on the tennis court is common. Dr. Sara Reardon wants every woman to stop accepting it as the price of having children - because it's not normal. Dr Sara Reardon is a board-certified pelvic floor physical therapist, known to more than 750,000 followers as The Vagina Whisperer. She and Alexis cover the pelvic floor at every stage, from a first period to perimenopause. Alexis talks about her forceps delivery and the day she peed on the tennis court. Sara admits the same thing happened to her a few months ago, in hot pink leggings. In this episode: What the pelvic floor actually is, and how it changes from your teens through perimenopause Why your muscles are working at about 50% when you’re cleared for exercise at six weeks postpartum Why C-section moms need pelvic floor rehab too Three daily habits that protect your pelvic floor: don’t push when you pee, don’t strain when you poop, and exhale when you lift Pushing positions and breathing during labor, including options with an epidural Why it’s never too late to get care, even ten years postpartum- Raising kids who talk openly about their bodies, and parenting middle schoolers with “a compass, not the map” Dr. Sara Reardon is a board-certified pelvic floor physical therapist with 20 years in practice and the creator of The Vagina Whisperer, where she teaches pelvic health with humor and zero shame. She built and sold a pelvic floor clinic in New Orleans, wrote Floored: A Woman’s Guide to Pelvic Floor Health at Every Age and Stage, and built an app for at-home pelvic floor training. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and two sons. Find Sara: Instagram: @thevaginawhisperer Website: thevaginawhisperer.com (free guides, her book, and a 7-day free trial of her app) Book: Floored, available on Amazon Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen - it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  3. Oct 6

    Saved Seats | Devon McDonald on the Secrets Successful Women Keep: Burnout, Mom Shame, & Rebuilding with Intention

    **This is a replay from a previous episode** What does it feel like to reach the pinnacle of your career — and realize it no longer fits? Devon McDonald spent 17 years in venture capital, rising to General Partner at OpenView Ventures while raising three kids and serving as the financial anchor for her family. In March 2020, OpenView had its largest exit ever when Datadog went public, returning the fund ten times over. On paper, it was the moment she'd worked her entire career for. On the inside? Devon was sitting alone in her car, listening to meditation audiobooks, wondering why she felt desperate to escape. In this raw, honest conversation, Devon and Alexis explore what happens when the life you built for everyone else stops fitting who you're becoming — and what it actually takes to rebuild. Devon opens up about the warning signs she ignored for years: the physical symptoms of chronic stress, the shame spiral of working-mom guilt, the perfectionism and control that masked how much she was struggling. She shares the terrifying work of dismantling a life that looked perfect from the outside — losing 30 pounds, hiring a psychologist and spiritual coach, learning nervous system regulation, setting boundaries at work, transitioning out of her GP role, and ultimately leaving her marriage. Today, Devon is the co-founder of Second Harvest, a retreat for high-achieving leaders at midlife who are ready for something more aligned to their inner truth. This episode is for every breadwinner mother who has ever sat in her car just to breathe. What we cover: - The moment Devon realized her biggest career win felt completely hollow - How the body signals misalignment long before the mind catches up - Mom shame, working-mother guilt, and why high-achieving women don't talk about it - The role of nervous system regulation, somatic awareness, and spiritual coaching in Devon's transformation - Why divorce made her a better, more present mother - What "high achieving" actually means — and who Second Harvest is really for - How to build community rooted in giving, not performing Connect with Devon McDonald: 🌿 secondharvest.co 💼 LinkedIn: Devon McDonald 📸 Instagram: @second_harvest_retreats __________________________ Connect with The Breadwinners: 📩 Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Instagram: wearethebreadwinners __________________________ 🎙️ Rate + Subscribe wherever you listen — it helps us reach the women who need to know they're not alone. __________________________ #WomenInBusiness #HighAchievingWomen #career #BurnoutRecovery #WorkingMom #mom #MidlifeWomen #CareerTransition #WomenLeaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  4. Sep 30

    How real belonging gets built | A conversation with Marika Frumes of Mysha

    Everyone is calling everything a community right now. Marika Frumes has spent six years building the real thing, and she knows the difference. Alexis sits down with Marika, founder of Mysha, the morning after the two co-hosted a dinner in Austin. Marika shares how a WhatsApp group of 18 expecting moms in January 2020 became a lifeline during the pandemic and grew into Mysha. She also opens up, for the first time on a podcast, about immigrating from the former Soviet Union at seven with $400. She talks about the childhood experiences that shaped why she builds spaces where everyone feels safe. In this episode: How Mysha started with one Facebook post and a WhatsApp group Marika's immigration story and the promise she made to herself in middle school The difference between a community and a group, and why it matters for brands How to create safety in a room before asking anyone to be vulnerable Why community should grow slowly, and what it takes to build a culture of value Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen - it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  5. Sep 22

