08. What If Motherhood Makes You A Better Leader

You can be a corporate professional, an entrepreneur, and a devoted mom without tearing yourself in half. I’m sharing a more vulnerable, unpolished conversation about what feels like one of the biggest challenges for our generation, especially for ambitious millennial moms: thriving while juggling three demanding careers at once and feeling like the world keeps asking us to choose.

I walk through my own reality of being in corporate on and off for a decade, building a business for years, and becoming a mother in the middle of it all. 

Motherhood changed how the nine-to-five grind felt, not because work suddenly mattered less, but because presence, flexibility, and emotional capacity mattered more. I also unpack a belief I’ve seen in the coaching and business world: that if you’re not 100% all-in on your business, you must not care. I don’t buy it. Having it all does not mean doing it all, and support is the difference between sustainable ambition and slow burnout.

If you’re trying to do meaningful work while raising a little human, you’re not behind, you’re building something new. 

You can learn more about my work here: https://remotheringmamas.com/

Let's connect on IG: https://www.instagram.com/remotheringmamas

Transcript

Dropping The Podcast Mask

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm coming to you with a vulnerable episode. And it's funny, as I started recording this, I felt myself with this like podcast voice and this like inflection and tone. And I'm just gonna drop that. I'm gonna drop the performance. I'm gonna drop the mask and wanting to be perfect and show up a certain way.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

And in this episode, I want to talk about what might be the greatest challenge of our generation.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

And I'm a I'm a millennial. So what I mean by that, especially as an ambitious mom, is how to thrive when you're juggling three demanding careers. And this is not something that I talk about very often. And that's corporate life, entrepreneurship, and motherhood

Three Careers And No Choosing

SPEAKER_01 1:15

all at once. I have been in the entrepreneurial world for the past 10 years. I entered corporate straight out of college, thinking, oh, this is a great way to pay off my student loans, which I did. I always wanted to be in the nonprofit world, thinking that I would transition after paying off my student loans to work for a nonprofit to actually make a difference and make a great impact in the world. Now there are corporations that are doing good in the world. It's not to say that all corporations are bad because they're not. But I'm someone I want to have that local community impact. And I never left corporate. I have been in a corporate role on and off for 10 years. I took about a year and a half sabbatical between 2021 and 2022, and then re-entered corporate life. And I do love my corporate role. I love my colleagues. My boss is incredible. Shout out to him. He is the best leader that I have ever worked with. And I have had a lot of managers throughout my life. Um and I I honestly don't think I would have stayed in this role as long as I have if it wasn't for his leadership and the other leaders that I have met within the corporate role that I'm in now. But the reason that this conversation is so important is I think most of us become moms. The world expects us to choose. Are you gonna stay in corporate or are you gonna be a mom? Are you gonna be an entrepreneur or are you gonna be a mom? Are you gonna be ambitious or are you gonna be nurturing? And here's what I've learned to be true. You don't have to choose. You can have it all. Now, this doesn't mean you have to do it all. There's a very big difference in that. You can have it all with support without needing to do it all. It's a very different way about thinking about it, right? So the corporate world, it's not a job, it's a career that many of us have been built, have built. Again, I said, right, I've been in corporate for 10 years, finally finding a role and a team that I feel incredible on. And it's a passion that I've nurtured and there's purpose there. But when motherhood hit the corporate environment or landscape, it changed for me. The nine to five grind began to feel like, hmm, this is not right ideal.

