As I’ve kicked off the year with my business consulting clients and corporate clients, the topic of expanding visibility keeps coming up. It’s an important topic for anyone entering a new year! As you think about what you want to make happen for yourself as a mother, an employee, a team member, a community member, a business owner, a partner, or a friend, how do you want to expand upon who you are now in order to get your needs met, have your voice heard, share your gifts and ideas, and have an ...
Jan 15, 2024•35 min
Stefanie Wilder-Taylor is a past guest of the SMA, one of my very favorite podcasters, my beloved pandemic memoir writing teacher, and author of Drunkish: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving Alcohol - coming out January 16th In addition to all these roles, Stephanie is a TV personality, and cohost of the popular podcast For Crying Out Loud. She co-created and hosted the late-night comedy parenting show Parental Discretion with Stefanie Wilder-Taylor for NickMom on Nickelodeon. Her books include Sippy...
Jan 10, 2024•56 min
As you welcome in a new year, perhaps you’re giving some consideration to changes you want to make. I want to invite you to be gentle with yourself as you enter this year. Sometimes we try to make so many changes to kick off a year that we are almost immediately too overwhelmed to follow through on any of them for the long haul. I always encourage moms to give themselves the entire month of January and even into February to settle into the new year, set goals, and start taking action steps. Your...
Jan 08, 2024•31 min
A new year is always a good time to reflect on the state of your current relationships. As I considered which past guests could bring the most value to you as you kick off 2024, I immediately thought of Kat Vellos, who specializes in helping people develop meaningful friendships in adulthood. Sometimes it can feel like a dirty little secret in adulthood, “I don’t have many friends.” So, we keep it to ourselves. This Best Of conversation is an invitation to openly and proudly pursue the friendshi...
Jan 03, 2024•54 min
When I was considering which episodes of the SMA I wanted to bring back for you this week, I went to see what my most downloaded episodes of the last couple of years have been. This interview with Aubrey Gordon was my most downloaded episode of this year. I think (and hope!) this is because you are all huge Aubrey fans AND I hope this episode's popularity is a reflection of this community’s openness and eagerness to have conversations around bodies, size, anti-fat bias, and fat activism. Sizeism...
Jan 01, 2024•58 min
Are you rethinking your relationship with alcohol as you approach 2024? Casey McGuire Davidson has been a guest on the SMA multiple times and she is my go-to referral partner when it comes to connecting women who are sober curious to sober coaches and communities. I chose Casey for this Best Of episode because I see so many women reevaluating their relationships with alcohol and I want you to make sure you don’t have to go it alone. If you want to participate in Dry January with a fabulous group...
Dec 27, 2023•45 min
Tanmeet Sethi is one of my favorite people I met in 2023. We immediately hit it off and found the sweetest friendship that feels like we have known each other forever. I have had the opportunity to listen to my dear friend Tanmeet talk about joy as a form of resistance multiple times this year. Every time my capacity for joy - especially in hard seasons - expands exponentially. I chose this episode to share as a Best Of episode as an invitation to you. I invite you to let joy in the new year- as...
Dec 25, 2023•56 min
Chantal is a mom, physical therapist, and author of SETTLED: How to Find Calm in a Stress-Inducing World. She is also the founder of the wellness company Body Insight Inc. She holds degrees in psychology and kinesiology from Occidental College and a master’s in physical therapy from Mount Saint Mary’s College in Los Angeles. Chantal is certified in Pilates, a practitioner of the Safe and Sound Protocol, and writer, producer, and star of the exercise and rehabilitation videos Strong Knees and Pai...
Dec 20, 2023•49 min
Giving yourself permission to release a few unconventional things might just make motherhood more manageable in 2024. And, when one area of your life is more manageable, all areas of your life start to feel more manageable. Society rewards moms for aiming high, hustling hard, and achieving at every turn. I’m going to invite you to get a little unconventional in 2024. Allow yourself to be average. An average mom. An average employee. An average volunteer. If you are a lifelong high achiever, I pr...
Dec 18, 2023•36 min
Megan Flatt is a business growth strategist on a mission to make entrepreneurship easier. She believes you can have a thriving business, a community, and a life — and you don’t need more time, you need more focus. She’s the founder of Focus Sessions and the author of Focused: Reclaim Your Time, Ditch Overwhelm, and Do Less Better. Besides helping women and business owners focus, Megan is obsessed with lattes, post-it notes, and romance novels. Outside of work, you will find her focus turned to h...