    Saved Seats | Patrice Meagher on Building Systems to Support Working Moms in the Workplace

    In this episode, Alexis Contos sits down with Patrice Meagher, a 20-year Commercial Real Estate veteran turned Founder and CEO of MilkMate. After spending two decades leasing millions of square feet in Manhattan , Patrice realized that while we can fly to space, the most "innovative" solution for pumping at work was still a storage closet or a bathroom stall. Patrice shares her journey of leaving a successful corporate career to solve a problem that had plagued her through four children: the inefficiency and indignity of pumping in the workplace. She breaks down her famous "Coffee Pot Analogy" - asking men to imagine brewing their morning coffee in a bathroom stall while disrobing and carrying equipment back and forth - to illustrate the absurdity of the status quo. In this conversation, Patrice discusses the "tipping point" for working mothers - that moment when one small thing (like a forgotten pump part) causes the mental load to crumble. She opens up about the daunting process of gaining FDA clearance for MilkMate , the wisdom she carries from her late father’s "Don’t Quit" motto , and why she believes working moms are the most efficient workers in the universe. Whether you are an employer looking to support your team or a parent navigating the "drip effect" of balancing career and family , this episode offers a blueprint for how we can evolve the workplace—bird by bird, step by step. Join The Breadwinners community: The Breadwinners on Substack - wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow in Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen - it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Saved Seats | Patrice Meagher on Building Systems to Support Working Moms in the Workplace

  6. Sep 15

    When Success Becomes a Cage with Keren Eldad | The Breadwinners Podcast

    Most of us are told to chase the title, the house, the marriage that looks good from the outside. Keren Eldad had all of it, and it nearly broke her. In this episode, executive coach and bestselling author Keren Eldad (Gilded, Gilt Free) sits down with Alexis to unpack what happens when your ambition outruns your actual self. Keren shares the exact moment her life "came crashing down" in the shower, why she believes overachievement is an addiction, and the difference between women with high standards and women trapped in perfectionism. The setup: Keren had every marker of success — a C-suite title at a luxury brand, a home in Zurich, two degrees, a marriage that looked good on paper — and was quietly miserable underneath all of it. The break: In her mid-30s, a breakdown in the shower gave her sudden clarity: she wasn't the problem, the life she'd built was. That's when she started "burning it all down" — leaving the marriage, leaving the job, starting over with no savings. Redefining "high achiever": Keren reframes it as a personality wired for intensity and an unhealthy relationship to effort, not a compliment. She draws a hard line between perfectionism (chasing something unattainable, inherently unsatisfying) and high standards (enjoying the work itself, staying "kind of chill"). Where it comes from: She traces her own overachieving back to being raised as the "golden child" — praised constantly for grades, achievements, and performance — and explains how that praise turns people into what she calls "dancing bears," performing for approval instead of living as themselves. The self-sabotage list: Debt, isolation, doom-scrolling, workaholism, harsh management styles — Keren walks through the ways overachievement quietly shows up as addiction, and why the first step out is simply acknowledging it. Rebuilding after loss: After her divorce, a fire destroyed everything she owned. She talks about what that taught her about materialism — and why her relationship to "stuff" changed even though her love of nice things didn't. Coaching, decoded: Keren breaks down how to actually vet a coach — look for rapport, lived experience, and results, not credentials alone — and pushes back on the excuse "I don't have time," reframing it as a preference problem, not a time problem. The climb is supposed to be hard: She compares building something new to a plane burning most of its fuel on takeoff — the early grind isn't a red flag, it's the cost of getting off the ground. Devotion over discipline: Her framework for sustainable ambition isn't intensity, it's consistency — showing up in smaller or bigger doses every single day, and letting that compound over time. Meet Monica: Keren names her overachiever alter ego after Monica from Friends — the part of her that shows up cleaning and barking orders the second something feels uncertain — and shares how she catches herself and resets (including literally booking a flight to Miami to do nothing). On legacy: When asked what legacy she wants to leave, her answer is refreshingly unbothered: "Who cares? I'll be dead." She'd rather be remembered as a nice, kind person than build toward some future she won't be around to see. Keren Eldad is a leadership coach and the author of Gilded and Guilt Free. She has coached thousands of high achievers out of burnout and into what she calls a "gold" life. She joins the show to talk about the cage of overachievement and how to walk out of it. Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen - it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    When Success Becomes a Cage with Keren Eldad | The Breadwinners Podcast