Corporate Life After Motherhood

SPEAKER_01 4:20

I mean, it was never really ideal. I never wanted to be stuck in an office with fluorescent lighting nine to five five days a week. I knew immediately as after I graduated college and got my first adult job, I was like, this is what I worked my ass off all those years in school for. Are you kidding me? I was like, this sucks. But after becoming a mom, something shifts. You're wanting to be with your little human and raise that child, have the emotional capacity and presence to do that and take care of them on sick days. And if they go to school, be able to drop them off at school and pick them up and spend as much time with them as you can. And it's really important that you know if you're in the corporate world, motherhood isn't a liability. It's not this thing that's like hindering you in your performance. And I say this because I remember graduating college, I think my sec, the second corporate company that I worked for, another young woman and I, we worked together, and one of her colleagues was older, a mom had two children, and I remember her saying, let's call her Patricia, oh, I'm so mad that Patricia left. She's going to pick her up her kids from school. Like, why isn't she working? I'm working nine hours a day in the office, and like she gets to go pick up her kids as if it was this bad thing. And we were young, didn't have children, in the corporate grind, working our way up the corporate ladder. Of course, we were gonna put in the hours and quote unquote prove our worth. And there's something really powerful about being a mom in the corporate world. Your leadership skills, they make you a better mom. Your emotional intelligence that has expanded you in learning to nurture your children that helps you in the workplace to show up as a real human and not a robot. The strategic thinking that you learn that helps you navigate the chaos of family life. There's so much to all of this. Now, on the entrepreneurial side of it, there's that freedom to make your own hours, right? Maybe work after you're nine to five. You are five to nine, if that works for you. If it doesn't, beautiful, right? You get to make your own hours, build something that's meaningful, aligns with your values, and is hopefully going to make the world a better place. And for many moms,

Entrepreneurship Freedom And Guilt

SPEAKER_01 7:30

entrepreneurship feels like this like holy grail. It's like this perfect solution to the parts of the work-life balance that don't work. And let's be honest, when you're an entrepreneurial entrepreneur with kids, it's its own special kind of chaos. You're able to be flexible, but there might be a lack of boundaries. You can be really passionate, but also feel guilty when you're working during nap time or answering emails or messages while your little one plays. And right, the truth is entrepreneurship doesn't solve the mom guilt. It just changes its form. Instead of feeling guilty for being at the office or working late, you might feel guilty for being on your laptop instead of playing on the floor with your kid. I know I've been there many times, and that's okay. Being able to give ourselves so much grace and so much compassion because the struggle isn't the work in either of these scenarios, it's the negotiation of our time and attention. And that brings me to motherhood itself. This is where the real transformation happens. In other episodes, I've talked about how motherhood rewires you literally, biologically, emotionally, spiritually, it changes you, your identity, maybe your priorities and your values.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

I know for me it really changed my sense of self.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

And it's so fascinating how the identities of a corporate professional, an entrepreneur, mom, for me, they've actually strengthened each other.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

The patience that I've learned as a mom has made me a better leader in the workplace. It's helped me more easily connect to my colleagues. The resilience that I've built in business because business will make you and break you and put you back together. Makes you a more centered parent, more grounded parent.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

I know my favorite

Identities That Strengthen Each Other

SPEAKER_01 10:25

creative way of playing with my daughter is arts and crafts, right? Coloring or painting or playing with Play-Doh, other forms of creativity, not so much, and that's okay. But I get to nurture those. And then that like inspires my entrepreneurial endeavors, which is really, really cool. So this episode is to say if you're an entrepreneurial mom who also works in the corporate world, you don't need to choose between these parts of yourself. And I really don't think I talk enough about my corporate job, about how I'm working in nine to five. And I do work 100% remote from home, which is different than going to an office. But it's still important to speak to because there used to be these beliefs in the coaching world, in that business world, that if you're not 100% in on your business, if you're not doing it all, making it all work, then you're not committed and you don't care. And that's not the case.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

We get to have it all. We get to do as much as we want and desire to do. We don't need to choose. You don't need to compromise. You're creating something new, and that's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

I do believe that the corporate world needs modern matriarchs. It needs our maternal wisdom. The entrepreneurial space needs our nurturing leadership. And our children need to see that women can be both professionals and devoted moms without burning out, while taking care of ourselves because self-care is a basic need.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

It's not a luxury. Yeah. If you're juggling these areas, just remember that you're learning. And having all these parts of you is a superpower that the world needs. And I need to remind myself of that a little bit more.