Dec 13, 2023•52 min
Are you the kind of mother who keeps adding more and more things to your plate without giving any consideration to moving certain things OFF the plate to make space for the new stuff? Do you just keep piling and piling and piling until things start to fall off the plate, causing you great anxiety, or the entire plate breaks from the pressure and weight of too many things? Ahhh, the overwhelm of motherhood. Something I’ve noticed - especially among super driven, perfectionistic, people pleasing m...
Dec 11, 2023•36 min
Laura has been involved in the entertainment industry for over 30 years as a writer, Producer, and entrepreneur. She is the author of over 60 books and a staggering 21 New York Times bestsellers. Most recently, Laura co-directed, produced, and wrote the award-winning documentary, Anxious Nation, her first feature, focused on the crisis of anxiety in America, especially its impact on our youth and their families. Anxious Nation is a deep dive into the hidden crises burdening our youth. Inspired b...
Dec 06, 2023•47 min
I’ve been very aware over the last few years how tempting it is to dub each year as a “dumpster fire”. I definitely don’t want to negate or bypass all the incredibly difficult things we have all been through collectively and individually over the last few years. But, I do think we do ourselves a disservice when we embrace an entire year as being awful. In our house, it has been one of our most trying years as my husband has been laid off for over 6 months. But, it’s also been a year of many unex...
Dec 04, 2023•33 min
Author and memoirist, Nefertiti Austin writes about the erasure of diverse voices in motherhood in the #1 Amazon bestseller Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender and Parenting in America. Nefertiti's work around this topic has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Romper, Adoptive Families magazine, Parents Magazine, SheMedia and countless others. She has appeared on numerous podcasts and radio programs including “The Today Show”, and multiple NPR outlets. Lately, ...
Nov 29, 2023•51 min
Practicing gratitude is not intended to be another chore on your list. It is intended to bring you emotional ease, even joy, as you navigate any given day. It is intended to be a reliable support as you navigate tough moments or tough seasons. And, it’s intended to help you see what is possible if you’re paying attention. I have had gratitude practices that felt a little chore-ish in nature. They were still valuable, but they didn’t stick long-term. They did, however, teach me how to quickly and...
Nov 27, 2023•35 min
Julie Ciardi is a business & mindset coach for women. Julie helps overwhelmed entrepreneurs create a plan to become CEOs and design their dream businesses. Julie is uniquely positioned to help women start or grow businesses. Julie spent 20 years in a Fortune 50 company as a sales and marketing vice-president. She has also started & grown her own successful businesses. Julie opened a brick & mortar women's boutique taking it to 6 figures in 4 months. She also grew a network marketing business and...
Nov 22, 2023•56 min
Isn’t it funny (and not-so-funny) how we let our thoughts take up precious real estate in our head AS IF THEY ARE FACTS and each one is worthy and deserving of space?! Your brain should not be an equal-opportunity employer. Not all thoughts are welcome. Not all thoughts deserve space. Our brain’s ability to conflate thoughts with facts is something we must be keenly aware of. You suck. You’re the only one who can’t seem to figure this out. You’re not ready. It’s too hard. You’ll never make it....
Nov 20, 2023•31 min
Tosha Schore a Shameless Mom to three mostly grown sons (ages 16, 18, and 20), as well as a parent coach and the founder of Parenting Boys Peacefully, where she is on a mission to create a more peaceful world, one sweet boy at a time. She is also co-author of “Listen: Five Simple Tools to Meet Your Everyday Parenting Challenges,” which has been translated into five languages. Tosha works with parents to care for themselves, connect with their boys deeply, set limits lovingly, and play wildly. Sh...
Nov 15, 2023•49 min
The “most wonderful time of the year” is just around the corner. But is it the most wonderful time?! Haha! Every year, I record a holiday episode where I help you prep for the holiday season in a way that I hope will bring peace, ease, and joy to your December. Usually, I share this episode in early December. This year, I’m sharing it early because I want you to start creating that peace, ease, and joy you’re craving now! Every holiday season brings new circumstances. Your kids are a year older ...
Nov 13, 2023•35 min
Katie Ferraro R.D. is on a mission to help parents and caregivers give their babies a safe start to solid foods without spoon-feeding. Katie is a registered dietitian, mom of 7 (quads, twins, and a singleton), baby-led weaning expert, and host of the top-rated parenting podcast called BABY-LED WEANING MADE EASY. In addition to her work educating tens of thousands of parents about baby-led weaning, Katie is an Associate Professor of Nutrition at the University of California San Francisco Graduate...
