Motherhood, entrepreneurship & sustainability: navigating impossible expectations while caring for yourself and others, and building things that center care

Episode 324, Kestrel welcomes Camille Forde, a mother and entrepreneur working at the intersection of business, sustainability, and community-centered solutions, to the show. With over a decade of experience, Camille has led corporate responsibility efforts at top professional services firms, earned an MBA from UC Berkeley with a focus on sustainable business, and spearheaded seller and brand partnerships at one of the largest fashion resale platforms. As a mother of two, Camille is deeply committed to building a more equitable and sustainable future that prioritizes community care.

“Vulnerability, at least for me, it’s a practice. It’s not: you’re vulnerable once, and then you’re done. I’ve had to make being vulnerable a regular practice that I chase even though I don’t want to all the time.” -Camille

OCTOBER THEME — MAYBE VULNERABILITY IS WHAT FASHION REALLY NEEDS

Last week, I got vulnerable. I shared a lot about my personal story over the last year – the challenges I’ve faced, personally with my health, professionally, financially, with continuing to push an independent media platform forward – I’d say I shared a lot in a short amount of time. 

It blew me away to see the response – so many folks reached out, shared their personal challenges, and were vulnerable with me about things they’ve faced. I don’t know – it felt like it opened a bit of a portal to somewhere new. To a more connected realm, where we could actually be honest with each other. A place where we could not only talk about transparency being important in supply chains and messaging, but also in our personal lives and realities. 

It felt big. And I want to thank you for allowing that real emotion in, and sharing your own vulnerabilities – because as this week’s guest reminds us, so often what we receive with vulnerability is GROWTH (not in production volume, but in ourselves).

This episode is really about a lot of challenges I’ve faced, mental struggles I have grappled with, and questions I’ve asked myself while working at the intersections of caring for people and the planet, and caring for my own child. 

When I was thinking about this episode idea as a way to build on this vulnerability discussion, one mom stood out immediately. I thought – I want to talk to Camille about this - it’s who I want to hear from, who I want to learn from, and I just felt like she would have a lot of valuable insight into these crossovers. 

Turns out, Camille went beyond. This episode is about sustainability, but not your typical approach to that conversation. It’s about caring for yourself, for your family, for your community, while building things that center care.

• “The perfectionism and shaming that happens both in motherhood or just parenthood and the sustainability space — it’s just beyond.” -Camille

• “The reality is we’re not going to be perfect at any of it, but you know, if you’re not careful, there’s so much shame that can enter the conversation and really slow you down.” -Camille

• Camille’s Website

• Follow Camille on Instagram