  7. Sep 8

    Saved Seats | Go Get the Help You Deserve with Kelly Hubbell from Sage Haus

    You're expected to work like you don't have kids and parent like you don't work. Kelly Hubbell, founder of Sage Haus, looked at this impossible equation and decided to build the solution herself.In this episode, Kelly shares her journey from corporate tech sales to launching Sage Haus—a company that provides house managers and holistic family support for busy working parents. After her second child, Kelly found herself overwhelmed, creating a spreadsheet at 2am cataloging everything she was managing on top of her full-time job. That breakdown moment became her breakthrough. We dive into the reality of founder-motherhood, why the "mental load" conversation needs to shift from problem to solution, and how Kelly is building a business that reflects her values while showing her three kids what's possible when you refuse to choose between ambition and presence. Kelly Hubbell is the founder of Sage Haus, a company that helps busy families find holistic, versatile support through house managers and family assistants. A former software sales professional who worked her way through Silicon Valley startups, Kelly made the leap from corporate America to entrepreneurship after realizing the support gap working parents face.Kelly lives in Portland with her husband (also an entrepreneur), three children (ages 7, 5, and 3), and a 7-year-old dog. She's on a mission to normalize household support and give families permission to get the help they need. Find Kelly:Instagram: @mysagehaus LinkedIn: Kelly Hubbell Website: Sign up for informational calls about finding your house manager Get $200 off your deposit by using this link: sagehaus.com/alexiscontos  Join The Breadwinners Community: Subscribe to The Breadwinners on Substack for Full podcast episodes In-depth written interviews with guests Live Q&A sessions with experts Exclusive content on hormones, finances, partnership dynamics, and moreIt's free to subscribe → wearethebreadwinners.substack.com #workingmom #mom #podcast #breadwinnermom #momentrepreneur #femalefounders , #worklifebalance #ambitiousmoms Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Saved Seats | Go Get the Help You Deserve with Kelly Hubbell from Sage Haus

  8. Sep 1

    It's Okay to Not Be Okay: Sonny Williams on Maternal Mental Health | Courage to Confide campaign

    Postpartum is not a diagnosis. It's an experience every mother has, whatever form it takes. What determines whether you need support is severity and how long it lasts, and most of us were never taught the difference. In this episode, Alexis sits down with Sonny Williams, a perinatal mental health certified counselor and clinician with BetterHelp, to break down the real spectrum of maternal mental health, from baby blues to postpartum anxiety, OCD, depression, and psychosis. This conversation is part of the launch of Courage to Confide, our campaign built on one belief: the courage to confide is the confidence to lead. What you'll learn: The difference between "PMADs" (perinatal mood and anxiety disorders) and why postpartum depression is only one piece of a much bigger spectrum How to tell the difference between support and help, and why you need both Why identity shift, not just hormones, is at the center of the postpartum experience How ambition and motherhood can coexist without shutting down who you were before Concrete tools for what to do when you notice something is off, for yourself or someone you love Sonny Williams is a licensed professional counselor and perinatal mental health certified counselor who works with mothers across the full spectrum of the perinatal journey, from fertility through the first year postpartum. She joins the show to give clinician-backed language to a conversation that too often only lives in headlines. It's okay to have it all together and look polished and always be presentable. It's also okay to not be okay. #CourageToConfide If any part of this piece feels close to home, we’ve partnered with BetterHelp to offer a free month to anyone who signs up through The Breadwinners. Join The Breadwinners community: Subscribe on Substack: wearethebreadwinners.substack.com Follow on Instagram: @wearethebreadwinners Rate & review wherever you listen - it helps more women find this show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    It's Okay to Not Be Okay: Sonny Williams on Maternal Mental Health | Courage to Confide campaign
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About

They say you can't have it all — that mothers must choose between ambition and presence. But what if we're asking the wrong question? On The Breadwinners Podcast, Alexis Contos redefines what it means to be a Breadwinner in modern culture, moving it far beyond the paycheck. Through raw, honest conversations with women like Morgan Zanotti (CEO of Primal Kitchen), Nicole Trunfio (CEO of Bumpsuit), and Eve Rodsky (Author of Fair Play & Find Your Unicorn Space), we explore what it really takes to bring financial richness, emotional richness, and systemic change to our families. This isn't about balance, it's about integration. Not perfection, but wholeness. Whether you're already navigating motherhood and career, building your empire before kids arrive, or reimagining what family leadership looks like, these conversations will challenge everything you've been told about what's possible. The Breadwinners: Where ambitious mothers aren't just earning a living, they're pioneering a new era for themselves, and everyone who comes next. Learn more at thebreadwinners.co.

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