Nov 08, 2023•56 min
I am not a parenting expert and I don’t always make the right parenting choices. I’m definitely not sure we get it right with screen time, candy, or bedtime at our house… But the most important thing to me as my child enters his tween era is that he trusts me and believes he can talk to me when things are hard. There are a few things that I have done really consciously and consistently over the years that are paying off as V gets older. There are also some new things that I’m trying that have be...
Nov 06, 2023•29 min
Dr. Angela E. Lauria is the founder of The Author Incubator™ and creator of the Difference Process™ for writing a book that matters. In 2018, The Author Incubator was ranked #275 on the Inc. 500 fastest-growing companies and #87 on Entrepreneur Magazine’s Entrepreneur 360. Angela won the Stevie Award’s Coach/Mentor of the Year Award and her program, The Author’s Way, was named Coaching Program of the Year and she was named by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top 10 most inspiring entrepreneur...
Nov 01, 2023•1 hr 1 min
I knew stepping into September I was taking a big inhale that I wouldn’t be able to release until October 28th. Over the last 2 months, things I have been working toward and dreaming of for years finally came to life. Things that used to feel big, hard and so scary felt more full of ease than ever before. Other things fell in my lap that proved harder than I imagined, but I was able to meet them head-on with a decent amount of confidence and grace. As I have started to exhale, it’s been really i...
Oct 30, 2023•32 min
Omi Bell is a multi-talented computer scientist, business strategist, and serial entrepreneur. She also has a background in performance, K-12 Education, and IP Strategy. Her innovative approach to creating access to social and financial capital has earned her recognition as a leading voice in the industry, as well as praise from prominent figures such as Robert F. Smith and Daymond John. As the founder of and CEO of Black Girl Ventures, Omi has made it her mission to provide resources and suppor...
Oct 25, 2023•51 min
What we expect motherhood to look like (snuggles, rainbows, and roses!) vs what motherhood actually looks like (chaos, crying, and pure exhaustion) can be pretty jarring. There are these moments of pure joy that we could have never imagined and then - alllll the other moments. Often not pure joy… There are a number of factors that contribute to our joy depletion over time as we rear our brood. Everything from trying to conform to social norms to sinking deep into the comparison trap, to massive ...
Oct 23, 2023•35 min
Kristal DeSantis is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional with specializations in sex therapy, couples, and men's mental health issues. She is the creator of the STRONG Relationship Therapy Model of trauma-informed attachment-based couples therapy. She is joining us in the SMA today to talk about boys' mental health, the importance of healthy masculinity, and the impact of seeing healthy relationships on children's mental, emotional, and relational w...
Oct 18, 2023•47 min
Shame is integrated into our society in all sorts of explicit and subtle ways. Sometimes we can see it right away and call it out. Other times, we quietly internalize it, not realizing that it’s undermining our self-worth while building up our protective armor to the point that our truest gifts can no longer shine through. Some of us were raised by parents who used shame as a weapon. Some of us have bosses who use shame as a weapon. Some of us have been taught, mentored, or coached by leaders wh...
Oct 16, 2023•34 min
Natalie Silverstein, MPH is an author, speaker, consultant, nonprofit founder, and passionate advocate for family and youth service. Her first book, Simple Acts: The Busy Family’s Guide to Giving Back, was published in 2019 and was named one of the Top Books for Parents Who Want to Raise Kind Kids by HuffPost. Her second book, Simple Acts: The Busy Teen’s Guide to Making a Difference was published in July 2022. She is the host of the award-winning podcast, Simple Acts, Big Impact: Celebrating Te...
Oct 11, 2023•51 min
It’s easy to conflate being new at something with being BAD at something. The first time I went skiing I was not good at it. So, I deemed myself a bad skier. When I had to speak in front of the class in high school, I would shake uncontrollably and black out. I wouldn’t remember anything I said as I walked back to my seat in a full sweat. So, I deemed myself a bad public speaker. Perhaps your child is like this too. Tries soccer once. Doesn’t score a goal. Retires from soccer. Cause - “I’m so ba...
Oct 09, 2023•34 min
Ophira Eisenberg is a standup comedian, writer, and the host of the new comedy podcast Parenting Is A Joke with iHeart Radio and Pretty Good Friends. She also hosted NPR’s Ask Me Another, where she interviewed hundreds of celebrities including Sir Patrick Harris, Rosie Perez, Yo-Yo Ma, Awkwafina, Roxanne Gay, Nick Kroll, Chelsea Handle, and more. She’s appeared multiple times on CBS’s The Late Late Show, Comedy Central, HBO, The New York Festival and is a regular host and teller on The Moth Radi...
Oct 04, 2023•48 min
